oyment, whether
for amusement, like the Greek tailoring or the Highland reels, whether
from a desire to serve the public, as with his sanitary work, or in the
view of benefiting poorer men, as with his labours for technical
education, he "pitched into it" (as he would have said himself) with the
same headlong zest. I give in the Appendix[28] a letter from Colonel
Fergusson, which tells fully the nature of the sanitary work and of
Fleeming's part and success in it. It will be enough to say here that it
was a scheme of protection against the blundering of builders and the
dishonesty of plumbers. Started with an eye rather to the houses of the
rich, Fleeming hoped his Sanitary Associations would soon extend their
sphere of usefulness, and improve the dwellings of the poor. In this
hope he was disappointed; but in all other ways the scheme exceedingly
prospered, associations sprang up and continue to spring up in many
quarters, and wherever tried they have been found of use.

Here, then, was a serious employment; it has proved highly useful to
mankind; and it was begun, besides, in a mood of bitterness, under the
shock of what Fleeming would so sensitively feel--the death of a whole
family of children. Yet it was gone upon like a holiday jaunt. I read in
Colonel Fergusson's letter that his schoolmates bantered him when he
began to broach his scheme; so did I at first, and he took the banter,
as he always did, with enjoyment, until he suddenly posed me with the
question: "And now do you see any other jokes to make? Well, then," said
he, "that's all right. I wanted you to have your fun out first; now we
can be serious." And then with a glowing heat of pleasure, he laid his
plans before me, revelling in the details, revelling in hope. It was as
he wrote about the joy of electrical experiment: "What shall I compare
them to?--A new song? a Greek play?" Delight attended the exercise of
all his powers; delight painted the future. Of these ideal visions, some
(as I have said) failed of their fruition. And the illusion was
characteristic. Fleeming believed we had only to make a virtue cheap and
easy, and then all would practise it; that for an end unquestionably
good men would not grudge a little trouble and a little money, though
they might stumble at laborious pains and generous sacrifices. He could
not believe in any resolute badness. "I cannot quite say," he wrote in
his young manhood, "that I think there is no sin or misery. Thi