LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 DAVIS 
 
WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D 
 
 LATE MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. STAIR DOUGLAS 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT AFTER A PAINTING BY SAMUEL LAURENCE 
 
 LONDON 
 C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1881 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF PAT 
 
(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved) 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 SHORTLY after the death of Dr. Whewell, fourteen years 
 ago, his then surviving sister, Mrs. Newton, and some 
 other of his friends expressed a strong wish that such a 
 selection should be made from his intimate and familiar 
 correspondence as could without impropriety be made 
 public, and were of opinion that it would be found in- 
 teresting by general readers as well as by personal 
 friends. To the former class these letters will probably 
 show a side of the character of which they were pre- 
 viously unaware ; while to his friends it can scarcely 
 fail to be interesting to see those qualities of mind and 
 heart, those habits of thought and expression, which 
 were characteristic of him to the last, manifested 
 throughout the letters of fifty-five years under every 
 variation of subject and of mood. The responsibility 
 of making this selection was pressed upon me by Mrs. 
 Newton in a manner which made me feel it impossible 
 to refuse. The editing of the scientific correspondence 
 was undertaken by Mr. Todhunter, and when his 
 volumes were published, three years ago, it was an- 
 nounced that they would shortly be followed by others, 
 containing Dr. Whewell's domestic and academic cor- 
 respondence, edited by Mr. Aldis Wright and myself. 
 
vi INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 In consequence of the pressure of other engagements 
 Mr. Wright has unfortunately found himself unable to 
 fulfil this promise, and I have been deprived, I regret to 
 say, of his co-operation. In the expectation that the 
 materials collected for the Academic Life would form 
 the basis of a separate portion of the work, Mr. Tod- 
 hunter has left them untouched. They were beyond 
 the limits of my own task, which indeed was completed 
 when Mr. Aldis Wright announced his decision. It 
 seemed impossible, however, to allow a memoir of Dr. 
 Whewell to appear in which none but incidental men- 
 tion should be made of Trinity, and no account what- 
 ever be given of his relation to the University and the 
 College where fifty years of his life were passed, and 
 which were at once the principal field of his life-long 
 labours and the objects of his life-long affection. 
 Therefore, though painfully conscious of my inade- 
 quacy for such a task, I felt it my duty to endeavour 
 to interweave with my own portion of the work some 
 notice of these materials. I have been aided in this 
 difficult task by the late Mr. J. L. Hammond of Trinity 
 College, the last surviving executor' of Dr. Whewell- 
 Personal reasons, among which no doubt were his 
 failing health and the heavy pressure of official 
 work, made him resolutely decline to undertake the 
 task himself, but he gave me his help whenever it was 
 possible. 
 
 It would be impossible adequately to describe my 
 obligations to him. I can only here briefly acknowledge 
 them. To him it is mainly owing that the work is com- 
 pleted at all. I could not have undertaken this last por- 
 tion of it without his help, and his sudden and untimely 
 
INTRODUCTORY. vii 
 
 death is the greatest of all the many misfortunes which 
 have attended the preparation of the work, and caused 
 delays, much to be regretted on all accounts, and 
 especially as the recent death of Mrs. Newton has re- 
 moved the person most deeply interested in its appear- 
 ance. Those portions for which Mr. Hammond had 
 made himself especially responsible were left in a mea- 
 sure incomplete. This is particularly the case with the 
 account of Dr. Whewell's Bequest to Trinity College 
 and the associated foundations of the Professorship and 
 Scholarships of International Law. With this subject 
 he was personally most familiar, having as executor 
 been directly concerned in the elaboration and develop- 
 ment of Dr. Whewell's scheme. Of this account only a 
 rough sketch existed at his death. To the completion 
 of these portions, to the final revision of the whole work, 
 and to a last exhaustive examination of all the remain- 
 ing materials, he and I were intending to devote this 
 year the weeks of his official leisure. What was to 
 have been a joint labour I have now endeavoured, as 
 far as possible, to accomplish alone, believing that most 
 imperfect as must necessarily be the result, it was better 
 to follow this course than to defer the publication of the 
 work by renewed attempts to secure the advantage of 
 more competent aid, all such attempts having previously 
 led but to delay and disappointment. 
 
 It has been difficult to apply any uniform principle 
 of selection to the large mass of correspondence with 
 which I have had to deal in the execution of my ori- 
 ginal task. As a man of science and literature, Dr. 
 Whewell's published works and his correspondence with 
 men of science and letters reveal him to the world. My 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 hope has been to represent him as he was in early life 
 to the relations he left behind him when he went up to 
 Cambridge ; and in later life as he was by his own fire- 
 side and in his correspondence with those who knew 
 him chiefly or only there. It is obvious that such a 
 sketch must depend for its truth upon minute touches. 
 What is most characteristic is often found in unguarded 
 revelations of feeling and of opinion, whether upon 
 matters of domestic detail, of passing interest in persons, 
 books, or events, or still more in the frank expressions of 
 emotion caused by those vicissitudes of life which try 
 the very heart. Not less characteristic and interesting 
 are other very different letters, such as those to Mr. 
 Spedding and to Mr. Myers, in which subjects wholly 
 literary and closely connected with his published 
 writings are discussed. The choice of materials in the 
 present collection may therefore, it is feared, often ap- 
 pear fragmentary and inconsistent, often trivial, some- 
 times perhaps even painful ; so passionate and over- 
 whelming was the grief, the expression of which he 
 poured into the ears of those who knew whom he had 
 loved and whom he had lost. 
 
 The same ardour which distinguished his intellec- 
 tual temperament belonged in an even greater degree to 
 his affections. They bound him with filial fondness to 
 his remote Lancashire home, to his family, to the pictur- 
 esque town of Lancaster itself, to his old schoolmaster 
 Joseph Eowley. They bound him with great tenacity 
 and appreciative esteem to persons from whom he 
 differed in opinion on almost every point. They bound 
 him with the most indulgent tenderness to younger 
 relations who could contribute nothing but love and 
 
INTRODUCTORY. ix 
 
 gratitude to the unequal friendship. And they bound 
 him also with a loyalty and fidelity which no shock of 
 disagreement, no strain of separation, could permanently 
 impair, to the ' friends of a lifetime,' as he delighted 
 to call Herschel, Jones, Sedgwick, Worsley, Peacock, 
 Kenelm Digby, Airy, Henslow, Forbes, and others, 
 whose friendship he reckoned amongst the greatest 
 blessings of his life. 
 
 To such a man his letters were second only to his 
 home and fireside. After his married life had confirmed 
 in him habits of great unreserve and communicativeness, 
 they became a positive necessity. One of the trials of 
 the loneliness which ultimately fell upon him was that, 
 as he used to say, ' There is no one now to whom I can 
 say whatever occurs to my mind at once, as the way of 
 giving reality and meaning to all that passes before 
 me/ He endeavoured to mitigate the privation thus 
 felt by correspondence, and to this circumstance many 
 of the letters in the latter part of this collection owe 
 their character. 
 
 The letters selected have, as far as possible, been 
 left just as they were written. No changes have been 
 made, save such as were necessary in order to avoid 
 repetition, or any allusion which might be painful to 
 those who survive. So uniformly kindly, candid, and 
 tolerant, however, was the spirit in which all criticisms 
 were made in his home circle, that very few omissions 
 have been necessary on this latter ground. It is hoped 
 that the letters may be found to tell their own story 
 with sufficient distinctness, supplemented by the slightest 
 possible links of narrative or words of explanation. To 
 assume the position of critic or even of biographer would 
 
X INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 be impossible to a near relative belonging to another 
 generation ; and the portrait of William Whewell, if 
 contained at all in these pages, is one drawn by his own 
 hand, and must be ' read 
 
 In those fall'n leaves which kept their green, 
 The noble letters of the dead.' 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 17941818. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Parentage Family School Mr. Rowley Professor Owen's recollec- 
 tions Heversham Mr. Gough John Whewell Cambridge 
 Herschel Morland Prize poem Fever London B.A. degree 
 Pupils Mr. Rose Coleridge Lake School Theories of poetry 
 Sonnet to Dora Wordsworth Mr. Hare Fellowship . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER TI, 
 
 18181822. 
 
 Mr. Kenelm Digby's recollections Retrospective sketch Plans for 
 the summer Mr. Brougham Oxford Carnarvon Letter to Mr. 
 Morland Welsh Jumpers Assistant tutorship Sketch Tui- 
 tion system Elizabeth Whewell Julius Hare Study of law 
 King T. Bennison Commencement Shipwreck Moderator 
 Elizabeth's illness Mr. Sheepshanks Trinity dinner Dr. 
 Wordsworth Paris Geneva The Rhine Death of Elizabeth 
 Whewell Isle of Wight Tour in the Lake Country : in Scot- 
 land Mrs. Opie's novels Works of imagination Miss Edge worth 
 Legh Richmond Washington Irving 36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 18221832. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Wilkinson Mr. Henslow Numa's Calendar Words- 
 worth Mr. Rose Mrs. Lyon's depression of spirits Paris Mr. 
 Airy Inundation Mr. Wordsworth's visit Miss Kelty Her 
 recollections Sir John Malcolm Hyde Hall Tour in Normandy 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 with Mr. Kenelm Digby Mont St. Michel Laying of stone of 
 New Court Handel's 'Messiah' Miller's Bampton Lectures 
 Father of the College Tour in Cumberland Christmas of 1824, 
 in Edinburgh Tour in Germany Takes Priest's Orders Dol- 
 coath Mine Brasted Hop harvest Christmas of 1826, in Paris 
 ' Hermann and Dorothea ' Malcolms leave Hyde Hall Spin- 
 ning Maiden's Cross Professorship of Mineralogy Dr. Clarke 
 Dolcoath again St. Michael's Mount Drawings for Cologne 
 Cathedral at Darmstadt Comparisons are odious Sir Thomas 
 Munro Jones's book Bridgewater Treatise Hambleton Hills 
 Mrs. Somerville Tour with Mr. Rickman Lubbock M. Rio 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 18331840. 
 
 M. Rio British Association Change of Rooms Charnwood Forest 
 Tides Scotch Tour Mr. Thirlwall Professor Jones Fa- 
 vourite Tides Trinity House Sermon Ireland Mr. Airy made 
 Astronomer Royal Mr. Jones made Tithe Commissioner Mr. 
 Simeon's Death Geological Society Foreign Tour Sir David 
 Brewster Sir J. Herschel Coronation Brecon Isle of the 
 Sirens Chateau de Meteren Dr. Chalmers High Stewardship 
 of the University Miss Heuslow 'Right Spelling' Stall at 
 Ely for Professor of Casuistry 152 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1840 TO CLOSE OF 1841. 
 
 Letters to Hare His Charge ' College Rooms no Home for'declining 
 Years 'Hare's Reply Pew Lady Campbell's death Masham 
 decided against Seal with a Strange Device Engaged to be 
 Married to Cordelia Marshall Marriage Dr. Wordsworth's re- 
 signation Professor Whewell appointed Master of Trinity 
 Coniston Mr. Wordsworth's Visit Arrival at Cambridge 
 Verses on a Chain of Hair Theological Instruction . . . 205 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 18421845. 
 
 East Oriel Mr. Salvin Mr. Beresford Hope College Statutes- 
 Visitors' Powers Judges' Visit Lancaster Dinner Duke of 
 Wellington's Visil^-Timbridge Wells Vice-Chancellorship 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 University Statutes Professorial Certificate Undergraduates in 
 the Galleries Voluntary Theological Examination Circular 
 Letter to the Bishops Sees of St. Asaph and Bangor Regius 
 Professorship of Divinity Great St. Mary's Letter to J. G. 
 Marshall on Constitution of Church and State Hare's Admo- 
 nitions Rejoinder Statue of Lord Byron Interest in Church 
 Restoration Statues of Barrow and Lord Macaulay Busts of 
 Hare, Sedgwick, Leslie Ellis, and Tennyson St. Augustine's, 
 Canterbury Education of Colonial Clergy Expenditure of 
 Undergraduates Attention to Business Long Vacation Trinity 
 Cricket Ground Queen's Visit Dr. Whewell breaks a rib Mr. 
 Hullah's Singing Classes Lectures on Morals Dr. Arnold's Life 
 Visit of the King of Saxony Mr. Wordsworth's Visit Sir J. 
 Reynolds's Picture of the Duke of Gloucester Statue of Bacon 
 ' Indications of the Creator 'Vestiges British Association Mr. 
 Laurence's Portrait . . 250 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 18451850. 
 
 Elements of Morality Mr. Myers Archdeacon Hare Archdeacon 
 Manning Lowestoft Tercentenary Dr. Wordsworth's Death 
 Morals again Prince Albert's Election as Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity Installation Professorship of Civil Law Jenny Lind 
 Oxford Visit to Paris Lectures on Great Men Mr. Spedding's 
 Evenings with a Reviewer Kreuznach Breakfast at Dr. Hol- 
 land's 'Jane Eyre' Prizes for Moral Philosophy Students 
 Great Frost Gorham Case Sea Fell Pike Consecration of St. 
 John's, Holbeck 322 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 18501855. 
 
 University Reforms Studies Moral and Natural Sciences Statutes 
 Memorial to Lord John Russell Royal Commission Address 
 of Heads to the Vice-Chancellor Constitution of Commission 
 Evidence of Dr. Whewell Private Tuition Caput Council of 
 the Senate Report Lord Palmerston's Letter Reply from 
 Master and Seniors of Trinity Science Fellowships Scholar- 
 ships University of Oxford Act Dr. Whewell's Notes Cam- 
 bridge Bill Protest of ex-Royal Commissioners Dr. Whewell's 
 Attitude Two kinds of Reform Resignation of Professorship 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vice-Chancellor again Seat on the Council of the Senate 
 Westminster Scholars Regius Professorships Governing Body 
 of Trinity Refuse Assent to Revised Draft Statute Master's 
 Remarks Meeting of the Governing Body Outline of Code 
 Master's Circular St. John's Circular Revised Draft Code of 
 Statutes General Annual Meeting Retrospective Sketch of in- 
 fluence on Studies Lord Lyttelton Divinity Examinations . 
 Progressive Sciences Moral and Natural Sciences Examinations 
 Boards Triposes Mr. Henry Sidgwicl^s Review of their History 
 Mrs. Austin Lancaster School Mr. Myers's Death Kreuz- 
 nach Aubrey de Vere Grotius Plurality Royal Visit Pro- 
 posed Lecture at Leeds Sermon at Heversham Dinner at 
 Lansdowne House Glasgow Meeting Sydney Smith . . 377 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 18551860. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell's Death Visit to Yorkshire Elegiacs Vice-Chan- 
 cellorship Fitzwilliam Controversy Railway Accident Con- 
 tested Election Professor of Music Mr. C. Kingsley's 
 Argonauts Mr. Ruskin Kaye's Sir John Malcolm Mrs. 
 Austin Johanna Wagner Ristori Visit to Hatfield Broad Oak 
 and Hyde Hall Edinburgh His Nieces go to Italy He 
 follows them Pictures Return to Trinity Lecture at Leeds 
 Richard II. Lectures at Queen's College Manchester Exhibi- 
 tion Marriages Visit to Mr. Arthur Stanley at Canterbury 
 Mr. Ellis's Sister Lady Affleck Dr. Whewell's Second Marriage 
 Bournemouth Cumberland Journey to Spain Eclipse 
 Coniston Cold Spring 446 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 18601866. 
 
 Completion of Master's Court Sketch of History of Courts and of the 
 Foundations endowed eventually by Dr. Whewell's Bequest 
 Family Sorrows Professor Henslow Prize Poem Death of the 
 Prince Consort Duke of Devonshire Chancellor Photographs 
 ' Lady of La Garaye' British Association at Cambridge Death 
 of Mrs. Statter Her Verses Death of Mr. Rowley Visit to 
 Cambridge of the Prince and Princess of Wales Illness of Lady 
 Affleck Her Death Visits Putney Cheltenham Grange 
 Scotland Nuneham Yorkshire Switzerland French Cathe- 
 drals Return to Cambridge Visitors Lowestoft Visits to 
 various Friends Last Letter to his Sister Mrs. Newton Death of 
 Lord Monteagle Accident Death . . . . . 516 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The First Sabbath after the Burial 567 
 
 II. The Second Sabbath. The Epiphany 502 
 
 III. The Picture 564 
 
 IV. The Return Home 666 
 
 V. Recollections of the Burial Service 667 
 
 VI. The Psalm 568 
 
 VII. The Lesson 670 
 
 VIII. The Grave . . 572 
 
 IX. The Thanksgiving 574 
 
 X. The Gravestone ......... 575 
 
 XI. The Sermon. 577 
 
 XII. The Monument 581 
 
 XIII. Easter Day 585 
 
 INDEX 587 
 
LIFE OF DR WHEWELL 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 17941818. 
 
 Parentage Family School Mr. Rowley Professor Owen's recollections 
 Heversham Mr. Gough John Whewell Cambridge Herschel 
 Morland Prize poem Fever London B.A. degree Pupils Mr. 
 Rose Coleridge Lake School Theories of poetry Sonnet to Dora 
 Wordsworth Mr. Hare Fellowship. 
 
 WILLIAM WHEWELL, the eldest of the seven children 
 of John and Elizabeth Whewell, was born on May 24, 
 1794, in Brock Street, Lancaster. His father was a 
 master-carpenter, possessed of some house-property in 
 the town. His mother was one of the Lancaster family 
 of Bennisons, and appears to have been a woman of 
 powerful mind and of considerable culture. She died 
 in 1807. 
 
 John Whewell, who was a man of probity and in- 
 telligence, lived till 1816 ; long enough to see his son 
 take his degree, but not long enough to see him pro- 
 vided for by a fellowship. 
 
 Of William's three brothers two died in infancy ; the 
 third, John, was born in 1803, and died in September 
 1812. He was a child of great promise, and, in his 
 brother's opinion, ' uncommon abilities.' Of his three 
 sisters, the eldest, Elizabeth, died after a lingering ill- 
 
 B 
 
2 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1794 
 
 ness in 1821. The second, Martha, married the Eev. J. 
 Staller, and died in 1863. She had from childhood the 
 habit of expressing her thoughts and feelings in verse. 
 After her death her brother had some of the pieces 
 printed for private circulation, and wrote a short intro- 
 ductory notice to the collection. Ann, the youngest 
 sister, married to William Newton, Esq., survived until 
 1879. 
 
 William Whewell was sent at an early age to the 
 Blue School in Lancaster, and subsequently to the 
 Grammar School, of which the Eev. Joseph Eowley was 
 then the master. Mr. Eowley was a man of considerable 
 attainments, and to his discernment was due the dis- 
 covery of the abilities of his pupil, which resulted in 
 his being given the opportunity of preparing for a uni- 
 versity career, instead of being put to a trade. Forty 
 years afterwards William Whewell said of him, ' He was 
 one main cause of my being sent to college, and of all 
 my subsequent success.' Dr. Whewell retained to the 
 last an affectionate and grateful sense of the obligation, 
 and kept up intercourse with him as long as Mr. Eowley 
 lived. 
 
 In another direction Mr. Eowley's influence was less 
 successful. He strongly recommended his pupil to study 
 for the bar, and his father took the same view, but the 
 boy could never be induced to entertain the idea. 
 
 If his remembrance of Mr. Eowley was pleasant and 
 cordial, of the school, as he knew it, William Whewell 
 never had a very high opinion. The kindness of Pro- 
 fessor Owen, the only surviving friend, I believe, of those 
 school days, enables me to give his recollections of the 
 Lancaster Grammar School, and they in a measure ex 
 plain this. 
 
 Professor Owen writes to me as follows : 
 
1794 PROFESSOR OWEN'S RECOLLECTIONS. 3 
 
 After the death of my father, who had sold the estate at 
 Fulmer, Bucks, my mother continued to reside in the house in 
 Dalton Square, Lancaster, a corner house, and next to it, in the 
 street leading from the square, lived the Rev. Joseph Rowley, 
 M.A., curate of the parish and head master of the grammar 
 school. He was my godfather, and prevailed upon my mother 
 to let me go, at the unusually early age of six years, to this 
 school, a somewhat notable one, supplying to this day men who 
 make a name at Cambridge. In the class with my elder brother 
 was Higgin, 1 who became an Irish bishop. 
 
 In a court lower down Brock Street, Whewell the carpenter 
 dwelt and had his workshop. I remember both the father 
 and grandfather of Dr. Whewell. The grandfather was a most 
 venerable-looking old man, who used to be brought out to sit in 
 the sun in the square. He could tell of the passage through 
 the town of the * Scotch rebels ' in 1745. The gardens of Mr. 
 Rowley and my mother ' marched,' as the Scotch say ; and it 
 happened that Whewell, the father, was employed in some 
 repairs of the dividing rail fence. Between noon and two 
 P.M. we left school for dinner, and Mr. Rowley found WhewelPs 
 son in the garden, his father having gone to his dinner. He 
 entered into conversation with the boy, who then was at the 
 6 Blue School,' and about to be apprenticed to his father, and 
 was struck with his replies to questions as to what he had learnt, 
 and especially in regard to his arithmetic. The father return- 
 ing, Mr. Rowley expressing his opinion of the superior abilities 
 of the youth, proposed that he should go to the grammar school. 
 The carpenter was a man of sound sense and much esteemed, 
 and stated obvious objections : ' He knows more about parts of 
 my business now than I do, and has a special turn for it.' 
 However, out of deference to the clergyman and head master, 
 he asked for a week to think it over. Mr. Rowley said he 
 would find him in books, and there would be no expense for the 
 teaching. So Whewell went. 
 
 He was a tall, ungainly youth, and his struggles and troubles 
 
 may be imagined. An early one, which I think he felt more 
 
 than all the rest, was being sent to me, the smallest boy, to be 
 
 told the meaning, in Murray's English Grammar (not one of 
 
 1 Bishop of Limerick, and afterwards of Deny. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1794 
 
 the 6 Blue School ' books), of the abbreviation ' viz.' which 
 precedes, if you remember, ' Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, 
 and Prosody.' In his repetition he had given it literally and 
 phonetically, and no wonder; he knew not its meaning, if, 
 indeed, he had ever met with it before. This was the beginning 
 of our personal acquaintance, and he never forgot it. ... 
 
 The rate, however, at which Whewell mastered both English 
 grammar and Latin accidence' was a marvel, and before the 
 year was out he had moved upward into the class including my 
 elder brother, Higgin, and a dozen boys of the same age. Then 
 it was that the head master, noting to them the ease with which 
 Whewell mastered the exercises and lessons, raised the tale and 
 standard. Out of school I remember remonstrances on this 
 fashion : ' Now, Whewell, if you say more than twenty lines of 
 Virgil to-day, we'll wallop you.' But that was easier said than 
 done. I have seen him, with his back to the churchyard wall, 
 flooring first one, then another, of the ' walloppers,' and at last 
 public opinion in the school interposed. 4 Any two of you may 
 take Whewell in a fair stand-up fight, but we won't have more 
 at him at once.' After the fate of the first pair, a second was 
 not found willing. My mother thought * it was extremely un- 
 grateful in that boy Whewell ' to have discoloured both eyes of 
 her eldest so shockingly. But Mr. Rowley said, ' Boys will be 
 boys, and he always let them fight it fairly out.' 
 
 I have only one other recollection worth telling, for after he 
 went to Trinity his career was an uninterrupted rise. 
 
 One day after the noontide meal my godfather came in, 
 as usual when he had any topic to impart to his neighbour (and 
 he had a great respect for my mother's judgment) : ; I've sad 
 news for you, Mrs. Owen, to-day. I've just had a letter from 
 Cambridge ; that boy Whewell has ruined himself, he'll never 
 get his Wranglersbip now ! ' ' Why, good gracious, Mr. Rowley, 
 what has Whewell been doing ? ' ' Why, he has gone and got 
 the Chancellor's gold medal for some trumpery poem, " Boadicea," 
 or something of that kind, when he ought to have been stick- 
 ing to his mathematics. I give him up now. Taking after 
 his poor mother, I suppose.' (In our weekly 'Lancaster Gazette ' 
 there was a Poets' Corner, and some sweet and simple stanzas were 
 occasionally admitted from the pen of Mrs. Whewell.) The 
 
1810 REMOVAL TO HEVERSHAM. 5 
 
 relief to my mother's mind was immense, for we all had the 
 greatest interest in the career of our neighbour-prodigy, and 
 she pacified the worthy curate by urging that ' young men must 
 have some amusement, and this seemed to be a very innocent 
 one.' 
 
 I remember the intense* interest with which * Boadicea ' was 
 read in the family circle when copies found their way to Dalton 
 Square. 
 
 In 1810 William Whewell was removed from Lan- 
 caster, and placed under Mr. Strickland at the Grammar 
 School of Hevershana in Westmoreland, in order to 
 compete for an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 given by the neighbouring family of Wilson of Dalham 
 Tower. This exhibition, worth then about 50Z. a year, 
 he obtained in 1811, and went up to Cambridge in the 
 October of that year with Mr. Hudson, Fellow and 
 Tutor of Trinity (afterwards Vicar of Kendal), to be 
 entered at Trinity. 
 
 The journey, long and tedious indeed in those days, 
 was commenced at eight o'clock one Friday morning, 
 and after incessant travelling was brought to an end at 
 Cambridge on the Sunday morning following' at one 
 o'clock. ' The journey hither,' he tells his father, 
 writing after his arrival in Cambridge, ' has cost me 
 above six guineas. I may perhaps go back for less, as 
 I shall go by Leeds.' On this occasion he only stayed 
 in Cambridge a few days. 
 
 In August 1809, before the removal to Heversham 
 was decided upon, William Whewell walked over to the 
 Bridge Inn, a small inn between Lancaster and Kendal, 
 to meet Mr. Hudson, afterwards his college tutor, and 
 then frequently resident at Haverbrack near Kendal, to 
 be examined by him with a view to considering what 
 chances of success were before him. The story goes, 
 that after some conversation and a cursory examination 
 
6 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1810 
 
 into the lad's attainments, he pronounced thus in favour 
 of Heversham and Cambridge : ' You'll do ; you'll be 
 among the first six wranglers.' 
 
 It appears to have been in consequence of Mr. Hud- 
 son's report that Mr. Wilson consented to consider 
 William Whewell, though not a native of Heversham, 
 as a candidate for the exhibition ' should no parishioner 
 apply,' insisting, however, upon a two years' residence 
 at Heversham School. Some effort was made to get 
 this period diminished, but in vain. 
 
 His master, Mr. Strickland, died about the close of 
 1811. During the period which preceded the election 
 of the new master, Mr. Fawcett, and for a few months 
 after his election and before he resided, William 
 Whewell, at the request of the trustees, though only a 
 boy of seventeen, took charge of the school. At this 
 time, and until he went to Cambridge in 1812, he was 
 the pupil of Mr. Gough, the blind mathematician at 
 Kendal, to whom allusion is made by Mr. Wordsworth 
 in the seventh book of the ' Excursion.' 
 
 In a letter to his father of March 6, 1812, he speaks 
 of him as 'a very extraordinary person. A blind man, 
 but of very eminent note in classics, mathematics, botany, 
 and chemistry. He intends in a short time, I under- 
 stand, to take in a few mathematical pupils.' 
 
 Shortly afterwards, May 12, 1812, he observes: 'I 
 attend Mr. Gough at the hours I named to you, and 
 hope I am making tolerable progress. I have reviewed 
 algebra, trigonometry, and other branches, which, as I 
 had before gone over them, did not take up much time, 
 and am now reading conic sections, fluxions, and me- 
 chanics.' 
 
 An interesting letter to his little brother may be 
 given here, though belonging to the previous year. The 
 
1811 LETTER TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 7 
 
 writer was at the time not quite seventeen, the child to 
 whom it was addressed eight years old. 
 
 Deepthwaite : May 19, 1811. 
 
 I received your last letter, and am concerned to hear that 
 your health improves so little. As you are now in the habit 
 of writing verse a good deal, I hope you will excuse a few 
 remarks I would make. Your subject, I perceive, is generally of 
 a religious nature. I do not know whether I dare venture to 
 find fault on that head. But to tell truth (and I do assure you 
 it is not from want of regard for religion), I myself dare not yet 
 engage it. The subject is so awful that before the mind is 
 ripened it seems to me fitter for contemplation than for descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 You now, I observe, really make verses ; before you only 
 made rhymes ; that is, your lines (though some of them do not 
 run smoothly) all agree in their movement and measure. You 
 now therefore begin to perceive the harmony of verse ; to im- 
 prove this talent I would (if I did not think it above your com- 
 prehension) advise you to read that part of Murray's Grammar 
 (which my sister Martha has) which is called Prosody. You 
 will then be better able to taste the beauties of poetry. But 
 while you apply yourself to poetry, I would by no means have 
 you to neglect prose, as it is both more useful and more fre- 
 quently used. To this end you may read the other parts of 
 Lindley Murray's Grammar, or (which will perhaps be easier) 
 one of the small grammars you have. 
 
 But I would not have you to write so much as to neglect 
 reading. You have uncommon abilities (I hope praise will not 
 make you vain) ; I would therefore have you employ them. At 
 your age it is difficult to find proper subjects for study. Mrs. 
 Chapone's 'Letters to a Young Lady,' which book is at my father's, 
 though addressed to a person of the other sex, will give you 
 some useful directions. Indeed, history and some parts of natural 
 philosophy I think not above your comprehension, very enter- 
 taining and of great utility. As you seem also to have a pro- 
 pensity to poetry I would advise you, as soon as you are capable 
 of forming a right judgment of them, to read some of the 
 English poets. 
 
8 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1812 
 
 You may observe that what I have said is very different 
 from the advice I should have given most young persons at 
 your years. The sum of all I have said is this : besides writing 
 verse I would have you to strive to get a habit of writing prose 
 easily and well. I should be very much concerned if the poetry 
 of your letters were better than the prose. I would not have 
 you abandon composition, but neither would I have it prevent 
 you from attending to other things. If you read in well- 
 chosen books you will find that amongst other advantages it 
 will improve both your prose and verse. 
 
 As I think this letter is quite long enough, I conclude with 
 my love to my aunt. 
 
 His first letter after entering on residence at Cam- 
 bridge is addressed to his father, and dated : 
 
 Trinity College: Oct. 17, 1812. 
 
 I arrived in Cambridge about eleven o'clock on the Friday 
 evening after the Wednesday on which I left Lancaster. Pro- 
 ceeding through Preston, I arrived in Manchester, where I slept. 
 1 left that place the following morning. We breakfasted at 
 Buxton, dined at Derby, and arrived at Leicester in the evening. 
 On the road I fell in with several young men who were going 
 to the University ; several of them freshmen like myself, but 
 only one of Trinity. Leaving Leicester next morning, we took 
 the Cambridge coach by Uppingham, Stamford, and Hunting- 
 don. I slept at the inn, and waited upon Mr. Hudson next 
 morning. This college is so full that I shall be obliged to pro- 
 cure lodgings in the town for some time, perhaps a year ; this 
 will make a slight variation in the expense, but it is un- 
 avoidable, and is the case with all Trinity men at first. 
 I shall live in every respect the same as if I had rooms in 
 college, as I shall dine and sup in hall, and have my bread and 
 butter, &c., from the college buttery. Our lectures do not. 
 begin till the 23rd, till which time I have nothing to attend to 
 but private reading. 
 
 Throughout his early youth, William Whewell 
 appears to have been subject to frequent attacks of 
 
1813 CAMBRIDGE. 9 
 
 indisposition, and is in fact described as a delicate boy. 
 Either he outgrew the tendency, or the advice of Cam- 
 bridge physicians was of much service to him, for after 
 his college life begins we hear little of his health. 
 
 To his Father] Cambridge : Nov. 14, 1812. 
 
 I have enjoyed very good health since I left Lancaster. 
 Perhaps I ought to except a day or two when I have had some 
 symptoms of my old complaint, but my constitution has so far 
 got the better of that, that when it makes its appearance the 
 pain is very moderate, at least compared with what it formerly 
 was, and it only slightly affects my general health. It has of 
 late recurred only at long intervals of time, so I flatter myself 
 it will be some time before it renews its attacks. 
 
 To his Aunt 9 Mrs. Lyon] Dec. 2, 1812. 
 
 I have as yet found no reason to dislike the college life, and 
 am very well satisfied with everything about me except the face 
 of the country ; but the ground about Cambridge is so flat and 
 dull that it is quite disagreeable. Not one pleasant walk is here 
 up-hill or down-hill, no water but the narrow dirty Cam, and 
 even on the banks of that there is not a walk of a hundred yards 
 long ; even trees are dealt here with a sparing hand, and ex- 
 cepting the groves and grounds belonging to the colleges, there 
 is scarcely a tree or a hedge of any size to be seen. The walks 
 about the colleges are certainly remarkably fine, and the 
 splendour and elegance of the buildings, ancient and modern, 
 very impressive, but these soon grow tiresome, and their same- 
 ness but ill compensates for the want of the beauties of nature. 
 
 To his Father] Trin. Coll., Cambridge: Feb. 17, 1813. 
 
 Since I wrote to you last nothing has occurred which is 
 worth mentioning, and I presumed you would suppose me to be 
 well as long as you heard nothing to the contrary. A college 
 life does not afford any great variety of news ; the same suc- 
 cession of lectures, reading, &c., constantly recurs. 
 
 Our lectures for the present term commenced on the 8th 
 instant, and are going on in the usual way. We attend lectures 
 on algebra, Euclid, and trigonometry from nine o'clock till ten, 
 
10 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1813 
 
 and from ten to eleven we are lectured in an oration of Demos- 
 thenes. From twelve to one I attend lectures in divinity on 
 three days in the week. My reading, independent of lectures, 
 is going forward in the old track, and when the examination 
 arrives I hope to be pretty well prepared. 
 
 Three years will probably elapse much in the same way, 
 and it will not be until I have taken my degree that I shall 
 be able to alleviate the great expenses which you now sustain. 
 But I shall at least endeavour to have as few superfluous 
 expenses as possible. . . . 
 
 The senior wrangler was Herschel, son of Dr. Herschel, the 
 Astronomer Eoyal, of whom you may possibly have heard, cele- 
 brated for his discoveries amongst the stars, and his improve- 
 ments in telescopes, some of which he has made as large as 
 forty feet long. His son is a most profound mathematician 
 and an excellent general scholar. I have been several times in 
 company w T ith him, and also with Fallows, who was third 
 wrangler, and Gwatkin, who is expected to be senior wrangler 
 next year, all three of St. John's College. I have been in 
 company with them from the circumstance of their being ac- 
 quaintances of Whittaker, whom I once met at Mr. Satter- 
 thwaite's, and who visited me a few days after I arrived in Cam- 
 bridge. Tom Satterthwaite had happened to write to him at that 
 time that I had informed him I was coming up. 
 
 During the first seven years of Whewell's Cambridge 
 residence he kept up a somewhat frequent correspond- 
 ence with Mr. Morland, under-master at the Lancaster 
 Free School. Extracts from the letters addressed to 
 him will occasionally be given. Their relations appear 
 to have been affectionate and familiar. Mr. Morland 
 came to Cambridge eventually as a ten-year man and 
 took his degree. This probably brought their corre- 
 spondence to a close, and it does not seem to have been 
 resumed afterwards. 
 
 To Mr. Norland] Cambridge: Nov. 14, 1813. 
 
 When I offered to make the first step in our epistolary cor- 
 
1814 DISPUTATION AND DECLAMATION. 11 
 
 respondence, it was for no other reason than simply this, that 
 writing from a strange place, such a place too as Cam- 
 bridge, it might naturally be supposed that I should have 
 more materials for a letter than a person at Lancaster. And 
 yet verily I believe if you were to wait for an epistle till I could 
 form an interesting one out of the buildings and curiosities of 
 Cambridge, you would have the good fortune to escape having 
 one at all. The fact is that I am a desperate bungler at putting 
 brick and stone into black and white. 
 
 I see the chapel with much more comfortable sensations than 
 I have at any period within this last fortnight. Last night in 
 that chapel, amongst a whole host of people clad in surplices, 
 was I stuck up to bellow forth for a quarter of an hour what 
 was called, by the courtesy of Cambridge, Latin. 
 
 I have had a declamation to make and repeat, and what do 
 you think was the subject ? Something no doubt extremely 
 novel and interesting ; yes, nothing less than the old song of 
 Brutus and Caesar ; upon which every schoolboy and every de- 
 claimer has tried the sharpness of his wit so often that it is 
 hacked and worn to the bare bone. This bone, however, I had 
 to gnaw at as well as I might, and a most glorious howl did I 
 make for Brutus. . . . 
 
 Scribble me something the first moment you have to spare. 
 
 To his Father'] Jan. 18, 1814. 
 
 I received my prize books about a month ago. The sum 
 allotted to each class is 10L, and as there are ten in each class 
 it was only twenty shillings for each of us. It was possible to 
 buy a book and get it bound, gilt and lettered, with the college 
 arms, for this sum, but it would have been only a small and 
 trifling one, and I thought it better to get something more 
 splendid and pay something more. The Principia of Newton is 
 a book that I should unavoidably have to get sooner or later, so 
 I took this occasion of purchasing it. When I have said that it 
 is a very scarce book in three quarto volumes most elegantly 
 bound, you will expect the price to be high, but still I am afraid 
 you will think it too much when I say I had nine pounds to 
 pay myself. 
 
12 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1814 
 
 To his Father] June 2, 1814. 
 
 I have just got the examination over, and had a little time 
 to felicitate myself upon my good fortune in getting the English 
 prize poem. There is not a single prize in the gift of the 
 University which I should prefer to it. It will, however, be 
 attended, as all ambitious projects are, with some trouble and 
 expense. It is necessary that I stay up till the Commencement, 
 at which time I shall have to recite my poem in the Senate 
 House before the University, and his Eoyal Highness of Glou- 
 cester, our Chancellor, from whose royal hands I receive the 
 prize which is a bit of gold, value by estimation fifteen guineas, 
 on which account you will conceive that it will be necessary for 
 me to get at least a new suit of clothes. It is also necessary 
 that I get some copies of it printed, which will be some expense, 
 because there are eleven examiners, to each of whom of course 
 a copy must be given, and fifty other people who will never rest 
 till they have seen it. 
 
 To his Father] June 26, 1814. 
 
 It was with the greatest pleasure that I read your letter. One 
 of the most gratifying circumstances attending a success of this 
 kind is the pleasure it gives one's friends. It is the having dear 
 relations to share in the feelings of exultation that stimulates 
 the exertions and sweetens the triumph. 
 
 My sisters are, I suppose, highly delighted at the idea of 
 seeing in print a ' Poem by William Whewell,' and I am happy 
 in having sisters who all of them have, I think, a more rational 
 taste for poetry and literature of all kinds than any other girls 
 in the same circumstances. 
 
 The Duke of Gloucester arrives here next Friday, and on the 
 following Tuesday I have to recite my poem. The poem is in 
 rhyme, in the common heroic measure, and contains about 340 
 lines. You have learnt, I suppose, that I am first in our ex- 
 aminations. So far as I can learn, first in every subject. We 
 have reason to be proud of these honours, but I should not wish 
 to have them over-rated, as that would only tend to make us 
 ridiculous. Some persons or other every year get these honours 
 and many besides, so that I am not without companions in my 
 
1814 LETTER TO MR. MORLAND. 13 
 
 success ; to unite them is indeed rather more uncommon, but 
 not entirely unprecedented. 
 
 To Mr. Norland'] Cambridge : Nov. 17, 1814. 
 
 Once more I address you out of a wilderness of learning of 
 every description which lies scattered about me in every form, 
 from foolish duodecimal nonsense to still more foolish folio 
 sense. 
 
 My journey hither had nothing particular about it ; all the 
 company along the road, vulgar, silent, or stupid so that I had 
 nothing to do but wrap myself up in a sort of torpidity for three 
 days, working mathematical problems about stage-coach win- 
 dows, and thinking of certain hours in the vacation which I 
 should like to live over again. There is always some favourite 
 object with the imagination, to which it springs when it is dis- 
 encumbered of other business ; and from observing the direction 
 it takes in those holidays of thought we may best form an 
 opinion of the constitution of the mind. By the bye, as all on 
 a sudden by mere stress of wind and tide at least by no fault 
 of mine we are driven into the old track of metaphysics, I 
 will send you an argument which a friend of mine brought out 
 the other day when we were evoking metaphysics together, and 
 which you must certainly admire if you have any desire to see 
 the old question of necessity finally settled, and are curious to 
 be informed whether you have a power over your own actions 
 or not. 
 
 The argument goes to prove that everything happens 
 necessarily ; and as the ground of the argument, you will of 
 course admit the universal experience of all mankind as testi- 
 mony, so far as this, that if a thing during the whole course of 
 ages never has happened, we have reason to conclude it im- 
 possible. Now if things do not take place necessarily, then 
 any event might have taken place otherwise than it has done. 
 But the history of all ages, and the testimony of all mankind, 
 does not inform us of one event which has taken place other- 
 wise than it has done. The conclusion is manifest, and you 
 must be pleased to see set at rest a question upon which so 
 much has been said, written, and even thought, as that of 
 necessity. 
 
14 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1814 
 
 Thus we get rid of an absurdity, the supposing we have 
 anything to do with our own actions. There is another which 
 I should also like to see exterminated, though even in this 
 enlightened age it is held by numbers the belief of our own 
 existence. Nay, I met with a man the other day who, not so 
 modest as to attempt to prove it like Descartes, with his ' Cogito, 
 ergo sum,' had the impudence to assume it as an evident 
 principle, which was to be the foundation of his reasoning. 
 This is quite preposterous. When you have proved everything 
 else, you may perhaps be allowed, if you can, to infer your own 
 existence as a corollary, or if you cannot prove it by reason, to 
 demonstrate it by revelation ; but nothing can be more un- 
 philosophical than to assume it, or to say you are conscious of 
 it, when in fact I appeal to yourself, if upon reflection you are 
 not conscious of your non-existence. The general prevalence 
 of this belief among the bulk of mankind, and even some who 
 pretend to philosophy, adds another to the proofs of the prone- 
 ness of man to be duped. I suspect, indeed, that this is one of 
 the illusions which Satan, since the creation of the world, has 
 been for some unknown purpose permitted to impose upon men 
 Of the ancient philosophers, as Reid says, * some believed in 
 their own existence, and some thought there might be a God.' 
 In modern times, Berkeley, and even Hume, though they have 
 gone a long way, have not been able entirely to shake off this 
 vulgar prejudice. The belief of our own existence is indeed 
 an opinion which answers well enough for the common purposes 
 of life, but common sense must prevail at last, and it must 
 fall. 
 
 I have been so far run away with by the anticipation of this 
 era of enlightened views, that I have no room to talk about the 
 common affairs of life, and all those people who are in their own 
 imagination, and by the courtesy of other people, supposed to 
 exist. 
 
 You must write immediately and tell me all manner of 
 news, though I have not left myself room to adjure you by fifty 
 ' By's.' You must consider yourself fulminated at through a 
 page and half, and write accordingly. 
 
1815 FEVER IN CAMBRIDGE. 15 
 
 To his Sister] Jan. 11, 1815. 
 
 The subject of the next prize poem, to be sent in in March, 
 is : Wallace, the Scottish Patriot. 
 
 I am disposed to let Wallace rest in peace, content with 
 having carried Boadicea safe through nearly four hundred lines 
 of blood and battles. I am glad you are reading such standard 
 works as Pope's ' Homer,' Milton's ' Paradise Lost ' (and above 
 all WhewelPs < Boadicea ' !), that is if you read them, as I have 
 no doubt you do, from inclination and a perception of their 
 beauties. I presume from this that Martha is not of Dr. 
 Johnson's opinion, that < nobody reads through " Paradise Lost " 
 except as a task.' 
 
 Had I to begin my reading again, there is nothing I should 
 so much like as to record as faithfully as possible the impres- 
 sions and opinions which I formed on first reading any book. 
 It would be so agreeable to recur to them. I sometimes reflect 
 on the odd notions with which I read Pope's ( Homer,' one of 
 the first books I recollect, and upon the sage observations upon 
 it with which I sometimes amused my father and my lamented 
 mother. If you are disposed to send me your ideas on your 
 books, it would give me a pleasure of the same kind. 
 
 To his Father] March 22, 1815. 
 
 There is, indeed, a fever of some kind or other in Cambridge, 
 and several gownsmen have been ill of it; but the whole number 
 of those who have died in the University since Christmas is not 
 more than six or seven, and of those I believe two or three have 
 been carried off by other disorders. There are now, I believe, 
 several men ill, but not one of my acquaintance ; and besides, 
 the disorder appears to be local, and has been confined to one 
 or two small colleges ; Jesus College in particular, which some 
 of the physicians, I understand, attribute to the stagnant and 
 putrid waters in its neighbourhood. I believe not one man 
 of Trinity or St. John's has taken it. ... 
 
 It would indeed be extremely inconvenient to me to leave 
 Cambridge just at present, as I shall on Friday and Saturday in 
 next week have to undergo an examination for a college scholar- 
 ship. . . . What an age of revolutions we live in ! according to 
 
16 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1815 
 
 this morning's paper everything appears relapsing into the most 
 dreadful gloom ! Ney surrendered, or more probably gone over 
 to Bonaparte who is by this time I suppose in Paris and the 
 Royal Family quitting the place. How we deceived ourselves 
 when we thought we had seen the end of the miseries of 
 Europe ! 
 
 To his Father] April 4, 1815. 
 
 I am not able to ascertain whether this fever increases, 
 but the alarm certainly does. Trinity and St. John's, which 
 had hitherto been exempt, have now some invalids whom the 
 physicians assert to be ill of the fever. A man was taken ill on 
 Sunday in our college, and, as luck would have it, at the foot of 
 my staircase. ... I cannot determine whether the real danger 
 is considerable or not, but the colleges are clearing as fast as 
 possible. At St. John's, all the men are, I believe, obliged to 
 go down, and at our college the tutors recommend it so strongly 
 that it comes nearly to the same thing. It is yet undetermined 
 whether the next term will be given us without residence, and 
 consequently how long we may be allowed to stay away from Cam- 
 bridge. My plan therefore is this : to remove from Cambridge 
 for a week or two, and if it should be decided that we are not 
 to keep next term to come home for a month or two, and then 
 return and spend the Long Vacation in Cambridge, where I must 
 read as hard as I can. And where of all places on the face of 
 the globe do you suppose I have thought of passing the time 
 that must elapse before the Senate have decided the matter ? 
 Where but in London ? . . . 
 
 Gfwatkin, of St. John's, goes along with me, whose plan is 
 the same as mine. . . . 
 
 Our examination for scholarships is over, but the decision 
 and admission, which should have taken place on Thursday, are 
 deferred till some future time. This disorder and the appre- 
 hensions it has excited have thrown everything into confusion. 
 
 To his Sister Ann, from Cambridge'] April 14, 1815. 
 
 In spite of plague and pestilence I am here again, alive and 
 well, and without much apprehension of being otherwise. I have 
 been in London a week, during which time there have been no 
 
1815 LONDON SIGHTS. 17 
 
 new cases of fever in the University, nor, so far as I know, in 
 the town. So much for Cambridge ; and now for London, of 
 which you may probably wish to have a description. I have 
 of course seen all the sights that strangers go to see, from the 
 burying vault of St. Paul's up to the ball and cross and from 
 the helmet of William the Conqueror in the Tower to the high- 
 heeled shoes of Queen Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey. From 
 all this, however, you will perceive that I have only been look- 
 ing at the outside of London ; not knowing anybody there, of 
 course I could not see anything of society, and therefore you 
 will not wonder if in a week I found myself beginning to 
 grow tired of running about to see raree shows. Grwatkin, 
 my companion, had been there before, but such a complete 
 mathematician is he that he knew hardly so much of it as 
 myself, and therefore we had to feel our way as well as we could. 
 He left me the day before I came away, and went home to 
 Hereford. 
 
 The only things from which I expected any very great 
 gratification were the theatres, and I was not disappointed 
 some of the first-rate actors are such that I should not have 
 repented going to town merely on that account. Miss O'Neil, 
 an actress lately come upon the London stage, is a most 
 wonderful performer. Her acting and the tones of her 
 voice are touching beyond anything I ever experienced. I 
 saw her twice, in Belvidera and in Isabella. Kean too is most 
 admirable, though I imagine I saw him rather to a disadvan- 
 tage in King Eichard II. Several others are good, but the 
 second-rate performers are not better than many I have seen 
 on the Lancaster boards. The good folks of London, however, 
 are not content with good acting, but have got a most extra- 
 vagant affection for pomps and processions on the stage, and 
 sieges and battles, and all sorts of finery and noise. Two of 
 the new pieces I saw concluded with explosions and conflagra- 
 tions forts were actually and really blown up, and scattered 
 in huge fragments in the air, and the catastrophe was as 
 striking as the noise and smell of gunpowder could make it. 
 Cambridge is wonderfully dull at present ; almost everybody 
 has left it. I am sorry I shall not see you all this summer, 
 but you must write to me the more. 
 
 C 
 
18 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1815 
 
 The resolution come to by the University was : ' That it was 
 not expedient that the undergraduates should return before 
 May 20.' I find that some people doubt whether it will be 
 thought necessary for them to return then. We have now 
 about twenty undergraduates in Trinity. The magistrates of 
 Cambridge published a statement, from which it appeared that 
 only sixteen have died in the town since the beginning of the 
 fever, and eleven of those were children. 
 
 To Us Father'] April 27, 1815. 
 
 I should like very much to go home for a while ; but eight 
 months before the Senate-House examination, and after idling 
 away a week or two in town, I ought to have full employment 
 for myself here. Besides, the dullness of the place, as it means 
 only the want of amusement and society, though it does not 
 make it more pleasant, is rather an advantage to a person in- 
 clined to read. 
 
 To his Father'] July 13, 1815. 
 
 We have got two English prize poems this year. After the 
 examiners had decided who was the successful candidate, they 
 found upon looking at his name that he was a man of our 
 college, who, owing to some mistake, had not yet been entered 
 as he intended, and who consequently had no claim to the 
 prize, which was therefore given to the next best. 
 
 As the first, whose name is Waddington, had a decided 
 superiority, the examiners wrote to him to express their appro- 
 bation, and to request him to publish his poem, which has been 
 done. I believe, too, the Chancellor intends to give him an 
 additional medal. The regular medal goes to Smirke, of St. 
 John's, the next in merit. 
 
 Waddington is very young ; only, I believe, sixteen, and is 
 yet at Charterhouse School ; he is a brother of Waddington 
 who got the prize last year but one, and was a candidate for 
 the last. 
 
 At this early period William Whewell not unfre- 
 quently addressed his sisters collectively, as in the 
 
1815 PA NT AG R APH. 1 9 
 
 following letter, but in later years his sister Ann is his 
 habitual correspondent. 
 
 To his Sisters] Sept. 19, 1815. 
 
 The letters of a certain person who signs E. M. A. Whewell 
 are always so acceptable that the said E. M. A. has great rea- 
 son to be surprised that I am not a more regular correspon- 
 dent. I suppose before you have finished this sentence your 
 eye has been caught by the black patch in the middle of the 
 paper, and I hope too that you have detected some resemblance 
 to the visage of E. M. A.'s brother W. It seems to me to have 
 a good deal of likeness to his physiognomy, and it is reason- 
 able to expect that it should from the way in which it is 
 taken; being a shadow thrown on the wall by a candle and 
 marked out by one of my acquaintance, and afterwards reduced 
 by an instrument called a pantagraph. 
 
 You would, I dare say, much rather see the countenance of 
 the real original, but he is so enveloped in piles of quartos, 
 heaps of scribbling paper, and unintelligible lines and figures, 
 that his magic circle is quite impenetrable for the present. 
 
 I have been hearing a certain Mr. Hall, a celebrated Bap- 
 tist minister from Leicester, as great a man in this part of the 
 world as the Rev. Legh Richmond is in yours. I had heard so 
 much of him that it was not surprising I was somewhat dis- 
 appointed to hear a man with a voice weaker than Mr. Hous- 
 man's and a manner not near so impressive. 
 
 In the autumn of this year we find William Whewell 
 preparing for his examination, and endeavouring to 
 reconcile his friends to the possibility of his not coming 
 out first, which he had already foreseen. In January he 
 writes to tell his father of the result of the first week's 
 examination, which was to place him second to Jacob. 
 
 To his Aunt, Mrs. Lyon~] Nov. 2. 
 
 If I come down at all after I have taken my degree it must 
 be only for a very short time, as I am anxious to take pupils, if 
 I can get any, as soon as possible, in order to do something for 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1816 
 
 myself after being such an expensive business to my father for 
 so long. 
 
 I am now preparing for my examination, as I suppose you 
 know. Do not take it into your heads to be very grievously dis- 
 appointed if I am not first, as all these things are of course very 
 uncertain. 
 
 To his Father] Jan. 19, 1816. 
 
 Jacob. 
 Whewell. 
 
 Such is the order in which we are fixed after a week's ex- 
 amination. I should have been very glad if I could have in- 
 verted the order of these names, but if you had seen or heard 
 from me during the course of the examination, you would have 
 thought it fortunate that I am not lower. I found myself, 
 after the examination began, so terribly deficient in many things, 
 and more especially in the art of writing with rapidity, that I 
 began to give up all hopes of being within the first four or five. 
 It is very fortunate that I did not write on the second or third 
 day of the contest, to say that as I could only write twelve such 
 sheets as this in two hours while others could write twenty, you 
 must be content to see me where it should please Providence 
 to place me, for at that period of the business I felt a great in- 
 clination to send you such a warning. 
 
 I had before been given to understand that a great deal 
 depended upon being able to write the greatest possible quantity 
 in the smallest time, but of the rapidity which was actually 
 necessary I had not formed the most distant idea. I am upon 
 no occasion a quick writer, and upon subjects where I could not 
 go on without sometimes thinking a little I soon found myself 
 considerably behind. I was therefore surprised, and even 
 astonished, to find myself bracketed off, as it is called, in the 
 second place ; that is, on the day when a new division of the 
 classes is made for the purpose of having a closer examination 
 of the respective merits of men who come pretty near to each 
 other, I was not classed with anybody, but placed alone in the 
 second bracket. The man who is at the head of the list is of Caius 
 College, and was always expected to be very high, though I do 
 not know that anybody expected to see him so decidedly superior 
 as to be bracketed off by himself. The man who was always 
 
1816 B.A. DEGREE. 21 
 
 most talked of was Graham ] of Christ's College. I should sup- 
 pose that you must have heard his name mentioned in all the 
 talking about the subject which has passed. He was a friend of 
 White, the Eector of Claughton, and was somehow or other 
 understood to be pitted against me, so that it is some consolation 
 to have beaten him. He is bracketed along with seven others, 
 and it is not yet known which of the eight is first. I should 
 think it not at all unlikely that he should be beat by some of 
 the men who are in the same bracket with him, Higman 2 for 
 instance, or Cape, 3 rivals of mine in our Trinity examinations. 
 
 [The order in the list, as finally settled by the 
 examiners, was Higman, Graham, Cape. Among others 
 in this bracket were his friend Sheepshanks, and Hamil- 
 ton, late Dean of Salisbury.] 
 
 I shall only be just in time for the post, and therefore you 
 must excuse several things in this. My bad writing, because a 
 man who has been writing all the week in the Senate House can- 
 not be expected to write in any decent way. My slovenly letter, 
 because I have merely retired to a side table in another man's 
 rooms to send you this intelligence. And moreover the thing 
 is yet so fresh upon me, and the hurry of ideas is so little sub- 
 sided, that I hardly know how I shall feel about it when I have 
 slept upon it. To-morrow we take our degrees, and begin to 
 wear black gowns. 
 
 To his Father] Feb. 6, 1816. 
 
 I am sorry my forgetfulness has given you occasion for the 
 least anxiety about the fate of the bill you sent me. In conse- 
 quence of the hurry and bustle which were going on when I wrote 
 at the end of the examination, I did not recollect to acknowledge 
 the receipt of it till the time when one generally recollects 
 things ; that is, just as it was too late. It was not till after I had 
 sent off my letter that the ideas of brackets and triposes began 
 to make room for the concerns of this world. 
 
 1 Lord Bishop of Chester, and late Master of Christ's. 
 
 2 Afterwards Fellow and Tutor of Trinity. 
 
 3 Head Master of the Artillery and Engineers' Seminary at Addisconibe 
 for many years. 
 
22 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1816 
 
 All this I confess is the reasoning of an idle man, and it would 
 have been a much more direct way of satisfying both my scruples 
 and your anxieties to have written at once, and you must excuse 
 me as well as you can for not doing so. The gradual diminution 
 in the amount of the exhibition which has taken place almost every 
 year is precisely the reverse of what we were given to expect at 
 first, but there is nothing to do but to take what we can get. 
 
 I have begun the business of the term. I set off with three 
 pupils yesterday. It is possible, but not I think very probable, 
 that I may have one or two more this term. In that case I 
 should be able to settle with Mr. Hudson. He has already 
 given up all the business of the tutorship, but I do not know 
 when he intends to leave us. 
 
 I shall be able to give you and my sisters much more dis- 
 tinct ideas what kind of an operation an examination is when I 
 see you, than I possibly could in a letter. It is impossible with- 
 in any reasonable compass to describe all the kneeling, sitting, 
 and standing formalities of taking a degree. 
 
 As to Jacob, I do not know precisely what countryman he is, 
 but I rather think his father is now resident in London ; and 
 has, if I mistake not, published a pamphlet or two upon subjects 
 connected with politics or finance, or something of that sort. 
 His son is a very pleasant as well as a clever man, and I had as 
 soon be beaten by him as by anybody else. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge : 
 To his Sister ! ] May 21.1816. 
 
 When I got your letter I had been waiting with impatience 
 for some account of my father. I hoped that it would have been 
 favourable. 'No better' is but a painful answer. Above all 
 other remedies my father will, I hope, keep up his spirits. He 
 seems to be distressed that he cannot do anything, not reflect- 
 ing that he is even now as well employed as half mankind are 
 all their lives. We, my dear sister, need wish for nothing more 
 but that we may fill our situations in society, whatever they 
 may be, as respectably as he has done. I yet hope that he will 
 see some of us fixed in situations which we never could have 
 
 1 When not otherwise particularised, the sister addressed is always his 
 eister Ann. 
 
1816 BRIDLINGTON QUAY. 23 
 
 aspired to if it had not been for his indulgence and his efforts. 
 No father could have done more for us, and I hope he will be 
 allowed to see the result of it. 
 
 This term is a very short one, we get through it at the end 
 of this week, and then I hope my pupils will take it into their 
 conscientious consideration to pay me. I have got five pupils 
 already for the long vacation, and shall probably have another, so 
 that I hope soon to be able to get clear, but it is tantalising not 
 to be able to support myself for such a length of time ; only one 
 man has paid me yet. 
 
 To his Father] June 6. 
 
 I mentioned in my last that I was going to Bridlington to 
 read with my pupils. We are not allowed to stay in Cambridge 
 during the Long Vacation, and two or three of my pupils 
 expressed a preference for that place. I had hardly any wish 
 for one place rather than another, and therefore there we go. 
 
 I think I shall stay here till Commencement, which is the 
 beginning of July, and then proceed to my summer abode. It 
 is not yet certain whether or not we are to have the new 
 married couple of Koyal Highnesses here at the Commencement ; 
 if so, we shall be very gay. [Prince Leopold and Princess 
 Charlotte.] You may perhaps have heard a good deal about the 
 rioters in this county. We have seen nothing of them here, but 
 they have been rather unruly at Ely. They are, however, com- 
 pletely quieted now ; we have had the yeomanry cavalry raised, 
 and a troop of the Horse Guards who were at Waterloo passed 
 through with two pieces of artillery the other day. The soldiers 
 have done their office, and they are now sending down judges 
 to do theirs. 
 
 To his Sister] Bridlington Quay : Aug. 14, 1816. 
 
 I cannot forget while I am writing that I have no longer the 
 same family circle to address ; no longer the face which but a 
 little while back would have looked so anxiously for any informa- 
 tion about me. We should have been too happy, my dear sister, 
 had we been permitted to soothe the declining years of our 
 parents, and to sweeten the evening of their life. He 1 [his 
 1 John Whewell died in July 1816. 
 
24 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1816 
 
 father] is gone to rejoin her whom he never ceased to lament. 
 She was taken from us almost before we knew how inestimable 
 was the affection of a mother, and of such a mother. And now 
 he is gone without being allowed to see what he has done for his 
 son. He would have thought it a sufficient recompense for the 
 unwearied exertions of a laborious life ; but it was a happiness 
 which Heaven had not destined him in this world. 
 
 I do not know whether I shall be able to satisfy you as to 
 the details of my domestic economy here ; . . . but you may 
 set yourselves at ease as to the danger you might otherwise 
 have supposed us in of perishing upon this uninhabited coast. 
 
 I have hitherto avoided running up any bills here, by which 
 means I have got rid of great part of my money ; I should like 
 to continue the same plan. I have six pupils here. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge: 
 To Mr. Norland] Nov. 10, 1816. 
 
 I hope I shall soon receive a missive from you, upon which I 
 shall proceed immediately to enroll your name among those of 
 all the great men who have been here before us. 1 
 
 I am at present feeling some of the inevitable inconveniences 
 of a college life. Two of my most intimate acquaintances, and 
 I will add two men of the greatest intellectual powers and 
 attainments that I ever saw or ever expect to see, have left the 
 University ; and their departure has made an irrecoverable gap 
 in my enjoyments. Herschel is gone to assist his father, whose 
 health is now declining, to carry on his astronomical researches ; 
 and Jones 2 (I think I have mentioned him to you before) has 
 been prevailed on by his father to take orders and a curacy in 
 Sussex. 
 
 This is one of the greatest curses of Cambridge: all the men 
 whom you love and admire, all of any activity of mind, after 
 staying here long enough to teach you to regret them, go 
 abroad into the world and are lost to you for ever. Nevertheless, 
 I would not be anywhere else, except it were London, and that 
 under very particular circumstances. I grow more and more 
 
 1 With a view to his taking a degree in Divinity as a ten-year man. 
 
 2 Eicbard Jones of Caius College, afterwards Political Economy Pro- 
 fessor at Haileybury, and later Tithe Commissioner, 
 
'1817 DA WES. 25 
 
 attached to the place, and I think more highly of it from having 
 seen the regret with which such men leave it. 
 
 I hope to ramble through its cloisters with you some of 
 these days, though, considering the interval which must elapse, 
 it is quite impossible to tell what set of acquaintance or of ideas 
 I may then have. How do your studies of Scotch go on at 
 present ? Do you read much of Burns ? 
 
 To his Sister] Jan. 17, 1817. 
 
 ... I have got a pupil who will be third or fourth wrangler, 
 it is not yet determined which the examinations are now 
 going on so that he will not even be so successful as his tutor 
 was. His name is Dawes, 1 and he is a friend of Morland, out of 
 whose neighbourhood, or somewhere near it, he comes. 
 
 To his Aunt] Feb. 16, 1817. 
 
 I must acknowledge myself somewhat an idle correspondent 
 so far as writing goes, but I can assure you that I am one of 
 the best reading correspondents in the world, and have as much 
 pleasure in perusing your letters as you can possibly have in 
 writing them. I am ashamed to write so much worse letters 
 than my sisters, but I console myself with the idea that women 
 always write better letters than men ! I have many things to 
 thank you all for so many that I must give you a large quantity 
 of thanks to divide among you according to your shares. I shall 
 have a double reason to like each of the things you have sent 
 me : the cravats because they are your gift, and marked with the 
 hair of my sisters ; the pies because they are twice as good as 
 usual ; and the shirts because there are two of them. 
 
 I have my hands full of pupils, and I must read for the 
 Fellowship examination which comes on at the end of next 
 September. If I succeed then I shall be more at my ease, and 
 fortunately for me there is a greater number than usual of 
 fellowships vacant this year. The pressure of the times makes 
 itself felt here as well as elsewhere. For the last three years 
 our fellowships have decreased very rapidly in value, but I 
 believe they are now likely to improve. 
 
 J Afterwards Dean of Hereford. 
 
26 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1817 
 
 To Mr. Norland'] Trinity College: March 27, 1817. 
 
 How long it may chance to be since I ought to have written 
 to you, and how much longer since I last wrote, I cannot dis- 
 cover without going through a process of calculation much too 
 long and intricate to venture upon at present. This morning, 
 upon parting with my last pupil, I was happily freed for a month 
 from the necessity of knowing that two and two make four. 
 You will not fail to observe the advantages of this occasional 
 cessation of the powers of reasoning, this suspension of the 
 habeas mentem act, and more especially its tendency to the 
 well-being and increase of the body natural ; as it seems 
 universally allowed among philosophers that the body seldom 
 gains but at the expense of the mind, and vice versa. 
 
 The mind seems to be a sort of mad jockey to the body, 
 whose principal amusement is to fret, and fatigue, and tear and 
 sweat down and knock up the poor jade upon which he rides ; 
 or a romping boy with a new suit of clothes, which he not only 
 wears away in the common course of nature, but rends and pulls 
 to pieces in all sorts of violent exercises. If thinking could be 
 entirely suspended for a generation or two, there is no saying 
 to what beauty and magnitude our bodies might attain. I 
 leave to your theological consideration how far the gigantic 
 proportions of the Anakim might be owing to their superior 
 proficiency in the art of not thinking ; and how much the 
 shortening of human life after the Deluge might be caused by 
 the habit of reasoning that has unfortunately prevailed from 
 the building of Babel to this time ; but I agree perfectly with 
 the philosopher who asserts that mind is a result of unnatural 
 irritation and stimulus in the system, and that our bodies might 
 be considered as much more perfect and in a state of better 
 health if all such morbid symptoms could entirely be removed. 
 But, as I said before, I leave this to your serious meditation. 
 
 To proceed to a subject somewhat less theoretical, I made 
 inquiries of the tutor the day before the division, and found 
 that no letter had been received from Mr. Hudson. 
 
 You bid me give some account of myself. I am not ill. I 
 am not married. I am reading with pupils six hours a day, and 
 sleeping ten more. I give no account of any other hours, be- 
 
1817 VACATION. 27 
 
 cause it is a fact which I have ascertained by a long experience 
 that a day does not count more than sixteen or eighteen hours. 
 Nothing can be more erroneous than the common idea that 
 there are twenty-four hours in a day. I am tired of forming 
 magnificent schemes of reading and never executing them, of 
 abusing myself for my ignorance and letting it increase, and of 
 wondering what will become of me and all the rest of the world. 
 I am amused sometimes with hearing people talk sense; some- 
 times nonsense. Finally, I am sitting by the fire and writing 
 you a letter on this scurvy piece of paper because, it being past 
 ten o'clock, gates are shut and I cannot procure a better sheet. 
 Now I assert that you will never give of yourself an account 
 half so distinct. 
 
 To his Sister'] June 5, 1817. 
 
 I am at least as busy in the vacation as in the term not 
 merely in reading for college purposes, but in examining sub- 
 jects for my own satisfaction. By this means my days and 
 weeks pass away with little variation to mark them, except in 
 the books I read. . . . Meanwhile I spend my time very comfort- 
 ably, and, for anything I see, am likely to continue to spend 
 it here for many years yet. You can conceive few people more 
 tranquilly happy than your brother in his green plaid dressing- 
 gown, blue morocco slippers, and with a large book before him. 
 I cannot say that he will continue so employed for the whole 
 of this summer without finding time to transport himself into 
 Lancashire for a little while, but even if he were to do it the 
 time which he could stay would be so short that it may be 
 better that he should defer it at least till after his Fellowship 
 examination, which is in the end of September. 
 
 To his Aunt] July 20, 1817. 
 
 This will find you, I hope, after a journey to Altrincham 
 both pleasant and profitable, safe from all troubles of stage 
 coaches and inns on the road, and of attorneys at the end. I 
 hope if it be requisite M. will contrive to give up her favourite 
 home and quiet for a little while ; she may think herself fortu- 
 nate if she do not find anything worse in her journey through 
 life than a stage coach too full of disagreeable people. . . . 
 
28 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1817 
 
 I have also been making an expedition. I have been on a 
 visit to a college friend, a Mr. Hose, whose father is a clergy- 
 man at Uckfield, in Sussex. His son has distinguished him- 
 self at Cambridge, and is now going with a nobleman's family 
 to reside in Italy for some years. I spent a week very plea- 
 santly. 
 
 With Mr. Hugh James Eose, Mr. Whewell kept up 
 for many years an active correspondence, from which 
 occasional extracts will appear in these pages. In the 
 earlier letters written to Eose he expressed the opinions 
 he then entertained with regard to the Lake School and 
 Wordsworth's poetry ; perhaps they are not the less 
 interesting because he afterwards altered them very 
 materially. On July 31, 1817, he writes : 
 
 I have just got through a new book of your friend Cole- 
 ridge's, his ' Biographia Literaria,' which I suppose you have 
 seen. It contains an account of himself, which in many places 
 is amusing enough ; but it appears to me to be of considerable 
 consequence from the critical parts of it, which will, I think, 
 completely change the state of the question about the 4 Lake 
 School.' For to my great astonishment I find it full of good 
 sense and fair rational criticism, and containing a condem- 
 nation of all those parts of Wordsworth, both of his theory and 
 his practice, to which I should object denying his whole 
 theory about poetical diction and the resemblance of poetry to 
 real life, and low life, and blaming almost all those poems 
 which he has written upon his theory, condemning his prosaic 
 style, his puerilities, his mystical and inflated language, and 
 wonderments about the most every-day things, his matter-of- 
 factnesSy his attachment to pedlars, his deification of children, 
 and in short everything, or almost everything, that other 
 people have made a pretext for laughing at the whole, he takes 
 out and laughs at by itself. 
 
 Now it may be very true that all this makes but a very 
 small part of the whole, but nevertheless it always appeared to 
 me so woven and matted in with the rest as to give a tinge to 
 the whole mass : it was in consequence of that, that I never 
 
1817 WORDSWORTH. 29 
 
 entirely got over the repulsion I felt to Wordsworth, for there 
 were so many passages, obviously favourites of the poet, where 
 I could not feel any sympathy with him, that I could not but 
 doubt whether I had really any sympathy with him when I ap- 
 peared to have. Even yet I much doubt whether Wordsworth 
 would allow that man to understand his poems who talks of 
 them as Coleridge does. If it be so, the whole imaginary fabric 
 of a new school of poetry, which seemed as if it were to be 
 built up to the skies and to the borders of the universe, far 
 out-topping the Tower of Babel, turns out to be nothing but 
 a little furbishing and beautification (as the churchwardens 
 call it) of the parish church. Just get rid of stale epithets 
 and stale personifications, and one or two other errors that 
 had crept in, and all our poets will turn out to be good poets. 
 I am glad of it, because I had much rather have my objects of 
 admiration increased than diminished. 
 
 The negative part of Coleridge's system is (as is the case 
 with most systems) true or verisimillimum. As for the posi- 
 tive part, we are all abroad again. His poetics are, I think, 
 false ; and as for his metaphysics, they are as before, muddy with 
 their own turbulence. I can make nothing of them. How 
 the man who wrote the critique on Wordsworth could write 
 ' Christabel,' I cannot conceive. If I were to judge from this 
 book, I should take Coleridge's talent to lie in wit more than in 
 poetry ; his similes and metaphors are delightfully lively. 
 Upon the strength of Coleridge's knowledge of Wordsworth's 
 meaning, I have sent for Word worth's poems. 
 
 I have been going on very harmlessly here ever since I got 
 myself settled to be content to spend my weeks rather less 
 pleasantly than the one I spent with you. 
 
 A few weeks later another letter followed on the 
 same subject, expressing with even more vivacity his 
 dislike to poetic systems in general, and that of Words- 
 worth in particular. 
 
 Aug. 30, 1817. 
 
 Paynter tells me that you have a curiosity to know whether 
 you have puzzled me about Pope and poetry. You would have 
 
30 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1817 
 
 the less merit in doing so as I have completely puzzled myself. 
 I have vacillated among systems of criticism till I am rather 
 giddy, and seem to myself to be advancing fast to that glorious 
 state of poetical scepticism in which no one principle of criti- 
 cism is more certain than its opposite : and this by arguments 
 which, according to Hume's admirable definition of scepticism, 
 admit of no answer and produce no conviction. At present, 
 however, I have not time to reason or even to doubt upon such 
 matters ; instead of the ' feast ' and the < flow ' of poetical 
 analysis to which your letter tempted me, I must pick the 
 dry bones and swill the watery soup which are the prepara- 
 tory diet of the gymnasium here. I hope you will allow this 
 viz. the having you, myself, the college examination, and 
 very possibly truth also for antagonists to be a satisfactory 
 reason for not attempting sooner, or for not attempting at all, 
 to defend the opinions that you attribute to me. However, 
 that you may not consider me as absolutely one of the ungodly 
 and those that perish, or, what is much worse, live and do not 
 admire good poetry that you may not fancy me fallen away 
 from a state of poetical grace, beyond even the saving influ- 
 ence of Wordsworth I must disclaim some of the opinions 
 you give me. A sceptic may deny though he may not assert, 
 though he is very likely to be troubled with doubts whether 
 denial be not a species of assertion. 
 
 I do not, then, make Pope my idol. I should not rejoice to 
 see his style restored. I do not perceive in him, or learn from 
 him, the love of nature. I do not even insist upon his being ' 
 called a poet. It is sufficient for me, who would not break the 
 king's peace for a definition, that I receive from his writings 
 pleasure greater and of a different kind from that which I 
 should receive from similar writings in prose. You may cer- 
 tainly analyse the pleasure his pieces give into many elements 
 which are not generally understood to be poetical elements; 
 wit, for instance, which all the world can understand and delight 
 in at all times, which is more than you can say for feeling of 
 any kind. He is, moreover, invariably alive to the ridicule 
 which in polished society lies in wait for bursts of feeling 
 which are not selon les regies ; but every man except Adam 
 before the creation of Eve has had his feelings and the 
 
1817 COLERIDGE. 31 
 
 manifestation of them in some measure regulated by regard 
 for the opinions and views of others. And then come the scep- 
 tic's questions : how far ? where to stop ? why ? 
 
 But as for denning poetry, or analysing the feelings which 
 it puts in action explaining what it is, or may be, or ought to 
 be ; what are its origin, its laws, and its end cela me passe. I 
 have been much delighted by several critical works, but con- 
 vinced by none. As I have said before, the negative part of 
 most systems seems good. A little while back I was in trans- 
 ports with Schlegel ; if you have not read the book, I think you 
 will find it will repay you for the perusal. Hare considers it as 
 the ideal of criticism. Even if you do not believe it, which I 
 think you will in a great measure, you will allow it to be fine 
 writing, a little Grerman or so, but still fine. But as Cicero's 
 interlocutor says of Plato, when I laid down the book I could 
 not recall the conviction. In fact, I think you will find when 
 you examine, that most of the good criticism you see produces 
 its effect rather as eloquence than as philosophy rather excites 
 poetical emotions than analyses them. 
 
 I was much astonished to find that Coleridge takes his 
 critical ground so low. It is not so much the absolute extent 
 of his disapprobation of Wordsworth which made me consider 
 it as indicating a revolution in Lake criticism, as the principles 
 on which he founds it, and those are obviously such that they 
 will irresistibly extend themselves much farther than he has 
 carried them ; his critique on the Daffodils, for instance, might 
 serve as a model for similar strictures on all Wordsworth's 
 Wordsworthian poems. It pleases me to find that it is in con- 
 sequence of his theory that Wordsworth has got wrong. What 
 has a poet to do with a theory ? Let him mind his business, or 
 it will be worse for him. 
 
 As for Coleridge, he has almost too metaphysical a head to 
 be a good poet ; a man who is always looking for symptoms in 
 himself will not often be healthful ; a man who studies all the 
 motions of all his limbs will not probably be graceful ; and a 
 man who is everlastingly watching the operations of his own 
 mind and imagination is not likely to feel or to think freely. 
 
 By this time you will begin to suspect that the tendency of 
 all this profound reasoning is to prove my right to be incon- 
 
32 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1817 
 
 sistent. I hope I have fully established that, and that there- 
 fore, if you think it inconsistent to admire both Wordsworth 
 and Pope, you will do me the favour to believe that it may 
 nevertheless be my case : nay, more, that I may admire one or 
 the other, or neither, according to the state of the barometer. 
 
 The ' critique on the Daffodils,' referred to above, is to 
 be found in Vol. II. of the ' Biographia Literaria,' second 
 edition, p. 153. The poem is adduced by Coleridge as 
 an exemplification of the ' fifth and last ' of a series of 
 prominent defects noticeable in Wordsworth's poems, 
 but which he earnestly contended were not the ' real 
 characters of his poems at large, nor of the genius and 
 constitution of his mind.' This ' fifth and last ' defect, 
 he said, was the use of thoughts and images too great 
 for the subject. This is an approximation to what 
 might be called mental bombast as distinguished from 
 verbal, but it is a fault of which none but a man of 
 genius is capable. It is not wonderful that in editing 
 this criticism of her father's Mrs. Henry Nelson Cole- 
 ridge takes occasion to express her dissent from it. 
 
 But seven years before, John Whewell was hesitating 
 to let his son exchange the carpenter's shop for the 
 Lancaster Grammar School ; and now, whilst reading 
 hard for the Fellowship examination at Trinity, he finds 
 in matters thus remote from his earlier interests and 
 experience the amusement of his scanty leisure, and is 
 unwearied in discussing them with his friends. The 
 position he maintained in these discussions was soon 
 afterwards abandoned. In later life his sympathy was 
 much more with the poet Wordsworth than with his 
 critics. When one of the Edgeworths once remarked 
 to him that Wordsworth was ' only fit for the nursery,' 
 he replied, ' Well, I should be glad to go into the nursery 
 with him.' As the strongest testimony to this change, 
 
1817 SONNET TO DORA WORDSWORTH. 33 
 
 it is interesting to contrast with the letter to Mr. Eose 
 of August 30, 1817, a sonnet written by Mr. Whewell 
 in the album of Mr. Wordsworth's daughter Dora, in 
 1 838. It expresses with great simplicity and sincerity 
 his mature and lasting conviction as to the influence 
 upon the poetry of the age of Mr. Wordsworth's 
 writings. 
 
 To Dora Wordsworth. 
 
 Daughter of that good man whose genuine strain 
 
 Patiently uttered oft in evil days 
 
 Called English poesy from erring ways 
 
 Of laboured trifling, insincere and vain ; 
 
 And failing not, again and yet again 
 
 Poured forth, all full of faith and love, its lays 
 
 Till to all hearts they flowed through blame and praise, 
 
 And there 'mid sweetest memories remain ; 
 
 You scarce can know the time when scorn and hiss 
 
 Repulsed those songs which now we hold so dear, 
 
 Yet not the less do you their sweetness heed ; 
 
 Just as your father's love, your fireside bliss, 
 
 Need not the thought of danger or of fear 
 
 To make you feel that they are sweet indeed, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 April 6, 1838. 
 
 But to return to the year 1817. Mr. Eose was not 
 the only friend who zealously laboured to bring Mr. 
 Whewell into the circle of the admirers and appreciators 
 of Wordsworth. Mr. Hare was equally diligent and 
 vehement on the same side. Long afterwards Mr. 
 Whewell wrote to the editor of the last edition of the 
 4 Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers,' describing Julius 
 Hare, and the nature of their intimacy. With regard 
 to the differences of opinion existing between them, and 
 which in no degree impaired their friendship, though 
 they gave a special character to both letters and con- 
 
 D 
 
34 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1817 
 
 versation, he says : ' My tastes were the common vulgar 
 tastes of that day, the tastes to which the " Eejected 
 Addresses " so successfully appealed. I began our inter- 
 course by ridiculing some passages, and especially the 
 " solemn bleat " of the " Excursion." : In 1824 we find 
 him giving Wordsworth's poems to his sister Martha. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Sept. 14, 1817. 
 
 I am very busy, which will be over in due season. If I 
 defer writing to you till then you will probably wonder, and 
 think me long and wrong, which I do not by any means wish; 
 and as it is very desirable that you should see things in a 
 true light and as, though I may be reasonably long, I am not, 
 1 hope, very wrong and as moreover I have just found half a 
 sheet of paper lying by me, for all these reasons, which seem to 
 me very good ones, I shall write now. I am well. I am reading. 
 In a fortnight I shall, I hope, be better and not reading. I have 
 engaged myself with pupils for the next term, so that I shall 
 not be able to come home till Christmas. Then I hope, or soon 
 after, I shall again see you. Our examination begins on the 
 21st, our election l on October 1. 
 
 To his Sister] Oct. 1, 1817. 
 
 As I have told you, you have to congratulate me upon being 
 made Fellow. The election took place this morning. Our 
 eight senior Fellows, after deliberating in the chapel for an 
 hour this morning, elected me and five others. I had con- 
 sidered my chance to be good, and was of course rejoiced to 
 find myself not disappointed. Other successes may have sur- 
 prised and pleased me more for the moment, but this is one of 
 the most substantial benefits at which you ever had to rejoice 
 with me. 
 
 To his Sister] Nov. 4, 1817. 
 
 Upon returning hither a few weeks back, I found with great 
 satisfaction divers letters from you and my aunt which had 
 been accumulating in my absence. I had been almost to the 
 1 Fellowship election, Trinity College. 
 
1818 JOURNEY TO PET WORTH. 35 
 
 coast of Sussex, and on a journey provoking enough. As soon 
 as our election was over, I left Cambridge and went to London, 
 and after staying there a few days I set off again with the in- 
 tention of seeing a friend who was, so far as I could learn, at a 
 curacy at Petworth in Sussex, about fifty miles from town. I 
 got to Petworth on Saturday evening, and on inquiring for 
 Mr. Jones, I was told that Mr. Jones had gone to London the 
 Sunday before. This was mortifying enough ; and, to improve 
 my prospects, next day was Sunday, on which I could not get 
 back to London. I had nothing left but to amuse myself as 
 well as I could ; and after going to Chichester to see the cathedral, 
 and to Arundel to see the Duke of Norfolk's castle, I returned 
 to town and thence to Cambridge ; when my mortification was 
 completed by learning that my friend had been all the time 
 quietly residing in his parsonage house, three miles from Pet- 
 worth, and that my landlord there had given me false intelligence. 
 Here I found your congratulations, and joined in your reflections 
 both cheerful and melancholy, as nothing is unmingled happiness 
 here. 
 
 I am looking forward towards my journey to Lancaster at 
 Christmas with great satisfaction. I shall probably go to 
 Lichfield and Chester, as I have a great curiosity to see old 
 architecture. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge: Feb. 6, 1818. 
 
 I got here on Sunday evening from Leeds by the shortest 
 way, for I stayed there so long that I did not leave myself time 
 to execute that part of my plan which included Lincoln and 
 Peterborough. 
 
 I have a plan at present in agitation which I expect you 
 will not mention to anybody, as I do not know whether I shall 
 be able to carry it out. I am thinking of going abroad as 
 travelling tutor to a young gentleman who is about to visit 
 France and Italy almost immediately. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1818-1822. 
 
 Mr. Kenelm Digby's recollections Retrospective sketch Plans for the 
 summer Mr.Brough am Oxford Carnarvon Letter to Mr. Morland 
 Welsh Jumpers Assistant tutorship Sketch Tuition system 
 Elizabeth Whewell Julius Hare Study of law King T. Bennison 
 Commencement Shipwreck Moderator Elizabeth's illness Mr. 
 Sheepshanks Trinity dinner Dr. Wordsworth Paris Geneva The 
 Rhine Death of Elizabeth Whewell Isle of Wight Tour in the Lake 
 Country : in Scotland Mrs. Opie's novels Works of imagination Miss 
 Edgworth Leigh Richmond Washington Irving. 
 
 ITST 1818, Mr. Whewell paid his first visit to Oxford, 
 making time for the expedition in the short interval 
 between what he calls ' the employments of the term 
 and those of the vacation.' 
 
 The summer of this year he spent with six or seven 
 pupils in North Wales, and some memorials of this Long 
 Vacation remain to us, not only in his own letters to his 
 family and to one or two friends, but in the recollections 
 of another member of the party. Mr. Kenelm Digby, 
 author of the ' Broadstone of Honour,' had been a pupil 
 of his at Cambridge, was with him at Carnarvon, and in 
 1880 was one of the very few intimate friends of this 
 period of his life still surviving. Writing to Mr. Aubrey 
 de Vere of his old friend, he said : ' I had reason to regard 
 Whewell as one of the most generous, open-hearted, dis- 
 interested, and noble-minded men that I ever knew. I 
 remember circumstances that called for the exercise of 
 
1818 KENELM DIGBY'S RECOLLECTIONS. 37 
 
 each of these rare qualities, when they were rnet in a 
 way that would now seem incredible, so fast does the 
 world seem moving from all ancient standards of good- 
 ness and moral grandeur.' 
 
 To me, Mr. Digby wrote more fully in a letter from 
 which he permitted me to quote. 
 
 Kensington: Feb. 12, 1873. 
 
 You will easily understand that though my acquaintance 
 with Dr. Whewell began very early at Cambridge, it is chiefly 
 of his genial and generous disposition as a friend and companion 
 that I can speak. This any one could observe who knew him 
 as intimately as I did. Though on my first coming up to 
 college he consented to have me as a pupil, I can only venture 
 to say of him, as a tutor, that he was always encouraging and 
 indulgent, possessing a singular facility for reconciling those 
 whom he instructed to subjects of study for which they would 
 otherwise have felt no inclination. 
 
 Having formed one of a party of Trinity men who spent a 
 Long Vacation with him in North Wales for the sake of study, 
 at the expiration of the time he refused to take any remunera- 
 tion from me, saying that he would not be justified in doing so 
 as I had not paid any attention to his lectures. In fact, I 
 liked him better on horseback than in the professorial chair, 
 and he was always, during the intervals of study, scouring the 
 hills with some of us. On one occasion, having walked with 
 him from Aber Menai to the coast of Anglesea, opposite Car- 
 narvon, we expected to find the ferry-boat ready to take us 
 across ; but, on the contrary, it being very late in the evening, 
 the boat was moored out a hundred feet or more from shore, 
 the ferryman having retired for the night into a little hut. 
 On his refusing to turn out to take us across, we asked if he 
 would let us take the boat if we could get into it. On his 
 assenting, Whewell was the first to dash into the stream and 
 swim to the boat. We drew up the anchor and effected the 
 passage safely, while the ferryman raged on the shore and 
 called us all manner of names. 
 
 The year that he went with me to Normandy, visiting all 
 
38 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 the cathedrals and abbeys, he drew up a table on which you 
 saw at a glance the distinguishing features of the different 
 orders or epochs of Grothic architecture the Norman, Early 
 English, the Decorated and Perpendicular. As a travelling 
 companion he was unrivalled, being always ready to rough it 
 and to take everything in a good-humoured way, and I shall 
 not easily forget his riding with me on the post-horses to visit 
 St. Michel au peril de la mer. 
 
 During our long friendship I never remember hearing him 
 speak unkindly of any one behind his back, though he was 
 free enough and bold enough spoken when he had you face to 
 face. He was wonderfully fond of his friends, whom he never 
 forgot. I remember his having made one of them sit for his 
 picture to Lonsdale, and then his having given the portrait 
 which he paid for to a third party, a mutual friend. But it 
 would be endless to tell instances of his generous spirit. And, 
 in fact, it was that no doubt which gained him the friendship 
 of so many who were incompetent to profit by his extraordinary 
 intellectual powers. He conciliated all but proud, self-conceited 
 people, who did not like to be put down by a word or two from 
 him. 
 
 I regret that I cannot recover the letters which I had 
 received from him, as any of them would place his noble cha- 
 racter in a clearer light than I can effect by such disjointed 
 reminiscences. But my letters all perished when our house 
 near Southampton was burnt. 
 
 In a letter from Archdeacon Hare, in 1827, to a lady 
 afterwards frequently mentioned in these pages, Lady 
 Malcolm, he says : ' To my great delight on my return 
 here, I found Digby purposing to spend another last 
 term among us, if not with us : for unfortunately we do 
 not see a tenth part as much of him as we should wish 
 to do ; still even looking on anybody so noble always 
 does one good.' Mr. Aubrey de Vere remarks in a letter 
 to me : 
 
 The friendship of Whewell and Kenelm Digby is a thing 
 the more remarkable when one remembers the different cha- 
 
1818 RETROSPECTIVE SKETCH. . 39 
 
 racters of the two intellects. But then both of these men had 
 in common that greatest of all gifts (greater than any degree 
 of genius), a great heart ; and that was doubtless the source of 
 their mutual sympathy. I have heard that Dr. Whewell, when 
 reading the Passion aloud, was often unable to restrain his 
 tears. Thus we see how compatible with the modern scientific 
 intellect is the great heart of the ' men of old.' There was 
 little chance of science degenerating in such hands. We who 
 knew your noble-hearted uncle shall always lament him for his 
 own sake, but others who did not know him will probably have 
 to lament more and more the loss to manly thought and to 
 Christian faith sustained when such men die. 
 
 We may with advantage pause here and recapitulate 
 the various steps by which William Whewell had risen 
 to be Fellow of Trinity, from the Blue School and the 
 carpenter's shop at Lancaster. First in order is his 
 transfer from the Blue to the Grammar School at 
 Lancaster, in consequence of the notice of Mr. Eowley 
 attracted by his unusual intelligence. This was followed 
 in 1810 by his removal to Heversham, probably at the 
 advice of Mr. Hudson. He was entered at Trinity 
 College in October 1811, and went up to reside in 
 October 1812, being admitted as a sub-sizar. After 
 being successively elected to a sizarship and scholarship 
 on the foundation of his college, he proceeded to his 
 B.A. degree in January 1816, being placed second in the 
 list of wranglers of that year, and gaining the further 
 distinction of the second Smith's Prize. He was elected 
 Fellow in 1817, and during the Long Vacation of 1818 
 was offered the post of mathematical lecturer by Bishop 
 Monk, then Fellow and Tutor of Trinity, and accepted 
 it. His letters to his family and intimate friends show 
 arise as remarkable in culture, associations, and subjects 
 of interest as in position and outward standing. The 
 details of his father's business, and the struggles of his 
 
40 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 raw boyhood, have given place to an enthusiastic in- 
 terest in literature, ' a great desire to see old architec- 
 ture,' an eager though somewhat partisan attitude in 
 the controversy then raging between the friends and 
 enemies of the Lake school of poets. 
 
 The contrast in position and culture was of course 
 mainly the result of the admirable use to which he had 
 turned the six years' residence in Cambridge, and all 
 that that implies of intellectual training. Amongst these 
 valuable opportunities must be reckoned the fortunate 
 introduction through Mr. Satterthwaite to Mr. Whitaker, 
 and the consequent intimacy with Herschel, Fallowes, 
 Gwatkin, and others, members of St. John's College, and 
 then the most distinguished group in the University, 
 and all senior to himself. 
 
 Though his place in the Tripos and the Smith's Prize 
 are the only recorded evidence of his success in the 
 examination for the B.A. degree, the university system 
 then not giving room for any other, we have ample 
 proof that he gave his attention during his undergradu- 
 ate career to many subjects besides mathematics. In 
 the year 1813 he was one of those selected to recite a 
 Latin declamation in the college chapel, and in the 
 following year he gained the third prize cup for an 
 English declamation. In the same year he had already 
 obtained the University distinction of the Chancellor's 
 medal for English verse. It was probably by devoting 
 some considerable portion of his attention to subjects 
 such as these that he laid the foundation of a distinct 
 literary style, of which perhaps the most perfect instance 
 is to be found in the ' Plurality of Worlds.' Among the 
 necessary exercises for his B.A. degree, Mr. Whewell 
 had to keep an act. 
 
 4 Both as disputant and moderator,' we learn in one 
 
1818 RETROSPECTIVE SKETCH. 41 
 
 of his works (' Cambridge Studies,' p. 150), he ' always 
 took a most lively interest in these exercises,' which he 
 thought ' eminently fitted both to produce and to test 
 a thorough acquaintance with the subjects thus dis- 
 puted on.' They were eventually superseded in their 
 bearing upon University distinction, and lost con- 
 sequently their interest for the students, becoming 
 meaningless and, from the bad Latin in which they were 
 conducted, somewhat ridiculous ceremonies. In a letter 
 of 1815 to Mr. Morland, Mr. Whewell describes the 
 performance in somewhat slighting terms. The practice 
 was long ago abolished. 
 
 His letter to his father of January 1816 will have 
 shown that in the examination for the degree the 
 candidates were grouped first in brackets, thereafter to 
 be subjected to a second sifting, which should decide 
 their eventual places in the list. This custom has also 
 been abandoned, and the present system of examination 
 for the mathematical degree is in a great measure due 
 to changes introduced and supported by Dr. Whewell. 
 
 He was President of the Union in 1817, on a cele- 
 brated occasion when the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors 
 swooped down upon the place of meeting in order to 
 break up the society. Mr. Whewell, Mr. Thirlwall, 
 and Mr. Sheridan were deputed to endeavour to per- 
 suade the Vice-Chancellor to reconsider his determina- 
 tion, but in vain ; all they could carry was permission 
 to finish the debate then in hand, and keep the room to 
 read in. The first demand of the President was that 
 the Proctors should withdraw whilst the society con- 
 sulted on their message. 
 
 We leave him in 1818 busily engaged in private 
 tuition, and carrying on animated correspondence and 
 discussion with numerous friends. 
 
42 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 To his Sister'] Feb. 23, 1818. 
 
 I am not going abroad. I determined at last that it would be 
 more profitable to wait a little longer, and therefore this year I 
 shall stay in England so far as I know at present. Not, how- 
 ever, because there are either fewer temptations or fewer 
 dangers here than in other places, as you seem most patrioti- 
 cally to imagine. 
 
 To his Aunt] March 19,1818. 
 
 I shall take up my abode next Long Vacation somewhere on the 
 south coast most probably in Devonshire, or perhaps in the 
 Isle of Wight. I got a ' Lancaster Gazette ' this morning, by 
 which it seems that you have nothing of consequence afloat 
 except electioneering and national schools. I see two can- 
 vassing advertisements for Westmoreland. Mr. Brougham's is 
 foolish, and Lord Lowther's ungrammatical. I shall have a 
 brother of Mr. Brougham's with me during the summer, who is 
 said to be a man of talent. 
 
 I have just got through the business of the term, and have 
 also, as I have long been threatening to do, got into new rooms, 
 and am now pretty comfortably situated where I shall probably 
 stay for some time. 
 
 To his Sister] May 8. 
 
 If I follow your calculation, and consider my last as only half 
 a letter, it will be difficult to settle the important point whether 
 you or I ought to write next, as instead of either of us being a 
 letter in debt to the other, it is half one way and half the other. 
 I shall, however, decide the matter by making you a letter and 
 a half in my debt at the lowest computation, declaring at the 
 same time that I believe you ought to have written to me 
 before this time. I hope, however, I may as usual take no news 
 for good news. . . . 
 
 I think my aunt need not be very much afraid of my being 
 contaminated by being the tutor of [Mr. Brougham] the brother 
 of an Opposition Member of Parliament ; but as for my being a 
 6 Government man,' that is ' past praying for.' I have a very great 
 respect for all my Bennison relations, but I hope it is not 
 
1818 VISIT TO OXFORD. 43 
 
 necessary to show it by admiring Lord Castlereagh and Mr. 
 Canning. 
 
 To his Sister'] June 8. 
 
 It is almost necessary to go to town for a few days once a 
 twelvemonth, if it were only to see sights, and to be able to talk 
 of them for the rest of the year ; and accordingly I took the op- 
 portunity of having ended my employments for the term, and 
 not begun those of the vacation, to perform this important duty. 
 From London I proceeded to Oxford to attend the Commence- 
 ment which takes place every year, and a musical festival which 
 takes place once in three years. I employed last week in hearing 
 the ' Messiah ' of Handel and much other good music, and in see- 
 ing all that is worth seeing in Oxford. In buildings and 
 splendour, it is upon the whole, I think, superior to Cambridge, 
 though there is nothing there equal to Trinity College, and no 
 building anything near to our King's College Chapel. I have 
 altered my plans for the summer. I do not go to Torquay, but 
 into Wales, to Barmouth. There I intend to seat myself and 
 my pupils at the foot of Cader Idris, at the beginning of July. 
 
 To his Aunt] June 25, 1818. 
 
 From the accounts I have, I anticipate great delight from the 
 scenery about our summer habitation, which is said to be the most 
 beautiful in Wales. I have seen no very fine scenery in the 
 south, and nothing at all equal to the prospect from Lancaster 
 churchyard. 
 
 To his Sister] Carnarvon: July 17, 1818. 
 
 You will perhaps be surprised to find my letter at last dated 
 from a place which is not one of the half-dozen places to 
 which I was reported to be gone or going. My peregrinations 
 have at last brought me here, where I am likely to stay for the 
 rest of the summer. When we endeavoured to settle down at 
 Barmouth, we were far from falling in love with the place. It 
 is small, with scarcely any shops, inconveniently situated on the 
 steep side of a craggy hill, with eight rows of houses, each row 
 level with the chimneys of the next below ; the sand deep and 
 
44 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 loose, so as to be bad walking, and, what was of most consequence, 
 the lodgings few of them good, and those few very expensive. 
 
 Upon the most mature consideration of all these things, it 
 was resolved to proceed to some larger place, and Carnarvon was 
 the most tempting within reach. On Monday morning we 
 set off from Barmouth in a body of six to walk hither, our lug- 
 gage accompanying us and making a very heavy load for a post- 
 chaise. 
 
 Sometimes on foot, and sometimes on horseback, we pro- 
 ceeded through very beautiful scenery, along the Bay of Cardigan 
 and round the skirts of Snowdon, and got here on Tuesday. 
 
 A more detailed account of the whole expedition 
 is contained in the following amusing letter to Mr. 
 Morland. 
 
 Carnarvon: July 19, 1818. 
 
 For the last three weeks I have been rambling over great 
 part of England and Wales, almost without an object and with- 
 out a home, which primitive mode of life has so far deranged 
 and dislocated all my trains of ideas, which were going on in 
 civilised society, that I am glad to take advantage of the still- 
 ness of a Welsh Sunday to reunite the broken filaments. 
 Amongst other repairs which are requisite, the thread of our 
 correspondence should have its end taken up and drawn for- 
 ward to the time present. There would be no use in conduct- 
 ing you through all the intricacies and perils of my journey 
 hither. It has been a series of the most hair-breadth escapes 
 and successful manoeuvres. At Cambridge I saved the coach 
 only by running with my luggage half the length of the town. 
 In London, when I got off one coach, I had only two minutes to 
 find my way to another, which was already starting. At Ports- 
 mouth I was obliged to set off with half my linen washed and 
 not dried. At Salisbury, if I had not lost my way, and stumbled 
 upon a coach where the driver was already cracking his whip, 
 I had been ruined. At this last place I arrived at two in the 
 morning, and rose again at five to ride to Stonehenge (ten 
 miles) and back before breakfast. The life of a guerilla or a 
 Cossack would be nothing to my hardships and exertions. Some 
 oversights, to be sure, I did commit. Wellington himself has 
 
1818 CARNARVON. 45 
 
 done the same. I went to Bristol, resolved to pass that way 
 into North Wales, in spite of the assurances of everybody on the 
 way that it was impracticable. I went to Barmouth upon such 
 imperfect information that when I arrived there the place was 
 found untenable, and I led my forces through a most mountain- 
 ous country hither, without sufficient precautions for the safety 
 of the baggage, which however escaped all dangers. We have 
 finally established our castra astiva here, and look with contempt 
 upon all efforts to drive us from our post for at least three 
 months. 
 
 This is the most civilised place which I have seen in Wales, 
 but there is plenty in it to remind you that it is not English. 
 
 My books are not yet arrived, and I begin to have some fears 
 that they have found the Bwlchs of Wales, impenetrable as they 
 are unpronounceable. While, however, I must have seven pupils, 
 and may get a boat and a Welsh pony, I do not much fear want 
 of employment. 
 
 To his Sister'] Oct. 8, 1818. 
 
 I am now in all the bustle and discomfort of packing up for 
 the purpose of setting off to-morrow. . . . Almost the only 
 persons I have to take my leave of are a Welsh antiquary and 
 his family, including a niece or two. He is a clergyman in the 
 neighbourhood, with whom I became acquainted by talking 
 Welsh antiquities to him, and he was apparently delighted to 
 find an Englishman who took any pleasure in such pursuits. 
 
 I told you that a large meeting of the Welsh Jumpers was 
 to take place here. It occurred about a week ago, and pre- 
 sented a most curious spectacle. Large numbers of people 
 assembled from all quarters. All the preceding day there was 
 an everlasting tramping of horses under my window ; and when 
 I walked to the beach I saw large boats, black to the water's 
 edge with the crowd which filled them, coming slowly to the 
 shores. One large troop came out of the country walking arm- 
 in-arm, and singing a psalm which I heard at a distance long 
 before I saw the people. Towards the evening they assembled 
 in a field with a sort of wooden edifice in the middle, from 
 which the ground sloped upwards so as to enable all present to 
 see and hear. This edifice was occupied by about half a dozen 
 
46 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 preachers, who addressed the people in succession in sermons 
 which, being in Welsh, I could not understand, but which, from 
 the earnestness of manner and the violence of tone and gesticu- 
 lation, far exceeding anything I ever saw from a person about 
 his own private affairs, seemed likely to make a great im- 
 pression. Accordingly, the people seemed much affected, and 
 frequently joined in the groans of the preacher. Indeed, at 
 the end of almost every sentence there ran through the assembly 
 a sort of plaintive moaning which seemed to indicate the effect 
 the sentence had produced, like the sighing of the wind through 
 the trees which marks the force of the blast. 
 
 Apparently they were giving as much way to their feelings 
 as possible for the purpose of working themselves up to the 
 frenzy which some of them afterwards exhibited. Those over 
 whom the sermon seemed to have most power, were, it appeared, 
 people from the most uncultivated parts of the country. Rough 
 uncivilised mountaineers, men and women in black hats and 
 dresses of stuff, which, though exceedingly coarse, had a gloss 
 of newness which showed what a great occasion they con- 
 sidered it. 
 
 At the beginning of each sermon the whole multitude sang 
 a psalm ; and as whatever harshness and discordance there was, 
 was softened by the number, and by its being in the open air, 
 it was almost beautiful. At the cadences it died away in some 
 parts of the crowd, while it swelled and sank again in others 
 like the echoes of an organ in the long aisles of a cathedral. 
 This singing, preaching, and moaning went on till near dark, 
 becoming more and more vehement, and then the assembly 
 was dismissed. As the crowd, which before had been one large 
 black mass, separated into groups, I began to perceive that 
 these were generally collected about people who were jumping. 
 I went into the throng in one or two instances. The first that 
 I saw were a boy and girl, who could not be more than eleven 
 or twelve years old, who were shouting most violently, crying, 
 taking hold of each other's hands and then throwing their arms 
 upwards, sometimes standing opposite to each other, and some- 
 times jumping as fast and as hard as they could. A woman, 
 apparently their mother, was hanging over them, crying and 
 moaning, though not seemingly anxious to quiet them. 
 
18i8 ASSISTANT TUTOR. 47 
 
 As I walked about the field, I only got from one such scene 
 to another. People of all ages, young women and old, men and 
 boys, were jumping or waving their hands, and vociferating as 
 loud as their lungs would let them ; some of them seemed nearly 
 exhausted, and many were carried away, apparently quite 
 powerless. 
 
 I inquired what it was that they uttered when in this state, 
 and was informed that it was principally texts of Scripture and 
 Welsh exclamations ' Gogoniant,' '0 Diolch,' &c.; 'Glory to 
 God,' ' Thanks to Him Who has saved us,' ' He is precious,' ' Let 
 us rejoice,' ' Let us jump.' This continued I cannot tell how 
 long, for I was tired of it and left it. The next day the scene was 
 repeated, and still greater numbers were present. It occurs 
 here once in two years, and people assemble from a very great 
 distance. So far as I can learn, the people who jump are not 
 by any means remarkable for feeling the habitual influence 
 of religion in their ordinary lives. The most distinguishing 
 doctrines of the sect appear to be very violent notions about 
 absolute predestination to salvation. You may place them at 
 one end of the scale, and the Unitarians at the other. The 
 former err by too much enthusiasm as to the peculiar mysteries 
 of Christianity and by pushing this to fanaticism, and the 
 Unitarians by rejecting them altogether and reducing every- 
 thing to mere human reason. 
 
 A letter from Carnarvon to his sister closes with the 
 words, ' Since I came here, I have accepted the office of 
 assistant tutor in our college.' 
 
 This ' exchanging private for public tutorship,' as he 
 calls it in a later letter, was the turning point of Mr. 
 Whewell's career, and full of significance for himself, 
 the college, and the university. The name of Dr. 
 Whewell has been so associated with the Mastership 
 of Trinity, that one is apt to forget that for a 
 period of twenty years he was actually employed in 
 the work of tuition at Trinity College, first as lecturer 
 or assistant tutor, afterwards as tutor. He became 
 
48 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 assistant tutor in 1818, and held the post till 1823, when 
 he became tutor. In 1833, Mr. Perry was associated 
 with him in the office of tutor, but Mr. Whewell never- 
 theless continued to act as tutor until 1838. Some of 
 the duties of the office of tutor were even to the last most 
 irksome to him, and his letters show with what satisfac- 
 tion he handed over to Mr. Perry (afterwards Bishop of 
 Melbourne) the financial department of his office. Dur- 
 ing the time of his assistant tutorship and tutorship he 
 found ample scope for the exercise of the literary 
 activity which was really more congenial to him ; but 
 in the first instance, the subjects which attracted his 
 attention were directly connected with his college 
 duties. His first work was an ' Elementary Treatise on 
 Mechanics ' in 1819, followed by various editions of the 
 same, with additions and improvements, and other 
 books on cognate subjects, eventually developed into 
 seven separate treatises, all bearing on the same subject 
 and written with a special view to the assistance of 
 Cambridge students. But whilst engaged in this 
 manner, he was himself a student in other branches of 
 science recognised by the University. To mineralogy 
 he devoted much attention in connection with the 
 professorship for which he became a candidate in 1825, 
 and to which he was appointed in 1828. He even 
 went to Germany, making the study of this science the 
 main object of his tour. His literary and other pursuits 
 during the same period had a similar tendency. The 
 great work on which he was occupied from an early 
 period after becoming assistant tutor at Trinity College, 
 namely, the 'History of the Inductive Sciences,' gave 
 him an occasion for studying several branches of science 
 which were but imperfectly connected with the academic 
 teaching of those days ; and it was perhaps the sense of 
 
1818 TUITION SYSTEM. 49 
 
 their interest and importance which he acquired during 
 this study which led him at a later period to take a 
 leading part in making them serious subjects of instruc- 
 tion in the Cambridge curriculum. It was also during 
 this period that Mr. Whewell wrote the Bridgewater 
 Treatise which probably gave him that peculiar interest 
 in astronomy which he manifested later in the ' Plurality 
 of Worlds.' Again, it was during his tutorship that he 
 devoted two summers in company with Mr. Airy to 
 experiments in Cornish mines, ' for the purpose of 
 determining the density of the earth.' He was still tutor 
 when he commenced the laborious investigations on the 
 tides, which occupied a larger portion of his attention 
 during the latter years of his life than any other strictly 
 scientific subject. And as Fellow, and subsequently 
 President, of the Geological Society, he naturally gave a 
 considerable portion of his time, not only to the theory 
 of the science, but to the labour of a practical geologist. 
 
 The tuition system at Trinity at this time was far 
 less developed than at present, or even than it was 
 during the mastership of Dr. Whewell. There were 
 only two Sides, with a tutor to each, and the staff of 
 Lecturers attached to each side was small and inadequate 
 even to the smaller number of undergraduates in those 
 days. The remuneration of the assistant tutors was also 
 small, and out of this grew to a great extent the practice 
 of private tuition, to which Dr. Whewell was for the 
 most part strongly opposed. (See ' Cambridge Univer- 
 sity Eeport, Evidence, Dr. Whewell.') 
 
 The tutorship was regarded as the chief pecuniary 
 prize open to the Fellows, and the value of the Lecture- 
 ship consisted in leading up to it. When in course of 
 time, and at a comparatively early age, he himself 
 became tutor in succession to Bishop Monk, a third 
 
 E 
 
50 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1818 
 
 Side was created, and the tutorial system was so far 
 made more efficient. 
 
 The tutors who held office with Mr. Whewell were : 
 Mr. Peacock, afterwards Dean of Ely, and Mr. Higman, 
 afterwards Vicar of Fakenham. The Lecturers at the 
 same time were Mr. Thirlwall, eventually Bishop of 
 St. David's, Mr. Hare, Mr. Blakesley, Mr. Perry, Mr. 
 F. Martin, and Mr. Thorpe. 
 
 To his Sister~] Nov. 18, 1818. 
 
 - By exchanging private for public tutorship, I find that much 
 more of my time is taken up than before, and indeed with this 
 and other matters I have very few half-hours in the day without 
 something to occupy them. This must account to you for my 
 silence whenever it seems rather longer than usual. The leisure 
 and command of my own time, which I have always been looking 
 forward to, seems at present to be flying a great deal faster 
 than I can follow it. 
 
 The year 1819 was overshadowed in a measure by 
 the anxiety caused by Elizabeth Whewell's health ; an 
 anxiety which increased during the following year, and 
 was only terminated by her death in 1821. During 
 these years the brother's thoughts constantly revert 
 with affectionate fidelity to his family. When his 
 cousin, Thomas Bennison, sickened and died, he mourned 
 sincerely the loss of the friend and playfellow of his 
 early years. But new names were constantly being 
 added to the list of his intimates ; and we feel that the 
 first group, clustered together in early youth mainly in 
 consequence of accidental circumstances of neighbour- 
 hood or the like, was not displaced, but succeeded 
 by another, the members of which were bound to each 
 other and to him by ties of sympathy, similarity of 
 taste, and community of objects and duties. These 
 were to be ' the friends of a lifetime,' as he delighted to 
 
1819 STUDY OF LAW. 51 
 
 describe them. Julius Hare, with whom he became 
 acquainted as an undergraduate of Trinity, appears 
 frequently among his correspondents, being at this time 
 engaged in reading law in London. Whewell, in the 
 first letter we find from him, seems inclined to increase 
 Hare's distaste for the uncongenial study, and, by pro- 
 curing for him, in 1822, the offer of a lectureship at 
 Trinity, was eventually the means of bringing him back 
 to Cambridge, and causing him to abandon law for ever. 
 'Your profession,' he writes, February 25, 1819, ' has a 
 greater tendency than others to efface the simplicity 
 and energy of the mind, because it is generally cul- 
 tivated more exclusively. The quantity of reading and 
 attention which it requires, and still more the quantity 
 of trifling and commonplace which are necessary, 
 operate as a very heavy window-tax upon the intellect, 
 and in that case of course it is the skylights which are 
 first shut up.' 
 
 The family letters of this year begin with the 
 anxieties about his sister and bis cousin, in which he 
 so keenly participated. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity College: Jan. 26, 1819. 
 
 I hope you will not think the worse of me for being at my 
 old tricks of omitting to write to you. I have till this week 
 had a great deal of my time and thoughts employed about the 
 examination which has been going on. It is now over, but I 
 cannot give you much news about it which will be likely to in- 
 terest you. King ! is first, as I told you I expected, and so far 
 first that there was a greater distance between the first and 
 second wranglers than there ever was before. The examiners 
 distinguished him in the most pointed way they could, and his 
 reputation is now very high in the University. 
 
 My pupils have done some well and some ill. Two of 
 
 1 Senior Wrangler, 1819. Late President of Queen's, and Lueasian Pro- 
 fessor of Mathematics. 
 
 i; -2 
 
52 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1819 
 
 who were with me at Carnarvon and one who was with me at 
 Bridlington are wranglers ; but Brougham, the brother of the 
 Member of Parliament, who was expected to be high among the 
 wranglers, is only in the second class, who are called senior 
 optimes. 
 
 To his Aunt] Feb. 28, 1819. 
 
 I got a letter the other day from Betty, which alarmed me 
 very much, as she talks of being very poorly, and does not 
 mention the nature of her illness, nor whether it is merely 
 temporary or not. With you, my dear aunt, and her sisters 
 about her, I can easily conceive that she will have everything 
 done for her that kindness and affection can do ; and I beg that 
 you will spare no expense either in advice or anything else that 
 can be of any service to her. 
 
 I am very sorry, but hardly surprised, at the account she 
 gives me of Thomas Bennison. I am afraid that your fore- 
 bodings are to be accomplished, and that he will not stay with 
 us long. He was my constant companion and playfellow for 
 many of the first years of my life, and if he were to go it would 
 seem as if almost all that connects me with my childhood were 
 gone too. I could have wished that he and I might have gone 
 on through life like two people who have started from the same 
 place and taken different roads, each of them good. 
 
 As for you, my dear aunt, you did not want anything more 
 to remind you how transitory everything here is. You have 
 had the ties which bound you to the earth plucked asunder too 
 often. But this must almost unavoidably be the lot of any 
 one who is allowed to have so many objects of affection, and to 
 be an object of affection to so many as you have been. You 
 would not, I am sure, wish to have had one relation the less, 
 to have been spared the pain of parting with them, we trust 
 but for a little while. . . . 
 
 I do not know whether you think there is any harm in 
 spending my Sunday afternoon in writing to you, but it is what 
 I am often obliged to do ; for though I could find half an hour 
 on other days when my pen is at liberty, I am generally so 
 hurried that my thoughts are not at liberty sufficiently to tempt 
 me to do it. But on Sunday I have something like leisure, 
 
1819 DEATH OF THOMAS BENNISON. 53 
 
 and my mind very often looks towards Lancaster. Perhaps I 
 think more affectionately of it then than when I am in it, for I 
 have resided there so little that I am hardly domesticated 
 during my short stays, and find myself, except in my own family, 
 as much a stranger there as anywhere else. 
 
 To Us Sister] March 28, 1819. 
 
 I am sorry, very sorry for my cousins. The loss of such a 
 brother as Thomas Bennison they must feel very severely. 
 Time alone can reconcile them to the change, and no time will 
 fill up the blank. 
 
 My dear aunt, I hope, does not sink under all this, for 
 if she will not comfort us and let us comfort her, I do not know 
 what will become of us. Give my best love to her, and tell her 
 from me all you think will console her most. The most effectual 
 method will be, no doubt, to get well yourself as soon as possible. 
 
 We are sure to have a very splendid Commencement this 
 year. Our Chancellor, the Duke of Gloucester, is going to 
 honour us with his presence, which he has not done since five 
 years ago, when I repeated my prize poem before him. He 
 brings his wife, and his sister, the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, 
 with him, so that we must do something very magnificent to 
 receive them. 
 
 To his Sister Martha] Sept. 2, 1819. 
 
 I have had three pupils all the summer. One of them is 
 the only son of a Mr. Reynolds, a lawyer of considerable 
 eminence, whose name, as you are no great newspaper readers, 
 you probably have not seen as the new judge of the Insolvent 
 Debtors' Court. The whole family, when it was determined 
 that the son should be my pupil for the summer, came and 
 established themselves at Chesterton, a village near Cambridge, 
 which has a little varied my vacation. 
 
 To his Sister] Brighton: Sept. 17, 1819. 
 
 You will probably be surprised to find me still here, and 
 still more to learn that my journey is to finish at this place, 
 and Paris is to remain unvisited for the present. The prin- 
 cipal reason of my change of place is, that all my luggage 
 
54 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1819 
 
 which I had prepared for the voyage, including almost all that 
 was valuable in my wardrobe, is lost. You need not, however, 
 be under any anxiety, for this is the whole of my misfortune, 
 and my own precious person is perfectly safe and sound, and I 
 shall convey it back to London to-morrow and thence to Cam- 
 bridge. I have written to you hence, to prevent the possibility 
 of your hearing of one of the Brighton packets having met 
 with a misfortune before you can know that I have not been a 
 sufferer by it except in my property. 
 
 We embarked for France last night about eight o'clock, and 
 were sailing fast across to Dieppe, when we ran against a larger 
 vessel, and were so much damaged by the shock that, though 
 we all got on board the other ship without any difficulty, there 
 was no possibility of getting any of our luggage, which is most 
 likely by this time at the bottom of the sea. 
 
 My loss is considerable. 
 
 To his Sister'] Sept. 27,1819. 
 
 I promised you a more minute account of our shipwreck. 
 It was a fine starlight night, and we had a fair breeze, so that 
 we were likely to make a remarkably short passage, and ex- 
 pected to breakfast in France next morning. We had been 
 out between one and two hours ; I did not like the cabin, and 
 had laid myself down on the deck between dozing and sleeping, 
 when I was roused by a furious shock and crash caused by our 
 ship striking against another. By the time I could look about 
 me, I found the two ships alongside of each other, and people 
 getting out of ours into the other as fast as they could. I 
 understood afterwards that orders had been given to do this, 
 though at the time I did not see the necessity for it, for I did 
 not perceive that our vessel was damaged. However, I was 
 in the other ship immediately. Everybody was easily got on 
 board, though some French ladies who were with us were ex- 
 ceedingly frightened, and I thought would have fainted. We 
 came in such a hurry that we left our hats, and the ladies their 
 shoes, on board the packet, so of course we brought no luggage 
 with us. Soon after the ships began to roll and work very 
 violently, and after some time the mast of the packet we had 
 left came thundering down. Shortly after, they got the ships 
 
1810 SHIPWRECK. 55 
 
 clear of each other, and we sailed away from our unfortunate 
 vessel, the ' Nancy, ' leaving her a complete wreck. It was still, 
 however, expected that our goods would be got out of her, and 
 as soon as they could they got out a boat, and sent it to 
 examine her. As it was dark we soon left her out of sight, 
 but the boat returned with the intelligence that she was sink- 
 ing fast, and already so deep in the water that there was no 
 chance of saving anything. Our captain, who went in the boat, 
 just contrived to save his own portmanteau. I suppose that in 
 half an hour after, all would be gone to the bottom. There 
 was a horse on board, which of course could not be saved. One 
 of the French ladies was said to have lost 300Z. in gold. My 
 companion was one of our fellows of the name of Sheepshanks, 
 who is of Leeds. He had stocked himself better than I had, 
 and was of course the greater sufferer. . . . 
 
 What I most grieved for was the two 51. notes which were 
 in my trunk, and might just as well have been in my pocket ! 
 
 The ship on board which we got was the brig ' Henry,' going 
 to the Mediterranean. However, they sailed about all night, 
 and landed us next morning at Brighton. 
 
 I had intended to visit Lancaster at Christmas, but I have 
 to-day accepted the office of one of the two Moderators for 
 this year, which will prevent my leaving Cambridge. 
 
 Mr. Whewell and Mr. Wilkinson were moderators in 
 1820, and the first letter of that year gives an account 
 to his sister of the Senate-House examinations. 
 
 At Easter he went home ; the continued illness of 
 his sister Elizabeth made it a very sad visit to him, 
 and almost every family letter of this year shows 
 how tenderly he grieved over her sufferings, and 
 with what sympathy and admiration he observed the 
 courage with which she bore them. 
 
 He was admitted a fellow of the Eoyal Society in June 
 of this year, and shortly afterwards went abroad with Mr. 
 Sheepshanks and Mr. Jones. This time the passage was 
 accomplished without accident. They passed a fortnight 
 in Paris, arrived at Geneva the end of August, and after 
 
56 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1820 
 
 spending six weeks in Switzerland returned post haste, 
 to reach Cambridge only just in time for lectures. 
 
 To his Sister] Jan. 16, 1820. 
 
 The examination in the Senate House begins to-morrow, 
 and is rather close work while it lasts. We are employed 
 from seven in the morning till five in the evening in giving 
 out questions and receiving written answers to them ; and when 
 that is over, we have to read over all the papers which we have 
 received in the course of the day, to determine who have done 
 best, which is a business that in numerous years has often kept 
 the examiners up the half of every night ; but this year is not 
 particularly numerous. In addition to all this, the examination 
 is conducted in a building which happens to be a very beauti- 
 ful one, with a marble floor and a highly ornamented ceiling ; 
 and as it is on the model of a Grecian temple, and as temples 
 had no chimneys, and as a stove or a fire of any kind might 
 disfigure the building, we are obliged to take the weather as it 
 happens to be, and when it is cold we have the full benefit of 
 it which is likely to be the case this year. However, it is only 
 a few days, and we have done with it. 
 
 Active means had been resorted to for the ameliora- 
 tion of Elizabeth Whewell's health, and her brother 
 writes : 
 
 To his Aunt] Feb. 15, 1820. 
 
 Your letter was a most melancholy one. How very severe 
 have been the trials to which you and my poor sisters have 
 been subjected. . . . 
 
 I am glad that your fortitude and Betty's was supported 
 as you say was the case. If it had not been strengthened 
 throughout by a deep and heartfelt sense of the presence of 
 God Almighty in all that is inflicted upon us, the time would 
 be comfortless indeed. As it is, we shall, I hope, as you say, be 
 able to bear it without repining, though it is very distressing 
 to think of poor Betty, with her active disposition and her 
 most affectionate heart, lying in a state of suffering hour after 
 hour and week after week. But what has been done will, I 
 
1820 ELIZABETH WHEWELL. 57 
 
 trust in God, produce a beneficial effect, and bring relief pro- 
 portioned to the severity of the means. . . . 
 
 I have made another rather unfortunate journey lately. I 
 went to town for a week, and was there when the old king died. 
 Just as I was coming off, I went into a crowd to hear the new 
 king proclaimed at Temple Bar. The crush was very violent, 
 and in it I lost my pocket-book, which was most likely stolen 
 out of my pocket. It contained some money that I was bring- 
 ing down to Cambridge. The sum I will not tell you, as you 
 might think it rather serious, and there is no use in thinking 
 about it now that it is irrecoverable. I took what steps I 
 could, but there is not the slightest chance of ever again seeing 
 any part of it. 
 
 I wish such misfortunes were all that we had to lament ; 
 we should, I think, take them very cheerfully. 
 
 To his Sister Elizabeth'] Feb. 28, 1820. 
 
 I cannot describe to you how much I have been distressed 
 by the accounts I have had from my aunt of the sufferings 
 you have gone through. It is some, though but a melancholy 
 consolation, to know that you bear them with such extra- 
 ordinary patience and resignation. It is only a belief and a 
 feeling that all sorrows come from God Almighty which can 
 enable us to bear them with any tranquillity. Very often 
 indeed the burden of pain and affliction makes us forget that 
 we are in the hands of Him of Whom we may be confident, 
 that whatever He dispenses to us is for our good that severe 
 and inscrutable as His ways appear, it is only our shortsighted- 
 ness and ignorance that make them seem so. It is difficult 
 indeed always to keep this in mind, yet still I try to do so. 
 If it were not for this trust, this world would be no better than 
 a frightful desert to those who are dealt so hardly with as we 
 are. With this comfortable persuasion we know that all the 
 pains and griefs that visit us here, however hard they may 
 press upon us, are but as pebbles on the shore of the ocean, 
 compared with the eternity for which they prepare us. 
 
 To his Sister Elizabeth] April 14, 1820. 
 
 I hope you did not find your spirits much dejected by so 
 many departures in one day. Regret of course we must all 
 
58 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1820 
 
 feel on such occasions, but friends part only to meet again. It 
 is the way we are shuffled together, and then shuffled separate 
 again in this world, and perhaps we feel more pleasure in 
 meeting and talking over what has occurred during our separa- 
 tion than if we had never parted. I trust before many months 
 are over, I may come to see you enjoying your health as well 
 as you supported your illness. 
 
 The morning we left Leeds we very nearly had an accident 
 which might have been awkward ; this is, you see, not getting 
 very close to the danger. One of our fore-wheels came off, and 
 the coach of course fell down on that side, but did not quite roll 
 over as might have been expected. The reason of this escape 
 was, that the wheel before it ran quite away leant for an instant 
 against the side of the coach, and supported it so as to break 
 its fall, so that when we came down on the end of the axle-tree 
 it did not topple. Nobody was at all hurt. A young woman 
 who was on the box sprang off with the activity of a rope- 
 dancer. I kept my seat till the coach stopped. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] May 17, 1820. 
 
 Yesterday I received your package with everything safe, 
 including a paper of sweet cakes which were, I suppose, to be 
 eaten on mine or some other birthday. If that was the in- 
 tention they came to a most untimely end, for not one of them 
 survived the day on which they arrived. 
 
 My aunt says you are preparing a supply of linen for my 
 second shipwreck. I am not sure that I shall make room for 
 it by another accident of that kind, or even that I shall run 
 the chance of it, for Sheepshanks, my companion in my travels, 
 is at present, I am sorry to say, far from well. If I do not leave 
 England, I think I shall visit the Lakes. 
 
 To his Aunt] June 13, 1820. 
 
 I am going to town to-morrow to stay there a few days. 
 There is every year at this time a dinner in London where all 
 those meet who have been educated at Trinity College. At 
 this Trinity dinner I intend to be present to-morrow. I am 
 also obliged to go to London to be admitted a Fellow of the 
 Eoyal Society ; so that you see I shall in time become a person 
 of consequence. 
 
1820 DR. WORDSWORTH BECOMES MASTER. 59 
 
 To his Sister Ann] July 2, 1820. 
 
 It is rather hard upon Sheepshanks and me to be used as 
 we are. His sisters are angry with me for carrying him out 
 of England, and mine wish him all kinds of harm for running 
 away with me. And in the meantime we should each of us 
 travel separately if the other were not in existence. I am sorry 
 to hurt Martha's feelings by the news, but I understand that 
 though not quite well he is recovering, and expects to be ready 
 to travel in a few weeks. So my journey to the Lakes must 
 most probably wait for another summer. It is an almost irre- 
 sistible necessity to visit France, for nearly every one of my 
 acquaintance has been there ; so that if you would not have me 
 look quite insignificant among them, you must let me go too. 
 
 This time of year is generally gay with us, being the season 
 for reciting prizes, conferring degrees, &c. It is at present 
 rather damped by the death of the Master of Trinity, 1 who 
 was the Bishop of Bristol. He is to be buried in the College 
 Chapel to-morrow. 
 
 Our new Master is Dr Wordsworth, author of several eccle- 
 siastical works. We are of course expecting his appearance 
 with considerable interest. He is a member of the College, but 
 has been absent so long that he will be new to all us junior 
 members. 
 
 To his Aunt] Paris: July 31, 1820. 
 
 We performed our journey without any accident, and were 
 rather fortunate in doing so, for we had to choose between two 
 diligences, and the one in which we did not go had a wheel 
 knocked off in running over a drawbridge. 
 
 I left London on Tuesday evening, and next morning found 
 myself at Dover. I embarked in a French packet with above 
 thirty others, French and English of all kinds, and as we had 
 a fair wind, was in Calais in three hours and a half from the 
 time when we quitted the shore. On Thursday morning we 
 left Calais, and travelling by Boulogne, Abbeville, Beauvais, 
 and Beaumont, got here on Friday evening. 
 
 There is no very striking difference between England and 
 
 1 Dr. Mansel. 
 
60 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1820 
 
 France on the first night. Calais is very like a shabby English 
 town, and so many of my fellow-travellers and of the people at 
 the inn talked English, that I could easily forget that I was in 
 France. 
 
 On my arrival at Paris I was much pleased with the appear- 
 ance of the city. It is not so well and spaciously and regularly 
 built as the best parts of London, but the houses are more 
 uniformly handsome, very high, built of good stone, and what 
 adds a very great charm to all the views, the atmosphere is so 
 much clearer that every object looks much more bright and 
 distinct than with us. ... 
 
 Last night (Sunday) I drove round nearly the half of Paris, 
 about ten miles, along the outskirts. The road is bordered 
 with trees and small cottages, and laid out in a sort of pleasure 
 ground, and for the whole of this extent there were hardly any 
 interruptions in the series of parties dancing, or sitting, and 
 looking on. The crowd was prodigious. Garden after garden 
 we passed crowded with music and dancers, and people sipping 
 their light French wines and talking under the trees ; all of 
 them looking very happy and thoughtless, and without any of 
 the indecorum and disturbance which would generally be found 
 at such a spectacle in England. This is one of the most cha- 
 racteristic things I have seen. I would tell you of several 
 others, but I have not time. 
 
 From a pocket-book of this year I find the price 
 paid in Paris by the friends at their hotel for the accom- 
 modation of three bedrooms and one sitting-room was 
 sixty to eighty francs per week. 
 
 To Us Sister] Paris : Aug. 15, 1820. 
 
 I like Paris very w T ell, and whatever you may have heard 
 to the contrary, you may depend upon it that French cookery 
 is a very good thing. I shall have a very formidable journey 
 of nearly four days to Lyons, where I shall be on the 1 9th, and 
 at Geneva the 22nd or 23rd. 
 
 During this journey he notes in his diary : ' Dinner 
 at 12, supper at 11.30. There is something very sym- 
 
1820 FOREIGN TOUR. 61 
 
 metrical in eating thus at equal intervals, but inconve- 
 nient.' 
 
 To his Aunt] Geneva : Aug. 24. 
 
 I had been looking forward with great anxiety to my arrival 
 here in the expectation of finding a letter from you, and it 
 was with severe affliction that I found my fears in a great 
 measure confirmed in the letter I got this morning. 
 
 I have no heart to describe to you what I have already 
 passed over. . . . 
 
 We left Paris on the 16th, and travelling by a diligence, as 
 the French call a machine something between a coach and a 
 waggon, we passed by Melun and Auxerre to Chalon-sur-Saone. 
 We then got on board a sort of packet-boat and sailed down 
 the Saone to Lyons. The way in which the innkeepers set to 
 work with us may give you some idea of the difference of 
 French and English manners. Previously to reaching Lyons 
 on the 19th, we had to dine at Trevoux on the banks of the 
 river. About a couple of miles before we got there, two girls 
 who had taken a short cut across the fields came on board to 
 invite us to their respective inns. They were dressed after the 
 fashion of the country, with bodices and large straw hats, but 
 more neatly, which made them look exactly like the country 
 girls on the stage. They addressed themselves successively to 
 everybody in the boat with the liveliness and winningness of 
 manner which the French of all classes generally possess, and 
 when we reached the place, marched off with their respective 
 converts. The one whom I followed I had no reason to com- 
 plain of, for she gave me an excellent dinner. 
 
 The country about here is superb and well deserves its 
 reputation ; the lake like an inland sea spreads almost out of 
 sight, and is surrounded by magnificent hills rising ridge over 
 ridge, and the highest of them covered with perpetual snow. 
 
 Out of the lake, at the end, runs the Rhone, which is, I 
 think, the most beautiful river in the world. Its colour is in- 
 tensely deep blue, so transparent as almost to look luminous ; 
 and though as wide as the Lune and very deep, it rushes on 
 with the impetuosity of a mill race, while through its rapid 
 current you see the pebbles very deep at the bottom. On the 
 
62 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1820 
 
 banks of this lake, for which nature has done so much, man 
 has done his part. The whole is laid out with gentlemen's 
 houses and parks in the best style, with a neatness and finish 
 which you never see except in England and Switzerland. 
 
 I shall in a day or two set out to see Mont Blanc, and 
 then return to Geneva in the hope of letters. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: Nov. 4, 1820. 
 
 I wrote last from Frankfort. Thence I went to Mayence, 
 where the Rhine begins to be a very beautiful river. From 
 Basle downwards it flows between low flat banks, but from a 
 little below Mayence nearly to Cologne it is bordered by steep 
 rocky hills of great height, the slopes of which are covered with 
 vines where the rock allows it, and generally the summit of the 
 crag is crowned with the ruins of some picturesque castle which 
 has been perched there ever since feudal times. In order 
 to see this beautiful scenery to the best advantage, as we 
 thought, we got at Mayence into a packet-boat, which goes, or 
 professes to go, to Coblentz the first day, and to Cologne the 
 second. This plan, however, did not answer very well a dense 
 heavy fog choked up the valley in which the river runs, till 
 nearly noon, so that we sailed through it without seeing twenty 
 yards on any side of us. Then, instead of reaching Coblentz, we 
 only got as far as Boppart the first day, and had to take up our 
 abode in a paltry inn, where there was no small difficulty in 
 finding provisions and beds for so many people. To mend the 
 matter, they made us get up and set off at three o'clock in the 
 morning, and when it became light enough to see we found 
 ourselves in the same mist as the day before. Besides which, 
 the cabin was so small and so crowded with Germans, who 
 smoke incessantly, that we were on the deck the whole day, 
 though there were no seats there. So we got tired of the 
 Rhine, and went by land from Coblentz to Cologne. From 
 Cologne we came across the country as fast as we could by Aix- 
 la-Chapelle to Brussels, and after staying a day at Brussels and 
 visiting Waterloo, we again made a run by Lisle and St. Omer 
 to Calais. 
 
 My lectures were to begin in three days, and I was very 
 much afraid the wind would not have allowed us to get over, as 
 
1821 ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL. 63 
 
 it was very high and contrary. It did detain us one day, but 
 on the next it dropped, and by travelling without a moment's 
 stop I got to Cambridge in time. 
 
 To his Sister Elizabeth'] Cambridge: Nov. 26, 1820. 
 
 Though sick at heart to think of what you must have 
 gone through, I am very much gratified to see that you are able 
 to hold a pen, and that you employ it in writing to me. . . . 
 
 I do most heartily rejoice with you, my dear sister, at the 
 way in which your sorrows in this life have fixed your hopes on 
 one beyond it. Wedded as we are to this world by our passions, 
 our senses, and our habits, the tendency not to look beyond it, 
 or at least to look only with an unsteady and wandering eye, is 
 far too strong to be counteracted without some violence in most 
 cases ; though in yours 1 am well persuaded there was an habit- 
 ual reference to the things which are not of this world, even 
 before your illness, yet we all of us, I am afraid, stand in need 
 of some affliction to fix our views more distinctly upon them. 
 It is only when the gloom closes about us here that we look 
 steadfastly to the Dayspring from on high. 
 
 To his Aunt] Trinity College: March 28, 1821. 
 
 We have been sending an address against the Roman 
 Catholics ; that is, the University has : my vote was the other 
 way. We have also had town and county meetings about 
 Parliamentary Reform and the Queen and so forth, at one of 
 which the mob were rather riotous, and I got hustled among 
 them. We have also been instituting a Cambridge Philosophical 
 Society, and have been rather unphilosophically quarrelling 
 about it. 
 
 Besides this, we are going to' build an observatory and 
 different museums, and we talk of altering our plan of examina- 
 tion, so that you see we make a little bustle in our way. 
 
 King, whom perhaps you recollect, has just been spending 
 several hundred pounds in law. There was some uncertainty 
 about the election of the Master of this College, which could not 
 be settled without taking it into the Court of Chancery ; and as 
 nobody else did it, he with a great deal of public spirit took it 
 upon himself, and the result has been that the Master is con- 
 
6i LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1821 
 
 firmed. The proceeding is much to King's credit ; but you see 
 I am not the only person who gets rid of his money without 
 getting anything for it. 
 
 In the month of May 1821, Elizabeth Whewell died. 
 Her brother's first thought is most heartily to commend 
 to the loving care of his surviving sisters the health and 
 spirits of his aunt, Mrs. Lyon, whose motherly tenderness 
 he highly valued, and who, he feared, would suffer most 
 in the bereavement which had at last terminated a long 
 and anxious nursing. 
 
 He went for a short time to the Isle of Wight in 
 June of this year with Professor Sedgwick, and in Sep- 
 tember he proceeded to the Lake country and improved 
 his acquaintance with Wordsworth, whom he had al- 
 ready met at Trinity Lodge staying with his brother, 
 Dr. Wordsworth, the recently appointed Master of 
 Trinity College. 
 
 To his Sister Martha] June 18, 1821. 
 
 You will, I trust, employ all your powers to comfort and 
 console my dear aunt, who will stand, I fear, most in need of it. 
 Watch over her health, and beg her, for the sake of her who is 
 gone, to continue her care and attention as well as affection to 
 those who are left. And we will pray that it may be long 
 before she is called from us, though it be to join those who have 
 quitted us, we trust in (rod, only for a time. 
 
 I am going for a short time to the Isle of Wight. I expect 
 to join there Professor Sedgwick, a very intimate friend of 
 mine. 
 
 A son of Mr. Remington, who was introduced to me by John 
 Whewell, has done very well, and is in the first class of the 
 Freshmen. 
 
 To his Aunt] 
 
 Freshwater Gate, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight : July 5. 
 
 I have been at a small inn for about ten days, with occasional 
 excursions to other parts of the island. I am out in the air 
 
1821 CORONATION. 65 
 
 a great deal, and, as is generally the case when I have air and 
 exercise enough, I am in very good health. The surge of the 
 sea is plashing not ten steps from my window, and along the 
 shore each way are cliffs so high that it requires a strong head 
 to look over the edge at the sea below. 
 
 Altogether this island is a very beautiful little spot. I shall 
 leave it at the beginning of next week, and, after visiting Christ- 
 church and other places on the opposite coast of Dorsetshire, 
 proceed to Oxford and thence to Cambridge. I hope to visit 
 Lancaster about the end of July. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] July 28, 1821. 
 
 We were very loyal here at the Coronation, and I arrived just 
 in time to join in the manifestations of it by eating a good 
 dinner, which is an easier way than yours and Martha's of feed- 
 ing 1,600 children, though not quite so benevolent. I am 
 really glad that Martha was induced to write a hymn for them, 
 because I know that she only wants motive and opportunity 
 to show that she has very great talents, and I am not at all 
 afraid in her case of her showing it too much. I shall hope 
 to see that piece of poetry, at least, when I come. 
 
 From all that I can learn, the expense and trouble of going 
 to the Coronation were less than I had anticipated, and the 
 show as fine as imagination could conceive, so that if it were 
 any use I should perhaps repent of staying away. 
 
 To his Aunt] Ambleside: Sept. 1821. 
 
 Hitherto I have had no reason to repent setting off when I 
 did. The weather has been fair, and though I was a little 
 troubled by mistiness at first, it is becoming every day finer 
 and finer. 
 
 I have already seen several of the lakes, and have followed 
 so far the track which Mr. West recommends. On entering 
 Ulverston I fell in with a party of Cambridge men who were, like 
 me, going to see Furness Abbey. The ruin is very fine, and 
 almost fills the pretty, deep, green valley in which it is situated. 
 These Cantabrigians were a detachment from a party of eleven who 
 are reading at Keswick, where I shall see them again. I set off 
 to-morrow for the latter place, and if the weather continues fine, 
 
 F 
 
66 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1821 
 
 of which there is every promise, I shall go by the wild rugged 
 mountain pass called the Stake. To-day I am going to dine 
 with Mr. Wordsworth, the poet. 
 
 The following letter is one of a very few selected for 
 publication from a large number written during more 
 than twenty years to Mr. Wilkinson 
 
 Keswick: Sept. 5, 1821. 
 
 As the time and perhaps the certainty of coming in contact 
 with you become less to be depended upon, I feel tempted to 
 give you some slight indication of my motions, such as they 
 have been, that you may judge how far your advice has been 
 well bestowed upon me. I have been here for about a fortnight, 
 partly geologising and partly excursing in different directions. 
 My operations from this point have taken more time than 
 they otherwise would have done in consequence of waiting for 
 Sheepshanks, by whom I was joined about a week ago. I saw 
 all the other lakes with tolerable facility (except Ullswater, 
 which I have yet to visit), but I found your particular protege, 
 Wastwater, rather difficult to come at. The first time I went 
 very directly to work, and failed only by untoward accident. I 
 went up Borrowdale and to the highest part of the Stye, but 
 when there I was tempted, by the appearance of the highest 
 mountain top visible, to leave my horse and set about climbing 
 it. It is, I believe, the highest point in England ; and though 
 it appeared only about half an hour's work, it turned out a good 
 two hours' business. When I returned, I found my quadruped 
 had broken from his moorings, and treated with disdain all my 
 attempts to get possession of his bridle. Finally, he set off and 
 cantered towards Keswick, and I was obliged to follow him, and, 
 what was most provoking, to open the gates for him and retire 
 whilst he went through them, as the only way of preventing 
 his taking to the hillside like Eob Eoy. My next attempt to 
 get at Wastwater was rather circuitous, and, like many other 
 fine-drawn schemes, easily disconcerted. I intended to go by 
 Grasmere and Coniston ; then to cross over the unfrequented 
 valleys, which nobody now visits, to Wastdale, and to return 
 by some of the passes into Borrowdale. But after reaching 
 
1821 WORDSWORTH. 67 
 
 Grasmere, the weather broke up and made us glad to reach 
 Keswick with dry skins. Our third attempt was again by the 
 Stye, by which we finally effected a passage, though with a 
 rough storm of wind and rain accompanying us, and came 
 successfully down the valley. The lake is certainly fine, but 
 I think the finest view must be from the foot of it on the side 
 under the screes, which we did not see. Ennerdale is a good 
 deal of the same character, but the lakes on that side the hills 
 are not well off in accommodations for c the tourist ' in con- 
 venient situations. Perhaps it is partly on that account that I 
 prefer the richer and warmer beauties of the lakes to the east 
 of the hills. Derwentwater is as beautiful as anything in the 
 way can be, and I hardly know any addition or alteration which 
 would improve it. I was with Wordsworth part of two days, 
 and was very much gratified with his company. The only thing 
 to complain of is that he is not half as Wordsworthian as his 
 admirers, and I am more and more puzzled that a man of his 
 acuteness and good sense should write poems with white rabbits 
 and waggon drivers for their heroes. I have since seen him 
 here on an expedition somewhere or other among the hills, 
 which he has great propensities for climbing whenever he can 
 get a fine day. I had almost forgotten to tell you what was 
 one of my principal objects when I began, that I am going to 
 follow up my lakification here with a visit to the Scotch lakes. 
 I shall go to Edinburgh as soon as I have seen Ullswater, and 
 then cross over by Loch Katrine, &c., to Glasgow. I do not 
 suppose I shall be tempted much farther north, as the season 
 will be wearing away and other things calling us back. I still 
 hope to see you on my return. Perhaps if I can plot so as to 
 be in Kendal on a Saturday you will come over, though I broke 
 faith with you so shamefully before. If you can contribute 
 any device to this object, write for the next week to Edinburgh, 
 for the following one to Glasgow. 
 
 From Cumberland, Mr. Whewell crossed the border 
 and made a tour in Scotland, returning duly to Cam- 
 bridge before the end of October. He then begins an 
 amusing series of letters to his sisters on the study of 
 works of fiction. In the following January he enforces 
 
 F 2 
 
f)8 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1821 
 
 his arguments by a gift of all Miss Edgeworth's tales. 
 No doubt the family spirits required cheering, but he 
 was at . least equally anxious to recommend them as 
 counteracting the disadvantages of too restricted and 
 exclusive a family circle, and in some degree supplying 
 the place of good society. 
 
 To Ms Sister Martha] Glasgow : Sept. 21. 
 
 I am extremely sorry to find your letter here containing so 
 bad an account of my aunt. . . . My principal object here is to 
 attend a sermon of Dr. Chalmers'. 
 
 I have been visiting Loch Katrine, a lake which besides its 
 natural beauty has become celebrated by being the scene of Sir 
 Walter Scott's poem of the ' Lady of the Lake,' and other ground 
 in the neighbourhood which is equally famous for its connection 
 with the story of Kob Roy,' a very popular novel supposed to be 
 by the same author. It is exceedingly picturesque, but not, I 
 think, superior to the scenery of Cumberland. I am glad you 
 like the ' Excursion ' ; I was much pleased with the author, to 
 whom, as I think I told you, I had a letter. 
 
 As to your project of having blank verse, 
 
 Only differing from prose by giving 
 
 It ten syllables in each line, it would 
 
 Not make it very harmonious, as 
 
 You may imagine from these last five lines. 
 
 You will find in Lindley Murray's Grammar, in the division 
 Prosody, an account of the principles of English versification, 
 including blank verse among the rest, which is as clear and 
 satisfactory as anything which I know on the subject, 
 
 To his Aunt] Lanark: Sept. 24, 1821. 
 
 I have stopped here to see some very celebrated waterfalls, 
 the Falls of the Clyde, which, so far as I have yet seen, are the 
 finest of the kind. To-morrow I think I shall be tempted to go 
 to Selkirk to see Melrose Abbey. 
 
1821 FICTION. 69 
 
 To his Sister Martha] Cambridge: Oct. 21, 1821. 
 
 Write to me when you receive this, and. let me know how 
 my aunt is going on. If she has not been doing well, I trust 
 you would have informed me immediately, as nothing can be 
 more distressing than the plan of waiting till you can send a 
 favourable account. The uncertainty and want of confidence 
 which it produces are greater evils than the pain of knowing at 
 once what must be known sooner or later. 
 
 I hope you have gone on with Mrs. Opie. I am really 
 desirous that you should read some of the best works of imagina- 
 tion, because I think they may be of great service to you. In 
 your very retired life they are an admirable means of acquiring, 
 in a great measure, that knowledge of the principles and feelings 
 which appear in human affairs, and the manners of different 
 classes of society, of which you must otherwise be almost 
 ignorant. 
 
 Fictitious histories written by persons of real talent and 
 knowledge of human nature give you something of the ad- 
 vantage which their society and conversation would, and supply 
 you with the habits of practical thinking, and consequently of 
 acting, which experience would only give you at a much dearer 
 rate, even if it were to be had. I do not say that good novels 
 can give you all the good effects of experience, but they are an 
 admirable preparative, and may very much shorten the practical 
 schooling, both in action and in manners, which almost every- 
 body must have at some time. 
 
 I have hitherto said nothing of the pleasure of this kind of 
 reading, because I think that, in spite of the prejudice which you 
 appear to have against it, you will in time discover. I am sure 
 you cannot be insensible to the extraordinary literary merits 
 and beauties which are to be found in the best of these pro- 
 ductions, and of course I would not wish you to read any 
 others. 
 
 To his Sister Martha] Cambridge: Nov. 27, 1821. 
 
 As to the novels, &c., which you have been reading, I did 
 not expect you to like all of them, though I do not think I 
 should quite agree with you as to what are the best stories. 
 The mere pleasure of being kept in suspense, and of having 
 
70 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 your curiosity excited, which you say makes you like such 
 stories as you cannot foresee the end of, is no doubt a merit, 
 and one of the strongest, for most readers. It is, however, only 
 an inferior merit ; and a tale may be very good which possesses 
 very little of it ; as is in fact the case with those which you 
 most admire, ' Caelebs ' and Mrs. Taylor's novels. In those and 
 in most good novels, the greatest part of the interest arises from 
 the representation of character, and of the situations in which 
 the persons are placed ; and it is a matter of very little im- 
 portance whether at the end Sir Charles marries Harriet or not; 
 except that of course the consistency of the characters, of the 
 story, and of the moral ought to be kept throughout. As to the 
 improbability of the plots, I agree with you that it is a fault, 
 and a great one ; only perhaps what you might consider as im- 
 probable is often only a copy of real life, and one of the great 
 advantages of this kind of reading is its giving you ideas of 
 characters and situations which you would otherwise never have 
 supposed. 
 
 If I were disposed to criticise, I should remark your telling 
 me at the same time that you always hated stories which are 
 not natural, and that you like those which keep you in un- 
 certainty to the end, which are generally the most artificial and 
 often the most improbable. But I am convinced that you have 
 taste enough to admire what is really good when it is put before 
 you, in spite of your prepossessions ; and what I complain of is 
 a want of curiosity about such works, and a disposition to be 
 content with very inferior ones merely because you have seen 
 no others. 
 
 To Us Sister Ann] Jan. 1, 1822. 
 
 I hope you will like the new year's gift which I have sent 
 you. It is a collection of all the little books which Miss 
 Edgeworth has published for use in the education of children. 
 As so much of your time is spent, and may perhaps continue to 
 be so, in employments of this kind, it is proper that you should 
 know something of what has been done and thought on this 
 subject by intelligent persons who have turned their attention 
 to it. 
 
 I do not mean that you are to adopt her opinions, or that 
 
1822 MISS EDGEWORTH. 71 
 
 her methods and notions are more right than those of other 
 people, but her works are good and pleasing, and it will be of 
 service to you to read them. It will enable you to examine and 
 unravel your own ideas upon the subject, and that is in itself 
 no small advantage, for though you, like most other people, act 
 principally from habit, you have, by this time, years and sense 
 enough to look a little into the reasons of what you are doing, 
 and to compare it with what is done by others. Do not be 
 alarmed at my recommending what you may think so bold a 
 thing as forming your opinions for yourself; for whether you 
 know it or not, you must have done it a great deal hitherto, 
 and it will do you no harm to do it still more. It is not one of 
 those things, like making a pudding, which you cannot do 
 because you fancy you cannot, but rather like walking and 
 talking, which if you do not take care to do well you will 
 necessarily do ill. 
 
 Those who read good authors, and think on what they read, 
 will find their ideas grow clearer and more consistent, their love 
 of what is right stronger and more discriminating, and their 
 power of distinguishing and rejecting what is wrong more quick 
 and certain ; while those whose reading is nothing or is very 
 narrow, and who refuse to consider more than one side of a 
 question, will find themselves confused and limited, will not 
 know what is passing in their own minds. Even when they are 
 right, they will not know how far they are so, nor be able to 
 give a reason to themselves or anybody else ; and when any new 
 subject is brought before their consideration, either in specula- 
 tion or in practice, they will be slow and frequently wrong in 
 apprehending it, and often thrown into great consternation by 
 the novelty and responsibility of having to decide for themselves, 
 as a child begins to cry when it finds itself alone in a strange 
 street. 
 
 I am afraid you will think what I have written rather too 
 magnificent and high-flown for an introduction to a few children's 
 stories. 
 
 There are some parts where I think the Edgeworth pecu- 
 liarities appear to disadvantage. Mr. Edgeworth was a man of 
 very singular opinions and conduct, and his daughter appears 
 now and then tinged with the habits he had introduced, I mean 
 
72 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 principally the habits of disputation and reasoning perpetually, 
 and of making trials of temper and other trials which are 
 generally dangerous. The ' Nine Days' Wonder,' in the first 
 volume of ' Rosamond,' displeases me on this account. Another 
 and much more serious objection which you and Martha will, I 
 fancy, make to the books, is the absence of all attempts to 
 inculcate religious feelings and motives of action. In Miss 
 Edgeworth's defence it may be said that such attempts did not 
 enter into her plan ; that they would hardly be suitable to the 
 tone of amusement and often pleasantry which pervades the 
 books, and that there is a danger of conveying wrong impressions 
 by mixing religious with other instruction. Perhaps this is 
 hardly a sufficient answer, but at any rate everybody must 
 admire the talent with which she shows the importance of, and 
 the means of cultivating her favourite virtues steadiness of 
 principle, evenness of temper, perseverance, patience, considera- 
 tion for others, a taste for literature and knowledge, distinctness 
 of ideas, power of avoiding awkward habits and manners, &c., 
 &c. I call even these last, virtues; for though subordinate 
 ones, they do produce the effect of virtues, and, in a certain 
 sense, it is the duty even of a Christian to aim at them. I 
 would not set them by the side of more important matters, but 
 I would add them as graces and accomplishments. And, what- 
 ever Martha may think of it, I maintain that graces air. I 
 accomplishments, so far from being inconsistent with the 
 Christian character, are, I should almost say, requisite to its 
 perfection. I would as soon believe, what appears to me almost 
 impious, that Grod, when He made the magnificent spectacle of 
 external nature, the stars, the mountains, the cataracts, did not 
 intend that we should admire them, as I would believe that He 
 did not intend that we should cultivate those qualities of the 
 mind by means of which we receive pleasure from those displays 
 of His hand, or that we should not enjoy the still more exalted 
 and refined pleasures which arise from considering His works in 
 the minds of men. Even the highest productions of genius are 
 as much a manifestation of the powers which He has given, as 
 the flowers which He makes to grow out of the ground. I can 
 never believe that the imagination, the fancy, the taste of man, 
 would have been so exquisitely constituted as they are, if it 
 
1822 MISS EDGE WORTH. 73 
 
 could be a duty not to exercise them. On the contrary, it is 
 only when we consider man with all his faculties unfolded, that 
 we can have any proper idea of his relation to his Creator and 
 of the wonders of Divine Wisdom and Goodness. 
 
 I repeat, therefore, that to persons who have time and 
 opportunity, it is in a certain sense a duty to cultivate a taste 
 for elegant literature and an acquaintance with it. It will not 
 interfere with the more important objects, and its immediate 
 effects are most grateful and beneficial. It gives purity and 
 clearness to the thoughts, elevates the mind above the dull- 
 ness and monotony of every-day habitual life, makes you, as 
 it were, the equal and companion of the best and wisest of this 
 age and the past, and places you far above the ' great vulgar 
 and the small,' all whose superiority is only that of rank, and 
 not of taste and feeling ; and is something of the same kind of 
 consoler and spiritualiser in small matters that religion is in 
 great ones. 
 
 I am again tempted to smile when I look back and see that 
 the text of this long and lofty sermon was nothing more than 
 * Harry and Lucy ' and ' Lazy Lawrence.' 
 
 To his Sister Martha] Feb. 14, 1822. 
 
 I hope you read Miss Edgeworth, Remember, I do not 
 insist on your liking her, but it is right you should know some- 
 thing of the feelings and manners which prevail in the world, 
 at least so far as good novels can teach them. Forester, who 
 puzzles Ann, is not a very common character, but is an illustra- 
 tion of some fanciful ideas upon education which were not 
 uncommon some years ago. His dislike to politeness is because 
 he thinks what is commonly practised under that name implies 
 insincerity in pretending what is not true, and servility in 
 adapting our own sentiments to the ideas of others. His 
 punishments are, I think, exceedingly good. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] [Date 'missing.'] 
 
 Mr. Bankes was elected on Tuesday. He is a very remark- 
 able man, and has travelled more than almost any Englishman 
 living, in Egypt, Syria, and all parts of the East, and is certainly 
 one of the most entertaining persons I ever met with. I did 
 
74 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 not vote for him because he came forward making it his principal 
 recommendation that he intended to oppose all further laws in 
 favour of the Catholics, and I am sorry that a bigoted intolerance 
 towards Papists, or an unfounded and irrational terror of them, 
 gained him so many supporters, for he had a very great 
 majority. 
 
 Of course the election brought up a great number of persons, 
 and many whom one was glad to see. Among the rest, Legh 
 Kichmond has been here for some days, and it has happened 
 that I have had a good deal of talk with him, as he has been in 
 our college, of which he was formerly a member. He talks of 
 sending his son among us by-and-by. I am glad you have 
 been reading more of Chalmers's sermons ; I have only read one 
 or two of his astronomical ones, but I think they are all that 
 you describe them. 
 
 Tell Martha that when I was in London I went to hear 
 Irving, the preacher of whom the newspapers have for some 
 time been full. He is a man of very considerable powers of 
 thinking, and of a good deal of eloquence of a certain kind, but 
 too vague and violent in his language, and very theatrical in 
 his manner. He seems to be very earnest, which is no doubt 
 one of his great attractions. He is very far inferior to Chalmers, 
 whose pupil and assistant he has been, and, as I think, to some 
 others whom I have heard. 
 
75 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 18221832. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Wilkinson Mr. Henslow Numa's Calendar Wordsworth 
 Mr. Rose Mrs. Lyon's depression of spirits Paris Mr. Airy In- 
 undation Mr. Wordsworth's visit Miss Kelty Her recollections 
 Sir John Malcolm Hyde Hall Tour in Normandy with Mr. Kenelm 
 Digby Mont St. Michel Laying of stone of New Court Handel's 
 1 Messiah ' Miller's Bampton Lectures Father of the College Tour in 
 Cumberland Christmas of 1824, in Edinburgh Tour in Germany 
 Takes Priest's Orders Dolcoath Mine Brasted Hop harvest Christ- 
 mas of 1826, in Paris ' Hermann and Dorothea ' Malcolms leave Hyde 
 Hall Spinning Maiden's Cross Professorship of Mineralogy Dr. Clarke 
 Dolcoath again St. Michael's Mount Drawings for Cologne Cathe- 
 dral at Darmstadt Comparisons are odious Sir Thomas Munro Jones's 
 book Bridgewater Treatise Hambleton Hills Mrs. Somerville Tour 
 with Mr. Rickman Lubbock M. Rio. 
 
 MR. WHEWELL passed the Long Vacation of the year 1822 
 entirely in England. He expounds his changes of plan 
 in a letter to Mr. Wilkinson, in May. The occupations 
 of * reading and writing,' to which he refers, seem to 
 have included, as usual, the study of a good deal of 
 poetry, and frequent disquisitions upon it addressed to 
 his friends. As to the ' Ode to Immortality,' he appears 
 to have agreed with Coleridge, who said Wordsworth 
 might have prefixed to it the lines applied by Dante to 
 one of his own ' Canzoni ' l : 
 
 lyric song, there will be few, think I, 
 Who may thy import understand aright ; 
 Thou art for them so arduous and high. 
 
 1 Canzone Morali, lib. iv. canz. 1. 
 
76 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 To the Rev. H. Wilkinson] 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge: May 21, 1822. 
 
 Your letter found me very undecided as to the disposal of 
 my summer, and I can hardly say yet that my plans are better 
 made up. I was to have gone as far as Milan and Venice with 
 Jones, but he is prevented from leaving England, and that and 
 other reasons will, I think, prevent me from wandering far. As 
 I have no particular object, I should not wonder if I stay here 
 great part of the vacation, simply in consequence of the vis 
 inertice. I can contrive to employ myself fully with reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic, and have indeed done so little to any 
 purpose of late that I should like to get, in some degree, into 
 habits of industry again. All which being considered, it 
 does not seem certain that I shall come sufficiently near you 
 during your holidays to experience the attraction of cohesion 
 towards you, which force I should otherwise be very willing to 
 resign myself to. Still I think I shall not go through the 
 summer without paying a visit to my friends in the north, and 
 there is a chance at least of its falling in your vacation, but I 
 am afraid it will not. 
 
 But to all this intelligence I ought to add my university 
 news. We are making divers alterations, I think improve- 
 ments, in the. examinations, and shall by-and-by have a very 
 tolerable system of it so far as legislature is concerned. We 
 are also talking of making Henslow mineralogical professor to 
 succeed Clarke ; but it has just come out that the Heads are 
 going to try to get the nomination into their own hands, and as 
 this is perfectly in the teeth of all precedent in cases exactly 
 similar, I hope we shall organise a very pretty rebellion to 
 oppose it. The Masters of Arts meet to-morrow at the Red 
 Lion to see what can be done. It is hard if Webb l and Chafy 2 
 are to get dominion over us. I have been so little in the way 
 of reading Livy of late that I can throw no light upon Numa's 
 Calendar ; neither Montecla nor Delambres illustrate it at all. 
 I do not find that Livy tells you about the months of thirty-one 
 and twenty-three days, though Plutarch and all the commenta- 
 tors appear agreed about that. If they had got such months, it 
 
 1 Master of Clare College. 2 Master of Sidney Sussex College. 
 
1822 NUMA'S CALENDAE. 77 
 
 is quite clear they could not correspond with the moon's phases. 
 But all that Livy appears to say is that there was a cycle of 
 twenty-four years, which might be, though I do not see how 
 that would be better than the old one of eight. At all events 
 it must have been a very bungling contrivance, and I dare say 
 very bunglingly explained. I believe you know De Wanze's 
 admirable memoir on the Koman Calendar after u.c. 304, which 
 shows that they were not very exact even then. I will get your 
 telescope if I have opportunity and can fulfil the conditions. 
 As to Wordsworth, I do not like any sonnets, and I think most 
 of his faults are aggravated when he takes to that species of 
 writing. His harshness of expression and his determination to 
 dwell upon feelings which are very sincere and vivid in himself, 
 but which he can never be sure of conveying to other people, are 
 all concentrated when he is confined to fourteen lines. Since I 
 saw him, I think I admire his beauties as much as ever, but I 
 have lost that mysterious respect with which I used to look at 
 his faults with a sort of suspicion that there might be something 
 in them. I have not yet found any Wordsworthian to invent a 
 meaning for that strange stanza in the Ode which in other 
 respects I admire as you do. Excuse my haste, though I am 
 afraid it will be all the worse speed for you in the process of 
 reading what I have written, but St. Mary's bell is swinging 
 * Post-time ' in my ear. 
 
 During a visit to Lancaster, paid in the autumn of 
 this year, Mr. Whewell's correspondence with Mr. Eose, 
 now established at Horsham, was revived after some 
 interruption. The two friends seem to have been at 
 this time, no less than formerly, eager to amuse them- 
 selves with disputations, and agreeing to differ most 
 amicably. 
 
 Lancaster: Sept. 22, 1822. 
 
 Your letter did not reach Cambridge till I had left it, 
 though it got here before me. I shall not be able to answer it 
 to much purpose from this remote country ; for your topograph- 
 ical inquiries I have not at present the means of satisfying, 
 and with respect to your metaphysical ones, if I make the 
 
78 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 attempt, it is ten to one whether you will believe what I tell 
 you I have no doubt my being so near Scotland would carry 
 conviction to your Platonic mind that I must be wrong. 
 
 But your letter reminded me that I had not yet told you 
 how glad I was to hear of your elevation to that see ; and though 
 I hope you would take that for granted, I do not see why I 
 should delay any longer to certify you of it, which I can do with 
 great sincerity and pleasure. I should be extremely happy to 
 go and see you in your government of Barataria, and I half 
 intended to try when I was with Jones a little time ago ; but I 
 believe time and place presented strong obstacles, as you were 
 abroad and I was busy. And it wouid give me great pleasure 
 to meet Townshend, though I am afraid on some points there 
 is little chance of our convincing each 'other; and it seems 
 somehow or other to be understood that that is the object of 
 discussion, though the instances where people succeed are so 
 few that I suppose by-and-by the practice will be discontinued. 
 
 I am sorry that you are so much puzzled to choose between 
 ideas and things, that you are making up your mind to be 
 content with words, which, so far as I understand it, is the 
 Platonic resource. I cannot tell you what people in general 
 believe about Berkeley and Keid ; but the two appear to me to 
 come to much the same result. Berkeley says that what we 
 perceive are ideas, and that there is nothing else. Eeid asserts 
 that we perceive things, and that there is nothing else. But 
 they both agree that what we perceive exists, and they deny 
 any other objects. The important question is, whether the 
 objects which we perceive are independent of us in their rela- 
 tions and sequences, and of that we have complete evidence as 
 far 'as the proposition is intelligible. I would never desire to 
 prove a proposition further. But I will tell you what the mis- 
 chief is (very likely I have told it you before) : almost all the 
 quarrelling in the world arises from prepositions. Are not all 
 your theological disputes questions of in, and by, and with, and 
 from, and so on ? So likewise in this instance. People choose 
 to ask whether the objects we perceive are without the mind 
 or not. What do they mean ? I know what is meant by a 
 church steeple being on the outside of the eye, or a dead dog 
 on the outside of the nose ; and if the mind reside in the eye 
 
1822 COLERIDGE. 79 
 
 or the nose, you may in the same sense say that these objects 
 are exterior to it ; but in point of fact the relation between 
 the mind and objects is not one which can be expressed by any 
 such beggarly part of speech, it is that of perceiving and per- 
 ceived. The only externality which is worth lifting an eyelid 
 for is the constancy of the laws of nature, by which certain 
 qualities perceived by the different senses are inseparably con- 
 nected, and act upon each other in the way of cause and effect. 
 
 Have you read Brown's books? They are dashing, and 
 on some material points strangely wrong ; but about cause and 
 effect he has an admirable clearness of view and happiness of 
 illustration. Now so much for the external world, as people 
 choose to nickname it, and it is long since I troubled myself or 
 anybody else so much about its existence. Pray if some fine 
 morning you should awake and find you had lost your belief in it, 
 how would your Platonism help you ? Do you think you could 
 make another out of all your external ideas and words in eity ? 
 You may depend upon it, you would never be able to set up so 
 much as a really existing joint stool by means of them. So 
 Coleridge may publish as soon as he chooses. As he takes all 
 the conceivable elements of unintelligibility, it is hard if any 
 envious ray of meaning finds its way through the theologico- 
 metaphysico-etymologico-Coleridge thatch with which he will 
 cover his Platonic hut. 
 
 Now be all this said without any disparagement to the 
 Platonism with which you edified the Assize people, which I 
 dare say besides being good Platonism was something better. 
 I shall return to Cambridge in about a fortnight. I am print- 
 ing, and have been making a vain attempt to carry on opera- 
 tions at this distance from Cambridge. It does not answer ; 
 so I must return. I suppose you know that Hare is our new 
 Classical Lecturer. So you wild people may come to have a 
 party in Cambridge. 
 
 The letters at the close of this year to his aunt, Mrs. 
 Lyon, are full of sympathy with her depression of spirits, 
 and wise counsels not to attach too much importance 
 to ' these ebbs and flows of feeling.' Part of the Christ- 
 
80 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1822 
 
 mas vacation he spent in Paris at a pension, and was, 
 as lie says, well repaid for some discomforts by finding 
 men of science and lectures easy of access. 
 
 A letter to his sister in the following March shows 
 with what eager interest all Cambridge news was studied 
 in the Lancaster home, and how great was his aunt's sur- 
 prise that any one else could be distinguished and re- 
 markable where her nephew was ; a feeling which he 
 never for a moment encouraged, but always met with a 
 rectification none the less decisive because playful and 
 affectionate. 
 
 To his Aunt] Canterbury : Dec. 29, 1822. 
 
 I spent the greater part of last week at Horsham with a 
 friend of the name of Eose. You will be glad to hear that I 
 have done with my book, though you need not be under any 
 apprehensions of my giving myself too much work, for though 
 printing is tiresome enough, it is not very laborious, and I will 
 insure you a stout healthy nephew for a long time if he is to 
 be well till excessive industry makes him ill. 
 
 The next year is now very close, and I need not tell you 
 that you have my best wishes, that it may roll kindly over your 
 head and my sisters'. I would pray that it may be favourable 
 to your health of body and peace of mind. The former will 
 depend much upon the latter, and may suffer by your torment- 
 ing yourself with fears and alarms about the varying state of 
 your feelings on religious matters. Nobody can doubt that a 
 sense of our own un worthiness, of our dependence upon the good- 
 ness of God, and of our redemption by His Son, is of the highest 
 importance. But it is possible to attach far too much import- 
 ance to the perpetual changes of feeling to which every one is 
 subject, according to his disposition and to circumstances. 
 Our hopes and ideas may be more or less lively, more or less 
 cheerful, at one time than at another ; but this variableness is of 
 less consequence than the steady and habitual views, founded 
 upon serious and calm reflection, which these alternations of 
 humour will not affect. It appears to me exceedingly wrong, to 
 
1822 RELIGIOUS DEPRESSION. 81 
 
 say no more, to suppose that a person's salvation depends on 
 the state of his spirits. As these vary, our confidence in what 
 we hope changes also. We sometimes doubt of the affection of 
 our friends for some melancholy moments. But do not all 
 judicious persons wait for the recovery from such depressions, 
 and trust to a firm and long-tried friendship in spite of them ? 
 And shall accidents and caprices overcome the operation of a 
 steady principle in religious matters, when they do not in 
 worldly ones ? I believe that people are now doing much 
 harm by making religion depend on these ebbs and flows of 
 feeling. Many of the artifices which are used to keep people 
 in the state of agitation thought necessary may have a per- 
 nicious effect, and destroy both the deep humility and the 
 Christian confidence which regular worship and serious reading 
 and meditation are calculated to produce. 
 
 I have preached so long that I have hardly room to tell 
 you what is the principal object of my letter. I am going 
 to France this winter, and I am here so far on my road to 
 Dover. I stay to see the cathedral. ... I shall not be at an 
 hotel in Paris, but at what is called a pension, where I shall 
 dine with the family, which will be more pleasant, and will 
 teach me more French. 
 
 To his Sister] Boulogne: Dec. 31, 1822. 
 
 We have had a much longer voyage than we expected. At 
 Dover this morning I intended to go to Calais, but I was weak 
 enough to allow myself to be persuaded by the captain of a 
 packet going to Boulogne, that the wind was more fair for that 
 course and the harbour easier to get into. The consequence 
 was, that I embarked in the ' Medusa ' at eleven o'clock this 
 morning did not reach this side till six, when it was quite 
 dark ; then found that we were at a great distance from the 
 place of our destination in fact, it turned out to be at least a 
 mile of water and a mile of land ; was obliged to wait some 
 hours before boats came to fetch us over the first half of this 
 interval, and then found all sorts of sands, and stones, and 
 paddles, and custom-house officers, to interrupt our progress 
 over the other half. 
 
 Do not be alarmed at my complaints, for one is always 
 
 G 
 
82 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 peevish at coming from a voyage. At any rate I am much 
 better off than a fellow-traveller who is at present with me, 
 and whose mischances have been almost as provoking as mine 
 when 1 was shipwrecked. 
 
 He is a lieutenant in the navy, a Lancashire man, who has 
 been in America and India and all sorts of places, and who is 
 finally just returned from a voyage round the world to Liver- 
 pool. He has got leave of absence for fourteen days, which he 
 intended to employ in visiting his mother and sisters, who live 
 at Abbeville, and whom he had not seen for nine years. He 
 came over with us to-day, but unfortunately the porters chose to 
 blunder and to put his trunk into the packet which went to Calais 
 instead of the one which came here. The consequence is that 
 he must either travel about looking after his baggage, which 
 may be attended with difficulty, as his passport is in his port- 
 manteau, or he must leave the recovery of it to chance, which 
 will hardly be prudent, as it contains some valuable papers 
 which are of great importance to his family. 
 
 The people in France burn nothing but wood, and I almost 
 doubt whether it will keep me warm. However, Mr. Rose, with 
 whom I have been staying the greater part of last week, has 
 burnt it in his dining-room, because it is a good old English 
 custom, which may serve as a preparation for accommodating 
 myself to the habit of the French, who know no better. 
 
 To his Sisters'] Paris: Jan. 12, 1823. 
 
 I came here by rather a roundabout way, having stayed two 
 days at Amiens and as many at Rouen. I am tolerably well 
 situated here, not in an inn, but boarded with a family, en 
 pension as it is called. The family consists of Madame Durand, 
 a son, three daughters, and some other relatives. Other French 
 people come in to dine with us every day, but the only persons 
 boarding in the house are English. 
 
 To his Sister'] Cambridge : Feb. 2, 1823. 
 
 The cold continued very intense whilst I was in Paris, but 
 I did not find it very troublesome, and had too much to do and 
 to see to mind it much. A little before I left, however, the 
 
1823 AIRY. 83 
 
 thaw came on, and the streets were in a terrible condition to 
 walk in, for we had had a good deal of snow more, I believe, 
 considerably than fell in England. Being out a good deal at 
 all times of day, I finally caught a severe cold, which I have 
 brought with me to Cambridge, and shall get rid of as fast as 
 I can. Nothing could be worse than the state of the roads 
 between Paris and this place. In France they were covered 
 with a coating of frozen snow, so slippery that it was scarcely 
 possible to stand upon it, and the coach when it came to any 
 declivity slid down broadside first, in a way which did not look 
 very safe. Two English ladies who were with me were a good 
 deal alarmed, and it was as much as I could do to take care of 
 them and keep them quiet. 
 
 In spite of all inconveniences, I am very well satisfied with 
 my journey, and glad to have made it. The men of science and 
 the lectures, which were what I principally wished to visit, I 
 found easy access to. 
 
 To his Sister] Trin. Coll., Cambridge: March 16, 1823. 
 
 In my aunt's last letter she expresses a most affectionate 
 and aunt-like surprise that people should talk so much about 
 Airy, when they might talk about me. I am afraid she does 
 not know how many mathematicians there are in Cambridge, 
 and how little any one of them is conspicuous above the rest. 
 Airy is certainly a most extraordinary man, and deserves every- 
 thing that can be said of him, though the newspapers as usual 
 talked nonsense on the subject. 
 
 The way in which he was received in the Senate House 
 was exceedingly gratifying, especially as his sister was there 
 to receive pleasure from it as well as himself. The senior 
 wrangler is led with great ceremony up to the Vice-Chancellor's 
 throne, the members of the University falling back on both sides 
 so as to leave a vacant space for him to advance in, and he is then 
 presented to the Vice-Chancellor in a certain form of words. 
 When this was done there was at first a pause of silence, and 
 then suddenly a universal burst and thunder of applause from the 
 gallery all round, everybody shouting and cheering him. You 
 may imagine what an effect this must have had. His sister, 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 who, I suppose, was prepared to see him receive all the common 
 honours with composure, was quite overcome by this expression 
 of the feeling of the students in her brother's favour. She 
 burst into tears and wept violently. 
 
 My aunt complains that I wrote so short a letter after being 
 in France, but in fact I had little to tell. I was running about 
 to different lectures all the morning, and in the evening I was 
 either at the play or sitting by Mademoiselle Durand, and hear- 
 ing her play French airs on a very bad pianoforte. 
 
 To his Sister] June 1, 1823. 
 
 I cannot quite make up my mind to my aunt's plan of 
 rambling about the neighbourhood of Lancaster for the vacation ; 
 and if I did you would probably not see much more of me than 
 if I remained here ; for if I got so far I should be disposed to 
 join Sedgwick, who is geologising among the lakes, and to stay 
 with him as long as my time would allow. 
 
 My present plan is to set off for France immediately, with 
 the intention of visiting the principal antiquities of Normandy. 
 This will, I expect, take me three weeks or a month, and then 
 I shall return to Cambridge. 
 
 I should perhaps have left Cambridge sooner, but I got a 
 hurt on my knee, which has kept me here. It was a sprain 
 received among the adventures of a boating party down the 
 river, and it has been very slow in getting better. 
 
 I do not know whether I told you that I shall be joint tutor 
 this year, and tutor by myself afterwards, which will place me 
 in the same situation which Mr. Hudson held when I came up. 
 
 Kemington is in the first class this year, and is doing very 
 well. 
 
 I have lately seen something of the author of the ' Favourite 
 of Nature,' whom I do not like quite so well as her book. She 
 plays beautifully on the pianoforte. 
 
 We have got magnificent plans for improving the College. 
 We are going to add to it a species of castellated building half 
 as large as Dalton Square [Lancaster]. 
 
 Frequent mention of Miss Kelty and her various 
 writings is made by Mr. Whewell to his sisters. To 
 
1823 MISS KELTY. 85 
 
 one of them (Mrs. Newton) Miss Kelty wrote in De- 
 cember 1872, describing their first meeting. 
 
 In looking back through the vista of departed years, which 
 the eighty-fourth of my age makes a long one, some prominent 
 points of interest present themselves in the friendships and 
 social relations which exercised a strong and lasting influence 
 over my mind. 
 
 Amongst these I number with feelings of grateful regard 
 my acquaintance with the late Dr. Whewell. 
 
 It commenced nearly fifty years ago by his sending me a 
 valentine, in which vivid allusions testified to his having 
 earnestly and approvingly read some novels which I had recently 
 published. The style of this communication sufficiently proved 
 that my unknown correspondent was no common person, and I 
 was not sorry when an accidental encounter in company led to 
 his acknowledging that he had taken this step with a view to 
 becoming acquainted with one whose works he said had given 
 him so much pleasure. 
 
 The way thus opened led to a friendship of much value to 
 me, but not of many years' duration, for it was arrested in its 
 course, together with others as highly prized, by a train of 
 strange melancholy circumstances, which, by impairing my 
 health, compelled me to shut my door upon even my dearest 
 friends. . . . Amongst the few who gave me credit for well 
 knowing what I was about, I gratefully number my dear friend 
 Dr. Whewell. 
 
 In the summer of 1823, Mr. Whewell made a tour 
 in Normandy with Mr. Kenelm Digby. His object was 
 the study of architecture ; but he had attention to spare 
 for the caps of the women, and sent his sisters elaborate 
 drawings of one or two of the most remarkable forms. 
 
 In August of this year, on the occasion of the 
 foundation stone of the New Court of Trinity being 
 laid, he tells his sisters of a grand luncheon party given 
 by the Master, and of an evening entertainment given 
 apparently by the Fellows. The guest whose acquaint- 
 
86 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 ance Mr. Whewell was ' most glad to make ' was Sir 
 John Malcolm, then resident at Hyde Hall, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cambridge. This was the beginning of a 
 friendship, or rather series of friendships, with Sir John 
 and all the members of his family, which he valued and 
 cherished to the last hours of his life, and which, so 
 long as the Malcolms inhabited Hyde Hall, enriched his 
 Cambridge life by adding to it the delights of a culti- 
 vated and refined home, of which he was always a 
 welcome inmate. To it he introduced Hare, Sedgwick, 
 and others of his friends, and there they proved that, as 
 Hare has said (p. 528, last edition, ' Guesses at Truth '), 
 4 Conversation may have all that is valuable in it, and 
 all that is lively and pleasant, without anything that 
 comes under the head of personality ; ' adding, ' The 
 house in which, above all others I have ever been an 
 inmate of, the life and the spirit and the joy of con- 
 versation have been the most intense, is a house in 
 which I hardly ever heard an evil word uttered against 
 any one. The genial heart of cordial sympathy with 
 which its illustrious master sought out the good side 
 in every person and thing . . . seemed to communicate 
 itself to all the members of his family, and operated as 
 a charm even upon his visitors.' 
 
 Congenial indeed must such an atmosphere have 
 been to one who, as Mr. Kenelm Digby says in the 
 letter already quoted, ' never spoke unkindly of any 
 one behind his back, though he was free enough 
 and bold enough spoken when he had you face to 
 face.' 
 
 But Sir John Malcolm was not the only attraction 
 to the circle accustomed through these bright years to 
 assemble at Hyde Hall. The spell of Lady Malcolm's 
 presence is described as irresistible. Archdeacon Hare 
 was wont to say, ' There is no chance of tearing one's-self 
 
1823 HYDE HALL. 87 
 
 away when once the hostess appears ; one can only fly 
 before she comes down to breakfast.' Professor Sedg- 
 wick said, ' There was an irresistible charm in her 
 manner, and in her house were spent some of the 
 happiest days of my life ; ' in fact, as Archdeacon Hare 
 expressed it, ' it was impossible to leave Hyde Hall 
 without being, not indeed, like the wedding guest, a 
 sadder and a wiser man, but certainly a wiser one, and 
 if one were not going away, a gladder.' The daughters 
 of the house and Miss Manning frequently spoken of 
 by her pet name ' Ma-man,' afterwards Mrs. Alexander, 
 and then a member of the household of Sir John were 
 sharers in this cordial intimacy, and a playful copy of 
 verses addressed ' To Miss Kate Malcolm on her tenth 
 birthday ' remains to show how early the children were 
 admitted to the friendship which my uncle entertained 
 for them to the last hour of his life. The lines referred 
 to run as follows, and must have been written by Mr. 
 Whewell about 1825 :- 
 
 Though, dearest Kate, this ancient College 
 
 Has never seen you to its knowledge, 
 
 Ne'er saw you shake your clustering hair 
 
 Within its battlemented square, 
 
 Nor ope delighted eye to gaze 
 
 Upon its odd collegiate ways, 
 
 Yet know this College views you still 
 
 With deep respect and warm good-will ; 
 
 And hearing (walls, you know, can hear) 
 
 Your honoured birthday now is near, 
 
 It bids, its high behest to fill, 
 
 My artless fingers hold the quill, 
 
 And write, and lay (as is most meet) 
 
 Its best good wishes at your feet. 
 
 For an historian tells, dear Kate, 
 
 In history of ancient date, 
 
 How on a lady's birthday once, 
 
 Who lived in joy and innocence, 
 
88 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 A friend, her best and dearest one, 
 With mild benignant eyes looked on, 
 And, sighing as she sometimes would, 
 For she was not so gay as good, 
 
 * Oh, might nine years, dear child,' she said, 
 
 * Koll over thy beloved head 
 
 As free from care, and grief, and sin, 
 
 As those that have already been ; ' 
 
 And how in turn the lady raised 
 
 Her head and somewhat gravely gazed, 
 
 As wondering whence that sigh began, 
 
 And asked : ' And pray why not, Ma-man ? * 
 
 Now you, dear Kate, an age can claim 
 
 Far above this historic dame ; 
 
 Yet if a birthday wish you hear 
 
 Which still may be for many a year 
 
 Happy as hitherto your lot, 
 
 Sure you may ask, like her, ' Why not ? ' 
 
 Why should not beaming smiles continue 
 
 To make their radiant dwelling in you, 
 
 Undimmed their shine though changed their trace, 
 
 From infant glee to maiden grace ? 
 
 Why should not peaceful thoughts and pure 
 
 In your unfolding heart endure, 
 
 And shed their sunshine on your way 
 
 From childhood's dawn to woman's day ? 
 
 And though no more the baby figure, 
 
 We see the little fairy bigger, 
 
 Why should not all around you yet 
 
 Greet you with looks affectionate, 
 
 And still about your pathway press 
 
 With thoughts of love and tenderness ? 
 
 Oh, dearest Kate, be still your lot 
 
 To wonder, and to ask, ' Why not ? ' 
 
 To his Aunt] Rouen: June 13, 1823. 
 
 I left London on Sunday evening, after getting your letter, 
 and passed from Dover to Calais next day. My companion is 
 Digby, a friend and old pupil of mine, who was with me in 
 
1823 NORMANDY. 89 
 
 Wales. He has travelled with his sketch-book in his hand 
 over a considerable part of Europe. 
 
 We came over from England in about three hours, which is 
 a very good passage, especially as it was in a sailing boat, not 
 a steamboat. From Calais we set off next day to Abbeville, 
 where there is a cathedral, which induced us to stay half a day ; 
 and from Abbeville to Dieppe was our next journey. To come 
 from Dieppe hither was the employment of yesterday, and here 
 we shall stay till Monday morning, when we set off to go to 
 Lisieux and Caen. 
 
 The part of the country to which we are travelling, besides 
 being full of abundance of ruins of castles and abbeys, and 
 objects of that kind, is, I believe, very beautiful ; and it is there 
 that a great number of the English have settled who have 
 retired to France from motives of economy. There are said to 
 be twenty or thirty families at Caen. It is usually reckoned 
 that by living here they can save about one-third in the expenses 
 of housekeeping. 
 
 Nothing is so remarkable here as the dresses of the women. 
 They wear caps of an enormous height, something like a sugar- 
 loaf with a child's cap at the top of it, and large flaps of white 
 muslin spreading out on each side backwards. It is said that 
 the inhabitants of every village have a particular head-dress, 
 all of them of very large dimensions ; and I have seen a series 
 of fifty or sixty ^prints representing them. For my own part, 
 I have hitherto seen only two or three different forms, but all 
 of them perfectly unlike anything you ever saw. Next to the 
 dresses in Switzerland they are the most extraordinary vagaries 
 that I have seen, and some of them will bear a comparison for 
 oddity even with the Swiss costumes. 
 
 To his Aunt and Sisters] London: July 14, 1823. 
 
 My tour in Normandy I enjoyed very much. From Caen 
 my companion and I took a carriage for a week, and travelled 
 to the western extremity of the province. The people seem to 
 me less lively than in other parts of France ; but, on the whole, 
 we got on very well. The farthest point of our travels was St. 
 Michael's Mount, a most remarkable insulated rock, surrounded 
 on all sides, and for a great distance, by the sands of the sea, 
 
90 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 and covered with very lofty and picturesque buildings, which 
 formerly composed a monastery, and which are at present a 
 prison. It was considered a place of extraordinary sanctity, and 
 an immense number of persons have, at various times, come in 
 pilgrimage hither. They give you the names of kings and 
 queens of France and England, princes and statesmen, bishops 
 and warriors without end who have visited the shrine of ' St. 
 Michel au peril de la mer.' Even yet the reputation of its 
 holiness is not quite gone. Many persons still come in a spirit 
 of devotion, and I bought there a little book which related a 
 great number of miracles which had been performed by the 
 assistance of St. Michael, and which the good priest who narrates 
 them maintains to be quite as certain as those of Scripture. 
 From St. Michael's we returned by another road to Caen, visiting 
 Falaise, the birthplace and castle of William the Conqueror. I 
 have no room nor time to give you any further account of our 
 travels. My journeys were all safe and prosperous, without 
 accident, except that in consequence of a contrary wind we had 
 a long passage from Calais to Dover, which made me very sea- 
 sick, so that I was hardly quite recovered the next day. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity College: Aug. 13, 1823. 
 
 I promised to send you intelligence of my arrival here, and 
 of the proceedings of our foundation day at the same time, and 
 I am now just able to do it. 
 
 Yesterday, which was our great day, was very busy and 
 bustling, very crowded and very hot, but upon the whole every- 
 thing went off very well, and all the world appeared exceedingly 
 well satisfied. We were afraid that St. Swithin and his rainy 
 propensities might be in our way, but fortunately the day was one 
 of the most gorgeous that ever was seen, and though the sun 
 was too powerful to be comfortable, he did what he could to 
 make everything as brilliant as possible. I will send you a 
 Cambridge paper if I can, in which you will find a more detailed 
 account of what was done and said than I can give you. 
 
 Before the ceremony began the Master of the College had a 
 large party of ladies to a collation of fruit and such matters in 
 a large state room which we call Henry the Eighth's room, and 
 
1823 TRINITY LUNCHEON. 91 
 
 when we had paid our respects to our visitors there, we formed 
 ourselves into a procession and went to the gate of the College 
 to receive the Speaker and the Vice-Chancellor with the rest of 
 the University. Then our procession, so increased, went winding 
 back in a long black line that would have reached round the 
 great court. Our lady spectators say that it was very pretty to 
 see the ranks of gownsmen moving across the great quadrangle ; 
 after which the procession went round two of the pillared sides 
 of the cloister court, and so to the place where our new buildings 
 are to be. The place where the stone is laid was surrounded 
 with booths, which were filled with ladies and University men, 
 and all the windows and tops of the houses in the neighbour- 
 hood were occupied by spectators. 
 
 The ceremony of laying the stone consists in putting certain 
 coins and other memorials into a hole in the stone, after which 
 it is raised by machinery, the mortar spread under it with a 
 silver trowel by the King's representative, who seemed a good 
 deal amused at finding himself employed in such a manner, and 
 it is then let down. This was accompanied by a Latin speech 
 from one of the Fellows, which was answered by an English one 
 from the Speaker : then a prayer by the Master and an anthem 
 by the choristers, after which we sang ' God save the King,' and 
 went to dinner. Our dinner was of course large and sump- 
 tuous. I believe we had four bucks, and turtle in proportion. 
 
 By way of concluding the evening, we some of us contrived 
 to collect an evening party of ladies and gentlemen, or what in 
 London is called a rout, when we had music and cards, with 
 tea and coffee and ices. My bed-maker tells me that we had 
 about 200 people at our rout, -and I can answer for it that it 
 was hot enough to make one believe so. However, our lady 
 guests seemed well satisfied with the meeting. 
 
 We had several persons of consequence there, but the person 
 whose acquaintance I was most glad to make was Sir John 
 Malcolm, an officer who has distinguished himself much, both 
 by his conduct in the East and by his writings upon it. He is 
 a fine tall manly figure with a bald head and the broad red 
 ribbon and star of the Order of the Thistle. I have no time to 
 tell you more at present, nor to give you any particulars of my 
 journey hither. I could not get nearer by coaches than North- 
 
92 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1823 
 
 ampton, and the stage beyond it, and then came forty-five miles 
 across the country in chaises rather than go round by London. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College : Sept. 1 8, 1823. 
 
 [The letter is begun on the fourth page of the sheet of 
 paper.] 
 
 I begin this letter with a notable piece of economy. Hav- 
 ing written the date in the wrong place when addressing 
 another correspondent, I have thought I might take the liberty 
 of sending it to you in spite of its defect. I suppose your 
 perplexity when you get to the bottom of the page will be 
 something like that of our old purblind Vice-Master, who was 
 seen the other day trying to open a door on the side where the 
 hinges were. 
 
 Since we got fairly into the stream of the vacation, we have 
 glided on in a course of monotonous inactivity that makes it 
 impossible to know how many days and weeks have passed. 
 Sheepshanks has been here, and living in the same set of rooms 
 with me, so that I have been spending my time very pleasantly, 
 and am only sorry to see the golden days of the vacation run- 
 ning so fast to their end. I shall very soon have to begin my 
 employments of book-keeping and lecturing, and must lead a 
 v ery different life of it. And, as I told you, I manage so ill 
 in taking care of my own money, that I am quite alarmed at the 
 idea of having to look after other people's. 
 
 However, before all this begins, I am going to indulge my- 
 self in one little excursion by going to the Birmingham musical 
 meeting. 
 
 To his Aunt and Sisters'] Nov. 2, 1823. 
 
 I forget whether I have written to you since my journey to 
 Birmingham. I was exceedingly gratified with what I heard 
 there, and thought my trouble well bestowed. Especially I was 
 delighted with Handel's famous composition of the 'Messiah,' 
 which I had only heard once before, and which I think is one of 
 the most wonderful of uninspired productions. The words are 
 beautifully selected from Scripture, first from the prophecies 
 and then from the narrative of their completion, and the music 
 is almost as divine as the words. 
 
1823 MR. STMEOX. 93 
 
 I have got some college offices conferred upon me which 
 will make it necessary for me to stay here all the vacation ; so 
 that all our fine schemes of visiting Scotland are quite blown 
 up. I resign them with the less regret because Sedgwick, who 
 was to have been my companion, is also prevented from taking 
 the journey. I have been hearing Mr. Simeon to-day. He is 
 University preacher for the present month. I dare say Martha 
 would have liked his sermon, but I cannot say that I was much 
 pleased with it. Kobert Hall, the great Baptist minister of 
 Leicester, has lately been here, and I heard several of his 
 sermons. I certainly consider him as one of the most eloquent 
 and striking preachers I ever heard or hope to hear. 
 
 The following letters to Mr. Eose are interesting, 
 not only for their lively exposition of what Mr. Whewell 
 called ' my school ' and ' your school,' but as showing 
 that both the ' golden days of the vacation ' and the 
 4 wise passiveness ' of the October term which followed 
 it, and all the toils of the tutorship, left him full leisure 
 to consider and to attack the principles of his friend 
 and his supposed manner of carrying them out, as well 
 as to sympathise with him in the increased anxiety 
 caused by his health. 
 
 Trinity College: Dec. 16, 1823. 
 
 If I had answered your letter immediately, which I intended 
 to do, and should have done if the business of the term had not 
 come too thick upon me, I should have had some answer to 
 give to another part of your letter ; but all one's pungent dis- 
 putatious feelings evaporate by standing still. I do not mean 
 that I should have quarrelled about the character that you 
 give to Miller's Bampton Lectures, for I have not read the book, 
 though the account you give of it has excited my curiosity to 
 look at it. But I suppose I should have asked you what you 
 mean by your school and my school. I do not know that my 
 views and opinions are those of any class of people, and they 
 certainly are not those which have often served as a basis 
 for the jokes of our common acquaintances. Your school is, I 
 
94 LIFE OF DR. WTIEWELL. 1823 
 
 presume, the Wordsworthian, and I believe that many of the 
 persons whom, I imagine, you would include in it have exceed- 
 ingly amiable and deeply seated religious and moral views and 
 feelings ; but what these have to do with ' Peter Bell ' or * Betty 
 Foy,' or even with Coleridge's rant of etymologico-Platonic 
 speculations, is what I have never been able to make out, and 
 what, with your leave, I would say you will find it more diffi- 
 cult to make out to your own satisfaction in proportion as your 
 good principles become more clearly seen and more tranquilly 
 possessed. It is fortunately true that when the intellect has 
 exercised its vagaries on the subject of general principles till it 
 is tired, it finds that, after all, the affections will take their share 
 in making them, and this fact is not applicable to any school 
 exclusively. 
 
 However, I will read Miller, and then you shall see how very 
 much other people are in the right as well as yourself. 
 
 Mr. Eose appears to have invited his friend to come 
 and talk over these matters at Horsham, but Mr. 
 Whewell could not go, and so we have the discussion 
 continued in the next letter. 
 
 Trinity College: Dec. 29, 1823. 
 
 I shall hardly be able to leave Cambridge this vacation for a 
 single day ; the office of Father of the College and the employ- 
 ments of the tutorship together hold me fast by the leg. If I 
 were more at liberty, I should hope to be able to convince you 
 that I am not so unreasonable as to require more than the 
 society of an old friend to please and interest me. To tell the 
 truth, though I must be flattered by the character you give me, 
 I should be alarmed if I thought it made me more difficult to 
 entertain than other people. The fact, however, I am afraid, 
 is, that you are at present judging both of yourself and your 
 friends under the influence of low spirits, and I am sorry to see 
 it. There is only one consolation in such a case, that when 
 you know it to be so you may be confidently convinced that 
 the gloomy conclusions which the mind seizes upon are in- 
 variably false. 
 
1823 LETTER TO ROSE. 95 
 
 I am sure if you had been here the last term you would 
 have had a much more mitigated idea of my zeal for knowledge. 
 Instead of being ravenous after information or incessant in in- 
 tellectual exertion, I have been abandoning myself in a state of 
 wise passiveness to the impulses of Cambridge drawing-rooms 
 and pianoforte performers, and can hardly accuse myself of 
 gnawing at the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge for two 
 hours together for the whole time. 
 
 This is but an indifferent account to give of one's-self, but 
 such a course is not without a sort of kindly influence in its 
 way, and therefore, for anything I see, it may do me as much 
 good as Sir Kobert Filmer and Malebranche will do you. In- 
 deed, I cannot help suspecting that you are taking more violent 
 remedies than are required by any contagion of a rebellious and 
 disobedient spirit that you ever contracted. Are you not doing 
 what our worthy friend Hare and some others do to an extent 
 which I should not have conceived possible in men of sense? 
 Finding that Reason alone cannot invent a satisfactory system 
 of morals and politics, are you not quarrelling with her alto- 
 gether, and adopting opinions because they are irrational ? It 
 is, seriously speaking, what some of you do, and seems to belong 
 to an ascetic system of mortifying the common sense, much 
 more extraordinary than the most severe discipline for mortifying 
 the flesh. You are like St. Peter, who would be crucified with 
 his head downwards. Do you not see that this very spirit of 
 exaggeration is exactly contrary to that tranquil possession and 
 equilibrium of the faculties which you rightly consider as the 
 most healthful state of the mind ? 
 
 Why will you not see that in speculative matters, though 
 Reason may go wrong if not guided by our better affections, you 
 cannot do without her ? All your efforts not to reason at all 
 will only end in your reasoning very ill. So pray do not pay 
 your philosophy so bad a compliment as to make it appear that 
 your initiation must needs be accompanied by some kind of in- 
 toxication, and that its inspiration is the result of your giddiness. 
 I beg your pardon for all this blasphemy ; but what can I say 
 when I see men of sense adopt ing obsolete follies merely because 
 they have been so completely confuted ? And I tell you again 
 that a person's affections may be in as kind and tranquil and 
 
96 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1824 
 
 humble a state without any of the peculiarities of your school 
 as they are in any of you. 
 
 I should have been very glad to see Sharpe, and delighted 
 again to meet Paynter, whom I saw during the vacation, after 
 an awfully long separation. 
 
 During the summer of 1824, Mr. Whewell was again 
 in Cumberland, ' rambling about the country with Sedg- 
 wick and examining the strata,' as well as visiting both 
 Sou they and Wordsworth. He contrived as usual to 
 part with most of his possessions in the course of his 
 journeyings, but remarks with satisfaction that his mis- 
 fortunes are no longer of the same irremediable character 
 as formerly ; his portmanteau in course of time returned 
 to him. He spent Christmas in Edinburgh. He writes 
 to his aunt and sisters from Lincoln : 
 
 Aug. 6, 1824. 
 
 I am at present on my way into the north, though, as you 
 will see by the date of my letter, I am not taking the shortest 
 course to Lancaster. I am travelling with some Cambridge 
 friends, principally with the object of seeing cathedrals and 
 churches. We have been looking at the very fine cathedral 
 here these two days, and we are now setting off for Hull, and 
 thence we shall go to Beverley and York, and probably to 
 Durham, and thence turn down to Lancaster. 
 
 Kendal: Aug. 25, 1824. 
 
 I am afraid you will be sorry to hear that I have determined 
 to go direct from this place to Cambridge, without taking 
 Lancaster on my way. I find from the sheets which you have 
 sent me that my printing is going on indifferently in my 
 absence, and ever since I left you I have been afraid that I had 
 left matters to themselves too long without sufficient prepara- 
 tion, so that I shall not feel easy till I get back to college. 
 
 I got here on Thursday last, and next day saw Wordsworth 
 at Eydai, and Southey at Keswick, by whom I was informed 
 
1824 SEDGWICK. 97 
 
 where to look for Sedgwick. I found him on Saturday at the 
 back of Skiddaw, in company with Grwatkin, as I had expected. 
 I stayed with him three days rambling about the country and 
 examining the strata, and parted with him this morning between 
 Penrith and Carlisle. 
 
 We had fine weather on Sunday and Monday ; and though 
 we got wet yesterday, I am no worse for it. As he was not 
 exactly among the lakes, I have not seen anything more of the 
 good scenery hereabouts ; but I preferred being with Sedgwick, 
 and as it was I saw the floating island in Derwentwater and the 
 Poet Laureate. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity College: Sept. 2, 1824. 
 
 I find reason to congratulate myself on having come here 
 without delay, and the next time I visit you I will try to make 
 my motions more regular and considerate, and in the meanwhile 
 you must try to persuade yourselves that there is not anything 
 very shocking in these rapid manoeuvres, as they will take place 
 now and then. 
 
 I got to Leeds, as I intended, very prosperously, but for the 
 remainder of my journey I made more haste than good speed. 
 Being resolved not to stand still, I did not stay an hour at Leeds, 
 but got into a mail immediately, though it did not go exactly 
 the way I wished it. However, I consoled myself by thinking 
 that I should see Nottingham, which had never fallen in my 
 road before. Accordingly next morning I did reach Nottingham, 
 but it was only to make the unpleasant discovery that I had 
 brought with me some other person's portmanteau and left my 
 own. As I could not consent to take this loss without some 
 attempt to rectify it, I resolved to go back two stages, and the 
 whole of that day was I employed in going three times over the 
 same everlasting piece of road in pursuit of my baggage. 
 
 My chase was quite unsuccessful, so that after leaving 
 directions to have the thing sent after me if it should turn up, I 
 moved by such cross coaches as I could find towards Cambridge 
 without a single article in my possession except my cloak and 
 umbrella. The succeeding night I was obliged to travel all 
 night on the outside, and finding myself in the morning aground 
 again within two stages of Cambridge, I was so impatient of my 
 
 II 
 
98 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1824 
 
 want of baggage and want of sleep that I got into a chaise and 
 arrived here about half-past seven on Saturday morning. 
 
 So far my expedition had been rather unprosperous ; but it 
 appears that my misfortunes now-a-days are no longer of that 
 irremediable kind which they used to be. On Tuesday morning 
 last arrived the portmanteau which you sent, and with it, I am 
 happy to say, the other, which had somehow joined company with 
 it on the road, so that I am now as rich as ever again. 
 
 To his Sister'] Cambridge : Christmas Day, 1824. 
 
 I am intending to spend the greater part of the Christmas 
 holidays in Edinburgh. Professor Sedgwick goes with me. 
 There are a number of places and things to see there, and par- 
 ticularly a number of remarkable men of science, with several 
 of whom we hope to get acquainted. I have got a book for you 
 and one for Martha, which I shall send down by the coach. 
 Yours is Southey's ' Koderick,' which is a very great favourite of 
 mine, and I think one of the very finest poems of modern times. 
 For Martha I send Wordsworth's poems, some of which she saw 
 and seemed to admire much in one of my visits to Lancaster. 
 
 During the summer of 1825 Mr. Whewell went to 
 Germany, chiefly with the object of visiting mineralo- 
 gical collections. He tells Mr. Eose, July 11: 'lam 
 on the point of setting off on my travels, which I intend 
 to continue, like the prince in the ' Arabian Nights,' till 
 I meet with some one who drops rubies and diamonds 
 from his mouth at every word/ ' I hope to return full 
 of crystallography.' 
 
 The following letters to his aunt and sisters tell of his 
 travels in pursuit of professors, mines, and minerals : 
 
 To his Aunt and Sisters'] Brunswick: July 21, 1825. 
 
 I left London on Saturday in the Hamburg steam packet, 
 and after being at sea four days and three nights arrived at 
 Hamburg on Tuesday. Nothing could be more delightful than 
 the voyage ; the little wind which blew was against us, but the 
 sea was so smooth and the weather so superb that we sat on 
 
1825 GERMAN TOUR. 99 
 
 the deck under an awning all day long and half the night, and 
 nobody on board suffered the slightest inconvenience from sea- 
 sickness, an exemption which I was never fortunate enough to 
 share in before. We had a very pleasant party on board : an 
 Admiral Baker, who married a Swedish countess, and was going 
 with his family to visit her relations ; two English gentlemen, 
 also going to Sweden, to visit an estate belonging to one of 
 them; several merchants, and a young English lady of the 
 name of Duff, who was coming to visit her brother-in-law, a 
 physician in this city. This lady and I came together to this 
 place, where she found her brother waiting for her about two 
 this morning. She had never been abroad before, and spoke 
 no German, so that I dare say she was glad to get to the end of 
 her journey, independently of the discomfort of German travel- 
 ling, which in this part of the country is somewhat serious. 
 For a great part of the way the road, or rather the track, for 
 road there is none, lies over endless moors of loose grey sand 
 sprinkled with a little heath, and the heavy diligence grinds its 
 way at the rate of less than two miles an hour, with such rolling 
 and tumbling and jolting from one side to another as you would 
 suppose no human frame and no coachmaker's work could ever 
 stand. I believe that matters will now mend, and a little 
 further on travelling becomes very good. 
 
 I am here going to quit the main road for a day or two, and 
 to turn aside to visit a mountainous tract of country called the 
 Hartz Wald, very celebrated for its picturesque beauty and its 
 mines, and still more for the stories of the fairies and demons 
 which are supposed to inhabit it. If I am so fortunate as to 
 see any such persons I will let you know. 
 
 After this deviation I return to the main road, and go by 
 Leipsic to Dresden and its neighbourhood, where I hope to find 
 letters from you. 
 
 To his Sister Martha, Mrs. Statter] Vienna : Aug. 23, 1825. 
 
 I believe you will have the distinction of receiving a letter 
 of mine which has travelled farther than any that you have 
 ever received beforehand for which, therefore, you will, I pre- 
 sume, have to pay more than you have previously paid. Of 
 course you will hear of me whenever my aunt and Ann do so, 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1825 
 
 but it is a long time since I wrote to you or heard of you, and 
 I do not see what better I can do than give you the office of 
 announcing to them my safe arrival in this imperial capital. I 
 wrote to Lancaster from Dresden, the metropolis of Saxony, a 
 letter which, I hope, has been received by this time ; but com- 
 munication by post, so far, is at best uncertain, and generally 
 indefinite as to time. 
 
 I left Dresden on the i8th, and travelled to this place 
 through Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria : a journey which occu- 
 pied five nights and five days, during which I never took my 
 clothes off, except in the middle of the day at Prague. All this 
 time we were rumbling along incessantly in a huge waggon-like 
 coach, except once when we were detained four or five hours 
 by the breaking of the wheel, and on one or two other occasions 
 when we were stationary for about the same length of time, 
 waiting till the diligence was ready to start, which is quite as 
 tiresome as travelling in it. I was heartily glad, as you may 
 imagine, when we fell in with the broad and hurried stream of 
 the Danube, and saw the lofty Gothic spire of St. Stephen's at 
 Vienna rising in the distant plain. I have not yet had time to 
 establish myself for the month that I intend to stay here. I 
 intend to take a lodging if I can find one which suits me ; in 
 the meantime I am staying at an inn. 
 
 Far as you may suppose me from you, I had not been in 
 the city above an hour before I met with two young men, 
 students of Trinity College, who were returning from a much 
 more distant excursion, having been in Turkey, Greece, and 
 various parts of the Mediterranean for some months. 
 
 This letter did not reach England till fourteen days 
 after it was posted at Vienna. His next letter is dated 
 from the 'Lady Nepean ' packet, October 15, 1825, and 
 is addressed to his aunt. 
 
 I have been tossing about upon the waves for the last seven 
 days, and am heartily tired of it, but hope to get into harbour 
 to-night or to-morrow morning. Ever since I embarked we 
 have had a succession of contrary winds and calms, which have 
 made the voyage uncommonly long and tedious, and last night 
 
1825 TAKES PRIEST'S ORDERS. 101 
 
 the weather was stormy according to a landsman's ideas. I 
 must proceed to Cambridge without a moment's delay as soon 
 as I set foot on shore. 
 
 You have had a letter from the capital of Saxony and an- 
 other from the capital of Austria, and I intended to have written 
 to you from the capital of Prussia, but I found my letter was 
 not likely to reach England sooner than I should do so myself. 
 
 Berlin is a place with which I was not much pleased. The 
 streets are wide and straight, and well-built, but tiresome from 
 their sameness. 
 
 The early letters of this year contain, besides some 
 discussion of a new work by Miss Kelty, which, as usual, 
 Mr. Whewell sent to his sisters, lively expressions of 
 concern and sympathy at the intelligence which reached 
 him from Lancaster of the failure of a bank there. 
 
 He had been ordained Deacon several years previous, 
 but I am not certain of the precise date. His admission 
 to Priest's Orders took place on Trinity Sunday of this 
 year. Immediately afterwards he went into Cornwall 
 with Mr. Airy, and spent several weeks underground in 
 Dolcoath Mine carrying on pendulum experiments. In 
 an undated letter, written probably at the close of this 
 year, he playfully consoles his aunt for her disappoint- 
 ment at Mr. Airy being made a professor whilst he 
 received no such honour, assuring her that Mr. Airy 
 was the better mathematician of the two, and besides 
 that, that he was on other grounds ineligible for the 
 appointment. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Trinity College: Feb. 12. 
 
 I take the opportunity of Mr. Mackreth's return to Lan- 
 caster to send you a work which my friend Miss Kelty has just 
 published. She is afraid of alarming the very religious people 
 by calling it a novel, and has therefore entitled it, ' The Story 
 of Isabel.' After it was published she began to fear that it 
 contained too much of religion for the worldly public, and too 
 
102 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1826 
 
 little of that and too much of other things for the decidedly 
 religious, so that between the two parties it might find no 
 
 readers at all. 
 
 Feb. 13. 
 
 When I wrote last night I did not know of the stoppage of 
 Dilworth's bank, which I find stated in the paper I received 
 this morning. I am afraid you must have money there to a 
 considerable amount, and in every respect I fear it must be a 
 most calamitous business, absolute ruin to many persons, and 
 severe distress and loss to all concerned. However, when we 
 know what the state of the case is we must look it in the face 
 as well as we can. 
 
 March. 
 
 I am excessively grieved to find all my worst anticipations 
 realised with respect to the bank. 
 
 I think you are right in almost every respect about ' Isabel.' 
 Miss Kelty, with various talents, has not a very fertile inven- 
 tion, and the resemblance between this story and ' The Favour- 
 ite of Nature ' is exceedingly close in the general characters 
 and story, and extends even to the details of scenes. The 
 leading character in both novels, with her quick sensibility, 
 high talents, ungovernable temper, and ill-regulated affections, 
 must, I suppose, as you say, be drawn from feelings of which 
 the author herself has at some time been in some measure 
 conscious. 
 
 My aunt says I should not have told her that my horse fell 
 with me. Tell her that it was not the fault of St. Andrew (for 
 that is his name), but that the ground was slippery with a 
 recent thaw, and he was very excusable for not helping it. 
 
 To Us Aunt] April 20, 1826. 
 
 I have got a project which I shall set about executing as 
 soon as I am at liberty, which will occupy me during the early 
 part of the summer. I am going with Mr. Airy, one of the 
 Fellows of our College, to make some experiments in one of the 
 deepest mines that we can find, either in Derbyshire or in 
 Cornwall, we have not yet ascertained which. We shall set 
 out, I suppose, soon after May 20, and shall be busy with our 
 underground operations till some time in July. 
 
1826 DOLCOATH MINE. 103 
 
 I am glad the sum I sent to Martha escaped the general 
 ruin of that wretched bank. I cannot yet think without indig- 
 nation as well as sorrow of the way in which the people must 
 have been going on. 
 
 To his Sister'] Dolcoath Mine, Camborne : May 24, 1826. 
 
 I have had time to-day to go out upon one of the hills here 
 with an observing instrument. To my great surprise, though 
 I went to a place where there seemed to be only a single house 
 within reach, by the time we had been there half an hour we 
 had at least a hundred men, women, and children round us. I 
 suppose by-and-by they will become more accustomed to our 
 proceedings. The people seem to be very intelligent and civil. 
 The country is very wild and uncultivated, covered with furze 
 and divided by very rude inclosures. 
 
 Underground chamber, ' 
 
 To Lady Malcolm] Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall : 
 
 June 10, 1826. 
 
 I venture to suppose that you never had a correspondent 
 who at the time of writing was situated as your present one is. 
 I am at this moment sitting in a small cavern deep in the 
 recesses of the earth, separated by 1,200 feet of rock from the 
 surface on which you mortals tread. I am close to a wooden 
 partition which has been fixed here by human hands, through 
 which I ever and anon look, by means of two telescopes, into a 
 larger cavern. That larger den has got various strange-looking 
 machines, illumined here and there by unseen lamps, among 
 which is visible a clock with a face most unlike common clocks, 
 and a brass bar which swings to and fro with a small but never- 
 ceasing motion. I am clad in the garb of a miner, which is 
 probably more dirty and scanty than anything you may have 
 happened to see in the way of dress. The stillness of this 
 subterranean solitude is interrupted by the noise, most strange 
 to its walls, of the ticking of my clock, and the chirping of 
 seven watches. But besides these sounds it has noises of its 
 own which my ear catches now and then. A huge iron vessel 
 is every quarter of an hour let down through the rock by a 
 chain above a thousand feet long, and in its descent and ascent 
 
104 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1826 
 
 dashes itself against the sides of its pit with a violence and a 
 din like thunder, and at intervals, louder and deeper still, I 
 hear the heavy burst of an explosion when gunpowder has been 
 used to rend the rock, which seems to pervade every part of 
 the earth, like the noise of a huge gong, and to shake the air 
 within my prison. I have sat here for some hours, and shall 
 sit for five or six more, at the end of which time I shall climb 
 up to the light of the sky, in which you live, by about sixty 
 ladders, which form the weary upward path from hence to your 
 world. I ought not to omit, by way of completing the pic- 
 turesque, that I have a barrel of porter close to my elbow, and 
 a miner stretched on the granite at my feet, whose yawns at 
 being kept here so many hours, watching my inscrutable pro- 
 ceedings, are most pathetic. This has been my situation and 
 employment every day for some time, and will be so for some 
 while longer, with the alternation of putting myself in a situa- 
 tion as much as possible similar, in a small hut on the surface 
 of the earth. Is not this a curious way of spending one's 
 leisure time ? I assure you I very often think of Sir John's 
 favourite quotation from Leyden, 1 ' Slave of the dark and dirty 
 mine ! what vanity has brought thee here ? ' and sometimes 
 doubt whether sunshine be not better than science. 
 
 If the object of my companion and myself had been to 
 make a sensation, we must have been highly gratified by the 
 impression which we have produced upon the good people in 
 this country. There is no end to the number and oddity of 
 their conjectures and stories about us. The most charitable of 
 them take us to be fortune-tellers ; but for the greater part we 
 are suspected of more mischievous kinds of magic. A single 
 loud insulated peal of thunder, which was heard the first Sun- 
 day after our arrival, was laid at our door ; and a staff which 
 we had occasion to plant at the top of the cliff was reported 
 to have the effect of sinking all unfortunate ships which sailed 
 past. 
 
 I could tell you many more such histories, but I think this 
 must be at least enough about myself, if I do not wish to make 
 the quotation from Leyden particularly applicable. 
 
 1 Dr. Leyden. Poet and Orientalist. Died 1811. A Life of him was 
 published in 1819. 
 
182(3 DOLCOATH. 105 
 
 Underground, Dolcoath Mine: June 13, 1826. 
 
 I have had one or two expeditions underground; which have 
 given me an idea of some of the work that the miners have to 
 go through, which is much more severe than the common 
 labour of going up and down. 
 
 In a part of the mine which is called the engine shaft, the 
 water drops, or rather streams, down so fast, that it is impos- 
 sible to keep a candle alight when it is carried in the usual 
 way. The manner in which they manage it is by wearing a 
 broad-brimmed hat, and holding the candle, stuck in a piece of 
 clay as usual, in the mouth. I came up the part I speak of 
 the other day, but finding that I was quite defeated in all 
 attempts to keep a light in my hand, I contented myself with 
 the light given by the candles of my companions, who employed 
 their mouths in this manner, not being quite able to make up 
 my mind to such a mouthful. 
 
 When I have finished my labours here to-day, I shall have 
 no underground work any more for some days, as my com- 
 panion will take his turn, and I shall take that part of our 
 observations which is made above ground. Our operations 
 consist principally in comparing pendulums with clocks and 
 watches, at the surface of the earth and here below, in order to 
 determine whether the force of gravity is the same above and 
 below. 
 
 To his Aunt] June 25. 
 
 I shall leave this place, I believe, towards the end of the 
 week, and return to Cambridge. Our experiments are drawing 
 to a close. 
 
 It is very likely my name may have appeared in the news- 
 papers as having taken Priest's Orders, for I did so just before 
 coming down here. Martha is wrong in not wishing to see my 
 den below ground, which is more curious and extraordinary 
 than anything she will be able to see in the regions of common 
 daylight. 
 
 A letter dated August 23, 1826, Burford Bridge, 
 Surrey, and addressed to Mrs. Statter, congratulates her 
 upon the birth of a daughter, and then passes on to 
 
106 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1826 
 
 describe the place whence he writes with the warmth 
 of a true lover of Nature in all her moods, and with 
 the limitations to such admiration which loyalty to the 
 larger features and broader effects of the North imposed 
 upon him. 
 
 I am writing in an arbour wainscoted with moss, in the 
 garden of one of the prettiest inns, lying in one of the prettiest 
 valleys, in this part of England. Not so beautiful, you know, 
 as your part of the world, where you have sea and mountains, 
 and distant towers, and winding rivers, but what the good 
 people here in the south look upon as very delightful scenery. 
 There is an endless expanse of rich plain country bordered in 
 different directions with long lines of hills, and when you mount 
 some of the most prominent points of these ranges you have 
 under the eye a prospect quite inexhaustible in its details, con- 
 sisting of a patchwork of light-green fields, dark-green hedge- 
 rows and woods, and neat houses and villages. The hill which 
 we have been visiting to-day is Leith Hill, and is estimated to 
 command a view not less than two hundred miles in circum- 
 ference. I came here with Mr. and Mrs. Jones. 
 
 I do not know if I have given you or my aunt any account 
 of my motions since I returned from my Cornish expedition. I 
 was obliged to stay at Cambridge for some time, and since I 
 have been able to leave it I have been several times between 
 London and Cambridge. 
 
 I hope somebody will write to me within the next fortnight. 
 I want much to know how you are, though I hope I may take 
 for granted that as I have heard nothing, both you and your 
 baby are going on well. I feel quite proud of my character of 
 uncle, which seems to me to give an additional shade of gravity 
 and importance to my person. 
 
 After staying with Mr. Jones at his living at Brasted, 
 he wrote to his aunt : 
 
 Hops are grown here in quantities, and when I came away 
 they were busy with the hop harvest. The people who live in 
 this valley are very proud of it, and maintain that it was never 
 
182G HOLMESDALE. 107 
 
 conquered by any of the invaders of England. They have a 
 proverb to this effect, which says, ' The winding vale of Holmes- 
 dale was never won nor ever shall/ I left this winding vale 
 with great regret, for I have been living there very agreeably 
 and very quietly. 
 
 To Ids Aunt] Autumn > 1826. 
 
 . . . You mentioned a difficulty which had occurred to you 
 in one of your late letters ; how Airy should be made Professor 
 while I was here, who, being your nephew, must of course, on 
 that account, deserve it better than he could. Now it is a 
 thing which you will think odd, but it is nevertheless true, that 
 Airy is a better mathematician than your nephew, and has 
 moreover been much more employed of late in such studies. 
 But besides this, there is another reason which may perhaps 
 satisfy you better, and which was in fact the real cause of my 
 not being a candidate, namely, that this Lucasian professorship 
 cannot be held by a person who is a tutor of a college ; so you 
 see the University are not quite so much to blame for their 
 blindness and bad choice as you imagine. Seriously speaking, 
 Airy is by very much the best person they could have chosen 
 for the situation, and few things have given me so much 
 pleasure as his election. 
 
 It is possible that by-and-by I may be appointed to the 
 Professorship of Mineralogy, but that business is at present in 
 the hands of the lawyers, on whom the time and the election 
 depend ; and it is therefore to be looked upon as very uncertain 
 in all its circumstances. 
 
 To his Sister] Dec. 7, 1826. 
 
 Sedgwick and I shall start from here about the 18th, and 
 shall, I suppose, be in Paris before Christmas Day. If we only 
 find the people half as hospitable and agreeable as we found 
 them in Edinburgh two years ago, we shall have a very pleasant 
 visit of it. 
 
 It was at Edinburgh that we fell in with the phrenologists, 
 who, as you have been told, have taken my head for one of 
 their examples, though, to tell the truth, I do not think they 
 showed much discrimination in their remarks upon it. We 
 
108 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 have at present here in Cambridge the leader of the sect, Dr. 
 Spurzheim, who is giving his lectures every evening to a con- 
 siderable audience. I am myself writing with a phrenological 
 bust standing on the table close to my nose, thinking it right 
 to understand something of a science which gives a good ac- 
 count of me. 
 
 The intention expressed in this letter was carried 
 out. Mr. Whewell and Professor Sedgwick spent a 
 week or two in Paris at Christmas. Writing to his aunt 
 January 18, 1827, he says : ' I spent my time pleasantly 
 enough whilst in Paris, seeing almost all the remarkable 
 men of science who are to be found there, and besides 
 these mental luxuries feasting my body in a moderate 
 degree upon French wines and French cookery.' 
 
 In the spring he writes from Cambridge a defence of 
 his favourite 'Hermann and Dorothea.' 
 
 In the summer Mr. Whewell seems to have estab- 
 lished himself somewhere near Lancaster, probably at 
 Poulton-le-Sands, in order to carry forward his ' writing 
 and reading ' in ' a cot which o'erlooks the wide sea,' and 
 at the same time to be within easy reach of his family. 
 The autumn of this year brought the removal of the 
 Malcolms from Hyde Hall ; a real grief and loss to him- 
 self, to Mr. Hare, Mr. Sedgwick, and all their Cambridge 
 friends. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Cambridge: April 12. 
 
 I send you along with this an edition of ' Hermann ' with 
 prints. I am glad you like Hermann. I think you hardly 
 allow him fair play when you imagine him to talk in a manner 
 above his condition. Who is fit to be the hero of a poem if he 
 is not ? The son of the principal innkeeper in a city, and a 
 man of large landed property besides, would be even in Eng- 
 land a man of education and position, still more so in Germany, 
 where professions are less elevated above trade. You see his 
 father is on a footing of equality with the clergyman and the 
 
1827 'HERMANN AND DOROTHEA.' 109 
 
 doctor. As to your difficulty about the minister's religious re- 
 flections, I am not quite sure that I rightly apprehend it. But 
 you may consider, I think, that even supposing our own reflec- 
 tions could carry us as far as he goes, there is still quite 
 enough left for Divine teaching to do. The author may have 
 thought, too, that it was not suitable to the character of a mere 
 fanciful narrative to introduce any particular religious doc- 
 trines. 
 
 The great beauty of the book is the truth of the characters 
 and the admirable manner in which the story is brought out ; 
 the last canto in particular is very beautiful in this way, always 
 excepting Dorothea's long account of her former lover, which I 
 think would be better omitted. 
 
 To Ids Aunt and Sisters'] Cambridge : June 7. 
 
 I am much disposed to the plan which I mentioned of taking 
 lodgings on the sea-coast somewhere or other, and riding over 
 to see you every day. I want particularly to live in the 
 country for a little while, and however quiet I may be with you, 
 it would not be exactly the same thing. I have been fancying, 
 as I have been looking forward to it, that my writing and reading 
 would go on much better in that which is described in a line of 
 an old song, ' a cot which o'erlooks the wide sea.' 
 
 To his Aunt] Cambridge: Oct. 6, 1827. 
 
 I have been nearly stationary here since I returned from 
 Brighton and London, and have been lately employed in elect- 
 ing six new Fellows of the College, being for the present so far 
 advanced in age and dignity as to be one of the eight seniors of 
 the College. 
 
 This elevation of mine is, however, only for a short and 
 holiday time, and I shall be again deposed as soon as my elders 
 return into residence. 
 
 At present I am grieving for the removal of the Malcolms, 
 a family whom I think I have mentioned to you. They have 
 left Hyde Hall, which was within a ride of Cambridge, though 
 not a very short ride, being thirty miles off, and their departure 
 will subtract much from my pleasure here. 
 
110 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 If I have an opportunity I will send you a new book which 
 Miss Kelty has published, called ' Eeligious Thoughts.' She is 
 persuaded that it is more consistent with her principles to 
 write in such a form than to publish works of fiction as she did 
 before. Perhaps you will agree with her in this, and I hope in 
 some other things. 
 
 A number of letters written to Lady Malcolm at this 
 time show the keen regret with which Mr. Whewell 
 dwelt upon the departure of his friends from Hyde Hall. 
 After taking her children to Eastbourne, Lady Malcolm 
 returned alone to Hyde Hall for the final arrangements, 
 and appears to have passed there some rather sad and 
 lonely weeks. Mr. Whewell had undertaken the duties 
 of Moderator for the ensuing year, and these, added to 
 the usual cares of his tutorship, tied him very closely to 
 Cambridge, and made it impossible to liim to go and 
 visit Lady Malcolm. In a letter of October 11, he 
 says : 
 
 After the great pleasure of receiving your letter I have 
 been looking forward to the little pleasure, by no means to be 
 despised, of writing to you again. But the quiet hour in which 
 this was to be enjoyed, instead of coming nearer, is drifting 
 away faster and farther every day. All beautiful visions of a 
 few more days of happiness and idleness and independence are 
 melting into air, and I am now obliged to make up my mind 
 to belong to the persons and things that are crowding in upon 
 me on every side. But I cannot help, as you perceive, trying 
 to make the accents of my misery heard before these waves of 
 affliction close over my head and extinguish my feeble voice, at 
 least for the present. Of my coming to Eastbourne it was in- 
 deed too true that it could not be ; and I was very soon obliged 
 to make up my mind to solace my evening rides with the re- 
 collection of Hyde Hall, and the thought of what Eastbourne 
 might have been; and I am persuaded that if you listened 
 intently enough you must have heard Beachy's chalky Head, 
 like Friar Bacon's brazen one, utter the doleful sounds, ' Time 
 
1827 EVENING RIDES. Ill 
 
 is past.' The golden days of the Long Vacation, the happy 
 hours of Hyde Hall are over, and an age of business and pupils 
 and calculators has succeeded. 
 
 He then passes on to describe his evening rides in terms 
 similar to those he had employed in the letter to his 
 sister already quoted. 
 
 During the last week I took a solitary ride every evening, 
 and considering what a country I live in I seemed to myself to 
 have hit upon no despicable plan for beautifying these pensive 
 wanderings. I went forth westward when the sun was setting, 
 and rode towards him and the glories that marked his fading 
 path, till they had ceased to be glorious, and then I turned 
 round and rode back towards the quarter where the yellow 
 moon was rising over the yellow woods. I must needs confess 
 that I felt very strongly the sentiment which you describe. I 
 mean a great indignation that the woods should show so little 
 sensibility to the changes which they must know had been 
 taking place during the summer. With the present week the 
 autumnal moon has gone away, and a marvellous collection of 
 men possessing or desiring wisdom has come to occupy our 
 time, and to preclude our evening rides. 
 
 I cannot help thinking you will see something very absurd 
 in my turning with repugnance to employments which must be 
 my main business for many months to come, but I assure you 
 I shall bear them and go through them as well as another when 
 I have made the plunge ; only the transition from that which 
 has been excites some regrets. 
 
 I have been talking about myself as people love to do who 
 get into a bustle ; but one reason, besides, is that I cannot tell 
 you anything about your goings on at Eastbourne, though I 
 could ask an endless number of questions. I hope by this 
 time you have felt more advantage to your health from the 
 place than when you wrote you appeared to have done. Is it 
 quite established that for invalids the night is the best time to 
 take an excursion on the water ? Does Miss Manning lend her 
 sanction to such proceedings ? To be sure nothing can be more 
 delightful than the waves with the moonbeams twisted among 
 them as they are to be seen at such times. 
 
112 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 In the next letter he tells Lady Malcolm : 
 
 It is very true, as you conjecture, that we do not begin the 
 term nearly so well as we should have done under your auspices ; 
 and for my own part I think I shall find a sensible consolation 
 in knowing that you are so near as Hyde Hall, though without 
 any chance whatever of diminishing the distance between us. At 
 any rate, as you perceive, I cannot help trying the old ex- 
 periment of sending a despatch by the Fly to diversify the cares 
 and perplexities which surround me here. I fear you will have 
 but a joyless journey to Hyde Hall, the beloved and happy as 
 in my memory it must ever stand ; only one consoling thought 
 there is that the pleasant days which IT has witnessed are not 
 utterly gone, since they have left some portion of their sweetness 
 in the feelings and attachments which have been cherished and 
 fostered there, and which I trust are not likely soon to fade. 
 I cannot help imagining to myself that there must be another 
 small comfort of your wretchedness in visiting Hyde Hall just 
 at present. Its woods and bowers must have assumed by this 
 time that appearance of advanced decay and departing beauty 
 which it becomes them to wear on such an occasion, and which 
 one might, to please a melancholy mood, take for that sympathy 
 which you complained that Beachy Head did not offer. I dare 
 say that your groves shower at your feet, not barbaric pearl and 
 gold, but leaves of every shade of the favourite colours ; and I 
 think one can easily find in their bright but cheerless tints an 
 expression like the smile of a broken-hearted person. I believe, 
 however, that such fancies, even if I could communicate them 
 to you, would not tend much to exhilarate your sojourn ; and 
 probably you will be far too full of employment while you are 
 there to encourage such musings. I most heartily wish you 
 rapidly and well through all the disagreeable part of your 
 errand, for such a part I suppose it must have. Hare I expect to 
 see to-morrow. He will be surprised to find that you are so 
 near. I shall expect from him an account of all that relates to 
 you at Eastbourne. As soon as my days have become a little 
 less crowded, I shall send my acknowledgments for the East- 
 bourne ' pacquet.' This you know is only a Hyde Hall letter, 
 and does not reckon. I should be very glad to know that you 
 
18-27 COMMEMORATION SERMON. 113 
 
 had finished your present task with tolerable ease and comfort 
 and in good health. 
 
 On October 27 he writes as follows : 
 
 It would indeed be a pleasure and delight to me to spend a 
 day with you at Hyde Hall, and if it had been at all possible I 
 would have ventured upon some slight desertion of my employ- 
 ments here for the sake of such a happiness. But I am for 
 to-morrow bound here with chains quite adamantine. I have to 
 preach before the University at eleven o'clock a sermon ' on the 
 commemoration of our benefactors. If you could hear me I think 
 you would be edified by a document which I have to read after my 
 sermon, in which our benefactors are enumerated, beginning with 
 4 that most glorious king of the East Angles, Sigebert, in the 
 seventh century ; after him Oflfa, king of the Mercians, in the 
 eighth century ; then that mighty monarch and most excellent 
 Prince Alfred in the ninth,' &c. Does not this sound well ? 
 
 I grieve with much affliction at the state in which you are 
 left at the once happy hall, and at the effect on your feelings, 
 so natural, which you describe. But pray do not become ill in 
 consequence. Hare joins me in most earnest entreaties to this 
 effect. I can but wonder in anger and indignation at the un- 
 known person or persons by whose fault you are condemned to 
 your solitude and discomfort. Hare had observed lights in the 
 windows when he passed Hyde Hall on Tuesday, and had 
 speculated on them with fruitless ingenuity till I solved the 
 riddle for him. I am obliged to conclude, but pray do not be 
 unhappy. Adieu, dearest Lady Malcolm. 
 
 This is followed next day by a letter inclosing verses 
 to be forwarded to little Kate Malcolm as a gift on her 
 twelfth birthday ; of which verses the covering letter to 
 her mother explains the origin. They have sometimes 
 been supposed to be a translation from the German. 
 
 1 Of this sermon Mr. Hare wrote in a letter to Lady Malcolm which has 
 been preserved : ' Whewell's sermon to-day was of course full of thought 
 and of power. He had to glance over a very great variety of subjects, and 
 threw light on them all ; his account of the way in which the ordinances 
 and institutions of religion act upon mankind was exceedingly beautiful.' 
 
 I 
 
114 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 To Lady Malcolm] Trinity College: Oct. 28, 1827. 
 
 Kate's birthday, a day by no means to be forgotten or con- 
 founded with other days, must account for the multifarious 
 contents of this packet. I presume that you are likely to be 
 sending something to Eastbourne, so that it will be possible to 
 have my homage conveyed at or about the time when it is due. 
 One part of it is a long and doleful ballad, 1 which, if you are 
 tempted to read it, will not perhaps dispel the gloom which 
 hangs about Hyde Hall at present ; but it may be some alle- 
 viation to your vexation, if you have not, as I hope, already dis- 
 missed it, to refer a portion of it to two poor lovers who died in 
 the fourteenth century. The story is one which was told me at 
 Vienna as belonging to a very pretty Grothic building, consisting 
 of a cluster of niches and pinnacles in the form usually called a 
 cross, which stands in the road near the city. When I repeated 
 the legend to Miss Manning she appeared taken with it, and my 
 ballad was begun with the intention of laying it at her feet. I 
 was at that time very reasonably dissatisfied with the performance, 
 and left it half finished, in which condition I found it a few days 
 ago. I have written a few additional lines to it, and venture to 
 offer it as a tribute on Miss Kate's day of queenship. I am obliged 
 to come with a present, I fear, so unworthy, for in truth last week 
 has been by no means a week with me adapted to the fabrica- 
 tion of such matters ; I have at present as many employments 
 and offices as a single man can well deal with, all which, at their 
 beginning, make demands upon me in a manner rather imperious 
 and exigeant. 2 
 
 I do not cease to grieve at your loneliness and annoyance at 
 Hyde Hall ; hoping, however, that there is some good reason 
 for it, and some greater inconvenience avoided thereby. Hare 
 informs me that you had an intention, or at least a speculation, 
 of going to Harrogate. In the ancient times of Hyde Hall such 
 a circumstance would have made it very probable that you would 
 not go there, but to some place quite different. Perhaps we 
 are so changed that we may come at last to do what we intend. 
 
 1 Spinning Maiden's Cross. 
 
 2 Mr. Whewell was Moderator. In a letter to his aunt of December 27, 
 he says, { My colleague in this employment is King, whom you may perhaps 
 recollect as one of my early acquaintances at Cambridge.' 
 
1827 SEDGWICK. 115 
 
 If you are there at Christmas I am afraid I shall not see you 
 then, for the amount of my holidays this winter will not be 
 more than a few days about that time, and the extent of my 
 excursions will probably not be further than London. I suppose 
 that sooner or later you will reach that destination, and then I 
 may hope again to have the satisfaction of seeing you. Sedgwick 
 is here, full of Scotch stories, as I told you, and delighted with 
 all that he has done and had done to him. The latter portion 
 of his adventures seems to have consisted in his having two or 
 three large breakfasts given him every day, and a superb dinner 
 late at night when his work was over. He is at present proctor, 
 in virtue of which office he on Sundays goes to church in a silk 
 slip and sash, carrying a large book by a brass chain ; and on 
 other days walks about the streets with three tall men following 
 him who are called ' bull-dogs,' and taking cigars out of the 
 mouths of all the dissolute young men who use them. 
 
 We commemorated the glorious Sigebert and the excellent 
 Alfred to-day, as I told you we were to do. To-morrow begins a 
 new week of lectures, some on triangles, some on late hours, as 
 the case may be. The worst of it is that we can no longer break 
 this succession of things by making a truant expedition to Hyde 
 Hall twice a month. I hope that respectable hall continues the 
 seat of good health at least, if not of good spirits. Pray do not 
 carry away a hostile parting impression of the poor old house. 
 Leave it in sorrow, if it must be so (and not otherwise), but not 
 in anger. All the unpleasant feeling that your expedition may 
 have drawn on will, I hope, vanish at the first gleam and sound 
 of Eastbourne faces and voices. 
 
 The Spinning Maiden's Gross. 
 
 Beneath Vienna's ancient wall 
 
 Lie level plains of sand, 
 And there the pathway runs of all 
 
 That seek the Holy Land. 
 
 And from the wall a little space, 
 
 And by the trodden line, 
 Stands, seen from many a distant place, 
 
 A tall and slender shrine, 
 i 2 
 
116 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 It seems, so standing there alone, 
 
 To those who come and go, 
 No pile of dull unconscious stone, 
 
 But toucht with joy and woe ; 
 
 Seems to the stranger on his way, 
 
 A friend that forth had set, 
 The parting moment to delay, 
 
 And stands and lingers yet. 
 
 While to the long-gone traveller, 
 
 Returning to his home, 
 It seems with doubtful greeting there 
 
 Of joy or sorrow come. 
 
 Smiles have been there of beaming joy, 
 
 And tears of bitter loss, 
 As friends have met and parted, by 
 
 The Spinning Maiden's Cross. 
 
 For many have parted there and met, 
 
 And many a year has run, 
 Since Wenzel there met Margaret, 
 
 Since Margaret there spun. 
 
 Young Margaret has the gentlest heart 
 
 Of all the maidens there, 
 Nor ever failed her constant part 
 
 Of daily toil and prayer. 
 
 But when the Sabbath morn had smiled, 
 
 And early prayer was o'er, 
 Then Margaret, gentle, still, and mild, 
 
 Had happiness in store. 
 
 For then with Wenzel side by side, 
 
 In calm delight she stray'd, 
 Amid the Prater's flowery pride, 
 
 Or in the Augarten's shade. 
 
1827 SPINNING MAIDEN'S CROSS. 117 
 
 * Grretchen beloved ! Gretchen dear ! 
 
 Bright days we soon shall see ; 
 My master, lord of Lowethier, 
 
 Will link my lot with thee. 
 
 And there, upon the Kahlen's swell, 
 
 Where distant Donau shines, 
 He gives a cot where we shall dwell, 
 
 And tend his spreading vines.' 
 
 Though joy through Margaret sent a thrill, 
 
 And at her eyes ran o'er ; 
 Few words she spoke for good or ill, 
 
 Nor Wenzel needed more. 
 
 But when again the Sabbath-bell 
 
 Had struck on WenzeFs ear, 
 A sadder tale had he to tell, 
 
 And Margaret to hear. 
 
 ' Grretchen beloved ! Gretchen dear ! 
 
 Joy yet ; but patience now ; 
 My master, lord of Lowethier, 
 
 Hath bound him with a vow. 
 
 And he must to the Holy Land, 
 
 Our Saviour's tomb to free ; 
 And I and all his faithful band 
 
 Must with him o'er the sea.' 
 
 A swelling heart did Margaret press, 
 
 But calm was she to view ; 
 Meekly she bore her happiness, 
 
 Her sorrow meekly too. 
 
 Her solitary Sabbaths brought 
 
 A prayer, a patient sigh, 
 As on the Holy Land she thought, 
 
 Where saints did live and die. 
 
118 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 But from the Holy Land soon came 
 
 Returning pilgrims there, 
 And heavy tidings brought with them 
 
 For Margaret's anxious ear. 
 
 For Wenzel is a captive made 
 
 In Paynim dungeon cold, 
 And there must lie till ransom paid 
 
 A hundred marks of gold. 
 
 Alas for Margaret ! should she spin, 
 
 And all her store be sold, 
 In one long year she scarce could win 
 
 A single mark of gold. 
 
 Yet love can hope through good and ill, 
 
 When other hope is gone ; 
 Shall she who loves so well be still, 
 
 And he in prison groan ? 
 
 She felt within her inmost heart 
 
 A strange bewilder'd swell, 
 Too soft to break with sudden start, 
 
 Too gentle to rebel. 
 
 And what she hoped or thought to earn 
 
 Poor Margaret never knew, 
 But on her distaff oft she'd turn 
 
 A thoughtful, hopeful view. 
 
 And by the stone where last they met, 
 
 Each day she took her stand ; 
 And twirl'd the thread till daylight set, 
 
 With unremitting hand. 
 
 Her little store upon the stone 
 
 She spread to passers-by ; 
 And oft they paused and gazed upon 
 
 Her meek and mournful eye. 
 
1827 SPINNING MAIDEN'S CROSS. 119 
 
 And e'en from those who had but few, 
 
 Full oft a coin she won, 
 And faster far her treasure grew 
 
 Than e'er her hopes had done. 
 
 But all in vain it grew, alas ! 
 
 Her destined ransom store ; 
 For from the Holy Land there pass 
 
 The travellers once more. 
 
 And when to her their news they said, 
 
 All cheer and hope were gone ; 
 For Wenzel is in prison dead, 
 
 His captive sorrows done. 
 
 Then on her face what woe was set ! 
 
 Yet still she spun and spun, 
 As if her hands could not forget 
 
 The work they had begun. 
 
 And still beside th' accustomed stone, 
 
 Each day she took her stand, 
 And twirl'd the thread till day was done, 
 
 With unremitting hand. 
 
 Through shine and rain, and heat and snow, 
 
 Her daily task she plied ; 
 And wrought for two long twelvemonth so, 
 
 And then she gently died. 
 
 They took the treasure she had won, 
 
 Full many a varied coin ; 
 And o'er the stone where she had spun, 
 
 They raised that shapely shrine. 
 
 And still Vienna's maids recall 
 
 Her meekly suffer'd loss, 
 And point the fane beneath the wall, 
 
 The Spinning Maiden's Cross 
 
120 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1827 
 
 On November 9, Lady Malcolm appears to have 
 been re-established at Eastbourne ; and a fragment of 
 a letter addressed to her there survives, in which Mr. 
 Whewell says : 
 
 It gave me pleasure, though of a very sad and melancholy 
 cast, to receive your short and kind note written when you 
 were about to leave poor Hyde Hall. It could not but give me 
 pleasure to find that you thought of me at such a time and 
 with such feelings ; and I shall consider the date of my receiv- 
 ing that memento as the period of my final separation from 
 that darling place, if, indeed, we are never to meet there again. 
 I trust that you found at Eastbourne all that you wished, and 
 enough to dispel the gloom which your solitary sojourn so 
 naturally gathered. 
 
 I hope Miss K. W. Malcolm, aged twelve, is well. Of 
 course it was not to be doubted for a moment that I should be 
 more gratified with a letter written on October 31 ' than on any 
 other day, and I am most particularly obliged to Miss Manning 
 for complying with Kate's wise and kind suggestion. For that, 
 and all the kind words and thoughts of that day, I shall have a 
 place in my memory. My dear Lady Malcolm, do not fancy I 
 write so very ill out of pure caprice, for it is really all that I 
 can do to find half an hour for such a pleasant employment I 
 do not mean as writing ill, but as writing to you at all. My 
 occupations have lately come so fast, and so completely choked 
 up the day, that I have been ready to say with Damien, on the 
 morning when he was to be tortured, 4 Le jour sera fort, mais il 
 finira.' I read nothing, except that I have got Scott's new book 
 on my table, which is a book that will read itself. I have only 
 begun it, but I am much pleased with the wise philosophy of 
 the account he gives of himself: the resolution he formed to 
 avoid resting too much on his literary fame that he might 
 avoid the jealousy and inquietude of literary life. Adieu. 
 Romilly 2 will rave ! My very affectionate remembrances to 
 all. 
 
 1 Miss Kate Malcolm's birthday. 
 
 2 This portion of the letter began with ' I shall borrow a few minutes 
 longer, and Romilly's dinner-party may wait.' 
 
1827 PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY. 121 
 
 To his Sister Ann] 
 
 Though I have written to you so seldom I have sent you 
 the Cambridge paper, which contains every fortnight an article 
 written by me ; I mean the" article about the Philosophical 
 Society, which, being the secretary, I am bound to furnish. I 
 think you will be in no danger of being proud of this my 
 authorship if you look at the last article ; where, having 
 written very hastily, I have talked of a deformity in the teeth 
 of a rook instead of saying its bill. Is not this an absurd 
 mistake ? 
 
 The following letter refers to Mr. WhewelTs appoint- 
 ment as Professor of Mineralogy. This took place early 
 in the year 1828, the appointment having been delayed 
 for nearly three years owing to legal difficulties respect- 
 ing the proper mode of making it. He held the chair 
 for ten years, and then resigned it on his appointment as 
 Professor of Moral Theology or Casuistry or, as he 
 preferred to call it, Professor of Moral Philosophy. 
 
 To his Aunt and Sisters'] Cambridge: April 4, 1828. 
 
 You would probably see in Mr. Hodson's last paper that I 
 had been appointed Professor of Mineralogy. My new dignity 
 is more a matter of honour than of profit, for there is no salary 
 attached to the office except 100. a year, which is given by 
 Government to all our Professors who lecture, and which I 
 suppose I shall receive, as I shall lecture on minerals some 
 time next year. 
 
 My forerunners in the professorship were in the first place 
 Dr. Clarke, for whom it was founded the celebrated traveller 
 who went into Eussia, Norway, Turkey, India, Egypt, and 
 various other countries about 1797 and the following years, 
 and wrote five or six large quartos on the subject of his travels, 
 which were very much read and admired. In the course of his 
 travels he made a considerable collection of minerals, which he 
 brought to Cambridge, and gave lectures upon them. After 
 having done this for two years he was appointed Professor, and 
 
122 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1828 
 
 held the office until 1822, when he died. I knew him for some 
 time before his death, and considered him, as everybody did 
 who knew him, as one of the most delightful companions and 
 most highly gifted men that had ever come among us. No- 
 body who did not know him can conceive the charm of his 
 eloquence and vivacity and good humour. He was followed 
 in the professorship by my very intimate friend Henslow, who 
 has since been appointed to the Professorship of Botany, and so 
 given up that of Mineralogy. 
 
 Dr. Clarke's collection of minerals was after his death 
 purchased by the University for 1,5002., and of this I have the 
 care. I have been for some years employing myself a good 
 deal on matters connected with this subject, so that I have 
 been desirous of making it my business as far as I have time 
 for it, and this it is now become. 
 
 To his Aunt and Sisters] Tan-y-Bwlch Inn, N. Wales : 
 
 June 15, 1828. 
 
 I am travelling with my friend Jones, and having left 
 London last Wednesday we have been exploring the most 
 picturesque parts of this country for the last four days. We 
 have taken up our headquarters at a place called Capel Curig, 
 which is an inn standing alone in one of the wildest and most 
 desolate parts of Wales, very near the steepest side of Snowdon. 
 The whole district consists of vast black moors ; and rugged 
 stony hill-sides, and little threads of streams tumbling along 
 their rocky beds ; and broad cloud-like mountains above. At 
 a small distance in every direction are valleys full of woods, and 
 pastures, and prettily situated houses, and everything which 
 makes a beautiful landscape. 
 
 We shall probably return to-morrow to our temporary home. 
 We have had beautiful weather and everything which could 
 make our travelling delightful. In a few days I must return 
 to Cambridge. 
 
 About this time Mr. Whewell wrote to Mr. Eose : 
 
 I am sorry to hear of your asthma. If it arose from spend- 
 ing your breath in preaching to us here, let it be your comfort 
 that it was not thrown away. You produced no small impres- 
 
1828 NAPIER'S 'PENINSULAR WAR.' 123 
 
 si on on people's minds, and, so far as I can judge, have no 
 reason to complain of being injured by juxtaposition with other 
 luminous bodies. 
 
 I have only just begun Napier's * Peninsular War.' Sedgwick 
 has read it, and is delighted with the military views which it 
 contains, but he is not insensible to the faults you mention. 
 He seems to think, and Peacock also, that it may change 
 people's opinion of Cintra and Moore. I think it was very bad 
 reading for a man with a weak chest, and so you seem to have 
 found it. 
 
 I shall be in London in June for a day or two, and might 
 possibly make my way to Horsham, if that were likely to suit 
 your convenience ; but I am sorry to say that this is not certain, 
 for I have to spend most of the month in making my pen- 
 dulums rehearse the parts they will have to perform in Corn- 
 wall in July. 
 
 Mr. Wordsworth and his womankind and brother leave us 
 to-morrow for London. I wish I had seen more of him than I 
 have. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambourne, Cornwall: July 14, 1828. 
 
 I am here with my former companion, Professor Airy, to 
 complete the experiments which we left unfinished before, and 
 we have this time a larger party than we had on the former 
 occasion. Professor Sedgwick and Sheepshanks are with us, 
 and two others. 
 
 I came here by a very pleasant road through Salisbury and 
 Charmouth, which is on the coast of Dorsetshire, and then 
 along the coast of the bay there, through a succession of pretty 
 watering-places to Torquay, and so across the country to Ply- 
 mouth, where the opening of the river which forms the harbour 
 and the surrounding hills are very grand. 
 
 I shall probably be here for some weeks, as Sedgwick and I 
 are going to examine the rocks of this country, through a con- 
 siderable extent, probably along the coast to the Land's End. 
 
 The next family letter from Carnbourne, August 10, 
 is addressed to Mrs. Statter, and expresses his warm 
 sympathy with her recent sorrow in the loss of her baby. 
 He continues : 
 
124 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL, 1828 
 
 I thought a few days ago that I had finished all that I had 
 to do underground in the mine where we carry on our opera- 
 tions, but in consequence of some imperfection in what we have 
 already done [a letter to his friend Mr. Eichard Jones says : 
 ' A rascally piece of steel deviated 10 ^ 00 of an inch from a 
 straight line, by the fault of Thomas Jones, of Charing Cross '] 
 it may possibly be necessary to repeat our experiments in part. 
 In the meantime the people here are very civil and obliging, 
 though most of them are sadly puzzled to make out what our 
 object is. They wonder exceedingly at the quantity of instru- 
 ments which we have brought with us, and, to tell the truth, 
 very naturally, for our apparatus consists of three clocks and 
 about ten watches, large and small ; besides a great variety of 
 telescopes and measuring instruments with large iron and 
 wooden stands, some of which machines we have had to send 
 down a pit about ten times as deep as Lancaster church steeple 
 is high. One report which was circulated among the miners 
 with regard to us was that a star had fallen, and consequently 
 been missed in the sky, and that we had come to look for it in 
 the mines of Cornwall. The gentry in the neighbourhood have 
 also been very civil to us, and we have all been to dine with 
 Lord de Dunstanville, who is the great man in this part of the 
 world. 
 
 As soon as I am at liberty here I intend to make a little 
 tour round the Land's End, and so through a different part of 
 the country back into the regions nearer home. My aunt, who 
 likes flowers, would be delighted with this climate, which is 
 remarkably favourable to them. Myrtles grow in the open 
 air, and geraniums so exposed will live through the winter. 
 Hydrangeas grow as large as apple trees, and many other 
 greenhouse plants require no shelter. There is a very pretty 
 heath which is, I believe, peculiar to certain districts in this, 
 country, and various other luxuries for florists of which I know 
 nothing. 
 
 Eemember me kindly to your husband, who I hope is well. 
 You have a new bishop 1 of Chester, it appears ; he is, I believe, 
 a most excellent person. His books are very good. Give my 
 love to my Aunt and Ann. 
 
 1 J. B. Simmer, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
1828 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. 125 
 
 To his Aunt] Cambourne: Sept. I. 
 
 Several parts of this neighbourhood are exceedingly beau- 
 tiful, and remarkable on various accounts. 
 
 Two or three nights ago we were at a very striking place, 
 called St. Michael's Mount. It is a castle of Sir John St. 
 Aubyn's, situated on an insulated rock as large as a moun- 
 tain, in the middle of Penzance Bay. We paid him a visit 
 there, and I slept in a room which had a door opening upon 
 the leads, and thus giving me a view by moonlight of the sea 
 on one side, and of the shores of the bay on the other. 
 
 The castle itself is a curious old building, with immensely 
 thick walls, and winding passages, and narrow staircases. The 
 dining-room is a hall exactly like the dining-hall of a college, 
 with dark oak arches supporting the roof, and heavy curious- 
 shaped wooden chairs, one of which was a long time ago the 
 chair of the Abbot of Grlastonbury. 
 
 Sir John keeps two boats, with rowers to manage them who 
 wear a very peculiar dress. They have red coats with gathered 
 skirts, and white short petticoats over their white trousers, a 
 large plate of metal with his coat of arms on the left arm, and 
 leathern helmets on their heads. 
 
 In a boat manned by these sailors we went a mile or two to 
 see the catching of pilchards, which is one of the principal em- 
 ployments of people here, and is a very curious and lively sight. 
 We afterwards, at Penzance, went to see the way in which 
 these fish are cured. The quantity of them is quite enormous, 
 a large yard being filled with them so deep that it would take 
 a person up to the middle ; and all round this heap women are 
 employed in building the fish in stacks, with layers of salt 
 between them. After they have lain there some time they are 
 put into barrels and the oil squeezed out, and they are then 
 ready for eating. They are very like a herring, but fatter, 
 and most people think not so good. 
 
 When they are stacked, the smell is so offensive, and the 
 filth so disgusting, that you would wonder how the women bear 
 it. They receive threepence an hour, and are obliged to drink 
 a glass of brandy every three hours to enable them to support 
 the labour. 
 
126 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1828 
 
 To his Sister] Milton: Dec. 25, 1828. 
 
 A happy Christmas to you, and many returns of it. I came 
 here yesterday, and expect to be able to finish my letter this 
 fine Christmas morning, before other people come down to 
 breakfast. 
 
 I am sitting here with Milton Park spread out before my 
 window, a beautiful lawn extending to a great distance 
 (tenanted by an abundance of deer), and with a piece of water 
 close by, where, I believe, if I were to go and look, I should 
 find water-fowl of various kinds, tame and wild, taking their 
 morning swim. 
 
 I agree very exactly with what you say of Miss Kelty, but 
 I should like much to know what are the particulars in which 
 you think she reasons ill. I always considered it to be a defect 
 in the book that its reference to Madame de Stael's writings 
 would only be understood by those who had read them and 
 been much carried away by them, which I believe was Miss 
 Kelty's case formerly, but which cannot apply to any large 
 portion of her readers. However, there may be many who may 
 be profited by the book in various ways. 
 
 The Christmas of 1828 and of several subsequent 
 years was spent by Professor Whewell at Milton. In 
 the course of January 1829 he went to London to be 
 present at the marriage of his friend Sir John Herschel 
 to Miss Stewart. In April he wrote to Mr. Wilkinson : 
 
 I think I am scarcely likely to be in the north this year : 
 it seems to me that I must absolutely revisit Germany and 
 Switzerland. I have been living for the last eight years upon 
 my recollections, very imperfect ones, of the Alps ; and really I 
 cannot be such a bear as to go on" sucking my paws any longer. 
 I have not yet traced the detail of my intended course ; but I 
 shall, as soon as the business of the year begins to fall away 
 from about me, put on my travelling cap and turn its visor 
 towards the south. In the meantime I have got enough to 
 employ the ' shining ' hours of May ; for, besides the usual work 
 of lecturing men in Newton, and scolding them for keeping late 
 hours, I have to give my first course of lectures in Mineralogy. 
 
1829 MR. CAVENDISH. 127 
 
 I have got several nice things to say upon this latter subject 
 which it would do you good to hear. 
 
 These inevitable employments come upon me so fast that I 
 must give up the earth's density to others, and go on walking 
 about upon its surface without knowing how much denser it is 
 than its inhabitants. No doubt this is humiliating enough ; 
 but really the mining experiments are such hard labour, and 
 take so much time, that I have not courage to resume them. 
 Moreover, our pendulums have taken to such bad ways that I 
 cannot tell how to set about reforming them. I have no clear 
 notion where the fault was, and till that is made out I see no 
 good in repeating the experiment. 
 
 Nothing seems yet settled about our chance of an election. 
 Some talk of Cavendish, the future Duke of Devonshire, who 
 last year was second wrangler, first Smith's prizeman, &c. ; but 
 he seems to be considered too young. 
 
 June 3, he writes to the same correspondent that 
 Mr. Cavendish 
 
 Is now a candidate, and I can truly say that there has never 
 been a young man under my notice who offers a better promise 
 of the qualities that we should desire. If you think that we 
 ought to have something more than promise, I can only say 
 that to elect Cavendish now seems to me the only chance of 
 electing him at all ; that it must be considered as a proof that 
 we rest his pretensions entirely upon his academical character. 
 He is really a very excellent mathematician, both as to talent 
 and acquirement, inventive as well as solid ; and, with regard 
 to his character, he is more candid, modest, and reasonable than 
 any pupil I ever had ; utterly free from the exaggeration and 
 love of novelty which our clever men often have. I cannot 
 pretend to say what his opinions may be on particular points ; 
 but I am sure that he will never want respect and attachment 
 for the University, or any other portion of our inherited insti- 
 tutions, and that no shade of weakness, concession, or dishonour 
 will ever visit his name. 
 
 His opponent, George Bankes, comes forward with some 
 attempt to make himself the representative of the no-popery 
 men, though, in fact, he is supported by the pro-popery Ministry, 
 
128 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1829 
 
 or, at least, some of them. I cannot but feel some indignation 
 at the carelessness which some of these gentlemen show with 
 regard to the dignity and consistency of the University ; but I 
 hope we shall leave them only the merit of having attempted 
 to sacrifice it to their own fancies. 
 
 I hope you will come and help us to show that we wish to 
 select our representative on higher grounds. I believe the 
 election will be at the end of next week, and I shall be quite 
 rejoiced to see your face before I set forth for foreign parts, 
 which will be my next employment. I hope you will be able 
 to come. 
 
 Whether or not Mr. Wilkinson came up from 
 Sedbergh to vote, we know that Mr. Cavendish was 
 returned member for the University of Cambridge at 
 this election. 
 
 The pocket-books of this year contain a brief pencil 
 diary, and also a number of votes and memoranda, chiefly 
 mineralogical and architectural, made during the tour in 
 Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, upon which Mr. 
 Whewell started on July 4. In the course of it he went 
 to a certain Herr Ober Baurath Moller, at Darmstadt, to 
 whom he had letters, and heard from him the story of 
 the discovery of the original drawings of the cathedral 
 at Cologne. Herr Moller told him, as we learn from a 
 note book : 
 
 He had already studied Cologne, so that he was familiar 
 with its details ; he also knew that there had formerly been 
 belonging to the church many of these drawings. It was a 
 well-known fact that there had been such, but nobody knew 
 what had become of them. It was naturally enough supposed 
 that the French had got hold of them, and that they had been 
 carried to Paris, and (if I understood him well) a search was 
 made there, but with no success. In fact the drawings seemed 
 to be a hopeless history. ' One morning,' he said, ' a young 
 man came to me, a painter whom I knew, and offered me some 
 old rolls of parchment, drawings of architecture ; he had told 
 
1829 PLAN OF COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. 129 
 
 me of them before : he described them as drawings of Strasburg 
 Cathedral. I began to unroll the parchment. From a small 
 portion of the lower part I recognised Cologne. I had before 
 drawn it, and I knew that the original drawings had disappeared. 
 My wife, who was sitting by making coffee, said that I turned 
 quite pale immediately. I told my friend that I should be 
 glad to have his parchments, that I would pay him for them, 
 which he declined. I had them unrolled then, found them 
 what I had expected, and was overjoyed. 
 
 6 As to the history of this affair it appears to be this. The 
 treasures of Cologne were saved by being sent to Prague. At 
 the peace of Luneville, the commissioners who were to settle 
 the interests of the conterminous states met at Darmstadt, at the 
 Grape. All official papers were brought there ; and among the 
 rest it would seem these Cologne ones. After the arrangement 
 of affairs, the French ambassador, who had the management of 
 these matters, left a quantity of papers and documents, which 
 appeared to him useless, to be disposed of by the waiter at the 
 Grape. Among these was this Cologne drawing. It was stuffed 
 into a granary, was used for some time for drying beans, and 
 might have lain there till now but for an event (query, 
 the peace of 1814?) which brought about an illumination. 
 Parchments were then scrught out for transparencies, and among 
 the rest it would seem that my friend the painter got possession 
 of this one, which I had from him.' 
 
 The diary shows that Mr. Whewell habitually talked 
 to all liis fellow-travellers and extracted from them all 
 the information lie could. Sometimes a servant girl going 
 to place tells him about wages ; or a Belgian laments the 
 high duty upon distillation, which shuts up all the 
 smaller stills ; or an ex-Franciscan or Benedictine monk 
 tells him how the convent land was farmed, the wages 
 of the lay brethren, &c. He always offered a seat in his 
 hired carriage to any intelligent person travelling in the 
 same direction. At Spires he notes that he fell in with 
 a Frenchman who had been quarrelling with the Douane 
 on occasion of his bringing from Baden a musical 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1829 
 
 instrument with keys, the notes of which are produced 
 as in the wind harmonica, and adds : ' The difficulty of 
 getting on with a German in conversation strikes one 
 more on meeting a Frenchman. The German answers 
 all your questions with the most sincere goodwill, but 
 there you stick you never set him off.' 
 
 At Cologne he says : ' The architect at Beauvais seems 
 to have tried to do that in which the architect of 
 Cologne has succeeded enormous clerestory, open tri- 
 forium, double tracery in both I think. The effect is 
 delightful and majestic.' And at Strasburg he remarks 
 ' that the cathedral there is the realisation of what 
 Cologne was intended to be, so far as transparency is 
 concerned. The proportions are very different, but the 
 triforium, made into window with double tracery and 
 coloured glass, makes the whole like the inside of a parti- 
 coloured jewel. Nothing can be more rich and vision- 
 like, though it has not the sober and proportioned dig- 
 nity of a building with a triforium.' After visiting the 
 source of the Danube in Prince Flirstenburg's grounds, 
 he mentions his arrival at ' the edge of the great basin of 
 Switzerland a most glorious prospect. The Lake of 
 Constance spread out on the left, the cloudy and uncer- 
 tain Alps in the distance, and in the midst of the scene 
 six grand castled eminences scattered over a space of 
 five or six miles. The summits bold, and rising abruptly 
 from the more level land, and the ruins one more 
 picturesque than another. If the snowy Alps are seen 
 from hence, as I am told is the case in clear weather, I 
 cannot imagine a more magnificent view. I hope for a 
 fine morning to-morrow and then ! ' 
 
 The entry next morning unfortunately is : ' August 7 
 Wretchedly bad weather '; however, after quarrelling with 
 tailor and shoemaker, he adds : ' Off to Schaffhausen 
 
1829 SCHAFFHAUSEN. 131 
 
 went immediately to the fall. It is grand in all aspects, 
 but standing in the gallery, all the surrounding objects 
 confused by the blinding spray and a sort of eternity of 
 waters hurrying past and filling the eye, one can scarce 
 believe that the solid universe is not drifting away with 
 immeasurable violence. They have managed also that 
 the water leaps at you, and only seems just to fall 
 short by a foot/ 
 
 To the Rev. Hugh James Rose'] Grimsel: Aug. 18, 1829. 
 
 I am living an exceedingly pleasant vagabond idle sort of 
 life, walking twenty or thirty miles a day among the highest 
 parts of the Alps, and, as I have nothing to do in the intervals 
 of gazing at snow mountains and waterfalls but think about my 
 friends, it is only reasonable that I should write to them, or 
 otherwise how should they be the wiser for my thinking ? To 
 tell the truth, I cannot promise you that you will be the wiser 
 for my writing, for I have nothing to talk about but myself and 
 my whereabouts ; and the circumstances that are to me most 
 striking and important are such as it is not easy to convey in 
 description. 
 
 I am just arrived here after seeing on my road the glacier 
 from which the Khone issues, and a magnificent sight it is. 
 When first I began to travel amongst picturesque scenery, I 
 had a great desire < to hunt the waterfalls,' as the poet hath it ; 
 and I pursued this chase till I found that it generally ended in 
 disappointment. All the celebrated waterfalls are either too 
 low, like Schaffhausen, or too scantily supplied with water, like 
 the Staubbach; and at last I came to the conviction that a proper 
 and complete waterfall is not to be found. Nature has got an 
 abundance of water in the highest valleys of the earth, and on 
 the very tops of her tallest and wildest mountains, but she does 
 not choose to amuse mankind by tossing a river half-a-mile 
 abroad down a precipice a thousand feet high, though it would 
 be no trouble to her to do so. She either leads the rivulets 
 down into the plains by an endless number of small leaps, as if 
 she were educating them for a large plunge just as they lose 
 the opportunity of making it ; or she splits them into small 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1829 
 
 filaments till they have hardly weight enough to drop down the 
 hill sides when it becomes necessary for them to do it. And 
 these being the courses she pursues, I had, as I have said, de- 
 spaired of seeing a proper waterfall, complete in its dimensions 
 and proportions. 
 
 From the sight of the Khone-glacier, however, I have learnt 
 that nature has a love for the form of a waterfall such as I 
 desired to see, but that for some good reason (possibly to 
 prevent the valley below from being inundated) she turned the 
 waterfall to ice as soon as she had set it a-going. You are to 
 imagine (if you have seen it you are to recollect, which will 
 have the advantage of giving you a still more distinct con- 
 ception) a waterfall half-a-mile broad and a thousand feet high, 
 leaping down between mountains, gigantic even when compared 
 with its dimensions, and laden with eternal snows ; and you are 
 to suppose that this vast sheet of water, as soon as it touches 
 the bottom of the valley into which it plunges, boils up and 
 spreads itself over a far wider space as it rushes away. You 
 are then to wave the wand of your imagination a second time, 
 and to turn all this cataract to ice, and you will have the 
 glacier of the Khone. You are to suppose all the partial 
 torrents and bounds of water which are woven together to make 
 its expanse to be modelled in strange and fantastic pyramids of 
 ice with deep blue chasms between ; and the lines of the water 
 below, as it diverges and hastes away, to be pencilled with the 
 same deep crevices. I am afraid that all this is not much in 
 description, but to look it in the face under a beautiful blue 
 sky is a good employment for an August morning. 
 
 I have been living with all sorts of odd people for the last 
 week or two. My regular guide is a proper patriotic guide of 
 Schwytz, who has sent his son to learn French at Lausanne, and 
 is doubting whether he shall make him a guide like himself, a 
 waiter at an inn, or a priest. Besides him I have had an old 
 merry chamois hunter, a cowman from one of the highest 
 chalets of the Alps, and a Grrison crystal hunter, from whom I 
 got much valuable information in the way of my craft. My 
 hosts have been either worthy landammans or priests. Last 
 night I established myself in a little village under the shoulder 
 of St. Grothard, considerably above the line of trees and corn, 
 
1829 EEALP. 133 
 
 and a little below that of snow. When I had been there a 
 little while, my host appeared in the shape of a Capuchin friar, 
 with a brown beard, coarse wrapper and hood, and a knotted 
 rope round his middle. He discoursed to me concerning his 
 parishioners, whom he explained to be a milk- eating people, 
 without want, superfluity, or disease ; with no meat, firing, or 
 summer. There is no secular clergyman there, and my friend 
 with the hood is clerk, parson, and schoolmaster for the village. 
 The provincial makes his visitation every now and then, and if 
 he finds that the Capuchin has too much butter or cheese, the 
 only articles in which he can be superfluous, he sends the 
 excess to some parish or convent where there is too little. In 
 such cases as this (Eealp is the name of the village) one can 
 understand the advantage that there is in having a body of 
 clergy under vows of poverty and obedience, who may supply 
 the want of a sufficient national establishment. 
 
 I have been clambering over the backs of glaciers and up to 
 the tops of divers horns and culms with much gratification. A 
 very idle life it is, but I expect to return not a ' sadder and a 
 wiser man ' perhaps, but rather less sad and more ignorant. I 
 do not know whether I can do anything for you among those 
 very worthy people the Germans; but if I can, write to 
 Heidelberg. There is to be a marvellous Gesammlung of 
 Naturforschers there, which I, all unworthy as I am, shall try to 
 attend. I hope you are well and prosperous, pummelling the 
 Germans and the heterodox as much as is good for them and 
 you, and no more. I shall be rejoiced to meet you in Cambridge 
 again, and by that time, having talked with divers Grermans, I 
 may be enabled to discourse to you about faith and reason 
 more obscurely than ever but perhaps with reasonable modera- 
 tion and good hope of coming to a conclusion. Give my best 
 regards to Mrs. Kose, and beg her of all love to establish herself 
 in a more collegiate part of Cambridge in the autumn. I hope 
 your asthma has ceased to persecute you, and that you are able 
 to execute your duties of Christian Advocate. I grieve that I 
 must turn my face northwards again without * doing my Italy,' 
 as some of our friends very classically call it, but there is no 
 help for it. 
 
 I arn writing here, 6,570 feet above the sea (according to 
 
134 LIFE OF DR, WHEWELL. 1829 
 
 Ebel), in a house full of foolish English men and women. Why 
 should they climb so high ? I believe they rise like balloons, in 
 proportion to their want of ballast. Adieu. I am becoming 
 sleepy and peevish I suppose. 
 
 The following letter to his sister, Miss Whewell, con- 
 taining some brief account of the remainder of his tour, 
 is interesting because of a characteristic, and amusingly 
 earnest, protest against the habit of checking admira- 
 tion by comparison. He was always impatient of it, as 
 of an unworthy attempt to account for or justify an 
 imperfect sensibility to beauty, and used frequently to 
 say we should do much better if we had no compara- 
 tives or superlatives in the language ' or were debarred 
 from all use of them except for purposes of mensura- 
 tion.' 
 
 To his Sister] Nuremberg: Sept. 13, 1829. 
 
 I got your letter at Munich, having previously written to you 
 from Milan. 
 
 I am glad you have been seeing the English Lakes, and are 
 pleased with them. They do not much resemble the celebrated 
 lakes and valleys abroad, but we are not on that account to sup- 
 pose that they are necessarily inferior. Their beauty is of a dif- 
 ferent kind and on a smaller scale, but in its way is as exquisite 
 and perfect as anything which is to be found in any country. 
 The people of former times who made the proverb that ' Com- 
 parisons are odious ' were wise and sensible people ; for nothing 
 can be more tiresome than to hear people talk as if all beauties 
 at home were to be compared with something in other countries, 
 and to be considered as worthless because they are not of the 
 same class. So, if anybody tells you that our lakes are far in- 
 ferior to the scenery of Switzerland and Italy, you may depend 
 upon it that they are not good judges of beauty; and that, not 
 having any distinct feeling of pleasure from what they see, they 
 substitute instead of this feeling a habit of considering objects as 
 first, second, third, &c., of their kind. 
 
 So you see the end of it is that you cannot do better than 
 
1830 MUNICH. 135 
 
 admire our lakes and mountains at home, and if you have the 
 opportunity and taste to do this you need not repine that you 
 cannot visit the regions of Alpine snow and the birthplaces of 
 gigantic rivers. 
 
 You may tell my aunt that I have this time had a very 
 delightful ramble in Switzerland, though far too short. So 
 pleasant, indeed, that though I had by no means good weather 
 I was hardly conscious of this at the time. I worked my way 
 through clouds and rain as well as through clear and sunshine, 
 and was only convinced by looking back upon my tour that I 
 had had but an indifferent portion of the latter. 
 
 After passing through Switzerland to Milan I went on to 
 Verona, where I saw many things which interested me, but with 
 far too short an allowance of time. 
 
 I am here at Nuremberg, in the most central and oldest 
 part of Germany, and am quite delighted with the number and 
 style of the old buildings and with the old-fashioned looks and 
 ways of the people. Throughout the whole of Bavaria this is 
 remarkable: but there is a difference between the Protestant part 
 in which I am now, and the southern portion, which is Catholic. 
 
 At Munich I saw a ceremony which was new to me; a 
 young priest was to perform mass for the first time, and it 
 appears that the custom is on such occasions to choose a little 
 girl, of five or six years old, who is called his bride. This little 
 girl, and a very large troop of girls and young women who form 
 the supposed bridal party, attend the ceremony at church. They 
 are dressed in their finery and flowers, and have garlands of 
 flowers round their left arms. They also wore the Munich 
 headdress, which consists of a curious bag of rich gold or silver 
 stuff for the curls at the back of the head, which looks very gay. 
 After the ceremony there is an entertainment, and used to be 
 dancing, but the latter is now forbidden. 
 
 To Lady Malcolm] Trinity College : Feb. 7, 1830. 
 
 I have been reading the 'Life of Sir Thomas Munro,' which 
 has exceedingly interested and pleased me. The man's cha- 
 racter and progress, the history of the country, the letters 
 included in the book (several of Sir John Malcolm and of the 
 Duke of Wellington) have given to it quite an irresistible charm, 
 
136 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1830 
 
 and in perusing it I have been struck repeatedly with a reflexion 
 which has many times before occurred to me that the im- 
 portant and responsible employments of our countrymen who 
 manage our oriental possessions give them a practical dignity of 
 character and wisdom of view which few or none of our European 
 statesmen reach. In the East officers have to deal with the 
 characters and conditions and interests of nations ; here in Eng- 
 land our politicians are wrangling about the projects of parties 
 or the advancement of individuals. I often think that if there 
 be native historians and essayists and poets they must talk of 
 our principal Indian soldiers and politicians as the earliest 
 European poets and historians talked of the great conquerors 
 and lawgivers who were the founders of European civilisation 
 and advancement. I am delighted at the prospect of discussing 
 such matters with Sir John on his return, which I hope will 
 take place safely and prosperously before long. 
 
 In January of this year Professor Whewell passed a 
 week with Lord Milton. In June he visited Sir John 
 and Lady Herschel at Slough. August found him at 
 Bristol, whence lie went with Mr. Eickman for a tour in 
 Devonshire and Cornwall. Later in the year lie was at 
 Lancaster, but this year seems to have been so full of 
 work as to leave less time than usual for letters, and, 
 excepting an undated one to Mr. Wilkinson (accom- 
 panying a little book, apparently an architectural 
 treatise), and probably belonging to this time, none 
 have been found which possess much general interest. 
 
 To the, Rev. H. Wilkinson] 
 
 I should have answered your letter sooner, but various 
 matters have prevented it. One of these matters is the accom- 
 panying little book, which will tell you its own story I hope 
 in an intelligible dialect. I did not expect that it would have 
 been so long before I should have been able to send it you, for I 
 began to print it mainly with the intention of getting rid of the 
 subject, of throwing it off my hands and out of my head, that I 
 might attend to other things. But I found, as always happens, 
 
1830 JONES'S BOOK. 137 
 
 that it is easier to get into the hands of the printer than out of 
 them. 
 
 However, I have now put my notions upon arches in such a 
 form that you may perhaps make out something of my specula- 
 tions. You will find that I have seen arches in various forms, but 
 none, I think, precisely with such a makeshift as you have got. 
 At Bayeux they came nearest to it, for they have stuck in a pier 
 between each two of the original ones, as I have mentioned in 
 my book. I should like much to go about this country, and 
 others, collecting such examples of transition practices-, but I 
 believe the fates forbid my doing anything without interruption 
 for some time to come. I do not think I shall pursue my 
 German churches during the coming summer. 
 
 It is a journey something like that in the Vision of Mirza, 
 where you have arches more and more obscure, more and more 
 imperfectly formed, till at last you can see them no further. 
 
 I believe I am more likely to make a progress through 
 divers parts of England ending with the * north countree,' and 
 if I do this it shall go hard but I shall see you at Sedbergh, 
 provided you are visible. 
 
 I think I must put off till then any detailed account of the 
 present state of progress of most of our friends. Jones's book on 
 Political Economy is in the University Press, and will, I expect, 
 faire epoque in the science, when it does appear, which I would 
 hope will be this next spring, but he is heinously dilatory. 
 
 I write in haste, knowing that the discount upon a letter is 
 to many people (and you may be one of them) calculated at 
 a high rate ; that a little and ill written one now is better 
 than a long and orderly one two months hence. 
 
 Lady Milton died in December 1830, and Mr. "Whewell 
 paid no Christmas visit at Milton. 
 
 The first letter to his sister of this year contains 
 indications of the various subjects which had been 
 engaging his attention in the busy months of the past 
 year. 
 
 Writing to his friend Mr. Wilkinson a little later, he 
 declares, ' We are all becoming wonderfully learned in 
 
138 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1831 
 
 architecture here, and the agitation of the question has 
 done more in that way than the erection of a professor- 
 ship of architecture and two scholarships could have 
 done.' 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: Feb. 16, 1831. 
 
 I am afraid you will not find in my packet much to interest 
 you. The c British Critic ' contains two articles which you may 
 place among my other valuable works which you have got, 
 the one on the ' Cambridge Transactions ' and the one on ' LyelPs 
 Geology.' The pamphlet about our architectural controversies I 
 have a hand in, but I send it only to make up, for I do not 
 expect you to care for such matters. 
 
 I am glad that you like the ' Kectory of Valehead.' It has been 
 very popular, and Evans tells me that he is just called upon for 
 a third edition. I mentioned to him the deficiency which you 
 suggested that the mother of the family was not introduced. 
 He allowed the justice of the criticism, and declared his inten- 
 tion of acting upon it and of introducing such a person in the 
 new edition. It is a wonder certainly that she was not part of 
 the original scheme. 
 
 The book occasioned by the Bridgewater Bequest, about which 
 I heard from the Bishop of London when I was at Lancaster, will 
 hardly be written till the Long Vacation. I can scarce find time 
 for my common employments now, and shall want a little leisure 
 for that. 
 
 During the journeyings which occupied the summer 
 of this year Mr. Whewell wrote thus to his friend Pro- 
 fessor Henslow at Cambridge : 
 
 Edensor, near Bakewell. 
 
 I have got so far on my way northwards. I have been ram- 
 bling about this country with great pleasure, much delighted 
 with the performances of the limestone and its rivers. On the 
 whole I have had beautiful weather, but my last expedition, the 
 day before yesterday, was an exception. I went through Dove- 
 dale enveloped in a most persevering rain. In the middle of the 
 glen, and of course of the rain, I met Power, Thomas, and two 
 
1831 DOVEDALE. 139 
 
 other men, I think, both of Cambridge, who were doing their 
 duty as seers of sights no less resolutely than Airy and my- 
 self. However, Dovedale is worth a little inconvenience, for I 
 do not think anything can be more beautiful than the closest 
 part of the ravine, with its spires of rock and robes of wood and 
 moss. Mrs. Airy was one of our companions in the expedition 
 of which this was a portion, but she fortunately avoided all the 
 rainy part of our travels. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge : Sept. 19, 1831. 
 
 I made a very pleasing expedition after I left you. I went 
 up the valley of the Winning, under Mr. Filling's management, 
 very prosperously. It is so wide and flat that I daresay you 
 would hardly call it a valley ; but with the hills of Bolland on 
 one side and those of Ingleton on the other, though distant, I 
 was very glad to connect it with what I knew before of the shape 
 of the country. Towards the end of my gig-travelling we got 
 in front of Ingleborough, who looked very magnificent, but never 
 got his head quite clear of clouds, and consequently made no 
 signs of intelligence at my having come out of my way to look 
 at him. 
 
 My two-wheeled vehicle carried me to Settle, and after a 
 short pause there the coach came and shoved me onwards to 
 Skipton. After that I was obliged to take to an independent 
 conveyance in order to get to Harrogate, which is two stages 
 across country. At the end of the first I was rather puzzled, 
 for the last of the chaises belonging to the place was already 
 taken. Luckily the gentleman who had taken it was going to 
 Harrogate, had not yet started, and was willing to take me 
 with him. What was better : when we had agreed to travel 
 together, I found he was Dr. Lingard of Hornby, the Eoman 
 Catholic, a person of no small note in the literary world, the 
 author of a very celebrated history of England. We had met 
 fifteen years ago at a ball at Kirkby Lonsdale, and he appeared 
 as glad to renew our acquaintance as I was. 
 
 At Harrogate I found my friend, 1 whom I reckoned on 
 seeing there, at dinner in a gay company of about eighty 
 persons, as fine as people can be at a watering-place. I took up 
 
 1 Mr. Lodge. 
 
140 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1831 
 
 my abode there for a few days, but was tempted away during 
 two of them to visit a fine range of architectural remains which 
 I found I was within reach of. I saw Ripon Minster and 
 Fountains Abbey, which are not very far from Harrogate ; and 
 then struck across the country into the east of Yorkshire, a 
 part entirely new to me. I found both the scenery and the 
 ruins far more beautiful than I had imagined. The Hambleton 
 Hills are bleak and black, and when I crossed them were vexed 
 with a very fierce storm of thunder and hail ; and when I got 
 to the other side I found myself in the most luxuriant and 
 secluded green dells which I ever saw. 
 
 These deep valleys go winding and forking in all directions, 
 and in one of the richest and deepest of them I found the 
 magnificent ruin of Rivaulx Abbey. I had hardly daylight 
 enough to see this well, and got late and wet to Helmsley, 
 where I slept. Next morning was all blotted with mist and 
 rain ; however, I went back to take another look at Kivaulx, 
 which is, I think, the most beautiful object I ever saw ; and 
 then I crossed the hills again by another road to the ruins of 
 Byland Abbey. I got to Harrogate again in time to find my 
 friend Lodge presiding as Master of the Ceremonies at a grand 
 coronation ball. 
 
 Next morning I turned my face to the south, and got here 
 in about twenty-two hours, only turning aside at Leeds for an 
 hour to see Kirkstall Abbey also a very fine ruin. All this 
 architectural sight-seeing was so much clear gain, for I did not 
 reckon upon it when I left you. Since my arrival I have been 
 in Hertfordshire for a few days visiting Mr. Malthus. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge: Oct. 31, 1831. 
 
 Besides the common bustle of this time of the year with us, 
 you will have seen that we have had a county election 
 going on. 
 
 It ended to-day, the Tory candidate having gone on till he 
 had a majority of 547 against him and then resigned. We ex- 
 pected that there might have been some tumult and disturbance 
 in the town on this occasion, people's minds being so much 
 excited about politics at present. E'ut instead of this it has 
 
1832 HOr VINTAGE. 141 
 
 gone on, so far, more quietly than a common election, and I hope 
 will pass off in the same tranquil manner. 
 
 I think it is since I wrote to you that I have been in Kent. 
 I went after taking my part in the election of fellows which 
 always ends October 1, and was absent for about a week or ten 
 days, partly in London and partly at Brasted, near Sevenoaks. 
 The hop harvest, or rather, I believe I should say, the hop vin- 
 tage, was over when I reached the hop country ; which I was 
 sorry for, for it is one of the most picturesque of country occu- 
 pations. 
 
 The events of 1832 are told with tolerable complete- 
 ness in the following letters. Work connected with 
 a new edition of his book on Dynamics recalled him to 
 Cambridge immediately after his Christmas visit to 
 Milton, and kept him busily employed all the term. In 
 a letter to Mr. Wilkinson of March 16, he says, ' Briarly 
 has been writing pamphlets on the mathematics of the 
 Eeform Bill, in which he makes out that the proper 
 
 w 2 
 measure of the weight of a borough is ; w being the 
 
 wealth, and p the population. Gwatkin has written him 
 word that he lias altogether left out in his formula the 
 important quantities, I (intelligence), and R (religion).' 
 
 In June he attended the meeting of the British 
 Association at Oxford, going thence with Professor 
 Sedgwick for a few days' tour to Stratford-on-Avon, arid 
 other not distant places. During August he travelled, 
 undismayed by cholera, with Mr. Eickman in Normandy, 
 and, along witli him, suffered detention as a dangerous 
 character. 
 
 An undated letter to Mrs. Statter may probably be. 
 referred to this year, and is interesting as giving ex- 
 pression to his admiration and regard for Mrs. Somer- 
 ville, feelings which long subsequent years of friendship 
 did but confirm and increase. 
 
142 LIFE OF DR, WHEWELL. 1832 
 
 Among other things I have been occupied during the last 
 week with a very remarkable lady of my acquaintance who has 
 been visiting Cambridge. This is Mrs. Somerville, who is one 
 of the best mathematicians in England, and has recently pub- 
 lished a book called ' The Mechanism of the Heavens,' one of 
 the most profound works that has yet appeared on the subject 
 of the Newtonian philosophy of the Universe. It is full of 
 extremely long and difficult calculations, and is not only a very 
 extraordinary book to come from the pen of a lady, but would 
 do credit to any mathematician that England has ever produced. 
 What makes this still more remarkable is that Mrs. Somerville is 
 a very feminine, gentle, lively person, with no kind of pretence 
 to superiority in her manners or conversation ; and that she 
 possesses in a very great degree all the usual accomplishments 
 of ladies, such as music, drawing, and various languages. She 
 herself educates her daughters, and there are no girls better 
 taught. Her husband, Dr. Somerville, is physician at Chelsea 
 Hospital at present, having filled medical situations of consider- 
 able eminence in various foreign parts. They have been at Cam- 
 bridge for a week, and everybody has been much pleased to find 
 that a person so celebrated as Mrs. Somerville is, is so pleasing 
 and unassuming, which, however much people may wonder at 
 it, is the most common in persons of the most real strength 
 of mind. 
 
 From Cambridge they came to Audley End, Lord Bray- 
 brooke's house, fifteen miles from Cambridge, where I am also 
 visiting at present, and whence I write. Audley End is one of 
 the finest and largest nobleman's houses in England ; not quite 
 so large as Lord Fitzwilliam's house in Yorkshire, but of a more 
 beautiful kind of architecture. 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Whewell's sonnet ' To Mrs. Somerville, 
 on her " Mechanism of the Heavens," ' may appropri- 
 ately find place here. 
 
 To Mrs. Somerville on her* 6 Mechanism of the Heavens. 1 
 
 Lady, it was the wont in earlier days 
 When some fair volume, from a valued pen, 
 Long looked for, came at last, that grateful men 
 Hail'd its forthcoming in complacent lays ; 
 
1832 MRS. SOMERVILLE. 143 
 
 As if the Muse would gladly haste to praise 
 
 That which her mother, Memory, long should keep 
 
 Among her treasures. Shall such usage sleep 
 
 With us who feel too slight the common phrase 
 
 For our pleas'd thoughts of you, when thus we find 
 
 That dark to you seems bright, perplext seems plain, 
 
 Seen in the depths of a pellucid mind, 
 
 Full of clear thought, pure from the 111 and Vain 
 
 That cloud our inward Light ; an honoured name 
 
 Be yours, and peace of heart grow with your growing fame ! 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge: March 13, 1832. 
 
 I should like much to have one of my aunt's purses, but I 
 have a great belief that anything made of beads is not good to 
 hold money, and I find that purses, even of the strongest make, 
 in a short time let out the money I mean at the bottom, for as 
 to its getting out at the top there is no help for that, and indeed 
 I believe that people carry purses on purpose that it may do 
 so. 
 
 I have been, if possible, busier than usual; for, when I had 
 made up my mind how I would employ myself this year, 
 there came to me the bookseller, and told me that a new edition 
 of one of my mathematical books was wanted ; and on looking 
 at it I found that it was quite necessary to write nearly as much 
 more as I had previously printed. This has kept me incessantly 
 employed ever since the 1st of January, and I am only just 
 beginning to see my way to the end of my labour. I shall have 
 to publish two volumes instead of one, and perhaps three. I 
 should have been glad to have been spared this employment of 
 my time, for I want to give it to the Bridgewater dissertation ; 
 but I had undertaken the task of teaching our Cambridge folks 
 this branch of mathematics, and must do it as well as I can. 
 
 A lady, Mrs. Somerville, has been publishing a book on the 
 same subject, and a very good one it is ; and I want to make my 
 book correspond with hers, so that they may each help to make 
 the other intelligible and useful. 
 
 You mentioned in one of your letters something about the 
 tides in some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The tides 
 which are there mentioned are not real tides, but only the effects 
 
144 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1832 
 
 of the sea and land breezes, which raise the water at the same 
 hour every day ; but if you do find in your missionary books, or 
 any other books, any notices about the tides, let me know, for 
 I believe I shall have to write something about them, and all 
 information on the subject will be useful. 
 
 It is even too true that in spite of all my entreaties, which, 
 as you say, were very moving, we have as yet got no museums ; but 
 you will see by the last Cambridge paper that they are thinking 
 of making one for my minerals. I hope they will manage it ; if 
 they do not, the only way is to beg again, for we get on but 
 slowly with such things in this place. 
 
 If you can borrow the last ' Quarterly Keview,' you will find 
 an article there on LyelPs ' Geology,' which I hope is not very 
 unintelligible, as it was intended for general readers. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge : May 24, 1832. 
 
 I daresay you will recollect that the day on which I am 
 writing is my birthday, and so I take for granted all your good 
 wishes upon it. I do not think it likely that I shall be able to 
 visit Lancaster this summer, for I have a great deal of work to 
 do, which I cannot do anywhere so well as here, and I have two 
 or three visits to pay, which will take up, I think, all the time 
 which I can spare from Cambridge. Almost as soon as I can 
 leave College I must go to the meeting at Oxford, the con- 
 tinuation of that which was held at York last year, and which 
 I could not attend. 
 
 In the course of the summer I believe I shall change the 
 apartments in which I live for another set. My present habi- 
 tation is very pleasant in many ways, and especially at present, 
 for my windows open down to my grass plat, and the lilacs and 
 other flowers are all in full pride. But there are other things 
 which I do not like so well. 
 
 So, as a very pretty set of rooms is about to become vacant, 
 I think I shall take them. They are beautifully situated, 
 being on the second story looking along a fine walk of limes, 
 with the nearest pair of trees almost waving against the win- 
 dows. 
 
 I went to London a few days ago, and found Mrs. Somer- 
 ville and her two daughters walking under the shade of the 
 
1832 TOUR IN NORMANDY. 145 
 
 trees of her College Chelsea College ; a fine place of the style 
 and time of William III., dignified though formal. 
 
 To his Sister] Caen: Aug. 20, 1832. 
 
 I do not think you will suppose me imprudent in coming 
 here, if you recollect that my companion (Mr. Eickman) is a 
 grave, business-like, oldish Quaker, a married man and the father 
 of a family, who would naturally neither wish to expose him- 
 self to danger, nor would be allowed to do so by his wife if 
 there were anything to apprehend. In fact, this country is not 
 more afflicted by the cholera than yours. 
 
 Hitherto our expedition has answered extremely well ; we 
 have had for the most part very fine weather and abundance of 
 curious churches. 
 
 Our road has been through Calais, where we landed a 
 fortnight ago, by Boulogne, Abbeville, Amiens, Beauvais, and 
 Rouen. I have been this morning to see an ancient abbey 
 church which was founded by Matilda, the wife of William the 
 Conqueror. It only ceased to exist as an abbey at the French 
 Revolution in 1789, and is now used as a hospital, but is still 
 served by nuns. We found a number of these useful persons 
 in every part of the building. They are dressed in white, in a 
 way that gives one the notion of their having a vast quantity 
 of linen wrapped about them, with black veils. 
 
 In one room the servants were dining, and one of the nuns, 
 apparently very young, but infinitely grave, was sitting reading 
 exactly in the middle of the hall, I suppose as inspectress. In 
 another place, an ancient church in which the tomb of Matilda 
 still stands, we found several in separate corners saying their 
 prayers. But the greater part were occupied in taking care of 
 the sick. The hospitals in France are much larger than those 
 in England, it being the custom for the poor people to go there 
 more commonly. 
 
 It will be about a fortnight longer before we return to 
 England ; very early in September I expect to be again at 
 Cambridge. 
 
 We are here in a country of wonderful headdresses; the 
 women, especially out of the towns, wear enormous caps, of 
 different patterns in different places, but always exhibiting a 
 
146 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1832 
 
 large expanse of muslin and sometimes of lace, and of very odd 
 shapes. The most common here is that of a large grenadier's 
 cap, broken and bent forwards in the middle. The women are 
 in general tall and strong-looking, and with this uniform they 
 look quite formidable. We admire them as we meet them in 
 the street, and the admiration is generally mutual, for my 
 companion is also a very remarkable figure in his way. He 
 wears the Quaker dress, which of itself would draw some notice 
 here, and being a little, round, fat man, with short, thick legs, 
 and a large head, he sets off the dress to great advantage. 
 
 It is a difficulty for me to saunter along as slowly as he 
 walks, and as, besides, he is perpetually running from one side 
 of the street to the other to peep into whatever catches his 
 attention, our motions are very irregular and apparently ill 
 connected ; and we seldom move far without the honour of 
 some special spectators. 
 
 Notwithstanding this I like my companion very much. He 
 is very good-humoured, and very intelligent and active, and I 
 see more by travelling with him than I should do alone, besides 
 understanding the architecture much better. 
 
 We are going to set off to-day or to-morrow for Bayeux 
 and Coutances, which is nearly the same route that I followed 
 nine years ago in company with my friend Digby. 
 
 To his Aunt] Winchester: Sept. 2, 1832. 
 
 I daresay you will be glad to hear that I am once more safe 
 on English ground. 
 
 Mr. Eickrnan and I made out our journey in the most 
 agreeable manner, and came over just when we intended to do 
 so, notwithstanding several hindrances that seemed at first 
 likely to interrupt us. We arrived last Wednesday at Honfleur, 
 which is on the opposite side of the Seine, and expected to 
 cross to Havre that day ; but the weather was so bad that the 
 steam-boat did not venture across, so we were left either to 
 wait, or to take some other road. We preferred the latter ; and 
 went to a place called Pont Audemer to sleep, and the next 
 day proceeded, with very bad weather, and over roads which 
 I think are infinitely worse than anything in England which 
 pretends to the name, to another point of the Seine opposite 
 
1832 NORREY. 147 
 
 Caudebec, where we passed the river in a ferry-boat, with some 
 difficulty, the wind still being very high. 
 
 We were here not able to get anything but an open carriage, 
 which was the less pleasant as we had really a storm of rain 
 during the next stage. However, we managed so as to get only 
 moderately wet ; and by posting on as far as daylight would let 
 us, and starting early the next morning, we reached Havre in 
 excellent time for the Camilla's voyage, and just exhausted all 
 the bad weather on the land, where, though not comfortable, we 
 could do with it better than we could at sea. We came on 
 from Southampton as soon as the gentry at the Custom House 
 had examined our baggage (which we had to wait for two 
 hours), and Mr. Eickman, finding all the coaches full, went 
 forwards towards Birmingham without delay, as his wife and 
 business wanted him there. I have had a very instructive and 
 agreeable j ourney with him. We had one amusing adventure. 
 At a place called Norrey we were taken up by the National 
 Gruard. We were carried to the Mayor's, a dirty farm-house ; 
 and, as his worship was not at home, we were marched off across 
 the country under a guard of three sabres and two fowling- 
 pieces to the next magistrate, who luckily turned out to be a 
 reasonable man. Our convoy declared that they considered us 
 to be dangerous people, that we were drawing their church and 
 had fifty other churches in our pocket-books ; but when Eick- 
 man produced his printed card, the Mayor of Bretteville saga- 
 ciously observed that ' Monsieur n'aurait jamais improvise un 
 timbre comme celui la,' and moreover that it was very import- 
 ant to preserve a good understanding between France and 
 England, and so dismissed us, much to the discontent of the 
 National Guard of Norrey. We found some very intelligent 
 architectural antiquarians at Eouen and Caen. We have, alto- 
 gether, seen and examined above 130 churches and other 
 buildings in the twenty-five days we have been in France, 
 which is good work. 
 
 To Lady Malcolm] Trinity College : Dec. 6, 1832. 
 
 Lubbock is, as you know, an old and most valued friend of 
 mine, whose excellences and merits I need not tell you of, and 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1832 
 
 I shall rejoice, with as much joy as any election event can give 
 me, to see him returned as our member. 
 
 Do you frown because I can only give him my vote and my 
 good wishes ? Pray unbend your brow, for I think you will find 
 these are all I have to give. If, indeed, you can find any persons 
 so extremely sensible and judicious as to ask my advice how 
 they shall vote, pray let me know of them and I shall have no 
 difficulty in dealing with them. I shall tell them that Lubbock 
 and Groulburn will be a most fair and respectable representation 
 of the University, and that Groulburn and a Johnian Tory will 
 not be so ; I shall tell them also that Lubbock is a most temper- 
 ate and moderate person, the most conservative of Whigs, and 
 therefore more likely to conserve than a headlong Tory. But 
 till I have discovered these moderate and open-minded men 
 who will listen to this, I cannot tell how to set about making 
 converts. If I address my arguments to any of our voters who 
 have not taken any interest in our University politics, and who 
 have not invited me to communicate to them my wishes for 
 Lubbock's success, they will probably turn round upon me with 
 some indignation, and ask whether I expect to persuade them 
 that the contest is any other than one between the supporters 
 and the opponents of the Ministry. Very likely they may go 
 further, and ask whether I myself do not consider the Ministry 
 as a dangerous set of people, and how I reconcile it to my con- 
 science to try to add to their strength ; and though I may 
 answer these enquiries so as to satisfy myself, I do not think I 
 can do so in such a way as to gain the suffrages of any other 
 person. 
 
 I had something of the same sort of task at the last election, 
 when Cavendish was thrown out ; and I found then that my 
 efforts were both so ineffective, and so unsatisfactory to myself, 
 that I quite resolved to make no more such, and to leave all 
 the active business of elections to people whose opinions of 
 persons and of principles happen to carry all their sympathies 
 to the same side. For my own part, I try to wrap myself in a 
 philosophical tranquillity which is to last, if possible, till quiet 
 days come back again. Do not despise this my humble en- 
 deavour to avoid going wrong ; recollect, among other things, 
 
1832 M. IlIO. 149 
 
 how long it is since I saw any one who bears the name of Mal- 
 colm ; and then you will the less wonder if my faculties are a 
 little clouded, and my perceptions more obtuse than they were 
 wont to be. 
 
 Sedgwick is strenuous, though somewhat grieved by the 
 vehemence of some of his Whig friends here, and truly not 
 without reason. Thirl wall is more staunch still for Lubbock. 
 As for Peacock, I regret to say that, though he has moulted his 
 wig, and rejoices in his own hair, he still does not think with so 
 much liberality as you might expect. He has not yet declared 
 for Lubbock, but I think it very likely he will give him his 
 vote. I do not know whom else you could gain, for I suppose 
 the attempt to bring up Hamilton from (illegible) to neutralize 
 Praed would be even beyond your power. I am afraid you 
 will make out from this epistle that I am not worthy to be your 
 guest ; but I will still live in the hope of seeing you before 
 long. 
 
 To Lady Malcolm'] Trinity College: Dec. 27, 1832. 
 
 I was delighted beyond measure to receive once more a 
 reasonable-looking crossed letter with such words as Ma-Man 
 and Minny and Kate in the crossings ; and should have come 
 to Hastings immediately, to thank you for it, if that had been 
 possible. As matters stand, I must put off for the present, 
 that is for a fortnight, all hope of visiting the beauties and 
 comforts of St. Leonard's. And as I conceive, from what you . 
 mention of M. Rio, that a fortnight will be an age lost in his 
 acquisition of information, I will send you without delay such 
 scanty notices as I am able to give which seem at all likely to 
 answer his purpose. I beg to say, at the same time, that I 
 would not send you so much as the title of a Reading-made- 
 Easy, if I thought it would diminish, by the smallest atom, the 
 probability of your bringing M. Rio here, which I think is a 
 most admirable project. We shall not be here in force till the 
 end of January ; Sedgwick is gone into the north to rusticate 
 with his own family and with Lodge, for a season ; and I shall 
 be very unstationary (if there be such a word) for the next 
 three weeks. But after that, only come here, and M. Rio shall 
 
150 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1832 
 
 see whether we are not as wise and as learned and as simple- 
 hearted and right-headed as any set of people he can meet with. 
 (I am writing to you who can testify to all this, so you see I do 
 not mince the matter.) We have lost Hare, who certainly was a 
 shining example of some of the qualifications I have mentioned, 
 but still we are as yet far from destitute ; and if you will come 
 among us (bringing Malcolms the more the better) you will see 
 us to great advantage, drawing out good qualities that we had 
 of yore, and that have been slumbering for years for want of 
 use. So pray think sincerely and again of that part of your 
 project. I would say that we will talk of it again when we 
 meet ; but that I do not wish it to depend on my visiting 
 Hastings, which is not certain. 
 
 But I ought to proceed to M. Eio's books before my paper 
 fails me. If I were to recommend limits as well as books, I 
 should say that any foreigner visiting England must be content 
 to read little books and few, except he have an unlimited com- 
 mand of time. And assuming this, I should recommend him to 
 read modern books and popular ones, as specimens of literature 
 as well as sources of information. Taking this line, I should re- 
 commend several volumes of ' Lardner's Cyclopaedia,' namely the 
 volumes on Cities and Towns. The Keign of George IV. (three 
 vols.), Eminent British Statesmen, Eminent British Military 
 Commanders. A volume on the Iron Manufactories. Another 
 on the Glass and Porcelain Manufactories. I would, moreover, 
 recommend most especially Espriella's letters (by Southey), 
 most amusing and instructive ; and Simon's l travels in England, 
 full of information. There is an article on the Cotton Manufac- 
 tory in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which gives the history of 
 that extraordinary feature in our economical history. But I 
 should say that the best thing your friend can do is to read the 
 last four or five years of the ' Edinburgh ' and ' Quarterly' Ee views, 
 especially statistical articles. He will find there sound informa- 
 tion brought up to modern times, and will, moreover, see some- 
 thing of the spirit of modern English literature. The same 
 works will all give him a view of English literature. Let him 
 
 1 In a later letter he suggests that the traveller's name is Sismonde. 
 
1832 M. RIO. 151 
 
 get also a good Eoad Book, as Paterson's, and perhaps Aikin's 
 England, and I think he will be well provided. If he has a 
 taste for thick quartos, only mention it, and I will give him a 
 list of such, beginning with Colquhoun ; but what I have men- 
 tioned above are really pleasant reading, and would, I think, 
 set a foreigner a-going to good purpose. I am obliged to 
 write in haste, for I am going out of Cambridge to-morrow. 
 
152 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1833 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 1833-1840. 
 
 M. Rio British Association Change of Rooms Charnwood Forest Tides 
 Scotch Tour Mr. Thirlwall Professor Jones Favourite Tides 
 Trinity House Sermon Ireland Mr. Airy made Astronomer Royal 
 Mr. Jones made Tithe Commissioner Mr. Simeon's Death Geological 
 Society Foreign Tour Sir David Brewster Sir J. Herschel Corona- 
 tion Brecon Isle of the Sirens Chateau de Meteren Dr. Chalmers 
 High Stewardship of the University Miss Henslow ' Right Spelling ' 
 Stall at Ely for Professor of Casuistry. 
 
 THE British Association met at Cambridge in 1833, and 
 Mr. Whewell was secretary. In the autumn of this 
 year he carried out the intention mentioned to his aunt, 
 and removed to a new set of rooms looking across the 
 river and down the lime-tree avenue, which he continued 
 to occupy until his marriage. Short tours with Mr. 
 Rickman and Professor Sedgwick, visits to Mr. Airy and 
 other friends, and an expedition to London to see Sir 
 John Herschel off for the Cape, seem to have occupied 
 all the leisure this year had to give. 
 
 To Lady Malcolm] 
 
 Brasted, near Sevenoaks : Jan. 13, 1833. 
 
 In the list of books which I mentioned at your request (and 
 which perhaps I might improve after conversing with M. Rio on 
 his more peculiar objects) I believe I mis-spelt the name of one 
 of the authors. I think Sismonde, not Simon, is the name of 
 the traveller whose book I recommended. It is one of the 
 best accounts of England which a foreigner can have ; full of 
 information and amusement. Of course he will read Count 
 
1833 MISS MARTINEAU. 153 
 
 Pecchio's book (which I recommend to your notice also). And 
 he may read Harriet Martineau's books, which are in wonderful 
 circulation at present, and so, suited to one who wants to catch 
 the current of popular opinion. But if he does, I hope he will 
 have, along with much admiration of her power of inventing 
 and describing, a proper horror of some of her doctrines and 
 feelings. The last, which is about the French Kevolution, is 
 positively revolting and bloody-minded. But she is a remark- 
 able person. She is now enjoying the honours of her lionhood 
 in London, and is taken into favour by ' Grey ' and * Brougham, 9 
 as I hear she calls them. However, she is forty, ugly, and 
 deaf. 
 
 Mr. Jones, your old acquaintance, at whose house I am 
 staying, is just appointed Professor of Political Economy (Miss 
 Martineau's subject) at King's College, London. I have no 
 doubt he will lecture admirably. He wants me to learn where 
 Sir John is, that he may apply to him for some Indian informa- 
 tion. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Trinity College: June 5, 1833. 
 
 I have been making a little expedition of two days into 
 Northamptonshire with Mr. Bickman, my architectural friend, 
 to see some churches, which he thinks are certainly older than 
 the Norman conquest, though the antiquarians have hitherto 
 held that we have no remains concerning which that degree of 
 antiquity could be proved. Those which Mr. Eickman has fixed 
 upon are certainly very curious. 
 
 We are now all very busy in preparing for the meeting of 
 the British Association, which is fixed for the twenty-fourth. I 
 am Secretary this year. Till it is over I cannot pretend even to 
 guess what I shall do with the remainder of the vacation. 
 
 Our weather has been beautiful ; abundance of brightest of 
 sunshine, with rain enough, now and then, to keep everything 
 green and sweet. I never saw our groves and gardens looking 
 better, and I begin to feel very desirous of going somewhere 
 where there are valleys and rivers worthy of the season ; but, as 
 I have said, I cannot yet foresee what I shall do after the 
 beginning of July, when I shall be more at liberty. 
 
 Your suggestion about my book and the difficulty in it was, 
 
154 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1833 
 
 I believe, too late ; the part of the second edition to which you 
 refer was printed already ; otherwise I should have tried to 
 make the matter clearer. The law of the inverse square is the 
 law or rule that the forces by which bodies are attracted to one 
 another becomes less, exactly in proportion as the square of the 
 distance becomes greater ; that is, at double the distance the 
 force is one-fourth as great, at three times the distance the force 
 is one-ninth as great, and so on. I had tried to explain this 
 in the beginning of the chapter, but probably had not put it 
 clearly enough. 
 
 Dr. Kidd of Oxford has published his Treatise, and Dr. 
 Chalmers has just put out his. I will bring or send them as 
 soon as I can. 
 
 To his Aunt] Cambridge : July 29, 1833. 
 
 I sent you, a little while ago, a parcel of papers and books 
 from which you would perceive how busy we have been, but I 
 see you do not mean to acknowledge that for a letter. The 
 bustle which the meeting left behind it for us who were the 
 officers on the occasion has continued almost to the present 
 time, so that I have had little leisure for writing. Besides 
 which, I have been in London and the neighbourhood for a 
 week. 
 
 I hope by this time you have got over all the strangeness 
 of a change of abode, and that you are better in Friar Street 
 than you ever were in Brock Street. I do not intend to be 
 misled in this matter, for I shall, I hope, come myself before 
 long and see how you are. 
 
 My first move will be into Leicestershire, where I am going 
 with Professor Sedgwick to geologize for a few days ; after that 
 I may go either to Derbyshire or to Wales, or possibly to both. 
 
 I can at present quite sympathise with any discomfort you 
 may have felt in removing, for I am myself labouring under 
 the same trouble. The house in which I have lived for the 
 last twelve years is half of it pulled down, and the one into 
 which I am going is not yet ready, so that I am all in confusion. 
 I have borrowed three or four neighbouring apartments close to 
 my old rooms ; my books are in one of these, my furniture in 
 another, and I myself in a third ; and I am superintending the 
 
1833 CHARNWOOD FOREST. 155 
 
 papering, painting, and beautifying of my rooms that are to be 
 as fast as it can be done. 
 
 Edensor, near Bakewell : 
 To his Sister Ann] Aug. 20, 1833. 
 
 Your letter overtook me at Leicester, where I was staying 
 for the purpose of geologizing the neighbourhood with Professor 
 Sedgwick, which employed us very pleasantly for a week. 
 There is in the centre of the flat rich plain of Leicestershire a 
 comparatively mountainous and moorland patch called Charn- 
 wood Forest, and of this my companion wanted to make out 
 the structure and history, according to geological notions. We 
 traversed it in various directions, and finally took up our abode 
 for two days nearly in the centre of it, having made acquaint- 
 ance with a gentleman who farms his own land and lives there, 
 and who entertained us most hospitably. I slept in a bedroom 
 which looked over a wide rich champaign country, extending as 
 far as the eye could reach, all bright with green fields, and 
 here and there black with hedgerows and forests, over which I 
 could see the sun rise as I lay in bed. 
 
 Mr. Alsop, our host, is a person of great literature and good 
 manners, as well as a practical farmer, so that we were admir- 
 ably entertained. Professor Airy, our celebrated Professor of 
 Astronomy, joined us during part of the expedition. I am 
 staying at present at the house of Mr. Smith, whose daughter 
 Professor Airy married, and where I was two years ago, as you 
 may perhaps recollect. There is a large family, and we are 
 making expeditions every day into one part or other of this 
 pretty country ; but I believe I shall leave it in a day or two. 
 I want to see persons both at Manchester and Liverpool, so that 
 I shall probably go by those places. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Trinity College: Sept. 28, 1833. 
 
 When I left you I went directly to London, staying only an 
 hour or two at Liverpool. I remained in London Sunday and 
 Monday, and then came here, where I found that the demolition 
 of my old rooms had gone on more rapidly than I expected, 
 and that Carter l had thought it necessary to remove everything 
 
 1 Carter was Mr. Whewell's servant for many years, and a great cha- 
 racter in his way. On one occasion when found fault with for supplying 
 
156 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1833 
 
 into iny new rooms. I had intended to superintend this 
 business myself; and, in consequence of not having done so, 
 have been sadly puzzled and perplexed to find the various parts 
 of my property, now that they have assumed new and unknown 
 positions. However, I am getting over this inconvenience ; 
 and when I have done so I shall, I daresay, like my new habi- 
 tation very much. It is the upper story of a gateway tower, 
 and from my window I look along an avenue of lime trees 
 which leads up to the tower ; and in fine weather nothing can 
 be prettier than the clean swept walk, chequered with the 
 shade of the leaves, and the holiday people sauntering along it. 
 The whole of my view on that side consists of the College 
 grounds, which are meadows and straight gravel walks, with 
 lines of fine trees, and the river with its smooth-kept banks 
 running through them. 
 
 You see I am desirous of showing you that I have changed 
 my house for the better as well as you. In two days the 
 examination will be over which made it necessary for me to 
 come here, and I shall then go to London to see Sir John and 
 Lady Herschel, who are just starting for the Cape of Good 
 Hope. His object is to observe the stars which cannot be seen 
 in this country. 
 
 To his Sister'] Cambridge, Nov. 2, 1833. 
 
 Since the fellowship election was over I have been to Lord 
 Braybrooke's at Audley End, and since that I have been engaged 
 with the freshmen, above forty of whom are my pupils. 
 
 You find me always complaining how much I have to do, 
 and perhaps wonder that I do not throw off some part of my 
 employments if they are so burthensome. And accordingly I 
 have been making arrangements for the purpose of transferring 
 a considerable portion of my employments to one of my col- 
 leagues, Mr. Perry, who was Senior Wrangler in 1828. 
 
 He is to take all the money department at Christmas : I 
 
 incorrect information, owing to which important persons were missing from 
 a College meeting summoned by his master, he interrupted the objurgation 
 by inquiring, ' Had we not better talk of this, sir, when you and I are 
 alone ? ' Mr. Whewell used to say, in telling the story, l Of course I felt 
 at once that I was wrong and he was right.' 
 
1833 NEW ROOMS. 157 
 
 shall, of course, have a smaller income by this means, but still 
 I retain a large share of the tutorship, and shall hope to feel 
 much more at ease. 
 
 My rooms are now quite in good order, and look very pretty, 
 but we have at present a very high wind blowing, and the lime 
 trees are waving their branches close to the windows as if they 
 intended to break into the room. 
 
 I have to-day got a letter from Joseph Gurney, the Quaker, 
 expressing himself much pleased with my book, and sending 
 me all his works. As he is, I believe, a good and religious man, 
 I am very glad of his approbation. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: Dec. 21, 1833. 
 
 I was very sorry not to receive from you a better account of 
 my Aunt. I am glad you called in the best advice that was to 
 be had, and I trust, with God's blessing, the means employed 
 may be efficacious to restore and preserve her many years. 
 
 I am not surprised that false notions of the step I have 
 taken [in transferring to Mr. Perry the financial part of the 
 tutorship] should reach you, for such stories always grow as 
 they travel farther, and even here all sorts of nonsensical reports 
 have been put in circulation. In a week or two I shall have 
 done with the accounts of my pupils, but still remain their 
 tutor in all other respects as to superintendence, lectures, and 
 so on, and I look upon this arrangement as the introduction to 
 a much pleasanter mode of employing my time than I have 
 hitherto been pursuing. 
 
 When I was at Lancaster in the summer I desired Hender- 
 son to paint me two views of the town, one of which he had 
 begun before I left the place. I wish you would enquire about 
 these same pictures, and let me know in what state of forward- 
 ness they are. I have got places on my wall ready for them, 
 and shall be glad to have such memorials of that which I admire 
 so much. 
 
 We have lately been in alarm here on the subject of illness. 
 Two very near friends of mine, Professor and Mrs. Airy, have 
 had the scarlet fever at the same time ; she more slightly, he 
 very severely. They are now, I am thankful to say, past the 
 danger, doing well and recovering rapidly. You will recollect 
 
158 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 that I was staying with them at her father's in Derbyshire in 
 the summer. They are, I think, two of the most admirable 
 and delightful persons that the world contains. 
 
 Tell Mr. Satterthwaite that I am obliged to those who have 
 made a bishop of me, but that I had rather they should talk so 
 than that the thing should be so. 
 
 The year 1834 opened with a visit to Lord Milton. 
 In a letter of the previous year to Mr. Jones he refers 
 to the Marchesa Spineto as ' one of the greatest of one's 
 comforts here.' Some letters written to her in the 
 August of this year give a lively account of a northern 
 tour undertaken in connection with the meeting of the 
 British Association at Edinburgh, on which occasion he 
 stayed with Sir John Forbes, the father of his friend 
 Professor James D. Forbes, at Greenhill, near Edin- 
 burgh. The most remarkable feature of this tour was 
 the visit to St. Kilda, of which he tells his sister in a letter 
 dated August 21. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge : June 4, 1834. 
 
 I send you a few copies of a pamphlet which I have been 
 obliged to publish, sorely against my will, on a matter relating 
 principally to our own College rules. You may have seen 
 something said of it in the newspapers, and may like to see the 
 whole. 
 
 You may have seen, too, that the gentleman in answer to 
 whom it is written has been dismissed from his office of tutor. 
 This dismissal was in opposition to my urgent remonstrances, 
 though I disapproved of much of what Mr. Thirl wall had said ; 
 but the Master of the College was not to be dissuaded. 
 
 Send the packet to Mr. Wordsworth, paying the carriage. 
 The other to Mr. Fisher, of Kirkby Lonsdale. The remaining 
 copies are directed, as you will see, to Mackreth and Morland, 
 and there is one for you and one for James. I send no more, 
 for I look at the whole affair with nothing but sorrow, and am 
 by no means desirous of being widely read out of our own world 
 here. 
 
1834 SCOTCH TOUR. 159 
 
 I am just going to the coast to superintend some tide obser- 
 vations which the Admiralty have directed to be made, at my 
 suggestion, at 500 places at once. I send you some of the 
 directions. I should be glad to have corresponding observations 
 made at any place near Lancaster if it can be done. 
 
 To Us Sister] Fort William : Aug. 21, 1834. 
 
 I am detained here by a very resolute day of rain ; the first 
 day I have rested from my travels since I entered Scotland, 
 except one day which I spent at Glasgow in looking at the 
 Cathedral. 
 
 You will have heard from Martha that I slept at Lindale 
 the day I left you. I then went on to Ambleside, where I spent 
 the remainder of Friday and the whole of Saturday, or rather 
 at Kydal Mount, Mr. Wordsworth's, and upon Windermere lake 
 with him. I went to Keswick in the evening, and stayed there 
 on Sunday with Professor Airy and his family ; and on Monday 
 we went up Skiddaw as far as the clouds would let us. The 
 same day I went on to Penrith and Carlisle, and after sleeping 
 at the latter place came on by the coach to Glasgow, passing 
 through Dumfries, and then following the course of the Nith 
 into Ayrshire a pleasant ride. 
 
 After one day at Glasgow I came forward by divers steam- 
 boats, coaches, and carts, through some very beautiful scenery to 
 Oban, which is on the coast opposite the island of Mull. This 
 tour conducted me up Loch Lomond, the largest, and certainly 
 one of the most beautiful, of the Scotch fresh water lakes ; then 
 by land to the head of Loch Long, and up the secluded dell of 
 Glencoe. The road makes a long and fatiguing ascent at the 
 upper end of the valley, and when you reach the highest point of 
 the pass you find a bank of sod and a stone on which is cut 
 'Rest and be thankful.' 
 
 You then descend to Loch Fyne, a great salt water lake, and 
 so to Inverary. Here the two inns were full of tourists and 
 travellers, and some ladies who arrived in the same boat with 
 me were much dismayed at not being able to procure beds. 
 However, we were all quartered at last in different parts of the 
 town, and slept off our fears and cares. I had a bed provided 
 in a neighbouring garret, where I could have the satisfaction of 
 
160 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 standing with my head and neck sticking out of the sky-light, 
 which must have appeared like a chimney to the spectators, if 
 there were any. 
 
 Next day the coach carried me up the Eiver Awe in front 
 of Cruachan, one of the highest mountains in Scotland, across 
 Loch Awe, and so to Oban. I arrived there just in time for 
 a steam-boat which was going to St. Kilda. The steam-boat 
 had made one excursion to this island, the most remote of the 
 Hebrides, about a fortnight before ; but with this exception it 
 had scarcely ever been visited by any one except the proprietor's 
 agent, who goes there once in every one or two years, which is 
 the only opportunity the inhabitants have of receiving letters, 
 groceries, &c. The number of people who live on this rock is 
 about 100. We found that the account that had been given of 
 the rude and almost savage condition of the people of the island 
 by those who had been passengers in the steam-boat on her 
 former voyage had not been exaggerated. Indeed, it would be 
 difficult to go beyond the reality. They live in huts not at all 
 better than the pictures you see of Hottentot huts, built of 
 rough stones a few feet high and then thatched over with straw. 
 They have a hearth in the middle of the hut, but no chimney, 
 and they sleep in holes left for this purpose in the wall of the 
 hut. 
 
 During winter the floor of the hut (which is the ground) is 
 covered with peat mull (you know what that is) so thickly that 
 the inmates of the house have not room beneath the thatch to 
 stand upright, and this is for the purpose of making it a dung- 
 hill to manure their fields in the spring. You may judge from 
 this of their condition in other respects. 
 
 They have a minister, however, who has been there two or 
 three years, and who tries to instruct and improve them I fear 
 with small success. His wife, unfortunately, is from Glasgow, 
 and does not talk Gaelic. The minister has service on the Sun- 
 day and a school on the Sunday evening, and said that he 
 hoped in a short time to have a few whom he might think 
 sufficiently instructed to be fit to receive the Communion. 
 
 He appears to be a pious and judicious person, and is sent 
 there by some society. He informed us that he considered our 
 coming providential, for he had a child whom he wished to have 
 
1834 SCOTCH TOUR. 161 
 
 baptized and we had a Scotch minister with us. In the Scotch 
 Church the father cannot administer this rite, as the parents are 
 the only sponsors. So the service was performed in the little 
 church which receives this small and distant flock. 
 
 We returned to Oban at the time appointed, and visited 
 on our way the celebrated islands of Staffa and lona, which are 
 to the west of Mull. To-day I wanted to go to Glencoe, but 
 the weather is very positive in its prohibition. 
 
 After the meeting of the British Association the first 
 letter is one to his sister from Greenhill, near Edinburgh. 
 
 Sept. 17, 1834. 
 
 Everything has gone on and off extremely well except the 
 weather, which for the first three days of our meeting was most 
 overwhelming rain. Since that, however, we have had very plea- 
 sant sunshine, and this city, which is as beautiful as you can 
 imagine it, is looking quite charming. I have been staying not 
 in the city, but here at Greenhill, Sir John Forbes's, which is 
 about two miles from Edinburgh. 
 
 Our friends here have all of them been very kind, and we 
 have had an uninterrupted string of entertainments since I 
 arrived. To-morrow or next day I must set off for Cambridge. 
 
 I think I wrote to you last from the Duke of Gordon's 
 castle in the north of Scotland, where I stayed a couple of days. 
 I then came on by various glens and mountain passes, but with 
 very broken weather ; by Dunkeld, Blair Athol, Loch Tay, Loch 
 Katrine and other celebrated points of scenery. 
 
 On my travels I fell in with Dr. Eichardson, who travelled 
 in North America with Sir John Franklin, and whose sufferings 
 and adventures you may remember, as they were singularly 
 interesting. I also met Mrs. Opie, the novelist, who has for 
 many years been a Quaker, as you probably know, and with 
 whom I made acquaintance. Since I have been here I have 
 seen Dr. Chalmers ; but, I am sorry to say, he was so ill that 
 his physicians would not let him receive me as his guest, nor 
 take any share in the business of the meeting. He appears to 
 be very unwell ; but the doctors talk very hopefully. 
 
 M 
 
162 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 To the same] Trinity College : Dec. 19, 1834. 
 
 I do not know whether I am, as you say, a worse corre- 
 spondent than I used to be ; but it is certain that I am every 
 whit as busy as I ever was before. My tides give me no small 
 employment. The observations made in June last require a 
 vast deal of calculation, as you may suppose when I tell you 
 that I shall have about thirty thousand numbers to put in order 
 and reason upon. I think, however, that I see already that I 
 shall get some curious results. 
 
 I am very desirous of obtaining observations from some of 
 the shores or islands of the Pacific ; and I think the persons 
 most likely to be able and willing to make such observations 
 are the missionaries. It will save me the trouble of looking 
 over such books if you will examine the magazines in which 
 accounts are given of the various missionary establishments all 
 over the world, and put down the stations, the names of the 
 missionaries or teachers at them, the societies by which they 
 are sent or supported, and the address of the official persons of 
 those societies. 
 
 Do not be shocked at my wanting to make such a use of 
 missionaries ; for, if it does not interfere with their more im- 
 portant duties, I dare say they will like very much to be so 
 employed, and of course I should not wish it otherwise. 
 
 I believe in the Society Islands the tide is disguised by the 
 sea and land breezes, as you once noticed in some book you 
 were reading ; but in the Sandwich Islands there is, I believe, 
 a tide, though a small one ; and those islands, or New Zealand, 
 or any part of the Pacific will be of use to me. Moreover, I 
 will gladly subscribe to any society that will help me in this 
 way. Is not this a reasonable proposal ? 
 
 You will have seen by the newspapers that the Whig 
 Ministry had, luckily, just time before they went out to do 
 something for my Cambridge Whig friends. Professor Sedgwick 
 was made Prebend of Norwich, where he is now residing, and 
 where I shall perhaps visit him soon ; and Mr. Thirlwall, my 
 former colleague and my antagonist in print, who was considered 
 a sort of martyr to their cause, has had a valuable living in 
 Yorkshire given him. My only sorrow is that he will have to 
 
1834 MR. THIRLWALL. 163 
 
 leave college, for we have never ceased to be the best friends in 
 the world. 
 
 I do not exactly know how I shall spend my vacation ; but, 
 when I have worked myself free, I shall probably go to Hastings, 
 where my friend Jones now is, and visit Hare, my former 
 colleague, who has a living on the same coast, with a good 
 house, an old castle, and a fine collection of pictures. 
 
 Mrs. Opie, whose acquaintance I made at Loch Katrine, 
 wants to tempt me into Suffolk, but I have not promised to go. 
 (jive my love to my aunt, and tell her to send me a screed of 
 politics or anything else when she has time and health to write. 
 
 Mr. Thirlwall, being at this time assistant tutor at 
 Trinity College, had published a letter to Professor Turton 
 on the 4 Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees,' 
 in which he questioned the policy of enforcing attendance 
 at College Chapel on all persons in statu pupillari, and 
 Mr. Whewell had written two pamphlets in defence of 
 the College practice. These are the publications to 
 which reference is made in the previous letter. As a 
 consequence of his letter, Mr. Thirlwall had been obliged 
 by the Master, Dr. Wordsworth, to resign his lecture- 
 ship. It has sometimes been supposed that Mr. 
 Whewell did not sufficiently exert himself to prevent 
 the somewhat arbitrary conduct of the Master. The 
 following letters will give a full and true account of what 
 really occurred. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick] Trinity College : May 27, 1834. 
 
 I have no doubt that you will hear from others the 
 calamitous events, so far as the College is concerned, of the last 
 two or three days ; of Thirlwall's pamphlet and of the Master's 
 proceedings upon it. Both appear to me great misfortunes 
 for the College. I do not speak of any of the political opinions 
 in the publication, nor of his disapproval of College Chapel ; but 
 of his principles [as to its being open to him to publish these 
 opinions], which appear to me to be inconsistent with any 
 college management, and any religious establishment. The 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 Master's request to him to resign the tuition I entirely dis- 
 approve of, and expressed my opinion against it to the Master 
 as strongly as I could. What will happen next I have no guess, 
 for I have talked with none of Thirlwall's friends, but I much 
 fear they may attempt some violent and rash measure ; and 
 what I wish to beg of you is that you will be our good genius, 
 and moderate instead of sharing in our violence. Your being 
 at a distance may be an advantage in this respect, if it keeps 
 you free of the first burst of angry feeling, and enables you to 
 interfere with calm and clear views. You have more influence 
 in the College than any other person, and have perhaps the 
 power of preventing our present misfortunes being followed by 
 any fatal consequences. If you do not do this, for aught I see, 
 we are likely to run into factions as violent as those of the 
 Jews when they were besieged, and, it may be, with as disastrous 
 a termination. Absit omen ! but you will have to help to 
 avert it, if we do escape. 
 
 Observe that all my expectations of violent measures are 
 conjectural, and I may be (I hope I am) quite mistaken. But 
 if I am not, pray do not let the self-destructive madness of us 
 residents infect you. 
 
 To-morrow I hope to be able to send you my reply to 
 Thirlwall (for the most" part about chapel). I hope you will 
 not find in it anything which one Fellow of Trinity ought not 
 to say to the rest. Believe me, my dear Sedgwick, yours in 
 great anxiety, but very truly, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 P.S. You know the extreme dislike of several of the Fellows 
 for the Master ; this will add to the difficulty of their doing 
 him justice, or moderating their resentment. 
 
 To the Rev. C. Thirlwall'] May 28, 1834. 
 
 I send you my Eemarks ' on your pamphlet, in which I 
 hope you will not find anything which will give you any offence 
 or anything which one friend ought not to say of another. It 
 would be a misrepresentation of what I really feel if there were 
 any such passage, and I have tried to avoid everything of the 
 kind. 
 
1834 MR. THIRL WALL. 165 
 
 To the ' Bemarks,' and the ' Additional Eemarks,' 
 Mr. Thirlwall replied in a long private letter, in which 
 he expressed himself much aggrieved by Mr. Whewell's 
 misconception of his position (as he himself understood 
 it), re-stated the grounds of difference between them, 
 recapitulated the arguments in favour of his own 
 opinions, and repudiated the inferences which had been 
 drawn from them. The difference was mainly this : 
 Mr. Whewell believed daily worship to be a Christian 
 duty, and daily public or social worship to be a neces- 
 sary practice of any educational and religious institution, 
 occupying the same position in regard to the college as 
 family worship in regard to a family to be enforced as 
 much as possible upon the younger members, and dili- 
 gently inculcated by precept and example by the senior 
 members of the body. He took exception to any ex- 
 pression of dissatisfaction with the practice and proposal 
 to dispense with it on Mr. Thirlwall's part, because, as 
 lecturer, he conceived him to be charged with the com- 
 mission of inculcating it as a matter of discipline and 
 college rule on his pupils, and incapacitated by his office 
 from publishing his disapprobation of that or any other 
 part of the system he was administering. 
 
 Mr. Thirlwall fully admitted the first proposition, 
 that daily worship is a Christian duty, but considered it 
 could not be maintained with regard to public worship ; 
 objected to its being made compulsory; doubted whether 
 upon any it would produce the effect of family prayer ; 
 and at first understood all Mr. Whewell's objections to 
 be aimed at his entertaining, not at his promulgating in 
 a pamphlet, opinions which it was well known he held 
 already when entrusted with the lectureship. The long 
 letter, written mainly in this mistaken opinion, received 
 an immediate answer from Mr. Whewell, who explains 
 
166 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 that in his pamphlet he especially referred to the diffi- 
 culty which had arisen from Mr. Thirlwall's publication 
 of his views, ' in the way of the useful continuance of 
 our common labours.' He intimates that he had most 
 urgently remonstrated with the Master against writing 
 the letter which induced Mr. Thirlwall to resign, hoping 
 that the difficulty might be got over by some explana- 
 tion or modification on Mr. Thirlwall's part, not of his 
 private opinions as to the salutary nature of the ordin- 
 ance, but as to his attitude with reference to it as a 
 part of college discipline. 
 
 Trinity College : Sept. 23. 
 
 I conceive [he says] that more good is done by retaining our 
 College Chapel service than would be done by abolishing it ; but 
 if I thought differently, I should think it utterly inconsistent 
 with the retention of my office as tutor to publish an opposite 
 opinion. Those who look for good from such an institution ex- 
 pect it to follow only so long as the institution is spoken of with 
 respect, at least, if not hope, by the managing part of the body. 
 If we whose office it is to enforce observance of all existing rules 
 speak with disapprobation and slight of some of the principal 
 ones, I conceive we are materially diminishing our chance of 
 being useful as administrators of the system of which these 
 rules form a part. I cannot understand in what terms, or on 
 what grounds, I should remonstrate with a pupil for general 
 irregularity after publishing your opinions. If I thought the 
 rules hard ones, I should try and get them altered by reference 
 to the college authorities ; if I failed in this, I might perhaps 
 resign my office ; I might possibly afterwards appeal to the pub- 
 lic, or at least I might do so without then producing the diffi- 
 culties which such a step taken at first must give rise to. ... 
 
 Without finding myself able to comprehend how you had 
 overlooked the considerations I have mentioned, which appeared 
 to me so plain, and how you had arrived at a view inconsistent 
 with them, I was convinced that you had arrived at the convic- 
 tion that it was fit for you, retaining your office, to publish your 
 
1834 ME. THIRLWALL. 167 
 
 opinions concerning College Chapel ; and I did not doubt that 
 you had arrived at this conviction by some path perfectly suited 
 to a candid and enlightened mind. It was my firm persuasion 
 of this which made me look to your retention of your office as 
 a desirable result, and I was prepared to suggest the means by 
 which the difficulty might be obviated. 
 
 I may mention what one of these means was : that you should 
 be liberated by the Master from the stipulation of attendance 
 at chapel, inasmuch as I conceive that, as I have said, the 
 beneficial effect of example, the object which in my eyes the 
 stipulation was intended to answer, was annihilated by your 
 publication. 
 
 In the first conversation which I had on the subject I men- 
 tioned both my difficulty and my views of its remedies to a few of 
 our Fellows I think to Sedgwick, Musgrave, Peacock, Komilly, 
 and to no others. I tell you this that you may learn from them, 
 if you choose, how far they conceived me to be distressed with 
 this difficulty, and yet hopeful of surmounting it. If you wish 
 it, I believe I can convince you that I was not the only one of 
 those who most highly admire and warmly regard you who 
 from the first considered the difficulty as a serious one. 
 
 . . . The difference of opinion between us was one which con- 
 cerned not only the value of a college rule, but the propriety 
 of a certain line of conduct in an official person. I never 
 doubted for an instant that your views were dictated by as 
 high and pure a sense of duty and fitness as my own ; and 
 I never despaired, so long as my hopes entered into the 
 account, that we might, by understanding each other's feelings, 
 surmount the difficulty which our difference of opinion had 
 raised. 
 
 The regret which you express at the change adds to the 
 deep sorrow with which I look back upon it ; a sorrow on which 
 I will not dwell, because I now see no remedy. But I should 
 think it a still greater calamity than it is, if it had deprived me 
 of the friendly feelings which you express at the close of your 
 letter, and which I gladly lay claim to because I know I have a 
 right to them. If I have not written this letter in vain you 
 will see that I never should have had any difficulty before me, 
 if it had not been for my belief that the consistency of your 
 
168 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 
 
 opinions and the Tightness of your intentions would, under any 
 trial, be found unimpeachable. 
 
 I believe that my expressions will be understood by all 
 readers as I have explained them. If I see any indications that 
 this is otherwise, I shall be most anxious to rectify the error. But 
 if, as I believe, your interpretation of them is yours alone, let 
 me beg of you to cast it from your mind as a groundless sus- 
 picion. The whole transaction is full enough of vexation with- 
 out adding to it this further trouble. We have this consolation 
 open to us, that our mutual good opinion and kindness has not 
 been disturbed by it, and that we have done nothing which any 
 honourable mind can think wrong, with our convictions. I 
 believe all our friends and the world at large, with the exception 
 of a few extreme partisans, form this judgment of us. By this 
 I hold fast, and so I hope and trust, and, I would add, I beg, you 
 will, as with right you may. In this trust I remain, dear 
 Thirlwall, yours with strong regard, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 To this Mr. Thirlwall replied : 
 
 Trinity College: Sept. 23. 
 
 I cannot suffer a moment to pass without thanking you for 
 your kind letter. I see by it that the greater part of my own was 
 written under an erroneous impression. 
 
 With regard to the propriety of my conduct in publishing 
 my opinions, I am well aware that you are not singular in the 
 view you take of it Hare has informed me that he sees it 
 in the same light and you may therefore easily believe that I 
 am more inclined to doubt the correctness of my own judgment 
 than to wonder that any one should differ from me on this 
 point. But, after the maturest reflection I have been able to give 
 to the subject, I find myself still unable to assent to the general 
 principle from which he drew his conclusion, or to perceive that 
 I violated any other restraint than those which prudence would 
 have imposed upon me. In the first place, the view I took of my 
 own station was not that which you take of yours ; and, in fact, 
 I think there is a very material distinction between them. 
 
 I did not consider myself as having anything to do with the 
 administration of the College discipline, and was not conscious of 
 
1834 MR. THIKLWALL. 169 
 
 having neglected my duty, though I never spoke on the subject 
 [of Chapel] to any of our pupils during all the time I was in 
 office ; nor do I remember that any one ever hinted at an ex- 
 pectation that I should do so. I conceived that my official duties 
 were confined to giving literary instruction, and that whatever 
 other good I might do, by conversation and advice, to those with 
 whom I stood in that relation, was left to my own discretion. 
 
 As to the stipulation that I should myself attend chapel I 
 never understood that such an attendance implied any opinion 
 as to the beneficial effect of the institution [on others], and I 
 think I was justified in this view of it by the consciousness that 
 my opinion on the subject was previously known to the person 
 with whom I made the stipulation. Nor could I conceive that 
 the notoriety of such an opinion was inconsistent with holding 
 the office, because I think I remember that I was informed that 
 some of my predecessors had marked their opinion as the same 
 with my own, by their general absence from the service. The 
 only question then seems to be whether my attendance itself 
 implied anything inconsistent with the publication of my senti- 
 ments. I saw no inconsistency in this respect. For though it 
 was true that I might be supposed to go to chapel for the pur- 
 pose of setting an example, yet the example I wished to set 
 was simply that of conformity to the established institutions of 
 the College. But I may go still further, and add that I do not 
 see anything in the opinfons I published which should have pre- 
 vented those to whom they were known from believing that, 
 though my attendance was a consequence of the office I held, it 
 was not with me merely mechanical ; and, indeed, as the stipula- 
 tion was not publicly known, if there was any contrast between 
 my behaviour and that of any of my predecessors in this respect, 
 the natural inference would seem to be that, though I thought 
 like them of the effect it produced on others, I felt no personal 
 reluctance to attending myself. And though this is nothing 
 to the purpose, I may add that this was really the case and as, 
 on the one hand, if no stipulation had been made with me, I 
 believe I should have been no less regular, so I am sure, if I 
 had been formally released from it, I should have made no other 
 use of that liberty. I might add that, even if I had been called 
 upon to recommend regularity of attendance and becoming 
 
170 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1834 
 
 deportment in others, I should have felt myself able to do so, 
 notwithstanding the notoriety of my opinions, and by arguments 
 which to my own judgment would not have been the less effica- 
 cious on account of them. But I should be content to rest the 
 question on the grounds before mentioned. 
 
 . . . Besides the explanations which I desired, your letter has 
 afforded me a still higher satisfaction, in showing me that I am 
 indebted to you for an obligation on which I shall always reflect 
 with pleasure and gratitude in the attempt which you made to 
 avert the evil which my imprudence has drawn upon me. And 
 as this is the strongest proof you could have given of the desire 
 you felt to continue the relation in which we stood with one 
 another, so it encourages me to hope that I may still find oppor- 
 tunities, before I leave this place, of co-operating with you, 
 though in a different form, for the like ends. But at all events 
 I shall never cease to retain that esteem and regard with which 
 I now remain, yours most truly, 
 
 C. THIRLWALL. 
 
 1835. This year began with what Professor Whewell 
 was wont to call his ' favourite tides ' ; and he tries to 
 persuade his sister that his own satisfaction in it is more 
 important than the public estimation of his work as 
 compared with that of others. 
 
 One great pleasure of this year was the appointment 
 of his friend Mr. Jones to a professorship (that of Poli- 
 tical Economy) at Haileybury, which brought him into 
 comparative neighbourhood to Cambridge. 
 
 In May Mr. Whewell sat to Mr. Eddis for a chalk 
 portrait sketch. He preached in June before the Bre- 
 thren of the Trinity House. Lord Camden's installation 
 as Chancellor took place in July, and later in the month 
 Mr. Whewell attended the meeting of the British Associa- 
 tion in Dublin, and paid a number of Irish visits. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: Feb. 13, 1835. 
 
 I was much obliged to you for your information about the 
 missions. In consequence of it I wrote to Mr. Jowett, and 
 
1835 TIDES. 171 
 
 have got an answer in which he says he thinks that they can 
 do something for me, if I will give them instructions, which I 
 shall send in a day or two. You must tell me where I must 
 apply to get anything done in the Sandwich Islands. I bought 
 the January number of the < Missionary Magazine,' but there is 
 some delay which I do not understand about the publication of 
 the next number, which, I suppose, will contain what I want. 
 
 In the course of a few years, I have no doubt, I shall collect 
 such information as will serve my purpose ; and when that is 
 done, I think I shall be able to put it together so as to make a 
 very curious story out of it ; but in the meantime you must 
 not be surprised if those who are judges of such matters bestow 
 their approbation rather on what is done than on what is only 
 doing. Lubbock has been at work on this subject for several 
 years, and has gone through calculations, or at least has super- 
 intended and directed calculations, which include as many 
 numbers as those which my coast-guard tides have given me, 
 though of a different kind and of use for a different purpose. 
 But this is of no consequence, for I am pursuing my enquiries for 
 my own satisfaction, and only want to know how things go on 
 in the great ocean, and especially in the Pacific ; so, as I said 
 before, if you can find anything in the course of your reading 
 likely to be of use for this purpose, I shall be very glad of it. 
 
 You will be pleased to hear that my very particular friend 
 Jones is brought nearer me, by being made professor at the 
 East India College at Hail ey bury, near Hertford, which is about 
 half way between this place and London. He is professor of 
 Political Economy, succeeding Mr. Malthus, of whom you have 
 perhaps heard, but of whom you have heard wrong if you have 
 learnt to think any harm of him. He was a most mild and 
 benevolent person, and I regret his death very much. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College : March 1, 1835. 
 
 We have had such a series of windy weather as I hardly 
 ever knew, and the gales have been almost strong enough to 
 blow over man and horse, and along with this we have had 
 fierce hailstones and driving sleet. But now the direction of 
 the wind is changed, so I hope we shall have something ap- 
 proaching to spring. 
 
172 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1835 
 
 I could almost fancy that the wind is angry with me in 
 particular, inasmuch as I am employed in making a machine 
 which is to measure its vagaries better than it has ever been done 
 before. I expect I shall get some good tide observations this 
 year, as the Lords of the Admiralty have taken up the scheme, 
 and are going to apply to foreign States to join it. I am afraid 
 our friends in New Zealand will hardly begin their operations 
 in time to co-operate with this plan. It is to take effect next 
 June. 
 
 Jones, whom I told you of, has moved to Haileybury, but 
 you are not to suppose I have no friends nearer. I have 
 abundance here, and some very much valued ones, and when I 
 think I have been confined to their society too long I will take 
 a College living, go and live in the country, and have a house 
 of my own; so you see I have nothing melancholy in my 
 prospects. 
 
 To his Sister'] Cambridge: March 31, 1835. 
 
 I was much amused with your conjectures about the Lady 
 Margaret Professor. Mrs. Somerville will be much astonished 
 if I tell her that she has been supposed to be the same person 
 with Lady Margaret, the mother of Henry VII., who founded 
 the Professorship of Divinity. 
 
 Our subscription goes on very prosperously, and I hope we 
 shall get money enough to build such buildings as we want. 
 In former times, you may recollect, I wrote a controversial 
 pamphlet on the subject of the plans of this new building, but 
 I am now become a peaceable person, and shall be content with 
 any plan which the majority of the University will agree to, so 
 that we may but get the buildings erected. 
 
 I am going shortly to publish a little book about archi- 
 tecture, containing a reprint of my German books, which have 
 been long out of print and loudly called for, with the addition 
 of my Norman tour in 1832, in company with Mr. Rickman. I 
 will send it to you when it is ready. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: May 8, 1835. 
 
 I have been intending to send you my book on architecture 
 ever since it was published, but have not had time to write a 
 
1835 EDDIS'S PICTURE. 173 
 
 letter with it. I now send you two copies one for you, my aunt, 
 and Martha (I cannot afford you any more), and one for Thomas 
 Satterthwaite. The remaining one, for Mr. Wordsworth, you 
 must send off by the coach. 
 
 I send you also some pictures likenesses, I hope you will 
 think them, of my valuable self. The drawing was made by a 
 young artist named Eddis, who is reckoned clever ; and I believe 
 the drawing is a much better likeness than the print. It is in the 
 possession of my friend Jones at Haileybury. The lithographing 
 has been executed by Miss Turner, the daughter of my friend 
 Dawson Turner at Yarmouth, who has a taste and, as you see, 
 a talent for lithographizing all her father's friends. She has got a 
 portfolio full of such heads. I send you nine, of which you must 
 give one each to Mr. Satterthwaite, Mr. Eowley, Mr. Mackreth, 
 and Mr. Morland. The other five I leave at your disposal. 
 
 Tell my aunt I am no great politician, but that I hold it to 
 be a part of wisdom and patriotism to hope for the best. Nobody 
 can deprive us of the Church if they would, for it has the affec- 
 tions of the people in its favour ; and, even if it had no support 
 from Government, would be supported by the conviction of its 
 truth and of the good it does to all. Nor do I much fear any 
 serious inroads upon the Established Church in England. The 
 Ministers for the most part do not wish to do it harm, and I do 
 not think its enemies will have the power of compelling them 
 to do so. And I have a deep conviction that Providence, which 
 has guided it through so many dangers, and made it so great a 
 blessing to the nation, will not allow any misfortune to befal it 
 which will permanently interfere with its usefulness as the 
 bulwark of religion and good order. 
 
 I do not know whether I shall visit Lancaster this summer. 
 I had intended to go to Scotland, in which case I should prob- 
 ably have taken you in my way. But we are to have a grand 
 fuss in the way of installing our Chancellor in July, so 1 shall 
 not leave Cambridge for any length of time till that is over, 
 and then I go to Ireland. The British Association meets this 
 year at Dublir. Perhaps I shall make a little tour in Ireland 
 before we meet in August. You have no reason to fear for me, 
 for, though they are fond enough of breaking each other's heads, 
 they never molest strangers. 
 
174 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1835 
 
 To his Sister] June 2. 
 
 I send you some copies of a paper about my favourite tides, 
 and a copy which you must send to Mr. Wilkinson, of Sedbergh, 
 as soon as you can. You will not find, I am afraid, much that 
 will interest you in my paper, for I have not been able to get 
 the clerk at the Admiralty, who does the work for me, to make 
 the requisite calculations to enable me to give the particulars 
 of the various places, which would have made the paper more 
 full of matter ; but I was desirous of printing and circulating it 
 before the tide observations of the present month commence. 
 
 For the Admiralty have determined to repeat this year the 
 observations made last June ; and they are to be carried on for 
 a fortnight, not only in England, Ireland, and Scotland, but all 
 along the coast of Europe ; the Governments of Sweden, .Den- 
 mark, Holland, Belgium, and France have been applied to, and 
 have given orders for tide observations at many places along 
 their coasts for this period of a fortnight from June 9 to 27 ; 
 the United States of America have also taken the project up in 
 the same way, and I hope I shall have something done in Spain 
 and Portugal, though I have not heard from any persons there 
 as I have from all the other places. 
 
 When the observations are made, there will be no small 
 labour requisite in calculating them so as to get at the real 
 amount of information they contain ; but I do not doubt that I 
 shall be able to get the work done some way or other. 
 
 I shall have to return to London again before Trinity 
 Sunday, for I am appointed to preach before the Master and 
 Brethren of the Trinity House on Trinity Sunday. The Trinity 
 House is an ancient institution for looking after light-houses 
 and pilots, and it has a feast and other solemnities on the 
 anniversary on which I have to preach. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College : July 3, 1835. 
 
 The bustle of our installation is just beginning, and when that 
 has once set in I shall hardly find time to write to you till it is 
 over ; so I will do so in the first place. I have been in London, 
 where your letter followed me. I was there and in the neigh- 
 bourhood for nearly three weeks, and among other employments 
 
1835 TRINITY HOUSE SERMON. 175 
 
 preached my sermon to the Trinity House, as I told you I was 
 to do. 
 
 The ceremonies of the day of this sermon are old-fashioned 
 and very amusing. We began with a cold collation at the 
 Trinity House, which is a building in the East of London, 
 among the shipping ; and here, besides our own share of eating, 
 we were supplied with bags of cakes for the children we might 
 see, and large nosegays. We went down the river in half a 
 dozen gay barges, all covered with gilding, and each rowed by 
 eight men in red plush breeches and other attire of equal 
 splendour. When we arrived at Deptford, where the sermon is 
 preached, we landed, and walked in procession along streets, which 
 were all strewn with rushes and flowers. I forgot to tell you that 
 we had a band playing in a barge at the head of our line all the 
 way down the river, and ever and anon cannon were fired from 
 ships and houses till my head almost ached. 
 
 When we reached Deptford and made our march through 
 the street, the children, who knew well what they were to expect, 
 pressed forwards to receive the cakes which we were prepared to 
 distribute among them. We then went to the Town Hall, where, 
 besides the election of the officers, there was a grand scramble 
 for biscuits which were thrown among the crowd. After this 
 we went to church, and in coming away ' the Brethren ' were 
 objects of great attention to the young women who were in the 
 crowd, for it is held that the lady to whom they give their nose- 
 gay in coming from church is sure to be married within the 
 year. You may judge that there were many eager eyes and im- 
 ploring hands ! For my own part I had left my nosegay behind 
 me, thinking that this kind of flirtation would not suit very well 
 the gravity of my preacher-character. 
 
 Afterwards, in the evening, we dined at the Trinity House, 
 with a large party, among which were several of the Ministers 
 Lord Melbourne, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Auckland. There 
 would have been other great folks but for an important debate 
 which was expected to take place that evening. 
 
 I want you to send due notice and to have my vote for the 
 county registered. I believe the property in Lucy Street will 
 entitle me to a vote ; perhaps William Whewell will tell you 
 what the proper steps are, and do anything which you have any 
 
 
176 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1835 
 
 difficulty about. I believe you must do it soon, as the time is 
 limited and will shortly be at an end. 
 
 To Us Sister] Cork: July 28, 1835. 
 
 You see I am writing to you from one of the farthest corners 
 of Ireland, but I came here so rapidly that it seems to me 
 much nearer to London than Lancaster is. I left London on 
 Wednesday evening by the mail; and travelling two nights 
 and the intervening day was half-way across St. George's 
 Channel before dawn on Friday morning. I got to Milford 
 Haven in the middle of the night, and found that I must 
 embark in a few minutes after my arrival. The weather was 
 beautiful till within a few hours of the end of my land journey, 
 though there was a profusion of the most splendid but noiseless 
 lightning that I ever saw after I left Caermarthen, which I was 
 obliged to do at midnight on the outside of the coach ; but 
 after a few stages I found room inside, and soon after, I sup- 
 pose, it began to rain and blow, for I found it doing so when I 
 got into the boat which took me on board the steam-packet, 
 enough to frighten a lady who was a passenger with us. How- 
 ever, being tired, I forthwith crept into a berth and fell asleep, 
 and awoke in the morning, or rather at noon, when we were 
 arriving at Waterford. 
 
 I immediately took a place in an Irish car, and set off for 
 Kilkenny, and arrived there in the evening ; but I found that 
 I had just fallen in with the Assizes, so that it was by no means 
 easy to obtain a bed, and still more difficult to procure a bed- 
 room for my sole occupation. However, at last I succeeded in 
 this object also, and after looking at the Cathedral of Kilkenny 
 and other antiquities, I went and slep off the impression of 
 the voyage. Next morning, early, I again set off in an Irish 
 car, and after a rather long day's travelling arrived at Cork. 
 In fine weather these Irish cars do very well, except that you 
 cannot conveniently see more than one side of the country ; 
 but if it were rainy I do not think I should much like them, 
 though they trot and canter on at a very good pace. 
 
 They offer peculiar advantages to one set of people, of 
 whom you may have heard the Irish beggars ; for, while you 
 are sitting preparing to start, you are as much exposed as if you 
 
1835 IRISH TOUR. 177 
 
 were sitting in a high chair in the street, and the beggars 
 come and stand face to face with you in swarms, and beg with 
 an earnestness and fluency which are truly overwhelming. 
 
 The amount of rags and wretchedness which you see in 
 this way, and, indeed, in all ways in this country, is quite 
 appalling. I believe that the Irish do not find any peculiar 
 wretchedness in being in rags indeed, I have often been tempted 
 to think that they rather prefer them to whole clothes ; but, 
 notwithstanding this, there can be no doubt that a large portion 
 of the people are in extreme destitution, beyond any people I 
 ever saw. 
 
 You will by this time have received a bundle of copies of 
 my Trinity House sermon, and you will see that all our firing 
 of guns and marching of processions took place on Monday, 
 and not on Sunday as you imagined. You must send a copy 
 of the sermon to each of my friends in the list below : Mr. 
 Mackreth, Morland, Rowley, Manby, Housman, Hull, Betham, 
 T. Satterthwaite, Paget Gregson, Giles, Dodson, Green Bradley, 
 J. Harrison to J. Statter, W. Whewell, my cousins at Liver- 
 pool, J. Heald, Mr. Wilkinson at Sedbergh, Mr. Fisher at 
 Kirkby Lonsdale, and W. Wordsworth at Rydal Mount. 
 
 I have found several acquaintances here ; Captain Malcolm, 
 the son of Sir John, whom I have known from a boy, is here 
 with his regiment, and several Cambridge friends. I shall set 
 off in a day or two for the Lakes of Killarney. 
 
 To his Sister] Bangor : Aug. 31, 1835. 
 
 I had on the whole a very agreeable tour in Ireland, though 
 the condition of the people is so wretched as to be melancholy 
 to look at, especially in the south-west, which part I first visited. 
 No English pig of the slightest respectability would think for 
 a moment of living in such cabins as you see in long rows in 
 every town and village in that district ; and the dress of the 
 people is so ragged that I never could comprehend the pos~ 
 sibility of its being taken off and put on again. 
 
 In the North, indeed, the aspect of things is much better, 
 and in some of the best parts it approached the look of an 
 English country. It is, however, only an approach. I visited 
 the North after I left Dublin, going right across the country to 
 
 N 
 
178 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1835 
 
 Sligo. In doing so I passed Miss Edgeworth's house, and was 
 much tempted to stop and see her. You know I became 
 acquainted with her in London. But I could not make out 
 that I had time to do so, and went through without stopping. 
 My journey was for the purpose of visiting Mr. Cooper, of 
 Markree, near Sligo, a large landed proprietor and member 
 for the county, where we had a very agreeable party for some 
 days. 
 
 After this I returned eastward to the Earl of Enniskillen's, 
 who has a fine place, called Florence Court, near the town of 
 Enniskillen. I here joined Sedgwick and other friends, but 
 soon parted with them and went on to Dr. Kobinson, at Armagh, 
 and from thence returned to Dublin, from which city I made a 
 tour into Wicklow. There are some considerable mountains 
 and very pretty glens and lakes within half-a-day's journey of 
 the capital, and we had two days of delightful weather for 
 seeing them. 
 
 The people of Dublin were as kind as it was possible to be. 
 I was staying in the house of the Provost. Among other com- 
 pliments paid us we dined with the Lord Lieutenant (Lord 
 Mulgrave) ; a few of us at least, of whom I was one. He was 
 at college with me when we were undergraduates, and I had 
 some acquaintance with him. His conferring the order of 
 knighthood on my friend Hamilton, the astronomer, was one of 
 the most striking parts of the proceedings, and was done in a 
 very princelike manner. 
 
 To his Sister] Audley End: Oct. 7, 1835. 
 
 I went up Snowdon the day after I left Bangor. On my 
 way to London I stayed a part of a day at Hagley, Lord 
 Lyttelton's. His son is one of our pupils at Trinity, I also 
 stayed a little while at Birmingham with my old fellow traveller 
 Kickman, who has been very unwell, and is still obliged to take 
 great care of himself. I had then a fortnight of quiet to myself 
 at Cambridge, which was what I wanted ; and after that came 
 the examination for fellowships, which is just over. Among 
 the five that we elected was Mr. Groulburn, a son of the Mr. 
 Groulburn who was one of the Ministry. The young man is very 
 clever, and of a most admirable character. 
 
1835 LETTER TO THE MARCHES A. 179 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Trinity College: Nov. 23, 1835. 
 
 I believe that during the Christmas vacation I shall visit 
 my friend Sedgwick in his new abode at Norwich, where you 
 will recollect he had a stall given him by Lord Brougham 
 about the last act he did before he ceased to be Chancellor, and 
 about the best he did in that capacity. This will bring me 
 near some other friends Mrs. Opie, whom I met in Scotland, 
 and Joseph Gurney, also a Quaker, whom I have corresponded 
 with. It is also possible I may spend a short time at Brighton, 
 where my friend Jones talks of taking up his quarters for a 
 little while. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Dec. 20. 
 
 I go to Audley End on the 30th, and to my old friend 
 Lady Malcolm on Jan. 4. She has now a very pretty house 
 near Windsor. After I have been there I have several other 
 friends to think of. My friends I may almost say, my dearest 
 friends Professor Airy and his family have left Cambridge, he 
 being appointed Astronomer Koyal at Greenwich to me an 
 irreparable loss ; but I shall probably go and see how they look 
 in their new abode. 
 
 1836. A letter written in April of this year to the 
 Marchesa Spineto is interesting as giving a sketch of Mr. 
 Whewell's theory of intercourse between equals in an inti- 
 mate society like that of the University; a theory, no doubt, 
 often misunderstood, often but imperfectly carried out, 
 and perhaps unduly modified by a pleasure in discussion 
 for discussion's sake, but surely not unworthy of con- 
 sideration where based upon the supposition of a ' com- 
 mon love of truth and a mutual esteem,' and productive 
 of 1 'lessons in candour and toleration as each discovers 
 how most questions have two sides, on either of which 
 good and earnest men are found to range themselves.' 
 
 Mrs. Lyon's health caused great anxiety during the 
 summer. Her illness terminated fatally in August. 
 
 1 Cairns's Essays on Political Economy, &c v first series, p. 2J>1, 
 N 2 
 
LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1836 
 
 The British Association met at Bristol in August. 
 Mr. Whewell was present at the meeting. In this year 
 Mr. Jones was appointed Chief Commissioner for. the 
 Commutation of Tithes. Mr. Whewell stayed with him 
 in Hyde Park Street. 
 
 To the Marchesa Spineto] Cambridge : April 3, 1836. 
 
 I returned to my work on Friday, and got a good hard day's 
 writing on Saturday, which helped me on famously. I am like 
 a swimmer who, after being out in a wide sea, finds himself 
 nearer the shore at every stroke ; and I set great store even by 
 a single day's advance. There are a great number of points 
 with regard to my future course of life which it seems to me 
 as if I should be able to settle much more clearly if my book 
 were fairly published, and its possibility of effecting its purpose 
 ascertained. You have been too much accustomed to my 
 egotism of this kind to be surprised at it. 
 
 To-day we had several strangers in hall, and it happened 
 
 that your friend sat next me. I recollected his kind 
 
 reports with regard to me, and was looking out for some oppor- 
 tunity to read him a lesson. So when he happened to pay me 
 a very extravagant compliment, I told him that he over- 
 whelmed me that we were not in college accustomed to com- 
 pliments that we were straightforward, plain-spoken men, 
 sometimes, perhaps, too much so that we never thought of 
 saying much good of one another to our faces, though we might 
 think a great deal that we rather inclined to dwell on the points 
 where we differed, and liked to fight these out in a resolute and 
 uncompromising way, which excited no shade of ill-will, because 
 it went upon the supposition of a common love of truth and a 
 mutual esteem that this kind of robust argumentation might 
 seem rude to strangers, but that it was, in fact, one of the great 
 privileges and happinesses of college life. All this, and a good 
 deal more, I discoursed to him in a quiet and good-humoured 
 manner (I assure you it is true, and you may ask him if you 
 like), and he appeared to be much edified, for he listened with 
 some deference and assented with great cordiality. He even 
 declared that he had been witness of such disputes with great 
 
1836 MR. JONES. 181 
 
 pleasure. Still I have great doubts whether he has yet got 
 right notions ; I think his mind is too shallow to hold them. 
 
 I am vexed to find that we have another election for the 
 Public Orator ship coming on, and that I must take some part 
 whether I will or no. You know, probably, that C. Words- 
 worth is elected Master of Harrow ; Steel and Blakesley (both 
 Trinity men) resolved to come forward as candidates for the 
 Oratorship, but Thorp has just been with me, and told me that 
 he will take the field. This being so, I suppose the others will 
 retire ; and though I shall, even for Thorp, avoid trouble and 
 canvassing as much as passible, he is so- old and so valued a 
 friend that I must not be too backward in his behalf. I do 
 most thoroughly dislike all work of this kind. 
 
 In the course of this summer Professor Whewell 
 wrote to Mr. Eose of the appointment of Mr. Jones to the 
 Chief Commissio.nersh.ip for the Commutation of Tithes. 
 4 It has given me very great gratification ; not only be- 
 cause I rejoice at the prosperity of an old and valued 
 friend, but because I think it a most appropriate ap- 
 pointment. His general views and his knowledge of 
 details alike fit him for it ; if some one had not acted 
 for us we should have been crushed in the conflict of 
 parties. Jones's vigilance, activity, and resource, which 
 I saw in operation daily, are truly admirable.' 
 
 He concludes his letter with a wish ' that your turn 
 will come before long; as for me, I have yet, to make 
 out my case (for promotion) by reforming the philosophy 
 of the age, which I am going to set about in reality. I 
 daresay you laugh at my conceit, but you and I are 
 friends too old and intimate, I hope, for me to mind 
 that. What is the use of having friends if one cannot 
 vapour a little to them ? ' 
 
 To his Sister Ann] July 10, 1836. 
 
 Your letter afflicts me much. Pray write as soon as you 
 receive this and let me know how dear aunt is. I shall not 
 
182 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1836 
 
 leave Cambridge till I hear from you again, and then I must, 
 if possible, go to London for a day or two. 
 
 Mrs. Lyon's death must have followed very speedily 
 on this alarm. He writes : 
 
 To Us Sister] Bath Hotel, Clifton: Aug. 31, 1836. 
 
 I am glad to hear that Cheshire agrees with you and that 
 you are spending your time pleasantly. I am not surprised 
 at your thinking much of our dear aunt after living for so 
 many years with her as a daughter ; but I am sure you may 
 allow yourself to reflect that you did for her, to the last, all 
 that could be done, and helped as much as possible to retain 
 her here in comfort and tranquillity till the time came for her 
 to be placed under a better care. 
 
 I suppose you have seen something of our (British Associa- 
 tion) proceedings in the newspapers. You will have heard 
 that we have determined to go to Liverpool next year not, 
 however, without a considerable struggle. The Manchester 
 people were very strong and very urgent, and your Liverpool 
 friends were hard-pushed for arguments. They were obliged 
 at last to plead that they asked our presence, not because they 
 were more scientific than their Manchester rivals, but because 
 they were less so ; that they allowed the Manchester people 
 had many philosophers and that they had few or none ; but 
 that they hoped to mend. This was really one of the argu- 
 ments which produced most effect, so you see the Liverpool 
 people are put on their good behaviour. And this is not mere 
 talk, for we really do want a number of intelligent and scientific 
 persons belonging to the place where we meet, in order to 
 carry on the business of the Association. Such persons always 
 must take the most troublesome offices those of secretaries of 
 the different sections for instance in order to show that they 
 are in earnest. 
 
 We should have no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply 
 of such persons at Manchester, so the credit of Liverpool is 
 concerned in providing a stock of men of science before we 
 coine. Our president is to be Lord Burlington a very 
 
1836 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BRISTOL. 183 
 
 excellent appointment if he takes it up in earnest and we are 
 to meet in September. 
 
 I have been staying, during the meeting of the Association, 
 with Dr. Riley and his wife in Bristol, very excellent and 
 agreeable people ; but, that being over, I have come to this 
 place, which is picturesque and pleasant, and here and in the 
 neighbourhood I shall be for a fortnight or more. 
 
 To Us Sister] Trinity College, Nov. 14, 1836. 
 
 I am glad that you feel disposed to have a home of your 
 own, and think it quite natural that you should wish to have 
 the power over your own employments and actions which that 
 alone can give you. If the house in Friar Street suits you, by 
 all means keep it ; and tell me if there is anything else which 
 I can do which will make you more comfortable in it. 
 
 I do not expect, nor, indeed, can I wish, that you should 
 immediately cease to think of my dear aunt, with whom you 
 lived so long in intimate and affectionate domestic intercourse. 
 It is not by forgetting such friends and such habits that we re- 
 tain the happy influence which they are fitted to exercise upon 
 us, and which makes them just subjects of gratitude. But 
 I hope you will soon cease to think of her and her loss with 
 any bitterness or despondency, and find consolation and support 
 where she in her need sought and found it so abundantly. 
 
 Mr. Simeon, whom I mentioned to you in my last letter as 
 dangerously ill, died to-day. After some promise of recovery 
 he sank gradually into a state of extreme weakness, of which 
 the termination could not be doubted. Through the whole of 
 this he preserved a tranquillity and sweetness of demeanour 
 which very much affected the few persons who were allowed to 
 see him, and never for an instant wavered in the stedfast trust 
 which he manifested in the hopes and encouragements which it 
 had been the business of his life to cultivate in himself and 
 others. I have not yet heard the particulars of his last hours ; 
 but all that I have heard of him has interested me very much. 
 
 To his Sister] London: Dec. 24, 1836. 
 
 I send you, along with this, Dr. Buckland's book, and also 
 some of the sermons preached on the subject of Mr. Simeon's 
 
184 MFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1836 
 
 death, which I think you will like to see. There will be a life 
 of him published. My friend Mr. Carus, of Kirkby Lonsdale, 
 will, I believe, be the biographer. 
 
 I am staying here with my friend Jones, who has been 
 appointed Chief Commissioner for the Commutation of Tithes, 
 and has taken a house for a permanent abode. After Christmas 
 Day I go to Lord Lyttelton's, at Hagley, and then to Audley 
 End, and to Norwich. I am busy with my new book, which I 
 hope to publish by the end of February. 
 
 I send you the statement of a church which we want to 
 build at Barnwell. My colleague, Perry, has bought the ad- 
 vowson of the living for 1,000?., with no chance of any return, 
 in the hope of providing some relief for the deplorable reli- 
 gious destitution of a place thus lying at our own door. 
 
 In 1836 the Lowndean professorship became vacant 
 by the death of Mr. Lax. The appointment was in the 
 gift of certain high officers of the Crown, and was 
 bestowed by them upon Mr. Peacock. Mr. Spring Eice, 
 then Chancellor of the Exchequer, writing in answer to 
 Mr. Whewell's announcement that he was a candidate 
 for the chair, says: 'Even if your letter had come sooner 
 I could not have assisted you where Peacock was a can- 
 didate. We were contemporaries ages ago, we have 
 been affectionate friends ever since, and he has repeat- 
 edly, to me and mine, proved the freshness of his early 
 recollections. You know how I love Trinity ; guess, 
 then, how attached I am to one of my earliest friends 
 there, and how eager I have felt to seize any oppor- 
 tunity of proving my affection. I know you will not 
 quarrel with this avowal.' Five years after this, Mr. 
 Spring Eice, then Lord Monteagle, and Dr. Whewell 
 became brothers-in-law. 
 
 In the early part of this year, Mr. Whewell accepted 
 the office of President of the Geological Society, at the 
 urgent request of his friends Sedgwick, Lyell, and 
 
1837 PRESIDENT OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 185 
 
 Murchison. Consequently he was a good deal in 
 London in May and June. In July he went abroad, 
 delighted himself in examining some of his favourite 
 French cathedrals ; made a solitary progress in an open 
 boat down the Moselle ; spent a week with his architec- 
 tural friend, M. de Lasaulx, at Bonn ; and then joined 
 some friends, Lady Munro, sister of the Marchesa Spineto, 
 and others, in an expedition up the Ehine to Bingen. 
 Before returning to England he spent some time in 
 Holland. In September the British Association met at 
 Liverpool, and Mr. Whewell was Vice-President, return- 
 ing immediately after to Cambridge for term and its 
 business ; being, moreover, employed in printing as fast as 
 he could write the ' History of the Inductive Sciences ' ; 
 also in preaching sermons, afterwards printed, on the 
 1 Foundation of Morals.' 
 
 To his Sister'] Paris : July 12, 1837. 
 
 I think I have now made up my mind as to movements : 
 I shall visit Chartres to-morrow and its fine cathedral. I shall 
 then return here and proceed to the east, by Rheims, Luxem- 
 bourg, Treves, to Coblentz. I shall travel a little up and down 
 the Rhine, perhaps as far as Frankfort one way, and as far as 
 Holland the other. I have never seen Holland, except Rotter- 
 dam, which came in my way on my return from Germany. I 
 believe a few days will be well employed in seeing that country, 
 and a few days, they say, are sufficient to see the whole king- 
 dom. I intend to return by Aix la Chapelle and Brussels, and 
 shall probably be in England again in the middle of August. 
 
 I am glad to hear that Dr. L is still so well. He was always 
 
 a great talker, and by his bringing you the nonsensical story of 
 my having refused a bishopric I presume he is still more re- 
 markable for the quantity than for the certainty of his informa- 
 tion. If you ask any of your friends who read the newspapers 
 whether such a story is likely to be true they will tell you that 
 the present Ministers are not likely to give to any one who is 
 not a steady supporter of theirs any opportunity of refusing 
 
186 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1837 
 
 a bishopric or any other preferment. What did surprise 
 me was that the bishopric of Norwich (which I suppose is 
 the one meant) was not offered to Sedgwick, who would have 
 been a good appointment in every way. Adieu. I am just 
 setting off to Chartres. Write to me at Bonn before long. 
 
 To Us Sister Martha] Bonn : Aug. 19, 1837. 
 
 I came across the east of France, directing my course 
 especially by Rheims, where is one of the most beautiful 
 cathedrals in that or any other country, and which I had not 
 seen before. I then went by Verdun, where Bonaparte de- 
 tained the English prisoners at the breaking out of the last 
 war ; and by Metz, where there is a noble church which I had 
 only time to see half as well as it deserved. From France I 
 passed into the Prussian territories bordering the Rhine. 
 Treves is one of the cities which I had not seen before, and is 
 a place very remarkable for its Roman antiquities. I spent a 
 few days there and then came down the valley of the Moselle, 
 which, like that of the Rhine, is very remarkable for its pictur- 
 esque beauty ; and I was glad to see it. But I found it rather 
 a grave than a gay pleasure seeing it alone. I travelled the 
 greater part of the way in a little boat, and the silence of the 
 progress, and the want of effort and variety in the motion of a 
 boat drifting down a rapid stream, naturally makes the deep 
 solitary valley appear more severe and solemn than it otherwise 
 would do. 
 
 I thus arrived at Coblentz, where I found an excellent 
 friend with whom 1 have long corresponded, but whom I never 
 saw before. This is M. de Lasaulx, an architect, who many 
 years ago took a fancy to the little book which I published 
 about German architecture. He received me with great kind- 
 ness, and I spent above a week in seeing various objects in the 
 neighbourhood in company with him and friends. After that 
 I came to Bonn, where I stayed about a week among various 
 German acquaintances, old and new ; and when I was on the 
 point of leaving the place, I fell in with a party of English, or 
 rather Scotch friends, whom I was much rejoiced to meet, and 
 with whom I have been moving about ever since. 
 
 We have been to all the most noted points of the Rhine, 
 
1837 HOLLAND. 187 
 
 scenery which I had for the most part seen before, but which I 
 have seen again with increased pleasure ; and we shall probably 
 go on together to Aix la Chapelle, where I have some expecta- 
 1 ion of meeting some other of my English friends. We have 
 had gorgeously fine weather, almost without interruption, 
 except that the other day we were detained by the rain a 
 couple of hours in a ruined abbey near Cologne, and had at last 
 to walk to our carriage through the rain for an hour, in very 
 dirty roads and wet woods, but I do not think anybody was put 
 out of humour by this little inconvenience, and nobody was the 
 worse for it. 
 
 This is to be brought to England by a son of Lady Munro, 
 who is of our travelling party, and who is obliged to return 
 home because he is come to the end of his holidays I believe 
 it will reach you as soon as if it were put in the post. 
 
 Spring Grove, near Birmingham: Aug. 30, 1837. 
 
 Since I wrote last I have travelled down the course of the 
 Rhine to Holland, and have employed about a week in travel- 
 ling through that country. I went from Rotterdam to Delft, 
 and thence to the Hague, where the king mostly resides, and 
 where there are fine collections of pictures and other curiosities. 
 From Hague I turned aside to Scheveningen, which is a bath- 
 ing place on the sea-coast, in order that I might have the plea- 
 sure of seeing the German shore of the ocean, and of looking 
 across towards England, although far too distant to be visible. 
 I then went on to Amsterdam, not stopping at Haarlem. You 
 know from description what a strange country Holland is, when 
 you come to think about it. It is so low that, if it were not 
 protected by great dykes, a great part of it would be under 
 wilier. Amsterdam is surrounded by such dykes, and the 
 water in the docks and canals within these barriers is lower, 
 though in a very small degree, than the sea water outside. 
 You perhaps recollect Goldsmith's description of Holland in 
 ' The Traveller ' : 
 
 Metliinks her hardy sons before me stand, 
 Where the tall 1 ocean leans against the land. 
 
 1 In all editions of ' The Traveller ' I have been able to consult the 
 qtilhet is ' broad, 
 
188 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1837 
 
 This is a very spirited expression to describe the ocean being 
 higher than the land and pressing against its boundary. The 
 whole description in ' The Traveller ' is very exact and very 
 prettily expressed. The Dutch are far more like the English 
 than any other people, both in their way of dressing, their great 
 love of cleanliness, and, I may add, in the very high charges at 
 their inns. I think at most of the inns I spent as much money 
 as I should have done at first-rate inns in England. And besides 
 this, instead of being as civil as the English innkeepers are, they 
 are often as disobliging as the German innkeepers, who are fre- 
 quently very consequential folks, like Hermann's father. At 
 Arnheim, the first town in Holland at which I arrived, I had 
 to stay all night, the steam-boat doing so. I had some difficulty 
 in finding room in any of the inns ; this was not surprising ; but 
 what amused me was that at the inns where they could not 
 receive me they were so sulky that they would hardly give me 
 an answer. I returned from Amsterdam to Kotterdam by 
 Utrecht and Grouda, and then came over to London. I am here 
 lodged with a most amiable family (Mr. Chance), one of whose 
 sons was formerly my pupil. Instead of being in smoky Bir- 
 mingham, which I was afraid I should be, I live in a very pretty 
 house, with fields and trees, and gardens and conservatories, and 
 come into town, about two miles, to the business of the day. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College, Cambridge: Oct. 12, 1837. 
 
 Our examinations here came close on the heels of the 
 British Association meeting at Liverpool, and it was only whilst 
 I was at Liverpool that I learnt that I could find a day or two 
 at my own disposal on the road hither. These two days, which 
 I thus came into possession of, I spent very agreeably at Sir 
 Philip Egerton's, at Oulton, near Northwich ; but I found myself 
 unable to catch any of the music of the Birmingham musical 
 festival, which I wished much to have done. 
 
 I was particularly desirous of hearing the Oratorio of St. 
 Paul, of which my musical friends tell me great things. But I 
 could not have achieved any opportunity of hearing that, except 
 by leaving Oulton at five in the morning ; and such a vigorous 
 proceeding, considering the trouble it would have given my hosts, 
 and the uncertainty of obtaining a ticket of admission when I 
 
1837 SALT MINE. 189 
 
 reached Birmingham, I had not the energy to attempt. Sir P. 
 Egerton's is a very fine gentleman's house and park, and we had 
 a very agreeable party there. 
 
 The day after my arrival we went, a large party, to visit the 
 salt mines near Northwich ; a sort of repetition of the party 
 which went for the same purpose during the week of the meet- 
 ing of the British Association. The spectacle of the salt mine 
 lighted up by between 2,000 and 3,000 candles was very pretty. 
 From Oulton I came as fast as railroads and coaches could bring 
 me (which is very fast) to this place, where I have been ever 
 since, with the exception of a visit of two or three days to a friend 
 in Suffolk. 
 
 To the same] Trinity College: Nov. 18, 1837. 
 
 My old complaint of being overwhelmed with business, 
 especially at this time of year, is at present, I think, rather more 
 severe than ever. For besides all my usual employments I have 
 to go to London two days every fortnight as President of the 
 Geological Society, and am printing a book which I have 
 not yet written, so that I am obliged often to run as fast as I 
 can to avoid the printers riding over me, so close are they at rny 
 heels. I am, in addition to all this, preaching a course of ser- 
 mons before the University ; but this last employment, though 
 it takes time and thought, rather sobers and harmonises my 
 other occupations than adds anything to my distraction. I shall 
 probably print these sermons, and when that is done will send 
 you a copy immediately. 
 
 You will see by some newspapers I sent you that the ' Edin- 
 burgh Keview' has declared war against me once more. The 
 writer is Sir David Brewster, a man of considerable scientific 
 genius, but who thinks, I suppose, that I have not done him 
 justice ; and who is by nature fretful and irritable. But you 
 are not to suppose that I am disturbed by his carping. If I 
 wanted anything to compensate for it, I should have found it 
 amply supplied by a letter which I got this morning from Sir 
 John Herschel, who speaks of my history with the warmest 
 pleasure and admiration, and for a book of its size, price, and 
 subject, it has sold remarkably well. 
 
 I must tell you of a great honour I have just received. The 
 
190 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1838 
 
 Eoyal Society of London have adjudged me the Koyal Prize 
 Medal for my papers on the Tides. 
 
 Professor Whewell made frequent visits to London 
 during the spring of this year, drawn there partly by 
 the necessity of officiating once a fortnight as President 
 of the Geological Society, partly by other objects, one 
 of which was to consult Sir Benjamin Brodie about 
 injuries sustained in a fall with his horse, during one of 
 the late spring frosts. It was one of many experienced 
 in similar circumstances, for he was an unfortunately 
 careless and fearless rider. He used to say that he had 
 personally measured the depth of every ditch in the 
 neighbourhood of Cambridge by tumbling into it. 
 He accompanied Dean Milman's party to Westminster 
 Abbey, to see the Queen's coronation. He was present 
 at a dinner given to Sir John Herschel on his return 
 from the Cape. He succeeded Dr. Barnes as Professor 
 of Casuistry and Moral Philosophy. After attending 
 the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, he 
 paid his first visit to Hallsteads, the Cumberland home 
 of his future wife, and returned to Cambridge in time 
 for the fellowship examination. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity College: March 25, 1838. 
 
 I have, indeed, been very much employed in moving about 
 for the last few weeks, having been in London several times, 
 partly to fill my president's chair at the Geological Society, 
 and partly for other purposes. On Saturday week I went to 
 town to dine with the Duke of Sussex, at whose table I met the 
 Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Cambridge, Sir Eobert Peel, 
 and several other eminent people ; and in the evening almost 
 all the distinguished persons you ever heard of were there, with 
 a great many more whom I dare say you never heard of. 
 
 These visits, and the time spent on the road, have cut my 
 leisure into such shreds and scraps that I have hardly been 
 able to do anything which was not absolutely necessary; espe- 
 
1838 FALL WITH HIS HORSE. 191 
 
 cially as my usual employments have been going on as actively 
 as usual. 
 
 There is another circumstance which has somewhat ham- 
 pered me. I had a bad fall with my horse in the frosty 
 weather, and hurt my right arm very much ; so much, indeed, 
 that it is yet very far from well. The horse slipped down side- 
 ways on a hard-frozen slope, and I fell on my shoulder, which 
 was much bruised. I had, however, great reason to be thank- 
 ful that I broke no bones ; and I am told by the doctors that 
 there is no doubt of my recovering perfectly the use of my arm, 
 although the recovery will take some time. The hurt interferes 
 with my writing, and indeed with all my motions, so that my 
 time is not so much my own as it used to be. 
 
 To his Sister] London: April 12, 1838. 
 
 My arm is, I believe, improving. I have consulted Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie, and he expects a complete restoration of its 
 use. 
 
 It was a great pleasure to me that, as President of the Geolo- 
 gical Society, I had to assign our prize medal to a Lancaster man, 
 Richard Owen the son of our former neighbour, Mrs. Owen 
 who is considered to be one of the first anatomists in Europe. 
 
 It was indeed a great shock to me to hear of Mr. Wilkin- 
 son's death. The news came to Cambridge just before I left it ; 
 and though it appeared to me but too well authenticated, I 
 tried to believe that there must be some mistake. I had heard 
 from him not long before, and then he spoke of himself as per- 
 fectly well, but was in some anxiety about his wife. He was a 
 man of excellent qualities, and to me his loss is a deep grief; 
 for the friends of our early college days are very dear to us and 
 cannot be replaced when they are gone. 
 
 I hope Martha's baby and all your other concerns at Lindale 
 go on well. I am glad you have good hope of the school and 
 the parish. Pray recollect that, so far as money goes, when- 
 ever a few pounds can be of use in any of your plans of that 
 kind you may reckon upon me. I know that in such a district 
 as yours money alone can avail little ; and it is only by giving 
 one's own labour and thought to the work, as James does, that 
 any blessing can be expected. 
 
192 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1838 
 
 Towards the end of the summer I shall be in the north, as 
 I intend to attend the meeting of the British Association at 
 Newcastle ; and then I hope I shall see you and Martha. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College : June 9, 1838. 
 
 I am to be in London on Friday, the 15th, as one of the 
 stewards of a dinner which is given to Sir John Herschel by his 
 friends, to congratulate him on his return to England after 
 being four years at the Cape of Good Hope. I shall then prob- 
 ably have to return here about the end of the month, to be 
 elected into a professorship again. This is a professorship 
 vacated by the death of a very old man who died lately, Dr. 
 Barnes, the Master of Peterhouse. He was a north-country- 
 man, and lived to the age of ninety-four. The professorship, 
 which he held as a sinecure, and which I wish to make useful, 
 was that of Casuistry, or, more properly, of Moral Philosophy. 
 It is not worth much, but the subjects which it directs me to 
 will fall in with my plans, as you may see by my sermons 
 which I sent you. I believe there is little doubt of my being 
 elected to this office on the 27th. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College, Cambridge: July 3, 1838. 
 
 I did not intend to have made my absence from college so 
 prolonged, but I was tempted by the Coronation, which I found 
 I should have a good opportunity of seeing. I had a ticket 
 given me which procured me a good place in the interior of 
 Westminster Abbey, and there I saw the whole of the ceremony 
 very distinctly and agreeably. Everything went on well at 
 least the Queen performed her part admirably ; I am told that 
 she complained of the other persons who had to figure on the 
 occasion not being very perfect in their duties ; but, so far as a 
 spectator could judge where I sat, the whole affair passed off in 
 a very splendid and suitable manner. 
 
 The only accident was what you perhaps have seen in the 
 papers. A very old and infirm peer, Lord Rolle, bent nearly 
 double, who was supported to the steps of the throne to do his 
 homage, when he got so far tried to go up to the Queen without 
 sufficient assistance. He fell backwards on the floor quite help- 
 
1838 CORONATION. 193 
 
 less, and was taken up by the people who stood round, looking 
 as if he were half-killed. However, he again made an effort to 
 approach the Queen, and she rose from her throne to make 
 their meeting easier. This was done very promptly and grace- 
 fully, and produced great applause. I believe she was well 
 acquainted with him, and had often been at his house when she 
 was a girl and lived for some time in Devonshire, where his 
 seat is. 
 
 I had seen the Queen much nearer a little while before ; for 
 I went to her with the Duke of Sussex and the other officers of 
 the Royal Society, and had the honour of kissing her hand. 
 She then looked very amiable and very girl-like, and her manner 
 to her uncle, the Duke of Sussex, was exceedingly pretty and 
 affectionate. I am glad you succeeded in making a festival for 
 the poor people at Lindale. I hope everybody has enjoyed the 
 occasion as much in your part of the country as they seemed to 
 do wherever I have been. It is pleasant to think that these 
 peaceful celebrations have, in our time, taken the place of 
 rejoicings for victories and triumphs, military and political. I 
 hope we shall never live to see any of the war festivities 
 return. 
 
 I return to London in a few days, and from thence go to 
 Bristol, and if I can find that I can read and write at any quiet 
 place in the north of Devon (where I have business) I may 
 stay there for some weeks, for I have of late had no time to 
 myself. 
 
 To his Sister] Bath Hotel, Clifton : July 12, 1838. 
 
 I am always glad to come to this place, which is very pretty 
 and very pleasant. Although it is so near the great black city 
 of Bristol it is quite secluded and rural, with an open bushy 
 down of great extent and a most picturesque river valley. 
 
 To-morrow I am going to see the Great Western steamboat, 
 which has just come from America in twelve days and a half, 
 and is now lying in the Bristol Channel. Pray ask William 
 Newton how it has come to pass that the people of Liverpool, 
 who are generally more active and enterprising than the Bris- 
 tolians, have allowed their rivals to get so much the start of 
 them in this matter of American steam-navigation. The 
 
 O 
 
194 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1838 
 
 success of the experiment appears to me to be complete, and 
 the people here are going to build another ship for the same 
 service. 
 
 To Mrs. Somerville] Hallsteads : Aug. 29, 1838. 
 
 I was greatly obliged by your letter, and thank you very 
 much for the trouble you have taken about my tide scheme. 
 I hope to show you, in a few years, that the pains taken with 
 this subject has not been wasted. I had heard from Mrs. 
 Murchison of Dr. Somerville's illness, and was extremely de- 
 lighted to learn from you that his recovery is in progress. You 
 would, I think, have enjoyed the ' wise week,' as the Newcastle 
 people called it, if your plans and engagements had led you 
 into it ; for everything (at least of a public nature) went on 
 very satisfactorily, and the arrangements were better than they 
 have been before. 
 
 Among the tasks we have proposed for the. future, the 
 most interesting, perhaps, is a grand scheme of magnetic 
 observations, combined with an Antarctic expedition, which we 
 are to recommend to Government. There seems the strongest 
 probability that we shall be able not only to determine the 
 magnetic poles at present as a basis for future observations of 
 their changes, but also find a very easy method of determining 
 the longitude, by means of the simultaneous small changes of 
 the variations. We are also to have a reform bill for the stars : 
 improving the representation of the skies, putting a number of 
 constellations in schedule A, and arranging the boundaries of 
 others according to their star-population. So you see we 
 venture to charge ourselves with earth and heaven at the same 
 time. 
 
 Early in this summer Mr. Whewell made a tour on 
 the Rhine, in North Germany, and in Belgium, and after 
 staying with Mr. Chance, near Birmingham, he made a 
 tour in Wales during September with Mr. Jones. The 
 scenery surrounding Brecon afforded him the opportu- 
 nity of recalling feature by feature the beautiful cir- 
 cumstances of river, sea, and distant mountain, amid 
 
1839 TOUR WITH MR. JONES. 195 
 
 which his native town of Lancaster is placed. In April 
 
 1840 he sends his sister the ' Isle of the Sirens,' and ex- 
 plains its meaning. He paid a visit to Madame de Barne- 
 velde at the Chateau de Meteren in June, and another 
 in July to the Bethmann Holwegs at Bonn. Whilst in 
 Germany he had a sharp aguish attack, but he re- 
 turned to England in time to go to Glasgow for the 
 British Association, and to make various visits in 
 Scotland. 
 
 In February of this year Mr. Hare wrote to Lady 
 Malcolm from Cambridge : 
 
 I have been spending a month here with great delight, from 
 the exceedingly kind affectionate reception I have met with from 
 my old friends, especially from Whewell ; and one of the greatest 
 pleasures I have enjoyed has been from seeing the very remark- 
 able improvement in his character in point of gentleness and 
 self-control, which lets his innate kindness become more evi- 
 dently the ruling principle of his conduct. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Builth : Sept. 15, 1839. 
 
 From Birmingham I went to London, and after staying there 
 a week I set off for a little tour in South Wales with my friend 
 Jones. He is a Welshman, but had seen little of his own 
 country, and I had never seen South Wales, so we agreed to 
 make a holiday together. We have found it very pleasant 
 although we have had a great deal of rain for it has been fair 
 during a part of every day, so that we have been able to see the 
 country pretty well. Yesterday we came up the Towy from 
 Caermarthen you will recollect Towy's flood in the pretty little 
 poem of ' Grongor Hill.' ] The hill itself makes no great figure 
 for size or beauty as you pass it, but I can easily believe that the 
 view from it is very pretty. 
 
 I still, however, hold to my former opinion, that there are few 
 places where the views are prettier than some of those in the 
 neighbourhood of Lancaster, and I do not think any river that 
 
 1 Dyer's poem, 
 o 2 
 
196 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 I have seen on my tour is more beautiful than the Lune above 
 the Aqueduct. One view which I have just seen reminded me 
 most strongly of the Lune, looking down from the Aqueduct, or 
 rather looking from the meadows between that and the end of 
 the* 4 Ladies' Walk.' It is just above the town of Brecon. There 
 is there, just as there is at Lancaster, a weir which crosses the 
 river obliquely above the town, and makes the water above it as 
 smooth and bright as a mirror ; the upper part of the river runs 
 away among meadows and hedges and green hills, and then far 
 beyond them you see absolute mountains, vast and grey and 
 blue, like the hills towards Ingleborough, though there is nothing 
 so fine as Ingleborough itself. Then looking down the river you 
 see the stream, broken and rapid where it has got away from the 
 weir ; a&d a little way downwards you see the town, looking very 
 picturesque, as Lancaster does, except that, instead of standing 
 on a hill and making a fine outline, it is placed in the gorge of 
 a valley with high hills on each side of it, the towers of the castle 
 and church all mixed with trees and white houses, and of course 
 nothing beyond to compare with our bay and its grand mountains. 
 Still, the relative position of the river and the town and the 
 inland mountains, and the rough and the smooth parts of the 
 river, give it the same kind of beauty which our scenes have. 
 I have talked so much about this that I cannot describe to you 
 any other parts of our tour, which has been to me a very delight- 
 ful one. 
 
 This little outbreak of mine into Wales has put an end to all 
 chance of my visiting the north this summer. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College: April 8, 1840. 
 
 I send you a book, which I do not think you will make much 
 of or admire much, but which you may like to see out of regard 
 for ' the Author.' In order to understand it at all, you are to 
 know that Mr. Carlyle has published a strange book called 
 ' Chartism,' in which he represents the present evils of the 
 country and its disordered state in a most alarming manner ; 
 refers to the proposed remedies, and, among the rest, to church 
 extension, and laughs at this by recommending that there should 
 be a supply of cast-iron preachers set up all over the country ; 
 
1840 'ISLE OF THE SIRENS.' 197 
 
 and finally he himself recommends teaching reading as the first 
 step to improvement. 
 
 The Hexameter writer has taken passages out of the pam- 
 phlet (those which are put in the mouth of the 6 Seer ') and has 
 turned them into verse with as little alteration as possible ac- 
 tually only a word here and there ; and with a few other altera- 
 tions to make the allusions Greek, turning the English and Irish 
 into Ithacans and Sybotians, and so you have the poem. The 
 Chartism appears to have fascinated some of our young men, 
 and perhaps the ' Isle of the Sirens ' may serve to disenchant 
 them. 
 
 I have not heard from you since you read beyond Miss 
 Austen's first two novels, ' Northanger Abbey ' and 6 Sense and 
 Sensibility.' In my opinion those two are decidedly much the 
 worst. I should like to know what you think of my other 
 favourites, for, as I think I told you, they are great favourites of 
 mine. 
 
 I am glad you like my books, and think the Bible handsome. 
 I am glad, too, that it is to make you remember me On Sunday 
 evenings. At the time you mention I am generally in the 
 College Chapel, and shall call your family circle to mind in the 
 intervals of the service. 
 
 To his Sister] Dusseldorf : June 28, 1840. 
 
 There is very little to describe in the country through which 
 I have passed. I must say, however, that the line of banks of the 
 canals is prettier than one might expect ; for the Dutchmen 
 build themselves extremely neat houses, with lawns, shrubberies, 
 groves, and flower gardens facing the canals ; and everything is 
 so trimly painted and kept that it really has a sort of beauty in 
 spite of the want of natural features. They surround their 
 houses with ditches, which are generally covered with an even 
 green coat of duckweed, and over these ditches, at the corner 
 of the garden, you have always a summer-house, where they sit 
 and smoke their pipes and look at the world as it passes by 
 them. 
 
 During part of the time that I was in Holland I was stay- 
 ing at a country-house, the Chateau of Meteren. It is very like 
 an English country-house, except that it is surrounded by such 
 
198 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL 1840 
 
 ditches as I tell you of, which are crossed by bridges, some of 
 wood aiid some of stone ; and then the grounds are laid out in 
 square fields, with straight rows of trees running betwen them, 
 for the people here aim at straight lines in laying out their 
 grounds as much as they avoid them in England. One of the 
 alleys at Meter en consists of six rows of trees nearly a mile long. 
 Madame de Barnevelde, my hostess, has also a very ample poultry 
 yard. 1 
 
 My companion is Mr. Thurtell, a fellow of Caius College. 
 His object, or at least one of his objects, is to see how schools 
 are managed in countries which are supposed to excel our own 
 in this respect, and accordingly we went to see several schools 
 in Holland, but our ignorance of the language prevented our 
 profiting very much by this inspection. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick] Cambridge: July 31, 1840. 
 
 I am glad you have got my book ; when your white-paper- 
 mind, which you speak of, is disposed to take any impression 
 from my printed paper, I am afraid you will find the first 
 volume rather dry, but the second, I think, is not heavy reading. 
 We had the Bishop of Norwich 2 and the ladies here for an hour 
 or two during the Agricultural Meeting, and you, I suppose, 
 have the pleasure of their society now. Talking of Bishops we 
 have to rejoice in another one 3 among our friends. Hare is to 
 preach his consecration sermon. 
 
 To his Sister] Hillermont, Glasgow: Sept. 18, 1840. 
 
 Your letter reached me at Kinwoody House, in Forfarshire, 
 where my friend Mr. Lyell's father lives. I made my way to 
 Edinburgh, when I left you, as soon as I expected. Many of 
 my Scotch friends were gone to their country-houses, but 
 several of these are not far from the city, and I visited them 
 in their summer-quarters. I staid for about a week with 
 Professor Forbes, and then went to Kinwoody, which is a bare 
 country almost at the edge of the Grampians. 
 
 1 Madame de Barnevelde was a sister of the Marchesa Spineto. 
 
 2 Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich. 
 
 3 Bishop of St. David's. 
 
1840 KIRRIEMUIR. 199 
 
 At the request of Mr. Lyell I preached in the Episcopal 
 chapel at Kirriemuir on Sunday, and a great number of the 
 frequenters of the Kirk were drawn by curiosity to hear me. 
 I was told afterwards that they liked my discourse very well, 
 but that some of them 6 thought it would ha' been better if it 
 had na' been read in a book.' 
 
 From Kinwoody I came to Glasgow, where I slept two 
 nights, and dined with an old pupil of mine named Eamsay, 
 who is one of the professors there. I then came on to the 
 house of Mr. Colquhoun, who is member for the county. It is 
 a charming country-house, and at present full of visitors. 
 Among other persons, we have here Dr. Chalmers and his wife. 
 I am delighted to meet him again. At present he is full of 
 the controversy about the relative merits of the Scotch and 
 English ways of relieving the poor, a question which has been 
 raised by Dr. Alison, and has excited great notice. I believe 
 they are likely to get into a discussion on the subject to-day in 
 one of our sectional meetings, although it is against the rules of 
 the Association to allow questions of such a kind to be debated 
 amongst us. I must leave them to settle this and all other 
 points among themselves, for to-morrow morning I take my 
 departure for the south, and run to Cambridge as fast as coaches 
 and railroads can carry me. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity College: Oct. 24, 1840. 
 
 I was very glad to receive your account of your Welsh tour. 
 It is very true that I have seen the country, but that does 
 not make me at all less interested to hear of the impression 
 which it made on you ; but very much the contrary. 
 
 I hope you went over the Menai bridge to Beaumaris. 
 The great range of Snowdonian hills looks more majestic from 
 that side than from any other position. The lake of Llanberis 
 is still very beautiful and wild ; but it was much more so, to 
 my thinking, before the broad road was carried through the 
 valley and the great inn built close to it. I recollect it when it 
 was a scarcely passable defile between Snowdon and Grlyder 
 Vawr. As you say, it is quite a foreign country ; the temper 
 and habits of the people, as well as their language, are different 
 from those of the < Seisnig.' 
 
200 LIFE OF DB. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 I am glad you did not like Mr. A.'s (picture of) Hermann 
 and Dorothea. It is beyond measure stupid ; both, as you say, 
 in the feeling of the situation and what was easier to hit 
 the costume and condition of the figures. The artist piqued 
 himself upon giving the genuine costume of German peasants. 
 It never seems to have occurred to him to read the poem, in 
 order to see what the costume was, or to recollect that neither 
 Hermann nor Dorothea were peasants. He was the son of a 
 rich man whose father was burgomaster, and she had a French 
 education, and was handsomely dressed. The only solution I 
 can think of for Mr. A.'s stupidity is that somebody told him 
 the story and that he never read the poem. 
 
 I have just been spending a week very agreeably with my 
 friends Professor and Mrs. Henslow at Hitcham, in Suffolk. 
 He is Professor of Botany and also Rector of Hitcham, and to 
 my great sorrow about two years ago they transferred their 
 habitual abode from Cambridge to Hitcham. 
 
 On my return I find my friends all busy about the election 
 to the office of High Steward of the University. The candidates 
 are Lord Lyttelton, for whom I vote, and Lord Lyndhurst. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1840 a contest took 
 place for the High Stewardship of the University. The 
 candidates were Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Lyttelton. 
 Lord Lyndhurst was elected, his election apparently 
 having been recommended mainly by political considera- 
 tions. Mr. Whewell supported Lord Lyttelton, a former 
 pupil of his who had just completed a brilliant career 
 at the University. The grounds on which Mr. Whewell 
 was led to give his vote in contests of this kind are set 
 forth in a letter to Lord Lyttelton, from which the 
 following is an extract. After observing that he did 
 not look upon it as a matter of any material con- 
 sequence whether he gave a general support to Ministers 
 on subjects unconnected with the Church, he goes on 
 to say : 
 
1840 LETTER TO LORD LYTTELTON. 201 
 
 Trinity College: March 10, 1840. 
 
 Perhaps I shall make myself best intelligible if I tell you 
 what my own view of the position and value of our Church is. I 
 think that the blessing of having a Church such as ours, so in- 
 terwoven with the Constitution, so beneficial in its influence upon 
 religion, morals, manners, and politics, is so great that we can 
 never enough value it, and ought not to trifle with it. I think 
 that this Church, having been so interwoven with the spirit of the 
 country, must be continually identified with that spirit by the 
 prevalent system of education, and that when this ceases to be 
 done, the Church cannot but speedily fall which would be the 
 greatest evil the country could suffer. I think therefore that it 
 must be the business of our statesmen to secure the perman- 
 ency of a sympathy between Church and education. I allow for 
 the existence of great bodies of interests and feelings alienated 
 from the Church. I would treat these with all respect and defer- 
 ence consistent with the constant testification of a belief in the 
 value of the Established Church. But if I saw a Ministry who 
 treated the Church only with decorous neglect, if in all indif- 
 ferent cases (exactly the cases which supply a test) they gave 
 their preference to dissent, I should then hold it impossible to 
 go along with them. Observe I do not say that these supposi- 
 tions have any present application, and I do not say it because 
 I have seen no certain ground to think the case is so. But as 
 you have had the kindness to say so much with a view of show- 
 ing me your course of thinking on such subjects, you will, I do 
 not doubt, excuse me for showing you what are the points which 
 must influence me. Having said so much, I have only to add 
 that if you come forward as a candidate for the office of High 
 Steward on the next vacancy, I shall have great pleasure in 
 giving you my vote and support ; and I should hope for the 
 satisfaction of seeing you come in successful without difficulty. 
 
 An interesting letter to Miss Henslow 1 contains a 
 brief account of the theories of spelling with which 
 Archdeacon Hare had indoctrinated Mr. Whewell. 
 
 1 Daughter of his old friend Professor Henslow, and afterwards married 
 to Dr. Hooker of Kew. 
 
202 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 Trinity College: Oct. 29, 1840. 
 
 I was very much obliged to you for your account of the fire- 
 works. As I came along in the coach I thought of you, and was 
 glad to see that you had so fine an evening for the display, and 
 I was glad to see, too, in your description of the event that you 
 have made so much progress in right spelling. Still I think you 
 are not quite perfect in the lesson I tried to teach you, and I must 
 tell you a little more about it. 
 
 The good old writers, as Shakespear, Spenser, and Milton, 
 did put t instead of d at the end of several participles ; and as 
 this is both the old English way, and the way we pronounce, 
 there is a good union of reasons for keeping it up. But then 
 it was not in all cases that they used t, but only after certain 
 consonants, which I call sharp consonants, p, k, s, sh, not after 
 the corresponding flat consonants, b, g hard, z, g soft. I will 
 give you some examples from Milton's ' Paradise Lost.' 
 
 There he says : 
 
 397. Worshipt in Rabba and his watery plain. 
 
 459. Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopt off. 
 
 But we should say : 
 
 He robb'd his pocket while he dubb'd him knight. 
 Milton says in his own edition of his poem : 
 
 126. Vaunting aloud but rackt with deep despair. 
 But we should say : 
 
 Bang went his gun and so he bayg'd his hare. 
 Milton says : 
 
 509. Gods, yet confe^ later than Heav'n and Earth. 
 I say : 
 
 He quizzed him well and made abundant mirth. 
 Milton says : 
 
 209. So stretcht out huge in length the arch fiend lay. 
 I should write : 
 
 He dredged for oysters in Algoa Bay. 
 
 The poet says : 
 
 His face 
 
 Deep scars of thunder had intrenc/^, and sin, 
 Sad on his faded cheek. 
 
 And we should say : And wedged or plunged it in. 
 
1840 SPELLING. 903 
 
 All the Miltonian examples are from the first book of 
 ' Paradise Lost,' and I have markt the number of the line at the 
 side. You will find them differently spelt in modern editions, 
 but they are spelt as I have given you them in the edition which 
 Milton himself superintended, and he was very careful about 
 spelling. 
 
 Do you not see that there is a difference in the two sets of 
 cases ? You cannot say wishd if you try, nor iplunget (dropping 
 the e, and keeping the g soft.) You say wisht and plunged, 
 and it is better to write so. Can you say dipd or robt ? I think 
 not ; so be content to say and to write dipt and robbed. Some- 
 times you have tugged at a bough and prickt your hand ; but 
 never tugt at anything, nor prickd even your little finger except 
 you tried to talk so. We see and hear that there is a difference 
 in such classes of words, and as good writers have acknowledged 
 the difference by their spelling, why should we try and keep it 
 out of sight ? 
 
 And so ends my lesson about participles ; for I will not write 
 about other branches of spelling at present. 
 
 I hope neither Mama nor Miss Brind will be angry with me 
 for trying to spoil your spelling. 
 
 While the Ecclesiastical Duties and Ee venues Bill 
 was under discussion, Professor Whewell made an 
 attempt to secure for the chair of Moral Philosophy an 
 increased endowment in the shape of a stall in Ely 
 Cathedral. In the Bill, as it left the House of Commons, 
 there was a clause assigning two stalls at Ely to two 
 out of certain four professorships at Cambridge, of 
 which that of Moral Philosophy was one, the others 
 being the professorships of Hebrew and Greek, and the 
 Norrisian professorship of Divinity ; the holders of the 
 two stalls were to be selected by the Crown. 
 
 An attempt was made in the House of Lords to give 
 to Cambridge four stalls at Ely, on the principle that 
 Oxford enjoyed four stalls at Christ Church, and if the 
 Prime Minister would have consented to this it is prob- 
 
204 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 able that Professor WhewelTi exertions on behalf of 
 his professorship would have succeeded. The Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners seem to have recommended that 
 if there were to be but two stalls they should be de- 
 finitively appropriated to the chairs of Hebrew and 
 Greek. This was the course adopted in the Act, and 
 the professors of Hebrew and Greek came after a time 
 into the possession of stalls at Ely. 
 
 At a later period Dr. Whewell, having received from 
 the Cathedral Commission a letter of enquiry respecting 
 the advantage of annexing canonries to professorships, 
 expressed his opinion that no serious inconvenience had 
 been produced or threatened by this measure, and that 
 the annexation of two more canonries to two theological 
 professorships would be a still more appropriate applica- 
 tion of such preferment, and a great benefit to the 
 University. This suggestion produced no result, but it 
 is perhaps worth mentioning that the commission ap- 
 pointed in 1877 to revise the statutes of the University 
 have recently proposed to transfer the Greek professor's 
 stall to a new professorship of Divinity. 
 
205 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 1840 TO CLOSE OP 1841. 
 
 Letters to Hare His Charge 'College Rooms no Home for Declining 
 Years ' Hare's Reply Pew Lady Campbell's Death Masham decided 
 against Seal with a Strange Device Engaged to be Married to Cordelia 
 Marshall Marriage Dr. Words worth's Resignation Professor Whewell 
 appointed Master of Trinity Coniston Mr. Wordsworth's Visit Arrival 
 at Cambridge Verses on a Chain of Hair Theological Instruction. 
 
 THE best introduction to the history of the year 1841, 
 the most eventful in Dr. Whewell's life, is contained in 
 the letters written at the close of 1840 by him to Arch- 
 deacon Hare and in the Archdeacon's replies to them. 
 A growing conviction was stealing upon him that his 
 task as a resident fellow of Trinity College was nearly 
 completed, and that ' college rooms were no home for 
 declining years.' On the other hand, the only alterna- 
 tive which then presented itself for choice was a college 
 living. Many another man in his place would probably 
 have accepted that alternative without much scrutiny 
 of his capabilities for fulfilling the duties involved, 
 trusting vaguely to the probability that his would equal 
 those of others similarly circumstanced, and to the hope 
 of procuring a good curate who would supply all de- 
 ficiencies. More characteristic of him, however, than 
 any one other quality was a sense of dut}^, which made 
 clearer views on this point absolutely necessary to him. 
 Though longing for the quiet and leisure of the country, 
 and feeling that ' such a life would be more wholesome 
 
206 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 to the heart and spirit ' than that he led at Cambridge, 
 he sincerely doubted his qualifications for it. With 
 perfect candour he lays the whole question before his 
 friend, and the answer to this letter seems to me equally 
 remarkable for its affectionate sympathy and its coura- 
 geous frankness. 
 
 A visit to Masham, the college living in question, 
 and subsequent consideration of all the important points 
 involved, decided him finally to decline the living, and 
 left him with the persuasion that the work ' for which 
 Providence had mainly fitted him lay in the University, 
 and was not yet quite completed.' Besides the dis- 
 cussion of this matter the following letters to Arch- 
 deacon Hare contain the announcement by Professor 
 Whewell of the death of Lady Campbell, one of the 
 Hyde Hall friends so dear to both, and also an urgent 
 entreaty that Mr. Hare, when called upon to re- 
 publish his Charge, would modify his praise of him 
 in the preface, which Professor Whewell considered 
 so exaggerated and erroneous as only to 'make him 
 ashamed.' Mr. Hare promises to soften it, but denies 
 that it is the ' abominable story ' Professor Whewell 
 thinks it. 
 
 To Ven. Archdeacon Hare] Trinity College: Dec. 13, 1840. 
 
 I have just received your Charge and read it with great 
 delight. I had already begun to think that it was time I should 
 see it ; and having seen its publication advertised was on the 
 point of sending for it, but, as you may imagine, I would much 
 rather possess it as your gift. I should perhaps differ with you 
 on one or two points of minor importance, and I am utterly un- 
 able to imagine what has moved you to insert that piece of ex- 
 travagance and mistake about Professor Whewell. But almost 
 every page contains opinions which I am rejoiced to have exprest, 
 and still more to have them well exprest by you. I am 
 especially pleased with your note about the terms of union with 
 
1840 MASHAM. 207 
 
 the National Society. But I will not discuss any of the points 
 with you now ; I hope the time will come when I may do so 
 face to face, which will be more satisfactory and expeditious. I 
 want at present to employ a few minutes of your time in another 
 way, in the consideration of matter which personally concerns 
 myself. I want to ask your counsel. I will not say that your 
 opinion will mainly determine me, for I must, of course, decide 
 on my own consideration of the subject ; but there are few per- 
 sons, if any, whose judgment I shall receive with so much in- 
 terest and willingness to make my own agree with it as yours. 
 But I must leave off my prefaces and begin. 
 
 The matter, in short, is this. Shall I take a college living ? 
 Waddington l gives up Masham, which now, as improved by com- 
 mutation and other circumstances, is a tolerably good living as 
 livings go. Now I will tell you the main considerations which 
 weigh with me, and I want you, who know me, and know both 
 a college life and that of a country clergyman, to tell me how 
 the matter appears to you. My main view is this to express it 
 in the form which it takes in my thoughts that my task in 
 college is well nigh ended. I have done what I could, or at 
 least in a few months shall have done all I can, to improve the 
 mathematical studies of the college and of the university. I have 
 written my ' History and Philosophy of Science,' which I could 
 not have written anywhere but in college. I have introduced 
 the Philosophy into our Fellowship examination, the only ex- 
 amination in philosophy which exists in the University, and after 
 another year I think I shall have done in this way all that 
 becomes me. 
 
 My inducements to stay in college diminish. Friends depart 
 or become separated from me by change of habits. I do not 
 make new intimacies easily, hardly at all. College rooms are 
 no home for declining years. The examples we have seen, and 
 see, of such a close of life are not such as we should wish to 
 follow. If I stay here, I see already that I shall soon be com- 
 pelled to be Vice-Master ; which I shall dislike from its confin- 
 ing me to hall. The governing power of the Vice-Master also 
 would not suit me ; authority enough to compel you often to 
 
 1 On his appointment to the Deanery of Durham. 
 
208 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 interfere, but not enough to enable you to carry your point, at 
 least while differing with many of the Fellows on points of 
 college government, which I do. 
 
 But then, on the other hand, am I fit to take a cure of souls ? 
 I like to have the disposal of my time. I cannot look to giving 
 up my literary occupations. On the contrary, I look to making 
 or preparing the way for an improved system of Ethics. I con- 
 template keeping my Professorship, even if I take a living, and 
 residing in Cambridge one term in the year. Shall I be able 
 to do this with justice to my parish ? Am I at all fit for the 
 business of a parish ? Am I not too averse to business ? too 
 un sympathizing with common people ? I have heard of persons 
 like myself taking a college living and then repenting bitterly 
 of the change. May not this be my case ? 
 
 I have given you the thoughts that suggest themselves to 
 me, and should like to know which you think the juster side of 
 the soliloquy. I have given you the matter under a merely 
 prudential and selfish aspect, because if it will not bear ex- 
 amining in that way, the decision can hardly be right. If I 
 were to decide on an enthusiastic view, I certainly should have 
 moments of repentance. My affections do not yet turn much 
 towards parochial ministrations, but I should trust by (rod's 
 blessing to find strength for such employments, and comfort in 
 them, when once entered upon them. And one of the con- 
 siderations which recurs to me is that such a life would be 
 more wholesome to the heart and the spirit than the present 
 life I lead. The change might be a source of happiness in 
 other ways now unforeseen. 
 
 I look at you, who on entering on your ministrations have 
 almost given up your literary labours. This I admire, but do 
 not envy. For, in my case at least, to do this would mar the 
 scheme of my life and lead me to neglect what appears to be 
 my real task in life. If I can do anything, it is that I can 
 systematize portions of knowledge which the consent of opinions 
 has brought into readiness for such a process. I think I can do 
 this in some important branches of morals, perhaps of other 
 subjects. I cannot give up this design. 
 
 But then I see many others of my friends, who contrive to 
 pursue a large amount of literary labour among the cares of a 
 
1840 MASHAM. 209 
 
 parish. I think I could, for several years, if health were spared 
 me, do what they can do. 
 
 I think you have now nearly the whole of my case before 
 you. I am anxious to have your opinion upon it, because you 
 have known me long and well, and have, I never doubt, a regard 
 for me. The matter does not press very much. I am to meet 
 Waddington on January 1, at his living, which he resigns on 
 that day. I shall then see how the external argument looks. 
 In the mean time it may be as well to say nothing of my 
 having such a plan at present in my head. So, to put an end 
 to this selfish letter, I will only write myself, as always, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 Archdeacon Hare to Professor Whewell] 
 
 Hurstmonceux : Dec. 17, 1840. 
 
 Your letter is not an easy one to answer, but so you must 
 have known when you wrote it. Even those who know you 
 best can only form a partial judgment on such a question. 
 There will be much in you, there will probably be much in 
 your outward circumstances, which ought of right to be taken 
 into account, but of which they will be ignorant. However, I 
 will give you my thoughts, such as they are, confident that you 
 will not be offended if I intimate any doubt of your having 
 the universality of the Admirable Crichton. I doubt whether 
 any great man ever had, least of all when he was approaching 
 to fifty. Most fully do I agree with you that college rooms are 
 not a home for one's latter years, and in my late visits to 
 Cambridge I have felt that you were outliving your contempo- 
 raries. It seemed to me too, at least last March, that the 
 intercourse with your juniors, many of whom had been your 
 pupils, was not altogether wholesome to you. One of the 
 greatest delights I had during my stay at Cambridge last year 
 was to perceive that the vehemence of your nature had been 
 greatly subdued. This year, on the contrary I know not 
 whether anything had happened in the interval you seemed to 
 me to have become quite as vehement as ever. And this reason, 
 along with others, such as the departure of most of your friends, 
 led me to wish that some change should take place in the out- 
 
 P 
 
210 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 ward form of your life. And yet I have never been able to 
 think with satisfaction of your undertaking a parochial cure. I 
 can neither fancy that you would suit it, nor that it would suit 
 you. It hardly seems to me right to enter upon such a cure 
 unless one does so with the purpose of making it the primary 
 object of one's thoughts and interests. At least, I am sure no 
 man of right feeling can enjoy peace of mind unless he has a 
 satisfactory conviction that the people committed to his spiritual 
 charge are duly taken care of. Much may, indeed, be done by 
 an able and zealous curate ; such a one you may find, and if you 
 take the living you must unquestionably have one. 
 
 Thus, since so large a part of my own time has been with- 
 drawn from my parish by my new office, I have felt a daily 
 increasing comfort and blessing in Simpkinson ; and you too 
 would be rightfully withdrawn from your parish by the duties 
 of your professorship, which, from their great importance to the 
 Church and to the whole nation, might most justly take the 
 precedence. At the same time, unless you could feel a con- 
 siderable sympathy with the new objects of your care, unless 
 you do feel a strong interest in your new duties, and not merely 
 in your regular Sunday ministrations, but in the schools, in 
 visiting the sick, in talking to the poor about the petty concerns 
 of their daily life, your life would be a very unsatisfying one. 
 Many blessings attend on these labours, when one does take a 
 hearty interest in them ; but when one does not, they become 
 an intolerable weariness, until by degrees one grows to neglect 
 them. 
 
 Now at your age it is most difficult for a man to change the 
 whole current of his daily thoughts and interests above all, 
 when the mind has been constantly habituated to look at all 
 things from a speculative point of view. You who stand atop 
 of a mountain cannot see the clouds in the valley, still less can 
 you care for them. Nor is it desirable that you should. All 
 are not meant to be pastors ; some are to be apostles, some 
 doctors. This is what our blundering Church-reformers could 
 not understand. Your ministry in this world seems to me to 
 be that of a doctor, rather than a pastor ; and what I should 
 wish for would be a post where you might fulfil that ministry 
 the Matership of Trinity, a deanery, or something of this sort. 
 
1840 ARCHDEACON HARE'S LETTER. 211 
 
 I would have you pursue your work in moral philosophy ; there 
 is an ample field, a noble one ; and it would be an evil thing 
 for England that you should abandon it. 
 
 But you would not. True, you would not give up lite- 
 rature and philosophy as I have done. My course in this 
 matter has not been determined by my own will ; it has been 
 forced upon me by causes which I could not resist. Some of 
 them lie merely in individual peculiarities. I have always been 
 called exclusive ; Ma Man told Miss Ferrier : ' Mr. Hare cannot 
 care about anybody except Kate ' ; and I believe there is a 
 narrowness in me that disqualifies me for taking a deep interest 
 in more than one thing at once. Besides, as you know from my 
 etymological vagaries, I can never rest satisfied until a thing is 
 done as thoroughly as my faculties and means will enable me. 
 This is almost a disease ; and hence I have been forced to leave 
 so many things incomplete. But you are not so hyper- 
 scrupulous about petty details, nor do you allow yourself so 
 easily to be monopolized. Therefore I doubt not that you 
 might be able to pursue your speculative studies amid the cares 
 of your parish. Thirlwall has done so, and his work is perfect. 
 
 A has done so ; B has done so, even with the care 
 
 of a London parish and the distractions of London society. 
 But then their books seem to be much as if a painter were to 
 dash his brush across his pallet, after which, if he were wise, 
 his next thought would probably be to obliterate his daub. 
 However, Thirlwall's example is an encouragement ; and I know 
 your energy. I doubt not you would find time. But I do 
 doubt whether you could ever refashion your mind according 
 to your new calling whether you could unravel the whole 
 network of your thoughts, to weave them anew ; whether you 
 could descend, like Apollo, to become a shepherd. 
 
 I am the more urgent on this point, because I myself felt 
 the misery of the distraction occasioned by an uncongenial call- 
 ing during the two years I was in the Temple. And many a 
 hard struggle have I had, many a long fit of despondency, since I 
 came to Hurstmonceux, from the reluctance to forsake my old pur- 
 suits, from the difficulty of adapting myself to my new ones, and 
 from the impossibility of reconciling the two. From my misery 
 in the Temple you rescued me, and so were one of the greatest 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 benefactors of my life; but from my struggle here I have gradually 
 been freed by (rod's grace, and by the infinite blessing He has 
 given me in my sister-in-law. Still it was an exceeding delight 
 to return to Cambridge, and to recur to the speculations of 
 former years, and to find the opportunity of using the knowledge 
 it had been the chief business of my life to acquire. And now 
 in my new office I find myself again engaged in work for which 
 it seems to me that the habits and frame of my mind qualify me 
 better than for pastoral ministrations. Hence my happiness 
 in these last years has greatly increast. The great lesson of my 
 life has been that there can be no true happiness except when 
 one is walking in the path of duty. Then alone ' can love be an 
 unerring light, and joy its own security/ 
 
 I have written unconnectedly, it may be contradictorily, as 
 the thoughts have risen up. You would not expect a determin- 
 ate answer ; and no one can determine the question but your- 
 self. I have merely suggested such reflexions as my knowledge 
 of you and of your present position, as well as of that of a 
 parochial minister, called forth. Whatever your decision may be, 
 you must keep in mind that your calling is rather to be a doc- 
 tor than a pastor, and you are bound not to do what would 
 hinder your efficiency in that calling. At the same time God 
 may give you strength to fulfil both. And humanly speaking, 
 with a good curate, and a wife, such as there are many, well 
 fitted for the charge of a parish, you might look with content- 
 ment on the condition of your own flock, at least in some mea- 
 sure, even while your thoughts are mainly turned toward that 
 larger flock who have been more especially committed to you. 
 Whatever you decide, may it be right, and may the blessing of 
 Grod prosper it ! 
 
 There is another consideration which I would just hint at. 
 A country parson's life is almost infallibly one almost devoid of 
 everything like intellectual society. This to me, who was always 
 a good deal of a recluse, is no intolerable loss. But how would 
 you reconcile yourself to it ? 
 
 If the alternative lay between continuing in college and 
 taking a living, I should indeed feel little hesitation. A college 
 life seems to me so unwholesome for a man after he has outlived 
 his contemporaries, and abandoned practical work, that I would 
 
1840 CHARGE. 213 
 
 quit it, trusting that I might be enabled to discharge my new 
 duties, without abandoning those which the whole course of my 
 life had imposed upon me. But, as I said before, I should wish 
 to see you in a different post. 
 
 With regard to my Charge, I am very glad it meets with 
 your sympathy ; and shall also be glad to learn what are the 
 points of difference, that, if I find myself in errour, I may correct 
 it. One I know, from what you said about the Duke's acceding 
 to the Irish Emancipation. My note was then just gone to 
 the press ; and the difference amused me. But on the measure 
 itself I do not take upon me to pronounce, so far as it was a 
 question of expediency. I was merely referring to what one 
 hears perpetually among the country clergy that he sacrificed 
 principle to expediency, because he admitted Eoman Catholics 
 into the legislature. 
 
 The etymology of pew you may be disposed to question, as 
 I did at first ; but the passages in Du Cange, Charpentier, and 
 Menage settle the question convincingly. Still I should like to 
 be better satisfied about the meaning of the word in the passages 
 in Shakespeare. 1 
 
 You talk of discussing things with me ' face to face.' It 
 will always be a very great pleasure to me to see you ; but I 
 feel some scruples about inviting my friends in winter ; because 
 then my sister is away (she always goes to her father) ; and I 
 fancy she must be the charm of the place to others, as she is to 
 me. However, if you like to come now, you shall be received 
 with much joy, only I must leave home in January, having to 
 preach at Chichester on two Sundays in that month. 
 
 J. C. H. 
 
 Was not the removal of Golgotha and the inversion of the 
 pulpit in St. Mary's effected in our time ? I have an indistinct 
 notion that I remember the change. My imprudence, I suppose, 
 will exclude me from it henceforward. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Ely : Dec. 26, 1840. 
 
 I must not delay long to thank you for your friendly and 
 reasonable letter, though I shall have to think about it a good 
 
 1 ' Pew-fellow.' Richard III., act. iv. sc. 4. 
 
214 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1840 
 
 deal longer before I have done with it. I am glad to find that 
 the points which strike you as most important are those which 
 had already presented themselves to me ; and nearly in the 
 same light in which you see them. I need not pretend to give 
 you any further indication what my decision may be ; the state 
 of the case being that I have not advanced further than those 
 general principles which you express. I only add this in addi- 
 tion : that I am sure I do right to leave out of my consideration 
 all prospects except those which my college offers me. I have 
 not the smallest belief that I could, in common worldly prudence, 
 look to any other quarter for any motives to direct my choice in 
 such a matter. But even if the event were to falsify this belief, 
 I should still wish most carefully to keep my decision on my 
 own conduct uninfluenced by such probabilities. And if my 
 age be somewhat late to enter upon a new form of the exercise 
 of my profession, it is also late to defer any longer escaping from 
 a position which we both agree ought not to be final. My unfit- 
 ness for the life of a pastor, my need of the best assistance that 
 can be had, and all the rest that you say, I cordially grant. With 
 regard to my deficiencies I hope that, if I choose as well as I can 
 the task which seems to be assigned me by Providence, His 
 blessing will strengthen me to supply them and give me com- 
 fort in the course of employments to which I am directed. 
 
 I am here at the deanery, with a large Christmas party from 
 Cambridge, and have not your sermon with me, so that I 
 cannot discuss any part of it in detail. But, in truth, when I 
 said that I differed with you on some points I think it must 
 have been rather a remnant of my disputatiousness, which you 
 know of, than any serious difference of thinking. For I have 
 read it since and find scarcely anything with which I did not 
 agree cordially, only, in the way of my own trade of system- 
 making, I doubted whether you could establish a tenable dis- 
 tinction between maxims and principles ; and whether there 
 could be any solid ground for a moral decision in talking of 
 matters of principle till we had got a system of principles es- 
 tablished if possible demonstrated. Then, of maxims, which I 
 see no reason to limit, this appears to be one : that the gover- 
 nors of a state are not to acknowledge that they act from fear of 
 those who threaten to violate the laws. And on this ground I 
 
1841 MASHAM. 215 
 
 condemn the Duke of Wellington's manner of passing the 
 Catholic Relief Bill. For I, with you, do not pretend to decide 
 the Tightness of the measure itself by means of such maxims. 
 
 But, as I said before, I hope we shall have some opportunity 
 of personal talk about such matters. When I said this, however, 
 I thought of London or Cambridge, rather than Hurstmonceux. 
 It would be a great pleasure to me to visit you there : but I 
 must not meditate any such move at present. In two or three 
 days I go northwards to meet Waddington at Masham itself; 
 and to receive on the spot such information and advice as he can 
 give me. The matter of pews and benches and the rest I must 
 discuss some other time. And now goodbye ; and God bless you 
 with all blessings that belong to the season. 
 
 To Miss Henslow] Lancaster : Jan. 8, 1841. 
 
 I am here a long way from the Public Library, so that I 
 can tell you and aunt Ella nothing about the ' Prisoners of State ' 
 at present. I was myself very near becoming a ' Prisoner of 
 State ' a few days age I mean a prisoner of the state of the roads ; 
 for in Yorkshire, where I was then travelling, the snow lay so 
 thick on the roads that six horses could barely drag us through. 
 I shall return to Cambridge in a fortnight or thereabouts, and 
 then I will try if I can answer your aunt's question. 
 
 From this place I go to Grange, near Milnthorpe, which is 
 about twenty miles off, where I have two sisters and a family 
 of nieces and nephews (you see I put the nieces first). 
 
 Have you, or has aunt Ellen, made any new riddles this 
 Christmas time ? If you have, pray send me them, for I like to 
 see them. I have written nothing of that kind lately, for I 
 have been obliged to employ myself very busily in writing and 
 printing mathematics, which I do not like so well as translating . 
 fables, or making hexameters, but which I must do notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 The next letter is one from Mr. Whewell to Arch- 
 deacon Hare, announcing the death of Lady Campbell, 
 daughter of Sir John Malcolm. 
 
 Feb. 14, 1841. 
 
 One whom we have always lookt at and thought of as the 
 
216 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 example of all that is most lovely and admirable in woman is 
 no longer with us on earth. I have a short note from Ma Man 
 this morning, inclosing one from Olympia Malcolm, which 
 gives some particulars of the last days of her sister. Ma Man 
 begs that I will write a few words to you. 
 
 You will not expect me to say any more. We can think 
 of her now as we always thought of her, but more steadily than 
 ever when the first shock is past. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Trinity College: Feb. 26, 1841. 
 
 It was a very kindly thought of you to recollect that I was 
 the first person that brought you into the company of the dear 
 and excellent lady whom we have lost, when I wrote to tell 
 you that we must see her, on this side the gates of Heaven, 
 no more. I have since had one or two notes from Ma Man, 
 with brief notices of the state of the family. Lady Malcolm 
 has been overwhelmed ; but was beginning to rise from her 
 bed when I was in town a week ago. Sir Alexander is full of 
 grief, as you may well suppose, but full, too, of religious trust 
 and consolation. 
 
 When I wrote to you I had not given my decision respecting 
 Masham, but I had nearly made up my mind to the purpose 
 which you conjecture. I should have found it difficult to 
 reconcile such a charge with my employments here ; for I have 
 still something to do in the University. I think I now see my 
 way with tolerable clearness to the construction of my system 
 of Morality, and shall set about it as soon as my present course 
 of lectures is over. I shall be very desirous of having your 
 opinion upon some parts of the subject when I have got it into 
 a form in which it can be laid before you ; and I hope I shall 
 be able to obtain the aid of your views and feelings without 
 giving you much trouble or making any oppressive demands 
 on your time, which I know is pretty well filled up with em- 
 ployments not lightly to be interrupted. 
 
 Are you likely to be called upon soon for a new edition of 
 your sermons ? When that period arrives I have a petition to 
 you which I hope you will not reject. You have mentioned 
 me there in a manner which I am obliged to say is so extremely 
 erroneous that it distresses me. The character which you have 
 
1841 'FRAMER OF SYSTEMS.' 217 
 
 given me is as far as possible from that which I deserve. You 
 know, I think, that I am very ignorant in all the matters with 
 which you are best acquainted, and the case is much the same 
 in all others. I was always very ignorant, and am now more 
 and more oppressed by the consciousness of being so. To know 
 much about many things is what I never aspired at, and cer- 
 tainly have not succeeded in. If you had called me a persevering 
 framer of systems, or had said that in architecture, as in some 
 other matters, by trying to catch the principle of the system, I 
 had sometimes been able to judge right of details, I should 
 have recognised some likeness to myself; but what you have 
 said only makes me ashamed. You will perhaps laugh at my 
 earnestness about this matter, for I am in earnest ; but consider 
 how you would like praise which you felt to be the opposite of 
 what you were, and not even like what you had tried to be. 
 
 I was very fortunate in my journey from London last 
 Monday. I travelled hither in company with Madame Cara- 
 dori, as you did many years ago in a journey to York. When 
 I recalled myself to her recollection she forthwith enquired 
 about you, and seemed glad to hear of you. She was as gentle 
 and sweet-mannered, and almost as pretty as ever ; and it was 
 a great pleasure that evening and the next to hear her sing 
 some of her little playful songs as she used to do. It brought 
 back ancient days very agreeably. 
 
 Worsley is in town ; at least, so I believe, for I have not 
 yet seen him here. He put his shoulder out of joint the other 
 day skating on the Serpentine, but did not seem to be much 
 shaken in his general health by the accident. 
 
 I hope your churches grow large, numerous, beautiful, and 
 pewless. I have not yet been able to get any models of 
 benches for you. Perhaps something may come in my way 
 soon. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Trinity College: March 5, 1841. 
 
 I send you two lectures two ' lean and flashy ' songs I am 
 afraid you will think them ; for I do not think much otherwise 
 of them myself. But I wanted to put some stamp of activity 
 upon my professorship before it became late ; and I was pleased 
 to think of expressing to Worsley the feeling he so well deserves 
 
218 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 from me. He is still in London, only now convalescent from 
 the fall, which I think I told you of, in which he dislocated his 
 shoulder. 
 
 Digby has been here, looking and talking much as ever ; 
 and since his return to Bath has written to me complaining 
 much of the place. He has been painting a St. Michael, like 
 the one he painted for you, on a much larger scale, and applied 
 to me to know what is the real order of the colours of the rain- 
 bow in nature. You think, perhaps, that this was in order that 
 he might make his mystical rainbow unlike a real rainbow. 
 But not so. He was ready to condescend to the actual. See 
 how age tames a man's spirit ! 
 
 Extract of Letter from Archdeacon Hare to Mr. WhewelU] 
 
 Stoke: March 18, 1841. 
 
 Your vehement remonstrance against my unjust attack on 
 you in my Charge did indeed somewhat amuse me ; for of 
 course you must have meant my Charge, there being nothing 
 in the preface to my sermons, which you mention, of which 
 the most sensitive man has any plea for complaining. As I 
 believe it is to be reprinted, I will try to soften your objection, 
 though I cannot admit any man's right to quarrel with the 
 praise one may bestow upon him, or to judge of its propriety, 
 which of course must always be relative. When one asks one's 
 conscience one shrinks from all praise ; and so, from a feeling 
 of indesert, I should have begged you to cancel a good part of 
 your dedication to me. But as the expression of friendship, 
 however partial and erroneous, I accepted it thankfully. As to 
 what I say of you, you, I believe, are the only person who would 
 not acknowledge its appropriateness ; so that your remonstrance 
 itself is a kind of testimony to the truth of what I have said. 
 
 Extract from Letter of May 26, to Archdeacon Hare~] 
 
 I wish you could have avoided telling such an abominable 
 story about me in your Charge ; but I can easily conceive that 
 when a man has once involved himself in such a monstrous as- 
 sertion, it is difficult for him to extricate himself with a good 
 grace either in himself or in his victim. 
 
1811 CASTERTON. 219 
 
 To his Sister] 16 Suffolk Street: March 27. 
 
 It is long since I wrote to you I think not since you 
 returned from Kendal but I have written several times to 
 James * and to Liverpool, which I suppose will have informed 
 you in some measure of my history, so far as there is any to be 
 told. I was glad to receive your account of your visit to Ken- 
 dal, and to find that you had seen the Mrs. Wilkinsons. The old 
 lady is, as you say, a wonderful person, not only for her health, 
 but for her cheerfulness and vivacity. 
 
 I was not much surprised at the account you gave of the 
 way in which the men at the Literary and Scientific Society 
 talked of superstition. To speak contemptuously of all that can 
 be classed under that head is a way that people take of giving 
 themselves the air of philosophers till they grow wiser. 
 
 You ask me about my visit to the Queen, but in truth I can 
 tell you little. Our University procession, I am sorry to say, is a 
 good deal of a mob ; and as I did not scuffle for a place, I was 
 not very near her. She looked to me more grave and womanly 
 than last year, as was fitting. The Duchess of Kent, to whom 
 we also went, appeared really affected by our address to her. 
 Prince Albert, as usual, handsome and somewhat inanimate. I 
 believe I shall meet him to-night at Lord Northampton's, who 
 gives a great evening party as President of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 I received a letter from Martha, bringing an account of her 
 visit to Casterton to place Lizzy there- I was sorry to find that 
 the establishment had in some respects impressed her as wanting 
 in cheerfulness and freedom. Perhaps she is hardly aware how 
 necessary something of constraint and gravity is in a large 
 institution, to preserve order and industry. I hope it will turn 
 out that there is no larger infusion of these austere ingredients 
 at Casterton than is requisite for the purposes of good education, 
 but I shall be very anxious to hear how Lizzy likes the place, 
 her companions, and her teachers, when she has had time to 
 become acquainted with them. 
 
 I suppose Lindale and Grange are now beginning to look 
 pretty ; we have here charming spring weather. I shall stay in 
 town for about a week, and then return to Cambridge, where I 
 shall be called by examinations. 
 
 1 Rev. J. St alter, his brother-in-law. 
 
220 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity College : April 13. 
 
 You were quite right not to believe that I should take a 
 living and leave you to learn the story from the newspapers. I 
 did, however, practise a little reserve towards you at the time of 
 my visit in the winter, for which you must forgive me. I was 
 not without some thoughts of taking the living of Masham, and 
 I went to see it that I might the better judge of it. I came 
 directly thence to Lancaster. When I was with you I had not 
 given my decision about it, nor quite made up my mind. And 
 as you could only have been disturbed by my doubts without 
 being able to help me in deciding, I said nothing to you about 
 it. The newspapers have not been saying that I had taken the 
 living, but that I had been to look at it, which, as you see, was 
 perfectly true. 
 
 The parish is very large, very populous, and in various ways 
 very laborious. It has been taken by one of our Fellows of the 
 name of Eiddell. If you had askt Remington he could have told 
 you something about it, for he also passed it, being Mr. RiddelPs 
 senior. 
 
 I have been repeatedly to London of late. Thank you for 
 Lizzy's letter, which is, I think, very satisfactory. The pleasure 
 with which she speaks of her employments, and of the people 
 about her, shows that she is not unhappy, and the accomplish- 
 ments she is acquiring are very good for her. I trust she will 
 be much improved by the time she is to spend at Casterton. I 
 am glad to hear your flowers are coming up. Pray give my love 
 to them and say that we are all happy to receive them. I have 
 not been lucky with my flowers. I brought some hyacinth bulbs 
 from Haarlem, in Holland, where they are famous for flowers, 
 and the creatures have been pinched by the frost, while I 
 was with you in January, and cannot get over it, so as to blow 
 healthily. 
 
 I cannot tell you yet what I shall do during the summer. 
 The meeting of the British Association, which I must attend as 
 President, is to begin July 29 at Plymouth ; and in the beginning 
 of July we have the installation of our Chancellor, the Duke of 
 Northumberland, which will make a great bustle here, so I shall 
 hardly travel far till August. 
 
1841 SEAL WITH A STRANGE DEVICE. 221 
 
 To Us Sister] 3 Suffolk Street: June 1, 1841. 
 
 I have been three weeks in lodgings here, and shall stay 
 about a week longer before I return to Cambridge. 
 
 I am glad you have been seeing something of the country. 
 Chester is, as you say, a very odd old city, and the Cathedral has 
 some very good architecture. Eaton Hall I never saw, but, from 
 all the pictures I have seen of it, it must be somewhat too 
 elaborate and over-ornamented. It was built at a time when 
 people were only beginning to understand Grothic architecture, 
 and did not discriminate one age from another, nor the style of 
 churches from that of houses. Mr. Biekman had not yet en- 
 lightened us and given us eyes. 
 
 The installation is given up, in consequence of the expected 
 dissolution of Parliament. I am by no means sorry for this : it 
 is one bustle escaped, or at least deferred. I suppose your 
 Liverpool people have quite despaired of the ' President.' ! 
 
 The faithful sister to whom for so many years all 
 his home letters had been written, all his home thoughts 
 expressed, had doubtless perceived indications of a 
 change which was approaching. Some playful questions 
 about a seal with an unknown device drew from him 
 the following answer, and the weighty announcement 
 that he was no longer to be alone at Cambridge. He 
 was engaged to be married to Cordelia 4 not the 
 daughter of King Lear, but of Mr. Marshall of Leeds,' 
 the wife who for fourteen years was to bless his home 
 with her presence. What he found in her, the warm 
 and tender heart, the calm, strong sense, the wise and 
 boundless sympathy, he himself has told his friends in 
 the Elegiacs written shortly after her death. At first 
 there was too much excitement ' bewilderment,' as he 
 calls it in a letter to Mr. Hare for him to realise fully 
 all that was before him of happiness, and in the antici- 
 pation of the separation from Trinity, which his marriage 
 seemed necessarily to entail, there must have been real 
 
 1 Steamship ' President.' 
 
222 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. ]841 
 
 pain. Within a week after his marriage it turned out 
 that no such separation was to take place ; but during 
 all the previous months there was a steady growth in 
 the hope and comfort with which he dwelt upon the 
 new life, and of the companionship of ' the good angel ' 
 to whom afterwards he referred with touching reitera- 
 tion as having brought wisdom and calmness to his 
 vehement character, ' the wisdom that shines in the 
 heart.' 
 
 To his Sister] Suffolk Street: June 18, 1841. 
 
 You want to know something about my own movements ; 
 and first as to the important matter of the seal which you asked 
 about in a former letter. The characters upon the seal were 
 U. U. C., and the mysterious meaning which they involve is 
 United University Club, the letter having been written in that 
 Club House, and sealed with one of their seals. Perhaps some 
 day soon I may send you a letter with a more significant seal ; 
 but if you receive such an one, it will not have any such impress 
 as your own little name, Ann ; it must have a much longer and 
 poetical name marked upon it, no less than Cordelia. 
 
 You will naturally want to know who this Cordelia is. She 
 is not the daughter of King Lear, as you may suppose ; but of 
 Mr. Marshall of Leeds, who has a place at Hallsteads, on Ulls- 
 water. His son, James Marshall, has a house on Coniston Water, 
 and is therefore no very distant neighbour of yours. 
 
 Nothing is settled yet about the time of our marriage, but 
 we shall see our way in a month or two. Cordelia bids me send 
 her love to you, and tell you that she trusts you will not 
 have lost a brother, but found a sister. Now there is news for 
 you, and good news, and I will leave you to think it over, without 
 saying more about it at present. 
 
 To his Sister] London : June 22, 1841. 
 
 I must get to Hallsteads soon, for I have hardly been able to 
 see anything of Cordelia amid the tumult and bustle of London. 
 As for myself, independently of my affection for Cordelia, who 
 is amiable and good if any one ever was so, it rescues me from 
 
1841 ENGAGEMENT. 223 
 
 a life of loneliness at Cambridge which was becoming very op- 
 pressive to me. 
 
 Tell your bookseller to get you the next number of the 
 ' Quarterly Review,' which comes out in two days. It contains a 
 long article on my books by Sir John Herschel. 
 
 To his Sister] Cambridge : July 2. 
 
 Cordelia wishes me not to shorten my visit to you ; I must 
 not let you feel, she says, that your happiness is indifferent to her. 
 I feel as if I were taking my leave of Cambridge, and to take 
 leave of a place where one has spent the thirty best years of 
 one's life is but a melancholy employment in itself, but it is ac- 
 companied with the happiest anticipations of the future, instead 
 of prospects which, if I had staid here, I was beginning to think 
 gloomy enough, so far as my comfort was concerned. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] 16 Suffolk Street : July 25, 1841. 
 
 When I wrote to you last I was not half grateful enough for 
 the blessing I have now in prospect. I was to a certain extent 
 under the influence of a bewilderment which has now, I trust, 
 past away for ever. I think of my future with unmingled hope 
 and comfort, and of Cordelia as my good angel. I have been 
 obliged to leave her for a time to go to preside at this great, ugly 
 meeting at Plymouth ; but I shall soon, I hope, return to beauti- 
 ful Ulls water, and stay there for a long time. I have promist to 
 examine once more for the Fellowships an extreme effort of 
 loyalty to the College ; and really made mainly out of loyalty 
 to the College ; for if I withdraw I do not know who is to take 
 either the mathematical or the philosophical part of the ex- 
 amination. 
 
 Afterwards, very soon I hope, we shall take up our abode 
 at a house which one of Cordelia's brothers has upon Coniston 
 Lake. Do you think it will be desirable to found a school of 
 Lake philosophy as well as of Lake poetry ? 
 
 I want you, if it occurs to you that you can, to give me a little 
 lift in my Moral Philosophy. In the sketch of a system I come 
 to a matter where I may be misled by the spirit of system, and 
 where a hint from a person of good sense, thinking unsystema- 
 tically, may prevent my starting in a wrong direction. I want 
 
224 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 you, in short, to give me a Guess at Truth on my subject. The 
 subject is this : when crimes are committed in consequence of 
 habitual vices, how is the guilt to be assigned respectively to 
 the habit and to the act ? Is the habit a palliation or an aggra- 
 vation of the crime ? Is the condemnation of the moralist to 
 fall, for instance, upon the vice of covetousness or upon acts of 
 dishonesty ? Is covetousness which never breaks out in dis- 
 honesty, or dishonesty which arises only from a transient covet- 
 ousness, the more immoral ? or, if it be not the best way to talk 
 about f more immoral,' what is the way ? I am a little confused 
 at setting out with this enquiry, and have a suspicion that my 
 trouble arises partly from my looking at it too technically ; so, as 
 I said, I shall be much obliged to you if in the intervals of your 
 other labours you will throw out a guess about it. Even if I do 
 not adopt your guess it will do me good. 
 
 I find that Ma Man is still here. I hear nothing whatever 
 of Worsley : pray do you ? 
 
 To his Sister] University Club, London : Aug. 8, 1841. 
 
 I directed one or two papers to be sent to you by which you 
 will see the course of our proceedings at Plymouth (with the 
 British Association). 
 
 I shall be in the north about a month, and in the course of 
 that time will visit you at Grange. I had a very prettily written 
 letter from Lizzy while I was at Hallsteads, and am glad to 
 find, both from her account and from Martha's, that she appears 
 to have profited much by her school, and also to like it. We 
 had some very bad weather whilst we were at Plymouth, which 
 interfered a good deal with the enjoyment of the occasion, but 
 everything went off very well. The ship launch in particular 
 was a fine scene. It put me in mind, however, of the launches 
 I used to see in Brocklebank's yard in my school days, which 
 appeared to me quite as grand as this one indeed, I think more 
 so, for the ships there were under the open sky, not shut up in 
 a house as they are now ; and the West Indiamen which were 
 built at Lancaster were, to a boy's eye, as large as a ship-of-the- 
 line to a man's. 
 
1841 MARRIAGE. 225 
 
 To his Sister] Hallsteads : Sept. 7. 
 
 Our marriage is to take place on October 12, and, as I have, 
 I believe, already said, in the little church near this place, and 
 we are to be married by Mr. Myers, 1 the clergyman of St. John's, 
 Keswick. 
 
 The little white-washed ' New Church,' high up 
 amongst the hills, had for a century or two replaced 
 the more picturesquely situated Old Church, surviving 
 only as the name of a cottage on the lake shore in the 
 grounds of Hallsteads, the church, as such, having been 
 destroyed by invading Scots in border raids. At New 
 Church on Tuesday, October 12, the marriage took 
 place. Monk Coniston was lent to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Whewell for their honeymoon, and there tidings speedily 
 followed them which interrupted the calm for which 
 Mr. Whewell had been yearning, though in a fashion 
 which could scarcely be called unwelcome, since they 
 brought the prospect of appointment to an office which 
 had been the summit of his ambition, for which with 
 its mixture of practical duties and ' leisure for philo- 
 sophising ' his friends had thought him fitted, and, 
 in spite of some misgivings (like most of his deepest 
 thoughts they found expression in his letters to Arch- 
 deacon Hare), so he thought himself. 
 
 On October 12, the very day of the marriage, Dr. 
 Wordsworth, the Master of Trinity College, wrote to 
 Professor Whewell announcing his intention to resign, 
 and expressing his anxiety that he should be ' appointed 
 as soon as possible to this important concern.' ' I can 
 
 1 The Rev. Frederic Myers, author of t Lectures on Great Men,' ' Six 
 Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, 1846,' ' l Catholic 
 Thoughts on the Church of Christ and the Church of England.' A. very 
 few months later Mr. Myers married Susan, another daughter of Mr. Mar- 
 shall, lie died in 1851, and was mourned by Dr. Whewell as a 'Brother 
 l>y tenderest ties : more than a brother in love.' Elegiac xii. 
 
 Q 
 
226 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 truly say,' lie added, ' that I retained the office so long 
 as I have done under one Administration, and have lost 
 so little time in seeking to part with it under another, 
 in the earnest desire, hope, and trust, that you may be, 
 and will be, my successor.' 
 
 A letter of the same date from Dr. Worsley, the 
 Master of Downing, and one of two days later from his 
 old friend Mr. Jones, give the same news of the Master's 
 intended resignation, and urge that Professor Whewell 
 should come to London and make application for the 
 appointment to the Ministers, the appointment being in 
 the gift of the Crown. 
 
 On October 13 Dr. Worsley wrote to Archdeacon 
 Hare : 
 
 Whewell must and shall be Master of Trinity, which is 
 nearly all I have time to say to-night, but from which you may 
 infer that the Master has resigned, and that we must all do 
 our best to place Whewell where he certainly ought to be, and 
 where the University as one man expects him to be. 
 
 The Master came to me yesterday morning and said he 
 was but that moment at liberty to state officially the fact of his 
 resignation ; and then, referring to reports which had been 
 spread of it, and of his son Christopher succeeding him, he 
 said that of course such a thing must, if it were possible, be 
 most gratifying to him, but he conceived it to 'be all but impos- 
 sible, if only from the objection to making such an appointment 
 hereditary ; but that he wished me to write to Whewell by that 
 night's post, feeling as he did that the eyes of the University 
 would naturally turn to him as a most fit person, and that, at 
 all events, he wished all good candidates to start fair. You 
 may believe I wrote nothing loth, and exhorted him not to 
 
 linger in his hymeneal Elysium, but to bestir himself. 
 
 Write and let me see your dear and orderly perpendicular 
 hand ! 
 
 Sir John Herschel wrote to the Duke of Northum- 
 berland, Chancellor of the University, on the subject, 
 
1841 MASTERSHIP. 227 
 
 and Archdeacon Hare to Mr. Goulburn, but before any 
 application was received by anybody the matter was 
 already settled. 
 
 On October 17, Sir Eobert Peel wrote to Professor 
 Whewell : ' I have the satisfaction of informing you 
 that I have just received an intimation from the Queen 
 that she has been graciously pleased to approve of my 
 recommendation to Her Majesty, that I should be em- 
 powered to offer to you the succession to Dr. Words- 
 worth as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.' He 
 adds that in proposing that Mr. Whewell should be 
 selected for this high trust he had been influenced 
 solely by a deep conviction of the importance of the 
 duties which it involves, and a conscientious belief that 
 he was eminently qualified to discharge them. The 
 application for the appointment was received next day, 
 and acknowledged by Sir Eobert Peel in a note in which 
 he says : ' It will always be satisfactory both to you and 
 to myself to reflect that I named you to the Queen for 
 the Mastership without any solicitation, and previously 
 to the expression of any wish on your part.' l 
 
 Congratulations poured in from every quarter from 
 his intimate personal friends, from former pupils, from 
 his London acquaintance, and from those even of his 
 colleagues and associates of whom rumour had spoken 
 as possible competitors for the appointment. ' If any- 
 thing,' writes Dr. Worsley to Archdeacon Hare, ' can 
 increase Whewell's personal satisfaction, it is, what I 
 have good reason to be firmly convinced of, that Mar- 
 tin and Thorp, the two especially mentioned persons, 
 are as much delighted as any of us. This is not said 
 
 1 I have letters before me to the same effect from the Duke of Northum- 
 berland, Mr. Goulburn, Sir James Graham, the Bishop of London, in fact 
 all those to whom Mr. "Whewell or his eager friends had written. The 
 appointment was already made, 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 vaguely but advisedly, and to their high honour, and 
 after an intimate discussion with them on all the bear- 
 ings of the case. I firmly believe Thorp would have 
 refused it if offered, from his feeling that Whewell was 
 the man ; and as to Martin, who is a most sterling 
 person, he laughed, after his joyous and hearty fashion, 
 over the notion, and ended by saying : " You don't know 
 all the reasons we have for satisfaction ; for example, 
 if Whewell was to go, nobody could supply his place as 
 a Fellowship examiner either in the Morals and Meta- 
 physics or in the Mathematics." 
 
 Mr. Martin wrote to Mr. Whewell that your suc- 
 cess is the only thing which could at all reconcile me 
 to the step taken by our late excellent Master. ... I 
 do not think there is one person who does or can ap- 
 preciate the advantages likely to accrue to the College 
 from it as highly as myself. I have not met with a 
 single dissentient voice, or an opinion that you were not 
 the only proper person to succeed our retiring Master. 
 There were some foolish reports of other persons being 
 not unlikely to succeed, and amongst them one relating 
 to myself. I hope I may be allowed to say (begging 
 that it may not be repeated) that no consideration 
 should have induced me to accept it (had it been 
 offered) without a knowledge that you had refused it.' 
 
 Archdeacon Thorp wrote of his sincere joy and 
 delight at hearing ' of your appointment to the place 
 marked out for you, and you alone. If I could imagine 
 myself to have had any personal concern in the matter, 
 and could find any ground of regret at the result, it 
 would be limited to the disappointment of a possible 
 opportunity of showing that the subordination of private 
 to public interests in this noble society is not confined 
 to him who lately set the example.' 'I do not well 
 
1S4 1 MASTERSHIP. 229 
 
 know whether to be proud or ashamed to have been 
 named, even in public rumour, in competition for such 
 an appointment with you ; and am very glad to have 
 Martin sailing with me in the same boat, who, I have 
 reason to believe, would have acted, if he had been 
 tried, exactly in the same way.' 
 
 The Dean of Ely 1 urged Mr. Whewell to come to 
 London as soon as the vacancy was announced, advised 
 an application to Sir Robert Peel, and interested himself 
 warmly in his friend's prospects of success. ; I assure 
 you, my dear Whewell, I have no wishes of my own at 
 variance with yours. If the Whigs had been in power 
 I should certainly have been a candidate for a situation 
 which I have always regarded as the summit of my 
 ambition ; under existing circumstances I could neither 
 ask nor accept such a situation. I should not have 
 mentioned this if my name had not been circulated in 
 the papers in connection with this appointment.' 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick Mr. Whewell wrote as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 16 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall: 
 Oct. 19, 1841. 
 
 I do not know whether you have heard of the events which 
 have been taking place of late with reference to Trinity 
 College events so important that it will take a little time to 
 look at them calmly. The Master has resigned ; and upon 
 coming to town I find that Sir Eobert Peel offers me the 
 Mastership. This offer I have accepted. 
 
 At present I look with alarm at the thought of being 
 placed in a position of rule over persons my seniors in standing, 
 and my superiors, as I sincerely believe, in the qualities requi- 
 site for the government of the College ; and I especially feel 
 myself out of my place in being made superior in status to 
 yourself. But the turn of public affairs has brought about 
 
 1 Dr. Peacock. 
 
230 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 this result, and I had no alternative except to accept the office 
 which is thus placed in my way, or to retire from all public life 
 whatever. My main anxiety now is that the Fellows of 
 Trinity, with whom up to the present time I have lived in good- 
 will, and in cordial sympathy as regards the interests and 
 honour of the College, should aid me in promoting these in my 
 new capacity. I trust, my dear Sedgwick, that you and I, who 
 both feel deeply on these subjects, shall find little difficulty in 
 bringing our views into agreement as to the mode in which our 
 objects are to be secured. And I entertain little doubt that 
 we shall be able to do this, believing as I do that our views, at 
 bottom, are very little different. I will not easily be persuaded 
 that we shall not agree on all main points of College admini- 
 stration ; and if I have with me your judgment I shall feel 
 great confidence that I am following the right course, and great 
 hope of success. 
 
 Events in my history follow each other with great rapidity 
 just at present. It is only a week to-day since I was married. I 
 left Mrs. Whewell at Monk Coniston and came here yesterday ; 
 and I return to Coniston to-day or to-morrow. The Master 
 resigns, I believe, November 10. 
 
 To this letter Professor Sedgwick replied : 
 
 It is well for a man to think humbly of himself, but I assure 
 you, that of all men living, you are by common consent thought 
 most worthy of the high honour of ruling our great intellectual 
 body ; and I feel confident that with God's blessing it will be a 
 source of happiness to you, and of great good to our society. 
 
 As for myself, it will delight me to give you all the help I 
 can. . Our objects will, I trust, always be the same. We may 
 differ sometimes as to means, but our difference will be frank 
 and open, and such is compatible with the warmest friendship. 
 
 When I took the Geological chair I gave up all the studies 
 which are connected with the ordinary training of our young 
 men. On this account I should be ill-fitted for those duties 
 for which you are at every point so admirably prepared. You 
 are now in your right place ; had I gained your present position 
 I should have been out of my right place. 
 
1841 LETTER TO ARCHDEACON HARK 231 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] 16 Suffolk Street: Oct. 19, 1841. 
 
 I wrote you a few hurried lines a few days ago, being pre- 
 vented writing so fully as I had intended by the news of the 
 Master of Trinity having resigned his office, which came upon 
 me quite unexpectedly, and as I was told by everybody that I 
 might expect to succeed him vehemently disturbed me. It 
 has turned out as was expected. Sir Kobert Peel has offered 
 me the succession, and I have accepted it ; I trust in God, not 
 rashly. I look with awe upon the weight of the duties which 
 it involves, and upon my own deficiencies of character and 
 attainments ; but the task appears to be so plainly brought 
 before me by Providence that I do not see how I can turn 
 aside from it. The alternative would be to take up my abode 
 in the house behind the Colleges, which you know as Farish's, 
 and which I have already hired. In that house I can neither 
 have library nor study ; and it is hardly too much to say that 
 I have of late been almost distracted at the thought of the 
 situation in which I had thus placed myself. It is true that for 
 the future my life cannot be, so much as I have lately wished 
 to make it, a life of speculation and study. Active duties 
 again press upon me ; and I must try to gather about me what 
 I can of fitness for them and to meet them. Now, my dear 
 Hare, I am saying nothing but what is forced from me by the 
 deep and alarming feeling of my own weakness, when I tell you 
 that hardly anything would so much support me in the exertions 
 I have to make as the conviction of your sympathy with me, 
 and hopefulness for me. You have, I believe, a much better 
 opinion of me than I deserve ; you have been aware of many of 
 the best influences to which my life has been subject, which 
 ought to have made me a better man than I am ; you have of 
 late been employed in practical life in the best sense in calling 
 up good thoughts and promoting good works among those with 
 whom you have had to do; and all the words which come from 
 you appear to me to be more full of hope and encouragement 
 and blessing than those which reach me from any other quarter. 
 And, in truth, I stand much in need of hope and encouragement 
 and blessing. During the whole of this year I have had to 
 maintain a most arduous and painful struggle in the cause of 
 
232 LIFE OF UK. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 that which appeared to me to be my only interest as a moral 
 creature ; and though this struggle is now, I trust, happily 
 ended, and a time of quiet and harmony begun, the pain and 
 turmoil of the preceding condition have not yet quite subsided ; 
 and this new shock, and new call to an active and stirring life, 
 has again put me in internal commotion more than any one 
 would easily imagine. 
 
 To you alone I write these vague complaints of weakness 
 and disquiet, because, as I have told you, I think your friendly 
 words have more power than those of any other person to calm 
 and strengthen me. But I do not want to give you the difficult 
 task of soothing troubles so indistinct as I have described. We 
 shall soon have before us definite and important objects, in 
 which I shall be extremely desirous of having your advice and 
 assistance. 
 
 The next letter to his sister sums up his thoughts on 
 the subject : 
 
 What you said about my appointment to the Mastership 
 was most truly and rightly said. It is a very serious and 
 solemn consideration to think that I am now about to take the 
 position which I must occupy for the rest of my life, and that 
 I have nothing better nor higher to wish or pray for than that 
 I may have strength and virtue given me to discharge the 
 duties of the office which I am now to occupy, and that I may 
 find my happiness in that employment and in the comfort of 
 my married life. You will give me your prayers as well as your 
 good wishes, and I shall go on hoping for the blessing of God 
 through these and other good influences. 
 
 Similar but fuller expression was given to such hopes 
 in a letter to Hare on the 30th ; and before leaving 
 Coniston one other letter of congratulation was received 
 which may be interesting. Dean Milman wrote as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Cloisters, Westminster Abbey : Oct. 30, 1841. 
 
 My dear Whewell, Your good fortune advances by such 
 rapid steps that your friends have scarcely ceased to congratu- 
 
1841 THE CLUB. 233 
 
 late you on one happy event before they hear of another. Your 
 cup, however, is by this time full to the brim ; I will not there- 
 fore delay any longer assuring you of our most sincere rejoicings 
 in your prosperity. 
 
 We were anxiously awaiting the announcement of your 
 marriage when we heard of the vacancy at Trinity, with great 
 interest as to the appointment of Wordsworth's successor. Now, 
 though all virtues are inseparable from the Master of Trinity, 
 I confess I scarcely expected your predecessor to practise that 
 of resignation, and to time it so well ! 
 
 You are now in the sphere for which you were designed, and 
 I should conceive that which of all others would best suit your 
 habits and tastes. May you long live to enjoy all the blessings 
 around you, and to adorn your beloved University ! Nor do I 
 suppose that your station in Cambridge will altogether estrange 
 you from your friends in London. As Secretary of the Club, 1 
 I shall be very severe in exacting attendance, notwithstand- 
 ing perhaps the counter-influence of Mrs. Wheweil; at all 
 
 1 To those to whom ' The Club ' is not already known by reputation the 
 information contained in the following paragraph, extracted from the 'World ' 
 newspaper, will be interesting : 
 
 1 The Club ' is the body founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. John- 
 son in 1764. For some years it met on Monday evenings, but now dines 
 every fortnight during the Session of Parliament. From twelve the mem- 
 bers of the Club have gradually been increased to forty, or rather thirty- 
 seven, the present number. The Club met originally at the Turk's Head in 
 Gerrard-street, and is now lodged at Willis's Rooms, King-street, St. 
 James's. The original members were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, 
 Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent, Bennet Langton, Topham Beauclerk, Oliver 
 Goldsmith, and Anthony Chamier. Since 1764 many other famous men 
 have been members of l The Club ' to wit, George Cohnan, David Garrick, 
 James Boswell, Fox, Gibbon (who drew up the notice of election), Adam 
 Smith, Sheridan, Windham, Sir Joseph Banks, Canning, Sir Humphry 
 Davy, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Walter Scott, Chantrey, Hallam, 
 Brougham, Dean Milman, Wheweil, Sydney Smith, Macaulay, and the late 
 Bishop of Winchester. At the oval table over against the portraits of 
 Johnson and Reynolds both admirable specimens of Sir Joshua more 
 than ten brethren rarely met. Among the present members are Professor 
 Owen, Mr. Gladstone, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Lowe, Dean 
 Stanley, Mr. James A. Froude, Mr. Alfred Tennyson, Lord Cairns, Pro- 
 fessor Tyndall, Sir F. Leighton, Lord Houghton, and the Duke d'Aumale. 
 Mr. Henry Reeve is the treasurer. The motto of ' The Club ' is Esto 
 perpetua. 
 
234 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 events you are officially bound to appear at Westminster every 
 year. 
 
 Mrs. Milman unites with me in kindest remembrances to 
 Mrs. Whewell and yourself, and though she may not join me in 
 the conspiracy to enforce your attendance at our bachelor dinners 
 at the Thatched House, she trusts that Mrs. Whewell will 
 likewise find powerful attractions to the society of her old 
 friends in London. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Whewell, 
 
 Ever very sincerely yours, 
 
 H. H. MILMAN. 
 
 To Lord Lyttdton~\ Monk Coniston : Oct. 26, 1841. 
 
 Your renewed congratulations are most welcome ; and, as you 
 suggest, this second great event in my history derives additional 
 value from its accompanying the former so closely. It is, as you 
 may suppose, the most satisfactory task which I can have given 
 me for the rest of my life, to watch over the interests of the 
 College to which I have been so long bound by ties of affection 
 and habit, that I could not easily have turned my thoughts in 
 any other direction. Yet the task, now that it has come upon 
 me, is not without its terrors, when I look at the greatness of 
 the interests concerned. However, we must take life as it is, as a 
 serious task ; and it is no small comfort to think that in all that 
 I have to do I shall have with me the good wishes and, I trust, 
 the good opinion of excellent people like yourself. I hope you 
 will let me reckon upon it as one of the pleasures which I may 
 look forward to in my new position that I shall often see you at 
 Cambridge. 
 
 To the Bishop of St. David's~\ Coniston, Ambleside : Oct. 27. 
 
 No congratulations on my appointment as Master of our 
 College have been more grateful to me than yours. I shall think 
 myself fortunate indeed in my high office if I am enabled to 
 fulfil the just expectation and realise the good wishes of my old 
 fellow-labourers like yourself, whose zealous and intelligent love 
 to the College, and regard for its best interests, I am so well 
 acquainted with. 
 
 I thank you, too, very heartily for your congratulations on 
 
1841 MONK CONISTON, 235 
 
 another account. Among many agreeable consequences in the 
 change of my domestic condition, it will, I trust, enable me to 
 receive in a most satisfactory manner at the Lodge old friends 
 who may visit me there ; among whom you will, I hope, not fail 
 to be a guest whenever the opportunity offers. 
 
 You will easily understand that certain vague intentions of 
 visiting you in your diocese this summer, which I spoke of when 
 I saw you, have been superseded by subsequent turns in my 
 history. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Monk Coniston : Oct. 30, 1841. 
 
 Your words of kind congratulation and counsel on my appoint- 
 ment to the Mastership were very comfortable and wholesome 
 to me. They did a great deal towards making me look with 
 courage and hope upon the task now before me. For the fact 
 has been for the last year or two that I have so completely 
 devoted my mind to the interests of speculation that almost 
 everything of practical responsibility has appeared burthensome 
 to me, and I seemed to myself to have become unfit to bear such 
 a load. I trust that all this was a delusion, as, indeed, it would 
 be a very shameful thing if it were true ; and I am learning 
 to look at the business of life in a wiser and sounder spirit, in 
 which the good opinion of my best friends, and especially yours, 
 much fortifies me. The quiet, too, of the life I have been lead- 
 ing here for some weeks, and the influence of the lakes and 
 mountains, have done something, I think, to tranquillise and 
 strengthen me, and prepare me for active life, to which I may 
 add repeated intercourse with our friend that good old poet. I 
 perceive and feel the value of the advice you give me, and have 
 no wish, I think, either to deny or to defend the failings you 
 point out. In a person holding so eminent a station as mine 
 will be, everything impatient and overbearing is of course quite 
 out of place ; and, though it may cost me some effort, my con- 
 viction of this truth is so strong that I think it cannot easily 
 lose its hold. As to my love of disputation, I do not deny that 
 it has been a great amusement to me ; but I find it to be so 
 little of an amusement to others that I should have to lay down 
 my logical cudgels for the sake of good manners alone. And, as 
 you say, I shall now have to do, and not to debate ; or at any rate 
 
236 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1841 
 
 I shall, I think, find employment enough for my logic in con- 
 structing my system. By the way I did not succeed in making 
 you comprehend my perplexity about the imputation of guilt ; 
 shall I try again ? Take it this way. It is our duty to conform 
 our whole character, affections, desires, will to the Divine rule, 
 so that we have no promptings to sin but such as we master 
 immediately. If we do not do this, we offend ; and any special 
 acts of sin only betray this want of perfect discipline in our 
 character. Hence, though we may commit special sins, the real 
 offence resides in that omission of self-discipline which makes 
 it possible for us to sin. How, then, can special sins have each 
 their special guilt, since they have none except what is in- 
 cluded in the original guilt of neglecting the means of forcing 
 ourselves to perfection ? I believe this is still not clear ; and I 
 will hope to talk with you about it when I am further advanced 
 in the subject. 
 
 To return to College matters ; as to my rule for the election 
 of Fellows, I think it likely that in any given case we should 
 not disagree ; but I cannot but think it desirable that a person 
 should show a proficiency in more than one subject. To give 
 prizes to eminence in studies selected by the candidates 
 themselves is not to educate. I will, however, allow that our 
 Fellowships are not the occasion on which this view ought to be 
 mainly enforced ; but I conceive it to be of high importance in 
 dealing with the earlier part of men's progress in College and in 
 the University. I have some views which may perhaps afford 
 some means of acting with regard to the evils of which you speak 
 too much emulation, and too much private tuition but both 
 are extremely difficult subjects ; and anything which is to be 
 done must be carefully weighed and gradually introduced. 
 
 We go to town on the 4th, and I shall probably be installed 
 as Master about the 14th or 15th. We shall be at Lord Mont- 
 eagle's, 37 Brook Street, and glad if you are in town during 
 the interval ; and if not, I hope you will contrive to make 
 your way to Trinity Lodge before long, where you will find me, 
 I trust, as you trust, improved by the influence of Mrs. Whewell, 
 and where you will always be hailed with joy by 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
1841 MR. WORDSWORTH. 237 
 
 Among the happy and tranquillising influences of 
 this time at Coniston Professor Whewell referred to in- 
 tercourse with ' that good old poet ' who was their not 
 distant neighbour. Mrs. Whewell says in a letter to 
 her mother : ' We have much enjoyed a two days' visit 
 from Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth. I never saw Mr. 
 Wordsworth more willing to talk. Indeed, he seemed 
 both to desire and to enjoy giving out his own and 
 hearing my husband's thoughts on many high and philo- 
 sophical subjects. It was a great treat to listen.' They 
 also spent a long day at Eydal Mount, meeting there 
 Dr. Wordsworth, who, Mrs. Whewell writes, 'tells us he 
 has a great deal to say to my husband, and to me too.' 
 
 On their way to London they fell in at Lancaster 
 with members of Mrs. Whe well's family hurrying south- 
 wards to her sister, Mrs. Henry V. Elliott, then danger- 
 ously ill, and in a few days more they received the in- 
 telligence of her death. 
 
 On the 15th of November [writes Mrs. Whewell] we left the 
 Monteagles in London for Cambridge, and arrived about five 
 o'clock at the house of the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Archdall, Master 
 of Emmanuel College), and met Archdeacon Thorp in the hall, 
 who gave us his congratulations and his blessing. The Archdalls 
 had asked no one to meet us but the Master of Downing (Mr. 
 Worsley), thinking I should prefer it. 
 
 Nov. 16. 
 
 It was settled after much discussion that I might go to the 
 Lodge at eleven o'clock, and Mrs. Archdall with me. I des- 
 patched the necessary orders to the servants as quickly as I 
 could, and then came to the window and saw the crowd col- 
 lecting in the Great Court and about the Great Gate, which is 
 exactly opposite the Lodge. 
 
 The new Master knocked at the wicket a little before twelve. 
 The porter thrust out his hand to take in the Patent and pushed 
 to the door again, took the Patent to the Vice-Master and 
 Fellows, who were in the Combination room, and they walked in 
 
238 LIFE OF PR, WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 procession to the Great Gate. It was thrown open, and then 
 came a great cheer, and such a waving of caps, and they con- 
 ducted the new Master to the chapel, where the Vice-Master 
 and Seniors administered the oaths; then the doors were 
 thrown open and the Te Deum sung. Everybody rushed in, I 
 amongst the number ; the Master of Downing got Mrs. Archdall 
 and me through the crowd, and we went at once to the Master's 
 pew in the organ loft. The music well expressed my feelings 
 joyful thanksgiving, earnest prayer, and also fitly soothed the 
 sad memories which would mingle with the rest. 
 
 Then all dispersed, and we had a short time to welcome each 
 other to our new home were interrupted by the Bursar 
 (Mr. Martin), the Senior Dean (Mr. Carus), and Archdeacon 
 Thorp, who came to consult about going to chapel after 
 dinner. My husband was very desirous to do so, wishing to 
 mark on the very first opportunity how earnest he was to have the 
 going to chapel attended to, and that there was time enough for a 
 College dinner before chapel time. The difficulty was that there 
 must be speeches after dinner, and scarcely any time would be 
 left for them. However, the Dean thought there was no diffi- 
 culty in postponing chapel half an hour, and so the matter 
 was settled. 
 
 The Master dined in hall, and I was very busy getting the 
 rooms lighted, arranging them so as not to look so very bare, 
 and trying too, but quite in vain, to get them warm. At seven, 
 directly after chapel, the people began to arrive. Many told 
 me of the beautiful speech my Master had made in the Combi- 
 nation room, but he himself was sadly dissatisfied with what he 
 had said of the ex-Master. They had coffee and tea, and stayed 
 about an hour. They wore their gowns all the time, which made 
 them look very academical. We had two hours to ourselves 
 after they were gone before bed-time, and so ended my first 
 College day and one of the most interesting of my life. 
 
 During the course of this month Mr. Whewell writes 
 to his sister : 
 
 It is now several days since I received a letter in which you 
 said that you hoped soon to have one from the Master. I in- 
 tended that you should have had one before this time, but, as you 
 
1841 TRINITY LODGE. 239 
 
 may imagine, there has been no small bustle attendant upon my 
 removal out of my college rooms into the Master's Lodge ; and 
 though the removal is, so to speak, from a lodging to a palace, 
 it is not without its troubles and inconveniences. 
 
 Especially the having to transfer and rearrange my books 
 has been a most grave business indeed, and for a week or two 
 kept me in a state which might be called uncomfortable ; for 
 my books have become so much part of myself that it seems 
 to me I cannot think without being able to refer to them, and 
 hardly know where I am myself when I do not know where they 
 are. I have now reduced them to order, and the more easily as 
 the Lodge has a very large extent of book shelves. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 1, 1841. 
 
 One of my first thoughts when I took possession of this house 
 was to write to you. I wanted to say that I hoped you would 
 find time now and then to come to Cambridge ; that your coming 
 here would, I was persuaded, do me and many other persons a 
 great deal of good ; and that there would always be a room for 
 you at the Lodge, a Master most delighted to see you here, and 
 a Mistress of the house no less so. I have been here a fortnight 
 without* saying this, but it is only the more confirmed a matter 
 on that account ; and very glad shall we be when you come and 
 carry into effect these anticipations of ours. 
 
 To Lady Malcolm'] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 3, 1841. 
 
 Do you not think that great events, whether of joy or sorrow, 
 drive back our thoughts upon our older friends ? I find it so. 
 
 My appointment to the Mastership of Trinity has made me 
 think again and again with great vividness of those comparatively 
 early days in my College life when I had the good fortune to 
 become acquainted with you in Cambridge an acquaintance 
 which I always have looked upon, and do still, as one of the 
 bright passages of my life. And this being so, I ought sooner 
 to have told you of my appointment, and to have claimed your 
 hearty good wishes and sympathy, which I am sure I may 
 reckon upon. I know that you will rejoice at my reaching a 
 point of honour and eminence which leaves me now nothing to 
 
240 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 desire but that (rod may give me strength and virtue to per- 
 form the duties of the station in which I am placed. 
 
 I think you know this house, the Master's Lodge ; if so, you 
 know that it is a good and spacious house, capable of receiving 
 visitors. I wish I knew how to tempt you to make trial of its 
 merits in that way. You would find that, though different per- 
 haps from the hospitality of College rooms, which I hope you re- 
 collect with as much pleasure as I do, the Lodge has its advan- 
 tages ; and you would find both the < Master ' and the Mistress 
 most delighted to see you and most eager to welcome you. 
 Cannot you come and renew your recollections of Cambridge ? 
 
 I am obliged to write in great haste, but I will not conclude 
 without congratulating you I am sure I may do so on your 
 son's appointment and the prospects now before him. I hope 
 they give you unmingled pleasure. 
 
 With reference to Cambridge society Mrs. Whewell 
 writes about the same time : ' The conversation is lively 
 and intellectual, like that of people whose minds are 
 bright and clear with constant exercise, and who are 
 well enough acquainted to enjoy each other's society 
 without constraint. When I get a little more at home 
 in it I believe I shall enjoy it more than any other.' 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity Lodge : Jan. 5, 1842. 
 
 Our first guest to stay under our roof was the first commoner 
 in the land, the Speaker of the House of Commons, which was a 
 very worthy way of beginning our reign. He came here in 
 company with his brother, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, who is auditor of 
 the accounts of the College. Since then we have had the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Jones, the Tithe Com- 
 missioner, and Dr. Peacock, the Dean of Ely, both of whom, as I 
 think you know, are intimate friends of mine. The day after to- 
 morrow we go to Ely to visit the Dean and the Bishop, and on 
 Monday we go thence onwards to Norwich, where we are to visit 
 Professor Sedgwick. 
 
 I give my Lectures next term as Professor of Moral Philo- 
 sophy, so that I shall be here the whole of February and probably 
 of March. 
 
1841 MR. CARUS'S RECOLLECTIONS. 241 
 
 To his Sister] Norwich: Jan. 15, 1842. 
 
 I send on the other side of this a draft on Smith, Payne, and 
 Smith. 
 
 Providence has been very gracious to me during the past 
 year, and it is but little if I try to give others a share in my 
 worldly gifts, if it were only to mark the most important year of 
 my life. We are much grieved that you do not give a better 
 account of Martha. OUT love to all. 
 
 The kindness of Mr. Cams 1 enables me to supplement 
 the foregoing letters with his recollections of this time, 
 and of the happy married life now beginning. He 
 writes to me : ' I could say much more, but I feared to 
 be prolix,' and refers to the Elegiacs, already mentioned, 
 as containing the best picture of that time. The ' golden 
 calm ' within, and ' heartfelt trust at the hearthstone,' 
 ' the bright faces of friends,' the love of his wife's 
 family, and her aid in ' all that was kindly and gracious,' 
 her active labours for all whom her new position brought 
 her in contact with, all were in them enumerated as 
 blessings flowing from her presence, which made the 
 seven years of sunshine preceding her failure of health 
 * rich with a joy undreamt of before.' 
 
 Mr. Carus says: 
 
 The installation of our new Master took place under circum- 
 stances of more than ordinary interest and importance to us. 
 For in the prospect of his marriage we of course anticipated the 
 loss of his presence among us as a resident Fellow. But by his 
 elevation to the Mastership he was not only restored to our 
 society, but by his pre-eminent talents and energy brought 
 honour to his new and high position, whilst happily accompanied 
 by one who shared his deep devotion to the College and exercised 
 a gentle influence for good in every direction. 
 
 The Lodge, indeed, soon assumed a new aspect. Its nobl* 
 reception-rooms, transformed and embellished, gave scope for 
 
 1 Rev. W. Carus, Canon of Winchester, late Fellow of Trinity. 
 
 R 
 
242 LIFE OF DR. WHEW ELL. 1841 
 
 the exercise of the most generous hospitality. To the presence 
 and courtesy of Mrs. Whewell there we were indebted much for 
 the pleasure of -those large and frequent assemblies where the 
 families of the county were brought into such agreeable associa- 
 tion with the members of the University. 
 
 But amidst all this attention to the higher engagements of 
 the Lodge, Mrs. Whewell was constantly occupied with various 
 kindly arrangements for the welfare of the dependants and ser- 
 vants of the College. One (out of several) cherished plans for 
 their benefit deserves a passing notice. There was a large piece 
 of ground, forming a farmyard, at the back of the colleges, at the 
 junction of the roads to Madingley and St. Giles, which had long 
 been lying waste and profitless. This plot was now secured on 
 lease for the benefit of the College servants, where they might 
 have healthy exercise in cultivating their several allotments, 
 and have an object of interest for the employment of their dis- 
 engaged hours. Prizes were given to the best cultivators; and 
 very gratifying it was to witness the special pleasure which the 
 Master and Mrs. Whewell took in their frequent visits to these 
 gardens, bestowing kind words of commendation and conferring 
 rewards upon the successful competitors. 
 
 The religious welfare of the servants was no less an object of 
 Mrs. WhewelPs special care ; and, as the result of her efforts, 
 arrangements were made to afford them as much rest as possible 
 on Sundays ; thus securing to them the opportunity of enjoying 
 with others the sacred services of the day. 
 
 But not to the College servants only did Mrs. Whewell ex- 
 tend her kind consideration. There was an important proposal 
 for the preparing young women for domestic service, to which 
 she gave her cordial approval and support. Already, indeed, 
 there existed in Cambridge an excellent institution for this pur- 
 pose ; but it was felt that a higher training than could be there 
 attained was much to be desired, and ought to be attempted. 
 The plan was to obtain situations in houses of a high class, 
 where young persons might gain a first-rate experience in every 
 department of household work. Mrs. Wliewell at once under- 
 took to set an example and make the experiment by taking such 
 learners into the service of the Lodge. To these and various 
 other plans of general usefulness she devoted a large share of 
 
1841 LINES ON A CHAIN OF HAIR. 243 
 
 her time and care ; and no charitable or benevolent object was 
 presented to her consideration without receiving a warm wel- 
 come, manifested by a generous contribution to its funds. 
 
 These brief and imperfect notices of the happy influence she 
 so widely exercised ought not to be concluded without a grate- 
 ful allusion to one very characteristic act of her piety her daily 
 uniting with us all in the service of the chapel. 
 
 It was a happy incident in our College history, and most 
 beneficial in its results, when each day's life was thus publicly 
 consecrated by those who held the highest place in our ' royal 
 and religious Foundation.' 
 
 The following lines, found amongst my aunt's papers, 
 must have been addressed to her by Professor Whewell 
 directly after their engagement, and may fitly find a 
 place here. 
 
 On receiving a Chain of Hair. 
 
 Beloved Cordelia, kind and dear, 
 And now my own while life endures, 
 Would you the wonted language hear 
 Of him whose every thought is yours ? 
 In boyish days, in youthful hours, 
 And e'en in manhood's graver time, 
 He oft has gathered Fancy's flowers 
 And strung them in some idle rhyme. 
 And now a chain, of tresses wove, 
 Your earliest gift, behold is mine ! 
 Your gift, your chain, your locks, my love, 
 May claim at least one little line. 
 And yet to give it meaning due 
 I need not ask Invention's aid ; 
 Your own sweet fancies, bright and true, 
 May fitliest grace the simple braid. 
 You bid it say, our hopes, our vow, 
 The mutual trust 'tween you and me, 
 Are no past vision, vanisht now, 
 But firm and blest reality. 
 B 2 
 
244 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 Such as your gift, your love, you own, 
 More truly strong than seeming fair ; 
 Though shown to few, yet given to one 
 Who well may know that it is there. 
 Woven of that which tells a tale 
 Of emblematic mystery ; 
 The woman's glory yet her veil ; 
 Grace shrouding round her modesty ; 
 Full many a fine weak-seeming hair, 
 Slight bonds, save in their mingled twine, 
 In settled order twisted there 
 Make up a strong enduring line. 
 And so it seems, my love, to you 
 To you when Fancy loves to play 
 That many a service slight to view, 
 Brief tasks of love from day to day, 
 Small duties, trials, charities, 
 In growing union, kindly strife, 
 Form love's most firm and lasting ties 
 And bind us heart to heart for life. 
 So be it. Hoping, trusting so, 
 Close to my heart your chain I wear ; 
 And think the days and hours run slow 
 Till I may press the giver there. 
 
 W. W. 
 Trinity College : June 27, 1841. 
 
 The letter to Archdeacon Hare of October 19, of 
 which a portion has been already given, concluded with 
 a request for his advice and assistance in selecting a 
 course of study for divinity students at Cambridge. 
 The subject was then occupying the attention of the 
 University. A scheme propounded by Dr. Graham, 
 Master of Christ's, had been deemed unsatisfactory, 
 but the matter had not dropped. While Dr. Whewell 
 was officially occupied as a member of a syndicate in 
 devising some plan for a more efficient system of theo- 
 
1841 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 245 
 
 logical instruction at Cambridge, he naturally resorted 
 for counsel to one of his most intimate friends who 
 had made theology his special study. 
 
 The correspondence ended in March 1842, when the 
 labours of the syndicate seemed to promise some prac- 
 tical result. 
 
 End of Letter to Archdeacon Hare] Oct. 19. 
 
 We shall soon have before us definite and important objects 
 in which I shall be extremely desirous of having your advice 
 and assistance. Especially we shall have the subject of eccle- 
 siastical education : for, though the scheme of the present l 
 Vice-Chancellor was withdrawn, there can be no doubt that the 
 subject will be and ought to be brought forward again very soon. 
 There are very great difficulties in the way of dealing with the 
 subject, whatever course is taken; and one of these is the 
 selection of a course of study for the students of Divinity. 
 Will you at your leisure put down for me what, according to 
 your notions, such a course ought to include ? If you retain 
 your ancient propensities for cutting out very large schemes of 
 work, both for yourself and other persons, I can easily imagine 
 that you will make your list of books and studies so extensive 
 as to alarm most people ; but even if you do I shall have some- 
 thing to work upon. In one of your letters you exclaimed 
 very justly against the meagreness and unscholarlike aspect of 
 the scheme which was put forth ; so pray lend your hand to 
 help us to mend it. 
 
 Fragment of Letter to Archdeacon Hare] Oct. 30, 1841. 
 
 As to the question of clerical education, most of the points 
 on which you say you want information are really as yet un- 
 determined. When I see my way further I will have more 
 talk with you, but in the mean time I should be glad to be 
 informed of any books which you think ought to enter into such 
 
 Dr. Graham, Master of Christ's. 
 
 
246 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 an education ; for one step requisite before we impose them upon 
 others, must be, I think, that we read them ourselves ; and of 
 such books I am I fear very ignorant. 
 
 Then you speak of bringing the University to take a more 
 active part in the great movement now going on in the Church. 
 Do you mean as to the extension of churches, or as to the 
 discussions respecting doctrine ? In either case what practical 
 measures occur to you as steps which the University could, and 
 ought to take ? I am as yet without any clear views on these 
 matters, but by God's blessing I hope in the course of a little 
 while to obtain some insight into our true policy. I ask you 
 all these questions almost without hoping for an answer at 
 present. Opportunities of discussing them together will I 
 hope soon occur. I am sorry that I shall not be in London 
 on the 29th, when you speak of being there. 
 
 From a Letter to Archdeacon Hare] Dec. 1, 1841. 
 
 Whenever you come I shall no doubt have much to consult 
 you about and to discuss with you, and one matter especially 
 about which I have written to you already. The Senate has to- 
 day voted, not without opposition, a Syndicate for Theological 
 Education, to consider whether any, and what regulations shall 
 . be made with a view to that object. Of this Syndicate I am a 
 member. The foundation of our scheme, as I understand, is to 
 be this ; that the time of taking the usual Degrees, and the 
 existing Examinations for Honours are not to be disturbed. I 
 suppose that what we must establish is an examination for 
 proficiency in theological studies at some period of the career 
 after the Degree something like the Classical Tripos. Now 
 this being so, we must, I conceive, prescribe a course (of either 
 books, or subjects, or both) as the subject of examination. 
 And I want you to send me any notions which occur to you, 
 whether on the one point or the other not that I think it at 
 all reasonable to ask you to give time to the subject so as to 
 make a general scheme ; but I should like to know what occurs 
 to you as desirable, and how far you can help us to prescribe a 
 good list of books for an examination. Of course we want both 
 history, interpretation of Scripture, and doctrine. 
 
1841 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 247 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Dec. 8, 1841. 
 
 I was very much obliged by your letter and especially by 
 the good wishes with which it opened, whether they are ever 
 fulfilled or not. I hope I may do some little good while I am 
 permitted to occupy my present station, and in time I trust 
 I shall find myself labouring in quietness and hope. The 
 changes which have come upon me of late have been so great 
 and sudden that it requires some time to regain my tranquillity 
 after them. 
 
 But as to the matter which is the main subject of your 
 letter, I will answer some of your questions forthwith ; not 
 meaning thereby to impose upon you the task of writing another 
 letter immediately, but speaking of the subject while it is fresh 
 in my mind, for we have had a meeting of our Syndicate to-day. 
 I agree with you entirely in repudiating emulation as the sole 
 spring of action in our education. I should be very glad to reduce 
 it within narrow limits in our system, but that I fear cannot 
 now be done, at least not speedily. With regard to theological 
 education, however, I do not think we need admit it to any 
 material extent. I am afraid we cannot work any other way 
 than by examination, at least not to the present satisfaction of 
 the University. People's views may improve hereafter, and I 
 hope will ; but at present examination is the universal instru- 
 ment. But I think our examination need only be one for pass- 
 ing, not for honours. I have proposed adding the Epistles in 
 the New Testament and Church History (a limited portion) to 
 the imperative subjects for degrees. Others propose besides, 
 an examination of B.A.S intended especially for candidates for 
 the Ministry. I think our laymen want a religious education 
 as much as our clergy. Perhaps both measures may be carried, 
 but we are as yet a long way even from having agreed to pro- 
 pose them. 
 
 I am somewhat disposed to tell the bishops that if they 
 want to have our system more efficacious, they must acquaint 
 themselves with the courses of theological instruction given by 
 those professors whose subjects bear upon divinity, and regulate 
 a portion of their exrm.inations for ordinaticn by these courses. 
 This would make our lectures of more importance, would ani- 
 
248 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1841 
 
 mate and improve our professors, and is the only way that I can 
 see of the bishops and the professors cooperating to any purpose. 
 At least the only other way that I can see is for the bishops to 
 demand certificates of attendance and attention at the professors' 
 lectures. 
 
 I am afraid you will think all this little better than formal- 
 ism, but in legislating I do not see what more than formalities 
 we can insist on. There is not any want of zeal among our pro- 
 fessors, or at least would not be if they could excite a permanent 
 interest in their audience. This they cannot do in the teeth of 
 examinations which demand all the time of students. The only 
 way appears to be to connect them with examinations, till you 
 can get the influence of examinations weakened. I should re- 
 joice to have Maurice lecturing here, but I do not see how it is 
 to be brought about at present. We have no means of establish- 
 ing any new professorships, for we have not money wherewith to 
 pay our present examiners. I think his books may be made to 
 prodi ce a considerable effect here, especially the ' Kingdom of 
 Christ,' when made more methodical in the rewriting, which I 
 understood him was to be done. I have something in my own 
 power as examiner for fellowships. I have already used my in- 
 fluence to introduce an Anti-Lockian philosophy, and intend to 
 use it for other good purposes. 
 
 You ask, why give a list of books ; you say we do not do it 
 in mathematics. We have in the result as to mathematics a 
 lesson worth attending to. Examiners and the friends of exam- 
 iners constantly write new books, juvenile, hasty, worthless, 
 which take their places in the examinations, and exclude all 
 steady standard works. Still, if the examiners be the professors, 
 which I agree with you in thinking desirable, their lectures 
 would be a guide. 
 
 As to my moral puzzle, I will not try to draw your thoughts 
 to it again till I can put it in a more definite shape, only I may 
 say that your objection to it, that it involves a paradox, is pre- 
 cisely what makes it a puzzle. But I shall hereafter, if health 
 of body and mind are spared to me, get that part of my subject 
 into a systematic form, and then either the puzzle or the solu- 
 tion will come out more clearly. 
 
 I am glad to find that we agree, as in the main I think we 
 
1841 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 249 
 
 do, about the matter of theological education. If you were here 
 you would probably agree with me that there is no chance of 
 doing at once all that is desirable. Whether the sway of exam- 
 inations can be relaxed is a difficult question, but at any rate this 
 cannot be done suddenly ; and to establish new professors is a 
 measure for which I do not at present see how we can make pro- 
 vision. Still we must try to do something. If anything more 
 occurs to you, write again, or, better still, come, and we will 
 consider it. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Dec. 1841. 
 
 I ought to tell you, in order that you may not think too ill 
 of us, that though most of the old lectures have lost their power 
 in men's eyes, Blunt's on Pastoral Theology have been crowded. 
 Corrie's (Norrisian) have had of course a good attendance, and 
 he says great attention paid ; mine have been well filled hitherto, 
 nor have Sedgwick's lost their popularity. It is true neither 
 Blunt, Corrie, Turton, nor Mill are men to create a new system, 
 which is what we want, but if the right professor can be put in 
 his place he will not be destitute of hearers and disciples. 
 
 From a Letter to Archdeacon Hare~] March 16, 1842. 
 
 To-morrow also, we, the 'Theological Syndicate,' bring out our 
 report, which I will send you. You will find that we have done 
 what I announced to you, perhaps a little more ; and if the Senate 
 accept what we propose, it will I think work well, at least for a 
 beginning. I hope nothing will prevent our having the benefit of 
 Maurice's sermons from St. Mary's pulpit, which I have no doubt 
 would be a great blessing to the University. Perhaps an objec- 
 tion may be made on the ground of his not being a graduate of 
 our University. I must try to find a precedent for such a case 
 if I can. 
 
250 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1842-1845. 
 
 East Oriel Mr. Salvin Mr. Beresford Hope College Statutes Visitors' 
 Powers Judges' Visit Lancaster Dinner- Duke of Wellington's Visit 
 Tunbridge Wells Vice-Chancellorship University Statutes Profes- 
 sorial Certificate Undergraduates in the Galleries Voluntary Theo- 
 logical Examination Circular Letter to the Bishops Sees of St. Asaph 
 and Bangor Regius Professorship of Divinity Great St. Mary's Letter 
 to J. G. Marshall on Constitution of Church and State Hare's Admo- 
 nitions Rejoinder Statue of Lord Byron Interest in Church Restora- 
 tion Statues of Barron and Lord Macaulay Busts of Hare, Sedgwick, 
 Leslie Ellis, and Tennyson St. Augustine's, Canterbmy Education of 
 Colonial Clergy Expenditure of Undergraduate?' Attention to Business 
 Long Vacation Trinity Cricket Ground Queen's Visit Dr. Whewell 
 breaks a rib Mr. Hullah's Singing Classes Lectures on Moral? Dr. 
 Arnold's Life Visit of the King of Saxony Mr. Wordsworth's Visit 
 Sir J. Reynolds's Picture of the Duke of Gloucester Statue of Bacon 
 ' Indications of the Creator ' Vestige? British Association Mr. Law- 
 rence's Portrait. 
 
 IT is difficult not to pause too long over this year ; not 
 to linger in the sunshine, full of hope and promise, un- 
 clouded by anxiety, not to give too many letters of this 
 period, so full are all of happiness and satisfaction in 
 ' the condition which,' as Mr. Whewell writes to Arch- 
 deacon Hare, ' we love to look upon as ours for the rest 
 of our lives.' 
 
 Mrs. Whewell's journal shows how busy this happy 
 life was ; many of the plans to which Mr. Carus has 
 referred in his letter were already suggesting them- 
 selves, plans for improving the condition of the bed- 
 
1842 ME. SALVIN. 251 
 
 makers and other college servants, ' feeling our way 
 towards some improvement of the singing in chapel/ 
 organising her household, and being introduced to all 
 her husband's old friends in Cambridge and the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 At the close of this busy year Dr. Whewell became 
 Vice-Chancellor. 
 
 One of the first visitors at the Lodge in 1842 was 
 Mr. Salvin. Dr. Whewell writes in his Journal under date 
 January 1 9 of that year, ' Mr. Salvin, architect, arrived, 
 and under his direction and in his presence we made 
 attempts to discover traces of the oriel which formerly 
 existed as part of the front of the Lodge. We found the 
 foundation of the wall of the oriel immediately below the 
 surface of the ground. The plan was semicircular, the 
 diameter of the semicircle 13 feet and 7 inches, exactly 
 opposite to the oriel which exists towards the garden. 
 By examination of the upper storey of the Lodge 
 it appeared that there are no lodging-rooms over 
 Henry VIII. 's drawing-room, but only a blank garret, 
 to which there is no access except through the 
 windows.' 
 
 So far back as October 25, 1841, Mr. Beresford Hope 
 had written to the newly appointed Master : 
 
 Permit me to offer you my double congratulations and best 
 wishes for long years of uninterrupted happiness. Allow me 
 at the same time to beg that you will in the name of the 
 college accept as a slight token of affection and gratitude from 
 one of her alumni the sum of 300Z., to be devoted to the pur- 
 pose of restoring to the lodge the oriel and mullioned windows, 
 exactly as they stood before Bentley's alteration, and thus in 
 some measure giving back its antique character to the old court. 
 This sum I shall direct my banker to lodge to your account at 
 Mortlock's. Of course if it cannot be well done for that amount 
 I do not mean to confine myself to it. 
 
252 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 I have had no intelligence of my windows, though it is past 
 the time they were to have been completed in. ... 
 
 P.S. Since .writing the above I have received the intelli- 
 gence of the completion of the windows. 1 
 
 The next reference to the subject is in the Journal, 
 under date of August 16, 1842. From what is said we 
 learn how largely Mr. Hope's liberal intentions had been 
 expanded, and what very considerable proportions the 
 scheme of restoration had assumed. 
 
 Aug. 16. We returned to the lodge and stayed one night, 
 the workmen being then employed in the restoration of the front, 
 in pursuance of Mr. Hope's undertaking to bear the expense of 
 the restoration of the windows and oriel. In the interval I had 
 corresponded with Mr. Hope and had finally learnt that 1,000. 
 had been placed to the credit of the College at the banker's to 
 meet the expense. 
 
 Sep. 17. We returned to College. The windows of the 
 front were entirely without glass, the rooms without furniture, 
 and the wall was removed from top to bottom where the 
 oriel was to be. The house full of workmen. 
 
 The correspondence with Mr. Hope was frequent 
 about the details of the work ; about the inscription, 
 the arms, &c. Mr. Hope wrote in August, ' I shall 
 have great curiosity to see the work ; the gable will add 
 weight and dignity to the oriel, and I should think make 
 an excellent whole. I was much pleased at finding the 
 oriel looked so solid, which is one of the great points 
 modern gothic architects fail in.' There are also letters 
 of Mr. Salvin's about remodelling and rebuilding chim- 
 neys and dormers, and about appropriate mouldings, 
 &c. A memorandum in the Journal of the following 
 year, 1843, appears to show that the completed work 
 cost 1435/. 4s. Qd. 1000/. of this sum was given by Mr. 
 Hope, 185/. 4s. 6d. by the College apparently, and 250/. 
 
 1 The last sentence of this letter and the postscript refer to windows in 
 the Ante Chapel, presented by Mr. Beresford Hope. 
 
1842 COLLEGE STATUTES. 258 
 
 by the Master, also some 50. or more for furniture. 
 There are many references to the work in the domestic 
 letters. Not until November 1842 was Dr. Whewell 
 able to announce to his sister that the ordinary living- 
 rooms had again become habitable. There is a very 
 amusingly despairing letter from one of the persons 
 employed in furnishing, which begins, ' Feelingly alive 
 to this vexatious disappointment, I perfectly dread 
 writing to you. To frame an excuse or falsehood I 
 cannot, but the truth, which is that the party who un- 
 dertook the carvings has left me in the lurch ; he was 
 an Italian, an exceeding clever artist ; he has pirated 
 our patent and gone to Milan.' This I believe had 
 reference to a cabinet of gothic carved work, in the 
 execution of which there had been extraordinary delays, 
 but which was eventually completed and placed in 
 Henry VIII. 's drawing-room, where it still stands. 
 
 In Dr. WhewelTs journal, kept at this time with 
 considerable regularity, we find mention of very fre- 
 quent meetings of the Master and Seniors to deliberate 
 upon the revision of the College statutes. These 
 statutes, which the governing body of the College had 
 bound themselves to respect, to preserve intact and to 
 carry into effect, had, from the changes which centuries 
 had brought about in national habits, and many other 
 circumstances, come into such discrepancy with actual, 
 and often with any possible, practice as to occasion very 
 serious difficulties. The Master and other College offi- 
 cers found themselves frequently compelled to choose 
 between deliberately neglecting and modifying that 
 which they had sworn to execute, or attempting to put 
 in operation rules which had become totally useless and 
 inapplicable. The difficulty was a very serious one, and 
 one from which there was no escape. 
 
254 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 Their oath seemed to preclude the possibility of in- 
 viting or accepting any external interference ; yet there 
 was a certain -awkwardness in employing their own au- 
 thority to bring about an alteration of that which they 
 had bound themselves to preserve and to execute. As 
 long before Dr. Whewell's appointment as April 1837, 
 it had, however, been decided that a revision must 
 absolutely take place ; also that when once completed 
 the sanction of the Crown must be called for to give 
 legal effect to the reforms decided upon, and to author- 
 ise the amended code. 
 
 The anomalies and deficiencies of the statutes must 
 of course have been familiar to Dr. Whewell, who for 
 many years had been a Senior and for many more ac- 
 tively engaged in college tuition. Immediately after his 
 accession to the Mastership we find indications of the 
 direction his thoughts were taking, and on January 4, 
 1842, he wrote to Mr. Gossett, a non-resident fellow, a 
 letter, of which a copy is preserved, and which was 
 probably similar to others sent to other absent members 
 of the society of Trinity. This is the letter : 
 
 ... I wish to say a few words on a matter of College 
 business. You are probably aware that a revision of the 
 Statutes was resolved upon by the Seniority, some time ago, and 
 that the late master had bestowed considerable labour upon 
 the subject and intended to proceed with it. The revision was 
 undertaken in consequence of what took place in the House of 
 Lords, and the Chancellor was apprized of the resolution of the 
 Seniority. I conceive it to be incumbent upon me to go on 
 with this revision ; and with the assistance of the Seniority to 
 put the statutes in the form in which they may answer the 
 purpose intended by the revision ; namely, that of bringing the 
 statutes and the Practice of the College into accordance. I 
 conceive that when this is done, it will be proper for us to 
 
1842 COLLEGE STATUTES. 255 
 
 endeavour to obtain legal sanction for the revised statutes 
 through the course pointed out by our constitution. 
 
 The modifications of the statutes which are requisite for this 
 purpose must be those which are determined by the Seniority. 
 It is my intention, if I find no unexpected obstacles, to bring 
 the matter before the Seniority in the course of the ensuing 
 term. And I shall be glad to know if you are likely to be here 
 to take a share in this task, or to express your opinion upon it in 
 any stage of its process. 
 
 My own view is that the changes made should be the 
 smallest which will truly answer the purpose of bringing about 
 an accordance between our laws and our practices ; and that we 
 ought to preserve the existing statutes whenever we can with- 
 out manifest inconvenience. 
 
 The late Master went over the statutes several times in 
 company with different College officers; with a view, I conceive, 
 of understanding what alterations their experience of the ad- 
 ministration of the College suggested as necessary. I should 
 be disposed to profit by the results of these conferences of his, 
 of which he has left memorials in the shape of alterations pen- 
 cilled upon the pages of his copy of the statutes and in other 
 forms. I shall be glad to know, as I have said, whether we 
 may reckon on your assistance in the prosecution of this 
 revision ; whether, and when, you are likely, or wish to come 
 here for that purpose, and any other information which may enable 
 us, as far as possible, to co-operate in promoting the objects 
 pointed out by the resolution of the Seniority of which I have 
 spoken, and strongly desired I believe by a great number of the 
 foundation members of the College. 
 
 On February 10 there was a Seniority, at which the 
 Master ' gave notice that soon, probably on the 15th, 
 he should bring before the Seniority the revision of the 
 statutes, directed by the Conclusion of April 24, 1837. ' 
 
 On the 15th he writes : 
 
 I intend to bring the consideration of the College statutes 
 before the Seniors to-day. The following appear to be the main 
 maxims to be kept in view. 
 
256 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 We are to make a revision, not new statutes : we are to 
 deal reverently with the existing statutes and not to deviate 
 from them except so far as is requisite to bring the statutes and 
 the practice into accordance. 
 
 Our statutes have worked well, and in some cases it might 
 be well if we could accommodate the practice more nearly to 
 the written law. We ought therefore in some cases to leave a 
 possibility of this ; that we or our successors may return to the 
 old practice when it seems good. 
 
 Practice has an interpretative authority. If we do not 
 allow this we cannot have statutes that can be observed for five 
 years. We must not try to evade all difficulties by leaving 
 everything loose and arbitrary. It is our office to supply fixity 
 amid change. There is no use in attempting to arrange details 
 till the main principles of the revision are settled. I shall 
 therefore take first some statutes which are the main features 
 of our system ; and when these are settled the rest will be easy. 
 
 I shall take first (1.) Cap. 5. De officio Decanarum. (Chapel); 
 (2.) Cap. 9. De Lectorum officio. (Lectures); (3.) Cap. 18. De 
 publ. Disp. (Obsolete usages) ; (4.) Cap. 19. De temp. ap. 
 grad. (degrees) ; (5.) Cap 22. De exitu. (residence). 
 
 The persons present at this first Seniority of Febru- 
 ary 15 were, besides the Master, the Vice-Master (Mr. J. 
 Browne), Mr. Evans, Mr. Eornilly, Mr. Thorp, Mr. Mar- 
 tin, Mr. Carus, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Blakesley. Professor 
 Sedgwick seems to have been absent, probably at Nor- 
 wich, but his name appears as attending in place of 
 Mr. Blakesley on and after March 1. 
 
 Twenty-seven meetings of the Seniority took place 
 between February 15 and April 25. The following day 
 the entry in the Journal stands : 
 
 April 26. Went to London to visit my wife's parents, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Marshall, 41 Upper Grosvenor Street. I took with me 
 to London the Draft of the College Statutes as revised by the 
 Seniority, at the various preceding sittings. I reported to the 
 Home Secretary, Sir J. Graham, that this revision was in pro- 
 
1842 REVISED STATUTES. 257 
 
 gress, explained to him the general principles on which it had 
 proceeded, and pointed out the few instances in which the 
 privileges of the Crown were concerned, viz. (1.) Visitatorial 
 power, (2.) Power of giving leave of absence, (3.) Power of ap- 
 pointing ten paupers. He informed me that he should lay the 
 draft before the Attorney and Solicitor-General, and at a subse- 
 quent interview agreed to do so, while it was still unconfirmed 
 by the Seniors. I also saw the Solicitor-General and the 
 Attorney-General, who agreed to consider the unconfirmed 
 draft ; and I explained to them that the College did not expect 
 or wish that they should suggest anything except what con- 
 cerned the prerogatives of the Crown or the course of Law. 
 For the purpose of consideration, I had two transcripts of the 
 revised Statutes made, for which I paid III. 6s. I left one of 
 these and a printed copy of the Statutes with Sir James 
 Graham. 
 
 At the Seniority on May 28 (at which were present 
 the Vice-Master, Sedgwick, Eomilly, Thorp, Martin, 
 Blakesley, Grote, and Bunbury), the Master says, ' I com- 
 municated the steps I had taken in London respecting 
 the statutes, also respecting the installation.' 
 
 The installation in question was that of the Duke of 
 Northumberland as Chancellor, and took place in July 
 of this year. 
 
 On November 12 we find the Master enters in his 
 journal that he has 'received a letter from Sir James 
 Graham (Home Secretary), stating that the revised 
 statutes (rules) were approved entirely by the law 
 officers of the Crown ; and that he had written to the 
 Bishop of Ely to report to him the omission of his name 
 (as visitor) in Cap. 40 of the statutes. Wrote in reply 
 that the draft was not passed, but that I would get it 
 passed as soon as possible, and then wait for the royal 
 letter.' 
 
 The correspondence between Si]- James Graham, the 
 Bishop of Ely, and the Master, referred to above, is now 
 
 s 
 
258 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 before me. The College desired 4 to relieve the Bishop 
 and his successors from the exercise of a doubtful au- 
 thority, which, being disputed, might tend to litigation 
 and many inconvenient results.' The College wished 
 that the jurisdiction hitherto vested in the Bishop of 
 Ely should be transferred to the Crown. The Bishop 
 referred to a decision of 1711, when a similar proposal 
 had been made by Trinity College, resisted by the 
 Bishop of Ely (Bishop Moore), and ultimately rejected 
 by the law officers of the Crown. He declared he saw 
 no reason for deciding differently now. Sir James 
 Graham begs the careful consideration of the point on 
 the part of the College, urges the Bishop to give way, 
 but in vain, and finally advised Her Majesty to sanction 
 the new statutes, in which the power in question was 
 reserved to the Crown, the Bishop still protesting his 
 dissent. The royal consent seems to have been given 
 to the statutes in February 1843. On the llth of tluit 
 month ' a Seniority was held, at which certain points in 
 the revision of the statutes were discussed, especially 
 Cap. 40, the question respecting the visitor, and it was 
 considered that this concluded all the discussions con- 
 cerning the leading alterations to be made in revising 
 the statutes/ 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to discuss the effect of this 
 revision of the statutes, as the object was confessedly of 
 a very limited kind, and did not pretend to be an at- 
 tempt to place the laws of the College on the best pos- 
 sible footing. At the same time the necessity of the work 
 thus voluntarily undertaken by the College will be evi- 
 dent to any one who glances at some of the statutes 
 which the Master and Seniors had all sworn to observe 
 at the time of Dr. Whewell's appointment to the Master- 
 ship. For instance, that relating to the office of the. 
 
1M_> REVISED STATUTES. 259 
 
 Deans gave direction for a weekly flagellation of certain 
 offenders in the College Hall, at which all persons in 
 statu pupillari were to be present. 
 
 In the list of offences of which such persons might 
 be guilty, that of speaking their native language was 
 prominent. The law of Trinity College recognised such 
 offences and punishments up to the year 1842, but it is 
 needless to say that the practice did not accord with the 
 law. 
 
 To ProfessorSedgwick] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 8, 1842. 
 
 I am very desirous of going on with our task of revising our 
 College statutes as soon as I can, and am trying to fix some time, 
 and that not a remote one, when we may set ourselves to work 
 at this business. I am very desirous, too, of having the benefit 
 of your judgment in our proceedings on this subject, and 
 should for that reason have been glad to put off the commence- 
 ment of our deliberations till you are in College. I fear, however, 
 that if I were to do so, we should have so small a portion of the 
 term left us that we should not be able to make much way 
 before the end of it ; and so upon the whole I am disposed to 
 enter upon the matter about a week hence. 
 
 I believe I shall call a meeting of the Seniors a week hence, 
 and at that time bring the subject before them. I shall then 
 wish to go on as fast as we can, consistently with the gravity 
 and complexity of the matter. I recollect the special points 
 which you mentioned as those on which you had a decided 
 opinion, and I will take care that you have an opportunity of 
 joining in the discussion of them, and also of giving us your 
 advice upon any others when you may wish to offer it. 
 
 So much for that matter for the present, though I fear it 
 must needs be the labour of many a long hour in future. But 
 it is a task which requires to be performed ; and I seem to my- 
 self to see every reason to hope that we shall perform it in an 
 amicable and careful manner, so far as the spirit in which we 
 set about it gives us any augury. 
 
 Have you heard from Owen lately? I had a letter from 
 him a little while ago, which grieved me much. He told me 
 
 s 2 
 
260 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 then that his College had offered him Cliffs place in the 
 museum, which I suppose is more valuable than his own, but 
 they had accompanied the offer with an intimation that they 
 conceived that of late he had done too much for himself and too 
 little for them ; and with a stipulation that henceforth he should 
 not publish except in their Transactions without their consent. 
 
 This appears to me immeasurably narrow-minded and 
 absurd ; for they share in his reputation and it is every way an 
 advantage to their museum to be used as he uses it. I recom- 
 mended Owen to take their offer, but to ask his scientific friends, 
 you in especial, to represent to the College that they were 
 injuring their own reputation and the interests of science by 
 their stipulation. I have not heard from him since, and do not 
 know what course he has taken. 
 
 I am glad to think we shall at any rate see you here soon. 
 I hope you find that your sister and your niece, both or at least 
 one, can come, and take up their abode at the Lodge with us, 
 for a few days or a week. You know it will be the next thing 
 to having them in your own rooms, for we will open the doors 
 of your house and mine which communicate on the staircase. 
 
 At the end of 1842 Dr. Whewell became Vice- 
 Chancellor, and found his ' occupations ' thereby so 
 much increased that he could only, in writing to his 
 sister, express a hope that he might c get through them 
 somehow, as others had before him.' He finally made 
 up his mind as far as possible to give up all his other 
 pursuits and make it his business to attend only to the 
 duties of that office whilst it lasted. 
 
 An early letter of this year to Mr. Myers acknow- 
 ledges the receipt of the first part of his book, ' Catholic 
 Thoughts on the Church of Christ and the Church of 
 England,' printed for private circulation at the close 
 of 1841, and since then published in two volumes of 
 ' Present Day Papers,' by Isbister & Co. 
 
 Trinity Lodge: March 2, 1842. 
 
 I ought not to have been so long in acknowledging the receipt 
 of your book and thanking you for it ; and yet even now I am 
 
1842 ME. MYERS'S ' CATHOLIC THOUGHTS.' 261 
 
 too early to do so in a proper manner, for I have not yet read it 
 through attentively. Cordelia took possession of it, and has been 
 conning it very diligently and I believe has just finished it. I 
 recommend you to get her remarks upon it, which will be very 
 far from being without their value. But though I have not 
 read through the book as it deserves, I have seen enough of it, 
 in the intervals of Corrie's studies, to know that it contains 
 much which I must admire. The style appeared to me to be 
 everywhere admirable from its balance and clearness, and the 
 views and arguments brought out in most orderly and philoso- 
 phical gradation. As to the subject matter I ought not to give 
 an opinion without having studied the book in such a way as its 
 temper and the labour bestowed upon it deserve, and it is the 
 less necessary to do so as I trust we are in a fair way of having 
 many a brotherly discussion of such subjects, a prospect to 
 which I look forward with delight on many accounts. You 
 will hardly perhaps expect me to agree with your scheme in 
 general after the debates with which we startled the Naiads of 
 Ullswater and the Dryads of Growbarrow, and perhaps you will 
 not think me very much in haste to condemn without suffi- 
 cient examination if I say that I think I can point out one or 
 two of the leading grounds of our variance. One is your as- 
 sumption of an essential difference between fact and theory ; a 
 difference which it is impossible to establish, and the assump- 
 tion of which always leads to endless wrangling. I may say 
 so much now because I have said more than this in my philo- 
 sophy, and conceive the admission of the truth on this subject 
 to be essential to all sound philosophising. Another ground of 
 variance in our opinions is your assuming progress in a sense 
 which makes the present independent of the past ; a funda- 
 mental heresy, as I tried in vain to prove to you in your lecture 
 room at Keswick. 
 
 I believe I cannot do better than take the present season 
 for proclaiming to you my dissent from your principles, for you 
 must, I think, at present be far too happy l to quarrel with any- 
 body, and least of all with Susan's brother. I am not going 
 to dwell upon this subject, but I must say that I look with ex- 
 ceeding gratification to the prospect of the union of two persons 
 1 In the prospect of his approaching marriage. 
 
262 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 both of whom I most highly admire and most warmly regard, and 
 whom I think most admirably fitted to make each other happy. 
 Your parsonage at Keswick will be the brightest spot in the 
 whole lake country, if philosophy, poetry, and love, combined 
 in two excellent hearts, and heads, can brighten any place. 
 
 I intended to have written this or something to the same 
 effect to Brighton before you left it, thinking it just possible 
 that I might tempt you to turn this way in going northwards, 
 but I suppose my chance of doing this would have been but 
 small. I shall be very glad if the next time that you make 
 your southwards move you will come and take up your abode at 
 Trinity Lodge for a while. I will promise not to take the un- 
 generous advantage of involving you in an argument about the 
 whole ordinances of the Church, when your thoughts are dwell- 
 ing entirely upon one of the services. You will find many 
 friends here, and all, I doubt not, like myself, far more glad to 
 see you than ever. I hear Cordelia in the next room playing- 
 (I believe) ' Happy Pair ! ' so that I need not ask her if I am to 
 send her kindest regards. 
 
 The entry in the Journal for February 9 is : 
 
 Ash Wednesday. I directed Mr. Trains the Chaplain on duty 
 to read the Litany (which I was told was not to be read at St. 
 Mary's) and to omit the Commination Service. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare Dr. Whewell writes : 
 
 Feb. 13, 1842. 
 
 I am lecturing on Morals, and am venturing to make the 
 subject of my lectures the construction of a system of morality, 
 and the mode of overcoming the difficulties involved in such 
 an undertaking. In many ways this employment is very 
 pleasant, but especially in one. I talk with Worsley about it, 
 and we find ourselves coming, from quite opposite regions, into 
 an almost entire agreement in our views and arrangements. 
 We have the most charming rides together (I do not mean on 
 our hobbies only, but on Waverley and Gringiber 1 ) during which 
 we discuss these matters ; and we often agree that your one 
 fault is that you do not care enough for systems. But this is 
 1 Gingiber was a ginger-coloured chestnut horse. 
 
1842 MAKING OF SYSTEMS. 263 
 
 all as it should be. We, cloistered theorists, are wedded to 
 speculative truth, and you, a faithful minister and zealous arch- 
 deacon, look more to practical matters. I wish most especially 
 you could come here and take up your abode at the Lodge for 
 a week or two, and we should have an infinitely better chance 
 of understanding each other, or rather we should come to under- 
 stand each other sooner and better than we could do any other 
 way. You will find me and my wife tranquilly settled in a 
 condition which we love to look upon as ours for the rest of 
 our lives. 
 
 This letter was followed a month later by another, 
 still full of his pleasure in talking over matters with the 
 Master of Downing, though admitting that he was not 
 anxious to attach too much value to his system as a 
 system. The same letter contains some interesting re- 
 marks upon the value of uncongenial subjects of study, 
 as drawing out the whole mind of the student, instead 
 of only that part of it which he is himself naturally 
 inclined to use and cultivate. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] March 13, 1842. 
 
 I am glad you are so tender at being reproached with want of 
 love of system, for I feared that you considered the making of 
 systems to be a dangerous employment; at least in any one 
 since Coleridge. But indeed I might easily have known that 
 such an opinion did you injustice. I certainly believe that we 
 want systems, true systems, made with all sobriety, and im- 
 pregnable to disbelief, and so, armed against your Greek line. 
 I believe we want such systems more than anything else ; 
 because at the root of all improved national life must be a steady 
 conviction of the reason, and the reason cannot acquiesce in 
 what is not coherent, that is, systematic. But you do not believe 
 that Worsley's expository views are a sound system. Probably 
 not. I never attached much importance to them as expositions, 
 but they have led him, as exposition often does, to a systematic 
 analysis of his subject, religious duties and their corresponding 
 conditions. And even this part of his work I have not seen. 
 
264 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 Only I find that he, entering the subject of morality on the a 
 priori road, through the views of religious teaching, and I, 
 advancing to it -on the other side, from psychology through 
 jurisprudence, come to very many close coincidences. I have 
 begged him not to give me his scheme till I have finished my 
 exposition of my own, which I do in my lecture to-morrow. 
 
 Then again as to the question of how far students should be 
 subjected to uncongenial kinds of study, you will allow me to 
 wrangle with you, will you not ? Well then, I say that on 
 etymological grounds, as well as others, mine is the genuine 
 education. Your poetical or critical man you educate by 
 educing his reasoning powers through the discipline of mathe- 
 matics. The faculty is in him, and you draw it out. His poetry 
 and his criticism he gives you spontaneously, you do not need 
 to educe that ; it is an effusion. And in like manner the 
 spontaneous mathematician is educated by educing his imagina- 
 tive and philological faculties. You took Airy as an example. 
 He was driven to read Greek by our Trinity system, is very 
 fond of it, and so is an educated man. Without this, he would 
 have been a mere mathematician ; and such a one is not an 
 educated man. It is a view of men which we must not take, to 
 hold them to have each only a part of the faculties of humanity. 
 You do not educate except you educe the whole humanity. I 
 hope we shall never become a College of mere scholars and 
 mere mathematicians. The effeminacy of mind which can only 
 attend to its favourite and selected pursuits is not the temper 
 which becomes us. Observe, I do not want much mathematics 
 from our classical men ; but a man who either cannot or will 
 not understand Euclid, is a man whom we lose nothing by not 
 keeping among us. 
 
 On March 16 we find from Dr. Whewell's Journal 
 that he requested leave at a Seniority to present to the 
 College a marble copy of the statue of Bacon at St. 
 Alb an s. 
 
 It was executed by Mr. Weekes the sculptor by per- 
 mission of Lord Verulam, and is now in the ante-chapel 
 of the College. 
 
 On March 19 is the first mention after Dr. Whewell's 
 
JUDGES' VISITS. 265 
 
 Mastership of the arrival of the Judges of Assize at 
 Trinity Lodge, and of their formal reception there. The 
 custom dates from the year 1610, when the College 
 generally and the Lodge especially having been recently 
 enlarged and beautified by Dr. Thomas Neville, Master 
 of the College from 1593 to 1615, Chief Justice Coke, 
 himself a member of Trinity College, and accustomed to 
 resort there on other occasions, was first lodged there as 
 Judge of Assize. 
 
 He appears to have visited Cambridge in this capa- 
 city in five successive years, and the steward's accounts 
 from 1610 onwards contain occasional entries of expenses 
 incurred in the reception of the judges. It was after 
 the enlargement of the Lodge in Dr. Neville's time, and 
 by his munificence, that the series of royal visits to 
 Cambridge of James I. and his family began ; and, no 
 doubt, to Dr. Neville's hospitable spirit and to the hand- 
 some accommodation which Trinity College was now 
 able to offer, may be ascribed its frequent selection 
 thenceforward as royal quarters on the occasion of visits 
 of the Sovereign or of the Sovereign's family. In the 
 previous reign Queen Elizabeth had been entertained at 
 King's College. Dr. Neville's first royal guests were 
 Prince Charles (afterwards King Charles I.) and his 
 brother-in-law, Frederick, Prince Palatine of the Ehine. 
 Dr. Hackett, in his life of Archbishop Williams, when 
 noting the absence of the Chancellor, ' the Lord of 
 Northampton, who was expected, for tradition imme- 
 morial required his presence at such a season, but the 
 frugal old man appeared not,' adds, ' The charge of 
 i/rcat fare and feasting was not more costly than wel- 
 come to the brave mind of Dr. Neville, the Master of 
 Trinity College, who never had his like in that orb, I 
 believe, for a splendid, courteous, and bountiful gentle- 
 
266 LIFE OF DJL WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 man.' No Sovereign appears to have remained the night 
 at Trinity between the days of James I. and the present 
 reign, but whilst James I.'s palace at Newmarket con- 
 tinued to exist, visits of a few hours in duration seem to 
 have been very frequent. 
 
 At a later period the question of the judges' right 
 to lodgings in Trinity Lodge led more than once to con- 
 troversies between Dr. Whewell and the judges, and 
 shortly before his death he had taken some measures 
 for the purpose of having it settled in an authoritative 
 manner. 
 
 Arrangements have, however, since been made be- 
 tween the College and the Home Office, which rendered 
 the prosecution of these measures unnecessary. 
 
 The claim of the royal family to a reception at 
 Trinity Lodge whenever they visited the University of 
 Cambridge was first brought under Dr. Whewell's 
 notice in a letter addressed to the Vice-Chancellor in 
 1842 by the Duke of Northumberland, on occasion of 
 his inauguration as Chancellor. Without formally ad- 
 mitting or disputing the claim, Dr. Whewell practically 
 forestalled it on each occasion by the ready offer of all 
 the accommodation in College which the Crown could 
 possibly wish for. When the Prince of Wales was a 
 student at the University, residing at Madingley, about 
 three miles from Cambridge, rooms at Trinity Lodge 
 were placed at his disposal by the spontaneous action of 
 the Master, an arrangement which, no doubt, was very 
 convenient both to His Royal Highness and to those in 
 attendance on him. 
 
 In May Dr. and Mrs. Whewell were for a time in 
 London at Mr. Marshall's house in Upper Grosvenor 
 Street, and in June the British Association called Dr. 
 Whewell to Manchester. Later in the summer they 
 
1842 LANCASTER DINNER. 2C7 
 
 were for some time at Tunbridge Wells ; and at Bedg- 
 bury, Collingwood, and Hurstmonceux they paid visits 
 to old friends of his, now to be friends of both. Before 
 the end of the vacation they made their way to Filey, 
 where the Master of Downing and his wife were staying ; 
 to Hallsteads ; and to Lancaster, where a dinner was 
 given to him and to Professor Owen. Whilst they were 
 at Hallsteads Mr. Wordsworth, in whose society Dr. 
 Whewell had for several years taken ever-increasing 
 pleasure, was also a guest, and a companion in many a 
 long ramble which was to enable Dr. Whewell i to walk 
 in imagination on the sides of Helvellyn when confined 
 in body to the shores of the Cam.' 
 
 In his speech at Lancaster on the occasion referred 
 to, he gave warm expression to the feelings of local at- 
 tachment which in him were very strong. 
 
 The early scenes of youth the castle towers the waters of 
 the Lune have haunted me when absent, and been a source 
 of especial pleasure to me when present. My heart has leaped 
 up when I revisited them, with a delight wholly different from 
 that which other scenes, not devoid of enjoyment, have brought 
 to me. We owe to the early years of our boyhood, influences 
 which remain with us through all the years of succeeding life. 
 The poet Wordsworth, with whom I have within the last few 
 days had the advantage of associating, says 
 
 The child is father of the man. 
 and 
 
 I could wish my days to be 
 
 Bound each to each by natural piety. 
 
 So I feel that the boy is indeed the father of the man that 
 the early sympathies he may enjoy the love of poetry among 
 schoolfellows the facilities he meets with in the prosecution of 
 his favourite studies and pursuits that these have more power 
 than when his nature is more matured and his mind more 
 expanded. His must be a hard nature indeed who does not 
 feel this ' natural piety ' on reverting to the scenes of his boy- 
 
2G8 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 hood. I feel it with joy every week of my life. I am grateful 
 to you for having now connected the past with the present 
 feeling of my life for having called up the days of boyhood 
 with their charms of sunshine, and their thousand tender asso- 
 ciations, and connected them with the experience of middle 
 life, in a unity in which nothing is disjointed and incoherent. 
 
 In the drama of my life there are but two scenes Lancaster 
 and Cambridge ; and the early scenes of Lancaster have been 
 enhanced by the transition from one to the other. If ever a 
 man had cause to love an English University it is I, who owe 
 so much to one. To me has been given all that the mind of 
 man could desire leisure and the means of prosecuting studies 
 which were the dream of my early youth and which not to be 
 enabled to pursue was a bitterness worse than death the op- 
 portunity of mingling with and enjoying the friendship of the 
 greatest men and the most lofty intellects of my time, at once 
 the most modest and the most profound thinkers, the worthy 
 representatives of the soul and mind of their age. 
 
 An interesting letter will be found in its place at 
 the close of this year addressed to his broth er-in-law, 
 Mr. James G. Marshall, another of the relations gained 
 by his marriage, ' dear as if in their veins flowed ' his 
 ' own family's blood,' with whom he had many interests 
 in common, to be treated of with delight in ' many a 
 brotherly discussion.' 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: March 20, 1842. 
 
 I have been complaining to Cordelia for some time that I 
 had a pain in my conscience occasioned by not writing to you, 
 and she has recommended me to try to relieve it by a proper 
 application of pen, ink, and paper. We have in truth been very 
 busy with business and with society. I have only just finished 
 my lectures, and am still engaged two or three hours a day, 
 almost daily, with college business. Then we have been visiting 
 at Audley End. It was a great pleasure to take Cordelia there, 
 and to make her acquainted with old and valued friends like 
 Lord and Lady Braybrooke, and we spent a few days there very 
 pleasantly. 
 
1842 INSTALLATION OF DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 269 
 
 At present we have Lord and Lady Monteagle for our guests, 
 though to-day they are gone to Ely to visit the Dean, and we 
 have also the Judges in the house, who take up their abode 
 here when they come to hold the assizes. They occupy the 
 whole of our lower storey, including our dining-room, so that our 
 company-keeping is straightened during their stay. When 
 they go to Court or to Chapel they walk across the court of the 
 college in their robes with their train-bearers, and Cordelia, who 
 stands at the drawing room window and sees them from behind, 
 laughs at the ceremony very irreverently. 
 
 To his Sister'] 41 Upper Grosvenor Street : May 7, 1842. 
 
 You are not to suppose that we have forgotten Grange and 
 Lindale in the bustle of London. I am trying to make out 
 what great people are coming to us at the Installation of our 
 Chancellor, which takes place in July. Prince Albert, who was 
 spoken of, does not come, but the Duke of Wellington and the 
 Prussian ambassador, M. Bunsen, are to be among our guests. 
 
 Some interesting details of the Duke of Wellington's 
 visit are given by Dr. Whewell in his Journal. 
 
 Monday, July 4. The Duke of Wellington arrived; his car- 
 riage stopped at the Great Gate and then proceeded to St. John's, 
 where he went to attend the Duke of Northumberland's levee. 
 He then walked with me to Trinity Lodge, and the Fellows were 
 presented to him by me. He then went again to St. John's 
 Lodge, and accompanied the Duke of Northumberland to the 
 Senate House. After his return to this Lodge he came into the 
 dining-room, and then he conversed a good deal. 
 
 With reference to the news of the Queen having been shot 
 at by Bean, which arrived this morning, he spoke of an attempt 
 made to shoot him at Paris. He had previous information that 
 he was to be shot at. The man tried in vain to find an oppor- 
 tunity in the streets. The Duke had said before the event 
 that the assassin must inevitably make the attempt at his own 
 house. So it turned out. The man placed himself behind a 
 watch-box and fired as the Duke entered his own Porte cochere. 
 
 The postilion saw him raise his arm, and urged his horses to 
 
270 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 a gallop, so that the Duke thought he had knocked down one of 
 the sentries in driving in. ' I asked him why he had done so, 
 and he told me that a man had fired a pistol at me from a place 
 
 close by. ' Mr. M [Mr. Milnes ?] reminded the Duke that 
 
 Napoleon left the man a legacy. ' Yes ' he said, * Napoleon left 
 him 10,000 francs for trying to rid the world of an aristocrat.' 
 
 I spoke of the attempt made to kill the King of Portugal 
 in the last century. ' Yes,' he said, * that was under the Marquis 
 de Pombal's administration. It was one of the circumstances 
 which led to the expulsion of the Jesuits. That event was an 
 evil to Spain and Portugal. It ruined the education of the 
 upper orders. They are now men of no education, no moral 
 and religious education. You never find a well educated 
 nobleman in Spain. Consequently they are regarded with no 
 respect by those of lower rank, and are a worthless set. No- 
 thing can save a country but a moral and religious education of 
 its upper classes.' 
 
 He spoke much of the Afghan war. He had always dis- 
 believed the accounts, he said, of the abandonment of 
 Ghuznee. 1 He never could believe that a person put in a com- 
 mand so important could be so destitute of resources as the 
 accounts represented him. ' I never could believe that such an 
 officer could say that he was obliged to surrender for want of 
 water, when he was snowed up. I never could believe that he 
 could say that he had left the soldiers' bayonets in the citadel. 
 There is no more convenient way of disposing of a bayonet 
 than at the end of the musket or in the scabbard by the soldier's 
 side.' 
 
 Speaking further of India, he said, ' You have there the 
 blessing of a free press; in that country, in a country quite 
 unfitted for such a thing. You might as well try a free press 
 on the quarter-deck of a man of war.' 
 
 Passing the picture of Perceval, he said he was a good 
 debater and always spoke well when he had had previously to 
 explain a measure to a meeting of his friends. 
 
 When the Duke had been in this Lodge a few minutes, he 
 
 1 By Colonel Palmer. A survivor of the Afghan war says ' the sur- 
 render of this strong fortress greatly aggravated the difficulties of our posi- 
 tion at Catral.' 
 
 
1842 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 271 
 
 wished me to return to St. John's Lodge, where the Duke of 
 Northumberland was. I tried to detain him by representing 
 that the Chancellor could not possibly go to the Senate House 
 for some time, and that we should see him, and could join him 
 when he passed the College gate. But he was not to be 
 detained, so we walked together. As we went he said, fi I came 
 to do honour to the Duke of Northumberland, and I must be on 
 the spot for that purpose. Nothing like being on the spot.' 
 
 When he had stayed at the Lodge some time after his return 
 from the Senate House, conversing as above, I proposed to him 
 to go to Magdalen College, where the Master had collected a 
 party of distinguished visitors in the Lodge garden, with a band 
 of music. We went there by the back of the Colleges and 
 through Northampton Street. When we arrived near the gate the 
 Duke asked who was the master of Magdalen, and when I told 
 him Mr. Neville Grenville, he said ' Oh, I know him, he officiates 
 sometimes at the Chapel Koyal. I usually go to the Chapel 
 Royal. Sometimes I am there alone with the reader.' Then aside, 
 c Dearly beloved Eoger.' 
 
 The Duke of Wellington went from Magdalen Gardens with 
 the Bishop of London, and returned to Emmanuel to the Vice- 
 Chancellor's dinner. Here he stayed but a little while and went 
 away before dinner, having determined to sleep at Hatfield. 
 So far as I know he had no dinner till he got there, which must 
 have been near eleven o'clock at night. 
 
 I left the dinner at the Vice-Chancellor's early and came 
 home to receive a few friends at the Lodge. 
 
 July 5, Tuesday. In the Senate House, after the Doctors' 
 degrees had been conferred, the prizes were recited. The 
 Installation Ode was then performed. Afterwards there was 
 given a collation in St. John's grounds. Tents were erected 
 in the new courts for the collation, and in various other parts for 
 i<'< i s, dancing, &c. A public concert was given in the evening. 
 
 July 6, Wednesday. A public oratorio in the morning. 
 Dinner given by Trinity College to the Chancellor at a quarter 
 to five. Invited Heads, late Fellows, Professors, Noblemen, and 
 other distinguished visitors, Inceptors, M.A.s on the Boards 
 gentry of the neighbourhood. Gallery for ladies. 
 
272 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 To Us Sister] Trinity Lodge: June 20, 1842. 
 
 I go to Manchester to-morrow to take my share in the 
 business of thtf British Association. My abode there will be 
 at Sir B. Heywood's. I shall be obliged to come back again as 
 soon as I can, for we shall have our preparations for the Instal- 
 lation to make, and even some of our visitors arriving in the 
 course of next week. 
 
 To his Sister] Bedgebury : Aug. 11, 1842. 
 
 For the last month we have been living so quietly that I 
 hardly knew how the days went on, and yet I have seemed to 
 be very busy. We took a house at Tunbridge Wells, the waters 
 there being recommended for Cordelia. We had a pleasant 
 furzy heath before us, only a few little villas like our own 
 visible from our windows, so that we seemed to be in complete 
 seclusion ; and indeed we were so, for we fell in with scarcely 
 any persons whom we knew, though, as we found afterwards, 
 there were several of our acquaintances there. We had our 
 horses with us, and rode about the country every day. The 
 region is well suited for such a life, for the rides are numerous 
 and beautiful. The country consists of long-backed hills with 
 wide valleys between, all richly wooded, and riding paths every- 
 where meandering through the woods. 
 
 During the time that we were at the Wells we made one 
 visit to Lord Camden at Wilderness near Seven Oaks ; and when 
 our three weeks were over we came to this place. This is the 
 seat of Lord Bradford and his wife. Her son Mr. Hope was a 
 favourite pupil of mine, and is just married to Lady Mildred 
 Cecil. Our visit here came almost before the honeymoon was 
 concluded. To-day we go to Sir John Her sch el's, which is only 
 a few miles off. Then we go on to Mr. Hare's at Hurstmonceux, 
 who is, as you know, a very old and intimate friend. We stay 
 there over Sunday, and then turn our faces to the north. We 
 return by Cambridge, where we have workmen employed upon 
 the Lodge, and if possible I wish to show Cordelia the Cathedrals 
 at Peterborough and Lincoln. We wish very much to make our 
 way to Filey Bay near Scarborough, where our most intimate 
 friends, Mr. and Mrs. Worsley, who were married about a 
 
1842 LANCASTER DINNER. 273 
 
 month ago, are staying. He was my especial friend and com- 
 panion, and she was Cordelia's, so that their marriage is a source 
 of extreme delight to us. He is Master of Downing College. 
 From thence we make our way to Hallsteads, and by the time 
 we get there our holidays will be so far used up that we shall not 
 be able to execute any further excursions. 
 
 Some of my friends in Lancaster want to give me a dinner, 
 I suppose by way of claiming me as a creditable Lancastrian. 
 I do not see how it can be managed, unless it be made to fall in 
 with my passage through Lancaster on my return. 
 
 To Us Sister] Hallsteads: Sep. 1842. 
 
 We are still in the mind of going hence to-morrow, and 
 must set off early, in order to be sure of being in time for the 
 dinner without hurry. We are to sleep at Dr. Ainslie's 1 at 
 Kellet. 
 
 Since my return here I have had some grand long mountain 
 walks with William Marshall, and with Mr. Wordsworth while 
 he was here. I am now beginning to know this neighbourhood 
 pretty well, and shall be able to walk on the sides of Helvellyn 
 in imagination, when I am confined in body to the level banks 
 of the sluggish Cam. 
 
 With regard to the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,' I believe 
 it is going on and likely to be completed. I have heard nothing 
 to the contrary, and am myself taking it in on that supposition. 
 There are in the early part of it some articles of mine one 
 upon Archimedes, another on Electricity. The committee of 
 the dinner have sent to offer Cordelia a place to hear the 
 speeches on the occasion, but as she will have to travel all that 
 day and to rise early the next, she has declined this proposal. 
 I will recollect to send you a Lancaster paper, which I have no 
 doubt will make ado enough about the occasion. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 9, 1842. 
 
 I am afraid it is a long time since I wrote to you, but then 
 you have sometimes letters from Cordelia to fill up these inter- 
 vals, who I dare say tells you of our goings on much better than 
 
 1 Master of Pembroke College. 
 T 
 
274 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 I could. She has told you, as I see by what you say, of the 
 almost uninhabitable condition in which the Lodge has been till 
 lately. She cannot easily have described it as a scene of greater 
 desolation and confusion than it was. We had seven sets of 
 people, whom I used to speak of as our seven plagues ; although 
 this was rather an unreasonable way of speaking of them, as 
 they came at our command and did our bidding. These were 
 the masons, bricklayers, carpenters, painters, glaziers, slaters, 
 and bellhangers. 
 
 We have at last reconquered our drawing-room and dining- 
 room, and are now tolerably at our ease. The Vice-Chancellor- 
 ship naturally adds very much to my employments ; however, 
 I suppose I shall get through it, as others have done before me. 
 
 The post a day or two ago brought me a piece of news 
 which I was very glad to hear. Mr. Owen, who as you know 
 was joined with me in my exaltation at Lancaster, has hitherto 
 been in circumstances not very pleasant to him, inasmuch as 
 the Council of the College of Surgeons, from whom he held his 
 professorship, showed a jealousy of his scientific labours, and 
 tried to restrain him in his Natural History investigations at 
 home ; and on the strength of this Sir Robert Peel has offered 
 him a pension of 200?. a year, which, with other resources, will I 
 trust put him at his ease. 
 
 This must be very agreeable, too, to our good friends at 
 Lancaster, as showing that the Government of the country 
 appreciates Owen no less than his townsmen. I find that 
 my pupil and friend Mr. Conybeare is just elected to the head 
 of a large Collegiate Educational Institution, which they have 
 founded there upon a very dignified scale. 
 
 On the day following his appointment to be Vice- 
 chancellor, Dr. Whewell recorded in a private diary his 
 determination to deal with several matters in the con- 
 duct of the University which seemed to require to be 
 forwarded or undertaken. The first of these was the 
 revision of the University Statutes, which had been pro- 
 ceeding several years, but of late had been at a stand. 
 His object, no doubt, was to treat this matter in the 
 
1842 VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. 275 
 
 same spirit in which he had treated the College Statutes. 
 It will be seen hereafter that this intention was carried 
 out some years subsequently with more considerable 
 results than he probably at this time contemplated. 
 
 Another subject which engaged still more of his 
 personal attention, and was preliminary to his later 
 labours in the same field, was the enactment of regula- 
 tions which should have the effect of moderating the 
 influence of private tuition, and of bringing the mathe- 
 matical and classical examinations of the University 
 into correspondence with the lectures of the professors, 
 which he regarded as being of still more importance 
 now than in former times, in consequence of the disuse 
 of the Disputations in the schools. Having procured 
 the appointment of a Syndicate to consider these ques- 
 tions, he expounded his own views at their first meeting. 
 Among other suggestions he proposed to require cer- 
 tificates of attendance at the professors' lectures, and to 
 establish a permanent Syndicate of Examinations, of 
 which the professors should be members. In these 
 proposals we see the germs of measures which, after an 
 interval of some years, were adopted. In spite of his 
 vigorous advocacy, a Grace, embodying the recom- 
 mendations of the Syndicate, which were the fruit of his 
 untiring industry, was rejected by a majority of the 
 Eegent House, March 31, 1843. He at once gave notice 
 of his intention to bring the Grace again before the 
 Senate with a slight variation, but he was persuaded 
 that such a course would be contrary to the practice of 
 the University, and thereupon withdrew the notice. 
 
 A third matter which Dr. Whewell determined to 
 deal with during his Vice-Chancellorship was one which 
 had long vexed and disturbed him, and which was the 
 occasion of more serious annoyance to him during his 
 
 T 2 
 
276 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 second term of office some twelve years later. This 
 was the conduct of the undergraduates in the galleries 
 of the Senate House at the Bachelor of Arts Commence- 
 ment and other public ceremonies. In several previous 
 years the Vice-Chancellors had found it necessary to 
 make representations to members of the University with 
 a view of enforcing order and decorum. Dr. Whewell, 
 in anticipation of this annual ceremony in 1843, issued 
 a paper to the tutors of colleges, requesting them to 
 impress upon their pupils what was due to their own 
 character and that of the University. It was not his 
 wish to prevent the applause with which it was the 
 custom to greet the Senior Wrangler on his presenta- 
 tion. He considered that the occasion naturally called 
 forth such expressions of generous sympathy, but he 
 hoped that there would be no manifestations of feeling 
 of a different kind upon matters unconnected with the 
 immediate ceremonial of the day. He pointed out that 
 conduct intentionally designed to interrupt the business 
 of the University lowered its dignity and insulted its 
 authority, and that it was inevitably so interpreted both 
 by the friends of the University and by strangers. These 
 remonstrances, whatever their immediate effect, certainly 
 did not produce a. permanent result. But on the oc- 
 casion of the Queen's visit during this same year he had 
 the satisfaction of seeing his wishes obeyed. Professor 
 Smythe, who from his great age was unable to be present 
 during the Royal visit, wrote to the Vice-Chancellor 
 from Norwich: 
 
 I was particularly anxious that the young men should behave 
 with propriety, and that they did so in the most perfect manner 
 I am assured, and that the Prince contrasted their conduct with 
 that of the undergraduates at Oxford. The truth is that how 
 they would behave was quite a matter of doubt. You have not 
 
1842 VOLUNTARY THEOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. 277 
 
 been popular among them. . . . Why you have not been 
 popular I have repeatedly explained to others, and, to myself at 
 least, satisfactorily. . . . You have proceeded [towards them] 
 upon the system of the University Statutes and Ordinances as 
 always understood and practised in my time. . . . Collision 
 therefore between you and them could not possibly be escaped. 
 
 Dr. Milman, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, writing 
 about the same time, said : 
 
 There is but one opinion about your reception of the Royal 
 personages at Cambridge. Your praises from Vice-Chancellor 
 down to the latest freshman are on all tongues. To say the 
 truth, I will not only forgive but thank your Orator, who could 
 not refrain from a sly hit at that ' unruly Isis.' 
 
 In 1843 the first Voluntary Theological examination 
 was held. Having been a member of the Syndicate 
 which recommended its institution, he watched its 
 results with considerable interest, and took special pains 
 as Vice-Chancellor to bring them under the notice of 
 the bishops in the following circular letter, dated 
 October 28, 1843 :- 
 
 My Lord, In the course of the last year a Grace passed 
 the Senate of this University, establishing (1) a compulsory 
 examination in certain theological subjects for those persons 
 who on taking their B.A. Degree are not candidates for mathe- 
 matical honours ; (2) a voluntary examination of the like kind 
 for those persons who on the same occasion are candidates for 
 mathematical honours ; (3) a further theological examination 
 at a subsequent period, to be conducted by the Kegius and Lady 
 Margaret Professors of Divinity and the Kegius Professor of 
 Hebrew; this last examination also to be voluntary, and the 
 names to be published of those students who pass it to the 
 satisfaction of the examiners. 
 
 These examinations do not fully come into action till 1846, 
 but the Kegius and Margaret Professors of Divinity and the 
 Kegius Professor of Hebrew have this year commenced examina- 
 tions of the kind directed by the Grace. 
 
278 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 I take the liberty of transmitting to your Lordship copies 
 of the papers of questions proposed in these examinations, and 
 a list of the persons who have passed them to the satisfaction 
 of the examiners. 
 
 As one of the persons interested in the success of this at- 
 tempt to improve the theological instruction given in this 
 University, I take the liberty of remarking that, with regard 
 especially to the voluntary examinations, their importance in 
 the eyes of our students, and their influence upon the theolo- 
 gical studies in this place, will depend very much upon the 
 weight which their Lordships the Bishops are understood to 
 assign to the circumstance of a person having passed them 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 Several expressed their warm approval of what had 
 been done, and among the rest Bishop Phillpotts of 
 Exeter, who concluded his letter by remarking : ' Shall 
 I be forgiven if I take the liberty of further saying 
 when I consider who it is who has thus conferred with 
 me on this interesting subject that I hail with thank- 
 fulness this consecration of the highest attainments in 
 Science to the service of God and of His Church.' 
 
 Not long before this the contemplated union of the 
 sees of St. Asaph and Bangor had been defeated on the 
 motion of Lord Powis. Dr. Whewell as Vice-Chancellor 
 had successfully seconded the efforts of certain members 
 of the Senate who wished the University to petition the 
 Legislature in support of Lord Powis's motion. 
 
 The Begins Professorship of Divinity became vacant 
 during this year. A legal question arose in consequence 
 of Dr. Graham, the Master of Christ's and one of the 
 electors, announcing himself to be a candidate. It does 
 not appear how the question was settled, Dr. Ollivant 
 having been the candidate elected. 
 
 A dispute had been for some time pending between 
 the University and the parish of Great St. Mary, about 
 
1842 GREAT ST. MARY'S. 279 
 
 the use of the church, in which both had rights. The 
 University service on Sunday mornings was held at an 
 hour which inconveniently postponed the parish service. 
 The University authorities, anxious to make some struc- 
 tural alterations in those parts of the church which 
 were appropriated for the exclusive use of the University, 
 had petitioned for a faculty, but this was opposed by 
 the parish, and the opposition produced some ill feeling 
 on both sides. Dr. Whewell, on becoming Vice-Chan- 
 cellor, found matters in this state, but after some little 
 negotiation he had the pleasure of bringing all dif- 
 ferences to a termination. The hour for the University 
 service was changed to suit the convenience of the 
 parish, and the opposition of the parish to the faculty 
 was withdrawn. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Dec. 27, 1842. 
 
 I was very glad to receive your letter and its enclosures, as 
 we cannot at present have the pleasure of seeing you in person. 
 Your account of your schools interests me much, and I shall 
 always be glad to hear of the progress of them. Indeed I 
 should like much to see them on the spot, as well as your other 
 establishments, but this is a project which belongs to the 
 indefinite future. 
 
 I am not surprised that your attention was taken by the 
 examination papers } which I sent to Myers. The earnestness 
 and inquiring spirit which appeared in them is an indication 
 of a temper which prevails very generally among our young 
 men on such subjects ; and I do not at all wonder, though I am 
 much pleased, to find that your thoughts have been turning 
 that way. I should be very glad to talk with you on such 
 matters, and rather expect that we should make a considerable 
 progress towards agreeing with each other. At least we should 
 
 1 Possibly the Philosophy Papers of the Fellowship Examination at 
 Trinity, 1842. 
 
280 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 start from a common principle, that in order to bind men 
 together, either in their social relations or in their spiritual 
 sympathies, that is either in State or in Church, we must have 
 something which we believe, and which they believe, as the 
 foundation of all external rules and arrangements. 
 
 And this something being true in itself, cannot depend upon 
 the power or will of numbers or upon any other extraneous 
 thing. If we can find social, moral, and religious truth, we 
 must disregard the voice of the strongest and largest multitude 
 when it utters falsehoods. 
 
 Now I myself do most firmly believe that such truth is to 
 be found, that Providence has given us means of discovering it, 
 and if we are strenuous and faithful, of carrying it into the 
 arrangements of society and the business of life, at least so far 
 as is requisite for the continual progress both of ourselves and 
 of our nation in all that is really good and great. There may 
 be, and there certainly are, great difficulties in the way both of 
 discovering what doctrines we ought to hold, what arrangements 
 we ought to make, what objects we ought to aim at, and then, 
 in doing what we ought to do. Still I most entirely believe, 
 as I have said, that Providence has given us the means of seeing 
 the Truth, and of shaping our lives and the relations of our 
 community according to it. Without this belief it would be 
 impossible to act in any comfort or hope. 
 
 So far I am sure we agree. Now for the next step. I could 
 not possibly believe that Providence has thus enabled man to 
 discover moral and social truth, and to embody it in his institu- 
 tions, if I believed that man had as yet made no progress in 
 doing this, and that the great step was still to be made that 
 we were to learn our duty and our work by some new lights 
 entirely different from the old ones. I cannot but believe that 
 Providence, if He gives us the means of discovering truths 
 speculative and practical, has given like means to former genera- 
 tions, and has never withheld them from any generation. If my 
 belief in the vocation of myself and my neighbours to improve 
 ourselves and our community depended upon my supposing the 
 conditions of this generation to be something novel and un- 
 paralleled, I should expect it to change and shrink when my 
 views of the relations of the present generation to the past 
 
1842 LETTER TO JAMES G. MARSHALL. 281 
 
 ones came to be modified ; which modification a study of 
 history and many other things are almost certain to produce. 
 If then I believe in Truth at all, I must believe that there is 
 a great deal of truth already in the world, and a great deal of 
 it embodied in the frame of society. Indeed I must believe 
 that 'all which is most true and substantial and permanent 
 in the convictions of men, and in the structure of society, is 
 a part of that Truth which we are concerned to discover and 
 to act. 
 
 Nor is there any difficulty in seeing that it is so. We see 
 that in the relations of society, for instance, there are a number 
 of principles practically embodied which are necessary for the 
 existence and development of men and man, and which are 
 never shaken, except in certain convulsive disorders to which 
 man's career is liable. Such are marriage, property, contracts, 
 government ; constitutional government, that is, liberty ; im- 
 provement, that is, reform, progress, or whatever else you choose 
 to call it. All these principles have long been acknowledged 
 as necessary to society, and however lively our desire for truths 
 may be, and our persuasion that new principles are needed, 
 we shall find no social principles more important than these. 
 We must therefore accept them, and act them out, whatever 
 more we do. 
 
 And the same is the case in the internal world of men, as 
 well as in the social world. The principles on which man's 
 well-being, as to his soul, depends, have not been hidden in the 
 dark till now. They have been disclosed to former generations, 
 and at one great epoch so fully disclosed, that all our main 
 light must be borrowed from that one Revelation. We may 
 persuade ourselves that we make some progress in developing, 
 for our own use, the great doctrines which were then delivered. 
 It may be so. But we shall never, by any such development, 
 obliterate the great leading conditions of the relation of man to 
 his Maker, on which all our spiritual hopes depend. No develop- 
 ment of our views, however lively and luminous, can make 
 our catechism false, which we learnt as a child, if it were 
 ever true. 
 
 I come therefore to this that however much I may feel a 
 craving for a new view of the truth, suited to our age, or rather, 
 
282 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1842 
 
 probably, to my own special state of mind, I have no hope of 
 finding any view of the truth, which is really true, if it do not 
 include and rest upon that which has been true up to the 
 present time. As firmly as I believe there is a truth for me, 
 so firmly do I believe that it has not been kept back till now, 
 and reserved merely for me and my contemporaries. We may 
 have our new portions ; we may add our share of struggle and 
 progress ; but we are but one generation, many have gone 
 before. I cannot believe but that our share will have some 
 proportion to theirs, and therefore I look with reverence upon 
 that which they have accumulated, no less than with hope and 
 joy on that which is my own especial boon. 
 
 I believe in Truth. I believe there is a Truth. Many of 
 our friends, zealous, active-minded, generous-spirited men, say 
 the same. Good ! Then let us confer. What., I ask them, is 
 the truth which they believe in ? They are silent, or they 
 repeat that they believe in truth without having yet found it ; 
 or probably they turn round upon me, and ask me what is my 
 truth ? 
 
 I have my answer ready, and you must not start at it. 
 I believe in our National Constitution and in our National 
 Keligion. I believe that these embody more of the truth, are 
 better approaches to the true form of Church and State, than 
 have ever yet been established. I am ready to act on this 
 belief. I love them because I believe this. This is what I call 
 believing, and this is my notion of the truth in which I believe. 
 And again I ask our friends who talk of the necessity of believ- 
 ing, ivhat they believe ? 
 
 But I believe in the National Church and the National 
 Constitution, not as mere formulae, but as living things, as the 
 most essential part of the social and spiritual life of the nation. 
 Therefore that in which I believe is not a dead, stationary, 
 immovable thing, but something which is developed and 
 expanded and renewed with the development and expansion of 
 men's social and spiritual workings. I cannot believe in any 
 Church or State which is not constantly unfolding, enlarging, 
 and renewing itself which must not have from time to time 
 Keform and Eeformation except we are happier still, and keep 
 up, constantly alive, a formative spirit which makes reform 
 
1842 CHURCH AND STATE. 283 
 
 unnecessary. To do this is not easy. Very far from it. But 
 it is necessary to attempt this. This is the object at which we 
 must aim, each in our way. And if the object have ever been 
 missed, so that some convulsive movement in the progress of 
 society has been occasioned, we must, as soon and as energetic- 
 ally as possible, work ourselves back into the true path of 
 gradual, tranquil, slow progress, depending on a belief in the 
 gradual progress that we have hitherto made. 
 
 I do not know how far I carry you with me in these views. 
 Perhaps they deviate a little from your notion, if you entertain 
 it, of an entirely new scheme of Church and State. But they 
 fall in excellently well with what you are doing, whether or not 
 they agree with your speculative thoughts. For, to supply 
 deficiencies in the present state of education arising from the 
 insufficiency of the national scheme and the national means 
 hitherto directed to that purpose, is exactly one of those vital 
 processes by which the national life is kept in healthful union 
 with the national organization. Church and State are the skin 
 and hide of the living creature, the nation ; and it cannot be 
 sound if its skin be cracked by its growth, still less if it drop 
 off in dead strips as a thing worn out. And if this happen, 
 right sore will the creature be till it gets another skin, even if 
 it do not perish in the process. 
 
 One of Mrs. Whe well's occupations in the early 
 months of 1843 was making extracts from her husband's 
 letters to his family, carefully preserved by his sister, 
 and now lent by her for the purpose of having drawn 
 from them a continuous history of his life. 
 
 During March and April a more than usually frequent 
 interchange of letters took place with Archdeacon Hare. 
 Humours from various quarters had reached Arch- 
 deacon Hare that the natural vehemence of character 
 for which he had before now taken his friend to task 
 was increased rather than diminished by the burthen 
 of the Vice-Chancellorship added this year to all his 
 ordinary business. Two or three years ago Dr. Wliewell 
 
284 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 had assured him that he had no disposition either to 
 deny or to defend the failings he was wont to point out. 
 Belying upon this assurance, and moved by deep and 
 affectionate friendship, he writes with the utmost frank- 
 ness and courage a letter of remonstrance and rebuke. It 
 is such a letter as few friends would have ventured to 
 write at a distance, supported only by hearsay evidence. 
 Perhaps no one in whom vehemence and impetuosity 
 had degenerated into arrogance, or in whom the desire 
 to be thought right had become predominant over the 
 desire to do right and to be right, could have received 
 it, as Dr. Whewell did, without irritation or offence at 
 the time, and without the slightest subsequent diminu- 
 tion of affection or intimacy. The matter is fully and 
 calmly discussed, and only dismissed at last with the 
 wish that Hare would come and judge for himself as to 
 the truth of the charge, and with the conclusion that, 
 after all, each must try and do his duty in his own way 
 as best he can. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 23, 1843. 
 
 All Vice-Chancellor that I am, I must find time to write to 
 you now and then ; and as I am afraid the then during which I 
 have not done so is rather long, I must try to find the now. 
 
 Cordelia has however told you most of what there is to tell, 
 which is mainly that I am very busy ; but as my business is so 
 constant that it leaves no time in which anything else requiring 
 much attention can be done, I am liberated from the struggle 
 in which I used to be involved, of trying to live a life of study 
 and of business at the same time. I have laid aside my specu- 
 lations for the year ; and almost wonder, in looking back, how in 
 the middle of my tutor's and other business I contrived to write 
 so many big books. I suppose the fact is that I am growing 
 old, and have no longer the activity and diligence of those 
 years. 
 
 As we must grow old, it is pleasant to keep on good terms 
 
1843 ARCHDEACON HARE. 285 
 
 with our earlier days ; and I have been much pleased with the 
 memoranda of past events which Cordelia has extracted from 
 my letters which you lent her. It was in part living the past 
 time over again, and then in my memory, and among my papers, 
 and in my sketch-books, I found many other memorials of the 
 same time which served to fill up the outline of the picture. I 
 was very glad that Cordelia should come to know something 
 about my past history and employments, to which reference 
 very naturally often comes in our way. 
 
 Archdeacon Hare to Dr. Whewell~\ 
 
 Hurstmonceux : March 29, 1843. 
 
 I am glad to hear your Lodge is finished, and should much 
 enjoy visiting it, and you and other good folks at Cambridge. 
 Much too should I like to see you in your Vice-Cancellarian 
 chair ; but I fear it will be quite impossible for me to find time 
 for so long an excursion from home this spring. My com- 
 pulsory absences, though they have not been of long duration, 
 have made me half a stranger in my own parish. 
 
 Of Cambridge doings I hear from time to time with much 
 interest through one channel or another. . . . 
 
 A thing, which I have heard from a number of quarters, has 
 grieved me very much, and I feel some difficulty in speaking 
 about it. But the kindness with which you received what I 
 said on the subject when you were appointed Master, encourages 
 me to hope that you will still feel it is nothing but my deep 
 and affectionate friendship that induces me to speak to you 
 about it. Last year I was greatly delighted at hearing from 
 several persons how kind and gentle and affable your manner 
 had become since your appointment to the Mastership ; and 
 when you were here, my sisters were particularly pleased with 
 this union of gentleness with strength and power. But from 
 many reports which have reached me in the last six months, I 
 am very much afraid that the additional burthen of the Vice- 
 Chancellor's cares has somewhat ruffled you again, and called 
 out the vehemence of the natural man, which it is always 
 difficult to repress. I know well that a wearing, daily-renewed 
 load of practical business is hard to bear patiently, especially 
 
286 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 for a man who would fain be sailing away over some unknown 
 seas of speculation. Still this difficulty may be overcome, and 
 ought to be, not merely because it must so materially hurt your 
 character and popularity, but still more because it must so 
 much diminish the influence which you would exercise other- 
 wise in the University, and which might be so beneficial. 
 
 And now I must beg you to forgive what I have said. I 
 should rejoice to find that there is no ground for it ; but the 
 repeated reports have made me feel that it was a duty of friend- 
 ship not to be silent. You may tell me, if you like, that ' a 
 libeller ' l has no business to talk about gentleness ; but often 
 the very defects we feel the keenliest are those we ourselves 
 are most prone to. 
 
 Of course I am glad that you should have petitioned for the 
 preservation of the Welsh sees, but I wished that your Vice- 
 Chancellorship should have been distinguished by measures of 
 greater difficulty and of higher importance to the University ; 
 by an attempt at least to do something toward lessening those 
 two terrible evils in our system, the practice of private tuition, 
 and the use of emulation as the one great spur to the acquire- 
 ment of knowledge. You know how deeply I feel the mischief 
 of these two evils. I believe it is very much owing to them 
 that our position relatively to Oxford has altered so much in 
 the last twenty years. 
 
 Oxford has risen, and we have sunk ; and we shall continue 
 to sink, unless we get rid of our system of drilling for parade 
 and of our morbid stimulants, and adopt a system which will 
 call forth a living power and train our students to walk with- 
 out leading-strings. You are the person to whom I look for 
 these improvements, and Worsley will help you heart and hand 
 in effecting them. 
 
 About the Welsh sees, I send you our petition. My belief 
 is that we shall fail this year, because practical men, all but 
 the very greatest, are often obstinate in proportion as they are 
 wrong. Still I trust that the two sees will be preserved. If 
 the present feeling continues, assuredly they will be. 
 
 1 This expression has reference to an action which had recently heen 
 brought against the Archdeacon, who however obtained a verdict in his 
 favour. 
 
1843 ARCHDEACON HARE. 287 
 
 I have sent you a long letter, instead of a personal talk ; 
 the latter would be far better, but I see little likelihood of it. 
 Pray remember me very kindly to your wife and to Worsley, with 
 whose wife I long to become acquainted. You I fear will have 
 little leisure for voyaging this year ; but tell him he ought to 
 come to us, and that we shall rejoice much to see him, not his 
 worst half merely, but both halves.- Ever yours, 
 
 I. C. H. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Trinity Lodge : March 31, 1843. 
 
 I was glad to hear from you about your < libel,' for in truth 
 it escaped me in the newspapers, to which indeed I do not give 
 much time. I had heard of it in talk, and Bunsen spoke with 
 satisfaction of the result, which made me suppose that you 
 must be satisfied too ; but I am much more glad to learn from 
 you that you are so. I wish to see the Brighton newspaper 
 which you promise to send me. 
 
 I write immediately on receiving your letter, as the best 
 chance of being able to answer it at all, and you will excuse 
 any additional vivacity which is given by this quickness to my 
 reception of your advice. In the friendship which dictates the 
 warning I rejoice ; but I do not much believe in the alleged 
 fault, I think the charge arises from those who have no inter- 
 course with me. I have every reason to believe that those who 
 have to do with me do not think me ' ruffled,' and do not find 
 me more vehement than what amounts to firmness. I think 
 this, because I have not been vexed with the V.C.'s office, but 
 rather have enjoyed it, giving up all my other pursuits, and 
 making it my business to do it well. I have things to do 
 which some people will call oppressive offices ; but only persons 
 whom you would not agree with, any more than myself. I have 
 tried to suppress pigeon-shooting in the outskirts of the town, 
 uproar in the Senate- house galleries, and dinners at taverns ; and 
 of course this makes detractors and railers. I have not been 
 neglectful of the object which you speak of diminishing the 
 influence of private tutors. To-day I brought in a Grace with 
 that view : it is non-placeted. I am still going to try to travel 
 towards the same object. I think you expect things inconsistent 
 if you would have me attempt objects so difficult, complex, un- 
 
288 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 popular, as what you speak of, and still would have me spoken of 
 by no one as eager and self-willed. I have had the people in the 
 newspapers writing against my measures, and the Johnians have 
 thrown it out for the present. I send you some papers about it. 
 You will not see the whole bearing of the measure at first. Any- 
 thing which is to be done with regard to such objects as you 
 mention, must in the University be done with great caution, 
 and must be of such a nature as to take effect slowly. So you 
 must not expect to hear of a revolution. 
 
 I am sorry to find you give us so faint a hope of your coming 
 here soon. We could talk on the matters which you speak of, 
 but it is not easy for either of us to find time to write about 
 them. My wife and Worsley's wife want to see you here as 
 much or nearly as much as we ourselves do. 
 
 I fear you are not too unhopeful about the Welsh bishop- 
 rics. I had a letter from Thirlwall about them which de- 
 lighted me by its earnestness. 
 
 The next letter from Archdeacon Hare is as 
 follows : 
 
 Hurstmonceux : April 8, 1843. 
 
 Most gladly would I believe that the reports of which I 
 spoke in my last letter were altogether unfounded. But they 
 came to me so repeatedly, and from so many quarters, and some 
 of them certainly not unfriendly ones, that I thought I could 
 hardly fulfil the duties of friendship without saying something 
 to you about them ; more especially as even among a man's 
 friends there are very few who are not readier to note his defects 
 in his absence than to his face. At all events I felt sure that 
 you would receive what I said in kindness, and there could be 
 no harm in a warning that might make you still more vigilant 
 over yourself. 
 
 As to your more general position, that it is scarcely possible 
 to attempt the changes I wish for in the University without 
 incurring a charge of self-will, I should be disposed to assail it. 
 My own experience has shown me what an extraordinary practi- 
 cal influence such a man as Bishop Otter can exercise over his 
 whole diocese, in great measure by the sweetness of his manner. 
 
WELSH SEES. 289 
 
 So again it is by his singular winningness that Manning is now 
 able to carry almost everything he wishes at our Diocesan 
 Association, notwithstanding the jealousy which a supposed 
 taint of Newmanism arouses against him. In Taylor's ' States- 
 man ' he speaks of the power Wilberforce acquired by having 
 ' the cream of human kindness.' And thus every day we see 
 instances of the fulfilment of the saying that ' the meek shall 
 inherit the earth.' 
 
 Of the Grace which has been thrown out, I can in some 
 measure guess the drift, though I dare say I do not see all its 
 bearings ; and I am very glad and thankful that you have 
 begun to attempt something against one of the two besetting 
 and overriding evils of our University. At the same time I 
 am very far from expecting any rapid revolution with regard to 
 them. My own experience here again, in my warfare against 
 pews and black monsters, has taught me that except when a 
 nation is set in motion by the blast of some mighty principle, 
 the contest against every kind and degree of selfishness is carried 
 on under great disadvantages, and must be carried on long and 
 patiently and perseveringly, if it is to succeed. 
 
 I am very glad you have had a letter from Thirlwall about 
 the Welsh sees that has ' delighted you by its earnestness.' 
 Which side does he take ? I was told he had expressed himself 
 doubtfully in presenting a petition. Perhaps he may be very 
 anxious for the new see of Manchester. But I cannot see why 
 that should not be established at once. There are various ways 
 in which the difficulties may be got over. If they do not like 
 another bishop in the House of Peers, let the junior bishop 
 not be called up ; and then there would be the advantage that 
 he might get to know something of his diocese before he was 
 called away from it to his chaplaincy of the House of Lords. It 
 certainly is one of the most wonderful anticipations in history, 
 that, when Gregory sent Augustine to England, he should have 
 drawn up the scheme of a Church with two archbishops and 
 twenty-four bishops. What would Niebuhr have said of the 
 preservation of this number after so many vicissitudes and above 
 twelve centuries. One should be loth to alter the sacred number, 
 if it were only to add one ; but as I should rather wish to add 
 forty-eight, and think that such an addition would be the best 
 
 U 
 
290 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 temporal means of energising the whole body of our ministry, 
 I cannot let the charm of a number hinder such an object. 
 
 Along with this you will receive the sermon preached at Thirl- 
 wall's consecration, which ought to have been published long ago, 
 but which was kept back, as being too worthless to stand alone, 
 till it could gather followers enough to make up a volume, and 
 of which I have struck off a few extra copies for distribution 
 before it comes into public along with its companions. 
 
 I have had a good deal of correspondence lately with 
 Henslow, and have had great pleasure in seeing the warm in- 
 terest he takes in his parish duties ; and there has been a 
 simplicity and humility in his letters that have been very 
 delightful, 
 
 What do you say to Mill's ' Logic ' ? I know not whether 
 I shall ever find time to read it. As yet I have only cut it open, 
 and seen that he is perpetually breaking a lance with you. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Trinity Lodge: April 12, 1843. 
 
 You are certainly a most resolute monitor, for you repeat 
 your admonitions without any regard to the answer which is 
 made to them, or any information as to details. If you will 
 tell me of any special error of the kind you mention, I will 
 task my memory and my conscience very strictly for it. Can 
 you tell me any better course to take ? I am ready for the 
 assault you talk of, and I do not think I shall have much diffi- 
 culty in disposing of your examples. 
 
 Wilberforce certainly did incur, from a very large body of 
 persons, a most vehement charge of self-will. Bishop Otter 
 was a very excellent person in many ways ; but, so far as I have 
 heard, might sometimes have saved inconvenience to'his friends 
 if he had not only been accused of having, but had a little 
 more self-will, for he might then have avoided the appearance 
 of inconsistent promises, to which the kindness of his nature 
 led him, And, whatever you may think, I assure you that there 
 are not wanting persons who think that the present Vice- 
 Chancellor combines his firmness with great temper and 
 patience. If you saw the attacks to which the papers I send 
 you contain answers, perhaps you might think so too. But, be 
 that as it may, we must each of us do our work in our own 
 
1843 WELSH SEES. 291 
 
 way, as well as we can. It will not be easily nor perhaps soon 
 that I shall make much way in this matter, for though many 
 people talk on the right side they are lukewarm in acting. 
 
 My letter from Thirlwall was a most earnest condemnation 
 of the suppression of one Welsh bishopric. I was not told that 
 he expressed himself doubtfully in the House, only that he 
 professed to wait respectfully for the Archbishop of Canterbury's 
 defence. I never dreamt that you could doubt on which side 
 he was. 
 
 Thank you for the Consecration Sermon. I had heard of it, 
 and wanted much to see it. I do not think you will find Mill's 
 6 Logic ' repay your study very well. He is far removed from his 
 former opinions, but equally positive in every phase of change. 
 
 The last letter of the series was the following from 
 Archdeacon Hare to Dr. Whewell. 
 
 Hurstmonceux : April 17, 1843. 
 
 I must write a few lines more, since my last letter was so 
 clumsily expressed as to give you the notion that I meant to 
 ' repeat my admonitions.' To have done so after what you had 
 said would have been exceedingly impertinent. But it seemed to 
 me that you might also justly charge me with impertinence, if, as 
 you appeared to fancy, I had spoken in the first instance on no 
 better authority than that of persons whom you had been com- 
 pelled to offend in the faithful discharge of your duty ; and it was 
 to escape this imputation I stated that this was not the case. 
 However, defending oneself is always rather an awkward business, 
 and I must have performed it awkwardly. 
 
 As to your attempt to repel the three men whom I had 
 sent to assail your position, you seem to me to have missed your 
 aim. Wilberforce might indeed be charged with obstinacy, 
 for insisting so perseveringly for so many years in attempting 
 to accomplish his great work, by those who could not under- 
 stand the high principle or sympathize with the feelings which 
 animated him. But no one, I think, can ever have taken the 
 least offence at his behaviour personally ; indeed, the exceeding 
 suavity of his manners tended greatly to aid him and his cause. 
 And if Bishop Otter was wanting in firmness, it only strengthens 
 
 TJ 2 
 
292 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 my argument when, in spite of that want, he was able by the 
 sweetness and affectionateness of his character to do so much. 
 But I merely mentioned these cases because it is pleasant to 
 turn off from a personal topic to a more general one. I know 
 well that we must each of us endeavour to perform our ap- 
 pointed work with the faculties which we have received, though 
 of course keeping them under control, and seeking to have them 
 purified. I know, too, that I^uther was not gentler than Melanc- 
 thon, and yet did a thousand times as much. 
 
 Alas ! such is the way of man. We must make up our 
 minds to find that many of those who are forwardest in sup- 
 porting us with words shrink from everything beyond. But 
 we have just been prepared for this by reading that woful story, 
 how all the disciples forsook their Lord and fled. 
 
 My uncertainty about Thirlwall arose from my having been 
 told that he had expressed himself doubtfully, which he has 
 rather a knack of doing. And I do not think that he took 
 much interest in the Chapter Bill. Since he has been a bishop 
 he has indeed seen how much an active bishop may effect in 
 his own diocese ; and if he had not been so strongly in favour 
 of the Eeform Bill, I should have fancied that he would gener- 
 ally be desirous of revivifying old institutions rather than of 
 destroying them. 
 
 The Consecration Sermon is hardly worth reading. You 
 know I have often been apt to stick fast in a Euripidean pro- 
 logue, and can seldom get on beyond the first act ; and this 
 time Carlyle paid me a visit just two days before I came up to 
 London, and thus the very two days which I had assigned to 
 the sermon were spent in listening to him. The time was 
 rather unhappily chosen on both accounts ; for though I enjoyed 
 his visit exceedingly, I should have done so more freely at 
 another time. 
 
 On April 14, 1843, Dr. Whewell addressed a re- 
 presentation to Sir John Cam Hobhouse on the subject 
 of Thorwaldsen's statue of Lord Byron, which, after 
 having been refused admission to Westminster Abbey, 
 was now immured in one of the vaults of the London 
 Custom House. 
 
1843 TPIORWALDSEN'S STATUE OF BYRON. 293 
 
 Dr. Whewell suggested the College Library as a most 
 fitting resting-place for that fine work of art. He 
 pointed out that the College was the place of Lord 
 Byron's academical education ; that he there formed 
 friendships to which he attached great value, and which 
 continued through his life ; and that he was still re- 
 collected with regard by resident members of the 
 College. 
 
 This suggestion was met by a proposal on behalf of 
 the subscribers to place the statue in the ante-chapel, 
 but this Dr. Whewell refused to entertain. Early in 
 the autumn of 1845 the statue was conveyed to Cam- 
 bridge under the directions of Sir Eichard Westmacott, 
 and placed on the admirable site originally selected by 
 Dr. Whewell's artistic sagacity. In many other ways 
 the College derived benefit from his taste and know- 
 ledge in matters of architecture and art. From the 
 circumstances of its foundation by Henry VIII., the 
 College is the impropriate rector of many churches, the 
 chancels of which it is, on that account, bound to keep 
 in repair. During his Mastership many proposals, in- 
 volving restoration or reconstruction, were entertained, 
 and in every case of this kind Dr. Whewell examined 
 the plans and designs with great care, and not unfre- 
 quently went to see how the works were being carried 
 on. His advice and supervision were always valuable ; 
 some of the most successful renovations carried out by 
 the College owed everything to his suggestion and 
 guidance. 
 
 Dr. Whewell was no advocate for excessive orna- 
 mentation. The chapel of Trinity College, though not 
 without some artistic features, is architecturally a poor 
 though substantial fabric. The Master would never 
 consent to any embellishment of the chapel itself; but 
 
294 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 the ante-chapel, which had long been a memorial-place 
 for deceased members of the society, was enriched 
 during his time by many stained glass windows and 
 other monumental works of art. Some of the windows 
 were, like the statue of Bacon, contributed by himself. 
 The bust of his old friend Sheepshanks, by Foley, bears 
 an inscription from his hand, as does also a statue of 
 Barrow, which was presented to the College by Lord 
 Lansdowne, in 1838, under the following circumstances. 
 Lord Lansdowne stated, in November 1856, that, 'Ever 
 since seeing the statue of Bacon, given by Dr. Whewell 
 to the College, and placed with that of Newton in the 
 ante-chapel, he could not help considering whether the 
 history of English literature and philosophy could pro- 
 duce a name representing a genius so exalted as to be 
 worthy of such companionship, and as such fitted to 
 fill the corner on the opposite side.' As the result of 
 his consideration, he had originally, by a codicil of his 
 will, bequeathed to the College a sufficient sum to meet 
 the cost of a statue of Milton ; but it subsequently 
 occurred to him that he might possibly have the satis- 
 faction of seeing the statue erected in his lifetime, and 
 accordingly he requested the College, through the 
 Master, to receive as a present what had been intended 
 as a legacy. 
 
 The Master replied that a memorial statue of Milton 
 could not fitly be presented to Trinity, nor placed with- 
 in its walls, inasmuch as he was not a member of the 
 College. He suggested as alternatives, George Herbert, 
 Dryden, Pearson, Barrow, or Bentley. Lord Lansdowne's 
 own feeling was in favour of Dryden, but he consulted 
 others on the subject, and among them Lord Macaulay 
 and Professor Sedgwick. Macaulay, in a characteristic 
 letter, supported the claims of Bentley. Sedgwick, in 
 
1843 NOBLE'S STATUE OF BARROW. 295 
 
 a letter equally characteristic of him, wrote in favour 
 of Barrow. His choice was adopted by the Master and 
 other resident members of the College, and was acqui- 
 esced in by Lord Lansdowne. The following extract 
 from Professor Sedgwick's letter shows some of the 
 grounds on which he based the claims of Barrow : 
 
 Barrow was a great inventive mathematician, and a fore- 
 runner clearing the way for the vast discoveries of Newton. 
 He was great also as a moralist and divine^ and was a man of 
 gigantic learning. What grand old-fashioned eloquence, what 
 earnestness in the cause of moral truth, do we find in the works 
 of Barrow ! They will live so long as majestic eloquence and 
 moral truth and Christian hopes are dear to the hearts of men. 
 
 The statue was executed by Mr. Noble, and on 
 February 10, 1838, Lord Lansdowne wrote that it gave 
 him great pleasure to learn that it was considered 
 decidedly successful, and was universally approved. 
 
 The honour of a statue in the ante-chapel, which 
 had been refused to Byron and accorded to Barrow, 
 was claimed not long after for Lord Macaulay. 
 
 After his death a fund was raised by subscription 
 among members of Trinity College for the purpose of 
 presenting to the College a statue commemorative at 
 once of his genius and of his affection for Trinity. Dr. 
 Wliewell's opinion was that a bust of Macaulay should 
 stand on the floor of the library, among the busts of ' our 
 other great men ' ; and that a bronze statue might also 
 be placed against the river front of the library, where 
 in course of time other statues might be erected by the 
 side of it. These opinions were not generally shared 
 by the subscribers of the fund. The statue, eventually 
 executed in marble by Mr. Woollier, has found a place 
 in the ante-chapel, opposite to one of Dr. Whewell him- 
 self, by the same artist, which was erected and placed 
 
296 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 there by the College after his death. A bust of himself, 
 executed by Bailey, and bequeathed to the College by 
 his will, stands in Trinity Library. Other additions to 
 the fine collection of busts possessed by the College 
 were made during his time, including those of Hare, 
 Sedgwick, Eobert Leslie Ellis, John Mitchell Kemble, 
 and the present Poet Laureate. 
 
 Shortly after the return to Cambridge a correspond- 
 ence took place between Dr. Whewell and Mr. Edward 
 Coleridge of Eton, on the subject of a College for the 
 Education of Missionary Clergy. Mr. Coleridge origi- 
 nated the idea of such an institution, and in its first 
 state communicated it to the Master of Trinity, and 
 doubtless to other persons in authority at both uni- 
 versities. The reasons in favour of the plan as urged 
 in the circular, and his own against its being carried 
 into effect at Cambridge, are given in Dr. Whewell's 
 answer to Mr. Coleridge, of which a draft is found in 
 the journal. The scheme eventually took shape at 
 Canterbury, where, to use Mr. Coleridge's words, written 
 April 16, 1879, 'The Missionary College was finally 
 built on the very foundation of St. Augustine's Abbey. 
 There it now stands and flourishes, full of students. It 
 was my idea, and was carried out partly by my exer- 
 tions, and still more by the effectual aid of Beresford 
 Hope. The Master of Trinity gave me 100/. towards 
 the project.' 
 
 The Master's letter is important, because the views 
 expressed in it were his through life. He always 
 maintained that the necessary expenses of the university 
 were but small, and that the effort to avoid such as are 
 unnecessary gives both a test of real superiority of 
 character and leads to valuable results in the way of 
 self-discipline. 
 
1843 COLLEGE FOR MISSIONARY CLERGY. 297 
 
 He also maintained that to separate, artificially, the 
 poorer from the richer students in any place of public 
 education was to injure both classes and to deprive 
 them of one very great advantage of a university educa- 
 tion, namely, the mingling of persons of different con- 
 ditions and destinations, and thereby giving them ' a 
 fellow-feeling and mutual understanding as cultivated 
 Englishmen.' 
 
 This is the letter, copied from the draft in the 
 Master's journal. 
 
 To the Rev. Edward Coleridge] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Aug. 27, 1843. 
 
 In a ' private circular ' which I have received from you, you 
 state your wish to obtain assurances of general support to the 
 plan there described, of creating a College in one of the two 
 ancient Universities, for the purpose of educating Ministers for 
 the Colonies. Perhaps those who cannot engage to support 
 such a plan are not called upon to express their opinions any 
 otherwise than by their silence ; but as this course may be 
 misunderstood, I am desirous of offering for your consideration 
 a few remarks on your plan. It may under any circumstances 
 be of use to you to know what objections suggest themselves to 
 some minds as to the proposed method of attaining the very 
 important and desirable object you have in view. I will there- 
 fore state without reserve some of the difficulties which occur 
 to me on this subject. 
 
 A great and fundamental difficulty is the very serious 
 expense of erecting a new college in Oxford or Cambridge. 
 For a small number of students at first, you have to incur the 
 formidable charges of purchase money of the ground, building 
 chapel, hall, and lodging-rooms ; to which you must add salaries 
 of some college officers, teachers, and governors. To provide 
 for these in addition to the expenses of the students themselves 
 appears to me a most bold undertaking. 
 
 And is this formidable undertaking necessary for your 
 object ? Why should you not educate such ministers as you 
 speak of at some of the existing colleges ? 
 
298 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 It will be replied, I presume, that the expenses at the 
 existing colleges are too great, the mode of living too luxurious, 
 the education not exactly what is wanted. 
 
 To the first of these objections I would reply that the 
 necessary expenses of the existing colleges are small, so small 
 that I doubt whether in any new college they can be made 
 smaller. The expenses habitually incurred by persons who 
 imitate those of larger fortune than themselves are great ; but 
 persons intended for such a life as those of whom you speak 
 ought to be able to resist this temptation. If they cannot 
 do this their characters are not suitable to their destination. 
 Even in a separate college they will not be safe from this 
 temptation ; and so far as they are safe by having less com- 
 munication with the rest of the university, they will lose some 
 of the special advantages which in the course of our university 
 education such communication bestows. 
 
 But I will grant that the education of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, under any circumstances, may be too expensive for a 
 colonial clergy. 
 
 Then why not apply any funds which you raise directly to 
 meet this expense ? Why not found Exhibitions or Scholarships 
 for persons who are willing to devote themselves to the colonial 
 ministry ? 
 
 By this means you save the expenses of ground, chapel, hall$ 
 officers ; in short, all the heaviest part of the expense of your 
 plan. I conceive, as I have said, that the destination of your 
 students ought to be a sufficient guarantee for their frugality 
 and regular habits. Bitt if you want something more, appoint 
 some person (a resident member of the university) as the 
 superintendent of the colonial clerical students.- By communi- 
 cation with the deans and tutors of the different colleges, 
 added to his own intercourse with the students, he may fully 
 judge of their habits and characters, and may, at least in Cam- 
 bridge, direct and control their expenses. I have no doubt 
 that the deans and tutors would very gladly lend themselves to 
 such communication. 
 
 The second objection, the luxury of our colleges, is not 
 well founded. The sizars in Cambridge do not live luxuriously ; 
 many of them live as frugally and simply as can be desired. 
 
1843 COLONIAL CLERICAL STUDENTS. 299 
 
 The colonial clerical students must of course take care to be of 
 this class, and their superintendent must satisfy himself that 
 they are. 
 
 The third point, the inappropriateness of our teaching, 
 must be remedied by special tuition as far as it is needed. 
 The superintendent must see to this, and must himself teach 
 the colonial students, and see that they are taught, such know- 
 ledge as they need. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said that these students will be humbled 
 and disturbed by the difference between themselves and other 
 students. I do not think this need be. We have very poor 
 men as students, who never think of concealing the difference 
 between their condition and destination and that of their 
 contemporaries. But I think the humiliation would be quite 
 as marked if they belonged to a separate college ; and there 
 would be added very great evils in their education, arising from 
 their associating almost exclusively with each other. One of 
 the great advantages of our education is that by mixing persons 
 of different conditions and destinations it gives them a fellow 
 feeling and a mutual understanding as cultivated Englishmen, 
 and I have been assured, by persons whose authority on such 
 subjects is of the greatest value, that this feature in our educa- 
 tion is of especial importance to those who have to act in our 
 colonies. I have spoken with great freedom, &c. &c. 
 
 It was probably his long experience as tutor, which 
 made him familiar with the circumstances of every 
 individual pupil, that led Dr. Whewell to speak with 
 so much confidence on the subject of the expenditure 
 incident to a university education. The Cambridge 
 system, which puts the college tutor completely in loco 
 parentis in relation to his pupil, must necessarily, in a 
 large college like Trinity, give him the means of forming 
 a correct judgment of what each individual class of 
 students ought to be able to live upon. Seven years 
 subsequently to this Dr. Whewell, in his written evi- 
 dence given to the Eoyal Commission for the University 
 of Cambridge, pointed out with great force and earnest- 
 
300 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1843 
 
 ness that the faults of prodigal and inconsistent expen- 
 diture so often attributed to university students were 
 not occasioned and could not be wholly remedied by 
 any regulations of the university, but were in great 
 measure due to the conduct of those parents who, 
 while not discouraging young men in living in the costly 
 style of their social superiors, gave no assistance to the 
 college authorities in their endeavours to use such mea- 
 sures as the law allows for checking the extravagance 
 of minors. But wherever any rule was likely to be of 
 use in checking extravagance or otherwise promoting 
 good order and discipline, Dr. Whewell, undeterred by 
 the irksomeness of small details, was ready either to 
 invent or revive one for the purpose. 
 
 The minute attention which he gave to the variety 
 of small matters which necessarily came under his 
 notice as Master, is shown by the careful manner in 
 which he kept notes of all proceedings of the Seniority. 
 These notes are contained in a journal, in which not 
 only reference is made to the subjects discussed at the 
 meetings, but full copies of his letters on all business 
 matters are transcribed. The agenda papers of all 
 Seniority meetings he attended were found after his 
 death chronologically arranged and carefully annotated. 
 
 The rules brought into force under his administra- 
 tion frequently resulted in great and salutary changes, 
 which he himself perhaps scarcely contemplated. As 
 an illustration of this may be instanced the intro- 
 duction of regulations relating to residence of under- 
 graduates during the Long Vacation. 
 
 In the first vacation after his appointment as Master, 
 it came to his knowledge that an undergraduate had 
 been lodged in the house of a person living in the town 
 without the permission of the College, and apparently 
 
1843 LONG VACATION RESIDENCE. 301 
 
 without sufficient control. This led the Master to pro- 
 pose a series of rules for granting permission in such 
 cases. These remain in force to the present day, and 
 owing to them the Long Vacation has become to diligent 
 students the most beneficial period of the year. College 
 discipline is then stricter, idle and desultory companions 
 are absent, studious men are drawn into closer inter- 
 course, and more real work is done than in term-time. 
 
 The rules originally directed merely to the pre- 
 servation of discipline have happily resulted in giving 
 to studious undergraduates a fourth and most import- 
 ant term, and thus mitigated very considerably the 
 reproach frequently brought against the university of 
 short terms and long vacations. 
 
 In his evidence given to the Eoyal Commissioners, 
 1850, the Master alludes to the expenses of students 
 arising from their amusements, and suggests that the 
 places of their sports should be more closely connected 
 than they then were with the college and university. 
 He points out especially that there might be in the 
 fields behind the principal great colleges, cricket 
 grounds, fives-courts, and the like. This suggestion has 
 long since been carried into effect. Dr. Whewell him- 
 self initiated in 1862 the plan for the Trinity Cricket 
 Ground, and gave several hundred pounds towards it. 
 It cannot be questioned that very great economy of 
 time and money to the undergraduates are the fruit of 
 the very liberal and well-directed expenditure then in- 
 curred. To return to the reforms of 1843. It was at 
 this time that the Master induced the Seniority to have 
 an additional college examination at the end of the 
 Michaelmas Term, into which subjects bearing upon 
 Moral Philosophy were introduced. 
 
 The great event of the autumn of this year was the 
 
302 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 Eoyal visit to Cambridge. On October 12 Mrs. Whewell 
 wrote to her mother that the Master of Trinity 
 
 had a letter from Mr. Goulburn, saying that when he was at 
 Windsor yesterday, the Queen and Prince Albert expressed a 
 strong desire to pay a visit to the University of Cambridge, and 
 
 commissioned him to communicate with W on the subject. 
 
 Mr. Goulburn had informed them that Trinity claimed on all 
 occasions the honour of receiving Her Majesty or her represen- 
 tatives, and that we should feel highly honoured by her visit. 
 The probable time of the visit would be some day in the week 
 after next. The 25th was finally settled* Imagine my diffi- 
 culties in finding out first what was necessary on such an 
 extraordinary occasion, what ought to be done, and what on 
 such short notice could be done. However it ended in my 
 having twenty-one bed-rooms and four sitting-rooms prepared 
 for the Queen and Prince and their attendants in the house, 
 besides two kitchens and three sitting-rooms for the different 
 classes of servants. The employment was of great use to 
 me ; if I had not been so busy, I should have grown very nervous 
 about it. 
 
 The morning of Wednesday 2oth was dull, but cleared 
 up to the most brilliant sunshine. The Great Court began 
 to fill at twelve, and parties of ladies passed across to the rooms 
 of different friends who had windows looking on the scene of 
 action. Mrs. Worsley came to us. At one, streams of gownsmen 
 poured rapidly in, and before two o'clock, the time appointed 
 for the Queen's coming, there were about 2,000 in the Court. 
 It was a fine sight to have the whole University collected 
 together, all in their academical full dress, the doctors in their 
 scarlet robes, the noblemen in their purple and gold. 
 
 The clock had scarcely finished striking two when we heard 
 signals that the Queen was come. My husband as Vice-Chan- 
 cellor hurried away with his Bedells to meet the Queen outside 
 the College Grates and deliver up the Mace to her, to signify re- 
 signing his power into her hands, and made a speech to that 
 effect. She graciously returned the Mace, which during her 
 stay was carried with the crown end uppermost. The Great 
 Gates were thrown open, and the Queen and Prince drove in, 
 
1343 QUEEN'S VISIT. 303 
 
 attended by the Vice-Chancellor and Heads, and were received 
 with such acclamations as I never heard. 
 
 I ran down to the door, to be ready to perform my part, 
 trembling a little as you will easily believe ; indeed, the 
 thrilling shouts were enough alone to make one do that. I 
 had not even the comfort of my husband with me, for he had 
 to meet the Queen in the middle of the Court as Master of 
 Trinity, with the eight Seniors, and deliver to her the keys of 
 the College. She made a reply of which he could distinguish 
 no words, only the sweet tone of her voice, for the cheering 
 still continued. Then they drove up to the door and alighted, 
 the Master and I receiving them. 
 
 After luncheon had been served to the Queen and Prince 
 in the green drawing-room, the Address was the first thing. 
 It was settled the Queen should receive it in the College Hall 
 and Prince Albert his immediately after. All this time the pro- 
 cession was forming itself in the Court, for it takes a long 
 while for two thousand people to get each one into his proper 
 place. At three o'clock the Queen and Prince with their 
 attendants passed through the study and south drawing-room 
 and down the back stairs, which looked as well as they could, 
 poor things ! in crimson cloth, to the Hall. There a raised 
 platform was prepared with Bentley's chair upon it and a canopy 
 over it. The presenters of the Address were ushered into the 
 Queen's presence by Lord De La Warr. The Kegistrar (Mr. 
 Komilly) produced the address, which the Vice-Chancellor read. 
 Then Mr. Groulburn presented to the Queen her answer, which 
 she read in a beautifully soft clear voice, very distinctly. 
 
 The address to Prince Albert was read in like manner, and 
 he read his answer. 
 
 Then the Queen and Prince drove off immediately to King's. 
 We tried to follow, Mr. Myers, Susan, and myself, but it was 
 hopeless. When the Queen and Prince returned it was dark, 
 but in a few minutes our chapel was lighted up for them to see. 
 Crimson cloth was spread, but it did not quite reach to the 
 chapel door, so the undergraduates threw down their gowns to 
 fill up the space, a feat they have practised frequently since. 
 
 I heard that the young noblemen holding wax lights for the 
 Queen to see the statue of Newton in the Ante-Chapel made 
 
304 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 quite a pretty picture. When the Queen retired to her room, 
 the Prince, with the Master as cicerone and an escort of flam- 
 beaux-bearers, went all over the College. W and I received 
 
 commands to dine with the Queen at eight o'clock ; hasty 
 notices were sent out to those whom she would receive in the 
 evening. At dinner the Queen and still more the Prince 
 asked my husband questions about the University and College, 
 to which he gave such full answers, and they seemed to take so 
 much interest in hearing them, that it quite took off the dis- 
 agreeable effect of a royal categorical conversation. Surely if 
 people keep a command over themselves, so as only to follow 
 their lead and continue the subject no longer than it is en- 
 couraged, they must like full free answers better than short dry 
 replies, which make conversation a burthen. Certainly the 
 Queen and Prince seemed to like it. 
 
 After dinner, in the drawing-room, the Queen asked me if 
 those were curious prints which lay on the table. I had taken 
 care to place some interesting ones there, for the chance of her 
 looking at them. The book she took most notice of was an old 
 book by Sir Edward Stanhope, of coats of arms of our founders 
 and benefactors, which we had got out of the muniment room. 
 I pointed out some of the changes. Henry VIII.'s for instance, 
 with the rouge dragon of Cadwallader the last of the Britons 
 for a supporter, James I.'s the first with the Unicorn. When 
 Prince Albert came up-stairs she pointed it out to him. He 
 seemed a very good herald, and told me several foreign coats 
 which had quite puzzled me, and also Lord and Lady Bray- 
 brooke, who are great heralds. 
 
 Next day, 26th, we went directly after breakfast to the 
 Senate House, where being on the platform we had no crowding, 
 saw everything and were much gratified. The newspapers will 
 tell you all about that. Then the Queen and Prince went to 
 Professor Sedgwick's Museum ; he showed it very well, and the 
 Prince proved himself acquainted with Geology. A number of 
 people were admitted who did not impede the progress in the 
 least, but had the pleasure of hearing something of what was 
 said. Then they went to the Library, a well-behaved crowd 
 following and plenty of cheering. 
 
 The Queen came in a little before one and dismissed her 
 
1843 QUEEN'S VISIT. 305 
 
 ladies till half-past two. They came to us immediately, and 
 said they had a great desire to go to the top of King's College 
 Chapel, so Mr. Myers and I set out with them. Mr. Worsley 
 joined us, and we showed them all we could in the time. 
 
 At half-past two the whole cortege^ the Vice-Chancellor 
 with them as before, drove to see various colleges, &c. Half- 
 past four was fixed for their departure, so I held myself in readi- 
 ness to perform my last duty in escorting the Queen to the 
 door. Miss Stanley came and said the Queen had sent for me. 
 I came to the green drawing-room and waited there. Soon I 
 was summoned to her in the next room. She gave me a beauti- 
 ful bracelet, saying she wished to give it to me with her own 
 hands. I hardly knew how to express my gratitude sufficiently, 
 and my surprise was so great it added to my difficulty. She 
 spoke very kindly indeed, and Prince Albert came and said the 
 only thing he regretted was the shortness of the visit. They 
 proceeded to the door ; the Master was on the stairs. We ac- 
 companied them, walking as much backwards as we could. The 
 Prince shook hands heartily with the Master and bid him good- 
 bye. The Queen put on her cloak in the hall, shook my hand 
 they were in the carriage the last shouts and it was all 
 over. 
 
 The weather was brilliant the whole time, and the greatest 
 satisfaction was that the Queen was received with such enthu- 
 siastic expressions of loyalty, a crowd wherever she went, but no 
 disturbance, no hindrance ; she could pass through the thickest 
 of them without difficulty. Even the town, which has no beauty 
 to boast of, contrived to make a very good appearance, the 
 streets being quite gay with banners hung out. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : Nov 21, 1843. 
 
 I ought sooner to have written to you after the Queen's 
 visit, but we have had a series of occupations, some agreeable 
 and some disagreeable, which have taken us up very much 
 since that time. 
 
 Very soon after the Royal visit came Mr. and Lady Mildred 
 Hope, who stayed some days with us. Then came Mr. Hallam ; 
 and then came something of illness, for Cordelia had a very bad 
 
 X 
 
306 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1843 
 
 cold and I fell in lighting Mr. Hope to his room, and hurt 
 myself a good deal. It turned out after some days that I had 
 broken a rib, and when this discovery was made, I was pro- 
 perly bandaged and set about recovering as fast as I could. I 
 am thankful to say the inconvenience was slight and the amend- 
 ment rapid ; so to-day I have been able to get on horseback, 
 and I shall soon I trust have no traces left of my mishap. 
 
 I do not know that I can tell you much of the Queen's visit 
 that the newspapers have not told you, for she was in public 
 almost the whole time of her being here. She was very kind 
 in all her expressions to us ; told Cordelia that everything in 
 her apartments was ' so nice, so comfortable,' and at parting 
 gave her a very pretty bracelet. The Prince was very agreeable, 
 intelligent and conversable, seemed much interested with all 
 he saw, and talked a good deal about his German University, 
 Bonn. It appeared from the general management of matters 
 as if his amusement and gratification were the main objects 
 of the expedition. 
 
 At dinner I was opposite the Queen, who talked easily and 
 cheerfully. I had also a good deal of occasion to talk to her 
 in showing her the lions of Cambridge, which she ran over very 
 rapidly. 
 
 I was aware of what was intended about a week before I 
 was at liberty to speak of it ; and this advantage of time 
 enabled me to have the workmen in the room, which was 
 refurnished before any one knew what the preparation was for, 
 and altogether I think we did quite as well as if we had had 
 more time, for the suddenness of the affair was an excuse for 
 all that was wanting. It is no small matter to provide for the 
 Queen's reception even as we did. We had about forty servants 
 of the Queen in the house, besides a dozen men belonging to 
 the stable department who were in the town. The Queen's 
 coachman is reported to have said that he had taken Her 
 Majesty to many places, but never to any where she was so well 
 received or where the ale was so good ; the latter circumstance, 
 I suppose, in his estimate, set the seal upon our merits. 
 
 Dr. Wh swell's correspondence in 1844 opens with a 
 letter urging Mr. James Marshall to come and see Pro- 
 
1844 MR. HULLAH'S CLASSES. 307 
 
 fessor Sedgwick's museum, listen to his lectures, and 
 hear the Master himself lecture upon Morals, ' first 
 tying his knot and then loosing it,' stating the difficulties 
 of constructing a system and then proceeding to solve 
 them. 
 
 In the spring Dr. and Mrs. Whewell were busy with 
 Mr. Hullah's singing classes, Mrs. Whewell taking all 
 the burthen of arrangement upon herself, and being 
 rewarded, as the Master playfully remarks, by hearing 
 in all probability such singing as was never heard 
 before, but as might naturally be expected from large 
 gatherings of untrained vocalists. During the summer 
 he was frequently in London, writing daily letters to 
 his wife, from which a few extracts are given. In this 
 year her health first appears to cause suffering, if not 
 anxiety, and to demand on the part of both an exer- 
 cise of resignation, which was by no means one of his 
 favourite virtues, as he reminds her in a ]etter written 
 in June. His remarks about Dr. Arnold, both to her 
 and to Archdeacon Hare, are given in full because it 
 is interesting to observe what hearty admiration and 
 sympathy coexisted with great divergence of opinion 
 and dissimilarity of taste. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall^ Trinity Lodge: Jan 29, 1844. 
 
 I think you expressed some curiosity about my Lectures on 
 Morals. I am afraid they alone will not repay a journey hither ; 
 but then I recollect that we have other inducements to bring 
 you here, including Sedgwick's lectures, so that I write not 
 without hopes of drawing you to us. I believe Sedgwick's 
 lectures will begin in about a fortnight, and mine which begin 
 in a week will still be going on then ; so you may kill both the 
 birds with one stone, and go to Sedgwick's museum, where 
 stones are abundant. The subject of my lectures is the diffi- 
 culties of constructing a system of morals ; which difficulties I 
 try to tie in a knot first and then unloose them ; doing that in 
 
 x 2 
 
308 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1844 
 
 my lectures which I have had to do in my head for my own 
 relief and satisfaction. I do not know whether such a per- 
 formance would amuse you at all, but I hope the prospect of 
 this and other amusements may suffice to tempt you to us for a 
 little while. You cannot take us wrong, coming as I have said 
 any time from the beginning of next week. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 20, 1844. 
 
 In a day or two we are expecting Mr. Hullah, the musical 
 professor. He is going to open singing classes here, such as 
 his pupils have established in your neighbourhood, and we 
 have arranged to have some of these classes meet at the Lodge. 
 I dare say we shall make a wonderful discord. I find that we 
 are to have a discord in our neighbourhood of another kind. 
 Some of the zealots of the Free Church of Scotland, as they call 
 it, are to try to collect an audience and state their case here. 
 One of them is my old friend and foe he has been both, for he 
 has written very crossly about me (Sir D. Brewster) the other 
 is a Professor Forbes, 1 of whom I know nothing, for he is not 
 my Professor Forbes, who is now in Italy with his lately married 
 wife. 
 
 On February 28 Dr. Whewell notes in the Journal 
 that the statutes have been returned with the Queen's 
 signature. 
 
 To the Rev. Frederic Myers"] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: April 19, 1844. 
 
 I send you some speculations of mine which I have just 
 printed. Having puzzled and unpuzzled myself, it is allow- 
 able, I hope, to try how far I can perform one or both of these 
 operations upon my friends. My arguments are by no means 
 foreign to the matter of your ' thoughts,' at least according to 
 my view of the subject. In paragraphs 10 and 13 of the 
 Memoir 2 you have my main objections to the philosophy of 
 your ' thoughts.' I think that the opposition of Doctrine and 
 
 1 Professor Edward Forbes. ' My Professor Forbes ' is Professor James 
 D. Forbes, an intimate friend of Dr. Whewell's for many years. 
 
 2 Dr. Whewell's ' Memoir on the Fundamental Antithesis ' is probably 
 referred to here. 
 
1844 MR. MYERS'S 'CATHOLIC THOUGHTS.' 309 
 
 Facts from which you start is not a real or intelligible opposi- 
 tion ; and that it will not lead us right to try to fasten upon 
 the Idea and reject the Form, because we cannot fasten upon 
 an Idea except by means of the Form. I ought to say, however, 
 that I agree with many or most of your conclusions, except 
 that I should probably modify the expression of them in con- 
 sequence of my different philosophy. I am reading your 
 * thoughts ' over again with great pleasure and with great 
 admiration. I go working on myself towards a book, and hope 
 I am not very far from my conclusion, but transverse winds of 
 business from time to time blow me away from my course. We 
 have just finished the scholarship examination, which is a com- 
 plete interruption of other things while it lasts, and now the 
 term begins. 
 
 I am glad to hear good accounts of you. Your mountains 
 must be looking beautiful in this glorious weather. We go on 
 making ' trim gardens ' as the kind of beauty which is within 
 our reach. We were yesterday evening at Downing Lodge, 
 where at present is Delia Rawson. 
 
 To his Wife] London: June 15, 1844. 
 
 It is very hot, and I am not at all in love with London, 
 wishing often for you and the leafy trees to look at. Indeed I 
 long for Cambridge again. I have been a good deal interested 
 in Arnold's life and letters, which I have been reading between 
 whiles ; there are several letters to James. 
 
 June 16. I want to be quiet and at work again. I find 
 an expression of the same feeling in Arnold's journal after 
 returning from a tour. I have read his life with great pleasure. 
 His faults, to my thinking, are such as I knew before, and 
 arise from a want of reverence for the past ; but his earnestness 
 and his religious view of all things run through his life and 
 letters in a very delightful way. I am not surprised at the 
 influence he exercised over the minds of his pupils, though it 
 has its inconvenient effects. 
 
 To the Same'] London: June 18, 1844. 
 
 I am grieved that you speak of pain and weariness, but 
 they may lead to comfort and gratitude. For gratitude at any 
 
310 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1844 
 
 rate we have abundant cause ; and if need be I must make 
 common stock with you in your s resignation,' which I used to 
 exclaim against. I hope this change in my estimate of qualities 
 is because I am become more reasonable. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : June 27, 1844. 
 
 You will have seen that we have had another royal visit, for 
 I think Cordelia sent you the newspaper which contained the 
 account of our receiving the King of Saxony. He came here 
 incognito ; that is, though everybody knew who he was and 
 called him 'Your Majesty,' he did not keep up the forms of 
 Koyalty. He himself does not talk much, though he is very 
 good-humoured and laughs readily. He brought with him a 
 distinguished German physiologist, Dr. Carus, whom I intro- 
 duced to our Mr. Carus. They were both amused at finding 
 namesakes in foreign lands without any known connection. 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare~\ Trinity Lodge: July 5, 1844. 
 
 The July rains which Wordsworth promised you have begun, 
 so I suppose you will be going into his neighbourhood soon. I 
 want especially to request you to lose no time in making the 
 acquaintance of Frederic Myers, my brother-in-law. He is 
 married to Mrs. Whewell's sister Susan, and lives at Keswick, 
 the minister of a church which the Marshalls have built there. 
 He is a thoroughly excellent person, a worthy friend of Words- 
 worth and Arnold. He has written a book about the Church, 
 of which the spirit is admirable, and of which I think you 
 would like the views, as they are very nearly those of Arnold. 
 I suppose, by your talking in the plural of your going into 
 Westmoreland, Mrs. Hare goes with you. 
 
 I was as much delighted with the Life of Arnold as you 
 describe yourself to be. In one point perhaps Arnold's pro- 
 gress appeared more decidedly in his writings than in this 
 ' Life ' ; I mean his progress towards Conservative views. He 
 hated the word, and in his hatred persisted in confounding it 
 with Tory ; but he was very near the reality, according to my 
 view of it. 
 
 I do not know whether we shall go into the North this 
 
1844 DEATH OF MR. MARSHALL. 311 
 
 year. It would be very pleasant to meet you there. Pray 
 let Myers know when you arrive in his neighbourhood. 
 
 The winter of 1844-45 was spent entirely at Cam- 
 bridge. Like that of 1813-14 it brought with it not 
 only sharp cold, but the fear, at least, of a short supply 
 of coal, the river communication being still the only 
 one, and frost of course interrupting that. In May they 
 were summoned to Halls teads, by anxiety about Mr. 
 Marshall's health, and early in June came the fatal ter- 
 mination to his illness. Mrs. Whewell remained with 
 her mother, whilst her husband returned to Cambridge 
 for the meeting of the British Association. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 20, 1844. 
 
 I hope all is going on well and happily with you at Wormen- 
 hall, and that Martha is reconciled to the place. I was glad 
 to hear from James that you had paid a visit to Oxford. You 
 will now be able to compare the two universities, having seen 
 both at no long intervals of time. You are to look upon 
 Cambridge as still going on improving. I am planting a few 
 willows on the river bank, in situations where I think they will 
 improve the effect of the river and the bridge, and I am going 
 to put a carved vault to the great gateway. 1 You may recol- 
 lect that in its present state it has six corbels, the beginnings 
 of a stone vaulting which has been the original intention, but 
 these corbels project from the wall and have offered their 
 services in vain hitherto. I think the vault which I shall put 
 up will be a great additional grace to the gate tower, especially 
 by night, when the lighted lamps make it conspicuous. 
 
 We have just had for our guest Mr. Wordsworth the poet, 
 who was I am glad to say in excellent health, and gave us 
 great pleasure by staying with us a week. 
 
 How do you make up your mind to living in such a dull 
 and featureless region as your present abode ? Very different 
 from Grange and Lindale with their mountains and sea. 
 
 1 This was probably done by the College at the Master's suggestion. 
 
312 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1844 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity Lodge : Christmas Day, 1 844. 
 
 I suppose you are shrugging your shoulders at the cold, as 
 we are doing ; for the cold is reinforced by an iced fog and is 
 very penetrating. We have been in danger that is the town, 
 for we at the Lodge are well supplied of being in want of 
 coals ; for the stock was low, and the river, the highway along 
 which it comes, was frozen. Perhaps you recollect a similar 
 calamity falling upon us in one of the first winters I spent in 
 College. However we have had a thaw, and I believe an increase 
 of the supply. We have no one with us this Christmas but 
 Mr. Goulburn (Chancellor of the Exchequer). He and William 
 Spring Rice, and Mr. and Mrs. Worsley, make our Christmas 
 party. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : Jan. 19, 1845. 
 
 We have not left home this winter. If we had been wanted 
 to save Hallsteads from solitude and silence we should have 
 gone there, but there has always been one or another of the 
 younger generation with Mr. and Mrs. Marshall. Dr. C. 
 Wordsworth, the son of my predecessor, has been visiting us. 
 He brought with him two Romish priests, Father Pitra, a 
 Benedictine, and Abbe Devoncoux, a canon of Autun. We 
 had a great deal of talk with them, and are I think none the 
 worse for it. 
 
 The month of February in this year brought 
 a new and valuable treasure into the possession of 
 Trinity College in the shape of Sir Joshua Eeynolds's 
 exquisite portrait of the Duke of Gloucester as a boy. 
 This picture, which the public have had a recent op- 
 portunity of admiring on the walls of Burlington House, 
 was left to the College by the Princess Sophia of Glou- 
 cester, on the condition that it should hang in the Hall 
 of the College, in recollection of her visit to Trinity in 
 1818. 
 
 In November Dr. Whewell received the following 
 letter from the Vice-Master Professor Sedgwick. 
 
1845 STATUE OF BACON. 313 
 
 My dear Master, The enclosed letter, though dated Nov. 
 1, only reached me on Wednesday evening, and I employ my 
 first moment of leisure in complying, as far as I am able, with 
 the united wishes of the Eesident Fellows of the College. 
 
 I may say with truth that a more delightful task could not 
 have been imposed upon me, for I feel in common with every 
 good member of the College that the noble monument with 
 which you have adorned our chapel entitles you to our heart- 
 felt thanks, and the expression of our deepest personal grati- 
 tude. 
 
 I am sure that you have given us credit for such senti- 
 ments, and it is in no hope of convincing you that we 
 entertain them that we now address you; but we do so to 
 satisfy our feelings, and to perform a positive duty we owe to 
 ourselves and the College. 
 
 I have often longed to see a statue of Bacon erected in our 
 chapel, and it is a matter of most honest and heartfelt exulta- 
 tion to see one now, worthy, as far as any sculptured stone can 
 be, of that illustrious philosopher, given to us by one who has 
 spent the best years of his life as our brother, who has drunk 
 deeply from those fountains from which Bacon and Newton 
 drew their strength, and whom Providence has placed at the 
 head of this society. 
 
 When the heart is full a few words will best tell its mean- 
 ing, but I hope you will allow me to add a few words more on 
 my own account. Let me then congratulate you on having so 
 well completed an object you have long earnestly wished for. 
 The statue you have erected is a noble work of art, combining, 
 as it does, the severity of the old monument with the grace 
 and freedom of more modern sculpture. It is in this respect 
 worthy of a place by the side of our glorious statue of Newton. 
 It represents Bacon as we may figure him to ourselves in his 
 latter days, when he had fallen from his high worldly estate, 
 and when his life was most truly great and glorious. 
 
 Our College history is our best inheritance. You, my dear 
 Master, by your example, your great intellectual labours, and 
 your munificence, have done your utmost to keep in our minds 
 this goodly inheritance, and to make us worthy of it ; and I 
 trust that under Providence you will be permitted (to whatever 
 
314 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 station you may be called) to enjoy the happy fruits of your 
 long-continued services in the great cause of sound academic 
 learning. 
 
 It delights us all to think that there is a moral fitness in 
 having the sculptured figures of Bacon and Newton in our house 
 of daily prayer ; one represented in the repose of philosophic 
 age, the other in the vigour of life, gazing towards the heavens 
 under the inspiration of some great discovery. 
 
 The philosophic labours of these men were not carried on 
 to exalt themselves ; they bowed before a power above all 
 material nature, and they had an aim far above this world's 
 knowledge and all the honours it could bring them. They 
 laboured honestly to erect a rich storehouse at once to the 
 glory of the Creator, and the good of the human race. It is a 
 high privilege to have contributed as you have done to keep 
 alive such remembrances as these, both among the older and 
 the younger members of our society. And I trust that the 
 sobering as well as the exalting influence of these sentiments 
 will continue to be felt among us and those who follow us so 
 long as England shall last as a nation, and its institutions and 
 monuments be the admiration of wise and good men. Pray 
 accept the expression, however feeble, of my hearty good-will 
 and gratitude, and believe me, my dear Master, 
 
 Affectionately and gratefully yours, 
 
 ADAM SEDGWICK, Vice-Master. 
 
 To this he replied on the 8th with a few lines 
 addressed to Professor Sedgwick individually. 
 
 I enclose herewith a letter containing my acknowledg- 
 ments of the kind things you have said to me on the part of 
 the Fellows who requested you to address me ; and I cannot 
 help adding a few lines to thank you, though I cannot do it 
 adequately, for the manner in which you have discharged this 
 office. I think it fortunate that the communication on this 
 subject was to be made through you, who know and feel so 
 well the purport and value of what Bacon did. I have already 
 said, in a book in which I have ventured to treat of Bacon's 
 philosophy, that you seemed destined to be my fellow-labourer 
 
1845 STATUE OF BACON. 315 
 
 in such a task, and we have lately had fresh reason to say so. 
 The admirable and noble sentiments respecting the influence 
 of our monuments which your letter contains give an addi- 
 tional value to your expressions of kindness relative to the 
 monument now erected. May you, my dear Sedgwick, long 
 continue to exercise upon us and upon the world a beneficial 
 influence by the utterance of such sentiments ; and may you 
 and I long see the continued and increased prosperity of the 
 College which we both so dearly love. 
 
 The following letter is the enclosure to which re- 
 ference is made above. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick~\ Trinity Lodge: Nov. 8, 1845. 
 
 My dear Vice-Master, I have to acknowledge a letter 
 which you have sent me, addressed to you by the resident 
 Fellows, and a letter from yourself, both of them containing 
 expressions most gratifying to me, relative to the statue of 
 Bacon which has recently been placed in the ante-chapel. The 
 acknowledgment of my share in this work, and the accom- 
 panying expressions of good-will, both from yourself and from 
 them, are deeply grateful to my feelings, but are, I fear, 
 beyond my just merits, as they certainly are far beyond my 
 highest expectations. I look upon myself as having had a 
 great privilege conferred upon me in being allowed to erect the 
 statue of Bacon near the place where my predecessor erected 
 the statue of Newton. It has long been one of my heart's 
 desires to see such a memorial among us ; and when I was 
 placed by Providence in a situation which seemed to justify me 
 in asking to be allowed to fulfil this desire, I did not delay to 
 do so. I feel grateful to yourself and to the other Seniors for 
 indulging me in this matter. 
 
 In executing this design I could not hope to obtain a work 
 of art which could rival the noble monument already erected ; 
 although if my lamented friend Chantrey had lived to whom I 
 had already mentioned my hopes, we should have seen what the 
 power of genius so inspired could do. But I trust that Mr. 
 Weekes's work, borrowing interest, in addition to its own merits, 
 from the resemblance which the philosopher's friends and 
 
316 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 disciples loved to dwell upon and to perpetuate, and from the 
 burial-place which he himself selected, may always be looked 
 upon with satisfaction. I hope, too, it may serve to keep alive 
 among us and among our successors who worship in that edi- 
 fice the spirit and the sentiments you, Mr. Vice-Master, so well 
 describe : the spirit of a vigorous yet reverent philosophy, the 
 sentiment of gratitude for the great and good men who have 
 adorned our land. And I trust that by God's blessing upon 
 such dispositions, the College may continue to prosper and 
 flourish in our time, and for long ages after us. 
 
 For myself, Mr. Vice-Master, I will only thank you and the 
 other Fellows in whose name you have spoken ; and I thank 
 you from the bottom of my heart for your kind expressions and 
 good wishes. I beg you to believe that I am deeply grateful 
 for this your kindness, and I wish to each of you all happiness 
 and all blessings, both while each of you continues a member 
 of our family, and after he may have been called to other con- 
 ditions. I am, my dear Mr. Vice-Master, 
 
 Your faithful and obliged friend and servant, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 To the Vice-Master. 
 
 Extracts from a letter written by the Eev. F. Myers 
 to Dr. Whewell, acknowledging the receipt of his little 
 book called ' Indications of the Creator,' will best ex- 
 plain Dr. Whewell's letter of March 16. 
 
 Mr. Myers writes : 
 
 The book will be considered, I think, as a reply to Vestiges 
 of the Natural History of Creation, and certainly if so con- 
 sidered it is as dignified a response as that book will receive, 
 and will tend to excite a great suspicion not only as to the 
 legitimacy of its logical inferences, but also as to the soundness 
 of its scientific assumptions. And this will be doing perhaps 
 nearly all that need be done. . . . 
 
 The author of Vestiges does, indeed, offend me greatly 
 when he leaves the unspiritual world and speaks of that spiritual 
 one which I conceive to be not its analogous supplement. As 
 far as his science is concerned he seems to me to be in some 
 
1845 'INDICATIONS OF THE CREATOR.' 317 
 
 parts of his book rather behind than before the highest science 
 of our time, and to discover a larger acquaintance with philo- 
 sophical societies' papers than with Nature's own publications ; 
 but notwithstanding this, and more, I cannot but recognise a 
 certain superiority in the book which will keep it alive, and am 
 disposed to think that after all the scientific and other errors 
 are deducted there will remain such a residuum of originality 
 and truth as will demand and obtain for it a protracted con- 
 sideration. The book is so far notable to me that it is the first 
 sustained attempt within my knowledge to combine the highest 
 results of astronomy, geology, physiology, and chemistry, into 
 such a series as may serve to indicate, if not to demonstrate, the 
 existence of a law of creation more general than any yet 
 announced, a great law of life which shall bear the same 
 relation to organised nature that gravitation does to mere 
 matter ; and, if such should be the tendency, though not the 
 conclusion, of future scientific speculations, doubtless our present 
 theology will be interfered with many times in the process and 
 at many points, as it has been already ; but in this matter I 
 trust with great confidence to those kind of considerations 
 which I have already referred to as affording me such pleasure 
 in your ' Indications.' 
 
 I will add no more than a repetition of my sincere thanks 
 for this fresh contribution to that kind of unecclesiastical 
 theology in which I take so great an interest. 
 
 Dr. Whewell to the Rev. F. Myers] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: March 16, 1845. 
 
 I am glad that my little book has reached you and that it 
 has interested you. It was published with some reference to 
 the Vestiges, as you suppose, and as an answer to it so far as 
 truth must in some measure be an answer to falsehood on the 
 same subject. But I never supposed it would be felt as an 
 answer to the Vestiges doctrine by doctrine, and should have 
 been sorry to make any such attempt, or, indeed, to see such 
 an attempt made by any one, however well qualified by science 
 and philosophy for the Defence of Truth. For the Vestiges has 
 its hold on its readers, as it seems to me, by their want of the 
 apprehension of the difference of the nature of truth and 
 
318 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 falsehood in science and philosophy; and this is a support 
 which no argument can remove, but which on the contrary 
 blunts the point of every good argument. If the mere com- 
 bining chemistry, geology, physiology, and the like, into a 
 nominal system, while you violate the principles of each at 
 every step of your hypothesis, be held to be a philosophical 
 merit, because the speculator is seeking a wider law than 
 gravitation, I do not see what we, whose admiration of the 
 discovery of gravitation arises from its truth, and the soundness 
 of every step to the truth, have to do, except seek another 
 audience. Astrology aims at laws wider than gravitation ; and 
 it would be difficult, I am quite sure, to shake the faith of a 
 man whose belief in astrology was fastened on him by his love 
 of the grandeur of its views and combinations. I at least would 
 not try to perform the feat. If you were to point out to me 
 palms, and lions, and crocodiles, and giants, in the masses of 
 Western cloud-scenery, and tell me that you could not help 
 believing them because the scene was so grand, I should never 
 try to talk you out of your belief. 
 
 In some very important points, the opposition between the 
 Vestiges and the Indications appears to me very direct. I have 
 attempted to show that, dim as the light is which science 
 throws upon creation, it gives us reason to believe that the 
 placing of man upon the earth (including his creation) was a 
 supernatural event, an exception to the laws of nature. The 
 Vestiges has, for one of its main doctrines, that this event was a 
 natural event, the result of a law by which man grew out of 
 monkey. As to the degree of resemblance between the author 
 and the French physiological atheists, he uses reverent phrases : 
 theirs would not be tolerated in England. But I do not 
 recollect any reference to final causes in him. His whole 
 scheme and view are opposed to their introduction in any 
 really significant way, just as much as St. Hilaire's. Nor do I 
 see how the development of the different kinds of animals, on 
 his plan, is to be performed, even in our imagination, with- 
 out Lamarck's process of appetencies operating, or something 
 of the same kind. As to his special form of the doctrine of 
 the development of species, I have answered it in the preface; 
 that is, I have shown that it is contrary to the established 
 
1845 'VESTIGES OF THE CREATION.' 319 
 
 doctrines of geology and physiology, if that is of any force 
 as an answer. 
 
 Books which, like the Vestiges, derive their charm from 
 bold, unscrupulous, and false scientific generalisations, built up 
 into systems, always take with those who, as I have said, have 
 no power or habit of judging of scientific truth ; but they put 
 men of science into great indignation. You would be surprised 
 to hear the contempt and abhorrence with which Owen and 
 Sedgwick speak of the Vestiges. 
 
 I have been telling you my own view of the reasons why 
 people like the Vestiges, without at all fearing that I shall 
 annoy you thereby, because you admire it very partially only 
 and moreover I do not take you for a person to be offended by 
 plain speaking on a speculative matter. I have said much the 
 same in the preface in less pointed terms. The preface is the 
 only new part of my book. The passages to which you refer, 
 you will find in the philosophy. I have always considered 
 myself fortunate in having been able to say so much with- 
 out giving offence to any one. At least I never heard that 
 these passages had offended anybody. Perhaps they have 
 owed this escape to their being towards the end of a fifth 
 thick volume. 
 
 I am afraid you will be disappointed with my book on morals, 
 which I am printing. It is not either the history or the philoso- 
 phy of morality, but simply morality itself. I cannot write the 
 history or the philosophy of any science till I have it in a shape 
 in which the truth is systematically connected and the false 
 rejected. It was the having the inductive sciences in such a 
 shape that enabled me to do what I did for them. In my 
 present book the task may be a dull one, but in my way of 
 looking at things it is inevitable, so in hope I have under- 
 taken it. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: June 8, 1845. 
 
 You will not be surprised to hear my news, though it is sad. 
 Mr. Marshall died on the 6th, in the morning, passing away 
 quietly. Cordelia was with him when he died. 
 
 I came here as I intended, staying the Sunday at Heversham. 
 The old generation is quite gone at Deepthwaite. I could dis- 
 
320 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 cover very few known faces. The railroad runs close by Deep- 
 thwaite and alters the face of all my old haunts. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell remained at Halls teads, and received 
 from her husband frequent accounts of the progress of 
 things during the meeting of the British Association at 
 Cambridge. 
 
 To his Wife] Trinity Lodge: June 18, 1845. 
 
 Our guests begin to arrive. Herschel came in time for 
 dinner yesterday, bringing with him a very bad cold and 
 hoarseness, the result of some imprudence. I wish you and 
 Lady Herschel were here to doctor him. The Vernon-Har- 
 courts come to-day, and I hope Mr. Everett and Mr. Hallam. 
 Herschel tells me that Peacock is as hoarse as he is, so 
 that the entertainment of to-morrow evening, in which they 
 are the principal performers, will not be very brilliant as to 
 voice. 
 
 To the Same'] June 19, 1845. 
 
 Of ladies I have only the two Harcourts, who arrived in 
 time for dinner yesterday. The two Wilberforces came some- 
 what later. Myers too dined with us, and a German named 
 Schonbein. After dinner various people came in the Bishop 
 of Norwich, Sir Charles Lemon, &c. 
 
 To the Same'] Trinity Lodge : June 20, 1845. 
 
 I find the time between chapel and breakfast that in which 
 1 can most easily creep towards you for a little while. I had 
 about twenty to breakfast yesterday morning, amongst them 
 Archdeacon Manning and his brother. My ladies are pleasant 
 enough, except that a sort of boy and girl raillery goes on con- 
 tinually between them and the Dean of Westminster, 1 which is 
 in the way of all rational talk. In the course of the day came 
 Lord Burlington, Mr. Hallam, and Mr. Everett. The perform- 
 ance in the evening was at the Senate House. I did not go 
 
 1 Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. 
 
1845 BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 321 
 
 there. It appears to have been dull so far as the original plot 
 went, for Herschel read for an hour and a quarter without being 
 heard, but it was well relieved by a speech from Mr. Everett, 
 which all agreed in admiring as beautiful. 
 
 ' To the same] July 21, 1845. 
 
 I did not go to the Senate House yesterday evening. Airy 
 was the performer, and appears to have outdone himself in his 
 art of giving clearness and simplicity to the hardest and most 
 complex subjects. He kept the -attention of his audience quite 
 enchained for above two hours, talking about terrestrial 
 magnetism. 
 
 To his Sister'] 
 
 41 Upper Grosvenor Street: July 28, 1845. 
 
 We have been here for some days, having left Cambridge 
 last Monday, so quiet and so full of leaves and flowers that it 
 seemed a pity to leave it. We mean to go onwards to the sea- 
 side, pausing a day or two on the road to examine Rochester 
 and Canterbury Cathedrals, and then seek the beach somewhere 
 near Dover. I am going this morning to sit for my portrait, or 
 rather to stand in my gown for the accompaniment of a portrait 
 which has already been executed. The artist is a Mr. Lawrence, 
 and I think he has made a much better picture than the one 
 which Mrs. Carpenter painted, and I should say much more 
 like. 
 
322 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1845-1850. 
 
 Elements of Morality Mr. Myers Archdeacon Hare Archdeacon Manning 
 Lowestoft Tercentenary Dr. Wordsworth's Death Morals again 
 Prince Albert's Election as Chancellor of the University Installation 
 Professorship of Civil Law Jenny Lind Oxford Visit to Paris 
 Lectures on Great Men Mr. Spedding's Evenings with a Reviewer 
 Kreuznach Breakfast at Dr. Holland's Jane Eyre Prizes for 
 Moral Philosophy Students Great Frost Gorham Case Sea Fell 
 Pike Consecration of St. John's, Holbeck. 
 
 DUKING this year Dr. Whewell was writing his c Ele- 
 ments of Morality,' the work in which he sketched out 
 the system of ethics to which he constantly referred in 
 previous letters to Archdeacon Hare. This was a sub- 
 ject in which Mr. Myers was deeply interested, and it 
 naturally formed a principal topic of discussion in the 
 correspondence which passed between them. 
 
 The book was sent to Keswick early in the summer. 
 Mr. Myers acknowledged its receipt in a letter dated 
 July 31. Some extracts from this letter are given, 
 as necessary for the comprehension of Dr. Whewell's 
 answer to it, dated September 6. 
 
 To Dr. Whewell] 
 
 St. John's Parsonage, Keswick : July 31, 1845. 
 
 The most valuable portions of the book to me are those 
 which deal with the concrete rather than with the abstract. 
 All that treats of fact or feeling whatever touches on the 
 
1845 LETTER FROM MR. MYERS. 323 
 
 history or the philology of the subject, on national or inter- 
 national justice pleases me most. . . . 
 
 It is, however, as I have said, with the abstract portions 
 of your work that I am the least satisfied. To the aim and 
 structure of these portions of it I demur. ... To claim for 
 any elements of morality a foundation philosophically similar 
 to that of the elements of Euclid seems to me so much too 
 much as to permit, even from the most pacific, at least a 
 private protest. ... In your system of morality it appears to 
 me that the axioms are by no means self-evident, while the 
 postulates are innumerable, and a good many of the definitions 
 arbitrary. Scarcely a page of the introduction but contains 
 some assumption which is not axiomatic, some postulate which 
 you could not get granted instantly by any promiscuous jury. 
 No such jury (if not all Scotchmen) would, for instance, be 
 unanimous in granting that ' the general relations of objects 
 and facts, separated from the objects and facts, may be termed 
 ideas' (No. 5); nor would any jury be sure to allow you to 
 say, ' The will is stimulated to action by certain springs of 
 action ; among which springs of action are rules or laws.' . . . 
 You must observe that I do not say that these assertions are 
 not true, but only that they are not mathematical ; and that 
 any system which is made out of combinations of elements 
 such as these has no right to be called a science, and least 
 of all to be compared with the purest of them all. . . . 
 
 Your very first axiom (which it is very unlike Euclid that 
 we should have to look for at No. 269), ' Man is to be loved as 
 man,' appears to me to have no characteristic of geometry. It 
 has not commanded the assent of nations whose moral culture 
 has been the highest : nor is it a proposition, however true, 
 so differing in its character from others as to need no limita- 
 tion or explanation. It appears to me particularly vague in its 
 significance, and leaving far too dim an impression on the mind 
 to be made one of the seven pillars of the science. And what 
 foundation for a science does ' the universal voice of man- 
 kind ' (No. 293) or 'the universal understanding among men ' 
 (No. 269), or the ' universal moral sympathy of mankind' (No. 
 313) afford for rigorous reasoning. Truly, we know very 
 far too little of mankind to say what its universal voice is. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 It is to me so considerable a blessing that I am very jealous 
 of it namely, that morality need be very little mathematical 
 that it depends in a very small degree on demonstration 
 that it is a matter of instinct or intuition, or at worst of 
 sympathy or taste capable of culture through experience 
 and exercise rather than through reasoning. Indeed, herein 
 I recognise one very considerable element of the self-evidenc- 
 ing divinity of Christianity that it assumes morality to be 
 this, and teaches it in no wise systematically, but rather by 
 example than by reasoning. And, indeed, do you not re- 
 cognise this in No. 233, where you say, ' In order to describe 
 the character conformable to the supreme rule, we may 
 speak of it as the character and conduct of a good man. That 
 is right which a good man would do.' ' That is right which 
 a good man would feel ' (and some of the Germans, as you 
 know, paint portraits of good men before they begin their 
 systematic labours). Now this is what makes the New Testa- 
 ment so impressive as a book of morals, not chiefly its precepts, 
 but its model of duty. By studying in it (as a divine ideal of 
 duty) the recorded character of Christ, we practically supersede 
 innumerable systematic ambiguities. Yes, the exhibition, not 
 imaginary but historical, of a perfect character : the portrait of 
 a person divinely human and in close relationship with our- 
 selves, through acts of beneficence and words of promise of 
 immeasurable value this I believe will more and more be 
 proved to be the moral magnet of mankind. ... 
 
 And finally, herein [i.e. in moral science] the object and 
 subject of the science is one. In all natural sciences what you 
 have to classify, to speculate about, and to investigate, is some- 
 thing external to the mind, a series of phenomena and properties 
 and relations governed by laws distinct in kind from those of 
 the power which enables you to observe and arrange them. 
 But in metaphysics and morals the mind has to analyse and 
 comprehend itself to explain itself to itself. Thus are the 
 mental sciences to me but as aerostatics ; the power we have to 
 move with is the same in kind with that which we have to 
 move in. It is as if we had to move the world from a point 
 not without it or to anatomise the body with a knife of flesh. 
 
 For these, and for several other reasons, I cannot but 
 
1845 'ELEMENTS OF MORALITY.' 325 
 
 regret that your Elements of Morality assume a geometrical 
 structure, because I think it in a good measure lost labour, 
 and in a world where there is so much to be done, and so few 
 like yourself to do it, bad cosmical economy is a bad thing. 
 Had you been content to claim for Morals the rank of an in- 
 ductive science, in some points of a higher certainty as well as 
 of a higher importance than any, while in others more indefi- 
 nite there would have been little to object to in it, beyond 
 some arbitrariness and obscurity of arrangement. But as it is 
 there is more effective labour in your work, and more felicitous 
 definition than is to be found in any other half-dozen books on 
 Morals I know of. And a great portion of your general results 
 are of great practical worth independently of the way by which 
 you profess to arrive at them. 
 
 To the Rev. Frederic Myers] Salisbury : Sep. 6, 1845. 
 
 I have just read over your letter on my 'Elements of 
 Morality,' and I am very grateful to you for the quantity of 
 thought you have bestowed upon the book, and for the trouble 
 you have taken in giving me your impressions respecting it. 
 The remarks of any candid person would be much valued by 
 me so given, and yours much more particularly. I will reply 
 directly and briefly to some of your criticisms, for first thoughts 
 in such a case have a sort of interest of their own ; and to do 
 this will not prevent my referring to your sheets ] and answer- 
 ing them with more thought hereafter. 
 
 Your praise, and your selection of the parts which you 
 praise, is a great pleasure and an encouragement ; but on this 
 I will not dwell. 
 
 With regard to the fourth book (Religion), I hope I have 
 gained the advantages which you describe as arising from dis- 
 cussing Morality separate from Religion ; and having done this 
 I do not know how to complete a Christian system of Morality 
 except by taking in Religion, and I could not help taking in 
 religious ordinances as well as rules of action, because I must 
 in my plan take in political ordinances, and the two are indis- 
 solubly connected. The relation of Church and State is a 
 
 1 The letter consisted of twenty closely written quarto pages. 
 
326 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 subject so far in my apprehension from being a heterogeneous 
 appendage to the system, that it was one of my primary 
 objects in writing the book. You say that I have given a 
 much less decided theory of the union of Church and State in 
 England than previous writers. But that is, as you do not fail 
 to see, because the union is now less close than it was. I do 
 not see anything lax or undecided in the proof that the polity 
 of an established Church, when it is possible, is far the hap- 
 piest and the best fitted for all the noblest ends of a State's 
 existence. I could not pretend to say that the polity of an 
 established Church is the only admissible ecclesiastical polity, 
 because I could not declare nineteen-twentieths of civilised 
 nations to be in a condition which Morality refuses to acknow- 
 ledge. That what I have said about an established Church in 
 an imperfect condition, or passing to its ruin, is very incom- 
 plete and needs development, I am well aware. The task will 
 be a melancholy one, but it may be proper to take it in hand. 
 
 But to come to that which mainly occupies your letter, and 
 which seems to have been most prominent in your thought, 
 my claiming for Morality the rigour of geometrical reasoning. 
 I cannot but be sorry that I should have had to say this, in 
 order, as I thought, to make my object intelligible ; for the 
 claim has been received in several places not only with dissent, 
 but with resentment. This result is far from my desire ; for I 
 intended not to force men to adopt a new view of Morality, 
 but only to reduce to system their own approved thoughts. 
 In order, therefore, to conciliate those who are thus offended, 
 let me remark that the objection is to the preface, not to the 
 system. The preface omitted, there is nothing about geo- 
 metry or geometrical demonstration. There is certainly an 
 attempt to reason exactly from first principles : but why should 
 any one object to this ? All persons reason in morality ; even 
 the most practical and common-life talk about such mat- 
 ters implies reasons. Eeasons may be good or bad ; the 
 good ones must hang together coherently, and must depend 
 upon first principles somewhere or other. I try to find out 
 what these first principles are, and to deduce the others from 
 them. Why should this offend any one ? It is what all 
 systematic moralists have tried to do ; and the unsystematic 
 
1845 MORALS. 327 
 
 also in a great degree. In making my system depend upon 
 first principles by reasoning, I do not differ from my prede- 
 cessors. And in this respect only do I pretend to resemble 
 geometers. 
 
 But you, I think, conceive that there is something so 
 peculiar in the reasoning of geometry as to make any sup- 
 position of a resemblance between it and moral reasoning very 
 improper. You think that geometry depends upon arbitrary 
 definitions and nothing else. I think very differently of 
 geometry, and have written at some length l to show that this 
 opinion is false : and I believe what I have written has con- 
 vinced many. But at any rate, whether my doctrine about 
 geometry be accepted or not, my having such a doctrine would 
 reduce our difference to a difference of opinion about the 
 nature of geometry, not about the nature of morality. I think 
 that we must in geometry form our conceptions before we can 
 define them ; and that in the process of forming them we estab- 
 lish in our minds axioms which are the first principles of our 
 reasoning. I think the same of morality. I may add that I think 
 the same of other sciences also which deal in demonstration, for 
 instance mechanics. And as this process is to most persons 
 who are acquainted with mechanics more familiar than it is in 
 geometry, I would have taken mechanics as my illustration of 
 the portion of my science (morality) with which my book was 
 concerned. But I thought that this would startle and, offend 
 men more than the reference to geometry ; besides which it- 
 would have been still less widely intelligible. But mechanics 
 would really answer my purpose of illustration much better ; be- 
 cause in that science, although we have now axioms, defined con- 
 ceptions and vigorous reasonings, we can point to persons, and 
 to whole ages and nations, who did not assent to those axioms 
 because the mechanical ideas of their minds were not suffi- 
 ciently unfolded. In this we have, as seems to me, an answer 
 to the objection that what I assert as moral axioms are not 
 evident to all men. They are as much evident to all men as the 
 axiom that a body will not alter its motion without a cause, 
 or the like. They become evident to all men in proportion as 
 
 1 Appendix to 'Mechanical Euclid,' 1st and 2nd edition. (This note is 
 Dr. Whewell's.) 
 
328 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 all men have their conception of the terms of the science 
 rendered clear and definite ; they become evident to all men 
 in proportion as all men get rid of their individual perplexity 
 and bias, and share in that community of mind which only is 
 the import of human language. 
 
 You would have had me rather compare morality with ' the 
 lower orders of the Inductive Sciences.' I do not know to 
 what classifications of high and low orders of sciences you refer. 
 I cannot range the sciences in such a gradation. But I could 
 not arrange morality as an inductive science to any good pur- 
 pose, because I do not know any propositions in morality which 
 I should wish to state as collected by induction from facts (as 
 I have in mechanics and hydrostatics stated propositions to be 
 collected by induction from facts). For though many facts are 
 involved in moral propositions, they are none of them known to 
 us by observation alone, but all by observation interpreted by 
 our own consciousness. And if I compare morality with any 
 part of mechanics, I must compare it with the deductive part, 
 in which conclusions are derived from principles, not with the 
 inductive part in which principles are derived from facts. 
 
 But I must further try to conciliate you to my claims of 
 strict (I will no longer say geometrical) reasoning for morality, 
 by pointing out that the portion for which I especially make 
 this claim is the portion beginning with the principles (art. 269, 
 270, 271) and extending to the end of the cases of conscience. 
 It appears to me that in the discussion of cases of conscience as 
 here carried on there is a real and practical advantage in sys- 
 tematic morality, at least the cases there given are problems of 
 which I never was able to obtain a solution satisfactory to 
 myself till I treated them in that way. The reasons given are, 
 I hope, such as commend themselves to all moral men ; but 
 the place of these reasons in reference to first principles and 
 to each other I cannot assign without calling in the aid of sys- 
 tematic morality. 
 
 Claiming demonstrative reasoning for this part (omitting 
 the sequel only for simplicity of explanation), I am desirous of 
 explaining that I do not include in this claim the parts which 
 you refer to, in the first book, in which an attempt is made to 
 give precision to the common language in which we speak of 
 man's moral and intellectual constitution. 
 
1845 MORALS. 329 
 
 Those parts, if I might once more refer to my offensive 
 analogy, belong to the philosophy of morality, rather than to 
 morality : they resemble attempts which might be made to 
 show how we come to believe the axioms of geometry or of 
 mechanics, by examining the constitution of the mind. I 
 must say, however, that I have here invented nothing. I have 
 taken the common phraseology in which we must speak of the 
 mind if we speak of it at all ; and have tried to limit the terms 
 so as to make the use of them consistent. The assertions 
 which you quote as examples of what a promiscuous jury would 
 not allow, are what everybody must allow who allow us to talk 
 of will and action and rules at all. At the same time I must 
 reject the notion that such questions can be decided by a pro- 
 miscuous jury, for this reason amongst others, that if so you 
 might have two opposite decisions on two successive days. 
 
 To your objections to my claim of geometrical or rigorous 
 reasoning for Morality, you add various reasons why you think 
 it is improbable that any system of such reasoning can be estab- 
 lished. But your reasonings appear to me, for the most part, 
 such as might be alleged against the possibility of any science, 
 chemistry for instance, till it really exists. When an asserted 
 system of science is produced, it is to be shown to be a failure, 
 not by reasons against the probability of such a science a 
 priori, but by showing where are the fallacies in its reasonings. 
 Nor do I allow that there is evidence of the improbability of a 
 scientific morality in the non-existence of such a science 
 hitherto. Every treatise of morality which has had great 
 currency has contained something sound ; and in morality as 
 in other sciences these partial truths are precursors and parts 
 of the general truth. Nor is there anything to make such a 
 science impossible, in the fact of the mind being (required) to 
 observe and reason upon itself ; for the mind has a power of 
 reflexion by which it can do this. All the phenomena of 
 language show that it can, and language (of course combined 
 with thought) is the very instrument by which the analysis 
 is to be performed. 
 
 You rejoice that we come to conclusions in which we can 
 agree and which you think you can obtain by better and higher 
 methods ; as that ' he who acts against his conscience is always 
 
330 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 wrong.' I hope that we do agree in this ; and especially agree 
 that, this being so, it is very important to know what conscience 
 is, and how it is to be guided. For that a man's guide is to be 
 any set of views or feelings which he calls or thinks to be his 
 conscience would be a very formidable doctrine. And to me it 
 appears to be a very important advantage in the systematic 
 mode of getting at the above maxim, that it is balanced by 
 another, ' To act according to our conscience is not necessarily 
 to act rightly,' and the reason for it ' because we may have 
 neglected to inform and enlighten our conscience ; ' and no less 
 that more general doctrine, that * Conscience has no ultimate 
 or supreme authority.' These are propositions which are, I 
 think, quite as necessary for the moralist to insist on (whether 
 he be a systematist or not) as those you mention ; for this 
 reason among others, that moral truth may conform to the first 
 condition of truth, of being consistent with itself. 
 
 As to the practical impression made by the book, I cannot 
 pretend to judge what that may be. I should guess that it 
 would vary much with the habits of mind of the reader. Cer- 
 tainly many men not only relish, but require, in this as in 
 other subjects of thought, coherence, proof, and system. They 
 cannot be satisfied without these merits. I did not invent 
 such men, nor originate the practice of writing books for them. 
 I write for them because I am of them. I share their cravings. 
 For me at least there can be no conviction without some 
 insight. Let practical men get at their results in their own 
 way, in mechanics as in morals, but it is my task to write 
 systems. 
 
 The last sheet of this letter is missing, but the sub- 
 ject, as we shall find later, is recurred to again in corre- 
 spondence (as well as in personal intercourse) between 
 the two brothers-in-law. It is well to remember that 
 Mr. Myers was seventeen years the junior of Dr. Whe- 
 well. The fact that full and candid criticism was 
 sought by the elder and given by the younger is the 
 more remarkable. 
 
1845 ARCHDEACON HARE. 331 
 
 To Archdeacon Hare] Walmer : August 16, 1845. 
 
 I grieve much to hear of your loss. I had seen and known 
 enough of you and your brother to know that his removal must 
 be the breaking of a most brotherly union. I have never since 
 my boyhood enjoyed such a relation ; but I know how the loss 
 of early friends even less closely bound to us becomes more 
 grievous as their number lessens and they have been longer 
 knit of time. When such sorrows come we recollect how 
 happy we are in having the privilege of forming in middle life, 
 as you and I have done, unions dearer than the dearest friend- 
 ships, and such as keep off the wintry and desolate feeling 
 which otherwise would gather round us. 
 
 We will not think of disturbing your sorrows, while they 
 are so recent. W T e shall go to Hastings, I believe, next Tues- 
 day, and shall stay there I suppose three or four days. At the 
 end of that time perhaps it may not be oppressive to you if 
 we come to you for part of a day ; but you must tell us truly 
 whether it is so. We shall, I think, be no longer in your part 
 of the country at the time you mention. I should like to talk 
 on various matters with you, but I fear we shall hardly have 
 the opportunity this time. If I could find on your Sussex 
 coast a little villa to which I might run without doubt or 
 preparation when the summer days make us wish for the sea- 
 side, perhaps I might be a more frequent neighbour of yours ; 
 and it is partly to see what your shores are like that I am now 
 going to them. 
 
 To his Sister] Chichester : Aug. 30, 1845. 
 
 We have been meandering about the southern counties in 
 various directions, and have now got so far as you see by the 
 date of this. We stayed nearly a fortnight at Walmer, where 
 our friends Mr. and Mrs. Worsley were. While we were there 
 the Duke of Wellington came, and I had the pleasure of seeing 
 and talking with him. He is very well, and less deaf I think 
 than he was some time ago. Thence we went to Hastings, 
 where we stayed some days, and then to my very old friend, 
 Archdeacon Hare. I had not seen him since his marriage, 
 which took place last year. We spent two days very pleasantly 
 
332 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1845 
 
 at Hurstmonceux. From him we went to Mr. Goulburn's, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is a frequent guest of 
 ours at Cambridge, and who has a very pretty place near 
 Keigate, in Surrey. The country is very beautiful, well 
 wooded, and infinitely varied, and there seemed to be no end 
 of the pleasant rides and drives. 
 
 Although I do not willingly dispraise Cambridgeshire, I 
 was obliged to acknowledge that to a person who rides every 
 day, as I do, the difference was sufficient to excite envy. From 
 this place (Betchworth) we went to the other Sussex archdeacon, 
 Mr. Manning, who lives at an equally pretty place on the other 
 side of the county, Lavington, near Petworth, and thence we, 
 yesterday, came here. I wanted to see the cathedral, which I 
 have not seen for some twenty or thirty years. I saw it in the 
 ancient times, when I was a zealous visitor of cathedrals as a 
 student of architecture, and I return to it with great interest 
 on the same grounds. 
 
 To-morrow we go to Dr. Wilberforce, the Dean of West- 
 minster, who has the living of Alverstoke, near Grosport, and 
 thence to Salisbury, and finally we return towards the east and 
 go to Winchester, where there is a meeting of antiquarians to 
 begin on the 9th. As soon as that is over, which I suppose 
 will be in about a week, we shall return to Cambridge, where I 
 shall be glad to be, as I have a book in the press. 
 
 The letters of 1846 do not require much supplement 
 or explanation. We have found Dr. Whewell expressing 
 to Archdeacon Hare the wish that in his neighbourhood 
 might be found ' a little villa on the Sussex coast,' 
 which could become a seaside home to which he and 
 Mrs. Whewell might resort at a moment's notice. None 
 such was discovered during their tour, and probably on 
 consideration the distance from Cambridge was thought 
 too great. Instead of this a house was bought at Lowe- 
 stoft, Cliff Cottage by name, afterwards a very favourite 
 residence. It was hoped that the quiet and sea air 
 would re-establish Mrs. Whewell's health. This was not 
 to be, but the place afforded her great enjoyment. Mrs. 
 
1846 TERCENTENARY. 333 
 
 Marshall's death in January 1847 brought to an end the 
 annual visits to Hallsteads, the last of which took place 
 in 1845. 
 
 In 1846 an event of some interest in the history of 
 Trinity College was the celebration of its tercentenary 
 festival. This took place in the month of December, on 
 the annual commemoration day for that year. A large 
 number of distinguished guests, for the most part old 
 Trinity men, dined in the College hall. The Master pre- 
 sided at the banquet, and, contrary to the usual practice, 
 toasts were drunk and speeches delivered. Among the 
 speakers may be mentioned especially Bishop Blomfield, 
 Mr. Bancroft, the American minister, Lord Macaulay, 
 Lord Monteagle, and Professor Sedgwick. Prince Albert 
 was invited to attend, but was unable to do so. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall~] Trinity Lodge: Jan. 5, 1846. 
 
 I shall be glad to see the design for your Church, 1 and shall 
 be ready to give you such advice as I can frame out of my own 
 architectural recollections, or can get from Willis, who is a 
 much better counsellor. I am very much rejoiced to hear that 
 you like your clergyman. I look with interest at your under- 
 taking, and am very solicitous for its success on all accounts I 
 mean on yours, that of the nation, and that of the church. I 
 wish I could see such things doing on a scale suited to the 
 wants of the times or to the expression of a reasonable gratitude 
 for what we possess. I was interested, too, in your account of 
 your festival, "and amused to find that your audience were not 
 so wise as the Edinburgh critic who discovered that such poetry 
 4 would not do.' To be sure you did not, I suppose, venture 
 upon ' the Excursion ' to which that profound criticism was 
 applied. 
 
 I do not know if you have seen the ' sequel ' to the ' Ves- 
 tiges.' The writer stands to his guns in spite of all our can- 
 nonading, and is more serenely impudent than ever in 
 
 1 St. John's Church, Holbeck, Leeds. 
 
334 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 184G 
 
 identifying his set of inventions with the general conception of 
 order. As my ' Indications of the Creator ' is out of print, I 
 shall publish a new edition with a new preface, and hope to be 
 able to send you the preface soon. 
 
 Corrie and I intend to go to Yarmouth to-morrow, having 
 discovered that the seaside is very near us now that the rail- 
 way in that region is completed. We have been taking a 
 house at Lowestoft on that coast, and wish to see what it wants 
 of being furnished. I hope some day or other you will acknow- 
 ledge that ' Cliff Cottage ' is a pretty place, at least in our East 
 Anglian scale of beauty of scenery. 
 
 My loving wishes to your wife for many happy years to her 
 and to her children. Cordelia is in the next room, and I can 
 feel through the partition that she joins me in all kind thoughts. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick at Norwich'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Feb. 10, 1846. 
 
 We were not here taken by surprise on hearing of Dr. 
 Wordsworth's death, for we had previously heard of his being 
 very ill, and knew that his two sons were gone to him. I 
 understand that his final disorder was seated somewhere in or 
 near the spine, out of the reach of medicine. He had prayed 
 to be released for several days, but continued sensible to the 
 last, though speechless during his last hours. 
 
 Besides our great personal regard for him, we have much 
 reason to mourn him as a college ; for, so far as I know, we have 
 had few masters who were the authors of so great benefits to 
 the house. 
 
 To the Rev. Frederic Myers'] Trinity Lodge: April 11. 
 
 I think I may reckon upon your willingness to do me the 
 friendly office of looking over a part of my lectures ; the part 
 about 4 Church and State.' 
 
 I want you to tell me if there is anything likely to offend 
 anybody, for that I want to avoid. I do not finish these lectures 
 with any great pleasure, for they seem to me wofully scanty and 
 shallow in proportion to the subject ; but they contain some 
 corrections of my book which I do not want to remain uncor- 
 rected till the time of a second edition. 
 
1846 CHURCH AND STATE. 335 
 
 The request in the preceding letter produced the 
 following reply : 
 
 Mr. Myers to Dr. Whewell] 
 
 St. John's Parsonage, Keswick. 
 
 I have no doubt that men will discuss the theory of 
 Church and State often and long, and that they will try to 
 settle it ; I only say, as one who has tried, that I cannot do it ; 
 and that others who have tried, with incomparably greater 
 advantages, have failed not only in my opinion, but in the 
 opinion of each other ; and that the causes of failure appear to 
 me to lie not in the qualifications of the theorist more than in 
 the qualities of his materials. I have no doubt that it is pos- 
 sible ; whether it be easy or not must depend on individual 
 gifts and tastes, to make several theories of moral polity for 
 ideal states ; but this in itself is not very interesting to me ; 
 but I have doubts, which every fresh attempt upon the part of 
 thoughtful and accomplished minds confirms, whether it be 
 possible to apply consistently to the existing state of things in 
 our united kingdom any theory which shall admit of rigid moral 
 demonstration; or indeed whether it would be wise to attempt to 
 alter the existing relations of Church and State to conform more 
 nearly to any such theory. And among the preliminary diffi- 
 culties which present themselves, by no means the most con- 
 siderable, I think, are those which you mention in your note. 
 Whether the State has the right and the duty of educating the 
 people, and whether for this purpose it must recognise and 
 support religious teachers. Let this be at once admitted ; 
 these things it may do if it can, but how to do them ? How to 
 educate people ? how to frame general forms of education which 
 dissentient multitudes will conform to? how to make apolitical 
 education combine with various ecclesiastical ones? how the 
 State is to teach as truth that which the Churches proclaim to 
 be error or the reverse ? how, in fact, for it all resolves itself 
 into this at some point or other, how a state like ours, which is 
 not at unity in itself, should yet frame and render efficient an 
 educational unity which should reduce into unity a most divided 
 people ? how legislators of all creeds, creeds which anathematise 
 each other, should make a collective creed which shall be used 
 
336 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1846 
 
 with anything like unanimous consent of all the people as an 
 organ of education ; and how such legislators varying from 
 year to year according to the will of the people whom they 
 are to educate should ever establish any such forms ? all this 
 and much more, which I have no time to write of, is to me a 
 less surmountable difficulty. 
 
 To the Rev. Frederic Myers] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: April 19, 1846. 
 
 I send you another sheet, and shall be glad of any of your 
 remarks upon it. Do not imagine that objections to the argu- 
 ments came too late. I have modified the last sheet in con- 
 sequence of what you said, for I do not want to protect 
 establishments to such an extent that reformation shall not be 
 possible, even by proceedings in the direct course of the con- 
 stitution ; only I would have a protection of the Establishment 
 of the same order as the protection of other fundamental parts of 
 the constitution the monarchy for instance. 
 
 To his Sister] Cliff Cottage, Lowestoft : Sep. 6, 1846. 
 
 We have had several visitors here, but never so many as to 
 fill the house. Lady Alderson, who had it before us, made it 
 hold thirty people ; but I believe we have not skill enough to 
 squeeze in more than half that number. 
 
 I am sorry to say my wife does not make steady progress, 
 though the place agrees with her well ; she has alternations of 
 good and less good in her health. I am going to leave her for 
 a few days to join the British Association at Southampton. I 
 shall return hither again in about a week. I trust your numerous 
 family party will enjoy their meeting as numerous family parties 
 usually do. We have still glorious summer weather, unbroken 
 and almost uninterrupted, and shall go back to Cambridge with 
 regret at the end of this month, except the aspect of things 
 changes. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : January 28, 1847. 
 
 After what you have heard already you will not be surprised 
 by the news of Mrs. Marshall's death. She departed on Mon- 
 day about 3 o'clock, having been long in a state of weakness 
 and .gradual sinking, which made the approaching end very 
 
1847 DEATH OF MRS. MARSHALL. 337 
 
 plain. She was during her illness in a state of most blessed 
 resignation and hope, and as she said * unutterable peace ' ac- 
 companied with constant prayer. Of her daughters, only Lady 
 Monteagle was with her. Her great weakness made it im- 
 possible for her to have others with her except at intervals, and 
 Cordelia had seen her not long before. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell joined her invalid sister, Miss Marshall, 
 at Brighton, and the next two or three letters were 
 written to her there. 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Feb. 1, 1847. 
 
 I am very glad that you went to Ellen when you did, and 
 that you were in that way enabled to spend Saturday so sooth- 
 ingly. May Grod bless to us the influence of such occasions, 
 and enable us to feel that we are not finally separated from 
 those who are thus taken away from us. I do not wonder that 
 you and Ellen have bursts of sorrowful recollection, for I, to 
 whom your dear mother was so much less than to you, think 
 with anguish that I shall never more on earth rejoice in the 
 glad society of her happy nature, nor see the tokens of the love 
 which I hope there was between us. I trust you will soon 
 overlive all that is painful in the memory of our loss. 
 
 Feb. 2. 
 
 No letter from you this afternoon, my beloved Cor. I sup- 
 pose you think like Mrs. Rawson, that there is no use in being 
 away from one's husband if one is always to be writing to him. 
 
 I am glad you are making it a part of E 's plans that she 
 
 should come to Lowestoft. I have an illegible letter from 
 Humboldt, in which he calls it ' votre terre de Levenstoke ' 
 or some such word. 
 
 Feb3. 
 
 I can easily imagine there must be much that is painful in 
 your first interviews with your friends at present. But if our 
 dearest friends understand us, we become more and more in- 
 different to the notions that others take up. As life advances, 
 and we find in how small a degree our happiness depends upon 
 
 z 
 
338 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1847 
 
 the sympathy (of our acquaintances), the difficulty is to care 
 for it at all or to take any pains to seek it. I do not mean 
 that this is the temper at which we should aim, but it is the 
 feeling which prevents one's being much disturbed when one is 
 misunderstood as to one's inward sentiments. 
 
 On February 12, 1847, Dr. Whewell was in London, 
 when the death of the Duke of Northumberland, Chan- 
 cellor of the University, was announced. It immediately 
 occurred to him that Prince Albert should be requested 
 to accept the vacant office, and to ascertain the Prince's 
 feeling in the matter he wrote next day to Mr. Anson, 
 then Treasurer of the Prince's household. A prompt 
 reply from Colonel Phipps intimated that, should such 
 a requisition be presented to His Eoyal Highness as 
 should prove it to be the general desire of the Univer- 
 sity, he would feel much pleasure in consenting to be 
 put in nomination. Dr. Whewell communicated this 
 reply to his relative, Lord Monteagle, who proceeded to 
 take the necessary steps in London. He then returned 
 to Cambridge, and at once saw the Vice-Chancellor, 
 who had already received a similar suggestion from two 
 other heads of Houses. Professor Sedgwick, then Vice- 
 Master of Trinity, had also made the same suggestion 
 independently of Dr. Whewell, so that the latter on his 
 arrival in Cambridge found the idea of the Prince's ap- 
 pointment familiar to many of the residents, and more 
 especially to the members of his own college. 
 
 There was no time to lose, for the appointment to 
 the vacant Chancellorship had been fixed for February 
 25, and there was already a candidate in the field. This 
 was Lord Powis, a member of St. John's College, in 
 whose behalf a committee had been formed. A requisi- 
 tion was set on foot, to be presented to Prince Albert, 
 and it was hoped that Lord Powis would withdraw when 
 
1847 CHANCELLORSHIP OF THE UNIVERSITY. 339 
 
 he learnt that there was a general expression of feeling 
 in favour of the Prince. Lord Powis was communicated 
 with, but he referred the matter to his committee, who 
 advised him to go on. 
 
 To promote the Prince's election, meanwhile, another 
 committee was formed at Cambridge, and a large num- 
 ber of signatures were obtained to the requisition ; 
 amongst them those of fifteen of the heads of Houses 
 and of a large majority of the most eminent resident 
 and non-resident members of the University. The re- 
 quisition was presented to the Prince on February 20. 
 It was ascertained through Lord Lansdowne that the 
 Government were favourable to the movement, and that 
 it would not be unacceptable at Court. In answer to 
 the requisition the Prince repeated that he should feel 
 both pride and pleasure in yielding to the unanimous 
 wish of the University. As Lord Powis persisted in his 
 candidature, the Prince's reply was at first regarded as 
 tantamount to a refusal, and a telegram to that effect 
 was sent to the Cambridge committee. But it soon be- 
 came known that this was not the interpretation put on 
 the Prince's reply by Lord Lansdowne, Bishop Blomfield, 
 and other distinguished men in London. The Cambridge 
 committee determined thereupon to proceed with their 
 canvass, and Dr. Whewell as their chairman at once is- 
 sued a circular asking for the votes of members of the 
 Senate in favour of Prince Albert. These proceedings 
 were not formally notified to the Prince, but in the short 
 interval before the day of election, committees both in 
 Cambridge and London worked hard to obtain the 
 promises of electors. The days of election were February 
 25, 26, and 27. 
 
 At the close of the poll it was announced that 
 the Prince had a majority of 116 votes. The Prince, 
 
 z 2 
 
340 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1847 
 
 on being informed of the result of the poll, readily 
 accepted the office. 
 
 The feeling in Cambridge and in London during the 
 contest was very hot on both sides, and the scenes in 
 the Senate House were more than usually discreditable. 
 The London newspapers, which were most of them 
 adverse to the Prince's claims, contained much angry 
 correspondence, and some anonymous letters couched 
 in very vituperative terms were addressed to Dr. 
 Whewell. 
 
 The Master entertained and never failed to testify 
 much respect and strong regard for Lord Powis. His 
 conduct on many occasions had met his hearty ap- 
 probation ; especially had he sympathised with him in 
 his earnest and successful endeavours to prevent the 
 absorption of two of the Welsh bishoprics, of which 
 mention has been made in the correspondence with 
 Archdeacon Hare. But he had no sympathy with Lord 
 Powis's most active supporters, who belonged to the 
 Tractarian party, and proclaimed him as the champion 
 of the Church against the encroachments of State inter- 
 ference. On the other hand, he sincerely believed, and 
 had good grounds for believing, that in the interests of 
 the University the appointment of Prince Albert was an 
 object very much to be desired. In his opinion the 
 Prince's illustrious station, his independence of party, 
 unblemished character, and warm and enlightened sym- 
 pathy with the spirit and studies of the University, 
 marked him out for the position. But Prince Albert 
 was at the time a young man of but six-and-twenty, and 
 the public generally had as yet no proof of the capacity 
 and attainments so conspicuous in later years. Thus it 
 was readily asserted and as readily believed that the 
 offer of the Chancellorship to a royal personage of com- 
 
1847 PRINCE ALBERT. 341 
 
 paratively small experience in matters relating to the 
 English Universities was an act of blind sycophancy, and 
 that the Prince's supporters could only be influenced by 
 interested motives. There can be little doubt that many 
 persons, actuated by this feeling, voted for Lord Powis, 
 or abstained from voting for the Prince, who a few years 
 later, when his talents and earnestness had become 
 known, would have been among his warmest supporters. 
 But the reason why Dr. Whewell and the vast majority 
 of the most eminent men in the University supported 
 the Prince was that they had had the opportunity of 
 discerning what the public generally had yet to learn. 
 During his previous visit to Cambridge the Prince had 
 resided at Trinity Lodge, and the influence of his con- 
 versation and society had no doubt made itself felt then 
 in Cambridge, as it did whenever and wherever persons 
 eminent in literature and science were admitted to his 
 personal acquaintance. From this point of view it 
 cannot be questioned but that in promoting the cause of 
 Prince Albert Dr. Whewell acted in a most loyal spirit 
 towards the University. Proof of this is afforded by a 
 letter which he addressed to the Prince immediately 
 after his election, bespeaking his interest in the im- 
 provement of the University system, and asking leave 
 to draw his attention to the consideration of plans by 
 which the course of the University studies might be 
 enlarged, so as to include some of the most valuable 
 portions of modern science and literature.' In further- 
 ance of this object he had an interview with the Prince 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 It is no less certain that the result of the election 
 has fully justified Dr. Whewell's hopes. Not only in 
 Cambridge itself, but in other centres of learning and 
 education, the influence of the Prince's example and 
 
342 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1847 
 
 precepts has been to enlarge the bounds and intensify the 
 aims of academic teaching. Had Lord Powis been 
 elected Chancellor he would have been forced by the 
 nature of the support he received to oppose all change, 
 and the course of progress in the University which has 
 been very marked during the last thirty years would in 
 all probability have been much impeded. 
 
 Dr. Whewell's conduct has also been impugned on 
 the ground that he involved the Prince and the Uni- 
 versity in an unnecessary and unpleasant contest, and 
 that against the Prince's own wishes. But it is quite 
 clear from unpublished papers found after Dr. Whewell's 
 death that he was not primarily responsible for the con- 
 test. The chief London supporters of the Prince having 
 interpreted the Prince's answer to the Vice-Chancellor 
 as a qualified assent, Dr. Whewell, though chairman of 
 the Cambridge committee, found himself powerless to 
 control the zeal of some of the younger committee-men, 
 who were determined to go on after learning the views 
 of Lord Lansdowne and others. Dr. Whewell might, it 
 is true, have resigned his chairmanship ; but this would 
 not have averted the contest, and would probably have 
 been fatal to the Prince's cause, which he had so much 
 at heart. He deliberately put a statement to this effect 
 on record when the events were still recent, and that 
 statement is entirely confirmed by the correspondence. 
 
 Although Dr. Whewell was throughout the contest 
 the chief mark for all the abuse that was levelled by 
 Lord Powis's supporters against their antagonists, he did 
 not attempt to retaliate. He fought the battle with the 
 vigour and determination which formed an essential 
 part of his nature, but when it was over he showed his 
 usual magnanimity. Those who knew him at all knew 
 that he was incapable of harbouring resentment. In a 
 
1847 PRINCE ALBERT CHANCELLOR. 343 
 
 characteristic letter, written immediately after the elec- 
 tion was decided, to one of his most violent assailants, 
 at that time a junior Fellow of his own college, he con- 
 tented himself with saying that when he had had longer 
 experience of the University he would know what great 
 evils are produced by a contested election, but that so 
 far as he was concerned nothing that had happened 
 would lead to any estrangement, and that he had dis- 
 missed all unpleasant recollections from his mind. 
 
 The Prince was formally installed as Chancellor at 
 the Commencement in July. The Queen accompanied 
 him to Cambridge. This visit, being more formal in 
 character than the last, occasioned much more careful 
 and elaborate attention to details of state and ceremony. 
 As early as March 2 the Master had written to Colonel 
 Phipps, offering as usual the accommodation of the 
 Lodge to the Eoyal Chancellor, and requesting directions. 
 The Queen and Prince arrived July 5. Everything 
 passed off with brilliant success. Splendid weather 
 showed Cambridge to great advantage, and means were 
 found to house and entertain an astonishing number of 
 distinguished guests, both English and foreign. 
 
 No record of this visit remains from Mrs. Whewell's 
 pen. Her mother was no longer li ving, and Lady Mont- 
 eagle was one of the guests at the Lodge. The young 
 niece, hereafter so frequently a visitor, was also 
 present. 
 
 The royal visit is briefly referred to by Dr. Whewell 
 in a letter to his sister on March 14 : 
 
 We have, as you say, had a great bustle here, and our 
 success was much less gratifying than the same result would 
 have been without a contest. However, they would have it so, 
 and the victory will have some very good consequences. You 
 need not expend much pity upon me on account of the trouble 
 
344 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1847 
 
 and fatigue ; for though I extremely dislike the interruption 
 and confusion of an election, when that is over I dismiss the 
 matter from my thoughts. 
 
 We mean to go to London to-morrow, to instal the Prince 
 in his office, and I suppose he will come here in July and give 
 the prizes, as the Duke of Gloucester did, to me among others, 
 in 1814. 
 
 In April 1847 the Professorship of Civil Law seemed 
 likely to become vacant by the resignation of Dr. 
 Geldart. As may be gathered from the three concluding 
 books of Dr. Whewell's ' Elements of Morality,' his 
 edition of ' Grotius,' and the liberal provision he made 
 by his will for the study of International Law at Cam- 
 bridge, he took a very great interest in subjects con- 
 nected with this Chair. In anticipation of a vacancy he 
 addressed a letter to Lord Lansdowne, then a member 
 of the Government, suggesting that some attempt might 
 be made in the appointment of the new Professor to give 
 to the study of the Civil Law a more philosophical cha- 
 racter than it had generally possessed at Cambridge. 
 He considered that the choice of the new professor 
 might have an important influence in elevating the study 
 of Civil Law into a general study of Jurisprudence. 
 The person appointed by the Crown was Sir Henry 
 Maine, whose well-known legal works exactly correspond 
 in character with the ideal thus foreshadowed. 
 
 The following letters to Miss Whewell tell of the pre- 
 parations for the installation and of visits to Lowestoft 
 and Norwich. 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: May 29, 1847. 
 
 We have been in London the last three weeks, and returned 
 here only yesterday. We stayed a little later than we should 
 have otherwise done, in order that we might go to the 
 Drawing Room, held on the 27th, in honour of the Queen's 
 
1847 JENNY LIND. 345 
 
 birthday. We are to have Her Majesty here as well as the 
 Prince, as you may have seen in the newspapers. We have 
 been furbishing up the Lodge for the occasion, and as I said 
 before, we find the paint so unwholesome as well as disagreeable 
 that I think it not unlikely we shall go to Lowestoft in a few 
 days. 
 
 I am glad you like my German translations. I pique my- 
 self much on their fidelity, which, I hold, surpasses that of any 
 other translations. Whether by being thus close to the original 
 they are tame and prosaic, you must judge for yourself. 
 
 June 6, 1847. 
 
 We go on Tuesday to Lowestoft for a fortnight, having, in 
 a great measure, made our preparations for the royal visit so 
 far as the Lodge is concerned. The Queen and the Prince dine 
 in the College hall on Tuesday, July 6, and various other 
 festivities are in contemplation. 
 
 I shall be at Oxford on the 23rd, and for a few days during 
 the meeting of the British Association I shall be with Dr. 
 Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel. 
 
 Cliff Cottage, Lowestoft: Sep. 5, 1847. 
 
 It is a disappointment to me as well as to you that we do 
 not meet this summer. We had some intention of making an 
 expedition into the north this year, and this month ; but when 
 we were wavering we were decided by receiving an invitation, 
 not only to hear the celebrated singer Jenny Lind, but to meet 
 her. She is to be at the Bishop's during the days when she 
 sings at Norwich, and we are to go there at the same time. 
 She is universally spoken of as being not only a most delightful 
 singer, but also a most amiable and excellent lady, as you may 
 suppose from the bishop receiving her into his family. 
 
 To his Wife} Oriel Lodge : June 24. 
 
 Here I am, with no time at all to write, for it is already 
 dinner time, and, as you know, at British Association time, 
 nothing waits for nobody. You see my grammar is as exemplary 
 as Mrs. Fry's. I wish with all my heart you could have been 
 with me, for I should then have enjoyed everything much 
 
346 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1847 
 
 more. But I have been thinking over and over again that yon 
 and I must come here together some time and look at all the 
 colleges, halls, and chapels and courts. I still think them, as I 
 always thought them, a very pleasant series of sights, and well 
 worth a systematic inspection. Our B.A. business is going on 
 very prosperously. I have made acquaintance with Le Verrier, 
 and am pleased with him. He is to visit Cambridge soon. I 
 hope while we are there, and when we are not in the turmoil of 
 our royal visit. Herschel has been here, but I fear is already 
 gone. Airy is here and many more, and altogether it is a very 
 prosperous meeting but dinner, dinner, dinner ! 
 
 The following letter was written to Mr. Aubrey de 
 Vere on the receipt of a volume of posthumous poems 
 by his father, Sir Aubrey de Vere. 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Oct. 3, 1847. 
 
 I did not receive your volume of poetry till a few days ago, 
 when I returned from the sea-side hither. I was very glad to 
 have it as your gift, although I had already possessed myself of 
 the volumes, and had read to my wife the whole of Mary Tudor 
 and portions of the rest. We were much interested with many 
 parts of the drama, especially, I think, with Elizabeth. I can 
 well understand that it must have been a very affecting task 
 to you to complete such a monument to the writer, connected 
 with him by the love of poetry, in addition to all other ties, as 
 you are ; and believing, as I know you do, that poetry is a very 
 serious thing to those who really have any insight into it. 
 
 After saying this, I am almost ashamed to send you a little 
 volume which I have printed for my friends, and which I in- 
 tended to send you when I began this note ; for it consists, for 
 the most part, of mere trifling. You will, however, look at it 
 with good nature if you look at it at all. I forget whether I 
 sent you some translations from Schiller and Groethe which 
 Murray published for me in the spring (not the hexameters), 
 and which, some of them, are I really think very good transla- 
 tions. You know how candidly translators judge of their own 
 performances. 
 
 I hope your task of distributing meal to your poor country- 
 
1847 VISIT TO PARIS. 347 
 
 men is by this time no longer necessary, and that the necessity 
 is not likely to recur. I am sorry we did not meet while you 
 were in England. 
 
 To his Sister] Paris, Hotel Vantine: Dec. 20, 1847. 
 
 I told you we had some intention of coming to Paris soon, 
 and here we are. We lost no time after my visit to Cuddesdon, 
 for we reckoned that we were more likely to have good weather 
 before Christmas than after. I went to Cambridge on Wednes- 
 day the 15th, and the next day I presided at the distribution 
 of our prizes in College, and was present at the Commemoration 
 sermon. The same day we went to London, and I gave a 
 lecture at the Eoyal Society ; on the following day we went to 
 Folkestone and crossed over to Boulogne, where we slept. We 
 had not a very smooth passage, but pretty well considering the 
 season of the year. On Saturday we went on to Amiens by the 
 railroad, which is as good as our English ones. I stopped at 
 Amiens, partly in order that the journey might not be too long 
 for my wife, and partly to gratify my eyes with the sight of my 
 early love, the cathedral at Amiens. It is two or three and 
 twenty years since I first saw that building, and it then appeared 
 to me one of the most magnificent works which is to be seen in 
 the world ; and so it appears to me still. We attended the 
 service there, which certainly shows far better than any English 
 service can how the cathedrals are adapted for the magnificent 
 ritual of the Middle Ages, and how every part of the edifice 
 contributes to the effect. We saw the cathedral under various 
 aspects, by daylight and by candlelight, full and empty ; and 
 we heard, I must say, a very good and unexceptionable sermon 
 upon the various festivals of which the series is just begin- 
 ning. We shall stay here about three weeks, and if we have 
 tolerable weather I have no doubt we shall find full occupation 
 and amusement for the time. 
 
 The Christmas of 1847 was passed in Paris, where, 
 among many other friends, English and foreign, with 
 whom pleasant intercourse was enjoyed, the names of 
 Mr. John Austin and his wife were prominent. 
 
 The first letter written by Dr. Whewell after 
 
348 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 returning to England is one to his sister, dated Jan. 16, 
 1848, Folkestone. 
 
 We arrived here yesterday from Boulogne, and have enjoyed 
 our visit to Paris very much, notwithstanding that it was very 
 cold all the time we were there. We have come home earlier 
 than we intended, because we are summoned to Windsor on 
 Wednesday next. We are to stay at the Castle two days, and 
 on Saturday next I hope to be at Cambridge. 
 
 Shortly after their return to Cambridge came the 
 news of the events in Paris, which filled them with con- 
 cern and alarm for the friends they had left there. A 
 letter to Mrs. Austin expresses these feelings, and also 
 records the lively sense of gratitude left by the kindness 
 the Austins had shown them in Paris. 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: March 9, 1848. 
 
 I have just heard that you are in England, and cannot 
 refrain from sending you a line to express my satisfaction at 
 this, among all the miserable events of the last three weeks. 
 We have been perpetually casting our thoughts towards you in 
 the Eue Lavoisier, while all the sounds of wreck and ruin have 
 come to us day after day, and fervently hoping that you were 
 safe and unmolested. 
 
 We knew well the grief you must feel at the fall of some of 
 the great persons of this deplorable drama, and at the frustration 
 of so many years of labour in building up the edifice of peace 
 and order ; and we hoped that you had no more special troubles 
 of your own to grieve for. The great kindness which you showed 
 us in Paris made us take to the place more than we could 
 otherwise have done ; and so we were better able to follow the 
 story from one part of the city to another, and from one person 
 to another, than we could otherwise have been ; and all this 
 was mixed up with recollections of you, because to you we owed 
 so much of it. 
 
 I hope we shall hear that all the Guizot family are well 
 and tranquil under the change. M. Gruizot must be supported 
 by the knowledge of the general respect in which he is held, 
 
1848 NEW EDITION OF THE 'MORALITY.' 349 
 
 and I am glad to hope that Madame Gruizot may find a tranquil 
 haven after the storms of her Paris life. I am puzzled how to 
 write to my Paris friends ; for, I suppose, one ought to take it 
 for granted that they have cordially accepted the republic ; and 
 that is so new a tone that it is not easy to fall into it at once. 
 I suppose we shall by degrees come to an understanding. 
 
 To the Rev. Frederic Myers] Trinity Lodge : March 3. 
 
 I am meditating a new edition of my * Morality,' which it 
 appears is wanted ; and though, I am afraid, you do not think 
 the book a good one, nor easily capable of being made so, yet 
 there are, you know, degrees of badness, and it may perhaps be 
 rendered better than it is ; especially as one mode of correction 
 which I intend to apply copiously is omission. I shall leave 
 out indeed almost half the book, not because I think it does 
 not belong to the subject, or that it is not put in its proper 
 place in the work as it now stands ; but because it has reference 
 to living controversies, and requires to be more carefully written, 
 and also because, as my critics have abundantly shown by their 
 objections, there are parts which obscure the general scheme 
 and connection of the work. And I want to engage you to 
 give me a little advice on some of these points ; not absolutely 
 engaging to follow it, but having a great value for your judg- 
 ment in such a case, and knowing that it will be both patient 
 and friendly. So take the book when you have time, and open 
 it, and I will tell you what I intend to do, that you may suggest 
 anything which you think right ; either to omit more than I 
 intend, or to spare some of my condemned passages. Although 
 in truth they are not condemned, but only kept back ; for I 
 shall very probably publish them again in some other form. . . . 
 
 Now tell me frankly what you think of these various changes. 
 
 It is impossible not to think of the French Revolution, 
 which I fear is only begun. One sees what a house of cards is 
 a monarchy without an aristocracy. I have fears for Gruizot, 
 for I think he is Stoic enough to offer to take his trial as soon 
 as there is a calm, and I have no trust in Lamartine's abolition 
 of capital punishment. I should like much to talk with you 
 about this and about other matters, for example, Stanley's 
 Sermons ; but I have no time to write at present. 
 
350 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 The book which is the subject of the following 
 letter is a collection of Lectures on Great Men delivered 
 by Mr. Myers in St. John's School-room, Keswick. The 
 book was privately circulated during the author's life, 
 and has been reprinted and published since his death. 
 
 To the Rev. F. Myers'] Cliff Cottage : June 18, 1848. 
 
 After giving you iny premature objections to your Great 
 Men which you heard so patiently, I intended to take the first 
 leisure hours to read them through, and to tell you what it was 
 that I really had to protest against. I was not able to execute 
 this intention till we came to this scene of quiet and solitude ; 
 and now that I have really read the lectures, I find so much 
 more to agree with and delight in than to object to, that I have 
 lost much of my disposition to make any protestation against 
 your teaching. For truly your discourses are full of excellent 
 things excellently said, and I do not doubt that many would be 
 much the better for hearing them, and you are to be deemed 
 happy in having the heart and mind which made you write 
 them. And indeed there is hardly anything which I could have 
 wished to have said in order to obviate any erroneous impres- 
 sion from parts of them, which you have not said in other parts. 
 I altogether assent to the force of the reasons which you put 
 forward at the end of the last lecture (that on George Washing- 
 ton) why you deem it good to think and talk of great men, and 
 especially to that reason, that it may help to correct the 
 tendency of the present times to moral cowardice. Still, if you 
 are willing that I should bring out upon my paper the last 
 drops of my dissent from you, that nothing but cordial admira- 
 tion and sympathy may be left behind, I should say that there 
 is in this very plan of putting forward certain men as great, 
 and as forming a class of great men, and as being by that cha- 
 racter objects of especial interest and instruction to us, some- 
 thing which tends in no small degree to mislead too confiding 
 hearers. If you had called your men eminent, or remarkable, 
 or admirable men, I do not think there would have been the 
 same danger : but when you call a man great, you call on your 
 hearers to acknowledge in him a certain superiority which pre- 
 
1848 LECTURES ON GREAT MEN. 351 
 
 vents their judging freely whether he is good, since by his very 
 greatness he seems to be placed above their standard and beyond 
 their full comprehension ; and I think that you do judge your 
 great men with something of this submissive spirit, not without 
 peril to the cause of goodness. Moreover, from this selection 
 of greatness as the characteristic to which your attention is 
 mainly directed, you are led to dwell prominently on firmness 
 and perseverance and skill in leading men, and overcoming 
 difficulties, as admirable qualities. And so they are ; but their 
 value depends on the cause in which they are used, and I hold 
 it not to be good moral teaching to put them in the first place, 
 or seem to do so which your scheme appears to me to lead to. 
 For though you praise these qualities as used in the cause of 
 justice, and truth, and humanity, yet when you have made your 
 hero a great man, you do not lightly grant that justice, and 
 truth, and humanity are with his adversaries ; for that would 
 doubtless detract much from his greatness. Nor does it appear 
 to me very consistent with this mode of describing men, to 
 allow a due force to established rules of justice, and truth, and 
 humanity. For your great man is above rules, knows that they 
 must at times be violated, and proves that he does so at the 
 right time by his success, or at least by his energy. This I 
 hold to be a dangerous tendency. It leads you at times to 
 speak as if rebellion, insurrection, and revolution were good and 
 great, in general and in the abstract. It is true that you 
 have, as I have said, passages of an opposite tendency (as p. 77 
 of Cromwell). But still this general colour of an admiration of 
 the violation of rules and subversion of institutions appears to 
 me to predominate, and to show through other parts of the 
 painting. And though, of course, it is taken for granted that 
 the great man, in making his revolutions, has justice and truth 
 on his side, yet it is taken for granted, or left undiscussed as a 
 matter in which his greatness leaves the presumption much in 
 his favour, and which is perhaps too hard to solve. This is the 
 impression made, I think, by leaving the main question of 
 right and wrong open, as the regicide in the case of Cromwell. 
 For if truth on this subject be important, your ordinary hearer 
 will think, why do you not try to set him right by deciding it ? 
 The difference between us I have sometimes expressed, as 
 
352 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 you probably recollect, by contrasting worship of heroes with 
 reverence for ideas. It appears to me that a reverence for the 
 ideas of truth, justice, humanity, and for the forms in which 
 they have been embodied law, institutions, books, national 
 habits, including, of course, religious light and heat that 
 these are more truly deserving of reverence than any man's 
 character. And the progress of mankind in which you rejoice, 
 and in which I rejoice so far as I dare, consists in the progress 
 of these things, and not in the energy with which at intervals 
 this man or that labours to promote their progress. If your 
 Cromwell really had a great share in the improvement of the 
 English law, or in the promotion of toleration, I should admire 
 him more than I do ; but I do not find that he did anything 
 intelligent, certainly nothing permanent, in this way. If he 
 did, as you think, it appears to me hardly of any value in 
 making him one of your great men, for they are made great by 
 other qualities. The person who really fought the great battle 
 of toleration in England was a man greater, in my opinion, than 
 Cromwell, namely, William the Third. And when you ask 
 what superiority the Revolution of '88 had over the Rebellion 
 of '41, the answer is very simple. That the Revolution deviated 
 from the constitution no further than was absolutely necessary, 
 and stopped as soon as liberty was secured. And this historical 
 fidelity and political moderation had their reward. They led to 
 the noblest constitutional structure that has ever existed. On 
 the contrary, not one of Cromwell's constitutions would stand 
 or work. In the same manner Savonarola's reforms were all 
 swept away in a few years. So it must be, if men, however 
 great, begin to make all things anew. Only a slow progress is 
 granted to man, a,nd only a slight share to any one man, and 
 the men to whom the greatest share is due are not, I think, 
 those whom you call great men. 
 
 I am not, however, insensible to the value of great reformers, 
 even when they are intemperate, convulsive, revolutionary ; for 
 I know that the reverence for the established forms in which 
 the great ideas of moral and religious truth are clothed may 
 end in being a regard for the forms when the idea has slipped 
 out of the clothing; I know that institutions may become 
 worthless when their spirit is gone, and they become the 
 
1848 LECTURES ON GREAT MEN. 353 
 
 instruments of error and injustice ; and then it often happens 
 that a bold and vehement reformer breaks to pieces the dead 
 form, and leaves room for a newer life to work. But this is 
 only one way, and that not the most ordinary or hopeful, as it 
 seems to me, in which human improvement takes place ; and is no 
 sufficient reason for making all bold and vehement advocates of re- 
 form, if they meet with any considerable success, into great men. 
 
 You will say, and truly, that you have other sort of charac- 
 ters than those among your great men. Cranmer and Coligny, 
 for instance. And in truth I have no fault whatever to find 
 with them, or rather I read them with unmingled pleasure and 
 sympathy. The character of Cranmer is more truly given, as I 
 conceive it, than in any other modern representation thereof; 
 and with regard to these, my objection, if indeed I needs must 
 object, reduces itself to some small discontent at having these 
 good men classed with your great men. They are not great in 
 the same sense ; and it appears to me that they have not justice 
 done them by being put into a class with Cromwell, and even 
 with Savonarola. I say this not contesting the truth of your 
 picture of the religious character of the two latter, because I 
 think that the religious sincerity and earnestness of a man, 
 though it be something far better than greatness, cannot be 
 looked upon as making him great that is, I think the manner 
 in which this feature is introduced, shows still further the in- 
 convenience of trying to make a gallery of great men. 
 
 But I believe I am growing captious in my criticism, and 
 certainly it is much longer than I intended when I began, 
 though I have left out many things which I intended to say. 
 These must wait till we can discuss them viva voce, if you 
 think my views worth discussing. At any rate I have had the 
 pleasure of dwelling somewhat the longer upon the thought of 
 your book, which I really think of with great delight over and 
 over. 
 
 The spring was passed as usual at Cambridge. 
 Mrs. Whewell's letters and journals tell of mornings 
 spent in business connected with allotment grounds 
 and clothing club, afternoon drives or rides with her 
 liusband, evenings of talk and reading aloud. To Dr. 
 
 A A 
 
354 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 Mackreth on March 21, Dr. Whewell wrote, ' I am 
 glad that you like my sermons, for to tell you the truth 
 I like them myself. I like the opportunity of speaking 
 seriously to the excellent young men that compose almost 
 the whole of our congregation.' 
 
 Their summer movements included visits to Clifton 
 and the neighbourhood, and in Cumberland. 
 
 The journal shows us that after the return of Dr. 
 and Mrs. Whewell to Cambridge from their visit to 
 Norwich, they received on October 30 M. Guizot, his 
 son, and two daughters. It was one of several visits 
 paid to them by the Guizots and other French exiles 
 with whom they had had pleasant intercourse in Paris. 
 
 In the autumn of this year Mr. Eobert Leslie Ellis 
 lent to Dr. Whewell a book called ' Evenings with a 
 Eeviewer.' This book was written by Mr. James Sped- 
 ding, and privately circulated with the intention of 
 calling out the ' corrective criticism ' of his friends, as 
 an assistance to himself in preparing for a labour to 
 which many subsequent years of his life were to be 
 devoted, that of placing Lord Bacon, his character, and 
 his works, fairly before the public, and thus appealing 
 against the popular view of his character, especially as 
 represented in Lord Macaulay's article on Lord Bacon 
 in the ' Edinburgh Eeview.' Dr. Whewell read the 
 book with great interest and sympathy, and a corre- 
 spondence took place between him and the author, 
 which by Mr Spedding's great kindness I am enabled 
 to give entire. 
 
 To James Spedding, Esq.'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Nov. 17, 1848. 
 
 Ellis has been kind enough to lend me your printed re- 
 marks on Macaulay's article on Bacon. I have read them with 
 very great delight, and go to the whole length that you do in my 
 
1848 'EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER.' 355 
 
 belief in his goodness as well as greatness ; one or two minute 
 scruples which I have about your views are not worth mention- 
 ing. But you have the less merit in winning me to your 
 opinion, or rather, in making me admire the manner in which 
 you have maintained it, inasmuch as I never believed the 
 usual calumnies about Bacon ; and, for instance, with regard to 
 Essex, always thought his own defence of himself quite satis- 
 factory. Those who condemn him very strangely shut their eyes 
 to Essex's atrocious guilt, which was such that if Bacon on the 
 discovery of it had broken off all friendly relations with him, he 
 would have been quite justified. I will venture to suggest an 
 explanation of a passage which you say you do not understand. 
 It is p. 68 : ' Of all nations the English are not subject, base, 
 nor taxable.' I suppose this to refer to the description given by 
 the French people in their law books : that they are 'peuple 
 has, soumis, (or some such word), taillable, et corveable a merci 
 et a misericordeS Bacon means to say that the English may 
 not be taxed arbitrarily and indefinitely, though perhaps some 
 nations may. Is not this the probable explanation ? 
 
 Your speculation as to the distinctive character of Bacon's 
 philosophy is very interesting, and will bear a great deal of 
 consideration. Perhaps I may have more to say about it. 
 Cowley appears to have understood it nearly as you do, as 
 you may see in his ' Proposition for the Advancement 
 of Experimental Philosophy,' which of course was a view less 
 biassed by the subsequent history of science than the 
 view of our day is likely to be. But I think Bacon's design 
 is better apparent by his New Atlantis. In his proclama- 
 tion of a, new epoch he had been anticipated by Telesius and 
 Campanella, and even by Roger Bacon, who was, I think, as 
 extraordinary a man as Francis; but all this I have said, and, I 
 hope, proved, in print. He also borrowed from Gilbert, and I 
 think borrowed images as well as thoughts, as I have also 
 shewn. And almost the only matter for which I find reason to 
 blame him is his injustice to Gilbert, whom he scarcely ever 
 mentions, except to blame him for the narrowness of his 
 method, but whose philosophy was really almost as wide as 
 Bacon's own, and solid precisely on account of his starting 
 from such a reality as magnetic forces. 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 I do not know whether I should be taking too great a 
 liberty if I were to enquire whether you have a spare copy of 
 your ' Kemarks.' You could not bestow it, if you have, upon 
 any one who would use it more faithfully or with more pleasure. 
 If I were not afraid of making the mistake which Bacon 
 notes in James's dealing with his Parliament, treating a matter 
 as a bargain which should be put on grounds of kindness, I 
 should say that I have a copy of my 6 Philosophy ' very much 
 at your service. If I could separate the twelfth book from the 
 rest I should not hesitate to offer it you, for it is all about 
 Bacon, his predecessors and successors ; but I fear you will be 
 alarmed at my two volumes. 
 
 A rough draft still in Mr. Spedding's possession 
 shows that to this letter the following answer was 
 returned : 
 
 I need not tell you how much I have been gratified by your 
 letter, which, going round by Mirehouse, only reached me last 
 night. I have sent you a copy of Vol. I. by the post, and hope 
 to send Vol. II. in a week or two, the last proof being now in 
 my hands. 
 
 I am aware that it seems absurd to print a book, and yet 
 to wish not only to keep it private, but to prevent it from 
 circulating privately. But after a great deal of consideration 
 of the matter, and looking only to the interest of the subject 
 itself, I mean to the chance of making a successful and 
 durable impression on public opinion I am satisfied that to 
 present the question first in this form would not be judicious. 
 It would be very likely to provoke controversy, and the re- 
 viewers would be the judges. Until they have heard the 
 evidence as well as the argument they will not be in a condi- 
 tion to judge, and so long as the body of evidence is not easily 
 accessible, and bound up with the argument, they will proceed 
 to judgment without hearing it. In such a case, considering 
 the strong current of popular prejudice against my view, and 
 the tendency of all first appeals against popular prejudices to 
 raise a dust of popular objections, the verdict would in the first 
 instance go against me. And though I might appeal with a 
 
1848 'EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER.' 357 
 
 better chance to second thoughts and the next generation, yet, 
 the appeal would be conducted at great disadvantage, because 
 I should stand in the position of an advocate with a personal 
 interest in the cause. The ' occasional works,' as I hope to 
 edit them, will contain all the evidence, clearly and impartially 
 set forth. Everybody who possesses them will possess the 
 means of judging for himself; and if I can get that credit for 
 justice and impartiality which I mean to deserve, I do not 
 much doubt the issue. But the first reception of the work 
 (upon which in these times so much depends), will itself 
 depend very much upon my coming before the public with a 
 clear and unsuspected character; which if I shall have pre- 
 viously incurred the reputation (justly or not), of an advocate 
 engaged to make good his own position, I cannot expect. 
 
 It is true that private circulation among friends does not 
 expose a book to public or unfriendly criticism. But since 
 some half-dozen copies which I had distributed during the last 
 few months, with injunctions of privacy, have already brought 
 me about half a score of applications from other friends for the 
 like, I fear that private circulation is likely to extend beyond 
 my own friends to the friends of Macaulay and of some others 
 whose names are not very ceremoniously dealt with ; in which 
 case it would be but fair that they should be informed of what is 
 going on against them. And then what becomes of the privacy ? 
 
 I could add much more to the same purpose, but you will 
 easily see how difficult it is to keep a printed book really private. 
 My object in printing it was partly to secure it against being 
 lost; because in case I should be prevented from going on 
 with the greater work, my objections to the publication would 
 be removed, and I should be glad to think that so much is 
 left in a producible form ; but chiefly that I may have the 
 assistance of what Myers calls ' corrective criticism,' of which 
 in so large a subject a much wiser and more learned man than 
 myself would stand in need, and for which one cannot ask when 
 it involves the reading and returning of a manuscript. There 
 is no one from whom I should hope for more valuable assistance 
 in this way than from yourself, if you think my labours worthy 
 of it ; therefore no one to whom (if I had thought myself at 
 liberty to ask so much) I should have been more desirous of 
 
358 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 submitting the volumes. But I hope you will agree with me 
 in thinking it better for the present that they should not get 
 into many hands, and use them with discretion accordingly. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for the explanation of the pas- 
 sage in p. 68 : (subject, base, and taxable) which I should never 
 have found for myself, and which I think quite decisive. Could 
 you refer me to the book where the words occur ? I should have 
 been glad to hear of the other scruples which you do not men- 
 tion ; for it is one of the advantages of delaying publication that 
 it enables me to keep the whole subject open to the last. 
 
 With regard to the distinctive character of Bacon's philo- 
 sophy, I expect Ellis to take care of that. It is a question 
 which I should not have presumed to treat, except as it bears 
 upon his personal character, and those aspirations and endeavours 
 which I suppose formed the greatest part of his life. I can 
 easily believe that the results attained or attainable by his 
 method were not so great as those contemplated by Gilbert ; 
 but I confess that I shall be slow to be persuaded that the 
 results which he expected were not both different and greater. 
 My conclusion as to this rests (as I think) upon positive 
 evidence. Perhaps I may be a little biassed in favour of it, 
 because, if I am right, it saves him from the charge of injustice 
 to Gilbert. 
 
 To James Spedding, Esq.~\ 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: Dec. 12, 1848. 
 
 Again I have to thank you for an invaluable volume. I 
 have read it through with even more delight than the former 
 one, and go along with you every step. It appears to me that 
 * A ' is very hard to convince, and I suppose you intended to 
 convey that impression, or at least to set him up as the re- 
 presentative of those who are so. I am so much moved to 
 indignation at your complete exposure of the injustice of common 
 fame, and of Macaulay the advocate of that Diabolus, that I 
 cannot without much reluctance assent to your delaying the 
 public remedy of the wrong till you can put it in a more formal 
 and complete shape. I dare say you are right. But I cannot 
 conceive how the public should not be strongly interested in 
 the discussion as you have now printed it. The criticism is a 
 
1848 'EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER.' 359 
 
 model of patience, clearness, and fairness ; and when you give 
 your own view of Bacon's history it is to me deeply affecting. 
 Observe, I do not really wish you to deviate from the course 
 you have marked out for yourself ; for I believe you have a 
 sager view of the nature of the beast, ' public opinion,' than I, 
 especially fresh from your whole book, have. And no doubt 
 few, except patient readers, or those already impatient of the 
 vulgar way of talking about Bacon, would be willing to spend 
 so many evenings with you in the tranquil frame of mind which 
 the right estimate of the case requires. So I can only thank 
 you heartily on my part, and long for the time when you shall 
 publicly come forward as that executor whom Bacon designated 
 to clear his fame in future ages. 
 
 I am especially delighted that you have found your great 
 puzzle where I always found mine in the contrast of Bacon's 
 demeanour immediately after the accusation against him, and 
 again when it had been urged a little further ; and your solution 
 of the problem, though quite new and unexpected, strikes me 
 much : but you are aware that, being so new, it is well for < A ' 
 to ponder a moment to decide upon it, or at least to get full 
 possession of it. 
 
 I will notice one or two small matters (p. 382). I think if 
 you look again you will see that 'his Majesty' must be the 
 King of England. Bacon means to say that the Indies are 
 worth more than all the islands, even though the King be, as 
 he says, ' the greatest islander in Christendom.' 
 
 I have not yet found in any formal shape the French phrase 
 to which I suppose Bacon to refer in the passage which I for- 
 merly mentioned to you. And this brings to my mind that, 
 waiting to do that, I have not yet thanked you for giving me 
 so kindly the first volume. I shall not fail to regard your 
 desire of privacy in the use of these excellent volumes. 
 
 I said that I had some scruples about some points, or per- 
 haps I should rather say, one point. In the case of Essex, you 
 suggest that one reason why Bacon might be willing to appear 
 against him was that he might press the case less severely 
 than another advocate on that side. It appears to me that 
 this mood of mind an intended or foreseen modification of a 
 positive duty by an adverse affection is a dangerous moral 
 
360 LIFE OF DR WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 condition. Indeed I do not expect you to deny that it is 
 dangerous; and I dare say if I were to look back I should find 
 that your phrases are careful of the moral condition. Only on 
 my first reading I set this point aside to be meditated morally. 
 I told my publisher to send you my two volumes. In page 
 214 of the second you will see noticed several remarkable points 
 which Bacon, I think, took from Gilbert. But undoubtedly he 
 did contemplate something greater, as a practical and definite 
 plan, than Gilbert did. I am afraid I should have to say that 
 the defects of this plan as he conceived it, and without working 
 by light which rose afterwards, made it certain to fail. But 
 this is not your question, you will say. Again thanking you 
 for what you have done for our noble-minded, ill-used friend, 
 believe me, &c. 
 
 To this letter the following was Mr. Spedding's 
 reply : 
 
 Your judgment upon my last volume, or rather upon the 
 case as there expounded, has given me great delight and con- 
 solation. I am very glad that you think no better of my friend 
 A's judgment. I meant him to represent by it the impression 
 with which a man of a candid and just and open mind, but 
 one who set out with a full belief in the popular estimate of 
 Bacon's character, and was not much disposed to admire the 
 kind of man he really was, might be expected to rise from a 
 first perusal of the book ; giving him credit for a moral taste 
 unlike my own in all those points in which moral tastes may 
 fairly differ ; and making him concede no more than I think 
 candour would compel such a man to concede. Many men, I 
 hope, will think him, as you do, unreasonable. More, perhaps, 
 will in the first instance agree with him, and will modify their 
 opinions by degrees, and so come nearer to my view ; the rather 
 because they will feel that I am not blinded by enthusiasm, 
 but can put myself in their position and see the thing as they 
 see it. 
 
 Your two volumes arrived duly, for which I am much 
 obliged. I had read the passage to which you refer me. In- 
 deed I believe I had read everything you had written concerning 
 Bacon ; and that, without finding anything in your exposition 
 
1848 'EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER.' 361 
 
 which I could not easily acquiesce in as consistent with what 
 little 1 know of those matters myself. It was not from any 
 unwillingness to admit either great deficiencies or great errors 
 in Bacon's philosophy errors in his estimate both of things 
 and of men nor from any anxiety to glorify him, that I was 
 led to my conclusion with regard to the distinctive difference 
 between his philosophy and those of his contemporaries and 
 immediate predecessors ; but really and truly from a difficulty 
 I found in reconciling the language he used in describing his 
 mission, and the course which he took in working it out, with 
 the notion that the difference was no greater in kind or degree 
 than that which you point out. This difficulty I felt the less 
 hesitation in urging, because it was more likely to be perceived 
 in endeavouring to follow closely the character and career of 
 the man than in tracing the history of science. As far as the 
 man is concerned my solution (if otherwise tenable) is I think 
 satisfactory. It implies indeed a considerable error of judg- 
 ment ; but a kind of error into which such a mind was peculiarly 
 liable to fall the error of a great imagination, great hope, 
 great sense of power ; which transported him too far beyond 
 the ignorant present, and showed him the future in the instant ; 
 an error which, if one could have the secret and personal history 
 of any of the greater discoveries in philosophy, I should expect 
 to find had been fallen into by some great mind or other in the 
 course of it. Now, I suppose Bacon to have regarded Gilbert 
 (without the least thought of disparaging him, but honestly 
 and seriously) much as you might regard a man who, having 
 diligently investigated the ebb and flow of his native river, and 
 discovered a law in it, should have set himself thereupon to 
 frame a theory of tides, without first consulting the Atlantic, 
 the Pacific, and the Mediterranean. I suppose such a theory 
 might have been constructed, and might have contained a great 
 deal of the truth ; and yet it might have been reasonably rejected 
 as in its nature unsound and unphilosophical. Nay, I suppose, 
 if his river had been luckily situated, such a man might have 
 actually hit upon the true law ; have assigned to the moon her 
 actual function, and possibly led by anticipation, or by another 
 path to the discovery of the universal law of gravitation. I 
 can well believe that Bacon, acting under this impression, and 
 
362 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1848 
 
 being himself subject to certain ' idols ' of his own, which were 
 beckoning him in quite an opposite and (as it turned out) an 
 utterly wrong direction, might have paid less attention to 
 Gilbert's great and fortunate generalisation than it really 
 deserved ; just as Professor Airy paid less attention to Adams's 
 calculations than they deserved ; thinking, and it would seem 
 not without reason (for I am told that there was much of luck 
 in that discovery too), that there was no hope of discovering 
 the place of the external planet upon those data. I said that I 
 might be a little biassed in favour of this opinion ; but it is not 
 because I am unwilling to admit faults in Bacon, but because 
 the fault implied in his alleged injustice to Gilbert is one which 
 does not seem to me to belong to his character, but supposes 
 an element in it which I cannot square with the rest. On the. 
 other hand the charge of borrowing from Gilbert, or from 
 Eoger Bacon, or from any one else is one which I find no diffi- 
 culty in allowing, because I believe that minds like his are the 
 greatest borrowers of all, and least able to say from which source 
 each borrowed item came : not to add that a very strict and 
 solicitous account of debtor and creditor in such matters is not 
 in my opinion to be recommended ; for it tends to interrupt 
 the proper process of the mind, which is unconscious assimilation 
 of all that is best and truest, to encumber discussions with 
 irrelevant matter, and to divert attention from the work itself 
 to the rival pretensions of the workmen. 
 
 With regard to the moral question which you raise upon 
 part of the Essex case, my expression is perhaps not so guarded 
 as it should have been. I meant merely to anticipate an 
 objection which might be made by those who are not satisfied 
 with my own view of Bacon's true duty in that case, namely 
 that of unhesitating fidelity to the larger interest and thejuster 
 cause, and say that he ought to have preferred the private to 
 the public obligation. To which I answer, that even upon that 
 supposition it would have been natural for him to take the 
 course he did ; for that his sole chance of serving Essex at all 
 was by interfering to prevent any unjust or undue pressure of 
 the evidence against him ; and it was only as one of the counsel 
 for the prosecution that he could have any opportunity of such 
 interposition. His choice lay not between speaking for Essex 
 
1848 'EVENINGS WITH A BEVIEWER.' 363 
 
 and speaking against him ; but between taking a part in the 
 examinations and prosecution, and leaving all to Coke. I 
 think I have expressed strongly enough my dissent on moral 
 grounds from Macaulay's suggestion that at least he ought not 
 to have answered the arguments which Essex put forward in 
 palliation of his crime. 
 
 The passage (vol. ii. p. 382) where I suppose that ' his 
 Majesty ' means the King of Spain, puzzled me long. While I 
 took it to mean the King of England, I could not understand 
 the argument; and the explanation which you suggest does 
 not quite remove my difficulty. The least success to be hoped 
 for from the proposed enterprise, (says Bacon,) is the cutting 
 off the returns from the Indies ; the loss of which, he says, 
 would beggar the King of Spain and make him the poorest 
 King in Europe. And in that case, he goes OIL for the 
 intervening sentences are parenthetical (i.e. if the returns from 
 the Indies were cut off), c if all the lands that belong to the 
 Crown of England were offered to his Majesty, I would not 
 give my advice to receive them, much less to conquer them.' 
 Now, I think Bacon could hardly mean that if the King of 
 England had to choose whether he would have the treasures of 
 the Indies or keep the British Isles, he would advise him to 
 choose the treasure, but he might very well say that if the 
 King of Spain had to choose whether he would keep his Indian 
 treasure or conquer the British Isles, he would advise him to 
 keep the treasure and leave the British Isles, even though he 
 could have them without fighting. 1 
 
 Early in 1849 Dr. and Mrs. Whewell were in Lon- 
 don, and a lively letter of Mrs. Whewell's to her sister, 
 Mrs. Temple, relates how on March 29, when resting 
 after a Drawing-Boom, and preparing to dress for din- 
 ner with Mr. and Mrs. James Marshall at seven o'clock, 
 
 1 Mr. Venables's explanation of the passage in question is certainly the 
 right one. ' That case ' is the case of the conquests by England in France, 
 and the meaning is that the King of England is better ivithout all the lands 
 in France which England claims, even though they should be o 
 1851. 
 
364 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1849 
 
 her husband not yet come in from his club, a messenger 
 arrived with a command to dine at Buckingham Palace 
 at eight o'clock precisely. ' I could not even begin to 
 dress, for I was not sure if we ought to go in colours 
 or in black, for the Court was in mourning, but the 
 
 Drawing-Boom was in colours. W did not come 
 
 in till five minutes to seven ! ' However, the important 
 point was settled in time, and a black velvet gown put 
 on ; ' and at ten minutes before eight we were in the 
 picture-gallery, a most pleasant waiting-room with all 
 those beautiful pictures to look at.' ' Lord Castlereagh 
 took me in to dinner, and we had to walk all the length of 
 that long table before we could find a place. However, 
 I was settled at last between him and the Queen's chap- 
 lain, Mr. Courtenay, both very agreeable neighbours.' 
 ' On the whole the visit left a most pleasant impression 
 . . . and I enjoyed without disturbance or drawback 
 seeing our Queen's kind and gracious looks (especially 
 when bestowed on my husband and myself), watching 
 the Princess most handsome and intelligent countenance, 
 and also looking at the splendid rooms, pictures, flowers, 
 plate, &c.' 
 
 The following letters to Miss Whewell and to Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick tell how the summer holiday of this 
 year was spent. After returning from Germany Mrs. 
 Whewell went to Lowestoft, and the letters from her 
 husband of September and October were addressed to 
 her there. A visit was paid by Dr. Whewell to Hurst- 
 monceux in November, where he had much talk with 
 Archdeacon and Mrs. Hare and Mrs. Alexander, though 
 not, he declares, at ' railroad speed.' A letter to his 
 sister, written at the close of the year, tells her of the 
 appointment of the new Bishops of Llandaff and Carlisle, 
 and bids her never believe ' such foolish stories as 
 
1849 CATHEDRAL AT COLOGNE. 365 
 
 Mackreth told you out of the newspapers. My work is 
 here, and I am well contented that it is so.' 
 
 To his Sister] Bonn: August 19. 
 
 I have been down the Rhine as far as Cologne, and am now 
 on my return up the river, willingly staying at some of the 
 points where I have friends with whom I formerly became 
 acquainted, or churches and antiquities which I have formerly 
 speculated about. 
 
 The Cathedral at Cologne, which I am inclined to think the 
 finest building in the world (for it is the finest Gothic cathedral, 
 and a Gothic cathedral is the finest kind of building) is an 
 object of interest in another point of view. The King of 
 Prussia has undertaken the restoration of it, or rather, I should 
 say, its completion : for it was never above half completed ; and 
 this completion is now going on on a gigantic scale that is, 
 as to the design, for the expense bestowed upon it is not 
 excessive ; but it goes on steadily, through all the troubles and 
 agitations which have shaken Germany, and will, we may hope, 
 be completed in the course of twenty years or so a small 
 period in the building of a great cathedral, even in the ancient 
 days when people laboured in earnest on such objects : even in 
 4 the ages of faith,' as Digby calls them. 
 
 I have the pleasure to find here an old architectural friend, 
 M. Boisseree, who published a magnificent work upon the 
 Cathedral of Cologne a long time ago ; and by that and by 
 other labours bestowed upon the history of the Cathedral con- 
 tributed in a very great degree to the great undertaking of its 
 completion. I shall stay here a day or two longer for the 
 pleasure of seeing him, and then return to Kreuznach. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick] 
 
 Kreuznach, Rhenish Prussia: Sept. 3, 1849. 
 
 I always rejoice when the forms of our old friendship take 
 the place of our casual relations of master and vice-master, and 
 was glad on that account, as well as on others, to receive your 
 letter here, which I found yesterday on my return from a 
 week's excursion as far as Switzerland. The railroad which 
 
366 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1849 
 
 carries you along the line of the Bergstrasse as far as Basle 
 was too great a temptation to withstand, though I was obliged 
 to content myself without going further. The view of the 
 mountain shore of the old Rhine basin seen in this way in the 
 course of a single day is exceedingly beautiful, and as the rail- 
 way keeps to the flats it is as if you were gliding along on the 
 back of a dinotherium if they ever condescended to take 
 passengers in the time of the pre-adamite lake. 
 
 I was very sorry to hear that you still have some stiffness 
 in your leg. I hope you will persevere in some medical treat- 
 ment of it which may restore it to its former flexibility. 
 
 I had seen the account of the death of the Marchese in the 
 newspaper, and had heard some time before that it was an 
 event which could not be far distant. 
 
 Noggenrath passed through this place a week ago on a visit 
 to the agate mines of Oberstein, but I did not see him, being 
 then on a short tour. I had, however, seen him at Bonn a 
 little while before, and had found him very much occupied 
 with speculations concerning the formation of agates. He has 
 made a collection of them on purpose, which he showed me at 
 Poppelsdorf. 
 
 I should be very glad to see your Preface, 1 in proof or other- 
 wise ; I have been looking for it with great interest, though I 
 hope the extravagant wonderment about the Vestiges has died 
 away. The great difficulty in satisfying the mind of general 
 readers on such subjects is that you have to oppose to at- 
 tractive positive generalisations, nothing but negations and 
 doubts. The ordinary reading world are always ready to ask, 
 6 if the world was not made as this man says it was, you must 
 tell us how it was made.' 
 
 But I am merely talking from general notions without 
 knowing the line which you have taken ; and I am full sure 
 that what you have written will be full of valuable philosophical 
 thought and sound geology, which will make its way with all 
 reflecting readers. I suppose you will not have to refer much 
 directly to the author of the Vestiges. The world will listen 
 
 1 This is the Preface to the new edition of his Sermon referred to iii a 
 later letter. 
 
1849 PROFESSOR SEDGWICK'S PREFACE. 367 
 
 more willingly to instruction independently delivered than to 
 the continuance of so old a controversy. 
 
 To his Wife] Trinity Lodge : Sept. 30. 
 
 I have been dining in Hall to-day. I sent to ask Willis, 
 who came, having arrived only last night. He assures me 
 what I suspected, that I possess all the books which I want to 
 borrow of him, so when you come back I must try to find them. 
 I have no expectation of finding anything till that happens. 
 
 Sedgwick, it seems, has been here great part of the summer, 
 principally employed I think in writing and printing the 
 Preface to the new edition of his Sermon. The Preface will in 
 fact be a book of 200 or 300 pages. I gave him my paper 
 about Hegel, which happens to fall in well with some of his 
 criticisms of German philosophers ; so he goes on discoursing 
 and laughing about it with great vivacity. 
 
 The Bishop of Manchester has not yet appointed an Arch- 
 deacon of Lancaster, though everybody wishes that he would 
 put Mackreth in the office, which indeed he is by the Act of 
 Parliament bound to fill. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 3. 
 
 I got your letter about business a little before dinner, while 
 I was busy with the answers to my mathematical examination 
 papers. I contrived to finish my papers by four (working from 
 one) ; good evidence that it is not a very heavy examination, 
 and then I went to walk in the cloisters, where I found Martin 
 and Remington, and subsequently Rothman. I had ordered 
 my horse, thinking that I saw some gleams of good nature 
 through the gloomy drizzle, but there was no mitigation till 
 about five, when the showers ceased and I walked towards the 
 Observatory. And then there was the most brilliant blue, wet 
 sky that you can conceive, with tawny gold edged clouds, 
 looking as if they had been combed out of the wet rain-clouds. 
 
 But I suppose that you, business-like woman, think that 
 all this is not talking in a business-like way ; no more it is. 
 But do not despair of me nor despise me. I have read all that 
 you say about accounts. It is very wise and comfortable. 
 
368 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1849 
 
 I hope I shall be wise enough not to do as the Duke of 
 Buckingham did go on buying land and houses till he was 
 not able to pay for his eating and drinking. But I am not 
 disposed to let Cliff Cottage till I see better than at present 
 whether we shall be constrained by not having it to go to. 
 And as for the fifty pounds, or whatever it is you get for it, I 
 had rather write a book to obtain the money ! Do not laugh at 
 me for vapouring. Have I not a note from Mr. Deighton this 
 morning to tell me that he wants a new edition of my Conic 
 Sections ? And do you not like to have the Cottage to go to 
 at a moment's warning ? However, we can talk about all this. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 6. 
 
 About the bed-maker's place I have many applications, but 
 I am helpless and stupid about such matters when you are 
 away from me. I am sure it requires great insight and great 
 steadiness to deal justly and kindly with these poor people, and 
 I want you much to help me but there is no hurry. I am 
 glad you find plenty to do at the Hospital and elsewhere. I 
 wonder what impression Lady Alderson's reading produced 
 upon the ' rough ' men ? Among other pleasant reasons for 
 returning to Lowestoft is the prospect of meeting the pleasant 
 Aldersons. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 8, 1849. 
 
 I have been considering how much of their interest all the 
 letters which I have opened lose by your not being here to 
 read them and talk them over with me. I am disposed to 
 think that if I were to say they lose nine-tenths of their charm 
 it would be saying too much ; but if I were only to say that 
 they lose five-sixths, it would certainly be saying too little. 
 But you do not comprehend these fractional ways of talking of 
 such matters ! 
 
 I had a very pleasant breakfast at Dr. Holland's with Mrs. 
 Holland and the two girls, and Lord Lansdowne, with whom I 
 afterwards walked down to Berkeley Square. Then at the 
 Athenaeum I met James Ross, just rushing in from Baffin's Bay. 
 I was sorry to find that he had no belief in the Esquimaux 
 stories which they have put in the newspapers, and very little 
 
1849 'JANE EYRE.' 369 
 
 hope about Sir J. Franklin. I was glad to see him safe and 
 well, and also to hear from him that Sir J. Kichardson was 
 safely arrived at Liverpool. 
 
 I am glad you find the < Lives of the Lindsays ' better, or 
 at least less factitious and fictitious, and more real, than you 
 at first expected. I, on my part, have been somewhat disturbed 
 at having to send on ' Shirley ' without your reading it. For a 
 good novel which we both read is like a new and clever ac- 
 quaintance which we have in common, and ' Shirley ' is, I think, 
 much cleverer and more dramatic than ' Jane Eyre.' Then it 
 puzzles me much as to the sex of the writer. It has even more 
 of the cleverness, largeness of speculation and audacity, which 
 made me think ' Jane Eyre ' a masculine performance ; but then 
 there are some ways of dealing with male and female relations 
 which look like feminine workmanship. For instance, all the 
 women fall in love with the men, which is I think a female 
 characteristic. But if it be a woman's book, women are growing 
 to be very strange and alarming creatures. 
 
 There goes the fly, rumbling, rumbling, rumbling, across 
 the court with Sedgwick's female creatures. I told you he had 
 a party to-night. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 11, 1849. 
 
 I must write and send you the various matters which have 
 come to hand, as you will not yet come and take them. 
 
 I have been working very hard to-day sermon writing. 
 Then I have my architectural lecture to-morrow, the meeting 
 about Smyth the next day, which I find will take more trouble 
 than I reckoned on ; this sermon on Thursday, and another on 
 Sunday put me, idle sermoniser that I am, quite in a bustle. 
 Then to-day when I was writing as fast as I could, and hoping 
 to get through, they very stupidly set the roof of St. Michael's 
 Church on fire, with the flues of the stove, and came to ask for 
 the college fire-engine, disturbing the whole town out of its 
 Sunday propriety, though of course the young men were 
 delighted to form lines and hand fire-buckets. Yesterday 
 brought a graver piece of bad news. Dr. French ' had a para- 
 lytic seizure. 
 
 1 Master of Jesus College. 
 B B 
 
870 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1849 
 
 I have been dining in Hall, as I mostly do on Sundays 
 when you are not here, a very disagreeable when. I took in 
 Sir Edward Gust. Sir J. Stephen was in chapel, but dined in 
 his own college. I have to-day Dr. Lee's announcement of 
 himself as candidate for the Regius professorship. I must 
 answer Hare's letter of which I told you yesterday. I hope no 
 more bed-makers, grooms, or professors will come into the field, 
 for they, along with sermons and lectures to deliver, and syndi- 
 cates and committees to attend, and proof sheets to correct, go 
 near to bewilder me. However, I must fight through as well 
 as I may, and you will come and help me bye-and-bye. 
 
 Sir J. Stephen comes to choose furniture rather than Lady 
 
 S , because, as he said, men always like the first thing 
 
 which is offered them, and that saves time and trouble. You 
 speak of having written yesterday, but no such letter has 
 arrived. I suppose all this happens to me that I may know 
 how much I depend upon you : the lesson, however, is disagree- 
 able (as most lessons are) and superfluous. 
 
 I have got your letter of the 10th, and send the envelope 
 that you may see why I did not get it sooner. 
 
 Addressed : 
 
 ' The Eev. the Master, 
 
 The Lodge, 
 
 Cambridge.' 
 
 6 The Postmaster, unable to decide which Master this is 
 intended for, begs to send it to the Vice-Chancellor.' 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 13. 
 
 I am glad I shall have no more letters to write to you. 
 I have so much to say and to hear, it seems that pen, ink, and 
 paper are a slow way of dealing with it. 
 
 Dr. French died yesterday afternoon ; a very sudden re- 
 moval. Those who thought his attack very severe still spoke 
 of an imperfect recovery. But it was not to be so. I did not 
 know that it had happened when I gave my lecture yesterday 
 evening at the Philosophical Society, and heard the news only 
 as I came out of the room. My lecture was, I suppose, suc- 
 cessful. There were many people there, and a great number 
 
1849 MORAL PHILOSOPHY PRIZES. 371 
 
 of ladies. They seemed much interested, and what was much 
 more to the purpose, Willis said he was ' quite charmed ' with 
 the names of my three principles. 
 
 On November 12, 1849, the Master offered to the 
 University two prizes of 15Z. each, to be given every year 
 so long as he held the professorship of Moral Philosophy, 
 to the two persons who showed the greatest proficiency 
 in Moral Philosophy in the examination for the Moral 
 Science Tripos. This examination was appointed to 
 commence in 1851. The prizes were given- in every year 
 from that time to the year 1855, when he resigned 
 the Professorship and was succeeded by Professor 
 Grote. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Christmas Day, 1849. 
 
 This letter cannot do otherwise than begin with loving 
 thoughts and good wishes to you and your wife and children. 
 May the new year bring you and us all good, and especially the 
 best good, that we may grow better than we are. When we 
 look back at the past we see that Providence has managed so 
 much better for us than our own wishes and fancies could have 
 done that we may well and thankfully trust Him with the 
 future. 
 
 I sent you my reply to John Mill. I have now said my say 
 about him, and I do not suppose that he will think any re- 
 joinder necessary, so the matter will rest. I could easily have 
 said a great deal more about his book, and could have shown, as 
 I conceive, the errors of several of the doctrines of his logic ; 
 but I was resolved to confine myself to induction, which is my 
 special business. You will see that I have refused to pursue 
 the controversy about Ideas. My ' Fundamental Antithesis ' 
 will, I think, now stand without further help. 
 
 Sedgwick yesterday had a fall in riding, and I grieve to say, 
 broke his right arm just below the shoulder. He is doing well, 
 but his accident quite saddens our Christmas. 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1849 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 31, 1849. 
 
 I suppose this will find you at Woodside at the opening of 
 the year, enjoying the season, I hope, with our cousins. My best 
 wishes for all the blessings the new year can bring, come with 
 my letter. Tell William Newton that I shall be glad if he can 
 get me exact information about the height of high water at 
 Liverpool during last week and this morning and afternoon, 
 and also how much it rose above the usual spring tides. Also 
 I should be very glad to know if the tide was expected at 
 Liverpool in consequence of any local knowledge or local tide 
 tables. It does not appear that a very high tide was predicted 
 by the Government tide tables ; but the Yarmouth boatmen 
 expected it and prepared for it. The railroad between Cam- 
 bridge and Lowestoft has been rendered impassable by it. 
 
 The letters of 1850 tell their own story. Some 
 on Church questions to Professor Sedgwick may be found 
 interesting. 
 
 A part of the summer was again spent at Kreuz- 
 nach, and during his stay there Dr. Whewell translated 
 into English Auerbach's pretty story of the Frau Pro- 
 fessorinn. 
 
 The month of September was spent in the north, 
 and in November they went to Yorkshire, to be present 
 at the consecration of St. John's Church, Holbeck, built 
 by Mrs. Whewell's brothers. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity Lodge : Jan. 19. 
 
 We came here yesterday from Lowestoft, which we found 
 very cold, as I suppose all places were at that time, and rather 
 desolate, which we never thought it before ; but the expanse of 
 frozen inundations and snowy flats which lies between us and 
 the sea, and the sea itself, rough and dirty beyond, were not at 
 all attractive. In order to get there we had to go in the railroad 
 carriage through an inundated tract, seeing no rails of course, 
 and pushing the ice floes about as we went along, and throwing 
 little cataracts through the spokes of the wheels. On one 
 
1850 GORHAM CASE. 373 
 
 occasion the water put out the fires of the engine, but we escaped 
 better. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 4. 
 
 We are here beginning to be very busy. My lectures are 
 commencing, and will take more time than they have hitherto 
 done, as I must accommodate them to our new scheme of studies, 
 which now begins to make itself felt. 
 
 We have staying with us a Benedictine monk, Dom Pitra, a 
 very learned and very agreeable man, who is here for the pur- 
 pose of copying manuscripts. 
 
 The election of the Divinity Professor also will take up a 
 good deal of time ; for we must hear from each of the candidates 
 a Latin discourse more than an hour long, and there are eight 
 candidates. To insert these eight or ten hours into days which 
 are already occupied with business, will take up nearly the 
 whole week. 
 
 I do not know whether you have seen Mr. Evans's last book, 
 ' Parochial Sketches,' so I send it. I think you will like it. I 
 want you to tell me whether the Hincaster Hall opposite p. 71 
 is your Hincaster House. It is a genuine Westmoreland ' house,' 
 but I suppose yours to be more of a cottage. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwicfc] Trinity Lodge: April 2, 1850. 
 
 I have no doubt that your clergy and others at Norwich are 
 agitated, as many persons in all quarters are, by this judgment of 
 the Privy Council in Grorham's case. I think I cannot be mis- 
 taken in supposing that you will be one of those who strongly 
 disapprove of the agitation which has been set on foot to over- 
 turn the judgment and to eject Gorhain. It will be a lament- 
 able narrowing of the circle of persons whom the Established 
 Church has hitherto included, if all those whom the Bishop of 
 Exeter, and bishops of the same tendencies, conclude, on ex- 
 amination of their doctrines, to hold interpretations of our 
 formularies different from theirs, are to be driven out of the 
 Church ; and this when they are not trying to evade the language 
 of the Church, but using it heartily and with affection. You 
 must have seen how hotly the Archbishop of Canterbury l has 
 
 1 Archbishop Sumner. 
 
374 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850 
 
 been attacked, by addresses to the Bishop of London and other- 
 wise. The Archbishop's friends conceive that it would be a 
 satisfaction to him to have an expression of confidence and 
 sympathy addressed to him ; and the draft which I send you is 
 in circulation with that view. I should be glad to know whether 
 many of the clergy and gentry in your neighbourhood would be 
 likely to sign it. I understand your Bishop l is against the 
 judgment, though not, I suppose, agreeing quite with the 
 Bishop of Exeter. The Archbishop of York 2 has just been here 
 as my guest for a few days, and confirms the opinion that such 
 an address would be well received. The High Church party, on 
 the other side, are very vehement. Mill has gone so far as to 
 preach at St. Mary's a sermon on the text, ' Father, forgive 
 them, &c.' Hare, as you may suppose, is against this agitation. 
 He has just sent me a charge, in which are some excellent re- 
 marks on this question, as well as upon several others. 
 
 I hope your ailments go on mending. I was sorry to hear 
 from Charles Wodehouse that your leg, as well as your arm, 
 gives you trouble still. I hope you will bring all your limbs 
 here in a state of perfect ease and use at the end of the month. 
 Our niece Kate has left us, to our great sorrow. I hope yours 
 is well. Our kind regards to her. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : April 10, 1850. 
 
 The address to the Archbishop, which I sent you, was sent 
 me by Jones, who hoped and expected that it would be signed 
 by a great body of leading public men. Since then he has 
 written to say that those whose sentiments it expresses, think 
 it better to pause till Parliament meets, and till we can see 
 what steps are taken on the other side. In this judgment I 
 agree, and I think it possible that a meeting and a separate 
 address such as your clergy propose may give the agitators an 
 advantage. At present the friends of a comprehensive interpre- 
 tation of our formulaG are on strong ground, as having nothing 
 to ask for. The decision of the Privy Council is in their favour, 
 and a few protesting bodies of the clergy on the other side do 
 them no harm, and do not need to be answered. Indeed, such 
 
 1 Bishop Stanley. 
 
 2 Archbishop Musgrave. 
 
1850 SO A FELL PIKE. 375 
 
 protests do not appear to me at all blamable, for we know that 
 there are clergymen who differ much from us, and we have no 
 wish, I hope, to extrude them. If by meetings and addresses 
 on one side a provocation is given to the like proceedings on 
 the other, men's minds may be inflamed, and the event may be, 
 not comprehension, but a stronger separation and ultimately 
 extrusion or secession, which I should think great evils. 
 
 The purpose for which the address was supposed to be 
 needed was to support the Archbishop, who should feel that 
 he has a strong body in the nation with him. I am very sorry 
 for the line the Bishop of London l has taken. He is most 
 unofficially incautious in the expression of his opinions as well 
 as very vigorous in his doctrine. 
 
 To his Sister~\ Trinity Lodge: August 26, 1850. 
 
 I see that your Liverpool neighbours have been almost wild 
 about Jenny Lind. I suppose you did not try to hear her, nor 
 venture into the crowds that accompanied her wherever she 
 went. She was singing in Grermany while we were there, but 
 not where we were. I heard that the first rank of her audience 
 consisted entirely of arm chairs occupied by reigning sovereigns. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Sept. 22, 1850. 
 
 We arrived here yesterday after a pleasant circuit among 
 sisters and brothers, beginning with you. From you we went 
 to Coniston, whence I made one or two short expeditions with 
 James Marshall, one to the top of Sea Fell Pike, the highest 
 mountain in England, I believe, and certainly the harshest and 
 rudest and most disagreeable of all the English hills I have 
 ever climbed. Thence we went to Patterdale, then to Keswick, 
 where we stayed at Derwent Island some very pleasant days, till 
 the time came for running southwards. We passed your house 
 on Friday last. The day was very misty but still we could see 
 at a distance the grey battlemented towers of Sizergh, and we 
 recollected the odd broken English in which Mr. Strickland's 
 valet had talked to us about the old falconet which they had 
 ' blowed off ' when he came of age, and the various old-fashioned 
 things which we saw there. 
 
 1 Bishop Blomfield. 
 
376 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850 
 
 I went to Kendal while I was staying with James Marshall 
 at Coniston. I found they had disclosed the foundation of the 
 piers only the day before, and the result was they were in such 
 a condition that all who saw them wondered they had stood so 
 long ; especially one old lady who had been in the habit of 
 sitting near the most dangerous piers, and who seemed quite 
 shocked at the danger which she had escaped. 
 
 To the same] Nov. 28, 1850. 
 
 This has been a very busy time. Among other employments 
 has been an expedition which brought me a good deal nearer 
 to you. This was a visit to Leeds, to be present at the opening 
 of a new church which my brothers-in-law have built and 
 endowed. The church is a very beautiful one ; early English, 
 with three aisles of equal height, and a stone roof; the lofty 
 clustered pillars rising in two rows, and the windows being for 
 the most part lancets, but some in the choir with circular 
 tracery. Dr. Hook preached the sermon at the opening, and I 
 preached the next day, which was Sunday. A little before we 
 had had another opening of a church here in Cambridge ; St. 
 Michael's, re-opened after damage by fire, on which occasion 
 also I preached. I believe they pretended to report my sermom 
 in the Cambridge Chronicle, and altered it much, whether for 
 the better or worse I do not know. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 13, 1850. 
 
 I learn that our friend Benjamin Satterthwaite is removed 
 from this life. He has been so long on the verge of the grave 
 that the event hardly seems a change, and had survived so 
 many of his nearest relations that he makes no blank in a 
 family circle ; but to me his loss has its especial sorrow, for he 
 was one of the very oldest of my friends ; a friend who sought 
 me out at the very beginning of my course. And this year has 
 removed so many of my friends that such an addition to the 
 list has its especial solemnity. 
 
377 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 1860-1855. 
 
 University Reforms Studies Moral and Natural Sciences Statutes 
 Memorial to Lord John Russell Royal Commission Address of Heads 
 to the Vice-Chancellor Constitution of Commission Evidence of Dr. 
 Whewell Private Tuition Caput Council of the Senate Report 
 Lord Palmerston's Letter Reply from Master and Seniors of Trinity 
 Science Fellowships Scholarships University of Oxford Act Dr. 
 WhewelFs Notes Cambridge Bill Protest of ex-Royal Commissioners 
 Dr. WheweU's Attitude Two kinds of Reform Resignation of Pro- 
 fessorship Vice-Chancellor again Seat on the Council of the Senate 
 Westminster Scholars Regius Professorships Governing Body of 
 Trinity Refuse Assent to Revised Draft Statute Master's Remarks 
 Meetings of the Governing Body Outline of Code Master's Circular 
 St. John's Circular Revised Draft Code of Statutes General 
 Annual Meeting Retrospective Sketch of influence on Studies Lord 
 Lyttelton Divinity Examinations Progressive Sciences Moral and 
 Natural Sciences Examinations Boards Triposes Mr. Henry Sidg- 
 wick's Review of their History Mrs. Austin Lancaster School 
 Mr. Myers's Death Kreuznach Aubrey de Vere Grotius Plurality 
 Royal Visit Proposed Lecture at Leeds Sermon at Heversham 
 Dinner at Lansdowne House Glasgow Meeting Sydney Smith. 
 
 DURING the three years that had elapsed since the 
 election of the Prince Consort to the Chancellorship, 
 Dr. Whewell had not been idle in promoting what, in 
 his judgment, had been the chief object and justification 
 of that election. He had already published in 1845 his 
 work l ' Of a Liberal Education in general,' which, how- 
 
 1 This treatise, to which very frequent reference is made in the text, 
 was published in 1845 with the title ' Of a Liberal Education in general, 
 and with particular reference to the leading studies of the University of 
 Cambridge,' and was followed in 1860 by a second, and in 1853 by a third 
 series bearing the same name. 
 
378 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850 
 
 ever, contained particular reference to the leading 
 studies of Cambridge. The work attracted much at- 
 tention there, and led to the adoption by the Senate of 
 changes both in the Mathematical Tripos and in the 
 Ordinary Examination for Degrees. A Board of Mathe- 
 matical Studies was also established. In all the pro- 
 ceedings requisite for bringing these changes about Dr. 
 Whewell took the most active part, but the most con- 
 spicuous testimony to his influence as a reformer was 
 the success which attended his proposal for the estab- 
 lishment of Honour Lists in other subjects besides 
 Classics and Mathematics. The scheme for the Moral 
 Sciences and Natural Sciences Triposes, which was made 
 law for the University by a vote of the Senate passed in 
 October 1848, was in substance, though not in form, 
 his own. In 1850 Dr. Whewell published a second 
 part of his work on a Liberal Education, and the nature 
 and probable effects of these changes was there set 
 forth, and discussed with great care and minuteness. 
 
 Another important branch of academic legislation 
 had in the meantime received his attention. On March 
 7, 1849, a Syndicate was appointed by grace of the 
 Senate to revise the Statutes of the University ; it was 
 renewed in 1850 and again in 1851. 
 
 For some time past it had been universally admitted 
 that the various fragmentary ordinances and regulations 
 governing the University ought to be consolidated into 
 one code, that the written law should be brought into 
 harmony with the salutary practices of the University 
 as established by long custom, and that manifest defects 
 should be removed, and obsolete and impracticable in- 
 junctions rescinded. Such was understood to be the 
 task entrusted to the Syndicate ; but an agitation for 
 larger changes had arisen within the University, and 
 
1850 UNIVERSITY REFORM. 379 
 
 was not without its exponents on the Syndicate itself. 
 Indeed, the question of University Keform had by this 
 time been mentioned in Parliament, and mooted else- 
 where beyond the boundaries of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 It is not surprising that under these circumstances the 
 Syndicate was inclined to overstep the immediate object 
 of its appointment and, among other changes of a less 
 important character, discussed some which affected the 
 constitution of the University itself. 
 
 Before the Syndicate had entered upon their discus- 
 sions a memorial had been addressed to Lord John 
 Eussell, then first Minister of the Crown, praying that a 
 Commission might be issued to reform the Universities 
 ab extra, and alleging that they could not efficiently re- 
 form themselves. Dr. Whewell imagined that the best 
 answer to the memorialists would be to make known the 
 movements then going on at Cambridge with a view to 
 improvement, and accordingly he sent to Professor Owen, 
 who was one of their number, a Syndicate Eeport 
 recently issued, in which the scheme for the new Tri- 
 poses was recommended for adoption. This was in ac- 
 cordance with his well-known doctrine that ' University 
 reformers should endeavour to reform by efforts within 
 the body, and not by calling in the stranger.' 
 
 The memorial remained for two years unheeded, 
 but on April 23, 1850, Lord John Eussell announced in 
 Parliament the intention of the Ministry to advise Her 
 Majesty to issue a Commission. 
 
 The Heads of Colleges at Cambridge at once drew 
 up an address to the Vice-Chancellor, informing him 
 that he would have the feeling of the University 
 with him in any steps which he might take to op- 
 pose the intended visitation. This address was signed 
 by about 160 resident members of the Senate ; a very 
 
380 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850-52 
 
 large proportion of the whole number. Indeed, Dr. 
 Whewell, writing to the Provost of Oriel about this 
 time, expressed an opinion that there were not five 
 resident graduates at Cambridge who wished to see the 
 proposed Commission appointed. 
 
 The terms of the address were communicated by the 
 Vice-Chancellor to Prince Albert, as Chancellor of the 
 University. It was at the time generally supposed that 
 the Prince was favourable to the contemplated measure, 
 but Dr. Whewell asserted confident]y to the Provost of 
 Oriel that this was a mistake, that the Prince was not 
 privy to the Prime Minister's announcement, and that 
 he was extremely grieved that such a project was 
 entertained by the Ministry. 
 
 However this may have been, Commissions for Ox- 
 ford and Cambridge respectively were issued in August 
 1850. The Cambridge Commissioners were Dr. Graham, 
 Bishop of Chester and late Master of Christ's College, 
 Dr. Peacock, Dean of Ely, Sir John Herschel, Sir John 
 Eomilly, then Attorney-General, and Professor Sedg- 
 wick. 
 
 The selection proved that the Government had en- 
 deavoured to confide the task of enquiry to men who 
 from their connection with, and their known attachment 
 to, the University, would attempt to second the work 
 of improvement which was already in progress there. 
 Nevertheless, in spite of his personal regard for the 
 Commissioners individually, Dr. Whewell retained his 
 strong objection to the Commission collectively. He 
 thought it his duty to take legal advice on behalf of the 
 College, as to the attitude which should be assumed to- 
 wards any such body, and, acting on the advice thus 
 received, he reserved to himself the right of withholding 
 any information which could not be furnished consistently 
 
1850-52 ROYAL COMMISSION. 381 
 
 with what he might conceive to be his duty to the 
 College and to the University. Subject to this reserva- 
 tion he expressed his readiness to give the Commissioners 
 every assistance in his power. 
 
 The enquiries of the Commissioners were submitted 
 to Dr. Whewell in three capacities ; first as Head of a 
 House, taking part in the government of the University, 
 secondly as Master of Trinity, and thirdly as Professor 
 of Moral Philosophy. 
 
 Every enquiry addressed to him was answered with 
 great care and precision, but he never failed to preface 
 his answer with a protest against the undue exercise of 
 power implied by the question. It was not unnatural 
 that he should feel aggrieved at seeing his own long- 
 continued and spontaneous labours in the work of reform 
 superseded by the interference of Government, at the 
 instance, as he believed, of persons who were not very 
 friendly either to the University or to the Colleges. All 
 this gives to his evidence an air of opposition, which 
 ought not, however, to detract from its real value, 
 
 It is not necessary here to notice in any detail the 
 evidence he gave or the suggestions he furnished. Most 
 of those relating to the University studies are repetitions 
 of what he had already urged in his treatises on Univer- 
 sity education. He assailed the practice of private 
 tuition as strongly as ever, and may perhaps have hoped 
 that external authority might avail to extinguish what 
 he found by experience to be beyond the reach of 
 domestic reform. Perhaps the most interesting part of 
 his evidence is that which refers to the expenses of the 
 Universities and of the Public Schools. This has been 
 already referred to in a previous part of this work. 
 
 Before the Commissioners issued their Eeport, in 
 August 1852, the Syndicate for the revision of the 
 
382 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1852 
 
 Statutes, which had been simultaneously labouring on 
 a portion of the same field, had, after considerable 
 controversy, arrived at a unanimous decision on the 
 question which had been at once the most important 
 and the most difficult to settle. So much afterwards 
 turned upon this point that it may be as well to 
 explain it here at some length. 
 
 It had reference to the Caput, an ancient institu- 
 tion, which seems originally to have been intended to 
 advise the Chancellor, or Vice-Chancellor, in the se- 
 lection of those Graces which he might think proper 
 to pass or to reject, though in course of time each 
 individual member of the Caput obtained a right of 
 veto in this matter. The appointment of the Caput 
 under the Statutes of Elizabeth was made by the 
 Heads of Colleges and Doctors, out of three lists of 
 five persons each, all possessing a prescribed qualifi- 
 cation for the office, and severally nominated by the 
 Vice-Chancellor and the two Proctors. In practice, 
 this body, which was appointed for a whole academic 
 year, was usually so selected as to place the chief 
 legislative power of the University under the control 
 of the Heads of Houses. 
 
 The particular questions discussed by the Syndicate 
 respecting the Caput were, first, as to its mode of elec- 
 tion, and, secondly, as to its constitution and powers. 
 Dr. Whewell was prepared to acquiesce in some change 
 as to the mode of election, but firmly adhered to a re- 
 solution he had formed not to sign any report which 
 interfered with the power of the Vice- Chancellor, as a 
 member of the Caput, to reject any Grace which he 
 thought unwise or inexpedient. The Syndicate, which, 
 on the whole, was working harmoniously on the revision 
 of the Statutes, was divided into two antagonistic parties 
 
1852 CAPUT. 383 
 
 on this point. When it reported in December 1851, it 
 suggested some change in the mode of election, but re- 
 frained from making any recommendation which would 
 have the effect of diminishing the powers of the Caput 
 either individually or collectively. The report was 
 signed by a majority of the Syndicate, but a consider- 
 able minority, consisting chiefly of the younger members, 
 withheld their signatures, probably on the ground that 
 the extraordinary powers of the Caput were left intact. 
 Graces embodying the recommendations contained in 
 the report were offered to the Senate in April 1852, but 
 were not passed. 
 
 The Syndicate was again renewed, and in May 1852 
 made a special report dealing with the constitution and 
 powers of the Caput. The Syndicate now unanimously 
 recommended that the Caput elected and constituted 
 as prescribed in their former Report should retain the 
 power of submitting Graces for conferring degrees, but 
 that for all other purposes its authority should devolve 
 on a new body, of a more representative character, to 
 be called the Council of the Senate. This council was 
 to consist of fifteen members, three to be appointed by 
 the Heads of Colleges, three by the Doctors in the 
 several faculties, three by the Professors, and six by 
 the Colleges, according to the cycle of Proctors. A 
 council so constituted could hardly be called represen- 
 tative of the Senate, but nevertheless the recommenda- 
 tions contained in this Eeport were entirely approved 
 and endorsed by the Eoyal Commissioners. 
 
 After the publication of the Commissioners' Eeport, 
 August 1852, and in consequence of a communication 
 from the Home Secretary drawing the attention of the 
 University to it, the Syndicate was again renewed, and 
 resumed its labours. 
 
384 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 It was found convenient that the mind of the Senate 
 should be ascertained on the subject of each important 
 proposal of change as the occasion occurred. The 
 completion of the draft of new Statutes was thus de- 
 layed until October 1854 ; but this draft was never 
 offered to the Senate for confirmation ; probably be- 
 cause it had by this time become certain that Parlia- 
 ment would deal with the whole subject of University 
 and College legislation. 
 
 The work of this Syndicate had been protracted and 
 laborious. A perusal of the questions discussed and of 
 the recommendations adopted, when separated from all 
 extraneous matter and arranged in the classified form 
 they ultimately assumed, gives an idea, though but an 
 imperfect one, probably, of the magnitude and difficulty 
 of the task. Several of the points were in reality ex- 
 tremely minute, but not the less troublesome on that 
 account. Whether minute or important they all re- 
 ceived the most careful attention from Dr. Whewell, 
 and were actually made the subject of detailed discus- 
 sion in the third part of his work on a Liberal Educa- 
 tion, which was composed solely and expressly for that 
 very purpose. In that work he takes each of the 
 thirty-six changes proposed by the Syndicate seriatim , 
 and explains, in some cases at great length, the bearing 
 of each, adducing arguments in favour of those which 
 he thought desirable, and sometimes expressing his 
 opinion when he thought the changes uncalled for. 
 This little book is a remarkable evidence of the extra- 
 ordinary industry and patience which he brought to 
 the performance of a duty certainly not congenial, but 
 which he conceived to be of great importance to the 
 interests of the University. 
 
 It explains also how he acquired his extensive and 
 
1852 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 385 
 
 exact knowledge of the minutiee and formalities of 
 University practice ; a knowledge which could scarcely 
 be attained except by one possessing his habits of mind 
 as well as his official opportunities ; and it was his 
 special praise that he was both able and willing to give 
 to the outside world a clear insight into such matters, 
 even when he was dealing with the more recondite and 
 peculiar institutions of the University. 
 
 The suggestions and recommendations contained in 
 the Royal Commissioners' Report were in general con- 
 formity with the reforms already proposed by the 
 respective Syndicates which had been engaged on the 
 task of revising the University Statutes, and enlarging 
 and improving the University course of studies. The 
 tone of the Report was studiously careful and moderate. 
 The Commissioners did not advise any immediate 
 interference upon large and fundamental questions. 
 On that of religious tests, for instance, they contented 
 themselves with foreshadowing, as likely to result from 
 the effect of time and the wisdom of the Legislature, the 
 just and generous policy which found its full accom- 
 plishment some twenty years later. 
 
 In October 1852 the Report was officially com- 
 municated to the Chancellor of the University, and 
 reference was made to it in the Speech from the Throne 
 at the opening of Parliament in the following month. 
 
 In the next session a statement was made to the 
 House of Commons on behalf of the Government, to the 
 effect that no legislation on the subject of the Commis- 
 sion would be proposed for the present. Reference, 
 however, was made to some essential points with 
 respect to which the Government conceived that it 
 would be the desire and expectation of Parliament, with 
 a view to the public welfare and to the extension of the 
 
 c c 
 
386 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1853 
 
 useful influences of the Universities, that plans of im- 
 provement should be entertained. These points com- 
 prised, first, the introduction of a more general and 
 effective system of representation in the constitution 
 and government of the University ; secondly, the 
 admission of University students unattached to any 
 College ; thirdly, the removal of appropriations and 
 restrictions from fellowships and other College emolu- 
 ments ; fourthly, the conditions of tenure for fellow- 
 ships ; fifthly, the propriety of requiring the Colleges 
 to contribute out of their funds towards the general 
 purposes of the University. 
 
 On December 12, 1853, the Government, considering 
 that a sufficient interval of time had elapsed for the 
 consideration of all these matters, and of the various 
 recommendations of the Commissioners, desired to be 
 informed what measures of improvement the University 
 and Colleges of Cambridge were about to undertake, and 
 what aid they would desire from Parliament in carrying 
 out those measures. The enquiry was addressed to the 
 Chancellor of the University in a letter from Lord Pal- 
 merston, who was then Home Secretary. A hope was ex- 
 pressed that there would be no occasion for repeated and 
 minute interference by Parliament in University and 
 College affairs, which would best be obviated by some 
 declaration of enlarged designs of improvement on the 
 part of the University and College authorities them- 
 selves. And it was intimated that it would be convenient 
 if the answer to this enquiry were received before the 
 month of February ensuing. Lord Palmerston's letter 
 was communicated by the Vice-Chancellor to the several 
 Colleges, and the reply from Trinity College, which was 
 drafted by the Master and settled by the Seniority, was 
 sent to the Vice-Chancellor on January 10, 1854. The 
 
1854 DR. WHEWELL'S SCHEME OF REFORM. 387 
 
 Master and Seniors having pointed out what improve- 
 ments they were prepared to undertake, and having 
 expressed their dissent from some of the principles 
 which had been enunciated in Parliament during the 
 preceding session, and reiterated in the Home Secre- 
 tary's letter, stated that they would require no aid from 
 Parliament : that the Governing Body could establish 
 the necessary changes by its own authority, or, if 
 that were insufficient, by obtaining the sanction of the 
 Crown. The improvements referred to were suggested 
 by Dr. Whewell, in a paper which he drew up almost 
 immediately after the publication of the Commissioners' 
 Eeport. In this paper he suggested a plan for making 
 the funds of Colleges available towards the general 
 purposes of the University, without however directly 
 taxing the Colleges, either in proportion to their re- 
 spective revenues or the number of their students. 
 
 The plan now propounded by him in a definite and 
 practicable form had been foreshadowed in his evidence 
 on the subject of College expenses and teaching. It was 
 (1), that four of the College Fellowships should be called 
 Science Fellowships, and should be appropriated to the 
 encouragement of the Moral and Natural Sciences, the 
 Science Fellows being required to act as quasi Professors 
 in some of the branches recognised by the Moral and 
 Natural Science Triposes, but in return being freed from 
 all obligations as to Holy Orders and celibacy ; and that, 
 (2), six new Scholarships should be established, to be 
 assigned with other of the existing Scholarships to the 
 encouragement of the same studies, a certain number of 
 the Science scholars being employed as lecturers or as- 
 sistants to the Science Professors and Fellows, and thus 
 performing the functions which, in the case of Classics 
 and Mathematics, were performed by private tutors. 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 The candidates for the Scholarships were to be persons 
 who had distinguished themselves in the Science Triposes, 
 without regard to their Colleges. 
 
 The grand and final object of the scheme when 
 brought into complete operation was that, while the 
 Science Triposes supplied candidates for the Science 
 Scholarships, and the Science Scholarships candidates 
 for the Science Fellowships, there would be maintained 
 a body of cultivators of the Moral and Natural Sciences 
 residing in the University, and employed in studying 
 and teaching those sciences. 
 
 This scheme, when compared with that of the Com- 
 missioners, had in Dr. Whewell's judgment this advan- 
 tage, that while it would be equally efficient in 
 encouraging the new studies of the University it would 
 retain the administration of College funds within the 
 control of the College authorities, and strike a blow- 
 though an indirect and partial one at the system of 
 private tuition. 
 
 The following session an Act was passed to make 
 further provision for the good government and extension 
 of the University of Oxford. The most important pro- 
 vision of the Act, as it proved, in its bearing on the future 
 legislation for Cambridge, was the constitution of an 
 Hebdomadal Council to discharge the functions assigned 
 in the Statutes Eevision Syndicate to the Caput and pro- 
 posed Council of the Senate. This constitution, while 
 allotting to the Heads of Houses and Professors a decided 
 preponderance of seats on the Hebdomadal Council, 
 established at the same time the principle that all its 
 constituent parts should be elected by one and the 
 same body, viz. the aggregate body of graduate officers 
 and residents in the University. And this, in point of 
 fact, determined the final shape which Parliament sub- 
 
1855 DR. WHE WELL'S NOTES. 389 
 
 sequently gave to the constitution of the Council of the 
 Senate at Cambridge. 
 
 While the Oxford Bill was under discussion, Dr. 
 Whewell published some notes upon it in reference to 
 the Colleges at Cambridge. The pamphlet omitted all 
 consideration of those clauses of the Bill which referred 
 to the constitution of the University, and was mainly 
 directed to the provisions relating to the conditions of 
 award and tenure of College emoluments, and the 
 requirement of College contributions for University 
 purposes. The conclusion of the pamphlet betrays the 
 deep dejection with which he foreboded the result of 
 all this University legislation. And for some years 
 afterwards he could not allude to the subject without a 
 touch of sadness. 
 
 Early in 1855 a Bill for the University of Cam- 
 bridge, analogous to the Oxford University Act, was 
 introduced into the House of Lords, and was ordered to 
 be printed on March 30. 
 
 The Bill, as first drafted, proposed to leave the power 
 of the Heads of Houses practically untouched, but sub- 
 stituted for the Caput a Council identical in its constitu- 
 tion and jurisdiction with that recommended by the 
 Statutes Eevision Syndicate and approved by the Eoyal 
 Commissioners. The model of the Oxford University 
 Act was followed in many particulars which were not 
 applicable to the Colleges at Cambridge, and this alone 
 would have rendered i^ necessary to reconsider several 
 of the provisions of the Bill ; but in one particular the 
 Cambridge Bill differed from the Oxford Act, and that 
 was by disregarding the principle that all the members 
 of the Council should be elected by the resident 
 graduates in the University. The Bill had been already 
 read a second time in the House of Lords when the ex- 
 
390 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL, 1855 
 
 Eoyal Commissioners, with the exception of the Bishop 
 of Chester, drew the attention of the Lord Chancellor to 
 this point. A considerable agitation had already arisen 
 in Cambridge among those who were favourable to the 
 principle of the Oxford Act, and the proceeding of the 
 ex-Eoyal Commissioners, who addressed a second 
 memorial to the Lord Chancellor, was interpreted as 
 indicating an abandonment of their own deliberate con- 
 victions in deference to popular clamour. The Heads of 
 Houses were particularly indignant at what they deemed 
 to be a breach of faith, and their views were urged by 
 Dr. Whewell in a succession of pamphlets during the 
 months of April, May, and June. 
 
 The Lord Chancellor was indisposed to alter the 
 provision in the Bill, as it had passed the second read- 
 ing, but the Government was compelled more than once 
 to make concessions. The Bill passed through some 
 further stages, and the names of the proposed Commis- 
 sioners were divulged ; but it made no effectual progress 
 that session, and was eventually withdrawn. 
 
 It has sometimes been thought that Dr. Whewell 
 was an uncompromising opponent of those changes in 
 the government of the University which resulted in 
 deposing the Heads of Houses from the power they so 
 long had exercised. That he believed that power to 
 have been on the whole judiciously exercised in later 
 years is true ; and he thought he saw special reasons 
 for continuing the government of the University by the 
 Heads rather than by the Senate, in the then as he 
 imagined critical condition of those newer studies 
 which he had been so long endeavouring to foster and 
 encourage at Cambridge. But in October 1855, when 
 the first heat of the controversy had cooled down, and 
 while the question still remained unsettled by Parliament, 
 
1855 TWO KINDS OF REFORM. 391 
 
 he stated in a letter to Lord Monteagle that he was in- 
 clined to think the Oxford scheme for the constitution 
 of the Hebdomadal Council better than the one which 
 had been proposed in the first draft of the Cambridge 
 Bill, and which he had hitherto advocated so strenu- 
 ously. In truth, his opposition to constitutional 
 reforms in the government of the University was based 
 chiefly, if not wholly, on an apprehension that they 
 would render all other reforms impossible. According 
 to his own description, contained in a private letter 
 written about this time, two kinds of reform occupied 
 the minds of the contending parties ; ' the one, the 
 encouraging Sciences, Professors, and the useful applica- 
 tion of College funds, which is the reform / am for ; the 
 other, the putting elections entirely in the hands of the 
 Senate. . . . These two kinds of reform do not go 
 together ; on the contrary, those who are most 
 strenuous in asking for elective power are among the 
 strongest opponents of the Professorial system and the 
 University application of College funds.' Dr. Whewell 
 feared that if the 'Elective Eeformers,' as he called 
 them, won the day, the University would have a series 
 of retrograde measures forced upon it, and the position 
 already gained for the new studies would be lost 
 
 This was certainly the judgment of Dr. Whewell at 
 this time. Of his sincerity in the cause of those parti- 
 cular branches of reform which he advocated there 
 could not possibly be a doubt, but it may be questioned 
 whether he did not take a mistaken view of the ten- 
 dencies among the younger resident graduates, and this 
 he probably found out for himself at a later period of 
 his life. 
 
 During the year 1855 Dr. Whewell resigned the 
 Professorship of Moral Philosophy, an office with which 
 
392 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELt. 1856 
 
 his name would certainly have been always associated 
 in Cambridge had he not held the appointment of 
 Master of Trinity. At the end of the year he was ap- 
 pointed Yice-Chancellor for the second time, much to 
 his regret, for he foresaw the c vile waste of time ' and 
 the uncongenial occupations which it would entail upon 
 him, especially with a University Bill under discussion. 
 
 The Bill was passed in 1856, very much in the 
 form which it had finally assumed in the preceding 
 year. But the constitution of the Executive Commission 
 created by the Act was, with one exception, changed, 
 and, in the opinion of Dr. Whewell, not for the better. 
 The effect of the Act was, as had now for some time 
 been anticipated, to transfer the substantial government 
 of the University from the Heads to the new Council of 
 the Senate. Dr. Whewell was elected a member of the 
 Council on its first establishment in November 1856, 
 and continued to be a member by successive re-elections 
 to the time of his death. 
 
 There were two subjects upon which he never lost 
 an opportunity of insisting during the earlier stages of 
 the Bill. One of these was the necessity of abolishing 
 the close Scholarships at Trinity College, attached to 
 Westminster School. In this matter he proved himself 
 a consistent reformer, and it was on his urgent repre- 
 sentation to Lord Lansdowne, a distinguished and 
 patriotic ' Old Westminster,' that a section was intro- 
 duced into tbe Cambridge Act empowering Trinity 
 College to abolish the preferential rights of Westminster 
 to Scholarships, and to compensate the School by an 
 arrangement more advantageous to its educational 
 interests. 
 
 This was the first matter taken up by Trinity College 
 as soon as the legislative powers conferred upon it by 
 
1857 EEGIUS PROFESSORSHIPS. 393 
 
 the University Act came into force. A Statute embody- 
 ing the views of Dr. Whewell was framed by the 
 Governing Body of the College in December 1856, and, 
 after approval by the Commissioners, became law in 
 June 1857. 
 
 The other subject related to the three Kegius Profes- 
 sorships of Divinity, Hebrew and Greek These were 
 founded by Henry VIII. in 1540, but, having been 
 subsequently connected by him with his newer founda- 
 tion of Trinity, they partook of a twofold character, and 
 became at once University and College endowments. 
 The Professorships were subsequently regulated by a 
 Statute of Queen Elizabeth, when she gave a code to 
 Trinity College in 1560, this Statute being expressly made 
 a common Statute of the College and the University. 
 The Professorships of Hebrew and Greek were after- 
 wards affected by a Eoyal Letter of Charles II. in 1662, 
 as well as by an Act of Parliament in 1840, which 
 assigned to them two stalls in the Cathedral church of 
 Ely. Finally, among the revised College Statutes of 
 1844 the Statute of Elizabeth was retained unaltered, 
 but the Letters Patent by which the revised Statutes 
 were confirmed, revoked and annulled all Statutes, 
 Ordinances and Decrees, other than those which they 
 confirmed. This having been done contrary to the 
 intention of the College and without the concurrence of 
 the University, questions had arisen as to the exact state 
 of the law regulating the Professorships, and these were 
 specially noticed in the Eeport of the Commissioners. 
 They recommended that a new Statute should be framed 
 for the purpose of removing all ambiguity. Dr. 
 Whewell lost no time in submitting to Lord Palmerston, 
 then Home Secretary, a draft of a Statute which would 
 have the desired effect. No reply was received from 
 
394 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 the Home Office, but the interpretation of the law was 
 practically settled by a decision of the Visitor in a case 
 that occurred shortly afterwards. The earlier drafts of 
 the Bill of 1855 did not provide for the settlement of 
 difficulties which might arise between the College and 
 the University in dealing with an endowment common 
 to both, but this defect was eventually removed upon 
 the repeated representations of Dr. Whewell, and it was 
 enacted that no statute should be submitted to the Senate 
 for modifying the relations between Trinity College and the 
 three Professorships without the assent of the College. 
 
 Out of this arose the first occasion which brought 
 Dr. Whewell into conflict with the majority of the 
 Governing Body of the college. In May 1857 the 
 Governing Body refused their assent to a draft Statute 
 for the three Professorships, which was submitted for 
 their consideration by the Council of the Senate and 
 supported by the advocacy of Dr. Whewell. A revised 
 draft Statute, more in accordance with the views of the 
 College, which was afterwards submitted to the Govern- 
 ing Body, received its assent in the following month. 
 
 In explanation of this unusual antagonism between 
 the Master and the College it must be stated that the 
 University Act did not recognise the Master and eight 
 senior Fellows as the Governing Body for the purpose of 
 framing and revising Statutes, but conferred this new 
 power and authority on the whole body of Master and 
 Fellows. A meeting of the sixty Fellows could not but be a 
 promiscuous gathering of men of all standings, resident 
 and non-resident, who had never worked or consulted 
 together for a common object, and the great majority of 
 whom were ignorant of almost everything that concerned 
 the affairs of the College. 
 
 It was probably on this account that the Master and 
 
1857 GOVERNING BODY. 395 
 
 Seniors had, with questionable wisdom, refrained from 
 calling the Governing Body together for the purpose of 
 considering the general question whether the Statutes 
 needed revision or not. This was resented by some of 
 the junior Fellows, who naturally felt some interest in 
 the welfare of the College and were prepared to discharge 
 to the best of their ability those functions which Par- 
 liament had deliberately entrusted to them. 
 
 The first discussion on the Statute for the three 
 Eegius Professorships led to other discussions more 
 vitally affecting the constitution and government of the 
 College. Before the meeting of May 1857 was dissolved 
 a committee was appointed to receive and consider 
 proposals on the subject of the revision of the Statutes. 
 Many of the Fellows took advantage of this opportunity 
 to suggest fundamental changes in the College system, 
 and more especially in connection with the tenure of 
 Fellowships. The committee issued its Eeport in June 
 1857, but as the long vacation was at hand it was 
 resolved to print and circulate the Eeport at once, and 
 to defer the discussion of the proposals relating to 
 Fellowships until a meeting to be held in the October 
 following. 
 
 The injudicious conduct of the Master and Seniors in 
 attempting to stifle discussion had thus left the Govern- 
 ing Body only two months and a half for the considera- 
 tion of the many and important points which were now 
 to come under its notice. 
 
 In the interval before the proposed meeting, the Master 
 circulated among the Fellows a paper of remarks on the 
 proposed changes in the College Statutes. This was 
 dated September 23, 1857. It took for its text the 
 suggestions which had been submitted to the committee, 
 among which were proposals of change in the constitu- 
 
396 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 tion and government of the College, which he naturally 
 regarded as of a very fundamental and sweeping kind. 
 Nevertheless, on certain points in which there seemed to 
 be a pressing call for change, he professed his readiness to 
 do his best to come to some arrangement. The tone of the 
 pamphlet was generally fair and moderate ; more so, in- 
 deed, than that of others which succeeded it, when the pro- 
 longed struggle with the Commissioners had engendered 
 party heat on both sides. Even when discussing pro- 
 posals for curtailing the power and authority of the 
 Master, which, apart from personal considerations, was 
 a subject offensive to his love of strong government, he 
 wrote in language of studious self-restraint. 
 
 The pamphlet is chiefly interesting as showing the 
 Master's views of the College system, in theory and in 
 practice. According to him the College was a family, 
 and it was necessary for its beneficial and effective 
 working that there should prevail among the Fellows a 
 love and devotion to the College inciting them to make 
 exertions and sacrifices in its service. That service 
 included the duty of giving instruction to the College 
 students, and taking part in the College administration. 
 It also required such of the Fellows as were in Holy 
 Orders to undertake spiritual duties in connection with 
 livings of which the College was patron, in return for 
 which special advantages were secured to this class of 
 Fellows. It was true that many Fellowships were held 
 under looser conditions of service, but these Fellowships, 
 with two exceptions, were tenable only for a limited 
 term, and were not without advantage to the College, 
 being objects of competition to many, and thus forming 
 a nucleus of zealous students who made zeal in study 
 habitual and general in the College. 
 
 Such, according to Dr. Whewell, was the College 
 
1857 DR. WHE WELL'S REMARKS. 397 
 
 system in theory, and such, for a long time, had it been 
 in practice. If it were not so still, this was due to the 
 decline of College spirit. If it were found necessary to 
 provide additional inducement in order to get College 
 offices filled and College work done, he admitted that 
 the removal of the restriction of celibacy would be the 
 most powerful that could be offered, and he would be 
 willing to do his best to overcome any difficulties which 
 the introduction of such a change in the constitution of 
 the College must necessarily occasion. On one or two 
 other points of less importance he professed himself 
 open to a compromise. But he was altogether opposed 
 to the proposal that the College emoluments generally 
 should be thrown open to the competition of the whole 
 University, after public notice and examination. A 
 change of this kind must subvert the family character 
 of the College, and would bring the whole system of 
 University and College teaching under the empire of 
 examinations, confounding all traditionary distinctions 
 between the older foundations in Cambridge and making 
 one and all of them conform to one model, and that 
 model Downing College. 
 
 It was also objectionable, as he thought, on other 
 grounds. It would give a great stimulus to private 
 tuition and tend to supersede College lectures, while the 
 monopoly it would ensure to Classics and Mathematics 
 would greatly increase the power of resistance to the 
 one reform which he most earnestly advocated, viz. the 
 establishment of Moral and Natural Science Triposes on 
 an equal footing with the old Triposes. 
 
 The October term of 1857 was spent in discussing 
 the matters which formed the subject of this pamphlet, 
 and more especially that of College Fellowships. Nume- 
 rous meetings of the Governing Body took place, but the 
 
398 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1858 
 
 time was too limited to admit of framing a new code, 
 even if it had been thought desirable to do so. All that 
 was done was to submit sixteen amendments in the 
 shape of revised Statutes, for the acceptance of the 
 Commissioners. All of these but one, and that the least 
 important one, were rejected ; and thus matters stood 
 when the Commissioners entered upon their powers of 
 framing Statutes for the College on January 1, 1858. 
 
 Previously to this they had circulated a paper 
 enunciating what they called their general principles. 
 In May 1858 they sent to the Master and Fellows, for 
 consideration, an outline of a code of Statutes, which 
 was, in fact an embodiment of those principles. This 
 outline was not the official document which had to be 
 submitted for acceptance or rejection by the College, 
 but was intended to serve as a preliminary and tentative 
 mode of ascertaining the sentiments of the Fellows, the 
 dissent of two-thirds of their whole number being 
 necessary to veto a Statute of the Commissioners. 
 
 In June 1858 the Master, in a circular letter, invited 
 the Fellows individually to express their disapproval of 
 certain of the Commissioners' proposals which he thought 
 it would be expedient, if possible, to reject, and he 
 succeeded, in most instances, in obtaining a sufficient 
 number of signatures to convince the Commissioners 
 that the proposals in question would not be carried. 
 
 A similar outline of Statutes had in the meantime 
 been prepared for St. John's College. There seemed 
 to be a prospect that the general principles enunciated 
 by the Commissioners were to be made applicable to 
 every College in the University. Under an apprehen- 
 sion of this kind, a requisition was addressed to the 
 Vice-Chancellor to convene a meeting of members of the 
 Governing Bodies of all the Colleges. At this meeting 
 
1859 DRAFT STATQTES. 399 
 
 the two outline drafts were discussed, and the general 
 feeling expressed being adverse to the views of the 
 Commissioners, served to support the opposition which 
 Dr. Whewell had aroused in his own College. Even the 
 Fellows at Trinity, who were more or less favourable to 
 the principles of the Commissioners, began to feel that 
 those principles must not be pushed too far. Accord- 
 ingly in December 1858 they addressed a communication 
 to the Commission, suggesting several modifications in 
 the outline draft which they believed would have the 
 effect of conciliating all parties. 
 
 In February 1859 the Commissioners sent a second 
 or revised draft of Statutes, containing the modifica- 
 tions thus suggested. The Master was now required to 
 be in Holy Orders. The opening of Fellowships and 
 Scholarships to the whole University was to be optional, 
 not compulsory. The tenure of Fellowships was to be 
 terminable, but subject to exceptions specially favour- 
 able to clerical Fellows. The rule of celibacy was only 
 to be relaxed in favour of University Professors and 
 officers, but married Prselectors were to be recognised 
 in the tuition of the College. Eegulations for attend- 
 ance in College chapel were to be left to the considera- 
 tion of the Master and Seniors. The dividends of the 
 Seniors and other Fellows were not to be equalized, but 
 a simpler and more reasonable scale of gradation than 
 that in force was proposed. Finally, the College was 
 not to be required to contribute for University purposes 
 until all the other Colleges were placed under the same 
 obligation. The Master expressed to the Commissioners 
 his gratitude for these concessions, though they failed 
 to remove entirely his objections to the Commissioners' 
 proposals. 
 
 In April 1859 the Commissioners at length sent 
 
400 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1859 
 
 down, for acceptance or rejection, the code of Statutes 
 as finally settled by them under their official seal. But 
 in this code one important change had been introduced. 
 It had been recently discovered that the Commissioners 
 had no power under the Act to allow a preoption of a 
 College living to a former Fellow ; and it was by a 
 device of this kind that the terminable tenure of clerical 
 Fellowships had been made acceptable to several among 
 the Fellows. This concession being now deemed illegal, 
 the clerical tenure was put on the same footing as the 
 lay tenure, except in the case of certain contingencies 
 which were likely to prove rare and unimportant. In 
 this form the two important Statutes relating to con- 
 ditions of tenure of Fellowships and presentations to 
 benefices were rejected. Two other Statutes of less 
 importance shared the same fate, but the remaining 
 forty-seven became law in due course. In November 
 1859 the four rejected Statutes were replaced by eight 
 new Statutes ; these were accepted. They reserved to 
 clerical Fellows all rights of tenure which they had 
 hitherto enjoyed. The alteration effected by the new 
 Statutes in the tenure of Fellowships was thus limited 
 to a relaxation of the rule of Holy Orders in favour of 
 certain College and University officers and teachers, 
 and a relaxation both of the rule of Holy Orders and of 
 celibacy in favour of certain University Professors and 
 officers. 
 
 This practically brought the whole business of the 
 revision of the College Statutes to an end, although 
 certain formalities requisite for repealing the existing 
 Statutes and replacing them by the new code deferred 
 the actual completion of the work until the month of 
 April 1861. 
 
 When the Statutes were definitively in operation the 
 
186* NEW STATUTES IN OPERATION. 401 
 
 Master loyally accepted them. One of the innovations 
 which he most disliked and opposed was the provision 
 requiring, once at least in every year, a general meeting 
 of the Master and all the M.A. Fellows of the College, 
 for the purpose of discussing propositions for the more 
 efficient government of the College or the promotion of 
 its interest. Yet, when it became the law of the College 
 that such a meeting must take place, he contrived that it 
 should be held so near the Commemoration Day as to be 
 generally convenient to non-resident Fellows, and while 
 many of the senior Fellows habitually neglected to attend 
 the meeting year after year, the Master was always to 
 be found in his place, and ready to take an active part 
 in the proceedings. It was at the meeting held in 
 December 1864, the last but one which he ever attended, 
 that he successfully defended the order of Fellow Com- 
 moners against an attempt to abolish it. He considered 
 the question of sufficient importance to state his argu- 
 ments in writing, as well as verbally at the meeting. 
 
 As soon as the heat and excitement caused by the 
 controversies connected with the new Statutes had 
 passed away, Dr. Whewell returned with increased 
 vigour and interest to his self-imposed task of placing 
 the new studies of the University on a more satisfactory 
 footing. 
 
 This will be found a convenient place to look back 
 on the work of educational improvement at Cambridge, 
 in which Dr. Whewell had been engaged for more than 
 forty years. It was natural that his first attention 
 should be bestowed on mathematics. When he took 
 his B.A. degree in 1816 the study of mathematics at 
 Cambridge was so far below the continental standard 
 that the symbol of differentiation had not yet been used 
 in a Cambridge examination paper. In 1819 it had 
 
 D T) 
 
402 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1819-40 
 
 altogether superseded the symbol of the fluxional cal- 
 culus. This progress was due to the labours of 
 Herschel, Peacock, and Babbage, who first introduced 
 the French analysis into Cambridge by publishing 
 various mathematical works. 
 
 Following their example Dr. Whewell published a 
 treatise on Mechanics in 1819, and another on Dynamics 
 in 1823. These were followed at intervals during the 
 next thirty years by a series of works too numerous to 
 mention on the same branches of mathematical study. 
 He filled the office of Moderator in 1820, and again in 
 1828, in which latter year the practice was originated 
 of printing all the questions proposed in the Mathema- 
 tical Tripos. While engaged as a College Lecturer and 
 Examiner in Mathematics he constantly endeavoured to 
 improve the examinations both for Honours and for 
 ordinary degrees. The necessity for such improvement 
 was by this time generally recognised. The ancient 
 practice of Disputations was rapidly falling into neglect, 
 and was finally abandoned in 1838. The examination 
 for a degree in Honours was every day assuming more 
 and more an exclusively mathematical character. 
 Syndicates were appointed in 1827, 1831, 1836, and 
 1838, to consider the whole question of reorganizing 
 and improving the examinations for the B.A. degree. 
 Dr. Whewell was the most prominent member of each 
 of these Syndicates, and the main author of the several 
 new regulations which were the practical fruit of their 
 labours. 
 
 In December 1840 Dr. Whewell, writing to Arch- 
 deacon Hare, says : ' I have done what I could, or at 
 least in a few months shall have done all I can, to im- 
 prove the mathematical studies of the College and of 
 the University.' But in the first part of his work on a 
 
1848 CLASSICAL TRIPOS. 405 
 
 Liberal Education, published five years later, he showed 
 that he still saw room for improvement in the mathe- 
 matical examinations. The improvements he wished 
 for were effected under his guidance by Graces of the 
 Senate which passed in 1846, and came into operation 
 in 1848. The alterations in the questionists' examina- 
 tions for Honours thus produced remained in force up 
 to the time of his death. 
 
 In dealing with the Classical Tripos, Dr. Whewell 
 was not so fortunate in enforcing his views during his 
 lifetime. Those views were set forth with considerable 
 persistence in the first part of his work on a Liberal 
 Education. The late Lord Lyttelton, who was a distin- 
 guished Cambridge scholar, after reading the book, 
 wrote to Dr. Whewell, confirming from his own experi- 
 ence the account there given of certain evils attendant 
 upon the state of classical studies and examinations at 
 Cambridge. Lord Lyttelton's letter was quoted in the 
 second part of the same work, in which Dr. Whewell 
 discussed some recent proposals for making the classical 
 examinations of the University more comprehensive 
 and philosophical. In the interval between the publi- 
 cation of the first and of the second parts a paper in 
 Ancient History had been introduced into the Tripos. 
 Dr. Whewell would have added other substantial ele- 
 ments, such as the Philosophy, Antiquities, and Philology 
 of Greece and Rome. These have been added since his 
 death, and the scope of the Classical Tripos has been 
 thereby extended very much in the manner recom- 
 mended by him. 
 
 The examinations in Theology were at one time, as 
 has already been noticed, the subject of a correspond- 
 ence between himself and Archdeacon Hare, whose 
 advice and assistance he sought, in the hope of thereby 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 improving the means of clerical education at Cambridge. 
 He was to some extent interested in the matter as Pro- 
 fessor of Moral Philosophy, or, as the instrument of his 
 foundation termed it, Professor of Moral Theology and 
 Casuistry. But the tone and purport of his letters to 
 Archdeacon Hare show that his interest was not purely 
 official. In 1841 and 1842 he served on a Syndicate 
 which established the first Divinity examination at 
 Cambridge, formerly known as the ' Voluntary Theolo- 
 gical.' He lived to see it supplemented in 1856 by an 
 Honour examination in Theology ; but it was not until 
 after his death that the examination was accepted as 
 sufficient to qualify for a degree, although this measure 
 had been recommended by the Eoyal Commissioners in 
 1852. When this change was made it was at once 
 raised to the dignity of a Tripos. 
 
 The expediency of adopting this course had been 
 discussed in the University Studies Syndicate of 1853, 
 and conflicting resolutions passed, the last of which was 
 unfavourable to the claims of Theology. Dr. Whewell 
 drafted several of the papers and reports printed for 
 this Syndicate, but it does not seem quite clear what 
 side he took on this question, which was ultimately de- 
 cided by a majority of one. A Board of Theological 
 Studies was, however, created in 1854, and remained in 
 existence until it was superseded by another board, 
 somewhat differently constituted, under a Statute which 
 became law, 1860. 
 
 The great object, however, which Dr. Whewell had 
 in view while labouring to improve the studies of the 
 University, was to procurq academic recognition for the 
 more modern branches of science and philosophy. His 
 earliest project for establishing in the University system 
 what he called the progressive sciences, was sketched in 
 
1849 PROGKESSIVE SCIENCES. 405 
 
 a crude form in the concluding pages of his first treatise 
 on a Liberal Education. It led to the appointment of a 
 Syndicate, whose task, however, was confined to the 
 consideration of those progressive studies for which 
 Professorships already existed in the University. The 
 Syndicate recommended that these Professorships should 
 be rendered more generally useful by requiring all 
 candidates for ordinary degrees to attend the lectures of 
 some Professor occupying one or other of these chairs, 
 and it further proposed the institution of two new Honour 
 Triposes to be called the Moral Sciences Tripos and the 
 Natural Sciences Tripos, which should be open to students 
 who had obtained the degree of B. A., B.C.L.,or M.B. The 
 Eeport, drafted by Dr. WheweH himself, was published in 
 April 1 848. Graces confirming it passed the Senate, after 
 some opposition in October of th e same year. As a sequel to 
 the action of the Senate the Professors in question were 
 ' charged with the execution of the regulations respect- 
 ing the new Triposes and the Professorial condition for 
 the ordinary B.A. degree/ In the discharge of this 
 duty they drew up a body of subsidiary regulations, 
 which were also drafted by Dr. Whewell. These, with 
 a programme of Professors' lectures, were published in 
 June 1849, and were in due course approved by the 
 Vice-Chancellor. 
 
 It is clear, from the papers Dr. Whewell left behind, 
 that he not only gave the first impulse to the movement 
 which brought about these educational changes, but 
 that, in the whole process of elaborating details, his was 
 the guiding and constructing hand. The result attained 
 inadequately represented all he aimed at, for the new 
 Triposes were placed in an inferior position, as compared 
 witli the older ones, by not being made avenues to a 
 degree. Moreover, the subjects they respectively em- 
 
406 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850-61 
 
 braced were restricted to those sciences for which chairs 
 happened to exist. This accounted for the imperfect 
 syllabus of subjects introduced into each Tripos. In one 
 were comprised Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, Geology, 
 Mineralogy, and Chemistry. In the other, Moral Philo- 
 sophy, Political Economy, General Jurisprudence, the 
 Laws of England, and Modern History. Although Dr. 
 Whewell was most fully alive to the importance of 
 physical science, and never, when urging the claims of 
 new studies to recognition, postponed its interests to 
 those of moral science, he, from this time forward, left 
 to others the task of organising the Natural Sciences 
 Tripos, and took up the Moral Sciences Tripos as his 
 own peculiar charge. This was but natural in one who 
 filled the chair of Moral Philosophy, and who had long 
 devoted much thought and attention to the systematic 
 teaching of ethics. 
 
 His first contribution to that subject had been a 
 preface to Mackintosh's dissertation, written in 1835. 
 This was followed by various writings connected with 
 moral philosophy, most of which were already published 
 before this time, though he continued to write on the 
 subject up to a later period, his last work being the 
 ' Platonic Dialogues for English Headers,' which appeared 
 at intervals from 1859 to 1861. Whilst still a Fellow of 
 Trinity, and, as such, taking part in the annual Fellow- 
 ship examination, he had succeeded in giving substan- 
 tial reality to moral and intellectual philosophy as an 
 element of that examination. A paper of questions 
 bearing on philosophy had always been set, but hitherto 
 it had attracted a merely nominal attention both from 
 candidates and examiners. Some trifling element of 
 philosophy had in the same manner always formed part 
 of the regular College examinations. But the text-books 
 
1853 STUDIES SYNDICATE. 407 
 
 in use were not satisfactory, and one of Dr. Whewell's 
 first steps after becoming Master was to amend the 
 examinations and change the text-books. 
 
 The first examination for the new Triposes took place 
 in 1851. 
 
 In order to mark his special interest in the study 
 connected with his own chair, Dr. Whewell offered 50/. 
 a year so long as he held his Professorship, to be 
 awarded to those candidates in the Moral Sciences Tripos 
 who showed the greatest proficiency in Moral Philosophy. 
 The offer was gratefully accepted by the Senate. The 
 new Triposes did not prove very successful, and it was 
 evident that the studies for the promotion of which they 
 had been instituted must languish unless their conditions 
 were modified. 
 
 In 1853 a Syndicate was appointed to consider 
 whether measures should be adopted for augmenting 
 the existing means of teaching by public professors and 
 lecturers, and for regulating and encouraging the studies 
 so taught. The Syndicate was a numerous and import- 
 ant one. The recorded minutes of its proceedings 
 prove that its business was conducted in a very method- 
 ical manner, and that it embraced every topic of dis- 
 cussion that could properly come under consideration. 
 This was attributable to the fact that it had as its text 
 the carefully digested and classified recommendations 
 contained in the Royal Commissioners' Report, which 
 had, a few months before, been brought under the 
 notice of the University by the Home Secretary, for this 
 very purpose. Early in the year 1854 the Syndicate 
 reported, and in the following May Graces were pro- 
 posed to the Senate for carrying out its recommendations. 
 Three separate Graces were submitted, for conceding a 
 B.A. degree to Honour men in Classics, Moral Sciences, 
 
408 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1864 
 
 and Natural Sciences, respectively. The concession was 
 granted to the Honour men in Classics, but the two other 
 Graces were lost. 
 
 The Syndicate, on the motion of Dr. Whewell, at 
 once resolved that it was not expedient to prolong its 
 deliberations further, and therefore adjourned sine die. 
 His feelings at this disappointment of wishes he had so 
 long nursed will best be gathered from a letter written 
 by him to Professor Sedgwick, on May 12, 1854. He 
 says 
 
 The rejection of the Graces on May 3 was a very unfor- 
 tunate reverse in onr progress. . . . The motive, alleged in a 
 printed paper, for opposition to the proposals, was that special 
 sciences give information not education. But the result went 
 beyond this reasoning, for the proposal that Honours in Classics 
 alone shall give a degree was carried and thus the event is 
 even worse than if all the Graces had been rejected : for now 
 the classical men are required to read nothing but classics, 
 except for the previous examination. The real motive for the 
 opposition was, I suppose, dislike to the innovation proposed : 
 but a manifestation of this feeling in that manner and with 
 such an utter disregard of consequences, is certainly as childish 
 a proceeding as can well be imagined, and very little suited to 
 give other persons a belief that we are fit to manage such 
 matters for ourselves. The Syndicate which made the pro- 
 posals considered the rejection of them so final a measure that 
 there could be no further use in their deliberations, and they 
 have suspended their sittings, nor do I see how any scheme of 
 improvement can be resumed with any hope of success. 
 
 In this letter to Professor Sedgwick there is one 
 sentence eminently characteristic of Dr. Whewell's atti- 
 tude towards external legislation in University matters. 
 We have seen how he dreaded and disliked it, and it is 
 easy to imagine his mortification on finding that the 
 Senate by its own deliberate vote had seemed to invite 
 interference from ' the stranger.' 
 
1800 BOARD OF MORAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES. 409 
 
 After this unfortunate reverse there ensued at 
 Cambridge, as we have already shown, more than five 
 years of turmoil and agitation, partly in contemplation 
 and partly in consequence of the Cambridge University 
 Act. But as soon as the storm seemed to be fairly over 
 Dr. Whewell returned to his self-imposed task of forcing 
 the claims of the progressive sciences upon the attention 
 of the University. 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1859 a new Syndicate 
 was appointed to consider whether any changes should 
 be made in the regulations concerning the new Triposes. 
 The Syndicate reported in December of that year 
 recommending that students passing the examination 
 for these Triposes with credit should be admissible to 
 the degree of B. A. The Eeport was considered by the 
 Council of the Senate in February 1860, and a few weeks 
 afterwards a Grace was passed confirming the conclusions 
 of the Syndicate. At the same Congregation Boards of 
 Moral and Natural Sciences were constituted. Dr. 
 Whewell was a member of the former Board, which 
 proceeded at once to frame the requisite regulations for 
 reorganising the Tripos with which it was associated. 
 At this task he worked with unabated ardour. The 
 selection of standard works bearing upon the Tripos was 
 in the first instance sketched by himself, and was most 
 carefully revised and elaborated by him in consultation 
 with his younger colleagues. The detailed arrangement 
 of the examination, which now comprised a more com- 
 plete scheme of the moral sciences, seems to have been 
 suggested by him. Finally, in the first two examinations 
 under the new rules he undertook to act as one of the 
 examiners. He had so acted in an official capacity 
 when the Tripos existed in its original form, but, having 
 resigned his chair in 1855, he had not taken any part 
 in the examinations since that date. 
 
410 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1864 
 
 Dr. Whewell had now at length the satisfaction of 
 seeing accomplished the great object which he had 
 steadily pursued for so many years, and by acting as 
 an examiner he was able to impress upon those studies 
 which he regarded with especial interest, the character 
 which he wished them to assume. 
 
 Except on one occasion, he took no further prominent 
 part in discussing or defending the system of University 
 examinations which he had done so much to introduce. 
 In March 1864 he circulated a paper drawing the 
 attention of the University to the part assigned to the 
 moral sciences and the natural sciences in the conditions 
 of the ordinary B.A. degree. The compulsory attend- 
 ance of certain students at Professors' lectures had been 
 attacked, and the matter was then under the considera- 
 tion of a Syndicate. Dr. Whewell stated temperately, 
 but earnestly, the reasons why this condition had been 
 introduced in 1848, and contended that they were still 
 in force. The paper concludes as follows : 
 
 The Moral Sciences Tripos and the Natural Sciences Tripos 
 were established as parts of the University system at the same 
 time as the Professor's certificate. It is much to be regretted 
 that the candidates for these honours have not been more 
 numerous. If those Triposes had become a more usual road to 
 University distinction, the task of the Professors would probably 
 have had more interest and dignity given to it, by a superior 
 class of hearers, and by the sympathy felt in the examinations 
 by the academical public. All persons to whom the reputation 
 and the usefulness of the University are dear, will I am per- 
 suaded still look forward to such a result, as an event which 
 would be very happy for the University and the country. 
 
 Dr. Whewell's foresight has been justified by the- 
 partial realisation of these hopes in recent years, and 
 there can be no doubt that the new Triposes are destined 
 
1853 SCIENCE FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS. 411 
 
 to become more and more a road to University and 
 College distinction. 
 
 We have seen that in 1852 he proposed to his 
 College to appropriate certain Fellowships and Scholar- 
 ships for the encouragement of the progressive sciences. 
 This proposal met with little or no response. A year 
 later, in a Syndicate which was considering the recom- 
 mendations of the Eoyal Commissioners, he moved the 
 following resolution : 
 
 ' That it would tend greatly to the advantage of the 
 University in general and of the Colleges in particular 
 that the Colleges should declare their willingness to 
 contribute from their corporate funds to the support of 
 Professorships of special subjects ; * but this resolution 
 was defeated. 
 
 Among his papers, after his death, was found a 
 rough draft, showing how, according to his judgment, 
 special Professorships might be assigned to special 
 Colleges. The proposals recently put forward, by the 
 Cambridge University Commissioners of 1877, were thus 
 in principle anticipated by Dr. Whewell, at a time when 
 there were few men either in his own College or in the 
 University able to recognise the importance of measures 
 which have since been pronounced by Parliament to be 
 most urgent and indispensable. 
 
 We may fitly conclude this chapter by quoting the 
 following extract from a paper in ' Mind,' written ^bf 
 Mr. Henry Sidgwick in April 1876 : 
 
 Very early in the career of this new [the Classical] Tripos it 
 began to be felt that Greek philosophy deserved more distinct 
 recognition in the classical course. In Trinity College a suc- 
 cession of remarkable lecturers Julius Hare, Thirlwall, and 
 Thompson laboured to secure in their own College a somewhat 
 more intelligent study of the works of Plato and Aristotle. 
 Meanwhile on the other, rnathematico-physical, side of Cam- 
 
412 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1839-50 
 
 bridge studies, some general philosophical interest was aroused 
 by the appearance of Herschel's ' Discourse on Natural Philoso- 
 phy ' in 1831. A couple of years afterwards, Sedgwick's ' Dis- 
 course on the Studies of Cambridge,' and the controversy which 
 followed it, still further stirred the waters. But it is to 
 Whewell more than to any other single man that the revival of 
 philosophy in Cambridge is to be attributed. Although (as I 
 have noticed) in his controversy with Hamilton and elsewhere, 
 he maintained the superiority of mathematics and classics over 
 all other studies, as the main instruments of University educa- 
 tion, this conviction did not prevent him from making sincere 
 and sustained efforts to secure for other sciences that place in 
 the academic system which he conceived to be their due. For 
 this end he worked not only in the modern external fashion by 
 constructing examinations, but also by the older, more spiritual 
 method, of teaching and speculating earnestly and effectively on 
 philosophical subjects. In 1839, from the long silent chair of 
 Casuistry, he began to deliver lectures on Moral Philosophy ; of 
 which at least the earlier, historical, courses were found highly 
 attractive. Some years previously he had transformed the 
 traditional paper on philosophy in the Fellowship-examination 
 of his own College, and made it an effective instrument for 
 inducing the abler candidates for Trinity Fellowships to under- 
 take a systematic course of philosophical reading after their 
 first degree. Meanwhile his own elaborate investigation of the 
 methods of modern science was being prosecuted to fruitful and 
 stimulating results. In 1840 his 'Philosophy of the Inductive 
 Sciences ' appeared. Ten years later he took a chief part in 
 constructing the first Moral Sciences Tripos. The scheme of 
 this examination, however, was quite inadequate, being in fact 
 formed by a combination, not of the different divisions or 
 aspects in which philosophy is commonly studied, but of certain 
 subjects in which the University happened to possess Professors : 
 thus it did not include Logic or Metaphysics, or even Psycho- 
 logy, except under the head of Moral Philosophy. But from 
 the point of view of the students whom it was intended to 
 attract this Tripos had the graver defect that it did not confer 
 a degree : for the badge of inferiority thus attached to Moral 
 Sciences, in comparison with Mathematics and Classics, rendered 
 
1851 DOMESTIC HISTORY RESUMED. 413 
 
 it difficult for them even to aspire to the substantial rewards 
 which the Colleges had to bestow. In 1860 this badge was 
 removed, and at the same time a more complete scheme of 
 examinations constructed ; of which, though it has since been 
 twice modified, the main features still remain. 
 
 From the history of Dr. Whewell's academic labours, 
 which has carried us far ahead, we must now return to 
 the correspondence and domestic events of 1851. Early 
 in this year Mrs. Austin writes to thank him for the 
 ' Professor's Wife,' which he has sent her in its English 
 dress. She says : 
 
 I cannot tell you how captivating I find it. There is a 
 homely freshness, a genuine simplicity mixed with intimate 
 and delicate touches of feeling, far superior to anything else I 
 ever read, of Auerbach's. I suspect he owes a great deal to 
 you, for you are at ease in the most vernacular language, and 
 find wonderful equivalents for words and expressions that others 
 leave in despair. 
 
 I send you a packet of letters, that you may make out of 
 them what you can of the present state of things and of minds 
 in Paris. The whole thing seems to me utterly baseless, and, 
 if I may make an awkward word, cementless. Let me thank 
 you once more for poor Lorlei, who is the type of so many a 
 vain attempt to make happy by self devotion. Auerbach's sen- 
 timents about the English are, I fear, all but universal in 
 Germany. 
 
 To this letter the following was the answer : 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Trinity Lodge: Jan. 26, 1851. 
 
 I hoped that you would read the Professorinn before you 
 wrote to me, or rather that you would write to me after you 
 had read it, that I might know what you thought of it ; and 
 certainly I have great reason to be glad that you did so, when 
 you can find such pleasant things to say of the translation. 
 Your praise on such a point is of first-rate value. 
 
 I am glad you like my Lorlei. She was my companion all 
 
414 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1851 
 
 the summer, and parts of her story were written at every place 
 where I stayed ; several pages on the top of the Faulhorn, 
 8,000 feet high. It is much the prettiest of Auerbach's stories, 
 and I think the greatest favourite in Germany. They have 
 made a play of it. I was somewhat consoled for Auerbach's 
 bad opinion of the English by seeing how plainly he is quite 
 ignorant of us, and takes his view from our revilers, coloured by 
 his own notions about religious observances. Do you suppose 
 that the work by a * Person of great pretensions ' which the Colla- 
 borator attacks, alludes to Bunsen's ' Church of the Future ' ? 
 I was much amused with the manner in which Auerbach makes 
 it the summit of the Englishman's insolence to criticise German 
 philosophy, about which I suspect Auerbach knows as little as 
 he does of English life. We English are as stupidly servile in 
 looking with reverence on all German philosophy, as we are 
 stupidly conceited about our social institutions and manners. 
 
 I am much interested with the letters you sent me, on account 
 of their private as well as public bearing, I am quite sorry for 
 Cirecourt. I do not see how the French are to get out of their 
 present difficulty ; but it is one not peculiar to them, though 
 aggravated by the circumstances that their last revolution was 
 the most absurd of revolutions. It has always been hard for 
 the assembly and the ruler of a constitutional government to 
 settle into their positions of equilibrium. The ruler has to 
 learn that he is no ruler, and the assembly has to learn to allow 
 him to be something ; hard lessons which neither Germany nor 
 France can yet learn. I think Germany a more melancholy 
 spectacle than France, for they have not only put out the con- 
 flagration, but seem to be extinguishing all traces of domestic 
 fire. 
 
 A letter to Dr. Mackreth of February 2 repeats what 
 we have found before, that Dr. Whewell did not con- 
 ceive himself to be under great obligations to Lancaster 
 School, though he owed much to Mr. Eowley, and 
 recalls with much regret that in the speech he made at 
 the Lancaster dinner in 1842 he had missed the oppor- 
 tunity of expressing this as heartily as he felt it. A 
 
1851 LANCASTER AND IIEVERSHAM SCHOOLS. 415 
 
 letter to Mrs. Austin of March 30, it is thought, will gain 
 in interest by the addition of two extracts from her 
 correspondence. The summer of this year brought one 
 sorrow, and the succeeding winter another. Mr. Myers 
 died in July and Mrs. Temple in December 1851. 
 
 To Dr. MackretK] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 2, 1851. 
 
 I am really very much obliged to you for offering me your 
 advice with regard to any subscription which I may make to- 
 wards the rebuilding of the grammar school at Lancaster. 
 
 I do not conceive that I owe much to Lancaster school as a 
 school, though I do think that I owe much to Mr. Eowley, my 
 master, who was one main cause of my coming to College. My 
 obligations to him I have always been ready to express ; and I 
 am only sorry that on the occasion of the dinner given to Owen 
 and me I did not sufficiently take advantage of the opportunity 
 of expressing those obligations. I did soon afterwards write to 
 him, and express my great regret for this omission. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 9, 1851. 
 
 I must not rashly promise anything too magnificent (as a 
 contribution towards the rebuilding of Lancaster school) for the 
 following, among other reasons. Some time ago Evans wrote 
 to me and told me it was necessary to rebuild Heversham 
 school, and that he wanted subscriptions for that purpose. Now, 
 to that school I have considerable obligations, though, of course, 
 my native place has special claims upon me. 
 
 Evans's project was to obtain an architect's design for the 
 school and to rebuild it, I presume in an ornamental form. 
 From this plan I attempted to dissuade him, thinking that it 
 would suffice if the school were rebuilt in its present form, or 
 with little alteration. I do not know how far he intends to 
 follow my advice, nor do I exactly recollect how much I pro- 
 mised him. But if he persists in his more magnificent project, 
 and both my early nursing mothers put on fine clothes in their 
 old age at the same time, there must be some proportion be- 
 tween my filial offering to the one and to the other. Do you 
 think you can ascertain what is intended to be done about 
 
416 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 1851 
 
 Heversham from Evans ? or perhaps from Edmund Sharpe ? 
 for I think he was the architect that Evans intended to employ. 
 If you can do so, the information may in some measure guide 
 me. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 16, 1851. 
 
 With regard to Lancaster school I am quite willing to give 
 50L, which, as the Corporation give 500L, may be considered 
 perhaps a fair contribution. I am obliged to aim at some- 
 thing like proportion in such cases, for very few posts come 
 that do not bring applications for aid to schools, churches, and 
 the like ; and I do not lightly reject such applications, thinking 
 that there is now a season of zeal amongst our clergy, and of 
 opportunity in the state of our population and of the law, 
 which may not be easy to recover if it is not taken advantage 
 of at present. 
 
 The next letter from Mrs. Austin to Dr. Whewell 
 enclosed one from Victor Cousin, full of lamentations 
 over revolutionized France, his diminished means and 
 advancing age. 
 
 Weybridge: March 27, 1851. 
 
 There's a philosopher for you ! You may suppose, best of 
 Masters, how I scolded and scorned him in my answer. I said, 
 ' Je vous trouve lache vis-a-vis de la vieillesse.' I can't under- 
 stand how a man lives to be sixty without preparing himself to 
 relinquish the privileges of youth. 
 
 Mrs. Austin here gives details as to his loss of 
 means consequent on the Eevolution. 
 
 But now, dear and honoured Master, it would be ganz aus- 
 serordentlich schdn if you would write him a few lines of not 
 condolence, but sympathy, and such kind things as you know 
 how to say and to feel, and administer to him a cordial that 
 shall dispose him to rub up his armour and gird it on. 
 
 I rather frightened my husband on Thursday. I was so ill. 
 To-day I am better and in very brave spirits ; but though these 
 vary extremely, you will understand that the 
 
1851 VICTOR COUSIN. 417 
 
 the same. I am under no illusion and no terror. I wish I felt 
 sure that my extreme serenity and cheerfulness about death 
 rested on a better ground. I feel so much love and trust, and 
 so little fear, and yet why ? Is this anything more than con- 
 stitutional ? For as for merits or claims oh ! as grounds for 
 reliance they are out of the question, and I am not sure that 
 my faith in any scheme of Atonement would explain my serenity. 
 It seems to me rather a boundless trust in the Source of all 
 Good, such as His Son reveals Him to us. 
 I wish I could talk with you about this. 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Trinity College : March 30, 1851. 
 
 It was very kind of you, my dear friend, to se-nd me Victor 
 Cousin's letter, even though the privilege brought with it the 
 task of reading the epistle, which is not a very easy matter. 
 But it was still more amiable of you to think that I might 
 gratify the dear old Eclectic by expressions of interest in his 
 future labours. I dare say he will not derive much pleasure 
 from my doing so ; but, that you should try to procure him such 
 pleasure as my encouragement could give, was one of those kind 
 thoughts which make us love you. 
 
 Accordingly, inspired by your suggestion, I have sent such 
 a letter to him. It so happened that I had with me at the 
 time a French man of letters just about to return to Paris ; and 
 to him I committed my exhortations to Cousin to continue his 
 speculations, pointing out some questions on which we should 
 all, in England and France, listen to him with deference. I was 
 glad to learn from my friend that Cousin is supposed to be so 
 rich as not to be seriously distressed by his losses, even should 
 they come upon him as they threaten. 
 
 With regard to his fear of age, which is a more inevitable 
 evil, if it be an evil, I hope your exhortations will not be wasted 
 on him. It is no doubt a little mortifying to human conceit, 
 that we must leave the world to a new generation; for it appears 
 to me more mortifying because it interrupts what we do than 
 what we enjoy. We have done so little, and matters seem to 
 be going on so ill ! But we must make up our minds to this, 
 and ' trust the Ruler with the skies,' and with the earth too, and 
 really trust Him ; believe that He is ruling well, and will do so 
 
 E E 
 
418 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1861 
 
 when we are no longer actors in the scene. Only I think there 
 is nothing presumptuous in hoping that we may know a little 
 how it does go on ; follow the later scenes of the drama, and 
 see the denouement to which it is tending. This is a kind of 
 consolation which cannot deceive us, for we shall have this or, 
 we may humbly hope, something better. I trust it will be long, 
 my dear friend, before you have to seek for the consolations 
 which belong to the close ; but I must say that an entirely filial 
 spirit of resignation, hope, and love is what I have seen with 
 most satisfaction in the cases of others who were dear to me, 
 and what I most desire for myself. Any special view of the 
 manner of acceptance only leads to this. This seems to lead us 
 beyond the bourne directly. May God bless you and restore 
 you, is the prayer of 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 To this letter Mrs. Austin replied a few days later : 
 
 I must thank you, my dear Master, for your letter, which 
 gave me great pleasure and comfort. You are very generous to 
 love me pour si pen. What have I to do with this rag of my 
 life, but to think of anything that can give the least pleasure 
 to my friends. 
 
 Cousin will certainly be extremely gratified. I thank you 
 for him. I wish I could respect, as much as I admire and like 
 him, but that is impossible. He has great weaknesses, and they 
 are not English weaknesses. . . . 
 
 Thank you, dear and good friend, for the few words at the 
 end of your letter. I can get no further than that but as you 
 say, is not that the consummation, and is not our Divine Model 
 great and touching above all in that absolute self-giving ? 
 
 To his Sister] Westminster School: May 27, 1851. 
 
 We have been in London some time and have taken a house 
 in Birdcage Walk close to Lord Monteagle's. I am now 
 engaged in the examination of Westminster scholars, an em- 
 ployment which brings me here every year on the day before 
 Rogation Sunday. I think I have frequently written to you 
 under the same circumstances, as during my sitting of many 
 
1851 DEATH OF MR. MYERS. 419 
 
 hours I have time to write letters. The Dean of Christ Church 
 comes from Oxford on the same errand, and he, the Dean of 
 Westminster, and the Master of Trinity are here called the three 
 Deans. The poor Dean of Westminster's place is supplied by 
 the sub-dean, Lord John Thynne, and Mrs. Buckland kindly 
 supplies me with a room at the Deanery. 
 
 To-day we dine in the hall of Westminster College, and after 
 the dinner the scholars come to the high table in order and recite 
 Latin epigrams, on which the guests at the high table bestow 
 upon them shillings and half crowns; curious old practices 
 which, I suppose, go back to the time of the foundation of the 
 school. 
 
 Cordelia and her niece, Kate Marshall, are gone to the Great 
 Exhibition at the Crystal Palace. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : June 15, 1851. 
 
 We shall spend the summer in our cottage at Lowestoft. 
 We shall be very glad if you can come and see us there. We 
 shall be there the greater part of July, August and September. 
 In the beginning of July we go to the meeting of the British 
 Association at Ipswich, of which Airy is President. 
 
 We saw the Mackreths several times, and hoped to have seen 
 them again, but they grew homesick and I suppose sick of the 
 noise and bustle of London, which are more than usually over- 
 whelming this season, and ran away suddenly. 
 
 To the same] Bath Hotel, Clifton : July 22, 1851. 
 
 On Monday we went to Emsworth in Hampshire, where 
 Cordelia was to nurse her sister while her husband was away. 
 There we found tidings of a very sorrowful kind, not quite un- 
 expected as to their purport, but awfully sudden. Mr. Myers, 
 the Incumbent of St. John's, Keswick, and the husband of our 
 sister Susan, died here on Sunday. 
 
 He is to be buried in Keswick churchyard on Saturday ; it 
 is fit that he should lie there where he laboured so faithfully 
 among his people, where he has done so much good and where 
 he was so happy. 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1851 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 30, 1851. 
 
 I have been to London to give a lecture on the lessons of 
 philosophy and science which may be drawn from the Great 
 Exhibition. A great room-full of people came to hear me at the 
 Society of Arts, in the Adelphi. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell went in the course of the autumn to 
 stay in Hampshire with her sister, Mrs. Temple, then 
 dangerously ill. During her absence she received daily 
 letters from her husband, from which the following are 
 
 extracts : 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Oct. 18, 1851. 
 
 I rejoice with great thankfulness at the view which you are 
 now able to take of Dora's case. God grant that the improve- 
 ment may assume a permanent form, and that she may be re- 
 stored to you and to her family. Whatever be the result, one 
 imagines that every one must be at all future times fitter for 
 removal to another world, for having been so near the gulf which 
 we must all pass through at one time or other, in our way 
 thither. 
 
 Oct. 19, 1851. 
 
 We had this afternoon a sermon from Mill (Professor of 
 Hebrew), who preached on his special subject, prophecy, by no 
 means ill ; but when one saw all those hopeful young men 
 blackening (and blue-ing) the galleries at St. Mary's from side 
 to side, I could not help wishing that they had had some one 
 to speak to them more heartily and directly with reference 
 to feelings, that, coming here for the first time, they have or 
 might have excited in them. However, this is not so easy to 
 do as to wish ; and perhaps when it comes to our own turn we 
 shall make no great hand of it. 
 
 I have been much interested, but rather painfully than 
 otherwise, by Carlyle's Life of Sterling. 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Oct. 26, 1851. 
 
 I am very glad, my beloved Cor., you are coming back to me 
 so soon ; for though I continue to live in a sort of way without 
 you, it is a life which is a series of makeshifts and wearinesses. 
 
1852 'THE HOUSE OF GOURNAY.' 421 
 
 Do you recollect my hinting to Daniel Grurney a request for 
 a copy of his book about ' The House of Gournay,' and his staving 
 it off. He has sent me one, nevertheless, which I am glad of. 
 I want to send him a packet of my small books, (for the large 
 books frighten people), but I think I must wait till your return 
 before I make so great an exertion in the way of recollection. 
 Besides other privations which your absence brings, you know 
 you take my memory away with you. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: Dec. 18, 1851. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell a little while ago received a kind letter from 
 Mrs. Mackreth, expressing your sympathy with our great loss of 
 my dear brother-in-law Myers, whom I had come to love as a 
 brother, and whom I shall never cease to miss and to mourn. 
 We have had, I grieve to say, another shadow long hanging 
 over us in the alarming illness of Mrs. Temple, a sister of my 
 wife's, who has been supposed for some time to be in a hope- 
 less state. 
 
 The year 1851 closed in gloom. The letters of 1852 
 are few in number, and show traces of anxiety and 
 depression. Kreuzriach was again recommended, and 
 again resorted to. In November an interesting letter 
 was written to Mr. Aubrey de Yere, thanking him for a 
 volume of poems which he ' sipped like a refreshing 
 beverage amid the turmoil of common employments/ 
 From this letter we perceive that his taste had altered 
 considerably since the days when he disliked all sonnets, 
 and especially those of Wordsworth. He dwells upon 
 the advantages of a profession as an aid to internal 
 resolution, like a man who had found the full benefit of 
 ' common employments ' discharged in the spirit of 
 duty. And this was as characteristic of him as his 
 sense of the value in education of uncongenial studies. 
 
 To his Sister'] Trinity Lodge : May 2, 1852. 
 
 During the time that Lizzy was with us, we had the American 
 Ambassador also, with his wife and daughter. The young Yankee 
 
422 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1852 
 
 lady and Lizzy appeared to take much to one another. The 
 young American ladies are lively and conversable, but much 
 more forward than their mothers in most of the families which 
 I have seen. This characteristic, I think, struck Lizzy as much 
 as it did me. 
 
 I was in London yesterday, dining at the Eoyal Academy 
 dinner. I was obliged to come away early, so I heard no speech 
 after the Duke of Wellington's, but it was interesting to hear 
 him speak with pride of the military discipline shown on the 
 occasion of the wreck of the * Birkenhead.' 
 
 To his Sister] Kreuznach: Aug. 7, 1852. 
 
 I have just returned from an excursion to Berlin, where I 
 have not been since, I think, 1825. The railroads now make 
 that an easy and short journey which used to be a long and 
 laborious one. I was there for a week, and saw several persons 
 whom I was very glad to meet, especially some old friends. Of 
 the persons I was with there whom you will care most to hear 
 about are Ranke, who wrote the ' History of the Popes,' and 
 Humboldt, the great traveller, whom I had often before seen, 
 and who was friendly enough to come all the way from Pots- 
 dam, an hour by railway, to see me, though he is eighty-two 
 at least. 
 
 Berlin is grown to be a very fine city since I saw it, and I 
 should think is now next in splendour to London and Paris. 
 
 To the same] Kreuznach : Sept. 10. 
 
 Soon after I return to England I shall be in the north, 
 though only for a day or two. The distribution of prizes at 
 Lancaster school is to be on Monday, the 27th ; and I have pro- 
 mised to be there and also to preach at Lancaster on the 26th for 
 the school. I hope I shall see you, if it be only for an hour or 
 two, for I must try to find time to go and look at our new church 
 at Kendal, and my excursion into your region must be brief, as 
 our Fellowship examinations begin almost immediately. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth] Kreuznach : Sept. 7, 1852. 
 
 I must also agree to preach at Lancaster on the 26th, 
 though in truth such an office is very far from being agreeable 
 
1852 MR. AUBREY DE VERE. 423 
 
 to me. I have no pleasure in preaching to any congregation 
 except my own in College, and I much dislike preaching a charity 
 sermon, but having consented to come at that time I must 
 make the best of the proposal which you convey to me. 
 
 To Aubrey de Vere, Esq.~\ Trinity Lodge : Nov. 21, 1852. 
 
 I ought sooner to have thanked you for your kind recollection 
 of me shown by sending me your volume of poems ; and to 
 have told you of the pleasure which the poems themselves give 
 us. They lie on the table and I sip them from time to time, 
 like a refreshing beverage among the turmoil of common 
 employments. And they are not at all out of their place there ; 
 for it is one of the best merits of pure and dignified poetry like 
 yours, that it can impart a portion of its own tone to the most 
 common occurrences of life. Indeed a great portion of my most 
 common employments would be absurd occupations if they did 
 not require to be carried on with pure and large intentions. 
 And in reading your poems, and especially your sonnets, I have 
 often wished that it were your business, bound upon you by a 
 profession, to urge upon men the serious and weighty views 
 which you have there expressed so pointedly and weightily. 
 
 It is true that an earnest and truthful writer does make his 
 employment hold the place of a profession ; but I think most 
 of us were intended by Providence to submit to the chains of 
 external profession as well as inward resolution. When we 
 have put ourselves in this position we have this advantage, that 
 none of our energy being required to keep us in our appointed 
 path, we may employ all our powers in going forwards. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : Dec. 2, 1852. 
 
 I went up to London to see the Duke's (of Wellington) 
 funeral. The Managers, (the Court Martial) gave us Cambridge 
 Heads seats near the centre of the building, whence we saw the 
 ceremony to great advantage. I went all the way from West- 
 minster (Lord Monteagle's house, where we were staying) to 
 St. Paul's, along the streets on foot, in my Doctor of Divinity's 
 gown, to the great admiration of the spectators. Every inch of 
 that way the streets were many deep on both sides, and every 
 
424 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1853 
 
 window was full, and was prepared for giving a view to as many 
 as possible. Everybody behaved well and feelingly. 
 
 Very early in 1853 Mrs. Whewell went to Kreuz- 
 nach, there to spend the whole spring and summer. 
 Writing to Professor Sedgwick, at Norwich, on April 13, 
 Dr. Whewell says : 
 
 I took Mrs. Whewell to Kreuznach very prosperously, and 
 left her there very pleasantly situated, with Valence Ainslie 
 and Maria Herschel for companions. Since then I have very 
 good accounts of her and of the girls. But I am sadly lonely 
 in this great house by myself, and wonder how Dr. Wordsworth 
 endured it so long. And what is worse I can hardly get away 
 for a day. Besides which I have got a detestable cold which 
 will not go away, and which deprives me of sleep at night, a 
 new infliction for me, with which you can sympathise. I hope 
 in time we shall get through this merciless spring. 
 
 Early in June he escaped from this solitude to 
 Kreuznach. The summer of 1852 he had devoted to 
 an edition of ' Grotius ' ; that of 1853 was spent on 
 The Plurality of Worlds.' 
 
 To his Sister} Trinity Lodge: April 6, 1853. 
 
 I returned to Cambridge on Friday last, having had a very 
 prosperous journey to Kreuznach. On the road from Aix to 
 Cologne we saw a very grand exhibition in the sky ; mock suns 
 and halos more numerous and beautiful than I had ever seen 
 before. We had had a similar show at Cambridge about a fort- 
 night earlier. The appearance arises from the coldness of the 
 upper region of the atmosphere, and was continued in part at 
 night and during the next day, when we were on the Rhine. I 
 should like to know whether anything of the kind was observed 
 at Wormenhall or at Liverpool. 
 
 To the same] Kreuznach : July 14, 1853. 
 
 The pony and pony carriage and my horse have enabled us 
 to see much more of the country here than we had ever seen 
 
1853 VISIT TO KREUZNACH. 425 
 
 before. A few weeks ago we were tempted to make an ex- 
 pedition of about thirty miles to Langen Sehwalbach, one of 
 the Brunnens of Nassau, which we executed in glorious June 
 weather, having among other things to cross the Rhine, there 
 half a mile broad, on a floating bridge. Then, I have also been 
 on a week's expedition into the Eifel, a country of extinct 
 volcanoes, not far from the Rhine. You may perhaps recollect 
 in my book on German architecture, a picture of the abbey of 
 Laach which stands on the brim of one of these ancient craters, 
 now a lake surrounded with woods. My companion was Dr. 
 Daubeny of Oxford, who has written a book about volcanoes, 
 and is now on his way to Norway. 
 
 The return to England took place at the end of 
 September, and two letters to Dr. Mackreth show with 
 what pain the truth was being recognised that Kreuz- 
 nach had done little for Mrs. Whewell's health, and that 
 cause for the gravest anxiety remained. In October 
 they went to Cliff Cottage, and there such intervals of 
 ease as were granted were enjoyed in the bracing air 
 and grateful quiet of garden and sea shore. Dr. 
 Whewell was recalled to Cambridge for the visit of 
 Prince Albert and the Duke of Brabant. To the niece 
 who remained during his absence in charge of the 
 invalid, some letters are given, less because, of any 
 interest or importance attaching to the criticisms of the 
 stories she was reading, than because, like everything 
 else he wrote to her, they show how gratefully he re- 
 ceived love and sympathy, and with what pleasure and 
 alacrity he turned to the interests and amusements of 
 the young. Great part of the winter was spent at 
 Lowestoft by Mrs. Whewell. They returned to Cam- 
 bridge in January. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: Oct. 6, 1853. 
 Perhaps you have been expecting to hear from me since 
 our arrival in England ; and I should probably have written to 
 
426 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1853 
 
 you if my mind had been more at ease. But with great 
 anxieties about the persons dearest to us, pressing upon our 
 minds, it becomes difficult to write any letters which are not 
 absolutely necessary. I am full of the deepest trouble about 
 my dear wife. I cannot look forward without a very heavy 
 heart and extreme distress. I need not say to you that all 
 this is for your private ear ; for though these portions of the lot 
 of our human nature have nothing in them which requires con- 
 cealment, we cannot but wish the overwhelming ebbs and flows 
 of hope and fear not to become matter of discussion to ordinary 
 acquaintances. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 16, 1853. 
 
 Your letter showed the same cordial kindness which you 
 have always manifested to me ; and I should not have hesitated 
 to take advantage of your and Mrs. Mackreth's kind offer, if 
 there had been any occasion. But we have a very helpful 
 niece staying with us, and Lady Monteagle came as soon as 
 she knew she was wanted, so that my dear wife has been, I 
 trust, well nursed. 
 
 To Kate Marshall'] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 16, 1853. 
 
 I intend to send this with the third volume of ' Cyrilla ' by 
 the five o'clock train. I am almost sorry to send you ' Cyrilla ' ; 
 it is such a dreary dismal story, and the people are all so very 
 worthless, or nearly all. I can hardly except ' Cyrilla ' ; for the 
 way in which she involves herself at first, and then her con- 
 cealment and mystery ever afterwards, which make it impos- 
 sible for her friends to understand her, render it difficult for 
 
 me to like her. As for Z , he is a more complete villain than 
 
 ought to appear in a novel ; too bad even for a modern tragedy. 
 However, there you have the book, and I hope you will not cry 
 your eyes dim over it, for that would be a pity. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 19, 1853. 
 
 Probably you will read over again Sintram, which I sent 
 yesterday. I do not think you will find so much in it as poor 
 Sir Guy did. I do not know whether you ever heard anything 
 of La Motte Fouque, the author. Once in my early days of 
 
1853 LA MOTTE FOUQUE. 427 
 
 German travelling, I fell in with a German student, a cousin 
 of his, who gave me an account of him. He was himself 
 descended from those old Norsemen you admire so much, and 
 delighted in having about him all the relics of garments, 
 armour, and the like which reminded him of his descent. He 
 was a little spare man, and when he set himself down to write 
 Sintram and the like, he girded himself to a sword as long as 
 himself, put on a hat with awful brim and plume, and a very 
 savage looking gauntlet on his left hand, and then found 
 himself full of Norse fire and fancy. 
 
 To Lord Monteagle] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 4, 1853. 
 
 It is very plain that we sympathise in our proceedings, for 
 you, if I rightly understand your letter, have been doing 
 exactly what I was thinking of doing ; viz. sending my re- 
 marks on Induction to Cameron, to convince him that he had 
 been, to some extent at least, misled by John Mill, as to the 
 direction in which great future discoveries in science were to 
 be looked for. What you say about the different moral effect 
 of the two methods, the Inductive and the Deductive, upon 
 the mind, interests me much ; the more so, as I had tried to 
 say something to the same effect, in a former work, my Bridge- 
 water Treatise. If that happens to come in your way, pray 
 look at two chapters in the latter part of the work, * On Induc- 
 tive and on Deductive Habits of Mind,' where I have followed 
 almost exactly the same train of thought which you express. 
 It appeared to me, at the time, curious and important ; although 
 some of my scientific friends were rather disturbed by the 
 promulgation of such doctrines. 
 
 But it is true, nevertheless, that the notion that we have 
 already possessed ourselves of the principles of all the knowledge 
 which is to be had, is adverse to humility, and to the hope of a 
 large increase of our knowledge of Truth. I believe that there 
 remains to be discovered by Induction, far more than has yet 
 been discovered. But I am running into a strain which is so 
 familiar to my thoughts, that I may well fear tiring other 
 people with dwelling upon it. 
 
 I run over to Corrie, whenever I can find or make a vacant 
 day. I left her yesterday, very comfortable, and gathering, I 
 
428 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1853 
 
 hope, health and strength by going out every day in a Bath- 
 chair upon the Denes. There is much malady still remaining ; 
 but I hope likely to continue long comparatively inactive ; and 
 with the return of greater strength and more vigour of health, 
 and with the use of such medicines as Brodie most kindly has 
 devised, we must not let our hopes of a degree of permanent 
 restoration decline. She will stay at Lowestoft for the pre- 
 sent ; but I hope before the end of the term she may come 
 here if it be only for a short time. ... I was much interested, 
 as you may suppose, with Cameron's letter, which I return to 
 you. It is something to find that what one has written is 
 incorporated into English life in that way. I am afraid if you 
 see a part of my < Plurality,' you will be scandalised at my 
 doctrines, but pray do not condemn them utterly till you see 
 how they hang together. 
 
 To Jo/rms Garth Marshall] 
 
 Cliff Cottage, Lowestoft : Nov. 16, 1853. 
 
 I have come here for a day only, and must return to Cam- 
 bridge this evening. I find Corrie much stronger and better, 
 though I fear the original malady is still unsubdued, and 
 there seems reason to doubt whether the Kreuznach waters 
 ever produced any considerable diminution of it, though they 
 very likely retarded its advance. It appears best that she 
 should stay here at present, both for the sake of the air, the 
 mode of life, and the opportunities of exercise. I come over 
 to her for a day when I can, though my visits are necessarily 
 brief at the present time. Katie is still with her, but, I grieve 
 to say, goes away in a few days. However, her mother has been 
 very kind in sparing her to us so long. I must try to keep her 
 supplied with nieces and deputy-nieces so long as she remains 
 here alone. 
 
 I shall soon have my ' Plurality of Worlds ' finished. There 
 are, as you said, three courses for my readers ; one to assent to 
 the arguments and to accept the conclusion ; another to reject 
 the conclusion and to answer the argument ; the third to do 
 neither ; and I suppose most readers will agree with you in 
 adopting the third. 
 
1853 DUKE OF BRABANT'S VISIT. 429 
 
 To his Wife] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Nov. 17, 1853. 
 
 I have a letter from Col. Grey to say that their Royal 
 Highnesses would come on the 22nd, and that he had written to 
 the Vice-Chancellor and to Professor Sedgwick to consult with 
 me. The Duke of Brabant cannot go to any chapel service, 
 being a Roman Catholic, and cannot dine in Hall on the second 
 day, as they must go away at four. So they will dine with 
 the Vice-Chancellor, and I shall have to provide breakfasts and 
 luncheons. The persons they bring with them are, as I expected, 
 M. Van de Weyer and Count de Launoy, Col. Grey and Col. 
 Gordon. I have no doubt we shall manage very well. 
 
 To the same] Nov. 18, 1853. 
 
 The only peculiar feature in the scheme for their Royal 
 Highnesses' visit which has come from Windsor, is that the 
 visitors should hear a lecture or two. So we have proposed a 
 lecture from Sedgwick on Tuesday, and one from Willis on 
 Wednesday. Sedgwick is for that day to exclude his lady 
 disciples, who fill all the best places. I am sorry to say he is by 
 no means well a great determination of blood to the head. 
 Paget bled him to a considerable extent on Wednesday, and by 
 rights he ought to leave his work and go play. I recommend 
 Lowestoft to him. 
 
 We have here beautiful November weather. 
 
 I am glad you get on well with . You have, I think, a 
 
 spare copy of the ' Hexameters.' Pray give him one from me, 
 and beg him to read ' Herman,' as the finest narrative poem of 
 modern times ; ' the Walk,' as the finest philosophical poem ; 
 and ' the Diver,' as a good example of versification. I hope 
 young lovers of poetry like him do not share the prejudices of 
 our Latin grammar critics. Alas ! no Kate for love to go to 
 at least through your hands. I grieve with you at your 
 having lost her for the present. She is a joy of the eye and of 
 the heart to me, and must be still more to you. I have this 
 moment heard of the death of Campbell, our oldest Senior. 1 He 
 was a lawyer, who lived very secluded in the Temple. This will 
 of course occasion the election of a new Senior. 
 
 1 This is not correct ; Mr. Campbell was in Orders. 
 
430 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1853 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 21, 1853. 
 
 I am glad you have got over your superstition that your 
 Sunday letters do not come here directly. I assure you the 
 postman here is able (I presume by the aid of the calendar in 
 the Prayer Book) to ' find the Sunday letter ' on Monday 
 morning, and so I have just got yours of yesterday. 
 
 Nov. 21. We have been in a dreadful fright ; that is, not 
 I, for I did not care which way the result turned; but it seemed 
 probable this afternoon that the Koyal visit would evaporate. 
 The Queen of Portugal is dead in childbed, and this shocking 
 news came to London just as the Prince's carriage and horses 
 were setting off by the mail. The horses were already in their 
 boxes, but were stopped and a telegraph message sent to . say 
 they were not to be expected, and in the meantime we waited 
 to see what Windsor would determine. However, a few hours 
 afterwards we learnt that the carriages were on their way, and 
 now they are arrived. I have just seen the head-coachman ; 
 quite a model of a coachman, such as your dear father would 
 have delighted in; a broad head and body and scarcely any 
 legs ! I wanted him to have studied the ground before he 
 drove over it ; as to turning right, and left, and right, through 
 the Queen's gate to the Lodge. But he has been busy, he 
 says, and will not have time for such studies to-morrow morning- 
 So George is to ride before him upon 'Winged Words!' and 
 he, George, seems much delighted at having to occupy so con- 
 spicuous a place on a horse of so fine a figure. 
 
 Nov. 22. So far all goes well, except that the air has been 
 filled all day with a dense fog, which has made everything look 
 ill, or more properly speaking, look no-how. The party arrived 
 punctually, and came in at the Queen's gate easily ; George 
 pioneering them on * Words,' looking much delighted with his 
 office and really doing good service. We went to the Chapel, 
 Hall, and Library as soon as they arrived, and then to Sedgwick's 
 lecture. The Duke is a slim, quiet-looking youth, and appears 
 to take an interest in what he sees. The only disaster was 
 that the Master of St. John's, going upon a temporary staircase 
 at the Senate-house before it was fixed, the whole tumbled 
 down, and he was much shaken and his face cut. 
 
1853 ' PROJECT OF A PERPETUAL PEACE.' 431 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 26. 
 
 You will be glad to hear that our election of a senior 
 went off very satisfactorily, Thompson being elected without 
 hesitation. 
 
 To Lord Monteagle~] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 24, 1853, 
 
 I am glad that you do not look upon us who publish on Inter- 
 national Law as quite wasting our time. I believe, notwith- 
 standing all the deeds of violence which we have seen committed, 
 that a < Project of a Perpetual Peace ' is by no means a mere 
 dream, if it be based on received International Law. In the 
 cases which you mention, Cuba is protected simply by the re- 
 cognition of such law on the part of the United States, and if 
 the Western States of Europe had boldly told the Czar that he 
 was violating such law (which they told one another but did not 
 tell him) it would have checked the aggression. If the Grotius 
 succeeds, I shall probably edit in the same way Puffendorf and 
 Vattel, and shall hope to do some good by proving that ' such 
 deeds are quite atrocious.' Perhaps you retain influence enough 
 in the Edinburgh Review to get the Grotius reviewed there. 
 Cornewall Lewis wrote me a letter which showed that he took a 
 great interest in the subject. I am the more desirous of the 
 book having a circulation because the advantage will go to the 
 University, to whom I have given the copyright. I cannot say 
 that I like the tone of Conybeare's article in the Edinburgh 
 Review about church parties. It is a coarse caricature, in many 
 points seasoned to suit the popular palate by the pepper of 
 injustice, which he must have known to be such. And in this 
 way he does not spare his College. It is a base mob-pleasing 
 in him to talk of Cambridge as the ' luxurious seat of learning.' 
 He must know very well that he was not more luxurious as a 
 Fellow of Trinity than he is as Vicar of Axminster ; unless he 
 were unlike his brother Fellows. And he must know too that 
 such expressions feed false opinions and fierce passions in the 
 populace. 
 
 As to his assertion that scepticism is increasing, it is con- 
 trary to all my knowledge of the cultivated classes. What may 
 be going on among the labouring classes I cannot tell ; but we 
 do know that they are imperfectly provided with the means of 
 
 
432 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 being taught religion, both when young and when older. I 
 should fear little from scepticism if the religious education of 
 the country were well provided for. 
 
 We have just had a visit from Prince Albert and the Due 
 de Brabant ; very pleasant and well managed, except that there 
 was a dense fog all the while, so that we could not see beyond 
 our noses. They went- to a lecture of Sedgwick's and one of 
 Willis's, and the Chancellor presided at the Caput, and conferred 
 a degree on the Duke, and other degrees, in a very orderly 
 manner. It was an ordinary Congregation in the common course 
 of University business. 
 
 I am just going to Corrie for a day to take her another 
 niece. 
 
 To his Wife] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 28, ] 853. 
 
 I have had a letter from Hare asking me to sign a protest 
 on the subject of Maurice's removal. I have some difficulty 
 about this, as having nothing to do with King's College, and 
 have suggested other ways of proceeding. It is difficult to 
 make anything good out of these signatures collected by letter. 
 
 To the same] Dec. 5, 1853. 
 
 It was very good of you, dearest Cor., to work so hard and 
 be so prompt in sending me another design for the cover of the 
 P. W. [' Plurality of Worlds.'] (Observe, this is my second 
 P. W. The first was < The Professor's Wife.') And it is very 
 imposing looking. I will do nothing more till I hear from the 
 binder, to whom I have sent the former design, how far it is 
 practicable. In the meantime I have some notion of being 
 content with powdering my stars into letters; something in 
 the way of the sketch which I send you what do you think 
 of it? 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Lowestoft : Jan. 2, 1854. 
 
 I cannot let the New Year make its start without sending 
 you a word of greeting and good wishes. I think you know 
 that my loving thoughts are always with you, but one of the 
 uses of a New Year is to give one an occasion of expressing such 
 thoughts, that they may be more present to the mind both of 
 
1854 'PLURALITY OF WORLDS.' 433 
 
 the giver and the receiver. May the New Year, my darling, be 
 a happy one for you, and the harbinger of a series of happy ones; 
 and may they bring the best of blessings to you, the gifts of 
 God, enjoyed with a tranquil and grateful heart. I owe so 
 much to your dear society, that you are one of the blessings I 
 have to thank God for, and I hope the year will not roll on far 
 in its course before I have the pleasure of seeing you again. 
 
 I would have sent you a book as a New Year's gift, but your 
 aunt gives me such an account of your occupations that I am 
 afraid you will not have time to read it ; and indeed it is rather 
 out of the line of most young ladies' reading. I should not like 
 to be set on the shelf unnoticed when I came to you, so I will 
 wait till you tell me you would like to have the book. There 
 is a little not mystery, for that I hate but reserve to be used 
 in talking of it as my book, for it is published without my name, 
 and contains notions that may be startling to some persons, 
 though I am persuaded that they tend to give us a true view of 
 God's government of the world. 
 
 I suppose after all you must have heard me talk of a book 
 about the ' Plurality of Worlds,' which I was writing or finishing 
 when you were here, and now the murder (of the inhabitants of 
 Jupiter) is out. 
 
 I hope your aunt is improved. To day she has scarcely any 
 pain. 
 
 To his Sister] Lowestoft: Jan. 3, 1854. 
 
 We have here very severe weather. The neighbourhood of 
 the sea does not seem at all to mitigate the cold or to thin the 
 snow, and cold and snow-clad as the world is, I must go to Cam- 
 bridge this afternoon, for we have there very important matters 
 going on. Among them the election of a Hebrew Professor in the 
 place of Dr. Mill, which will make it necessary for me and the 
 other electors to sit five hours in the schools (a very cold place) 
 listening to Latin dissertations. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge, : Feb. 19, 1854. 
 
 I am glad you like my ' Plurality of Worlds.' It was a great 
 pleasure to me writing it at Kreuznach during the past summer, 
 and made my being fastened down to that place very pleasant 
 
 F F 
 
434 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 instead of very tiresome. I only wish that our summer residence 
 there had answered our purposes in other ways, as well as it did 
 in enabling me to put upon paper what I have long had in my 
 head. The Gbrotius, which was the fruit of the preceding year, 
 was much harder work, yet even that made the summer pass 
 pleasantly, and rendered the burning heat of 1852 tolerable. 
 
 To the Honourable Mrs. J. G. Marshall] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Jan. 13, 1854. 
 
 Corrie is decidedly better. In a few days we must make 
 the migration to Cambridge. It is now ten months since she 
 stayed at the Lodge. I almost wonder how I have got through 
 the time. 
 
 By the way, did you see that your quotation from Herbert 
 remains in the pages of the ' Plurality of Worlds ' ? It is to 
 me a pleasant memory of our intercourse at Kreuznach. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwicti] Trinity Lodge: June 8, 1854. 
 
 I am glad my dialogue pleased you. I called it a supplement 
 to the essay, because there were objections to the argument, 
 from Lord Kosse's and Struve's speculations, which I thought 
 important. I confess I am quite at a loss to conceive how the 
 Pantheists can turn my views to their purposes. I have never 
 seen any arguments against Pantheism founded on the possible 
 existence of intelligent beings in other planets and stars, nor do 
 I see how such an argument can be constructed. The proper 
 antithesis to Pantheism is not intelligent creatures besides man, 
 but a Divine Mind. I have never expressed any doubt of the 
 existence of other orders of spiritual beings ; I have repeatedly 
 spoken of them, but I want both reason and authority to place 
 them on planets. 
 
 In the first printing of my essay I had pursued my specula- 
 tions about the Divine Mind a good deal further than in the 
 published book. I suppressed what I had printed because I 
 thought that the greater part of my readers would be repelled by 
 what they would call metaphysics ; but if you could find time 
 to read my cancelled pages, I think they would interest you ; 
 and I should be very much pleased to hear your opinion about 
 my speculations. I will send them along with this. You will 
 
1854 OXFORD BILL. 435 
 
 see that the unpublished part comes after the chapter on the 
 argument from Design. 
 
 I have just received a copy of the Oxford Bill as new 
 modelled. In the present state of the Bill all the parts which 
 I had objected to are omitted, being left to be regulated by the 
 Commission : and this Commission is not to enforce any regula- 
 tions on colleges contrary to the wish of two-thirds of their 
 members. This is a bearable kind of legislation, and may be 
 made to produce good. The Hebdomadal Council, as they have 
 framed it, appears to me a great absurdity. The Professors are 
 to have as weighty a voice in it as the whole Congregation. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Whewell remained at Cambridge until 
 July, and then, as the following fragment of a letter to 
 Miss Whewell tells, removed to Lowestoft. For a part 
 of the summer the niece whose presence was now more 
 than ever essential to the comfort and happiness of 
 both, was lent to them, and his letters to her in October 
 show how he continued to interest himself in a girl's 
 attempts to study as well as in her amusements. The 
 autumn of this year brought the death of Mrs. 
 Whewell's only unmarried sister, Ellen Marshall, at 
 Clifton. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: July 14, 1854. 
 
 We are just on the point of starting for Lowestoft. We 
 have been detained here till now by the meeting of the Archaeo- 
 logical Institute, during which we had several friends staying 
 with us; among the rest Lord Talbot de Malahide, Lord 
 Carlisle, Dr. Milman the Dean of St. Paul's, and Mrs. Milman. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall] 
 
 Cliff Cottage, Loivestoft: Aug. 19, 1854. 
 
 I should have been glad for yours and Mary's sake, and I 
 will add for the sake of your father, the founder, I believe, of 
 .the society ! in question, to show my goodwill by giving them 
 
 T The Leeds Philosophical Society. 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 a lecture ; but I could not, at any rate, make an engagement 
 of that kind so long beforehand ; and I very honestly doubt 
 whether I have anything to say which I could say or they hear 
 with pleasure. I do not think there is any subject of physics 
 on which I could lecture. The only two branches of physical 
 science of which I know anything are crystallography and the 
 undulatory theory of light ; and these require great previous 
 knowledge in the hearers, and great labour and ingenuity in 
 preparing illustrations. They are quite out of your way, and in 
 fact, considering all circumstances, out of mine. The history 
 of science, which is my special subject, would not much please 
 the audience, for the moral of what I should have to say would 
 be that popular knowledge is hardly knowledge at all. 
 
 The only subject on which I could lecture with any satis- 
 faction is Socrates and Plato, of whom my thoughts are full, and 
 likely to be so for the next year, so far as other business will 
 allow. I have therefore returned to the President the answer 
 which I enclose, and which I shall be obliged to you to forward. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 8, 1854. 
 
 I was very much grieved to find that illness prevented your 
 being present at the service at Heversham. It would have 
 been a pleasure to me to have had you among my hearers when 
 I preached ; for I willingly accepted the invitation to do so, as 
 giving me an opportunity of recurring to the recollections of 
 my schoolboyhood, and the reflections produced by the long 
 time that has intervened between that and this ; and though 
 there were few or none of the persons whom I had known when 
 I went to Heversham school, the younger generation would 
 perhaps be touched by the natural thoughts which such a 
 retrospect produces. 
 
 The only friend of that early time who was there (besides 
 my Lancaster friends who kindly came) was a Mr. Faweett, of 
 Natland. I think you know him. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 29, 1854. 
 
 It seems to me very long since I heard anything of or 
 from you -that is, so far as I know and according to my 
 reckoning. 
 
1854 DEATH OF MISS MARSHALL. 437 
 
 Of course it must be that all our hearts are feeling the 
 departure of our dear Ellen; so good and loving, so bright 
 and cheerful as she was, we must all think of her as a most 
 bitter loss ; and then, besides all her good qualities, we loved 
 her more than for any qualities because she was herself. All 
 that there can be in death to make the recollection of it lose 
 its bitterness among friends there was in hers. So well pre- 
 pared for and so peaceful ! May both you and I, my darling, 
 aim to be like her in the preparation ! You in your bright 
 youth (may it long continue, my love !) cannot, I think, un- 
 derstand how in more advanced years we see reason almost to 
 envy such an ending. I am glad to be able to tell you that 
 the event does not seem to have had any injurious effect upon 
 Corrie's health. It had been so long in the line of our pro- 
 spects, and had so often seemed at hand, that there was 
 nothing of the shock which overwhelmed us last year. 1 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 12, 1854. 
 
 You were so good in sending me an answer to my letter, 
 though you had written to Corrie, that I must not let you 
 wait long for an answer to your question. 
 
 You want books that will teach you all that is known 
 about light. Such books are not so easy to write ; for to 
 understand what is known you must know something, and, 
 indeed, not a little, of mathematics, which I opine, Katie, you 
 do not. But you will think that there may be books that 
 shall teach you all that you can learn, popular books as they 
 are called. So there might be, but I cannot yet find one 
 which I think will suit you. Mrs. Somerville's ' Connexion 
 of the Sciences,' though written by a lady, is, I think, the 
 hardest of all; there is a little book by Golding Bird and 
 Charles Brooke, which comes nearest to what 1 should like to 
 recommend. It is called ' Elements of Natural Philosophy,' 
 and contains the other sciences as well as the science of light. 
 It involves some quantity of mathematics ; and it has a very 
 laudable quantity of pictures of phenomena as well as mathe- 
 matical diagrams. My belief is that what you want you would 
 
 1 In the death of the Honourable Mrs. H. C. Marshall, suddenly at 
 Lucerne. 
 
438 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1854 
 
 understand best in a historical form ; and I should (I am quite 
 serious) think you might read with advantage the ' History of 
 Optics ' in Whewell's ' History of the Inductive Sciences.' The 
 part is short, and what I am afraid of is that the explanations 
 are too short; but if you like to try, I will send you the 
 volume which contains what I mean. Also if you do not like 
 to buy Bird and Brooke's book, I will send you my copy. 
 
 The fact is that the * History of Optics ' does not contain 
 many connected facts. There is the explanation of the rainbow 
 (still the most remarkable), and Newton's prism ; and then 
 the new discoveries of our own times, which are, I fear, too 
 complex for general readers, though beautiful to the eye as 
 phenomena. I should like to lecture you on this subject ; that 
 is, dear Katie, as long as you would like to hear me ! 
 
 None of the discoveries can be understood well without 
 some pictures. 
 
 To the same] Nov. 18. 
 
 I send you three books, which will tell you, I hope, what you 
 want to know. I have marked the most essential passages 
 which are not very long and I shall be very glad if you 
 will tell me of anything which puzzles you, that I may be 
 able to explain it, either to you or to the world when I print 
 again. And so may Athenian Pallas be your aid, my dear Kate, 
 for she is the goddess both of wisdom and of stoutheartedness, 
 and you have a right to her help, for you are not easily 
 daunted. 
 
 I have just been reminded very pleasantly of a very pleasant 
 expedition made with you to Rheineck, to visit the Bethmann 
 Holwegs. A young candidat has brought me a letter from 
 Bethmann Holweg in which he sends your aunt and you, on 
 the part of his wife and daughters, kind regards ; they still, 
 he says, think with pleasure of your visit at Eheineck. 
 
 Bethmann Holweg is at Berlin, the leader of the Evan- 
 gelical party there, attending much to Church history. Hengs- 
 tenberg, the young man who brought his letter, gives me an 
 interesting account of societies which exist in the German 
 Universities for stamping the ( Heidenthum ' with ' Christen- 
 thum.' Societies among the students, I mean. 
 
1855 CAMBRIDGE BILL. 439 
 
 The spring of this year gives us many letters written 
 to Mrs. Whewell during her husband's absence in 
 London. The Bill about to be introduced into Parlia- 
 ment for the reform of the university of Cambridge 
 caused him anxiety and apprehension. The pressure of 
 domestic anxiety of the gravest kind diminished his 
 elasticity and hopefulness. The fact that several of the 
 friends he most valued were in opposition to him and 
 actively engaged in promoting what he thought likely 
 to prove disastrous and destructive, increased the pain 
 and made him exclaim, in reply to one who thought 
 and felt with him, and who expressed his sympathy by 
 saying, ' I fear this is all very trying to you ! ' ' Trying ! 
 it is breaking my heart ! ' with a voice and manner 
 which has been described to me as most pathetic. Many 
 of the dangers he most feared were averted . Many of the 
 changes carried out worked in a manner different from 
 that which he anticipated. Courage and patience re- 
 turned ; and happier, calmer days. I believe no inter- 
 ruption in his friendships and intimacies resulted in any 
 single case from the antagonisms of this stormy period. 
 
 To his Wife] London : April 26. 
 
 I offered myself to breakfast with Faraday to-day, and went 
 to him at eight o'clock to talk about his theories which I much 
 want to understand fully. He seemed much pleased with my 
 interest in them, and still more so was Mrs. Faraday, who, as 
 the way of the wives of such men is, thinks the world does 
 not fully appreciate her husband. 
 
 You might see by the newspapers that the Cambridge Bill 
 was read on Tuesday evening, and that Lord Cranworth and 
 Lord Lyndhurst were the principal speakers. But you would 
 not see there an incident which bears upon the subject, and 
 which has greatly pained me. 
 
 You will recollect that the Commission spoke very strongly 
 of the constitution which we, the syndicate, had framed, and 
 
440 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1855 
 
 the senate had voted, praising it highly. The Bill is founded 
 upon this ; and on the faith of this understanding we told 
 Lord Lyndhurst that we accepted the Bill. So far good. The 
 day before the debate came on, four of the Commissioners sent 
 a letter to the Lord Chancellor to saj that they had changed 
 their minds and did not like the constitution. How John 
 Eomilly, Peacock, Sedgwick, and, I believe, Herschel, can have 
 allowed thelnselves to be so led, is past my comprehension. 
 Luckily Cranworth has Monteagle by him to keep him steady 
 to his Bill, so I expect these four gentlemen will do us no harm. 
 I shall, of course, have to speak of this matter in some 
 form or other, and it will be difficult to do so with moderation ; 
 however, I will try. 
 
 To the same] May 12, 1855. 
 
 I employed myself yesterday evening, as I told you I 
 intended, in writing about the University Bill. It is a very 
 disgusting and disheartening subject. The bad faith of the 
 ex-commissioners and the democratic frenzy which prevails in 
 the University make it difficult to act or write with any hope of 
 doing good; but I do not think I can help taking up my 
 testimony against what they are doing. I doubt whether any- 
 thing can be done with success ; still I must do something. I 
 tried to see Lord Lyndhurst to-day (May 13), but failed. I 
 wished to interest him about University matters, and to explain 
 about the ' Government of the Heads,' the cry which our Com- 
 missioners have now so strangely taken up, never having said 
 a word in their Report about what they have now gone out 
 of their way to represent as the greatest of the evils in the 
 University. I must in some way say my say about them, and I 
 have got a few pages in the press on the subject, but I have no 
 comfort in the work. 
 
 This treatment at the hands of friends, reckoned as such 
 during a whole life, is a hard trial. Disgust, grief, and hope- 
 lessness swallow up even indignation. 
 
 To the same] Athenceum : May 14. 
 
 I am here, very weary after my day's work, as I have not 
 been able to get my printed pages forward so rapidly as I 
 
1855 UNIVERSITY LEGISLATION. 441 
 
 wished. However, I suppose I shall have a number of copies 
 early to-morrow, and I must see if I can distribute them so as 
 to have a chance of producing some effect. The debate on our 
 Bill comes on to-morrow evening. It is very wretched to have 
 to speak so of such men as Sedgwick, Herschel, Peacock, and 
 Sir J. Eomilly. 
 
 I shall circulate my pages very sparingly, and only among 
 friends, though I think all that I have said is very moderate ; 
 but I do not want to be engaged in a paper war, but to put the 
 case before members of Parliament. 
 
 To the same] May 15. 
 
 Our Bill is put off for a week in consequence of the petition, 
 so we have time to turn ourselves, and I think perhaps we 
 shall be able to prevent much of the mischief. By great 
 exertion yesterday and this morning I got my Remarks printed, 
 and with a slight addition I shall make, shall send them to 
 several peers and members of Parliament. I do not find that 
 they shock those to whom I have shown them, as being too 
 strong or rude, and certainly the Commissioners deserve a great 
 deal worse treatment. 
 
 I have just been with Lord Lyndhurst, to whom I heard 
 that their petition had been sent, and I gave him my Remarks. 
 His tone was not at all favourable to the petitioners, and I 
 think he will adopt my arguments, which is a great matter. 
 
 To the same] May 16. 
 
 I am just returning from Lord Lansdowne's, where we had 
 a very pleasant dinner party at a round table, as the wont is at 
 that house. The Milmans, Edward Strutts, Sir John Romilly, 
 Monteagle, and also the Matthew Arnolds, and John Barlow, 
 and Lady Shelburne, and Madlle. Flahaut. I sat between 
 Mrs. Strutt and Mrs. M. Arnold, and enjoyed the talk very 
 much, though when I went I thought myself too stupid for 
 any talk. 
 
 The ex-commissioners have sent another letter to the Lord 
 Chancellor, in which they urge yet more revolutionary measures 
 in the University and in the colleges than any that have yet 
 been spoken of. 
 
442 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1855 
 
 The summer of this year was spent by Mrs. Whewell 
 at Lowestoft. I joined her at Cambridge in July and 
 went with her thither. In September we returned 
 together to Cambridge, and I left her in November, 
 never to see her again. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge : June 10, 1855. 
 
 I think you asked in your last letter why I gave up the 
 professorship ? Not precisely because I had said all that I had 
 got to say on the subject, as you conjectured ; for I have a 
 great deal to say still, and may say some of it if I can find 
 time, but the task of lecturing was difficult to reconcile with 
 the University and college business which I had to do, and I 
 had long been desirous of freeing myself. I held the pro- 
 fessorship only that I might induce the University to put some 
 of the arrangements about professorships in a permanent form, 
 which they did at the commencement of this year. Another 
 reason, if any other had been necessary, was that I may very 
 probably have to take the office of Vice-Chancellor next year, 
 and that would make it impossible for me to lecture. But, 
 indeed, without any special reason I had held the office long 
 enough, and it was time to consign it to younger hands. My 
 successor is Mr. Grote, one of our Fellows. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Sept. 28, 1855. 
 
 I am here, you see, without taking Coniston on my way. I 
 found Corrie desirous of having me at home ; and indeed I was 
 very desirous to see her ; not, happily, because she was worse, 
 but because she was better than usual, as she still is. If I 
 could only hope that the improvement would be permanent, 
 I should be very happy. 
 
 I found that she and Janet had been living together very 
 pleasantly, and indeed I believe merrily. Janet went on 
 Tuesday to Norwich on a visit to a friend there for a few days ; 
 and it happened luckily enough that by expediting my journey 
 as much as possible, I arrived here a few hours before she left ; 
 so that Corrie was not left in solitude at all. 
 
 Our Glasgow meeting was pleasant enough. You may tell 
 
1855 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT GLASGOW. 448 
 
 Mary that I met there Mrs. Gaskell, and took her over Glasgow 
 Cathedral by way of getting for a time out of the atmosphere of 
 science. Milnes was there also. She appears well disposed to 
 acknowledge the reasonableness of his advice not to write the 
 life of ' Currer Bell,' which she has undertaken, so long as the 
 father, the Kev. P. Bronte, is alive. His character, they say, is 
 so peculiar, and had so much influence in the determination of 
 his daughter's habits and course, that any account of her would 
 be imperfect without a good account of him, which could hardly 
 be given to his face. 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell gave me an * Okeawnt o the Greyt Eggshibishun 
 be a Fella fro' Eachde,' a specimen of the Lancashire dialect 
 which I shall try to read to Corrie and Janet ; though being 
 barbarians from Yorkshire, I fear they are not well acquainted 
 with our Lancashire Doric. 
 
 The most noticeable persons at Glasgow were Charles 
 Bonaparte and his daughter, who was a good deal thrown into 
 the care of my host the Lord Provost, and his sisters-in-law 
 who were with him, somewhat to the embarrassment of the 
 ladies, who could speak little or no French, and Madame Cam- 
 pello as little English. 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 28, 1855. 
 
 How are you, my dear friend ? I have heard nothing of you 
 for a long time ; for I have not been in London, and have not 
 fallen in the way of any of our common friends. I was in 
 France for a few days only eight but there I saw neither 
 Cousin nor St. Hilaire : the former was at some baths I believe, 
 and the latter was not at Paris ; and though within reach of it 
 by weekly visits, I missed him. I sent him some Platonic 
 dissertations for I too venture to write about Plato ; and 
 received in return a book about that Indian philosophy to 
 which he now gives so much attention. I cannot persuade 
 myself that the speculations of a quarter of the world which 
 has produced so little effect upon European culture are of any 
 great interest to us, though I quite believe that the Hindoos 
 are the most subtle and thoughtful race that ever lived, except 
 the Greeks. 
 
 I the more want to recall myself to your attention, and to 
 
444 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1855 
 
 have a word of account of yourself, because I am, I fear, on the 
 brink of a year in which I shall be entirely absorbed in that 
 weary trifling which people call ' business.' Do you recollect 
 how heartily Cowley's muse abuses it ? 
 
 Business ! the grave impertinence ; 
 
 Business ! the thing which I of all things hate ; 
 
 Business ! the contradiction of my fate. 
 
 In short, I am threatened with the office of Vice-Chancellor 
 for the coming year, and shall have to put aside philosophy 
 and poetry and everything else for that time. For the occu- 
 pations are of a nature that never leave one sure of a moment, 
 and sure not to have many moments of leisure. 
 
 I have been looking at the new edition or rather the 
 reprint for publication of Sydney Smith's letters. I am glad 
 it is published, though I must own I was one of those who 
 hesitated to recommend the publication. The picture of such 
 a noble, upright, cheery, vigorous character is something which 
 it cannot but do men good to look at, and the book is to me 
 attractive beyond measure. I never take it up without reading 
 onwards as long as I have time. 
 
 Adieu ! my dear friend. You must give me your sympathy, 
 for I have the pain of seeing my wife in much pain and in 
 considerable oppression. These alternations of ill are very 
 distressing. 
 
445 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 1855-1860. 
 
 Mrs. Whewell's Death Visit to Yorkshire Elegiacs Vice-Chancellorship 
 Fitzwilliam Controversy Railway Accident Contested Election 
 Professor of Music Mr. C. Kingsley's ' Argonauts ' Mr. Ruskin Kaye's 
 ' Sir John Malcolm ' Mrs. Austin Johanna Wagner Ristori Visit to 
 Hattield Broad Oak and Hyde Hall Edinburgh His Nieces go to 
 Italy He follows them Pictures Return to Trinity Lecture at 
 Leeds ' Richard II.' Lectures at Queen's College Manchester Exhi- 
 bition Marriages Visit to Mr. Arthur Stanley at Canterbury Mr. 
 Ellis's Sister Lady Affleck Dr. Whewell's Second Marriage Bourne- 
 mouth Cumberland Journey to Spain Eclipse Coniston Cold 
 Spring. 
 
 THE anxiety dwelt upon in the last letter to Mrs. Austin 
 was more than justified by Mrs. Whewell's condition. 
 The dark cloud, which had been so long impending, was 
 now about to burst. Lady Monteagle was summoned 
 to Cambridge early in December, and after some days 
 and nights of terrible suffering, borne with characteristic 
 courage, reinforced by the wish to spare her husband as 
 much as possible the sight of her pain, on the 18th 
 Mrs. Whewell was released by death. The few words 
 written to Professor Sedgwick on the 19th tell as 
 eloquently as any which follow of the complete desola- 
 tion of one who in middle age had found the peace and 
 joy of perfect sympathy in home life, and to whom, 
 deprived of this, all life seemed emptied of its value. 
 The first thought and wish which gave any gleam of 
 comfort was the desire to draw closer the ties which 
 bound him to his wife's relations, especially to the sister 
 
446 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1855 
 
 who, in her own bereavement, had sadly learnt the 
 lessons of faith, submission, and realisation of the Unseen, 
 to him so hard, and to the nieces who, frequent inmates 
 of his home, and tenderly attached to his wife and to 
 him, he felt could best cheer his childless age. His 
 wish to have two of them with him at once, to be 
 present at the funeral, was denied on the ground of 
 health. But as soon as he could leave Cambridge he 
 came down to us and stayed first in one and then in 
 another of the group of family homes near Leeds. To 
 dwell upon the thought of what he had enjoyed for 
 fourteen years, to talk of my Aunt to those who mourned 
 with, as well as for, him, was the consolation he pro- 
 posed to himself to seek, and it did bring some solace 
 to his pain even in the first days of desolation. Nothing 
 was more touching than the gentleness of his mood, the 
 humility and tenderness with which he courted and 
 encouraged from others the expression both of their 
 sympathy in his grief and of their own sense of loss, as 
 well as of such thoughts as to them brought any measure 
 of calm or comfort. Whilst in the neighbourhood of 
 Leeds he went to see an exhibition of pictures, in which 
 was one by Horace Vernet representing the Angel of 
 Death carrying away a wife from her husband. The 
 picture moved him much. He returned again and 
 again to look at it and dwell upon every detail by which 
 the painter had skilfully succeeded in indicating love 
 and grief and hope. He made the picture the sub- 
 ject of the Third Elegiac. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwick~] Trinity Lodge : Dec. 19, 1855. 
 
 I am very thankful for your great sympathy in my deep 
 sorrow. It is a satisfaction to think that you saw in some degree 
 how kind and thoughtful she was. The riches of her goodness, 
 wisdom, and love no one could know whose whole life was not 
 
1855 DEATH OF MRS. WHEWELL. 447 
 
 united with hers. I must go on with a life emptied of all its 
 value. 
 
 I thank you for your offer of writing letters for me. I 
 should be much obliged if you would inform the Herschels of 
 my loss and also Miss Sheepshanks. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 21, 1855. 
 
 Though to have you with me would be the sweetest con- 
 solation I could now receive, I think your mother and your 
 uncle have judged quite rightly in deciding against your 
 coming here to-morrow. I should be immeasurably distressed 
 if you were to receive an injury to your health, by complying 
 with a wish of mine. And indeed my wish is already gratified ; 
 for the root of my strong desire to see you was the need of 
 feeling that we still belonged to each other that the tie that 
 binds your heart to mine was not broken, though she who was 
 the centre and heart of our common love is taken away from 
 us. Your dear mother's offer to come and bring you and 
 Janet here in a few days touches me inexpressibly ; it is most 
 precious to me as making me feel on what terms you are 
 willing that we should be in future. But I will not avail 
 myself of it in that form at present ; I am more disposed to 
 come and see you and then, my love, we can talk of what we 
 have had and what we have lost. If you two were to cease to 
 be my nieces, my daughters as you were hers, I should 
 indeed be desolate. And you must let me write to you, and 
 you must write to me as you used to do to her. I shall be 
 a stupid correspondent, but that will not make you cease to 
 love me. 
 
 To Dr. MackretK] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 22, 1855. 
 
 I must send you a single line to thank you for the kind 
 thoughts which rose in your mind when you heard of my 
 calamity. I am not alone. Lady Monteagle was with me 
 some days before, and has been ever since, and she is all that 
 the tenderest and most thoughtful of sisters can be. Above 
 all, we can talk together freely of what we have lost, which is 
 by far the sweetest comfort within our reach. 
 
448 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 
 
 1855 
 
 In a few days I shall go to Leeds, and shall be with some 
 nieces of hers who are very dear to me. I do not know 
 whether it will be possible for me to come farther north, but if 
 I should have a day or two to spare and you would like to have 
 me, I will let you know. 
 
 To Mrs. F. Myers] Trinity Lodge : Dec. 23, 1855. 
 
 Precious indeed to me are your words of sympathy. In 
 the desolation which I feel to be gathering round me, my 
 gleam of comfort is that I shall not cease to be bound by 
 the tie of love to those to whom it was so sweet to be bound 
 through her. She will still be a bond of union between you 
 and me, even as your dear husband is already. You can 
 hardly know how much that has been so. I began by loving 
 him because I loved you, but I ended by loving him for him- 
 self from the bottom of my heart, and to this day when any 
 new thought on speculative matters rises upon me, it is accom- 
 panied with a pang of regret that I cannot impart it to him 
 and have his view of it. And far more now will every thought 
 which arises of anything which is to be done and felt be accom- 
 panied with bitter grief, because it must be done and felt 
 alone. For we shared our thoughts from hour to hour, and if 
 I did anything good and right and wise it was because I had 
 her goodness and rightmindedness and wisdom to prompt and 
 direct me. 
 
 You speak as from experience of conscious communion of 
 spirit in carrying on the work which we began in our earthly 
 communion. May I be able to feel this ! At present I only 
 feel as if all my objects and occupations had lost their value, 
 and my life were emptied of all worth and meaning. 
 
 Dear sister you have ever been very dear to me ; let me 
 not lose any portion of your heart, though I have lost what 
 gave me my claim to it. We have our two dear ones united 
 there let us cling together here. Your dear children are as 
 dear to me as my own could have been, and amongst the 
 solaces of my life must be loving you and them. You know 
 how ' sweetly patient she was or rather though you know of 
 her sweetness and patience, you cannot know how touching 
 they were as the end drew near. She often rebuked herself 
 
1855 DEATH OF MRS. WHEWELL. 449 
 
 for expressing her pain in audible moans. The day before the 
 last, when she had long been in great pain, I went to her bed- 
 side and looked, I suppose, sadly at her. She smiled very sweetly 
 and said, ' You see I can still muster a smile.' The last day 
 she had been in pain for a day and night and could not obtain 
 a moment's repose. She complained of dreadful weariness 
 from time to time ; at night she became weaker and lay more 
 still, and when I went to her and hung over her she said, ' I 
 am not so weary now.' In praying by her side, I said, more 
 for myself than for her, ' If this cup may not pass from me 
 except I drink it ' ... and I could not finish the sentence, 
 but she finished it and said, ' Thy will be done.' It is very 
 hard to say, my dear sister, but I must learn the lesson of you 
 as soon as I may. 
 
 She said, * Do not put upon my grave-stone anything that 
 is merely sad and sorrowful.' I replied, ' We are not as those 
 who sorrow without hope.' 'Yes,' she said, 'not without hope;' 
 and I added, ' Your own device which you gave to Susan : " We 
 live to die, we die to live." ' And, dearest sister, I want you 
 to give me a sketch of that jewel which she had made for you ; 
 for I think that would be the best form of monument to place 
 upon her grave. You will send me this soon, will you not, 
 dearest ? 
 
 We lay her in the cemetery to-morrow morning at half-past 
 eight. Immediately after the morning service the coffin will 
 be carried into the College Chapel and the service read there, 
 and thence directly to the grave. . There is as yet no chapel in 
 the cemetery ground (only a gate-house where the service is 
 commonly read) : but we hope soon to remedy this want. 
 Some days before, I told her that I had in my will directed 
 that I should be buried there, and then we would have a 
 church there like St. John's at Keswick. We shall not have a 
 church exactly like that, for it will not be a parish church, but 
 I hope it will rise higher and sooner on account of her lying 
 near it ; as assuredly to all who know her it will be more full 
 of holy thoughts and good influences. 
 
 I would come to you soon and share my grief with you if it 
 were possible, but my office of Vice-Chancellor makes it diffi- 
 cult for me to be long absent, and I have proposed to go 
 
 G G 
 
450 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1855 
 
 during the short time that I can be spared to Leeds, that I 
 may see those beloved children Kate and Janet. 
 
 Dearest sister I go on talking to you, and you must let 
 me do so, as I used to talk to her, and then I shall perhaps be 
 less utterly desolate in spirit. Pray tell me where are the lines 
 you quote : ' Then parted she to Christ's embrace, I to the 
 lonesome world again.' And now for the moment farewell. 
 God comfort you, and me, your brother in deep love and deep 
 sorrow. 
 
 To Mrs. O'Callaghan] Dec. 27, 1855. 
 
 Your girls have always been so much to us Kate from the 
 earliest period and so often, and Janet of late that when I was 
 left alone I felt a strong yearning to know, by having them 
 near me, that I had not lost their love. But I am well per- 
 suaded that I have not ; and I look forward to seeing them 
 again as one of the best comforts which is left me. I should 
 like to see them often, but at any rate you must arrange that 
 I shall see you and them sometimes. 
 
 Lord and Lady Monteagle left me on Wednesday. The 
 comfort of her company in my sorrow was more than words can 
 express. But indeed my main comfort now is the love of you 
 who loved her : and that I trust you will let me anchor upon. 
 
 To the Hon. Mrs. J. G. Marshall] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Dec. 27, 1855. 
 
 Marianne spoke of your intending to provide a separate 
 sitting-room for me, but that is not at all needed. My main 
 comfort will be to be with those who loved her whom I have 
 lost, and who I hope will love me still. I will not promise 
 not to be sad, for I cannot with fortitude look upon the ruins 
 of my life which seem to lie round me ; but the sadness has 
 many touches of sweetness, and need not make me repulsive 
 to your children, and they, be sure, will not be troublesome 
 to me. 
 
 To Mrs. F. Myers] Trinity Lodge : December 30, 1855. 
 
 You will let me write a few words to you, for I am very 
 6 lonesome,' not in the ' lonesome world,' as you will suppose, 
 
1855 SOLITUDE. 451 
 
 for I have seen nobody except Worsley and Katharine, but 
 lonesome by being in a hopeless solitude ; while hitherto, 
 solitude, whether near her or far from her, has been < blest 
 society,' because I could not be separated from her. You will 
 forgive my troubled way of expressing myself. I have been 
 working very hard since Marianne left me, and I hope have 
 done something ; but what trivialities such things are ! But 
 I am somewhat overtasked with this, and am glad that .1 am 
 going away to-morrow. I go first to James and Mary, and I 
 have no doubt that I shall find there any comfort which I 
 can find anywhere, but I think my main thought of comfort 
 at present is getting out of the circle of daily memories 
 which meet me at every step. And yet, perhaps, these are 
 better than the want of them. But I shall return soon and 
 make the bitter trial. 
 
 Dearest Susan, I know you pity me for not being able yet 
 to find any comfort, or at least any sufficing comfort, where 
 you, with your dear faith and resignation, so like hers, have 
 found yours. But do not despair of me ; I shall see more 
 clearly, I trust, soon, when the first dark gloom has passed 
 away. 
 
 ... I thank you for all the good and kind thoughts in 
 your last letter ; and, as you see, I confide in your love. 
 
 The history of the year 1856 is principally contained 
 in the letters to his niece Kate Marshall. Upon her he 
 depended for interest in every daily trifle, and whilst 
 the deeper needs of his desolate heart were, as we have 
 seen already, expressed to the widowed sister, herself 
 acquainted with grief, to be near whom was the greatest 
 solace he could conceive, the thoughts and moods of 
 every day were poured out to this dear niece in almost 
 daily letters. If useful to him, the correspondence was 
 invaluable to her, comforting a young heart which also 
 had sustained an irreparable loss, and pouring a flood 
 of light from his mind upon all the tastes and pursuits 
 which she and her sister shared and cultivated. 
 
 o o 2 
 
452 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 To Mrs. F. Myers] Headingly, Leeds : Jan. 4, 1856. 
 
 You will not be surprised that I have had a desire to put 
 some of my memories of my beloved one in a distinct form. I 
 think that the kind of verse I send you is the best for the 
 purpose. It enables the writer to shake off entirely the en- 
 cumbrance of poetical phraseology and the vagueness of con- 
 ventional modes of presentation of thought, and is, to my 
 feelings, as earnest as prose can be, while many of the things 
 said derive force from the symmetry of structure which this 
 kind of composition favours. Whether this may be so for 
 others I cannot tell ; but I can say for myself that I could not 
 have written what I have written more solemnly and earnestly 
 in any other form. But I do not want so much to tell you of 
 my own notions as to know what impression my verses make 
 upon you and Marianne. There are very few persons whose 
 feeling for poetry and versification I esteem so highly as yours 
 and hers; and the deep interest the subject has for you will 
 make you recoil from everything which is not perfectly just 
 and true in the expression, as well as sympathise with every- 
 thing which is rightly said. Tell me what impression my little 
 record makes upon you. And if there are any harsh expressions 
 or awkward lines, tell me of these, that I may give matter so 
 precious the best form that I can. 
 
 Adieu, dearest sister. My heart clings to you all with a 
 most tender love. 
 
 To the same\ Elmwood, Leeds : Jan. 11, 1856. 
 
 Your letters are the greatest comfort that I have ; and the 
 greatest solace I can conceive would be to be near you, where I 
 might see you and talk to you every day. I am here among 
 those who loved her, and who, I think, love me ; and especially 
 Kate's society is sweet as ever, and I live in some degree in her 
 dear looks. But it is vain to defer the hour which must soon 
 come, when I must return to my solitude and my work ; it will 
 not be quite a solitude, for her dear companionship will still 
 seem to be with me where everything reminds me of her, and I 
 must endeavour to derive strength from it, not weakness. 
 
 Your precious book * came along with your letter, and I 
 
 1 Lectures on Great Men. By the Rev. F. Myers. 
 
1850 SECOND VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. 453 
 
 look upon it with strong affection, thinking of you and of him. 
 I think the preface is very satisfactory, and such as he himself 
 would have liked ; and if it be from the pen of a stranger, there 
 is at least this satisfaction, that it shows that strangers, as well 
 as we, can admire and love the spirit that breathes in the pages, 
 and thereby affords a promise that the good, warm, and elevated 
 thoughts which he so lovingly poured out for the benefit of 
 those who were near him may extend their influence to many 
 who are afar off. 
 
 I am much pleased with what you say of my verses. You 
 are quite right that the measure is suited for elegiac thoughts 
 rather than for effusions so lofty and solemn as the Psalms 
 are. . . . 
 
 Your kind thoughts of me and for me are sweetness in the 
 midst of the bitterness which will not be bidden down. They 
 are most precious to me. 
 
 Dr. Whewell's apprehension, expressed in October 
 1855 in a letter to Mrs. Austin, was verified by his 
 election as Vice-Chancellor in the following month. On 
 this, the second occasion of his holding the office, he 
 does not appear to have sketched out for himself, as he 
 did on the first, a programme of changes and improve- 
 ments he meant to forward. This would have been 
 unnecessary, as the matter of reform was now fairly in 
 the bands of Parliament. 
 
 Early in the year 1856 he caused some excitement 
 in Cambridge by re-hanging the pictures in the Fitz 
 William Museum on his own authority and without 
 consulting the Syndicate, to which the management of 
 tlie Museum was entrusted. The new arrangement, 
 which proceeded on the principle of grouping by schools, 
 seems to have been in itself generally approved, but 
 most persons were disposed to regard the manner in 
 which it bad been effected as high-handed and un- 
 constitutional. A majority of the Syndics protested 
 before the work was finished, but the Vice-Chancellor 
 
454 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 would not give orders to stop it, and therefore seven of 
 the eight Syndics resigned. It was found difficult to 
 obtain the consent of a sufficient number of persons to 
 act in their places, and in the then temper of the Senate 
 it was doubtful whether a new Management Syndicate 
 could be formed. The difficulty was overcome by the 
 appointment of a fresh Syndicate to revise the existing 
 regulations for the general management of the Fitz 
 William Museum. This Syndicate recommended that 
 the placing of all the articles composing the Collection 
 should be expressly vested in the Management Syndicate. 
 This recommendation was adopted, but the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor had by this time gained his point and the pictures 
 had been re-hung as he wished. 
 
 Mr. Goulburn, who had represented the University 
 in Parliament for four-and-twenty years, having died in 
 January 1856, a contest for the vacant seat took place 
 between the Eight Honourable Spencer Walpole and 
 the Honourable George Denman. Mr. Walpole was 
 elected. The polling lasted some days. The scenes in 
 the Senate House were so tumultuous that the Vice- 
 Chancellor took the extreme measure of excluding the 
 undergraduates from the galleries after the first day. 
 
 While the Cambridge University Bill was under 
 discussion, the Vice-Chancellor addressed letters to Mr. 
 Bouverie and Mr. Walpole, in which he made some 
 suggestions, in his individual capacity, on certain of the 
 provisions of the Bill. He had previously consulted 
 'persons of weight in the University,' and he drew 
 attention to the small extent and moderate character of 
 these suggestions as evidence of a wish to throw no 
 unnecessary obstacles in the way of the progress of the 
 Bill as it then stood after the modifications introduced 
 in the preceding Session. In his letter to Mr. Walpole 
 
1856 SECOND VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. 455 
 
 he remarked that the mode of electing the Council had 
 been assimilated to that directed by the Oxford Act, 
 that he thought it a great improvement, and that he did 
 not know that any one dissented. This marks a great 
 concession after the strong opposition he had offered to 
 the first proposals of the Bill. He observed that he still 
 thought the Vice-Chancellor would have too little power, 
 but that he did not ask for any change. 
 
 It became his duty before he resigned office to take 
 measures for the preparation of the Electoral Eoll 
 previous to the first election of Councillors under the 
 University Act, and for making and promulgating the 
 necessary regulations for the election and assembling of 
 the Council. Thus the last official act of Dr. Whewell 
 as Vice- Chancellor in 1856 was practically the inaugura- 
 tion of the new system of government which he had so 
 long struggled against, but which in the end he accepted 
 without demur. 
 
 Dr. Whewell had in his second Vice-Chancellorship 
 the satisfaction of seeing a settlement of differences 
 which had long existed between the University and the 
 town of Cambridge. This was effected by Sir John 
 Patteson's Arbitration Award which received Parlia- 
 mentary sanction in 1856, and thereby put an end to 
 vexatious inequalities and interferences of ancient date 
 which had become more and more matters of grievance 
 to the inhabitants of the borough. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Jan. 17, 1856. 
 
 I write to you so soon not only because my heart is full of 
 you, which is reason enough, but because we had an accident in 
 our train yesterday, which you may possibly hear of, and may 
 like to kno\v that I came to no harm. The wheel of a first class 
 carriage broke, and the carriage, after bumping dreadfully, as 
 those said who were in it, fell over on one side. Nobody was 
 
456 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1850 
 
 much hurt. Sir William and Lady Herries were in the carriage. 
 He, though lame, and falling undermost, was not hurt at all ; 
 Bhe had a fracture of the arm at the wrist. A fine boy on his 
 way to Eton, son of Colonel Smyth of Heath House, was much 
 scratched and bruised, but nothing broken or dislocated. This 
 was all, though there were several others in the carriage. 
 
 The results would have been much worse but for the noble 
 courage of a fine young man (whose name I could not learn), 
 who got out at the window and went along the tops of the 
 carriages to the driver. He brought the train to a stand soon. 
 
 To the same] Jan. 18, 1856. 
 
 I must send you one line to salute you on your birthday. 
 How can I tell you, my love, half the good things that I wish 
 you ? All that can make you happy ; and most of all that you 
 may be in spirit like her whom we have lost. I can wish you 
 nothing beyond. 
 
 I sent you the account of my journey and its dangers. 
 Since then I have been very busy. Not but that I have sent 
 off a long screed of verses l to your aunt Susan, and I have been 
 especially busy with my picture-hanging. 
 
 . . . So I go on vapouring about myself, but I told you it 
 was my way ; and you must let me do it to you, and you will, 
 even about duller matters than picture-hanging. 
 
 We are to have, besides, an election to enliven us. I hope 
 not a contested one. If Spencer Walpole will stand, which he 
 is asked to do, no one will have any chance. George Denman 
 is in the field also. Sir James Stephen's friends have talked of 
 him, foolishly as I think, and he tells me he considers the sug- 
 gestion absurd. I have not yet received the writ, so that the 
 election will be thrown into term-time ; but if it be a quiet 
 election there will be no great harm done. 
 
 God bless you, my dear child, and give you all good gifts. 
 
 To Mrs. F. Myers'] Trinity Lodge: Jan. 23, 1856. 
 
 I may well go on writing to you, for your sympathy makes 
 you divine the tender places of my loneliness. It is, as you 
 
 1 One of the Elegiacs so often referred to, See Appendix. 
 
1856 ELEGIACS. 457 
 
 say, in the evening when I feel it ; for in my happy days I 
 had unlearnt the practice of reading to myself in the evenings, 
 and do not feel as if I could resume it. I walk about, or 
 screech my recollections of songs, or copy out verses as I am 
 doing this evening. I copy them out, but do not write them 
 then ; this is done mostly by rising in the night when I can- 
 not sleep. I send you another strain of my elegiacs, which I 
 think will interest you. 
 
 I am having the stone executed which is there described. 
 I hope you will come and see it, for I hope you will come and 
 see me, and cheer my lonely evenings, if it be but for a 
 while. . . . 
 
 You constantly produce such sweet snatches of song that I 
 exclaim, like Wordsworth to his ' dear, dear sister,' that your 
 4 Memory is as a dwelling-place to all sweet sounds and har- 
 monies.' Where are those most wise and pathetic verses which 
 you quote, ' To weep or not to weep ' ? (rod bless you, dearest. 
 I am languishing for some of you ; and am trying to tempt 
 Mary Alice to come here on her way to London. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Trinity Lodge: Jan. 25, 1856. 
 
 This is our day of great bustle and noise. There is an 
 abominable tumult in the Senate House all the while that the 
 Degrees are conferring. This is just over. I got through it, 
 I believe, successfully, in a shorter time than usual ; but all 
 success now only makes me cry, because I have not her to share 
 it with, and loses all value. Tears were trickling down my 
 face great part of the time : so unlikely a thing in a Vice-Chan- 
 cellor in his chair that probably nobody saw it : I hope so. And 
 now, darling, I tell it to you that I may not feel so lonely, nor 
 life so very worthless. 
 
 I am perfectly overwhelmed with applications for the Pro- 
 fessorship of Music, and the organist's place. I find that 
 Charles Spring Eice is on Mr. Denman's Committee, and that 
 Mr. Denman is growing 4 very excited,' which I fear means 
 obstinately bent upon going to the poll, however little chance 
 he may have. 
 
458 LIFE OF Dll. WIIEWELL. 1856 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 1, 1856. 
 
 I am writing early in the morning, 5 A.M. (by a good fire, 
 however), that I may send you a letter soon. It is not so much 
 that I cannot sleep as that I really have so much work that I 
 cannot otherwise get through it. I have to give my opinion 
 in the adjudication of the Smith's prizes to-day, and I have 
 yet to look over the examination papers. 
 
 I suppose I shall have the writ for the election to-day or 
 to-morrow, and must then make arrangements for the voting 
 which seems certain to take place. It will be a vile inter- 
 ruption of all rational work. 
 
 I never thanked you as I ought to have done for the 
 ' Bairnsla Fooks' Annual,' which I have not yet had time to 
 study as it deserves. 
 
 Do you know ' Mrs. Spry ' l has all but given me up. She 
 comes in for a little while at dinner, but looks discontented 
 and soon goes away. She does not know that it is no fault of 
 mine that I am so stupid. She will not turn at the delicacies 
 she used to prize so much biscuit, cheese. One day to regain 
 her favour I absolutely carried the wing of a pheasant into the 
 garden for her. She followed me thither from habit, but 
 turned up her nose at it when I had thrown it on the ground. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 5, 1856. 
 
 I am afraid that for the next week I shall be able to write 
 to you only little. This detestable election is to take up all 
 my time. The two sides opposed to one another conspire to 
 destroy the Vice-Chancellor. The Walpolians thinking them- 
 selves strong in the clergy wish to have as many days as pos- 
 sible, which is Jive. The Denmanites trust in the London 
 lawyers, and want many hours each day, and (odious contrivance) 
 an evening sitting. I am not very easily frightened, but I confess 
 I look at this prospect with horror. Besides, the mere sitting 
 so long will be * awfully unjolly.' I expect trouble with the 
 galleries, where the undergraduates love to make a noise, which 
 is not only scandalous, but makes business impossible. If it 
 were only for one or two days, I think I could contrive some- 
 1 Mrs. Whewell's little dog. 
 
1850 ELECTION. 459 
 
 thing to keep them in order; but I shall never find troops 
 staunch enough to fight them for five days. 
 
 See what a life of fights I have ! My Fitzwilliam fight will, 
 I think, end without ilf-humour. Dr. Philpott has agreed to 
 be on a committee to make rules for the future ; and I believe 
 there is no dissentient voice as to the goodness of the arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 6, 1856. 
 
 I told you I was frightened at the disturbance and uproar 
 of the election (of course not at the labour). I think I have 
 taken such precautions that I shall be able to keep matters 
 pretty well in order, even for the five days. And at any rate I 
 think I shall so manage that I shall not come into any personal 
 relations with disorderly people, and that if we are beaten from 
 the best po.-ition, we can retire on the second best. This, you 
 are to understand, I conceive to be a wise line of proceeding; 
 if only I can carry it into effect ! 
 
 Thank you very much for your edition of Shakspeare's 
 Sonnets. I rejoice very much to have it given me by you. But 
 what I am trying to find for you is an edition of the Sonnets 
 without the other poems which this volume contains, the Venus 
 and Adonis, and the Rape of Lucrece. I am preparing for my 
 first election day, and wondering whether I can contrive to insert 
 a ride as well as a dinner between 4 and 7.30. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 9, 1856. 
 
 I must write to you, it seems so long since I did so ; seems 
 long because so much has been doing. I have been obliged to 
 fight a battle, and it is still going on. The galleries behaved 
 so very ill on Thursday shouting incessantly, so that the 
 polling could not go on except in dumb show that I was re- 
 solved to keep the men out of them from that time. I had 
 taken iny precautions, so that I did this effectually all yesterday ; 
 but it made them very angry. 
 
 They screeched and howled outside till they were tired; 
 and when I went home at four, they were assembled in great 
 numbers and hooted me all the way to Trinity. This was really 
 music to my ear?, for though I was sorry to vex the men, I was 
 
460 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 glad to hear them own themselves beaten. When I had to go 
 to the evening meeting at the Schools, it was reported to me that 
 the streets were full, the men, angry, had put out the gas at 
 the barricades, and seemed to mean mischief. 
 
 I was counselled to go quietly by side gates; but this counsel 
 I rejected, and directed that we should go out at the front gate, 
 and in at the front gate. The Masters of Arts who were near 
 escorted me, and we got easily into the Senate House Yard ; 
 the more easily inasmuch as the insurgents were collected at 
 the barricaded gate which is opposite St. Mary's, and I went 
 by the Senate House Gate. This made them more angry still ; 
 and after I had been taking the votes in the Schools under the 
 University Library for some time, the windows were assailed 
 from without, and broken glass began to jingle. They had 
 forced the crazy old gate opposite Clare Hall (I never thought 
 of securing that), and had got into the Library Quadrangle. 
 However, they made no way ; but when the sitting was over, 
 escort was necessary, for I think they did mean mischief. 
 However, I walked safely home, holding my head as high as I 
 could. The Masters of Arts kept close to me, but there seemed 
 to be a large and fierce mob behind. 
 
 Now that we have again time to repair our defences, I 
 think we shall be able to repel all attacks. The senators are 
 so thoroughly committed to the conflict that they must fight 
 it out and stand by me. See how warlike I am, dear 
 Kate ! 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 9. 
 
 I want to give you the earliest information that the election 
 is over. Mr. Denman has resigned, just in time to save me 
 from a somewhat perilous evening's walk. 
 
 The men were said to be still very angry : but I should not 
 have been afraid of them. It is the gownless rabble who are 
 the most noisy and mischievous on such occasions. The mayor 
 had promised me police, and to keep them in order. We 
 have still the declaration of the poll on Monday, and I must 
 keep the galleries clear on that day also, or I shall have all 
 my work undone. 
 
 I am sorry for your solitude. How I wish I could come to 
 
185G ELECTION. 4GI 
 
 you as you came to me, that I might talk to you all my 
 < vapouring ' instead of writing it. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 10. 
 
 You see I am growing very intemperate in the indulgence 
 of writing to you, but it is a great comfort, and especially 
 when you tell me that you are thinking about me and I may 
 suppose you like to know how the story goes on. 
 
 I told you that Denman had resigned; but last night's 
 work did not end there. When the mob found themselves 
 defrauded of their expected uproar by my not going to the 
 schools, they raised a cry, 4 To Trinity Lodge,' and rushed to 
 our gate. Our porter, luckily, was resolute and kept them 
 out single-handed. They afterwards went to St. John's, where 
 they tried to force the gate, and to Christ's, where they made 
 the same attempt. They failed at the front gate, but broke in 
 at the kitchen-door. However, they went away, frightened, 
 I believe, at their own success. The provoking thing is, that 
 I can find no one who has courage and sense to face the men 
 and identify them. The greater part of them are not gowns- 
 men, so I am writing to the mayor for police ; but I do not 
 expect there will be much more disturbance. 
 
 You ask about my rides. I have ridden every day from 
 four to five. It cheers and exhilarates me, and in riding I 
 compose proclamations and schemes. Yesterday I had in- 
 vented an excellent wire boarding-net to protect a weak wall, 
 and was going to have it executed when I found the note 
 announcing Denman's retirement. The evening before, I rode 
 through the streets a quarter-of-an-hour after I had been 
 followed home by what the newspapers call 'an infuriated 
 mob,' but no one raised tongue or hand. One man, I think, 
 tried to groan, but I am not sure ; and he was very welcome to 
 do it. I will close my letter later ; I am told there are to be 
 groaners on the way to St. Mary's, but I do not believe it. 
 
 Past 8 P.M. It was all nonsense, as I supposed, and it is 
 reported to me that the streets are quite quiet. I shall finish the 
 election to-morrow morning, and I am just penning an address 
 which will be circulated soon after. I intend it to be conciliating 
 to the undergraduates, but there are certain foolish senators to 
 
462 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 whom I must give a slap of course, in a grave and Vice- 
 Chancellor-like way so I go on ' vapouring ' to you ! 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 11, 1856. 
 
 I must go on with my bulletins of the war, especially as I 
 now send you the last, what the Duke of Wellington called 
 ' a Song of Victory.' We had the end of the election this 
 morning in what, I believe, would be called a very < slow way,' 
 that is, we got through the formalities as fast as possible, not 
 being disturbed by the galleries. 
 
 So I have sent a large parchment letter to London, to tell 
 the Queen that we have elected Mr. S. H. Walpole to be our 
 * true and lawful Burgess.' And so everything has passed off 
 quite well, and I have been successful in all that I tried to do. 
 And so I could not help crying profusely, while they were 
 counting the votes, to think how sweet all this success would 
 have been a little while ago, and how heartless it is now. 
 Dearest Kate, I do not well to oppress you with my sorrows, 
 but I think you will feel them. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 24. 
 
 Where are you ? I have lost you and must try to find 
 you, for my days are very blank without you. I suppose you 
 are at Dovenby, enjoying mountain breezes and the idle brooks 
 that are allowed to play without working, though very likely 
 your neighbours make them grind oatmeal. 
 
 We are here growing more and more eager about the 
 election of a Professor of Music. I have fixed Tuesday, the 4th, 
 for the election. Mrs. Frere is very zealous for Mr. Sterndale 
 Bennett ; and, by way of falling in with her humour, I have 
 asked her to come and stay with me here, and canvass the 
 College and the University to her heart's content. I think, too, 
 Lord Monteagle will come and vote, though I hardly know for 
 whom. It is wonderful what a stir this election seems to make 
 in London. Poor Lord Monteagle must be much afflicted at 
 the loss of his sister ; l they were so fond of each other, and had 
 mingled their enjoyment of literature and art so much. 
 
 1 Lady de Vere. 
 
1856 LECTURE ON 'PLURALITY OF WORLDS.' 463 
 
 I wonder what came of your lecture on the 6 Plurality of 
 Worlds ' ; which side did the lecturer take and how did he deal 
 with the question ? What kind of impression was made upon 
 Theodosia and the younger hearers ? It is difficult to present 
 so doubtful a question to such hearers without misrepresenting 
 it. They do not understand doubting in teachers ; they want 
 to be told that a thing is, or is not ; and that is more than 
 your lecturer could really tell, whatever he may have pretended. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 27. 
 
 I send you a sermon which I preached. You will see, if 
 you read it, what thoughts were in my mind. The words that 
 it contains are very weak ; all words are very weak for such 
 thoughts and such things. 
 
 I rejoice much to think of you among the mountains and in 
 the pure air of the country ; last year we were trying to find 
 country in this neighbourhood you and I. 
 
 I am sorry you are still puzzled about Light. I wish I 
 were near you to help you over some of your difficulties, or 
 rather to ascertain what it is you wish to know which can be 
 known, for there are many of the most obvious questions which 
 the philosophers cannot answer. For instance, as to the cause 
 of colour and change of colour in different bodies, Newton's 
 guesses (they are no more) are of no value ; nor those of any- 
 body since him. 
 
 You talked of an intention of reading Kuskin's new 
 volume while you were at Dovenby, and I was going to do the 
 same that I might be employed on the same thoughts as you. 
 I can read it as poetry and wit, and never mind the rest. 
 
 I am supposed to have behaved with great ' magnanimity ' 
 because, when a list of the rioters was offered me, I said, 4 The 
 election is over, they will not do it again,' and rejected the 
 record. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: March 10. 
 
 I have got and read Kingsley's ' Argonauts,' which is cer- 
 tainly told in a very animated and fairy-tale manner ; the 
 cleverer on his part, inasmuch as the ' Argonautica ' of Orpheus, 
 on which it is founded, is a book of small repute among Greek 
 
464 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1868 
 
 scholars. Have you read the 4 Wanderings of Ulysses,' which 
 is a book by Charles Lamb, of the same kind ? If not I must 
 get it for you. The children would be sure to like it. 
 
 To the same] Athenceum: March 15, 1856. 
 
 When I am tired of walking about the dusty streets in this 
 cruel east wind, I come here to the Athenaeum and read Ruskin, 
 and fancy that you are reading him too. And in truth you have, 
 that way, led me to a very entertaining occupation ; for, as in 
 others of his books, in spite of his defects,'! find a great deal to 
 interest me and not a little to instruct me. I have been ex- 
 tremely amused by his chapters about the land scape -pain ting 
 of the classical poets, of the mediaeval and of the modern, and 
 by the moral of landscape ; all full of thought and ingenuity, 
 and sensibility, even where wrong. 
 
 Do you observe how he begins these speculations by a most 
 fierce denunciation of the distinction of subjective and objective ; 
 knowing well (how can he help but know ?) that that is pre- 
 cisely the distinction on which he has to insist ? He calls these 
 two divisions of poetry sentimental and creative, which are very 
 good names, but do not make the others bad ones. The fact 
 is, that (as I dare say I may have told you before) objective is 
 a very good word, for it means that which deals with external 
 objects, but subjective is not a good word, for the word subject 
 in the sense there intended is a technical word of very partial 
 propriety. Instead of subjective say, as Ruskin says, senti- 
 mental, or mental, or reflective, and the meaning will be clear 
 to the common reader. And so much for subjective and ob- 
 jective. There is a witchcraft about this antithesis which 
 compels people to go on talking about it when once they begin. 
 But it is a pleasant discussion in Ruskin. And then his esti- 
 mate of Scott, which is hardly too high, and which is very sug- 
 gestive, comes out of it very pleasantly. 
 
 To the same~] Trinity Lodge : March 20. 
 
 Your letter came to me in London, which I hardly hoped, 
 so I write to thank you for being such a dear good child as to 
 write it. I enjoyed being in London so far as seeing dear 
 sisters and brothers went not much else. I think you know 
 
1856 'FINISH' IN PAINTING. 465 
 
 that I am not enthusiastic about Jenny Lind's singing. I 
 stayed over Tuesday to hear her in the ' Messiah/ which I think 
 I do understand ; but her singing of it, though good, does not 
 seem to me to come up to the best that I have heard. Perhaps 
 that is an elderly gentleman's fancy. I should like to hear her 
 at a morning oratorio in a cathedral, for there music is far 
 more sweet than in London in an evening. 
 
 I met your friend Marianne North one evening in Park 
 Street, and was glad of the opportunity of talking to her of 
 you. You may imagine all the harm we contrived to say of 
 you ! I was amused with your account of your legal studies ; 
 but, seriously speaking, a little discipline in the precision of 
 law language and the application of legal principles is a good 
 element in education; just as Euclid is, which ladies some- 
 times learn. 
 
 I did not see Eeginald when he came to London to see the 
 boat-race. I hope he was satisfied. I wonder whether he 
 was the man whom a friend of mine met in the street, and 
 on saying to him, < What do you think of the great event ? ' 
 (meaning the birth of the fits de France) was answered, * We 
 were sure the Cambridge men could do it ! ' 
 
 I am very sorry for the Dean of Carlisle. 1 I hear your 
 uncle William has offered him Hallsteads for his convalescents. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : March 23. 
 
 How do you get on with Euskin ? I should like more and 
 more to have read it with you ; one cannot read such a book 
 over again with quite the same interest, and there is a great 
 deal to be said about his book and his subject. As to < finish,' 
 I think it is very plain that his account of it is not the right 
 one. Take such an example as this. Landseer paints a dog, 
 or any other creature, so that the hair looks like hair, wet or 
 dry, rough or smooth, as he likes. You look near and you see 
 that the effect is not produced by painting hairs, but by won- 
 derful dashes, and smears, and touches, which you never would 
 have thought of, Denner paints the same thing, hair by hair, 
 with the most wonderful fidelity and patience. His work will 
 
 1 The present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tait. 
 H H 
 
466 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 bear the microscope. Which picture do we call finished ? un- 
 doubtedly the latter. But does it differ from Landseer's only 
 in having more truth ? By no means. It has lost Landseer's 
 kind of truth, and given another kind which most people do 
 not like so well. What then do I say is ' finish ' ? I think 
 that the best definition of it would be microscopic truth ; that 
 is, truth in which you discover new and true features the more 
 you look into the detail. But is this the best kind of pictorial 
 truth ? I think not ; Landseer's is a better picture. If you 
 go a yard from it the merit of Denner's vanishes, and even in 
 the best finished pictures the microscopic truth soon fails, as 
 Kuskin himself teaches. 
 
 The hairs of Denner's dog, if looked at with a microscope, 
 are seen to be mere streaks of paint. It is only finish up to a 
 certain point that is valuable in painting ; and on this account 
 there are merits in painting opposite to ' finish.' What is 
 4 touch ' in drawing ? Something by which you tell to the eye 
 what you cannot tell by finish. You cannot draw every leaf of 
 a tree, but by touch you suggest them. 
 
 Buskin's idolatry of Turner leads him to absurd and 
 ignorant depreciation of other artists. It is not true that 
 Constable does not distinguish black shades from black moss 
 patches. Constable was fond of truth, as Turner was, and 
 sought it most diligently and told it his own way ; and the 
 same is true of all the other most admired landscape painters. 
 
 You are quite right to call to mind Schiller's Essay upon 
 6 Nai've and Sentimental Poetry.' It is really the starting- 
 point of all that has been written since upon the subject, call 
 it objective and subjective, or by whatever other names you 
 will. 
 
 For the last few days I have had the judges here, and also 
 an oriental historian, Mr. Kaye, who wrote a history of the war 
 in Afghanistan, and also a life of Lord Metcalfe. He is now 
 employed in writing a life of Sir John Malcolm, who as you 
 know was a great Indian statesman and soldier, and a very dear 
 friend of mine. His daughter was, and is, one of the charming 
 Kates that, as I have told you, I have known. Kaye comes to 
 me to pick up such recollections as he can of his hero. I sent 
 him to Sedgwick, who also was a friend of Sir John's. If he 
 
1856 CHILDERLEY. 467 
 
 could keep him to the subject he might get a good deal from 
 him. 
 
 I am sorry you had not more pleasure from the Cathedral 
 at Carlisle. When I last looked into it it was so cumbered by 
 workmen that I could see little of it ; but I recollect some of 
 the faults you mention. I took a ride yesterday to an old 
 building in this neighbourhood, Child erley, where Charles I. 
 slept two nights when Colonel Joyce had seized him and was 
 taking him to the army. The room in which he slept has 
 always been preserved, with its old decorations, but Mr. Calvert, 
 to whom the house belongs, has restored, almost rebuilt, it. 
 Among other parts, they have restored the chapel, which, not 
 being used, is merely a large vacant room. I asked the good 
 woman of the house what it was to be for. ' Oh ! ' she said, 
 ' a chapel, or a school, or a smoking-room, or something of that 
 kind.' 
 
 I wish I were with you to discuss Ruskin. My advice 
 would be, enjoy his eloquence and his wit (for there is a great 
 deal of wit), but do not let his paradoxes puzzle you. If you 
 try ever so hard, and seem for a time to understand them, you 
 will find they will soon have vanished out of your mind. To 
 attempt to preserve them is like making a collection of soap- 
 bubbles, on account of their beautiful colours. 
 
 To the same] April 4. 
 
 To-day I am going to ride a little further than usual to see 
 a church (Burwell), belonging to the University, which wants 
 mending. My ride is all along the edge of our ' sublime fen,' 
 as my friend Kenelm Digby calls it. 
 
 I have bought at the amateur exhibition here, a picture by 
 William Millais, the brother of John Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite, 
 and himself plainly a kindred soul, which I should like to show 
 you with reference to the question of ' What is finish ? ' For 
 my picture, a waterfall, is full of immense detail and of laborious 
 truth I mean in ferns, leaves, grass, rocks, water, and the 
 like and yet would not be called finished ordinarily, because 
 it wants smoothness in the ultimate touches. 
 
 It is pleasant to dwell upon the scheme of your meeting 
 your aunt Susan here, even though you seem to have so many 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 ties and occupations that it is difficult to get you away from 
 home. It is pleasant, and, indeed, it is necessary, for me to 
 dwell upon such hopes ; for it is only such hopes that make 
 life to be life to me now. But I do not want to trouble you 
 with my sorrow ; only it is very true that the pleasantest em- 
 ployment which my thoughts have is looking forward to the 
 time when I shall again see your dear face. 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Trinity Lodge : April 4, 1856. 
 
 It is a great pleasure after so long an interval to find our 
 correspondence resumed, and the old ties between us knit 
 together again. And this might be done much more com- 
 pletely, but for the bad habit which you have of making only 
 short visits to England, and living the greater part of your 
 time abroad. If you will only come and stay at home and be a 
 good English woman, you have no notion how much we will 
 love you and how much we will make of you. At least I can 
 speak for myself. So I am very glad indeed that you speak of 
 not being again such determined absentees as you have been. 
 I am glad that your mother found Mr. Kaye ready to listen to 
 her representations. When he was with us here, he expressed 
 a strong desire to conform himself as far as he could to the 
 wishes and views of your family. Of course we are not to 
 expect that he will have the ardent admiration for your father, 
 which you, my dear Kate, and I venture to add, I, had. But 
 he seems to be desirous of doing justice. His notion of 
 drawing a contrast in all points between Sir J. Malcolm and 
 Sir C. Metcalfe was exaggerated and erroneous, as I tried to 
 convince him ; I hardly know with what success. I hope the 
 book will on the whole not vex you or your dear mother. 
 Having gone so far with him, the only thing at present is, to 
 remedy the errors in detail as much as possible. 
 
 Your account of your aunt interests me much. I knew 
 your uncle well. He was here several times ; much esteemed 
 by my predecessor, Dr. Wordsworth. The resignation which 
 you describe of Mrs. Or. Malcolm, his widow, is touching and 
 enviable. And I have no doubt, my dear Kate, that your 
 society soothes her much. Do you recollect the lines in the 
 
1856 MR. KAYE'S 'SIR JOHN MALCOLM.' 469 
 
 Christian Year ? It came out after I was used to quote poetry 
 to you, but we all quote it now. 
 
 Why should I faint and fear to live alone, 
 Since all alone, so heaven has willed, we die. 
 
 The thought does not seem to me to be true. 
 
 We faint and fear to live alone, though we may be ready to 
 die as God wills. 
 
 And now I must say good-bye, dear Kate. I do not think 
 it likely that I can leave Cambridge before the 1 8th, or indeed 
 before the 26th. But if you must go, come back soon, and be 
 always and ever the dear Kate that you have ever been. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers~\ Trinity Lodge: April 13, 1856. 
 
 You are very right in saying that I loved your mother very 
 much, I loved her at first better than I loved any of her 
 daughters : and if to repine at the doings of Providence had been 
 permitted, I should not have repined at any former event so 
 much as that she was taken away so soon after she became my 
 mother. And indeed I think she had a mother's heart for me. 
 She told me so. And I do not know whether you are quite 
 aware, dearest Susan, how necessary it is for me to have some- 
 body to love me. I would if possible, inherit all the love that 
 you had for us both. 
 
 I will, you may be sure, do all I can to help you in finding 
 a good school for your dear boys. . . . 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Audley End: April 18, 1856. 
 
 So, my dear Kate, you think that you have caught me ; 
 and that after the professions I have made I must do your 
 bidding in the matter you mention. I think it is at least 
 reasonable that I should give you good reasons why I cannot do 
 it ; which I am very sorry for, since it would have given me 
 great pleasure to do justice to your father, and to do anything 
 which you wish. The fact is that I have not the habits, con- 
 nections, or talents requisite for the review which you want. 1 
 
 1 In answer to a request, apparently, to review Mr. Kaye's ' Life of Sir J. 
 Malcolm.' 
 
470 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 I have written very few review-articles in the course of my 
 life ; and those have not been popular, except one or two on 
 scientific subjects. On other matters people are not disposed 
 to listen to me, and I am not skilful in speaking to them. 
 When I have written in the ( Quarterly Review,' a long time 
 ago, I have been disgusted with the way in which the editor 
 disfigured my articles. Lockhart used me very ill in that way. 
 At present I do not even know who the editor of the ' Quarterly ' 
 is, and have not the remotest expectation that he would insert 
 an article by me, even if I were to write one. But especially 
 an article on Indian affairs, which he would very justly believe 
 I ought not to write and could not write well. For, as you 
 may guess, I really know nothing about Indian affairs ; and 
 could not, even by reading your father's book and others, dili- 
 gently for months, seem to know so much as the reviewer of 
 Mr. Kaye's work should know. Therefore, my dear Kate, you 
 must excuse me though I do not do this thing which you ask 
 me ; and must keep me in your kind regard notwithstanding ; 
 and must believe that I should like much to do anything 
 which you wished, where the reasons the other way were not so 
 strong. 
 
 I hope Mr. Kaye's book will fall into the hands of some 
 much fitter critic. I think that generally the readers of 
 biographies read the letters which they contain, and in doing 
 that, Mr. Kaye's readers can hardly fail to see that he has not 
 done your father justice. 
 
 I sent yesterday, directed to you, a few verses ! which will 
 explain themselves. They need to be read by indulgent eyes, 
 but your eyes will be indulgent. Such efforts of a sorrowful 
 man to soothe his grief by expressing it, are, after all, very 
 ineffectual. 
 
 Thank you, dear Kate, for your kind sympathy, as expressed 
 in your last. Even when we are so happy as to attain to a 
 feeling of Divine companionship, we need here a sympathy in 
 the feeling. 
 
 To Rate Marshall] Trinity Lodge: April 16, 1856. 
 
 Now that I have finished my Elegiacs it seems almost a 
 profanation to have done it. Not, however, to send them to 
 
 1 The Elegiacs referred to before. 
 
1856 NIGHTINGALE FUND. 471 
 
 you, who know when and how they were written. Every time 
 I look at them I feel how weak and worthless words are. May 
 you never, my love, have the like experience ! I send you 
 copies for dear Janet and your dear mother, and will send you 
 others for any friends to whom you wish to give them for you 
 will not give them to any one who will not make allowance for 
 the efforts of a sorrowful man, to soothe his sorrow by giving 
 it utterance. But the verses must say all this for themselves. 
 
 To the same] April 22, 1856. 
 
 I am going to do a very idle piece of truant playing. I am 
 going with Monteagle to see the Naval Keview at Spithead to- 
 morrow. It is not that I care for the show, but none of you 
 come to me here, and I grow so weary of my own company 
 that I must make a break. I do not mean to complain of you, 
 I am sure you will come when you can. 
 
 By the way, you may go on with your Kuskin reading to a large 
 extent. Here is his fourth volume on my table ; and a long 
 and serious review of him (reviewal, Lockhart always wrote it, 
 when he meant a single article in a review) in the * Quarterly,' 
 and another in the ' Edinburgh.' The new volume appears to 
 be mainly about Turner, which is generally his best vein. I 
 have not read much of it (how I wish you were here to read it 
 with me !) but I am amused with his present notion of truth 
 in painting. Your picture is true if you paint what you see in 
 your own mind. Accordingly, when Turner, painting a scene 
 where there is one mountain ridge 3,000 feet high, represents 
 three ridges each 10,000 feet high, it is true, because a dream 
 told him to do it. But through all this nonsense gleam 
 constant flashes of poetry and bright satire. 
 
 To the same~\ Trinity Lodge : April 26, 1856. 
 
 I came home with Mr. and Mrs. Milnes and the Bracebridges 
 (Miss Nightingale's companions), as well as Lord Monteagle. 
 We had a meeting in aid of the Nightingale Fund, of which I 
 was chairman. It was very interesting, even affecting, to hear 
 Mr. Bracebridge describe in the simplest way, by numerous 
 traits of character and small events, Miss Nightingale's way of 
 doing her work. 
 
472 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Trinity Lodge: May 1, 1856. 
 
 I was very sorry not to be able to make my way to you 
 yesterday. I was seeing sights with some boy nephews, an 
 engagement which they much reckoned upon, and I was loth 
 to disappoint them. But I cannot be satisfied without know- 
 ing how your dear mother is, after hearing how ill she was on 
 Tuesday. So be a dear good child, as you are, and write me 
 news of her. And then you will tell me if your plan holds 
 of leaving England at the beginning of next week. It is quite 
 sad to me, after getting a sight of you once or twice after so 
 long an interval, to lose you again, nobody knows for how long, 
 or into what remote regions swept away. Even if I could 
 move into any part of Europe as easily as I used to do in 
 former times, I could not make any attempt to find you in 
 foreign lands this year. Undoubtedly, in those former days, 
 such a motive would have been very sufficient to determine the 
 direction of my summer travels ; but this summer I can go 
 nowhere except where I can go with my three Esquire-Bedels 
 carrying their silver maces before me ; which necessarily makes 
 my motions somewhat circumscribed. So you must, like a 
 dear friend as you are, write to me from time to time, and let 
 me, at least in that way, keep my hold upon you. 
 
 I forget whether I told you that Sir H. Kawlinson has 
 borrowed the Babylonian cylinder, inscribed with arrow-headed 
 characters, which your dear father gave to this College ; and 
 that it is found to contain a curious history of some portion of 
 the family of Nebuchadnezzar. He is going to send me a 
 translation of it. 
 
 Various visits from relations and old friends came 
 as a most welcome break in the solitude of this sad 
 year. Lord and Lady Monteagle went down as often 
 as the claims of London would permit ; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Charles Spring Bice were most welcome guests ; Dr. 
 Mackreth paid a visit which is referred to in a few lines 
 written May 7 ; and Mrs. Austin, in whose society Dr. 
 Whewell had very great pleasure, stayed with him 
 shortly afterwards, bringing her brother, Mr. Taylor, 
 
1856 VISIT OF MRS. AUSTIN. 473 
 
 with her. Miss Statter passed some time at the Lodge 
 in the later summer. The meeting of the British Asso- 
 ciation tempted him to Cheltenham in July, and that 
 of the Archseological Institute to Edinburgh in August. 
 His Lancashire and Cumberland friends were visited 
 both before and after. In fact, he was restless, and 
 wandered about hither and thither, drawn in one direc- 
 tion or another by the attraction of sympathy in his 
 loss, or by the hope of finding comfort in the revival of 
 old affections and associations which, though never for- 
 gotten, had remained latent during his happy married 
 life. Literary and intellectual occupations had lost 
 their charm for a time, and the general public was no 
 longer an audience he cared for. 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Trinity Lodge : May 23, 1856, 
 
 I was glad to hear of you, my dear friend, and to hear of 
 your being in harbour again. I hope you have as pleasant 
 recollections of the part of your voyage which lay through 
 Cambridge as I have. Your coming dispelled an almost in- 
 tolerable gloom of solitude which was settling upon me ; and 
 though it may well be that such relief is only temporary, I am 
 not the less thankful for it. 
 
 It seems to me, at present at least, doubtful whether 
 literary and intellectual occupations will ever supply any large 
 portion of such relief. I have been led to feel that the main 
 value of such employments is the points of sympathy which 
 they supply with those with whom we live. Thinking, itself, 
 seems a very aimless and useless employment when there is no 
 one to whom one is in the habit of imparting one's thoughts. 
 As for the public and those who represent it, I feel less and 
 and less care for its sympathy ; for the creature is very stupid ; 
 and very often says, or is made to say, very spiteful as well as 
 silly things. But I must not weary you with my weariness and 
 wailing. I am very grateful for your kindness affection, 
 I gladly think that I may write ; and feel a pleasure in all 
 speculation and literature which may give me a sympathy with 
 
474 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 185(3 
 
 you. Whether anything of the kind remains on my side must 
 be seen hereafter. 
 
 I shall read with great interest what you say of Goethe. 
 I really was partly won by what Mr. Lewes says of him; 
 though Mr. Lewes is a critic who has been absurdly unjust to 
 me ; but I hold firm to my opinion that the Hermann and 
 Dorothea is the best specimen not only of his morals and heart, 
 but of his genius. I forgot to ask you when you were here, 
 whether you ever saw a long commentary on that poem by 
 Wilhelm von Humboldt ; another trait of the deep vein of 
 sentiment which ran through his mind, under all his learning 
 and wisdom ; and, indeed, it is a part of the wisdom of our 
 dear Germans that they have such a vein. 
 
 I hope we shall meet again before long. I shall be in 
 London on the 29th, for a few days, at Charles Spring Kice's, 
 in Eaton Place, South; and if you come to town about that 
 time I will seek you out if it be possible. I send you the 
 papers you mention, though they are of too temporary a kind 
 to be worth it. I send you also your pen, though I would 
 more willingly give it you ; but I fear my memory. I hope 
 my way of packing it will succeed. Goethe once gave a book 
 to a lady of my acquaintance, and in wrapping it up for- her, 
 said, ' If I can do anything it is to fold a packet.' I am afraid 
 I cannot even do that ! 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Trinity Lodge : May 28, 1856. 
 
 I ought not so long to have left your last kind note un- 
 answered ; for it has been most pleasant to find myself once 
 more exchanging such notes with you. But I have had a series 
 of visitors here, occupying my time and my thoughts. After a 
 season of very dreary solitude, a number of very dear persons, 
 sisters and nieces of her who has left me so lonely, have been 
 with me. If you were to stay in England I should hope that 
 you and they or some of them might become acquainted ; for 
 it seems to me only reasonable to share our best possessions, 
 our friends, with our friends ; but so long as you go rambling 
 as you have done and only let me have a glimpse of you myself 
 from time to time, I must think that much (as indeed I do), 
 and only look forward to the time when I myself may see you 
 
1856 PLANS FOR THE SUMMER. 475 
 
 again. I am still in a good measure the prisoner of the silver 
 maces, and quite in need of all the sympathy that you can 
 bestow upon me for my hard fate. In the course of next week 
 I follow the maces I may say so, for they go before me into 
 the Queen's presence, to deliver to her an address which I have 
 had to compose, congratulating her on the peace; and on 
 Friday but that to be sure, is without the maces I have to 
 go to a concert at the Palace, to which she is good enough to 
 invite me. But, so far as I can foresee, I shall for the most 
 part be a prisoner here during the summer ; and if I can get 
 myself free for a week or two, I must go into my own beloved 
 north, and pick up the recollections that belong to the moun- 
 tains and the valleys there. It is not impossible that I may 
 go as far as Edinburgh, for there is a gathering of antiquarians 
 there ; and there are to be some expeditions to the Scotch 
 abbeys, which I think will be interesting if your Scotch mists 
 will allow them to be so. But all this is very doubtful. 
 Nothing is certain but that I shall be here very solitary and 
 very dull during a great part of the summer. 
 
 I go on writing about myself as if there were nothing else 
 to write about ; but in truth it is to induce you to do the like, 
 and to tell me about yourself and your dear mother. I hope 
 you made the crossing to Boulogne in comfort, after doing 
 Neptune the honour of waiting for his more tranquil moods. I 
 hope especially that I have not, by waiting so long, lost my 
 hold on you, and allowed you time to leave Boulogne and to 
 fly off into some unknown region. 
 
 To Kate Marshall'] May 9, 1856. 
 
 I was right glad to see your handwriting again, not that I 
 mean at all to complain of you ; but I have nothing now to do 
 with my thoughts half so pleasant as to think when you will 
 write and when you will come. And yet I have not been quite 
 alone these last two days. I have had with me Mrs. Austin 
 and her brother, John Taylor. He is quite a wonder of an old 
 man ; mild, kind, intelligent, and full of recollections of all the 
 things he has seen in his long life. He has been a very large 
 manager of mines in every part of the world, from South 
 America to Norway, including the copper-mine at Coniston ; 
 
476 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 and is still much engaged in such matters, though he grows 
 feeble, and leaves them mainly to his sons. His sister is very 
 fond of him, and it is pleasant to see how she takes care of him, 
 and gives him the kindness which old age so much needs, and 
 to hear him call her Sally ! 
 
 They are on their way to Norwich, which is the original nest 
 of the family, but where he has not been for forty years. 
 
 I shall send this to Eaton Square, where I think you were to 
 arrive to-day. I hope you will enjoy your London sights, and 
 still more, as I know you will, your London friends. I see that 
 Mr. Ruskin has been publishing a pamphlet about the water- 
 colour exhibition. I presume you Ruskinians will read it 
 before you go or while you are there. It will not fail to be 
 amusing and probably instructive. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : June 22, 1856. 
 
 It was a great happiness to see you as often as I did while 
 I was in London. I wanted to have been with you yet a little 
 more, and to have taken you with me to see and hear Johanna 
 Wagner. I did not propose it for fear of being thought un- 
 reasonable. I should have enjoyed her much more if you had 
 been with me, but I did enjoy seeing and hearing her very 
 much, as it was. 
 
 She is a fine tall, graceful, figure, with noble and impressive 
 gestures and attitudes, and her singing is to me very striking 
 and dramatic. Grand eloquent runs through wide intervals, 
 and most impressive contralto notes at the end of them, full of 
 dramatic power. I believe the subtle connoisseurs find a want 
 of Italian refinement in her manner, but I was satisfied and 
 delighted, and want to hear her again and again. And the 
 opera, ' Romeo e Griulietta,' contains the most pathetic posi- 
 tion in Shakespeare's play, made even more pathetic than 
 he has made it. She is thrown into a death-like slumber, 
 which drives him to poison himself in despair ; and then she 
 awakes before he dies, but too late to save him. And Miss 
 Wagner made this really pathetic in acting. I see that Ris- 
 tori is acting that miserable play fi Pia dei Tolomei,' which I 
 saw her act in Paris. Worse even than the last act of Maria 
 Stuarda, for she is dying all through the play. 
 
1856 COMMENCEMENT. 477 
 
 I went to Sir James Stephen's on my way here, and was 
 glad to be there. It was pleasant to see Milly, but one could 
 not talk much with her in two days. 
 
 I am as if alone here, for though A and B , and I 
 
 suppose other persons, are here, I feel little comfort in the 
 thought of going to them. I have turned to her dear letters, 
 which are sweeter than can be imagined, and it is not such a 
 heart-breaking employment now that I may speak of it to you. 
 And yet it is unreasonable at your age to draw your thoughts 
 again and again to the subject, and indeed I almost think I 
 ought to destroy this. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : July I, 1856. 
 
 I have had all the hubbub of the Commencement for the 
 last few days. I think you were never here at that time 
 indeed I have generally been absent myself. I have had 
 Lizzie * with mej and her brother James. She, I am glad to see, 
 makes a very favourable impression upon all whom she meets. 
 Yesterday I had an official dinner, and set her to sit at the 
 head of the table, with the Bishop of Lichfield for her partner. 
 She is not frightened at such distinction (she was the only 
 lady), simply because she is entirely frank and natural, and 
 has great pleasure in hearing men talk and in being talked to. 
 
 To-day Madzie and Harty Doria and she have been to the 
 Senate House together, to see the great show of the Commence- 
 ment, when the prize poems are recited and all the ladies 
 collect. The Senate House was full without being too full, 
 and the gentlemen had the grace to let the ladies have the 
 seats, so the house looked prettier than I ever saw it look 
 before. Among the new Doctors we had Mr. Sterndale Bennett, 
 made a Doctor of Music, but he did not appear in the beautiful 
 4 singing robes,' as Milton calls the poet's official dress, which 
 poor Professor Walmisley used to wear. Now that this is 
 over, I believe the stillness of the real vacation will begin to 
 settle upon Cambridge. 
 
 To the same'] Lowestoft: July 12, 1856. 
 
 Part of my Essex visit was to lay the stones of two churches 
 in a very large parish (Hatfield Broad Oak) which we (the 
 
 1 Miss Statter. 
 
478 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 College) have to do with ; part of it was a sort of * Sentimental 
 journey.' I wanted to see again Hyde Hall, a house of Lord 
 Howden, where nearly or quite thirty years ago Sir John 
 Malcolm lived on returning from his government in India, and 
 where I often was. His family (as I have often told you) were 
 very charming persons, and especially a certain Kate, who was 
 then about the age that you were when I first knew you, dear 
 child. I just gave a glance at the house to retouch the ancient 
 memories, and found that they flashed up into lively colours as 
 if they had been pictures of yesterday. 
 
 Then again I had another revival of old recollections. I 
 went with Thurtell (my Norfolk host) to look at a ' long-and- 
 short' church, and there we found the vicar and his pretty 
 pleasing wife. It soon appeared she was the grand-daughter of 
 my first classical schoolmaster, 1 an old clergyman, who now at 
 eighty-seven does his daily duty. By dwelling among these 
 ancient memories, I seem as if the present hardly belonged to 
 me ; and yet I will not say that, so long as you love and are so 
 good to me. 
 
 I found in a church what seems to me a very pretty epitaph 
 on the memory of a family of persons who, dying at various 
 times and at various ages, are buried near to each other. 
 
 EPITAPH IN ONBOROUGH CHURCH, NEAR STOKE FERRY. 
 
 Here undisturbed repose the kindred just, 
 Till when the trump of God shall wake the dust, 
 They find, once more at home in Heaven on high, 
 That kindred of the soul which cannot die. 
 
 To the same] 
 
 Granton House, Edinburgh : July 23, 1856. 
 
 Here I am in a charming house on the extreme shore of the 
 Firth of Forth, in the middle of trees and sunshine. The water 
 is so calm that it looks like a lake, and its blue and sunny 
 surface, streaked with grey and white bands, which must be the 
 paths of the water nymphs, for there is no visible reason for 
 them, spreads away from the tops of the trees as I see them 
 
 1 Mr. Rowley. 
 
1856 VISIT TO GRANTON. 479 
 
 from my upper window. It is like one of our own lakes, only 
 the hills are lower and the water wider; but still it is a pleasant 
 plunge from Cambridge into lake and mountain scenery ; and 
 yet I ought to ask pardon of the Firth for calling it a lake, for 
 it has tides, and light-houses, and all kinds of marine dignities. 
 The place where I am is Sir John McNeill's, whose name 
 you have seen lately. When I accepted his invitation, I did 
 not know that he was so far from Edinburgh (three miles at 
 least) as to be somewhat inconvenient for the purposes of the 
 meeting; but the place is so pretty I cannot wish myself 
 quartered elsewhere, and we shall manage to do what is re- 
 quisite for the Archaeological Association some way or other. 
 You see I am like little Arthur. I think ' this place feels like 
 Keswick, it is so pleasant.' 
 
 To the same] Patterdale Hall: Aug. 3. 
 
 Your letter found me here, and contributed to make me 
 happy here, as your letters always do. We have had, as you say, 
 lovely days even glorious ones as bright and hot as the three 
 glorious days we spent in our Norfolk tour five or six years ago; 
 and I have enjoyed them for the most part by sitting still in 
 the shade ; though unquiet spirits would needs go boating and 
 driving, and riding, in spite of the broiling sunshine. 
 
 The first day that I was here, however, I spent in graver 
 pleasure ; for it was a pleasure, though full of sad thoughts, as 
 you will easily conceive. I went to Hallsteads alone, and 
 rambled about the dear place for hours, to Old Church, and to the 
 Knotts, and along the walk by the boat-house, Skelly Neb is 
 not the point called ? I tried to find the stones which marked 
 the great marine mole which I built for you and Janet in the 
 water, so long ago that I think you must have forgotten it. I 
 could not be sure of any of the stones; I suppose there must have 
 been stormy days on the lake since that time, and the greatest 
 works of us little men must yield to time and weather. 
 
 I hope to make another visit to the north, and at any rate I 
 hope I may find courage to come and give a lecture to your 
 Leeds friends during the winter, if they will be content with a 
 lecture on Plato ; but I must not authorise you to say so at 
 present. By living alone alone, that is, to all purposes of 
 
480 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 thinking I seem to myself to have become so stupid that I 
 cannot believe that anything that I have to say is worth hearing 
 or likely to interest anybody. But I will try to get over this 
 feeling, and your sympathy will help me to do so. 
 
 To ike same] Hincaster House, Milnthorpe : Aug. 29. 
 
 I hope you enjoyed your music at Bradford. Mr. Mackreth 
 has been to hear it, all the way from Halton, near Lancaster, and 
 gives a very favourable account of it. I should have enjoyed 
 hearing it with you, but to treasure up a few more summer re- 
 collections of lakes and mountains for my memory to feed upon 
 in winter and in the flats of Cambridgeshire, appeared a more 
 important use of opportunities not so easily found. 
 
 We had a good walk over the hills from Derwentwater to 
 Coniston, and a charming day for the purpose. (The glass had 
 not broken the weather by falling). To-day there is an ex- 
 pedition to the top of the Old Man. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Sept. 17. 
 
 I was beginning to weary for a letter from you, and now 
 your news is that you are going away for nobody knows how 
 long ! If it must be so, I am glad for your sake and Janet's l 
 that you should see Italy at this period of your lives. If it is 
 to be Italy, I should suppose that Naples must be the place. 
 According to all accounts, the winter at Home is very un- 
 kindly, though no doubt it would be very pleasant to winter 
 there. I must needs grieve for your plan so far as it diminishes 
 the chance of my seeing you, but who knows ? After November 
 3, I shall be neither Vice-Chancellor nor Professor, and there 
 are to be no more meetings of Heads, so that I shall be much 
 freer to move than I have hitherto been. I have always had a 
 dream of visiting Italy. But I only whisper this in my own 
 heart to comfort me, and in yours who will not betray my 
 dream. 
 
 My newest news is of Spry, who had several convulsive fits 
 while she was walking with me to-day. I went to see the 
 
 1 I was ordered to winter out of England, and my sister and I joined 
 some friends who were going to Rome for the winter. Dr. Whewell came 
 there himself rather later. 
 
1856 MRS. AUSTIN. 481 
 
 church which is building, and at the gate of the cemetery she 
 fell down. She was seized twice again as we came over the 
 Pieces home. I suppose people thought it an odd sight to see 
 the Vice-Chancellor sitting on the grass coaxing and nursing a 
 crazy dog, for they gathered round in a circle to look. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 2, 1856. 
 
 The reason which particularly determined me to go to 
 Cromer was that Mrs. Austin was there. We went about the 
 neighbourhood looking at churches, of which there are some 
 very curious ones. I was amused at a specimen of the manners 
 and literature of a young lady we met. She persisted in calling 
 Mrs. Austin, Miss Austen ; which Mrs. Austin tried to correct. 
 She talked of ' my daughter, Lady Duff Gordon,' of ' my grand- 
 children ' very markedly, but all in vain. She was still Miss 
 Austen. 
 
 At last the young lady, with much awkwardness, said she 
 had a great favour to ask, fi Miss Austen's autograph.' Mrs. 
 Austin said she was willing to give it, though it was not worth 
 having, but added, ' It strikes me that you take me for Miss 
 Austen, the novelist. She has been dead forty years.' This put 
 the young lady to the rout. She fled, and had not the sense and 
 manners to say, I should be glad of your autograph still. Mrs. 
 Austin says that Sidney Smith used to scold her for not en- 
 couraging such delusions. He himself readily encouraged those 
 who took him for Sir Sydney Smith. I dare say you know 
 the story. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 13. 
 
 We have just finished the election of Fellows, and, as usual, 
 I am a little vexed that all the best men run away from us to 
 study law or to teach schools, so that it is difficult to get persons 
 duly qualified to stay here and do the work of the College, and 
 especially to stay here till they attain any ripeness of experience 
 and influence. 
 
 The * fresh gentlemen,' as the bed-makers call them, are 
 beginning to appear. Thus with the year seasons return, but 
 not to me returns ' I am, however, hoping to see friends for a 
 day or two. Mr. Trench, who is our Select Preacher for 
 
 I I 
 
482 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 November, promised to bring his wife and daughter ; and I 
 hope this arrangement may not be disturbed by his being made 
 Dean of Westminster. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 26, 1856. 
 
 Of course my thoughts follow you, and therefore they may 
 as well try to catch you, Poste Restante, at Paris. I hope you 
 have had an easy passage and a prosperous railroad journey. 
 On the French railroads they take so much care of you, and 
 control your movements so imperiously, that you cannot go 
 wrong only you may grow very tired. You will find Paris 
 looking very bright and pleasant in I'ete de St. Martin. I 
 hope you will find a bonnet to your liking. I wonder whether 
 one shall see any vestige of it when one looks you in the face. I 
 do not think I should. And then, after a few days, away on the 
 long line to Lyons ! A weary journey it used to be before you 
 were shot thither by steam. Now, I see by the Road Book, 
 that you may go through in one day. You see I am going 
 to study the Road Book for your sake, and in your ear, as 
 before, possibly for my own. I will not give up my little ray 
 of hope. It would be pleasant to eat my Christmas dinner 
 with you there. That is hardly possible ; but perhaps some- 
 thing near it may be, and at any rate hope is something to live 
 upon. It is hard to live without either hope or enjoyment ! 
 
 To the same'] Nov. 27. 
 
 I rejoice in the pleasure that you find in your travels, and 
 the sights that you see. I rejoice still more in your thinking 
 of me while you are among them, and wishing that I could see 
 them with you. I am glad that you do not repel the recollec- 
 tion of that most dear one whom we have lost. Your memory 
 of her is most sweet and soothing to me, and I am sure it will 
 sweeten more than sadden all your joys, my love; and help you 
 to draw out the best influences from what you see. You must 
 forgive me for referring sometimes to our loss ; for even yet it 
 often rushes upon me as it were suddenly, like a discovery of 
 desolation. Not that I have been all alone. Since the Trenches 
 went I have had the Temples with me. 
 
1856 CHEVALIER BUNSEN. 483 
 
 To Chevalier Bunsen] 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge : Dec. 15, 1856. 
 
 I am glad of any occasion to recall myself to your friendly 
 recollection. I hope I may one day do so by finding myself at 
 Heidelberg, where I am glad to hear from several friends who 
 have seen you that you are well in health, and, of course, well 
 and happily employed. But my present cause of writing to 
 you is different. Many years ago, when our dear Hare used to 
 speak to me of his intercourse with you at Rome, I formed a 
 strong wish to see you there, and often made plans which were 
 to give me that pleasure. These all failed, and happily I had 
 the good fortune to enjoy your society, and I hope I may say 
 your friendship, since. But now, at last, as it seems, I am 
 going to Rome ; and though I cannot have the advantage of 
 yoiir guidance there in person, and the gratification of seeing 
 you there, you may perhaps still be able to make my residence 
 there more instructive and agreeable by giving me access to 
 the society of some of your friends there who are willing to 
 see strangers. If you can do so I shall be very grateful. 
 
 I leave England, as I expect, on the 1 7th, so that any reply 
 which you are good enough to give me must be addressed to 
 Rome, (Hotel de 1'Europe). I shall stay only till the latter part 
 of January. I am to find there my nieces Kate and Janet 
 Marshall, whom you know. They are staying there for the 
 winter, to save Janet from the inclemency of that season in 
 England, which at present she is not well able to bear. 
 
 I see from time to time indications that your literary 
 activity is not abated, and while that continues we are sure to 
 profit by it. I hope Madame Bunsen is well and your chil- 
 dren. Everybody hopes, and I as much as any one, that you 
 will one day return to England ; and if so I hope that you will 
 again come to Cambridge. For though this house cannot be 
 what it was before my grievous loss, there are still, I hope, 
 persons and things here which would interest you ; and you 
 would always find me yours, with very great regard and 
 esteem, 
 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 i i 2 
 
484 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1856 
 
 The next letter was one to Miss Kate Malcolm, 
 written, as well as that to his sister which follows it, on 
 board the Neapolitan steamer ' Maria Antonietta.' 
 
 Dec. 21. 
 
 I could not have imagined a transition more complete from 
 winter to summer than I brought about in thirty-six hours. 
 On Wednesday I was in the cold fogs of London, which accom- 
 panied me through all the north of France. So far as I have 
 ever seen they are quite as bad there as in England. Early on 
 Friday morning I was rambling on the shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean at Marseilles, and had to return to my inn to put off 
 my overcoat. -I have not seen a cloud since then till this 
 evening, when a few gathered at sunset, but they are melting 
 fast away, and leaving the stars shining brighter than we see 
 them at home ; Jupiter and Venus absolutely blazing. 
 
 My introductions are principally to men of science and of 
 art. The Duca di Eignano, the Duca di Gaetano, and others, 
 presidents of Academies, and the like. I was so busy in Cam- 
 bridge during my last days-- filing away my chains and con- 
 cealing the implements, like a prisoner escaping that I had 
 not time to read through Mr. Kaye's life of your father. The 
 chapter about Hyde Hall I did read, and was a little indignant 
 to find Hare represented as my senior in your acquaintance. 
 As if I had not introduced both Hare and Sedgwick to your 
 family. You were quite a little thing then, and may not 
 recollect, but I appeal to your mother against this shocking 
 injustice ! 
 
 So far as I read, the tone of the book seemed to be 
 good; and though not speaking of your father as we should 
 speak, still speaking with a cordial admiration of most of his 
 qualities. 
 
 Dec. 21, 1856. 
 
 I write this at sea in the Gulf of Genoa on board a Neapo- 
 litan steam-ship which is to take me to Civita Vecchia. I 
 hope to eat my Christmas dinner with my nieces in Kome. I 
 have been delighted with all that I have seen ; more delighted 
 
1856 JOURNEY TO ROME. 485 
 
 than I thought I could be travelling alone. The country about 
 Marseilles is beautiful, and the shores of the Mediterranean as 
 charming as any one can imagine them. We have been all 
 day near enough to see them in all their beauty white 
 towns and churches and castles all along the shores, and 
 running up the hills from point to point; fine mountains 
 rising behind, and beyond them the snowy Alps looking 
 over from the far inland. 
 
 Dr. Whewell's journal of his tour tells us that he 
 left Cambridge on December 17, crossed to Calais on 
 the 18th, and went straight through to Marseilles without 
 stopping, arriving there early on the morning of the 
 19th. The journal is in general the briefest, driest 
 record of names and dates, but he spares space to 
 observe on arriving at Marseilles ' beautiful sunshine, 
 beautiful sky, beautiful city, beautiful country, beau- 
 tiful Mediterranean.' 
 
 Dec. 20. Embarked in the evening on board ' Maria Anto- 
 nietta,' Neapolitan steamer for Grenoa. 
 
 Dec. 21. Glorious view in the morning. Snowy Alps 
 shining over an Italian shore ; on the other side the sun rising 
 close to the peaked summits of Carrara, just seen above the 
 horizon ; cloudless day till sunset. 
 
 Dec. 22. Grenoa, after being detained till after 8 A.M. 
 Wreck on shore. The palaces make a very fine effect in the 
 narrow streets in which they stand, the Strada Nuova and the 
 Strada Balbi. 
 
 Then follow enumerations of the palaces and 
 churches he visited, and a few concise and much 
 abbreviated remarks upon their architecture, which 
 interested and delighted him much. 
 
 Dec. 24. Arrived in Rome at 9 P.M. ; went to the service 
 in the Sistine Chapel. 
 
486 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 He remained in Borne until January 20, engaged 
 not only in industrious sight-seeing, assisted by the 
 advice of Mr. Pentland and others familiar with Borne, 
 but in diligent study of Italian under the guidance of 
 Signor Lucentini, the excellent master from whom his 
 nieces were taking lessons. He enjoyed this much, but 
 his dislike to the versification of Dante contributed to 
 confine his studies to Tasso. He also entered freely 
 and cheerfully into society. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] 
 
 Hotel deW Arno, Florence : Jan. 21, 1857. 
 
 I arrived here about half-past seven this evening, after a 
 rather tiresome journey, for the coupe in which I was contained 
 a very dull, and, what was worse, a very broad-shouldered 
 Italian, who hardly left me room to breathe, and when he 
 slept, which he did with little interruption, bestowed a large 
 portion of his weight on me. The coupe was so small that it 
 was like a Chinese puzzle when we got in and out. The third 
 person was an American, who had been at the Dead Sea, and I 
 do not know where besides ; and he, in consequence of the 
 shifting of all articles which took place whenever we moved, 
 lost altogether an old hat which had accompanied him in his 
 Syrian rambles. He showed a feeling on the occasion which I 
 think would have tended to remove your anti- American preju- 
 dices. 
 
 I am very glad I did not go by Terni and Perugia to enjoy 
 scenery; for we had rain, generally heavy rain, all the way, 
 and I was very glad that I came by Sienna. It was a great 
 delight to see a real cathedral again ; a cathedral where the 
 difficulties of raising a dome are overcome in a workman- 
 like manner, by slender pillars and complex relations of 
 arches, which interest the eye, notwithstanding its horizontal 
 ribs of various coloured marbles, which I like no more than 
 you do. 
 
 I was not aware before that the Terra di Sienna, which we 
 know as a painter's colour, is the colour of the ground all about 
 Sienna only varying from ' raw ' to ' burnt.' The hill-sides, 
 
1857 SIENNA. 487 
 
 with their withered oaks, are a little brighter than the trees ; 
 and even the waters are only a lighter shade of the same 
 colour. 
 
 There is a very fine Perugino in a church here (not the 
 cathedral), and a very fine Piccolomini chapel in the Cathedral, 
 where are an excellent series of Kaphael's frescoes, representing 
 the life of a Piccolomini Pope. Altogether Sienna is very 
 interesting, and to be seen if ever the occasion offers itself to 
 you. Dear child ! I go on writing about what I have seen, as 
 if we were to go on seeing things together. I hope we are to 
 do so, though not just now. 
 
 To the same] Marseilles: Jan. 28, 1857. 
 
 I go on writing to you, though my life seems so stupid, now 
 that I have to see sights alone, that it is hardly worth writing to 
 you about. 
 
 However, I was very glad to see the pictures at Florence 
 which delighted you so much. Indeed, that place is richer, I 
 think, than Kome in good pictures ; and especially in those 
 which interest one, as belonging to the early history of the 
 art. Cimabue and Giotto, and above all Fra Angelico. I was 
 much delighted to see his pictures in his own monastery, and 
 to hear him spoken of by the person who showed it as a ' member 
 of the College,' as we should say. 
 
 I now comprehend what I never comprehended before, the 
 interest with which many of my friends regard the early 
 painters. Cimabue, Giotto, Perugino, and the like. After 
 seeing many good and some exquisite pictures by these artists, 
 one cares even for the worse. It is interesting to see their 
 success in that at which they seem mainly to have aimed 
 expression of angelic and saint-like and God-like feelings in 
 the attitudes, and especially in the countenances. In this I 
 think Fra Angelico is to this day unrivalled, and it is curious 
 to see his exquisite achievements in this way, combined with 
 bad drawing and many obvious technical defects in other 
 things. 
 
 I suppose I saw in the convent of St. Mark at Florence, 
 some paintings of Fra Angelico which you did not see, as 
 being in the convent. On the other hand I did not see those 
 
488 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 of Andrea del Sarto at Santa Maria Novella, which I think you 
 admired very much, nor the frescoes at the Carmelites. Time 
 failed me and my head was as full as it could hold. I was only 
 there two days and the weather was bad. 
 
 On the way to Leghorn I saw not only Pisa but Lucca. I 
 find my old love of middle age churches come back upon me. 
 I believe I like them better than Koman remains. On account 
 of both kinds of antiquities, I stayed two hours at Aries yes- 
 terday. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 5, 1857. 
 
 Here I am again, my journeyings over for the present, and 
 at least one very dear and sweet memory remaining of my 
 travels, the time that I spent with you and Janet. I think of 
 your company with all the more longing now that I am in my 
 solitary home. It seems to me now more solitary than ever, 
 and I hardly know how to look forward to such days and such 
 evenings as I shall have to spend. But work of one kind or 
 other crowds upon me, and that at least will occupy some of 
 my thoughts, and then I shall think of you, and wonder whether 
 your usual round of employment goes on. Signor Lucentini, 
 and Signor Capalti (I hope his work prospers ! ) and the 
 Signora Parlatrice, and the plays, and the excursions in the 
 Campagna. You will tell me about such things when you 
 write. I hope you and Janet do not give yourselves up too much 
 to seeing galleries of pictures and statues, for I am sure that the 
 cold atmosphere which pervades such places, and their stone- 
 floors, will not conduce to carrying into effect the purpose for 
 which you went to Italy the escape from the rigour of winter. 
 Our winter here at present, makes me shudder to think of 
 such atrocious practices. 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: March 8, 1857. 
 
 I have been in London where one of my employments was to 
 look at the ' Turners ' that we have now got together, old and 
 new. I have seen so little of you, that I do not know what 
 your opinions are about Turner what side you take in the 
 great Ruskin and pre-Raffaelite controversy, I know that you 
 
1857 TURNER. 489 
 
 have a deep interest in Art, and that you have a practical skill 
 in it but I do not know with what eyes you look upon the 
 novel styles. It is quite provoking when one has such an 
 intimacy with a person, as you are good enough to allow me to 
 claim with you, from interruption of intercourse of many years, 
 to know so little about their her sentiments, that one does 
 not know in what direction to look for sympathy. I do not 
 know how it may be with others, but to me at least it is im- 
 possible to discuss matters of taste and feeling, without know- 
 ing what are the tastes and feelings of those with whom I talk. 
 And yet it often appears as if one wanted such a knowledge 
 only for the sake of wrangling ; for I find myself arguing 
 against Turner with the Turnerites, and in his favour when I 
 have to do with his opponents. 
 
 Yesterday I found Lady Hardwicke in the College court an d 
 brought her into the Lodge, glad to have it illumined by her 
 radiant presence for a little while, for it is usually very empty 
 and desolate. 
 
 My nieces are by this time at Naples. I am much obliged 
 to Princess Doria for thinking about them. They enjoyed 
 their Eome exceedingly. I set Capalti to paint your namesake, 
 and am hoping to welcome the arrival of his ' counterfeit Kate ' 
 very soon. 
 
 The first return to Trinity Lodge brought back the 
 sense of loneliness in full force. But the visit to Eome 
 had restored Dr. Whewell to a far greater degree of 
 cheerfulness than he had been able previously to attain, 
 and he always afterwards enjoyed recurring to all the 
 memories connected with that time. It had revived 
 his interest in many subjects which had engaged his 
 attention in past years, and it snowed him, by the enjoy- 
 ment with which he turned to fresh ones, that elasticity 
 of mind was not gone, though under the pressure of his 
 desolating grief it had seemed wholly to desert him. 
 
 The first exertion he made after his return was a 
 journey to Leeds, to deliver a lecture there in compli- 
 
490 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 ance with the request of the Philosophical Society. To 
 the niece, whose future was beginning to assume a 
 shape which would in a sense make her less his child in 
 the time to come, he still writes of this, and the lectures 
 he gave shortly after at Queen's College, Harley Street, 
 and of all other subjects which occupied him, whilst 
 pouring out also abundant sympathy to her in her 
 ' romance.' 
 
 To Mrs. Mackreth] Trinity Lodge : March 18, 1857. 
 
 By all means let your husband avoid the exertion and 
 anxiety of election proceedings. If he takes any share in 
 them, it is certain that a large portion of the thought and 
 labour of trying to give a right turn to such matters will fall 
 upon him ; for there is scarcely any one if indeed there be 
 any one in your parts, who is so much in earnest about what 
 is right, and sees his way so clearly to it as he does. So that 
 if he meddle at all, a large share of the burden of promoting 
 the good cause will certainly fall upon him. And I really 
 hardly see what point is likely to come into consideration in 
 contested cases, which is of any great value, except it be that 
 to which he attaches great importance, his subject of Church 
 Kates ; and this I agree with him in thinking of the highest 
 importance ; and really of more importance than the choice 
 between one Minister and another. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Trinity Lodge: March 7, 1857. 
 
 My lecture delivered at Leeds on the 3rd seemed to please 
 the people very well, and I was told that the audience was the 
 most ' distinguished ' that was ever assembled there. I had 
 been a good deal out of heart about the matter before it came 
 on, and so had cut out of it all that was likely to be most 
 stupid ; and the end was that everybody was astonished that 
 Plato was so clever, and so lively, and many complained of 
 the shortness of the lecture. And yet it was an hour, which 
 is as long as any lecture should be, to my thinking. Mrs. 
 Barry, who deserves all the good that people had said of her, 
 
1857 LECTURE ON PLATO. 491 
 
 dined and slept at Cookridge the day before the lecture, and 
 drove herself away in a little carriage like Cinderella's pump- 
 kin, drawn by a pony the colour of a mouse, and about the 
 size ! 
 
 The next day, Thursday, I returned to my house, my lonely 
 house as you most truly call it ; yet not quite lonely when you 
 send kind thoughts to it, and think about its loneliness. Your 
 having let me see that you do so shed a sort of brightness into 
 it when I returned. Only these gleams die away soon. 
 
 I am glad that Mr. Pentland allows you to go to Naples, 
 and I hope you will find that place no less pleasant than you 
 have found Rome. I am glad to hear that Capalti is taking 
 so much pains with your picture, though sorry he occupies so 
 much of your time. You must recollect what a comfort it will 
 be to me to have your dear face to look at in my solitary den. 
 It will be a great delight to me, if the picture prove as like you 
 as it promised to be. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : March 20, 1857. 
 
 I am going to London and to Cheltenham next week, to 
 edify the good people there with my Plato the same lecture, 
 with some modifications, which I gave at Leeds and there is 
 some talk of my giving it, or a like lecture, to the Ladies' 
 College in Harley Street. 
 
 To the same'] Trinity Lodge: April 19, 1857. 
 
 I have been, as I have already said, in London, where we 
 had a very pleasant party in Park Street one evening. Stephen 
 Spring Rice was there, whom I had not seen for some time, and 
 James Spedding, and other good people. The next evening we 
 went to the theatre with Aubrey Taylor, a very fine boy, to see 
 Richard the Second in all the splendour of scenery and costume 
 which Mr. C. Kean can give it. The scenes, with the groups 
 of persons, were a series of very be'autiful pictures quite pre- 
 Raphaelesque in the brightness of their colouring, but the 
 colours better balanced, the attitudes not so awkward, nor the 
 people so ugly. You may judge how picture-like the effect 
 was when I tell you that the plain boarded floor, under all those 
 
492 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 scenes and figures, appeared to me quite mean and unworthy 
 of them. It ought to have been of Florentine mosaic to suit 
 the brightness and finish of the rest. 
 
 I have also been to Wimpole, where I had a pleasant ride 
 of nine miles across the country with Lady Elizabeth Yorke to 
 visit the sources of the Cam, which I had seen long ago and 
 wished to see again. I found that Lady Elizabeth had a strong 
 admiration for Lady Marian Alford, which I was not surprised 
 at, for she somewhat resembles her in character; a clear 
 intellect, lively mind, a good deal of culture, and a vigorous 
 character. 
 
 And now I am come back to my solitude, where I am at 
 present occupied in what is rather a wearisome employment, 
 examining seventy candidates for our Scholarships. After so 
 many years' repetition, this coming in of such loads of papers is 
 a burden. But it will be over in a few days. . . . 
 
 And so Grod bless you, my dear and precious child, and fill 
 your life with all happiness here, and with all that may anti- 
 cipate and lead to the happiness of the hereafter. 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Athenaeum Club : May 13, 1857. 
 
 Thank you much, dear friend, for your pencil note, though 
 I am very sorry to find that you are reduced to that even for 
 a time. Nothing can be more abominable than the habit which 
 colds appear of late to have acquired, of turning to bronchitis. 
 I am glad that the heart meets all disturbances of neighbouring 
 provinces with a noble disdain. 
 
 Thank you too, sincerely and heartily, for the kind eye with 
 which you look upon my project of lecturing the ladies about 
 Plato. Since I promised Lady Monteagle that I would do it, I 
 have had dire misgivings that our keen-witted London friends 
 may fasten their attention on some ridiculous side which it 
 may have. I mean it, as I think you will understand and know, 
 in all simplicity, believing that I can give to my hearers a truer 
 and higher notion of what Plato did really say than they will get 
 from other sources ; simple enough to be understood without any 
 difference depending on the audience being men or women ; if 
 there be any difference of power of understanding in men and 
 
1857 MISS BRONTE. . 493 
 
 women, which I do not believe ; though of kind and mode of 
 understanding there may be and is. 
 
 I was not so pleasantly taken with Mrs. Gaskell's account 
 of 'Jane Eyre' as most persons appear to be. The poor lady 
 appears as a sort of tempestuous spirit in a dismal atmosphere, 
 of which the gloom and storm are partly her own making. 
 Certainly it is very curious how much of intellectual culture, 
 generally self-acquired, may coexist with exceeding rough- 
 ness in the surrounding circumstances. This we north-country 
 people do know, and I suppose it i& a characteristic of the 
 north. 
 
 I should like you to hear some of my Platonics. I suppose 
 I need not offer you tickets. I shall not be so much at liberty 
 this month as I hoped to be, for the Cambridge Act drives us 
 to perpetual meetings. A dire waste of time, even if no worse 
 harm come of it. 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Trinity Lodge : May 22, 1857. 
 
 I hope you have not given me up as a correspondent, though 
 I am afraid you find me a very stupid one. My thoughts are 
 necessarily much occupied by the things and businesses 
 among which I live ; but yet I constantly turn back to the 
 early and pleasant days of Hyde Hall, and to you as the 
 brightest and happiest figure of that scene. Since then I have 
 seen so little of you that the most copious and lively recollections 
 which we have in common still refer to that period. 
 
 If you are really going to be foreigners all the year, I must 
 begin to shape my plans if possible so as to find my way to your 
 camp. I have more than one reason for travelling into the 
 south of France I have never been there except on my way to 
 Italy, and there are in that region not only fine mountain scenes, 
 but many remarkable cathedrals and churches ; and to this day 
 there is nothing which I study with more pleasure than the 
 architecture of the middle ages, and especially the architecture 
 of France. For all the study that I have given to the subject 
 convinces me that France is the leading figure in this history 
 of art. So I could easily plan out a tour which would bring me 
 into your Lower Pyrenean provinces. 
 
494 LIFE OF DE. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 To Kate Marshall} Westminster : May 17, 1857. 
 
 I am more than ever impatient that you should return to 
 England, for though, alas ! I fear I shall not see much of you 
 when you are here, it will be something to know that you are 
 within a day's journey of me. So come home, my darling, and 
 let us learn what the course of your romance is likely to be, 
 and learn also to look with steady and hopeful eyes upon it. 
 
 I hope I shall see you when you are in London ; I shall be 
 in town, though not every day, yet every week till the middle of 
 June. My lectures begin (at Queen's College) on Wednesday 
 next, and go on every Wednesday for four weeks. They tell me 
 that there are many demands for tickets, and that the room will 
 be very full. I will not say, as my friend Kemble said, when a 
 large audience assembled to hear him lecture on Anglo-Saxon, 
 ' I'll thin them ; ' for I really believe that what I have to tell is 
 very interesting and amusing in its way, and I expect my ladies 
 to be entertained with it. 
 
 I am glad you saw and were pleased with Verona. I have 
 seen it and was much delighted with it. I brought it into the 
 loop of one of my Swiss tours and also Milan. But I envy 
 you your Sunday on the Lago di Garda. 
 
 I am plagued at present by incessant meetings of our Fellows, 
 arising out of the act for University Eeform. They eat up all 
 my days, and I am afraid they will not end till the Long 
 Vacation comes, if they end even then. I am vexed with these 
 vexations, small though they be, for my comforts are small too. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : June 14, 1857. 
 
 Your letter followed me to London, where I was on occasion 
 of one of my lectures. I am right glad that they are over, for 
 I could not get rid of the notion that it was rather obtrusive to 
 give them. I had been excited by the pleasure which they 
 seemed to give to your aunt Susan and to others, and am young 
 enough yet to want other persons to like what I like ; and so I 
 ventured. The one which you heard was a fair specimen, the 
 one which followed was to my own thinking much worse. But 
 they are over, and there is an end of them at least in that 
 shape. 
 
1857 'JUDAS MACCABEUS.' 495 
 
 I do not wonder at your country l being now in great beauty. 
 The whole land seems to be in its richest dress. Our Backs/ 
 as you may suppose, are magnificent. I think I never saw the 
 foliage so fine. 
 
 On Wednesday I am going with A. B. to the Handel per- 
 formance Judas Maccabseus. How I wish you were going 
 with us ! It would make a great difference ; for A. B. 9 though 
 an excellent person, has only a London portion of enthusiasm 
 of any kind, which is hardly enough for sympathy ! 
 
 I must tell you a jest of Douglas Jerrold's on Thackeray, 
 which amused me the more from being told me by Thackeray 
 himself. You know his broken nose. Some one was relating 
 - the great desire certain ladies had to convert Thackeray to be 
 a Catholic. They wanted, it was said, to make a Roman of him. 
 * Why do they not begin with his nose ? ' enquired Jerrold. 
 
 To the same] High Legh, Warrington : June 29, 1857. 
 
 I am here at a pleasant country house, to which I have 
 been invited by an old friend, Mr. Entwistle, in order to see 
 the Manchester show. I was very glad to spend yesterday in 
 the quiet of the country but for coolness, I suppose it was 
 sought in vain in country or in town. 
 
 I do not know whether the show would please you much. 
 In one department to which you would naturally turn early 
 Italian painting, though it is richer than any previous collection 
 made in England, as I suppose, it is not to be compared with 
 the Grallery of the Uffizi at Florence, still less with the Florentine 
 galleries together. 
 
 Perhaps the works of modern British artists are, on the 
 whole, the best part of the Exhibition. There are many pictures 
 which one has seen and noted in recent years, and is glad to see 
 again in more select company than before. I wish you were 
 with me to go and look at them again to-day. I look forward 
 with distaste to the prospect of seeing them alone, and though 
 I shall probably join some party in the survey, I shall not find 
 anybody with whom it will be so pleasant to compare notes as 
 it would be with you. 
 
 1 Yorkshire. 
 
496 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : July 27, 1857. 
 
 I was glad to hear of your doings and enjoyments, as I always 
 am. I was particularly pleased to learn that you were making 
 acquaintance with my "dear old friend, Sir John Malcolm. I 
 am afraid that when you get into the middle of the Indian 
 politics you will find the account less amusing, except indeed 
 by reason of the interest which you feel in the affairs of that 
 country for your uncle's sake. But I hope you will be some- 
 what entertained with the account of Sir John Malcolm's English 
 life. The chapter on Hyde Hall was, they tell me, written in 
 consequence of my communications to the author, Mr. Kaye. 
 He visited me here to learn what I could tell him, and so get 
 a notion of the effect which Sir John Malcolm and his family 
 produced upon the social circle about him. 
 
 To his Sister] Dublin: Sept. 1, 1857. 
 
 I arrived here on Friday for the British Association, after 
 a smooth passage, but have had a degree of indisposition, 
 amounting to severe illness, since. I went first to Lord 
 Talbot de Malahide but Malahide Castle is nine miles from 
 Dublin, and I found the distance so inconvenient, that I 
 came into Dublin to my friend Dr. Lloyd. Lord and Lady 
 Monteagle are also here, and when I leave this place I go to 
 them at Mount Trenchard for a little while ; but I am im- 
 patient to get back to Cambridge, and to be entirely at rest 
 after so much hurried movement. 
 
 I am glad you are going to the exhibition at Manchester. 
 I think the part you will most admire will be the modern 
 British pictures. 
 
 I hope in a day or two to go to see Lord Eosse's celebrated 
 large telescope, but of course to command the skies so that we 
 shall see the stars through it is more than Lord Eosse, or the 
 British Association, can achieve. 
 
 To Kate Marshall] Trinity Lodge : Sept. 16, 1857. 
 
 Your welcome letter reached me at Mount Trenchard, 
 where, as you supposed, a quiet life, and the kind nursing of 
 your aunt did a great deal to dispel any remains of illness 
 
1857 BKITISH ASSOCIATION, DUBLIN. 497 
 
 which I brought from Dublin ; though in truth, I never 
 became well enough in body or mind to enjoy my visit, as I 
 had hoped to do. I had never been there before, and there is 
 really much to admire. The Shannon is a noble river, wider 
 than the Rhine at Bingen, with the advantage of being salt 
 water. Indeed, to English eyes it looks rather like a lake. 
 On the southern side the bank is Lord Monteagle's for many 
 miles a series of hills which he has clothed with forests, on 
 which he looks with parental fondness, so that every step 
 suggests something to be planted, or something to be cut 
 down. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 30, 1857. 
 
 It seems very long since I wrote to you, and some time 
 since I received your last dear letter. I have been a good 
 deal occupied, first with company, and then with College 
 business. My visitors were Mrs. Austin, and then when she 
 was gone, Lady Holland and her two girls. This was a very 
 pleasant visit. 
 
 Then came a week of solitude, very dreary after the sun- 
 shine and now are come the storms of our College business. 
 I do not want to disturb your sunshine with my troubles. I 
 hope your season of unbroken sunshine is come ; but it is a 
 very sad evening of my College life, to have the College pulled 
 in pieces and ruined by a set of school-boys. It is very nearly 
 that kind of work. The act of Parliament gives all our 
 Fellows equal weight for certain purposes, and the younger 
 part of them all vote the same way and against the seniors. 
 Several of these juveniles are really boys, several others only 
 Bachelors of Arts so we have crazy work, as I think it. 
 
 But I ought not to trouble you with these troubles of 
 mine. Only you know I have always been in the habit 
 of talking to you of what was uppermost in my mind. I 
 hope you are now too happy to be much clouded by my 
 lamentations ! 
 
 I am to have another gleam of brightness to-morrow. My 
 dear Mrs. Airy is coming for a day. A second son of hers is 
 come as a freshman, and she has a natural mother's wish to 
 see him in his rooms, and so she comes to me. But moreover 
 
 K K 
 
498 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 she brings with her two American ladies. One a great astro- 
 nomer, who has discovered a comet the other a great horse- 
 woman, who dresses very gaily so I am told. I am much 
 afraid of this invasion ; but in this as in other cases, I put a 
 bold face on the matter, and have asked a party to meet them. 
 If I survive it, I will tell you something about them after- 
 wards. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 6, 1857. 
 
 I have a dinner party to-day to entertain some Oxford 
 
 friends Mr. and Mrs. B . I was entertained with their 
 
 scruples and their way of getting over them. They were 
 staying at the inn, and said that they made it a rule not to 
 dine out on Friday : they were very sorry, but conscience was 
 conscience, and so on. I then had the bright idea of suggest- 
 ing that they should change their lodging, and come to me 
 immediately, and so dine at home to-day. This they readily 
 agreed to, so I have extemporised a party. I suppose I ought 
 to have salt-fish for them. 
 
 I am engaged all morning with this disagreeable and 
 tiresome work of College meetings about the Statutes. It is 
 however somewhat less disagreeable than it was, for some of the 
 wildest of the proposed changes have been negatived by large 
 majorities, and there appears to be some prospect of sane delib- 
 eration sane, it may be, but very tiresome, and in my opin ion 
 very unnecessary. 
 
 To'the same] Trinity Lodge : Nov. 10, 1857. 
 
 I am very sorry that your Philosophical Society, at Leeds, 
 has any difficulty in arranging its lectures. I have no ob- 
 jection whatever to Lord Monteagle lecturing on the day ap- 
 pointed for me ; but then I cannot lecture till January. Our 
 Parliamentary Governing Body continues in operation till then ; 
 and it has such extraordinary powers, and has shown such a 
 strange spirit, that I must give all my thoughts to its work so 
 long as its working lasts. It is never for a moment out of my 
 thoughts, and this you would see by the way in which I wrote 
 to you a little while ago. So till December 31, I must hold 
 myself bound here to that work. But as I said, let Lord 
 
1857 CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS. 499 
 
 Monteagle lecture on my day, and let them find me another 
 when they can ; or find me none ; for I shall be very well 
 satisfied not to lecture. I promised very reluctantly, because I 
 did not wish to avoid any request made to me, of gracing your 
 uncle James's presidency. But I have shewn my willingness, 
 and they will be none the worse for missing my Plato. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 11, 1857. 
 
 And so you have been busy painting Koman scenes for a 
 lecture at Eusthall ! Some sage people would tell you that 
 you may already see how marriage makes women slaves, even 
 when you are only in the penumbra of it, and before its full 
 shadow has come over you ; but I know better things, and how 
 pleasant it is to work for those we love and to share their 
 labours. 
 
 To the same'] Dec. 30, 1857. 
 
 Your letter reached me in London, where I was staying 
 with the Monteagles the happiest week I have had for a 
 long time. On Christmas Day we had all Stephen Spring 
 Rice's children, and Susan's, so that you will understand we 
 were a very juvenile party, and conducted ourselves accord- 
 ingly. One day I went with the boys and Tom to see Herr 
 Frickel, who performs the most wonderful conjuring tricks I 
 ever saw, and makes them more amusing by the mixture of 
 German and English in which he talks about them. He puts 
 a watch to the ear of one of the spectators, and says, ' Gro the 
 watch ? ' and it goes or stops as he pleases, though taken from 
 one of the company. 
 
 I came here to hold the last meeting of the ' Governing 
 Body,' and have now done with that trouble for a time, but 
 the Commissioners, or rather their secretary, look ugly at us, 
 and seem to threaten another year of warfare with them. 
 However, I will not anticipate evil, and will fight it when it 
 comes as well as I can. 
 
 I shall see you so soon, there is no need to talk more. 
 You will remember, as you always do, dear love, for which I 
 love you more, whose place in your heart and confidence I 
 would inherit. I cannot put all the old year's memories, and 
 
 X K 2 
 
500 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1857 
 
 the new year's blessings into this little corner of my paper, 
 but I trust and pray that the coming time may be full of 
 blessings for you. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 13, 1857. 
 
 You would see by the Cambridge paper that we have had 
 Dr. Livingstone here. He was my guest, and was a most 
 agreeable companion in private, as well as an entertaining and 
 instructive lecturer in public. 
 
 I have promised to eat my Christmas dinner with Lady 
 Monteagle. I cannot be absent for more than a day till the 
 year is over, and then I go to Leeds for a few days afterwards 
 elsewhere. Reginald Marshall is to marry Louisa Herschel on 
 January 23, and I am to perform the ceremony. This union 
 of two families both of which I love and admire so much, is a 
 matter of great delight to me. And so the rising generation 
 is forming itself into new circles according to the usual course 
 of events. 
 
 To Mrs. Mackreth] 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: Jan. 17, 1858. 
 
 Your letter followed me into Yorkshire, where I was staying 
 among my relatives there, and especially with my dear niece 
 Kate Marshall, whom I think you saw at the Lodge. She has 
 been a very good child to me ; but you are aware that nieces, 
 however affectionate, will not be content with the love of 
 an uncle, and so she has actually asked me to marry her to 
 another man. It is very shocking, but I dare say you have 
 known the like in your experience of the rising generation. 
 Her future husband is the grandson of your friend the Arch- 
 bishop. 
 
 But this wedding is not to be till May. 
 
 To his Sister] Feb. 24, 1858. 
 
 The Saturday after Reginald's wedding a party of Herschels, 
 Marshalls, and myself, went to Canterbury, where Arthur 
 Stanley, who is a canon there, received and entertained us, 
 and told us all the story of Becket on the very spot of the 
 murder, of which he has especially studied the history. Yes- 
 
1858 MR. BUCKLE'S LECTURE. 501 
 
 terday Mr. O'Callaghan, Mr. Stanley, and I went to see 
 
 Richborough, a Roman castle near Sandwich, and thence 
 returned to London. 
 
 To Mrs. Austin] Trinity Lodge: April 1, 1858. 
 
 I have just returned from London, where I have been a good 
 deal occupied, as to my thoughts at least, with the marriage of 
 other persons ; for my two favourite nieces are both bent upon 
 marrying in May; and the other young couple, Reginald 
 Marshall and Herschel's daughter, are just returned from 
 Rome. 
 
 I found everybody in London talking about Mr. Buckle's 
 Lecture on ' the Influence of Women upon the Progress of Know- 
 ledge ; ' but could get no intelligible account of the substance 
 of the lecture ; in language and manner all agreed that it was 
 very fluent and taking. But to-day I have read it in Fraser's 
 Magazine, and am amused at the fallacy which it involves. He 
 opposes to Induction, which he says is the male habit of mind, 
 what he calls Deduction, which he says is a better thing, which 
 women have. But by Deduction he means Invention, and such 
 Invention as is a necessary part of all Inductive discoveries. 
 And so he practises the common trick of changing the meaning 
 of words and then startling you by a paradoxical assertion. So 
 you see I am not going to admire women for his reasons, 
 thinking that I have better of my own for so doing. 
 
 I forget whether I answered you about Kingsley's 'Andromeda.' 
 I believe that Milton has got the classical story as commonly 
 told ; but Kingsley, I suppose, thought it was dramatically better 
 to make the mother vain of her daughter than of herself. I 
 think the poem wanting in detail and circumstance. 
 
 The rising generation was forming itself rapidly into 
 new circles, and though cordially rejoicing in the pros- 
 pects of happiness of those who were so dear to him, it 
 was impossible that Dr. Whewell should not feel, and 
 feel painfully, the aggravation of his own loneliness, 
 which naturally resulted from the formation of these 
 new ties, and from the partings they involved. Espe- 
 
502 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1858 
 
 cially he felt the parting with her who was like a 
 daughter of his own, and whose sympathy had beguiled 
 his solitude during the last three years, as nothing else 
 could have done. The bitterness of his grief, however, 
 was now past, and new plans and new hopes rose in his 
 own mind, which he was able to entertain and dwell on 
 with satisfaction. 
 
 Living at Trumpington, near Cambridge, was Mr. 
 Leslie Ellis, once a Fellow of Trinity, in 1858, and for 
 some previous years a hopeless invalid. What manner 
 of man he was, may well be judged from the follow- 
 ing description of him, given by his friend and literary 
 associate, Mr. James Spedding. He speaks of him as 
 possessing ' an intellect of the very highest order- 
 subtle, exact, capacious, swift, discursive, sublime ; well 
 trained and perfectly tested by the severe discipline of 
 the highest course of Cambridge scientific study, stimu- 
 lated by an insatiable appetite for knowledge of all 
 kinds, aided by an extraordinary sagacity in seeking, 
 facility in apprehending, judgment in assimilating and 
 digesting, tenacity in retaining, and rapidity in recol- 
 lecting . . . industry the most unwearied, fidelity the 
 most scrupulous, a fine taste, a lively, playful, and 
 graceful fancy, and a standard of moral judgment the 
 loftiest, the most delicate, the most uncompromising/ 
 Such was Mr. Ellis, and such the powers which over- 
 powering illness had smitten as with sudden frost, and 
 compelled to remain inoperative. 
 
 Lady Affleck, his widowed sister, was nursing and 
 ministering to him with tender and sedulous care. A 
 long course of attendance upon her husband had come 
 to an end some four years previous. Dr. Whewell 
 discerned in her the woman who could share and 
 cheer his home ; the ' somebody to love him ' so neces- 
 
1858 LADY AFFLECK. 503 
 
 sary to his affectionate nature, and upon whom he could 
 lavish the abundant communicativeness, the trusting 
 confidence, the ardent tenderness of a heart hungering 
 for the sober, solid satisfaction of happy home life, and 
 unable to rest without it. The anticipation was not 
 disappointed. For seven years their home was as 
 happy as mutual love and sympathy could make it. 
 
 They were married in London on July 1, 1858. 
 Before he left Cambridge both his nieces had visited 
 him, with their husbands. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers] Trinity Lodge: June 17, 1858. 
 
 Your guess about the translations is so ingenious that it 
 deserves to be true; but nevertheless it is not. My dear 
 Fanny, though she reads German very well, is not, I think, a 
 poet ; at least she has never yet confided such a weakness to 
 me. I doubt whether she has your fine ear for rhythm ; but 
 then, who has ? She is very fond of poetry, especially, as she 
 says, when I read it to her, but is passive not active in such 
 matters. As to the two translations, the occasion of their being 
 printed is this. A month or two ago there was in Fraser's 
 Magazine an article about several translations of the ' Lenore ' 
 (Burger's) of which one mentioned was mine, and the other an 
 unpublished one in the possession of the critic. 
 
 He seemed to prefer this, and used with regard to mine one or 
 two disparaging expressions, such as the young gentlemen of that 
 school seem to think it necessary to use when they speak of me. 
 So I proposed that the two translations should be published 
 side by side ; and now behold what a mortification for me ! 
 even you do not see the superiority of mine. I wish I might 
 be with you for an hour or two, to explain some of the feeble- 
 nesses, as they seem to me, of the new translation ; but perhaps 
 you were led to judge too favourably of it by your ingenious 
 hypothesis as to its origin. But though Lady Affleck cannot, 
 so far as I know, translate German ballads so well as I can, she 
 is prepared to love you very much, and bids me thank you for 
 your offer of a cordial welcome, which is, she says, most accept- 
 
504 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1858 
 
 able, and for which, perhaps, she will send you a line herself. 
 You may be sure, dearest, that no missive can come from me 
 to you which has not for one of its contents a very tender love. 
 
 Lady A has mentioned July 1 as our day : we must be 
 
 married in London, for her brother's health makes him shrink 
 from such an event happening in his house. 
 
 Dearest, I hope I shall introduce her to you in the course of 
 the summer, and that you will love her. 
 
 To Kate Marshall, now Mrs. Sumner Gibson] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : May. 
 
 I had almost forgotten that I had told you that I was a little 
 melancholy when I was with you, but I am now happy and full 
 of hope and happiness. All great changes are full of serious 
 thought to us older people, and I could not but feel that I was 
 losing you in a certain way ; that you could not be to me 
 exactly the Kate that you have been though not less dear, 
 and dear through new interests. But as we cannot be happy 
 in exactly the old way, I trust we shall find a new way not less 
 heartfelt when you have learnt to love my wife as she deserves, 
 and I to love your husband as I am ready to do. So, come 
 here, darling child ! and let us begin our new life ; you in your 
 bright youth, I in an age not too far advanced to prevent my 
 affections both old and new from being very warm and strong 
 as I need not tell you. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Bournemouth: July 3, 1858. 
 
 We paid our visit to St. George's, Hanover Square, on 
 Thursday ; Lord and Lady Monteagle, Worsley and Katharine, 
 and Bessie Spring Eice were there on my side. Dundases, 
 Fitz Geralds, Gores and Dallases, &c., on Fanny's ; and at three 
 o'clock we set off for this place, which we reached at eight, after 
 a pleasant and easy journey. It is an exceedingly pretty and 
 pleasant place, with no end of charming walks and prospects, 
 and the great bay in front of us; with an air and soil reminding 
 me of Tunbridge Wells. 
 
 Before we go northwards we have some thoughts of visiting 
 your part of the world. It would be a great pleasure to me to 
 
1858 BOURNEMOUTH. 505 
 
 see you and my Fanny together, and I should much enjoy seeing 
 you in your new home. I am glad you like Tunbridge Wells. 
 It is, as I said, very like this place in soil and climate, but we 
 have long forest glades and golden cliffs and silver strands, 
 which you have not ; and altogether I do not think there can 
 be a more charming place than this, in what is now your south 
 country. I hope to get Lady Affleck to confess that the north, 
 which she has never seen, has beauties of a higher kind. 
 
 To-morrow we talk of going to Corfe Castle and Swanage 
 Bay, reading poetry at all convenient intervals of rest ; which 
 you know is a very rational way of living ! 
 
 To Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis] Bournemouth: July 5, 1858. 
 
 I think you will not be surprised to receive a few lines 
 from me ; now that, in addition to the ties of admiration and 
 strong regard which I have always felt for you, I can add the 
 affection of a brother, and the strong sentiment of gratitude 
 for the gift of your dear and inestimable sister, which I consider 
 myself as having received at your hands. 
 
 She is, I hope, as well as I, enjoying beyond ordinary mea- 
 sure the quiet happiness of this pleasant place. It is just such 
 a spot as we wished to reach in order to enjoy the full assur- 
 ance of our married happiness. The town is composed of 
 pretty villas, ' bosomed deep' in trees on the sides of a broken 
 valley. We ramble all day long in forest glades and over open 
 heaths, and along the bright orange cliffs of the large bay ; 
 or on the many coloured sands of, I suppose, the Paris basin, 
 which make such a beautiful show in their vertical position at 
 Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight, which is within the reach of our 
 vision from our cliffs. The tall earth cliff is at various points 
 cut into ravines by little streams, which are quite absorbed by 
 the dry sandy soil. These ravines are here called chines: they 
 correspond to what we on the coast of Norfolk call scores ; a 
 word which of course implies a set of parallel gashes, transverse 
 to the main ridge ; and carries us etymologically to score the 
 verb, and score the substantive, for an accumulated number, 
 and then for one particular number. I do not so well see the 
 etymological relations of chine. 
 
 We have a beautiful semi-circle of a bay ; and a walk along 
 
506 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1858 
 
 the low water margin of hard sand, which we are going to trace 
 to-day. There is not much tide here, but Poole, which is 
 only four and a half miles off, is one of the few places where 
 there are four tides a day ; I suppose, besides the direct tide 
 there is one which comes round the Isle of Wight, later by 
 some hours. 
 
 Retired as we are, my usual visitors, proof-sheets, have 
 found me ; and as I have something in hand which perhaps 
 may amuse you for a quarter of an hour, I will direct the 
 printer to send you copies of my last proof-sheets. They are a 
 little sketch of Barrow's academical doings, gathered from his 
 Latin works. At present they are in type that I may have the 
 benefit of the remarks of friends on them. 
 
 I hope your health is no worse than when I saw you, that 
 you have ever what Milton speaks of, ' Secret refreshings to 
 repair your strength and fainting spirits uphold.' 
 
 To Dr. MackretK] Trinity Lodge: July 30, 1858. 
 
 Since I had the great pleasure of seeing you in St. George's 
 Church we have been in various places, till we have exhausted 
 the moon, but by no means the honey. We went to Bourne- 
 mouth, which is a very charming place, and stayed there a 
 fortnight, and then (after being at Cambridge for a few days), 
 to Tunbridge Wells, where is my niece Kate, with her husband, 
 and since then we have been to Sir John Herschel's in Kent, 
 from which we returned yesterday. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge: Aug. 5, 1858. 
 
 Having seen you so lately, I naturally want to hear from 
 you, to carry on the impression which I received. It was a great 
 delight to see you in your new home to bring you and my 
 dear Fanny together the first, I hope, of many foregather- 
 ings ; and I was especially glad to see dear Janet, of whom we 
 are to lose sight for so long. . . . 
 
 We set off this morning for Hallsteads, and Fanny is com- 
 forted by having in her pocket the scheme of travel for the 
 day, which you drew out for her ; but still she has, I think, 
 some vague misgivings that four hours railroad in the north 
 
1858 CUMBERLAND. 507 
 
 must be much longer than the same time in the south. I 
 suppose as we have longer days there we ought to have longer 
 hours ! 
 
 I shall be glad to hear of any good new novels that come in 
 your way. I have not made many trials lately, but I have 
 been visited by a strong suspicion that I can no longer read 
 bad novels as I used to do. I went through one or two which 
 have some name, and found it rather dreary work. It is so 
 difficult to bear with heroines who have no common sense ; to 
 be sure they would spoil the story if they had. 
 
 I am glad you are interested in Froude. It is wholesome 
 to have the commonly received judgments respecting historical 
 persons questioned, especially when they are unfavourable. I 
 think very highly both of hard-hearted Elizabeth and of 
 bloody Mary. 
 
 To the same] Bowness : Aug. 29, 1858. 
 
 We are here after a most pleasant circuit among your 
 uncles, aunts, brother, and cousins, who have all been most 
 kind, and have received my wife as one of us, to my great con- 
 tentment and gratification. We came last from the Island, 
 where we stayed with Eeginald and Louisa from Monday till 
 Friday. We fell in with the Dean and Minna in divers places, 
 or, more properly speaking, in climbers' places, for our last 
 view of them was on the side of Skiddaw, where they were 
 going up as we were coming down. Your uncle James gave 
 Minna a sail upon the lake at Coniston, which I think occa- 
 sioned her a little alarm as well as a wetting ; but of course 
 she will tell you of her adventures better than I can. She was 
 travelling, she said, under written orders from you, and was 
 very punctual in conforming to them. Yesterday we went 
 along a new drive, through the woods of Elleray, which gives 
 a truly magnificent series of views of Windermere, especially of 
 the head of the lake. There is no saying how much I have 
 enjoyed seeing the old scenes and the dear people whom 
 we were with dearer than ever for their kindness to my dear 
 companion. 
 
508 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1858 
 
 To the, same] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 17, 1858. 
 
 Since writing to you we have been to many places. After 
 finishing our Lakes we went into Scotland and had a glimpse 
 it was no more of the Highlands. And then we went to 
 Grantham to see a statue of Newton inaugurated : that is, the 
 tarpaulin taken off it ! And then I fell and broke a rib ; but 
 was not much the worse for it ; for I went to Leeds forthwith, 
 and there Mr. Teale mended me. And at Leeds we had a 
 week of scientific meetings, which I enjoyed because Fanny 
 enjoyed them ; and then we came here rather later for my 
 work than I ought to have been ; however, by working hard for 
 a week or two I shall get things into order, and I hope keep 
 them so. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge : Dec. 9, 1858. 
 
 Thank you very much for sending me immediately the 
 Indian photographs. They are curious specimens of Jain archi- 
 tecture. You are to know that there are three kinds of archi- 
 tecture in India : Hindoo, Mohammedan, and Jain ; quite 
 different in style. Pray thank your uncle very warmly for 
 remembering me in the middle of his work and his ill health. 
 
 I have read no novel lately except a new one of Auerbach, 
 * Barfiissele ' ; and a dreamy little thing called < Deutsche Liebe,' ! 
 which is, however, full of English poetry, Wordsworth, Arnold, 
 and Tennyson I also read Ellis's ' Madagascar ' for love of 
 Janet, for there is in it a good deal about Mauritius. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Christmas Day, 1858. 
 
 I had not noticed that it was so long since I wrote to you 
 as you seem to think it has been, but certainly I have been 
 very busy this term. I began with a hurry of examinations 
 for which I arrived too late, and with three books going on at 
 the printer's, which had overtaken me and wanted matter. 
 And as the term has gone on, we have had a series of visitors 
 occupying almost the whole of the time ; some of them old 
 friends of Lady A.'s, and some my own. Among the last have 
 been Professor and Mrs. Airy. 
 
 1 By Professor Max Muller. 
 
1858 BEDGEBURY. 509 
 
 My books I have pretty well worked off ; though only one 
 of them is yet published the Novum Organum, which you 
 have seen. The others are a notice of the life of Dr. Barrow, 
 and a notice of the life of Professor Jones of Haileybury, of 
 whom you must have heard me speak as an intimate friend. 
 The works of both are going to be published, and I have 
 written a prefatory article to each. So that now my task for 
 the term, both social and literary, is, I hope, pretty well exe- 
 cuted. On Tuesday we go to Bedgebury. 
 
 To the same] Bedgebury : Dec. 29, 1858. 
 
 I write a single line to prevent any awkwardness which 
 may arise from my stupidity in telling you that I did not 
 recollect Miss C, I have known her for a great many years, 
 and have always found her a most agreeable and friendly 
 person. I hope you did not tell her that I did not recollect 
 her. I cannot tell how I came to be puzzle-headed about 
 her name. My stupidity in such matters is a source of great 
 annoyance to me, and I try to conceal it as much as possible. 
 
 "We are here a large party in a very fine house built like a 
 French chateau, with a great expanse of wooded hills about us r 
 all belonging to the estate, and a series of lakes almost as big 
 as Grrasmere and Eydal, in the valley before the house, where 
 we have been driving and walking all day. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 4, 1859. 
 
 You will have heard that we have had Herschel and Lady 
 Herschel, Bella and Maria staying with us for a week a great 
 delight was every one of the four. Alick's place in taking his 
 degree was as high as was expected. There was a project that 
 he and Maria should go to Adel. But Herschel conceived a 
 strong dislike of being without his children, so they gave up 
 their plan and went back to Collingwood yesterday. 
 
 You would see that Fred. Myers's poem about Burns was 
 judged to be the second best of all that were sent in. It ap- 
 peared to me to have a great deal of merit of the same kind as 
 Miss Isa Craig's, and in truth to be more poetical than hers is. 
 I shall not be surprised if it be more admired than hers. It is 
 very Tennysonian, so I suppose you give your admiration to it. 
 
510 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1859 
 
 Montagu Butler told me the other day that your husband 
 is a great friend of his. We have just appointed Butler to be 
 one of our assistant tutors, which I was glad to do, for he is 
 much admired by the men, and is a person whom it does them 
 good to admire and to see a good deal of. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall] Good Friday : 1859. 
 
 I hope you and Mary have been enjoying your travels ? It 
 may seem perverse to say so, but to me every part of Italy 
 appeared more interesting than Rome. You see the city from a 
 good point of view Trajan's Forum. I hope that Pentland has 
 been of some use to you ? I found him a very valuable friend. 
 
 I have seen John Stuart Mill's pamphlet on Reform, and 
 do not much disagree with him. I am glad he has taken up 
 your plan of voting for minorities. But I am much vexed at 
 the course which this Reform Bill has taken. The nation and 
 Parliament were in a calm and candid mood on the subject, 
 and if such a Bill as would have satisfied Walpole had been 
 brought in, it might have passed and tranquillised the country 
 for years. I cannot understand why Lord Derby should reject 
 Walpole's advice for Disraeli's, who, I should think, has no con- 
 victions on the subject. 
 
 Take care that you do not get yourself entangled with the 
 movements of armies before you come home. 
 
 The rumours and telegrams to-day are very warlike. I 
 would fain hope that it is impossible for the nations of Europe 
 to commit the folly and wickedness of going to war at present ; 
 but the wisdom and virtue of nations have not advanced so far 
 as to give one any great confidence in them. 
 
 I suppose this will find you in the midst of your Easter 
 festivities. I am writing on Good Friday. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers] Trinity Lodge : May 17, 1859. 
 
 It has been in my mind to write to you for several davs, 
 for I always feel confident that you take an interest in my 
 joys and sorrows. My dear brother-in-law, Robert Ellis, ended 
 his sufferings some days ago, and to-day I have been at his 
 funeral. You know how remarkable his existence has been for 
 
1859 ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS. 511 
 
 a long time, deprived of almost every outward faculty, and yet 
 retaining undimmed almost all the light within. It remained 
 so almost to the end, and, indeed, his mind was clear to the 
 last, though he became so sensitive that he could not see me 
 nor even his sister. He had always lived in fear of some great 
 suffering at the last, but I hope it was not so. He died at last 
 very peaceably, and his last words were, ' I see a light ! ' We 
 have buried him at Trumpington to-day. Among the old 
 friends who attended there were Thurtell, Harvey Goodwin, 
 Matheson, and others whom you know. . . . 
 
 I shall send you soon, I hope, a specimen of my Plato, of 
 your Plato, for it was your liking it which made me go on. 
 You must tell me whether it is worth my while to publish this 
 and to publish more. If the worshipful public does not like it 
 I shall not take the trouble of preparing any further portion 
 for the press. And perhaps you will not like it so much in 
 type as you did in viva voce reading. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwicti] Dawlish : Sep. 13, 1859. 
 
 We are so far on our journey homewards, having been in 
 Cornwall, as far as the Land's End. In that region we found 
 many friends who enquired after you, and were glad to have 
 tidings of you, especially Sir Charles Lemon, with whom we 
 stayed a week at Carclew, several of the Foxes, at Falmouth, 
 
 and the Miss C 's, at Penzance, one of whom, who was a 
 
 young girl when you were there in 1828, is understood to 
 regard you as, in a certain degree, affianced to her, so when 
 you go there again you will receive an affectionate welcome. 
 
 Our old mine at Dolcoath has the Truro and Penzance 
 Railway running through it, and is altered in other ways. 
 Lady Affleck was much delighted to make acquaintance with 
 these ancient haunts and old friends of mine. I hope it is still 
 pleasant to you, as it was to me, to recall these old memories, 
 and I should probably have written to you without any other 
 object. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Sep. 30, 1859. 
 
 We arrived here yesterday evening after our summer tour. 
 It has been very pleasant to see several old friends of my own, 
 
512 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1S60 
 
 and several of Lady A 's, and to make them for the future 
 
 our common friends; pleasant, too, to revisit together places 
 that one or other, or both, of us had known before. I was 
 especially glad to show her my ancient haunts in Cornwall, 
 which I have not visited since 1828, and to see again several 
 Cornish friends of that ancient time ; though I found in my 
 old mine of Dolcoath nobody who recollected me. We went to 
 the very Land's End, and looked out over the Atlantic. They 
 say that there is no land between that and the Antarctic Circle. 
 
 To his Sister] London: July 4, 1860. 
 
 I do not know if Lady A has told you of our immediate 
 
 projects for the summer ? We intend to cross over from 
 Folkestone to Boulogne on Friday (the 6th), and to cross 
 France to Bayonne. Our purpose is then, if her courage do 
 not fail, to pass the Pyrenees and to go into Spain, so as to get 
 into the path of the eclipse of the sun, which is total in that 
 region. We have friends at Bilbao, with whom we go and stay 
 till the eclipse is over. It takes place on the 18th. It will 
 be a large eclipse in England but not total ; and the difference 
 between a total eclipse and another, which though large is not 
 total, is striking enough to make us think it worth while going 
 where we can see the phenomenon in its perfection. I am 
 afraid it will be very hot, and we hear a good deal of the dis- 
 comforts of travelling in Spain, but I dare say that all these 
 difficulties will turn out in reality, when we come to grapple 
 with them, much smaller than they seem in the prospect. 
 
 We were at Oxford great part of last week, for the meeting 
 of the British Association. 
 
 To the same'] Bayonne: July 25, 1860. 
 
 We are returned to this place after our journey to Spain. 
 Our travelling was certainly somewhat rough ; that is, the inns 
 were dirty and uncomfortable, and the feeding not to our mind, 
 but still we got on very well when we got a little used to their 
 ways. The eclipse was quite as striking as we expected to find 
 it, and well seen where we were, except that the sky was cloudy 
 under the sun's place, so that we did not see the four planets 
 which were visible where the sky was clear. 
 
1800 VISIT TO SPAIN. 513 
 
 I often wished James had been with us, to see a very extra- 
 ordinary railway which they are making, from Santander and 
 Bilbao to Tudela. The engineer is an Englishman, Mr. Vig- 
 nolles, with whom we were staying at Bilbao. 
 
 To Dr. MackretK] Trinity Lodge: Aug. 22, 1860. 
 
 Since I saw you we have executed with great success the 
 Spanish expedition, which we were then talking of have seen 
 our eclipse in the most striking aspect we could have conceived 
 have spent our five days at Biarritz, and our ten days at 
 Paris, and are glad to find ourselves in the intense quiet of 
 the College in the Long Vacation. I am not quite sure that 
 we shall not stay here, for we enjoy the repose and tranquillity 
 very much, and the persevering bad weather is such as to 
 forbid all unnecessary expeditions. But still we have a hankering 
 after the north, and do not like to let a second summer pass 
 without at least a glimpse of it, 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] 
 
 Coniston Hall, not Monk Coniston ; Sept, 22, I860. 
 
 I have long wished to write to you, and to tell you how 
 much I have sympathised with you in all your troubles and 
 sorrows, and how much I love you as I have always done, and 
 how glad I am to know that you are again in England, and 
 how earnestly I hope that your evil time is past, and that your 
 dear husband is recovering his health, and that your time of 
 comfort and peace is come. All this I should have told you 
 long ago, but I hope that you know it as well as if I had told 
 it you twenty times over. I have, that is we have, been 
 travelling about almost the whole of the summer, in a way 
 very unfavourable to letter writing. Lately we have been in 
 the north, but too late to see Kate at the Island, and so I did 
 not go to the Island, nor any further than Monk Coniston, the 
 last place at which we were. For you are to understand that 
 the Coniston Hall from which I now write, is not the Lancashire, 
 but the Yorkshire Coniston, not far from Skipton. It belongs to 
 Mr. Tottie of Leeds, but is at present inhabited by a brother-in- 
 law of Lady Affleck's, a Mr. Unwin, who has two charming 
 
 L L 
 
514 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1800 
 
 little girls, of whom Lady A is very fond, and who have 
 
 adopted me as their uncle, with great good will. You see my 
 possessions in the way of nieces go on increasing, and it is 
 truly remarkable what charming creatures most of them are ! 
 
 This Coniston, which is called Coniston Cold, that is 
 Coniston Cold Spring not Cold Coniston, as some ignorantly 
 used to say, is in the midst of some of the most noticeable 
 Yorkshire sights. Yesterday we were at Bolton Abbey, and 
 saw an adventurous tourist ' bound across the Strid,' without 
 coming to any grief; and the day before we were at Malham 
 Cove, and Grordale, two very wonderful exhibitions of the way 
 in which the limestone rock of this region exhibits itself in 
 cliffs, which you perhaps know, as becomes a Yorkshire 
 woman. And on Monday we are to enjoy a better result of 
 our coming into this region, by going to your dear mother at 
 Cookridge, where I shall hear more of you, my darling. But as 
 I have an hour at liberty this morning, I do not see how I 
 can use it better than by writing to you, to tell you that I need 
 no such visit to keep you in my thoughts and my heart, that 
 I shall be very glad to hear of all that befalls you, and hope it 
 may be nothing but good. 
 
515 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1860-1866. 
 
 Completion of Master's Court Sketch of History of Courts and of the 
 Foundations endowed eventually by Dr. Whewell's Bequest Family 
 Sorrows Professor Henslow Prize Poem Death of the Prince Con- 
 sort Duke of Devonshire Chancellor Photographs ' Lady of La 
 Garaye ' British Association at Cambridge Death of Mrs. Statter Her 
 Verses Death of Mr. Rowley Visit to Cambridge of the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales Illness of Lady Affleck Her Death Visits Putney 
 Cheltenham Grange Scotland Nuneham Yorkshire Switzer- 
 land French Cathedrals Return to Cambridge Visitors Lowestoft 
 Visits to various friends Last Letter to his Sister Mrs. Newton 
 Death of Lord Monteagle Accident Death. 
 
 IN 1860 was completed the first Master's Court, a 
 building opposite the Great Gate of Trinity, which Dr. 
 Whewell had erected at his own expense, in order to 
 afford additional accommodation for students of Trinity 
 College. His ultimate purpose, which was effected by 
 his will, was to endow out of the rents and "profits of 
 this hostel or auxiliary building a Chair of International 
 Law, and Scholarships for proficiency in that subject. 
 This idea had been present to his mind for a long time, 
 though it is not easy to ascertain exactly when he first 
 entertained it. It is probable that it was suggested by 
 the course of study which he pursued himself, and 
 sketched out for others in connection with his duties as 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy. The last chapter of his 
 ' Elements of Morality, 'published in 1845, is entitled 'In- 
 ternational Jus., Eights and Obligations between States,' 
 and the scope and arrangement of his work seem to 
 
 L L 2 
 
516 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1860 
 
 indicate that he regarded the recognition of International 
 obligations as marking the highest development and 
 final outcome of the Science of Morality. 
 
 The first step which he seems to have taken was in 
 1849, when he propounded to Mr. Mart ; n, then Bursar, 
 a hypothetical scheme for the endowment of a Professor- 
 ship, without specifying the nature of it. This scheme, 
 which contemplated a considerable expenditure on the 
 part of the College to meet the proposed gift, did not 
 approve itself to Mr. Martin's judgment. Before 
 addressing Mr. Martin, the Master had already acquired 
 the freehold of the Sun Inn, opposite the Great Gate of 
 Trinity, which was estimated at about 7,000/. After 
 receiving Mr. Martin's answer he commenced a negotia- 
 tion with Jesus College for the purchase of some- adjoin- 
 ing property, which he conceived to be necessary for 
 the attainment of his object. He proposed to endow 
 his Professorship and Scholarships out of the rents to 
 be derived from a hostel, in which additional accommo- 
 dation would be provided for students of Trinity Col- 
 lege. Thus the College would be benefited, while at 
 the same time the means of endowment would be pro- 
 vided. He hoped that the property belonging to Jesus 
 College, when thrown in with his own, would furnish a 
 sufficient site for the proposed hostel, but the expense 
 of this additional ground and that of the building to be 
 erected was to fall on the College, and to be repaid by 
 a sinking fund out of the rents. 
 
 In August 1850, before he had come to any arrange- 
 ment with Jesus College, he proposed to the Seniors to 
 give the Sun Inn site to the College on the conditions 
 he had already mentioned to Mr. Martin, but he now 
 specified that the Professorship to be endowed by his 
 gift would be one of International Law. The Seniority 
 
1800 MASTER OFFERS A SITE. 517 
 
 appear to have declined the offer, probably deterred 
 by financial considerations. In making the offer Dr. 
 Whewell referred to the appointment of the Eoyal 
 Commission, which was then imminent, and stated 
 that his offer assumed that the present mode of conduct- 
 ing the College system and managing the College pro- 
 perty would not be interfered with by external authority. 
 Still, it was in November 1857, at the time when the 
 controversy about College reform was raging most 
 violently within the walls of Trinity, that he next 
 approached the College with a renewal of his offer. He 
 had now acquired the property belonging to Jesus 
 College, which he had formerly wished the College to 
 purchase, so that the only expenditure the College 
 would incur would be that of erecting a hostel. His 
 proposal now comprised the establishment of Scholar- 
 ships as well as of a Professorship of International Law, 
 and also additional Foundation Scholarships attached to 
 the College. A design for a hostel had been prepared 
 by Mr. Salvin. It would give twenty-five sets of rooms, 
 and would cost 10,00(M. Nothing, however, came of 
 this offer, and in 1859 Dr. Whewell determined to 
 erect the hostel himself. It was completed in the 
 summer of 1860, and immediately occupied by students 
 of the College. Although the private property of Dr. 
 Whewell it was regarded as an integral portion of the 
 College, and students residing in it were subject to the 
 same rules, and had the same privileges as those residing 
 within the College walls. But Dr. Whewell's intentions 
 did not stop here. He was persevering and vigilant in 
 his endeavour to obtain another contiguous site, which 
 would enable him to enlarge his building and augment 
 his endowment. His first desire was to carry the ex- 
 tention of his hostel along Trinity Street, for he had 
 
518 LIFE OF DK. WHEWELL. 18GO 
 
 always been anxious whenever new buildings connected 
 with the College were erected, that their architectural 
 character should improve the appearance of the town, 
 'but the difficulty of acquiring property with so valuable 
 a frontage compelled the Master to turn his eyes in 
 another direction, and eventually he determined that 
 the site of his additional hostel, or second Court, should 
 be at the back of the first Court, and between it and 
 Sidney Street. By the end of 1865 he had purchased 
 all the land necessary for the purpose, the plans for a 
 Court with seventy sets of rooms were prepared, 
 tenders for a contract were invited, and it was scarcely 
 a fortnight before the accident which caused his death 
 that the contract was settled and signed. The building 
 was completed in 1868, and the rooms occupied in the 
 next October Term. 
 
 It was found that the project he had so long enter- 
 tained of establishing International Law as an important 
 branch of University study had been most carefully and 
 munificently provided for under his will. If he had 
 lived a few years longer he would probably have inau- 
 gurated the establishment of the chair himself. As it 
 was, he left directions so clear and definite that no diffi- 
 culty was found in carrying out his intentions to the 
 full, immediately the building of the second Court was 
 completed. The value of the endowment which he 
 gave to support the study he had thus selected for 
 special encouragement cannot have been much less than 
 100,OOOZ. Dr. Whewell's gift maintains a Professor and 
 eight Scholars, whose combined stipends amount to 
 1,1 OO/. a year. 
 
 The first Professor elected under the Trust in 1869 
 was Sir William Harcourt, M.P., who still holds the 
 appointment. The practical object which Dr. Whewell 
 
1860 BEQUEST. 519 
 
 had in view is recognised by a regulation requiring the 
 Professor, according to his express injunctions in all 
 parts of his treatment of the subject, to lay down such 
 rules and to suggest such measures as may tend to 
 diminish the evils of war, and finally to extinguish war 
 between nations. In the same spirit the regulations for 
 the Scholarships confer certain exemptions from resid- 
 ence in favour of Scholars holding diplomatic or con- 
 sular appointments under the Crown. 1 
 
 Two Foundation Scholarships were also given by 
 Dr. Whewell's will to the College. Mrs. Whewell several 
 years before her death endowed a Foundation Scholar- 
 ship at Trinity with 500. In addition to this, she 
 bequeathed by her will a sum of nearly 10,000/. to the 
 College, to be applied at her husband's death as he 
 should direct, or failing such direction it was bequeathed 
 to a fund belonging to the College, known as the Pigott 
 Fund, and employed in the augmentation of the stipends 
 of poor incumbents. By his will, Dr. Whewell directed 
 that the Master and Seniors should apply the sum at 
 their discretion to any one of three specified objects : 
 
 1 The electors to the professorship are the Vice-Chancellor, the Master 
 of Trinity College, the Regius Professor of Civil Law, the Professor of 
 Moral Philosophy, the Downing Professor of the Laws of England, and the 
 Professor of Political Economy, with casting vote to the Master of Trinity. 
 
 The Professor is required annually to give a course of twelve lectures on 
 the subject of International Law, and he is bound by the express injunction 
 of Dr. Whewell l to make it his aim in all parts of his treatment of the sub- 
 ject to lay down such rules and to suggest such measures as may tend to 
 diminish the evils of war, and finally to extinguish war between nations/ 
 He is further required to furnish to the Master and senior Fellows of Trinity 
 a certificate signed by ten resident members of the University that they have 
 each of them attended ten at least of the lectures of the Professor during the 
 preceding year. The Scholarships are eight in number, and each of them 
 is tenable for four years. Of the two Scholars annually to be elected one is 
 to receive 100/. and the other 501. The electors are the same as for the 
 Professorship. The condition of residence is relaxed in favour of any persons 
 holding a diplomatic or consular appointment under the Crown. All persons 
 under the age of twenty-five years are eligible to the Scholarships. 
 
520 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1861 
 
 the foundation of additional Scholarships, or of a Pro- 
 fessorship, or to the augmentation of the Pigott Fund. 
 In July 1879 Mrs. Whewell's Trust Fund had reached 
 by accumulation the sum of 11 ,952. 12s. 10^., and the 
 income of it was being devoted by the College to the 
 augmentation of small livings. 
 
 The death of Mr. Ellis was the only break in the 
 happiness of the two years immediately following Dr. 
 Whewell's second marriage. We have seen from his 
 letters how great was his admiration for the character 
 of his wife's brother, and his respect for the courageous 
 patience with which his sufferings and disabilities were 
 borne. 
 
 The year 1861 was one of much sorrow, not only 
 to his old friend Sir John Herschel, but also to those 
 young relations whom Dr. Whewell loved with especial, 
 and almost parental fondness. Whilst blow after blow 
 fell upon them, he poured out his ardent sympathy in 
 frequent letters. 
 
 From these it is not easy to select any to lay before 
 strangers. Still any picture of Dr. Whewell which 
 displayed the depth and strength of feeling inspired by 
 his own domestic joys and sorrows, and did not show 
 with what tenderness he sympathised with others under 
 similar trials, would be most imperfect. The attempt 
 must therefore be made. 
 
 The first sorrow was occasioned by the death of the 
 niece whose marriage, connecting together as it did two 
 families most dear to him, had been rejoiced over as 
 4 one of the happiest events of his later life.' Writing 
 of this to Sir John Herschel he says : 
 
 So great is this calamity, it may seem at first to deprive of 
 their value your remaining possessions. And yet, my dear 
 Herschel, it is not so. You are still richer in objects of love 
 
1861 BEEEAVEMENTS. 521 
 
 and sources of earthly happiness than any one whom I know, 
 and so I trust you will soon come to feel. And with regard to 
 her we may feel, persons at your age and mine, that the 
 separation cannot be for long. There is nothing but what 
 may well be borne, in the thought that we shall have to follow 
 in a few short years. As we go onward in life, the next world 
 comes to be peopled with our loved ones more than this. The 
 thought of her angel life may elevate and sweeten our earthly 
 life. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson he wrote a few days later : 
 
 Lowestoft: Jan. 11, 1861. 
 
 I know well how idle and vain all words of comfort must 
 be for a long time. She, whom we have lost, was indeed so 
 sweet, and dear, and good, that we cannot think how we can 
 live without her. Even to see her as seldom as I saw her, 
 gave a sunshine to my life. What are we to say of her re- 
 moval but that she was ripe for heaven and so was taken 
 thither. You will have heard how well prepared she was for 
 her departure, and how resignedly she past away ; in full 
 reliance on Him Who became as one of us, that we might be 
 like Him, and see Him as He is. She is taken to the house of 
 many mansions, and you will have hereafter to think of her as 
 of a sister in heaven. 
 
 ... I am soothed and comforted in some degree by your 
 turning to me with a daughter's love but even the thought of 
 her where she is, and as she is, must fail to calm our grief as 
 yet. My heart bleeds to think of the terrible sorrow to so 
 many persons so sweet and so dear to me, all ; besides the 
 husband, whom I hardly know how to write to, the two dear 
 mothers, both of whom I have long loved as sisters, and who 
 have allowed me to look on them as such. Our motto, my 
 love, must be sursum corda, but as I say, it is hard as yet to 
 find any virtue in these words. May a merciful God He is 
 merciful enable you soon to feel the consolation that there is 
 in them. 
 
522 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1861 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] 
 
 Trinity Lodge, Cambridge: Feb. 6, 1861. 
 
 It was a great disappointment to me, as well as to Lady 
 Affleck, to find you saying that you could not come to us. I 
 hope still you will find that you can. It is so very hard that you 
 should go for three weeks to Oxford, and not come for a few 
 days to Cambridge. I reckon that you are a Cambridge woman 
 as much as Stair is an Oxford man, and I think it is great 
 tyranny on his part, to give all to his University and none to 
 yours. Pray think better of this. 
 
 Stair was very good in writing to me, on the occasion of 
 that other beloved niece's removal to her place among the 
 angels. ... I have letters from Sir John and Lady Herschel, 
 which show that they bear the blow as well as one could expect. 
 They have many blessings left, beyond the common lot of man ; 
 but this was the first great affliction. I have often thought of 
 the Herschels as a family signally happy in almost every way ; 
 but one's thoughts of their happiness must always now have 
 this dark shadow of sorrow in its sky. 
 
 All the letters Dr. Whewell wrote at this time show 
 how keenly lie shared this sorrow, but throughout he 
 is always pointing out what comfort lies in dwelling 
 upon the happy past and the happier future. ' Who 
 would wish to forget, and gain by oblivion a dead con- 
 solation ? ' * She must always be one of the brightest 
 spots in the range of memory to all who knew her. 
 May you be supported and soothed by sweet memories 
 and sweeter hopes ! ' 
 
 About this time his old friend Professor Henslow, 
 who was at the point of death, sent him a message of 
 farewell. The answer this drew forth was written 
 
 April 14, 1861. 
 
 My dear Henslow, I am much touched by your kind re- 
 collection of me in your situation. If you are really on the 
 point of making the great voyage which we must all make in 
 
1801 FAREWELL LETTER TO PROFESSOR HENSLOW. 523 
 
 our turn, may Grod be with you, and comfort and support you 
 through the passage, and receive you in (to ?) His paternal and 
 redeeming arms when it is over. 
 
 If this reaches you while you are still among us, I should 
 like you to know the deep gratitude I have to you for all that I 
 have received and learnt from you. I never was with you, even 
 for a short time, without thinking that I was the better and 
 wiser for you ; and it has been one of the sorrows of my later 
 life that I saw less of you than I wished to do. 
 
 But all these regrets will soon be over ; for you are going, 
 in a few days, as it seems, and I in a few years, where we shall 
 know, even as we are known. 
 
 God bless and support you, my dear Henslow, and believe 
 me 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 W. WHEWELL. 
 
 Another sorrow had fallen, another separation taken 
 place, before he writes to his niece Mrs. Simmer 
 Gibson a letter in which the following words occur : 
 
 Lowestoft : July 16. 
 
 The recollection of a happy married life, however short, is, 
 when time has softened the first deep bitterness of the sorrow, 
 something which gives a solemn tranquillity to life, and estab- 
 lishes a really felt connection between this life and a future 
 one. 
 
 A letter to Miss Whewell tells of the outward 
 events and movements of the summer. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Aug. 12, 1861. 
 
 We are here on our way from Lowestoft to the Continent. 
 We left Cliff Cottage a week ago, having been there about a 
 month. It was very pretty and pleasant, and we were sorry to 
 leave it. The Lodge, too, is a very pleasant abode at present ; 
 indeed I do not know where we can hope to find a pleasanter. 
 With its large rooms and thick walls, and lawns and shades out 
 
524 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 18C1 
 
 of doors, no abode can be better suited to enable us to bear the 
 hot weather. 
 
 To a Niece] Trinity Lodge: Aug. 11, 1861. 
 
 Though I have not written to you, I am sure you have not 
 needed to be told that my heart was with you in your great 
 affliction. Indeed, your aunt Marianne gave me a message 
 from you which made me understand that you confided in my 
 love and sympathy; and to be so recollected by you at such a 
 time made me love you and feel for you all the more. And in 
 truth, my love, now that I am writing to you, what can I say 
 that you do not know already. I will not attempt to persuade 
 you that your cause for grief is not most bitter and over- 
 whelming, and you know as well as I can tell you that it is to 
 be accepted as a chastening token of God's love, and as a means 
 of turning your thoughts to another world, where there will be 
 no more tears and no more separations. And, even on this side 
 the grave, I trust, my love, that when the first bitter surprise 
 of grief is past you may find something to soothe and raise 
 your thoughts in turning them back upon your short period of 
 happiness. I am sure you will agree with me that your life 
 will be a nobler and holier kind of being than if you had no 
 such bright season to look back upon, and will feel that such 
 a widowhood connects you with the world to come. From 
 what your aunt Susan writes to me, I know that you do not 
 take the chastening in a rebellious spirit ; and you have yet 
 many left who love you, and to whom you can give your love, 
 even though the largest share of it is buried, or rather trans- 
 ferred to the regions of immortality. 
 
 I shall be glad to hear from you when you can write to me. 
 My wife desires me to give you her kindest regards and warmest 
 sympathy. We intend to set off in a few days for Switzerland, 
 to stay there a few weeks. 
 
 My dear child, I have not said one tenth of what I had to 
 say, but indeed it cannot be said at once, and I hope that we 
 shall see each other often ; and learn to know each other's 
 feelings, as I hope on many subjects we have known them in 
 past times. One thing I cannot but say you will excuse any 
 
18(31 SWISS TOUR. 525 
 
 transient pain which it gives you, for the abiding sentiment 
 must be one of thankfulness and solace. 
 
 I think you were happy in having so peaceful and conscious 
 a leave-taking. Such a parting seems to me a true euthanasia, 
 as great a blessing as God can give in this life, for it conveys 
 an assurance of a life and a happy one beyond. And you know 
 in whom you confide for the reconciliation with God, on both 
 your parts, which is to lead you to that life. 
 
 To the same] 
 
 Your dear letter reached me at Vevay and was very welcome. 
 1 was very glad to find that you took kindly the few words of 
 sympathy and soothing which I tried to say to you then. I 
 hope the succeeding time has brought you peace and touches 
 of comfort. There can be no better foundation for peace and 
 consolation than that which you have ; the resolve to live on in 
 a way worthy of the thoughts which have been called up in us 
 by those who have gone before us. May all comfort be with 
 you from this and every other source ! 
 
 We returned hither a few days ago, after a six weeks' tour, 
 mainly in Switzerland. Being now once more at home, I want 
 to hear the summer story of all friends ; and I shall be glad if 
 you, my love, will let me know something of yourself as soon as 
 you can with satisfaction to yourself. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Dec. 8, 1861. 
 
 Your letter gave me great pleasure. You accept your lot 
 with a patience and sweetness which are delightful to those 
 that love you as I do, and will, by the blessing of God, lead 
 you to peace and comfort. I should like much to see you and 
 have you with me for a while. Is it not possible that you could 
 come to us at Lowestoft ? You know how quiet you would be 
 there. We are going to the Cottage, I think, before Christmas, 
 and shall stay there till near the end of January, and we will 
 have nobody to disturb you, except we could persuade Kate to 
 come at the same time, which would be very pleasant. Should 
 you rot like to see the Cottage and the shore again, and walk with 
 me on the Denes ? 
 
 We are going out of College as soon as the term is over, 
 
526 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1861 
 
 after some weeks of rather unusual company keeping. The 
 approaching departure of the Prince of Wales has led to various 
 festivities balls, plays, and shooting matches, and the like, 
 besides dinners and concerts of various dimensions. The Prince 
 is to travel for the next half-year. Lucky for him that he has 
 done his United States already, for they seem likely now to be 
 undone for all future travellers. 
 
 The death of the Prince Consort on December 10, 
 1861, rendered it necessary to have a new election for 
 the Chancellorship of the University. The names of 
 the Duke of Buccleugh and of the Duke of Northum- 
 berland were put forward, mainly on political grounds. 
 Dr. Whewell had made up his mind from the first that 
 the Duke of Devonshire would be the fittest successor 
 to that high office, both on account of his exalted rank, 
 and still more by virtue of his scientific and intellectual 
 eminence. We have already seen the estimation in 
 which he was held by Dr. Whewell at the time when 
 he had just completed his brilliant academical career, 
 and in the parliamentary elections of 1829 and 1831 
 the Duke, who was then Mr. Cavendish, had received 
 Dr. Whewell's warm support. Since that time Dr. 
 Whewell's political opinions, though he was never an 
 extreme partisan, had become very different from those 
 which the Duke of Devonshire was well known to enter- 
 tain, but on this occasion he discarded all considerations 
 of politics in comparison with what lie felt to be due to 
 the dignity and interest of the University, and the 
 example he set was followed in a very remarkable 
 manner by other Conservatives, especially in his own 
 College. His influence thus had the effect of saving the 
 University from a contested election, an incident in 
 University life which, as we have already seen, he par- 
 ticularly disliked. Even he could hardly have foreseen 
 
18G2 DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE CHANCELLOR. 527 
 
 the great advantages which have accrued to the Univer- 
 sity from the choice of so munificent and enlightened a 
 Chancellor. 
 
 The installation of the Duke of Devonshire took 
 place in the summer of the following year. In con- 
 formity with usage Honorary Degrees were conferred 
 on several eminent persons, according to a list partly 
 furnished by the Chancellor. Dr. Whewell was con- 
 sulted on this matter. Among the names suggested by 
 him was that of M. Michel Chevallier, one of his intimate 
 foreign friends. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 25, 1862. 
 
 I suppose that Lady Affleck has breathed forth to you some 
 of the indignation which she feels against photographs in 
 general, and photographs of me in particular. For my part, 
 though I think in general they are odious things, * Justice 
 without Mercy,' as Landseer calls them for men, and Injustice 
 without Mercy, as I call them, for women, on the present 
 occasion I am for once obliged to them for bringing me your 
 pleasant letter after too long a silence very likely my fault. 
 
 Fanny, as she probably told you, was quite taken by surprise 
 and in a most disagreeable way, when after a great struggle 
 she had consented to have me operated upon, supposing that 
 the results were to remain in her own hands altogether, and 
 were to be a special piece of patronage and munificence of her 
 own ; and then found my physiognomy staring at us from shop 
 windows in half a dozen different versions ! It is a very hard 
 case for us English, for it appears they manage these matters 
 better in France. But, as the Chief Baron said the other day, 
 a man has no property in his own face ; still less has his wife 
 any property in it. 
 
 I have no doubt that you have been very meritorious in 
 reading honestly on in ' Mrs. Delany ' ; but there is a sort of 
 pleasure of a peculiar kind in making acquaintance with paper 
 companions and living with them day after day. 
 
 Ed io anche. I, too, have been a marvel of such patience, 
 
528 LIFE OF DR. WIIEWELL. 18G2 
 
 for I have read fairly through ' The Young Stepmother,' a 
 .novel by Miss (Heartsease) Yonge, in which a lady, who marries 
 a widower with a family because she likes educating children, 
 is very naturally rewarded by finding the education a very 
 troublesome business. Still, there is great reality about it, so 
 that I hear the ladies discussing whether she did right in this 
 or that. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] Trinity Lodge: March 15, 1862. 
 
 I have not seen the ' Lady of la Graraye,' but I suppose one 
 can judge of it from the extracts in reviews and newspapers. 
 From those it seemed clever and poetical, but rather too much 
 of a hospital poem to be very cheerful reading. I do, however, 
 intend to get it and read it. I suppose Henry Taylor's drama 
 is nearly ready, for his wife brought the dedication to Park' 
 Street the other day. It is dedicated to the Due d'Aumale, 
 the story being, I believe, about a prince of Orleans. I told 
 her I thought such a dedication a very humane attention to 
 ex-royalty. 
 
 To James Garth Marshall] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: Oct. 10, 1862. 
 
 We were very sorry not to see you here during the meeting, 1 
 and went on hoping to the last that you would come. Our 
 friends seemed well satisfied with the business and the amuse- 
 ments of the occasion, You would have found in the Lodge 
 with us Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Harcourt, Sir Walter and Lady 
 Trevelyan, and Vignolles, the engineer. There was an attempt 
 to get up a discussion about this unhappy break of bank in the 
 Fens ; but such a discussion was thought premature, and it was 
 staved off. I was not much in the Geological Section, and do 
 not know if they had there any discussion of metamorphic 
 doctrines ; but I find that Sorby [?] has a grant of money to 
 make experiments on that subject, so the matter is not asleep. 
 
 O'Callaghan was with us often, though he was lodged at 
 Peterhouse, and gave us some account of the well-being of you 
 and yours in the neighbourhood of Leeds. 
 
 The Association is going to Newcastle next year, which I do 
 
 1 Of the British Association at Cambridge. 
 
1863 DEATH OF MRS. STATTER. 529 
 
 not much like, for two reasons. I think it is better to go to 
 new places ; Bath and Dundee urged their claims, and I do not 
 like to have the thoughts of men of science turned mainly to 
 war, as is done by making Sir W. Armstrong the President. 
 But the Association wants money, and ought to get it, for it 
 spends a great deal. 
 
 We are now enjoying our rest after our bustle. 
 
 The early days of this year were overcast with 
 anxiety about Dr. WhewelTs sister Martha, Mrs. Statter. 
 She died at Wormenhall in January. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Jan. 14, 1863. 
 
 When your kind New Year's letter came to gladden me 
 here I let my wife answer it, because she wanted to try to 
 persuade you and Sumner to come to us here. 
 
 You told me you had been reading the ' Life of Irving,' and 
 did not much like it. I do not wonder. The lady authoress 
 has put in far too much of her own fine writing. She is also 
 rather too much of a partisan, but I do not quarrel with that 
 in a biographer, if kept within moderate bounds. There is 
 another biography which I think interesting, though the subject 
 of it was in some respects a rough character. I mean Wilson 
 ' Christopher North.' The story of the early days of * Black- 
 wood ' is not very creditable, but there are interesting pictures 
 of life and character, well given. 
 
 I have been reading, too, a story about a namesake of yours. 
 You know I have a general love for Kates,' and I think you 
 might be amused with ' Countess Kate.' It is a child's book, 
 at least, so intended ; my wife says that the moral is not good, 
 as it tends to make rude, impetuous, ungainly girls, satisfied 
 with themselves and confident that they will be admired in the 
 end. This seems to me rather hard upon this Kate ; but at 
 any rate you are in no danger of being spoilt by the moral. 
 Besides which, you will read the story and disregard the moral 
 like a sensible reader. 
 
 I have lately -been called away into Oxfordshire, to see my 
 sister (Mrs. Statter), who is very ill, but whom I found not 
 quite so ill as I had feared, 
 
 M M 
 
530 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1863 
 
 To his Sister] Lowestoft: Jan. 24, 1863. 
 
 Your news, though not unexpected, was very afflicting. I 
 thought our dear sister might have endured a little longer; 
 but God has taken her, and she has gone to Him in a faith and 
 hope which will not fail her. It is consolatory to hear that 
 her departure was so tranquil, still more so to recollect how 
 prepared and resigned she seemed when I saw her. I am 
 thankful that owing to your thoughtfulness I saw her then 
 rather than at the last. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers'] Trinity Lodge: Feb. 5, 1863. 
 
 It was a great comfort to me to receive your kind and 
 sisterly letter, prompted by the departure of my dear sister 
 Martha. I was with her about a fortnight before the end, and 
 administered the Communion to her. She was then looking 
 quite steadily and trustfully to the end ; I thought it might not 
 be so near. 
 
 She had all her children with her at the end, except James, 
 who is an architect, and is building railway stations in Den- 
 mark. . . . Have you seen a book which Alfred Elliott has 
 written and sent over ? It is a history of the legends, migra- 
 tions, connections, and habits of some of the people that he has 
 to do with : ' The Chronicle of Oonao : a District of Oudh.' I 
 am very glad to see from him a book of this kind. It is the 
 sort of study that our great Indians Malcolm, Elphinstone, 
 and the like have pursued, and will tend to make and prove 
 him fit for high office. 
 
 To his Sister Ann] Trinity Lodge : Feb. 27, 1863. 
 
 I was very glad to hear from you. It had not occurred to 
 me that it was so long since we met on that solemn occasion at 
 Wormenhall. The recollection of that meeting is full of sadness, 
 yet softened by the thought of the previous meeting which we 
 had when we were assured that we were, through Christ, heirs 
 of eternal life ; and by the thought, how calmly and firmly she 
 looked forward to her departure. I was glad that you were 
 able to stay a little while with the dear children. 
 
 I think it will be very interesting for all of us, and for a 
 
1863 MRS, STATTER'S VERSES. 531 
 
 few other friends, to have copies of the verses which our dear 
 sister now and then solaced herself with writing. 
 
 I am invited to Windsor, to be present at the Prince of 
 Wales's marriage. I believe there will be a great crowd. We 
 are already busy here with preparations for illuminating the 
 College. We want to show such goodwill as we can. 
 
 To Dr. MackretJi] Trinity Lodge: Oct. 8, 1863. 
 
 I think you will be glad to hear of us, now that our sum- 
 mer wanderings are over, and we are once more settled in our 
 regular abode. We had a very pleasant tour of about three 
 months, reaching as far as Venice and Trieste in one direction, 
 and Zurich and Lausanne in another. We visited also many 
 of the old German towns which I had visited before when I 
 was following German architecture with great zeal from pro- 
 vince to province. We had very fine weather and were carried 
 by the railroads with wonderful rapidity over vast spaces. 
 Indeed, the railroads themselves are among the most noticeable 
 things when they are carried through mountainous country. 
 The railway from Vienna to Trieste and Venice is quite one of 
 the wonders of the world, and very beautiful as well as very 
 wonderful. 
 
 I am now busy with the election of our Fellows. We have 
 only three vacancies, a smaller number than usual, and there- 
 fore shall have to reject some meritorious men, much to my 
 sorrow. 
 
 My sister has been much interested of late in printing a 
 number of verses which my dear sister Martha wrote at various 
 periods. They are not remarkable for literary merit, but there 
 is a constancy and liveliness of religious feeling in them which 
 makes them affecting to those who knew her, especially. 
 
 I take for granted Ann has given you a copy of this col- 
 lection. 
 
 The last year of sunshine opened with a visit to 
 Lowestoft. There Dr. Whewell received the news of 
 the death of his old schoolmaster Joseph Eowley, and a 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1864 
 
 letter to Dr. Mackreth records again the obligation to 
 him which he was never weary of acknowledging. 
 
 In the summer they began their holiday, as usual, by 
 spending a short time at Cliff Cottage. Afterwards 
 they went together to revisit the ' ancient haunts ' 
 among the ; dear lakes,' Hallsteads, Patterdale, Monk 
 Coniston, Derwent Island, returning to Cambridge rather 
 earlier than usual. 
 
 To Dr. Mackreth'] Cliff Cottage, Lowestoft : Jan. 13, 1864. 
 
 I think you will be glad to hear from me, though I have 
 nothing to send but good wishes, and only want to send 
 them before they have lost the fragrance of the New Year. I 
 wish most heartily all good to you and Mrs. Mackreth and all 
 belonging to you. You are now among the oldest friends that 
 I have, and as we grow older every year we more and more 
 value these long-established ties of mutual regard. I have 
 lately received notification of the death of one very old 
 friend my old schoolmaster Joseph Eowley. I have great 
 obligations to him, for it was mainly through him that I was 
 sent to Cambridge, and so became what I am. I see that he was 
 ninety years old. I suppose his daughter remained with him 
 to the last ; all his other children had been settled away from 
 him some time ago. A few years ago I discovered in the wife 
 of a clergyman in Norfolk a granddaughter of his. Are his 
 children in general pretty well provided for ? 
 
 We arrived here the first day of the New Year, and had 
 ten days of very sharp frost, but that now seems to have passed 
 away, and we have our usual mild January weather. 
 
 In the Easter Term of this year the Prince of Wales 
 brought the Princess to Cambridge. The Eoyal visitors 
 stayed at the Lodge. The great feature of the visit 
 was a ball in Neville's Court, one of the three quad- 
 rangles of the College, in which a spacious marquee 
 was erected for the occasion. 
 
18G4 ROYAL VISIT. 533 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] 
 
 Burlington Hotel: June 20, 1864. 
 
 It is long since I have heard from you or written to you. 
 We have of late been so busy, first with the preparations for 
 our royal visit, and- then with the visit itself, that it seemed 
 impossible, for the time, to employ ourselves about anything 
 else. You would laugh if I could tell you how I have been 
 kept sleepless by unwonted cares about how carriages were to 
 set down and take up at our ball ! And yet the difficulties 
 were really not small ; for the ball-room was Neville's Court 
 cloisters and all and the entrance was at the cloister in King's 
 Court. You may recollect that the only access to this is by 
 Trinity Lane, which is too narrow for two carriages to pass. 
 So they had to set down, and then go forward into the wide, 
 wide world by the lime-tree avenue and the iron gate, and to 
 return by the Antipodes after circumnavigating Cambridge. 
 However, in the end all went off excellently well, without con- 
 fusion or manifest difficulty. Our royal guests seemed well 
 entertained and enjoyed themselves. And what was an 
 especial delight to me, our young men behaved extremely well, 
 with great orderliness and self-restraint. 
 
 To the same'] 
 
 Grange, near Cartmell : Aug. 26, 1864. 
 
 We have been revisiting the ancient haunts about the dear 
 lakes, Hallsteads, Patterdale, Coniston, and Derwent Island. 
 As you will easily understand, our travels were full of enjoyment. 
 Lady Affleck went over Grisedale Pass on a pony which your 
 Uncle William lent her a great achievement for her greater 
 than the Righi, I should think. It was most pleasant to see 
 the faces of the ancient lakes and hills as well as of old friends. 
 We are now at my sister's, which closes our northern travels, 
 for I go south to marry, on the 31st, Hilda Airy, my god- 
 daughter. Of course she is going to marry a senior wrangler, 
 Mr. Routh of Peterhouse. 
 
 I am glad to hear that you are making progress with our 
 church improvements. You may if you please alter my cheque 
 by doubling it ! 
 
534 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1865 
 
 The winter of 1864-65 was severe ; the spring 
 which followed was chill and tardy. ' We are in 
 great trouble with the consequences of neglected colds/ 
 was one of many phrases from which two of Dr. 
 Whewell's nieces gathered that he was entertaining 
 considerable and increasing anxiety on the score of 
 Lady Affleck's health. Both offered to go to him and 
 share with him this anxiety, and help in the work of 
 nursing. At first he could not bear to realise the 
 gravity of the case, and wished to postpone receiving 
 any visitors until she should be well again, and such 
 meetings could be enjoyed in comfort. The illness, 
 however, increased in despite of all that skill and care 
 could do. Still he asked for no help yet. Until the 
 blow should actually fall which was to lay waste his 
 home, he wished to be alone with his wife, but in his 
 letters he was already claiming the sympathy, and 
 eagerly entreating the assistance of those, whether 
 sisters, nieces, or friends, on whom he most relied to 
 help him in the evil day rapidly drawing near. Lady 
 Monteagle went to the Lodge as soon as the inevitable 
 end was imminent, Mrs. Sumner Gibson directly after- 
 wards, and she remained with him till the funeral. lie 
 then came to me. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge: March 5, 1865. 
 
 It was a great delight to me to hear from you, as it always 
 is, and very good of you to tell me about our people, of whom 
 I had not heard much of late. I am sorry that you have had 
 ;i cold, ;ni(l hope you have im\\ (juife llimwn il nfl*. I grieve 1o 
 say we are in great trouble with the consequences of neglected 
 colds. They have left upon rriy dear wife very serious traces, 
 with which Dr. Paget is struggling successfully I hope, f hou^li 
 the progress is slow. We were at Cliff Cottage during the 
 niMiilli of .January, but, she was scarcely out of the house there, 
 and since our return she is entirely confined to our two rooms. 
 
1865 LADY AFFLECK'S 1LLNE39L 535 
 
 She does not venture to cross the halL This, as you will 
 easily understand, is very sad for her and me. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] Trinity Lodge : Jlarck 14, 1865. 
 
 I was very glad to hear from yon, and more especially glad 
 to hear of any plan of your coming to us, which we have 
 so long been wishing for. ... I wish we had a prospect 
 of receiving you in comfort, untroubled by the state of my 
 dear wife's health, and our apprehensions about it, and I shall 
 hope that before the time comes which you mention as most 
 likely for your moving, we shall be all well again ; but under 
 any circumstances I shall be glad to see you. 
 
 I was very glad to see so many members of the family the 
 other day, when I was in Park Street* It is the only visit I 
 have made to London since last summer. I am growing quite 
 strange to the place. 
 
 We are going on very much as usual, except that all our 
 employments and enjoyments are sadly disturbed by my dear 
 wife's illness. I hope that she improves, but it is very slowly. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumntr Gibson'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Monk 27, 1865. 
 
 I have nothing to tell you, but all to fear as to the blow 
 about to Ml upon me immediately. My beloved wife is, I 
 fear, in the last stage of illness. I am very desolate and shall 
 be more so, and I only wish to say a word to exhort and beg of 
 you to keep alive your love for me who need it so much, and 
 shall soon need it more. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: Iforc* 30, 1865, 
 
 My beloved Kate, The end is not yet ; and till it comes, I 
 think I would rather you did not come to me, though it is 
 a soothing thought, even at this moment, to know that you 
 are willing to come. I am very grateful to Sumner for letting 
 you do so. You do not lose any intercourse with her by not 
 coining, for even I can scarcely hear her speak. I speak to her, 
 and she answers with looks ; and has even still her own bright 
 and loving face. I trust she is in no pain, and she is quite 
 
536 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 18C5 
 
 When she is taken away to the bosom of her God and 
 Saviour, it would be a great comfort if you could come to me. 
 I have asked your aunt Marianne to do so then. I do not 
 know if she will. I already feel my desolation. Life has no 
 longer any value or meaning, but you will help me to bear it. 
 
 To Professor Sedgwicti] Trinity Lodge: March 31, 1865. 
 
 I am much touched by your words of sympathy, and FO is she ; 
 but she is too feeble and exhausted to speak except in faint 
 monosyllables. She is, I hope, free from pain, calm, resigned, 
 and in her waking intervals responding with looks and pressure 
 of the hand to my words. She has not forgotten you, nor the 
 trust in God and Christ of which you speak. A few days ago 
 she said that she would have liked that she and I should have 
 received the Sacrament at your hands ; but it is now too late. 
 
 Give me your prayers, for I am in great affliction. I hope 
 Almighty God will guard your health. You may have many 
 years before you. 
 
 To Professor J. D. Forbes'] 
 
 Trinity Lodge: March 30, 1865. 
 
 You are so old and valued a friend, that I cannot help 
 turning to you for sympathy though, alas ! what can 
 sympathy do, when I see inevitably about to fall upon me the 
 heaviest domestic calamity which can happen to a man ? My 
 beloved wife has been for three months, probably longer, pur- 
 sued by a malady which has now reached its last stage. She 
 lies in the extremest stage of human weakness, not able to 
 articulate, but still collected, calm, and patient, and I trust 
 without pain. She answers with kind looks to my kind words, 
 and is, I trust and believe, prepared for the change. It is very 
 hard to part, and I look forward with terror to the desola- 
 tion which seems to await me when she is gone. We have 
 lived so entirely in one another, that life will not be life without 
 her, nor can I understand how I am to live. I come to you and 
 your kind wife for sympathy, because my most soothing thoughts 
 must come from the affection which those who loved her and 
 whom she loved may bear to me, though indeed I know well 
 how little even that can soothe under such an affliction. 
 
18G5 DEATH OF LADY AFFLECK. 537 
 
 Do not trouble yourself to reply to this, at least at present. 
 It is mere inarticulate wailing. May you never experience the 
 like affliction. 
 
 To the same] Trinity Lodge: April 3, 1865. 
 
 The blow has fallen. She expired on Saturday evening, a 
 little before midnight. She was calm to the last, but for some 
 days too feeble to speak. 
 
 I am sure you and Mrs. Forbes will give me your sympathy. 
 God bless you and your children ! 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers~\ Trinity Lodge: April 7, 1865. 
 
 To-day has been a very painful day. They have taken my 
 beloved away, and I shall no more see that sweet serious face, 
 which I have been gazing upon at intervals for the last few 
 days, till I see it when I shall have full sight of her in heaven 
 without restraint, if that be ever my lot through Him who 
 came that He might make us children of God and heirs of 
 eternal life. But the mode in which the occasion was observed 
 showed how she was beloved, as indeed she was by everybody, 
 and in the college especially. All the shop windows were closed, 
 from the college to the cemetery. Every post draws tears from 
 my eyes, by the w T arm praises that her friends bestow upon her, 
 and all deserved ; but alas ! what does it all avail ? I am 
 almost disposed to ask rebelliously, why was she taken from 
 me ? We were so happy, and she was, I think, doing so much 
 good. 
 
 I might say as in irony that I am as unhappy as a Queen. 
 But these are only the tumults of sorrow. I shall be calmer 
 when I am with you, dear Susan, who have had the same bitter- 
 ness to bear and have borne it so well. 
 
 My beloved one had a strong love for and admiration of you, 
 as I hope you know ; and in that we agreed. I shall feel calm in 
 your society, and should like to come to you on Saturday. In 
 the meantime I go to Janet. Kate has been with me through 
 this dark time, and has soothed and solaced me as much as 
 anything could. Dear child ! how I have always clung to her, 
 and she, I think, to me. When I see you I will try to get you 
 to help me to shape the future months. I dare not look 
 further. 
 
538 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1865 
 
 Dr. Whewell spent ten days with me at Putney, and 
 thence he went on to Mrs. Myers at Cheltenham. His 
 grief was of the most poignant description, and though 
 he was touchingly gentle in receiving and welcoming 
 the consolations suggested to him by those who loved 
 him, and though he clung to their companionship in 
 the most affecting manner, he was fevered with suffering 
 and restless exceedingly. He could think and talk with 
 spontaneous pleasure and interest of nothing but his 
 past happiness. He dwelt perpetually upon the love 
 with which he had been encompassed, but he could find 
 no calm in dwelling on the past, and the future which 
 intervened between him and the grave dismayed him 
 by its dark desolation. 
 
 On May 1 he went to his sister at Grange, and 
 there Miss S tatter joined him. She describes him as 
 looking ' like some one crushed down under an unbear- 
 able weight, all his elasticity gone,' ' feeling about as for 
 something to lay hold of that could comfort him.' But 
 his pleasure in the beauties of scenery had happily not 
 wholly deserted him, and he ' loved to stand near the 
 shore and watch the train skirting along the edge of the 
 bay and sweeping along the curves,' ' drawing attention 
 to the whiteness of the steam as it curled up into the 
 blue sky. One day, after watching it, he began to repeat 
 " Jerusalem the Golden," saying that it was the most 
 spirited translation he knew.' 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Grange : May 2, 1865. 
 
 I was to write to you when I felt very solitary. I am not 
 alone now, for I have my sister and my niece Lizzy with me, 
 but I am very, very heartsore. I have been reading my darling's 
 letters to my sister. . . . 
 
 Do not wonder that I dwell upon such records ; for such 
 grief is sweeter than any ease which forgetfulness could bring. 
 
18G5 VISIT TO GRANGE. 539 
 
 And if my clinging to these memorials makes me slow to realise 
 the truth that she has gone away from me, that is a truth which 
 day by day will realise itself only too sadly. 
 
 I am still looking forward to seeing you at Cambridge as 
 my great comfort. I have been among very kind friends lately. 
 Mrs. Harcourt was, indeed everybody is, very kind to me. They 
 are very sorry for me, and well they may be. Darling Kate, love 
 me a great deal, for a great and tender love is taken from me, 
 at least so far aa earthly knowledge can see. We cannot tell 
 what they feel and think up there. ... I think she will not 
 forget me. But in what remains of my earthly pilgrimage I 
 need love and sympathy, especially yours, my child of many 
 years. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederic Myers] Orange: May 4, 1865. 
 
 It was soothing to receive your kind and good letter, and to 
 know that you care for me still, though indeed I do not doubt 
 it : but I feel so deserted and alone. My sister and my niece 
 are very kind, and indeed Lizzie is a very good and intelligent 
 girl, but the memory and the craving follows me without a 
 moment's cessation. And I have found here fresh material for 
 thinking, very bitter though very sweet. There is a collection 
 of letters from her to Ann (his sister), more full of goodness 
 and lovingness than anything I had seen before. She was more 
 ingenious and vigilant in giving pleasure than any one I have 
 ever known. . . . And she had given my sister so much love 
 and so much care, that the effect is quite angelic. And then so 
 much love for me runs through all, that my loss seems heavier 
 and heavier. How is life to go on without that ? I seem to 
 have lost everything. My guide and adviser, always wise and 
 conscientious, as well as my sweet companion, in whose com- 
 pany walking, talking, travelling, resting was always sweet ; 
 and gave her so much pleasure, as I now find more than ever. 
 I seem even to have lost all my friendships, for they were 
 nourished by sharing them with her ; and it seems as if my 
 friends would now hardly know me, and at any rate not care 
 for me nor indeed, hardly, I for them. I go to Cambridge on 
 Monday, as I proposed, and I do not know how I shall bear the 
 Lodge when her presence is no longer there to shed sunshine 
 
540 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL, 1865 
 
 through, it. It is true I shall have Kate's sweet dear face 
 there, and that will be something, but even Kate is not Tier. 
 
 I am well disposed, dearest, to believe that there is a purpose 
 of love in my misery. Out of my former bereavement God 
 again raised me up to happiness. But it seems as if even His 
 goodness must be exhausted by my present destitution. I do 
 try to believe it is all for the best, but I cannot yet feel any ray 
 of comfort. But I am soothed, as I have said, by the tokens of 
 your love and sympathy, and I hope you will not be weary of 
 repeating them, though my wailing may seem but a poor 
 response to them. 
 
 I want to go among persons who knew her, though, indeed, 
 every one who knew her but a little was drawn to love her. 
 The charm of her loving nature opened all hearts to her. She 
 loved you very much. I wish I were with you, that you might 
 repeat to me some of those snatches of sweet and pious thoughts 
 in verse, of which you seem always to be full. I am much 
 obliged to you for making a copy of the journal which I left 
 with you. I too have been copying some of the other years. 
 The last days which I have copied are those which brought us 
 to you in September 1859, after our Western tour. A season 
 so full of enjoyment for us, as indeed all seasons were 
 
 Dearest Susan, I am full of gratitude and affection to you, 
 but full of sorrow. 
 
 On May 10 he returned to Cambridge and Mrs. 
 Sumner Gibson met him there, and stayed so long 
 as he was obliged to remain at the Lodge. Leaving 
 Cambridge towards the end of the month, he moved 
 about from place to place in the south of England, 
 sometimes visiting friends of Lady Affleck's as if by so 
 doing lie recovered some influence from the recent past, 
 sometimes seeking out friends like Lady Malcolm and 
 Mrs. Alexander of the distant, long ago, Hyde Hall days, 
 6 looking at them,' as he told me, ' that we may know 
 each other when we meet in Heaven.' At the end of 
 June lie went northwards again, taking Miss Statter with 
 him, visiting my sister at Corley in Warwickshire, the 
 
1865 EETU11N TO CAMBRIDGE. 541 
 
 Bishop of Worcester and Mrs. Philpott at Hartlebury, 
 Carlisle and its Cathedral, and Edinburgh, on his way 
 to stay with Professor Forbes at Pitlochry. 
 
 To Miss Stutter] Trinity Lodge: May 10, 1865. 
 
 I arrived at Cambridge about half-past four, and Kate about 
 the same time, so that I had only to face the solitude of my 
 home for a few minutes, but still the solitude pursues me in 
 spite of dear Kate's presence ; but she is a great comfort to me, 
 as you, my love, have been, and I hope will be. 
 
 I spent two soothing days with my dear friends, the Mack- 
 reths I think really the oldest friends I have, except Ann and 
 poor Betty. 
 
 I shall be glad to have you with me from the 25th. I have 
 as yet no plans formed for the summer, but I hope they will 
 form themselves. Is there any part of England that you will 
 particularly like to see ? if so, I have no doubt we could easily 
 manage so as to see it. I can hardly think of going anywhere 
 with pleasure, but still less can I stay here. I thank you, my 
 dear love, for your prayers ; I need them much, and am very 
 willing to believe that they are heard. I find a number of small 
 matters to do here, which make me glad that I came, but 
 nothing that I do has any savour in it. I still want to talk it 
 over with her to give it meaning. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] Trinity Lodge : May 19, 1865. 
 
 Kate has been a great blessing to me has made me feel 
 not quite alone, and done all that sympathy and love can do. 
 So did you when I was with you, God bless you for it. But 
 to-morrow, when we separate, it seems to me that I should again 
 be quite alone and desolate. I cannot yet see how life is livable. 
 But I will not weary you with my repetitions ; you know all 
 that is felt in such a position. 
 
 I shall be very glad if you can learn for me whether my 
 old friend Mrs. Alexander is at Clifton; if so, what is her 
 address, and whether she would see me if I were to go thither. 
 I should like to see my oldest friends now ; it seems to me like 
 looking at them that we may recognise each other when we 
 
542 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1865 
 
 meet in heaven. I hope this is not too presumptuous a 
 thought. You, I trust, will not think it so. 
 
 Since I was with you I have been with several friends, all 
 very kind to me, but the craving for the companionship of my 
 darling never abates or intermits. 
 
 To the same] Brighton: June 2, 1865. 
 
 Thank you very much for taking so much pains that I may 
 see my dear old friend in the most satisfactory way. ... I 
 find that immediately before the 12th I can be of use at Cam- 
 bridge, and as I have so little reason to determine my motions 
 at present, I intend to go there. 
 
 Your letters, my dear love, are very soothing to me. You 
 speak from the fulness of a bitter experience and with the 
 wisdom of a sure hope. I trust I shall in time learn from you, 
 but at present I feel nothing but my desolation, and visits to 
 friends, even very dear ones, do not much relieve that desola- 
 tion, but present it to me under various forms. For instance, 
 I now come from seeing dear friends of my own standing, or 
 thereabouts : William Harcourt, Monteagle, and Herschel. 
 They are all the object of the constant and anxious care of 
 their wives from moment to moment. Mine, who had intended 
 to care for me to the last (she told me so) is taken away from 
 me, and it seems to me as if I must live alone and die alone. 
 Indeed, that we all must do, but the passage to that dark gate 
 may be smoothed by kind hands. I am not ungrateful to you 
 and to other kind friends who have promised to be much with 
 me ; but dear as you are, it is different (you know this well), 
 from having a companion who is always with you. But I 
 long very much for the time when you will be daily and 
 hourly with me. I know that then I shall feel much less 
 desolate. It will be a great comfort to me to have Caroline 
 Stephen with me when you are, and also one or two of the 
 Herschels. Lady Herschel encouraged me to hope that I 
 might. 
 
 I go to the Airys at Greenwich to-morrow for a few days, 
 I hardly know how many. 
 
1865 VISIT TO PITLOCHRY. 543 
 
 To Professor Forbes] Trinity Lodge: June 9, 1865. 
 
 I am much touched by the friendship shown in your letter of 
 the 4th. All the interests and enjoyments of life seem now to 
 be closed for me, and I try in vain to understand how I am to 
 spend the rest of my days. But there may be found some 
 alleviation of this weary life in the company of old and valued 
 friends ; and I have few older and none more valued than your- 
 self. And you and Mrs. Forbes and your children are further 
 endeared to me by our visit to you in 1858, when we were 
 reviving old friendships, because we were thenceforth to have 
 them in common a course which filled our days and years 
 with happiness till the cruel end came upon us. 
 
 I should like much to see you and Mrs. Forbes, and had 
 already thought of it. But I cannot travel alone. I have 
 tried it within the last few weeks, and find it too desolate a 
 life to bear. In a short time I hope to have a niece with me 
 as a companion, and I should be glad to go to you and take 
 her with me if it suits you. 
 
 My niece is Lizzie Statter, the daughter of a clergyman 
 near Oxford, and of my dear departed sister Martha. 
 
 I hear with pleasure of the prosperity of your household, 
 and am heartily glad of your boy's success. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas} 
 
 Nuneham, Abingdon: June 15, 1865. 
 
 ... I am with very kind and very old friends here, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Harcourt ; and this place is as beautiful in its sum- 
 mer splendour as any place can be; but still the thought 
 arises that I cannot speak of its beauties to her. You will 
 forgive me these spasms of sorrowful recollection. It is a 
 part of the pleasure of being with you and writing to you, 
 that you know they are inevitable, and will not think them 
 unreasonable. 
 
 From Pitlochry Dr. Whewell and Miss Statter 
 returned direct to Cambridge for a couple of weeks. 
 After that interval they came north again, and joined a 
 small family party at Halls teads. 
 
544 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1805 
 
 We hoped much from the peaceful influences of the 
 exquisite mountain scenery, steeped as it was then in 
 glorious summer sunshine ; from the calm and tender 
 memories of the past, associated with every nook and 
 corner of the place.; and from the presence of some of 
 those to whose words of comfort he always hearkened 
 with most pleasure. And something no doubt he gained 
 from all these, but his suffering was very severe still. 
 The elasticity of youth was gone, and age had brought 
 no kindly torpor with it. He fell in readily with every 
 scheme for turning the fine weather to account, and for 
 showing Miss Statter a part of the Lake District which 
 was new to her ; but after every such plan was executed 
 the sense of loss seemed to return with overwhelming 
 force, and there was nothing for it but to give it way, 
 and in company with some one of those who were at 
 hand to sympathise with him, to let the storm pass. 
 
 After a week or two at Hallsteads they went on to 
 Derwent Water and thence again to Grange, on their 
 way to Yorkshire, returning by York, Beverley, Hull, 
 and Lincoln to Cambridge, about the middle of August. 
 The end of the month they went to Switzerland. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge: Aug. 13, 1865. 
 
 I was very sorry to miss seeing you at the Island. Since 
 then we have been to Headingley, and then to see some cathe- 
 drals and churches, which my niece very much enjoys. She is 
 a very pleasant companion. She is with me still, and I think 
 of taking her for a fortnight to Switzerland, by way of retouch- 
 ing old memories, though I hardly know whether there is more 
 pain or pleasure in doing so. My darling never thought one 
 summer complete without a look at Switzerland. 
 
 When the Vacation is over, dear Janet is coming, as you 
 know ; and you, my love, will, I hope, come and see me while 
 she is with me. It will be the best sunshine the Lodge can 
 know. 
 
1805 LAST VISIT TO SWITZERLAND. 545 
 
 After a hasty tour in Switzerland he writes to his 
 sister : 
 
 The Chase, Ashburton, Devon: Sept. 15, 1865. 
 
 You will recollect Lady Malcolm, I think, as an old friend 
 of mine. She and her children are living here on the edge of 
 Dartmoor, and as I have a desire now to see the faces of old 
 friends, I have come here for a few days. The country is very 
 beautiful. The Dart follows its course though the grounds of 
 the Chase, making a beautiful winding glen for several miles. 
 
 I hope Lizzie gave you a full account of our travels, for I 
 left that task to her hands. We were in Switzerland only a 
 short time. The hotels in that country were all so full, that we 
 could not be where I wished to be, so that I was not disposed 
 to stay at Lausanne as I intended. 
 
 Miss Statter's journal of this Swiss tour tells of 
 intense heat, and of a constant haze veiling the Alps on 
 which he desired to look again, as well as of crowded 
 hotels and a difficulty in finding rooms. The Cathedral 
 at Amiens was visited both going and returning, and 
 afforded to him the intense enjoyment with which he 
 always visited and revisited his ' beloved French Cathe- 
 drals.' The brightest features of this expedition, taken 
 apparently with a wish to look his last at some of the 
 objects which all his life had impressed him most, seem 
 to have been this Cathedral and the Ehine at SchafF- 
 hausen and at Basle. 
 
 Previous to the visit to The Chase referred to above 
 he had written the following letter to Lady Malcolm : 
 
 Do you recollect my writing to you some time ago, and 
 asking you if I might come and see you some time this summer; 
 and your giving me permission ? I have been roaming about 
 all the summer among the scenes of lost and irreparable 
 pleasures, and have found little comfort there ; as was indeed 
 to be expected. I now feel that it would be a pleasure to me to 
 see you once again, my dear friend of old days ; whose friendship 
 
546 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1805 
 
 goes back beyond the days of my sorrows and of the days which 
 preceded them. Shall I find you at * the Chase ' next week ? 
 I think I could come into your region about Thursday or Friday, 
 the 14th or 15th. I suppose my best way would be to go to 
 Torquay or Totnes, and to take a carriage from thence to you. 
 Are Amelia and Kate now -with you? It would be a pleasure 
 to me to see them if only for half an hour. Perhaps you will 
 kindly let me have a line to say when I shall come to you, and 
 how. I have just been for a week or two in Switzerland with a 
 niece of mine. I am to live upon nieces in future, as solitary 
 men do. 
 
 Dear friend, whether I see you or not, believe that I always 
 think of you and of yours with deep affection. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas] Trinity Lodge: Sept. 23, 1865. 
 
 It is a great comfort to think that I shall see you soon, and 
 still more to think that I shall have you here and for a long 
 time. . . . 
 
 You should have been with me yesterday. I had to receive 
 Queen Emma of the Sandwich Isles. She is very pleasing ; with 
 a very dark olive complexion. Her Lady in Waiting, Mrs. 
 Ilopili, is a very fine woman, with wonderful eyes, but much 
 darker. The Queen is very religious, and an excellent Church 
 of England woman. What do you think interested her most of 
 the things she saw in Cambridge ? An original MS. copy of the 
 thirty-nine articles in Archbishop Parker's Library. She wants 
 to stay in England over the winter, though the physicians are 
 against it. But she wants to see snow and frost, thaw and fog. 
 You see everything English has charms for her. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge : Oct. 31, 1865. 
 
 It seems to me a very long time since I heard from you or 
 wrote to you, though I hear about you now and then from Janet. 
 I cannot describe to you, but you can conceive what a delight 
 to me it is to have her with me. She is so great a comfort 
 to me that I feel almost happy, or at least I should feel so if I 
 could forget how happier I have been in a different way, and 
 worst of all how insecure is my hold upon her, and that some 
 
1865 OCTOBER TERM. 547 
 
 day or other she will leave me, and then I shall be desolate and 
 lonely as I was till she came. And I am as little fitted to live 
 alone now as I ever was. 
 
 In these kind words, and others like them, he 
 perpetually expressed the comfort and the gratitude 
 with which he recognised that all love was not taken 
 from him though that of his wife was removed out of 
 sight. The softening influences of suffering were visible 
 in nothing more than in the singular gentleness and 
 alacrity with which he accepted and appreciated every 
 effort to give him pleasure, especially welcoming every 
 opportunity of doing a kindness, or expressing sympathy 
 with those who were in sickness, sorrow, or anxiety. 
 His interest in external things was returning. Plans 
 connected with the College were dwelt upon and 
 matured. His mind began to flow again in the long 
 accustomed channels, with much of its old vigour and 
 activity, but in all these things a difference was discern- 
 ible. His affections and sympathies were quickened 
 and enlarged. He had been very much touched and 
 affected by the sympathy with him in his sorrow which 
 had been felt and universally expressed, and it almost 
 seemed as if this had produced a sort of revolution in 
 his relations with his friends in general, and left him 
 united to them all by warmer, kindlier ties than before. 
 These he seemed to desire to draw closer and closer, 
 almost as if he knew how short was the time that 
 remained to him in which to show them his good will. 
 I think that this was apparent to all who saw him in 
 those last months, though most obvious of course to 
 those who had the happiness of living with him. 
 
 To his Sister] Trinity Lodge: Nov. 10. 
 
 I have been getting through this term by the aid of Mrs. 
 Douglas, who is a great comfort to me. We have had several 
 
 N W 2 
 
548 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1865 
 
 visitors. Mrs. Myers was with us for a week, and a daughter 
 of Sir John Herschel, who is just married and become Mrs. 
 Henry Hardcastle, and General and Mrs. Malcolm, two of my 
 oldest friends, and Miss Stephen, the daughter of Sir James 
 Stephen, who is still with us, and Mr. Carus. To-morrow the 
 Dean of Ely and Mrs. Groodwin come to us. He comes to preach 
 at St. Mary's. We get through our company keeping pretty 
 well, but the feeling of what I have lost, and of the solitariness 
 which hangs over me, is not at all removed. 
 
 To Mrs. F. Myers Dr. Whewell wrote about this 
 time : 
 
 I think with great pleasure that we have Fred for a fellow - 
 worker with us in College. I hope he will like his work, and I 
 have no doubt that he will do it well. 
 
 We have had Carus with us, loving and sunshiny as always ; 
 and at present we have the Dean of Ely and Mrs. Groodwin 
 staying with us. I like much the youthful fervour and clear 
 sense of the Dean's character and his sermons. We have just 
 heard one of them. 
 
 As I have told you, my great grief at present is what I am 
 to do when dear Janet leaves me. But I think she will stay 
 and keep Christmas with me, and that is a great point ; alone 
 the season would be dreadful. 
 
 As Christmas approached Dr. Whewell wished to 
 make his habitual visit to Lowestoft. He had a yearn- 
 ing to revisit the accustomed places, as keen as was 
 the pain with which when once there he realised afresh 
 the sense of loss and change. But he was growing better 
 able to face such pangs now, and the short dark days 
 were passed very cheerfully and pleasantly by the help 
 of friends who gladly consented to spend them with us. 
 
 To Mrs. Sumner Gibson] Trinity Lodge : Dec. 13, 1865. 
 
 We are going to Lowestoft to-morrow, and though very sad 
 memories often rise up, I am nearer to being happy than I ever 
 
18G5 CHRISTMAS AT LOWESTOFT. 649 
 
 hoped to be, and shall be nearer still when I see you. Janet 
 has promised to be with me all next term, so I have comfort in 
 store for some time. 
 
 To Miss Kate Malcolm] Trinity Lodge ; Dec. 10. 
 
 I do not wish to lose my privilege of writing to you and I 
 hope occasionally of hearing from you, and so I am going to 
 send you a few lines. I go on thinking of you and admiring 
 you as I have done any time these twenty years and more, and 
 it is a great pleasure to me to know something from time to 
 time of your dear mother. It was a happiness to have your 
 brother and Greorgiana ! here a little while ago, and I am very 
 sorry that I cannot go to Nuneham to meet them at Christmas, 
 as Mrs. Harcourt has kindly invited me to do. But I am going 
 to my own house at Lowestoft, finding my niece, Mrs. Stair 
 Douglas, is willing to go with me there. I think you care enough 
 about me to be glad to hear that my dear niece has been with 
 me all this term, and that her companionship has been an in- 
 estimable blessing to me, soothing and tranquillising me into 
 a semblance of happiness. She and her sister, my other 
 Kate, have always been to me dear as daughters, and are now 
 a vast comfort to me, only I seem to be living on charity, 
 and have no security for the future. There is only one tie 
 which can give that. Also I have had other pleasant com- 
 panions. Three girls in succession of my dear friend Herschel 
 have been with me, and a daughter of Sir J. Stephen ; so that 
 I have not been quite solitary; but still 
 
 But I am writing to you mainly that I may have some news 
 of you and of your dear mother. If I should be able to come 
 where I might have the pleasure of seeing you, should you be 
 willing to see me and let me have a little of your society ? 
 
 I do not know whether I shall move far, for I cling very 
 much to my dear nieces, who are very good to me. But the 
 sunshine of the dear old Hyde Hall times still gilds my thoughts 
 from time to time, and I like to look at its radiance in your 
 dear face. 
 
 After spending some weeks at Lowestoft we returned 
 to Cambridge for a few days, and then parted to pay 
 
 1 General and Mrs. Malcolm. 
 
550 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1866 
 
 separate visits, and I to set my house in order and make 
 such arrangements as would enable me to spend the 
 following term at Trinity Lodge. Dr. Whewell visited 
 Lady Malcolm and other old friends. His letters to me 
 showed how much he enjoyed doing so, and also how 
 much he liked to talk about such pleasures. He was 
 full of plans for the future and of interest in the present, 
 again writing articles on his favourite philosophical 
 subjects, and once more reading fiction with pleasure 
 and ' deliberately ',' because it was ' like being in good 
 and interesting society.' 
 
 We returned to Cambridge the end of January. 
 
 To Mrs. Stair Douglas} 
 
 York House, Bath: January 22, 1866. 
 
 It is not for want of thinking of you that I have not written 
 to you all these days, for I have thought every day and often a 
 day of your sweet love and your pleasant ways. I have often 
 wished for you, but I have not been very much alone, for I 
 found my dear Malcolms (Lady Malcolm, Amelia, and Kate) 
 almost as charming as our Kate. And besides, I have been 
 writing, and have found ' great fun ' in the * Positive Philosophy,' 
 which I hope you will see in Macmillan in March. 
 
 Moreover you have been with me, for I had your copy of 
 Miss Yonge's * Clever Woman,' and cannot rejoice sufficiently 
 that you gave it me to read. The being engaged upon such a 
 book gives one the feeling of being in good and interesting 
 society day by day; so I do not gobble up the story, but protract 
 the pleasure, and even yet have not finished. The story is 
 charmingly told, and the characters revealed in the most 
 natural and lively manner. The only fault, or rather un- 
 pleasantness, is that there is too much about disease and death. 
 Surely she must be a doctor by family, is she not ? 
 
 To-day I go to Clifton. It appears that Sedgwick is there 
 at present, and comes here to-day to see the Malcolms old loves 
 of his as well as mine. See how we old fellows go back to our 
 early loves ! 
 
1866 VISIT TO FINEDON. 551 
 
 Dear Janet, travelling alone is not unpleasant as it was, 
 because I can look forward to coming home to you. 
 
 To the same] Finedon Hall: Jan, 26, 1866. 
 
 Just one little word with you, that I may feel that I am not 
 far separated from you. I was tolerably cheery at Clifton 
 among your friends and my friends. I am glad they were 
 amused. 
 
 When I had to travel alone to people whom I do not so well 
 know I wanted you. I wanted you too to look with me at the 
 sunset, and to see a curious sight, which is to be seen only 
 when you are travelling rapidly northwards at sunset in a 
 level country. All these conditions are requisite, but I will 
 tell you of it when I see you. . . . 
 
 I left my * Positive Philosophy ' with Macmillan as I passed 
 through London, so I hope we shall see it in time. I do not 
 know what we are going to do to-day ; perhaps to see churches. 
 If so I shall acquiesce, though I could be well content to make 
 my examination-papers. 
 
 I shall not go to Nuneham. I met Mrs. Harcourt in the 
 train, and had a long talk with her. Being thus free, what can 
 I do better than go and see Kate ? To-morrow I shall spend at 
 Kugby, and in looking at Monk's Kirby, 1 of which you have 
 heard so much. I hope you will persuade the Sabines and the 
 Archibald Smiths to come to us. 
 
 To the same'] Rugby : Jan. 29, 1866. 
 
 My visit at Finedon was pleasant. I am sorry you cannot 
 have the Archibald Smiths at present, but the day of lectures 
 will pass, and then we may hope. We are to receive Mrs. 
 Gruthrie on the 10th, to stay till the 15th ; and then Sedgwick 
 is to have her for one day. I have had two pleasant rides with 
 her. She put me upon Lord Lansdowne's horse, which she had 
 bought after his death. 
 
 I hope you contrive to enjoy yourself, and that you are 
 nevertheless glad to come home again to me. 
 
 1 The church was being restored. 
 
552 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1866 
 
 The month of February passed rapidly away. The 
 last letter he ever wrote to his sister, Mrs. Newton, gives 
 an account of his proceedings during the Christmas 
 vacation and immediately after his return to Cambridge. 
 
 To his Sister, Mrs. Newton] 
 
 Trinity Lodge : Feb. 20, 1866. 
 
 I do not know whether it is longer than usual since I wrote, 
 and you have now no correspondent in the house but me. If 
 you were to write to Mrs. Douglas I am sure she would gladly 
 write to you, and you might hear something more than I tell you 
 of our goings on. I do not know what I have told you. I was 
 at Bath in January to see my dear friends the Malcolms, and at 
 Clifton afterwards to see some other friends, and especially the 
 Douglases, my Janet's sisters-in-law. Then I went into North- 
 amptonshire to some relations of the Afflecks, and to Kate 
 Gibson for one night. Since we have been here we have had 
 several visitors ; Mrs. Guthrie, a very old friend of mine, and 
 now we have Dr. and Mrs. Wordsworth and two of their girls ; 
 and we have some other friends coming when they go. 
 
 Janet makes the house very agreeable to them, and to me, 
 and to everybody, and is, indeed, very precious and dear. She 
 will stay with me till the end of the term the end of March 
 and then I do not yet know what I shall do ; but I hope she 
 will not desert me for any long time. 
 
 I do indeed grieve for my dear old friend, Lord Monteagle. 
 He was more nearly a brother to me in heart than any one that 
 remains. Lady M. has indeed had much to suffer. She is 
 soon to be with her sister Susan at Cheltenham, where she will 
 be as much consoled as is possible. I am very sorry your 
 husband has a cold. I am well, thank God. 
 
 This letter was written on Tuesday. The following 
 Saturday was warm and spring-like, and he readily fell 
 in with a plan for driving to Gog Magog and looking at 
 the view from the rising ground over the Babraham 
 woods. He was to meet the carriage there on horse- 
 back if he could, but some engagement in Cambridge 
 
1866 ACCIDENT. 553 
 
 interfered and we did not meet him until we had made 
 a circuit and were about three miles from Cambridge 
 on our way home. We paused and talked, but his horse 
 was fidgety. Notwithstanding this, and a weakness in 
 his left arm, the result of old injuries from falls with 
 his horse in slippery weather, which made the controlling 
 of a pulling horse particularly irksome to him, he turned 
 to follow us. His horse was eager, and in a few minutes 
 his hat was knocked off in the struggle ; he was thrown 
 forward and out of the saddle, and we heard the gallop- 
 ing feet of the horse pursuing us. A swerve from the 
 road as he passed us and he was thrown heavily upon 
 the soft ground by the road-side. ' Not much harm 
 done, my darling,' were the first words he uttered, and 
 were spoken the moment I knelt beside him on the 
 grass. He was soon lifted into the carriage ; on our 
 way home we stopped at the house of Dr. Paget, who 
 accompanied us to the Lodge, and Professor Humphry, 
 warned by a message I despatched at the moment of the 
 accident, was there to meet us. The kindness of both 
 was very great throughout the whole illness, and they 
 afforded the greatest possible help and comfort. There 
 were indications of severe shock to the brain and body, 
 but we were told that there was also much that was 
 encouraging, and if paralysis did not ensue we might 
 hope the best. He never entirely lost consciousness, 
 was able to explain the loss of his hat in the struggle 
 with his eager horse, and to ascribe to previous accidents 
 the weakness of his bridle hand. This weakness, how- 
 ever, increased in degree and altered in character, and 
 was, as time went on, accompanied by other symptoms 
 which showed that partial paralysis had been produced 
 by the injuries to the head. He gradually revived from 
 the partial stupor of the first four-and-twenty hours. 
 
554 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1866 
 
 His interest in the persons and things with which his 
 
 attention had been engaged before his accident, returned, 
 
 and it was very difficult to keep him as quiet as was 
 
 thought necessary. He liked to listen to reading aloud. 
 
 His old favourites, Miss Austen's novels, answered 
 
 particularly well for the purpose, and sometimes, when 
 
 he had seemed to be sleeping, a sudden remark upon 
 
 some omission or blunder of the reader would show 
 
 that his attention had not wandered. An article for 
 
 Macmillan's Magazine on Grote's Plato which he had 
 
 been writing, and to which the last touches were still 
 
 wanting, kept recurring to his mind ; he was restless at 
 
 the recollection of that and of various other matters 
 
 left incomplete. As days passed, and he became 
 
 both weaker and more restless, the faces about him 
 
 could not but indicate extreme anxiety, gradually 
 
 changing into a more mournful certainty ; he drew his 
 
 own conclusions and faced the end with simple, reverent 
 
 faith and courage. My sister had come at once, and 
 
 was immediately and joyfully recognised. He never, 
 
 throughout the ten days between the accident and his 
 
 death, expressed impatience ; but to have both of us 
 
 with him, especially my sister, 'dearer than daughter,' 
 
 as he had described her years before, smoothing the 
 
 passage to the dark gate with dutiful and kindly hands, 
 
 afforded him comfort and satisfaction, of which he 
 
 showed his sense by the most grateful, affectionate, and 
 
 tender words. His utterance, somewhat affected from 
 
 the first, became more and more imperfect, but we 
 
 could almost always understand it, and the passages of 
 
 Holy Scripture he asked for, the hymns he endeavoured 
 
 to repeat, were read to him as the wish for them 
 
 occurred. He received the Holy Communion from the 
 
 hands of Dr. Lightfoot on Monday, the 5th March, and 
 
1866 DEATH. 555 
 
 on the 6th he died. Whilst life was ebbing fast away 
 on that last morning, blinds and curtains were drawn 
 wide apart in compliance with his wish, that he might 
 see the sun shine on the Great Court of Trinity, and he 
 smiled as he was reminded that he used to say the sky 
 never looked so blue as when seen fringed with its turrets 
 and battlements. Almost to the last he was conscious, and 
 the last words intelligibly uttered, when the striking of 
 the clock roused him as day dawned, were ' The eternal 
 God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting 
 arms.' And so through the grave and gate of death he 
 passed to the life and light beyond, and after seventy- 
 one years of busy learning and doing at last he sees and 
 knows. Only eleven months before, the burden of 
 loneliness had fallen upon him, and he had looked 
 forward with dismay to the desolation which lay before 
 him, but the shadow of his sorrow was passing off. To 
 quote the words of Professor Lightfoot l : 
 
 Time seemed only to have mellowed and ripened his cha- 
 racter without decaying his faculties. The screen which long 
 had hidden his large capacity of affection and strong yearning 
 for sympathy, known to a few and suspected by many more, 
 was falling away. And he whom all respected was becoming 
 every day better known and more endeared to all. . . . Th 
 world of matter without, the world of thought within, alike 
 spoke to him of the Eternal Creator, the Beneficent Father. 
 
 I cannot more fitly close this poor attempt to show 
 William Whewell as he really was, than by a few more 
 words from the same pen. 
 
 In intellectual eminence we cannot follow him. But the 
 moral qualities which clustered about his mental power may be 
 imitated even by the least gifted. The unflagging energy 
 
 1 Funeral sermon preached in Trinity College Chapel by the Rev. J. B. 
 Lightfoot, D.D., now Bishop of Durham. 
 
556 LIFE OF DR. WHEWELL. 1866 
 
 which overcame all disadvantages, the manly courage which 
 ever disdained unworthy applause, the simple faith in God 
 through Christ, which in him was thrown into stronger relief 
 by his large acquaintance with all branches of human know- 
 ledge ; such qualities as these are not beyond the reach of any. 
 His example supplies a fresh incentive as it imposes a fresh 
 responsibility. 
 
 In compliance with the strongly expressed wish of 
 the College authorities, Dr. Whewell was buried in the 
 Ante-Chapel, and rests but a few feet from the spot 
 where so many generations of Trinity men had been 
 wont to see him take his place. At tbe time of his first 
 wife's death, he had anticipated being laid beside her in 
 the Cemetery, under the shadow of the spire which he 
 had built as a monument to her memory ; but when 
 once the wish of the College was expressed, it was felt 
 that no place could so fitly receive his body as the 
 Chapel of that College with which his whole life was 
 connected, which he loved so well, and amongst whose 
 benefactors his name, and that of his first wife, are 
 remembered. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Tlie following poems were written by Dr. Whewell at the time of the death 
 of his first wife, and printed for private circulation. 
 
 I. 
 THE FIRST SABBATH AFTER THE BURIAL. 
 
 SOLEMN and sad folds round me the darkening eve of the Sabbath ; 
 
 Solemn, as often of old ; sad, with a fresh-fallen grief : 
 Solemn, for on it the shades of eternity ope to our vision, 
 
 Gleams, sadness too deep ! gazed on in loneliness now : 
 Loneliness, where each thought, the greatest alike and the sweetest, 
 
 Fills me not as it has fill'd, soothes me not as it has sooth'd. 
 Chilled and palsied seem the powers of thought and of feeling, 
 
 Shared no longer with her, utter'd no longer to her. 
 For each thought, from day to day and from moment to moment, 
 
 Utter'd uncheckt to her, found sympathetic response ; 
 Found a response which breathed the accents of wisdom and goodness ; 
 
 Goodness with insight clear ; wisdom with tenderness join'd. 
 Every trifle that rose and every fancy that floated, 
 
 Shar'd on the instant with her, straight had a sense and a charm. 
 This was life, when my life was in her clear mirror reflected ; 
 
 This was the life that I lived : lonely, no longer I live. 
 Then I was rich, in the wealth of her love, in the wealth of her good- 
 ness; 
 
 O how rich was I then ! and how poor am I now ! 
 Then I dwelt in a castle of strength, in a mansion of pleasance ; 
 
 Now amid ruins I sit, low on the desolate hearth. 
 Builded in by-gone years and yearly adorn'd and enriched 
 
 Rose the mansion of bliss bounteously granted to me ; 
 Now it is cast to the ground, no stone is left on another ; 
 
 Who shall rebuild it and how ] where is ray shelter and shade ? 
 
558 APPENDIX. 
 
 How shall I frame me a fence for the coming blasts of the winter 1 
 
 Where shall my hoary hairs hide from the darkness and cold ? 
 ' How shall I live without thee ? ' I cried, when life was departing, 
 
 While the clear strong soul battled with weakness and pain ; 
 ' How shall I live without thee ? ' I cried in my desolate sorrow, 
 
 Weak in the presence of strength. * God will direct thee,' she said. 
 Amen ! so may it be, beloved and precious ! and may He 
 
 Fill me with thoughts of thee ; thoughts that may make me like 
 
 thee ! 
 Fill me with memory sweet of all thy love and thy goodness, 
 
 And make memory still raise me and guide me as thou, 
 Raise me and guide me as thou, beloved companion, hast guided, 
 
 Ever, through long sweet years, ever and ever aright. 
 
 Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle, 
 
 Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me : 
 Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clearseeing, thoughtful, 
 
 Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind : 
 Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it, 
 
 Wisdom that shines in the heart clearer than Intellect's light : 
 Wisdom that sees its way to the Good so simply and clearly 
 
 That it might seem to be Skill, only that Skill is too blind : 
 Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness' burden, 
 
 Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm. 
 For 0, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment, 
 
 Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still'd ; 
 Ever pursued by desires of a heart's companionship, ever 
 
 Yearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee. 
 Vainly till then had I mov'd in the cities of men with their millions, 
 
 All was solitude still, all was a waste to the soul ; 
 Vainly till then had I roved the land from mansion to mansion, 
 
 Pleasure and kindness I found ; found not the love that I sought. 
 Vainly had I explored the long-flowing river of Science, 
 
 Back to its fountain-heads, down to its glittering sea ; 
 Vainly had striv'n with the Sphinx of Philosophy, reading her riddles, 
 
 Bidding her mark me the path up to the cavern of Truth. 
 Vainly had wandered oft in the 'flowery fields of the Muses ; 
 
 They stirred up in the breast thoughts that they could not appease. 
 Vain, to bring the heart's peace, even prayer and loftiest musing ; 
 
 Prayer and musing had oft need of a sympathy's charm. 
 E'en on the Sabbath the trouble return'd with a drearier anguish ; 
 
 Lonely the Sabbath was then. Lonely again it is now ! 
 
APPENDIX. 559 
 
 Devious while thus I was driv'n by the blasts of an objectless craving, 
 
 Blind, while vain of my sight ; shallow, though proud of my depth ; 
 Found I in thy clear eyes the lode-star, the mark of my wand'ring, 
 
 Found I in thy serene bosom my haven of rest. 
 Golden then was the calm that soothed the storm of my being, 
 
 Golden then was the light shed on the gloom of my soul. 
 When thou crossedst my threshold and when thou enter'dst my 
 portals, 
 
 (Loftier portals they than we had ventur'd to hope,) 
 Blessings came with thee in crowds: came heartfelt trust at the 
 hearthstone, 
 
 Came bright faces of friends shining on every side : 
 Came the love of thy race, race firm and kindly and truthful, 
 
 Wise in the arts of life, warm in the love of their kind : 
 Came the love of thy mother, her bright affectionate sunshine ; 
 
 Came thy father's love, mild with the wisdom of age : 
 Came the love of thy sisters, and sisters' children, and brothers', 
 
 Dear as if in their veins flow'd my own family's blood. 
 These all brighten'd our days as they mov'd in their circles around us, 
 
 Round thy own dear self, dearer by far than them all. 
 
 Seven bright years roll'd on ; seven years were granted of sunshine, 
 
 And life glow'd with a joy even undreamt of before. 
 Truly a helpmate thou in all that was kindly and gracious : 
 
 Helpful in all that was good; watchful 'gainst aught that was 
 
 Worse. 
 Thine not the blind good-will that scatters its bounty in weakness ; 
 
 Still deep thoughtfulness gave value to all that was kind. 
 Blessings flow'd from thy presence and blessings were shower'd upon 
 thee; 
 
 Blessings flow'd upon all ; richest and sweetest on me. 
 Blessings so sweet, could they last, we might deem we needed not 
 Heaven ; 
 
 Blessings too sweet to endure. So has our Father ordain'd. 
 He has ordain'd that no earthly good shall abide and be stable : 
 
 Teaching us, lest we forget, Death is the pathway to Heav'n. 
 Seven bright years flowed on, and still we joy'd in the sunshine ; 
 
 But on th' horizon's verge then the dark shadow appear'd : 
 Then the dark shadow appear'd, and spreading ever its darkness, 
 
 Yearly and yearly it grew like to the Shadow of Death. 
 Seven years more it gather'd its blackness, and, broader and broader, 
 
 Shut out the light of our day, cover'd our sky with its pall. 
 
560 APPENDIX. 
 
 Yet even those seven years were sweeter than ages of sunshine, 
 
 While with disease and pain struggled thy patience and faith. 
 Still unquencht was thy thoughtful love of all that were round thee : 
 
 More than unquencht, it grew stronger and thoughtfuller still. 
 Calm and tranquil thou sawest the shadows gather about thee, 
 
 While, heav'n-purged, thy eye lookt to the brightness beyond. 
 Pain, thy pitiless foe, that met thee at every turning, 
 
 Still to her harsh look thou gav'st a smile in return ; 
 Careful still that her visage severe, with its terrible features, 
 
 Might not pierce with its woe those who hung round thee in love. 
 And even so to the last, when Nature, opprest and tormented, 
 
 Scarce could the burden endure, few were thy words of complaint : 
 Few, and often rebuk'd by the noble spirit within thee, 
 
 Spirit that felt that its pow'r could not be conquer'd by pain. 
 Can I forget, when I stood by thy bed and view'd thee in sadness, 
 
 Sadness that only could feel, could not presume to console, 
 Can I forget that e'en then, when my heart was wrung by thy anguish, 
 
 Sweetly thou answer'dst my gaze, ' Still I can manage to smile ' 1 
 Yea ! and thou smil'dst e'en then a smile of angelical sweetness ; 
 
 Still will that angel smile dwell in my memory's core. 
 Yea, O belov'd, even so ! with that smile thou hast gone to thy Father ; 
 
 Gone to thy Saviour's breast, looking as then thou didst look. 
 
 Can I forget, when I pray'd by thy bed, and, bitter the lesson ! 
 
 Learnt from thee how I should pray learnt resignation from thee 
 
 * Lord, if this cup may not pass from me except that I drink it '- 
 
 Vainly I tried to proceed, vainly to finish the act ; 
 
 * Lord, if this cup may not pass from me except that I drink it ' 
 
 Softly thy voice went on, * Father thy will be it done.' 
 Even so, beloved ! the cup so bitter in tasting 
 
 Thou hast taught me to drink ; may I drink it like thee ! 
 
 Ever by me be remember'd the words that cheer'd thy departure, 
 
 Cheer'd thee uttered then, uttered often before : 
 ' Grant, Lord, that as we are buried with thee in our baptism,' 
 
 When Death over her hung this was the pray'r that she pray'd, 
 ' So through the Grave, the Gate of Death, we may pass to our rising, 
 
 ' Ris'n to a joyfuller life thy resurrection may share.' 
 And so passed away the blessed Soul to her Maker ; 
 
 Passed away to her God ; follow'd her Saviour's path. 
 Thus we parted ; diverse, how far ! our paths and our portions, 
 
 She to the Saviour's embrace ; I to the wearisome world. 
 
APPENDIX. 561 
 
 I to the wearisome world, to toil all lonely and helpless, 
 
 Yet not lonely quite, her since I bear in my heart : 
 Yet not helpless quite, for thy companionship, dear one ! 
 
 Still shall lend me its help, guiding and raising me still. 
 And if spirits of the just made perfect, and hov'ring as angels, 
 
 Still may watch o'er our ways, bending benignant their eyes, 
 Haunt me and soothe me daily, gentle Spirit, till / may, 
 
 Rising from this dead world, live in The Presence with thee. 
 
 O 
 
562 APPENDIX. 
 
 II. 
 THE SECOND SABBATH. THE EPIPHANY. 
 
 SEV'N days, and lo ! once more the wintry morn of the Sabbath 
 
 Finds me parted from thee, dawns on my widowed heart ; 
 Here do I move and mourn in a family circle that lov'd thee, 
 
 Mourn amid kind hearts, full of the mem'ry of thee. 
 Yea, and I seek the worship of God in the Beautiful Temple 
 
 Which amid dimness and smoke thou and thy brethren have built. 
 Beautiful it with the grace that the builder's science can lavish, 
 
 Where the clustered stems ramified bear up the roof ; 
 Where, rich-glowing, the light streams through the lanceted window; 
 
 Where the foliage of stone curls its luxuriant leaves. 
 Yet more beautiful far the thought that Temple embodies, 
 
 Thought of the beauty of pray'r, care for the good of men's souls. 
 They, kind masters and wise, desir'd that the soul and the spirit, 
 
 While the body was fed, might not their sustenance lack. 
 They desir'd that, where were the hands they urged unto labour, 
 
 There they might too urge voices to pray'r and to praise. 
 And so above the ordered ranges of workmen and children 
 
 Rises the priest's deep tone, rises the chorister's chant. 
 List to the Preacher's voice, as he takes his stand on the Scripture, 
 
 And to the listening crowd tells the glad message of peace ; 
 Tells how, even as now, the guiding Star of the Gentiles 
 
 Brought their kings to Him, prophesied King of the Jews : 
 How they came to his light, to the glorious shine of his rising, 
 
 Bringing their threefold gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh : 
 How this happy day is the Christmas-day of the Heathen ; 
 
 How we too should bring worthiest gifts to the Christ ; 
 Gold in our charity, pray'r our frankincense, and myrrh in our 
 patience, 
 
 Claiming our Gentile lot, seeking our Christian place. 
 Sweet to worship and listen where reigns the Good and the Lovely ; 
 
 Yet as I worship here, bitter is mixt with the sweet. 
 Yea ! for how should it be that aught that is good or is lovely 
 
 Should not be full of thee, should not remind me of thee 1 
 
APPENDIX. 563 
 
 Yea, and can I forget that here with thee I have worshipt 
 
 When first these blest walls witnest a worshipping train ? 
 When, unworthy and weak, I first from that pulpit exhorted 
 
 Those who assembled first, glad, in the mansion of prayer. 
 Can I forget that in years succeeding, thou, beloved, 
 
 Ever hast, year by year, offer'd thy gifts to the Christ ; 
 Ever hast offer'd thy precious gifts with a purified spirit, 
 
 Gold and frankincense and myrrh ; charity, patience and pray'r. 
 Ah ! and can I forget that this for thee too is Christmas, 
 
 Christmas not as of wont Christmas not of the earth ; 
 Christmas when for thee the Christ is born in His power, 
 
 He now born for thee, thou too regen'rate in Him. 
 And as new born on earth the Saviour lay in a manger, 
 
 So thy newborn soul lies in the Kingdom of Heav'n ; 
 Angels hanging around it with eyes of love and of sweetness ; 
 
 While above it broods light from the presence of God. 
 Yet the diff'rence how vast ! He, brought to pain and to sorrow 
 
 From the glory He had in the beginning with God \ 
 Thou from sorrow and pain for ever deliver'd and rescu'd, 
 
 Brought through the bodily death into the heavenly life. 
 Yea, beloved, and when for me that hour is arrived, 
 
 And through the gate of Death I too must pass to my doom, 
 May my newborn Soul awake in that heavenly brightness, 
 
 And may I see thy smile ready to welcome me there. 
 
 o o 2 
 
564 APPENDIX. 
 
 III. 
 THE PICTURE.* 
 
 How when the Lov'd One is torn from our grasp, is snatcht from our 
 
 vision, 
 How the Soul stretches her arms, struggling in vain with the 
 
 thought ! 
 How the yearning Heart invokes the aid of the Fancy ! 
 
 Strives, if it may, to clothe Terror in beautiful forms ! 
 Even so here the heart-stricken Painter, bereaved and afflicted, 
 
 Calls, from the depths of his Art, form for the Angel of Death. 
 Lo the solemn Shape, black-veil'd over every member, 
 
 Draws the Chosen away forth from the couch of her pain ! 
 Black the thick veil hangs o'er the head mysteriously stooping, 
 
 And its black folds involve fingers that tenderly clasp, 
 Tenderly clasp, but with firm irresistible hold, the Beloved, 
 
 Drawing her white-robed form upwards away from the earth. 
 Round on each side bend Her broad and shadowy pinions, 
 
 Bend like loving arms, ready to close in embrace. 
 Shed from above, Her dark shade falls on the beautiful visage ; 
 
 Beautiful still, though deep sicklied and worn with disease. 
 Yet though sicklied and worn, with gentle tenderness beaming, 
 
 Beaming sweetly on him, desolate left on the earth. 
 And he lies on the earth all desolate, prostrate and helpless, 
 
 Buries his widowed head deep in the folds of her couch. 
 Yet not all is despair, and e'en through the gloom of the Vision 
 
 Gleams are revealed that tell Hope still is mixt with the grief. 
 See through the dark veil's folds the radiant hair of the Angel 
 
 Shines on the convex brow, lustrous though scarcely discern'd. 
 Surely could but the veil be removed, that beauteous head would, 
 
 Radiance shedding around, lighten the chamber of death. 
 Yea, and though we see not that face's close-veiled features, 
 
 Were they reveal'd, they must smile bright with angelical grace. 
 And behind, in the depths of the ether that bends o'er the Vision, 
 
 Cloudless glory awaits her who is taken away : 
 
 1 The 'Angel of Death/ by Horace Vernet. 
 
APPENDIX. 565 
 
 And, placed near to her couch, and close, in life, to her vigils, 
 
 Hangs the sacred Cross, symbol of Faith and of Hope : 
 And her finger, upward pointing, would mark to the Mourner, 
 
 Where is the goal of her flight, where is the solace for him. 
 Sad, yet not all sadness the thought that breathes from the canvas ; 
 
 Not all sadness, for there Death breathes the promise of Life. 
 Hope there points to that heav'n where she already is soaring, 
 
 There where no mourners weep : there where the Lost One is found. 
 
 Wisely, Painter, and well hast thou used thy Art as thy Teacher, 
 
 Teacher of Solace and Hope ; teacher of Goodness and Pray'r. 
 For how e'er shalt thou enter where her pure Spirit is enter'd, 
 
 If thy Soul be not purified, hallow'd and rais'd ? 
 So I too would seek, in these too dissonant measures, 
 
 Lessons of hope and faith ever to stamp on my heart : 
 And when for thee and for me, Painter, the lesson is ended, 
 
 When we have finisht our task, labour and patience and pray'r, 
 Painter ! mayest thou find in that bright region thy Lost One ! 
 
 There may I too find her whom I ceaselessly mourn. 
 
566 APPENDIX. 
 
 IV. 
 THE RETURN HOME. 
 
 ONCE has the pallid Moon replenisht her shadowy circle 
 
 Since the Belov'd in my arms breath'd her pure spirit away : 
 Moon of desolate thoughts and tears unceasingly springing 
 
 E'en at the welcome of friends, e'en at the smiling of love. 
 For how could I forget for whose sake that love was first giv'n me ; 
 
 Hers, the magnet of love, pole of affection to all. 
 Now perforce driv'n forth from companionship dear and consoling 
 
 Back I return to the world, back to the turmoil of life. 
 Yea once more I seek the haunts of men and their bus'ness, 
 
 And before me the face stands of my desolate home. 
 Lo ! placed high on the wall, vain pomp ! the Badge of the Herald 
 
 Tells of a funeral train recently sent from that door. 
 Ah ! and back to my thoughts that dreary morn is recalled, 
 
 Morn of the open grave, morn of the funeral voice. 
 Sadly we follow'd the form which once contained the Lov'd One ; 
 
 Brothers and sisters in heart, brothers and sisters in woe. 
 Woe ! for to give that much-lov'd form to the grave and its darkness 
 
 Seem'd the abyss of grief, seem'd as a parting for aye. 
 Nay, but recall, soul ! the voices that broke on thy hearing, 
 
 Voices of faith and of hope, soothing the depth of thy woe : 
 Voices as if some Comforting Angel had sounded his trumpet, 
 
 Piercing the ether above, raising our thoughts from the earth. 
 
APPENDIX. 567 
 
 V. 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 ' I, SAITH Christ, am the Life, and I am the true Resurrection : 
 
 He that believeth in me, though he were dead, he shall live, 
 He that believeth in me dieth never : his life is immortal.' 
 
 And yet a pause, and again solemnly sounded the voice. 
 ' He, my Redeemer liveth, I know it ; and He, in his glory, 
 
 Shall, in the latter day, visibly stand on the earth : 
 And though worms may destroy this body, yet still in a body 
 
 I shall my Saviour behold gaze on him with my own eyes.' 
 Deep in the triumph of Faith sound out the breathings of Patience ; 
 
 Words that we strive to feel : and ! how bitter the strife ! 
 * Into this world we nothing have brought, and nothing we take thence. 
 
 God gave : God takes back. Blest be the name of the Lord.' 
 
 So we enter the gates where we so often have worshipt. 
 
 She, pure worshipper here, worships in Paradise now. 
 Yet the Sable Bier, in the midst of the sorrowing circle, 
 
 Makes us to feel, even yet, sense of Communion with her. 
 Then ascends the voice of the Psalm of Trust and of Meekness ; 
 
 Voice of the Temple of old ; voice of the Churches of Christ : 
 Voice whose solemn sound has, in many a grief-stricken bosom, 
 
 Soothed the wildness of woe : ! may it sooth it in ours. 
 
568 APPENDIX. 
 
 VI. 
 THE PSALM. 
 
 PSALM XC. 
 
 THOU our refuge hast been, Lord through all generations, 
 
 Ere yet the world was form'd, ere that the earth was yet made; 
 Ere that the mountains were yet brought forth from the bosom of 
 chaos, 
 
 Thou from the first art God ; Thou, to eternity, God. 
 Man to destruction Thou turnest, and put'st him away from thy 
 presence, 
 
 And yet again, ' Come back,' say'st to the children of men. 
 Yea, for a thousand years in thy sight but as a day are ; 
 
 Whilst thou look'st it is past e'en as a watch of the night. 
 Swept into nothing by thee, they pass away as a slumber, 
 
 Pass as a dream of the night, wither away as the grass ; 
 Grass that is green in the morning and groweth up in its freshness, 
 
 But in the evening hour perishes faded and dead. 
 Even so we consume in the blast of thy wrathful displeasure, 
 
 Even so we fall if thy indignation arise. 
 For before Thee our misdeeds are revealed in terrible clearness, 
 
 All our secret sins lie in the manifest light. 
 When thou art angry our days are straightway vanisht and ended ; 
 
 Then are our years at an end e'en as a tale that is told. 
 For three score and ten are the years allotted to mortals, 
 
 Or if they reach fourscore, what is the price of their strength 1 
 Then is their strength but labour and sorrow, but trouble and weak- 
 ness; 
 
 So soon pass we away, pass and are utterly gone. 
 Who then shall rightly weigh in his heart the risk of thy anger ? 
 
 He that feareth Thee knoweth the pow'r of thy fear. 
 Turn thee again at the last, and be gracious unto thy servants ; 
 
 Teach us to number our days so that our hearts may be wise. 
 Give us thy mercy, and satisfy soon our souls in their craving ; 
 
 So shall our hearts rejoice all the glad days of our life. 
 
APPENDIX. 569. 
 
 Comfort us now ; may the time be past wherein thou hast plagued us ; 
 
 Yea may the years be gone markt by adversity's stroke. 
 Show to thy servants thy work, reveal to their children thy glory, 
 
 Thine, our Ruler and Guide, Thine, our Comfort and Stay. 
 So shall thy glorious majesty, Lord our God, be upon us ; 
 
 Prosper our handiwork, Thou, prosper the work of our hands ! 
 
 Thus with the heaven-taught strain we seek to chasten our anguish ; 
 
 Strive to give, as we must, unto the Saviour his own. 
 And now sounds in our ears the Apostle's loftier Lesson ; 
 
 Shedding the Christian light on the mysterious change. 
 
570 APPENDIX. 
 
 VII. 
 THE LESSON. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 20. 
 
 Now is Christ ris'n from the dead, and is of the dead the first-fruits : 
 For as by man came Death, by man too came Resurrection. 
 For as in Adam all die, so all are made living in Jesus. 
 And thus each shall rise in his order. Jesus the first-fruits, 
 First, and afterward they that are Christ's shall rise at his coming. 
 And then cometh the end ; when Christ, the Son, to the Father 
 Gives up the Kingdom, and all other rule and power is put down. 
 For the Christ must reign till He hath all enemies put down 
 Under his feet ; and, last of all enemies, Death is destroyed ; 
 All things under his feet ; and even Death, among all things. 
 And when all are subdu'd, the Son shall return to the Father's 
 Bosom, and God shall be All in All, in full consummation. 
 All the dead shall rise, for to that end, all are baptized. 
 Why baptiz'd, if the dead rise not ? and why do we wrestle, 
 Hour by hour, with peril and death, if the dead be not raised 1 
 Yea, were it so indeed, we might almost say, with the worldling, 
 ' Eat we and drink we to-day, for to-morrow comes death everlasting.' 
 Nay ; not so, my brethren ; be not so blindly deceived ; 
 Evil companionships poison the soul. Awake from such dreaming. 
 Sin not, even in thought : as some I speak it in sorrow 
 Speak it to put you to shame have sinn'd; who know not their 
 Saviour. 
 
 But some man will say : The dead, then, how are they raised ? 
 With what body 1 O fool ! The faith of the Sower shall teach thee. 
 That which thou sowest is quicken'd, but dieth before it is quicken'd. 
 That which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, 
 Sowest a grain of wheat, and God doth give it a body : 
 Gives it the body He wills, and gives to each seed its own body, 
 All flesh is not the same. Of men, and of beasts, and of fishes 
 Difiers the flesh ; and differs more celestial and earthly. 
 One is the glory of earth : celestial glory another. 
 
APPENDIX. 571 
 
 One is the glory of Sun ; of Moon the glory is other ; 
 
 Other the glory of stars ; and stars, too, differ in glory. 
 
 And even so man's body is changed to find resurrection. 
 
 Sown is it in corruption, and raised in incorruption. 
 
 Sown is it in dishonour, thereafter raised in glory. 
 
 Sown it is in weakness, and raised in strength and in power. 
 
 Sown a natural body, and raised a spiritual body. 
 
 For there is a natural, is a spiritual body. 
 
 So it is written that Adam the first was a living soul made ; 
 
 But we teach of an Adam made a quickening Spirit. 
 
 That which was natural first, and that which is spiritual after, 
 
 Adam the first, of earth ; the second, the Lord from heaven. 
 
 As is the earthy, such likewise are they that are earthy : 
 
 As is the heavenly, such likewise are they that are heav'nly. 
 
 As we have borne the earthy image, we shall bear the heav'nly. 
 
 Flesh and blood cannot inherit the heavenly kingdom : 
 
 Nor can it be that corruption inheriteth incorruption. 
 
 Lo ! I shew you a mystery mystery solemn and mighty : 
 
 We shall not all sleep ; but all, yea all shall be changed, 
 
 Chang'd in a moment, as twinkles the eye, when sounds the last 
 
 trumpet. 
 
 For the trumpet shall sound, and then the dead shall be raised 
 Incorruptible thenceforth ; so shall we be changed. 
 For the corruptible in us must put on incorruption, 
 And the mortal in us must immortality put on. 
 So when this corruptible putteth on incorruption, 
 When this mortal frame shall immortality put on, 
 Then, as the prophet hath said, is Death in Victory swallow'd. 
 Where is thy sting, Death ! and where thy Victory, Grave, now 1 
 Sin is the sting of Death, and the strength of Sin in the Law lies. 
 But we have conquer'd the Law, for Christ that Victory gives us. 
 Thanks be to God, through Christ our Lord that Victory giving ! 
 Be then, brethren beloved, henceforth immoveable, stedfast, 
 Always abounding in God's good works, for this do ye well know, 
 While your works are done in the Lord, not vain is your labour. 
 
572 APPENDIX. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE GRAVE. 
 
 THEN they bear her forth, and the funeral train rolls onward, 
 On to the new-made grave, on to the place of the Tomb. 
 
 And the Coffined Form unpalled rests for a moment 
 
 There on the brink of the depth, there on the verge of its bed. 
 
 And the voice still soars, that our hearts sink not with the coffin 
 Into the yawning abyss, into the cavern of Death. 
 
 ' Man, that is born of a woman, hath so is it allotted 
 But a short time to live : short, and of misery full : 
 
 Groweth up like a flower, and soon like a flower is cut down : 
 Fle'th like a shadow away : may not endure and abide.' 
 
 ' Where is our help but thou, O Lord, so justly displeased ? 
 E'en in the midst of life, are we not also in death 1 ' 
 
 ' Yet Lord most holy, O Lord most mighty and awful, 
 
 Holy and merciful Lord ! Saviour, Succour, and Hope ! 
 From the bitter pains of death everlasting preserve us.' 
 
 * Known unto thee, O Lord ! all the sad thoughts of our hearts. 
 Shut not thou, God ! thy merciful ears to our prayer ! 
 Spare us, Lord most high ! Holy and merciful Lord ! 
 
 * Spare us, Lord most holy ! Spare us, O God most mighty ! 
 
 Holy and merciful Lord! Saviour eternal and Judge ! 
 Suffer us not, when the last hour comes, and Death overtakes us 
 
 Suffer us not, for his pangs, ever to fall from Thee ! ' 
 Strikes on our hearts the sound, as falls the clod on the coffin. 
 
 Earth has resumed her own. Vain are the yearnings of Love. 
 
 Hark ! yet again the Voice. ' Forasmuch as now it hath pleased 
 God Almighty, of His great mercy to take to Himself the 
 
APPENDIX. 573 
 
 Soul of our dear Sister departed, here we commit her 
 Body unto the ground : the earthy give to the earthy, 
 Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust : in the sure and the certain 
 Hope of the rising to life eternal, through Jesus our Saviour; 
 Who shall change the body like to His glorious body, 
 After His mighty working whereby He conquereth all things 
 Unto Himself/ And so is the body consigned to its rest-place. 
 
 Blessed the dead that die in the Lord : they rest from their labours.' 
 So the Spirit hath said. This be our solace and joy. 
 
574 APPENDIX. 
 
 IX. 
 THE THANKSGIVING. 
 
 THEN we meekly bend on the verge of the shadowy chamber, 
 
 Bend in prayer to Him, Ruler of Earth and of Heav'n ; 
 Him from whom the disburthened soul felicity drinks in ; 
 
 Him with whom do live Spirits departed in faith ; 
 And, hardest of prayers ! with hearts all bleeding, we thank Him, 
 
 That He hath taken her hence taken her unto Himself. 
 "Willingly then may we pray : Do Thou, Lord, hasten thy coming 
 
 That we too may soon be in thy presence with her. 
 
 Yet one look we may downward cast, deep into the cavern, 
 
 Into the depths of the grave, down on the coffined form : 
 One last look at the vesture of that we so cherisht and treasur'd ; 
 
 Grazing at where she is ; gazing at where she is not. 
 And we turn us away, and the heart-strings crack with the motion, 
 
 Back to the desolate world, blank of the light of our eyes. 
 And with leaden feet, to our home, to our life, we return us ; 
 
 Home that no longer is Home, Life that no longer is Life. 
 
APPENDIX. 575 
 
 X. 
 THE GRAVESTONE. 
 
 Now that the Earth and the Sky have conceal'd the Belov'd from our 
 vision, 
 
 Now we have render'd to earth all that is earthly of Her ; 
 Give we the spot (how dear !) its due memorial honours ; 
 
 Lay we a stone on the grave : mark we the place of our grief. 
 Lay we a stone, that may speak of her to our friends and our children ; 
 
 Lay we a stone that may speak, even as she would have wilPd. 
 Clearly she spoke her will : ' Mark thou,' she said, ' on my tombstone 
 
 Not mere wailings of grief, sorrow that knows not of hope ; 
 Let Hope shine through the Grief; let Faith illumine the Sorrow; 
 
 For I go to my God parting in Faith and in Hope.' 
 * Yea, O Beloved,' I cried ; * thine own sweet wisdom shall teach me : 
 
 Words thou hast uttered oft, these shall be fittingly traced ; 
 Words that thy Fancy devised to cheer a widowed Sister 
 
 Woven in emblem apt, full of the Faith of the Just. 
 There was the Cross blest sign and around it a lettered circle, 
 
 Circle that ever begins, ever continues its sense. 
 For CO ^ie * tO Itiltt * 5TO HiU * tO ffilt, was the legend : 
 
 Round and round as we read, still does the lesson come round : 
 Teaching, (wise men in olden time rejoic'd in such teaching,) 
 
 Death is the Limit of Life, Life is the Issue of Death. 
 And in the midst of the circle, and fixt on the Cross at its centre, 
 
 Lo ! the Sower is traced flinging his grain to the earth : 
 Grain, it may be, of wheat, cast forth to die and be buried, 
 
 Given to earth and to death, quicken'd to life and to light : 
 Given its body to earth, and clothed by God with a body, 
 
 Emblem of Life from Death ; emblem of Christian Hope : 
 Emblem of thy true thoughts ; of thy assur'd resurrection : 
 
 This, O my Love ! be thy sign : this be the voice of thy grave.' 
 This was our communing, sad but sweet, when the Soul with the Body 
 
 Struggling, already lookt on, calm, to the end of the strife. 
 
576 APPENDIX. 
 
 And now call we the Sculptor's art to mould on thy tombstone 
 
 That which thy Piety felt, that which thy Fancy devised. 
 There be the Cross displayed on the sloping ridge of the copestone, 
 
 As in the tombs of old ; as o'er the cloistered dead. 
 There be the ring with its circling words, so warning and cheering ; 
 
 There be the Sower with arms spread, as he walks in the field. 
 And brief legend suf&ceth for those who will visit thy rest-place 
 
 There will we write on the marge : THIS is CORDELIA'S TOMB. 
 
APPENDIX. 577 
 
 XI. 
 THE SERMON. 
 
 Now I again revolve in the wonted circle of action ; 
 
 Circle of gold, of yore ; leaden the circle is now. 
 Day by day come round the meetings of men and their bus'ness ; 
 
 Day by day do I toil ; zealously, joylessly toil. 
 So the week rolls on : each day delivers its burden : 
 
 So the Sabbath returns, bringing its thoughts and its task, 
 Bringing its sound, once welcome, of social pray'r and of anthem ; 
 
 Bringing its rarer task ; giving its office to me : 
 Giving to me the Preacher's office, that there I should pour forth 
 
 All that is best in my heart, all that is worthy of God : 
 Pour forth all to those who there are gather'd together, 
 
 These, my long-lov'd friends, those, too, my juvenile flock. 
 Well have I lov'd to try to stir the spirit within them ; 
 
 Spirit of God-fearing youth ; spirit of God-fearing men. 
 This was sweet when thou, my Beloved, could'st list to my accents ; 
 
 Telling, in after discourse, aught that was fittingly said : 
 A ught that might wing our hearts to journey to heaven together ; 
 
 Aught that we therefore deem'd, others might feel in their hearts. 
 Sweet the labour was then, and hopefully did I address it ; 
 
 Sweet was the labour then ; how shall I deal with it now ? 
 Surely with thee in my heart, with my heart still yearning around 
 thee, 
 
 Surely of thee I must speak ; thee, and the place thou hast found. 
 How can I fail to speak of the life and the death of the Biassed ; 
 
 Speak of the Hope of the Just ; speak of the lesson of Hope ? 
 Hope, and how that Hope should work on the spirit, my theme be \ 
 
 How the Disciple belov'd tells of the working of Hope. 
 
 1 JOHN in. 1. 
 
 1 Mark, my beloved,' he saith, ' what love the Father hath giv'n us ; 
 Love that reacheth to this ; we are the children of God. 
 
 P P 
 
578 APPENDIX. 
 
 This are we now ; and it appeareth not yet what hereafter we shall be ; 
 
 But we shall be like Him ; seeing Him e'en as He is. 
 This is the hope that we have ; and who hath this hope in his bosom 
 
 He maketh pure himself, even as He, too, is pure.' 
 
 Truly, Christian friends, such hope is no profitless feeling ; 
 
 Feeling, it blossoms in buds ; Hope, it is fertile in Act. 
 He shall be pure in heart that shall see his Father in heaven : 
 
 He maketh pure his heart, ev'n while he lingers on earth. 
 He roots forth from his heart all lust, self-seeking, and anger, 
 
 Works of the World and the Flesh, fires that the Devil incites. 
 Such is the Soul that strives, and striving, praying, and hoping, 
 
 Grows, by the grace of God, daily to be as of God : 
 Grows into purity, love, and the wisdom of love, and its meekness : 
 
 Grows to a care for all, grows to denial of self. 
 Surely the Soul that thus is fill'd with celestial tempers, 
 
 Surely that Soul, even here, moves on the pathway to heav'n. 
 Yea, and when Death comes, and the mortal change, and no longer 
 
 That dull bodily frame darkens the sight of the Soul ; 
 'Tis as one that had liv'd in a region of light and of sunshine ; 
 
 Liv'd in a region of light, closed in a dungeon obscure. 
 And as if some blast from above, though terrible, gracious, 
 
 Rent the prison away, scatt'ring its roof to the winds. 
 Then the happy Soul is left rejoicing in brightness ; 
 
 Brightness ambient before, dimly discerned till now. 
 Thus is the soul in its place ; in its mortal mansion immortal. 
 
 Is there one who denies, doubts immortality's hope ? 
 Nay, let them look at the Soul in herself; at her growth and her 
 nature : 
 
 Nature herself shall confirm promises made by the Word. 
 What ? when the Soul has risen so high, has grown to such fulness ; 
 
 Ris'n by the teaching of years ; grown with the growth of a life; 
 Grown through the docile childhood, the earnest youth, and the 
 thoughtful 
 
 Years of a riper age, years, and experience, and acts ; 
 Grown through good well done, and grown through patience in failure; 
 
 Grown through sorrow and pain, grown too by musing and pray'r; 
 Grown till Faith, and till Hope, and till Charity make up its being ; 
 
 Grown to oblivion of self; grown to the wisdom of love ; 
 Grown to a trust in the fatherly goodness of Him who afflicteth ; 
 
 Soul thus rais'd, thus grown, say, shall it sink into nought ? 
 
APPENDIX. 579 
 
 He, great Father of all, for ever and ever unfolding, 
 
 Brings forth the flow'r from the bud, brings forth the fruit from 
 
 the flow'r ; 
 Shall He unfold the soul so far, and then dash it to nothing 1 
 
 He the same Lord of life : doubtless He is the same Lord. 
 Say, in that lower sphere shall He guide perpetual progress, 
 
 And in this higher sphere end with an absolute blank 1 
 After a short (how short !) career, shall a spirit so gifted 
 
 End, so well begun ; lost, when so much has been gain'd 1 
 Rais'd so near to heav'n, to earth be wholly consigned ; 
 
 Rais'd to an angel life, sink into dust with the brute ? 
 This to believe, were to deem that the world is void of an object ; 
 
 World without Meaning or Thought, Purpose, or Wisdom, or Love ; 
 No ! O Christian friends ; in the world of Grace, as of Nature, 
 
 As the bud leads to the flow'r, so the flow'r dies not in vain. 
 Such growth needs more growth ; such folds shall be further unfolded ; 
 
 Such high spiritual powers higher and higher shall rise. 
 Such a temporal being speaks plainly a being eternal ; 
 
 Such a celestial life shows that life shall be in heav'n. 
 That which the Gospel speaks reechoes the whisper within us : 
 
 Such shall inherit a realm doom'd from eternity theirs. 
 Such shall have mansions above, where He is gone to prepare them ; 
 
 Where are no hunger and thirst, where are no sorrow and pain. 
 Where they shall stand around His throne, and hymning His praises, 
 
 While the eternal spheres measure eternity's flow. 
 
 This is the hope that we foster; and who thus hopes, shall be aided 
 
 Still to make pure himself even as He too is pure. 
 Who that hath seen this working of Hope, this working of pureness, 
 
 Shown in a Christian life, shown in a Christian's death ; 
 Who feels not a longing to work as the Christian has shown him, 
 
 E'en as the yearning heart longs to be with them again 1 
 Them have we seen all patient in pain, all calm amid turmoil, 
 
 Skilful in doing of good, subtly unselfish and kind. 
 Be we patient and calm ; cherish we their tempers within us, 
 
 Seeking a skill like theirs ; seeking oblivion of self. 
 So may we come at last where they have passed before us ; 
 
 So may the lone-left heart joy in companionship found. 
 
 * Learn of me,' saith the Lord. Is this too lofty a lesson? 
 
 Yet may we learn it of them ; those who have learnt it before. 
 They, apt scholars of Christ, have shown how scholars should labour. 
 
 We, would we be with them, we must be scholars as they 
 
 r r 2 
 
580 APPENDIX. 
 
 Blest, thrice blest, shall we be, if, then when schooling is ended, 
 
 We may, by their loved side, sit in the Master's abode. 
 Friends ! dear friends ! may we all and ever aspire to this blessing ! 
 
 Seeking it still while we may ; knowing how short is the time. 
 Brethren, the time is short : for the oldest alike and the youngest. 
 
 Short is the time for us, inmates so long of these courts ; 
 Oft have we breathed such hopes to successive races of hearers ; 
 
 Oft too have heard such hopes breath'd by a race that is past. 
 Short is the time for us. So Youth may carelessly reckon. 
 
 But for Youth, no less, scanty and short is the time. 
 Short is Time to prepare for Eternity : hasten to use it ; 
 
 Or if already begun, press unremitting the task. 
 Not as a task apart from the tasks that make up your day work : 
 
 No, but an all in all, mixing in every work : 
 Guiding and shaping the temper and spirit, and bidding you work still 
 
 Zealously, humbly and well, caring for God and for all. 
 So e'en the humblest work is a lore that prepares for the Kingdom ; 
 
 So shall the Mind and the Heart ever be fitter for Heav'n. 
 Still to illumine the Mind and still to sweeten the Temper ; 
 
 Still to aim at the Right still the Eternal to prize ; 
 This is the happiest lot that man can take for his portion ; 
 
 Happiest, even on earth : Heav'n is already begun. 
 This, dear friends, may be yours. Choose this and hold to it firmly. 
 
 And may the grace of God prosper you in it for aye ! 
 Amen ! so may it be ! 
 
 Then rises thy Memory, Dear One ! 
 
 might I give to such thought utterance worthy of thee ! 
 
APPENDIX. 581 
 
 XII. 
 THE MONUMENT. 
 
 THERE the body is laid, away from the din of the city, 
 
 There in the Place of the Tombs. Such is our burial use. 
 Stand on every side memorials of neighbours departed : 
 
 Modestly there on the ground lies the memorial of her. 
 But shall not the Graveyard speedily grow to a Churchyard ? 
 
 Shall not the place of the Tombs soon be the place of the Church ? 
 There as we bend o'er the grave, and muse on the past and the present, 
 
 Rise from our memory's depths those she has gone to rejoin. 
 Rises the thought of that First of the noble band of her Brethren, 
 
 Him the Belov'd of the Five, him the first taken away : 
 Taken away as he plann'd how vain are the plannings of mortals ! 
 
 Where he had chosen his lot, there to erect him a home : 
 There, in the beautiful land, the land of the Lake and the Mountain ; 
 
 There where the loveliest lake lies in the loveliest vale : 
 Yet though taken away, and forbidden to build him a mansion 
 
 Here on the face of the earth call'd to a mansion in heav'n 
 He, to the last hour zealous to leave a blessing to neighbours, 
 
 Bade the fair House of God rise in the beautiful vale. 
 And there, duly perform'd by the love of his Parents and Brethren, 
 
 Stands the embodied wish ; monument fitting for him. 
 Fair rise there the beautiful spire and the gracious portal ; 
 
 Pointing aloft to the sky, looking adown to the lake. 
 There too, close by those sacred walls, is buried Another, 
 
 Brother by tenderest ties ; more than a brother in love. 
 Memories sweet of delight, of happiness clear and untroubled, 
 
 Cling to that sacred hill, point to that beautiful spire. 
 And, more dear than delight, dwell still, in happy remembrance 
 
 Thoughts of the Minister's task lovingly, nobly perform'd. 
 Loarn we our lesson there ; and a Church, as memory's token, 
 
 Raise by the side of her grave ; Monument fairest and best. 
 Raise we a spire whose silent finger may point to the mansions 
 
 Whither our hopes, too, tend ; whither her spirit is fled. 
 
582 APPENDIX. 
 
 Fix we a Mark that may oft bring back our spirits from wand'ring ; 
 
 Fix we a Mark whence thoughts, longing, may wander afar. 
 Thine, O Architect tried ! be the task; at her kindred's bidding, 
 
 Who hast the sacred fane raised, in the vortex of toil ; 
 Placed by the giant fabrics of work, by the whirring of engines, 
 
 Forms that the builder lov'd ere yet the engine was heard ; 
 Forms that are great in their antique grace, that soothe by their 
 calmness, 
 
 Hallowing the piles by their side, as does the Sabbath the week. 
 Even so here, Builder ! devise, with thy masterly knowledge, 
 
 What may be fit for the site ; what may respond to our hearts. 
 Firm and secure be the pillars below that bear up the structure ; 
 
 Firm as the Faith that she held. Firm is the Pillar of Faith. 
 Plain and strong be the style, as the early temples of England ; 
 
 Simple and strong was her heart ; simple her ways, as of old. 
 Flamelike and lofty spring forth the spire from the roof of the 
 structure, 
 
 Piercing its way to the skies ; leaving the earthy below. 
 So that with it our hearts may rise aloft from the earthy : 
 
 Rise from the body's grave up to the spirit's repose. 
 And as that aery point, by the sedret skill of the builder, 
 
 Draws down the fire of the sky into the bosom of earth, 
 So may it into our souls draw down a heavenly lightning, 
 
 Subtle, unseen, like that; piercing the depths of the heart : 
 Piercing the heart, and making it feel celestial touches, 
 
 Even while still it is here, clothed in its vesture of clay. 
 And, as rising on high, that spire, o'er the country around it, 
 
 Here in our level domain, land of the plain and the fen 
 Seems as looking abroad for some sisterly steeple or turret ; 
 
 Looking for some far hill, mountainous summit or ridge 
 Oft shall my heart, too, look to the land of mountains that lov'd 
 her; 
 
 Look to that sisterly spire rising by Derwent's fair lake. 
 Oft shall I think of thy beautiful home, in the lap of Helvellyn, 
 
 Home of thy youthful days ; cradle of blessing for me : 
 Where, 'mid steep dark slopes, the winding water of Ulle 
 
 Bends round its midway banks, moulded almost to an isle. 
 There, fair ever and bright, that happy mansion of Hallsteads 
 
 Lies on the rocky shore ; scatters its shrubberies round. 
 There around it swell the heathy summits of mountains, 
 
 Yew-crag, Hallen, and Place, Swarth-fell and Catchedicam, 
 There opes Kirkstone's Pass, and Patterdale shines in its valley 
 
 There leaps Aira's stream into the beautiful dell. 
 
APPENDIX. 583 
 
 0, how oft, in those happiest days of growing affection, 
 
 Roam'd we the bank of the lake, clomb we the breast of the hill ! 
 Every turn of the shore, and every crag of the hill-side 
 
 Lives in my memory yet ; gleams to the eye of the mind ; 
 Gleams with a magical grace, a deep interior sunshine ; 
 
 Glows with the thought of thee, soothing and stilling the Soul. 
 Yea and when, Belov'd ! thou hadst vanisht away from my vision, 
 
 Left me in darkness alone, here, on the desolate plain, 
 Yearned my heart to fly to those well-known vallies and mountains ; 
 
 Yearn'd to retrace those paths where we together had roved : 
 Yearii'd to visit each dell and each glen, each bay and each streamlet, 
 
 Where we had rambled of yore ; where we had mingled our souls. 
 Yea, and e'en yet I yearn once more again to behold them ; 
 
 Yearn once more to retrace haunts so belov'd and endear'd. 
 Yea, and I strain and shake, impatient, the fetters that bind me, 
 
 Bind me i*h this dull plain, far from the hill and the dell. 
 Yea and it seems as if there, wJiere all were, ever, so happy, 
 
 I some solace might find, e'en in the depth of my woe. 
 
 Vain, vain dream, alas ! Then rises the sadden'd reflection 
 
 How that the sunshine is gone, gave to that landscape its light. 
 How that the source is dried that filled those vallies with gladness, 
 
 How that the joy and the grace, all are evanisht away. 
 Hope was our sunshine then ; the hope of happiness promist ; 
 
 Hope of the union of lives, sprung from the union of hearts. 
 Such Hope gilded each scene, filled every gale with refreshing ; 
 
 Spread through the beautiful land, made it more beauteous still. 
 Yea, and right well was Hope's vision fulfill'd; and all that she 
 promist 
 
 Flow'd in abundance large over the following years. 
 Bow how vain were it now to seek to refashion the rapture 
 
 Seek to recall what is past Hope fulfill'd and extinct ! 
 Seek to recall the glance of the Sun on the peak of Helvellyn, 
 
 When the night's shade is come, black'ning and sadd'ning the 
 
 scene ! 
 Nay let Fancy no more delude me with promise of solace \ 
 
 "Vainly there should I seek joys that are vanisht for aye. 
 
 Yet, Soul ! faint not, nor mistrust the Love that is o'er us ; 
 
 If thou faint with thy grief, how art thou worthy of her ? 
 Still seek thou the vale which memory fills with her presence ; 
 
 Still seek ancient haunts, dear to your visits of old. 
 For though Hope no more can walk by thy side and delight thee, 
 
 Still thou slmlt have a Guide, still a Companion, Love, 
 
584 APPENDIX. 
 
 Love, undying, shall walk by thy side, and give to each object 
 
 Gleams of its former grace ; touches that still and that soothe. 
 Yea, and so, still more thou shall learn : for Love will assure thee 
 
 Hope is not dead but alive : ever undying is Hope. 
 Hope, when driven from earth, finds refuge in heaven, and beckons, 
 
 Beckons us onward still : promises union there : 
 Promises union there, in mansions of bliss and of gladness, 
 
 There in the presence of Him whom she so faithfully serv'd. 
 So when the summer sunset gleam, on the top of Helvellyn, 
 
 Fades and passes away into the grey of the night, 
 "Watch but a few short hours, and soon, through the melting of 
 darkness, 
 
 Bright shines forth on his crest radiance of heavenly morn. 
 
APPENDIX. 585 
 
 XIII. 
 EASTER DAY. 
 
 So o'er the sadden 'd soul roll on the varying billows ; 
 
 Billows of sorrow and gloom, chequer'd with flashes of cheer. 
 So to the vales and the hills the heart with its natural yearnings 
 
 Flies with its aching void, flies with its memory's pang : 
 Flies opprest and distrest with the sense of sin and of weakness : 
 
 Feels the need of relief ; feels that relief is afar. 
 Feels the weight of its stained humanity hanging upon it, 
 
 Dragging it down from the sky, blotting its glimpses of heav'n. 
 Roll on, too, the sacred weeks ; and, Sabbath by Sabbath, 
 
 Every week has a voice ; each has a message from heav'n. 
 Each has a message from heaven ; but messages heavy with warning, 
 
 Bidding man grieve for his guilt, humbled in ashes and dust. 
 Bidding man look to what sin has done, where, pierc'd and tormented, 
 
 Hangs the Saviour from sin there on the arms of the Cross. 
 Heavily lies on our hearts the sense of sin and of foulness j 
 
 We whose guilt has done this, how shall we hope to escape ? 
 He descends to the grave who bore our sins and our sorrows ; 
 
 Sink not our hearts with Him into the depths of the Tomb 1 
 How shall we join the pure in heart who are gone to their Father 1 
 
 How shall we find again her who is gone to her God ? 
 How shall we rise again from the den of darkness and foulness ? 
 
 Who shall remove the stone 1 open the sepulchre's lid ? 
 
 Thus while we ask, there sound in our ears those duteous pleadings 
 
 Which, in that solemn night, stay'd her yet lingering soul : 
 ' Grant, O Lord, that as we are buried with Thee in our baptism l 
 
 Buried, our sins, with Thee ; dead, our corruptions and shames ; 
 So through the Grave, the Gate of Death, we may pass to our rising, 
 
 Ris'n to a joyfuller life thy resurrection may share ! ' 
 And yet one short night; and then, 'mid the freshness of morning, 
 
 Sounds the jubilant cry : * Christ our Redeemer is ris'n.' 
 
 1 Collect for Easter Eve. 
 
586 APPENDIX. 
 
 Rise not too, with the cry, our hearts from their desolate sorrow 1 
 
 Rolls not the weight of the stone backward away from our breast ? 
 Feel we not now at last that she is risen with Jesus ? 
 
 How that the loss is ours, hers is the infinite gain 1 
 How that Death is o'ercome, and the gates of life everlasting * 
 
 Open'd to all that believe ; open'd already to her 1 
 Glows not the sunshine brighter, while thus our hearts are exalted ? 
 
 Breathe not the vernal airs solace and peace to our pains 2 
 Spreads not the hallowing wish to the deepest recess of our bosoms, 
 
 may we be like her ! O may we follow her there ! 
 
 Thou O beloved ! the child of her heart ; her dearer than daughter ! 
 
 Inmate oft of our home ; Inmate most radiant and sweet ! 
 Thou wast by her when last the Easter morning upon her 
 
 Rose with its holy ray, scatter'd its comforting balm. 
 Thou wast by her, though rejoicing with thee in that festival's 
 blessings, 
 
 Bound in the chain of disease, held from the worshipping throng. 
 And thou remember'st, when thou and I set forth from our hearth- 
 stone 
 
 Seeking that Altar Rite, seeking Communion with Christ, 
 Thou remember'st that, when we had parted, yet once she recall'd 
 thee, 
 
 And, with that Rite in her heart, bade thee ' Remember her,' there. 
 Yea, O beloved, and sweet is the thought that now, her Communion 
 
 No disease can disturb ; no separation alloy. 
 Sweet is the thought that now she enjoys a Communion in heaven ; 
 
 That, the Substance, how true ! This, but the Image, how faint ! 
 And thou would'st ask, in that her Communion, does she remember, 
 
 Does she remember thee ! Thee, beloved ! and me 1 
 Doubt it not, beloved ! And as we bear in our bosoms 
 
 Memories constant of her, never by time to be dimm'd ; 
 So be this our trust; as Love descended from heaven, 
 
 Came to conquer Death, crushing the barriers of Time, 
 So, while the powers of thought endure in life everlasting, 
 
 Love shall survive the grave, victory sweetest of all ! 
 This, belov'd, be the trust that we carry ever within us ; 
 
 Though, in our pilgrimage here, ceaseless we grieve at our loss. 
 Love shall endure. And if Love still guide us, as He has appointed, 
 
 Guide us in purity here. Love shall unite us at last. 
 
 1 Collect for Easter Day. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 AFF 
 
 AFFLECK, Lady, widow of Sir Gil- 
 bert, Dr. "Whewell's second wife, 
 502, 513, 527, 534, 537 
 
 Airy, Sir G. B., Senior Wrangler, 
 1823, 83, 101, 102, 107, 155, 157, 
 159 
 
 Albert, Prince, 276, 302-6, 338, 
 341-3, 364, 377, 380, 425, 526 
 
 Alsop, Mr., 155 
 
 Austen, Emma, 197, 554 
 
 Austin, Mrs. Sarah, wife of Jobn 
 Austin, Jurist, 347, 472, 481; 
 letters to her, 348, 413, 417, 443, 
 473, 492, 501 ; from her, 413, 416, 
 418 
 
 BENNISON, Lancaster family of, Mrs. 
 
 Whewell, William Whewell's 
 
 mother, a member of it, 1 
 Bennison, Thomas, 52, 53 
 Blakesley,Rev. I. W.,21st Wrangler, 
 
 1831, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity, 
 
 Dean of Lincoln, 50 
 Boadicea, prize poem, 4, 12, 15 
 Bre water, Sir David, 189 
 Bridlington Quay, 23 
 Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 190, 428 
 Bronte, Miss, 369, 443 
 Bunsen, Chevalier, Prussian Minister 
 
 in England, 269 ; letter to him, 
 
 483 
 
 CAPE, 5th Wrangler, 1816, Head 
 
 Master Addiscombe, 21 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 196 
 Carnarvon, reading party there, 43, 
 
 44, 45, 47 
 Carus, the Rev. W., 184, 238, 241, 
 
 548 
 
 EDG 
 
 Cavendish, Mr., afterwards Duke of 
 
 Devonshire, 127, 148, 526 
 Chafy, Rev. Dr., Master Sidney 
 
 Sussex, 76 
 
 Chalmers, Rev. Dr., 74, 161, 199 
 Clarke, Professor Mineralogy, 76 ; 
 
 succeeded by Whewell, 121 
 Coleridge, the Rev. Edward, of Eton, 
 
 296 ; letter to him, 297 
 Coleridge, S. T., discusses him, 28, 
 
 31, 32, 75, 94 
 
 DAWES, 4th Wrangler, 1817, pupil of 
 Mr. Whewell, afterwards Dean of 
 Hereford, 25 
 
 Denman, Hon. George, contests the 
 University, 454, 457, 460 
 
 De Vere, Aubrey, third son of Sir 
 Aubrey, and nephew of Lord 
 Monteagle, letters to him, 346, 
 423 ; his parallel between Dr. 
 Whewell and Mr. Kenelm Digby, 
 39 
 
 Digby, Kenelm, early pupil of Wil- 
 liam Whewell, 36 ; his recollec- 
 tions, 37 ; Hare's mention of him, 
 38 ; parallel between him and 
 Whewell, 39 ; tour in Normandy 
 with Whewell, 85 
 
 Dolcoath Mine, near Cambourne, 101, 
 103, 105, 123 
 
 Douglas, Mrs. Stair ; letters to her, 
 515, 522, 528, 535, 541, 542, 543, 
 546, 550, 551 
 
 EDGEWORTH, Maria, 68, 70, 71, 72, 
 73, 178 
 
 Edgewovth*. tin 4 , "- 
 
588 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ELL 
 
 LTO 
 
 Ellis, Robert Leslie, Fellow of 
 Trinity, brother of Lady Affleck, 
 354, 502 ; letter to him, 505 ; his 
 death, 520 
 
 FORBES, Professor James D., 158, 
 198 ; letters to him, 536, 537, 543 
 
 GOTJGH, blind mathematician, 6 
 Goulburn, Rt. Hon. S, 148, 302, 454 
 Graham, 4th Wrangler, 1816: late 
 
 Bishop of Chester ; late Master of 
 
 Christ's, 21,244, 380 
 Guizot, M. Fra^ois, 348, 354 
 Gurney, Daniel, 421 
 Gurney, Joseph, ]57, 179 
 Gwatkin, of St. John's, Senior 
 
 Wrangler, 1814, 16; accompanies 
 
 him to London, 16, 17 ; mention, 
 
 40, 141 
 
 HALL, the Rev. Robert, Baptist 
 minister, Leicester, 19, 9.3 
 
 Hallsteads, 190, 225, 273, 311, 312, 
 320, 465, 479, 532, 533, 543 
 
 Hamilton, 9th Wrangler, 1816, Dean 
 of Salisbury, 21 
 
 Hare, Rev. Julius, Classical Lecturer 
 at Trinity, subsequently Arch- 
 deacon of Sussex, first mention of 
 him, 33; letter to him, 51; Hare's 
 account of Hyde Hall, 86 ; reference 
 to him, 95; his charge, 218; letter 
 to Lady Malcolm, 113 ; visit to 
 him, 331 ; letters to him, 206, 
 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 231, 235, 
 239, 245, 246, 247, 249, 262, 263, 
 287, 290, 310, 331 ; letters from 
 him, 209, 218, 285, 288, 291; 
 letter from Dr. Worsley to Hare, 
 226 
 
 Henslow, Rev. Professor, 76 ; letter 
 to him, 138; Whewell spends a 
 week with him, 200 ; letter to 
 Miss Henslow, 202, 215 ; letter to 
 him, 522 
 
 ' Hermann and Dorothea,' Goethe's, 
 108,429 
 
 Herschel, Sir John, 24, 40, 126, 136, 
 189, 190, 226, 272, 380, 441, 520 
 
 Heversham, 5, 6 ; grammar school 
 at Heversham, 5, 6, 39, 436 
 
 TligiK an, 3rd Wrangler, 181 6 : Fellow 
 and Tutor Trinity, 21, 50 ' 
 
 Hope, Mr. Beresford, gift to the col- 
 lege, 251, 272, 305 
 
 Hudson, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity, 
 5, 8, 22, 26, 84 
 
 Hullah, Mr., 307, 308 
 
 Hyde Hall, house near Hatfield 
 Broad Oak, hired by Sir John 
 Malcolm ; Archdeacon Hare's ac- 
 count of it, 86 ; Malcolm's depar- 
 ture, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 115, 
 120, 496 
 
 IRVING, Rev. Edward, 74 
 
 JACOB, Senior Wrangler, 1816, 20 
 Jones, Rev. Richard, of Caius Col- 
 lege, afterwards Professor of Poli- 
 tical Economy at Haileybury and 
 Tithe Commissioner, 24, 35, 55, 
 106, 122, 163, 170, 181, 194 
 
 KELTT, Miss, author of the ' Favourite 
 of Nature,' 84; her recollections, 
 85; 'Story of Isabel,' 101; ' Reli- 
 gious Thoughts,' 110, 126 
 
 King, Senior Wrangler, 1819, Presi- 
 dent of Queen's, Lucasian Professor, 
 51,63 
 
 LANCASTER, VIII., 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 
 
 17, 35, 39, 77, 84, 96, 101, 108, 
 
 195, 196, 237, 267, 273, 274, 415, 
 
 416, 422, 480 
 
 Lancaster Blue School, 2, 3, 10 
 Lancaster, Brock Street, 1, 3 
 Lancaster Grammar School, 2, 3 
 Lancaster Gazette, 42 
 Lansdowne, Marquess of, 294,"_342, 
 
 392 
 Lasaulx, M. de, architect, Bonn, 185, 
 
 186 
 Laurence, Samuel, picture of Dr. 
 
 Whewell, 321 
 Leydon, Dr., poet and Orientalist, 
 
 104 
 
 Liugard, Dr., historian, 139 
 Lodge, M., 139 
 Lubbock, Sir John, 147 
 Lyell, Mr., afterwards Sir Charles, 
 
 144 
 Lyon, Mrs., Aunt of William 
 
 Whewell ; letters to her, 9, 19, 27, 
 
 42, 43, 52, 56, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64 
 
INDEX. 
 
 589 
 
 LIT 
 
 65, 63, 80, 88, 89, 92, 96, 98, 100, 
 102, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 121, 
 122, 125, 146, 154; her death, 
 179, 182 
 
 Lyttelton, Lord, pupil of Dr. 
 Whewell; stands for High Ste- 
 ward, 200; letter to him, 201, 
 234, 403 
 
 MACAULAY, Lord, 295, 357 
 Mackreth, the Rev. Dr., Vicar of 
 Lancaster, 101, 472 ; letters to 
 him, 353, 376, 415, 416, 421, 422, 
 425, 436, 447, 506, 513, 531, 532 
 Mackreth, Mrs., letters to, 490, 500 
 Malcolm, Sir John, first acquaint- 
 ance, 86 ; Lady Malcolm, 38, 86, 
 87 ; Miss Kate Malcolm, verses to 
 her, 87 ; Sir John, 91 ; letters to 
 Lady Malcolm, 103, 110, 111, 112, 
 113 ; letter to her from Julius Hare, 
 note, 113; letter from Whewell 
 to her, 114; verses for Miss Kate 
 Malcolm, 115 ; letter to Lady 
 Malcolm, 120, 135, 147, 149, 152; 
 Hare writes to her, 195; letter 
 from Dr. Whewell to her, 239, 545 
 Malcolm, to Miss Kate, 468, 469, 
 
 472, 474, 484, 489, 493, 549 
 Mansel, Rev. Dr., Master of Trinity, 
 and Bishop of Bristol, died 1820, 
 59 
 
 Marshall, James Garth, brother of 
 Mrs. Whewell, married to the 
 eldest daughter of Lord Monteagle, 
 268 ; letters to her, 434, 450 ; 
 letters to him, 279, 307, 333, 371, 
 428, 435, 443, 510, 528 
 Marshall, Kate, afterwards Mrs. 
 Sumner Gibson, daughter of John 
 Marshall (junior), and niece of 
 Mrs. Whewell, 419; letters to 
 her, 426, 432, 437, 438, 447, 455, 
 456, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462, 
 463, 464, 465, 467, 470, 471, 475, 
 476, 477, 478, 479, 480, 481, 482, 
 486, 487, 488, 490, 491, 494, 495, 
 496, 497, 498, 499, 504, 506, 507, 
 508, 509, 521, 523, 527, 529, 533, 
 534, 535, 538, 544, 546, 548 
 Martin, Rev. Francis, Fellow and 
 Tutor of Trinity, associated in the 
 tutorship, 50, 228, 51 6 
 Martineau, Harriet, 153 
 Mill, John Stuart, 371, 510 
 
 PER 
 
 Milman, the Rev. Henry II., Dean 
 of St. Paul's, 190, 232, 277, 435 
 
 Milton, Lord, afterwards Earl Fitz- 
 William, 136, 158 
 
 Moderator, William Whewell acted 
 as, 1820, 1828, 55, 114 
 
 Moller,. Herr Ober - Baurath, at 
 Darmstadt, 128 
 
 Monk, 12th Wrangler, 1812, Fellow 
 and Tutor of Trinity ; Professor of 
 Greek, subsequently Bishop of 
 Gloucester, appoints to mathema- 
 tical lectureship, 1818, 39 
 
 Monteagle, Lord, Thomas Spring 
 Rice raised to the peerage as Lord 
 Monteagle, 1839, married the 
 eldest sister of Mrs. Whewell ; 
 letters to him, 427, 431 ; letters 
 from him, 184; mentions of him, 
 338, 462, 471, 472 
 
 Mont St. Michel, 38, 89 
 
 Morland, Under-Master at Lancaster, 
 letters to him, 10, 13, 24, 26; 
 reference to one, 41 ; letter, 44 
 
 Munro, Sir Thomas, life of him, 135 
 
 Musgrave, Fellow of Trinity, after- 
 wards Archbishop of York, 167 
 
 Myers, Rev. Frederic, married to a 
 sister of Mrs. Whewell; marries 
 Dr. and Mrs. Whewell, 225 ; let- 
 ters to him, 260, 308, 317, 325, 
 336, 349, 350 ; letters from him, 
 316, 322, 335 ; his death, 419 
 
 Myers, Mrs. F., letters to, 448, 450, 
 452, 456, 469, 503, 510. 530, 537, 
 539, 548 
 
 NEVILLE, Dr. Thomas, Master of 
 Trinity CoUege, 1593 to 1615, 265 
 
 Noble, sculptor, statue of Barrow. 
 295 
 
 OriE, Mrs., 69, 161, 163, 179 
 Owen, Professor, his recollections, 
 3, 4, 5 ; prize medal Geological 
 Society, 191 ; dinner at Lancaster, 
 267 ; difficulties with the College 
 of Surgeons, 259 260 ; his pension, 
 274 
 
 PEACOCK, Rev. George, Fellow and 
 Tutor of Trinity ; Lowudean Pro- 
 fessor ; Dean of Ely ; first mention, 
 60, 149, 167 ; becomes Professor, 
 184, 229, 240, 380, 441 
 
 Perry, Senior Wrangler 1828; Fellow 
 
590 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 row 
 
 and Tutor of Trinity ; afterwards 
 Bishop of Melbourne ; associated 
 with Mr. "W he well in the tutorship 
 1833, 48, 50, 156, 157 
 Powis, Lord, 278, 338, 339, 40 
 Professor, William Whewell ap- 
 pointed Professor of Mineralogy 
 1828, 121 ; succeeds Dr. Barnes 
 as Professor of Casuistry 1838, 
 192 ; resigns and is succeeded by 
 Professor Grote, 371 
 
 RICHMOND, the Rev. Legh, ]9, 74 
 
 Rickman, writer on architecture, 
 136, 141, 145, 146, 147, 153, 178 
 
 Rio, M., 149, 150, 152 
 
 Romilly, Mr. Registrary, 167, 380 
 
 Rome, 483, 486 
 
 Rose. Rev. Hugh James, Vicar of 
 Horsham ; letters to him, 28, 29, 
 77, 93, 94, 122, 131, 181 ; visits 
 him at Horsham, 80 
 
 Rowley, the Rev. Joseph, William 
 Whewell's master at the Grammar 
 School, 2, 3, 4; reference to his 
 discernment, 39 r 173 ; obligations 
 to him referred to again, 415; 
 death, 537 
 
 Ruskin, John, 464, 465, 466, 476 
 
 ST. MICHAEL'S Mount, 125 
 
 Salvin, architect, 251, 517 
 
 Sedgwick, Rev. Adam, Fellow of 
 Trinity, Woodwardean Professor, 
 64, 96, 107, 123, 141, 149, 154, 
 162, 167, 229, 230, 259, 313, 314, 
 315, 334, 365, 371, 373, 374, 380, 
 424, 425, 434, 441, 446, 511, 536 
 
 Sheepshanks, 10th Wrangler 1816, 
 Fellow of Trinity, 21, 55, 58, 59, 
 123 
 
 Shipwreck, Dr. Whewell's, 1819, 54 
 
 Sidgwick, Henry, 411 
 
 Somerville, Mrs., mention of her visit 
 to Cambridge, 142; sonnet to her 
 on the Mechanism of the Heavens, 
 142, 143 ; letter to her, 194, 437 
 
 Southey, Robert, 96 
 
 Spain, 512 
 
 Spedding, James, 354 ; his Evenings 
 with a Reviewer lent to Dr. Whe- 
 well by Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis ; 
 letters to him, 354,358 ; from him, 
 356, 360 
 
 Spineto, Marchese and Marchesa, 
 
 WHE 
 
 first reference to her, 158; letter 
 to her, 180; his death, 3G6 
 
 THIRLWALL, Rev. Connop, Assistant 
 Tutor of Trinity, subsequently 
 Bishop of St. David's, 41, 50, 158, 
 163, 169, 211, 234, 289 
 
 Thorpe, 8th Wrangler 1819, Fellow 
 and Tutor of Trinity, late Arch- 
 deacon Bristol, 50, 228, 237 
 
 Thorwaldsen, sculptor, statue of 
 Byron, 292 
 
 Trinity House, preaches for the 
 Brethren, 174 
 
 VISITS of the Queen, 302, 343 
 
 WALES, Prince of, 266, 532 
 Walpole, Right Hon. Spencer, pupil 
 of Dr. Whewell, stands for the 
 representation of the University, 
 454, 462 
 
 Webb, Rev. Dr., Master of Clare, 76 
 Weekes, sculptor, copied the statue 
 
 of Lord Bacon, 264 
 Wellington, Duke of, 269, 331, 423 
 Whewell, Ann, sister of William 
 Whewell, eventually Mrs. Newtcn, 
 2, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 25, 27, 34, 
 35, 42, 43, 45, 50, 51, 53, 54, 
 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 65, 70, 73, 81, 
 82, 83, 84, 89, 90, 92, 96, 97, 98, 
 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108, IQv, 
 121, 122, 123, 126, 134, 138, 139, 
 140, 143, 144, 145, 153, 155, 156, 
 157, 158, 159, 161, 162, 170, 171, 
 172, 174, 176, 177, 178, 179, 181, 
 182, 183, 185, 188, 189, 190, 191, 
 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 
 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 
 232, 238, 240, 241, 268, 269, 272, 
 273, 284, 305, 308, 310, 311, 312, 
 320, 321, 331, 336, 343, 344, 345, 
 347, 365, 372, 373, 375, 376, 418, 
 
 419, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 433, 
 435, 442, 485, 496, 500, 508, 509, 
 511, 512, 523, 530, 545, 547, 552 
 
 Whewell, Cordelia, wife of William 
 Whewell, 221, 222, 223, 225, 
 237, 243, 250, 302, 309, 310, 321, 
 337, 345, 363, 367, 368, 369, 370, 
 
 420, 429, 430, 431, 432, 439, 440, 
 441, 442 
 
 Whewell, Elizabeth, sister of 
 
INDEX. 
 
 591 
 
 WII E 
 
 WOR 
 
 William, 2 ; illness 50, 52, 55, 56, 
 57, 61, 63 ; her death 64 ; letters 
 to her, 57, 58 
 
 Whewell, John, father of William 
 Whewell, master carpenter in 
 Lancaster, 1,3; letters to him, 6, 
 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 
 23 ; his death, 23 ; hesitations as 
 to his son's plans, 32 
 
 Whewell, John, "brother of William, 
 birth, 1 ; letter to him, 7 
 
 Whewell, Martha, afterwards Mrs. 
 Statter, sister of William Whe- 
 well, 2 ; letters to her, 53, 64, 68, 
 69, 73, 99, 124, 141, 186, 187 ; 
 letters to her daughter, Miss 
 Statter, 541 
 
 W 7 hewell, William Academic His- 
 tory 1808-18, 39-41 ; Assistant 
 Tutor, Tutor, Professor, 47-50 ; cor- 
 respondence with Mr. Thirlwall, 
 163-70 ; candidate for Lowndean 
 Professorship, 1836, 184 ; becomes 
 Professor of Casuistry 1838, 190 ; 
 supports candidature of Lord 
 Lyttelton for High Stewardship, 
 1840, 200 ; stall at Ely, 203-4 ; 
 Mastership, 1841, 227 ; divinity 
 course, 244-9 ; improvement of 
 the Lodge, 251-60; statue of 
 Bacon, 264; visits of Judges of 
 Assize and Royal Persons, 264-6 ; 
 Vice-Chancellorship of 1842, 274- 
 9 ; statues and busts, 292-6 ; 
 missionary clergy, 296-9 ; College 
 expenditure, 296-301 ; picture 
 and statue, 312-316 ; Prince 
 Consort Chancellor, 338 - 43 ; 
 Professor of Civil Law, 344; 
 University reforms, 377-413 ; 
 second Vice-Chancellorship, 453- 
 5 ; courts and foundations, 515- 
 20 ; Duke of Devonshire Chan- 
 cellor, 526-7. Domestic History 
 Birth, May 24, 1794, 1 ; goes to 
 Heversham School, 1810, 5 ; 
 entered at Trinity, 1811, 5 ; 
 goes to Cambridge 1812, 8 ; takes 
 B.A. degree 1816, 20 ; elected 
 Fellow 1817, 35; made Mathe- 
 matical Lecturer 1818, 47 ; ship- 
 wreck 1819, 54 ; first foreign tour 
 1820, 55; tour in the Lake 
 
 country, 1821, 65; in Scotland, 
 68 ; second visit to France 1822, 
 81 ; tour with Mr. Kenelm Digby 
 in Normandy 1823, 89 ; tour in 
 Cumberland 1824, 96 ; tour in 
 Germany 1825, 98 ; takes priest's 
 orders 1826, 105 ; Christmas in 
 Paris 1826, 107; becomes Professor 
 of Mineralogy 1828, 121 ; Swiss 
 tour 1829, 128; tour with Mr. 
 Rickman in Normandy 1832, 145 ; 
 Scotch tour 1834, 159 ; sat to Mr. 
 Eddis for his portrait 1835, 170 ; 
 went to Ireland 1835, 177 ; 
 Continental tour 1837, 185; ap- 
 pointed Professor of Casuistry 
 1838, 192 ; first visit to Hallsteads 
 1838, 194 ; tour in Germany and 
 Holland 1838, 195; engagement 
 1841, 222 ; marriage, 225 ; ap- 
 pointed Master of Trinity College, 
 227 ; Lancaster dinner 1842, 267 ; 
 visit of the Duke of Wellington, 
 269; visit to Tunbridge Wells, 
 272 ; admonitions from Hare, 284 ; 
 Royal visit 1843, 302 ; he breaks 
 a rib, 306 ; Mr. Laurence's picture 
 1845, 321 ; second Royal visit 
 1847, 343; Christmas in Paris 
 1847, 347 ; serious anxiety about 
 Mrs. Whewell's health, 425 ;> her 
 death 1855, 445 ; elegiacs (given 
 in Appendix) written, 452 ; he 
 goes to Italy 1856, 483 ; returns 
 to Trinity, 489 ; his second mar- 
 riage 1858, 503; death of Lady 
 Affleck 1865, 537 ; last Christmas 
 at Lowestoft, 549 ; accident, 552 ; 
 death, 555 
 
 Wilkinson, the Rev. Henry, after- 
 wards Head Master of Sedburgh 
 School, is Moderator along with 
 William Whewell, 55 ; letters to 
 him, 66, 76, 126, 127, 136, 137, 
 141 ; his death, 191 
 
 Wooluer, Thomas, sculptor, 295, 
 
 Worsley, Rev. T., Master of Dow- 
 ning College, 217, 226, 237, 331 
 
 Wordsworth, William, 28, 31, 32, 
 33, 66, 67, 75, 94, 96, 159, 237, 
 267, 273 
 
 Wordsworth, Rev. Dr. Christopher, 
 Master of Trinity, 59, 225, 334 
 
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