238 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xi. 



should return in two years, and when it happened that I was absent 

 four years and a half, I supposed that I should appear before her with 

 a damaged character. I was, however, forgiven. My wife, who has 

 always been the main spoke in my wheel, will accompany me in this 

 expedition, and will be most useful to me. She is familiar with the 

 languages of South Africa. She is able to work. She is willing 

 to endure, and she well knows that in that country one must put one's 

 hand to everything. In the country to which I am about to proceed 

 she knows that at the missionary's station the wife must be the maid- 

 of-all-work within, while the husband must be the jack-of- all-trades 

 without, and glad am I indeed that I am to be accompanied by my 

 guardian angel." 



Of the many letters of adieu he received before 

 setting out we have space for only two. The first came 

 from the venerable Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge, in 

 the form of an apology for inability to attend the farewell 

 banquet. It is a beautiful unfolding of the head and 

 heart of the Christian philosopher, and must have been 

 singularly welcome to Livingstone, whose views on some 

 of the greatest subjects of thought were in thorough 

 harmony with those of his friend : — 



" Cambridge, February 10, 1858. — My dear Sir, — Your kind and 

 very welcome letter came to me yesterday ; and I take the first 

 moment of leisure to thank you for it, and to send you a few more 

 words of good-will, along with my prayers that God may, for many 

 years, prolong your life and the lives of those who are most near and 

 dear to you, and that He may support you in all coming trials, and 

 crown with a success, far transcending your own hopes, your endea- 

 vours for the good of our poor humble fellow-creatures in Africa. 



" There is but one God, the God who created all worlds and the 

 natural laws whereby they are governed ; and the God of revealed 

 truth, who tells us of our destinies in an eternal world to come. All 

 truth of whatever kind has therefore its creator in the will and essence 

 of that great God who created all things, moral and natural. Great 

 and good men have long upheld this grand conclusion. But, alas ! 

 such is too often our bigotry, or ignorance, or selfishness, that we try 

 to divorce religious and moral from natural truth, as if they were 

 inconsistent and in positive antagonism one to the other, — a true 

 catholic spirit (oh that the word ' catholic ' had not been so horribly 

 abused by the foul deeds of men), teaching us that all truths are linked 

 together, and that all art and science, and all material discoveries 

 (each held in its proper place and subordination), may be used to 

 minister to the diffusion of Christian truth amone; men, with all its 



