Hastings (George MacDonald’s).
December 27th, 1873.
To Mr. Cockerell.
I am not a little amused that the idea that the best man is the real man should seem to you in any way new. I am sure you must always have felt it and acted on it, with children, with wrong-doers, when they, whom you have watched and cared for, have wandered from what is right; whenever you have tried to reconcile a quarrel, whenever you have tried to forgive anyone who has done you a wrong. It can only be the definite way of putting the thought into words that can be new. I think all the sense of peace one is able to have in this world comes from this conviction; certainly all who have tried to reform themselves owe their strength to this faith. It seems to me the only ground for preaching freedom, and the only right foundation for hope for any of us.... Miss Cons came out with such a great proffer of help that it made me feel how real her friendship was, whatever little clouds or freaks might obscure it; how it was something that might be depended on in need, and was real and true all the time. It did me such good. I came down here quite encouraged.
Tortworth Court,
January 3rd, 1874.
To Mr. Cockerell.
I wonder what you would think of life here. I often feel how much most people would learn and gather from men actually engaged in the political world’s work; and how much I lose it all, for need of knowledge enough to learn. I come in, like some queer new being, from another region; but I think it enlarges one even to see and listen to those whose interests are so different. Lady Ducie I know you would like heartily and deeply. I feel it a great privilege to see her so thoroughly. What a strange thing it is to glide so wholly into a sense of ease and perfect harmony with such a variety of people as I know, and to meet them on such simple human grounds of sympathy!
March 26th, 1874.
Mrs. Hill to Mrs. Edmund Maurice.