236 GEOEGE JOHN ROMANES issi- 



and on the man's keeping himself, as man, above his 

 pursuit, as Emerson well said long ago. 



I do not quite apprehend your estimate of Darwin, 

 nor of Darwin's works, in p. 119. This is no doubt due 

 to my ignorance. I knew him little, but my slight 

 intercourse with him impressed me deeply as well as 

 pleasurably. 



With sincere thanks, I remain, dear Mr. Komanes, 

 faithfully yours, W. E. GLADSTONE. 



Mr. Romanes was an omnivorous reader of poetry, 

 and this taste grew by what it fed on. On a holiday 

 he read poetry in preference to anything else, and he 

 was very fond of good anthologies, beginning first and 

 foremost with the t Golden Treasury.' Shakespeare, 

 Milton, and, above all, Tennyson were the poets he 

 most loved. For Byron he had had an early boyish 

 enthusiasm, but this he seemed to outgrow ; at least 

 Byron was not an author to whom in later years he 

 turned. He grew more and more addicted to versi- 

 fying in the later years of his life, and girl friends who 

 grew into intimate acquaintances were sure to have 

 sooner or later a sonnet sent to them on some special 

 occasion. 



As the years went on he became more interested 

 in work amongst the poor, and longed to take up 

 some special line. For a while he set up a small 

 school in a slum near the Euston Eoad, in which he 

 tried to attract the very poorest boys who had 

 managed to elude the vigilance of the School Board. 

 His plan was to have only morning school, and to 

 give the children their dinner. The School Board 

 officer came to his aid, and the school was maintained 

 for one or two winters. 



