, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the
Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent
and ephemeral visions--faithful servant of time-tried principles,
under temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and
amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped
in her strange valour, of goodwill towards men?"

The fifteen years that have passed since I spoke these words must, I
think, have convinced some of my immediate hearers that the need for
such an appeal was more pressing than they then imagined;--while they
have also more and more convinced me myself that the ground I took
for it was secure, and that the youths and girls now entering on the
duties of active life are able to accept and fulfil the hope I then
held out to them.

In which assurance I ask them to-day to begin the examination with
me, very earnestly, of the question laid before you in that seventh
of my last year's lectures, whether London, as it is now, be indeed
the natural, and therefore the heaven-appointed outgrowth of the
inhabitation, these 1800 years, of the valley of the Thames by a
progressively instructed and disciplined people; or if not, in what
measure and manner the aspect and spirit of the great city may be
possibly altered by your acts and thoughts.

In my introduction to the Economist of Xenophon I said that every
fairly educated European boy or girl ought to learn the history of
five cities,--Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, and London; that of
London including, or at least compelling in parallel study, knowledge
also of the history of Paris.

A few words are enough to explain the reasons for this choice. The
history of Athens, rightly told, includes all that need be known of
Greek religion and arts; that of Rome, the victory of Christianity
over Paganism; those of Venice and Florence sum the essential facts
respecting the Christian arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Music;
and that of London, in her sisterhood with Paris, the development of
Christian Chivalry and Philosophy, with their exponent art of Gothic
architecture.

Without the presumption of forming a distinct design, I yet hoped at
the time when this division of study was suggested, with the help of
my pupils, to give the outlines of their several histories during
my work in Oxford. Variously disappointed and arrested, alike by
difficulties of investigation and failure of strength, I may yet hope
to lay down