Nor is he content with his own observations, but in this, as in wider researches, he perpetually appeals to his friends for assistance, opens their eyes and sharpens their wits, to see and record matters which they would assuredly never have thought of for themselves. Note the care and tact with which he makes his requests: ‘I beg you, _in relation to a new point for observation_, to imagine as well as you can that you suddenly come across some dreadful object, and act with a sudden little start, _a shudder of horror_; please do this once or twice, and observe yourself as well as you can, and _afterwards_ read the rest of this note, which I have consequently pinned down.’[19] It is, however, in the regions of natural science more particularly so-called that Darwin’s observation is inexhaustibly rich, varied, exciting, and suggestive. He himself puts it very simply and effectively, when he says, ‘I was born a naturalist.’[20] At the age of ten his curiosity was intensely stimulated by the varying aspects of insects and he considered the desirability of collecting them. In one of his letters, Darwin gives an amusing illustration of this youthful enthusiasm for collecting. One day he had caught two most interesting beetles and was holding one in each hand, when he discovered a third, ‘a sacred _Panagæus crux-major_!’ ‘I could not bear to give up either of my _Carabi_, and to lose _Panagæus_ was out of the question; so that in despair I gently seized one of the _Carabi_ between my teeth, when to my unspeakable disgust and pain the little inconsiderate beast squirted his acid down my throat, and I lost both _Carabi_ and _Panagæus_.’[21]