206 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



was obtained in direct opposition to family 

 influences. 



Scientific studies in boyhood are apt to meet 

 with scant favour at home ; they deal too much 

 in abstractions on the one hand, and sensible 

 messes and mischief to furniture and clothes 

 on the other. They lead to no clearly lucrative 

 purpose, and occupy time which might be 

 apparently better bestowed. These hindrances 

 were far more seriously felt when the men on 

 my list were young, when apparatus was hardly 

 to be procured, and when scientific work was 

 exceptional. I ascribe many of the cases of 

 encouragement to the existence of an hereditary 

 link ; that is to say, the son had inherited 

 scientific tastes, and was encouraged by the 

 parent from whom he had inherited them, and 

 who naturally sympathized with him. 



Attention should be given to the relatively 

 small encouragement received from the mother. 

 I have sorted the extracts so as to permit the 

 comparison to be easily made. The female 

 mind has special excellencies of a high order, 

 and the value of its influence in various ways 



