Latterly he got deeper and deeper into theological and metaphysical wanderings, and finally formulated his ideas in an illogical fashion.
…Be all this as it may, Dana seems to be in a muddle on page 20, and quite a self-sought one.
Ever yours,
J.D. Hooker.
The following is a letter of thanks to Mrs. Humphry Ward for her novel
"Robert Elsmere.">[
Bournemouth, March 15, 1888.
My dear Mrs. Ward,
My wife thanked you for your book which you were so kind as to send us. But that was grace before meat, which lacks the "physical basis" of after-thanksgiving—and I am going to supplement it, after my most excellent repast.
I am not going to praise the charming style, because that was in the blood and you deserve no sort of credit for it. Besides, I should be stepping beyond my last. But as an observer of the human ant-hill—quite impartial by this time—I think your picture of one of the deeper aspects of our troubled time admirable.
You are very hard on the philosophers. I do not know whether Langham or the Squire is the more unpleasant—but I have a great deal of sympathy with the latter, so I hope he is not the worst.