RESIDENCE AT BURNTISLAND. 345 



preparing to flit from one rose to another has nothing to 

 pack up (or roll up) but its trunk, and is certain to leave 

 none of its goods behind ; but if, after deserting its ancestral 

 roseleaf, it should find that it had left the 'last rose of 

 summer,' and that there was no other to receive it, it would 

 doubtless find itself in a sad predicament. In such a 

 predicament am I. 



" I have been in a heap of worries. This is worry the 

 first, and most tiresome. . . . 



"With all this, let me not forget to say that I have 

 enjoyed a peace and composure of spirit, interrupted only 

 by a few impatient bursts, such as I have seldom known. 

 The meaning of Life, the purpose of God, the worth of this 

 world and the next, have all risen into a prominence which 

 they had not formerly displayed. I was not expecting or 

 seeking this. It came upon me like the wind blowing where 

 it listeth. I 'have rejoiced to welcome it, but it has for the 

 time driven me rather in upon my own thoughts than led 

 me to pour them forth to others. 



" I should add [as an excuse for not writing] that I have 

 an immense deal of official correspondence to keep up, 

 which devours the writing faculty, and also that I am trying 

 to be done with the Memoir of Edward Forbes. There, 

 however, some of those who should have been foremost to 

 help have forgotten their promises. ... I am sickened at 

 the work." 



To his cousin Alick he gives an epitome of his engage- 

 ments since spring. Amongst them is a lecture in Glasgow, 

 which has been noticed already in the list of things to be 

 done all at the same time. The lecture was requested by 

 an Association of Teachers. " It was a capital audience, 

 and I had prepared with some care an hour's written dis- 

 course on the ' Educational Value of Industrial Science.' 



