xxiv THE HONESTY OF HIS MOTIVES 



431 



recognition of his work ; " If I had 400 a year," * he ex- 

 claimed at the outset of his career, " I should be content to 

 work anonymously for the advancement of science." The 

 only recognition he considered worth having, was that of 

 the scientific world ; yet so little did he seek it, so little 

 insist on questions of priority, that, as Professor Howes 

 tells me, there are at South Kensington among the mass of 

 unpublished drawings from dissections made by him, many 

 which show that he had arrived at discoveries which after- 

 wards brought credit to other investigators. 



He was as ready to disclaim for himself any merits which 

 really belonged to his predecessors, whether philosophical 

 or scientific. He was too well read in their works not to 

 be aware of the debt owed them by his own generation, 

 and he reminded the world how little the scientific insight 

 of Goethe, for instance, or the solid labours of Buffon or 

 Reaumur or Lamarck, deserved oblivion. 



The only point on which he did not claim recognition 

 was the honesty of his motives. He was incapable of doing 

 anything underhand, and he could not bear even the appear- 

 ance of such conduct towards his friends, or those with 

 whom he had business relations. In such cases he always 

 took the bull by the horns, acknowledged an oversight or 

 explained what was capable of misunderstanding. The 

 choice between Edward Forbes and Hooker for the Royal 

 Society's medal, or the explanations to Mr. Spencer for not 

 joining a social reform league of which the latter was a 

 prominent member, will serve as instances. 



The most considerable difference I note among men (he 

 wrote,) is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their 

 readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses. 



For himself, he let no personal feelings stand in the way 

 when fact negatived his theories : once convinced that they 

 were untenable, he gave up Bathybius and the European 

 origin of the Horse without hesitation. 



The regard in which he was held by his friends was such 



* A sum which might have supported a bachelor, but was entirely 

 inadequate to the needs of a large family. 



