1840-42. SOURCES OF CONSOLATION. 131 



what the word compassion meant, but he was not destitute 

 of the reality, for he insisted on helping me upstairs, and 

 as good as carried me to the top. One great consolation, 

 however, still remains, in thinking of the vexation the 

 bootmaker must feel in knowing that my shoe-soles will 

 not be thinned by the depth of a wafer by all my loco- 

 motions. 



" ' God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' is not that 

 a beautiful thought ? To me that expression so fully con- 

 veys the idea of the kind way in which God moulds our 

 state of mind to our condition, that for these words alone, I 

 can reverence their author Sterne, a man not otherwise 

 ranked among my idols. And among the things I have 

 lately been most thankful for, was the power at times to 

 turn away a dark or sorrowful thought by some perception 

 of the ludicrous in things around. Our great sources of 

 consolation are not to be wasted on everyday griefs ; but 

 these, little as they singly are, may, by oft repetition, devour 

 a man piecemeal. I have a friend, a solemn serious pious 

 man, who thinks he will be allowed to laugh in heaven. I 

 daresay he will, but if he laughs as loudly as he does upon 

 earth (like to the neighing of a troop of wild horses), he will 

 get a box on the ear now and then from the angel Gabriel, 

 for drowning the melody of their harp-music. 



" At this rate I don't know where I'll land next, so I shall 

 be warned and stay my mad pen. This is a love-letter to 

 yourself. I only send the love at present to Maggie, and bid 

 her give the same to my dear god-daughter, who is often in 

 my thoughts." 



In a letter of this period, Dr. Cairns tells James Russell 

 of the introductory lecture spoken of in the letter just 

 given : 



K 2 



