144 '^HE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



At no time was Philip Gosse ready to admit that connec- 

 tion between the physical and the spiritual well-being of a 

 man, the relation between bodily health and mental health, 

 which to many of us may seem one of the finest lessons 

 which life has to give. It was very strange that one of 

 such infinitely delicate and accurate perceptions in observa- 

 tion of animals and plants, one to whom the movements 

 of a butterfly and the conscience of an orchid were almost 

 preternaturally obvious, should be unable to adapt the 

 same habit of observation to humanity and to himself. 

 But it must be said that he was never a very subtle judge 

 of man, and always a very bad critic of himself. There 

 were many conditions of his life in Alabama which pre- 

 disposed him to melancholy and physical depression, and 

 against which he should have been upon his guard. This 

 social isolation, the repressed indignations of his patriotism 

 and of his humanity, his narrow resources and hopelessness 

 of improvement, were enough to cast him down in spirits. 

 But in addition, the autumn in those hot, damp countries 

 is exceedingly distressing to a stranger ; the neighbourhood 

 of the swamp is deadly, and the decay of the monstrous 

 body of vegetation almost fatal to organic elasticity. Un- 

 happily, however, in a manner I need not dwell upon at 

 distressing length, my father, who would have hit with 

 luminous directness on the cause of such symptoms in an 

 insect or a bird, saw in his own condition nothing less 

 serious than the chastisement of God on one who was 

 sinning against light. The more wretched he felt, the 

 more certain was he of the Divine displeasure, and the 

 more did he lash his fainting spirit to the task of religious 

 exercises. His diary is full of self-upbraidings, penitential 

 cries, vows of greater watchfulness in the future ; and it is 

 downright pathetic to read these effusions, and to know 

 that it was quinine that the poor soul wanted in its 



