Trinity College, Cambridge,

March 16, 1858.

My Dear Sir,

A few days after Dr Livingstone's visit to Cambridge, you informed me that you were about to publish the Reports of the two Addresses he had made (in the Senate-House and Town-Hall), with some notes and explanatory matter of your own. At the same time you asked me to write an account of what took place in our Senate-House, on the occasion of his Address to the University, with any comments I might think fit to offer for the use of your little Volume. I promised to comply with your request; for you told me that by so doing I should gratify my honoured friend Dr Livingstone: but my prefatory letter, I added, must be short; as I disclaimed all purpose of writing a formal review of Dr Livingstone's labours. I should indeed have thought such a task delightful, had I possessed health and leisure for its performance; but I had neither the one nor the other.

Three months have passed away since you first spoke to me of your intended publication. The delay cannot be a cause of regret to you if it has enabled you to improve the matter of your work. For your subject is not one of a momentary and local interest; but is connected with the advance of physical knowledge; and, under God's blessing, with the progress of humanity and Christian truth.