Darwin'S MESSAGE TO STUDENTS: CONJECTURES UPON THE LIKELY, 200 YEARS HENCE

Charles Darwin’s choices and records convey many sage lessons that can benefit students throughout the ages. His electing to sail upon HMS Beagle at 22 years of age reveals his drive for travel, adventure, and discovery. His taxonomic command at that age confirms his passion. His circuitous path of study through medicine at Edinburgh and Anglican ministry at Cambridge, only to commit to life as a naturalist, despite the resulting acrimony with his father, betrays his intent to follow his heart in matters of conviction and career. His records reveal interests spanning geology, biology, meteorology, history, culture, and beyond, and they underscore the value of integrative inquiry. The Voyage of the Beagle contains vivid descriptions of all manners of encounter during the five year passage – volcanic ash from the crow’s nest, skeletons in the surf, marine fossils in the high Andes, the essential finches and tortoises of the Gallapagos, and many different peoples in distant lands. From his schoolboy days collecting beetles in swamps, to his elderly debates over specimens, the power of keen and relentless observation is Darwin’s ultimate imperative. Distracted by simpler, apparently more tenable pursuits than explaining life itself, he delayed his most arduous work – On the Origin of Species – until pressure from mentors, collaborators, and inadvertent competitors coerced its publication. These simple lessons – follow your heart, open your eyes and mind widely, head the rules of the games you play – will long endure as wise guidance to students and scientists throughout their careers.