146 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK on. 



extraordinary power and facility of work, it is 

 difficult to avoid giving the impression of a man 

 going at breathless speed, of one totally absorbed 

 in his many projects and practical and scientific 

 interests, of one who can have had no spare time 

 for indulging the domestic affections and enjoying 

 the domestic life. Such a picture would be very 

 different indeed from a true one of Sir John. So 

 far from the impression that he gave being one of 

 breathless haste, as it were of an animated hurri- 

 cane rushing from one sphere to another of 

 activity, the atmosphere that he bore about him 

 was invariably one of the most serene, unruffled 

 calm. More than that, it was a calm which 

 seemed as if it could not possibly be ruffled. His 

 serenity, in peculiarly trying circumstances, more 

 than once struck those who witnessed it as so re- 

 markable that they have been disposed to ask 

 if it must not be a cold nature that could be thus 

 unruffled. The truth was far otherwise. Few men 

 have been endowed by nature with sensibilities 

 so keen and so nearly feminine in their delicacy. 

 In all the domestic relations, as son, husband, 

 and parent, he was most tenderly devoted ; and 

 no greater testimony of this affection could be 

 cited than the devotion, the love, and the trust 

 which he inspired in return. Devotion and love 

 are perhaps not uncommon sentiments on the part 

 of children towards parents : that full trust and 

 confidence, as of equal to equal and of friend to 

 friend, with which Sir John's children repaid him 

 his affection for them, is very much less frequent. 

 The gentleness of his manner had a great charm 

 for all children, and he perfectly understood the 



