Volume I Part 8 (1/2)

”I wasthe five years betweentiaareatest spirit, and I reames, and as this record came out in favour of him, we kept a list of the doublets thrown by each, as I was convinced that he threw better thanthis weary illness, and sometimes when most miserable I felt his sympathy to be almost too keen

When at my worst, ent to my aunt's house at Hartfield, in Sussex, and as soon as we had ht's water-cure I can recall no on his return I could hardly bear to have him in the room, the expression of tender sy fresh upon me after his little absence

”He cared for all our pursuits and interests, and lived our lives with us in a way that very few fathers do But I am certain that none of us felt that this intimacy interfered the least with our respect or obedience Whatever he said was absolute truth and law to us He always put his wholeinstance makes me feel how he cared for e cared for He had no special taste for cats, though he admired the pretty ways of a kitten

But yet he knew and remembered the individualities of my many cats, and would talk about the habits and characters of the more remarkable ones years after they had died

”Another characteristic of his treatment of his children was his respect for their liberty, and for their personality Even as quite a girl, I re in this sense of freedom Our father andor thinking unless ished to tell He always made us feel that ere each of us creatures whose opinions and thoughts were valuable to him, so that whatever there was best in us came out in the sunshi+ne of his presence

”I do not think his exaggerated sense of our good qualities, intellectual or ht perhaps have been expected, but ratherno doubt that the influence of his character, of his sincerity and greatness of nature, had aeffect than any small exaltation which his praises or admiration may have caused to our vanity”

As head of a household he was much loved and respected; he always spoke to servants with politeness, using the expression, ”would you be so good,” in asking for anything He was hardly ever angry with his servants; it sho seldom this occurred, that when, as a s scolded, andcircueneral sense of awe He did not trouble hiarden, cows, etc He considered the horses so little his concern, that he used to ask doubtfully whether he ht have a horse and cart to send to Keston for Drosera, or to the Westerham nurseries for plants, or the like

As a host my father had a peculiar charm: the presence of visitors excited hie At Shrewsbury, he used to say, it was his father's wish that the guests should be attended to constantly, and in one of the letters to Fox he speaks of the i a letter while the house was full of co uests, but the result was successful; and, to uests felt perfectly free to do as they liked The most usual visitors were those who stayed froenerally relatives, and were considered to be rather more my mother's affair than his

Besides these visitors, there were foreigners and other strangers, who came down for luncheon and went away in the afternoon He used conscientiously to represent to them the enormous distance of Down from London, and the labour it would be to coranted that they would find the journey as toilsome as he did hie their journeys for theo It was pleasant to see the way in which he shook hands with a guest as being welcomed for the first tiave one the feeling that it was hastening to uest's hands With old friends his hand ca into the other hand in a way I always had satisfaction in seeing His good-bye was chiefly characterised by the pleasant way in which he thanked his guests, as he stood at the door, for having come to see him

These luncheons were very successful entertain about thehout the whole visit Professor De Candolle has described a visit to Down, in his admirable and sympathetic sketch of my father ('Darwin considere au point de vue des causes de son succes'--Geneva, 1882) He speaks of his e

This does not strike ood comparison; in his ease and naturalness there wasfrom total absence of pretence or affectation It was this absence of pose, and the natural and siet the a host to a stranger His happy choice of matter for talk seemed to flow out of his sympathetic nature, and humble, vivid interest in other people's work

To some, I think, he caused actual pain by his modesty; I have seen the late Francis Balfour quite discoe ascribed to himself on a point about which norant

It is difficult to seize on the characteristics of my father's conversation

He hadhis stories, and continually said, ”You must have heard me tell,” or ”I dare say I've told you” One peculiarity he had, which gave a curious effect to his conversation The first feords of a sentence would often reainst, what he was going to say; and this again brought up some other point, so that the sentence would become a system of parenthesis within parenthesis, and it was often i until he came to the end of his sentence He used to say of hiument with any one, and I think this was true Unless it was a subject on which he was just then at work, he could not get the train of arguh

This is shown even in his letters; thus, in the case of two letters to Prof Semper about the effect of isolation, he did not recall the series of facts he wanted until some days after the first letter had been sent off

When puzzled in talking, he had a peculiar stammer on the first word of a sentence I only recall this occurring ords beginning ; possibly he had a special difficulty with this letter, for I have heard him say that as a boy he could not pronounce w, and that sixpence was offered him if he could say ”white wine,” which he pronounced ”rite rine” Possibly he may have inherited this tendency from Erasmus Darho stammered (My father related a Johnsonian answer of Eras, Dr Darwin?”

”No, sir, because I have time to think before I speak, and don't ask impertinent questions”)

He so such a phrase as ”holding on like life,”--a ri eave an air of exaggeration where it was not intended; but it gave, too, a noble air of strong and generous conviction; as, for instance, when he gave his evidence before the Royal Commission on vivisection and came out with his words about cruelty, ”It deserves detestation and abhorrence”

When he felt strongly about any similar question, he could hardly trust hi which he disliked excessively He was conscious that his anger had a tendency to multiply itself in the utterance, and for this reason dreaded (for exareat proof of the , that, when, for instance, a number of visitors came over from Sir John Lubbock's for a Sunday afternoon call he never seeh he had sowhen ”chaffing” any one, and in high spirits over it His ht-hearted and boyish, and his refine to a lady who pleased and amused him, the cohtful to see

Whena talk with each, or bringing two or three together round his chair In these conversations there was always a good deal of fun, and, speaking generally, there was either a hueniality which served instead Perhapselement of humour is the more vivid, because the best talks ith Mr Huxley, in whom there is the aptness which is akin to humour, even when humour itself is not there My father enjoyed Mr Huxley's huly, and would often say, ”What splendid fun Huxley is!” I think he probably had ht) with Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker

He used to say that it grieved him to find that for the friends of his later life he had not the warm affection of his youth Certainly in his early letters fro friendshi+p for Herbert and Fox; but no one except himself would have said that his affection for his friends was not, throughout life, of the war a friend he would not spare hiiven He undoubtedly had, to an unusual degree, the power of attaching his friends to him He had many warm friendshi+ps, but to Sir Joseph Hooker he was bound by ties of affection stronger than we often see a men He wrote in his 'Recollections,' ”I have known hardly any man more lovable than Hooker”

His relationshi+p to the village people was a pleasant one; he treated them, one and all, with courtesy, when he ca to their welfare Some time after he came to live at Down he helped to found a Friendly Club, and served as treasurer for thirty years He tookits accounts withpleasure in its prosperous condition Every Whit-Monday the club used to march round with band and banner, and paraded on the lawn in front of the house There he met them, and explained to them their financial position in a little speech seasoned with a feorn jokes He was often unwell enough to make even this little ceremony an exertion, but I think he never failed to meet theave hiistrate

With regard to e, Mr

Brodie Innes has been so good as to giveVicar of Down in 1846, we became friends, and so continued till his death His conduct towardskindness, and we repaid it by warm affection