196 EDINBUEGH 
my book (the aim of the last twelve years of my hfe), all 
that shall not interfere with my determination, in whatever 
situation in life God may place me, therein to excel. I 
shall not only use every exertion to be Graham's best 
assistant, but also to raise the Botanical chair to Botanical 
excellence, and to have it a useful appendage to the College ; 
and no longer a burthen to students' pockets, without 
Museum or any advantages for making men Botanists ; I 
should also hke to raise the standard of that lowest of all 
classes of students, the medical ; but that shall be a secondary 
object. 
I do feel a deep regret in having to desert my book, 
wiiich I have lived so long for. Money, time, and labour, all 
my preliminary education, all my holidays from the first 
day 1 entered college, were devoted to laying myself out for 
making a voyage and publishing the results. Except that 
this chair allows me to continue a Botanist, I would just 
as soon turn to the law or to business as anything else that 
took me off the travail of so many years. I shall, however, 
hope for better times, and though the Government will 
take (and properly take) my pay and perhaps grant away, I 
shall live one day to finish my book. If 1 do get the chair, 
I shall commence laying up money to enable me to house 
my father's plants, whenever they may come to me, for I 
am determined no one but myself shall have them. 
Here is Humboldt often speaking of you ; he wants 
me to write the distribution of Plants for his grand work 
' Cosmos ' ; pray say nothing of this to anyone. I can but 
live and hope, but Humboldt is so old that it may never 
appear. 
Of the impending lectures he writes to Harvey (April 2, 
1845) : 
Graham tells me he has not a single lecture written out ! 
and that I must dwell much on physiology, chemistry, and 
morphology, in which my Father's lectures are particularly 
poor. This is no joke to me ; what with Cryptog., Paris 
duplicates, and these lectures my hands are full indeed. 
Graham's lectures are always considered useless by and to 
his students, and so I am in a regular fix, nor have I cheek 
enough for an audience. I would rather go to the S. Pole 
