1890 LIFE AT OXFORD 267 



longings, to state to himself and to others unsparingly, 

 unflinchingly, what appeared to him the as yet irre- 

 futable arguments against the Faith, when he was 

 alone he relaxed and poured out his inmost heart. 



' I ask not for Thy love, O Lord : the days 



Can never come when anguish shall atone. 



Enough for me were but Thy pity shown, 

 To me as to the stricken sheep that strays. 

 With ceaseless cry for nnforgotten ways — 



O lead me back to pastures I have known, 



Or find me in the wilderness alone, 

 And slay me, as the hand of mercy slays. 



I ask not for Thy love ; nor e'en so much 

 As for a hope on Thy dear breast to he ; 



But be Thou still my shepherd — stiU with such 

 Compassion as may melt to such a cry ; 



That so I hear Thy feet, and feel Thy touch, 

 And dimly see Thy face ere yet I die.' 



In November Mr. Eomanes came formally into resi- 

 dence, and at first nothing could have been happier 

 than his Oxford hfe. 



He simply revelled in the facilities for work which 

 the splendidly equipped laboratories afforded, and he 

 once said, ' that the laboratory alone had made the 

 move from London to Oxford worth while ! ' 



He set to work on his book, ' Darwin, and after 

 Darwin,' and on many experiments bearing on Pro- 

 fessor Weismann's theories and on some other points. 



He much wished to see estabhshed in Oxford 

 what M. Giard has called an Institut transformiste, 

 and wrote to many leading men of science on the 

 subject. As yet the idea has come to nothing, but 

 possibly it may be revived. 



January 22, 1891. 



My dear Poulton, — I am very sorry that, being 

 already engaged for to-morrow, I cannot attend the 



