brother entomologists, with Prof. Henslow, for all who cared for any branch of natural history were equally encouraged by him. Nothing could be more simple, cordial, and unpretending than the encouragement which he afforded to all young naturalists. I soon became intimate with him, for he had a remarkable power of making the young feel completely at ease with him, though we

were all awe-struck with the amount of his knowledge. Before I saw him, I heard one young man sum up his attainments by simply saying that he knew everything. When I reflect how immediately we felt at perfect ease with a man older, and in every way so immensely our superior, I think it was as much owing to the transparent sincerity of his character as to his kindness of heart, and perhaps even still more to a highly remarkable absence in him of all self-consciousness. We perceived at once that he never thought of his own varied knowledge or clear intellect, but solely on the subject in hand. Another charm, which must have struck every one, was that his manner to a distinguished person and to the youngest student was exactly the same: to all, the same winning

courtesy. He would receive with interest the most trifling observation in any branch of natural history, and however absurd a blunder one might make, he pointed it out so clearly and kindly that one left him in no way disheartened, but only determined to be more accurate the next time. So that no man could be better formed to win the entire confidence of the young and to encourage them in their pursuits.

"During the years when I associated so much. with Prof. Henslow, I never once saw his temper even ruffled. He never took an ill-natured view of any one's character, though very far from blind to the foibles of others. It always struck me that his mind could not be well touched by any paltry feeling of envy, vanity, or jealousy. With all this equability of temper, and remarkable benevolence, there was no insipidity of character. A man must have been blind not to have perceived that beneath this placid exterior there was a vigorous and determined will. When principle came into play, no power on earth could have turned him an hair's breadth,

"In intellect, as far as I could judge, accurate

powers of observation, sound sense, and cautious judgment seemed predominant. Nothing seemed to give him so much enjoyment as drawing conclusions from minute observations. But his admirable memoir on the geology of Anglesea shows his capacity for extended observations and broad views. Reflecting over his character with gratitude and reverence, his moral attributes rise, as they should do in the highest characters, in pre-eminence, over his intellect."

Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury on February 12, 1809. His father was Dr. R. W. Darwin, F.R.S., a physician of eminence, who, as his son used frequently to remark, had a wonderful power of diagnosing diseases, both bodily and mental, by the aid of the fewest possible number of questions; and his quickness of perception was such that he could even divine, in a remarkable manner, what was passing through his patients' minds. That, like his son, he was benevolently inclined, may be inferred from a little anecdote which we once heard Mr. Darwin tell of him while speaking of the curious kinds of pride which are sometimes shown by the poor. For the benefit

of the district in which he lived Dr. Darwin offered to dispense medicines gratis to any one who applied and was not able to pay. He was surprised to find that very few of the sick poor availed themselves of his offer, and guessing that the reason must have been a dislike to becoming the recipients of charity, he devised a plan to neutralise this feeling. Whenever any poor persons applied for medical aid, he told them that he would supply the medicine, but that they must pay for the bottles. This little distinction made all the difference, and ever afterwards the poor used to flock to the doctor's house for relief as a matter of right.

*

Mr. Darwin's mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Little is at present known concerning his early life, and it is questionable whether we can hope to learn much with reference to his boyhood or youth, till the time when he entered at Edinburgh. We can, therefore, only say that he went to Shrewsbury School, the head master of which was at that time Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. He was sent to Edinburgh (1825) because it was intended that he should follow his father's profession,

and Edinburgh was then the best medical school in the kingdom. He studied under Prof. Jameson, but does not seem to have profited at all by whatever instruction he received; for not only did it fail to awaken in him any special love of natural history, but even seems to have had the contrary effect.

The prospect of being a medical practitioner proving distasteful to him, he was, after two sessions at Edinburgh, removed to Christ's College, Cambridge, with the view of his entering the Church. He took his B.A. in 1831, and his M.A. in 1837. There being no Natural Sciences Tripos at that time, his degree was an ordinary one. While at Cambridge he attracted the notice of the late Rev. Prof. Henslow, who had just previously exchanged the Professorship of Mineralogy for that of Botany. From the above description of this man's character and attainments, it is sufficiently evident that he was a worthy teacher of a worthy pupil; and the world owes an immense debt of gratitude to him for having been the means of enthusiastically arousing and sagaciously directing the first love and the early study of natural science in the mind