1859- VISIT TO LONDON. 339 



Yester's. It is pleasant even to sand the floor, or change 

 the sawdust carpet of the outer vestibule of the house of God. 

 Would that I could only give them a word in season ! 



" I am better than I was earlier in the winter, but con- 

 stantly visited by returns of haemoptysis, and compelled to 

 be very wary and watchful. 



" I ask myself often, whether it is mere languor and 

 stupidity, or anything deserving to be called becoming con- 

 tentment and composure, that keeps me from complaining, 

 and repining. I hope there is a little of sincere gratefulness 

 to the Giver of all good gifts but there ought to be, and 

 might be, a great deal more. 



" When are you coming to stir me up ? You owe me 

 a return for staring out of the window of the railway 

 carriage at Berwick, in hope of seeing you." 



Shortly afterwards, though "terribly over-worked, and 

 far from well," he had to visit London professionally, and 

 was unable on this account to be present at the meeting 

 in Lady Yester's church to which he alludes. On the 

 journey up, the lamp in the railway carriage went out. 

 While his companions slumbered, or chatted together in 

 the darkness, " I fell to musing," he says, " and then to 

 trying how many verses of the Bible I could recall. I was 

 very sorry to find I knew so few, but glad also to find I 

 knew so many." During the week spent in London, he 

 accomplished what one of his coadjutors asserted would 

 have taken three weeks in any hands but his. " I have 

 been counting my visits, and find that I have been four 

 times at the Department of Science and Art, four times 

 at the Office of Works, twice at the Council of Education, 

 and once at the Treasury, besides all the other doings. I 

 was much knocked about, but the weather was good, and 

 the absence of lecture-work saved me from suffering." 



Z 2 



