His fame grew further with The Descent of Man in 1871. It argued that Man and ape shared a common ancestor and expounded on the theory of sexual selection — that certain traits such as strength and good looks improve an individual’s success at mating.
Darwin was endowed with extraordinary patience and diligence, as well as a mental agility enabling him to see both fine detail and the big picture.
But he also had the luck to have independent wealth, which gave him the time to research and reflect, and to be living in Victorian England, within a train ride from academies and institutions in London, then the world’s scientific hub.
“He was a quintessential British amateur in the best possible sense,” said German historian Wilfried Rogasch. “He had the means and the time and the intellectual capacity to follow what was going on.”
Darwin died in 1882, aged 73. Typically, he wanted to be buried near his beloved home, Down House in Kent, southeast of London, but his contemporaries campaigned for a grander send-off.
His funeral was at London’s Westminster Abbey, also his final resting place.
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