292 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



letter to Professor Worthington, dated Boat of Garten, 

 14th September, 1903. After remarks about the weather 

 and the doings of friends, he proceeds : 



" This is Sunday and I am going to continue our conversation 

 of three weeks ago, and give you two quotations, one neutralising 

 the other, I think. The first is from W. H. Howells, 1 and is 

 called ' The Bewildered Guest ' : 



' I was not asked if I should like to come, 

 I have not seen my host since here I came, 

 Or had a word of welcome in his name : 

 Some say that we shall never see him ; some 

 That we shall see him elsewhere and then know 

 Why we were bid. How long I am to stay 

 I have not the least notion. None, they say, 

 Was ever told when he should come or go ; 

 But every now and then there bursts upon 

 The song and mirth a lamentable noise, 

 A sound of shrieks and sobs that strikes our joys 

 Dumb in our breasts ; and then some one is gone. 

 They say we meet him, none knows when or where ; 

 We know we shall not meet him here again.' 



The second is in Paul Reiver, by Jerome K. Jerome, a book 

 which I strongly recommend, if you haven't read it already : 

 ' " What do you believe," I asked, " father really, I mean ? " 

 The night had fallen. My father put his arm round me and 

 drew me to him, " That we are God's children, little brother," 

 he answered, "that what He wills for us is best. It may be 

 life, it may be sleep ; it will be best. I cannot think that He 

 will let us die ; that were to think of Him as without purpose. 

 But His uses may not be our desires. We must trust Him. 

 ' Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' " 



1 Is this not W. D. H., American novelist and poet ? 



