What are the chances, really, of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin—two of the most significant, paradigm-shifting, transformative figures of the 19th century—being born on exactly the same day? Astrologists might say, “quite good.” On the other hand, consider these other “birth twins”: Margaret Thatcher and comedian Lenny Bruce. Or even more entertaining: Newt Gingrich and Barry Manilow.
So we probably shouldn’t draw too much significance from the fact that Lincoln and Darwin shared the same birthday, or that today marks the 200th anniversary of the day both of them were born. On the other hand, it does provide an excuse to take another look at how these two influential men went about pursuing different but equally uncertain, audacious and important endeavors.
Both Darwin and Lincoln were breaking new ground, without much of a road map to tell them exactly how to get there. And I doubt either one of them foresaw, at the beginning, exactly where their paths were going to lead them. But their challenges and methods were dramatically different.
Lincoln had a conventional and well-known end-point: keeping the boundaries of the country intact and whole. The challenge was figuring out what methods to use in order to best accomplish that goal. Darwin, on the other hand, was a practitioner of well-proven scientific methods. The path to his discoveries wasn’t the radical part of his journey. It was figuring out what all that data meant, and having the courage to break old and accepted boundaries and conventions in favor of a radically different view of the world.
Darwin also explored a stable world and produced earth-shaking conclusions. The union and world of the young United States was already shaking when Lincoln took the helm. His challenge was to re-establish stability.
But despite the differences in their goals and approaches, both men were explorers, trailblazers, and epic hero figures. And both men’s end-points were contentious—although unlike Lincoln, Darwin didn’t set out with a contentious end-point in mind. Lincoln’s path involved more conflict at the time, and cost more lives, including his own. Darwin’s explorations were probably less stressful at the time, but … and here’s the ironic part … his theory of evolution is still being hotly fought over today, while the sanctity of the Union is pretty much a settled issue, and has been for over 130 years. There’s undoubtedly a lesson in there, somewhere.
But was one man’s path harder than the other? The easy answer would be, “Yes, of course. Lincoln’s task was harder. He was struggling to win a war and hold a nation together while Darwin was sailing around watching birds in South Pacific Islands.” But consider. Lincoln had many advisors, and a known goal against which to measure his progress; numerous strategies to employ. All concrete tasks. Albeit with a heavy burden of lives, freedom, and a country’s future at stake. Darwin, on the other hand, faced a truly unmarked landscape. His task involved looking at what was clearly in front of him … and seeing something nobody had ever seen in it before. And seeing the right new thing nobody had seen before. The creative imagination Darwin had to use, and the mind-tilting exhaustion of an elusive riddle whose solution meant challenging an entire accepted worldview … may have required an equal amount of inner courage and determination as Lincoln had to bring to his more publicly daunting and tumultuous task.
It’s an interesting thought. Is the task of an explorer trying to figure out the world or universe easier than that of a commander trying to make tangible progress across well-defended land? Or are the struggles simply buried further inside?
Next post: Hurricane Parties
Previous post: Jennifer Figge Swims the Atlantic
A very interesting coincidence, that both men were born on the same day. Very few people must be aware of that. I certainly wasn’t. But I don’t see a big hand of fate in it, any more than I do in the fact that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. Those things happen.
I go with what I think is your instinctive evaluation, that Lincoln had a much harder task than Darwin. Dealing with contentious masses of people is a lot harder than dealing with scientific facts and theories. Especially when the contention develops into outright civil war.
It takes a special kind of mind to come up with a new and revoltionary scientific theory — but in this case two men came up with it at about the same time, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. You might conclude that the time was ripe — or rather that the state of biological knowledge was ripe for it.
In any case, it seems unlikely that Darwin ever set himself the goal of figuring out how new species came about. It just came to him upon deep reflection, based on his own observations and on things he knew about horse and dog breeding, and on things had read, such as Malthus. That does not lessen the magnitude of his accomplishment. It is just the way scientific revolutions are likely to be made.
After he had it pretty well worked out, he wrote it up but kept it to himself for many years. He was quite obviously wary of facing the storm of outrage that he knew would be unleashed at him once he made his theory known. In fact he was only moved to go public with it when he got a letter from Wallace outlining the same theory. That put pressure on him to come out with it now, or else let his contribution take a back seat to Wallace’s — when Darwin actually had it first.
I’d like to comment on the post by Mr. Upton.I agree that it was coincidence that Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same date.However, I do not think it was coincidence that Jefferson and Adams both died on the July 4, 1826 – the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.Both Jefferson and Adams had taken key roles in the writing of the document, both were old and in poor health (long past the normal life span at that time), and both wanted to see that the nation that they had helped birth made it to the fiftieth anniversary which at the time was being celebrated nationwide. I would contend that both Jefferson and Adams “willed” themselves to stay alive until the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration.Best Regards