BOYHOOD. 3 



like memorials of bygone experience. After his return to Ire- 

 land we never met, save during those few golden hours I spent 

 at Miltown Malbay, wandering with him on the seashore, pick- 

 ing shells, gathering seaweed, and basking in the sweet light 

 of his childlike playfulness and innocence, seemingly unspoiled 

 by years or contact with the world. After that time all intercourse 

 ceased ; not from any diminution of regard on either side, for he 

 never forgot a friend, but our paths diverged. I continued 

 plodding on in my obscurity, occupying till lately only a subor- 

 dinate position in the profession of teaching. He was led, by 

 the force of genius, to devote his thoughts and energies to the 

 beautiful science he had loved from his boyhood, with a dim 

 unconscious anticipation of the rich reward which she had in 

 store for him. I hailed his growing fame from afar with delight 

 and pride. At distant intervals I managed, through mutual 

 friends in the old country, to send messages of sympathy in his 

 labours and triumphs ; and I heard with sorrow of his failing 

 health and peaceful close. 1 Alluding to walks we had together 

 when I was a teacher in Ballitore, and he my ideal of a charm- 

 ing, innocent, gifted boyhood, he writes : — 



" ' Miltown Malbay, 1826. 



" ' If I am strong enough I shall go to Kilkee for the Helix 

 caperata, and bring to mind that day of joy we spent there. 

 The Scotch rose, the Medea ! I have made several additions 

 to my collection of shells since I came here, having found 

 several that Turton himself never saw. I have some idea of 

 writing him a letter, enclosing some specimens, as they are 

 small. How strange to write to a man I never saw ; but I think 

 such impudence is allowable when it is for his own benefit.' 



" In another letter of 1826, received when I was a teacher at 

 Darlington, he describes his private pursuits apart from his 

 school-work, ' I am now during the winter months engaged in 

 the useful occupation of making a new language. I shall have 

 only one declination of nouns, one conjugation of verbs, one rule 

 of syntax, and no exceptions. Could there be anything more per- 

 fect ? I also intend to study my favourite and useless class 



1 The editor would gladly insert the whole of the interesting matter 

 furnished by Mr. Suliot ; but due regard to brevity admits only of a few 

 characteristic extracts. 



B 2 



