ZI 6 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



associated, sharing the lecture-room with other teachers, and 

 having a small laboratory fitted up. After this Association 

 was dissolved two years later, he retained sole possession of 

 the house they occupied, and did not leave it till twelve 

 years afterwards. It was within a few minutes' walk of the 

 University, and was thus easy of access to students attending 

 other classes. 



Scarcely convalescent, he entered on the laborious duties 

 of an opening session with the ardour characteristic of all 

 his actions. To spare himself, when professional duty was 

 concerned, was for him an impossibility. A letter to his 

 brother, after the first month was over, gives a glimpse at 

 his labours and prospects : 



" December 6tA, Sunday. 



" Nothing but the most overwhelming occupation of my 

 time, to an extent I never knew before, has kept me so 

 long from writing to you. For the last fortnight I have not 

 had a moment to give to anything but my lectures. I have 

 lectured six days every week, besides teaching a practical 

 class and instructing private pupils. This excess of labour 

 has compelled me to sit up every night till two o'clock, and 

 rise at seven \ and so tired am I when I come home at 

 four o'clock, that I often fall asleep on the sofa while 

 dinner is being served. 



" The worst is over now, and I shall have more leisure 

 for some time to come ; but till my class had been fairly 

 begun, 1 had not one moment of repose. I have now some 

 thirty-one pupils, a most unexpected and cheering number, 

 and I am, of course, most anxious to keep up the good 

 opinion they entertain of me. Many of them are older and 

 wiser than myself. I have no fewer than four Cambridge 

 men fresh from their college, besides prize mathematicians 



