182 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



that they have easily admitted an assimilation of all 

 fresh discoveries and a re-adjustment to newly-accepted 

 theories. He was not only a keen investigator of 

 natural phenomena, he was also a shrewd observer 

 of human nature, and his interesting travels in America 

 are full of clever criticism and sagacious forecasts. His 

 mind, always fresh and open to new impressions, by 

 sympathy drew towards it and quickened the enthusiasm 

 of all who studied nature. Had he done nothing him- 

 self, he would have helped science on by the warmth 

 with which he hailed each new discovery. Professor 

 Hughes says, " How many a young geologist has been 

 braced up for new efforts by the encouraging words he 

 heard from Sir Charles, and how many a one has felt 

 exaggeration checked, and the faculty of seeing things 

 as they are, strengthened by a conversation with that 

 keen sifter of the true from the false ! " 



