52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



I have not as yet mentioned a circumstance which 

 influenced my whole career more than any other. 

 This was my friendship with Professor Henslow. 

 Before coming up to Cambridge, I had heard of him 

 from my brother as a man who knew every branch of 

 science, and I was accordingly prepared to reverence 

 him. He kept open house once every week when all 

 undergraduates and some older members of the Uni- 

 versity, who were attached to science, used to meet in 

 the evening. I soon got, through Fox, an invitation, 

 and went there regularly. Before long I became well 

 acquainted with Henslow, and during the latter half 

 of my time at Cambridge took long walks with him on 

 most days ; so that I was called by some of the dons 

 " the man who walks with Henslow ; " and in the 

 evening I was very often asked to join his family 

 dinner. His knowledge was great in botany, ento- 

 mology, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. His 

 strongest taste was to draw conclusions from long- 

 continued minute observations. His judgment was 

 excellent, and his whole mind well balanced ; but I do 

 not suppose that any one would say that he possessed 

 much original genius. 



He was deeply religious, and so orthodox, that 

 he told me one day he should be grieved if a single 

 word of the Thirty-nine Articles were altered. His 

 moral qualities were in every way admirable. He 

 was free from every tinge of vanity or other petty 

 feeling ; and I never saw a man who thought so little 

 about himself or his own concerns. His temper was 

 imperturbably good, with the most winning and 



