fellows had initiated him into the mystery. I had talked with the lodger several times, with a view to persuade him to settle elsewhere, for he had no difficulty in getting employment with horses, being active, slight, dapper, and groom-like. He had made up his mind, he said, on the last occasion, to have nothing more to do with horses, he had such bad luck with them-the last accident a kick on the leg. I asked the particulars of the accidents. They had been from various causes, and there was no reason to ascribe them to his carelessness or brutality, the most common cause of horse accidents. Here was a single coincidence, amounting in the mind of the sufferer to a species of law, and taking it out of the class of chances.

In the mind of this man these were no longer mere casualties. They constituted a whole, and a design, malignant to his apprehension. Common sense. might have reminded him that if there was a design and a certain uniform expression in these incidents, they might be interpreted, and indeed would have to be interpreted, and that no interpretation would be allowable that was not compatible with a belief in an Almighty Providence working ever for our good.

Most people must be aware of having had the same word, the same person, or the same thing, occurring to their notice for the first time twice or even thrice within a few days. Reiteration always makes emphasis, and this reiteration is often sufficiently varied to be also explanatory.

At Brighton, in 1883, we saw every day a very extraordinary and interesting figure. It was a male

A SINGHALESE NURSE.

273

native nurse, in care of several young children that seemed very fond of him. fond of him. He was not less than six feet high, very slim, very upright, with bronze complexion, marked features, a very prominent aquiline nose, and very mild, yet quite dignified expression. He had bare feet, a petticoat that reached to the ground, and a slight jacket over it, and no headcovering, but an abundance of glossy black hair gathered into a full knot behind and surmounted with a large upright tortoise-shell comb. What struck us most was that he seemed so completely at home and unabashed, when he must have been aware of his occasioning frequent surprise. I tried in vain to make out the country and race of the man, utterly different from any Hindoo, Parsee, Affghan, or native of Northern India I had seen.

Within a month of my seeing him I became possessed of Sir Emerson Tennant's account of Ceylon, and in turning over the leaves came to a picture which brought the Brighton nurse before me. He was of a race which from time immemorial has occupied a small territory in the south-west of Ceylon, noticed by very early geographers, and still retaining the same figures, features, dresses, and characters. 'Well,' it will be asked, 'what is there in this?' Thus much at least. Each of these discoveries would have been worth little to me without the other. But I confess to attaching to the conjunction a more important significance. It is that there is a providential power working all about me for my guidance, my instruction, and for my good, indeed for greater good than I now know of. I may add

VOL. I.

T

that, finding this in Sir Emerson Tennant's book, I consulted Bishop Heber's journals, and there found a similar but slighter notice of the same singular people.

Then how often a name is found unexpectedly, perhaps sadly significant of the career, or its termination. A poor woman took much to heart that her good and handsome son had enlisted in the Guards. 'Why then did you call him Cornelius ?' I said. Not very long ago two ships built on the same lines were named 'Orpheus' and 'Eurydice.' The combination represents a glorious enterprise on the point of success, and then defeated by a momentary failure of duty. The 'Orpheus,' full of emigrants, was lost on the bar of the destined Australian port; the 'Eurydice' capsized as some hundred poor lads, with opened ports, were writing letters to announce their safe return home. A few years ago the 'Avalanche' went to the bottom off the Bill of Portland with seventy souls. These, it must be considered, were not ordinary disasters.

From my windows in Berkshire I saw for many years the river Blackwater, which separated us from Hampshire, and consequently from the diocese of Winchester. It is not a lovely stream, for it is much coloured with the boggy and ferruginous soils it passes through on its course from Aldershot to Twyford. In a very pretty episode in Pope's 'Windsor Forest,' the Blackwater is a satyr, and the Lodden a fair nymph flying from his embraces to the arms of Father Thames. The late Bishop of Oxford had often to see it, and sometimes to cross it. He

THE BLACKWATER.

275

used to call it the Styx, in humorous allusion to the realms of darkness and of light which it divided. The ideas chiefly associated with the Styx are that it is the bourn of doubtful anticipations, that many wait long on its banks before they are finally helped over. To myself, at least, the Blackwater has a sad association, for Bishop Wilberforce did indeed cross it for the See of Winchester; but never, except as a guest, went to Farnham.

CHAPTER XLV.

THE LIBERAL PROFESSIONS AND THE MECHANICAL.

It is not easy for any one whose measures and estimates have been formed late in this century to understand how much they differ from those prevalent in the early part of it. These estimates have been formed by circumstances, but they followed the change of circumstances tardily. My eldest sister took much interest in my youngest brother, and, having to teach him in his very early years, was anxious to obtain some deeper insight than her own into his special abilities. Spurzheim was lecturing at Derby, so my sister took my brother with a guinea in her hand to the great craniologist. He examined my brother's head very closely, and pronounced his turn to be for facts, mechanism, and material science, not for abstractions. She accordingly wished him to be educated for some employment that would develop

these powers. My parents, however, I believe, like all other parents at Derby, decidedly objected to anything in his case that would not be a 'liberal profession.' So in due time he was sent to Oxford.

A few doors from us in the Wardwick was young Charles Fox, who had much of his early instruction from our teacher, Mr. George Spencer. He was intended from childhood to follow his father and three brothers into the medical profession. At a very early age he fell in love with the prettiest of three young Quakeresses, and married her. This made his position unpleasant at home. So he bade adieu to the surgery, and obtained employment with an engineering firm at Birmingham. I had long before heard of his great mechanical ingenuity. But that mattered little; it was an ingredient of education and nothing more. What he now did was regarded as utter ruin of prospects-indeed character too, for caste was gone. I can't remember two opinions on the matter.

My brother Charles, upon finding himself twenty, and not liking his destined succession to my father's business, fixed his thoughts on emigration. The Swan River settlement was then the favourite idea. With much industry he collected all the books about it, studied them, and made his plans. He took me into his confidence, and I entered heartily into the scheme. At length it became necessary to be open with his parents. There ensued a very sad state of things, that lasted long, and told with still more lasting effects on my brother's career. I came in for