vi INTRODUCTION 



Something of the man's heroic temper may be gathered 

 from a letter which he wrote to Miss Heathorn when his 

 affairs were darkest. " However painful our separation 

 may be," he says, " the spectacle of a man who had given 

 up the cherished purpose of his life . . . would, before 

 long years were over our heads, be infinitely more painful." 

 He declares that he is hemmed in by all sorts of difficul- 

 ties. " Nevertheless the path has shown itself a fair one, 

 neither more difficult nor less so than most paths in life in 

 which a man of energy may hope to do much if he believes 

 in himself, and is at peace within." Thus relieved in mind, 

 he makes his decision in spite of adverse fate. " My course 

 of life is taken, I will not leave London I will make 

 myself a name and a position as well as an income by some 

 kind of pursuit connected with science which is the thing 

 for which Nature has fitted me if she has ever fitted any 

 one for anything." 



But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were 

 justified, and the turning point came. "There is always 

 a Cape Horn in one's life that one either weathers or wrecks 

 one's self on," he writes to his sister. "Thank God, I 

 think I may say I have weathered mine not without a 

 good deal of damage to spars and rigging though, for it 

 blew deuced hard on the other side." In 1854 a permament 

 Lecture- lectureship was offered him at the Government 

 sMps. School of Mines; also, a lectureship at St. 



Thomas' Hospital ; and he was asked to give various other 

 lecture courses. He thus found himself able to establish 

 the home for which he had waited eight years. In July, 

 1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. 



The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with 

 various kinds of work connected with science : original 

 investigation, printing of monographs, and establishing of 

 natural history museums. His advice concerning local mu- 

 seums is interesting and characteristically expressed. "It 

 [the local museum if properly arranged] will tell both na- 

 tives and strangers exactly what they want to know, and 

 possess great scientific interest and importance. Whereas 

 the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, 



