i866.] GOVERNOR EYRE. 237 



room and sat on my bed, and said that he had not been able 

 to sleep from the thought that he had been so angry with me, 

 and after a few more kind words he left me." 



The same restless desire to correct a disagreeable or in- 

 correct impression is well illustrated in an extract which I 

 quote from some notes by Rev. J. Brodie Innes : — 



"Allied to the extreme carefulness of observation was his 

 most remarkable truthfulness in all matters. On one occa- 

 sion, when a parish meeting had been held on some disputed 

 point of no great importance, I was surprised by a visit from 

 Mr. Darwin at night. He came to say that, thinking over 

 the debate, though what he had said was quite accurate, he 

 thought I might have drawn an erroneous conclusion, and he 

 would not sleep till he had explained it. I believe that if on 

 any day some certain fact had come to his knowledge which 

 contradicted his most cherished theories, he would have 

 placed the fact on record for publication before he slept." 



This tallies with my father's habits, as described by him- 

 self. When a difficulty or an objection occurred to him, he 

 thought it of paramount importance to make a note of it in- 

 stantly because he found hostile facts to be especially eva- 

 nescent. 



The same point is illustrated by the following incident, 

 for which I am indebted to Mr. Romanes : — 



" I have always remembered the following little incident 

 as a good example of Mr. Darwin's extreme solicitude on the 

 score of accuracy. One evening at Down there was a gen- 

 eral conversation upon the difficulty of explaining the evolu- 

 tion of some of the distinctively human emotions, especially 

 those appertaining to the recognition of beauty in natural 

 scenery. I suggested a view of my own upon the subject, 

 which, depending upon the principle of association, required 

 the supposition that a long line of ancestors should have in- 

 habited regions, the scenery of which is now regarded as 

 beautiful. Just as I was about to observe that the chief diffi- 

 culty attaching to my hypothesis arose from feelings of the 

 sublime (seeing that these are associated with awe, and might 



