XXXVill PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
before and since man’s appearance, had, perhaps, a more absorbing 
interest for Professor Henslow than any other subject. Few per- 
sons more deeply studied and more boldly preached the Bible, or 
more stanchly upheld the doctrines of the Church of England ; 
but he ever maintained the necessity of appealing to the spirit 
rather than to the letter of the written Word, in all cases where 
the established facts of science appeared to contradict the text of 
Scripture. In spiritual matters he avowed the total insufficiency 
of human reason unaided by revelation; but having witnessed 
many changes of theological opinion brought about by progressive 
discoveries in history and science, he was very averse to specula- 
tive reasoning where these were not in apparent harmony with 
revelation. 
“His charity was nowhere more conspicuous than in his inter- 
course with those who differed widely, and often publicly, from 
himself in religious opinion. He never sought to gloss over these 
differences, nor did he allow of any misconceptions with regard to 
their true nature : but he never permitted them to influence in the 
smallest degree his conduct, or to diminish his admiration for 
what was honest and good, wherever he found it. Hence he dis- 
cussed such polemical questions as the age of the globe, the origin 
of species, &c., with such ingenuous forbearance, that inquirers of 
all denominations and professions turned to him for a calm and 
unprejudiced judgment. 
“ As may be supposed, the flint implements in the drift deeply 
occupied his attention: on first hearmg of them (their human 
origin he never doubted), he was disposed to be wholly incredulous 
as to their antiquity, and published his opinion on the subject: 
this was no wonder, considering how many mares’ nests of the 
kind he had seen exposed, and himself aided in exposing. Nothing 
hampered by his avowed scepticism, he, with characteristic devotion 
to truth, earnestly took up the subject, twice visited Hoxne, where 
he had excavations made which resulted in a modification of his 
first view ; he then visited the pits at Amiens and Abbeville in the 
autumn of last year, studied the localities and country around, 
the museums and collections in the neighbourhood, and returned 
with his views still further modified though not wholly altered. 
Up to the time of his last illness he was busy on this subject, 
comparing his observations with those of others, and studying the 
results, which he was preparing to lay before the Cambridge Phi- 
losophieal Society. Of what his final conclusion was, no record 
has been published ; but we believe that he had convinced himself 
