CHAP. XII.] CORRESPONDENCE. 387 



rays of the sun, or to the various clergymen and doctors, 

 who are all planets. The whole thing is, and is intended to 

 be, a solar myth from beginning to end. 



To MRS. MAXWELL. 



December 1873. 



I am always with you in spirit, but there is One who 

 is nearer to you and to me than we ever can be to each 

 other, and it is only through Him and in Him that we can 

 ever really get to know each other. Let us try to realise 

 the great mystery in Ephesians v., and then we shall be in 

 our right position with respect to the world outside, the men 

 and women whom Christ came to save from their sins. 



To PROFESSOR LEWIS CAMPBELL. 



11 Scroope Terrace, 

 Cambridge, 26th February 1874. 



Jackson has sent me a MS. of yours about the mechanism 

 of the heavens. 1 After the interpretation of el\\ofj,evr]v , 

 about which Greek appears to meet Greek as to whether it 

 expresses motion or only configuration, the main point seems 

 to be, What is the motion and function of rbv Bia Trai/ro? 



7TO\OV 1 



(a) Is it in one piece with the sphere of the stars ? or 

 (/3) with that of the sun ? or (7) is it fixed in the earth ? 



It is evidently a good stout axle, not a mere geometrical 

 line, and it has some stiff work to do. 



What is this work ? 



If the earth is fixed, and the great shaft has its bearings 

 in a hole in the earth, then she (the earth) may, in virtue of 

 her dignity and office, cause the axle to revolve, carrying 

 with it the stars according to a, or the sun according to /?. 

 Thus the earth may be the cause of the motion of the Same 

 without moving herself, as a spinster is the cause of the 

 whirling of the spindle, though she does not herself pirouette. 



Or we may suppose the earth to act as one who twirls 



1 See the Cambridge Journal of Philology, vol. v., No. 10, pp. 206, foil. 



