Fitzroy offered to give up part of his own cabin to any naturalist who would join in the expedition in H. M. S. Beagle, Prof. Henslow recommended me as one who knew very little, but who, he thought, would work. I was strongly attached to natural history, and this attachment I owed, in large part, to him. During the five years' voyage, he regularly corresponded with me, and guided my efforts. He received, opened, and took care of all the specimens sent home in many large boxes; but I firmly believe that, during these five years, it never once crossed his mind that he was acting toward me with unusual and generous kindness.
"During the years when I associated so much with Prof. Henslow, I never once saw his temper even ruffled. He never took an ill-natured view of any one's character, though very far from blind to the foibles of others. It always struck me that his mind could not be even touched by any paltry feeling of vanity, envy, or jealousy. With all this equability of temper and remarkable benevolence, there was no insipidity of character. A man must have been blind not to have perceived that beneath this placid exterior there was a vigorous and determined will. When principle came into play, no power on earth could have turned him one hair's-breadth.
"After the year 1842, when I left London, I saw Prof. Henslow only at long intervals; but, to the last, he continued in all respects the same man. I think he cared somewhat less about science, and more for his parishioners. When speaking of his allotments, his parish children, and plans of amusing and instructing them, he would always kindle up with interest and enjoyment. I remember one trifling fact which seemed to me highly characteristic of the man: In one of the bad years for the potato, I asked him how his crop had fared, but, after a little talk, I perceived that, in fact, he knew nothing about his own pototoes, but seemed to know exactly what sort of crop there was in the garden of almost every poor man in his parish.
The moral heroism, here testified to by Mr. Darwin, was an eminent trait of Prof. Henslow's character, and a key to his career; but there was one instance of it, in Cambridge, which may be mentioned in passing. In politics, Prof. Henslow was originally a Conservative or Tory. Lord Palmerston had long represented the university on the same side. But when the Duke of Wellington, who was at the head of the government, declared against reform in any shape whatever, there came a revolution which overthrew his administration, and Lord Palmerston went over to the Liberal side and joined the reformed ministry. Prof. Henslow, like many others, fell in with the movement, and, of course, made himself obnoxious to the charge of being a "turn-coat." He did not flinch from these attacks, and was at any moment ready to do his duty regardless of popular reprobation, and he soon had an opportunity of incurring it. In the borough election
