While yet the mighty Methodist
'Mid striplings merry made, a stripling.
to quote the words of an anonymous rhymer.
Again, the expounding of mathematics term after term is a sober pursuit enough, yet C. L. Dodgson, mathematical tutor of Christ Church, had leisure to be "Lewis Carroll" also, the nursery classic, the delight of children of all ages. The serious purpose of John Ruskin, who as the anonymous "Oxford Graduate" took the Art world by storm, could not extinguish his lambent humour. It is a part of the genius of Christ Church to keep alive a certain sunshine of the mind. Let us hope that this was the case even with her austerer thinkers; with Locke, who was forced to leave the College on account of his Whig opinions; with William Penn, who was sent down for nonconformity—you will find sunshine as well as shadow in his little volume, Some Fruits of Solitude, which he is thought to have composed, partly at any rate, in prison; and with Dr. Pusey, as he searched for the way of perfection among the dusty folios of patristic lore.
[Original]
