October 29th.—To Oxford. Dined at the Deanery. Jowett, Duke of Buckingham, Max Müller, Brodrick. 31st, dined at All Souls. Sir William Anson. November 1st, lunched with Max Müller.
From M. B. St.-Hilaire
November 21st.—I notice that to you, as to me, the situation of France appears very sad. I conceive that it is a source of alarm to all Europe. We are falling lower and lower towards the Radicals and the Extreme Left. If that party should come into power, it would be a very serious threat to the peace of the world. From the weakness of our Government, everything is to be feared; and as this weakness must become greater, there does not seem any remedy in the near future. Notwithstanding our wealth, our finances are in a bad state, and it is on that side that the inevitable storm will burst. To ward it off an entire change of conduct would be necessary; and at the present time we have no one strong enough to guide our policy in the right direction.
To Mrs. Parker
Foxholes, December 18th.—If anyone is to write Lord Westbury's Life, yours is the pen to do it. Nobody expects a daughter to be impartial, or wishes it. I will see what letters I can find, and will write again when I have looked over my packets of letters.
This promise was afterwards fulfilled. Lord Westbury's letters were sent to
Mrs. Parker, and several of them, with some of Reeve's, were incorporated
in the 'Life of Lord Westbury' (2 vols. 8vo. 1888), by Mr. T. A. Nash, whom
Mrs. Parker afterwards married.
Early in January 1884, Mrs. Reeve went to Paris, on a visit to Lady Metcalfe—one of Mr. Dempster's nieces. On the 16th Reeve joined her there. Among other entries, the Journal notes a breakfast at Chantilly on the 27th—'château finished, galleries splendid'—and on the 30th, dinner at the Embassy. They returned to London on the 31st. A few dinners in town are noted, and a visit to Covent Garden on March 5th, to see Salvini in 'King Lear.' To Foxholes on April 9th.
This meagre chronicle of course gives no idea of Reeve's intellectual activity at the time, which was really very great. With his official duties, the conduct of the 'Review,' an extensive correspondence, and, at this time, the preparation of the second part of the 'Greville Memoirs,' with dinner parties or receptions three or four times a week, it would seem as if Reeve's days must have consisted of an abnormal number of hours. And effectively they did; for, though on pleasure—at proper seasons—Reeve might be bent, he had always a frugal mind as to the disposal of time. Most, if not all, of his correspondence, much even of his more serious work, was got through in spare half-hours at the Council Office; and when at home, in his study in the house in Rutland Gate, it was a standing rule that he was not to be disturbed. The study was a cosy room on the ground floor, built out at the back, and so removed from all noise of passing to and fro. It had no outlook to distract the attention, and no man was ever less addicted to day-dreaming. To work whilst he worked and play whilst he played was the golden rule which enabled Reeve for over fifty years to get through as much hard work as a successful lawyer, to do as much hard writing as a successful novelist, to hunt, shoot, or travel whenever opportunity offered, and to be one of the best known figures in the world of London society.
From the Duke of Argyll
March 8th.—Many thanks for your letter. I am pleased to know that the scientists find my science accurate. Writers in the interest of religion have generally, of late, been disposed to make as much as possible of the distinction between man and nature. The speciality of my book [Footnote: The Unity of Nature. There is an article on it in the April number of the Review.] is, on the contrary, to maintain the unity, as really essential to all belief, thus going back to the paths of Butler.