170 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAI-. 



met with. Later opportunities were entirely 

 made by myself, or perhaps, rather, taken advan- 

 tage of by myself/' (a, e) 



(12) "My love of natural history (so common 

 in boys) showed itself in collecting insects, shells, 

 and birds' eggs, and delighting in reading such 

 books as Stanley on Birds, White's Selborne, 

 Waterton, &c., at a very early age (8 years or 

 before), and being rather encouraged than 

 checked, continued to grow till it developed into 

 a fondness for anatomical pursuits generally, 

 which was never abandoned. My taste [for 

 science] was entirely innate ; no [other] member 

 of the family nor early friend or acquaintance 

 had any special taste for any of the natural 

 history sciences. Two brothers, of nearly the 

 same age, and with precisely the same surround- 

 ings, though joining occasionally in some of the 

 above-mentioned boyish pursuits, never pursued 

 them with real interest, and soon entirely gave 

 them up/' (a, e) 



(13) "As a boy, I had no taste for natural 

 history, but a passion for mechanical contri- 



