18S7 DEATH OF MR. DARWIN 135 



I have been applied to by the Editor of the 

 * Encyclopaedia Britannica ' to supply an article on 

 'Instinct.' This I am writing. 



We are all quite well, except that I have had a 

 cold, which is now going away. 



With united love to all, yours ever the same. 



George. 



One evening Mr. Romanes personally ' conducted ' 

 Mr. Darwin to the Eoyal Institution to hear a lec- 

 ture by Dr. Sanderson on ' Dionaea.' A burst of 

 applause greeted Mr. Darwin's entrance, much to that 

 great man's surprise. Earlier in the day he had half 

 timidly asked Mr. Romanes if there would be room 

 at the Royal Institution for him. 



In 1882 came the great sorrow of Mr. Darwin's 

 death. The following letters show something of 

 what the loss was to the ardent disciple, the loyal- 

 hearted friend. 



To Francis Darwin, Esq. 



18 Cornwall Terrace, Begent's Park, N.W. : April 22, 1882. 



My dear Darwin, — I did not write because I 

 thought it might trouble you, but I sent some flowers 

 yesterday which did not require acknowledgment. 



Even you, I do not think, can know all that this 

 death means to me. I have long dreaded the time, 

 and now that it has come it is worse than I could 

 anticipate. Even the death of my own father — 

 though I loved him deeply, and though it was more 

 sudden, did not leave a desolation so terrible. Half 

 the interest of my life seems to have gone when I 



