The boy who at Eton had impressed even his elders with the distinction of his personality, carrying as it seemed his own atmosphere' with him, was not less remarkable at Cambridge for that originality of mind and character which belongs to his race, and gave rise to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's famous division of the human species into men, women, and Herveys. One illustration is sufficient to show his almost Quixotic sense of honour. Just before the examination was held for a Trinity Scholarship, young Hervey, whose success was anticipated as certain, suddenly left Cambridge, and only returned when the examination was concluded. His disappearance on the eve of the examination caused the greatest astonishment in high quarters. Mr. Munro, the well-known editor of Lucretius, on meeting Hubert's eldest brother, the Rev. F. A. J. Hervey1, who happened to be in Cambridge, rushed excitedly across the street, exclaiming, 'What in the world can have induced your brother to leave Cambridge just as that examination was coming on? It was a dead certainty for him. There was not another man in, who could approach him.' 1 Rector of Sandringham and Canon of Norwich. On being pressed for an explanation of his conduct, Hubert admitted that some friend had given him some trifling information, intending it to be of use to him in the examination. Imagining this might give him an unfair advantage over his rivals, his chivalrous sense of honour forbade him to compete, and he quietly went away. No wonder that Mr. Oscar Browning, who was a lecturer at King's during Hervey's residence at Cambridge, writes of him that his chief characteristics were directness, straightforwardness, and uprightness of character, coupled with a moral courage which never flinched, and that his personality was one which was not easily forgotten by those who knew him. In the opinion of Mr. Oscar Browning, Hervey's knowledge of modern languages, his clear business habits, and his unfailing courtesy qualified him in an exceptional degree for posts of high responsibility and importance. At one time Hervey hesitated whether to read for the History Tripos or the Classical. He had always taken a deep interest in history; but he chose the weightier task and determined to seek Honours in Classics. The eye-trouble, however, which had originated in the close work of the Dresden Gymnasium, now seriously interfered with his studies. The inflammatory tendency troubled him increasingly; and during the greater part of his residence at Cambridge, including all the latter terms, he could only work by being read aloud to. The burden of reading only by proxy, and the strain that the break-down of his sight entailed on his whole nervous system, told seriously on his health. For a time his eyes were so troublesome that he had to abandon all study and go abroad with his mother and sister. But, with characteristic courage, he determined to persist to the end; and obtained a Second Class in the Classical Tripos of 1881. That he should have been able, working under these serious disadvantages, to obtain so good a degree, illustrates alike his ability and his perseverance. His early letters have not, of course, the maturity of later ones, but are interesting illustrations of his thoughts and occupations at nineteen years of age. WHISTON, Sept. 8, 1878. I have been doing but little reading,' he writes to Robert J. Parker; 'the only thing I have read being the Lehrjahre, which I have just finished, and begun the Wanderjahre. My impression of the former, as far as it is formed at all, is that it is a story with total absence of art, but with some well-drawn characters and some very fine passages in it. The last especially I like . . . and I am not at all disappointed with it on the whole: on the contrary I have learnt an immense deal. The "Bekenntnisse einer schönen Seele" is perhaps the finest thing in the book... I can't say I admire Wilhelm, he seems a weak fickle sort of creature, perhaps a little like Rousseau, only not so bad. The "Leitmotiv" seems to have some connexion with Faust; Faust-Wilhelm, Werner-Wagner, the moral in each being "Bildung" and "Thätigkeit" and experience from life. Of course as the book is written for instruction, the want of art is pardonable. But the book gives one the impression of a disconnected whole, and one's interest is drawn first to one side and then to another; first being fixed on Wilhelm, and then one gets so interested in Lothario that one almost forgets the hero. The introduction, too, of "Bekenntnisse einer schönen Seele," though splendid in itself, destroys the continuity of the story, and takes away one's interest from the main points. It is curious that Goethe, with all his love of art, should so often have been deficient in it.' THE RECTORY, SANDRINGHAM, 'For your scrap of a letter proportionate thanks. Where are Virchow's and Häckel's speeches to be found? As for "Evolution" . . . it is at best but a theory, though in some respects a plausible one; and Häckel is far more illogical than the Pope, for the latter professes to be informed by the Spirit of God, and, if one believes that, one must also believe in the Pope; whereas Häckel, as an atheist, must ipso facto prove conclusively before he can claim belief. Intolerance and bigotry are not confined to the Church.' PARIS, Feb. 28, 1879. 66 '... I bought on my way here an ultra-Republican paper, La République (not of course La R. Française), which furiously attacked Waddington for his foreign policy, saying it was Anglaise"; and also gave an amusing account of Lord Beaconsfield's policy. The Zulu disaster, it is said, was trumped up for the purpose of destroying and disarming the Opposition in England. It had not really taken place, and would soon be contradicted. The object was to gain a pretext for sending a large number of troops to Africa, in order to do |