MONEY MATTERS 395 



Shortly afterwards she was visiting Darwin, and mentioned it 

 to him, and he thought that a pension might be granted 

 me in recognition of my scientific work. Huxley most kindly 

 assisted in drawing up the necessary memorial to the Prime 

 Minister, Mr. Gladstone, to whom Darwin wrote personally. 

 He promptly assented, and the next year, 1881, the first pay- 

 ment was made. Other of my scientific friends, I believe, 

 signed the memorial, but it is especially to the three named 

 that I owe this very great relief from anxiety for the remainder 

 of my life. 



I have already stated that what at the time appeared to 

 be the great misfortune of the loss of about half of my whole 

 Amazonian collections by the burning of the ship in which I 

 was coming home, was in all probability a blessing in dis- 

 guise, since it led me to visit the comparatively unknown 

 Malay Archipelago, and, perhaps, also supplied the conditions 

 which led me to think out independently the theory of natural 

 selection. In like manner I am now inclined to see in the 

 almost total loss of the money value of those rich collections, 

 another of those curious indications that our misfortunes are 

 often useful, or even necessary for bringing out our latent 

 powers. I am, and have always been, constitutionally lazy, 

 without any of that fiery energy and intense power of work 

 possessed by such men as Huxley and Charles Kingsley. 

 When I once begin any work in which I am interested, I 

 can go steadily on with it till it is finished, but I need some 

 definite impulse to set me going, and require a good deal of 

 time for reflection while the work is being done. Every im- 

 portant book I have undertaken has been due to an impulse 

 or a suggestion from without. I spent five years in quiet 

 enjoyment of my collections, in attending scientific meetings, 

 and in working out a few problems, before I began to write 

 my " Malay Archipelago," and it was due to the repeated 

 suggestions of my friends that I wrote my " Geographical 

 Distribution of Animals." 



But if the entire proceeds of my Malayan collections had 

 been well invested, and I had obtained a secure income of 



