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.
The son of a Nottingham lawyer, and the youngest of seven children, Erasmus Darwin was born at Elston Hall, near Newark, Nottinghamshire in 1731.
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| The Darwins’ long association with Elston in Notts began in 1680 and ended with the second world war. |
In the
mid-1750s Erasmus 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 Erasmus 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.
The
combination of a debilitating knee injury - caused by falling out of a carriage - and large appetite
meant that Erasmus was a big man. He cut a half-moon out of his dining table so
that he could sit closer to his food. Despite his big belly, and possession of
a stutter, Erasmus was a real charmer and a womaniser.
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| Erasmus Darwin (1731 – 1802). |
Unlike many
of his generation Erasmus 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.
Given his methods of treatment
it’s no surprise Erasmus became so popular in Lichfield and word of his reputation
reached King George III who asked him to become his personal Royal Physician.
Darwin declined. Aside from his Republican tendencies his business was booming,
allowing him the financial freedom to treat the poor free of charge.
Erasmus
Darwin’s first wife died of alcoholism. This affected Erasmus’s attitude to
drink, an anti-alcohol stance which passed down the family for generations to
come. 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. He had at
least fourteen children.
Through his
poetry, Erasmus 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.
At that time
science, literature, philosophy and religion formed one common culture, and
Erasmus was especially interested in how science and the arts were connected.
Nearly all of his scientific ideas appeared in verse.
Erasmus 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.
‘The
Loves of the Plants’, a popular rendering of the Linnaeus' works, applies
Goddesses and eroticism to the classification of plants. Produced by the
radical publisher Joseph Johnson it was quickly followed by further editions. Johnson,
later imprisoned for a ‘dangerous’ publication, paid Erasmus a huge sum for the
poem and went on to publish many of his future works. Erasmus Darwin became a leading
poet of his time and inspired many of the Romantic generation with his epic,
erotic, evolutionary and philosophical images.
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s most famous poems, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and
‘Kubla Khan’ are both influenced by Erasmus Darwin’s writing. 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 and his
reanimation of corpses. Byron would have been well aware of Erasmus Darwin’s poetry
and, tracing back to his time in Southwell, there is a loose but significant
connection between a young Byron and Erasmus 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 (Erasmus 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 Erasmus Darwin’s,
the chemist James Keir admitted that he “paid little regard to authority.”
Erasmus Darwin vigorously
opposed slavery and included his views in his poetry and personal
correspondence:
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.'
At this time
the British were still taking African slaves. Slavery was vital to the British
economy, especially the sugar trade which depended on it. Erasmus helped to
drive the British abolition movement. In Phytologia he wrote:
‘Great God
of Justice! Grant that it (sugar) may soon be cultivated only by the hands of
freedom.’
One of the
leaders of a campaign to grow sugar beans in England, Erasmus argued that this
could be used as a sweetener instead of
importing cane sugar from the slave-fuelled plantations.
Popular
poetic taste began to turn away from Erasmus after establishment-backed critics
ridiculed his political ideas by attacking his heroic couplets. Samuel Coleridge,
who thought of Erasmus 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, Erasmus 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. Erasmus 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 Erasmus incorporated
pathology, anatomy, psychology and biology, and contained the ideas relating to
the theory of evolution. Anticipating
natural selection Erasmus Darwin wrote about "three great objects of
desire" for every organism; those wants being "lust, hunger, and
security."
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!”
This was a
depiction of an earth as being not as it's described in the bible, and thus argues against the teachings in the book of Genesis. This controversy roused a reaction. Criticism of the Jacobins (the most radical and ruthless of the political groups formed in the wake of the French Revolution) was made alongside criticism of 'Zoonomia'.
Undaunted in
his commitment to progress Erasmus 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), and his establishing of one of the first public schools for girls which
adopted Erasmus’ orders that the girls should be well-fed, undertake exercise
and breathe fresh air. 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'). By shells he would have meant molluscs and that everything
evolves from formless objects. The Dean of Lichfield Cathedral criticised
Erasmus’s new coat of arms, demanding that he withdrew it. Living close to the
cathedral, and knowing that many of his patients were influenced by the Dean,
Erasmus obliged.
British
opinion to the French revolution was one of concern that a dangerous idealism
could be coming over the channel. The execution of Louis XVI, by means of the
guillotine in 1793, had brought with it the threat of radical politics and fears of
revolution. It didn't help that one such ‘dangerous’ radical was Joseph Priestly, a good friend of
Erasmus Darwin.
Together
with contacts like Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, and James Watt, Erasmus set up
the Lunar Society which became an intellectual powerhouse of the Industrial
Revolution. They would meet up under a full moon, giving them the maximum light
in which to travel back. For invention and importance, the society were second
only to the Royal Society, of which many of them were also members.
The
visionary reformers and leading thinkers of the Lunar Society were one reason
the Industrial Revolution happened here before the rest of Europe. Many of
their ideas were shared, with Darwin in particular displaying an incredibly
creative and practical mind. He gave the first recognisable explanations of
photosynthesis and the formation of clouds. He also invented many mechanical
devices.
Erasmus
Darwin’s unpatented inventions include a flushing toilet, weather monitoring
machines, a lift for barges, an artificial bird
and a copying machine which used two pens; one operated by hand, the
other by an attached machine, with the resulting copies being identical. Keen to
help those with speaking difficulties, Erasmus also developed a speaking
machine able to recite the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps the
most impressive of his inventions was a steering machine for his carriage. This
method of turning made carriages less likely to overturn (as you’ll recall
Erasmus had an accident falling out a carriage). In the early 1900s all the
modern cars were using this Darwinian steering.
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| In 1813 The Lunar Society was formally wound up. With only Keir, Watt, Edgeworth and Galton still alive they held a lottery to decide who gets to keep their collected books. Samuel Galton won. |
Erasmus 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.
'The Temple
of Nature' was on the Vatican’s banned list. Erasmus’s idea that nature was in a
state of constant warfare in which evolution happens proved dangerous to
Christian teaching whose ideas on the origin of life on Earth were not used to
being challenged. By this time Erasmus had made his point: his argument that we
all come from one common ancestor may have been developed by his grandson,
Charles Darwin, but it was very much Erasmus who provided the bulk of the
theory.
One of
Erasmus’s sons - Charles Darwin’s father - Robert Darwin, was in the family
business, working as a doctor, and it was expected that Charles would follow
suit. Like Erasmus, Charles went to Edinburgh to become a physician but he
couldn’t bare the sight of blood. Breaking with tradition he took a route that
should have meant his becoming a clergyman but, whilst at Cambridge, he saw the
chance to take a place on HMS Beagle to work as a naturalist. He nearly didn’t
make the trip as the ship’s captain, Robert FitzRoy, didn’t like Charles Darwin’s nose.
FitzRoy was convinced that a man’s character could be judged by his features and
so doubted Charles had the energy or determination for the journey. FitzRoy was
persuaded by a professor at Cambridge and the financial support of Josiah
Wedgewood II (Charles's future father-in-law) that Charles was the right man for the
expedition.
Charles
Darwin formed his own theory of evolution by natural selection but didn’t give
Erasmus the credit he was due. I believe that Charles wanted to distance
himself from Erasmus’s work as he had been aware of the storm his
grandfather had aroused. Charles was known to have been concerned about causing
controversy and held off publishing his own theory for many years. By leaving
out the Erasmus name, Charles thought he had more chance of achieving credibility.
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| 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. |
Robert
Grant, who had mentored a young Charles in Edinburgh, was a great admired of
Erasmus’s theory of evolution and there is ample evidence that Charles adopted his grandfather’s ideas. Charles read Zoonomia as a student and did so
again when coming back from his voyage on the Beagle. There is a notebook that exists
today in which Charles’s ideas are first depicted. This book includes his famous
evolutionary tree of life.
On the first
page of Charles Darwin’s famous notebook is written the word ‘Zoonomia’. Charles
would have grown up with Erasmus’s books and would have visited his ancestral
home in Nottinghamshire. Charles named his first-born William Erasmus Darwin
and later wrote a biography of Erasmus.
Charles
Darwin wasn’t born until ten years after his grandfather’s death. By then, the
idea that humans pass down improvements through the generations had already been
made by Erasmus. Predating the term ‘survival of the fittest’ by seventy years,
Erasmus wrote that "the strongest and most active animal should propagate
the species, which should thence become improved."
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. To many, however, the
theory of evolution remains dangerous and controversial.
This is an extended version of an article first appearing on the Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature website.
"All nature exists in a state of perpetual improvement." Erasmus Darwin.
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