written language, or rather were never introduced into it. You know Dr. Pritchard's book, I take it for granted, the only sensible book on the subject which I ever saw written in English. This, and Bopp's Vergleichende Grammatik, should be constantly used, I think, to enable a man to understand the real connexion of languages, and to escape the extravagances into which our so-called Celtic scholars have generally fallen.

CCXXXVII. TO W. W. HULL, ESQ.

(Relating to a Petition on Subscription.)

April, 1840.

My wish about the bill is this, if it could be done; that the Athanasian creed should be rejected altogether, that the promise to use the Liturgy should be the peculiar subscription of the clergy,—that the Articles should stand as articles of peace, in the main draft of each Article, for clergy and laity alike;-and that for Church membership there should be no other test than that required in Baptism. I think you may require fuller knowledge of the clergy than of the laity; and, as they have a certain public service in the Church to perform, you may require of them a promise that they will perform it according to the law of our Church; but as to the adhesion of the inner man to any set of religious truths, this, it seems to me, belongs to us as Christians, and is in fact a part of the notion of Christian faith, which faith is to be required of all the Church alike, so far as it can be or ought to be required of any one. And therefore, so long as the clergy subscribe to the Articles, so long do I hope that they will be required at taking degrees in Oxford or Cambridge, of all who are members of the Church. If they are a burden, all ought to bear it alike; if they are a fair test of church membership, they should extend to all alike.

CCXXXVIII. TO THE SAME.

April, 1840.

I would not willingly petition about the Canons, except to procure their utter abolition; I have an intense dislike of clerical legislation, most of all of such a clergy as was dominant in

James the First's reign. And, if the Canons are touched ever so lightly, what is left untouched would acquire additional force, an evil greater to my mind than leaving them altogether alone. I think that I should myself prefer petitioning for a relaxation of the terms of Subscription, and especially for the total repeal of the 36th Canon. Historically, our Prayer Book exhibits the opinions of two very different parties, King Edward's Reformers, and the High Churchmen of James the First's time, and of 1661. There is a necessity, therefore, in fact, for a comprehensive Subscription, unless the followers of one of these parties are to be driven out of the Church; for no man who heartily likes the one, can approve entirely of what has been done by the other. And I would petition specifically, I think, but I speak with submission, for the direct cancelling of the damnatory clauses of the anonymous Creed, vulgarly called Athanasius-would it not be well in your petition to alter the expression, "Athanasius' Creed?") leaving the Creed itself untouched.

CCXXXIX. TO THE SAME.

May 16, 1840.

I have sent a copy of this petition to Whately: if he approves of it, I will ask you to get it engrossed, and put into the proper forms. My feeling is this; as I believe that the tide of all reform is at present on the ebb, I should not myself have come forward at this moment with any petition, but, as you have resolved to petition, I cannot but sign it; and then, signing your petition, I wish also to put on record my sentiments as to what seems to me to be a deeper evil than anything in the Liturgy or Articles. . . . . . . I wish that the signatures may be numerous, and may include many Laymen; it is itself a sign of life in the Church that Laymen should feel that the Articles and Liturgy belong to them as well as to the Clergy.

* i. e. for the restoration of Deacons. His wish for the revival of any distinct ecclesiastical government of the clergy at this time, was checked by the fear of its countenancing what he held to be erroneous views concerning the religious powers and duties of the State.

CCXL.

*TO J. P. GELL, ESQ.

April 12, 1840.

I do not like to let my wife's letter go without a word from me, if it were only to express to you my earnest interest about the beginnings of your great work, which I imagine is now near at hand. It is very idle for me to speculate about what is going on in states of society, of which I know so little; yet my knowledge of the Jacobinism of people here at home, makes me full sure that there must be even more of it out with you, and it fills me with grief when I think of society having such an element σύντροφον ἐξ ἀρχῆς. . I often think that nothing could so rouse a boy's energies as sending him out to you, where he must work or starve. There is no earthly thing more mean and despicable in my mind than an English gentleman destitute of all sense of his responsibilities and opportunities, and only revelling in the luxuries of our high civilization, and thinking himself a great person. Burbidge is here again, as fond of Rugby as ever, but I hope that he will now complete his terms at Cambridge. I hope that you will journalize largely. Every tree, plant, stone, and living thing is strange to us in Europe, and capable of affording an interest. Will you describe the general aspect of the country round Hobart's Town? To this day I never could meet with a description of the common face of the country about New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, and therefore I have no distinct ideas of it. Is your country plain or undulating, your valleys deep or shallow,-curving, or with steep sides and flat bottoms? Are your fields large or small, parted by hedges or stone walls, with single trees about them, or patches of wood here and there? Are there many scattered houses, and what are they built of,-brick, wood, or stone? And what are the hills and streams like, ridges, or with waving summits,-with plain sides, or indented with combes;-full of springs, or dry;-and what is their geology? I can better fancy the actors when I have got a lively notion of the scene on which they are acting. Pray give my kindest remembrances to Sir John and Lady Franklin; and by all means, if possible, stick to your idea of naming your place Christ's College. Such a name seems of itself to hallow Van Diemen's Land, and the Spaniards did so wisely in transplanting their religious names with them to the new world. We unhappily "in omnia alia abiimus." May God bless you and your work.

is, that you should, without fail, instruct your pupils in the six books of Euclid at least. I am, as you well know, no mathematician, and therefore my judgment in this matter is worth so much the more, because what I can do in mathematics, anybody can do; and as I can teach the first six books of Euclid, so I am sure can you. Then it is a grievous pity that at your age, and with no greater amount of work than you now have, you should make up your mind to be shut out from one great department, I might almost say, from many great departments of human knowledge. Even now I would not allow myself to say that I should never go on in mathematics, unlikely as it is at my age; yet I always think that if I were to go on a long voyage, or were in any way hindered from using many books, I should turn very eagerly to geometry, and other such studies. But further, I do really think that with boys and young men, it is not right to leave them in ignorance of the beginnings of physical science. It is so hard to begin anything in after life, and so comparatively easy to continue what has been begun, that I think we are bound to break ground, as it were, into several of the mines of knowledge with our pupils, that the first difficulties may be overcome by them while there is yet a power from without to aid their own faltering resolution, and that so they may be enabled, if they will, to go on with the study hereafter. I do not think that you do a pupil full justice, if you so entirely despise Plato's authority, as to count geometry in education to be absolutely good for nothing. I am sure that you will forgive me for urging this, for I think that it concerns you much, and I am quite sure that you ought not to run the risk of losing a pupil because you will not master the six books of Euclid, which, after all, are not to be despised for one's very own solace and delight; for I do not know that Pythagoras did anything strange, if he sacrificed a hecatomb when he discovered that marvellous relation between the squares containing and subtending a right angle, which the 47th proposition of the first book demonstrates. More than 500 pages of Vol. II. are printed, but there will be, I fear, 100 more. I dread the adage about μiya Bißior. We have real spring for the first time for seven years; delicious rains and genial sunshines, so that the face of the earth is bursting visibly into beauty. I think nothing yet of summer plans, for if I go abroad, and give up Fox How, it must be done tête baissée, it will not bear looking at beforehand.