Vll 



damped by the moral scruples of a sister, as to the propriety of 

 catching and killing insects for the mere sake of possessing them, 

 but now it broke out afresh, and Darwin became an enthusiastic 

 beetle collector. Oddly enough be took no scientific interest in 

 beetles, not even troubling himself to make out their names; his 

 delight lay in the capture of a species which turned out to be rare or 

 new, and still more in finding his name, as captor, recorded in print. 

 Evidently, this beetle-hunting hobby had little to do with science, 

 but was mainly a new phase of the old and undiminished love 

 of sport. In the intervals of beetle- catching, when shooting and hunt- 

 ing were not to be had, riding across country answered the purpose. 

 These tastes naturally threw the young undergraduate among a set of 

 men who prefered hard riding to hard reading, and wasted the mid- 

 night oil upon other pursuits than that of academic distinction. 

 A superficial observer might have had some grounds to fear that 

 Dr. Darwin's wrathful prognosis might yet be verified. But if the 

 eminently social tendencies of a vigorous and genial nature sought an 

 outlet among a set of jovial sporting friends, there were other and no 

 less strong proclivities which brought him into relation with associates 

 of a very different stamp. 



Though almost without ear and with a very defective memory for 

 music, Darwin was so strongly and pleasurably affected by it that he 

 became a member of a musical society ; and an equal lack of natural 

 capacity for drawing did not prevent him from studying good works 

 of art with much care. 



An acquaintance with even the rudiments of physical science was no 

 part of the requirements for the ordinary Cambridge degree. But 

 there were professors both of Geology and of Botany whose lectures 

 were accessible to those who chose to attend them. The occupants of 

 these chairs, in Darwin's time, were eminent men and also admirable 

 lecturers in their widely different styles. The horror of geological 

 lectures which Darwin had acquired at Edinburgh, unfortunately 

 prevented him from going within reach of the fervid eloquence of 

 Sedgwick ; but he attended the botanical course, and though he paid 

 no serious attention to the subject, he took great delight in the 

 country excursions, which Henslow so well knew how to maka 

 both pleasant and instructive. The Botanical Professor was, in 

 fact, a man of rare character and singularly extensive acquirements 

 in all branches of natural history. It was his greatest pleasure to 

 place his stores of knowledge at the disposal of the young men who 

 gathered about him, and who found in him, not merely an encyclo- 

 pedic teacher but a wise counseller, and, in case of worthiness, a warm 

 friend. Darwin's acquaintance with him soon ripened into a friend- 

 ship which was terminated only by Henslow's death in 1861, w r hen 

 his quondam pupil gave touching expression to his sense of what he 



