Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian IslandsYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Religion
Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Missions -- Melanesia; Patteson, John Coleridge, 1827-1871
'I find that I am getting to know the undergraduates here, which is what
I wanted to do; it is my only chance of being of any use. True, that I
have to do it at the expense of two half-days' cricketing, which I have
quite ceased to care about, but I know that when I went up to Balliol,
I was glad when a Fellow played with us. It was a guarantee for orderly
conduct, and as I say, it gives me an opportunity of knowing men. I hope
to leave London for Dresden on Monday week; Arthur is gone thither, as I
find out from Jem, and I hope the scheme will answer. If I find I can't
work, from my eyes, or anything else, preventing me, I shall come home,
but I have no reason to expect any such thing. My best love to Joan and
all friends.
'Your loving Brother,
'J. C. PATTESON.'
The 'Arthur' here mentioned was the youngest son of Mr. Frank Coleridge,
and became Coley's companion at Dresden, where he was studying German.
He writes:--
'Patteson spoke German fluently, and wrote German correctly. He had
studied the language assiduously for about two years previously, and so
successfully that whilst we were at Dresden, he was enabled to dispense
with a teacher and make his assistance little more than nominal.
Occasionally he wrote a German exercise, but rather as an amusement
than a discipline, and merely with the view of enlarging his German
vocabulary. I remember his writing an elaborate description of Feniton
Court, and imagining the place to be surrounded with trees belonging
to all sorts of climates. The result was very amusing to ourselves, and
added to the writer's stock of words on particular subjects. When our
master Schier appeared, the conversation was led by a palpable ambuscade
to the topic which had been made the subject of Patteson's exercise, and
conversation helped to strengthen memory. After looking over a few of
Patteson's German exercises, Mr. Schier found so little to correct,
in the way of grammatical errors, that these studies were almost
relinquished, and gave way to Arabic and Hebrew. Before we left Dresden,
Patteson had read large portions of the Koran; and, with the aid
of Hurwitz's Grammar and Bernhard's Guide to Hebrew Students, books
familiar to Cambridge men, he was soon able to read the Psalms in the
original. I remember the admiration and despair I felt in witnessing
Patteson's progress, and the wonder expressed by his teacher in his
pupil's gift of rapid acquirement. We had some excellent introductions;
amongst others, to Dr. ----, a famous theologian, with whom Patteson was
fond of discussing the system and organisation of the Church in
Saxony. Up to the time of his leaving England he was constantly using
Olshausen's Commentary on the New Testament, a book he was as thoroughly
versed in as Archbishop Trench himself. I think that he consulted no
other books in his study of the Gospels, but Olshausen and Bengel's
Gnomon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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