HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 349 



however. Sir William's indomitable energy, for it is mixed with 

 a full consciousness of the ebbing sands of life, and is in him 

 more an earnest desire to do the day's work while it is called 

 to-day, than indulging " a ruling passion strong in death." He 

 knows that he has the best materials for such a work, besides 

 having them more at his finger-ends, by long experience and 

 study, than any living person, and therefore he thinks it his 

 duty to give the public the benefit, to the utmost of his power. 

 May he be spared to do so ! 



To Mrs. Alfred Qatty. 



4 Winton Road, October 21st, 1863. 



My dear Parlatore, 



Thank you for the welcome home in your letter of yester- 

 day, which came this morning after I had started for town. 

 But, my dear friend, is it right and proper for you to scribble at 

 this rate — six pages and crossing — all with your wrong hand ? 

 I have read Aunt Judy's last letter to Dr. Fisher, wherein she 

 says you ought not to use that hand at all. And I assure you, 

 much as I like to see your handwriting, I do not like to see it 

 if I think it is doing you a mischief, wherefore do not write 

 discursively, but, if need be, curtly, and I shall attribute it to 

 prudence and compliance with doctor's orders 



When can I lay aside any time for working at the 

 Manual ? At present I have on my table for daylight work 

 these : — 1500 and odd species of Cape plants, to be named and 

 stowed away. Item. Another parcel, 500 and odd, from Natal, 

 ditto. Item. Another = 300 and odd, ditto, from Grahamstown. 

 Item. Another = (half done), from Caffraria. 



The above accumulated in my holiday, besides numerous 

 smaller parcels, and almost every month brings its Cape parcel. 

 And now I hear that next mail steamer will bring the Colonial 

 Herbarium (I don't know how big) to be " verified " and put in 

 order. Then after Christmas I have to draw lithographs, fifty 

 for " Thesaurus," and no saying what else, and then the lectures 

 come on in April, and then, and then, and then 



Trinity College, Dublin, November 3, 1863. 



You ask about spiders' ears. They have eight eyes or 

 more apiece, and ought to have ears, but I must ask our 



