140 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 







chemistry classes, like those here, succeeding, but it is a 

 long step to Paris, and I should require to know French, 

 and a great many more things before I thought of it. Are 

 not these fine dreams for a cripple 1 But if I went abroad 

 it should be to Germany, a quiet country, which would 

 exactly suit a politics-hating man like me/ Government 

 there has all the university patronage in its hands, and 

 young men of promise seldom fail to get on. Did not I 

 meet a young fellow a little older than myself, who was 

 Professor in the Prague University, and had, in addition, 

 money and two years allowed him to travel where he listed ? 

 It would little vex me that there was censorship on the 

 press, unless it should go the length of the Russian one, 

 which prevented a traveller bringing into the country a 

 work entitled ' Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies.' The 

 inspector took alarm at the first word, and objected to any 

 revolutionary work being admitted. In vain did the traveller 

 assure him that it was only an astronomical treatise. It 

 did not matter, they did not approve of revolutions of any 

 sort. The fatherland has many charms for me, which are 

 likely delusive enough ; but my motherland has charms too, 

 and I believe I shall live and die in her much-loved arms. 

 Now I have had my grumble out, and am. a great deal the 

 better for it. It's like ' a good cry ' to a young lady." 



The following portion of a letter, though without date, 

 may justly find its place here. It is addressed to Daniel. 

 The veil which conceals his sufferings so carefully from the 

 loving eyes of friends is for a moment lifted, and we see the 

 strong, brave spirit in its agony : 



" With all your sorrows I sympathize from my heart ; I 

 have learned to do so through my own sufferings. The 

 same feelings which made you put your hand into your 



