my
father, worried almost to death with anxiety, vexation, and hard
work, had a serious illness.

_Saturday, November 25th._--My father was not quite so well this
morning. I took Dr. Wilson home in the carriage; he talked a great
deal about this horrible burking business (a series of atrocious
murders committed by two wretches of the names of Burk and Bishop,
for the purpose of obtaining, for the corpses of their victims, the
price paid by the Edinburgh surgeons for subjects for dissection;
the mode of death inflicted by these men came to be designated by
the name of the more hardened murderer as burking).

I called at Fozzard's for the boys, and set them down at Angelo's
(a famous school for fencing, boxing, and single-stick, where my
brothers took lessons in those polite exercises). In the evening,
at the theater, dear Charles Young played "The Stranger" for the
last time; the house was very full, and I played very ill. After
the play Young was enthusiastically called for. I have finished
"Tennant's Tour in Greece," which I rather liked. I have been
reading "Bonaparte's Letters to Josephine;" the vague and doubting
spirit which once or twice throws its wavering shadow across his
thoughts, startles one in contrast with the habitual tone of the
mind, which assuredly _ne doubtait de rien_, especially of what his
own power of will could accomplish. The affection he expresses for
his wife is sometimes almost poetical from its intensity, in spite
of the grossness of his language. He seems to have believed in
nothing but volition, and that volition is in itself, perhaps, a
mere form of faith. It's a dangerous worship, for the devil in that
shape does obey so long and so well before he claims his due; so
much is achieved precisely by that belief in what can be achieved;
the last round of the ladder, somehow or other, however, always
seems to break down at last, and then I doubt if the people who
fall from it can all declare, as Holcroft did when he fell from his
horse, and, as his surgeon assured him, broke his ribs, that he was
positive he had not, because in falling he had exerted the energy
of will, and could not therefore have broken his bones.

_Sunday, 29th._--The great good fortune of a good sermon at church.
After church Mrs. Jameson, Joh