CAMBRIDGE CHAPTER XXII 1866-1867 AGED 47-48 -DEATH OF DR. WHEWELL-THE AMERICAN PROFESSORSHIP-MONOTONOUS LIFE OF THE COUNTRY LABORING CLASS-PENNY READINGS-LONDON SERMONS STRANGE CORRESPONDENTS - LETTERS TO MAX MÜLLER THE JEWS IN CORNWALL-PRUSSIAN WAR-THE METEOR SHOWER-SOCIETY AND EQUALITY—THE HOUSE OF LORDS "FRASER'S MAGAZINE" - DARWINISM - ST. ANDREWS AND BRITISH ASSOCIATION-STAMMERING. "We were weary, and we Fearful, and we, in our march, Thy spirit, of that we saw Nothing! To us thou wert still Therefore to thee it was given MATTHEW ARNOLD. WHILE the Professor was giving his usual course of lectures in the Lent term of 1866 at Cambridge, a great blow fell upon the University in the death of Dr. Whewell, Master of Trinity, and he writes home: "I am sorry to say Whewell is beaten by his terrible foe. It is only a question of hours now. The feeling here is deep and solemn. Men say he was the leader in progress and reform, when such were a persecuted minority. He was the regenerator of Trinity; he is connected with every step forward that the University has made for years past. Yes. He was a very great man and men here feel the awful suddenness of it. He never was better or pleasanter than on the Thursday, when I dined there, and he was asking me for my 'dear wife.' His manner with women was always charming. He was very kind to me, and I was very fond of him.1 "Whewell is dead! I spoke a few solemn words to the lads before lecture, telling them what a mighty spirit had passed away, what he had been to Cambridge and science, and how his example ought to show them that they were in a place where nothing was required for the most splendid success, but love of knowledge and indomitable energy. They heard me with very deep attention. He is to be buried in the College Chapel, Saturday...." A proposal had been lately made to found an American professorship in Cambridge. The offer was finally rejected by vote of the Senate, to the great regret of many leading men in the University, among them Professor Kingsley, who, in one of the broad-sheets he printed on the subject for circulation, speaks "... of the general importance of the scheme, of the great necessity that our young men should know as 1 Professor Thompson, another very old friend, was elected to succeed Dr. Whewell as Master, so that Mr. Kingsley still remained a welcome guest at the Lodge of Trinity, to his great pleasure. The American Professorship 213 much as possible of a country destined to be the greatest in the world. I only ask-If in the second century before the Christian era the Romans had offered to send a lecturer to Athens, that he might tell Greek gentlemen of what manner of men this new Italian power was composed, what were their laws and customs, their intentions, and their notion of their own duty and destiny-would Athens have been wise or foolish in accepting the offer? . . .” The companionship of his eldest son, then an undergraduate of Trinity, and the appointment of Mr. Maurice to the chair of Moral Philosophy, made his Cambridge residence doubly interesting and delightful to the Professor, and he writes to his wife: "M. is developing fast. He has just asked me for a copying pass to the Fitzwilliam, where he wants to draw the statues. He has just been regretting that he has read so little, and is craving after natural history and for the first time in his life, he says, after art. Ah! what a blessing to see him developing under one's eyes, and to be able to help him at last by teaching him something one's self. It is quite right that the school-masters should have the grounding and disciplining, but the father who can finish his boy's education, and teach him something of life besides, ought to be very thankful. . . . I am well, and as busy as a bee, not an hour unemployed. . . ." "... Delightful evening last night; dined at Paget's and then gave a lecture on the Norman Conquest, to the Albert Institute an admirable institute got up by High Church bachelors and undergraduates for getting hold of shopmen and middle-class lads. That class abounded in the room, and were much delighted, as far as appearances could go, with what I told them of the Conquest and the doughty deeds, and grand old Norse blood of their own ancestors. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Spoke for one hour and a quarter, and had notes enough to speak two. My morning lecture was a very difficult one all about the changes in Europe at the Congress of Vienna. But Mr. Maurice said I made it all clear, and highly approved of the moral." His residences at Cambridge, short as they were, gave him not only the advantage of associating with scholars and men of mark in the University, but of paying visits in the neighborhood to houses where good pictures and charming society refreshed and helped him through the toil of his professorial work to Wimpole, to Ampthill Park, to Barton Hall, and other country houses, where he and his were always made welcome. His intense enjoyment of all works of art, and his eloquence and insight in their presence, were most inspiriting to those who were with him, and it is much to be regretted that he never finished the series of papers on the National Gallery, begun in 1849. When he went to any London collection, a crowd would soon gather round him, and, riveted by his appearance and kindling eye as he stood before some fine picture, would hang on his every word. He, meanwhile, lost in his subject, would be quite unconscious of the impression he was making. While staying with Lord Wensleydale at Ampthill he first saw the pictures at Woburn Abbey and Haynes Park, which were of deep interest to him. "Once I went over the picture gallery at Woburn with him," writes Mr. George Howard. "It was a great Penny Readings 215 treat to me, as his talk over the historical portraits was delightful. He then made a remark which has since. seemed to me quite a key to the criticism of historical portraits: That it was formerly the habit of portrait painters to flatter their sitters by making them as like the reigning king or queen as they could.'. . ... During his heavy parish work, which was done single-handed the greater part of this year, he was more than ever painfully struck by the monotonous, colorless life of English laboring people, varied only by the yearly benefit-club day, and evenings at the public-house. The absence of all pleasure from their existence weighed heavily on his heart. He felt, too, for the women, who, if respectable, were excluded from even the poor amusements of the men; and for their sake quite as much as for his men and boys, he began a series of penny readings. It was characteristic of his chivalrous spirit that at the first reading, when the school-room was crowded with men and boys, he made an appeal to them for their wives and mothers, speaking of the life of toil they led, and of his anxiety to give them some share of amusement, which they so sorely needed. It was therefore arranged that, while the men and boys paid their pennies, the widows and poor over-burdened mothers should have free admittance. These meetings, at which his parishioners kindly helped him, took place once a fortnight, and though set on foot for the poor, brought all classes pleasantly together during the autumn and winter nights; they had music (the best that could be got), the best poetry, the most heroic stories. Sometimes he |