Various Affairs. 331 



is devoted to the synthetic philosophy, and in a letter giv- 

 ing his cordial adhesion he proposes to translate some of 

 the essays into Danish, regretting that there is not a suf- 

 ficient public for the large works. Dr. Vetter is beginning 

 to translate the Biology, and the French translation of the 

 Biology, Gazelles tells me, is finished the fifth volume 

 being in Bailhere's hands. I heard the other day, too, that 

 the Japanese are beginning to translate ! 



I hope to get a letter shortly telling me of your safe 

 arrival. 



37 QUEEN'S GARDENS, December iS, 1875. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS: I am very sorry indeed to have 

 an account of your health that is so unsatisfactory alike 

 by what it says and by what it implies. To think that you 

 should have come over here mainly to recruit, and now 

 that you should be apparently no better than when you 

 left, and all because you would go on working and worry- 

 ing instead of resting ! Your intention to be careful now 

 amounts to nothing ; you have all along been intending 

 that and doing the contrary. That you will either cut 

 short your life or incapacitate yourself is an inference one 

 cannot avoid drawing, seeing that in your case, as in a 

 host of other cases, experience seems to have not the 

 slightest effect. It is a kind of work-drunkenness, and you 

 seem to be no more able to resist the temptation to work 

 than the dipsomaniac resists alcohol. Excuse my strong 

 expressions. I use them in the hope that they may do some 

 good, though it is a very faint hope. ... As though ful- 

 filment of some passing purpose was necessary, and main- 

 tenance of life unnecessary ! What is the use of all this 

 propagation of knowledge if it is to end in such results ? 



38 QUEEN'S GARDENS, December 28, 1875. 

 The other day I received some news from Russia which 

 will interest you. A professor at Kiev proposes, in con- 

 junction with his colleagues and pupils, to translate the 



