LONDON. 6l 



the marvellous currents of protoplasm in some vegetable cell. 

 I then asked him what I had seen ; but he answered me, 

 ''That is my little secret." 



He was capable of the most generous actions. When old, 

 much out of health, and quite unfit for any exertion, he daily 

 visited (as Hooker told me) an old man-servant, who lived at 

 a distance (and whom he supported), and read aloud to him. 

 This is enough to make up for any degree of scientific penuri- 

 ousness or jealousy. 



I may here mention a few other eminent men, whom I 

 have occasionally seen, but I have little to say about them 

 worth saying. I felt a high reverence for Sir J. Herschel, 

 and was delighted to dine with him at his charming house at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards at his London house. 

 I saw him, also, on a few other occasions. He never talked 

 much, but every word which he uttered was worth listen- 

 ing to. 



I once met at breakfast at Sir R. Murchison's house the 

 illustrious Humboldt, who honoured me by expressing a wish 

 to see me. I was a little disappointed with the great man, but 

 my anticipations probably were too high. I can remember 

 nothing distinctly about our interview, except that Humboldt 

 was very cheerful and talked much. 



reminds me of Buckle whom I once met at Hens- 



leigh Wedgwood's. I was very glad to learn from him his 

 system of collecting facts. He told me that he bought all the 

 books which he read, and made a full index, to each, of the 

 facts which he thought might prove serviceable to him, and 

 that he could always remember in what book he had read 

 anything, for his memory was wonderful. I asked him how 

 at first he could judge what facts would be serviceable, and 

 he answered that he did not know, but that a sort of instinct 

 guided him. From this habit of making indices, he was en- 

 abled to give the astonishing number of references on all sorts 

 of subjects, which may be found in his ' History of Civilisa- 

 tion.' This book I thought most interesting, and read it 

 twice, but I doubt whether his generalisations are worth any- 



