76 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



began to keep a methodical meteorological journal ; record- 

 ing the temperature thrice a day by a thermometer hung 

 outside the office window, and, after a few months, recording 

 the weather also. These records were regularly published 

 every week in The Conception Bay Mercury, and were the 

 earliest meteorological notes which were issued by any 

 Newfoundland newspaper. 



Philip Gosse now held the second place in the office. 

 His standing duty was to take a duplicate copy of the 

 ledger, in three volumes, for transmission to the firm at 

 Poole. This was easy work, for he estimated that he 

 could have completed it, in a steady effort, within three 

 months, and that without any distressing fatigue. There 

 was additional work, such as occasional copying of letters 

 and routine jobs ; and in the times of pressure — as in the 

 outfits for the ice and for Labrador, and in the settlement 

 of accounts — he bore his part. None the less, he enjoyed 

 an easy time and plenty of leisure. Early in 1833, under 

 the influence of the then much-admired apocalyptical 

 romances of the Rev. George Croly, Philip Gosse achieved 

 rather a long poem, The Restoration of Israel, which is 

 scarcely likely ever to be printed. His main and most 

 absorbing occupation, however, was from this time forth 

 natural history, and, for the present, entomology in par- 

 ticular. I have before me a large collection of letters 

 written by Philip Gosse at this period, to his family and to 

 Samuel Harrison in Poole, and to W. C. St. John in Har- 

 bour Grace. They breathe the full professional ardour of 

 the collector ; they supply scarcely any facts concerning the 

 life of the writer, but chronicle with an almost passionate 

 eagerness the daily history of his discoveries and experi- 

 ments. With the sudden development of intellect and 

 conscience which I have described as taking place in 1832, 

 there came the conscious pleasure in perception, and the 



