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 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 I could and educated persons desirous of encouraging it.

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.

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.

CLXXXIV. 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 effect of such a medicine does not immediately evaporate; it really seems to wind up the machine for three or four months. . . The Roman remains at Arles, the papal remains at Avignon, and the Spanish-like character of the country between Arles and Aix were exceedingly interesting. I thought of old days when I used to read Southey's raptures about Spain and Spaniards, as I looked out on the street at Salon, where a fountain was playing under a grove of plane trees, and the population were all in felt hats, grave and quiet, and their Provençal language sounding much more like Spanish than French. Then we had

the open heaths covered with the dwarf ilex and the Roman pine, and the rocks actually breathing fragrance from the number of their aromatic plants.

We arrived at Rugby from London in the afternoon of the day on which the school opened; and when we reached the station, we found there my wife and all her party from Fox How, who had arrived barely five minutes before us, so that we actually all entered our own house together. We had a very large admission of new boys, larger than I ever remember since I have been at Rugby, so that the school is now, I believe, quite full. And since that time we have gone on working much as usual; only Thucydides is still upon hand, and interferes with the History, and will do so, I fear, for another month.

I have just got the fourth volume of your Uncle's Literary Remains, which make me regard him with greater admiration than ever. He seems to hold that point which I have never yet been able to find in any of our English Divines, and the want of which so mars my pleasure in reading them. His mind is at once rich and vigorous, and comprehensive and critical; while the 00s is so pure and so lively all the while. He seems to me to love Truth really, and therefore Truth presented herself to him not negatively, as she does to many minds, who can see that the objections against her are unfounded, and therefore that she is to be received; but she filled him, as it were, heart and mind, imbuing him with her very self, so that all his being comprehended her fully and loved her ardently; and that seems to me to be true wisdom. . .

It was just at the foot of the Col di Tenda that I got hold of an English newspaper, containing a charge of yours, in which the Chartists were noticed. I was glad to find that your mind had been working in that direction; and that you spoke strongly as to the vast importance of the subject. I would give any thing to be able to organize a Society "for drawing public attention to the state of the labouring classes throughout the kingdom." Men do not

think of the fearful state in which we are living; if they could once be brought to notice and to appreciate the evil, I should not even yet despair that the remedy may be found and applied; even though it is the solution of the most difficult problem ever yet proposed to man's wisdom, and the greatest triumph over selfishness ever yet required of his virtue. A Society might give the alarm, and present the facts to the notice of the public. It was thus that Clarkson overthrew the Slave trade; and it is thus, I hope, that the system of Transportation has received its death blow. I have desired Fellowes to send you one of the copies of a Lecture, which I once showed you, about the Divisions of Knowledge, and which I have just printed, in the hope of getting it circulated among the various Mechanics' Institutes, where something of the kind is, I think, much wanted. Let me hear from you when you can.

CLXXXV. TO SIR T. PASLEY.

Rugby, September 9, 1839.

Our tour was most delightful, and put me into such a perfect state of health as I never can gain from any thing but travelling abroad, where one neither read nor write, nor receive letters; and therefore the mind is perfectly at rest, while the body is constantly enjoying air and exercise, light food, and early hours.

I never before saw so much of the Mediterranean, and the weather was so perfect that it never could have been more enjoyable. I thought of you particularly when we were out in a boat in the midst of Toulon Harbour, and rowing under the stern of the Montebello, which seemed to me a very fine looking three-decker. We went over the Arsenal, which I thought very inferior to Portsmouth, but the magnificence of the harbour exceeds any thing that I had ever seen;-how it would stand in your more experienced, as well as better judging eyes, I know not. Provence far surpassed my expectations; the

VOL. II.

M

Roman remains at Arles are magnificent; and the prisons in the Pope's Palace, at Avignon, were one of the most striking things I ever saw in my life. In the self same dungeon the roof was still black with the smoke of the Inquisition fires, in which men were tortured or burnt; and, as you looked down a trap-door into an apartment below, the walls were still marked with the blood of the victims whom Jourdan Coupe Tête threw down there into the Ice-house below in the famous massacre of 1791. It was very awful to see such traces of the two great opposite forms of all human wickedness, which I know not how to describe better than by calling them Priestcraft and Benthamism, or, if you like, White and Red Jacobinism. . . . .

I am still in want of a master, and I shall want another at Christmas, but I cannot hear of a man to suit me. . . . . We are also in almost equal distress for a pony for my wife; and there, too, we want a rare union of qualities; that he should be very small, very quiet, very surefooted, and able to walk more than four miles an hour. If you hear of any such marvel of a pony in your neighbourhood, I would thankfully be at the expense of its transit from the Isle of Man to Rugby; for to be without a pony for my wife interferes with our daily comfort more than almost any other external inconvenience could do.

I was over at Birmingham twice during the meeting of the British Association, and James Marshall was there the whole week. Murchison convinced Greenough and De la Beche, on the spot, that they must recolour all their geological maps; for what were called the Grey Wackes of North Devon, he maintains to be the equivalent to the coal formation; and the limestones on which they rest are equivalent to the old Red Sandstone, which now is to be sandstone no more,-seeing that it is often limestone,but is to be called the Devonian System. Lord Northampton, as Chairman, wound up the business on the last day in the Town Hall by a few Christian sentences, simply and feelingly put, to my very great satisfaction. .