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attractions. Under such circumstances, Thomas Archer Hirst was 

 articled, in 1846, to Mr. Richard Carter, then resident in Halifax, in 

 whose office, at the time, I happened to be principal assistant. He 

 was then about sixteen years of age. His father had been engaged in 

 the wool trade, his mother was a widow, and he was the youngest of 

 a family of three sons. 



The West Riding of Yorkshire was then the battle-field of two 

 great rival railway companies the West Riding Junction and the 

 West Riding Union. Our duty at the time consisted in the prepara- 

 tion of plans and sections of the lines proposed by the la.tter company. 

 Save in the office, I saw but little of Hirst at the commencement 

 he being told off in the field to a party different from mine. But an 

 intimacy gradually grew up between us, and in due time, though 

 I was ten years his senior, we became steadfast friends. In- 

 fluenced by the writings of Carlyle, Emerson, Fichte, and other 

 philosophers, I held, in those days, very serious views of human con- 

 duct and duty. After some time, I noticed that my conversations 

 with Hirst were producing a similar shade of earnestness in his mind. 

 In 1848, I quitted England for Germany, choosing the University of 

 Marburg, in Hesse Cassel, where, in regard to science, Bunsen was 

 then the leading star. Hirst, instead of pursuing the profession 

 chosen for him, soon resolved to follow me to that University. He 

 paid me a preliminary visit in the summer of 1849. It was associated 

 with a pathetic incident. Prior to the examination for the Doctor's 

 Degree, it was customary for the candidates to visit the Professors, 

 and to invite them to be present at the examination. I was on my 

 way to the rooms of one of the Professors, when the postman, meeting 

 me in the street, placed a letter in my hands. It was from a young 

 colleague of Hirst's, who worked in the same office with him in 

 Halifax. I was stunned by the perusal of its first few lines. Hirst 

 had left his mother in good health, and this letter informed me of 

 her sudden death. The writer told me that he had also written to 

 Hirst, but that knowing his strong attachment to his mother, he was 

 afraid to let him know -the worst. He trusted to my discretion 

 to disclose it to him in the gentlest manner possible. On 

 returning to our lodgings, I found that Hirst had received the 

 letter announcing his mother's illness, and was making preparations 

 for his immediate return to England. He was far from well. In 

 those days he frequently suffered from a malady of the throat, which 

 entirely quitted him in later years. Everything being prepared for 

 the journey, he had his trunk taken to the coach office, where, after 

 waiting some time, he entered the Post Wagen. I was in great per- 

 plexity ; for, while shrinking from imparting to him the knowledge 

 in my possession, I could not bear to allow him to return, cherishing 

 the delusion that his mother still lived. On squeezing his hand for 



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