Yeah, there are a couple fascinating contradictions in Darwin's life that Janet Browne does a great job in highlighting in her biography of him. The big one is that at Cambridge he studied for and seriously pursued becoming a member of the clergy - so he could devote more time to studying natural history. Another major contradiction is that he was a lifelong abolitionist as were many of his family - yet he took full advantage of his upper-class position in Victorian society which ensured the success of his publications and dissemination of his theories. I'm sure he would not have seen those contradictions, living in the times he did, any more than we probably see our own contradictions which our descendants will happily point out to us. ;)