284 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES i89i 



than any words could do the attitude of George 

 Romanes' mind. Profoundly sincere, anxious, almost 

 unduly anxious, to give no indulgence to his own 

 longings, to state to himself and to others unsparingly, 

 unflinchingly, what appeared to him the as yet irre- 

 futable arguments against the Faith, when he was 

 alone he relaxed and poured out his inmost heart. 



' I ask not for Thy love, Lord : the days 



Can never come when anguish shall atone. 



Enough for me were but Thy pity shown, 

 To me as to the stricken sheep that strays, 

 With ceaseless cry for unforgotten ways — 



O lead me back to pastures I have known, 



Or find me in the wilderness alone, 

 And slay me, as the hand of mercy slays. 



I ask not for Thy love ; nor e'en so much 

 As for a hope on Thy dear breast to lie ; 



But be Thou still my shepherd — still with such 



Compassion as may melt to such a cry; 

 That so I hear Thy feet, and feel Thy touch, 

 And dimly see Thy face ere yet I die.' 



In November Mr. Romanes came formally into resi- 

 dence, and at first nothing could have been happier 

 than his Oxford life. 



He simply revelled in the facilities for work which 

 the splendidly equipped laboratories afforded, and he 

 once said, ' that the laboratory alone had made the 

 move from London to Oxford worth while ! ' 



He set to work on his book, ' Darwin, and after 

 Darwin,' and on many experiments bearing on Pro- 

 fessor Weismann's theories and on some other points. 



About this time Mr. Romanes was much interested 

 in a scheme for promoting the establishment of a gar- 

 den or farm for the purpose of studying questions of 

 hereditary transmission, or heredity. His object was 



