To John Kenyan June 30, 1843.

Thank you, my dear Mr. Kenyon, for the Camden Society books, and also for these which I return; and also for the hope of seeing you, which I kept through yesterday.  I honor Mrs. Coleridge for the readiness of reasoning and integrity in reasoning, for the learning, energy, and impartiality which she has brought to her purpose, and I agree with her in many of her objects; and disagree, by opposing her opponents with a fuller front than she is always inclined to do.  In truth, I can never see anything in these sacramental ordinances except a prospective sign in one (Baptism), and a memorial sign in the other, the Lord’s Supper, and could not recognise either under any modification as a peculiar instrument of grace, mystery, or the like.  The tendencies we have towards making mysteries of God’s simplicities are as marked and sure as our missing the actual mystery upon occasion.  God’s love is the true mystery, and the sacraments are only too simple for us to understand.  So you see I have read the book in spite of prophecies.  After all I should like to cut it in two—­it would be better for being shorter—­and it might be clearer also.  There is, in fact, some dullness and perplexity—­a few passages which are, to my impression, contradictory of the general purpose—­something which is not generous, about nonconformity—­and what I cannot help considering a superfluous tenderness for Puseyism.  Moreover she is certainly wrong in imagining that the ante-Nicene fathers did not as a body teach regeneration by baptism—­even Gregory Nazianzen, the most spiritual of many, did, and in the fourth century.  But, after all, as a work of theological controversy it is very un-bitter and well-poised, gentle, and modest, and as the work of a woman you must admire it and we be proud of it—­that remains certain at last.

Poor Mr. Haydon!  I am so sorry for his reverse in the cartoons.[79] It is a thunderbolt to him.  I wonder, in the pauses of my regret, whether Mr. Selous is your friend—­whether ‘Boadicea visiting the Druids,’ suggested by you, I think, as a subject, is this victorious ‘Boadicea’ down for a hundred pound prize?  You will tell me when you come.

I have just heard an uncertain rumour of the arrival of your brother.  If it is not all air, I congratulate you heartily upon a happiness only not past my appreciation.

Ever affectionately yours,
E.B.B.

I send the copy of ‘Orion’ for yourself, which you asked for.  It is in the fourth edition.

[Footnote 79:  This refers to the competition for the cartoons to be painted in the Houses of Parliament, in which Haydon was unsuccessful.  The disappointment was the greater, inasmuch as the scheme for decorating the building with historical pictures was mainly due to his initiative.]

To Mrs. Martin July 8, 1843.