Oct. 2, I 



NA TURE 



54i 



Carcassonne, Narbonne, Nimes, Tarascon, Marseilles, 

 Toulon, and Hyeres. 



It was during this tour, when at Angouleme, that 

 Bentham's attention was first turned to botany, and it fell 

 out on this wise : — His mother, who was fond of plants, and 

 a great friend of Aiton at Kew, had purchased a copy of 

 De Candolle's " Flore Franchise," which was then just 

 published. Young Bentham took it up accidentally, and 

 was struck with the analytical tables for the determination 

 of the affinities and names of plants, which exactly fitted 

 in with the methodising, analysing, and tabulating ideas 

 which he had derived from his Uncle Jeremy's works, and 

 had endeavoured to apply to his own geographical tables. 

 He at once went into the back-yard of the house, and, 

 gathering the first plant he saw, he spent the whole morn- 

 ing studying its structure with the aid of the introductory 

 chapter of the " Flore," which treated of elementary 

 botany, and succeeded in referring it to its natural order, 

 genus, and species. The plant, Salvia pratensis, was not 

 an easy one for a beginner, owing to the irregularity of 

 the flower and abnormal character of the ovary and sta- 

 mens. His success led him to pursue the diversion of 

 naming every plant he met with in future. 



At Montauban, near Tours, where the family resided 

 for many months, Bentham spent what he always re- 

 garded as the happiest period of his life ; he was entered 

 as a student of the Faculty de The"oIogie, at Tours, fol- 

 lowed with ardour the courses of mathematics, Hebrew, and 

 comparative philology (the latter a favourite study in after- 

 life), and at home occupied his time with music, Spanish, 

 drawing, and botany, whilst, during the holidays, dancing 

 was his delight ; it was a favourite boast that at Mont- 

 auban he attended thirty-four balls between Twelfth- 

 night and Mardi-gras, of which thirteen were consecutive, 

 and lasted from nine at night to the same hour on the 

 following day. 



The appearance of the " Dictionnaire d'Histoire Natu- 

 relle," a course of lectures under Benedict Prevost, and 

 De Candolle's general works on the structure and classi- 

 fication of plants, first opened his mind to scientific botany, 

 and induced him to take up the study of exotic plants, to 

 which he devoted himself till 1820, when he took to the 

 amusement of shooting and stuffing birds. At this period, 

 too, John Stuart Mill resided in his father's family for seven 

 or eight months, and it was probably due to this that Ben- 

 tham was diverted to the study of philosophy, and at the 

 age of twenty began a translation into French of his 

 uncle's " Chrestomathia," which was published in Paris 

 some years afterwards. Here, too, he began the study of 

 Lamarck's works, with the " Systeme analytique des Con- 

 naissances positive de l'Homme," only to give it up in 

 disgust on reading " Dieu crea d'abord la matiere," fol- 

 lowed by the statement that nature was the second thing 

 created, and this produced everything else. Sliding down 

 from great things to small, a fit of entomology supervened, 

 and he commenced tabulating observations on insect life 

 as he had his geographical and philosophical facts and 

 ideas. 



The next phase of Bentham's Protean life was that of a 

 practical estate-manager and farmer, his father having 

 bought a property of 2000 acres, that of Restinalieres, 

 near Montpellier, and given over the management of it to 

 his now only son, for he had lost his eldest through an 

 accident some years before. Into this work Bentham 

 threw himself with ardour, and now his methodical habits, 

 close application, and familiarity with French country 

 life stood him in good stead. The farms and vineyards 

 rapidly improved, and were very profitable. Still he found 

 time for his favourite pursuits, his holidays were spent in 

 botanical excursions to the Pyrenees and Cevennes, and 

 his spare hours at home in logic and the preparation of a 

 French edition of his uncle's essay on Nomenclature and 

 Classification. Here, too, he wrote his own first work of 

 importance, " Essai sur la Nomenclature et Classification 



des Arts et Sciences," which was published in Paris, and 

 established his position in France as an acute analyser, 

 clear expositor, and cautious reasoner. 



In 1823 Bentham was sent to England for the purpose 

 of purchasing agricultural implements and obtaining in- 

 formation as to improved methods of farming that might 

 be introduced into the Montpellier estate. On arriving in 

 London he was asked by his uncle to visit him, bringing his 

 translation of the " Chrestomathia." This invitation, the 

 attractions of English scientific and literary society, and 

 the fact that provincial jealousies threw every obstacle in 

 the way of the introduction of improvements into the 

 Restinalieres estate, led ultimately to the abandonment 

 by his father of the latter (in 1826), and the return of the 

 Bentham family to England. 



On his arrival in London he was at once received into 

 the best literal-)' and scientific society ; he attended the 

 breakfasts and receptions of Sir Joseph Banks, and studied 

 in his library and herbarium, and that of the Linnean and 

 Horticultural Societies, and formed life-long friendships 

 with Brown, Lambert, Don, Sabine, Menzies, &c. During 

 a tour through England and Scotland, taking with him 

 letters of introduction to the leading botanists there, he 

 became acquainted with Sir James Smith, Dawson Turner, 

 Graham, Greville, Hooker, and many others. It was 

 during this tour that he formed a friendship with the late 

 Dr. Arnott (subsequently Professor of Botany in Glasgow), 

 with whom he made, in 1824, an extended journey into the 

 Pyrenees, which resulted in his first botanical wofk, 

 " Catalogue des Plantes indigenes des Pyrenees et de 

 Bas-Languedoc, avec des Notes et Observations " (Paris, 

 1826). 



On the settlement of the family in London a new career 

 was opened to Bentham, his uncle Jeremy having invited 

 him to devote much of his time to aiding him in the 

 arrangement and preparation of his MSS. for the press, 

 accompanying the invitation with assurances that he 

 would provide for him at his death. The proposal of 

 aiding his uncle was congenial to him, but not the accom- 

 panying one, for he was now desirous of seeking a serious 

 profession that would lead to independence ; and after 

 many embarrassing interviews on the subject with his 

 uncle it was arranged that he should enter Lincoln's Inn 

 and study law, whilst devoting some morning hours to his 

 uncle, besides dining with him twice a week and writing 

 for him afterwards from 8 to 1 1 p.m. In one shape or 

 another this arrangement of working with and for his 

 uncle lasted till the death of the latter in 1832 ; when, 

 owing to the many foolish and fruitless speculations of 

 the great jurist, the extravagant sums spent by his exe- 

 cutors on the posthumous publication of his works, and 

 some irregularity in his will, Bentham found himself in 

 possession of the house in Queen Square Place, but with 

 less property than he should have received. His father's 

 death, however, in the previous year, had rendered him in 

 a measure independent. 



From 1826 to 1832 Bentham's life was one of incessant 

 activity. Besides his irksome labours for his uncle, in 

 whose ideas he did not at all participate.and many of whose 

 acts he regretted, he had the editing and often rewriting 

 of his father's (now Sir Samuel Bentham's) voluminous 

 papers on the management of the navy and the adminis- 

 tration of the dockyards. His legal studies were sacri- 

 ficed to logic and jurisprudence ; the fruits of the former 

 being the publication of his "Outlines of a New System 

 of Logic, with a Criticism of Dr. Whateley's Elements 

 of Logic" (London, 1827), in which the doctrine of the 

 quantification of the predicate is for the first time clearly 

 set forth. This remarkable work fell still-born from the 

 press ; only sixty copies were sold, when the publishers 

 became bankrupt, and the stock was seized and went for 

 waste paper. It was not till 1S50 that the fact of its 

 containing a discovery was recognised (Atlicntzum, De- 

 cember 31, 1850) ; this led to a sharp dispute as to Sir 



