versally, to his memory as a healthy sign. It proves to me that we are living in an age of indifference to Truth, or at least of restlessness near akin to it. Newman's mind was essentially sceptical; but his own disposition, on the whole, was amiable, and his intellectual gifts being of the very highest order, the world is content to regard his scepticism as a recommendation rather than the contrary. You seem to know his 'Grammar of Assent.' It is a stiff book, and required more time than I had to give to it, and perhaps more thought than I have at command; but there are some brilliant passages in it, which I remember imperfectly, especially towards the end. Would it not be worth your while to write an article which should give something like a just estimate of the nature of Newman's influence? Do you know his Sermons? They are of real value, and I suppose no other sermons ever written or preached have produced so much effect. And that effect will endure. But I doubt if the same can be said of any of his other works. As to his moral fibreit was not of the strongest. (You know I think the same of Manning.) He was not ambitious in the same sense as Manning; but he was morbidly sensitive, when attacked, or not appreciated as his conscience told him he deserved to be; and he allowed himself to act under that irritation-which is not the sign of a truly great man. This may be a fitting place to record several similar judgments addressed to friends old and new. To W. Earl Hodgson, Esq. (On Abp. Trench) Whitemoor: 12 September. Archbishop Trench and I were at Harrow together in the same Dame's House, and in the same Remove; but he went to Cambridge and I to Oxford-so that I almost lost sight of him till (1) he invited me to preach one of the first sermons when he began the nave services at Westminster Abbey; (2) we met as the two fellow preachers at Stratford on occasion of the Shakespeare Tercentenary; and (3) again afterwards as Fellow Members of the N. T. Revision Company. Take him all in all he was one of the most remarkable men of the present century. Every thing. he did and he did an enormous amount of work of various kinds showed great industry and talent combined, and his character in every respect was first rate. To Dean Boyle. (On Baxter) Bishopshall, St. Andrews: 3 December, 1883. My dear Dean, I have been much too long in writing to thank you for your kindness in sending me a copy of your ‘Baxter'; but I only finished it last night. It could not fail to be interesting in your hands, and you have done him, I think, full justice. There is no doubt he was a man to be remembered ' and a man from whom if one does not learn much it is one's own fault. But somehow or other he is also a disappointing man. He was thinking always of what he was to do individually-no doubt, from the best motives and with the best intentions--and I am afraid he never practically grasped the idea of 'the Church' and of the duties which flow from Church membership. And the consequence was he produced little lasting fruit in comparison with his enormous amount of labour, and selfsacrifice, and to some extent he stood in the way so as to prevent good, with which he did not fully sympathise, being done by others a curious combination of high and low, broad and narrow, charitable and uncharitable. At p. 23, and again at p. 93, you refer to his saying: 'To despise earth is easy to me, but not so easy to be acquainted and conversant with Heaven.' I do not suppose that my uncle was ever a great reader of 'Baxter'; and you will remember a remarkable parallel in the Excursion' (Book iv.): 'Tis by comparison an easy task Earth to despise; but to converse with Heaven With kind regards to Mrs. Boyle, Rydal Lodge, Ambleside: 27 August, 1889. My dear Dean,-I am not yet good for much writing, but I must not any longer omit to thank you heartily and to beg you to thank with no less warmth Mrs. Smythe, and my other kind friends at Methven-for your affectionate remembrances and good wishes on the occasion of my birthday, which please to believe-and to say to all concerned-were most welcome and highly gratifying to the receiver. I have also to thank you sincerely for your valuable present of the Selections from Clarendon' which reached me here not long ago. It is only about four years since I read the history through, and I remember thinking at the time what a good thing it would be if some one would undertake what you have so successfully performed. Much of the mere narrative is heavy and uninteresting, and the style crude and clumsy in the extreme; so that the book, which in the main is so instructive, has found, I should fear, in these days very few readers: and your volume of Selections' is just what was wanted. You have forgotten, I dare say, if you ever saw, what I wrote in recommendation of the History as a study for the young, in my St. Cuthbert's lecture (1886) The Yoke of Christ to be borne in youth '-and the remarkable testimony of Lord Grenville (the Whig Prime Minister) which I there quote (p. 22 sq. note), to its value and impartiality. You might like to see the passage; and I dare say Mrs. Symthe can lend you the lecture. . . With our united kindest regards, Ever yours most sincerely, C. W., Bp. (Hooker, Plea for Justice, 1866'-Gladstone's Review of 'Ellen Middleton') St. Andrews: 12 January, 1890. My dear Dean,-Many thanks for your kind words of sympathy. . . . . and also for your present of The Churchman' containing your paper on Hooker. Your memory has made a slight slip at p. 187. It was not Tulloch's article (an excellent one) in the 'North British Review' which brought me into friendly controversy with him; but a lecture delivered first to his Divinity Students here, and afterwards in Edinburgh, in which he claimed not only Leighton, but Hooker, as having no faith in Episcopacy,' and regarding it only as 'the best ecclesiastical organisation, historically considered.' It was this which called forth my Plea for Justice to Presbyterian Students of Theology and to the Scotch Episcopal Church, 1866.' I wish I had some copies remaining of that 'Plea.' I have only one bound up with other pamphlets. I think I gave the last to Barry, who mentions it in a note of his sermon on Hooker to which you refer. By-the-bye, do you see that Gladstone says he has not a single copy remaining of his Review of 'Ellen Middleton'? I am more fortunate; for I possess the copy which he gave me soon after it appeared. It is written with great ability; but the influence of Newman and of the Oxford School, under which he was at that time, is very obvious. I am not surprised that he thought it more prudent not to reprint it among his Gleanings.' What must he think of some of his leading followers if he now retains those sentiments! The following extract from Canon Farquhar's Diary is too characteristically exact to be omitted, and it contains a judgment on two previous Scottish Bishops. The Bishop's orderliness. Bishops John and William Skinner 14 September, 1887.-A minute ago I put down the newspaper which I was reading. Whereupon the Bishop said, You don't consider yourself a model of tidiness, do you? You don't fold up your newspapers-like this-as I always do when I have done with them.' Indeed, his tidiness is something extraordinary; his library is in the most beautiful order, and though he has close on 7,000 volumes, he seems to know what each volume is without looking at it. Mrs. Wordsworth says that, when they were travelling in Italy, however long a day's journey they had just completed, the Bishop never sat down till he had re-arranged the sitting-room to his satisfaction. At breakfast this morning the Bishop said, 'I see Dr. Walker is going to bring out "Life a of Primus John Skinner.' I.:'That will be interesting.' Bishop: Interesting enough to those who have not read-that volume over there. The union with the qualified chapels is the main point of interest. But neither Bishop John nor Bishop William Skinner had much real genius. William especially was heavy-but good, solid men. I wish we had more like them now! Plenty of common sense and knowledge of the people.' In July 1885 Dean Charles Merivale (of Ely), who was our uncle by marriage, asked one of my sisters to find him a good English verse translation of the following lines of Statius, which described very fitly the circumstances of his own father's death and his character: Quid referam expositos, servato pondere, mores? Non nimius; trinisque decem quinquennia lustris Sed te torpor iners, et mors imitata quietem My sister forwarded them to the Bishop of St. Andrews, which drew from him the following letter to his old friend Merivale who was an even greater master of Latin verse of the silver age' than the Bishop, though not equal to him in the language of the Augustan period. The Stepping Stones, Ambleside: 28 July, 1885. My dear Merivale,-A note received here this morning from my niece Susan W. informs me that you wish to have a good English verse translation' of some Latin lines which she encloses. The lines are remarkable. I did not know that Statius from what I remember of him-had written anything so good (except the 'Mosella," which is almost equal-not quite -to your famous 'Hexameters on Skating '!). They deserve a good translation; but this I cannot promise you. However, I have tried my hand, and send you the result-in blank verse. Rhyme I think would only dilute the force of the original. A slip of memory. The Mosella is by Ausonius. |