280 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



the finest spider-web filament of a nerve present to receive or 

 retain the impression of emptiness. The same individual wns 

 lately met in one of these dog-days, brandishing a large cotton 

 umbrella. On an explanation being demanded of his motive in 

 flourishing so elegant and ornamental an appendage, he answered, 

 ' that it looked medical/ There's some furniture in the head- 

 piece after all ! Few would contest the originality of the idea. 



" I have not looked out at the window for five weeks, so of the 

 outer world I can tell you nothing, and my inner w r oiid is not 

 worth the looking into. I am to be shipped off to the country, 

 Newhaven. or Seafield, as soon as I can bear removal, and then I 

 shall hope to see yourself among us. John Cairns has been 

 most kind, has called twice a week, and brought me books, and 

 in every way contributed more to my comfort than any other of 

 my friends. His friendship is a debt I owe to you, and I give 

 you a mountain-load of thanks for it. He was with us last 

 night, and had been called on while absent by some individual, 

 whom he supposed to be you. Have you been somnambulizing, 

 or making spiritual progressions along the railway the body 

 being left behind for the sake of coolness ? I did not think it 

 could be you, but would not be positive. Make a clean breast 

 in your next." 



" 29th June 1842. 



" MY DEAR DANIEL, I was prevented writing you last night 

 by S. Brown coming to spend the evening with me. To-night I 

 am alone, and may, in the first place, inform you that I am 

 ordered off to the country, and shall remove to the seaside on 

 Monday next. I am now nearly free from pain, except from an 

 abscess which has formed near the heel ; but as the doctors 

 think it will prove on the whole beneficial, I don't mind the 

 trifling amount of suffering it entails. It makes a very great 

 difference on the feeling with which pain is borne, to know that 

 its issue will be favourable ; the same amount of it, if known to 

 be the index of formidable or incurable distemper, would seem 

 unbearable. 



"You tell me in your last you still write verses. T have 

 entirely abandoned the task, as I may truly call it in my case. 



