A Man Who Dares To Waste

Charles Darwin wrote this in a letter to his sister Susan Darwin on 4 August 1836, while aboard HMS Beagle near the end of his five-year voyage around the world. He was 27 years old and reflecting on the extraordinary range of experiences the journey had given him. The letter was written from the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic; Darwin would return to England in October 1836 and begin developing the ideas that would eventually become On the Origin of Species.