Other literary plans were not to take effect – an "Essay on the Religions of the World", a "Commentary on the Gospels", a "Life of Christ", a volume on "Moral Ideas". Such plans were frustrated, not only by his practical avocations, but by his determination to finish what he had begun, and the fastidious self-criticism which it took so long to satisfy. The book on "Morals" might, however, have been written but for the heavy burden of the vice-chancellorship, which he was induced to accept in 1882, by the hope, only partially fulfilled, of securing many improvements for Oxford University. The Vice-Chancellor was "ex officio" a delegate of the Oxford University Press, where he hoped to effect much; and a plan for draining the Thames Valley, which he had now the power of initiating, was one on which his mind had dwelt for many years.