CHAPTER IX. 



CHAELES DARWIN -CONTINUED. 



BUT even with such pleasant little conventionalisms 

 exceptively to smile at, Charles Darwin had nothing 

 of ignoble or vulgar in his nature. He was naturally 

 gentle, and he was naturally firm. He was naturally 

 o-TTouSato?, too strenuus ; always at work or in earnest. 

 He knew " the golden rule for saving time : " he took 

 care of the minutes. On board the Beagle he was 

 indefatigable. He " studied attentively " Lyell ; he 

 watched his net at the stern, collecting, dissecting, 

 describing its occasional contents ; he wrote his Journal 

 "during some part of the day, taking much pains to 

 describe carefully and vividly all that he had seen ; and 

 this," he ingenuously adds, " was good practice." On 

 shore he was in every way active, both as geologist and 

 naturalist. These "various special studies were, how- 

 ever " (his own words) " of no importance compared with 

 the habit of energetic industry and of concentrated 

 attention to whatever I was engaged in, which I then 

 acquired. Everything about which I thought or read 

 was made to bear directly on what I had seen or was 

 likely to see; and this habit of mind was continued 

 during the five years of the voyage. I feel sure that it 

 was this training which has enabled me to do whatever 

 I have done in science." " I worked to the utmost," ho 



