The quantification of measurements through statistical analysis, the discovery of a trend in temperature over time, or observation of a pattern in water pollution data displayed on a map – all motivate scientists to begin thinking and formulating ideas about what process lies behind the relationships they are observing. These ideas are initially simple and rudimentary, and they may lead to later testing through experimentation. In the next two chapters, we will explore the world of conceptualization and experimentation and gain insight into how uncertainty promotes creativity.

Scientists, indeed everyone, always operate with simplified concepts of the way things work. We call these simplified representations ‘models’, and they come in many forms: conceptual, physical, numerical. We receive imperfect guidance in model building from the real world, through incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, and occasionally conflicting measurements or observations about the phenomenon or system we are trying to understand. There is a continuous interaction between models and observation, with each undergoing adjustment in the face of the other. New observations lead to revision of a concept, and a new concept, in turn, suggests new experiments or observations to be made that will again put the concept to a test. It is this iterative back-and-forth interplay that generally improves understanding of a system, and which under some circumstances can reduce the uncertainty associated with system behavior.

When we experience things in the course of our lives, we become familiar with them, perhaps understand them, and come to accept them as a normal part of life. But when we first encounter something that we have not previously experienced, something we are unfamiliar with, there is a natural tendency toward caution. And if we are presented with an abstraction, something totally outside of our experience, skepticism or even disbelief is not an unnatural reaction.

In this context, uncerainty goes hand in hand with unfamiliarity. What we are unfamiliar with, we are uncertain of. And much of science is unfamiliar ground for many people. Although Albert Einstein thought otherwise, science is really not just ‘common sense’. If it were, no one with a modicum of common sense would be puzzled or baffled by it. Science requires a certain amount of abstraction, and the placing of observations into a context or framework. When that framework is one's immediate environment, familiarity and understanding come readily. But when the spatial framework is much smaller, as in particle physics, or much larger as in astronomy, it takes a willing mind to explore this unfamiliar, uncertain terrain. Similarly, there are processes that operate at time scales vastly different from those of everyday human experience. The apparently instantaneous completion of a chemical reaction or the inordinately slow pace of geological change both require an intellectual stretch.

This list records the first editions of Erasmus Darwin's own books. (Later editions and translations, and his papers, are given in 1999 Life, pp. 401–3.) I have added a selection of biographical books about Erasmus Darwin and his friends, and three books about Erasmus's literary work and influence. Finally, there is a very sparse selection from the many publications about Charles Darwin.

The place of publication is London, unless otherwise stated. If a title is not self-explanatory, I have added a comment.

Charles Darwin's book about his grandfather Erasmus Darwin is curiously fascinating. Many people see Charles Darwin (1809–1882) as the most influential man of the last three centuries in bringing about a durable change in world-views. Indeed he was a strong candidate a few years ago for ‘Man of the Millennium’.

You might therefore expect that all the books written by Charles would by now have been published in full. That is not so. His Life of Erasmus Darwin was shortened by 16% before publication in 1879, and several of the cuts were directed at its most provocative parts. The cutter, with Charles's permission, was his daughter Henrietta – an example of the strong hidden hand of meek-seeming Victorian women.

This first unabridged edition includes all that Charles originally intended, the cuts being restored and printed in italics.

The subject of the book, Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), has grown in stature during the twentieth century and is now seen as having achieved more in a wider variety of fields than anyone since. He was famous as a physician in the English Midlands for thirty years, and after his massive treatise on animal life, Zoonomia, was published in 1794, he was recognized as the leading medical author of the decade. And this happened when he was already securely in place as the leading English poet of the 1790s, or perhaps, as Coleridge said in 1797, ‘the first literary character of Europe’.

Krause begins his essay well (pp. 131–2):

1. These statements are taken chiefly from a sketch of his life published by his father, Erasmus, in 1780, together with two of his posthumous medical essays. See also Hutchinson's ‘Biographia Medica’, 1799,Vol. i., p. 239; also ‘Biographie Universelle’, Vol. x., 1855; also an article in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’, 1801, Vol. lxxi., Pt. ii., p. 604 [C.D. wrongly has September 1st, 1794, Vol. lxiv., p. 794], signed ‘A.D.’, evidently Professor Andrew Duncan, of Edinburgh.

2. ‘Harveian Discourse’, by Professor A. Duncan, 1824 [pp. 10–12].

3. Author of ‘Hereditary Genius’, ‘English Men of Science’, and of other works and papers.

4. Published by one of his descendants in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’, Oct. 1808, Vol. lxxviii., Pt. ii., p. 869.

5. I am much indebted to a son of Dr. Sieveking, who brought to England the original letters preserved by the descendants of Reimarus, for permitting me to have them photographed.

6. ‘Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin’, 1804, p. 11–14.

7. J. Cradock, ‘Literary Memoirs’, 1828, Vol. iv., p. 143.

8. ‘Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin’, 1804, p. 125.

9. ‘The Botanic Garden’, part I, canto I, lines 103–114.

10. ‘Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth’, 2nd ed., 1821, Vol. ii., p. 111. [1st ed., Vol. ii., p. 131]

11. Dated June 23, 1792 and published in the ‘Monthly Magazine’, 1803, Vol. ii., p. 100.

12. ‘Pursuits of Literature’. A Satirical Poem in Four Dialogues; 14th ed., 1808, p. 54.

As the character of a man depends in some degree on the circumstances under which he has been brought up, it will be advisable to give a very short account of the family to which Erasmus Darwin belonged. It is more important to show to what extent a man inherits and transmits his characteristic qualities; for every addition, however small, to our knowledge on this head is a public benefit, as well as spreading a belief in inheritance.

{As the name Darwin is an unusual one, I may mention that in the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum, there is a large and very rare book, on the History of Lichfield; and in this book the antiquary, Sir R. Cotton, who was born in 1570 and died in 1631, made the following entry: “This Booke was found in the thatch of an House at Clifton-Campville, in the demolishinge thereof. And was brought to mee by Mr. Darwin”. Clifton-Campville is near Tamworth, in Staffordshire. Whether the Mr. Darwin who made this discovery was a member of the family we do not know.}

Erasmus Darwin was descended from a family of yeomen who lived for several generations on their own land, apparently of considerable extent, at Marton in Lincolnshire. The great-grandson of the first Darwin of whom we know anything seems to have been a loyal man, for in his will made in 1584 he [Richard Darwin] bequeathed 3s. 4d.

In the February number, 1879, of a well-known German scientific journal, ‘Kosmos’, Dr. Ernst Krause published a sketch of the life of Erasmus Darwin, the author of the ‘Zoonomia’, ‘Botanic Garden’, and other works. This article bears the title of a ‘Contribution to the history of the Descent-Theory’; and Dr. Krause has kindly permitted my brother and myself to have a translation made of it and published. {Mr. Dallas has undertaken the translation, and his scientific reputation, together with his knowledge of German, is a guarantee for its accuracy.}

As I have private materials for adding to the knowledge of Erasmus Darwin's character, I have written a preliminary notice. These materials consist of a large collection of letters written by him; of his common-place book in folio, in the possession of his grandson Reginald Darwin; of some notes made by my father shortly after the death of his father, together with what little I can clearly remember that my father said about him; also some statements by his daughter, Violetta Darwin, written down at the time by her daughters, the Miss Galtons, and various published notices. To them must be added the ‘Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin’, by Miss Seward, which appeared in 1804, and a lecture by Dr. Dowson on ‘Erasmus Darwin, Philosopher, Poet, and Physician’, published in 1861, which contains many useful references and remarks.

The proofs were cut up and re-assembled by Henrietta, and then pruned and added to. So, given any page in the book, which pages in the proofs does it stem from? Or are parts of it not in the proofs at all? There are no logical answers; so I have provided the list below, in which the minimum ‘recognized’ length of text is 2 lines, and the symbol N denotes ‘not in the proofs’.