thing; and I had some conversation with Uncle John last winter in
consequence of my fancying your deafness was on the increase, though
the girls did not perceive it; I hope with all my heart I was wrong.
I told him what I know you feel, that, painful as it will be to you
to retire from the Bench, if any dissatisfaction was expressed at
your not hearing sufficiently what passed, you would choose rather to
give up your seat than to go on under such circumstances. His
answer, I remember, was that it was most difficult to know what to
do, because it was no use concealing the fact that your infirmity did
interfere with the working of the Court more or less, on Circuit
especially, and at other times when witnesses were examined, but that
your knowledge of law was so invaluable that it was difficult to see
how this latter advantage could fail to outweigh the former defect;
and everybody knew that they can't find a lawyer to fill your place,
though another man might do the ordinary circuit work with greater
comfort to the Bar; though therefore nobody is so painstaking and so
little liable to make mistakes, yet to people in general and in the
whole, another man would seem to do the work nearly as well, and
would do his work, as far as his knowledge and conscientiousness
went, with more ease;--this was something like the substance of what
passed then, and you may suppose that since that time I have thought
more about the possibility of your retirement; but as I know how very
much you will feel giving up an occupation in which you take a
regular pride, I do feel very sorry, and wish I was at home to do
anything that could be done now. I know well enough that you are the
last man in the world to make a display of your feelings, and that
you look upon this as a trial, and bear it as one, just as you have
with such great patience and submission (and dear Joan too,) always
quietly borne your deafness; but I am sure you must, and do feel this
very much, and, added to Granny's illness, you must be a sad party at