wrong, a true and a false, and on which the wrong and the false may indeed be highly sinful; but it does not follow that they must be; and their sinfulness does not depend upon their wrongness and falsehood, but on other circumstances in the particular mind of the person holding them. But I read the Athanasian Creed, and have and would again subscribe the Article about it, because I do not conceive the clauses in question to be essential parts of it, or that they were retained deliberately by our Reformers after the propriety of retaining or expunging them had been distinctly submitted to their minds. They retained the Creed, I doubt not, deliberately; to show that they wished to keep the faith of the general Church in matters relating to the Arian, Macedonian, Nestorian, Eutychian, and Socinian controversies; and, as they did not scruple to burn Arians, so neither would they be likely to be shocked by the damnatory clauses against them; but I do not imagine that the Article about the Creed was intended in the least to refer to the clauses, as if they supposed that a man might embrace the rest of the Creed, and yet reject them. Nor do I think that the Reformers, or the best and wisest men of the Church since, would have objected to any man's subscription, if they had conceived such a but would have said, "What we mean you to embrace is the belief of the general Church, as expressed in the Three Creeds, with regard to the points,—many of them having been much disputed,-on which those Creeds pronounce; the degree of blameableness in those who do not embrace this belief is another matter, on which we do not intend to speak particularly in this Article." I do not think that there is any thing evasive or unfair in this. I do not think that it even requires in its defence,-what is yet most true,-that Church subscriptions must be taken in their widest rather than in their strictest sense, except on points where they were especially intended to be stringent, and to express the opposite of some suspected opinion. Yet, when you speak of others throwing your

case;

subscription in your teeth, you may surely say that it does indeed require the utmost laxity of interpretation to reconcile Newmanism with a subscription to our Articles, because there, on points especially disputed, such as the Authority of Tradition, and the King's Supremacy, the Church of England and the Newmanites are directly at variance. As far as Keble or Newman are concerned, the most decided Socinian might subscribe the Articles as consistently as they do; but this of course is not the point, and my opinion as to the damnatory clauses, as it is much older than the rise of Newmanism, so it stands on grounds far different from a mere argumentum ad hominem, and is, I think, perfectly right, considered simply on the merits of the case.

. When the faults of the London University revive all my tenderness for Oxford, then the faults of Oxford repel me again, and make it impossible to sympathize with a spirit so uncongenial. Wherefore I wish the wish of Achilles, when he looked out upon the battle of the ships, and desired that the Greeks and Trojans might destroy one another, and leave the field open for better men.

We had a very prosperous journey, and arrived here yesterday evening about nine o'clock. The place is most beautiful; but the rain is falling thick.

CLXXXII. TO T. F. ELLIS, ESQ.

Rugby, August 29, 1838.

Independently of the real pleasure which it would give me to be of any service to a friend of yours, I have that admiration of Mr. Macaulay's writings, and have derived so much pleasure from them, that it would be but a matter of simple gratitude to do any thing in my power towards facilitating his observations during his stay at Rome. I was there myself so very short a time, that I was able only to look at the mere outline of things; and it was my object to go to as many of the higher points as I could, in

and about Rome, that by getting the landscape from a number of different points I might better understand the bearings of its several parts towards one another. For instance, I went to the top of the dome of St. Peter's; to that of the tower of the Capitol; to the Monte Mario; the terrace of the Church of St. Pietro in Montorio, (on the old Janiculum,) that of the Convent of S. Gregorio, I think it is, on the Cœlian, (from which you look upon the reverse of the Esquiline, just at the place where the street of the Carinæ ran along,) to the old mound of Ser. Tullius; to the summits of the Aventine and Palatine, &c.; by which I always fancy that I have retained a more distinct and also a more lively and picturesque image of Rome, than I could otherwise have gained within the same space of time; and if I were to go again, I think I should do the same thing. Out of Rome I should recommend, as near objects, Tivoli, of course, and the Alban hills, and especially Palestrina (Præneste). If I could get there again, I should wish especially to take the upper road from Rome to Naples, by Palestrina, Anagni, Frosinone, and the valley of the Garigliano. This is every way a most interesting line, and it might easily include Arpino. I am not sure where you would best come out upon the plain of Naples. I should try to get by S. Germano and Monte Cassino, into the great road from Naples, across to the Adriatic; and so to descend by the Valley of the Voltorno, either upon Capua or straight by Carazzo and Caserta.

Much must depend on the state of the banditti, which is always known on the spot. If they are well put down, as I believe they are, the upland valleys in the central Apennines are most attractive. I had a plan once of turning off from the great road at Terni, then ascending the valley of the Velino to Rieti, and making my way through what they call the Cicolano,-the country of the Aborigines of Cato,-down upon Alba and the Lake Fucinus; from thence you can go either to Rome or Naples,

as you like. The neighbourhood of Alba is doubly interesting, as it is close by the field of Scurzola, the scene of Conradin's defeat by Charles of Anjou. In Etruria I would make any efforts to get to Volterra, which is accessible enough, either from Leghorn or from Sienna. If Mr. Macaulay is going into the kingdom of Naples, he will find Keppel Craven's recent book, "Travels in the Abruzzi," &c., exceedingly useful,—as a regular guide, I have not met with a better book. Does he know Westphal's book on the Campagna ? lengthy, but full of details, which are carefully done.

CLXXXIII. TO THE REV. DR. HAWKINS.

(Two letters, as being closely connected with each other, are here joined.)

Just before the holidays, I had a letter from Cardwell, in which he mentioned that there was some scheme for enlarging the sphere of the Degree Examination. I should rejoice at this, but I more desire your old plan of an Examination at entrance, which would be so great a benefit at once to you and to us. With regard to the Examinations, I hear a general complaint of the variableness of the standard; that new Examiners lay the main stress on the most different things; with some Scholarship is every thing, with others History, with others the Aristotle, &c. Now it is a very good thing that all these should have their turn, and should all be insisted upon; but I think that some notice should be given beforehand, and that a new Examiner should state, like the Prætors at Rome, what points he intended particularly to require; for at present, the men say that they are often led to attend to one thing, from the experience of the last Examination, and then a new Examiner attaches the greatest importance to something else.

(B.)

I hear that you are thinking of extending the range of your Examinations at Oxford, at which I wish you all manner of success. I do not think that you need in the least to raise the standard of your classes, but a pass little go, or even great go, is surely a ridiculous thing, as all that the University expects of a man after some twelve or fourteen years of schooling and lecturing. I think, too, that physical science can nowhere be so well studied as at Oxford, because the whole spirit of the place is against its undue ascendancy; for instance, Anatomy, which in London is dangerously, as I think, made one of the qualifications for a degree, might be, I imagine, profitably required at Oxford, where you need not dread the low morals and manners of so many of the common medical students.

I have read Froude's volume", and I think that its predominant character is extraordinary impudence. I never saw a more remarkable instance of that quality than the way in which he, a young man, and a clergyman of the Church of England, reviles all those persons whom the accordant voice of that Church, without distinction of party, has agreed to honour, even perhaps with an excess of admiration..

CLXXXIV.

TO THE REV. W. K. HAMILTON.

Rugby, October 5, 1838.

Will you thank Wordsworth for his specimen of his Grammar when you write to him? I am glad that he writes it in Latin, being fully convinced that an English Grammar will never be remembered with equal tenacity.

You are indeed too much of a stranger to us, and it would delight us to see you here again, or still more to see you in Westmoreland. But I know the claims of your parish upon your time; as well as those of your relations.

a i. e. the first volume of the first part of Froude's Remains. The other three volumes he had not read.