/rj^:^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library CT788.F78 A3 1882a Memories of old friends. Beino extracts „ 3 1924 029 875 196 olln Overs m^t^ '-< DATE DUE ■ ■^••W w^ 111 lii(iiiiT?»nitfllri mm^ TEDINU.B.A. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029875196 / 'iiimi MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNALS AND LETTERS OF CAROLINE FOX, OF PENJERRICK, CORNWALL, FROM 183S TO 1871. EDITED BY HORACE N. PYM. SECOND EDITION. TO WHICH ARE ADDED FOURTEEN ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM J. S. MILL NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. ?r//Jf ^ TO ANNA MARIA FOX THESE RECORDS OF HER SISTEr's LIFE ARE MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE EDITOR. Harley Street, i88i. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. 1835- PAGE Meets Davies Gilbert — Dr. Joseph Wolff — His account of Lady Hester Stanhope — Of Drummond of Albury — Visit to Derwent Coleridge I CHAPTER II. 1836. Falmouth — Meets De la Beche — His geological maps — Bristol British Association Meeting — Tom Moore — Dr. Buckland — Wheatstone — John Martin — Professor Sedgwick — Carclew — Visit from Lady George Murray — Anecdotes of Royal Family — -Admiral Fitz-Roy — Lady Byron and her daughter — Sir Edward Belcher — Begum of Oude — Her conversation — Murray — George Combe — Cowley Powles — Molvfe Mohammed — De la Beche's anecdotes . . 4 CHAPTER III. 1837- Sir Richard Vyvyan — De la Beche and the West Indies — George Wightwick — Snow Harris — Lord Cole — Visit to Grasmere^Hart- ley Coleridge — Wordsworth — ^Poem by Hartley Coleridge — Liver- pool^Sir David Brewster — -Dr. Whewell — Sharon Turner — Cap- tain Ross — British Association Meeting — Dr. Lardner — Phrenology — Professor Airy — W. E. Forster — Davies Gilbert — Anecdotes of the Royal Society — Charles Fox — Henry Mackenzie . . 16 A* V PAGE vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. 1838. Paris — Becquerel — Arago — Dr. Dalton — Odillon Barrot — Anti-Sla- very Meeting in London — Lord Brougham's speech — Stormy dis- cussion — Daniel O'Connell — Visit to Deville — Royal Society's Rooms— Call at King's College— Sir Charles Lyell— Lister— Sir Fowell Buxton — Queen's Coronation — View from Athenjeum Club — Dr. Channing — S. T. Coleridge and the Gilmans — Sir John Bowring — Edhem Bey — Edward Lane — On Shelley and Byron— iVlezzofanti 3° CHAPTER V. 1839. Professor Sedgwick — Washington Irving — Newstead Abbey — Sop- with — Chartists — Hope — Charles Mathews the Elder — Anecdotes — Curran — Bishop Philpotts — Sir John Soane — Trehah — Irvingism — Bishop of Norwich — Dr. Buckland's Lecture — Hutton — Lord Thurlow — Day & Martin — Fauntleroy — Charles Lamb — Malibran — Sir John Bowring electioneering — Pope Pius VII. — Mahomet Ali 42 CHAPTER VI. 1840. Robert Owen — Nadir Shah — John Moultrie — Hartley Coleridge's Poetry — Southey — Meets John Sterling — Henry Mill and his family at Falmouth — Sterling's conversations — Dr. Calvert — Julius Hare — Sir Boyle Roctie — Lord Macaulay — Penjerrick — S. T. Coleridge — Bentham — W. S. Landor — John Stuart Mill arrives at Falmouth — His opinions and conversations — Count D'Orsay — Thomas Car- lyle and Edward Irving — Death of Henry Mill — Cunningham — Ashantee Princes — Letter from J. S. Mill to R. Barclay Fox — ■ Carlyle — His Lectures on Hero- Worship — Prince Consort at Exeter Hall — Speeches — Count and Countess Beust . . . .56 CHAPTER VII. 1841. Dr. Calvert returns to Falmouth — His conversations — Sterling — His table-talk — He settles in Falmouth — Visit from John M. Lawrence CONTENTS. vii PAGB — Dr. Calvert's increased illness — Joseph Bonaparte at Falmouth — Emerson — Wordsworth's opinions — Story of Webster — British Association Meeting at Plymouth — Sir Henry de la Beche — Pro- fessor Lloyd — Sir John Franklin — Visit from Colonel Sabine — Conybeare — Professor Owen at Falmoutli — His conversation — Anecdote of Lady Holland — Lecture by Dr. Lloyd — Story of Lord Enniskillen — Dr. Calvert dangerously ill 126 CHAPTER VIIL 1842. Meets J. A. Froude — Death of Dr. Calvert — Sterling's Epitaph upon him — Sterling's conversations — Letter from Mrs. Fry — News from Mill — Story of Lady Holland — Meets Professor Owen in London — An afternoon with the Carlyles — Conversation of Carlyle — Rev. Derwent Coleridge in Chelsea — Sees F. D. Maurice — Dinner at the Mills' — Attempt on the Queen's life — Amelia Opie — Meets Words- worth — His opinions — Visits Coldbath Fields Prison with Elizabeth Fry — Sterling returns from Italy — A morning with Westmacott — Anecdote of Lady Byron — Anti-Slavery Meeting — Visits Hanwell with Samuel Gurney — Meets Mrs. Schimmelpenninck — Her con- versation — Letter from Carlyle to Sterling — Carlyle's opinion of Professor Owen — Story of Edward Irving and Carlyle — Herman Merivale — W. E. Forster at Falmouth — Carlyle on the Miner Ver- ran — Letter from Carlyle . . . . . . . .161 CHAPTER IX. 1843. Letter from Carlyle — Michael Verran — Strange story of a Friend — Visit from Sir Edward Belcher — Mill's " Logic" published — King of Prussia and Tieck — Caroline Fox breaks small blood-vessel — ■ Sterling leaves p'almouth — Caroline Fox's opinions on Emerson, Carlyle, and Schleiermacher — Espartero in Cornwall — Trebah — Visit from W. E. Forster — At Norwich — Meets Bishop Stanley — Sir T. Fowell Buxton — Story of Admiral Fitz-Roy — George Bor- row — Amelia Opie — Dinner at the Bishop's — A morning with Mrs. Carlyle — Professor Owen at home 192 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. 1844. PAGH News of Verran — Letter from Carlyle — Dr. Arnold — London — Meets Mill — Visit to Carlyle — Andrew Brandram — Hartley Coleridge — Windermere — Hartley Coleridge's conversation — A morning with Wordsworth — His opinions 205 CHAPTER XL 1845. William Tawell, the Poisoner — S. Rigaud and Louis Philippe — " Eothen" — Sir G. B. Airy at Falmouth — " Serena," a Poem by Sterling 218 CHAPTER XIL 1846. Mrs. Barnicoat's bread-and-butter — Infant-school experiences — Sam- uel Laurence — London — Meets Dean Trench— Evening with F. D. Maurice — Professor Owen at the College of Surgeons — Dean Mil- man — Visit to the Mills — Carlyle's conversation — Geneva — Meets Merle d'Aubigne — Story of Longfellow — Returns to London — • Visits Sir Edwin Landseer — Ernest de Bunsen — Falmouth — Pro- fessor Lloyd and Dr. Ball — Archbishop Whateley — Anecdotes of him — Humboldt — Carclew — Sir Roderick Murchison — Herman Merivale ........... 223 CHAPTER XIIL 1847. James Spedding— Dublin — Morning with Robert Ball — Meets Dr. Anster— Sir Arthur Helps— Story of Sir William Hamilton — Bristol — Mrs. Schimmelpenninck — London — Archdeacon Hare — Meets Baron Bunsen — George Richmond — Mrs. Carlyle — Her conversa- tion— Geraldine Jewsbury — Thomas Erskine — A Carlyle Mono- logue—Francis Newman— Hope's Gallery— Dr. Southwood Smith —At Westminster Abbey with Dean Buckland— Story of Napoleon I.— Anecdote of Mrs. Carlyle— Burnard the Sculptor— Meets Pro- fessor Adams at Carclew— Chantrey and Lord Melbourne . . 233 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XIV. 184S. PAGB Hare's " Life of Sterling" issued — Abdication of Louis Philippe — J. A. Froude— French Politics— Samuel Rundall—Guizot— Arthur Stanley— Professor Lloyd at Penjerrick— Captain Ross — Jenny Lind — Fichte 248 CHAPTER XV. 1849. Death of Hartley Coleridge — George Wightwick's Lecture — Letter from Carlyle— " Nemesis of Faith"— Rush's Trial— J. W. M. Tur- ner — Visit to the German Hospital — F. D. Maurice — His conver- sation — Lady Franklin — Guizot — Story of his escape — His opinions • — Samuel Rogers — Hears Cobden's speech — Visit to Mrs. Carlyle — Meets Elihu Burritt— S. T. Coleridge— At British Museum— Pro- fessor Owen— Visit to Flaxman's studio — Henry Hallam — Louis Blanc and Carlyle — Tennyson — Clara Balfour's Lectures — Alex- ander Scott 254 CHAPTER XVI. 1850. George Dawson — His Lecture — Dr. Caspary — -Account of Humboldt — Clara Balfour — Lord Byron and Mary Chaworth — Laundry School specimen — Mezzofanti — General Heynau — Carclew — Pro- fessor Playfair 281 CHAPTER XVIL 1851. Abbey Lodge— Chevalier Neukomm — Captain Barclay of Ury — ^John Bright — -Wordsworth — Story of F. Cunningham — Ragged School Meeting — Dr. Cumming — Meets Kestner — Dr. Pauli — Evening at Baron Bunsen's — F. D. Maurice at St. Martin's Hall — -Thackeray's Lecture — Faraday on " Ozone" — Macready — Paris troubles — Story of Sir John Franklin 285 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. 1852. PAGE Letters to E. T. Carne — Dublin — Laying foundation-stone of Pro- fessor Lloyd's new home — Chevalier Neukomm — Talleyrand — Visit to Lord Rosse — Account of his telescopes — Sir David Brewster — Anecdote of Lord Rosse — General Sabine — British Association Meeting at Belfast — Discussion on the search for Franklin — Fal- mouth — Letters — Elihu Burritt 294 CHAPTER XIX. 1853. Letters — Story of Humboldt — Mazzini — Attacked by a bull — Account of Emperor Napoleon and Deputation of London Merchants — Dr. Gumming — Dr. Binney— Kossuth and Douglas Jerrold — Courtney Boyle — Death of Amelia Opie ....... 307 CHAPTER XX. 1854. Meets Charles Kingsley — Deputation to the Czar — Letter to E. T Carne — Death of Talfourd — Madame de Wette — Story of her hus- band — Dean Milman — ^His opinion of S. T. Coleridge — Letters — " Te Deum," by R. Barclay Fox 317 CHAPTER XXI. 1855- Letters to E. T. Carne — News of Barclay Fox at the Pyramids Letters — His death CHAPTER XXII. 1856. Sir Charles Lemon— Lord Macaulay — Stories of the Cholera— Martin F. Tupper at Bury Hill— Letters— Death of Mrs. Schimmelpen- 324 ninck — Gavazzi 330 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XXIII. 1857- PAGB George Smith — Ernest de Bunsen at Penjerrick — Professor Nichol — His Lecture — Florence Nightingale — Dublin — British Association Meeting — Paper read by R. W. Fox — Story of Lord Carlyle — Dr. Earth — De I'Abbadie— Dr. Livingstone — At the Vice-Regal Lodge — Falmouth — Mendelssohn — Dr. Arnold and the Duchess of Sutherland ........... 334 CHAPTER XXIV. 1858. On Buckle's work — News of the Carlyles — Kingsley — Ary Scheffer —Thomas Cooper's Lecture . . . . . . . .341 CHAPTER XXV. 1859. Penjerrick — Meets Dr. Whewell at Carclew — His conversation — Tidings of Sir John Franklin's death — Letters .... 344 CHAPTER XXVI. i860. Aiy Scheffer — Visit from Tennyson — Francis Palgrave — Their con- versation — Holman Hunt at Falmouth — Val Prinsep — Miss Ma- caulay — Robertson — Lord Macaulay — Death of Bunsen . . 349 CHAPTER XXVII. 1861-71. Meets John Bright — Letters — Buckle — Duke of Montpensier at Fal- mouth — Charles Kean — Meets Garibaldi — Visits Professor Adams at Cambridge — Popular Fallacies— Illness — Mentone — Visits Car- lyle — His talk — Lady Ashburton — -Her care of Carlyle — End of Journals 354 Appendix 371 MEMOIR. MEMOIR. " Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice." — Shakespeare. The Journals and Letters from which the following ex- tracts have been chosen were written by Caroline Fox, of Pen- jerrick, between the years 1835 and 187 1. They speak so clearly for themselves that but few words of introduction or explanation are needed. The editor's task has been rendered a pleasant one by the help and sympathy of those members of Caroline Fox's family who survive her and keep her memory green. Inasmuch as this book will probably reach the hands of many to whom the family history will be a terra incognita, it becomes necessary that the few following pages of prefatory memoir should ac- company her own "winged words." On the 24th of May, 1819, the girl-child of whom we write was born, at Falmouth, into this tough world. She was one of the three children of distinguished parents, — distinguished not only by their fine old Quaker lineage, but by the many beautiful qualities which belong to large hearts and minds. Her father, Robert Were Fox, was the eldest of that remarkable family of brothers and sisters whose forebears made Cornwall their resting-place two hundred years ago. The brothers would have made a notice- able group in any country, and were not less conspicuous from their public spirit and philanthropy than from their scientific acumen and attainments, their geniality, and the simplicity and modesty of their lives. They created a cluster of lovely xvi MEMOIR. dwellings in and about Falmouth, which attract the traveller by their picturesque beauty and southern wealth of flower and tree. One of the most beautiful of these sheltered Cornish homes is Penjerrick, some three miles from that town, the summer residence and one of the dearly-loved homes of Caro- line Fox and her parents. It was by experiments and observations during a period of more than forty years that her father, Robert Were Fox, proved the increase of temperature in descending mines, con- verting Humboldt, a former antagonist, to his view. He was also the inventor of the "Deflector Dipping Needle," which has since been used in all the Arctic Expeditions. Upon his death in 1877, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Presi- dent of the Royal Society, said in his annual address that the Society had experienced a severe loss in " Mr. Fox, eminent for his researches on the temperature, and the magnetic and electrical condition of the interior of the earth, especially in connection with the formation of mineral veins, and who was further the inventor of some, and the improver of other in- struments, now everywhere employed in ascertaining the properties of terrestrial magnetism." In a very excellent sketch of his life and work by Mr. J. H. Collins, F.G.S., published at Truro in 1878, these inven- tions and improvements extend into a pamphlet of nearly sixty octavo pages. To this valuable little book we should refer those who care to follow into greater detail the life-work of this excellent simple-hearted philosopher. The following extract from a letter written by Mrs. Schim- melpenninck in 1824 gives a graphic description of the house- hold as it then appeared : " Having spoken of the house, I must now describe its inhabitants. Imagine Robert Fox, whom you knew as a lad, now a steadfast and established man ; the wise but determined and energetic regulator of his own, and the prop and firm support of his mother's large family. Picture to yourself his forehead, and the sides of his head with what Spurzheim used to call ' perpendicular walls of reason and truth.' Patient investigation, profound reflec- MEMOIR. xvii tion, and steadfast determination sit upon his tliinking and bent brow. Generous and glowing feeling often kindles his deep-set eyes, whilst the firm closing of his mouth, the square bone of the chin, and the muscular activity and strong form, show that it is continually compressed within by the energy of a self-governing character. Truth and honor unshaken, conscience unsullied, cool investigating reason and irresistible force, seem to follow the outlines of his very remarkable char- acter. Maria is widely different. She has not the scientific tastes that distinguish her husband, but her heart and affec- tions, her least actions and her very looks, are so imbued and steeped in the living waters of Divine Truth, that she seems to have come to the perfection of heavenly wisdom, which makes her conversation a rich feast and a blessed in- struction. " She is a super-eminently excellent mother, always keeping a tender watcli over her children without showing anxious care. On our arrival, the three little well-ordered children withdrew to their play on the veranda, and whilst she con- versed cheerfully and cordially with us, still surrounded by their books and pictures, her watchful eye was constantly upon them. " In the early morning I used to watch her going with them to the beach, with a mule to carry the weary ones ; and they bathed in the midst of the rocks and caves, with no spectators but the shags and the sea-gulls. It was pleasant to me, as I was dressing, to watch them coming back, winding along the cliffs j and, as they drew near, Maria, seated on her mule, with little Carry in her arms, Anna Maria by her side, and the others surrounding her, repeating their hymns and psaims, they used to look like Raphael's picture of the Holy Family in the flight to Egypt. Maria's maternal countenance on these occasions I shall never forget ; nor the sweet and tender emotion of her children. Little Carry especially used to enjoy the ride. ' Oh, mamma !' said she one day, ' do let me say my hymn louder, for the poor mule is listening and can- not hear me.' Their return I used soon to know by Carry or b* xviii MEMOIR. Barclay besetting me the moment I opened my door, to tell them stories of wild beasts."* Caroline was born and continued a member of the Society of Friends, in which body her family have always occupied a foremost position ; and she exemplified to a remarkable de gree those charming qualities of simple purity, love of learn- ing, and utter regard for truth, which are some of the more strongly-marked features of that community. Her parents were accustomed to pass the winter months at their house in Falmouth, where so many notable friends visited them, moving to Penjerrick for the summer, to revel in the perfect repose of their country life. As a child Caroline drew much attention by her winning ways and signs of an intelligence far above the usual order, and Mrs. Schimmelpenninck again says in another letter, " Caroline is quick, bright, and susceptible, with little black laughing eyes, a merry round face, and as full of tricks and pranks as a marmoset or Shakespeare's Robin Goodfellow." She was of a somewhat delicate constitution, and conse- quently was never called upon to face the often severe phys- ical strain of a school education ; but in her mother's hands, and aided by the best masters obtainable, she made a progress with which few schools of that day could have successfully competed. She always found pleasure in study under those masters who suited her fastidious taste, and soon learned to dis- criminate between those under whose guidance she made real progress, and those who were not so successful in their endeavors. But the best part of her education was gained after the school-room door was closed and when she was mis- tress of her own time. Many and varied were the subjects taken up, and the books she read. All that was good in them she made her own, her fine nature rejecting everything else. In particular, the works of Coleridge exercised upon her a peculiar fascination, and » A portion of this letter appears in the Life of M. A. Schimmelpenninck, edited by C. C. Hanldn. Longmans. 1858. MEMOIR. xix stimulated her mind to greater efforts of thought. And it was remarked with what apparent ease she grasped the principles and details of the most abstruse subjects, as well as the general topics of interest. Upon such a receptive nature the association with her father's friends exercised the utmost fascination, and how thoroughly she appreciated and comprehended their conver- sation is shown in the many lucid notes in her Journals, in which she so well embodied these flying thoughts of varied minds. And it makes a tender and striking picture, — this young girl, with her deep reverence and vivid appreciation of all the magic world of thought in which she was permitted to roam, listening with delight to the utterances of wise men, and storing up their words in her heart. She would say with Steele, "If I were to choose the people with whom I would spend my hours of conversation, they should be certainly such as labored to make themselves readily and clearly appre- hended, and would have patience and curiosity to understand me. When thoughts rise in us fit to utter among familiar friends, there needs but very little care in clothing them." Every two years she visited London, the journey then con- suming some three days, — days filled with all the fun and excitement of a pleasant holiday. In 1840 commenced her friendship with the Mills and the Sterlings, much deeply in- teresting record of which will be found in her Diaries ; and it was a bitter parting when, in 1843, a sudden blow came in the death of Mrs. Sterling, followed by the removal of the bereaved family to the Isle of Wight. Her only brother, Robert Barclay Fox (who married Jane Gurney, daughter of Jonathan Backhouse, of Darlington), and her sister Anna Maria, were her usual companions in her travels, as will be gathered by her frequent reference to one or the other. In reading these Journals it is worthy of notice how rapidly Caroline Fox's character forms itself j attracting, reflecting, and assimilating from the stronger natures around her all that is noteworthy, high-toned, and deep-souled. The bright XX MEMOIR. gayety of the high-spirited girl is rapidly succeeded by the philosophic mind belonging to greater knowledge and maturer years; whilst the quickly-recurring losses of dear friends and old companions visibly deepens and broadens the stream of her daily life, until, culminating in the going-hence of her only brother, she so pathetically cries, " For whom should I now record these entries of my life?" and then the gravity of existence permanently settles upon her, with a not unwel- come foreboding that her time is short, and her day is far spent. If, we may say anything of her spiritual life, it seemed to those who knew her best that the intense reality of her faith gave a joyousness to her bright days, and sustained her through dark and perplexed times. Her quiet trust con- quered all the doubts and conflicts which hung over her early years, and her submission to a higher will became ever more and more confident and satisfying, — nay, one may dare to say, more triumphant. Her active sympathies with the poor and the sick were powerfully awakened under its benign influence ; and the struggle for "more light" through which this beautiful soul was passing cannot be more forcibly set forth than in her own words, which were found in her desk after her death, but which were written when she was but one-and-twenty years of age : "July 14, 1841. — As I think it may be a profitable employ- ment, and, at some future time when faith is at a low ebb, may recall with greater distinctness the struggle through which a spark of true faith was lighted in my soul, I will attempt to make some notes of the condition of my mind in the summer and autumn of 1840. "I felt I had hitherto been taking things of the highest importance too much for granted, without feeling their reality j and this I knew to be a very unhealthy state of things. This consciousness was mainly awakened by a few solemn words spoken by Dr. Calvert on the worthlessness of a merely traditional faith in highest truths. The more I exam- MEMOIR. xxi ined into my reasons for believing some of our leading doc- trines, the more was I staggered and filled with anxious thought. I very earnestly desired to be taught the truth, at whatever price I might learn it. " Carlyle admirably expresses my state of mind when he speaks ' of the spasmodic efforts of some to believe that they believe. ' But it would not do ; I felt I was playing a dishonest part with myself, and with my God. I fully believed in Christ as a Mediator and Exemplar, but I could not bring my reason to accept Him as a Saviour and Redeemer. What kept me at this time from being a Unitarian was that I retained a per- fect conviction that though / could not see into the truth of the doctrine, it was nevertheless true ; and that if I continued earnestly and sincerely to struggle after it, by prayer, reading, and meditation, I should one day be permitted to know it for myself. A remark that Hender Molesworth one day in- cidentally made to me was often a gleam of comfort to me during this time of distress and warfare. He said that he thought ' a want of faith was sometimes permitted to those who would otherwise have no trials; for you know,' he added, ' a want of faith is a very great trial.' I did not tell him how truly he had spoken. "The first gleam of light, 'the first cold light of morn- ing' which gave promise of day with its noontide glories, dawned on me one day at meeting, when I had been medi- tating on my state in great depression. I seemed to hear the words articulated in my spirit, ' Live up to the light thou hast; and more will be granted thee.' Then I believed that God speaks to man by His Spirit. I strove to live a more Christian life, in unison with what I knew to be right, and looked for brighter days ; not forgetting the blessings that are granted to prayer. "The next epoch in my spiritual life was an exposition of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, which John Stevenson was enabled to give, and I was permitted to receive. He com- mented on our utter inability to fulfil the law, and the certain penalty of death we had thereby incurred. We no longer xxii MEMOIR. confided in the efiScacy of the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin : on what then could we build any hope of escape from the eternal wrath of God ? When brought to this point of true anxiety about our salvation, our eyes are mercifully opened to see the Saviour offering Himself as the one eternal sacrifice for sin ; requiring, as the terms of our redemption, that the faith which had been experienced in the old Jewish sacrifices should be transferred to and centred in Himself. Thus the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, to teach us faith in a sacrifice, the fulness of whose meaning Christ alone could exhibit. I was much interested in this at the time, but it had not its full effect till some days after. " I was walking sorrowfully and thoughtfully to Penrose, and in my way back the description of Teufelsdrockh's tri- umph over fear came forcibly and vividly before me. Why (I said to myself) should I thus help to swell the triumph of the infernal powers by tampering with their miserable sugges- tions of unbelief, and neglecting the amazing gift which Christ has so long been offering me ? I know that He is the Redeemer of all such as believe in Him ; and I luill believe, and look for His support in the contest with unbelief. My doubts and difficulties immediately became shadowy, and my mind was full of happy anticipations of speedy and complete deliverance from them. The next morning, as I was employed in making some notes of John Stevenson's comments (before alluded to) in my journal, the truth came before me with a clearness and consistency and brightness indescribably de- lightful ; the reasonableness of some Christian doctrines which had before especially perplexed me, shone now as clear as noonday; and the thankfulness I felt for the blessed light that was granted was intense. I was able throughout to recog- nize the workings of the Holy Spirit on my heart, for I had often before read and listened to arguments equally conclu- sive, and indeed sometimes identical, with those which were now addressed with such evidence to my heart ; but only this was the time appointed for their due influence. MEMOIR. xxiii "I by no means regret the perplexities and doubts and troubles through which I have passed. They have increased my toleration for others, and given me a much higher value and deeper affection for those glorious truths which make up the Christian's hope, than I could have had if they had only been passively imbibed. The hard struggle I have had to make them my own must rise in my memory to check future faithlessness ; and the certain conviction that the degree of faith which has been granted was purely a gift from above, leads me with earnestness and faith to petition for myself and others, 'Lord, increase our faith.' " And some years after she writes : " April 13, 1855. — And now I must add a later conviction, namely, that the voluntary sacrifice of Christ was not under- taken to appease the wrath of God, but rather to express His infinite love to His creatures, and thus to reconcile them unto Himself. Every species of sacrifice meets, and is glorified, in Him; and He claims from His children, as the proof of their loyalty and love, that perfect subjection of their own wills to His, of which self-sacrifice He is the Eternal Pattern, and bestows the will and the power to be guided only by Himself." In the years 1844 and 1845 came a time of great sorrow, and a considerable blank occurs in the Journals of these and some of the succeeding years ; what she wrote at this time containing, save so far as is extracted, nothing but a most sacred record of great personal suffering and inward struggle. Hers was a nature to come out of sorrow, be it ever so deep or bitter, strengthened and ennobled by the lesson, and striv ing still more earnestly for the victory over self; and we find her Swiss travels in 1846 with her family, her brother and his wife, marked with the old power of observation and graphic force of expression, recording, as before, all that seemed worthy of remark in the daily round of her resumed life. In 1848 she broke a blood-vessel, and a long convalescence ensued. Her almost miraculous preservation when pursued by a bull in 1853, when she lay insensible on the ground, the xxiv MEMOIR. fierce animal roaring round but never touching her, evoked from her brother Barclay the following lines : " Bow the head and bend the knee, Oh give thanks, how fervently, For a darling sister's breath ; Back my very blood doth shrink, God of mercies ! when I think How she lay upon the brink Of an agonizing death ! " While the darkness gathers o'er me, Clear the picture lives before me ; There the monster in his wrath, And his lovely victim lying, Praying inly — as the dying Only pray, — I see her lying Helplessly across his path. " Oh the horror of that scene, Oh the sight that might have been Had no angel stepped between The destroyer and his prey ; Had not God, who hears our cry, ' Save me, Father, or I die !' Sent His angel from on high To save our precious one this day. " Gently came unconsciousness. All-enfolding like a dress ; Hushed she lay, and motionless. Freed from sense and saved from fear ; All without was but a dream. Only the pearl gates did seem Very real and very near. " For the life to us restored. Not we only thank thee. Lord ; Oh what deep hosannas rise From the many she hath blest, From the poor and the distrest 1 Oh, the gratitude exprest By throbbing hearts and moistened eyes ! " So living was her sympathy. That they dream'd not she could die. Till the Shadow swept so nigh, Startling with an unknown fear. MEMOIR. XXV Thus the day's untainted light Blesseth all and maketli bright; But its work we know not quite, Till the darkness makes it clear." When her brother left England for his health in 1854, Caroline accompanied him to Southampton, and there bade him a last farewell. He died near Cairo in the following March, and lies in the English cemetery of that city. The following extract from a letter written by Caroline upon the subject, is perhaps better placed here than in its order of date in the book. It is addressed to her cousin, Juliet Backhouse, and says, "We have agreed that his dear name shall never be banished from our midst, where he feels to us more vitally and influentially present than ever ; he shall not be banished even to Heaven. Oh what it is to have had such a memory to leave to those who love you ! Almost nothing to forget, everything to remember with thank- fulness and love. Surely memory will be carried on into the future, and make that bright too with his own dear presence ; or is it not, will it not be, even more than memory ? This may be all fancy, and very foolish, but I cannot feel hira far away, and the thought of him does not sadden me. It is stimulating, elevating, encouraging, the sense that one of our- selves is safely landed, all the toil and battle over, the end of the race attained, and God glorified in his salvation. Oh, it is all so wonderful, so blessed, that I have no time left for mourning. I could not have conceived the sting of death so utterly removed, not only for him, but for us. The same ' canopy of love' is surely over us both, and we can but feel that it will take a long lifetime to thank our God and Saviour for the beautiful mercies which have glorified the whole trial, and which must always make it a most holy thing. He has himself been so evidently, though unconsciously, preparing us for it ; telling us of his own child-like confidence, and com- mitting his nearest and dearest to the same Fatherly care, in lovely words, which often thrilled us at the time, but are, how precious, now." c xxvi MEMOIR. In 1858 she lost her mother, who was a daughter of Robert Barclay of Bury Hill. Caroline passed the following spring, with her father and sister, chiefly in Rome and Naples. The death of her brother's widow at Pan, in i860, brought with its deep sense of loss a kindly compensation, as her four orphaned boys came to live at Penjerrick and Grove Hill, which were henceforward to be their homes, whilst the little daughter Jane found that wealth of parents' love she had lost so soon, renewed in all its fulness in the hearts of her uncle and aunt, Edmund and Juliet Backhouse. The en- suing years were now filled with a new interest to Caroline Fox, who watched with untiring care the development of her young nephews, entering with zest into many of their interests. In 1863 a journey to Spain was undertaken with her father, who had been chosen as one of the deputies to plead for the freedom of Mataraoros. Then came warnings of serious phys- ical weakness, and the usual weary search for health was un- dertaken, when the Riviera and other places were visited with but varying success. She was in Venice in 1866, and was sufficiently restored to see the Paris Exhibition held in that year, but each winter found her less able to cope with its severities. Her cheerfulness and interest in all around never abated, and her Journals still marked the daily events of her life. Notwithstanding all this, it must not be thought that she was a constant invalid. She was subject to wearisome attacks of chronic bronchitis, and rallied wonderfully between them. During the Christmas of 1870, when the snow lay on the ground, with sunshine and blue skies overhead, she looked blooming, and walked frequently a mile or two to the cottages around : but when the thaw set in, her friends trembled for her ; the damp, chilly air never suited her, and it was a cause of distress to be cut off from her out-of-doors objects of in- terest. She took cold when going her rounds with New Year's gifts, and it quickly turned to a more severe attack of bron- chitis than her lessening strength could struggle through ; and although the sense of illness seemed lifted off, the old rallying power was gone. MEMOIR. xxvii This year was to be, in truth, a new one for her ; and freed from every pang, nor called upon to say that awful word, "Farewell," she entered into her New Life during sleep in the early morning of the 12th January, 1871. To her bereaved father the following words, written by his child when she was rich in the presence of both parents, were inexpressibly helpful and soothing, " My precious father and mother must keep whatever of mine they may like to have. It is vain to attempt to thank them for all they have done for me. I have often, very often, been most provoking and irre- sponsive to their loving kindness, but in the bottom of my heart not, I trust, ungrateful. Farewell, darlings all. If you can forgive and love me, remember with comfort that our God and Saviour is even more loving, more forgiving, than you are, and think of me with peace and trustfulness and thanks- giving, as one whom He has graciously taught, mainly through sorrows, to trust and to love Him utterly, and to grieve only over the ingratitude of my sins, the sense of which is but deepened by His free forgiveness." Ten years have passed since that parting day, and her memory is still fondly cherished. To some of her dear ones the Journals have been shown, but it is only in the last few months that her sister has consented to allow a larger circle to share in the perusal. Caroline Fox was unusually rich in her friendships, and she had the power of graphically sketching scenes and conversa- tions. It is hoped that nothing will be found in these pages which should seem like drawing aside the curtains that ought to be left covering the inner life of all. Her criticisms, though often bright, sharp, and humorous, are never poisoned or cruel ; and the friends who survive will not apprehend with dread the opportunities which her MSS. have given for stamping her impressions like " footprints on the sands of time." The English world of thought to-day owes much to men whom Caroline Fox called friends, and words they uttered are not without present significance. Moreover, these records xxviii MEMOIR. of so many years past, appearing now, interest us the more, because we can compare the thoughts, the wishes, the proph- ecies of these men with much that has since resulted from their teaching. The present generation is eager enough to con even passing expressions from Mill, Carlyle, Bunsen, and other members of that charmed circle; and "human por- traits, faithfully drawn," as Carlyle says, "are of all pictures the welcomest on human walls." And so we launch this little boat into the ocean, with some confidence that it will make its way to shores where its freight of goodly " Memories," preserved for us by a keen intellect and warm heart, will be welcomed as a record of many who have passed "to where beyond these voices there is peace." MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. CHAPTER I. 1835. " Home is the resort Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where, Supporting and supported, polish'd friends And dear relations mingle into bliss." — THOMSON. Falmouth, March 19. — Davies Gilbert* and others dined here. He was full of anecdote and interest, as usual. One on the definition of " treade" was good. It is really de- rived from " trad" (Saxon), a thing. When he was on the bench, a man was brought before one of the judges on some poisoning charge, and the examination of a witness proceeded thus: Q. " Did you see anything in the loaf?" A. "Yes; when I cut it open, I found it full of traed." Q. "Traed ! why, what is that?'' A. "Oh, it's rope-ends, dead mice, and other combustibles." March 30. — Heard at breakfast that the famous Joseph Wolff, the missionary, had arrived at Falmouth. He gave an interesting lecture on the subject of his travels in Persia, etc. He has encountered many dangers, but "the Lord has deliv- ered him out of them all." It was well attended. Lady Georgina Wolff is at Malta, as she does not like the sea. * Gilbert (Davies), formerly named Giddy, born 1797, educated at Pem- broke College, Oxford. M. P. successively for Helston and Bodmin, and President of the Royal Society. Celebrated as an antiquary and writer on Cornish topography, etc. He died in 1839. A II 2 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. March 31. — At four o'clock Joseph Wolff came to dinner, and told us more about the various persons and places he has visited. Of Lady Hester Stanhope he gave a very amusing account. When at Mount Lebanon he sent a message with which he was charged to a lady staying with her. On which Lady Hester sent him a most extraordinary but clever letter, beginning, " How can you, a vile apostate, presume to hold any intercourse with my family? Light travels faster than sound ; therefore how can you think that your cracked voice can precede the glorious light of the gospel, which is event- ually to shine naturally in these parts?" He returned an appropriate answer, but he noticed the servant he had sent with it came back limping, having been actually kicked and beaten by her ladyship in propria persona. Many passages in the Bible he cleared up by observation of the places men- tioned. Respecting the prophecy about Babylon "that owls shall dwell there and satyrs shall dance there," he said that " satyrs" should be translated " worshippers of devils," and that once a year the Afghans, who worship little devilish gods, assemble there in the night and hold their dance. He sang us some beautiful Hebrew melodies. October 3. — At breakfast we were pleasantly surprised to see Joseph Wolff walk in, without being announced. He was full of affection, and wanted to kiss papa, who, retreat- ing, left only his shoulder within reach, which accordingly received a salute. He joined us at breakfast, and described his late intercourse and correspondence with Drummond and many of the Irvingite party. Their want of Christian love speaks strongly against them, and their arrogating to them- selves the titles of angels, prophets, and apostles shows a want of Christian humility. He embarked soon afterwards on his way to Timbuctoo, and perhaps we shall never see him again. October 15. — Papa and I spent the evening at the Der- went Coleridges' at Helston. It left a beautiful impression on us, and we visited the lovely little sleepers, Derwent and Lily, saw the library, and the silver salver presented by his JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 3 boys, and, best of all, listened to his reading of passages from " Christabel" and other of his father's poems, with his own rare felicity. He talked of architecture with reference to George Wightwick's designs for the Falmouth Polytechnic, and mentioned a double cube as the handsomest of all forms for a room. Mary Coleridge was in all her beauty, and min- istered to a bevy of school-boys at supper with a character- istic energy. CHAPTER II. 1836. " Form'd by thy converse happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe." — Pope. Falmouth, April 7. — Sir Charles Lemon, John Enys, and Henry de la Beche* came to luncheon. The last named is a very entertaining person, his manners rather French, his conversation spirited and full of illustrative anecdote. He looks about forty, a handsome but care-worn face, brown eyes and hair, and gold spectacles. He exhibited and ex- plained the geological maps of Devon and Cornwall, which he is now perfecting for the Ordnance. Accordingly he is constantly shifting his residence, that he may survey accurately in these parts. Papa read his new theory of "Veins;" De la Beche thor- oughly seconds his ideas of galvanic agency, but will not yield the point of the fissures being in constant progression ; he says they were all antediluvian. They stayed several hours, and were particularly charmed with some experiments about tin and galvanism. April 25. — Henry de la Beche and his daughter Bessie spent the day with us, and we took a merry country excursion, the geological part of which was extremely satisfactory to all par- ties. Bessie is a bright affectionate girl, devoutly attached to her father, with whom she travels from place to place. * De la Beche (Sir Henry Thomas), the eminent geologist, born 1796, edu- cated at Great Marlow and Sandhurst, President of the Geographical Society in 1847. In 1831 he projected the plan of making a geological map of Eng- land on his own responsibility, commencing with Cornwall; the result being that the Government instituted the Geological Survey. He established the School of Mines, was knighted in 1848, and died in 1855. 4 JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 5 She is about fifteen, fond of books, but her main educa- tion is in her father's society. They are now stationed at Redruth. Bristol, August 22. — The gentlemen returned from their sections of the British Association Meeting this morning very much gratified, and after dinner we five started by the coach, and in the course of time arrived at the large British Babylon. It was a work of time to get into it, most assuredly, and Uncle Hillhouse thought of taking us all back again, in which case we should indeed have been taken all aback. However, the ladies, dear creatures, would not hear of that, so by most ex- traordinary muscular exertions we succeeded in gaining ad- mittance. We got fairish seats, but all the time the people made such a provoking noise, talking, coming in, and going out, opening and shutting boxes, that very little could we hear. But we saw Tom Moore in all his glory, looking, as Barclay* said, " like a little Cupid with a quizzing-glass in constant motion." He seemed as gay and happy as a lark, and it was pleasant to spend a whole evening in his immediate presence. There was a beautiful girl just before us, who was most obliging in putting herself into the most charming attitudes for our diversion. August 27. — After dinner to the play-house, and a glorious merry time we had. The Meeting was principally employed in thanksgiving, individually and collectively. Sir W. Ham- ilton giving us a most pathetic address on his gratitude to Bristol and the Bristolians. Dr. Buckland declared he should be worse than a dog were he to forget it. There was a re- markable sameness in these long-winded compliments and grateful expressions. But when Tom Moore arose with a little paper in his little hand, the theatre was almost knocked down with reverberations of applause. He rose to thank Mr. Miles for his liberality in throwing open his picture-gallery. He proceeded to wonder why such a person as he was, a humble representative of literature, was chosen to address ' Fox (Robert Barclay), only brother of Caroline Fox. I* 6 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. them on this scientific occasion. He supposed that in this intellectual banquet he wasicalled for as one of the light dishes to succeed the gros morceaux of which we had been partaking, and he declared Science to be the handmaid, or rather the torch-bearer, of Religion. August 2,^. — We were returning from the British Associa- tion Meeting, and Dr. Buckland was an outside compagnon de voyage, but often came at stopping-places for a little chat.* He was much struck by the dearth of trees in Cornwall, and told of a friend of his who had made the off-hand remark that there was not a tree in the parish, when a parishioner remon- strated with him on belying the parish, and truly asserted that there were seven. Last evening we were at Exeter, and had an interesting exploration of the old cathedral before a dinner, after which our philosophers, Dr. Buckland, Professor Johns- ton, and papa, got into such deep matters that we left them in despair. Dr. Buckland says he feels very nervous in ad- dressing large assemblies till he has once made them laugh, and then he is entirely at ease. He came on to the Poly- technic and stayed with us. One wet day he took his turn with three others in lecturing to an attentive audience in our drawing-room ; we listened with great and gaping interest to a description of his geological map, the frontispiece to his forthcoming Bridgewater Treatise. He gave very clear de- tails of the gradual formation of our earth, which he is thor- oughly convinced took its rise ages before the Mosaic record. He says that Luther must have taken a similar view, as in his translation of the Bible he puts " ist" at the third verse of the first chapter of Genesis, which showed his belief that the first two verses relate to something anterior. He explains the formation of hills with valleys between them by eruptions under ground. He gave amusing descriptions of antediluvian animals, plants, and skulls. They have even discovered a * Buckland (William), Dean of Westminster, bom 1784. He published many well-known works on geology, and he died in 1856. He was the father of Frank T. Buckland, the naturalist, who died in 1880. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. j large fossil fish with its food only partially digested. The lecture showed wonderfully persevering research and a great knowledge of comparative anatomy. Falmouth, September lo. — Poor Dr. Buckland has sprained his leg, and we are taking care of him a little. He and other British Association friends had been excursing in the west, and took sundry Cornish pies with them. Buckland they treated to lime and cold water. He left us, and a few days afterwards wrote to announce the happy birth of a daughter, and the request of his publisher to print a further edition of five thousand copies of his new work. He also speaks with much interest about A, Crosse's insects, which the papers describe his having observed whilst manipulating some quartz crystal. They were little anomalous forms at first, but gradually took the shape of insects, and this after a lavation in muriatic acid. Dr. Buckland supposes them to be fossil ovse of Sorleanus resuscitated by modern scientific activity, and reasons gravely on this theory. September 12. — Professor Wheatstone, the Davies Gilberts, and Professor Powell were ushered in, and joined our party. Wheatstone was most interesting at dinner ; he knows John Martin intimately, and says he is exactly like his pictures, — all enthusiasm and sublimity, amazingly self-opinionated, and has lately taken a mechanical turn. He thinks him a man of great but misdirected genius. He gave some instances of monomania, and mentioned one extraordinary trance case of a man who was chopping down trees in a wood, and lay down and slept much longer than usual ; when he awoke life was a blank; he was not in a state of idiotcy, but all his acquired knowledge was obliterated. He learned to read again quickly, but all that had passed previously to his trance was entirely swept away from his memory. At the age of fifty he slept again an unusual time ; on awakening, his first act was to go to the tree which he had been felling on the former occasion to look for his hatchet ; the medium life was now forgotten, and the former returned in its distinct reality. This is well authenticated. 8 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. September 23.— Just after tea "a gentleman" was an- nounced, who proved to be nothing less than Professor Sedgwick !* He had unluckily unpacked at the inn, and so preferred keeping to those quarters. He goes to-morrow with Barclay to Pendour Bay in search of organic remains, which he fully expects to find there, and does not think the Cornish have any cause to boast of their primitive rocks, as he has discovered limestone with plenty of organic remains, and even some coal in the east of the county. September 24. — After dinner we were joined by Sedgwick and Barclay, who had thoroughly enjoyed their morning, but had discovered no organic remains but some limestone. A note came for Sedgwick from Sir Charles Lemon, which he read to us : "I hope if you have brought Mrs. Sedgwick with you that we shall have the pleasure of seeing her to stay at Carclew, and I will do my best to amuse her whilst you are flirting with primitive formations!" As Mr. Sedgwick is a bachelor, this was pronounced quite a capital joke of Sir Charles's, "who," said Sedgwick, "is always laughing at my desolate situation." September -jp. — "Mrs. Corgie," the rightful Lady George Murray, arrived. She is a delightful woman, and told us many anecdotes of the late Queen Charlotte, whom she knew intimately. Many of the autograph letters of the royal family she gave me are addressed to herself. The queen (Charlotte) japanned three little tables; one she gave to the king, an- other to the Prince of Wales, and the third to Lady George, which she has filled with the letters she has received from the royal family. She told us that about four years ago the Princess Victoria was made acquainted with her probable dignity by her mother's desiring that when in reading the history of England she came to the death of the Princess Charlotte she should bring the book and read to her, and on coming to that period she made a dead halt, and asked the * Sedgwick (Rev. Adam), the celebrated Woodwardian Professor of Ge- ology to the University of Cambridge. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. g duchess if it were possible she would ever be queen. Her mother replied, "As this is a very possible circumstance, I am anxious to bring you up as a good woman ; then you will be a good queen also." The care observed in the princess's education is exemplary, and everything is indeed done to bring about this result. She is a good linguist, an acute foreign politician, and possesses very sound common sense. October 3. — Captain Fitz-Roy* came to tea. He returned yesterday from a five years' voyage, in H.M.S. Beagle, of scientific research round the world, and is going to write a book. He came to see papa's dipping needle deflector, with which he was highly delighted. He has one of Sambfs on board, but this beats it in accuracy. He stayed till after eleven, and is a most agreeable, gentleman-like young man. He has had a delightful voyage, and made many discoveries, as there were several scientific men on board. Darwin, the "fly-catcher" and "stone-pounder," has decided that the coral insects do not work up from the bottom of the sea against wind and tide, but that the reef is first thrown up by a volcano, and they then surmount it, after which it gradually sinks. This is proved by their never finding coral insects alive beyond the depth of ten feet. He is astonished at the wonderful strides everything has made during the five years afore-passed. October 27. — Lady George Murray gave me an interesting account of Lady Byron, whom she challenges anybody to know without loving. The first present she made to Ada was a splendid likeness of Lord Byron, an edition of whose works is in her library, to which Ada has free access. She has done nothing to prejudice her against her father. The celebrated " Fare-the-well" was presented in such a manner as rather to take off from the sentiment of the thing. He wrapped up in it a number of unpaid bills, and threw it into the room where she was sitting, and then rushed out of the * Fitz-Roy (Admiral Robert), born 1805. His and Dr. Charles Darwin's published accounts of this vo/age are well known. 10 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. house. Ada is very fond of mathematics, astronomy, and music, but possesses no soul for poetry. November 24. — Large dinner-party. Captain Belcher,* an admirable observer of many things, was very amusing. In 1827, when among the Esquimaux with Captain James Ross,f they were treated in a very unfriendly manner; he and five men were wrecked and their boat sunk, and they were obliged to betake themselves to the land of their enemies, twenty- four of whom, well armed with clubs, came down to dispute their proceedings. They had only one brace of percussion pistols among them, and one load of powder and ball. The natives were aware of the terrible effect of these instruments, but not of their scarcity, so Captain Belcher went out of his tent just before their faces, as if looking for something, put his hand in his pocket, and drew out a pistol as if by acci- dent and hurried it back again. The other sailors, by slightly varying the ruse, led the natives to imagine the presence of six pair of pistols, and so they did not venture on an attack. Shortly after this, having been repeatedly harassed, they were thankful to see their ship approaching ; the Esquimaux now prepared for a final assault, and came in great numbers de- manding their flag. Seeing the helplessness of his party, Captain Belcher said, "Well, you shall have the flag, but you must immediately erect it on the top of that hill." They gladly consented, and Captain Belcher fastened it for them on a fiagstaff, but put it Union downwards. The consequence was that the ship's boats immediately put off and pulled with all their might, the natives scampered off, the flag was res- * Belcher (Sir Edward), C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice-Admiral, bom 179c/, entered the Navy 1812, acted as assistant-surveyor to Captain Beechey in 1824 in his voyage of discovery to Behring's Straits. He was employed in distin- guished service in the Arctic regions and the China War. He commanded the Franklin search in 1852, and died in 1877. f Ross (Sir James Clark), R.N., born 1800. In 1848 he made an unsuc- cessful search for Sir John Franklin. His scientific attainments were very great, and received the acknowledgment of many English and Foreign so- cieties. His attempts to reach the South Pole are mentioned later on in these Journals. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. n cued, and the little party safely restored to their beloved ship. I should like to hear the Esquimaux's history of the same period. Captain Belcher has invented a very ingenious instrument for measuring the temperature of the water down to "bottom soundings." He is a great disciplinarian, and certainly not popular in the navy, but very clever and in- tensely methodical. December 2. — We called at Peone's Hotel on the Begum of Oude, who is leaving England (where her husband is ambassador) on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Her bright little Hindustani maid told us she was "gone down cappin's," so to Captain Clavel's we followed her and spent a most amusing half-hour in her society. She was seated in great state in the midst of the family circle, talking English with great self- possession, spite of her charming blunders. Her dress was an immense pair of trousers of striped Indian silk, a Cash- mere shawl laid over her head, over a close covering of blue and yellow silk, two pairs of remarkable slippers, numbers of anklets and leglets, a great deal of jewelry, and a large blue cloak over all. She was very conversable, showed us her ornaments, wrote her name and title in English and Arabic in my book, and offered to make an egg curry. At the top of the page where she wrote her name she inscribed in Arabic sign "Allah," saying, "That name God you take great care of." She sat by Mrs. Clavel, and, after petting and stroking her for a while, declared, " Love I you." She promised her and Leonora a Cashmere shawl apiece, adding, " I get them very cheap, five shillings, seven shillings, ten shillings, very good, for I daughter king, duty take I, tell merchants my, make shawls, and I send you and miss." She has spent a year in London, her name is Marriam, and her husband's Molv^ Mohammed Ishmael. Her face is one of quick sagacity but extreme ugliness. December 3. — The next day we found her squatting on her bed on the floor, an idiot servant of the Prophet in a little heap in one corner, her black-eyed handmaiden grinning us a welcome, and a sacred kitten frolicking over the trappings 12 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. of Eastern state. We were most graciously received with a shriek of pleasure. Her observations on English life were very entertaining. She told us of going to " the Court of the King of London. — He very good man, but he no power. — Parliament all power. — King no give half-penny but call Parliament, make council, council give leave. King give half- penny. — For public charity King give one sovereign, poor little shopman, baker-man, fish-man, barter-man also give one sovereign. Poor King ! — King Oude he give one thousand rupees, palanquin mans with gold stick, elephants, camels ; no ask Parliament." She and papa talked a little theology: she of course began it. " I believe but one God, very bad not to think so ; you believe Jesus Christ was prophet?" Papa said, "Not a prophet, but the Son of God." " How you think so, God Almighty never marry ! In London every one go to ball, theatre, dance, sing, walk, read ; no go Mecca. I mind not that, I go Mecca, I very good woman." She took a great fancy to Barclay, declaring him very like her son. She offered him a commission in the King of Oude's array and twelve hundred pounds a year if he would come over and be her son ; she gave him a rupee, probably as bounty-money. There are two hundred English in her king's service, two doctors, and three aides-de-camp. She showed us some mag- nificent jewelry, immense pearls, diamonds, and emeralds, tied up so carelessly in a dirty handkerchief. Her armlets were very curious, and she had a silver ring on her great toe, which lay in no obscurity before her. Then a number of her superb dresses were displayed, gold and silver tissues, satins, cashmeres, muslins of an almost impossible thinness, which she is going to give away at Mecca. She is aunt to the present, sister of the late, and daughter of the former. King of Oude. She has a stone house in which she keeps fifteen Persian cats. It is a great virtue to keep cats, and a virtue with infinite reward attached to keep an idiot; the one with her here she discovered in London, and was very glad to ap- propriate the little Eastern mystery. Aunt Charles's bonnet amused her ; she wanted to know if it was a new fashion j JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 13 she talked of the Quakers, and said they were honest and never told lies. December 5. — To-day the Begum began almost at once on theology, asking mamma if "she were a rSligieuse,^' and then began to expound her own creed. She took the Koran and read some passages, then an English psalm containing similar sentiments, then she chanted a Mahometan collect beautifully in Arabic and Hindustani. She made mamma write all our names, that she might send us a letter, and then desired Aunt Lucy to write something, the purport of which it was not easy to divine. At last she explained herself, " Say what you think of Marriam Begum, say she religious, or she bad woman, or whatever you think." Poor Aunt Lucy could not refuse, and accordingly looked sapient, bit her pen-stump, and behold the precipitate from this strong acid: "We have been much in- terested in seeing Marriam Begum, and think her a religious lady. ' ' I think a moral chemist would pronounce this to be the result of more alkali than acid, but it was an awkward corner to be driven into. She was coming to visit us to-day, but had to embark instead, after expressing her hopes that we should meet again in Oude ! December 15. — John Murray* arrived, and was very amusing, describing all manner of things. He knows George Combe intimately, and says that at the B. A. Meeting at Edinburgh he got in among the savants and took phrenological sketches of many of them. He describes him as a most acute original person. With Glengarry he was also well acquainted; he kept up the ancient Scotch habits most carefully, wore the dress and cultivated the feuds of an old laird, and if a Macleod tartan chanced to be seen, woe betide him ! Glengarry went to George IV. 's coronation in his Scotch dress, and during the ceremony a very female marchioness, subject to vapors, observed his hand on one of his pistols. Imagining a pro- jected assassination of his new Majesty, she screamed, and the Highland laird was arrested ; he showed, however, that it * John Murray, lecturer and writer on the physiology of plants, etc. 2 14 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. was purely accidental, the pistols being unloaded and himself not disaffected, so they liberated him ; but the affair produced a strong sensation at the time. He died a year or two since in saving his daughters whom he was taking to a boarding- school near London ; the ship was wrecked, and he, being an excellent swimmer, took one of them safe to shore, but just before landing the second he struck against a rock, and died an hour after. With him died ancient Scotland. December i8. — Amusing details from Cowley Powles of Southey's visit at Helston. He has been delighting them all, rather with his wit than anything poetical in his conversation. He is very tall, about sixty-five years old, and likes mealy potatoes. He gives the following recipes for turning an Eng- lishman into a Welshman or Irishman. For the former, he must be born in snow and ice from their own mountains, bap- tized in water from their own river, and suckled by one of their own goats. For an Irishman, born in a bog, baptized in whiskey, and suckled by a bull. What a concatenation of absurdities ! The other day he took a book from one of the shelves, when Derwent Coleridge, who must have been in a deliciously dreamy state, murmured, apologetically, "I got that book cheap : it is one of Southey's." It was quietly re- placed by the poet; Mary Coleridge exclaimed, "Derwent !" and all enjoyed the joke except the immediate sufferers. Wil- liam Coope tells us that he used often to see S. T. Coleridge till within a month of his death, and was an ardent admirer of his prominent blue eyes, reverend hair, and rapt expression. He has met Charles Lamb at his house. On one occasion Coleridge was holding forth on the effects produced by his preaching, and appealed to Lamb, "You have heard me preach, I think?" "I have never heard you do anything else," was the urbane reply. December 28. — On coming home this morning, found Molv6 Mohammed, the Begum's husband, and his secretary, in the drawing-room. He has a sensible face, not totally unlike his wife's, and was dressed in the English costume. On showing him the Begum's writing in my book, he was much pleased at JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 15 her having inserted his name as an introduction to her own. "Ha! she no me forget, I very glad see that." He added some writing of his own in Persian, the sense of which was, "When I was young I used to hunt tigers and lions, but my intercourse with the ladies of England has driven all that out of my head." He is said to be by no means satisfied with bigamy, and it is added that one of the motives of the Begum's Eaglish visit was to collect wives for the King of Oude. The De la Beches are now settled at Falmouth on our terrace ; they spent to-day with us, and were very merry, Henry de la Beche calling up the memory of some of his juvenile depravities and their fitting punishments. On one occasion he and several other young men saw an old coach- man driving a coroneted carriage into a mews. They soon brought him to his bearings, and insisted on his driving them to their respective homes. As it was a question of six to one, he was obliged to comply. Having lodged three of them according to their orders, he drove the others to the watch- house; there they found an acquaintance. Lord Munster, who, however, could not effect a compromise, so, after much' bravado, poor Henry de la Beche had to liberate them all at an expense of five pounds. He gave many Jamaica histories. When the thermometer is at 60°, poor Sambo complains, "Berry cold, massa, me berry much cold." Hunting alli- gators on the Nile is capital fun ; they generally spear them, but once De la Beche attempted to shoot one with a long old swivel-gun fastened down to the boat with an iron bar; the machine burst, and the boat, not the alligator, was the victim. He illustrated his position that dress makes a marvellous change in the very expression of a face by cutting out cocked hats, coats, cigars, etc., and decorating therewith some of Lavater's worshipful portraits. The change was dreadful. He talked cleverly of politics, in which he goes to a Radical length. CHAPTER III. 1837- " Then let me, fameless, love the fields and woods, The fruitful water'd vales, and running floods." — THOMAS MAY. Falmouth, January 7. — Henry de la Beche gave us an amusing account of his late visit to Trelowarren. Sir Richard Vyvyan was always beating about the bush, and never liked openly to face an adverse opinion, but was forever giving a little slap here and a little slap there to try the ground, till De la Beche brought him regularly up to the point at issue, and they could fight comfortably with mutual apprehension. His metaphysical opinions are very curious ; indeed, his physical views partake very much of the nature of these, so subtilely are they etherealized. He has a most choice library, or, as De la Beche calls it, a collection of potted ideas, and makes, I fancy, a very scholastic use of it. On looking at some of the bad handwritings in my autograph book, De la Beche observed how much we read by inference, and how curious writing is altogether ; it is purely thought communi- cating with thought. February 2. — Called on some of the old women. One of them said, " It was quite a frolic my coming to read to them." What different views some people have of frolics ! February y. — De la Beche came in at breakfast-time and was a regular fun-engine, and about two we all went off to Gillanyase on a geological expedition. We went out for the sole purpose of finding "faults," and full many a hole did we pick in the characters of our neighbors the rocks. We generally found a decided "fault" when two "vein" char- acters came in contact, — a natural result. Our raised beach 16 JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. i^ was satisfactory evidence of the change in the sea-level. Traced various cross-courses : one ending in little indefinable streaks of quartz was very pretty. But I am not geological, nor was a great deal of the talk. Henry de la Beche told innumerable stories, as is his wont. A French and an English boaster were detailing the exploits of their several regiments: "With this handful of men," said the latter, " we secured the demi-lune." " Oh," answered the French- man, "mais nous, nous avons pris une lune enti^re !" Two Frenchmen, wishing to show off their English in a London coffee-house, remarked, "It deed rain to-morrow." "Yes, it was," promptly answered his friend. We examined the Castle and heard somewhat of the principles of fortification, De la Beche having been educated at a military school. The wall round a castle, to be eff'ective, should not let any of the castle's masonry be visible. He dined with us, and we heard many strange stories of the scientific dons of the day, who if fairly sketched must be a shockingly ill-tempered set. Henry de la Beche drew a cartoon of the results of A. Crosse's system of revivifying the fossil life in an old mu- seum, grotesquely horrible. February 8. — De la Beche wandered in at breakfast to give papa the two first fossil remains that have been found near a lode, which he drew forth from their hiding with his own authentic hands. One is the vertebra, the other the body of an encrinite. He read us some of a report he is now drawing up for Government, in which he does papa all manner of honor. He made some admirable observations on the one- ness of human nature everywhere in all ranks and all coun- tries, with only some little diff"erences of " localization." He says that all the beautiful Greek vases are formed of a series of ellipses, and he has sent for patterns from Mr. Phillips of the Woods and Forests, to give the Cornish better ideas of forms for their serpentine and porphyry vases. February 21. — John Enys told us that Henry De la Beche had spent some time in the West Indies, and tried to amelio- rate the condition of his slaves, and abolished the practice 2* 1 8 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. of flogging, though the power was still vested in the over- seer; he established a system of education, and did much good. He was warmly opposed by the planters, but he pur- sued his way, and they theirs. On his return to England he had many troubles, which accounts for his low views of man- kind, and for the artificial spirits in which he so often seems to be veiling his griefs and disappointments. April 27. — The De la Beches dined with us, and were pe- culiarly agreeable. A great deal of conversation went for- ward, on Ireland, the West Indies, the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, education, and phrenology. Once at a party De la Beche was much plagued by puzzling riddles, so out of revenge he proposed, " Why is a lover like a turnip- top?" They racked their heads in vain for the answer, and he left them unsatisfied. Long afterwards a young lady of the party met him, and asked, imploringly, " Why is a lover like a turnip-top?" only to receive the provoking reply, "I'm sure I don't know." Another lady, who imagined him bo- tanically omniscient, asked him the name of a pet plant sup- ported by a bit of whalebone. "Oh, Staybonia pulcharia," he suggested, and soon afterwards had the joy of seeing it thus labelled ; however, he had the honesty to undeceive her. May 15. — About one o'clock Derwent Coleridge was an- nounced, quickly succeeded by George Wightwick,* who blundered into the room on his own ground-plan. Took them all over the Grove Hill gardens. Wightwick made a profound bow to the india-rubber tree as having often be- friended him in his unguarded moments. He told us several anecdotes of the charming impudence of Snow Harris. Once when he (Wightwick) had been lecturing at the Athenaeum on the superiority of the Horizontal to the Pyramidical style of architecture, he thus illustrated the theory: "When the French army under Napoleon came to the Pyramids they passed on without emotion, but when they reached the Temple * Wightwick (George), the architect. A friend of Charles Mathews tha elder, and author of the " Palace of Architecture" and other works. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. ly of Karnak, which is a horizontal elevation, they with one accord stood perfectly still." "Rather tired, I suppose," murmured Harris. June 22. — Henry de la Beche was particularly amusing in his black coat, put on in consequence of the king's death, complaining of tomfoolery in thus affecting to mourn when there was little real feeling. After the late Geological meeting they took supper with Lord Cole, and instituted a forfeit in case any science should be talked. Most of the party had to pay the penalty, which was, drinking salt-and-water and sing- ing a song. Two hammers were put on the table in case of any insurmountable differences of opinion, that the parties might retire into another room and settle their dispute. Spite of fair inferences, he declares they were not tipsy, but simply making good a pet axiom of his, " toujours philosophe — is a fool." July 10. — The De la Beches and a geological student for the evening ; much talk on the West Indies and their concomi- tants, negroes and mosquitoes. He told us of a spectral illu- sion which had once befallen him, when he saw a friend whom he had attended on his death-bed under very painful circum- stances. He reasoned with himself, but all in vain : whether his eyes were shut or open the apparition was ever before him. Of course he explains it as a disordered stomach. He gave me a mass of autograph letters, and bestowed his solemn bene- diction on us at parting, as they leave Falmouth on the 31st. July 29. — The Coleridges dined with us; the poet's son ex- pounded and expanded Toryism after a fashion of his own, which was very fascinating. Papa spoke of never influencing votes at an election ; to this Derwent Coleridge objected, main- taining that people of superior education and talent should feel the responsibility of these possessions, as a call to direct the judgments of those less gifted. A bright argument ensued between the poet and the man of sense. Derwent Coleridge finds the world in a somewhat retrograding state, as no such master-spirits as Bacon's are to be found for the seeking, and he has not yet recognized the supreme importance of the in- 20 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. vention of a new gas or best mode of using an old one. Something was said of "popular representation," which led Derwent Coleridge to define the People as the Remainder, when the noblemen, gentlemen, clergy, and men of superior minds had been taken out of the mass. What remains is the People, who are to be represented, and who are to select and elect ! Very characteristic. August 24. — J. Pease gave us a curious enough account ot a shelf in the Oxford library which is the receptacle of all works opposed to the Church of England, which are placed there to be answered as way may open. Barclay's Apology, and Barclay's Apology alone, remains unanswered and un- answerable, though many a time has it been taken from the shelf controversial, yet has always quietly slunk back to its old abode. Hurrah for Quakerism ! Grasmere, September 8. — We sent Aunt Charles's* letter of introduction to Hartley Coleridge, and, as we were sitting after tea in the twilight, a little being was observed at the door, standing hat in hand, bowing to the earth round and round, and round again, with eyes intensely twinkling : it was Hartley Coleridge ; so he sat down, and, what with ner- vous tremors and other infirmities among us, nothing very remarkable was elicited. He offered to cicerone us to-mor- row, which we were delighted to accept. Barclay walked home with him, and gladdened his spirit with the story of Derwent Coleridge and Southey. September 9. — A glorious morning with Hartley Coleridge, who gradually unfolded on many things in a tone well worthy of a poet's son. In person and dress he was much brushed up ; his vivid face sparkled in the shadow of a large straw hat. He took us to the Wishing Gate which Wordsworth apostrophizes, and set us wishing. Barclay accordingly wished ® Fox (Sarah Hustler), wife of the late Charles Fox, of Trebah, near Fal- mouth. This gifted lady passed her girlhood in the Lake country, enjoying the friendship of the Wordsworths, Coleridges, Arnolds, and others of that charmed circle. She still lives at Trebah, surrounded by the love and care of four generations of descendants and friends. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 21 for the repetition of some of Hartley Coleridge's poetry, on which he begged us to believe that the Gate's powers were by this time exhausted. He says he never can recollect his poetry so as to repeat it. He took us to the outside of his rosy cot- tage, also to that which had been occupied by Wordsworth and De Quincey. He talked of the former and declared himself an ardent admirer of his beauties, as he likes a pretty idea wherever found. He thinks that his peculiar beauty consists in viewing things as among them, mixing himself up with everything that he mentions, so that you admire the Man in the Thing, the in- volved Man. He says he is a most unpleasant companion in a tour, from his terrible fear of being cheated ; neither is he very popular as a neighbor. He calls him more a man of genius than talent, for whilst the fit of inspiration lasts he is every inch a poet ; when he tries to write without it he is very drag- ging. Hartley Coleridge is very exquisite in his choice of language. I wish I had preserved some of this. He thinks intellect is now of a more diffusive character than some fifty years since, for progressive it cannot be ; there must ever be this distinction between intellect and science. He must have a large organ of combativeness, and he will never admit of your meeting him half-way : if you attempt it he is instantly off at a tangent. So we idly talked and idly listened, and drank in meanwhile a sense of the perfect beauty and loveliness of the nature around us. We walked up to Rydal Mount, but Words- worth is in Hertfordshire, on his return from Italy. Mrs. Wordsworth was very kind, took us over their exquisite grounds, which gave many openings for the loveliest views, congratulated us in an undertone on our rare good fortune in having Hartley Coleridge as a guide, and gave us ginger-wine and gingerbread. We saw the last and, as Hartley Coleridge considers, the best portrait taken of Wordsworth in Italy, also a very fine cast from Chantrey's bust. In the garden at the end of a walk is a picturesque moss-covered stone with a brass tablet, on which Wordsworth has inscribed some lines saying that the mercy of the bard had rescued this stone from the rude hand of the builders, and that he trusted when he was 22 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. gone it might still be regarded for his sake.* Hartley Cole- ridge then took us to the Rydal waterfalls, and told us stories of the proprietors, the Fleming family. One of the falls, or forces as they call them here, was the most perfect I had ever seen. Our poet's recognition of the perpetual poetry in Nature was very inspiring and inspiriting. He drove with us to Ambleside ; I gave him " Elia" to read, and he read " De- tached Thoughts on Books and Reading" with a tone and emphasis and intense appreciation which Lamb would have loved to mark. At dinner he had a sad choking-fit, so queerly conducted as to try our propriety sadly. Then when he had anything especially pointed to say, he would stand up or even walk round the dining-table. He says he should be far more likely to fall in love with mere beauty than mere intellect without their concomitants ; for the one is a negative good, the other by a little misdirection is a positive evil and the characteristic of a fiend. He much regrets the tendency of the present day to bestow more admiration on intellectual than moral worth, and entered into an interesting disquisition on Wordsworth's theory that a man of genius must have a good heart. To make facts tally with theory, Wordsworth would deny genius right and left to Byron, Voltaire, and other difiS- cult cases. We asked about Wordsworth's daughter : had she inherited any of her father's genius? "Would you have the disease of genius to descend like scrofula?" was his answer, and added that he did consider it a disease which amazingly interfered with the enjoyment of things as they are, and un- fitted the possessor for communion with common minds. At the close of dinner he presented and read the following lines, * " In these fair vales hath many a tree At Wordsworth's suit been spared ; And from the builder's hand this stone, For some rude beauty of its own, Was rescued by the bard. ■ So let it rest; and time will come When here the tender-hearted May heave a gentle sigh for him, As one of the departed." — W. W. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 23 which he had written whilst we were on Windermere, Aunt Charles being the inspirant : " Full late it was last night when first we met, And soon, too soon, must part this blessed day ; But these brief hours shall be lil. — Parcel and note from John Sterling. He en- closes the letter from S. T. Coleridge, on which he has writ- ten, " Given to Miss Caroline Fox by John Sterling," to oblige me to keep it, and other letters of his to read ; also his memoranda of his first conversation with S. T. C, which Hare considers the most characteristic he has seen. Isn't that joyous ? April 21. — Met their Royal Highnesses and many others at Consols Mine ; they were much delighted with the machinery. In Ashantee they have copper-mines as well as gold and silver, but they are not much worked. Yesterday they went sixty fathoms down Huel Vean and were much tired, but their Cor- nish exploration has charmed them. Each one keeps a jour- nal, and a certain red memorandum-book which occasionally issues out of Mr. Pyne's pocket is a capital check on our little members. The princes have unhappily imbibed the European fashion of sticking their hands through their hair, which, says Dr. Calvert, they might just as well try to do through velvet. Every one was pleasant and witty according to their measure. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 99 April 22. — Took them up the river to Tregothnan. T. Pyne gave interesting details of a visit to Niagara, and the inquiries he instituted there concerning poor F. Abbott. These were very satisfactory. His servant said that he used to sit up very late reading his Bible, and then meditate in silence for a long time. He also spoke of his extremely eccen- tric habits, hanging by his feet on a branch over the Falls. April 23. — Dr. Calvert talked about those who, in intel- lectual pursuits, will not be at the pains of looking over the present or to the brighter future, who love not to sow their seed in faith, and leave posterity to reap the fruit : this was induced by a remark on missionaries being so often forbidden to witness any effect of their efforts. April 24. — Our Ashantee friends enjoyed themselves thor- oughly at Glendurgan, playing at cricket and leap-frog, and fishing. In the evening many joined our party, and all were amused with galvanism, blow-pipe experiments, and such-like scientific pastimes until between eleven and twelve. The princes concocted some autographs, and were much amused at the exploit, adding to their names " Forget me not," at William Hustler's instigation. They talked a great deal about Ashantee and what they meant to do there on their return, the schools they are to found, and the people they are to send to England for education. Their remembrances of their own country are, I should fancy, rather brighter than the actual fact. They speak of their father's palace as a magnificent piece of architecture, and of the costume of the ladies being generally white satin ! and other things in keeping. They really seem very nice intelligent lads, gentleman-like and dignified. When too much puffed up, Quantamissa refuses to take his tutor's arm, which sorely grieves T. Pyne ! April 25. — We were a large party at breakfast, after which we had a capital walk to Pendennis. Mrs. Coope was in her chair, which the princes seized and galloped off with up the steep hill. They mightily enjoyed playing with the cannon- balls ; their own Ashantee amusements consist in watching gladiatorial combats. They laugh in a knowing manner when 100 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. slavery is alluded to, and they left us this afternoon after a really pleasant visit. April 26. — Barclay forwarded us the following letter from John Stuart Mill : " India House, i6th April, 1840. " My dear Friend (if you will allow me to adopt this ' friendly' mode of address), — Your kind and sympathizing letter has given us great pleasure. There is no use in my say- ing more than has been said already about him who has gone before us, where we must so soon follow ; the thought of him is here, and will remain here, and seldom has the memory of one who died so young been such as to leave a deeper or a more beneficial impression on the survivors. Among the many serious feelings which such an event calls forth, there is always some one which impresses us most, some moral which each person extracts from it for his own more especial guid- ance : with me that moral is, ' Work while it is called to-day ; the night cometh in which no man can work.' One never seems to have adequately y^// the truth and meaning of all that is tritely said about the shortness and precariousness of life, till one loses some one whom one had hoped not only to carry ■with one as a companion through life, but to leave as a suc- cessor after it. Why he who had all his work to do has been taken, and I left who had done part of mine, and in some measure, as Carlyle would express it, 'delivered my message,' passes our wisdom to surmise. But if there be a purpose in this, that purpose, it would seem, can only be fulfilled in so far as the remainder of my life can be made even more useful than the remainder of his would have been if it had been spared. At least we know this, that on the day when we shall be as he is, the whole of life will appear but as a day, and the only question of any moment to us then will be, Has that day been wasted ? Wasted it has not been by those who have been for however short a time a source of happiness and of moral good, even to the narrowest circle. But there is only one plain rule of life eternally binding, and independent of all variations in creeds, and in the interpretations of creeds, em- JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. loi bracing equally the greatest moralities and the smallest ; it is this : try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou are capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it. "You are very kind to say what you have said about those reviews ; the gift of unsold copies of an old periodical could under no circumstances have called for so warm an expression of thanks, and would have deserved an opposite feeling if I could not say, with the utmost sincerity, that I do not expect you to read much of it or any of it unless thereunto moved. My principal feeling in the matter was this. You are likely to hear of some of the writers, and, judging of your feelings by what my own would be, I thought it might be sometimes agreeable to you to be able to turn to something they had written and imagine what manner of persons they might be. As far as my own articles are concerned, there was also a more selfish pleasure in thinking that sometimes, however rarely, I might be conversing with my absent friends at three hundred miles' distance. "We scribblers are apt to put not only our best thoughts, but our best feelings, into our writings, or at least if the things are in us they will not come oui of us so well or so clearly through any other medium ; and therefore when one really wishes to be liked (it is only when one is very young that one cares about being admired), it is often an advantage to us when our writings are better known than ourselves. "As to these particular writings of mine, all in them that has any pretension to permanent value will, I hope, during the time you are in London, be made into two little volumes, which I shall offer to no one with greater pleasure than to you. The remainder is mostly politics, — of little value to any one now, — in which, with considerable expenditure of head and heart, an attempt was made to breathe a living soul into the Radical party, but in vain : there was no making those dry bones live. Among a multitude of failures, I had only one instance of brilliant success. It is some satisfaction to me to know that, as far as such things can ever be said, I 9* I02 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. saved Lord Durham, — as he himself, with much feeling, acknowledged to me, saying that he knew not to what to ascribe the reception he met with on his return from Canada, except to an article of mine which came out " immediately before. If you were to read that article now, you would wonder what there was in it to bear out such a statement ; but the time at which it appeared was everything ; every one's hand seemed to be against him, no one dared speak a word for him ; the very men who had been paying court and offer- ing incense to him for years before (I never had) shrunk away or ventured only on a few tame and qualified phrases of excuse, not, I verily believe, from cowardice so much as because, not being accustomed to think about principles of politics, they were taken by surprise in a contingency which they had not looked for, and feared committing themselves to something they could not maintain ; and if this had gone on, opinion would have decided against him so strongly that even that admirable Report of his and Buller's could hardly havq turned the tide ; and unless some one who could give evidence of thought and knowledge of the subject had thrown down the gauntlet at that critical moment, and determinedly claimed honor and glory for him instead of mere acquittal, and in doing this made a diversion in his favor, and encour- aged those who wished him well to speak out, and so kept people's mind suspended on the subject, he was in all proba- bility a lost man ; and if I had not been the man to do this, nobody else would. And three or four months later the Re- port came out, and then everybody said I had been right, and now it is being acted upon. "This is one of only three things, among all I attempted in my reviewing life, which I can be said to have succeeded in. The second was to have greatly accelerated the success of Carlyle's ' French Revolution,' a book so strange and in- comprehensible to the greater part of the public that whether it should succeed or fail seemed to depend on the turn of a die ; but I got the first word, blew the trumpet before it at its first coming out, and, by claiming for it the honors of the JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 103 highest genius, frightened the small fry of critics from pro- nouncing a hasty condemnation, got fair play for it, and then its success was sure. " My third %\xczz'ss, is that I have dinned into people's ears that Guizot is a great thinker and writer, till they are, though slowly, beginning to read him, which I do not believe they would be doing even yet, in this country, but for me. " This, I think, is a full account of all the world has got by my editing and reviews. "Will you pardon the egotism of this letter? I really do not think I have talked so much about myself in the whole year previous as I have done in the few weeks of my inter- course with your family ; but it is not a fault of mine gener- ally, for I am considered reserved enough by most people, and I have made a very solemn resolution, when I see you again, to be more objective and less subjective in my conver- sation (as Calvert says) than when I saw you last. — Ever yours faithfully, J. S. Mill. "It seems idle to send remembrances; they saw enough to know I am not likely to forget them." April 28. — Visit from Dr. Calvert, who has been translating some of Schleiermacher's sermons, which he lent to us to illustrate the aid which metaphysics may yield to religion. They were very useful to a lady in Madeira, to whom he administered them. He (Schleiermacher) did more than any one to evangelize Germany, especially by letting Scripture constantly illustrate the different points of faith and practice for which he would claim a primary ideal reality. This just suits the Germans. Dr. Calvert has been examining the prin- ciples of Friends. He thinks that as much was done by George Fox as could be done at the time at which he lived, but it is not enough for the present time ; forms and words are still too apt to be accepted instead of ideas, and a new prophet is wanted to give reality to the abstract. Fox's work was to lead man from his fellow-man to Christ alone ; and 104 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. how great an aim was this ! Talked of Darwin and his theory of the race being analogous to the individual man ; having in the latter form a certain quantum of vitality granted for a certain period, he would extend the idea to the race, and thus would regard the Deluge, for instance, as simply the necessary conclusion of our race because it had lived the time originally appointed for it : this, though abundantly conjec- tural, is interesting as a theory, and probably originated with Herder. Then on the growth of religion in an individual mind and in the mind of the species as precisely similar ; the first idea of God excited by the Wonderful, afterwards by the Terrible (Mount Sinai), and only Christianity points it out as specially legible in the small and little-noticed events of human life, or objects of creation. On prayer : social prayer useful and necessary to satisfy the gregarious nature of man, though less attractive to fastidious natures than silent and solitary communion with God. The plan of specific prayer, for changes in the weather, etc., is useful in giving an object for prayer in which the multitude can heartily unite, but cer- tainly showing a want both of faith (trust) and enlargement of apprehension : still, he would never call that absurd which is the conscientious belief of any, even the weakest Christian, who is indeed a Christian. May 2. — Dr. Calvert dined with us on the lawn at Penjer- rick, amidst a party of school-boys. He spoke of having made up his mind not to expect anything positive in life, and he has found great comfort in this conclusion. He believes that the exertion of our powers and energies to effect an object is always of much greater importance than the objects themselves. May 7. — He says that at Falmouth he has met with two new and most interesting facts, John Mill and grandmamma. The satisfaction he derives from finding that the experience of the latter — an aged and earnest Christian — tallies often with his own theories, is extreme. London, May 19. — We had heard much of Thomas Carlyle from enthusiastic admirers, and his book on Chartism had JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 105 not lessened the excitement with which I anticipated seeing and hearing him. These anticipations were reahzed at the lecturing-room in Edward Street. We sat by Harriet Mill, who introduced us to her next neighbor, Mrs. Carlyle, who kindly asked us to come to them any evening, as they would both be glad to see us. The audience, among whom we dis- covered Whewell, Samuel Wilberforce and his beautiful wife, was very thoughtful and earnest in appearance : it had come to hear the Hero portrayed in the form of the Man of Letters.* Carlyle soon appeared, and looked as if he felt a well-dressed London crowd scarcely the arena for him to figure in as popular lecturer. He is a tall, robust-looking man ; rugged simplicity and indomitable strength are in his face, and such a glow of genius in it, — not always smouldering there, but flashing from his beautiful gray eyes, from the remoteness of their deep setting under that massive brow. His manner is very quiet, but he speaks like one tremendously convinced of what he utters, and who had much — very much — in him that was quite unutterable, quite unfit to be uttered to the un- initiated ear ; and when the Englishman's sense of beauty or truth exhibited itself in vociferous cheers, he would impatiently, almost contemptuously, wave his hand, as if that were not the sort of homage which Truth demanded. He began in a rather low nervous voice, with a broad Scotch accent, but it soon grew firm, and shrank not abashed from its great task. In this lecture, he told us, he was to consider the Hero as Man of Letters. The Man of Letters is a priest as truly as any other who has a message to deliver ; but woe to him if he will not deliver it aright ! He has this function appointed him, and Carlyle would even have his fraternity organized like the members of other professions, though in truth he could ill chalk out the plan ; but their present mode -f^- These lectures on " Hero-Worship" are of course now known and read z« extenso by every one ; but it is interesting to compare them as pubhshed with the resume here given from memory by Caroline Fox, who had no knowledge of stenography, and yet reproduces so much almost in the words they were given. lo6 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. of existence is a sad and uncertain one, unprotected by that world for wliich they are often so unfit. As they are the teachers of men, he thinks them well worthy of a university. He spoke of education, and resolved it into the simple ele- ments of teaching to read and write ; in its highest, or uni- versity sense, it is but the teaching to read and write on all subjects and in many languages. Of all the teaching the sublimest is to teach a man that he has a soul ; the absolute appropriation of this fact gives life and light to what was before a dull, cold, senseless mass. Some philosophers of a sceptical age seemed to hold that the object of the soul's crea- tion was to prevent the decay and putrefaction of the body ; in fact, a rather superior sort of salt. It is the province of the Man of Letters, if he be a true man, to give right views of the world, to set up the standard of truth and gather de- votees around it. Goethe was the type of a Man of Letters, — all that such a man could be ; there is more in his writings than we can at present see into. He, however, preferred taking Johnson, Rousseau, and Burns as illustrations of his subject; the common point of resemblance is their being sincere men : defined sincerity as the earnest living belief in what you profess to believe. He considers that every real poet must have a power in him to do the thing of which he sings, or he cannot treat it with effect, nor stir the sympathies of others. He exceedingly deprecates logic, — as giving a semblance of wisdom to a soulless reason, dry, and dull, and dead argumentation. Thus he holds Bentham's theory of human life to be one degree lower than Mahomet's. He would nevertheless call him an honest man, believing what he says, little as he can himself sympathize with his naked half- truths : his being a sincere prevented his being a useless man. Then we got to Johnson, who was born in an age of scepti- cism, when minds were all afloat in a miserable state of un- rest, and their language indicating their belief that the world was like a water-mill working up the stream with no miller to guide it. His youth was one of extreme poverty ; yet when a person who knew of his condition had a pair of old shoes yOUMNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 107 placed in his lodging, as soon as Johnson discovered them he flung them out of the window. This incident is an expres- sive type of the man's conduct through life ; he never would stand in another's shoes; he preferred misery when it was his own, to anything derivable from others. He was in all re- spects a ponderous man, — strong in appetite, powerful in intellect, of Herculean frame, a great passionate giant. There is something fine and touching too, if we will consider it, in that little, flimsy, flippant, vain fellow, Boswell, attaching himself as he did to Johnson : before others had discovered anything sublime, Boswell had done it, and embraced his knees when the bosom was denied him. Boswell was a true hero-worshipper, and does not deserve the contempt we are all so ready to cast at him. Then Rousseau was turned to : he too was a warm advocate for reality, he too lived in an age of scepticism ; he examined things around him, and found how often semblances passed for realities among men. He scrupled not to analyze them with unsparing hand, and soon discovered that you may clothe a thing and call it what you will, but if it have not in itself the idea it would represent, you cannot give it a substantial existence. And so he opposed himself to kingship as then existing. That man from his garret sent forth a flame that blazed abroad with all its horrors in the French Revolution, and was felt and recognized beyond garrets. Carlyle does not much sympathize with his works ; indeed, he said, " The Confessions are the only writings of his which I have read with any interest ; there you see the man such as he really was, though I can't say that it is a duty to lay open the Bluebeard chambers of the heart. I have said that Rousseau lived in a sceptical age ; there was then in France no form of Christianity recognized, not even Quakerism. In early life he was unhappy, feeling that his existence was not turning to account ; every one does or ought to feel unhappy till he finds out what to do. Rousseau was a thorough Frenchman, not a great man ; he knew no- thing of that silence which precedes words, and is so much grander than the grandest words, because in it those thoughts lo8 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. are created of which words are but the poor clothing. I say , Rousseau knew nothing of this, but Johnson knew much ; verily, he said but little, only just enough to show that a giant slept in that rugged bosom." Burns was the last of our heroes, and here our Scotch patriot was in his element. Most graphically did he sketch some passages in the poet's life ; the care with which his good father educated him, teaching him to read his Bible and to write : the family was in great poverty, and so deeply did anxiety about rearing his children prey on the mind of old William Burns that he died of a broken heart. He was a sincere man, and, like every sincere man, he lived not in vain. He acted up to the precepts of John Knox and trained his son to immortality. When Robert's talents developed themselves, the rich and the great espoused his cause, constantly sent for him when they would be amused, and drew him out of his simple habits, greatly to his own woe. He could not long stand this perpetual lioniz- ing unblighted ; it broke him up in every sense, and he died. What a tragedy is this of Robert Burns ! his father dying of a broken heart from dread of over-great poverty, — the son from contact with the great, who would flatter him for a night or two and then leave him unfriended! Amusement they must have, it seems, at any expense, though one would have thought they were sufficiently amused in the common way ; but no, they were like the Indians we read of whose grandees ride in their palanquins at night, and are not content with torches carried before them, but must have instead fireflies stuck at the end of spears. . . . He then told us he had more than occupied our time, and rushed down-stairs. Returned with Harriet Mill from Carlyle's lecture to their house in Kensington Square, where we were most lovingly re- ceived by all the family. John Mill was quite himself. He had in the middle of dinner to sit still for a little to try and take in that we are really here. A good deal of talk about Carlyle and his lectures : he never can get over the feeling that people have given money to hear him, and are possibly calculating whether what they hear is worth the price they ''^^^-=''-v^ Ca-^^^tv^.,^ ^ (ZCS) JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 109 paid for it. Walked in the little garden, and saw the Falmouth plants which Clara cherishes so lovingly, and Henry's cactus and other dear naemorials. Visited John Mill's charming library, and saw portions of his immense her- barium ; the mother so anxious to show everything, and her son so terribly afraid of boring us. He read us that striking passage in " Sartor Resartus" on George Fox making to him- self a suit of leather. How his voice trembled with excite- ment as he read, " Stitch away, thou noble Fox," etc. They spoke of some of the eccentricities of their friend Mrs. Grote, whom Sydney Smith declares to be the origin of the word, "grotesque." Several busts of Bentham were shown, and, some remark being made about him, John Mill said, " No one need feel any delicacy in canvassing his opinions in my presence;" this, indeed, his review sufficiently proves. Mrs. Mill gave us Bentham's favorite pudding at dinner ! After a most happy day we walked off, John Mill accom- panying us through the Park. He gave his version of John Sterling's history. In early life he had all the beautiful peculiarities and delicacies of a woman's mind. It at length dawned upon him that he had a work of his own to accom- plish ; and earnestly, and long unsuccessfully, did he strive to ascertain its nature. All this time he was restless and unhappy, under the sense that doing it he was not. This lasted till his returning voyage from the West Indies, where his patience and perseverance, his earnestness and sincerity, received their reward ; he saw the use he might be to others, in establishing and propagating sound principles of action, and since that time he has known quietness and satisfaction. Though his writings are such as would do credit to anybody, yet they are inferior to his conversation : he has that rare power of throwing his best thoughts into it and adapting them to the comprehension of others. John Mill wrote him the other day that he would gladly exchange powers of usefulness with him. Talked on the spirit of sect as opposed to that of Christianity and subversive of it. Friends in their essential character must have less of it than any others; though, of 10 no MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. course, in theirs as well as in all sects, the espirits homes will exalt the peculiarities and differences above the agreements, — the very spirit of sect. May 2 2. — To Carlyle's lecture. The Hero was to-day considered as King, and Cromwell, Napoleon, and French Revolutionism were the illustrations chosen. Every ruler has a divine right to govern, in so far as he represents God, but in no other : the discussion on the divine right as com- monly understood is too dull and profitless to be ever resumed. He soon got to his beloved antithesis, Reality versus Spe- ciosity, — that which is, and that which seems ; and that to call a man king, if he have not the qualities of kingship, can never give him real power or authority. Men have long tried to believe in a name, but seem now to be abandoning this attempt as fruitless. Goethe says that the struggle between belief and unbelief is the only thing in the memoirs of humanity worth considering. The most futile attempt to represent the idea of a king should nevertheless be treated with loyalty, or its attempts at right government will be rendered only the more futile. In matters of positive conscience alone can rebellion be justified, and here it requires a just balancing of the true ideal principle of loyalty. Cromwell comes before us with a dark element of chaos round about him ; for he, in common with Johnson, lived in an unbelieving age, and the chaos would not take form till he had given it one. "He is said to have had a vision, which greatly impressed him, of a nymph, who informed him that he would be a great man ; but I doubt but this vision was only the constant sense of his power, to which a visible form was given. I believe Crom- well not to have been ambitious ; no really great man is so : no, he had the ideas of heaven and hell within him, and death and judgment and eternity as the background to every thought; and gilt coaches don't much affect these. Men say that he had the Protectorate in his eye from the begin- ning of his career, but this I deny ; he, like others, became what he did through circumstances. Men do not, as is so often assumed, live by programme ; historians can't make a JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. m greater mistake than in tracing, as they so cleverly do, the steps which he they write of took to gain the point of eminence which he reached. Cromwell came out direct from Nature herself to deliver her message to England. To establish a theocracy was, I believe, the great celestial idea which irradiated all the dark conduct of him. When he came to the Long Parliament, he looked for one fit to carry out this idea, but he could not find one : he would, I believe, have preferred being a lieutenant could he have found another man worthy to be a king, but he could not ; and so, having tried two Parliaments and found they wouldn't do, he was obliged to have recourse to despotism. He was in a situa- tion similar to that of the present ministry : he could not resign." He gave a most graphic sketch of the dissolution of the Long Parliament, and Cromwell taking Colonel Hutch- inson aside and imploring him to love him still, to examine and understand his motives, and not to abhor him as a traitor ; but it was all in vain ; a narrow confined mind like Hutchinson's could not take in anything so grand, and he too left him. After many other most effective touches in this sketch, which compelled you to side with Carlyle as to Crom- well's self-devotion and magnanimity, he gave the finishing- stroke with an air of most innocent wonderment : " And yet I believe I am the first to say that Cromwell was an honest man !" Then we had a glimpse at French Revolutionism. In the eighteenth century men worshipped the things that seemed ; it was a quack century, and could not last. The representatives of kingship increased in imbecility and un- reality, till the people could bear the delusion no longer ; so they found out Truth in thunder and horror, and would at any cost have Reality and not Speciosity. So they had it, and paid its price. It is ill, even in metaphor, to call the world a machine ; to consider it as such, has ever been a fatal creed for rulers. Napoleon was brought up, believing not the Gospel according to St. John, but the Gospel according to St. Diderot, and this accounts for his fundamental un- truthfulness and moral obliquity. His bulletins were so full 112 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. of lies that it became a proverb, "as false as a bulletin." No excuse can ever be valid for telling lies, and this indiffer- ence of his must prevent him from coming up to the standard of true greatness. But he was a good governor : he went thoroughly into things, understood their bearings and rela- tions, and took advantage of every opportunity. When he went to see the Tuileries, which was being very splendidly fitted up for him, he quietly cut off one of the gold tassels and put it in his pocket. The workmen were astonished, and wondered what might be his object. A week afterwards he came again, took the tassel out of his pocket, gave it to the contractor, and said, "I have examined the tassel and find it is not gold; you will have this mistake rectified." Such a man could not be taken in. In the midst of all his splendor he had little enjoyment ; there is much pathos in the fact that many times a day his mother would say, " I want to see the Emperor; is he still alive?" No wonder, poor woman, when there were such constant attacks made on his life. One thing that would prevent Napoleon's taking a high place among great spirits was his thinking himself in some way essential to the existence of the world. Many a time at St. Helena would he wonder how Europe could get on in his absence. When a man believes himself the centre of the world, he believes in a poor Ego and loses his manhood. Napoleon exhibited a sad tragedy in trying to wed Truth with semblance, and nothing but tragedy can ever result from such an attempt. . . . He then told us that the subject which he had endeavored to unfold in three weeks was more calcu- lated for a six months' story ; he had, however, been much interested in going through it with us, even in the naked way he had done, thanked us for our attention and sympathy, wished us a cordial farewell, and vanished. Upton, May 24. — The Buxtons dined here to-day, and after dinner Thomas Fowell Buxton addressed the assembly on the subject of the Anti-Slavery meeting next month, which he thinks it is the duty of Friends to attend. Prince Albert has become President, the first Society which he has patronized. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 113 Afterwards, walking in the garden with Barclay and me, he talked much more about it, regretting the scruples of many as to the armed vessels which are to accompany the Niger Expe- dition ; he thinks their arguments apply equally to mail-coach travelling. In going to meeting he gave a picture of his in- terview with the Pope, and other pleasant glimpses' of people and things in the Eternal City. Wolff's bust of Uncle George Croker Fox especially delights him. John Pease gave us a striking sermon this evening, on which Fowell Buxton re- marked that he exceeded in true eloquence — that is, in flu- ency, choice of language, and real feeling — any man he had ever heard. May 25. — This afternoon the young Buxton party returned from Rome ; their advent was performed in characteristic fashion. Fowell Buxton was sauntering in the Park when a bruit reached him that they were approaching ; so he flung his ill-hung legs across the back of a coach-horse which crossed his path, with blinkers and harness on but no saddle, and thus mounted flew to the house shouting, " They are come !" so the family were fairly aroused to give such a welcome as Gur- neys well know how to give. London, May 28. — Met Dr. Calvert in Finsbury, and had some quiet talk in the midst of that vast hubbub. He has been seeing Sir James Clark about John Sterling, and has written the latter a letter which will drive all Italian plans out of his head. In his case it is the morale rather than the phy- sique that must always be attacked, and a quiet winter in Corn- wall with his family would be vastly better for him than the intoxication of Italy. Went with him to meet the Mills at the India House ; met Professor Nichols and his wife, and Mr. Grant. Surveyed the Museum, wherein are divers and great curiosities : the confirmation of the Charter to the East India Company in Cromwell's own hand ; four pictures representing the seasons, by a Chinese artist, in very fair perspective (many are glad to take advantage of English instruction in this and other arts, which is a great advance) ; the tiger crushing and eating the unfortunate Christian, who is made to groan me- 10* 114 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. chanically (this was a favorite of Hyder's, as representing the Indian power crushing European interference !) ; Tippoo's own Koran ; models of Chinese gardens ; a brick from Bab- ylon, inscribed with characters which none have been able to decipher ; numberless snakes, insects, fish, beasts, and birds, some of rare beauty, — the horrid vampire especially fascina- ting. Then to the apartment of our host, where in all com- fort he can arrange the government of the native states, rais- ing some and putting down others. The political department of the East India House is divided into six classes, of which this is one. They have their Horse- Guards in another part of the same immense building, which was built for the accom- modation of four or five thousand, the population of the capi- tal of Norway, to which number it amounted in its most prosperous days ; now there are but two or three hundred. As we had a few hours at our disposal, we thought it a pity not to spend them together, so we travelled off to the Pan- theon. John Mill very luminous all the way, spite of the noise. He considers the differences in national character one of the most interesting subjects for science and research. Thus the French are discovered to possess so much nationality ; every great man among them is, in the first place, essentially a Frenchman, whatever he may have appended to that char- acter. The individuality of the English, on the other hand, makes them little marked by qualities in common ; each takes his own road and succeeds by his own merits. The French are peculiarly swayed by a leader, and, so he be a man of talent, he can do anything with them. Custom and public opinion are the rulers in England. Any man of any preten- sion is sure to gather some disciples around him in this coun- try, but can never inspire a universal enthusiasm. The French take in all that is new and original sooner than others, but rarely originate anything themselves ; and when they have sufficiently diluted it they reintroduce it to Europe. Thus almost all new doctrines come from France, in consequence of their being such clear statists ; but if they find a subject too deep for them, they entirely give it the go-by. To the yOUJiNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 115 Germans a new idea is but an addition to their list of specu- lative truths, which at most it modifies, but creates little dis- turbance, so essentially are they a speculative people. The English, on the other hand, being equally in their essence practical, and whose speculative opinions generally bear refer ence to the conduct of life and moral duty, are very shy of new truths, lest they should force them to admit that they had hitherto lived in vain ; few have courage to begin life de novo, but those who have do not lose their reward. The Germans are the most tolerant people breathing, because they seem to form a community entirely for the development and advance- ment of truth ; thus they hail all as brothers who will throw any light on their demigod, through however obscure and dis- countenanced a medium. The spirit of sect is useful in bring- ing its own portion of Truth into determined prominence, and comfortable in the repose it must give, to be able to say, I am sure I am right ; on the other hand, it not only walls up the opinions it advocates within the limits of its own party, but it is very apt to induce a pedantry of peculiarity and cus- tom, which must be injurious to Truth. He thinks that the principles of Friends would have been more influential in the world, and have done it a greater proportional good, had they not been mixed up with sect. On the great share self-love has in our appreciation of the talents of others, he said, it is indeed delightful to see the gigantic shadow of ourselves, to recognize every point in our own self-consciousness, but infinitely mag- nified. Without self-love you may also account for this ; you are best able to appreciate those difficulties in which you have been yourself involved, and are therefore in a better position than others for recognizing the merit of having overcome them. The macaws and goldfish of the Pantheon prevented further settled conversation, but J think I had my share for one day. Afay 29. — The Mills, Mrs. King, and W. E. Forster to break- fast. We had a snug time till eleven, and took advantage of it. Talked of the influence of the love of approbation on all human affairs ; Mill derives it from a craving for sympathy. Discussed the value of good actions done from mixed or bad Il6 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. motives, — such as dread of public opinion : this dread is a very useful whipper-in, it makes nine-tenths of those affected by it better than they would otherwise be, the remaining tenth worse ; because the first class dare not act below the standard, the second dare not act above it. On the use of differences of manner when in company or at home ; when a man as- sumes his every-day manners in society it generally passes for affectation. Society seems to be conducted on the hypothesis that we are living among enemies, and hence all the forms of etiquette. He can always judge from handwriting whether the writer's character is a natural or artificial one. On truth in things false : he holds that though right conclusions may be occasionally elicited by error, they can never in the nature of things be grounded on it. Then the Grecian character was dissected ; there was no chivalry in it, it never cared to protect the weak ; Christianity first taught this duty, but among the Greeks strength was the high-road to fame and credit : he has searched in classic lore, and the only passage he can find at all bearing a higher meaning was one in Thu- cydides which says, "It is nobler to combat with equals than inferiors." John Mill has a peculiar antipathy to hunting the hare, it is such a striking subversion of this fine Christian innovation of which we had been speaking : he has never at- tended races either. We all went off together, John Mill going with us to the door of Devonshire House, evolving his " clear because profound truths (as he calls Guizot's) in a crys- tal stream, his spirit's native tongue." Talked about party spirit, and how inadmissible it was except where subjects of vital import were concerned. In Geneva all the party spirit, all the Conservatism and Radicalism, turns upon pulling down the city wall, or leaving it ; and on this subject all the vagaries are acted which we know so well in this England of ours under the name of party spirit. It might be well to send the leader of a faction thither, to convince him of the poverty of his motive power. Jhine 3. — Spent the evening at the Mills', and met the Car- lyles and Uncle and Aunt Charles. Conversation so flowed JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 117 in all quarters that I could not gain any continuous idea of what took place in the most remarkable ones, but what I did catch was the exposition of Carlyle's argument about the pro- gressive degeneracy of our lower classes, and its only obvious remedies, education and emigration : about Ireland and its sad state, and how our sins towards it react on ourselves ; but it was to the Condition-of-England question that his talk gen- erally tended. He seems to view himself as the apostle of a certain democratic idea, bound over to force it on the world's recognition. Hespokeof George Fox's "Journal :" "That's not a book one can read through very easily, but there are some deep things in it, and well worth your finding." They had some talk on the teetotal societies, and his laugh at some odd passages was most hilarious. Mrs. Carlyle was meanwhile giving Aunt Charles some brilliant female portraiture, but all in caricature. Speaking of her husband in his lecturing ca- pacity, she said, " It is so dreadful for him to try to unite the characters of the prophet and the mountebank ; he has keenly felt it ; and also he has been haunted by the wonder whether the people were not considering if they had had enough for their guinea." At last we were going, but our postillion was fast asleep on the coach-box. Barclay gave him an intima- tion of our presence, to which he languidly replied, "All right," but in a voice that showed clearly that it was all wrong. We asked for a hackney-coach, but J. S. Mill was delightfully ignorant as to where such things grew, or where a likely hotel was to be found ; and, as our culprit was now a little sobered by fright and evening air, and passionately pleaded wife and children, we ventured forward, Barclay and J. Mill walking for a long way beside us. Jinte 13. — Went with the Mills to the Anti-Slavery meeting at Exeter Hall, and had capital places assigned us. It was soon immoderately crowded, and at eleven we were all ordered to take off our hats, as Prince Albert and an illustrious train appeared on the platform. The acclamations attending his entry were perfectly deafening, and he bore them all with calm, modest dignity, repeatedly bowing with considerable grace. Il8 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. He certainly is a very beautiful young man, a thorough Ger- man, and a fine poetical specimen of the race. He uttered his speech in a rather low tone and with the prettiest foreign accent. As the history of the meeting is in print, I need not go into details of the brilliant set of speakers to whom we listened. Fowell Buxton's was a very fine, manly speech; and the style in which he managed the public feeling on O'Connell's entrance greatly raised my notion of his talent and address. Samuel Wilberforce's was a torrent of eloquence, seeking and finding a fitting vent. The prince's eyes were riveted upon him. Sir Robert Peel's demeanor was calm, dig- nified, and statesmanlike ; the expression of his face I did not like, it was so very supercilious. He was received with shouts of applause, and truly it is a fine thing to have him enlisted in the enterprise. Lord Northampton was very agreeable, speaking as the representative of British science, which he hoped might have a new field opened in Africa. Sir Thomas Acland was manly and energetic, and would make himself heard and felt. Lord* Ashley, a very handsome young noble, spoke well and worthily. Guizot was on the platform ; his face is very interesting, illustrating what John Mill said the other day about every great Frenchman being first essen- tially French, whatever else might be superadded. Guizot's head and face are indisputably French, but "de premiere quality.'' He entered with much animation into the spirit of the occasion, nodding and gesticulating in unison with the speakers. O'Connell seemed heartily to enjoy the triumph of his own presence ; though not permitted to speak, a large minority of the audience would hardly allow any one else to address them whilst he was silent. The meeting was alto- gether considered a most triumphant one; the prince's ap- pearance, the very first as patron of any benevolent enterprise, is likely to tell well on other countries ; and the unanimity of so many parties in resolving to try this great commercial experiment in Africa was most encouraging. * The present Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 119 Clifton, July 17. — Whilst driving we met a fly, which hailed us right cheerily, and, to our no small delight and surprise, John Sterling issued forth and warmly greeted us. So Anna Maria got in with his wife, and he joined us ; they had been paying mamma a visit at Combe, and were now wandering forth in search of us. He looks well, and was very bright. He has been more with the Carlyles than any one else in Lon- don, and reports that he is writing his lectures for publication, — the first time he has done so. July 18. — We went off to the Sterlings'. He did the honors of a capital breakfast very completely, during which conversation, even on high matters, was not suspended. Methinks Sterling's table-talk would be as profitable reading as Coleridge's. His discussion with Samuel Wilberforce at the Sterling Club was alluded to. Wilberforce quoted and argued on Pascal's first principle, — that men begin life with perfect credulity, proceed to universal scepticism, and then return to their first position. If this statement were correct, the middle term would be altogether useless, though con- sidered a natural road to the conclusion. Sterling examined this afterwards, and thinks its significance may be understood thus : you begin by believing things on the authority of those around you, then learn to think for yourself without shrinking from the closest, severest scrutiny whicli may probably bring you to be convinced, not persuaded, of the things you first be- lieved, unless these were erroneous, in which case they may not stand the test. On Carlyle ; his low view of the world pro- ceeding partly from a bad stomach. The other day he was, as often, pouring out the fulness of his indignation at the quackery and speciosity of the times. He wound up by saying, " When I look at this I determine to cast all tolerance to the winds." Sterling quietly remarked, " My dear fellow, I had no idea you had any to cast." Sterling views him as one of the old prophets who could see no good, no beauty, in former institu- tions or beliefs, by which his mind might have been called off from its intense devotion to a better belief and purer institu- tions. He has all their intensity and their narrowness. Spite I20 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. of all his declamations against men as now existing, he weakens his theory sadly by uniformly addressing the higher feelings of humanity and expecting to work successfully through them. This proves that he must give them credit for possessing some- thing with which he can sympathize. In comparing Carlyle with Jean Paul, you will find them each more like the other than any other man, but there is the difference of prophet and poet between them. Carlyle, with all his ideality and power of words, never creates an ideal character, rather the test of a poet ; he is never affected, as a prophet, — he dare not be so, it would neutralize his earnestness and reforming energy : Jean Paul as an artist can venture to treat a subject as imaginatively and as fancifully as he likes. Sterling would define Carlyle's religious views as a warm belief in God, mani- fested in everything that is, whose worship should be pursued in every action. He religiously believes everything that he be- lieves, and sees all things so connected that the line of demarca- tion between belief in things spiritual and things natural is not by any means distinct. Sterling then shovned us portfolios of engravings, out of which he gave Anna Maria a beautiful Rubens, and me a drawing of an ideal head by Benedetto, Guercino's master. On my remonstrating against such over- powering generosity, he said, "As that is the only drawing I have, my collection will be much more complete without it." His engravings of Michael Angelo's are sublime. He has that wonderful figure of Jeremiah and another hung up in the drawing-room. He was saying something about them one day to Julius Hare, who answered, "Yes, I should admire those two pictures of him as much as you do, only they remind me of two passages in the life of W. S. Landor which I have witnessed : the first, Landor scolding his wife ; the second, his lamentation over the absence of a favorite dish of oysters !" Then we looked over a book of portraits of the German Re- formers. The only mild founders of new opinions on record are Swedenborg and the Moravian Father. He has that most beautiful engraving of Melanchthon which expresses all that his biography teaches. On the German poets : Klopstock be- JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 121 lieved, although contemporary with Goethe and Schiller, that Biirger was the only German poet living designed for worldly immortality ! Julius Hare was the translator of those tales from Tieck which I have. Hare met Tieck once, and, refer- ence being made to his translation, Tieck thought that he would have found some of the rhapsodical parts very difficult to render, but afterwards agreed with Hare that the soft, deli- cate touches and shades of feeling and opinion with which he abounds must have required the more careful hand- ling. Madame de Stael was regretting to Lord Castlereagh that there was no word in the English language which answered to their "sentiment." " No," he said, " there is no English word, but the Irish have one that corresponds exactly, — 'blarney.'" Considering who the interlocutors were, this was inimitable. It is supposed to be Lord Castlereagh's one good thing. Then he showed a beautiful portrait of Guizot, so like him. The other day Guizot was sitting at dinner next a Madame M— — , who has just written a novel, on which she imagines herself to have founded a literary repu- tation. She wished to extend a little patronage to her next neighbor, so began, "Etvous, monsieur, est-ce que vous avez 6crit quelque chose?" "Qui, madame, quelques brochures," was the cool reply. He walked with us part of the way, greatly rejoicing in the elevation of Thirlwall to episcopal dignity, — a man every way worthy. Jufy 20. — Papa went on to Combe and left us in Clifton ; so, accompanied by our good friend Sterling, we explored the cathedral of Bristol. Talked about the great want of taste for the arts among the English, though they have the finest paintings (the Cartoons) and noblest sculptures (the Elgin Marbles). Yet only the educated, and they often only from the spirit of dilettantism and fashion, attempt to admire with judgment. Wandered into the Institution, and contemplated some fine casts from the ^gina Marbles of the wars of the Ama- zons, also of those from a Grecian temple, the originals of which are at Munich. Some of the learned consider them to be in masks, to account for the unimpassioned expressions of F II 122 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. their faces in perilous circumstances. Sterling dissents from this idea, — masks were not at that time invented, — but recon- ciles matters by considering masks to be merely a form of speech used to express the absence of any attempt to render the human face in marble, which was, in those modest, self- mistrusting times, considered as above and beyond the prov- ince of Art. He introduced us to Bailey's "Eve," con sidered the best specimen of modern sculpture, and truly a most lovely, expressive, altogether womanly creature. She is in the act of contemplating her charms, reflected in the water, as hinted at by Milton. Then, the Dying Gladiator called forth some good remarks ; this figure is the perfection of the animal man, a perfect mechanical example of the species. To increase the love of art in England he would have good en- gravings and casts, if not paintings, attached to mechanics' institutes. Talked about J. Wilson Croker. He is a worshipper of chan- deliers and wealth in all its forms, and withal is the supposed author of that article in the " Quarterly" of which John Keats died. Talked about sculpture and pictures in churches, which herathfer likes than otherwise, thinking them calculated to fix the attention and give a direction to the devotion of the un- educated. On the " No Popery" cry: there is thus much in it by way of groundwork ; all positive forms of religion are, in this thinking age, preferred to indifference; hence Roman Catholicism extends its influence and infidelity likewise. On the probable ultimate religious faith of countries, now pro- fessedly Catholic, but really unbelieving in a great measure : he thinks they will become rather of the creed of la giovane Italia, a belief poetical and German, of which Silvio Pellico is a worthy representative. Carlyle was not a little astonished the other day at a man informing him with deep gratitude that his works had converted him from Quakerism, in which he had been brought up, to Benthamism, and from that to Roman Catholicism ! Talked about the Mills. It is a new thing for John Mill to sympathize with religious characters ; some years since, he had so imbibed the errors which his father instilled JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 123 into him as to be quite a bigot against religion. Sterling thinks he was never in so good a state as now. He told us a story which Samuel Wilberforce mentioned to him the other day. The Archbishop of Canterbury was ex- amining a Girls' National School, and, not being a man of ready speech, he ran through the gamut of suitable openings : " My dear young friends — My dear girls — My dear young catechumens — My dear Christian friends — My dear young female women :" the gamut goes no higher. Then we trotted off to St. Stephens, J. Sterling declaring that he knew we were the walkingest young women wot is, — a nice character. July 21. — John Sterling appeared at breakfast. Last night he was very much exhausted, for, as it was his birthday, his children expected him first to play wolf and afterwards to tell them stories. He and papa discussed the Corn Laws, in which papa is much more Conservative than he is. He talked extremely well about popular education. It is not those who read simply, but those who think, who become enlightened. Real education had such an eifect in restraining and civilizing men, that in America no police force is employed where edu- cation is general. In a democracy it is all-important ; for, as that represents the will of the people, you must surely make that will as reasonable as possible. Looked over some port- folios of drawings, — the angular style of drapery, picturesque because not statuesque. Asked him concerning his belief in ghosts : " Of course I believe in them. We are all spectres; the difference between us is that some can see themselves as well as others. We are all shadows in the magic-lantern of Time." When S. T. Coleridge was asked the same question, he replied, " No, ma'am, I've seen too many of them." Then we gravely discussed the subject : he imagines the number of cases in favor of the common belief in ghosts to bear no pro- portion to those where ideal ghosts have been seen and no answering reality or coincidence to be found. As in the temple of Neptune, where the votive offerings were displayed of many who had been saved from shipwreck on praying to Neptune : "But where," asked the sceptic, "are the records of those 124 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. who prayed to Neptune and were drowned?" And so Ster- ling went away, leaving us many tangible proofs of his kind remembrance, in portfolios full of engravings, "to keep for three years if you like." August 3. — J. Sterling has made up his mind not to go to Italy. Falmouth, August 7. — Dr. Bowring paid us a charming little visit. He spoke of the National Convention : he has been much blamed for countenancing such apolitical union, but he thinks the enthusiasm manifested therein not only excusable but necessary, as it rouses the quiet philosophical thinkers to do well what they see would otherwise be done in a very un- systematic fashion, and so the work makes progress. He spoke of Mill with evident contempt as a renegade from philosophy, — Anglice, a renouncer of Bentham's creed and an expounder of Coleridge's. S. T. Coleridge's mysticism Dr. Bowring never could understand, and characterizes much of his teaching as a great flow of empty eloquence, to which no meaning was attachable. Mill's newly-developed "Imagina- tion" puzzles him not a little; he was most emphatically a philosopher, but then he read Wordsworth, and that muddled him, and he has been in a strange confusion ever since, en- deavoring to unite poetry and philosophy. Dr. Bowring has lately had to look over multitudes of James Mill's, Bentham's, and Romilly's letters, in which there are many allusions to the young prodigy who read Plato at five years old. The elder Mill was stern, harsh, and sceptical. Bentham said of him, " He rather hated the ruling few than loved the suffering many." He was formerly a Scotch farmer, patronized for his mental power by Sir John Stuart, who had the credit of directing his education. For Carlyle Dr. Bow- ring professes a respect, in so far as he calls people's attention, with some power, to the sufferings of the many, and points out where sympathy is wanted ; but he regards him as igno- rant of himself and sometimes of his meaning, for his writings are full of odd, unintelligible entanglements, and all truth is simple. " The further men wander from simplicity, the JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 125 further are they from Truth." This is the last of Dr. Bow- ring's recorded axioms. He is Bentham's executor, and is bringing out a new edition of his works. He lives in the Queen's Square, where Milton's house still stands, and the gard ;n in which he mused still flourishes, as much as London smoke will let it. August 18. — At Helston ; called on the Derwent Cole- ridges. He is much interested in Carlyle, though of course he does not sympathize with him in many things. He thinks his style has the faultiness peculiar to self-taught men, — an inequality ; sometimes uttering gorgeous pieces of eloquence and deep and everlasting truths, at others spending equal strength in announcing the merest trivialities. Then, again, he thinks that he hardly ever modifies his manner to suit his matter, — an essential to excellence in art. August 20. — Dined at the Taylors' to meet a very agree- able Prussian family, the Count and Countess Beust, with their sister and cousin. The countess talked about Schlegel, whom they know very well at Bonn. He gives a course of lectures every year, sometimes for gentlemen only, with a license to a few to bring their wives ; at others only for ladies, with a similar proviso for some husbands. The last series was on German Criticism. She had not met Elizabeth Fry, but heard her spoken of with enthusiasm by one of her friends who had made her acquaintance. The count is a most ener- getic, clever, bright person, and full of laudable curiosity. He was vastly entertained at our making such a fuss about the miners' ascending troubles, and yet he is Government Mine Inspector of the Hartz ! Also, he was very merry at the Eng- lish plan of drinking healths with the adjunct "Hip ! hip ! hip !" which they are accustomed only to hear applied to the Jews. CHAPTER VII. 1841. " I see the lords of human kind pass by." — Goldsmith. Fahnouth, January 27. — To our great surprise and pleasure, Dr. Calvert suddenly appeared among us ; though only an hour landed, he declared himself already better for Falmouth air ; certainly he looks better. January 30. — He spent much of the morning with us, and he proved to us most satisfactorily that mankind, up to those who take wooden meeting-houses to kangaroo districts, and ranging downwards without limitation, are not exempt from that sorrowful consequence of Eve's improper and useless conduct, — a tendency to deceive and a liability to be de- ceived. January 31. — Dr. Calvert has been taking a malicious pleas- ure in collecting primroses and strawberry flowers to send to his sister as evidences of climate. Talked of Carlyle. He found it would not do to be much with him, his views took such hold on him and affected his spirits. None but those of great buoyancy and vigor of constitution should, he thinks, subject themselves to his depressing influences. Carlyle takes an anxious forlorn view of his own physical state, and said to him one day, " Well, I can't wish Satan anything worse than to try to digest for all eternity with my stomach ; we shouldn't want fire and brimstone then." February 2. — Dr. Calvert descanted on the vicarious nature of the system in physical life : the balancing power which exists in the body \ if one part is weak, another is proportion- ally strong ; if the cutaneous action goes on too vigorously, it draws on the stomach, and there is bad digestion, and vice versA. If the brain is too much worked, the health gives 126 JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 127 way ; the only method of adjusting this is, when you devote yourself to head-work, be doubly careful about diet, exercise, cleanliness, etc. He entered into much illustrative compara- tive anatomy. He described a curious old record he has lately picked up, the apocryphal books of the New Testament, con- taining an Apocalypse of St. Peter, divers epistles, and the germs of certain strange Roman Catholic legends. There is a fine tone of primitive Christianity discernible throughout, but, after much grave debate, it was not deemed of canonical authority. He talked with a certain Carlylesqueness of the clergy versus men of letters, and says that in Holland educa- tion is conducted on more liberal principles than in any other country, and there not a single clergyman has even a little finger in the pie. Febrtcary 8. — A thaw came on, and Dr. Calvert crept in. Talked much of the Germans ; Goethe's definition of the pure Mdhrchen as a tale in which you are to be in no wise reminded of the actualities of existence ; every passage must be super- natural, the persons all inhabitants of a witch-world. This he has illustrated in the one which Carlyle has translated. He made me a present of " Hermann and Dorothea." Papa and he agree in believing that the doings of this world, and the phenomena we call action and reaction, are but manifesta- tions of some great cyclical law, profoundly unknown but not unfelt. February 12. — Instructive exhibition of the comparative anatomy of the stomachs of a Brent goose and a diver : the former lives on fuci, and is accordingly provided with amaz- ingly strong muscles of digestion ; the other depends on fish, and, though a much larger bird, its stomach is far smaller and less muscular. Dr. Calvert took seventeen fish out of it. February 18. — Our afternoon visit to Bank House was en- livened by Dr. Calvert's presence and occasional outbreak into words. He talked on medical subjects ; the prescription of red cloth for smallpox and some other diseases has only been discontinued quite lately. Dr. Jephson is no quack, he only trains the stomach to perform its functions rapidly ; the 128 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. patient must take beef-steaks and porter, but then he must take plenty of exercise too ; on leaving Leamington he is apt to remember only the first part of the prescription, and ac- cordingly falls into a very sorry state of oppression and discomfort." I am exceedingly enjoying Boz's " Master Hum- phrey's Clock," which is still in progress. That man is carry- ing out Carlyle's work more emphatically than any : he forces the sympathies of all into unwonted channels, ci'mi teaches us that Punch and Judy men, beggar children, and daft old men are also of our species, and are not, more than ourselves, re- moved from the sphere of the heroic. He is doing a world of good in a very healthy way. March 3. — Dr. Calvert announces the coming of his friend Sterling next week. He talked of their first intercourse in Madeira. John Sterling had heard of him as eccentric and fancied him Calvinistic, and in fact did not fancy him. They met at the house of a very worthy lady, who argued with Sterling on points connected with Calvinism. Dr. Calvert was a silent listener, but at last shoved, a German book, which he was read- ing, right under John Sterling'snose, the significance of which made him start and see that he had read him wrongly. A warm friendship almost instantly resulted, and they soon took up their abode together. March 6. — Dr. Calvert told us interesting things of the Jesuits. When he was ill in Rome, one came to him and begged to be made useful in any way. "Thank you, sir, I have a servant ; pray don't trouble yourself." " Sir, my pro- fession is to serve." They are picked men from childhood, and brought up at every stage in the strictest school of un- questioning submission to authority and a fixed idea. The Roman Catholic priests are always better or worse than the Protestant clergy, — either intensely devoted to God and their neighbor, or sly, covetous, and sensual. March 7. — Little Tweedy and Bastin, two beautiful boy- children, to dinner ; the theory of the latter concerning his majority is that in twenty months from this time (he being now of the mature age of four) he shall awake and find him- L i T -^ IE ^ . JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 129 self a man. He concludes he shall have to pass three days in bed whilst new clothes are being made. March 8. — In our ride to-day Dr. Calvert talked of Savo- narola, his influence over all the highest minds at Florence and elsewhere. Luther was the first who revived the convic- tion that it was the inward principle, rather than the outward manifestation of forms or ceremonies, to which Christ claimed man's loyalty, — the heart rather than the senses which should do him homage. This sublime and all-important truth was only revealed to him by degrees : he began attacking abuses, and was mightily startled at finding that the principle was in fault : he was frightened at the work before him, and not less alarmed as the work proceeded, fancying that he did more harm than good by the stir of thought which he had impelled throughout Europe. This alarm was perfectly natural, and it was natural too that evil should be evolved in the process, — natural and almost necessary. There has been through all time a constant hankering after the law as opposed to the gos- pel ; it has been perpetually restored in some form or other : one form wears itself out, then a master-mind arises, teaches a pure principle, and can only transmit it by a new form, which in its turn wears out and dies, and another takes its place. Form is in its nature transitory, but the living principle is eternal. March 13. — The Doctor at breakfast again ; he actually drinks tea like any other Christian. He talks of going to Kynance or somewhere to rusticate for a little, probably as a place of refuge. He described the present Lord Spencer's mode of proceeding when his good nature has been grossly imposed on. A confidential butler was discovered to have omitted paying the bills for which he had received about two thousand pounds : this came to light in an investigation pre- paratory to settling a life-annuity on him. Dr. Calvert asked Lord Spencer, "Well, what shall you do now?" "Oh, I shall settle the annuity on his wife : I can't afford to lose two thousand pounds and my temper besides." In early life Lord Spencer was accustomed to give full sway to his passions, and 130 MEMORIES OF OLD FRIENDS. his love of popularity was very conspicuous. He has taken a true estimateofhisownchaTacter and made a fine stand against the evil part of his nature : thus, an act like this was port wine and bark to his moral system. On the question being mooted, " Is such conduct morally right in a social system ?" the Doc- tor replied, "Why, charity begins at home : if I should lose my temper in punishing a man, it would be an evil hardly counterbalanced by the advantage his suffering would be to society. I would never punish a man till I was sure I would not disturb my temper, nor unless it were likely to do him good." This is, of course, very liable to abuse from weak, kind-hearted people, but what principle is not ? The diffi- culty of ascertaining the narrow line of safety may never be a sound argument against a principle : the highest are the most beset with perils. March 16. — A nice long gossiping breakfast visit from Dr. Calvert. He has made up his mind to go to Penzance and see how it suits him. We shall miss him much. He talked with some enthusiasm of the true Mdhrchen nature of Tom Thumb, Jack the Giant-Killer, etc. "As I have none to talk nonsense with but the dead, let me have such things as these to amuse some of my idleness. When a sedate friend has caught me thus employed, and sharply rebuked me for such mal-occupation of my time, and I have gone home with him into his family and heard him talking the veriest nonsense to his children, I have felt fully countenanced in continuing my amusement." March 18. — The Doctor went away this morning, leaving a farewell note. He speaks of half envying a simple friend of ours who told him this morning that she had never been farther than Redruth, and on his asking her if she were born here (meaning Falmouth, not his house), she answered, " Oh, no, sir, down below in the town." March 29. — Barclay heard from Sterling on his way to Toi- quay. He writes in the highest terms of Carlyle's volume of lectures ; thinks it more popular and likely to do more good than any of his other books. JOURNALS OF CAROLINE FOX. 131 April 1. — Charming letter to Anna Maria from J. Sterling, in which he compares the contemporary genius of Michael Angelo and Luther; something of the Coleridge versus Ben- tham spirit : both fine, original, and clear, though opposite and apparently contradictory poles of one great force. April 10. — At about seven o'clock, what was our delight and astonishment to meet John Sterling in the drawing-room, just come per "Sir Francis Drake" steamer, looking well, though anything but vigorous, and going almost directly to Dr. Calvert. We exchanged the warmest, kindliest greetings, and he agreed to lodge here : so we had an evening with plenty of talk. I wish I could preserve something of the form of Sterling's eloquence as well as the subject of it. To begin with a definition. Sterling is derived from Easterling, a trading nation of Lombards who settled in England ; hence pounds sterling, etc. He doubts whether there was one murder in Ireland on strictly religious grounds. With respect to the present condition of the Irish, he remarked, "It is a hard thing to convince conquerors that they are responsible for the vices of the conquered. More infidelity has been learned from the reading of Church history than from any other source, — from the weak and futile attempts to prove too much and to brand all dissentients with quackery or heresy." Guizot's " Civilization in Europe" the highest history that has appeared in modern times : a thorough acquaintance with that work alone would constitute an educated and cultivated man. Michelet a much more impulsive writer ; falls in love with his own thick-coming fancies, and dallies with them to the fatigue of third parties ! Talked of Sir Isaac Newton and the sad meanness and jealousy of his character : he was desperately jealous of Leibnitz, and retracted an eulogistic mention of him in later editions of his works. Knows George Richmond well : he is painting portraits till he can afford to devote himself to historical painting and live in Italy. He has lately done one of Christ and the disciples at Emmaus, but there is not inci- dent enough in the scene to explain itself without the words, — an essential consideration. 1-2 A/EMORIES OF OLD FAVEAPS. April II, — (lot tip Mt six o'clocU to m:ike (hiIIVo for Sidling. As the talk fell on Luther, he sketched a fine im- aginary ])ieture of him at the moment of seeing his frieml struck by lightninj;-. It must happen at tlie junction of Iwo roads, — one dark, but for the tree to which the lightning had set fire; frightened animals peering through llie llanies, painteil indistinctly to remind us of fiends, — his friend being in thisroail dead : the other road, which l.iilher takes, the siui shines tipon, and you see it winiling in the diataiu-e till it ascends to the monastery, at the top of which is a shining cross which the rays of the sun have caught, lie s[)oke of Savonarola as a Roman Catholic I'liritan, a hard and narrow- minded enthusiast. His inlluence over the high spirits of his age was the effect of his conscientiousness sim])ly j conscience ever must and will command reverence and influence without limit; it was