194 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP.
which the phrenologists call adhesiveness, but which seems to defy analysis. It exists in very different strength in different persons, and I know not where to find a better illustration of its power than in the ordinary case of a man falling in love for the first time. Few lookerson will doubt that almost any young man is capable of falling in love with any one of at least one-third of the presentable young women of his race and social position, if they happen to see much of one another under favourable circumstances and without other distraction ; yet, although the innate taste is of so general a character, it becomes specialised at once by the mere act of falling in love. Then the image of one woman takes complete possession of his thoughts ; she is for a considerable period the only female who has attractions for him, although he might previously have been equally attracted by any one of tens of thousands of her sex.
A strong taste bearing remotely on science may prove very helpful. The love of collecting, which is a trifling tendency in itself, common to
