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

26

Lzfe of Benjamin Jowett

[CHAP. I

In hours of gloom and misunderstanding she loved to
dwell on the earlier days of free and joyous intercourse,
which could never be recalled.
An impression long prevailed at Oxford that Jowett
had no family ties. It used to be jestingly said that he
was like Melchizedec, 'without father, without mother,
without descent.' When one of the Irwin cousins who
was in business at Madras declared his relationship, the
Governor, an old Balliol man, professed to regard him as
a prodigy: 'I thought he had no relatives 1.' Mr. F. T.
Palgrave was almost equally surprised when, on Jowett's
invitation, he was introduced (as above mentioned) to the
little family party in the Rue Madeleine in the summer
of I850.
The mistake was due to the profound silence in
which Jowett habitually buried what was personal to
himself. Only at rare moments of intimate converse,
under some exceptional stress of feeling, the veil was
lifted, and disclosed the treasures within. Still less
could it be divined that in later years his thoughts were
occupied with his own family. And yet to more than

1 This impression appears to
have been shared even by Arthur
Stanley until, at Jowett's own request, he paid a visit to the little
manage at St. Germains in March,
I856. He wrote to (Canon) Hugh
Pearson: 'On Saturday last I went
to St. Germains, and saw-the
parents of Melchizedec! a truly
antique and venerable pair, each
bearing a slight resemblance to
the son, each with some of the
qualities in him concentrated;
very kind and rapt in interest concerning him, relating singular

stories of his childhood-how
deeply historical he then was,
studying Rollin's Ancient History,
well versed in Assyrian dynasties,
standing longin silent contemplation of a " Stream of Time " suspended in his little bedroom....
Deeply musical also, he listens
with pleasure to Beethoven played
by his sister, while at work, and
even proposes corrections.'-Letters of Dean Stanley, p. 248. This
visit of Stanley's took place a short
time before the parents' return to
England.