/ 



IX 



NULLIUS IN VERBA 1 



There is a well-known story of Charles Darwin 

 which I shall venture to repeat, because nothing 

 can better emphasise the contrast between Shrews- | 

 bury School as it is and as it was. 



Charles Darwin used, as a boy, to work at I 

 chemistry in a rough laboratory fitted up in the | 

 tool-house at his home in Shrewsbury. The fact 

 that he did so became known to his school-fellows, 

 and he was nicknamed "Gas." I have an old 

 Delphine Virgil of my father's in which this word 

 is scrawled, together with the name Miss Case, no 

 doubt a sneer at his having come from Case's 

 preparatory school. Dr. Butler, the Head Master,] 

 heard of the chemical work, and Charles Darwin] 

 was once publicly rebuked by that alarming person 

 for wasting his time on such useless subjects. My 

 father adds, "He called me very unjustly a poco\ 

 curante, and as I did not understand what he 

 meant it seemed to me a fearful reproach." A poco 

 curante means of course "a don't-care person" I 

 one who takes no interest in things, and might 

 perhaps be translated by "slacker." I do not 

 suppose that Dr. Butler is likely ever to be 

 forgotten, but as it is, he is sure of a reasonable 



* An Address on the occasion of the opening of the Darwin 

 Laboratories at Shrewsbury School, October 20, 1911. 



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