228 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xi. 



i 



viz. — commend the work in their prayers. i hope that those 

 whom i now address will both pray for, and help those who 

 are their substitutes." 



Dr. Livingstone was thoroughly delighted with his 

 reception at Cambridge. Writing to a friend, on 6th 

 December 1857, he says : "Cambridge, as Playfair would 

 say, was grand. It beat Oxford hollow. To make up my 

 library again they subscribed at least forty volumes at 

 once. I shall have reason soon to bless the Boers." 



Referring to his Cambridge visit a few weeks after- 

 wards, in a letter to Rev. W. Monk, Dr. Livingstone 

 said : — " I look back to my visit to Cambridge as one of 

 the most pleasant episodes of my life. I shall always 

 revert with feelings of delight to the short intercourse I 

 enjoyed with such noble Christian men as Sedgwick, 

 Whewell, Selwyn, etc. etc., as not the least important 

 privilege conferred on me by my visit to England. It is 

 something inspiriting to remember that the eyes of such 

 men are upon one's course. May blessings rest upon 

 them all, and on the seat of learning which they adorn !" 



Among the subjects that had occupied Dr. Living- 

 stone's attention most intensely during the early part 

 of the year 1857 was that of his relation to the London 

 Missionary Society. The impression caused by Dr. 

 Tidman's letter received at Quilimane had been quite 

 removed by personal intercourse with the Directors, who 

 would have been delighted to let Livingstone work in 

 their service in his own way. But with the very peculiar 

 work of exploration and inquiry which he felt that his 

 Master had now placed in his hands, Dr. Livingstone 

 was afraid that his freedom would be restricted by his 

 continuing in the service of the Society, while the Society 

 itself would be liable to suffer from the handle that 

 might be given to contributors to say that it was depart- 

 ing from the proper objects of a missionary body. That 

 in resigning his official connection he acted with a full 



