TO R. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq.
Trinity, 4th June 1856.
On Thurs. evening I take the North-western route to
the North. I am
busy looking over immense rubbish of papers, etc.,
for
some things not to be burnt lie among much combustible matter, and some
is soft and good for packing.
It is not pleasant to go down
to live solitary,
but it would not be pleasant to stay up either, when all one had to
do
lay elsewhere. The transition state from a man into a Don must come at
last, and it must be painful, like gradual outrooting of
nerves.
When it is done there is no more pain, but occasional reminders from
some
suckers, tap-roots, or other remnants of the old nerves,
just
to show what was there and what might have been.
TO R. B. LITCHFIELD, Esq.
Glenlair, 4th July 1856.
I have got some prisms and
opticals from Edinbro',
and I am fitting up a compendious colour-machine capable
of
transportation. I have also my top for doing dynamics and several
colour-diagrams,
so that if I come to Cheltenham I shall not be empty
handed. At the same time I should like to hear from you soon.
I have been giving a portion
of time to Saturn's
Rings, which I find a stiff subject but curious, especially the case
of
the motion of a fluid ring. The very forces which would tend to divide
the ring into great drops or satellites are made by the
motion
to keep the fluid in a uniform ring.
I find I get fonder of
metaphysics and less
of calculation continually, and my metaphysics are fast settling into
the
rigid high style, that is about ten times as far above Whewell as Mill
is below him, or Comte or Macaulay below Mill, using
above and below conventionally like up and down in Bradshaw.
Experiment furnishes us with
the values of
our arbitrary constants, but only suggests the form of the
functions.
Afterwards, when the form is not only recognised but understood
scientifically,
we find that it rests on precisely the same foundation as
Euclid
does, that is, it is simply the contradiction of an absurdity, out of
which
may we all get our legs at last!
