in the words of the ancient grace, which had been so long familiar to him, breathed his last prayer for the College.' Scott he described as the 'greatest scholar at Oxford in his day-a valued friend and colleague, than whom no one more energetic or high-minded ever ruled the College.' Of Jowett he said :

'Of my friend on my left it would ill become me to speak in his presence. "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." Many buildings have risen at his bidding; and this great gathering shows to all that there must be some secret of fascination about him, which not only enables Balliol to keep its place, but which has raised it to a far higher position than it ever held before.'

The last words, spoken after midnight, were those of Bowen:

·

'It is an inexpressible pleasure to be here. I sit among the shadows of my past life. I see the members of the old Balliol boat, which I helped to push forward. Chateaubriand, on revisiting Venice, found a charm gone; but from school and College the charms never pass away. Memory is the only fountain of perpetual youth. Here we can dream once again that we are young.'

Of those who were seen and heard on this memorable evening, Jowett, the Archbishop, Cardwell, Dean Stanley, Arnold, Coleridge, Cave, Bowen, Smith, Green, the Bishop of London, Sir A. Grant, Mr. Rogers, are gone from us. It is a pleasant memory to recall the time when they met together, and told us who were younger the story of the College of their day-the College which they had made so famous and of which we felt so proud. And surely it is a striking tribute to the value of College life that men, so widely separated in their pursuits and opinions, should have gone back to the three or four years passed together at Balliol, as a bond of union never to be broken. We were all at the

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same College; and therefore, whatever our pursuits and studies, we had all one great common interest in life,' that was the burden of the speeches. Dean Stanley was only expressing the thoughts of every one present, when he quoted the fine words of Clough :

'One port, methought, alike they sought,
One purpose hold where'er they fare,-
O bounding breeze! O rushing seas!
At last, at last, unite them there!'

Jowett was supremely happy; he had long looked forward to this day, which brought to him the fulfilment of many hopes and the birth of many more. He had taken the utmost pains to ensure the success of the entertainment, even in the smallest details-I want them to know that we can give a good dinner,' he said. And if others thought that there were too many speeches, he was never weary of listening when anything good was said of Balliol or Balliol men; for that was 'the best history of the College.' He was surrounded too by his old pupils, who have always been the best of friends to me,' the object of their deep affection and regard; and by the companions of his youth, who had helped and cheered him in his early life. And looking to the future, he was radiant with hope, believing that the College would draw renewed life from this great gathering of her sons. It was altogether such a day as can come but once in a lifetime.

When the tumult of the entertainment was over Jowett returned to Professorial and College work. There was nothing more to be done to the structure of the College; there was no room for anything new, and what was old had been rebuilt or put in repair. With the exception of the Fisher Building 1, and the interior

1 This also was re-cased in 1877.

of one other staircase, the old Hall, and the Library, with the Common Rooms underneath, and the Master's dining-room, there was no part of the College which had not been rebuilt since 1826. One change it was still possible to make, and this was a change in which Jowett took the liveliest interest. The old Hall, no longer required for its original use, was converted into a Library and Reading-room. The books which had been acquired by the Undergraduates' Library were transferred to it, and those in the College Library which were likely to be of most use to men reading for their Schools were placed with them, and Jowett added a considerable number from his own collection. Rules were drawn up for the use and maintenance of the Library, and a committee formed for purchasing books. For some time the Bishop of Oxford, then Professor Stubbs, was on the committee. Well, Professor,' Jowett would ask, 'what good books in history have been published since we last met?' 'I think, Master, that no good historical work has appeared of late,' was the answer. When the question was raised whether we should buy works of fiction, Stubbs smoothed the way with the remark: 'You already buy works on philosophy, and how would you classify them?' Another member of the committee was opposed to the purchase of Renan's works: 'But how can we object to Renan's works,' asked Jowett, when we have already agreed to purchase Voltaire?'

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Jowett was so delighted with the new Library that he had a door made from the Master's house into it. At the end of the year he writes to Morier: 'I shall look forward to seeing you in the spring: when you must come en famille to Oxford. You will find a splendid library at your service, which I am just opening, one of the best things which we have done.'

Among the arrangements connected with the Library was one which was very characteristic of Jowett, who never let slip an opportunity of giving a poor and deserving lad a good education. It was necessary to have one or two assistant librarians in order to put the books in their places, to keep the vouchers, and do other work of the kind-work which any intelligent lad could do. Jowett at once brought one or two boys into the Library, and arranged that along with their occupation there they should go through the University course as they were able. The plan had great success. One of the assistants is now at the Bodleian, after taking a good degree; another, F. Fletcher, distinguished himself by obtaining an Exhibition at the College and a University prize, and when Knight's health failed he became Jowett's secretary, and proved himself an excellent scholar and a valuable assistant,

Meanwhile the note-books are filled more rapidly than ever. Two are now kept, side by side, one more miscellaneous in its contents than the other. This record of his thoughts has become one of the great interests of his life; nulla dies sine linea; no day is allowed to pass without some note of what he has read or thought or heard in conversation. At a later time he alludes with pride to the thirty or forty volumes1 which he has filled, feeling that he had in them a storehouse of thoughts, from which to draw whenever the leisure came for writing the books which he still dreamed of as the work of his life-the treatise on Morals and the Life of Christ.

At one time he is conversing with a friend on friendship with women.

1 Letter of February 21, 1881, below, p. 201.

'Hegel was right,' he says, 'in condemning the union of souls without bodies. Such schemes of imaginary pleasure are wholly unsatisfactory: the characters of human beings are not elevated enough for them. The religious ideal, the philosophical ideal, is far better than the ideal of female friendship. If any pleasure is to be gained from this, it must be strictly regulated-never allowed to pass into love or excitement--of a noble, manly sort, with something of protecting care in it.'

At another time he has met 'George Eliot,' and is deeply impressed, as he always was, with her conversation:

'She talked charmingly, with a grace and beauty that I shall always remember. She gives the impression of great philosophical power. She wanted to have an ethical system founded upon altruism; and argued that there was no such thing as doing any action because it was right or reasonable, but only because it accorded with one's better feelings towards others. She seems however to admit that there might be such a form of thought given by teaching, and acknowledged that practical moral philosophy should not be confined to one form. Her idea of existence seemed to be "doing good to others."

'She would never condemn any one for acquiescing in the popular religion. Life was so complex, your own path was so uncertain in places, that you could not condemn others.

'She did not object to remaining within an established religion with the view of elevating and purifying it.'

Or he is paying his annual visit to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn, a visit which was among the greatest pleasures of his life. Here he meets Disraeli.

'Dizzy told a long story (not very well) at dinner about the late Duke of Cleveland.

'He is quite the man of the world; very agreeable, and appears to me to have given up his old arts of flattery. He spoke with enthusiasm of Leyden ', regretted the new transla

1 John Leyden (1775-1811), physician, poet, and orientalist:

see Dict. of Nat. Biography, and Lockhart's Life of Scott.