genius. How vainly one wishes to recall such men, and talk to them about many things.

The private part of politics is a great matter of thought and study-not merely liberal ideas, measures, speeches, but how to deal with persons in society, everywhere, persuading, listening to what they have to say, 'refraining sometimes even from good words,' flattering (a little), avoiding anything that may irritate susceptible old fogies, or touch the vanity and sensitiveness of young ones. This may seem rather an artificial view of life, and perhaps I have a little exaggerated. But when one has a great object to attain, while keeping an honest heart, it is necessary to be very attentive to little things. And these little things have a nobler side; they mean (what so few attain) the absolute elevation of the mind above personal feeling.

March 23, 1883.

The Vice-Chancellorship has enabled me to do some things which I could not otherwise have done, especially for the NonCollegiate students. The Indian Institute is rising, and a memorial stone is to be laid on May 2.

I see no reason why an English blackguard should not be sentenced by a respectable native.

Unpopularity is not a bad thing, but one should not have more of it than is necessary.

In India, as in England, it is more difficult to do right and shame the devil than formerly, because of the press and the railways, which bring everybody into juxtaposition with everybody.

We are going to have a 'gaudy' this year on June 28, in honour of the new Speaker, Mr. A. Peel, who is an old Balliol You will be grieved to hear that the Rector of Lincoln is dying slowly and with a good deal of suffering.

man.

You will find Oxford in many ways a different place when you return. The ladies are coming to be examined, and I expect that they will appear in great numbers, for they can come without residence for any examination and any part of

an examination. They have clearly got a better bargain than the men.

To do much good you must be a very able and honest man, thinking of nothing else day and night; and you must also be a considerable piece of a rogue, having many reticences and concealments; and I believe a good sort of roguery is never to say a word against anybody, however much they may deserve it.

The greatest change in England since you went away, and it has been a very rapid one, has been the degradation of politics; there is no tone or character in them.

August 20, 1884.

Let me tell you I believe it to be a very good thing to have had a great row once in your life, because, though not quite pleasant at the time, it gives you a position and places you above the opinion of the world. If you mean to do anything in life it must happen to you to set some considerable class against you. I believe the best way to disappoint both enemies and friends (who are often dangerous) is to be as if nothing had happened, and to say nothing to any one, either in the way of defence or from the desire of sympathy. I am a great believer in the power of reticence. I dare say that you have already found a great solvent of political difficulties is to give friendly and agreeable dinner-parties to all sorts of people without regard to their views.

The natives of India are an underground world, and we rather grope in the dark when we try to make out anything about them. I suppose that no one perfectly understands a native family; or the feelings of a Brahmin to a European, or the mixed sense of hatred and necessity and customary acquiescence, with which our rule is regarded. I do not imagine that there is any great depth or mystery about them, but we do not understand them, in the same way that men (especially old bachelors) do not understand women, or women men. What they are pleased to call their minds (not the women, but the Hindoos) is after all a very finite quantity, but they are different from ours. Nor does it require a great many years in the Civil Service to make out what can be made out about

them. It is as with all perception of character: one person sees it intuitively or at least with a little study, another person is always blind to it. I suppose that we may begin by assuming that the natives are very like grown-up children in many ways, very apt to lie and deceive, partly from fear, and partly from want of stamina. I cannot help thinking that India is improving by the help of railways and canals, though Sir James Caird tells us that the population is increasing five per cent. per annum, and the fertility of the land decreasing.

September 21, 1884.

I was much more pleased with him than I expected to be, having, you know, a general prejudice against all persons who do not succeed in the world.

For those of us who do not take to doing good as a profession (not a bad profession either for those who like it) there is a great deal of social good to be done in putting down gossip, in preventing misunderstandings, and in keeping friends with everybody.

March 5, 1885.

I am very ungrateful in delaying to thank you for a beautiful dressing-gown which arrived here about three weeks ago. It is the pride of my life; indeed I never had anything like it before, and it confers great distinction on me when I go down with my Saturday and Sunday friends into the smokingroom. Thank you many times.

The world goes on, but not altogether comfortably in England we are provoked and dissatisfied with our Government, and especially with the G. O. M., but we do not know how to get rid of them without coming to worse. We seem to have a prospect of three wars on our hands :-we who have an army not really sufficient for one. The chances are that we shall come out clear with some sacrifice-by the help, in the end, or by the unwillingness to interfere of Bismarck. I do not think that Europe has any deep hatred of us; only a petty jealousy of our sleek, well-fed appearance and satisfaction with ourselves. However there is an uncomfortableness and want of confidence such as I do not remember before, and a growing contempt for nearly all our public men.

CHAPTER X

THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION-FAILING HEALTH. 1886-1888

(Aet. 69-71)

JOWETT's lectures-Modern Languages at Oxford-Association for the Education of Women (1886)-French teachers at Oxford-Preparation for the Army at Oxford-College at Bristol; Letter to the Times-Conference on Secondary Education-Failure of health (1887) -College hymn-book-Dinner to Lord Lansdowne-E. A. W. Seymour -Friendship with women-Notes on theology-Letters.

LAD as Jowett was to be rid of the burden of the

GL

Vice-Chancellorship, eagerly as he returned to his literary studies, he still found time and energy for other work. In the interval between October, 1886, and May, 1887, when his health failed, he was occupied in helping forward a number of projects, some old and some new, but all with one purpose-the improvement and spread of education.

His first thoughts were for the College. When did he not think of the College? The College is the great good and comfort of my life,' he says: (1) I must get it out of debt before I die; (2) I must reform the teaching.'

Some domestic details were rearranged and alterations were made in the examination for matriculation. He also took a larger share in the teaching of the undergraduates than he had been able to do while ViceChancellor; and in the lectures which he gave as Professor about this time, he introduced a change very

characteristic of his method of teaching. Conscious that he was not quite in touch with the wants of his audience, he invited them to write down questions, and give them to him at the end of the hour. The answers to these he read out at the next lecture. This was his substitute for the old method of viva voce examination, the disappearance of which from the Lecture Room he greatly regretted. The Prelections,' which were now heard everywhere in Oxford, he looked on as a step backwards in teaching. It was impossible for the Lecturer to tell what effect he was producing on the minds of his hearers, whether his words were understood, and to what extent he was carrying his audience with him. If a lecture is to be of any use,' he would say, 'the student should read up the subject previously, take careful notes, and after the lecture is ended, work out fully what has been said with the aid of books. Otherwise a lecture is no intellectual discipline at all.' And certainly, of all the lectures which I heard from him, the most stimulating were those which he gave on Political Economy to a small audience, of whom he could ask questions as he pleased and pursue a subject with any one of his hearers 1.

In the summer of 1886 a proposal was made to establish a School of Modern Language and Modern Literature at the University. The matter was taken up by the Hebdomadal Council, and a committee was appointed to consider it. Opinions were of course divided; some were for the School, some were against it; some were for making the languages of more account than the literature; others wished to give the first place to literature, and connect the study of great English authors with the study of Latin and Greek; some were 1 For Jowett's opinion on lecturing, see vol. i. p. 243; above, p. 155.