56 EARLY UNDERTAKINGS. [1836, 



I pay 4 per week, and keep a fire besides, wliicli I 

 suppose will startle you a little. I hope to obtain 

 the situation of curator to the Lyceum of Natural 

 History in the spring, when their new building is 

 finished. The duties of the situation will take up 

 only a part of my time. I shall have under my charge 

 the best scientific library and cabinet in the city, a 

 couple of fine rooms to live in, and a salary of about 

 $300. But although I can secure pretty strong influ- 

 ence, the best members of the society offering me the 

 place and wishing me to take it, yet it is not certain 

 that we shall bring it about, so I say nothing about it. 

 I shall let you know whenever any changes offer in 

 my situation. 



TO JOHN TORRET. 



NEW YORK, July 11, 1836. 



DEAR DOCTOR, - - Since your departure several 

 memoranda of more or less consequence have accu- 

 mulated around me, and (having not yet heard from 

 you) I will now communicate them, together with 

 whatever intelligence I think will interest you. To 

 begin with the most important. I have now (5 P. M.) 

 just returned from your house, where I found a parcel 

 for you (received by mail from Philadelphia, postage 

 the mere trifle of $1.14J), with the Hamburg seal, 

 and the handwriting of our old correspondent, Pro- 

 fessor Lehmann. Suspecting it to contain advice of 

 packages of plants or books, I took the liberty to open 

 it. I found two diplomas in high Dutch. Shade of 

 Leopoldino-Carolinese Caesar, academise naturae curi- 

 osorum ! Hide your diminished head, and give way to 

 the Konigliche Botanische Gesellschaft in Regens- 

 burg ! which being interpreted means, I imagine, 

 the Royal Botanical Society of Regeusburg. Now I 



