Dear Charles
Darwin,
Hello, I have recently read your theory on
natural
selection and the
Origin of Species. Although each of us
approach life
differently, for example your ambition being on
a different level
than mine and your formal learning more
than I feel is
needed, I admire how much you have learned
from nature.
I say that if one advances confidently in the
direction of
his dreams and
endeavors to live the life which he has
imagined, he will
meet with a success unexpected in common
hours. Although
you weren't a prominent scientist, you took
on the challenge
of learning from nature, that which what
others have not.
You didn't go on a scientific expedition or
live like all the
other scientists, instead you boarded the
boat, H.M.S. Beagle,
and brought with you only the
necessities. You
learned more as an individual on that trip
than most
scientists do with all their intricate tools. I, like
you, gave up
luxuries at a point in my life in order to live
deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see
if I could not
learn what it had to teach, and not , when I
came to die, to
discover that I had not lived.
Following the advice of my friend Emerson, I,
like you,
went out and
experienced nature as a transparent eyeball,
observing as much
as I could. I noticed the Pickerel under the
ice in the pond,
I never pondered the possibility of the
different kinds
of Pickerel to be originated from the same
species. When you
were observing nature in the Galapagos
Islands, you saw
all the different types of plants and animals
and postulated
that some of the different species of each
came from a
single ancestor.
Emerson, whom I mentioned previously,
says,"Great
geniuses have the
shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell
you nothing about
them," I believe that to be true in your
case. You didn't
do much in terms of accomplishments and
kept your
accounts on the tip of your finger. But your
accomplishments
that I can assume from your writings are
astounding for
you analization of nature. You achieved much
within your mind.
It is not the fact that imports, but the
impression or
effect of that fact on the mind.
Your ideas have affected many people.
Contraversies
have arisen from
religious people who strongly oppose the
idea of evolution
because it conflicts with their religious
beliefs; yet
also, it has affected others who believe in your
theories or take
them into perspective by changing their
religious
thoughts from blind faith to questioned faith. Unlike
conformist, you
went in a direction that differed from what
was okay being
taught in the institutions of Christ. You
decided not to
just study nature in forms of reference books
but, instead you
went out to experience it. Although I do not
totally agree with
the way you lived your life, I applaud you
on your
accomplishments. Besides, if your followed
everything that I
think is right and took the beliefs that I
hold that would
not allow you to be your own person and be
self reliant.
Sincerely,
Henry David
Thoreau
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