PROFESSIONAL DIFFICULTIES Ixvii 



Thomson, has contributed a note on the subject, which will be 

 found in the Appendix and to which I must refer the reader. He 

 is to conceive in the meanwhile for himself Fleeming's manifold 

 engagements : his service on the Committee on Electrical Stan- 

 dards, his lectures on electricity at Chatham, his chair at the 

 London University, his partnership with Sir William Thomson 

 and Mr. Varley in many ingenious patents, his growing credit 

 with engineers and men of science ; and he is to bear in mind 

 that of all this activity and acquist of reputation, the immediate 

 profit was scanty. Soon after his marriage, Fleeming had left 

 the service of Messrs Liddell & Gordon, and entered into a 

 general engineering partnership with Mr. Forde, a gentleman 

 in a good way of business. It was a fortunate partnership in 

 this, that the parties retained their mutual respect unlessened 

 and separated with regret ; but men's affairs, like men, have 

 their times of sickness, and by one of these unaccountable 

 variations, for hard upon ten years the business was disap- 

 pointing and the profits meagre. c Inditing drafts of German 

 railways which will never get made : ' it is thus I find Fleeming, 

 not without a touch of bitterness, describe his occupation. Even 

 the patents hung fire at first. There was no salary to rely on ; 

 children were coming and growing up ; the prospect was often 

 anxious. In the days of his courtship, Fleeming had written 

 to Miss Austin a dissuasive picture of the trials of poverty, 

 assuring her these were no figments but truly bitter to support ; 

 he told her this, he wrote, beforehand, so that when the pinch 

 came and she suffered, she should not be disappointed in her- 

 self nor tempted to doubt her own magnamimity : a letter of 

 admirable wisdom and solicitude. But now that the trouble 

 came, he bore it very lightly. It was his principle, as he once 

 prettily expressed it, ' to enjoy each day's happiness, as it arises, 

 like birds or children.' His optimism, if driven out at the door, 

 would come in again by the window ; if it found nothing but 

 blackness in the present, would hit upon some ground of con- 

 solation in the future or the past. And his courage and energy 

 were indefatigable. In the year 1863, soon after the birth of 

 their first son, they moved into a cottage at Claygate near 



