is not precisely an accurate theory.
Without knowing anything of the circumstances, one may imagine that
Murray was rather impracticable. Of course he could not write against
his own opinions, but it is unusual to expect any one to do that, or to
find any one who will do it. 'Incompatibility of temper' probably caused
this secession from the newspaper.

After various attempts to find occupation, he did some proof-reading for
Messrs. Constable. Among other things he 'read' the journal of Lady Mary
Coke, privately printed for Lord Home. Lady Mary, who appears as a
lively child in _The Heart of Midlothian_, 'had a taste for loo, gossip,
and gardening, but the greatest of these is gossip.' The best part of
the book is Lady Louisa Stuart's inimitable introduction. Early in
October he decided to give up proof-reading: the confinement had already
told on his health. In the letter which announces this determination he
describes a sermon of Principal Caird: 'Voice, gesture, language,
thought--all in the highest degree,--combined to make it the most moving
and exalted speech of a man to men that I ever listened to.' 'The world
is too much with me,' he adds, as if he and the world were ever friends,
or ever likely to be friendly.

October 27th found him dating from St. Andrews again. 'St. Andrews after
Edinburgh is Paradise.' His Dalilah had called him home to her, and he
was never again unfaithful. He worked for his firm friend, Professor
Meiklejohn, he undertook some teaching, and he wrote a little. It was at
this time that his biographer made Murray's acquaintance. I had been
delighted with his verses in _College Echoes_, and I asked him to bring
me some of his more serious work. But he never brought them: his old
enemy, reserve, overcame him. A few of his pieces were published 'At the
Sign of the Ship' in _Longman's Magazine_, to which he contributed
occasionally.

From this point there is little in Murray's life to be chronicled. In
1890 his health broke down entirely, and consumption declared itself.
Very early in 1891 he visited Egypt, where it was thought that some
educational work might be found for him. But he found Egypt cold, wet,
and windy; of Alexandria and the Mediterranean he says little: indeed he
was almost too weak and ill to see what is delightful either in nature or
art.

'To aching eyes each landscape lowers,
To feverish pulse each gale blows chill,
And Araby's or Eden's bow