CORRESPONDENCE, 1867-70. 373 



and who found Bereans who searched, &c., and ad wfinitum. 1867. 

 Query : Is this a convergent or a divergent series ? 

 Hard rain great relief. 



Yours sincerely, 



A. DE MOEGAN. 



To Rev. Wm. Heald. 



August 20, 1867. 



MY DEAR HEALD, My bit of news is my retirement from 

 University College, after two terms of service, 1828-31 and 

 1836-67. The world knows, or takes note of, only one side 

 of the cause. I was meditating retirement in a session or 

 two on account of the general decadence of the College, which 

 made the emoluments wholly out of reasonable proportion to the 

 time the duties took. In November last came a course of conduct 

 which made me glad to escape at the end of the current session. 



University College, as you know, was founded on the prin- 

 ciple of giving secular education without reference to religion, 

 which was left to the parents. The best men who could be found 

 independently of creed, being of good fame and conduct, were to 

 teach all who were willing to be taught equally without reference 

 to creed. From this principle there was never a departure. At 

 the very outset, indeed, there was a circumstance of this kind. 

 Dr. Southwood Smith was proposed for a chair of mental 

 philosophy, with some mixture of moral philosophy. Zachary 

 Macaulay read extracts from a work of his, I think with the 

 name * On the Divine Government,' so heterodox that he, Z. M., 

 declared he would take no further part if S. S. were chaired. 

 The Council gave way. But, for other reasons, I fancy, no one 

 ever complained of infraction of principle, and the case made no 

 noise. 



The principle was put to a very severe test when Francis New- 

 man, then actually Professor of Latin, published his Phases of Faith 

 an attack, it was said, on Christianity. No one proposed that 

 he should be called to account for a work the title of which did 

 not state his connection with the College. So it seemed pretty 

 certain that the College would always hold to its declared principle 

 of perfect indifference to the creed of a teacher. 



The Professor of Logic and Mental Philosophy, Dr. Hoppus, 

 resigned in the spring of 1866. The best candidate beyond a 

 doubt to succeed him was Mr. James Martineau, a leading man 

 among the Unitarians, but not thoroughly in accordance with 



