LETTERS. 225 



symptoms to his father Dr. Darwin could make no guess as 

 to the nature of the disease. My father was sometimes 

 inclined to think that the breaking up of his health was to 

 some extent due to this attack. 



The Beagle letters give ample proof of his strong love of 

 home, and all connected with it, from his father down to 

 Nancy, his old nurse, to whom he sometimes sends his love. 



His delight in home-letters is shown in such passages as : 

 " But if you knew the glowing, unspeakable delight, which I 

 felt at being certain that my father and all of you were well, 

 only four months ago, you would not grudge the labour lost 

 in keeping up the regular series of letters." 



Or again his longing to return in words like these : 

 " It is too delightful to think that I shall see the leaves fall 

 and hear the robin sing next autumn at Shrewsbury. My 

 feelings are those of a schoolboy to the smallest point ; I 

 doubt whether ever boy longed for his holidays as much as I 

 do to see you all again. I am at present, although nearly 

 half the world is between me and home, beginning to arrange 

 what I shall do, where I shall go during the first week." 



Another feature in his letters is the surprise and delight 

 with which he hears of his collections and observations being 

 of some use. It seems only to have gradually occurred to 

 him that he would ever be more than a collector of specimens 

 and facts, of which the great men were to make use. And 

 even as to the value of his collections he seems to have had 

 much doubt, for he wrote to Henslow in 1834: " I really 

 began to think that my collections were so poor that you 

 were puzzled what to say ; the case is now quite on the oppo- 

 site tack, for you are guilty of exciting all my vain feelings 

 to a most comfortable pitch ; if hard work will atone for these 

 thoughts, I vow it shall not be spared." 



After his return and settlement in London, he began 

 to realise the value of what he had done, and wrote to Cap- 

 tain Fitz-Roy " However others may look back to the Beagle's 



