perhaps be allowed to serve as some slight apology for my being, as I fear I always am, a very bad correspondent. But I am sure in the present instance it is not likely to be set down to any unmindfulness of you, or to any want of interest in those accounts which have reached us of your state of health, which I have been truly glad to hear has been of late not so bad as formerly; and I sincerely trust the visitor you are expecting will prove in every respect a source of comfort and pleasure. I wish it were in my power to think of any topics which would be likely to interest you, but among the miserable controversies and dishonest manoeuverings of (I may say) all parties, in this place and out of it, it is difficult to find any thing to notice without pain and disgust. I meddle very little with any of them, but engage in writing only in the way of stating my views in a way as little controversial as possible, and leaving the polemical part to others. I have now in hand some lucubrations of this kind. During the summer I had an opportunity of putting forth similar views from Pope's pulpit during his absence; which I was highly gratified to find attracted attention, and that from some whose judgment is valuable. We shall never differ as to the importance of endeavouring to make people, if possible, think: nor, I imagine, as to the general nature of the grounds on which we would have them conduct their thoughts, or the main channel into which we would turn them, or the great ultimate object of truth to which they ought to be directed. Believe me ever most sincerely yours,

BADEN POWELL.

Nov. 14.

Continued some Spanish verses which I began

yesterday. Read to Mary Anne a small portion of my Spanish novel.

20th.

Finished a pretty long piece of Spanish poetry.

To Professor Powell.

My dear B. Powell,

Liverpool, Nov. 20th, 1839.

Many thanks for your kind note. To receive such lines from Oxford is like hearing the nightingale from the depths of the Arabian desert. You are perfectly right-we cannot essentially disagree; we may disagree in formulas, but our truth is the same. It is the eternal, immutable God whom we love, and to whom we would guide all mankind, if it were in our power. Nothing is more melancholy to me than to contrast the clearness with which I see the vanity of the theological controversies, with the dark obstinacy of the multitude that waste their minds and-what is worse— their hearts upon them.

May God give you patience, and also strength to assist others in the search of truth.

Yours, ever affectionately,

J. BLANCO WHITE.

Dec. 3rd.

Abraham, as he appears in the Hebrew Myth, is a beautiful emblematical representation of the conscientious searcher of Truth. To perceive the similarity, we must remember that God is Truth.

"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from

thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee."-Gen. xii. 1.

In societies so full of error, and so essentially founded upon deceit as those which have been hitherto known in the world, no man can thoroughly love Truth unless he is ready to follow it at the expense of a similar sacrifice, whether it be understood figuratively or literally. When a man hears the call of Truth, and is ready to obey, he must set out without knowing whither he is led. No previous opinion should be exempted from the eventual demands of the Lord that calls us: we must not set any limits to our pilgrimage. We must even be ready to sacrifice that which we most love; even Isaac, the only son, may be asked as a victim, and we must not refuse him.

Dec. 16.

A letter from Mrs. Whately, telling me that Edward would probably see me on his way to Dublinto-morrow.

Dec. 17.

He is very

Edward Whately came to see me. much improved: his kindness affected me much.

I received yesterday a most painful letter from Truth and intellectual freedom will have

in him an able opponent. He has given himself up to the stream of enthusiasm which runs stronger than ever at Oxford. He shows all the vehemence of fanaticism, all its pretended feeling, and all its real unsociableness.

It is curious that he remarks against Dr. Hampden, that admitting principles which lead to what he calls Cousin's views, the Doctor still professes himself a member of the Church of England. He does not, however, perceive that his own love of truth is equally contradicted by an entirely opposite process.

He and all his party oppose certain principles without proper examination, because they know that they lead directly to certain consequences. Which is the more to blame of these two processes? The latter, I think. Dr. Hampden, and others in circumstances like his, deny the inference which is drawn by their adversaries. Now, it is unquestionable, that there is always more room for doubt when inferences are to be drawn from distant principles, than when the inference is acknowledged, and the question is about the truth of the first links in a chain of argument. In the question between Dr. Hampden and his opponents, it is not difficult to show that the foundations of the latter are exceedingly weak-unhistorical-mere suppositions. They strongly suspect this: yet they reject all examination, and cling to their notions from affection. They reject reason because they find it against them. This is open rebellion. Those that acknowledge its eternal

rights, but fall short of complete obedience, are pardonable sinners, not rebels.

December 24th, 1839.

What is Enthusiasm ?-If my memory does not deceive me, the author of the Natural History of Enthusiasm forgets to define the word which expresses his subject. Let me try to find a suitable definition or description.

Enthusiasm, etymologically considered, is an impulse, or excitement of mind, and is always supposed to be attended with more or less disturbance and agitation of the animal spirits. But here we must distinguish between enthusiasm connected with the invisible world, which is properly "religious enthusiasm," and that ardour required in all great enterprises, which has no reference to religion. The latter must be left out of this inquiry, as being only figuratively and by analogy called enthusiasm. Religious enthusiasm has this characteristic property, that through a nervous affection, it diminishes the impression of reality produced by the external world, and attaches it to that world, which whether it exist or not, out of us, has for us only the subjective reality, which we find in our imagination. Enthusiasm therefore originates in the imagination, and depends for its activity on all the physical and pathological causes which excite that faculty.