relationship to some other members of the family, whose names occur in his
correspondence. Among these are included William Darwin Fox, one of his
earliest correspondents, and Francis Galton, with whom he maintained a warm
friendship for many years. Here also occurs the name of Francis Sacheverel
Darwin, who inherited a love of natural history from Erasmus, and
transmitted it to his son Edward Darwin, author (under the name of "High
Elms") of a 'Gamekeeper's Manual' (4th Edition 1863), which shows keen
observation of the habits of various animals.

It is always interesting to see how far a man's personal characteristics
can be traced in his forefathers. Charles Darwin inherited the tall
stature, but not the bulky figure of Erasmus; but in his features there is
no traceable resemblance to those of his grandfather. Nor, it appears, had
Erasmus the love of exercise and of field-sports, so characteristic of
Charles Darwin as a young man, though he had, like his grandson, an
indomitable love of hard mental work. Benevolence and sympathy with
others, and a great personal charm of manner, were common to the two.
Charles Darwin possessed, in the highest degree, that "vividness of
imagination" of which he speaks as strongly characteristic of Erasmus, and
as leading "to his overpowering tendency to theorise and generalise." This
tendency, in the case of Charles Darwin, was fully kept in check by the
determination to test his theories to the utmost. Erasmus had a strong
love of all kinds of mechanism, for which Charles Darwin had no taste.
Neither had Charles Darwin the literary temperament which made Erasmus a
poet as well as a philosopher. He writes of Erasmus ('Life of Erasmus
Darwin,' page 68.): "Throughout his letters I have been struck with his
indifference to fame, and the complete absence of all signs of any over-
estimation of his own abilities, or of the success of his works." These,
indeed, seem indications of traits most strikingly prominent in his own
character. Yet we get no evidence in Erasmus of the intense modesty and