To Rev. William Ware.
SHEFFIELD, May 25, 1849. MY DEARLY BELOVED AND LONGED FOR,--I can't
have you go to New York and not come here; and my special intent in
writing now is to show you how little out of your way it is to return
to Cambridge by Berkshire, and how little more expense it is. I trust
that Mrs. Ware is to be with you.
There! it's a short argument, but a long conclusion shall follow,--a
week long of talk and pleasure, which shall be as good as forty weeks
long, by the heart's measurement. [213]Alas! these college prayers!
If I had anything to do with them, it would be upon the plan of
remodelling hem entirely. I would have them but once in a day, it a
convenient hour, say eight or nine o'clock in the morning. I would
have leave to do what my heart night prompt in the great hours of
adoration. Reading the Scriptures with a word of comment, sometimes,
or t word uttered as the spirit moved, without reading; or instead, a
matin hymn or old Gregorian chant, solemn seasons, free breathings of
veneration and joy; sometimes he reading of a prayer of the Episcopal
Church, or of he venerable olden time, always a bringing down A the
great sentiment of devotion into young life, to De its guidance and
strength,--this should be college prayers. . . .
To Rev. Henry W. Bellows.
SHEFFIELD, Feb. II, 1850.
My DEAR FRIEND,--In the first place, La Bruyere was the name of the
French satirist that I could not remember the other day. In the second
place, I have a letter from Mr. Lowell, inviting me to deliver the
second course of lectures, and the time fixed upon is the winter after
next; I can't be prepared by next winter. As to the title, I think,
after all, Herder's is the best: "Philosophy of Humanity," or I should
as lief say, "On the Problem of Evil in the World." You said of me
once in some critique, I believe, that I always seemed to write as in
the presence of objectors. I shall be very likely to do so now. Well,
here is work for me for two years ahead, if I have life and health, and
work that I like above all other. In the third place, I don't think I
shall do much for the "Inquirer." My name has really [214] no business
on the first page; in fact, I never thought of its standing there as
a fixture. I supposed you would say for once in your opening that
such and such persons would help you. With my habits of writing, I am
better able to write long articles than short ones; and the "Christian
Examiner" pays more than you, and I am obliged to regard that
consideration. I must have three or four hundred dollars a year beyond
my income, or sell stock,--a terrible alternative. In the fourth place,
every man is right in his own eyes; I am a man: therefore I am right in
my eyes. I am very unprofessional; that is, in regard to the etiquette
and custom of the profession. I am; and in regard to the professional
mannerism and spirit of routine, I am very much afraid of it. But
I do not think that many persons have ever enjoyed the religious
services of our profession more than I have; the spiritual communion,
which is its special function, and that, not through sermons alone,
but in sacraments, in baptisms, in fireside conference with darkened
and troubled minds, has long been to me a matter of the profoundest
interest and satisfaction. It is the one reigning thought of my life
now to see and to show how the Infinite Wisdom and Loveliness shine
through this universe of forms. To this will I devote myself; nay, am
devoted, whether I will or not. This will I pursue, and will preach it.
I will preach it in the Lowell Lectures. Shall I be wrong if I give
up other preaching for the time? You think so. Perhaps you are right.
Any way, it is not a matter of much importance, I suppose. There is a
great deal too much of preaching, such as it is. The world is in danger
of being preached out of all hearty and spontaneous religion. What
would you think, if the love of parents and chil-[215] dren were made
the subject of a weekly lecture in the family, and of such lecture as
the ordinary preaching is? Oh if a Saint Chrysostom, or even a Saint
Cesarius, or a Robert Hall could come along and speak to us once in
half a year, they would leave, perhaps, a deeper imprint than this
perpetual and petrifying drop-dropping of the sanctuary.
By the bye, read those extracts from the sermons of Saint Cesarius, in
the sixteenth lecture of Guizot on French civilization, and see if they
are not worth inserting in the "Inquirer." The picture which Guizot
gives in that and the following lecture, of Christianity struggling in
the bosom of all-surrounding wrong, cruelty, and sensualism, is very
beautiful. It is one of the indications of the raging ultraism of the
time, that the calm wisdom and piety of such a man as Guizot should be
so little appreciated.
When I read such writers as this, I am rather frightened at my
undertaking; but I believe there is a great deal to be said to the
people that is not beyond me, and I shall modestly do what I can. I
began yesterday to study Hegel's "Philosophy of History," and though I
can read but a few pages a day, I believe I shall master it; and after
one gets through with his theory, I imagine, in looking at his topics
ahead, that I shall find matters that are intelligible and practical. I
am, as ever,
Yours,