Page:Martha Spreull by Zachary Fleming.pdf/19

Rh into prominence by the stress of circumstances. It was so in the case of the subject of these preliminary observations. How she struggled, and how she surmounted the difficulties of her lot, is best depicted by her own pen, and, consequently, need not detain the reader here. For myself, I blush to think of the exceeding high value she seems to put on my own poor services, professional and otherwise. These personal references, which are in some places very outspoken, I would fain delete from this record, but this she will in nowise hear of. The reader must not, therefore, accuse me of egotism because they remain. There is another thing, also, I would fain have altered, to wit—the spelling of certain words; but she says there is nothing so contradictory as the laws that govern the spelling of words. Letters are the foundation of language, and why should not letters have their proper significance when words have to be spelt or spoken 'i This, observe, is not to be gainsaid. So I let matters stand as they are, though, I admit, it is contrary to college rules.

That she has wide human sympathies will appear from many of her opinions and observations in the volume; and her selection of a bursar after falling heir to her cousin Jen’s estate is a proof of this in the most practical form. The choice of William Warstle was an act that surprised both Dr. Threshie and myself beyond measure. A more uncouth, unmanageable.