488 PRÆTERITA-III

every one of Maurice’s disciples also took what views he chose of the songs of the prophets,-or wrote songs of his own, more adapted to the principles of the College, and the ethics of London. Maurice, in all his addresses to us, dwelt mainly on the simple function of a college as a collection or collation of friendly persons,-not in the least as a place in which such and such things were to be taught, and others denied; such and such conduct vowed, and other such and such abjured. So the College went on,-collecting, carpentering, sketching, Bible criticizing, etc., virtually with no head; but only a clasp to the strap of its waist, and as many heads as it had students. The leaven of its affectionate temper has gone far; but how also the leaven of its pride, and defiance of everything above it, nobody quite knows. I took two special pupils out of its ranks, to carry them forward all I could. One I chose; the other chose me-or rather, chose my mother’s maid Hannah; for love of whom he came to the College, learned drawing there under Rossetti and me,-and became eventually, Mr. George Allen of Sunnyside; who, I hope, still looks back to his having been an entirely honest and perfect working joiner as the foundation of his prosperity in life. The other student I chose myself, a carpenter of equal skill and great fineness of faculty;¹ but his pride, wilfulness, and certain angular narrownesses of nature, kept him down,-together with the deadly influence of London itself, and of working men’s clubs, as well as colleges. And finally, in this case, and many more, I have very clearly ascertained that the only proper school for workmen is of the work their fathers bred them to, under masters able to do better than any of their men, and with common principles of honesty and the fear of God, to guide the firm.

16. Somewhat before the date of my farewell to Maurician free-thinking. I had come into still more definite collision

¹ [The late Mr. Butterworth.]

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