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

I865-I8701

Loss of Health

395

his great recuperative powers enabled him to rally from
brief intervals of exhaustion and depression. But in
the years i866 and 1867 he became gradually convinced
of the necessity of husbanding his physical powers in
order to make the most of life. He tried certain experiments in diet, and for a time even attempted total
abstinence. As early as I86I he had complained to
Dr. Symonds, of Clifton, of 'headache, powerlessness of
brain, want of sustained thought, and imperfect memory 2.'
A throat affection to which he was liable, especially in
springtime, now threatened to become chronic. He had
overworked his eyesight: the pince-nez, so familiar in
the recollection of many friends, became a necessity, and
this, with the use of the steel pen, which he reluctantly
adopted, tended to alter his handwriting. His advice
to friends in sickness, which often both consoled and
strengthened them, was 'to keep the mind above the
body.' 'Little time is lost through ill-health, though much
is lost through idleness,' he would say in encouraging
a delicate pupil3; and he had a profound belief in
the possibility of dominating infirmities by an effort of
will; but he now found that there were limits to this.

A friend who had shared
not trust his heart for mountain
climbing: and in walking from
Langdale to Lodore he paused so
often and advanced so slowly up
the steep ascent of Rossett Gill as
to make it impossible to reach our
destination before dark.' Cf. Life
of J. A. Symonds, vol. i. p. 187:
'Toilingup Constitution Hill from
the cathedral (at Bristol), he
said, " Our young legs don't mind
this, do they?" puffing all the
time.'
1 His motive in this was to

many of his thoughts, now
help one of his dependents by his
example.
2 Life of J. A. Symonds, vol. i.
p. I88. His power of memory
often seemed dependent on conditions of health. But it is also
true that the very vividness of his
thoughts tended to swallow up
details in general views, and that
the intensity of each new phase
of mind obliterated past impressions for the time.
8 Benjamin Jowett, by Lionel
Tollemache, p. I.