620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sidered that all that be had learned of any value had been self-taught. 

 He found an unnamed professor's lectures on geology and zoology 

 so intolerably dull that they produced on him as their sole effect the 

 determination never, so long as he lived, to read a book on geology, 

 or in any way to study the science. Happily, this determination gave 

 way, under associations with more genial geologists and in the pres- 

 ence of geological phenomena. 



From Edinburgh he went to Cambridge, where he was a ready 

 listener to Professor Henslow's lectures on botany, associated with a 

 " sporting set," became interested in pictures and music (for which he 

 had no ear), and was fascinated with the passion for collecting beetles. 

 " I am surprised," he says, " what an indelible impression many of the 

 beetles which I caught at Cambridge have left on my mind. I can 

 remember the exact aj^pearance of certain posts, old trees, and banks 

 where I made a good capture." 



Darwin mentions his friendship with Professor Henslow as a cir- 

 cumstance which influenced his career more than any other. The pro- 

 fessor kept open house once every week, which Darwin frequented 

 regularly, and they became companions on long walks, so that he 

 was known as " the man who walks with Henslow." Through Hens- 

 low Darwin formed the acquaintance of several other eminent men, 

 the privilege of having associated with whom suggested to him, look- 

 ing back from many years later in life, that there must have been 

 something in him a little superior to the common run of youths, or 

 else they would not have taken to him. " Certainly," he says, " I was 

 not aware of any such superiority, and I remember one of my sporting 

 friends, Turner, who saw me at work with my beetles, saying that I 

 should one day be a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the notion 

 seemed to me preposterous." 



Professor Henslow's friendship secured a recommendation of Dar- 

 win to Captain Fitzroy, who was about to start on the famous expedi- 

 tion of the Beagle around the globe, " as amply qualified for collecting, 

 obseiwing, and noting anything worthy to be noted in natural his- 

 tory." The elder Darwin objected to his son's going, chiefly because 

 he was intending to become a clergyman, and the voyage might end 

 in withdrawing him from that profession ; and Darwin came very near 

 being rejected by Captain Fitzroy on account of the shape of his nose. 

 Tlie father's objections were overcome by means of the representations 

 of Darwin's uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, and Fitzroy's by further ac- 

 quaintance. The voyage, the story of which is familiar, was on the 

 whole happy and instructive, and was marked by Darwin as by far the 

 most important event in his life, and one which determined his whole 

 career ; and to it he always felt that he owed the first real training 

 or education of his mind. But one sequence of it is to be deplored : 

 he returned a permanent invalid. Of the scientific aspect of the 

 voyage he speaks : " I also reflect with high satisfaction on some of 



