‘My dearest Mr. Rogers,—I am always troubling you, but do not hate me.
‘Your curious edition of “Theophrastus,” which you showed me, has brought to my recollection a remark attributed to him (I think) in which he says of Aristides something very like this, “that he was just and upright in all private matters, but not always in publick affairs where the interest of the State required injustice.”
‘Now this is a startling position in ethics, and especially so when coupled with the name of Aristides, about whom we are probably as much humbugged as about all other personages we read of; but I want the above remark for a particular purpose, and if possible in the Greek. Could you supply me with it, for, as you may suppose, “Theophrastus” is not in the circulating library here or even at Hastings! But how will you ever forgive me for this trouble? and, above all (I tremble to think of it), what will you say to me if I have confounded matters and the above bit of international morality be not in “Theophrastus” at all!
| 242 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘I am paying my mother a visit. How I wish you were here! I cannot express my feeling of your society otherwise than that it is to me the triumph of civilisation.
‘I know myself what I mean, and that must suffice. So believe me, with great truth, sincerely yours,
