1844—1858] UNAPPLIED SCIENCE 6l 



out in my beloved barnacles. You cannot tell how much I Letter 25 

 enjoyed my talk with you here. 



Ever, my dear Owen, 



Yours sincerely, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. — If I do not hear, I shall understand that my letter is 

 superfluous. Smith and Beck were so pleased with the simple 

 microscope they made for me, that they have made another 

 as a model. If you are consulted by any young naturalists, 

 do recommend them to look at this. I really feel quite 

 a personal gratitude to this form of microscope, and quite 

 a hatred to my old one. 



TO J. S. Henslow. Letter 26 



Down [April 1st, 1848]. 



Thank you for your note and giving me a chance of seeing 

 you in town ; but it was out of my power to take advantage 

 of it, for I had previously arranged to go up to London on 

 Monday. I should have much enjoyed seeing you. Thanks 

 also for your address, 1 which I like very much. The anecdote 

 about Whewell and the tides I had utterly forgotten ; I 

 believe it is near enough to the truth. I rather demur to one 

 sentence of yours — viz., " However delightful any scientific 

 pursuit may be, yet, if it should be wholly unapplied, it is of 

 no more use than building castles in the air." Would not 

 your hearers infer from this that the practical use of each 

 scientific discovery ought to be immediate and obvious to 

 make it worthy of admiration ? What a beautiful instance 

 chloroform is of a discovery made from purely scientific 

 researches, afterwards coming almost by chance into practical 

 use ! For myself I would, however, take higher ground, for 

 I believe there exists, and I feel within me, an instinct for truth, 

 or knowledge or discovery, of something of the same nature as 

 the instinct of virtue, and that our having such an instinct 

 is reason enough for scientific researches without any 

 practical results ever ensuing from them. You will wonder 



1 An introductory lecture delivered in March 1848 at the first meeting 

 of a Society "for giving instructions to the working classes in Ipswich in 

 various branches of science, and more especially in natural history " 

 {Memoir of the Rev. J. S. Henslow, by Leonard Jenyns, p. 150). 



