CHAP. XII.] CORRESPONDENCE. 391 



ance in my brain, to whom does this signify anything ? As 

 for the atoms, they have "been in far worse rows before they 

 became naturalised in my brain, but they forget the days 

 before, etc. 1 At any rate the atoms are a very tough lot, and 

 can stand a great deal of knocking about, and it is strange 

 to find a' number of them combining to form a man of 

 feeling. 



In your letter you apply the word imponderable to a 

 molecule. Don't do that again. It may also be worth 

 knowing that the aether cannot be molecular. If it were, it 

 would be a gas, and a pint of it would have the same pro- 

 perties as regards heat, etc., as a pint of air, except that 

 it would not be so heavy. 



Under what form (right or light) can an atom be 

 imagined ? Bezonian ! speak or die ! Now I must go to 

 post with two dogs in the rain. Your aift. friend, 



To THE SAME. 



11 Scroope Terrace, 

 Cambridge, 4th March 1876. 



Aias arrived here about a week ago. I read him with JEt. 44. 

 pleasure. He recalled the year 1851, when I got him 

 up. The outline of the play seems very bare and unpromis- 

 ing compared with some others, but this is relieved by other 

 features which are not in the " argument," as e.g. the loyalty 

 of the chorus and of Tecmessa to Aias under all circum- 

 stances (for the chorus in general veers about, and backs 

 occasionally, according as the wind blows or the cat jumps). 

 This contrasts favourably with the character of Athena, who 

 is but so so, only not so comic as the Atreidae. 



But why do Ulysses and Aias not name each other in 

 the same language ? I suppose the last syllable of Odysseus, 

 pronounced Anglice", is somewhat unpleasant in verse, and 

 Ajax, though familiarised by Pope, has lost the inter jectional 

 sound of your hero's name. 



1 Tennyson's In Memoriam. 



