The Days of a Man 1:1872 



with nature, the second essential, is possible every- 

 where, and much more so on this broad and un- 

 exhausted continent than in the fens of Cambridge- 

 shire. As to the third, Darwin explains his own 

 indebtedness: he "walked with Henslow," deriving 

 from that vigorous and enthusiastic botanist the 

 determination to make Natural History his life 

 work. Plainly it was not Cambridge and Edin- 

 burgh which made him. Indeed, he bluntly affirms 

 that in his scientific career he owed nothing to 

 Cambridge beyond his association with Henslow, 

 which was personal rather than official; and at Edin- 

 burgh he listened to lectures on geology "so incred- 

 ibly dull" that he made up his mind never to attend 

 any more or even read a book on the subject! 

 Needo^ I am sute that a Darwin could be produced in 

 ''Darmn Amcrica just as readily as anywhere else. Once 

 ■^'"^ secure the fortunate combination of inherited germ 

 plasm, the necessary "Darwin stuff," and the rest 

 is easy, for America affords an exuberance of nature 

 and always a choice number of Henslows as com- 

 panions and interpreters. 



In Gales- But to tetum to Galcsbutg, where, in the month 

 ^"^^ of September, 1872, I arrived to begin my work. 

 Then only twenty-one years old and without worldly 

 experience, I was ignorant and more or less scornful 

 of some of the social duties supposed to be incumbent 

 on professors. But I worked very hard at Lombard, 

 did some excellent teaching, and developed a certain 

 degree of enthusiasm in the small body of students, 

 of whom there were not over one hundred in the 

 entire collegiate department, with only eight in the 

 graduating class. A number of these young people, 



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