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Article: Darwin's example.(Charles Darwin)
- Article from:
- The Humanist
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 American Humanist Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CHARLES DARWIN, after many years of hard work and illness, controversy and honor, lay on his deathbed. A biographer tells us: "During the night of April 18th [1882], about a quarter to twelve, he had a severe attack and passed into a faint, from which he was brought back to consciousness with great difficulty. He seemed to recognize the approach of death, and said, 'I am not the least afraid to die.'" His last words.
Living among the relentless Victorian pieties, educated to be a clergyman, surrounded by threats of literal burning hellfire: why didn't Darwin fear death? Part of the answer is that by the time he was a mature man, he simply knew too much about the ...