CHAP. IX.] ABERDEEN. 265 



to clear up everything, and I got on better with explaining 

 the properties of elastic fluids than I had any reason to hope. 

 So when I have doubts about the best mode of explaining 

 anything, I must consult your letter, only it will not do for 

 ever. I must have a new one now and then. 



But I have not been so glad for long. Knowing you of 

 old, I can see how things are by the way you write, and it 

 is not always that similar announcements have given me 

 similar satisfaction. 



So I am glad that you do not know what "it" was. 

 Avoid the neuter pronoun. " It " is unworthy of beasts that 

 perish. " He " and " She " are for ever and ever. What 

 the form of the pronoun may be after this I cannot tell, but 

 I think more is meant in the distinction than is fully 

 expressed in this life. 



The Sadducees on the one side, and the ascetics on the 

 other, point out the errors. Solomon, Prov. viii., et passim, 

 and Eph. vi., indicate matter of contemplation not unallied 

 to action, which in good ground bears good fruit. 



But as Urania remarked to Melpomene, I am but dis- 

 playing the fact of my belonging to a lower stage in the 

 scale of things, so I must for the present go down beside my 

 native rill. 



With respect to this " northern hermitage," my cell is 

 pretty commodious. In quitting the coenobitic cloister of 

 Trinity for the howling wilderness of Union Street, I have 

 not been made an anchoret. It is quite consistent with the 

 eremitic life to modify one's fast in friends' houses 4 days 

 per week or so. 



One thing I am thankful for, though perhaps you will 

 not believe it. Up to the present time I have not even been 

 tempted to mystify any one. 



I have made out who were most likely to excite my 

 passion that way, and I have avoided some, and broken the 



ice with others. I am glad B is not here ; he would 



have ruined me. I once met him. I was as much 

 astonished as he was at the chaotic statements I began to 

 make. But as far as I can learn I have not been mis- 



