30 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 



that Section D should go on a separate scamper from the others, I ex- 

 cited a good deal of fun by painting in green on my white pocket- 

 handkerchief the letter D, which, fastened on a stick, was borne ahead, 

 and kept our party together. I did it on the moment by the agency of 

 a smooth stone and some grass, and it looked as well and as bright as if 

 specially ordered for the occasion." 



One of his letters, written in the ensuing year, glances at the variety 

 of subjects that occupied his busy brain. Those who have known any- 

 thing of the minute and searching interrogatories of his friend, Mr. 

 Thompson, while collecting information on any subject, will understand 

 what he referred to by the term "cross-examination." 



" April 5, 1842. 

 " I have now a great deal of zoological matters on hand, this being 

 the close of our year, — the arrangements of the lectures, evening meet- 

 ings, and a treaty of alliance with the Dublin Society ; besides which 

 Thompson's cross-examinations have to be attended to ; and my brains 

 are not clear from sheep-stealing, infanticides, and other delicate sub- 

 jects, which occupy my attention at the Castle." 



His clerkship in the office of the Under-Secretary he continued to 

 hold for ten years longer. There is little in that long term of official 

 life that is pleasant to dwell upon. To him the duties appear to have 

 been at all times distasteful, and fraught with an exhausting and de- 

 pressing influence. In a letter to his friend, Mr. Dowden, he says: — 

 " My soul-subduing slavery of Castle work leaves me sometimes without 

 vis for anything good." "With regard to official rank, station in society 

 as connected therewith, income derivable therefrom, and prospect of 

 future advancement, he was emphatically a disappointed man. Expec- 

 tations had been held out to him that had not been realized, and he was 

 gradually led to look with a jaundiced eye on all that belonged to the 

 routine of official duty. It was in vain that some of his friends tried to 

 argue against this feeling; to urge that " man is born to trouble as the 

 sparks fly upward ;" that each station in life has its own anxieties; and 

 that his brought with them countervailing advantages. The uniform 

 reply was, in substance, however varied might be the words, " The 

 heart knoweth its own bitterness." 



