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had also composed a poem-oh such a poem! I do not think 'Jack Horner' came within a league of it; and amassed a vast quantity of illustrations ' after the manner' of all sorts of people, to render every clear point incomprehensible; and many other pretty things. When I had done all this, 'an exposition of idleness,' as Bottom says-not your friend Flatbottom Urgius whose various reading is very good-but an 'exposition of idleness' came upon me, and before I recovered my activity, a storm or robbery, call it which you will, 'shook down my mellow hangings.' To secure my precious arcana I wisely put them within an old chessboard, taking care to secure them with a string that, like Styx, went nine times round it. 'If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.' In changing houses, this casket, to which that of Alexander was but a tin canister, was conveyed out of the cart that bore the curta supellex. I consoled myself in my distress by reflecting on the disappointment of the miserable thief of a rascal when he opened his purchase. But why do I tell you this cock and bull story? Firstly, that you may take up my design-you have fifty times more talents for it than I had in my best days; and surely the harvest is richer than ever-et quando uberior?-O what

giggling might you have at the Germans! to say nothing of the home produce.

My valued friends in Gower Street told me of your removal to Cambridge: on this I felicitate you, and, let me add, the world, most sincerely; for you will certainly have more time at command. I thank you for your congratulations; presuming that you allude to the lottery. Nothing is yet settled, but I believe some good is en train. Down on your knees and be thankful that

last. o'clock.

you see land at The watchman is now bellowing just two

With the sincerest esteem,

I remain your obliged and faithful friend,

WM. GIFFORD.

The removal to Cambridge, to which allusion is made in this letter, refers to Hodgson's appointment to a Resident Tutorship at King's College of which he had already for five years been a fellow. Humphrey Sumner, the then Provost, had asked him to lecture upon Locke and Pearson. Hodgson replied in the following letter, in which he sketches in outline some of the views with which he entered upon his new sphere of work.

Eton October 1, 1807.

Dear Sir, I am greatly obliged by your keeping the tutorship open for me so long; and lament the

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PEARSON.

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necessity of my absence from Cambridge till Christmas.

Concerning the subject of my lectures I am very glad to have the opportunity of some communication with you. The books you mention (Locke and Pearson) are as yet by no means among my intimate acquaintance; but I will take the liberty of offering my general ideas of their character to your consideration. Upon Butler, I believe, we are agreed, that his 'Analogy' is too profound a work for any but the severest student to comprehend. At the lectures by Mr. Lloyd which I attended at Cambridge, I gathered that there was much in Locke controverted by subsequent reasoners; but I did not perceive that anything had been added to the explanation and argument of Pearson for a succession of years. Of the effect which Mr. Lloyd's lectures had upon his hearers, as all were at the same college with myself, I can form some opinion. It is an assured truth that not one pupil out of a dozen gained anything from the Locke lecture when I was at college. But Mr. Lloyd has made Locke the study of his life. If then, with his excellent understanding and long application, he could not render the lecture interesting or useful, how is another person to do it? It is VOL. I.

G

my belief that in the Essay on the Human Understanding' Mr. Locke is often bewildered in the subtlety of his own reasoning. Nothing is so dark. as metaphysical speculation, and nothing, therefore, requires so plain a light to be thrown upon it. That Mr. Locke's manner is popular, or likely to catch the attention of young men, I cannot allow. It is very different with Pearson. His reasoning is clear, intelligible, and convincing. I do not, then, despair of being able to tell the tale as 'tis told me,' which is the chief thing required in a lecture extracted from Pearson; but I do despair of forcibly recommending the fine-spun lucubrations of Mr. Locke to the attention of my pupils.

I have written this letter very hastily, in the midst of uncongenial employment, and of hard additional labour at my publication. You will therefore, I trust, excuse any misstatement of opinion expressed upon the moment, though not formed without previous consideration. The fact is, that ever since your kind promise of appointing me to the tutorship, I have found my thoughts naturally engaged in my few leisure hours with the business of my future work. And I will request your permission to enter a little further into the result of my reflections. Young men are but three years at

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King's, and any very accurate knowledge of a philosophical work cannot be communicated to them by an hour's explanation every day in the half terms. That the generality of young men will take much trouble to prepare themselves for lectures is not to be expected. A few will really examine their work beforehand; a few more will just run it over; but the greater part will not look at it till the moment. Still they may learn something, they may all learn something, if the subject is interesting, and if their instructor adapts his manner to their prejudices and their turn of thought. But I contend that a metaphysical subject is not generally interesting, although a religious subject is more so than any other; and, as to manner, the young are all impatient of delay. If a lecturer is slow, they conceive that he is stupid, and then the business is done. Now, I question whether any but the most superficial knowledge of Locke could be imparted without a very cautious slowness of interpretation. . . .

Since I left college my reading has been very miscellaneous. It has chiefly been devoted to Greek and Latin authors, but has diverged a good deal into French and English literature. Lectures upon the Belles Lettres, in short, have been my principal