Erasmus
Darwin, described as ‘The Da Vinci of the Midlands’, is a man whose philosophical
poetry has been called dangerously radical. Without him ‘On the Origin of
Species’ - perhaps even ‘Frankenstein’ - would not have been written.
Son of a
Nottingham lawyer, and the youngest of seven children, Erasmus Darwin was born
at Elston Hall, near Newark, Nottinghamshire in 1731.
The Darwins’ long association with
Elston in Notts began in 1680 and ended with the second world war.
In the
mid-1750s Darwin qualified as a doctor and started a medical practice in
Nottingham. With no patron to recommend him he only lasted a few months. After
treating just one patient the physician moved to Lichfield. A few weeks later
he successfully treated a young man for whom death had seemed inevitable. This
feat, brought about through unconventional care, led to Darwin becoming famous.
His unusual treatments included the advocating of exercise regimes and the use
of herbal medicine. He was a strong believer in the benefits of good
ventilation, putting holes into crowded rooms for the fresh air. He also held
sympathetic views on mental illness, and was known to dish out the opiates and
prescribe sex.
Unlike many
of his generation Darwin had no sexual hang-ups. He had no issues with
masturbation or homosexuality, and was known for having a large heterosexual
appetite.
"Sexual
reproduction is the chef d'oeuvre, the masterpiece of nature," he wrote.
Darwin believed that reproduction allowed the imprinted patterns of experience
to be passed on to each new generation, in a way that sits comfortably with the
latest in epigenetics.
Word of
Darwin’s reputation reached King George III who asked him to be his personal
Royal Physician. Darwin declined. Business was booming, allowing the doctor the
financial freedom to treat the poor free of charge.
Erasmus Darwin (1731 – 1802).
Darwin
married twice and had at least fourteen children. Years after his first wife's
death, he fell in love with a patient, the married Elizabeth Pole. He wooed her
with a deluge of verse and, when the situation allowed, married her, moving his
offspring in with hers.
Through his
poetry, Darwin wanted to achieve things and to change people’s attitudes, so he
turned to ‘didactic poetry’ (poetry with a message/instruction). His purpose was
"…to enlist imagination under the banner of science". It was an inventive
mix; poetry that contained science and radical ideas including a new theory of
biological evolution.
Darwin translated
the works of the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, producing volumes of work
in which he coined many of the English plant names used today. One long poem ‘The
Botanic Garden’ (1789), structured in rhyming couplets of four thousand lines,
consisted of two parts, ‘The Economy of Vegetation’, and ‘The Loves of the
Plants’.
‘The Economy
of Vegetation’ attacked political tyranny and religious superstition. The poem includes
a vision of the universe’s creation that’s much like the big bang theory; a
pagan version that insists on a non-divine, self-regulating economy of the
natural world.
It was ‘The
Loves of the Plants’, a popular rendering of the Linnaeus' works, that contained
Darwin’s first record of his theory of evolution. Produced by the radical
publisher Joseph Johnson it was quickly followed by further editions. Johnson,
later imprisoned for a ‘dangerous’ publication, paid Darwin a huge sum for the
poem and went on to publish many of his future works. Darwin became a leading
poet of his time and inspired many of the Romantic generation with his epic,
erotic, evolutionary and philosophical images.
Mary
Shelley’s idea for Frankenstein came as she overheard a conversation between
her husband (Percy Shelley) and Lord Byron in which they referred to Erasmus
Darwin. Byron would have been well aware of Darwin’s poetry and, tracing back
to his time in Southwell, there is a loose but significant connection between a
young Byron and Darwin through Elizabeth Pigot who encouraged Byron to publish
his juvenile poems (1803/4). One final connection comes in 1824, as works by Darwin
and Byron are published together: The Botanic Garden (Darwin’s poem in two
parts) and Byron’s Poems (Don Juan) and his memoirs, were bound together in the
one book. It made sense as by then both men had a reputation for being mad, bad
and dangerous to know. A friend of Darwin’s, the chemist James Keir admitted
that Darwin “paid little regard to authority.”
E'en now, e'en now, on yonder Western shores
Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars:
Ee'n now in Afric's groves with hideous yell
Fierce SLAVERY stalks, and slips the dogs of hell.
Conscience must listen to the voice of Guilt:
Hear him, ye Senates! Hear this truth sublime,
"HE, WHO ALLOWS OPPRESSION, SHARES THE CRIME".
And in a
letter he wrote to Wedgwood (the potter): "I have just heard that there
are muzzles or gags made at Birmingham for the slaves in our islands. If this
be true, and such an instrument could be exhibited by a speaker in the house of
commons, it might have great effect."
Popular
poetic taste began to turn away from Darwin after establishment-backed critics
ridiculed his political ideas by attacking his heroic couplets. Samuel Coleridge,
who thought of Darwin as "the first literary character of Europe, and the
most original-minded Man" commented that "I absolutely nauseate Darwin's
poem." His popular poetry was parodied, linking him with the French
Revolution and the irreligious. In the early 1790s, Darwin nearly became Poet
Laureate but the respected doctor was now seen as a crank and labelled an
atheist. His next (and best) book ‘Zoonomia’ (or, ‘The Laws of Organic Life’)
(1794–1796), wouldn’t help. Darwin’s nationwide approval turned to scorn.
William Wordsworth used the book as the source for a poem he published in 1798
but popular opinion was disapproving. Darwin had expected his radical book to
stir controversy, saying that he was "too old and hardened to fear a
little abuse." However, his ideas caused great harm to his reputation.
In
‘Zoonomia’ he expanded upon the theory that life could develop without the guiding
hand of a Creator. In this two-volume medical work Darwin incorporated
pathology, anatomy, psychology and biology, and contained the ideas relating to
the theory of evolution that were later developed by his grandson, Charles
Darwin. The book had greatly influenced the doctor Robert Grant, who later
mentored a young Charles.
Anticipating
natural selection Erasmus Darwin wrote about "three great objects of
desire" for every organism; those wants being "lust, hunger, and
security." His idea that "the strongest and most active animal should
propagate the species, which should thence become improved" predated the
term ‘survival of the fittest’ by seventy years.
He wrote: “Would
it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time, since the earth
began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history
of mankind, would it be too bold to imagine, that all warm-blooded animals have
arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE endued with animality,
with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed
by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing
the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of
delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world
without end!”
Undaunted in
his commitment to progress Darwin offended political and religious
conservatives equally. He was ridiculed for suggesting that electricity might
one day have practical uses. He was criticised for his belief that women should
have access to education, expressed in ‘A Plan for the Conduct of Female
Education’ (1797). He was lambasted for his prodemocracy stance and argument
that not just the owners of property should have the right to vote. And above
all, he was hated for his views on creation, not helped when he added to the
family's coat of arms the Latin phrase 'E conchis omnia' ('Everything from
shells').
Together
with contacts like Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, and James Watt he set up
the Lunar Society which became an intellectual powerhouse of the Industrial
Revolution. Many ideas were shared, with Darwin displaying his incredibly
creative and practical mind. He gave the first recognisable explanations of
photosynthesis and the formation of clouds. He also invented many mechanical
devices. His unpatented inventions include a flushing toilet, weather
monitoring machines, a lift for barges, an artificial bird, a copying machine,
a steering wheel for his carriage (a mechanism adopted by cars some 130 years
later) and a speaking machine able to recite the Lord's Prayer and the Ten
Commandments.
Darwin’s final
long poem, ‘The Temple of Nature’, was published in 1803, a year after his
death. The poem, originally titled ‘The Origin of Society’, is widely
considered his best poetic work, tracing the progression of life from
micro-organisms to civilized society and confirming his belief in shared
ancestry. Like many of his works it owes much to Lucretius.
A child of
Nottinghamshire, Erasmus Darwin was a man who expressed his dangerous ideas
and, looking back, was not only on the right side of history, he changed it.
Charles Darwin wasn’t born until ten years after
his grandfather’s death. He would have visited his ancestral home in
Nottinghamshire and wrote a biography of Erasmus. He even named his first-born
William Erasmus Darwin. Aware of the controversy his grandfather had aroused, Charles
held off on publishing his own theory of evolution for many years.
With ‘On the Origin of Species’
(1859) and ‘The Descent of Man’ (1871) Charles was abused and satirised in much
the same way Erasmus had been.
To many, the
theory of evolution remains a dangerous and controversial.
"All
nature exists in a state of perpetual improvement." Erasmus Darwin.
