88 DARWIN AND CAMBRIDGE 



they owed very much to their Universities. In 

 this respect I cannot but believe that both these 

 great men were mistaken, and I think it would 

 be interesting to inquire what would be likely to 

 happen to such men as Darwin or Lyell if they 

 entered Cambridge or Oxford at the present day. 

 I remember many years ago seeing in the 

 papers among the news from India a message 

 which read, with the quaint humour oftentimes 

 conferred by the abbreviation of telegraphic 

 dispatch : ' A new Saint has appeared in the 

 Northern Provinces, The police are already on 

 his track.' In not dissimilar language we must 

 own that when fresh genius appears at the 

 Universities, the examiners are hard upon its 

 track ; and the effect of the pressure of examina- 

 tions upon genius is apt to be similar to that of 

 the removal of Pharaoh's chariot wheels, — so that 

 they drave heavily. And with regard to Darwin's 

 teacher Henslow, would the Henslow of to-day 

 have the time and the opportunity to discover and 

 to influence a student who did not care to read 

 for Honours, but preferred to go into the country 

 to collect beetles or into the Fens to collect 

 plants? I do not ask these questions in any 

 pessimistic spirit. There is no need for despair ; 

 for I believe that we are all aware of the danger 

 of the excessive pressure of examinations at the 

 present moment in both our ancient Universities, 

 and indeed to an even greater extent throughout 

 the whole of the British Empire. Cambridge has 



