From Thomas Archer Hirst   Augst 31st 1851

Marburg – | Aug^st 31^st 1851

A few words dear John before I shoulder my knapsack and set off to Switzerland where I had always intended we should go together but fate would not have it so and I am satisfied. The Semester is closed and at the end of it I find myself better satisfied with the results than I was with the anticipation As we have many a time repeated gloomy forebodings only require to be moved under and are sure to be dissipated, they are ever of a darker hue than the realities. A weeks cold moist weather here has spurred me up and dissipated my inertia, by reminding me that the air on the Alps will be getting cool & that Summer (or Autumn) is flying fast. – As yet I have no settled route I shall wander my own wild way and trust all as usual to chance or providence, you will have a line from me now and then I dare say, if not you will know that I am among scenes familiar to you and as usual trying with more or less success as ever to interpret what they have to tell me. –

Gerard. Simpson & Co¹ advise me to remain in the outskirts of towns & watering places & not venture too much on the cold, lonely mountains, how much I value their advice you may guess. One object however I have beforehand, it appears from a conversation I had with Fraulein Spannenberg² that a relation of mine (a governess at a Moravian establishment) whom I have long lost sight of is in the neighbourhood of Geneva. I will seek her out if possible; I go provided with letters of introduction from Fraulein Spannenberg who was at school there, who is enthusiastic in her praises of the people and neighbourhood and who judging from her conversation has provided for me there a reception of the most hospitable nature – Knoblauch and his papa you will already have seen by this time remember me kindly to both, tell them if they should visit Bristol not to forget to make use of my Brother,³ I gave Knoblauch his address and wrote to day to provide for my Brothers shewing them all in his power of the sights of Bristol, Clifton &c. –

Wrightson goes to England soon also, he will return to Marburg (according to his present intentions!!!) and make an examination here next Semester. His results at the Laboratory it appears are again = 0,⁴ though one must give him credit for a pretty considerable stock of patience, I am inclined to adduce him as an example against your theory that Patience is synonymous with Genius. He continues doggedly to battle with Mathematics after dinner, often gives me his company at that time, under the professed objects of asking for some explanation, but I seldom have the honour of imparting it as by the time he reaches me I find he knows it already and his visit thus usually ends in his helping himself to a Cigar. He is a wonderful specimen of human nature and a complete puzzle to me in point of character. I never met his like. He and Davy have at last had an open rupture, and I have had to act partially as mediator though I could make a little of either. Davy it appears is articled to him (premium about £300) to learn Chemical Analysis!! Davy complains that on account of being left in the imperfect small Laboratory to himself, M^r W being always absent he has learnt actually nothing during the year, that owing to a difference (whose cause they yet both keep secret) between them which happened directly after coming here last year there has been a perpetual coolness & ill will between them which has rendered their living together for Davy no longer bearable At last Davy taking advantage of Wrightsons absence at Dusseldorf, whither he had accompanied Prosser⁵ on his way to England, removed his boxes, &c & took up his lodgings wither Gerland, refusing to go back and alledging in his own justification that Wrightson had not fulfilled the conditions of the indentures & that the step was taken with his fathers knowledge. Wrightson somewhat frightened (the premium is not all paid yet) & perhaps also somewhat conscience-stricken asked me to try and come to some terms with him – I did so brought them together in my rooms. Davy is truly of a weak cast of character but scarcely more so than Wrightson himself, and who sees moreover that Wrightson is not well capable to teach much of Chemical Analysis (he has in fact detected his inabilities in many points & seen that £300 is too great a price for all Wrightson knows about Chemistry) the result of the interview was that Davy would return on condition that he worked in the Laboratory next Semester and that they lived separately to which Wrightson consented. The relation between them is pitiable. Wrightson is totally unfit for the responsibility he has taken upon himself and Davy requires treating with a firmer hand if he is ever to be made anything of. He is for the most part of a harmless weak nature though this late difference has shewn me a secreted & hidden sullenness & obstinacy in his disposition. How it will end one cannot predict.

Smith⁶ wrote me the other day. He is living precariously in London writing fugitive articles in the Leader Eliza Cook, Chambers⁷ &c for an odd £1. I wish he had something of a more suitable nature to employ him. Poor Booth has been almost dead he sent me the enclosed interesting letter which you must return me. Of Phillips I have heard but little lately. Smith mentions that he has been in London & together with Caliban⁸ had spent and Evening with him Smith speaks highly of Caliban who it appears has just had a fortune of £8000 left him, has given up his profession as Surgeon and is now in France – Has Professor Hessel sent your testimonial by Knoblauch? He said he would –

About Toronto John although I recognize the justice of your intentions I am by no means satisfied You know as yet too little of its nature. Faraday also does not it appears know what kind of a place it is, but only hopes that it and you will be fit for each other However you would do well to make every enquiry & preparation, if it turns out promising I myself will say go & God speed – and what is more perhaps follow thee. There is to be an immense railway made from Quebec to Halifax, if nothing else offers itself I can earn my living & do my duty thereon –

With patience all will order itself rightly at last, we will force nothing do what seems best to us at this present & leave the rest to gravitation. I have concluded to return here next Semester & probably at its close make an examination; as yet I can see no further (nor do I try) into futurity. –

Wrightson leaves here in about a week for England and returns again, his address is

M^r Francis Wrightson | Mess^rs Wrightson and Bell⁹ | Birmingham.

I do not remember anything I can ask you to send me if you should do in the meantime you can send it to him –

Good-bye & God bless you – | Yours affectionately | T A Hirst

RI MS JT/1/H/161

[Enclosure]

Francis Booth to Thomas Archer Hirst 17 August 1851 0516encl

Birdcage, Skircoat.¹⁰ | August 17, 1851.

My dear Friend,

At last heartily do I rejoice to greet you once again. Some six months I think have elapsed since I last heard from you. I hope they have passed pleasantly and happily with you. I was about to add ‘smoothly’, but I bethought me that to you – and indeed to any man in a normal, healthy state, the smoothest path is rarely the pleasantest. The presence of difficulties is to be overcome – of objects to be attained that cannot be attained smoothly – is absolutely necessary to our enjoyment in the present sphere of existence; and I am of opinion that from the nature of things it must still continue to be so in any sphere of existence whatever. Were it to become otherwise we should lose those attributes that constitute us essentially what we are; we should cease to be ourselves in short, and each one become some other thing or being in whose future fate or condition we could have no interest whatever. Well I hope that you have been, and are still going on happily and prosperously, approaching nearer and nearer to the goal you have in view, and encountering no further difficulties by the way than may serve to give a pleasant stimulus to your energies. Where or what your goal may be, of course I know not, but I feel very confident that it is not for your own pleasure or profit merely that you are thus secluding yourself in Marburg, and pursuing a course of severe study there. – You have some higher object in view, and I shall look forward with interest for the next phases of development in your ‘life history’. I hope that ere long you will emerge from your chrysalis state, so that I and the world may see what sort of butterfly you will make.

The months have passed sadly and drearily enough within me of late. I am now partly recovered from a dangerous illness that threatened to carry me down the stream

‘whose current flows | Unto the land that no one knows’.¹¹

It commenced with a severe cold to which I at first paid little attention. But soon a deep and violent cough settled on my lungs, accompanied by pains in the chest and shortness of breath. I was bathed in perspiration at nights. I grew weaker and visibly thinner every day. At last I could scarcely cross the room without assistance, and my breathings came short and quick after the slightest exertion. Finally I was confined to my bed, a victim to the doctor. I displayed all the symptoms of one in a consumption, and most of my friends gave me up for lost. I did not hear it from their lips, but I read it in their eyes. I myself seriously thought that I was soon to follow in the footsteps of my poor sister,¹² I remember wondering, one night as I lay in bed, whether in the next world I might still be permitted to trace those footsteps, and perhaps to overtake her! And if so, I thought how we should be happier to wander together through an immensity of desolation, than to be parted from each other and placed in separate heavens. But my thoughts seldom wandered in this direction. A deep despondency settled on my mind, but it was not occasioned by fear of death, or anxiety about my future. These things I must confess seldom occupied my mind. I could not bring myself into anything resembling that state of mind that religious people told me was necessary in my condition. The only sincere and earnest prayer I prayed – and that was sincere and earnest enough – was that I might recover and regain my health, and strength, for my mother’s sake.¹³ And I thought that if that Power to whom I prayed could be moved by prayer – if he indeed possesses any of those attributes which we look upon as forming the divine portion of ourselves, – if in short there could be any sympathy between Him and me, then my appeal could not be without effect. I may be superstitious, but I cannot help thinking now that my prayer has been answered, and that for her sake I have miraculously escaped the jaws of death.

But I must be brief, else I had many things to tell you, particularly about the unexpected illness, most of them, however, happily surmounted now. You see it has been by the strictest economy that Mother and I have been able to stay at the old home we are so loth to leave. In all our plans, however, I had never calculated on the possible failure of my health. When I became ill, and it was probable that I should have to leave my situation and be confined to a bed of sickness for an indefinite length of time, the gloomy prospect weighed heavily on my mind. I saw no way out of our difficulties, except by having recourse to the ‘assistance’ (‘Charity’) of friends, or relations, and thus sacrificing that valued independence which I had so long struggled to maintain. But I have no more room. The danger for the present is averted, I am almost recovered, miraculously as I think; at the same time I believe that cod liver oil has had something to do with my cure. Bottled porter too has been of great service. I am a firm believer in bottled porter.

I remain, dear sir, ever yours, | Francis Booth.

RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3486–3487

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