XIL] LIFE IN ST. ANDREWS. 429 



which I have got, and power of work, you will be 

 pleased to hear that the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 have given me the Keith prize for my paper on the con- 

 duction of heat, which is probably the last tough job 

 I shall do in physics. 



' Our students, by a strange freak, have elected John 

 Stuart Mill the Rector for three years an office more of 

 duty than show, in fact quite prosaic. It must be a 

 great bore to Mill, who has begged off delivering his 

 address till January 1867. But the business of the 

 University cannot stand still till then/ 



To E. C. BATTEN, ESQ. 



' December Zlst, 1865. 



4 ... The return of the anniversary is not needed to 

 make me feel old. I have lost nearly all the elasticity of 

 youth, and much of its hopefulness : and the thoughts of 

 perhaps living on a few years more, are intensely associ- 

 ated with the anxious prospect of my sons' settlement in 

 life. It is an anxiety so great as to absorb almost every 

 other care, and I feel, alas ! how little I can as situated 

 now do for them/ 



To A. WILLS, ESQ. 



1 EDINBURGH, January 2nd, 1866. 



' I met your brother at Birmingham at the house 

 of Mr. C. E. Mathews. There was a large Alpine 

 party, and I had the melancholy pleasure of hearing 

 from Mr. Whymper's own lips the details of that awful 

 accident. For a long time it quite haunted me. Mr. 

 Whymper's letter to the Times, so perfect in taste and 

 tone as well as in narration, raised him immensely in my 

 estimation, and the impression was confirmed by his 

 bearing and behaviour at Birmingham, which was every- 

 thing that could be wished, though he was subject to 

 temptation of being violently lionized. But I was 



Oto say that I was concerned to hear from your 

 er that Mrs. Wills' health had prevented her ac- 

 companying you to Sixt as usual. It must have thrown 

 a damp over your autumn excursion, but I hope you will 



