CHAP. IX.] DEATH OF HIS FATHER, 255 



To LEWIS CAMPBELL, Esq. 



Trin. Coll., 22d April 1856. 



I have had many things to attend to lately, which have 

 kept me from writing to you. I am glad you wrote to me. 

 I got a very kind letter from your mother and Bob, for 

 which you must thank them meanwhile. My uncles, Eobert 

 and Albert, stayed with me till the 15th. That day I got 

 a letter from Cambridge about college matters, and so I had 

 to set to work at home more vigorously. George Wedder- 

 burn came in the afternoon, and we had two hard days' 

 work of various kinds. 



On Friday he and I left Glenlair, and I got here on 

 Saturday, and since yesterday have been lecturing. 



All things are as if I had been up after a common 

 vacation, and I see them all the same as they used to be. 

 I have got back among chapels and halls and scholarships, 

 and all the regular routine, with now and then some expres- 

 sion of condolence, which is all that strangers can or ought 

 to afford. Neither they nor I enter on a subject which 

 must be misunderstood ; but it seems to me that while all 

 the old subjects are as interesting to me as ever, I talk about 

 them without understanding the men I talk to. 



I have two or three stiff bits of work to get through this 

 term here, and I hope to overtake them. When the term is 

 over I must go home and pay diligent attention to every- 

 thing there, so that I may learn what to do. 



The first thing I must do is carry on my father's work 

 of personally superintending everything at home, and for 

 doing this I have his regular accounts of what used to be 

 done, and the memories of all the people, who tell me every- 

 thing they know. As for my own pursuits, it was my 

 father's wish, and it is mine, that I should go on with them. 

 We used to settle that what I ought to be engaged in was 

 some occupation of teaching, admitting of long vacations for 

 being at home ; and when my father heard of the Aberdeen 

 proposition he very much approved. I have not heard any- 

 thing very lately, but I believe my name is not yet put out 



