GREAT POWER OF WORK. 26 



and yet there is a good deal to be done at night, quite 

 irrespectively of any special orders which may come in 

 by the evening post. And, consequently, although he 

 may live at home, and work at home, he yet enjoys very 

 little of what is generally termed " home life." All his 

 time is spent in the study, and the more he does the 

 more there seems to do. 



Such was the case with my father throughout 

 almost all his career. He could scarcely, perhaps, be 

 described as unmethodical, for he was never behind- 

 hand with his work, and prided himself on always 

 sending in his MS. rather before the time appointed. 

 But he never would, and never could, tie himself down 

 to write at certain regular hours ; and, as he nearly 

 always had an immense amount of work on his hands, 

 the consequence was that frequently we seldom saw him, 

 except at meal times, for days and weeks together. 

 During the last few years of his life, indeed, strangers 

 saw far more of him than ourselves, for after his lectures 

 were over, and often upon intervening days, he was of 

 course obliged to yield in some measure to the demands 

 of society, and to spend in recreation hours which at 

 home he would certainly have devoted to work. And 

 no doubt this in great measure tended to the preserva- 

 tion of his health. 



For, when at home, he was terribly careless of 

 himself. He would work, day after day, with little 

 or no intermission, taking scarcely any exercise, and 

 sometimes not leaving the house for a week at a 

 time. If visitors came he seldom saw them. All his 



