CHAP. V.] OPENING MANHOOD 1847 TO 1850. 145 



you, during your transit through Edinburgh on your way 

 here, to go either to Mr. Kemp's establishment in Infirmary 

 Street, beside the College, or to some other dealer in metals, 

 and there purchase and obtain two ounces of metallic bismuth 

 (called Eegulus of Bismuth), either powder or lumpish all 

 one. Thus you may perceive that the end of this letter is 

 in two ounces of Eegulus of Bismuth, that is, the metal 

 bismuth, which if you do bring it with you, will please me 

 well. Not that I am turned chemist. By no means ; but 

 common cook. My fingers are abominable with glue and 

 chalk, gum and flour, wax and rosin, pitch and tallow, black 

 oxide of iron, red ditto and vinegar. By combining these 

 ingredients, I strive to please Prof. Thomson, who intends 

 to submit them to Tyndall and Knoblauch, who, by means 

 of them, are to discover the secrets of nature, and the origin 

 of the magne-crystallic forces. 



Now, if by coming here you could turn me from a cook 

 to a grammarian by an irresistible influence you would do 

 well ; but if you remember the way I used to translate at 

 the Academy, distorting the Latin of Livy to mean what I 

 had preconceived, you will understand that at first I had 

 not only to find out what the author meant, but to become 

 convinced that it could not be what I thought it was. 



John Wilson's lectures on Moral Philosophy do not 

 improve on reconsideration ; they become indistinct and are 

 resolved into the excellence of happiness, the acquiredness 

 of conscience, and general good-humour, philanthropy and 

 <f)i\ayaOia. Here is an outline of Abstract Mor. Phil. : 



1. The principles of the growth of the mind (that is, 

 the acquisition of opinions, propensities, and abilities). 



2. The principles of government (the governor suits his 

 actions to the laws of the thing governed). 



3. The principle of sympathy (sauce for goose is sauce 

 for gander). 



Out of these heads may one make something ? 



As it is bed-time, and I have to put the glue and oxide 

 of iron into shape to-night, I must stop here, and remain in 

 hope of seeing you soon (say when). 



