132 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



" I never," he says, " admired anything more than your 

 cousin's firmness in writing down the agonies of pain. I 

 heard his opening lecture on Animal Chemistry with great 

 interest and instruction. He has a very fine and penetrating 

 mind, and is marked out for eminence. We are getting 

 wonderfully intimate, and I enjoy nobody's society more." 



A few weeks more, and George's struggle to keep at his 

 post, in spite of physical suffering, was at an end. The facts 

 are best given in his own words to his cousin : 



" May 24, 1842. 



" MY DEAR JAMES, I have this morning received your 

 kind letter, which, if it has grown out of a root of sadness, 

 bears blossoms only of mirth and humour. But so it is 

 always, the gravest, soberest people, by their own account, 

 are the best comforters of those they favour with cor- 

 respondence ; and I have need of all the comfort you can 

 give me. You ask me to tell you about my lectures and 

 pupils, and in return I have to reply that I am obliged to 

 abandon both. My foot, which was pretty well when you 

 were here, has daily been growing worse ; and yesterday I 

 was informed by Professor Syme that I must abandon all 

 active exertion, and prepare myself for the tender mercies 

 of the surgeon. Accordingly, I am returning the pupils 

 their fees, and in ill health and debt retire from the struggle. 

 My only consolation is, that I have done all I could do, and 

 have fought against difficulties till courage and patience 

 would avail no longer. Had I known how seriously my 

 foot was affected, I should never have begun, and I have 

 greatly aggravated my complaint by persisting in working 

 when I should have been prostrate in bed or on the 

 sofa. To that I am reduced now, having yesterday con- 



