3)5 



PREFACE. 



I NEED hardly say that in the following pages I have not 

 attempted a scientific memoir. My object has been to 

 supply that part of my husband's life the material for 

 which would not be within the reach of another biographer. 



The selection from his letters might have been much 

 larger, if I could in all cases have inserted those of his 

 correspondents. Without these many would have been 

 incomprehensible. As it is, I may have over-estimated the 

 attention which readers will be disposed to give to them. 

 My rule in choosing the letters has been to take those 

 which are most characteristic of the writer, and in this 

 way to give to readers already acquainted with him through 

 his writings a more familiar knowledge of him as a man. 



His connection with University College, and the events 

 which led to his leaving it, are necessarily made promi- 

 nent. So long a time has elapsed since their occurrence, 

 and I have known so little during that time of the Institu- 

 tion, that I cannot even surmise how the present Council 

 would in like circumstances share the convictions or con- 

 firm the action of its predecessors. After the lapse of 

 sixteen years I trust that the narrative will provoke no 

 revival of the somewhat acrimonious controversy which 

 ensued. It might perha.ps have been in some ways 



