ch. viii.] 18421854. J 67 



" Your father was building a vast superstructure upon 

 the foundations furnished by the recognised facts of geo- 

 logical and biological science. In Physical Geography, in 

 Geology proper, in Geographical Distribution, and in Palae- 

 ontology, he had acquired an extensive practical training 

 during the voyage of the Beagle. He knew of his own knowl- 

 edge the way in which raw the materials of these branches 

 of science are acquired, and was therefore a most competent 

 judge of the speculative strain they would bear. That 

 which he needed, after his return to England, was a corre- 

 sponding acquaintance with Anatomy and Development, 

 and their relation to Taxonomy and he acquired this by 

 his C impede work." 



Though he became excessively weary of the work before 

 the end of the eight years, he had much keen enjoyment in 

 the course of it. Thus he wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker 

 (1847?) : "As you say, there is an extraordinary pleasure 

 in pure observation ; not but what I suspect the pleasure in 

 this case is rather derived from comparisons forming in 

 one's mind with allied structures. After having been so 

 long employed in writing my old geological observations, it 

 is delightful to use one's eyes and fingers again." It was, 

 in fact, a return to the work which occupied so much of 

 his time when at sea during his voyage. Most of his work 

 was done with the simple dissecting microscope and it was 

 the need which he found for higher powers that induced 

 him, in 1846, to buy a compound microscope. He wrote to 

 Hooker : " When I was drawing with L., I was so de- 

 lighted with the appearance of the objects, especially with 

 their perspective, as seen through the weak powers of a 

 good compound microscope, that I am going to order one ; 

 indeed, I often have structures in which the -fa is not power 

 enough." 



During part of the time covered by the present chapter, 

 my father suffered perhaps more from ill-health than at 

 any other period of his life. He felt severely the depress- 

 ing influence of these long years of illness ; thus as early as 

 1840 he wrote to Fox : " I am grown a dull, old, spiritless 

 dog to what I used to be. One gets stupider as one grows 

 older I think." It is not wonderful that he should so have 

 written, it is rather to be wondered at that his spirit with- 

 stood so great and constant a strain. He wrote to Sir 

 Joseph Hooker in 1845 : " You are very kind in your 

 inquiries about my health ; I have nothing to say about it, 

 12 



