CHAPTER XIV
1864-1865
Lectures at Osborne. Schleswig-Holstein war. Birth of third child. Member of Royal Irish Academy. Weymouth. Visit of his mother. Lecture at Leeds. Member of Turin Academy. Last visit to Ray Lodge. Sub-Librarianship of Bodleian.
'Professor Max Muller had the honour of delivering two lectures last week at Osborne before Her Majesty and the Royal Family, on the Science of Language.' Such was the announcement in the Court Circular, and the following letters give the details of this interesting visit:—
To His Wife.
Osborne, January 5.
'I arrived here all safe. I met the Queen's messenger at Southampton, and we went to Osborne in the Elfin, which had brought Prince Alfred over. The crossing took more than an hour, but I did not feel uncomfortable. I sat in the cabin with Prince Leiningen, who commands the vessel, and we had a pleasant chat together in German. I was very tired when I arrived here, and full of cold and headache, so I laid down in my own room, which was warm and cosy, and slept till dinner-time. I dined with the household at eight. I sat between Lady Churchill and Mrs. Ponsonby. All was very pleasant. Sir James Clarke was there, Mr. Ponsonby, Sir Thomas Biddulph, and some more ladies. After dinner we went to the ladies' drawing-room, where a message arrived from the Queen, who wished to see me. So I was conducted into the royal portion of the palace, and in a small boudoir there were the Queen, Princess Hohenlohe, and Princess Helena; afterwards Mrs. Bruce came in. I did my best to talk sense, but oh! my poor head. The Queen was very kind, and thanked me for coming, and said she was looking forward very much to my lectures. The conversation was in German, and you cannot imagine the dignity and graciousness of the Queen when she spoke with great composure of Prince Albert; and the reports spread abroad about her state of health are absolutely absurd. After about twenty minutes the Queen bowed, and I went straight to bed. I feel much better to-day, and hope to get through my lecture without disgrace. I received a message that Princess Helena wished to walk with me in the afternoon. Then at six there is to be the lecture, diagrams and all. Prince Arthur will be there; he was kept a day longer on purpose. The palace is full of beautiful works of art, but I have hardly had time to look at them yet.'
January 6.
'My first lecture is over, and from all I can hear it has not been a failure. Yesterday in the afternoon I had a very pleasant walk with Princess Helena and Mrs. Bruce. Princess Helena showed me their private museum, which they keep in a Swiss cottage, full of curious things which have been given them, or which the Princes have collected in their foreign travels. There were the Queen's former playthings, and a kitchen where the Princesses cook and bake, and kitchen gardens, one for each of them, and the Princess Royal every year gets her green peas from her own plot sent to Berlin, and enjoys them greatly. Everything is full of recollections of the Prince, and they all talk about him as if he were still among them. This is thoroughly German, and it always struck me in England how carefully all conversation on those who have gone before us is avoided, and how much of comfort and good influence derived from the memory of those we loved is thereby lost. After we came home from our walk, I had just time to prepare for my lecture, and to get my diagrams mounted. At six all the people assembled in the Council Chamber, and after a time came the Queen and the Princesses. The Queen had not attended a lecture for more than ten years, and everybody was surprised at her appearing. She listened very attentively, and did not knit at all, though her work was brought. After the lecture the Queen conversed •with me for a long time, asking many shrewd questions, as did her sister. Princess Hohenlohe. It was then time to dress for dinner, and then to bed. This morning I had an interview with Princess Beatrice, who however was a little shy at first, but became after a time very amusing. She talks English, French, and German.'
January 6, 11 p.m.
'Just to finish the account of my visit here, I must tell you that after I had sent my letter to you to-day, the Queen sent for me again to her drawing-room, and brought Princess Beatrice with her to make her read to me in German, English, and French. She did it remarkably well, and the Queen talked to me a good deal about education, and how she taught her children. Afterwards Princess Helena showed me all the family pictures by Winterhalter, and the splendid statues. The Princess, when you know her, reminds you much of the Princess Royal. We walked about for a long time discussing all sorts of things. I had then to prepare for my lecture, to which the Queen came again, but without any work at all. In the evening Lord Granville arrived, and the Queen was very busy. She sent me word she hoped to see me, but afterwards sent to say it was getting too late, and that she was sorry she could not have seen me, and thanked me again. In the evening I had a long talk with Lord Granville, and tomorrow morning I hope to start at 9.30 with Prince Arthur and Sir James Clarke.'
These are the concluding words of the last lecture:—
'When the two last volumes of the Veda are published we shall have saved from destruction a work older than the Iliad, older than any other literary document of that noble race of mankind to which the greatest nations in the world's history have belonged—a race which after receiving from a Semitic race, from the Jews, its best treasure, its religion, the religion of the Old and New Testaments, is now, with the English in the van, carrying on slowly but irresistibly the conquest of the world by means of commerce, colonization, education, and conversion.'
On Max Muller's return, he heard from Sir Charles Phipps how pleased the Queen had been with the lectures—'of that you must be fully aware'—and Sir Charles added how much he had himself valued the information and instruction communicated, whilst three days later Lady Augusta Stanley forwarded the following extract from a letter from Princess Helena, now Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Gracious permission has been given to insert it.
'We have had two most interesting and charming lectures from Professor Max Muller. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed them and value them. Do tell him so when you see him again, and how much I regret not being able to hear any more. I wish there was a possibility of my hearing more at some future time; I hope so—and Mama has not said No! You cannot think how pleasant it was for me to be able to talk to a clever man like Professor M. and one who does not inspire me with fear, as some very learned people do. The subject he treats is one which always interested me so much. Ever with much love, your affectionate friend, 'Helena.'
To Rev. G. Cox.
Oxford, January 22.
'. . . When the Rishis first perceived the necessity of one Superior Power is difficult to say. It breaks through here and there, but their religion does not become monotheistic, for this involves the denial of polytheism. It always remains henotheistic, if one may coin such a word. I mean the one single god addressed at the time shares in all the qualities of a supreme being, but soon after another god is addressed equally supreme, and their logic does not in the least revolt at this. The Etruscan names of Greek deities have about the same value as the English names of the Indian deities. I mean they are mere corruptions, partly owing to ignorance, partly to the imperfections of the Etruscan alphabet, which possessed no media, and despised vowels almost as much as the Semitic languages.'
To The Same.
January 26.
'. . . Much as I admire M. Breal's essay on Cacus, I do not the least feel convinced by his explanation of the dualism between Ormuzd and Ahriman, nor by his theory of Persian influences to be discovered in the early portions of the Bible. I am as far from prejudices on this point as M. Breal, who is a Jew, and who, like most educated Jews, looks upon the books of the Old Testament as much more than inspired—taking inspired in the modern sense of that word—namely, as real, old, historical documents. I should value any such traces of influences received from neighbouring nations by the writers of the Old Testament most highly; but such is the importance from an historical point of view that I shall not feel inclined to build any conclusions on such vague evidence as that brought together by M. Breal. . . . Any such word as Asdossodeus, if it could be discovered in the early books, would be invaluable, but though I do not give up all hope of such discoveries hereafter, I am bound to say that as yet I cannot see them.'
To The Same.
February 16.
'I am afraid I have hardly done justice to your book in my review. The fact is, I was overwhelmed with work, and, after a short introduction, I put in a portion of my lectures which I am preparing for the Press. However, I find that my article has at least startled several people who have a tender feeling for Helen and Troy, and I hope they will take to your book and try to get some more information. I may be wrong in my explanation of the relation between Helen and Paris, Sarama and Pani, but I cannot help thinking that Helena and Sarama are the same word.'
The following letter refers first to Mr. Gifford Palgrave, the Arabian traveller, who had just returned from his daring expedition, and then to the Schleswig-Holstein question which occupied so much of Max Muller's attention during the early part of this year.
To His Wife.
February 17.
'After luncheon I went to see the Jesuit, and had a very interesting talk with him about a thousand subjects. I found him clever, well-informed, and devoted to his work; quite unanglicized, however, in all his views, and strangely torn away from all the fibres of his native soil. It is a pleasant contrast to the self-seeking, money-making, place-hunting tendencies, to see a man without any ambition as far as this life is concerned, but evidently full of ambition for another life. I enclose a letter from Delane; so you see I am in for it. I am all in large print, to offer a larger target to the arrows of the enemy.'
Max Muller, both in letters to the Times and to friends in England and abroad, upheld the independence of the Duchies: 'They are sovereign and independent states, and are indissolubly united.' He advocated the claims of the house of Augustenburg, and reprobated the high-handed policy of Bismarck, as much as the pretensions of Denmark. In later years he saw that Bismarck's policy with regard to the Duchies was the first link in the chain that led to the unity of Germany. The feeling in England was very strong. Denmark was weak, Prussia and Austria strong; therefore Denmark must be upheld—people forgetting that the Duchies, whose rights were at stake, were still weaker. Max Muller was openly attacked in the papers, and received anonymous letters from Danes in England that were too vile to show to any one; in some his life even was threatened. One old friend assumed in the Athenoeum that he was the author of a pamphlet, The Dano-German Conflict and Lord Russell's Proposals of Mediation, calling it 'an ingenious mystification, the author of which wishes to be supposed to be an Englishman.' The author was an Englishman connected with the Government, and therefore could not give his name. Max Muller always signed his letters, and never masked as an Englishman.
To His Mother.
Translation. March 4.
'You will have gathered from the papers that I am quite well. I had lately to tell the English something of the truth, and though they don't like to hear it, yet they have taken it well. The common papers abuse me, but they are of little weight, and the leading ones behave civilly, though they answer with the most absurd nonsense. All this takes up my time, that is the worst, and disturbs my work; but one must do one's duty, and now that I am known in England, it fell to my lot to take up the cudgels for the truth on the German side. The affair is still very complicated. Russia, Austria, and Prussia hang together, but with bad intentions. Everything now depends on France, and the Emperor will sell himself to the highest bidder—either to England or Russia. England has plunged deeply, and will hardly come out with a whole skin. Palmerston would like war, but the people, at least in manufacturing towns and the north, are against it. The King of the Belgians arrived to-day.'
To The Same.
Contemporary Letter, March 4.
'M. has talked of writing to you for some days, as he was afraid you would share the fears of the German papers, which seem to think he must be in prison, or very near it, for his letters to the Times. Happily, here any one may speak out his mind freely without fear of any bad consequences. Such certainly is not the case in Berlin now, as we hear from Morier that Herr von Schlotzer has been sent off to Rome for having expressed his feelings against Bismarck too freely. The newspapers are all very angry with M., which proves that they feel the truth of what he says; but every newspaper almost is ultra- Danish, except the local papers of Liverpool and Manchester, and other great places of trade, where the merchants are German in feeling, and entirely opposed to any idea of war. The Queen's life is no easy one at present. Her own feelings entirely German, and her Ministers and people as entirely Danish. She must be happy just now at having old King Leopold with her, as she leans so much on him.'
Max Muller's lectures this term were on 'The Origin of Fables,' and were largely attended.
To His Wife.
Oxford, March 30.
'I had a visit to-day from the Schleswig-Holstein architect—a very nice fellow. He came to England on business: is building a grand mansion somewhere near York. He told me many things about the war, &c. He is a man of forty-five, with wife and children, in very good business. He has enrolled himself to fight as soon as the Prussians and Austrians are gone. All his friends, he says, have done the same, and are ready to die rather than submit to the Danes again. I had a visit from , who brought me all sorts of messages from Princess Hohenlohe. However, I told him nothing could be done at present. I also received an address and vote of thanks from Bremen, largely signed.'
Early in April Max Muller heard of the death of his mother's old aunt, Frau Klausnitzer, mother of Emilie, Baroness Stolzenberg. He writes:—
To His Mother.
Translation. April 5.
'The news of the death of the dear old aunt has affected me very much. She had indeed enjoyed the full measure of human life, and in her old age had a large measure of happiness; but when the moment of parting comes—come as it may—it comes always too soon. I have only had the printed notice, and know nothing of how it was. In your last letter you said she was so well and bright, and then I always thought, "Well, whilst the old aunt is so well and strong my mother has a good spell of life still before her." One only fancies the generations must follow each other, till the turn comes for ourselves. Well, for those who have had such a happy old age, and remained strong in mind and body to the last, those who are left can only thank God, and pray for a like end for themselves and for all they love. We accustom ourselves so easily to life as a second nature, and in spite of the graves around us, death remains something unnatural, hard and terrifying. That should not be. An early death is terrifying, but as we grow older our thoughts should accustom themselves to passing away at the end of a long life's journey. All is so beautiful, so good, so wisely ordered, that even death can be nothing hard, nothing disturbing; it all belongs to a great plan, which we do not understand, but of which we know that it is wiser than all wisdom, better than all good, that it cannot be otherwise, cannot be better. In faith we can live, and we can die—can even see those go before us, who came before us, and whom we must follow. All is not according to our will, to our wisdom, but according to a heavenly Will, and those who have once found each other through God's hand will, clinging to His hand, find each other again. Let me soon hear how you are, and submit to God's Will quietly and with resignation.'
All these early months Max Muller was preparing his second volume of Lectures on Language for the Press, which had been delayed by his visit to Germany the previous year. Before, however, they were ready, a fourth edition of the first volume came out, of 1,250 copies like the others. He also wrote a much-admired article on 'The Language and Poetry of Schleswig-Holstein,' with some good translations of Klaus Groth's 'Platt-Deutsch Poems.' This was reprinted in Chips, first edition. Volume III.
To Rev. G. Cox.
Oxford, April 11.
'If the old generation is uncritically sceptical, the young generation is uncritically credulous. Now the young generation, the rising scholars, to a man, swear in Comparative Philology and Mythology, and the future is theirs, I am afraid as we get older we shall be equally unwilling to change our views and examine our evidence. I hope in that case we may abstain and stand by in silence; but though I hope it, I am not quite certain on that point. Surely, Comparative Mythology is not self-evident; if it were, where would be the pleasure of having dug up some of these old bones? People who make new discoveries ought not to be angry with the world for not accepting them at once! To me, I confess, though it may sound very conceited, there is a pleasure in living in a small University. I am old enough to remember the incredulous wagging of heads when Bopp declared that the infinitive was the dative or some other case of an abstract noun: there is hardly a grammar now where you do not find this. Even now, if you tell people that two only of the ten numerals in Greek and Sanskrit are oxytone, and that this is not by accident, they think you are talking nonsense. Fifty years hence a boy will be plucked who does not know it. Now you know I am myself a great unbeliever in many mythological parallelisms, and I am quite prepared to admit that many of my own comparisons will be knocked over. It is sad that it should be so, but so it is! even old Bopp's Comparative Grammar is by this time riddled with shot and crumbling down, but something better has been put in its place. But that the principles I have laid down for the study of Comparative Mythology are sound I am prepared to prove against the world.'
To His Wife.
Oxford, June 17.
'Our garden looks so well, and I jump out of window and look at my roses, and then go back to my work. There is to me a beauty and mystery and sanctity about flowers, and when I see them come and go, no one knows whence and whither, I ask, What more miracles do we want? What better, more beautiful, more orderly world could we wish to belong to than that by which we are surrounded and supported on all sides? Where is there a flaw or a fault? Then why should we fear unless the flaws are within us, and we will not see the blessing and the rest which we might enjoy if we only trusted to the Author of all that beauty, order, and wisdom about us? It is a perfect sin not to be happy in this world, and how much of the misery which there is, is the work of men, or could be removed by men, if they would but work together for each other's good. It seems so hopeless to do any good on so small a scale as ours must necessarily be; yet I do not think we do enough, not in proportion to what is given us without any desert.'
Max Muller had very strong feelings about the duty of almsgiving, and considered a tenth of all he had the least that should be given away annually. In most years he far exceeded this sum, and even his wife never knew the constant help he gave to poor young students and literary men, both German and English. To his mother and sister he was most generous. He had been a great smoker before his marriage, and indulged in the best cigars, but he gave up smoking entirely when he had the expenses of a household to provide for, that his charity purse, as he called it, might not suffer; and it was only in the last twenty years of his life that he took to smoking again, and then only cigarettes, and very few of them each day.
As soon as his book was printed, Max Muller joined his wife and children at Ray Lodge, and on June 22 he writes to his mother that he was expecting the publication of his second volume of Lectures, and did not trouble himself as to its reception. 'One does one's best, and one says what one feels is right, and the rest one lets alone. I am not at all sorry that I have spoken out to the English, and if they abuse me, it shows they are ashamed.' And his wife wrote also: 'Max is enjoying his holiday here, for the lectures being off his hands he is giving himself perfect rest and doing nothing but lie in the hayfields or the garden, enjoying the flowers.'[/quote]
On August I Max Muller's third child, a third daughter, was born. In writing to ask his valued friend Dean Stanley to be godfather, he says:—
To Dean Stanley.
August 2.
'I always hoped to have you as godfather to my first son, if there should be one. As it seems, however, that there is to be no little Max, I shall wait no longer. I have no doubt that your family of godchildren is a very large one, but as I think you may trust G. and myself that we shall try to bring up our children in the real faith and true discipline of Christ, I hope you will be able to accede to our request, and add this one to many other proofs of real friendship which you have given to both of us. Have you seen Bunsen's Leben Jesu [Google translate: Life of Jesus]? I read it, and wrote to Madame Bunsen asking her to have it published, and translated into English, possibly into French also. I like it, and I think just now it will do good. It contains the soul, which is wanting in Renan's ghost, or rather in his corpse, of Christ. It gives all that is essential in the outward life of Christ, and then throws the burden of believing or disbelieving the divinity of Christ on every one of us, as it was thrown on those who witnessed His real life, who had to break with a religion dear and sacred to themselves, and whose senses and reason must have had to pass through a much more severe struggle than we have to pass through, before they yielded to the voice within, that Christ was the Son of God. I do not know whether you would consider it wise to have your name in any way connected with a translation of Bunsen's work, but I hope it will not be brought out with any appearance of coming from a hostile camp. It should come as a message of peace—as a minimum, a very small minimum, if you like—but with a large margin on every side, which need not remain a blank.'
In writing to tell his mother of the birth of her new grandchild, Max mentions at the end of his letter that 1,000 copies of his Lectures had been sold the first day.
To Rev. G. Cox.
Oxford, August 5, 1864.
'My dear Sir,—. . . As to annihilation, all I mean is that it is a word without any conceivable meaning, and that it might do some people good to see this clearly. We are—that is enough. What we are does not depend on us; what we shall be, neither. We may conceive the idea of change in form, but not of cessation or destruction of substance. No doubt people mean frequently by annihilation the loss of conscious personality, as distinct from material annihilation. On that point I said nothing, because it would have led me too far out of my own sphere. However, what I feel about it is shortly this. If there is anything real and substantial in our conscious personality, then whatever there is real and substantial in it cannot cease to exist. If on the contrary we mean by conscious personality something that is the result of accidental circumstances, then, no doubt, we must face the idea of such a personality ceasing to be what it now is. I believe, however, that the true source and essence of our personality lies in what is the most real of all real things, and in so far as it is true, it cannot be destroyed. There is a distinction between conscious personality and personal consciousness. A child has personal consciousness; a man who is this or that, a Napoleon or a Talleyrand, has conscious personality. Much of that conscious personality is merely temporary and passes away; but the personal consciousness remains. I do not think that Schleiermacher could have said that the last enemy that would be destroyed in us is the idea of our immortality. What he may have said is, our idea of immortality. I should like to see this subject fully and freely discussed. It is no doubt the old controversy between Nominalism and Realism under a new form. We know what stuff words are made of, and it strikes me that those who know the antecedents of words are spared many troubles and difficulties in religious and philosophical struggles.'
The middle of September the whole family party went for change to Weymouth, where they were joined by Max Muller's mother, who returned with them to Oxford and stayed on with them the whole winter.
Politics crop up again towards the close of the year, as the following letter to Morier, Secretary of Legation at Berlin, shows. Morier shared all Max Muller's feelings as to the Duchies:—
Oxford, November 10.
'My dear Morier,—For the sake of decency, if not from a feeling of personal friendship, I trust the Duchies will soon be handed over to Duke Frederick. If Prussia attempts to swallow the small morsel by itself it will stick in her throat. Hereafter it will go down together with others at one good gulp. I was so sorry not to see you again before you returned to Berlin; we went to Weymouth during September and October; my mother came to me there, and is now staying with us. We are all well, thank God, and if it were not for the dinner-parties this quiet life would be very pleasant. But I am afraid the dinner-parties will drive me sooner or later away from this country to the less hospitable shores of the Spree or Danube. Jowett's salary has again been defeated, this time in Council; it shows how low human nature can sink. It is perfectly disgusting, and I feel ashamed to accept any salary from such a body of men. The matter, however, is not to rest, and a new motion has at once been made. Is there not some great mischief brewing in all these meetings of crowned heads and Ministers? And are you quite certain that there is no mischief hatching as against England? Though John Bull does make a fool of himself now and then, the world would soon go to wrack and ruin without him. Crowned brains are just now very active, and I am sure they all consider England a bull in a china shop. There are certain fellows now very cock-a-hoop, and capable of anything in the way of spite and mischief. Yours ever affectionately.'
Christmas was spent in Oxford for the first time since i860, and was a regular German Christmas, with a tree for the children, and German Stolle (cake) and German dishes. Max Muller, who had not spent Christmas with his mother since 1849, was as happy, and entered into everything with the same zest, as one of his own children. It was never difficult to give him pleasure, for his hard early training made of every little trifle a source of enjoyment and a cause of thankfulness to the Giver of all Good.
Early in 1865 the Max Mullers received the sad news that the family home at Ray Lodge was to be given up and the party there dispersed. The long lease had nearly run out, and the owner would only sell, not let again. Max Muller's father-in-law resolved to settle in London near his younger daughter, and the sister who had lived with him over forty years, bringing up his children, preferred the country, as did Max Muller's brother-in-law, who had hitherto, with his wife and child, lived at Ray Lodge. To the Max Mullers and Walronds it was a great loss; living, as they did, in a town, the country life was a boon to their children, and only a large country house had room for them all to meet together. It was at once resolved to spend as long a time as possible during the summer in the old home.[/quote]
To Lady Augusta Stanley.
64, High Street, Oxford, February 7, 1865.
'Dear Lady Augusta,—Many thanks for the Theology of the Nineteenth Century—and, I hope, of many more centuries to come—which I believe I owe to your kindness. I read it with intense pleasure; it was almost like having a talk with the Dean, or listening to one of his sermons. I do not know the exact date of the Book of Daniel, and this, I am afraid, would be considered heresy by many of the Presidents and Princes; but of this I am certain, that in any century, even in our own, the lions cannot hurt a man who, like Daniel, is a servant of the living God. I hope you and the Dean are quite well. We have been living our quiet and happy life at Oxford. My mother has been with us the whole winter, and the children are well. With herzliche Grusse [Google translate: Best regards] to the Dean, yours sincerely, 'Max Muller.'
The following letter touches on the curious legend of the Barnacle Goose, fully detailed in the second volume of Max Muller's Lectures on Language, which had excited a good deal of attention not only in England, but on the Continent:—[/quote]
To Professor Benfey.
Translation. 64, High Street, February 26.
'Dear Colleague,—. . . I have read the little notice on fishes and birds in Occident und Orient. As it is a later addition, it would be most remarkable if the fable had really got into the Eastern fables from the West of Europe. The occurrence of the same legend in different places allows of various explanations, but especially through the passage in Genesis i. 20, to which the priests have often referred, in order to prove that all fowl are of common origin with fishes, and therefore may be eaten on fast-days.
'These commoner legends do not therefore belong to the "myth" treated by me, which does not refer to birds in general, but only to the goose which goes by the special name of Barnacle Goose. This name can be explained, and can be connected with the name barnacle-shell.'
Early in March Max Muller went to Leeds to deliver a lecture on 'The Vedas, or the Ancient Sacred Books of the Brahmans.'
To His Wife.
Leeds, March 6.
'So you see I found my way after all. It was a wretched day till we got beyond Rugby, and then the sun came out, and the country looked warm and bright. It is quite spring here, and I hope the change will do me good. I found Mr. Hincks waiting for me; he is a clergyman, though I do not know of what denomination yet. He has a nice house, and a wife and two daughters. We had a quiet dinner, and in the evening the intellect of Leeds will assemble here.'
March 7.
'We had a very pleasant party last night, chiefly clergy and medical men. The Vicar of Leeds, Dr. Otley, came, though my host is the Unitarian minister of Leeds. I was a little tired, having to talk a great deal. We had a sumptuous supper, and then to bed. This morning we started after breakfast to see the town. Very fine Town-hall, with a statue of the Queen by Noble. Then we explored a wool manufactory, with some beautiful machinery, seeing the whole process from the sheep to the shawls. Then the poor parts of the town, and the Working Men's Club—all very curious, and the weather fine. We dined at three, and in the evening the lecture is to come off. Well, I must do my best. The people are all very civil, but I shall be glad when it is over. Love to mother, and give her this wool, which I saw made.'