1859. THE WORLD TO COME NEARER. 471 



and so weak, that if you breathe on it, it disappears like heated 

 gun-cotton ; the gazing face to face, and as one always feels, 

 perhaps for the last time, at the good Faraday, and other great, 

 lovable, or at least admirable men ; the long profitable chats 

 with the landlord of the Tavistock j 1 the genial controversies 

 with Lady May, leader of Her Majesty's opposition; the sweet 

 face of dear A. There ! I have got to the top of the hill, and I 

 must stop a bit to recover my wind. All these London expe- 

 riences did me good, especially as my Sabbath at Cambridge 

 was, though a sad, yet a pleasant modulation in another key, of 

 the London strain. 



" The change of weather has a little undone that good, yet I 

 don't think seriously. Your affectionate friend, 



" GEORGE WILSON." 



Ungenial weather lessened out- door pleasures while in the 

 country. " The hills all round, and even low down, had white 

 mantles yesterday, and some of them are slow to part with them 

 to-day. The only plants that appear to enjoy the weather are 

 the snowdrops, and they come ready-made out of the sky." 

 " Snow, rain, and hail, have apparently been recommended 

 change of air, and come here in search of it. The day before 

 yesterday another stranger, High Wind, Esq., whom I never 

 met here before, paid the village a visit, and made a great row ; 

 but he has packed up, and I hear nothing of him to-day. 



" I brought with me an aching arm, which, had it been a leg, 

 I should have declared was suffering from gout. To-day, how- 

 ever, I am better, and the peace and quietness are, as they 

 always do, doing me good." 



At the close of May, in writing to Dr. Cairns, he alludes to 

 the physical languor felt throughout the previous winter, and 

 adds, " I cannot say that morally I have spent an unhappy or 

 an unprofitable winter. The powers of the world to come draw 

 nearer to me than ever, and stand in a more benignant relation. 



" I have become wondrously indifferent to the praise of men, 

 but increasingly anxious to do my daily work, which is far from 

 unpleasant, honestly, heartily, and earnestly. I would count it 



1 Dr. Gladstone, his host, was then resident in Tavistock Square. 



