Popular Education, and Other Matters. 253 



better strike your work and come to this country for a 

 year. Forget philosophy, and dip into American life; I 

 believe it would be the very thing for you. Think of it. 



37 QUEEN'S GARDENS, BAYSWATER, LONDON, W., May j, 1868. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS: Your first letter, or rather that of 

 Mrs. Youmans written on your behalf, reached me at Rome, 

 and the second and third I got since my return. I cannot 

 say that my hopes that a journey through Italy would put 

 me into working order were realized. I came back no 

 better than I went in fact, in some respects not so well. I 

 have, however, been improving very considerably during 

 the last week, especially in sleeping, which is my great 

 difficulty. Indeed, I now feel pretty sanguine that with 

 tolerable care I shall shortly get into my usual state. 



Thanks for your reminder about my visit to America. 

 I fear, however, there is no prospect of my soon respond- 

 ing to your wish. My recent experience has given me 

 very conclusive proof that, with my irritable nervous sys- 

 tem, I am quite unfit for travelling. I was greatly ex- 

 hausted by my journey to Marseilles, although I stopped a 

 night at Paris and a night at Lyons. My voyage to Naples 

 did me further damage. Sleep was out of the question. 

 What little I got during three nights I owed to morphine. 

 And during the last three weeks of my stay abroad, a lead- 

 ing subject of thought with me was, how I should get home 

 again with the least amount of injury, which was the 

 shortest route, and how it might best be broken into short 

 stays. After this experience you will see that it is out of 

 the question for me to commit myself to a ten or twelve 

 days' voyage, and to such railway journeys as travelling 

 through the United States would involve. If I should 

 ever again get into a normal state which does not seem 

 very probable I may decide differently ; but while I remain 

 as I am I must give up the idea of extensive journeys. 



A further reason for thus deciding is that, quite apart 



