248 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK on. 



such a taste for reading that I am not happy unless I 

 see what is going on in the world. Let the masses 

 of the people study their homes, and make the family 

 hearthstone the sacred altar that it should be. We of 

 this grand old country of ours now enjoy many blessings 

 of which our forefathers never dreamt. And through 

 the efforts of our great Liberal statesmen we shall 

 doubtless go on to still further progress. I am not one 

 who thinks that the old country is played out. I believe 

 there are great things in store for us under the wise and 

 generous rule of our able leaders. Take as an instance, 

 that great undertaking, the Ship Canal, which I hope 

 shortly to see begun in Manchester. I feel sure, Sir, 

 you will not consider me presumptuous in addressing 

 you my thanks and admiration for your many efforts to 

 better the condition of that class of the community to 

 which I belong, but perhaps will be rather pleased to 

 hear from one of them who by his energy and persever- 

 ance has, at least intellectually, improved his position. 

 I take it from my life that worldly possessions are not 

 essential to a man's happiness, my ideas have always 

 been that the improvement and cultivation of that 

 divine gift to the human family, the brain, the greatest 

 and best source of happiness, and without which man is 

 little better than the brutes. 



Apologising for thus far troubling you, I trust I shall 

 ere long be able to purchase for my sole use and enjoy- 

 ment the whole of your able and interesting works. — 

 I am, Sir, yours obediently. 



Mr. Lecky, Mr. Walter Pater, and other men 

 of letters wrote to him very appreciatively about 

 the book. Sir George Trevelyan's letter may 

 perhaps be quoted as among the most interesting : 



Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland, 

 July 8th, 1887. 



Dear Lubbock — I always delight in your books, the 

 nearer they approach pure literature the more, — and 

 this seems to approach it closest. I am taking it out to 

 read, where it should be read, on the grass and under 

 trees, and I shall begin with the Chapter on Friends, 

 knowing that you always act up to what you write. 



