Written on mourning stationery engraved with "9 The College / Glasgow" and marked "Private" above the address.
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Regretting he cannot help with his work on Professor Nichol; saying "I do not remember ever having had a letter from Prof. Nichol (apart from very small business notes) except once, when he wrote me an unexpectedly cordial and laudatory expression of his opinion as to a graduation Address which I gave a good many years ago. I believe I must have said some thing in reply at the time, reciprocating his good feeling on this occasion : but both before and since that time I always experienced with regard to Nichol a kind of polarity, which hindered me from coming to close quarters with him. I don't in the least know what it was : perhaps he looked upon me as a kind of Philistine, & looked down upon me as Matthew Arnold did in his typical sample of that widespread [illegible]. Perhaps it was my fault : in short I don't know what it was; but as matter of fact, we rarely exchanged confidences...When his 'Carlyle' came out, & when he was living in London, I read his little book with avidity, as I had formerly done his 'Bacon' , and I wrote him a rather long letter expressive of my feelings; but whether for illness or otherwise, he never replied, & so, you see, I am not in a position to assist you at all, which I very much regret, but more on my own account than on that of my colleague."