MEMOIR 
16 
were no less successful in other spheres. As for Spencer him¬ 
self, he seems to have given a good account of himself both 
at work and during play-time; for not only did he pass both 
the Oxford and Cambridge Senior Local Examinations, but 
he likewise won several events in the athletic sports, being 
particularly good at running. Evidently, then, he had in¬ 
herited his father’s character and brains, and was likewise 
endowed with a well-knit frame and a healthy constitution. 
On leaving school his first idea was to adopt the profession 
of a painter, and with that end in view he entered the Man¬ 
chester School of Art, then under Mr. Muckley. It soon 
turned out, however, that the morphological studies of men 
and animals prescribed in order to improve his drawing 
interested the scientific side of his mind even more than the 
aesthetic; and he had thoughts of taking up medicine. Not 
that he ever regretted the year spent in the pursuit of Art. 
Alike in the field and in the lecture-room his ability to record 
and expound his observations in accurate and striking visual 
forms was of the greatest assistance to his scientific work. 
Moreover, he thus developed a taste for graphic expression 
that furnished him in his private life with one of his chief 
delights, whether he was visiting galleries and collecting 
pictures, or whether he was writing long letters to his family 
with charming sketches dashed in as quickly as his pen 
could run. 
Leaving the School of Art he entered Owens College, and 
there, under the influence of Professor Milnes Marshall, was 
presently convinced that Science should be sought for its 
own sake—in other words, that biology must be his life- 
study. Milnes Marshall, a fiery spirit and full of enthusiasm 
for his subject, had just been appointed to his Chair, and, 
though himself no mean hand with diagrams, at once pro¬ 
ceeded to make much use of Spencer’s artistic skill. It was 
the custom for seniors and juniors to meet in the Zoological 
