CHAP. X.] SCIENTIFIC WORK. 299 



Now it is good to learn wisdom wherever it is to be 

 found, but in teaching it, it must be made light, wholesome, 

 and digestible, by being stripped of all vagueness and wordi- 

 ness, and refitted with illustrations and conceptions carefully 

 adapted to the hearers. Not but what the other method is 

 pleasant to listen to, and not without profit (if taken with 

 salt) ; but there are good books, out of which you may preach 

 very bad sermons, with which your people may be as 

 delighted as Mary Anne was with Faraday's lecture, of which 

 she gave an account to Punch. 



I find my principal work here is teaching my men to 

 avoid vague expressions, as " a certain force," meaning un- 

 certain ; may instead of must; will le instead of is; propor- 

 tional instead of equal. . . . 



As to yourself, I do not know whether college or parish 

 work is best for you to be set to. I am not sorry about the 

 rich people. They require you as much as the poor. But 

 you must find out your own spirit, and what you were made 

 for, and not steer by men either towards one man or from 

 another. 



Now I sent you a libellous description of our public 

 school here last letter. Last week I was walking with the 

 tune of the " Lorelei " running in my head, and it set itself 

 into a " kind of allegory." The words are very crude, but that 

 is the way they came together. I profess myself responsible 

 for most things I say, but less for this than for most : 



Alone on a hillside of heather, 



I lay with dark thoughts in my mind, 

 In the midst of the beautiful weather 



I was deaf, I was dumb, I was blind. 

 I knew not the glories around me, 



I thought of the world as it seems, 

 Till a spirit of melody found me, 



And taught me in visions and dreams. 



For the sound of a chorus of voices 



Came gathering up from below, 

 And I heard how all Nature rejoices, 



And moves with a musical flow. 



