39 



the evening till midnight uniformly, and often later, was 

 devoted to reading in French, to chemical studies, writ- 

 ing for agricultural journals at home, in addition to the 

 journal which he kept for many years, and the long 

 family letter which was weekly forwarded to his home. 

 And we hesitate not to say that this correspondence and 

 journal, if they were to be published, would make as 

 interesting and instructive a volume of foreign resi- 

 dence, as any one that has been published by our coun- 

 trymen. Such was the ardor with which he prosecuted 

 his chemical researches, and so closely did he confine 

 himself to his single pursuit, that even the romantic 

 scenery around Edinburgh and the neighboring places, 

 famous in song and story, could not draw him from the 

 laboratory. It was not till the arrival of a friend from 

 America, that he visited the objects of interest in Edin- 

 burgh and its environs. Nor did this devotion to his 

 studies arise solely or mainly from the ambition of dis- 

 tinction. It sprang from a higher principle, a principle 

 of duty, which ever controlled him. " It seems to me a 

 duty," he said, in writing to a friend, " to keep one ob- 

 ject in view — diligently to improve the extraordinary ad- 

 vantages of my situation. This can only be done by 

 withdrawing my attention from other objects, and devot- 

 ing every faculty to this alone. I feel sure that I am fast 

 laying up a store of knowledge, that under the pro- 



