Untitled - Electric Scotland

150 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. vi.
note. Lord Cockburn, in a characteristic letter, advises
him thus
"
I see redeeming advantages in your new position. It will
give you ease, consequently health, leisure, and, I trust, ambition
to embalm yourself worthily in some original work. ... I know
that in point of usefulness and celebrity the crosier has no chance
against the pen in the long-run. Don t doze upon the cushion,
which is too often the only use that high official cushions are
put to. I want you to write a great book on a good subject.
Next to this though they may be united do, pray, distinguish
yourself as the apostle and the type of that common sense which
is perhaps more rare than it might be among some Churchmen,
though it be the Church s only
true buttress."
A somewhat different view was taken by his old friend
and pupil, Samuel Waldegrave, whose hopes corresponded
so closely with the facts which followed that it is interest
ing to quote the letter which expressed them :-
"
I do hope that in your hands the post of Dean will prove
not to be a completely useless office. For, indeed, it seems to
me that if a man has judgment and courage, a Dean might prove
an invaluable person in a Cathedral town. Not only might he
take the lead in the works of mercy and in the business of educa
tion, but he might also be the foremost man in preaching the
Gospel to the people. But this last will require that he should
step out of the beaten path by instituting some such thing as an
Evening Service, or a service at some suitable hour for the poor.
Often as I walk in the nave of our Cathedral l do I wish that our
Dean had the health and the inclination to make that large build
ing available for the poor. ... How good would it be for you
to take the lead in such a work good for the people and good
for yourself. ... Of course I know that you must wait and feel
your way, and gain the confidence of others before you act ;
all I wish to impress upon you is the importance of attempting
some such thing, and of not being deterred by the numerous
lions which the slothful habits of chapters put in the way of any
attempt to make Cathedrals of use. I remember well your effort
to save the poor College servants, and I cannot but hope that
1 Mr. Waldegrave was at this time a Canon of Salisbury.
but