“God be thanked for having enabled you to finish successfully the arduous but noble and classical work on Scitamineæ, on which you have been so long engaged, and which must have required the most vigorous exertions of the mind, especially under the severe bodily sufferings which you have of late years undergone. I beg to offer my sincerest felicitations on the consummation of this anxiously looked for event, which will be hailed by all sound botanists of the Linnæan as well as the modern school, and
400 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“Your charming sonnet I know by heart; and am charged by Mrs. Wallich to thank you a thousand times in our joint names for the honour you have done us both by inscribing a separate copy to her; an honour that we acknowledge with warm gratitude. We are going to have it framed against our return to India, where, in the botanic garden at Calcutta, it will have a place among our dearest and most valued friends.
LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 401 |
“I do glory and pride myself, as most justly I may, in all the generous expressions with which you have honoured me, and in the frequent mention of my humble name, especially in conjunction with those of my munificent masters. Your approbation and satisfaction is of indescribable value to me; to have had the distinction of being numbered amongst your friends, will always be to me a source of solid and substantial benefit, and will preserve me from that oblivion which would otherwise befal me when I shall only be a shadow—a name.”