hen we heard of the sudden death of my dear son, Oct., 1865.

[This event, which took from my mother's last years one of her chief
delights, she bore with her usual calm courage, looking forward
confidently to a reunion at no distant date with one who had been
the most dutiful of sons and beloved of friends. She never permitted
herself, in writing her Recollections, to refer to her feelings
under these great sorrows.]

* * * * *

Some time after this, my widowed daughter-in-law spent a few months with
us. On her return to London, I sent the manuscript of the "Molecular and
Microscopic Science" with her for publication. In writing this book I
made a great mistake, and repent it. Mathematics are the natural bent of
my mind. If I had devoted myself exclusively to that study, I might
probably have written something useful, as a new era had begun in that
science. Although I got "Chasles on the Higher Geometry," it could be
but a secondary object while I was engaged in writing a popular book.
Subsequently, it became a source of deep interest and occupation to me.

Spezia is very much spoilt by the works in progress for the arsenal,
though nothing can change the beauty of the gulf as seen from our
windows, especially the group of the Carrara mountains, with fine peaks
and ranges of hills, becoming more and more verdant down to the water's
edge. The effect of the setting-sun on this group is varied and
brilliant beyond belief. Even I, in spite of my shaking hand, resumed
the brush, and painted a view of the ruined Castle of Ostia, at the
mouth of the Tiber, from a sketch of my own, for my dear friend Teresa
Doria.

We now came to live at Naples; and on leaving Spezia, I spent a
fortnight with Count and Countess Usedom at the Villa Capponi, near
Florence, where, though unable to visit, I had the pleasure of seeing my
Florentine friends again.

We spent two days in Rome, and dined with our friends the Duca and
Duchesa di Sermoneta. We were grieved at his blindness, but found him as
agreeable as ever.

Through our friend, Admiral Acton, I became acquainted with Professor
Panceri, Professor of Comparative Anatomy; Signore de Gasparis, who has
discovered nine of the minor planets, and is an excellent mathematician,
and some others. To these gentlemen I am indebted for being elected an
honorary member of the Accademia Pontoniana.

We were much interested in Vesuvius, which, for