DE. R. W. DARWIN. 



19 



how easily utterly false beliefs originate and spread. Mr. 



E , a squire of one of the oldest families in Shropshire, 



and head partner in a bank, committed suicide. My father 

 was sent for as a matter of form, and found him dead. I may 

 mention, by the way, to show how matters were managed in 



those old days, that because Mr. E was a rather great 



man, and universally respected, no inquest was held over his 

 body. My father, in returning home, thought it proper to 

 call at the bank (where he had an account) to tell the manag- 

 ing partners of the event, as it was not improbable that it 

 would cause a run on the bank. Well, the story was spread 

 far and wide, that my father went into the bank, drew out all 

 his money, left the bank, came back again, and said, 4 1 may just 



tell you that Mr. E has killed himself,' and then departed. 



It seems that it was then a common belief that money with- 

 drawn from a bank was not safe until the person had passed 

 out through the door of the bank. My father did not hear 

 this story till some little time afterwards, when the managing 

 partner said that he had departed from his invariable rule of 

 never allowing any one to see the account of another man, by 

 having shown the ledger with my father's account to several 

 persons, as this proved that my father had not drawn out a 

 penny on that day. It would have been dishonorable in my 

 father to have used his professional knowledge for his private 

 advantage. Nevertheless, the supposed act was greatly ad- 

 mired by some persons ; and many years afterwards, a gen- 

 tleman remarked, ' Ah, Doctor, what a splendid man of busi- 

 ness you were in so cleverly getting all your money safe out 

 of that bank ! ' 



" My father's mind was not scientific, and he did not try 

 to generalize his knowledge under general laws ; yet he 

 formed a theory for almost everything which occurred. I 

 do not think I gained much from him intellectually ; but 

 his example ought to have been of much moral service to all 

 his children. One of his golden rules (a hard one to follow) 

 was, ' Never become the friend of any one whom you cannot 

 respect.' " 



