PREFACE. 



highly estimated the delights of the domestic circle in which he 

 now found himself, and which his warm and generous heart was 

 formed so fully to appreciate, that he at once relinquished the idea 

 of an early return to his native land. At the same time he so 

 much valued the opportunities and advantages for intellectual and 

 scientific pursuits, which the leisure of his situation afforded him, 

 that although the emoluments it presented fell far below those his 

 talents and skill might have commanded in a larger sphere, he 

 refused to exchange it for the more lucrative prospects that were 

 repeatedly offered him through the medium of the Honorable 

 Company's Service. 



Mr. Voigt had made Botany a study before he left Denmark, 

 but was not induced to devote much time to it, until the society 

 and Botanic Garden of the late eminent Dr. Carey, by presenting 

 him with peculiar advantages, led him to turn his thoughts more 

 particularly to that science ; and the intercourse with this great 

 man, to which his determination naturally led, became to him a 

 source of abundant delight. 



On Dr. Carey's death in 1834, his garden came immediately 

 under Mr. Voigt's superintendence, and he entered on the duties 

 and enjoyments with which it furnished him with energy and spirit 

 peculiarly his ovvn. Whatever his hand found to do, he may truly 

 be said to have done with all his might. His day was portioned 

 out with so much method that every hour had its allotted occupa- 

 tion, and yet time was found for every thing. That which was not 

 employed in the ordinary duties and cares that usually devolve on 

 the medical practitioner in India, was devoted to study, particular- 

 ly to Botany ; or to a renewal of acquaintance with his favourite 

 authors among the classics, with all of whom he was particularly 

 at home ; or to exploring the rich field of English literature, which, 

 having to his twenty-eighth year been to him as a sealed book, 

 united to its other charms that of novelty. Yet the claims of the 

 garden were never forgotten. Mr. Voigt was a very early riser, and 

 a great advocate for air and exercise. His father had from his 

 earliest childhood inured him to the most hardy and almost violent 

 use of the latter, and so far agreed with Locke in the rules he lays 

 down for the treatment of children, as to carry them out in the 

 trainhig of his son to the fullest extent — or, as Mr. Voigt used to 

 remark, " to perfect his medical skill, by experiments at home." 



