Letters to a Friend 



delightful to spend in perfect contentment so 

 many thousand years in quiet study in college, 

 as many amid the grateful din of machines, as 

 many among human pain, so many thousand 

 in the sweet study of Nature among the dingles 

 and dells of Scotland, and all the other less im 

 portant parts of our world ! Then perhaps might 

 we,'with at least a show of reason, " shuffle off this 

 mortal coil" and look back upon our star with 

 something of satisfaction;! should be ashamed 

 if shame might be in the other world if 

 any of the powers, virtues, essences, etc., should 

 ask me for common knowledge concerning our 

 world which I could not bestow. But away 

 with this aged structure and we are back to our 

 handful of hasty years half gone, all of course 

 for the best did we but know all of the Crea 

 tor's plan concerning us. In our higher state 

 of existence we shall have time and intellect 

 for study. Eternity, with perhaps the whole un 

 limited creation of God as our field, should 

 satisfy us, and make us patient and trustful, 

 while we pray with the Psalmist, "Teach us to 

 [ 10 1 



