iS77 SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION 51 1 



could be invested with interest, and it set going what was 

 almost a new branch of teaching in natural science, even 

 in Germany, the starting place of most educational methods, 

 where it was immediately proposed to bring out an adapta- 

 tion of the book, substituting, e.g. the Elbe for the Tham«6, 

 as a familiar example of river action. 



He was immensely pleased by a letter from Mr. John 

 Morley, telling how his step-son, a boy of non-bookish 

 tastes, had been taken with it. " My step-son was reading 

 it the other night. I said, ' Isn't it better to read a novel 

 before going to bed, instead of worrying your head over 

 a serious book like that ? ' ' Oh,' said he, ' I'm at an awfully 

 interesting part, and I can't leave ofif.' " It was, Mr. Morley 

 continued, " the way of making Nature, as she comes before 

 us every day, interesting and intelligible to young folks." 



To this he replied on December 14: — 



I shall get as vain as a peacock if discreet folk like you say 

 such pretty things to me as you do about the Physiography. 



But it is very pleasant to me to find that I have succeeded 

 in what I tried to do. I gave the lectures years ago to show 

 what I thought was the right way to lead young people to the 

 study of nature — but nobody would follow suit — so now I have 

 tried what the book will do. 



Your step-son is a boy of sense, and I hope he may be taken 

 as a type of the British public ! 



A good deal of time was taken up in the first half of the 

 year by the Scottish Universities Commission, which neces- 

 sitated his attendance in Edinburgh the last week in Feb- 

 ruary, the first week in April, and the last week in July. 

 He had hoped to finish oH the necessary business at the 

 first of these meetings, but no sooner had he arrived in 

 Edinburgh, after a pleasant journey down with J. A. Froude, 

 than he learned that " the chief witness we were to have 

 examined to-day, and whose due evisceration was one of 

 the objects of my coming, has telegraphed to say he can't 

 be here." Owing to this and to the enforced absence of the 

 judges on the Commission from some of the sittings, it was 

 found necessary to have the additional meetings at Easter, 

 much to his disgust. He writes : — 



