gstone was thoroughly delighted with his reception at
Cambridge. Writing to a friend, on 6th December 1857, he says:
"Cambridge, as Playfair would say, was grand. It beat Oxford hollow. To
make up my library again they subscribed at least forty volumes at once.
I shall have reason soon to bless the Boers."

Referring to his Cambridge visit a few weeks afterward, in a letter to
Rev. W. Monk, Dr. Livingstone said: "I look back to my visit to
Cambridge as one of the most pleasant episodes of my life. I shall
always revert with feelings of delight to the short intercourse I
enjoyed with such noble Christian men as Sedgwick, Whewell, Selwyn, etc.
etc., as not the least important privilege conferred on me by my visit
to England. It is something inspiriting to remember that the eyes of
such men are upon one's course. May blessings rest upon them all, and on
the seat of learning which they adorn!"

Among the subjects that had occupied Dr. Livingstone's attention most
intensely during the early part of the year 1857 was that of his
relation to the London Missionary Society. The impression caused by Dr.
Tidman's letter received at Quilimane had been quite removed by personal
intercourse with the Directors, who would have been delighted to let
Livingstone work in their service in his own way. But with the very
peculiar work of exploration and inquiry which he felt that his Master
had now placed in his hands, Dr. Livingstone was afraid that his freedom
would be restricted by his continuing in the service of the Society,
while the Society itself would be liable to suffer from the handle that
might be given to contributors to say that it was departing from the
proper objects of a missionary body. That in resigning his official
connection he acted with a full knowledge of the effect which this might
have upon his own character, and his reputation before the Church and
the world, is evident from his correspondence with one of his most
intimate friends and trusted counselors, Mr. J.B. Braithwaite, of
Lincoln's Inn. Though himself a member of the Society of Friends, Mr.
Braithwaite was desirous that Dr. Livingstone should continue to appear
before the public as a Christian minister:

"To dissolve thy connection with the Missionary Society would
at once place thee before the public in an aspect wholly
distinct from that in which thou art at present, and, what is
yet more important, would in a greater or less degree,