Where Australia Collides with Asiapossible problem between the happy couple was religion. Emma was firm in the
religion of her upbringing whereas Charles, even when studying to be a cleric, had
never been as interested in religion. In his usual honesty, Darwin had to confess his
misgivings to Emma and she responded in writing:
I thank you from my heart for your openness with me and I should dread the feeling that you
were concealing your opinion from fear of giving me pain ... my own dear Charley we now
do belong to each other and I cannot help being open with you. Will you do me a favour?
... It is to read our Saviour’s farewell discourse to his disciples which begins at the end of
the 13th Chap Of John. It is so full of love to them & devotion & every beautiful feeling. It
is the part of the New Testament I love best.Charles and Emma were
married at the Wedgwood
family home of Maer Hall in
Staffordshire and soon after
moved into a house on Gower
Street in London. This portrait of
Darwin was made not long after
their marriage.
About this time his third
volume of The Narrative was
ready to be published together
with that of Robert FitzRoy.
Significantly, FitzRoy would
have read Darwin’s volume
before publication and decided
to add an extra chapter to his
work entitled ‘A Few Remarks
with Reference to the Deluge’
which, counter to the writings of
Darwin, described the shells and
fossils he had found on the plains
of Argentina as evidence of the
biblical Flood. The Voyage of the
Beagle became one of the most
popular books of the period and
Darwin was delighted, writing Portrait of Charles Darwin, George Richmond, 1840
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