56 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



and descending, advanced towards the cuddy door, which is 

 glazed. There a scene presented itself which I would I had the 

 power to embody as it deserves. The lamps shed a strong but 



mellow light. D sat at the cuddy table facing the 



door, mixing brandy punch. Now he would look up wofully 

 to the ceiling, then wistfully at the glass, then benevolently 

 smile all round the empty room, then cross his hands with a 

 look of imbecility. Again he would look up and spread his mouth 

 into a wide but soundless laugh, apparently in enjoyment too 

 deep to be controlled, and forced thus to vent itself; then take 

 a sip, rub his nose, settle his spectacles, look up, look down, 

 and all about, and then laugh, laugh with a truly beautiful 

 exj)ression. Long I stood regarding the pleasing prospect. No 

 sound was uttered, for he had no communicant; he was alone, 

 he and the brandy, the sugar, and the water. Yet how sweet 

 was the companionship between them ! Silence is often more 

 eloquent than words ; his was truly so. 



August 5th. " And when I awoke it rained." This was the 

 experience of one formerly, and to-day hath it been ours. The 

 world abroad presented a melancholy picture ; a failing breeze, 

 a falling shower, and a dark, dull, heavy sky, with a close, warm, 

 thick air. Now you feel our situation. At dinner, however, 

 the acme of distress' was felt. 



" Down fell the rain 



With might and main, 

 The ship was in a flood ; 



Down dropped the breeze, 



And on the seas 

 Immovably we stood." 



Can you fancy a more comfortable predicament to be in? 

 You never saw rain ; no, never. You may have seen and felt 

 a shower, a dropping from the sky ; but to pour in full fury as 

 a tropic waterpot, you know nothing of it. First came dense 

 myriads of large drops as thick as they could be sieved out ; 

 then between these came down another set, so rapidly yet so 

 distinctly, that they catch the former, and burst upon them, so 

 as to make a spray. Then you have pouring rain and mist 

 together. Thick work this. But our knowing ones make light 

 of this heavy affair. " Wait a while," say they ; " this is but a 

 poor sample of what happens in the solstitial latitudes." " Oh," 



