146 
THE NATURALISTS' JOURNAL. 
students, but Darwin had studied at Christ’s, where Paley was 
educated, while his grandfather Erasmus had been a student at 
St. John’s, where Wordsworth entered in October, 1787, ten 
years after Paley’s departure from the university city. They 
could go over the classic ground mentally, with intense delight, 
and it was easy now for the poet of Nature, to take up the thread. 
“I was born” remarked Wordsworth “in the year 1770, on 
the seventh day of April, in a house still standing in the Main 
Street, Cockermouth. The garden behind the house abuts on 
the river Derwent, just below the point at which the Cocker and 
it are wedded. I well remember the hedgerow there, and my 
first sight of a sparrow’s nest with its pretty complement of eggs. 
Equally well do I recall the pleasure I experienced when I wan¬ 
dered through the grounds surrounding the castle with my sister 
Emiline. My school days where of the happiest. I was al¬ 
lowed the greatest freedom, and as I roamed among the hills and 
vales of this charming lakeland, I imbibed such a love for nature 
as nothing could quench. Through the liberality of my two 
uncles I was able to spend some years at Cambridge. Here I 
found myself surrounded by the shades of Spenser, Ben Jonson, 
and Marlowe; Dryden, Cowley, and Waller, Milton, George 
Herbert, and Gray; and though the contrast between the flat 
fenland, and my native county was extreme, I could still peruse 
“ The common countenance of earth and sky— 
Earth, nowhere unembellished by some trace 
Of that first Paradise whence man was driven.” 
For me the every day objects have always had peculiar fascination 
and charm. The lesser celandine the primrose and daisy, the 
butterfly, leech, hawk, mountain and mere, each had for me some 
attraction, and seemed worthy of my muse.” 
“ And in the matter of literary instruction, how fared you?” 
enquired one. 
“I took my degree of Batchelor of Arts in 1791,” replied the 
poet, “ and quitted Cambridge with no certain aim. From the 
law I felt a natural shrinking, and for the high office of the Church 
I was naturally unfit. The French Revolution was filling Europe 
with fear and hope. I became interested, absorbed, and was well 
nigh won over to the ranks of the Republicans. First reason, 
then nature conquered me anew, and henceforth I became a loyal 
and devoted learner in the school of science.” 
How tortuous the path which the noblest minds have traversed ! 
Darwin had followed the narrative of the speaker with close 
attention, and though he confessed that his love for poetry 
dwindled down to a mere shadow, he averred that he could 
thoroughly appreciate the spirit of devotion which stirred his 
brother student’s breast. He now took his turn in the conversa¬ 
tion. 
