ABSTRACT
Charles Darwin was indisputably an impeccably accurate observer and data recorder,1 who as an ever practical man in the highly competitive and entrepreneurial environment of Victorian England, thought of the living world as if it was a financial ‘balance sheet’.2 As a result of his logical, analytical mentality Darwin often produced lists of attributes of things to help him clarify his thinking and make decisions. For example, he wrote out a reasoned list of the attributes his father raised in objection to his Voyage on the HMS Beagle (‘accommodations uncomfortable’, ‘a wild scheme’ and so forth). He adopted a similar
approach in identifying the attributes of whether to marry or not. In 1838 at the age of 29 he constructed a balance sheet for this important reasoning and decision-making task. On a piece of paper headed ‘This is the question’ he produced a list of multiple attributes ‘for’ marriage on the left hand side and multiple attributes ‘against’ marriage on the right hand side, noting such things as:
Marry: children; constant companion; home; charms of music and female ‘chit-chat’; nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books, and music perhaps;
Not Marry: Freedom to go where one liked; conversation of clever men at clubs; not forced to visit relatives; expense and anxiety of children; loss of time.3
