1844-185S] YOUNG COLLECTORS 85 



a perfect set was made out for you. If the collection was at Letter 42 

 all valuable, I should think he would be very glad to have this 

 done. Whether any third set would be worth making out 

 would depend on the value of the collection. I do not suppose 

 that you expect the insects to be named, for that would be 

 a most serious labour. If you do not approve of this scheme, 

 I should think it very likely that Mr. Waterhouse ' would 

 think it worth his while to set a series for you, retaining 

 duplicates for himself ; but I say this only on a venture. 

 You might trust Mr. Waterhouse implicitly, which I fear, as 

 [illegible] goes, is more than can be said for all entomologists. 

 I presume, if you thought of either scheme, Sir Charles Lyell 

 could easily see the gentlemen and arrange it ; but, if not, I 

 could do so when next I come to town, which, however, will 

 not be for three or four weeks. 



With respect to giving your children a taste for Natural 

 History, 1 will venture one remark — viz., that giving them 

 specimens in my opinion would tend to destroy such taste. 

 Youngsters must be themselves collectors to acquire a taste*; 

 and if I had a collection of English lepidoptera, I would be 

 systematically most miserly, and not give my boys half a 

 dozen butterflies in the year. Your eldest boy has the brow 

 of an observer, if there be the least truth in phrenology. We 

 are all better, but we have been of late a poor household. 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 43 



Down [1855]. 

 I should have less scruple in troubling you if I had any 

 confidence what my work would turn out. Sometimes I 

 think it will be good ; at other times I really feel as much 

 ashamed of myself as the author of the Vestiges ought to be 

 of himself. I know well that your kindness and friendship 

 would make you do a great deal for me, but that is no reason 

 that I should be unreasonable. I cannot and ought not to 

 forget that all your time is employed in work certain to be 

 valuable. It is superfluous in me to say that I enjoy exceed- 

 ingly writing to you, and that your answers are of the greatest 

 possible service to me. I return with many thanks the proof 



1 George Robert Waterhouse (1810-88) held the post of Keeper of the 

 Department of Geology in the British Museum from 1851 to 1880. 



