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

I86o-1865] With Pupils in Vacation

337

about twelve o'clock. He was not an early riser, seldom
appearing before ten, but he would not allow breakfast to
be ordered later than nine-not altogether a comfortable
arrangement. When we subsequently moved off together to
Pitlochry he proposed that any one who was five minutes
late for breakfast should be fined the sum of one shilling.
The first morning he appeared quite punctually, the second he
was a little late, the next he said that, as he was late,
he thought he would take his shilling's worth. After that, he
found that ten o'clock suited him better than nine. However,
at the end of the time he insisted on paying a shilling a day
to the common expenses.
'His example of hard work and simplicity was of great
value to us, and made hard work all the easier at a time
when it was very essential for me to be kept to my books.
He did not profess or attempt to coach us regularly, but
he was anxious that we should ask him questions, and he
took great trouble in explaining difficulties and making his
answers clear. Knowing that he was working so hard himself,
I think we were reluctant to burden him with too many
questions, ever ready though he was to help us. What
I found most valuable was his sympathy and encouragement;
he led one to suppose that one could do well, provided there
was hard work, and there can be no doubt that many in
life "possunt quia posse videntur." His encouragement caused
many to persevere. I do not think that we found it very
easy to converse with him: his interests and thoughts were
very far removed from those of the ordinary undergraduate,
or the small-talk of life; but he had a quiet sympathy for
all that with one's pursuits, with a word of warning against
spending too much time upon them.
'I was afterwards with him at Pitlochry, and in the following
year (I866) at St. Andrews, where we were both the guests
of Professor Lewis Campbell'...
1 Mr. Mitchell adds, 'Jowett's against Christ Church. On that
interests did not lie, as mine did, occasion, the only one within my
in cricket. But I remember he knowledge, he indulged in the
once said that he was coming to evil habit of betting, for he
see me play in a College match wagered one shilling, I think, with
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