CHAPTER V. 



AMERICAN JOURNEY: 1858-1860. JET. 39, 40. 



Although Philip was scarcely a year and a half in America, 

 it was one of the most important periods of his life, and that of 

 which we have the fullest records. Before he had been away 

 a twelvemonth, he seemed to himself to have lived there many 

 years. His old habits were broken up ; the change of scene 

 and society was complete. He had little to do with teaching, 

 much with learning. He resolved to leave himself open to 

 impressions, and await new light ; and he had much enjoyment, 

 but also very deep sorrows. He had often an intense craving 

 for sympathy, and felt as if there was not a soul to which his 

 could pour itself out on that vast continent : he thought that he 

 had become almost unable to express himself, from his habits 

 of silence. But in these times of silence he poured himself out 

 in his letters, which are remarkably full and graphic. He wrote 

 in the tossing ship, or the shaking train, or the noisy station — 

 in all sorts of circumstances unfavourable to composition • but 

 his pages scarcely contain an erasure. He wrote in pencil,* 

 at first in long-hand : but his home readers complained that it 

 was hard to decipher the faint writing on the thin paper ; so, 

 after a few weeks, he resolved to write to me in shorthand, 

 which saved him a great deal of valuable time ; and I copied, 

 and sent on their round, those portions which seemed of general 

 interest. This plan enabled him to write with entire freedom — 

 just as he thought and felt at the time ; and to record impres- 



* He used a " manifold," keeping a copy for his own use. 



