and survey the colleges themselves with an unmoved spirit.
Out of its courts marched Bacon, Newton, Milton, and Jeremy Taylor;
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron issued from it but the other day, for
what are a few years in the biography of genius? And was it not but
yesterday that Tennyson wrote his prize poem there? It was hallowed
ground to me, worthy of not unmixed reverence, but of much reverence was
it worthy.

I went straightway to the residence of Dr. Whewell, master of Trinity
College, and he received me very cordially. His works are well known in
America, and I knew them, and directly made complimentary allusions to
them, which, did not displease him. 'Sir, you are welcome,' he said,
pressing my hand. 'You are very welcome, sir.' He proceeded to talk of
America, and spoke of Edward Everett, and his visit to Cambridge in
1842, and of the speech he made. Everett made a decidedly favorable
impression. 'We had a visit from another of your countrymen, last year,'
said Dr. W. 'Parker of Boston--Theodore Parker. A man of genius, but I
believe a rationalist in religion. He saw but few of our men, and,
indeed, we were not disposed to receive him. It would have created a
scandal. But he is a very clever man.' After tea, I repaired with the
Doctor to his study, and had a pleasant chat with him about American
literature. We discussed the merits of Longfellow, Bryant, Irving,
Cooper, Channing, Bancroft and Emerson. Of the last-mentioned writer, he
said, 'He is not like Carlyle, though the newspaper critics are
constantly associating them together. I have no sympathy with his
opinions, but I am refreshed by reading him. He is a strong man, sir,
and your country will be proud of him. Amongst our young men here his
opinions are making great strides. 'Tis the vice of the age. Germany has
had the disease, and is near recovery. England and America have caught
the epidemic. But pantheism, sir, will not live, though here and at
Oxford the students are reading Hegel, Strauss, Bruno-Bauer, and
Feuerbach. At Oxford,' he added, 'these pernicious doctrines are
demoralizing the university. Blanco White and John Sterling were but the
pioneers of a large party of university men, who are preparing to avow
their disbelief in Christianity.' The Doctor was right. Francis Newman,
brother of the Puseyite Newman, who seceded to the Romish Church, and
belongs now to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri,--Froude, brother of the
deceased Puseyite Froude,-