Lesson 102: Darwin, Part 2
Reading assignment: Chapter 2
Key names:
John Henslow (1796-1861): a botanist at Cambridge. He taught Darwin in 1830-31. Wikipedia says: “In the summer of 1831 Henslow was offered a place as naturalist to sail aboard the survey ship HMS Beagle on a two-year voyage to survey South America, but his wife dissuaded him from accepting. Seeing a perfect opportunity for his protégé, Henslow wrote to the ship’s captain Robert Fitzroy telling him that Darwin was the ideal man to join the expedition team. During the voyage, Darwin corresponded with Henslow, and collected plants with him in mind.” He became an Anglican clergyman in 1833.
Adam Sedgewick (1785-1873): a founder of modern geology, but an opponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection. He taught Darwin briefly.
Key documents:
William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802): a treatise on God’s ordering of nature. Darwin loved it when he was at Cambridge.
The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1571). It was a precursor to the Presbyterians’ Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Baptists’ Second London Confession of Faith (1689), and the American Baptists’ Philadelphia Confession (1742).