64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



He has been all-powerful in impressing some grand moral 



truths on the minds of men. On the other hand, his views 



about slavery were revolting. In his eyes might was right. 



/ His mind seemed to me a very narrow one ; even if all 



I branches of science, which he despised, are excluded. It 



j is astonishing to me that Kingsley should have spoken of him 



I f as a man well fitted to advance science. He laughed to 



scorn the idea that a mathematician, such as Whewell, could 



judge, as I maintained he could, of Goethe's views on light. 



He thought it a most ridiculous thing that any one should 



care whether a glacier moved a little quicker or a little 



slower, or moved at all. As far as I could judge, I never 



\| met a man with a mind so ill adapted for scientific re- 



\ search. 



Whilst living in London, I attended as regularly as I could 

 the meetings of several scientific socities, and acted as secre- 

 tary to the Geological Society. But such attendance, and 

 ordinary society, suited my health so badly that we resolved 

 ' to live in the country, which we both preferred and have 

 never repented of. 



Reside ftce at Down from September 14, 1842, /<? the present time, 



1876. 



After several fruitless searches in Surrey and elsewhere, 

 we found this house and purchased it. I was pleased with 

 the diversified appearance of vegetation proper to a chalk 

 district, and so unlike what I had been accustomed to in the 

 Midland counties; and still more pleased with the extreme 

 quietness and rusticity of the place. It is not, however, 

 quite so retired a place as a writer in a German periodical 

 makes it, who says that my house can be approached only by 

 a mule-track ! Our fixing ourselves here has answered ad- 

 mirably in one way, which we did not anticipate, namely, by 

 being very convenient for frequent visits from our chil- 

 dren. 



Few persons can have lived a more retired life than we 



