266 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES 1890 



To Mrs. Bomanes. 



Edinburgh : November 23, 1890. 



My lectures are now concluded, and 1 took an 

 afiectionate farewell of the class amid much en- 

 thusiasm on their side. 



There is no news to give. I play chess with Mrs. 

 Butcher and read MSS. which Professor Butcher 

 lends me of his own ; pay many calls, have sundry 

 talks with professors that come to dine with Bwart, 

 and so on. 



Yesterday we had here what at Cambridge used 

 to be called a ' Perpendicular,' twenty students to 

 supper. Mrs. Butcher and Miss Trench came in to 

 help to entertain them ; the latter sang Irish songs. 



I am going to give an additional lecture to the 

 class on the controversy in ' Nature.' ^ 



I send you a report of my lecture, that you may 

 see how orthodox I was. Sellar ^ was at the lecture, 

 and told me that I reminded him of some professor 

 at St. Andrews, who had told him as a fact that he 

 (the St. Andrews professor) always made a point of 

 alluding to Providence in an introductory lecture, and 

 afterwards ' threw him aside ! ' 



The sonnet alluded to in one of the letters (p. 26S) 

 is so beautiful that it is inserted here. It shows better 

 than any words could do the attitude of George 

 Eomanes' mind. Profoundly sincere, anxious, almost 

 unduly anxious, to give no indulgence to his own 



1 On ' Physiological Selection.' See Natwre, vol. xlii. pp. 5, 7, and 

 vol. xliii. pp. 79 and 127. 



'■' The late Professor Sellar. 



