106 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



His courteous and conciliatory tone towards his reader 

 is remarkable, and it must be partly this quality which re- 

 vealed his personal sweetness of character to so many who 

 had never seen him. I have always felt it to be a curious 

 fact, that he who has altered the face of Biological Science, 

 and is in this respect the chief of the moderns, should have 

 written and worked in so essentially a non-modern spirit 

 and manner. In reading his books one is reminded of the 

 older naturalists rather than of any modern school of writ- 

 ers. He was a Naturalist in the old sense of the word, that 

 is, a man who works at many branches of science, not mere- 

 ly a specialist in one. Thus it is, that, though he founded 

 whole new divisions of special subjects such as the fertil- 

 isation of flowers, insectivorous plants, &c. yet even in 

 treating these very subjects he does not strike the reader as 

 a specialist. The reader feels like a friend who is being 

 talked to by a courteous gentleman, not like a pupil being 

 lectured by a professor. The tone of such a book as the 

 Origin is charming, and almost pathetic ; it is the tone of 

 a man who, convinced of the truth of his own views, hardly 

 expects to convince others; it is just the reverse of the 

 style of a fanatic, who tries to force belief on his readers. 

 The reader is never scorned for any amount of doubt which 

 he may be imagined to feel, and his scepticism is treated 

 with patient respect. A sceptical reader, or perhaps even 

 an unreasonable reader, seems to have been generally pres- 

 ent to his thoughts. It was in consequence of this feeling, 

 perhaps, that he took much trouble over points which he 

 imagined would strike the reader, or save him trouble, and 

 so tempt him to read. 



For the same reason he took much interest in the illus- 

 trations of his books, and I think rated rather too highly 

 their value. The illustrations for his earlier books were 

 drawn by professional artists. This was the case in Ani- 

 mals and Plants, the Descent of Man, and the Expression 

 of the Emotions. On the other hand, Climbing Plants, In- 

 sectivorous Plants, the Movements of Plants, and Forms of 

 Floioers, were, to a large extent, illustrated by some of his 

 children my brother George having drawn by far the 

 most. It was delightful to draw for him, as he was enthu- 

 siastic in his praise of very moderate performances. I re- 

 member well his charming manner of receiving the draw- 

 ings of one of his daughters-in-law, and how he would fin- 

 ish his words of praise by saying, " Tell A , Michael 



