CAMBRIDGE. 



39 



with me. He was the very type of an upright man, with the 

 clearest judgment. I do not believe that any power on earth 

 could have made him swerve an inch from what he consid- 

 ered the right course. I used to apply to him in my mind 

 the well-known ode of Horace, now forgotten by me, in which 

 the words "nee vultus tyranni, &c," * come in. 



Cambridge 1828-1831. — After having spent two sessions in 

 Edinburgh, my father perceived, or he heard from my sisters, 

 that I did not like the thought of being a physician, so he 

 proposed that I should become a clergyman. He was very 

 properly vehement against my turning into an idle sporting 

 man, which then seemed my probable destination. I asked 

 for some time to consider, as from what little I had heard or 

 thought on the subject I had scruples about declaring my 

 belief in all the dogmas of the Church of England ; though 

 otherwise I liked the thought of being a country clergyman. 

 Accordingly I read with care ' Pearson on the Creeds,' and a 

 few other books on divinity ; and as I did not then in the 

 least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the 

 Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully 

 accepted. 



Considering how fiercely I have been attacked by the 

 orthodox, it seems ludicrous that I once intended to be a 

 clergyman. Nor was this intention and my father's wish ever 

 formally given up, but died a natural death when, on leaving 

 Cambridge, I joined the Beagle as naturalist. If the phre- 

 nologists are to be trusted, I was well fitted in one respect to 

 be a clergyman. A few years ago the secretaries of a Ger- 

 man psychological society asked me earnestly by letter for 

 a photograph of myself ; and some time afterwards I received 

 the proceedings of one of the meetings, in which it seemed that 

 the shape of my head had been the subject of a public discus- 



* Justum et tenacem propositi virum 

 Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 

 Non vultus instantis tyranni 

 Mente quatit solida. 



