2 ENNUI AND ITS ORIGIN. 



tivity of mind and body. A little querulousness (you 

 must excuse the expression) is now and then apparent; 

 and you resemble the mariner who sighs to exchange 

 the apathy of the calm, for the excitement of the gale, 

 or even the perils of the storm. This seemed to me 

 " passing strange ;" but one phrase in your letter 

 has enabled me to solve the enigma. While pursuing 

 your studies in the house, you appear happy — while 

 there you find your hbrary " a dukedom large enough 

 — while executing those missions of " peace and good 

 will to man " which the exercise of your profession 

 requires, you are all I could wish my friend to be ; 

 but when you tell me that there are moments in your 

 rambles in which you are tempted to envy the acti^dty 

 of the husbandman, or the ardour of the sportsman, I 

 strongly suspect the mind is in some degree " dis- 

 eased;" something is wanting, and that something 

 seems to be simply this : The husbandman takes a 

 deep interest in the fluctuations of the weather, and 

 the revolutions of the seasons. " The seed-time and 

 harvest" are indicated by a thousand circumstances, 

 which he is prompt to notice ; these modify his labour 

 and influence its result. The sportsman, in like man- 

 ner, finds his interest aroused by a thousand varying 

 phenomena : the mildness, or the severit)' of the winter ; 

 a late or an early spring ; a dry or rainy summer, all 

 produce certain results upon the objects of his pursuit, 



