Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man

15. Darwin’s Death

[ 81 ] fifteen v฀ Darwin’s Death franCis Darwin summarizeD his father’s religious views in Life and Letters (1897), and Atkins (1974) provided additional insight. Charles considered such things to be very personal and took great pains to avoid offending Emma and her beliefs. Darwin began life in a freethinking, nominally Anglican-Unitarian environment and was never seriously religious. He studied theology during his days at Cambridge, but the more he learned about how nature operated, the less he accepted the revealed religion of the Bible. Ever the scientist, he gave up Christianity because “it is not supported by evidence.” Nor could he accept the notion that unbelievers such as his father, his brother, and most of his close friends would be condemned to suffer forever in hell. The loss of his father and, more importantly, his daughter Annie’s death at age ten, reinforced his biological observations that all life is involved in a struggle against disease, famine, predation, and death, and that there is no providential force acting on the human condition any more than there is one acting on other parts of nature. He never specifically denied the existence of a God, but if he accepted such a concept, it was as a distant, impersonal force that operated through material cause and effect—a natural, lawgiver sort of God. The word “agnostic” was coined by his friend Thomas Henry Huxley in 1864, and Darwin himself wrote that “agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind.” [ 82 ] Although Darwin’s Autobiography (ed. Barlow 1958) is essential reading for any Darwinophile, his recollections were written for his children, without any thought that they would ever be published. These sketches were written in 1876, added to in 1878, and updated in 1881. The last months and days of Darwin’s life are chronicled by Atkins (1974). On Christmas Day in 1881, he suffered chest pains, which increased as he shuffled around the Sandwalk in February and March of 1882. Additional attacks occurred on the 4th and 5th of April. Various doctors came and went, including Dr. Andrew Clark, physician to Queen Victoria. Clark refused to accept a fee and considered it a privilege to attend to such a famous person. During the night of 18 April 1882, Darwin suffered a severe heart attack and lost consciousness ; he was revived with difficulty. He seemed to recognize the approach of death, and he said, “I am not the least afraid Ticket to Charles Darwin’s funeral. Darwin’s body was carried from Down House in a hearse drawn by four black horses. (Darwin Archives , Cambridge University Library) [ 83 ] to die.” All the next morning he suffered from terrible nausea and faintness. He died at about 4:00 p.m. on 19 April 1882, in the seventy-third year of his life. He was attended by Emma and his children Francis, Henrietta, and Elizabeth. Emma wanted a simple funeral in the ancient graveyard adjoining the little church at Downe, but at the request of twenty members of Parliament headed by John Lubbock, Charles Darwin was laid to rest with pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey on 26 April 1882. Pallbearers included Hooker, Huxley, Wallace, Lubbock, the president of the Royal Society, the American ambassador, the chancellor of Cambridge University, and other notable men. The funeral was attended by all surviving Darwin children and the family servants , as well as representatives from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia; others from universities and every scientific society in Great Britain; and a large number of personal friends and distinguished men. Emma, however, did not attend. His grave is in the northeastern corner of the nave, a few feet from that of Isaac Newton and Charles Lyell. Darwin’s funeral at Westminster Abbey. Darwin was the first and only naturalist to be buried in Westminster Abbey. He was buried in a coffin of white oak. (From the Graphic, 6 May 1882, p. 1) [ 84 ] One of the last photographs of Charles Darwin, by Elliott and Fry. (Down House) ...