Autograph Letter Signed, J. Robertson, vicar, to Ebenezer Foster, banker, Cambridge, chatty about Adam Sedgwick and other aspects of Cambridge intellectual life.

Author: 
J. Robertson [James Robertson, MA, Vicar in Wellingborough, sometime member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science]
ALS, J. Robertson, vicar, to Ebenezer Foster, banker, Cambridge
Publication details: 
Wellingborough, 14 Feb 1834.
£180.00
SKU: 10478

Four pages, 4to, fold marks, closed tear, mainly good. He's taking advantage of a trip by one of his parishioners to deliver a letter thanking in fulsome and inventive terms Mrs Foster for sending Professor Sedgwick's Discourse. He says of it, Of the talent and temper of the orator only one opinion can be formed. For the Studies of the University [A Discourse on the Studies of the University] he is not responsible, but for his representation of them the University owes him thanks. Of the education which it prescribes, the moral part is I think a very defective one, and should be corrected and enlarged. The remarks on Locke and Paley do credit to the Professor, and should suggest an improved system. Greek verse has been all the rage at Cambridge, and the example of porson provoked an emulation which has had an unfavourable influence on the cultivation of some more valuable branches of Greek learning ... He reflects on the geology which appears in the book and a n 'improved' translation of the New Testament. The bulk of the letter concerns Poor Hull, Dissenterism, proceedings of Dissenters in Nottingham, their grievances, a related memorial to Earl Grey, and discussion of the issue of Dissenters exclusion from honours at Cambridge (real and important grievances). He is for the removal of such an exclusion except for Divinity, discussing the implications of contribution to church rates. He is sorry to hear an account of Mr Bosworth who has been removed from Cambridge.