80 DARWINIANISM. 



amused themselves by making me pass an examination, 

 which consisted of ascertaining how many tunes I could 

 recognise, when they were played rather more quickly or 

 slowly than usual ; God save the King, when thus 

 played, was a sore puzzle." Nevertheless, " from asso- 

 ciating with those men and hearing them play, I acquired 

 a strong taste for music." He acquired this strong taste 

 for music he, who " was so utterly destitute of an ear " 

 that he " could not perceive a discord, or keep time and 

 hum a tune correctly " he, to whom it was " a mystery 

 how he could possibly have derived pleasure from music ! " 



Whitley, he says again, " inoculated me with a taste 

 for pictures and good engravings, of which I bought 

 some: this taste, though not natural to me, lasted for 

 several years." 



As little, then, as it was " natural" for him to take to 

 pictures or music, just so little was it natural for him to 

 take to the reading of books even though he did so for 

 hours ! Why he did so, the reason of it, was simply 

 this : He was the exemplarily good young man that, as 

 he was taught or impressed, held self-improvement to be 

 the one great duty. It was right to know pictures it was 

 right to know music it was right to know literature. 

 It was such knowledge alone that, as it were, got good 

 marks, and was the badge of what was reputable. Music, 

 painting, poetry, each, if to be known, required effort 

 certainly force upon oneself ; but tenacity might realise 

 every one of them. One's place ordered as much. He 

 was his celebrated grandfather's grandson, noblesse 

 oblige, and he would persevere. All this very much 

 without actual consciousness. As for beetles, again, that 

 was different : it was "natural" to take to them. 



" No pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much 

 eagerness, or gave me so much pleasure, as collecting beetles. It was 

 the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely 



