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

I854-I860]

A Vacation Ramble

231

' We walked up the Derwent and down the Dove, and managed
to make out a very pleasant tour... discoursed of every conceivable subject; sometimes "making picture-galleries of our
friends"; sometimes settling the destinies of the University;
sometimes examining the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles;
most often, I think, comparing the scenery with other that we
had seen, or trying to recollect all that books of any sort had
said about it. The Philosopher has only two faults; he walks
too slow and too unevenly, and he prefers tea or even ginger-beer
and biscuits to more generous meat and drink.'
He must have frequently visited London as a member
of Macaulay's Committee, referred to on p. 186.
In the autumn, a majority of the College, headed by
the Master, passed a by-law requiring every Scholar
to declare himself a member of the Church of England.
This attempt to violate the spirit of the new Statute
was vetoed by the Visitor, to Jowett's great relief.
Two other matters may be mentioned here. His friend
Brodie was repeatedly in difficulty about the subscription
to the Articles which was still required for the M.A.
degree. He wished to obtain leave to have recourse to
an obsolete process of 'incorporation,' and so to obtain
the degree without subscription. Jowett clearly saw this
to be impracticable. His advice to Brodie is marked by
a singular union of calm moderation with serious apprehension of the gravity of the position:'I think you will rouse the " Odium Theologicum " without
any grounds to justify you in the eyes of the public.... I
cannot see any reason to suppose that this process of incorporation was intended in the case of members of the University to
relieve men from any of the forms gone through at the time of
taking the degree: but only from the residence and exercises
at that time required for a superior degree:... much as I wish
that you should come here, and dislike subscriptions of this
sort, I could not think the Vice-Chancellor wrong for interposing his veto.'