er had written
with considerable acceptance on the subject of their profession. His
father also wrote on religious matters, and at least one of these
pamphlets was believed to be of lasting value by competent judges. On
scientific and engineering subjects his work was thought so excellent,
and was so well known, that R. L. Stevenson tells, with some amusement,
that he was surprised to find in the New World it was his father and not
himself who was considered the important author. _The Life of Robert
Stevenson_, of Bell Rock fame, written by David Stevenson, is a very
interesting book.

Among his mother's relatives the gift of fluent and graceful expression
is also widely diffused, and in common with Mrs Thomas Stevenson and her
son, not a few of the Balfour connection have been very charming letter
writers, in the days when letters were worth receiving, and not the
hurried and uncharacteristic scraps which do duty for present-day
correspondence.

He himself considered that he inherited his literary talent largely
from his father's family, but there is interesting proof that even in
his grandfather's day it was inherent also in his Balfour ancestors. The
minister of Colinton wrote verses in his youth, and a sonnet preserved
by his surviving son and daughter is interesting as a proof of his
earnest mind and his literary skill. It was written on the fly-leaf of a
folio copy of _Pearson on the Creed_, presented to him by his friend,
the Reverend Patrick Macfarlane, who became, about 1832, minister of the
West Church at Greenock, and is dated 18th May 1801.

'My friend, my Patrick, let me boast the name,
For my breast glows with no inferior flame,
This gift was thine, expressive of thy love,
Which spurning earthborn joys for those above
Would teach my friend in sacred lore to grow,
And feel the truths impressive as they flow.
While with our faith our kindred bosoms glow,
And love to God directs our life below,
One view of things now seen, and things to come,
But pilgrims here, a future state our home,
Nor time, nor death, our friendship shall impair,
Begun below, but rendered perfect there.'

More than one of the old gentleman's family inherited his talent for
graceful and forcible writing. His son, Dr George W. Balfour, has
written two well-known medical books which have brought to him a large
measure of fame. These are _Clinical Lectures on Diseases of