72 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



mond's death on his passage from Cuba to Florida. Of what 

 value is fame to a dead man ? However, I pursue botany not 

 for fame, but for pleasure. 



To Mrs. L r. 



Christmas Day, 1835. 



I have abundant reason to bless the day that I set sail, 

 and to be thankful to the Almighty for having so overruled 

 my wishes to the general good of the party. To feel myself of 

 no use in the world to any one was often a sore thorn in my 

 side. So now, to be useful, has all the charm of novelty. To 

 you, who have been so all your life, taking it up gradually and 

 imperceptibly, it must seem absurd to have any feeling about 

 so common a matter. But just fancy a person living (I regret 

 to say) to the age of four and twenty, dreaming about poetry 

 and plants, suddenly and quite unexpectedly forced by distress- 

 ing circumstances to act as the head of a family. You cannot 

 wonder that I feel the responsibility. To preserve equanimity 

 and cheerfulness ought to be my object; and how can these be 

 better maintained than by cherishing the belief that Providence, 

 for his own merciful purposes, has for the present cast my lot 

 here, and by being grateful to him for ordering designs which 

 had originated in purely selfish motives, so as to contribute to 

 the welfare of others. I take no praise to myself, for I fully 

 feel that none is due. I came here to gratify my own schemes. 

 God sent me for a far different purpose. I acknowledge his 

 goodness, and desire to be thankful for being allowed a subor- 

 dinate place in his merciful Providence. You may say, "Wil- 

 liam has been reading M. Guion, has turned Quietist on our 

 hands." No. What I write has not been learned from her, 

 but by sitting at Joseph's bedside. 



Stellenberg, January 16th, 1836. 

 I have but a dull picture to send you of ourselves. We 

 have now fully determined on returning in the spring, as there 

 seems no chance whatever of J.'s recovery here. You would 

 wonder how poor E. keeps up as she does ; but do we not see 

 the back of even the weakest fitted to the burden ? We are 

 indeed surrounded by great mercies, and the more the hand of 

 affliction is on us the stronger they appear. Truly, 



