ld was so soon to be fought
in my own State, Pennsylvania!

Our morning was spent in all this varied talk, walking partly on the
lawn, partly in the study. His pipe was still his companion. He
seemed to need to walk incessantly, such was his nervous activity of
temperament. He asked me if it annoyed me for him to walk so much up
and down his study. The slight impediment in his speech one forgot as
one listened to the flow of his discourse. He talked a volume while
I was with him, and what he said often rose to eloquence. There was
humor too in it, of which I can give no example, for it was fine and
delicate. But what most impressed me was his perfect simplicity of
character. He talked of his wife with the strongest affection--wished
I could remain longer with them, if only to know her better. Nothing
could be more tender than his manner toward her. He went for her when
we were in the study, and the last half hour of my stay she sat with
us. She is one of five sisters who are all married to eminent men.

It occurs to me to note, as among my last recollections of our talk,
that I spoke of Spurgeon, whom I had heard in London a short time
before, and was very favorably impressed with. I could not but commend
his simple, strong Saxon speech, the charm of his rich full voice,
and above all the earnest aim which I thought was manifest in all he
uttered. Mr. Kingsley said he was glad to hear this, for he had been
told of occasional irreverences of Spurgeon's, and of his giving way
now and then to a disposition to make a joke of things. Not that he
objected altogether to humor in sermons: he had his own temptations
in this way. "One must either weep at the follies of men or laugh
at them," he added. I told him Mr. Maurice had spoken to me of Mr.
Spurgeon as no doubt an important influence for good in the land, and
he said this was on the whole his own opinion. He told me, however,
of teaching of quite another character, addressed to people of
cultivation mainly, and to him peculiarly acceptable. His reference
was to Robertson's _Sermons_: he showed me the volume--the first
series--just then published. The mention of this book perhaps led to
a reference by Mr. Kingsley to the Unitarians of New England, of whom
he spoke very kindly, adding, in effect, that their error was but
a natural rebound from Calvinism, that dreary perversion of God's
boundless love.

But I had now to say good-bye to these new friends, who had come to
s