Item 71 - Letter from T. Worsley to [Henry Sidgwick].

Declares that he has read with interest his correspondent's 'résumé of the fortunes of Philosophy at Cambridge in recent times.' It seems in the main true and consistent with what was said at their 'late meeting'; felt after their interview that he had not done full justice to the philosophic aptitudes of the three men about whom he had specially enquired, and that 'in a more congenial atmosphere they might have formed a genuine philosophic triumvirate, of which Thirlwall with his depth of thought and irony should have been the Socrates, Julius Hare...the Plato, [and] Whewell...the Aristotle.' Believes that the attempt to contract all philosophy within the limits of physics and mathematics, and its 'partial emergence into greater breadth and freedom, through the classical and moral triposes' has been 'fairly sketched and accounted for', and believes that this aspect of the subject cannot be left out as it constitutes a main part of the history of philosophy, and may not be very familiar at Oxford 'or in the world at large.' Admits that [Sidgwick] is probably right about Whewell's later lectures, Maurice's and Grote's. Discusses his own assertions with regard to philosophy's failure as an intellectual system, and its failure to 'sustain the weight of a full and truly human life'. States that he has made one or two slight corrections in his correspondent's paper, and asks him to do likewise with this letter. Gives him permission to append it to his own paper if he so wishes.