78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



moral truths on the minds of men. On the other 

 hand, his views about slavery were revolting. In his 

 eyes might was right. His mind seemed to me a very 

 narrow one ; even if all branches of science, which he 

 despised, are excluded. It is astonishing to me that 

 Kingsley should have spoken of him as a man well 

 fitted to advance science. He laughed to scorn the idea 

 that a mathematician, such as Whewell, could judge, 

 as I maintained he could, of Goethe's views on light. 

 He thought it a most ridiculous thing that any one 

 should care whether a glacier moved a little quicker 

 or a little slower, or moved at all. As far as I could 

 judge, I never met a man with a mind so ill adapted 

 for scientific research. 



Whilst living in London, I attended as regularly as 

 I could the meetings of several scientific societies, and 

 acted as secretary to the Geological Society. But such 

 attendance, and ordinary society, suited my health 

 so badly that we resolved to live in the country, which 

 both preferred and have never repented of. 



Residence at Down from September 14, 1842, to the 

 present time, 1876. 



After several fruitless searches in Surrey and 

 elsewhere, we found this house and purchased it. 

 I was pleased with the diversified appearance of 

 the vegetation proper to a chalk district, and so 

 unlike what I had been accustomed to in the Mid- 

 land counties ; and still more pleased with the ex- 

 treme quietness and rusticity of the place. It is 



