484 PERSONALIA : 1898-1906 



variety and, to a great extent, vacuity. Novels of sorts, 

 intersected between fits of Spencer's last ponderous volume, 

 wherein the old matter interests me more than the new. 

 Travels I devour and only partially digest. Metaphysics I 

 cannot abide. I was disappointed with Tennyson's Life, 

 made up of snippets in too great proportion. I have read 

 Prescott's Cortes, Pizarro and Philip II. with renewed 

 pleasure. Also Motley's Ferdinand and Isabella, all stale 

 viands, but the two former still appetizing. 



The Illustrated Edition of Green's History is just come. 

 I ordered it for Dick, with whom I am reading Huxley's 

 Physiography and Pope's Odyssey. 



It is high time I ended this fatuous gossip. 



On April 16 he sends his friend a batch of his own books 

 on Buddhism, adding with perhaps unnecessary emphasis : 



My memory is now so bad that the whole subject is 

 a blur in my brain a confusion of Thibetan, Japanese, 

 Singhalese and Burmese developments of the creed. 



Follows a reminiscence of Dartmouth, where he had just 

 spent a fortnight : 



We went over the Britannia, very interesting as you 

 know. I was astounded at the multiplicity and variety of 

 subjects crammed into the 15 months' course. It is a 

 grand education. I was amazed at the size of the lads' 

 sea-chests, quite thrice the size allowed in my time ! Dart- 

 mouth Harbour is charming, but the town beastly, swarming 

 with dirty children and an undersized population of loutish 

 men and distressingly plain women. The predominance of 

 dirty little lolly-pop shops is the feature of the place. 



On May 7, enclosing a page from a book circular with 

 two Buddhist works which Lord Eedesdale might care to 

 get secondhand, he relates his own fondness for such 

 advertisements . 



I get book catalogues almost every day and run my eye 

 through every one, not with the idea of purchasing, but 

 because it keeps up my memory of my father's and grand- 

 father's fine libraries. 



