Last Years. 385 



moments of exhilaration or encourac^emcnt that came 

 from time to time, my gallant old friend's life was 

 steadily ebbing- away. The case in many outward 

 respects simulated pulmonary consumption. The ap- 

 proach of winter filled him with dread, but inexorable 

 tasks prevented his retreat southward until February, 

 when, accompanied by his sister, he went to Thomas- 

 ville, Georgia. Meanwhile in Spencer's letters the 

 note of alarm is very distinctly heard : 



38 Queen's Gardens, London, W., January j>, 1885. 

 My dear Youmans : 1 have been looking for a letter 

 from you for some little time, and hope that the rather 

 long interval does not indicate any disturbance in your 

 health from the cold weather, although I decidedly fear it. 

 I regret greatly that you so persistently resist the sugges- 

 tions to go South, and continually hope that you may run 

 risks without evil, although you have so many times ex- 

 perienced evil from doing this. 



January /j>, 188^. 

 The long interval since I heard from you leads me to 

 fear that you are ill, or at any rate suffering seriously from 

 the cold weather. Pray go South. 



January i^, i88j. 



After sending off my note yesterday, in some anxiety 

 about your state, I was glad to get a letter from you this 

 morning which relieved me a little, though not fully, for it 

 appears that the winter is telling upon you, if not in a re- 

 newed pulmonary attack, still in other ways. 



Why will you, against your better knowledge, yield to 

 this American mania of sacrificing yourself in trying to do 

 more work ? You accept in theory the gospel of relaxa- 

 tion ; why can you not act upon it ? What is the use of 

 both abridging life and making it full of physical miseries, 

 all in the hope of achieving a little more, and eventually 



