A CHAOS OF CONCEITS. 99 



one decided anatomical impressions, bore a faint resem- 

 blance to a portion of the monastery of the Capucliins 

 in the Piazza Barberini at Rome, where, however, the 

 genus homo, and not the genera animalium, constituted 

 a more degrading demonstration. Along with house- 

 hold furniture, boxes, big tomes, portfolios, fossils, 

 geological and archreological specimens, were strewed 

 about the rooms ; the finer sorts of things occupied 

 shelves ; and these again variously set off by dried 

 starfishes, shells, trophies of the chase, meerschaums, 

 and the artistic or grotesque fancies of Forbes. As in- 

 discriminate as the Paris cliiffonniers, the Goodsirs 

 fraternity hoarded up organic forms and their special 

 idols, till they realised what appeared to bystanders a 

 chaos of natural history and domesticity only to be 

 surpassed by the oddest curiosity-shop in the Cowgate 

 of the ancient city. With the owners, however, 

 there was method in the midst of strange confusion, 

 besides much pleasantry in the conceit, and a kind of 

 aesthetic halo that crowned all the dust and cobwebs 

 of their domicile. 



Men born in the purple or nursed in the lap of 

 comfort have no notion of the homes and habits of the 

 student whose science is his stay and staff of life. The 

 above sketch, though derived from a special instance 

 presenting peculiarities apart from the general tone of 

 things, will nevertheless, in its broader features, indicate 

 the status quo prevailing thirty years ago in Edinburgh 

 quoad men of philosophic aims unblessed with pecu- 

 niary resources. Tin; Goodshs and Forbes had been 



