194 DARWINIANISM. 



not " just : " all these we must still recollect, and that he 

 believed that he was " in many ways a naughty boy." It 

 must still be quite within our recollection, too, that the 

 simple conscience of the boy followed him into manhood. 

 He, late in life even, cannot sleep till he gets up and adds 

 an important rider to some trifle he had said ! " The 

 surprise and delight with which he hears of his collec- 

 tions and observations being of some use : it seems only 

 to have gradually occurred to him that he would ever be 

 more than a collector of specimens and facts, of which 

 the great men were to make use." The extravagance of 

 his praise : " I never in my life read so lucid an expositor 

 (and therefore thinker) as you are" " every one with eyes 

 to see or ears to hear ought to bow their knee to you, 

 and I for one do " so and so " the clearest-headed man 

 whom I have ever known, a wonderful observer, to my 

 judgment I have come across no one like him, his 

 powers of observation I have never seen exceeded or even 

 equalled." It is almost too bad to say so, and may seem 

 mere profanation of the most affectionate and reverential 

 feelings between father and son ; but the most perfect 

 proof of the simplicity of Mr. Darwin lies in his relation 

 to his father. " Miss , a grand old lady in Shrop- 

 shire, was telling everybody that she would call and tell 

 that fat old doctor very plainly what she thought of him." 

 This fat old doctor, whom " facts in conversation " alone 

 interested, who was a " great talker," who was a " great 

 collector of anecdotes," " who knew an extraordinary 

 number of curious stories," who was always joking and in 

 high spirits, and who told stories and anecdotes " in con- 

 versation with a succession of people during the whole day," 

 this fat old country doctor and gossip was to Charles 

 Darwin " the best judge of character he ever met," " the 

 most acute observer he ever saw," " the wisest man he 

 ever knew ; " " he could read the characters, and even the 



