Untitled - Electric Scotland

98 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. iv.
your announcement of the good-will preserved through
all this
storm. I had hoped it would be so, and I believe it would have
happened nowhere in this intolerant world except
at Oxford.
"And now to pass to the second part of your letter : I don t know
whether you will be glad or sorry to know what a blank fell over my
face and heart on catching the words, I fear I must leave Oxford.
My spirits were already beginning to sink at my return to that
troubled ocean, and this seemed to sink them still deeper. But after
what you say I cannot complain and although Bonn and Oxford
and the professorial system may, and perhaps will, cease to exist
-I believe you are right ; and as far as my commendation goes,
I give it you most cordially, though most sorrowfully. Three years,
as you say, is still a long time, and if [our work] is to be done at
all, it is perhaps as likely to be done in that time as in any other.
I do most earnestly hope we may all be enabled to look upon
it in the light you urge. I trust I have endeavoured to do so,
but nothing has convinced me more of the truth of what you say
than the difficulty I now find in turning my thoughts again to
real wish to
it, as if it had been a thing taken up, not from any
do good, but from a fit of foolish excitement. I hope I shall
not return the worse for my travels. I have certainly derived
from them far more instruction and delight than I could have
conceived possible. The flood of light which my month at Rome
let in upon my benighted mind was almost overwhelming. But
some of the advantages which I most hoped to have attained I
certainly still desiderate, and look forward to the troubles of Eng
land with much the same feelings as those with which I left them.
So pray, my dear Greis, be ready to console and advise me as
before for, as before, I still want all of both that all my friends
ran give me. Once more, farewell, my dear Tait ; may God bless
you, whether you stay to help us at Oxford, or whether you go
elsewhere.- -With all remembrances to Lake and Ward, and all
hopes of seeing you all soon in good health of body and mind,
believe me, ever yours, A. P. STANLEY."
Though Oxford continued to be the centre of the
conflict, its arena was very soon enlarged, and an attention
hitherto unwonted was paid to the Charges of the Bishops,
almost every one of whom spoke his mind upon the
subject. A special interest attached to the Charge of