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

Letters, 1865-1870

423

Ireland is gone anyhow) and on the whole country. Then
of the exultation of the Jew, who has revenged all his
personal wrongs, triumphed over the virtue of Gladstone,
made himself an historical name, and really done a great
service (not taking into account the means). He has got
his pound of flesh out of these Tory magnates, who have
scoffed at him. People have often said that he would be
the leader of the Radicals, but they never guessed that he
would accomplish it by making the Tories Radicals. There
is something that is not quite intelligible in his colleagues
neither actively supporting nor opposing him. Think of all
this also in connexion with the Conservative reaction of six
years ago....
That you may not think me mad in translating the Politics,
I transcribe a short passage for you.
' Now we ought to be careful of the health of the inhabitants;
and this will depend, first, on the situation and aspect of the
place; secondly, on the use of good water, the care of which
ought to be made a first object. For those things which we
use most and oftenest have the greatest influence on health;
and water and air are of this nature,' &c. -Ar. Pol. vii. 2. 4.
And I could find similar passages in Plato's Laws.
To
OXFORD, June, I867.
When you think that you have done nothing, that may
be in some degree true, as a fact, amid the difficulties and
hindrances of human things. But is not the greater part
a certain state of nerves or a certain attitude of character,
like the way which good people have of declaring that they
are miserable sinners?
I like to hear my friend Mr. Browning say, 'I have just
finished a poem (I am ashamed to tell you the length-about
20,000 lines): I am sure that it is by far the best thing
which I have yet done, and when I have done that I shall
try to do something better still, and so on as long as I
live.' And I like to think of myself as beginning and not
ending.