Edw. Cantuar.

I am going to preach at the Abbey to-night.


Hugh failed, however, to secure a place in the Indian Civil Service, and
it was decided that he should go up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and
read for classical honours.

Up to this date I do not think that anything very conscious or definite
had been going on in Hugh's mind or heart. He always said himself that
it astonished him on looking back to think how purely negative and
undeveloped his early life had been, and how it had been lived on
entirely superficial lines, without plans or ambitions, simply taking
things as they came.

I think it was quite true that it was so; his emotions were dormant,
his powers were dormant. I do not think he had either great affections
or great friendships. He liked companionship and amusement, he avoided
what bored him; he had no inclinations to evil, but neither had he any
marked inclinations to what was good. Neither had any of his many and
varied gifts and accomplishments showed themselves. I used to think
latterly that he was one of the most gifted people I had ever seen in
all artistic ways. Whatever he took up he seemed able to do, without any
apprenticeship or drudgery. Music, painting, drawing, carving,
designing--he took them all up in turn; and I used to feel that if he
had devoted himself to any one of them he could have reached a high
excellence. Even his literary gifts, so various and admirable, showed
but few signs of their presence in the early days; he was not in the
least precocious. I think that on the whole it was beneficial to him