SIR RODERICK J. MURCHISON. 187 



where the cultivated tastes of his wife were of signal 

 influence in instigating and developing his future 

 pursuits. He threw himself with all the natural 

 enthusiasm of his nature into the study of antiquities 

 and art, and for the first time in his life enjoyed the 

 pleasure of intellectual knowledge. 



Of this period of his life, Professor Greikie, in his 

 biography of Murchison, tells a circumstance which, 

 while doubtless authentic, is nevertheless very surprising. 

 Having given up one fixed employment, the ex-captain 

 of dragoons began to look out for another. After the 

 fashion of that day, he seriously thought of becoming 

 a clergyman. " I saw," he wrote himself, " that my 

 wife had been brought up to look after the poor, was a 

 good botanist, enjoyed a garden, and liked tranquillity ; 

 and as parsons then enjoyed a little hunting, shooting, and 

 fishing, without being railed at, I thought I might slide 

 into that sort of comfortable life." For those who knew 

 Murchison in after years, it is almost impossible to grasp 

 the idea that he might have become a country parson 

 instead of a geologist. However, this was fortunately 

 not to be. As already mentioned, the newly-married 

 couple went abroad. This arrangement fell in admirably 

 with the plans of Mrs. Murchison, who had sagaciously 

 seen that her husband would be more likely to break off 

 from his useless life at home if he were thrown among 

 a new set of acquaintances and piu*suits on the Con- 

 tinent. She resolved to approach him at first from the 

 side of art. They posted slowly through France, 

 examining the picture galleries en route, spending the 

 summer in Switzerland and the winter in Genoa, whence 



