HOLY ORDERS 75 



to feelings of Maiiolatry, brought on by my introduction 

 to the Madonna del Sisto, of which I could not write 

 without raving.* 



The following year (1862) was marked by a decision 

 which affected profoundly his subsequent career. It had 

 always been his intention — with how much enthusiasm 

 we do not know — to take holy orders, and he was to have 

 been ordained by the Bishop of Ely in Advent. On his 

 return from a short visit to the West Indies in October 

 and November, he decided to abandon the idea. It is 

 probable, as Dr. Shipley says, that this decision " made 

 for peace in the Estabhshed Church " ; it is certain that 

 the decision made for the progress and encouragement 

 of Biology. It is equally certain that he did not himself 

 regret it later. 



Miss Strickland, perhaps, was not so very far wrong 

 in supposing me to be a parson — for a good many years 

 I looked forward to that being my lot, but I am never 

 sufficiently thanlvful that it was not ; though in the 

 point of worldly goods I should probably have been a 

 comparatively rich man. In these days of rising prices 

 fixed incomes are a terrible institution.! 



It was the custom, though it was not a strict condi- 

 tion, for the holder of the Drury Fellowship to take 

 orders, so when Newton made this decision he at once 

 offered to relinquish the Fellowship, but the Master of 

 Magdalene J allowed him to hold it until it expired on 

 March 25, 1863. " This is the last day I shall ever be 

 able to consider myself Fellow of Magdalene, § my 

 fellowship ceasing this Lady Day, and henceforth Norfolk 

 Fellows are as clean gone as Norfolk Bustards." 



* Letter to H. B. Tristram. Dresden, August 22, 1861. 

 t Letter to Mrs. Strickland, November 9, 1872. 

 j Hon. and Rev. Latimer Neville, afterwards 9th Lord Braybrooke. 

 § Newton was elected in 1877 to a Professorial Fellowship at Magdalene, 

 which he held until the time of his death. 



