LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 613 



that science was Whewell's forte, and omniscience his foible ; it does 

 not appear, however, that his acquirements in any direction were 

 superficial. A curious story used to be told of some of the Fellows of 

 Trinity mastering the contents of several elaborate papers on Chinese 

 Music, which they had discovered in a Review published some years 

 previously, and then raising, as if by accident, a discussion on the sub- 

 ject, expecting to take Whewell by surprise and to pose him for once. 

 But after a brief silence, the observation quietly came : "Ah, I see 

 you ]iave been looking into the — Review of the year — . I have 

 had reason to alter my ideas in regard to Chinese Music considerably 

 since then." Whewell himself was the author of the articles which 

 had been so laboriously crammed up for the occasion. — The manu- 

 script relics which I preserve of Whewell are, first, a note addressed 

 from "Trin. Coll." to the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine^ 

 accompanying matter for that periodical. It is characteristic of 

 WhewelFs ever busy intellect. " I send you," he says, " an account 

 of the last meeting of the Philosophical Society here, which I shall 

 be glad if you will insert in the Plbilosophical Magazine of next 

 month, including the abstract of Mr. Murphy's paper and Prof. 

 Airy's communication. I send you also a notice of some remarks of 

 Berzelius, which I shall be glad if you can find room for. Yours 

 faithfully, W. Whewell." And, secondly, a cordial welcome addressed 

 by him to a friend or relative, on hearing of his intended visit to 

 Cambridge. He happens to speak incidentally of the war raging at 

 the time between the Northern and Southern States. " I am glad," 

 he says, " that you are coming to the British Association : you shall 

 have Victor's room, or some other, and will consider the Lodge your 

 home in all other respects. ... I am quite prepared to believe 

 all that you tell me of McClellan. He seems to me to have shown 

 great generalship. But I am afraid the Northerners have lost their 

 opportunity of making a magnanimous end to the war when they 

 were successful. I do not see now," he continues, " what end is 

 possible except an end from pure exhaustion. Certainly both parties 

 have shown great military talents on a large scale ; but that is small 

 consolation for the break up of such a constitution as theirs ; and I 

 fear that the cause of the black man's liberty is losing rather than 

 gaining by the conflict. We have been in Switzerland," he then adds, 

 " for a fortnight, and are now returned to our usual occupations. 

 I am soiTy that we have not seen our own dear Lakes this summer." 



