made us all _very, very_ happy,
and though the first news of it overcame my poor mother, whose
nerves are far from firm, she soon recovered, and we are
impatiently expecting his return from college. My play is at
present being pruned by my father, and will therefore not occupy my
thoughts again till it comes out, which I hope will be at Easter. I
did not write sooner, because I had nothing to say; but now that
this joy about my brother has come to me, _je te l'envoie_. Since
last you heard from me I have seen the great West India Dock and
the Thames Tunnel. Oh, H----, "que c'est une jolie chose que
l'homme!" Annihilated by any one of the elements if singly opposed
to its power, he by his genius yet brings their united forces into
bondage, and compels obedience from all their manifold combined
strength. We penetrate the earth, we turn the course of rivers, we
exalt the valleys and bow down the mountains; and we die and return
to our dust, and they remain and remember us no more. Often enough,
indeed, the names of great inventors and projectors have been
overshadowed or effaced by mere finishers of their work or adapters
of their idea, who have reaped the honor and emolument due to an
obscure originator, who passes away from the world, his rightful
claim to its admiration and gratitude unknown or unacknowledged.
But these obey the law of their being; they cannot but do the work
God's inspiration calls them to.

But I must tell you what this tunnel is like, or at least try to do
so. You enter, by flights of stairs, the first door, and find
yourself on a circular platform which surrounds the top of a well
or shaft, of about two hundred feet in circumference and five
hundred in depth. This well is an immense iron frame of cylindrical
form, filled in with bricks; it was constructed on level ground,
and then, by some wonderful mechanical process, sunk into the
earth. In the midst of this is a steam engine, and above, or below,
as far as your eye can see, huge arms are working up and down,
while the creaking, crashing, whirring noises, and the swift
whirling of innumerable wheels all round you, make you feel for the
first few minutes as if you were going distracted. I should have
liked to look much longer at all these beautiful, wise, working
creature