1840-42. CHEERFULNESS IN TROUBLE. 125 



free to write a letter till Friday next, so that this deed must 

 be forgiven. 



" I am greatly pleased to read in your letter of the 

 delight you feel in your studies ; it is a sure proof you are 

 in good health, whether your peptic mill be going right or 

 no. It is a delicious feeling, that sober exultation which 

 successful, pleasurable study brings ; the ' exulting and 

 abounding' emotion with which some long and rugged 

 hill of difficulty being at last clomb, and every let or 

 hindrance overcome, behold a Pisgah point from which 

 a Canaan of promise can be seen. Such a feeling have 

 I known ; ' 'Tis gone ! 'tis gone ! ' as old Capulet says 

 of his cornless feet and young dancing days ; but it will 

 come back with the swallow and the summer flowers, and 

 they will be here one of these days. At present I creep 

 along on a pair of crutches, literally and metaphorically a 

 lame, blind man. Nevertheless, you will be glad to hear 

 I am mending, general health much improved, lame legs at 

 least no lamer, much profitable and promising work chalked 

 out for immediate and future performance ; on the whole, 

 quiet contentment, sometimes cheerfulness overflowing in 

 its old channels, and gladdening the hearts of the much 

 enduring, dear sharers of our little fireside circle." 



" March 20, 1842. 



" MY DEAR DANIEL, I received your kind and welcome 

 letter at the laboratory, and was much comforted, and 

 grieved tooj therewith. 



" It seems at present dreary enough to look about and 

 contemplate the state of business, and you, I fear, are still 

 engaged in a desperate struggle with the world. Now, I 

 need not offer you sympathy, you have heartsful of that 

 already ; indeed, that same sympathy is a wonderfully use- 



