3f>0 SIR CHARLES LYELL. 



erable if unemployed, though I had an excessive 

 aversion to work unless forced to it. It happened 

 that, a little before this time, my father had for a 

 short time exchanged botany for entomology, a fit 

 which only lasted just long enough to induce him 

 to purchase some books on the latter subject, after 

 which he threw it up ; principally, I believe, from 

 a dislike to kill the insects. I did not like this 

 department of the subject either. . . . 



"Collecting insects was just the sort of desultory 

 occupation which suited me at that time, as it gave 

 sufficient employment to my mind and body, was 

 full of variety, and to see a store continually 

 increasing gratified what in the cant phrase of tiie 

 phrenologist is termed the ' accumulative propen- 

 sity.' I soon began to know what was rare, and 

 to appreciate specimens by this test. In the even- 

 ings I used to look over ' Donovan's Insects/ a 

 work in which a great number of the British 

 species are well given in colored plates, but which 

 has no scientific merit. This was a royal road of 

 arriving at the names, and required no study, but 

 mere looking at pictures. At first I confined my 

 attention to the Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, 

 etc.), as the most beautiful, but soon became fond 

 of watching the singular habits of the aquatic 

 insects, and used to sit whole mornings by a pond, 

 feeding them with flies, and catching them if I 

 could. 



" I had no companion to share this hobby with 

 me, no one to encourage me in following it up, yet 



