contrast with Westmoreland, but from its own unsurpassable dulness. I was to-day in the valley behind S. Hincksey, and in the thickets of Bagley Wood. I went up to town to see the King of Prussia at Bunsen's, and there met both Maurice and Carlyle. We go down on Friday. All join in kindest regards to Mrs. Hill, and in love to the babies, begging Katie's pardon for the affront of so calling her.

CCXCVI. TO AN OLD PUPIL. (K.)

Oxford, February 9, 1842.

I think the question of the expediency of your residing for some time at Oxford is rather difficult. But on the whole, unless you have some special object in coming here which I do not know, I think that I should advise against it. This place appears, at this moment, to be overridden with one only influence, which is so predominant that one must either yield to it, or be living in a state of constant opposition to those around one, a position not very agreeable. Besides, are you not already engaged more usefully both to yourself and others, than you could be here, and reading what you do read in a healthier atmosphere? I say this, but yet there is not a man alive who loves this place better than I do, and I have enjoyed our fortnight's stay here even more than I expected. I have been in no feuds or controversies, and have met with nothing but kindness; but then my opinions are so well known, that they are allowed for as a matter of course, so that my difficulty here is less than that of most men. We go down to Rugby on Friday, when the school meets. It always gives me real pleasure to hear from you, nor would I answer you so briefly if I were not overwhelmed with work of various kinds, which leaves not a moment to spare, insomuch that Rugby will be almost a relaxation.

CCXCVII. TO MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE.

Rugby, March 3, 1842.

[After speaking of the statutes of the Professorship.] What the University itself drew up so lately, and which has never been more than an utter dead letter, may, I should think, be well altered by the University now. But this I should wish to leave entirely to the Heads of Houses, never having had

the slightest wish to ask anything of the Government as a personal favor to myself, and still less anything which the University did not think desirable. I shall write again to

Hawkins immediately, and, if the University wishes things to remain in statu quo, even let it be so. If they do not tender the oath, which I do not think they will, I shall not think of resigning, and they may deal with the salary as they think proper. But after the experience which I had this term, nothing shall induce me to resign so long as I can lawfully hold the place, and so long as the University itself does not wish me to give it up. Our stay in Oxford more than realized all my hopes in every way. I do not mean the attendance on the Lectures, gratifying as that was, but the universal kindness which was shown to us all, down to Fan and Walter, and the hearty delight with which I went over my old walks with the children, and seemed to be commencing residence once again.

CCXCVIII. TO ARCHDEACON HARE.

Rugby, March 18, 1842.

I thank you very much for your Charge, and for the kind mention of my name, and the sanction given to what I have said, which you have added in the notes. I think it likely that if I were in your situation, or in any similar office in the Church, my sense of the good to be done, even under the present system, and of the necessity of being myself not idle, would lead me to a view perhaps more exactly agreeing with your own. As it is, I feel so deeply the danger and evil of the false Church system, that despairing of seeing the true Church restored, I am disposed to cling, not from choice but necessity, to the Protestant tendency of laying the whole stress on Christian religion, and adjourning the notion of Church sine die. Thus I can take no part in aiding the new Colonial Bishoprics; because they seem to me to be likely to propagate to the ends of the earth the Popery* of Canterbury, the more so as the very appointment is not to be vested in the Crown but in the Bishops, which seems to me a very great step taken in the wrong direction. But I have no time to trouble you with my notions, and you have better things to do than to read them.

* In allusion to Lord Falkland's speech. See 5th Lec. on Mod. Hist. The appointment here alluded to was still vested nominally in the Crown.

CCXCIX.

TO THE REV. H. FOX.

(Now settled as a Missionary in India.)

Rugby, April 10, 1842.

I thank you very much for your letter, which gave me a very comfortable account of you and yours. Be assured that I shall be always very thankful to you for writing; nor will I fail to answer your letters; only you will remember that I write at a disadvantage, having nothing to communicate to you from a country which you know as well as I do, to be compared with the interest of your communications, which must be full of new information to one who has never been in India. I suppose * that the late events in Cabul must have produced a strong sensation all over India. They are deeply to be regretted, and very painful to me so far as I know about them, because they seem to have been brought on by such sad misconduct. Otherwise, the magnitude of their consequence seems to be overrated by many people; the Indian Empire, I believe, will stand no less securely, and will have the opportunity, whether employed or wasted, of doing great things for the welfare of Asia.

There must be a great interest in having to deal with minds whose training has been so different from our own, though it would be to me a great perplexity. I should think its tendency would be at first to make one sceptical, and then, if that was overcome, to make one fanatical. I mean that it must be startling at first to meet with many persons holding as truths, things the most opposite from what we believe, and even so differing from us in their appreciation of evidence. And first, this would incline one, I should think, to mistrust all truth, or to think that it was subjective merely, one truth for Europe, and another for India; then, if this feeling were repelled, there would be the danger of maintaining a conclusion which yet one did not feel one could satisfactorily prove, — the resolving that a thing shall be believed by the mind, whether reasonably or unreasonably. I should earnestly, I think, look out in a Hindoo's mind for those points which he had in common with us, and see if the enormous differences might not be ex

66

"It gives me a pain I cannot describe," he said in one of his latest con versations, 'to hear of all this misery, which I have no power to alleviate. Yet it will be as it was with the Romans in Spain; we hear often of 'cæsus consul cum legionibus,' but then the next year another consul and new legions go out, just as before."

In this way I

plained, and their existence accounted for. have always believed in the existence of a moral sense amongst all men, in spite of the tremendous differences in the notions of different ages and countries as to right and wrong. I think these differences may be explained, and that` they do not disprove a common idea of and appreciation of virtue, as consisting mainly in self-denial and love. But all this will have presented itself to you often, and mine is but hypothesis, for my sole acquaintance has been with European minds, trained more or less in the same school.

You will be glad to hear of the flourishing state of Rugby. Highton is permanently settled here as a Master. The school have subscribed a hundred and thirty pounds for another window in the Chapel, and Frank Penrose has looked at the roof and given us a plan for getting rid of the flat roof, which has long been my great enemy. Of other news, I know none so good as that Clough is just elected at Oriel, which all his friends are most rejoiced at.

I hear flourishing accounts of New Zealand, and Bishop Selwin, who is gone out there, seems to be just the man for such a place, - very active and very zealous. I suppose that you will see Tucker erelong, as I find he is returned to Madras. We are doing Elphinstone's History of India in the Sixth, for our Modern History on Thursdays, as I wished to make the fellows know something of India, of which they knew next to nothing. It is a pity that Elphinstone had not a more profound knowledge of the ancient western world, which continually illustrates and is illustrated by the state of things in India. God bless you, my dear Fox, and prosper your work. I must beg you to offer my very kind regards to Mrs. Fox, and I rejoice to hear of the birth of your little boy.

CCC. TO CHEVALIER BUNSEN.

Rugby, May 3, 1842.

Since our return from Oxford, we have been living in a quiet, which offers a curious contrast to your life in London. We have seen fewer people than usual; and as I hardly ever read a newspaper, our thoughts have been very much kept within the range of our little world here, and of my subjects of writing. My Lectures will be published in a few days, and you shall have a copy immediately: and I hope to

R

66

give another Lecture in Oxford in about a month, on the Life and Times of Gregory the First. Is there any good German work on that special subject? I am continually wanting to apply for information to you, but I know that you have no time to answer me. One thing I will ask, whether there is any good information to be had about the Iberian inscriptions and coins still to be found in various collections? I have been reading or referring to various Spanish books,― Masdeu, for instance, and Velasquez, —but they seem to me worth little. By the way, in looking into Larramendi's Basque Grammar, I was delighted to find the long-lost plural of "Ego," and singular of "Nos." It was evident that Ego and Nos had made a sort of match of convenience, each having lost its original partner; but behold, in Basque "gu" is 66 nos," and "ni" or "neu " is 66 ego." One cannot doubt, I think, that "ego" and "nos" have here found their lost other half. I hope to finish vol. iii. of Rome, before the end of the holidays; and then, in the last month of them, my wife and I are going, I believe, to have a run abroad. I do not know where we shall go exactly, but I think very likely to Grenoble and the Val d'Isere, and thence to Marseilles, or the eastern Pyrenees. If I can get to Carthagena it would be a great satisfaction to me; for Polybius's account is so at variance with Captain Smyth's survey of the present town and port that it is utterly perplexing. This is better than nothing in the way of a letter, but I know that it is not much; however, if it draws even a shorter answer from you, I shall be thankful.

СССІ. TO THE REV. DR. HAWKINS.

Rugby, May 19, 1842.

I beg your pardon for not having thanked you for your Sermon, which I had not only received, but read, and read with very great pleasure. I am delighted to find that on the Priest question, which I think is the fundamental one of the whole matter, we are quite agreed. And I am also not a little pleased that the Archbishop should have wished a sermon to be printed, containing, as I think, so much truth, and truth at this time so much needed. I will fix, as there seems no objection, Thursday, June 2, at one P. M., for my Lecture; and it may be called, if you please, “On the Life and Times of Pope Gregory the First, or the Great." The