DARWIN. 25 



" I went to Cambridge," wrote Darwin, " early in the 

 year 1828, and soon became acquainted, through some 

 of my brother entomologists, 1 with Professor Henslovv, 

 for all who cared for any branch of natural history 

 were equally encouraged by him. Nothing could be 

 more simple, cordial, and unpretending than the en- 

 couragement which he afforded to all young naturalists. 

 I soon became intimate with him, for he had a remark- 

 able power of making the young feel completely at 

 ease with him ; though we were all awe- struck with 

 the amount of his knowledge. Before I saw him 

 I heard one young man sum up his attainments by 

 simply saying that he knew everything. When I reflect 

 how immediately we felt at perfect ease with a man 

 older and in every way so immensely our superior, I 

 think it was as much owing to the transparent sincerity 

 of his character, as to his kindness of heart, and, 



'This statement by Darwin disposes of Mr. Grant Allen's 

 assertion that geology was Darwin's " first love " (p. 36). He 

 reckoned himself an entomologist when he went to Cambridge, and 

 certainly Mr. Ainsworth's statement shows that he was a naturalist 

 in a wide sense while at Edinburgh. C. V. Riley, the well-known 

 American entomologist, says (Proceedings of the Biological 

 Society of Washington, U.S., vol. i., 1882, p. 70) " I have the 

 authority of my late associate editor of The American Entomolo- 

 gist, Benjamin Dann Walsh, who was a class-mate of Darwin's at 

 Cambridge, that the latter's love of natural history was chiefly 

 manifested, while there, in a fine collection of insects." Indeed, he 

 was one of the original members of the Entomological Society of 

 London, founded in 1833, and showed an active interest in its affairs 

 throughout life, being elected a member of its council in 1838. As 

 early as January 4, 1836, a memoir based on insects sent home by 

 Darwin from Chiloe, was read before the Society by Charles 

 Babington, now Professor of Botany at Cambridge. 



