1892 MB. GLADSTONE THE FIEST LECTUEEE 293 



first lecture, which consent he signified in the follow- 

 ing letter : 



Grand Hotel, Biarritz : December 18, 1891. 



Dear Mr. Romanes, Until I received your kind 

 letter I reposed undoubtingly in the belief that the 

 Vice-Chancellor had accepted my answer as the 

 answer which best met the case. 1 I thought and 

 think it right, for no one knows my poverty except 

 myself. But Oxford is Oxford, and I think that if she 

 desired me to climb up the spire of Salisbury, I should 

 attempt it, or play the G-rcecidus esuriens in any 

 manner she desired. Your letter opens to me unex- 

 pectedly the fact that there is a desire, and that the 

 proposal was not simply a courtesy. 



I therefore thankfully and respectfully accept ; 

 secretly relying a good deal, as I own, on the fact that 

 there is (if I recollect the Y.C.'s letter rightly) a good 

 deal of time before me, and that the chances of in- 

 termediate reflection may bring up something to 

 the surface which is not now there, for I own my 

 perplexity continues as to the chance of making any 

 presentation not wholly worthless. But enough of 

 this : and let me thank you very much for the interest 

 you, who have so high a title, have personally taken 

 in bringing me to the front. 



We are much delighted with this place ; more 

 eminently, I think, a sea place than any other I happen 

 to know. 



I am sure, let me add, that you will make my 



1 Mr. Gladstone had declined at first, but yielded to a second urgent 

 request from the Founder. 



