INTRODUCTION. 



During his first term Balfour was occupied in preparation 

 for the Previous Examination ; and this he successfully passed at 

 Christmas. After that he devoted himself entirely to Natural 

 Science, attending lectures on several branches. During the 

 Lent term he was a very diligent hearer of the lectures on 

 Physiology which I was then giving as Trinity Praelector, 

 having been appointed to that post in the same October that 

 Balfour came into residence. At this time he was not very 

 strong, and I remember very well noticing among my scanty 

 audience, a pale retiring student, whose mind seemed at times 

 divided between a desire to hear the lecture and a feeling that 

 his frequent coughing was growing an annoyance to myself 

 and the class. This delicate-looking student, I soon learnt, was 

 named Balfour, and when the Rev. Coutts Trotter, Mr Pryor 

 and myself came to examine the candidates for the Natural 

 Science Scholarships which were awarded at Easter, we had no 

 difficulty in giving the first place to him. In point of knowledge, 

 and especially in the thoughtfulness and exactitude displayed in 

 his papers and work, he was very clearly ahead of his com- 

 petitors. 



During the succeeding Easter term and the following winter 

 he appears to have studied physics, chemistry, geology and 

 comparative anatomy, both under Mr Marlborough Pryor and 

 by means of lectures. He also continued to attend my lectures, 

 but though I gradually got to know him more and more we 

 did not become intimate until the Lent term of 1872. He had 

 been very much interested in some lectures on embryology 

 which I had given, and, since Marlborough Pryor had left or was 

 about to leave Cambridge, he soon began to consult me a good 

 deal about his studies. He commenced practical histological 

 and embryological work under me, and I remember very vividly 

 that one day when we were making a little excursion in search 

 of nests and eggs of the stickleback in order that he might study 

 the embryology of fishes, he definitely asked my opinion as 

 to whether he might take up a scientific career with a fair chance 

 of success. I had by this time formed a very high opinion 

 of his abilities, and learning then for the first time that he had 

 an income independent of his own exertions, my answer was 

 very decidedly a positive one. Soon after, feeling more and 



