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

I840-1846]

Relzgzous Attztude

85

Jowett said quite simply,' Mr. -, I do not think myself
better than you, but I feel bound to disapprove of that
remark.' This attitude was maintained consistently in
later life, but with differences of method, in accordance
with his increasing knowledge of men and things. At
a Scotch shooting lodge, somewhere in the sixties, he
insisted on going down to the smoking-room with the
others at a late hour, and when the conversation of the
younger men took a doubtful turn, the small voice that
had been silent hitherto, was suddenly heard-' There is
more dirt than wit in that story, I think.' Once again,
in the eighties, when at Balliol after dinner some old
companion ventured on dangerous ground, he quietly
said, 'Shall we continue this conversation with the
ladies?' and rose to go 1.
From this epoch also may be dated a marked expansion of that cheerful helpfulness which had always
characterized him, but received a new impulse from
his Ordination vow. No minister of Christ ever more
fully realized the precepts, 'Strengthen thy brethren,'
'Support the weak,' It is more blessed to give than to
receive.' Many of his best thoughts on Law, Political
Economy, Statesmanship, the management of an estate,
the conduct of a public office, were drawn from him by
his practical sympathy with friends whose position was
most unlike his own, and whose opportunities, difficulties,
and responsibilities he sought to understand in order to
advise them better. His own work, already sufficiently
heavy, was often multiplied by taking on himself the
duties of others who were temporarily disabled.
A letter to B. C. Brodie, written in October, I844, shows
his feeling on the subject of religion in the years following
his Ordination. Brodie's scientific studies had led him
1 Cf. Benjamin Jowett, by L. A. Tollemache, p. 116.