probably know, were answered by Horsley, and I believe sufficiently answered; but neither of the controversialists was very profound, or, as I should fear, very fair; and but little real benefit can be derived from the works of either. Priestley's arguments now would be repeated nowhere, I suppose, but in England, and in England only amongst a sect so destitute of theological and critical learning as the Unitarians. It goes on two assumptions; first, that the Christian Church of Jerusalem held Unitarian opinions; and secondly, that the Church of Jerusalem was the standard by which the tenets of the other churches were to be measured. Now the second of these assumptions is clearly wrong, and the first is probably so; but we have very small evidence as to the opinions of the Church of Jerusalem, and so a dispute may be maintained for ever on that point, by those who would confine their attention to it, and who do not see that the real stress of the question lies elsewhere. But the Epistles of Ignatius are a decided proof that neither he nor the Churches of Asia were Unitarian; and his language is the more to be valued, because it is evidently not controversial, nor does he ever dream of dwelling on Christ's Divinity as a disputed point, but as a thing taken by all Christians for granted. I do not understand, however, how an Unitarian can consistently transfer the argument from the Scripture to the opinion of the early Church. As he rejects the authority of the Church, without scruple, where it is clearly to be ascertained, and where it speaks the opinions of Christians of all parts of the world, through more than seventeen centuries, it is idle to refer to the single Church of Jerusalem during a period of twenty or thirty years, unless he can show that that Church was infallible, and its decisions of equal weight with those of the Scripture. If he says that St. Paul and St. John corrupted the purity of the true Gospel, which was kept only by St. James and the Church of Jerusalem, that no doubt would be an intelligible argument; but to accept St. Paul and St. John as inspired

Apostles, and then to plead the opinions of the Church of Jerusalem against them, is an absurdity. And as for the Unitarian interpretations of St. Paul and St. John, they are really such monstrosities of extravagance, that to any one used to the critical study of the ancient writers, they appear too bad to have been ever maintained in earnest. And thus, wherever Unitarianism has existed, together with any knowledge of criticism or philology, as in Germany, it has at once assumed that the Apostles were not infallible, and that they overrated the dignity of Christ's Person. So impossible is it to doubt what St. John meant in so many passages of his Gospel, and what St. Paul meant in so many passages of his Epistles. It gives me the greatest pleasure to find that you still enjoy your situation, and that being the case, you are likely, I think, to find it more and more agreeable, the longer you hold it.

CCI. TO REV. G. CORNISH.

Fox How, July 6, 1839.

As I believe that the English universities are the best place in the world for those who can profit by them, so I think for the idle and self-indulgent they are about the very worst, and I would far rather send a boy to Van Diemen's Land, where he must work for his bread, than send him to Oxford to live in luxury, without any desire in his mind to avail himself of his advantages. Childishness in boys, even of good abilities, seems to me to be a growing fault, and I do not know to what to ascribe it, except to the great number of exciting books of amusement, like Pickwick and Nickleby, Bentley's Magazine, &c. &c. These completely satisfy all the intellectual appetite of a boy, which is rarely very voracious, and leave him totally palled, not only for his regular work,

a See Sermons, vol. iv. pp. 39-41.

a

which I could well excuse in comparison, but for good literature of all sorts, even for History and for Poetry.

I went up to Oxford to the Commemoration, for the first time for twenty-one years, to see Wordsworth and Bunsen receive their degrees; and to me, remembering how old Coleridge inoculated a little knot of us with the love of Wordsworth, when his name was in general a by-word, it was striking to witness the thunders of applause, repeated over and over again, with which he was greeted in the theatre by Undergraduates and Masters of Arts alike. . . .

CCII. TO CHEVALIER BUNSEN.

Rugby, August 23, 1839.

I intend this letter to reach you on the 25th of August, a day which has a double claim on my remembrance; for it is my little Susy's birthday also, and I wish it to convey to you, though most inadequately, my congratulation to Mrs. Bunsen and all your family on the return of that day, and my earnest wishes for all happiness for you and for them; and, so far as we may wish in such matters, my earnest desire that you may be long spared to your friends, your family, your country, and above all to Christ's Holy Catholic Church, in whose cause I know you are ever labouring, and which at this hour needs the utmost service of all her true members, amidst such various dangers as now threaten her from within and from without. I am glad to think that this one birthday more you will pass in England.

We shall see you and all your family, I confidently trust, ere very long. Meanwhile, you will be glad to hear that and I enjoyed our journey greatly, and, although we saw but little of Italy, yet that the South of France even surpassed our expectations, and the physical benefit to my health and strength was as complete as I could desire. Arles interested me exceedingly; it was striking to see the Amphitheatre and Theatre so close to each other,

and the two marble pillars still standing in the proscenium of the theatre, reminded me of the Forum at Rome. I was also much struck with the deserted Port of Frejus, and the mole and entrance tower of the old harbour, rising now out of a plain of grass. The famous plain of stones, or plain of Crau, was very interesting, for it lies now in precisely the same state as it was 2300 years ago, or more, when it was made the scene of one of the adventures of Hercules; and the remarkably Spanish character of the town, population, and neighbourhood of Salon, between Arles and Aix, was something quite new to me. In Italy we only went from Nice to Turin, by the Col di Tenda, and certainly in my recollections of this year's tour, all images of beauty and interest are connected with France, rather than with Italy. The intense drought had spoiled every thing, and the main Alps themselves, as seen in a perfectly clear morning from the neighbourhood of Turin, exhibited scarcely more than patches of snow on their summits; the effect of a long range of snowy summits was completely gone. Still I had a great delight in setting foot once more, if it was but in a mere corner of Italy; sights which I had half forgotten have taken again a fresh place in my memory; the style of the buildings-the "congesta manu præruptis oppida saxis "—the cultivation of the valleys-the splendour of the churches-nay, the very roguery and lying of the people, and their marvellous ignorance-rose up before me again as something which I did not wish to lose altogether out of my memory.

I paid a long visit to Letronne at Paris, and Peyrou at Turin. Both were very civil and agreeable, and gave me several of their works. Peyrou had received many letters from Niebuhr, which he showed to me with seeming pleasure-but he had never seen him. It was sad to me to find that he too had a lively sense of the grievous ignorance of English writers on points of philology. He mentioned to me with dismay, and read to me extracts from, a Coptic dictionary lately published, proh pudor! at Oxford, which

VOL. II.

M

I had never seen, or even heard of the writer's name, nor do I remember it now-but it was worthy to rank with

's extravagances about the Keltic languages. I tried hard at Provence to find a Provençal Grammar, but I could not succeed, and they told me there was no such thing; they only showed me a grammar for teaching French to Provençals, which they wanted to persuade me was all the same thing. It seems that the Provençal language is less fortunate than the Welsh, in having wealthy and educated persons desirous of encouraging it. I could not find that it was at all used now as a written language, although it seemed to me to be as distinct from French as Italian is.

[After questions relating to Silly's Edition of Pliny.] I have read your speech at Oxford, and admire your indefatigable exertions to see and hear every thing in England. But I feel the state of public affairs so deeply that I cannot bear either to read, or hear, or speak, or write about them. Only I would commend them to God's care and deliverance, if the judgment is not now as surely fixed as that of Babylon.

CCIII. TO MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE.

Rugby, September 25, 1839.

I do not know where this letter may find you, but I hope that it may be at Ottery; and that you may be enjoying to the full your rest from work, and the society of your family, and the actual beauty and old recollections of your home. We have been at work now nearly seven weeks, so that the holidays live but in remote memory, and I am very far from wishing them to come again very speedily; for they imply that a half year is gone, and there is so much that I would fain do, that I cannot wish time to pass away very quickly. The South of France put me into the best bodily condition in which I can almost ever remember to have been; and happily the