CONTINUATION OF HOME LIFE. 51 



curious Phallus, is flourishing in precisely the same spot I used 

 to gather it. Strange that things so brief should haunt a fixed 

 spot. Send me a moral. 



To a Cousin. 



Glasgow, March 11th, 1835. 

 Were you here you would be oppressed with the immen- 

 sity as well as with the vanity of human things. Surely, after 

 our lives being spent in the pursuit of knowledge of all kinds — 

 What is it all ? Empty possession. But this is foolish. How- 

 ever, it is a natural thought, and obvious to me, in the midst of 

 countless books and plants, many of them covered thick with 

 the dust of years. But I am not frightened or discouraged, and 

 why ? I comfort myself with the thought that if I am a fool 

 all the world are so also — and we must needs have some folly 

 to pursue as an amusement. While in the world we cannot 

 be idle. Botany is a very pleasant folly, and as such I pursue 

 it. Dr. H. and I have been sorting lots of ferns for the last 

 week, and only got them into a rough state this day. We are 

 now busy selecting collections from them, one of which I shall 

 bring home with me. Dr. H. has given me a copy of his 

 " Icones Filicum," in folio, with 240 plates, a charming work. 

 It was quite as unexpected as it is a valuable gift. The cost 

 is 15?. The expense hitherto prevented my buying it. 



I have got 140 species of Peruvian plants from Matthew 

 — many rare things among them. I have also subscribed to a 

 man going to Columbia, a country hitherto very little known, 

 and producing many extraordinary things. A new Irish plant 

 has been discovered, a scirpus (S. Savii). We must try and 

 find it in the Andromeda or Parnassia bog. It is a shame to 

 Irish botanists that it had to go to Switzerland for a name. 

 It has been in Dr. H.'s herbarium nearly twenty years, where 

 it was overlooked and forgotten — an instance that the human 

 mind cannot be stretched beyond a certain tension. I have 

 just ordered a frightful lot of books. 



To J. Fennell, Esq. 



Portsmouth, July 9th, 1835. 

 So it is come to this at last. I write at the Fountain 

 Hotel, and hope to sleep on board the Carnatic to-night, and 



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