CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 55 



that he had said, 'There is something in that young 

 man that interests me.' .... To hear of praise 

 from an eminent person, though no doubt apt or 

 certain to excite vanity, is, I think, good for a 

 young man, as it helps to keep him in the right 

 course." 



After two years at Edinburgh, Dr. Darwin, see- 

 ing that Charles probably would never become a 

 physician, sent him to Cambridge University, that 

 he might prepare for the Episcopal ministry. 



Of this time he says, " The three years which I 

 spent at Cambridge were wasted, as far as the 

 academical studies were concerned, as completely as 

 at Edinburgh and at school. I attempted mathe- 

 matics, and even went during the summer of 1828 

 with a private tutor (a very dull man) to Barmouth, 

 but I got on very slowly. The work was repug- 

 nant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see 

 any meaning in the early steps in algebra." He 

 found great delight in Paley's " Evidences of Chris- 

 tianity," and his " Moral Philosophy." 



At Cambridge, like Humboldt, he formed a rare 

 friendship, which helped towards his subsequent 

 success. Professor Henslow was an ardent scholar, 

 a devoted Christian, and a man of most winning 

 manners and good temper. From his great knowl- 

 edge of botany, entomology, chemistry, mineralogy, 

 and geology, he became a most attractive person to 

 young Darwin, whose especial passion seemed to 

 be the collecting of beetles. Henslow soon be- 

 came equally fond of Darwin, and the two took 



