Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

know?) how the love of the Union was to become the means of destroying slavery throughout the United States.

Philip remained in Washington five months; and had at last to obtain the permission of Dr. Henry, who treated him "with the greatest confidence," to take much of his work with him to England. Before his return, he went to Boston and the neighbourhood, as Professor Agassiz was anxious to confer with him; and he visited some other naturalists on the way. He sailed from New York near the end of May, having travelled about 12,400 miles in America. Before he left, the University of the State of New York ("which is not a teaching and examining body, but exercises the functions of a Ministry of public instruction") marked their appreciation of his labours for American science by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,* an honour which they had never before bestowed. He wrote to me: "The N. Y. doings are songs to a heavy heart; but I hope will please you. I have answered them as gratefully as I could." He showed his gratitude by using the title, which made it more easy for him to avoid that of "Reverend," against which he had always protested.

The sadness to which he referred arose from anxiety respecting the little boy, of whom he had written (p. 232). He supposed him to be an orphan; but it proved that he and his younger brother were children of persons who had once been well off, but who had neglected them, and finally renounced all claim to them, when they were received into the House of Refuge at Baltimore. Robbie was bound over to the janitor at the Institution, who sometimes spared him to Philip, to help to wash shells, etc.. and allowed him occasionally to spend half an hour with him for instruction. Philip felt a strong parental feeling for the child, and he had an intense dread of what might happen to him in that "enslaved and enslaving city." During his five months' loneliness, he considered the subject in all its bearings, and his heart was set on adopting

* The degree was granted by the Regents, March 20th: and the diploma was sent him by their secretary, April 18th.

R

him. He found, however, that his plan aroused great opposition, and extreme anxiety impaired his health. He wrote to me: “I am not pulled down so, physically, as I was at the epoch (what ages ago); but more so spiritually, because the way of the Lord does not seem so clear. . . . I work as hard as possible, and have got the bulk of the [Smithsonian] work done. All that I contemplate is, getting things into the state in which others can go on. I am sorry to send you a sorry letter; but I said in the times, that, if the Lord intended me for heaven, there would be many more and bitter trials before I could be fit for it: the bottom of my heart does not distrust the Lord."

Though he had to leave America without Robbie, his friends were not unmindful of his wishes. After a time, Dr. Henry induced the janitor to restore the boy to Dr. Graves, the benevolent secretary of the Baltimore Refuge, who had taken pains to learn whether the English home was likely to be a happy one. They had proof of Philip's constancy in the interval that elapsed before Robbie was sent to him and his subsequent life showed how faithful he was to this new trust.

CHAPTER VI.

LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND: 1860-1865.

ÆT. 40-45.

PHILIP returned to Warrington on June 11, 1860: and on the following Friday he joined the schools in their annual excursion. His friends were sorry to see that he had not that freshness of spirit which they had expected after so long and complete a change. He could not overcome his intense anxiety for the boy. He did not commence his pulpit duties for two months, when he preached the sermons for the schools. Meanwhile he had his work for the Smithsonian Institution, and to arrange for the large collections he had made for the Warrington Museum, consisting not only of shells, but of birds, reptiles, crustacea, dried plants, etc. He had remembered its interests wherever he travelled, begged for it when he would not ask for himself, and devoted to it the books and geological specimens presented to him from the State of New York. As the room formerly occupied by the library was almost unused, he was allowed to have it till it was wanted, while he arranged the shells of the Museum, and also those of the Smithsonian,* which paid rent in the form of books and specimens.

At the end of June, he attended the meeting of the British Association at Oxford. He wrote to Dr. Henry from Section D. (Zoological) at the new Museum: "I have just opened the Section, as far as work is concerned, with a communication about American science, principally to make known the plan

*As the Smithsonian Institution will often be mentioned, it may be briefly designated as above.

of the Smithsonian. The audience was much pleased, and one of the secretaries, who had travelled in the United States, endorsed my statements."

After describing Worcester College, with its very beautiful grounds, where he was staying, he says, “In my younger days these twenty-four colleges were shut out from all who could not sign the Thirty-nine Articles. Now, through the persevering energy of Mr. James Heywood, they are open to all; and the most ancient and most exclusive of universities, not content with admitting any one within its walls, is offering its examinations, and giving its Associate degree, to all persons anywhere, so that the son of a common joiner from our Warrington public school has creditably passed." He then sup

plies Dr. Henry with information as to public and private collections, with a view to the disposal of the duplicates in his hands. A few days after, he added a very full report of what had interested him at Oxford, derived in part from his shorthand notes. The great event of the meeting was the discussion on Darwin's views (which Philip had been studying on his voyage home), in which many eminent men took part. Professor Henslow presided in Section D. ("He is now a white-haired old gentleman, with the same beautiful face as ever, giving prizes to village children for wild flowers and snails, beloved by all. He was much pleased at your remembrance of him.") After Sir B. Brodie, Mr. jumped up: a young clergyman, "with a peculiarly self-important look. He made a great fuss about getting a black board, all to sketch a few branches. Then he found he could not explain himself—because- he had nothing to explain: This represents the progress from the first atom' (President: 'Confine yourself, please, to Mr. Darwin's theory'); 'that is the line of the monkeys, ending in man.' Amiable and prolonged clapping, to prevent him from going on. President, very politely: 'We are getting a little beyond the mark.' Incessant amiable clapping. The poor parson did not know what to make of it. We all told him he had better sit down. He looked as much as to say, 'When I ope my mouth at Twaddletown, no dog

barks.' We looked-'Oxford and British Association are not Twaddletown!' At last he accepted our polite offer of a chair, and fumed to himself; while the President called on Professor Huxley. He merely said that the cause had not suffered much from previous speakers, and he would reply when there were some arguments to meet. [Then rose Dr. Wilberforce], Bishop of Oxford. (Immense applause. The parsonic element had gathered strong for their Goliath. I had not seen him since the Cambridge meeting [pp. 75, 76]; and on a close view was greatly pained at the change.)". Professor Huxley in his reply, referring to a taunt of the Bishop's, gave us to understand that, if he had to choose ancestry between a respectable chimpanzee and a man of the greatest intellectual powers, who yet narrowed himself down to prejudice, sarcasm, etc., he would greatly prefer the grand-paternal ape. (Time was, when a man might have been burnt at Oxford for such impertinence. A fine monument stands over the Martyrs' Stake. The English people have left off burning. There were three native-born Americans burnt, to my certain knowledge, the short time I was in the States.)

66

[ocr errors]

I

"... On Sunday morning, I went to St. Mary's to hear the University Sermon. The service was read, without communion, and all the people were so zealous with responses, very loud, that their voices ran about on each other's heels. like united worship: I don't like the plan, so common over the water, of looking on, while the parson tells the Lord a great many things. But I think music the natural language of united worship. Hence, in our school-service at Warrington, we adopt the cathedral custom of kneeling down and chanting our litany." The sermon was by Dr. Temple: his remark that science is in great danger of "making God a system of laws, without any kind of answer to our human affections," led Philip to write: "As for me, I used to have a great horror of anthropomorphism and patripassion; but now the actual necessities of my spiritual wants have driven me out of it, in spite of my logic and whether the prayer be offered in name to Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, in his

« AnteriorContinuar »