Pièce 177 - Letter from Julius Charles Hare

8 pp

WW's letter is not an easy one to answer: 'Most fully do I agree with you that college rooms are not a home for one's latter years; and in my late visits to Cambridge I have felt that you were outliving your contemporaries. It seemed to me too, at least last March, that the intercourse with your juniors, many of whom had been your pupils, was not altogether wholesome to you. One of the greatest delights I had during my stay at Cambridge last year, was to perceive that the vehemence of your nature had been greatly subdued. This year on the contrary, - I know not whether anything had happened in the interval, - you seemed to me to have become as vehement as ever. And this reason; along with others, such as the departure of most of your friends led me to wish that some change should take place in the outward form of your life. And yet I have never been able to think with satisfaction of your undertaking a parochial cure. I can neither fancy that you would suit it, nor that it would suit you'. It has to be made the primary object of your thoughts and interests. WW would be withdrawn from his parish by the duties of his professorship - 'which, from their great importance to the church and to the whole nation, might most justly take the precedence'. WW would further need a great sympathy with the objects of his care - schools, the sick, 'in talking to the poor about the petty concerns of their daily life, your life would be a very unsatisfying one'. WW is too old to change the currents of his thoughts and interests - 'You who stand atop of a mountain cannot see the clouds in the valley, still less can you care of them. Nor is it desirable that you should. All are not meant to be pastors; some are to be apostles, some doctors. This is what our blundering church-reformers could not understand. Your ministry in this world seems to me to be that of a doctor, rather than a pastor'. JCH would like to see WW master of Trinity College or deanery. He would like to see WW pursue his work in moral philosophy - 'it would be an evil thing for England that you should abandon it'.