HOME LIFE 415 



of ever earning anything substantial either by lecturing or 

 by writing never occurred to me. My deficient organ of 

 language prevented me from ever becoming a good lecturer 

 or having any taste for it, while the experience of my first 

 work on " The Amazon " did not encourage me to think that 

 I could write anything that would much more than pay 

 expenses. The first vacancy that occurred was the assistant 

 secretaryship of the Royal Geographical Society, for which 

 Bates and myself were candidates. Bates had just published 

 his " Naturalist on the Amazon," and was, besides, much 

 better qualified than myself by his business experience and 

 his knowledge of German, which he had taught himself when 

 abroad. Besides, the confinement and the London life 

 would, I am sure, have soon become uncongenial to me and 

 would, I feel equally certain, have greatly shortened my life. 

 I am therefore glad I did not get it, and I do not think I felt 

 any disappointment at the time ; and as it brought Bates to 

 live in London, I was able to see him frequently in his private 

 room and occasionally at his home, and talk over old times or 

 of scientific matters that interested us both, while we fre- 

 quently met at the Entomological or other societies' evening 

 meetings. This was in 1864, an d I was too busy with my de- 

 scriptive work and writings to think much more on the sub- 

 ject till 1869, when it was decided by the Government to 

 establish a branch museum in Bethnal Green which should 

 combine art and natural history for the instruction of the 

 people. I thought this would suit me very well if I could get 

 the directorship. Lord Ripon, then Lord President of the 

 Council, was a friend of Sir Charles Lyell, and after an inter- 

 view with him he promised to help me with the Government, 

 while Huxley (I think) introduced me to Sir Henry Cole, 

 then head of the Science and Art Department at South Ken- 

 sington. I also had the kind assistance of several other 

 friends, but though the museum was built and opened, I think, 

 in 1872, it was managed from South Kensington and no special 

 director was required. Partly because (in my inexperience of 

 such matters) I felt rather confident of getting this appoint- 

 ment, and also because I was becoming tired of London, and 



