Item 28 - Letter from Henry Sidgwick to Mary "Minnie" Benson

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Announces that he had intended to visit her on the evening of the following day, but now cannot. Reports that he has acquired Mr Martin's old rooms, and no longer lives in 'the squalor which was so dear' to him; it will take a while to reduce the rooms to 'the state which becomes a philosopher'. Has the feeling that he 'may live and die there', and thinks that 'a very short while will now decide' whether he will spend the rest of his life in Cambridge; Believes that 'The Crisis is coming'; does not recall having seen one before in his thirty and a half years, and supposes 'every man has a right to have the hallucination at least once in his life'.

Reports that they are in 'much vivacity' in Cambridge, and have a new University Gazette, which Edward should take; it comes out every Wednesday, costs threepence, and 'is going to contain all the newest educational notions.' Refers to 'Dinner Arrangements', and their fear for 'a great undergraduate strike', but remarks that he does not know how their '500 men would provide for themselves if they seceded from the Trinity kitchens'. Wishes that Edward would come up and pronounce their new court [Whewell's Court], which they call 'Eocene, Miocene, and Pleiocene, rather picturesque'. Claims that they do not dislike it themselves, 'but competent architectural judges have pronounced it execrable.' Apologises for not having written to her before, and explains that he never managed to write any letters in Switzerland. Refers to the 'sublimity of Mürren'; thinks if he had 'nothing else to live for' he would 'philosophise at Mürren in the summer and Mentone in the winter', travel in the spring, and in the autumn 'stroll under the chestnuts of Trinity and ponder the great Dinner question'. Sends his love to Edward.

Part transcription in Sidgwick, Arthur, and Sidgwick, E. M, 'Henry Sidgwick'. London: Macmillan, 1906, p 186-187.