As to the Bible Society, my view of the subject is as follows:—­1st.  Distributing Bibles is a good thing. 2ndly.  More Bibles will be distributed in consequence of the existence of the Bible Society; therefore, so far as that goes, the existence of the Bible Society is good.  But, 3rdly, as to the indirect benefits expected from it, as producing a golden age of unanimity among Christians, all that I think fume and emptiness; nay, far worse.  So deeply am I persuaded that discord and artifice, and pride and ambition, would be fostered by such an approximation and unnatural alliance of sects, that I am inclined to think the evil thus produced would more than outweigh the good done by dispersing the Bibles.  I think the last fifty or sixty pages of my brother’s pamphlet[66] merit the serious consideration of all persons of the Established Church who have connected themselves with the sectaries for this purpose....

Entreating your pardon for my long delay in answering your letter, let me conclude with assuring you that I remain, with great truth, your affectionate friend,

W. WORDSWORTH.[67]

[66] Reasons for declining to become a Subscriber to the British and Foreign Bible Society, by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Dean of Bocking.  Lond. 1810.  See also his Letter to Lord Teignmouth in vindication of the above Letter.  Lond. 1810.

[67] Memoirs, ii. 8-9.

40. Death of Children:  Politics, &c.

Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, Aug. 28, 1813.

MY DEAR WRANGHAM,

Your letter arrived when I was on the point of going from home on business.  I took it with me, intending to answer it upon the road, but I had not courage to undertake the office on account of the inquiries it contains concerning my family.  I will be brief on this melancholy subject.  In the course of the last year I have lost two sweet children, a girl and a boy, at the ages of four and six and a half.  These innocents were the delight of our hearts, and beloved by everybody that knew them.  They were cut off in a few hours—­one by the measles, and the other by convulsions; dying, one half a year after the other.  I quit this sorrowful subject, secure of your sympathy as a father and as my friend.

* * * * *

My employment I find salutary to me, and of consequence in a pecuniary point of view, as my literary employments bring me no remuneration, nor promise any.  As to what you say about the Ministry, I very much prefer the course of their policy to that of the Opposition; especially on two points most near my heart:  resistance of Buonaparte by force of arms, and their adherence to the principles of the British Constitution in withholding political power from the Roman Catholics.  My most determined hostility shall always be directed against those statesmen who, like Whitbread, Grenville, and others, would crouch to a sanguinary tyrant; and