xi.J FAILURE OF HEALTH. 385 



devised plans for his photographic education, you will, 

 I trust, not dissuade him from accepting the invitation I 

 enclose for him, open for your perusal. After what you 

 say I really thirst to see the good fellow again ; and 

 considering that all his other friends are within easier 

 reach, and that yourself and many others have the road 

 to Chamouni open to them in prospect, my position with 

 reference to him is very different indeed. Looking to the 

 uncertainties of the future, it is very doubtful whether 

 he and I shall ever meet more if not now. So if you 

 find his heart as much bent towards Scotland as you 

 suppose, do postpone the photography for a week and 



him come. 



' Do not think me too selfish in all this. I have not 

 a moment more, but will finish this letter another day, 

 perhaps to-morrow/ 



To DR. SYMONDS. 



' EDINBURGH, April 1859. 



* ... Now I must take my first leisure time to assure 

 you that we were very grateful for your kind invitation 

 to stay with you, and that it is not without much 

 hesitation that we have decided for the present, at least, 

 to deny ourselves this gratification. The plain state of 

 facts is this : putting economy out of consideration for 

 the present, when our session draws near a close I have 

 such a longing for absolute rest that other inducements 

 seem for a time to have little weight. True, indeed, 

 you have always made Clifton Hill House a place of real 

 repose, and such, through your kindness, 1 have often 

 enough found it, l>ut, lial we gone to Clifton we must have 

 gone still farther, ... to London especially. Though 

 my presence there would be very favourable to obtaining 

 ittcntinn towards my theory which 1 wish, even that 



penonal gratification mi-lit easily be too dearly bought, 

 if I were agitated in mind and exhausted in body. And 

 thus as I have said, languor has in the meantime piv- 

 d over even the powerful stimulation of both friend- 

 ship and aml'iti"ii.' 



