THE LIFE AND WORK OF DARWIN 203 



sole pleasure I ever received from such studies was 

 from some of the Odes of Horace, which I admired 

 greatly." He also says : "I used to sit for hours 

 reading the historical plays of Shakespeare." 



He was interested in chemistry, and fond of 

 making experiments with his brother in the tool- 

 house at home. He writes : " The subject interested 

 me greatly, and we often used to go on working till 

 rather late at night." This became known at the 

 school, and earned for him from his schoolfellows 

 the nickname of " Gas" ; and from the head-master 

 a public rebuke for "wasting his time on such 

 useless subjects." 



Doing no good at school, he was sent to Edin- 

 burgh in 1825, with the intention of studying 

 medicine. This, however, was not much of an 

 improvement, for, as he writes : " The instruction 

 at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and these 

 were intolerably dull." The Professor of Anatomy 

 made his lectures "as dull as he was himself"; and the 

 lectures on Materia Medica were "something fearful 

 to remember," even forty years later. But the 

 climax seems to have been attained by the Professor 

 of Geology and Zoology, whose prselections were so 

 " incredibly dull " that they produced in their hearer 

 the determination — fortunately for the world not 

 adhered to — "never to read a book on geology, or 

 in any way to study the science." He, however, 

 became acquainted with some good practical natural- 

 ists, and got lessons in bird-stuffing, and also became 

 a good shot. 



After two sessions at Edinburgh his father 



