COLLEGE APPOINTMENT. 143 



ever, a responsibility ; and as much comparative guilt attaches to 

 the neglect of small as of large mercies. 



The remainder of 1842 and 1843 were passed by Mr. Harvey 

 without any settled employment, except as he found interest in 

 bis favourite botanical pursuits. The August of 1843 was spent 

 with his sister's family at Wicklow, from whence he writes, " My 

 time passes here in a very idle manner, pebble-hunting with H. 

 and the children, of all other occupations the least profitable, 

 for the pleasure, so far as I am concerned, consists in the search, 

 as I do not care for the treasures once they are found and 

 admired. I found the Vicia sylvatica in the Devil's Glen, but 

 no ripe pods. Did you care to see the account of Captain Ross ? 

 I hope soon to hear of their arrival in England. How anxiously 

 Lady H. must be counting the days after all the anxiety and 

 sorrow she has gone through since she parted with her son four 

 years ago !" 



Writing about the same time to his friend Mr. Ward, he says, 

 " I have been spending the last two months and a half on the 

 shores of the county of Wicklow very pleasantly, but not, 

 botanically speaking, very profitably, as I scarcely found a single 

 Alga I had not gathered ten years ago. Of pebbles, agates of 

 various colours, I gathered a tolerable store. There is a pebbly 

 strand some five or six miles long, and in the very hot weather 

 we spent nearly the whole day upon it, lounging about and look- 

 ing after pebbles. Some of them are very beautiful, but rarely 

 of any great size. The seaweeds are few and only occasionally 

 thrown up, and there are no shells." 



Having once more taken up his residence at Plassey, he 

 writes in October to one of his friends, " Yesterday I commenced 

 at the office, and will henceforth be a regular attendant thereof. 

 It is pleasant to have regular occupation again after such a 

 long spell of idleness, and it has the wonderfully good effect of 

 making me get up early — not to be in time for breakfast, but to 

 look to my plants or to amuse myself in other ways." 



Writing to a relative in November to whom he was sending 

 Jeremy Taylor's " Select Sermons " and " Liberty of Prophesy- 

 ing," together with the " Autobiography of Archbishop Laud," he 

 says : " The two first are good books, the latter little book we will 



