REMINISCENCES. Iv 



could bend him to what he thought evil, that good might come. 

 He would break first. Did a charity, a church, eke out its funds 

 by raffles; with such he would have neither art nor part. He found 

 honesty the best policy. The light of his eyes, the Girls' Orphan 

 Home, was like to expire for lack of funds. The inmates must be 

 warmed, clothed, fed ; ways and means nowhere appeared. His 

 extremity was, in his old-fashioned phrase, God's opportunity. By 

 what we call chance, after no appeal on his part, visitor after visitor 

 turned up, — like the ' god from the machine ' (the stage heaven) of 

 Greek theatre, like ' the angel entertained unawares ' of a lore deep- 

 rooted in his heart, — to lift his cart out of the mire ; that he put 

 his own shoulder to the wheel, stands to reason ; it was the instinct 

 of his life, I might say, watchword, but that he was given to 'do 

 noble things, not dream them, all day long.' To return to the 

 visitors, the good fairies. One brought serge for frocks, one flannel 

 petticoats, one gloves, one (in guise of a shoemaker) boots — in each 

 case, to rig out the whole dozen. £10 came for coals 'by order'; 

 a legacy of £100 fell in at the very nick of time; need highest, help 

 nighest. Would you read the riddle 1 ' For the good man some 

 will even dare to die.' 'Love is love's loadstone.' From mouth to 

 mouth the news had flown ; he wanted aid : who so niggardly as to 

 withold a trifle ? The very orphans went out (like a certain widow) 

 to gather sticks for fuel : worked list slippers on the sly, to save 

 shoe-leather — ' after dusk,' you understand ; — a widow's mite out- 

 weighing in his mind the greater gifts and bringing tears to his eyes. 



He dwelt much on the responsibility of graduates to tradesmen, 

 servants, students. Jealously he guarded Sunday rest for his staff. 

 Not that he was a pedantic Sabbatarian. Certain plants could not 

 safely be left thirty-six hours without tendance : they must have it, 

 it is their right. A short time would suffice for the job, and all be 

 set free to serve God in His courts or to tighten home bonds, according 

 to their conscience. To open a pleasure-ground to saunterers was 

 quite another matter — no 'work of necessity,' as he construed the 

 words ; the demand was hollow, and must be withstood. 



Business were on a sounder footing in Cambridge — in the world 

 — if we one and all would take pattern by him. Where he gave 

 his custom he never withdrew it, never went to London for what 

 he could buy here, never left a bill unpaid. ' I have lost the best 

 friend I ever had : my own for fifty years, my father's before me.' 

 Such tributes fellow-townsmen laid on his grave. When he lay 

 tethered to his chair, a cab-owner, employed by him from the first, 

 went out four miles to pick flowers, such as he loved, for his table. 

 Better, far better was he known in the town — aye, over Europe, 

 and beyond — than in the modorn University ; and wherever known, 

 honoured and loved. Unwittingly we have lost our Cambridge Lord 

 Shaftesbury : consult the clergy of St. Barnabas' and St. Philip's. 



Like his friend. Professor Miller, he was a cunning craftsman 

 with tools, so keeping on a better foot with artisans than they who 



