38 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



the whole class to do them. These will of course have to be 

 corrected ; and in many cases it will be desirable to explain to 

 individual students whatever they may have failed to under- 

 stand in the lectures. Now, the correcting these exercises 

 and conferring with individual students will be one of the 

 most important duties of the assistant, and one which I 

 imagine will be far from disagreeable or unprofitable. I may 

 state that I intend mentioning the assistant's name in the 

 prospectus if, as I trust, no objection is made to my doing so 

 by the Senate. So the engagement I propose to you is for 

 six months, commencing from the ist October, and as hono- 

 rarium I would propose the sum of sixty guineas (63), or 

 it will be better to say from the I5th September to the end of 

 March at the above rate> as we shall have a good deal to 

 prepare before the beginning. 



I need hardly assure you how pleasant it will be to me 

 personally, and satisfactory officially, to have you with me, 

 and that I should do my best to make the arrangement 

 comfortable to you and conducive to your advancement. But 

 I ought to say at once that I don't think you would under 

 this arrangement have time during the day for private work, 

 so that the only kind of work which you could carry on 

 simultaneously with it would be evening work, such as trans- 

 lation. In connection with this latter subject I may mention 

 (entre nous) that I am writing to Gerhardt to ask him to prepare 

 an abridgment of his Chimie Organique in one small volume, 

 I providing to find a translator into English of course I 

 should first ask you to undertake it though I fear he will 

 require to share the profits of the translation with the 

 translator. 



Write me as soon as possible your decision for the sake 

 of the prospectus and believe me ever 



Yours sincerely, 



ALEX. W. WILLIAMSON. 



P.S. Remember me to Bunsen and tell him I shall write 

 very soon to tell him all about the result to which he so 

 cordially contributed. 



Nearly forty years afterwards, in 1888, I had the 

 pleasure of presenting to University College on behalf 

 of the subscribers the portrait of the Master which 

 now hangs there, 



Soon after I commenced my chemical studies, 



