I wrote answers in very magnificent style to all the questions except three or four; gave in my paper and heard no more of the matter: _sic transeunt bore-ia mundi_." He went on to mention his "very longitudinal essay," which, since no other essays are reported in his letters about King's College, must be the paper published in 1893, in answer to the question.

"Does the perusal of works of fiction act favourably or unfavourably on the moral character ?" At his farewell interview with Mr.Dale he was asked, as he writes to his father, what books he had read, and replied with a pretty long list, including Quintilian and Grotius.

Mr.Dale inquired what "light books" he was taking to Oxford: "Saussure, Humboldt, and other works on natural philosophy and geology," he answered.

"Then he asked if I ever read any of the modern fashionable novels; on this point I thought he began to look positive, so I gave him a negative, with the exception of Bulwer's, and now and then a laughable one of the Theodore Hook's or Captain Marryat's." And so, with much excellent advice about exercise and sleep, and the way to win the Newdigate, he parted from Mr.Dale.
This Christmas was marked by his first introduction to the scientific world.

Mr.Charlesworth, of the British Museum, invited him to a meeting of the Geological Society (January 4, 1837), with promise of introduction to Buckland and Lyell.