12 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



marry them, and after that will do only what they 

 please,' etc. 



" A secretary is almost indispensable, and 

 applications for secretaryships are very numerous. 

 The qualifications claimed are naturally very 

 high. In one of the last I received the writer 

 assured me that if I engaged him he would ' give 

 me a great deal of good advice.' 



" The questions asked are innumerable, and not 

 only range over the whole field of human know- 

 ledge, but far beyond. Such questions as the 

 mode in which an earwig folds its wings probably 

 came to me rather as President of the Entomo- 

 logical Society than as a Member of Parliament, 

 and so perhaps also an anxious inquiry as to 

 what geological epoch does the Blue London Clay 

 belong. Many are for advice on the conduct of 

 life, as for instance : 



" ' What advice would you give to a young man 

 leaving home to fight his way in the world ? ' 



" One rather long letter described how the 

 writer had caught a newt and put it in an 

 aquarium, from which it disappeared, and he 

 wrote to inquire what had become of it. 



" Another, referring to one of my lectures in 

 this room, gave his reasons at some length for 

 thinking that the human brain is a miniature 

 representation of the Heavenly bodies, — a sort of 

 Orrery in fact. 



" The headmaster of a Board School writes in 

 support of spontaneous generation, because on one 

 occasion, having to raise a board in the flooring, he 

 found under it a number of fleas. 



" Again, I suppose aU County Councillors re- 



