Autograph Letter Signed

This renowned English historian is remembered for "The View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages" (1818), "The Constitutional History of England" (1827) and "Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries" (1838-39); his son Arthur died in 1833 at age 22 and is immortalized in Tennyson's book-length 1850 poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." ALS, 2pp (recto and verso), 4½" X 7¼", London ("24 Wilton Crescent"), 1842 February 5. Addressed to "My dear Sir." Very good. Faint mounting trace. Interesting content, almost certainly concerning Matthew Arnold's father, Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), and his just-published "Sermons: Christian Life, Its Hopes, Fears and Close." Writes Hallam, in part: "I return you Dr Arnold's Sermons with many thanks. They show all that characteristic independence of mind which almost amounts to originality, & perhaps does produce an original component in the Dr himself, though no one idea may be absolutely novel. It appears to me he has taken very good ground in his arguments against the [ ? ] school, but not the most popular ground...." Four months after Hallam wrote this Arnold died at the age of 46. Boldly penned in Hallam's usual less-than-legible scrawl. An excellent content example.