320 GEOEGB JOHN EOMANES i893 



This is one of the most charming places I have 

 ever seen. The hotel is situated on the top of a hill 

 which slopes for a mile to the sea, and which is thickly 

 clothed with pine and olive woods in all directions. 

 The climate admits of our sitting out of doors without 

 overcoats or shawls till sunset, amid the most won- 

 derful profusion of aromas I have ever met with. 



To the Dean of Christ Church. 



Costebelle : November 28, 1893. 



My dear Dean, — In the firmament of my friend- 

 ships there is no such star as yourself, and I find it 

 belongs to them all that the darker and the colder 

 the night becomes, the more brightly do they shine. 



It is quite certain that ' the South has not yet 

 rendered its full service,' inasmuch as it has not 

 rendered me any service at all. If anything I am 

 worse than when I left Oxford. My muscular power, 

 indeed, has somewhat improved, but my nervous 

 exhaustion seems to be growing upon me, week by 

 week; so that I am now able to walk but very 

 little — to hope, not much, to think, not at all. 



The truth is that my ailment, whatever it is, is 

 not to be reached by cHmatic influences : it belongs 

 to those mysterious internal changes, which Darwin 

 ascribes to what he calls ' the nature of the organism ' 

 — ' variations which to our ignorance appear to arise 

 spontaneously.' Hence, I am out of harmony with 

 my environment, whatever the environment may be. 

 And, as this Spencerianism applies to my spiritual. 



