1837 38. TROUBLES COME THICKLY. 103 



London. Well, this parenthesis, worthy of Knickerbocker, 

 purporteth to let you know that, till orders to the contrary 

 arrive, I shall write as I have written and spoken. . . . 



" I have no time to tell you how busy I am with Christison 

 all day, and chemistry and physiology all night. ... I need 

 not tell you, Tm lonesome without thee, my own dear br' other. 

 Your affectionate GEORGE." 



Two days later than the preceding letter is the last entry for 

 the year in the journal : 



"Saturday, October 20/i. I was agreeably surprised on 

 coming home to-day to find a parcel awaiting me, addressed in 

 a very pretty lady's hand, and, as it was easy to know, from 



Miss . I opened it with great glee, expecting an answer to 



a very odd, whimsical letter sent to thank her for a present of 

 bottles ; but how amazed and aghast was I to find in it that my 

 poor friend, Samuel Brown, had been seized with fever the day 

 he should have left for Berlin, and that ' accounts are very 

 unfavourable indeed/ Poor fellow ! I don't know what I should 

 do if I lost him, almost the only friend I have except my 

 brother ; gained as a friend, though an acquaintance before, at 

 a time when returning health and energy had sent me to the 

 careful study of the physical sciences. I was delighted to meet 

 him, and to meet one who so fervently reciprocated an enthu- 

 siastic love for such pursuits. The gaining of such a friend was 

 a stimulus to more active study, and a most potent motive to 

 steady perseverance, and many a day-dream of the future, and 

 many an air-built castle had him for its hero. And now, when 

 I every day expected a letter from him, to be stunned and 

 startled by such terrible news ! I prayed to God for him every 

 night, and perhaps God was beneficially watching over him, and 

 preventing his reaching Berlin, where cholera is very bad. It 

 has quite unsettled me ; the idea of studying what I thought 

 to have done chemistry this evening seems cruel, while a 

 brother- chemist is lying in the fangs of fever. I cannot open 

 my books, and instead am in a listless, melancholy mood of 

 mind. Troubles have come thick on me : my brother gone to 

 London to buffet with the distractions of that great city, my 



