une,  1845.  —  I  have  very  reluctantly  consented
to  what  you  approve  of,  delay  till  October.  It  will
tutor  me  more  and  more  in  that  stern  and  rugged
resignation  which  seems  the  lesson  in  which  circum-
stances and  fate  are  trying,  with  some  difficulty,  to
indoctrinate  my  wild  and  wayward  spirit.
I  long  for  Festus,  not  for  Home  [Ballad  Romances?],
though  he  do  puff  my  Landor.  I  have  written  to
John  Brown  to  try  and  get  it,  for  your  recommenda-
tion alone  stamps  it  as  first-rate.
I  have  read  or  rather  am  reading  "  Anastasis  "
again.  I  think  it  effectually  and  for  ever  blows  up
the  common  doctrine  of  Resurrection  ;  whether  it
establishes  his  own  upon  Scriptural  grounds  is  a
different  question.  With  what  Benthamic  or  Miltonic
calmness  and  confidence  does  he  enunciate  his  idea  as
one  which  will  be  denied,  resisted,  abused,  but  which
must  ultimately  triumph.  In  fact,  if  his  book  do  not
contain  the  genuine  doctrine  of  resurrection,  the  thing
will  with  many  sink  into  a  more  monstrous  transub-
stantiation,  a  treble  trinity  for  difficulty  and  self-
contradiction,  and  become,  if  anything,  a  badge  not
a  belief.  I  think  that  even  as  a  Scriptural  argument
Bush's  is  very  plausible,  much  more  so  than  the
common,  and  the  harshest  apparent  dogmatisms  to
the  contrary  yield,  soften,  and  become  flexible  in  his
subtle  hands.  Read  him  and  judge  for  yourself.
I  have  been  in  Stirling  and  Comrie  since  I  saw  you.
