TYPE-WRITING IN A RAILWAY-CARRIAGE. 281 



quite unaffected by the interest which his type- writing 

 proceedings excited among his fellow-passengers, who 

 gazed their fill at the elderly clergyman in the corner of 

 the carriage, busily performing upon the keys of the 

 strange machine, and even made their comments there- 

 upon in no inaudible tone of voice, without in the least 

 arousing him from his abstraction, or impeding his 

 flow of thought. 



Yet, by a strange contradiction, when writing quietly 

 at home in his own study, he was almost nervously 

 sensitive to any interruption. The passing of a foot- 

 step near his door, a false note upon the piano down- 

 stairs, or the barking of a distant dog, would often 

 upset him altogether, and render him unable to write 

 for a quarter of an hour or more after the exciting 

 cause had passed away. So that this perfect ability to 

 write in the train was most remarkable. Well it was 

 that he was able to do so, for his lecturing tours during 

 the winter months were so long and so frequent that 

 otherwise literary work must almost wholly have been 

 put on one side during fully one-half of the year. 



Strangely enough, neither bodily fatigue nor actual 

 suffering (unless, of course, of a severe character) seemed 

 noticeably to impair his power of writing. At the end 

 of a long day's labour his style would be as pleasant, 

 his ideas as free and fresh as if he were but just begin- 

 ning; and although throughout his life he suffered 

 greatly from dyspepsia, it had little or no effect upon 

 his work. Probably the incessant stooping over his 

 desk (just after meals especially) was largely responsible 



