1844-54- THE STETHOSCOPE. 221 



diction. It is, perhaps, rather too much expanded ; but 

 your two pictures (especially the first, of the consumptive 

 girl) are very touchingly and gracefully executed, though I 

 can scarcely forgive you for giving us only the tragic and 

 fatal vaticinations of your stethoscope, and not cheering us 

 before concluding with some of its happy deliverances and 

 revivals. Indeed, I think I should be justified in imposing 

 such a supplement as a task for your last days at Dirleton." 



To the suggestion made in the close of the letter, George 

 could only reply, that as the joyful side of the picture had 

 not fallen to his lot, he could not portray it. The other, 

 alas ! was but the welling forth of thoughts which, by 

 expression, relieved the scorched heart, on which they had 

 been imprinted as with letters of fire. " I have not been 

 describing imaginary scenes," he says ; " I have written 

 some of the lines with tears in my eyes." 



The beauty of many of his poems has been freely acknow- 

 ledged, but exception made to their frequent irregularities of 

 metre. A quotation from a letter to Dr. Cairns, who had 

 alluded to this blemish, gives his own idea of the matter. 

 " When you come to Edinburgh, be sure to bring that Latin 

 hymn book with you. I won't give you a translation of any 

 one of those grand hymns, because I can't. It is above and 

 beyond me. I could not, apart from everything else, repro- 

 duce their exquisite rhythm and metres, without which they 

 would become alien paraphrases. I to descend from 

 heaven to earth do not use irregular metres, because I 

 despise regular ones ; neither do I think the former prefer- 

 able. I use them because I cannot compass the latter. At 

 school, though a dux, I was a poor hand at scanning, and 

 most unprolific in Latin verse. In the days of my folly, 

 some young ladies tried to teach me to dance, but signally 

 failed, for I could not keep the step, and was foiled both in 



