First Visit to England. 123 



scenery was fine, but I cared nothing for it and paid no 

 attention to it. We went from Edinburgh to Stirling; be- 

 yond that a few miles, took the old-fashioned stage-coach, 

 riding on top for eight miles to Loch Katrine, five miles 

 long, which we crossed in a packet steamer; staged four 

 miles again, then crossed Loch Lomond, walked a mile and 

 a half, and stayed all night. Saturday morning, at six, 

 took the boat again on Loch Lomond and went to Glas- 

 gow, and then to Edinburgh by rail. Spencer, of course, 

 wished to help us all he could, on various occasions ex- 

 pressing his warmest obligations, indebtedness, etc. ; but, 

 aside from all this, he is the most prompt, ready, adaptive, 

 and useful man on such an expedition I have ever known. 

 He is wonderfully practical, and handles circumstances as 

 they arise with all the energy and readiness of an experi- 

 enced business man. A hundred vagabonds were demand- 

 ing stipends. I was confused, and would have given them 

 all I had. He knew just what to do, and did it decisively, 

 allowing no nonsense, and dealing sharply with importunate 

 or outrageous claimants. 



His health is bad. The difficulty is with his brain — 

 sleeplessness. He has not had a night's rest since he wrote 

 the Psychology. He can't sleep, and if he does he wakes 

 ten or twenty times during the night. He is very excit- 

 able, and when excited cannot sleep at all, gets alarmed at 

 the state of his brain, and flies from the scene of danger. 

 He undertook to attend to some Derby ladies at the expo- 

 sition, and had to flv from the citv before his time. 



As respects his business the poor man has had a troubled 

 time indeed. His books have never paid him anything, but, 

 on the contrary, have weighed him down like a millstone.* 



* In reading this passage the reader must not forget that it was written 

 thirty years ago. Many years have now elapsed since Mr. Spencer's books 

 began to return a considerable and steadily increasing income to the au- 

 thor and his publishers. 



