'Mid striplings merry made, a stripling.
to quote the words of an anonymous rhymer.
Again, the expounding of mathematics term after term is a sober pursuit
enough, yet C. L. Dodgson, mathematical tutor of Christ Church, had
leisure to be "Lewis Carroll" also, the nursery classic, the delight
of children of all ages. The serious purpose of John Ruskin, who as
the anonymous "Oxford Graduate" took the Art world by storm, could not
extinguish his lambent humour. It is a part of the genius of Christ
Church to keep alive a certain sunshine of the mind. Let us hope that
this was the case even with her austerer thinkers; with Locke, who
was forced to leave the College on account of his Whig opinions;
with William Penn, who was sent down for nonconformity--you will
find sunshine as well as shadow in his little volume, _Some Fruits of
Solitude_, which he is thought to have composed, partly at any rate, in
prison; and with Dr. Pusey, as he searched for the way of perfection
among the dusty folios of patristic lore.
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