In spite of the courier, who goes to-day, I must write a few words in
answer to your friendly inquiries.
I am more and more convinced that you stake _everything_ if you begin the
important affair in Bonn without going there yourself; and on the other
hand, that the business _cannot_ fail _if_ you go there; _lastly_, that
you should go there at once, that Lassen and the government may not hit on
something else. Once begun, the thing will, I hope, go exactly as you
wish. But I should be _very_ sorry if you were to leave Oxford before
finishing the printing of the Introduction. That is your farewell to
England, your greeting to the professoriate in Germany, both worthy and
suited to you.
The Lectures at Oxford appear, by the side of this, as a secondary
consideration. I cannot, however, restrain the wish that you should not
refuse the thing. It is not expected that a deputy-professor should spend
more time than is necessary on the charge committed to him. I should think
you could arrange such a course very pleasantly, and feel certain of
success, if you only bear in mind Lockhart’s advice, to write as for
ladies,—“Spartam quam nactus es orna,” as Niebuhr always told me, and I
have always found it a good maxim. I await the sending in of your article
for the “Edinburgh,” in order to make all preparations at once. I hope you
will be back from Bonn by Christmas Eve, or else wait till after Christmas
before you go.
As a friend of many years’ standing, you will forgive me if I say that if
the journey to Bonn is not financially convenient to you just now, I
_depend_ upon your thinking of _me_.
[14.]