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knowledge which I had at command-the almost filial relation in which I stood towards him-would have rendered it absolutely impossible, even had it not been effectually precluded by the nature of the work itself. For similar reasons, I have abstained from giving any formal account of his general character. He was one of a class whose whole being, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, is like the cloud of the poet,

"Which moveth altogether, if it move at all,"

and whose character, therefore, is far better expressed by their own words and deeds, than by the representation of others. Lastly, I would also hope that the plan, which I have thus endeavoured to follow, will in some measure compensate for the many deficiencies, which I have vainly endeavoured to remedy in the execution of the task which I have undertaken. Some, indeed, there must be, who will painfully feel the contrast, which probably always exists in the case of any remarkable man, between the image of his inner life, as it was known to those nearest and dearest to him, and the outward image of a written biography, which can rarely be more than a faint shadow of what they cherish in their own recollections-the one representing what he was -the other only what he thought and did; the one formed in the atmosphere which he had himself created, the other necessarily accommodating itself to the public opinion to which it is mainly addressed. But even to these and much more to readers in general-it is my satisfaction to reflect that any untrue or imperfect impression of his thoughts and feelings

which may be gathered from my account of them, will be sufficiently corrected by his own representation of them in his Letters, and that the attention will not be diverted by any extraneous comments or inferences from the lessons which will be best learned from the mere record itself of his life and teaching.

May 14th, 1844.

University College, Oxford.

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CHAPTER III.

SCHOOL LIFE AT RUGBY.

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Intellectual advance on coming to Rugby.-His views and
writings.-I. Practical element.-Interest in public and
national life.-Vehement language on political and eccle-
siastical subjects.-Conservatism.-Jacobinism.-Popular

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