15 JUNE 1951, Page 18

Utnphry Ward

SIR,—The publication of Mrs. Trevelyan) article in your issue of June 8th must have raised feelings of gratitude-in the minds of many,Nat least of your older readers, reminditig bean as, it.does of a great debt they owe to the memory of the gracious lady whose centenary occurs this month. To many of us who, in the dreary mental climate of.the nineties, were painfully seeking to fashibri some not unworthy " divine idea of the universe " (to quote the phrase that seems to have haunted Carlyle), she brought encouragement and a measure of constructive thouglit that has proved an abiding possession in the years that have followed.

One would have welcomed a fuller estimate of how far Mrs. Humphry Ward's aims in regard to the furtherance of religion and social service have been realised. Her daughter, with modest propriety, refrains from attempting that: but perhaps we may yet have it from some one of your contributors well qualified to spcak.—I am, &c., L A. T.