I entered my protest in the first B. A. Report; but the evils magnify. I almost want to bury myself among poor Lancashire operatives, or Canada fugitive slaves, and smash up all shells; but it would not be honest. There is a chance of keeping West Coast shells right, as Stimpson with East Coast; and I ought to do it, as I have studied them more than any one else. As to Natural History in general, as compared with Physics, it must be remembered that it bears on Life and Time; while Physics deal with dead force and space. It ought not therefore to be overlooked; beside the old saying, that 'Whatever it was worth the Lord's while to make, it is worth our while to study."" His sister Mary wrote (February 11, 1864): "How sad that such a tender heart as God has given you should be exiled from human beings, who so much want such love! . . . Scientific work is very valuable and beautiful; but there are many who can do that: few the other. Do seek a location, where the precious gifts God has given you may be used for His children." We could not feel sorry that, in this summer, the Warrington Museum Committee informed him that they required the room he occupied for a Reference Library and the Cairo Street Trustees asked him to set free the part of the house he rented from them for his shells. Before finishing these, he took a week's walking tour to the wilder parts of the Lake district, with Robbie: and he completed his Report (August 1, 1864). We find from it that "Three typical Series of his Reigen collection, similar to those presented to the British Museum and to that at Albany, "were prepared for the Museums of Paris, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, and offered on the same terms, viz. that they should be arranged by the author, and preserved intact for the free use of students; but the donations were severally declined by the respective Governments. They have since been offered to the Museums of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. ;* McGill University, Montreal, C.E.; and د, * See the Report of the British Association for 1863, pp. 542, 543. The Collection accepted by Mr. Agassiz for the Cambridge Museum was declined, after his death, by his successor, on the ground of expense. the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and accepted on the same conditions." In a note he complains of the misleading way in which some of his duplicate sets had been treated by a dealer, with whom he had exchanged :—“ In these times it appears that naturalists must be content to resemble the dealers in patent medicines, and guard the accuracy of their works!" No collections were to be trusted as his with out his unbroken seal. 66 In the autumn he received overtures from the Liverpool Domestic Mission. This was one of the first that was founded in England after Dr. Tuckerman's visit. Although its supporters were Unitarians, they had been always anxious to maintain its unsectarian character. The salary offered was a liberal one: and he had many valued friends in Liverpool. "Ten years ago," he wrote to me, I might have jumped at it; but I have now got a wife, and a boy growing up. As the Mission work is necessarily full of evening meetings, I do not like to engage in any work in which I feel unable to take my boy with me. . . . With the present disposition of Liverpool magistrates [free licensing of the sale of intoxicating drinks], it does look to me almost hopeless; the mere walk from the Brunswick Station to J. Robberds's, on Saturday night, was enough for Minna." It was a gratifying proof that his old friends still desired his services, though his doctrines had changed; but we accorded in his feelings respecting it. ... During his last year of residence in England, he wrote several papers that were printed in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and the Annals of Natural History; and an article in French for the Journal de Conchyliologie. In February, 1865, he heard of a great fire at the Smithsonian, in which he believed that the sets of large shells which he made out at Washington, stored up in the tower, were destroyed; and Professor Henry's private office, with "all his magnificent and very expensive apparatus, including Priestley's originals, with which he made his discoveries. . . . I tried hard to get all the shells distributed. They were useless for Europe; trade shells in every collection; but, being large showy things, would have been very useful for all their schools and colleges. I stirred up all the people I could, to get grants of them, which they did; and of course I have my own series and the Smithsonian series remains intact. . . . I am making steady progress in my work; varied by sort-name-pack-describebut all ending in shells, till one is too tired at nights to do more. My own collection, all packed, covers screwed, and boxes iron-banded, is already seven large boxes full. So great an elephant, that my income won't afford house-room for it. I shall have to endow a college, and probably McGill University. England has enough of such things." : He set off, soon after, for a lecturing tour in the South, which gave him an opportunity for seeing his sisters and brothers his plans for the future were still uncertain. At length, however, he resolved to go, where we knew he had long wished to go, if only he could feel it a duty and he found that his wife had no fear of any climate where he would be happy. "My feeling is," he says, "that in the present prospect of American affairs, there is sure to be any amount of good work to be done, by speech, pen, and life: with better interest (so to speak) for labour-capital, than is likely to be here and though I don't doubt I could be useful anywhere here, I feel more disposed to exert what of working power I still have, over there. I have no mission, or call, or definite purpose; but feel as though I wished to 'report at Montreal,' and be ready for orders from the Shepherd." It was with a pang that we all encouraged him in a plan by which he would be so far removed from us; but even his sister Mary, who had longed to have him at Bristol, felt that it was right. He went to see her again, before his voyage, when he took his wife on a farewell visit to the South; and Mary was glad to find that he was planning work in which the distinct object to which he early devoted himself would be kept in view: she hoped he would "never enslave himself to shells again." He wrote to me, a fortnight before he sailed: "No, dear brother, on no account think of coming up. Unless it was a case of necessity, I could not stand it. I can only get the thing through, by not thinking or feeling, simply doing." He hoped often to recross the water: he only came once, and then his dear sister Anna was gone; but he never regretted, and therefore we did not, that he made his last home in Montreal. LIFE IN MONTREAL: 1865-1877. ÆT. 46-57. PHILIP, with his wife and Robbie, sailed from Liverpool by the steamship "Peruvian," October 26, and on his birthday, November 4 (when he had completed his 46th year), they were steaming through the Straits of Belle Isle (north of Newfoundland) "It was a clear, bright, frosty morning, and the sun rose on as glorious a sight as a voyager can well look on. On our right was a long line of Labrador coast, entirely covered with snow, behind which rose the Laurentian mountains, well peaked, and with beautiful outlines, like small white Alps. The full moon lay over them, and the sun, which had scarcely N. B.--The vignette is of Brandon Lodge, Montreal, Philip's last residence: see p. 301. The side-walk, etc., is planked, in Canadian fashion. |