" (15)
How long was it to last? He himself began to wonder, for he had
long felt his life as if ebbing away. At length he became
languid, weary, and unfit for work; even the writing of a letter
cost him a painful effort, and. he felt "as if to lie down and
sleep were the only things worth doing." Yet shortly after, to
help a Sunday-school, he wrote his 'Five Gateways of Knowledge,'
as a lecture, and afterwards expanded it into a book. He also
recovered strength sufficient to enable him to proceed with his
lectures to the institutions to which he belonged, besides on
various occasions undertaking to do other people's work. "I am
looked upon as good as mad," he wrote to his brother, "because, on
a hasty notice, I took a defaulting lecturer's place at the
Philosophical Institution, and discoursed on the Polarization of
Light.... But I like work: it is a family weakness."
Then followed chronic malaise--sleepless nights, days of pain,
and more spitting of blood. "My only painless moments," he says,
"were when lecturing." In this state of prostration and disease,
the indefatigable man undertook to write the 'Life of Edward
Forbes'; and he did it, like everything he undertook, with
admirable ability. He proceeded with his lectures as usual. To
an association of teachers he delivered a discourse on the
educational value of industrial science. After he had spoken to
his audience for an hour, he left them to say whether he should go
on or not, and they cheered him on to another half-hour's address.
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