go THE EDITOR OP THE"SPECTATOR,"]
SIR,—In your interesting article on "The Genesis of Uni- versity Myth," in the Spectator of September 14th, a doubt is raised which I can fortunately set at rest. In my "Recol- lections of Jowett" (Journal of Education, May, 1895), I tell the story about the relater of unedifying anecdotes to whom. Jowett said : "Shall we continue the conversation when we have joined the ladies P " and I mention that this incident has been reported to me by two eye-witnesses. Both my informants, however, agree in representing the " Orientalised veteran" who was thus gracefully snubbed, not as a Colonial, but as a distinguished diplomatist who had been knighted. In the additions made to that article in the volume to be- shortly published by Mr. Edward Arnold, I mention that, after careful inquiry, I am convinced that there is substantial truth in the familiar story about the very startling request which was once made to Jowett by a young lady, and which might perhaps have been included under the head of "absent- mindedness." I also refer to the famous epigram, which I have seen ascribed to Jowett in print, about the unpatriotic- and (so to say) private-spirited reason which may have induced the Athenians to put Socrates to death ; and I record what Jowett himself said to me about the authorship of that epigram.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
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