98 



REMINISCENCES. 



about the general tone of his letters, they will speak for them- 

 selves. The unvarying courtesy of them is very striking. I 

 had a proof of this quality in the feeling with which Mr. Hacon, 

 his solicitor, regarded him. He had never seen my father, 

 yet had a sincere feeling of friendship for him, and spoke 

 especially of his letters as being such as a man seldom receives 

 in the way of business : — " Everything I did was right, and 

 everything was profusely thanked for." 



He had a printed form to be used in replying to trouble- 

 some correspondents, but he hardly ever used it ; I suppose 

 he never found an occasion that seemed exactly suitable. I 

 remember an occasion on which it might have been used with 

 advantage. He received a letter from a stranger stating that 

 the writer had undertaken to uphold Evolution at a debating 

 society, and that being a busy young man, without time for 

 reading, he wished to have a sketch of my father's views. 

 Even this wonderful young man got a civil answer, though I 

 think he did not get much material for his speech. His rule 

 was to thank the donors of books, but not of pamphlets. He 

 sometimes expressed surprise that so few people thanked him 

 for his books which he gave away liberally ; the letters that 

 he did receive gave him much pleasure, because he habitually 

 formed so humble an estimate of the value of all his works, 

 that he was generally surprised at the interest which they 

 excited. 



In money and business matters he was remarkably careful 

 and exact. He kept accounts with great care, classifying 

 them, and balancing at the end of the year like a merchant. 

 I remember the quick way in which he would reach out for 

 his account-book to enter each cheque paid, as though he 

 were in a hurry to get it entered before he had forgotten it. 

 His father must have allowed him to believe that he would 

 be poorer than he really was, for some of the difficulty expe- 

 rienced in finding a house in the country must have arisen 

 from the modest sum he felt prepared to give. Yet he knew, 

 of course, that he would be in easy circumstances, for in his 

 * Recollections ' he mentions this as one of the reasons for his 



