xxvi] ST. GEORGE MIVART 45 



but this I shall refer to again when I come to my own 

 experiences and inquiries on this intensely interesting subject. 



Even more completely than Darwin, Mivart was almost a 

 self-taught biologist He was educated and trained for the 

 bar, but never practised, his father being a wealthy man. 

 When about five and twenty he began to take an interest 

 in anatomy, and determined to study it systematically ; 

 and he one day told me that when he announced his 

 intention, his father remarked, " Well, you never have earned 

 a penny yet, and I suppose you never will." This rather 

 put him on his mettle, and shortly afterwards he wrote 

 an article for some periodical, and on receiving a liberal 

 honorarium he produced the cheque, jokingly telling his 

 father that he had earned it to prove that his prediction was 

 a wrong one. This is a curious parallel to Darwin's state- 

 ment that when he left school he was considered by his 

 masters and by his father as "a very ordinary boy, rather 

 below the common standard in intellect" 



Considering the period of life at which Mivart first turned 

 his attention either to science or literature, the amount of 

 knowledge of comparative anatomy he acquired, largely from 

 dissections and study carried on at home, was very great, and 

 placed him in the first rank among the many great anatomists 

 of his time. This is the opinion of the very competent writer 

 of his obituary notice in Nature (vol. lxi. p. 569). His 

 writings on biological subjects were almost as extensive as 

 those of Darwin himself, and his total literary work, largely 

 metaphysical and generally of high merit, was very much 

 larger. In the excellent obituary notice already referred to 

 full justice is done both to the wide knowledge, the intel- 

 lectual ability, and the charming personality of one whose 

 friendship I continue to look back upon with pleasure and 

 satisfaction. 



I will conclude this chapter with a few words about the 

 meetings of the British Association at which I was present. 

 In 1862 I was invited by my kind friend, Professor Alfred 

 Newton, to be his guest at Magdalen College during the 



