HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 237 



So you have seen Kossuth, though not yet heard him. Poor 

 fellow, indeed ! — shipwrecked, his work unaccomplished, with 

 hopes that are only dreams, an untamed spirit, a consciousness 

 of strength, and at the same time of impotence ; with a reputa- 

 tion which may be either great or small, just as it comes to be 

 appreciated. To be sure, while there is life there is hope, and 

 he may now compare himself to Vasa or to Alfred in exile looking 

 forward to the end, and no doubt this is what supports him, and 

 this very endurance shows greatness of mind. I do not know 

 what I wrote to you about ambition. At different times of 

 my life I have thought very differently about it, and there was 

 a time when it filled my mind pretty fully. But I have lived 

 beyond this stage, and I dare say my altered feelings are due to 

 finding myself entangled in shallows from which I am not likely 

 to get free, a consciousness of having missed the tide and of in- 

 ability to recover a lost opportunity. In the abstract I go with 

 you ; but abstract wishes and principles seldom operate on more 

 than the dreaming faculty in our minds. Things are not to be 

 accomplished by wishes or dreams ; if they were, what a world 

 one would create — (I do not mean for oneself in particular, for I 

 could go on pleasantly enough through its bye-ways unknown) — 

 but for the human race. My passion would not be so strong for 

 political freedom as for setting reason free from the slavery of 

 hereditary superstition. O'ConneJl talked much of " hereditary 

 bondsmen," but did not help them much to throw off the 

 bondage. Oh for some commanding and fervid mind to call us 

 back to first principles ! but who is sufficient for such a work ? 

 I know not any such. In my dreamland I often picture such a 

 workman, and that is all. 



To the Same. 



Trinity College, Dublin, June 2. 

 Thanks for " Hungary," and for "Uncle Tom's Cabin," begun 

 this evening ; but I only give myself an hour a clay at this season 

 for such matters, and that is, while the evening kettle is coming 

 to a boil, the tea being "masked," and afterwards drunk, so 

 " Uncle Tom " may take several evenings. What a way to read 

 an exciting story such as this promises to bo ! but I cannot help 

 it, otherwise work would not get on. 



