this time, he seemed disposed, for the first time in his life, to regard the divisions of the Church as irreparable, the restoration of the Church as all but impracticable, and "to cling," as he expresses himself in one of his letters, "not from choice, but from necessity, to the Protestant tendency of laying the whole stress on Christian Religion, and adjourning his idea of the Church sine die." It was in this spirit, also, that he began to attach a new importance to the truths relating to a man's own individual convictions, which, though always occupying a prominent place in his thoughts, had naturally less hold upon his sympathies than those which affect man in relation to society. The controversy on Justification acquired greater interest in his eyes than it had assumed before; and he felt himself called, for the first time, to unfold his own views on the subject. The more abstract and metaphysical grounds of truth, divine and human, which he had formerly been accustomed to regard in its purely practical aspect, were now becoming invested in his mind with a new value. And,-whilst in his latest studies of early Christian history, in the Epistles of Cyprian, he dwelt with an increasing sympathy and admiration, which penetrated even into his private devotions, on the endurance and self devotion of the early martyrs, and on the instruction to be derived from contemplating an age "when martyrdom was a real thing to which every Christian might, without any remarkable accident be exposed," he was also much struck with the indications which these Epistles seemed to him to contain, that the Church a See Serm. vol. v. p. 316.

had been corrupted not so much by the Judaic spirit of priesthood, as by the Gentile spirit of government, stifling the sense of individual responsibility. "The treatment of the Lapsi, by Cyprian, is precisely in the spirit of the treatment of the Capuans by the Roman Senate, of which I was reading at the same time for my Roman History. I am myself so much inclined to the idea of a strong social bond, that I ought not to be suspected of any tendency to anarchy; yet I am beginning to think that the idea may be overstrained, and that this attempt to merge the soul and will of the individual man in the general body is, when fully developed, contrary to the very essence of Christianity."

Such were the general feelings with which he entered on this year-a year, on every account, of peculiar interest to himself and his scholars. It had opened with an unusual mortality in the school. One of his colleagues, and seven of his pupils, mostly from causes unconnected with each other, had been carried off within its first quarter; and the return of the boys had been delayed beyond the accustomed time in consequence of a fever lingering in Rugby, during which period he had a detachment of the higher Forms residing near or with him at Fox How. It was during his stay here that he received from Lord Melbourne the offer of the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Oxford, vacant by the death of Dr. Nares. How joyfully he caught at this unexpected realization of his fondest hopes for his latest years, and how bright a gleam it imparted to the sunset of his life, will best be expressed by his own letters and by the account of his Lectures.

CCLIV. TO THE REV. DR. HAWKINS.

Fox How, August 21, 1841.

You may perhaps have heard my news already, but I must tell you myself, because you are so much connected with my pleasure in it. I have accepted the Regius Professorship of Modern History, chiefly to gratify my earnest longing to have some direct connexion with Oxford; and I have thought with no small delight that I should now see something of you in the natural course of things every year, for my wife and myself hope to take lodgings for ten days or a fortnight every Lent Term, at the end of our Christmas holidays, for me to give my Lectures. could not resist the temptation of accepting the office, though it will involve some additional work, and if I live to leave Rugby, the income, though not great, will be something to us when we are poor people at Fox How. But to get a regular situation in Oxford would have tempted me, I believe, had it been accompanied by no salary at all.

CCLV. TO MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE.

Fox How, September 1, 1841.

In the midst of my perplexities, practical and historical, I am going to indulge myself by writing to you. My practical perplexity is about the meeting of the school, which in either way involves a great responsibility, and the chance of much inconvenience and loss. I believe that we might meet next week without any real imprudence, and that the amount of fever in Rugby is but trifling; but if a single boy were to catch it, after the two fatal cases of last half-year, the panic would be so great that we should not be able to keep the school together, or to reassemble it till after Christmas.

My historical perplexity has caused me many hours of work, and I cannot yet see land. It shows to me how the

most notorious facts may be corrupted, even very soon after the occurrence, when they are subjected to no careful and judicious inquiry. Hannibal's march from Capua upon Rome, to effect a diversion for the besieged town, is of course one of the most striking parts of the whole war. I want to give it in detail, and with all the painting possible. But it is wholly uncertain by what road he advanced upon Rome, whether by the Latin road direct from Capua, or by an enormous circuit through Samnium, -just the road which we took last summer from Capua to Reate, and so from Reate on Rome. Cælius Antipater, Polybius, and Appian, all either assert or imply the latter. Livy says the former, and gives an account of the march, from Fabius, I think, or Cincius, which is circumstantial and highly probable; but he is such a simpleton, that after having written a page from Cincius or Fabius, he then copies from some other writer, who had made him take the other road; and, after bringing Hannibal by the Latin road, he makes him cross the Anio to approach Rome, and tells divers anecdotes, which all imply that he came by the Valerian or Salarian road; for of course the Latin road has no more to do with the Anio than with the Arno. The evidences and the probabilities are so balanced, and all the narratives are so unsatisfactory, that I cannot tell what to do about it. And the same sort of thing occurs often, with such constant uncertainty as to the text, in Livy,--the common editions being restored conjecturally in almost every page, where the MSS. are utterly corrupt,-that the Punic War is almost as hard in the writing as in the fighting.

Now, about my Notes,-I offended in that matter deliberately, having always so enjoyed a history with many notes, and having known so many persons feel the same, that I multiplied them purposely. But I quite agree with you that the text ought to be intelligible without them; and if you will be so kind as to point out the passages

which are faulty in this respect, I shall be greatly obliged to you, and will try and manage better for the future.

I thank you much for your congratulations about the Professorship. I caught at any opportunity of being connected again with Oxford; and the visions of Bagley Wood and Shotover rose upon me with an irresistible charm. Then it suited so well with future living at Fox How, if I may dare to look forward; giving me work for my life, and an income for life, which, though not large, would be much to me when I had left Rugby, (especially if the Americans go on not paying their just and lawful debts, whereby I shall lose more than fifteen hundred pounds.) And now, whilst my boys are at Oxford, it will take me up there from time to time, and will give me a share in the working of the University, although not a great one. In short, there is nothing which the Government could have given me that would have suited all my wishes so well, and great Tixn it was that it fell vacant only one week before the Tories came into power.

Now as to what is to be done in it. I shall follow your advice, and ponder well before I decide on any thing. With regard to party questions, I should write as I am trying to write in my Roman History, avoiding partisanship or personalities; but, as I have said in the Preface to the History, if history has no truths to teach, its facts are but little worth; and the truths of political science belong as much, I think, to an historian, as those of theology to a Professor of Divinity. As an ecclesiastical historian, I would try to hold an equal balance between Catholics and Arians, but not between Catholicism and Arianism; and so it seems to me one ought to deal with the great principles of Government and of Politics, and not to write as if there were no truth attainable in the matter, but all was mere opinion. Roman and English history particularly illustrate each other; but I do not know how I could more particularly connect my