XV IMPRESSION ON HIS FRIENDS 373 



impression he made upon all who came within the 

 circle of his friendship was such that quite a number 

 felt themselves to possess his intimacy, and one 

 wrote, after his death : " His many private friends 

 are almost tempted to forget the public loss, in 

 thinking of the qualities which so endeared him tc 

 them all." 



Both the speculative and the practical sides of 

 his intellect were strongly developed. On the one 

 hand, he had an intense love of knowledge, the 

 desire to attain true knowledge of facts, and to 

 organise them in their true relations. His contribu- 

 tions to pui^e science never fail to illustrate both 

 these tendencies. His earlier researches brought 

 to light new facts in animal life, and new ideas as 

 to the affinities of the creatures he studied ; his 

 later investigations were coloured by Darwin's views, 

 and in return contributed no little direct evidence 

 in favour of evolution. But while the progress of 

 the evolution theory in England owed more to his 

 clear and unwearied exposition than to any other 

 cause, while from the first he had indicated the 

 points, such as the causes of sterility and variation, 

 which must be cleared up by further investigation 

 in order to complete the Darmnian theory, he did 

 not add another to the many speculations since put 

 forward. 



On the other hand, intense as was his love of pure 

 knowledge, it was balanced by his unceasing desire 

 to apply that knowledge in the guidance of life. 



