146 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP.
larly my aim is to, group the influences which first urged the men on my list to pursue what afterwards became their favourite occupation. We shall learn the relative importance of these influences, and be enabled to estimate with greater precision than before, the value of proposed methods for making the pursuit of science more common than at present.
The returns I am about to quote are replies to the following questions:-" Can you trace the origin of your interest in science in general, and in your particular branch of it ? How far do your scientific tastes appear to have been innate ? "
The answers were of unequal length and minuteness. From the longer ones I have extracted what was essential, and in these and in the rest I have taken a very few editorial liberties, as already mentioned.
At this stage of the inquiry it becomes advisable to separate the replies according to the branch of science pursued by those who made them. I have not kept geography separate, because there are not many geographers on my