might avail myself of a portion of them. I seem to have acquired a little business in the manufacture of soda water, much sought-after by thirsty scholars, and cannot procure any glass bottles which will not burst, nor any stone ones impervious to the fixed air. After succeeding perfectly in the construction of a complicated, difficult and delicate apparatus for the production of mineral gases, I have been thus far completely foiled by the very defective bottles supplied by the potters hitherto. They will not hold the fluid under such a pressure but weep copiously – and I am bound to join them, in competing Streams. Recollecting however the store of excellent vessels in the backroom of the school, and reflecting on the superiority of Southern manufacture, I resolved to apply to you, as I do now, for a Shipment of them.
Your faithful, etc. son,
Sam
His studies, as a rule, were more ‘“honoured in the breach than the observance”; he was forever pursuing some fresh impossible scheme, which, impossibly, came off – and his nights he spent sleeping crooked in the hall-way at the foot of the stairs in a kind of divan he had erected for the purpose, ready on all occasions, to satisfy any sleepless desire for a game at Cards, at which he lost greatly and consistently and with great good Humour, determined, by some faith in the “Mathematics of Fortune”, that his luck would turn …’
Edward Syme also retained his own strange letter to his son at college, which may give another indication of how Sam’s time was spent, if we are to believe the insinuations of a father.
We are all anticipating your return – Bubbles particularly clamours for her brother. I am afraid your Mother and I offer dreary company to a lively girl and I myself have been much occupied of late, by the Schoolhouse & sundry considerations. We expect you to instruct us all this Summer on the composition of the ‘philosopher’s stone’ &c. or rather, where it might he found. For my own part, I am so grossly ignorant respecting Chemistry and such like, that I hardly know what it cannot effect, and should not be surprised to find you Descend upon us from the Moon, after a relatively simple Operation involving no doubt a great many Explanations …
As for this business, of Analysing, I hear it sometimes makes Bad Work. If you confine yourself to the laboratory at College, you will do well, avoiding at all cost the Laboratories of some Connecticut ladies. But I fear the particles of which you are composed, and those of some fine Lasses there, are sufficiently homogeneous to possess in a great degree the attraction of affini ty. (Is that how you speak it?) If so, I am convinced that on near approach they would cause such a Fermentation as would produce a Composition … ‘Conception is a fine thing no doubt, but as their daughters may conceive, look to it …’
Your loving Father, Sam, who misses you,
E.
If only the physician had healed himself.
But I could not guess at the time what revolution in his circumstances drew Sam home, for a far greater term than a single summer, and prevented his return. The next mention of his name, in official records, occurs not at the college induction in the fall of 1813, in the allied courses of Geology, Chemistry, Mineralogy, etc. There Sam is conspicuous by his absence; but he appears again, in the spring of 1814, enlisted in the 53rd Infantry, stationed in Richmond, under the sponsorship of one Benedict Smythe. He had turned with his customary short-lived explosion of enthusiasm to a new task entirely.
His regiment was promptly called north to prosecute the war with Britain; and Sam, after only three months in the service, found himself at the heart of the battle of Lundy’s Lane on 25 July, where he conducted himself ‘with great honour’. On 17 September Syme volunteered for a sortie against one of the British batteries surrounding Fort Erie and not only led the charge over the entrenchments, but
Your faithful, etc. son,
Sam
His studies, as a rule, were more ‘“honoured in the breach than the observance”; he was forever pursuing some fresh impossible scheme, which, impossibly, came off – and his nights he spent sleeping crooked in the hall-way at the foot of the stairs in a kind of divan he had erected for the purpose, ready on all occasions, to satisfy any sleepless desire for a game at Cards, at which he lost greatly and consistently and with great good Humour, determined, by some faith in the “Mathematics of Fortune”, that his luck would turn …’
Edward Syme also retained his own strange letter to his son at college, which may give another indication of how Sam’s time was spent, if we are to believe the insinuations of a father.
We are all anticipating your return – Bubbles particularly clamours for her brother. I am afraid your Mother and I offer dreary company to a lively girl and I myself have been much occupied of late, by the Schoolhouse & sundry considerations. We expect you to instruct us all this Summer on the composition of the ‘philosopher’s stone’ &c. or rather, where it might he found. For my own part, I am so grossly ignorant respecting Chemistry and such like, that I hardly know what it cannot effect, and should not be surprised to find you Descend upon us from the Moon, after a relatively simple Operation involving no doubt a great many Explanations …
As for this business, of Analysing, I hear it sometimes makes Bad Work. If you confine yourself to the laboratory at College, you will do well, avoiding at all cost the Laboratories of some Connecticut ladies. But I fear the particles of which you are composed, and those of some fine Lasses there, are sufficiently homogeneous to possess in a great degree the attraction of affini ty. (Is that how you speak it?) If so, I am convinced that on near approach they would cause such a Fermentation as would produce a Composition … ‘Conception is a fine thing no doubt, but as their daughters may conceive, look to it …’
Your loving Father, Sam, who misses you,
E.
If only the physician had healed himself.
But I could not guess at the time what revolution in his circumstances drew Sam home, for a far greater term than a single summer, and prevented his return. The next mention of his name, in official records, occurs not at the college induction in the fall of 1813, in the allied courses of Geology, Chemistry, Mineralogy, etc. There Sam is conspicuous by his absence; but he appears again, in the spring of 1814, enlisted in the 53rd Infantry, stationed in Richmond, under the sponsorship of one Benedict Smythe. He had turned with his customary short-lived explosion of enthusiasm to a new task entirely.
His regiment was promptly called north to prosecute the war with Britain; and Sam, after only three months in the service, found himself at the heart of the battle of Lundy’s Lane on 25 July, where he conducted himself ‘with great honour’. On 17 September Syme volunteered for a sortie against one of the British batteries surrounding Fort Erie and not only led the charge over the entrenchments, but
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