A STUDY OF BRITISH GENIUS. 67 



ence from the days of Eay onwards; if it had not been for the five 

 years on the Beagle we should scarcely have had a Darwin, and Lyell's 

 work was avowedly founded on his constant foreign tours. In a notable 

 number of cases this element comes in at the earliest period of life, the 

 eminent person having been born abroad and spent his childhood there. 

 The presence of so large a number of our eminent men at a university 

 may be in considerable measure merely the accident of their social posi- 

 tion. The persistence with which men of the first order of intellect 

 have sought out and studied unfamiliar aspects of life and nature, or 

 have profited by such aspects when presented by circumstances, indi- 

 cates a more active and personal factor in the evolution of genius. 



