MY BROTHER'S
DEATH--NAPLES--ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS--J.S. MILL--CHANGE IN PUBLIC OPINION
ON WOMEN'S EDUCATION--EIGHTY-NINTH YEAR--DESCRIBES HER OWN
CHARACTER--THOUGHTS ON A FUTURE LIFE--PROGRESS IN KNOWLEDGE OF
GEOGRAPHY--VICTORIA MEDAL--MEDAL FROM ROYAL ITALIAN GEOGRAPHICAL
SOCIETY--LETTER FROM MENABREA--ROME, CAPITAL OF ITALY--AURORA BOREALIS.

Soon after my dear husband's death, we went to Spezia, as my health
required change, and for some time we made it our headquarters, spending
one winter at Florence, another at Genoa, where my son and his wife came
to meet us, and where I had very great delight in the beautiful singing
of our old friend Clara Novello, now Countess Gigliucci, who used to
come to my house, and sing Handel to me. It was a real pleasure, and her
voice was as pure and silvery as when I first heard her, years before.
Another winter we spent at Turin. On returning to Spezia in the summer
of 1861, the beautiful comet visible that year appeared for the first
time the very evening we arrived. On the following, and during many
evenings while it was visible, we used to row in a small boat a little
way from shore, in order to see it to greater advantage. Nothing could
be more poetical than the clear starlit heavens with this beautiful
comet reflected, nay, almost repeated, in the calm glassy water of the
gulf. The perfect silence and stillness of the scene was very
impressive.

I was now unoccupied, and felt the necessity of having something to do,
desultory reading being insufficient to interest me; and as I had always
considered the section on chemistry the weakest part of the connection
of the "Physical Sciences," I resolved to write it anew. My daughters
strongly opposed this, saying, "Why not write a new book?" They were
right; it would have been lost time: so I followed their advice, though
it was a formidable undertaking at my age, considering that the general
character of science had greatly changed. By the improved state of the
microscope, an invisible creation in the air, the earth, and the water,
had been brought within the limits of human vision; the microscopic
structure of plants and animals had been minutely studied, and by
synthesis many substances had been formed of the elementary atoms
similar to those produced by nature. Dr. Tyndall's experiments had
proved the inconceivable minuteness of the atoms of matter; Mr. Gassiot
and Professor Pluecher had published their experiments on the
strati