vances. There never could be a doubt as to the learning and good sense of the book; but it seems to me to be growing in feeling and animation, and to be now a very delightful history, as well as a very valuable one. Mr. Maurice wrote to me the other day, to say that he had sent to Rugby, for me, the first number of the Educational Magazine. I could not thank him, because I did not know his address, but I should be very sorry to appear inattentive to a man whom I respect so highly as I do Mr. Maurice.

CCXXI. TO W. W. HULL, ESQ.

Fox How, January, 24, 1840.

We are going to leave this place, if all be well, on Mouday; and I confess that it makes me rather sad to see the preparations for our departure, for it is like going out of a very quiet cove into a very rough sea; and I am every year approaching nearer to that time of life when rest is more welcome than exertion. Yet, when I think of what is at stake on that rough sea, I feel that I have no right to lie in harbor idly; and indeed I do yearn more than I can say to be able to render some service where service is so greatly needed. It is when I indulge such wishes most keenly, and only then, that strong political differences between my friends and myself are really painful; because I feel that not only could we not act together, but there would be no sympathy the moment I were to express anything beyond a general sense of anxiety and apprehension, in which I suppose all good men must share.

CCXXII. TO MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE.

Fox How, January 26, 1840.

We left Rugby this time so early, that your letter followed me down here, and I must have the pleasure of answering it before we go away, which alas! must be to-morrow morning. We talk of going to Norwich for a few days, to see the Stanleys, and to Cambridge, before we settle at Rugby; and really, in these most troublous times, it seems more than is allowable to be living, as we are here, in a place of so much rest and beauty.

Your letter interested me very deeply, and I have thought over what you say very often. Yet I believe that no man's

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mind has ever been more consciously influenced by others than mine has been in the course of my life, from the time that I first met you at Corpus. I doubt whether you ever submitted to another with the same complete deference as I did to you when I was an undergraduate. So, afterwards, I looked up to Davison with exceeding reverence, - and to Whately. Nor do I think that Keble himself has lived on in more habitual respect and admiration than I have, only the objects of these feelings have been very different. this day, I could sit at Bunsen's feet, and drink in wisdom, with almost intense reverence. But I cannot reverence the men whom Keble reverences, and how does he feel to Luther and Milton? It gives me no pain and no scruple whatever to differ from those whom, after the most deliberate judgment that I can form, I cannot find to be worthy of admiration. Nor does their number affect me, when all are manifestly under the same influences, and no one seems to be a master spirit, fitted to lead amongst men. But with wise men in the way of their wisdom, it would give me very great pain to differ; I can say that truly with regard to your Uncle, even more with regard to Niebuhr. I do not know a single subject on which I have maintained really a paradox, — that is, on which I have presumed to set up my judgment, against the concurrent judgment of wise men, and I trust I never should do it. But it is surely not presumption to prefer a foreign authority to one nearer home, when both are in themselves perfectly equal. For instance, - suppose that any point in English Law, although steadily defended by English lawyers, was at variance no less decidedly with the practice of the Roman Law, and condemned by the greatest jurists and philosophers of other countries, there can be no presumption, as it seems to me, in taking either side strongly, according as a man's convictions may be: nor ought one to be taxed with disrespect of authority in either case; because although one may be treating some great men as clearly wrong, yet other men no less great have justified us in doing so. Perhaps this consciousness of the actually disputed character of many points in theology and politics rendered it early impossible to my mind to acquiesce without inquiry in any one set of opinions; the choice was not left me to do so. I was brought up in a strong Tory family; the first impressions of my own mind shook my merely received impressions to pieces, and at Winchester I was well-nigh a Jacobin. At sixteen, when

I went up to Oxford, all the influences of the place which I loved exceedingly, your influence above all, blew my Jacobinism to pieces, and made me again a Tory. I used to speak strong Toryism in the old Attic Society, and greedily did I read Clarendon, with all the sympathy of a thorough royalist. Then came the peace, when Napoleon was put down, and the Tories had it their own way. Nothing shook my Toryism more than the strong Tory sentiments that I used to hear at

, though I liked the family exceedingly. But I heard language at which my organ of justice stood aghast, and which, the more I read of the Bible, seemed to me more and more unchristian. I could not but go on inquiring, and I do feel thankful that now and for some years past I have been living not in scepticism, but in a very sincere faith, which embraces most unreservedly those great truths, divine and human, which the highest authorities, divine and human, seem to me concurringly to teach. I have said this defensively only, for I am sure I meant to convey no insinuation against you for not being active in inquiring after truth. I believe I never think of you but with entire respect and admiration, and I never talked with you on any subject without gaining something, so far am I from venturing to think that I am entitled to think myself fonder of truth than you are. I am glad that you like the Sermons on Prophecy; I have not ventured to say that the principle is of universal application, but it is I think very general; and, in both the cases which you notice, I think it holds. Cyrus is said, in many commentaries, to be a type of Christ, by which I understand that the language applied to him is hyperbolical, and suits properly only Him who is the real deliverer of Israel, and conqueror of Babylon. And the passage about the "Virgin conceiving," &c., has a manifest historical meaning as applied to Isaiah's wife; the sign being one of time, that within the youth of an infant presently to be born, Syria and Israel should be overthrown. Emmanuel might improperly be the name of a common child, just as Jesus or Joshua was, but both apply to our Lord, and to Him only, in unexaggerated strictness. I have finished Vol. II. of the History, and am getting on with the new edition of Thucydides. The school is quite full, and I have been obliged to refuse several applications on that account. Our attempt to secure some of the benefits of the Eton system of tuition will come into practice as soon as the half-year begins. Wordsworth is and has been remarkably well this

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winter. A Miss Gillies came down here in the autumn to take his miniature, in which I think she has succeeded admirably. The state of the times is so grievous, that it really pierces through all private happiness, and haunts me daily like a personal calamity. But I suppose that as to causes and cure, we should somewhat differ, though in much surely we should agree. I wish your son John would come down to see me some day from Oxford. I should much wish to see him, and to observe how he is getting on.

CCXXIII. 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 anything 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.

CCXXIV. *TO H. FOX, ESQ.

Rugby, February 21, 1840.

I am well persuaded that to a good man with regard to his choice of one amidst several lines of duty, "Sua cuique Deus fit dira cupido." It is a part of God's Providence that some men are made to see strongly the claims of one calling, others those of another. If, therefore, a man tells me that he. feels bound to go out as a Missionary to India, I feel that I ought not to grudge to India what God seems to will for her. A very old friend of mine, who has been for some years superintendent of the Missions at Madras, is coming home this spring for his health, hoping to go out again in the autumn; if your purpose is fixed I should like you to see him, for he would counsel you well as to the manner of carrying it into effect: but on the previous question itself, to go to India or not, - his judgment must be biased, for he himself left a very large field of ministerial duty here, to go out to India. But whether you go to India, or to any other foreign country, the first and great point, I think, is to turn your thoughts to the edification of the Church already in existence, that is, the English or Christian societies as distinct from the Hindoos. Unless the English and the halfcaste people can be brought into a good state, how can you get on with the Hindoos? Again, I am inclined to think that greater good might be done by joining a young English set