MEMOIR OF THE LATE Mli. JOHN JUST, OF BURY. 



115 



and again evening classes extending till nine, and often even 

 until ten o'clock. His whole ordinary day thus absorbed, the 

 wonder is how and when he snatched the time for acquiring 

 his varied knowledge, or even for communicating some of its 

 stores to others in the shape of papers and essays. So early 

 as March, 1840, he wrote of stealing an hour from his bed 

 to examine some Runes ; and at various times he expressed 

 to his friends his regret at being unable to correspond with 

 them more fully, as every letter he wrote was penned during 

 the time which should have been devoted to repose. 



In October, 1834, he writes—" Now that my lectures are 

 ended for the present, and I was anticipating leisure and 

 repose, I find myself almost as busy as ever ; so that I seem 

 fated to constant and uninterrupted labour. I, however, 

 console myself by being thankful to a good God for fitting 

 my shoulders to the burden ; so that, like the ass in the fable, 

 I trudge contentedly on with my panniers, indifferent who 

 are my masters." 



There is no need of multiplying extracts through a series 

 of years to show that each succeeding season seemed to .accu- 

 mulate new labours and additional tasks, — even his Saturdays, 

 the only day of the six on which he was relieved from school 

 duties, being at length engrossed by an engagement as actuary 

 at the 3ury Savings' Bank. If it be asked why he should 

 have taken this immense amount of labour upon him, the 

 answer, resolving itself into the old " res angustae domi," 

 may be given in his own words, September, 1840, — " I 

 have brought cares upon me such as you feel and know to be 

 all-absorbing, — those of husband and father, — and it is in 

 these relations that I exert myself for others in such a way 

 as nothing on earth could induce me to do for nayself." * To a 

 friend who frequently urged him to give up some of his 

 engagements on the score of ill health, he always said he 

 would do so, as soon as his child was educated, but that until 

 then he must work, and he thought, his constitution wa§ 

 strong enough to bear it. 



