HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 351 



them on the altar, I suppose ? Does not the Parable end a 

 little abruptly ? Some few words to suggest " the Unseen 

 Presence " would finish it off nicely. I think it is a very pretty 

 little gossamer, however, as it stands. 



(It need scarcely be said these delicate criticisms were at- 

 tended to.) 



To Miss Harvey, New York. 



Trinity College, December 17th, 1863. 

 We are really very bad letter-writers, and getting worse 

 and worse every day. It is not that we forget you, for I have 

 distinct memory of many intentions to write, but somehow the 

 days went by and nothing was done. We had our usual holiday 

 of three months, a part of which we spent in France and Switzer- 

 land, where we had not been for some years. We just left home 

 when the weather became stormy, and so prolonged our summer 

 for a good five weeks, leaving Switzerland again just as the 

 lower hills became white with snow, and the place began to look 

 dreary. We then paid visits to some of our friends near London, 

 staying a happy week at Kew. 



Have you read the " Water Babies ?" If not I think you 

 will be glad to do so, and so I send a copy. I think it very 

 clever, one of Kingsley's best things. There are multitudes of 

 allusions, sarcastic and otherwise, to scientific facts and men, 

 which perhaps may not be so clear to one not versed in the 

 matters referred to, but I think you (as a Professor) will be able 

 fully to appreciate the fun. You know the quarrel between 

 Owen and Huxley about the Hippocampus minor (which 

 Kingsley travesties as Hippopotamus major) ? Then Professor 

 Ptthmllnsprts (if you add vowels to the consonants you will 

 find what words they spell). Then the history of the " Do as 

 you likes," a charming episode of Darwinism, if you know what 

 that means. We are going to-day to a performance of Handel's 

 Messiah for one of our charities. I always go to hear it when I 

 get a chance. It is music of which one never tires, and our 

 Dublin choirs are well used to it. You know it was first 

 performed in Dublin, a fact of which our folk are proud. 



