1839-40. PAPER AT PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 221 



" Meanwhile, I have been working at mathematics and al- 

 gebra, attending a class, and making some progress ; in mathe- 

 matics, getting on sufficiently well, but a good deal stumbled in 

 algebra by my sheer ignorance of common arithmetic. But 

 being engaged at home in the revision of that, I look to quickly 

 making up all lee- way, and succeeding in algebraic computation 

 fully. ... I shall have little time for letters this winter, and 

 only on short paper!' 



Notwithstanding this prudent warning, a letter on foolscap 

 was not long in following, with no lack of interesting informa- 

 tion, and fun in addition : 



" That penny postage bill, when will it come into operation, and 

 save poor men like you and me the dreadful thought that before 

 one can fulfil brotherly duties, one must either disburse coins 

 ourselves, or make a demand on the purse of another ? Such 

 thought working in my brain, as it has been likewise, I doubt 

 not, in yours, has hitherto delayed my writing ; and now I am 

 not altogether hopeless of a letter coming from you to-day, 

 before this is put in the Post- Office. 



" I have been very busy, writing till rny side was stiff and 

 cramped with stooping, otherwise I should have written you 

 long ago, the mere consumption of time being not so complete, 

 that I could not have cut off half an hour to write you, but the 

 way in which the time was taken up left me little ability or 

 wish for further scribbling. I have finished and read at the 

 Physical Society the Introductory Discourse I spoke of, to the 

 great delight of all present. I shall send it to you as soon as I 

 can get a copy made by John M'Lure. I am satisfied with it 

 myself, and think you will like many parts of it. I have striven 

 in it above all things to be earnest, to have something to teach 

 whereon to expend words ; not words built up like ice palaces 

 or frostwork, to which here and there one may tag a thought or 

 two. I have neither been a quack nor a hypocrite, laying claims 

 to no virtues or talents I did not possess, but have been anxious 

 to be taken and estimated as I am. I think you will be pleased 

 with the consideration of ' The Desire of Fame ;' but of this 

 more hereafter, when I send you the paper itself. Besides the 



