to rear weeds till
that time; and as to dreaminess, it signifies nothing if there be a
strong "physique." With a weak frame, imagination will play the tyrant,
and never cease till it dominates over all the other faculties; but
where there is strength and activity, there is no fear of this.

You amuse me with your account of the doctor; and so the Germans have
actually taken him for a savant, and given him a degree "honoris
causa." May they never make a worse blunder. The man is eminently
remarkable,--with his opportunities, miraculous. I am certain, Harcourt,
you never felt half the pleasure on arriving at a region well stocked
with game, that he did on finding himself in a land of Libraries,
Museums, and Collections. Fancy the poor fellow's ecstasy at being
allowed to range at will through all ancient literature, of which
hitherto a stray volume alone had reached him. Imagine his delight as
each day opened new stores of knowledge to him, surrounded as he was by
all that could encourage zeal and reward research. The boy's treatment
of him pleases me much; it smacks of the gentle blood in his veins. Poor
lad, there is something very sad in his case.

You need not have taken such trouble about accounts and expenditure; of
course, whatever you have done I perfectly approve of. You say that the
boy has no idea of money or its value. There is both good and evil in
this. And now as to his future. I should have no objection whatever to
having him attached to my Legation here, and perhaps no great difficulty
in effecting his appointment; but there is a serious obstacle in his
position. The young men who figure at embassies and missions are all
"cognate numbers." They each of them know who and what the other is,
whence he came, and so on. Now, our poor boy could not stand this
ordeal, nor would it be fair he should be exposed to it. Besides this,
it was never Glencore's wish, but the very opposite to it, that he
should be brought prominently forward in life. He even suggested one of
the Colonies as the means of withdrawing him at once, and forever, from
public gaze.

You have interested me much by what you say of the boy's progress. His
tastes, I infer, lie in the direction which, in a worldly sense, are
least profitable; but, after all, Harcourt, every one has brains enough,
and to spare, for any career. Let us only decide upon that one most
fitted for him, and, depend upon it, his faculties will day by day
conform to his du