LETTERS FROM 1866 TO 1872. 73 



His health, however, gave way again. He 

 tells his aunt that he has been fainting in 

 church ; that he finds his work too exciting ; 

 that his walking powers seem to have left him 

 everybody knows the symptoms when a 

 young man outgrows his strength ; he would 

 like some quiet place ; such a Haven of Kepose 

 or Castle of Indolence, for instance, as the Civil 

 Service. All young men yearn at times for 

 some place where there will be no work to do, 

 and it speaks volumes for the happy adminis- 

 tration of this realm that every young man in 

 his yearning fondly turns his eyes to the Civil 

 Service. 



He has hopes, he says, of getting on to the 

 reporting staff of the Daily News, ignorant of 

 the truth that a single year of work on a great 

 London paper would probably have finished 

 him off for good. Merciful, indeed, are the 

 gods, who grant to mankind, of all their 

 prayers, so few. 



In July he was prostrated by a terrible 

 illness, aggravated by the great heat of that 

 summer. This illness threatened to turn into 

 consumption a danger happily averted. But 



