1839-40- A LONDON LECTURESHIP. 103 



" I hope you will like him ; I am sure you have a great 



deal in common, and you may find him a pleasant and 



useful companion. We want to give you the red ribbon, 



as soon as your paper is done ; it was he proposed you. 



****** 



I'll give Forbes a letter to you ; he knows how busy you 

 are, and will not waste your time. 



" I have been seeking for a room to lecture in all over 

 the town, but have not yet found one, and am induced to 

 delay, as there is some prospect of a better room turning 

 up than any yet proposed to me. One trump card has 

 turned up among the many blanks that have been coming 

 to my share, with a goodly set of knave cards too among 

 them. This is Christison letting me work in his laboratory. 

 I shall thus get something ready for the Association at 

 Glasgow this autumn. You must get your visit over by the 

 end of August at least, as I am engaged for September 

 there. 



" I have not heard from Daniel since I wrote to you," he 

 tells his sister a few days later. " I got letter after letter 

 from him the week before, concerning a chemical lecture- 

 ship in one of the small London schools, which was offered 

 by its proprietors. Daniel would have liked to get me up 

 beside him, and made out a fine picture of the advantages 

 of the place. But I saw from the first that it was a shabby 

 affair, both in respectability and pecuniary value, and all 

 my friends here advised me to have nothing to do with 

 it. I suspect, however, I got the credit among the London 

 folks of being knit to Edinburgh by stronger ties than pro- 

 fessional esprit. Daniel Macmillan sent me a letter to-day, 

 in which he refers, with evident surprise, to my refusing a 

 London lectureship, and puts the query, if the great attrac- 

 tion here be not a heroine ? Marry ! they will have me 



