_March 8._--Gertrude[36] and the children came to tea.
_March 9._--Mr. Henry Sidgwick came to discuss the plan of the studentship.
_March 13._--Professor Michael Foster came to discuss the studentship, and we arrived at a satisfactory clearness as to the conditions. He mentioned as men whom he thought of as suitable trustees, Huxley, Pye Smith, Thiselton Dyer, Francis Balfour, and Henry Sidgwick.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, 20th Mch. 1879.]
DEAR FRIEND,--When you have time to come to me about six o'clock I shall love to see you.
_March 22._--Mrs. Congreve came again. Mrs. Burne-Jones came.
[Sidenote: Letter to William Blackwood, 25th Mch. 1879.]
I am so dissatisfied with "Theophrastus" on reading the revise that I have proposed to suppress it in this original form, and regenerate it whenever--if ever--I recover the power to do so. You see the cruel weather has travelled after you. It makes one feel every grievance more grievously in some respects, though to me the sunshine is in one sense sadder.
_March 30._--Mr. Bowen (now Lord Justice Bowen) came, Mr. Spencer, and J.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 5th April, 1879.]
After weighing what you have said, I agree to the publication of "Theophrastus" in May. If you had at all suspected that the book would injure my influence, you would not have wished me to give it forth in its present form, and in the uncertainty of one's inner and outer life it is not well to depend on future capabilities. There are some things in it which I want to get said, and if the book turned out to be effective in proportion to my other things, the form would lend itself to a "second series"--supposing I lived and kept my faculties.
As to the price for the right of translating, you will judge. If you will kindly undertake these negotiations for me, I shall be thankful. And pray remember that I don't _want_ the book to be translated, so that it will be well to wait for the application, and to ask a sufficient sum to put the publisher on his guard as to the selection of a translator. But, of course, this little book cannot be paid for according to the difficulty of translation.
You see, I have been so used to have all trouble spared me that I am ready to cast it on any willing shoulders. But I am obliged now to think of business in many ways.
