Your affectionate friend, in great haste, although your servant is not likely to think so, E.B.B.
To H.S. Boyd
[June 1838.]
My dear Friend,—You must let me feel my thanks to you, even when I do not say them. I have put up your various notes together, and perhaps they may do me as much good hereafter, as they have already, for the most part, given me pleasure.
The 'burden pure have been' certainly was a misprint, as certainly 'nor man nor nature satisfy'[[50]] is ungrammatical. But I am not so sure about the passage in Isobel:
I am not used to tears at nights Instead of slumber—nor to prayer.
Now I think that the passage may imply a repetition of the words with which it begins, after 'nor'—thus—'nor am I used to prayer,' &c. Either you or I may be right about it, and either 'or' or 'nor' may be grammatical. At least, so I pray.[[51]]
You did not answer one question. Do you consider that 'apolyptic' stands without excuse?[[52]]
I never read Greek to any person except yourself and Mr. MacSwiney, my brother's tutor. To him I read longer than a few weeks, but then it was rather guessing and stammering and tottering through parts of Homer and extracts from Xenophon than reading. You would not have called it reading if you had heard it.
I studied hard by myself afterwards, and the kindness with which afterwards still you assisted me, if yourself remembers gladly I remember gratefully and gladly.