X OBITUARY 265 



at Cambridge my time was wasted, as far as the 

 academical studies were concerned, as completely 

 as at Edinburgh and as at school." (I. p. 46.) 

 And yet, as before, there is ample evidence that 

 this negative result cannot be put down to any 

 native defect on the part of the scholar. Idle and 

 dull young men, or even young men who being 

 neither idle nor dull, are incapable of caring for 

 anything but some hobby, do not devote them- 

 selves to the thorough study of Paley's " Moral 

 Philosophy," and " Evidences of Christianity " ; 

 nor are their reminiscences of this particular 

 portion of their studies expressed in terms such 

 as the following : " The logic of this book [the 

 ' Evidences '] and, as I may add, of his ( Natural 

 Theology' gave me as much delight as did 

 Euclid." (I. p. 47.) 



The collector's instinct, strong in Darwin from 

 his childhood, as is usually the case in great 

 naturalists, turned itself in the direction of Insects 

 during his residence at Cambridge. In childhood 

 it had been damped by the moral scruples of a 

 sister, as to the propriety of catching and killing 

 insects for the mere sake of possessing them, but 

 now it broke out afresh, and Darwin became an 

 enthusiastic beetle collector. Oddly enough he 

 took no scientific interest in beetles, not even 

 troubling himself to make out their names ; his 

 delight lay in the capture of a species which 

 turned out to be rare or new, and still more in 



