CHAPTER XXII.

1863.

AGED 44.

FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY-WORK AT CAMBRIDGE-PRINCE OF WALES'S Wedding-WELLINGTON COLLEGE CHAPEL AND MUSEUM-LETTER FROM DR. BENSON-LECTURe at WellingTON AND MEMORIAL-LETTERS TO SIR CHARLES LYELL, TO MR. PENGELLY, ON BEEKITES-TO MR. BATES, ON MOCKING BUTTERFLIES-WHITCHURCH STILL-LIFE-TOADS IN HOLESD.C.L. DEGREE AT OXFORD-BISHOP COLENSO-SERMONS ON THE PENTATEUCH-THE WATERBABIES-LETTER ON THE ARTICLES-FAILING HEALTH.

How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits
Honour or wealth, with all his toil and pains.
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,

Or any merit, that which he obtains.

For shame, dear friend! renounce this canting strain.
What would'st thou have the good great man obtain?
Place, titles, recompense? a gilded chain,

Or throne of corses that his sword hath slain?

Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great man? Three treasures, Love and Light,
And calm thoughts, regular as infant's breath;
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,
Himself, his Maker, and the angel --Death.

COLERIDGE.

CHAPTER XXII.

PROFESSOR KINGSLEY had this year the honour of adding three letters to his name by being made a Fellow of the Geological Society. He was proposed by his kind friend Sir Charles Bunbury, and seconded by Sir Charles Lyell. "To belong to the Geological Society," he says in a letter to the former, "has long been an ambition of mine, but I feel how little I know, and how unworthy I am to mix with the really great men who belong to it. So strongly do I feel this, that if you told me plainly that I had no right to expect such an honour, I should placidly acquiesce in what I already feel to be true." The F.G.S. came as a counterbalance to his rejection at Oxford for the distinction of D.C.L., which his friends there proposed to confer on him.

The year was spent almost entirely at Eversley, for he found the salary of his Professorship did not admit of his keeping two homes and of moving his family backwards and forwards to Cambridge. He was therefore forced to part with his Cambridge house, and to go up twice a year merely, for the time required for his lectures (twelve to sixteen in number), and again at the examination of his class for degrees. He deeply regretted this necessity, as it prevented his knowing the men in his class personally, which he had made a point of doing during the first two years of his residence, when they came to his house, and many charming evenings were spent in easy intercourse between the Professor and his pupils, who met then on equal terms. From the first he made it one of his most important duties to do what he could to bridge over a gulf which in his own day had been a very wide one between Dons and Students. That he had succeeded in doing this was proved by members of his class, writing to consult him after they left Cambridge on their studies, their professions, and their religious difficulties, in a way that

showed their perfect confidence in his sympathy; and had circumstances allowed of his residing at Cambridge, his personal influence would have been still greater. One young man who was going into the ministry, whose cure was to be in the manufacturing districts, wrote to consult him on the subject of preaching especially.

"Permit me, while asking your advice on this point and forgiveness for the intrusion, to thank you very much for the work you have begun in me, and which I know your exertions have spread among the undergraduates of Cambridge. Speaking from the experience of these three years, there is no comparison between our status of thought now and that of 1860-chiefly, if not entirely, due to you. We are learning, I trust, to look very differently at our relations to our fellow men, at those social duties which seldom appear important to young men in our position until we come across a mind like yours to guide us. We are learning above all, I think, to esteem more highly this human nature we have, seeing, as you show us in your books and words, how it has been consecrated and raised by union with the God-made man. These are facts easily spoken, but their influence on our future life, and consequently upon those with whom we come in contact, may and doubtless will be immense. For these large-hearted views of Christian principles I must thank you. I could not leave Cambridge without testifying to you how much your silent as well as expressed influence is felt among us. That you will accept the grateful thanks of one insignificant member of our body who is unknown to you, and that you may long be spared to foster this truly noble and manly system in the midst of the rising young men, is the earnest desire of

"Excuse a perfect stranger (writes an undergraduate of Jesus College), but in no other quarter could I hope for a solution of my doubts" (and after detailing those doubts and saying how the narrowness of some of the clergy had repelled and shocked him, he adds) . . . . "I seem to have grasped a truth which came out in every one of your lectures here, that the Governor of the world is a Righteous Governor, and that even our contentions are working out His peace. . . . . I make no apology, for I believe your sympathy will be enlisted for me, tossed about as I thus am. I have listened to your teaching here with the deepest gratitude, for you have taught me that men's confusions only bring out God's order."

....

A Reality and not a Dream.

155

Other letters might be given, but these, coming as they do from men whose impressions were unbiassed by the strong love and loyalty which personal intimacy never failed to call out, will suffice to show something of the work he was doing.

We now return to his own correspondence.

TO REV. E. PITCAIRN CAMPBELL.

EVERSLEY, March 12, 1863.

"Glad to hear from you. Your patterns of flies, which I return, are excellent (Brown Mackarel especially), and would kill well on chalk on still and bright days. I send you my pet drake for average blowing weather-rather bigger than yours, and a caperer and alder which can't be beat.

"I hope we may come across each other somewhere this year, but I shan't go to Scotland or Ireland, I fancy.

"At Inverary last August - Hardly anything. River like a turnpike road. Salmon asleep. They had to gaff to supply the house. I had one jolly turn, though-poached a 14-pounder with a triangle, hooking him just behind the vent; had an hour and three-quarters of him, and killed him. Gilly and I fell into each other's arms--and regretted we had no "whusky"!

"We are just from the Royal Wedding-at least so I believe. We had (so I seem to remember) excellent places. Mrs. Kingsley in the temporary gallery in the choir. I in the household gallery, both within 15 yards of what, I am inclined to think, was really the Prince and Princess. But I can't swear to it. I am not at all sure that I did not fall asleep in the dear old chapel, with the banners and stalls fresh in my mind, and dream and dream of Edward the Fourth's time. At least, I saw live Knights of the Garter (myths to me till then). I saw real Princesses with diamond crowns, and trains, and fairies holding them up. I saw-what did I not see? And only began to believe my eyes, when I met at the déjeuner certain of the knights whom I knew, clothed and in their right mind, like other folk; and of the damsels and fairies many, who, I believe, were also flesh and blood, for they talked and ate with me, and vanished not away.

"But seriously, one real thing I did see, and felt too the serious grace and reverent dignity of my dear young Master, whose manner was perfect. And one other real thing-the Queen's sad face. .

I cannot tell you how auspicious I consider this event, or how happy it has made the little knot of us, the Prince's household,* who love him

* Mr. Kingsley had recently been made one of the Prince's chaplains.