her accompanying Sir Charles to Baden-Baden and other baths recommended for his increasing infirmity; but always when separated from her, his Top Basil. Horatio Ross's Card Target. letters were almost daily. The sudden death of Lady Murray's aunt suggests some serious reflections on the uncertainty of life : Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Wife. "BADEN-BADEN, 28th Sept. 1882. "There is a curious Persian allegory on this subject by my friend Sâdi, in which he is presenting human life under the familiar image of a caravanjourney, the conductor of which is the Angel of Life and Death. After a halt or rest, he suddenly orders the tents to be struck, and the trumpets to sound and drums to beat, for the onward march. The foolish and careless traveller in the company says, 'I cannot find my boots; I have not packed up my travelling-bag; I have not passed my girdle round my loins; I am not ready to start.' But the relentless angel passes on with the caravan, leaving behind the thoughtless traveller, whose fate will probably be to perish in the desert for want of guide, water, and friendly aid. 'Wherefore,' adds Sâdi, 'O man! keep your travelling - bag always packed and your loins always girded.' A greater than Sâdi has given the warning almost in the same words." "BADEN-BADEN, 4th October 1882. "CARISSIMA,-We had some happy days at Oaklands together, for which we ought to be thankful, and I am glad to think that if we are spared we shall still have at the Grange.. "The dinner yesterday at the Emperor's1 was rather a slow affair in respect to liveliness, but its brevity in respect to time would have satisfied even you. We sat down at 5 and rose from table at 6 fancy losing the best hours of the 1 Of Germany. afternoon in a stuffy dining-room; and as there was no theatre open and no soirée anywhere, how were the diners in evening dress expected to kill time from 6 to 11? Those are occasions on which the smoker of a big cigar has some advantage over his fellow-creatures, but to fill up the space of time, or even the half of it, one would require to have a cigar as big as a trumpet, and to be a smoker like the P. of W." Sir Charles's son, Cecil, was now seventeen His education had been the object of his father's tender solicitude, and already Sir Charles was enjoying the reward of recognising in the lad a love of learning and literature not less intense than his own. Graceful little passages of classical correspondence passed between them; here is a "bulletin for Cecil" about his father's health : "BADEN-BADEN, May 31st, 1883. Haurire incipiam cras redivivus aquas. Sisque memor nostri Cæcile care.-Vale!" 1 1 Welcome to my hungry eyes came your mother's letter, just as lovely May reached its last day. Laville [gout medicine] has gradually overcome my odious ailment; and, having risen from [sick-] bed, I shall presently drink as a convalescent the wholesome waters of the hot spring. Give a thousand kisses from my lips to your mother, and ever remember me, dear Cecil.-Farewell. It was not only with the literary part of his son's education that Sir Charles occupied himself incessantly: Hon. Sir Charles Murray to Mr Reginald Smith.1 “VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, May 3rd, 1883. "I forget whether I ever showed you a commentary on the Psalms that I wrote a year or two ago for my wife and Cecil, with a view to explain to them the general construction of what is called the Book of Psalms, and also some of the more obscure passages, in some instances rendered so by defective translation. I worked through the whole book in Hebrew, and of course in my commentary took a great many hints from Perowne's excellent work. . . . I was first led to make this commentary by a feeling of dissatisfaction that came over me when I found how often, in repeating the Psalms in church, I did so rather like a parrot than a reasonable being, and that many of the verses conveyed no intelligible meaning to my mind. I believe there are hundreds of educated persons who, if they would examine their consciousness in this matter, would find themselves in the same predicament." Lord Lytton to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. "KNEBWORTH, 19 April 1883. "Of course I entirely agree in all you say about India and the Ewigblinde at home. I believe that Ripon's ambition is to be remembered as 1 Of Messrs Smith, Elder, & Co. the Gladstone of Hindustan. The Natives call him the God-man, and the wind of their hurrahs seems to have got into his head-never, I think, a very strong one. "I will re-read my little fable by the light of your friendly criticism; but don't you think 'sloping tugged by swelling, &c.,' has unpleasant sound?" The Same to the Same. “25 April 1883. “I am afraid I am impenitent and impenetrable, but the description of a ship urged by her sails seems to me untrue. With the verb 'to urge' I can only associate the idea of impulsion, which is inapplicable to the action of a ship's sails. You urge the flying ball' when you throw it or hit it with a bat. You urge the pace of a horse when you whip or spur him; and you urge a cause or an argument when by word or deed you push it forward. But the horse does not urge the coach to which he is harnessed; he pulls it. The locomotive does not urge the train; it draws it. The wind urges the sails of a ship, but they do not urge the ship, they pull it. The ship is not pushed forward by them; it is pulled forward. I employed the word 'tug' as rather stronger than 'pull,' to imply the straining of the sails upon the cordage, the masts and the spars to which they are attached, under the pressure of a stiff breeze." In the autumn of 1883 Sir Charles, in order to transact some business connected with his |