1859- LETTER TO DR. GLADSTONE. 333 



"When I heard of your lighthouse appointment, I said 

 they have selected John Gladstone not to look after the 

 lights, as I daresay he imagines, but to look after the b(u)oys, 

 whom he has done so much for at the Bloomsbury Branch. 

 Here I will not touch upon secularities. About coloured 

 lights, etc., I will trouble you with a week-day letter, con- 

 taining some chemico-physical speculations. This is a 

 Sabbatic one. 



" I rejoice to hear of your success with the young men. 

 God bless you in your work ! It is worth all other work, 

 and far beyond all Greek and Roman fame, all literary or 

 scientific triumphs. And yet it is quite compatible with 

 both. Douglas Jerrold's life is most sad to read. In many 

 respects it gave me a far higher estimate of him morally 

 than I had had before. Indeed, I did not pretend to know 

 nor to judge him, but I fancied him to have been a less 

 lovable, domestic person than he was. But what a pagan 

 look-out ! What an ethnic view of this world and the next ! 

 He might as well have been born in the days of Socrates or 

 Seneca as in these days, for any good Christ's coming 

 apparently did him. There is something unspeakably sad 

 in his life, and it was better than that of many a litterateur. 

 The ferocity of attack on cant and hypocrisy \ the girding 

 at religion, which they cannot leave alone ; above all, the 

 dreary, meagre, cheerless, formal faith, and the dim and 

 doubtful prospect for the future, are features in that litte'ra- 

 teur-life most saddening and disheartening. 



" And the men of science, are they better 1 God forbid 

 I should slander my brethren in study, men above me in 

 intellect, capacity, and accomplishment. I delight to know 

 that so many of them are Christ's willing followers and 

 beloved servants. But recently I have come across four 

 of the younger chemists, excellent fellows, of admirable 



