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

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Lzfe of Benjamzi Jowett

[CHAP. XII

nothing else, he gives advice. He is patron general
to all poor devils.'
The energy with which he threw himself into each
fresh avocation led to a forgetting of' the things behind,'
that was sometimes a little provoking to those who
worked with him. In resuming a piece of work which
had been laid aside, instead of taking it up again where
it was left, he seemed to regard it as a res integra to
be considered over again from the beginning. This
was one of many causes of apparent procrastination.
The period now under review was in many ways
a time of new departures. For example, he was gradually
becoming aware of impending changes in Political
Economy. 'I used to know the old science,' he says;
'the new applications rather puzzle me, but I shall
have to make them for myself.'
Two public questions mainly occupied him during these
years: (i) the Condition of the Poor, and (2) Education.
(i) His attention had been recalled to the former
subject through the sympathy with philanthropic efforts,
which began at Clifton, in connexion with the Destitute
Incurablesl. He now becomes more deeply concerned
about the state of the lower classes generally and the
best methods of dealing with it.
In I865 he wrote elaborate papers on the subject,
in which he took up the question of equalizing rates
on property, and the best means of using the money
when obtained; and also made a number of suggestions
as to (a) Sick; (b) Aged; (c) Incurables; (d) Mad persons;
(e) Destitute children. It was in this connexion that he
became finally convinced of the importance of Sanitary
Reform. Although he had long held generally that
moral improvement could not be effected without
1 P. 343.