which is going to be published; for, although they are not controversial, yet, as embracing a great many points, they cannot avoid collision with those whose opinions are the very opposite to mine, nor should I think it right to leave out every thing which the Newmanites would object to, any more than Newman would think it right to omit in his sermons all that I should object to. Yet I still hope that the volume will give no unnecessary offence even to those from whom I differ most widely.

CCXXXVI. TO T. BALSTON, ESQ.

(On the death of his son.)

January, 1841.

Miss H's great kindness has given us constant information of the state of your son Henry; and I was happy to find that so many of his brothers were with him. I believe that I am much more disposed to congratulate you on his account than to condole with you; at least, as the father of five sons, I feel that nothing could make me so happy for any of them as to be satisfied that they were so loved by God, and so fashioned by His Spirit to a fitness for His kingdom, as is the case with your dear son Henry.

CCXXXVII. TO REV. TREVENEN PENROSE.

Fox How, January 6, 1841. We have received from Miss H- a long ac

count of the last days of H. Balston's life, and I never read any thing more beautiful. He seemed to be aware of the coming of death, step by step; and some of his expressions at the very last seem more strikingly to connect this present existence with another than any thing I ever heard. He actually laid himself down to die in a particular posture, as a man lays himself down to sleep, and even so he did die. His state of mind was quite heavenly.

We are enjoying this place as usual, though I am obliged

to work very hard, with my History and letters. The History is intensely interesting, and I feel to regard it more and more with something of an artist's feeling as to the composition and arrangement of it; points on which the ancients laid great stress, and I now think very rightly. I find constantly the great use of my many foreign journeys, for though I have no good maps here, yet I am getting on with Hannibal's march from personal recollections of the country, which I think will give an air of reality to the narrative greater than it ever could have from maps. Twelve o'clock strikes, and I must go to bed.

CCXXXVIII. TO THE REV. T. J. ORMEROD.

Fox How, January 3, 1841.

. It is very delightful to be here, and our weather till to-day has been beautiful. I sit at the window with my books on the sofa around me, and my Epicurean wish would be to live here in quiet, writing and reading and rambling about on Loughrigg, more beautiful than Epicurus's garden. But my reasonable wishes turn to the work at Rugby, as a far better employment, so long as my health and strength are spared me.

Poor Southey's state is most pitiable, his mind is quite gone. There is something very touching in this end of so much mental activity, but there is no painful feeling of morbid restlessness in his former activity, he worked quietly though constantly, and his faculties seem gently to have sunk asleep, his body having outlived them, but in such a state of weakness as to give sign that it will soon follow them. Wordsworth is in body and mind still sound and vigorous; it is beautiful to see and hear him. .

.

CCXXXIX. TO W. W. HULL, ESQ.

Fox How, January 15, 1841.

I was unwell before the holidays, and, although I soon recovered, yet I was very glad to come down here and get some rest. And the rest of this place in winter is complete, every thing so quiet, with only our immediate neighbours, all kind and neighbourly. Wordsworth is remarkably well, and we see him daily; and moreover, Rydal Lake is frozen as hard as a rock, and my nine children, and I with them, were all over it to-day, to our great delight. Four of my boys skait. Walter is trundled in his wheelbarrow, and my daughters and I slide, for I am afraid that I am too old to learn to skait now. My wife walks to Ambleside to get the letters, and then goes round to meet us as we come from the Lake. When I am here, it does make me sadly yearn for the time when I may live here steadily, if I am alive at all. Yet I do not suppose that I should ever be able to get an income to retire upon, equal to what yours is; but, if my boys were once educated, I think I should come down here without more delay. As for poor little Walter, I do not think that I should ever be able to wait at Rugby for him, so I do not know what he will do. Your boys, however, are so much older than he is, that your difficulty would be over much before mine; and depend upon it that the comfort of an income already secured is great, when a man feels at all unwell. . . .. but all this is in wiser and better hands than ours, and our care has enough to think of in those nearer concerns which may not be neglected without worse fault than imprudence, and worse mischief than a narrow income.

CCXL. TO SIR CULLING E. SMITH, BART.

(With reference to a correspondence in the Herts Reformer.)

Rugby, February 14, 1840.

I have two principal reasons which make me unwilling to affix my name to my Letters in the Herts Reformer, one, as I mentioned before, because I am so totally unconnected with the county,-which to my feelings is a reason of great weight :-my other reason concerns my own particular profession, not so much as a clergyman, but as a schoolmaster. I think if I wrote by name in a newspaper published in another county, I should be thought to be stepping out of the line of my own duties, and courting notoriety as a political writer. And this, I think, I am bound for the school's sake to avoid, unless there is a clear duty on the other side, which I own I cannot as yet perceive to exist. I think that your own case as a gentleman of independent rank and fortune, and directly connected with Hertfordshire, is very different from mine; for no one could charge you with stepping out of your own profession, or with interfering without any title to do so in the newspaper of another county. And as to the reasons which you urge, of setting an example of moderation in arguing on the question of Church Establishments, it seems to me that the mischief of our newspapers mainly arises from the virulent language which men use while writing anonymously, and that, as far as example goes, this is better reproved by temperate writings which are also anonymous. I suppose that no man, writing with his name, would allow himself to write in the style which newspaper writers often use; if you and I write with our names, it would be no wonder at all if we should write moderately; but if Augur and F. H. observe the courtesies and the charities of life, which their incognito might enable them to cast aside if they would, it appears to me to be likely, as far as their letters are read, to have a salutary influence, because their moderation could scarcely be ascribed to any

VOL. II.

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thing but to their real disapprobation of scurrility and unfairness. After all, my incognito is only a very slight veil, and I am more anxious to preserve it in form than in reality. I have no objection to be known as the author of my Letters, but I would neither wish to attach my name to them, nor to be mentioned by name in the Reformer, for the reasons which I have given above. I trust that you will not take it amiss that I still adhere to my former resolution. May I add at the same time, that I am much obliged to you for the kind expressions in your letter, and I trust that you will have no cause to recall your testimony to the respectfulness of my language in any of my future Letters. I do respect sincerely every man who writes with a real desire to promote the cause of Christ's kingdom".

COXLI. TO REV. J. HEARN.

Fox How, January 25, 1841.

I had hoped to write to you at any rate before we left Fox How, and now your kind and long letter gives you a stronger claim on me. You have also been so kind as to wish my wife and myself to be sponsors for your little boy; and we can have only one scruple in becoming so, lest we should stand in the way of other friends of yours, and particularly of Mrs. Hearn's, who may be better known to your children than we can expect to be in the common course of things, as our life, in all human probability, will be passed between Warwickshire and Westmoreland. Otherwise we should accept with great pleasure so sure a mark of your confidence and friendship.

We have been here almost six weeks, in perfect rest as far as this place is concerned, but I have had a very troublesome correspondence about school matters, which has brought Rugby more before my mind than I wish to have it in the holidays. I hope that this is not indolence, but I feel

This letter has been accidentally transposed.