probation; and also from the expressed opinion of Bull, Usher, and others; opinions not at all to be taken to such an extent as if the Articles were Articles of peace merely, but abundantly asserting that a whole Church never can be expected to agree in the absolute truth of such a number of propositions as are contained in the Articles and Liturgy. This consideration seems to me also decisive on à priori grounds. For otherwise the Church could by necessity receive into the ministry only men of dull minds or dull consciences; of dull, nay almost of dishonest minds, if they can persuade themselves that they actually agree in every minute particular with any great number of human propositions; of dull consciences, if exercising their minds freely and yet believing that the Church requires the total adhesion of the understanding, they still, for considerations of their own convenience, enter into the ministry in her despite.

You will say that this makes the degree of adhesion required indefinite. And so it must be: yet these things, so seemingly indefinite, are not really so to an honest and sensible mind; for such a mind knows whether it is really in sympathy with the Church in its main faith and feelings; and, if it be not, then subscription would indeed be deceitful; but, if it be, to refuse subscription would, I think, be at once unjust to the Church and to itself.

Enough however of this; I earnestly hope and pray that your entrance into the ministry may be to God's glory, to the good of His Church, and to your own great blessing. To have a ministry in the Church is a great honour, and a great responsibility; yet in both is it far inferior to the privilege of being a member of the Church. In our heavenly commonwealth the Jus Civitatis is a thousand times greater than the Jus Honorum; and he who most magnifies the solemnity of Baptism, will be inclined to value most truly the far inferior solemnity of Ordination.

You are entering on an office extinct in all but name. If it could be revived in power, it would be one of the

greatest blessings that could be conferred on the Church. I wish you would talk to about this; and if a book on this point could be got up between us, I think it could excite no offence, and might lead to very great good. God bless you ever in this and in all your undertakings, through Jesus Christ.

CXCI.

(In answer to a request for a subscription to a church.)

Fox How, December 22, 1839. Your letter followed me hither from Rugby, and I only reply to it, that you may not think me neglectful if I delayed my answer till my return to Warwickshire.

I shall be happy to subscribe £200 towards the endowment of the Church and not towards the building. My reason for this distinction is, that I think in all cases the right plan to pursue is to raise funds in the first instance for a clergyman, and to procure for him a definitely marked district as his cure. The real Church being thus founded, if money can also be procured for the material Church, so much the better. If not, I would wish to see any building in the district licensed for the temporary performance of Divine Service, feeling perfectly sure that the zeal and munificence of the congregation would in the course of years raise a far more ornamental building than can ever be raised by public subscription; and that, in the mean time, there might be raised by subscription an adequate fund for the maintenance of a clergyman; whereas, on the present system, it seems perfectly hopeless by any subscriptions in one generation to provide both clergymen and churches in numbers equal to the wants of the country.

I should not have troubled you with my opinions, which I am aware are of no importance to you, did I not wish to explain the reason which makes me, in such cases, always desirous of contributing to the endowment of a minister rather than to the building.

CXCII. TO THE REV. DR. HAWKINS.

Fox How, December 29, 1839.

I retained the benefit of my continental tour throughout the half-year, insomuch that at the very end of it, after the Examination, I felt as if I was not entitled to my vacation, because I was so perfectly untired by my past work. This alone could tell you that the school had gone on quietly, as indeed was the case. . . . . It seems to me that people are not enough aware of the monstrous state of society, absolutely without a parallel in the history of the world,-with a population poor, miserable, and degraded in body and mind, as much if they were slaves, and yet called freemen, and having a power as such of concerting and combining plans of risings, which makes them ten times more dangerous than slaves. And the hopes entertained by many of the effects to be wrought by new churches and schools, while the social evils of their condition are left uncorrected, appear to me to be utterly wild. Meanwhile here, as usual, we seem to be in another world, for the quietness of the valleys and the comparative comfort and independence of this population are a delightful contrast to what one finds almost everywhere else. We have had heavy rains and a flood, but now both are gone, and the weather is beautiful, and the country most magnificent-snow on all the high hills, but none on the low hills or in the valleys.

CXCIII. TO JAMES MARSHALL, ESQ.

Fox How, January 1, 1840. I may be wrong as to the necessity of gaining more information, but I think I am not wrong in wishing to secure a more extensive and universal cooperation, before any thing is ventured remedially.—I would join half a dozen men, or even fewer, if the object be merely to collect and circulate facts such as may fix the public

attention; but, if more be proposed to be done, I dread the thing's assuming a party character, and I could not myself undertake to sanction a sort of political mission system, without knowing more exactly than I can well expect to know, the characters and discretion and opinions of the agents to be employed. And, even if I could depend on these, yet I do not think that they could be successful, for the evil is far deeper, as I believe, than can be cured without the aid of the Government and Legislature. I quite agree with you in the wisdom of forming local societies and a general Central Society; and I should wish the local societies to consist of men of all classes, including certainly the working classes; every possible information collected by such societies would be most valuable, but why should they go on to the farther step of endeavouring by tracts or missionaries to influence the mass of the working classes, or to propose remedies? For instance, in Leeds I can conceive that benevolent men among the highest Conservatives, and among the clergy especially, would join a Society which really only sought to collect information; but they could not, and would not, if it endeavoured to do more, because the differences of opinion between you and them render it impossible for you to agree in what you should disseminate. The Society would therefore consist, I think, exclusively of men of what is called the Liberal party, and principally of Dissenters; and this would be, I think, a great pity, and would cripple our operations sadly. I confess I am very suspicious of bodies of men belonging all to one party, even although that party be the one with which I should in the main myself agree, and for this reason, I as little like the composition of the University of London, as I do that of the University of Oxford.

CXCIV. TO THE REV. J. HEARN.

Fox How, Ambleside, January 5, 1840.

you were

I must not let more of my time at Fox How pass away without writing to you, for I wish much to know how you are, and how you bear the winter. Your letter of September 7th, gave me a better account of you than your former note had done, and I was very glad to learn that better. Still you did not write as if you were quite well, and I do not like to hear of any disorder or languor hanging about you, however slight; for you are not old enough to feel any natural decay, and slight indisposition requires to be watched, lest it should become serious. But I love to think of the quiet of Hatford for you, which, if your complaints are bodily merely, must be very good for you; if you feel any nervousness or oppression of spirits, then I suspect a little more of the stir of life would be very good for you; and we should be delighted to see you and Mrs. Hearn and your little ones at Rugby, where you might have enough of movement around you, and yet might be yourself as much at rest as you chose. I sometimes think, that if I were at all in nervous spirits, the solemn beauty of this valley would be almost overwhelming, and that brick streets and common hedgerows would be better for me; just as now, whilst my life is necessarily so stirring, and my health so good, there is an extreme delight in the peacefulness of our life here, and in the quiet of all around us. Last night we were out on the gravel walk for nearly half an hour, watching the northern lights. I never saw them so beautiful; the sky in the north behind the mountains was all of a silvery light, while in other parts it was dark as usual, and all set with its stars; then, from the mass of light before us, there shot up continually long white pillars or needles, reaching to the zenith; and then again, fleeces of light would go quivering like a pulse all over the sky, till they died away in the far south. And to-day there is not a cloud to be seen, and the mountain before our win

VOL. II.

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