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The hexameter book has been printed and is awaiting distribution [Dialogues on English Hexameters, 1847]: 'I suppose you will give a copy to Bunsen [Christian Bunsen], so I shall leave him to you'.

Balliol College, Oxford. - Account of Dindorf's proposals for the publication of a manuscript by Uranius which was subsequently found to be a forgery by C. Simonides. 'Pertz's information is very curious'; asks if it is 'all an abstract of entries made at the time, since it differs in some respects from Scott's recollection of what was said at the time. Discusses his own recollections, mentioning Bekker, Böckh, Magnus, Lepsius, Bunsen, Ehrenberg, Tischendorf, and Humboldt. Dindorf tells him that Sir T. Phillipps has, amongst other things purchased from Simonides, an extract from Homer 'with an extract purporting that "the Archon of Chios gave this to Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus"; and another of Hesiod, written βουστροφηδόν - !'.

Copy in hand of W. Aldis Wright.

One of WW's small projects is to get a fair hearing for English hexameters: 'Will you help me?' WW wants to publish 'hexameter poems by several persons respected by the world'; JCH's translations of Goethe, John Herschel's of Schiller, WW's of Hermann and Dorothea and those of several other hexameterists. WW has 'just been reading with great delight Bunsen's [Christian C. J. Bunsen] Church of the Future. I hope it is to be translated. The appearance of such a work at present would, in my opinion, be a great blessing to us Englishmen'. JCH should try and persuade Bunsen to give WW an English edition of the work. Worsley [Thomas Worsley] is printing his Christian Advocates's book [The Province of the Intellect in Religion Deduced from our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, 3 vols., 1845]: 'If he avoids shocking his colder readers by strange imaginations which have grown up in his mind during the long time that he has brooded over his system, he may I hope, carry with him many who like systematized fancies on religious subjects'.

WW returns JCH's hexameters and pentameters. He gives an example from JCH's work highlighting a typical mistake made by all those who write hexameters from German. 'I believe the chance of making hexameters in England liked by the general body of readers to the same extent as they are in Germany, depends very much upon a poem of considerable bulk, attractive in its subject and treatment, being written in them. As Southey [Robert Southey] says, if you could march a body of 10000 or 20000 hexameters into the country you might succeed, but your detailments of a few at a time are cut off as fast as they appear'. John Herschel has distributed among his friends an excellent translation of Schiller's [Friedrich Schiller] 'Walk'. WW is surprised that the Etymological Society have not yet included Bunsen [Christian Bunsen] among their numbers: 'They do not appear to me as yet - judging from their proceedings which they print and send me - to have made any great way in the philosophy of languages or in the knowledge of what has been done'.

Why can't WW get an answer from Bunsen? [Charles Christian Bunsen]. WW has been looking at some of the accounts of Strafford and his trial, 'and am rather scandalized at the violent inquisition which Sterling [John Sterling] has done him' . It is utterly at variance with history.

Does JCH know where Bunsen [Charles Christian Bunsen] is?: 'I thought he might like to fulfill his long talked of design of seeing Cambridge in term time'. WW has been reading Sterling's [John Sterling] Strafford which as JCH probably knows has a great deal of skill and considerable dramatic power: 'What I most miss in it is an English tone. The philosophy religion and polity, are not at all those of the time; nor those of English statesmen and lawyers at any time. He has omitted, too, any of the most animated turns in Straffords accusation and trial'. JCH was right in supposing it was the structure and not the style of his sermon which reminded him of Schleiermacher [Friedrich Schleiermacher, see WW to JCH, 10 Nov. 1843].

Hurstmonceux, Hurst Green. - Regrets he can only supply one copy of the Vindication of Bunsen; the few remaining copies of the extra hundred are earmarked; had not studied Ewald closely enough to give an informed opinion, especially against so learned a man as Pusey.

73 Gt. Russell Street - Chevalier Bunsen and the Committeee of the Royal Literary Fund would like WW to attend their anniversary dinner.

Bonn. - Found a manuscript poem on the Prussian King by Heine inside paper on Heine which Milnes gave him as a parting gift; has copied and received a peerage instead of a baronetage, unlike the Havelocks in England.

Herstmonceux - JCH has been forced to defend Christian C. Bunsen against an attack from Edward B. Pusey: 'Pusey's letter may disturb and prejudice many, who may never fall in with the British Magazine'. If WW falls in with anyone siding with Pusey he should give them one of JCH's privately printed refutations: 'It was a most difficult and painful letter to write, from the temptation to transgress both on the side of praise and of blame, and from the necessity of touching upon the question of inspiration. But I have done this as delicately as I could; and what I have said is no less necessary for the establishment of scientific than historical truth'. JCH 'was very glad to receive the expression of your cordial agreement with so many of the opinions maintained in my big volume of notes. The note on Luther, it was quite a happiness to be allowed to write; and I trust it will do its work'.

Herstmonceux, Hailsham - JCH gives a reference for Clement Cobb, who comes to Trinity College in October. Thanks WW for his letter about the vindication of Bunsen [JCH, 'Vindication of Chevalier Bunsen from the charges of the 'Christian Remembrancer'', The British Magazine, 1846], and is pleased WW agrees with JCH 'with regard to the relation between science and the Bible'. The subject of JCH's paper on the vindication of Bunsen 'is one of great difficulty and delicacy, because the faith of so many simple good people will be grievously disturbed, when they find that their notion of inspiration is untenable'. An advertisement in the Blackwood Magazine has announced a third letter on English Hexameters - 'Your new editions, I suppose, will cost you a good deal of labour; for such works are never completed'.

Letter of 16 Nov. 1821 in German, the others in English.

JCH is unsure whether Christian C. J. Bunsen is at home. When JCH last saw him he mentioned that he had had to decline a kind invitation from WW to come to Cambridge. Bunsen is concentrating on the printing of his book on Egypt. JCH gives his opinion of a recent Shakespeare production. It seems to JCH 'that the principle of the greatest dramatic poets has not been to make their characters talk in the form of thought which prevailed in their own times, but they have made them give utterance to the deepest thoughts of their own age & of their own individual minds. The most remarkable example of this is of course Hamlet, the Dane, who went to study at Wittenburg, under Doctor Martin Luther. But the same principle prevails in Macbeth, Lear, & indeed everywhere in Shakespeare; one of the chief marvels in whom is the manner in which he combines this with a sufficient regard to the characteristic spirit and manners of the age which he is representing'.

Herstmonceux - JCH is upset to find that he is the only one who thinks John F. D. Maurice should be the next Principal of King's College, London - 'almost everybody else says he is unfit for the post, and no one so vehemently as himself'. JCH is unsure what competitors Blakesley [Joseph W. Blakesley] will have for the position: 'He will certainly possess many valuable qualifications for the post'. JCH notes that Leopold von Ranke's book has found a translator in Mrs Austin [presumably Sarah Austin, see also JCH to WW, 21 Oct. 1843]: 'When I wrote last, Bunsen had told me that there was a dispute between Mrs Austin & Longman about terms, which I suppose has been adjusted, & that Ranke himself rather wanted a translator of more masculine intellect & learning'. It must have been both a burthen and great honour for WW to have had the Queen of England as his guest [see JCH to WW, 21 Oct. 1843]. JCH was 'quite unconscious of anything Schleiermacher [Friedrich E.D. Schleiermacher] in my sermon; and knowing how totally different his calm abstract philosophical, almost image-less style is from mine, I was startled at first by what you said. But I dare say there is some foundation for it in some of my later sermons'. JCH has often been struck at the lack of structure in some modern British sermons by people like Arnold [Thomas Arnold], Newman [John H. Newman] and Manning [Henry E. Manning] - 'they seemed to be a series of paragraphs strung together, often excellent in themselves, but with no organic connexion. On the other hand the dialectic development of the fundamental thought in Schleiermacher is almost always exquisite, & in Hofsbach often singularly happy. Our preachers have other high merits, but, except Maurice [John F. D. Maurice], few have this; and of course the defect may be accounted for by our different education & habits of thought. But a natural effect of these observations has been that I myself have of late given more thought to the structure, & less to the details of my sermons, though I was hardly conscious till today that Schleiermacher had had any influence in occasioning this change. I merely fancied I had gained a better insight into what a sermon ought to be'.

Herstmonceux - JCH was extremely happy that WW agreed with the doctrine of JCH's last sermon: 'For it seems to me of possessing practical moment, so that the neglect of it has been the cause of dismal evils in our church; nor can I see any likelihood of an approximation toward unity, unless it is generally recognized. But for this conviction I should not have come forward in such direct opposition to my excellent brother Archdeacon'. JCH introduces his good friend and bookseller, Macmillan [Daniel Macmillan], to WW: 'He is a man for whom I have the highest esteem and regards, both morally an intellectually...he has a high moral purpose, to which he desires to devote his life. Maurice [John F.D. Maurice], to whom I introduced him, values him no less than I do; and I really hope it will be a good thing for Cambridge to have so intelligent a bookseller [Macmillan & Co.]. At present his capital is very small, the result of savings out of a clerk's salary, drained by the necessity of assisting his relations: hence he will not be able to muster a large stock of books: but I hope, and can hardly doubt, that in this respect he will improve. In all others, I believe, he will be incomparably superior to any person of his class in Cambridge'. JCH canvasses John F. D. Maurice as a possible successor to Lonsdale [John Lonsdale] as Principal of King's College, London. Christian C. J. Bunsen has asked JCH to recommend someone to translate Ranke's [Leopold von Ranke] 'History of Germany at the time of the Reformation'. Can WW think of anyone. JCH congratulates WW and the University on the honour surrounding the forthcoming visit of the Queen.

Letter dated 29 Mar. 1842, card dated 2 Oct. 1856.