may have been a nucleus around whose works those of others were collected, but whose name remained to the whole.

P.S. Since writing the above, I have again read the Seraphim," and am more impressed with its merit than at first. It is full of beauty.

III.

Gladsomeness of Childhood-Severe Discipline not suited to the Period of Early Youth.

To her Eldest Brother.

Chester Place, 1844.-There is a gladsomeness generally found in children happily circumstanced and managed by those who understand and will to act upon the simple rules, by observance of which these little ones are made and kept as happy as they can be ;-keeping black care quite out of their sight, addressing them with cheerful looks and tones, never keeping them long at any one task, yet enforcing a certain amount of work, with occasional half and some whole holidays, regularly,-never letting any trouble remain as a weight and grinding pressure upon their minds,—but inflicting at once whatever is absolutely necessary,—and then diverting their minds to what is easy and pleasant. A child must also have a certain amount of health and of intellectual activity, imaginativeness, and so forth, to be perpetually gladsome,—but with the positives and negatives that I have named, we shall find any child in a country or town cottage not only cheerful, but joyous.

Of course, I am not implying that to produce and maintain this gladness is the great work of education—but I feel assured that it is a true part of education, and that amid this ease from without, and consequent happiness from within, the affections, temper, and understanding expand and grow more favourably, and take a better and more

generous form than under other circumstances. What I am now saying, however, applies to children as such; this I think the best preparatory state, because it best enables the native powers to develop themselves; but trial and hardship are proper to exercise and consolidate them from time to time as soon as they have gained a certain measure of strength; and to put the matter practically, I think that parents should make their children as easy and happy as ever they can without indulging them in what is wrong, leaving discipline to be supplied by the ordinary and inevitable course of events, the sorrow, difficulty, and suffering which life in this world brings to every individual. The young people that are spoiled by an indulgent home are spoiled, I think, not by over-happiness, but from having been encouraged in selfishness, never made to understand and led to practise Christian duty.

IV.

The Temple Church-Colour in Architecture.

To Mrs. EDWARD COLERIDGE, Eton.

June, 1844.-Yesterday, I saw with delight for the first time the restored Temple Church. The restoration seems to me to be in excellent taste, with the exception of the altar. No doubt the great beauty of this interior consists in what it always had, its general form, with the clustered pillars, and exquisite interlacing of arches. But the decorative part brings out and illuminates this original and essential beauty, as I have so often seen the rich colours of sunset illuminate the fine forms of my native hills.

Use of Metrical Rules in Poetry-Versification of "Christabel " and "The Ancient Mariner "-Artificial Character of some of the

Greek Metres.

To Miss MORRIS.

June 10th, 1844.-Have you been poetizing of late? Mind, I do not tie you down to these longs and shorts; but, depend upon it, there is much use in them. The more our ear can direct us the better, but rules help and educate the ear. Poetry is more of an art than people in general think. They know that Music and Painting are arts; but they imagine that Poetry must flow forth spontaneously, like the breath which we breathe, without volition or consciousness. All our finest metrists knew these rules: how far they went by them I cannot say; but I know that my father, whose versification has been greatly admired by critics, was fond of talking about anapæsts and iambuses; and if people admired "Christabel," as it were, by nature, he was never easy till he had put them in the way of admiring it more scientifically. Dr. Carlyle says he never succeeded in making him admire "The Ancient Mariner" properly. He was obliged, after all, to go back to his own first rude impressions, and rely upon them.

The manner in which the ancient verse was constructed is a curious problem. It seems as if those very artificial metres, dependent on syllabic quantity, could never in any degree have been written by ear, or otherwise than as such verse is written now. All critics, however, agree that the best and seemingly most easy and natural styles, both in prose and verse, are those that have been most artfully written and carefully elaborated. Art alone will do nothing, but it improves and educes the natural gift. Cobbett taught wrong doctrine on this head; and so, I believe, did my Uncle Southey.

VI.

The "Life of Arnold' a Book to be "gloried in "-The Visible Church not to be Identified with any Single System-Dr. Arnold's View.

TO THE HON. Mr. Justice COLERIDGE.

July, 1844.—I cannot tell you in one short day, or the longest summer day that ever shone, what I feel and think about the "Life of Arnold,"-how I rejoice over it, how I glory in it, what good I augur from it. Not that I can see my way through the whole of Arnold's view, or perceive the justice of all his practical conclusions. I cannot but think with him that the visible Church is a human institution, sanctioned and blessed by God, and rendered the vehicle of His grace, just so far as it is really an efficient instrument of the preservation and propagation of true Christianity. I can see no sufficient reason to believe that it was supernaturally ordained by Him in detail-that it is not in this respect essentially different from its Jewish predecessor. I cannot doubt that it was full of error from the first, the Apostles during their life repressing, but not radically removing, wrong notions of the faith. I imagine that the Church, as a spiritual power co-ordinate with the Word and the Spirit, is certainly realized through a visible machinery and system of outward ordinances, but by no means confined to one alone, and that one prescribed by Christ Himself: so far as any one answers its great end better than another, so far it is a more divine and a fuller organ of the Spirit. But putting the question on the grounds upon which Arnold himself would have placed it— moral evidence, reason, and the plain-speaking of Scripture -I cannot but infer that religion and affairs of policy ought to have distinct functionaries; and certainly the general judgment of mankind, and not a mere sect and party of Christians, has inclined to this view rather than the other.

"Nothing to do "-Isaac Taylor's Suggestion that there will be Work as well as Rest in Heaven-Seaside Views and Walks-FellowLodgers-Idleness and Extravagance of London ShopkeepersTwo Sorts of Diffuseness-Lord Eldon-Reflections on his Character and Portrait.

To Mrs. FARRER.

66

5, Nelson Place, Broadstairs, August 27th, 1844.-Dearest Mrs. Farrer, I will not defer writing to you till I have nothing else to do; " for I hope that time will never come. Mr. Taylor of Ongar, in his "History of Enthusiasm," takes pains to show that we shall have a great deal to do in heaven, and even have to work hard there. My remark, however, is quite limited to the time of this mortal life; for I think we are scarcely qualified as yet to cut out our work in the world to come, or determine upon the manner in which we shall spend eternity. Probably our present ideas of labour and rest will not be among the things which we shall carry along with us into the other state; and I cannot think Mr. Taylor is justified in accusing other Christians of having indolent notions of heaven, because they have not exactly his view of the exertions that are to be made there. Be that as it may, however, the main part of my business here at Broadstairs is to scribble on scraps of paper, sometimes on sheets; and I am sure that after all your great kindness to me, and concern shown for my comfort, I ought to fill one of these little sheets, as well as I can, to you, little indeed as I have to put into it.

I know you will be pleased to hear how very satisfactory I find these lodgings. I never before had a bedroom with an interesting prospect, and I undervalued to you what I had scarce learned to prize. But nothing can be more charming than the view which I have before me now. The cornfield betwixt me and the sea takes off the sense of dreariness, and occasional bleak chilliness, which a full