It has been worth while to dwell upon this group of
friends, for with the one exception of Amqld, they were
friendships for life kept up by visits and correspondence,
and never wi^iout their influence upon him. But their
main influence was that of the Oxford days. They did
that which was all-important for the shy, sensitive,
home-bred boy; they gave him confidence in himself
by the unrestrained way in which they admitted him
to their confidence. In many a college society such a
temperament would have withered and shrunk into
itself; in this kindly warmth it grew and blossomed.
All the natural gaiety of heart, all the frolicsome
humour which characterizes his home letters, reappears
in his letters to these friends. Just as his brother and
sisters have their comic nicknames, so it is with these
friends. The wise Miller is " Hooker" ; Ajnold is " the
sheep " ; Cornish " the monkey " ; Dyson is " Jeremiah,"
or " The Venerable Bede,'* or " Simorg " ; his own brother
is " Thomas Aquinas " ; J. Tucker is the " Queen of
Babylon," or "Bab," or "Semiramis," and is spoken of
always as *'she." Thus when he left Corpus Christi he
carried away a stronger self-confidence ; and he carried
away also a wider knowledge of English literature,
and a love and reverence for the memory of one of
the noblest names of which the college could boast —
Richard Hooker.
S JOHN KEBLE.
