CHAP. X.] SCIENTIFIC WORK. 301 



To do the thing adequately, without extenuation, volun- 

 tary exaggeration, or colouring of any kind, is far beyond 

 human power. The consciousness of the presence of God 

 is the only guarantee for true self-knowledge. Everything 

 else is mere fiction, fancy portraiture, done to please one's 

 friends or self, or to exhibit one's moral discrimination at the 

 expense of character. 







And now be assured that I feel like Spenser's " Diamond," 

 who had " Priamond's " spirit in him as well as his own. 

 There is another human aid that is with me. The memory 

 of my father is a great help to being practical and active. 

 The more I think of him the better I get on, and I am the 

 less tempted to absurdity and eccentricity in thought. 



As for outward act, no one here seems to think me odd 

 or daft. Some did at Cambridge, but here I have escaped. 

 My rule is to avoid the company of young men whom I 

 do not respect, unless I have the control of them. 



King's College has its Senior Wrangler this year. I 

 announced it to my class yesterday morning. Lightfoot has 

 commissioned some more from me to be sent to Trinity. 



To E. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq. 



129 Union Street, 

 Aberdeen, 7th February 1858. 



When I last wrote I was on my way here. Since then 

 I have been at work, Statics and Dynamics ; two days a week 

 being devoted to Principles of Mechanism, and afterwards to 

 Eriction, Elasticity and Strength of Materials, and also Clocks 

 and Watches, when we come to the pendulum. We have 

 just begun hydrostatics. I have found a better text-book 

 for hydrostatics than I had thought for, the run of them are 

 so bad, both Cambridge and other ones, Galbraith and 

 Haugh ton's Manual of Hydrostatics (Longmans, 2s.) There 

 are also manuals of Mechanics and Optics of the same set. 

 There is no humbug in them, and many practical matters 

 are introduced instead of mere intricacies. The only defect 

 is a somewhat ostentatious resignation of the demonstrations 



