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91 



prevented him putting his own hand to the spade, 

 he drew up a yearly programme for his gardener, 

 in which all details were regulated. He had begun 

 by this time to write. His paper on Darwin, which 

 had the merit of convincing on one point the 

 philosopher himself, had indeed been written before 

 this in London lodgings ; but his pen was not idle 

 at Claygate ; and it was here he wrote (among other 

 things) that review of ' Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility, 

 and Allied Topics,' which Dr. Matthews Duncan 

 prefixed by way of introduction to the second edition 

 of the work. The mere act of writing seems to 

 cheer the vanity of the most incompetent ; but a 

 correction accepted by Darwin, and a whole review 

 borrowed and reprinted by Matthews Duncan, are 

 compliments of a rare strain, and to a man still 

 unsuccessful must have been precious indeed. 

 There was yet a third of the same kind in store for 

 him ; and when Munro himself owned that he had 

 found instruction in the paper on Lucretius, we 

 may say that Fleeming had been crowned in the 

 capitol of reviewing. 



Croquet, charades, Christmas magic lanterns for 

 the village children, an amateur concert or a review 

 article in the evening ; plenty of hard work by 

 day ; regular visits to meetings of the British 

 Association, from one of which I find him character- 

 istically writing : * I cannot say that I have had any 

 amusement yet, but I am enjoying the dulness and 



