64 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



He has been all-powerful in impressing some grand moral 

 truths on the minds of men. On the other hand, his views 

 about slavery were revolting. In his eyes might was right. 

 His mind seemed to me a very narrow one ; even if all 

 branches of science, which he despised, are excluded. It 

 is astonishing to me that Kingsley should have spoken of him 

 as a man well fitted to advance science. He laughed to 

 scorn the idea that a mathematician, such as Whewell, could 

 judge, as I maintained he could, of Goethe's views on light. 

 He thought it a most ridiculous thing that any one should 

 care whether a glacier moved a little quicker or a little 

 slower, or moved at all. As far as I could judge, I never 

 met a man with a mind so ill adapted for scientific re- 

 search. 



Whilst living in London, I attended as regularly as I could 

 the meetings of several scientific socities, and acted as secre- 

 tary to the Geological Society. But such attendance, and 

 ordinary society, suited my health so badly that we resolved 

 to live in the country, which we both preferred and have 

 never repented of. 



Residence at Down f7'om September 14, 1842, /(? the present time^ 



1876. 



After several fruitless searches in Surrey and elsewhere, 

 we found this house and purchased it. I was pleased with 

 the diversified appearance of vegetation proper to a chalk 

 district, and so unlike what I had been accustomed to in the 

 Midland counties ; and still more pleased with the extreme 

 quietness and rusticity of the place. It is not, however, 

 quite so retired a place as a writer in a German periodical 

 makes it, who says that my house can be approached only by 

 a mule-track ! Our fixing ourselves here has answered ad- 

 mirably in one way, which we did not anticipate, namely, by 

 being very convenient for frequent visits from our chil- 

 dren. 



Few persons can have lived a more retired life than we 



