love. I should feel greatly obliged to you, if you could tell me any thing that seems to you a flaw in the reasoning of those pages of the Postscript of my pamphlet which speak of Episcopacy, and of what is commonly called the alliance between Church and State." In the last point I am far more orthodox, according to the standard of our reformers, than either the Toleration' men or the High Church men, but those notions are now out of fashion, and what between religious bigotry and civil licentiousness, all, I suppose, will go. But I will have compassion on your patience.

It was delightful to hear of you and yours in Devonshire. I wish they would put you on a commission of some sort or other that might take you into Westmoreland some summer or winter. When our house is quite finished do you not think that the temptation will be great to me to go and live there, and return to my old Laleham way of life on the Rotha, instead of on the Thames? But independent of more worldly considerations, my great experiment here is in much too interesting a situation to abandon lightly. You will be amused when I tell you that I am becoming more and more a convert to the advantages of Latin and Greek verse, and more suspicious of the mere fact system, that would cram with knowledge of particular things and call it information. My own lessons with the Sixth Form are directed now to the best of my power to the furnishing rules or formulæ for them to work with, e. g. rules to be observed in translation, principles of taste as to the choice of English words, as to the keeping or varying idioms and metaphors, &c., or in history, rules of evidence or general forms for the dissection of campaigns, or the estimating the importance of wars, revolutions, &c. This, together with the opening as it were the sources of knowledge, by telling them where they can find such and such things, and giving them a notion of criticism, not to swallow things whole, as the scholars of an earlier period too often did,-is what I am labouring at, much more than at giving information. And the composition is mending decidedly; though speaking to an Etonian, I am well aware that our amended state would be with you a very degenerate one. But we are looking up, certainly, and pains are taking in the lower Forms, of which we shall I think soon see the fruit. . .

I am getting on with Thucydides myself, and am nearly in the middle of the seventh book; at Allan Bank in the summer I worked on the Roman History, and hope to do so again in the winter. It is very inspiring to write with such a view before one's eyes as that from our drawing room at Allan Bank, where the trees of the shrubbery gradually run up into the trees of the cliff, and the mountain side, with its infinite variety of rocky peaks and points on which the cattle expatiate, rises over the tops of the trees. Trevenen Penrose and his wife were with us for nearly a month in Westmoreland, and enjoyed the country as much as we did. He is labouring most admirably and effectually at Coleby. I saw Southey once at Keswick, and had a very friendly interview; he asked me to go over and stay with him for a day or two in the winter, which I think I should like much. His cousin, Herbert Hill, is now the tutor to my own boys. He lives in Rugby, and the boys go to him every day to their great benefit. He is a Fellow of New College, and it rejoices me to talk over Winchester recollections together. Your little God-daughter is my pupil twice a week in Delectus . . . . Her elder sister is my pupil three times a week in Virgil, and once a week in the Greek Testament, and promises to do very well in both. I have yet a great many things to say, but I will not keep my letter; how glad I should be if you could ever come down to us for even a single Sunday, but I suppose I

must not ask it.

I should like," he said, "to see the Toleration Act and the Act of Uniformity burnt side by side."

LXXIV. TO JACOB ABBOTT,

(Author of the "Young Christian," &c.)

Rugby, November 1, 1833.

Although I have not the honour of being personally known to you, yet my great admiration of your little book, "The Young Christian," and the circumstance of my being engaged, like yourself, in the work of education, induce me to hope, that you will forgive the liberty I am taking in now addressing you. A third consideration weighs with me, and in this I feel sure that you will sympathize; that it is desirable on every occasion to enlarge the friendly communication of our country with yours. The publication of a work like yours in America was far more delightful to me than its publication in England could have been. Nothing can be more important to the future welfare of mankind, than that God's people, serving Him in power and in love, and in a sound mind, should deeply influence the national character of the United States, which in many parts of the Union is undoubtedly exposed to influences of a very different description, owing to circumstances apparently beyond the control of human power and wisdom.

I request your acceptance of a volume of Sermons, most of which, as you will see, were addressed to boys or very young men, and which therefore coincide in intention with your own admirable book. And at the same time I venture to send you a little work of mine on a different subject, for no other reason, I believe, than the pleasure of submitting my views upon a great question to the judgment of a mind furnished morally and intellectually as yours must be.

I have been for five years head of this school. [After describing the manner of its foundation and growth.] You may imagine, then, that I am engaged in a great and anxious labour, and must have considerable experience of the difficulty of turning the young mind to know and love God in Christ.

I have understood that Unitarianism is becoming very prevalent in Boston, and I am anxious to know what the complexion of Unitarianism amongst you is. I mean whether it is Arian or Socinian, and whether its disciples are for the most part men of hard minds and indifferent to religion, or whether they are zealous in the service of Christ, according to their own notions of His claims upon their gratitude and love. It has been long my firm belief that a great proportion of Unitarianism might be cured by a wiser and more charitable treatment on the part of their adversaries, if these would but consider what is the main thing in the Gospel, and that even truth is not always to be insisted upon, if by forcing it upon the reception of those who are not prepared for it, they are thereby tempted to renounce what is not only true, but essential-a character which assuredly does not belong to all true propositions, whether about things human or things divine.

LXXV. TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN.

Rugby, November 8, 1833.

Would any good be likely to come of it, if I were one day to send you a specimen of such corrections in our authorized version of Scripture, such as seem to me desirable, and such as could shock no one. I have had, and am having daily, so much practice in translation, and am taking so much pains to make the boys vary their language and their phraseology, according to the age and style of the writer whom they are translating,

His opinion of the Corner-stone is given in a note to the second Appendix of his third volume of Sermons, p. 440.

that I think I may be trusted for introducing no words or idiom unsuited to the general style of the present translation, nothing to lessen the purity of its Saxon, or to betray a modern interpolation. My object would be to alter in the very language, as far as I could guess it, which the translators themselves would have used, had they only had our present knowledge of Greek. I think also that the results of modern criticism should so far be noticed, as that some little clauses, omitted in all the best MSS., should be printed in italics, and important various readings of equal or better authority than the received text, should be noticed in the margin. Above all, it is most important that the division into chapters should be mended, especially as regards the public reading in the Church, and that the choice of lessons from the Old Testament should be improved..

It is almost inconceivable to me that you should misunderstand any book that you read; and, if such a thing does happen, I am afraid that it must be the writer's fault. But I cannot remember that I have altered my opinions since my Pamphlet (on the Catholic claims), nor do I see any thing there inconsistent with my doctrine (of Church and State) in the Postscript to the Pamphlet on Church Reform. I always grounded the right to Emancipation on the principle that Ireland was a distinct nation, entitled to govern itself. I know full well that my principles would lead to the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in three-fourths of Ireland; but this conclusion was not wanted then, and the right to emancipation followed à fortiori from the right to govern themselves as a nation, without entering upon the question of the establishment. Those who think that Catholicism is idolatry, ought, on their own principles, to move heaven and earth for the repeal of the Union, and to let O'Connell rule his Kelts their own way. I think that a Catholic is a member of Christ's Church just as much as I am; and I could well endure one form of that Church in Ireland, and another in England. And if you look (it is to be found in the second volume of Voltaire's Siècle de Louis XIV.) for the four Articles resolved on by the Gallican Church in the middle of the seventeenth century, you will see a precedent and a means pointed out, whereby every Roman Catholic national Church may be led to reform itself; and I only hope that when they do they will reform themselves so far as to be thorough Christians, and avoid, as they would a dog or a viper, the errors which marred the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, destroying things most noble and most purifying, as well as things superstitious and hurtful.

I will trust no man when he turns fanatic; and really these high churchmen are far more fanatical and much more foolish than Irving himself. Irving appealed to the gifts of tongues and of healing, which he alleged to exist in his congregation, as proofs that the Holy Spirit was with them; but the High Churchmen abandon reason, and impute motives, and claim to be Christ's only Church,—and where are the "signs of an apostle" to be seen among them, or where do they pretend to show them?

LXXVI. TO W. W. HULL, ESQ.

Rugby, February 24, 1834.

I have, as usual, many things on hand, or rather in meditation; but time fails me sadly, and my physical constitution seems to require more sleep than it did, which abridges my time still more. Yet I was never better or stronger than I was in Westmoreland during the winter, or indeed than I am now. But I feel, more and more, that, though my constitution is perfectly sound, yet it is not strong; and my nervous system would soon wear me out if I lived in a state of much excitement. Body and mind alike seem to repose greedily in delicious quiet without dulness, which we enjoy in Westmoreland.

It is easier to speak of body and mind than of that which is more worth than either. I doubt whether we have enough of Christian Confession among us; the superstition of Popery in this, as in other matters, doubly injured the good which it corrupted; first by corrupting it, and then, "traitor like, by betraying it to the axe " of too hasty reformation. Yet surely one object of the Christian Church was to enable us to aid in bearing one another's burthens; not to enable a minister to pretend to bear those of all his neighbors. One is so hindered from speaking of one's spiritual state, that one is led even to think of it less frequently than is wholesome. I am learning to think more and more how unbelief is at the bottom of all our evil; how our one prayer should be "Increase our faith." And we do fearfully live, as it were, out of God's atmosphere; we do not keep that continual consciousness of His reality which I conceive we ought to have, and which should make Him more manifest to our souls, than the Shechinah was to the eyes of the Israelites. I have many fresh sermons; and my wife wants another volume printed; but I do not think there would be enough of systematic matter to make a volume, and mere specimens of my general preaching I have given already. I trust you will come next week; life is too uncertain to admit of passing over opportunities. You have heard, probably, that Augustus Hare is likely soon to follow poor Lowe, and to lay his bones in Rome; he is far gone, they say, in a consumption. May God bless you, my dear Hull, in Jesus Christ, both you and yours for ever.

LXXVII. TO REV. F. C. BLACKSTONE.

Rugby, February 26, 1834.

I often think what may be your views of the various aspects of things in general-to what notions you are more and more becoming wedded: for, though I think that men, who are lovers of truth, become less and less attached to any mere party as they advance in life, and certainly become, in the best sense of the word, more tolerant, yet their views also acquire greater range and consistency, and what they once saw as scattered truths, they learn to combine with one another, so as to make each throw light on the other; so that their principles become more fixed, while their likings and dislikings of particular persons or parties become more mode

rate.

Our residence in Westmoreland attaches us all to it more and more; the refreshment which it affords me is wonderful; and it is especially so in the winter, when the country is quieter, and actually, as I think, more beautiful than in summer. I was often reminded, as I used to come home to Grasmere of an evening, and seemed to be quite shut in by the surrounding mountains, of the comparison of the hills standing about Jerusalem, with God standing about His people. The impression, which the mountains gave me, was never one of bleakness or wildness, but of a sort of paternal shelter and protection to the valley; and in those violent storms, which were so frequent this winter, our house lay snug beneath its cliff, and felt comparatively nothing of the wind. We had no snow in the valleys, but frequently a thick powdering on the higher mountains, while all below was green and warm. The School goes on very fairly; with its natural proportion of interest and of annoyance. I am daily more and more struck with the very low average of intellectual power, and of the difficulty of meeting those various temptations, both intellectual and moral, which stand in boys' way; a school shows as undisguisedly as any place the corruption of human nature, and the monstrous advantage with which evil starts, if I may so speak, in its contest with good.

1 See Sermons, vol. iii. p. 313.

LXXVIII.

TO REV. JULIUS HARE.

(On the Death of his brother, Augustus Hare.)

Rugby, March 10, 1834.

I will not trouble you with many words; but it seemed unnatural to me not to write, after the account from Rome, which Arthur Stanley this morning communicated to me. I do not attempt to condole, or to say any thing further, than that, having known your brother for more than twenty-five years, and having experienced unvaried kindness from him since I first knew him, I hope that I can in some degree appreciate what you have lost. Of all men whom I ever knew, he was the one of whom Bunsen most strongly reminded me, so that he seemed like Bunsen in England, as Bunsen had seemed like him in Italy. God grant that I may try to resemble them both in all the nobleness and beauty of their goodness.

LXXIX. TO REV. DR. HAWKINS.

(With regard to Tracts which he had intended to circulate in opposition to the early Numbers of the "Tracts for the Times.")

Rugby, April 14, 1834.

The concluding part of your letter is a very good reason for my not asking you to trouble yourself any further about my papers. If the Tracts in question are not much circulated, then, of course, it would be a pity to make them known by answering them; but this is a matter of fact, which I know not how to ascertain. They are strenuously puffed by the British Magazine, and strenuously circulated amongst the clergy; of course I do not suppose that any living man out of the clergy is in the slightest danger of being influenced by them, except so far as they may lead him to despise the clergy for countenancing them.

You do not seem to me to apprehend the drift of these Tracts, nor the point of comparison between these and St. Paul's adversaries. If they merely broached one opinion and I combated it, it might be doubted which of us most disturbed the peace of the Church. But they are not defending the lawfulness or expediency of Episcopacy, which certainly I am very far from doubting, but its necessity; a doctrine in ordinary times gratuitous, and at the same time harmless, save as a folly. But now the object is to provoke the clergy to resist the Government Church Reforms, and, if for so resisting, they get turned out of their livings, to maintain that they are the true clergy, and their successors schismatics; above all, if the Bishops were deprived, as in King William's time, to deny the authority of the Bishops who may succeed them, though appointed according to the law of the land. All this is essentially schismatical and anarchical: in Elizabeth's time it would have been reckoned treasonable; and in answering it, I am not attacking Episcopacy, or the present constitution of the English Church, but simply defending the common peace and order of the Church against a new outbreak of Puritanism, which will endure nothing but its own platform.

Now, to insist on the necessity of Episcopacy, is exactly like insisting on the necessity of circumcision; both are and were lawful, but to insist upon either as necessary, is unchristian, and binding the Church with a yoke of carnal ordinances; and the reason why circumcision, although expressly commanded once, was declared not binding upon Christians, is much stronger against the binding nature of Episcopacy, which never was commanded at all; the reason being, that all forms of government and ritual are in the Christian Church indifferent and to be decided by the Church itself, pro temporum et locorum ratione," the Church" not being the clergy, but the congregation of Christians.