1890 LIFE AT OXFORD 2S3 



Ernest and Gerald are very happy. I allow them 

 to play with the fire when they are with me, and 

 this I find to be very popular. 



To Mrs. Romanes. 



Edinburgh : November 23, 1890 



My lectures are now concluded, and 1 took an 

 affectionate farewell of the class amid much en- 

 thusiasm on their side. 



There is no news to give. I play chess with Mrs. 

 Butcher and read MSS. which Professor Butcher 

 lends me of his own ; pay many calls, have sundry 

 talks with professors that come to dine with Ewart, 

 and so on. 



Yesterday we had here what at Cambridge used 

 to be called a ' Perpendicular,' twenty students to 

 supper. Mrs. Butcher and Miss Trench came in to 

 help to entertain them ; the latter sang Irish songs. 



I am going to give an additional lecture to the 

 class on the controversy in ' Nature.' 1 



I send you a report of my lecture, that you may 

 see how orthodox I was. Sellar 2 was at the lecture, 

 and told me that I reminded him of some professor 

 at St. Andrews, who had told him as a fact that he 

 (the St. Andrews professor) always made a point of 

 alluding to Providence in an introductory lecture, and 

 afterwards ' threw him aside ! ' 



The sonnet alluded to in one of the letters (p. 282) 

 is so beautiful that it is inserted here. It shows better 



1 On 'Physiological Selection.' See Nature, vol. xlii. pp. 5, 7, and 

 vol. xliii. pp. 79 and 127. 



2 The late Professor Sellar. 



