Jenyns's Memoir of Henslow. 459 



JENYNS'S MEMOIR OF HENSLOW* 



The career of tile late Professor Henslow was well worth its 

 memorial in a biographical form. As a man, he possessed an 

 honesty of purpose and force of character which led him, in 

 spite of serious obstacles, to make his own knowledge and 

 powers of observation the means of benefiting all with whom 

 he came in contact. From childhood his tastes were scientific, 

 with special tendencies to botany, entomology, and other 

 branches of natural history. He carried his pursuits with him 

 to Cambridge, and instead of sinking under the dead routine of 

 mere classical and mathematical studies, he was one of the few 

 gifted men who infused a new life into that venerable place, 

 which was thus rescued from being a mere museum of mediseval 

 notions, and brought into something like harmony with the 

 wants and the spirit of a more enlightened age. Let us not 

 depreciate either literature, or pure mathematics ; but however 

 permanent may be the value of the masterpieces of Greek and 

 Roman writings, or the importance of studies directed to the 

 consideration of the properties of number and form, it is quite 

 clear that thousands of young men might go through the old 

 form of scholastic training, and be left with very narrow minds, 

 and feeble conceptions of a host of matters of primary import- 

 ance at the present day. From bygone periods we are mainly 

 distinguished by our advances in positive knowledge, and from 

 the number of directions in which scientific principles are apphed 

 to the affairs of life. We recognize the dominion of law — which 

 is nothing more than the continuous, unchanging expression of 

 Divine intelligence and will — in every department which human 

 thought can penetrate, or human action effect, and we endea- 

 vour to shape our conduct so as to make the powers and forces 

 of nature the executive ministers of our commands. Words- 

 worth grandly tells us — 



" Winds blow, and waters roll 

 Strength, to the brave ;" 



but the brave must neither be ignorant nor stupid if they wish 

 the elements to serve them. It is knowledge that gives the 

 talisman by which their services are compelled. Simple as this 

 fact is, modern intellectual reformers have had a hard task to 

 enforce its recognition, and though Professor Henslow had 

 predecessors and fellow-labourers in the good work, still to him 

 must be assigned a large portion of the honour of forcing the 

 physical sciences into the educational scheme. 



* Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Senslow, M.A., F.L.S.,F.G.S , F.C.P.S., 

 late Eector of Hitcham, and Professor of Botany in the University of Cam- 

 bridge. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., F.GhS., F.C.P.S. JFau 

 Yoorst. 



