PREFACE. 



often slighted it in matters of usage : so he seemed frequently 

 to err in judgment, and in taste. But while he sometimes 

 suffered from thus leaving the beaten track, he reached a much 

 wider sphere of usefulness. Like his Lord, he was among us 

 " as one that serveth ; " and his chief services were in ways 

 that had been neglected or despised. Many are following, 

 where he was a pioneer, and it is no longer unusual to strike 

 out new paths of duty. Much therefore that is related of him 

 may seem commonplace, though it once awakened surprise 

 and criticism. If he helped to make singular and devoted 

 services common, it may be hoped that this record may help 

 to make them still more common. 



"The only thing I feel specially my own," he wrote (p. 306), 

 " is the very poor low work of shell-science." To this he 

 gave much of his time and thought during the last twenty-five 

 years of his life. It brought him distinction that he had not 

 coveted ; for it was his principle that " every naturalist ought 

 to start with a feeling that it is of no consequence what 

 becomes of his reputation." My ignorance, where he was full 

 of knowledge, prevents me from attempting any adequate 

 description of what he did for science, into which he carried 

 his Christian love of truth and well-doing. Little mention is 

 made of his fellow-labourers in this and other fields ; because 

 the book is already longer than I wish. 



These Memoirs are, for the most part, in his own words. 

 The great number of his letters and papers led me to adopt 

 this course ; yet I found in them such evidence that he strove 

 for self-renunciation, and was more willing for his faults to be 

 exposed as warnings, than for his good actions to be praised, 

 that I could not have continued my work, but for the hope 

 that it might help the objects he had at heart. In addition to 



