We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. (Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he [Darwin] took a house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton)." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
Volume II, Chapter III, "Spread of Evolution - 1861-1862,") p. 175. Letter to Asa Gray (1810-1888), (21 August 1862)
“

We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. (Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he [Darwin] took a house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton).

— Charles Darwin

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. (Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he [Darwin] took a house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton)." in the context of "Volume II, Chapter III, "Spread of Evolution - 1861-1862,") p. 175. Letter to Asa Gray (1810-1888), (21 August 1862)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Darwin" (Quotes, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887): The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887) Edited by his son Francis Darwin, including an abridged version of the Autobiography.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Charles Darwin#bournemouth#scarlet#fever#poor#exterminated#southampton#recovering#wretched#sickened#journey#sharply
Charles Darwin

About Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He proposed that evolution could be explained in part through natural and sexual selection. Prompted by awareness that Alfred Russel Wallace was developing similar theories he published his own sooner than he had originally intended. This theory is now an integral component of biological science.