Erasmus Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet.
His poems included much natural history, including a statement of evolution and the relatedness of all forms of life.
He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, which includes his grandsons Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers.
He turned down an invitation of George III's to become a physician to the King. Wikipedia
“[Unitarianism is] a feather-bed to catch a falling Christian.”
Quoted by Charles Darwin in a letter http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-00115-00015/5 to Joseph Dalton Hooker, 11 May 1859 http://books.google.com/books?id=YMERco2uLdcC&q=%22a+feather+bed+to+catch+a+falling+Christian%22&pg=PA158#v=onepage
Erasmus Darwin book Zoonomia
Zoönomia, vol. 1 (1794).
The Temple of Nature (1802).
Erasmus Darwin book The Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden (1791), Part i, Canto i, line 289.
Erasmus Darwin book Zoonomia
Zoönomia, vol. 1 (1794).
Erasmus Darwin book The Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden (1791), Part ii, Canto iii, line 459.
Erasmus Darwin book The Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden (1791), Part i.
