MENTAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 155 



between the penmanship of the two sovereigns, one a 

 male and the other a female, but the formation of the 

 letters of the period of Henry 5th is very primitive. 

 The word "brother" is used in both letters. Henry 

 writes it "bjuthe, " Queen Victoria writes it "Brother," 

 with a capital B. Henry says, "Wherefore I wolle 

 that the Due of Orliance be kept st(i)lle within the 

 castil of Pontfret." arid the letter refers to the care 

 with which he desires his prisoners of war to be kept. 

 The queen's letter is in acknowledgment of a gift from 

 Miss Gordon of General C. G. Gordon's bible. The two 

 manuscripts are fine examples of the evolution, in four 

 centuries of language, chirography, and expression; 

 but, also, of the remarkable evolution, during that 

 period, of the functions of the Kingly office, as 

 expressed in the subjects of the two letters; in Henry's 

 time, war, oppression, the support of Kingly power, 

 imprisonment. In the Queen's reign, these thoughts 

 had been turned to social duties, and the sympathetic 

 functions. In this letter, she speaks of the "bible," a 

 "dear brother," and the erection of works of art. 



All such relics of important characters, in the 

 world's history, exhibit the mental condition of the 

 people at the time, and in many instances the moral 

 condition also. They display these much more surely 

 than do the pages of history. The letters of Henry 

 and Victoria do this more certainly than would the 

 manuscripts of Chaucer for instance, who wrote his 

 poetry in the 14th century, and was a learned scholar, 

 and of Longfellow of the 19th century. For these two 

 were literary, and better educated, in language and 

 literature, at least, than the society of their times. 

 But, we cannot say as much of royal personages. Their 

 education is limited to certain things. In real attain- 



