Letter from J. Walter Ferrier, Edinburgh, to W. E. Henley, 1878 April 11 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning his health; saying "After all, I am not coming to London. I am going back to the old shop C.H. [Chalmers Hospital]. I couldn't get in to St. Marks for some little time & it is no use waiting, as there is nothing so very bad with my Rectum (St. M's is a mere Rectumplace) that it cannot be put right (or wrong) here. The truth is I haven't given the unfortunate gut fair play. Now I've given up smoking as well as drinking. If Nature is not going to cast me out at once I may mend. I fancied a day or two ago that I had at last got my quietus - I fancied that I had some form of Bright's disease of the kidneys in short - albuminous urine & the like. But no : P.A.Y. [Peter Alexander Young] tells me there is no albumen there. This assurance from him had very little effect upon me. You will understand me possibly when I say that I have now brought it as far as looking unflinchingly into the eyes of Death. Enough. I owe it all to J.C. All my dear H. I do think I know what he means &, to a certain extent, what Nature & God mean. However I am not going (in this place) to bore you with my 'Être Supreme' - I could write you a long letter, but won't. I am sorry about the parcel which I could easily & would gladly have brought, had it been as big as Arthur's Seat. How is 'London'? Supposing I were to begin writing for you again, would you pay me anything? Excuse impertinence; from my point of view the query is very pertinent. let me know this at once. How is Louis? Where is he? How is his Book? Where is it? What sort of thing is 'Light'? Buchanan's is it not?;" adding, in a postscript, "I find the following a good deal in my mind at present : 'Do you want a man not to practise what he believes, then encourage him to keep often speaking it in words. Every time he speaks it, the tendency to do it will grow less.'"