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it sooner, and least of all, I havc forgotten my dcar andamiable friend at the Royal Institution.

But if I have not written to, I have written, at least, aboutyou and in telling you so much, I have revealed to you anauthor's secrct, which 1 heg you however to keep as yet toyourself. The matter Stands thus: I have been composing abook these last six months, certainly not a scientific one, fordoing such a thing suits, as you well know, neither the tastenor the powers of your friend; it is a sort of "quodlibet" oras the musical term runs a "potpourri" i. e. a most variegatedmotley of things. You recollect perhaps the trip I made toMunich and Vienna some time ago, and its having turned outso vcry plcasant, induced nie to try my graphic powers withthe view of making Mrs. Schcenbein and the girls, as it wcrc,partners of my journey.

Wives and Childrcn are very partial judges of the litteraryproductions of their husbands and fathers and you will there-fore not be surprized, when I teil you that my excellent help-mate and young ladies made no exception so the rule. Theyfound, indeed, every thing I had written and read to them sovery excellent that they started one da}' the idea of havingmy scribbling published. However great my dislike to book-making is and how little I care for gaining laureis in the lineof authorship, I at last yiclded to the entreaties of my darlings,that is to say, promised to try what I could do in the matter.And, indeed, I have finished the work and a copy, legibly andnicely written out, lies in my desk, but when it will go to theprinter and be published, that is a thing, which I cannot teil.

You will laugh, when I inform you that in spite of thecmbryonic statc of my Spiritual child, I have already baptizedand givcn it the name "Glosses on Men and Things by anelderlv Man". 1 This title has, as vou see, elasticitv enough,

K,

I

!f ü

1 "Menschen und Dinge. Mitteilungen aus dem Reisetagebuch eines deutschenNaturforschers." Published anonymously in 1855.