XIII] 



GLAMORGANSHIRE: NEATH 197 



personal expenses ; but every year or two, when I went home, 

 what new clothes were absolutely necessary were provided 

 for me, with perhaps ten shillings or a pound as pocket- 

 money till my next visit, and this, I think, was partly or 

 wholly paid out of the small legacy left me by my grand- 

 father. This seemed very hard at the time, but I now see 

 clearly that even this was useful to me, and was really an 

 important factor in moulding my character and determining 

 my work in life. Had my father been a moderately rich 

 man and had supplied me with a good wardrobe and ample 

 pocket-money ; had my brother obtained a partnership in 

 some firm in a populous town or city, or had established 

 himself in his profession, I might never have turned to nature 

 as the solace and enjoyment of my solitary hours, my whole 

 life would have been differently shaped, and though I should, 

 no doubt, have given some attention to science, it seems very 

 unlikely that I should have ever undertaken what at that 

 time seemed rather a wild scheme, a journey to the almost 

 " unknown forests of the Amazon in order to observe nature 

 and make a living by collecting. All this may have been 

 pure chance, as I long thought it was, but of late years I am 

 more inclined to Hamlet's belief, when he said — 



There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

 Rough-hew them how we will." 



Of course, I do not adopt the view that each man's life, in 

 all its details, is guided by the Deity for His special ends. 

 That would be, indeed, to make us all conscious automata, 

 puppets in the hands of an all-powerful destiny. But, as 

 I shall show later on, I have good reasons for the belief that, 

 just as our own personal influence and expressed or unseen 

 guidance is a factor in the life and conduct of our children, 

 and even of some of our friends and acquaintances, so we are 

 surrounded by a host of unseen friends and relatives who 

 have gone before us, and who have certain limited powers of 

 influencing, and even, in particular cases, almost of determining, 

 the actions of living persons, and may thus in a great variety 

 of indirect ways modify the circumstances and character of 



