124 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



" College for thorough high-class teaching." The Council 

 which was formed to carry on the work, represented the 

 three Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and London, and 

 he remained a member of it till the last. But the active 

 conduct of such new enterprises he felt that he must leave 

 to younger men. 



I assure you (he wrote to his brother Russell, as the year 

 1875 ran out) that even when most rejoicing in the continuance 

 of my own energy, I often long for the time when I may cease 

 to feel it a duty to be always doitig something, and may be able 

 to rest on my oars with an easy conscience, and let the world 

 go on without my participation. 



Partly under the influence of this feeling, and partly for 

 the completion of some investigations into the anatomy 

 and development of the Feather-Star {Comatula), he 

 obtained leave of absence from the University for three 

 months in the beginning of 1876. When all the arrange- 

 ments for the winter courses of Gilchrist lectures were 

 completed, he hurried off to Naples to carry on his studies 

 in the great aquarium maintained there by international 

 scientific co-operation. Through a long spell of cold and 

 cheerless weather, the southern city failed to reveal her 

 charms ; and its sanitary and social conditions somewhat 

 disgusted him.* His interest rose high, however, over 

 Pompeii, which he did not visit till his wife could join 

 him in the spring ; and when they passed to Rome, to 

 Florence, to Bologna, on their way home, he found so keen 

 a pleasure in great historic memories, and so unexpected a 

 susceptibility to the glories of classic and mediaeval art, that 



* He used to tell afterwards, with much amusement, how when he was one 

 day walking alone at no great distance from the town, a stalwart beggar sud- 

 denly came up behind him, flung his arms over his shoulders, and snatched 

 away the contents of his breast-pocket. The prize proved to be no poclcet- 

 booic with its roll of notes inside, only a little paper-covered guide, which had 

 cost a lira. Dr. Carpenter walked on with an amused pity for his assailant's 

 disappointment. 



