The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

i62

Life of Benjamin Jowett

[CHAP. V

in general. Do let me urge you to be as serious as you possibly
can in considering these things, which, if not aweful realities,
are still very aweful when we think of our absolute ignorance
about them.
To A. P. STANLEY.
OBAN, [September,] 1848.
My own feeling would be that you should not refuse a position
[the Chair of Modern History] for which, without flattery, you
are fitter than any one else who could be found. I do not like
to urge your standing for it, considering how we are circumstanced with the Commentary, out of which I look for us both
for many happy years' work: o7rep ovK evyXEcraL 7rapepyov Evat 1.
But, if it is offered, I would not refuse.... Any scheme of
University improvement would be greatly aided by your having
the Chair.
Many thanks for your letter, which amused me greatly.
Le gros Citoyen2 and ffolliott (who is here and speaks of you
in the kindest manner) desire their best regards. I am just
returned from Staffa and Iona.... Baur appears to me the
ablest book I have ever read on St. Paul's Epistles: a remarkable combination of the philological and metaphysical
power, without the intrusion of modern philosophy as in
Usteri
To F. T. PALGRAVE.
DUNTROON, LOCH GILPHEAD,
April 14, 1849.. I have been reading with great pleasure Schelling's
Verhaltniss der bildenden Kunst zur Natur. I wish you
would get it and read it, as the German is not difficult.
It shows a mind 'sensitive to every breath' of beauty, and
combining with this the highest metaphysical power. I should
think Schelling was the only one of the German Philosophers
who had any true feeling for art.

1 'Which cannot be made a secondary task.'

2 Morier.