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Charles Darwin : 
[April, 
and dry “ Brodgelehrter,” zealously discussing “good ” and 
“ bad ” species and studying Biology from ill-stuffed speci- 
mens, but never the great re-creator of Natural History. 
To awaken the sacred thirst for truth in the mind of young 
Darwin was reserved for a man far greater than Jameson, 
though less pretentious — Prof. Henslow, of Cambridge. 
We are here naturally led to the question of precocity. 
Did Darwin, like so many other naturalists, show in boyhood 
a disposition to colledt and study insedls, plants, or other 
specimens ? Here Mr. Romanes gives an uncertain sound. 
He writes: — “As he [Darwin] used himself to say before 
he knew Prof. Henslow, the only objedfs of Natural History 
for which he cared were foxes and partridges. But owing 
to the impulse which he derived from the field excursions of 
the Henslow class he became while at Cambridge an ardent 
collector, especially in the region of Entomology.” Else- 
where, however, Mr. Romanes quotes a letter of Darwin’s, 
in which the latter says — “ I went to Cambridge early in the 
year 1828, and soon became acquainted, through some of 
my brother entomologists, with Prof. Henslow ; for all who 
cared for any branch of Natural History were equally en- 
couraged by him.” Here, then, we have distindt evidence 
that Darwin was already an entomologist prior to his ac- 
quaintance with Prof. Henslow. But we need merely read 
the whole of the letter referred to in order to find that Prof. 
Henslow exerted upon him a most powerful and salutary 
influence. The friendship which sprung up between them 
was indeed broken off only by death. It was upon Henslow’s 
advice that he seized the opportunity of joining the surveying 
voyage of the Beagle. 
Three perils were thus overpast. He had escaped be- 
coming a routine naturalist of the Old School, a pradtising 
physician, or a country clergyman, carrying on the study of 
Entomology as a recreation. Another danger which he 
would have encountered in our days was non-existent. He 
never “ passed” or “ prepared for ” an examination in any 
department of Natural History. He learned simply in order 
to know, and the result was great accordingly. 
The account of Darwin’s work in Geology — or, as it would 
perhaps be better expressed, his influence upon Geology — is 
furnished by no less an authority than the Diredtor- General 
of the Geological Survey, Dr. Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. 
He lays emphasis on the fadf that Darwin’s discoveries, 1 , f 
fatal to catastrophism, are far from supporting uniformitari- 
anism. “ That the present must be taken as a guide to the 
past has been more fearlessly asserted than ever. And yet 
