sit on the fire till it boils, you will suffer no more from
toothache.... A shark took a bite at the revolving vane of
the patent log to-day. He left some pieces of the enamel of
his teeth in the brass, and probably has the toothache. You
will sympathize with him.... If you ask Mr. Murray to send,
by Mr. Conyngham, Buckland's _Curiosities of Natural
History_, and Mr. Gladstone's _Address to the Edinburgh
Students_, it will save me writing to him. When you return
home you will be scrutinized to see if you are spoiled. You
have only to act naturally and kindly to all your old friends
to disarm them of their prejudices. I think you will find the
Youngs true friends. Mrs. Williamson, of Widdieombe Hill,
near Bath, writes to me that she would like to show you her
plans for the benefit of poor orphans. If you thought of
going to Bath it might be well to get all the insight you
could into that and every other good work. It is well to be
able to take a comprehensive view of all benevolent
enterprises, and resolve to do our duty in life in some way
or other, for we cannot live for ourselves alone. A life of
selfishness is one of misery, and it is unlike that of our
blessed Saviour, who pleased not Himself. He followed not his
own will even, but the will of his Father in heaven. I have
read with much pleasure a book called _Rose Douglas_. It is
the life of a minister's daughter--with fictitious names, but
all true. She was near Lanark, and came through Hamilton. You
had better read it if you come in contact with it."

Referring to an alarm, arising from the next house having taken fire,
of which she had written him, he adds playfully:

"You did not mention what you considered most precious on the
night of the fire; so I dreamed that I saw one young lady
hugging a German grammar to her bosom; another with a pair of
curling tongs, a tooth-pick, and a pinafore; another with a
bunch of used-up postage stamps and autographs in a crinoline
turned upside down, and a fourth lifted up Madame Hocede and
insisted on carrying her as her most precious baggage. Her
name, which I did not catch, will go down to posterity
alongside of the ladies who each carried out her husband from
the besieged city, and took care never to let him hear the
last on't afterward. I