EARLY DAYS 37 



of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous 

 intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, 

 his enigmas were all clearly propounded to him by the 

 inarticulate stony sphinxes ; he had only to riddle them 

 out for himself as he went along in after years with the 

 aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the 

 world by the unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of 

 Malthus. 



Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his 

 time at Cambridge over the vain and frivolous pursuits 

 of the classical tripos. He preferred to work at his 

 own subjects in his own way, and to leave the short- 

 lived honours of the schools to those who cared for 

 them and for nothing highar. He came out with the 

 04 vroXXot in 1831, and thenceforth proceeded to study 

 life in the wider university for which his natural incli- 

 nations more properly fitted him. The world was all 

 before him where to choose, and he chose that better 

 part which shall not be taken away from him as long 

 as the very memory of science survives. 



