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diff --git a/old/11771-8.txt b/old/11771-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..643ea05 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11771-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12343 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Occasional Papers, by R.W. Church + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Occasional Papers + Selected from The Guardian, The Times, and The Saturday Review, + 1846-1890 + + +Author: R.W. Church + +Release Date: April 3, 2004 [EBook #11771] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OCCASIONAL PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by MBP, papeters, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +OCCASIONAL PAPERS + +SELECTED FROM +THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES, AND THE SATURDAY REVIEW +1846-1890 + + +By the late +R.W. CHURCH, M.A., D.C.L. +Sometime Rector of Whatley, Dean of St. Paul's, +Honorary Fellow of Oriel College + + +In Two Vols.--VOL. II + + +London +Macmillan and Co., Limited +New York: The Macmillan Company + +1897 + +_First Edition February_ 1897 +_Reprinted April_ 1897 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I MR. GLADSTONE ON THE ROYAL SUPREMACY + +II JOYCE ON COURTS OF SPIRITUAL APPEAL + +III PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS + +IV SIR JOHN COLERIDGE ON THE PURCHAS CASE + +V MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTER ON THE ENGLISH CHURCH + +VI DISENDOWMENT + +VII THE NEW COURT + +VIII MOZLEY'S BAMPTON LECTURES + +IX ECCE HOMO + +X THE AUTHOR OF "ROBERT ELSMERE" ON A NEW REFORMATION + +XI RENAN'S "VIE DE JÉSUS" + +XII RENAN'S "LES APÔTRES" + +XIII RENAN'S HIBBERT LECTURES + +XIV RENAN'S "SOUVENIRS D'ENFANCE" + +XV LIFE OF FREDERICK ROBERTSON + +XVI LIFE OF BARON BUNSEN + +XVII COLERIDGE'S MEMOIR OF KEBLE + +XVIII MAURICE'S THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS + +XIX FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE + +XX SIR RICHARD CHURCH + +XXI DEATH OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE + +XXII RETIREMENT OF THE PROVOST OF ORIEL + +XXIII MARK PATTISON + +XXIV PATTISON'S ESSAYS + +XXV BISHOP FRAZER + +XXVI NEWMAN'S "APOLOGIA" + +XXVII DR. NEWMAN ON THE "EIRENICON" + +XXVIII NEWMAN'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS + +XXIX CARDINAL NEWMAN + +XXX CARDINAL NEWMAN'S COURSE + +XXXI CARDINAL NEWMAN'S NATURALNESS + +XXXII LORD BLACHFORD + + + + +I + +MR. GLADSTONE ON THE ROYAL SUPREMACY[1] + + + [1] + _Remarks on the Royal Supremacy, as it is Defined by Reason, History, + and the Constitution_. A Letter to the Lord Bishop of London, by + the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone, M.P. for the University of Oxford. + _Guardian_, 10th July 1850. + +Mr. Gladstone has not disappointed the confidence of those who have +believed of him that when great occasions presented themselves, of +interest to the Church, he would not be found wanting. A statesman +has a right to reserve himself and bide his time, and in doubtful +circumstances may fairly ask us to trust his discretion as to when is +his time. But there are critical seasons about whose seriousness there +can be no doubt. One of these is now passing over the English Church. +And Mr. Gladstone has recognised it, and borne himself in it with a +manliness, earnestness, and temper which justify those who have never +despaired of his doing worthy service to the Church, with whose cause +he so early identified himself. + +The pamphlet before us, to which he has put his name, is the most +important, perhaps, of all that have been elicited by the deep interest +felt in the matter on which it treats. Besides its importance as the +expression of the opinion, and, it must be added, the anxieties of a +leading statesman, it has two intrinsic advantages. It undertakes to +deal closely and strictly with those facts in the case mainly belonging +to the period of the Reformation, on which the great stress has been +laid in the arguments both against our liberty and our very being as a +Church. And, further, it gives us on these facts, and, in connection +with them, on the events of the crisis itself, the judgment and the +anticipations of a mind at once deeply imbued with religious +philosophy, and also familiar with the consideration of constitutional +questions, and accustomed to view them in their practical entanglements +as well as in their abstract and ideal forms. It is, indeed, thus only +that the magnitude and the true extent of the relations of the present +contest can be appreciated. The intrinsic greatness, indeed, of +religious interests cannot receive addition of dignity here. But the +manner of treating them may. And Mr. Gladstone has done what was both +due to the question at issue, and in the highest degree important for +its serious consideration and full elucidation, in raising it from a +discussion of abstract principles to what it is no less--a real problem +of English constitutional law. + +The following passage will show briefly the ground over which the +discussion travels:-- + + The questions, then, that I seek to examine will be as follow:-- + + 1. Did the statutes of the Reformation involve the abandonment of + the duty of the Church to be the guardian of her faith? + + 2. Is the present composition of the appellate tribunal conformable + either to reason or to the statutes of the Reformation, and the + spirit of the Constitution as expressed in them? + + 3. Is the Royal Supremacy, according to the Constitution, any bar + to the adjustment of the appellate jurisdiction in such a manner + as that it shall convey the sense of the Church in questions of + doctrine? + + All these questions I humbly propose to answer in the negative, + and so to answer them in conformity with what I understand to be + the principles of our history and law. My endeavour will be to + show that the powers of the State so determined, in regard to the + legislative office of the Church (setting aside for the moment any + question as to the right of assent in the laity), are powers of + restraint; that the jurisdictions united and annexed to the Crown + are corrective jurisdictions; and that their exercise is subject + to the general maxim, that the laws ecclesiastical are to be + administered by ecclesiastical judges. + +Mr. Gladstone first goes into the question--What was done, and what was +the understanding at the Reformation? All agree that this was a time of +great changes, and that in the settlement resulting from them the State +took, and the Church yielded, a great deal. And on the strength of this +broad general fact, the details of the settlement have been treated +with an _a priori_ boldness, not deficient often in that kind of +precision which can be gained by totally putting aside inconvenient +or perplexing elements, and having both its intellectual and moral +recommendations to many minds; but highly undesirable where a great +issue has been raised for the religion of millions, and the political +constitution of a great nation. Men who are not lawyers seem to have +thought that, by taking a lawyer's view, or what they considered such, +of the Reformation Acts, they had disposed of the question for ever. It +was, indeed, time for a statesman to step in, and protest, if only in +the name of constitutional and political philosophy, against so narrow +and unreal an abuse of law-texts--documents of the highest importance +in right hands, and in their proper place, but capable, as all must +know, of leading to inconceivable absurdity in speculation, and not +impossibly fatal confusion in fact. + +The bulk of this pamphlet is devoted to the consideration of the language +and effect, legal and constitutional, of those famous statutes with the +titles of which recent controversy has made us so familiar. Mr. +Gladstone makes it clear that it does not at all follow that because the +Church conceded a great deal, she conceded, or even was expected to +concede, indefinitely, whatever might be claimed. She conceded, but she +conceded by compact;--a compact which supposed her power to concede, and +secured to her untouched whatever was not conceded. And she did not +concede, nor was asked for, her highest power, her legislative power. +She did not concede, nor was asked to concede, that any but her own +ministers--by the avowal of all drawing their spiritual authority from a +source which nothing human could touch--should declare her doctrine, or +should be employed in administering her laws. What she did concede was, +not original powers of direction and guidance, but powers of restraint +and correction;--under securities greater, both in form and in working, +than those possessed at the time by any other body in England, for their +rights and liberties--greater far than might have been expected, when +the consequences of a long foreign supremacy--not righteously maintained +and exercised, because at the moment unrighteously thrown off--increased +the control which the Civil Government always must claim over the +Church, by the sudden abstraction of a power which, though usurping, was +spiritual; and presented to the ambition of a despotic King a number of +unwarrantable prerogatives which the separation from the Pope had left +without an owner. + +On the trite saying, meant at first to represent, roughly and +invidiously, the effect of the Reformation, and lately urged as +technically and literally true--"The assertion that in the time of +Henry VIII. the See of Rome was both 'the source and centre of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction,' and therefore the supreme judge of +doctrine; and that this power of the Pope was transferred in its +entireness to the Crown"--Mr. Gladstone remarks as follows:-- + + I will not ask whether the Pope was indeed at that time the + supreme judge of doctrine; it is enough for me that not very long + before the Council of Constance had solemnly said otherwise, in + words which, though they may be forgotten, cannot be annulled.... + + That the Pope was the source of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the + English Church before the Reformation is an assertion of the + gravest import, which ought not to have been thus taken for + granted.... The fact really is this:--A modern opinion, which, by + force of modern circumstances, has of late gained great favour in + the Church of Rome, is here dated back and fastened upon ages to + whose fixed principles it was unknown and alien; and the case of + the Church of England is truly hard when the Papal authority of + the Middle Ages is exaggerated far beyond its real and historical + scope, with the effect only of fastening that visionary + exaggeration, through the medium of another fictitious notion of + wholesale transfer of the Papal privileges to the Crown, upon us, + as the true and legal measure of the Royal Supremacy. + + It appears to me that he who alleges in the gross that the Papal + prerogatives were carried over to the Crown at the Reformation, + greatly belies the laws and the people of that era. Their + unvarying doctrine was, that they were restoring the ancient regal + jurisdiction, and abolishing one that had been usurped. But there + is no evidence to show that these were identical in themselves, or + co-extensive in their range. In some respects the Crown obtained + at that period more than the Pope had ever had; for I am not aware + that the Convocation required his license to deliberate upon + canons, or his assent to their promulgation. In other respects the + Crown acquired less; for not the Crown, but the Archbishop of + Canterbury was appointed to exercise the power of dispensation in + things lawful, and to confirm Episcopal elections. Neither the + Crown nor the Archbishop succeeded to such Papal prerogatives as + were contrary to the law of the land; for neither the 26th of + Henry VIII. nor the 2nd of Elizabeth annexed to the Crown all the + powers of correction and reformation which had been actually + claimed by the Pope, but only such as "hath heretofore been or may + lawfully be exercised or used." ... The "ancient jurisdiction," + and not the then recently claimed or exercised powers, was the + measure and the substance of what the Crown received from the + Legislature; and, with those ancient rights for his rule, no + impartial man would say that the Crown was the source of + ecclesiastical jurisdiction according to the statutes of the + Reformation. But the statutes of the Reformation era relating to + jurisdiction, having as statutes the assent of the laity, and + accepted by the canons of the clergy, are the standard to which + the Church has bound herself as a religious society to conform. + +The word "jurisdiction" has played an important part in the recent +discussions; whether its meaning, with its various involved and +associated ideas, by no means free from intricacy and confusion, have +been duly unravelled and made clear, we may be permitted to doubt. A +distinction of the canonists has been assumed by those who have used +the word with most precision--_assumed_, though it is by no means a +simple and indisputable one. Mr. Gladstone draws attention to this, +when, after noticing that nowhere in the ecclesiastical legislation of +Elizabeth is the claim made on behalf of the Crown to be the source of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he admits that this _is_ the language of +the school of English law, and offers an explanation of the fact. That +which Acts of Parliament do not say, which is negatived in actual +practice by contradictory and irreconcilable facts, is yet wanted by +lawyers for the theoretic completeness of their idea and system of law. +The fact is important as a reminder that what is one real aspect, or, +perhaps, the most complete and consistent representation of a system +on paper, may be inadequate and untrue as an exhibition of its real +working and appearance in the world. + + To sum up the whole, then, I contend that the Crown did not claim + by statute, either to be of right, or to become by convention, the + _source_ of that kind of action, which was committed by the + Saviour to the Apostolic Church, whether for the enactment of + laws, or for the administration of its discipline; but the claim + was, that all the canons of the Church, and all its judicial + proceedings, inasmuch as they were to form parts respectively of + the laws and of the legal administration of justice in the + kingdom, should run only with the assent and sanction of the + Crown. They were to carry with them a double force--a force of + coercion, visible and palpable; a force addressed to conscience, + neither visible nor palpable, and in its nature only capable of + being inwardly appreciated. Was it then unreasonable that they + should bear outwardly the tokens of that power to which they were + to be indebted for their outward observance, and should work only + within by that wholly different influence that governs the kingdom + which is not of this world, and flows immediately from its King? + ... But while, according to the letter and spirit of the law, such + appear to be the limits of the Royal Supremacy in regard to the + _legislative_, which is the highest, action of the Church, I do + not deny that in other branches it goes farther, and will now + assume that the supremacy in all causes, which is at least a claim + to control at every point the jurisdiction of the Church, may also + be construed to mean as much as that the Crown is the ultimate + source of jurisdiction of whatever kind. + + Here, however, I must commence by stating that, as it appears to + me, Lord Coke and others attach to the very word jurisdiction a + narrower sense than it bears in popular acceptation, or in the + works of canonists--a sense which excludes altogether that of the + canonists; and also a sense which appears to be the genuine and + legitimate sense of the word in its first intention. Now, when we + are endeavouring to appreciate the force and scope of the legal + doctrine concerning ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction, it + is plain that we must take the term employed in the sense of our + own law, and not in the different and derivative sense in which it + has been used by canonists and theologians. But canonists + themselves bear witness to the distinction which I have now + pointed out. The one kind is _Jurisdictio coactiva proprie dicta, + principibus data_; the other is _Jurisdictio improprie dicta ac + mere spiritualis, Ecclesiae ejusque Episcopis a Christo data_.... + + Properly speaking, I submit that there is no such thing as + jurisdiction in any private association of men, or anywhere else + than under the authority of the State. _Jus_ is the scheme of + rights subsisting between men in the relations, not of all, but of + civil society; and _jurisdicto_ is the authority to determine and + enunciate those rights from time to time. Church authority, + therefore, so long as it stands alone, is not in strictness of + speech, or according to history, jurisdiction, because it is not + essentially bound up with civil law. + + But when the State and the Church came to be united, by the + conversion of nations, and the submission of the private + conscience to Christianity--when the Church placed her power of + self-regulation under the guardianship of the State, and the State + annexed its own potent sanction to rules, which without it would + have been matter of mere private contract, then _jus_ or civil + right soon found its way into the Church, and the respective + interests and obligations of its various orders, and of the + individuals composing them, were regulated by provisions forming + part of the law of the land. Matter ecclesiastical or spiritual + moulded in the forms of civil law, became the proper subject of + ecclesiastical or spiritual jurisdiction, properly so called. + + Now, inasmuch as laws are abstractions until they are put into + execution, through the medium of executive and judicial authority, + it is evident that the cogency of the reasons for welding + together, so to speak, civil and ecclesiastical authority is much + more full with regard to these latter branches of power than with + regard to legislation. There had been in the Church, from its + first existence as a spiritual society, a right to govern, to + decide, to adjudge for spiritual purposes; that was a true, + self-governing authority; but it was not properly jurisdiction. It + naturally came to be included, or rather enfolded, in the term, + when for many centuries the secular arm had been in perpetual + co-operation with the tribunals of the Church. The thing to be + done, and the means by which it was done, were bound together; the + authority and the power being always united in fact, were treated + as an unity for the purposes of law. As the potentate possessing + not the head but the mouth or issue of a river, has the right to + determine what shall pass to or from the sea, so the State, + standing between an injunction of the Church and its execution, + had a right to refer that execution wholly to its own authority. + + There was not contained or implied in such a doctrine any denial + of the original and proper authority of the Church for its own + self-government, or any assertion that it had passed to and become + the property of the Crown. But that authority, though not in its + source, yet in its exercise, had immersed itself in the forms of + law; had invoked and obtained the aid of certain elements of + external power, which belonged exclusively to the State, and for + the right and just use of which the State had a separate and + independent responsibility, so that it could not, without breach + of duty, allow them to be parted from itself. It was, therefore, I + submit, an intelligible and, under given circumstances, a + warrantable scheme of action, under which the State virtually + said: Church decrees, taking the form of law, and obtaining their + full and certain effect only in that form, can be executed only as + law, and while they are in process of being put into practice can + only be regarded as law, and therefore the whole power of their + execution, that is to say, all juris diction in matters + ecclesiastical and spiritual, must, according to the doctrine of + law, proceed from the fountain-head of law, namely, from the + Crown. In the last legal resort there can be but one origin for + all which is to be done in societies of men by force of legal + power; nor, if so, can doubt arise what that origin must be. + + If you allege that the Church has a spiritual authority to + regulate doctrines and discipline, still, as you choose to back + that authority with the force of temporal law, and as the State is + exclusively responsible for the use of that force, you must be + content to fold up the authority of the Church in that exterior + form through which you desire it to take effect. From whatsoever + source it may come originally, it comes to the subject as law; it + therefore comes to him from the fountain of law.... The faith of + Christendom has been received in England; the discipline of the + Christian Church, cast into its local form, modified by statutes + of the realm, and by the common law and prerogative, has from time + immemorial been received in England; but we can view them only as + law, although you may look further back to the divine and + spiritual sanction, in virtue of which they acquired that social + position, which made it expedient that they should associate with + law and should therefore become law. + +But as to the doctrine itself, it is most obvious to notice that it is +not more strange, and not necessarily more literally real, than those +other legal views of royal prerogative and perfection, which are the +received theory of all our great jurists--accepted by them for very +good reasons, but not the less astounding when presented as naked and +independent truths. It was natural enough that they should claim for +the Crown the origination of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, considering +what else they claimed for it. Mr. Allen can present us with a more +than Chinese idea of royal power, when he draws it only from +Blackstone:-- + + They may have heard [he says, speaking of the "unlearned in the + law"] that the law of England is founded in reason and wisdom. The + first lesson they are taught will inform them, that the law of + England attributes to the King absolute perfection, absolute + immortality, and legal ubiquity. They will be told that the King + of England is not only incapable of doing wrong, but of thinking + wrong. They will be informed that he never dies, that he is + invisible as well as immortal, and that in the eye of the law he + is present at one and the same instant in every court of justice + within his dominions.... They may have been told that the royal + prerogative in England is limited; but when they consult the sages + of the law, they will be assured that the legal authority of the + King of England is absolute and irresistible ... that all are + under him, while he is under none but God.... + + If they have had the benefit of a liberal education, they have + been taught that to obtain security for persons and property was + the great end for which men submitted to the restraints of civil + government; and they may have heard of the indispensable necessity + of an independent magistracy for the due administration of + justice; but when they direct their inquiries to the laws and + constitution of England, they will find it an established maxim in + that country that all jurisdiction emanates from the Crown. They + will be told that the King is not ony the chief, but the sole + magistrate of the nation; and that all others act by his + commission, and in subordination to him.[2] + + [2] + _Allen on the Royal Prerogative_, pp. 1-3. + +"In the most limited monarchy," as he says truly the "King is +represented in law books, as in theory an absolute sovereign." "Even +now," says Mr. Gladstone, "after three centuries of progress toward +democratic sway, the Crown has prerogatives by acting upon which, +within their strict and unquestioned bounds, it might at any time throw +the country into confusion. And so has each House of Parliament." But +if the absolute supremacy of the Crown _in the legal point of mew +exactly the same over temporal matters and causes as over spiritual_, +is taken by no sane man to be a literal fact in temporal matters, it is +violating the analogy of the Constitution, and dealing with the most +important subjects in a mere spirit of narrow perverseness, to insist +that it can have none but a literal meaning in ecclesiastical matters; +and that the Church _did_ mean, though the State _did not_ to accept a +despotic prerogative, unbounded by custom, convention, or law, and +unchecked by acknowledged and active powers in herself. Yet such is the +assumption, made in bitterness and vexation of spirit by some of those +who have lately so hastily given up her cause; made with singular +assurance by others, who, Liberals in all their political doctrines, +have, for want of better arguments, invoked prerogative against the +Church. + +What the securities and checks were that the Church, not less than the +nation, contemplated and possessed, are not expressed in the theory +itself of the royal prerogative; and, as in the ease of the nation, we +might presume beforehand, that they would be found in practice rather +than on paper. They were, however, real ones. "With the same theoretical +laxity and practical security," as in the case of Parliaments and +temporal judges, "was provision made for the conduct of Church +affairs." Making allowance for the never absent disturbances arising +out of political trouble and of personal character, the Church had very +important means of making her own power felt in the administration of +her laws, as well as in the making of them. + + The real question, I apprehend, is this:--When the Church assented + to those great concessions which were embodied in our permanent + law at the Reformation, had she _adequate securities_ that the + powers so conveyed would be exercised, upon the whole, with a due + regard to the integrity of her faith, and of her office, which was + and has ever been a part of that faith? I do not ask whether these + securities were all on parchment or not--whether they were written + or unwritten--whether they were in statute, or in common law, or + in fixed usage, or in the spirit of the Constitution and in the + habits of the people--I ask the one vital question, whether, + whatever they were in form, they were in substance sufficient? + + _The securities_ which the Church had were these: First, that the + assembling of the Convocation was obviously necessary for the + purposes of taxation; secondly and mainly, that the very solemn + and fundamental laws by which the jurisdiction of the See of Rome + was cut off, assigned to the spiritualty of the realm the care of + matters spiritual, as distinctly and formally as to the temporalty + the care of matters temporal; and that it was an understood + principle, and (as long as it continued) a regular usage of the + Constitution, that ecclesiastical laws should be administered by + ecclesiastical judges. These were the securities on which the + Church relied; on, which she had a right to rely; and on which, + for a long series of years, her alliance was justified by the + results. + +And further:-- + + The Church had this great and special security on which to rely, + that the Sovereigns of this country were, for a century after the + Reformation, amongst her best instructed, and even in some + instances her most devoted children: that all who made up the + governing body (with an insignificant exception) owned personal + allegiance to her, and that she might well rest on that personal + allegiance as warranting beforehand the expectation, which after + experience made good, that the office of the State towards her + would be discharged in a friendly and kindly spirit, and that the + principles of constitutional law and civil order would not be + strained against her, but fairly and fully applied in her behalf. + +These securities she now finds herself deprived of. This is the great +change made in her position--made insensibly, and In a great measure, +undesignedly--which has altered altogether the understanding on which +she stood towards the Crown at the Reformation. It now turns out that +that understanding, though it might have been deemed sufficient for the +time, was not precise enough; and further, was not sufficiently looked +after in the times which followed. And on us comes the duty of taking +care that it be not finally extinguished; thrown off by the despair of +one side, and assumed by the other as at length abandoned to their +aggression. + +Mr. Gladstone comes to the question with the feelings of a statesman, +conscious of the greatness and excellence of the State, and anxious +that the Church should not provoke its jealousy, and in urging her +claims should "take her stand, as to all matters of substance and +principle, on the firm ground of history and law." It makes his +judgment on the present state of things more solemn, and his conviction +of the necessity of amending it more striking, when they are those of +one so earnest for conciliation and peace. But on constitutional not +less than on other grounds, he pronounces the strongest condemnation on +the present formation of the Court of Appeal, which, working in a way +which even its framers did not contemplate, has brought so much +distress into the Church, and which yet, in defiance of principle, of +consistency, and of the admission of its faultiness, is so recklessly +maintained. Feeling and stating very strongly the evil sustained by the +Church, from the suspension of her legislative powers,--"that loss of +command over her work, and over the heart of the nation, which it has +brought upon her,"--so strongly indeed that his words, coming from one +familiar with the chances and hazards of a deliberative assembly, give +new weight to the argument for the resumption of those powers,--feeling +all this, he is ready to acquiesce in the measure beyond which the +Bishops did not feel authorised to go, and which Mr. Gladstone regards +as "representing the extremest point up to which the love of peace +might properly carry the concessions of the Church":-- + + That which she is entitled in the spirit of the Constitution to + demand would be that the Queen's ecclesiastical laws shall be + administered by the Queen's ecclesiastical judges, of whom the + Bishops are the chief; and this, too, under the checks which the + sitting of a body appointed for ecclesiastical legislation would + impose. + + But if it is not of vital necessity that a Church Legislature + should sit at the present time--if it is not of vital necessity + that all causes termed ecclesiastical should be treated under + special safeguards--if it is not of vital necessity that the + function of judgment should be taken out of the hands of the + existing court--let the Church frankly and at once subscribe to + every one of these great concessions, and reduce her demands to a + _minimum_ at the outset. + + Laws ecclesiastical by ecclesiastical judges, let this be her + principle; it plants her on the ground of ancient times, of the + Reformation, of our continuous history, of reason and of right. + The utmost moderation, in the application of the principle, let + this he her temper, and then her case will be strong in the face + of God and man, and, come what may, she will conquer.... If, my + Lord, it be felt by the rulers of the Church, that a scheme like + this will meet sufficiently the necessities of her case, it must + be no small additional comfort to them to feel that their demand + is every way within the spirit of the Constitution, and short of + the terms which the great compact of the Reformation would + authorise you to seek. You, and not those who are against you, + will take your stand with Coke and Blackstone; you, and not they, + will wield the weapons of constitutional principle and law; you, + and not they, will be entitled to claim the honour of securing the + peace of the State no less than the faith of the Church; you, and + not they, will justly point the admonitory finger to those + remarkable words of the Institutes:-- + + "And certain it is, that this Kingdom hath been best governed, and + peace and quiet preserved, when both parties, that is, when the + justices of the temporal courts and the ecclesiastical judges have + kept themselves within their proper jurisdiction, without + encroaching or usurping one upon another; and where such + encroachments or usurpations have been made, they have been the + seeds of great trouble and inconvenience." + + Because none can resist the principle of your proposal, who admit + that the Church has a sphere of proper jurisdiction at all, or any + duty beyond that of taking the rule of her doctrine and her + practice from the lips of ministers or parliaments. If it shall be + deliberately refused to adopt a proposition so moderate, so + guarded and restrained in the particular instance, and so + sustained by history, by analogy, and by common reason, in the + case of the faith of the Church, and if no preferable measure be + substituted, it can only be in consequence of a latent intention + that the voice of the Civil Power should be henceforward supreme + in the determination of Christian doctrine. + +We trust that such an assurance, backed as it is by the solemn and +earnest warnings of one who is not an enthusiast or an agitator, but +one of the leading men in the Parliament of England, will not be +without its full weight with those on whom devolves the duty of guiding +and leading us in this crisis. The Bishops of England have a great +responsibility on them. Reason, not less than Christian loyalty and +Christian charity, requires the fairest interpretation of their acts, +and it may be of their hesitation,--the utmost consideration of their +difficulties. But reason, not less than Christian loyalty and charity, +expects that, having accepted the responsibilities of the Episcopate, +they should not withdraw from them when they arrive; and that there +should be neither shrinking nor rest nor compromise till the creed and +the rights of the Church entrusted to their fidelity be placed, as far +as depends on them, beyond danger. + + + + +II + +JOYCE ON COURTS OF SPIRITUAL APPEAL[3] + + + [3] + _Ecclesia Vindicata; a Treatise on Appeals in Matters Spiritual_. + By James Wayland Joyce. _Saturday Review_, 22nd October 1864. + +Nothing can be more natural than the extreme dissatisfaction felt by a +large body of persons in the Church of England at the present Court of +Final Appeal in matters of doctrine. The grievance, and its effect, may +have been exaggerated; and the expressions of feeling about it +certainly have not always been the wisest and most becoming. But as the +Church of England is acknowledged to hold certain doctrines on matters +of the highest importance, and, in common with all other religious +bodies, claims the right of saying what are her own doctrines, it is +not surprising that an arrangement which seems likely to end in handing +over to indifferent or unfriendly judges the power of saying what those +doctrines are, or even whether she has any doctrines at all, should +create irritation and impatience. There is nothing peculiar to the +English Church in the assumption, either that outsiders should not +meddle with and govern what she professes to believe and teach, or +that the proper and natural persons to deal with theological questions +are the class set apart to teach and maintain her characteristic +belief. Whatever may ultimately become of these assumptions, they +unquestionably represent the ideas which have been derived from the +earliest and the uniform practice of the Christian Church, and are held +by most even of the sects which have separated from it. To any one who +does not look upon the English Church as simply a legally constituted +department of the State, like the army or navy or the department of +revenue, and believes it to have a basis and authority of its own, +antecedent to its rights by statute, there cannot but be a great +anomaly in an arrangement which, when doctrinal questions are pushed to +their final issues, seems to deprive her of any voice or control in the +matters in which she is most interested, and commits them to the +decision, not merely of a lay, but of a secular and not necessarily +even Christian court, where the feeling about them is not unlikely to +be that represented by the story, told by Mr. Joyce, of the eminent +lawyer who said of some theological debate that he could only decide it +"by tossing up a coin of the realm." The anomaly of such a court can +hardly be denied, both as a matter of theory and--supposing it to +matter at all what Church doctrine really is--as illustrated in some +late results of its action. It is still more provoking to observe, as +Mr. Joyce brings out in his historical sketch, that simple carelessness +and blundering have conspired with the evident tendency of things to +cripple and narrow the jurisdiction of the Church in what seems to be +her proper sphere. The ecclesiastical appeals, before the Reformation, +were to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction alone. They were given to the +civil power by the Tudor legislation, but to the civil power acting, if +not by the obligation of law, yet by usage and in fact, through +ecclesiastical organs and judges. Lastly, by a recent change, of which +its authors have admitted that they did not contemplate the effect, +these appeals are now to the civil jurisdiction acting through purely +civil courts. It is an aggravation of this, when the change which seems +so formidable has become firmly established, to be told that it was, +after all, the result of accident and inadvertence, and a "careless use +of terms in drafting an Act of Parliament"; and that difficult and +perilous theological questions have come, by "a haphazard chance," +before a court which was never meant to decide them. It cannot be +doubted that those who are most interested in the Church of England +feel deeply and strongly about keeping up what they believe to be the +soundness and purity of her professed doctrine; and they think that, +under fair conditions, they have clear and firm ground for making good +their position. But it seems by no means unlikely that in the working +of the Court of Final Appeal there will be found a means of evading the +substance of questions, and of disposing of very important issues by a +side wind, to the prejudice of what have hitherto been recognised as +rightful claims. An arrangement which bears hard upon the Church +theoretically, as a controversial argument in the hands of Dr. Manning +or Mr. Binney, and as an additional proof of its Erastian subjection to +the State, and which also works ill and threatens serious mischief, may +fairly be regarded by Churchmen with jealousy and dislike, and be +denounced as injurious to interests for which they have a right to +claim respect. The complaint that the State is going to force new +senses on theological terms, or to change by an unavowed process the +meaning of acknowledged formularies in such a body as the English +Church, is at least as deserving of attention as the reluctance of +conscientious Dissenters to pay Church-rates. + +Mr. Joyce's book shows comprehensively and succinctly the history of +the changes which have brought matters to their present point, and the +look which they wear in the eyes of a zealous Churchman, disturbed both +by the shock given to his ideas of fitness and consistency, and by the +prospect of practical evils. It is a clergyman's view of the subject, +but it is not disposed of by saying that it is a clergyman's view. It +is incomplete and one-sided, and leaves out considerations of great +importance which ought to be attended to in forming a judgment on the +whole question; but it is difficult to say that, regarded simply in +itself, the claim that the Church should settle her own controversies, +and that Church doctrine should be judged of in Church courts, is not a +reasonable one. The truth is that the present arrangement, if we think +only of its abstract suitableness and its direct and ostensible claims +to our respect, would need Swift himself to do justice to its exquisite +unreasonableness. It is absurd to assume, as it is assumed in the whole +of our ecclesiastical legislation, that the Church is bound to watch +most jealously over doctrine, and then at the last moment to refuse her +the natural means of guarding it. It is absurd to assume that the +"spiritualty" are the only proper persons to teach doctrine, and then +to act as if they were unfit to judge of doctrine. It is not easy, in +the abstract, to see why articles which were trusted to clergymen to +draw up may not be trusted to clergymen to explain, and why what there +was learning and wisdom enough to do in the violent party times and +comparative inexperience of the Reformation, cannot be safely left to +the learning and wisdom of our day for correction or completion. If +Churchmen and ecclesiastics may care too much for the things about +which they dispute, it seems undeniable that lawyers who need not even +be Christians, may care for them too little; and if the Churchmen make +a mistake in the matter, at least it is their own affair, and they may +be more fairly made to take the consequences of their own acts than of +other people's. A strong case, if a strong case were all that was +wanted, might be made out for a change in the authority which at +present pronounces in the last resort on Church of England doctrine. + +But the difficulty is, not to see that the present state of things, +which has come about almost by accident, is irregular and +unsatisfactory, and that in it the civil power has stolen a march on +the privileges which even Tudors and Hanoverians left to the Church, +but to suggest what would be more just and more promising. A mixed +tribunal, composed of laymen and ecclesiastics, would be in effect, as +Mr. Joyce perceives, simply the present court with a sham colour of +Church authority added to it; and he describes with candid force the +confusion which might arise if the lawyers and divines took different +sides, and how, in the unequal struggle, the latter might "find +themselves hopelessly prostrate in the stronger grasp of their more +powerful associates." His own scheme of a theological and +ecclesiastical committee of reference, to which a purely legal tribunal +might send down questions of doctrine to be answered, as "experts" or +juries give answers about matters of science or matters of fact, is +hardly more hopeful; for even he would not bind the legal court, as of +course it could not be bound, to accept the doctrine of the +ecclesiastical committee. He promises, indeed, on the authority of Lord +Derby, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the lawyers would +accept the answer of the divines; but whatever the scandal is now, it +would be far greater if an unorthodox judgment were given in flat +contradiction to the report of the committee of reference. + +As to a purely ecclesiastical Court of Appeal, in the present state of +the Church both in England and all over the world, it ought to console +those who must be well aware that here at least it is hardly to be +looked for, to reflect how such courts act, after all, where they have +the power to act, and how far things would have gone in a better or +happier fashion among us if, instead of the Privy Council, there had +been a tribunal of divines to give final judgment. The history of +appeals to Rome, from the days of the Jansenists and Fénelon to those +of Lamennais, may be no doubt satisfactory to those who believe it +necessary to ascribe to the Pope the highest wisdom and the most +consummate justice; but to those who venture to notice the real steps +of the process, and the collateral considerations, political and local, +which influenced the decision, the review is hardly calculated to make +those who are debarred from it regret the loss of this unalloyed purity +of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. And, as regards ourselves, it is true +that an ecclesiastical tribunal would hardly have been ingenious enough +to find the means of saying that Messrs. Wilson and Williams had not +taught in contradiction to the doctrines of the English Church, and +that they actually, under its present constitution, possessed the +liberty which, under a different--and, as some people think, a +better--constitution, they might possess. But it ought also to be borne +in mind what other judgments ecclesiastical tribunals might have given. +An ecclesiastical tribunal, unless it had been packed or accidentally +one-sided, would probably have condemned Mr. Gorham. An ecclesiastical +tribunal would almost certainly have expelled Archdeacon Denison from +his preferments. Indeed, the judgment of the Six Doctors on Dr. Pusey, +arbitrary and unconstitutional as it may be considered, was by no means +a doubtful foreshadowing of what a verdict upon him would have been +from any court that we can imagine formed of the high ecclesiastical +authorities of the time. It undoubtedly seems the most natural thing in +the world that a great religious body should settle, without hindrance, +its own doctrines and control its own ministers; but it is also some +compensation for the perversity with which the course of things has +interfered with ideal completeness, that our condition, if it had been +theoretically perfect, would have been perfectly intolerable. + +It would be highly unwise in those who direct the counsels of the +Church of England to accept a practical disadvantage for the gain of a +greater simplicity and consistency of system. The true moral to be +deduced from the anomalies of ecclesiastical appeals seems to be, to +have as little to do with them as possible. The idea of seeking a +remedy for the perplexities of theology in judicial rulings, and the +rage for having recourse to law courts, are of recent date in our +controversies. They were revived among us as one of the results of the +violent panic caused by the Oxford movement, and of the inconsiderate +impatience of surprised ignorance which dictated extreme and forcible +measures; and as this is a kind of game at which, when once started, +both parties can play, the policy of setting the law in motion to +silence theological opponents has become a natural and favourite one. +But it may be some excuse for the legislators who, in 1833, in +constructing a new Court of Appeal, so completely forgot or underrated +the functions which it would be called to discharge in the decision of +momentous doctrinal questions, that at the time no one thought much of +carrying theological controversies to legal arbitrament. The experiment +is a natural one to have been made in times of strong and earnest +religious contention; but, now that it has had its course, it is not +difficult to see that it was a mistaken one. There seems something +almost ludicrously incongruous in bringing a theological question into +the atmosphere and within the technical handling of a law court, and in +submitting delicate and subtle attempts to grasp the mysteries of the +unseen and the infinite, of God and the soul, of grace and redemption, +to the hard logic and intentionally confined and limited view of +forensic debate. Theological truth, in the view of all who believe in +it, must always remain independent of a legal decision; and, therefore, +as regards any real settlement, a theological question must come out of +a legal sentence in a totally different condition from any others where +the true and indisputable law of the case is, for the time at least, +what the supreme tribunal has pronounced it to be. People chafed at not +getting what they thought the plain broad conclusions from facts and +documents accepted; they appealed to law from the uncertainty of +controversy, and found law still more uncertain, and a good deal more +dangerous. They thought that they were going to condemn crimes and +expel wrongdoers; they found that these prosecutions inevitably assumed +the character of the old political trials, which were but an indirect +and very mischievous form of the struggle between two avowed parties, +and in which, though the technical question was whether the accused had +committed the crime, the real one was whether the alleged crime were a +crime at all. Accordingly, wider considerations than those arising out +of the strict merits of the case told upon the decision; and the +negative judgment, and resolute evasion of a condemnation, in each of +the cases which were of wide and serious importance, were proofs of the +same tendency in English opinion which has made political trials, +except in the most extreme cases, almost inconceivable. They mean that +the questions raised must be fought out and settled in a different and +more genuine way, and that law feels itself out of place when called to +interfere in them. As all parties have failed in turning the law into a +weapon, and yet as all parties have really gained much more than they +have lost by the odd anomalies of our ecclesiastical jurisprudence, the +wisest course would seem to be for those who feel the deep importance +of doctrinal questions to leave the law alone, either as to employing +it or attempting to change it. Controversy, argument, the display of +the intrinsic and inherent strength of a great and varied system, are +what all causes must in the last resort trust to. Lord Westbury will +have done the Church of England more good than perhaps he thought of +doing, if his _dicta_ make theologians see that they can be much better +and more hopefully employed than in trying legal conclusions with +unorthodox theorisers, or in busying themselves with inventing +imaginary improvements for a Final Court of Appeal. + + + + +III + +PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS[4] + + + [4] + _A Collection of the Judgments of the Judicial Committee of the Privy + Council in Ecclesiastical Cases relating to Doctrine and Discipline; + with a Preface by the Lord Bishop of London, and an Historical + Introduction_. Edited by the Hon. G. Brodrick, Barrister-at-Law, and + Rev. the Hon. W.H. Fremantle, Chaplain to the Bishop of London. + _Guardian_, 15th February 1865. + +The Bishop of London has done a useful service in causing the various +decisions of the present Court of Appeal to be collected into a volume. +There is such an obvious convenience about the plan that it hardly +needed the conventional reason given for it, that "the knowledge +generally possessed on the subject of the Court is vague, and the +sources from which accurate information can be obtained are little +understood; and that people who discuss it ought in the first place to +know what the Court is, and what it does." This is the mere customary +formula of a preface turned into a rhetorical insinuation which would +have been better away; most of those who care about the subject, and +have expressed opinions about it, know pretty well the nature of the +Court and the result of its working, and whatever variations there may +be in the judgment passed upon it arise not from any serious +imperfection of knowledge but from differences of principle. It was +hardly suitable in a work like this to assume a mystery and obscurity +about the subject where there is really none, and to claim superior +exactness and authenticity of information about a matter which in all +its substantial points is open to all the world. And we could conceive +the design, well-intentioned as it is, carried out in a way more +fitting to the gravity of the occasion which has suggested it. The +Bishop says truly enough that the questions involved in the +constitution of such a court are some of the most difficult with which +statesmen have to deal. Therefore it seems to us that a collection of +the decisions of such a court, put forth for the use of the Church and +nation under the authority of the Bishop of London, ought to have had +the dignity and the reserve of a work meant for permanence and for the +use of men of various opinions, and ought not to have had even the +semblance, as this book has, of an _ex parte_ pamphlet. The Bishop of +London is, of course, quite right to let the Church know what he thinks +about the Court of Final Appeal; and he is perfectly justified in +recommending us, in forming our opinion, to study carefully the facts +of the existing state of things; but it seems hardly becoming to make +the facts a vehicle for indirectly forcing on us, in the shape of +comments, a very definite and one-sided view of them, which is the very +subject of vehement contradiction and dispute. It would have been +better to have committed what was necessary in the way of explanation +and illustration to some one of greater weight and experience than two +clever young men of strong bias and manifest indisposition to respect +or attend to, or even to be patient with, any aspect of the subject but +their own in this complicated and eventful question, and who, partly +from overlooking great and material elements in it, and partly from an +imperfect apprehension of what they had to do, have failed to present +even the matters of fact with which they deal with the necessary +exactness and even-handedness. It seems to us that in a work intended +for the general use of the Church and addressed to men of all opinions, +they only remember to be thoroughgoing advocates and justifiers of the +Court which happens to have grown into such important consequence to +the English Church. The position is a perfectly legitimate one; but we +think it had better not have been connected with a documentary work +like the present, set forth by the direction and under the sanction of +a Bishop of London. + +In looking over the cases which have been brought together into a +connected series, the first point which is suggested by the review is +the great and important change in the aspect and bearing of doctrinal +controversies, and in the situation of the Church, as affected by them, +which the creation and action of this Court have made. From making it +almost a matter of principle and boast to dispense with any living +judge of controversies, the Church has passed to having a very +energetic one. Up to the Gorham judgment, it can hardly be said that +the ruling of courts of law had had the slightest influence on the +doctrinal position and character of the Church. Keen and fierce as had +been the controversies in the Church up to that judgment, how often had +a legal testing of her standards been seriously sought for or seriously +appealed to? There had been accusations of heresy, trials, +condemnations, especially in the times following the Reformation and +preceding the Civil War; there had been appeals and final judgments +given in such final courts as existed; but all without making any mark +on the public mind or the received meaning of doctrines and +formularies, and without leaving a trace except in law reports. They +seem to have been forgotten as soon as the particular case was disposed +of. The limits of supposed orthodox belief revived; but it was not the +action of judicial decisions which either narrowed or enlarged them. +Bishop Marsh's Calvinists never thought of having recourse to law. If +the Church did not do entirely without a Court of Final Appeal, it is +simply a matter of fact that the same weight and authority were not +attached to the proceedings of such a court which are attached to them +now. But since the Gorham case, the work of settling authoritatively, +if not the meaning of doctrines and of formularies, at any rate the +methods of interpreting and applying them, has been briskly going on in +the courts, and a law laid down by judges without appeal has been +insensibly fastening its hold upon us. The action of the courts is +extolled as being all in the direction of liberty. Whatever this praise +may be worth, it is to be observed that it is, after all, a wooden sort +of liberty, and shuts up quite as much as it opens. It may save, in +this case or that, individual liberty; but it does so by narrowing +artificially the natural and common-sense grounds of argument in +religious controversy, and abridging as much as possible the province +of theology. Before the Gorham case, the Formularies in general were +the standard and test, free to both sides, about baptismal +regeneration. Both parties had the ground open to them, to make what +they could of them by argument and reason. Discipline was limited by +the Articles and Formularies, and in part by the authority of great +divines and by the prevailing opinion of the Church, and by nothing +else; these were the means which each side had to convince and persuade +and silence the other, and each side might hope that in the course of +time its sounder and better supported view might prevail. But now upon +this state of things comes from without a dry, legal, narrow +stereotyping, officially and by authority, of the sense to be put upon +part of the documents in the controversy. You appeal to the +Prayer-book; your opponent tells you, Oh, the Court of Appeal has ruled +against you there: and that part of your case is withdrawn from you, +and he need give himself no trouble to argue the matter with you. +Against certain theological positions, perhaps of great weight, and +theological evidence, comes, not only the doctrine of theological +opponents, but the objection that they are bad law. The interpretation +which, it may be, we have assumed all our lives, and which we know to +be that of Fathers and divines, is suddenly pronounced not to be legal. +The decision does not close the controversy, which goes on as keenly +and with perhaps a little more exasperation than before; it simply +stops off, by virtue of a legal construction, a portion of the field of +argument for one party, which was, perhaps, supposed to have the +strongest claim to it. The Gorham case bred others; and now, at last, +after fifteen years, we have got, as may be seen in Messrs. Brodrick +and Fremantle's book, a body of judicial _dicta_, interpretations, +rules of exposition, and theological propositions, which have grown up +in the course of these cases, and which in various ways force a meaning +and construction on the theological standards and language of the +Church, which in some instances they were never thought to have, and +which they certainly never had authoritatively before. Besides her +Articles and Prayer-hook, speaking the language of divines and open to +each party to interpret according to the strength and soundness of +their theological ground, we are getting a supplementary set of legal +limitations and glosses, claiming to regulate theological argument if +not teaching, and imposed upon us by the authority not of the Church or +even of Parliament but of the Judges of the Privy Council. This, it +strikes us, is a new position of things in the Church, a new +understanding and a changed set of conditions on which to carry on +controversies of doctrine; and it seems to us to have a serious +influence not only on the responsibility of the Church for her own +doctrine, but on the freedom and genuineness with which questions as to +that doctrine are discussed. The Court is not to blame for this result; +to do it justice, it has generally sought to decide as little as it +could; and the interference of law with the province of pure theology +is to be rather attributed to that mania for deciding, which of late +has taken possession pretty equally of all parties. But the +indisputable result is seen to be, after the experience of fifteen +years, that law is taking a place in our theological disputes and our +theological system which is new to it in our theological history; law, +not laid down prospectively in general provisions, but emerging +indirectly and incidentally out of constructions and judicial rulings +on cases of pressing and hazardous exigency; law, applying its +technical and deliberately narrow processes to questions which of +course it cannot solve, but can only throw into formal and inadequate, +if not unreal, terms; and laying down the limits of belief and +assertion on matters about which hearts burn and souls tremble, by the +mouth of judges whose consummate calmness and ability is only equalled +by their profound and avowed want of sympathy for the theology of which +their position makes them the expounders and final arbiters. A system +has begun with respect to English Church doctrine, analogous to that by +which Lord Stowell made the recent law of the sea, or that by which on +a larger scale the rescripts and decrees of the Popes moulded the great +system of the canon law. + +This is the first thing that strikes us on a comparative survey of this +set of decisions. The second point is one which at first sight seems +greatly to diminish the importance of this new condition of things, but +which on further consideration is seen to have a more serious bearing +than might have been thought. This is, the odd haphazard way in which +points have come up for decision; the sort of apparent chance which has +finally governed the issue of the various contentions; and the +infinitesimally fine character of the few propositions of doctrine to +which the Court has given the sanction of its ruling. Knowing what we +all of us cannot help knowing, and seeing things which lawyers and +judges are bound not to allow themselves to see or take account of, we +find it difficult to repress the feeling of amazement, as we travel +through the volume, to see Mr. Gorham let off, Mr. Heath deprived, then +Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson let off, and to notice the delicate +technical point which brought to nought the laborious and at one time +hopeful efforts of the worthy persons who tried to turn out Archdeacon +Denison. And as to the matter of the decisions, though undoubtedly +_dicta_ of great importance are laid down in the course of them, yet it +is curious to observe the extremely minute and insignificant statements +on which in the more important cases judgment is actually pronounced. +The Gorham case was held to affect the position of a great party; but +the language and theory actually examined and allowed would hardly, in +legal strictness, authorise much more than the very peculiar views of +Mr. Gorham himself. And in the last case, the outside lay world has +hardly yet done wondering at the consummate feat of legal subtlety by +which the issue whether the English Church teaches that the Bible is +inspired was transmuted into the question whether it teaches that every +single part of every single book is inspired. It might seem that +rulings, of which the actual product in the way of doctrinal +propositions was so small, were hardly subjects for any keen interest. +But it would be shortsighted to regard the matter in this way. In the +first place, whatever may have happened as yet, it is manifestly a +serious thing for Church of England doctrine to have been thrown, on a +scale which is quite new, into the domain of a court of law, to lie at +the mercy of the confessed chances and uncertainties of legal +interpretation, with nothing really effective to correct and remedy +what may possibly be, without any fault in the judges, a fatally +mischievous construction of the text and letter of her authoritative +documents. In the next place, no one can fail to see, no one in fact +affects to deny, that the general result of these recent decisions, +capricious as their conclusions look at first sight, has been to make +the Formularies mean much less than they were supposed to mean. The +tendency of every English court, appealed to not as a court of equity +but one of criminal jurisdiction, is naturally to be exacting and even +narrow in the interpretation of language. The general impression left +by these cases is that the lines of doctrine in the English Church are +regarded by the judicial mind as very faint, and not much to be +depended upon; and that these judgments may be the first steps in that +insensible process by which the unpretending but subtle and powerful +engine of interpretation has been applied by the courts to give a +certain turn to law and policy; applied, in this instance, to undermine +the definiteness and certainty of doctrine, and in the end, the +understanding itself which has hitherto existed between the Church and +the State, and has kept alive the idea of her distinct basis, +functions, and rights. + +This is the view of matters which arises from an examination of the +proceedings contained in this volume. What is the argument urged in the +Historical Introduction to justify or recommend our acquiescence in it? +It seems to us to consist mainly in a one-sided and exaggerated +statement of the Supremacy claimed and brought in by Henry VIII., and +of the effect in theory and fact which it ought to have on our notion +of the Church and of Church right. The complaint of the present state +of things is, that those who may be taken to represent the interests of +the Church in such a matter as the character of her teaching are +practically excluded from having any real influence in the decision of +questions by which the character of that teaching is affected. The +answer is that she has no right to claim a separate interest in the +matter, and that the doctrine of the Royal Supremacy was meant to +extinguish, and has extinguished, any pretence to such a claim. The +_animus_ which pervades the work, and which is not obscurely disclosed +in such things as footnotes and abridgments of legal arguments, is thus +given--more freely, of course, than it would be proper to introduce in +a book like this--in some remarks of Mr. Brodrick, one of the editors, +at a recent discussion of the question of Ecclesiastical Appeals in a +committee of the Social Science Association. He is reported to have +spoken as follows:-- + + The Church of England being established by law, could not be + allowed any independence of action; and those who wished for it + were like people who wanted to have their cake and eat it. As to + the Privy Council, he had never heard its decisions charged with + error. What was complained of was that it had declined to take the + current opinions of theologians and make them part of the + Thirty-nine Articles. There was no need whatever for the Privy + Council to possess any special theological knowledge. The only + case where that knowledge was necessary was when it was alleged + that doctrines had been held in the Church without censure. That + was a case in which considerable theological lore was required; + but it was within the province of counsel to supply it. Divines + had now discovered, what lawyers could have told them long ago, + and what he knew some of them had been told--namely, that it would + not do to treat the Thirty-nine Articles as penal statutes; + because, if that were done, a coach might be easily driven through + them. If they had wished to maintain the authority of the + Articles, they would have done best to have kept quiet. + +The present Court of Appeal is deduced, in the Historical Introduction, +as a natural and logical consequence, from Henry VIII.'s Supremacy. +Undoubtedly it is scarcely possible to overstate the all-grasping +despotism of Henry VIII., and if a precedent for anything reckless of +all separate rights and independence should be wanted, it would never +be sought in vain if looked for in the policy and legislation of that +reign. So far the editors are right; the power over religion claimed by +Henry VIII. will carry them wherever they want to go; it will give +them, if they need it, as a still more logical and legitimate +development of the Supremacy, the Court of High Commission. Only they +ought to have remembered, as fair historians, that even in the days of +the Supremacy the distinct nature and business of the Church and of +Churchmen was never denied. Laymen were given powers over the Church +and in the Church which were new; but the distinct province of the +Church, if abridged and put under new control, was not abolished. Side +by side with the facts showing the Supremacy and its exercise are a set +of facts, for those who choose to see them, showing that the Church was +still recognised, even by Henry VIII., as a body which he had not +created, which he was obliged to take account of, and which filled a +place utterly different from every other body in the State. Henry VIII. +played the tyrant with his Churchmen as he did with his Parliament and +with everybody else; and Churchmen, like everybody else, submitted to +him. But the "Imperialism" of Henry VIII., though it went beyond even +the Imperialism of Justinian and Charlemagne in its encroachments on +the spiritual power, as little denied the fact of that power as they +did. He recognised the distinct place and claims of the spiritualty; +and, as we suppose that even the editors of this volume hardly feel +themselves bound to make out the consistency of Henry, they might have +spared themselves the weak and not very fair attempt to get rid of the +force of the remarkable words in which this recognition is recorded in +the first Statute of Appeals (24 Henry VIII. c. 12). The words would, +no doubt, be worth but little, were it not that as a matter of fact a +spiritualty did act and judge and lay down doctrine, and even while +yielding to unworthy influence did keep up their corporate existence. + +But when the ecclesiastical legislation of Henry VIII. is referred to, +not merely as the historical beginning of a certain state of things +which has undergone great changes in the course of events, but as +affording a sort of idea and normal pattern to which our own +arrangements ought to conform, as supplying us with a theory of Church +and State which holds good at least against the Church, it seems hard +that the Church alone should not have the benefit of the entire +alteration of circumstances since that theory was a reality. Those who +talk about the Supremacy ought to remember what the Supremacy pretended +to be. It was over _all_ causes and _all_ persons, civil as well as +ecclesiastical. It held good certainly in theory, and to a great extent +in practice, against the temporalty as much as against the spiritualty. +Why then are we to invoke the Supremacy as then understood, in a +question about courts of spiritual appeals, and not in questions about +other courts and other powers in the nation? If the Supremacy, claimed +and exercised as Henry claimed and exercised it, is good against the +Church, it is good against many other things besides. If the Church +inherits bonds and obligations, not merely by virtue of distinct +statutes, but by the force of a general vague arbitrary theory of royal +power, why has that power been expelled, or transformed into a mere +fiction of law, in all other active branches of the national life? +Unless the Church is simply, what even Henry VIII. did not regard it, a +creation and delegate of the national power, without any roots and +constitution of its own, why should the Church be denied the benefit of +the common sense, and the change in ideas and usage, which have been so +largely appealed to in civil matters? Why are we condemned to a theory +which is not only out of date and out of harmony with all the +traditions and convictions of modern times, hut which was in its own +time tyrannous, revolutionary, and intolerable? Arguments in favour of +the present Court, drawn from the reason of the thing, and the +comparative fitness of the judges for their office, if we do not agree +with them, at least we can understand. But precedents and arguments +from the Supremacy of Henry VIII. suggest the question whether those +who use them are ready to be taken at their word and to have back that +Supremacy as it was; and whether the examples of policy of that reign +are seemly to quote as adequate measures of the liberty and rights of +any set of Englishmen. + +The question really calling for solution is--How to reconcile the just +freedom of individual teachers in the Church with the maintenance of +the right and duty of the Church to uphold the substantial meaning of +her body of doctrine? In answering this question we can get no help +from this volume. It simply argues that the present is practically the +best of all possible courts; that it is a great improvement, which +probably it is, on the Courts of Delegates; and that great confidence +ought to be felt in its decisions. We are further shown how jealously +and carefully the judges have guarded the right of the individual +teacher. But it seems to us, according to the views put forward in this +book, that as the price of all this--of great learning, weight, and +ability in the judges--of great care taken of liberty--the Church is +condemned to an interpretation of the Royal Supremacy which floats +between the old arbitrary view of it and the modern Liberal one, and +which uses each, as it happens to be most convenient, against the claim +of the Church to protect her doctrine and exert a real influence on the +authoritative declaration of it. We all need liberty, and we all ought +to be ready to give the reasonable liberty which we profess to claim +for ourselves. But it is a heavy price to pay for it, if the right and +the power is to be taken out of the hands of the Church to declare what +is the real meaning of what she supposes herself bound to teach. + + + + +IV + +SIR JOHN COLERIDGE ON THE PURCHAS CASE[5] + + + [5] + _Remarks on Some Parts of the Report of the Judicial Committee in + the Case of "Elphinstone against Purchas."_ A Letter to Canon Liddon, + from the Right Hon. Sir J.T. Coleridge. _Guardian_, 5th April 1871. + +No one has more right to speak with authority, or more deserves to be +listened to at a difficult and critical moment for the Church, than Sir +J.T. Coleridge. An eminent lawyer, and a most earnest and well-informed +Churchman, he combines in an unusual way claims on the attention of all +who care for the interests of religion, and for those, too, which are +so deeply connected with them, the interests of England. The troubles +created by the recent judgment have induced him to come forward from +his retirement with words of counsel and warning. + +The gist of his Letter may be shortly stated. He is inclined to think +the decision arrived at by the Judicial Committee a mistaken one. But +he thinks that it would be a greater and a worse mistake to make this +decision, wrong as it may be, a reason for looking favourably on +disestablishment as a remedy for what is complained of. We are glad to +note the judgment of so fair an observer and so distinguished a lawyer, +himself a member of the Privy Council, both on the intrinsic +suitableness and appropriateness of the position[6] which has been +ruled to be illegal, and on the unsatisfactoriness of the +interpretation itself, as a matter of judicial reading and +construction. A great deal has been said, and it is plain that the +topic is inexhaustible, on the unimportance of a position. We agree +entirely--on condition that people remember the conditions and +consequences of their assertion. Every single outward accompaniment of +worship may, if you carry your assertion to its due level, be said to +be in itself utterly unimportant; place and time and form and attitude +are all things not belonging to the essence of the act itself, and are +indefinitely changeable, as, in fact, the changes in them have been +countless. Kneeling is not of the essence of prayer, but imagine, first +prohibiting the posture of kneeling, and then remonstrating with those +who complained of the prohibition, on the ground of postures being +unimportant. It is obvious that when you have admitted to the full that +a position is in itself unimportant, all kinds of reasons may come in +on the further question whether it is right, fitting, natural. There +are reasons why the position which has been so largely adopted of late +is the natural and suitable one. Sir John Coleridge states them +admirably:-- + + [6] + The Eastward Position at the celebration of the Holy Communion. + + As to the place of standing at the consecration, my _feeling_ is + with them. It seems to me not desirable to make it essential or + even important that the people should see the breaking of the + bread, or the taking the cup into the hands of the priest, and + positively mischievous to encourage them in gazing on him, or + watching him with critical eyes while so employed. I much prefer + the _spirit of_ the Rubric of 1549--First Book of Edward + VI.--which says, "These words before rehearsed are to be said + turning still to the Altar, without any elevation, or showing the + Sacraments to the people." The use now enforced, I think, tends to + deprive the most solemn rite of our religion of one of its most + solemn particulars. Surely, whatever school we belong to, and even + if we consider the whole rite merely commemorative, it is a very + solemn idea to conceive the priest at the head of his flock, and, + as it were, a shepherd leading them on in heart and spirit, + imploring for them and with them the greatest blessing which man + is capable of receiving on earth; he alone uttering the + prayer--they meanwhile kneeling all, and in deep silence + listening, not gazing, rather with closed eyes--and with their + whole undistracted attention, joining in the prayer with one heart + and without sound until the united "Amen" breaks from them at the + close, and seals their union and assent. + +But, of course, comes the further question, whether, an English +clergyman is authorised to use it. He is not authorised if the Prayer +Book tells him not to. Of that there is no question. But if the Prayer +Book not only seems to give him the liberty, but, by the _prima facie_ +look of its words, seems to prescribe it, the harshness of a ruling +which summarily and under penalties prohibits it is not to be smoothed +down by saying that the matter is unimportant. Sir John Coleridge's +view of the two points will be read with interest:-- + + You will understand, of course, that I write in respect of the + Report recently made by the Judicial Committee in the Purchas + case. I am not about to defend it. No one, however, ought to + pronounce a condemnation of the solemn judgment of such a tribunal + without much consideration; and this remark applies with, special + force to myself, well knowing as I do those from whom it + proceeded, and having withdrawn from sharing in the labours of the + Committee only because age had impaired, with the strength of my + body, the faculties also of my mind; and so disabled me from the + proper discharge of any judicial duties. With this admission on my + part, I yet venture to say that I think Mr. Purchas has not had + justice done to him in two main points of the late appeal; I mean + the use of the vestments complained of and the side of the + communion-table which he faced when consecrating the elements for + the Holy Communion. Before I state my reasons, let me premise that + I am no Ritualist, in the now conventional use of the term. I do + not presume to judge of the motives of those to whom that name is + applied. From the information of common but undisputed report as + to some of the most conspicuous, I believe them entitled to all + praise for their pastoral devotedness and their laborious, + self-denying lives; still, I do not shrink from saying that I + think them misguided, and the cause of mischief in the Church. So + much for my _feeling_ in regard to the vestments. I prefer the + surplice at all times and in all ministrations. + + This is _feeling_--and I see no word in the sober language of our + rubric which interferes with it--but my _feeling_ is of no + importance in the argument, and I mention it only in candour, to + show in what spirit I approach the argument. + + Now Mr. Purchas has been tried before the Committee for offences + alleged to have been committed against the provisions of the "Act + of Uniformity"; of this Act the Common Prayer Book is part and + parcel. As to the vestments, his conduct was alleged to be in + derogation of the rubric as to the ornaments of the Church and the + ministers thereof, which ordains that such shall be retained and + be in use as were in the Church of England by the authority of + Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI. The + Act of Uniformity is to be construed by the same rules exactly as + any Act passed in the last session of Parliament. The clause in + question (by which I mean the rubric in question) is perfectly + unambiguous in language, free from all difficulty as to + construction; it therefore lets in no argument as to intention + otrier than that which the words themselves import. There might be + a seeming difficulty in _fact_, because it might not be known what + vestments were in use by authority of Parliament in the second + year of the reign of King Edward VI.; but this difficulty has been + removed. It is conceded in the Report that the vestments, the use + of which is now condemned, were in use by authority of Parliament + in that year. Having that fact, you are bound to construe the + rubric as if those vestments were specifically named in it, + instead of being only referred to. If an Act should be passed + to-morrow that the uniform of the Guards should henceforth be such + as was ordered for them by authority and used by them in the 1st + George I., you would first ascertain what that uniform was; and, + having ascertained it, you would not inquire into the changes + which may have been made, many or few, with or without lawful + authority, between the 1st George I. and the passing of the new + Act. All these, that Act, specifying the earlier date, would have + made wholly immaterial. It would have seemed strange, I suppose, + if a commanding officer, disobeying the statute, had said in his + defence, "There have been many changes since the reign of George + I.; and as to 'retaining,' we put a gloss on that, and thought it + might mean only retaining to the Queen's use; so we have put the + uniforms safely in store." But I think it would have seemed more + strange to punish and mulct him severely if he had obeyed the law + and put no gloss on plain words. + + This case stands on the same principle. The rubric indeed seems to + me to imply with some clearness that in the long interval between + Edward VI. and the 14th Charles II. there had been many changes; + but it does not stay to specify them, or distinguish between what + was mere evasion and what was lawful; it quietly passes them all + by, and goes back to the legalised usage of the second year of + Edward VI. What had prevailed since, whether by an Archbishop's + gloss, by Commissions, or even Statutes, whether, in short, legal + or illegal, it makes quite immaterial. + + I forbear to go through the long inquiry which these last words + remind one of--not, I am sure, out of any disrespectful feeling to + the learned and reverend authors of the Report, but because it + seems to me wholly irrelevant to the point for decision. This + alone I must add, that even were the inquiry relevant, the + authorities on which they rely do not appear to me so clear or + cogent, nor the analogies relied on so just, as to warrant the + conclusion arrived at. For it should never be forgotten that the + defendant in a criminal case, acquitted as to this charge by the + learned judge below, was entitled to every presumption in his + favour, and could not properly be condemned but by a judgment free + from all reasonable doubt. And this remark acquires additional + strength because the judgment will be final not only on him but on + the whole Church for all time, unless reversed by the Legislature. + +On the second point he thus speaks, in terms which for their guarded +moderation are all the more worth notice:-- + + Upon the second point I have less to say, though it is to me much + the most important. The Report, I think, cannot be shown + conclusively to be wrong here, as it may be on the other; still it + does not seem to me to be shown conclusively to be right. You have + yourself given no reason in your second letter of the 8th March + for doubting at least. + + Let me add that, in my opinion, on such a question as this, where + a conclusion is to be arrived at upon the true meaning of Rubrics + framed more than two centuries since, and certainly not with a + view to any such minute criticism as on these occasions is and + must be applied to them, and where the evidence of facts is by no + means clear, none probably can be arrived at free from reasonable + objection. What is the consequence? It will be asked, Is the + question to receive no judicial solution? I am not afraid to + answer, Better far that it should receive none than that injustice + should be done. The principles of English law furnish the + practical solution: dismiss the party charged, unless his + conviction can be based on grounds on which reasonable and + competent minds can rest satisfied and without scruple. And what + mighty mischief will result to countervail the application of this + rule of justice? For two centuries our Church has subsisted + without an answer to the question which alone gives importance to + this inquiry, and surely has not been without God's blessing for + that time, in spite of all much more serious shortcomings. Let us + remember that Charity, or to use perhaps a better word, Love, is + the greatest of all; if that prevail there need be little fear for + our Faith or our Hope. + +Having said this much, Sir John Coleridge proceeds to the second, and +indeed the main object of his letter--to remonstrate against +exaggeration in complaint, both of the particular decision and of the +Court which gave it:-- + + I now return to your letter. You proceed to attempt to show that + the words of Keble to yourself, which you cite, are justified by + remarks in this Report and some previous judgments of the same + tribunal, which appear to you so inconsistent with each other as + to make it difficult to believe that the Court was impartial, or + "incapable of regarding the documents before it in the light of a + plastic material, which might be made to support conclusions held + to be advisable at the moment, and on independent grounds." I wish + these words had never been written. They will, I fear, be + understood as conveying your formed opinions; and coming from you, + and addressed to minds already excited and embittered, they will + be readily accepted, though they import the heaviest charges + against judges--some of them bishops--all of high and hitherto + unimpeached character. A very long experience of judicial life + makes me know that judges will often provoke and bitterly + disappoint both the suitors before them and the public, when + discharging their duty honestly and carefully, and a man is + scarcely fit for the station unless he can sit tolerably easy + under censures which even these may pass upon him. Yet, + imputations of partiality or corruption are somewhat hard to bear + when they are made by persons of your station and character. When + the Judicial Committee sits on appeals from the Spiritual Courts, + it _may_ certainly be under God's displeasure, the members _may_ + be visited with judicial blindness, and deprived of the integrity + which in other times and cases they manifest. Against such a + supposition there is no direct argument, and I will not enter into + such a disputation. I have so much confidence in your generosity + and candour, on reflection, as to believe you would not desire I + should. + + In the individual case I simply protest against the insinuation. I + add a word or two by way of general observation. + + No doubt you have read the judgments in all the cases you allude + to carefully; but have you read the pleadings and arguments of the + counsel, so as to know accurately the points raised for the + consideration of those who were to decide? To know the offence + charged and the judgment pronounced may suffice in some cases for + an opinion by a competent person, whether the one warranted the + other; but more is required to warrant the imputation of + inconsistency, partiality, or indirect motives. He who takes this + on himself should know further how the pleadings and the arguments + presented the case for judgment, and made this or that particular + relevant in the discussion. Every one at all familiar with this + matter knows that a judgment not uncommonly fails to reflect the + private opinion of the judge on the whole of a great point, + because the issues of law or fact actually brought before him, and + which alone he was bound to decide, did not bring this before him. + And this rule, always binding, is, of course, never more so than + in regard to a Court of Final Appeal, which should be careful not + to conclude more than is regularly before it. Let me add that a + just and considerate person will wholly disregard the gossip which + flies about in regard to cases exciting much interest; passing + words in the course of an argument, forgotten when the judgment + comes to be considered, are too often caught up, as having guided + the final determination. + +Such words are a just rebuke to much of the inconsiderate talk which +follows on any public act which touches the feelings, perhaps the +highest and purest feelings of men with deep convictions. Perhaps Mr. +Liddon's words were unguarded ones. But at the same time it is +necessary to state without disguise what is the truth in this matter. +It is necessary for the sake of justice and historical truth. The Court +of Final Appeal is not like other courts. It is not a pure and simple +court of law, though it is composed of great lawyers. It is doubtless a +court where their high training and high professional honour come in, +as they do elsewhere. But great lawyers are men, partisans and +politicians, statesmen, if you like; and this is a court where they are +not precluded, in the same degree as they are in the regular courts by +the habits and prescriptions of the place, from thinking of what comes +before them in its relation to public affairs. It is no mere invention +of disappointed partisans, it is no idle charge of wilful unfairness, +to say that considerations of high policy come into their +deliberations; it has been the usual language, ever since the Gorham +case, of men who cared little for the subject-matter of the questions +debated; it is the language of those who urge the advantages of the +Court. "It is a court," as the Bishop of Manchester said the other day, +speaking in its praise, "composed of men who look at things not merely +with the eyes of lawyers, but also with the eyes of statesmen." +Precisely so; and for that reason they must be considered to have the +responsibilities, not only of lawyers, but of statesmen, and their acts +are proportionably open to discussion. Sir John Coleridge urges the +impossibility of any other court; and certainly till we could be +induced to trust an ecclesiastical court, composed of bishops or +clergymen, in a higher degree than we could do at present, we see no +alternative. But to say that a clerical court would be no improvement +is not to prove that the present court is a satisfactory one. It may be +difficult under our present circumstances to reform it. But though we +may have reasons for making the best of it, we may be allowed to say +that it is a singularly ill-imagined and ill-constructed court, and one +in which the great features of English law and justice are not so +conspicuous as they are elsewhere. Suitors do not complain in other +courts either of the ruling, or sometimes of the language of judges, as +they complain in this. But when this is made a ground for joining with +the enemies of all that the English Church holds dear, to bring about a +great break-up of the existing state of things, we agree with Sir John +Coleridge in thinking that a great mistake is made; and if care is not +taken, it may be an irreparable one. He writes:-- + + I hasten to my conclusion too long delayed, but a word must still + be added on a subject of not less consequence than any I have yet + touched on. You say, "Churchmen will to a very great extent indeed + find relief from the dilemma in a third course, viz. _co-operation + with the political forces_, which, year by year, more and more + steadily are working towards disestablishment. This is not a + menace; it is the statement of a simple fact." I am bound to + believe, and I do believe, you do not intend this as a menace; but + such a statement of a future course to depend on a contingency + cannot but read very much like one--and against your intention it + may well be understood as such. You do not say that _you_ are one + who will co-operate with the political party which now seeks to + disestablish the Church in accomplishing its purpose, and I do not + suppose you ever will. But on behalf, not so much of the clergy as + of the laity--on behalf of the worshippers in our churches, of the + sick to be visited at home--of the poor in their cottages, of our + children in their schools--of our society in general, I entreat + those of the clergy who are now feeling the most acutely in this + matter, not to suffer their minds to be so absorbed by the present + grievance as to take no thought of the evils of disestablishment. + I am not foolishly blind to the faults of the clergy--indeed I + fear I am sometimes censorious in regard to them--and some of + their faults I do think may be referable to Establishment; the + possession of house and land, and a sort of independence of their + parishioners, in some cases seems to tend to secularity. I regret + sometimes their partisanship at elections, their speeches at + public dinners. But what good gift of God is not liable to abuse + from men? Taken as a whole, we have owed, and we do owe, under + Him, to our Established clergy more than we can ever repay, much + of it rendered possible by their Establishment. I may refer, and + now with special force, to Education--their services in this + respect no one denies--and but for Establishment these, I think, + could not have been so effectively and systematically rendered. We + are now in a great crisis as to this all-important matter. + Concurring, as I do heartily, in the praise which has been + bestowed on Mr. Forster, and expecting that his great and arduous + office will be discharged with perfect impartiality by him, and + with a just sense of how much is due to the clergy in this + respect, still it cannot be denied that the powers conferred by + the Legislature on the holder of it are alarmingly great, even if + necessary; and who shall say in what a spirit they may be + exercised by his successor? For the general upholding of religious + education, in emergencies not improbable, to whom can we look in + general so confidently as to the parochial clergy? I speak now + specially in regard to parishes such as I am most familiar with, + in agricultural districts, small, not largely endowed, sometimes + without resident gentry, and with the land occupied by + rack-renting farmers, indifferent or hostile to education. + +In what Sir John Coleridge urges against the fatal step of welcoming +disestablishment under an impatient sense of injustice we need not say +that we concur most earnestly. But it cannot be too seriously +considered by those who see the mischief of disestablishment, that as +Sir John Coleridge also says, the English Churrh is, in one sense, a +divided one; and that to pursue a policy of humiliating and crippling +one of its great parties must at last bring mischief. The position of +the High Church party is a remarkable one. It has had more against it +than its rivals; yet it is probably the strongest of them all. It is +said, probably with reason, to be the unpopular party. It has been the +stock object of abuse and sarcasm with a large portion of the press. It +has been equally obnoxious to Radical small shopkeepers and "true blue" +farmers and their squires. It has been mobbed in churches and censured +in Parliament. Things have gone against it, almost uniformly, before +the tribunals. And unfortunately it cannot be said that it has been +without its full share of folly and extravagance in some of its +members. And yet it is the party which has grown; which has drawn some +of its antagonists to itself, and has reacted on the ideas and habits +of others; its members have gradually, as a matter of course, risen +into important post and power. And it is to be noticed that, as a +party, it has been the most tolerant. All parties are in their nature +intolerant; none more so, where critical points arise, than Liberal +ones. But in spite of the Dean of Westminster's surprise at High +Churchmen claiming to be tolerant, we still think that, in the first +place, they are really much less inclined to meddle with their +neighbours than others of equally strong and deep convictions; and +further, that they have become so more and more; and they have accepted +the lessons of their experience; they have thrown off, more than any +strong religious body, the intolerance which was natural to everybody +once, and have learned, better than they did at one time, to bear with +what they dislike and condemn. If a party like this comes to feel +itself dealt with harshly and unfairly, sacrificed to popular clamour +or the animosity of inveterate and unscrupulous opponents, it is +certain that we shall be in great danger. + + + + +V + +MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTER ON THE ENGLISH CHURCH[7] + + + [7] + _Guardian_, 29th October 1884. + +Mr. Gladstone's Letter, read at the St. Asaph Diocesan Conference, will +not have surprised those who have borne in mind his deep and +unintermitted interest in the fortunes and prospects of the Church, and +his habit of seeking relief from the pressure of one set of thoughts +and anxieties by giving full play to his mental energies in another +direction. Its composition and appearance at this moment are quite +accounted for; it is a contribution to the business of the conference +of his own diocese, and it was promised long before an autumn session +on a great question between the two Houses was in view. Still the +appearance of such a document from a person in Mr. Gladstone's position +must, of course, invite attention and speculation. He may put aside the +questions which the word "Disestablishment"--which was in the thesis +given him to write upon--is likely to provoke--"Will it come? ought it +to come? must it come? Is it near, or somewhat distant, or indefinitely +remote?" On these questions he has not a word to say. But, all the +same, people will naturally try to read between the lines, and to find +out what was in the writer's thoughts about these questions. We cannot, +however, see that there is anything to be gathered from the Letter as +to the political aspect of the matter; he simply confines himself to +the obvious lesson which passing events sufficiently bring with them, +that whatever may come it is our business to be prepared. + +His anxieties are characteristic. The paper shows, we think, that it +has not escaped him that disestablishment, however compensated as some +sanguine people hope, would be a great disaster and ruin. It would be +the failure and waste to the country of noble and astonishing efforts; +it would be the break-up and collapse of a great and cheap system, by +which light and human kindliness and intelligence are carried to vast +tracts, that without its presence must soon become as stagnant and +hopeless as many of the rural _communes_ of France; the blow would at +the moment cripple and disorganise the Church for its work even in the +towns. But though "happily improbable," it may come; and in such a +contingency, what occupies Mr. Gladstone's thoughts is, not the +question whether it would be disastrous, but whether it would be +disgraceful. That is the point which disturbs and distresses him--the +possibility that the end of our later Church history, the end of that +wonderful experiment which has been going on from the sixteenth +century, with such great vicissitudes, but after every shock with +increasing improvement and hope, should at last be not only failure, +but failure with dishonour; and this, he says, could only come in one +of two ways. It might come from the Church having sunk into sloth and +death, without faith, without conscience, without love. This, if it +ever was really to be feared, is not the danger before us now. +Activity, conviction, energy, self-devotion, these, and not apathetic +lethargy, mark the temper of our times; and they are as conspicuous in +the Church as anywhere else. But these qualities, as we have had ample +experience, may develop into fierce and angry conflicts. It is our +internal quarrels, Mr. Gladstone thinks, that create the most serious +risk of disestablishment; and it is only our quarrels, which we have +not good sense and charity enough to moderate and keep within bounds, +which would make it "disgraceful." + +The main feature of the Letter is the historical retrospect which Mr. +Gladstone gives of the long history, the long travail of the later +English Church. Hardly in its first start, under the Tudors, but more +and more as time went on, it instinctively, as it were, tried the great +and difficult problem of Christian liberty. The Churches of the +Continent, Roman and anti-Roman, were simple in their systems; only one +sharply defined theology, only the disciples and representatives of one +set of religious tendencies, would they allow to dwell within their +borders; what was refractory and refused to harmonise was at once cast +out; and for a certain time they were unvexed with internal +dissensions. This, both in the case of the Roman, the Lutheran, and the +Calvinistic Churches of the Continent, requires to be somewhat +qualified; still, as compared with the rival schools of the English +Church, Puritan and Anglican, the contrast is a true and a sharp one. +Mr. Gladstone adopts from a German writer a view which is certainly not +new to many in England, that "the Reformation, as a religious movement, +took its shape in England, not in the sixteenth century but in the +seventeenth." "It seems plain," he says, "that the great bulk of those +burned under Mary were Puritans"; and he adds, what is not perhaps so +capable of proof, that "under Elizabeth we have to look, with rare +exceptions, among the Puritans and Recusants for an active and +religious life." It was not till the Restoration, it was not till +Puritanism had shown all its intolerance, all its narrowness, and all +its helplessness, that the Church was able to settle the real basis and +the chief lines of its reformed constitution. It is not, as Mr. +Gladstone says, "a heroic history"; there is room enough in the +looseness of some of its arrangements, and the incompleteness of +others, for diversity of opinion and for polemical criticism. But the +result, in fact, of this liberty and this incompleteness has been, not +that the Church has declined lower and lower into indifference and +negation, but that it has steadily mounted in successive periods to a +higher level of purpose, to a higher standard of life and thought, of +faith and work. Account for it as we may, with all drawbacks, with +great intervals of seeming torpor, with much to be regretted and to be +ashamed of, that is literally the history of the English Church since +the Restoration settlement. It is not "heroic," but there are no Church +annals of the same time more so, and there are none fuller of hope. + +But every system has its natural and specific danger, and the specific +English danger, as it is the condition of vigorous English life, is +that spirit of liberty which allows and attempts to combine very +divergent tendencies of opinion. "The Church of England," Mr. Gladstone +thinks, "has been peculiarly liable, on the one side and on the other, +both to attack and to defection, and the probable cause is to be found +in the degree in which, whether for worldly or for religious reasons, +it was attempted in her case to combine divergent elements within her +borders." She is still, as he says, "working out her system by +experience"; and the exclusion of bitterness--even, as he says, of +"savagery"--from her debates and controversies is hardly yet +accomplished. There is at present, indeed, a remarkable lull, a "truce +of God," which, it may be hoped, is of good omen; but we dare not be +too sure that it is going to be permanent. In the meantime, those who +tremble lest disestablishment should be the signal of a great break up +and separation of her different parties cannot do better than meditate +on Mr. Gladstone's very solemn words:-- + + The great maxim, _in omnibus caritas_, which is so necessary to + temper all religious controversy, ought to apply with a tenfold + force to the conduct of the members of the Church of England. In + respect to differences among themselves they ought, of course, in + the first place to remember that their right to differ is limited + by the laws of the system to which they belong; but within that + limit should they not also, each of them, recollect that his + antagonist has something to say; that the Reformation and the + counter-Reformation tendencies were, in the order of Providence, + placed here in a closer juxtaposition than anywhere else in the + Christian world; that a course of destiny so peculiar appears to + indicate on the part of the Supreme Orderer a peculiar purpose, + that not only no religious but no considerate or prudent man + should run the risk of interfering with such a purpose; that the + great charity which is a bounden duty everywhere in these matters + should here be accompanied and upheld by two ever-striving + handmaidens, a great Reverence and a great Patience. + +This is true, and of deep moment to those who guide and influence +thought and feeling in the Church. But further, those in whose hands +the "Supreme Orderer" has placed the springs and the restraints of +political movement and of change, if they recognise at all this view of +the English Church, ought to feel one duty paramount in regard to it. +Never was the Church, they tell us, more active and more hopeful; well +then, what politicians who care for her have to see to is that she +shall have _time_ to work out effectually the tendencies which are +visible in her now more than at any period of her history--that +combination which Mr. Gladstone wishes for, of the deepest individual +faith and energy, with forbearance and conciliation and the desire for +peace. She has a right to claim from English rulers that she should +have time to let these things work and bear fruit; if she has lost time +before, she never was so manifestly in earnest in trying to make up for +it as now. It is not talking, but working together, which brings +different minds and tempers to understand one another's divergences; +and it is this disposition to work together which shows itself and is +growing now. But it needs time. What the Church has a right to ask from +the arbiters of her temporal and political position in the country, if +that is ultimately and inevitably to be changed, is that nothing +precipitate, nothing impatient, should be done; that she should have +time adequately to develop and fulfil what she now alone among +Christian communities seems in a position to attempt. + + + + +VI + +DISENDOWMENT[8] + + + [8] + _Guardian_, 14th October 1885. + +This generation has seen no such momentous change as that which has +suddenly appeared to be at our very doors, and which people speak of as +disestablishment. The word was only invented a few years ago, and was +sneered at as a barbarism, worthy of the unpractical folly which it was +coined to express. It has been bandied about a good deal lately, +sometimes _de coeur léger_; and within the last six months it has +assumed the substance and the weight of a formidable probability. Other +changes, more or less serious, are awaiting us in the approaching +future; but they are encompassed with many uncertainties, and all +forecasts of their working are necessarily very doubtful. About this +there is an almost brutal clearness and simplicity, as to what it +means, as to what is intended by those who have pushed it into +prominence, and as to what will follow from their having their way. + +Disestablishment has really come to mean, in the mouth of friends and +foes, simple disendowment. It is well that the question should be set +in its true terms, without being confused with vague and less important +issues. It is not very easy to say what disestablishment by itself +would involve, except the disappearance of Bishops from the Upper +House, or the presence of other religious dignitaries, with equal rank +and rights, alongside of them. Questions of patronage and +ecclesiastical law might be difficult to settle; but otherwise a +statute of mere disestablishment, not easy indeed to formulate, would +leave the Church in the eyes of the country very much what it found it. +Perhaps "My lord" might be more widely dropped in addressing Bishops; +but otherwise, the aspect of the Church, its daily work, its +organisations, would remain the same, and it would depend on the Church +itself whether the consideration paid to it continues what it has been; +whether it shall be diminished or increased. The privilege of being +publicly recognised with special marks of honour by the State has been +dearly paid for by the claim which the State has always, and sometimes +unscrupulously, insisted on, of making the true interests of the Church +subservient to its own passing necessities. + +But there is no haziness about the meaning of disendowment. Property is +a tangible thing, and is subject to the four rules of arithmetic, and +ultimately to the force of the strong arm. When you talk of +disendowment, you talk of taking from the Church, not honour or +privilege or influence, but visible things, to be measured and counted +and pointed to, which now belong to it and which you want to belong to +some one else. They belong to individuals because the individuals +belong to a great body. There are, of course, many people who do not +believe that such a body exists; or that if it does, it has been called +into being and exists simply by the act of the State, like the army, +and, like the army, liable to be disbanded by its master. But that is a +view resting on a philosophical theory of a purely subjective +character; it is as little the historical or legal view as it is the +theological view. We have not yet lost our right in the nineteenth +century to think of the Church of England as a continuous, historic, +religious society, bound by ties which, however strained, are still +unbroken with that vast Christendom from which as a matter of fact it +sprung, and still, in spite of all differences, external and internal, +and by force of its traditions and institutions, as truly one body as +anything can be on earth. To this Church, this body, by right which at +present is absolutely unquestionable, property belongs; property has +been given from time immemorial down to yesterday. This property, in +its bulk, with whatever abatements and allowances, it is intended to +take from the Church. This is disendowment, and this is what is before +us. + +It is well to realise as well as we can what is inevitably involved in +this vast and, in modern England, unexampled change, which we are +sometimes invited to view with philosophic calmness or resignation, as +the unavoidable drift of the current of modern thought, or still more +cheerfully to welcome, as the beginning of a new era in the prosperity +and strength of the Church as a religious institution. We are entreated +to be of good cheer. The Church will be more free; it will no longer be +mixed up with sordid money matters and unpopular payments; it will no +longer have the discredit of State control; the rights of the laity +will come up and a blow will be struck at clericalism. With all our +machinery shattered and ruined we shall be thrown more on individual +energy and spontaneous originality of effort. Our new poverty will spur +us into zeal. Above all, the Church will be delivered from the +temptation, incident to wealth, of sticking to abuses for the sake of +gold; of shrinking from principle and justice and enthusiasm, out of +fear of worldly loss. It will no longer be a place for drones and +hirelings. It is very kind of the revolutionists to wish all this good +to the Church, though if the Church is so bad as to need all these good +wishes for its improvement, it would be more consistent, and perhaps +less cynical, to wish it ruined altogether. Yet even if the Church were +likely to thrive better on no bread, there are reasons of public +morality why it should not be robbed. But these prophecies and +forecasts really belong to a sphere far removed from the mental +activity of those who so easily indulge in them. These excellent +persons are hardly fitted by habit and feeling to be judges of the +probable course of Divine Providence, or the development of new +religious energies and spiritual tendencies in a suddenly impoverished +body. What they can foresee, and what we can foresee also is, that +these _tabulae novae_ will be a great blow to the Church. They mean +that, and that we understand. + +It is idle to talk as if it was to be no blow to the Church. The +confiscation of Wesleyan and Roman Catholic Church property would be a +real blow to Wesleyan or Roman Catholic interests; and in proportion as +the body is greater the effects of the blow must be heavier and more +signal. It is trifling with our patience to pretend to persuade us that +such a confiscation scheme as is now recommended to the country would +not throw the whole work of the Church into confusion and disaster, not +perhaps irreparable, but certainly for the time overwhelming and +perilous. People speak sometimes as if such a huge transfer of property +was to be done with the stroke of a pen and the aid of a few office +clerks; they forget what are the incidents of an institution which has +lasted in England for more than a thousand years, and whose business +extends to every aspect and degree of our very complex society from the +highest to the lowest. Resources may be replaced, but for the time they +must be crippled. Life may be rearranged for the new circumstances, but +in the meanwhile all the ordinary assumptions have to be changed, all +the ordinary channels of activity are stopped up or diverted. + +And why should this vast and far-reaching change be made? Is it +unlawful for the Church to hold property? Other religious organisations +hold it, and even the Salvation Army knows the importance of funds for +its work. Is it State property which the State may resume for other +uses? If anything is certain it is that the State, except in an +inconsiderable degree, did not endow the Church, but consented in the +most solemn way to its being endowed by the gifts of private donors, as +it now consents to the endowment in this way of other religious bodies. +Does the bigness of the property entitle the State to claim it? This is +a formidable doctrine for other religious bodies, as they increase in +influence and numbers. Is it vexatious that the Church should be richer +and more powerful than the sects? It is not the fault of the Church +that it is the largest and the most ancient body in England. There is +but one real and adequate reason: it is the wish to disable and +paralyse a great religious corporation, the largest and most powerful +representative of Christianity in our English society, to exhibit it to +the nation after centuries of existence at length defeated and humbled +by the new masters' power, to deprive it of the organisation and the +resources which it is using daily with increasing effect for impressing +religious truth on the people, for winning their interest, their +confidence, and their sympathy, for obtaining a hold on the generations +which are coming. The Liberation Society might go on for years +repeating their dreary catalogue of grievances and misstatements. +Doubtless there is much for which they desire to punish the Church; +doubtless, too, there are men among them who are persuaded that they +would serve religion by discrediting and impoverishing the Church. But +they are not the people with whom the Church has to reckon. The +Liberationists might have long asked in vain for their pet +"emancipation" scheme. They are stronger men than the Liberationists +who are going in now for disendowment. They are men--we do them no +wrong--who sincerely think Christianity mischievous, and who see in the +power and resources of the Church a bulwark and representative of all +religion which it is of the first importance to get rid of. + +This is the one adequate and consistent reason for the confiscation of +the property of the Church. There is no other reason that will bear +discussion to be given for what, without it, is a great moral and +political wrong. In such a settled society as ours, where men reckon on +what is their own, such a sweeping and wholesale transfer of property +cannot be justified, on a mere balance of probable expediency in the +use of it. Unless it is as a punishment for gross neglect and abuse, as +was alleged in the partial confiscations of the sixteenth century, or +unless it is called for as a step to break down what can no longer be +tolerated, like slavery, there is no other name for it, in the estimate +of justice, than that of a deep and irreparable wrong. This is +certainly not the time to punish the Church when it never was more +improving and more unsparing of sacrifice and effort. But it may be +full time to stop a career which may render success more difficult for +schemes ahead, which make no secret of their intention to dispense with +religion. This, however, is not what most Englishmen wish, whether +Liberals or Conservatives, or even Nonconformists; and without this end +there is no more justice in disendowing a great religious corporation +like the Church, than in disendowing the Duke of Bedford or the Duke of +Westminster. Of course no one can deny the competence of Parliament to +do either one or the other; but power does not necessarily carry with +it justice, and justice means that while there are great and small, +rich and poor, the State should equally protect all its members and all +its classes, however different. Revolutions have no law; but a great +wrong, deliberately inflicted in times of settled order, is more +mischievous to the nation than even to those who suffer from it. +History has shown us what follows from such gratuitous and wanton wrong +in the bitter feeling of defeat and humiliation lasting through +generations. But worse than this is the effect on the political +morality of the nation; the corrupting and fatal consciousness of +having once broken through the restraints of recognised justice, of +having acquiesced in a tempting but high-handed wrong. The effects of +disendowment concern England and its morality even more deeply than +they do the Church. + + + + +VII + +THE NEW COURT[9] + + + [9] + _Guardian_, 15th May 1889. + +The claim maintained by the Archbishop in his Judgment, by virtue of +his metropolitical authority and by that alone, to cite, try, and +sentence one of his suffragans, is undoubtedly what is called in slang +language "a large order." Even by those who may have thought it +inevitable, after the Watson case had been so distinctly accepted by +the books as a precedent, it is yet felt as a surprise, in the sense in +which a thing is often a surprise when, after being only talked about +it becomes a reality. We can imagine some people getting up in the +morning on last Saturday with one set of feelings, and going to bed +with another. Bishops, then, who in spite of the alleged anarchy, are +still looked upon with great reverence, as almost irresponsible in what +they say and do officially, are, it seems, as much at the mercy of the +law as the presbyters and deacons whom they have occasionally sent +before the Courts. They, too, at the will of chance accusers who are +accountable to no one, are liable to the humiliation, worry, and +crushing law-bills of an ecclesiastical suit. Whatever may be thought +of this now, it would have seemed extravagant and incredible to the +older race of Bishops that their actions should be so called in +question. They would have thought their dignity gravely assailed, if +besides having to incur heavy expense in prosecuting offending +clergymen, they had also to incur it in protecting themselves from the +charge of being themselves offenders against Church law. + +The growth of law is always a mysterious thing; and an outsider and +layman is disposed to ask where this great jurisdiction sprung up and +grew into shape and power. In the Archbishop's elaborate and able +Judgment it is indeed treated as something which had always been; but +he was more successful in breaking down the force of alleged +authorities, and inferences from them, on the opposite side, than he +was in establishing clearly and convincingly his own contention. +Considering the dignity and importance of the jurisdiction claimed, it +is curious that so little is heard about it till the beginning of the +eighteenth century. It is curious that in its two most conspicuous +instances it should have been called into activity by those not +naturally friendly to large ecclesiastical claims--by Low Churchmen of +the Revolution against an offending Jacobite, and by a Puritan +association against a High Churchman. There is no such clear and strong +case as Bishop Watson's till we come to Bishop Watson. In his argument +the Archbishop rested his claim definitely and forcibly on the +precedent of Bishop Watson's case, and one or two cases which more or +less followed it. That possibly is sufficient for his purpose; but it +may still be asked--What did the Watson case itself grow out of? what +were the precedents--not merely the analogies and supposed legal +necessities, but the precedents--on which this exercise of +metropolitical jurisdiction, distinct from the legatine power, rested? +For it seems as if a formidable prerogative, not much heard of where we +might expect to hear of it, not used by Cranmer and Laud, though +approved by Cranmer in the _Reformatio Legum_, had sprung into being +and energy in the hands of the mild Archbishop Tenison. Watson's case +may be good law and bind the Archbishop. But it would have been more +satisfactory if, in reviving a long-disused power, the Archbishop had +been able to go behind the Watson case, and to show more certainly that +the jurisdiction which he claimed and proposed to exercise in +conformity with that case had, like the jurisdiction of other great +courts of the Church and realm, been clearly and customarily exercised +long before that case. + +The appearance of this great tribunal among us, a distinctly spiritual +court of the highest dignity, cannot fail to be memorable. It is too +early to forecast what its results may be. There may be before it an +active and eventful career, or it may fall back into disuse and +quiescence. It has jealous and suspicious rivals in the civil courts, +never well disposed to the claim of ecclesiastical power or purely +spiritual authority; and though its jurisdiction is not likely to be +strained at present, it is easy to conceive occasions in the future +which may provoke the interference of the civil court. + +But there is this interest about the present proceedings, that they +illustrate with curious closeness, amid so much that is different, the +way in which great spiritual prerogatives grew up in the Church. They +may have ended disastrously; but at their first beginnings they were +usually inevitable, innocent, blameless. Time after time the necessity +arose of some arbiter among those who were themselves arbiters, rulers, +judges. Time after time this necessity forced those in the first rank +into this position, as being the only persons who could be allowed to +take it, and so Archbishops, Metropolitans, Primates appeared, to +preside at assemblies, to be the mouthpiece of a general sentiment, to +decide between high authorities, to be the centre of appeals. The +Papacy itself at its first beginning had no other origin. It interfered +because it was asked to interfere; it judged because there was no one +else to judge. And so necessities of a very different kind have forced +the Archbishop of Canterbury of our day into a position which is new +and strange to our experience, and which, however constitutional and +reasonable it may be, must give every one who is at all affected by it +a good deal to think about. + + + + +VIII + +MOZLEY'S BAMPTON LECTURES[10] + + +I + + [10] + _Eight Lectures on Miracles: the Bampton Lectures for 1865_. By the + Rev. J.B. Mozley, B.D. _The Times_, 5th and 6th June 1866. + +The way in which the subject of Miracles has been treated, and the +place which they have had in our discussions, will remain a +characteristic feature of both the religious and philosophical +tendencies of thought among us. Miracles, if they are real things, are +the most awful and august of realities. But, from various causes, one +of which, perhaps, is the very word itself, and the way in which it +binds into one vague and technical generality a number of most +heterogeneous instances, miracles have lost much of their power to +interest those who have thought most in sympathy with their generation. +They have been summarily and loosely put aside, sometimes avowedly, +more often still by implication. Even by those who accepted and +maintained them, they have often been touched uncertainly and formally, +as if people thought that they were doing a duty, but would like much +better to talk about other things which really attracted and filled +their minds. In the long course of theological war for the last two +centuries, it is hardly too much to say that miracles, as a subject for +discussion, have been degraded and worn down from their original +significance; vulgarised by passing through the handling of not the +highest order of controversialists, who battered and defaced what they +bandied about in argument, which was often ingenious and acute, and +often mere verbal sophistry, but which, in any case, seldom rose to the +true height of the question. Used either as instruments of proof or as +fair game for attack, they suffered in the common and popular feeling +about them. Taken in a lump, and with little realising of all that they +were and implied, they furnished a cheap and tempting material for +"short and easy methods" on one side, and on the other side, as it is +obvious, a mark for just as easy and tempting objections. They became +trite. People got tired of hearing of them, and shy of urging them, and +dwelt in preference on other grounds of argument. The more serious +feeling and the more profound and original thought of the last half +century no longer seemed to give them the value and importance which +they had; on both sides a disposition was to be traced to turn aside +from them. The deeper religion and the deeper and more enterprising +science of the day combined to lower them from their old evidential +place. The one threw the moral stress on moral grounds of belief, and +seemed inclined to undervalue external proofs. The other more and more +yielded to its repugnance to admit the interruption of natural law, and +became more and more disinclined even to discuss the supernatural; and, +curiously enough, along with this there was in one remarkable school of +religious philosophy an increased readiness to believe in miracles as +such, without apparently caring much for them as proofs. Of late, +indeed, things have taken a different turn. The critical importance of +miracles, after for a time having fallen out of prominence behind other +questions, has once more made itself felt. Recent controversy has +forced them again on men's thoughts, and has made us see that, whether +they are accepted or denied, it is idle to ignore them. They mean too +much to be evaded. Like all powerful arguments they cut two ways, and +of all powerful arguments they are the most clearly two-edged. However +we may limit their range, some will remain which we must face; which, +according to what is settled about them, either that they are true or +not true, will entirely change all that we think of religion. Writers +on all sides have begun to be sensible that a decisive point requires +their attention, and that its having suffered from an old-fashioned way +of handling is no reason why it should not on its own merits engage +afresh the interest of serious men, to whom it is certainly of +consequence. + +The renewed attention of theological writers to the subject of miracles +as an element of proof has led to some important discussions upon it, +showing in their treatment of a well-worn inquiry that a change in the +way of conducting it had become necessary. Of these productions we may +place Mr. Mozley's _Bampton Lectures_ for last year among the most +original and powerful. They are an example, and a very fine one, of a +mode of theological writing which is characteristic of the Church of +England, and almost peculiar to it. The distinguishing features of it +are a combination of intense seriousness with a self-restrained, severe +calmness, and of very vigorous and wide-ranging reasoning on the +realities of the case with the least amount of care about artificial +symmetry or scholastic completeness. Admirers of the Roman style call +it cold, indefinite, wanting in dogmatic coherence, comprehensiveness, +and grandeur. Admirers of the German style find little to praise in a +cautious bit-by-bit method, content with the tests which have most +affinity with common sense, incredulous of exhaustive theories, leaving +a large margin for the unaccountable or the unexplained. But it has its +merits, one of them being that, dealing very solidly and very acutely +with large and real matters of experience, the interest of such +writings endures as the starting-point and foundation for future work. +Butler out of England is hardly known, certainly he is not much valued +either as a divine or a philosopher; but in England, though we +criticise him freely, it will be a long time before he is out of date. +Mr. Mozley's book belongs to that class of writings of which Butler may +be taken as the type. It is strong, genuine argument about difficult +matters, fairly facing what _is_ difficult, fairly trying to grapple, +not with what _appears_ the gist and strong point of a question, but +with what really and at bottom _is_ the knot of it. It is a book the +reasoning of which may not satisfy every one; but it is a book in which +there is nothing plausible, nothing put in to escape the trouble of +thinking out what really comes across the writer's path. This will not +recommend it to readers who themselves are not fond of trouble; a book +of hard thinking cannot be a book of easy reading; nor is it a book for +people to go to who only want available arguments, or to see a question +apparently settled in a convenient way. But we think it is a book for +people who wish to see a great subject handled on a scale which befits +it and with a perception of its real elements. It is a book which will +have attractions for those who like to see a powerful mind applying +itself without shrinking or holding back, without trick or reserve or +show of any kind, as a wrestler closes body to body with his +antagonist, to the strength of an adverse and powerful argument. A +stern self-constraint excludes everything exclamatory, all glimpses and +disclosures of what merely affects the writer, all advantages from an +appeal, disguised and indirect perhaps, to the opinion of his own side. +But though the work is not rhetorical, it is not the less eloquent; but +it is eloquence arising from a keen insight at once into what is real +and what is great, and from a singular power of luminous, noble, and +expressive statement. There is no excitement about its close subtle +trains of reasoning; and there is no affectation,--and therefore no +affectation of impartiality. The writer has his conclusions, and he +does not pretend to hold a balance between them and their opposites. +But in the presence of such a subject he never loses sight of its +greatness, its difficulty, its eventfulness; and these thoughts make +him throughout his undertaking circumspect, considerate, and calm. + +The point of view from which the subject of miracles is looked at in +these Lectures is thus stated in the preface. It is plain that two +great questions arise--first, Are miracles possible? next, If they are, +can any in fact be proved? These two branches of the inquiry involve +different classes of considerations. The first is purely philosophical, +and stops the inquiry at once if it can be settled in the negative. The +other calls in also the aid of history and criticism. Both questions +have been followed out of late with great keenness and interest, but it +is the first which at present assumes an importance which it never had +before, with its tremendous negative answer, revolutionising not only +the past, but the whole future of mankind; and it is to the first that +Mr. Mozley's work is mainly addressed. + + The difficulty which attaches to miracles in the period of thought + through which we are now passing is one which is concerned not + with their evidence, but with their intrinsic credibility. There + has arisen in a certain class of minds an apparent perception of + the impossibility of suspensions of physical law. This is one + peculiarity of the time; another is a disposition to maintain the + disbelief of miracles upon a religious basis, and in a connection + with a declared belief in the Christian revelation. + + The following Lectures, therefore, are addressed mainly to the + fundamental question of the credibility of Miracles, their use and + the evidences of them being only touched on subordinately and + collaterally. It was thought that such an aim, though in itself a + narrow and confined one, was most adapted to the particular need + of the day. + +As Mr. Mozley says, various points essential to the whole argument, +such as testimony, and the criterion between true and false miracles, +are touched upon; but what is characteristic of the work is the way in +which it deals with the antecedent objection to the possibility and +credibility of miracles. It is on this part of the subject that the +writer strikes out a line for himself, and puts forth his strength. His +argument may be described generally as a plea for reason against +imagination and the broad impressions of custom. Experience, such +experience as we have of the world and human life, has, in all ages, +been really the mould of human thought, and with large exceptions, the +main unconscious guide and controller of human belief; and in our own +times it has been formally and scientifically recognised as such, and +made the exclusive foundation of all possible philosophy. A philosophy +of mere experience is not tolerant of miracles; its doctrines exclude +them; but, what is of even greater force than its doctrines, the subtle +and penetrating atmosphere of feeling and intellectual habits which +accompanies it is essentially uncongenial and hostile to them. It is +against the undue influence of such results of experience--an influence +openly acting in distinct ideas and arguments, but of which the greater +portion operates blindly, insensibly, and out of sight--that Mr. Mozley +makes a stand on behalf of reason, to which it belongs in the last +resort to judge of the lessons of experience. Reason, as it cannot +create experience, so it cannot take its place and be its substitute; +but what reason can do is to say within what limits experience is +paramount as a teacher; and reason abdicates its functions if it +declines to do so, for it was given us to work upon and turn to account +the unmeaning and brute materials which experience gives us in the +rough. The antecedent objection against miracles is, he says, one of +experience, but not one of reason. And experience, flowing over its +boundaries tyrannically and effacing its limits, is as dangerous to +truth and knowledge as reason once was, when it owned no check in +nature, and used no test but itself. + +Mr. Mozley begins by stating clearly the necessity for coming to a +decision on the question of miracles. It cannot remain one of the open +questions, at least of religion. There is, as has been said, a +disposition to pass by it, and to construct a religion without +miracles. The thing is conceivable. We can take what are as a matter of +fact the moral results of Christianity, and of that singular power with +which it has presided over the improvement of mankind, and alloying and +qualifying them with other elements, not on the face of the matter its +products, yet in many cases indirectly connected with its working, form +something which we may acknowledge as a rule of life, and which may +satisfy our inextinguishable longings after the unseen and eternal. It +is true that such a religion presupposes Christianity, to which it owes +its best and noblest features, and that, as far as we can see, it is +inconceivable if Christianity had not first been. Still, we may say +that alchemy preceded chemistry, and was not the more true for being +the step to what is true. But what we cannot say of such a religion is +that it takes the place of Christianity, and is such a religion as +Christianity has been and claims to be. There must ever be all the +difference in the world between a religion which is or professes to be +a revelation, and one which cannot be called such. For a revelation is +a direct work and message of God; but that which is the result of a +process and progress of rinding out the truth by the experience of +ages, or of correcting mistakes, laying aside superstitions and +gradually reducing the gross mass of belief to its essential truth, is +simply on a level with all other human knowledge, and, as it is about +the unseen, can never be verified. If there has been no revelation, +there may be religious hopes and misgivings, religious ideas or dreams, +religious anticipations and trust; but the truth is, there cannot be a +religion in the world. Much less can there be any such thing as +Christianity. It is only when we look at it vaguely in outline, without +having before our mind what it is in fact and in detail, that we can +allow ourselves to think so. There is no transmuting its refractory +elements into something which is not itself; and it is nothing if it is +not primarily a direct message from God. Limit as we may the manner of +this communication, still there remains what makes it different from +all other human possessions of truth, that it was a direct message. And +that, to whatever extent, involves all that is involved in the idea of +miracles. It is, as Mr. Mozley says, inconceivable without miracles. + + If, then, a person of evident integrity and loftiness of character + rose into notice in a particular country and community eighteen + centuries ago, who made these communications about himself--that + he had existed before his natural birth, from all eternity, and + before the world was, in a state of glory with God; that he was + the only-begotten Son of God; that the world itself had been made + by him; that he had, however, come down from heaven and assumed + the form and nature of man for a particular purpose--viz. to be + the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; that he + thus stood in a mysterious and supernatural relation to the whole + of mankind; that through him alone mankind had access to God; that + he was the head of an invisible kingdom, into which he should + gather all the generations of righteous men who had lived in the + world; that on his departure from hence he should return to heaven + to prepare mansions there for them; and, lastly, that he should + descend again at the end of the world to judge the whole human + race, on which occasion all that were in their graves should hear + his voice and come forth, they that had done good unto the + resurrection of life, and they that had done evil unto the + resurrection of damnation,--if this person made these assertions + about himself, and all that was done was to make the assertions, + what would be the inevitable conclusion of sober reason respecting + that person? The necessary conclusion of sober reason respecting + that person would be that he was disordered in his understanding. + What other decision could we come to when a man, looking like one + of ourselves, and only exemplifying in his life and circumstances + the ordinary course of nature, said this about himself, but that + when reason had lost its balance a dream of extraordinary and + unearthly grandeur might be the result? By no rational being could + a just and benevolent life be accepted as proof of such + astonishing announcements. Miracles are the necessary complement + then of the truth of such announcements, which without them are + purposeless and abortive, the unfinished fragments of a design + which is nothing unless it is the whole. They are necessary to the + justification of such announcements, which, indeed, unless they + are supernatural truths, are the wildest delusions. The matter and + its guarantee are the two parts of a revelation, the absence of + either of which neutralises and undoes it. + +A revelation, in any sense in which it is more than merely a result of +the natural progress of the human mind and the gradual clearing up of +mistakes, cannot in the nature of things be without miracles, because +it is not merely a discovery of ideas and rules of life, but of facts +undiscoverable without it. It involves _constituent_ miracles, to use +De Quincey's phrase, as part of its substance, and could not claim a +bearing without _evidential_ or _polemic_ ones. No other portion or +form of proof, however it may approve itself to the ideas of particular +periods or minds, can really make up for this. The alleged sinlessness +of the Teacher, the internal evidence from adaptation to human nature, +the historical argument of the development of Christendom, are, as Mr. +Mozley points out, by themselves inadequate, without that further +guarantee which is contained in miracles, to prove the Divine origin of +a religion. The tendency has been of late to fall back on these +attractive parts of the argument, which admit of such varied handling +and expression, and come home so naturally to the feelings of an age so +busy and so keen in pursuing the secrets of human character, and so +fascinated with its unfolding wonders. But take any of them, the +argument from results, for instance, perhaps the most powerful of them +all. "We cannot," as Mr. Mozley says, "rest too much upon it, so long +as we do not charge it with more of the burden of proof than it is in +its own nature equal to--viz. the whole. But that it cannot bear." The +hard, inevitable question remains at the end, for the most attenuated +belief in Christianity as a religion from God--what is the ultimate +link which connects it directly with God? The readiness with which we +throw ourselves on more congenial topics of proof does not show that, +even to our own minds, these proofs could suffice by themselves, +miracles being really taken away. The whole power of a complex argument +and the reasons why it tells do not always appear on its face. It does +not depend merely on what it states, but also on unexpressed, +unanalysed, perhaps unrealised grounds, the real force of which would +at once start forth if they were taken away. We are told of the obscure +rays of the spectrum, rays which have their proof and their effect, +only not the same proof and effect as the visible ones which they +accompany; and the background and latent suppositions of a great +argument are as essential to it as its more prominent and elaborate +constructions. And they show their importance sometimes in a remarkable +and embarrassing way, when, after a long debate, their presence at the +bottom of everything, unnoticed and perhaps unallowed for, is at length +disclosed by some obvious and decisive question, which some person had +been too careless to think of, and another too shy to ask. We may not +care to obtrude miracles; but take them away, and see what becomes of +the argument for Christianity. + + It must be remembered that when this part of Christian evidence + comes so forcibly home to us, and creates that inward assurance + which it does, it does this in connection with the proof of + miracles in the background, which though it may not for the time + be brought into actual view, is still known to be there, and to be + ready for use upon being wanted. The _indirect_ proof from results + has the greater force, and carries with it the deeper persuasion, + because it is additional and auxiliary to the _direct_ proof + behind it, upon which it leans all the time, though we may not + distinctly notice and estimate this advantage. Were the evidence + of moral result to be taken rigidly alone as the one single + guarantee for a Divine revelation, it would then be seen that we + had calculated its single strength too highly. If there is a + species of evidence which is directly appropriate to the thing + believed, we cannot suppose, on the strength of the indirect + evidence we possess, that we can do without the direct. But + miracles are the direct credentials of a revelation; the visible + supernatural is the appropriate witness to the invisible + supernatural--that proof which goes straight to the point, and, a + token being wanted of a Divine communication, is that token. We + cannot, therefore, dispense with this evidence. The position that + the revelation proves the miracles, and not the miracles the + revelation, admits of a good qualified meaning; but, taken + literally, it is a double offence against the rule that things are + properly proved by the proper proof of them; for a supernatural + fact _is_ the proper proof of a supernatural doctrine, while a + supernatural doctrine, on the other hand, is certainly _not_ the + proper proof of a supernatural fact. + +So that, whatever comes of the inquiry, miracles and revelation must go +together. There is no separating them. Christianity may claim in them +the one decisive proof that could be given of its Divine origin and the +truth of its creed; but, at any rate, it must ever be responsible for +them. + + But suppose a person to say, and to say with truth, that his own + individual faith does not rest upon miracles, is he, therefore, + released from the defence of miracles? Is the question of their + truth or falsehood an irrelevant one to him? Is his faith secure + if they are disproved? By no means; if miracles were, although + only at the commencement, necessary to Christianity, and were + actually wrought, and therefore form part of the Gospel record and + are bound up with the Gospel scheme and doctrines, this part of + the structure cannot be abandoned without the sacrifice of the + other too. To shake the authority of one-half of this body of + statement is to shake the authority of the whole. Whether or not + the individual makes _use_ of them for the support of his own + faith, the miracles are there; and if they are there they must be + there either as true miracles or as false ones. If he does not + avail himself of their evidence, his belief is still affected by + their refutation. Accepting, as he does, the supernatural truths + of Christianity and its miracles upon the same report from the + same witnesses, upon the authority of the same documents, he + cannot help having at any rate this negative interest in them. For + if those witnesses and documents deceive us with regard to the + miracles, how can we trust them with regard to the doctrines? If + they are wrong upon the evidences of a revelation, how can we + depend upon their being right as to the nature of that revelation? + If their account of visible facts is to be received with an + explanation, is not their account of doctrines liable to a like + explanation? Revelation, then, even if it does not need the truth + of miracles for the benefit of their proof, still requires it in + order not to be crushed under the weight of their falsehood.... + Thus miracles and the supernatural contents of Christianity must + stand or fall together. These two questions--the _nature_ of the + revelation, and the _evidence_ of the revelation--cannot be + disjoined. Christianity as a dispensation undiscoverable by human + reason, and Christianity as a dispensation authenticated by + miracles--these two are in necessary combination. If any do not + include the supernatural character of Christianity in their + definition of it, regarding the former only as one interpretation + of it or one particular traditional form of it, which is separable + from the essence--for Christianity as thus defined the support of + miracles is not wanted, because the moral truths are their own + evidence. But Christianity cannot be maintained as a revelation + undiscoverable by human reason, a revelation of a supernatural + scheme for man's salvation, without the evidence of miracles. + +The question of miracles, then, of the supernatural disclosed in the +world of nature, is the vital point for everything that calls itself +Christianity. It may be forgotten or disguised; but it is vain to keep +it back and put it out of sight. It must be answered; and if we settle +it that miracles are incredible, it is idle to waste our time about +accommodations with Christianity, or reconstitutions of it. Let us be +thankful for what it has done for the world; but let us put it away, +both name and thing. It is an attempt after what is in the nature of +things impossible to man--a revealed religion, authenticated by God. +The shape which this negative answer takes is, as Mr. Mozley points +out, much more definite now than it ever was. Miracles were formerly +assailed and disbelieved on mixed and often confused grounds; from +alleged defect of evidence, from their strangeness, or because they +would be laughed at. Foes and defenders looked at them from the outside +and in the gross; and perhaps some of those who defended them most +keenly had a very imperfect sense of what they really were. The +difficulty of accepting them now arises not mainly from want of +external evidence, but from having more keenly realised what it is to +believe a miracle. As Mr. Mozley says-- + + How is it that sometimes when the same facts and truths have been + before men all their lives, and produced but one impression, a + moment comes when they look different from what they did? Some + minds may abandon, while others retain, their fundamental position + with respect to those facts and truths, but to both they look + stranger; they excite a certain surprise which they did not once + do. The reasons of this change then it is not always easy for the + persons themselves to trace, but of the result they are conscious; + and in some this result is a change of belief. + + An inward process of this kind has been going on recently in many + minds on the subject of miracles; and in some with the latter + result. When it came to the question--which every one must sooner + or later put to himself on this subject--Did these things really + take place? Are they matters of fact?--they have appeared to + themselves to be brought to a standstill, and to be obliged to own + an inner refusal of their whole reason to admit them among the + actual events of the past. This strong repugnance seemed to be the + witness of its own truth, to be accompanied by a clear and vivid + light, to be a law to the understanding, and to rule without + appeal the question of fact.... But when the reality of the past + is once apprehended and embraced, then the miraculous occurrences + in it are realised too; being realised they excite surprise, and + surprise, when it comes in, takes two directions--it either makes + belief more real, or it destroys belief. There is an element of + doubt in surprise; for this emotion arises _because_ an event is + strange, and an event is strange because it goes counter to and + jars with presumption. Shall surprise, then, give life to belief + or stimulus to doubt? The road of belief and unbelief in the + history of some minds thus partly lies over common ground; the two + go part of their journey together; they have a common perception + in the insight into the real astonishing nature of the facts with + which they deal. The majority of mankind, perhaps, owe their + belief rather to the outward influence of custom and education + than to any strong principle of faith within; and it is to be + feared that many, if they came to perceive how wonderful what they + believed was, would not find their belief so easy and so + matter-of-course a thing as they appear to find it. Custom throws + a film over the great facts of religion, and interposes a veil + between the mind and truth, which, by preventing wonder, + intercepts doubt too, and at the same time excludes from deep + belief and protects from disbelief. But deeper faith and disbelief + throw off in common the dependence on mere custom, draw aside the + interposing veil, place themselves face to face with the contents + of the past, and expose themselves alike to the ordeal of wonder. + + It is evident that the effect which the visible order of nature + has upon some minds is, that as soon as they realise what a + miracle is, they are stopped by what appears to them a simple + sense of its impossibility. So long as they only believe by habit + and education, they accept a miracle without difficulty, because + they do not realise it as an event which actually took place in + the world; the alteration of the face of the world, and the whole + growth of intervening history, throw the miracles of the Gospel + into a remote perspective in which they are rather seen as a + picture than real occurrences. But as soon as they see that, if + these miracles are true, they once really happened, what they feel + then is the apparent sense of their impossibility. It is not a + question of evidence with them: when they realise, e.g., that + our Lord's resurrection, if true, was a visible fact or + occurrence, they have the seeming certain perception that it is an + impossible occurrence. "I cannot," a person says to himself in + effect, "tear myself from the type of experience and join myself + to another. I cannot quit order and law for what is eccentric. + There is a repulsion between such facts and my belief as strong as + that between physical substances. In the mere effort to conceive + these amazing scenes as real ones, I fall back upon myself and + upon that type of reality which the order of nature has impressed + upon me." + +The antagonism to the idea of miracles has grown stronger and more +definite with the enlarged and more widely-spread conception of +invariable natural law, and also, as Mr. Mozley points out, with that +increased power in our time of realising the past, which is not the +peculiarity of individual writers, but is "part of the thought of the +time." But though it has been quickened and sharpened by these +influences, it rests ultimately on that sense which all men have in +common of the customary and regular in their experience of the world. +The world, which we all know, stands alone, cut off from any other; and +a miracle is an intrusion, "an interpolation of one order of things +into another, confounding two systems which are perfectly distinct." +The broad, deep resistance to it which is awakened in the mind when we +look abroad on the face of nature is expressed in Emerson's phrase--"A +miracle is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clouds or the +falling rain." Who can dispute it? Yet the rejoinder is obvious, and +has often been given--that neither is man. Man, who looks at nature and +thinks and feels about its unconscious unfeeling order; man, with his +temptations, his glory, and his shame, his heights of goodness, and +depths of infamy, is not one with those innocent and soulless forces so +sternly immutable--"the blowing clouds and falling rain." The two awful +phenomena which Kant said struck him dumb--the starry heavens, and +right and wrong--are vainly to be reduced to the same order of things. +Nothing can be stranger than the contrast between the rigid, inevitable +sequences of nature, apparently so elastic only because not yet +perfectly comprehended, and the consciousness of man in the midst of +it. Nothing can be stranger than the juxtaposition of physical law and +man's sense of responsibility and choice. Man is an "insertion," an +"interpolation in the physical system"; he is "insulated as an anomaly +in the midst of matter and material law." Mr. Mozley's words are +striking:-- + + The first appearance, then, of man in nature was the appearance of + a new being in nature; and this fact was relatively to the then + order of things miraculous; no more physical account can be given + of it than could be given of a resurrection to life now. What more + entirely new and eccentric fact, indeed, can be imagined than a + human soul first rising up amidst an animal and vegetable world? + Mere consciousness--was not that of itself a new world within the + old one? Mere knowledge--that nature herself became known to a + being within herself, was not that the same? Certainly man was not + all at once the skilled interpreter of nature, and yet there is + some interpretation of nature to which man as such is equal in + some degree. He derives an impression from the sight of nature + which an animal does not derive; for though the material spectacle + is imprinted on its retina, as it is on man's, it does not see + what man sees. The sun rose, then, and the sun descended, the + stars looked down upon the earth, the mountains climbed to heaven, + the cliffs stood upon the shore, the same as now, countless ages + before a single being existed who _saw_ it. The counterpart of + this whole scene was wanting--the understanding mind; that mirror + in which the whole was to be reflected; and when this arose it was + a new birth for creation itself, that it became _known_,--an image + in the mind of a conscious being. But even consciousness and + knowledge were a less strange and miraculous introduction into the + world than conscience. + + Thus wholly mysterious in his entrance into this scene, man is + _now_ an insulation in it; he came in by no physical law, and his + freewill is in utter contrast to that law. What can be more + incomprehensible, more heterogeneous, a more ghostly resident in + nature, than the sense of right and wrong? What is it? Whence is + it? The obligation of man to sacrifice himself for right is a + truth which springs out of an abyss, the mere attempt to look down + into which confuses the reason. Such is the juxtaposition of + mysterious and physical contents in the same system. Man is alone, + then, in nature: he alone of all the creatures communes with a + Being out of nature; and he divides himself from all other + physical life by prophesying, in the face of universal visible + decay, his own immortality. + +And till this anomaly has been removed--that is, till the last trace of +what is moral in man has disappeared under the analysis of science, and +what ought to be is resolved into a mere aspect of what is, this deep +exception to the dominion of physical law remains as prominent and +undeniable as physical law itself. + + It is, indeed, avowed by those who reduce man in nature, that upon + the admission of free-will, the objection to the miraculous is over, + and that it is absurd to allow exception to law in man, and reject + it in nature. + +But the broad, popular sense of natural order, and the instinctive and +common repugnance to a palpable violation of it, have been forged and +refined into the philosophical objection to miracles. Two great +thinkers of past generations, two of the keenest and clearest +intellects which have appeared since the Reformation, laid the +foundations of it long ago. Spinoza urged the uselessness of miracles, +and Hume their incredibility, with a guarded subtlety and longsighted +refinement of statement which made them in advance of their age except +with a few. But their reflections have fallen in with a more advanced +stage of thought and a taste for increased precision and exactness, and +they are beginning to bear their fruit. The great and telling objection +to miracles is getting to be, not their want of evidence, but, prior to +all question of evidence, the supposed impossibility of fitting them in +with a scientific view of nature. Reason, looking at nature and +experience, is said to raise an antecedent obstacle to them which no +alleged proof of fact can get over. They cannot be, because they are so +unlike to everything else in the world, even of the strangest kind, in +this point--in avowedly breaking the order of nature. And reason cannot +be admitted to take cognizance of their claims and to consider their +character, their purpose, their results, their credentials, because the +mere supposition of them violates the fundamental conception and +condition of science, absolute and invariable law, as well as that +common-sense persuasion which everybody has, whether philosopher or +not, of the uniformity of the order of the world. + + +II + +To make room for reason to come in and pronounce upon miracles on their +own merits--to clear the ground for the consideration of their actual +claims by disposing of the antecedent objection of impossibility, is +Mr. Mozley's main object. + + Whatever difficulty there is in believing in miracles in general + arises from the circumstance that they are in contradiction to or + unlike the order of nature. To estimate the force of this + difficulty, then, we must first understand what kind of belief it + is which we have in the order of nature; for the weight of the + objection to the miraculous must depend on the nature of the + belief to which the miraculous is opposed. + +His examination of the alleged impossibility of miracles may be +described as a very subtle turning the tables on Hume and the empirical +philosophy. For when it is said that it is contrary to reason to +believe in a suspension of the order of nature, he asks on what ground +do we believe in the order of nature; and Hume himself supplies the +answer. There is nothing of which we have a firmer persuasion. It is +the basis of human life and knowledge. We assume at each step, without +a doubt, that the future will be like the past. But why? Hume has +carefully examined the question, and can find no answer, except the +fact that we do assume it. "I apprehend," says Mr. Mozley, accepting +Hume's view of the nature of probability, "that when we examine the +different reasons which may be assigned for this connection, i.e. for +the belief that the future will be like the past, they all come at last +to be mere statements of the belief itself, and not reasons to account +for it." + + Let us imagine the occurrence of a particular physical phenomenon + for the first time. Upon that single occurrence we should have but + the very faintest expectation of another. If it did occur again + once or twice, so far from counting on another recurrence, a + cessation would come as the more natural event to us. But let it + occur a hundred times, and we should feel no hesitation in + inviting persons from a distance to see it; and if it occurred + every day for years, its recurrence would then be a certainty to + us, its cessation a marvel. But what has taken place in the + interim to produce this total change in our belief? From the mere + repetition do we know anything more about its cause? No. Then what + have we got besides the past repetition itself? Nothing. Why, + then, are we so certain of its _future_ repetition? All we can say + is that the known casts its shadow before; we project into unborn + time the existing types, and the secret skill of nature intercepts + the darkness of the future by ever suspending before our eyes, as + it were in a mirror, a reflection of the past. We really look at a + blank before us, but the mind, full of the scene behind, sees it + again in front.... + + What ground of reason, then, can we assign for our expectation + that any part of the course of nature will the _next_ moment be + like what it has been up to _this_ moment, i.e. for our belief + in the uniformity of nature? None. No demonstrative reason can be + given, for the contrary to the recurrence of a fact of nature is + no contradiction. No probable reason can be given, for all + probable reasoning respecting the course of nature is founded + _upon_ this presumption of likeness, and therefore cannot be the + foundation of it. No reason can be given for this belief. It is + without a reason. It rests upon no rational ground and can be + traced to no rational principle. Everything connected with human + life depends upon this belief, every practical plan or purpose + that we form implies it, every provision we make for the future, + every safeguard and caution we employ against it, all calculation, + all adjustment of means to ends, supposes this belief; it is this + principle alone which renders our experience of the slightest use + to us, and without it there would be, so far as we are concerned, + no order of nature and no laws of nature; and yet this belief has + no more producible reason for it than a speculation of fancy. A + natural fact has been repeated; it will be repeated:--I am + conscious of utter darkness when I try to see why one of these + follows from the other: I not only see no reason, but I perceive + that I see none, though I can no more help the expectation than I + can stop the circulation of my blood. There is a premiss, and + there is a conclusion, but there is a total want of connection + between the two. The inference, then, from the one of these to the + other rests upon no ground of the understanding; by no search or + analysis, however subtle or minute, can we extract from any corner + of the human mind and intelligence, however remote, the very + faintest reason for it. + +Hume, who had urged with great force that miracles were contrary to +that probability which is created by experience, had also said that +this probability had no producible ground in reason; that, universal, +unfailing, indispensable as it was to the course of human life, it was +but an instinct which defied analysis, a process of thought and +inference for which he vainly sought the rational steps. There is no +absurdity, though the greatest impossibility, in supposing this order +to stop to-morrow; and, if the world ends at all, its end will be in an +increasing degree improbable up to the very last moment. But, if this +whole ground of belief is in its own nature avowedly instinctive and +independent of reason, what right has it to raise up a bar of +intellectual necessity, and to shut out reason from entertaining the +question of miracles? They may have grounds which appeal to reason; and +an unintelligent instinct forbids reason from fairly considering what +they are. Reason cannot get beyond the actual fact of the present state +of things for believing in the order of nature; it professes to find no +necessity for it; the interruption of that order, therefore, whether +probable or not, is not against reason. Philosophy itself, says Mr. +Mozley, cuts away the ground on which it had raised its preliminary +objection to miracles. + + And now the belief in the order of nature being thus, however + powerful and useful, an unintelligent impulse of which we can give + no rational account, in what way does this discovery affect the + question of miracles? In this way, that this belief not having + itself its foundation in reason, the ground is gone upon which it + could be maintained that miracles as opposed to the order of + nature were opposed to reason. There being no producible reason + why a new event should be like the hitherto course of nature, no + decision of reason is contradicted by its unlikeness. A miracle, + in being opposed to our experience, is not only not opposed to + necessary reasoning, but to any reasoning. Do I see by a certain + perception the connection between these two--It _has_ happened so, + it _will_ happen so; then may I reject a new reported fact which + has _not_ happened so as an impossibility. But if I do not see the + connection between these two by a certain perception, or by any + perception, I cannot. For a miracle to be rejected as such, there + must, at any rate, be some proposition in the mind of man which is + opposed to it; and that proposition can only spring from the + quarter to which we have been referring--that of elementary + experimental reasoning. But if this experimental reasoning is of + that nature which philosophy describes it as being of, i.e. if + it is not itself a process of reason, how can there from an + irrational process of the mind arise a proposition at all,--to + make which is the function of the rational faculty alone? There + cannot; and it is evident that the miraculous does not stand in + any opposition whatever to reason.... + + Thus step by step has philosophy loosened the connection of the + order of nature with the ground of reason, befriending, in exact + proportion as it has done this, the principle of miracles. In the + argument against miracles the first objection is that they are + against _law_; and this is answered by saying that we know nothing + in nature of law in the sense in which it prevents miracles. Law + can only prevent miracles by _compelling_ and making necessary the + succession of nature, i.e. in the sense of causation; but + science has itself proclaimed the truth that we see no causes in + nature, that the whole chain of physical succession is to the eye + of reason a rope of sand, consisting of antecedents and + consequents, but without a rational link or trace of necessary + connection between them. We only know of law in nature in the + sense of recurrences in nature, classes of facts, _like_ facts in + nature--a chain of which, the junction not being reducible to + reason, the interruption is not against reason. The claim of law + settled, the next objection in the argument against miracles is + that they are against _experience_; because we expect facts _like_ + to those of our experience, and miracles are _unlike_ ones. The + weight, then, of the objection of unlikeness to experience depends + on the reason which can be produced for the expectation of + likeness; and to this call philosophy has replied by the summary + confession that we have _no_ reason. Philosophy, then, could not + have overthrown more thoroughly than it has done the order of + nature as a necessary course of things, or cleared the ground more + effectually for the principle of miracles. + +Nor, he argues, does this instinct change its nature, or become a +necessary law of reason, when it takes the form of an inference from +induction. For the last step of the inductive process, the creation of +its supposed universal, is, when compared with the real standard of +universality acknowledged by reason, an incomplete and more or less +precarious process; "it gets out of facts something more than what they +actually contain"; and it can give no reason for itself but what the +common faith derived from experience can give, the anticipation of +uniform recurrence. "The inductive principle," he says, "is only the +unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically ascertained fact, +instead of to a vulgarly ascertained fact.... Science has led up to the +fact, but there it stops, and for converting the fact into a law a +totally unscientific principle comes in, the same as that which +generalises the commonest observations in nature." + + The scientific part of induction being only the pursuit of a + particular fact, miracles cannot in the nature of the case receive + any blow from the scientific part of induction; because the + existence of one fact does not interfere with the existence of + another dissimilar fact. That which _does_ resist the miraculous + is the _un_scientific part of induction, or the instinctive + generalisation upon this fact.... It does not belong to this + principle to lay down speculative positions, and to say what can + or cannot take place in the world. It does not belong to it to + control religious belief, or to determine that certain acts of God + for the revelation of His will to man, reported to have taken + place, have not taken place. Such decisions are totally out of its + sphere; it can assert the universal as a _law_, but the universal + as a law and the universal as a proposition are wholly distinct. + The one asserts the universal as a fact, the other as a + presumption; the one as an absolute certainty, the other as a + practical certainty, when there is no reason to expect the + contrary. The one contains and includes the particular, the other + does not; from the one we argue mathematically to the falsehood of + any opposite particular; from the other we do not.... For example, + one signal miracle, pre-eminent for its grandeur, crowned the + evidence of the supernatural character and office of our Lord--our + Lord's ascension--His going up with His body of flesh and bones + into the sky in the presence of His disciples. "He lifted up His + hands, and blessed them. And while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven. And they looked stedfastly + toward heaven as He went up, and a cloud received Him out of their + sight." + + Here is an amazing scene, which strikes even the devout believer, + coming across it in the sacred page suddenly or by chance, amid + the routine of life, with a fresh surprise. Did, then, this event + really take place? Or is the evidence of it forestalled by the + inductive principle compelling us to remove the scene _as such_ + out of the category of matters of fact? The answer is, that the + inductive principle is in its own nature only an _expectation_; + and that the expectation, that what is unlike our experience will + not happen, is quite consistent with its occurrence in fact. This + principle does not pretend to decide the question of fact, which + is wholly out of its province and beyond its function. It can only + decide the fact by the medium of a universal; the universal + proposition that no man has ascended to heaven. But this is a + statement which exceeds its power; it is as radically incompetent + to pronounce it as the taste or smell is to decide on matters of + sight; its function is practical, not logical. No antecedent + statement, then, which touches my belief in this scene, is allowed + by the laws of thought. Converted indeed into a universal + proposition, the inductive principle is omnipotent, and totally + annihilates every particular which does not come within its range. + The universal statement that no man has ascended into heaven + absolutely falsifies the fact that One Man has. But, thus + transmuted, the inductive principle issues out of this + metamorphose, a fiction not a truth; a weapon of air, which even + in the hands of a giant can inflict no blow because it is itself a + shadow. The object of assault receives the unsubstantial thrust + without a shock, only exposing the want of solidity in the + implement of war. The battle against the supernatural has been + going on long, and strong men have conducted it, and are + conducting it--but what they want is a weapon. The logic of + unbelief wants a universal. But no real universal is forthcoming, + and it only wastes its strength in wielding a fictitious one. + +It is not in reason, which refuses to pronounce upon the possible +merely from experience of the actual, that the antecedent objection to +miracles is rooted. Yet that the objection is a powerful one the +consciousness of every reflecting mind testifies. What, then, is the +secret of its force? In a lecture of singular power Mr. Mozley gives +his answer. What tells beforehand against miracles is not reason, but +imagination. Imagination is often thought to favour especially the +supernatural and miraculous. It does do so, no doubt. But the truth is, +that imagination tells both ways--as much against the miraculous as for +it. The imagination, that faculty by which we give life and body and +reality to our intellectual conceptions, takes its character from the +intellectual conceptions with which it is habitually associated. It +accepts the miraculous or shrinks from it and throws it off, according +to the leaning of the mind of which it is the more vivid and, so to +speak, passionate expression. And as it may easily exaggerate on one +side, so it may just as easily do the same on the other. Every one is +familiar with that imaginative exaggeration which fills the world with +miracles. But there is another form of imagination, not so distinctly +recognised, which is oppressed by the presence of unchanging succession +and visible uniformity, which cannot shake off the yoke of custom or +allow anything different to seem to it real. The sensitiveness and +impressibility of the imagination are affected, and unhealthily +affected, not merely by strangeness, but by sameness; to one as to the +other it may "passively submit and surrender itself, give way to the +mere form of attraction, and, instead of grasping something else, be +itself grasped and mastered by some dominant idea." And it is then, in +one case as much as in the other, "not a power, but a failing and +weakness of nature." + + The passive imagination, then, in the present case exaggerates a + practical expectation of the uniformity of nature, implanted in us + for practical ends, into a scientific or universal proposition; + and it does this by surrendering itself to the impression produced + by the constant spectacle of the regularity of visible nature. By + such a course a person allows the weight and pressure of this idea + to grow upon him till it reaches the point of actually restricting + his sense of possibility to the mould of physical order.... The + order of nature thus stamps upon some minds the idea of its + immutability simply by its repetition. The imagination we usually + indeed associate with the acceptance of the supernatural rather + than with the denial of it; but the passive imagination is in + truth neutral; it only increases the force and tightens the hold + of any impression upon us, to whatever class the impression may + belong, and surrenders itself to a superstitious or a physical + idea, as it may be. Materialism itself is the result of + imagination, which is so impressed by matter that it cannot + realise the existence of spirit. + +The great opponent, then, of miracles, considered as possible +occurrences, is not reason, but something which on other great subjects +is continually found on the opposite side to reason, resisting and +counteracting it; that powerful overbearing sense of the actual and the +real, which when it is opposed by reason is apt to make reason seem +like the creator of mere ideal theories; which gives to arguments +implying a different condition of things from one which is familiar to +present experience the disadvantage of appearing like artificial and +unsubstantial refinements of thought, such as, to the uncultivated +mind, appear not merely metaphysical discussions, but what are known to +be the most certain reasonings of physical and mathematical science. It +is that measure of the probable, impressed upon us by the spectacle; to +which we are accustomed all our lives long, of things as we find them, +and which repels the possibility of a break or variation; that sense of +probability which the keenest of philosophers declares to be incapable +of rational analysis, and pronounces allied to irrational portions of +our constitution, like custom, and the effect of time, and which is +just as much an enemy to invention, to improvement, to a different +state of things in the future, as it is to the belief and realising of +a different state of things in the past. The antecedent objection to +the miraculous is not reason, but an argument which limits and narrows +the domain of reason; which excludes dry, abstract, passionless +reason--with its appeals to considerations remote from common +experience, its demands for severe reflection, its balancing and long +chains of thought--from pronouncing on what seems to belong to the +flesh and blood realities of life as we know it. Against this +tyrannical influence, which may be in a vulgar and popular as in a +scientific form, which may be the dull result of habit or the more +specious effect of a sensitive and receptive imagination, but which in +all cases is at bottom the same, Mr. Mozley claims to appeal to +reason:-- + + To conclude, then, let us suppose an intelligent Christian of the + present day asked, not what evidence he has of miracles, but how + he can antecedently to all evidence think such amazing occurrences + _possible_, he would reply, "You refer me to a certain sense of + impossibility which you suppose me to possess, applying not to + mathematics but to facts. Now, on this head, I am conscious of a + certain natural resistance in my mind to events unlike the order + of nature. But I resist many things which I know to be certain: + infinity of space, infinity of time, eternity past, eternity + future, the very idea of a God and another world. If I take mere + resistance, therefore, for denial, I am confined in every quarter + of my mind; I cannot carry out the very laws of reason, I am + placed under conditions which are obviously false. I conclude, + therefore, that I may resist and believe at the same time. If + Providence has implanted in me a certain expectation of uniformity + or likeness in nature, there is implied in that very expectations + resistance to an _un_like event, which resistance does not cease + even when upon evidence I _believe_ the event, but goes on as a + mechanical impression, though the reason counterbalances it. + Resistance, therefore, is not disbelief, unless by an act of my + own reason I _give_ it an absolute veto, which I do _not_ do. My + reason is clear upon the point, that there is no disagreement + between itself and a miracle as such." ... Nor is it dealing + artificially with ourselves to exert a force upon our minds + against the false certainty of the resisting imagination--such a + force as is necessary to enable reason to stand its ground, and + bend back again that spring of impression against the miraculous + which has illegally tightened itself into a law to the + understanding. Reason does not always prevail spontaneously and + without effort even in questions of belief; so far from it, that + the question of faith against reason may often be more properly + termed the question of reason against imagination. It does not + seldom require faith to believe reason, isolated as she may be + amid vast irrational influences, the weight of custom, the power + of association, the strength of passion, the _vis inertiae_ of + sense, the mere force of the uniformity of nature as a + spectacle--those influences which make up that power of the world + which Scripture always speaks of as the antagonist of faith. + +The antecedent questions about miracles, before coming to the question +of the actual evidence of any, are questions about which reason--reason +disengaged and disembarrassed from the arbitrary veto of +experience--has a right to give its verdict. Miracles presuppose the +existence of God, and it is from reason alone that we get the idea of +God; and the antecedent question then is, whether they are really +compatible with the idea of God which reason gives us. Mr. Mozley +remarks that the question of miracles is really "shut up in the +enclosure of one assumption, that of the existence of God"; and that if +we believe in a personal Deity with all power over nature, that belief +brings along with it the possibility of His interrupting natural order +for His own purposes. He also bids us observe that the idea of God +which reason gives us is exposed to resistance of the same kind, and +from precisely the same forces, in our mental constitution, as the idea +of miracles. When reason has finished its overwhelming proof, still +there is a step to be taken before the mind embraces the equally +overwhelming conclusion--a step which calls for a distinct effort, +which obliges the mind, satisfied as it may be, to beat back the +counteracting pressure of what is visible and customary. After +reason--not opposed to it or independent of it, but growing out of it, +yet a distinct and further movement--comes faith. This is the case, not +specially in religion, but in all subjects, where the conclusions of +reason cannot be subjected to immediate verification. How often, as he +observes, do we see persons "who, when they are in possession of the +best arguments, and what is more, understand those arguments, are still +shaken by almost any opposition, because they want the faculty to +_trust_ an argument when they have got one." + + Not, however, that the existence of a God is so clearly seen by + reason as to dispense with faith; not from any want of cogency in + the reasons, but from the amazing nature of the conclusion--that + it is so unparalleled, transcendent, and inconceivable a truth to + believe. It requires trust to commit oneself to the conclusion of + any reasoning, however strong, when such as this is the + conclusion: to put enough dependence and reliance upon any + premisses, to accept upon the strength of them so immense a + result. The issue of the argument is so astonishing that if we do + not tremble for its safety, it must be on account of a practical + principle in our minds which enables us to _confide_ and trust in + reasons, when they are really strong and good ones.... Faith, when + for convenience' sake we do distinguish it from reason, is not + distinguished from reason by the want of premisses, but by the + nature of the conclusions. Are our conclusions of the customary + type? Then custom imparts the full sense of security. Are they not + of the customary, but of a strange and unknown type? Then the + mechanical sense of security is wanting, and a certain trust is + required for reposing in them, which we call faith. But that which + draws these conclusions is in either case reason. We infer, we go + upon reasons, we use premisses in either case. The premisses of + faith are not so palpable as those of ordinary reason, but they + are as real and solid premisses all the same. Our faith in the + existence of a God and a future state is founded upon reasons as + much so as the belief in the commonest kind of facts. The reasons + are in themselves as strong, but, because the conclusions are + marvellous and are not seconded and backed by known parallels or + by experience, we do not so passively acquiesce in them; there is + an exertion of confidence in depending upon them and assuring + ourselves of their force. The inward energy of the reason has to + be evoked, when she can no longer lean upon the outward prop of + custom, but is thrown back upon herself and the intrinsic force of + her premisses. Which reason, not leaning upon custom, is faith; + she obtains the latter name when she depends entirely upon her own + insight into certain grounds, premisses, and evidences, and + follows it though it leads to transcendent, unparalleled, and + supernatural conclusions.... + + Indeed, does not our heart bear witness to the fact that to + believe in a God is an exercise of faith? That the universe was + produced by the will of a personal Being, that its infinite forces + are all the power of that one Being, its infinite relations the + perceptions of one Mind--would not this, if any truth could, + demand the application of the maxim, _Credo quia impossibile_? + Look at it only as a conception, and does the wildest fiction of + the imagination equal it? No premisses, no arguments therefore, + can so accommodate this truth to us as not to leave the belief in + it an act of mental ascent and trust, of faith as distinguished + from sight. _Divest_ reason of its trust, and the universe stops + at the impersonal stage--there is no God; and yet, if the first + step in religion is the greatest, how is it that the freest and + boldest speculator rarely declines it? How is it that the most + mysterious of all truths is a universally accepted one? What is it + which guards this truth? What is it which makes men shrink from + denying it? Why is atheism a crime? Is it that authority still + reigns upon one question, and that the voice of all ages is too + potent to be withstood? + +But the progress of civilisation and thought has impressed this amazing +idea on the general mind. It is no matter-of-course conception. The +difficulties attending it were long insuperable to the deepest thought +as well as to popular belief; and the triumph of the modern and +Christian idea of God is the result not merely of the eager forwardness +of faith, but of the patient and inquiring waiting of reason. And the +question, whether we shall pronounce the miraculous to be impossible as +such, is really the question whether we shall once more let this belief +go. + + The conception of a limited Deity then, i.e. a Being really + circumscribed in power, and not verbally only by a confinement to + necessary truth, is at variance with our fundamental idea of a + God; to depart from which is to retrograde from modern thought to + ancient, and to go from Christianity back again to Paganism. The + God of ancient religion was either not a personal Being or not an + omnipotent Being; the God of modern religion is both. For, indeed, + civilisation is not opposed to faith. The idea of the Supreme + Being in the mind of European society now is more primitive, more + childlike, more imaginative than the idea of the ancient Brahman + or Alexandrian philosopher; it is an idea which both of these + would have derided as the notion of a child--a _negotiosus Deus_, + who interposes in human affairs and answers prayers. So far from + the philosophical conception of the Deity having advanced with + civilisation, and the poetical receded, the philosophical has + receded and the poetical advanced. The God of whom it is said, + "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them + is forgotten before God; but even the very hairs of your head are + numbered," is the object of modern worship. Nor, again, has + civilisation shown any signs of rejecting doctrine. Certain ages + are, indeed, called the ages of faith; but the bulk of society in + _this_ age believes that it lives under a supernatural + dispensation, and accepts truths which are not less supernatural, + though they have more proof, than some doctrines of the Middle + Ages; and, if so, _this_ is an age of faith. It is true that most + people do not live up to their faith now; neither did they in the + Middle Ages. + + Has not modern philosophy, again, shown both more strength and + acuteness, and also more faith, than the ancient? I speak of the + main current. Those ancient thinkers who reduced the Supreme Being + to a negation, with all their subtlety, wanted strength, and + settled questions by an easier test than that of modern + philosophy. The merit of a modern metaphysician is, like that of a + good chemist or naturalist, accurate observation in noting the + facts of mind. Is there a contradiction in the idea of creation? + Is there a contradiction in the idea of a personal Infinite Being? + He examines his own mind, and if he does not see one, he passes + the idea. But the ancient speculators decided, without examination + of the true facts of mind, by a kind of philosophical fancy; and, + according to this loose criterion, the creation of matter and a + personal Infinite Being were impossibilities, for they mistook the + inconceivable for the impossible. And thus a stringent test has + admitted what a loose but capricious test discarded, and the true + notion of God has issued safe out of the crucible of modern + metaphysics. Reason has shown its strength, but then it has turned + that strength back upon itself; it has become its own critic; and + in becoming its own critic it has become its own check. + + If the belief, then, in a personal Deity lies at the bottom of all + religious and virtuous practice, and if the removal of it would be + a descent for human nature, the withdrawal of its inspiration and + support, and a fall in its whole standard; the failure of the very + breath of moral life in the individual and in society; the decay + and degeneration of the very stock of mankind;--does a theory + which would withdraw miraculous action from the Deity interfere + with that belief? If it would, it is but prudent to count the cost + of that interference. Would a Deity deprived of miraculous action + possess action at all? And would a God who cannot act be a God? If + this would be the issue, such an issue is the very last which + religious men can desire. The question here has been all + throughout, not whether upon any ground, but whether upon a + religious ground and by religious believers, the miraculous as + such could be rejected. But to that there is but one answer--that + it is impossible in reason to separate religion from the + supernatural, and upon a religious basis to overthrow miracles.... + + And so we arrive again by another route at the old turning + question; for the question whether man is or is not the _vertex_ + of nature, is the question whether there is or is not a God. Does + free agency stop at the human stage, or is there a sphere of + free-will above the human, in which, as in the human, not physical + law but spirit moves matter? And does that free-will penetrate the + universal frame invisibly to us, an omnipresent agent? If so, + every miracle in Scripture is as natural an event in the universe + as any chemical experiment in the physical world; if not, the seat + of the great Presiding Will is empty, and nature has no Personal + Head; man is her highest point; he finishes her ascent; though by + this very supremacy he falls, for under fate he is not free + himself; all nature either ascends to God, or descends to law. Is + there above the level of material causes a region of Providence? + If there is, nature there is moved by the Supreme Free Agent; and + of such a realm a miracle is the natural production. + + Two rationales of miracles thus present themselves to our choice; + one more accommodating to the physical imagination and easy to + fall in with, on a level with custom, common conceptions, and + ordinary history, and requiring no ascent of the mind to embrace, + viz. the solution of miracles as the growth of fancy and legend; + the other requiring an ascent of the reason to embrace it, viz. + the rationale of the supremacy of a Personal Will in nature. The + one is the explanation to which we fall when we dare not trust our + reason, but mistake its inconceivable truths for sublime but + unsubstantial visions; the other is that to which we rise when we + dare trust our reason, and the evidences which it lays before us + of the existence of a Personal Supreme Being. + +The belief in a personal God thus bringing with it the possibility of +miracles, what reason then has to judge is whether it can accept +miracles as such, or any set of miracles, as worthy of a reasonable +conception of the Divine Nature, and whether it can be fairly said that +such miracles have answered a purpose which approves itself to our +reason. Testimony will always speak at a disadvantage till we are +assured on these points. Into the subject of testimony Mr. Mozley +enters only in a general way, though his remarks on the relation of +testimony to facts of so exceptional a nature as miracles, and also on +the distinct peculiarities of Christian evidence as contrasted with the +evidence of all other classes of alleged miracles, are marked by a +characteristic combination of acuteness, precision, and broad practical +sobriety and moderation. He rebukes with quiet and temperate and yet +resolute plainness of statement the misplaced ingenuity which, on +different sides, to serve very different causes, has tried to confuse +and perplex the claims of the great Christian miracles by comparisons +which it is really mere wantonness to make with later ones; for, be +they what they may, it is certain that the Gospel miracles, in nature, +in evidence, and in purpose and result, are absolutely unique in the +world, and have nothing like them. And though the book mainly confines +itself to its proper subject, the antecedent question of credibility, +some of the most striking remarks in it relate to the way in which the +purpose of miracles is visible in those of Christianity, and has been +served by them. A miracle is an instrument--an instrument without which +revelation is impossible; and Mr. Mozley meets Spinoza's objection to +the unmeaning isolation of a miracle by insisting on the distinction, +which Spinoza failed to see, between a miracle simply as a wonder for +its own sake, and as a means, deriving its use and its value simply +from the end which it was to serve. He observes that all the stupendous +"marvels of nature do not speak to us in that way in which one miracle +does, because they do not tell us that we are not like themselves"; and +he remarks on the "perverse determination of Spinoza to look at +miracles in that aspect which does not belong to them, and not to look +at them in that aspect which does." + + He compares miracles with nature, and then says how wise is the + order of nature, how meaningless the violation of it; how + expressive of the Almighty Mind the one, what a concealment of it + the other! But no one pretends to say that a miracle competes with + nature, in physical purpose and effectiveness. That is not its + object. But a miracle, though it does not profess to compete with + nature upon its rival's own ground, has a ghostly force and import + which nature has not. If real, it is a token, more pointed and + direct than physical order can be, of another world, and of Moral + Being and Will in that world. + +Thus, regarding miracles as means to fulfil a purpose, Mr. Mozley shows +what has come of them. His lecture on "Miracles regarded in their +Practical Result" is excelled by some of the others as examples of +subtle and searching thought and well-balanced and compact argument; +but it is a fine example of the way in which a familiar view can have +fresh colour and force thrown into it by the way in which it is +treated. He shows that it is impossible in fact to separate from the +miracles in which it professed to begin, the greatest and deepest moral +change which the world has ever known. This change was made not by +miracles but by certain doctrines. The Epistle to the Romans surveyed +the moral failure of the world; St. Paul looked on the chasm between +knowledge and action, the "unbridged gulf, this incredible inability of +man to do what was right, with profound wonder"; but in the face of +this hopeless spectacle he dared to prophesy the moral elevation which +we have witnessed, and the power to which he looked to bring it about +was the Christian doctrines. St. Paul "takes what may be called the +high view of human nature--i.e. what human nature is capable of when +the proper motive and impulse is applied to it." He sees in Christian +doctrine that strong force which is to break down "the _vis inertiae_ +of man, to set human nature going, to touch the spring of man's heart"; +and he compares with St. Paul's doctrines and hopefulness the doctrinal +barrenness, the despair of Mohammedanism:-- + + If one had to express in a short compass the character of its + remarkable founder as a teacher, it would be that that great man + had no faith in human nature. There were two things which he + thought man could do and would do for the glory of God--transact + religious forms, and fight; and upon those two points he was + severe; but within the sphere of common practical life, where + man's great trial lies, his code exhibits the disdainful laxity of + a legislator who accommodates his rule to the recipient, and shows + his estimate of the recipient by the accommodation which he + adopts. Did we search history for a contrast, we could hardly + discover a deeper one than that between St. Paul's overflowing + standard of the capabilities of human nature and the oracular + cynicism of the great false Prophet. The writer of the Koran does, + indeed, if any discerner of hearts ever did, take the measure of + mankind; and his measure is the same that Satire has taken, only + expressed with the majestic brevity of one who had once lived in + the realm of Silence. "Man is weak," says Mahomet. And upon that + maxim he legislates.... The keenness of Mahomet's insight into + human nature, a wide knowledge of its temptations, persuasives, + influences under which it acts, a vast immense capacity of + forbearance for it, half grave half genial, half sympathy half + scorn, issue in a somewhat Horatian model, the character of the + man of experience who despairs of any change in man, and lays down + the maxim that we must take him as we find him. It was indeed his + supremacy in both faculties, the largeness of the passive nature + and the splendour of action, that constituted the secret of his + success. The breadth and flexibility of mind that could negotiate + with every motive of interest, passion, and pride in man is + surprising; there is boundless sagacity; what is wanting is hope, + a belief in the capabilities of human nature. There is no upward + flight in the teacher's idea of man. Instead of which, the notion + of the power of earth, and the impossibility of resisting it, + depresses his whole aim, and the shadow of the tomb falls upon the + work of the great false Prophet. + + The idea of God is akin to the idea of man. "He knows us," says + Mahomet. God's _knowledge_, the vast _experience_, so to speak, of + the Divine Being, His infinite acquaintance with man's frailties + and temptations, is appealed to as the ground of confidence. "He + is the Wise, the Knowing One," "He is the Knowing, the Wise," "He + is easy to be reconciled." Thus is raised a notion of the Supreme + Being, which is rather an extension of the character of the + large-minded and sagacious man of the world than an extension of + man's virtue and holiness. He forgives because He knows too much + to be rigid, because sin universal ceases to be sin, and must be + given way to. Take a man who has had large opportunity of studying + mankind, and has come into contact with every form of human + weakness and corruption; such a man is indulgent as a simple + consequence of his knowledge, because nothing surprises him. So + the God of Mahomet forgives by reason of His vast knowledge. + +In contrast with the fruit of this he observes that "the prophecy in +the Epistle to the Romans has been fulfilled, and that doctrine has +been historically at the bottom of a great change of moral practice in +mankind." The key has been found to set man's moral nature in action, +to check and reverse that course of universal failure manifest before; +and this key is Christian doctrine. "A stimulus has been given to human +nature which has extracted an amount of action from it which no Greek +or Roman could have believed possible." It is inconceivable that but +for such doctrine such results as have been seen in Christendon would +have followed; and were it now taken away we cannot see anything else +that would have the faintest expectation of taking its place. "Could we +commit mankind to a moral Deism without trembling for the result?" Can +the enthusiasm for the divinity of human nature stand the test of +clear, unsparing observation? Would it not issue in such an estimate of +human nature as Mahomet took? "A deification of humanity upon its own +grounds, an exaltation which is all height and no depth, wants power +because it wants truth. It is not founded upon the facts of human +nature, and therefore issues in vain and vapid aspiration, and injures +the solidity of man's character." As he says, "The Gospel doctrine of +the Incarnation and its effects alone unites the sagacious view of +human nature with the enthusiastic." And now what is the historical +root and basis from which this one great moral revolution in the +world's history, so successful, so fruitful, so inexhaustible, has +started? + + But if, as the source and inspiration of practice, doctrine has + been the foundation of a new state of the world, and of that + change which distinguishes the world under Christianity from the + world before it, miracles, as the proof of that doctrine, stand + before us in a very remarkable and peculiar light. Far from being + mere idle feats of power to gratify the love of the marvellous; + far even from being mere particular and occasional rescues from + the operation of general laws,--they come before us as means for + accomplishing the largest and most important practical object that + has ever been accomplished in the history of mankind. They lie at + the bottom of the difference of the modern from the ancient world; + so far, i.e., as that difference is moral. We see as a fact a + change in the moral condition of mankind, which marks ancient and + modern society as two different states of mankind. What has + produced this change, and elicited this new power of action? + Doctrine. And what was the proof of that doctrine, or essential to + the proof of it? Miracles. The greatness of the result thus throws + light upon the propriety of the means, and shows the fitting + object which was presented for the introduction of such means--the + fitting occasion which had arisen for the use of them; for, + indeed, no more weighty, grand, or solemn occasion can be + conceived than the foundation of such a new order of things in the + world. Extraordinary action of Divine power for such an end has + the benefit of a justifying object of incalculable weight; which + though not of itself, indeed, proof of the fact, comes with + striking force upon the mind in connection with the proper proof. + It is reasonable, it is inevitable, that we should be impressed by + such a result; for it shows that the miraculous system has been a + practical one; that it has been a step in the ladder of man's + ascent, the means of introducing those powerful truths which have + set his moral nature in action. + +Of this work, remarkable in so many ways, we will add but one thing +more. It is marked throughout with the most serious and earnest +conviction, but it is without a single word, from first to last, of +asperity or insinuation against opponents; and this, not from any +deficiency of feeling as to the importance of the issue, but from a +deliberate and resolutely maintained self-control, and from an +overruling ever-present sense of the duty, on themes like these, of a +more than judicial calmness. + + + + +IX + +ECCE HOMO[11] + + + [11] + _Ecce Homo: A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Guardian_, + 7th February 1866. + +This is a dangerous book to review. The critic of it, if he is prudent, +will feel that it is more than most books a touchstone of his own +capacity, and that in giving his judgment upon it he cannot help giving +his own measure and betraying what he is himself worth. All the +unconscious guiding which a name, even if hitherto unknown, gives to +opinion is wanting. The first aspect of the book is perplexing; closer +examination does not clear up all the questions which present +themselves; and many people, after they have read it through, will not +feel quite certain what it means. Much of what is on the surface and +much of what is inherent in the nature of the work will jar painfully +on many minds; while others who begin to read it under one set of +impressions may by the time they have got to the end complain of having +been taken in. There can be no doubt on which side the book is; but it +may be open to debate from which side it has come. The unknown champion +who comes into the lists with barred vizor and no cognisance on his +shield leaves it not long uncertain for which of the contending parties +he appears; but his weapons and his manner of fighting are not the +ordinary ones of the side which he takes; and there is a force in his +arm, and a sweep in his stroke, which is not that of common men. The +book is one which it is easy to take exception to, and perhaps still +easier to praise at random; but the subject is put before us in so +unusual a way, and one so removed from the ordinary grooves of thought, +that in trying to form an adequate estimate of the work as a whole, a +man feels as he does when he is in the presence of something utterly +unfamiliar and unique, when common rules and inferences fail him, and +in pronouncing upon which he must make something of a venture. + +In making our own venture we will begin with what seems to us +incontestable. In the first place, but that it has been questioned, we +should say that there could be no question of the surpassing ability +which the book displays. It is far beyond the power of the average +clever and practised writer of our days. It is the work of a man in +whom thought, sympathy, and imagination are equally powerful and +wealthy, and who exercises a perfect and easy command over his own +conceptions, and over the apt and vivid language which is their +expression. Few men have entered so deeply into the ideas and feelings +of the time, or have looked at the world, its history and its +conditions, with so large and piercing an insight. But it is idle to +dwell on what must strike, at first sight, any one who but opens the +book. We go on to observe, what is equally beyond dispute, the deep +tone of religious seriousness which pervades the work. The writer's way +of speaking is very different from that of the ascetic or the devotee; +but no ascetic or devotee could be more profoundly penetrated with the +great contrast between holiness and evil, and show more clearly in his +whole manner of thinking the ineffaceable impression of the powers of +the world to come. Whatever else the book may be, this much is plain on +the face of it--it is the work of a mind of extreme originality, depth, +refinement, and power; and it is also the work of a very religious man: +Thomas à Kempis had not a more solemn sense of things unseen and of +what is meant by the Imitation of Christ. + +What the writer wishes his book to be understood to be we must gather +from his Preface:-- + + Those who feel dissatisfied with the current conceptions of + Christ, if they cannot rest content without a definite opinion, + may find it necessary to do what to persons not so dissatisfied it + seems audacious and perilous to do. They may be obliged to + reconsider the whole subject from the beginning, and placing + themselves in imagination at the time when he whom we call Christ + bore no such name, but was simply, as St. Luke describes him, a + young man of promise, popular with those who knew him, and + appearing to enjoy the Divine favour, to trace his biography from + point to point, and accept those conclusions about him, not which + church doctors or even apostles have sealed with their authority, + but which the facts themselves, critically weighed, appear to + warrant. + + This is what the present writer undertook to do for the + satisfaction of his own mind, and because, after reading a good + many books on Christ, he felt still constrained to confess that + there was no historical character whose motives, objects, and + feelings remained so incomprehensible to him. The inquiry which + proved serviceable to himself may chance to be useful to others. + + What is now published is a fragment. No theological questions + whatever are here discussed. Christ, as the creator of modern + theology and religion, will make the subject of another volume, + which, however, the author does not hope to publish for some time + to come. In the meanwhile he has endeavoured to furnish an answer + to the question, What was Christ's object in founding the Society + which is called by his name, and how is it adapted to attain that + object? + +Thus the book comes before us as a serious facing of difficulties. And +that the writer lays stress on its being so viewed appears further from +a letter which he wrote to the _Spectator_, repeating emphatically that +the book is not one "written after the investigation was completed, but +the _investigation_ itself." The letter may be taken to complete the +statement of the Preface:-- + + I endeavoured in my Preface to describe the state of mind in which + I undertook my book. I said that the character and objects of + Christ were at that time altogether incomprehensible to me, and + that I wished to try whether an independent investigation would + relieve my perplexity. Perhaps I did not distinctly enough state + that _Ecce Homo_ is not a book written after the investigation was + completed, but the _investigation_ itself. + + The Life of Christ is partly easy to understand and partly + difficult. This being so, what would a man do who wished to study + it methodically? Naturally he would take the easy part first. He + would collect, arrange, and carefully consider all the facts which + are simple, and until he has done this, he would carefully avoid + all those parts of his subject which are obscure, and which cannot + be explained without making bold hypotheses. By this course he + would limit the problem, and in the meanwhile arrive at a probable + opinion concerning the veracity of the documents, and concerning + the characteristics, both intellectual and moral, of the person + whose high pretensions he wished to investigate. + + This is what I have done. I have postponed altogether the hardest + questions connected with Christ, as questions which cannot + properly be discussed until a considerable quantity of evidence + has been gathered about his character and views. If this evidence, + when collected, had appeared to be altogether conflicting and + inconsistent, I should have been saved the trouble of proceeding + any further; I should have said that Christ is a myth. If it had + been consistent, and had disclosed to me a person of mean and + ambitious aims, I should have said, Christ is a deceiver. Again, + if it had exhibited a person of weak understanding and strong + impulsive sensibility, I should have said Christ is a bewildered + enthusiast. + + In all these cases you perceive my method would have saved me a + good deal of trouble. As it is, I certainly feel bound to go on, + though, as I say in my Preface, my progress will necessarily be + slow. But I am much engaged and have little time for theological + study. But pray do not suppose that postponing questions is only + another name for evading them. I think I have gained much by this + postponement. I have now a very definite notion of Christ's + character and that of his followers. I shall be able to judge how + far he was likely to deceive himself or them. It is possible I may + have put others, who can command more time than I, in a condition + to take up the subject where for the present I leave it. + + You say my picture suffers by my method. But _Ecce Homo_ is not a + picture: it is the very opposite of a picture; it is an analysis. + It may be, you will answer, that the title suggests a picture. + This may perhaps be true, and if so, it is no doubt a fault, but a + fault in the title, not in the book. For titles are put to books, + not books to titles. + +Thus it appears that the writer found it his duty to investigate those +awful questions which every thinking man feels to be full of the +"incomprehensible" and unfathomable, but which many thinking men, for +various reasons both good and bad, shrink from attempting to +investigate, accepting on practical and very sufficient grounds the +religious conclusions which are recommended and sanctioned by the +agreement of Christendom. And finding it his duty to investigate them +at all, he saw that he was bound to investigate in earnest. But under +what circumstances this happened, from what particular pressure of +need, and after what previous belief or state of opinion, we are not +told. Whether from being originally on the doubting side--on the +irreligious side we cannot suppose he ever could have been--he has +risen through his investigation into belief; or whether, originally on +the believing side, he found the aspect so formidable, to himself or to +the world, of the difficulties and perplexities which beset belief, +that he turned to bay upon the foes that dogged him--must be left to +conjecture. It is impossible to question that he has been deeply +impressed with the difficulties of believing; it is impossible to +question that doubt has been overborne and trampled under foot. But +here we have the record, it would not be accurate to say of the +struggle, but of that resolute and unflinching contemplation of the +realities of the case which decided it. Such plunging into such a +question must seem, as he says, to those who do not need it, "audacious +and perilous"; for if you plunge into a question in earnest, and do not +under a thin disguise take a side, you must, whatever your bias and +expectation, take your chance of the alternative answers which may come +out. It is a simple fact that there are many people who feel +"dissatisfied with the current conceptions" of our Lord--whether +reasonably and justly dissatisfied is another question; but whatever we +think of it they remain dissatisfied. In such emergencies it is +conceivable that a man who believes, yet keenly realises and feels what +disturbs or destroys the belief of others, should dare to put himself +in their place; should enter the hospital and suffer the disease which +makes such ravages; should descend into the shades and face the +spectres. No one can deny the risk of dwelling on such thoughts as he +must dwell on; but if he feels warmly with his kind, he may think it +even a duty to face the risk. To any one accustomed to live on his +belief it cannot but be a hard necessity, full of pain and difficulty, +first to think and then to speak of what he believes, as if it _might +not_ be, or _could be_ otherwise; but the changes of time bring up ever +new hard necessities; and one thing is plain, that if ever such an +investigation is undertaken, it ought to be a real one, in good earnest +and not in play. If a man investigates at all, both for his own sake +and for the sake of the effect of his investigation on others, he must +accept the fair conditions of investigation. We may not ourselves be +able to conceive the possibility of taking, even provisionally, a +neutral position; but looking at what is going on all round us, we +ought to be able to enlarge our thoughts sufficiently to take in the +idea that a believing mind may feel it a duty to surrender itself +boldly to the intellectual chances and issues of the inquiry, and to +"let its thoughts take their course in the confidence that they will +come home at last." It may be we ourselves who "have not faith enough +to be patient of doubt"; there may be others who feel that if what they +believe is real, they need not be afraid of the severest revisal and +testing of the convictions on which they rest; who feel that, in the +circumstances of the time, it is not left to their choice whether these +convictions shall be sifted unsparingly and to the uttermost; and who +think it a venture not unworthy of a Christian, to descend even to the +depths to go through the thoughts of doubters, if so be that he may +find the spell that shall calm them. We do not say that this book is +the production of such a state of mind; we only think that it may be. +One thing is clear, wherever the writer's present lot is cast, he has +that in him which not only enables him, but forces him, to sympathise +with what he sees in the opposite camp. If he is what is called a +Liberal, his whole heart is yet pouring itself forth towards the great +truths of Christianity. If he is what is called orthodox, his whole +intellect is alive to the right and duty of freedom of thought. He will +therefore attract and repel on both sides. And he appears to feel that +the position of double sympathy gives him a special advantage, to +attract to each side what is true in its opposite, and to correct in +each what is false or inadequate. + +What, then, is this investigation, and what course does it follow? At +the first aspect, we might take it for one of those numerous attempts +on the Liberal side, partly impatient, partly careless of Christianity, +to put a fresh look on the Christian history, and to see it with new +eyes. The writer's language is at starting neutral; he speaks of our +Lord in the language indeed of the New Testament, but not in the usual +language of later Christian writers. All through, the colour and tone +is absolutely modern; and what would naturally be expressed in familiar +theological terms is for the most part studiously put in other words. +Persons acquainted with the writings of the late Mr. Robertson might be +often reminded of his favourite modes of teaching; of his maxim that +truth is made up of two opposites which seem contradictories; of the +distinction which he was so fond of insisting upon between principles +and rules; above all, of his doctrine that the true way to rise to the +faith in our Lord's Divine Nature was by first realising His Human +Life. But the resemblance is partial, if not superficial, and gives way +on closer examination before broad and characteristic features of an +entirely different significance. That one which at first arrests +attention, and distinguishes this writer's line of thought from the +common Liberal way of dealing with the subject, is that from the first +page of the book to its last line the work of Christ is viewed, not +simply as the foundation of a religious system, the introduction of +certain great principles, the elevation of religious ideas, the +delivery of Divine truths, the exhibition of a life and example, but as +the call and creation of a definite, concrete, organised society of +men. The subject, of investigation is not merely the character and +history of the Person, but the Person as connected with His work. +Christ is regarded not simply in Himself or in His teaching, as the +Founder of a philosophy, a morality, a theology in the abstract, but as +the Author of a Divine Society, the Body which is called by His Name, +the Christian Church Universal, a real and visible company of men, +which, however we may understand it, exists at this moment as it has +existed since His time, marked by His badges, governed by His laws, and +working out His purpose. The writer finds the two joined in fact, and +he finds them also joined in the recorded history of Christ's plan. The +book might almost be described as the beginning of a new _De Civitate +Dei_, written with the further experience of fourteen centuries and +from the point of view of our own generation. This is one remarkable +peculiarity of this investigation; another is the prominence given to +the severe side of the Person and character of whom he writes, and what +is even more observable, the way in which both the severity and the +gentleness are apprehended and harmonised. + +We are familiar with the attempts to resolve the Christianity of the +New Testament into philanthropy; and, on the other hand, writers like +Mr. Carlyle will not let us forget that the world is as dark and evil +as the Bible draws it. This writer feels both in one. No one can show +more sympathy with enlarged and varied ideas of human happiness, no one +has connected them more fearlessly with Christian principles, or +claimed from those principles more unlimited developments, even for the +physical well-being of men. No one has extended wider the limits of +Christian generosity, forbearance, and tolerance. But, on the other +hand, what is striking is, that all this is compatible, and is made to +appear so, with the most profound and terrible sense of evil, with +indignation and scorn which is scathing where it kindles and strikes, +with a capacity and energy of deliberate religious hatred against what +is impure and false and ungodly, which mark one who has dared to +realise and to sympathise with the wrath of Jesus Christ. + +The world has been called in these later days, and from opposite +directions, to revise its judgments about Jesus Christ. Christians, on +the one hand, have been called to do it by writers of whom M. Ernest +Renan is the most remarkable and the most unflinching. But the +sceptical and the unbelieving have likewise been obliged to change +their ground and their tone, and no one with any self-respect or care +for his credit even as a thinker and a man would like to repeat the +superficial and shallow flippancy and irreligion of the last century. +Two things have been specially insisted on. We have been told that if +we are to see the truth of things as it is, we must disengage our minds +from the deeply rooted associations and conceptions of a later +theology, and try to form our impressions first-hand and unprompted +from the earliest documents which we can reach. It has been further +urged on us, in a more believing spirit, that we should follow the +order by which in fact truth was unfolded, and rise from the full +appreciation of our Lord's human nature to the acknowledgment of His +Divine nature. It seems to us that the writer of this book has felt the +force of both these appeals, and that his book is his answer to them. +Here is the way in which he responds to both--to the latter indirectly, +but with a significance which no one can mistake; to the former +directly and avowedly. He undertakes, isolating himself from current +beliefs, and restricting himself to the documents from which, if from +any source at all, the original facts about Christ are to be learned, +to examine what the genuine impression is which an attempt to realise +the statements about him leaves on the mind. This has been done by +others, with results supposed to be unfavourable to Christianity. He +has been plainly moved by these results, though not a hint is given of +the existence of Renan or Strauss. But the effect on his own mind has +been to drive him back on a closer survey of the history in its first +fountains, and to bring him from it filled more than ever with wonder +at its astonishing phenomena, to protest against the poverty and +shallowness of the most ambitious and confident of these attempts. They +leave the historical Character which they pourtray still unsounded, its +motives, objects, and feelings absolutely incomprehensible. He accepts +the method to reverse the product. "Look at Christ historically," +people say; "see Him as He really was." The answer here is, "Well, I +will look at Him with whatever aid a trained historical imagination can +look at Him. I accept your challenge; I admit your difficulties. I will +dare to do what you do. I will try and look at the very facts +themselves, with singleness and 'innocence of the eye,' trying to see +nothing more than I really see, and trying to see all that my eye falls +on. I will try to realise indeed what is recorded of Him. And _this_ is +what I see. This is the irresistible impression from the plainest and +most elementary part of the history, if we are to accept any history at +all. A miracle could not be more unlike the order of our experience +than the Character set before us is unique and unapproachable in all +known history. Further, all that makes the superiority of the modern +world to the ancient, and is most permanent and pregnant with +improvement in it, may be traced to the appearance of that Character, +and to the work which He planned and did. You ask for a true picture of +Him, drawn with freedom, drawn with courage; here, if you dare look at +it, is what those who wrote of Him showed Him to be. Renan has tried to +draw this picture. Take the Gospels as they stand; treat them simply as +biographies; look, and see, and think of what they tell, and then ask +yourself about Renan's picture, and what it looks like when placed side +by side with the truth." + +This, as we have ventured to express it in our own words, seems to be +the writer's position. It is at any rate the effect of his book, to our +minds. The inquiry, it must always be remembered, is a preliminary one, +dealing, as he says, with the easiest and obvious elements of the +problem; and much that seems inadequate and unsatisfactory may be +developed hereafter. He starts from what, to those who already have the +full belief, must appear a low level. He takes, as it will be seen, the +documents as they stand. He takes little more than the first three +Gospels, and these as a whole, without asking minute questions about +them. The mythical theory he dismisses as false to nature, in dealing +with such a Character and such results. He talks in his preface of +"critically weighing" the facts; but the expression is misleading. It +is true that we may talk of criticism of character; but the words +naturally suggest that close cross-questioning of documents and details +which has produced such remarkable results in modern investigations; +and of this there is none. It is a work in no sense of criticism; it is +a work of what he calls the "trained historical imagination"; a work of +broad and deep knowledge of human nature and the world it works in and +creates about it; a work of steady and large insight into character, +and practical judgment on moral likelihoods. He answers Strauss as he +answers Renan, by producing the interpretation of a character, so +living, so in accordance with all before and after, that it overpowers +and sweeps away objections; a picture, an analysis or outline, if he +pleases, which justifies itself and is its own evidence, by its +originality and internal consistency. Criticism in detail does not +affect him. He assumes nothing of the Gospels, except that they are +records; neither their inspiration in any theological sense, nor their +authorship, nor their immunity from mistake, nor the absolute purity of +their texts. But taking them as a whole he discerns in them a Character +which, if you accept them at all and on any terms, you cannot mistake. +Even if the copy is ever so imperfect, ever so unskilful, ever so +blurred and defaced, there is no missing the features any more than a +man need miss the principle of a pattern because it is rudely or +confusedly traced. He looks at these "biographies" as a geologist might +do at a disturbed series of strata; and he feeds his eye upon them till +he gets such a view of the coherent whole as will stand independent of +the right or wrong disposition of the particular fragments. To the mind +which discerns the whole, the regulating principle, the general curves +and proportions of the strata may be just as visible after the +disturbance as before it. The Gospels bring before us the visible and +distinct outlines of a life which, after all efforts to alter the idea +of it, remains still the same; they present certain clusters of leading +ideas and facts so embedded in their substance that no criticism of +detail can possibly get rid of them, without absolutely obliterating +the whole record. It is this leading idea, or cluster of ideas, to be +gained by intent gazing, which the writer disengages from all questions +of criticism in the narrow sense of the word, and sets before us as +explaining the history of Christianity, and as proving themselves by +that explanation. That the world has been moved we know. "Give me," he +seems to say, "the Character which is set forth in the Gospels, and I +can show how He moved it":-- + + It is in the object of the present treatise to exhibit Christ's + career in outline. No other career ever had so much unity; no + other biography is so simple or can so well afford to dispense + with details. Men in general take up scheme after scheme, as + circumstances suggest one or another, and therefore most + biographies are compelled to pass from one subject to another, and + to enter into a multitude of minute questions, to divide the life + carefully into periods by chronological landmarks accurately + determined, to trace the gradual development of character and + ripening or change of opinions. But Christ formed one plan and + executed it; no important change took place in his mode of + thinking, speaking, or acting; at least the evidence before us + does not enable us to trace any such change. It is possible, + indeed, for students of his life to find details which they may + occupy themselves with discussing; they may map out the chronology + of it, and devise methods of harmonising the different accounts; + but such details are of little importance compared with the one + grand question, what was Christ's plan, and throw scarcely any + light upon that question. What was Christ's plan is the main + question which will be investigated in the present treatise, and + that vision of universal monarchy which we have just been + considering affords an appropriate introduction to it.... + + We conclude then, that Christ in describing himself as a king, and + at the same time as king of the Kingdom of God--in other words as + a king representing the Majesty of the Invisible King of a + theocracy--claimed the character first of Founder, next of + Legislator; thirdly, in a certain high and peculiar sense, of + Judge, of a new divine society. + + In defining as above the position which Christ assumed, we have + not entered into controvertible matter. We have not rested upon + single passages, nor drawn upon the fourth Gospel. To deny that + Christ did undertake to found and to legislate for a new + theocratic society, and that he did claim the office of Judge of + mankind, is indeed possible, but only to those who altogether deny + the credibility of the extant biographies of Christ. If those + biographies be admitted to be generally trustworthy, then Christ + undertook to be what we have described; if not, then of course + this, but also every other account of him falls to the ground. + +We have said that he starts from a low level; and he restricts himself +so entirely at the opening to facts which do not involve dispute, that +his views of them are necessarily incomplete, and, so to say, +provisional and deliberate understatements. He begins no higher than +the beginning of the public ministry, the Baptism, and the Temptation; +and his account of these leaves much to say, though it suggests much of +what is left unsaid. But he soon gets to the proper subject of his +book--the absolute uniqueness of Him whose equally unique work has been +the Christian Church. And this uniqueness he finds in the combination +of "unbounded personal pretensions," and the possession, claimed and +believed, of boundless power, with an absolutely unearthly use of His +pretensions and His power, and with a goodness which has proved to be, +and still is, the permanent and ever-flowing source of moral elevation +and improvement in the world. He early comes across the question of +miracles, and, as he says, it is impossible to separate the claim to +them and the belief in them from the story. We find Christ, he says, +"describing himself as a king, and at the same time as king of the +Kingdom of God"; calling forth and founding a new and divine society, +and claiming to be, both now and hereafter, the Judge without appeal of +all mankind; "he considered, in short, heaven and hell to be in his +hands." And we find, on the other hand, that as such He has been +received. To such an astonishing chain of phenomena miracles naturally +belong:-- + + When we contemplate this scheme as a whole, and glance at the + execution and results of it, three things strike us with + astonishment. First, its prodigious originality, if the expression + may be used. What other man has had the courage or elevation of + mind to say, "I will build up a state by the mere force of my + will, without help from the kings of the world, without taking + advantage of any of the secondary causes which unite men + together--unity of interest or speech, or blood-relationship. I + will make laws for my state which shall never be repealed, and I + will defy all the powers of destruction that are at work in the + world to destroy what I build"? + + Secondly, we are astonished at the calm confidence with which the + scheme was carried out. The reason why statesmen can seldom work + on this vast scale is that it commonly requires a whole lifetime + to gain that ascendency over their fellow-men which such schemes + presuppose. Some of the leading organisers of the world have said, + "I will work my way to supreme power, and then I will execute + great plans." But Christ overleaped the first stage altogether. He + did not work his way to royalty, but simply said to all men, "I am + your king." He did not struggle forward to a position in which he + could found a new state, but simply founded it. + + Thirdly, we are astonished at the prodigious success of the + scheme. It is not more certain that Christ presented himself to + men as the founder, legislator, and judge of a divine society than + it is certain that men have accepted him in these characters, that + the divine society has been founded, that it has lasted nearly two + thousand years, that it has extended over a large and the most + highly-civilised portion of the earth's surface, and that it + continues full of vigour at the present day. + + Between the astonishing design and its astonishing success there + intervenes an astonishing instrumentality--that of miracles. It + will be thought by some that in asserting miracles to have been + actually wrought by Christ we go beyond what the evidence, perhaps + beyond what any possible evidence, is able to sustain. Waiving, + then, for the present, the question whether miracles were actually + wrought, we may state a fact which is fully capable of being + established by ordinary evidence, and which is actually + established by evidence as ample as any historical fact + whatever--the fact, namely, that Christ _professed_ to work + miracles. We may go further, and assert with confidence that + Christ was believed by his followers really to work miracles, and + that it was mainly on this account that they conceded to Him the + pre-eminent dignity and authority which he claimed. The accounts + which we have of these miracles may be exaggerated; it is possible + that in some special cases stories have been related which have no + foundation whatever; but on the whole, miracles play so important + a part in Christ's scheme, that any theory which would represent + them as due entirely to the imagination of his followers or of a + later age destroys the credibility of the documents not partially + but wholly, and leaves Christ a personage as mythical as Hercules. + Now, the present treatise aims to show that the Christ of the + Gospels is not mythical, by showing that the character those + biographies portray is in all its large features strikingly + consistent, and at the same time so peculiar as to be altogether + beyond the reach of invention both by individual genius and still + more by what is called the "consciousness of an age." Now, if the + character depicted in the Gospels is in the main real and + historical, they must be generally trustworthy, and if so, the + responsibility of miracles is fixed on Christ. In this case the + reality of the miracles themselves depends in a great degree on + the opinion we form of Christ's veracity, and this opinion must + arise gradually from the careful examination of his whole life. + For our present purpose, which is to investigate the plan which + Christ formed and the way in which he executed it, it matters + nothing whether the miracles were real or imaginary; in either + case, being believed to be real, they had the same effect. + Provisionally, therefore, we may speak of them as real. + +Without the belief in miracles, as he says, it is impossible to +conceive the history of the Church:-- + + If we suppose that Christ really performed no miracles, and that + those which are attributed to him were the product of + self-deception mixed in some proportion or other with imposture, + then no doubt the faith of St. Paul and St. John was an empty + chimera, a mere misconception; but it is none the less true that + those apparent miracles were essential to Christ's success, and + that had he not pretended to perform them the Christian Church + would never have been founded, and the name of Jesus of Nazareth + would be known at this day only to the curious in Jewish + antiquities. + +But he goes on to point out what was the use which Christ made of +miracles, and how it was that they did not, as they might have done, +even impede His purpose of founding His kingdom on men's consciences +and not on their terrors. In one of the most remarkable passages +perhaps ever written on the Gospel miracles as they are seen when +simply looked at as they are described, the writer says:-- + + He imposed upon himself a strict restraint in the dse of his + supernatural powers. He adopted the principle that he was not sent + to destroy men's lives but to save them, and rigidly abstained in + practice from inflicting any kind of damage or harm. In this course + he persevered so steadily that it became generally understood. + Every one knew that this _king_, whose royal pretensions were so + prominent, had an absolutely unlimited patience, and that he would + endure the keenest criticism, the bitterest and most malignant + personal attacks. Men's mouths were open to discuss his claims and + character with perfect freedom; so far from regarding him with that + excessive fear which might have prevented them from receiving his + doctrine intelligently, they learnt gradually to treat him, even + while they acknowledged his extraordinary power, with a reckless + animosity which they would have been afraid to show towards an + ordinary enemy. With curious inconsistency they openly charged him + with being leagued with the devil; in other words, they acknowledged + that he was capable of boundless mischief, and yet they were so + little afraid of him that they were ready to provoke him to use his + whole power against themselves. The truth was that they believed + him to be disarmed by his own deliberate resolution, and they + judged rightly. He punished their malice only by verbal reproofs, + and they gradually gathered courage to attack the life of one whose + miraculous powers they did not question. + + Meantime, while this magnanimous self-restraint saved him from + false friends and mercenary or servile flatterers, and saved the + kingdom which he founded from the corruption of self-interest and + worldliness, it gave him a power over the good such as nothing + else could have given. For the noblest and most amiable thing that + can be seen is power mixed with gentleness, the reposing, + self-restraining attitude of strength. These are the "fine strains + of honour," these are "the graces of the gods"-- + + To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air. + And yet to charge the sulphur with a bolt + That shall but rive an oak. + + And while he did no mischief under any provocation, his power + flowed in acts of beneficence on every side. Men could approach + near to him, could eat and drink with him, could listen to his + talk and ask him questions, and they found him not accessible + only, but warmhearted, and not occupied so much with his own plans + that he could not attend to a case of distress or mental + perplexity. They found him full of sympathy and appreciation, + dropping words of praise, ejaculations of admiration, tears. He + surrounded himself with those who had tasted of his bounty, sick + people whom he had cured, lepers whose death-in-life, demoniacs + whose hell-in-life, he had terminated with a single powerful word. + Among these came loving hearts who thanked him for friends and + relatives rescued for them out of the jaws of premature death, and + others whom he had saved, by a power which did not seem different, + from vice and degradation. + + This temperance in the use of supernatural power is the + masterpiece of Christ. It is a moral miracle superinduced upon a + physical one. This repose in greatness makes him surely the most + sublime image ever offered to the human imagination. And it is + precisely this trait which gave him his immense and immediate + ascendency over men. If the question be put--Why was Christ so + successful?--Why did men gather round him at his call, form + themselves into a new society according to his wish, and accept + him with unbounded devotion as their legislator and judge? some + will answer, Because of the miracles which attested his divine + character; others, Because of the intrinsic beauty and divinity of + the great law of love which he propounded. But miracles, as we + have seen, have not by themselves this persuasive power. That a + man possesses a strange power which I cannot understand is no + reason why I should receive his words as divine oracles of truth. + The powerful man is not of necessity also wise; his power may + terrify and yet not convince. On the other hand, the law of love, + however divine, was but a precept. Undoubtedly it deserved that + men should accept it for its intrinsic worth, but men are not + commonly so eager to receive the words of wise men nor so + unbounded in their gratitude to them. It was neither for his + miracles nor for the beauty of his doctrine that Christ was + worshipped. Nor was it for his winning personal character, nor for + the persecutions he endured, nor for his martyrdom. It was for the + inimitable unity which all these things made when taken together. + In other words, it was for this that he whose power and greatness + as shown in his miracles were overwhelming denied himself the use + of his power, treated it as a slight thing, walked among men as + though he were one of them, relieved them in distress, taught them + to love each other, bore with undisturbed patience a perpetual + hailstorm of calumny; and when his enemies grew fiercer, continued + still to endure their attacks in silence, until, petrified and + bewildered with astonishment, men saw him arrested and put to + death with torture, refusing steadfastly to use in his own behalf + the power he conceived he held for the benefit of others. It was + the combination of greatness and self-sacrifice which won their + hearts, the mighty powers held under a mighty control, the + unspeakable condescension, the _Cross_ of _Christ_. + +And he goes on to describe the effect upon the world; and what it was +that "drew all men unto Him":-- + + To sum up the results of this chapter. We began by remarking that + an astonishing plan met with an astonishing success, and we raised + the question to what instrumentality that success was due. Christ + announced himself as the Founder and Legislator of a new Society, + and as the Supreme Judge of men. Now by what means did he procure + that these immense pretensions should be allowed? He might have + done it by sheer power, he might have adopted persuasion, and + pointed out the merits of the scheme and of the legislation he + proposed to introduce. But he adopted a third plan, which had the + effect not merely of securing obedience, but of exciting + enthusiasm and devotion. He laid men under an immense + _obligation_. He convinced them that he was a person of altogether + transcendent greatness, one who needed nothing at their hands, one + whom it was impossible to benefit by conferring riches, or fame, + or dominion upon him, and that, being so great, he had devoted + himself of mere benevolence to their good. He showed them that for + their sakes he lived a hard and laborious life, and exposed + himself to the utmost malice of powerful men. They saw him hungry, + though they believed him able to turn the stones into bread; they + saw his royal pretensions spurned, though they believed that he + could in a moment take into his hand all the kingdoms of the world + and the glory of them; they saw his life in danger; they saw him + at last expire in agonies, though they believed that, had he so + willed it, no danger could harm him, and that had he thrown + himself from the topmost pinnacle of the temple he would have been + softly received in the arms of ministering angels. Witnessing his + sufferings, and convinced by the miracles they saw him work that + they were voluntarily endured, men's hearts were touched, and pity + for weakness blending strangely with wondering admiration of + unlimited power, an agitation of gratitude, sympathy, and + astonishment, such as nothing else could ever excite, sprang up in + them; and when, turning from his deeds to his words, they found + this very self-denial which had guided his own life prescribed as + the principle which should guide theirs, gratitude broke forth in + joyful obedience, self-denial produced self-denial, and the Law + and Lawgiver together were enshrined in their inmost hearts for + inseparable veneration. + +It is plain that whatever there is novel in such a line of argument +must depend upon the way in which it is handled; and it is the +extraordinary and sustained power with which this is done which gives +its character to the book. The writer's method consists in realising +with a depth of feeling and thought which it would not be easy to +match, what our Lord was in His human ministry, as that ministry is set +before us by those who witnessed it; and next, in showing in detail the +connection of that ministry, which wrought so much by teaching, but +still more by the Divine example, "not sparing words but resting most +on deeds," with all that is highest, purest, and best in the morality +of Christendom, and with what is most fruitful and most hopeful in the +differences between the old world and our own. We cannot think we are +wrong when we say that no one could speak of our Lord as this writer +speaks, with the enthusiasm, the overwhelming sense of His +inexpressible authority, of His unapproachable perfection, with the +profound faith which lays everything at His feet, and not also believe +all that the Divine Society which Christ founded has believed about +Him. And though for the present his subject is history, and human +morality as it appears to have been revolutionised and finally fixed by +that history, and not the theology which subsequent in date is yet the +foundation of both, it is difficult to imagine any reader going along +with him and not breaking out at length into the burst, "My Lord and my +God." If it is not so, then the phenomenon is strange indeed; for a +belief below the highest and truest has produced an appreciation, a +reverence, an adoration which the highest belief has only produced in +the choicest examples of those who have had it, and by the side of +which the ordinary exhibitions of the divine history are pale and +feeble. To few, indeed, as it seems to us, has it been given to feel, +and to make others feel, what in all the marvellous complexity of high +and low, and in all the Divine singleness of His goodness and power, +the Son of Man appeared in the days of His flesh. It is not more vivid +or more wonderful than what the Gospels with so much detail tell us of +that awful ministry in real flesh and blood, with a human soul and with +all the reality of man's nature; but most of us, after all, read the +Gospels with sealed and unwondering eyes. But, dwelling on the Manhood, +so as almost to overpower us with the contrast between the distinct and +living truth and the dead and dull familiarity of our thoughts of +routine and custom, he does so in such a way that it is impossible to +doubt, though the word Incarnation never occurs in the volume, that all +the while he has before his thoughts the "taking of the manhood into +God." What is the Gospel picture? + + And let us pause once more to consider that which remains + throughout a subject of ever-recurring astonishment, the unbounded + personal pretensions which Christ advances. It is common in human + history to meet with those who claim some superiority over their + fellows. Men assert a pre-eminence over their fellow-citizens or + fellow-countrymen and become rulers of those who at first were + their equals, but they dream of nothing greater than some partial + control over the actions of others for the short space of a + lifetime. Few indeed are those to whom it is given to influence + future ages. Yet some men have appeared who have been "as levers + to uplift the earth and roll it in another course." Homer by + creating literature, Socrates by creating science, Caesar by + carrying civilisation inland from the shores of the Mediterranean, + Newton by starting science upon a career of steady progress, may + be said to have attained this eminence. But these men gave a + single impact like that which is conceived to have first set the + planets in motion; Christ claims to be a perpetual attractive + power like the sun which determines their orbit. They contributed + to men some discovery and passed away; Christ's discovery is + himself. To humanity struggling with its passions and its destiny + he says, Cling to me, cling ever closer to me. If we believe St. + John, he represented himself as the Light of the world, as the + Shepherd of the souls of men, as the Way to immortality, as the + Vine or Life-tree of humanity. And if we refuse to believe that he + used those words, we cannot deny, without rejecting all the + evidence before us, that he used words which have substantially + the same meaning. We cannot deny that he commanded men to leave + everything and attach themselves to him; that he declared himself + king, master, and judge of men; that he promised to give rest to + all the weary and heavy-laden; that he instructed his followers to + hope for life from feeding on his body and blood. + + But it is doubly surprising to observe that these enormous + pretensions were advanced by one whose special peculiarity, not + only among his contemporaries but among the remarkable men that + have appeared before and since, was an almost feminine tenderness + and humility. This characteristic was remarked, as we have seen, + by the Baptist, and Christ himself was fully conscious of it. Yet + so clear to him was his own dignity and infinite importance to the + human race as an objective fact with which his own opinion of + himself had nothing to do, that in the same breath in which he + asserts it in the most unmeasured language, he alludes, apparently + with entire unconsciousness, to his _humility_. "Take my yoke upon + you, and learn of me; _for I am meek and lowly of heart_." And + again, when speaking to his followers of the arrogance of the + Pharisees, he says, "They love to be called Rabbi; but be not you + called Rabbi: _for one is your master, even Christ_." + + Who is the humble man? It is he who resists with special + watchfulness and success the temptations which the conditions of + his life may offer to exaggerate his own importance.... If he + judged himself correctly, and if the Baptist described him well + when he compared him to a lamb, and, we may add, if his + biographers have delineated his character faithfully, Christ was + one naturally contented with obscurity, wanting the restless + desire for distinction and eminence which is common in great men, + hating to put forward personal claims, disliking competition and + "disputes who should be greatest," finding something bombastic in + the titles of royalty, fond of what is simple and homely, of + children, of poor people, occupying himself so much with the + concerns of others, with the relief of sickness and want, that the + temptation to exaggerate the importance of his own thoughts and + plans was not likely to master him; lastly, entertaining for the + human race a feeling so singularly fraternal that he was likely to + reject as a sort of treason the impulse to set himself in any + manner above them. Christ, it appears, was this humble man. When + we have fully pondered the fact we may be in a condition to + estimate the force of the evidence which, submitted to his mind, + could induce him, in direct opposition to all his tastes and + instincts, to lay claim, persistently, with the calmness of entire + conviction, in opposition to the whole religious world, in spite + of the offence which his own followers conceived, to a dominion + more transcendent, more universal, more complete, than the most + delirious votary of glory ever aspired to in his dreams. + +And what is it that our Lord has done for man by being so truly man? + + This then it is which is wanted to raise the feeling of humanity + into an enthusiasm; when the precept of love has been given, an + image must be set before the eyes of those who are called upon to + obey it, an ideal or type of man which may be noble and amiable + enough to raise the whole race and make the meanest member of it + sacred with reflected glory. + + Did not Christ do this? Did the command to love go forth to those + who had never seen a human being they could revere? Could his + followers turn upon him and say, How can we love a creature so + degraded, full of vile wants and contemptible passions, whose + little life is most harmlessly spent when it is an empty round of + eating and sleeping; a creature destined for the grave and for + oblivion when his allotted term of fretfulness and folly has + expired? Of this race Christ himself was a member, and to this day + is it not the best answer to all blasphemers of the species, the + best consolation when our sense of its degradation is keenest, + that a human brain was behind his forehead, and a human heart + beating in his breast, and that within the whole creation of God + nothing more elevated or more attractive has yet been found than + he? And if it be answered that there was in his nature something + exceptional and peculiar, that humanity must not be measured by + the stature of Christ, let us remember that it was precisely thus + that he wished it to be measured, delighting to call himself the + Son of Man, delighting to call the meanest of mankind his + brothers. If some human beings are abject and contemptible, if it + be incredible to us that they can have any high dignity or + destiny, do we regard them from so great a height as Christ? Are + we likely to be more pained by their faults and deficiencies than + he was? Is our standard higher than his? And yet he associated by + preference with the meanest of the race; no contempt for them did + he ever express, no suspicion that they might be less dear than + the best and wisest to the common Father, no doubt that they were + naturally capable of rising to a moral elevation like his own. + There is nothing of which a man may be prouder than of this; it is + the most hopeful and redeeming fact in history; it is precisely + what was wanting to raise the love of man as man to enthusiasm. An + eternal glory has been shed upon the human race by the love Christ + bore to it And it was because the Edict of Universal Love went + forth to men whose hearts were in no cynical mood, but possessed + with a spirit of devotion to a man, that words which at any other + time, however grandly they might sound, would have been but words, + penetrated so deeply, and along with the law of love the power of + love was given. Therefore also the first Christians were enabled + to dispense with philosophical phrases, and instead of saying that + they loved the ideal of man in man, could simply say and feel that + they loved Christ in every man. + + We have here the very kernel of the Christian moral scheme. We + have distinctly before us the end Christ proposed to himself, and + the means he considered adequate to the attainment of it.... + + But how to give to the meagre and narrow hearts of men such + enlargement? How to make them capable of a universal sympathy? + Christ believed it possible to bind men to their kind, but on one + condition--that they were first bound fast to himself. He stood + forth as the representative of men, he identified himself with the + cause and with the interests of all human beings; he was destined, + as he began before long obscurely to intimate, to lay down his + life for them. Few of us sympathise originally and directly with + this devotion; few of us can perceive in human nature itself any + merit sufficient to evoke it. But it is not so hard to love and + venerate him who felt it. So vast a passion of love, a devotion so + comprehensive, elevated, deliberate, and profound, has not + elsewhere been in any degree approached save by some of his + imitators. And as love provokes love, many have found it possible + to conceive for Christ an attachment the closeness of which no + words can describe, a veneration so possessing and absorbing the + man within them, that they have said, "I live no more, but Christ + lives in me." + +And what, in fact, has been the result, after the utmost and freest +abatement for the objections of those who criticise the philosophical +theories or the practical effects of Christianity? + + But that Christ's method, when rightly applied, is really of + mighty force may be shown by an argument which the severest censor + of Christians will hardly refuse to admit. Compare the ancient + with the modern world: "Look on this picture and on that." The + broad distinction in the characters of men forces itself into + prominence. Among all the men of the ancient heathen world there + were scarcely one or two to whom we might venture to apply the + epithet "holy." In other words, there were not more than one or + two, if any, who, besides being virtuous in their actions, were + possessed with an unaffected enthusiasm of goodness, and besides + abstaining from vice, regarded even a vicious thought with horror. + Probably no one will deny that in Christian countries this + higher-toned goodness, which we call holiness, has existed. Few + will maintain that it has been exceedingly rare. Perhaps the truth + is that there has scarcely been a town in any Christian country + since the time of Christ, where a century has passed without + exhibiting a character of such elevation that his mere presence + has shamed the bad and made the good better, and has been felt at + times like the presence of God Himself. And if this be so, has + Christ failed? or can Christianity die? + +The principle of feeling and action which Christ implanted in that +Divine Society which He founded, or in other words, His morality, had +two peculiarities; it sprang, and it must spring still, from what this +writer calls all through an "enthusiasm"; and this enthusiasm was +kindled and maintained by the influence of a Person. There can be no +goodness without impulses to goodness, any more than these impulses are +enough without being directed by truth and reason; but the impulses +must come before the guidance, and "Christ's Theocracy" is described +"as a great attempt to set all the virtues of the world on this basis, +and to give it a visible centre and fountain." He thus describes how +personal influence is the great instrument of moral quickening and +elevation:-- + + How do men become for the most part "pure, generous, and humane"? + By personal, not by logical influences. They have been reared by + parents who had these qualities, they have lived in a society + which had a high tone, they have been accustomed to see just acts + done, to hear gentle words spoken, and the justness and the + gentleness have passed into their hearts, and slowly moulded their + habits and made their moral discernment clear; they remember + commands and prohibitions which it is a pleasure to obey for the + sake of those who gave them; often they think of those who may be + dead and say, "How would this action appear to him? Would he + approve that word or disapprove it?" To such no baseness appears a + small baseness because its consequences may be small, nor does the + yoke of law seem burdensome although it is ever on their necks, + nor do they dream of covering a sin by an atoning act of virtue. + Often in solitude they blush when some impure fancy sails across + the clear heaven of their minds, because they are never alone, + because the absent Examples, the Authorities they still revere, + rule not their actions only but their inmost hearts; because their + conscience is indeed awake and alive, representing all the + nobleness with which they stand in sympathy, and reporting their + most hidden indecorum before a public opinion of the absent and + the dead. + + Of these two influences--that of Reason and that of Living + Example--which would a wise reformer reinforce? Christ chose the + last He gathered all men into a common relation to himself, and + demanded that each should set him on the pedestal of his heart, + giving a lower place to all other objects of worship, to father + and mother, to husband or wife. In him should the loyalty of all + hearts centre; he should be their pattern, their Authority and + Judge. Of him and his service should no man be ashamed, but to + those who acknowledged it morality should be an easy yoke, and the + law of right as spontaneous as the law of life; sufferings should + be easy to bear, and the loss of worldly friends repaired by a new + home in the bosom of the Christian kingdom; finally, in death + itself their sleep should be sweet upon whose tombstone it could + be written "Obdormivit in Christo." + +In his treatment of this part of the subject, the work of Christ as the +true Creator, through the Christian Church, of living morality, what is +peculiar and impressive is the way in which sympathy with Christianity +in its antique and original form, in its most austere, unearthly, +exacting aspects, is combined with sympathy with the practical +realities of modern life, with its boldness, its freedom, its love of +improvement, its love of truth. It is no common grasp which can embrace +both so easily and so firmly. He is one of those writers whose strong +hold on their ideas is shown by the facility with which they can afford +to make large admissions, which are at first sight startling. Nowhere +are more tremendous passages written than in this book about the +corruptions of that Christianity which yet the writer holds to be the +one hope and safeguard of mankind. He is not afraid to pursue his +investigation independently of any inquiry into the peculiar claims to +authority of the documents on which it rests. He at once goes to their +substance and their facts, and the Person and Life and Character which +they witness to. He is not afraid to put Faith on exactly the same +footing as Life, neither higher nor lower, as the title to membership +in the Church; a doctrine which, if it makes imperfect and rudimentary +faith as little a disqualification as imperfect and inconsistent life, +obviously does not exclude the further belief that deliberate heresy is +on the same level with deliberate profligacy. But the clear sense of +what is substantial, the power of piercing through accidents and +conditions to the real kernel of the matter, the scornful disregard of +all entanglement of apparent contradictions and inconsistencies, enable +him to bring out the lesson which he finds before him with overpowering +force. He sees before him immense mercy, immense condescension, immense +indulgence; but there are also immense requirements--requirements not +to be fulfilled by rule or exhausted by the lapse of time, and which +the higher they raise men the more they exact--an immense seriousness +and strictness, an immense care for substance and truth, to the +disregard, if necessary, of the letter and the form. The "Dispensation +of the Spirit" has seldom had an interpreter more in earnest and more +determined to see meaning in his words. We have room but for two +illustrations. He is combating the notion that the work of Christianity +and the Church nowadays is with the good, and that it is waste of hope +and strength to try to reclaim the bad and the lost:-- + + Once more, however, the world may answer, Christ may be consistent + in this, but is he wise? It may be true that he does demand an + enthusiasm, and that such an enthusiasm may be capable of + awakening the moral sense in hearts in which it seemed dead. But + if, notwithstanding this demand, only a very few members of the + Christian Church are capable of the enthusiasm, what use in + imposing on the whole body a task which the vast majority are not + qualified to perform? Would it not be well to recognise the fact + which we cannot alter, and to abstain from demanding from frail + human nature what human nature cannot render? Would it not be well + for the Church to impose upon its ordinary members only ordinary + duties? When the Bernard or the Whitefield appears let her by all + means find occupation for him. Let her in such cases boldly invade + the enemy's country. But in ordinary times would it not be well + for her to confine herself to more modest and practicable + undertakings? There is much for her to do even though she should + honestly confess herself unable to reclaim the lost. She may + reclaim the young, administer reproof to slight lapses, maintain a + high standard of virtue, soften manners, diffuse enlightenment. + Would it not be well for her to adapt her ends to her means? + + No, it would not be well; it would be fatal to do so; and Christ + meant what he said, and said what was true, when he pronounced the + Enthusiasm of Humanity to be everything, and the absence of it to + be the absence of everything. The world understands its own + routine well enough; what it does not understand is the mode of + changing that routine. It has no appreciation of the nature or + measure of the power of enthusiasm, and on this matter it learns + nothing from experience, but after every fresh proof of that + power, relapses from its brief astonishment into its old + ignorance, and commits precisely the same miscalculation on the + next occasion. The power of enthusiasm is, indeed, far from being + unlimited; in some cases it is very small.... + + But one power enthusiasm has almost without limit--the power of + propagating itself; and it was for this that Christ depended on + it. He contemplated a Church in which the Enthusiasm of Humanity + should not be felt by two or three only, but widely. In whatever + heart it might be kindled, he calculated that it would pass + rapidly into other hearts, and that as it can make its heat felt + outside the Church, so it would preserve the Church itself from + lukewarmncss. For a lukewarm Church he would not condescend to + legislate, nor did he regard it as at all inevitable that the + Church should become lukewarm. He laid it as a duty upon the + Church to reclaim the lost, because he did not think it utopian to + suppose that the Church might be not in its best members only, but + through its whole body, inspired by that ardour of humanity that + can charm away the bad passions of the wildest heart, and open to + the savage and the outlaw lurking in moral wildernesses an + entrancing view of the holy and tranquil order that broods over + the streets and palaces of the city of God.... + + Christianity is an enthusiasm or it is nothing; and if there + sometimes appear in the history of the Church instances of a tone + which is pure and high without being enthusiastic, of a mood of + Christian feeling which is calmly favourable to virtue without + being victorious against vice, it will probably be found that all + that is respectable in such a mood is but the slowly-subsiding + movement of an earlier enthusiasm, and all that is produced by the + lukewarmness of the time itself is hypocrisy and corrupt + conventionalism. + + Christianity, then, would sacrifice its divinity if it abandoned + its missionary character and became a mere educational + institution. Surely this Article of Conversion is the true + _articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae_. When the power of + reclaiming the lost dies out of the Church, it ceases to be the + Church. It may remain a useful institution, though it is most + likely to become an immoral and mischievous one. Where the power + remains, there, whatever is wanting, it may still be said that + "the tabernacle of God is with men." + +One more passage about those who in all Churches and sects think that +all that Christ meant by His call was to give them a means to do what +the French call _faire son salut_:-- + + It appears throughout the Sermon on the Mount that there was a + class of persons whom Christ regarded with peculiar aversion--the + persons who call themselves one thing and are another. He + describes them by a word which originally meant an "actor." + Probably it may in Christ's time have already become current in + the sense which we give to the word "hypocrite." But no doubt + whenever it was used the original sense of the word was distinctly + remembered. And in this Sermon, whenever Christ denounces any + vice, it is with the words "Be not you like the actors." In common + with all great reformers, Christ felt that honesty in word and + deed was the fundamental virtue; dishonesty, including + affectation, self-consciousness, love of stage effect, the one + incurable vice. Our thoughts, words, and deeds are to be of a + piece. For example, if we would pray to God, let us go into some + inner room where none but God shall see us; to pray at the corner + of the streets, where the passing crowd may admire our devotion, + is to _act_ a prayer. If we would keep down the rebellious flesh + by fasting, this concerns ourselves only; it is acting to parade + before the world our self-mortification. And if we would put down + sin let us put it down in ourselves first; it is only the actor + who begins by frowning at it in others. But there are subtler + forms of hypocrisy, which Christ does not denounce, probably + because they have sprung since out of the corruption of a subtler + creed. The hypocrite of that age wanted simply money or credit + with the people. His ends were those of the vulgar, though his + means were different Christ endeavoured to cure both alike of + their vulgarity by telling them of other riches and another + happiness laid up in heaven. Some, of course, would neither + understand nor regard his words, others would understand and + receive them. But a third class would receive them without + understanding them, and instead of being cured of their avarice + and sensuality, would simply transfer them to new objects of + desire. Shrewd enough to discern Christ's greatness, instinctively + believing what he said to be true, they would set out with a + triumphant eagerness in pursuit of the heavenly riches, and laugh + at the short-sighted and weak-minded speculator who contented + himself with the easy but insignificant profits of a worldly life. + They would practise assiduously the rules by which Christ said + heaven was to be won. They would patiently turn the left cheek, + indefatigibly walk the two miles, they would bless with effusion + those who cursed them, and pray fluently for those who used them + spitefully. To love their enemies, to love any one, they would + certainly find impossible, but the outward signs of love might + easily be learnt. And thus there would arise a new class of + actors, not like those whom Christ denounced, exhibiting before an + earthly audience and receiving their pay from human managers, but + hoping to be paid for their performance out of the incorruptible + treasures, and to impose by their dramatic talent upon their + Father in heaven. + +We have said that one peculiarity of this work is the connection which +is kept in view from the first between the Founder and His work; +between Christ and the Christian Church. He finds it impossible to +speak of Him without that still existing witness of His having come, +which is only less wonderful and unique than Himself. This is where, +for the present, he leaves the subject:-- + + For the New Jerusalem, as we witness it, is no more exempt from + corruption than was the Old.... First the rottenness of dying + superstitions, their barbaric manners, their intellectualism + preferring system and debate to brotherhood, strangling + Christianity with theories and framing out of it a charlatan's + philosophy which madly tries to stop the progress of science--all + these corruptions have in the successive ages of its long life + infected the Church, and many new and monstrous perversions of + individual character have disgraced it. The creed which makes + human nature richer and larger makes men at the same time capable + of profounder sins; admitted into a holier sanctuary, they are + exposed to the temptation of a greater sacrilege; awakened to the + sense of new obligations, they sometimes lose their simple respect + for the old ones; saints that have resisted the subtlest + temptations sometimes begin again, as it were, by yielding without + a struggle to the coarsest; hypocrisy has become tenfold more + ingenious and better supplied with disguises; in short, human + nature has inevitably developed downwards as well as upwards, and + if the Christian ages be compared with those of heathenism, they + are found worse as well as better, and it is possible to make it a + question whether mankind has gained on the whole.... + + But the triumph of the Christian Church is that it is + _there_--that the most daring of all speculative dreams, instead + of being found impracticable, has been carried into effect, and + when carried into effect, instead of being confined to a few + select spirits, has spread itself over a vast space of the earth's + surface, and when thus diffused, instead of giving place after an + age or two to something more adapted to a later time, has endured + for two thousand years, and at the end of two thousand years, + instead of lingering as a mere wreck spared by the tolerance of + the lovers of the past, still displays vigour and a capacity of + adjusting itself to new conditions, and lastly, in all the + transformations it undergoes, remains visibly the same thing and + inspired by its Founder's universal and unquenchable spirit. + + It is in this and not in any freedom from abuses that the divine + power of Christianity appears. Again, it is in this, and not in + any completeness or all-sufficiency.... + + But the achievement of Christ in founding by his single will and + power a structure so durable and so universal, is like no other + achievement which history records. The masterpieces of the men of + action are coarse and common in comparison with it, and the + masterpieces of speculation flimsy and insubstantial. When we + speak of it the commonplaces of admiration fail us altogether. + Shall we speak of the originality of the design, of the skill + displayed in the execution? All such terms are inadequate. + Originality and contriving skill operated indeed, but, as it were, + implicitly. The creative effort which produced that against which, + it is said, the gates of hell shall not prevail, cannot be + analysed. No architects' designs were furnished for the New + Jerusalem, no committee drew up rules for the Universal + Commonwealth. If in the works of Nature we can trace the + indications of calculation, of a struggle with difficulties, of + precaution, of ingenuity, then in Christ's work it may be that the + same indications occur. But these inferior and secondary powers + were not consciously exercised; they were implicitly present in + the manifold yet single creative act. The inconceivable work was + done in calmness; before the eyes of men it was noiselessly + accomplished, attracting little attention. Who can describe that + which unites men? Who has entered into the formation of speech + which is the symbol of their union? Who can describe exhaustively + the origin of civil society? He who can do these things can + explain the origin of the Christian Church. For others it must be + enough to say, "the Holy Ghost fell on those that believed." No + man saw the building of the New Jerusalem, the workmen crowded + together, the unfinished walls and unpaved streets; no man heard + the chink of trowel and pickaxe; it descended _out of heaven from + God_. + +And here we leave this remarkable book. It seems to us one of those +which permanently influence opinion, not so much by argument as such, +as by opening larger views of the familiar and the long-debated, by +deepening the ordinary channels of feeling, and by bringing men back to +seriousness and rekindling their admiration, their awe, their love, +about what they know best. We have not dwelt on minute criticisms about +points to which exception might be taken. We have not noticed even +positions on which, without further explanation, we should more or less +widely disagree. The general scope of it, and the seriousness as well +as the grandeur and power with which the main idea is worked out, seem +to make mere secondary objections intolerable. It is a fragment, with +the disadvantages of a fragment. What is put before us is far from +complete, and it needs to be completed. In part at least an answer has +been given to the question _what_ Christ was; but the question remains, +not less important, and of which the answer is only here foreshadowed, +_who_ He was. But so far as it goes, what it does is this: in the face +of all attempts to turn Christianity into a sentiment or a philosophy, +it asserts, in a most remarkable manner, a historical religion and a +historical Church; but it also seeks, in a manner equally remarkable, +to raise and elevate the thoughts of all, on all sides, about Christ, +as He showed Himself in the world, and about what Christianity was +meant to be; to touch new springs of feeling; to carry back the Church +to its "hidden fountains," and pierce through the veils which hide from +us the reality of the wonders in which it began. + +The book is indeed a protest against the stiffness of all cast-iron +systems, and a warning against trusting in what is worn out. But it +shows how the modern world, so complex, so refined, so wonderful, is, +in all that it accounts good, but a reflection of what is described in +the Gospels, and its civilisation, but an application of the laws of +Christ, changing, it may be, indefinitely in outward form, but +depending on their spirit as its ever-living spring. If we have +misunderstood this book, and its cautious understatements are not +understatements at all, but represent the limits beyond which the +writer does not go, we can only say again it is one-of the strangest +among books. If we have not misunderstood him, we have before us a +writer who has a right to claim deference from those who think deepest +and know most, when he pleads before them that not Philosophy can save +and reclaim the world, but Faith in a Divine Person who is worthy of +it, allegiance to a Divine Society which He founded, and union of +hearts in the object for which He created it. + + + + +X + +THE AUTHOR OF "ROBERT ELSMERE" ON A NEW REFORMATION[12] + + + [12] + _Guardian_, 6th March 1889. + +Mrs. Ward, in the _Nineteenth Century_, develops with warmth and force +the theme and serious purpose of _Robert Elsmere_; and she does so, +using the same literary method which she used, certainly with effect, +in the story itself. Every age has its congenial fashion of discussing +the great questions which affect, or seem to affect, the fate of +mankind. According to the time and its circumstances, it is a _Summa +Theologiae_, or a _Divina Commedia_, or a _Novum Organum_, or a +Calvin's _Institutes_, or a Locke _On the Understanding_, or an +_Encyclopedia_, or a _Candide_, which sets people thinking more than +usual and comparing their thoughts. Long ago in the history of human +questioning, Plato and Cicero discovered the advantages over dry +argument of character and easy debate, and so much of story as clothed +abstractions and hard notions with human life and affections. It is a +weighty precedent. And as the prophetess of a "New Reformation" Mrs. +Ward has reverted to what is substantially the same method. She is +within her right. We do not blame her for putting her argument into the +shape of a novel, and bringing out the points of her case in the trials +and passionate utterances of imaginary persons, or in a conversation +about their mental history. But she must take the good with the bad. +Such a method has its obvious advantages, in freedom, and convenience, +and range of illustration. It has its disadvantages. The dealer in +imagination may easily become the unconscious slave of imagination; +and, living in a self-constructed world, may come to forget that there +is any other; and the temptation to unfairness becomes enormous when +all who speak, on one side or the other, only speak as you make or let +them speak. + +It is to imagination that _Robert Elsmere_ makes its main appeal, +undoubtedly a powerful and pathetic one. It bids us ask ourselves what, +with the phenomena before us, we can conceive possible and real. It +implies, of course, much learning, with claims of victory in the +spheres of history and science, with names great in criticism, of whom +few readers probably can estimate the value, though all may be affected +by the formidable array. But it is not in these things, as with a book +like _Supernatural Religion_, that the gist of the argument lies. The +alleged results of criticism are taken for granted; whether rightly or +wrongly the great majority of readers certainly cannot tell. But then +the effect of the book, or the view which it represents, begins. +Imagine a man, pure-minded, earnest, sensitive, self-devoted, plunged +into the tremendous questions of our time. Bit by bit he finds what he +thought to be the truth of truths breaking away. In the darkness and +silence with which nature covers all beyond the world of experience he +thought he had found light and certainty from on high. He thought that +he had assurances and pledges which could not fail him, that God was in +the world, governed it, loved it, showed Himself in it He thought he +had a great and authentic story to fall back upon, and a Sacred Book, +which was its guaranteed witness, and by which God still spoke to his +soul. He thought that, whatever he did not know, he knew this, and this +was a hope to live and die in; with all that he saw round him, of pain +and sin and misery, here was truth on which he could rest secure, in +his fight with evil. Like the rest of us, he knew that terrible, +far-reaching, heart-searching questions were abroad; that all that to +him was sacred and unapproachable in its sanctity was not so to +all--was not so, perhaps, to men whom he felt to be stronger and more +knowing than himself--was not so, perhaps, to some who seemed to him to +stand, in character and purpose, at a moral height above him. Still he +thought himself in full possession of the truth which God had given +him, till at length, in one way or another, the tide of questioning +reached him. Then begins the long agony. He hears that what he never +doubted is said to be incredible, and is absolutely given up. He finds +himself bin-rounded by hostile powers of thought, by an atmosphere +which insensibly but irresistibly governs opinion, by doubt and denial +in the air, by keen and relentless intellect, before which he can only +he silent; he sees and hears all round the disintegrating process going +on in the creeds and institutions and intellectual statements of +Christianity. He is assured, and sees some reason to believe it, that +the intellect of the day is against him and his faith; and further, +that unreality taints everything, belief and reasoning, and profession +and conduct Step by step he is forced from one position and another; +the process was a similar and a familiar one when the great Roman +secession was going on fifty years ago. But now, in Robert Elsmere, +comes the upshot. He is not landed, as some logical minds have been, +which have gone through the same process, in mere unbelief or +indifference. He is too good for that. Something of his old +Christianity is too deeply engrained in him. He cannot go back from the +moral standard to which it accustomed him. He will serve God in a +Christian spirit and after the example of Christ, though not in what +can claim to be called a Christian way. He is the beginner of one more +of the numberless attempts to find a new mode of religion, purer than +any of the old ones could be--of what Mrs. Ward calls in her new paper +"A New Reformation." + +In this paper, which is more distinctly a dialogue on the Platonic +model, she isolates the main argument on which the story was based, but +without any distinct reference to any of the criticisms on her book. +_Robert Elsmere_ rests on the achievements of historic criticism, +chiefly German criticism. From the traditional, old-fashioned Christian +way of regarding and using the old records which we call the Bible, the +ground, we are told, is hopelessly and for ever cut away by German +historical criticism. And the difference between the old and the modern +way of regarding and using them is expressed by the difference between +_bad translation_ and _good_; the old way of reading, quoting, and +estimating ancient documents of all kinds was purblind, lifeless, +narrow, mechanical, whereas the modern comparative and critical method +not only is more sure in important questions of authenticity, but puts +true life and character and human feeling and motives into the +personages who wrote these documents, and of whom they speak. These +books were entirely misunderstood, even if people knew the meaning of +their words; now, at last, we can enter into their real spirit and +meaning. And where such a change of method and point of view, as +regards these documents, is wholesale and sweeping, it involves a +wholesale and sweeping change in all that is founded on them. Revised +ideas about the Bible mean a revised and reconstructed Christianity--"A +New Reformation." + +Mrs. Ward lays more stress than everybody will agree to on what she +likens to the difference between _good translation_ and _bad_, in +dealing with the materials of history. Doubtless, in our time, the +historical imagination, like the historical conscience, has been +awakened. In history, as in other things, the effort after the real and +the living has been very marked; it has sometimes resulted, as we know, +in that parading of the real which we call the realistic. The mode of +telling a story or stating a case varies, even characteristically, from +age to age, from Macaulay to Hume, from Hume to Rapin, from Rapin to +Holinshed or Hall; but after all, the story in its main features +remains, after allowing for the differences in the mode of presenting +it. German criticism, to which we are expected to defer, has its mode. +It combines two elements--a diligent, searching, lawyer-like habit of +cross-examination, laborious, complete and generally honest, which, +when it is not spiteful or insolent, deserves all the praise it +receives; but with it a sense of the probable, in dealing with the +materials collected, and a straining after attempts to construct +theories and to give a vivid reality to facts and relations, which are +not always so admirable; which lead, in fact, sometimes to the height +of paradox, or show mere incapacity to deal with the truth and depth of +life, or make use of a poor and mean standard--_mesquin_ would be the +French word--in the interpretation of actions and aims. It has +impressed on us the lesson--not to be forgotten when we read Mrs. +Ward's lists of learned names--that weight and not number is the test +of good evidence. German learning is decidedly imposing. But after all +there are Germans and Germans; and with all that there has been of +great in German work there has been also a large proportion of what is +bad--conceited, arrogant, shallow, childish. German criticism has been +the hunting-ground of an insatiable love of sport--may we not say, +without irreverence, the scene of the discovery of a good many mares' +nests? When the question is asked, why all this mass of criticism has +made so little impression on English thought, the answer is, because of +its extravagant love of theorising, because of its divergences and +variations, because of its negative results. Those who have been so +eager to destroy have not been so successful in construction. Clever +theories come to nothing; streams which began with much noise at last +lose themselves in the sand. Undoubtedly, it presents a very important, +and, in many ways, interesting class of intellectual phenomena, among +the many groups of such inquiries, moral, philosophical, scientific, +political, social, of which the world is full, and of which no sober +thinker expects to see the end. If this vaunted criticism is still left +to scholars, it is because it is still in the stage in which only +scholars are competent to examine and judge it; it is not fit to be a +factor in the practical thought and life of the mass of mankind. +Answers, and not merely questions, are what we want, who have to live, +and work, and die. Criticism has pulled about the Bible without +restraint or scruple. We are all of us steeped in its daring +assumptions and shrewd objections. Have its leaders yet given us an +account which it is reasonable to receive, clear, intelligible, +self-consistent and consistent with all the facts, of what this +mysterious book is? + +Meanwhile, in the face of theories and conjectures and negative +arguments, there is something in the world which is fact, and hard +fact. The Christian Church is the most potent fact in the most +important ages of the world's progress. It is an institution like the +world itself, which has grown up by its own strength and according to +its own principle of life, full of good and evil, having as the law of +its fate to be knocked about in the stern development of events, +exposed, like human society, to all kinds of vicissitudes and +alternations, giving occasion to many a scandal, and shaking the faith +and loyalty of many a son, showing in ample measure the wear and tear +of its existence, battered, injured, sometimes degenerate, sometimes +improved, in one way or another, since those dim and long distant days +when its course began; but showing in all these ways what a real thing +it is, never in the extremity of storms and ruin, never in the deepest +degradation of its unfaithfulness, losing hold of its own central +unchanging faith, and never in its worst days of decay and corruption +losing hold of the power of self-correction and hope of recovery. +_Solvitur ambulando_ is an argument to which Mrs. Ward appeals, in +reply to doubts about the solidity of the "New Reformation." It could +be urged more modestly if the march of the "New Reformation" had lasted +for even half of one of the Christian centuries. The Church is in the +world, as the family is in the world, as the State is in the world, as +morality is in the world, a fact of the same order and greatness. Like +these it has to make its account with the "all-dissolving" assaults of +human thought. Like these it has to prove itself by living, and it does +do so. In all its infinite influences and ministries, in infinite +degrees and variations, it is the public source of light and good and +hope. If there are select and aristocratic souls who can do without it, +or owe it nothing, the multitude of us cannot. And the Christian Church +is founded on a definite historic fact, that Jesus Christ who was +crucified rose from the dead; and, coming from such an author, it comes +to us, bringing with it the Bible. The fault of a book like _Robert +Elsmere_ is that it is written with a deliberate ignoring that these +two points are not merely important, but absolutely fundamental, in the +problems with which it deals. With these not faced and settled it is +like looking out at a prospect through a window of which all the glass +is ribbed and twisted, distorting everything. It may be that even yet +we imperfectly understand our wondrous Bible. It may be that we have +yet much to learn about it. It may be that there is much that is very +difficult about it. Let us reverently and fearlessly learn all we can +about it. Let us take care not to misuse it, as it has been terribly +misused. But coming to us from the company and with the sanction of +Christ risen, it never can be merely like other books. A so-called +Christianity, ignoring or playing with Christ's resurrection, and using +the Bible as a sort of Homer, may satisfy a class of clever and +cultivated persons. It may be to them the parent of high and noble +thoughts, and readily lend itself to the service of mankind. But it is +well in so serious a matter not to confuse things. This new religion +may borrow from Christianity as it may borrow from Plato, or from +Buddhism, or Confucianism, or even Islam. But it is not Christianity. +_Robert Elsmere_ may be true to life, as representing one of those +tragedies which happen in critical moments of history. But a +Christianity which tells us to think of Christ doing good, but to +forget and put out of sight Christ risen from the dead, is not true to +life. It is as delusive to the conscience and the soul as it is +illogical to reason. + + + + +XI + +RENAN'S "VIE DE JÉSUS"[13] + + + [13] + _Histoire des Origines du Christianisme_. Livre I.--_Vie de Jésus_. + Par Ernest Renan. _Guardian_, 9th September 1863. + +Unbelief is called upon nowadays, as well as belief, to give its +account of the origin of that undeniable and most important fact which +we call the Christian religion. And if it is true that in some respects +the circumstances under which the controversy is carried on are, as it +has been alleged, more than heretofore favourable to unbelief, it is +also true that in some other respects the case of unbelief has +difficulties which it had not once. It has to accept and admit, if it +wishes to gain a favourable hearing from the present generation, the +unique and surpassing moral grandeur, depth, and attractiveness of +Christianity. The polemic method which set Christianity in broad +contrast with what was supposed to be best and highest in human nature, +and therefore found no difficulty in tracing to a bad source what was +itself represented to be bad, is not a method suited to the ideas and +feelings of our time; and the sneers and sarcasms of the last century, +provoked by abuses and inconsistencies which have since received their +ample and memorable punishment, cease to produce any effect on readers +of the present day, except to call forth a passing feeling of +repugnance at what is shallow and profane, mixed, it may be, sometimes, +with an equally passing admiration for what is witty and brilliant. +Even in M. Renan's view, Voltaire has done his work, and is out of +date. Those who now attack Christianity have to attack it under the +disadvantage of the preliminary admission that its essential and +distinguishing elements are, on the whole, in harmony and not in +discordance with the best conceptions of human duty and life, and that +its course and progress have been, at any rate, concurrent with all +that is best and most hopeful in human history. First allowing that as +a fact it contains in it things than which we cannot imagine anything +better, and without which we should never have reached to where we are, +they then have to dispute its divine claims. No man could write +persuasively on religion now, _against_ it any more than _for_ it, who +did not show that he was fully penetrated not only with its august and +beneficent aspect, but with the essential and everlasting truths which, +in however imperfect shapes, or whencesoever derived, are embodied in +it and are ministered by it to society. + +That Christianity is, as a matter of fact, a successful and a living +religion, in a degree absolutely without parallel in any other +religion, is the point from which its assailants have now to start. +They have also to take account of the circumstance, to the recognition +of which the whole course of modern thought and inquiry has brought us, +that it has been successful, not by virtue merely of any outward and +accidental favouring circumstances, but of its intrinsic power and of +principles which are inseparable from its substance. This being the +condition of the question, those who deny its claim to a direct Divine +origin have to frame their theory of it so as to account, on principles +supposed to be common to it and other religions, not merely for its +rise and its conquests, but for those broad and startling differences +which separate it, in character and in effects, from all other known +religions. They have to show how that which is instinct with +never-dying truth sprang out of what was false and mistaken, if not +corrupt; how that which alone has revealed God to man's conscience had +no other origin than what in other instances has led men through +enthusiasm and imposture to a barren or a mischievous superstition. + +Such an attempt is the work before us--a work destined, probably, both +from its ability and power and from its faults, to be for modern France +what the work of Strauss was for Germany, the standard expression of an +unbelief which shrinks with genuine distaste from the coarse and +negative irreligion of older infidelity, and which is too refined, too +profound and sympathetic in its views of human nature, to be insensible +to those numberless points in which as a fact Christianity has given +expression to the best and highest thoughts that man can have. Strauss, +to account for what we see, imagined an idea, or a set of ideas, +gradually worked out into the shape of a history, of which scarcely +anything can be taken as real matter of fact, except the bare existence +of the person who was clothed in the process of time with the +attributes created by the idealising legend. Such a view is too vague +and indistinct to satisfy French minds. A theory of this sort, to find +general acceptance in France, must start with concrete history, and not +be history held in solution in the cloudy shapes of myths which vanish +as soon as touched. M. Renan's process is in the main the reverse of +Strauss's. He undertakes to extract the real history recorded in the +Gospels; and not only so, but to make it even more palpable and +interesting, if not more wonderful, than it seems at first sight in the +original records, by removing the crust of mistake and exaggeration +which has concealed the true character of what the narrative records; +by rewriting it according to those canons of what is probable and +intelligible in human life and capacity which are recognised in the +public whom he addresses. + +Two of these canons govern the construction of the book. One of them is +the assumption that in no part of the history of man is the +supernatural to be admitted. This, of course, is not peculiar to M. +Renan, though he lays it down with such emphasis in all his works, and +is so anxious to bring it into distinct notice on every occasion, that +it is manifestly one which he is desirous to impress on all who read +him, as one of the ultimate and unquestionable foundations of all +historical inquiry. The other canon is one of moral likelihood, and it +is, that it is credible and agreeable to what we gather from +experience, that the highest moral elevation ever attained by man +should have admitted along with it, and for its ends, conscious +imposture. On the first of these assumptions, all that is miraculous in +the Gospel narratives is, not argued about, or, except perhaps in one +instance--the raising of Lazarus--attempted to be accounted for or +explained, but simply left out and ignored. On the second, the fact +from which there is no escape--that He whom M. Renan venerates with a +sincerity which no one can doubt as the purest and greatest of moral +reformers, did claim power from God to work miracles--is harmonised +with the assumption that the claim could not possibly have been a true +one. + +M. Renan professes to give an historical account of the way in which +the deepest, purest, most enduring religious principles known among men +were, not merely found out and announced, but propagated and impressed +upon the foremost and most improved portions of mankind, by the power +of a single character. It is impossible, without speaking of Jesus of +Nazareth as Christians are used to do, to speak of His character and of +the results of His appearance in loftier terms than this professed +unbeliever in His Divine claims. But when the account is drawn out in +detail, of a cause alleged to be sufficient to produce such effects, +the apparent inadequacy of it is most startling. When we think of what +Christianity is and has done, and that, in M. Renan's view, Christ, the +Christ whom he imagines and describes, is all in all to Christianity, +and then look to what he conceives to have been the original spring and +creative impulse of its achievements, the first feeling is that no +shifts that belief has sometimes been driven to, to keep within the +range of the probable, are greater than those accepted by unbelief, in +its most enlightened and reflecting representations. To suppose such an +one as M. Renan paints, changing the whole course of history, +overturning and converting the world, and founding the religion which +M. Renan thinks the lasting religion of mankind, involves a force upon +our imagination and reason to which it is not easy to find a parallel. + +His view is that a Galilean peasant, in advance of his neighbours and +countrymen only in the purity, force, and singleness of purpose with +which he realised the highest moral truths of Jewish religious wisdom, +first charming a few simple provincials by the freshness and native +beauty of his lessons, was then led on, partly by holy zeal against +falsehood and wickedness, partly by enthusiastic delusions as to his +own mission and office, to attack the institutions of Judaism, and +perished in the conflict--and that this was the cause why Christianity +and Christendom came to be and exist. This is the explanation which a +great critical historian, fully acquainted with the history of other +religions, presents, as a satisfactory one, of a phenomenon so +astonishing and unique as that of a religion which has suited itself +with undiminished vitality to the changes, moral, social, and +political, which have marked the eighteen centuries of European +history. There have been other enthusiasts for goodness and truth, more +or less like the character which M. Renan draws in his book, but they +have never yet founded a universal religion, or one which had the +privilege of perpetual youth and unceasing self-renovation. There have +been other great and imposing religions, commanding the allegiance for +century after century of millions of men; but who will dare assert that +any of these religions, that of Sakya-Mouni, of Mahomet, or that of the +Vedas, could possibly be the religion, or satisfy the religious ideas +and needs, of the civilised West? + +When M. Renan comes to detail he is as strangely insensible to what seem +at first sight the simplest demands of probability. As it were by a sort +of reaction to the minute realising of particulars which has been in +vogue among some Roman Catholic writers, M. Renan realises too--realises +with no less force and vividness, and, according to his point of view, +with no less affectionate and tender interest. He popularises the +Gospels; but not for a religious set of readers--nor, we must add, for +readers of thought and sense, whether interested for or against +Christianity, but for a public who study life in the subtle and highly +wrought novels of modern times. He appeals from what is probable to +those representations of human nature which aspire to pass beyond the +conventional and commonplace, and especially he dwells on neglected and +unnoticed examples of what is sweet and soft and winning. But it is hard +to recognise the picture he has drawn in the materials out of which he +has composed it. The world is tolerably familiar with them. If there is +a characteristic, consciously or unconsciously acknowledged in the +Gospel records, it is that of the gravity, the plain downright +seriousness, the laborious earnestness, impressed from first to last on +the story. When we turn from these to his pages it is difficult to +exaggerate the astounding impression which his epithets and descriptions +have on the mind. We are told that there is a broad distinction between +the early Galilean days of hope in our Lord's ministry, and the later +days of disappointment and conflict; and that if we look, we shall find +in Galilee the "_fin et joyeux moraliste_," full of a "_conversation +pleine de gaieté et de charme_," of "_douce gaieté et aimables +plaisanteries_," with a "_prédication suave et douce, toute pleine de la +nature et du parfum des champs_," creating out of his originality of +mind his "_innocents aphorismes_," and the "_genre d'élicieux_" of +parabolic teaching; "_le charmant docteur qui pardonnait à tous pourvu +qu'on l'aimât_." He lived in what was then an earthly paradise, in "_la +joyeuse Galilée_" in the midst of the "_nature ravissante_" which gave +to everything about the Sea of Galilee "_un tour idyllique et +charmant_." So the history of Christianity at its birth is a +"_délicieuse pastorale_" an "_idylle_," a "_milieu enivrant_" of joy and +hope. The master was surrounded by a "_bande de joyeux enfants_," a +"_troupe gaie et vagabonde_," whose existence in the open air was a +"perpetual enchantment." The disciples were "_ces petits comités de +bonnes gens_," very simple, very credulous, and like their country full +of a "_sentiment gai et tendre de la vie_," and of an "_imagination +riante_." Everything is spoken of as "delicious"--"_délicieuse +pastorale," "délicieuse beauté," "délicieuses sentences," "délicieuse +théologie d'amour_." Among the "tender and delicate souls of the +North"--it is not quite thus that Josephus describes the Galileans--was +set up an "_aimable communisme_." Is it possible to imagine a more +extravagant distortion than the following, both in its general effect +and in the audacious generalisation of a very special incident, itself +inaccurately conceived of?-- + + Il parcourait ainsi la Galilée au milieu _d'une fête perpétuelle_. + Il se servait d'une mule, monture en Orient si bonne et si sûre, + et dont le grand oeil noir, ombragé de longs cils, a beaucoup de + douceur. Ses disciples déployarent quelquefois autour de lui une + pompe rustique, dont leurs vêtements, tenant lieu de tapis, + faisaient les frais. Ils les mettaient sur la mule qui le portait, + ou les étendaient à terre sur son passage. + +History has seen strange hypotheses; but of all extravagant notions, +that one that the world has been conquered by what was originally an +idyllic gipsying party is the most grotesque. That these "_petits +comités de bonnes gens_" though influenced by a great example and +wakened out of their "delicious pastoral" by a heroic death, should +have been able to make an impression on Judaean faith, Greek intellect, +and Roman civilisation, and to give an impulse to mankind which has +lasted to this day, is surely one of the most incredible hypotheses +ever accepted, under the desperate necessity of avoiding an unwelcome +alternative. + +M. Renan is willing to adopt everything in the Gospel history except +what is miraculous. If he is difficult to satisfy as to the physical +possibility or the proof of miracles, at least he is not hard to +satisfy on points of moral likelihood; and he draws on his ample power +of supposing the combination of moral opposites in order to get rid of +the obstinate and refractory supernatural miracle. To some extent, +indeed, he avails himself of that inexhaustible resource of unlimited +guessing, by means of which he reverses the whole history, and makes it +take a shape which it is hard to recognise in its original records. The +feeding of the five thousand, the miracle described by all the four +Evangelists, is thus curtly disposed of:--"Il se retira au désert. +Beaucoup de monde l'y suivit. _Grâce à une extrème frugalité_ la troupe +sainte y vécut; _on crut naturellement_ voir en cela un miracle." This +is all he has to say. But miracles are too closely interwoven with the +whole texture of the Gospel history to be, as a whole, thus disposed +of. He has, of course, to admit that miracles are so mixed up with it +that mere exaggeration is not a sufficient account of them. But be bids +us remember that the time was one of great credulity, of slackness and +incapacity in dealing with matters of evidence, a time when it might be +said that there was an innocent disregard of exact and literal truth +where men's souls and affections were deeply interested. But, even +supposing that this accounted for a belief in certain miracles growing +up--which it does not, for the time was not one of mere childlike and +uninquiring belief, but was as perfectly familiar as we are with the +notion of false claims to miraculous power which could not stand +examination--still this does not meet the great difficulty of all, to +which he is at last brought. It is undeniable that our Lord professed +to work miracles. They were not merely attributed to Him by those who +came after Him. If we accept in any degree the Gospel account, He not +only wrought miracles, but claimed to do so; and M. Renan admits +it--that is, he admits that the highest, purest, most Divine person +ever seen on earth (for all this he declares in the most unqualified +terms) stooped to the arts of Simon Magus or Apollonius of Tyana. He +was a "thaumaturge"--"tard et à contre-coeur"--"avec une sorte de +mauvaise humeur"--"en cachette"--"malgré lui"--"sentant le vanité de +l'opinion"; but still a "thaumaturge." Moreover, He was so almost of +necessity; for M. Renan holds that without the support of an alleged +supernatural character and power, His work must have perished. +Everything, to succeed and be realised, must, we are told, be fortified +with something of alloy. We are reminded of the "loi fatale qui +condamne l'idée à déchoir dès qu'elle cherche à convertir les hommes." +"Concevoir de bien, en efifet, ne suffit pas; il faut le faire réussir +parmi les hommes. Pour cela, des voies moins pures sont nécessaires." +If the Great Teacher had kept to the simplicity of His early lessons, +He would have been greater, but "the truth would not have been +promulgated." "He had to choose between these two alternatives, either +renouncing his mission or becoming a 'thaumaturge.'" The miracles +"were a violence done to him by his age, a concession which was wrung +from him by a passing necessity." And if we feel startled at such a +view, we are reminded that we must not measure the sincerity of +Orientals by our own rigid and critical idea of veracity; and that +"such is the weakness of the human mind, that the best causes are not +usually won but by bad reasons," and that the greatest of discoverers +and founders have only triumphed over their difficulties "by daily +taking account of men's weakness and by not always giving the true +reasons of the truth." + + L'histoire est impossible si l'on n'admet hautement qu'il y a pour + la sincerite plusieurs mesures. Toutes les grandes choses se font + par le peuple, or on ne conduit pas le peuple qu'en se prétant à + ses idées. Le philosophe, qui sachant cela, s'isole et se + retranche dans sa noblesse, est hautement louable. Mais celui qui + prend l'humanité avec ses illusions et cherche à agir sur elle et + avec elle, ne saurait être blamé. César savait fort bien qu'il + n'était pas fils de Vénus; la France ne serait pas ce qu'elle est + si l'on n'avait cru mille ans à la sainte ampoule de Reims. Il + nous est facile à nous autres, impuissants que nous sommes, + d'appeler cela mensonge, et fiers de notre timide honnêteté, de + traiter avec dédain les héros qui out accepté dans d'autres + conditions la lutte de la vie. Quand nous aurons fait avec nos + scrupules ce qu'ils firent avec leurs mensonges, nous aurons le + droit d'être pour eux sévères. + +Now let M. Renan or any one else realise what is involved, on his +supposition, not merely, as he says, of "illusion or madness," but of +wilful deceit and falsehood, in the history of Lazarus, even according +to his lame and hesitating attempt to soften it down and extenuate it; +and then put side by side with it the terms in which M. Renan has +summed up the moral greatness of Him of whom he writes:-- + + La foi, l'enthousiasme, la constance de la première génération + chrétienne ne s'expliquent qu'en supposant à l'origine de tout le + mouvement un homme de proportions colossales.... Cette sublime + personne, qui chaque jour préside encore au destin du monde, il + est permis de l'appeler divine, non en ce sens que Jésus ait + absorbé tout le divin, mais en ce sens que Jésus est l'individu + qui a fait faire à son espèce le plus grand pas vers le divin.... + Au milieu de cette uniforme vulgarité, des colonnes s'élèvent vers + le ciel et attestent une plus noble destinée. Jésus est la plus + haute de ces colonnes qui montrent à l'homme d'où il vient et où + il doit tendre. En lui s'est condensé tout ce qu'il y a de bon et + d'élevé dans notre nature.... Quels que puissent être les + phénomènes inattendus de l'avenir, Jésus ne sera pas surpassé.... + Tous les siècles proclameront qu'entre les fils des hommes il n'en + est pas né de plus grand que Jésus. + +And of such an one we are told that it is a natural and reasonable view +to take, not merely that He claimed a direct communication with God, +which disordered reason could alone excuse Him for claiming, but that +He based His whole mission on a pretension to such supernatural powers +as a man could not pretend to without being conscious that they were +delusions. The conscience of that age as to veracity or imposture was +quite clear on such a point. Jew and Greek and Roman would have +condemned as a deceiver one who, not having the power, took on him to +say that by the finger of God he could raise the dead. And yet to a +conscience immeasurably above his age, it seems, according to M. Renan, +that this might be done. It is absurd to say that we must not judge +such a proceeding by the ideas of our more exact and truth-loving age, +when it would have been abundantly condemned by the ideas recognised in +the religion and civilisation of the first century. + +M. Renan repeatedly declares that his great aim is to save religion by +relieving it of the supernatural. He does not argue; but instead of the +old familiar view of the Great History, he presents an opposite theory +of his own, framed to suit that combination of the revolutionary and +the sentimental which just now happens to be in favour in the unbelieving +schools. And this is the result: a representation which boldly invests +its ideal with the highest perfections of moral goodness, strength, and +beauty, and yet does not shrink from associating with it also--and +that, too, as the necessary and inevitable condition of success--a +deliberate and systematic willingness to delude and insensibility to +untruth. This is the religion and this is the reason which appeals to +Christ in order to condemn Christianity. + + + + +XII + +RENAN'S "LES APÔTRES"[14] + + + [14] + _Histoire des Origines du Christianisme_. Livre II.--_Les Apôtres_. + Par Ernest Renan. _Saturday Review_, 14th July 1866. + +In his recent volume, _Les Apôtres_, M. Renan has undertaken two tasks +of very unequal difficulty. He accounts for the origin of the Christian +belief and religion, and he writes the history of its first +propagation. These are very different things, and to do one of them is +by no means to do the other. M. Renan's historical sketch of the first +steps of the Christian movement is, whatever we may think of its +completeness and soundness, a survey of characters and facts, based on +our ordinary experience of the ways in which men act and are +influenced. Of course it opens questions and provokes dissent at every +turn; but, after all, the history of a religion once introduced into +the world is the history of the men who give it shape and preach it, +who accept or oppose it. The spread and development of all religions +have certain broad features in common, which admit of philosophical +treatment simply as phenomena, and receive light from being compared +with parallel examples of the same kind; and whether a man's historical +estimate is right, and his picture accurate and true, depends on his +knowledge of the facts, and his power to understand them and to make +them understood. No one can dispute M. Renan's qualifications for being +the historian of a religious movement. The study of religion as a +phenomenon of human nature and activity has paramount attractions for +him. His interest in it has furnished him with ample and varied +materials for comparison and generalisation. He is a scholar and a man +of learning, quick and wide in his sympathies, and he commands +attention by the singular charm of his graceful and lucid style. When, +therefore, he undertakes to relate how, as a matter of fact, the +Christian Church grew up amid the circumstances of its first +appearance, he has simply to tell the story of the progress of a +religious cause; and this is a comparatively light task for him. But he +also lays before us what he appears to consider an adequate account of +the origin of the Christian belief. The Christian belief, it must be +remembered, means, not merely the belief that there was such a person +as he has described in his former, volume, but the belief that one who +was crucified rose again from the dead, and lives for evermore above. +It is in this belief that the Christian religion had its beginning; +there is no connecting Christ and Christianity, except through the +Resurrection. The origin, therefore, of the belief in the Resurrection, +in the shape in which we have it, lies across M. Renan's path to +account for; and neither the picture which he has drawn in his former +volume, nor the history which he follows out in this, dispense him from +the necessity of facing this essential and paramount element in the +problem which he has to solve. He attempts to deal with this, the knot +of the great question. But his attempt seems to us to disclose a more +extraordinary insensibility to the real demands of the case, and to +what we cannot help calling the pitiable inadequacy of his own +explanation, than we could have conceived possible in so keen and +practised a mind. + +The Resurrection, we repeat, bars the way in M. Renan's scheme for +making an intelligible transition, from the life and character which he +has sought to reproduce from the Gospels, to the first beginnings and +preaching of Christianity. The Teacher, he says, is unique in wisdom, +in goodness, in the height of his own moral stature and the Divine +elevation of his aims. The religion is, with all abatements and +imperfections, the only one known which could be the religion of +humanity. After his portraiture of the Teacher, follows, naturally +enough, as the result of that Teacher's influence and life, a religion +of corresponding elevation and promise. The passage from a teaching +such as M. Renan supposes to a religion such as he allows Christianity +to be may be reasonably understood as a natural consequence of +well-known causes, but for one thing--the interposition between the two +of an alleged event which simply throws out all reasonings drawn from +ordinary human experience. From the teaching and life of Socrates +follow, naturally enough, schools of philosophy, and an impulse which +has affected scientific thought ever since. From the preaching and life +of Mahomet follows, equally naturally, the religion of Islam. In each +case the result is seen to be directly and distinctly linked on to the +influences which gave it birth, and nothing more than these influences +is wanted, or makes any claim, to account for it. So M. Renan holds +that all that is needed to account for Christianity is such a +personality and such a career as he has described in his last volume. +But the facts will not bend to this. Christianity hangs on to Christ +not merely as to a Person who lived and taught and died, but as to a +Person who rose again from death. That is of the very essence of its +alleged derivation from Christ. It knows Christ only as Christ risen; +the only reason of its own existence that it recognises is the +Resurrection. The only claim the Apostles set forth for preaching to +the world is that their Master who was crucified was alive once more. +Every one knows that this was the burden of all their words, the +corner-stone of all their work. We may believe them or not. We may take +Christianity or leave it. But we cannot derive Christianity from +Christ, without meeting, as the bond which connects the two, the +Resurrection. But for the Resurrection, M. Renan's scheme might be +intelligible. A Teacher unequalled for singleness of aim and nobleness +of purpose lives and dies, and leaves the memory and the leaven of His +teaching to disciples, who by them, even though in an ill-understood +shape, and with incomparably inferior qualities themselves, purify and +elevate the religious ideas and feelings of mankind. If that were all, +if there were nothing but the common halo of the miraculous which is +apt to gather about great names, the interpretation might be said to be +coherent. But a theory of Christianity cannot neglect the most +prominent fact connected with its beginning. It is impossible to leave +it out of the account, in judging both of the Founder and of those whom +his influence moulded and inspired. + +M. Renan has to account for the prominence given to the Resurrection in +the earliest Christian teaching, without having recourse to the +supposition of conscious imposture and a deliberate conspiracy to +deceive; for such a supposition would not harmonise either with the +portrait he has drawn of the Master, or with his judgment of the +seriousness and moral elevation of the men who, immeasurably inferior +as they were to Him, imbibed His spirit, and represented and +transmitted to us His principles. And this is something much more than +can be accounted for by the general disposition of the age to assume +the supernatural and the miraculous. The way in which the Resurrection +is circumstantially and unceasingly asserted, and made on every +occasion and from the first the foundation of everything, is something +very different from the vague legends which float about of kings or +saints whom death has spared, or from a readiness to see the direct +agency of heaven in health or disease. It is too precise, too +matter-of-fact, too prosaic in the way in which it is told, to be +resolved into ill-understood dreams and imaginations. The various +recitals show little care to satisfy our curiosity, or to avoid the +appearance of inconsistency in detail; but nothing can be more removed +from vagueness and hesitation than their definite positive statements. +It is with them that the writer on Christianity has to deal. + +M. Renan's method is--whilst of course not believing them, yet not +supposing conscious fraud--to treat these records as the description of +natural, unsought visions on the part of people who meant no harm, but +who believed what they wished to believe. They are the story of a great +mistake, but a mistake proceeding simply, in the most natural way in +the world, from excess of "idealism" and attachment. Unaffected by the +circumstance that there never were narratives less ideal, and more +straightforwardly real--that they seem purposely framed to be a +contrast to professed accounts of visions, and to exclude the +possibility of their being confounded with such accounts; and that the +alleged numbers who saw, the alleged frequency and repetition and +variation of the instances, and the alleged time over which the +appearances extended, and after which they absolutely ceased, make the +hypothesis of involuntary and undesigned allusions of regret and +passion infinitely different from what it might be in the case of one +or two persons, or for a transitory period of excitement and +crisis--unaffected by such considerations, M. Renan proceeds to tell, +in his own way, the story of what he supposes to have occurred, +without, of course, admitting the smallest real foundation for what was +so positively asserted, but with very little reproach or discredit to +the ardent and undoubting assertors. He begins with a statement which +is meant to save the character of the Teacher. "Jesus, though he spoke +unceasingly of resurrection, of new life, had never said quite clearly +that he should rise again in the flesh." He says this with the texts +before him, for he quotes them and classifies them in a note. But this +is his point of departure, laid down without qualification. Yet if +there is anything which the existing records do say distinctly, it is +that Jesus Christ said over and over again that He should rise again, +and that He fixed the time within which He should rise. M. Renan is not +bound to believe them. But he must take them as he finds them; and on +this capital point either we know nothing at all, and have no evidence +to go upon, or the evidence is simply inverted by M. Renan's assertion. +There may, of course, be reasons for believing one part of a man's +evidence and disbelieving another; but there is nothing in this case +but incompatibility with a theory to make this part of the evidence +either more or less worthy of credit than any other part. What is +certain is that it is in the last degree weak and uncritical to lay +down, as the foundation and first pre-requisite of an historical view, +a position which the records on which the view professes to be based +emphatically and unambiguously contradict. Whatever we may think of it, +the evidence undoubtedly is, if evidence there is at all, that Jesus +Christ did say, though He could not get His disciples at the time to +understand and believe Him, that He should rise again on the third day. +What M. Renan had to do, if he thought the contrary, was not to assume, +but to prove, that in these repeated instances in which they report His +announcements, the Evangelists mistook or misquoted the words of their +Master. + +He accepts, however, their statement that no one at first hoped that +the words would be made good; and he proceeds to account for the +extraordinary belief which, in spite of this original incredulity, grew +up, and changed the course of things and the face of the world. We +admire and respect many things in M. Renan; but it seems to us that his +treatment of this matter is simply the _ne plus ultra_ of the +degradation of the greatest of issues by the application to it of +sentiment unworthy of a silly novel. In the first place, he lays down +on general grounds that, though the disciples had confessedly given up +all hope, it yet _was natural_ that they should expect to see their +master alive again. "Mais I'enthousiasme et l'amour ne connaissent pas +les situations sans issue." Do they not? Are death and separation such +light things to triumph over that imagination finds it easy to cheat +them? "Ils se jouent de l'impossible et, plutôt que d'abdiquer +l'espérance, ils font violence à toute réalité." Is this an account of +the world of fact or the world of romance? The disciples did not hope; +but, says M. Renan, vague words about the future had dropped from their +master, and these were enough to build upon, and to suggest that they +would soon see him back. In vain it is said that in fact they did not +expect it. "Une telle croyance était d'ailleurs si naturelle, que la +foi des disciples aurait suffi pour la créer de toutes pièces." Was it +indeed--in spite of Enoch and Elias, cases of an entirely different +kind--so natural to think that the ruined leader of a crushed cause, +whose hopeless followers had seen the last of him amid the lowest +miseries of torment and scorn, should burst the grave? + + Il devait arriver [he proceeds] pour Jésus ce qui arrive pour tous + les hommes qui ont captivé l'attention de leurs semblables. Le + monde, habitué a leur attribuer des vertus surhumaines, ne peut + admettre qu'ils aient subi la loi injuste, révoltante, inique, du + trépas commun.... La mort est chose si absurde quand elle frappe + l'homme de génie ou l'homme d'un grand coeur, que le peuple ne + croit pas à la possibilité d'une telle erreur de la nature. Les + héros ne meurent pas. + +The history of the world presents a large range of instances to test +the singular assertion that death is so "absurd" that "the people" +cannot believe that great and good men literally die. But would it be +easy to match the strangeness of a philosopher and a man of genius +gravely writing this down as a reason--not why, at the interval of +centuries, a delusion should grow up--but why, on the very morrow of a +crucifixion and burial, the disciples should have believed that all the +dreadful work they had seen a day or two before was in very fact and +reality reversed? We confess we do not know what human experience is if +it countenances such a supposition as this. + +From this antecedent probability he proceeds to the facts. "The Sabbath +day which followed the burial was occupied with these thoughts.... +Never was the rest of the Sabbath so fruitful." They all, the women +especially, thought of him all day long in his bed of spices, watched +over by angels; and the assurance grew that the wicked men who had +killed him would not have their triumph, that he would not be left to +decay, that he would be wafted on high to that Kingdom of the Father of +which he had spoken. "Nous le verrons encore; nous entendrons sa voix +charmante; c'est en vain qu'ils l'auront tué." And as, with the Jews, a +future life implied a resurrection of the body, the shape which their +hope took was settled. "Reconnaître que la mort pouvait être +victorieuse de Jésus, de celui qui venait de supprimer son empire, +c'était le comble de l'absurdité." It is, we suppose, irrelevant to +remark that we find not the faintest trace of this sense of absurdity. +The disciples, he says, had no choice between hopelessness and "an +heroic affirmation"; and he makes the bold surmise that "un homme +pénétrant aurait pu annoncer _dès le samedi_ que Jésus revivrait." This +may be history, or philosophy, or criticism; what it is _not_ is the +inference naturally arising from the only records we have of the time +spoken of. But the force of historical imagination dispenses with the +necessity of extrinsic support. "La petite société chrétienne, ce +jour-là, opéra le véritable miracle: elle ressuscita Jésus en son coeur +par l'amour intense qu'elle lui porta. Elle décida que Jésus ne +mourrait pas." The Christian Church has done many remarkable things; +but it never did anything so strange, or which so showed its power, as +when it took that resolution. + +How was the decision, involuntary and unconscious, and guiltless of +intentional deception, if we can conceive of such an attitude of mind, +carried out? M. Renan might leave the matter in obscurity. But he sees +his way, in spite of incoherent traditions and the contradictions which +they present, to a "sufficient degree of probability." The belief in +the Resurrection originated in an hallucination of the disordered fancy +of Mary Magdalen, whose mind was thrown off its balance by her +affection and sorrow; and, once suggested, the idea rapidly spread, and +produced, through the Christian society, a series of corresponding +visions, firmly believed to be real. But Mary Magdalen was the founder +of it all:-- + + Elle eut, en ce moment solennel, une part d'action tout à fait + hors ligne. C'est elle qu'il faut suivre pas à pas; car elle + porta, ce jour-là, pendant une heure, tout le travail de la + conscience chrétienne; son témoignage décida la foi de + l'avenir.... La vision légère s'écarte et lui dit: "Ne me touche + pas!" Peu a peu l'ombre disparait. Mais le miracle de l'amour est + accompli. Ce que Céphas n'a pu faire, Marie l'a faite; elle a su + tirer la vie, la parole douce et pénétrante, du tombeau vide. Il + ne s'agit plus de conséquences à déduire ni de conjectures à + former. Marie a vu et entendu. La résurrection a son premier + témoin immédiat. + +He proceeds to criticise the accounts which ascribe the first vision to +others; but in reality Mary Magdalen, he says, has done most, after the +great Teacher, for the foundation of Christianity. "Queen and patroness +of idealists," she was able to "impose upon all the sacred vision of +her impassioned soul." All rests upon her first burst of entbusiasm, +which gave the signal and kindled the faith of others. "Sa grande +affirmation de femme, 'il est ressuscité,' a été la base de la foi de +l'humanité":-- + + Paul ne parle pas de la vision de Marie et reporte tout l'honneur + de la première apparition sur Pierre. Mais cette expression est + très~inexacte. Pierre ne vit que le caveau vide, le suaire et le + linceul. Marie seule aima assez pour dépasser la nature et faire + revivre le fantome du maitre exquis. Dans ces sortes de crises + merveilleuses, voir après les autres n'est rien; tout le mérite + est de voir pour la première fois; car les autres modèlent ensuite + leur vision sur le type reçu. C'est le propre des belles + organisations de concevoir l'image promptement, avec justesse et + par une sorte de sens intime du dessin. La gloire de la + résurrection appartient donc à Marie de Magdala. Après Jésus, + c'est Marie qui a le plus fait pour la fondation du Christianisme. + L'ombre créée par les sens délicats de Madeleine plane encore sur + le monde.... Loin d'ici, raison impuissante! Ne va pas appliquer + une froide analyse à ce chef-d'oeuvre de l'idéalisme et de + l'amour. Si la sagesse renonce à consoler cette pauvre race + humaine, trahie par le sort, laisse la folie tenter l'aventure. Où + est le sage qui a donné au monde autant de joie, que la possédée + Marie de Magdala? + +He proceeds to describe, on the same supposition, the other events of +the day, which he accepts as having in a certain very important sense +happened, though, of course, only in the sense which excludes their +reality. No doubt, for a series of hallucinations, anything will do in +the way of explanation. The scene of the evening was really believed to +have taken place as described, though it was the mere product of chance +noises and breaths of air on minds intently expectant; and we are +bidden to remember "that in these decisive hours a current of wind, a +creaking window, an accidental rustle, settle the belief of nations for +centuries." But at any rate it was a decisive hour:-- + + Tels furent les incidents de ce jour qui a fixé le sort de + l'humanité. L'opinion que Jésus était ressuscité s'y fonda d'une + manière irrévocable. La secte, qu'on avait cru éteindre en tuant + le maître, fut dès lors assurée d'un immense avenir. + +We are willing to admit that Christian writers have often spoken +unreally and unsatisfactorily enough in their comments on this subject. +But what Christian comment, hard, rigid, and narrow in its view of +possibilities, ever equalled this in its baselessness and supreme +absence of all that makes a view look like the truth? It puts the most +extravagant strain on documents which, truly or falsely, but at any +rate in the most consistent and uniform manner, assert something +different. What they assert in every conceivable form, and with +distinct detail, are facts; it is not criticism, but mere arbitrary +license, to say that all these stand for visions. The issue of truth or +falsehood is intelligible; the middle supposition of confusion and +mistake in that which is the basis of everything, and is definitely and +in such varied ways repeated, is trifling and incredible. We may +disbelieve, if we please, St. Paul's enumeration of the appearances +after the Resurrection; but to resolve it into a series of visions is +to take refuge in the most unlikely of guesses. And, when we take into +view the whole of the case--not merely the life and teaching out of +which everything grew, but the aim and character of the movement which +ensued, and the consequences of it, long tested and still continuing, +to the history and development of mankind--we find it hard to measure +the estimate of probability which is satisfied with the supposition +that the incidents of one day of folly and delusion irrevocably decided +the belief of ages, and the life and destiny of millions. Without the +belief in the Resurrection there would have been no Christianity; if +anything may be laid down as certain, this may. We should probably +never have even heard of the great Teacher; He would not have been +believed in, He would not have been preached to the world; the impulse +to conversion would have been wanting; and all that was without +parallel good and true and fruitful in His life would have perished, +and have been lost in Judaea. And the belief in the Resurrection M. +Renan thinks due to an hour of over-excited fancy in a woman agonized +by sorrow and affection. When we are presented with an hypothesis on +the basis of intrinsic probability, we cannot but remember that the +power of delusion and self-deception, though undoubtedly shown in very +remarkable instances, must yet be in a certain proportion to what it +originates and produces, and that it is controlled by the numerous +antagonistic influences of the world. Crazy women have founded +superstitions; but we cannot help thinking that it would be more +difficult than M. Renan supposes for crazy women to found a world-wide +religion for ages, branching forth into infinite forms, and tested by +its application to all varieties of civilisation, and to national and +personal character. M. Renan points to La Salette. But the assumption +would be a bold one that the La Salette people could have invented a +religion for Christendom which would stand the wear of eighteen +centuries, and satisfy such different minds. Pious frauds, as he says, +may have built cathedrals. But you must take Christianity for what it +has proved itself to be in its hard and unexampled trial. To start an +order, a sect, an institution, even a local tradition or local set of +miracles, on foundations already laid, is one thing; it is not the same +to be the spring of the most serious and the deepest of moral movements +for the improvement of the world, the most unpretending and the most +careless of all outward form and show, the most severely searching and +universal and lasting in its effects on mankind. To trace that back to +the Teacher without the intervention of the belief in the Resurrection +is manifestly impossible. We know what He is said to have taught; we +know what has come of that teaching in the world at large; but if the +link which connects the two be not a real one, it is vain to explain it +by the dreams of affection. It was not a matter of a moment or an hour, +but of days and weeks continually; not the assertion of one imaginative +mourner or two, but of a numerous and variously constituted body of +people. The story, if it was not true, was not delusion, but imposture. +We certainly cannot be said to know much of what happens in the genesis +of religions. But that between such a teacher and such teaching there +should intervene such a gigantic falsehood, whether imposture or +delusion, is unquestionably one of the hardest violations of +probability conceivable, as well as one of the most desperate +conclusions as regards the capacity of mankind for truth. Few thoughts +can be less endurable than that the wisest and best of our race, men of +the soberest and most serious tempers, and most candid and judicial +minds, should have been the victims and dupes of the mad affection of a +crazy Magdalen, of "ces touchantes démoniaques, ces pécheresses +converties, ces vraies fondatrices du Christianisme." M. Renan shrinks +from solving such a question by the hypothesis of conscious fraud. To +solve it by sentiment is hardly more respectful either to the world or +to truth. + +We have left ourselves no room to speak of the best part of M. Renan's +new volume, his historical comment on the first period of Christianity. +We do not pretend to go along with him in his general principles of +judgment, or in many of his most important historical conclusions. But +here he is, what he is not in the early chapters, on ground where his +critical faculty comes fairly into play. He is, we think, continually +paradoxical and reckless in his statements; and his book is more +thickly strewn than almost any we know with half-truths, broad axioms +which require much paring down to be of any use, but which are made by +him to do duty for want of something stronger. But, from so keen and so +deeply interested a writer, it is our own fault if we do not learn a +good deal. And we may study in its full development that curious +combination, of which M. Renan is the most conspicuous example, of +profound veneration for Christianity and sympathy with its most +characteristic aspects, with the scientific impulse to destroy in the +public mind the belief in its truth. + + + + +XIII + +M. RENAN'S HIBBERT LECTURES[15] + + + [15] + _Guardian_, 14th April 1880. + +I + +The object of M. Renan's lectures at St. George's Hall is, as we +understand him, not merely to present a historical sketch of the +influence of Rome on the early Church, but to reconcile the historical +imagination with the results of his own and kindred speculations on the +origin of Christianity. He has, with a good faith which we do not +question, investigated the subject and formed his conclusions upon it. +He on the present occasion assumes these investigations, and that he, +at any rate, is satisfied with their result. He hardly pretends to +carry the mixed popular audience whom he addresses into any real +inquiry into the grounds on which he has satisfied himself that the +received account of Christianity is not the true one. But he is aware +that all minds are more or less consciously impressed with the broad +difficulty that, after all attempts to trace the origin of Christianity +to agencies and influences of well-understood human character, the +disproportion between causes and effects still continues to appear +excessive. The great Christian tradition with its definite beliefs +about the conditions of man's existence, which has shaped the fortunes +and determined the future of mankind on earth, is in possession of the +world as much as the great tradition of right and wrong, or of the +family, or of the State. How did it get there? It is most astonishing +that it should have done so, what is the account of it? Of course +people may inquire into this question as they may inquire into the +basis of morality, or the origin of the family or the State. But here, +as on those subjects, reason, and that imagination which is one of the +forces of reason, by making the mind duly sensible of the magnitude of +ideas and alternatives, are exacting. M. Renan's task is to make the +purely human origin of Christianity, its origin in the circumstances, +the beliefs, the ideas, and the moral and political conditions of the +first centuries, seem to us _natural_--as natural in the history of the +world as other great and surprising events and changes--as natural as +the growth and the fall of the Roman Empire, or as the Reformation, or +the French Revolution. He is well qualified to sound the depths of his +undertaking and to meet its heavy exigencies. With a fuller knowledge +of books, and a closer familiarity than most men with the thoughts and +the events of the early ages, with a serious value for the idea of +religion as such, and certainly with no feeble powers of recalling the +past and investing it with colour and life, he has to show how these +things can be--how a religion with such attributes as he freely +ascribes to the Gospel, so grand, so pure, so lasting, can have sprung +up not merely _in_ but _from_ a most corrupt and immoral time, and can +have its root in the most portentous and impossible of falsehoods. It +must be said to be a bold undertaking. + +M. Renan has always aimed at doing justice to what he assailed; +Christians, who realise what they believe, will say that he patronises +their religion, and naturally they resent such patronage. Such candour +adds doubtless to the literary effect of his method; but it is only due +to him to acknowledge the fairness of his admissions. He starts with +the declaration that there never was a nobler moment in human history +than the beginnings of the Christian Church. It was the "most heroic +episode in the annals of mankind." "Never did man draw forth from his +bosom more devotion, more love of the ideal, than in the 150 years +which elapsed between the sweet Galilean vision and the death of Marcus +Aurelius." It was not only that the saints were admirable and beautiful +in their lives; they had the secret of the future, and laid down the +lines on which the goodness and hope of the coming world were to move." +Never was the religious conscience more eminently creative, never did +it lay down with more authority the law of future ages." + +Now, if this is not mere rhetoric, what does it come to? It means not +merely that there was here a phenomenon, not only extraordinary but +unique, in the development of human character, but that here was +created or evolved what was to guide and form the religious ideas of +mankind; here were the springs of what has reached through all the ages +of expanding humanity to our own days, of what is best and truest and +deepest and holiest. M. Renan, at any rate, does not think this an +illusion of Christian prepossessions, a fancy picture of a mythic age +of gold, of an unhistorical period of pure and primitive antiquity. Put +this view of things by the side of any of the records or the literature +of the time remaining to us; if not St. Paul's Epistles nor Tacitus nor +Lucian, then Virgil and Horace and Cicero, or Seneca or Epictetus or +Marcus Aurelius. Is it possible by any effort of imagination to body +forth the links which can solidly connect the ideas which live and work +and grow on one side, with the ideas which are represented by the facts +and principles of the other side? Or is it any more possible to connect +what we know of Christian ideas and convictions by a bond of natural +and intelligible, if not necessary derivation, with what we know of +Jewish ideas and Jewish habits of thought at the time in question? Yet +that is the thing to be done, to be done rigorously, to be done clearly +and distinctly, by those who are satisfied to find the impulses and +faith which gave birth to Christianity amid the seething confusions of +the time which saw its beginning; absolutely identical with those wild +movements in origin and nature, and only by a strange, fortunate +accident immeasurably superior to them. + +This question M. Renan has not answered; as far as we can see he has +not perceived that it is the first question for him to answer, in +giving a philosophical account of the history of Christianity. Instead, +he tells us, and he is going still further to tell us, how Rome and its +wonderful influences acted on Christianity, and helped to assure its +victories. But, first of all, what is that Christianity, and whence did +it come, which Rome so helped? It came, he says, from Judaism; "it was +Judaism under its Christian form which Rome propagated without wishing +it, yet with such mighty energy that from a certain epoch Romanism and +Christianity became synonymous words"; it was Jewish monotheism, the +religion the Roman hated and despised, swallowing up by its contrast +all that was local, legendary, and past belief, and presenting one +religious law to the countless nationalities of the Empire, which like +itself was one, and like itself above all nationalities. + +This may all be true, and is partially true; but how did that hated and +partial Judaism break through its trammels, and become a religion for +all men, and a religion to which all men gathered? The Roman +organisation was an admirable vehicle for Christianity; but the vehicle +does not make that which it carries, or account for it. M. Renan's +picture of the Empire abounds with all those picturesque details which +he knows so well where to find, and knows so well, too, how to place in +an interesting light. There were then, of course, conditions of the +time more favourable to the Christian Church than would have been the +conditions of other times. There was a certain increased liberty of +thought, though there were also some pretty strong obstacles to it. M. +Renan has Imperial proclivities, and reminds us truly enough that +despotisms are sometimes more tolerant than democracies, and that +political liberty is not the same as spiritual and mental freedom, and +does not always favour it. It may be partially true, as he says, that +"Virgil and Tibullus show that Roman harshness and cruelty were +softening down"; that "equality and the rights of men were preached by +the Stoics"; that "woman was more her own mistress, and slaves were +better treated than in the days of Cato"; that "very humane and just +laws were enacted under the very worst emperors; that Tiberius and Nero +were able financiers"; that "after the terrible butcheries of the old +centuries, mankind was crying with the voice of Virgil for peace and +pity." A good many qualifications and abatements start up in our minds +on reading these statements, and a good many formidable doubts suggest +themselves, if we can at all believe what has come down to us of the +history of these times. It is hard to accept quite literally the bold +assertion that "love for the poor, sympathy with all men, almsgiving, +were becoming virtues." But allow this as the fair and hopeful side of +the Empire. Yet all this is a long way from accounting for the effects +on the world of Christianity, even in the dim, vaporous form in which +M. Renan imagines it, much more in the actual concrete reality in +which, if we know anything, it appeared. "Christianity," he says, +"responded to the cry for peace and pity of all weary and tender +souls." No doubt it did; but what was it that responded, and what was +its consolation, and whence was its power drawn? What was there in the +known thoughts or hopes or motives of men at the time to furnish such a +response? "Christianity," he says, "could only have been born and +spread at a time when men had no longer a country"; "it was that +explosion of social and religious ideas which became inevitable after +Augustus had put an end to political struggles," after his policy had +killed "patriotism." It is true enough that the first Christians, +believing themselves subjects of an Eternal King and in view of an +eternal world, felt themselves strangers and pilgrims in this; yet did +the rest of the Roman world under the Caesars feel that they had no +country, and was the idea of patriotism extinct in the age of Agricola? +But surely the real question worth asking is, What was it amid the +increasing civilisation and prosperous peace of Rome under the first +Emperors which made these Christians relinquish the idea of a country? +From whence did Christianity draw its power to set its followers in +inflexible opposition to the intensest worship of the State that the +world has ever known? + +To tell us the conditions under which all this occurred is not to tell +us the cause of it. We follow with interest the sketches which M. Renan +gives of these conditions, though it must be said that his +generalisations are often extravagantly loose and misleading. We do +indeed want to know more of those wonderful but hidden days which +intervene between the great Advent, with its subsequent Apostolic age, +and the days when the Church appears fully constituted and recognised. +German research and French intelligence and constructiveness have done +something to help us, but not much. But at the end of all such +inquiries appears the question of questions, What was the beginning and +root of it all? Christians have a reasonable answer to the question. +There is none, there is not really the suggestion of one, in M. Renan's +account of the connection of Christianity with the Roman world. + + +II[16] + + [16] + _Guardian_, 21st April 1880. + +M. Renan has pursued the line of thought indicated in his first +lecture, and in his succeeding lectures has developed the idea that +Christianity, as we know it, was born in Imperial Rome, and that in its +visible form and active influence on the world it was the manifest +product of Roman instincts and habits; it was the spirit of the Empire +passing into a new body and accepting in exchange for political power, +as it slowly decayed and vanished, a spiritual supremacy as unrivalled +and as astonishing. The "Legend of the Roman Church--Peter and Paul," +"Rome the Centre in which Church Authority grew up," and "Rome the +Capital of Catholicism," are the titles of the three lectures in which +this thesis is explained and illustrated. A lecture on Marcus Aurelius, +at the Royal Institution, though not one of the series, is obviously +connected with it, and concludes M. Renan's work in England. + +Except the brilliant bits of writing which, judging from the full +abstracts given in translation in the _Times_, appear to have been +interspersed, and except the undoubting self-confidence and _aplomb_ +with which a historical survey, reversing the common ideas of mankind, +was delivered, there was little new to be learned from M. Renan's +treatment of his subject. Perhaps it may be described as the Roman +Catholic theory of the rise of the Church, put in an infidel point of +view. It is Roman Catholic in concentrating all interest, all the +sources of influence and power in the Christian religion and Christian +Church, from the first moment at Rome. But for Rome the Christian +Church would not have existed. The Church is inconceivable without +Rome, and Rome as the seat and centre of its spiritual activity. +Everything else is forgotten. There were Christian Churches all over +the Empire, in Syria, in Egypt, in Africa, in Asia Minor, in Gaul, in +Greece. A great body of Christian literature, embodying the ideas and +character of Christians all over the Empire, was growing up, and this +was not Roman and had nothing to do with Rome; it was Greek as much as +Latin, and local, not metropolitan, in its characteristics. +Christianity was spreading here, there, and everywhere, slowly and +imperceptibly as the tide comes in, or as cells multiply in the growing +tissues of organised matter; it was spreading under its many distinct +guides and teachers, and taking possession of the cities and provinces +of the Empire. All this great movement, the real foundation of all that +was to be, is overlooked and forgotten in the attention which is fixed +on Rome and confined to it. As in the Roman Catholic view, M. Renan +brings St. Paul and St. Peter together to Rome, to found that great +Imperial Church in which the manifold and varied history of Christendom +is merged and swallowed up. Only, of course, M. Renan brings them there +as "fanatics" instead of Apostles and martyrs. We know something about +St. Peter and St. Paul. We know them at any rate from their writings. +In M. Renan's representation they stand opposed to one another as +leaders of factions, to whose fierce hatreds and jealousies there is +nothing comparable. "All the differences," he is reported to say, +"which divide orthodox folks, heretics, schismatics, in our own day, +are as nothing compared with the dissension between Peter and Paul." It +is, as every one knows, no new story; but there it is in M. Renan in +all its crudity, as if it were the most manifest and accredited of +truths. M. Renan first brings St. Paul to Rome. "It was," he says, "a +great event in the world's history, almost as pregnant with +consequences as his conversion." How it was so M. Renan does not +explain; but he brings St. Peter to Rome also, "following at the heels +of St. Paul," to counteract and neutralise his influence. And who is +this St. Peter? He represents the Jewish element; and what that element +was at Rome M. Renan takes great pains to put before us. He draws an +elaborate picture of the Jews and Jewish quarter of Rome--a "longshore +population" of beggars and pedlars, with a Ghetto resembling the +Alsatia of _The Fortunes of Nigel_, seething with dirt and fanaticism. +These were St. Peter's congeners at Rome, whose ideas and claims, +"timid trimmer" though he was, he came to Rome to support against the +Hellenism and Protestantism of St. Paul. And at Rome they, both of +them, probably, perished in Nero's persecution, and that is the history +of the success of Christianity. "Only fanatics can found anything. +Judaism lives on because of the intense frenzy of its prophets and +annalists, Christianity by means of its martyrs." + +But a certain Clement arose after their deaths, to arrange a +reconciliation between the fiercely antagonistic factions of St. Peter +and St. Paul. How he harmonised them M. Renan leaves us to imagine; but +he did reconcile them; he gathered in his own person the authority of +the Roman Church; he lectured the Corinthian Church on its turbulence +and insubordination; he anticipated, M. Renan remarked, almost in +words, the famous saying of the French Archbishop of Rouen, "My clergy +are my regiment, and they are drilled to obey like a regiment." On this +showing, Clement might almost be described as the real founder of +Christianity, of which neither St. Peter nor St. Paul, with their +violent oppositions, can claim to be the complete representative; at +any rate he was the first Pope, complete in all his attributes. And in +accordance with this beginning M. Renan sees in the Roman Church, +first, the centre in which Church authority grew up, and next, the +capital of Catholicism. In Rome the congregation gave up its rights to +its elders, and these rights the elders surrendered to the single ruler +or Bishop. The creation of the Episcopate was eminently the work of +Rome; and this Bishop of Rome caught the full spirit of the Caesar, on +whose decay he became great; and troubling himself little about the +deep questions which exercised the minds and wrung the hearts of +thinkers and mystics, he made himself the foundation of order, +authority, and subordination to all parts of the Imperial world. + +Such is M. Renan's explanation of the great march and triumph of the +Christian Church. The Roman Empire, which we had supposed was the +natural enemy of the Church, was really the founder of all that made +the Church strong, and bequeathed to the Church its prerogatives and +its spirit, and partly its machinery. We should hardly gather from this +picture that there was, besides, a widespread Catholic Church, with its +numerous centres of life and thought and teaching, and with very slight +connection, in the early times, with the Church of the capital. And, in +the next place, we should gather from it that there was little more in +the Church than a powerful and strongly built system of centralised +organisation and control; we should hardly suspect the existence of the +real questions which interested or disturbed it; we should hardly +suspect the existence of a living and all-engrossing theology, or the +growth and energy in it of moral forces, or that the minds of +Christians about the world were much more busy with the discipline of +life, the teaching and meaning of the inspired words of Scripture, and +the ever-recurring conflict with perverseness and error, than with +their dependent connection on the Imperial Primacy of Rome, and the +lessons they were to learn from it. + +Disguised as it may be, M. Renan's lectures represent not history, but +scepticism as to all possibility of history. Pictures of a Jewish +Ghetto, with its ragged mendicants smelling of garlic, in places where +Christians have been wont to think of the Saints; ingenious +explanations as to the way in which the "club" of the Christian Church +surrendered its rights to a _bureau_ of its officers; exhortations to +liberty and tolerance; side-glances at the contrasts of national gifts +and destinies and futures in the first century and in the nineteenth; +felicitous parallels and cunning epigrams, subtle combinations of the +pathetic, the egotistical, and the cynical, all presented with calm +self-reliance and in the most finished and distinguished of styles, may +veil for the moment from the audience which such things amuse, and even +interest, the hollowness which lies beneath. But the only meaning of +the lectures is to point out more forcibly than ever that besides the +obvious riddles of man's life there is one stranger and more appalling +still--that a religion which M. Renan can never speak of without +admiration and enthusiasm is based on a self-contradiction and deluding +falsehood, more dreadful in its moral inconsistencies than the grave. + +We cannot help feeling that M. Renan himself is a true representative +of that highly cultivated society of the Empire which would have +crushed Christianity, and which Christianity, vanquished. He still owes +something, and owns it, to what he has abandoned--"I am often tempted +to say, as Job said, in our Latin version, _Etiam si occident me, in +ipso sperabo_. But the next moment all is gone--all is but a symbol and +a dream." There is no possibility of solving the religious problem. He +relapses into profound disbelief of the worth and success of moral +efforts after truth. His last word is an exhortation to tolerance for +"fanatics," as the best mode of extinguishing them. "If, instead of +leading _Polyeucte_ to punishment, the magistrate, with a smile and +shake of the hand, had sent him home again, _Polyeucte_ would not have +been caught offending again; perhaps, in his old age, he would even +have laughed at his escapade, and would have become a sensible man." It +is as obvious and natural in our days to dispose of such difficulties +in this way with a smile and a sneer as it was in the first century +with a shout--_"Christiani ad leones."_ But Corneille was as good a +judge of the human heart as M. Renan. He had gauged the powers of faith +and conviction; he certainly would have expected to find his +_Polyeucte_ more obstinate. + + + + +XIV + +RENAN'S "SOUVENIRS D'ENFANCE"[17] + + + [17] + _Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse_. Par Ernest Renan. _Guardian_, + 18th July 1883. + +The sketches which M. Renan gives us of his early life are what we +should have looked for from the writer of the _Vie de Jésus_. The story +of the disintegration of a faith is supposed commonly to have something +tragic about it. We expect it to be a story of heart-breaking +disenchantments, of painful struggles, of fierce recoils against +ancient beliefs and the teachers who bolstered them up; of indignation +at having been so long deceived; of lamentation over years wasted in +the service of falsehood. The confessions of St. Augustine, the +biography of Blanco White, the letters of Lamennais, at least agree in +the witness which they bear to the bitter pangs and anxieties amid +which, in their case, the eventful change came about. Even Cardinal +Newman's _Apologia_, self-restrained and severely controlled as it is, +shows no doubtful traces of the conflicts and sorrows out of which he +believed himself to have emerged to a calmer and surer light. But M. +Renan's story is an idyl, not a tragedy. It is sunny, placid, +contented. He calls his life the "_charmante promenade_" which the +"cause of all good," whatever that may be, has granted him through the +realities of existence. There are in it no storms of passion, no +cruelties of circumstances, no deplorable mistakes, no complaints, no +recriminations. His life flows on smoothly, peacefully, happily, with +little of rapids and broken waters, gradually and in the most natural +and inevitable way enlarging itself, moving in new and wider channels +and with increased volume and force, but never detaching itself and +breaking off from its beginnings. It is a spectacle which M. Renan, who +has lived this life, takes a gentle pleasure in contemplating. He looks +back on it with thankfulness, and also with amusement It makes a +charming and complete picture. No part could be wanting without +injuring the effect of the whole. It is the very ideal of the education +of the Rousseau school--a child of nature, developing, amid the +simplest and humblest circumstances of life, the finest gifts and most +delicate graces of faith and reverence and purity--brought up by sages +whose wisdom he could not in time help outrunning, but whose piety, +sweetness, disinterestedness, and devoted labour left on his mind +impressions which nothing could wear out; and at length, when the time +came, passing naturally, and without passion or bitterness, from out of +their faithful but too narrow discipline into a wider and ampler air, +and becoming, as was fit, master and guide to himself, with light which +they could not bear, and views of truth greater and deeper than they +could conceive. But every stage of the progress, through the virtues of +the teachers, and the felicitous disposition of the pupil, exhibits +both in exactly the due relations in which each ought to be with the +other, with none of the friction of rebellious and refractory temper on +one side, or of unintelligent harshness on the other. He has nothing to +regret in the schools through which he passed, in the preparations +which he made there for the future, in the way in which they shaped his +life. He lays down the maxim, "On ne doit jamais écrire que de ce qu'on +aime." There is a serene satisfaction diffused through the book, which +scarcely anything intervenes to break or disturb; he sees so much +poetry in his life, so much content, so much signal and unlooked-for +success, that he has little to tell except what is delightful and +admirable. And then he is so certain that he is right: he can look down +with so much good-humoured superiority on past and present, alike on +what he calls "l'effroyable aventure du moyen âge," and on the march of +modern society to the dead level of "Americanism." It need not be said +that the story is told with all M. Renan's consummate charm of +storytelling. All that it wants is depth of real feeling and +seriousness--some sense of the greatness of what he has had to give up, +not merely of its poetic beauty and tender associations. It hardly +seems to occur to him that something more than his easy cheerfulness +and his vivid historical imagination is wanted to solve for him the +problems of the world, and that his gradual transition from the +Catholicism of the seminary to the absolute rejection of the +supernatural in religion does not, as he describes it, throw much light +on the question of the hopes and destiny of mankind. + +The outline of his story is soon told. It is in general like that of +many more who in France have broken away from religion. A clever +studious boy, a true son of old Brittany--the most melancholy, the most +tender, the most ardent, the most devout, not only of all French +provinces, but of all regions in Europe--is passed on from the teaching +of good, simple, hard-working country priests to the central +seminaries, where the leaders of the French clergy are educated. He +comes up a raw, eager, ignorant provincial, full of zeal for knowledge, +full of reverence and faith, and first goes through the distinguished +literary school of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, of which Dupanloup was +the founder and the inspiring soul. Thence he passed under the more +strictly professional discipline of St. Sulpice: first at the +preparatory philosophical school at Issy, then to study scientific +theology in the house of St. Sulpice itself at Paris. At St. Sulpice he +showed special aptitudes for the study of Hebrew, in which he was +assisted and encouraged by M. le Hir, "the most remarkable person," in +his opinion, "whom the French clergy has produced in our days," a +"savant and a saint," who had mastered the results of German criticism +as they were found in the works of Gesenius and Ewald. On his faith all +this knowledge had not made the faintest impression; but it was this +knowledge which broke down M. Renan's, and finally led to his retiring +from St. Sulpice. On the one side was the Bible and Catholic theology, +carefully, scientifically, and consistently taught at St. Sulpice; on +the other were the exegesis and the historical criticism of the German +school. He came at length to the conclusion that the two are +incompatible; that there was but a choice of alternatives; and purely +on the ground of historical criticism, he says, not on any abstract +objections to the supernatural, or to miracles, or to Catholic dogma, +he gave up revealed religion. He gave it up not without regrets at the +distress caused to friends, and at parting with much that was endeared +to him by old associations, and by intrinsic beauty and value; but, as +far as can be judged, without any serious sense of loss. He spent some +time in obscurity, teaching, and studying laboriously, and at length +beginning to write. Michel Lévy, the publisher, found him out, and +opened to him a literary career, and in due time he became famous. He +has had the ambiguous honour of making the Bible an object of such +interest to French readers as it never was before, at the cost of +teaching them to find in it a reflection of their own characteristic +ways of looking at life and the world. It is not an easy thing to do +with such a book as the Bible; but he has done it. + +As a mere history of a change of convictions, the _Souvenirs_ are +interesting, but hardly of much importance. They are written with a +kind of Epicurean serenity and dignity, avoiding all exaggeration and +violence, profuse in every page in the delicacies and also in the +reticences of respect, not too serious to exclude the perpetual +suggestion of a well-behaved amused irony, not too much alive to the +ridiculous and the self-contradictory to forget the attitude of +composure due to the theme of the book. He warns his readers at the +outset that they must not look for a stupid literalness in his account. +"Ce qu'on dit de soi est toujours poésie"--the reflection of states of +mind and varying humours, not the exact details of fact. "Tout est vrai +dans ce petit volume, mais non de ce genre de verité qui est requis +pour une _Biographie universelle_. Bien des choses ont été mises, afin +qu'on sourie; si l'usage l'eût permis, j'aurais dû écrire plus d'une +fois à la marge--_cum grano salis_". It is candid to warn us thus to +read a little between the lines; but it is a curious and unconscious +disclosure of his characteristic love of a mixture of the misty and the +clear. The really pleasant part of it is his account, which takes up +half the volume, of Breton ways and feelings half a century ago, an +account which exactly tallies with the pictures of them in Souvestre's +writings; and the kindliness and justice with which he speaks of his +old Catholic and priestly teachers, not only in his boyish days at +Tréguier, but in his seminary life in Paris. His account of this +seminary life is unique in its picturesque vividness. He describes how, +at St. Nicolas, under the fiery and irresistible Dupanloup, whom he +speaks of with the reserved courtesy due to a distinguished person whom +he much dislikes, his eager eyes were opened to the realities of +literature, and to the subtle powers of form and style in writing, +which have stood him in such stead, and have been the real secret of +his own success. + + Le monde s'ouvrit pour moi. Malgré sa prétention d'être un asile + fermé aux bruits du dehors, Saint-Nicolas était a cette époque la + maison la plus brillante et la plus mondaine. Paris y entrait à + pleins bords par les portes et les fenêtres, Paris tout entier, + moins la corruption, je me hâte de le dire, Paris avec ses + petitesses et ses grandeurs, ses hardiesses et ses chiffons, sa + force révolutionnaire et ses mollesses flasques. Mes vieux prêtres + de Bretagne savaient bien mieux les mathématiques et le latin que + mes nouveaux maîtres; mais ils vivaient dans des catacombes sans + lumière et sans air. Ici, l'atmosphère du siècle circulait + librement.... Au bout de quelque temps une chose tout à fait + inconnue m'etait révélée. Les mots, talent, éclat, réputation + eurent un sens pour moi. J'étais perdu pour l'idéal modeste que + mes anciens maîtres m'avaient inculqué. + +And he describes how Dupanloup brought his pupils perpetually into +direct relations with himself and communicated to them something of his +own enthusiasm. He gained the power over their hearts which a great +general gains over his soldiers. His approval, his interest in a man, +were the all-absorbing object, the all-sufficient reward; the one +punishment feared was dismissal, always inflicted with courtesy and +tact, from the honour and the joy of serving under him:-- + + Adoré de ses élèves, M. Dupanloup n'était pas toujours agréable à + ces collaborateurs. On m'a dit que, plus tard, dans son diocèse, + les choses se passèrent de la même manière, qu'il fut toujours + plus aimé de ses laïques que de ses prêtres. Il est certain qu'il + écrasait tout autour de lui. Mais sa violence même nous attachait; + car nous sentions que nous étions son but unique. Ce qu'il était, + c'était un éveilleur incomparable; pour tirer de chacun de ses + élèves la somme de ce qu'il pouvait donner, personne ne l'égalait. + Chacun de ses deux cents élèves existait distinct dans sa pensée; + il était pour chacun d'eux l'excitateur toujours présent, le motif + de vivre et de travailler. Il croyait au talent et en faisait la + base de la foi. Il répétait souvent que l'homme vaut en proportion + de sa faculté d'admirer. Son admiration n'était pas toujours assez + éclairée par la science; mais elle venait d'une grande chaleur + d'âme et d'un coeur vraiment possédé de l'amour du beau.... Les + défauts de l'éducation qu'il donnait étaient les défauts même de + son esprit. Il était trop peu rationnel, trop peu scientifique. On + eût dit que ses deux cents élèves étaient destinés à être tous + poètes, écrivains, orateurs. + +St. Nicolas was literary. Issy and St. Sulpice were severely +philosophic and scientific, places of "_fortes études_"; and the writer +thinks that they were more to his own taste than the more brilliant +literary education given under Dupanloup. In one sense it may be so. +They introduced him to exactness of thought and precision of +expression, and they widened his horizon of possible and attainable +knowledge. He passed, he says, from words to things. But he is a writer +who owes so much to the form into which he throws his thoughts, to the +grace and brightness and richness of his style, that he probably is a +greater debtor to the master whom he admires and dislikes, Dupanloup, +than to the modest, reserved, and rather dull Sulpician teachers, whom +he loves and reveres and smiles at, whose knowledge of theology was +serious, profound, and accurate, and whose characteristic temper was +one of moderation and temperate reason, joined to a hatred of display, +and a suspicion of all that seemed too clever and too brilliant. But +his witness to their excellence, to their absolute self-devotion to +their work, to their dislike of extravagance and exaggeration, to their +good sense and cultivation, is ungrudging and warm. Of course he thinks +them utterly out of date; but on their own ground he recognises that +they were men of strength and solidity, the best and most thorough of +teachers; the most sincere, the most humble, the most self-forgetting +of priests:-- + + Beaucoup de mes jugements étonnent les gens du monde parcequ'ils + n'out pas vu ce que j'ai vu. J'ai vu à Saint-Sulpice, associés à + des idées étroites, je l'avoue, les miracles que nos races peuvent + produire en fait de bonté, de modestie, d'abnégation personelle. + Ce qu'il y a de vertu à Saint-Sulpice suffirait pour gouverner un + monde, et cela m'a rendu difficile pour ce que j'ai trouvé + ailleurs. + +M. Renan, as we have said, is very just to his education, and to the +men who gave it. He never speaks of them except with respect and +gratitude. It is seldom, indeed, that he permits himself anything like +open disparagement of the men and the cause which he forsook. The +shafts of his irony are reserved for men on his own side, for the +radical violences of M. Clémenceau, and for the exaggerated reputation +of Auguste Comte, "who has been set up as a man of the highest order of +genius, for having said, in bad French, what all scientific thinkers +for two hundred years have seen as clearly as himself." He attributes +to his ecclesiastical training those excellences in his own temper and +principles on which he dwells with much satisfaction and thankfulness. +They are, he considers, the result of his Christian and "Sulpician" +education, though the root on which they grew is for ever withered and +dead. "La foi disparue, la morale reste.... C'est par le caractère que +je suis resté essentiellement l'élève de mes anciens maîtres." He is +proud of these virtues, and at the same time amused at the odd +contradictions in which they have sometimes involved him:-- + + Il me plairait d'expliquer par le détail et de montrer comment la + gageure paradoxale de garder les vertus cléricales, sans la foi + qui leur sert de base et dans un monde pour lequel elles ne sont + pas faites, produisit, en ce que me concerne, les rencontres les + plus divertissantes. J'aimerais à raconter toutes les aventures + que mes vertus sulpiciennes m'amenèrent, et les tours singuliers + qu'elles m'ont joués. Après soixante ans de vie sérieuse on a le + droit de sourire; et où trouver une source de rire plus abondante, + plus à portée, plus inoffensive qu'en soimême? Si jamais un auteur + comique voulait amuser le public de mes ridicules, je ne lui + demanderais qu'une chose; c'est de me prendre pour collaborateur; + je lui conterais des choses vingt fois plus amusantes que celles + qu'il pourrait inventer. + +He dwells especially on four of these virtues which were, he thinks, +graven ineffaceably on his nature at St. Sulpice. They taught him there +not to care for money or success. They taught him the old-fashioned +French politeness--that beautiful instinct of giving place to others, +which is perishing in the democratic scramble for the best places, in +the omnibus and the railway as in business and society. It is more +curious to find that he thinks that they taught him to be modest. +Except on the faith of his assertions, the readers of his book would +not naturally have supposed that he believed himself specially endowed +with this quality; it is at any rate the modesty which, if it shrinks +into retirement from the pretensions of the crowd, goes along with a +high and pitying sense of superiority, and a self-complacency of which +the good humour never fails. His masters also taught him to value +purity. For this he almost makes a sort of deprecating apology. He saw, +indeed, "the vanity of this virtue as of all the others"; he admits +that it is an unnatural virtue. But he says, "L'homme ne doit jamais se +permettre deux hardiesses à la fois. Le libre penseur doit être réglé +en ses moeurs." In this doctrine it may be doubted whether he will find +many followers. An unnatural virtue, where nature only is recognised as +a guide, is more likely to be discredited by his theory than +recommended by his example, particularly if the state of opinion in +France is such as is described in the following passage--a passage +which in England few men, whatever they might think, would have the +boldness to state as an acknowledged social phenomenon:-- + + Le monde, dont les jugements sont rarement tout à fait faux, voit + une sorte de ridicule à être vertueux quand on n'y est pas obligé + par un devoir professionnel. Le prêtre, ayant pour état d'être + chaste, comme le soldat d'être brave, est, d'après ces idées, + presque le seul qui puisse sans ridicule tenir à des principes sur + lesquels la morale et la mode se livrent les plus étranges + combats. Il est hors de doute qu'en ce point, comme en beaucoup + d'autres, mes principes clericaux, conservés dans le siècle, m'ont + nui aux yeux du monde. + +We have one concluding observation to make. This is a book of which the +main interest, after all, depends on the way in which it touches on the +question of questions, the truth and reality of the Christian religion. +But from first to last it docs not show the faintest evidence that the +writer ever really knew, or even cared, what religion is. Religion is +not only a matter of texts, of scientific criticisms, of historical +investigations, of a consistent theology. It is not merely a procession +of external facts and events, a spectacle to be looked at from the +outside. It is, if it is anything, the most considerable and most +universal interest in the complex aggregate of human interests. It +grows out of the deepest moral roots, out of the most characteristic +and most indestructible spiritual elements, out of wants and needs and +aspirations and hopes, without which man, as we know him, would not be +man. When a man, in asking whether Christianity is true, leaves out all +this side of the matter, when he shows that it has not come before him +as a serious and importunate reality, when he shows that he is +unaffected by those deep movements and misgivings and anxieties of the +soul to which religion corresponds, and treats the whole matter as a +question only of erudition and criticism, we may acknowledge him to be +an original and acute critic, a brilliant master of historical +representation; but he has never yet come face to face with the +problems of religion. His love of truth may be unimpeachable, but he +docs not know what he is talking about. M. Renan speaks of giving up +his religion as a man might speak of accepting a new and unpopular +physical hypothesis like evolution, or of making up his mind to give up +the personality of Homer or the early history of Rome. Such an interior +attitude of mind towards religion as is implied, for instance, in +Bishop Butler's _Sermons on the Love of God_, or the _De Imitatione_ or +Newman's _Parochial Sermons_ seems to him, as far as we can judge, an +unknown and unattempted experience. It is easy to deal with a question +if you leave out half the factors of it, and those the most difficult +and the most serious. It is easy to be clear if you do not choose to +take notice of the mysterious, and if you exclude from your +consideration as vague and confused all that vast department of human +concerns where we at best can only "see through a glass darkly." It is +easy to find the world a pleasant and comfortable and not at all +perplexing place, if your life has been, as M. Renan describes his own, +a "charming promenade" through it; if, as he says, you are blessed with +"a good humour not easily disturbed "; and you "have not suffered +much"; and "nature has prepared cushions to soften shocks"; and you +have "had so much enjoyment in this life that you really have no right +to claim any compensation beyond it." That is M. Renan's experience of +life--a life of which he looks forward to the perfection in the +clearness and security of its possible denials of ancient beliefs, and +in the immense development of its positive and experimental knowledge. +How would Descartes have rejoiced, he says, if he could have seen some +poor treatise on physics or cosmography of our day, and what would we +not give to catch a glimpse of such an elementary schoolbook of a +hundred years hence. + +But that is not at any rate the experience of all the world, nor does +it appear likely ever to be within the reach of all the world. There is +another aspect of life more familiar than this, an aspect which has +presented itself to the vast majority of mankind, the awful view of it +which is made tragic by pain and sorrow and moral evil; which, in the +way in which religion looks at it, if it is sterner, is also higher and +nobler, and is brightened by hope and purposes of love; a view which +puts more upon men and requires more from them, but holds before them a +destiny better than the perfection here of physical science. To minds +which realise all this, it is more inconceivable than any amount of +miracle that such a religion as Christianity should have emerged +naturally out of the conditions of the first century. They refuse to +settle such a question by the short and easy method on which M. Renan +relies; they will not consent to put it on questions about the two +Isaiahs, or about alleged discrepancies between the Evangelists; they +will not think the claims of religion disposed of by M. Renan's canon, +over and over again contradicted, that whether there can be or not, +there _is_ no evidence of the supernatural in the world. To those who +measure and feel the true gravity of the issues, it is almost +unintelligible to find a man who has been face to face with +Christianity all his life treating the deliberate condemnation of it +almost gaily and with a light heart, and showing no regrets in having +to give it up as a delusion and a dream. It is a poor and meagre end of +a life of thought and study to come to the conclusion that the age in +which he has lived is, if not one of the greatest, at least "the most +amusing of all ages." + + + + +XV + +LIFE OF FREDERICK ROBERTSON[18] + + + [18] + _Life and Letters of Frederick W. Robertson_. Edited by Stopford A. + Brooke. _Guardian_, 15th November 1865. + +If the proof of a successful exhibition of a strongly marked and +original character be that it excites and sustains interest throughout, +that our tastes are appealed to and our judgments called forth with +great strength, that we pass continuously and rapidly, as we read, from +deep and genuine admiration to equally deep and genuine dissent and +disapprobation, that it allows us to combine a general but irresistible +sense of excellence growing upon us through the book with an +under-current of real and honest dislike and blame, then this book in a +great measure satisfies the condition of success. It is undeniable that +in what it shows us of Mr. Robertson there is much to admire, much to +sympathise with, much to touch us, a good deal to instruct us. He is +set before us, indeed, by the editor, as the ideal of all that a great +Christian teacher and spiritual guide, all that a brave and wise and +high-souled man, may be conceived to be. We cannot quite accept him as +an example of such rare and signal achievement; and the fault of the +book is the common one of warm-hearted biographers to wind their own +feelings and those of their readers too high about their subject; to +talk as if their hero's excellences were unknown till he appeared to +display them, and to make up for the imperfect impression resulting +from actual facts and qualities by insisting with overstrained emphasis +on a particular interpretation of them. The book would be more truthful +and more pleasing if the editor's connecting comments were more simply +written, and made less pretension to intensity and energy of language. +Yet with all drawbacks of what seem to us imperfect taste, an imperfect +standard of character, and an imperfect appreciation of what there is +in the world beyond a given circle of interests, the book does what a +biography ought to do--it shows us a remarkable man, and it gives us +the means of forming our own judgment about him. It is not a tame +panegyric or a fancy picture. + +The main portion of the book consists of Mr. Robertson's own letters, +and his own accounts of himself; and we are allowed to see him, in a +great degree at least, as he really was. The editor draws a moral, +indeed, and tells us what we ought to think about what we see; but we +can use our own judgment about that. And, as so often happens in real +life, what we see both attracts and repels; it calls forth, +successively and in almost equal measure, warm sympathy and admiration, +and distinct and hearty disagreement. At least there is nothing of +commonplace--of what is commonplace yet in our generation; though there +is a good deal that bids fair to become commonplace in the next. It is +the record of a genuine spontaneous character, seeking its way, its +duty, its perfection, with much sincerity and elevation of purpose, and +many anxieties and sorrows, and not, we doubt not, without much of the +fruits that come with real self-devotion; a record disclosing a man +with great faults and conspicuous blanks in his nature, one with whose +principles, taste, or judgment we constantly find ourselves having a +vehement quarrel, just after having been charmed and conciliated by +some unexpectedly powerful or refined statement of an important truth. +We cannot think, and few besides his own friends will think, that he +had laid his hand with so sure an accuracy and with so much promise +upon the clue which others had lost or bungled over. But there is much +to learn in his thoughts and words, and there is not less to learn from +his life. It is the life of a man who did not spare himself in +fulfilling what he received as his task, who sacrificed much in order +to speak his message, as he thought, more worthily and to do his office +more effectually, and whose career touches us the more from the shadow +of suffering and early death that hangs over its aspirations and +activity. A book which fairly shows us such a life is not of less value +because it also shows us much that we regret and condemn. + +Mr. Robertson was brought up not only in the straitest traditions of +the Evangelical school, but in the heat of its controversial warfare. +His heart, when he was a boy, was set on entering the army; and one of +his most characteristic points through life, shown in many very +different forms, was his pugnacity, his keen perception of the +"_certaminis gaudia_":-- + + "There is something of combativeness in me," he writes, "which + prevents the whole vigour being drawn out, except when I have an + antagonist to deal with, a falsehood to quell, or a wrong to + avenge. Never till then does my mind feel quite alive. Could I + have chosen my own period of the world to have lived in, and my + own type of life, it should be the feudal ages, and the life of a + Cid, the redresser of wrongs." + + "On the other hand," writes his biographer, "when he met men who + despised Christianity, or who, like the Roman Catholics, held to + doctrines which he believed untrue, this very enthusiasm and + unconscious excitement swept him sometimes beyond himself. He + could not moderate his indignation down to the cool level of + ordinary life. Hence he was wanting at this time in the wise + tolerance which formed so conspicuous a feature of his maturer + manhood. He held to his own views with pertinacity. He believed + them to be true; and he almost refused to allow the possibility of + the views of others having truth in them also. He was more or less + one-sided at this period. With the Roman Catholic religion it was + war to the death, not in his later mode of warfare, by showing the + truth which lay beneath the error, but by denouncing the error. He + seems invariably, with the pugnacity of a young man, to have + attacked their faith; and the mode in which this was done was + startlingly different from that which afterwards he adopted." + +He yielded, after considerable resistance, to the wishes and advice of +his friends, that he should prepare for orders. "With a romantic +instinct of self-sacrifice," says his biographer, "he resolved to give +up the idea of his whole life." This we can quite understand; but with +that propensity of biographers to credit their subject with the +desirable qualities which it may be supposed that they ought to have, +besides those which they really have, the editor proceeds to observe +that this would scarcely have happened had not Mr. Robertson's +"_characteristic self-distrust_ disposed him to believe that he was +himself the worst judge of his future profession." This is the way in +which the true outline of a character is blurred and confused, in order +to say something proper and becoming. Self-distrust was not among the +graces or weaknesses of Mr. Robertson's nature, unless indeed we +mistake for it the anxiety which even the stoutest heart may feel at a +crisis, or the dissatisfaction which the proudest may feel at the +interval between attempt and achievement. + +He was an undergraduate at Brasenose at the height of the Oxford +movement. He was known there, so far as he was known at all, as a keen +partisan of the Evangelical school; and though no one then suspected +the power which was really in him, his party, not rich in men of +strength or promise, made the most of a recruit who showed ability and +entered heartily into their watchwords, and, it must be said, their +rancour. He was conspicuous among the young men of his standing for the +forwardness with which he took his side against "Tractarianism," and +the vehemence of his dislike of it, and for the almost ostentatious and +defiant prominence which he gave to the convictions and social habits +of his school He expressed his scorn and disgust at the "donnishness," +the coldness, the routine, the want of heart, which was all that he +could see at Oxford out of the one small circle of his friends. He +despised the Oxford course of work, and would have nothing more to do +with it than he could help--as he lived to regret afterwards. Yet even +then he was in his tastes and the instinctive tendencies of his mind +above his party. He was an admiring reader of Wordsworth and Shelley; +he felt the strength of Aristotle and Plato; he is said to have +appreciated Mr. Newman's preaching, and to have gallantly defended what +he admired in him and his friends. His editor, indeed, Mr. Brooke, +appears to be a little divided and embarrassed, between his wish to +enforce Mr. Robertson's largeness of mind and heart, and his fear of +giving countenance to suspicions that he was ever so little inclined to +"High Churchism"; between his desire to show that Mr. Robertson +estimated the High Church leaders as much as an intelligent man ought, +and disliked their system as much as a sound-thinking Christian ought. +We should have thought that he need not be so solicitous to "set at +rest the question about Mr. Robertson's High Church tendencies." "I +hate High Churchism," was one of his latest declarations, when +professing his sympathy with individual High Churchmen. One thing, +however, is quite clear--that in his early life his partisanship was +thoroughgoing and unflinching enough to satisfy the fiercest and most +fanatical of their opponents. Such a representation as this is simply +misleading:-- + + The almost fierceness with which he speaks against the Tract + school is proof in him of the strength of the attraction it + possessed for him, just as afterwards at Brighton his attacks on + Evangelicalism are proof of the strength with which he once held + to that form of Christianity, and the force of the reaction with + which he abandoned it for ever. Out of these two reactions--when + their necessary ultra tendencies had been mellowed down by + time--emerged at last the clearness and the just balance of + principles with which he taught during 1848 and the following + years, at Brighton. He had probed both schools of theological + thought to their recesses, and had found them wanting. He spoke of + what he knew when he protested against both. He spoke also of what + he knew when he publicly recognised the Spirit of all good moving + in the lives of those whose opinions he believed to be erroneous. + +It is absurd to say, because he sometimes spoke of the "danger" he had +been in from "Tractarianism," that he had felt in equal degree the +"strength of attraction" towards the one school and towards the other, +and it is equally absurd to talk of his "having probed both to their +recesses." He read, and argued, and discussed the pamphlets of the +controversy--the "replies," Mr. Brooke says, with more truth probably +than he thought of in using the word--like other undergraduates who +took interest in what was going on, and thought themselves fit to +choose their side. With his tutor and friend, Mr. Churton, he read +Taylor's _Ancient Christianity_, carefully looking out the passages +from the Fathers. "I am reading the early Church history with +Golightly," he says, "which is a very great advantage, as he has a fund +of general information and is a close reader." But we must doubt +whether this involved "probing to the recesses" the "Tractarian" side +of the question. And we distrust the depth and the judgment, and the +impartiality also of a man who is said to have read Newman's sermons +continually with delight to the day of his death, and by whom no book +was more carefully studied and more highly honoured than _The Christian +Year_, and who yet to the last could see nothing better in the Church +movement as a whole than, according to the vulgar view of it, a revival +of forms partly useful, partly hurtful It seems to us the great +misfortune of his life, and one which exercised its evil influence on +him to the end, that, thrown young into the narrowest and weakest of +religious schools, he found it at first so congenial to his vehement +temperament, that he took so kindly to certain of its more unnatural +and ungenerous ways, and thus was cut off from the larger and healthier +influences of the society round him. Those were days when older men +than he took their side too precipitately; but he found himself +encouraged, even as an undergraduate, to dogmatise, to be positive, to +hate, to speak evil. He learnt the lesson too well. This is the +language of an undergraduate at the end of his university course;-- + + But I seem this term to have in a measure waked out of a long + trance, partly caused by my own gross inconsistencies, and partly + by the paralysing effects of this Oxford-delusion heresy, for such + it is I feel persuaded. And to know it a man must live here, and + he will see the promising and ardent men sinking one after another + in a deadly torpor, wrapped up in self-contemplation, dead to + their Redeemer, and useless to His Church, under the baneful + breath of this accursed upas tree. I say accursed, because I + believe that St. Paul would use the same language to Oxford as he + did to the Galatian Church, "I would they were even cut off which + trouble you"; accursed, because I believe that the curse of God + will fall on it He has denounced it on the Papal hereby, and he is + no respecter of persons, to punish the name and not the reality. + May He forgive me if I err, and lead me into all truth. But I do + not speak as one who has been in no clanger, and therefore cannot + speak very quietly. It is strange into what ramifications the + disbelief of external justification will extend; _we will_ make it + internal, whether it be by self-mortification, by works of + evangelical obedience, or by the sacraments, and that just at the + time when we suppose most that we are magnifying the work of the + Lord. + +Mr. Brooke rather likes to dwell, as it seems to us, in an unreal and +disproportionate way, on Mr. Robertson's sufferings, in the latter part +of his life, from the bitter and ungenerous attacks of which he was the +object. "This is the man," he says in one place, "who was afterwards at +Brighton driven into the deepest solitariness of heart, whom God +thought fit to surround with slander and misunderstanding." He was, we +doubt not, fiercely assailed by the Evangelical party, which he had +left, and which he denounced in no gentle language; he was, as we can +well believe, "constantly attacked, by some manfully, by others in an +underhand manner, and was the victim of innuendoes and slander." We +cannot, however, help thinking that Mr. Brooke unconsciously +exaggerates the solitariness and want of sympathy which went with all +this. Mr. Robertson had, and knew that he had, his ardent and +enthusiastic admirers as well as his worrying and untiring opponents. +But what we remark is this. It was the measure which he had meted out +to others, in the fierceness of his zeal for Evangelicalism, which the +Evangelicals afterwards meted out to him. They did not more talk evil +of what they knew not and had taken no real pains to understand, than +he had done of a body of men as able, as well-instructed, as +deep-thinking, as brave, as earnest as himself in their war against sin +and worldliness. The stupidity, the perverse ill-nature, the resolute +ignorance, the audacious and fanatical application of Scripture +condemnations, the reckless judging without a desire to do justice, +which he felt and complained of so bitterly when turned against +himself, he had sanctioned and largely shared in when the same party +which attacked him in the end attacked the earlier revivers of +thoughtful and earnest religion. Nor do we find that he ever expressed +regret for a vehemence of condemnation which his after-knowledge must +have shown him that he had no business to pass, because, even if he +afterwards adhered to it, he had originally passed it on utterly false +and inadequate grounds. He only became as fierce against the +Evangelicals as he had been against the followers of Mr. Newman. He +never unlearnt the habit of harsh reprobation which his Evangelical +friends had encouraged. He only transferred its full force against +themselves. + +He left Oxford and began his ministry, first at Winchester, and then at +Cheltenham, full of Evangelical _formulae_ and Evangelical narrow zeal. +It does not appear that, except as an earnest hard-working clergyman, +he was in any way distinguished from numbers of the same class, though +we are quite willing to believe that even then his preaching, in warmth +and vigour, was above the average. But as he, or his biographer, says, +he had not yet really begun to think. When he began to think, he did so +with the rapidity, the intensity, the impatient fervid vehemence which +lay all along at the bottom of his character. His Evangelical views +appear to have snapped to pieces and dissolved with a violence and +sudden abruptness entirely unaccounted for by anything which these +volumes show us. He read Carlyle; but so did many other people. He +found the religious world at Cheltenham not so pure as he had imagined +it; but this is what must have happened anywhere, and is not enough to +account for such a complete revolution of belief. He had a friend +deeply read in German philosophy and criticism who is said to have +exercised influence on him. Still, we repeat, the steps and processes +of the change from the Evangelicalism of Cheltenham to a condition, at +first, of almost absolute doubt, are very imperfectly explained:-- + + These letters were written in 1843. In the following year doubts + and questionings began to stir in his mind. He could not get rid + of them. They were forced upon him by his reading and his + intercourse with men. They grew and tortured him. His teaching in + the pulpit altered, and it became painful to him to preach. He was + reckoned of the Evangelical school, and he began to feel that his + position was becoming a false one. He felt the excellence and + earnestness, and gladly recognised the work of the nobler portion + of that party, but he felt also that he must separate from it. In + his strong reaction from its extreme tendencies, he understood + with a shock which upturned his whole inward life for a time, that + the system on which he had founded his whole faith and work could + never be received by him again. Within its pale, for him, there + was henceforward neither life, peace, nor reality. It was not, + however, till almost the end of his ministry at Cheltenham that + this became clearly manifest to him. It had been growing slowly + into a conviction. An outward blow--the sudden ruin of a + friendship which he had wrought, as he imagined, for ever into his + being--a blow from which he never afterwards wholly + recovered--accelerated the inward crisis, and the result was a + period of spiritual agony so awful that it not only shook his + health to its centre, but smote his spirit down into so profound a + darkness that of all his early faiths but one remained, "It must + be right to do right." + +This seems to have been in 1846, and in the beginning of the next year +he had already taken his new line. The explanation does not explain +much. We have no right to ask for more than his friends think fit to +tell us of this turning-point of his life. But we observe that this +deeply important passage is left with but little light and much +manifest reticence. That the crisis took place we have his own touching +and eloquent words to assure us. It left him also as firm in his +altered convictions as he had been in his old ones. What caused it, +what were its circumstances and characteristics, and what affected its +course and results, we can only guess. But it was decisive and it was +speedy. He spent a few months in Germany in the end of 1846, and in the +beginning of 1847 the Bishop of Oxford was willing to appoint him to +St. Ebbe's. But his stay there was short. Three months afterwards he +accepted the chapel at Brighton which he held till his death in August +1853. + +He was now the Robertson whom all the world knows, and the change was a +most remarkable one. It seems strictly accurate to say that he started +at once into a new man--new in all his views and tastes; new in the +singular burst of power which at once shows itself in the keen, free, +natural language of his letters and his other writings; new in the deep +concentrated earnestness of character with which he seemed to grasp his +peculiar calling and function. All the conventionalities of his old +school, which hung very thick about him even to the end of his +Cheltenham life, seem suddenly to drop off, and leave him, without a +trace remaining on his mind, in the full use and delight of his new +liberty. We cannot say that we are more inclined to agree with him in +his later stage than in his earlier. And the rapid transformation of a +most dogmatic and zealous Evangelical into an equally positive and +enthusiastic "Broad Churchman" does not seem a natural or healthy +process, and suggests impatience and self-confidence more than +self-command and depth. But we get, without doubt, to a real man--a man +whose words have a meaning, and stand for real things; whose language +no longer echoes the pale dreary commonplaces of a school, but reveals +thoughts which he has thought for himself, and the power of being able +"to speak as he will." His mind seems to expand, almost at a bound, to +all the manifold variety of interests of which the world is full. His +letters on his own doings, on the books and subjects of the day, on the +remarks or the circumstances of his friends, his criticism, his satire, +his controversial or friendly discussions, are full of energy, +versatility, refinement, boldness, and strength; and his remarkable +power of clear, picturesque, expressive diction, not unworthy of our +foremost masters of English, appears all at once, as it were, full +grown. It is difficult to believe, as we read the later portions of his +life, that we are reading about the same man who appeared, so short a +time before, at the beginning, to promise at best to turn into a +popular Evangelical preacher, above the average, perhaps, in taste and +power, but not above the average in freedom from cramping and sour +prejudices. + +Mr. Robertson had hold of some great truths, and he applied them, both +in his own thoughts and self-development and in his popular teaching, +with great force. He realised two things with a depth and intensity +which give an awful life and power to all he said about religion. He +realised with singular and pervading keenness that which a greater man +than he speaks of as the first and the great discovery of the awakened +soul--" the thought of two, and two only, supreme and luminously +self-evident beings, himself and the Creator." "Alone with God," +expresses the feeling which calmed his own anxieties and animated his +religious appeals to others. And he realised with equal earnestness the +great truth which is spoken of by Mr. Brooke, though in language which +to us has an unpleasant sound, in the following extract: + + Yet, notwithstanding all this--which men called while he lived, + and now when he is dead will call, want of a clear and + well-defined system of theology--he had a fixed basis for his + teaching. It was the Divine-human Life of Christ. It is the fourth + principle mentioned in his letter, "that belief in the human + character of Christ must be antecedent to belief in His divine + origin." He felt that an historical Christianity was absolutely + essential; that only through a visible life of the Divines in the + flesh could God become intelligible to men; that Christ was God's + idea of our nature realised; that only when we fall back on the + glorious portrait of what has been, ran we be delivered from + despair of Humanity; that in Christ "all the blood of all the + nations ran," and all the powers of man were redeemed. Therefore + he grasped as the highest truth, on which to rest life and + thought, the reality expressed in the words, "the Word was made + Flesh." The Incarnation was to him the centre of all history, the + blossoming of Humanity. The Life which followed the Incarnation + was the explanation of the Life of God, and the only solution of + the problem of the Life of man. He did not speak much of loving + Christ; his love was fitly mingled with that veneration which + makes love perfect; his voice was solemn, and he paused before he + spoke His name in common talk; for what that name meant had become + the central thought of his intellect and the deepest realisation + of his spirit. He had spent a world of study, of reverent + meditation, of adoring contemplation, on the Gospel history. + Nothing comes forward more frequently in his letters than the way + in which he had entered into the human life of Christ. To that + everything is referred--by that everything is explained. + +In bringing home these great truths to the feelings of those who had +lived insensible to them lay the chief value of his preaching. He +awakened men to believe that there was freshness and reality in things +which they had by use become dulled to. There are no doubt minds which +rise to the truth most naturally and freely without the intervention of +dogmatic expressions, and to these such expressions, as they are a +limit and a warning, are also felt as a clog. Mr. Robertson's early +experience had made him suspicious and irritable about dogma as such; +and he prided himself on being able to dispense with it, while at the +same time preserving the principle and inner truth which it was +intended to convey. But in his ostentatious contempt of dogmatic +precision and exactness, none but those who have not thought about the +matter will see any proof of his strength or wisdom. Dogma, accurate, +subtle, scientific, does not prevent a mind of the first order from +breathing freshness of feeling, grandeur, originality, and the sense of +reality, into the exposition of the truth which it represents. It is no +fetter except to those minds which in their impulsiveness, their +self-confidence, and their want of adequate grasp and sustained force, +most need its salutary restraint. And no man has a right, however +eloquent and impressive his speech may be, to talk against dogma till +he shows that he does not confound accuracy of statement with +conventional formalism. Mr. Robertson lays down the law pretty +confidently about the blunders of everybody about him--Tractarian, +Evangelical, Dissenter, Romanist, and Rationalist. We must say that the +impression of every page of his letters is, that clear and "intuitive" +as he was, he had not always understood what he condemned. He was +especially satisfied with a view of Baptism which he thought rose above +both extremes and took in the truth of both while it avoided their +errors. But is it too much to say that a man who, not in the heat of +rhetoric, but when preparing candidates for Confirmation, and piquing +himself on his freedom from all prejudice, deliberately describes the +common Church view of Baptism as implying a "magical" change, and +actually illustrates what he means by the stories of magical changes in +the _Arabian Nights_--who knowing, or able to read, all that has been +said by divines on the subject from the days of Augustine, yet commits +himself to the assertion that this is in fact what they hold and +teach--is it too much to say that such a man, whatever may be his other +gifts, has forfeited all claim to be considered capable of writing and +expressing himself with accuracy, truth, and distinctness on +theological questions? And if theological questions are to be dealt +with, ought they not to be dealt with accurately, and not loosely? + +But we have lingered too long over these volumes. They are very +instructive, sometimes very elevating, almost always very touching. The +life which they describe greatly wanted discipline, self-restraint, and +the wise and manly fear of overrating one's own novelties. But we see +in it a life consecrated to duty, fulfilled with much pain and +self-sacrifice, and adorned by warm and deep affections, by vigour and +refinement of thought, and earnest love for truth and purity. No one +can help feeling his profound and awful sense of things unseen, though +in the philosophy by which he sought to connect things seen and things +unseen, we cannot say that we can have much confidence. We have only +one concluding remark to make, and that is not on him but on his +biographer. An exaggerated tone, as we have said, seems to us to +pervade the book. There is what seems to us an unhealthy attempt to +create in the reader an impression of the exceptional severity of the +sufferings of Mr. Robertson's life, of his loneliness, of his +persecutions. But in this point much may fairly be pardoned to the +affection of a friend. What, however, we can less excuse is the want of +good feeling with which Mr. Brooke, in his account of Mr. Robertson's +last days, allows himself to give an _ex parte_, account of a dispute +between Mr. Robertson and the Vicar of Brighton, about the appointment +of a curate, and not simply to insinuate, but distinctly declare that +this dispute with its result was the fatal stroke which, in his state +of ill-health, hastened his death. We say nothing about the rights of +the story, for we never heard anything of them but what Mr. Brooke +tells us. But there is an appearance of vindictiveness in putting it on +record with this particular aspect which nothing in the story itself +seems to us to justify. In describing Mr. Robertson's departure from +Cheltenham, Mr. Brooke has plainly thought right to use much reticence. +He would have done well to have used the same reticence about these +quarrels at Brighton. + + + + +XVI + +LIFE OF BARON BUNSEN[19] + + + [19] + _A Memoir of Baron Bunsen_. By his Widow, Baroness Bunsen. _Saturday + Review_, 2nd May 1868. + +Bunsen was really one of those persons, more common two centuries ago +than now, who could belong as much to an adopted country as to that in +which they were born and educated. A German of the Germans, he yet +succeeded in also making himself at home in England, in appreciating +English interests, in assimilating English thought and traditions, and +exercising an important influence at a critical time on one extremely +important side of English life and opinion. He was less felicitous in +allying the German with the Englishman, perhaps from personal +peculiarities of impatience, self-assertion, and haste, than one who +has since trodden in his steps and realised more completely and more +splendidly some of the great designs which floated before his mind. But +few foreigners have gained more fairly, by work and by sympathy, the +_droit de cité_ in England than Bunsen. + +It is a great pity that books must be so long and so bulky, and though +Bunsen's life was a very full and active one in all matters of +intellectual interest, and in some of practical interest also, we +cannot help thinking that his biography would have gained by greater +exercise of self-denial on the part of his biographer. It is altogether +too prolix, and the distinction is not sufficiently observed between +what is interesting simply to the Bunsen family and their friends, and +what is interesting to the public. One of the points in which +biographers, and the present author among the number, make mistakes, is +in their use of letters. They never know when to stop in giving +correspondence. If we had only one or two letters of a remarkable map, +they would be worth printing, even if they were very much like other +people's letters. But when we have bundles and letter-books without end +to select from, selection, in a work professedly biographical, becomes +advisable. We want types and specimens of a man's letters; and when the +specimen has been given, we want no more, unless what is given is for +its own sake remarkable. A great number of Bunsen's early letters are +printed. Some of them are of much interest, showing how early the germs +were formed of ideas and plans which occupied his life, and what were +the influences by which he was surrounded, and how he comported himself +in regard to them. But many more of these letters are what any young +man of thought and of an affectionate nature might have written; and we +do not want to have it shown us, over and over again, merely that +Bunsen was thoughtful and affectionate. A wise and severe economy in +this matter would have produced at least the same effect, at much less +cost to the reader. + +Bunsen was born in 1791, at Corbach, in the little principality of +Waldeck, and grew up under the severe and simple training of a frugal +German household, and with a solid and vigorous German education. He +became in time Heyne's pupil at Göttingen, and very early showed the +qualities which distinguished him in his after life--restless eagerness +after knowledge and vast powers of labour, combined with large and +ambitious, and sometimes vague, ideas, and with depth and fervour of +religious sentiment. He entered on life when the reaction against the +cold rationalistic theories of the age before him was stimulated by the +excitement of the war of liberation; and in his deep and supreme +interest in the Bible he kept to the last the stamp which he then +received. More interesting than the recollections of a distinguished +man's youth by his friends after he has become distinguished--which are +seldom quite natural and not always trustworthy--are the contemporary +records of the impressions made on _him_ in his youth by those who were +distinguished men when he was young. In some of Bunsen's letters we +have such impressions. Thus he writes of Heyne in 1813:-- + + Poor and lonely did I arrive in this place [Göttingen]. Heyne + received me, guided me, bore with me, encouraged me, showed me in + himself the example of a high and noble energy, and indefatigable + activity in a calling which was not that to which his merit + entitled him. He might have superintended and administered and + maintained an entire kingdom without more effort and with yet + greater efficiency than the University for which he lived; he was + too great for a mere philologer, and in general for a professor of + mere learning in the age into which he was cast, and he was more + distinguished in every other way than in this.... And what has he + established or founded at the cost of this exertion of faculties? + Learning annihilates itself, and the most perfect is the first + submerged; for the next age scales with ease the height which cost + the preceding the full vigour of life. Yet two things remain of + him and will not perish--the one, the tribute left by his free + spirit to the finest productions of the human mind; and what he + felt, thought, and has immortalised in many men of excellence gone + before. Read his explanations of Tischbein's engravings from + Homer, his last preface to Virgil, and especially his oration on + the death of Müller, and you will understand what I mean. I speak + not of his political instinct, made evident in his survey of the + public and private life of the ancients. The other memorial which + will subsist of him, more warm in life than the first, is the + remembrance of his generosity, to which numbers owe a deep + obligation. + +And of Schelling, about the same time, whom he had just seen in Munich:-- + + Schelling before all must be mentioned as having received me well, + after his fashion, giving me frequent occasions of becoming + acquainted with his philosophical views and judgments, in his own + original and peculiar manner. His mode of disputation is rough and + angular; his peremptoriness and his paradoxes terrible. Once he + undertook to explain animal magnetism, and for this purpose to + give an idea of Time, from which resulted that all is present and + in existence--the Present as existing in the actual moment; the + Future, as existing in a future moment. When I demanded the proof, + he referred me to the word _is_, which applies to existence, in + the sentence that "this _is_ future." Seckendorf, who was present + (with him I have become closely acquainted, to my great + satisfaction), attempted to draw attention to the confounding the + subjective (i.e. him who pronounces that sentence) with the + objective; or, rather, to point out a simple grammatical + misunderstanding--in short, declared the position impossible. + "Well," replied Schelling drily, "you have not understood me." Two + Professors (his worshippers), who were present, had meanwhile + endeavoured by their exclamations, "Only observe, all _is_, all + _exists_" (to which the wife of Schelling, a clever woman, + assented), to help me into conviction; and a vehement beating the + air--for arguing and holding fast by any firm point were out of + the question--would have arisen, if I had not contrived to escape + by giving a playful turn to the conversation. I am perfectly aware + that Schelling _could_ have expressed and carried through his real + opinion far better--i.e. rationally. I tell the anecdote merely + to give an idea of his manner in conversation. + +At Göttingen he was one of a remarkable set, comprising Lachmann, +Lücke, Brandis, and some others, thought as much of at the time as +their friends, but who failed to make their way to the front ranks of +the world. Like others of his countrymen, Bunsen began to find "that +the world's destinies were not without their effect on him," and to +feel dissatisfied with the comparatively narrow sphere of even German +learning. The thought grew, and took possession of him, of "bringing +over, into his knowledge and into his fatherland, the solemn and +distant East," and to "draw the East into the study of the entire +course of humanity (particularly of European, and more especially of +Teutonic humanity)," making Germany the "central point of this study." +Vast plans of philological and historical study, involving, as the only +means then possible of carrying them out, schemes of wide travel and +long sojourn in the East, opened on him. Indian and Persian literature, +the instinctive certainty of its connection with the languages and +thought of the West, and the imperfection of means of study in Europe, +drew him, as many more were drawn at the time, to seek the knowledge +which they wanted in foreign and distant lands. With Bunsen, this wide +and combined study of philology, history, and philosophy, which has +formed one of the characteristic pursuits of our time, was from the +first connected with the study of the Bible as its central point. In +1815 came a decisive turning-point in his life--his acquaintance, and +the beginning of his close connection, with Niebuhr, at Berlin; and +from this time he felt himself a Prussian. "That State in Northern +Germany," he writes to Brandis in 1815, "which gladly receives every +German, from wheresoever he may come, and considers every one thus +entering as a citizen born, is _the true Germany_":-- + + That such a State [he proceeds, in the true Bismarckian spirit] + should prove inconvenient to others of inferior importance, which + persist in continuing their isolated existence, regardless of the + will of Providence and of the general good, is of no consequence + whatever; nor even does it matter that, in its present management, + there are defects and imperfections.... We intend to be in Berlin + in three weeks; and there (in Prussia) am I resolved to fix my + destinies. + +After reading Persian for a short time in Paris with De Sacy, and after +the failure of a plan of travel with Mr. Astor of New York, Bunsen +joined Niebuhr at Florence in the end of 1816, and went on with him to +Rome, where Niebuhr was Prussian envoy. There, enjoying Niebuhr's +society, "equally sole in his kind with Rome," he took up his abode, +and plunged into study. He gave up his plans of Oriental travel, +finding he could do all that he wanted without them. Too much a +student, as he writes to a friend, to think of marrying, which he could +not do "without impairing his whole scheme of mental development," he +nevertheless found his fate in an English lady, Miss Waddington, who +became his wife. And, finally, when the health of his friend Brandis, +Niebuhr's secretary in the Prussian Legation, broke down, Bunsen took +his place, and entered on that combined path of study and diplomacy in +which he continued for the greater part of his life. + +It may be questioned whether Bunsen's career answered altogether +successfully to what he proposed to himself, or was in fact all that +his friends and he himself thought it; but it was eminently one in +which from the first he had laid down for himself a plan of life which +he tenaciously followed through many changes and varieties of work, +without ever losing sight of the purpose with which he began. He piqued +himself on having early seen that a man ought to have an object to +which to devote his whole life--"be it a dictionary like Johnson's or a +history like Gibbon's"--and on having discerned and chosen his own +object. And at an early time of his life in Rome he draws an outline of +thought and inquiry, destined to break off into many different labours, +in very much the same language in which he might have described it in +the last year of his life:-- + + _The consciousness of God in the mind of man, and that which in + and through that consciousness He has accomplished, especially in + language and religion_, this was from the earliest time before my + mind. After having awhile fancied to attain my point, sometimes + here, sometimes there, at length (it was in the Christmas holidays + of 1812, after having gained the prize in November) I made a + general and comprehensive plan. I wished to go through and + represent heathen antiquity, in its principal phases, in three + great periods of the world's history, according to its languages, + its religious conceptions, and its political institutions; first + of all in the East, where the earliest expressions in each are + highly remarkable, although little known; then in the second great + epoch, among the Greeks and Romans; thirdly, among the Teutonic + nations, who put an end to the Roman Empire. + + At first I thought of Christianity only as something which every + one, like the mother tongue, knows intuitively, and therefore not + as the object of a peculiar study. But in January 1816, when I for + the last time took into consideration all that belonged to my + plan, and wrote it down, I arrived at this conclusion, that as God + had caused the conception of Himself to be developed in the mind + of man in a twofold manner, the one through revelation to the + Jewish people through their patriarchs, the other through reason + in the heathen; so also must the inquiry and representation of + this development be twofold; and as God had kept these two ways + for a length of time independent and separate, so should we, in + the course of the examination, separate knowledge from man, and + his development from the doctrine of revelation and faith, firmly + trusting that God in the end would bring about the union of both. + This is now also my firm conviction, that we must not mix them or + bring them together forcibly, as many have done with well-meaning + zeal but unclear views, and as many in Germany with impure designs + are still doing. + +The design had its interruptions, both intellectual and practical. The +plan was an ambitious one, too ambitious for Bunsen's time and powers, +or even probably for our own more advanced stage of knowledge; and +Bunsen ever found it hard to resist the attractions of a new object of +interest, and did not always exhaust it, though he seldom touched +anything without throwing light on it. Thus he was drawn by +circumstances to devote a good deal of time, more than he intended, to +the mere antiquarianism of Rome. By and by he found himself succeeding +Niebuhr as the diplomatic representative of Prussia at Rome. And his +attempt to meet the needs of his own strong devotional feelings by +giving more warmth and interest to the German services at the embassy, +"the congregation on the Capitoline Hill," led him, step by step, to +those wider schemes for liturgical reform which influenced so +importantly the course of his fortunes. They brought him, a young and +unknown man, with little more than Niebuhr's good word, into direct and +confidential communication with the King of Prussia, who was then +intent on plans of the same kind, and who recognised in Bunsen, after +some preliminary jealousy and misgivings, the man most fitted to assist +in carrying them out. But though Bunsen, who started with the resolve +of being both a student and a scholar, was driven, as he thought +against his will, into paths which led him deeper and deeper into +public life and diplomacy, his early plans were never laid aside even +under the stress of official employment. Perhaps it may be difficult to +strike the balance of what they lost or gained by it. + +The account of his life at Rome contains much that is interesting. +There is the curious mixture of sympathy and antipathy in Bunsen's mind +for the place itself; the antipathy of a German, a Protestant, and a +free inquirer, for the Roman, the old Catholic, the narrow, timid, +traditional spirit which pervaded everything in the great seat of +clerical and Papal government; and the sympathy, scarcely less intense, +not merely, or in the first place, for the classical aspects of Rome, +but for its religious character, as still the central point of +Christendom, full of the memorials and the savour of the early days of +Christianity, mingling with what its many centuries of history have +added to them; and for all that aroused the interest and touched the +mind of one deeply busy with two great religious problems--the best +forms for Christian worship, and the restoration, if possible, of some +organisation and authority in Protestant Germany. For a long time +Bunsen, like his master Niebuhr, was on the best terms with Cardinals, +Monsignori, and Popes. The Roman services were no objects to him of +abhorrence or indifference. He saw, in the midst of accretions, the +remains of the more primitive devotion; and the architecture, the art, +and the music, to be found only in Rome, were to him inexhaustible +sources of delight. As may be supposed, letters like Bunsen's, and the +recollections of his biographer, are full of interesting gossip; +notices of famous people, and of things that happened in Rome in the +days of the Emancipation and Reform Bills, Revolutions of Naples in +'20 and France in '30, during the twenty years, from 1818 to 1838, in +which the men of the great war and the restorations were going off the +scene, and the men of the modern days--Liberals, High Churchmen, +Ultra-montanes--were coming on. Those twenty years, of course, were not +without their changes in Bunsen's own views. The man who had come to +Rome, in position a poor and obscure student, had grown into the oracle +of a highly cultivated society, whose acquaintance was eagerly sought +by every one of importance who lived at Rome or visited it, and into +the diplomatic representative of one of the great Powers. The scholar +had come to have, not merely theories, but political and ecclesiastical +aims. The disciple of Niebuhr, who at one time had seen all things very +much as Niebuhr saw them in his sad later days of disgust at revolution +and cynical despair of liberty, had come since under the influence of +Arnold, and, as his letters to Arnold show, had taken into his own mind +much of the more generous and hopeful, though vague, teaching of that +equally fervid teacher of liberalism and of religion. These letters are +of much interest. They show the dreams and the fears and antipathies of +the time; they contain some remarkable anticipations, some equally +remarkable miscalculations, and some ideas and proposals which, with +our experience, excite our wonder that any one could have imagined them +practicable. Every one knows that Bunsen's diplomatic career at Rome +ended unfortunately. He was mixed up with the violent proceedings of +the Prussian Government in the dispute with the Archbishop of Cologne +about marriages between Protestants and Catholics, and he had the +misfortune to offend equally both his own Court and that of Rome. It is +possible that, as is urged in the biography before us, he was +sacrificed to the blunders and the enmities of powers above him. But, +for whatever reason, no clear account is given of the matter by his +biographer, though a good deal is suggested; and in the absence of +intelligible explanations the conclusion is natural that, though he may +have been ill-used, he may also have been unequal to his position. + +But his ill-success or his ill-usage at Rome was more than compensated +by the results to which it may be said to have led. Out of it +ultimately came that which gave the decisive character to Bunsen's +life--his settlement in London as Prussian Minister. On leaving Rome he +came straight to England He came full of admiration and enthusiasm to +"his Ithaca, his island fatherland," and he was flattered and delighted +by the welcome he received, and by the power which he perceived in +himself, beyond that of most foreigners, to appreciate and enjoy +everything English. He liked everything--people, country, and +institutions; even, as his biographer writes, our rooks. The zest of +his enjoyment was not diminished by his keen sense of what appear to +foreigners our characteristic defects--the want of breadth of interest +and boldness of speculative thought which accompanies so much energy in +public life and so much practical success; and he seems to have felt in +himself a more than ordinary fitness to be a connecting link between +the two nations--that he had much to teach Englishmen, and that they +were worth teaching. He thoroughly sympathised with the earnestness and +strong convictions of English religion; but he thought it lamentably +destitute of rational grounds, of largeness of idea and of critical +insight, enslaved to the letter, and afraid of inquiry. But, with all +drawbacks, his visit to England made it a very attractive place to him; +and when he was appointed by his Government Envoy to the Swiss +Confederation, with strict injunctions "to do nothing," his eyes were +oft on turned towards England. In 1840 the King of Prussia died, and +Bunsen's friend and patron, the Crown Prince, became Frederic William +IV. He resembled Bunsen in more ways than one; in his ardent religious +sentiment, in his eagerness, in his undoubting and not always +far-sighted self-confidence and self-assertion, and in a combination of +practical vagueness of view and a want of understanding men, with a +feverish imperiousness in carrying out a favourite plan. In 1841 he +sent Bunsen to England to negotiate the ill-considered and precipitate +arrangement for the Jerusalem bishopric; and on the successful +conclusion of the negotiation, Bunsen was appointed permanently to be +Prussian Minister in London. The manner of appointment was remarkable. +The King sent three names to Lord Aberdeen and the English Court, and +they selected Bunsen's. + +Thus Bunsen, who twenty-five years before had sat down a penniless +student, almost in despair at the failure of his hopes as a travelling +tutor, in Orgagna's _loggia_ at Florence, had risen, in spite of real +difficulties and opposition, to a brilliant position in active +political life; and the remarkable point is that, whether he was +ambitious or not of this kind of advancement--and it would perhaps +have been as well on his part to have implied less frequently that he +was not--he was all along, above everything, the student and the +theologian. What is even more remarkable is that, plunged into the +whirl of London public life and society, he continued still to be, more +even than the diplomatist, the student and theologian. The Prussian +Embassy during the years that he occupied it, from 1841 to 1854, was +not an idle place, and Bunsen was not a man to leave important State +business to other hands. The French Revolution, the German Revolution, +the Frankfort Assembly, the question of the revival of the Empire, the +beginnings of the Danish quarrel and of the Crimean war, all fell +within that time, and gave the Prussian Minister in such a centre as +London plenty to think of, to do, and to write about. Yet all this time +was a time of intense and unceasing activity in that field of +theological controversy in which Bunsen took such delight. The +diplomatist entrusted with the gravest affairs of a great Power in the +most critical and difficult times, and fully alive to the interest and +responsibility of his charge, also worked harder than most Professors, +and was as positive and fiery in his religious theories and antipathies +as the keenest and most dogmatic of scholastic disputants, he was busy +about Egyptian chronology, about cuneiform writing, about comparative +philology; he plunged with characteristic eagerness into English +theological war; and such books as his _Church of the Future_, and his +writings on Ignatius and Hippolytus, were not the least important of +the works which marked the progress of the struggle of opinions here. +But they represented only a very small part of the unceasing labour +that was going on in the early morning hours in Carlton House Terrace. +All this time the foundations were being laid and the materials +gathered for books of wider scope and more permanent aim, too vast for +him to accomplish even in his later years of leisure. It is an original +and instructive picture; for though we boast statesmen who still carry +on the great traditions of scholarship, and give room in their minds +for the deeper and more solemn problems of religion and philosophy, +they are not supposed to be able to carry on simultaneously their +public business and their classical or scientific studies, and at any +rate they do not attack the latter with the devouring zeal with which +Bunsen taxed the efforts of hard-driven secretaries and readers to keep +pace with his inexhaustible demands for more and more of the most +abstruse materials of knowledge. + +The end of his London diplomatic career was, like the end of his Roman +one, clouded with something like disgrace; and, like the Roman one, is +left here unexplained. But it was for his happiness, probably, that his +residence in England came to a close. He had found the poetry of his +early notions about England, political and theological at least, +gradually changing into prose. He found less and less to like, in what +at first most attracted him, in the English Church; he and it, besides +knowing one another better, were also changing. He probably increased +his sympathies for England, and returned in a measure to his old +kindness for it, by looking at it only from a distance. The labour of +his later days, as vast and indefatigable as that of his earlier days, +was devoted to his great work, which was, as it were, to popularise the +Bible and revive interest in it by a change in the method of presenting +it and commenting on it. To the last the Bible was the central point of +his philosophical as well as his religious thoughts, as it had been in +his first beginnings as a student at Gottingen and Rome. After a life +of many trials, but of unusual prosperity and enjoyment, he died in the +end of 1860. The account of his last days is a very touching one. + +We do not pretend to think Bunsen the great and consummate man that, +naturally enough, he appears to his friends. We doubt whether he can be +classed as a man in the first rank at all. We doubt whether he fully +understood his age, and yet it is certain that he was confident and +positive that he did understand it better than most men; and an undue +confidence of this kind implies considerable defects both of intellect +and character. He wanted the patient, cautious, judicial self-distrust +which his studies eminently demanded, and of which he might have seen +some examples in England. No one can read these volumes without seeing +the disproportionate power which first impressions had with him; he was +always ready to say that something, which had just happened or come +before him, was the greatest or the most complete thing of its kind. +Wonderfully active, wonderfully quick and receptive, full of +imagination and of the power of combining and constructing, and never +wearied out or dispirited, his mind took in large and grand ideas, and +developed them with enthusiasm and success, and with all the resources +of wide and varied knowledge; but the affluence and ingenuity of his +thoughts indisposed him, as it indisposes many other able men, to the +prosaic and uninteresting work of calling these thoughts into question, +and cross-examining himself upon their grounds and tenableness. He +tried too much; the multiplicity of his intellectual interests was too +much for him, and he often thought that he was explaining when he was +but weaving a wordy tissue, and "darkening counsel" as much as any of +the theological sciolists whom he denounced. People, for instance, +must, it seems to us, be very easily satisfied who find any fresh light +in the attempt, not unfrequent in his letters, to adapt the Lutheran +watchword of Justification by faith to modern ideas. He was very rapid, +and this rapidity made him hasty and precipitate; it also made him apt +to despise other men, and, what was of more consequence, the +difficulties of the subject likewise. Others did not always find it +easy to understand him; and it may fairly be questioned if he always +sufficiently asked whether he understood himself. He was generous and +large-spirited in intention, though not always so in fact. + +Doubtless so much knowledge, so much honest and unsparing toil, such +freshness and quickness of thought, have not been wasted; there will +always be much to learn from Bunsen's writings. But his main service +has been the moral one of his example; of his ardent and high-souled +industry, of his fearlessness in accepting the conclusions of his +inquiries, of his untiring faith through many changes and some +disappointments that there is a way to reconcile all the truths that +interest men--those of religion, and those of nature and history. The +sincerity and earnestness with which he attempted this are a lesson to +everybody; his success is more difficult to recognise, and it may +perhaps be allowable to wish that he had taken more exactly the measure +of the great task which he set to himself. His ambition was a high one. +He aspired to be the Luther of the new 1517 which he so often dwelt +upon, and to construct a theology which, without breaking with the +past, should show what Christianity really is, and command the faith +and fill the opening thought of the present. It can hardly be said that +he succeeded. The Church of the Future still waits its interpreter, to +make good its pretensions to throw the ignorant and mistaken Church of +the Past into the shade. + + + + +XVII + +COLERIDGE'S MEMOIR OF KEBLE[20] + + + [20] + _A Memoir of the Rev. John Keble_. By the Right Hon. Sir J.T. + Coleridge. _Saturday Review_, 20th March 1860. + +Mr. Keble has been fortunate in his biographer. There have been since +his death various attempts to appreciate a character manifestly of such +depth and interest, yet about which outsiders could find so little to +say. Professor Shairp, of St. Andrews, two or three years ago gave a +charming little sketch, full of heart and insight, and full too of +noble modesty and reverence, which deserves to be rescued from the +danger of being forgotten into which sketches are apt to fall, both on +account of its direct subject, and also for the contemporary evidence +which it contains of the impressions made on a perfectly impartial and +intelligent observer by the early events of the Oxford movement. The +brilliant Dean of Westminster, in _Macmillan's Magazine_, has +attempted, with his usual grace and kindliness, to do justice to +Keble's character, and has shown how hard he found the task. The paper +on Keble forms a pendant to a recent paper on Dean Milman. The two +papers show conspicuously the measure and range of Dr. Stanley's power; +what he can comprehend and appreciate in religious earnestness and +height, and what he cannot; in what shapes, as in Dean Milman, he can +thoroughly sympathise with it and grasp it, and where its phenomena, as +in Mr. Keble, simply perplex and baffle him, and carry him out of his +depth. + +Sir John Coleridge knew Keble probably as long and as intimately as any +one; and on the whole, he had the most entire sympathy with his +friend's spirit, even where he disagreed with his opinions. He +thoroughly understood and valued the real and living unity of a +character which mostly revealed itself to the outer world by what +seemed jerks and discordant traits. From early youth, through manhood +to old age, he had watched and tested and loved that varied play and +harmony of soul and mind, which was sometimes tender, sometimes stern, +sometimes playful, sometimes eager; abounding with flashes of real +genius, and yet always inclining by instinctive preference to things +homely and humble; but which was always sound and unselfish and +thorough, endeavouring to subject itself to the truth and will of God. +To Sir John Coleridge all this was before him habitually as a whole; he +could take it in, not by putting piece by piece together, but because +he saw it. And besides being an old and affectionate and intelligent +friend, he was also a discriminating one. In his circumstances he was +as opposite to Keble as any one could be; he was a lawyer and man of +the world, whose busy life at Westminster had little in common with the +studies or pursuits of the divine and the country parson. + +Such an informant presents a picture entirely different in kind from +the comments and criticisms of those who can judge only from Mr. +Keble's writings and religious line, or from the rare occasions in +which he took a public part. These appearances, to many who willingly +acknowledge the charm which has drawn to him the admiration and +affection of numbers externally most widely at variance with him, do +not always agree together. People delight in his poetry who hate his +theology. They cannot say too much of the tenderness, the depth, the +truth, the quick and delicate spirit of love and purity, which have +made his verses the best interpreters and soothers of modern religious +feeling; yet, in the religious system from which his poetry springs, +they find nothing but what seems to them dry, harsh, narrow, and +antiquated. He attracts and he repels; and the attraction and repulsion +are equally strong. They see one side, and he is irresistible in his +simplicity, humbleness, unworldliness, and ever considerate charity, +combined with so much keenness and freshness of thought, and such sure +and unfailing truth of feeling. They see another, and he seems to them +full of strange unreality, strained, exaggerated, morbid, bristling +with a forced yet inflexible intolerance. At one moment he seems the +very ideal of a Christian teacher, made to win the sympathy of all +hearts; the next moment a barrier rises in the shape of some unpopular +doctrine or some display of zealous severity, seeming to be a strange +contrast to all that was before, which utterly astonishes and +disappoints. Mr. Keble was very little known to the public in general, +less so even than others whose names are associated with his; and it is +evident that to the public in general he presented a strange assemblage +of incoherent and seemingly irreconcilable qualities. His mind seemed +to work and act in different directions; and the results at the end +seemed to be with wide breaks and interruptions between them. But a +book like this enables us to trace back these diverging lines to the +centre from which they spring. What seemed to be in such sharp +contradiction at the outside is seen to flow naturally from the +perfectly homogeneous and consistent character within. Many people will +of course except to the character. It is not the type likely to find +favour in an age of activity, doubt, and change. But, as it was +realised in Mr. Keble, there it is in Sir John Coleridge's pages, +perfectly real, perfectly natural, perfectly whole and uniform, with +nothing double or incongruous in it, though it unfolded itself in +various and opposite ways. And its ideal was simply that which has been +consecrated as the saintly character in the Christian Church since the +days of St. John--the deepest and most genuine love of all that was +good; the deepest and most genuine hatred of all that was believed to +be evil. + +The picture which Sir John Coleridge puts before us, though deficient +in what is striking and brilliant, is a sufficiently remarkable and +uncommon one. It is the picture of a man of high cultivation and +intellect, in whom religion was not merely something flavouring and +elevating life, not merely a great element and object of spiritual +activity, but really and unaffectedly the one absorbing interest, and +the spring of every thought and purpose. Whether people like such a +character or not, and whether or not they may think the religion wrong, +or distorted and imperfect, if they would fairly understand the writer +of the _Christian Year_ they must start from this point. He was a man +who, without a particle of the religious cant of any school, without +any self-consciousness or pretension or unnatural strain, literally +passed his clays under the quick and pervading influence, for restraint +and for stimulus, of the will and presence of God. With this his whole +soul was possessed; its power over him had not to be invoked and +stirred up; it acted spontaneously and unnoticed in him; it was +dominant in all his activity; it quenched in him aims, and even, it may +be, faculties; it continually hampered the free play of his powers and +gifts, and made him often seem, to those who had not the key, awkward, +unequal, and unintelligible. But for this awful sense of truth and +reality unseen, which dwarfed to him all personal thoughts and all +present things, he might have been a more finished writer, a more +attractive preacher, a less indifferent foster-father to his own works. +But it seemed to him a shame, in the presence of all that his thoughts +habitually dwelt with, to think of the ordinary objects of authorship, +of studying anything of this world for its own sake, of perfecting +works of art, of cultivating the subtle forces and spells of language +to give attractiveness to his writings. Abruptness, inadequacy, and +obscurity of expression were light matters, and gave him little +concern, compared with the haunting fear of unreal words. This "seeking +first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," as he understood it, +was the basis of all that he was; it was really and unaffectedly his +governing principle, the root of his affections and his antipathies, +just as to other men is the passion for scientific discovery or +political life. + +But within these limits, and jealously restrained by these conditions, +a strongly marked character, exuberant with power and life, and the +play of individual qualities, displayed itself. There were two +intellectual sides to his mind--one which made him a poet, quickness +and delicacy of observation and sympathetic interpretation, the +realising and anticipating power of deep feeling and penetrative +imagination; the other, at first sight, little related to poetry, a +hard-headed, ingenious, prosaic shrewdness and directness of common +sense, dealing practically with things as they are and on the whole, +very little curious about scientific questions and precision, +argumentative in a fashion modelled on Bishop Butler, and full of +logical resource, good and, often it must be owned, bad. It was a mind +which unfolded first under the plain, manly discipline of an +old-fashioned English country parsonage, where the unshowy piety and +strong morality and modest theology of the middle age of Anglicanism, +the school of Pearson, Bull, and Wilson, were supreme. And from this it +came under the new influences of bold and independent thought which +were beginning to stir at Oxford; influences which were at first +represented by such men as Davison, Copleston, and, above all, Whately; +influences which repelled Keble by what he saw of hardness, +shallowness, and arrogance, and still more of self-sufficiency and +intellectual display and conceit in the prevailing tone of speculation, +but which nevertheless powerfully affected him, and of which he showed +the traces to the last Sir John Coleridge is disappointing as to the +amount of light which he throws on the process which was going on in +Keble's mind during the fifteen years or so between his degree and the +_Christian Year_; but there is one touch which refers to this period. +Speaking in 1838 of Alexander Knox, and expressing dislike of his +position, "as on the top of a high hill, seeing which way different +schools tend," and "exercising a royal right of eclecticism over all," +he adds:-- + + I speak the more feelingly because I know I was myself inclined to + eclecticism at one time; and if it had not been for my father and + my brother, where I should have been now, who can say? + +But he was a man who, with a very vigorous and keen intellect, capable +of making him a formidable disputant if he had been so minded, may be +said not to have cared for his intellect. He used it at need, but he +distrusted and undervalued it as an instrument and help. Goodness was +to him the one object of desire and reverence; it was really his own +measure of what he respected and valued; and where he recognised it, +and in whatever shape, grave or gay, he cared not about seeming +consistent in somehow or other paying it homage. People who knew him +remember how, in this austere judge of heresy, burdened by the +ever-pressing conviction of the "decay" of the Church and the distress +of a time of change, tenderness, playfulness, considerateness, the +restraint of a modesty which could not but judge, yet mistrusted its +fitness, marked his ordinary intercourse. Overflowing with affection to +his friends, and showing it in all kinds of unconventional and +unexpected instances, keeping to the last a kind of youthful freshness +as if he had never yet realised that he was not a boy, and shrunk from +the formality and donnishness of grown-up life, he was the most refined +and thoughtful of gentlemen, and in the midst of the fierce party +battles of his day, with all his strong feeling of the tremendous +significance of the strife, always a courteous and considerate +opponent. Strong words he used, and used deliberately. But those were +the days when the weapons of sarcasm and personal attack were freely +handled. The leaders of the High Church movement were held up to +detestation as the Oxford Malignants, and they certainly showed +themselves fully able to give their assailants as good as they brought; +yet Mr. Keble, involved in more than one trying personal controversy, +feeling as sternly and keenly as any one about public questions, and +tried by disappointment and the break up of the strongest ties, never +lost his evenness of temper, never appeared in the arena of personal +recrimination. In all the prominent part which he took, and in the +resolute and sometimes wrathful tone in which he defended what seemed +harsh measures, he may have dropped words which to opponents seemed +severe ones, but never any which even they could call a scornful one or +a sneer. + +It was in keeping with all that he was--a mark of imperfection it may +be, yet part of the nobleness and love of reality in a man who felt so +deeply the weakness and ignorance of man--that he cared so little about +the appearances of consistency. Thus, bound as he was by principle to +show condemnation when he thought that a sacred cause was invaded, he +was always inclining to conciliate his wrath with his affectionateness, +and his severity with his consideration of circumstances and his own +mistrust of himself. He was, of all men holding strong opinions, one of +the most curiously and unexpectedly tolerant, wherever he could +contrive to invent an excuse for tolerance, or where long habitual +confidence was weighed against disturbing appearances. Sir John +Coleridge touches this in the following extract, which is +characteristic:-- + + On questions of this kind especially [University Reform], his + principles were uncompromising; if a measure offended against what + he thought honest, or violated what he thought sacred, good motives + in the framers he would not admit as palliation, nor would he + be comforted by an opinion of mine that measures mischievous + in their logical consequences were never in the result so + mischievous, or beneficial measures so beneficial, as had been + foretold. So he writes playfully to me at an earlier time:-- + + "Hurrell Froude and I took into consideration your opinion + that 'there are good men of all parties,' and agreed that it + is a bad doctrine for these days; the time being come in + which, according to John Miller, 'scoundrels must be called + scoundrels'; and, moreover, we have stigmatised the said + opinion by the name of the Coleridge Heresy. So hold it any + longer at your peril." + + I think it fair to set down these which were, in truth, formed + opinions, and not random sayings; but it would be most unfair if + one concluded from them, written and spoken in the freedom of + friendly intercourse, that there was anything sour in his spirit, + or harsh and narrow in his practice; when you discussed any of + these things with him, the discussion was pretty sure to end, not + indeed with any insincere concession of what he thought right and + true, but in consideration for individuals and depreciation of + himself. + +And the same thing comes out in the interesting letter in which the +Solicitor-General describes his last recollections of Keble:-- + + There was, I am sure, no trace of failing then to be discerned in + his apprehension, or judgment, or discourse. He was an old man who + had been very ill, who was still physically weak, and who needed + care; but he was the same Mr. Keble I had always known, and whom, + for aught that appeared, I might hope still to know for many years + to come. Little bits of his tenderness, flashes of his fun, + glimpses of his austerer side, I seem to recall, but I cannot put + them upon paper.... Once I remember walking with him just the same + short walk, from his house to Sir William's, and our conversation + fell upon Charles I., with regard to whose truth and honour I had + used some expressions in a review, which had, as I heard, + displeased him. I referred to this, and he said it was true. I + replied that I was very sorry to displease him by anything I said + or thought; but that if the Naseby letters were genuine, I could + not think that what I said was at all too strong, and that a man + could but do his best to form an honest opinion upon historical + evidence, and, if he had to speak, to express that opinion. On + this he said, with a tenderness and humility not only most + touching, but to me most embarrassing, that "It might be so; what + was he to judge of other men; he was old, and things were now + looked at very differently; that he knew he had many things to + unlearn and learn afresh; and that I must not mind what he had + said, for that in truth belief in the heroes of his youth had + become part of him." I am afraid these are my words, and not his; + and I cannot give his way of speaking, which to any one with a + heart, I think, would have been as overcoming as it was to me. + +This same carelessness about appearances seems to us to be shown in +Keble's theological position in his later years. A more logical, or a +more plausible, but a less thoroughly real man might easily have +drifted into Romanism. There was much in the circumstances round him, +in the admissions which he had made, to lead that way; and his +chivalrous readiness to take the beaten or unpopular side would help +the tendency. But he was a man who gave great weight to his instinctive +perception of what was right and wrong; and he was also a man who, when +he felt sure of his duty, did not care a straw about what the world +thought of appearances, or required as a satisfaction of seeming +consistency. In him was eminently illustrated the characteristic +strength and weakness of English religion, which naturally comes out in +that form of it which is called Anglicanism; that poor Anglicanism, the +butt and laughing-stock of all the clever and high-flying converts to +Rome, of all the clever and high-flying Liberals, and of all those poor +copyists of the first, far from clever, though very high-flying, who +now give themselves out as exclusive heirs of the great name of +Catholic; sneered at on all sides as narrow, meagre, shattered, barren; +which certainly does not always go to the bottom of questions, and is +too much given to "hunting-up" passages for _catenas_ of precedents and +authorities; but which yet has a strange, obstinate, tenacious moral +force in it; which, without being successful in formulating theories or +in solving fallacies, can pierce through pretences and shams; and which +in England seems the only shape in which intense religious faith can +unfold itself and connect itself with morality and duty, without +seeming to wear a peculiar dress of its own, and putting a barrier of +self-chosen watchwords and singularities between itself and the rest of +the nation. + +It seems to us a great advantage to truth to have a character thus +exhibited in its unstudied and living completeness, and exhibited +directly, as the impression from life was produced on those before +whose eyes it drew itself out day by day in word and act, as the +occasion presented itself. There is, no doubt, a more vivid and +effective way; one in which the Dean of Westminster is a great master, +though it is not the method which he followed in what is probably his +most perfect work, the _Life of Dr. Arnold_--the method of singling out +points, and placing them, if possible, under a concentrated light, and +in strong contrast and relief. Thus in Keble's case it is easy, and +doubtless to many observers natural and tempting, to put side by side, +with a strange mixture of perplexity and repulsion, _The Christian +Year_, and the treatise _On Eucharistical Adoration_; to compare even +in Keble's poetry, his tone on nature and human life, on the ways of +children and the thoughts of death, with that on religious error and +ecclesiastical divergences from the Anglican type; and to dwell on the +contrast between Keble bearing his great gifts with such sweetness and +modesty, and touching with such tenderness and depth the most delicate +and the purest of human feelings, and Keble as the editor of Fronde's +_Remains_, forward against Dr. Hampden, breaking off a friendship of +years with Dr. Arnold, stiff against Liberal change and indulgent to +ancient folly and error, the eulogist of patristic mysticism and Bishop +Wilson's "discipline," and busy in the ecclesiastical agitations and +legal wranglings of our later days, about Jerusalem Bishoprics and +Courts of Final Appeal and ritual details, about Gorham judgments, +_Essays and Reviews_ prosecutions, and Colenso scandals. The objection +to this method of contrast is that it does not give the whole truth. It +does not take notice that, in appreciating a man like Keble, the thing +to start from is that his ideal and model and rule of character was +neither more nor less than the old Christian one. It was simply what +was accepted as right and obvious and indisputable, not by Churchmen +only, but by all earnest believers up to our own days. Given certain +conditions of Christian faith and duty which he took for granted as +much as the ordinary laws of morality, then the man's own individual +gifts or temper or leanings displayed themselves. But when people talk +of Keble being narrow and rigid and harsh and intolerant, they ought +first to recollect that he had been brought up with the ideas common to +all whom he ever heard of or knew as religious people. All earnest +religious conviction must seem narrow to those who do not share it. It +was nothing individual or peculiar, either to him or his friends, to +have strong notions about defending what they believed that they had +received as the truth; and they were people who knew what they were +about, too, and did not take things up at random. In this he was not +different from Hooker, or Jeremy Taylor, or Bishop Butler, or Baxter, +or Wesley, or Dr. Chalmers; it may be added, that he was not different +from Dr. Arnold or Archbishop Whately. It must not be forgotten that +till of late years there was always supposed, rightly or wrongly, to be +such a thing as false doctrine, and that intolerance of it, within the +limits of common justice, was always held as much part of the Christian +character as devotion and charity. Men differed widely as to what was +false doctrine, but they did not differ much as to there being such a +thing, and as to what was to be thought of it. Keble, like other people +of his time, took up his system, and really, considering that the ideal +which he honestly and earnestly aimed at was the complete system of the +Catholic Church, it is an abuse of words to call it, whatever else it +may be called, a narrow system. There may be a wider system still, in +the future; but it is at least premature to say that a man is narrow +because he accepts in good faith the great traditional ideas and +doctrines of the Christian Church; for of everything that can yet be +called a religious system, in the sense commonly understood, as an +embodiment of definite historical revelation, it is not easy to +conceive a less narrow one. And, accepting it as the truth, it was +dearer to him than life. That he was sensitively alive to whatever +threatened or opposed it, and was ready to start up like a soldier, +ready to do battle against any odds and to risk any unpopularity or +misconstruction, was only the sure and natural result of that deep love +and loyalty and thorough soundness of heart with which he loved his +friends, but what he believed to be truth and God's will better than +his friends. But it is idle and shallow to confuse the real narrowness +which springs from a harsh temper or a cramped and self-sufficient +intellect, and which is quite compatible with the widest theoretical +latitude, and the inevitable appearance of narrowness and severity +which must always be one side which a man of strong convictions and +earnest purpose turns to those whose strong convictions and earnest +purpose are opposite to his. + +Mr. Keble, saintly as was his character, if ever there was such a +character, belonged, as we all do, to his day and generation. The +aspect of things and the thoughts of men change; enlarging, we are +always apt to think, but perhaps really also contracting in some +directions where they once were larger. In Mr. Keble, the service which +he rendered to his time consisted, not merely, as it is sometimes +thought, in soothing and refining it, but in bracing it. He was the +preacher and example of manly hardness, simplicity, purpose in the +religious character. It may be that his hatred of evil--of hollowness, +impurity, self-will, conceit, ostentation--was greater than was always +his perception of various and mingled good, or his comprehension of +those middle things and states which are so much before us now. But the +service cannot be overrated, to all parties, of the protest which his +life and all his words were against dangers which were threatening all +parties, and not least the Liberal party--the danger of shallowness and +superficial flippancy; the danger of showy sentiment and insincerity, +of worldly indifference to high duties and calls. With the one great +exception of Arnold--Keble's once sympathetic friend, though afterwards +parted from him--the religious Liberals of our time have little reason +to look back with satisfaction to the leaders, able and vigorous as +some of them were, who represented their cause then. They owe to Keble, +as much as do those who are more identified with his theology, the +inestimable service of having interpreted religion by a genuine life, +corresponding in its thoroughness and unsparing, unpretending +devotedness, as well as in its subtle vividness of feeling, to the +great object which religion professes to contemplate. + + + + +XVIII + +MAURICE'S THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS[21] + + + [21] + _Theological Essays_. By F.D. Maurice. _Guardian_, 7th September 1853. + +The purpose of this volume of essays is to consider the views +entertained by Unitarians of what are looked upon by Christians +generally as fundamental truths; to examine what force there is in +Unitarian objections, and what mistakes are involved in the popular +notions and representations of those fundamental truths; and so, +without entering into controversy, for which Mr. Maurice declares +himself entirely indisposed, and in the utility of which he entirely +disbelieves, to open the way for a deeper and truer, and more serious +review, by all parties, of either the differences or the misunderstandings +which keep them asunder. It is a work, the writer considers, as +important as any which he has undertaken: "No labour I have been +engaged in has occupied me so much, or interested me more deeply;" +and with his estimate of his subject we are not disposed to disagree. + +We always rise from the perusal of one of Mr. Maurice's books with the +feeling that he has shown us one great excellence, and taught us one +great lesson. He has shown us an example of serious love of truth, and +an earnest sense of its importance, and of his own responsibility in +speaking of it. Most readers, whatever else they may think, must have +their feeling of the wide and living interest of a theological or moral +subject quickened by Mr. Maurice's thoughts on it. This is the +excellence. The lesson is this--to look into the meaning of our +familiar words, and to try to use them with a real meaning. Not that +Mr. Maurice always shows us how; but it is difficult for conscience to +escape being continually reminded of the duty. And it is in these two +things that the value of Mr. Maurice's writings mainly consists. The +enforcing of them has been, to our mind, his chief "mission," and his +most valuable contribution to the needs of his generation. + +In this volume they are exhibited, as in his former ones; and in this +he shows also, as he has shown before, his earnest desire to find a way +whereby, without compromising truth or surrendering sacred convictions +of the heart, serious men of very different sides might be glad to find +themselves in some points mistaken, in order that they might find +themselves at one. This philosophy, not of comprehension but of +conciliation, the craving after which has awakened in the Church, +whenever mental energy has been quickened, the philosophy in which +Clement of Alexandria and Origin, and, we may add, St. Augustine, made +many earnest essays, is certainly no unworthy aim for the theologian of +our days. He would, indeed, deserve largely of the Church who should +show us a solid and safe way to it. + +But while we are far from denouncing or suspecting the wish or the +design, we are bound to watch jealously and criticise narrowly the +execution. For we all know what such plans have come to before now. And +it is for the interest of all serious and earnest people on all sides, +that there should be no needless and additional confusion introduced +into theology--such confusion as is but too likely to follow, when a +design of conciliation, with the aim of which so many, for good reasons +or bad ones, are sure to sympathise, is carried out by hands that are +not equal to it. With the fullest sense of the serious truthfulness of +those who differ from us, of the real force of many of their objections +and criticisms on our proceedings, our friends, and our ideas, it is +far better to hold our peace, than from impatience at what we feel to +be the vulnerable point of our own side, to rush into explanations +before we are sure of our power adequately to explain. + +And to this charge it seems to us that Mr. Maurice is open. There is +sense and manliness in his disclaimer of proselytism; and there is a +meaning in which we can agree with his account of truth. "If I could +persuade all Dissenters," he says, "to become members of my Church +to-morrow, I should be very sorry to do it. I believe the chances are +they might leave it the next day. I do not wish to make them think as I +think. But I want that they and I should be what we pretend to be, and +then I doubt not we should find that there is a common ground for us +all far beneath our thinkings. For truth I hold not to be that which +every man troweth, but to be that which lies at the bottom of all men's +trowings, that in which those trowings have their only meeting-point." +He would make as clear as can be that deep substructure, and leave the +sight of it to work its natural effect on the honest heart. A noble +aim; but surely requiring, if anything can, the clear eye, the steady +hand, the heart as calm as earnest. Surely a work in which the greatest +exactness and precision, as well as largeness of thought, would not be +too much. For if we but take away the "trowings" without coming down to +the central foundation, or lose ourselves, and mistake a new "trowing" +of our own for it, it is hardly a sufficient degree of blame to say +that we have done no good. + +And in these qualities of exactness and precision it does seem to us +that Mr. Maurice is, for his purpose, fatally deficient. His criticisms +are often acute, his thrusts on each side often very home ones, and +but too full of truth; his suggestions often full of thought and +instruction; his balancings and contrasts of errors and truths, if +sometimes too artificial, yet generally striking. But when we come to +seek for the reconciling truth, which one side has overlaid and +distorted, and the other ignorantly shrunk back from, but which, when +placed in its real light and fairly seen, is to attract the love and +homage of both, we seem--not to grasp a shadow--Mr. Maurice is too +earnest and real a believer for that--but to be very much where we +were, except that a cloud of words surrounds us. His positive +statements seem like a running protest against being obliged to commit +himself and come to the point; like a continual assertion of the +hopelessness and uselessness of a definite form of speaking about the +matter in hand. Take, for instance, the following short statement:-- + + "My object," he says, speaking of the words which he has taken as + the subject of his essays, "has been to examine the language with + which we are most familiar, and which has been open to most + objections, especially from Unitarians. Respecting the Conception + I have been purposely silent; not because I have any doubt about + that article, or am indifferent to it, but because I believe the + word '_miraculous_,' which we _ordinarily connect with it, suggests + an untrue meaning; because I think the truth is conveyed to us + most safely in the simple language of the Evangelists_; and because + that language taken in connection with the rest of their story, + offers itself, I suspect, to a majority of those who have taken + in the idea of an Incarnation, as the _only natural and rational_ + account of the method by which the eternal Son of God could have + taken human flesh." + +Now, would not Mr. Maurice have done better if he had enounced the +definite meaning, or shade of meaning, which he considers short of, or +different from, our _ordinary_ meaning of _miraculous_, as applied to +this subject, and yet the same as that suggested by the Gospel account? +We have no doubt what Mr. Maurice does believe on this sacred subject. +But we are puzzled by what he means to disavow, as an "_untrue +meaning_" of the word _miraculous_, as applied to what he believes. +And the Unitarians whom he addresses must, we think, be puzzled too. + +We have quoted this passage because it is a short one, and therefore a +convenient one for a short notice like this. But the same tormenting +indistinctness pervades the attempts generally to get a meaning or a +position, which shall be substantially and in its living force the same +as the popular and orthodox article, yet convict it of confusion or +formalism; and which shall give to the Unitarian what he aims at by his +negation of the popular article, without leaving him any longer a +reason for denying it. The essay on Inspiration is an instance of this. +Mr. Maurice says very truly, that it is necessary to face the fact that +important questions are asked on the subject, very widely, and by +serious people; that popular notions are loose and vague about it; that +it is a dangerous thing to take refuge in a hard theory, if it is an +inconsistent and inadequate one; that if doubts do grow up, they are +hardly to be driven away by assertions. He accepts the challenge to +state his own view of Inspiration, and devotes many pages to doing so. +In these page's are many true and striking things. So far as we +understand, there is not a statement that we should contradict. But we +have searched in vain for a passage which might give, in Mr. Maurice's +words, a distinct answer to the question of friend or opponent, What do +you mean by the "Inspiration of the Bible?" Mr. Maurice tells us a most +important truth--that that same Great Person by whose "holy +inspiration" all true Christians still hope to be taught, inspired the +prophets. He protests against making it necessary to say that there is +a _generic_ difference between one kind of Inspiration and the other, +or "setting up the Bible as a book which encloses all that may be +lawfully called Inspiration." He looks on the Bible as a link--a great +one, yet a link, joining on to what is before and what comes after--in +God's method of teaching man His truth. He cares little about phrases +like "verbal inspiration" and "plenary inspiration"--"forms of speech +which are pretty toys for those that have leisure to play with them; +and if they are not made so hard as to do mischief, the use of them +should not be checked. But they do not belong to business." He bids us, +instead, give men "the Book of Life," and "have courage to tell them +that there is a Spirit with them who will guide them into all truth." +Great and salutary lessons. But we must say that they have been long in +the world, and, it must be said, are as liable to be misunderstood as +any other "popular" notions on the subject. If there is nothing more to +say on the subject--if it is one where, though we see and are sure of a +truth, yet we must confess it to be behind a veil, as yet indistinct +and not to be grasped, let us manfully say so, and wait till God reveal +even this unto us. But it is not a wise or a right course to raise +expectations of being able to say something, not perhaps new, but +satisfactory, when the questions which are really being asked, which +are the professed occasion of the answer, remain, in their Intellectual +difficulty, entirely unresolved. Mr. Maurice is no trifler; when he +throws hard words about,--when at the close of this essay he paints to +himself the disappointment of some "Unitarian listener, who had hoped +that Mr. Maurice was going to join him in cursing his enemies, and +found that he had blessed them these three times,"--he ought to +consider whether the result has not been, and very naturally, to leave +both parties more convinced than before of the hollowness of all +professions to enter into, and give weight to, the difficulties and the +claims of opposite sides. + +Mr. Maurice has not done justice, as it seems to us, in this case, to +the difficulty of the Unitarian. In other cases he makes free with the +common belief of Christendom, and claims sacrifices which are as +needless as they are unwarrantable. If there is a belief rooted in the +minds of Christians, it is that of a future judgment. If there is an +expectation which Scripture and the Creed sanction in the plainest +words, it is that this present world is to have an end, and that then, +a time now future, Christ will judge quick and dead. Say as much as can +be said of the difficulty of conceiving such a thing, it really amounts +to no more than the difficulty of conceiving what will happen, and how +we shall be dealt with, when this familiar world passes away. And this +belief in a "_final_ judgment, _unlike any other that has ever been in +the world_," Mr. Maurice would have us regard as a misinterpretation of +Bible and Creed--a "dream" which St. Paul would never "allow us" to +entertain, but would "compel" us instead "to look upon everyone of what +we rightly call 'God's judgments' as _essentially resembling it in kind +and principle_." "Our eagerness to deny this," he continues, "to make +out an altogether peculiar and unprecedented judgment at the end of the +world, has obliged us first _to practise the most violent outrages upon +the language of Scripture_, insisting that words cannot really mean +what, according to all ordinary rules of construction, they must mean." +It really must be said that the "outrage," if so it is to be called, is +not on the side of the popular belief. And why does this belief seem +untenable to Mr. Maurice? Because it seems inconsistent to him with a +truth which he states and enforces with no less earnestness than +reason, that Christ is every moment judging us--that His tribunal is +one before which we in our inmost "being are standing now--and that the +time will come when we shall know that it is so, and when all that has +concealed the Judge from us shall be taken away." Doubtless Christ is +always with us--always seeing us--always judging us. Doubtless +"everywhere" in Scripture the idea is kept before us of judgment in its +fullest, largest, most natural sense, as "importing" not merely passing +sentence, and awarding reward or penalty, but "discrimination and +discovery. Everywhere that discrimination or discovery is supposed to +be exercised over the man himself, over his internal character, over +his meaning and will." Granted, also, that men have, in their attempts +to figure to themselves the "great assize," sometimes made strange +work, and shown how carnal their thoughts are, both in what they +expected, and in the influence they allowed it to have over them. But +what of all this? Correct these gross ideas, but leave the words of +Scripture in their literal meaning, and do not say that all those who +receive them as the announcement of what is to be, under conditions now +inconceivable to man, _must_ understand "the substitution of a mere +external trial or examination" for the inward and daily trial of our +hearts, as a mere display of "earthly pomp and ceremonial"--a +resumption by Christ "of earthly conditions"; or that, because they +believe that at "some distant unknown period they shall be brought into +the presence of One who is now" not "far from them," but out of +sight--how, or in what manner they know not--therefore they _must_ +suppose that He "is not now fulfilling the office of a Judge, whatever +else may be committed to Him." + +Mr. Maurice is aiming at a high object. He would reconcile the old and +the new. He would disencumber what is popular of what is vulgar, +confused, sectarian, and preserve and illustrate it by disencumbering +it. He calls on us not to be afraid of the depths and heights, the +freedom and largeness, the "spirit and the truth," of our own theology. +It is a warning and a call which every age wants. We sympathise with +his aim, with much of his positive teaching, with some of his aversions +and some of his fears. We do not respect him the less for not being +afraid of being called hard names. But certainly such a writer has +need, in no common degree, of conforming himself to that wise maxim, +which holds in writing as well as in art--"Know what you want to do, +then do it." + + + + +XIX + +FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE[22] + + + [22] + _Saturday Review_, 6th April 1872. + +This Easter week we have lost a man about whom opinions and feelings +were much divided, who was by many of the best and most thoughtful +among us looked on as the noblest and greatest of recent English +teachers, and who certainly had that rare gift of inspiring enthusiasm +and trust among honest and powerful minds in search of guidance, which +belongs to none but to men of a very high order. Professor Maurice has +ended a life of the severest and most unceasing toil, still working to +the utmost that failing bodily strength allowed--still to the last in +harness. The general public, though his name is familiar to them, +probably little measure the deep and passionate affection with which he +was regarded by the circle of his friends and by those whose thoughts +and purposes he had moulded; or the feeling which his loss causes in +them of a blank, great and not to be filled up, not only personally for +themselves, but in the agencies which are working most hopefully in +English society. But even those who knew him least, and only from the +outside, and whose points of view least coincided with his, must feel +that there has been, now that we look back on his course, something +singularly touching and even pathetic in the combination shown in all +that he did, of high courage and spirit, and of unwearied faith and +vigour, with the deepest humility and with the sincerest +disinterestedness and abnegation, which never allowed him to seek +anything great for himself, and, in fact, distinguished and honoured as +he was, never found it. For the sake of his generation we may regret +that he did not receive the public recognition and honour which were +assuredly his due; but in truth his was one of those careers which, for +their own completeness and consistency, gain rather than lose by +escaping the distractions and false lights of what is called +preferment. + +The two features which strike us at the moment as characteristic of Mr. +Maurice as a writer and teacher, besides the vast range both of his +reading and thought, and the singularly personal tone and language of +all that he wrote, are, first, the combination in him of the most +profound and intense religiousness with the most boundless claim and +exercise of intellectual liberty; and next, the value which he set, +exemplifying his estimate in his own long and laborious course, on +processes and efforts, as compared with conclusions and definite +results, in that pursuit of truth which was to him the most sacred of +duties. There is no want of earnest and fervent religion among us, +intelligent, well-informed, deliberate, as well as of religion, to +which these terms can hardly be applied. And there is also no want of +the boldest and most daring freedom of investigation and judgment. But +what Mr. Maurice seemed to see himself, and what he endeavoured to +impress on others, was that religion and liberty are no natural +enemies, but that the deepest and most absorbing forms of historical +and traditional religion draw strength and seriousness of meaning, and +binding obligation, from an alliance, frank and unconditional, with +what seem to many the risks, the perilous risks and chances, of +freedom. + +It was a position open to obvious and formidable criticism; but against +this criticism is to be set the fact, that in a long and energetic +life, in which amidst great trials and changes there was a singular +uniformity and consistency of character maintained, he did unite the +two--the most devout Christianity with the most fearless and +unshrinking boldness in facing the latest announcements and +possibilities of modern thought. That he always satisfactorily +explained his point of view to others is more than can be said; but he +certainly satisfied numbers of keen and anxious thinkers, who were +discontented and disheartened both by religion as it is presented by +our great schools and parties, and by science as its principles and +consequences are expounded by the leading philosophical authorities of +the day. The other point to which we have adverted partly explains the +influence which he had with such minds. He had no system to formulate +or to teach. He was singularly ready to accept, as adequate expressions +of those truths in whose existence he so persistently believed, the old +consecrated forms in which simpler times had attempted to express them. +He believed that these truths are wider and vaster than the human mind +which is to be made wiser and better by them. And his aim was to reach +up to an ever more exact, and real, and harmonious hold of these +truths, which in their essential greatness he felt to be above him; to +reach to it in life as much as in thought. And so to the end he was +ever striving, not so much to find new truths as to find the heart and +core of old ones, the truth of the truth, the inner life and +significance of the letter, of which he was always loth to refuse the +traditional form. In these efforts at unfolding and harmonising there +was considerable uniformity; no one could mistake Mr. Maurice's manner +of presenting the meaning and bearing of an article of the Creed for +the manner of any one else; but the result of this way of working, in +the effect of the things which he said, and in his relations to +different bodies of opinion and thought both in the Church and in +society, was to give the appearance of great and important changes in +his teaching and his general point of view, as life went on. This +governing thought of his, of the immeasurably transcendent compass and +height of all truths compared with the human mind and spirit which was +to bow to them and to gain life and elevation by accepting them, +explains the curious and at present almost unique combination in him, +of deep reverence for the old language of dogmatic theology, and an +energetic maintenance of its fitness and value, with dissatisfaction, +equally deep and impartially universal, at the interpretations put on +this dogmatic language by modern theological schools, and at the modes +in which its meaning is applied by them both in directing thought and +influencing practice. This habit of distinguishing sharply and +peremptorily between dogmatic language and the popular reading of it at +any given time is conspicuous in his earliest as in his latest handling +of these subjects; in the pamphlet of 1835, _Subscription no Bondage_, +explaining and defending the old practice at Oxford; and in the papers +and letters, which have appeared from him in periodicals, on the +Athanasian Creed, and which are, we suppose, almost his last writings. + +The world at large thought Mr. Maurice obscure and misty, and was, as +was natural, impatient of such faults. The charge was, no doubt, more +than partially true; and nothing but such genuine strength and +comprehensive power as his could have prevented it from being a fatal +one to his weight and authority. But it is not uninstructive to +remember what was very much at the root of it. It had its origin, not +altogether, but certainly in a great degree, in two of his moral +characteristics. One was his stubborn, conscientious determination, at +any cost of awkwardness, or apparent inconsistency, or imperfection of +statement, to say out what he had to say, neither more nor less, just +as he thought it, and just as he felt it, with the most fastidious care +for truthful accuracy of meaning. He never would suffer what he +considered either the connection or the balance and adjustment of +varied and complementary truths to be sacrificed to force or point of +expression; and he had to choose sometimes, as all people have, between +a blurred, clumsy, and ineffective picture and a consciously incomplete +and untrue one. His choice never wavered; and as the artist's aim was +high, and his skill not always equally at his command, he preferred the +imperfection which left him the consciousness of honesty. The other +cause which threw a degree of haze round his writings was the personal +shape into which he was so fond of throwing his views. He shrunk from +their enunciation as arguments and conclusions which claimed on their +own account and by their own title the deference of all who read them; +and he submitted them as what he himself had found and had been granted +to see--the lessons and convictions of his own experience. Sympathy is, +no doubt, a great bond among all men; but, after all, men's experience +and their points of view are not all alike, and when we are asked to +see with another's eyes, it is not always easy. Mr. Maurice's desire to +give the simplest and most real form to his thoughts as they arose in +his own mind contributed more often than he supposed to prevent others +from entering into his meaning. He asked them to put themselves in his +place. He did not sufficiently put himself in theirs. + +But he has taught us great lessons, of the sacredness, the largeness, +and, it may be added, the difficulty of truth; lessons of sympathy with +one another, of true humility and self-conquest in the busy and +unceasing activity of the intellectual faculties. He has left no school +and no system, but he has left a spirit and an example. We speak of him +here only as those who knew him as all the world knew him; but those +who were his friends are never tired of speaking of his grand +simplicity of character, of his tenderness and delicacy, of the +irresistible spell of lovableness which won all within its reach. They +remember how he spoke, and how he read; the tones of a voice of +singularly piercing clearness, which was itself a power of +interpretation, which revealed his own soul and went straight to the +hearts of hearers. He has taken his full share in the controversies of +our days, and there must be many opinions both about the line which he +took, and even sometimes about the temper in which he carried on +debate. But it is nothing but the plainest justice to say that he was a +philosopher, a theologian, and, we may add, a prophet, of whom, for his +great gifts, and, still more, for his noble and pure use of them, the +modern English Church may well be proud. + + + + +XX + +SIR RICHARD CHURCH[23] + + + [23] + _Guardian_, 26th March 1873. + +General Sir Richard Church died last week at Athens. Many English +travellers in the East find their way to Athens; most of them must have +heard his name repeated there as the name of one closely associated +with the later fortunes of the Greek nation, and linking the present +with times now distant; some of them may have seen him, and may +remember the slight wiry form which seemed to bear years so lightly, +the keen eye and grisled moustache and soldierly bearing, and perhaps +the antique and ceremonious courtesy, stately yet cordial, recalling a +type of manners long past, with which he welcomed those who had a claim +on his attentions or friendly offices. Five and forty years ago his +name was much in men's mouths. He was prominent in a band of +distinguished men, who represented a new enthusiasm in Europe. Less by +what they were able to do than by their character and their unreserved +self-devotion and sacrifice, they profoundly affected public opinion, +and disarmed the jealousy of absolutist courts and governments in +favour of a national movement, which, whether disappointment may have +followed its success, was one of the most just and salutary of +revolutions--the deliverance of a Christian nation from the hopeless +tyranny of the Turks. + +He was one of the few remaining survivors of the generation which had +taken part in the great French war and in the great changes resulting +from it--changes which have in time given way to vaster alterations, +and been eclipsed by them. He began his military life as a boy-ensign +in one of the regiments forming part of the expedition which, under Sir +Ralph Abercromby, drove the French out of Egypt in 1801; and on the +shores of the Mediterranean, where his career began, it was for the +most part continued and finished. His genius led him to the more +irregular and romantic forms of military service; he had the gift of +personal influence, and the power of fascinating and attaching to +himself, with extraordinary loyalty, the people of the South. His +adventurous temper, his sympathetic nature, his chivalrous courtesy, +his thorough trustworthiness and sincerity, his generosity, his high +spirit of nobleness and honour, won for him, from Italians and Greeks, +not only that deep respect which was no unusual tribute from them to +English honesty and strength and power of command, but that love, and +that affectionate and almost tender veneration, for which strong and +resolute Englishmen have not always cared from races of whose +characteristic faults they were impatient. + +His early promise in the regular service was brilliant; as a young +staff-officer, and by a staff-officer's qualities of sagacity, +activity, and decision, he did distinguished service at Maida; and had +he followed the movement which made Spain the great battle-ground for +English soldiers, he had every prospect of earning a high place among +those who fought under Wellington. But he clung to the Mediterranean. +He was employed in raising and organising those foreign auxiliary corps +which it was thought were necessary to eke out the comparatively scanty +numbers of the English armies, and to keep up threatening +demonstrations on the outskirts of the French Empire. It was in this +service that his connection with the Greek people was first formed, and +his deep and increasing interest in its welfare created. He was +commissioned to form first one, and then a second, regiment of Greek +irregulars; and from the Ionian Islands, from the mainland of Albania, +from the Morea, chiefs and bands, accustomed to the mountain warfare, +half patriotic, half predatory, carried on by the more energetic Greek +highlanders against the Turks, flocked to the English standards. The +operations in which they were engaged were desultory, and of no great +account in the general result of the gigantic contest; but they made +Colonel Church's name familiar to the Greek population, who were +hoping, amid the general confusion, for an escape from the tyranny of +the Turks. But his connection with Greece was for some time delayed. +His peculiar qualifications pointed him out as a fit man to be a medium +of communication between the English Government and the foreign armies +which were operating on the outside of the circle within which the +decisive struggle was carried on against Napoleon; and he was the +English Military Commissioner attached to the Austrian armies in Italy +in 1814 and 1815. + +At the Peace, his eagerness for daring and adventurous enterprise was +tempted by great offers from the Neapolitan Government. The war had +left brigandage, allied to a fierce spirit of revolutionary +freemasonry, all-powerful in the south of Italy; and a stern and +resolute, yet perfectly honest and just hand, was needed to put it +down. He accepted the commission; he was reckless of conspiracy and +threats of assassination; he was known to be no sanguinary and +merciless lover of severity, but he was known also to be fearless and +inexorable against crime; and, not without some terrible examples, yet +with complete success, he delivered the south of Italy from the +scourge. But his thoughts had always been turned towards Greece; at +last the call came, and he threw himself with all his hopes and all his +fortunes into a struggle which more than any other that history can +show engaged at the time the interest of Europe. His first efforts +resulted in a disastrous defeat against overwhelming odds, for which, +as is natural, he has been severely criticised; his critics have shown +less quickness in perceiving the qualities which he displayed after +it--his unshaken, silent fortitude, the power with which he kept +together and saved the wrecks of his shattered and disheartened +volunteer army, the confidence in himself with which he inspired them, +the skill with which he extricated them from their dangers in the face +of a strong and formidable enemy, the humanity which he strove so +earnestly by word and example to infuse into the barbarous warfare +customary between Greeks and Turks, the tenacity with which he clung to +the fastnesses of Western Greece, obtaining by his perseverance from +the diplomacy of Europe a more favourable line of boundary for the new +nation which it at length recognised. To this cause he gave up +everything; personal risks cannot be counted; but he threw away all +prospects in England; he made no bargains; he sacrificed freely to the +necessities of the struggle any pecuniary resource that he could +command, neither requiring nor receiving any repayment. He threw in his +lot with the people for whom he had surrendered everything, in order to +take part in their deliverance. Since his arrival in Greece in 1827 he +has never turned his face westwards. He took the part which is perhaps +the only becoming and justifiable one for the citizen of one State who +permits himself to take arms, even in the cause of independence, for +another; having fought for the Greeks, he lived with them, and shared, +for good and for evil, their fortunes. + +For more than forty years he has resided at Athens under the shadow of +the great rock of the Acropolis. Distinguished by all the honours the +Greek nation could bestow, military or political, he has lived in +modest retirement, only on great emergencies taking any prominent part +in the political questions of Greece, but always throwing his influence +on the side of right and honesty. The course of things in Greece was +not always what an educated Englishman could wish it to be. But +whatever his judgment, or, on occasion, his action might be, there +never could be a question, with his friends any more than with his +opponents--enemies he could scarcely be said to have--as to the +straightforwardness, the pure motives, the unsullied honour of anything +that he did or anything that he advised. The Greeks saw among them one +deeply sympathising with all that they cared for, commanding, if he had +pleased to work for it, considerable influence out of Greece, the +intimate friend of a Minister like Sir Edmund Lyons, yet keeping free +from the temptation to make that use of influence which seems so +natural to politicians in a place like Athens; thinking much of Greece +and of the interests of his friends there, but thinking as much of +truth and justice and conscience; hating intrigue and trick, and +shaming by his indignant rebuke any proposal of underhand courses that +might be risked in his presence. + +The course of things, the change of ideas and of men, threw him more +and more out of any forward and prominent place in the affairs of +Greece. But his presence in Athens was felt everywhere. There was a man +who had given up everything for Greece and sought nothing in return. +His blameless unselfishness, his noble elevation of character, were a +warning and a rebuke to the faults which have done so much mischief to +the progress of the nation; and yet every Greek in Athens knew that no +one among them was more jealous of the honour of the nation or more +anxious for its good. To a new political society, freshly exposed to +the temptations of party struggles for power, no greater service can be +rendered than a public life absolutely clear from any suspicion of +self-seeking, governed uninterruptedly and long by public spirit, +public ends, and a strong sense of duty. Such a service General Church +has rendered to his adopted country. During his residence among them +for nearly half a century they have become familiar, not in word, but +in living reality, with some of the best things which the West has to +impart to the East. They have had among them an example of English +principle, English truth, English high-souled disinterestedness, and +that noble English faith which, in a great cause, would rather hope in +vain than not hope at all. They have learned to venerate all this, and, +some of them, to love it. + + + + +XXI + +DEATH OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE[24] + + + [24] + _Guardian_, 23rd July 1873. + +The beautiful summer weather which came on us at the beginning of this +week gives by contrast a strange and terrible point to the calamity, +the announcement of which sent such a shock through the whole country +on Monday last. Summer days in all their brilliance seemed come at +last, after a long waiting which made them the more delightful. But as +people came down to breakfast on that morning, or as they gathered at +railway stations on their way to business, the almost incredible +tidings met them that the Bishop of Winchester was dead; that he had +been killed by a fall from his horse. In a moment, by the most trivial +of accidents, one of the foremost and most stirring men of our +generation had passed away from the scene in which his part was so +large a one. With everything calm and peaceful round him, in the midst +of the keen but tranquil enjoyment of a summer evening ride with a +friend through some of the most charming scenery in England, looking +forward to meeting another friend, and to the pleasure which a quiet +Sunday brings to hard-worked men in fine weather, and a pleasant +country house, the blow fell. The moment before, as Lord Granville +remarks, he had given expression to the fulness of his enjoyment. He +was rejoicing in the fine weather, he was keenly noticing the beauty of +the scenery at every point of the way; with his characteristic love of +trees he was noticing the different kinds and the soils which suited +them; especially he was greatly pleased with his horse. There comes a +slight dip in the smooth turf; the horse stumbles and recovers himself +unhurt; but in that short interval of time all has vanished, all things +earthly, from that quick eye and that sensitive and sympathetic mind. +It is indeed tragic. He is said to have thought with distress of a +lingering end. He was spared it. He died as a soldier dies. + +A shock like this brings with it also a shock of new knowledge and +appreciation of things. We are made to feel with a new force what it is +that we have lost, and to understand more exactly what is the +proportion of what we have lost to what we still retain. To friends and +opponents the Bishop of Winchester could not but be, under any +circumstances, a person of the greatest importance. But few of us, +probably, measured fully and accurately the place which he filled among +us. We are better aware of it now when he has been taken away from us. +Living among us, and acting before us from day to day, the object of +each day's observation and criticism, under each day's varying +circumstances and feelings, within our reach always if we wanted to see +him or to hear him, he was presented to our thoughts in that partial +disclosure, and that everyday homeliness, which as often disguise the +true and complete significance of a character, as they give substance +and reality to our conceptions of it. As the man's course moves on, we +are apt to lose in our successive judgments of the separate steps of +it--it may be stops of great immediate interest--our sense of its +connection and tendency, of the true measure of it as a whole, of the +degree in which character is growing and rising, or, on the other hand, +falling or standing still. The Bishop of Winchester had many +admirers--many who deeply loved and trusted him--many who, in the face +of a good deal of suspicion and hostile comment, stoutly insisted on +the high estimate which they had formed of him. But even among them, +and certainly in the more indifferent public, there were few who had +rightly made it clear to their own minds what he had really grown to be +both in the Church and the country. + +For it is obvious, at the first glance now that he is gone, that there +is no one who can fill the place which he filled. It seems to us beyond +dispute that he has been the greatest Bishop the English Church has +seen for a century and a half. We do not say the greatest man, but the +greatest Bishop; the one among the leaders of the English Church who +most adequately understood the relations of his office, not only to the +Church, but to his times and his country, and who most adequately +fulfilled his own conception of them. We are very far from saying this +because of his exuberant outfit of powers and gifts; because of his +versatility, his sympathetic nature, his eager interest in all that +interested his fellows, his inexhaustible and ready resources of +thought and speech, of strong and practical good sense, of brilliant or +persuasive or pathetic eloquence. In all this he had equals and rivals, +though perhaps he had not many in the completeness and balance of his +powers. Nor do we say anything of those gifts, partly of the intellect, +but also of the soul and temper and character, by which he was able at +once to charm without tiring the most refined and fastidious society, +to draw to him the hearts of hard-working and anxious clergymen, and to +enchain the attention of the dullest and most ignorant of rustic +congregations. All these are, as it seems to us, the subordinate, and +not the most interesting, parts of what he was; they were on the +surface and attracted notice, and the parts were often mistaken for the +whole. Nor do we forget what often offended even equitable judges, +disliking all appearance of management and mere adroitness--or what was +often objected against his proceedings by opponents at least as +unscrupulous as they wished him to be thought. We are far from thinking +that his long career was free from either mistakes or faults; it is not +likely that a course steered amid such formidable and perplexing +difficulties, and steered with such boldness and such little attempt to +evade them, should not offer repeated occasions not only for +ill-natured, but for grave and serious objections. + +But looking over that long course of his Episcopate, from 1845 to the +present year, we see in him, in an eminent and unique degree, two +things. He had a distinct and statesmanlike idea of Church policy; and +he had a new idea of the functions of a Bishop, and of what a Bishop +might do and ought to do. And these two ideas he steadily kept in view +and acted upon with increasing clearness in his purpose and unflagging +energy in action. He grasped in all its nobleness and fulness and +height the conception of the Church as a great religious society of +Divine origin, with many sides and functions, with diversified gifts +and ever new relations to altering times, but essentially, and above +all things, a religious society. To serve that society, to call forth +in it the consciousness of its calling and its responsibilities, to +strengthen and put new life into its organisation, to infuse ardour and +enthusiasm and unity into its efforts, to encourage and foster +everything that harmonised with its principle and purpose, to watch +against the counteracting influences of self-willed or ignorant +narrowness, to adjust its substantial rights and its increasing +activity to the new exigencies of political changes, to elicit from the +Church all that could command the respect and win the sympathy and +confidence of Englishmen, and make its presence recognised as a supreme +blessing by those whom nothing but what was great and real in its +benefits would satisfy--this was the aim from which, however perplexed +or wavering or inconsistent he may have been at times, he never really +swerved. In the breadth and largeness of his principle, in the freedom +and variety of its practical applications, in the distinctness of his +purposes and the intensity of his convictions, he was an example of +high statesmanship common in no age of the Church, and in no branch of +it. And all this rested on the most profound personal religion as its +foundation, a religion which became in time one of very definite +doctrinal preferences, but of wide sympathies, and which was always of +very exacting claims for the undivided work and efforts of a lifetime. + +When he became Bishop he very soon revolutionised the old notion of a +Bishop's duties. He threw himself without any regard to increasing +trouble and labour on the great power of personal influence. In every +corner of his diocese he made himself known and felt; in all that +interested its clergy or its people he took his part more and more. He +went forth to meet men; he made himself their guest and companion as +well as their guide and chief; he was more often to be found moving +about his diocese than he was to be found at his own home at Cuddesdon. +The whole tone of communication between Bishop and people rose at once +in freedom and in spiritual elevation and earnestness; it was at once +less formal and more solemnly practical. He never spared his personal +presence; always ready to show himself, always ready to bring the rarer +and more impressive rites of the Church, such as Ordination, within the +view of people at a distance from his Palace or Cathedral, he was never +more at his ease than in a crowd of new faces, and never exhausted and +worn out in what he had to say to fresh listeners. Gathering men about +him at one time; turning them to account, assigning them tasks, +pressing the willing, shaming the indolent or the reluctant, at +another; travelling about with the rapidity and system of an officer +inspecting his positions, he infused into the diocese a spirit and zeal +which nothing but such labour and sympathy could give, and bound it +together by the bands of a strong and wise organisation. + +What he did was but a very obvious carrying out of the idea of the +Episcopal office; but it had not seemed necessary once, and his merit +was that he saw both that it was necessary and practicable. It is he +who set the standard of what is now expected, and is more or less +familiar, in all Bishops. And as he began so he went on to the last. He +never flagged, he never grew tired of the continual and varied +intercourse which he kept up with his clergy and people. To the last he +worked his diocese as much as possible not from a distance, but from +local points which brought him into closer communication with his +flock. London, with its great interests and its great attractions, +social and political, never kept away one who was so keenly alive to +them, and so prominent in all that was eventful in his time, from +attending to the necessities and claims of his rural parishes. What his +work was to the very last, how much there was in him of unabated force, +of far-seeing judgment, of noble boldness and earnestness, of power +over the souls and minds of men in many ways divided, a letter from Dr. +Monsell[25] in our columns shows. + +He had a great and all-important place in a very critical moment, to +which he brought a seriousness of purpose, a power and ripeness of +counsel, and a fearlessness distinctly growing up to the last. It is +difficult to see who will bend the bow which he has dropped. + + [25] + ... The shock that the sudden announcement of an event so + solemn must ever give, was tenfold great to one who, like myself, + had been, during the past week, closely associated with him in + anxious deliberations as to the best means of meeting the various + difficulties and dangers with which the Church is at present + surrounded. + + He had gathered round him, as was his annual wont, his Archdeacons + and Rural Deans, to deliberate for the Church's interests; and in + his opening address, and conduct of a most important meeting, never + had he shone out more clearly in intellectual vigour, in theological + soundness, in moral boldness, in Christian gentleness and love. + + ... He spoke upon the gravest questions of the day--questions which + require more than they generally receive, delicate handling. He + divided from the evil of things, which some in the spirit of party + condemn wholesale, the hidden good which lies wrapt up in them, and + which it would be sin as well as folly to sweep away. He made every + man who heard him feel the blessing of having in the Church such a + veteran leader, and drew forth from more than one there the openly + expressed hope that as he had in bygone days been the bold and + cautious controller of an earlier movement in the right direction, + so now he would save to the Church some of her precious things which + rude men would sweep away, and help her to regain what is essential + to her spiritual existence without risking the sacredness of private + life, the purity of private thoughts, the sense of direct + responsibility between God and the soul, which are some of the most + distinctive characteristics of our dear Church of England. + + From his council chamber in Winchester House I went direct with him + to the greater council chamber of St. Stephen's to hear him there + vindicate the rights and privileges of his order, and beat back the + assaults of those who, in high places, think that by a speech in, or + a vote of, either house they can fashion the Church as they please. + Never did he speak with more point and power; and never did he seem + to have won more surely the entire sympathy of the house. + + To gather in overwhelming numbers round him in the evening his + London clergy and their families, to meet them all with the kind + cordiality of a real father and friend, to run on far into the + middle of the night in this laborious endeavour to please--was "the + last effort of his toilsome day." + + + + +XXII + +RETIREMENT OF THE PROVOST OF ORIEL[26] + + + [26] + _Guardian_, 4th November 1874. + +Dr. Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel, has resigned the Provostship. He has +held it from 1828, within four years of half a century. The time during +which he has presided over his college has been one of the most +eventful periods in the history of the University; it has been a time +of revolt against custom, of reform, of keen conflict, of deep changes; +and in all connected with these he has borne a part, second to none in +prominence, in importance, and we must add, in dignity. No name of +equal distinction has disappeared from the list of Heads of Houses +since the venerable President of Magdalen passed away. But Dr. Routh, +though he watched with the keenest intelligence, and not without +sympathy, all that went on in the days into which his life had been +prolonged, watched it with the habits and thoughts of days long +departed; he had survived from the days of Bishop Horne and Dr. Parr +far into our new and strange century, to which he did not belong, and +he excited its interest as a still living example of what men were +before the French Revolution. The eminence of the Provost of Oriel is +of another kind. He calls forth interest because among all recent +generations of Oxford men, and in all their restless and exciting +movements, he has been a foremost figure. He belongs to modern Oxford, +its daring attempts, its fierce struggles, its successes, and its +failures. He was a man of whom not only every one heard, but whom every +one saw; for he was much in public, and his unsparing sense of public +duty made him regularly present in his place at Council, at +Convocation, at the University Church, at College chapel. The outward +look of Oxford will be altered by the disappearance in its ceremonies +and gatherings of his familiar form and countenance. + +He would anywhere have been a remarkable man. His active and +independent mind, with its keen, discriminating, practical +intelligence, was formed and disciplined amid that company of +distinguished scholars and writers who, at Oxford, in the second decade +of the century were revolted by the scandalous inertness and +self-indulgence of the place, with its magnificent resources squandered +and wasted, its stupid orthodoxy of routine, its insensibility to the +questions and the dangers rising all round; men such as Keble, Arnold, +Davison, Copleston, Whately. These men, different as they were from one +another, all represented the awakening but still imperfect +consciousness that a University life ought to be something higher than +one of literary idleness, given up to the frivolities of mere elegant +scholarship, and to be crowned at last by comfortable preferment; that +there was much difficult work to be seriously thought about and done, +and that men were placed at Oxford under heavy responsibilities to use +their thoughts and their leisure for the direct service of their +generation. Clever fops and dull pedants joined in sneering at this new +activity and inquisitiveness of mind, and this grave interest and +employment of intellect on questions and in methods outside the +customary line of University studies and prejudices; but the men were +too powerful, and their work too genuine and effective, and too much in +harmony with the temper and tendencies of the time, to be stopped by +impertinence and obstructiveness. Dr. Hawkins was one of those who made +the Oriel Common-room a place of keen discussion and brilliant +conversation, and, for those days, of bold speculation; while the +College itself reflected something of the vigour and accomplishments of +the Common-room. Dr. Newman, in the _Apologia_, has told us, in +touching terms of acknowledgment, what Dr. Hawkins was when, fifty +years ago, the two minds first came into close contact, and what +intellectual services he believed Dr. Hawkins had rendered him. He +tells us, too, how Dr. Hawkins had profoundly impressed him by a work +in which, with characteristic independence and guarded caution equally +characteristic, he cuts across popular prejudices and confusions of +thought, and shows himself original in discerning and stating an +obvious truth which had escaped other people--his work on +_Unauthoritative Tradition_. His logical acuteness, his habits of +disciplined accuracy, abhorrent and impatient of all looseness of +thinking and expression, his conscientious efforts after substantial +reality in his sharpest distinctions, his capacity for taking trouble, +his serious and strong sense of the debt involved in the possession of +intellectual power--all this would have made him eminent, whatever the +times in which he lived. + +But the times in which we live and what they bring with them mould most +of us; and the times shaped the course of the Provost of Oriel, and +turned his activity into a channel of obstinate and prolonged +antagonism, of resistance and protest, most conscientious but most +uncompromising, against two great successive movements, both of which +he condemned as unbalanced and recoiled from as revolutionary--the +Tractarian first, and then the Liberal movement in Oxford. Of the +former, it is not perhaps too much to say that he was in Oxford, at +least, the ablest and most hurtful opponent. From his counsels, from +his guarded and measured attacks, from the power given him by a partial +agreement against popular fallacies with parts of its views, from his +severe and unflinching determination, it received its heaviest blows +and suffered its greatest losses. He detested what he held to be its +anti-Liberal temper, and its dogmatic assertions; he resented its +taking out of his hands a province of theology which he and Whately had +made their own, that relating to the Church; he thought its tone of +feeling and its imaginative and poetical side exaggerated or childish; +and he could not conceive of its position except as involving palpable +dishonesty. No one probably guided with such clear and self-possessed +purpose that policy of extreme measures, which contributed to bring +about, if it did not itself cause, the break-up of 1845. Then succeeded +the great Liberal tide with its demands for extensive and immediate +change, its anti-ecclesiastical spirit, its scarcely disguised +scepticism, its daring philosophical and critical enterprises. By +degrees it became clear that the impatience and intolerance which had +purged the University of so many Churchmen had, after all, left the +Church movement itself untouched, to assume by degrees proportions +scarcely dreamed of when it began; but that what the defeat of the +Tractarians really had done was, to leave the University at the mercy +of Liberals to whom what had been called Liberalism in the days of +Whately was mere blind and stagnant Conservatism. + +One war was no sooner over than the Provost of Oriel found another even +more formidable on his hands. The most dauntless and most unshaken of +combatants, he faced his new antagonists with the same determination, +the same unshrinking sense of duty with which he had fought his old +ones. He used the high authority and influence which his position and +his character justly gave him, to resist or to control, as far as he +could, the sweeping changes which, while bringing new life into Oxford, +have done so much to break up her connection of centuries with the +Church. He boldly confronted the new spirit of denial and unbelief. He +wrote, he preached, he published, as he had done against other +adversaries, always with measured and dignified argument, but not +shrinking from plain-spoken severity of condemnation. Never sparing +himself labour when he thought duty called, he did not avail himself of +the privilege of advancing years to leave the war to be carried on by +younger champions. + +It is impossible for those who may at times have found themselves most +strongly, and perhaps most painfully, opposed to him, not to admire and +revere one who, through so long a career has, in what he held to be his +duty to the Church and to religion, fought so hard, encountered such +troubles, given up so many friendships and so much ease, and who, while +a combatant to the last, undiscouraged by odds and sometimes by +ill-success, has brought to the weariness and disappointment of old age +an increasing gentleness and kindliness of spirit, which is one of the +rarest tokens and rewards of patient and genuine self-discipline. A man +who has set himself steadily and undismayed to stem and bring to reason +the two most powerful currents of conviction and feeling which have +agitated his times, leaves an impressive example of zeal and +fearlessness, even to those against whom he has contended. What is the +upshot which has come of these efforts, and whether the controversies +of the moment have not in his case, as in others, diverted and absorbed +faculties which might have been turned to calmer and more permanent +tasks, we do not inquire. + +Perhaps a life of combat never does all that the combatant thinks it +ought to accomplish, or compensates for the sacrifices it entails. In +the case of the Provost of Oriel, he had, with all his great and noble +qualities, one remarkable want, which visibly impaired his influence +and his persuasiveness. He was out of sympathy with the rising +aspirations and tendencies of the time on the two opposite sides; he +was suspicious and impatient of them. He was so sensible of their weak +points, the logical difficulties which they brought with them, their +precipitate and untested assumptions, the extravagance and unsoundness +of character which often seemed inseparable from them, that he seldom +did justice to them viewed in their complete aspect, or was even alive +to what was powerful and formidable in the depth, the complexity, and +the seriousness of the convictions and enthusiasm which carried them +onwards. In truth, for a man of his singular activity and reach of +mind, he was curiously indifferent to much that most interested his +contemporaries in thought and literature; he did not understand it, and +he undervalued it as if it belonged merely to the passing fashions of +the hour. + +This long career is now over. Warfare is always a rude trade, and men +on all sides who have had to engage in it must feel at the end how much +there is to be forgiven and needing forgiveness; how much now appears +harsh, unfair, violent, which once appeared only necessary and just. A +hard hitter like the Provost of Oriel must often have left behind the +remembrance of his blows. But we venture to say that, even in those who +suffered from them, he has left remembrances of another and better +sort. He has left the recollection of a pure, consistent, laborious +life, elevated in its aim and standard, and marked by high public +spirit and a rigid and exacting sense of duty. In times when it was +wanted, he set in his position in the University an example of modest +and sober simplicity of living; and no one who ever knew him can doubt +the constant presence, in all his thoughts, of the greatness of things +unseen, or his equally constant reference of all that he did to the +account which he was one day to give at his Lord's judgment-seat. We +trust that he may be spared to enjoy the rest which a weaker or less +conscientious man would have claimed long ago. + + + + +XXIII + +MARK PATTISON[27] + + + [27] + _Guardian_, 6th August 1884. + +The Rector of Lincoln, who died at Harrogate this day week, was a man +about whom judgments are more than usually likely to be biassed by +prepossessions more or less unconscious, and only intelligible to the +mind of the judge. There are those who are in danger of dealing with +him too severely. There are also those whose temptation will be to +magnify and possibly exaggerate his gifts and acquirements--great as +they undoubtedly were,--the use that he made of them, and the place +which he filled among his contemporaries. One set of people finds it +not easy to forget that he had been at one time closer than most young +men of his generation to the great religious leaders whom they are +accustomed to revere; that he was of a nature fully to understand and +appreciate both their intellectual greatness and their moral and +spiritual height; that he had shared to the full their ideas and hopes; +that they, too, had measured his depth of character, and grasp, and +breadth, and subtlety of mind; and that the keenest judge among them of +men and of intellect had pirlud him out as one of the most original and +powerful of a number of very able contemporaries. Those who remember +this cannot easily pardon the lengths of dislike and hitterness to +which in after life Pattison allowed himself to be carried against the +cause which once had his hearty allegiance, and in which, if he had +discovered, as he thought, its mistakes and its weakness, he had once +recognised with all his soul the nobler side. And on the other hand, +the partisans of the opposite movement, into whose interests he so +disastrously, as it seems to us, and so unreservedly threw himself, +naturally welcomed and made the most of such an accession to their +strength, and such an unquestionable addition to their literary fame. +To have detached such a man from the convictions which he had so +professedly and so earnestly embraced, and to have enlisted him as +their determined and implacable antagonist--to be able to point to him +in him maturity and strength of his powers as one who, having known its +best aspects, had deliberately despaired of religion, and had turned +against its representatives the scorn and hatred of a passionate +nature, whose fires burned all the more fiercely under its cold crust +of reserve and sarcasm--this was a triumph of no common order; and it +might conceivably blind those who could rejoice in it to the +comparative value of qualities which, at any rate, were very rare and +remarkable ones. + +Pattison was a man who, in many ways, did not do himself justice. As a +young man, his was a severe and unhopeful mind, and the tendency to +despond was increased by circumstances. There was something in the +quality of his unquestionable ability which kept him for long out of +the ordinary prizes of an Oxford career; in the class list, in the +higher competition for Fellowships, he was not successful. There are +those who long remembered the earnest pleading of the Latin letters +which it was the custom to send in when a man stood for a Fellowship, +and in which Pattison set forth his ardent longing for knowledge, and +his narrow and unprosperous condition as a poor student. He always came +very near; indeed, he more than once won the vote of the best judges; +but he just missed the prize. To the bitter public disappointments of +1845 were added the vexations caused by private injustice and +ill-treatment. He turned fiercely on those who, as he thought, had +wronged him, and he began to distrust men, and to be on the watch for +proofs of hollowness and selfishness in the world and in the Church. +Yet at this time, when people were hearing of his bitter and unsparing +sayings in Oxford, he was from time to time preaching in village +churches, and preaching sermons which both his educated and his simple +hearers thought unlike those of ordinary men in their force, reality, +and earnestness. But with age and conflict the disposition to harsh and +merciless judgments strengthened and became characteristic. This, +however, should be remembered: where he revered ho revered with genuine +and unstinted reverence; where he saw goodness in which he believed he +gave it ungrudging honour. He had real pleasure in recognising height +and purity of character, and true intellectual force, and he maintained +his admiration when the course of things had placed wide intervals +between him and those to whom it had been given. His early friendships, +where they could be retained, he did retain warmly and generously even +to the last; he seemed almost to draw a line between them and other +things in the world. The truth, indeed, was that beneath that icy and +often cruel irony there was at bottom a most warm and affectionate +nature, yearning for sympathy, longing for high and worthy objects, +which, from the misfortunes especially of his early days, never found +room to expand and unfold itself. Let him see and feel that anything +was real--character, purpose, cause--and at any rate it was sure of his +respect, probably of his interest. But the doubt whether it was real +was always ready to present itself to his critical and suspicious mind; +and these doubts grew with his years. + +People have often not given Pattison credit for the love that was in +him for what was good and true; it is not to be wondered at, but the +observation has to be made. On the other hand, a panegyrie, like that +which we reprint from the _Times_, sets too high an estimate on his +intellectual qualities, and on the position which they gave him. He was +full of the passion for knowledge; he was very learned, very acute in +his judgment on what his learning brought before him, very versatile, +very shrewd, very subtle; too full of the truth of his subject to care +about seeming to be original; but, especially in his poetical +criticisms, often full of that best kind of originality which consists +in seeing and pointing out novelty in what is most familiar and trite. +But, not merely as a practical but as a speculative writer, he was apt +to be too much under the empire and pressure of the one idea which at +the moment occupied and interested his mind. He could not resist it; it +came to him with exclusive and overmastering force; he did not care to +attend to what limited it or conflicted with it. And thus, with all the +force and sagacity of his University theories, they were not always +self-consistent, and they were often one-sided and exaggerated. He was +not a leader whom men could follow, however much they might rejoice at +the blows which he might happen to deal, sometimes unexpectedly, at +things which they disliked. And this holds of more serious things than +even University reform and reconstruction. + +And next, though every competent reader must do justice to Pattison's +distinction as a man of letters, as a writer of English prose, and as a +critic of what is noble and excellent and what is base and poor in +literature, there is a curious want of completeness, a frequent crudity +and hardness, a want, which is sometimes a surprising want, of good +sense and good taste, which form unwelcome blemishes in his work, and +just put it down below the line of first-rate excellence which it ought +to occupy. Morally, in that love of reality, and of all that is high +and noble in character, which certainly marked him, he was much better +than many suppose, who know only the strength of his animosities and +the bitterness of his sarcasm. Intellectually, in reach, and fulness, +and solidity of mental power, it may be doubted whether he was so great +as it has recently been the fashion to rate him. + + + + +XXIV + +PATTISON'S ESSAYS[28] + + + [28] + _Essays by the late Mark Pattison, sometime Rector of Lincoln + College_. Collected and arranged by Henry Nettleship, M.A., Corpus + Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. _Guardian_, 1st May + 1889. + +This is a very interesting but a very melancholy collection of papers. +They are the remains of the work of a man of first-rate intellect, +whose powers, naturally of a high order, had been diligently and wisely +cultivated, whose mind was furnished in a very rare degree with all +that reading, wide and critical, could give, and which embraced in the +circle of its interest all that is important to human life and society. +Mr. Pattison had no vulgar standard of what knowledge is, and what +goodness is. He was high, sincere, exacting, even austere, in his +estimates of either; and when he was satisfied he paid honour with +sometimes unexpected frankness and warmth. But from some unfortunate +element in his temperament, or from the effect upon it of untoward and +unkindly circumstances at those critical epochs of mental life, when +character is taking its bent for good and all, he was a man in whose +judgment severity--and severity expressing itself in angry scorn--was +very apt to outrun justice. Longing for sympathy and not ill-fitted for +it, capable of rare exertions in helping those whom he could help, he +passed through life with a reputation for cynicism which, while he +certainly exhibited it, he no less certainly would, if he had known +how, have escaped from. People could easily tell what would incur his +dislike and opposition, what would provoke his slow, bitter, merciless +sarcasm; it was never easy to tell what would satisfy him, what would +attract his approval, when he could be tempted to see the good side of +a thing. It must not be forgotten that he had gone through a trial to +which few men are equal. He had passed from the extreme ranks and the +strong convictions of the Oxford movement--convictions of which the +translation of Aquinas's _Catena Aurea_, still printed in the list of +his works, is a memorial--to the frankest form of Liberal thought. As +he himself writes, we cannot give up early beliefs, much less the deep +and deliberate convictions of manhood, without some shock to the +character. In his case the change certainly worked. It made him hate +what he had left, and all that was like it, with the bitterness of one +who has been imposed upon, and has been led to commit himself to what +he now feels to be absurd and contemptible, and the bitterness of this +disappointment gave an edge to all his work. There seems through all +his criticism, powerful as it is, a tone of harshness, a readiness to +take the worst construction, a sad consciousness of distrust and +suspicion of all things round him, which greatly weakens the effect of +his judgment. If a man will only look for the worst side, he will only +find the worst side; but we feel that we act reasonably by not +accepting such a teacher as our guide, however ably he may state his +case. There is a want of equitableness and fairness in his stern and +sometimes cruel condemnations; and yet not religion only, but the +wisest wisdom of the world tells of the indispensable value of this +equitableness, this old Greek virtue of [Greek: epieikeia], in our +views of men and things. It is not religion only, but common sense +which says that "sweetness and light," kindliness, indulgence, +sympathy, are necessary for moral and spiritual health. Scorn, +indignation, keenly stinging sarcasm, doubtless have their place in a +world in which untruth and baseness abound and flourish; but to live on +these is poison, at least to oneself. + +These fierce antipathies warped his judgment in strange and unexpected +ways. Among these papers is a striking one on Calvin. If any character +in history might be expected to have little attraction for him it is +Calvin. Dogmatist, persecutor, tyrant, the proud and relentless +fanatic, who more than any one consecrated harsh narrowness in religion +by cruel theories about God, what was there to recommend him to a lover +of liberty who had no patience for ecclesiastical pretensions of any +kind, and who tells us that Calvin's "sins against human liberty are of +the deepest dye"? For if Laud chastised his adversaries with whips, +Calvin chastised his with scorpions. Perhaps it is unreasonable to be +suprised, yet we are taken by surprise, when we find a thinker like Mr. +Pattison drawn by strong sympathy to Calvin and setting him up among +the heroes and liberators of humanity. Mr. Pattison is usually fair in +details, that is, he does not suppress bad deeds or qualities in those +whom he approves, or good deeds or qualities in those whom he hates: it +is in his general judgments that his failing comes out. He makes no +attempt to excuse the notorious features of Calvin's rule at Geneva; +but Mr. Pattison reads into his character a purpose and a grandeur +which place him far above any other man of his day. To recommend him to +our very different ways of thinking, Mr. Pattison has the courage to +allege that his interest in dogmatic theology was a subordinate matter, +and that the "renovation of character," the "moral purification of +humanity," was the great guiding idea of him who taught that out of the +mass of human kind only a predestined remnant could possibly be saved. +It is a singular interpretation of the mind of the author of the +_Institutes_:-- + + The distinction of Calvin as a Reformer is not to be sought in the + doctrine which now bears his name, or in any doctrinal peculiarity. + His great merit lies _in his comparative neglect of dogma. He + seized the idea of reformation as a real renovation of human + character_. The moral purification of humanity as the original + idea of Christianity is the guiding idea of his system.... He + swept away at once the sacramental machinery of material media of + salvation which the middle-age Church had provided in such + abundance, and which Luther frowned upon, but did not reject. He + was not satisfied to go back only to the historical origin of + Christianity, but would found human virtue on the eternal + antemundane will of God. + +Again:-- + + Calvin thought neither of fame or fortune. The narrowness of his + views and the disinterestedness of his soul alike precluded him + from regarding Geneva as a stage for the gratification of personal + ambition. This abegnation of self was one great part of his + success. + +And then Mr. Pattison goes on to describe in detail how, governed and +possessed by one idea, and by a theory, to oppose which was "moral +depravity," he proceeded to establish his intolerable system of +discipline, based on dogmatic grounds--meddlesome, inquisitorial, +petty, cruel--over the interior of every household in Geneva. What is +there fascinating, or even imposing, in such a character? It is the +common case of political and religious bigots, whether Jacobin, or +Puritan, or Jesuit, poor in thought and sympathy and strong in will, +fixing their yoke on a society, till the plague becomes unbearable. He +seeks nothing for himself and, forsooth, he makes sacrifices. But he +gets what he wants, his idea carried out; and self-sacrifice is of what +we care for, and not of what we do not care for. And to keep up this +supposed character of high moral purpose, we are told of Calvin's +"comparative neglect of dogma," of his seizing the idea of a "real +reformation of human character," a "moral purification of humanity," as +the guiding idea of his system. Can anything be more unhistorical than +to suggest that the father and source of all Western Puritan theology +"neglected dogma," and was more of a moralist than a divine? It is not +even true that he "swept away at once the sacramental machinery" of +mediaeval and Lutheran teaching; Calvin writes of the Eucharist in +terms which would astonish some of his later followers. But what is the +reason why Mr. Pattison attributes to the historical Calvin so much +that does not belong to him, and, in spite of so much that repels, is +yet induced to credit him with such great qualities? The reason is to +be found in the intense antipathy with which Mr. Pattison regarded what +he calls "the Catholic reaction" over Europe, and in the fact that +undoubtedly Calvin's system and influence was the great force which +resisted both what was bad and false in it, and also what was good, +true, generous, humane. Calvinism opposed the "Catholic reaction" +point-blank, and that was enough to win sympathy for it, even from Mr. +Pattison. + +The truth is that what Popery is to the average Protestant, and what +Protestant heresy is to the average Roman Catholic, the "Catholic +reaction," the "Catholic revival" in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries and in our own, is to Mr. Pattison's final judgment. It was +not only a conspiracy against human liberty, but it brought with it the +degradation and ruin of genuine learning. It is the all-sufficing cause +and explanation of the mischief and evil doings which he has to set +before us. Yet after the violence, the ignorance, the injustice, the +inconsistencies of that great ecclesiastical revolution which we call +by the vague name of Reformation, a "Catholic reaction" was inevitable. +It was not conceivable that common sense and certain knowledge would +submit for ever to be overcrowed by the dogmas and assertions of the +new teachers. Like other powerful and wide and strongly marked +movements, like the Reformation which it combated, it was a very mixed +thing. It produced some great evils and led to some great crimes. It +started that fatal religious militia, the Jesuit order, which, +notwithstanding much heroic self-sacrifice, has formed a permanent bar +to all possible reunion of Christendom, has fastened its yoke on the +Papacy itself, and has taught the Church, as a systematic doctrine, to +put its trust in the worst expedients of human policy. The religious +wars in France and Germany, the relentless massacres of the Low +Countries and the St. Bartholomew, the consecration of treason and +conspiracy, were, without doubt, closely connected with the "Catholic +reaction." But if this great awakening and stimulating influence raised +new temptations to human passion and wickedness, it was not only in the +service of evil that this new zeal was displayed. The Council of Trent, +whatever its faults, and it had many, was itself a real reformation. +The "Catholic revival" meant the rekindling of earnest religion and +care for a good life in thousands of souls. If it produced the Jesuits, +it as truly produced Port Royal and the Benedictines. Europe would be +indeed greatly the poorer if it wanted some of the most conspicuous +products of the Catholic revival. + +It is Mr. Pattison's great misfortune that through obvious faults of +temper he has missed the success which naturally might have seemed +assured to him, of dealing with these subjects in a large and +dispassionate way. Scholar, thinker, student as he is, conversant with +all literature, familiar with books and names which many well-read +persons have never heard of, he has his bitter prejudices, like the +rest of us, Protestants or Catholics; and what he hates is continually +forcing itself into his mind. He tells, with great and pathetic force, +the terrible story of the judicial murder of Calas at Toulouse, and of +Voltaire's noble and successful efforts to bring the truth to light, +and to repair, as far as could be repaired, its infamous injustice. It +is a story which shows to what frightful lengths fanaticism may go in +leading astray even the tribunals of justice. But unhappily the story +can be paralleled in all times of the world's history; and though the +Toulouse mob and Judges were Catholics, their wickedness is no more a +proof against the Catholic revival than Titus Oates and the George +Gordon riots are against Protestantism, or the Jacobin tribunals +against Republican justice. But Mr. Pattison cannot conclude his +account without an application. Here you have an example of what the +Catholic revival does. It first breaks Calas on the wheel; and then, +because Voltaire took up his cause, it makes modern Frenchmen, if they +are Catholics, believe that Calas deserved it:-- + + It is part of that general Catholic revival which has been working + for some years, and which like a fog is spreading over the face of + opinion.... The memory of Calas had been vindicated by Voltaire and + the Encyclopedists. That was quite enough for the Catholics.... + It is the characteristic of Catholicism that it supersedes reason, + and prejudges all matters by the application of fixed principles. + + It is no use that M. Coquerel flatters himself that he has set the + matter at rest. He flatters himself in vain; he ought to know his + Catholic countrymen better:-- + + We have little doubt that as long as the Catholic religion shall + last their little manuals of falsified history will continue to + repeat that Jean Calas murdered his son because he had become a + convert to the Catholic faith. + + Are little manuals of falsified history confined only to one set + of people? Is not John Foxe still proof against the assaults of + Dr. Maitland? The habit of _à priori_ judgments as to historical + facts is, as Mr. Pattison truly says, "fatal to truth and + integrity." It is most mischievous when it assumes a philosophic + gravity and warps the criticism of a distinguished scholar. + +This fixed habit of mind is the more provoking because, putting aside +the obtrusive and impertinent injustice to which it leads, Mr. +Pattison's critical work is of so high a character. His extensive and +accurate reading, the sound common sense with which he uses his +reading, and the modesty and absence of affectation and display which +seem to be a law of his writing, place him very high. Perhaps he +believes too much in books and learning, in the power which they exert, +and what they can do to enable men to reach the higher conquests of +moral and religious truth--perhaps he forgets, in the amplitude of his +literary resources, that behind the records of thought and feeling +there are the living mind and thought themselves, still clothed with +their own proper force and energy, and working in defiance of our +attempts to classify, to judge, or to explain: that there are the real +needs, the real destinies of mankind, and the questions on which they +depend--of which books are a measure indeed, but an imperfect one. As +an instance, we might cite his "Essay on the Theology of +Germany"--elaborate, learned, extravagant in its praise and in its +scorn, full of the satisfaction of a man in possession of a startling +and little known subject, but with the contradictions of a man who in +spite of his theories believes more than his theories. But, as a +student who deals with books and what books can teach, it is a pleasure +to follow him; his work is never slovenly or superficial; the reader +feels that he is in the hands of a man who thoroughly knows what he is +talking about, and both from conscience and from disposition is anxious +above all to be accurate and discriminative. If he fails, as he often +seems to us to do, in the justice and balance of his appreciation of +the phenomena before him, if his statements and generalisations are +crude and extravagant, it is that passion and deep aversions have +overpowered the natural accuracy of his faculty of judgment. + +The feature which is characteristic in all his work is his profound +value for learning, the learning of books, of documents, of all +literature. He is a thinker, a clear and powerful one; he is a +philosopher, who has explored the problems of abstract science with +intelligence and interest, and fully recognises their importance; he +has taken the measure of the political and social questions which the +progress of civilisation has done so little to solve; he is at home +with the whole range of literature, keen and true in observation and +criticism; he has strongly marked views about education, and he took a +leading part in the great changes which have revolutionised Oxford. He +is all this; but beyond and more than all this he is a devotee of +learning, as other men are of science or politics, deeply penetrated +with its importance, keenly alive to the neglect of it, full of faith +in the services which it can render to mankind, fiercely indignant at +what degrades, or supplants, or enfeebles it. Learning, with the severe +and bracing discipline without which it is impossible, learning +embracing all efforts of human intellect--those which are warning +beacons as well those which have elevated and enlightened the human +mind--is the thing which attracts and satisfies him as nothing else +does; not mere soulless erudition, but a great supply and command of +varied facts, marshalled and turned to account by an intelligence which +knows their use. The absence of learning, or the danger to learning, is +the keynote of a powerful but acrid survey of the history and prospects +of the Anglican Church, for which, in spite of its one-sidedness and +unfairness, Churchmen may find not a little which it will be useful to +lay to heart. Dissatisfaction with the University system, in its +provision for the encouragement of learning and for strengthening and +protecting its higher interests, is the stimulus to his essay on Oxford +studies, which is animated with the idea of the University as a true +home of real learning, and is full of the hopes, the animosities, and, +it may be added, the disappointments of a revolutionary time. He exults +over the destruction of the old order; but his ideal is too high, he is +too shrewd an observer, too thorough and well-trained a judge of what +learning really means, to be quite satisfied with the new. + +The same devotion to learning shows itself in a feature of his literary +work, which is almost characteristic--the delight which he takes in +telling the detailed story of the life of some of the famous working +scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These men, whose +names are known to the modern world chiefly in notes to classical +authors, or occasionally in some impertinent sneer, he likes to +contemplate as if they were alive. To him they are men with individual +differences, each with a character and fortunes of his own, sharers to +the full in the struggles and vicissitudes of life. He can appreciate +their enormous learning, their unwearied labour, their sense of honour +in their profession; and the editor of texts, the collator of various +readings and emendations, the annotator who to us perhaps seems but a +learned pedant appears to him as a man of sound and philosophic +thought, of enthusiasm for truth and light--perhaps of genius--a man, +too, with human affections and interests, with a history not devoid of +romance. There is something touching in Mr. Pattison's affection for +those old scholars, to whom the world has done scant justice. His own +chief literary venture was the life of one of the greatest of them, +Isaac Casaubon. We have in these volumes sketches, not so elaborate, of +several others, the younger Scaliger, Muretus, Huet, and the great +French printers, the Stephenses; and in these sketches we are also +introduced to a number of their contemporaries, with characteristic +observations on them, implying an extensive and first-hand knowledge of +what they were, and an acquaintance with what was going on in the +scholar world of the day. The most important of these sketches is the +account of Justus Scaliger. There is first a review article, very +vigorous and animated. But Mr. Pattison had intended a companion volume +to his Casaubon; and of this, which was never completed, we have some +fragments, not equal in force and compactness to the original sketch. +But sketch and fragments together present a very vivid picture of this +remarkable person, whose temper and extravagant vanity his biographer +admits, but who was undoubtedly a marvel both of knowledge and of the +power to use it, and to whom we owe the beginning of order and system +in chronology. Scaliger was to Mr. Pattison the type of the real +greatness of the scholar, a greatness not the less real that the world +could hardly understand it. He certainly leaves Scaliger before us, +with his strange ways of working, his hold of the ancient languages as +if they were mother tongues, his pride and slashing sarcasm, and his +absurd claim of princely descent, with lineaments not soon forgotten; +but it is amusing to meet once more, in all seriousness, Mr. Pattison's +_bête noire_ of the Catholic reaction, in the quarrels between Scaliger +and some shallow but clever and scurrilous Jesuits, whom he had +provoked by exposing the False Decretals and the False Dionysius, and +who revenged themselves by wounding him in his most sensitive part, his +claim to descent from the Princes of Verona. Doubtless the religious +difference envenomed the dispute, but it did not need the "Catholic +reaction" to account for such ignoble wrangles in those days. + +These remains show what a historian of literature we have lost in Mr. +Pattison. He was certainly capable of doing much more than the +specimens of work which he has left behind; but what he has left is of +high value. Wherever the disturbing and embittering elements are away, +it is hard to say which is the more admirable, the patient and +sagacious way in which he has collected and mastered his facts, or the +wise and careful judgment which he passes on them. We hear of people +being spoilt by their prepossessions, their party, their prejudices, +the necessities of their political and ecclesiastical position; Mr. +Pattison is a warning that a man may claim the utmost independence, and +yet be maimed in his power of being just and reasonable by other things +than party. As it is, he has left us a collection of interesting and +valuable studies, disastrously and indelibly disfigured by an +implacable bitterness, in which he but too plainly found the greatest +satisfaction. + +Mr. Pattison used in his later years to give an occasional lecture to a +London audience. One of the latest was one addressed, we believe, to a +class of working people on poetry, in which he dwelt on its healing and +consoling power. It was full of Mr. Pattison's clearness and directness +of thought, and made a considerable impression on some who only knew it +from an abstract in the newspapers; and it was challenged by a +working-man in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, who urged against it with some +power the argument of despair. Perhaps the lecture was not written; but +if it was, and our recollection of it is at all accurate, it was not +unworthy of a place in this collection. + + + + +XXV + +BISHOP FRAZER[29] + + + [29] + _Guardian_, 28th October 1885. + +Every one must be deeply touched by the Bishop of Manchester's sudden, +and, to most of us, unexpected death; those not the least who, +unhappily, found themselves in opposition to him in many important +matters. For, in spite of much that many people must wish otherwise in +his career as Bishop, it was really a very remarkable one. Its leading +motive was high and genuine public spirit, and a generous wish to be in +full and frank sympathy with all the vast masses of his diocese; to put +himself on a level with them, as man with man, in all their interests, +to meet them fearlessly and heartily, to raise their standard of +justice and large-heartedness by showing them that in their life of +toil he shared the obligation and the burden of labour, and felt bound +by his place to be as unsparing and unselfish a worker as any of his +flock. Indeed, he was as original as Bishop Wilberforce, though in a +different direction, in introducing a new type and ideal of Episcopal +work, and a great deal of his ideal he realised. It is characteristic +of him that one of his first acts was to remove the Episcopal residence +from a mansion and park in the country to a house in Manchester. There +can be no doubt that he was thoroughly in touch with the working +classes in Lancashire, in a degree to which no other Bishop, not even +Bishop Wilberforce, had reached. There was that in the frankness and +boldness of his address which disarmed their keen suspicion of a +Bishop's inevitable assumption of superiority, and put them at their +ease with him. He was always ready to meet them, and to speak off-hand +and unconventionally, and as they speak, not always with a due +foresight of consequences or qualifications. If he did sometimes in +this way get into a scrape, he did not much mind it, and they liked him +the better for it. He was perfectly fearless in his dealings with them; +in their disputes, in which he often was invited to take a part, he +took the part which seemed to him the right one, whether or not it +might be the unpopular one. Very decided, very confident in his +opinions and the expression of them, there yet was apparent a curious +and almost touching consciousness of a deficiency in some of the +qualities--knowledge, leisure, capacity for the deeper and subtler +tasks of thought--necessary to give a strong speaker the sense of being +on sure ground. But he trusted to his manly common sense; and this, +with the populations with which he had to deal, served him well, at +least in the main and most characteristic part of his work. + +And for his success in this part of his work--in making the crowds in +Manchester feel that their Bishop was a man like themselves, quite +alive to their wants and claims and feelings, and not so unlike them in +his broad and strong utterances--his Episcopate deserves full +recognition and honour. He set an example which we may hope to see +followed and improved upon. But unfortunately there was also a less +successful side. He was a Bishop, an overseer of a flock of many ways +of life and thought, a fellow-worker with them, sympathetic, laborious, +warm-hearted. But he was also a Bishop of the Church of Christ, an +institution with its own history, its great truths to keep and deliver, +its characteristic differences from the world which it is sent to +correct and to raise to higher levels than those of time and nature. +There is no reason why this side of the Episcopal office should not be +joined to that in which Bishop Frazer so signally excelled. But for +this part of it he was not well qualified, and much in his performance +of it must be thought of with regret. The great features of Christian +truth had deeply impressed him; and to its lofty moral call he +responded with conviction and earnestness. But an acquaintance with +what he has to interpret and guard which may suffice for a layman is +not enough for a Bishop; and knowledge, the knowledge belonging to his +profession, the deeper and more varied knowledge which makes a man +competent to speak as a theologian, Bishop Frazer did not possess. He +rather disbelieved in it, and thought it useless, or, it might be, +mischievous. He resented its intrusion into spheres where he could only +see the need of the simplest and least abstruse language. But facts are +not what we may wish them, but what they are; and questions, if they +are asked, may have to be answered, with toil, it may be, and +difficulty, like the questions, assuredly not always capable of easy +and transparent statement, of mathematical or physical science; and +unless Christianity is a dream and its history one vast delusion, such +facts and such questions have made what we call theology. But to the +Bishop's practical mind they were without interest, and he could not +see how they could touch and influence living religion. And did not +care to know about them; he was impatient, and even scornful, when +stress was laid on them; he was intolerant when he thought they +competed with the immediate realities of religion. And this want of +knowledge and of respect for knowledge was a serious deficiency. It +gave sometimes a tone of thoughtless flippancy to his otherwise earnest +language. And as he was not averse to controversy, or, at any rate, +found himself often involved in it, he was betrayed sometimes into +assertions and contradictions of the most astounding inaccuracy, which +seriously weakened his authority when he was called upon to accept the +responsibility of exerting it. + +Partly for this reason, partly from a certain vivacity of temper, he +certainly showed himself, in spite of his popular qualities, less equal +than many others of his brethren to the task of appeasing and assuaging +religious strife. The difficulties in Manchester were not greater than +in other dioceses; there was not anything peculiar in them; there was +nothing but what a patient and generous arbiter, with due knowledge of +the subject, might have kept from breaking out into perilous scandals. +Unhappily he failed; and though he believed that he had only done his +duty, his failure was a source of deep distress to himself and to +others. But now that he has passed away, it is but bare justice to say +that no one worked up more conscientiously to his own standard. He gave +himself, when he was consecrated, ten or twelve years of work, and then +he hoped for retirement. He has had fifteen, and has fallen at his +post. And to the last, the qualities which gave his character such a +charm in his earlier time had not disappeared. There seemed to be +always something of the boy about him, in his simplicity, his confiding +candour and frankness with his friends, his warm-hearted and kindly +welcome, his mixture of humility with a sense of power. Those who can +remember him in his younger days still see, in spite of all the storms +and troubles of his later ones, the image of the undergraduate and the +young bachelor, who years ago made a start of such brilliant promise, +and who has fulfilled so much of it, if not all. These things at any +rate lasted to the end--his high and exacting sense of public duty, and +his unchanging affection for his old friends. + + + + +XXVI + +NEWMAN'S "APOLOGIA"[30] + + + [30] + _Apologia pro Vitâ Suâ_. By John Henry Newman, D.D. _Guardian_, 22nd + June 1864. + +We have not noticed before Dr. Newman's _Apologia_, which has been +coming out lately in weekly numbers, because we wished, when we spoke +of it, to speak of it as a whole. The special circumstances out of +which it arose may have prescribed the mode of publication. It may have +been thought more suitable, in point of form, to answer a pamphlet by a +series of pamphlets rather than at once by a set octavo of several +hundred pages. But the real subject which Dr. Newman has been led to +handle is one which will continue to be of the deepest interest long +after the controversy which suggested it is forgotten. The real subject +is the part played in the great Church movement by him who was the +leading mind in it; and it was unsatisfactory to speak of this till all +was said, and we could look on the whole course described. Such a +subject might have well excused a deliberate and leisurely volume to +itself; perhaps in this way we should have gained, in the laying out +and concentration of the narrative, and in what helps to bring it as a +whole before our thoughts. But a man's account of himself is never so +fresh and natural as when it is called out by the spur and pressure of +an accidental and instant necessity, and is directed to a purpose and +quickened by feelings which belong to immediate and passing +circumstances. The traces of hurried work are of light account when +they are the guarantees that a man is not sitting down to draw a +picture of himself, but stating his case in sad and deep earnest out of +the very fulness of his heart. + +The aim of the book is to give a minute and open account of the steps +and changes by which Dr. Newman passed from the English Church to the +Roman. The history of a change of opinion has often been written from +the most opposite points of view; but in one respect this book seems to +stand alone. Let it be remembered what it is, the narrative and the +justification of a great conversion; of a change involving an entire +reversal of views, judgments, approvals, and condemnations; a change +which, with all ordinary men, involves a reversal, at least as great, +of their sympathies and aversions, of what they tolerate and speak +kindly of. Let it be considered what changes of feeling most changes of +religion compel and consecrate; how men, commonly and very naturally, +look back on what they have left and think they have escaped from, with +the aversion of a captive to his prison; how they usually exaggerate +and make absolute their divergence from what they think has betrayed, +fooled, and degraded them; how easily they are tempted to visit on it +and on those who still cling to it their own mistakes and faults. Let +it be remembered that there was here to be told not only the history of +a change, but the history of a deep disappointment, of the failure of a +great design, of the breakdown of hopes the most promising and the most +absorbing; and this, not in the silence of a man's study, but in the +fever and contention of a great struggle wrought up to the highest +pitch of passion and fierceness, bringing with it on all sides and +leaving behind it, when over, the deep sense of wrong. It is no history +of a mere intellectual movement, or of a passage from strong belief to +a weakened and impaired one, to uncertainty, or vagueness, or +indifference; it is not the account of a change by a man who is half +sorry for his change, and speaks less hostilely of what he has left +because he feels less friendly towards what he has joined. There is no +reserved thought to be discerned in the background of disappointment or +a wish to go back again to where he once was. It is a book which +describes how a man, zealous and impatient for truth, thought he had +found it in one Church, then thought that his finding was a delusion, +and sought for it and believed he had gained it in another. What it +shows us is no serene readjustment of abstract doctrines, but the wreck +and overturning of trust and conviction and the practical grounds of +life, accompanied with everything to provoke, embitter, and exasperate. +It need not be said that what Dr. Newman holds he is ready to carry out +to the end, or that he can speak severely of men and systems. + +Let all this be remembered, and also that there is an opposition +between what he was and what he is, which is usually viewed as +irreconcilable, and which, on the ordinary assumptions about it, is so; +and we venture to say that there is not another instance to be quoted, +of the history of a conversion, in which he who tells his conversion +has so retained his self-possession, his temper, his mastery over his +own real judgment and thoughts, his ancient and legitimate sympathies, +his superiority to the natural and inevitable temptations of so altered +a position; which is so generous to what he feels to be strong and good +in what he has nevertheless abandoned, so fearless about letting his +whole case come out, so careless about putting himself in the right in +detail; which is so calm, and kindly, and measured, with such a quiet +effortless freedom from the stings of old conflicts, which bears so few +traces of that bitterness and antipathy which generally--and we need +hardly wonder at it--follows the decisive breaking with that on which a +man's heart was stayed, and for which he would once have died. + +There is another thing to be said, and we venture to say it out +plainly, because Dr. Newman himself has shown that he knows quite well +what he has been doing. While he has written what will command the +sympathy and the reverence of every one, however irreconcilably opposed +to him, to whom a great and noble aim and the trials of a desperate and +self-sacrificing struggle to compass it are objects of admiration and +honour, it is undeniable that ill-nature or vindictiveness or stupidity +will find ample materials of his own providing to turn against him. +Those who know Dr. Newman's powers and are acquainted with his career, +and know to what it led him, and yet persist in the charge of +insincerity and dishonesty against one who probably has made the +greatest sacrifice of our generation to his convictions of truth, will +be able to pick up from his own narrative much that they would not +otherwise have known, to confirm and point the old familiar views +cherished by dislike or narrowness. This is inevitable when a man takes +the resolution of laying himself open so unreservedly, and with so +little care as to what his readers think of what he tells them, so that +they will be persuaded that he was ever, even from his boyhood, deeply +conscious of the part which he was performing in the sight of his +Maker. Those who smile at the belief of a deep and religious mind in +the mysterious interventions and indications of Providence in the +guidance of human life, will open their eyes at the feeling which leads +him to tell the story of his earliest recollections of Roman Catholic +peculiarities, and of the cross imprinted on his exercise-book. Those +who think that everything about religion and their own view of religion +is such plain sailing, so palpable and manifest, that all who are not +fools or knaves must be of their own opinion, will find plenty to +wonder at in the confessions of awful perplexity which equally before +and after his change Dr. Newman makes. Those who have never doubted, +who can no more imagine the practical difficulties accompanying a great +change of belief than they can imagine a change of belief itself, will +meet with much that to them will seem beyond pardon, in the actual +events of a change, involving such issues and such interests, made so +deliberately and cautiously, with such hesitation and reluctance, and +in so long a time; they will be able to point to many moments in it +when it will be easy to say that more or less ought to have been said, +more or less ought to have been done. Much more will those who are on +the side of doubt, who acquiesce in, or who desire the overthrow of +existing hopes and beliefs, rejoice in such a frank avowal of the +difficulties of religion and the perplexities of so earnest a believer, +and make much of their having driven such a man to an alternative so +obnoxious and so monstrous to most Englishmen. It is a book full of +minor premisses, to which many opposite majors will be fitted. But +whatever may be thought of many details, the effect and lesson of the +whole will not be lost on minds of any generosity, on whatever side +they may be; they will be touched with the confiding nobleness which +has kept back nothing, which has stated its case with its weak points +and its strong, and with full consciousness of what was weak as well as +of what was strong, which has surrendered its whole course of conduct, +just as it has been, to be scrutinised, canvassed, and judged. What we +carry away from following such a history is something far higher and +more solemn than any controversial inferences; and it seems almost like +a desecration to make, as we say, capital out of it, to strengthen mere +argument, to confirm a theory, or to damage an opponent. + +The truth, in fact, is, that the interest is personal much more than +controversial. Those who read it as a whole, and try to grasp the +effect of all its portions compared together and gathered into one, +will, it seems to us, find it hard to bend into a decisive triumph for +any of the great antagonist systems which appear in collision. There +can be no doubt of the perfect conviction with which Dr. Newman has +taken his side for good. But while he states the effect of arguments on +his own mind, he leaves the arguments in themselves as they were, and +touches on them, not for the sake of what they are worth, but to +explain the movements and events of his own course. Not from any +studied impartiality, which is foreign to his character, but from his +strong and keen sense of what is real and his determined efforts to +bring it out, he avoids the temptation--as it seems to us, who still +believe that he was more right once than he is now--to do injustice to +his former self and his former position. At any rate, the arguments to +be drawn from this narrative, for or against England, or for or against +Rome, seem to us very evenly balanced. Of course, such a history has +its moral. But the moral is not the ordinary vulgar one of the history +of a religious change. It is not the supplement or disguise of a +polemical argument. It is the deep want and necessity in our age of the +Church, even to the most intensely religious and devoted minds, of a +sound and secure intellectual basis for the faith which they value more +than life and all things. We hope that we are strong enough to afford +to judge fairly of such a spectacle, and to lay to heart its warnings, +even though the particular results seem to go against what we think +most right. It is a mortification and a trial to the English Church to +have seen her finest mind carried away and lost to her, but it is a +mortification which more confident and peremptory systems than hers +have had to undergo; the parting was not without its compensations if +only that it brought home so keenly to many the awfulness and the +seriousness of truth; and surely never did any man break so utterly +with a Church, who left so many sympathies behind him and took so many +with him, who continued to feel so kindly and with such large-hearted +justice to those from whom his changed position separated him in this +world for ever. + +The _Apologia_ is the history of a great battle against Liberalism, +understanding by Liberalism the tendencies of modern thought to destroy +the basis of revealed religion, and ultimately of all that can be +called religion at all. The question which he professedly addresses +himself to set at rest, that of his honesty, is comparatively of slight +concern to those who knew him, except so far that they must be +interested that others, who did not know him, should not be led to do a +revolting injustice. The real interest is to see how one who felt so +keenly the claims both of what is new and what is old, who, with such +deep and unusual love and trust for antiquity, took in with quick +sympathy, and in its most subtle and most redoubtable shapes, the +intellectual movement of modern times, could continue to feel the force +of both, and how he would attempt to harmonise them. Two things are +prominent in the whole history. One is the fact of religion, early and +deeply implanted in the writer's mind, absorbing and governing it +without rival throughout. He speaks of an "inward conversion" at the +age of fifteen, "of which I was conscious, and of which I am still more +certain than that I have hands and feet." It was the religion of dogma +and of a definite creed which made him "rest in the thought of two, and +two only, supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my +Creator"--which completed itself with the idea of a visible Church and +its sacramental system. Religion, in this aspect of it, runs unchanged +from end to end of the scene of change:-- + + I have changed in many things; in this I have not. From the age of + fifteen dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion; I + know no other religion. I cannot enter into the idea of any other + sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream + and a mockery. As well can there be filial love without the fact + of a father, as devotion without the fact of a Supreme Being. What + I held in 1816 I held in 1833, and I hold in 1864. Please God I + shall hold it to the end. Even when I was under Dr. Whately's + influence I had no temptation to be less zealous for the dogmas of + the faith. + +The other thing is the haunting necessity, in an age of thought and +innovation, of a philosophy of religion, equally deep, equally +comprehensive and thorough, with the invading powers which it was +wanted to counteract; a philosophy, not on paper or in theory, but +answering to and vouched for by the facts of real life. In the English +Church he found, we think that we may venture to say, the religion +which to him was life, but not the philosophy which he wanted. The +_Apologia_ is the narrative of his search for it. Two strongly marked +lines of thought are traceable all through, one modern in its scope and +sphere, the other ancient. The leading subject of his modern thought is +the contest with liberal unbelief; contrasted with this was his strong +interest in Christian antiquity, his deep attachment to the creed, the +history, and the moral temper of the early Church. The one line of +thought made him, and even now makes him, sympathise with Anglicanism, +which is in the same boat with him, holds the same principle of the +unity and continuity of revealed truth, and is doing the same work, +though, as he came to think in the end, feebly and hopelessly. The +other, more and more, carried him away from Anglicanism; and the +contrast and opposition between it and the ancient Church, in +organisation, in usage, and in that general tone of feeling which +quickens and gives significance and expression to forms, overpowered +more and more the sense of affinity, derived from the identity of +creeds and sacraments and leading points of Church polity, and from the +success with which the best and greatest Anglican writers had +appropriated and assimilated the theology of the Fathers. But though he +urges the force of ecclesiastical precedents in a startling way, as in +the account which he gives of the effect of the history of the +Monophysites on his view of the tenableness of the Anglican theory, +absolutely putting out of consideration the enormous difference of +circumstances between the cases which are compared, and giving the +instance in question a force and importance which seem to be in +singular contrast with the general breadth and largeness of his +reasoning, it was not the halting of an ecclesiastical theory which +dissatisfied him with the English Church. + +Anglicanism was not daring enough for him. With his ideas of the coming +dangers and conflicts, he wanted something bold and thoroughgoing, +wide-reaching in its aims, resolute in its language, claiming and +venturing much. Anglicanism was not that. It had given up as +impracticable much that the Church had once attempted. It did not +pretend to rise so high, to answer such great questions, to lay down +such precise definitions. Wisely modest, or timidly uncertain--mindful +of the unalterable limits of our human condition, _we_ say; forgetful, +_he_ thought, or doubting, or distrustful, of the gifts and promises of +a supernatural dispensation--it certainly gave no such complete and +decisive account of the condition and difficulties of religion and the +world, as had been done once, and as there were some who did still. +There were problems which it did not profess to solve; there were +assertions which others boldly risked, and which it shrunk from making; +there were demands which it ventured not to put forward. Again, it was +not refined enough for him; it had little taste for the higher forms of +the saintly ideal; it wanted the austere and high-strung-virtues; it +was contented, for the most part, with the domestic type of excellence, +in which goodness merged itself in the interests and business of the +common world, and, working in them, took no care to disengage itself or +mark itself off, as something distinct from them and above them. Above +all, Anglicanism was too limited; it was local, insular, national; its +theory was made for its special circumstances; and he describes in a +remarkable passage how, in contrast with this, there rung in his ears +continually the proud self-assertion of the other side, _Securus +judicat orbis terrarum_. What he wanted, what it was the aim of his +life to find, was a great and effective engine against Liberalism; for +years he tried, with eager but failing hope, to find it in the theology +and working of the English Church; when he made up his mind that +Anglicanism was not strong enough for the task, he left it for a system +which had one strong power; which claimed to be able to shut up +dangerous thought. + +Very sorrowful, indeed, is the history, told so openly, so simply, so +touchingly, of the once promising advance, of the great breakdown. And +yet, to those who still cling to what he left, regret is not the only +feeling. For he has the nobleness and the generosity to say what he +_did_ find in the English Church, as well as what he did not find. He +has given her up for good, but he tells and he shows, with no grudging +frankness, what are the fruits of her discipline. "So I went on for +years, up to 1841. It was, in a human point of view, the happiest time +of my life.... I did not suppose that such sunshine would last, though I +knew not what would be its termination. It was the time of plenty, and +during its seven years I tried to lay up as much as I could for the +dearth which was to follow it." He explains and defends what to us seem +the fatal marks against Rome; but he lets us see with what force, and +for how long, they kept alive his own resistance to an attraction which +to him was so overwhelming. And he is at no pains to conceal--it seems +even to console him to show--what a pang and wrench it cost him to +break from that home under whose shadow his spiritual growth had +increased. He has condemned us unreservedly; but there must, at any +rate, be some wonderful power and charm about that which he loved with +a love which is not yet extinguished; else how could he write of the +past as he does? He has shown that he can understand, though he is +unable to approve, that others should feel that power still. + +Dr. Newman has stated, with his accustomed force and philosophical +refinement, what he considers the true idea of that infallibility, +which he looks upon as the only power in the world which can make head +against and balance Liberalism--which "can withstand and baffle the +fierce energy of passion, and the all-corroding, all-dissolving +scepticism of the intellect in religious inquiries;" which he considers +"as a provision, adapted by the mercy of the Creator, to preserve +religion in the world, and to restrain that freedom of thought which is +one of the greatest of our natural gifts, from its own suicidal +excesses." He says, as indeed is true, that it is "a tremendous power," +though he argues that, in fact, its use is most wisely and beneficially +limited. And doubtless, whatever the difficulty of its proof may be, +and to us this proof seems simply beyond possibility, it is no mere +power upon paper. It acts and leaves its mark; it binds fast and +overthrows for good. But when, put at its highest, it is confronted +with the "giant evil" which it is supposed to be sent into the world to +repel, we can only say that, to a looker-on, its failure seems as +manifest as the existence of the claim to use it. It no more does its +work, in the sense of _succeeding_ and triumphing, than the less +magnificent "Establishments" do. It keeps _some_ check--it fails on a +large scale and against the real strain and pinch of the mischief; and +they, too, keep _some_ check, and are not more fairly beaten than it +is, in "making a stand against the wild living intellect of man." + +Without infallibility, it is said, men will turn freethinkers and +heretics; but don't they, _with_ it? and what is the good of the engine +if it will not do its work? And if it is said that this is the fault of +human nature, which resists what provokes and checks it, still that +very thing, which infallibility was intended to counteract, goes on +equally, whether it comes into play or not. Meanwhile, truth does stay +in the world, the truth that there has been among us a Divine Person, +of whom the Church throughout Christendom is the representative, +memorial, and the repeater of His message; doubtless, the means of +knowledge are really guarded; yet we seem to receive that message as we +receive the witness of moral truth; and it would not be contrary to the +analogy of things here if we had often got to it at last through +mistakes. But when it is reached, there it is, strong in its own power; +and it is difficult to think that if it is not strong enough in itself +to stand, it can be protected by a claim of infallibility. A future, of +which infallibility is the only hope and safeguard, seems to us indeed +a prospect of the deepest gloom. + +Dr. Newman, in a very remarkable passage, describes the look and +attitude of invading Liberalism, and tells us why he is not forward in +the conflict. "It seemed to be a time of all others in which Christians +had a call to be patient, in which they had no other way of helping +those who were alarmed than that of exhorting them to have a little +faith and fortitude, and 'to beware,' as the poet says, 'of dangerous +steps.'" And he interprets "recent acts of the highest Catholic +authority" as meaning that there is nothing to do just now but to sit +still and trust. Well; but the _Christian Year_ will do that much for +us, just as well. + +People who talk glibly of the fearless pursuit of truth may here see a +real example of a life given to it--an example all the more solemn and +impressive if they think that the pursuit was in vain. It is easy to +declaim about it, and to be eloquent about lies and sophistries; but it +is shallow to forget that truth has its difficulties. To hear some +people talk, it might be thought that truth was a thing to be made out +and expressed at will, under any circumstances, at any time, amid any +complexities of facts or principles, by half an hour's choosing to be +attentive, candid, logical, and resolute; as if there was not a chance +of losing what perhaps you have, as well as of gaining what you think +you need. If they would look about them, if they would look into +themselves, they would recognise that Truth is an awful and formidable +goddess to all men and to all systems; that all have their weak points +where virtually, more or less consciously, more or less dexterously, +they shrink from meeting her eye; that even when we make sacrifice of +everything for her sake, we find that she still encounters us with +claims, seemingly inconsistent with all that she has forced us to +embrace--with appearances which not only convict us of mistake, but +seem to oblige us to be tolerant of what we cannot really assent to. + +She gives herself freely to the earnest and true-hearted inquirer; but +to those who presume on the easiness of her service, she has a side of +strong irony. You common-sense men, she seems to say, who see no +difficulties in the world, you little know on what shaky ground you +stand, and how easily you might be reduced to absurdity. You critical +and logical intellects, who silence all comers and cannot be answered, +and can show everybody to be in the wrong--into what monstrous and +manifest paradoxes are you not betrayed, blind to the humble facts +which upset your generalisations, not even seeing that dulness itself +can pronounce you mistaken! + +In the presence of such a narrative as this, sober men will think more +seriously than ever about charging their most extreme opponents with +dishonesty and disregard to truth. + +As we said before, this history seems to us to leave the theological +question just where it was. The objections to Rome, which Dr. Newman +felt so strongly once, but which yielded to other considerations, we +feel as strongly still. The substantial points of the English theory, +which broke down to his mind, seem to us as substantial and trustworthy +as before. He failed, but we believe that, in spite of everything, +England is the better for his having made his trial. Even Liberalism +owes to the movement of which he was the soul much of what makes it now +such a contrast, in largeness of mind and warmth, to the dry, +repulsive, narrow, material Liberalism of the Reform era. He, and he +mainly, has been the source, often unrecognised and unsuspected, of +depth and richness and beauty, and the strong passion for what is +genuine and real, in our religious teaching. Other men, other +preachers, have taken up his thoughts and decked them out, and had the +credit of being greater than their master. + +In looking back on the various turns and vicissitudes of his English +course, we, who inherit the fruits of that glorious failure, should +speak respectfully and considerately where we do not agree with him, +and with deep gratitude--all the more that now so much lies between +us--where we do. But the review makes us feel more than ever that the +English Church, whose sturdy strength he underrated, and whose +irregular theories provoked him, was fully worthy of the interest and +the labours of the leader who despaired of her. Anglicanism has so far +outlived its revolutions, early and late ones, has marched on in a +distinct path, has developed a theology, has consolidated an +organisation, has formed a character and tone, has been the organ of a +living spirit. The "magnetic storms" of thought which sweep over the +world may be destructive and dangerous to it, as much as, but not more +than, to other bodies which claim to be Churches and to represent the +message of God. But there is nothing to make us think that, in the +trials which may be in store, the English Church will fail while others +hold their own. + + + + +XXVII + +DR. NEWMAN ON THE "EIRENICON"[31] + + + [31] + _The Times_, 31st March 1866. + +Dr. Pusey's Appeal has received more than one answer. These answers, +from the Roman Catholic side, are--what it was plain that they would +be--assurances to him that he looks at the question from an entirely +mistaken point of view; that it is, of course, very right and good of +him to wish for peace and union, but that there is only one way of +peace and union--unconditional submission. He may have peace and union +for himself at any moment, if he will; so may the English Church, or +the Greek Church, or any other religious body, organised or +unorganised. + +The way is always open; there is no need to write long books or make +elaborate proposals about union. Union means becoming Catholic; +becoming Catholic means acknowledging the exclusive claims of the Pope +or the Roman Church. In the long controversy one party has never for an +instant wavered in the assertion that it could not, and never would, be +in the wrong. The way to close the controversy, and the only one, is to +admit that Dr. Pusey shall have any amount of assurance and proof that +the Roman position and Roman doctrine and practice are the right ones. + +His misapprehensions shall be corrected; his ignorance of what is Roman +theology fully, and at any length, enlightened. There is no desire to +shrink from the fullest and most patient argument in its favour, and he +may call it, if he likes, explanation. But there is only one practical +issue to what he has proposed--not to stand bargaining for impossible +conditions, but thankfully and humbly to join himself to the true +Church while he may. It is only the way in which the answer is given +that varies. Here characteristic differences appear. The authorities of +the Roman Catholic Church swell out to increased magnificence, and +nothing can exceed the suavity and the compassionate scorn with which +they point out the transparent absurdity and the audacity of such +proposals. The Holy Office at Rome has not, it may be, yet heard of Dr. +Pusey; it may regret, perhaps, that it did not wait for so +distinguished a mark for its censure; but its attention has been drawn +to some smaller offenders of the same way of thinking, and it has been +induced to open all the floodgates of its sonorous and antiquated +verbiage to sweep away and annihilate a poor little London +periodical--"_ephemeridem cui titulus, 'The Union Review_.'" The +Archbishop of Westminster, not deigning to name Dr. Pusey, has seized +the opportunity to reiterate emphatically, in stately periods and with +a polished sarcasm, his boundless contempt for the foolish people who +dare to come "with swords wreathed in myrtle" between the Catholic +Church and "her mission to the great people of England." On the other +hand, there have been not a few Roman Catholics who have listened with +interest and sympathy to what Dr. Pusey had to say, and, though +obviously they had but one answer to give, have given it with a sense +of the real condition and history of the Christian world, and with the +respect due to a serious attempt to look evils in the face. But there +is only one person on the Roman Catholic side whose reflections on the +subject English readers in general would much care to know. Anybody +could tell beforehand what Archbishop Manning would say; but people +could not feel so certain what Dr. Newman might say. + +Dr. Newman has given his answer; and his answer is, of course, in +effect the same as that of the rest of his co-religionists. He offers +not the faintest encouragement to Dr. Pusey's sanguine hopes. If it is +possible to conceive that one side could move in the matter, it is +absolutely certain that the other would be inflexible. Any such dealing +on equal terms with the heresy and schism of centuries is not to be +thought of; no one need affect surprise at the refusal. What Dr. Pusey +asks is, in fact, to pull the foundation out from under the whole +structure of Roman Catholic pretensions. Dr. Newman does not waste +words to show that the plan of the _Eirenicon_ is impossible. He +evidently assumes that it is so, and we agree with him. But there are +different ways of dispelling a generous dream, and telling a serious +man who is in earnest that he is mistaken. Dr. Newman does justice, as +he ought to do, to feelings and views which none can enter into better +than he, whatever he may think of them now. He does justice to the +understanding and honesty, as well as the high aims, of an old friend, +once his comrade in difficult and trying times, though now long parted +from him by profound differences, and to the motives which prompted so +venturous an attempt as the _Eirenicon_ to provoke public discussion on +the reunion of Christendom. He is capable of measuring the real state +of the facts, and the mischiefs and evils for which a remedy is wanted, +by a more living rule than the suppositions and consequences of a +cut-and-dried theory. Rightly or wrongly he argues--at least, he gives +us something to think of. Perhaps not the least of his merit is that he +writes simply and easily in choice and varied English, instead of +pompously ringing the changes on a set of _formulae_ which beg the +question, and dinning into our ears the most extravagant assertions of +foreign ecclesiastical arrogance. We may not always think him fair, or +a sound reasoner, but he is conciliatory, temperate, and often +fearlessly candid. He addresses readers who will challenge and examine +what he says, not those whose minds are cowed and beaten down before +audacity in proportion to its coolness, and whom paradox, the more +extreme the better, fascinates and drags captive. To his old friend he +is courteous, respectful, sympathetic; where the occasion makes it +fitting, affectionate, even playful, as men are who can afford to let +their real feelings come out, and have not to keep up appearances. +Unflinching he is in maintaining his present position as the upholder +of the exclusive claims of the Roman Church to represent the Catholic +Church of the Creeds; but he has the good sense and good feeling to +remember that he once shared the views of those whom he now +controverts, and that their present feelings about the divisions of +Christendom were once his own. Such language as the following is plain, +intelligible, and manly. Of course, he has his own position, and must +see things according to it. But he recognises the right of conscience +in those who, having gone a long way with him, find that they can go no +further, and he pays a compliment, becoming as from himself, and not +without foundation in fact, to the singular influence which, from +whatever cause, Dr. Pusey's position gives him, and which, we may add, +imposes on him, in more ways than one, very grave responsibilities:-- + + You, more than any one else alive, have been the present and + untiring agent by whom a great work has been effected in it; and, + far more than is usual, you have received in your lifetime, as + well as merited, the confidence of your brethren. You cannot speak + merely for yourself; your antecedents, your existing influence, + are a pledge to us that what you may determine will be the + determination of a multitude. Numbers, too, for whom you cannot + properly be said to speak, will be moved by your authority or your + arguments; and numbers, again, who are of a school more recent + than your own, and who are only not your followers because they + have outstripped you in their free speeches and demonstrative acts + in our behalf, will, for the occasion, accept you as their + spokesman. There is no one anywhere--among ourselves, in your own + body, or, I suppose, in the Greek Church--who can affect so vast a + circle of men, so virtuous, so able, so learned, so zealous, as + come, more or less, under your influence; and I cannot pay them + all a greater compliment than to tell them they ought all to be + Catholics, nor do them a more affectionate service than to pray + that they may one day become such.... + + I recollect well what an outcast I seemed to myself when I took + down from the shelves of my library the volumes of St. Athanasius + or St. Basil, and set myself to study them; and how, on the + contrary, when at length I was brought into Catholicism, I kissed + them with delight, with a feeling that in them I had more than all + that I had lost, and, as though I were directly addressing the + glorious saints who bequeathed them to the Church, I said to the + inanimate pages, "You are now mine, and I am now yours, beyond any + mistake." Such, I conceive, would be the joy of the persons I + speak of if they could wake up one morning and find themselves + possessed by right of Catholic traditions and hopes, without + violence to their own sense of duty; and certainly I am the last + man to say that such violence is in any case lawful, that the + claims of conscience are not paramount, or that any one may + overleap what he deliberately holds to be God's command, in order + to make his path easier for him or his heart lighter. + + I am the last man to quarrel with this jealous deference to the + voice of our conscience, whatever judgment others may form of us + in consequence, for this reason, because their case, as it at + present stands, has as you know been my own. You recollect well + what hard things were said against us twenty-five years ago which + we knew in our hearts we did not deserve. Hence, I am now in the + position of the fugitive Queen in the well-known passage, who, + "_haud ignara mali_" herself, had learned to sympathise with those + who were inheritors of her past wanderings. + +Dr. Newman's hopes, and what most of his countrymen consider the hopes +of truth and religion, are not the same. His wish is, of course, that +his friend should follow him; a wish in which there is not the +slightest reason to think that he will be gratified. But differently as +we must feel as to the result, we cannot help sharing the evident +amusement with which Dr. Newman recalls a few of the compliments which +were lavished on him by some of his present co-religionists when he was +trying to do them justice, and was even on the way to join them. He +reprints with sly and mischievous exactness a string of those glib +phrases of controversial dislike and suspicion which are common to all +parties, and which were applied to him by "priests, good men, whose +zeal outstripped their knowledge, and who in consequence spoke +confidently, when they would have been wiser had they suspended their +adverse judgment of those whom they were soon to welcome as brothers in +communion." It is a trifle, but it strikes us as characteristic. Dr. +Newman is one of the very few who have carried into his present +communion, to a certain degree at least, an English habit of not +letting off the blunders and follies of his own side, and of daring to +think that a cause is better served by outspoken independence of +judgment than by fulsome, unmitigated puffing. It might be well if even +in him there were a little more of this habit. But, so far as it goes, +it is the difference between him and most of those who are leaders on +his side. Indirectly he warns eager controversialists that they are not +always the wisest and the most judicious and far-seeing of men; and we +cannot quarrel with him, however little we may like the occasion, for +the entertainment which he feels in inflicting on his present brethren +what they once judged and said of him, and in reminding them that their +proficiency in polemical rhetoric did not save them from betraying the +shallowness of their estimate and the shortness of their foresight. + +When he comes to discuss the _Eirenicon_, Dr. Newman begins with a +complaint which seems to us altogether unreasonable. He seems to think +it hard that Dr. Pusey should talk of peace and reunion, and yet speak +so strongly of what he considers the great corruptions of the Roman +Church. In ordinary controversy, says Dr. Newman, we know what we are +about and what to expect; "'_Caedimur, et totidem plagis consumimus +hostem_.' We give you a sharp cut and you return it.... But we at least +have not professed to be composing an _Eirenicon_, when we treated you +as foes." Like Archbishop Manning, Dr. Newman is reminded "of the sword +wreathed in myrtle;" but Dr. Pusey, he says, has improved on the +ancient device,--"Excuse me, you discharge your olive-branch as if from +a catapult." + +This is, no doubt, exactly what Dr. Pusey has done. Going much further +than the great majority of his countrymen will go with him in +admissions in favour of the Roman Catholic Church, he has pointed out +with a distinctness and force, never, perhaps, exceeded, what is the +impassable barrier which, as long as it lasts, makes every hope of +union idle. The practical argument against Rome is stated by him in a +shape which comes home to the consciences of all, whatever their +theological training and leanings, who have been brought up in English +ways and ideas of religion. But why should he not? He is desirous of +union--the reunion of the whole of Christendom. He gives full credit to +the Roman communion--much more credit than most of his brethren think +him justified in giving--for what is either defensible or excellent in +it. Dr. Newman must be perfectly aware that Dr. Pusey has gone to the +very outside of what our public feeling in England will bear in favour +of efforts for reconciliation, and he nowhere shows any sign that he is +thinking of unconditional submission. How, then, can he be expected to +mince matters and speak smoothly when he comes to what he regards as +the real knot of the difficulty, the real and fatal bar to all +possibility of a mutual understanding? If his charges are untrue or +exaggerated in detail or colouring, that is another matter; but the +whole of his pleading for peace presupposes that there are great and +serious obstacles to it in what is practically taught and authorised in +the Roman Church; and it is rather hard to blame him for "not making +the best of things," and raising difficulties in the way of the very +object which he seeks, because he states the truth about these +obstacles. We are afraid that we must be of Dr. Newman's opinion that +the _Eirenicon_ is not calculated to lead, in our time at least, to +what it aims at--the reunion of Christendom; but this arises from the +real obstacles themselves, not from Dr. Pusey's way of stating them. +There may be no way to peace, but surely if there is, though it implies +giving full weight to your sympathies, and to the points on which you +may give way, it also involves the possibility of speaking out plainly, +and also of being listened to, on the points on which you really +disagree. Does Dr. Newman think that all Dr. Pusey felt he had to do +was to conciliate Roman Catholics? Does it follow, because objections +are intemperately and unfairly urged on the Protestant side, that +therefore they are not felt quite as much in earnest by sober and +tolerant people, and that they may not be stated in their real force +without giving occasion for the remark that this is reviving the old +cruel war against Rome, and rekindling a fierce style of polemics which +is now out of date? And how is Dr. Pusey to state these objections if, +when he goes into them, not in a vague declamatory way, but showing his +respect and seriousness by his guarded and full and definite manner of +proof, he is to be met by the charge that he does not show sufficient +consideration? All this may be a reason for thinking it vain to write +an Eirenicon at all. But if one is to be attempted, it certainly will +not do to make it a book of compliments. Its first condition is that if +it makes light of lesser difficulties it should speak plainly about +greater ones. + +But this is, after all, a matter of feeling. No doubt, as Dr. Newman +says, people are not pleased or conciliated by elaborate proofs that +they are guilty of something very wrong or foolish. What is of more +interest is to know the effect on a man like Dr. Newman of such a +display of the prevailing tendency of religious thought and devotion in +his communion as Dr. Pusey has given from Roman Catholic writers. And +it is plain that, whoever else is satisfied with them, these tendencies +are not entirely satisfactory to Dr. Newman. That rage for foreign +ideas and foreign usages which has come over a section of his friends, +the loudest and perhaps the ablest section of them, has no charms for +him. He asserts resolutely and rather sternly his right to have an +opinion of his own, and declines to commit himself, or to allow that +his cause is committed, to a school of teaching which happens for the +moment to have the talk to itself; and he endeavours at great length to +present a view of the teaching of his Church which shall be free, if +not from all Dr. Pusey's objections, yet from a certain number of them, +which to Dr. Newman himself appear grave. After disclaiming or +correcting certain alleged admissions of his own, on which Dr. Pusey +had placed a construction too favourable to the Anglican Church, Dr. +Newman comes to a passage which seems to rouse him. A convert, says Dr. +Pusey, must take things as he finds them in his new communion, and it +would be unbecoming in him to criticise. This statement gives Dr. +Newman the opportunity of saying that, except with large qualifications, +he does not accept it for himself. Of course, he says, there are +considerations of modesty, of becomingness, of regard to the feelings +of others with equal or greater claims than himself, which bind a +convert as they bind any one who has just gained admission into a +society of his fellow men. He has no business "to pick and choose," and +to set himself up as a judge of everything in his new position. But +though every man of sense who thought he had reason for so great a +change would be generous and loyal in accepting his new religion as a +whole, in time he comes "to have a right to speak as well as to hear;" +and for this right, both generally and in his own case, he stands up +very resolutely:-- + + Also, in course of time a new generation rises round him, and + there is no reason why he should not know as much, and decide + questions with as true an instinct, as those who perhaps number + fewer years than he does Easter communions. He has mastered the + fact and the nature of the differences of theologian from + theologian, school from school, nation from nation, era from era. + He knows that there is much of what may be called fashion in + opinions and practices, according to the circumstances of time and + place, according to current politics, the character of the Pope of + the day, or the chief Prelates of a particular country; and that + fashions change. His experience tells him that sometimes what is + denounced in one place as a great offence, or preached up as a + first principle, has in another nation been immemorially regarded + in just a contrary sense, or has made no sensation at all, one way + or the other, when brought before public opinion; and that loud + talkers, in the Church as elsewhere, are apt to carry all before + them, while quiet and conscientious persons commonly have to give + way. He perceives that, in matters which happen to be in debate, + ecclesiastical authority watches the state of opinion and the + direction and course of controversy, and decides accordingly; so + that in certain cases to keep back his own judgment on a point is + to be disloyal to his superiors. + + So far generally; now in particular as to myself. After twenty + years of Catholic life, I feel no delicacy in giving my opinion on + any point when there is a call for me,--and the only reason why I + have not done so sooner or more often than I have, is that there + has been no call. I have now reluctantly come to the conclusion + that your Volume _is_ a call. Certainly, in many instances in + which theologian differs from theologian, and country from + country, I have a definite judgment of my own; I can say so + without offence to any one, for the very reason that from the + nature of the case it is impossible to agree with all of them. I + prefer English habits of belief and devotion to foreign, from the + same causes, and by the same right, which justifies foreigners in + preferring their own. In following those of my people, I show less + singularity, and create less disturbance than if I made a flourish + with what is novel and exotic. And in this line of conduct I am + but availing myself of the teaching which I fell in with on + becoming a Catholic; and it is a pleasure to me to think that what + I hold now, and would transmit after me if I could, is only what I + received then. + +He observes that when he first joined the Roman Catholic Church the +utmost delicacy was observed in giving him advice; and the only warning +which he can recollect was from the Vicar-General of the London +district, who cautioned him against books of devotion of the Italian +school, which were then just coming into England, and recommended him +to get, as safe guides, the works of Bishop Hay. Bishop Hay's name is +thus, probably for the first time, introduced to the general English +public. It is difficult to forbear a smile at the great Oxford teacher, +the master of religious thought and feeling to thousands, being gravely +set to learn his lesson of a more perfect devotion, how to meditate and +how to pray, from "the works of Bishop Hay"; it is hardly more easy to +forbear a smile at his recording it. But Bishop Hay was a sort of +symbol, and represents, he says, English as opposed to foreign habits +of thought; and to these English habits he not only gives his +preference, but he maintains that they are more truly those of the +whole Roman Catholic body in England than the more showy and extreme +doctrines of a newer school. Dr. Pusey does wrong, he says, in taking +this new school as the true exponent of Roman Catholic ideas. That it +is popular he admits, but its popularity is to be accounted for by +personal qualifications in its leaders for gaining the ear of the +world, without supposing that they speak for their body. + + Though I am a convert, then, I think I have a right to speak out; + and that the more because other converts have spoken for a long + time, while I have not spoken; and with still more reason may I + speak without offence in the case of your present criticisms of + us, considering that in the charges you bring the only two English + writers you quote in evidence are both of them converts, younger + in age than myself. I put aside the Archbishop of course, because + of his office. These two authors are worthy of all consideration, + at once from their character and from their ability. In their + respective lines they are perhaps without equals at this + particular time; and they deserve the influence they possess. One + is still in the vigour of his powers; the other has departed amid + the tears of hundreds. It is pleasant to praise them for their + real qualifications; but why do you rest on them as authorities? + Because the one was "a popular writer"; but is there not + sufficient reason for this in the fact of his remarkable gifts, of + his poetical fancy, his engaging frankness, his playful wit, his + affectionateness, his sensitive piety, without supposing that the + wide diffusion of his works arises out of his particular + sentiments about the Blessed Virgin? And as to our other friend, + do not his energy, acuteness, and theological reading, displayed + on the vantage ground of the historic _Dublin Review_, fully + account for the sensation he has produced, without supposing that + any great number of our body go his lengths in their view of the + Pope's infallibility? Our silence as regards their writings is + very intelligible; it is not agreeable to protest, in the sight of + the world, against the writings of men in our own communion whom + we love and respect. But the plain fact is this--they came to the + Church, and have thereby saved their souls; but they are in no + sense spokesmen for English Catholics, and they must not stand in + the place of those who have a real title to such an office. + +And he appeals from them, as authorities, to a list of much more sober +and modest writers, though, it may be, the names of all of them are not +familiar to the public. He enumerates as the "chief authors of the +passing generation," "Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Ullathorne, Dr. Lingard, +Mr. Tierney, Dr. Oliver, Dr. Rock, Dr. Waterworth, Dr. Husenbeth, Mr. +Flanagan." If these well-practised and circumspect veterans in the +ancient controversy are not original and brilliant, at least they are +safe; and Dr. Newman will not allow the flighty intellectualism which +takes more hold of modern readers to usurp their place, and for himself +he sturdily and bluffly declines to give up his old standing-ground for +any one:-- + + I cannot, then, without remonstrance, allow you to identify the + doctrine of our Oxford friends in question, on the two subjects I + have mentioned, with the present spirit or the prospective creed + of Catholics; or to assume, as you do, that because they are + thoroughgoing and relentless in their statements, therefore they + are the harbingers of a new age, when to show a deference for + Antiquity will be thought little else than a mistake. For myself, + hopeless as you consider it, I am not ashamed still to take my + stand upon the Fathers, and do not mean to budge. The history of + their time is not yet an old almanac to me. Of course I maintain + the value and authority of the "Schola," as one of the _loci + theologici_; still I sympathise with Petavius in preferring to its + "contentious and subtle theology" that "more elegant and fruitful + teaching which is moulded after the image of erudite antiquity." + The Fathers made me a Catholic, and I am not going to kick down + the ladder by which I ascended into the Church. It is a ladder + quite as serviceable for that purpose now as it was twenty years + ago. Though I hold, as you remark, a process of development in + Apostolic truth as time goes on, such development does not + supersede the Fathers, but explains and completes them. + +Is he right in saying that he is not responsible as a Roman Catholic +for the extravagances that Dr. Pusey dwells upon? He is, it seems to +us, and he is not. No doubt the Roman Catholic system is in practice a +wide one, and he has a right, which we are glad to see that he is +disposed to exercise, to maintain the claims of moderation and +soberness, and to decline to submit his judgment to the fashionable +theories of the hour. A stand made for independence and good sense +against the pressure of an exacting and overbearing dogmatism is a good +thing for everybody, though made in a camp with which we have nothing +to do. He goes far enough, indeed, as it is. Still, it is something +that a great writer, of whose genius and religious feeling Englishmen +will one day be even prouder than they are now, should disconnect +himself from the extreme follies of his party, and attempt to represent +what is the nobler and more elevated side of the system to which he has +attached himself. But it seems to us much more difficult for him to +release his cause from complicity with the doctrines which he dislikes +and fears. We have no doubt that he is not alone, and that there are +numbers of his English brethren who are provoked and ashamed at the +self-complacent arrogance and childish folly shown in exaggerating and +caricaturing doctrines which are, in the eyes of most Englishmen, +extravagant enough in themselves. But the question is whether he or the +innovators represent the true character and tendencies of their +religious system. It must be remembered that with a jealous and touchy +Government, like that of the Roman Church, which professes the duty and +boasts of the power to put down all dangerous ideas and language, mere +tolerance means much. Dr. Newman speaks as an Englishman when he writes +thus:-- + + This is specially the case with great ideas. You may stifle them; + or you may refuse them elbow-room; or you may torment them with + your continual meddling; or you may let them have free course and + range, and be content, instead of anticipating their excesses, to + expose and restrain those excesses after they have occurred. But + you have only this alternative; and for myself, I prefer much, + wherever it is possible, to be first generous and then just; to + grant full liberty of thought, and to call it to account when + abused. + +But that has never been the principle of his Church. At least, the +liberty which it has allowed has been a most one-sided liberty. It has +been the liberty to go any length in developing the favourite opinions +about the power of the Pope, or some popular form of devotion; but as +to other ideas, not so congenial, "great" ones and little ones too, the +lists of the Roman Index bear witness to the sensitive vigilance which +took alarm even at remote danger. And those whose pride it is that they +are ever ready and able to stop all going astray must be held +responsible for the going astray which they do not stop, especially +when it coincides with what they wish and like. + +But these extreme writers do not dream of tolerance. They stoutly and +boldly maintain that they but interpret in the only natural and +consistent manner the mind of their Church; and no public or official +contradiction meets them. There may be a disapproving opinion in their +own body, but it does not show itself. The disclaimer of even such a +man as Dr. Newman is in the highest degree guarded and qualified. They +are the people who can excite attention and gain a hearing, though it +be an adverse one. They have the power to make themselves the most +prominent and accredited representatives of their creed, and, if +thoroughgoing boldness and ability are apt to attract the growth of +thought and conviction, they are those who are likely to mould its +future form. Sober prudent people may prefer the caution of Dr. +Newman's "chief authors," but to the world outside most of these will +be little more than names, and the advanced party, which talks most +strongly about the Pope's infallibility and devotion to St. Mary, has +this to say for itself. Popular feeling everywhere in the Roman +communion appears to go with it, and authority both in Rome and in +England shelters and sanctions it. Nothing can be more clearly and +forcibly stated than the following assertions of the unimpeachable +claim of "dominant opinions" in the Roman Catholic system by the +highest Roman Catholic authority in England. "It is an ill-advised +overture of peace," writes Archbishop Manning, + + to assail the popular, prevalent, and dominant opinions, + devotions, and doctrines of the Catholic Church with hostile + criticism.... The presence and assistance of the Holy Ghost, which + secures the Church within the sphere of faith and morals, invests + it also with instincts and a discernment which preside over its + worship and doctrines, its practices and customs. We may be sure + that whatever is prevalent in the Church, under the eye of its + public authority, practised by the people, and not censured by its + pastors, is at least conformable to faith and innocent as to + morals. Whosoever rises up to condemn such practices and opinions + thereby convicts himself of the private spirit which is the root + of heresy. But if it be ill-advised to assail the mind of the + Church, it is still more so to oppose its visible Head. There can + be no doubt that the Sovereign Pontiff has declared the same + opinion as to the temporal power as that which is censured in + others, and that he defined the Immaculate Conception, and that he + believes in his own infallibility. If these things be our + reproach, we share it with the Vicar of Jesus Christ. They are not + our private opinions, nor the tenets of a school, but the mind of + the Pontiff, as they were of his predecessors, as they will be of + those who come after him.--Archbishop Manning's _Pastoral_, pp. + 64-66, 1866. + +To maintain his liberty against extreme opinions generally is one of +Dr. Newman's objects in writing his letter; the other is to state +distinctly what he holds and what he does not hold, as regards the +subject on which Dr. Pusey's appeal has naturally made so deep an +impression:-- + + I do so, because you say, as I myself have said in former years, + that "That vast system as to the Blessed Virgin ... to all of us + has been the special _crux_ of the Roman system" (p. 101). Here, I + say, as on other points, the Fathers are enough for me. I do not + wish to say more than they, and will not say less. You, I know, + will profess the same; and thus we can join issue on a clear and + broad principle, and may hope to come to some intelligible result. + We are to have a treatise on the subject of Our Lady soon from the + pen of the Most Rev. Prelate; but that cannot interfere with such + a mere argument from the Fathers as that to which I shall confine + myself here. Nor, indeed, as regards that argument itself, do I + profess to be offering you any new matter, any facts which have + not been used by others,--by great divines, as Petavius, by living + writers, nay, by myself on other occasions. I write afresh, + nevertheless, and that for three reasons--first, because I wish to + contribute to the accurate statement and the full exposition of + the argument in question; next, because I may gain a more patient + hearing than has sometimes been granted to better men than myself; + lastly, because there just now seems a call on me, under my + circumstances, to avow plainly what I do and what I do not hold + about the Blessed Virgin, that others may know, did they come to + stand where I stand, what they would and what they would not be + bound to hold concerning her. + +If this "vast system" is a _crux_ to any one, we cannot think that even +Dr. Newman's explanation will make it easier. He himself recoils, as +any Englishman of sense and common feeling must, at the wild +extravagances into which this devotion has run. But he accepts and +defends, on the most precarious grounds, the whole system of thought +out of which they have sprung by no very violent process of growth. He +cannot, of course, stop short of accepting the definition of the +Immaculate Conception as an article of faith, and, though he +emphatically condemns, with a warmth and energy of which no one can +doubt the sincerity, a number of revolting consequences drawn from the +theology of which that dogma is the expression, he is obliged to defend +everything up to that. For a professed disciple of the Fathers this is +not easy. If anything is certain, it is that the place which the +Blessed Virgin occupies in the Roman Catholic system--popular or +authoritative, if it is possible fairly to urge such a distinction in a +system which boasts of all-embracing authority--is something perfectly +different from anything known in the first four centuries. In all the +voluminous writings on theology which remain from them we may look in +vain for any traces of that feeling which finds words in the common +hymn, "_Ave, marls Stella_" and which makes her fill so large a space +in the teaching and devotion of the Roman Church. Dr. Newman attempts +to meet this difficulty by a distinction. The doctrine, he says, was +there, the same then as now; it is only the feelings, behaviour, and +usages, the practical consequences naturally springing from the +doctrine, which have varied or grown:-- + + I fully grant that the _devotion_ towards the Blessed Virgin has + increased among Catholics with the progress of centuries. I do not + allow that the _doctrine_ concerning her has undergone a growth, + for I believe it has been in substance one and the same from the + beginning. + +There is, doubtless, such a distinction, though whether available for +Dr. Newman's purpose is another matter. But when we recollect that +modern "doctrine," besides defining the Immaculate Conception, places +her next in glory to the Throne of God, and makes her the Queen of +Heaven, and the all-prevailing intercessor with her Son, the assertion +as to "doctrine" is a bold one. It rests, as it seems to us, simply on +Dr. Newman identifying his own inferences from the language of the +ancient writers whom he quotes with the language itself. They say a +certain thing--that Mary is the "second Eve." Dr. Newman, with all the +theology and all the controversies of eighteen centuries in his mind, +deduces from this statement a number of refined consequences as to her +sinlessness, and greatness, and reward, which seem to him to flow from +it, and says that it means all these consequences. Mr. Ruskin somewhere +quotes the language of an "eminent Academician," who remarks, in answer +to some criticism on a picture, "that if you look for curves, you will +see curves; and if you look for angles, you will see angles." So it is +here. The very dogma of the Immaculate Conception itself Dr. Newman +sees indissolubly involved in the "rudimentary teaching" which insists +on the parallelism between Eve and Mary:-- + + Was not Mary as fully endowed as Eve?... If Eve was (as Bishop + Bull and others maintain) raised above human nature by that + indwelling moral gift which we call grace, is it rash to say that + Mary had a greater grace?... And if Eve had this supernatural + inward gift given her from the moment of her personal existence, + is it possible to deny that Mary, too, had this gift from the very + first moment of her personal existence? I do not know how to + resist this inference:--well, this is simply and literally the + doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. I say the doctrine of the + Immaculate Conception is in its substance this, and nothing more + or less than this (putting aside the question of degrees of + grace), and it really does seem to me bound up in that doctrine of + the Fathers, that Mary is the second Eve. + +It seems obvious to remark that the Fathers are not even alleged to +have themselves drawn this irresistible inference; and next, that even +if it be drawn, there is a long interval between it and the elevation +of the Mother of Jesus Christ to the place to which modern Roman +doctrine raises her. Possibly, the Fathers might have said, as many +people will say now, that, in a matter of this kind, it is idle to draw +inferences when we are, in reality, utterly without the knowledge to +make them worth anything. At any rate, if they had drawn them, we +should have found some traces of it in their writings, and we find +none. We find abundance of poetical addresses and rhetorical +amplification, which makes it all the more remarkable that the plain +dogmatic view of her position, which is accepted by the Roman Church, +does not appear in them. We only find a "rudimentary doctrine," which, +naturally enough, gives the Blessed Virgin a very high and sacred place +in the economy of the Incarnation. But how does the doctrine, as it is +found in even their rhetorical passages, go a step beyond what would be +accepted by any sober reader of the New Testament? They speak of what +she was; they do not presume to say what she is. What Protestant could +have the slightest difficulty in saying not only what Justin says, and +Tertullian copies from him, and Irenaeus enlarges upon, but what Dr. +Newman himself says of her awful and solitary dignity, always excepting +the groundless assumption which, from her office in this world takes +for granted, first her sinlessness, and then a still higher office in +the next? We do not think that, as a matter of literary criticism, Dr. +Newman is fair in his argument from the Fathers. He lays great stress +on Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Irenaeus, as three independent +witnesses from different parts of the world; whereas it is obvious that +Tertullian at any rate copies almost literally from Justin Martyr, and +it is impossible to compare a mere incidental point of rhetorical, or, +if it be so, argumentative illustration, occurring once or twice in a +long treatise, with a doctrine, such as that of the Incarnation itself, +on which the whole treatise is built, and of which it is full. The +wonder is, indeed, that the Fathers, considering how much they wrote, +said so little of her; scarcely less is it a wonder, then, that the New +Testament says so little, but from this little the only reason which +would prevent a Protestant reader of the New Testament from accepting +the highest statement of her historical dignity is the reaction from +the development of them into the consequences which have been notorious +for centuries in the unreformed Churches. Protestants, left to +themselves, are certainly not prone to undervalue the saints of +Scripture; it has been the presence of the great system of popular +worship confronting them which has tied their tongues in this matter. +Yet Anglican theologians like Mr. Keble, popular poets like Wordsworth, +broad Churchmen like Mr. Robertson, have said things which even Roman +Catholics might quote as expressions of their feeling. But Dr. Newman +must know that many things may be put, and put most truly, into the +form of poetical expression which will not bear hardening into a dogma. +A Protestant may accept and even amplify the ideas suggested by +Scripture about the Blessed Virgin; but he may feel that he cannot tell +how the Redeemer was preserved from sinful taint; what was the grace +bestowed on His mother; or what was the reward and prerogative which +ensued to her. But it is just these questions which the Roman doctrine +undertakes to answer without a shadow of doubt, and which Dr. Newman +implies that the theology of the Fathers answered as unambiguously. + +But from what has happened in the history of religion, we do not think +that Protestants in general who do not shrink from high language about +Abraham, Moses, or David, would find anything unnatural or +objectionable in the language of the early Christian writers about the +Mother of our Lord, though possibly it might not be their own; but the +interval from this language to that certain knowledge of her present +office in the economy of grace which is implied in what Dr. Newman +considers the "doctrine" about her is a very long one. The step to the +modern "devotion" in its most chastened form is longer still. We cannot +follow the subtle train of argument which says that because the +"doctrine" of the second century called her the "second Eve," therefore +the devotion which sets her upon the altars of Christendom in the +nineteenth is a right development of the doctrine. What is wanted is +not the internal thread of the process, but the proof and confirmation +from without that it was the right process; and this link is just what +is wanting, except on a supposition which begs the question. It is +conceivable that this step from "doctrine" to "devotion" may have been +a mistake. It is conceivable that the "doctrine" may have been held in +the highest form without leading to the devotion; for Dr. Newman, of +course, thinks that Athanasius and Augustine held "the doctrine," yet, +as he says, "we have no proof that Athanasius himself had any special +devotion to the Blessed Virgin," and in another place he repeats his +doubts whether St. Chrysostom or St. Athanasius invoked her; "nay," he +adds, "I should like to know whether St. Augustine, in all his +voluminous writings, invokes her once." What has to be shown is, that +this step was not a mistake; that it was inevitable and legitimate. + +"This being the faith of the Fathers about the Blessed Virgin," says +Dr. Newman, "we need not wonder that it should in no long time be +transmuted into devotion." The Fathers expressed a historical fact +about her in the term [Greek: Theotokos]; therefore, argues the later +view, she is the source of our present grace now. It is the _rationale_ +of this inference, which is not an immediate or obvious one, which is +wanted. And Dr. Newman gives it us in the words of Bishop Butler:-- + + Christianity is eminently an objective religion. For the most part + it tells us of persons and facts in simple words, and leaves the + announcement to produce its effect on such hearts as are prepared + to receive it. This, at least, is its general character; and + Butler recognises it as such in his _Analogy_, when speaking of + the Second and Third Persons of the Holy Trinity:--"The internal + worship," he says, "to the Son and Holy Ghost is no farther matter + of pure revealed command than as the relations they stand in to us + are matters of pure revelation; but the relations being known, the + obligations to such internal worship are _obligations of reason + arising out of those relations themselves_." + +We acknowledge the pertinency of the quotation. So true is it that "the +relations being known," the obligations of worship arise of themselves +from these relations, that if the present relation of the Blessed +Virgin to mankind has always been considered to be what modern Roman +theology considers it, it is simply inconceivable that devotion to her +should not have been universal long before St. Athanasius and St. +Augustine; and equally inconceivable, to take Dr. Newman's remarkable +illustration, that if the real position of St. Joseph is next to her, +it should have been reserved for the nineteenth century, if not, +indeed, to find it out, at least to acknowledge it; but the whole +question is about the fact of the "relations" themselves. If we believe +that the Second and Third Persons are God, we do not want to be told to +worship them. But such a relation as Dr. Newman supposes in the case of +the Blessed Virgin does not flow of itself from the idea contained, for +instance, in the word [Greek: Theotokos], and even if it did, we should +still want to be told, in the case of a creature, and remembering the +known jealousy of religion of even the semblance of creature worship, +what _are_ the "religious regards," which, not flowing from the nature +of the case, but needing to be distinctly authorised, are right and +binding. + +The question is of a dogmatic and a popular system. We most fully admit +that, with Dr. Newman or any other of the numberless well-trained and +excellent men in the Roman Church, the homage to the Mother does not +interfere with the absolutely different honour rendered to the Son. We +readily acknowledge the elevating and refining beauty of that +character, of which the Virgin Mother is the type, and the services +which that ideal has rendered to mankind, though we must emphatically +say that a man need not be a Roman Catholic to feel and to express the +charm of that moral beauty. But here we have a doctrine as definite and +precise as any doctrine can be, and a great system of popular devotion, +giving a character to a great religious communion. Dr. Newman is not +merely developing and illustrating an idea: he is asserting a definite +revealed fact about the unseen world, and defending its consequences in +a very concrete and practical shape. And the real point is what proof +has he given us that this is a revealed fact; that it is so, and that +we have the means of knowing it? He has given us certain language of +the early writers, which he says is a tradition, though it is only what +any Protestant might have been led to by reading his Bible. But between +that language, taken at its highest, and the belief and practice which +his Church maintains, there is a great gap. The "Second Eve," the +[Greek: Theotokos], are names of high dignity; but enlarge upon them as +we may, there is between them and the modern "Regina Coeli" an interval +which nothing but direct divine revelation can possibly fill; and of +this divine revelation the only evidence is the fact that there is the +doctrine. So awful and central an article of belief needs corresponding +proof. In Dr. Newman's eloquent pages we have much collateral thought +on the subject--sometimes instinct with his delicacy of perception and +depth of feeling, sometimes strangely over-refined and irrelevant, but +always fresh and instructive, whether to teach or to warn. The one +thing which is missing in them is direct proof. + +He does not satisfy us, but he does greatly interest us in his way of +dealing with the practical consequences of his doctrine, in the +manifold development of devotion in his communion. What he tells us +reveals two things. By this devotion he is at once greatly attracted, +and he is deeply shocked. No one can doubt the enthusiasm with which he +has thrown himself into that devotion, an enthusiasm which, if it was +at one time more vehement and defiant than it is now, is still a most +intense element in his religious convictions. Nor do we feel entitled +to say that in him it interferes with religious ideas and feelings of a +higher order, which we are accustomed to suppose imperilled by it. It +leads him, indeed, to say things which astonish us, not so much by +their extreme language as by the absence, as it seems to us, of any +ground to say them at all. It forces him into a championship for +statements, in defending which the utmost that can be done is to frame +ingenious pleas, or to send back a vigorous retort. It tempts him at +times to depart from his generally broad and fair way of viewing +things, as when he meets the charge that the Son is forgotten for the +Mother, not merely by a denial, but by the rejoinder that when the +Mother is not honoured as the Roman Church honours her the honour of +the Son fails. It would have been better not to have reprinted the +following extract from a former work, even though it were singled out +for approval by the late Cardinal. The italics are his own:-- + + I have spoken more on this subject in my _Essay on Development_, + p. 438, "Nor does it avail to object that, in this contrast of + devotional exercises, the human is sure to supplant the Divine, + from the infirmity of our nature; for, I repeat, the question is + one of fact, whether it has done so. And next, it must be asked, + _whether the character of Protestant devotion towards Our Lord has + been that of worship at all_; and not rather such as we pay to an + excellent human being.... Carnal minds will ever create a carnal + worship for themselves, and to forbid them the service of the + saints will have no tendency to teach them the worship of God. + Moreover, ... great and constant as is the devotion which the + Catholic pays to St. Mary, it has a special province, and _has far + more connection with the public services and the festive aspect of + Christianity_, and with certain extraordinary offices which she + holds, _than with what is strictly personal and primary in religion_". + Our late Cardinal, on my reception, singled out to me this last + sentence, for the expression of his especial approbation. + +Can Dr. Newman defend the first of these two assertions, when he +remembers such books of popular Protestant devotion as Wesley's Hymns, +or the German hymn-books of which we have examples in the well-known +_Lyra Germanica_? Can he deny the second when he remembers the +exercises of the "Mois de Marie" in French churches, or if he has heard +a fervid and earnest preacher at the end of them urge on a church full +of young people, fresh from Confirmation and first Communion, a special +and personal self-dedication to the great patroness for protection amid +the daily trials of life, in much the same terms as in an English +Church they might be exhorted to commit themselves to the Redeemer of +mankind? Right or wrong, such devotion is not a matter of the "festive +aspect" of religion, but most eminently of what is "personal and +primary" in it; and surely of such a character is a vast proportion of +the popular devotion here spoken of. + +But for himself, no doubt, he has accepted this _cultus_ on its most +elevated and refined side. He himself makes the distinction, and says +that there is "a healthy" and an "artificial" form of it; a devotion +which does not shock "solid piety and Christian good sense; I cannot +help calling this the English style." And when other sides are +presented to him, he feels what any educated Englishman who allows his +English feelings play is apt to feel about them. What is more, he has +the boldness to say so. He makes all kinds of reserves to save the +credit of those with whom he cannot sympathise. He speaks of the +privileges of Saints; the peculiarities of national temperament; the +distinctions between popular language and that used by scholastic +writers, or otherwise marked by circumstances; the special characters +of some of the writers quoted, their "ruthless logic," or their +obscurity; the inculpated passages are but few and scattered in +proportion to their context; they are harsh, but sound worse than they +mean; they are hardly interpreted and pressed. He reminds Dr. Pusey +that there is not much to choose between the Oriental Churches and Rome +on this point, and that of the two the language of the Eastern is the +most florid; luxuriant, and unguarded. But, after all, the true feeling +comes out at last, "And now, at length," he says, "coming to the +statements, not English, but foreign, which offend you, I will frankly +say that I read some of those which you quote with grief and almost +anger." They are "perverse sayings," which he hates. He fills a page +and a half with a number of them, and then deliberately pronounces his +rejection of them. + + After such explanations, and with such authorities to clear my + path, I put away from me as you would wish, without any + hesitation, as matters in which my heart and reason have no part + (when taken in their literal and absolute sense, as any Protestant + would naturally take them, and as the writers doubtless did not + use them), such sentences and phrases as these:--that the mercy of + Mary is infinite, that God has resigned into her hands His + omnipotence, that (unconditionally) it is safer to seek her than + her Son, that the Blessed Virgin is superior to God, that He is + (simply) subject to her command, that our Lord is now of the same + disposition as His Father towards sinners--viz. a disposition to + reject them, while Mary takes His place as an Advocate with the + Father and Son; that the Saints are more ready to intercede with + Jesus than Jesus with the Father, that Mary is the only refuge of + those with whom God is angry; that Mary alone can obtain a + Protestant's conversion; that it would have sufficed for the + salvation of men if our Lord had died, not to obey His Father, but + to defer to the decree of His Mother, that she rivals our Lord in + being God's daughter, not by adoption, but by a kind of nature; + that Christ fulfilled the office of Saviour by imitating her + virtues; that, as the Incarnate God bore the image of His Father, + so He bore the image of His Mother; that redemption derived from + Christ indeed its sufficiency, but from Mary its beauty and + loveliness; that as we are clothed with the merits of Christ so we + are clothed with the merits of Mary; that, as He is Priest, in + like manner is she Priestess; that His body and blood in the + Eucharist are truly hers, and appertain to her; that as He is + present and received therein, so is she present and received + therein; that Priests are ministers as of Christ, so of Mary; that + elect souls are, born of God and Mary; that the Holy Ghost brings + into fruitfulness His action by her, producing in her and by her + Jesus Christ in His members; that the kingdom of God in our souls, + as our Lord speaks, is really the kingdom of Mary in the soul--and + she and the Holy Ghost produce in the soul extraordinary + things--and when the Holy Ghost finds Mary in a soul He flies + there. + + Sentiments such as these I never knew of till I read your book, + nor, as I think, do the vast majority of English Catholics know + them. They seem to me like a bad dream. I could not have conceived + them to be said. I know not to what authority to go for them, to + Scripture, or to the Fathers, or to the decrees of Councils, or to + the consent of schools, or to the tradition of the faithful, or to + the Holy See, or to Reason. They defy all the _loci theologici_. + There is nothing of them in the Missal, in the Roman Catechism, in + the Roman _Raccolta_, in the Imitation of Christ, in Gother, + Challoner, Milner, or Wiseman, so far as I am aware. They do but + scare and confuse me. I should not be holier, more spiritual, more + sure of perseverance, if I twisted my moral being into the + reception of them; I should but be guilty of fulsome frigid + flattery towards the most upright and noble of God's creatures if + I professed them--and of stupid flattery too; for it would be like + the compliment of painting up a young and beautiful princess with + the brow of a Plato and the muscle of an Achilles. And I should + expect her to tell one of her people in waiting to turn me off her + service without warning. Whether thus to feel be the _scandalum + parvulorum_ in my case, or the _scandalum Pharisaeorum_, I leave + others to decide; but I will say plainly that I had rather believe + (which is impossible) that there is no God at all, than that Mary + is greater than God. I will have nothing to do with statements, + which can only be explained by being explained away. I do not, + however, speak of these statements, as they are found in their + authors, for I know nothing of the originals, and cannot believe + that they have meant what you say; but I take them as they lie in + your pages. Were any of them, the sayings of Saints in ecstasy, I + should know they had a good meaning; still I should not repeat + them myself; but I am looking at them, not as spoken by the + tongues of Angels, but according to that literal sense which they + bear in the mouths of English men and English women. And, as + spoken by man to man in England in the nineteenth century, I + consider them calculated to prejudice inquirers, to frighten the + unlearned, to unsettle consciences, to provoke blasphemy, and to + work the loss of souls. + +Of course; it is what might be expected of him. But Dr. Newman has +often told us that we must take the consequences of our principles and +theories, and here are some of the consequences which meet him; and, as +he says, they "scare and confuse him." He boldly disavows them with no +doubtful indignation. But what other voice but his, of equal authority +and weight, has been lifted up to speak the plain truth about them? +Why, if they are wrong, extravagant, dangerous, is his protest +solitary? His communion has never been wanting in jealousy of dangerous +doctrines, and it is vain to urge that these things and things like +them have been said in a corner. The Holy Office is apt to detect +mischief in small writers as well as great, even if these teachers were +as insignificant as Dr. Newman would gladly make them. Taken as a +whole, and in connection with notorious facts, these statements are +fair examples of manifest tendencies, which certainly are not on the +decline. And if a great and spreading popular _cultus_, encouraged and +urged on beyond all former precedent, is in danger of being developed +by its warmest and most confident advocates into something of which +unreason is the lightest fault, is there not ground for interfering? +Doubtless Roman writers maybe quoted by Dr. Newman, who felt that there +was a danger, and we are vaguely told about some checks given to one or +two isolated extravagances, which, however, in spite of the checks, do +not seem to be yet extinct. But Allocutions and Encyclicals are not for +errors of this kind. Dr. Newman says that "it is wiser for the most +part to leave these excesses to the gradual operation of public +opinion,--that is, to the opinion of educated and sober Catholics; and +this seems to me the healthiest way of putting them down." We quite +agree with him; but his own Church does not think so; and we want to +see some evidence of a public opinion in it capable of putting them +down. As it is, he is reduced to say that "the line cannot be logically +drawn between the teaching of the Fathers on the subject and our own;" +an assertion which, if it were true, would be more likely to drag down +one teaching than to prop up the other; he has to find reasons, and +doubtless they are to be found thick as blackberries, for accounting +for one extravagance, softening down another, declining to judge a +third. But in the meantime the "devotion" in its extreme form, far +beyond what he would call the teaching of his Church, has its way; it +maintains its ground; it becomes the mark of the bold, the advanced, +the refined, as well as of the submissive and the crowd; it roots +itself under the shelter of an authority which would stop it if it was +wrong; it becomes "dominant"; it becomes at length part of that "mind +of the living Church" which, we are told, it is heresy to impugn, +treason to appeal from, and the extravagance of impertinent folly to +talk of reforming. + +It is very little use, then, for Dr. Newman to tell Dr. Pusey or any +one else, "You may safely trust us English Catholics as to this +devotion." "English Catholics," as such,--it is the strength and the +weakness of their system,--have really the least to say in the matter. +The question is not about trusting "us English Catholics," but the +Pope, and the Roman Congregation, and those to whom the Roman +authorities delegate their sanction and give their countenance. If Dr. +Newman is able, as we doubt not he is desirous, to elevate the tone of +his own communion and put to shame some of its fashionable excesses, he +will do a great work, in which we wish him every success, though the +result of it might not really be to bring the body of his countrymen +nearer to it. But the substance of Dr. Pusey's charges remain after all +unanswered, and there is no getting over them while they remain. They +are of that broad, palpable kind against which the refinements of +argumentative apology play in vain. They can only be met by those who +feel their force, on some principle equally broad. Dr. Newman suggests +such a ground in the following remarks, which, much as they want +qualification and precision, have a basis of reality in them:-- + + It is impossible, I say, in a doctrine like this, to draw the line + cleanly between truth and error, right and wrong. This is ever the + case in concrete matters which have life. Life in this world is + motion, and involves a continual process of change. Living things + grow into their perfection, into their decline, into their death. + No rule of art will suffice to stop the operation of this natural + law, whether in the material world or in the human mind.... What + has power to stir holy and refined souls is potent also with the + multitude, and the religion of the multitude is ever vulgar and + abnormal; it ever will be tinctured with fanaticism and + superstition while men are what they are. A people's religion is + ever a corrupt religion. If you are to have a Catholic Church you + must put up with fish of every kind, guests good and bad, vessels + of gold, vessels of earth. You may beat religion out of men, if you + will, and then their excesses will take a different direction; but + if you make use of religion to improve them, they will make use of + religion to corrupt it. And then you will have effected that + compromise of which our countrymen report so unfavourably from + abroad,--a high grand faith and worship which compels their + admiration, and puerile absurdities among the people which excite + their contempt. + +It is like Dr. Newman to put his case in this broad way, making large +admissions, allowing for much inevitable failure. That is, he defends +his Church as he would defend Christianity generally, taking it as a +great practical system must be in this world, working with human nature +as it is. His reflection is, no doubt, one suggested by a survey of the +cause of all religion. The coming short of the greatest promisee, the +debasement of the noblest ideals, are among the commonplaces of +history. Christianity cannot be maintained without ample admissions of +failure and perversion. But it is one thing to make this admission for +Christianity generally, an admission which the New Testament in +foretelling its fortunes gives us abundant ground for making; and quite +another for those who maintain the superiority of one form of +Christianity above all others, to claim that they may leave out of the +account its characteristic faults. It is quite true that all sides +abundantly need to appeal for considerate judgment to the known +infirmity of human nature; but amid the conflicting pretensions which +divide Christendom no one side can ask to have for itself the exclusive +advantage of this plea. All may claim the benefit of it, but if it is +denied to any it must be denied to all. In this confused and imperfect +world other great popular systems of religion besides the Roman may use +it in behalf of shortcomings, which, though perhaps very different, are +yet not worse. It is obvious that the theory of great and living ideas, +working with a double edge, and working for mischief at last, holds +good for other things besides the special instance on which Dr. Newman +comments. It is to be further observed that to claim the benefit of +this plea is to make the admission that you come under the common law +of human nature as to mistake, perversion, and miscarriage, and this in +the matter of religious guidance the Roman theory refuses to do. It +claims for its communion as its special privilege an exemption from +those causes of corruption of which history is the inexorable witness, +and to which others admit themselves to be liable; an immunity from +going wrong, a supernatural exception from the common tendency of +mankind to be led astray, from the common necessity to correct and +reform themselves when they are proved wrong. How far this is realised, +not on paper and in argument, but in fact, is indeed one of the most +important questions for the world, and it is one to which the world +will pay more heed than to the best writing about it There are not +wanting signs, among others of a very different character, of an honest +and philosophical recognition of this by some of the ablest writers of +the Roman communion. The day on which the Roman Church ceases to +maintain that what it holds must be truth because it holds it, and +admits itself subject to the common condition by which God has given +truth to men, will be the first hopeful day for the reunion of +Christendom. + + + + +XXVIII + +NEWMAN'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS[32] + + + [32] + _Parochial and Plain Sermons_. By John Henry Newman, B.D., formerly + Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford. Edited by W.J. Copeland, B.D. _Saturday + Review_, 5th June 1869. + +Dr. Newman's Sermons stand by themselves in modern English literature; +it might be said, in English literature generally. There have been +equally great masterpieces of English writing in this form of +composition, and there have been preachers whose theological depth, +acquaintance with the heart, earnestness, tenderness, and power have +not been inferior to his. But the great writers do not touch, pierce, +and get hold of minds as he does, and those who are famous for the +power and results of their preaching do not write as he does. His +sermons have done more perhaps than any one thing to mould and quicken +and brace the religious temper of our time; they have acted with equal +force on those who were nearest and on those who were farthest from him +in theological opinion. They have altered the whole manner of feeling +towards religious subjects. We know now that they were the beginning, +the signal and first heave, of a vast change that was to come over the +subject; of a demand from religion of a thoroughgoing reality of +meaning and fulfilment, which is familiar to us, but was new when it +was first made. And, being this, these sermons are also among the very +finest examples of what the English language of our day has done in the +hands of a master. Sermons of such intense conviction and directness of +purpose, combined with such originality and perfection on their purely +literary side, are rare everywhere. Remarkable instances, of course, +will occur to every one of the occasional exhibition of this +combination, but not in so sustained and varied and unfailing a way. +Between Dr. Newman and the great French school there is this +difference--that they are orators, and he is as far as anything can be +in a great preacher from an orator. Those who remember the tones and +the voice in which the sermons were heard at St. Mary's--we may refer +to Professor Shairp's striking account in his volume on Keble, and to a +recent article in the _Dublin Review_--can remember how utterly unlike +an orator in all outward ways was the speaker who so strangely moved +them. The notion of judging of Dr. Newman as an orator never crossed +their minds. And this puts a difference between him and a remarkable +person whose name has sometimes been joined with his--Mr. F. Robertson. +Mr. Robertson was a great preacher, but he was not a writer. + +It is difficult to realise at present the effect produced originally by +these sermons. The first feeling was that of their difference in manner +from the customary sermon. People knew what an eloquent sermon was, or +a learned sermon, or a philosophical sermon, or a sermon full of +doctrine or pious unction. Chalmers and Edward Irving and Robert Hall +were familiar names; the University pulpit and some of the London +churches had produced examples of forcible argument and severe and +finished composition; and of course instances were abundant everywhere +of the good, sensible, commonplace discourse; of all that was heavy, +dull, and dry, and of all that was ignorant, wild, fanatical, and +irrational. But no one seemed to be able, or to be expected, unless he +avowedly took the buffoonery line which some of the Evangelical +preachers affected, to speak in the pulpit with the directness and +straightforward unconventionality with which men speak on the practical +business of life. With all the thought and vigour and many beauties +which were in the best sermons, there was always something forced, +formal, artificial about them; something akin to that mild pomp which +usually attended their delivery, with beadles in gowns ushering the +preacher to the carpeted pulpit steps, with velvet cushions, and with +the rustle and fulness of his robes. No one seemed to think of writing +a sermon as he would write an earnest letter. A preacher must approach +his subject in a kind of roundabout make-believe of preliminary and +preparatory steps, as if he was introducing his hearers to what they +had never heard of; make-believe difficulties and objections were +overthrown by make-believe answers; an unnatural position both in +speaker and hearers, an unreal state of feeling and view of facts, a +systematic conventional exaggeration, seemed almost impossible to be +avoided; and those who tried to escape being laboured and grandiloquent +only escaped it, for the most part, by being vulgar or slovenly. The +strong severe thinkers, jealous for accuracy, and loathing clap-trap as +they loathed loose argument, addressed and influenced intelligence; but +sermons are meant for heart and souls as well as minds, and to the +heart, with its trials and its burdens, men like Whately never found +their way. Those who remember the preaching of those days, before it +began to be influenced by the sermons at St. Mary's, will call to mind +much that was interesting, much that was ingenious, much correction of +inaccurate and confused views, much manly encouragement to high +principle and duty, much of refined and scholarlike writing. But for +soul and warmth, and the imaginative and poetical side of the religious +life, you had to go where thought and good sense were not likely to be +satisfied. + +The contrast of Mr. Newman's preaching was not obvious at first. The +outside form and look was very much that of the regular best Oxford +type--calm, clear, and lucid in expression, strong in its grasp, +measured in statement, and far too serious to think of rhetorical +ornament. But by degrees much more opened. The range of experience from +which the preacher drew his materials, and to which he appealed, was +something wider, subtler, and more delicate than had been commonly +dealt with in sermons. With his strong, easy, exact, elastic language, +the instrument of a powerful and argumentative mind, he plunged into +the deep realities of the inmost spiritual life, of which cultivated +preachers had been shy. He preached so that he made you feel without +doubt that it was the most real of worlds to him; he made you feel in +time, in spite of yourself, that it was a real world with which you too +had concern. He made you feel that he knew what he was speaking about; +that his reasonings and appeals, whether you agreed with them or not, +were not the language of that heated enthusiasm with which the world is +so familiar; that he was speaking words which were the result of +intellectual scrutiny, balancings, and decisions, as well as of moral +trials, of conflicts and suffering within; words of the utmost +soberness belonging to deeply gauged and earnestly formed purposes. The +effect of his sermons, as compared with the common run at the time, was +something like what happens when in a company you have a number of +people giving their views and answers about some question before them. +You have opinions given of various worth and expressed with varying +power, precision, and distinctness, some clever enough, some clumsy +enough, but all more or less imperfect and unattractive in tone, and +more or less falling short of their aim; and then, after it all, comes +a voice, very grave, very sweet, very sure and clear, under whose words +the discussion springs up at once to a higher level, and in which we +recognise at once a mind, face to face with realities, and able to +seize them and hold them fast. + +The first notable feature in the external form of this preaching was +its terse unceremonious directness. Putting aside the verbiage and +dulled circumlocution and stiff hazy phraseology of pulpit etiquette +and dignity, it went straight to its point. There was no waste of time +about customary formalities. The preacher had something to say, and +with a kind of austere severity he proceeded to say it. This, for +instance, is the sort of way in which a sermon would begin:-- + + Hypocrisy is a serious word. We are accustomed to consider the + hypocrite as a hateful, despicable character, and an uncommon one. + How is it, then, that our Blessed Lord, when surrounded by an + innumerable multitude, began, _first of all_, to warn His disciples + against hypocrisy, as though they were in especial danger of + becoming like those base deceivers the Pharisees? Thus an + instructive subject is opened to our consideration, which I will + now pursue.--Vol. I. Serm. X. + +The next thing was that, instead of rambling and straggling over a +large subject, each sermon seized a single thought, or definite view, +or real difficulty or objection, and kept closely and distinctly to it; +and at the same time treated it with a largeness and grasp and ease +which only a full command over much beyond it could give. Every sermon +had a purpose and an end which no one could misunderstand. Singularly +devoid of anything like excitement--calm, even, self-controlled--there +was something in the preacher's resolute concentrated way of getting +hold of a single defined object which reminded you of the rapid spring +or unerring swoop of some strong-limbed or swift-winged creature on its +quarry. Whatever you might think that he did with it, or even if it +seemed to escape from him, you could have no doubt what he sought to +do; there was no wavering, confused, uncertain bungling in that +powerful and steady hand. Another feature was the character of the +writer's English. We have learned to look upon Dr. Newman as one of the +half-dozen or so of the innumerable good writers of the time who have +fairly left their mark as masters on the language. Little, assuredly, +as the writer originally thought of such a result, the sermons have +proved a permanent gift to our literature, of the purest English, full +of spring, clearness, and force. A hasty reader would perhaps at first +only notice a very light, strong, easy touch, and might think, too, +that it was a negligent one. But it was not negligence; real negligence +means at bottom bad work, and bad work will not stand the trial of +time. There are two great styles--the self-conscious, like that of +Gibbon or Macaulay, where great success in expression is accompanied by +an unceasing and manifest vigilance that expression shall succeed, and +where you see at each step that there is or has been much care and work +in the mind, if not on the paper; and the unconscious, like that of +Pascal or Swift or Hume, where nothing suggests at the moment that the +writer is thinking of anything but his subject, and where the power of +being able to say just what he wants to say seems to come at the +writer's command, without effort, and without his troubling himself +more about it than about the way in which he holds his pen. But both +are equally the fruit of hard labour and honest persevering +self-correction; and it is soon found out whether the apparent +negligence comes of loose and slovenly habits of mind, or whether it +marks the confidence of one who has mastered his instrument, and can +forget himself and let himself go in using it. The free unconstrained +movement of Dr. Newman's style tells any one who knows what writing is +of a very keen and exact knowledge of the subtle and refined secrets of +language. With all that uncared-for play and simplicity, there was a +fulness, a richness, a curious delicate music, quite instinctive and +unsought for; above all, a precision and sureness of expression which +people soon began to find were not within the power of most of those +who tried to use language. Such English, graceful with the grace of +nerve, flexibility, and power, must always have attracted attention; +but it had also an ethical element which was almost inseparable from +its literary characteristics. Two things powerfully determined the +style of these sermons. One was the intense hold which the vast +realities of religion had gained on the writer's mind, and the perfect +truth with which his personality sank and faded away before their +overwhelming presence; the other was the strong instinctive shrinking, +which was one of the most remarkable and certain marks of the beginners +of the Oxford movement, from anything like personal display, any +conscious aiming at the ornamental and brilliant, any show of gifts or +courting of popular applause. Morbid and excessive or not, there can be +no doubt of the stern self-containing severity which made them turn +away, not only with fear, but with distaste and repugnance, from all +that implied distinction or seemed to lead to honour; and the control +of this austere spirit is visible, in language as well as matter, in +every page of Dr. Newman's sermons. + +Indeed, form and matter are closely connected in the sermons, and +depend one on another, as they probably do in all work of a high order. +The matter makes and shapes the form with which it clothes itself. The +obvious thing which presents itself in reading them is that, from first +to last, they are a great systematic attempt to raise the whole level +of religious thought and religious life. They carry in them the +evidence of a great reaction and a scornful indignant rising up against +what were going about and were currently received as adequate ideas of +religion. The dryness and primness and meagreness of the common Church +preaching, correct as it was in its outlines of doctrine, and sober and +temperate in tone, struck cold on a mind which had caught sight, in the +New Testament, of the spirit and life of its words. The recoil was even +stronger from the shallowness and pretentiousness and self-display of +what was popularly accepted as earnest religion; morally the preacher +was revolted at its unctuous boasts and pitiful performance, and +intellectually by its narrowness and meanness of thought and its +thinness of colour in all its pictures of the spiritual life. From +first to last, in all manner of ways, the sermons are a protest, first +against coldness, but even still more against meanness, in religion. +With coldness they have no sympathy, yet coldness may be broad and +large and lofty in its aspects; but they have no tolerance for what +makes religion little and poor and superficial, for what contracts its +horizon and dwarfs its infinite greatness and vulgarises its mystery. +Open the sermons where we will, different readers will rise from them +with very different results; there will be among many the strongest and +most decisive disagreement; there may be impatience at dogmatic +harshness, indignation at what seems overstatement and injustice, +rejection of arguments and conclusions; but there will always be the +sense of an unfailing nobleness in the way in which the writer thinks +and speaks. It is not only that he is in earnest; it is that he has +something which really is worth being in earnest for. He placed the +heights of religion very high. If you have a religion like +Christianity--this is the pervading note--think of it, and have it, +worthily. People will differ from the preacher endlessly as to how this +is to be secured. But that they will learn this lesson from the +sermons, with a force with which few other writers have taught it, and +that this lesson has produced its effect in our time, there can be no +doubt. The only reason why it may not perhaps seem so striking to +readers of this day is that the sermons have done their work, and we do +not feel what they had to counteract, because they have succeeded in +great measure in counteracting it. It is not too much to say that they +have done more than anything else to revolutionise the whole idea of +preaching in the English Church. Mr. Robertson, in spite of himself, +was as much the pupil of their school as Mr. Liddon, though both are so +widely different from their master. + +The theology of these sermons is a remarkable feature about them. It is +remarkable in this way, that, coming from a teacher like Dr. Newman, it +is nevertheless a theology which most religious readers, except the +Evangelicals and some of the more extreme Liberal thinkers, can either +accept heartily or be content with, as they would be content with St. +Augustine or Thomas à Kempis--content, not because they go along with +it always, but because it is large and untechnical, just and +well-measured in the proportions and relative importance of its parts. +People of very different opinions turn to them, as being on the whole +the fullest, deepest, most comprehensive approximation they can find to +representing Christianity in a practical form. Their theology is +nothing new; nor does it essentially change, though one may observe +differences, and some important ones, in the course of the volumes, +which embrace a period from 1825 to 1842. It is curious, indeed, to +observe how early the general character of the sermons was determined, +and how in the main it continues the same. Some of the first in point +of date are among the "Plain Sermons"; and though they may have been +subsequently retouched, yet there the keynote is plainly struck of that +severe and solemn minor which reigns throughout. Their theology is +throughout the accepted English theology of the Prayer-book and the +great Church divines--a theology fundamentally dogmatic and +sacramental, but jealously keeping the balance between obedience and +faith; learned, exact, and measured, but definite and decided. The +novelty was in the application of it, in the new life breathed into it, +in the profound and intense feelings called forth by its ideas and +objects, in the air of vastness and awe thrown about it, in the +unexpected connection of its creeds and mysteries with practical life, +in the new meaning given to the old and familiar, in the acceptance in +thorough earnest, and with keen purpose to call it into action, of what +had been guarded and laid by with dull reverence. Dr. Newman can hardly +be called in these sermons an innovator on the understood and +recognised standard of Anglican doctrine; he accepted its outlines as +Bishop Wilson, for instance, might have traced them. What he did was +first to call forth from it what it really meant, the awful heights and +depths of its current words and forms; and next, to put beside them +human character and its trials, not as they were conventionally +represented and written about, but as a piercing eye and sympathising +spirit saw them in the light of our nineteenth century, and in the +contradictory and complicated movements, the efforts and failures, of +real life. He took theology for granted, as a Christian preacher has a +right to do; he does not prove it, and only occasionally meets +difficulties, or explains; but, taking it for granted, he took it at +its word, in its relation to the world of actual experience. + +Utterly dissatisfied with what he found current as religion, Dr. Newman +sought, without leaving the old paths, to put before people a strong +and energetic religion based, not on feeling or custom, but on reason +and conscience, and answering, in the vastness of its range, to the +mysteries of human nature, and in its power to man's capacities and +aims. The Liberal religion of that day, with its ideas of natural +theology or of a cold critical Unitarianism, was a very shallow one; +the Evangelical, trusting to excitement, had worn out its excitement +and had reached the stage when its formulas, poor ones at the best, had +become words without meaning. Such views might do in quiet, easy-going +times, if religion were an exercise at will of imagination or thought, +an indulgence, an ornament, an understanding, a fashion; not if it +corresponded to such a state of things as is implied in the Bible, or +to man's many-sided nature as it is shown in Shakspeare. The sermons +reflect with merciless force the popular, superficial, comfortable +thing called religion which the writer saw before him wherever he +looked, and from which his mind recoiled. Such sermons as those on the +"Self-wise Enquirer" and the "Religion of the Day," with its famous +passage about the age not being sufficiently "gloomy and fierce in its +religion," have the one-sided and unmeasured exaggeration which seems +inseparable from all strong expressions of conviction, and from all +deep and vehement protests against general faults; but, qualify and +limit them as we may, their pictures were not imaginary ones, and there +was, and is, but too much to justify them. From all this trifling with +religion the sermons called on men to look into themselves. They +appealed to conscience; and they appealed equally to reason and +thought, to recognise what conscience is, and to deal honestly with it. +They viewed religion as if projected on a background of natural and +moral mystery, and surrounded by it--an infinite scene, in which our +knowledge is like the Andes and Himalayas in comparison with the mass +of the earth, and in which conscience is our final guide and arbiter. +No one ever brought out so impressively the sense of the impenetrable +and tremendous vastness of that amid which man plays his part. In such +sermons as those on the "Intermediate State," the "Invisible World," +the "Greatness and Littleness of Human Life," the "Individuality of the +Soul," the "Mysteriousness of our Present Being," we may see +exemplified the enormous irruption into the world of modern thought of +the unknown and the unknowable, as much as in the writers who, with far +different objects, set against it the clearness and certainty of what +we do know. But, beyond all, the sermons appealed to men to go back +into their own thoughts and feelings, and there challenged them; were +not the preacher's words the echoes and interpreting images of their +own deepest, possibly most perplexing and baffling, experience? From +first to last this was his great engine and power; from first to last +he boldly used it. He claimed to read their hearts; and people felt +that he did read them, their follies and their aspirations, the blended +and tangled web of earnestness and dishonesty, of wishes for the best +and truest, and acquiescence in makeshifts; understating what ordinary +preachers make much of, bringing into prominence what they pass by +without being able to see or to speak of it; keeping before his hearers +the risk of mismanaging their hearts, of "all kinds of unlawful +treatment of the soul." What a contrast to ordinary ways of speaking on +a familiar theological doctrine is this way of bringing it into +immediate relation to real feeling:-- + + It is easy to speak of human nature as corrupt in the general, to + admit it in the general, and then get quit of the subject; as if, + the doctrine being once admitted, there was nothing more to be done + with it. But, in truth, we can have no real apprehension of the + doctrine of our corruption till we view the structure of our minds, + part by part; and dwell upon and draw out the signs of our + weakness, inconsistency, and ungodliness, which are such as can + arise from nothing but some strange original defect in our original + nature.... We are in the dark about ourselves. When we act, we are + groping in the dark, and may meet with a fall any moment. Here and + there, perhaps, we see a little; or in our attempts to influence + and move our minds, we are making experiments (as it were) with + some delicate and dangerous instrument, which works we do not know + how, and may produce unexpected and disastrous effects. The + management of our hearts is quite above us. Under these + circumstances it becomes our comfort to look up to God. "Thou, God, + seest me." Such was the consolation of the forlorn Hagar in the + wilderness. He knoweth whereof we are made, and He alone can uphold + us. He sees with most appalling distinctness all our sins, all the + windings and recesses of evil within us; yet it is our only comfort + to know this, and to trust Him for help against ourselves.--Vol. I. + Serm. XIII. + +The preacher contemplates human nature, not in the stiff formal +language in which it had become conventional with divines to set out +its shortcomings and dangers, but as a great novelist contemplates and +tries to describe it; taking in all its real contradictions and +anomalies, its subtle and delicate shades; fixing upon the things which +strike us in ourselves or our neighbours as ways of acting and marks of +character; following it through its wide and varying range, its +diversified and hidden folds and subtle self-involving realities of +feeling and shiftiness; touching it in all its complex sensibilities, +anticipating its dim consciousnesses, half-raising veils which hide +what it instinctively shrinks from, sending through it unexpected +thrills and shocks; large-hearted in indulgence, yet exacting; most +tender, yet most severe. And against all this real play of nature he +sets in their full force and depth the great ideas of God, of sin, and +of the Cross; and, appealing not to the intelligence of an aristocracy +of choice natures, but to the needs and troubles and longings which +make all men one, he claimed men's common sympathy for the heroic in +purpose and standard. He warned them against being fastidious, where +they should be hardy. He spoke in a way that all could understand of +brave ventures, of resolutely committing themselves to truth and duty. + +The most practical of sermons, the most real and natural in their way +of dealing with life and conduct, they are also intensely dogmatic. The +writer's whole teaching presupposes, as we all know, a dogmatic +religion; and these sermons are perhaps the best vindication of it +which our time, disposed to think of dogmas with suspicion, has seen. +For they show, on a large scale and in actual working instances, how +what is noblest, most elevated, most poetical, most free and searching +in a thinker's way of regarding the wonderful scene of life, falls in +naturally, and without strain, with a great dogmatic system like that +of the Church. Such an example does not prove that system to be true, +but it proves that a dogmatic system, as such, is not the cast-iron, +arbitrary, artificial thing which it is often assumed to be. It is, +indeed, the most shallow of all commonplaces, intelligible in ordinary +minds, but unaccountable in those of high power and range, whether they +believe or not, that a dogmatic religion is of course a hard, dry, +narrow, unreal religion, without any affinities to poetry or the truth +of things, or to the deeper and more sacred and powerful of human +thoughts. If dogmas are not true, that is another matter; but it is the +fashion to imply that dogmas are worthless, mere things of the past, +without sense or substance or interest, because they are dogmas. As if +Dante was not dogmatic in form and essence; as if the grandest and +worthiest religious prose in the English language was not that of +Hooker, nourished up amid the subtleties, but also amid the vast +horizons and solemn heights, of scholastic divinity. A dogmatic system +is hard in hard hands, and shallow in shallow minds, and barren in dull +ones, and unreal and empty to preoccupied and unsympathising ones; we +dwarf and distort ideas that we do not like, and when we have put them +in our own shapes and in our own connection, we call them unmeaning or +impossible. Dogmas are but expedients, common to all great departments +of human thought, and felt in all to be necessary, for representing +what are believed as truths, for exhibiting their order and +consequences, for expressing the meaning of terms, and the relations of +thought. If they are wrong, they are, like everything else in the +world, open to be proved wrong; if they are inadequate, they are open +to correction; but it is idle to sneer at them for being what they must +be, if religious facts and truths are to be followed out by the +thoughts and expressed by the language of man. And what dogmas are in +unfriendly and incapable hands is no proof of what they may be when +they are approached as things instinct with truth and life; it is no +measure of the way in which they may be inextricably interwoven with +the most unquestionably living thought and feeling, as in these +sermons. Jealous, too, as the preacher is for Church doctrines as the +springs of Christian life, no writer of our time perhaps has so +emphatically and impressively recalled the narrow limits within which +human language can represent Divine realities. No one that we know of +shows that he has before his mind with such intense force and +distinctness the idea of God; and in proportion as a mind takes in and +submits itself to the impression of that awful vision, the gulf widens +between all possible human words and that which they attempt to +express:-- + + When we have deduced what we deduce by our reason from the study of + visible nature, and then read what we read in His inspired word, + and find the two apparently discordant, _this_ is the feeling I + think we ought to have on our minds;--not an impatience to do what + is beyond our powers, to weigh evidence, sum up, balance, decide, + reconcile, to arbitrate between the two voices of God,--but a sense + of the utter nothingness of worms such as we are; of our plain and + absolute incapacity to contemplate things _as they really are_; a + perception of our emptiness before the great Vision of God; of our + "comeliness being turned into corruption, and our retaining no + strength"; a conviction that what is put before us, whether in + nature or in grace, is but an intimation, useful for particular + purposes, useful for practice, useful in its department, "until the + day break and the shadows flee away"; useful in such a way that + both the one and the other representation may at once be used, as + two languages, as two separate approximations towards the Awful + Unknown Truth, such as will not mislead us in their respective + provinces.--Vol. II. Serm. XVIII. + + "I cannot persuade myself," he says, commenting on a mysterious + text of Scripture, "thus to dismiss so solemn a passage" (i.e. by + saying that it is "all figurative"). "It seems a presumption to say + of dim notices about the unseen world, 'they only mean this or + that,' as if one had ascended into the third heaven, or had stood + before the throne of God. No; I see herein a deep mystery, a hidden + truth, which I cannot handle or define, shining 'as jewels at the + bottom of the great deep,' darkly and tremulously, yet really + there. And for this very reason, while it is neither pious nor + thankful to explain away the words which convey it, while it is a + duty to use them, not less a duty is it to use them humbly, + diffidently, and teachably, with the thought of God before us, and + of our own nothingness."--Vol. III. Serm. XXV. + +There are two great requisites for treating properly the momentous +questions and issues which have been brought before our generation. The +first is accuracy--accuracy of facts, of terms, of reasoning; plain +close dealing with questions in their real and actual conditions; +clear, simple, honest, measured statements about things as we find +them. The other is elevation, breadth, range of thought; a due sense of +what these questions mean and involve; a power of looking at things +from a height; a sufficient taking into account of possibilities, of +our ignorance, of the real proportions of things. We have plenty of the +first; we are for the most part lamentably deficient in the second. And +of this, these sermons are, to those who have studied them, almost +unequalled examples. Many people, no doubt, would rise from their +perusal profoundly disagreeing with their teaching; but no one, it +seems to us, could rise from them--with their strong effortless +freedom, their lofty purpose, their generous standard, their deep and +governing appreciation of divine things, their thoroughness, their +unselfishness, their purity, their austere yet piercing sympathy--and +not feel his whole ways of thinking about religion permanently enlarged +and raised. He will feel that he has been with one who "told him what +he knew about himself and what he did not know; has read to him his +wants or feelings, and comforted him by the very reading; has made him +feel that there was a higher life than this life, and a brighter world +than we can see; has encouraged him, or sobered him, or opened a way to +the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed." They show a man who saw very +deeply into the thought of his time, and who, if he partly recoiled +from it and put it back, at least equally shared it. Dr. Newman has +been accused of being out of sympathy with his age, and of disparaging +it. In reality, no one has proved himself more keenly sensitive to its +greatness and its wonders; only he believed that he saw something +greater still. We are not of those who can accept the solution which he +has accepted of the great problems which haunt our society; but he saw +better than most men what those problems demand, and the variety of +their often conflicting conditions. Other men, perhaps, have succeeded +better in what they aimed at; but no one has attempted more, with +powers and disinterestedness which justified him in attempting it. The +movement which he led, and of which these sermons are the +characteristic monument, is said to be a failure; but there are +failures, and even mistakes, which are worth many successes of other +sorts, and which are more fruitful and permanent in their effects. + + + + +XXIX + +CARDINAL NEWMAN[33] + + + [33] + _Guardian_, 21st May 1879. + +It is not wonderful that people should be impressed by the vicissitudes +and surprises and dramatic completeness of Cardinal Newman's career. +It is not wonderful that he should be impressed by this himself. That +he who left us in despair and indignation in 1845 should have passed +through a course of things which has made him, Roman Catholic as he +is, a man of whom Englishmen are so proud in 1879, is even more +extraordinary than that the former Fellow of Oriel should now be +surrounded with the pomp and state of a Cardinal. There is only one +other career in our time which, with the greatest possible contrasts in +other points, suggests in its strangeness and antecedent improbabilities +something of a parallel. It is the train of events which has made +"Disraeli the Younger" the most powerful Minister whom England has seen +in recent years. But Lord Beaconsfield has aimed at what he has +attained to, and has fought his way to it through the chances and +struggles of a stirring public life. Cardinal Newman's life has been +from first to last the life of the student and recluse. He has lived in +the shade. He has sought nothing for himself. He has shrunk from the +thought of advancement. The steps to the high places of the world have +not offered themselves to him, and he has been content to be let alone. +Early in his course his rare gifts of mind, his force of character, his +power over hearts and sympathies, made him for a while a prominent +person. Then came a series of events which seemed to throw him out of +harmony with the great mass of his countrymen. He appeared to be, if not +forgotten, yet not thought of, except by a small number of friends--old +friends who had known him too well and too closely ever to forget, and +new friends gathered round him by the later circumstances of his life +and work. People spoke of him as a man who had made a great mistake and +failed; who had thrown up influence and usefulness here, and had not +found it there; too subtle, too imaginative for England, too +independent for Rome. He seemed to have so sunk out of interest and +account that off-hand critics, in the easy gaiety of their heart, might +take liberties with his name. + +Then came the first surprise. The _Apologia_ was read with the keenest +interest by those who most differed from the writer's practical +conclusions; twenty years had elapsed since he had taken the unpopular +step which seemed to condemn him to obscurity; and now he emerged from +it, challenging not in vain the sympathy of his countrymen. They +awoke, it may be said--at least the younger generation of them--to +what he really was; the old jars and bitternesses had passed out of +remembrance; they only felt that they had one among them who could +write--for few of them ever heard his wonderful voice--in a way which +made English hearts respond quickly and warmly. And the strange thing +was that the professed, the persistent denouncer of Liberalism, was +welcomed back to his rightful place among Englishmen by none more +warmly than by many Liberals. Still, though his name was growing more +familiar year by year, the world did not see much more of him. The +head of a religious company, of an educational institution at +Birmingham, he lived in unpretending and quiet simplicity, occupied +with the daily business of his house, with his books, with his +correspondence, with finishing off his many literary and theological +undertakings. Except in some chance reference in a book or newspaper +which implied how considerable a person the world thought him, he was +not heard of. People asked about him, but there was nothing to tell. +Then at last, neglected by Pius IX., he was remembered by Leo XIII. +The Pope offered him the Cardinalship, he said, because he thought it +would be "grateful to the Catholics of England, and to England +itself." And he was not mistaken. Probably there is not a single thing +that the Pope could do which would be so heartily welcomed. + +After breaking with England and all things English in wrath and sorrow, +nearly thirty-five years ago, after a long life of modest retirement, +unmarked by any public honours, at length before he dies Dr. Newman is +recognised by Protestant England as one of its greatest men. It watches +with interest his journey to Rome, his proceedings at Rome. In a crowd +of new Cardinals--men of eminence in their own communion--he is the +only one about whom Englishmen know or care anything. His words, when +he speaks, pass _verbatim_ along the telegraph wires, like the words of +the men who sway the world. We read of the quiet Oxford scholar's arms +emblazoned on vestment and furniture as those of a Prince of the +Church, and of his motto--_Cor ad cor loquitur_. In that motto is the +secret of all that he is to his countrymen. For that skill of which he +is such a master, in the use of his and their "sweet mother tongue," is +something much more than literary accomplishment and power. It means +that he has the key to what is deepest in their nature and most +characteristic in them of feeling and conviction--to what is deeper +than opinions and theories and party divisions; to what in their most +solemn moments they most value and most believe in. + +His profound sympathy with the religiousness which still, with all the +variations and all the immense shortcomings of English religion, marks +England above all cultivated Christian nations, is really the bond +between him and his countrymen, who yet for the most part think so +differently from him, both about the speculative grounds and many of +the practical details of religion. But it was natural for him, on an +occasion like this, reviewing the past and connecting it with the +present, to dwell on these differences. He repeated once more, and +made it the keynote of his address, his old protest against +"Liberalism in religion," the "doctrine that there is no positive +truth in religion, but one creed is as good as another." He lamented +the decay of the power of authority, the disappearance of religion +from the sphere of political influence, from education, from +legislation. He deplored the increasing impossibility of getting men +to work together on a common religious basis. He pointed out the +increasing seriousness and earnestness of the attempts to "supersede, +to block out religion," by an imposing and high morality, claiming to +dispense with it. + +He dwelt on the mischief and dangers; he expressed, as any Christian +would, his fearlessness and faith in spite of them; but do we gather, +even from such a speaker, and on such an occasion, anything of the +remedy? The principle of authority is shaken, he tells us; what can he +suggest to restore it? He under-estimates, probably, the part which +authority plays, implicitly yet very really, in English popular +religion, much more in English Church religion; and authority, even in +Rome, is not everything, and does not reach to every subject. But +authority in our days can be nothing without real confidence in it; +and where confidence in authority has been lost, it is idle to attempt +to restore it by telling men that authority is a good and necessary +thing. It must be won back, not simply claimed. It must be regained, +when forfeited, by the means by which it was originally gained. And +the strange phenomenon was obviously present to his clear and candid +mind, though he treated it as one which is disappearing, and must at +length pass away, that precisely here in England, where the only +religious authority he recognises has been thrown off, the hold of +religion on public interest is most effective and most obstinately +tenacious. + +What is the history of this? What is the explanation of it? Why is it +that where "authority," as he understands it, has been longest +paramount and undisputed, the public place and public force of +religion have most disappeared; and that a "dozen men taken at random +in the streets" of London find it easier, with all their various +sects, to work together on a religious basis than a dozen men taken at +random from the streets of Catholic Paris or Rome? Indeed, the public +feeling towards himself, expressed in so many ways in the last few +weeks, might suggest a question not undeserving of his thoughts. The +mass of Englishmen are notoriously anti-Popish and anti-Roman. Their +antipathies on this subject are profound, and not always reasonable. +They certainly do not here halt between two opinions, or think that +one creed is as good as another. What is it which has made so many of +them, still retaining all their intense dislike to the system which +Cardinal Newman has accepted, yet welcome so heartily his honours in +it, notwithstanding that he has passed from England to Rome, and that +he owes so much of what he is to England? Is it that they think it +does not matter what a man believes, and whether a man turns Papist? +Or is it not that, in spite of all that would repel and estrange, in +spite of the oppositions of argument and the inconsistencies of +speculation, they can afford to recognise in him, as in a high +example, what they most sincerely believe in and most deeply prize, +and can pay him the tribute of their gratitude and honour, even when +unconvinced by his controversial reasonings, and unsatisfied by the +theories which he has proposed to explain the perplexing and +refractory anomalies of Church history? Is it not that with history, +inexorable and unalterable behind them, condemning and justifying, +supporting and warning all sides in turn, thoughtful men feel how much +easier it is to point out and deplore our disasters than to see a way +now to set them right? Is it not also that there are in the Christian +Church bonds of affinity, subtler, more real and more prevailing than +even the fatal legacies of the great schisms? Is it not that the +sympathies which unite the author of the _Parochial Sermons_ and the +interpreter of St. Athanasius with the disciples of Andrewes, and Ken, +and Bull, of Butler and Wilson, are as strong and natural as the +barriers which outwardly keep them asunder are to human eyes +hopelessly insurmountable? + + + + +XXX + +CARDINAL NEWMAN'S COURSE[34] + + + [34] + _Guardian_, 13th August 1890. + +The long life is closed. And men, according to their knowledge and +intelligence, turn to seek for some governing idea or aspect of things, +by which to interpret the movements and changes of a course which, in +spite of its great changes, is felt at bottom to have been a uniform +and consistent one. For it seems that, at starting, he is at once +intolerant, even to harshness, to the Roman Church, and tolerant, +though not sympathetic, to the English; then the parts are reversed, +and he is intolerant to the English and tolerant to the Roman; and then +at last, when he finally anchored in the Roman Church, he is seen +as--not tolerant, for that would involve dogmatic points on which he +was most jealous, but--sympathetic in all that was of interest to +England, and ready to recognise what was good and high in the English +Church. + +Is not the ultimate key to Newman's history his keen and profound sense +of the life, society, and principles of action presented in the New +Testament? To this New Testament life he saw, opposed and in contrast, +the ways and assumptions of English life, religious as well as secular. +He saw that the organisation of society had been carried, and was still +being carried, to great and wonderful perfection; only it was the +perfection of a society and way of life adapted to the present world, +and having its ends here; only it was as different as anything can be +from the picture which the writers of the New Testament, consciously +and unconsciously, give of themselves and their friends. Here was a +Church, a religion, a "Christian nation," professing to be identical in +spirit and rules of faith and conduct with the Church and religion of +the Gospels and Epistles; and what was the identity, beyond certain +phrases and conventional suppositions? He could not see a trace in +English society of that simple and severe hold of the unseen and the +future which is the colour and breath, as well as the outward form, of +the New Testament life. Nothing could be more perfect, nothing grander +and nobler, than all the current arrangements for this life; its +justice and order and increasing gentleness, its widening sympathies +between men; but it was all for the perfection and improvement of this +life; it would all go on, if what we experience now was our only scene +and destiny. This perpetual antithesis haunted him, when he knew it, or +when he did not. Against it the Church ought to be the perpetual +protest, and the fearless challenge, as it was in the days of the New +Testament. But the English Church had drunk in, he held, too deeply the +temper, ideas, and laws of an ambitious and advancing civilisation; so +much so as to be unfaithful to its special charge and mission. The +prophet had ceased to rebuke, warn, and suffer; he had thrown in his +lot with those who had ceased to be cruel and inhuman, but who thought +only of making their dwelling-place as secure and happy as they could. +The Church had become respectable, comfortable, sensible, temperate, +liberal; jealous about the forms of its creeds, equally jealous of its +secular rights, interested in the discussion of subordinate questions, +and becoming more and more tolerant of differences; ready for works of +benevolence and large charity, in sympathy with the agricultural poor, +open-handed in its gifts; a willing fellow-worker with society in +kindly deeds, and its accomplice in secularity. All this was admirable, +but it was not the life of the New Testament, and it was _that_ which +filled his thoughts. The English Church had exchanged religion for +civilisation, the first century for the nineteenth, the New Testament +as it is written, for a counterfeit of it interpreted by Paley or Mr. +Simeon; and it seemed to have betrayed its trust. + +Form after form was tried by him, the Christianity of Evangelicalism, +the Christianity of Whately, the Christianity of Hawkins, the +Christianity of Keble and Pusey; it was all very well, but it was not +the Christianity of the New Testament and of the first ages. He wrote +the _Church of the Fathers_ to show they were not merely evidences of +religion, but really living men; that they could and did live as they +taught, and what was there like the New Testament or even the first +ages now? Alas! there was nothing completely like them; but of all +unlike things, the Church of England with its "smug parsons," and +pony-carriages for their wives and daughters, seemed to him the most +unlike: more unlike than the great unreformed Roman Church, with its +strange, unscriptural doctrines and its undeniable crimes, and its +alliance, wherever it could, with the world. But at least the Roman +Church had not only preserved, but maintained at full strength through +the centuries to our day two things of which the New Testament was +full, and which are characteristic of it--devotion and self-sacrifice. +The crowds at a pilgrimage, a shrine, or a "pardon" were much more like +the multitudes who followed our Lord about the hills of Galilee--like +them probably in that imperfect faith which we call superstition--than +anything that could be seen in the English Church, even if the +Salvation Army were one of its instruments. And the spirit which +governed the Roman Church had prevailed on men to make the sacrifice of +celibacy a matter of course, as a condition of ministering in a regular +and systematic way not only to the souls, but to the bodies of men, not +only for the Priesthood, but for educational Brotherhoods, and Sisters +of the poor and of hospitals. Devotion and sacrifice, prayer and +self-denying charity, in one word sanctity, are at once on the surface +of the New Testament and interwoven with all its substance. He recoiled +from a representation of the religion of the New Testament which to his +eye was without them. He turned to where, in spite of every other +disadvantage, he thought he found them. In S. Filippo Neri he could +find a link between the New Testament and progressive civilisation. He +could find no S. Filippo--so modern and yet so Scriptural--when he +sought at home. + +His mind, naturally alive to all greatness, had early been impressed +with the greatness of the Church of Rome. But in his early days it was +the greatness of Anti-Christ. Then came the change, and his sense of +greatness was satisfied by the commanding and undoubting attitude of +the Roman system, by the completeness of its theory, by the sweep of +its claims and its rule, by the even march of its vast administration. +It could not and it did not escape him, that the Roman Church, with all +the good things which it had, was, as a whole, as unlike the Church of +the New Testament and of the first ages as the English. He recognised +it frankly, and built up a great theory to account for the fact, +incorporating and modernising great portions of the received Roman +explanations of the fact. But what won his heart and his enthusiasm was +one thing; what justified itself to his intellect was another. And it +was the reproduction, partial, as it might be, yet real and +characteristic, in the Roman Church of the life and ways of the New +Testament, which was the irresistible attraction that tore him from the +associations and the affections of half a lifetime. + +The final break with the English Church was with much heat and +bitterness; and both sides knew too much each of the other to warrant +the language used on each side. The English Church had received too +much loyal and invaluable service from him in teaching and example to +have insulted him, as many of its chief authorities did, with the +charges of dishonesty and bad faith; his persecutors forgot that a +little effort on his part might, if he had been what they called him, +and had really been a traitor, have formed a large and compact party, +whose secession might have caused fatal damage. And he, too, knew too +much of the better side of English religious life to justify the fierce +invective and sarcasm with which he assailed for a time the English +Church as a mere system of comfortable and self-deceiving worldliness. + +But as time went over him in his new position two things made +themselves felt. One was, that though there was a New Testament life, +lived in the Roman Church with conspicuous truth and reality, yet the +Roman Church, like the English, was administered and governed by +men--men with passions and faults, men of mixed characters--who had, +like their English contemporaries and rivals, ends and rules of action +not exactly like those of the New Testament. The Roman Church had to +accept, as much as the English, the modern conditions of social and +political life, however different in outward look from those of the +Sermon on the Mount. The other was the increasing sense that the +civilisation of the West was as a whole, and notwithstanding grievous +drawbacks, part of God's providential government, a noble and +beneficent thing, ministering graciously to man's peace and order, +which Christians ought to recognise as a blessing of their times such +as their fathers had not, for which they ought to be thankful, and +which, if they were wise, they would put to what, in his phrase, was an +"Apostolical" use. In one of the angelical hymns in the _Dream of +Gerontius_, he dwells on the Divine goodness which led men to found "a +household and a fatherland, a city and a state" with an earnestness of +sympathy, recalling the enumeration of the achievements of human +thought and hand, and the arts of civil and social life--[Greek: kai +phthegma kai aenemoen phronaema kai astynomous orgas]--dwelt on so +fondly by Aeschylus and Sophocles. + +The force with which these two things made themselves felt as age came +on--the disappointments attending his service to the Church, and the +grandeur of the physical and social order of the world and its Divine +sanction in spite of all that is evil and all that is so shortlived in +it--produced a softening in his ways of thought and speech. Never for a +moment did his loyalty and obedience to his Church, even when most +tried, waver and falter. The thing is inconceivable to any one who ever +knew him, and the mere suggestion would be enough to make him blaze +forth in all his old fierceness and power. But perfectly satisfied of +his position, and with his duties clearly defined, he could allow large +and increasing play, in the leisure of advancing age, to his natural +sympathies, and to the effect of the wonderful spectacle of the world +around him. He was, after all, an Englishman; and with all his +quickness to detect and denounce what was selfish and poor in English +ideas and action, and with all the strength of his deep antipathies, +his chief interests were for things English--English literature, +English social life, English politics, English religion. He liked to +identify himself, as far as it was possible, with things English, even +with things that belonged to his own first days. He republished his +Oxford sermons and treatises. He prized his honorary fellowship at +Trinity; he enjoyed his visit to Oxford, and the welcome which he met +there. He discerned how much the English Church counted for in the +fight going on in England for the faith in Christ. There was in all +that he said and did a gentleness, a forbearance, a kindly +friendliness, a warm recognition of the honour paid him by his +countrymen, ever since the _Apologia_ had broken down the prejudices +which had prevented Englishmen from doing him justice. As with his +chief antagonist at Oxford, Dr. Hawkins, advancing years brought with +them increasing gentleness, and generosity, and courtesy. But through +all this there was perceptible to those who watched a pathetic yearning +for something which was not to be had: a sense, resigned--for so it was +ordered--but deep and piercing, how far, not some of us, but all of us, +are from the life of the New Testament: how much there is for religion +to do, and how little there seems to be to do it. + + + + +XXXI + +CARDINAL NEWMAN'S NATURALNESS[35] + + + [35] + _Guardian_, 20th August 1890. + +Every one feels what is meant when we speak of a person's ways being +"natural," in contrast to being artificial, or overstrained, or +studied, or affected. But it is easier to feel what is meant than to +explain and define it. We sometimes speak as if it were a mere quality +of manner; as if it belonged to the outside show of things, and denoted +the atmosphere, clear and transparent, through which they are viewed. +It corresponds to what is lucid in talk and style, and what ethically +is straightforward and unpretentious. But it is something much more +than a mere surface quality. When it is real and part of the whole +character, and not put on from time to time for effect, it reaches a +long way down to what is deepest and most significant in a man's moral +nature. It is connected with the sense of truth, with honest +self-judgment, with habits of self-discipline, with the repression of +vanity, pride, egotism. It has no doubt to do with good taste and good +manners, but it has as much to do with good morals--with the resolute +habit of veracity with oneself--with the obstinate preference for +reality over show, however tempting--with the wholesome power of being +able to think little about oneself. + +It is common to speak of the naturalness and ease of Cardinal Newman's +style in writing. It is, of course, the first thing that attracts +notice when we open one of his books; and there are people who think it +bald and thin and dry. They look out for longer words, and grander +phrases, and more involved constructions, and neater epigrams. They +expect a great theme to be treated with more pomp and majesty, and they +are disappointed. But the majority of English readers seem to be agreed +in recognising the beauty and transparent flow of his language, which +matches the best French writing in rendering with sureness and without +effort the thought of the writer. But what is more interesting than +even the formation of such a style--a work, we may be sure, not +accomplished without much labour--is the man behind the style. For the +man and the style are one in this perfect naturalness and ease. Any one +who has watched at all carefully the Cardinal's career, whether in old +days or later, must have been struck with this feature of his +character, his naturalness, the freshness and freedom with which he +addressed a friend or expressed an opinion, the absence of all +mannerism and formality; and, where he had to keep his dignity, both +his loyal obedience to the authority which enjoined it and the +half-amused, half-bored impatience that he should be the person round +whom all these grand doings centred. It made the greatest difference in +his friendships whether his friends met him on equal terms, or whether +they brought with them too great conventional deference or solemnity of +manner. "So and so is a very good fellow, but he is not a man to talk +to in your shirt sleeves," was his phrase about an over-logical and +over-literal friend. Quite aware of what he was to his friends and to +the things with which he was connected, and ready with a certain +quickness of temper which marked him in old days to resent anything +unbecoming done to his cause or those connected with it, he would not +allow any homage to be paid to himself. He was by no means disposed to +allow liberties to be taken or to put up with impertinence; for all +that bordered on the unreal, for all that was pompous, conceited, +affected, he had little patience; but almost beyond all these was his +disgust at being made the object of foolish admiration. He protested +with whimsical fierceness against being made a hero or a sage; he was +what he was, he said, and nothing more; and he was inclined to be rude +when people tried to force him into an eminence which he refused. With +his profound sense of the incomplete and the ridiculous in this world, +and with a humour in which the grotesque and the pathetic sides of life +were together recognised at every moment, he never hesitated to admit +his own mistakes--his "floors" as he called them. All this ease and +frankness with those whom he trusted, which was one of the lessons +which he learnt from Hurrell Froude, an intercourse which implied a +good deal of give and take--all this satisfied his love of freedom, his +sense of the real. It was his delight to give himself free play with +those whom he could trust; to feel that he could talk with "open +heart," understood without explaining, appealing for a response which +would not fail, though it was not heard. He could be stiff enough with +those who he thought were acting a part, or pretending to more than +they could perform. But he believed--what was not very easy to believe +beforehand--that he could win the sympathy of his countrymen, though +not their agreement with him; and so, with characteristic naturalness +and freshness, he wrote the _Apologia_. + + + + +XXXII + +LORD BLACHFORD[36] + + + [36] + _Guardian_, 27th Nov. 1889. + +Lord Blachford, whose death was announced last week, belonged to a +generation of Oxford men of whom few now survive, and who, of very +different characters and with very different careers and histories, had +more in common than any set of contemporaries at Oxford since their +time. Speaking roughly, they were almost the last product of the old +training at public school and at college, before the new reforms set +in; of a training confessedly imperfect and in some ways deplorably +defective, but with considerable elements in it of strength and +manliness, with keen instincts of contempt for all that savoured of +affectation and hollowness, and with a sort of largeness and freedom +about it, both in its outlook and its discipline, which suited vigorous +and self-reliant natures in an exciting time, when debate ran high and +the gravest issues seemed to be presenting themselves to English +society. The reformed system which has taken its place at Oxford +criticises, not without some justice, the limitations of the older one; +the narrow range of its interests, the few books which men read, and +the minuteness with which they were "got up." But if these men did not +learn all that a University ought to teach its students, they at least +learned two things. They learned to work hard, and they learned to make +full use of what they knew. They framed an ideal of practical life, +which was very variously acted upon, but which at any rate aimed at +breadth of grasp and generosity of purpose, and at being thorough. This +knot of men, who lived a good deal together, were recognised at the +time as young men of much promise, and they looked forward to life with +eagerness and high aspiration. They have fulfilled their promise; their +names are mixed up with all the recent history of England; they have +filled its great places and governed its policy during a large part of +the Queen's long reign. Their names are now for the most part things of +the past--Sidney Herbert, Lord Canning, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Elgin, +Lord Cardwell, the Wilberforces, Mr. Hope Scott, Archbishop Tait. But +they still have their representatives among us--Mr. Gladstone, Lord +Selborne, Lord Sherbrooke, Sir Thomas Acland, Cardinal Manning. It is +not often that a University generation or two can produce such a list +of names of statesmen and rulers; and the list might easily be +enlarged. + +To this generation Frederic Rogers belonged, not the least +distinguished among his contemporaries; and he was early brought under +an influence likely to stimulate in a high degree whatever powers a man +possessed, and to impress a strong character with elevated and enduring +ideas of life and duty. Mr. Newman, with Mr. Hurrell Froude and Mr. +Robert Wilberforce, had recently been appointed tutors of their college +by Dr. Copleston. They were in the first eagerness of their enthusiasm +to do great things with the college, and the story goes that Mr. +Newman, on the look-out for promising pupils, wrote to an Eton friend, +asking him to recommend some good Eton men for admission at Oriel. +Frederic Rogers, so the story goes, was one of those mentioned; at any +rate, he entered at Oriel, and became acquainted with Mr. Newman as a +tutor, and the admiration and attachment of the undergraduate ripened +into the most unreserved and affectionate friendship of the grown +man--a friendship which has lasted through all storms and difficulties, +and through strong differences of opinion, till death only has ended +it. From Mr. Newman his pupil caught that earnest devotion to the cause +of the Church which was supreme with him through life. He entered +heartily into Mr. Newman's purpose to lift the level of the English +Church and its clergy. While Mr. Newman at Oxford was fighting the +battle of the English Church, there was no one who was a closer friend +than Rogers, no one in whom Mr. Newman had such trust, none whose +judgment he so valued, no one in whose companionship he so delighted; +and the master's friendship was returned by the disciple with a noble +and tender, and yet manly honesty. There came, as we know, times which +strained even that friendship; when the disciple, just at the moment +when the master most needed and longed for sympathy and counsel, had to +choose between his duty to his Church and the claims and ties of +friendship. He could not follow in the course which his master and +friend had found inevitable; and that deepest and most delightful +friendship had to be given up. But it was given up, not indeed without +great suffering on both sides, but without bitterness or unworthy +thoughts. The friend had seen too closely the greatness and purity of +his master's character to fail in tenderness and loyalty, even when he +thought his master going most wrong. He recognised that the error, +deplorable as he thought it, was the mistake of a lofty and unselfish +soul; and in the height of the popular outcry against him he came +forward, with a distant and touching reverence, to take his old +friend's part and rebuke the clamour. And at length the time came when +disagreements were left long behind and each person had finally taken +his recognised place; and then the old ties were knit up again. It +could not be the former friendship of every day and of absolute and +unreserved confidence. But it was the old friendship of affection and +respect renewed, and pleasure in the interchange of thoughts. It was a +friendship of the antique type, more common, perhaps, even in the last +century than with us, but enriched with Christian hopes and Christian +convictions. + +Lord Blachford, in spite of his brilliant Oxford reputation, and though +he was a singularly vigorous writer, with wide interests and very +independent thought, has left nothing behind him in the way of +literature. This was partly because he very early became a man of +affairs; partly that his health interfered with habits of study. It +used to be told at Oxford that when he was working for his Double First +he could scarcely use his eyes, and had to learn much of his work by +being read to. The result was that he was not a great reader; and a man +ought to be a reader who is to be a writer. But, besides this, there +was a strongly marked feature in his character which told in the same +direction. There was a curious modesty about him which formed a +contrast with other points; with a readiness and even eagerness to put +forth and develop his thoughts on matters that interested him, with a +perfect consciousness of his remarkable powers of statement and +argument, with a constitutional impetuosity blended with caution which +showed itself when anything appealed to his deeper feelings or called +for his help; yet with all these impelling elements, his instinct was +always to shrink from putting himself forward, except when it was a +matter of duty. He accepted recognition when it came, but he never +claimed it. And this reserve, which marked his social life, kept him +back from saying in a permanent form much that he had to say, and that +was really worth saying. Like many of the distinguished men of his day, +he was occasionally a journalist. We have been reminded by the _Times_ +that he at one time wrote for that paper. And he was one of the men to +whose confidence and hope in the English Church the _Guardian_ owes its +existence. + +His life was the uneventful one of a diligent and laborious public +servant, and then of a landlord keenly alive to the responsibilities of +his position. He passed through various subordinate public employments, +and finally succeeded Mr. Herman Merivale as permanent Under-Secretary +for the Colonies. It is a great post, but one of which the work is done +for the most part out of sight. Colonial Secretaries in Parliament come +and go, and have the credit, often quite justly, of this or that +policy. But the public know little of the permanent official who keeps +the traditions and experience of the department, whose judgment is +always an element, often a preponderating element, in eventful +decisions, and whose pen drafts the despatches which go forth in the +name of the Government. Sir Frederic Rogers, as he became in time, had +to deal with some of the most serious colonial questions which arose +and were settled while he was at the Colonial Office. He took great +pains, among other things, to remove, or at least diminish, the +difficulties which beset the _status_ of the Colonial Church and +clergy, and to put its relations to the Church at home on a just and +reasonable footing. There is a general agreement as to the industry and +conspicuous ability with which his part of the work was done. Mr. +Gladstone set an admirable example in recognising in an unexpected way +faithful but unnoticed services, and at the same time paid a merited +honour to the permanent staff of the public offices, when he named Sir +Frederic Rogers for a peerage. + +Lord Blachford, for so he became on his retirement from the Colonial +Office, cannot be said to have quitted entirely public life, as he +always, while his strength lasted, acknowledged public claims on his +time and industry. He took his part in two or three laborious +Commissions, doing the same kind of valuable yet unseen work which he +had done in office, guarding against blunders, or retrieving them, +giving direction and purpose to inquiries, suggesting expedients. But +his main employment was now at his own home. He came late in life to +the position of a landed proprietor, and he at once set before himself +as his object the endeavour to make his estate as perfect as it could +be made--perfect in the way in which a naturally beautiful country and +his own good taste invited him to make it, but beyond all, as perfect +as might be, viewed as the dwelling-place of his tenants and the +labouring poor. A keen and admiring student of political economy, his +sympathies were always with the poor. He was always ready to challenge +assumptions, such as are often loosely made for the convenience of the +well-to-do. The solicitude which always pursued him was the thought of +his cottages, and it was not satisfied till the last had been put in +good order. The same spirit prompted him to allow labourers who could +manage the undertaking to rent pasture for a few cows; and the +experiment, he thought, had succeeded. The idea of justice and the +general welfare had too strong a hold on his mind to allow him to be +sentimental in dealing with the difficult questions connected with +land. But if his labourers found him thoughtful of their comfort his +farmers found him a good landlord--strict where he met with dishonesty +and carelessness, but open-minded and reasonable in understanding their +points of view, and frank, equitable, and liberal in meeting their +wishes. Disclaiming all experience of country matters, and not minding +if he fell into some mistakes, he made his care of his estate a model +of the way in which a good man should discharge his duties to the land. + +His was one of those natures which have the gift of inspiring +confidence in all who come near him; all who had to do with him felt +that they could absolutely trust him. The quality which was at the +bottom of his character as a man was his unswerving truthfulness; but +upon this was built up a singularly varied combination of elements not +often brought together, and seldom in such vigour and activity. Keen, +rapid, penetrating, he was quick in detecting anything that rung hollow +in language or feeling; and he did not care to conceal his dislike and +contempt. But no one threw himself with more genuine sympathy into the +real interests of other people. No matter what it was, ethical or +political theory, the course of a controversy, the arrangement of a +trust-deed, the oddities of a character, the marvels of natural +science, he was always ready to go with his companion as far as he +chose to go, and to take as much trouble as if the question started had +been his own. Where his sense of truth was not wounded he was most +considerate and indulgent; he seemed to keep through life his +schoolboy's amused tolerance for mischief that was not vicious. No one +entered more heartily into the absurdities of a grotesque situation; of +no one could his friends be so sure that he would miss no point of a +good story; and no one took in at once more completely or with deeper +feeling the full significance of some dangerous incident in public +affairs, or discerned more clearly the real drift of confused and +ambiguous tendencies. He was conscious of the power of his intellect, +and he liked to bring it to bear on what was before him; he liked to +probe things to the bottom, and see how far his companion in +conversation was able to go; but ready as he was with either argument +or banter he never, unless provoked, forced the proof of his power on +others. For others, indeed, of all classes and characters, so that they +were true, he had nothing but kindness, geniality, forbearance, the +ready willingness to meet them on equal terms. Those who had the +privilege of his friendship remember how they were kept up in their +standard and measure of duty by the consciousness of his opinion, his +judgment, his eagerness to feel with them, his fearless, though it +might be reluctant, expression of disagreement It was, indeed, that +very marked yet most harmonious combination of severity and tenderness +which gave such interest to his character. A strong love of justice, a +deep and unselfish and affectionate gentleness and patience, are +happily qualities not too rare. But to have known one at once so +severely just and so indulgently tender and affectionate makes a mark +in a man's life which he forgets at his peril. + + +THE END + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Occasional Papers, by R.W. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Occasional Papers + Selected from The Guardian, The Times, and The Saturday Review, + 1846-1890 + + +Author: R.W. Church + +Release Date: April 3, 2004 [EBook #11771] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OCCASIONAL PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by MBP, papeters, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +OCCASIONAL PAPERS + +SELECTED FROM +THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES, AND THE SATURDAY REVIEW +1846-1890 + + +By the late +R.W. CHURCH, M.A., D.C.L. +Sometime Rector of Whatley, Dean of St. Paul's, +Honorary Fellow of Oriel College + + +In Two Vols.--VOL. II + + +London +Macmillan and Co., Limited +New York: The Macmillan Company + +1897 + +_First Edition February_ 1897 +_Reprinted April_ 1897 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I MR. GLADSTONE ON THE ROYAL SUPREMACY + +II JOYCE ON COURTS OF SPIRITUAL APPEAL + +III PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS + +IV SIR JOHN COLERIDGE ON THE PURCHAS CASE + +V MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTER ON THE ENGLISH CHURCH + +VI DISENDOWMENT + +VII THE NEW COURT + +VIII MOZLEY'S BAMPTON LECTURES + +IX ECCE HOMO + +X THE AUTHOR OF "ROBERT ELSMERE" ON A NEW REFORMATION + +XI RENAN'S "VIE DE JESUS" + +XII RENAN'S "LES APOTRES" + +XIII RENAN'S HIBBERT LECTURES + +XIV RENAN'S "SOUVENIRS D'ENFANCE" + +XV LIFE OF FREDERICK ROBERTSON + +XVI LIFE OF BARON BUNSEN + +XVII COLERIDGE'S MEMOIR OF KEBLE + +XVIII MAURICE'S THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS + +XIX FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE + +XX SIR RICHARD CHURCH + +XXI DEATH OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE + +XXII RETIREMENT OF THE PROVOST OF ORIEL + +XXIII MARK PATTISON + +XXIV PATTISON'S ESSAYS + +XXV BISHOP FRAZER + +XXVI NEWMAN'S "APOLOGIA" + +XXVII DR. NEWMAN ON THE "EIRENICON" + +XXVIII NEWMAN'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS + +XXIX CARDINAL NEWMAN + +XXX CARDINAL NEWMAN'S COURSE + +XXXI CARDINAL NEWMAN'S NATURALNESS + +XXXII LORD BLACHFORD + + + + +I + +MR. GLADSTONE ON THE ROYAL SUPREMACY[1] + + + [1] + _Remarks on the Royal Supremacy, as it is Defined by Reason, History, + and the Constitution_. A Letter to the Lord Bishop of London, by + the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone, M.P. for the University of Oxford. + _Guardian_, 10th July 1850. + +Mr. Gladstone has not disappointed the confidence of those who have +believed of him that when great occasions presented themselves, of +interest to the Church, he would not be found wanting. A statesman +has a right to reserve himself and bide his time, and in doubtful +circumstances may fairly ask us to trust his discretion as to when is +his time. But there are critical seasons about whose seriousness there +can be no doubt. One of these is now passing over the English Church. +And Mr. Gladstone has recognised it, and borne himself in it with a +manliness, earnestness, and temper which justify those who have never +despaired of his doing worthy service to the Church, with whose cause +he so early identified himself. + +The pamphlet before us, to which he has put his name, is the most +important, perhaps, of all that have been elicited by the deep interest +felt in the matter on which it treats. Besides its importance as the +expression of the opinion, and, it must be added, the anxieties of a +leading statesman, it has two intrinsic advantages. It undertakes to +deal closely and strictly with those facts in the case mainly belonging +to the period of the Reformation, on which the great stress has been +laid in the arguments both against our liberty and our very being as a +Church. And, further, it gives us on these facts, and, in connection +with them, on the events of the crisis itself, the judgment and the +anticipations of a mind at once deeply imbued with religious +philosophy, and also familiar with the consideration of constitutional +questions, and accustomed to view them in their practical entanglements +as well as in their abstract and ideal forms. It is, indeed, thus only +that the magnitude and the true extent of the relations of the present +contest can be appreciated. The intrinsic greatness, indeed, of +religious interests cannot receive addition of dignity here. But the +manner of treating them may. And Mr. Gladstone has done what was both +due to the question at issue, and in the highest degree important for +its serious consideration and full elucidation, in raising it from a +discussion of abstract principles to what it is no less--a real problem +of English constitutional law. + +The following passage will show briefly the ground over which the +discussion travels:-- + + The questions, then, that I seek to examine will be as follow:-- + + 1. Did the statutes of the Reformation involve the abandonment of + the duty of the Church to be the guardian of her faith? + + 2. Is the present composition of the appellate tribunal conformable + either to reason or to the statutes of the Reformation, and the + spirit of the Constitution as expressed in them? + + 3. Is the Royal Supremacy, according to the Constitution, any bar + to the adjustment of the appellate jurisdiction in such a manner + as that it shall convey the sense of the Church in questions of + doctrine? + + All these questions I humbly propose to answer in the negative, + and so to answer them in conformity with what I understand to be + the principles of our history and law. My endeavour will be to + show that the powers of the State so determined, in regard to the + legislative office of the Church (setting aside for the moment any + question as to the right of assent in the laity), are powers of + restraint; that the jurisdictions united and annexed to the Crown + are corrective jurisdictions; and that their exercise is subject + to the general maxim, that the laws ecclesiastical are to be + administered by ecclesiastical judges. + +Mr. Gladstone first goes into the question--What was done, and what was +the understanding at the Reformation? All agree that this was a time of +great changes, and that in the settlement resulting from them the State +took, and the Church yielded, a great deal. And on the strength of this +broad general fact, the details of the settlement have been treated +with an _a priori_ boldness, not deficient often in that kind of +precision which can be gained by totally putting aside inconvenient +or perplexing elements, and having both its intellectual and moral +recommendations to many minds; but highly undesirable where a great +issue has been raised for the religion of millions, and the political +constitution of a great nation. Men who are not lawyers seem to have +thought that, by taking a lawyer's view, or what they considered such, +of the Reformation Acts, they had disposed of the question for ever. It +was, indeed, time for a statesman to step in, and protest, if only in +the name of constitutional and political philosophy, against so narrow +and unreal an abuse of law-texts--documents of the highest importance +in right hands, and in their proper place, but capable, as all must +know, of leading to inconceivable absurdity in speculation, and not +impossibly fatal confusion in fact. + +The bulk of this pamphlet is devoted to the consideration of the language +and effect, legal and constitutional, of those famous statutes with the +titles of which recent controversy has made us so familiar. Mr. +Gladstone makes it clear that it does not at all follow that because the +Church conceded a great deal, she conceded, or even was expected to +concede, indefinitely, whatever might be claimed. She conceded, but she +conceded by compact;--a compact which supposed her power to concede, and +secured to her untouched whatever was not conceded. And she did not +concede, nor was asked for, her highest power, her legislative power. +She did not concede, nor was asked to concede, that any but her own +ministers--by the avowal of all drawing their spiritual authority from a +source which nothing human could touch--should declare her doctrine, or +should be employed in administering her laws. What she did concede was, +not original powers of direction and guidance, but powers of restraint +and correction;--under securities greater, both in form and in working, +than those possessed at the time by any other body in England, for their +rights and liberties--greater far than might have been expected, when +the consequences of a long foreign supremacy--not righteously maintained +and exercised, because at the moment unrighteously thrown off--increased +the control which the Civil Government always must claim over the +Church, by the sudden abstraction of a power which, though usurping, was +spiritual; and presented to the ambition of a despotic King a number of +unwarrantable prerogatives which the separation from the Pope had left +without an owner. + +On the trite saying, meant at first to represent, roughly and +invidiously, the effect of the Reformation, and lately urged as +technically and literally true--"The assertion that in the time of +Henry VIII. the See of Rome was both 'the source and centre of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction,' and therefore the supreme judge of +doctrine; and that this power of the Pope was transferred in its +entireness to the Crown"--Mr. Gladstone remarks as follows:-- + + I will not ask whether the Pope was indeed at that time the + supreme judge of doctrine; it is enough for me that not very long + before the Council of Constance had solemnly said otherwise, in + words which, though they may be forgotten, cannot be annulled.... + + That the Pope was the source of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the + English Church before the Reformation is an assertion of the + gravest import, which ought not to have been thus taken for + granted.... The fact really is this:--A modern opinion, which, by + force of modern circumstances, has of late gained great favour in + the Church of Rome, is here dated back and fastened upon ages to + whose fixed principles it was unknown and alien; and the case of + the Church of England is truly hard when the Papal authority of + the Middle Ages is exaggerated far beyond its real and historical + scope, with the effect only of fastening that visionary + exaggeration, through the medium of another fictitious notion of + wholesale transfer of the Papal privileges to the Crown, upon us, + as the true and legal measure of the Royal Supremacy. + + It appears to me that he who alleges in the gross that the Papal + prerogatives were carried over to the Crown at the Reformation, + greatly belies the laws and the people of that era. Their + unvarying doctrine was, that they were restoring the ancient regal + jurisdiction, and abolishing one that had been usurped. But there + is no evidence to show that these were identical in themselves, or + co-extensive in their range. In some respects the Crown obtained + at that period more than the Pope had ever had; for I am not aware + that the Convocation required his license to deliberate upon + canons, or his assent to their promulgation. In other respects the + Crown acquired less; for not the Crown, but the Archbishop of + Canterbury was appointed to exercise the power of dispensation in + things lawful, and to confirm Episcopal elections. Neither the + Crown nor the Archbishop succeeded to such Papal prerogatives as + were contrary to the law of the land; for neither the 26th of + Henry VIII. nor the 2nd of Elizabeth annexed to the Crown all the + powers of correction and reformation which had been actually + claimed by the Pope, but only such as "hath heretofore been or may + lawfully be exercised or used." ... The "ancient jurisdiction," + and not the then recently claimed or exercised powers, was the + measure and the substance of what the Crown received from the + Legislature; and, with those ancient rights for his rule, no + impartial man would say that the Crown was the source of + ecclesiastical jurisdiction according to the statutes of the + Reformation. But the statutes of the Reformation era relating to + jurisdiction, having as statutes the assent of the laity, and + accepted by the canons of the clergy, are the standard to which + the Church has bound herself as a religious society to conform. + +The word "jurisdiction" has played an important part in the recent +discussions; whether its meaning, with its various involved and +associated ideas, by no means free from intricacy and confusion, have +been duly unravelled and made clear, we may be permitted to doubt. A +distinction of the canonists has been assumed by those who have used +the word with most precision--_assumed_, though it is by no means a +simple and indisputable one. Mr. Gladstone draws attention to this, +when, after noticing that nowhere in the ecclesiastical legislation of +Elizabeth is the claim made on behalf of the Crown to be the source of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he admits that this _is_ the language of +the school of English law, and offers an explanation of the fact. That +which Acts of Parliament do not say, which is negatived in actual +practice by contradictory and irreconcilable facts, is yet wanted by +lawyers for the theoretic completeness of their idea and system of law. +The fact is important as a reminder that what is one real aspect, or, +perhaps, the most complete and consistent representation of a system +on paper, may be inadequate and untrue as an exhibition of its real +working and appearance in the world. + + To sum up the whole, then, I contend that the Crown did not claim + by statute, either to be of right, or to become by convention, the + _source_ of that kind of action, which was committed by the + Saviour to the Apostolic Church, whether for the enactment of + laws, or for the administration of its discipline; but the claim + was, that all the canons of the Church, and all its judicial + proceedings, inasmuch as they were to form parts respectively of + the laws and of the legal administration of justice in the + kingdom, should run only with the assent and sanction of the + Crown. They were to carry with them a double force--a force of + coercion, visible and palpable; a force addressed to conscience, + neither visible nor palpable, and in its nature only capable of + being inwardly appreciated. Was it then unreasonable that they + should bear outwardly the tokens of that power to which they were + to be indebted for their outward observance, and should work only + within by that wholly different influence that governs the kingdom + which is not of this world, and flows immediately from its King? + ... But while, according to the letter and spirit of the law, such + appear to be the limits of the Royal Supremacy in regard to the + _legislative_, which is the highest, action of the Church, I do + not deny that in other branches it goes farther, and will now + assume that the supremacy in all causes, which is at least a claim + to control at every point the jurisdiction of the Church, may also + be construed to mean as much as that the Crown is the ultimate + source of jurisdiction of whatever kind. + + Here, however, I must commence by stating that, as it appears to + me, Lord Coke and others attach to the very word jurisdiction a + narrower sense than it bears in popular acceptation, or in the + works of canonists--a sense which excludes altogether that of the + canonists; and also a sense which appears to be the genuine and + legitimate sense of the word in its first intention. Now, when we + are endeavouring to appreciate the force and scope of the legal + doctrine concerning ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction, it + is plain that we must take the term employed in the sense of our + own law, and not in the different and derivative sense in which it + has been used by canonists and theologians. But canonists + themselves bear witness to the distinction which I have now + pointed out. The one kind is _Jurisdictio coactiva proprie dicta, + principibus data_; the other is _Jurisdictio improprie dicta ac + mere spiritualis, Ecclesiae ejusque Episcopis a Christo data_.... + + Properly speaking, I submit that there is no such thing as + jurisdiction in any private association of men, or anywhere else + than under the authority of the State. _Jus_ is the scheme of + rights subsisting between men in the relations, not of all, but of + civil society; and _jurisdicto_ is the authority to determine and + enunciate those rights from time to time. Church authority, + therefore, so long as it stands alone, is not in strictness of + speech, or according to history, jurisdiction, because it is not + essentially bound up with civil law. + + But when the State and the Church came to be united, by the + conversion of nations, and the submission of the private + conscience to Christianity--when the Church placed her power of + self-regulation under the guardianship of the State, and the State + annexed its own potent sanction to rules, which without it would + have been matter of mere private contract, then _jus_ or civil + right soon found its way into the Church, and the respective + interests and obligations of its various orders, and of the + individuals composing them, were regulated by provisions forming + part of the law of the land. Matter ecclesiastical or spiritual + moulded in the forms of civil law, became the proper subject of + ecclesiastical or spiritual jurisdiction, properly so called. + + Now, inasmuch as laws are abstractions until they are put into + execution, through the medium of executive and judicial authority, + it is evident that the cogency of the reasons for welding + together, so to speak, civil and ecclesiastical authority is much + more full with regard to these latter branches of power than with + regard to legislation. There had been in the Church, from its + first existence as a spiritual society, a right to govern, to + decide, to adjudge for spiritual purposes; that was a true, + self-governing authority; but it was not properly jurisdiction. It + naturally came to be included, or rather enfolded, in the term, + when for many centuries the secular arm had been in perpetual + co-operation with the tribunals of the Church. The thing to be + done, and the means by which it was done, were bound together; the + authority and the power being always united in fact, were treated + as an unity for the purposes of law. As the potentate possessing + not the head but the mouth or issue of a river, has the right to + determine what shall pass to or from the sea, so the State, + standing between an injunction of the Church and its execution, + had a right to refer that execution wholly to its own authority. + + There was not contained or implied in such a doctrine any denial + of the original and proper authority of the Church for its own + self-government, or any assertion that it had passed to and become + the property of the Crown. But that authority, though not in its + source, yet in its exercise, had immersed itself in the forms of + law; had invoked and obtained the aid of certain elements of + external power, which belonged exclusively to the State, and for + the right and just use of which the State had a separate and + independent responsibility, so that it could not, without breach + of duty, allow them to be parted from itself. It was, therefore, I + submit, an intelligible and, under given circumstances, a + warrantable scheme of action, under which the State virtually + said: Church decrees, taking the form of law, and obtaining their + full and certain effect only in that form, can be executed only as + law, and while they are in process of being put into practice can + only be regarded as law, and therefore the whole power of their + execution, that is to say, all juris diction in matters + ecclesiastical and spiritual, must, according to the doctrine of + law, proceed from the fountain-head of law, namely, from the + Crown. In the last legal resort there can be but one origin for + all which is to be done in societies of men by force of legal + power; nor, if so, can doubt arise what that origin must be. + + If you allege that the Church has a spiritual authority to + regulate doctrines and discipline, still, as you choose to back + that authority with the force of temporal law, and as the State is + exclusively responsible for the use of that force, you must be + content to fold up the authority of the Church in that exterior + form through which you desire it to take effect. From whatsoever + source it may come originally, it comes to the subject as law; it + therefore comes to him from the fountain of law.... The faith of + Christendom has been received in England; the discipline of the + Christian Church, cast into its local form, modified by statutes + of the realm, and by the common law and prerogative, has from time + immemorial been received in England; but we can view them only as + law, although you may look further back to the divine and + spiritual sanction, in virtue of which they acquired that social + position, which made it expedient that they should associate with + law and should therefore become law. + +But as to the doctrine itself, it is most obvious to notice that it is +not more strange, and not necessarily more literally real, than those +other legal views of royal prerogative and perfection, which are the +received theory of all our great jurists--accepted by them for very +good reasons, but not the less astounding when presented as naked and +independent truths. It was natural enough that they should claim for +the Crown the origination of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, considering +what else they claimed for it. Mr. Allen can present us with a more +than Chinese idea of royal power, when he draws it only from +Blackstone:-- + + They may have heard [he says, speaking of the "unlearned in the + law"] that the law of England is founded in reason and wisdom. The + first lesson they are taught will inform them, that the law of + England attributes to the King absolute perfection, absolute + immortality, and legal ubiquity. They will be told that the King + of England is not only incapable of doing wrong, but of thinking + wrong. They will be informed that he never dies, that he is + invisible as well as immortal, and that in the eye of the law he + is present at one and the same instant in every court of justice + within his dominions.... They may have been told that the royal + prerogative in England is limited; but when they consult the sages + of the law, they will be assured that the legal authority of the + King of England is absolute and irresistible ... that all are + under him, while he is under none but God.... + + If they have had the benefit of a liberal education, they have + been taught that to obtain security for persons and property was + the great end for which men submitted to the restraints of civil + government; and they may have heard of the indispensable necessity + of an independent magistracy for the due administration of + justice; but when they direct their inquiries to the laws and + constitution of England, they will find it an established maxim in + that country that all jurisdiction emanates from the Crown. They + will be told that the King is not ony the chief, but the sole + magistrate of the nation; and that all others act by his + commission, and in subordination to him.[2] + + [2] + _Allen on the Royal Prerogative_, pp. 1-3. + +"In the most limited monarchy," as he says truly the "King is +represented in law books, as in theory an absolute sovereign." "Even +now," says Mr. Gladstone, "after three centuries of progress toward +democratic sway, the Crown has prerogatives by acting upon which, +within their strict and unquestioned bounds, it might at any time throw +the country into confusion. And so has each House of Parliament." But +if the absolute supremacy of the Crown _in the legal point of mew +exactly the same over temporal matters and causes as over spiritual_, +is taken by no sane man to be a literal fact in temporal matters, it is +violating the analogy of the Constitution, and dealing with the most +important subjects in a mere spirit of narrow perverseness, to insist +that it can have none but a literal meaning in ecclesiastical matters; +and that the Church _did_ mean, though the State _did not_ to accept a +despotic prerogative, unbounded by custom, convention, or law, and +unchecked by acknowledged and active powers in herself. Yet such is the +assumption, made in bitterness and vexation of spirit by some of those +who have lately so hastily given up her cause; made with singular +assurance by others, who, Liberals in all their political doctrines, +have, for want of better arguments, invoked prerogative against the +Church. + +What the securities and checks were that the Church, not less than the +nation, contemplated and possessed, are not expressed in the theory +itself of the royal prerogative; and, as in the ease of the nation, we +might presume beforehand, that they would be found in practice rather +than on paper. They were, however, real ones. "With the same theoretical +laxity and practical security," as in the case of Parliaments and +temporal judges, "was provision made for the conduct of Church +affairs." Making allowance for the never absent disturbances arising +out of political trouble and of personal character, the Church had very +important means of making her own power felt in the administration of +her laws, as well as in the making of them. + + The real question, I apprehend, is this:--When the Church assented + to those great concessions which were embodied in our permanent + law at the Reformation, had she _adequate securities_ that the + powers so conveyed would be exercised, upon the whole, with a due + regard to the integrity of her faith, and of her office, which was + and has ever been a part of that faith? I do not ask whether these + securities were all on parchment or not--whether they were written + or unwritten--whether they were in statute, or in common law, or + in fixed usage, or in the spirit of the Constitution and in the + habits of the people--I ask the one vital question, whether, + whatever they were in form, they were in substance sufficient? + + _The securities_ which the Church had were these: First, that the + assembling of the Convocation was obviously necessary for the + purposes of taxation; secondly and mainly, that the very solemn + and fundamental laws by which the jurisdiction of the See of Rome + was cut off, assigned to the spiritualty of the realm the care of + matters spiritual, as distinctly and formally as to the temporalty + the care of matters temporal; and that it was an understood + principle, and (as long as it continued) a regular usage of the + Constitution, that ecclesiastical laws should be administered by + ecclesiastical judges. These were the securities on which the + Church relied; on, which she had a right to rely; and on which, + for a long series of years, her alliance was justified by the + results. + +And further:-- + + The Church had this great and special security on which to rely, + that the Sovereigns of this country were, for a century after the + Reformation, amongst her best instructed, and even in some + instances her most devoted children: that all who made up the + governing body (with an insignificant exception) owned personal + allegiance to her, and that she might well rest on that personal + allegiance as warranting beforehand the expectation, which after + experience made good, that the office of the State towards her + would be discharged in a friendly and kindly spirit, and that the + principles of constitutional law and civil order would not be + strained against her, but fairly and fully applied in her behalf. + +These securities she now finds herself deprived of. This is the great +change made in her position--made insensibly, and In a great measure, +undesignedly--which has altered altogether the understanding on which +she stood towards the Crown at the Reformation. It now turns out that +that understanding, though it might have been deemed sufficient for the +time, was not precise enough; and further, was not sufficiently looked +after in the times which followed. And on us comes the duty of taking +care that it be not finally extinguished; thrown off by the despair of +one side, and assumed by the other as at length abandoned to their +aggression. + +Mr. Gladstone comes to the question with the feelings of a statesman, +conscious of the greatness and excellence of the State, and anxious +that the Church should not provoke its jealousy, and in urging her +claims should "take her stand, as to all matters of substance and +principle, on the firm ground of history and law." It makes his +judgment on the present state of things more solemn, and his conviction +of the necessity of amending it more striking, when they are those of +one so earnest for conciliation and peace. But on constitutional not +less than on other grounds, he pronounces the strongest condemnation on +the present formation of the Court of Appeal, which, working in a way +which even its framers did not contemplate, has brought so much +distress into the Church, and which yet, in defiance of principle, of +consistency, and of the admission of its faultiness, is so recklessly +maintained. Feeling and stating very strongly the evil sustained by the +Church, from the suspension of her legislative powers,--"that loss of +command over her work, and over the heart of the nation, which it has +brought upon her,"--so strongly indeed that his words, coming from one +familiar with the chances and hazards of a deliberative assembly, give +new weight to the argument for the resumption of those powers,--feeling +all this, he is ready to acquiesce in the measure beyond which the +Bishops did not feel authorised to go, and which Mr. Gladstone regards +as "representing the extremest point up to which the love of peace +might properly carry the concessions of the Church":-- + + That which she is entitled in the spirit of the Constitution to + demand would be that the Queen's ecclesiastical laws shall be + administered by the Queen's ecclesiastical judges, of whom the + Bishops are the chief; and this, too, under the checks which the + sitting of a body appointed for ecclesiastical legislation would + impose. + + But if it is not of vital necessity that a Church Legislature + should sit at the present time--if it is not of vital necessity + that all causes termed ecclesiastical should be treated under + special safeguards--if it is not of vital necessity that the + function of judgment should be taken out of the hands of the + existing court--let the Church frankly and at once subscribe to + every one of these great concessions, and reduce her demands to a + _minimum_ at the outset. + + Laws ecclesiastical by ecclesiastical judges, let this be her + principle; it plants her on the ground of ancient times, of the + Reformation, of our continuous history, of reason and of right. + The utmost moderation, in the application of the principle, let + this he her temper, and then her case will be strong in the face + of God and man, and, come what may, she will conquer.... If, my + Lord, it be felt by the rulers of the Church, that a scheme like + this will meet sufficiently the necessities of her case, it must + be no small additional comfort to them to feel that their demand + is every way within the spirit of the Constitution, and short of + the terms which the great compact of the Reformation would + authorise you to seek. You, and not those who are against you, + will take your stand with Coke and Blackstone; you, and not they, + will wield the weapons of constitutional principle and law; you, + and not they, will be entitled to claim the honour of securing the + peace of the State no less than the faith of the Church; you, and + not they, will justly point the admonitory finger to those + remarkable words of the Institutes:-- + + "And certain it is, that this Kingdom hath been best governed, and + peace and quiet preserved, when both parties, that is, when the + justices of the temporal courts and the ecclesiastical judges have + kept themselves within their proper jurisdiction, without + encroaching or usurping one upon another; and where such + encroachments or usurpations have been made, they have been the + seeds of great trouble and inconvenience." + + Because none can resist the principle of your proposal, who admit + that the Church has a sphere of proper jurisdiction at all, or any + duty beyond that of taking the rule of her doctrine and her + practice from the lips of ministers or parliaments. If it shall be + deliberately refused to adopt a proposition so moderate, so + guarded and restrained in the particular instance, and so + sustained by history, by analogy, and by common reason, in the + case of the faith of the Church, and if no preferable measure be + substituted, it can only be in consequence of a latent intention + that the voice of the Civil Power should be henceforward supreme + in the determination of Christian doctrine. + +We trust that such an assurance, backed as it is by the solemn and +earnest warnings of one who is not an enthusiast or an agitator, but +one of the leading men in the Parliament of England, will not be +without its full weight with those on whom devolves the duty of guiding +and leading us in this crisis. The Bishops of England have a great +responsibility on them. Reason, not less than Christian loyalty and +Christian charity, requires the fairest interpretation of their acts, +and it may be of their hesitation,--the utmost consideration of their +difficulties. But reason, not less than Christian loyalty and charity, +expects that, having accepted the responsibilities of the Episcopate, +they should not withdraw from them when they arrive; and that there +should be neither shrinking nor rest nor compromise till the creed and +the rights of the Church entrusted to their fidelity be placed, as far +as depends on them, beyond danger. + + + + +II + +JOYCE ON COURTS OF SPIRITUAL APPEAL[3] + + + [3] + _Ecclesia Vindicata; a Treatise on Appeals in Matters Spiritual_. + By James Wayland Joyce. _Saturday Review_, 22nd October 1864. + +Nothing can be more natural than the extreme dissatisfaction felt by a +large body of persons in the Church of England at the present Court of +Final Appeal in matters of doctrine. The grievance, and its effect, may +have been exaggerated; and the expressions of feeling about it +certainly have not always been the wisest and most becoming. But as the +Church of England is acknowledged to hold certain doctrines on matters +of the highest importance, and, in common with all other religious +bodies, claims the right of saying what are her own doctrines, it is +not surprising that an arrangement which seems likely to end in handing +over to indifferent or unfriendly judges the power of saying what those +doctrines are, or even whether she has any doctrines at all, should +create irritation and impatience. There is nothing peculiar to the +English Church in the assumption, either that outsiders should not +meddle with and govern what she professes to believe and teach, or +that the proper and natural persons to deal with theological questions +are the class set apart to teach and maintain her characteristic +belief. Whatever may ultimately become of these assumptions, they +unquestionably represent the ideas which have been derived from the +earliest and the uniform practice of the Christian Church, and are held +by most even of the sects which have separated from it. To any one who +does not look upon the English Church as simply a legally constituted +department of the State, like the army or navy or the department of +revenue, and believes it to have a basis and authority of its own, +antecedent to its rights by statute, there cannot but be a great +anomaly in an arrangement which, when doctrinal questions are pushed to +their final issues, seems to deprive her of any voice or control in the +matters in which she is most interested, and commits them to the +decision, not merely of a lay, but of a secular and not necessarily +even Christian court, where the feeling about them is not unlikely to +be that represented by the story, told by Mr. Joyce, of the eminent +lawyer who said of some theological debate that he could only decide it +"by tossing up a coin of the realm." The anomaly of such a court can +hardly be denied, both as a matter of theory and--supposing it to +matter at all what Church doctrine really is--as illustrated in some +late results of its action. It is still more provoking to observe, as +Mr. Joyce brings out in his historical sketch, that simple carelessness +and blundering have conspired with the evident tendency of things to +cripple and narrow the jurisdiction of the Church in what seems to be +her proper sphere. The ecclesiastical appeals, before the Reformation, +were to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction alone. They were given to the +civil power by the Tudor legislation, but to the civil power acting, if +not by the obligation of law, yet by usage and in fact, through +ecclesiastical organs and judges. Lastly, by a recent change, of which +its authors have admitted that they did not contemplate the effect, +these appeals are now to the civil jurisdiction acting through purely +civil courts. It is an aggravation of this, when the change which seems +so formidable has become firmly established, to be told that it was, +after all, the result of accident and inadvertence, and a "careless use +of terms in drafting an Act of Parliament"; and that difficult and +perilous theological questions have come, by "a haphazard chance," +before a court which was never meant to decide them. It cannot be +doubted that those who are most interested in the Church of England +feel deeply and strongly about keeping up what they believe to be the +soundness and purity of her professed doctrine; and they think that, +under fair conditions, they have clear and firm ground for making good +their position. But it seems by no means unlikely that in the working +of the Court of Final Appeal there will be found a means of evading the +substance of questions, and of disposing of very important issues by a +side wind, to the prejudice of what have hitherto been recognised as +rightful claims. An arrangement which bears hard upon the Church +theoretically, as a controversial argument in the hands of Dr. Manning +or Mr. Binney, and as an additional proof of its Erastian subjection to +the State, and which also works ill and threatens serious mischief, may +fairly be regarded by Churchmen with jealousy and dislike, and be +denounced as injurious to interests for which they have a right to +claim respect. The complaint that the State is going to force new +senses on theological terms, or to change by an unavowed process the +meaning of acknowledged formularies in such a body as the English +Church, is at least as deserving of attention as the reluctance of +conscientious Dissenters to pay Church-rates. + +Mr. Joyce's book shows comprehensively and succinctly the history of +the changes which have brought matters to their present point, and the +look which they wear in the eyes of a zealous Churchman, disturbed both +by the shock given to his ideas of fitness and consistency, and by the +prospect of practical evils. It is a clergyman's view of the subject, +but it is not disposed of by saying that it is a clergyman's view. It +is incomplete and one-sided, and leaves out considerations of great +importance which ought to be attended to in forming a judgment on the +whole question; but it is difficult to say that, regarded simply in +itself, the claim that the Church should settle her own controversies, +and that Church doctrine should be judged of in Church courts, is not a +reasonable one. The truth is that the present arrangement, if we think +only of its abstract suitableness and its direct and ostensible claims +to our respect, would need Swift himself to do justice to its exquisite +unreasonableness. It is absurd to assume, as it is assumed in the whole +of our ecclesiastical legislation, that the Church is bound to watch +most jealously over doctrine, and then at the last moment to refuse her +the natural means of guarding it. It is absurd to assume that the +"spiritualty" are the only proper persons to teach doctrine, and then +to act as if they were unfit to judge of doctrine. It is not easy, in +the abstract, to see why articles which were trusted to clergymen to +draw up may not be trusted to clergymen to explain, and why what there +was learning and wisdom enough to do in the violent party times and +comparative inexperience of the Reformation, cannot be safely left to +the learning and wisdom of our day for correction or completion. If +Churchmen and ecclesiastics may care too much for the things about +which they dispute, it seems undeniable that lawyers who need not even +be Christians, may care for them too little; and if the Churchmen make +a mistake in the matter, at least it is their own affair, and they may +be more fairly made to take the consequences of their own acts than of +other people's. A strong case, if a strong case were all that was +wanted, might be made out for a change in the authority which at +present pronounces in the last resort on Church of England doctrine. + +But the difficulty is, not to see that the present state of things, +which has come about almost by accident, is irregular and +unsatisfactory, and that in it the civil power has stolen a march on +the privileges which even Tudors and Hanoverians left to the Church, +but to suggest what would be more just and more promising. A mixed +tribunal, composed of laymen and ecclesiastics, would be in effect, as +Mr. Joyce perceives, simply the present court with a sham colour of +Church authority added to it; and he describes with candid force the +confusion which might arise if the lawyers and divines took different +sides, and how, in the unequal struggle, the latter might "find +themselves hopelessly prostrate in the stronger grasp of their more +powerful associates." His own scheme of a theological and +ecclesiastical committee of reference, to which a purely legal tribunal +might send down questions of doctrine to be answered, as "experts" or +juries give answers about matters of science or matters of fact, is +hardly more hopeful; for even he would not bind the legal court, as of +course it could not be bound, to accept the doctrine of the +ecclesiastical committee. He promises, indeed, on the authority of Lord +Derby, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the lawyers would +accept the answer of the divines; but whatever the scandal is now, it +would be far greater if an unorthodox judgment were given in flat +contradiction to the report of the committee of reference. + +As to a purely ecclesiastical Court of Appeal, in the present state of +the Church both in England and all over the world, it ought to console +those who must be well aware that here at least it is hardly to be +looked for, to reflect how such courts act, after all, where they have +the power to act, and how far things would have gone in a better or +happier fashion among us if, instead of the Privy Council, there had +been a tribunal of divines to give final judgment. The history of +appeals to Rome, from the days of the Jansenists and Fenelon to those +of Lamennais, may be no doubt satisfactory to those who believe it +necessary to ascribe to the Pope the highest wisdom and the most +consummate justice; but to those who venture to notice the real steps +of the process, and the collateral considerations, political and local, +which influenced the decision, the review is hardly calculated to make +those who are debarred from it regret the loss of this unalloyed purity +of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. And, as regards ourselves, it is true +that an ecclesiastical tribunal would hardly have been ingenious enough +to find the means of saying that Messrs. Wilson and Williams had not +taught in contradiction to the doctrines of the English Church, and +that they actually, under its present constitution, possessed the +liberty which, under a different--and, as some people think, a +better--constitution, they might possess. But it ought also to be borne +in mind what other judgments ecclesiastical tribunals might have given. +An ecclesiastical tribunal, unless it had been packed or accidentally +one-sided, would probably have condemned Mr. Gorham. An ecclesiastical +tribunal would almost certainly have expelled Archdeacon Denison from +his preferments. Indeed, the judgment of the Six Doctors on Dr. Pusey, +arbitrary and unconstitutional as it may be considered, was by no means +a doubtful foreshadowing of what a verdict upon him would have been +from any court that we can imagine formed of the high ecclesiastical +authorities of the time. It undoubtedly seems the most natural thing in +the world that a great religious body should settle, without hindrance, +its own doctrines and control its own ministers; but it is also some +compensation for the perversity with which the course of things has +interfered with ideal completeness, that our condition, if it had been +theoretically perfect, would have been perfectly intolerable. + +It would be highly unwise in those who direct the counsels of the +Church of England to accept a practical disadvantage for the gain of a +greater simplicity and consistency of system. The true moral to be +deduced from the anomalies of ecclesiastical appeals seems to be, to +have as little to do with them as possible. The idea of seeking a +remedy for the perplexities of theology in judicial rulings, and the +rage for having recourse to law courts, are of recent date in our +controversies. They were revived among us as one of the results of the +violent panic caused by the Oxford movement, and of the inconsiderate +impatience of surprised ignorance which dictated extreme and forcible +measures; and as this is a kind of game at which, when once started, +both parties can play, the policy of setting the law in motion to +silence theological opponents has become a natural and favourite one. +But it may be some excuse for the legislators who, in 1833, in +constructing a new Court of Appeal, so completely forgot or underrated +the functions which it would be called to discharge in the decision of +momentous doctrinal questions, that at the time no one thought much of +carrying theological controversies to legal arbitrament. The experiment +is a natural one to have been made in times of strong and earnest +religious contention; but, now that it has had its course, it is not +difficult to see that it was a mistaken one. There seems something +almost ludicrously incongruous in bringing a theological question into +the atmosphere and within the technical handling of a law court, and in +submitting delicate and subtle attempts to grasp the mysteries of the +unseen and the infinite, of God and the soul, of grace and redemption, +to the hard logic and intentionally confined and limited view of +forensic debate. Theological truth, in the view of all who believe in +it, must always remain independent of a legal decision; and, therefore, +as regards any real settlement, a theological question must come out of +a legal sentence in a totally different condition from any others where +the true and indisputable law of the case is, for the time at least, +what the supreme tribunal has pronounced it to be. People chafed at not +getting what they thought the plain broad conclusions from facts and +documents accepted; they appealed to law from the uncertainty of +controversy, and found law still more uncertain, and a good deal more +dangerous. They thought that they were going to condemn crimes and +expel wrongdoers; they found that these prosecutions inevitably assumed +the character of the old political trials, which were but an indirect +and very mischievous form of the struggle between two avowed parties, +and in which, though the technical question was whether the accused had +committed the crime, the real one was whether the alleged crime were a +crime at all. Accordingly, wider considerations than those arising out +of the strict merits of the case told upon the decision; and the +negative judgment, and resolute evasion of a condemnation, in each of +the cases which were of wide and serious importance, were proofs of the +same tendency in English opinion which has made political trials, +except in the most extreme cases, almost inconceivable. They mean that +the questions raised must be fought out and settled in a different and +more genuine way, and that law feels itself out of place when called to +interfere in them. As all parties have failed in turning the law into a +weapon, and yet as all parties have really gained much more than they +have lost by the odd anomalies of our ecclesiastical jurisprudence, the +wisest course would seem to be for those who feel the deep importance +of doctrinal questions to leave the law alone, either as to employing +it or attempting to change it. Controversy, argument, the display of +the intrinsic and inherent strength of a great and varied system, are +what all causes must in the last resort trust to. Lord Westbury will +have done the Church of England more good than perhaps he thought of +doing, if his _dicta_ make theologians see that they can be much better +and more hopefully employed than in trying legal conclusions with +unorthodox theorisers, or in busying themselves with inventing +imaginary improvements for a Final Court of Appeal. + + + + +III + +PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS[4] + + + [4] + _A Collection of the Judgments of the Judicial Committee of the Privy + Council in Ecclesiastical Cases relating to Doctrine and Discipline; + with a Preface by the Lord Bishop of London, and an Historical + Introduction_. Edited by the Hon. G. Brodrick, Barrister-at-Law, and + Rev. the Hon. W.H. Fremantle, Chaplain to the Bishop of London. + _Guardian_, 15th February 1865. + +The Bishop of London has done a useful service in causing the various +decisions of the present Court of Appeal to be collected into a volume. +There is such an obvious convenience about the plan that it hardly +needed the conventional reason given for it, that "the knowledge +generally possessed on the subject of the Court is vague, and the +sources from which accurate information can be obtained are little +understood; and that people who discuss it ought in the first place to +know what the Court is, and what it does." This is the mere customary +formula of a preface turned into a rhetorical insinuation which would +have been better away; most of those who care about the subject, and +have expressed opinions about it, know pretty well the nature of the +Court and the result of its working, and whatever variations there may +be in the judgment passed upon it arise not from any serious +imperfection of knowledge but from differences of principle. It was +hardly suitable in a work like this to assume a mystery and obscurity +about the subject where there is really none, and to claim superior +exactness and authenticity of information about a matter which in all +its substantial points is open to all the world. And we could conceive +the design, well-intentioned as it is, carried out in a way more +fitting to the gravity of the occasion which has suggested it. The +Bishop says truly enough that the questions involved in the +constitution of such a court are some of the most difficult with which +statesmen have to deal. Therefore it seems to us that a collection of +the decisions of such a court, put forth for the use of the Church and +nation under the authority of the Bishop of London, ought to have had +the dignity and the reserve of a work meant for permanence and for the +use of men of various opinions, and ought not to have had even the +semblance, as this book has, of an _ex parte_ pamphlet. The Bishop of +London is, of course, quite right to let the Church know what he thinks +about the Court of Final Appeal; and he is perfectly justified in +recommending us, in forming our opinion, to study carefully the facts +of the existing state of things; but it seems hardly becoming to make +the facts a vehicle for indirectly forcing on us, in the shape of +comments, a very definite and one-sided view of them, which is the very +subject of vehement contradiction and dispute. It would have been +better to have committed what was necessary in the way of explanation +and illustration to some one of greater weight and experience than two +clever young men of strong bias and manifest indisposition to respect +or attend to, or even to be patient with, any aspect of the subject but +their own in this complicated and eventful question, and who, partly +from overlooking great and material elements in it, and partly from an +imperfect apprehension of what they had to do, have failed to present +even the matters of fact with which they deal with the necessary +exactness and even-handedness. It seems to us that in a work intended +for the general use of the Church and addressed to men of all opinions, +they only remember to be thoroughgoing advocates and justifiers of the +Court which happens to have grown into such important consequence to +the English Church. The position is a perfectly legitimate one; but we +think it had better not have been connected with a documentary work +like the present, set forth by the direction and under the sanction of +a Bishop of London. + +In looking over the cases which have been brought together into a +connected series, the first point which is suggested by the review is +the great and important change in the aspect and bearing of doctrinal +controversies, and in the situation of the Church, as affected by them, +which the creation and action of this Court have made. From making it +almost a matter of principle and boast to dispense with any living +judge of controversies, the Church has passed to having a very +energetic one. Up to the Gorham judgment, it can hardly be said that +the ruling of courts of law had had the slightest influence on the +doctrinal position and character of the Church. Keen and fierce as had +been the controversies in the Church up to that judgment, how often had +a legal testing of her standards been seriously sought for or seriously +appealed to? There had been accusations of heresy, trials, +condemnations, especially in the times following the Reformation and +preceding the Civil War; there had been appeals and final judgments +given in such final courts as existed; but all without making any mark +on the public mind or the received meaning of doctrines and +formularies, and without leaving a trace except in law reports. They +seem to have been forgotten as soon as the particular case was disposed +of. The limits of supposed orthodox belief revived; but it was not the +action of judicial decisions which either narrowed or enlarged them. +Bishop Marsh's Calvinists never thought of having recourse to law. If +the Church did not do entirely without a Court of Final Appeal, it is +simply a matter of fact that the same weight and authority were not +attached to the proceedings of such a court which are attached to them +now. But since the Gorham case, the work of settling authoritatively, +if not the meaning of doctrines and of formularies, at any rate the +methods of interpreting and applying them, has been briskly going on in +the courts, and a law laid down by judges without appeal has been +insensibly fastening its hold upon us. The action of the courts is +extolled as being all in the direction of liberty. Whatever this praise +may be worth, it is to be observed that it is, after all, a wooden sort +of liberty, and shuts up quite as much as it opens. It may save, in +this case or that, individual liberty; but it does so by narrowing +artificially the natural and common-sense grounds of argument in +religious controversy, and abridging as much as possible the province +of theology. Before the Gorham case, the Formularies in general were +the standard and test, free to both sides, about baptismal +regeneration. Both parties had the ground open to them, to make what +they could of them by argument and reason. Discipline was limited by +the Articles and Formularies, and in part by the authority of great +divines and by the prevailing opinion of the Church, and by nothing +else; these were the means which each side had to convince and persuade +and silence the other, and each side might hope that in the course of +time its sounder and better supported view might prevail. But now upon +this state of things comes from without a dry, legal, narrow +stereotyping, officially and by authority, of the sense to be put upon +part of the documents in the controversy. You appeal to the +Prayer-book; your opponent tells you, Oh, the Court of Appeal has ruled +against you there: and that part of your case is withdrawn from you, +and he need give himself no trouble to argue the matter with you. +Against certain theological positions, perhaps of great weight, and +theological evidence, comes, not only the doctrine of theological +opponents, but the objection that they are bad law. The interpretation +which, it may be, we have assumed all our lives, and which we know to +be that of Fathers and divines, is suddenly pronounced not to be legal. +The decision does not close the controversy, which goes on as keenly +and with perhaps a little more exasperation than before; it simply +stops off, by virtue of a legal construction, a portion of the field of +argument for one party, which was, perhaps, supposed to have the +strongest claim to it. The Gorham case bred others; and now, at last, +after fifteen years, we have got, as may be seen in Messrs. Brodrick +and Fremantle's book, a body of judicial _dicta_, interpretations, +rules of exposition, and theological propositions, which have grown up +in the course of these cases, and which in various ways force a meaning +and construction on the theological standards and language of the +Church, which in some instances they were never thought to have, and +which they certainly never had authoritatively before. Besides her +Articles and Prayer-hook, speaking the language of divines and open to +each party to interpret according to the strength and soundness of +their theological ground, we are getting a supplementary set of legal +limitations and glosses, claiming to regulate theological argument if +not teaching, and imposed upon us by the authority not of the Church or +even of Parliament but of the Judges of the Privy Council. This, it +strikes us, is a new position of things in the Church, a new +understanding and a changed set of conditions on which to carry on +controversies of doctrine; and it seems to us to have a serious +influence not only on the responsibility of the Church for her own +doctrine, but on the freedom and genuineness with which questions as to +that doctrine are discussed. The Court is not to blame for this result; +to do it justice, it has generally sought to decide as little as it +could; and the interference of law with the province of pure theology +is to be rather attributed to that mania for deciding, which of late +has taken possession pretty equally of all parties. But the +indisputable result is seen to be, after the experience of fifteen +years, that law is taking a place in our theological disputes and our +theological system which is new to it in our theological history; law, +not laid down prospectively in general provisions, but emerging +indirectly and incidentally out of constructions and judicial rulings +on cases of pressing and hazardous exigency; law, applying its +technical and deliberately narrow processes to questions which of +course it cannot solve, but can only throw into formal and inadequate, +if not unreal, terms; and laying down the limits of belief and +assertion on matters about which hearts burn and souls tremble, by the +mouth of judges whose consummate calmness and ability is only equalled +by their profound and avowed want of sympathy for the theology of which +their position makes them the expounders and final arbiters. A system +has begun with respect to English Church doctrine, analogous to that by +which Lord Stowell made the recent law of the sea, or that by which on +a larger scale the rescripts and decrees of the Popes moulded the great +system of the canon law. + +This is the first thing that strikes us on a comparative survey of this +set of decisions. The second point is one which at first sight seems +greatly to diminish the importance of this new condition of things, but +which on further consideration is seen to have a more serious bearing +than might have been thought. This is, the odd haphazard way in which +points have come up for decision; the sort of apparent chance which has +finally governed the issue of the various contentions; and the +infinitesimally fine character of the few propositions of doctrine to +which the Court has given the sanction of its ruling. Knowing what we +all of us cannot help knowing, and seeing things which lawyers and +judges are bound not to allow themselves to see or take account of, we +find it difficult to repress the feeling of amazement, as we travel +through the volume, to see Mr. Gorham let off, Mr. Heath deprived, then +Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson let off, and to notice the delicate +technical point which brought to nought the laborious and at one time +hopeful efforts of the worthy persons who tried to turn out Archdeacon +Denison. And as to the matter of the decisions, though undoubtedly +_dicta_ of great importance are laid down in the course of them, yet it +is curious to observe the extremely minute and insignificant statements +on which in the more important cases judgment is actually pronounced. +The Gorham case was held to affect the position of a great party; but +the language and theory actually examined and allowed would hardly, in +legal strictness, authorise much more than the very peculiar views of +Mr. Gorham himself. And in the last case, the outside lay world has +hardly yet done wondering at the consummate feat of legal subtlety by +which the issue whether the English Church teaches that the Bible is +inspired was transmuted into the question whether it teaches that every +single part of every single book is inspired. It might seem that +rulings, of which the actual product in the way of doctrinal +propositions was so small, were hardly subjects for any keen interest. +But it would be shortsighted to regard the matter in this way. In the +first place, whatever may have happened as yet, it is manifestly a +serious thing for Church of England doctrine to have been thrown, on a +scale which is quite new, into the domain of a court of law, to lie at +the mercy of the confessed chances and uncertainties of legal +interpretation, with nothing really effective to correct and remedy +what may possibly be, without any fault in the judges, a fatally +mischievous construction of the text and letter of her authoritative +documents. In the next place, no one can fail to see, no one in fact +affects to deny, that the general result of these recent decisions, +capricious as their conclusions look at first sight, has been to make +the Formularies mean much less than they were supposed to mean. The +tendency of every English court, appealed to not as a court of equity +but one of criminal jurisdiction, is naturally to be exacting and even +narrow in the interpretation of language. The general impression left +by these cases is that the lines of doctrine in the English Church are +regarded by the judicial mind as very faint, and not much to be +depended upon; and that these judgments may be the first steps in that +insensible process by which the unpretending but subtle and powerful +engine of interpretation has been applied by the courts to give a +certain turn to law and policy; applied, in this instance, to undermine +the definiteness and certainty of doctrine, and in the end, the +understanding itself which has hitherto existed between the Church and +the State, and has kept alive the idea of her distinct basis, +functions, and rights. + +This is the view of matters which arises from an examination of the +proceedings contained in this volume. What is the argument urged in the +Historical Introduction to justify or recommend our acquiescence in it? +It seems to us to consist mainly in a one-sided and exaggerated +statement of the Supremacy claimed and brought in by Henry VIII., and +of the effect in theory and fact which it ought to have on our notion +of the Church and of Church right. The complaint of the present state +of things is, that those who may be taken to represent the interests of +the Church in such a matter as the character of her teaching are +practically excluded from having any real influence in the decision of +questions by which the character of that teaching is affected. The +answer is that she has no right to claim a separate interest in the +matter, and that the doctrine of the Royal Supremacy was meant to +extinguish, and has extinguished, any pretence to such a claim. The +_animus_ which pervades the work, and which is not obscurely disclosed +in such things as footnotes and abridgments of legal arguments, is thus +given--more freely, of course, than it would be proper to introduce in +a book like this--in some remarks of Mr. Brodrick, one of the editors, +at a recent discussion of the question of Ecclesiastical Appeals in a +committee of the Social Science Association. He is reported to have +spoken as follows:-- + + The Church of England being established by law, could not be + allowed any independence of action; and those who wished for it + were like people who wanted to have their cake and eat it. As to + the Privy Council, he had never heard its decisions charged with + error. What was complained of was that it had declined to take the + current opinions of theologians and make them part of the + Thirty-nine Articles. There was no need whatever for the Privy + Council to possess any special theological knowledge. The only + case where that knowledge was necessary was when it was alleged + that doctrines had been held in the Church without censure. That + was a case in which considerable theological lore was required; + but it was within the province of counsel to supply it. Divines + had now discovered, what lawyers could have told them long ago, + and what he knew some of them had been told--namely, that it would + not do to treat the Thirty-nine Articles as penal statutes; + because, if that were done, a coach might be easily driven through + them. If they had wished to maintain the authority of the + Articles, they would have done best to have kept quiet. + +The present Court of Appeal is deduced, in the Historical Introduction, +as a natural and logical consequence, from Henry VIII.'s Supremacy. +Undoubtedly it is scarcely possible to overstate the all-grasping +despotism of Henry VIII., and if a precedent for anything reckless of +all separate rights and independence should be wanted, it would never +be sought in vain if looked for in the policy and legislation of that +reign. So far the editors are right; the power over religion claimed by +Henry VIII. will carry them wherever they want to go; it will give +them, if they need it, as a still more logical and legitimate +development of the Supremacy, the Court of High Commission. Only they +ought to have remembered, as fair historians, that even in the days of +the Supremacy the distinct nature and business of the Church and of +Churchmen was never denied. Laymen were given powers over the Church +and in the Church which were new; but the distinct province of the +Church, if abridged and put under new control, was not abolished. Side +by side with the facts showing the Supremacy and its exercise are a set +of facts, for those who choose to see them, showing that the Church was +still recognised, even by Henry VIII., as a body which he had not +created, which he was obliged to take account of, and which filled a +place utterly different from every other body in the State. Henry VIII. +played the tyrant with his Churchmen as he did with his Parliament and +with everybody else; and Churchmen, like everybody else, submitted to +him. But the "Imperialism" of Henry VIII., though it went beyond even +the Imperialism of Justinian and Charlemagne in its encroachments on +the spiritual power, as little denied the fact of that power as they +did. He recognised the distinct place and claims of the spiritualty; +and, as we suppose that even the editors of this volume hardly feel +themselves bound to make out the consistency of Henry, they might have +spared themselves the weak and not very fair attempt to get rid of the +force of the remarkable words in which this recognition is recorded in +the first Statute of Appeals (24 Henry VIII. c. 12). The words would, +no doubt, be worth but little, were it not that as a matter of fact a +spiritualty did act and judge and lay down doctrine, and even while +yielding to unworthy influence did keep up their corporate existence. + +But when the ecclesiastical legislation of Henry VIII. is referred to, +not merely as the historical beginning of a certain state of things +which has undergone great changes in the course of events, but as +affording a sort of idea and normal pattern to which our own +arrangements ought to conform, as supplying us with a theory of Church +and State which holds good at least against the Church, it seems hard +that the Church alone should not have the benefit of the entire +alteration of circumstances since that theory was a reality. Those who +talk about the Supremacy ought to remember what the Supremacy pretended +to be. It was over _all_ causes and _all_ persons, civil as well as +ecclesiastical. It held good certainly in theory, and to a great extent +in practice, against the temporalty as much as against the spiritualty. +Why then are we to invoke the Supremacy as then understood, in a +question about courts of spiritual appeals, and not in questions about +other courts and other powers in the nation? If the Supremacy, claimed +and exercised as Henry claimed and exercised it, is good against the +Church, it is good against many other things besides. If the Church +inherits bonds and obligations, not merely by virtue of distinct +statutes, but by the force of a general vague arbitrary theory of royal +power, why has that power been expelled, or transformed into a mere +fiction of law, in all other active branches of the national life? +Unless the Church is simply, what even Henry VIII. did not regard it, a +creation and delegate of the national power, without any roots and +constitution of its own, why should the Church be denied the benefit of +the common sense, and the change in ideas and usage, which have been so +largely appealed to in civil matters? Why are we condemned to a theory +which is not only out of date and out of harmony with all the +traditions and convictions of modern times, hut which was in its own +time tyrannous, revolutionary, and intolerable? Arguments in favour of +the present Court, drawn from the reason of the thing, and the +comparative fitness of the judges for their office, if we do not agree +with them, at least we can understand. But precedents and arguments +from the Supremacy of Henry VIII. suggest the question whether those +who use them are ready to be taken at their word and to have back that +Supremacy as it was; and whether the examples of policy of that reign +are seemly to quote as adequate measures of the liberty and rights of +any set of Englishmen. + +The question really calling for solution is--How to reconcile the just +freedom of individual teachers in the Church with the maintenance of +the right and duty of the Church to uphold the substantial meaning of +her body of doctrine? In answering this question we can get no help +from this volume. It simply argues that the present is practically the +best of all possible courts; that it is a great improvement, which +probably it is, on the Courts of Delegates; and that great confidence +ought to be felt in its decisions. We are further shown how jealously +and carefully the judges have guarded the right of the individual +teacher. But it seems to us, according to the views put forward in this +book, that as the price of all this--of great learning, weight, and +ability in the judges--of great care taken of liberty--the Church is +condemned to an interpretation of the Royal Supremacy which floats +between the old arbitrary view of it and the modern Liberal one, and +which uses each, as it happens to be most convenient, against the claim +of the Church to protect her doctrine and exert a real influence on the +authoritative declaration of it. We all need liberty, and we all ought +to be ready to give the reasonable liberty which we profess to claim +for ourselves. But it is a heavy price to pay for it, if the right and +the power is to be taken out of the hands of the Church to declare what +is the real meaning of what she supposes herself bound to teach. + + + + +IV + +SIR JOHN COLERIDGE ON THE PURCHAS CASE[5] + + + [5] + _Remarks on Some Parts of the Report of the Judicial Committee in + the Case of "Elphinstone against Purchas."_ A Letter to Canon Liddon, + from the Right Hon. Sir J.T. Coleridge. _Guardian_, 5th April 1871. + +No one has more right to speak with authority, or more deserves to be +listened to at a difficult and critical moment for the Church, than Sir +J.T. Coleridge. An eminent lawyer, and a most earnest and well-informed +Churchman, he combines in an unusual way claims on the attention of all +who care for the interests of religion, and for those, too, which are +so deeply connected with them, the interests of England. The troubles +created by the recent judgment have induced him to come forward from +his retirement with words of counsel and warning. + +The gist of his Letter may be shortly stated. He is inclined to think +the decision arrived at by the Judicial Committee a mistaken one. But +he thinks that it would be a greater and a worse mistake to make this +decision, wrong as it may be, a reason for looking favourably on +disestablishment as a remedy for what is complained of. We are glad to +note the judgment of so fair an observer and so distinguished a lawyer, +himself a member of the Privy Council, both on the intrinsic +suitableness and appropriateness of the position[6] which has been +ruled to be illegal, and on the unsatisfactoriness of the +interpretation itself, as a matter of judicial reading and +construction. A great deal has been said, and it is plain that the +topic is inexhaustible, on the unimportance of a position. We agree +entirely--on condition that people remember the conditions and +consequences of their assertion. Every single outward accompaniment of +worship may, if you carry your assertion to its due level, be said to +be in itself utterly unimportant; place and time and form and attitude +are all things not belonging to the essence of the act itself, and are +indefinitely changeable, as, in fact, the changes in them have been +countless. Kneeling is not of the essence of prayer, but imagine, first +prohibiting the posture of kneeling, and then remonstrating with those +who complained of the prohibition, on the ground of postures being +unimportant. It is obvious that when you have admitted to the full that +a position is in itself unimportant, all kinds of reasons may come in +on the further question whether it is right, fitting, natural. There +are reasons why the position which has been so largely adopted of late +is the natural and suitable one. Sir John Coleridge states them +admirably:-- + + [6] + The Eastward Position at the celebration of the Holy Communion. + + As to the place of standing at the consecration, my _feeling_ is + with them. It seems to me not desirable to make it essential or + even important that the people should see the breaking of the + bread, or the taking the cup into the hands of the priest, and + positively mischievous to encourage them in gazing on him, or + watching him with critical eyes while so employed. I much prefer + the _spirit of_ the Rubric of 1549--First Book of Edward + VI.--which says, "These words before rehearsed are to be said + turning still to the Altar, without any elevation, or showing the + Sacraments to the people." The use now enforced, I think, tends to + deprive the most solemn rite of our religion of one of its most + solemn particulars. Surely, whatever school we belong to, and even + if we consider the whole rite merely commemorative, it is a very + solemn idea to conceive the priest at the head of his flock, and, + as it were, a shepherd leading them on in heart and spirit, + imploring for them and with them the greatest blessing which man + is capable of receiving on earth; he alone uttering the + prayer--they meanwhile kneeling all, and in deep silence + listening, not gazing, rather with closed eyes--and with their + whole undistracted attention, joining in the prayer with one heart + and without sound until the united "Amen" breaks from them at the + close, and seals their union and assent. + +But, of course, comes the further question, whether, an English +clergyman is authorised to use it. He is not authorised if the Prayer +Book tells him not to. Of that there is no question. But if the Prayer +Book not only seems to give him the liberty, but, by the _prima facie_ +look of its words, seems to prescribe it, the harshness of a ruling +which summarily and under penalties prohibits it is not to be smoothed +down by saying that the matter is unimportant. Sir John Coleridge's +view of the two points will be read with interest:-- + + You will understand, of course, that I write in respect of the + Report recently made by the Judicial Committee in the Purchas + case. I am not about to defend it. No one, however, ought to + pronounce a condemnation of the solemn judgment of such a tribunal + without much consideration; and this remark applies with, special + force to myself, well knowing as I do those from whom it + proceeded, and having withdrawn from sharing in the labours of the + Committee only because age had impaired, with the strength of my + body, the faculties also of my mind; and so disabled me from the + proper discharge of any judicial duties. With this admission on my + part, I yet venture to say that I think Mr. Purchas has not had + justice done to him in two main points of the late appeal; I mean + the use of the vestments complained of and the side of the + communion-table which he faced when consecrating the elements for + the Holy Communion. Before I state my reasons, let me premise that + I am no Ritualist, in the now conventional use of the term. I do + not presume to judge of the motives of those to whom that name is + applied. From the information of common but undisputed report as + to some of the most conspicuous, I believe them entitled to all + praise for their pastoral devotedness and their laborious, + self-denying lives; still, I do not shrink from saying that I + think them misguided, and the cause of mischief in the Church. So + much for my _feeling_ in regard to the vestments. I prefer the + surplice at all times and in all ministrations. + + This is _feeling_--and I see no word in the sober language of our + rubric which interferes with it--but my _feeling_ is of no + importance in the argument, and I mention it only in candour, to + show in what spirit I approach the argument. + + Now Mr. Purchas has been tried before the Committee for offences + alleged to have been committed against the provisions of the "Act + of Uniformity"; of this Act the Common Prayer Book is part and + parcel. As to the vestments, his conduct was alleged to be in + derogation of the rubric as to the ornaments of the Church and the + ministers thereof, which ordains that such shall be retained and + be in use as were in the Church of England by the authority of + Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI. The + Act of Uniformity is to be construed by the same rules exactly as + any Act passed in the last session of Parliament. The clause in + question (by which I mean the rubric in question) is perfectly + unambiguous in language, free from all difficulty as to + construction; it therefore lets in no argument as to intention + otrier than that which the words themselves import. There might be + a seeming difficulty in _fact_, because it might not be known what + vestments were in use by authority of Parliament in the second + year of the reign of King Edward VI.; but this difficulty has been + removed. It is conceded in the Report that the vestments, the use + of which is now condemned, were in use by authority of Parliament + in that year. Having that fact, you are bound to construe the + rubric as if those vestments were specifically named in it, + instead of being only referred to. If an Act should be passed + to-morrow that the uniform of the Guards should henceforth be such + as was ordered for them by authority and used by them in the 1st + George I., you would first ascertain what that uniform was; and, + having ascertained it, you would not inquire into the changes + which may have been made, many or few, with or without lawful + authority, between the 1st George I. and the passing of the new + Act. All these, that Act, specifying the earlier date, would have + made wholly immaterial. It would have seemed strange, I suppose, + if a commanding officer, disobeying the statute, had said in his + defence, "There have been many changes since the reign of George + I.; and as to 'retaining,' we put a gloss on that, and thought it + might mean only retaining to the Queen's use; so we have put the + uniforms safely in store." But I think it would have seemed more + strange to punish and mulct him severely if he had obeyed the law + and put no gloss on plain words. + + This case stands on the same principle. The rubric indeed seems to + me to imply with some clearness that in the long interval between + Edward VI. and the 14th Charles II. there had been many changes; + but it does not stay to specify them, or distinguish between what + was mere evasion and what was lawful; it quietly passes them all + by, and goes back to the legalised usage of the second year of + Edward VI. What had prevailed since, whether by an Archbishop's + gloss, by Commissions, or even Statutes, whether, in short, legal + or illegal, it makes quite immaterial. + + I forbear to go through the long inquiry which these last words + remind one of--not, I am sure, out of any disrespectful feeling to + the learned and reverend authors of the Report, but because it + seems to me wholly irrelevant to the point for decision. This + alone I must add, that even were the inquiry relevant, the + authorities on which they rely do not appear to me so clear or + cogent, nor the analogies relied on so just, as to warrant the + conclusion arrived at. For it should never be forgotten that the + defendant in a criminal case, acquitted as to this charge by the + learned judge below, was entitled to every presumption in his + favour, and could not properly be condemned but by a judgment free + from all reasonable doubt. And this remark acquires additional + strength because the judgment will be final not only on him but on + the whole Church for all time, unless reversed by the Legislature. + +On the second point he thus speaks, in terms which for their guarded +moderation are all the more worth notice:-- + + Upon the second point I have less to say, though it is to me much + the most important. The Report, I think, cannot be shown + conclusively to be wrong here, as it may be on the other; still it + does not seem to me to be shown conclusively to be right. You have + yourself given no reason in your second letter of the 8th March + for doubting at least. + + Let me add that, in my opinion, on such a question as this, where + a conclusion is to be arrived at upon the true meaning of Rubrics + framed more than two centuries since, and certainly not with a + view to any such minute criticism as on these occasions is and + must be applied to them, and where the evidence of facts is by no + means clear, none probably can be arrived at free from reasonable + objection. What is the consequence? It will be asked, Is the + question to receive no judicial solution? I am not afraid to + answer, Better far that it should receive none than that injustice + should be done. The principles of English law furnish the + practical solution: dismiss the party charged, unless his + conviction can be based on grounds on which reasonable and + competent minds can rest satisfied and without scruple. And what + mighty mischief will result to countervail the application of this + rule of justice? For two centuries our Church has subsisted + without an answer to the question which alone gives importance to + this inquiry, and surely has not been without God's blessing for + that time, in spite of all much more serious shortcomings. Let us + remember that Charity, or to use perhaps a better word, Love, is + the greatest of all; if that prevail there need be little fear for + our Faith or our Hope. + +Having said this much, Sir John Coleridge proceeds to the second, and +indeed the main object of his letter--to remonstrate against +exaggeration in complaint, both of the particular decision and of the +Court which gave it:-- + + I now return to your letter. You proceed to attempt to show that + the words of Keble to yourself, which you cite, are justified by + remarks in this Report and some previous judgments of the same + tribunal, which appear to you so inconsistent with each other as + to make it difficult to believe that the Court was impartial, or + "incapable of regarding the documents before it in the light of a + plastic material, which might be made to support conclusions held + to be advisable at the moment, and on independent grounds." I wish + these words had never been written. They will, I fear, be + understood as conveying your formed opinions; and coming from you, + and addressed to minds already excited and embittered, they will + be readily accepted, though they import the heaviest charges + against judges--some of them bishops--all of high and hitherto + unimpeached character. A very long experience of judicial life + makes me know that judges will often provoke and bitterly + disappoint both the suitors before them and the public, when + discharging their duty honestly and carefully, and a man is + scarcely fit for the station unless he can sit tolerably easy + under censures which even these may pass upon him. Yet, + imputations of partiality or corruption are somewhat hard to bear + when they are made by persons of your station and character. When + the Judicial Committee sits on appeals from the Spiritual Courts, + it _may_ certainly be under God's displeasure, the members _may_ + be visited with judicial blindness, and deprived of the integrity + which in other times and cases they manifest. Against such a + supposition there is no direct argument, and I will not enter into + such a disputation. I have so much confidence in your generosity + and candour, on reflection, as to believe you would not desire I + should. + + In the individual case I simply protest against the insinuation. I + add a word or two by way of general observation. + + No doubt you have read the judgments in all the cases you allude + to carefully; but have you read the pleadings and arguments of the + counsel, so as to know accurately the points raised for the + consideration of those who were to decide? To know the offence + charged and the judgment pronounced may suffice in some cases for + an opinion by a competent person, whether the one warranted the + other; but more is required to warrant the imputation of + inconsistency, partiality, or indirect motives. He who takes this + on himself should know further how the pleadings and the arguments + presented the case for judgment, and made this or that particular + relevant in the discussion. Every one at all familiar with this + matter knows that a judgment not uncommonly fails to reflect the + private opinion of the judge on the whole of a great point, + because the issues of law or fact actually brought before him, and + which alone he was bound to decide, did not bring this before him. + And this rule, always binding, is, of course, never more so than + in regard to a Court of Final Appeal, which should be careful not + to conclude more than is regularly before it. Let me add that a + just and considerate person will wholly disregard the gossip which + flies about in regard to cases exciting much interest; passing + words in the course of an argument, forgotten when the judgment + comes to be considered, are too often caught up, as having guided + the final determination. + +Such words are a just rebuke to much of the inconsiderate talk which +follows on any public act which touches the feelings, perhaps the +highest and purest feelings of men with deep convictions. Perhaps Mr. +Liddon's words were unguarded ones. But at the same time it is +necessary to state without disguise what is the truth in this matter. +It is necessary for the sake of justice and historical truth. The Court +of Final Appeal is not like other courts. It is not a pure and simple +court of law, though it is composed of great lawyers. It is doubtless a +court where their high training and high professional honour come in, +as they do elsewhere. But great lawyers are men, partisans and +politicians, statesmen, if you like; and this is a court where they are +not precluded, in the same degree as they are in the regular courts by +the habits and prescriptions of the place, from thinking of what comes +before them in its relation to public affairs. It is no mere invention +of disappointed partisans, it is no idle charge of wilful unfairness, +to say that considerations of high policy come into their +deliberations; it has been the usual language, ever since the Gorham +case, of men who cared little for the subject-matter of the questions +debated; it is the language of those who urge the advantages of the +Court. "It is a court," as the Bishop of Manchester said the other day, +speaking in its praise, "composed of men who look at things not merely +with the eyes of lawyers, but also with the eyes of statesmen." +Precisely so; and for that reason they must be considered to have the +responsibilities, not only of lawyers, but of statesmen, and their acts +are proportionably open to discussion. Sir John Coleridge urges the +impossibility of any other court; and certainly till we could be +induced to trust an ecclesiastical court, composed of bishops or +clergymen, in a higher degree than we could do at present, we see no +alternative. But to say that a clerical court would be no improvement +is not to prove that the present court is a satisfactory one. It may be +difficult under our present circumstances to reform it. But though we +may have reasons for making the best of it, we may be allowed to say +that it is a singularly ill-imagined and ill-constructed court, and one +in which the great features of English law and justice are not so +conspicuous as they are elsewhere. Suitors do not complain in other +courts either of the ruling, or sometimes of the language of judges, as +they complain in this. But when this is made a ground for joining with +the enemies of all that the English Church holds dear, to bring about a +great break-up of the existing state of things, we agree with Sir John +Coleridge in thinking that a great mistake is made; and if care is not +taken, it may be an irreparable one. He writes:-- + + I hasten to my conclusion too long delayed, but a word must still + be added on a subject of not less consequence than any I have yet + touched on. You say, "Churchmen will to a very great extent indeed + find relief from the dilemma in a third course, viz. _co-operation + with the political forces_, which, year by year, more and more + steadily are working towards disestablishment. This is not a + menace; it is the statement of a simple fact." I am bound to + believe, and I do believe, you do not intend this as a menace; but + such a statement of a future course to depend on a contingency + cannot but read very much like one--and against your intention it + may well be understood as such. You do not say that _you_ are one + who will co-operate with the political party which now seeks to + disestablish the Church in accomplishing its purpose, and I do not + suppose you ever will. But on behalf, not so much of the clergy as + of the laity--on behalf of the worshippers in our churches, of the + sick to be visited at home--of the poor in their cottages, of our + children in their schools--of our society in general, I entreat + those of the clergy who are now feeling the most acutely in this + matter, not to suffer their minds to be so absorbed by the present + grievance as to take no thought of the evils of disestablishment. + I am not foolishly blind to the faults of the clergy--indeed I + fear I am sometimes censorious in regard to them--and some of + their faults I do think may be referable to Establishment; the + possession of house and land, and a sort of independence of their + parishioners, in some cases seems to tend to secularity. I regret + sometimes their partisanship at elections, their speeches at + public dinners. But what good gift of God is not liable to abuse + from men? Taken as a whole, we have owed, and we do owe, under + Him, to our Established clergy more than we can ever repay, much + of it rendered possible by their Establishment. I may refer, and + now with special force, to Education--their services in this + respect no one denies--and but for Establishment these, I think, + could not have been so effectively and systematically rendered. We + are now in a great crisis as to this all-important matter. + Concurring, as I do heartily, in the praise which has been + bestowed on Mr. Forster, and expecting that his great and arduous + office will be discharged with perfect impartiality by him, and + with a just sense of how much is due to the clergy in this + respect, still it cannot be denied that the powers conferred by + the Legislature on the holder of it are alarmingly great, even if + necessary; and who shall say in what a spirit they may be + exercised by his successor? For the general upholding of religious + education, in emergencies not improbable, to whom can we look in + general so confidently as to the parochial clergy? I speak now + specially in regard to parishes such as I am most familiar with, + in agricultural districts, small, not largely endowed, sometimes + without resident gentry, and with the land occupied by + rack-renting farmers, indifferent or hostile to education. + +In what Sir John Coleridge urges against the fatal step of welcoming +disestablishment under an impatient sense of injustice we need not say +that we concur most earnestly. But it cannot be too seriously +considered by those who see the mischief of disestablishment, that as +Sir John Coleridge also says, the English Churrh is, in one sense, a +divided one; and that to pursue a policy of humiliating and crippling +one of its great parties must at last bring mischief. The position of +the High Church party is a remarkable one. It has had more against it +than its rivals; yet it is probably the strongest of them all. It is +said, probably with reason, to be the unpopular party. It has been the +stock object of abuse and sarcasm with a large portion of the press. It +has been equally obnoxious to Radical small shopkeepers and "true blue" +farmers and their squires. It has been mobbed in churches and censured +in Parliament. Things have gone against it, almost uniformly, before +the tribunals. And unfortunately it cannot be said that it has been +without its full share of folly and extravagance in some of its +members. And yet it is the party which has grown; which has drawn some +of its antagonists to itself, and has reacted on the ideas and habits +of others; its members have gradually, as a matter of course, risen +into important post and power. And it is to be noticed that, as a +party, it has been the most tolerant. All parties are in their nature +intolerant; none more so, where critical points arise, than Liberal +ones. But in spite of the Dean of Westminster's surprise at High +Churchmen claiming to be tolerant, we still think that, in the first +place, they are really much less inclined to meddle with their +neighbours than others of equally strong and deep convictions; and +further, that they have become so more and more; and they have accepted +the lessons of their experience; they have thrown off, more than any +strong religious body, the intolerance which was natural to everybody +once, and have learned, better than they did at one time, to bear with +what they dislike and condemn. If a party like this comes to feel +itself dealt with harshly and unfairly, sacrificed to popular clamour +or the animosity of inveterate and unscrupulous opponents, it is +certain that we shall be in great danger. + + + + +V + +MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTER ON THE ENGLISH CHURCH[7] + + + [7] + _Guardian_, 29th October 1884. + +Mr. Gladstone's Letter, read at the St. Asaph Diocesan Conference, will +not have surprised those who have borne in mind his deep and +unintermitted interest in the fortunes and prospects of the Church, and +his habit of seeking relief from the pressure of one set of thoughts +and anxieties by giving full play to his mental energies in another +direction. Its composition and appearance at this moment are quite +accounted for; it is a contribution to the business of the conference +of his own diocese, and it was promised long before an autumn session +on a great question between the two Houses was in view. Still the +appearance of such a document from a person in Mr. Gladstone's position +must, of course, invite attention and speculation. He may put aside the +questions which the word "Disestablishment"--which was in the thesis +given him to write upon--is likely to provoke--"Will it come? ought it +to come? must it come? Is it near, or somewhat distant, or indefinitely +remote?" On these questions he has not a word to say. But, all the +same, people will naturally try to read between the lines, and to find +out what was in the writer's thoughts about these questions. We cannot, +however, see that there is anything to be gathered from the Letter as +to the political aspect of the matter; he simply confines himself to +the obvious lesson which passing events sufficiently bring with them, +that whatever may come it is our business to be prepared. + +His anxieties are characteristic. The paper shows, we think, that it +has not escaped him that disestablishment, however compensated as some +sanguine people hope, would be a great disaster and ruin. It would be +the failure and waste to the country of noble and astonishing efforts; +it would be the break-up and collapse of a great and cheap system, by +which light and human kindliness and intelligence are carried to vast +tracts, that without its presence must soon become as stagnant and +hopeless as many of the rural _communes_ of France; the blow would at +the moment cripple and disorganise the Church for its work even in the +towns. But though "happily improbable," it may come; and in such a +contingency, what occupies Mr. Gladstone's thoughts is, not the +question whether it would be disastrous, but whether it would be +disgraceful. That is the point which disturbs and distresses him--the +possibility that the end of our later Church history, the end of that +wonderful experiment which has been going on from the sixteenth +century, with such great vicissitudes, but after every shock with +increasing improvement and hope, should at last be not only failure, +but failure with dishonour; and this, he says, could only come in one +of two ways. It might come from the Church having sunk into sloth and +death, without faith, without conscience, without love. This, if it +ever was really to be feared, is not the danger before us now. +Activity, conviction, energy, self-devotion, these, and not apathetic +lethargy, mark the temper of our times; and they are as conspicuous in +the Church as anywhere else. But these qualities, as we have had ample +experience, may develop into fierce and angry conflicts. It is our +internal quarrels, Mr. Gladstone thinks, that create the most serious +risk of disestablishment; and it is only our quarrels, which we have +not good sense and charity enough to moderate and keep within bounds, +which would make it "disgraceful." + +The main feature of the Letter is the historical retrospect which Mr. +Gladstone gives of the long history, the long travail of the later +English Church. Hardly in its first start, under the Tudors, but more +and more as time went on, it instinctively, as it were, tried the great +and difficult problem of Christian liberty. The Churches of the +Continent, Roman and anti-Roman, were simple in their systems; only one +sharply defined theology, only the disciples and representatives of one +set of religious tendencies, would they allow to dwell within their +borders; what was refractory and refused to harmonise was at once cast +out; and for a certain time they were unvexed with internal +dissensions. This, both in the case of the Roman, the Lutheran, and the +Calvinistic Churches of the Continent, requires to be somewhat +qualified; still, as compared with the rival schools of the English +Church, Puritan and Anglican, the contrast is a true and a sharp one. +Mr. Gladstone adopts from a German writer a view which is certainly not +new to many in England, that "the Reformation, as a religious movement, +took its shape in England, not in the sixteenth century but in the +seventeenth." "It seems plain," he says, "that the great bulk of those +burned under Mary were Puritans"; and he adds, what is not perhaps so +capable of proof, that "under Elizabeth we have to look, with rare +exceptions, among the Puritans and Recusants for an active and +religious life." It was not till the Restoration, it was not till +Puritanism had shown all its intolerance, all its narrowness, and all +its helplessness, that the Church was able to settle the real basis and +the chief lines of its reformed constitution. It is not, as Mr. +Gladstone says, "a heroic history"; there is room enough in the +looseness of some of its arrangements, and the incompleteness of +others, for diversity of opinion and for polemical criticism. But the +result, in fact, of this liberty and this incompleteness has been, not +that the Church has declined lower and lower into indifference and +negation, but that it has steadily mounted in successive periods to a +higher level of purpose, to a higher standard of life and thought, of +faith and work. Account for it as we may, with all drawbacks, with +great intervals of seeming torpor, with much to be regretted and to be +ashamed of, that is literally the history of the English Church since +the Restoration settlement. It is not "heroic," but there are no Church +annals of the same time more so, and there are none fuller of hope. + +But every system has its natural and specific danger, and the specific +English danger, as it is the condition of vigorous English life, is +that spirit of liberty which allows and attempts to combine very +divergent tendencies of opinion. "The Church of England," Mr. Gladstone +thinks, "has been peculiarly liable, on the one side and on the other, +both to attack and to defection, and the probable cause is to be found +in the degree in which, whether for worldly or for religious reasons, +it was attempted in her case to combine divergent elements within her +borders." She is still, as he says, "working out her system by +experience"; and the exclusion of bitterness--even, as he says, of +"savagery"--from her debates and controversies is hardly yet +accomplished. There is at present, indeed, a remarkable lull, a "truce +of God," which, it may be hoped, is of good omen; but we dare not be +too sure that it is going to be permanent. In the meantime, those who +tremble lest disestablishment should be the signal of a great break up +and separation of her different parties cannot do better than meditate +on Mr. Gladstone's very solemn words:-- + + The great maxim, _in omnibus caritas_, which is so necessary to + temper all religious controversy, ought to apply with a tenfold + force to the conduct of the members of the Church of England. In + respect to differences among themselves they ought, of course, in + the first place to remember that their right to differ is limited + by the laws of the system to which they belong; but within that + limit should they not also, each of them, recollect that his + antagonist has something to say; that the Reformation and the + counter-Reformation tendencies were, in the order of Providence, + placed here in a closer juxtaposition than anywhere else in the + Christian world; that a course of destiny so peculiar appears to + indicate on the part of the Supreme Orderer a peculiar purpose, + that not only no religious but no considerate or prudent man + should run the risk of interfering with such a purpose; that the + great charity which is a bounden duty everywhere in these matters + should here be accompanied and upheld by two ever-striving + handmaidens, a great Reverence and a great Patience. + +This is true, and of deep moment to those who guide and influence +thought and feeling in the Church. But further, those in whose hands +the "Supreme Orderer" has placed the springs and the restraints of +political movement and of change, if they recognise at all this view of +the English Church, ought to feel one duty paramount in regard to it. +Never was the Church, they tell us, more active and more hopeful; well +then, what politicians who care for her have to see to is that she +shall have _time_ to work out effectually the tendencies which are +visible in her now more than at any period of her history--that +combination which Mr. Gladstone wishes for, of the deepest individual +faith and energy, with forbearance and conciliation and the desire for +peace. She has a right to claim from English rulers that she should +have time to let these things work and bear fruit; if she has lost time +before, she never was so manifestly in earnest in trying to make up for +it as now. It is not talking, but working together, which brings +different minds and tempers to understand one another's divergences; +and it is this disposition to work together which shows itself and is +growing now. But it needs time. What the Church has a right to ask from +the arbiters of her temporal and political position in the country, if +that is ultimately and inevitably to be changed, is that nothing +precipitate, nothing impatient, should be done; that she should have +time adequately to develop and fulfil what she now alone among +Christian communities seems in a position to attempt. + + + + +VI + +DISENDOWMENT[8] + + + [8] + _Guardian_, 14th October 1885. + +This generation has seen no such momentous change as that which has +suddenly appeared to be at our very doors, and which people speak of as +disestablishment. The word was only invented a few years ago, and was +sneered at as a barbarism, worthy of the unpractical folly which it was +coined to express. It has been bandied about a good deal lately, +sometimes _de coeur leger_; and within the last six months it has +assumed the substance and the weight of a formidable probability. Other +changes, more or less serious, are awaiting us in the approaching +future; but they are encompassed with many uncertainties, and all +forecasts of their working are necessarily very doubtful. About this +there is an almost brutal clearness and simplicity, as to what it +means, as to what is intended by those who have pushed it into +prominence, and as to what will follow from their having their way. + +Disestablishment has really come to mean, in the mouth of friends and +foes, simple disendowment. It is well that the question should be set +in its true terms, without being confused with vague and less important +issues. It is not very easy to say what disestablishment by itself +would involve, except the disappearance of Bishops from the Upper +House, or the presence of other religious dignitaries, with equal rank +and rights, alongside of them. Questions of patronage and +ecclesiastical law might be difficult to settle; but otherwise a +statute of mere disestablishment, not easy indeed to formulate, would +leave the Church in the eyes of the country very much what it found it. +Perhaps "My lord" might be more widely dropped in addressing Bishops; +but otherwise, the aspect of the Church, its daily work, its +organisations, would remain the same, and it would depend on the Church +itself whether the consideration paid to it continues what it has been; +whether it shall be diminished or increased. The privilege of being +publicly recognised with special marks of honour by the State has been +dearly paid for by the claim which the State has always, and sometimes +unscrupulously, insisted on, of making the true interests of the Church +subservient to its own passing necessities. + +But there is no haziness about the meaning of disendowment. Property is +a tangible thing, and is subject to the four rules of arithmetic, and +ultimately to the force of the strong arm. When you talk of +disendowment, you talk of taking from the Church, not honour or +privilege or influence, but visible things, to be measured and counted +and pointed to, which now belong to it and which you want to belong to +some one else. They belong to individuals because the individuals +belong to a great body. There are, of course, many people who do not +believe that such a body exists; or that if it does, it has been called +into being and exists simply by the act of the State, like the army, +and, like the army, liable to be disbanded by its master. But that is a +view resting on a philosophical theory of a purely subjective +character; it is as little the historical or legal view as it is the +theological view. We have not yet lost our right in the nineteenth +century to think of the Church of England as a continuous, historic, +religious society, bound by ties which, however strained, are still +unbroken with that vast Christendom from which as a matter of fact it +sprung, and still, in spite of all differences, external and internal, +and by force of its traditions and institutions, as truly one body as +anything can be on earth. To this Church, this body, by right which at +present is absolutely unquestionable, property belongs; property has +been given from time immemorial down to yesterday. This property, in +its bulk, with whatever abatements and allowances, it is intended to +take from the Church. This is disendowment, and this is what is before +us. + +It is well to realise as well as we can what is inevitably involved in +this vast and, in modern England, unexampled change, which we are +sometimes invited to view with philosophic calmness or resignation, as +the unavoidable drift of the current of modern thought, or still more +cheerfully to welcome, as the beginning of a new era in the prosperity +and strength of the Church as a religious institution. We are entreated +to be of good cheer. The Church will be more free; it will no longer be +mixed up with sordid money matters and unpopular payments; it will no +longer have the discredit of State control; the rights of the laity +will come up and a blow will be struck at clericalism. With all our +machinery shattered and ruined we shall be thrown more on individual +energy and spontaneous originality of effort. Our new poverty will spur +us into zeal. Above all, the Church will be delivered from the +temptation, incident to wealth, of sticking to abuses for the sake of +gold; of shrinking from principle and justice and enthusiasm, out of +fear of worldly loss. It will no longer be a place for drones and +hirelings. It is very kind of the revolutionists to wish all this good +to the Church, though if the Church is so bad as to need all these good +wishes for its improvement, it would be more consistent, and perhaps +less cynical, to wish it ruined altogether. Yet even if the Church were +likely to thrive better on no bread, there are reasons of public +morality why it should not be robbed. But these prophecies and +forecasts really belong to a sphere far removed from the mental +activity of those who so easily indulge in them. These excellent +persons are hardly fitted by habit and feeling to be judges of the +probable course of Divine Providence, or the development of new +religious energies and spiritual tendencies in a suddenly impoverished +body. What they can foresee, and what we can foresee also is, that +these _tabulae novae_ will be a great blow to the Church. They mean +that, and that we understand. + +It is idle to talk as if it was to be no blow to the Church. The +confiscation of Wesleyan and Roman Catholic Church property would be a +real blow to Wesleyan or Roman Catholic interests; and in proportion as +the body is greater the effects of the blow must be heavier and more +signal. It is trifling with our patience to pretend to persuade us that +such a confiscation scheme as is now recommended to the country would +not throw the whole work of the Church into confusion and disaster, not +perhaps irreparable, but certainly for the time overwhelming and +perilous. People speak sometimes as if such a huge transfer of property +was to be done with the stroke of a pen and the aid of a few office +clerks; they forget what are the incidents of an institution which has +lasted in England for more than a thousand years, and whose business +extends to every aspect and degree of our very complex society from the +highest to the lowest. Resources may be replaced, but for the time they +must be crippled. Life may be rearranged for the new circumstances, but +in the meanwhile all the ordinary assumptions have to be changed, all +the ordinary channels of activity are stopped up or diverted. + +And why should this vast and far-reaching change be made? Is it +unlawful for the Church to hold property? Other religious organisations +hold it, and even the Salvation Army knows the importance of funds for +its work. Is it State property which the State may resume for other +uses? If anything is certain it is that the State, except in an +inconsiderable degree, did not endow the Church, but consented in the +most solemn way to its being endowed by the gifts of private donors, as +it now consents to the endowment in this way of other religious bodies. +Does the bigness of the property entitle the State to claim it? This is +a formidable doctrine for other religious bodies, as they increase in +influence and numbers. Is it vexatious that the Church should be richer +and more powerful than the sects? It is not the fault of the Church +that it is the largest and the most ancient body in England. There is +but one real and adequate reason: it is the wish to disable and +paralyse a great religious corporation, the largest and most powerful +representative of Christianity in our English society, to exhibit it to +the nation after centuries of existence at length defeated and humbled +by the new masters' power, to deprive it of the organisation and the +resources which it is using daily with increasing effect for impressing +religious truth on the people, for winning their interest, their +confidence, and their sympathy, for obtaining a hold on the generations +which are coming. The Liberation Society might go on for years +repeating their dreary catalogue of grievances and misstatements. +Doubtless there is much for which they desire to punish the Church; +doubtless, too, there are men among them who are persuaded that they +would serve religion by discrediting and impoverishing the Church. But +they are not the people with whom the Church has to reckon. The +Liberationists might have long asked in vain for their pet +"emancipation" scheme. They are stronger men than the Liberationists +who are going in now for disendowment. They are men--we do them no +wrong--who sincerely think Christianity mischievous, and who see in the +power and resources of the Church a bulwark and representative of all +religion which it is of the first importance to get rid of. + +This is the one adequate and consistent reason for the confiscation of +the property of the Church. There is no other reason that will bear +discussion to be given for what, without it, is a great moral and +political wrong. In such a settled society as ours, where men reckon on +what is their own, such a sweeping and wholesale transfer of property +cannot be justified, on a mere balance of probable expediency in the +use of it. Unless it is as a punishment for gross neglect and abuse, as +was alleged in the partial confiscations of the sixteenth century, or +unless it is called for as a step to break down what can no longer be +tolerated, like slavery, there is no other name for it, in the estimate +of justice, than that of a deep and irreparable wrong. This is +certainly not the time to punish the Church when it never was more +improving and more unsparing of sacrifice and effort. But it may be +full time to stop a career which may render success more difficult for +schemes ahead, which make no secret of their intention to dispense with +religion. This, however, is not what most Englishmen wish, whether +Liberals or Conservatives, or even Nonconformists; and without this end +there is no more justice in disendowing a great religious corporation +like the Church, than in disendowing the Duke of Bedford or the Duke of +Westminster. Of course no one can deny the competence of Parliament to +do either one or the other; but power does not necessarily carry with +it justice, and justice means that while there are great and small, +rich and poor, the State should equally protect all its members and all +its classes, however different. Revolutions have no law; but a great +wrong, deliberately inflicted in times of settled order, is more +mischievous to the nation than even to those who suffer from it. +History has shown us what follows from such gratuitous and wanton wrong +in the bitter feeling of defeat and humiliation lasting through +generations. But worse than this is the effect on the political +morality of the nation; the corrupting and fatal consciousness of +having once broken through the restraints of recognised justice, of +having acquiesced in a tempting but high-handed wrong. The effects of +disendowment concern England and its morality even more deeply than +they do the Church. + + + + +VII + +THE NEW COURT[9] + + + [9] + _Guardian_, 15th May 1889. + +The claim maintained by the Archbishop in his Judgment, by virtue of +his metropolitical authority and by that alone, to cite, try, and +sentence one of his suffragans, is undoubtedly what is called in slang +language "a large order." Even by those who may have thought it +inevitable, after the Watson case had been so distinctly accepted by +the books as a precedent, it is yet felt as a surprise, in the sense in +which a thing is often a surprise when, after being only talked about +it becomes a reality. We can imagine some people getting up in the +morning on last Saturday with one set of feelings, and going to bed +with another. Bishops, then, who in spite of the alleged anarchy, are +still looked upon with great reverence, as almost irresponsible in what +they say and do officially, are, it seems, as much at the mercy of the +law as the presbyters and deacons whom they have occasionally sent +before the Courts. They, too, at the will of chance accusers who are +accountable to no one, are liable to the humiliation, worry, and +crushing law-bills of an ecclesiastical suit. Whatever may be thought +of this now, it would have seemed extravagant and incredible to the +older race of Bishops that their actions should be so called in +question. They would have thought their dignity gravely assailed, if +besides having to incur heavy expense in prosecuting offending +clergymen, they had also to incur it in protecting themselves from the +charge of being themselves offenders against Church law. + +The growth of law is always a mysterious thing; and an outsider and +layman is disposed to ask where this great jurisdiction sprung up and +grew into shape and power. In the Archbishop's elaborate and able +Judgment it is indeed treated as something which had always been; but +he was more successful in breaking down the force of alleged +authorities, and inferences from them, on the opposite side, than he +was in establishing clearly and convincingly his own contention. +Considering the dignity and importance of the jurisdiction claimed, it +is curious that so little is heard about it till the beginning of the +eighteenth century. It is curious that in its two most conspicuous +instances it should have been called into activity by those not +naturally friendly to large ecclesiastical claims--by Low Churchmen of +the Revolution against an offending Jacobite, and by a Puritan +association against a High Churchman. There is no such clear and strong +case as Bishop Watson's till we come to Bishop Watson. In his argument +the Archbishop rested his claim definitely and forcibly on the +precedent of Bishop Watson's case, and one or two cases which more or +less followed it. That possibly is sufficient for his purpose; but it +may still be asked--What did the Watson case itself grow out of? what +were the precedents--not merely the analogies and supposed legal +necessities, but the precedents--on which this exercise of +metropolitical jurisdiction, distinct from the legatine power, rested? +For it seems as if a formidable prerogative, not much heard of where we +might expect to hear of it, not used by Cranmer and Laud, though +approved by Cranmer in the _Reformatio Legum_, had sprung into being +and energy in the hands of the mild Archbishop Tenison. Watson's case +may be good law and bind the Archbishop. But it would have been more +satisfactory if, in reviving a long-disused power, the Archbishop had +been able to go behind the Watson case, and to show more certainly that +the jurisdiction which he claimed and proposed to exercise in +conformity with that case had, like the jurisdiction of other great +courts of the Church and realm, been clearly and customarily exercised +long before that case. + +The appearance of this great tribunal among us, a distinctly spiritual +court of the highest dignity, cannot fail to be memorable. It is too +early to forecast what its results may be. There may be before it an +active and eventful career, or it may fall back into disuse and +quiescence. It has jealous and suspicious rivals in the civil courts, +never well disposed to the claim of ecclesiastical power or purely +spiritual authority; and though its jurisdiction is not likely to be +strained at present, it is easy to conceive occasions in the future +which may provoke the interference of the civil court. + +But there is this interest about the present proceedings, that they +illustrate with curious closeness, amid so much that is different, the +way in which great spiritual prerogatives grew up in the Church. They +may have ended disastrously; but at their first beginnings they were +usually inevitable, innocent, blameless. Time after time the necessity +arose of some arbiter among those who were themselves arbiters, rulers, +judges. Time after time this necessity forced those in the first rank +into this position, as being the only persons who could be allowed to +take it, and so Archbishops, Metropolitans, Primates appeared, to +preside at assemblies, to be the mouthpiece of a general sentiment, to +decide between high authorities, to be the centre of appeals. The +Papacy itself at its first beginning had no other origin. It interfered +because it was asked to interfere; it judged because there was no one +else to judge. And so necessities of a very different kind have forced +the Archbishop of Canterbury of our day into a position which is new +and strange to our experience, and which, however constitutional and +reasonable it may be, must give every one who is at all affected by it +a good deal to think about. + + + + +VIII + +MOZLEY'S BAMPTON LECTURES[10] + + +I + + [10] + _Eight Lectures on Miracles: the Bampton Lectures for 1865_. By the + Rev. J.B. Mozley, B.D. _The Times_, 5th and 6th June 1866. + +The way in which the subject of Miracles has been treated, and the +place which they have had in our discussions, will remain a +characteristic feature of both the religious and philosophical +tendencies of thought among us. Miracles, if they are real things, are +the most awful and august of realities. But, from various causes, one +of which, perhaps, is the very word itself, and the way in which it +binds into one vague and technical generality a number of most +heterogeneous instances, miracles have lost much of their power to +interest those who have thought most in sympathy with their generation. +They have been summarily and loosely put aside, sometimes avowedly, +more often still by implication. Even by those who accepted and +maintained them, they have often been touched uncertainly and formally, +as if people thought that they were doing a duty, but would like much +better to talk about other things which really attracted and filled +their minds. In the long course of theological war for the last two +centuries, it is hardly too much to say that miracles, as a subject for +discussion, have been degraded and worn down from their original +significance; vulgarised by passing through the handling of not the +highest order of controversialists, who battered and defaced what they +bandied about in argument, which was often ingenious and acute, and +often mere verbal sophistry, but which, in any case, seldom rose to the +true height of the question. Used either as instruments of proof or as +fair game for attack, they suffered in the common and popular feeling +about them. Taken in a lump, and with little realising of all that they +were and implied, they furnished a cheap and tempting material for +"short and easy methods" on one side, and on the other side, as it is +obvious, a mark for just as easy and tempting objections. They became +trite. People got tired of hearing of them, and shy of urging them, and +dwelt in preference on other grounds of argument. The more serious +feeling and the more profound and original thought of the last half +century no longer seemed to give them the value and importance which +they had; on both sides a disposition was to be traced to turn aside +from them. The deeper religion and the deeper and more enterprising +science of the day combined to lower them from their old evidential +place. The one threw the moral stress on moral grounds of belief, and +seemed inclined to undervalue external proofs. The other more and more +yielded to its repugnance to admit the interruption of natural law, and +became more and more disinclined even to discuss the supernatural; and, +curiously enough, along with this there was in one remarkable school of +religious philosophy an increased readiness to believe in miracles as +such, without apparently caring much for them as proofs. Of late, +indeed, things have taken a different turn. The critical importance of +miracles, after for a time having fallen out of prominence behind other +questions, has once more made itself felt. Recent controversy has +forced them again on men's thoughts, and has made us see that, whether +they are accepted or denied, it is idle to ignore them. They mean too +much to be evaded. Like all powerful arguments they cut two ways, and +of all powerful arguments they are the most clearly two-edged. However +we may limit their range, some will remain which we must face; which, +according to what is settled about them, either that they are true or +not true, will entirely change all that we think of religion. Writers +on all sides have begun to be sensible that a decisive point requires +their attention, and that its having suffered from an old-fashioned way +of handling is no reason why it should not on its own merits engage +afresh the interest of serious men, to whom it is certainly of +consequence. + +The renewed attention of theological writers to the subject of miracles +as an element of proof has led to some important discussions upon it, +showing in their treatment of a well-worn inquiry that a change in the +way of conducting it had become necessary. Of these productions we may +place Mr. Mozley's _Bampton Lectures_ for last year among the most +original and powerful. They are an example, and a very fine one, of a +mode of theological writing which is characteristic of the Church of +England, and almost peculiar to it. The distinguishing features of it +are a combination of intense seriousness with a self-restrained, severe +calmness, and of very vigorous and wide-ranging reasoning on the +realities of the case with the least amount of care about artificial +symmetry or scholastic completeness. Admirers of the Roman style call +it cold, indefinite, wanting in dogmatic coherence, comprehensiveness, +and grandeur. Admirers of the German style find little to praise in a +cautious bit-by-bit method, content with the tests which have most +affinity with common sense, incredulous of exhaustive theories, leaving +a large margin for the unaccountable or the unexplained. But it has its +merits, one of them being that, dealing very solidly and very acutely +with large and real matters of experience, the interest of such +writings endures as the starting-point and foundation for future work. +Butler out of England is hardly known, certainly he is not much valued +either as a divine or a philosopher; but in England, though we +criticise him freely, it will be a long time before he is out of date. +Mr. Mozley's book belongs to that class of writings of which Butler may +be taken as the type. It is strong, genuine argument about difficult +matters, fairly facing what _is_ difficult, fairly trying to grapple, +not with what _appears_ the gist and strong point of a question, but +with what really and at bottom _is_ the knot of it. It is a book the +reasoning of which may not satisfy every one; but it is a book in which +there is nothing plausible, nothing put in to escape the trouble of +thinking out what really comes across the writer's path. This will not +recommend it to readers who themselves are not fond of trouble; a book +of hard thinking cannot be a book of easy reading; nor is it a book for +people to go to who only want available arguments, or to see a question +apparently settled in a convenient way. But we think it is a book for +people who wish to see a great subject handled on a scale which befits +it and with a perception of its real elements. It is a book which will +have attractions for those who like to see a powerful mind applying +itself without shrinking or holding back, without trick or reserve or +show of any kind, as a wrestler closes body to body with his +antagonist, to the strength of an adverse and powerful argument. A +stern self-constraint excludes everything exclamatory, all glimpses and +disclosures of what merely affects the writer, all advantages from an +appeal, disguised and indirect perhaps, to the opinion of his own side. +But though the work is not rhetorical, it is not the less eloquent; but +it is eloquence arising from a keen insight at once into what is real +and what is great, and from a singular power of luminous, noble, and +expressive statement. There is no excitement about its close subtle +trains of reasoning; and there is no affectation,--and therefore no +affectation of impartiality. The writer has his conclusions, and he +does not pretend to hold a balance between them and their opposites. +But in the presence of such a subject he never loses sight of its +greatness, its difficulty, its eventfulness; and these thoughts make +him throughout his undertaking circumspect, considerate, and calm. + +The point of view from which the subject of miracles is looked at in +these Lectures is thus stated in the preface. It is plain that two +great questions arise--first, Are miracles possible? next, If they are, +can any in fact be proved? These two branches of the inquiry involve +different classes of considerations. The first is purely philosophical, +and stops the inquiry at once if it can be settled in the negative. The +other calls in also the aid of history and criticism. Both questions +have been followed out of late with great keenness and interest, but it +is the first which at present assumes an importance which it never had +before, with its tremendous negative answer, revolutionising not only +the past, but the whole future of mankind; and it is to the first that +Mr. Mozley's work is mainly addressed. + + The difficulty which attaches to miracles in the period of thought + through which we are now passing is one which is concerned not + with their evidence, but with their intrinsic credibility. There + has arisen in a certain class of minds an apparent perception of + the impossibility of suspensions of physical law. This is one + peculiarity of the time; another is a disposition to maintain the + disbelief of miracles upon a religious basis, and in a connection + with a declared belief in the Christian revelation. + + The following Lectures, therefore, are addressed mainly to the + fundamental question of the credibility of Miracles, their use and + the evidences of them being only touched on subordinately and + collaterally. It was thought that such an aim, though in itself a + narrow and confined one, was most adapted to the particular need + of the day. + +As Mr. Mozley says, various points essential to the whole argument, +such as testimony, and the criterion between true and false miracles, +are touched upon; but what is characteristic of the work is the way in +which it deals with the antecedent objection to the possibility and +credibility of miracles. It is on this part of the subject that the +writer strikes out a line for himself, and puts forth his strength. His +argument may be described generally as a plea for reason against +imagination and the broad impressions of custom. Experience, such +experience as we have of the world and human life, has, in all ages, +been really the mould of human thought, and with large exceptions, the +main unconscious guide and controller of human belief; and in our own +times it has been formally and scientifically recognised as such, and +made the exclusive foundation of all possible philosophy. A philosophy +of mere experience is not tolerant of miracles; its doctrines exclude +them; but, what is of even greater force than its doctrines, the subtle +and penetrating atmosphere of feeling and intellectual habits which +accompanies it is essentially uncongenial and hostile to them. It is +against the undue influence of such results of experience--an influence +openly acting in distinct ideas and arguments, but of which the greater +portion operates blindly, insensibly, and out of sight--that Mr. Mozley +makes a stand on behalf of reason, to which it belongs in the last +resort to judge of the lessons of experience. Reason, as it cannot +create experience, so it cannot take its place and be its substitute; +but what reason can do is to say within what limits experience is +paramount as a teacher; and reason abdicates its functions if it +declines to do so, for it was given us to work upon and turn to account +the unmeaning and brute materials which experience gives us in the +rough. The antecedent objection against miracles is, he says, one of +experience, but not one of reason. And experience, flowing over its +boundaries tyrannically and effacing its limits, is as dangerous to +truth and knowledge as reason once was, when it owned no check in +nature, and used no test but itself. + +Mr. Mozley begins by stating clearly the necessity for coming to a +decision on the question of miracles. It cannot remain one of the open +questions, at least of religion. There is, as has been said, a +disposition to pass by it, and to construct a religion without +miracles. The thing is conceivable. We can take what are as a matter of +fact the moral results of Christianity, and of that singular power with +which it has presided over the improvement of mankind, and alloying and +qualifying them with other elements, not on the face of the matter its +products, yet in many cases indirectly connected with its working, form +something which we may acknowledge as a rule of life, and which may +satisfy our inextinguishable longings after the unseen and eternal. It +is true that such a religion presupposes Christianity, to which it owes +its best and noblest features, and that, as far as we can see, it is +inconceivable if Christianity had not first been. Still, we may say +that alchemy preceded chemistry, and was not the more true for being +the step to what is true. But what we cannot say of such a religion is +that it takes the place of Christianity, and is such a religion as +Christianity has been and claims to be. There must ever be all the +difference in the world between a religion which is or professes to be +a revelation, and one which cannot be called such. For a revelation is +a direct work and message of God; but that which is the result of a +process and progress of rinding out the truth by the experience of +ages, or of correcting mistakes, laying aside superstitions and +gradually reducing the gross mass of belief to its essential truth, is +simply on a level with all other human knowledge, and, as it is about +the unseen, can never be verified. If there has been no revelation, +there may be religious hopes and misgivings, religious ideas or dreams, +religious anticipations and trust; but the truth is, there cannot be a +religion in the world. Much less can there be any such thing as +Christianity. It is only when we look at it vaguely in outline, without +having before our mind what it is in fact and in detail, that we can +allow ourselves to think so. There is no transmuting its refractory +elements into something which is not itself; and it is nothing if it is +not primarily a direct message from God. Limit as we may the manner of +this communication, still there remains what makes it different from +all other human possessions of truth, that it was a direct message. And +that, to whatever extent, involves all that is involved in the idea of +miracles. It is, as Mr. Mozley says, inconceivable without miracles. + + If, then, a person of evident integrity and loftiness of character + rose into notice in a particular country and community eighteen + centuries ago, who made these communications about himself--that + he had existed before his natural birth, from all eternity, and + before the world was, in a state of glory with God; that he was + the only-begotten Son of God; that the world itself had been made + by him; that he had, however, come down from heaven and assumed + the form and nature of man for a particular purpose--viz. to be + the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; that he + thus stood in a mysterious and supernatural relation to the whole + of mankind; that through him alone mankind had access to God; that + he was the head of an invisible kingdom, into which he should + gather all the generations of righteous men who had lived in the + world; that on his departure from hence he should return to heaven + to prepare mansions there for them; and, lastly, that he should + descend again at the end of the world to judge the whole human + race, on which occasion all that were in their graves should hear + his voice and come forth, they that had done good unto the + resurrection of life, and they that had done evil unto the + resurrection of damnation,--if this person made these assertions + about himself, and all that was done was to make the assertions, + what would be the inevitable conclusion of sober reason respecting + that person? The necessary conclusion of sober reason respecting + that person would be that he was disordered in his understanding. + What other decision could we come to when a man, looking like one + of ourselves, and only exemplifying in his life and circumstances + the ordinary course of nature, said this about himself, but that + when reason had lost its balance a dream of extraordinary and + unearthly grandeur might be the result? By no rational being could + a just and benevolent life be accepted as proof of such + astonishing announcements. Miracles are the necessary complement + then of the truth of such announcements, which without them are + purposeless and abortive, the unfinished fragments of a design + which is nothing unless it is the whole. They are necessary to the + justification of such announcements, which, indeed, unless they + are supernatural truths, are the wildest delusions. The matter and + its guarantee are the two parts of a revelation, the absence of + either of which neutralises and undoes it. + +A revelation, in any sense in which it is more than merely a result of +the natural progress of the human mind and the gradual clearing up of +mistakes, cannot in the nature of things be without miracles, because +it is not merely a discovery of ideas and rules of life, but of facts +undiscoverable without it. It involves _constituent_ miracles, to use +De Quincey's phrase, as part of its substance, and could not claim a +bearing without _evidential_ or _polemic_ ones. No other portion or +form of proof, however it may approve itself to the ideas of particular +periods or minds, can really make up for this. The alleged sinlessness +of the Teacher, the internal evidence from adaptation to human nature, +the historical argument of the development of Christendom, are, as Mr. +Mozley points out, by themselves inadequate, without that further +guarantee which is contained in miracles, to prove the Divine origin of +a religion. The tendency has been of late to fall back on these +attractive parts of the argument, which admit of such varied handling +and expression, and come home so naturally to the feelings of an age so +busy and so keen in pursuing the secrets of human character, and so +fascinated with its unfolding wonders. But take any of them, the +argument from results, for instance, perhaps the most powerful of them +all. "We cannot," as Mr. Mozley says, "rest too much upon it, so long +as we do not charge it with more of the burden of proof than it is in +its own nature equal to--viz. the whole. But that it cannot bear." The +hard, inevitable question remains at the end, for the most attenuated +belief in Christianity as a religion from God--what is the ultimate +link which connects it directly with God? The readiness with which we +throw ourselves on more congenial topics of proof does not show that, +even to our own minds, these proofs could suffice by themselves, +miracles being really taken away. The whole power of a complex argument +and the reasons why it tells do not always appear on its face. It does +not depend merely on what it states, but also on unexpressed, +unanalysed, perhaps unrealised grounds, the real force of which would +at once start forth if they were taken away. We are told of the obscure +rays of the spectrum, rays which have their proof and their effect, +only not the same proof and effect as the visible ones which they +accompany; and the background and latent suppositions of a great +argument are as essential to it as its more prominent and elaborate +constructions. And they show their importance sometimes in a remarkable +and embarrassing way, when, after a long debate, their presence at the +bottom of everything, unnoticed and perhaps unallowed for, is at length +disclosed by some obvious and decisive question, which some person had +been too careless to think of, and another too shy to ask. We may not +care to obtrude miracles; but take them away, and see what becomes of +the argument for Christianity. + + It must be remembered that when this part of Christian evidence + comes so forcibly home to us, and creates that inward assurance + which it does, it does this in connection with the proof of + miracles in the background, which though it may not for the time + be brought into actual view, is still known to be there, and to be + ready for use upon being wanted. The _indirect_ proof from results + has the greater force, and carries with it the deeper persuasion, + because it is additional and auxiliary to the _direct_ proof + behind it, upon which it leans all the time, though we may not + distinctly notice and estimate this advantage. Were the evidence + of moral result to be taken rigidly alone as the one single + guarantee for a Divine revelation, it would then be seen that we + had calculated its single strength too highly. If there is a + species of evidence which is directly appropriate to the thing + believed, we cannot suppose, on the strength of the indirect + evidence we possess, that we can do without the direct. But + miracles are the direct credentials of a revelation; the visible + supernatural is the appropriate witness to the invisible + supernatural--that proof which goes straight to the point, and, a + token being wanted of a Divine communication, is that token. We + cannot, therefore, dispense with this evidence. The position that + the revelation proves the miracles, and not the miracles the + revelation, admits of a good qualified meaning; but, taken + literally, it is a double offence against the rule that things are + properly proved by the proper proof of them; for a supernatural + fact _is_ the proper proof of a supernatural doctrine, while a + supernatural doctrine, on the other hand, is certainly _not_ the + proper proof of a supernatural fact. + +So that, whatever comes of the inquiry, miracles and revelation must go +together. There is no separating them. Christianity may claim in them +the one decisive proof that could be given of its Divine origin and the +truth of its creed; but, at any rate, it must ever be responsible for +them. + + But suppose a person to say, and to say with truth, that his own + individual faith does not rest upon miracles, is he, therefore, + released from the defence of miracles? Is the question of their + truth or falsehood an irrelevant one to him? Is his faith secure + if they are disproved? By no means; if miracles were, although + only at the commencement, necessary to Christianity, and were + actually wrought, and therefore form part of the Gospel record and + are bound up with the Gospel scheme and doctrines, this part of + the structure cannot be abandoned without the sacrifice of the + other too. To shake the authority of one-half of this body of + statement is to shake the authority of the whole. Whether or not + the individual makes _use_ of them for the support of his own + faith, the miracles are there; and if they are there they must be + there either as true miracles or as false ones. If he does not + avail himself of their evidence, his belief is still affected by + their refutation. Accepting, as he does, the supernatural truths + of Christianity and its miracles upon the same report from the + same witnesses, upon the authority of the same documents, he + cannot help having at any rate this negative interest in them. For + if those witnesses and documents deceive us with regard to the + miracles, how can we trust them with regard to the doctrines? If + they are wrong upon the evidences of a revelation, how can we + depend upon their being right as to the nature of that revelation? + If their account of visible facts is to be received with an + explanation, is not their account of doctrines liable to a like + explanation? Revelation, then, even if it does not need the truth + of miracles for the benefit of their proof, still requires it in + order not to be crushed under the weight of their falsehood.... + Thus miracles and the supernatural contents of Christianity must + stand or fall together. These two questions--the _nature_ of the + revelation, and the _evidence_ of the revelation--cannot be + disjoined. Christianity as a dispensation undiscoverable by human + reason, and Christianity as a dispensation authenticated by + miracles--these two are in necessary combination. If any do not + include the supernatural character of Christianity in their + definition of it, regarding the former only as one interpretation + of it or one particular traditional form of it, which is separable + from the essence--for Christianity as thus defined the support of + miracles is not wanted, because the moral truths are their own + evidence. But Christianity cannot be maintained as a revelation + undiscoverable by human reason, a revelation of a supernatural + scheme for man's salvation, without the evidence of miracles. + +The question of miracles, then, of the supernatural disclosed in the +world of nature, is the vital point for everything that calls itself +Christianity. It may be forgotten or disguised; but it is vain to keep +it back and put it out of sight. It must be answered; and if we settle +it that miracles are incredible, it is idle to waste our time about +accommodations with Christianity, or reconstitutions of it. Let us be +thankful for what it has done for the world; but let us put it away, +both name and thing. It is an attempt after what is in the nature of +things impossible to man--a revealed religion, authenticated by God. +The shape which this negative answer takes is, as Mr. Mozley points +out, much more definite now than it ever was. Miracles were formerly +assailed and disbelieved on mixed and often confused grounds; from +alleged defect of evidence, from their strangeness, or because they +would be laughed at. Foes and defenders looked at them from the outside +and in the gross; and perhaps some of those who defended them most +keenly had a very imperfect sense of what they really were. The +difficulty of accepting them now arises not mainly from want of +external evidence, but from having more keenly realised what it is to +believe a miracle. As Mr. Mozley says-- + + How is it that sometimes when the same facts and truths have been + before men all their lives, and produced but one impression, a + moment comes when they look different from what they did? Some + minds may abandon, while others retain, their fundamental position + with respect to those facts and truths, but to both they look + stranger; they excite a certain surprise which they did not once + do. The reasons of this change then it is not always easy for the + persons themselves to trace, but of the result they are conscious; + and in some this result is a change of belief. + + An inward process of this kind has been going on recently in many + minds on the subject of miracles; and in some with the latter + result. When it came to the question--which every one must sooner + or later put to himself on this subject--Did these things really + take place? Are they matters of fact?--they have appeared to + themselves to be brought to a standstill, and to be obliged to own + an inner refusal of their whole reason to admit them among the + actual events of the past. This strong repugnance seemed to be the + witness of its own truth, to be accompanied by a clear and vivid + light, to be a law to the understanding, and to rule without + appeal the question of fact.... But when the reality of the past + is once apprehended and embraced, then the miraculous occurrences + in it are realised too; being realised they excite surprise, and + surprise, when it comes in, takes two directions--it either makes + belief more real, or it destroys belief. There is an element of + doubt in surprise; for this emotion arises _because_ an event is + strange, and an event is strange because it goes counter to and + jars with presumption. Shall surprise, then, give life to belief + or stimulus to doubt? The road of belief and unbelief in the + history of some minds thus partly lies over common ground; the two + go part of their journey together; they have a common perception + in the insight into the real astonishing nature of the facts with + which they deal. The majority of mankind, perhaps, owe their + belief rather to the outward influence of custom and education + than to any strong principle of faith within; and it is to be + feared that many, if they came to perceive how wonderful what they + believed was, would not find their belief so easy and so + matter-of-course a thing as they appear to find it. Custom throws + a film over the great facts of religion, and interposes a veil + between the mind and truth, which, by preventing wonder, + intercepts doubt too, and at the same time excludes from deep + belief and protects from disbelief. But deeper faith and disbelief + throw off in common the dependence on mere custom, draw aside the + interposing veil, place themselves face to face with the contents + of the past, and expose themselves alike to the ordeal of wonder. + + It is evident that the effect which the visible order of nature + has upon some minds is, that as soon as they realise what a + miracle is, they are stopped by what appears to them a simple + sense of its impossibility. So long as they only believe by habit + and education, they accept a miracle without difficulty, because + they do not realise it as an event which actually took place in + the world; the alteration of the face of the world, and the whole + growth of intervening history, throw the miracles of the Gospel + into a remote perspective in which they are rather seen as a + picture than real occurrences. But as soon as they see that, if + these miracles are true, they once really happened, what they feel + then is the apparent sense of their impossibility. It is not a + question of evidence with them: when they realise, e.g., that + our Lord's resurrection, if true, was a visible fact or + occurrence, they have the seeming certain perception that it is an + impossible occurrence. "I cannot," a person says to himself in + effect, "tear myself from the type of experience and join myself + to another. I cannot quit order and law for what is eccentric. + There is a repulsion between such facts and my belief as strong as + that between physical substances. In the mere effort to conceive + these amazing scenes as real ones, I fall back upon myself and + upon that type of reality which the order of nature has impressed + upon me." + +The antagonism to the idea of miracles has grown stronger and more +definite with the enlarged and more widely-spread conception of +invariable natural law, and also, as Mr. Mozley points out, with that +increased power in our time of realising the past, which is not the +peculiarity of individual writers, but is "part of the thought of the +time." But though it has been quickened and sharpened by these +influences, it rests ultimately on that sense which all men have in +common of the customary and regular in their experience of the world. +The world, which we all know, stands alone, cut off from any other; and +a miracle is an intrusion, "an interpolation of one order of things +into another, confounding two systems which are perfectly distinct." +The broad, deep resistance to it which is awakened in the mind when we +look abroad on the face of nature is expressed in Emerson's phrase--"A +miracle is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clouds or the +falling rain." Who can dispute it? Yet the rejoinder is obvious, and +has often been given--that neither is man. Man, who looks at nature and +thinks and feels about its unconscious unfeeling order; man, with his +temptations, his glory, and his shame, his heights of goodness, and +depths of infamy, is not one with those innocent and soulless forces so +sternly immutable--"the blowing clouds and falling rain." The two awful +phenomena which Kant said struck him dumb--the starry heavens, and +right and wrong--are vainly to be reduced to the same order of things. +Nothing can be stranger than the contrast between the rigid, inevitable +sequences of nature, apparently so elastic only because not yet +perfectly comprehended, and the consciousness of man in the midst of +it. Nothing can be stranger than the juxtaposition of physical law and +man's sense of responsibility and choice. Man is an "insertion," an +"interpolation in the physical system"; he is "insulated as an anomaly +in the midst of matter and material law." Mr. Mozley's words are +striking:-- + + The first appearance, then, of man in nature was the appearance of + a new being in nature; and this fact was relatively to the then + order of things miraculous; no more physical account can be given + of it than could be given of a resurrection to life now. What more + entirely new and eccentric fact, indeed, can be imagined than a + human soul first rising up amidst an animal and vegetable world? + Mere consciousness--was not that of itself a new world within the + old one? Mere knowledge--that nature herself became known to a + being within herself, was not that the same? Certainly man was not + all at once the skilled interpreter of nature, and yet there is + some interpretation of nature to which man as such is equal in + some degree. He derives an impression from the sight of nature + which an animal does not derive; for though the material spectacle + is imprinted on its retina, as it is on man's, it does not see + what man sees. The sun rose, then, and the sun descended, the + stars looked down upon the earth, the mountains climbed to heaven, + the cliffs stood upon the shore, the same as now, countless ages + before a single being existed who _saw_ it. The counterpart of + this whole scene was wanting--the understanding mind; that mirror + in which the whole was to be reflected; and when this arose it was + a new birth for creation itself, that it became _known_,--an image + in the mind of a conscious being. But even consciousness and + knowledge were a less strange and miraculous introduction into the + world than conscience. + + Thus wholly mysterious in his entrance into this scene, man is + _now_ an insulation in it; he came in by no physical law, and his + freewill is in utter contrast to that law. What can be more + incomprehensible, more heterogeneous, a more ghostly resident in + nature, than the sense of right and wrong? What is it? Whence is + it? The obligation of man to sacrifice himself for right is a + truth which springs out of an abyss, the mere attempt to look down + into which confuses the reason. Such is the juxtaposition of + mysterious and physical contents in the same system. Man is alone, + then, in nature: he alone of all the creatures communes with a + Being out of nature; and he divides himself from all other + physical life by prophesying, in the face of universal visible + decay, his own immortality. + +And till this anomaly has been removed--that is, till the last trace of +what is moral in man has disappeared under the analysis of science, and +what ought to be is resolved into a mere aspect of what is, this deep +exception to the dominion of physical law remains as prominent and +undeniable as physical law itself. + + It is, indeed, avowed by those who reduce man in nature, that upon + the admission of free-will, the objection to the miraculous is over, + and that it is absurd to allow exception to law in man, and reject + it in nature. + +But the broad, popular sense of natural order, and the instinctive and +common repugnance to a palpable violation of it, have been forged and +refined into the philosophical objection to miracles. Two great +thinkers of past generations, two of the keenest and clearest +intellects which have appeared since the Reformation, laid the +foundations of it long ago. Spinoza urged the uselessness of miracles, +and Hume their incredibility, with a guarded subtlety and longsighted +refinement of statement which made them in advance of their age except +with a few. But their reflections have fallen in with a more advanced +stage of thought and a taste for increased precision and exactness, and +they are beginning to bear their fruit. The great and telling objection +to miracles is getting to be, not their want of evidence, but, prior to +all question of evidence, the supposed impossibility of fitting them in +with a scientific view of nature. Reason, looking at nature and +experience, is said to raise an antecedent obstacle to them which no +alleged proof of fact can get over. They cannot be, because they are so +unlike to everything else in the world, even of the strangest kind, in +this point--in avowedly breaking the order of nature. And reason cannot +be admitted to take cognizance of their claims and to consider their +character, their purpose, their results, their credentials, because the +mere supposition of them violates the fundamental conception and +condition of science, absolute and invariable law, as well as that +common-sense persuasion which everybody has, whether philosopher or +not, of the uniformity of the order of the world. + + +II + +To make room for reason to come in and pronounce upon miracles on their +own merits--to clear the ground for the consideration of their actual +claims by disposing of the antecedent objection of impossibility, is +Mr. Mozley's main object. + + Whatever difficulty there is in believing in miracles in general + arises from the circumstance that they are in contradiction to or + unlike the order of nature. To estimate the force of this + difficulty, then, we must first understand what kind of belief it + is which we have in the order of nature; for the weight of the + objection to the miraculous must depend on the nature of the + belief to which the miraculous is opposed. + +His examination of the alleged impossibility of miracles may be +described as a very subtle turning the tables on Hume and the empirical +philosophy. For when it is said that it is contrary to reason to +believe in a suspension of the order of nature, he asks on what ground +do we believe in the order of nature; and Hume himself supplies the +answer. There is nothing of which we have a firmer persuasion. It is +the basis of human life and knowledge. We assume at each step, without +a doubt, that the future will be like the past. But why? Hume has +carefully examined the question, and can find no answer, except the +fact that we do assume it. "I apprehend," says Mr. Mozley, accepting +Hume's view of the nature of probability, "that when we examine the +different reasons which may be assigned for this connection, i.e. for +the belief that the future will be like the past, they all come at last +to be mere statements of the belief itself, and not reasons to account +for it." + + Let us imagine the occurrence of a particular physical phenomenon + for the first time. Upon that single occurrence we should have but + the very faintest expectation of another. If it did occur again + once or twice, so far from counting on another recurrence, a + cessation would come as the more natural event to us. But let it + occur a hundred times, and we should feel no hesitation in + inviting persons from a distance to see it; and if it occurred + every day for years, its recurrence would then be a certainty to + us, its cessation a marvel. But what has taken place in the + interim to produce this total change in our belief? From the mere + repetition do we know anything more about its cause? No. Then what + have we got besides the past repetition itself? Nothing. Why, + then, are we so certain of its _future_ repetition? All we can say + is that the known casts its shadow before; we project into unborn + time the existing types, and the secret skill of nature intercepts + the darkness of the future by ever suspending before our eyes, as + it were in a mirror, a reflection of the past. We really look at a + blank before us, but the mind, full of the scene behind, sees it + again in front.... + + What ground of reason, then, can we assign for our expectation + that any part of the course of nature will the _next_ moment be + like what it has been up to _this_ moment, i.e. for our belief + in the uniformity of nature? None. No demonstrative reason can be + given, for the contrary to the recurrence of a fact of nature is + no contradiction. No probable reason can be given, for all + probable reasoning respecting the course of nature is founded + _upon_ this presumption of likeness, and therefore cannot be the + foundation of it. No reason can be given for this belief. It is + without a reason. It rests upon no rational ground and can be + traced to no rational principle. Everything connected with human + life depends upon this belief, every practical plan or purpose + that we form implies it, every provision we make for the future, + every safeguard and caution we employ against it, all calculation, + all adjustment of means to ends, supposes this belief; it is this + principle alone which renders our experience of the slightest use + to us, and without it there would be, so far as we are concerned, + no order of nature and no laws of nature; and yet this belief has + no more producible reason for it than a speculation of fancy. A + natural fact has been repeated; it will be repeated:--I am + conscious of utter darkness when I try to see why one of these + follows from the other: I not only see no reason, but I perceive + that I see none, though I can no more help the expectation than I + can stop the circulation of my blood. There is a premiss, and + there is a conclusion, but there is a total want of connection + between the two. The inference, then, from the one of these to the + other rests upon no ground of the understanding; by no search or + analysis, however subtle or minute, can we extract from any corner + of the human mind and intelligence, however remote, the very + faintest reason for it. + +Hume, who had urged with great force that miracles were contrary to +that probability which is created by experience, had also said that +this probability had no producible ground in reason; that, universal, +unfailing, indispensable as it was to the course of human life, it was +but an instinct which defied analysis, a process of thought and +inference for which he vainly sought the rational steps. There is no +absurdity, though the greatest impossibility, in supposing this order +to stop to-morrow; and, if the world ends at all, its end will be in an +increasing degree improbable up to the very last moment. But, if this +whole ground of belief is in its own nature avowedly instinctive and +independent of reason, what right has it to raise up a bar of +intellectual necessity, and to shut out reason from entertaining the +question of miracles? They may have grounds which appeal to reason; and +an unintelligent instinct forbids reason from fairly considering what +they are. Reason cannot get beyond the actual fact of the present state +of things for believing in the order of nature; it professes to find no +necessity for it; the interruption of that order, therefore, whether +probable or not, is not against reason. Philosophy itself, says Mr. +Mozley, cuts away the ground on which it had raised its preliminary +objection to miracles. + + And now the belief in the order of nature being thus, however + powerful and useful, an unintelligent impulse of which we can give + no rational account, in what way does this discovery affect the + question of miracles? In this way, that this belief not having + itself its foundation in reason, the ground is gone upon which it + could be maintained that miracles as opposed to the order of + nature were opposed to reason. There being no producible reason + why a new event should be like the hitherto course of nature, no + decision of reason is contradicted by its unlikeness. A miracle, + in being opposed to our experience, is not only not opposed to + necessary reasoning, but to any reasoning. Do I see by a certain + perception the connection between these two--It _has_ happened so, + it _will_ happen so; then may I reject a new reported fact which + has _not_ happened so as an impossibility. But if I do not see the + connection between these two by a certain perception, or by any + perception, I cannot. For a miracle to be rejected as such, there + must, at any rate, be some proposition in the mind of man which is + opposed to it; and that proposition can only spring from the + quarter to which we have been referring--that of elementary + experimental reasoning. But if this experimental reasoning is of + that nature which philosophy describes it as being of, i.e. if + it is not itself a process of reason, how can there from an + irrational process of the mind arise a proposition at all,--to + make which is the function of the rational faculty alone? There + cannot; and it is evident that the miraculous does not stand in + any opposition whatever to reason.... + + Thus step by step has philosophy loosened the connection of the + order of nature with the ground of reason, befriending, in exact + proportion as it has done this, the principle of miracles. In the + argument against miracles the first objection is that they are + against _law_; and this is answered by saying that we know nothing + in nature of law in the sense in which it prevents miracles. Law + can only prevent miracles by _compelling_ and making necessary the + succession of nature, i.e. in the sense of causation; but + science has itself proclaimed the truth that we see no causes in + nature, that the whole chain of physical succession is to the eye + of reason a rope of sand, consisting of antecedents and + consequents, but without a rational link or trace of necessary + connection between them. We only know of law in nature in the + sense of recurrences in nature, classes of facts, _like_ facts in + nature--a chain of which, the junction not being reducible to + reason, the interruption is not against reason. The claim of law + settled, the next objection in the argument against miracles is + that they are against _experience_; because we expect facts _like_ + to those of our experience, and miracles are _unlike_ ones. The + weight, then, of the objection of unlikeness to experience depends + on the reason which can be produced for the expectation of + likeness; and to this call philosophy has replied by the summary + confession that we have _no_ reason. Philosophy, then, could not + have overthrown more thoroughly than it has done the order of + nature as a necessary course of things, or cleared the ground more + effectually for the principle of miracles. + +Nor, he argues, does this instinct change its nature, or become a +necessary law of reason, when it takes the form of an inference from +induction. For the last step of the inductive process, the creation of +its supposed universal, is, when compared with the real standard of +universality acknowledged by reason, an incomplete and more or less +precarious process; "it gets out of facts something more than what they +actually contain"; and it can give no reason for itself but what the +common faith derived from experience can give, the anticipation of +uniform recurrence. "The inductive principle," he says, "is only the +unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically ascertained fact, +instead of to a vulgarly ascertained fact.... Science has led up to the +fact, but there it stops, and for converting the fact into a law a +totally unscientific principle comes in, the same as that which +generalises the commonest observations in nature." + + The scientific part of induction being only the pursuit of a + particular fact, miracles cannot in the nature of the case receive + any blow from the scientific part of induction; because the + existence of one fact does not interfere with the existence of + another dissimilar fact. That which _does_ resist the miraculous + is the _un_scientific part of induction, or the instinctive + generalisation upon this fact.... It does not belong to this + principle to lay down speculative positions, and to say what can + or cannot take place in the world. It does not belong to it to + control religious belief, or to determine that certain acts of God + for the revelation of His will to man, reported to have taken + place, have not taken place. Such decisions are totally out of its + sphere; it can assert the universal as a _law_, but the universal + as a law and the universal as a proposition are wholly distinct. + The one asserts the universal as a fact, the other as a + presumption; the one as an absolute certainty, the other as a + practical certainty, when there is no reason to expect the + contrary. The one contains and includes the particular, the other + does not; from the one we argue mathematically to the falsehood of + any opposite particular; from the other we do not.... For example, + one signal miracle, pre-eminent for its grandeur, crowned the + evidence of the supernatural character and office of our Lord--our + Lord's ascension--His going up with His body of flesh and bones + into the sky in the presence of His disciples. "He lifted up His + hands, and blessed them. And while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven. And they looked stedfastly + toward heaven as He went up, and a cloud received Him out of their + sight." + + Here is an amazing scene, which strikes even the devout believer, + coming across it in the sacred page suddenly or by chance, amid + the routine of life, with a fresh surprise. Did, then, this event + really take place? Or is the evidence of it forestalled by the + inductive principle compelling us to remove the scene _as such_ + out of the category of matters of fact? The answer is, that the + inductive principle is in its own nature only an _expectation_; + and that the expectation, that what is unlike our experience will + not happen, is quite consistent with its occurrence in fact. This + principle does not pretend to decide the question of fact, which + is wholly out of its province and beyond its function. It can only + decide the fact by the medium of a universal; the universal + proposition that no man has ascended to heaven. But this is a + statement which exceeds its power; it is as radically incompetent + to pronounce it as the taste or smell is to decide on matters of + sight; its function is practical, not logical. No antecedent + statement, then, which touches my belief in this scene, is allowed + by the laws of thought. Converted indeed into a universal + proposition, the inductive principle is omnipotent, and totally + annihilates every particular which does not come within its range. + The universal statement that no man has ascended into heaven + absolutely falsifies the fact that One Man has. But, thus + transmuted, the inductive principle issues out of this + metamorphose, a fiction not a truth; a weapon of air, which even + in the hands of a giant can inflict no blow because it is itself a + shadow. The object of assault receives the unsubstantial thrust + without a shock, only exposing the want of solidity in the + implement of war. The battle against the supernatural has been + going on long, and strong men have conducted it, and are + conducting it--but what they want is a weapon. The logic of + unbelief wants a universal. But no real universal is forthcoming, + and it only wastes its strength in wielding a fictitious one. + +It is not in reason, which refuses to pronounce upon the possible +merely from experience of the actual, that the antecedent objection to +miracles is rooted. Yet that the objection is a powerful one the +consciousness of every reflecting mind testifies. What, then, is the +secret of its force? In a lecture of singular power Mr. Mozley gives +his answer. What tells beforehand against miracles is not reason, but +imagination. Imagination is often thought to favour especially the +supernatural and miraculous. It does do so, no doubt. But the truth is, +that imagination tells both ways--as much against the miraculous as for +it. The imagination, that faculty by which we give life and body and +reality to our intellectual conceptions, takes its character from the +intellectual conceptions with which it is habitually associated. It +accepts the miraculous or shrinks from it and throws it off, according +to the leaning of the mind of which it is the more vivid and, so to +speak, passionate expression. And as it may easily exaggerate on one +side, so it may just as easily do the same on the other. Every one is +familiar with that imaginative exaggeration which fills the world with +miracles. But there is another form of imagination, not so distinctly +recognised, which is oppressed by the presence of unchanging succession +and visible uniformity, which cannot shake off the yoke of custom or +allow anything different to seem to it real. The sensitiveness and +impressibility of the imagination are affected, and unhealthily +affected, not merely by strangeness, but by sameness; to one as to the +other it may "passively submit and surrender itself, give way to the +mere form of attraction, and, instead of grasping something else, be +itself grasped and mastered by some dominant idea." And it is then, in +one case as much as in the other, "not a power, but a failing and +weakness of nature." + + The passive imagination, then, in the present case exaggerates a + practical expectation of the uniformity of nature, implanted in us + for practical ends, into a scientific or universal proposition; + and it does this by surrendering itself to the impression produced + by the constant spectacle of the regularity of visible nature. By + such a course a person allows the weight and pressure of this idea + to grow upon him till it reaches the point of actually restricting + his sense of possibility to the mould of physical order.... The + order of nature thus stamps upon some minds the idea of its + immutability simply by its repetition. The imagination we usually + indeed associate with the acceptance of the supernatural rather + than with the denial of it; but the passive imagination is in + truth neutral; it only increases the force and tightens the hold + of any impression upon us, to whatever class the impression may + belong, and surrenders itself to a superstitious or a physical + idea, as it may be. Materialism itself is the result of + imagination, which is so impressed by matter that it cannot + realise the existence of spirit. + +The great opponent, then, of miracles, considered as possible +occurrences, is not reason, but something which on other great subjects +is continually found on the opposite side to reason, resisting and +counteracting it; that powerful overbearing sense of the actual and the +real, which when it is opposed by reason is apt to make reason seem +like the creator of mere ideal theories; which gives to arguments +implying a different condition of things from one which is familiar to +present experience the disadvantage of appearing like artificial and +unsubstantial refinements of thought, such as, to the uncultivated +mind, appear not merely metaphysical discussions, but what are known to +be the most certain reasonings of physical and mathematical science. It +is that measure of the probable, impressed upon us by the spectacle; to +which we are accustomed all our lives long, of things as we find them, +and which repels the possibility of a break or variation; that sense of +probability which the keenest of philosophers declares to be incapable +of rational analysis, and pronounces allied to irrational portions of +our constitution, like custom, and the effect of time, and which is +just as much an enemy to invention, to improvement, to a different +state of things in the future, as it is to the belief and realising of +a different state of things in the past. The antecedent objection to +the miraculous is not reason, but an argument which limits and narrows +the domain of reason; which excludes dry, abstract, passionless +reason--with its appeals to considerations remote from common +experience, its demands for severe reflection, its balancing and long +chains of thought--from pronouncing on what seems to belong to the +flesh and blood realities of life as we know it. Against this +tyrannical influence, which may be in a vulgar and popular as in a +scientific form, which may be the dull result of habit or the more +specious effect of a sensitive and receptive imagination, but which in +all cases is at bottom the same, Mr. Mozley claims to appeal to +reason:-- + + To conclude, then, let us suppose an intelligent Christian of the + present day asked, not what evidence he has of miracles, but how + he can antecedently to all evidence think such amazing occurrences + _possible_, he would reply, "You refer me to a certain sense of + impossibility which you suppose me to possess, applying not to + mathematics but to facts. Now, on this head, I am conscious of a + certain natural resistance in my mind to events unlike the order + of nature. But I resist many things which I know to be certain: + infinity of space, infinity of time, eternity past, eternity + future, the very idea of a God and another world. If I take mere + resistance, therefore, for denial, I am confined in every quarter + of my mind; I cannot carry out the very laws of reason, I am + placed under conditions which are obviously false. I conclude, + therefore, that I may resist and believe at the same time. If + Providence has implanted in me a certain expectation of uniformity + or likeness in nature, there is implied in that very expectations + resistance to an _un_like event, which resistance does not cease + even when upon evidence I _believe_ the event, but goes on as a + mechanical impression, though the reason counterbalances it. + Resistance, therefore, is not disbelief, unless by an act of my + own reason I _give_ it an absolute veto, which I do _not_ do. My + reason is clear upon the point, that there is no disagreement + between itself and a miracle as such." ... Nor is it dealing + artificially with ourselves to exert a force upon our minds + against the false certainty of the resisting imagination--such a + force as is necessary to enable reason to stand its ground, and + bend back again that spring of impression against the miraculous + which has illegally tightened itself into a law to the + understanding. Reason does not always prevail spontaneously and + without effort even in questions of belief; so far from it, that + the question of faith against reason may often be more properly + termed the question of reason against imagination. It does not + seldom require faith to believe reason, isolated as she may be + amid vast irrational influences, the weight of custom, the power + of association, the strength of passion, the _vis inertiae_ of + sense, the mere force of the uniformity of nature as a + spectacle--those influences which make up that power of the world + which Scripture always speaks of as the antagonist of faith. + +The antecedent questions about miracles, before coming to the question +of the actual evidence of any, are questions about which reason--reason +disengaged and disembarrassed from the arbitrary veto of +experience--has a right to give its verdict. Miracles presuppose the +existence of God, and it is from reason alone that we get the idea of +God; and the antecedent question then is, whether they are really +compatible with the idea of God which reason gives us. Mr. Mozley +remarks that the question of miracles is really "shut up in the +enclosure of one assumption, that of the existence of God"; and that if +we believe in a personal Deity with all power over nature, that belief +brings along with it the possibility of His interrupting natural order +for His own purposes. He also bids us observe that the idea of God +which reason gives us is exposed to resistance of the same kind, and +from precisely the same forces, in our mental constitution, as the idea +of miracles. When reason has finished its overwhelming proof, still +there is a step to be taken before the mind embraces the equally +overwhelming conclusion--a step which calls for a distinct effort, +which obliges the mind, satisfied as it may be, to beat back the +counteracting pressure of what is visible and customary. After +reason--not opposed to it or independent of it, but growing out of it, +yet a distinct and further movement--comes faith. This is the case, not +specially in religion, but in all subjects, where the conclusions of +reason cannot be subjected to immediate verification. How often, as he +observes, do we see persons "who, when they are in possession of the +best arguments, and what is more, understand those arguments, are still +shaken by almost any opposition, because they want the faculty to +_trust_ an argument when they have got one." + + Not, however, that the existence of a God is so clearly seen by + reason as to dispense with faith; not from any want of cogency in + the reasons, but from the amazing nature of the conclusion--that + it is so unparalleled, transcendent, and inconceivable a truth to + believe. It requires trust to commit oneself to the conclusion of + any reasoning, however strong, when such as this is the + conclusion: to put enough dependence and reliance upon any + premisses, to accept upon the strength of them so immense a + result. The issue of the argument is so astonishing that if we do + not tremble for its safety, it must be on account of a practical + principle in our minds which enables us to _confide_ and trust in + reasons, when they are really strong and good ones.... Faith, when + for convenience' sake we do distinguish it from reason, is not + distinguished from reason by the want of premisses, but by the + nature of the conclusions. Are our conclusions of the customary + type? Then custom imparts the full sense of security. Are they not + of the customary, but of a strange and unknown type? Then the + mechanical sense of security is wanting, and a certain trust is + required for reposing in them, which we call faith. But that which + draws these conclusions is in either case reason. We infer, we go + upon reasons, we use premisses in either case. The premisses of + faith are not so palpable as those of ordinary reason, but they + are as real and solid premisses all the same. Our faith in the + existence of a God and a future state is founded upon reasons as + much so as the belief in the commonest kind of facts. The reasons + are in themselves as strong, but, because the conclusions are + marvellous and are not seconded and backed by known parallels or + by experience, we do not so passively acquiesce in them; there is + an exertion of confidence in depending upon them and assuring + ourselves of their force. The inward energy of the reason has to + be evoked, when she can no longer lean upon the outward prop of + custom, but is thrown back upon herself and the intrinsic force of + her premisses. Which reason, not leaning upon custom, is faith; + she obtains the latter name when she depends entirely upon her own + insight into certain grounds, premisses, and evidences, and + follows it though it leads to transcendent, unparalleled, and + supernatural conclusions.... + + Indeed, does not our heart bear witness to the fact that to + believe in a God is an exercise of faith? That the universe was + produced by the will of a personal Being, that its infinite forces + are all the power of that one Being, its infinite relations the + perceptions of one Mind--would not this, if any truth could, + demand the application of the maxim, _Credo quia impossibile_? + Look at it only as a conception, and does the wildest fiction of + the imagination equal it? No premisses, no arguments therefore, + can so accommodate this truth to us as not to leave the belief in + it an act of mental ascent and trust, of faith as distinguished + from sight. _Divest_ reason of its trust, and the universe stops + at the impersonal stage--there is no God; and yet, if the first + step in religion is the greatest, how is it that the freest and + boldest speculator rarely declines it? How is it that the most + mysterious of all truths is a universally accepted one? What is it + which guards this truth? What is it which makes men shrink from + denying it? Why is atheism a crime? Is it that authority still + reigns upon one question, and that the voice of all ages is too + potent to be withstood? + +But the progress of civilisation and thought has impressed this amazing +idea on the general mind. It is no matter-of-course conception. The +difficulties attending it were long insuperable to the deepest thought +as well as to popular belief; and the triumph of the modern and +Christian idea of God is the result not merely of the eager forwardness +of faith, but of the patient and inquiring waiting of reason. And the +question, whether we shall pronounce the miraculous to be impossible as +such, is really the question whether we shall once more let this belief +go. + + The conception of a limited Deity then, i.e. a Being really + circumscribed in power, and not verbally only by a confinement to + necessary truth, is at variance with our fundamental idea of a + God; to depart from which is to retrograde from modern thought to + ancient, and to go from Christianity back again to Paganism. The + God of ancient religion was either not a personal Being or not an + omnipotent Being; the God of modern religion is both. For, indeed, + civilisation is not opposed to faith. The idea of the Supreme + Being in the mind of European society now is more primitive, more + childlike, more imaginative than the idea of the ancient Brahman + or Alexandrian philosopher; it is an idea which both of these + would have derided as the notion of a child--a _negotiosus Deus_, + who interposes in human affairs and answers prayers. So far from + the philosophical conception of the Deity having advanced with + civilisation, and the poetical receded, the philosophical has + receded and the poetical advanced. The God of whom it is said, + "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them + is forgotten before God; but even the very hairs of your head are + numbered," is the object of modern worship. Nor, again, has + civilisation shown any signs of rejecting doctrine. Certain ages + are, indeed, called the ages of faith; but the bulk of society in + _this_ age believes that it lives under a supernatural + dispensation, and accepts truths which are not less supernatural, + though they have more proof, than some doctrines of the Middle + Ages; and, if so, _this_ is an age of faith. It is true that most + people do not live up to their faith now; neither did they in the + Middle Ages. + + Has not modern philosophy, again, shown both more strength and + acuteness, and also more faith, than the ancient? I speak of the + main current. Those ancient thinkers who reduced the Supreme Being + to a negation, with all their subtlety, wanted strength, and + settled questions by an easier test than that of modern + philosophy. The merit of a modern metaphysician is, like that of a + good chemist or naturalist, accurate observation in noting the + facts of mind. Is there a contradiction in the idea of creation? + Is there a contradiction in the idea of a personal Infinite Being? + He examines his own mind, and if he does not see one, he passes + the idea. But the ancient speculators decided, without examination + of the true facts of mind, by a kind of philosophical fancy; and, + according to this loose criterion, the creation of matter and a + personal Infinite Being were impossibilities, for they mistook the + inconceivable for the impossible. And thus a stringent test has + admitted what a loose but capricious test discarded, and the true + notion of God has issued safe out of the crucible of modern + metaphysics. Reason has shown its strength, but then it has turned + that strength back upon itself; it has become its own critic; and + in becoming its own critic it has become its own check. + + If the belief, then, in a personal Deity lies at the bottom of all + religious and virtuous practice, and if the removal of it would be + a descent for human nature, the withdrawal of its inspiration and + support, and a fall in its whole standard; the failure of the very + breath of moral life in the individual and in society; the decay + and degeneration of the very stock of mankind;--does a theory + which would withdraw miraculous action from the Deity interfere + with that belief? If it would, it is but prudent to count the cost + of that interference. Would a Deity deprived of miraculous action + possess action at all? And would a God who cannot act be a God? If + this would be the issue, such an issue is the very last which + religious men can desire. The question here has been all + throughout, not whether upon any ground, but whether upon a + religious ground and by religious believers, the miraculous as + such could be rejected. But to that there is but one answer--that + it is impossible in reason to separate religion from the + supernatural, and upon a religious basis to overthrow miracles.... + + And so we arrive again by another route at the old turning + question; for the question whether man is or is not the _vertex_ + of nature, is the question whether there is or is not a God. Does + free agency stop at the human stage, or is there a sphere of + free-will above the human, in which, as in the human, not physical + law but spirit moves matter? And does that free-will penetrate the + universal frame invisibly to us, an omnipresent agent? If so, + every miracle in Scripture is as natural an event in the universe + as any chemical experiment in the physical world; if not, the seat + of the great Presiding Will is empty, and nature has no Personal + Head; man is her highest point; he finishes her ascent; though by + this very supremacy he falls, for under fate he is not free + himself; all nature either ascends to God, or descends to law. Is + there above the level of material causes a region of Providence? + If there is, nature there is moved by the Supreme Free Agent; and + of such a realm a miracle is the natural production. + + Two rationales of miracles thus present themselves to our choice; + one more accommodating to the physical imagination and easy to + fall in with, on a level with custom, common conceptions, and + ordinary history, and requiring no ascent of the mind to embrace, + viz. the solution of miracles as the growth of fancy and legend; + the other requiring an ascent of the reason to embrace it, viz. + the rationale of the supremacy of a Personal Will in nature. The + one is the explanation to which we fall when we dare not trust our + reason, but mistake its inconceivable truths for sublime but + unsubstantial visions; the other is that to which we rise when we + dare trust our reason, and the evidences which it lays before us + of the existence of a Personal Supreme Being. + +The belief in a personal God thus bringing with it the possibility of +miracles, what reason then has to judge is whether it can accept +miracles as such, or any set of miracles, as worthy of a reasonable +conception of the Divine Nature, and whether it can be fairly said that +such miracles have answered a purpose which approves itself to our +reason. Testimony will always speak at a disadvantage till we are +assured on these points. Into the subject of testimony Mr. Mozley +enters only in a general way, though his remarks on the relation of +testimony to facts of so exceptional a nature as miracles, and also on +the distinct peculiarities of Christian evidence as contrasted with the +evidence of all other classes of alleged miracles, are marked by a +characteristic combination of acuteness, precision, and broad practical +sobriety and moderation. He rebukes with quiet and temperate and yet +resolute plainness of statement the misplaced ingenuity which, on +different sides, to serve very different causes, has tried to confuse +and perplex the claims of the great Christian miracles by comparisons +which it is really mere wantonness to make with later ones; for, be +they what they may, it is certain that the Gospel miracles, in nature, +in evidence, and in purpose and result, are absolutely unique in the +world, and have nothing like them. And though the book mainly confines +itself to its proper subject, the antecedent question of credibility, +some of the most striking remarks in it relate to the way in which the +purpose of miracles is visible in those of Christianity, and has been +served by them. A miracle is an instrument--an instrument without which +revelation is impossible; and Mr. Mozley meets Spinoza's objection to +the unmeaning isolation of a miracle by insisting on the distinction, +which Spinoza failed to see, between a miracle simply as a wonder for +its own sake, and as a means, deriving its use and its value simply +from the end which it was to serve. He observes that all the stupendous +"marvels of nature do not speak to us in that way in which one miracle +does, because they do not tell us that we are not like themselves"; and +he remarks on the "perverse determination of Spinoza to look at +miracles in that aspect which does not belong to them, and not to look +at them in that aspect which does." + + He compares miracles with nature, and then says how wise is the + order of nature, how meaningless the violation of it; how + expressive of the Almighty Mind the one, what a concealment of it + the other! But no one pretends to say that a miracle competes with + nature, in physical purpose and effectiveness. That is not its + object. But a miracle, though it does not profess to compete with + nature upon its rival's own ground, has a ghostly force and import + which nature has not. If real, it is a token, more pointed and + direct than physical order can be, of another world, and of Moral + Being and Will in that world. + +Thus, regarding miracles as means to fulfil a purpose, Mr. Mozley shows +what has come of them. His lecture on "Miracles regarded in their +Practical Result" is excelled by some of the others as examples of +subtle and searching thought and well-balanced and compact argument; +but it is a fine example of the way in which a familiar view can have +fresh colour and force thrown into it by the way in which it is +treated. He shows that it is impossible in fact to separate from the +miracles in which it professed to begin, the greatest and deepest moral +change which the world has ever known. This change was made not by +miracles but by certain doctrines. The Epistle to the Romans surveyed +the moral failure of the world; St. Paul looked on the chasm between +knowledge and action, the "unbridged gulf, this incredible inability of +man to do what was right, with profound wonder"; but in the face of +this hopeless spectacle he dared to prophesy the moral elevation which +we have witnessed, and the power to which he looked to bring it about +was the Christian doctrines. St. Paul "takes what may be called the +high view of human nature--i.e. what human nature is capable of when +the proper motive and impulse is applied to it." He sees in Christian +doctrine that strong force which is to break down "the _vis inertiae_ +of man, to set human nature going, to touch the spring of man's heart"; +and he compares with St. Paul's doctrines and hopefulness the doctrinal +barrenness, the despair of Mohammedanism:-- + + If one had to express in a short compass the character of its + remarkable founder as a teacher, it would be that that great man + had no faith in human nature. There were two things which he + thought man could do and would do for the glory of God--transact + religious forms, and fight; and upon those two points he was + severe; but within the sphere of common practical life, where + man's great trial lies, his code exhibits the disdainful laxity of + a legislator who accommodates his rule to the recipient, and shows + his estimate of the recipient by the accommodation which he + adopts. Did we search history for a contrast, we could hardly + discover a deeper one than that between St. Paul's overflowing + standard of the capabilities of human nature and the oracular + cynicism of the great false Prophet. The writer of the Koran does, + indeed, if any discerner of hearts ever did, take the measure of + mankind; and his measure is the same that Satire has taken, only + expressed with the majestic brevity of one who had once lived in + the realm of Silence. "Man is weak," says Mahomet. And upon that + maxim he legislates.... The keenness of Mahomet's insight into + human nature, a wide knowledge of its temptations, persuasives, + influences under which it acts, a vast immense capacity of + forbearance for it, half grave half genial, half sympathy half + scorn, issue in a somewhat Horatian model, the character of the + man of experience who despairs of any change in man, and lays down + the maxim that we must take him as we find him. It was indeed his + supremacy in both faculties, the largeness of the passive nature + and the splendour of action, that constituted the secret of his + success. The breadth and flexibility of mind that could negotiate + with every motive of interest, passion, and pride in man is + surprising; there is boundless sagacity; what is wanting is hope, + a belief in the capabilities of human nature. There is no upward + flight in the teacher's idea of man. Instead of which, the notion + of the power of earth, and the impossibility of resisting it, + depresses his whole aim, and the shadow of the tomb falls upon the + work of the great false Prophet. + + The idea of God is akin to the idea of man. "He knows us," says + Mahomet. God's _knowledge_, the vast _experience_, so to speak, of + the Divine Being, His infinite acquaintance with man's frailties + and temptations, is appealed to as the ground of confidence. "He + is the Wise, the Knowing One," "He is the Knowing, the Wise," "He + is easy to be reconciled." Thus is raised a notion of the Supreme + Being, which is rather an extension of the character of the + large-minded and sagacious man of the world than an extension of + man's virtue and holiness. He forgives because He knows too much + to be rigid, because sin universal ceases to be sin, and must be + given way to. Take a man who has had large opportunity of studying + mankind, and has come into contact with every form of human + weakness and corruption; such a man is indulgent as a simple + consequence of his knowledge, because nothing surprises him. So + the God of Mahomet forgives by reason of His vast knowledge. + +In contrast with the fruit of this he observes that "the prophecy in +the Epistle to the Romans has been fulfilled, and that doctrine has +been historically at the bottom of a great change of moral practice in +mankind." The key has been found to set man's moral nature in action, +to check and reverse that course of universal failure manifest before; +and this key is Christian doctrine. "A stimulus has been given to human +nature which has extracted an amount of action from it which no Greek +or Roman could have believed possible." It is inconceivable that but +for such doctrine such results as have been seen in Christendon would +have followed; and were it now taken away we cannot see anything else +that would have the faintest expectation of taking its place. "Could we +commit mankind to a moral Deism without trembling for the result?" Can +the enthusiasm for the divinity of human nature stand the test of +clear, unsparing observation? Would it not issue in such an estimate of +human nature as Mahomet took? "A deification of humanity upon its own +grounds, an exaltation which is all height and no depth, wants power +because it wants truth. It is not founded upon the facts of human +nature, and therefore issues in vain and vapid aspiration, and injures +the solidity of man's character." As he says, "The Gospel doctrine of +the Incarnation and its effects alone unites the sagacious view of +human nature with the enthusiastic." And now what is the historical +root and basis from which this one great moral revolution in the +world's history, so successful, so fruitful, so inexhaustible, has +started? + + But if, as the source and inspiration of practice, doctrine has + been the foundation of a new state of the world, and of that + change which distinguishes the world under Christianity from the + world before it, miracles, as the proof of that doctrine, stand + before us in a very remarkable and peculiar light. Far from being + mere idle feats of power to gratify the love of the marvellous; + far even from being mere particular and occasional rescues from + the operation of general laws,--they come before us as means for + accomplishing the largest and most important practical object that + has ever been accomplished in the history of mankind. They lie at + the bottom of the difference of the modern from the ancient world; + so far, i.e., as that difference is moral. We see as a fact a + change in the moral condition of mankind, which marks ancient and + modern society as two different states of mankind. What has + produced this change, and elicited this new power of action? + Doctrine. And what was the proof of that doctrine, or essential to + the proof of it? Miracles. The greatness of the result thus throws + light upon the propriety of the means, and shows the fitting + object which was presented for the introduction of such means--the + fitting occasion which had arisen for the use of them; for, + indeed, no more weighty, grand, or solemn occasion can be + conceived than the foundation of such a new order of things in the + world. Extraordinary action of Divine power for such an end has + the benefit of a justifying object of incalculable weight; which + though not of itself, indeed, proof of the fact, comes with + striking force upon the mind in connection with the proper proof. + It is reasonable, it is inevitable, that we should be impressed by + such a result; for it shows that the miraculous system has been a + practical one; that it has been a step in the ladder of man's + ascent, the means of introducing those powerful truths which have + set his moral nature in action. + +Of this work, remarkable in so many ways, we will add but one thing +more. It is marked throughout with the most serious and earnest +conviction, but it is without a single word, from first to last, of +asperity or insinuation against opponents; and this, not from any +deficiency of feeling as to the importance of the issue, but from a +deliberate and resolutely maintained self-control, and from an +overruling ever-present sense of the duty, on themes like these, of a +more than judicial calmness. + + + + +IX + +ECCE HOMO[11] + + + [11] + _Ecce Homo: A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Guardian_, + 7th February 1866. + +This is a dangerous book to review. The critic of it, if he is prudent, +will feel that it is more than most books a touchstone of his own +capacity, and that in giving his judgment upon it he cannot help giving +his own measure and betraying what he is himself worth. All the +unconscious guiding which a name, even if hitherto unknown, gives to +opinion is wanting. The first aspect of the book is perplexing; closer +examination does not clear up all the questions which present +themselves; and many people, after they have read it through, will not +feel quite certain what it means. Much of what is on the surface and +much of what is inherent in the nature of the work will jar painfully +on many minds; while others who begin to read it under one set of +impressions may by the time they have got to the end complain of having +been taken in. There can be no doubt on which side the book is; but it +may be open to debate from which side it has come. The unknown champion +who comes into the lists with barred vizor and no cognisance on his +shield leaves it not long uncertain for which of the contending parties +he appears; but his weapons and his manner of fighting are not the +ordinary ones of the side which he takes; and there is a force in his +arm, and a sweep in his stroke, which is not that of common men. The +book is one which it is easy to take exception to, and perhaps still +easier to praise at random; but the subject is put before us in so +unusual a way, and one so removed from the ordinary grooves of thought, +that in trying to form an adequate estimate of the work as a whole, a +man feels as he does when he is in the presence of something utterly +unfamiliar and unique, when common rules and inferences fail him, and +in pronouncing upon which he must make something of a venture. + +In making our own venture we will begin with what seems to us +incontestable. In the first place, but that it has been questioned, we +should say that there could be no question of the surpassing ability +which the book displays. It is far beyond the power of the average +clever and practised writer of our days. It is the work of a man in +whom thought, sympathy, and imagination are equally powerful and +wealthy, and who exercises a perfect and easy command over his own +conceptions, and over the apt and vivid language which is their +expression. Few men have entered so deeply into the ideas and feelings +of the time, or have looked at the world, its history and its +conditions, with so large and piercing an insight. But it is idle to +dwell on what must strike, at first sight, any one who but opens the +book. We go on to observe, what is equally beyond dispute, the deep +tone of religious seriousness which pervades the work. The writer's way +of speaking is very different from that of the ascetic or the devotee; +but no ascetic or devotee could be more profoundly penetrated with the +great contrast between holiness and evil, and show more clearly in his +whole manner of thinking the ineffaceable impression of the powers of +the world to come. Whatever else the book may be, this much is plain on +the face of it--it is the work of a mind of extreme originality, depth, +refinement, and power; and it is also the work of a very religious man: +Thomas a Kempis had not a more solemn sense of things unseen and of +what is meant by the Imitation of Christ. + +What the writer wishes his book to be understood to be we must gather +from his Preface:-- + + Those who feel dissatisfied with the current conceptions of + Christ, if they cannot rest content without a definite opinion, + may find it necessary to do what to persons not so dissatisfied it + seems audacious and perilous to do. They may be obliged to + reconsider the whole subject from the beginning, and placing + themselves in imagination at the time when he whom we call Christ + bore no such name, but was simply, as St. Luke describes him, a + young man of promise, popular with those who knew him, and + appearing to enjoy the Divine favour, to trace his biography from + point to point, and accept those conclusions about him, not which + church doctors or even apostles have sealed with their authority, + but which the facts themselves, critically weighed, appear to + warrant. + + This is what the present writer undertook to do for the + satisfaction of his own mind, and because, after reading a good + many books on Christ, he felt still constrained to confess that + there was no historical character whose motives, objects, and + feelings remained so incomprehensible to him. The inquiry which + proved serviceable to himself may chance to be useful to others. + + What is now published is a fragment. No theological questions + whatever are here discussed. Christ, as the creator of modern + theology and religion, will make the subject of another volume, + which, however, the author does not hope to publish for some time + to come. In the meanwhile he has endeavoured to furnish an answer + to the question, What was Christ's object in founding the Society + which is called by his name, and how is it adapted to attain that + object? + +Thus the book comes before us as a serious facing of difficulties. And +that the writer lays stress on its being so viewed appears further from +a letter which he wrote to the _Spectator_, repeating emphatically that +the book is not one "written after the investigation was completed, but +the _investigation_ itself." The letter may be taken to complete the +statement of the Preface:-- + + I endeavoured in my Preface to describe the state of mind in which + I undertook my book. I said that the character and objects of + Christ were at that time altogether incomprehensible to me, and + that I wished to try whether an independent investigation would + relieve my perplexity. Perhaps I did not distinctly enough state + that _Ecce Homo_ is not a book written after the investigation was + completed, but the _investigation_ itself. + + The Life of Christ is partly easy to understand and partly + difficult. This being so, what would a man do who wished to study + it methodically? Naturally he would take the easy part first. He + would collect, arrange, and carefully consider all the facts which + are simple, and until he has done this, he would carefully avoid + all those parts of his subject which are obscure, and which cannot + be explained without making bold hypotheses. By this course he + would limit the problem, and in the meanwhile arrive at a probable + opinion concerning the veracity of the documents, and concerning + the characteristics, both intellectual and moral, of the person + whose high pretensions he wished to investigate. + + This is what I have done. I have postponed altogether the hardest + questions connected with Christ, as questions which cannot + properly be discussed until a considerable quantity of evidence + has been gathered about his character and views. If this evidence, + when collected, had appeared to be altogether conflicting and + inconsistent, I should have been saved the trouble of proceeding + any further; I should have said that Christ is a myth. If it had + been consistent, and had disclosed to me a person of mean and + ambitious aims, I should have said, Christ is a deceiver. Again, + if it had exhibited a person of weak understanding and strong + impulsive sensibility, I should have said Christ is a bewildered + enthusiast. + + In all these cases you perceive my method would have saved me a + good deal of trouble. As it is, I certainly feel bound to go on, + though, as I say in my Preface, my progress will necessarily be + slow. But I am much engaged and have little time for theological + study. But pray do not suppose that postponing questions is only + another name for evading them. I think I have gained much by this + postponement. I have now a very definite notion of Christ's + character and that of his followers. I shall be able to judge how + far he was likely to deceive himself or them. It is possible I may + have put others, who can command more time than I, in a condition + to take up the subject where for the present I leave it. + + You say my picture suffers by my method. But _Ecce Homo_ is not a + picture: it is the very opposite of a picture; it is an analysis. + It may be, you will answer, that the title suggests a picture. + This may perhaps be true, and if so, it is no doubt a fault, but a + fault in the title, not in the book. For titles are put to books, + not books to titles. + +Thus it appears that the writer found it his duty to investigate those +awful questions which every thinking man feels to be full of the +"incomprehensible" and unfathomable, but which many thinking men, for +various reasons both good and bad, shrink from attempting to +investigate, accepting on practical and very sufficient grounds the +religious conclusions which are recommended and sanctioned by the +agreement of Christendom. And finding it his duty to investigate them +at all, he saw that he was bound to investigate in earnest. But under +what circumstances this happened, from what particular pressure of +need, and after what previous belief or state of opinion, we are not +told. Whether from being originally on the doubting side--on the +irreligious side we cannot suppose he ever could have been--he has +risen through his investigation into belief; or whether, originally on +the believing side, he found the aspect so formidable, to himself or to +the world, of the difficulties and perplexities which beset belief, +that he turned to bay upon the foes that dogged him--must be left to +conjecture. It is impossible to question that he has been deeply +impressed with the difficulties of believing; it is impossible to +question that doubt has been overborne and trampled under foot. But +here we have the record, it would not be accurate to say of the +struggle, but of that resolute and unflinching contemplation of the +realities of the case which decided it. Such plunging into such a +question must seem, as he says, to those who do not need it, "audacious +and perilous"; for if you plunge into a question in earnest, and do not +under a thin disguise take a side, you must, whatever your bias and +expectation, take your chance of the alternative answers which may come +out. It is a simple fact that there are many people who feel +"dissatisfied with the current conceptions" of our Lord--whether +reasonably and justly dissatisfied is another question; but whatever we +think of it they remain dissatisfied. In such emergencies it is +conceivable that a man who believes, yet keenly realises and feels what +disturbs or destroys the belief of others, should dare to put himself +in their place; should enter the hospital and suffer the disease which +makes such ravages; should descend into the shades and face the +spectres. No one can deny the risk of dwelling on such thoughts as he +must dwell on; but if he feels warmly with his kind, he may think it +even a duty to face the risk. To any one accustomed to live on his +belief it cannot but be a hard necessity, full of pain and difficulty, +first to think and then to speak of what he believes, as if it _might +not_ be, or _could be_ otherwise; but the changes of time bring up ever +new hard necessities; and one thing is plain, that if ever such an +investigation is undertaken, it ought to be a real one, in good earnest +and not in play. If a man investigates at all, both for his own sake +and for the sake of the effect of his investigation on others, he must +accept the fair conditions of investigation. We may not ourselves be +able to conceive the possibility of taking, even provisionally, a +neutral position; but looking at what is going on all round us, we +ought to be able to enlarge our thoughts sufficiently to take in the +idea that a believing mind may feel it a duty to surrender itself +boldly to the intellectual chances and issues of the inquiry, and to +"let its thoughts take their course in the confidence that they will +come home at last." It may be we ourselves who "have not faith enough +to be patient of doubt"; there may be others who feel that if what they +believe is real, they need not be afraid of the severest revisal and +testing of the convictions on which they rest; who feel that, in the +circumstances of the time, it is not left to their choice whether these +convictions shall be sifted unsparingly and to the uttermost; and who +think it a venture not unworthy of a Christian, to descend even to the +depths to go through the thoughts of doubters, if so be that he may +find the spell that shall calm them. We do not say that this book is +the production of such a state of mind; we only think that it may be. +One thing is clear, wherever the writer's present lot is cast, he has +that in him which not only enables him, but forces him, to sympathise +with what he sees in the opposite camp. If he is what is called a +Liberal, his whole heart is yet pouring itself forth towards the great +truths of Christianity. If he is what is called orthodox, his whole +intellect is alive to the right and duty of freedom of thought. He will +therefore attract and repel on both sides. And he appears to feel that +the position of double sympathy gives him a special advantage, to +attract to each side what is true in its opposite, and to correct in +each what is false or inadequate. + +What, then, is this investigation, and what course does it follow? At +the first aspect, we might take it for one of those numerous attempts +on the Liberal side, partly impatient, partly careless of Christianity, +to put a fresh look on the Christian history, and to see it with new +eyes. The writer's language is at starting neutral; he speaks of our +Lord in the language indeed of the New Testament, but not in the usual +language of later Christian writers. All through, the colour and tone +is absolutely modern; and what would naturally be expressed in familiar +theological terms is for the most part studiously put in other words. +Persons acquainted with the writings of the late Mr. Robertson might be +often reminded of his favourite modes of teaching; of his maxim that +truth is made up of two opposites which seem contradictories; of the +distinction which he was so fond of insisting upon between principles +and rules; above all, of his doctrine that the true way to rise to the +faith in our Lord's Divine Nature was by first realising His Human +Life. But the resemblance is partial, if not superficial, and gives way +on closer examination before broad and characteristic features of an +entirely different significance. That one which at first arrests +attention, and distinguishes this writer's line of thought from the +common Liberal way of dealing with the subject, is that from the first +page of the book to its last line the work of Christ is viewed, not +simply as the foundation of a religious system, the introduction of +certain great principles, the elevation of religious ideas, the +delivery of Divine truths, the exhibition of a life and example, but as +the call and creation of a definite, concrete, organised society of +men. The subject, of investigation is not merely the character and +history of the Person, but the Person as connected with His work. +Christ is regarded not simply in Himself or in His teaching, as the +Founder of a philosophy, a morality, a theology in the abstract, but as +the Author of a Divine Society, the Body which is called by His Name, +the Christian Church Universal, a real and visible company of men, +which, however we may understand it, exists at this moment as it has +existed since His time, marked by His badges, governed by His laws, and +working out His purpose. The writer finds the two joined in fact, and +he finds them also joined in the recorded history of Christ's plan. The +book might almost be described as the beginning of a new _De Civitate +Dei_, written with the further experience of fourteen centuries and +from the point of view of our own generation. This is one remarkable +peculiarity of this investigation; another is the prominence given to +the severe side of the Person and character of whom he writes, and what +is even more observable, the way in which both the severity and the +gentleness are apprehended and harmonised. + +We are familiar with the attempts to resolve the Christianity of the +New Testament into philanthropy; and, on the other hand, writers like +Mr. Carlyle will not let us forget that the world is as dark and evil +as the Bible draws it. This writer feels both in one. No one can show +more sympathy with enlarged and varied ideas of human happiness, no one +has connected them more fearlessly with Christian principles, or +claimed from those principles more unlimited developments, even for the +physical well-being of men. No one has extended wider the limits of +Christian generosity, forbearance, and tolerance. But, on the other +hand, what is striking is, that all this is compatible, and is made to +appear so, with the most profound and terrible sense of evil, with +indignation and scorn which is scathing where it kindles and strikes, +with a capacity and energy of deliberate religious hatred against what +is impure and false and ungodly, which mark one who has dared to +realise and to sympathise with the wrath of Jesus Christ. + +The world has been called in these later days, and from opposite +directions, to revise its judgments about Jesus Christ. Christians, on +the one hand, have been called to do it by writers of whom M. Ernest +Renan is the most remarkable and the most unflinching. But the +sceptical and the unbelieving have likewise been obliged to change +their ground and their tone, and no one with any self-respect or care +for his credit even as a thinker and a man would like to repeat the +superficial and shallow flippancy and irreligion of the last century. +Two things have been specially insisted on. We have been told that if +we are to see the truth of things as it is, we must disengage our minds +from the deeply rooted associations and conceptions of a later +theology, and try to form our impressions first-hand and unprompted +from the earliest documents which we can reach. It has been further +urged on us, in a more believing spirit, that we should follow the +order by which in fact truth was unfolded, and rise from the full +appreciation of our Lord's human nature to the acknowledgment of His +Divine nature. It seems to us that the writer of this book has felt the +force of both these appeals, and that his book is his answer to them. +Here is the way in which he responds to both--to the latter indirectly, +but with a significance which no one can mistake; to the former +directly and avowedly. He undertakes, isolating himself from current +beliefs, and restricting himself to the documents from which, if from +any source at all, the original facts about Christ are to be learned, +to examine what the genuine impression is which an attempt to realise +the statements about him leaves on the mind. This has been done by +others, with results supposed to be unfavourable to Christianity. He +has been plainly moved by these results, though not a hint is given of +the existence of Renan or Strauss. But the effect on his own mind has +been to drive him back on a closer survey of the history in its first +fountains, and to bring him from it filled more than ever with wonder +at its astonishing phenomena, to protest against the poverty and +shallowness of the most ambitious and confident of these attempts. They +leave the historical Character which they pourtray still unsounded, its +motives, objects, and feelings absolutely incomprehensible. He accepts +the method to reverse the product. "Look at Christ historically," +people say; "see Him as He really was." The answer here is, "Well, I +will look at Him with whatever aid a trained historical imagination can +look at Him. I accept your challenge; I admit your difficulties. I will +dare to do what you do. I will try and look at the very facts +themselves, with singleness and 'innocence of the eye,' trying to see +nothing more than I really see, and trying to see all that my eye falls +on. I will try to realise indeed what is recorded of Him. And _this_ is +what I see. This is the irresistible impression from the plainest and +most elementary part of the history, if we are to accept any history at +all. A miracle could not be more unlike the order of our experience +than the Character set before us is unique and unapproachable in all +known history. Further, all that makes the superiority of the modern +world to the ancient, and is most permanent and pregnant with +improvement in it, may be traced to the appearance of that Character, +and to the work which He planned and did. You ask for a true picture of +Him, drawn with freedom, drawn with courage; here, if you dare look at +it, is what those who wrote of Him showed Him to be. Renan has tried to +draw this picture. Take the Gospels as they stand; treat them simply as +biographies; look, and see, and think of what they tell, and then ask +yourself about Renan's picture, and what it looks like when placed side +by side with the truth." + +This, as we have ventured to express it in our own words, seems to be +the writer's position. It is at any rate the effect of his book, to our +minds. The inquiry, it must always be remembered, is a preliminary one, +dealing, as he says, with the easiest and obvious elements of the +problem; and much that seems inadequate and unsatisfactory may be +developed hereafter. He starts from what, to those who already have the +full belief, must appear a low level. He takes, as it will be seen, the +documents as they stand. He takes little more than the first three +Gospels, and these as a whole, without asking minute questions about +them. The mythical theory he dismisses as false to nature, in dealing +with such a Character and such results. He talks in his preface of +"critically weighing" the facts; but the expression is misleading. It +is true that we may talk of criticism of character; but the words +naturally suggest that close cross-questioning of documents and details +which has produced such remarkable results in modern investigations; +and of this there is none. It is a work in no sense of criticism; it is +a work of what he calls the "trained historical imagination"; a work of +broad and deep knowledge of human nature and the world it works in and +creates about it; a work of steady and large insight into character, +and practical judgment on moral likelihoods. He answers Strauss as he +answers Renan, by producing the interpretation of a character, so +living, so in accordance with all before and after, that it overpowers +and sweeps away objections; a picture, an analysis or outline, if he +pleases, which justifies itself and is its own evidence, by its +originality and internal consistency. Criticism in detail does not +affect him. He assumes nothing of the Gospels, except that they are +records; neither their inspiration in any theological sense, nor their +authorship, nor their immunity from mistake, nor the absolute purity of +their texts. But taking them as a whole he discerns in them a Character +which, if you accept them at all and on any terms, you cannot mistake. +Even if the copy is ever so imperfect, ever so unskilful, ever so +blurred and defaced, there is no missing the features any more than a +man need miss the principle of a pattern because it is rudely or +confusedly traced. He looks at these "biographies" as a geologist might +do at a disturbed series of strata; and he feeds his eye upon them till +he gets such a view of the coherent whole as will stand independent of +the right or wrong disposition of the particular fragments. To the mind +which discerns the whole, the regulating principle, the general curves +and proportions of the strata may be just as visible after the +disturbance as before it. The Gospels bring before us the visible and +distinct outlines of a life which, after all efforts to alter the idea +of it, remains still the same; they present certain clusters of leading +ideas and facts so embedded in their substance that no criticism of +detail can possibly get rid of them, without absolutely obliterating +the whole record. It is this leading idea, or cluster of ideas, to be +gained by intent gazing, which the writer disengages from all questions +of criticism in the narrow sense of the word, and sets before us as +explaining the history of Christianity, and as proving themselves by +that explanation. That the world has been moved we know. "Give me," he +seems to say, "the Character which is set forth in the Gospels, and I +can show how He moved it":-- + + It is in the object of the present treatise to exhibit Christ's + career in outline. No other career ever had so much unity; no + other biography is so simple or can so well afford to dispense + with details. Men in general take up scheme after scheme, as + circumstances suggest one or another, and therefore most + biographies are compelled to pass from one subject to another, and + to enter into a multitude of minute questions, to divide the life + carefully into periods by chronological landmarks accurately + determined, to trace the gradual development of character and + ripening or change of opinions. But Christ formed one plan and + executed it; no important change took place in his mode of + thinking, speaking, or acting; at least the evidence before us + does not enable us to trace any such change. It is possible, + indeed, for students of his life to find details which they may + occupy themselves with discussing; they may map out the chronology + of it, and devise methods of harmonising the different accounts; + but such details are of little importance compared with the one + grand question, what was Christ's plan, and throw scarcely any + light upon that question. What was Christ's plan is the main + question which will be investigated in the present treatise, and + that vision of universal monarchy which we have just been + considering affords an appropriate introduction to it.... + + We conclude then, that Christ in describing himself as a king, and + at the same time as king of the Kingdom of God--in other words as + a king representing the Majesty of the Invisible King of a + theocracy--claimed the character first of Founder, next of + Legislator; thirdly, in a certain high and peculiar sense, of + Judge, of a new divine society. + + In defining as above the position which Christ assumed, we have + not entered into controvertible matter. We have not rested upon + single passages, nor drawn upon the fourth Gospel. To deny that + Christ did undertake to found and to legislate for a new + theocratic society, and that he did claim the office of Judge of + mankind, is indeed possible, but only to those who altogether deny + the credibility of the extant biographies of Christ. If those + biographies be admitted to be generally trustworthy, then Christ + undertook to be what we have described; if not, then of course + this, but also every other account of him falls to the ground. + +We have said that he starts from a low level; and he restricts himself +so entirely at the opening to facts which do not involve dispute, that +his views of them are necessarily incomplete, and, so to say, +provisional and deliberate understatements. He begins no higher than +the beginning of the public ministry, the Baptism, and the Temptation; +and his account of these leaves much to say, though it suggests much of +what is left unsaid. But he soon gets to the proper subject of his +book--the absolute uniqueness of Him whose equally unique work has been +the Christian Church. And this uniqueness he finds in the combination +of "unbounded personal pretensions," and the possession, claimed and +believed, of boundless power, with an absolutely unearthly use of His +pretensions and His power, and with a goodness which has proved to be, +and still is, the permanent and ever-flowing source of moral elevation +and improvement in the world. He early comes across the question of +miracles, and, as he says, it is impossible to separate the claim to +them and the belief in them from the story. We find Christ, he says, +"describing himself as a king, and at the same time as king of the +Kingdom of God"; calling forth and founding a new and divine society, +and claiming to be, both now and hereafter, the Judge without appeal of +all mankind; "he considered, in short, heaven and hell to be in his +hands." And we find, on the other hand, that as such He has been +received. To such an astonishing chain of phenomena miracles naturally +belong:-- + + When we contemplate this scheme as a whole, and glance at the + execution and results of it, three things strike us with + astonishment. First, its prodigious originality, if the expression + may be used. What other man has had the courage or elevation of + mind to say, "I will build up a state by the mere force of my + will, without help from the kings of the world, without taking + advantage of any of the secondary causes which unite men + together--unity of interest or speech, or blood-relationship. I + will make laws for my state which shall never be repealed, and I + will defy all the powers of destruction that are at work in the + world to destroy what I build"? + + Secondly, we are astonished at the calm confidence with which the + scheme was carried out. The reason why statesmen can seldom work + on this vast scale is that it commonly requires a whole lifetime + to gain that ascendency over their fellow-men which such schemes + presuppose. Some of the leading organisers of the world have said, + "I will work my way to supreme power, and then I will execute + great plans." But Christ overleaped the first stage altogether. He + did not work his way to royalty, but simply said to all men, "I am + your king." He did not struggle forward to a position in which he + could found a new state, but simply founded it. + + Thirdly, we are astonished at the prodigious success of the + scheme. It is not more certain that Christ presented himself to + men as the founder, legislator, and judge of a divine society than + it is certain that men have accepted him in these characters, that + the divine society has been founded, that it has lasted nearly two + thousand years, that it has extended over a large and the most + highly-civilised portion of the earth's surface, and that it + continues full of vigour at the present day. + + Between the astonishing design and its astonishing success there + intervenes an astonishing instrumentality--that of miracles. It + will be thought by some that in asserting miracles to have been + actually wrought by Christ we go beyond what the evidence, perhaps + beyond what any possible evidence, is able to sustain. Waiving, + then, for the present, the question whether miracles were actually + wrought, we may state a fact which is fully capable of being + established by ordinary evidence, and which is actually + established by evidence as ample as any historical fact + whatever--the fact, namely, that Christ _professed_ to work + miracles. We may go further, and assert with confidence that + Christ was believed by his followers really to work miracles, and + that it was mainly on this account that they conceded to Him the + pre-eminent dignity and authority which he claimed. The accounts + which we have of these miracles may be exaggerated; it is possible + that in some special cases stories have been related which have no + foundation whatever; but on the whole, miracles play so important + a part in Christ's scheme, that any theory which would represent + them as due entirely to the imagination of his followers or of a + later age destroys the credibility of the documents not partially + but wholly, and leaves Christ a personage as mythical as Hercules. + Now, the present treatise aims to show that the Christ of the + Gospels is not mythical, by showing that the character those + biographies portray is in all its large features strikingly + consistent, and at the same time so peculiar as to be altogether + beyond the reach of invention both by individual genius and still + more by what is called the "consciousness of an age." Now, if the + character depicted in the Gospels is in the main real and + historical, they must be generally trustworthy, and if so, the + responsibility of miracles is fixed on Christ. In this case the + reality of the miracles themselves depends in a great degree on + the opinion we form of Christ's veracity, and this opinion must + arise gradually from the careful examination of his whole life. + For our present purpose, which is to investigate the plan which + Christ formed and the way in which he executed it, it matters + nothing whether the miracles were real or imaginary; in either + case, being believed to be real, they had the same effect. + Provisionally, therefore, we may speak of them as real. + +Without the belief in miracles, as he says, it is impossible to +conceive the history of the Church:-- + + If we suppose that Christ really performed no miracles, and that + those which are attributed to him were the product of + self-deception mixed in some proportion or other with imposture, + then no doubt the faith of St. Paul and St. John was an empty + chimera, a mere misconception; but it is none the less true that + those apparent miracles were essential to Christ's success, and + that had he not pretended to perform them the Christian Church + would never have been founded, and the name of Jesus of Nazareth + would be known at this day only to the curious in Jewish + antiquities. + +But he goes on to point out what was the use which Christ made of +miracles, and how it was that they did not, as they might have done, +even impede His purpose of founding His kingdom on men's consciences +and not on their terrors. In one of the most remarkable passages +perhaps ever written on the Gospel miracles as they are seen when +simply looked at as they are described, the writer says:-- + + He imposed upon himself a strict restraint in the dse of his + supernatural powers. He adopted the principle that he was not sent + to destroy men's lives but to save them, and rigidly abstained in + practice from inflicting any kind of damage or harm. In this course + he persevered so steadily that it became generally understood. + Every one knew that this _king_, whose royal pretensions were so + prominent, had an absolutely unlimited patience, and that he would + endure the keenest criticism, the bitterest and most malignant + personal attacks. Men's mouths were open to discuss his claims and + character with perfect freedom; so far from regarding him with that + excessive fear which might have prevented them from receiving his + doctrine intelligently, they learnt gradually to treat him, even + while they acknowledged his extraordinary power, with a reckless + animosity which they would have been afraid to show towards an + ordinary enemy. With curious inconsistency they openly charged him + with being leagued with the devil; in other words, they acknowledged + that he was capable of boundless mischief, and yet they were so + little afraid of him that they were ready to provoke him to use his + whole power against themselves. The truth was that they believed + him to be disarmed by his own deliberate resolution, and they + judged rightly. He punished their malice only by verbal reproofs, + and they gradually gathered courage to attack the life of one whose + miraculous powers they did not question. + + Meantime, while this magnanimous self-restraint saved him from + false friends and mercenary or servile flatterers, and saved the + kingdom which he founded from the corruption of self-interest and + worldliness, it gave him a power over the good such as nothing + else could have given. For the noblest and most amiable thing that + can be seen is power mixed with gentleness, the reposing, + self-restraining attitude of strength. These are the "fine strains + of honour," these are "the graces of the gods"-- + + To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air. + And yet to charge the sulphur with a bolt + That shall but rive an oak. + + And while he did no mischief under any provocation, his power + flowed in acts of beneficence on every side. Men could approach + near to him, could eat and drink with him, could listen to his + talk and ask him questions, and they found him not accessible + only, but warmhearted, and not occupied so much with his own plans + that he could not attend to a case of distress or mental + perplexity. They found him full of sympathy and appreciation, + dropping words of praise, ejaculations of admiration, tears. He + surrounded himself with those who had tasted of his bounty, sick + people whom he had cured, lepers whose death-in-life, demoniacs + whose hell-in-life, he had terminated with a single powerful word. + Among these came loving hearts who thanked him for friends and + relatives rescued for them out of the jaws of premature death, and + others whom he had saved, by a power which did not seem different, + from vice and degradation. + + This temperance in the use of supernatural power is the + masterpiece of Christ. It is a moral miracle superinduced upon a + physical one. This repose in greatness makes him surely the most + sublime image ever offered to the human imagination. And it is + precisely this trait which gave him his immense and immediate + ascendency over men. If the question be put--Why was Christ so + successful?--Why did men gather round him at his call, form + themselves into a new society according to his wish, and accept + him with unbounded devotion as their legislator and judge? some + will answer, Because of the miracles which attested his divine + character; others, Because of the intrinsic beauty and divinity of + the great law of love which he propounded. But miracles, as we + have seen, have not by themselves this persuasive power. That a + man possesses a strange power which I cannot understand is no + reason why I should receive his words as divine oracles of truth. + The powerful man is not of necessity also wise; his power may + terrify and yet not convince. On the other hand, the law of love, + however divine, was but a precept. Undoubtedly it deserved that + men should accept it for its intrinsic worth, but men are not + commonly so eager to receive the words of wise men nor so + unbounded in their gratitude to them. It was neither for his + miracles nor for the beauty of his doctrine that Christ was + worshipped. Nor was it for his winning personal character, nor for + the persecutions he endured, nor for his martyrdom. It was for the + inimitable unity which all these things made when taken together. + In other words, it was for this that he whose power and greatness + as shown in his miracles were overwhelming denied himself the use + of his power, treated it as a slight thing, walked among men as + though he were one of them, relieved them in distress, taught them + to love each other, bore with undisturbed patience a perpetual + hailstorm of calumny; and when his enemies grew fiercer, continued + still to endure their attacks in silence, until, petrified and + bewildered with astonishment, men saw him arrested and put to + death with torture, refusing steadfastly to use in his own behalf + the power he conceived he held for the benefit of others. It was + the combination of greatness and self-sacrifice which won their + hearts, the mighty powers held under a mighty control, the + unspeakable condescension, the _Cross_ of _Christ_. + +And he goes on to describe the effect upon the world; and what it was +that "drew all men unto Him":-- + + To sum up the results of this chapter. We began by remarking that + an astonishing plan met with an astonishing success, and we raised + the question to what instrumentality that success was due. Christ + announced himself as the Founder and Legislator of a new Society, + and as the Supreme Judge of men. Now by what means did he procure + that these immense pretensions should be allowed? He might have + done it by sheer power, he might have adopted persuasion, and + pointed out the merits of the scheme and of the legislation he + proposed to introduce. But he adopted a third plan, which had the + effect not merely of securing obedience, but of exciting + enthusiasm and devotion. He laid men under an immense + _obligation_. He convinced them that he was a person of altogether + transcendent greatness, one who needed nothing at their hands, one + whom it was impossible to benefit by conferring riches, or fame, + or dominion upon him, and that, being so great, he had devoted + himself of mere benevolence to their good. He showed them that for + their sakes he lived a hard and laborious life, and exposed + himself to the utmost malice of powerful men. They saw him hungry, + though they believed him able to turn the stones into bread; they + saw his royal pretensions spurned, though they believed that he + could in a moment take into his hand all the kingdoms of the world + and the glory of them; they saw his life in danger; they saw him + at last expire in agonies, though they believed that, had he so + willed it, no danger could harm him, and that had he thrown + himself from the topmost pinnacle of the temple he would have been + softly received in the arms of ministering angels. Witnessing his + sufferings, and convinced by the miracles they saw him work that + they were voluntarily endured, men's hearts were touched, and pity + for weakness blending strangely with wondering admiration of + unlimited power, an agitation of gratitude, sympathy, and + astonishment, such as nothing else could ever excite, sprang up in + them; and when, turning from his deeds to his words, they found + this very self-denial which had guided his own life prescribed as + the principle which should guide theirs, gratitude broke forth in + joyful obedience, self-denial produced self-denial, and the Law + and Lawgiver together were enshrined in their inmost hearts for + inseparable veneration. + +It is plain that whatever there is novel in such a line of argument +must depend upon the way in which it is handled; and it is the +extraordinary and sustained power with which this is done which gives +its character to the book. The writer's method consists in realising +with a depth of feeling and thought which it would not be easy to +match, what our Lord was in His human ministry, as that ministry is set +before us by those who witnessed it; and next, in showing in detail the +connection of that ministry, which wrought so much by teaching, but +still more by the Divine example, "not sparing words but resting most +on deeds," with all that is highest, purest, and best in the morality +of Christendom, and with what is most fruitful and most hopeful in the +differences between the old world and our own. We cannot think we are +wrong when we say that no one could speak of our Lord as this writer +speaks, with the enthusiasm, the overwhelming sense of His +inexpressible authority, of His unapproachable perfection, with the +profound faith which lays everything at His feet, and not also believe +all that the Divine Society which Christ founded has believed about +Him. And though for the present his subject is history, and human +morality as it appears to have been revolutionised and finally fixed by +that history, and not the theology which subsequent in date is yet the +foundation of both, it is difficult to imagine any reader going along +with him and not breaking out at length into the burst, "My Lord and my +God." If it is not so, then the phenomenon is strange indeed; for a +belief below the highest and truest has produced an appreciation, a +reverence, an adoration which the highest belief has only produced in +the choicest examples of those who have had it, and by the side of +which the ordinary exhibitions of the divine history are pale and +feeble. To few, indeed, as it seems to us, has it been given to feel, +and to make others feel, what in all the marvellous complexity of high +and low, and in all the Divine singleness of His goodness and power, +the Son of Man appeared in the days of His flesh. It is not more vivid +or more wonderful than what the Gospels with so much detail tell us of +that awful ministry in real flesh and blood, with a human soul and with +all the reality of man's nature; but most of us, after all, read the +Gospels with sealed and unwondering eyes. But, dwelling on the Manhood, +so as almost to overpower us with the contrast between the distinct and +living truth and the dead and dull familiarity of our thoughts of +routine and custom, he does so in such a way that it is impossible to +doubt, though the word Incarnation never occurs in the volume, that all +the while he has before his thoughts the "taking of the manhood into +God." What is the Gospel picture? + + And let us pause once more to consider that which remains + throughout a subject of ever-recurring astonishment, the unbounded + personal pretensions which Christ advances. It is common in human + history to meet with those who claim some superiority over their + fellows. Men assert a pre-eminence over their fellow-citizens or + fellow-countrymen and become rulers of those who at first were + their equals, but they dream of nothing greater than some partial + control over the actions of others for the short space of a + lifetime. Few indeed are those to whom it is given to influence + future ages. Yet some men have appeared who have been "as levers + to uplift the earth and roll it in another course." Homer by + creating literature, Socrates by creating science, Caesar by + carrying civilisation inland from the shores of the Mediterranean, + Newton by starting science upon a career of steady progress, may + be said to have attained this eminence. But these men gave a + single impact like that which is conceived to have first set the + planets in motion; Christ claims to be a perpetual attractive + power like the sun which determines their orbit. They contributed + to men some discovery and passed away; Christ's discovery is + himself. To humanity struggling with its passions and its destiny + he says, Cling to me, cling ever closer to me. If we believe St. + John, he represented himself as the Light of the world, as the + Shepherd of the souls of men, as the Way to immortality, as the + Vine or Life-tree of humanity. And if we refuse to believe that he + used those words, we cannot deny, without rejecting all the + evidence before us, that he used words which have substantially + the same meaning. We cannot deny that he commanded men to leave + everything and attach themselves to him; that he declared himself + king, master, and judge of men; that he promised to give rest to + all the weary and heavy-laden; that he instructed his followers to + hope for life from feeding on his body and blood. + + But it is doubly surprising to observe that these enormous + pretensions were advanced by one whose special peculiarity, not + only among his contemporaries but among the remarkable men that + have appeared before and since, was an almost feminine tenderness + and humility. This characteristic was remarked, as we have seen, + by the Baptist, and Christ himself was fully conscious of it. Yet + so clear to him was his own dignity and infinite importance to the + human race as an objective fact with which his own opinion of + himself had nothing to do, that in the same breath in which he + asserts it in the most unmeasured language, he alludes, apparently + with entire unconsciousness, to his _humility_. "Take my yoke upon + you, and learn of me; _for I am meek and lowly of heart_." And + again, when speaking to his followers of the arrogance of the + Pharisees, he says, "They love to be called Rabbi; but be not you + called Rabbi: _for one is your master, even Christ_." + + Who is the humble man? It is he who resists with special + watchfulness and success the temptations which the conditions of + his life may offer to exaggerate his own importance.... If he + judged himself correctly, and if the Baptist described him well + when he compared him to a lamb, and, we may add, if his + biographers have delineated his character faithfully, Christ was + one naturally contented with obscurity, wanting the restless + desire for distinction and eminence which is common in great men, + hating to put forward personal claims, disliking competition and + "disputes who should be greatest," finding something bombastic in + the titles of royalty, fond of what is simple and homely, of + children, of poor people, occupying himself so much with the + concerns of others, with the relief of sickness and want, that the + temptation to exaggerate the importance of his own thoughts and + plans was not likely to master him; lastly, entertaining for the + human race a feeling so singularly fraternal that he was likely to + reject as a sort of treason the impulse to set himself in any + manner above them. Christ, it appears, was this humble man. When + we have fully pondered the fact we may be in a condition to + estimate the force of the evidence which, submitted to his mind, + could induce him, in direct opposition to all his tastes and + instincts, to lay claim, persistently, with the calmness of entire + conviction, in opposition to the whole religious world, in spite + of the offence which his own followers conceived, to a dominion + more transcendent, more universal, more complete, than the most + delirious votary of glory ever aspired to in his dreams. + +And what is it that our Lord has done for man by being so truly man? + + This then it is which is wanted to raise the feeling of humanity + into an enthusiasm; when the precept of love has been given, an + image must be set before the eyes of those who are called upon to + obey it, an ideal or type of man which may be noble and amiable + enough to raise the whole race and make the meanest member of it + sacred with reflected glory. + + Did not Christ do this? Did the command to love go forth to those + who had never seen a human being they could revere? Could his + followers turn upon him and say, How can we love a creature so + degraded, full of vile wants and contemptible passions, whose + little life is most harmlessly spent when it is an empty round of + eating and sleeping; a creature destined for the grave and for + oblivion when his allotted term of fretfulness and folly has + expired? Of this race Christ himself was a member, and to this day + is it not the best answer to all blasphemers of the species, the + best consolation when our sense of its degradation is keenest, + that a human brain was behind his forehead, and a human heart + beating in his breast, and that within the whole creation of God + nothing more elevated or more attractive has yet been found than + he? And if it be answered that there was in his nature something + exceptional and peculiar, that humanity must not be measured by + the stature of Christ, let us remember that it was precisely thus + that he wished it to be measured, delighting to call himself the + Son of Man, delighting to call the meanest of mankind his + brothers. If some human beings are abject and contemptible, if it + be incredible to us that they can have any high dignity or + destiny, do we regard them from so great a height as Christ? Are + we likely to be more pained by their faults and deficiencies than + he was? Is our standard higher than his? And yet he associated by + preference with the meanest of the race; no contempt for them did + he ever express, no suspicion that they might be less dear than + the best and wisest to the common Father, no doubt that they were + naturally capable of rising to a moral elevation like his own. + There is nothing of which a man may be prouder than of this; it is + the most hopeful and redeeming fact in history; it is precisely + what was wanting to raise the love of man as man to enthusiasm. An + eternal glory has been shed upon the human race by the love Christ + bore to it And it was because the Edict of Universal Love went + forth to men whose hearts were in no cynical mood, but possessed + with a spirit of devotion to a man, that words which at any other + time, however grandly they might sound, would have been but words, + penetrated so deeply, and along with the law of love the power of + love was given. Therefore also the first Christians were enabled + to dispense with philosophical phrases, and instead of saying that + they loved the ideal of man in man, could simply say and feel that + they loved Christ in every man. + + We have here the very kernel of the Christian moral scheme. We + have distinctly before us the end Christ proposed to himself, and + the means he considered adequate to the attainment of it.... + + But how to give to the meagre and narrow hearts of men such + enlargement? How to make them capable of a universal sympathy? + Christ believed it possible to bind men to their kind, but on one + condition--that they were first bound fast to himself. He stood + forth as the representative of men, he identified himself with the + cause and with the interests of all human beings; he was destined, + as he began before long obscurely to intimate, to lay down his + life for them. Few of us sympathise originally and directly with + this devotion; few of us can perceive in human nature itself any + merit sufficient to evoke it. But it is not so hard to love and + venerate him who felt it. So vast a passion of love, a devotion so + comprehensive, elevated, deliberate, and profound, has not + elsewhere been in any degree approached save by some of his + imitators. And as love provokes love, many have found it possible + to conceive for Christ an attachment the closeness of which no + words can describe, a veneration so possessing and absorbing the + man within them, that they have said, "I live no more, but Christ + lives in me." + +And what, in fact, has been the result, after the utmost and freest +abatement for the objections of those who criticise the philosophical +theories or the practical effects of Christianity? + + But that Christ's method, when rightly applied, is really of + mighty force may be shown by an argument which the severest censor + of Christians will hardly refuse to admit. Compare the ancient + with the modern world: "Look on this picture and on that." The + broad distinction in the characters of men forces itself into + prominence. Among all the men of the ancient heathen world there + were scarcely one or two to whom we might venture to apply the + epithet "holy." In other words, there were not more than one or + two, if any, who, besides being virtuous in their actions, were + possessed with an unaffected enthusiasm of goodness, and besides + abstaining from vice, regarded even a vicious thought with horror. + Probably no one will deny that in Christian countries this + higher-toned goodness, which we call holiness, has existed. Few + will maintain that it has been exceedingly rare. Perhaps the truth + is that there has scarcely been a town in any Christian country + since the time of Christ, where a century has passed without + exhibiting a character of such elevation that his mere presence + has shamed the bad and made the good better, and has been felt at + times like the presence of God Himself. And if this be so, has + Christ failed? or can Christianity die? + +The principle of feeling and action which Christ implanted in that +Divine Society which He founded, or in other words, His morality, had +two peculiarities; it sprang, and it must spring still, from what this +writer calls all through an "enthusiasm"; and this enthusiasm was +kindled and maintained by the influence of a Person. There can be no +goodness without impulses to goodness, any more than these impulses are +enough without being directed by truth and reason; but the impulses +must come before the guidance, and "Christ's Theocracy" is described +"as a great attempt to set all the virtues of the world on this basis, +and to give it a visible centre and fountain." He thus describes how +personal influence is the great instrument of moral quickening and +elevation:-- + + How do men become for the most part "pure, generous, and humane"? + By personal, not by logical influences. They have been reared by + parents who had these qualities, they have lived in a society + which had a high tone, they have been accustomed to see just acts + done, to hear gentle words spoken, and the justness and the + gentleness have passed into their hearts, and slowly moulded their + habits and made their moral discernment clear; they remember + commands and prohibitions which it is a pleasure to obey for the + sake of those who gave them; often they think of those who may be + dead and say, "How would this action appear to him? Would he + approve that word or disapprove it?" To such no baseness appears a + small baseness because its consequences may be small, nor does the + yoke of law seem burdensome although it is ever on their necks, + nor do they dream of covering a sin by an atoning act of virtue. + Often in solitude they blush when some impure fancy sails across + the clear heaven of their minds, because they are never alone, + because the absent Examples, the Authorities they still revere, + rule not their actions only but their inmost hearts; because their + conscience is indeed awake and alive, representing all the + nobleness with which they stand in sympathy, and reporting their + most hidden indecorum before a public opinion of the absent and + the dead. + + Of these two influences--that of Reason and that of Living + Example--which would a wise reformer reinforce? Christ chose the + last He gathered all men into a common relation to himself, and + demanded that each should set him on the pedestal of his heart, + giving a lower place to all other objects of worship, to father + and mother, to husband or wife. In him should the loyalty of all + hearts centre; he should be their pattern, their Authority and + Judge. Of him and his service should no man be ashamed, but to + those who acknowledged it morality should be an easy yoke, and the + law of right as spontaneous as the law of life; sufferings should + be easy to bear, and the loss of worldly friends repaired by a new + home in the bosom of the Christian kingdom; finally, in death + itself their sleep should be sweet upon whose tombstone it could + be written "Obdormivit in Christo." + +In his treatment of this part of the subject, the work of Christ as the +true Creator, through the Christian Church, of living morality, what is +peculiar and impressive is the way in which sympathy with Christianity +in its antique and original form, in its most austere, unearthly, +exacting aspects, is combined with sympathy with the practical +realities of modern life, with its boldness, its freedom, its love of +improvement, its love of truth. It is no common grasp which can embrace +both so easily and so firmly. He is one of those writers whose strong +hold on their ideas is shown by the facility with which they can afford +to make large admissions, which are at first sight startling. Nowhere +are more tremendous passages written than in this book about the +corruptions of that Christianity which yet the writer holds to be the +one hope and safeguard of mankind. He is not afraid to pursue his +investigation independently of any inquiry into the peculiar claims to +authority of the documents on which it rests. He at once goes to their +substance and their facts, and the Person and Life and Character which +they witness to. He is not afraid to put Faith on exactly the same +footing as Life, neither higher nor lower, as the title to membership +in the Church; a doctrine which, if it makes imperfect and rudimentary +faith as little a disqualification as imperfect and inconsistent life, +obviously does not exclude the further belief that deliberate heresy is +on the same level with deliberate profligacy. But the clear sense of +what is substantial, the power of piercing through accidents and +conditions to the real kernel of the matter, the scornful disregard of +all entanglement of apparent contradictions and inconsistencies, enable +him to bring out the lesson which he finds before him with overpowering +force. He sees before him immense mercy, immense condescension, immense +indulgence; but there are also immense requirements--requirements not +to be fulfilled by rule or exhausted by the lapse of time, and which +the higher they raise men the more they exact--an immense seriousness +and strictness, an immense care for substance and truth, to the +disregard, if necessary, of the letter and the form. The "Dispensation +of the Spirit" has seldom had an interpreter more in earnest and more +determined to see meaning in his words. We have room but for two +illustrations. He is combating the notion that the work of Christianity +and the Church nowadays is with the good, and that it is waste of hope +and strength to try to reclaim the bad and the lost:-- + + Once more, however, the world may answer, Christ may be consistent + in this, but is he wise? It may be true that he does demand an + enthusiasm, and that such an enthusiasm may be capable of + awakening the moral sense in hearts in which it seemed dead. But + if, notwithstanding this demand, only a very few members of the + Christian Church are capable of the enthusiasm, what use in + imposing on the whole body a task which the vast majority are not + qualified to perform? Would it not be well to recognise the fact + which we cannot alter, and to abstain from demanding from frail + human nature what human nature cannot render? Would it not be well + for the Church to impose upon its ordinary members only ordinary + duties? When the Bernard or the Whitefield appears let her by all + means find occupation for him. Let her in such cases boldly invade + the enemy's country. But in ordinary times would it not be well + for her to confine herself to more modest and practicable + undertakings? There is much for her to do even though she should + honestly confess herself unable to reclaim the lost. She may + reclaim the young, administer reproof to slight lapses, maintain a + high standard of virtue, soften manners, diffuse enlightenment. + Would it not be well for her to adapt her ends to her means? + + No, it would not be well; it would be fatal to do so; and Christ + meant what he said, and said what was true, when he pronounced the + Enthusiasm of Humanity to be everything, and the absence of it to + be the absence of everything. The world understands its own + routine well enough; what it does not understand is the mode of + changing that routine. It has no appreciation of the nature or + measure of the power of enthusiasm, and on this matter it learns + nothing from experience, but after every fresh proof of that + power, relapses from its brief astonishment into its old + ignorance, and commits precisely the same miscalculation on the + next occasion. The power of enthusiasm is, indeed, far from being + unlimited; in some cases it is very small.... + + But one power enthusiasm has almost without limit--the power of + propagating itself; and it was for this that Christ depended on + it. He contemplated a Church in which the Enthusiasm of Humanity + should not be felt by two or three only, but widely. In whatever + heart it might be kindled, he calculated that it would pass + rapidly into other hearts, and that as it can make its heat felt + outside the Church, so it would preserve the Church itself from + lukewarmncss. For a lukewarm Church he would not condescend to + legislate, nor did he regard it as at all inevitable that the + Church should become lukewarm. He laid it as a duty upon the + Church to reclaim the lost, because he did not think it utopian to + suppose that the Church might be not in its best members only, but + through its whole body, inspired by that ardour of humanity that + can charm away the bad passions of the wildest heart, and open to + the savage and the outlaw lurking in moral wildernesses an + entrancing view of the holy and tranquil order that broods over + the streets and palaces of the city of God.... + + Christianity is an enthusiasm or it is nothing; and if there + sometimes appear in the history of the Church instances of a tone + which is pure and high without being enthusiastic, of a mood of + Christian feeling which is calmly favourable to virtue without + being victorious against vice, it will probably be found that all + that is respectable in such a mood is but the slowly-subsiding + movement of an earlier enthusiasm, and all that is produced by the + lukewarmness of the time itself is hypocrisy and corrupt + conventionalism. + + Christianity, then, would sacrifice its divinity if it abandoned + its missionary character and became a mere educational + institution. Surely this Article of Conversion is the true + _articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae_. When the power of + reclaiming the lost dies out of the Church, it ceases to be the + Church. It may remain a useful institution, though it is most + likely to become an immoral and mischievous one. Where the power + remains, there, whatever is wanting, it may still be said that + "the tabernacle of God is with men." + +One more passage about those who in all Churches and sects think that +all that Christ meant by His call was to give them a means to do what +the French call _faire son salut_:-- + + It appears throughout the Sermon on the Mount that there was a + class of persons whom Christ regarded with peculiar aversion--the + persons who call themselves one thing and are another. He + describes them by a word which originally meant an "actor." + Probably it may in Christ's time have already become current in + the sense which we give to the word "hypocrite." But no doubt + whenever it was used the original sense of the word was distinctly + remembered. And in this Sermon, whenever Christ denounces any + vice, it is with the words "Be not you like the actors." In common + with all great reformers, Christ felt that honesty in word and + deed was the fundamental virtue; dishonesty, including + affectation, self-consciousness, love of stage effect, the one + incurable vice. Our thoughts, words, and deeds are to be of a + piece. For example, if we would pray to God, let us go into some + inner room where none but God shall see us; to pray at the corner + of the streets, where the passing crowd may admire our devotion, + is to _act_ a prayer. If we would keep down the rebellious flesh + by fasting, this concerns ourselves only; it is acting to parade + before the world our self-mortification. And if we would put down + sin let us put it down in ourselves first; it is only the actor + who begins by frowning at it in others. But there are subtler + forms of hypocrisy, which Christ does not denounce, probably + because they have sprung since out of the corruption of a subtler + creed. The hypocrite of that age wanted simply money or credit + with the people. His ends were those of the vulgar, though his + means were different Christ endeavoured to cure both alike of + their vulgarity by telling them of other riches and another + happiness laid up in heaven. Some, of course, would neither + understand nor regard his words, others would understand and + receive them. But a third class would receive them without + understanding them, and instead of being cured of their avarice + and sensuality, would simply transfer them to new objects of + desire. Shrewd enough to discern Christ's greatness, instinctively + believing what he said to be true, they would set out with a + triumphant eagerness in pursuit of the heavenly riches, and laugh + at the short-sighted and weak-minded speculator who contented + himself with the easy but insignificant profits of a worldly life. + They would practise assiduously the rules by which Christ said + heaven was to be won. They would patiently turn the left cheek, + indefatigibly walk the two miles, they would bless with effusion + those who cursed them, and pray fluently for those who used them + spitefully. To love their enemies, to love any one, they would + certainly find impossible, but the outward signs of love might + easily be learnt. And thus there would arise a new class of + actors, not like those whom Christ denounced, exhibiting before an + earthly audience and receiving their pay from human managers, but + hoping to be paid for their performance out of the incorruptible + treasures, and to impose by their dramatic talent upon their + Father in heaven. + +We have said that one peculiarity of this work is the connection which +is kept in view from the first between the Founder and His work; +between Christ and the Christian Church. He finds it impossible to +speak of Him without that still existing witness of His having come, +which is only less wonderful and unique than Himself. This is where, +for the present, he leaves the subject:-- + + For the New Jerusalem, as we witness it, is no more exempt from + corruption than was the Old.... First the rottenness of dying + superstitions, their barbaric manners, their intellectualism + preferring system and debate to brotherhood, strangling + Christianity with theories and framing out of it a charlatan's + philosophy which madly tries to stop the progress of science--all + these corruptions have in the successive ages of its long life + infected the Church, and many new and monstrous perversions of + individual character have disgraced it. The creed which makes + human nature richer and larger makes men at the same time capable + of profounder sins; admitted into a holier sanctuary, they are + exposed to the temptation of a greater sacrilege; awakened to the + sense of new obligations, they sometimes lose their simple respect + for the old ones; saints that have resisted the subtlest + temptations sometimes begin again, as it were, by yielding without + a struggle to the coarsest; hypocrisy has become tenfold more + ingenious and better supplied with disguises; in short, human + nature has inevitably developed downwards as well as upwards, and + if the Christian ages be compared with those of heathenism, they + are found worse as well as better, and it is possible to make it a + question whether mankind has gained on the whole.... + + But the triumph of the Christian Church is that it is + _there_--that the most daring of all speculative dreams, instead + of being found impracticable, has been carried into effect, and + when carried into effect, instead of being confined to a few + select spirits, has spread itself over a vast space of the earth's + surface, and when thus diffused, instead of giving place after an + age or two to something more adapted to a later time, has endured + for two thousand years, and at the end of two thousand years, + instead of lingering as a mere wreck spared by the tolerance of + the lovers of the past, still displays vigour and a capacity of + adjusting itself to new conditions, and lastly, in all the + transformations it undergoes, remains visibly the same thing and + inspired by its Founder's universal and unquenchable spirit. + + It is in this and not in any freedom from abuses that the divine + power of Christianity appears. Again, it is in this, and not in + any completeness or all-sufficiency.... + + But the achievement of Christ in founding by his single will and + power a structure so durable and so universal, is like no other + achievement which history records. The masterpieces of the men of + action are coarse and common in comparison with it, and the + masterpieces of speculation flimsy and insubstantial. When we + speak of it the commonplaces of admiration fail us altogether. + Shall we speak of the originality of the design, of the skill + displayed in the execution? All such terms are inadequate. + Originality and contriving skill operated indeed, but, as it were, + implicitly. The creative effort which produced that against which, + it is said, the gates of hell shall not prevail, cannot be + analysed. No architects' designs were furnished for the New + Jerusalem, no committee drew up rules for the Universal + Commonwealth. If in the works of Nature we can trace the + indications of calculation, of a struggle with difficulties, of + precaution, of ingenuity, then in Christ's work it may be that the + same indications occur. But these inferior and secondary powers + were not consciously exercised; they were implicitly present in + the manifold yet single creative act. The inconceivable work was + done in calmness; before the eyes of men it was noiselessly + accomplished, attracting little attention. Who can describe that + which unites men? Who has entered into the formation of speech + which is the symbol of their union? Who can describe exhaustively + the origin of civil society? He who can do these things can + explain the origin of the Christian Church. For others it must be + enough to say, "the Holy Ghost fell on those that believed." No + man saw the building of the New Jerusalem, the workmen crowded + together, the unfinished walls and unpaved streets; no man heard + the chink of trowel and pickaxe; it descended _out of heaven from + God_. + +And here we leave this remarkable book. It seems to us one of those +which permanently influence opinion, not so much by argument as such, +as by opening larger views of the familiar and the long-debated, by +deepening the ordinary channels of feeling, and by bringing men back to +seriousness and rekindling their admiration, their awe, their love, +about what they know best. We have not dwelt on minute criticisms about +points to which exception might be taken. We have not noticed even +positions on which, without further explanation, we should more or less +widely disagree. The general scope of it, and the seriousness as well +as the grandeur and power with which the main idea is worked out, seem +to make mere secondary objections intolerable. It is a fragment, with +the disadvantages of a fragment. What is put before us is far from +complete, and it needs to be completed. In part at least an answer has +been given to the question _what_ Christ was; but the question remains, +not less important, and of which the answer is only here foreshadowed, +_who_ He was. But so far as it goes, what it does is this: in the face +of all attempts to turn Christianity into a sentiment or a philosophy, +it asserts, in a most remarkable manner, a historical religion and a +historical Church; but it also seeks, in a manner equally remarkable, +to raise and elevate the thoughts of all, on all sides, about Christ, +as He showed Himself in the world, and about what Christianity was +meant to be; to touch new springs of feeling; to carry back the Church +to its "hidden fountains," and pierce through the veils which hide from +us the reality of the wonders in which it began. + +The book is indeed a protest against the stiffness of all cast-iron +systems, and a warning against trusting in what is worn out. But it +shows how the modern world, so complex, so refined, so wonderful, is, +in all that it accounts good, but a reflection of what is described in +the Gospels, and its civilisation, but an application of the laws of +Christ, changing, it may be, indefinitely in outward form, but +depending on their spirit as its ever-living spring. If we have +misunderstood this book, and its cautious understatements are not +understatements at all, but represent the limits beyond which the +writer does not go, we can only say again it is one-of the strangest +among books. If we have not misunderstood him, we have before us a +writer who has a right to claim deference from those who think deepest +and know most, when he pleads before them that not Philosophy can save +and reclaim the world, but Faith in a Divine Person who is worthy of +it, allegiance to a Divine Society which He founded, and union of +hearts in the object for which He created it. + + + + +X + +THE AUTHOR OF "ROBERT ELSMERE" ON A NEW REFORMATION[12] + + + [12] + _Guardian_, 6th March 1889. + +Mrs. Ward, in the _Nineteenth Century_, develops with warmth and force +the theme and serious purpose of _Robert Elsmere_; and she does so, +using the same literary method which she used, certainly with effect, +in the story itself. Every age has its congenial fashion of discussing +the great questions which affect, or seem to affect, the fate of +mankind. According to the time and its circumstances, it is a _Summa +Theologiae_, or a _Divina Commedia_, or a _Novum Organum_, or a +Calvin's _Institutes_, or a Locke _On the Understanding_, or an +_Encyclopedia_, or a _Candide_, which sets people thinking more than +usual and comparing their thoughts. Long ago in the history of human +questioning, Plato and Cicero discovered the advantages over dry +argument of character and easy debate, and so much of story as clothed +abstractions and hard notions with human life and affections. It is a +weighty precedent. And as the prophetess of a "New Reformation" Mrs. +Ward has reverted to what is substantially the same method. She is +within her right. We do not blame her for putting her argument into the +shape of a novel, and bringing out the points of her case in the trials +and passionate utterances of imaginary persons, or in a conversation +about their mental history. But she must take the good with the bad. +Such a method has its obvious advantages, in freedom, and convenience, +and range of illustration. It has its disadvantages. The dealer in +imagination may easily become the unconscious slave of imagination; +and, living in a self-constructed world, may come to forget that there +is any other; and the temptation to unfairness becomes enormous when +all who speak, on one side or the other, only speak as you make or let +them speak. + +It is to imagination that _Robert Elsmere_ makes its main appeal, +undoubtedly a powerful and pathetic one. It bids us ask ourselves what, +with the phenomena before us, we can conceive possible and real. It +implies, of course, much learning, with claims of victory in the +spheres of history and science, with names great in criticism, of whom +few readers probably can estimate the value, though all may be affected +by the formidable array. But it is not in these things, as with a book +like _Supernatural Religion_, that the gist of the argument lies. The +alleged results of criticism are taken for granted; whether rightly or +wrongly the great majority of readers certainly cannot tell. But then +the effect of the book, or the view which it represents, begins. +Imagine a man, pure-minded, earnest, sensitive, self-devoted, plunged +into the tremendous questions of our time. Bit by bit he finds what he +thought to be the truth of truths breaking away. In the darkness and +silence with which nature covers all beyond the world of experience he +thought he had found light and certainty from on high. He thought that +he had assurances and pledges which could not fail him, that God was in +the world, governed it, loved it, showed Himself in it He thought he +had a great and authentic story to fall back upon, and a Sacred Book, +which was its guaranteed witness, and by which God still spoke to his +soul. He thought that, whatever he did not know, he knew this, and this +was a hope to live and die in; with all that he saw round him, of pain +and sin and misery, here was truth on which he could rest secure, in +his fight with evil. Like the rest of us, he knew that terrible, +far-reaching, heart-searching questions were abroad; that all that to +him was sacred and unapproachable in its sanctity was not so to +all--was not so, perhaps, to men whom he felt to be stronger and more +knowing than himself--was not so, perhaps, to some who seemed to him to +stand, in character and purpose, at a moral height above him. Still he +thought himself in full possession of the truth which God had given +him, till at length, in one way or another, the tide of questioning +reached him. Then begins the long agony. He hears that what he never +doubted is said to be incredible, and is absolutely given up. He finds +himself bin-rounded by hostile powers of thought, by an atmosphere +which insensibly but irresistibly governs opinion, by doubt and denial +in the air, by keen and relentless intellect, before which he can only +he silent; he sees and hears all round the disintegrating process going +on in the creeds and institutions and intellectual statements of +Christianity. He is assured, and sees some reason to believe it, that +the intellect of the day is against him and his faith; and further, +that unreality taints everything, belief and reasoning, and profession +and conduct Step by step he is forced from one position and another; +the process was a similar and a familiar one when the great Roman +secession was going on fifty years ago. But now, in Robert Elsmere, +comes the upshot. He is not landed, as some logical minds have been, +which have gone through the same process, in mere unbelief or +indifference. He is too good for that. Something of his old +Christianity is too deeply engrained in him. He cannot go back from the +moral standard to which it accustomed him. He will serve God in a +Christian spirit and after the example of Christ, though not in what +can claim to be called a Christian way. He is the beginner of one more +of the numberless attempts to find a new mode of religion, purer than +any of the old ones could be--of what Mrs. Ward calls in her new paper +"A New Reformation." + +In this paper, which is more distinctly a dialogue on the Platonic +model, she isolates the main argument on which the story was based, but +without any distinct reference to any of the criticisms on her book. +_Robert Elsmere_ rests on the achievements of historic criticism, +chiefly German criticism. From the traditional, old-fashioned Christian +way of regarding and using the old records which we call the Bible, the +ground, we are told, is hopelessly and for ever cut away by German +historical criticism. And the difference between the old and the modern +way of regarding and using them is expressed by the difference between +_bad translation_ and _good_; the old way of reading, quoting, and +estimating ancient documents of all kinds was purblind, lifeless, +narrow, mechanical, whereas the modern comparative and critical method +not only is more sure in important questions of authenticity, but puts +true life and character and human feeling and motives into the +personages who wrote these documents, and of whom they speak. These +books were entirely misunderstood, even if people knew the meaning of +their words; now, at last, we can enter into their real spirit and +meaning. And where such a change of method and point of view, as +regards these documents, is wholesale and sweeping, it involves a +wholesale and sweeping change in all that is founded on them. Revised +ideas about the Bible mean a revised and reconstructed Christianity--"A +New Reformation." + +Mrs. Ward lays more stress than everybody will agree to on what she +likens to the difference between _good translation_ and _bad_, in +dealing with the materials of history. Doubtless, in our time, the +historical imagination, like the historical conscience, has been +awakened. In history, as in other things, the effort after the real and +the living has been very marked; it has sometimes resulted, as we know, +in that parading of the real which we call the realistic. The mode of +telling a story or stating a case varies, even characteristically, from +age to age, from Macaulay to Hume, from Hume to Rapin, from Rapin to +Holinshed or Hall; but after all, the story in its main features +remains, after allowing for the differences in the mode of presenting +it. German criticism, to which we are expected to defer, has its mode. +It combines two elements--a diligent, searching, lawyer-like habit of +cross-examination, laborious, complete and generally honest, which, +when it is not spiteful or insolent, deserves all the praise it +receives; but with it a sense of the probable, in dealing with the +materials collected, and a straining after attempts to construct +theories and to give a vivid reality to facts and relations, which are +not always so admirable; which lead, in fact, sometimes to the height +of paradox, or show mere incapacity to deal with the truth and depth of +life, or make use of a poor and mean standard--_mesquin_ would be the +French word--in the interpretation of actions and aims. It has +impressed on us the lesson--not to be forgotten when we read Mrs. +Ward's lists of learned names--that weight and not number is the test +of good evidence. German learning is decidedly imposing. But after all +there are Germans and Germans; and with all that there has been of +great in German work there has been also a large proportion of what is +bad--conceited, arrogant, shallow, childish. German criticism has been +the hunting-ground of an insatiable love of sport--may we not say, +without irreverence, the scene of the discovery of a good many mares' +nests? When the question is asked, why all this mass of criticism has +made so little impression on English thought, the answer is, because of +its extravagant love of theorising, because of its divergences and +variations, because of its negative results. Those who have been so +eager to destroy have not been so successful in construction. Clever +theories come to nothing; streams which began with much noise at last +lose themselves in the sand. Undoubtedly, it presents a very important, +and, in many ways, interesting class of intellectual phenomena, among +the many groups of such inquiries, moral, philosophical, scientific, +political, social, of which the world is full, and of which no sober +thinker expects to see the end. If this vaunted criticism is still left +to scholars, it is because it is still in the stage in which only +scholars are competent to examine and judge it; it is not fit to be a +factor in the practical thought and life of the mass of mankind. +Answers, and not merely questions, are what we want, who have to live, +and work, and die. Criticism has pulled about the Bible without +restraint or scruple. We are all of us steeped in its daring +assumptions and shrewd objections. Have its leaders yet given us an +account which it is reasonable to receive, clear, intelligible, +self-consistent and consistent with all the facts, of what this +mysterious book is? + +Meanwhile, in the face of theories and conjectures and negative +arguments, there is something in the world which is fact, and hard +fact. The Christian Church is the most potent fact in the most +important ages of the world's progress. It is an institution like the +world itself, which has grown up by its own strength and according to +its own principle of life, full of good and evil, having as the law of +its fate to be knocked about in the stern development of events, +exposed, like human society, to all kinds of vicissitudes and +alternations, giving occasion to many a scandal, and shaking the faith +and loyalty of many a son, showing in ample measure the wear and tear +of its existence, battered, injured, sometimes degenerate, sometimes +improved, in one way or another, since those dim and long distant days +when its course began; but showing in all these ways what a real thing +it is, never in the extremity of storms and ruin, never in the deepest +degradation of its unfaithfulness, losing hold of its own central +unchanging faith, and never in its worst days of decay and corruption +losing hold of the power of self-correction and hope of recovery. +_Solvitur ambulando_ is an argument to which Mrs. Ward appeals, in +reply to doubts about the solidity of the "New Reformation." It could +be urged more modestly if the march of the "New Reformation" had lasted +for even half of one of the Christian centuries. The Church is in the +world, as the family is in the world, as the State is in the world, as +morality is in the world, a fact of the same order and greatness. Like +these it has to make its account with the "all-dissolving" assaults of +human thought. Like these it has to prove itself by living, and it does +do so. In all its infinite influences and ministries, in infinite +degrees and variations, it is the public source of light and good and +hope. If there are select and aristocratic souls who can do without it, +or owe it nothing, the multitude of us cannot. And the Christian Church +is founded on a definite historic fact, that Jesus Christ who was +crucified rose from the dead; and, coming from such an author, it comes +to us, bringing with it the Bible. The fault of a book like _Robert +Elsmere_ is that it is written with a deliberate ignoring that these +two points are not merely important, but absolutely fundamental, in the +problems with which it deals. With these not faced and settled it is +like looking out at a prospect through a window of which all the glass +is ribbed and twisted, distorting everything. It may be that even yet +we imperfectly understand our wondrous Bible. It may be that we have +yet much to learn about it. It may be that there is much that is very +difficult about it. Let us reverently and fearlessly learn all we can +about it. Let us take care not to misuse it, as it has been terribly +misused. But coming to us from the company and with the sanction of +Christ risen, it never can be merely like other books. A so-called +Christianity, ignoring or playing with Christ's resurrection, and using +the Bible as a sort of Homer, may satisfy a class of clever and +cultivated persons. It may be to them the parent of high and noble +thoughts, and readily lend itself to the service of mankind. But it is +well in so serious a matter not to confuse things. This new religion +may borrow from Christianity as it may borrow from Plato, or from +Buddhism, or Confucianism, or even Islam. But it is not Christianity. +_Robert Elsmere_ may be true to life, as representing one of those +tragedies which happen in critical moments of history. But a +Christianity which tells us to think of Christ doing good, but to +forget and put out of sight Christ risen from the dead, is not true to +life. It is as delusive to the conscience and the soul as it is +illogical to reason. + + + + +XI + +RENAN'S "VIE DE JESUS"[13] + + + [13] + _Histoire des Origines du Christianisme_. Livre I.--_Vie de Jesus_. + Par Ernest Renan. _Guardian_, 9th September 1863. + +Unbelief is called upon nowadays, as well as belief, to give its +account of the origin of that undeniable and most important fact which +we call the Christian religion. And if it is true that in some respects +the circumstances under which the controversy is carried on are, as it +has been alleged, more than heretofore favourable to unbelief, it is +also true that in some other respects the case of unbelief has +difficulties which it had not once. It has to accept and admit, if it +wishes to gain a favourable hearing from the present generation, the +unique and surpassing moral grandeur, depth, and attractiveness of +Christianity. The polemic method which set Christianity in broad +contrast with what was supposed to be best and highest in human nature, +and therefore found no difficulty in tracing to a bad source what was +itself represented to be bad, is not a method suited to the ideas and +feelings of our time; and the sneers and sarcasms of the last century, +provoked by abuses and inconsistencies which have since received their +ample and memorable punishment, cease to produce any effect on readers +of the present day, except to call forth a passing feeling of +repugnance at what is shallow and profane, mixed, it may be, sometimes, +with an equally passing admiration for what is witty and brilliant. +Even in M. Renan's view, Voltaire has done his work, and is out of +date. Those who now attack Christianity have to attack it under the +disadvantage of the preliminary admission that its essential and +distinguishing elements are, on the whole, in harmony and not in +discordance with the best conceptions of human duty and life, and that +its course and progress have been, at any rate, concurrent with all +that is best and most hopeful in human history. First allowing that as +a fact it contains in it things than which we cannot imagine anything +better, and without which we should never have reached to where we are, +they then have to dispute its divine claims. No man could write +persuasively on religion now, _against_ it any more than _for_ it, who +did not show that he was fully penetrated not only with its august and +beneficent aspect, but with the essential and everlasting truths which, +in however imperfect shapes, or whencesoever derived, are embodied in +it and are ministered by it to society. + +That Christianity is, as a matter of fact, a successful and a living +religion, in a degree absolutely without parallel in any other +religion, is the point from which its assailants have now to start. +They have also to take account of the circumstance, to the recognition +of which the whole course of modern thought and inquiry has brought us, +that it has been successful, not by virtue merely of any outward and +accidental favouring circumstances, but of its intrinsic power and of +principles which are inseparable from its substance. This being the +condition of the question, those who deny its claim to a direct Divine +origin have to frame their theory of it so as to account, on principles +supposed to be common to it and other religions, not merely for its +rise and its conquests, but for those broad and startling differences +which separate it, in character and in effects, from all other known +religions. They have to show how that which is instinct with +never-dying truth sprang out of what was false and mistaken, if not +corrupt; how that which alone has revealed God to man's conscience had +no other origin than what in other instances has led men through +enthusiasm and imposture to a barren or a mischievous superstition. + +Such an attempt is the work before us--a work destined, probably, both +from its ability and power and from its faults, to be for modern France +what the work of Strauss was for Germany, the standard expression of an +unbelief which shrinks with genuine distaste from the coarse and +negative irreligion of older infidelity, and which is too refined, too +profound and sympathetic in its views of human nature, to be insensible +to those numberless points in which as a fact Christianity has given +expression to the best and highest thoughts that man can have. Strauss, +to account for what we see, imagined an idea, or a set of ideas, +gradually worked out into the shape of a history, of which scarcely +anything can be taken as real matter of fact, except the bare existence +of the person who was clothed in the process of time with the +attributes created by the idealising legend. Such a view is too vague +and indistinct to satisfy French minds. A theory of this sort, to find +general acceptance in France, must start with concrete history, and not +be history held in solution in the cloudy shapes of myths which vanish +as soon as touched. M. Renan's process is in the main the reverse of +Strauss's. He undertakes to extract the real history recorded in the +Gospels; and not only so, but to make it even more palpable and +interesting, if not more wonderful, than it seems at first sight in the +original records, by removing the crust of mistake and exaggeration +which has concealed the true character of what the narrative records; +by rewriting it according to those canons of what is probable and +intelligible in human life and capacity which are recognised in the +public whom he addresses. + +Two of these canons govern the construction of the book. One of them is +the assumption that in no part of the history of man is the +supernatural to be admitted. This, of course, is not peculiar to M. +Renan, though he lays it down with such emphasis in all his works, and +is so anxious to bring it into distinct notice on every occasion, that +it is manifestly one which he is desirous to impress on all who read +him, as one of the ultimate and unquestionable foundations of all +historical inquiry. The other canon is one of moral likelihood, and it +is, that it is credible and agreeable to what we gather from +experience, that the highest moral elevation ever attained by man +should have admitted along with it, and for its ends, conscious +imposture. On the first of these assumptions, all that is miraculous in +the Gospel narratives is, not argued about, or, except perhaps in one +instance--the raising of Lazarus--attempted to be accounted for or +explained, but simply left out and ignored. On the second, the fact +from which there is no escape--that He whom M. Renan venerates with a +sincerity which no one can doubt as the purest and greatest of moral +reformers, did claim power from God to work miracles--is harmonised +with the assumption that the claim could not possibly have been a true +one. + +M. Renan professes to give an historical account of the way in which +the deepest, purest, most enduring religious principles known among men +were, not merely found out and announced, but propagated and impressed +upon the foremost and most improved portions of mankind, by the power +of a single character. It is impossible, without speaking of Jesus of +Nazareth as Christians are used to do, to speak of His character and of +the results of His appearance in loftier terms than this professed +unbeliever in His Divine claims. But when the account is drawn out in +detail, of a cause alleged to be sufficient to produce such effects, +the apparent inadequacy of it is most startling. When we think of what +Christianity is and has done, and that, in M. Renan's view, Christ, the +Christ whom he imagines and describes, is all in all to Christianity, +and then look to what he conceives to have been the original spring and +creative impulse of its achievements, the first feeling is that no +shifts that belief has sometimes been driven to, to keep within the +range of the probable, are greater than those accepted by unbelief, in +its most enlightened and reflecting representations. To suppose such an +one as M. Renan paints, changing the whole course of history, +overturning and converting the world, and founding the religion which +M. Renan thinks the lasting religion of mankind, involves a force upon +our imagination and reason to which it is not easy to find a parallel. + +His view is that a Galilean peasant, in advance of his neighbours and +countrymen only in the purity, force, and singleness of purpose with +which he realised the highest moral truths of Jewish religious wisdom, +first charming a few simple provincials by the freshness and native +beauty of his lessons, was then led on, partly by holy zeal against +falsehood and wickedness, partly by enthusiastic delusions as to his +own mission and office, to attack the institutions of Judaism, and +perished in the conflict--and that this was the cause why Christianity +and Christendom came to be and exist. This is the explanation which a +great critical historian, fully acquainted with the history of other +religions, presents, as a satisfactory one, of a phenomenon so +astonishing and unique as that of a religion which has suited itself +with undiminished vitality to the changes, moral, social, and +political, which have marked the eighteen centuries of European +history. There have been other enthusiasts for goodness and truth, more +or less like the character which M. Renan draws in his book, but they +have never yet founded a universal religion, or one which had the +privilege of perpetual youth and unceasing self-renovation. There have +been other great and imposing religions, commanding the allegiance for +century after century of millions of men; but who will dare assert that +any of these religions, that of Sakya-Mouni, of Mahomet, or that of the +Vedas, could possibly be the religion, or satisfy the religious ideas +and needs, of the civilised West? + +When M. Renan comes to detail he is as strangely insensible to what seem +at first sight the simplest demands of probability. As it were by a sort +of reaction to the minute realising of particulars which has been in +vogue among some Roman Catholic writers, M. Renan realises too--realises +with no less force and vividness, and, according to his point of view, +with no less affectionate and tender interest. He popularises the +Gospels; but not for a religious set of readers--nor, we must add, for +readers of thought and sense, whether interested for or against +Christianity, but for a public who study life in the subtle and highly +wrought novels of modern times. He appeals from what is probable to +those representations of human nature which aspire to pass beyond the +conventional and commonplace, and especially he dwells on neglected and +unnoticed examples of what is sweet and soft and winning. But it is hard +to recognise the picture he has drawn in the materials out of which he +has composed it. The world is tolerably familiar with them. If there is +a characteristic, consciously or unconsciously acknowledged in the +Gospel records, it is that of the gravity, the plain downright +seriousness, the laborious earnestness, impressed from first to last on +the story. When we turn from these to his pages it is difficult to +exaggerate the astounding impression which his epithets and descriptions +have on the mind. We are told that there is a broad distinction between +the early Galilean days of hope in our Lord's ministry, and the later +days of disappointment and conflict; and that if we look, we shall find +in Galilee the "_fin et joyeux moraliste_," full of a "_conversation +pleine de gaiete et de charme_," of "_douce gaiete et aimables +plaisanteries_," with a "_predication suave et douce, toute pleine de la +nature et du parfum des champs_," creating out of his originality of +mind his "_innocents aphorismes_," and the "_genre d'elicieux_" of +parabolic teaching; "_le charmant docteur qui pardonnait a tous pourvu +qu'on l'aimat_." He lived in what was then an earthly paradise, in "_la +joyeuse Galilee_" in the midst of the "_nature ravissante_" which gave +to everything about the Sea of Galilee "_un tour idyllique et +charmant_." So the history of Christianity at its birth is a +"_delicieuse pastorale_" an "_idylle_," a "_milieu enivrant_" of joy and +hope. The master was surrounded by a "_bande de joyeux enfants_," a +"_troupe gaie et vagabonde_," whose existence in the open air was a +"perpetual enchantment." The disciples were "_ces petits comites de +bonnes gens_," very simple, very credulous, and like their country full +of a "_sentiment gai et tendre de la vie_," and of an "_imagination +riante_." Everything is spoken of as "delicious"--"_delicieuse +pastorale," "delicieuse beaute," "delicieuses sentences," "delicieuse +theologie d'amour_." Among the "tender and delicate souls of the +North"--it is not quite thus that Josephus describes the Galileans--was +set up an "_aimable communisme_." Is it possible to imagine a more +extravagant distortion than the following, both in its general effect +and in the audacious generalisation of a very special incident, itself +inaccurately conceived of?-- + + Il parcourait ainsi la Galilee au milieu _d'une fete perpetuelle_. + Il se servait d'une mule, monture en Orient si bonne et si sure, + et dont le grand oeil noir, ombrage de longs cils, a beaucoup de + douceur. Ses disciples deployarent quelquefois autour de lui une + pompe rustique, dont leurs vetements, tenant lieu de tapis, + faisaient les frais. Ils les mettaient sur la mule qui le portait, + ou les etendaient a terre sur son passage. + +History has seen strange hypotheses; but of all extravagant notions, +that one that the world has been conquered by what was originally an +idyllic gipsying party is the most grotesque. That these "_petits +comites de bonnes gens_" though influenced by a great example and +wakened out of their "delicious pastoral" by a heroic death, should +have been able to make an impression on Judaean faith, Greek intellect, +and Roman civilisation, and to give an impulse to mankind which has +lasted to this day, is surely one of the most incredible hypotheses +ever accepted, under the desperate necessity of avoiding an unwelcome +alternative. + +M. Renan is willing to adopt everything in the Gospel history except +what is miraculous. If he is difficult to satisfy as to the physical +possibility or the proof of miracles, at least he is not hard to +satisfy on points of moral likelihood; and he draws on his ample power +of supposing the combination of moral opposites in order to get rid of +the obstinate and refractory supernatural miracle. To some extent, +indeed, he avails himself of that inexhaustible resource of unlimited +guessing, by means of which he reverses the whole history, and makes it +take a shape which it is hard to recognise in its original records. The +feeding of the five thousand, the miracle described by all the four +Evangelists, is thus curtly disposed of:--"Il se retira au desert. +Beaucoup de monde l'y suivit. _Grace a une extreme frugalite_ la troupe +sainte y vecut; _on crut naturellement_ voir en cela un miracle." This +is all he has to say. But miracles are too closely interwoven with the +whole texture of the Gospel history to be, as a whole, thus disposed +of. He has, of course, to admit that miracles are so mixed up with it +that mere exaggeration is not a sufficient account of them. But be bids +us remember that the time was one of great credulity, of slackness and +incapacity in dealing with matters of evidence, a time when it might be +said that there was an innocent disregard of exact and literal truth +where men's souls and affections were deeply interested. But, even +supposing that this accounted for a belief in certain miracles growing +up--which it does not, for the time was not one of mere childlike and +uninquiring belief, but was as perfectly familiar as we are with the +notion of false claims to miraculous power which could not stand +examination--still this does not meet the great difficulty of all, to +which he is at last brought. It is undeniable that our Lord professed +to work miracles. They were not merely attributed to Him by those who +came after Him. If we accept in any degree the Gospel account, He not +only wrought miracles, but claimed to do so; and M. Renan admits +it--that is, he admits that the highest, purest, most Divine person +ever seen on earth (for all this he declares in the most unqualified +terms) stooped to the arts of Simon Magus or Apollonius of Tyana. He +was a "thaumaturge"--"tard et a contre-coeur"--"avec une sorte de +mauvaise humeur"--"en cachette"--"malgre lui"--"sentant le vanite de +l'opinion"; but still a "thaumaturge." Moreover, He was so almost of +necessity; for M. Renan holds that without the support of an alleged +supernatural character and power, His work must have perished. +Everything, to succeed and be realised, must, we are told, be fortified +with something of alloy. We are reminded of the "loi fatale qui +condamne l'idee a dechoir des qu'elle cherche a convertir les hommes." +"Concevoir de bien, en efifet, ne suffit pas; il faut le faire reussir +parmi les hommes. Pour cela, des voies moins pures sont necessaires." +If the Great Teacher had kept to the simplicity of His early lessons, +He would have been greater, but "the truth would not have been +promulgated." "He had to choose between these two alternatives, either +renouncing his mission or becoming a 'thaumaturge.'" The miracles +"were a violence done to him by his age, a concession which was wrung +from him by a passing necessity." And if we feel startled at such a +view, we are reminded that we must not measure the sincerity of +Orientals by our own rigid and critical idea of veracity; and that +"such is the weakness of the human mind, that the best causes are not +usually won but by bad reasons," and that the greatest of discoverers +and founders have only triumphed over their difficulties "by daily +taking account of men's weakness and by not always giving the true +reasons of the truth." + + L'histoire est impossible si l'on n'admet hautement qu'il y a pour + la sincerite plusieurs mesures. Toutes les grandes choses se font + par le peuple, or on ne conduit pas le peuple qu'en se pretant a + ses idees. Le philosophe, qui sachant cela, s'isole et se + retranche dans sa noblesse, est hautement louable. Mais celui qui + prend l'humanite avec ses illusions et cherche a agir sur elle et + avec elle, ne saurait etre blame. Cesar savait fort bien qu'il + n'etait pas fils de Venus; la France ne serait pas ce qu'elle est + si l'on n'avait cru mille ans a la sainte ampoule de Reims. Il + nous est facile a nous autres, impuissants que nous sommes, + d'appeler cela mensonge, et fiers de notre timide honnetete, de + traiter avec dedain les heros qui out accepte dans d'autres + conditions la lutte de la vie. Quand nous aurons fait avec nos + scrupules ce qu'ils firent avec leurs mensonges, nous aurons le + droit d'etre pour eux severes. + +Now let M. Renan or any one else realise what is involved, on his +supposition, not merely, as he says, of "illusion or madness," but of +wilful deceit and falsehood, in the history of Lazarus, even according +to his lame and hesitating attempt to soften it down and extenuate it; +and then put side by side with it the terms in which M. Renan has +summed up the moral greatness of Him of whom he writes:-- + + La foi, l'enthousiasme, la constance de la premiere generation + chretienne ne s'expliquent qu'en supposant a l'origine de tout le + mouvement un homme de proportions colossales.... Cette sublime + personne, qui chaque jour preside encore au destin du monde, il + est permis de l'appeler divine, non en ce sens que Jesus ait + absorbe tout le divin, mais en ce sens que Jesus est l'individu + qui a fait faire a son espece le plus grand pas vers le divin.... + Au milieu de cette uniforme vulgarite, des colonnes s'elevent vers + le ciel et attestent une plus noble destinee. Jesus est la plus + haute de ces colonnes qui montrent a l'homme d'ou il vient et ou + il doit tendre. En lui s'est condense tout ce qu'il y a de bon et + d'eleve dans notre nature.... Quels que puissent etre les + phenomenes inattendus de l'avenir, Jesus ne sera pas surpasse.... + Tous les siecles proclameront qu'entre les fils des hommes il n'en + est pas ne de plus grand que Jesus. + +And of such an one we are told that it is a natural and reasonable view +to take, not merely that He claimed a direct communication with God, +which disordered reason could alone excuse Him for claiming, but that +He based His whole mission on a pretension to such supernatural powers +as a man could not pretend to without being conscious that they were +delusions. The conscience of that age as to veracity or imposture was +quite clear on such a point. Jew and Greek and Roman would have +condemned as a deceiver one who, not having the power, took on him to +say that by the finger of God he could raise the dead. And yet to a +conscience immeasurably above his age, it seems, according to M. Renan, +that this might be done. It is absurd to say that we must not judge +such a proceeding by the ideas of our more exact and truth-loving age, +when it would have been abundantly condemned by the ideas recognised in +the religion and civilisation of the first century. + +M. Renan repeatedly declares that his great aim is to save religion by +relieving it of the supernatural. He does not argue; but instead of the +old familiar view of the Great History, he presents an opposite theory +of his own, framed to suit that combination of the revolutionary and +the sentimental which just now happens to be in favour in the unbelieving +schools. And this is the result: a representation which boldly invests +its ideal with the highest perfections of moral goodness, strength, and +beauty, and yet does not shrink from associating with it also--and +that, too, as the necessary and inevitable condition of success--a +deliberate and systematic willingness to delude and insensibility to +untruth. This is the religion and this is the reason which appeals to +Christ in order to condemn Christianity. + + + + +XII + +RENAN'S "LES APOTRES"[14] + + + [14] + _Histoire des Origines du Christianisme_. Livre II.--_Les Apotres_. + Par Ernest Renan. _Saturday Review_, 14th July 1866. + +In his recent volume, _Les Apotres_, M. Renan has undertaken two tasks +of very unequal difficulty. He accounts for the origin of the Christian +belief and religion, and he writes the history of its first +propagation. These are very different things, and to do one of them is +by no means to do the other. M. Renan's historical sketch of the first +steps of the Christian movement is, whatever we may think of its +completeness and soundness, a survey of characters and facts, based on +our ordinary experience of the ways in which men act and are +influenced. Of course it opens questions and provokes dissent at every +turn; but, after all, the history of a religion once introduced into +the world is the history of the men who give it shape and preach it, +who accept or oppose it. The spread and development of all religions +have certain broad features in common, which admit of philosophical +treatment simply as phenomena, and receive light from being compared +with parallel examples of the same kind; and whether a man's historical +estimate is right, and his picture accurate and true, depends on his +knowledge of the facts, and his power to understand them and to make +them understood. No one can dispute M. Renan's qualifications for being +the historian of a religious movement. The study of religion as a +phenomenon of human nature and activity has paramount attractions for +him. His interest in it has furnished him with ample and varied +materials for comparison and generalisation. He is a scholar and a man +of learning, quick and wide in his sympathies, and he commands +attention by the singular charm of his graceful and lucid style. When, +therefore, he undertakes to relate how, as a matter of fact, the +Christian Church grew up amid the circumstances of its first +appearance, he has simply to tell the story of the progress of a +religious cause; and this is a comparatively light task for him. But he +also lays before us what he appears to consider an adequate account of +the origin of the Christian belief. The Christian belief, it must be +remembered, means, not merely the belief that there was such a person +as he has described in his former, volume, but the belief that one who +was crucified rose again from the dead, and lives for evermore above. +It is in this belief that the Christian religion had its beginning; +there is no connecting Christ and Christianity, except through the +Resurrection. The origin, therefore, of the belief in the Resurrection, +in the shape in which we have it, lies across M. Renan's path to +account for; and neither the picture which he has drawn in his former +volume, nor the history which he follows out in this, dispense him from +the necessity of facing this essential and paramount element in the +problem which he has to solve. He attempts to deal with this, the knot +of the great question. But his attempt seems to us to disclose a more +extraordinary insensibility to the real demands of the case, and to +what we cannot help calling the pitiable inadequacy of his own +explanation, than we could have conceived possible in so keen and +practised a mind. + +The Resurrection, we repeat, bars the way in M. Renan's scheme for +making an intelligible transition, from the life and character which he +has sought to reproduce from the Gospels, to the first beginnings and +preaching of Christianity. The Teacher, he says, is unique in wisdom, +in goodness, in the height of his own moral stature and the Divine +elevation of his aims. The religion is, with all abatements and +imperfections, the only one known which could be the religion of +humanity. After his portraiture of the Teacher, follows, naturally +enough, as the result of that Teacher's influence and life, a religion +of corresponding elevation and promise. The passage from a teaching +such as M. Renan supposes to a religion such as he allows Christianity +to be may be reasonably understood as a natural consequence of +well-known causes, but for one thing--the interposition between the two +of an alleged event which simply throws out all reasonings drawn from +ordinary human experience. From the teaching and life of Socrates +follow, naturally enough, schools of philosophy, and an impulse which +has affected scientific thought ever since. From the preaching and life +of Mahomet follows, equally naturally, the religion of Islam. In each +case the result is seen to be directly and distinctly linked on to the +influences which gave it birth, and nothing more than these influences +is wanted, or makes any claim, to account for it. So M. Renan holds +that all that is needed to account for Christianity is such a +personality and such a career as he has described in his last volume. +But the facts will not bend to this. Christianity hangs on to Christ +not merely as to a Person who lived and taught and died, but as to a +Person who rose again from death. That is of the very essence of its +alleged derivation from Christ. It knows Christ only as Christ risen; +the only reason of its own existence that it recognises is the +Resurrection. The only claim the Apostles set forth for preaching to +the world is that their Master who was crucified was alive once more. +Every one knows that this was the burden of all their words, the +corner-stone of all their work. We may believe them or not. We may take +Christianity or leave it. But we cannot derive Christianity from +Christ, without meeting, as the bond which connects the two, the +Resurrection. But for the Resurrection, M. Renan's scheme might be +intelligible. A Teacher unequalled for singleness of aim and nobleness +of purpose lives and dies, and leaves the memory and the leaven of His +teaching to disciples, who by them, even though in an ill-understood +shape, and with incomparably inferior qualities themselves, purify and +elevate the religious ideas and feelings of mankind. If that were all, +if there were nothing but the common halo of the miraculous which is +apt to gather about great names, the interpretation might be said to be +coherent. But a theory of Christianity cannot neglect the most +prominent fact connected with its beginning. It is impossible to leave +it out of the account, in judging both of the Founder and of those whom +his influence moulded and inspired. + +M. Renan has to account for the prominence given to the Resurrection in +the earliest Christian teaching, without having recourse to the +supposition of conscious imposture and a deliberate conspiracy to +deceive; for such a supposition would not harmonise either with the +portrait he has drawn of the Master, or with his judgment of the +seriousness and moral elevation of the men who, immeasurably inferior +as they were to Him, imbibed His spirit, and represented and +transmitted to us His principles. And this is something much more than +can be accounted for by the general disposition of the age to assume +the supernatural and the miraculous. The way in which the Resurrection +is circumstantially and unceasingly asserted, and made on every +occasion and from the first the foundation of everything, is something +very different from the vague legends which float about of kings or +saints whom death has spared, or from a readiness to see the direct +agency of heaven in health or disease. It is too precise, too +matter-of-fact, too prosaic in the way in which it is told, to be +resolved into ill-understood dreams and imaginations. The various +recitals show little care to satisfy our curiosity, or to avoid the +appearance of inconsistency in detail; but nothing can be more removed +from vagueness and hesitation than their definite positive statements. +It is with them that the writer on Christianity has to deal. + +M. Renan's method is--whilst of course not believing them, yet not +supposing conscious fraud--to treat these records as the description of +natural, unsought visions on the part of people who meant no harm, but +who believed what they wished to believe. They are the story of a great +mistake, but a mistake proceeding simply, in the most natural way in +the world, from excess of "idealism" and attachment. Unaffected by the +circumstance that there never were narratives less ideal, and more +straightforwardly real--that they seem purposely framed to be a +contrast to professed accounts of visions, and to exclude the +possibility of their being confounded with such accounts; and that the +alleged numbers who saw, the alleged frequency and repetition and +variation of the instances, and the alleged time over which the +appearances extended, and after which they absolutely ceased, make the +hypothesis of involuntary and undesigned allusions of regret and +passion infinitely different from what it might be in the case of one +or two persons, or for a transitory period of excitement and +crisis--unaffected by such considerations, M. Renan proceeds to tell, +in his own way, the story of what he supposes to have occurred, +without, of course, admitting the smallest real foundation for what was +so positively asserted, but with very little reproach or discredit to +the ardent and undoubting assertors. He begins with a statement which +is meant to save the character of the Teacher. "Jesus, though he spoke +unceasingly of resurrection, of new life, had never said quite clearly +that he should rise again in the flesh." He says this with the texts +before him, for he quotes them and classifies them in a note. But this +is his point of departure, laid down without qualification. Yet if +there is anything which the existing records do say distinctly, it is +that Jesus Christ said over and over again that He should rise again, +and that He fixed the time within which He should rise. M. Renan is not +bound to believe them. But he must take them as he finds them; and on +this capital point either we know nothing at all, and have no evidence +to go upon, or the evidence is simply inverted by M. Renan's assertion. +There may, of course, be reasons for believing one part of a man's +evidence and disbelieving another; but there is nothing in this case +but incompatibility with a theory to make this part of the evidence +either more or less worthy of credit than any other part. What is +certain is that it is in the last degree weak and uncritical to lay +down, as the foundation and first pre-requisite of an historical view, +a position which the records on which the view professes to be based +emphatically and unambiguously contradict. Whatever we may think of it, +the evidence undoubtedly is, if evidence there is at all, that Jesus +Christ did say, though He could not get His disciples at the time to +understand and believe Him, that He should rise again on the third day. +What M. Renan had to do, if he thought the contrary, was not to assume, +but to prove, that in these repeated instances in which they report His +announcements, the Evangelists mistook or misquoted the words of their +Master. + +He accepts, however, their statement that no one at first hoped that +the words would be made good; and he proceeds to account for the +extraordinary belief which, in spite of this original incredulity, grew +up, and changed the course of things and the face of the world. We +admire and respect many things in M. Renan; but it seems to us that his +treatment of this matter is simply the _ne plus ultra_ of the +degradation of the greatest of issues by the application to it of +sentiment unworthy of a silly novel. In the first place, he lays down +on general grounds that, though the disciples had confessedly given up +all hope, it yet _was natural_ that they should expect to see their +master alive again. "Mais I'enthousiasme et l'amour ne connaissent pas +les situations sans issue." Do they not? Are death and separation such +light things to triumph over that imagination finds it easy to cheat +them? "Ils se jouent de l'impossible et, plutot que d'abdiquer +l'esperance, ils font violence a toute realite." Is this an account of +the world of fact or the world of romance? The disciples did not hope; +but, says M. Renan, vague words about the future had dropped from their +master, and these were enough to build upon, and to suggest that they +would soon see him back. In vain it is said that in fact they did not +expect it. "Une telle croyance etait d'ailleurs si naturelle, que la +foi des disciples aurait suffi pour la creer de toutes pieces." Was it +indeed--in spite of Enoch and Elias, cases of an entirely different +kind--so natural to think that the ruined leader of a crushed cause, +whose hopeless followers had seen the last of him amid the lowest +miseries of torment and scorn, should burst the grave? + + Il devait arriver [he proceeds] pour Jesus ce qui arrive pour tous + les hommes qui ont captive l'attention de leurs semblables. Le + monde, habitue a leur attribuer des vertus surhumaines, ne peut + admettre qu'ils aient subi la loi injuste, revoltante, inique, du + trepas commun.... La mort est chose si absurde quand elle frappe + l'homme de genie ou l'homme d'un grand coeur, que le peuple ne + croit pas a la possibilite d'une telle erreur de la nature. Les + heros ne meurent pas. + +The history of the world presents a large range of instances to test +the singular assertion that death is so "absurd" that "the people" +cannot believe that great and good men literally die. But would it be +easy to match the strangeness of a philosopher and a man of genius +gravely writing this down as a reason--not why, at the interval of +centuries, a delusion should grow up--but why, on the very morrow of a +crucifixion and burial, the disciples should have believed that all the +dreadful work they had seen a day or two before was in very fact and +reality reversed? We confess we do not know what human experience is if +it countenances such a supposition as this. + +From this antecedent probability he proceeds to the facts. "The Sabbath +day which followed the burial was occupied with these thoughts.... +Never was the rest of the Sabbath so fruitful." They all, the women +especially, thought of him all day long in his bed of spices, watched +over by angels; and the assurance grew that the wicked men who had +killed him would not have their triumph, that he would not be left to +decay, that he would be wafted on high to that Kingdom of the Father of +which he had spoken. "Nous le verrons encore; nous entendrons sa voix +charmante; c'est en vain qu'ils l'auront tue." And as, with the Jews, a +future life implied a resurrection of the body, the shape which their +hope took was settled. "Reconnaitre que la mort pouvait etre +victorieuse de Jesus, de celui qui venait de supprimer son empire, +c'etait le comble de l'absurdite." It is, we suppose, irrelevant to +remark that we find not the faintest trace of this sense of absurdity. +The disciples, he says, had no choice between hopelessness and "an +heroic affirmation"; and he makes the bold surmise that "un homme +penetrant aurait pu annoncer _des le samedi_ que Jesus revivrait." This +may be history, or philosophy, or criticism; what it is _not_ is the +inference naturally arising from the only records we have of the time +spoken of. But the force of historical imagination dispenses with the +necessity of extrinsic support. "La petite societe chretienne, ce +jour-la, opera le veritable miracle: elle ressuscita Jesus en son coeur +par l'amour intense qu'elle lui porta. Elle decida que Jesus ne +mourrait pas." The Christian Church has done many remarkable things; +but it never did anything so strange, or which so showed its power, as +when it took that resolution. + +How was the decision, involuntary and unconscious, and guiltless of +intentional deception, if we can conceive of such an attitude of mind, +carried out? M. Renan might leave the matter in obscurity. But he sees +his way, in spite of incoherent traditions and the contradictions which +they present, to a "sufficient degree of probability." The belief in +the Resurrection originated in an hallucination of the disordered fancy +of Mary Magdalen, whose mind was thrown off its balance by her +affection and sorrow; and, once suggested, the idea rapidly spread, and +produced, through the Christian society, a series of corresponding +visions, firmly believed to be real. But Mary Magdalen was the founder +of it all:-- + + Elle eut, en ce moment solennel, une part d'action tout a fait + hors ligne. C'est elle qu'il faut suivre pas a pas; car elle + porta, ce jour-la, pendant une heure, tout le travail de la + conscience chretienne; son temoignage decida la foi de + l'avenir.... La vision legere s'ecarte et lui dit: "Ne me touche + pas!" Peu a peu l'ombre disparait. Mais le miracle de l'amour est + accompli. Ce que Cephas n'a pu faire, Marie l'a faite; elle a su + tirer la vie, la parole douce et penetrante, du tombeau vide. Il + ne s'agit plus de consequences a deduire ni de conjectures a + former. Marie a vu et entendu. La resurrection a son premier + temoin immediat. + +He proceeds to criticise the accounts which ascribe the first vision to +others; but in reality Mary Magdalen, he says, has done most, after the +great Teacher, for the foundation of Christianity. "Queen and patroness +of idealists," she was able to "impose upon all the sacred vision of +her impassioned soul." All rests upon her first burst of entbusiasm, +which gave the signal and kindled the faith of others. "Sa grande +affirmation de femme, 'il est ressuscite,' a ete la base de la foi de +l'humanite":-- + + Paul ne parle pas de la vision de Marie et reporte tout l'honneur + de la premiere apparition sur Pierre. Mais cette expression est + tres~inexacte. Pierre ne vit que le caveau vide, le suaire et le + linceul. Marie seule aima assez pour depasser la nature et faire + revivre le fantome du maitre exquis. Dans ces sortes de crises + merveilleuses, voir apres les autres n'est rien; tout le merite + est de voir pour la premiere fois; car les autres modelent ensuite + leur vision sur le type recu. C'est le propre des belles + organisations de concevoir l'image promptement, avec justesse et + par une sorte de sens intime du dessin. La gloire de la + resurrection appartient donc a Marie de Magdala. Apres Jesus, + c'est Marie qui a le plus fait pour la fondation du Christianisme. + L'ombre creee par les sens delicats de Madeleine plane encore sur + le monde.... Loin d'ici, raison impuissante! Ne va pas appliquer + une froide analyse a ce chef-d'oeuvre de l'idealisme et de + l'amour. Si la sagesse renonce a consoler cette pauvre race + humaine, trahie par le sort, laisse la folie tenter l'aventure. Ou + est le sage qui a donne au monde autant de joie, que la possedee + Marie de Magdala? + +He proceeds to describe, on the same supposition, the other events of +the day, which he accepts as having in a certain very important sense +happened, though, of course, only in the sense which excludes their +reality. No doubt, for a series of hallucinations, anything will do in +the way of explanation. The scene of the evening was really believed to +have taken place as described, though it was the mere product of chance +noises and breaths of air on minds intently expectant; and we are +bidden to remember "that in these decisive hours a current of wind, a +creaking window, an accidental rustle, settle the belief of nations for +centuries." But at any rate it was a decisive hour:-- + + Tels furent les incidents de ce jour qui a fixe le sort de + l'humanite. L'opinion que Jesus etait ressuscite s'y fonda d'une + maniere irrevocable. La secte, qu'on avait cru eteindre en tuant + le maitre, fut des lors assuree d'un immense avenir. + +We are willing to admit that Christian writers have often spoken +unreally and unsatisfactorily enough in their comments on this subject. +But what Christian comment, hard, rigid, and narrow in its view of +possibilities, ever equalled this in its baselessness and supreme +absence of all that makes a view look like the truth? It puts the most +extravagant strain on documents which, truly or falsely, but at any +rate in the most consistent and uniform manner, assert something +different. What they assert in every conceivable form, and with +distinct detail, are facts; it is not criticism, but mere arbitrary +license, to say that all these stand for visions. The issue of truth or +falsehood is intelligible; the middle supposition of confusion and +mistake in that which is the basis of everything, and is definitely and +in such varied ways repeated, is trifling and incredible. We may +disbelieve, if we please, St. Paul's enumeration of the appearances +after the Resurrection; but to resolve it into a series of visions is +to take refuge in the most unlikely of guesses. And, when we take into +view the whole of the case--not merely the life and teaching out of +which everything grew, but the aim and character of the movement which +ensued, and the consequences of it, long tested and still continuing, +to the history and development of mankind--we find it hard to measure +the estimate of probability which is satisfied with the supposition +that the incidents of one day of folly and delusion irrevocably decided +the belief of ages, and the life and destiny of millions. Without the +belief in the Resurrection there would have been no Christianity; if +anything may be laid down as certain, this may. We should probably +never have even heard of the great Teacher; He would not have been +believed in, He would not have been preached to the world; the impulse +to conversion would have been wanting; and all that was without +parallel good and true and fruitful in His life would have perished, +and have been lost in Judaea. And the belief in the Resurrection M. +Renan thinks due to an hour of over-excited fancy in a woman agonized +by sorrow and affection. When we are presented with an hypothesis on +the basis of intrinsic probability, we cannot but remember that the +power of delusion and self-deception, though undoubtedly shown in very +remarkable instances, must yet be in a certain proportion to what it +originates and produces, and that it is controlled by the numerous +antagonistic influences of the world. Crazy women have founded +superstitions; but we cannot help thinking that it would be more +difficult than M. Renan supposes for crazy women to found a world-wide +religion for ages, branching forth into infinite forms, and tested by +its application to all varieties of civilisation, and to national and +personal character. M. Renan points to La Salette. But the assumption +would be a bold one that the La Salette people could have invented a +religion for Christendom which would stand the wear of eighteen +centuries, and satisfy such different minds. Pious frauds, as he says, +may have built cathedrals. But you must take Christianity for what it +has proved itself to be in its hard and unexampled trial. To start an +order, a sect, an institution, even a local tradition or local set of +miracles, on foundations already laid, is one thing; it is not the same +to be the spring of the most serious and the deepest of moral movements +for the improvement of the world, the most unpretending and the most +careless of all outward form and show, the most severely searching and +universal and lasting in its effects on mankind. To trace that back to +the Teacher without the intervention of the belief in the Resurrection +is manifestly impossible. We know what He is said to have taught; we +know what has come of that teaching in the world at large; but if the +link which connects the two be not a real one, it is vain to explain it +by the dreams of affection. It was not a matter of a moment or an hour, +but of days and weeks continually; not the assertion of one imaginative +mourner or two, but of a numerous and variously constituted body of +people. The story, if it was not true, was not delusion, but imposture. +We certainly cannot be said to know much of what happens in the genesis +of religions. But that between such a teacher and such teaching there +should intervene such a gigantic falsehood, whether imposture or +delusion, is unquestionably one of the hardest violations of +probability conceivable, as well as one of the most desperate +conclusions as regards the capacity of mankind for truth. Few thoughts +can be less endurable than that the wisest and best of our race, men of +the soberest and most serious tempers, and most candid and judicial +minds, should have been the victims and dupes of the mad affection of a +crazy Magdalen, of "ces touchantes demoniaques, ces pecheresses +converties, ces vraies fondatrices du Christianisme." M. Renan shrinks +from solving such a question by the hypothesis of conscious fraud. To +solve it by sentiment is hardly more respectful either to the world or +to truth. + +We have left ourselves no room to speak of the best part of M. Renan's +new volume, his historical comment on the first period of Christianity. +We do not pretend to go along with him in his general principles of +judgment, or in many of his most important historical conclusions. But +here he is, what he is not in the early chapters, on ground where his +critical faculty comes fairly into play. He is, we think, continually +paradoxical and reckless in his statements; and his book is more +thickly strewn than almost any we know with half-truths, broad axioms +which require much paring down to be of any use, but which are made by +him to do duty for want of something stronger. But, from so keen and so +deeply interested a writer, it is our own fault if we do not learn a +good deal. And we may study in its full development that curious +combination, of which M. Renan is the most conspicuous example, of +profound veneration for Christianity and sympathy with its most +characteristic aspects, with the scientific impulse to destroy in the +public mind the belief in its truth. + + + + +XIII + +M. RENAN'S HIBBERT LECTURES[15] + + + [15] + _Guardian_, 14th April 1880. + +I + +The object of M. Renan's lectures at St. George's Hall is, as we +understand him, not merely to present a historical sketch of the +influence of Rome on the early Church, but to reconcile the historical +imagination with the results of his own and kindred speculations on the +origin of Christianity. He has, with a good faith which we do not +question, investigated the subject and formed his conclusions upon it. +He on the present occasion assumes these investigations, and that he, +at any rate, is satisfied with their result. He hardly pretends to +carry the mixed popular audience whom he addresses into any real +inquiry into the grounds on which he has satisfied himself that the +received account of Christianity is not the true one. But he is aware +that all minds are more or less consciously impressed with the broad +difficulty that, after all attempts to trace the origin of Christianity +to agencies and influences of well-understood human character, the +disproportion between causes and effects still continues to appear +excessive. The great Christian tradition with its definite beliefs +about the conditions of man's existence, which has shaped the fortunes +and determined the future of mankind on earth, is in possession of the +world as much as the great tradition of right and wrong, or of the +family, or of the State. How did it get there? It is most astonishing +that it should have done so, what is the account of it? Of course +people may inquire into this question as they may inquire into the +basis of morality, or the origin of the family or the State. But here, +as on those subjects, reason, and that imagination which is one of the +forces of reason, by making the mind duly sensible of the magnitude of +ideas and alternatives, are exacting. M. Renan's task is to make the +purely human origin of Christianity, its origin in the circumstances, +the beliefs, the ideas, and the moral and political conditions of the +first centuries, seem to us _natural_--as natural in the history of the +world as other great and surprising events and changes--as natural as +the growth and the fall of the Roman Empire, or as the Reformation, or +the French Revolution. He is well qualified to sound the depths of his +undertaking and to meet its heavy exigencies. With a fuller knowledge +of books, and a closer familiarity than most men with the thoughts and +the events of the early ages, with a serious value for the idea of +religion as such, and certainly with no feeble powers of recalling the +past and investing it with colour and life, he has to show how these +things can be--how a religion with such attributes as he freely +ascribes to the Gospel, so grand, so pure, so lasting, can have sprung +up not merely _in_ but _from_ a most corrupt and immoral time, and can +have its root in the most portentous and impossible of falsehoods. It +must be said to be a bold undertaking. + +M. Renan has always aimed at doing justice to what he assailed; +Christians, who realise what they believe, will say that he patronises +their religion, and naturally they resent such patronage. Such candour +adds doubtless to the literary effect of his method; but it is only due +to him to acknowledge the fairness of his admissions. He starts with +the declaration that there never was a nobler moment in human history +than the beginnings of the Christian Church. It was the "most heroic +episode in the annals of mankind." "Never did man draw forth from his +bosom more devotion, more love of the ideal, than in the 150 years +which elapsed between the sweet Galilean vision and the death of Marcus +Aurelius." It was not only that the saints were admirable and beautiful +in their lives; they had the secret of the future, and laid down the +lines on which the goodness and hope of the coming world were to move." +Never was the religious conscience more eminently creative, never did +it lay down with more authority the law of future ages." + +Now, if this is not mere rhetoric, what does it come to? It means not +merely that there was here a phenomenon, not only extraordinary but +unique, in the development of human character, but that here was +created or evolved what was to guide and form the religious ideas of +mankind; here were the springs of what has reached through all the ages +of expanding humanity to our own days, of what is best and truest and +deepest and holiest. M. Renan, at any rate, does not think this an +illusion of Christian prepossessions, a fancy picture of a mythic age +of gold, of an unhistorical period of pure and primitive antiquity. Put +this view of things by the side of any of the records or the literature +of the time remaining to us; if not St. Paul's Epistles nor Tacitus nor +Lucian, then Virgil and Horace and Cicero, or Seneca or Epictetus or +Marcus Aurelius. Is it possible by any effort of imagination to body +forth the links which can solidly connect the ideas which live and work +and grow on one side, with the ideas which are represented by the facts +and principles of the other side? Or is it any more possible to connect +what we know of Christian ideas and convictions by a bond of natural +and intelligible, if not necessary derivation, with what we know of +Jewish ideas and Jewish habits of thought at the time in question? Yet +that is the thing to be done, to be done rigorously, to be done clearly +and distinctly, by those who are satisfied to find the impulses and +faith which gave birth to Christianity amid the seething confusions of +the time which saw its beginning; absolutely identical with those wild +movements in origin and nature, and only by a strange, fortunate +accident immeasurably superior to them. + +This question M. Renan has not answered; as far as we can see he has +not perceived that it is the first question for him to answer, in +giving a philosophical account of the history of Christianity. Instead, +he tells us, and he is going still further to tell us, how Rome and its +wonderful influences acted on Christianity, and helped to assure its +victories. But, first of all, what is that Christianity, and whence did +it come, which Rome so helped? It came, he says, from Judaism; "it was +Judaism under its Christian form which Rome propagated without wishing +it, yet with such mighty energy that from a certain epoch Romanism and +Christianity became synonymous words"; it was Jewish monotheism, the +religion the Roman hated and despised, swallowing up by its contrast +all that was local, legendary, and past belief, and presenting one +religious law to the countless nationalities of the Empire, which like +itself was one, and like itself above all nationalities. + +This may all be true, and is partially true; but how did that hated and +partial Judaism break through its trammels, and become a religion for +all men, and a religion to which all men gathered? The Roman +organisation was an admirable vehicle for Christianity; but the vehicle +does not make that which it carries, or account for it. M. Renan's +picture of the Empire abounds with all those picturesque details which +he knows so well where to find, and knows so well, too, how to place in +an interesting light. There were then, of course, conditions of the +time more favourable to the Christian Church than would have been the +conditions of other times. There was a certain increased liberty of +thought, though there were also some pretty strong obstacles to it. M. +Renan has Imperial proclivities, and reminds us truly enough that +despotisms are sometimes more tolerant than democracies, and that +political liberty is not the same as spiritual and mental freedom, and +does not always favour it. It may be partially true, as he says, that +"Virgil and Tibullus show that Roman harshness and cruelty were +softening down"; that "equality and the rights of men were preached by +the Stoics"; that "woman was more her own mistress, and slaves were +better treated than in the days of Cato"; that "very humane and just +laws were enacted under the very worst emperors; that Tiberius and Nero +were able financiers"; that "after the terrible butcheries of the old +centuries, mankind was crying with the voice of Virgil for peace and +pity." A good many qualifications and abatements start up in our minds +on reading these statements, and a good many formidable doubts suggest +themselves, if we can at all believe what has come down to us of the +history of these times. It is hard to accept quite literally the bold +assertion that "love for the poor, sympathy with all men, almsgiving, +were becoming virtues." But allow this as the fair and hopeful side of +the Empire. Yet all this is a long way from accounting for the effects +on the world of Christianity, even in the dim, vaporous form in which +M. Renan imagines it, much more in the actual concrete reality in +which, if we know anything, it appeared. "Christianity," he says, +"responded to the cry for peace and pity of all weary and tender +souls." No doubt it did; but what was it that responded, and what was +its consolation, and whence was its power drawn? What was there in the +known thoughts or hopes or motives of men at the time to furnish such a +response? "Christianity," he says, "could only have been born and +spread at a time when men had no longer a country"; "it was that +explosion of social and religious ideas which became inevitable after +Augustus had put an end to political struggles," after his policy had +killed "patriotism." It is true enough that the first Christians, +believing themselves subjects of an Eternal King and in view of an +eternal world, felt themselves strangers and pilgrims in this; yet did +the rest of the Roman world under the Caesars feel that they had no +country, and was the idea of patriotism extinct in the age of Agricola? +But surely the real question worth asking is, What was it amid the +increasing civilisation and prosperous peace of Rome under the first +Emperors which made these Christians relinquish the idea of a country? +From whence did Christianity draw its power to set its followers in +inflexible opposition to the intensest worship of the State that the +world has ever known? + +To tell us the conditions under which all this occurred is not to tell +us the cause of it. We follow with interest the sketches which M. Renan +gives of these conditions, though it must be said that his +generalisations are often extravagantly loose and misleading. We do +indeed want to know more of those wonderful but hidden days which +intervene between the great Advent, with its subsequent Apostolic age, +and the days when the Church appears fully constituted and recognised. +German research and French intelligence and constructiveness have done +something to help us, but not much. But at the end of all such +inquiries appears the question of questions, What was the beginning and +root of it all? Christians have a reasonable answer to the question. +There is none, there is not really the suggestion of one, in M. Renan's +account of the connection of Christianity with the Roman world. + + +II[16] + + [16] + _Guardian_, 21st April 1880. + +M. Renan has pursued the line of thought indicated in his first +lecture, and in his succeeding lectures has developed the idea that +Christianity, as we know it, was born in Imperial Rome, and that in its +visible form and active influence on the world it was the manifest +product of Roman instincts and habits; it was the spirit of the Empire +passing into a new body and accepting in exchange for political power, +as it slowly decayed and vanished, a spiritual supremacy as unrivalled +and as astonishing. The "Legend of the Roman Church--Peter and Paul," +"Rome the Centre in which Church Authority grew up," and "Rome the +Capital of Catholicism," are the titles of the three lectures in which +this thesis is explained and illustrated. A lecture on Marcus Aurelius, +at the Royal Institution, though not one of the series, is obviously +connected with it, and concludes M. Renan's work in England. + +Except the brilliant bits of writing which, judging from the full +abstracts given in translation in the _Times_, appear to have been +interspersed, and except the undoubting self-confidence and _aplomb_ +with which a historical survey, reversing the common ideas of mankind, +was delivered, there was little new to be learned from M. Renan's +treatment of his subject. Perhaps it may be described as the Roman +Catholic theory of the rise of the Church, put in an infidel point of +view. It is Roman Catholic in concentrating all interest, all the +sources of influence and power in the Christian religion and Christian +Church, from the first moment at Rome. But for Rome the Christian +Church would not have existed. The Church is inconceivable without +Rome, and Rome as the seat and centre of its spiritual activity. +Everything else is forgotten. There were Christian Churches all over +the Empire, in Syria, in Egypt, in Africa, in Asia Minor, in Gaul, in +Greece. A great body of Christian literature, embodying the ideas and +character of Christians all over the Empire, was growing up, and this +was not Roman and had nothing to do with Rome; it was Greek as much as +Latin, and local, not metropolitan, in its characteristics. +Christianity was spreading here, there, and everywhere, slowly and +imperceptibly as the tide comes in, or as cells multiply in the growing +tissues of organised matter; it was spreading under its many distinct +guides and teachers, and taking possession of the cities and provinces +of the Empire. All this great movement, the real foundation of all that +was to be, is overlooked and forgotten in the attention which is fixed +on Rome and confined to it. As in the Roman Catholic view, M. Renan +brings St. Paul and St. Peter together to Rome, to found that great +Imperial Church in which the manifold and varied history of Christendom +is merged and swallowed up. Only, of course, M. Renan brings them there +as "fanatics" instead of Apostles and martyrs. We know something about +St. Peter and St. Paul. We know them at any rate from their writings. +In M. Renan's representation they stand opposed to one another as +leaders of factions, to whose fierce hatreds and jealousies there is +nothing comparable. "All the differences," he is reported to say, +"which divide orthodox folks, heretics, schismatics, in our own day, +are as nothing compared with the dissension between Peter and Paul." It +is, as every one knows, no new story; but there it is in M. Renan in +all its crudity, as if it were the most manifest and accredited of +truths. M. Renan first brings St. Paul to Rome. "It was," he says, "a +great event in the world's history, almost as pregnant with +consequences as his conversion." How it was so M. Renan does not +explain; but he brings St. Peter to Rome also, "following at the heels +of St. Paul," to counteract and neutralise his influence. And who is +this St. Peter? He represents the Jewish element; and what that element +was at Rome M. Renan takes great pains to put before us. He draws an +elaborate picture of the Jews and Jewish quarter of Rome--a "longshore +population" of beggars and pedlars, with a Ghetto resembling the +Alsatia of _The Fortunes of Nigel_, seething with dirt and fanaticism. +These were St. Peter's congeners at Rome, whose ideas and claims, +"timid trimmer" though he was, he came to Rome to support against the +Hellenism and Protestantism of St. Paul. And at Rome they, both of +them, probably, perished in Nero's persecution, and that is the history +of the success of Christianity. "Only fanatics can found anything. +Judaism lives on because of the intense frenzy of its prophets and +annalists, Christianity by means of its martyrs." + +But a certain Clement arose after their deaths, to arrange a +reconciliation between the fiercely antagonistic factions of St. Peter +and St. Paul. How he harmonised them M. Renan leaves us to imagine; but +he did reconcile them; he gathered in his own person the authority of +the Roman Church; he lectured the Corinthian Church on its turbulence +and insubordination; he anticipated, M. Renan remarked, almost in +words, the famous saying of the French Archbishop of Rouen, "My clergy +are my regiment, and they are drilled to obey like a regiment." On this +showing, Clement might almost be described as the real founder of +Christianity, of which neither St. Peter nor St. Paul, with their +violent oppositions, can claim to be the complete representative; at +any rate he was the first Pope, complete in all his attributes. And in +accordance with this beginning M. Renan sees in the Roman Church, +first, the centre in which Church authority grew up, and next, the +capital of Catholicism. In Rome the congregation gave up its rights to +its elders, and these rights the elders surrendered to the single ruler +or Bishop. The creation of the Episcopate was eminently the work of +Rome; and this Bishop of Rome caught the full spirit of the Caesar, on +whose decay he became great; and troubling himself little about the +deep questions which exercised the minds and wrung the hearts of +thinkers and mystics, he made himself the foundation of order, +authority, and subordination to all parts of the Imperial world. + +Such is M. Renan's explanation of the great march and triumph of the +Christian Church. The Roman Empire, which we had supposed was the +natural enemy of the Church, was really the founder of all that made +the Church strong, and bequeathed to the Church its prerogatives and +its spirit, and partly its machinery. We should hardly gather from this +picture that there was, besides, a widespread Catholic Church, with its +numerous centres of life and thought and teaching, and with very slight +connection, in the early times, with the Church of the capital. And, in +the next place, we should gather from it that there was little more in +the Church than a powerful and strongly built system of centralised +organisation and control; we should hardly suspect the existence of the +real questions which interested or disturbed it; we should hardly +suspect the existence of a living and all-engrossing theology, or the +growth and energy in it of moral forces, or that the minds of +Christians about the world were much more busy with the discipline of +life, the teaching and meaning of the inspired words of Scripture, and +the ever-recurring conflict with perverseness and error, than with +their dependent connection on the Imperial Primacy of Rome, and the +lessons they were to learn from it. + +Disguised as it may be, M. Renan's lectures represent not history, but +scepticism as to all possibility of history. Pictures of a Jewish +Ghetto, with its ragged mendicants smelling of garlic, in places where +Christians have been wont to think of the Saints; ingenious +explanations as to the way in which the "club" of the Christian Church +surrendered its rights to a _bureau_ of its officers; exhortations to +liberty and tolerance; side-glances at the contrasts of national gifts +and destinies and futures in the first century and in the nineteenth; +felicitous parallels and cunning epigrams, subtle combinations of the +pathetic, the egotistical, and the cynical, all presented with calm +self-reliance and in the most finished and distinguished of styles, may +veil for the moment from the audience which such things amuse, and even +interest, the hollowness which lies beneath. But the only meaning of +the lectures is to point out more forcibly than ever that besides the +obvious riddles of man's life there is one stranger and more appalling +still--that a religion which M. Renan can never speak of without +admiration and enthusiasm is based on a self-contradiction and deluding +falsehood, more dreadful in its moral inconsistencies than the grave. + +We cannot help feeling that M. Renan himself is a true representative +of that highly cultivated society of the Empire which would have +crushed Christianity, and which Christianity, vanquished. He still owes +something, and owns it, to what he has abandoned--"I am often tempted +to say, as Job said, in our Latin version, _Etiam si occident me, in +ipso sperabo_. But the next moment all is gone--all is but a symbol and +a dream." There is no possibility of solving the religious problem. He +relapses into profound disbelief of the worth and success of moral +efforts after truth. His last word is an exhortation to tolerance for +"fanatics," as the best mode of extinguishing them. "If, instead of +leading _Polyeucte_ to punishment, the magistrate, with a smile and +shake of the hand, had sent him home again, _Polyeucte_ would not have +been caught offending again; perhaps, in his old age, he would even +have laughed at his escapade, and would have become a sensible man." It +is as obvious and natural in our days to dispose of such difficulties +in this way with a smile and a sneer as it was in the first century +with a shout--_"Christiani ad leones."_ But Corneille was as good a +judge of the human heart as M. Renan. He had gauged the powers of faith +and conviction; he certainly would have expected to find his +_Polyeucte_ more obstinate. + + + + +XIV + +RENAN'S "SOUVENIRS D'ENFANCE"[17] + + + [17] + _Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse_. Par Ernest Renan. _Guardian_, + 18th July 1883. + +The sketches which M. Renan gives us of his early life are what we +should have looked for from the writer of the _Vie de Jesus_. The story +of the disintegration of a faith is supposed commonly to have something +tragic about it. We expect it to be a story of heart-breaking +disenchantments, of painful struggles, of fierce recoils against +ancient beliefs and the teachers who bolstered them up; of indignation +at having been so long deceived; of lamentation over years wasted in +the service of falsehood. The confessions of St. Augustine, the +biography of Blanco White, the letters of Lamennais, at least agree in +the witness which they bear to the bitter pangs and anxieties amid +which, in their case, the eventful change came about. Even Cardinal +Newman's _Apologia_, self-restrained and severely controlled as it is, +shows no doubtful traces of the conflicts and sorrows out of which he +believed himself to have emerged to a calmer and surer light. But M. +Renan's story is an idyl, not a tragedy. It is sunny, placid, +contented. He calls his life the "_charmante promenade_" which the +"cause of all good," whatever that may be, has granted him through the +realities of existence. There are in it no storms of passion, no +cruelties of circumstances, no deplorable mistakes, no complaints, no +recriminations. His life flows on smoothly, peacefully, happily, with +little of rapids and broken waters, gradually and in the most natural +and inevitable way enlarging itself, moving in new and wider channels +and with increased volume and force, but never detaching itself and +breaking off from its beginnings. It is a spectacle which M. Renan, who +has lived this life, takes a gentle pleasure in contemplating. He looks +back on it with thankfulness, and also with amusement It makes a +charming and complete picture. No part could be wanting without +injuring the effect of the whole. It is the very ideal of the education +of the Rousseau school--a child of nature, developing, amid the +simplest and humblest circumstances of life, the finest gifts and most +delicate graces of faith and reverence and purity--brought up by sages +whose wisdom he could not in time help outrunning, but whose piety, +sweetness, disinterestedness, and devoted labour left on his mind +impressions which nothing could wear out; and at length, when the time +came, passing naturally, and without passion or bitterness, from out of +their faithful but too narrow discipline into a wider and ampler air, +and becoming, as was fit, master and guide to himself, with light which +they could not bear, and views of truth greater and deeper than they +could conceive. But every stage of the progress, through the virtues of +the teachers, and the felicitous disposition of the pupil, exhibits +both in exactly the due relations in which each ought to be with the +other, with none of the friction of rebellious and refractory temper on +one side, or of unintelligent harshness on the other. He has nothing to +regret in the schools through which he passed, in the preparations +which he made there for the future, in the way in which they shaped his +life. He lays down the maxim, "On ne doit jamais ecrire que de ce qu'on +aime." There is a serene satisfaction diffused through the book, which +scarcely anything intervenes to break or disturb; he sees so much +poetry in his life, so much content, so much signal and unlooked-for +success, that he has little to tell except what is delightful and +admirable. And then he is so certain that he is right: he can look down +with so much good-humoured superiority on past and present, alike on +what he calls "l'effroyable aventure du moyen age," and on the march of +modern society to the dead level of "Americanism." It need not be said +that the story is told with all M. Renan's consummate charm of +storytelling. All that it wants is depth of real feeling and +seriousness--some sense of the greatness of what he has had to give up, +not merely of its poetic beauty and tender associations. It hardly +seems to occur to him that something more than his easy cheerfulness +and his vivid historical imagination is wanted to solve for him the +problems of the world, and that his gradual transition from the +Catholicism of the seminary to the absolute rejection of the +supernatural in religion does not, as he describes it, throw much light +on the question of the hopes and destiny of mankind. + +The outline of his story is soon told. It is in general like that of +many more who in France have broken away from religion. A clever +studious boy, a true son of old Brittany--the most melancholy, the most +tender, the most ardent, the most devout, not only of all French +provinces, but of all regions in Europe--is passed on from the teaching +of good, simple, hard-working country priests to the central +seminaries, where the leaders of the French clergy are educated. He +comes up a raw, eager, ignorant provincial, full of zeal for knowledge, +full of reverence and faith, and first goes through the distinguished +literary school of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, of which Dupanloup was +the founder and the inspiring soul. Thence he passed under the more +strictly professional discipline of St. Sulpice: first at the +preparatory philosophical school at Issy, then to study scientific +theology in the house of St. Sulpice itself at Paris. At St. Sulpice he +showed special aptitudes for the study of Hebrew, in which he was +assisted and encouraged by M. le Hir, "the most remarkable person," in +his opinion, "whom the French clergy has produced in our days," a +"savant and a saint," who had mastered the results of German criticism +as they were found in the works of Gesenius and Ewald. On his faith all +this knowledge had not made the faintest impression; but it was this +knowledge which broke down M. Renan's, and finally led to his retiring +from St. Sulpice. On the one side was the Bible and Catholic theology, +carefully, scientifically, and consistently taught at St. Sulpice; on +the other were the exegesis and the historical criticism of the German +school. He came at length to the conclusion that the two are +incompatible; that there was but a choice of alternatives; and purely +on the ground of historical criticism, he says, not on any abstract +objections to the supernatural, or to miracles, or to Catholic dogma, +he gave up revealed religion. He gave it up not without regrets at the +distress caused to friends, and at parting with much that was endeared +to him by old associations, and by intrinsic beauty and value; but, as +far as can be judged, without any serious sense of loss. He spent some +time in obscurity, teaching, and studying laboriously, and at length +beginning to write. Michel Levy, the publisher, found him out, and +opened to him a literary career, and in due time he became famous. He +has had the ambiguous honour of making the Bible an object of such +interest to French readers as it never was before, at the cost of +teaching them to find in it a reflection of their own characteristic +ways of looking at life and the world. It is not an easy thing to do +with such a book as the Bible; but he has done it. + +As a mere history of a change of convictions, the _Souvenirs_ are +interesting, but hardly of much importance. They are written with a +kind of Epicurean serenity and dignity, avoiding all exaggeration and +violence, profuse in every page in the delicacies and also in the +reticences of respect, not too serious to exclude the perpetual +suggestion of a well-behaved amused irony, not too much alive to the +ridiculous and the self-contradictory to forget the attitude of +composure due to the theme of the book. He warns his readers at the +outset that they must not look for a stupid literalness in his account. +"Ce qu'on dit de soi est toujours poesie"--the reflection of states of +mind and varying humours, not the exact details of fact. "Tout est vrai +dans ce petit volume, mais non de ce genre de verite qui est requis +pour une _Biographie universelle_. Bien des choses ont ete mises, afin +qu'on sourie; si l'usage l'eut permis, j'aurais du ecrire plus d'une +fois a la marge--_cum grano salis_". It is candid to warn us thus to +read a little between the lines; but it is a curious and unconscious +disclosure of his characteristic love of a mixture of the misty and the +clear. The really pleasant part of it is his account, which takes up +half the volume, of Breton ways and feelings half a century ago, an +account which exactly tallies with the pictures of them in Souvestre's +writings; and the kindliness and justice with which he speaks of his +old Catholic and priestly teachers, not only in his boyish days at +Treguier, but in his seminary life in Paris. His account of this +seminary life is unique in its picturesque vividness. He describes how, +at St. Nicolas, under the fiery and irresistible Dupanloup, whom he +speaks of with the reserved courtesy due to a distinguished person whom +he much dislikes, his eager eyes were opened to the realities of +literature, and to the subtle powers of form and style in writing, +which have stood him in such stead, and have been the real secret of +his own success. + + Le monde s'ouvrit pour moi. Malgre sa pretention d'etre un asile + ferme aux bruits du dehors, Saint-Nicolas etait a cette epoque la + maison la plus brillante et la plus mondaine. Paris y entrait a + pleins bords par les portes et les fenetres, Paris tout entier, + moins la corruption, je me hate de le dire, Paris avec ses + petitesses et ses grandeurs, ses hardiesses et ses chiffons, sa + force revolutionnaire et ses mollesses flasques. Mes vieux pretres + de Bretagne savaient bien mieux les mathematiques et le latin que + mes nouveaux maitres; mais ils vivaient dans des catacombes sans + lumiere et sans air. Ici, l'atmosphere du siecle circulait + librement.... Au bout de quelque temps une chose tout a fait + inconnue m'etait revelee. Les mots, talent, eclat, reputation + eurent un sens pour moi. J'etais perdu pour l'ideal modeste que + mes anciens maitres m'avaient inculque. + +And he describes how Dupanloup brought his pupils perpetually into +direct relations with himself and communicated to them something of his +own enthusiasm. He gained the power over their hearts which a great +general gains over his soldiers. His approval, his interest in a man, +were the all-absorbing object, the all-sufficient reward; the one +punishment feared was dismissal, always inflicted with courtesy and +tact, from the honour and the joy of serving under him:-- + + Adore de ses eleves, M. Dupanloup n'etait pas toujours agreable a + ces collaborateurs. On m'a dit que, plus tard, dans son diocese, + les choses se passerent de la meme maniere, qu'il fut toujours + plus aime de ses laiques que de ses pretres. Il est certain qu'il + ecrasait tout autour de lui. Mais sa violence meme nous attachait; + car nous sentions que nous etions son but unique. Ce qu'il etait, + c'etait un eveilleur incomparable; pour tirer de chacun de ses + eleves la somme de ce qu'il pouvait donner, personne ne l'egalait. + Chacun de ses deux cents eleves existait distinct dans sa pensee; + il etait pour chacun d'eux l'excitateur toujours present, le motif + de vivre et de travailler. Il croyait au talent et en faisait la + base de la foi. Il repetait souvent que l'homme vaut en proportion + de sa faculte d'admirer. Son admiration n'etait pas toujours assez + eclairee par la science; mais elle venait d'une grande chaleur + d'ame et d'un coeur vraiment possede de l'amour du beau.... Les + defauts de l'education qu'il donnait etaient les defauts meme de + son esprit. Il etait trop peu rationnel, trop peu scientifique. On + eut dit que ses deux cents eleves etaient destines a etre tous + poetes, ecrivains, orateurs. + +St. Nicolas was literary. Issy and St. Sulpice were severely +philosophic and scientific, places of "_fortes etudes_"; and the writer +thinks that they were more to his own taste than the more brilliant +literary education given under Dupanloup. In one sense it may be so. +They introduced him to exactness of thought and precision of +expression, and they widened his horizon of possible and attainable +knowledge. He passed, he says, from words to things. But he is a writer +who owes so much to the form into which he throws his thoughts, to the +grace and brightness and richness of his style, that he probably is a +greater debtor to the master whom he admires and dislikes, Dupanloup, +than to the modest, reserved, and rather dull Sulpician teachers, whom +he loves and reveres and smiles at, whose knowledge of theology was +serious, profound, and accurate, and whose characteristic temper was +one of moderation and temperate reason, joined to a hatred of display, +and a suspicion of all that seemed too clever and too brilliant. But +his witness to their excellence, to their absolute self-devotion to +their work, to their dislike of extravagance and exaggeration, to their +good sense and cultivation, is ungrudging and warm. Of course he thinks +them utterly out of date; but on their own ground he recognises that +they were men of strength and solidity, the best and most thorough of +teachers; the most sincere, the most humble, the most self-forgetting +of priests:-- + + Beaucoup de mes jugements etonnent les gens du monde parcequ'ils + n'out pas vu ce que j'ai vu. J'ai vu a Saint-Sulpice, associes a + des idees etroites, je l'avoue, les miracles que nos races peuvent + produire en fait de bonte, de modestie, d'abnegation personelle. + Ce qu'il y a de vertu a Saint-Sulpice suffirait pour gouverner un + monde, et cela m'a rendu difficile pour ce que j'ai trouve + ailleurs. + +M. Renan, as we have said, is very just to his education, and to the +men who gave it. He never speaks of them except with respect and +gratitude. It is seldom, indeed, that he permits himself anything like +open disparagement of the men and the cause which he forsook. The +shafts of his irony are reserved for men on his own side, for the +radical violences of M. Clemenceau, and for the exaggerated reputation +of Auguste Comte, "who has been set up as a man of the highest order of +genius, for having said, in bad French, what all scientific thinkers +for two hundred years have seen as clearly as himself." He attributes +to his ecclesiastical training those excellences in his own temper and +principles on which he dwells with much satisfaction and thankfulness. +They are, he considers, the result of his Christian and "Sulpician" +education, though the root on which they grew is for ever withered and +dead. "La foi disparue, la morale reste.... C'est par le caractere que +je suis reste essentiellement l'eleve de mes anciens maitres." He is +proud of these virtues, and at the same time amused at the odd +contradictions in which they have sometimes involved him:-- + + Il me plairait d'expliquer par le detail et de montrer comment la + gageure paradoxale de garder les vertus clericales, sans la foi + qui leur sert de base et dans un monde pour lequel elles ne sont + pas faites, produisit, en ce que me concerne, les rencontres les + plus divertissantes. J'aimerais a raconter toutes les aventures + que mes vertus sulpiciennes m'amenerent, et les tours singuliers + qu'elles m'ont joues. Apres soixante ans de vie serieuse on a le + droit de sourire; et ou trouver une source de rire plus abondante, + plus a portee, plus inoffensive qu'en soimeme? Si jamais un auteur + comique voulait amuser le public de mes ridicules, je ne lui + demanderais qu'une chose; c'est de me prendre pour collaborateur; + je lui conterais des choses vingt fois plus amusantes que celles + qu'il pourrait inventer. + +He dwells especially on four of these virtues which were, he thinks, +graven ineffaceably on his nature at St. Sulpice. They taught him there +not to care for money or success. They taught him the old-fashioned +French politeness--that beautiful instinct of giving place to others, +which is perishing in the democratic scramble for the best places, in +the omnibus and the railway as in business and society. It is more +curious to find that he thinks that they taught him to be modest. +Except on the faith of his assertions, the readers of his book would +not naturally have supposed that he believed himself specially endowed +with this quality; it is at any rate the modesty which, if it shrinks +into retirement from the pretensions of the crowd, goes along with a +high and pitying sense of superiority, and a self-complacency of which +the good humour never fails. His masters also taught him to value +purity. For this he almost makes a sort of deprecating apology. He saw, +indeed, "the vanity of this virtue as of all the others"; he admits +that it is an unnatural virtue. But he says, "L'homme ne doit jamais se +permettre deux hardiesses a la fois. Le libre penseur doit etre regle +en ses moeurs." In this doctrine it may be doubted whether he will find +many followers. An unnatural virtue, where nature only is recognised as +a guide, is more likely to be discredited by his theory than +recommended by his example, particularly if the state of opinion in +France is such as is described in the following passage--a passage +which in England few men, whatever they might think, would have the +boldness to state as an acknowledged social phenomenon:-- + + Le monde, dont les jugements sont rarement tout a fait faux, voit + une sorte de ridicule a etre vertueux quand on n'y est pas oblige + par un devoir professionnel. Le pretre, ayant pour etat d'etre + chaste, comme le soldat d'etre brave, est, d'apres ces idees, + presque le seul qui puisse sans ridicule tenir a des principes sur + lesquels la morale et la mode se livrent les plus etranges + combats. Il est hors de doute qu'en ce point, comme en beaucoup + d'autres, mes principes clericaux, conserves dans le siecle, m'ont + nui aux yeux du monde. + +We have one concluding observation to make. This is a book of which the +main interest, after all, depends on the way in which it touches on the +question of questions, the truth and reality of the Christian religion. +But from first to last it docs not show the faintest evidence that the +writer ever really knew, or even cared, what religion is. Religion is +not only a matter of texts, of scientific criticisms, of historical +investigations, of a consistent theology. It is not merely a procession +of external facts and events, a spectacle to be looked at from the +outside. It is, if it is anything, the most considerable and most +universal interest in the complex aggregate of human interests. It +grows out of the deepest moral roots, out of the most characteristic +and most indestructible spiritual elements, out of wants and needs and +aspirations and hopes, without which man, as we know him, would not be +man. When a man, in asking whether Christianity is true, leaves out all +this side of the matter, when he shows that it has not come before him +as a serious and importunate reality, when he shows that he is +unaffected by those deep movements and misgivings and anxieties of the +soul to which religion corresponds, and treats the whole matter as a +question only of erudition and criticism, we may acknowledge him to be +an original and acute critic, a brilliant master of historical +representation; but he has never yet come face to face with the +problems of religion. His love of truth may be unimpeachable, but he +docs not know what he is talking about. M. Renan speaks of giving up +his religion as a man might speak of accepting a new and unpopular +physical hypothesis like evolution, or of making up his mind to give up +the personality of Homer or the early history of Rome. Such an interior +attitude of mind towards religion as is implied, for instance, in +Bishop Butler's _Sermons on the Love of God_, or the _De Imitatione_ or +Newman's _Parochial Sermons_ seems to him, as far as we can judge, an +unknown and unattempted experience. It is easy to deal with a question +if you leave out half the factors of it, and those the most difficult +and the most serious. It is easy to be clear if you do not choose to +take notice of the mysterious, and if you exclude from your +consideration as vague and confused all that vast department of human +concerns where we at best can only "see through a glass darkly." It is +easy to find the world a pleasant and comfortable and not at all +perplexing place, if your life has been, as M. Renan describes his own, +a "charming promenade" through it; if, as he says, you are blessed with +"a good humour not easily disturbed "; and you "have not suffered +much"; and "nature has prepared cushions to soften shocks"; and you +have "had so much enjoyment in this life that you really have no right +to claim any compensation beyond it." That is M. Renan's experience of +life--a life of which he looks forward to the perfection in the +clearness and security of its possible denials of ancient beliefs, and +in the immense development of its positive and experimental knowledge. +How would Descartes have rejoiced, he says, if he could have seen some +poor treatise on physics or cosmography of our day, and what would we +not give to catch a glimpse of such an elementary schoolbook of a +hundred years hence. + +But that is not at any rate the experience of all the world, nor does +it appear likely ever to be within the reach of all the world. There is +another aspect of life more familiar than this, an aspect which has +presented itself to the vast majority of mankind, the awful view of it +which is made tragic by pain and sorrow and moral evil; which, in the +way in which religion looks at it, if it is sterner, is also higher and +nobler, and is brightened by hope and purposes of love; a view which +puts more upon men and requires more from them, but holds before them a +destiny better than the perfection here of physical science. To minds +which realise all this, it is more inconceivable than any amount of +miracle that such a religion as Christianity should have emerged +naturally out of the conditions of the first century. They refuse to +settle such a question by the short and easy method on which M. Renan +relies; they will not consent to put it on questions about the two +Isaiahs, or about alleged discrepancies between the Evangelists; they +will not think the claims of religion disposed of by M. Renan's canon, +over and over again contradicted, that whether there can be or not, +there _is_ no evidence of the supernatural in the world. To those who +measure and feel the true gravity of the issues, it is almost +unintelligible to find a man who has been face to face with +Christianity all his life treating the deliberate condemnation of it +almost gaily and with a light heart, and showing no regrets in having +to give it up as a delusion and a dream. It is a poor and meagre end of +a life of thought and study to come to the conclusion that the age in +which he has lived is, if not one of the greatest, at least "the most +amusing of all ages." + + + + +XV + +LIFE OF FREDERICK ROBERTSON[18] + + + [18] + _Life and Letters of Frederick W. Robertson_. Edited by Stopford A. + Brooke. _Guardian_, 15th November 1865. + +If the proof of a successful exhibition of a strongly marked and +original character be that it excites and sustains interest throughout, +that our tastes are appealed to and our judgments called forth with +great strength, that we pass continuously and rapidly, as we read, from +deep and genuine admiration to equally deep and genuine dissent and +disapprobation, that it allows us to combine a general but irresistible +sense of excellence growing upon us through the book with an +under-current of real and honest dislike and blame, then this book in a +great measure satisfies the condition of success. It is undeniable that +in what it shows us of Mr. Robertson there is much to admire, much to +sympathise with, much to touch us, a good deal to instruct us. He is +set before us, indeed, by the editor, as the ideal of all that a great +Christian teacher and spiritual guide, all that a brave and wise and +high-souled man, may be conceived to be. We cannot quite accept him as +an example of such rare and signal achievement; and the fault of the +book is the common one of warm-hearted biographers to wind their own +feelings and those of their readers too high about their subject; to +talk as if their hero's excellences were unknown till he appeared to +display them, and to make up for the imperfect impression resulting +from actual facts and qualities by insisting with overstrained emphasis +on a particular interpretation of them. The book would be more truthful +and more pleasing if the editor's connecting comments were more simply +written, and made less pretension to intensity and energy of language. +Yet with all drawbacks of what seem to us imperfect taste, an imperfect +standard of character, and an imperfect appreciation of what there is +in the world beyond a given circle of interests, the book does what a +biography ought to do--it shows us a remarkable man, and it gives us +the means of forming our own judgment about him. It is not a tame +panegyric or a fancy picture. + +The main portion of the book consists of Mr. Robertson's own letters, +and his own accounts of himself; and we are allowed to see him, in a +great degree at least, as he really was. The editor draws a moral, +indeed, and tells us what we ought to think about what we see; but we +can use our own judgment about that. And, as so often happens in real +life, what we see both attracts and repels; it calls forth, +successively and in almost equal measure, warm sympathy and admiration, +and distinct and hearty disagreement. At least there is nothing of +commonplace--of what is commonplace yet in our generation; though there +is a good deal that bids fair to become commonplace in the next. It is +the record of a genuine spontaneous character, seeking its way, its +duty, its perfection, with much sincerity and elevation of purpose, and +many anxieties and sorrows, and not, we doubt not, without much of the +fruits that come with real self-devotion; a record disclosing a man +with great faults and conspicuous blanks in his nature, one with whose +principles, taste, or judgment we constantly find ourselves having a +vehement quarrel, just after having been charmed and conciliated by +some unexpectedly powerful or refined statement of an important truth. +We cannot think, and few besides his own friends will think, that he +had laid his hand with so sure an accuracy and with so much promise +upon the clue which others had lost or bungled over. But there is much +to learn in his thoughts and words, and there is not less to learn from +his life. It is the life of a man who did not spare himself in +fulfilling what he received as his task, who sacrificed much in order +to speak his message, as he thought, more worthily and to do his office +more effectually, and whose career touches us the more from the shadow +of suffering and early death that hangs over its aspirations and +activity. A book which fairly shows us such a life is not of less value +because it also shows us much that we regret and condemn. + +Mr. Robertson was brought up not only in the straitest traditions of +the Evangelical school, but in the heat of its controversial warfare. +His heart, when he was a boy, was set on entering the army; and one of +his most characteristic points through life, shown in many very +different forms, was his pugnacity, his keen perception of the +"_certaminis gaudia_":-- + + "There is something of combativeness in me," he writes, "which + prevents the whole vigour being drawn out, except when I have an + antagonist to deal with, a falsehood to quell, or a wrong to + avenge. Never till then does my mind feel quite alive. Could I + have chosen my own period of the world to have lived in, and my + own type of life, it should be the feudal ages, and the life of a + Cid, the redresser of wrongs." + + "On the other hand," writes his biographer, "when he met men who + despised Christianity, or who, like the Roman Catholics, held to + doctrines which he believed untrue, this very enthusiasm and + unconscious excitement swept him sometimes beyond himself. He + could not moderate his indignation down to the cool level of + ordinary life. Hence he was wanting at this time in the wise + tolerance which formed so conspicuous a feature of his maturer + manhood. He held to his own views with pertinacity. He believed + them to be true; and he almost refused to allow the possibility of + the views of others having truth in them also. He was more or less + one-sided at this period. With the Roman Catholic religion it was + war to the death, not in his later mode of warfare, by showing the + truth which lay beneath the error, but by denouncing the error. He + seems invariably, with the pugnacity of a young man, to have + attacked their faith; and the mode in which this was done was + startlingly different from that which afterwards he adopted." + +He yielded, after considerable resistance, to the wishes and advice of +his friends, that he should prepare for orders. "With a romantic +instinct of self-sacrifice," says his biographer, "he resolved to give +up the idea of his whole life." This we can quite understand; but with +that propensity of biographers to credit their subject with the +desirable qualities which it may be supposed that they ought to have, +besides those which they really have, the editor proceeds to observe +that this would scarcely have happened had not Mr. Robertson's +"_characteristic self-distrust_ disposed him to believe that he was +himself the worst judge of his future profession." This is the way in +which the true outline of a character is blurred and confused, in order +to say something proper and becoming. Self-distrust was not among the +graces or weaknesses of Mr. Robertson's nature, unless indeed we +mistake for it the anxiety which even the stoutest heart may feel at a +crisis, or the dissatisfaction which the proudest may feel at the +interval between attempt and achievement. + +He was an undergraduate at Brasenose at the height of the Oxford +movement. He was known there, so far as he was known at all, as a keen +partisan of the Evangelical school; and though no one then suspected +the power which was really in him, his party, not rich in men of +strength or promise, made the most of a recruit who showed ability and +entered heartily into their watchwords, and, it must be said, their +rancour. He was conspicuous among the young men of his standing for the +forwardness with which he took his side against "Tractarianism," and +the vehemence of his dislike of it, and for the almost ostentatious and +defiant prominence which he gave to the convictions and social habits +of his school He expressed his scorn and disgust at the "donnishness," +the coldness, the routine, the want of heart, which was all that he +could see at Oxford out of the one small circle of his friends. He +despised the Oxford course of work, and would have nothing more to do +with it than he could help--as he lived to regret afterwards. Yet even +then he was in his tastes and the instinctive tendencies of his mind +above his party. He was an admiring reader of Wordsworth and Shelley; +he felt the strength of Aristotle and Plato; he is said to have +appreciated Mr. Newman's preaching, and to have gallantly defended what +he admired in him and his friends. His editor, indeed, Mr. Brooke, +appears to be a little divided and embarrassed, between his wish to +enforce Mr. Robertson's largeness of mind and heart, and his fear of +giving countenance to suspicions that he was ever so little inclined to +"High Churchism"; between his desire to show that Mr. Robertson +estimated the High Church leaders as much as an intelligent man ought, +and disliked their system as much as a sound-thinking Christian ought. +We should have thought that he need not be so solicitous to "set at +rest the question about Mr. Robertson's High Church tendencies." "I +hate High Churchism," was one of his latest declarations, when +professing his sympathy with individual High Churchmen. One thing, +however, is quite clear--that in his early life his partisanship was +thoroughgoing and unflinching enough to satisfy the fiercest and most +fanatical of their opponents. Such a representation as this is simply +misleading:-- + + The almost fierceness with which he speaks against the Tract + school is proof in him of the strength of the attraction it + possessed for him, just as afterwards at Brighton his attacks on + Evangelicalism are proof of the strength with which he once held + to that form of Christianity, and the force of the reaction with + which he abandoned it for ever. Out of these two reactions--when + their necessary ultra tendencies had been mellowed down by + time--emerged at last the clearness and the just balance of + principles with which he taught during 1848 and the following + years, at Brighton. He had probed both schools of theological + thought to their recesses, and had found them wanting. He spoke of + what he knew when he protested against both. He spoke also of what + he knew when he publicly recognised the Spirit of all good moving + in the lives of those whose opinions he believed to be erroneous. + +It is absurd to say, because he sometimes spoke of the "danger" he had +been in from "Tractarianism," that he had felt in equal degree the +"strength of attraction" towards the one school and towards the other, +and it is equally absurd to talk of his "having probed both to their +recesses." He read, and argued, and discussed the pamphlets of the +controversy--the "replies," Mr. Brooke says, with more truth probably +than he thought of in using the word--like other undergraduates who +took interest in what was going on, and thought themselves fit to +choose their side. With his tutor and friend, Mr. Churton, he read +Taylor's _Ancient Christianity_, carefully looking out the passages +from the Fathers. "I am reading the early Church history with +Golightly," he says, "which is a very great advantage, as he has a fund +of general information and is a close reader." But we must doubt +whether this involved "probing to the recesses" the "Tractarian" side +of the question. And we distrust the depth and the judgment, and the +impartiality also of a man who is said to have read Newman's sermons +continually with delight to the day of his death, and by whom no book +was more carefully studied and more highly honoured than _The Christian +Year_, and who yet to the last could see nothing better in the Church +movement as a whole than, according to the vulgar view of it, a revival +of forms partly useful, partly hurtful It seems to us the great +misfortune of his life, and one which exercised its evil influence on +him to the end, that, thrown young into the narrowest and weakest of +religious schools, he found it at first so congenial to his vehement +temperament, that he took so kindly to certain of its more unnatural +and ungenerous ways, and thus was cut off from the larger and healthier +influences of the society round him. Those were days when older men +than he took their side too precipitately; but he found himself +encouraged, even as an undergraduate, to dogmatise, to be positive, to +hate, to speak evil. He learnt the lesson too well. This is the +language of an undergraduate at the end of his university course;-- + + But I seem this term to have in a measure waked out of a long + trance, partly caused by my own gross inconsistencies, and partly + by the paralysing effects of this Oxford-delusion heresy, for such + it is I feel persuaded. And to know it a man must live here, and + he will see the promising and ardent men sinking one after another + in a deadly torpor, wrapped up in self-contemplation, dead to + their Redeemer, and useless to His Church, under the baneful + breath of this accursed upas tree. I say accursed, because I + believe that St. Paul would use the same language to Oxford as he + did to the Galatian Church, "I would they were even cut off which + trouble you"; accursed, because I believe that the curse of God + will fall on it He has denounced it on the Papal hereby, and he is + no respecter of persons, to punish the name and not the reality. + May He forgive me if I err, and lead me into all truth. But I do + not speak as one who has been in no clanger, and therefore cannot + speak very quietly. It is strange into what ramifications the + disbelief of external justification will extend; _we will_ make it + internal, whether it be by self-mortification, by works of + evangelical obedience, or by the sacraments, and that just at the + time when we suppose most that we are magnifying the work of the + Lord. + +Mr. Brooke rather likes to dwell, as it seems to us, in an unreal and +disproportionate way, on Mr. Robertson's sufferings, in the latter part +of his life, from the bitter and ungenerous attacks of which he was the +object. "This is the man," he says in one place, "who was afterwards at +Brighton driven into the deepest solitariness of heart, whom God +thought fit to surround with slander and misunderstanding." He was, we +doubt not, fiercely assailed by the Evangelical party, which he had +left, and which he denounced in no gentle language; he was, as we can +well believe, "constantly attacked, by some manfully, by others in an +underhand manner, and was the victim of innuendoes and slander." We +cannot, however, help thinking that Mr. Brooke unconsciously +exaggerates the solitariness and want of sympathy which went with all +this. Mr. Robertson had, and knew that he had, his ardent and +enthusiastic admirers as well as his worrying and untiring opponents. +But what we remark is this. It was the measure which he had meted out +to others, in the fierceness of his zeal for Evangelicalism, which the +Evangelicals afterwards meted out to him. They did not more talk evil +of what they knew not and had taken no real pains to understand, than +he had done of a body of men as able, as well-instructed, as +deep-thinking, as brave, as earnest as himself in their war against sin +and worldliness. The stupidity, the perverse ill-nature, the resolute +ignorance, the audacious and fanatical application of Scripture +condemnations, the reckless judging without a desire to do justice, +which he felt and complained of so bitterly when turned against +himself, he had sanctioned and largely shared in when the same party +which attacked him in the end attacked the earlier revivers of +thoughtful and earnest religion. Nor do we find that he ever expressed +regret for a vehemence of condemnation which his after-knowledge must +have shown him that he had no business to pass, because, even if he +afterwards adhered to it, he had originally passed it on utterly false +and inadequate grounds. He only became as fierce against the +Evangelicals as he had been against the followers of Mr. Newman. He +never unlearnt the habit of harsh reprobation which his Evangelical +friends had encouraged. He only transferred its full force against +themselves. + +He left Oxford and began his ministry, first at Winchester, and then at +Cheltenham, full of Evangelical _formulae_ and Evangelical narrow zeal. +It does not appear that, except as an earnest hard-working clergyman, +he was in any way distinguished from numbers of the same class, though +we are quite willing to believe that even then his preaching, in warmth +and vigour, was above the average. But as he, or his biographer, says, +he had not yet really begun to think. When he began to think, he did so +with the rapidity, the intensity, the impatient fervid vehemence which +lay all along at the bottom of his character. His Evangelical views +appear to have snapped to pieces and dissolved with a violence and +sudden abruptness entirely unaccounted for by anything which these +volumes show us. He read Carlyle; but so did many other people. He +found the religious world at Cheltenham not so pure as he had imagined +it; but this is what must have happened anywhere, and is not enough to +account for such a complete revolution of belief. He had a friend +deeply read in German philosophy and criticism who is said to have +exercised influence on him. Still, we repeat, the steps and processes +of the change from the Evangelicalism of Cheltenham to a condition, at +first, of almost absolute doubt, are very imperfectly explained:-- + + These letters were written in 1843. In the following year doubts + and questionings began to stir in his mind. He could not get rid + of them. They were forced upon him by his reading and his + intercourse with men. They grew and tortured him. His teaching in + the pulpit altered, and it became painful to him to preach. He was + reckoned of the Evangelical school, and he began to feel that his + position was becoming a false one. He felt the excellence and + earnestness, and gladly recognised the work of the nobler portion + of that party, but he felt also that he must separate from it. In + his strong reaction from its extreme tendencies, he understood + with a shock which upturned his whole inward life for a time, that + the system on which he had founded his whole faith and work could + never be received by him again. Within its pale, for him, there + was henceforward neither life, peace, nor reality. It was not, + however, till almost the end of his ministry at Cheltenham that + this became clearly manifest to him. It had been growing slowly + into a conviction. An outward blow--the sudden ruin of a + friendship which he had wrought, as he imagined, for ever into his + being--a blow from which he never afterwards wholly + recovered--accelerated the inward crisis, and the result was a + period of spiritual agony so awful that it not only shook his + health to its centre, but smote his spirit down into so profound a + darkness that of all his early faiths but one remained, "It must + be right to do right." + +This seems to have been in 1846, and in the beginning of the next year +he had already taken his new line. The explanation does not explain +much. We have no right to ask for more than his friends think fit to +tell us of this turning-point of his life. But we observe that this +deeply important passage is left with but little light and much +manifest reticence. That the crisis took place we have his own touching +and eloquent words to assure us. It left him also as firm in his +altered convictions as he had been in his old ones. What caused it, +what were its circumstances and characteristics, and what affected its +course and results, we can only guess. But it was decisive and it was +speedy. He spent a few months in Germany in the end of 1846, and in the +beginning of 1847 the Bishop of Oxford was willing to appoint him to +St. Ebbe's. But his stay there was short. Three months afterwards he +accepted the chapel at Brighton which he held till his death in August +1853. + +He was now the Robertson whom all the world knows, and the change was a +most remarkable one. It seems strictly accurate to say that he started +at once into a new man--new in all his views and tastes; new in the +singular burst of power which at once shows itself in the keen, free, +natural language of his letters and his other writings; new in the deep +concentrated earnestness of character with which he seemed to grasp his +peculiar calling and function. All the conventionalities of his old +school, which hung very thick about him even to the end of his +Cheltenham life, seem suddenly to drop off, and leave him, without a +trace remaining on his mind, in the full use and delight of his new +liberty. We cannot say that we are more inclined to agree with him in +his later stage than in his earlier. And the rapid transformation of a +most dogmatic and zealous Evangelical into an equally positive and +enthusiastic "Broad Churchman" does not seem a natural or healthy +process, and suggests impatience and self-confidence more than +self-command and depth. But we get, without doubt, to a real man--a man +whose words have a meaning, and stand for real things; whose language +no longer echoes the pale dreary commonplaces of a school, but reveals +thoughts which he has thought for himself, and the power of being able +"to speak as he will." His mind seems to expand, almost at a bound, to +all the manifold variety of interests of which the world is full. His +letters on his own doings, on the books and subjects of the day, on the +remarks or the circumstances of his friends, his criticism, his satire, +his controversial or friendly discussions, are full of energy, +versatility, refinement, boldness, and strength; and his remarkable +power of clear, picturesque, expressive diction, not unworthy of our +foremost masters of English, appears all at once, as it were, full +grown. It is difficult to believe, as we read the later portions of his +life, that we are reading about the same man who appeared, so short a +time before, at the beginning, to promise at best to turn into a +popular Evangelical preacher, above the average, perhaps, in taste and +power, but not above the average in freedom from cramping and sour +prejudices. + +Mr. Robertson had hold of some great truths, and he applied them, both +in his own thoughts and self-development and in his popular teaching, +with great force. He realised two things with a depth and intensity +which give an awful life and power to all he said about religion. He +realised with singular and pervading keenness that which a greater man +than he speaks of as the first and the great discovery of the awakened +soul--" the thought of two, and two only, supreme and luminously +self-evident beings, himself and the Creator." "Alone with God," +expresses the feeling which calmed his own anxieties and animated his +religious appeals to others. And he realised with equal earnestness the +great truth which is spoken of by Mr. Brooke, though in language which +to us has an unpleasant sound, in the following extract: + + Yet, notwithstanding all this--which men called while he lived, + and now when he is dead will call, want of a clear and + well-defined system of theology--he had a fixed basis for his + teaching. It was the Divine-human Life of Christ. It is the fourth + principle mentioned in his letter, "that belief in the human + character of Christ must be antecedent to belief in His divine + origin." He felt that an historical Christianity was absolutely + essential; that only through a visible life of the Divines in the + flesh could God become intelligible to men; that Christ was God's + idea of our nature realised; that only when we fall back on the + glorious portrait of what has been, ran we be delivered from + despair of Humanity; that in Christ "all the blood of all the + nations ran," and all the powers of man were redeemed. Therefore + he grasped as the highest truth, on which to rest life and + thought, the reality expressed in the words, "the Word was made + Flesh." The Incarnation was to him the centre of all history, the + blossoming of Humanity. The Life which followed the Incarnation + was the explanation of the Life of God, and the only solution of + the problem of the Life of man. He did not speak much of loving + Christ; his love was fitly mingled with that veneration which + makes love perfect; his voice was solemn, and he paused before he + spoke His name in common talk; for what that name meant had become + the central thought of his intellect and the deepest realisation + of his spirit. He had spent a world of study, of reverent + meditation, of adoring contemplation, on the Gospel history. + Nothing comes forward more frequently in his letters than the way + in which he had entered into the human life of Christ. To that + everything is referred--by that everything is explained. + +In bringing home these great truths to the feelings of those who had +lived insensible to them lay the chief value of his preaching. He +awakened men to believe that there was freshness and reality in things +which they had by use become dulled to. There are no doubt minds which +rise to the truth most naturally and freely without the intervention of +dogmatic expressions, and to these such expressions, as they are a +limit and a warning, are also felt as a clog. Mr. Robertson's early +experience had made him suspicious and irritable about dogma as such; +and he prided himself on being able to dispense with it, while at the +same time preserving the principle and inner truth which it was +intended to convey. But in his ostentatious contempt of dogmatic +precision and exactness, none but those who have not thought about the +matter will see any proof of his strength or wisdom. Dogma, accurate, +subtle, scientific, does not prevent a mind of the first order from +breathing freshness of feeling, grandeur, originality, and the sense of +reality, into the exposition of the truth which it represents. It is no +fetter except to those minds which in their impulsiveness, their +self-confidence, and their want of adequate grasp and sustained force, +most need its salutary restraint. And no man has a right, however +eloquent and impressive his speech may be, to talk against dogma till +he shows that he does not confound accuracy of statement with +conventional formalism. Mr. Robertson lays down the law pretty +confidently about the blunders of everybody about him--Tractarian, +Evangelical, Dissenter, Romanist, and Rationalist. We must say that the +impression of every page of his letters is, that clear and "intuitive" +as he was, he had not always understood what he condemned. He was +especially satisfied with a view of Baptism which he thought rose above +both extremes and took in the truth of both while it avoided their +errors. But is it too much to say that a man who, not in the heat of +rhetoric, but when preparing candidates for Confirmation, and piquing +himself on his freedom from all prejudice, deliberately describes the +common Church view of Baptism as implying a "magical" change, and +actually illustrates what he means by the stories of magical changes in +the _Arabian Nights_--who knowing, or able to read, all that has been +said by divines on the subject from the days of Augustine, yet commits +himself to the assertion that this is in fact what they hold and +teach--is it too much to say that such a man, whatever may be his other +gifts, has forfeited all claim to be considered capable of writing and +expressing himself with accuracy, truth, and distinctness on +theological questions? And if theological questions are to be dealt +with, ought they not to be dealt with accurately, and not loosely? + +But we have lingered too long over these volumes. They are very +instructive, sometimes very elevating, almost always very touching. The +life which they describe greatly wanted discipline, self-restraint, and +the wise and manly fear of overrating one's own novelties. But we see +in it a life consecrated to duty, fulfilled with much pain and +self-sacrifice, and adorned by warm and deep affections, by vigour and +refinement of thought, and earnest love for truth and purity. No one +can help feeling his profound and awful sense of things unseen, though +in the philosophy by which he sought to connect things seen and things +unseen, we cannot say that we can have much confidence. We have only +one concluding remark to make, and that is not on him but on his +biographer. An exaggerated tone, as we have said, seems to us to +pervade the book. There is what seems to us an unhealthy attempt to +create in the reader an impression of the exceptional severity of the +sufferings of Mr. Robertson's life, of his loneliness, of his +persecutions. But in this point much may fairly be pardoned to the +affection of a friend. What, however, we can less excuse is the want of +good feeling with which Mr. Brooke, in his account of Mr. Robertson's +last days, allows himself to give an _ex parte_, account of a dispute +between Mr. Robertson and the Vicar of Brighton, about the appointment +of a curate, and not simply to insinuate, but distinctly declare that +this dispute with its result was the fatal stroke which, in his state +of ill-health, hastened his death. We say nothing about the rights of +the story, for we never heard anything of them but what Mr. Brooke +tells us. But there is an appearance of vindictiveness in putting it on +record with this particular aspect which nothing in the story itself +seems to us to justify. In describing Mr. Robertson's departure from +Cheltenham, Mr. Brooke has plainly thought right to use much reticence. +He would have done well to have used the same reticence about these +quarrels at Brighton. + + + + +XVI + +LIFE OF BARON BUNSEN[19] + + + [19] + _A Memoir of Baron Bunsen_. By his Widow, Baroness Bunsen. _Saturday + Review_, 2nd May 1868. + +Bunsen was really one of those persons, more common two centuries ago +than now, who could belong as much to an adopted country as to that in +which they were born and educated. A German of the Germans, he yet +succeeded in also making himself at home in England, in appreciating +English interests, in assimilating English thought and traditions, and +exercising an important influence at a critical time on one extremely +important side of English life and opinion. He was less felicitous in +allying the German with the Englishman, perhaps from personal +peculiarities of impatience, self-assertion, and haste, than one who +has since trodden in his steps and realised more completely and more +splendidly some of the great designs which floated before his mind. But +few foreigners have gained more fairly, by work and by sympathy, the +_droit de cite_ in England than Bunsen. + +It is a great pity that books must be so long and so bulky, and though +Bunsen's life was a very full and active one in all matters of +intellectual interest, and in some of practical interest also, we +cannot help thinking that his biography would have gained by greater +exercise of self-denial on the part of his biographer. It is altogether +too prolix, and the distinction is not sufficiently observed between +what is interesting simply to the Bunsen family and their friends, and +what is interesting to the public. One of the points in which +biographers, and the present author among the number, make mistakes, is +in their use of letters. They never know when to stop in giving +correspondence. If we had only one or two letters of a remarkable map, +they would be worth printing, even if they were very much like other +people's letters. But when we have bundles and letter-books without end +to select from, selection, in a work professedly biographical, becomes +advisable. We want types and specimens of a man's letters; and when the +specimen has been given, we want no more, unless what is given is for +its own sake remarkable. A great number of Bunsen's early letters are +printed. Some of them are of much interest, showing how early the germs +were formed of ideas and plans which occupied his life, and what were +the influences by which he was surrounded, and how he comported himself +in regard to them. But many more of these letters are what any young +man of thought and of an affectionate nature might have written; and we +do not want to have it shown us, over and over again, merely that +Bunsen was thoughtful and affectionate. A wise and severe economy in +this matter would have produced at least the same effect, at much less +cost to the reader. + +Bunsen was born in 1791, at Corbach, in the little principality of +Waldeck, and grew up under the severe and simple training of a frugal +German household, and with a solid and vigorous German education. He +became in time Heyne's pupil at Goettingen, and very early showed the +qualities which distinguished him in his after life--restless eagerness +after knowledge and vast powers of labour, combined with large and +ambitious, and sometimes vague, ideas, and with depth and fervour of +religious sentiment. He entered on life when the reaction against the +cold rationalistic theories of the age before him was stimulated by the +excitement of the war of liberation; and in his deep and supreme +interest in the Bible he kept to the last the stamp which he then +received. More interesting than the recollections of a distinguished +man's youth by his friends after he has become distinguished--which are +seldom quite natural and not always trustworthy--are the contemporary +records of the impressions made on _him_ in his youth by those who were +distinguished men when he was young. In some of Bunsen's letters we +have such impressions. Thus he writes of Heyne in 1813:-- + + Poor and lonely did I arrive in this place [Goettingen]. Heyne + received me, guided me, bore with me, encouraged me, showed me in + himself the example of a high and noble energy, and indefatigable + activity in a calling which was not that to which his merit + entitled him. He might have superintended and administered and + maintained an entire kingdom without more effort and with yet + greater efficiency than the University for which he lived; he was + too great for a mere philologer, and in general for a professor of + mere learning in the age into which he was cast, and he was more + distinguished in every other way than in this.... And what has he + established or founded at the cost of this exertion of faculties? + Learning annihilates itself, and the most perfect is the first + submerged; for the next age scales with ease the height which cost + the preceding the full vigour of life. Yet two things remain of + him and will not perish--the one, the tribute left by his free + spirit to the finest productions of the human mind; and what he + felt, thought, and has immortalised in many men of excellence gone + before. Read his explanations of Tischbein's engravings from + Homer, his last preface to Virgil, and especially his oration on + the death of Mueller, and you will understand what I mean. I speak + not of his political instinct, made evident in his survey of the + public and private life of the ancients. The other memorial which + will subsist of him, more warm in life than the first, is the + remembrance of his generosity, to which numbers owe a deep + obligation. + +And of Schelling, about the same time, whom he had just seen in Munich:-- + + Schelling before all must be mentioned as having received me well, + after his fashion, giving me frequent occasions of becoming + acquainted with his philosophical views and judgments, in his own + original and peculiar manner. His mode of disputation is rough and + angular; his peremptoriness and his paradoxes terrible. Once he + undertook to explain animal magnetism, and for this purpose to + give an idea of Time, from which resulted that all is present and + in existence--the Present as existing in the actual moment; the + Future, as existing in a future moment. When I demanded the proof, + he referred me to the word _is_, which applies to existence, in + the sentence that "this _is_ future." Seckendorf, who was present + (with him I have become closely acquainted, to my great + satisfaction), attempted to draw attention to the confounding the + subjective (i.e. him who pronounces that sentence) with the + objective; or, rather, to point out a simple grammatical + misunderstanding--in short, declared the position impossible. + "Well," replied Schelling drily, "you have not understood me." Two + Professors (his worshippers), who were present, had meanwhile + endeavoured by their exclamations, "Only observe, all _is_, all + _exists_" (to which the wife of Schelling, a clever woman, + assented), to help me into conviction; and a vehement beating the + air--for arguing and holding fast by any firm point were out of + the question--would have arisen, if I had not contrived to escape + by giving a playful turn to the conversation. I am perfectly aware + that Schelling _could_ have expressed and carried through his real + opinion far better--i.e. rationally. I tell the anecdote merely + to give an idea of his manner in conversation. + +At Goettingen he was one of a remarkable set, comprising Lachmann, +Luecke, Brandis, and some others, thought as much of at the time as +their friends, but who failed to make their way to the front ranks of +the world. Like others of his countrymen, Bunsen began to find "that +the world's destinies were not without their effect on him," and to +feel dissatisfied with the comparatively narrow sphere of even German +learning. The thought grew, and took possession of him, of "bringing +over, into his knowledge and into his fatherland, the solemn and +distant East," and to "draw the East into the study of the entire +course of humanity (particularly of European, and more especially of +Teutonic humanity)," making Germany the "central point of this study." +Vast plans of philological and historical study, involving, as the only +means then possible of carrying them out, schemes of wide travel and +long sojourn in the East, opened on him. Indian and Persian literature, +the instinctive certainty of its connection with the languages and +thought of the West, and the imperfection of means of study in Europe, +drew him, as many more were drawn at the time, to seek the knowledge +which they wanted in foreign and distant lands. With Bunsen, this wide +and combined study of philology, history, and philosophy, which has +formed one of the characteristic pursuits of our time, was from the +first connected with the study of the Bible as its central point. In +1815 came a decisive turning-point in his life--his acquaintance, and +the beginning of his close connection, with Niebuhr, at Berlin; and +from this time he felt himself a Prussian. "That State in Northern +Germany," he writes to Brandis in 1815, "which gladly receives every +German, from wheresoever he may come, and considers every one thus +entering as a citizen born, is _the true Germany_":-- + + That such a State [he proceeds, in the true Bismarckian spirit] + should prove inconvenient to others of inferior importance, which + persist in continuing their isolated existence, regardless of the + will of Providence and of the general good, is of no consequence + whatever; nor even does it matter that, in its present management, + there are defects and imperfections.... We intend to be in Berlin + in three weeks; and there (in Prussia) am I resolved to fix my + destinies. + +After reading Persian for a short time in Paris with De Sacy, and after +the failure of a plan of travel with Mr. Astor of New York, Bunsen +joined Niebuhr at Florence in the end of 1816, and went on with him to +Rome, where Niebuhr was Prussian envoy. There, enjoying Niebuhr's +society, "equally sole in his kind with Rome," he took up his abode, +and plunged into study. He gave up his plans of Oriental travel, +finding he could do all that he wanted without them. Too much a +student, as he writes to a friend, to think of marrying, which he could +not do "without impairing his whole scheme of mental development," he +nevertheless found his fate in an English lady, Miss Waddington, who +became his wife. And, finally, when the health of his friend Brandis, +Niebuhr's secretary in the Prussian Legation, broke down, Bunsen took +his place, and entered on that combined path of study and diplomacy in +which he continued for the greater part of his life. + +It may be questioned whether Bunsen's career answered altogether +successfully to what he proposed to himself, or was in fact all that +his friends and he himself thought it; but it was eminently one in +which from the first he had laid down for himself a plan of life which +he tenaciously followed through many changes and varieties of work, +without ever losing sight of the purpose with which he began. He piqued +himself on having early seen that a man ought to have an object to +which to devote his whole life--"be it a dictionary like Johnson's or a +history like Gibbon's"--and on having discerned and chosen his own +object. And at an early time of his life in Rome he draws an outline of +thought and inquiry, destined to break off into many different labours, +in very much the same language in which he might have described it in +the last year of his life:-- + + _The consciousness of God in the mind of man, and that which in + and through that consciousness He has accomplished, especially in + language and religion_, this was from the earliest time before my + mind. After having awhile fancied to attain my point, sometimes + here, sometimes there, at length (it was in the Christmas holidays + of 1812, after having gained the prize in November) I made a + general and comprehensive plan. I wished to go through and + represent heathen antiquity, in its principal phases, in three + great periods of the world's history, according to its languages, + its religious conceptions, and its political institutions; first + of all in the East, where the earliest expressions in each are + highly remarkable, although little known; then in the second great + epoch, among the Greeks and Romans; thirdly, among the Teutonic + nations, who put an end to the Roman Empire. + + At first I thought of Christianity only as something which every + one, like the mother tongue, knows intuitively, and therefore not + as the object of a peculiar study. But in January 1816, when I for + the last time took into consideration all that belonged to my + plan, and wrote it down, I arrived at this conclusion, that as God + had caused the conception of Himself to be developed in the mind + of man in a twofold manner, the one through revelation to the + Jewish people through their patriarchs, the other through reason + in the heathen; so also must the inquiry and representation of + this development be twofold; and as God had kept these two ways + for a length of time independent and separate, so should we, in + the course of the examination, separate knowledge from man, and + his development from the doctrine of revelation and faith, firmly + trusting that God in the end would bring about the union of both. + This is now also my firm conviction, that we must not mix them or + bring them together forcibly, as many have done with well-meaning + zeal but unclear views, and as many in Germany with impure designs + are still doing. + +The design had its interruptions, both intellectual and practical. The +plan was an ambitious one, too ambitious for Bunsen's time and powers, +or even probably for our own more advanced stage of knowledge; and +Bunsen ever found it hard to resist the attractions of a new object of +interest, and did not always exhaust it, though he seldom touched +anything without throwing light on it. Thus he was drawn by +circumstances to devote a good deal of time, more than he intended, to +the mere antiquarianism of Rome. By and by he found himself succeeding +Niebuhr as the diplomatic representative of Prussia at Rome. And his +attempt to meet the needs of his own strong devotional feelings by +giving more warmth and interest to the German services at the embassy, +"the congregation on the Capitoline Hill," led him, step by step, to +those wider schemes for liturgical reform which influenced so +importantly the course of his fortunes. They brought him, a young and +unknown man, with little more than Niebuhr's good word, into direct and +confidential communication with the King of Prussia, who was then +intent on plans of the same kind, and who recognised in Bunsen, after +some preliminary jealousy and misgivings, the man most fitted to assist +in carrying them out. But though Bunsen, who started with the resolve +of being both a student and a scholar, was driven, as he thought +against his will, into paths which led him deeper and deeper into +public life and diplomacy, his early plans were never laid aside even +under the stress of official employment. Perhaps it may be difficult to +strike the balance of what they lost or gained by it. + +The account of his life at Rome contains much that is interesting. +There is the curious mixture of sympathy and antipathy in Bunsen's mind +for the place itself; the antipathy of a German, a Protestant, and a +free inquirer, for the Roman, the old Catholic, the narrow, timid, +traditional spirit which pervaded everything in the great seat of +clerical and Papal government; and the sympathy, scarcely less intense, +not merely, or in the first place, for the classical aspects of Rome, +but for its religious character, as still the central point of +Christendom, full of the memorials and the savour of the early days of +Christianity, mingling with what its many centuries of history have +added to them; and for all that aroused the interest and touched the +mind of one deeply busy with two great religious problems--the best +forms for Christian worship, and the restoration, if possible, of some +organisation and authority in Protestant Germany. For a long time +Bunsen, like his master Niebuhr, was on the best terms with Cardinals, +Monsignori, and Popes. The Roman services were no objects to him of +abhorrence or indifference. He saw, in the midst of accretions, the +remains of the more primitive devotion; and the architecture, the art, +and the music, to be found only in Rome, were to him inexhaustible +sources of delight. As may be supposed, letters like Bunsen's, and the +recollections of his biographer, are full of interesting gossip; +notices of famous people, and of things that happened in Rome in the +days of the Emancipation and Reform Bills, Revolutions of Naples in +'20 and France in '30, during the twenty years, from 1818 to 1838, in +which the men of the great war and the restorations were going off the +scene, and the men of the modern days--Liberals, High Churchmen, +Ultra-montanes--were coming on. Those twenty years, of course, were not +without their changes in Bunsen's own views. The man who had come to +Rome, in position a poor and obscure student, had grown into the oracle +of a highly cultivated society, whose acquaintance was eagerly sought +by every one of importance who lived at Rome or visited it, and into +the diplomatic representative of one of the great Powers. The scholar +had come to have, not merely theories, but political and ecclesiastical +aims. The disciple of Niebuhr, who at one time had seen all things very +much as Niebuhr saw them in his sad later days of disgust at revolution +and cynical despair of liberty, had come since under the influence of +Arnold, and, as his letters to Arnold show, had taken into his own mind +much of the more generous and hopeful, though vague, teaching of that +equally fervid teacher of liberalism and of religion. These letters are +of much interest. They show the dreams and the fears and antipathies of +the time; they contain some remarkable anticipations, some equally +remarkable miscalculations, and some ideas and proposals which, with +our experience, excite our wonder that any one could have imagined them +practicable. Every one knows that Bunsen's diplomatic career at Rome +ended unfortunately. He was mixed up with the violent proceedings of +the Prussian Government in the dispute with the Archbishop of Cologne +about marriages between Protestants and Catholics, and he had the +misfortune to offend equally both his own Court and that of Rome. It is +possible that, as is urged in the biography before us, he was +sacrificed to the blunders and the enmities of powers above him. But, +for whatever reason, no clear account is given of the matter by his +biographer, though a good deal is suggested; and in the absence of +intelligible explanations the conclusion is natural that, though he may +have been ill-used, he may also have been unequal to his position. + +But his ill-success or his ill-usage at Rome was more than compensated +by the results to which it may be said to have led. Out of it +ultimately came that which gave the decisive character to Bunsen's +life--his settlement in London as Prussian Minister. On leaving Rome he +came straight to England He came full of admiration and enthusiasm to +"his Ithaca, his island fatherland," and he was flattered and delighted +by the welcome he received, and by the power which he perceived in +himself, beyond that of most foreigners, to appreciate and enjoy +everything English. He liked everything--people, country, and +institutions; even, as his biographer writes, our rooks. The zest of +his enjoyment was not diminished by his keen sense of what appear to +foreigners our characteristic defects--the want of breadth of interest +and boldness of speculative thought which accompanies so much energy in +public life and so much practical success; and he seems to have felt in +himself a more than ordinary fitness to be a connecting link between +the two nations--that he had much to teach Englishmen, and that they +were worth teaching. He thoroughly sympathised with the earnestness and +strong convictions of English religion; but he thought it lamentably +destitute of rational grounds, of largeness of idea and of critical +insight, enslaved to the letter, and afraid of inquiry. But, with all +drawbacks, his visit to England made it a very attractive place to him; +and when he was appointed by his Government Envoy to the Swiss +Confederation, with strict injunctions "to do nothing," his eyes were +oft on turned towards England. In 1840 the King of Prussia died, and +Bunsen's friend and patron, the Crown Prince, became Frederic William +IV. He resembled Bunsen in more ways than one; in his ardent religious +sentiment, in his eagerness, in his undoubting and not always +far-sighted self-confidence and self-assertion, and in a combination of +practical vagueness of view and a want of understanding men, with a +feverish imperiousness in carrying out a favourite plan. In 1841 he +sent Bunsen to England to negotiate the ill-considered and precipitate +arrangement for the Jerusalem bishopric; and on the successful +conclusion of the negotiation, Bunsen was appointed permanently to be +Prussian Minister in London. The manner of appointment was remarkable. +The King sent three names to Lord Aberdeen and the English Court, and +they selected Bunsen's. + +Thus Bunsen, who twenty-five years before had sat down a penniless +student, almost in despair at the failure of his hopes as a travelling +tutor, in Orgagna's _loggia_ at Florence, had risen, in spite of real +difficulties and opposition, to a brilliant position in active +political life; and the remarkable point is that, whether he was +ambitious or not of this kind of advancement--and it would perhaps +have been as well on his part to have implied less frequently that he +was not--he was all along, above everything, the student and the +theologian. What is even more remarkable is that, plunged into the +whirl of London public life and society, he continued still to be, more +even than the diplomatist, the student and theologian. The Prussian +Embassy during the years that he occupied it, from 1841 to 1854, was +not an idle place, and Bunsen was not a man to leave important State +business to other hands. The French Revolution, the German Revolution, +the Frankfort Assembly, the question of the revival of the Empire, the +beginnings of the Danish quarrel and of the Crimean war, all fell +within that time, and gave the Prussian Minister in such a centre as +London plenty to think of, to do, and to write about. Yet all this time +was a time of intense and unceasing activity in that field of +theological controversy in which Bunsen took such delight. The +diplomatist entrusted with the gravest affairs of a great Power in the +most critical and difficult times, and fully alive to the interest and +responsibility of his charge, also worked harder than most Professors, +and was as positive and fiery in his religious theories and antipathies +as the keenest and most dogmatic of scholastic disputants, he was busy +about Egyptian chronology, about cuneiform writing, about comparative +philology; he plunged with characteristic eagerness into English +theological war; and such books as his _Church of the Future_, and his +writings on Ignatius and Hippolytus, were not the least important of +the works which marked the progress of the struggle of opinions here. +But they represented only a very small part of the unceasing labour +that was going on in the early morning hours in Carlton House Terrace. +All this time the foundations were being laid and the materials +gathered for books of wider scope and more permanent aim, too vast for +him to accomplish even in his later years of leisure. It is an original +and instructive picture; for though we boast statesmen who still carry +on the great traditions of scholarship, and give room in their minds +for the deeper and more solemn problems of religion and philosophy, +they are not supposed to be able to carry on simultaneously their +public business and their classical or scientific studies, and at any +rate they do not attack the latter with the devouring zeal with which +Bunsen taxed the efforts of hard-driven secretaries and readers to keep +pace with his inexhaustible demands for more and more of the most +abstruse materials of knowledge. + +The end of his London diplomatic career was, like the end of his Roman +one, clouded with something like disgrace; and, like the Roman one, is +left here unexplained. But it was for his happiness, probably, that his +residence in England came to a close. He had found the poetry of his +early notions about England, political and theological at least, +gradually changing into prose. He found less and less to like, in what +at first most attracted him, in the English Church; he and it, besides +knowing one another better, were also changing. He probably increased +his sympathies for England, and returned in a measure to his old +kindness for it, by looking at it only from a distance. The labour of +his later days, as vast and indefatigable as that of his earlier days, +was devoted to his great work, which was, as it were, to popularise the +Bible and revive interest in it by a change in the method of presenting +it and commenting on it. To the last the Bible was the central point of +his philosophical as well as his religious thoughts, as it had been in +his first beginnings as a student at Gottingen and Rome. After a life +of many trials, but of unusual prosperity and enjoyment, he died in the +end of 1860. The account of his last days is a very touching one. + +We do not pretend to think Bunsen the great and consummate man that, +naturally enough, he appears to his friends. We doubt whether he can be +classed as a man in the first rank at all. We doubt whether he fully +understood his age, and yet it is certain that he was confident and +positive that he did understand it better than most men; and an undue +confidence of this kind implies considerable defects both of intellect +and character. He wanted the patient, cautious, judicial self-distrust +which his studies eminently demanded, and of which he might have seen +some examples in England. No one can read these volumes without seeing +the disproportionate power which first impressions had with him; he was +always ready to say that something, which had just happened or come +before him, was the greatest or the most complete thing of its kind. +Wonderfully active, wonderfully quick and receptive, full of +imagination and of the power of combining and constructing, and never +wearied out or dispirited, his mind took in large and grand ideas, and +developed them with enthusiasm and success, and with all the resources +of wide and varied knowledge; but the affluence and ingenuity of his +thoughts indisposed him, as it indisposes many other able men, to the +prosaic and uninteresting work of calling these thoughts into question, +and cross-examining himself upon their grounds and tenableness. He +tried too much; the multiplicity of his intellectual interests was too +much for him, and he often thought that he was explaining when he was +but weaving a wordy tissue, and "darkening counsel" as much as any of +the theological sciolists whom he denounced. People, for instance, +must, it seems to us, be very easily satisfied who find any fresh light +in the attempt, not unfrequent in his letters, to adapt the Lutheran +watchword of Justification by faith to modern ideas. He was very rapid, +and this rapidity made him hasty and precipitate; it also made him apt +to despise other men, and, what was of more consequence, the +difficulties of the subject likewise. Others did not always find it +easy to understand him; and it may fairly be questioned if he always +sufficiently asked whether he understood himself. He was generous and +large-spirited in intention, though not always so in fact. + +Doubtless so much knowledge, so much honest and unsparing toil, such +freshness and quickness of thought, have not been wasted; there will +always be much to learn from Bunsen's writings. But his main service +has been the moral one of his example; of his ardent and high-souled +industry, of his fearlessness in accepting the conclusions of his +inquiries, of his untiring faith through many changes and some +disappointments that there is a way to reconcile all the truths that +interest men--those of religion, and those of nature and history. The +sincerity and earnestness with which he attempted this are a lesson to +everybody; his success is more difficult to recognise, and it may +perhaps be allowable to wish that he had taken more exactly the measure +of the great task which he set to himself. His ambition was a high one. +He aspired to be the Luther of the new 1517 which he so often dwelt +upon, and to construct a theology which, without breaking with the +past, should show what Christianity really is, and command the faith +and fill the opening thought of the present. It can hardly be said that +he succeeded. The Church of the Future still waits its interpreter, to +make good its pretensions to throw the ignorant and mistaken Church of +the Past into the shade. + + + + +XVII + +COLERIDGE'S MEMOIR OF KEBLE[20] + + + [20] + _A Memoir of the Rev. John Keble_. By the Right Hon. Sir J.T. + Coleridge. _Saturday Review_, 20th March 1860. + +Mr. Keble has been fortunate in his biographer. There have been since +his death various attempts to appreciate a character manifestly of such +depth and interest, yet about which outsiders could find so little to +say. Professor Shairp, of St. Andrews, two or three years ago gave a +charming little sketch, full of heart and insight, and full too of +noble modesty and reverence, which deserves to be rescued from the +danger of being forgotten into which sketches are apt to fall, both on +account of its direct subject, and also for the contemporary evidence +which it contains of the impressions made on a perfectly impartial and +intelligent observer by the early events of the Oxford movement. The +brilliant Dean of Westminster, in _Macmillan's Magazine_, has +attempted, with his usual grace and kindliness, to do justice to +Keble's character, and has shown how hard he found the task. The paper +on Keble forms a pendant to a recent paper on Dean Milman. The two +papers show conspicuously the measure and range of Dr. Stanley's power; +what he can comprehend and appreciate in religious earnestness and +height, and what he cannot; in what shapes, as in Dean Milman, he can +thoroughly sympathise with it and grasp it, and where its phenomena, as +in Mr. Keble, simply perplex and baffle him, and carry him out of his +depth. + +Sir John Coleridge knew Keble probably as long and as intimately as any +one; and on the whole, he had the most entire sympathy with his +friend's spirit, even where he disagreed with his opinions. He +thoroughly understood and valued the real and living unity of a +character which mostly revealed itself to the outer world by what +seemed jerks and discordant traits. From early youth, through manhood +to old age, he had watched and tested and loved that varied play and +harmony of soul and mind, which was sometimes tender, sometimes stern, +sometimes playful, sometimes eager; abounding with flashes of real +genius, and yet always inclining by instinctive preference to things +homely and humble; but which was always sound and unselfish and +thorough, endeavouring to subject itself to the truth and will of God. +To Sir John Coleridge all this was before him habitually as a whole; he +could take it in, not by putting piece by piece together, but because +he saw it. And besides being an old and affectionate and intelligent +friend, he was also a discriminating one. In his circumstances he was +as opposite to Keble as any one could be; he was a lawyer and man of +the world, whose busy life at Westminster had little in common with the +studies or pursuits of the divine and the country parson. + +Such an informant presents a picture entirely different in kind from +the comments and criticisms of those who can judge only from Mr. +Keble's writings and religious line, or from the rare occasions in +which he took a public part. These appearances, to many who willingly +acknowledge the charm which has drawn to him the admiration and +affection of numbers externally most widely at variance with him, do +not always agree together. People delight in his poetry who hate his +theology. They cannot say too much of the tenderness, the depth, the +truth, the quick and delicate spirit of love and purity, which have +made his verses the best interpreters and soothers of modern religious +feeling; yet, in the religious system from which his poetry springs, +they find nothing but what seems to them dry, harsh, narrow, and +antiquated. He attracts and he repels; and the attraction and repulsion +are equally strong. They see one side, and he is irresistible in his +simplicity, humbleness, unworldliness, and ever considerate charity, +combined with so much keenness and freshness of thought, and such sure +and unfailing truth of feeling. They see another, and he seems to them +full of strange unreality, strained, exaggerated, morbid, bristling +with a forced yet inflexible intolerance. At one moment he seems the +very ideal of a Christian teacher, made to win the sympathy of all +hearts; the next moment a barrier rises in the shape of some unpopular +doctrine or some display of zealous severity, seeming to be a strange +contrast to all that was before, which utterly astonishes and +disappoints. Mr. Keble was very little known to the public in general, +less so even than others whose names are associated with his; and it is +evident that to the public in general he presented a strange assemblage +of incoherent and seemingly irreconcilable qualities. His mind seemed +to work and act in different directions; and the results at the end +seemed to be with wide breaks and interruptions between them. But a +book like this enables us to trace back these diverging lines to the +centre from which they spring. What seemed to be in such sharp +contradiction at the outside is seen to flow naturally from the +perfectly homogeneous and consistent character within. Many people will +of course except to the character. It is not the type likely to find +favour in an age of activity, doubt, and change. But, as it was +realised in Mr. Keble, there it is in Sir John Coleridge's pages, +perfectly real, perfectly natural, perfectly whole and uniform, with +nothing double or incongruous in it, though it unfolded itself in +various and opposite ways. And its ideal was simply that which has been +consecrated as the saintly character in the Christian Church since the +days of St. John--the deepest and most genuine love of all that was +good; the deepest and most genuine hatred of all that was believed to +be evil. + +The picture which Sir John Coleridge puts before us, though deficient +in what is striking and brilliant, is a sufficiently remarkable and +uncommon one. It is the picture of a man of high cultivation and +intellect, in whom religion was not merely something flavouring and +elevating life, not merely a great element and object of spiritual +activity, but really and unaffectedly the one absorbing interest, and +the spring of every thought and purpose. Whether people like such a +character or not, and whether or not they may think the religion wrong, +or distorted and imperfect, if they would fairly understand the writer +of the _Christian Year_ they must start from this point. He was a man +who, without a particle of the religious cant of any school, without +any self-consciousness or pretension or unnatural strain, literally +passed his clays under the quick and pervading influence, for restraint +and for stimulus, of the will and presence of God. With this his whole +soul was possessed; its power over him had not to be invoked and +stirred up; it acted spontaneously and unnoticed in him; it was +dominant in all his activity; it quenched in him aims, and even, it may +be, faculties; it continually hampered the free play of his powers and +gifts, and made him often seem, to those who had not the key, awkward, +unequal, and unintelligible. But for this awful sense of truth and +reality unseen, which dwarfed to him all personal thoughts and all +present things, he might have been a more finished writer, a more +attractive preacher, a less indifferent foster-father to his own works. +But it seemed to him a shame, in the presence of all that his thoughts +habitually dwelt with, to think of the ordinary objects of authorship, +of studying anything of this world for its own sake, of perfecting +works of art, of cultivating the subtle forces and spells of language +to give attractiveness to his writings. Abruptness, inadequacy, and +obscurity of expression were light matters, and gave him little +concern, compared with the haunting fear of unreal words. This "seeking +first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," as he understood it, +was the basis of all that he was; it was really and unaffectedly his +governing principle, the root of his affections and his antipathies, +just as to other men is the passion for scientific discovery or +political life. + +But within these limits, and jealously restrained by these conditions, +a strongly marked character, exuberant with power and life, and the +play of individual qualities, displayed itself. There were two +intellectual sides to his mind--one which made him a poet, quickness +and delicacy of observation and sympathetic interpretation, the +realising and anticipating power of deep feeling and penetrative +imagination; the other, at first sight, little related to poetry, a +hard-headed, ingenious, prosaic shrewdness and directness of common +sense, dealing practically with things as they are and on the whole, +very little curious about scientific questions and precision, +argumentative in a fashion modelled on Bishop Butler, and full of +logical resource, good and, often it must be owned, bad. It was a mind +which unfolded first under the plain, manly discipline of an +old-fashioned English country parsonage, where the unshowy piety and +strong morality and modest theology of the middle age of Anglicanism, +the school of Pearson, Bull, and Wilson, were supreme. And from this it +came under the new influences of bold and independent thought which +were beginning to stir at Oxford; influences which were at first +represented by such men as Davison, Copleston, and, above all, Whately; +influences which repelled Keble by what he saw of hardness, +shallowness, and arrogance, and still more of self-sufficiency and +intellectual display and conceit in the prevailing tone of speculation, +but which nevertheless powerfully affected him, and of which he showed +the traces to the last Sir John Coleridge is disappointing as to the +amount of light which he throws on the process which was going on in +Keble's mind during the fifteen years or so between his degree and the +_Christian Year_; but there is one touch which refers to this period. +Speaking in 1838 of Alexander Knox, and expressing dislike of his +position, "as on the top of a high hill, seeing which way different +schools tend," and "exercising a royal right of eclecticism over all," +he adds:-- + + I speak the more feelingly because I know I was myself inclined to + eclecticism at one time; and if it had not been for my father and + my brother, where I should have been now, who can say? + +But he was a man who, with a very vigorous and keen intellect, capable +of making him a formidable disputant if he had been so minded, may be +said not to have cared for his intellect. He used it at need, but he +distrusted and undervalued it as an instrument and help. Goodness was +to him the one object of desire and reverence; it was really his own +measure of what he respected and valued; and where he recognised it, +and in whatever shape, grave or gay, he cared not about seeming +consistent in somehow or other paying it homage. People who knew him +remember how, in this austere judge of heresy, burdened by the +ever-pressing conviction of the "decay" of the Church and the distress +of a time of change, tenderness, playfulness, considerateness, the +restraint of a modesty which could not but judge, yet mistrusted its +fitness, marked his ordinary intercourse. Overflowing with affection to +his friends, and showing it in all kinds of unconventional and +unexpected instances, keeping to the last a kind of youthful freshness +as if he had never yet realised that he was not a boy, and shrunk from +the formality and donnishness of grown-up life, he was the most refined +and thoughtful of gentlemen, and in the midst of the fierce party +battles of his day, with all his strong feeling of the tremendous +significance of the strife, always a courteous and considerate +opponent. Strong words he used, and used deliberately. But those were +the days when the weapons of sarcasm and personal attack were freely +handled. The leaders of the High Church movement were held up to +detestation as the Oxford Malignants, and they certainly showed +themselves fully able to give their assailants as good as they brought; +yet Mr. Keble, involved in more than one trying personal controversy, +feeling as sternly and keenly as any one about public questions, and +tried by disappointment and the break up of the strongest ties, never +lost his evenness of temper, never appeared in the arena of personal +recrimination. In all the prominent part which he took, and in the +resolute and sometimes wrathful tone in which he defended what seemed +harsh measures, he may have dropped words which to opponents seemed +severe ones, but never any which even they could call a scornful one or +a sneer. + +It was in keeping with all that he was--a mark of imperfection it may +be, yet part of the nobleness and love of reality in a man who felt so +deeply the weakness and ignorance of man--that he cared so little about +the appearances of consistency. Thus, bound as he was by principle to +show condemnation when he thought that a sacred cause was invaded, he +was always inclining to conciliate his wrath with his affectionateness, +and his severity with his consideration of circumstances and his own +mistrust of himself. He was, of all men holding strong opinions, one of +the most curiously and unexpectedly tolerant, wherever he could +contrive to invent an excuse for tolerance, or where long habitual +confidence was weighed against disturbing appearances. Sir John +Coleridge touches this in the following extract, which is +characteristic:-- + + On questions of this kind especially [University Reform], his + principles were uncompromising; if a measure offended against what + he thought honest, or violated what he thought sacred, good motives + in the framers he would not admit as palliation, nor would he + be comforted by an opinion of mine that measures mischievous + in their logical consequences were never in the result so + mischievous, or beneficial measures so beneficial, as had been + foretold. So he writes playfully to me at an earlier time:-- + + "Hurrell Froude and I took into consideration your opinion + that 'there are good men of all parties,' and agreed that it + is a bad doctrine for these days; the time being come in + which, according to John Miller, 'scoundrels must be called + scoundrels'; and, moreover, we have stigmatised the said + opinion by the name of the Coleridge Heresy. So hold it any + longer at your peril." + + I think it fair to set down these which were, in truth, formed + opinions, and not random sayings; but it would be most unfair if + one concluded from them, written and spoken in the freedom of + friendly intercourse, that there was anything sour in his spirit, + or harsh and narrow in his practice; when you discussed any of + these things with him, the discussion was pretty sure to end, not + indeed with any insincere concession of what he thought right and + true, but in consideration for individuals and depreciation of + himself. + +And the same thing comes out in the interesting letter in which the +Solicitor-General describes his last recollections of Keble:-- + + There was, I am sure, no trace of failing then to be discerned in + his apprehension, or judgment, or discourse. He was an old man who + had been very ill, who was still physically weak, and who needed + care; but he was the same Mr. Keble I had always known, and whom, + for aught that appeared, I might hope still to know for many years + to come. Little bits of his tenderness, flashes of his fun, + glimpses of his austerer side, I seem to recall, but I cannot put + them upon paper.... Once I remember walking with him just the same + short walk, from his house to Sir William's, and our conversation + fell upon Charles I., with regard to whose truth and honour I had + used some expressions in a review, which had, as I heard, + displeased him. I referred to this, and he said it was true. I + replied that I was very sorry to displease him by anything I said + or thought; but that if the Naseby letters were genuine, I could + not think that what I said was at all too strong, and that a man + could but do his best to form an honest opinion upon historical + evidence, and, if he had to speak, to express that opinion. On + this he said, with a tenderness and humility not only most + touching, but to me most embarrassing, that "It might be so; what + was he to judge of other men; he was old, and things were now + looked at very differently; that he knew he had many things to + unlearn and learn afresh; and that I must not mind what he had + said, for that in truth belief in the heroes of his youth had + become part of him." I am afraid these are my words, and not his; + and I cannot give his way of speaking, which to any one with a + heart, I think, would have been as overcoming as it was to me. + +This same carelessness about appearances seems to us to be shown in +Keble's theological position in his later years. A more logical, or a +more plausible, but a less thoroughly real man might easily have +drifted into Romanism. There was much in the circumstances round him, +in the admissions which he had made, to lead that way; and his +chivalrous readiness to take the beaten or unpopular side would help +the tendency. But he was a man who gave great weight to his instinctive +perception of what was right and wrong; and he was also a man who, when +he felt sure of his duty, did not care a straw about what the world +thought of appearances, or required as a satisfaction of seeming +consistency. In him was eminently illustrated the characteristic +strength and weakness of English religion, which naturally comes out in +that form of it which is called Anglicanism; that poor Anglicanism, the +butt and laughing-stock of all the clever and high-flying converts to +Rome, of all the clever and high-flying Liberals, and of all those poor +copyists of the first, far from clever, though very high-flying, who +now give themselves out as exclusive heirs of the great name of +Catholic; sneered at on all sides as narrow, meagre, shattered, barren; +which certainly does not always go to the bottom of questions, and is +too much given to "hunting-up" passages for _catenas_ of precedents and +authorities; but which yet has a strange, obstinate, tenacious moral +force in it; which, without being successful in formulating theories or +in solving fallacies, can pierce through pretences and shams; and which +in England seems the only shape in which intense religious faith can +unfold itself and connect itself with morality and duty, without +seeming to wear a peculiar dress of its own, and putting a barrier of +self-chosen watchwords and singularities between itself and the rest of +the nation. + +It seems to us a great advantage to truth to have a character thus +exhibited in its unstudied and living completeness, and exhibited +directly, as the impression from life was produced on those before +whose eyes it drew itself out day by day in word and act, as the +occasion presented itself. There is, no doubt, a more vivid and +effective way; one in which the Dean of Westminster is a great master, +though it is not the method which he followed in what is probably his +most perfect work, the _Life of Dr. Arnold_--the method of singling out +points, and placing them, if possible, under a concentrated light, and +in strong contrast and relief. Thus in Keble's case it is easy, and +doubtless to many observers natural and tempting, to put side by side, +with a strange mixture of perplexity and repulsion, _The Christian +Year_, and the treatise _On Eucharistical Adoration_; to compare even +in Keble's poetry, his tone on nature and human life, on the ways of +children and the thoughts of death, with that on religious error and +ecclesiastical divergences from the Anglican type; and to dwell on the +contrast between Keble bearing his great gifts with such sweetness and +modesty, and touching with such tenderness and depth the most delicate +and the purest of human feelings, and Keble as the editor of Fronde's +_Remains_, forward against Dr. Hampden, breaking off a friendship of +years with Dr. Arnold, stiff against Liberal change and indulgent to +ancient folly and error, the eulogist of patristic mysticism and Bishop +Wilson's "discipline," and busy in the ecclesiastical agitations and +legal wranglings of our later days, about Jerusalem Bishoprics and +Courts of Final Appeal and ritual details, about Gorham judgments, +_Essays and Reviews_ prosecutions, and Colenso scandals. The objection +to this method of contrast is that it does not give the whole truth. It +does not take notice that, in appreciating a man like Keble, the thing +to start from is that his ideal and model and rule of character was +neither more nor less than the old Christian one. It was simply what +was accepted as right and obvious and indisputable, not by Churchmen +only, but by all earnest believers up to our own days. Given certain +conditions of Christian faith and duty which he took for granted as +much as the ordinary laws of morality, then the man's own individual +gifts or temper or leanings displayed themselves. But when people talk +of Keble being narrow and rigid and harsh and intolerant, they ought +first to recollect that he had been brought up with the ideas common to +all whom he ever heard of or knew as religious people. All earnest +religious conviction must seem narrow to those who do not share it. It +was nothing individual or peculiar, either to him or his friends, to +have strong notions about defending what they believed that they had +received as the truth; and they were people who knew what they were +about, too, and did not take things up at random. In this he was not +different from Hooker, or Jeremy Taylor, or Bishop Butler, or Baxter, +or Wesley, or Dr. Chalmers; it may be added, that he was not different +from Dr. Arnold or Archbishop Whately. It must not be forgotten that +till of late years there was always supposed, rightly or wrongly, to be +such a thing as false doctrine, and that intolerance of it, within the +limits of common justice, was always held as much part of the Christian +character as devotion and charity. Men differed widely as to what was +false doctrine, but they did not differ much as to there being such a +thing, and as to what was to be thought of it. Keble, like other people +of his time, took up his system, and really, considering that the ideal +which he honestly and earnestly aimed at was the complete system of the +Catholic Church, it is an abuse of words to call it, whatever else it +may be called, a narrow system. There may be a wider system still, in +the future; but it is at least premature to say that a man is narrow +because he accepts in good faith the great traditional ideas and +doctrines of the Christian Church; for of everything that can yet be +called a religious system, in the sense commonly understood, as an +embodiment of definite historical revelation, it is not easy to +conceive a less narrow one. And, accepting it as the truth, it was +dearer to him than life. That he was sensitively alive to whatever +threatened or opposed it, and was ready to start up like a soldier, +ready to do battle against any odds and to risk any unpopularity or +misconstruction, was only the sure and natural result of that deep love +and loyalty and thorough soundness of heart with which he loved his +friends, but what he believed to be truth and God's will better than +his friends. But it is idle and shallow to confuse the real narrowness +which springs from a harsh temper or a cramped and self-sufficient +intellect, and which is quite compatible with the widest theoretical +latitude, and the inevitable appearance of narrowness and severity +which must always be one side which a man of strong convictions and +earnest purpose turns to those whose strong convictions and earnest +purpose are opposite to his. + +Mr. Keble, saintly as was his character, if ever there was such a +character, belonged, as we all do, to his day and generation. The +aspect of things and the thoughts of men change; enlarging, we are +always apt to think, but perhaps really also contracting in some +directions where they once were larger. In Mr. Keble, the service which +he rendered to his time consisted, not merely, as it is sometimes +thought, in soothing and refining it, but in bracing it. He was the +preacher and example of manly hardness, simplicity, purpose in the +religious character. It may be that his hatred of evil--of hollowness, +impurity, self-will, conceit, ostentation--was greater than was always +his perception of various and mingled good, or his comprehension of +those middle things and states which are so much before us now. But the +service cannot be overrated, to all parties, of the protest which his +life and all his words were against dangers which were threatening all +parties, and not least the Liberal party--the danger of shallowness and +superficial flippancy; the danger of showy sentiment and insincerity, +of worldly indifference to high duties and calls. With the one great +exception of Arnold--Keble's once sympathetic friend, though afterwards +parted from him--the religious Liberals of our time have little reason +to look back with satisfaction to the leaders, able and vigorous as +some of them were, who represented their cause then. They owe to Keble, +as much as do those who are more identified with his theology, the +inestimable service of having interpreted religion by a genuine life, +corresponding in its thoroughness and unsparing, unpretending +devotedness, as well as in its subtle vividness of feeling, to the +great object which religion professes to contemplate. + + + + +XVIII + +MAURICE'S THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS[21] + + + [21] + _Theological Essays_. By F.D. Maurice. _Guardian_, 7th September 1853. + +The purpose of this volume of essays is to consider the views +entertained by Unitarians of what are looked upon by Christians +generally as fundamental truths; to examine what force there is in +Unitarian objections, and what mistakes are involved in the popular +notions and representations of those fundamental truths; and so, +without entering into controversy, for which Mr. Maurice declares +himself entirely indisposed, and in the utility of which he entirely +disbelieves, to open the way for a deeper and truer, and more serious +review, by all parties, of either the differences or the misunderstandings +which keep them asunder. It is a work, the writer considers, as +important as any which he has undertaken: "No labour I have been +engaged in has occupied me so much, or interested me more deeply;" +and with his estimate of his subject we are not disposed to disagree. + +We always rise from the perusal of one of Mr. Maurice's books with the +feeling that he has shown us one great excellence, and taught us one +great lesson. He has shown us an example of serious love of truth, and +an earnest sense of its importance, and of his own responsibility in +speaking of it. Most readers, whatever else they may think, must have +their feeling of the wide and living interest of a theological or moral +subject quickened by Mr. Maurice's thoughts on it. This is the +excellence. The lesson is this--to look into the meaning of our +familiar words, and to try to use them with a real meaning. Not that +Mr. Maurice always shows us how; but it is difficult for conscience to +escape being continually reminded of the duty. And it is in these two +things that the value of Mr. Maurice's writings mainly consists. The +enforcing of them has been, to our mind, his chief "mission," and his +most valuable contribution to the needs of his generation. + +In this volume they are exhibited, as in his former ones; and in this +he shows also, as he has shown before, his earnest desire to find a way +whereby, without compromising truth or surrendering sacred convictions +of the heart, serious men of very different sides might be glad to find +themselves in some points mistaken, in order that they might find +themselves at one. This philosophy, not of comprehension but of +conciliation, the craving after which has awakened in the Church, +whenever mental energy has been quickened, the philosophy in which +Clement of Alexandria and Origin, and, we may add, St. Augustine, made +many earnest essays, is certainly no unworthy aim for the theologian of +our days. He would, indeed, deserve largely of the Church who should +show us a solid and safe way to it. + +But while we are far from denouncing or suspecting the wish or the +design, we are bound to watch jealously and criticise narrowly the +execution. For we all know what such plans have come to before now. And +it is for the interest of all serious and earnest people on all sides, +that there should be no needless and additional confusion introduced +into theology--such confusion as is but too likely to follow, when a +design of conciliation, with the aim of which so many, for good reasons +or bad ones, are sure to sympathise, is carried out by hands that are +not equal to it. With the fullest sense of the serious truthfulness of +those who differ from us, of the real force of many of their objections +and criticisms on our proceedings, our friends, and our ideas, it is +far better to hold our peace, than from impatience at what we feel to +be the vulnerable point of our own side, to rush into explanations +before we are sure of our power adequately to explain. + +And to this charge it seems to us that Mr. Maurice is open. There is +sense and manliness in his disclaimer of proselytism; and there is a +meaning in which we can agree with his account of truth. "If I could +persuade all Dissenters," he says, "to become members of my Church +to-morrow, I should be very sorry to do it. I believe the chances are +they might leave it the next day. I do not wish to make them think as I +think. But I want that they and I should be what we pretend to be, and +then I doubt not we should find that there is a common ground for us +all far beneath our thinkings. For truth I hold not to be that which +every man troweth, but to be that which lies at the bottom of all men's +trowings, that in which those trowings have their only meeting-point." +He would make as clear as can be that deep substructure, and leave the +sight of it to work its natural effect on the honest heart. A noble +aim; but surely requiring, if anything can, the clear eye, the steady +hand, the heart as calm as earnest. Surely a work in which the greatest +exactness and precision, as well as largeness of thought, would not be +too much. For if we but take away the "trowings" without coming down to +the central foundation, or lose ourselves, and mistake a new "trowing" +of our own for it, it is hardly a sufficient degree of blame to say +that we have done no good. + +And in these qualities of exactness and precision it does seem to us +that Mr. Maurice is, for his purpose, fatally deficient. His criticisms +are often acute, his thrusts on each side often very home ones, and +but too full of truth; his suggestions often full of thought and +instruction; his balancings and contrasts of errors and truths, if +sometimes too artificial, yet generally striking. But when we come to +seek for the reconciling truth, which one side has overlaid and +distorted, and the other ignorantly shrunk back from, but which, when +placed in its real light and fairly seen, is to attract the love and +homage of both, we seem--not to grasp a shadow--Mr. Maurice is too +earnest and real a believer for that--but to be very much where we +were, except that a cloud of words surrounds us. His positive +statements seem like a running protest against being obliged to commit +himself and come to the point; like a continual assertion of the +hopelessness and uselessness of a definite form of speaking about the +matter in hand. Take, for instance, the following short statement:-- + + "My object," he says, speaking of the words which he has taken as + the subject of his essays, "has been to examine the language with + which we are most familiar, and which has been open to most + objections, especially from Unitarians. Respecting the Conception + I have been purposely silent; not because I have any doubt about + that article, or am indifferent to it, but because I believe the + word '_miraculous_,' which we _ordinarily connect with it, suggests + an untrue meaning; because I think the truth is conveyed to us + most safely in the simple language of the Evangelists_; and because + that language taken in connection with the rest of their story, + offers itself, I suspect, to a majority of those who have taken + in the idea of an Incarnation, as the _only natural and rational_ + account of the method by which the eternal Son of God could have + taken human flesh." + +Now, would not Mr. Maurice have done better if he had enounced the +definite meaning, or shade of meaning, which he considers short of, or +different from, our _ordinary_ meaning of _miraculous_, as applied to +this subject, and yet the same as that suggested by the Gospel account? +We have no doubt what Mr. Maurice does believe on this sacred subject. +But we are puzzled by what he means to disavow, as an "_untrue +meaning_" of the word _miraculous_, as applied to what he believes. +And the Unitarians whom he addresses must, we think, be puzzled too. + +We have quoted this passage because it is a short one, and therefore a +convenient one for a short notice like this. But the same tormenting +indistinctness pervades the attempts generally to get a meaning or a +position, which shall be substantially and in its living force the same +as the popular and orthodox article, yet convict it of confusion or +formalism; and which shall give to the Unitarian what he aims at by his +negation of the popular article, without leaving him any longer a +reason for denying it. The essay on Inspiration is an instance of this. +Mr. Maurice says very truly, that it is necessary to face the fact that +important questions are asked on the subject, very widely, and by +serious people; that popular notions are loose and vague about it; that +it is a dangerous thing to take refuge in a hard theory, if it is an +inconsistent and inadequate one; that if doubts do grow up, they are +hardly to be driven away by assertions. He accepts the challenge to +state his own view of Inspiration, and devotes many pages to doing so. +In these page's are many true and striking things. So far as we +understand, there is not a statement that we should contradict. But we +have searched in vain for a passage which might give, in Mr. Maurice's +words, a distinct answer to the question of friend or opponent, What do +you mean by the "Inspiration of the Bible?" Mr. Maurice tells us a most +important truth--that that same Great Person by whose "holy +inspiration" all true Christians still hope to be taught, inspired the +prophets. He protests against making it necessary to say that there is +a _generic_ difference between one kind of Inspiration and the other, +or "setting up the Bible as a book which encloses all that may be +lawfully called Inspiration." He looks on the Bible as a link--a great +one, yet a link, joining on to what is before and what comes after--in +God's method of teaching man His truth. He cares little about phrases +like "verbal inspiration" and "plenary inspiration"--"forms of speech +which are pretty toys for those that have leisure to play with them; +and if they are not made so hard as to do mischief, the use of them +should not be checked. But they do not belong to business." He bids us, +instead, give men "the Book of Life," and "have courage to tell them +that there is a Spirit with them who will guide them into all truth." +Great and salutary lessons. But we must say that they have been long in +the world, and, it must be said, are as liable to be misunderstood as +any other "popular" notions on the subject. If there is nothing more to +say on the subject--if it is one where, though we see and are sure of a +truth, yet we must confess it to be behind a veil, as yet indistinct +and not to be grasped, let us manfully say so, and wait till God reveal +even this unto us. But it is not a wise or a right course to raise +expectations of being able to say something, not perhaps new, but +satisfactory, when the questions which are really being asked, which +are the professed occasion of the answer, remain, in their Intellectual +difficulty, entirely unresolved. Mr. Maurice is no trifler; when he +throws hard words about,--when at the close of this essay he paints to +himself the disappointment of some "Unitarian listener, who had hoped +that Mr. Maurice was going to join him in cursing his enemies, and +found that he had blessed them these three times,"--he ought to +consider whether the result has not been, and very naturally, to leave +both parties more convinced than before of the hollowness of all +professions to enter into, and give weight to, the difficulties and the +claims of opposite sides. + +Mr. Maurice has not done justice, as it seems to us, in this case, to +the difficulty of the Unitarian. In other cases he makes free with the +common belief of Christendom, and claims sacrifices which are as +needless as they are unwarrantable. If there is a belief rooted in the +minds of Christians, it is that of a future judgment. If there is an +expectation which Scripture and the Creed sanction in the plainest +words, it is that this present world is to have an end, and that then, +a time now future, Christ will judge quick and dead. Say as much as can +be said of the difficulty of conceiving such a thing, it really amounts +to no more than the difficulty of conceiving what will happen, and how +we shall be dealt with, when this familiar world passes away. And this +belief in a "_final_ judgment, _unlike any other that has ever been in +the world_," Mr. Maurice would have us regard as a misinterpretation of +Bible and Creed--a "dream" which St. Paul would never "allow us" to +entertain, but would "compel" us instead "to look upon everyone of what +we rightly call 'God's judgments' as _essentially resembling it in kind +and principle_." "Our eagerness to deny this," he continues, "to make +out an altogether peculiar and unprecedented judgment at the end of the +world, has obliged us first _to practise the most violent outrages upon +the language of Scripture_, insisting that words cannot really mean +what, according to all ordinary rules of construction, they must mean." +It really must be said that the "outrage," if so it is to be called, is +not on the side of the popular belief. And why does this belief seem +untenable to Mr. Maurice? Because it seems inconsistent to him with a +truth which he states and enforces with no less earnestness than +reason, that Christ is every moment judging us--that His tribunal is +one before which we in our inmost "being are standing now--and that the +time will come when we shall know that it is so, and when all that has +concealed the Judge from us shall be taken away." Doubtless Christ is +always with us--always seeing us--always judging us. Doubtless +"everywhere" in Scripture the idea is kept before us of judgment in its +fullest, largest, most natural sense, as "importing" not merely passing +sentence, and awarding reward or penalty, but "discrimination and +discovery. Everywhere that discrimination or discovery is supposed to +be exercised over the man himself, over his internal character, over +his meaning and will." Granted, also, that men have, in their attempts +to figure to themselves the "great assize," sometimes made strange +work, and shown how carnal their thoughts are, both in what they +expected, and in the influence they allowed it to have over them. But +what of all this? Correct these gross ideas, but leave the words of +Scripture in their literal meaning, and do not say that all those who +receive them as the announcement of what is to be, under conditions now +inconceivable to man, _must_ understand "the substitution of a mere +external trial or examination" for the inward and daily trial of our +hearts, as a mere display of "earthly pomp and ceremonial"--a +resumption by Christ "of earthly conditions"; or that, because they +believe that at "some distant unknown period they shall be brought into +the presence of One who is now" not "far from them," but out of +sight--how, or in what manner they know not--therefore they _must_ +suppose that He "is not now fulfilling the office of a Judge, whatever +else may be committed to Him." + +Mr. Maurice is aiming at a high object. He would reconcile the old and +the new. He would disencumber what is popular of what is vulgar, +confused, sectarian, and preserve and illustrate it by disencumbering +it. He calls on us not to be afraid of the depths and heights, the +freedom and largeness, the "spirit and the truth," of our own theology. +It is a warning and a call which every age wants. We sympathise with +his aim, with much of his positive teaching, with some of his aversions +and some of his fears. We do not respect him the less for not being +afraid of being called hard names. But certainly such a writer has +need, in no common degree, of conforming himself to that wise maxim, +which holds in writing as well as in art--"Know what you want to do, +then do it." + + + + +XIX + +FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE[22] + + + [22] + _Saturday Review_, 6th April 1872. + +This Easter week we have lost a man about whom opinions and feelings +were much divided, who was by many of the best and most thoughtful +among us looked on as the noblest and greatest of recent English +teachers, and who certainly had that rare gift of inspiring enthusiasm +and trust among honest and powerful minds in search of guidance, which +belongs to none but to men of a very high order. Professor Maurice has +ended a life of the severest and most unceasing toil, still working to +the utmost that failing bodily strength allowed--still to the last in +harness. The general public, though his name is familiar to them, +probably little measure the deep and passionate affection with which he +was regarded by the circle of his friends and by those whose thoughts +and purposes he had moulded; or the feeling which his loss causes in +them of a blank, great and not to be filled up, not only personally for +themselves, but in the agencies which are working most hopefully in +English society. But even those who knew him least, and only from the +outside, and whose points of view least coincided with his, must feel +that there has been, now that we look back on his course, something +singularly touching and even pathetic in the combination shown in all +that he did, of high courage and spirit, and of unwearied faith and +vigour, with the deepest humility and with the sincerest +disinterestedness and abnegation, which never allowed him to seek +anything great for himself, and, in fact, distinguished and honoured as +he was, never found it. For the sake of his generation we may regret +that he did not receive the public recognition and honour which were +assuredly his due; but in truth his was one of those careers which, for +their own completeness and consistency, gain rather than lose by +escaping the distractions and false lights of what is called +preferment. + +The two features which strike us at the moment as characteristic of Mr. +Maurice as a writer and teacher, besides the vast range both of his +reading and thought, and the singularly personal tone and language of +all that he wrote, are, first, the combination in him of the most +profound and intense religiousness with the most boundless claim and +exercise of intellectual liberty; and next, the value which he set, +exemplifying his estimate in his own long and laborious course, on +processes and efforts, as compared with conclusions and definite +results, in that pursuit of truth which was to him the most sacred of +duties. There is no want of earnest and fervent religion among us, +intelligent, well-informed, deliberate, as well as of religion, to +which these terms can hardly be applied. And there is also no want of +the boldest and most daring freedom of investigation and judgment. But +what Mr. Maurice seemed to see himself, and what he endeavoured to +impress on others, was that religion and liberty are no natural +enemies, but that the deepest and most absorbing forms of historical +and traditional religion draw strength and seriousness of meaning, and +binding obligation, from an alliance, frank and unconditional, with +what seem to many the risks, the perilous risks and chances, of +freedom. + +It was a position open to obvious and formidable criticism; but against +this criticism is to be set the fact, that in a long and energetic +life, in which amidst great trials and changes there was a singular +uniformity and consistency of character maintained, he did unite the +two--the most devout Christianity with the most fearless and +unshrinking boldness in facing the latest announcements and +possibilities of modern thought. That he always satisfactorily +explained his point of view to others is more than can be said; but he +certainly satisfied numbers of keen and anxious thinkers, who were +discontented and disheartened both by religion as it is presented by +our great schools and parties, and by science as its principles and +consequences are expounded by the leading philosophical authorities of +the day. The other point to which we have adverted partly explains the +influence which he had with such minds. He had no system to formulate +or to teach. He was singularly ready to accept, as adequate expressions +of those truths in whose existence he so persistently believed, the old +consecrated forms in which simpler times had attempted to express them. +He believed that these truths are wider and vaster than the human mind +which is to be made wiser and better by them. And his aim was to reach +up to an ever more exact, and real, and harmonious hold of these +truths, which in their essential greatness he felt to be above him; to +reach to it in life as much as in thought. And so to the end he was +ever striving, not so much to find new truths as to find the heart and +core of old ones, the truth of the truth, the inner life and +significance of the letter, of which he was always loth to refuse the +traditional form. In these efforts at unfolding and harmonising there +was considerable uniformity; no one could mistake Mr. Maurice's manner +of presenting the meaning and bearing of an article of the Creed for +the manner of any one else; but the result of this way of working, in +the effect of the things which he said, and in his relations to +different bodies of opinion and thought both in the Church and in +society, was to give the appearance of great and important changes in +his teaching and his general point of view, as life went on. This +governing thought of his, of the immeasurably transcendent compass and +height of all truths compared with the human mind and spirit which was +to bow to them and to gain life and elevation by accepting them, +explains the curious and at present almost unique combination in him, +of deep reverence for the old language of dogmatic theology, and an +energetic maintenance of its fitness and value, with dissatisfaction, +equally deep and impartially universal, at the interpretations put on +this dogmatic language by modern theological schools, and at the modes +in which its meaning is applied by them both in directing thought and +influencing practice. This habit of distinguishing sharply and +peremptorily between dogmatic language and the popular reading of it at +any given time is conspicuous in his earliest as in his latest handling +of these subjects; in the pamphlet of 1835, _Subscription no Bondage_, +explaining and defending the old practice at Oxford; and in the papers +and letters, which have appeared from him in periodicals, on the +Athanasian Creed, and which are, we suppose, almost his last writings. + +The world at large thought Mr. Maurice obscure and misty, and was, as +was natural, impatient of such faults. The charge was, no doubt, more +than partially true; and nothing but such genuine strength and +comprehensive power as his could have prevented it from being a fatal +one to his weight and authority. But it is not uninstructive to +remember what was very much at the root of it. It had its origin, not +altogether, but certainly in a great degree, in two of his moral +characteristics. One was his stubborn, conscientious determination, at +any cost of awkwardness, or apparent inconsistency, or imperfection of +statement, to say out what he had to say, neither more nor less, just +as he thought it, and just as he felt it, with the most fastidious care +for truthful accuracy of meaning. He never would suffer what he +considered either the connection or the balance and adjustment of +varied and complementary truths to be sacrificed to force or point of +expression; and he had to choose sometimes, as all people have, between +a blurred, clumsy, and ineffective picture and a consciously incomplete +and untrue one. His choice never wavered; and as the artist's aim was +high, and his skill not always equally at his command, he preferred the +imperfection which left him the consciousness of honesty. The other +cause which threw a degree of haze round his writings was the personal +shape into which he was so fond of throwing his views. He shrunk from +their enunciation as arguments and conclusions which claimed on their +own account and by their own title the deference of all who read them; +and he submitted them as what he himself had found and had been granted +to see--the lessons and convictions of his own experience. Sympathy is, +no doubt, a great bond among all men; but, after all, men's experience +and their points of view are not all alike, and when we are asked to +see with another's eyes, it is not always easy. Mr. Maurice's desire to +give the simplest and most real form to his thoughts as they arose in +his own mind contributed more often than he supposed to prevent others +from entering into his meaning. He asked them to put themselves in his +place. He did not sufficiently put himself in theirs. + +But he has taught us great lessons, of the sacredness, the largeness, +and, it may be added, the difficulty of truth; lessons of sympathy with +one another, of true humility and self-conquest in the busy and +unceasing activity of the intellectual faculties. He has left no school +and no system, but he has left a spirit and an example. We speak of him +here only as those who knew him as all the world knew him; but those +who were his friends are never tired of speaking of his grand +simplicity of character, of his tenderness and delicacy, of the +irresistible spell of lovableness which won all within its reach. They +remember how he spoke, and how he read; the tones of a voice of +singularly piercing clearness, which was itself a power of +interpretation, which revealed his own soul and went straight to the +hearts of hearers. He has taken his full share in the controversies of +our days, and there must be many opinions both about the line which he +took, and even sometimes about the temper in which he carried on +debate. But it is nothing but the plainest justice to say that he was a +philosopher, a theologian, and, we may add, a prophet, of whom, for his +great gifts, and, still more, for his noble and pure use of them, the +modern English Church may well be proud. + + + + +XX + +SIR RICHARD CHURCH[23] + + + [23] + _Guardian_, 26th March 1873. + +General Sir Richard Church died last week at Athens. Many English +travellers in the East find their way to Athens; most of them must have +heard his name repeated there as the name of one closely associated +with the later fortunes of the Greek nation, and linking the present +with times now distant; some of them may have seen him, and may +remember the slight wiry form which seemed to bear years so lightly, +the keen eye and grisled moustache and soldierly bearing, and perhaps +the antique and ceremonious courtesy, stately yet cordial, recalling a +type of manners long past, with which he welcomed those who had a claim +on his attentions or friendly offices. Five and forty years ago his +name was much in men's mouths. He was prominent in a band of +distinguished men, who represented a new enthusiasm in Europe. Less by +what they were able to do than by their character and their unreserved +self-devotion and sacrifice, they profoundly affected public opinion, +and disarmed the jealousy of absolutist courts and governments in +favour of a national movement, which, whether disappointment may have +followed its success, was one of the most just and salutary of +revolutions--the deliverance of a Christian nation from the hopeless +tyranny of the Turks. + +He was one of the few remaining survivors of the generation which had +taken part in the great French war and in the great changes resulting +from it--changes which have in time given way to vaster alterations, +and been eclipsed by them. He began his military life as a boy-ensign +in one of the regiments forming part of the expedition which, under Sir +Ralph Abercromby, drove the French out of Egypt in 1801; and on the +shores of the Mediterranean, where his career began, it was for the +most part continued and finished. His genius led him to the more +irregular and romantic forms of military service; he had the gift of +personal influence, and the power of fascinating and attaching to +himself, with extraordinary loyalty, the people of the South. His +adventurous temper, his sympathetic nature, his chivalrous courtesy, +his thorough trustworthiness and sincerity, his generosity, his high +spirit of nobleness and honour, won for him, from Italians and Greeks, +not only that deep respect which was no unusual tribute from them to +English honesty and strength and power of command, but that love, and +that affectionate and almost tender veneration, for which strong and +resolute Englishmen have not always cared from races of whose +characteristic faults they were impatient. + +His early promise in the regular service was brilliant; as a young +staff-officer, and by a staff-officer's qualities of sagacity, +activity, and decision, he did distinguished service at Maida; and had +he followed the movement which made Spain the great battle-ground for +English soldiers, he had every prospect of earning a high place among +those who fought under Wellington. But he clung to the Mediterranean. +He was employed in raising and organising those foreign auxiliary corps +which it was thought were necessary to eke out the comparatively scanty +numbers of the English armies, and to keep up threatening +demonstrations on the outskirts of the French Empire. It was in this +service that his connection with the Greek people was first formed, and +his deep and increasing interest in its welfare created. He was +commissioned to form first one, and then a second, regiment of Greek +irregulars; and from the Ionian Islands, from the mainland of Albania, +from the Morea, chiefs and bands, accustomed to the mountain warfare, +half patriotic, half predatory, carried on by the more energetic Greek +highlanders against the Turks, flocked to the English standards. The +operations in which they were engaged were desultory, and of no great +account in the general result of the gigantic contest; but they made +Colonel Church's name familiar to the Greek population, who were +hoping, amid the general confusion, for an escape from the tyranny of +the Turks. But his connection with Greece was for some time delayed. +His peculiar qualifications pointed him out as a fit man to be a medium +of communication between the English Government and the foreign armies +which were operating on the outside of the circle within which the +decisive struggle was carried on against Napoleon; and he was the +English Military Commissioner attached to the Austrian armies in Italy +in 1814 and 1815. + +At the Peace, his eagerness for daring and adventurous enterprise was +tempted by great offers from the Neapolitan Government. The war had +left brigandage, allied to a fierce spirit of revolutionary +freemasonry, all-powerful in the south of Italy; and a stern and +resolute, yet perfectly honest and just hand, was needed to put it +down. He accepted the commission; he was reckless of conspiracy and +threats of assassination; he was known to be no sanguinary and +merciless lover of severity, but he was known also to be fearless and +inexorable against crime; and, not without some terrible examples, yet +with complete success, he delivered the south of Italy from the +scourge. But his thoughts had always been turned towards Greece; at +last the call came, and he threw himself with all his hopes and all his +fortunes into a struggle which more than any other that history can +show engaged at the time the interest of Europe. His first efforts +resulted in a disastrous defeat against overwhelming odds, for which, +as is natural, he has been severely criticised; his critics have shown +less quickness in perceiving the qualities which he displayed after +it--his unshaken, silent fortitude, the power with which he kept +together and saved the wrecks of his shattered and disheartened +volunteer army, the confidence in himself with which he inspired them, +the skill with which he extricated them from their dangers in the face +of a strong and formidable enemy, the humanity which he strove so +earnestly by word and example to infuse into the barbarous warfare +customary between Greeks and Turks, the tenacity with which he clung to +the fastnesses of Western Greece, obtaining by his perseverance from +the diplomacy of Europe a more favourable line of boundary for the new +nation which it at length recognised. To this cause he gave up +everything; personal risks cannot be counted; but he threw away all +prospects in England; he made no bargains; he sacrificed freely to the +necessities of the struggle any pecuniary resource that he could +command, neither requiring nor receiving any repayment. He threw in his +lot with the people for whom he had surrendered everything, in order to +take part in their deliverance. Since his arrival in Greece in 1827 he +has never turned his face westwards. He took the part which is perhaps +the only becoming and justifiable one for the citizen of one State who +permits himself to take arms, even in the cause of independence, for +another; having fought for the Greeks, he lived with them, and shared, +for good and for evil, their fortunes. + +For more than forty years he has resided at Athens under the shadow of +the great rock of the Acropolis. Distinguished by all the honours the +Greek nation could bestow, military or political, he has lived in +modest retirement, only on great emergencies taking any prominent part +in the political questions of Greece, but always throwing his influence +on the side of right and honesty. The course of things in Greece was +not always what an educated Englishman could wish it to be. But +whatever his judgment, or, on occasion, his action might be, there +never could be a question, with his friends any more than with his +opponents--enemies he could scarcely be said to have--as to the +straightforwardness, the pure motives, the unsullied honour of anything +that he did or anything that he advised. The Greeks saw among them one +deeply sympathising with all that they cared for, commanding, if he had +pleased to work for it, considerable influence out of Greece, the +intimate friend of a Minister like Sir Edmund Lyons, yet keeping free +from the temptation to make that use of influence which seems so +natural to politicians in a place like Athens; thinking much of Greece +and of the interests of his friends there, but thinking as much of +truth and justice and conscience; hating intrigue and trick, and +shaming by his indignant rebuke any proposal of underhand courses that +might be risked in his presence. + +The course of things, the change of ideas and of men, threw him more +and more out of any forward and prominent place in the affairs of +Greece. But his presence in Athens was felt everywhere. There was a man +who had given up everything for Greece and sought nothing in return. +His blameless unselfishness, his noble elevation of character, were a +warning and a rebuke to the faults which have done so much mischief to +the progress of the nation; and yet every Greek in Athens knew that no +one among them was more jealous of the honour of the nation or more +anxious for its good. To a new political society, freshly exposed to +the temptations of party struggles for power, no greater service can be +rendered than a public life absolutely clear from any suspicion of +self-seeking, governed uninterruptedly and long by public spirit, +public ends, and a strong sense of duty. Such a service General Church +has rendered to his adopted country. During his residence among them +for nearly half a century they have become familiar, not in word, but +in living reality, with some of the best things which the West has to +impart to the East. They have had among them an example of English +principle, English truth, English high-souled disinterestedness, and +that noble English faith which, in a great cause, would rather hope in +vain than not hope at all. They have learned to venerate all this, and, +some of them, to love it. + + + + +XXI + +DEATH OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE[24] + + + [24] + _Guardian_, 23rd July 1873. + +The beautiful summer weather which came on us at the beginning of this +week gives by contrast a strange and terrible point to the calamity, +the announcement of which sent such a shock through the whole country +on Monday last. Summer days in all their brilliance seemed come at +last, after a long waiting which made them the more delightful. But as +people came down to breakfast on that morning, or as they gathered at +railway stations on their way to business, the almost incredible +tidings met them that the Bishop of Winchester was dead; that he had +been killed by a fall from his horse. In a moment, by the most trivial +of accidents, one of the foremost and most stirring men of our +generation had passed away from the scene in which his part was so +large a one. With everything calm and peaceful round him, in the midst +of the keen but tranquil enjoyment of a summer evening ride with a +friend through some of the most charming scenery in England, looking +forward to meeting another friend, and to the pleasure which a quiet +Sunday brings to hard-worked men in fine weather, and a pleasant +country house, the blow fell. The moment before, as Lord Granville +remarks, he had given expression to the fulness of his enjoyment. He +was rejoicing in the fine weather, he was keenly noticing the beauty of +the scenery at every point of the way; with his characteristic love of +trees he was noticing the different kinds and the soils which suited +them; especially he was greatly pleased with his horse. There comes a +slight dip in the smooth turf; the horse stumbles and recovers himself +unhurt; but in that short interval of time all has vanished, all things +earthly, from that quick eye and that sensitive and sympathetic mind. +It is indeed tragic. He is said to have thought with distress of a +lingering end. He was spared it. He died as a soldier dies. + +A shock like this brings with it also a shock of new knowledge and +appreciation of things. We are made to feel with a new force what it is +that we have lost, and to understand more exactly what is the +proportion of what we have lost to what we still retain. To friends and +opponents the Bishop of Winchester could not but be, under any +circumstances, a person of the greatest importance. But few of us, +probably, measured fully and accurately the place which he filled among +us. We are better aware of it now when he has been taken away from us. +Living among us, and acting before us from day to day, the object of +each day's observation and criticism, under each day's varying +circumstances and feelings, within our reach always if we wanted to see +him or to hear him, he was presented to our thoughts in that partial +disclosure, and that everyday homeliness, which as often disguise the +true and complete significance of a character, as they give substance +and reality to our conceptions of it. As the man's course moves on, we +are apt to lose in our successive judgments of the separate steps of +it--it may be stops of great immediate interest--our sense of its +connection and tendency, of the true measure of it as a whole, of the +degree in which character is growing and rising, or, on the other hand, +falling or standing still. The Bishop of Winchester had many +admirers--many who deeply loved and trusted him--many who, in the face +of a good deal of suspicion and hostile comment, stoutly insisted on +the high estimate which they had formed of him. But even among them, +and certainly in the more indifferent public, there were few who had +rightly made it clear to their own minds what he had really grown to be +both in the Church and the country. + +For it is obvious, at the first glance now that he is gone, that there +is no one who can fill the place which he filled. It seems to us beyond +dispute that he has been the greatest Bishop the English Church has +seen for a century and a half. We do not say the greatest man, but the +greatest Bishop; the one among the leaders of the English Church who +most adequately understood the relations of his office, not only to the +Church, but to his times and his country, and who most adequately +fulfilled his own conception of them. We are very far from saying this +because of his exuberant outfit of powers and gifts; because of his +versatility, his sympathetic nature, his eager interest in all that +interested his fellows, his inexhaustible and ready resources of +thought and speech, of strong and practical good sense, of brilliant or +persuasive or pathetic eloquence. In all this he had equals and rivals, +though perhaps he had not many in the completeness and balance of his +powers. Nor do we say anything of those gifts, partly of the intellect, +but also of the soul and temper and character, by which he was able at +once to charm without tiring the most refined and fastidious society, +to draw to him the hearts of hard-working and anxious clergymen, and to +enchain the attention of the dullest and most ignorant of rustic +congregations. All these are, as it seems to us, the subordinate, and +not the most interesting, parts of what he was; they were on the +surface and attracted notice, and the parts were often mistaken for the +whole. Nor do we forget what often offended even equitable judges, +disliking all appearance of management and mere adroitness--or what was +often objected against his proceedings by opponents at least as +unscrupulous as they wished him to be thought. We are far from thinking +that his long career was free from either mistakes or faults; it is not +likely that a course steered amid such formidable and perplexing +difficulties, and steered with such boldness and such little attempt to +evade them, should not offer repeated occasions not only for +ill-natured, but for grave and serious objections. + +But looking over that long course of his Episcopate, from 1845 to the +present year, we see in him, in an eminent and unique degree, two +things. He had a distinct and statesmanlike idea of Church policy; and +he had a new idea of the functions of a Bishop, and of what a Bishop +might do and ought to do. And these two ideas he steadily kept in view +and acted upon with increasing clearness in his purpose and unflagging +energy in action. He grasped in all its nobleness and fulness and +height the conception of the Church as a great religious society of +Divine origin, with many sides and functions, with diversified gifts +and ever new relations to altering times, but essentially, and above +all things, a religious society. To serve that society, to call forth +in it the consciousness of its calling and its responsibilities, to +strengthen and put new life into its organisation, to infuse ardour and +enthusiasm and unity into its efforts, to encourage and foster +everything that harmonised with its principle and purpose, to watch +against the counteracting influences of self-willed or ignorant +narrowness, to adjust its substantial rights and its increasing +activity to the new exigencies of political changes, to elicit from the +Church all that could command the respect and win the sympathy and +confidence of Englishmen, and make its presence recognised as a supreme +blessing by those whom nothing but what was great and real in its +benefits would satisfy--this was the aim from which, however perplexed +or wavering or inconsistent he may have been at times, he never really +swerved. In the breadth and largeness of his principle, in the freedom +and variety of its practical applications, in the distinctness of his +purposes and the intensity of his convictions, he was an example of +high statesmanship common in no age of the Church, and in no branch of +it. And all this rested on the most profound personal religion as its +foundation, a religion which became in time one of very definite +doctrinal preferences, but of wide sympathies, and which was always of +very exacting claims for the undivided work and efforts of a lifetime. + +When he became Bishop he very soon revolutionised the old notion of a +Bishop's duties. He threw himself without any regard to increasing +trouble and labour on the great power of personal influence. In every +corner of his diocese he made himself known and felt; in all that +interested its clergy or its people he took his part more and more. He +went forth to meet men; he made himself their guest and companion as +well as their guide and chief; he was more often to be found moving +about his diocese than he was to be found at his own home at Cuddesdon. +The whole tone of communication between Bishop and people rose at once +in freedom and in spiritual elevation and earnestness; it was at once +less formal and more solemnly practical. He never spared his personal +presence; always ready to show himself, always ready to bring the rarer +and more impressive rites of the Church, such as Ordination, within the +view of people at a distance from his Palace or Cathedral, he was never +more at his ease than in a crowd of new faces, and never exhausted and +worn out in what he had to say to fresh listeners. Gathering men about +him at one time; turning them to account, assigning them tasks, +pressing the willing, shaming the indolent or the reluctant, at +another; travelling about with the rapidity and system of an officer +inspecting his positions, he infused into the diocese a spirit and zeal +which nothing but such labour and sympathy could give, and bound it +together by the bands of a strong and wise organisation. + +What he did was but a very obvious carrying out of the idea of the +Episcopal office; but it had not seemed necessary once, and his merit +was that he saw both that it was necessary and practicable. It is he +who set the standard of what is now expected, and is more or less +familiar, in all Bishops. And as he began so he went on to the last. He +never flagged, he never grew tired of the continual and varied +intercourse which he kept up with his clergy and people. To the last he +worked his diocese as much as possible not from a distance, but from +local points which brought him into closer communication with his +flock. London, with its great interests and its great attractions, +social and political, never kept away one who was so keenly alive to +them, and so prominent in all that was eventful in his time, from +attending to the necessities and claims of his rural parishes. What his +work was to the very last, how much there was in him of unabated force, +of far-seeing judgment, of noble boldness and earnestness, of power +over the souls and minds of men in many ways divided, a letter from Dr. +Monsell[25] in our columns shows. + +He had a great and all-important place in a very critical moment, to +which he brought a seriousness of purpose, a power and ripeness of +counsel, and a fearlessness distinctly growing up to the last. It is +difficult to see who will bend the bow which he has dropped. + + [25] + ... The shock that the sudden announcement of an event so + solemn must ever give, was tenfold great to one who, like myself, + had been, during the past week, closely associated with him in + anxious deliberations as to the best means of meeting the various + difficulties and dangers with which the Church is at present + surrounded. + + He had gathered round him, as was his annual wont, his Archdeacons + and Rural Deans, to deliberate for the Church's interests; and in + his opening address, and conduct of a most important meeting, never + had he shone out more clearly in intellectual vigour, in theological + soundness, in moral boldness, in Christian gentleness and love. + + ... He spoke upon the gravest questions of the day--questions which + require more than they generally receive, delicate handling. He + divided from the evil of things, which some in the spirit of party + condemn wholesale, the hidden good which lies wrapt up in them, and + which it would be sin as well as folly to sweep away. He made every + man who heard him feel the blessing of having in the Church such a + veteran leader, and drew forth from more than one there the openly + expressed hope that as he had in bygone days been the bold and + cautious controller of an earlier movement in the right direction, + so now he would save to the Church some of her precious things which + rude men would sweep away, and help her to regain what is essential + to her spiritual existence without risking the sacredness of private + life, the purity of private thoughts, the sense of direct + responsibility between God and the soul, which are some of the most + distinctive characteristics of our dear Church of England. + + From his council chamber in Winchester House I went direct with him + to the greater council chamber of St. Stephen's to hear him there + vindicate the rights and privileges of his order, and beat back the + assaults of those who, in high places, think that by a speech in, or + a vote of, either house they can fashion the Church as they please. + Never did he speak with more point and power; and never did he seem + to have won more surely the entire sympathy of the house. + + To gather in overwhelming numbers round him in the evening his + London clergy and their families, to meet them all with the kind + cordiality of a real father and friend, to run on far into the + middle of the night in this laborious endeavour to please--was "the + last effort of his toilsome day." + + + + +XXII + +RETIREMENT OF THE PROVOST OF ORIEL[26] + + + [26] + _Guardian_, 4th November 1874. + +Dr. Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel, has resigned the Provostship. He has +held it from 1828, within four years of half a century. The time during +which he has presided over his college has been one of the most +eventful periods in the history of the University; it has been a time +of revolt against custom, of reform, of keen conflict, of deep changes; +and in all connected with these he has borne a part, second to none in +prominence, in importance, and we must add, in dignity. No name of +equal distinction has disappeared from the list of Heads of Houses +since the venerable President of Magdalen passed away. But Dr. Routh, +though he watched with the keenest intelligence, and not without +sympathy, all that went on in the days into which his life had been +prolonged, watched it with the habits and thoughts of days long +departed; he had survived from the days of Bishop Horne and Dr. Parr +far into our new and strange century, to which he did not belong, and +he excited its interest as a still living example of what men were +before the French Revolution. The eminence of the Provost of Oriel is +of another kind. He calls forth interest because among all recent +generations of Oxford men, and in all their restless and exciting +movements, he has been a foremost figure. He belongs to modern Oxford, +its daring attempts, its fierce struggles, its successes, and its +failures. He was a man of whom not only every one heard, but whom every +one saw; for he was much in public, and his unsparing sense of public +duty made him regularly present in his place at Council, at +Convocation, at the University Church, at College chapel. The outward +look of Oxford will be altered by the disappearance in its ceremonies +and gatherings of his familiar form and countenance. + +He would anywhere have been a remarkable man. His active and +independent mind, with its keen, discriminating, practical +intelligence, was formed and disciplined amid that company of +distinguished scholars and writers who, at Oxford, in the second decade +of the century were revolted by the scandalous inertness and +self-indulgence of the place, with its magnificent resources squandered +and wasted, its stupid orthodoxy of routine, its insensibility to the +questions and the dangers rising all round; men such as Keble, Arnold, +Davison, Copleston, Whately. These men, different as they were from one +another, all represented the awakening but still imperfect +consciousness that a University life ought to be something higher than +one of literary idleness, given up to the frivolities of mere elegant +scholarship, and to be crowned at last by comfortable preferment; that +there was much difficult work to be seriously thought about and done, +and that men were placed at Oxford under heavy responsibilities to use +their thoughts and their leisure for the direct service of their +generation. Clever fops and dull pedants joined in sneering at this new +activity and inquisitiveness of mind, and this grave interest and +employment of intellect on questions and in methods outside the +customary line of University studies and prejudices; but the men were +too powerful, and their work too genuine and effective, and too much in +harmony with the temper and tendencies of the time, to be stopped by +impertinence and obstructiveness. Dr. Hawkins was one of those who made +the Oriel Common-room a place of keen discussion and brilliant +conversation, and, for those days, of bold speculation; while the +College itself reflected something of the vigour and accomplishments of +the Common-room. Dr. Newman, in the _Apologia_, has told us, in +touching terms of acknowledgment, what Dr. Hawkins was when, fifty +years ago, the two minds first came into close contact, and what +intellectual services he believed Dr. Hawkins had rendered him. He +tells us, too, how Dr. Hawkins had profoundly impressed him by a work +in which, with characteristic independence and guarded caution equally +characteristic, he cuts across popular prejudices and confusions of +thought, and shows himself original in discerning and stating an +obvious truth which had escaped other people--his work on +_Unauthoritative Tradition_. His logical acuteness, his habits of +disciplined accuracy, abhorrent and impatient of all looseness of +thinking and expression, his conscientious efforts after substantial +reality in his sharpest distinctions, his capacity for taking trouble, +his serious and strong sense of the debt involved in the possession of +intellectual power--all this would have made him eminent, whatever the +times in which he lived. + +But the times in which we live and what they bring with them mould most +of us; and the times shaped the course of the Provost of Oriel, and +turned his activity into a channel of obstinate and prolonged +antagonism, of resistance and protest, most conscientious but most +uncompromising, against two great successive movements, both of which +he condemned as unbalanced and recoiled from as revolutionary--the +Tractarian first, and then the Liberal movement in Oxford. Of the +former, it is not perhaps too much to say that he was in Oxford, at +least, the ablest and most hurtful opponent. From his counsels, from +his guarded and measured attacks, from the power given him by a partial +agreement against popular fallacies with parts of its views, from his +severe and unflinching determination, it received its heaviest blows +and suffered its greatest losses. He detested what he held to be its +anti-Liberal temper, and its dogmatic assertions; he resented its +taking out of his hands a province of theology which he and Whately had +made their own, that relating to the Church; he thought its tone of +feeling and its imaginative and poetical side exaggerated or childish; +and he could not conceive of its position except as involving palpable +dishonesty. No one probably guided with such clear and self-possessed +purpose that policy of extreme measures, which contributed to bring +about, if it did not itself cause, the break-up of 1845. Then succeeded +the great Liberal tide with its demands for extensive and immediate +change, its anti-ecclesiastical spirit, its scarcely disguised +scepticism, its daring philosophical and critical enterprises. By +degrees it became clear that the impatience and intolerance which had +purged the University of so many Churchmen had, after all, left the +Church movement itself untouched, to assume by degrees proportions +scarcely dreamed of when it began; but that what the defeat of the +Tractarians really had done was, to leave the University at the mercy +of Liberals to whom what had been called Liberalism in the days of +Whately was mere blind and stagnant Conservatism. + +One war was no sooner over than the Provost of Oriel found another even +more formidable on his hands. The most dauntless and most unshaken of +combatants, he faced his new antagonists with the same determination, +the same unshrinking sense of duty with which he had fought his old +ones. He used the high authority and influence which his position and +his character justly gave him, to resist or to control, as far as he +could, the sweeping changes which, while bringing new life into Oxford, +have done so much to break up her connection of centuries with the +Church. He boldly confronted the new spirit of denial and unbelief. He +wrote, he preached, he published, as he had done against other +adversaries, always with measured and dignified argument, but not +shrinking from plain-spoken severity of condemnation. Never sparing +himself labour when he thought duty called, he did not avail himself of +the privilege of advancing years to leave the war to be carried on by +younger champions. + +It is impossible for those who may at times have found themselves most +strongly, and perhaps most painfully, opposed to him, not to admire and +revere one who, through so long a career has, in what he held to be his +duty to the Church and to religion, fought so hard, encountered such +troubles, given up so many friendships and so much ease, and who, while +a combatant to the last, undiscouraged by odds and sometimes by +ill-success, has brought to the weariness and disappointment of old age +an increasing gentleness and kindliness of spirit, which is one of the +rarest tokens and rewards of patient and genuine self-discipline. A man +who has set himself steadily and undismayed to stem and bring to reason +the two most powerful currents of conviction and feeling which have +agitated his times, leaves an impressive example of zeal and +fearlessness, even to those against whom he has contended. What is the +upshot which has come of these efforts, and whether the controversies +of the moment have not in his case, as in others, diverted and absorbed +faculties which might have been turned to calmer and more permanent +tasks, we do not inquire. + +Perhaps a life of combat never does all that the combatant thinks it +ought to accomplish, or compensates for the sacrifices it entails. In +the case of the Provost of Oriel, he had, with all his great and noble +qualities, one remarkable want, which visibly impaired his influence +and his persuasiveness. He was out of sympathy with the rising +aspirations and tendencies of the time on the two opposite sides; he +was suspicious and impatient of them. He was so sensible of their weak +points, the logical difficulties which they brought with them, their +precipitate and untested assumptions, the extravagance and unsoundness +of character which often seemed inseparable from them, that he seldom +did justice to them viewed in their complete aspect, or was even alive +to what was powerful and formidable in the depth, the complexity, and +the seriousness of the convictions and enthusiasm which carried them +onwards. In truth, for a man of his singular activity and reach of +mind, he was curiously indifferent to much that most interested his +contemporaries in thought and literature; he did not understand it, and +he undervalued it as if it belonged merely to the passing fashions of +the hour. + +This long career is now over. Warfare is always a rude trade, and men +on all sides who have had to engage in it must feel at the end how much +there is to be forgiven and needing forgiveness; how much now appears +harsh, unfair, violent, which once appeared only necessary and just. A +hard hitter like the Provost of Oriel must often have left behind the +remembrance of his blows. But we venture to say that, even in those who +suffered from them, he has left remembrances of another and better +sort. He has left the recollection of a pure, consistent, laborious +life, elevated in its aim and standard, and marked by high public +spirit and a rigid and exacting sense of duty. In times when it was +wanted, he set in his position in the University an example of modest +and sober simplicity of living; and no one who ever knew him can doubt +the constant presence, in all his thoughts, of the greatness of things +unseen, or his equally constant reference of all that he did to the +account which he was one day to give at his Lord's judgment-seat. We +trust that he may be spared to enjoy the rest which a weaker or less +conscientious man would have claimed long ago. + + + + +XXIII + +MARK PATTISON[27] + + + [27] + _Guardian_, 6th August 1884. + +The Rector of Lincoln, who died at Harrogate this day week, was a man +about whom judgments are more than usually likely to be biassed by +prepossessions more or less unconscious, and only intelligible to the +mind of the judge. There are those who are in danger of dealing with +him too severely. There are also those whose temptation will be to +magnify and possibly exaggerate his gifts and acquirements--great as +they undoubtedly were,--the use that he made of them, and the place +which he filled among his contemporaries. One set of people finds it +not easy to forget that he had been at one time closer than most young +men of his generation to the great religious leaders whom they are +accustomed to revere; that he was of a nature fully to understand and +appreciate both their intellectual greatness and their moral and +spiritual height; that he had shared to the full their ideas and hopes; +that they, too, had measured his depth of character, and grasp, and +breadth, and subtlety of mind; and that the keenest judge among them of +men and of intellect had pirlud him out as one of the most original and +powerful of a number of very able contemporaries. Those who remember +this cannot easily pardon the lengths of dislike and hitterness to +which in after life Pattison allowed himself to be carried against the +cause which once had his hearty allegiance, and in which, if he had +discovered, as he thought, its mistakes and its weakness, he had once +recognised with all his soul the nobler side. And on the other hand, +the partisans of the opposite movement, into whose interests he so +disastrously, as it seems to us, and so unreservedly threw himself, +naturally welcomed and made the most of such an accession to their +strength, and such an unquestionable addition to their literary fame. +To have detached such a man from the convictions which he had so +professedly and so earnestly embraced, and to have enlisted him as +their determined and implacable antagonist--to be able to point to him +in him maturity and strength of his powers as one who, having known its +best aspects, had deliberately despaired of religion, and had turned +against its representatives the scorn and hatred of a passionate +nature, whose fires burned all the more fiercely under its cold crust +of reserve and sarcasm--this was a triumph of no common order; and it +might conceivably blind those who could rejoice in it to the +comparative value of qualities which, at any rate, were very rare and +remarkable ones. + +Pattison was a man who, in many ways, did not do himself justice. As a +young man, his was a severe and unhopeful mind, and the tendency to +despond was increased by circumstances. There was something in the +quality of his unquestionable ability which kept him for long out of +the ordinary prizes of an Oxford career; in the class list, in the +higher competition for Fellowships, he was not successful. There are +those who long remembered the earnest pleading of the Latin letters +which it was the custom to send in when a man stood for a Fellowship, +and in which Pattison set forth his ardent longing for knowledge, and +his narrow and unprosperous condition as a poor student. He always came +very near; indeed, he more than once won the vote of the best judges; +but he just missed the prize. To the bitter public disappointments of +1845 were added the vexations caused by private injustice and +ill-treatment. He turned fiercely on those who, as he thought, had +wronged him, and he began to distrust men, and to be on the watch for +proofs of hollowness and selfishness in the world and in the Church. +Yet at this time, when people were hearing of his bitter and unsparing +sayings in Oxford, he was from time to time preaching in village +churches, and preaching sermons which both his educated and his simple +hearers thought unlike those of ordinary men in their force, reality, +and earnestness. But with age and conflict the disposition to harsh and +merciless judgments strengthened and became characteristic. This, +however, should be remembered: where he revered ho revered with genuine +and unstinted reverence; where he saw goodness in which he believed he +gave it ungrudging honour. He had real pleasure in recognising height +and purity of character, and true intellectual force, and he maintained +his admiration when the course of things had placed wide intervals +between him and those to whom it had been given. His early friendships, +where they could be retained, he did retain warmly and generously even +to the last; he seemed almost to draw a line between them and other +things in the world. The truth, indeed, was that beneath that icy and +often cruel irony there was at bottom a most warm and affectionate +nature, yearning for sympathy, longing for high and worthy objects, +which, from the misfortunes especially of his early days, never found +room to expand and unfold itself. Let him see and feel that anything +was real--character, purpose, cause--and at any rate it was sure of his +respect, probably of his interest. But the doubt whether it was real +was always ready to present itself to his critical and suspicious mind; +and these doubts grew with his years. + +People have often not given Pattison credit for the love that was in +him for what was good and true; it is not to be wondered at, but the +observation has to be made. On the other hand, a panegyrie, like that +which we reprint from the _Times_, sets too high an estimate on his +intellectual qualities, and on the position which they gave him. He was +full of the passion for knowledge; he was very learned, very acute in +his judgment on what his learning brought before him, very versatile, +very shrewd, very subtle; too full of the truth of his subject to care +about seeming to be original; but, especially in his poetical +criticisms, often full of that best kind of originality which consists +in seeing and pointing out novelty in what is most familiar and trite. +But, not merely as a practical but as a speculative writer, he was apt +to be too much under the empire and pressure of the one idea which at +the moment occupied and interested his mind. He could not resist it; it +came to him with exclusive and overmastering force; he did not care to +attend to what limited it or conflicted with it. And thus, with all the +force and sagacity of his University theories, they were not always +self-consistent, and they were often one-sided and exaggerated. He was +not a leader whom men could follow, however much they might rejoice at +the blows which he might happen to deal, sometimes unexpectedly, at +things which they disliked. And this holds of more serious things than +even University reform and reconstruction. + +And next, though every competent reader must do justice to Pattison's +distinction as a man of letters, as a writer of English prose, and as a +critic of what is noble and excellent and what is base and poor in +literature, there is a curious want of completeness, a frequent crudity +and hardness, a want, which is sometimes a surprising want, of good +sense and good taste, which form unwelcome blemishes in his work, and +just put it down below the line of first-rate excellence which it ought +to occupy. Morally, in that love of reality, and of all that is high +and noble in character, which certainly marked him, he was much better +than many suppose, who know only the strength of his animosities and +the bitterness of his sarcasm. Intellectually, in reach, and fulness, +and solidity of mental power, it may be doubted whether he was so great +as it has recently been the fashion to rate him. + + + + +XXIV + +PATTISON'S ESSAYS[28] + + + [28] + _Essays by the late Mark Pattison, sometime Rector of Lincoln + College_. Collected and arranged by Henry Nettleship, M.A., Corpus + Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. _Guardian_, 1st May + 1889. + +This is a very interesting but a very melancholy collection of papers. +They are the remains of the work of a man of first-rate intellect, +whose powers, naturally of a high order, had been diligently and wisely +cultivated, whose mind was furnished in a very rare degree with all +that reading, wide and critical, could give, and which embraced in the +circle of its interest all that is important to human life and society. +Mr. Pattison had no vulgar standard of what knowledge is, and what +goodness is. He was high, sincere, exacting, even austere, in his +estimates of either; and when he was satisfied he paid honour with +sometimes unexpected frankness and warmth. But from some unfortunate +element in his temperament, or from the effect upon it of untoward and +unkindly circumstances at those critical epochs of mental life, when +character is taking its bent for good and all, he was a man in whose +judgment severity--and severity expressing itself in angry scorn--was +very apt to outrun justice. Longing for sympathy and not ill-fitted for +it, capable of rare exertions in helping those whom he could help, he +passed through life with a reputation for cynicism which, while he +certainly exhibited it, he no less certainly would, if he had known +how, have escaped from. People could easily tell what would incur his +dislike and opposition, what would provoke his slow, bitter, merciless +sarcasm; it was never easy to tell what would satisfy him, what would +attract his approval, when he could be tempted to see the good side of +a thing. It must not be forgotten that he had gone through a trial to +which few men are equal. He had passed from the extreme ranks and the +strong convictions of the Oxford movement--convictions of which the +translation of Aquinas's _Catena Aurea_, still printed in the list of +his works, is a memorial--to the frankest form of Liberal thought. As +he himself writes, we cannot give up early beliefs, much less the deep +and deliberate convictions of manhood, without some shock to the +character. In his case the change certainly worked. It made him hate +what he had left, and all that was like it, with the bitterness of one +who has been imposed upon, and has been led to commit himself to what +he now feels to be absurd and contemptible, and the bitterness of this +disappointment gave an edge to all his work. There seems through all +his criticism, powerful as it is, a tone of harshness, a readiness to +take the worst construction, a sad consciousness of distrust and +suspicion of all things round him, which greatly weakens the effect of +his judgment. If a man will only look for the worst side, he will only +find the worst side; but we feel that we act reasonably by not +accepting such a teacher as our guide, however ably he may state his +case. There is a want of equitableness and fairness in his stern and +sometimes cruel condemnations; and yet not religion only, but the +wisest wisdom of the world tells of the indispensable value of this +equitableness, this old Greek virtue of [Greek: epieikeia], in our +views of men and things. It is not religion only, but common sense +which says that "sweetness and light," kindliness, indulgence, +sympathy, are necessary for moral and spiritual health. Scorn, +indignation, keenly stinging sarcasm, doubtless have their place in a +world in which untruth and baseness abound and flourish; but to live on +these is poison, at least to oneself. + +These fierce antipathies warped his judgment in strange and unexpected +ways. Among these papers is a striking one on Calvin. If any character +in history might be expected to have little attraction for him it is +Calvin. Dogmatist, persecutor, tyrant, the proud and relentless +fanatic, who more than any one consecrated harsh narrowness in religion +by cruel theories about God, what was there to recommend him to a lover +of liberty who had no patience for ecclesiastical pretensions of any +kind, and who tells us that Calvin's "sins against human liberty are of +the deepest dye"? For if Laud chastised his adversaries with whips, +Calvin chastised his with scorpions. Perhaps it is unreasonable to be +suprised, yet we are taken by surprise, when we find a thinker like Mr. +Pattison drawn by strong sympathy to Calvin and setting him up among +the heroes and liberators of humanity. Mr. Pattison is usually fair in +details, that is, he does not suppress bad deeds or qualities in those +whom he approves, or good deeds or qualities in those whom he hates: it +is in his general judgments that his failing comes out. He makes no +attempt to excuse the notorious features of Calvin's rule at Geneva; +but Mr. Pattison reads into his character a purpose and a grandeur +which place him far above any other man of his day. To recommend him to +our very different ways of thinking, Mr. Pattison has the courage to +allege that his interest in dogmatic theology was a subordinate matter, +and that the "renovation of character," the "moral purification of +humanity," was the great guiding idea of him who taught that out of the +mass of human kind only a predestined remnant could possibly be saved. +It is a singular interpretation of the mind of the author of the +_Institutes_:-- + + The distinction of Calvin as a Reformer is not to be sought in the + doctrine which now bears his name, or in any doctrinal peculiarity. + His great merit lies _in his comparative neglect of dogma. He + seized the idea of reformation as a real renovation of human + character_. The moral purification of humanity as the original + idea of Christianity is the guiding idea of his system.... He + swept away at once the sacramental machinery of material media of + salvation which the middle-age Church had provided in such + abundance, and which Luther frowned upon, but did not reject. He + was not satisfied to go back only to the historical origin of + Christianity, but would found human virtue on the eternal + antemundane will of God. + +Again:-- + + Calvin thought neither of fame or fortune. The narrowness of his + views and the disinterestedness of his soul alike precluded him + from regarding Geneva as a stage for the gratification of personal + ambition. This abegnation of self was one great part of his + success. + +And then Mr. Pattison goes on to describe in detail how, governed and +possessed by one idea, and by a theory, to oppose which was "moral +depravity," he proceeded to establish his intolerable system of +discipline, based on dogmatic grounds--meddlesome, inquisitorial, +petty, cruel--over the interior of every household in Geneva. What is +there fascinating, or even imposing, in such a character? It is the +common case of political and religious bigots, whether Jacobin, or +Puritan, or Jesuit, poor in thought and sympathy and strong in will, +fixing their yoke on a society, till the plague becomes unbearable. He +seeks nothing for himself and, forsooth, he makes sacrifices. But he +gets what he wants, his idea carried out; and self-sacrifice is of what +we care for, and not of what we do not care for. And to keep up this +supposed character of high moral purpose, we are told of Calvin's +"comparative neglect of dogma," of his seizing the idea of a "real +reformation of human character," a "moral purification of humanity," as +the guiding idea of his system. Can anything be more unhistorical than +to suggest that the father and source of all Western Puritan theology +"neglected dogma," and was more of a moralist than a divine? It is not +even true that he "swept away at once the sacramental machinery" of +mediaeval and Lutheran teaching; Calvin writes of the Eucharist in +terms which would astonish some of his later followers. But what is the +reason why Mr. Pattison attributes to the historical Calvin so much +that does not belong to him, and, in spite of so much that repels, is +yet induced to credit him with such great qualities? The reason is to +be found in the intense antipathy with which Mr. Pattison regarded what +he calls "the Catholic reaction" over Europe, and in the fact that +undoubtedly Calvin's system and influence was the great force which +resisted both what was bad and false in it, and also what was good, +true, generous, humane. Calvinism opposed the "Catholic reaction" +point-blank, and that was enough to win sympathy for it, even from Mr. +Pattison. + +The truth is that what Popery is to the average Protestant, and what +Protestant heresy is to the average Roman Catholic, the "Catholic +reaction," the "Catholic revival" in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries and in our own, is to Mr. Pattison's final judgment. It was +not only a conspiracy against human liberty, but it brought with it the +degradation and ruin of genuine learning. It is the all-sufficing cause +and explanation of the mischief and evil doings which he has to set +before us. Yet after the violence, the ignorance, the injustice, the +inconsistencies of that great ecclesiastical revolution which we call +by the vague name of Reformation, a "Catholic reaction" was inevitable. +It was not conceivable that common sense and certain knowledge would +submit for ever to be overcrowed by the dogmas and assertions of the +new teachers. Like other powerful and wide and strongly marked +movements, like the Reformation which it combated, it was a very mixed +thing. It produced some great evils and led to some great crimes. It +started that fatal religious militia, the Jesuit order, which, +notwithstanding much heroic self-sacrifice, has formed a permanent bar +to all possible reunion of Christendom, has fastened its yoke on the +Papacy itself, and has taught the Church, as a systematic doctrine, to +put its trust in the worst expedients of human policy. The religious +wars in France and Germany, the relentless massacres of the Low +Countries and the St. Bartholomew, the consecration of treason and +conspiracy, were, without doubt, closely connected with the "Catholic +reaction." But if this great awakening and stimulating influence raised +new temptations to human passion and wickedness, it was not only in the +service of evil that this new zeal was displayed. The Council of Trent, +whatever its faults, and it had many, was itself a real reformation. +The "Catholic revival" meant the rekindling of earnest religion and +care for a good life in thousands of souls. If it produced the Jesuits, +it as truly produced Port Royal and the Benedictines. Europe would be +indeed greatly the poorer if it wanted some of the most conspicuous +products of the Catholic revival. + +It is Mr. Pattison's great misfortune that through obvious faults of +temper he has missed the success which naturally might have seemed +assured to him, of dealing with these subjects in a large and +dispassionate way. Scholar, thinker, student as he is, conversant with +all literature, familiar with books and names which many well-read +persons have never heard of, he has his bitter prejudices, like the +rest of us, Protestants or Catholics; and what he hates is continually +forcing itself into his mind. He tells, with great and pathetic force, +the terrible story of the judicial murder of Calas at Toulouse, and of +Voltaire's noble and successful efforts to bring the truth to light, +and to repair, as far as could be repaired, its infamous injustice. It +is a story which shows to what frightful lengths fanaticism may go in +leading astray even the tribunals of justice. But unhappily the story +can be paralleled in all times of the world's history; and though the +Toulouse mob and Judges were Catholics, their wickedness is no more a +proof against the Catholic revival than Titus Oates and the George +Gordon riots are against Protestantism, or the Jacobin tribunals +against Republican justice. But Mr. Pattison cannot conclude his +account without an application. Here you have an example of what the +Catholic revival does. It first breaks Calas on the wheel; and then, +because Voltaire took up his cause, it makes modern Frenchmen, if they +are Catholics, believe that Calas deserved it:-- + + It is part of that general Catholic revival which has been working + for some years, and which like a fog is spreading over the face of + opinion.... The memory of Calas had been vindicated by Voltaire and + the Encyclopedists. That was quite enough for the Catholics.... + It is the characteristic of Catholicism that it supersedes reason, + and prejudges all matters by the application of fixed principles. + + It is no use that M. Coquerel flatters himself that he has set the + matter at rest. He flatters himself in vain; he ought to know his + Catholic countrymen better:-- + + We have little doubt that as long as the Catholic religion shall + last their little manuals of falsified history will continue to + repeat that Jean Calas murdered his son because he had become a + convert to the Catholic faith. + + Are little manuals of falsified history confined only to one set + of people? Is not John Foxe still proof against the assaults of + Dr. Maitland? The habit of _a priori_ judgments as to historical + facts is, as Mr. Pattison truly says, "fatal to truth and + integrity." It is most mischievous when it assumes a philosophic + gravity and warps the criticism of a distinguished scholar. + +This fixed habit of mind is the more provoking because, putting aside +the obtrusive and impertinent injustice to which it leads, Mr. +Pattison's critical work is of so high a character. His extensive and +accurate reading, the sound common sense with which he uses his +reading, and the modesty and absence of affectation and display which +seem to be a law of his writing, place him very high. Perhaps he +believes too much in books and learning, in the power which they exert, +and what they can do to enable men to reach the higher conquests of +moral and religious truth--perhaps he forgets, in the amplitude of his +literary resources, that behind the records of thought and feeling +there are the living mind and thought themselves, still clothed with +their own proper force and energy, and working in defiance of our +attempts to classify, to judge, or to explain: that there are the real +needs, the real destinies of mankind, and the questions on which they +depend--of which books are a measure indeed, but an imperfect one. As +an instance, we might cite his "Essay on the Theology of +Germany"--elaborate, learned, extravagant in its praise and in its +scorn, full of the satisfaction of a man in possession of a startling +and little known subject, but with the contradictions of a man who in +spite of his theories believes more than his theories. But, as a +student who deals with books and what books can teach, it is a pleasure +to follow him; his work is never slovenly or superficial; the reader +feels that he is in the hands of a man who thoroughly knows what he is +talking about, and both from conscience and from disposition is anxious +above all to be accurate and discriminative. If he fails, as he often +seems to us to do, in the justice and balance of his appreciation of +the phenomena before him, if his statements and generalisations are +crude and extravagant, it is that passion and deep aversions have +overpowered the natural accuracy of his faculty of judgment. + +The feature which is characteristic in all his work is his profound +value for learning, the learning of books, of documents, of all +literature. He is a thinker, a clear and powerful one; he is a +philosopher, who has explored the problems of abstract science with +intelligence and interest, and fully recognises their importance; he +has taken the measure of the political and social questions which the +progress of civilisation has done so little to solve; he is at home +with the whole range of literature, keen and true in observation and +criticism; he has strongly marked views about education, and he took a +leading part in the great changes which have revolutionised Oxford. He +is all this; but beyond and more than all this he is a devotee of +learning, as other men are of science or politics, deeply penetrated +with its importance, keenly alive to the neglect of it, full of faith +in the services which it can render to mankind, fiercely indignant at +what degrades, or supplants, or enfeebles it. Learning, with the severe +and bracing discipline without which it is impossible, learning +embracing all efforts of human intellect--those which are warning +beacons as well those which have elevated and enlightened the human +mind--is the thing which attracts and satisfies him as nothing else +does; not mere soulless erudition, but a great supply and command of +varied facts, marshalled and turned to account by an intelligence which +knows their use. The absence of learning, or the danger to learning, is +the keynote of a powerful but acrid survey of the history and prospects +of the Anglican Church, for which, in spite of its one-sidedness and +unfairness, Churchmen may find not a little which it will be useful to +lay to heart. Dissatisfaction with the University system, in its +provision for the encouragement of learning and for strengthening and +protecting its higher interests, is the stimulus to his essay on Oxford +studies, which is animated with the idea of the University as a true +home of real learning, and is full of the hopes, the animosities, and, +it may be added, the disappointments of a revolutionary time. He exults +over the destruction of the old order; but his ideal is too high, he is +too shrewd an observer, too thorough and well-trained a judge of what +learning really means, to be quite satisfied with the new. + +The same devotion to learning shows itself in a feature of his literary +work, which is almost characteristic--the delight which he takes in +telling the detailed story of the life of some of the famous working +scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These men, whose +names are known to the modern world chiefly in notes to classical +authors, or occasionally in some impertinent sneer, he likes to +contemplate as if they were alive. To him they are men with individual +differences, each with a character and fortunes of his own, sharers to +the full in the struggles and vicissitudes of life. He can appreciate +their enormous learning, their unwearied labour, their sense of honour +in their profession; and the editor of texts, the collator of various +readings and emendations, the annotator who to us perhaps seems but a +learned pedant appears to him as a man of sound and philosophic +thought, of enthusiasm for truth and light--perhaps of genius--a man, +too, with human affections and interests, with a history not devoid of +romance. There is something touching in Mr. Pattison's affection for +those old scholars, to whom the world has done scant justice. His own +chief literary venture was the life of one of the greatest of them, +Isaac Casaubon. We have in these volumes sketches, not so elaborate, of +several others, the younger Scaliger, Muretus, Huet, and the great +French printers, the Stephenses; and in these sketches we are also +introduced to a number of their contemporaries, with characteristic +observations on them, implying an extensive and first-hand knowledge of +what they were, and an acquaintance with what was going on in the +scholar world of the day. The most important of these sketches is the +account of Justus Scaliger. There is first a review article, very +vigorous and animated. But Mr. Pattison had intended a companion volume +to his Casaubon; and of this, which was never completed, we have some +fragments, not equal in force and compactness to the original sketch. +But sketch and fragments together present a very vivid picture of this +remarkable person, whose temper and extravagant vanity his biographer +admits, but who was undoubtedly a marvel both of knowledge and of the +power to use it, and to whom we owe the beginning of order and system +in chronology. Scaliger was to Mr. Pattison the type of the real +greatness of the scholar, a greatness not the less real that the world +could hardly understand it. He certainly leaves Scaliger before us, +with his strange ways of working, his hold of the ancient languages as +if they were mother tongues, his pride and slashing sarcasm, and his +absurd claim of princely descent, with lineaments not soon forgotten; +but it is amusing to meet once more, in all seriousness, Mr. Pattison's +_bete noire_ of the Catholic reaction, in the quarrels between Scaliger +and some shallow but clever and scurrilous Jesuits, whom he had +provoked by exposing the False Decretals and the False Dionysius, and +who revenged themselves by wounding him in his most sensitive part, his +claim to descent from the Princes of Verona. Doubtless the religious +difference envenomed the dispute, but it did not need the "Catholic +reaction" to account for such ignoble wrangles in those days. + +These remains show what a historian of literature we have lost in Mr. +Pattison. He was certainly capable of doing much more than the +specimens of work which he has left behind; but what he has left is of +high value. Wherever the disturbing and embittering elements are away, +it is hard to say which is the more admirable, the patient and +sagacious way in which he has collected and mastered his facts, or the +wise and careful judgment which he passes on them. We hear of people +being spoilt by their prepossessions, their party, their prejudices, +the necessities of their political and ecclesiastical position; Mr. +Pattison is a warning that a man may claim the utmost independence, and +yet be maimed in his power of being just and reasonable by other things +than party. As it is, he has left us a collection of interesting and +valuable studies, disastrously and indelibly disfigured by an +implacable bitterness, in which he but too plainly found the greatest +satisfaction. + +Mr. Pattison used in his later years to give an occasional lecture to a +London audience. One of the latest was one addressed, we believe, to a +class of working people on poetry, in which he dwelt on its healing and +consoling power. It was full of Mr. Pattison's clearness and directness +of thought, and made a considerable impression on some who only knew it +from an abstract in the newspapers; and it was challenged by a +working-man in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, who urged against it with some +power the argument of despair. Perhaps the lecture was not written; but +if it was, and our recollection of it is at all accurate, it was not +unworthy of a place in this collection. + + + + +XXV + +BISHOP FRAZER[29] + + + [29] + _Guardian_, 28th October 1885. + +Every one must be deeply touched by the Bishop of Manchester's sudden, +and, to most of us, unexpected death; those not the least who, +unhappily, found themselves in opposition to him in many important +matters. For, in spite of much that many people must wish otherwise in +his career as Bishop, it was really a very remarkable one. Its leading +motive was high and genuine public spirit, and a generous wish to be in +full and frank sympathy with all the vast masses of his diocese; to put +himself on a level with them, as man with man, in all their interests, +to meet them fearlessly and heartily, to raise their standard of +justice and large-heartedness by showing them that in their life of +toil he shared the obligation and the burden of labour, and felt bound +by his place to be as unsparing and unselfish a worker as any of his +flock. Indeed, he was as original as Bishop Wilberforce, though in a +different direction, in introducing a new type and ideal of Episcopal +work, and a great deal of his ideal he realised. It is characteristic +of him that one of his first acts was to remove the Episcopal residence +from a mansion and park in the country to a house in Manchester. There +can be no doubt that he was thoroughly in touch with the working +classes in Lancashire, in a degree to which no other Bishop, not even +Bishop Wilberforce, had reached. There was that in the frankness and +boldness of his address which disarmed their keen suspicion of a +Bishop's inevitable assumption of superiority, and put them at their +ease with him. He was always ready to meet them, and to speak off-hand +and unconventionally, and as they speak, not always with a due +foresight of consequences or qualifications. If he did sometimes in +this way get into a scrape, he did not much mind it, and they liked him +the better for it. He was perfectly fearless in his dealings with them; +in their disputes, in which he often was invited to take a part, he +took the part which seemed to him the right one, whether or not it +might be the unpopular one. Very decided, very confident in his +opinions and the expression of them, there yet was apparent a curious +and almost touching consciousness of a deficiency in some of the +qualities--knowledge, leisure, capacity for the deeper and subtler +tasks of thought--necessary to give a strong speaker the sense of being +on sure ground. But he trusted to his manly common sense; and this, +with the populations with which he had to deal, served him well, at +least in the main and most characteristic part of his work. + +And for his success in this part of his work--in making the crowds in +Manchester feel that their Bishop was a man like themselves, quite +alive to their wants and claims and feelings, and not so unlike them in +his broad and strong utterances--his Episcopate deserves full +recognition and honour. He set an example which we may hope to see +followed and improved upon. But unfortunately there was also a less +successful side. He was a Bishop, an overseer of a flock of many ways +of life and thought, a fellow-worker with them, sympathetic, laborious, +warm-hearted. But he was also a Bishop of the Church of Christ, an +institution with its own history, its great truths to keep and deliver, +its characteristic differences from the world which it is sent to +correct and to raise to higher levels than those of time and nature. +There is no reason why this side of the Episcopal office should not be +joined to that in which Bishop Frazer so signally excelled. But for +this part of it he was not well qualified, and much in his performance +of it must be thought of with regret. The great features of Christian +truth had deeply impressed him; and to its lofty moral call he +responded with conviction and earnestness. But an acquaintance with +what he has to interpret and guard which may suffice for a layman is +not enough for a Bishop; and knowledge, the knowledge belonging to his +profession, the deeper and more varied knowledge which makes a man +competent to speak as a theologian, Bishop Frazer did not possess. He +rather disbelieved in it, and thought it useless, or, it might be, +mischievous. He resented its intrusion into spheres where he could only +see the need of the simplest and least abstruse language. But facts are +not what we may wish them, but what they are; and questions, if they +are asked, may have to be answered, with toil, it may be, and +difficulty, like the questions, assuredly not always capable of easy +and transparent statement, of mathematical or physical science; and +unless Christianity is a dream and its history one vast delusion, such +facts and such questions have made what we call theology. But to the +Bishop's practical mind they were without interest, and he could not +see how they could touch and influence living religion. And did not +care to know about them; he was impatient, and even scornful, when +stress was laid on them; he was intolerant when he thought they +competed with the immediate realities of religion. And this want of +knowledge and of respect for knowledge was a serious deficiency. It +gave sometimes a tone of thoughtless flippancy to his otherwise earnest +language. And as he was not averse to controversy, or, at any rate, +found himself often involved in it, he was betrayed sometimes into +assertions and contradictions of the most astounding inaccuracy, which +seriously weakened his authority when he was called upon to accept the +responsibility of exerting it. + +Partly for this reason, partly from a certain vivacity of temper, he +certainly showed himself, in spite of his popular qualities, less equal +than many others of his brethren to the task of appeasing and assuaging +religious strife. The difficulties in Manchester were not greater than +in other dioceses; there was not anything peculiar in them; there was +nothing but what a patient and generous arbiter, with due knowledge of +the subject, might have kept from breaking out into perilous scandals. +Unhappily he failed; and though he believed that he had only done his +duty, his failure was a source of deep distress to himself and to +others. But now that he has passed away, it is but bare justice to say +that no one worked up more conscientiously to his own standard. He gave +himself, when he was consecrated, ten or twelve years of work, and then +he hoped for retirement. He has had fifteen, and has fallen at his +post. And to the last, the qualities which gave his character such a +charm in his earlier time had not disappeared. There seemed to be +always something of the boy about him, in his simplicity, his confiding +candour and frankness with his friends, his warm-hearted and kindly +welcome, his mixture of humility with a sense of power. Those who can +remember him in his younger days still see, in spite of all the storms +and troubles of his later ones, the image of the undergraduate and the +young bachelor, who years ago made a start of such brilliant promise, +and who has fulfilled so much of it, if not all. These things at any +rate lasted to the end--his high and exacting sense of public duty, and +his unchanging affection for his old friends. + + + + +XXVI + +NEWMAN'S "APOLOGIA"[30] + + + [30] + _Apologia pro Vita Sua_. By John Henry Newman, D.D. _Guardian_, 22nd + June 1864. + +We have not noticed before Dr. Newman's _Apologia_, which has been +coming out lately in weekly numbers, because we wished, when we spoke +of it, to speak of it as a whole. The special circumstances out of +which it arose may have prescribed the mode of publication. It may have +been thought more suitable, in point of form, to answer a pamphlet by a +series of pamphlets rather than at once by a set octavo of several +hundred pages. But the real subject which Dr. Newman has been led to +handle is one which will continue to be of the deepest interest long +after the controversy which suggested it is forgotten. The real subject +is the part played in the great Church movement by him who was the +leading mind in it; and it was unsatisfactory to speak of this till all +was said, and we could look on the whole course described. Such a +subject might have well excused a deliberate and leisurely volume to +itself; perhaps in this way we should have gained, in the laying out +and concentration of the narrative, and in what helps to bring it as a +whole before our thoughts. But a man's account of himself is never so +fresh and natural as when it is called out by the spur and pressure of +an accidental and instant necessity, and is directed to a purpose and +quickened by feelings which belong to immediate and passing +circumstances. The traces of hurried work are of light account when +they are the guarantees that a man is not sitting down to draw a +picture of himself, but stating his case in sad and deep earnest out of +the very fulness of his heart. + +The aim of the book is to give a minute and open account of the steps +and changes by which Dr. Newman passed from the English Church to the +Roman. The history of a change of opinion has often been written from +the most opposite points of view; but in one respect this book seems to +stand alone. Let it be remembered what it is, the narrative and the +justification of a great conversion; of a change involving an entire +reversal of views, judgments, approvals, and condemnations; a change +which, with all ordinary men, involves a reversal, at least as great, +of their sympathies and aversions, of what they tolerate and speak +kindly of. Let it be considered what changes of feeling most changes of +religion compel and consecrate; how men, commonly and very naturally, +look back on what they have left and think they have escaped from, with +the aversion of a captive to his prison; how they usually exaggerate +and make absolute their divergence from what they think has betrayed, +fooled, and degraded them; how easily they are tempted to visit on it +and on those who still cling to it their own mistakes and faults. Let +it be remembered that there was here to be told not only the history of +a change, but the history of a deep disappointment, of the failure of a +great design, of the breakdown of hopes the most promising and the most +absorbing; and this, not in the silence of a man's study, but in the +fever and contention of a great struggle wrought up to the highest +pitch of passion and fierceness, bringing with it on all sides and +leaving behind it, when over, the deep sense of wrong. It is no history +of a mere intellectual movement, or of a passage from strong belief to +a weakened and impaired one, to uncertainty, or vagueness, or +indifference; it is not the account of a change by a man who is half +sorry for his change, and speaks less hostilely of what he has left +because he feels less friendly towards what he has joined. There is no +reserved thought to be discerned in the background of disappointment or +a wish to go back again to where he once was. It is a book which +describes how a man, zealous and impatient for truth, thought he had +found it in one Church, then thought that his finding was a delusion, +and sought for it and believed he had gained it in another. What it +shows us is no serene readjustment of abstract doctrines, but the wreck +and overturning of trust and conviction and the practical grounds of +life, accompanied with everything to provoke, embitter, and exasperate. +It need not be said that what Dr. Newman holds he is ready to carry out +to the end, or that he can speak severely of men and systems. + +Let all this be remembered, and also that there is an opposition +between what he was and what he is, which is usually viewed as +irreconcilable, and which, on the ordinary assumptions about it, is so; +and we venture to say that there is not another instance to be quoted, +of the history of a conversion, in which he who tells his conversion +has so retained his self-possession, his temper, his mastery over his +own real judgment and thoughts, his ancient and legitimate sympathies, +his superiority to the natural and inevitable temptations of so altered +a position; which is so generous to what he feels to be strong and good +in what he has nevertheless abandoned, so fearless about letting his +whole case come out, so careless about putting himself in the right in +detail; which is so calm, and kindly, and measured, with such a quiet +effortless freedom from the stings of old conflicts, which bears so few +traces of that bitterness and antipathy which generally--and we need +hardly wonder at it--follows the decisive breaking with that on which a +man's heart was stayed, and for which he would once have died. + +There is another thing to be said, and we venture to say it out +plainly, because Dr. Newman himself has shown that he knows quite well +what he has been doing. While he has written what will command the +sympathy and the reverence of every one, however irreconcilably opposed +to him, to whom a great and noble aim and the trials of a desperate and +self-sacrificing struggle to compass it are objects of admiration and +honour, it is undeniable that ill-nature or vindictiveness or stupidity +will find ample materials of his own providing to turn against him. +Those who know Dr. Newman's powers and are acquainted with his career, +and know to what it led him, and yet persist in the charge of +insincerity and dishonesty against one who probably has made the +greatest sacrifice of our generation to his convictions of truth, will +be able to pick up from his own narrative much that they would not +otherwise have known, to confirm and point the old familiar views +cherished by dislike or narrowness. This is inevitable when a man takes +the resolution of laying himself open so unreservedly, and with so +little care as to what his readers think of what he tells them, so that +they will be persuaded that he was ever, even from his boyhood, deeply +conscious of the part which he was performing in the sight of his +Maker. Those who smile at the belief of a deep and religious mind in +the mysterious interventions and indications of Providence in the +guidance of human life, will open their eyes at the feeling which leads +him to tell the story of his earliest recollections of Roman Catholic +peculiarities, and of the cross imprinted on his exercise-book. Those +who think that everything about religion and their own view of religion +is such plain sailing, so palpable and manifest, that all who are not +fools or knaves must be of their own opinion, will find plenty to +wonder at in the confessions of awful perplexity which equally before +and after his change Dr. Newman makes. Those who have never doubted, +who can no more imagine the practical difficulties accompanying a great +change of belief than they can imagine a change of belief itself, will +meet with much that to them will seem beyond pardon, in the actual +events of a change, involving such issues and such interests, made so +deliberately and cautiously, with such hesitation and reluctance, and +in so long a time; they will be able to point to many moments in it +when it will be easy to say that more or less ought to have been said, +more or less ought to have been done. Much more will those who are on +the side of doubt, who acquiesce in, or who desire the overthrow of +existing hopes and beliefs, rejoice in such a frank avowal of the +difficulties of religion and the perplexities of so earnest a believer, +and make much of their having driven such a man to an alternative so +obnoxious and so monstrous to most Englishmen. It is a book full of +minor premisses, to which many opposite majors will be fitted. But +whatever may be thought of many details, the effect and lesson of the +whole will not be lost on minds of any generosity, on whatever side +they may be; they will be touched with the confiding nobleness which +has kept back nothing, which has stated its case with its weak points +and its strong, and with full consciousness of what was weak as well as +of what was strong, which has surrendered its whole course of conduct, +just as it has been, to be scrutinised, canvassed, and judged. What we +carry away from following such a history is something far higher and +more solemn than any controversial inferences; and it seems almost like +a desecration to make, as we say, capital out of it, to strengthen mere +argument, to confirm a theory, or to damage an opponent. + +The truth, in fact, is, that the interest is personal much more than +controversial. Those who read it as a whole, and try to grasp the +effect of all its portions compared together and gathered into one, +will, it seems to us, find it hard to bend into a decisive triumph for +any of the great antagonist systems which appear in collision. There +can be no doubt of the perfect conviction with which Dr. Newman has +taken his side for good. But while he states the effect of arguments on +his own mind, he leaves the arguments in themselves as they were, and +touches on them, not for the sake of what they are worth, but to +explain the movements and events of his own course. Not from any +studied impartiality, which is foreign to his character, but from his +strong and keen sense of what is real and his determined efforts to +bring it out, he avoids the temptation--as it seems to us, who still +believe that he was more right once than he is now--to do injustice to +his former self and his former position. At any rate, the arguments to +be drawn from this narrative, for or against England, or for or against +Rome, seem to us very evenly balanced. Of course, such a history has +its moral. But the moral is not the ordinary vulgar one of the history +of a religious change. It is not the supplement or disguise of a +polemical argument. It is the deep want and necessity in our age of the +Church, even to the most intensely religious and devoted minds, of a +sound and secure intellectual basis for the faith which they value more +than life and all things. We hope that we are strong enough to afford +to judge fairly of such a spectacle, and to lay to heart its warnings, +even though the particular results seem to go against what we think +most right. It is a mortification and a trial to the English Church to +have seen her finest mind carried away and lost to her, but it is a +mortification which more confident and peremptory systems than hers +have had to undergo; the parting was not without its compensations if +only that it brought home so keenly to many the awfulness and the +seriousness of truth; and surely never did any man break so utterly +with a Church, who left so many sympathies behind him and took so many +with him, who continued to feel so kindly and with such large-hearted +justice to those from whom his changed position separated him in this +world for ever. + +The _Apologia_ is the history of a great battle against Liberalism, +understanding by Liberalism the tendencies of modern thought to destroy +the basis of revealed religion, and ultimately of all that can be +called religion at all. The question which he professedly addresses +himself to set at rest, that of his honesty, is comparatively of slight +concern to those who knew him, except so far that they must be +interested that others, who did not know him, should not be led to do a +revolting injustice. The real interest is to see how one who felt so +keenly the claims both of what is new and what is old, who, with such +deep and unusual love and trust for antiquity, took in with quick +sympathy, and in its most subtle and most redoubtable shapes, the +intellectual movement of modern times, could continue to feel the force +of both, and how he would attempt to harmonise them. Two things are +prominent in the whole history. One is the fact of religion, early and +deeply implanted in the writer's mind, absorbing and governing it +without rival throughout. He speaks of an "inward conversion" at the +age of fifteen, "of which I was conscious, and of which I am still more +certain than that I have hands and feet." It was the religion of dogma +and of a definite creed which made him "rest in the thought of two, and +two only, supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my +Creator"--which completed itself with the idea of a visible Church and +its sacramental system. Religion, in this aspect of it, runs unchanged +from end to end of the scene of change:-- + + I have changed in many things; in this I have not. From the age of + fifteen dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion; I + know no other religion. I cannot enter into the idea of any other + sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream + and a mockery. As well can there be filial love without the fact + of a father, as devotion without the fact of a Supreme Being. What + I held in 1816 I held in 1833, and I hold in 1864. Please God I + shall hold it to the end. Even when I was under Dr. Whately's + influence I had no temptation to be less zealous for the dogmas of + the faith. + +The other thing is the haunting necessity, in an age of thought and +innovation, of a philosophy of religion, equally deep, equally +comprehensive and thorough, with the invading powers which it was +wanted to counteract; a philosophy, not on paper or in theory, but +answering to and vouched for by the facts of real life. In the English +Church he found, we think that we may venture to say, the religion +which to him was life, but not the philosophy which he wanted. The +_Apologia_ is the narrative of his search for it. Two strongly marked +lines of thought are traceable all through, one modern in its scope and +sphere, the other ancient. The leading subject of his modern thought is +the contest with liberal unbelief; contrasted with this was his strong +interest in Christian antiquity, his deep attachment to the creed, the +history, and the moral temper of the early Church. The one line of +thought made him, and even now makes him, sympathise with Anglicanism, +which is in the same boat with him, holds the same principle of the +unity and continuity of revealed truth, and is doing the same work, +though, as he came to think in the end, feebly and hopelessly. The +other, more and more, carried him away from Anglicanism; and the +contrast and opposition between it and the ancient Church, in +organisation, in usage, and in that general tone of feeling which +quickens and gives significance and expression to forms, overpowered +more and more the sense of affinity, derived from the identity of +creeds and sacraments and leading points of Church polity, and from the +success with which the best and greatest Anglican writers had +appropriated and assimilated the theology of the Fathers. But though he +urges the force of ecclesiastical precedents in a startling way, as in +the account which he gives of the effect of the history of the +Monophysites on his view of the tenableness of the Anglican theory, +absolutely putting out of consideration the enormous difference of +circumstances between the cases which are compared, and giving the +instance in question a force and importance which seem to be in +singular contrast with the general breadth and largeness of his +reasoning, it was not the halting of an ecclesiastical theory which +dissatisfied him with the English Church. + +Anglicanism was not daring enough for him. With his ideas of the coming +dangers and conflicts, he wanted something bold and thoroughgoing, +wide-reaching in its aims, resolute in its language, claiming and +venturing much. Anglicanism was not that. It had given up as +impracticable much that the Church had once attempted. It did not +pretend to rise so high, to answer such great questions, to lay down +such precise definitions. Wisely modest, or timidly uncertain--mindful +of the unalterable limits of our human condition, _we_ say; forgetful, +_he_ thought, or doubting, or distrustful, of the gifts and promises of +a supernatural dispensation--it certainly gave no such complete and +decisive account of the condition and difficulties of religion and the +world, as had been done once, and as there were some who did still. +There were problems which it did not profess to solve; there were +assertions which others boldly risked, and which it shrunk from making; +there were demands which it ventured not to put forward. Again, it was +not refined enough for him; it had little taste for the higher forms of +the saintly ideal; it wanted the austere and high-strung-virtues; it +was contented, for the most part, with the domestic type of excellence, +in which goodness merged itself in the interests and business of the +common world, and, working in them, took no care to disengage itself or +mark itself off, as something distinct from them and above them. Above +all, Anglicanism was too limited; it was local, insular, national; its +theory was made for its special circumstances; and he describes in a +remarkable passage how, in contrast with this, there rung in his ears +continually the proud self-assertion of the other side, _Securus +judicat orbis terrarum_. What he wanted, what it was the aim of his +life to find, was a great and effective engine against Liberalism; for +years he tried, with eager but failing hope, to find it in the theology +and working of the English Church; when he made up his mind that +Anglicanism was not strong enough for the task, he left it for a system +which had one strong power; which claimed to be able to shut up +dangerous thought. + +Very sorrowful, indeed, is the history, told so openly, so simply, so +touchingly, of the once promising advance, of the great breakdown. And +yet, to those who still cling to what he left, regret is not the only +feeling. For he has the nobleness and the generosity to say what he +_did_ find in the English Church, as well as what he did not find. He +has given her up for good, but he tells and he shows, with no grudging +frankness, what are the fruits of her discipline. "So I went on for +years, up to 1841. It was, in a human point of view, the happiest time +of my life.... I did not suppose that such sunshine would last, though I +knew not what would be its termination. It was the time of plenty, and +during its seven years I tried to lay up as much as I could for the +dearth which was to follow it." He explains and defends what to us seem +the fatal marks against Rome; but he lets us see with what force, and +for how long, they kept alive his own resistance to an attraction which +to him was so overwhelming. And he is at no pains to conceal--it seems +even to console him to show--what a pang and wrench it cost him to +break from that home under whose shadow his spiritual growth had +increased. He has condemned us unreservedly; but there must, at any +rate, be some wonderful power and charm about that which he loved with +a love which is not yet extinguished; else how could he write of the +past as he does? He has shown that he can understand, though he is +unable to approve, that others should feel that power still. + +Dr. Newman has stated, with his accustomed force and philosophical +refinement, what he considers the true idea of that infallibility, +which he looks upon as the only power in the world which can make head +against and balance Liberalism--which "can withstand and baffle the +fierce energy of passion, and the all-corroding, all-dissolving +scepticism of the intellect in religious inquiries;" which he considers +"as a provision, adapted by the mercy of the Creator, to preserve +religion in the world, and to restrain that freedom of thought which is +one of the greatest of our natural gifts, from its own suicidal +excesses." He says, as indeed is true, that it is "a tremendous power," +though he argues that, in fact, its use is most wisely and beneficially +limited. And doubtless, whatever the difficulty of its proof may be, +and to us this proof seems simply beyond possibility, it is no mere +power upon paper. It acts and leaves its mark; it binds fast and +overthrows for good. But when, put at its highest, it is confronted +with the "giant evil" which it is supposed to be sent into the world to +repel, we can only say that, to a looker-on, its failure seems as +manifest as the existence of the claim to use it. It no more does its +work, in the sense of _succeeding_ and triumphing, than the less +magnificent "Establishments" do. It keeps _some_ check--it fails on a +large scale and against the real strain and pinch of the mischief; and +they, too, keep _some_ check, and are not more fairly beaten than it +is, in "making a stand against the wild living intellect of man." + +Without infallibility, it is said, men will turn freethinkers and +heretics; but don't they, _with_ it? and what is the good of the engine +if it will not do its work? And if it is said that this is the fault of +human nature, which resists what provokes and checks it, still that +very thing, which infallibility was intended to counteract, goes on +equally, whether it comes into play or not. Meanwhile, truth does stay +in the world, the truth that there has been among us a Divine Person, +of whom the Church throughout Christendom is the representative, +memorial, and the repeater of His message; doubtless, the means of +knowledge are really guarded; yet we seem to receive that message as we +receive the witness of moral truth; and it would not be contrary to the +analogy of things here if we had often got to it at last through +mistakes. But when it is reached, there it is, strong in its own power; +and it is difficult to think that if it is not strong enough in itself +to stand, it can be protected by a claim of infallibility. A future, of +which infallibility is the only hope and safeguard, seems to us indeed +a prospect of the deepest gloom. + +Dr. Newman, in a very remarkable passage, describes the look and +attitude of invading Liberalism, and tells us why he is not forward in +the conflict. "It seemed to be a time of all others in which Christians +had a call to be patient, in which they had no other way of helping +those who were alarmed than that of exhorting them to have a little +faith and fortitude, and 'to beware,' as the poet says, 'of dangerous +steps.'" And he interprets "recent acts of the highest Catholic +authority" as meaning that there is nothing to do just now but to sit +still and trust. Well; but the _Christian Year_ will do that much for +us, just as well. + +People who talk glibly of the fearless pursuit of truth may here see a +real example of a life given to it--an example all the more solemn and +impressive if they think that the pursuit was in vain. It is easy to +declaim about it, and to be eloquent about lies and sophistries; but it +is shallow to forget that truth has its difficulties. To hear some +people talk, it might be thought that truth was a thing to be made out +and expressed at will, under any circumstances, at any time, amid any +complexities of facts or principles, by half an hour's choosing to be +attentive, candid, logical, and resolute; as if there was not a chance +of losing what perhaps you have, as well as of gaining what you think +you need. If they would look about them, if they would look into +themselves, they would recognise that Truth is an awful and formidable +goddess to all men and to all systems; that all have their weak points +where virtually, more or less consciously, more or less dexterously, +they shrink from meeting her eye; that even when we make sacrifice of +everything for her sake, we find that she still encounters us with +claims, seemingly inconsistent with all that she has forced us to +embrace--with appearances which not only convict us of mistake, but +seem to oblige us to be tolerant of what we cannot really assent to. + +She gives herself freely to the earnest and true-hearted inquirer; but +to those who presume on the easiness of her service, she has a side of +strong irony. You common-sense men, she seems to say, who see no +difficulties in the world, you little know on what shaky ground you +stand, and how easily you might be reduced to absurdity. You critical +and logical intellects, who silence all comers and cannot be answered, +and can show everybody to be in the wrong--into what monstrous and +manifest paradoxes are you not betrayed, blind to the humble facts +which upset your generalisations, not even seeing that dulness itself +can pronounce you mistaken! + +In the presence of such a narrative as this, sober men will think more +seriously than ever about charging their most extreme opponents with +dishonesty and disregard to truth. + +As we said before, this history seems to us to leave the theological +question just where it was. The objections to Rome, which Dr. Newman +felt so strongly once, but which yielded to other considerations, we +feel as strongly still. The substantial points of the English theory, +which broke down to his mind, seem to us as substantial and trustworthy +as before. He failed, but we believe that, in spite of everything, +England is the better for his having made his trial. Even Liberalism +owes to the movement of which he was the soul much of what makes it now +such a contrast, in largeness of mind and warmth, to the dry, +repulsive, narrow, material Liberalism of the Reform era. He, and he +mainly, has been the source, often unrecognised and unsuspected, of +depth and richness and beauty, and the strong passion for what is +genuine and real, in our religious teaching. Other men, other +preachers, have taken up his thoughts and decked them out, and had the +credit of being greater than their master. + +In looking back on the various turns and vicissitudes of his English +course, we, who inherit the fruits of that glorious failure, should +speak respectfully and considerately where we do not agree with him, +and with deep gratitude--all the more that now so much lies between +us--where we do. But the review makes us feel more than ever that the +English Church, whose sturdy strength he underrated, and whose +irregular theories provoked him, was fully worthy of the interest and +the labours of the leader who despaired of her. Anglicanism has so far +outlived its revolutions, early and late ones, has marched on in a +distinct path, has developed a theology, has consolidated an +organisation, has formed a character and tone, has been the organ of a +living spirit. The "magnetic storms" of thought which sweep over the +world may be destructive and dangerous to it, as much as, but not more +than, to other bodies which claim to be Churches and to represent the +message of God. But there is nothing to make us think that, in the +trials which may be in store, the English Church will fail while others +hold their own. + + + + +XXVII + +DR. NEWMAN ON THE "EIRENICON"[31] + + + [31] + _The Times_, 31st March 1866. + +Dr. Pusey's Appeal has received more than one answer. These answers, +from the Roman Catholic side, are--what it was plain that they would +be--assurances to him that he looks at the question from an entirely +mistaken point of view; that it is, of course, very right and good of +him to wish for peace and union, but that there is only one way of +peace and union--unconditional submission. He may have peace and union +for himself at any moment, if he will; so may the English Church, or +the Greek Church, or any other religious body, organised or +unorganised. + +The way is always open; there is no need to write long books or make +elaborate proposals about union. Union means becoming Catholic; +becoming Catholic means acknowledging the exclusive claims of the Pope +or the Roman Church. In the long controversy one party has never for an +instant wavered in the assertion that it could not, and never would, be +in the wrong. The way to close the controversy, and the only one, is to +admit that Dr. Pusey shall have any amount of assurance and proof that +the Roman position and Roman doctrine and practice are the right ones. + +His misapprehensions shall be corrected; his ignorance of what is Roman +theology fully, and at any length, enlightened. There is no desire to +shrink from the fullest and most patient argument in its favour, and he +may call it, if he likes, explanation. But there is only one practical +issue to what he has proposed--not to stand bargaining for impossible +conditions, but thankfully and humbly to join himself to the true +Church while he may. It is only the way in which the answer is given +that varies. Here characteristic differences appear. The authorities of +the Roman Catholic Church swell out to increased magnificence, and +nothing can exceed the suavity and the compassionate scorn with which +they point out the transparent absurdity and the audacity of such +proposals. The Holy Office at Rome has not, it may be, yet heard of Dr. +Pusey; it may regret, perhaps, that it did not wait for so +distinguished a mark for its censure; but its attention has been drawn +to some smaller offenders of the same way of thinking, and it has been +induced to open all the floodgates of its sonorous and antiquated +verbiage to sweep away and annihilate a poor little London +periodical--"_ephemeridem cui titulus, 'The Union Review_.'" The +Archbishop of Westminster, not deigning to name Dr. Pusey, has seized +the opportunity to reiterate emphatically, in stately periods and with +a polished sarcasm, his boundless contempt for the foolish people who +dare to come "with swords wreathed in myrtle" between the Catholic +Church and "her mission to the great people of England." On the other +hand, there have been not a few Roman Catholics who have listened with +interest and sympathy to what Dr. Pusey had to say, and, though +obviously they had but one answer to give, have given it with a sense +of the real condition and history of the Christian world, and with the +respect due to a serious attempt to look evils in the face. But there +is only one person on the Roman Catholic side whose reflections on the +subject English readers in general would much care to know. Anybody +could tell beforehand what Archbishop Manning would say; but people +could not feel so certain what Dr. Newman might say. + +Dr. Newman has given his answer; and his answer is, of course, in +effect the same as that of the rest of his co-religionists. He offers +not the faintest encouragement to Dr. Pusey's sanguine hopes. If it is +possible to conceive that one side could move in the matter, it is +absolutely certain that the other would be inflexible. Any such dealing +on equal terms with the heresy and schism of centuries is not to be +thought of; no one need affect surprise at the refusal. What Dr. Pusey +asks is, in fact, to pull the foundation out from under the whole +structure of Roman Catholic pretensions. Dr. Newman does not waste +words to show that the plan of the _Eirenicon_ is impossible. He +evidently assumes that it is so, and we agree with him. But there are +different ways of dispelling a generous dream, and telling a serious +man who is in earnest that he is mistaken. Dr. Newman does justice, as +he ought to do, to feelings and views which none can enter into better +than he, whatever he may think of them now. He does justice to the +understanding and honesty, as well as the high aims, of an old friend, +once his comrade in difficult and trying times, though now long parted +from him by profound differences, and to the motives which prompted so +venturous an attempt as the _Eirenicon_ to provoke public discussion on +the reunion of Christendom. He is capable of measuring the real state +of the facts, and the mischiefs and evils for which a remedy is wanted, +by a more living rule than the suppositions and consequences of a +cut-and-dried theory. Rightly or wrongly he argues--at least, he gives +us something to think of. Perhaps not the least of his merit is that he +writes simply and easily in choice and varied English, instead of +pompously ringing the changes on a set of _formulae_ which beg the +question, and dinning into our ears the most extravagant assertions of +foreign ecclesiastical arrogance. We may not always think him fair, or +a sound reasoner, but he is conciliatory, temperate, and often +fearlessly candid. He addresses readers who will challenge and examine +what he says, not those whose minds are cowed and beaten down before +audacity in proportion to its coolness, and whom paradox, the more +extreme the better, fascinates and drags captive. To his old friend he +is courteous, respectful, sympathetic; where the occasion makes it +fitting, affectionate, even playful, as men are who can afford to let +their real feelings come out, and have not to keep up appearances. +Unflinching he is in maintaining his present position as the upholder +of the exclusive claims of the Roman Church to represent the Catholic +Church of the Creeds; but he has the good sense and good feeling to +remember that he once shared the views of those whom he now +controverts, and that their present feelings about the divisions of +Christendom were once his own. Such language as the following is plain, +intelligible, and manly. Of course, he has his own position, and must +see things according to it. But he recognises the right of conscience +in those who, having gone a long way with him, find that they can go no +further, and he pays a compliment, becoming as from himself, and not +without foundation in fact, to the singular influence which, from +whatever cause, Dr. Pusey's position gives him, and which, we may add, +imposes on him, in more ways than one, very grave responsibilities:-- + + You, more than any one else alive, have been the present and + untiring agent by whom a great work has been effected in it; and, + far more than is usual, you have received in your lifetime, as + well as merited, the confidence of your brethren. You cannot speak + merely for yourself; your antecedents, your existing influence, + are a pledge to us that what you may determine will be the + determination of a multitude. Numbers, too, for whom you cannot + properly be said to speak, will be moved by your authority or your + arguments; and numbers, again, who are of a school more recent + than your own, and who are only not your followers because they + have outstripped you in their free speeches and demonstrative acts + in our behalf, will, for the occasion, accept you as their + spokesman. There is no one anywhere--among ourselves, in your own + body, or, I suppose, in the Greek Church--who can affect so vast a + circle of men, so virtuous, so able, so learned, so zealous, as + come, more or less, under your influence; and I cannot pay them + all a greater compliment than to tell them they ought all to be + Catholics, nor do them a more affectionate service than to pray + that they may one day become such.... + + I recollect well what an outcast I seemed to myself when I took + down from the shelves of my library the volumes of St. Athanasius + or St. Basil, and set myself to study them; and how, on the + contrary, when at length I was brought into Catholicism, I kissed + them with delight, with a feeling that in them I had more than all + that I had lost, and, as though I were directly addressing the + glorious saints who bequeathed them to the Church, I said to the + inanimate pages, "You are now mine, and I am now yours, beyond any + mistake." Such, I conceive, would be the joy of the persons I + speak of if they could wake up one morning and find themselves + possessed by right of Catholic traditions and hopes, without + violence to their own sense of duty; and certainly I am the last + man to say that such violence is in any case lawful, that the + claims of conscience are not paramount, or that any one may + overleap what he deliberately holds to be God's command, in order + to make his path easier for him or his heart lighter. + + I am the last man to quarrel with this jealous deference to the + voice of our conscience, whatever judgment others may form of us + in consequence, for this reason, because their case, as it at + present stands, has as you know been my own. You recollect well + what hard things were said against us twenty-five years ago which + we knew in our hearts we did not deserve. Hence, I am now in the + position of the fugitive Queen in the well-known passage, who, + "_haud ignara mali_" herself, had learned to sympathise with those + who were inheritors of her past wanderings. + +Dr. Newman's hopes, and what most of his countrymen consider the hopes +of truth and religion, are not the same. His wish is, of course, that +his friend should follow him; a wish in which there is not the +slightest reason to think that he will be gratified. But differently as +we must feel as to the result, we cannot help sharing the evident +amusement with which Dr. Newman recalls a few of the compliments which +were lavished on him by some of his present co-religionists when he was +trying to do them justice, and was even on the way to join them. He +reprints with sly and mischievous exactness a string of those glib +phrases of controversial dislike and suspicion which are common to all +parties, and which were applied to him by "priests, good men, whose +zeal outstripped their knowledge, and who in consequence spoke +confidently, when they would have been wiser had they suspended their +adverse judgment of those whom they were soon to welcome as brothers in +communion." It is a trifle, but it strikes us as characteristic. Dr. +Newman is one of the very few who have carried into his present +communion, to a certain degree at least, an English habit of not +letting off the blunders and follies of his own side, and of daring to +think that a cause is better served by outspoken independence of +judgment than by fulsome, unmitigated puffing. It might be well if even +in him there were a little more of this habit. But, so far as it goes, +it is the difference between him and most of those who are leaders on +his side. Indirectly he warns eager controversialists that they are not +always the wisest and the most judicious and far-seeing of men; and we +cannot quarrel with him, however little we may like the occasion, for +the entertainment which he feels in inflicting on his present brethren +what they once judged and said of him, and in reminding them that their +proficiency in polemical rhetoric did not save them from betraying the +shallowness of their estimate and the shortness of their foresight. + +When he comes to discuss the _Eirenicon_, Dr. Newman begins with a +complaint which seems to us altogether unreasonable. He seems to think +it hard that Dr. Pusey should talk of peace and reunion, and yet speak +so strongly of what he considers the great corruptions of the Roman +Church. In ordinary controversy, says Dr. Newman, we know what we are +about and what to expect; "'_Caedimur, et totidem plagis consumimus +hostem_.' We give you a sharp cut and you return it.... But we at least +have not professed to be composing an _Eirenicon_, when we treated you +as foes." Like Archbishop Manning, Dr. Newman is reminded "of the sword +wreathed in myrtle;" but Dr. Pusey, he says, has improved on the +ancient device,--"Excuse me, you discharge your olive-branch as if from +a catapult." + +This is, no doubt, exactly what Dr. Pusey has done. Going much further +than the great majority of his countrymen will go with him in +admissions in favour of the Roman Catholic Church, he has pointed out +with a distinctness and force, never, perhaps, exceeded, what is the +impassable barrier which, as long as it lasts, makes every hope of +union idle. The practical argument against Rome is stated by him in a +shape which comes home to the consciences of all, whatever their +theological training and leanings, who have been brought up in English +ways and ideas of religion. But why should he not? He is desirous of +union--the reunion of the whole of Christendom. He gives full credit to +the Roman communion--much more credit than most of his brethren think +him justified in giving--for what is either defensible or excellent in +it. Dr. Newman must be perfectly aware that Dr. Pusey has gone to the +very outside of what our public feeling in England will bear in favour +of efforts for reconciliation, and he nowhere shows any sign that he is +thinking of unconditional submission. How, then, can he be expected to +mince matters and speak smoothly when he comes to what he regards as +the real knot of the difficulty, the real and fatal bar to all +possibility of a mutual understanding? If his charges are untrue or +exaggerated in detail or colouring, that is another matter; but the +whole of his pleading for peace presupposes that there are great and +serious obstacles to it in what is practically taught and authorised in +the Roman Church; and it is rather hard to blame him for "not making +the best of things," and raising difficulties in the way of the very +object which he seeks, because he states the truth about these +obstacles. We are afraid that we must be of Dr. Newman's opinion that +the _Eirenicon_ is not calculated to lead, in our time at least, to +what it aims at--the reunion of Christendom; but this arises from the +real obstacles themselves, not from Dr. Pusey's way of stating them. +There may be no way to peace, but surely if there is, though it implies +giving full weight to your sympathies, and to the points on which you +may give way, it also involves the possibility of speaking out plainly, +and also of being listened to, on the points on which you really +disagree. Does Dr. Newman think that all Dr. Pusey felt he had to do +was to conciliate Roman Catholics? Does it follow, because objections +are intemperately and unfairly urged on the Protestant side, that +therefore they are not felt quite as much in earnest by sober and +tolerant people, and that they may not be stated in their real force +without giving occasion for the remark that this is reviving the old +cruel war against Rome, and rekindling a fierce style of polemics which +is now out of date? And how is Dr. Pusey to state these objections if, +when he goes into them, not in a vague declamatory way, but showing his +respect and seriousness by his guarded and full and definite manner of +proof, he is to be met by the charge that he does not show sufficient +consideration? All this may be a reason for thinking it vain to write +an Eirenicon at all. But if one is to be attempted, it certainly will +not do to make it a book of compliments. Its first condition is that if +it makes light of lesser difficulties it should speak plainly about +greater ones. + +But this is, after all, a matter of feeling. No doubt, as Dr. Newman +says, people are not pleased or conciliated by elaborate proofs that +they are guilty of something very wrong or foolish. What is of more +interest is to know the effect on a man like Dr. Newman of such a +display of the prevailing tendency of religious thought and devotion in +his communion as Dr. Pusey has given from Roman Catholic writers. And +it is plain that, whoever else is satisfied with them, these tendencies +are not entirely satisfactory to Dr. Newman. That rage for foreign +ideas and foreign usages which has come over a section of his friends, +the loudest and perhaps the ablest section of them, has no charms for +him. He asserts resolutely and rather sternly his right to have an +opinion of his own, and declines to commit himself, or to allow that +his cause is committed, to a school of teaching which happens for the +moment to have the talk to itself; and he endeavours at great length to +present a view of the teaching of his Church which shall be free, if +not from all Dr. Pusey's objections, yet from a certain number of them, +which to Dr. Newman himself appear grave. After disclaiming or +correcting certain alleged admissions of his own, on which Dr. Pusey +had placed a construction too favourable to the Anglican Church, Dr. +Newman comes to a passage which seems to rouse him. A convert, says Dr. +Pusey, must take things as he finds them in his new communion, and it +would be unbecoming in him to criticise. This statement gives Dr. +Newman the opportunity of saying that, except with large qualifications, +he does not accept it for himself. Of course, he says, there are +considerations of modesty, of becomingness, of regard to the feelings +of others with equal or greater claims than himself, which bind a +convert as they bind any one who has just gained admission into a +society of his fellow men. He has no business "to pick and choose," and +to set himself up as a judge of everything in his new position. But +though every man of sense who thought he had reason for so great a +change would be generous and loyal in accepting his new religion as a +whole, in time he comes "to have a right to speak as well as to hear;" +and for this right, both generally and in his own case, he stands up +very resolutely:-- + + Also, in course of time a new generation rises round him, and + there is no reason why he should not know as much, and decide + questions with as true an instinct, as those who perhaps number + fewer years than he does Easter communions. He has mastered the + fact and the nature of the differences of theologian from + theologian, school from school, nation from nation, era from era. + He knows that there is much of what may be called fashion in + opinions and practices, according to the circumstances of time and + place, according to current politics, the character of the Pope of + the day, or the chief Prelates of a particular country; and that + fashions change. His experience tells him that sometimes what is + denounced in one place as a great offence, or preached up as a + first principle, has in another nation been immemorially regarded + in just a contrary sense, or has made no sensation at all, one way + or the other, when brought before public opinion; and that loud + talkers, in the Church as elsewhere, are apt to carry all before + them, while quiet and conscientious persons commonly have to give + way. He perceives that, in matters which happen to be in debate, + ecclesiastical authority watches the state of opinion and the + direction and course of controversy, and decides accordingly; so + that in certain cases to keep back his own judgment on a point is + to be disloyal to his superiors. + + So far generally; now in particular as to myself. After twenty + years of Catholic life, I feel no delicacy in giving my opinion on + any point when there is a call for me,--and the only reason why I + have not done so sooner or more often than I have, is that there + has been no call. I have now reluctantly come to the conclusion + that your Volume _is_ a call. Certainly, in many instances in + which theologian differs from theologian, and country from + country, I have a definite judgment of my own; I can say so + without offence to any one, for the very reason that from the + nature of the case it is impossible to agree with all of them. I + prefer English habits of belief and devotion to foreign, from the + same causes, and by the same right, which justifies foreigners in + preferring their own. In following those of my people, I show less + singularity, and create less disturbance than if I made a flourish + with what is novel and exotic. And in this line of conduct I am + but availing myself of the teaching which I fell in with on + becoming a Catholic; and it is a pleasure to me to think that what + I hold now, and would transmit after me if I could, is only what I + received then. + +He observes that when he first joined the Roman Catholic Church the +utmost delicacy was observed in giving him advice; and the only warning +which he can recollect was from the Vicar-General of the London +district, who cautioned him against books of devotion of the Italian +school, which were then just coming into England, and recommended him +to get, as safe guides, the works of Bishop Hay. Bishop Hay's name is +thus, probably for the first time, introduced to the general English +public. It is difficult to forbear a smile at the great Oxford teacher, +the master of religious thought and feeling to thousands, being gravely +set to learn his lesson of a more perfect devotion, how to meditate and +how to pray, from "the works of Bishop Hay"; it is hardly more easy to +forbear a smile at his recording it. But Bishop Hay was a sort of +symbol, and represents, he says, English as opposed to foreign habits +of thought; and to these English habits he not only gives his +preference, but he maintains that they are more truly those of the +whole Roman Catholic body in England than the more showy and extreme +doctrines of a newer school. Dr. Pusey does wrong, he says, in taking +this new school as the true exponent of Roman Catholic ideas. That it +is popular he admits, but its popularity is to be accounted for by +personal qualifications in its leaders for gaining the ear of the +world, without supposing that they speak for their body. + + Though I am a convert, then, I think I have a right to speak out; + and that the more because other converts have spoken for a long + time, while I have not spoken; and with still more reason may I + speak without offence in the case of your present criticisms of + us, considering that in the charges you bring the only two English + writers you quote in evidence are both of them converts, younger + in age than myself. I put aside the Archbishop of course, because + of his office. These two authors are worthy of all consideration, + at once from their character and from their ability. In their + respective lines they are perhaps without equals at this + particular time; and they deserve the influence they possess. One + is still in the vigour of his powers; the other has departed amid + the tears of hundreds. It is pleasant to praise them for their + real qualifications; but why do you rest on them as authorities? + Because the one was "a popular writer"; but is there not + sufficient reason for this in the fact of his remarkable gifts, of + his poetical fancy, his engaging frankness, his playful wit, his + affectionateness, his sensitive piety, without supposing that the + wide diffusion of his works arises out of his particular + sentiments about the Blessed Virgin? And as to our other friend, + do not his energy, acuteness, and theological reading, displayed + on the vantage ground of the historic _Dublin Review_, fully + account for the sensation he has produced, without supposing that + any great number of our body go his lengths in their view of the + Pope's infallibility? Our silence as regards their writings is + very intelligible; it is not agreeable to protest, in the sight of + the world, against the writings of men in our own communion whom + we love and respect. But the plain fact is this--they came to the + Church, and have thereby saved their souls; but they are in no + sense spokesmen for English Catholics, and they must not stand in + the place of those who have a real title to such an office. + +And he appeals from them, as authorities, to a list of much more sober +and modest writers, though, it may be, the names of all of them are not +familiar to the public. He enumerates as the "chief authors of the +passing generation," "Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Ullathorne, Dr. Lingard, +Mr. Tierney, Dr. Oliver, Dr. Rock, Dr. Waterworth, Dr. Husenbeth, Mr. +Flanagan." If these well-practised and circumspect veterans in the +ancient controversy are not original and brilliant, at least they are +safe; and Dr. Newman will not allow the flighty intellectualism which +takes more hold of modern readers to usurp their place, and for himself +he sturdily and bluffly declines to give up his old standing-ground for +any one:-- + + I cannot, then, without remonstrance, allow you to identify the + doctrine of our Oxford friends in question, on the two subjects I + have mentioned, with the present spirit or the prospective creed + of Catholics; or to assume, as you do, that because they are + thoroughgoing and relentless in their statements, therefore they + are the harbingers of a new age, when to show a deference for + Antiquity will be thought little else than a mistake. For myself, + hopeless as you consider it, I am not ashamed still to take my + stand upon the Fathers, and do not mean to budge. The history of + their time is not yet an old almanac to me. Of course I maintain + the value and authority of the "Schola," as one of the _loci + theologici_; still I sympathise with Petavius in preferring to its + "contentious and subtle theology" that "more elegant and fruitful + teaching which is moulded after the image of erudite antiquity." + The Fathers made me a Catholic, and I am not going to kick down + the ladder by which I ascended into the Church. It is a ladder + quite as serviceable for that purpose now as it was twenty years + ago. Though I hold, as you remark, a process of development in + Apostolic truth as time goes on, such development does not + supersede the Fathers, but explains and completes them. + +Is he right in saying that he is not responsible as a Roman Catholic +for the extravagances that Dr. Pusey dwells upon? He is, it seems to +us, and he is not. No doubt the Roman Catholic system is in practice a +wide one, and he has a right, which we are glad to see that he is +disposed to exercise, to maintain the claims of moderation and +soberness, and to decline to submit his judgment to the fashionable +theories of the hour. A stand made for independence and good sense +against the pressure of an exacting and overbearing dogmatism is a good +thing for everybody, though made in a camp with which we have nothing +to do. He goes far enough, indeed, as it is. Still, it is something +that a great writer, of whose genius and religious feeling Englishmen +will one day be even prouder than they are now, should disconnect +himself from the extreme follies of his party, and attempt to represent +what is the nobler and more elevated side of the system to which he has +attached himself. But it seems to us much more difficult for him to +release his cause from complicity with the doctrines which he dislikes +and fears. We have no doubt that he is not alone, and that there are +numbers of his English brethren who are provoked and ashamed at the +self-complacent arrogance and childish folly shown in exaggerating and +caricaturing doctrines which are, in the eyes of most Englishmen, +extravagant enough in themselves. But the question is whether he or the +innovators represent the true character and tendencies of their +religious system. It must be remembered that with a jealous and touchy +Government, like that of the Roman Church, which professes the duty and +boasts of the power to put down all dangerous ideas and language, mere +tolerance means much. Dr. Newman speaks as an Englishman when he writes +thus:-- + + This is specially the case with great ideas. You may stifle them; + or you may refuse them elbow-room; or you may torment them with + your continual meddling; or you may let them have free course and + range, and be content, instead of anticipating their excesses, to + expose and restrain those excesses after they have occurred. But + you have only this alternative; and for myself, I prefer much, + wherever it is possible, to be first generous and then just; to + grant full liberty of thought, and to call it to account when + abused. + +But that has never been the principle of his Church. At least, the +liberty which it has allowed has been a most one-sided liberty. It has +been the liberty to go any length in developing the favourite opinions +about the power of the Pope, or some popular form of devotion; but as +to other ideas, not so congenial, "great" ones and little ones too, the +lists of the Roman Index bear witness to the sensitive vigilance which +took alarm even at remote danger. And those whose pride it is that they +are ever ready and able to stop all going astray must be held +responsible for the going astray which they do not stop, especially +when it coincides with what they wish and like. + +But these extreme writers do not dream of tolerance. They stoutly and +boldly maintain that they but interpret in the only natural and +consistent manner the mind of their Church; and no public or official +contradiction meets them. There may be a disapproving opinion in their +own body, but it does not show itself. The disclaimer of even such a +man as Dr. Newman is in the highest degree guarded and qualified. They +are the people who can excite attention and gain a hearing, though it +be an adverse one. They have the power to make themselves the most +prominent and accredited representatives of their creed, and, if +thoroughgoing boldness and ability are apt to attract the growth of +thought and conviction, they are those who are likely to mould its +future form. Sober prudent people may prefer the caution of Dr. +Newman's "chief authors," but to the world outside most of these will +be little more than names, and the advanced party, which talks most +strongly about the Pope's infallibility and devotion to St. Mary, has +this to say for itself. Popular feeling everywhere in the Roman +communion appears to go with it, and authority both in Rome and in +England shelters and sanctions it. Nothing can be more clearly and +forcibly stated than the following assertions of the unimpeachable +claim of "dominant opinions" in the Roman Catholic system by the +highest Roman Catholic authority in England. "It is an ill-advised +overture of peace," writes Archbishop Manning, + + to assail the popular, prevalent, and dominant opinions, + devotions, and doctrines of the Catholic Church with hostile + criticism.... The presence and assistance of the Holy Ghost, which + secures the Church within the sphere of faith and morals, invests + it also with instincts and a discernment which preside over its + worship and doctrines, its practices and customs. We may be sure + that whatever is prevalent in the Church, under the eye of its + public authority, practised by the people, and not censured by its + pastors, is at least conformable to faith and innocent as to + morals. Whosoever rises up to condemn such practices and opinions + thereby convicts himself of the private spirit which is the root + of heresy. But if it be ill-advised to assail the mind of the + Church, it is still more so to oppose its visible Head. There can + be no doubt that the Sovereign Pontiff has declared the same + opinion as to the temporal power as that which is censured in + others, and that he defined the Immaculate Conception, and that he + believes in his own infallibility. If these things be our + reproach, we share it with the Vicar of Jesus Christ. They are not + our private opinions, nor the tenets of a school, but the mind of + the Pontiff, as they were of his predecessors, as they will be of + those who come after him.--Archbishop Manning's _Pastoral_, pp. + 64-66, 1866. + +To maintain his liberty against extreme opinions generally is one of +Dr. Newman's objects in writing his letter; the other is to state +distinctly what he holds and what he does not hold, as regards the +subject on which Dr. Pusey's appeal has naturally made so deep an +impression:-- + + I do so, because you say, as I myself have said in former years, + that "That vast system as to the Blessed Virgin ... to all of us + has been the special _crux_ of the Roman system" (p. 101). Here, I + say, as on other points, the Fathers are enough for me. I do not + wish to say more than they, and will not say less. You, I know, + will profess the same; and thus we can join issue on a clear and + broad principle, and may hope to come to some intelligible result. + We are to have a treatise on the subject of Our Lady soon from the + pen of the Most Rev. Prelate; but that cannot interfere with such + a mere argument from the Fathers as that to which I shall confine + myself here. Nor, indeed, as regards that argument itself, do I + profess to be offering you any new matter, any facts which have + not been used by others,--by great divines, as Petavius, by living + writers, nay, by myself on other occasions. I write afresh, + nevertheless, and that for three reasons--first, because I wish to + contribute to the accurate statement and the full exposition of + the argument in question; next, because I may gain a more patient + hearing than has sometimes been granted to better men than myself; + lastly, because there just now seems a call on me, under my + circumstances, to avow plainly what I do and what I do not hold + about the Blessed Virgin, that others may know, did they come to + stand where I stand, what they would and what they would not be + bound to hold concerning her. + +If this "vast system" is a _crux_ to any one, we cannot think that even +Dr. Newman's explanation will make it easier. He himself recoils, as +any Englishman of sense and common feeling must, at the wild +extravagances into which this devotion has run. But he accepts and +defends, on the most precarious grounds, the whole system of thought +out of which they have sprung by no very violent process of growth. He +cannot, of course, stop short of accepting the definition of the +Immaculate Conception as an article of faith, and, though he +emphatically condemns, with a warmth and energy of which no one can +doubt the sincerity, a number of revolting consequences drawn from the +theology of which that dogma is the expression, he is obliged to defend +everything up to that. For a professed disciple of the Fathers this is +not easy. If anything is certain, it is that the place which the +Blessed Virgin occupies in the Roman Catholic system--popular or +authoritative, if it is possible fairly to urge such a distinction in a +system which boasts of all-embracing authority--is something perfectly +different from anything known in the first four centuries. In all the +voluminous writings on theology which remain from them we may look in +vain for any traces of that feeling which finds words in the common +hymn, "_Ave, marls Stella_" and which makes her fill so large a space +in the teaching and devotion of the Roman Church. Dr. Newman attempts +to meet this difficulty by a distinction. The doctrine, he says, was +there, the same then as now; it is only the feelings, behaviour, and +usages, the practical consequences naturally springing from the +doctrine, which have varied or grown:-- + + I fully grant that the _devotion_ towards the Blessed Virgin has + increased among Catholics with the progress of centuries. I do not + allow that the _doctrine_ concerning her has undergone a growth, + for I believe it has been in substance one and the same from the + beginning. + +There is, doubtless, such a distinction, though whether available for +Dr. Newman's purpose is another matter. But when we recollect that +modern "doctrine," besides defining the Immaculate Conception, places +her next in glory to the Throne of God, and makes her the Queen of +Heaven, and the all-prevailing intercessor with her Son, the assertion +as to "doctrine" is a bold one. It rests, as it seems to us, simply on +Dr. Newman identifying his own inferences from the language of the +ancient writers whom he quotes with the language itself. They say a +certain thing--that Mary is the "second Eve." Dr. Newman, with all the +theology and all the controversies of eighteen centuries in his mind, +deduces from this statement a number of refined consequences as to her +sinlessness, and greatness, and reward, which seem to him to flow from +it, and says that it means all these consequences. Mr. Ruskin somewhere +quotes the language of an "eminent Academician," who remarks, in answer +to some criticism on a picture, "that if you look for curves, you will +see curves; and if you look for angles, you will see angles." So it is +here. The very dogma of the Immaculate Conception itself Dr. Newman +sees indissolubly involved in the "rudimentary teaching" which insists +on the parallelism between Eve and Mary:-- + + Was not Mary as fully endowed as Eve?... If Eve was (as Bishop + Bull and others maintain) raised above human nature by that + indwelling moral gift which we call grace, is it rash to say that + Mary had a greater grace?... And if Eve had this supernatural + inward gift given her from the moment of her personal existence, + is it possible to deny that Mary, too, had this gift from the very + first moment of her personal existence? I do not know how to + resist this inference:--well, this is simply and literally the + doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. I say the doctrine of the + Immaculate Conception is in its substance this, and nothing more + or less than this (putting aside the question of degrees of + grace), and it really does seem to me bound up in that doctrine of + the Fathers, that Mary is the second Eve. + +It seems obvious to remark that the Fathers are not even alleged to +have themselves drawn this irresistible inference; and next, that even +if it be drawn, there is a long interval between it and the elevation +of the Mother of Jesus Christ to the place to which modern Roman +doctrine raises her. Possibly, the Fathers might have said, as many +people will say now, that, in a matter of this kind, it is idle to draw +inferences when we are, in reality, utterly without the knowledge to +make them worth anything. At any rate, if they had drawn them, we +should have found some traces of it in their writings, and we find +none. We find abundance of poetical addresses and rhetorical +amplification, which makes it all the more remarkable that the plain +dogmatic view of her position, which is accepted by the Roman Church, +does not appear in them. We only find a "rudimentary doctrine," which, +naturally enough, gives the Blessed Virgin a very high and sacred place +in the economy of the Incarnation. But how does the doctrine, as it is +found in even their rhetorical passages, go a step beyond what would be +accepted by any sober reader of the New Testament? They speak of what +she was; they do not presume to say what she is. What Protestant could +have the slightest difficulty in saying not only what Justin says, and +Tertullian copies from him, and Irenaeus enlarges upon, but what Dr. +Newman himself says of her awful and solitary dignity, always excepting +the groundless assumption which, from her office in this world takes +for granted, first her sinlessness, and then a still higher office in +the next? We do not think that, as a matter of literary criticism, Dr. +Newman is fair in his argument from the Fathers. He lays great stress +on Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Irenaeus, as three independent +witnesses from different parts of the world; whereas it is obvious that +Tertullian at any rate copies almost literally from Justin Martyr, and +it is impossible to compare a mere incidental point of rhetorical, or, +if it be so, argumentative illustration, occurring once or twice in a +long treatise, with a doctrine, such as that of the Incarnation itself, +on which the whole treatise is built, and of which it is full. The +wonder is, indeed, that the Fathers, considering how much they wrote, +said so little of her; scarcely less is it a wonder, then, that the New +Testament says so little, but from this little the only reason which +would prevent a Protestant reader of the New Testament from accepting +the highest statement of her historical dignity is the reaction from +the development of them into the consequences which have been notorious +for centuries in the unreformed Churches. Protestants, left to +themselves, are certainly not prone to undervalue the saints of +Scripture; it has been the presence of the great system of popular +worship confronting them which has tied their tongues in this matter. +Yet Anglican theologians like Mr. Keble, popular poets like Wordsworth, +broad Churchmen like Mr. Robertson, have said things which even Roman +Catholics might quote as expressions of their feeling. But Dr. Newman +must know that many things may be put, and put most truly, into the +form of poetical expression which will not bear hardening into a dogma. +A Protestant may accept and even amplify the ideas suggested by +Scripture about the Blessed Virgin; but he may feel that he cannot tell +how the Redeemer was preserved from sinful taint; what was the grace +bestowed on His mother; or what was the reward and prerogative which +ensued to her. But it is just these questions which the Roman doctrine +undertakes to answer without a shadow of doubt, and which Dr. Newman +implies that the theology of the Fathers answered as unambiguously. + +But from what has happened in the history of religion, we do not think +that Protestants in general who do not shrink from high language about +Abraham, Moses, or David, would find anything unnatural or +objectionable in the language of the early Christian writers about the +Mother of our Lord, though possibly it might not be their own; but the +interval from this language to that certain knowledge of her present +office in the economy of grace which is implied in what Dr. Newman +considers the "doctrine" about her is a very long one. The step to the +modern "devotion" in its most chastened form is longer still. We cannot +follow the subtle train of argument which says that because the +"doctrine" of the second century called her the "second Eve," therefore +the devotion which sets her upon the altars of Christendom in the +nineteenth is a right development of the doctrine. What is wanted is +not the internal thread of the process, but the proof and confirmation +from without that it was the right process; and this link is just what +is wanting, except on a supposition which begs the question. It is +conceivable that this step from "doctrine" to "devotion" may have been +a mistake. It is conceivable that the "doctrine" may have been held in +the highest form without leading to the devotion; for Dr. Newman, of +course, thinks that Athanasius and Augustine held "the doctrine," yet, +as he says, "we have no proof that Athanasius himself had any special +devotion to the Blessed Virgin," and in another place he repeats his +doubts whether St. Chrysostom or St. Athanasius invoked her; "nay," he +adds, "I should like to know whether St. Augustine, in all his +voluminous writings, invokes her once." What has to be shown is, that +this step was not a mistake; that it was inevitable and legitimate. + +"This being the faith of the Fathers about the Blessed Virgin," says +Dr. Newman, "we need not wonder that it should in no long time be +transmuted into devotion." The Fathers expressed a historical fact +about her in the term [Greek: Theotokos]; therefore, argues the later +view, she is the source of our present grace now. It is the _rationale_ +of this inference, which is not an immediate or obvious one, which is +wanted. And Dr. Newman gives it us in the words of Bishop Butler:-- + + Christianity is eminently an objective religion. For the most part + it tells us of persons and facts in simple words, and leaves the + announcement to produce its effect on such hearts as are prepared + to receive it. This, at least, is its general character; and + Butler recognises it as such in his _Analogy_, when speaking of + the Second and Third Persons of the Holy Trinity:--"The internal + worship," he says, "to the Son and Holy Ghost is no farther matter + of pure revealed command than as the relations they stand in to us + are matters of pure revelation; but the relations being known, the + obligations to such internal worship are _obligations of reason + arising out of those relations themselves_." + +We acknowledge the pertinency of the quotation. So true is it that "the +relations being known," the obligations of worship arise of themselves +from these relations, that if the present relation of the Blessed +Virgin to mankind has always been considered to be what modern Roman +theology considers it, it is simply inconceivable that devotion to her +should not have been universal long before St. Athanasius and St. +Augustine; and equally inconceivable, to take Dr. Newman's remarkable +illustration, that if the real position of St. Joseph is next to her, +it should have been reserved for the nineteenth century, if not, +indeed, to find it out, at least to acknowledge it; but the whole +question is about the fact of the "relations" themselves. If we believe +that the Second and Third Persons are God, we do not want to be told to +worship them. But such a relation as Dr. Newman supposes in the case of +the Blessed Virgin does not flow of itself from the idea contained, for +instance, in the word [Greek: Theotokos], and even if it did, we should +still want to be told, in the case of a creature, and remembering the +known jealousy of religion of even the semblance of creature worship, +what _are_ the "religious regards," which, not flowing from the nature +of the case, but needing to be distinctly authorised, are right and +binding. + +The question is of a dogmatic and a popular system. We most fully admit +that, with Dr. Newman or any other of the numberless well-trained and +excellent men in the Roman Church, the homage to the Mother does not +interfere with the absolutely different honour rendered to the Son. We +readily acknowledge the elevating and refining beauty of that +character, of which the Virgin Mother is the type, and the services +which that ideal has rendered to mankind, though we must emphatically +say that a man need not be a Roman Catholic to feel and to express the +charm of that moral beauty. But here we have a doctrine as definite and +precise as any doctrine can be, and a great system of popular devotion, +giving a character to a great religious communion. Dr. Newman is not +merely developing and illustrating an idea: he is asserting a definite +revealed fact about the unseen world, and defending its consequences in +a very concrete and practical shape. And the real point is what proof +has he given us that this is a revealed fact; that it is so, and that +we have the means of knowing it? He has given us certain language of +the early writers, which he says is a tradition, though it is only what +any Protestant might have been led to by reading his Bible. But between +that language, taken at its highest, and the belief and practice which +his Church maintains, there is a great gap. The "Second Eve," the +[Greek: Theotokos], are names of high dignity; but enlarge upon them as +we may, there is between them and the modern "Regina Coeli" an interval +which nothing but direct divine revelation can possibly fill; and of +this divine revelation the only evidence is the fact that there is the +doctrine. So awful and central an article of belief needs corresponding +proof. In Dr. Newman's eloquent pages we have much collateral thought +on the subject--sometimes instinct with his delicacy of perception and +depth of feeling, sometimes strangely over-refined and irrelevant, but +always fresh and instructive, whether to teach or to warn. The one +thing which is missing in them is direct proof. + +He does not satisfy us, but he does greatly interest us in his way of +dealing with the practical consequences of his doctrine, in the +manifold development of devotion in his communion. What he tells us +reveals two things. By this devotion he is at once greatly attracted, +and he is deeply shocked. No one can doubt the enthusiasm with which he +has thrown himself into that devotion, an enthusiasm which, if it was +at one time more vehement and defiant than it is now, is still a most +intense element in his religious convictions. Nor do we feel entitled +to say that in him it interferes with religious ideas and feelings of a +higher order, which we are accustomed to suppose imperilled by it. It +leads him, indeed, to say things which astonish us, not so much by +their extreme language as by the absence, as it seems to us, of any +ground to say them at all. It forces him into a championship for +statements, in defending which the utmost that can be done is to frame +ingenious pleas, or to send back a vigorous retort. It tempts him at +times to depart from his generally broad and fair way of viewing +things, as when he meets the charge that the Son is forgotten for the +Mother, not merely by a denial, but by the rejoinder that when the +Mother is not honoured as the Roman Church honours her the honour of +the Son fails. It would have been better not to have reprinted the +following extract from a former work, even though it were singled out +for approval by the late Cardinal. The italics are his own:-- + + I have spoken more on this subject in my _Essay on Development_, + p. 438, "Nor does it avail to object that, in this contrast of + devotional exercises, the human is sure to supplant the Divine, + from the infirmity of our nature; for, I repeat, the question is + one of fact, whether it has done so. And next, it must be asked, + _whether the character of Protestant devotion towards Our Lord has + been that of worship at all_; and not rather such as we pay to an + excellent human being.... Carnal minds will ever create a carnal + worship for themselves, and to forbid them the service of the + saints will have no tendency to teach them the worship of God. + Moreover, ... great and constant as is the devotion which the + Catholic pays to St. Mary, it has a special province, and _has far + more connection with the public services and the festive aspect of + Christianity_, and with certain extraordinary offices which she + holds, _than with what is strictly personal and primary in religion_". + Our late Cardinal, on my reception, singled out to me this last + sentence, for the expression of his especial approbation. + +Can Dr. Newman defend the first of these two assertions, when he +remembers such books of popular Protestant devotion as Wesley's Hymns, +or the German hymn-books of which we have examples in the well-known +_Lyra Germanica_? Can he deny the second when he remembers the +exercises of the "Mois de Marie" in French churches, or if he has heard +a fervid and earnest preacher at the end of them urge on a church full +of young people, fresh from Confirmation and first Communion, a special +and personal self-dedication to the great patroness for protection amid +the daily trials of life, in much the same terms as in an English +Church they might be exhorted to commit themselves to the Redeemer of +mankind? Right or wrong, such devotion is not a matter of the "festive +aspect" of religion, but most eminently of what is "personal and +primary" in it; and surely of such a character is a vast proportion of +the popular devotion here spoken of. + +But for himself, no doubt, he has accepted this _cultus_ on its most +elevated and refined side. He himself makes the distinction, and says +that there is "a healthy" and an "artificial" form of it; a devotion +which does not shock "solid piety and Christian good sense; I cannot +help calling this the English style." And when other sides are +presented to him, he feels what any educated Englishman who allows his +English feelings play is apt to feel about them. What is more, he has +the boldness to say so. He makes all kinds of reserves to save the +credit of those with whom he cannot sympathise. He speaks of the +privileges of Saints; the peculiarities of national temperament; the +distinctions between popular language and that used by scholastic +writers, or otherwise marked by circumstances; the special characters +of some of the writers quoted, their "ruthless logic," or their +obscurity; the inculpated passages are but few and scattered in +proportion to their context; they are harsh, but sound worse than they +mean; they are hardly interpreted and pressed. He reminds Dr. Pusey +that there is not much to choose between the Oriental Churches and Rome +on this point, and that of the two the language of the Eastern is the +most florid; luxuriant, and unguarded. But, after all, the true feeling +comes out at last, "And now, at length," he says, "coming to the +statements, not English, but foreign, which offend you, I will frankly +say that I read some of those which you quote with grief and almost +anger." They are "perverse sayings," which he hates. He fills a page +and a half with a number of them, and then deliberately pronounces his +rejection of them. + + After such explanations, and with such authorities to clear my + path, I put away from me as you would wish, without any + hesitation, as matters in which my heart and reason have no part + (when taken in their literal and absolute sense, as any Protestant + would naturally take them, and as the writers doubtless did not + use them), such sentences and phrases as these:--that the mercy of + Mary is infinite, that God has resigned into her hands His + omnipotence, that (unconditionally) it is safer to seek her than + her Son, that the Blessed Virgin is superior to God, that He is + (simply) subject to her command, that our Lord is now of the same + disposition as His Father towards sinners--viz. a disposition to + reject them, while Mary takes His place as an Advocate with the + Father and Son; that the Saints are more ready to intercede with + Jesus than Jesus with the Father, that Mary is the only refuge of + those with whom God is angry; that Mary alone can obtain a + Protestant's conversion; that it would have sufficed for the + salvation of men if our Lord had died, not to obey His Father, but + to defer to the decree of His Mother, that she rivals our Lord in + being God's daughter, not by adoption, but by a kind of nature; + that Christ fulfilled the office of Saviour by imitating her + virtues; that, as the Incarnate God bore the image of His Father, + so He bore the image of His Mother; that redemption derived from + Christ indeed its sufficiency, but from Mary its beauty and + loveliness; that as we are clothed with the merits of Christ so we + are clothed with the merits of Mary; that, as He is Priest, in + like manner is she Priestess; that His body and blood in the + Eucharist are truly hers, and appertain to her; that as He is + present and received therein, so is she present and received + therein; that Priests are ministers as of Christ, so of Mary; that + elect souls are, born of God and Mary; that the Holy Ghost brings + into fruitfulness His action by her, producing in her and by her + Jesus Christ in His members; that the kingdom of God in our souls, + as our Lord speaks, is really the kingdom of Mary in the soul--and + she and the Holy Ghost produce in the soul extraordinary + things--and when the Holy Ghost finds Mary in a soul He flies + there. + + Sentiments such as these I never knew of till I read your book, + nor, as I think, do the vast majority of English Catholics know + them. They seem to me like a bad dream. I could not have conceived + them to be said. I know not to what authority to go for them, to + Scripture, or to the Fathers, or to the decrees of Councils, or to + the consent of schools, or to the tradition of the faithful, or to + the Holy See, or to Reason. They defy all the _loci theologici_. + There is nothing of them in the Missal, in the Roman Catechism, in + the Roman _Raccolta_, in the Imitation of Christ, in Gother, + Challoner, Milner, or Wiseman, so far as I am aware. They do but + scare and confuse me. I should not be holier, more spiritual, more + sure of perseverance, if I twisted my moral being into the + reception of them; I should but be guilty of fulsome frigid + flattery towards the most upright and noble of God's creatures if + I professed them--and of stupid flattery too; for it would be like + the compliment of painting up a young and beautiful princess with + the brow of a Plato and the muscle of an Achilles. And I should + expect her to tell one of her people in waiting to turn me off her + service without warning. Whether thus to feel be the _scandalum + parvulorum_ in my case, or the _scandalum Pharisaeorum_, I leave + others to decide; but I will say plainly that I had rather believe + (which is impossible) that there is no God at all, than that Mary + is greater than God. I will have nothing to do with statements, + which can only be explained by being explained away. I do not, + however, speak of these statements, as they are found in their + authors, for I know nothing of the originals, and cannot believe + that they have meant what you say; but I take them as they lie in + your pages. Were any of them, the sayings of Saints in ecstasy, I + should know they had a good meaning; still I should not repeat + them myself; but I am looking at them, not as spoken by the + tongues of Angels, but according to that literal sense which they + bear in the mouths of English men and English women. And, as + spoken by man to man in England in the nineteenth century, I + consider them calculated to prejudice inquirers, to frighten the + unlearned, to unsettle consciences, to provoke blasphemy, and to + work the loss of souls. + +Of course; it is what might be expected of him. But Dr. Newman has +often told us that we must take the consequences of our principles and +theories, and here are some of the consequences which meet him; and, as +he says, they "scare and confuse him." He boldly disavows them with no +doubtful indignation. But what other voice but his, of equal authority +and weight, has been lifted up to speak the plain truth about them? +Why, if they are wrong, extravagant, dangerous, is his protest +solitary? His communion has never been wanting in jealousy of dangerous +doctrines, and it is vain to urge that these things and things like +them have been said in a corner. The Holy Office is apt to detect +mischief in small writers as well as great, even if these teachers were +as insignificant as Dr. Newman would gladly make them. Taken as a +whole, and in connection with notorious facts, these statements are +fair examples of manifest tendencies, which certainly are not on the +decline. And if a great and spreading popular _cultus_, encouraged and +urged on beyond all former precedent, is in danger of being developed +by its warmest and most confident advocates into something of which +unreason is the lightest fault, is there not ground for interfering? +Doubtless Roman writers maybe quoted by Dr. Newman, who felt that there +was a danger, and we are vaguely told about some checks given to one or +two isolated extravagances, which, however, in spite of the checks, do +not seem to be yet extinct. But Allocutions and Encyclicals are not for +errors of this kind. Dr. Newman says that "it is wiser for the most +part to leave these excesses to the gradual operation of public +opinion,--that is, to the opinion of educated and sober Catholics; and +this seems to me the healthiest way of putting them down." We quite +agree with him; but his own Church does not think so; and we want to +see some evidence of a public opinion in it capable of putting them +down. As it is, he is reduced to say that "the line cannot be logically +drawn between the teaching of the Fathers on the subject and our own;" +an assertion which, if it were true, would be more likely to drag down +one teaching than to prop up the other; he has to find reasons, and +doubtless they are to be found thick as blackberries, for accounting +for one extravagance, softening down another, declining to judge a +third. But in the meantime the "devotion" in its extreme form, far +beyond what he would call the teaching of his Church, has its way; it +maintains its ground; it becomes the mark of the bold, the advanced, +the refined, as well as of the submissive and the crowd; it roots +itself under the shelter of an authority which would stop it if it was +wrong; it becomes "dominant"; it becomes at length part of that "mind +of the living Church" which, we are told, it is heresy to impugn, +treason to appeal from, and the extravagance of impertinent folly to +talk of reforming. + +It is very little use, then, for Dr. Newman to tell Dr. Pusey or any +one else, "You may safely trust us English Catholics as to this +devotion." "English Catholics," as such,--it is the strength and the +weakness of their system,--have really the least to say in the matter. +The question is not about trusting "us English Catholics," but the +Pope, and the Roman Congregation, and those to whom the Roman +authorities delegate their sanction and give their countenance. If Dr. +Newman is able, as we doubt not he is desirous, to elevate the tone of +his own communion and put to shame some of its fashionable excesses, he +will do a great work, in which we wish him every success, though the +result of it might not really be to bring the body of his countrymen +nearer to it. But the substance of Dr. Pusey's charges remain after all +unanswered, and there is no getting over them while they remain. They +are of that broad, palpable kind against which the refinements of +argumentative apology play in vain. They can only be met by those who +feel their force, on some principle equally broad. Dr. Newman suggests +such a ground in the following remarks, which, much as they want +qualification and precision, have a basis of reality in them:-- + + It is impossible, I say, in a doctrine like this, to draw the line + cleanly between truth and error, right and wrong. This is ever the + case in concrete matters which have life. Life in this world is + motion, and involves a continual process of change. Living things + grow into their perfection, into their decline, into their death. + No rule of art will suffice to stop the operation of this natural + law, whether in the material world or in the human mind.... What + has power to stir holy and refined souls is potent also with the + multitude, and the religion of the multitude is ever vulgar and + abnormal; it ever will be tinctured with fanaticism and + superstition while men are what they are. A people's religion is + ever a corrupt religion. If you are to have a Catholic Church you + must put up with fish of every kind, guests good and bad, vessels + of gold, vessels of earth. You may beat religion out of men, if you + will, and then their excesses will take a different direction; but + if you make use of religion to improve them, they will make use of + religion to corrupt it. And then you will have effected that + compromise of which our countrymen report so unfavourably from + abroad,--a high grand faith and worship which compels their + admiration, and puerile absurdities among the people which excite + their contempt. + +It is like Dr. Newman to put his case in this broad way, making large +admissions, allowing for much inevitable failure. That is, he defends +his Church as he would defend Christianity generally, taking it as a +great practical system must be in this world, working with human nature +as it is. His reflection is, no doubt, one suggested by a survey of the +cause of all religion. The coming short of the greatest promisee, the +debasement of the noblest ideals, are among the commonplaces of +history. Christianity cannot be maintained without ample admissions of +failure and perversion. But it is one thing to make this admission for +Christianity generally, an admission which the New Testament in +foretelling its fortunes gives us abundant ground for making; and quite +another for those who maintain the superiority of one form of +Christianity above all others, to claim that they may leave out of the +account its characteristic faults. It is quite true that all sides +abundantly need to appeal for considerate judgment to the known +infirmity of human nature; but amid the conflicting pretensions which +divide Christendom no one side can ask to have for itself the exclusive +advantage of this plea. All may claim the benefit of it, but if it is +denied to any it must be denied to all. In this confused and imperfect +world other great popular systems of religion besides the Roman may use +it in behalf of shortcomings, which, though perhaps very different, are +yet not worse. It is obvious that the theory of great and living ideas, +working with a double edge, and working for mischief at last, holds +good for other things besides the special instance on which Dr. Newman +comments. It is to be further observed that to claim the benefit of +this plea is to make the admission that you come under the common law +of human nature as to mistake, perversion, and miscarriage, and this in +the matter of religious guidance the Roman theory refuses to do. It +claims for its communion as its special privilege an exemption from +those causes of corruption of which history is the inexorable witness, +and to which others admit themselves to be liable; an immunity from +going wrong, a supernatural exception from the common tendency of +mankind to be led astray, from the common necessity to correct and +reform themselves when they are proved wrong. How far this is realised, +not on paper and in argument, but in fact, is indeed one of the most +important questions for the world, and it is one to which the world +will pay more heed than to the best writing about it There are not +wanting signs, among others of a very different character, of an honest +and philosophical recognition of this by some of the ablest writers of +the Roman communion. The day on which the Roman Church ceases to +maintain that what it holds must be truth because it holds it, and +admits itself subject to the common condition by which God has given +truth to men, will be the first hopeful day for the reunion of +Christendom. + + + + +XXVIII + +NEWMAN'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS[32] + + + [32] + _Parochial and Plain Sermons_. By John Henry Newman, B.D., formerly + Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford. Edited by W.J. Copeland, B.D. _Saturday + Review_, 5th June 1869. + +Dr. Newman's Sermons stand by themselves in modern English literature; +it might be said, in English literature generally. There have been +equally great masterpieces of English writing in this form of +composition, and there have been preachers whose theological depth, +acquaintance with the heart, earnestness, tenderness, and power have +not been inferior to his. But the great writers do not touch, pierce, +and get hold of minds as he does, and those who are famous for the +power and results of their preaching do not write as he does. His +sermons have done more perhaps than any one thing to mould and quicken +and brace the religious temper of our time; they have acted with equal +force on those who were nearest and on those who were farthest from him +in theological opinion. They have altered the whole manner of feeling +towards religious subjects. We know now that they were the beginning, +the signal and first heave, of a vast change that was to come over the +subject; of a demand from religion of a thoroughgoing reality of +meaning and fulfilment, which is familiar to us, but was new when it +was first made. And, being this, these sermons are also among the very +finest examples of what the English language of our day has done in the +hands of a master. Sermons of such intense conviction and directness of +purpose, combined with such originality and perfection on their purely +literary side, are rare everywhere. Remarkable instances, of course, +will occur to every one of the occasional exhibition of this +combination, but not in so sustained and varied and unfailing a way. +Between Dr. Newman and the great French school there is this +difference--that they are orators, and he is as far as anything can be +in a great preacher from an orator. Those who remember the tones and +the voice in which the sermons were heard at St. Mary's--we may refer +to Professor Shairp's striking account in his volume on Keble, and to a +recent article in the _Dublin Review_--can remember how utterly unlike +an orator in all outward ways was the speaker who so strangely moved +them. The notion of judging of Dr. Newman as an orator never crossed +their minds. And this puts a difference between him and a remarkable +person whose name has sometimes been joined with his--Mr. F. Robertson. +Mr. Robertson was a great preacher, but he was not a writer. + +It is difficult to realise at present the effect produced originally by +these sermons. The first feeling was that of their difference in manner +from the customary sermon. People knew what an eloquent sermon was, or +a learned sermon, or a philosophical sermon, or a sermon full of +doctrine or pious unction. Chalmers and Edward Irving and Robert Hall +were familiar names; the University pulpit and some of the London +churches had produced examples of forcible argument and severe and +finished composition; and of course instances were abundant everywhere +of the good, sensible, commonplace discourse; of all that was heavy, +dull, and dry, and of all that was ignorant, wild, fanatical, and +irrational. But no one seemed to be able, or to be expected, unless he +avowedly took the buffoonery line which some of the Evangelical +preachers affected, to speak in the pulpit with the directness and +straightforward unconventionality with which men speak on the practical +business of life. With all the thought and vigour and many beauties +which were in the best sermons, there was always something forced, +formal, artificial about them; something akin to that mild pomp which +usually attended their delivery, with beadles in gowns ushering the +preacher to the carpeted pulpit steps, with velvet cushions, and with +the rustle and fulness of his robes. No one seemed to think of writing +a sermon as he would write an earnest letter. A preacher must approach +his subject in a kind of roundabout make-believe of preliminary and +preparatory steps, as if he was introducing his hearers to what they +had never heard of; make-believe difficulties and objections were +overthrown by make-believe answers; an unnatural position both in +speaker and hearers, an unreal state of feeling and view of facts, a +systematic conventional exaggeration, seemed almost impossible to be +avoided; and those who tried to escape being laboured and grandiloquent +only escaped it, for the most part, by being vulgar or slovenly. The +strong severe thinkers, jealous for accuracy, and loathing clap-trap as +they loathed loose argument, addressed and influenced intelligence; but +sermons are meant for heart and souls as well as minds, and to the +heart, with its trials and its burdens, men like Whately never found +their way. Those who remember the preaching of those days, before it +began to be influenced by the sermons at St. Mary's, will call to mind +much that was interesting, much that was ingenious, much correction of +inaccurate and confused views, much manly encouragement to high +principle and duty, much of refined and scholarlike writing. But for +soul and warmth, and the imaginative and poetical side of the religious +life, you had to go where thought and good sense were not likely to be +satisfied. + +The contrast of Mr. Newman's preaching was not obvious at first. The +outside form and look was very much that of the regular best Oxford +type--calm, clear, and lucid in expression, strong in its grasp, +measured in statement, and far too serious to think of rhetorical +ornament. But by degrees much more opened. The range of experience from +which the preacher drew his materials, and to which he appealed, was +something wider, subtler, and more delicate than had been commonly +dealt with in sermons. With his strong, easy, exact, elastic language, +the instrument of a powerful and argumentative mind, he plunged into +the deep realities of the inmost spiritual life, of which cultivated +preachers had been shy. He preached so that he made you feel without +doubt that it was the most real of worlds to him; he made you feel in +time, in spite of yourself, that it was a real world with which you too +had concern. He made you feel that he knew what he was speaking about; +that his reasonings and appeals, whether you agreed with them or not, +were not the language of that heated enthusiasm with which the world is +so familiar; that he was speaking words which were the result of +intellectual scrutiny, balancings, and decisions, as well as of moral +trials, of conflicts and suffering within; words of the utmost +soberness belonging to deeply gauged and earnestly formed purposes. The +effect of his sermons, as compared with the common run at the time, was +something like what happens when in a company you have a number of +people giving their views and answers about some question before them. +You have opinions given of various worth and expressed with varying +power, precision, and distinctness, some clever enough, some clumsy +enough, but all more or less imperfect and unattractive in tone, and +more or less falling short of their aim; and then, after it all, comes +a voice, very grave, very sweet, very sure and clear, under whose words +the discussion springs up at once to a higher level, and in which we +recognise at once a mind, face to face with realities, and able to +seize them and hold them fast. + +The first notable feature in the external form of this preaching was +its terse unceremonious directness. Putting aside the verbiage and +dulled circumlocution and stiff hazy phraseology of pulpit etiquette +and dignity, it went straight to its point. There was no waste of time +about customary formalities. The preacher had something to say, and +with a kind of austere severity he proceeded to say it. This, for +instance, is the sort of way in which a sermon would begin:-- + + Hypocrisy is a serious word. We are accustomed to consider the + hypocrite as a hateful, despicable character, and an uncommon one. + How is it, then, that our Blessed Lord, when surrounded by an + innumerable multitude, began, _first of all_, to warn His disciples + against hypocrisy, as though they were in especial danger of + becoming like those base deceivers the Pharisees? Thus an + instructive subject is opened to our consideration, which I will + now pursue.--Vol. I. Serm. X. + +The next thing was that, instead of rambling and straggling over a +large subject, each sermon seized a single thought, or definite view, +or real difficulty or objection, and kept closely and distinctly to it; +and at the same time treated it with a largeness and grasp and ease +which only a full command over much beyond it could give. Every sermon +had a purpose and an end which no one could misunderstand. Singularly +devoid of anything like excitement--calm, even, self-controlled--there +was something in the preacher's resolute concentrated way of getting +hold of a single defined object which reminded you of the rapid spring +or unerring swoop of some strong-limbed or swift-winged creature on its +quarry. Whatever you might think that he did with it, or even if it +seemed to escape from him, you could have no doubt what he sought to +do; there was no wavering, confused, uncertain bungling in that +powerful and steady hand. Another feature was the character of the +writer's English. We have learned to look upon Dr. Newman as one of the +half-dozen or so of the innumerable good writers of the time who have +fairly left their mark as masters on the language. Little, assuredly, +as the writer originally thought of such a result, the sermons have +proved a permanent gift to our literature, of the purest English, full +of spring, clearness, and force. A hasty reader would perhaps at first +only notice a very light, strong, easy touch, and might think, too, +that it was a negligent one. But it was not negligence; real negligence +means at bottom bad work, and bad work will not stand the trial of +time. There are two great styles--the self-conscious, like that of +Gibbon or Macaulay, where great success in expression is accompanied by +an unceasing and manifest vigilance that expression shall succeed, and +where you see at each step that there is or has been much care and work +in the mind, if not on the paper; and the unconscious, like that of +Pascal or Swift or Hume, where nothing suggests at the moment that the +writer is thinking of anything but his subject, and where the power of +being able to say just what he wants to say seems to come at the +writer's command, without effort, and without his troubling himself +more about it than about the way in which he holds his pen. But both +are equally the fruit of hard labour and honest persevering +self-correction; and it is soon found out whether the apparent +negligence comes of loose and slovenly habits of mind, or whether it +marks the confidence of one who has mastered his instrument, and can +forget himself and let himself go in using it. The free unconstrained +movement of Dr. Newman's style tells any one who knows what writing is +of a very keen and exact knowledge of the subtle and refined secrets of +language. With all that uncared-for play and simplicity, there was a +fulness, a richness, a curious delicate music, quite instinctive and +unsought for; above all, a precision and sureness of expression which +people soon began to find were not within the power of most of those +who tried to use language. Such English, graceful with the grace of +nerve, flexibility, and power, must always have attracted attention; +but it had also an ethical element which was almost inseparable from +its literary characteristics. Two things powerfully determined the +style of these sermons. One was the intense hold which the vast +realities of religion had gained on the writer's mind, and the perfect +truth with which his personality sank and faded away before their +overwhelming presence; the other was the strong instinctive shrinking, +which was one of the most remarkable and certain marks of the beginners +of the Oxford movement, from anything like personal display, any +conscious aiming at the ornamental and brilliant, any show of gifts or +courting of popular applause. Morbid and excessive or not, there can be +no doubt of the stern self-containing severity which made them turn +away, not only with fear, but with distaste and repugnance, from all +that implied distinction or seemed to lead to honour; and the control +of this austere spirit is visible, in language as well as matter, in +every page of Dr. Newman's sermons. + +Indeed, form and matter are closely connected in the sermons, and +depend one on another, as they probably do in all work of a high order. +The matter makes and shapes the form with which it clothes itself. The +obvious thing which presents itself in reading them is that, from first +to last, they are a great systematic attempt to raise the whole level +of religious thought and religious life. They carry in them the +evidence of a great reaction and a scornful indignant rising up against +what were going about and were currently received as adequate ideas of +religion. The dryness and primness and meagreness of the common Church +preaching, correct as it was in its outlines of doctrine, and sober and +temperate in tone, struck cold on a mind which had caught sight, in the +New Testament, of the spirit and life of its words. The recoil was even +stronger from the shallowness and pretentiousness and self-display of +what was popularly accepted as earnest religion; morally the preacher +was revolted at its unctuous boasts and pitiful performance, and +intellectually by its narrowness and meanness of thought and its +thinness of colour in all its pictures of the spiritual life. From +first to last, in all manner of ways, the sermons are a protest, first +against coldness, but even still more against meanness, in religion. +With coldness they have no sympathy, yet coldness may be broad and +large and lofty in its aspects; but they have no tolerance for what +makes religion little and poor and superficial, for what contracts its +horizon and dwarfs its infinite greatness and vulgarises its mystery. +Open the sermons where we will, different readers will rise from them +with very different results; there will be among many the strongest and +most decisive disagreement; there may be impatience at dogmatic +harshness, indignation at what seems overstatement and injustice, +rejection of arguments and conclusions; but there will always be the +sense of an unfailing nobleness in the way in which the writer thinks +and speaks. It is not only that he is in earnest; it is that he has +something which really is worth being in earnest for. He placed the +heights of religion very high. If you have a religion like +Christianity--this is the pervading note--think of it, and have it, +worthily. People will differ from the preacher endlessly as to how this +is to be secured. But that they will learn this lesson from the +sermons, with a force with which few other writers have taught it, and +that this lesson has produced its effect in our time, there can be no +doubt. The only reason why it may not perhaps seem so striking to +readers of this day is that the sermons have done their work, and we do +not feel what they had to counteract, because they have succeeded in +great measure in counteracting it. It is not too much to say that they +have done more than anything else to revolutionise the whole idea of +preaching in the English Church. Mr. Robertson, in spite of himself, +was as much the pupil of their school as Mr. Liddon, though both are so +widely different from their master. + +The theology of these sermons is a remarkable feature about them. It is +remarkable in this way, that, coming from a teacher like Dr. Newman, it +is nevertheless a theology which most religious readers, except the +Evangelicals and some of the more extreme Liberal thinkers, can either +accept heartily or be content with, as they would be content with St. +Augustine or Thomas a Kempis--content, not because they go along with +it always, but because it is large and untechnical, just and +well-measured in the proportions and relative importance of its parts. +People of very different opinions turn to them, as being on the whole +the fullest, deepest, most comprehensive approximation they can find to +representing Christianity in a practical form. Their theology is +nothing new; nor does it essentially change, though one may observe +differences, and some important ones, in the course of the volumes, +which embrace a period from 1825 to 1842. It is curious, indeed, to +observe how early the general character of the sermons was determined, +and how in the main it continues the same. Some of the first in point +of date are among the "Plain Sermons"; and though they may have been +subsequently retouched, yet there the keynote is plainly struck of that +severe and solemn minor which reigns throughout. Their theology is +throughout the accepted English theology of the Prayer-book and the +great Church divines--a theology fundamentally dogmatic and +sacramental, but jealously keeping the balance between obedience and +faith; learned, exact, and measured, but definite and decided. The +novelty was in the application of it, in the new life breathed into it, +in the profound and intense feelings called forth by its ideas and +objects, in the air of vastness and awe thrown about it, in the +unexpected connection of its creeds and mysteries with practical life, +in the new meaning given to the old and familiar, in the acceptance in +thorough earnest, and with keen purpose to call it into action, of what +had been guarded and laid by with dull reverence. Dr. Newman can hardly +be called in these sermons an innovator on the understood and +recognised standard of Anglican doctrine; he accepted its outlines as +Bishop Wilson, for instance, might have traced them. What he did was +first to call forth from it what it really meant, the awful heights and +depths of its current words and forms; and next, to put beside them +human character and its trials, not as they were conventionally +represented and written about, but as a piercing eye and sympathising +spirit saw them in the light of our nineteenth century, and in the +contradictory and complicated movements, the efforts and failures, of +real life. He took theology for granted, as a Christian preacher has a +right to do; he does not prove it, and only occasionally meets +difficulties, or explains; but, taking it for granted, he took it at +its word, in its relation to the world of actual experience. + +Utterly dissatisfied with what he found current as religion, Dr. Newman +sought, without leaving the old paths, to put before people a strong +and energetic religion based, not on feeling or custom, but on reason +and conscience, and answering, in the vastness of its range, to the +mysteries of human nature, and in its power to man's capacities and +aims. The Liberal religion of that day, with its ideas of natural +theology or of a cold critical Unitarianism, was a very shallow one; +the Evangelical, trusting to excitement, had worn out its excitement +and had reached the stage when its formulas, poor ones at the best, had +become words without meaning. Such views might do in quiet, easy-going +times, if religion were an exercise at will of imagination or thought, +an indulgence, an ornament, an understanding, a fashion; not if it +corresponded to such a state of things as is implied in the Bible, or +to man's many-sided nature as it is shown in Shakspeare. The sermons +reflect with merciless force the popular, superficial, comfortable +thing called religion which the writer saw before him wherever he +looked, and from which his mind recoiled. Such sermons as those on the +"Self-wise Enquirer" and the "Religion of the Day," with its famous +passage about the age not being sufficiently "gloomy and fierce in its +religion," have the one-sided and unmeasured exaggeration which seems +inseparable from all strong expressions of conviction, and from all +deep and vehement protests against general faults; but, qualify and +limit them as we may, their pictures were not imaginary ones, and there +was, and is, but too much to justify them. From all this trifling with +religion the sermons called on men to look into themselves. They +appealed to conscience; and they appealed equally to reason and +thought, to recognise what conscience is, and to deal honestly with it. +They viewed religion as if projected on a background of natural and +moral mystery, and surrounded by it--an infinite scene, in which our +knowledge is like the Andes and Himalayas in comparison with the mass +of the earth, and in which conscience is our final guide and arbiter. +No one ever brought out so impressively the sense of the impenetrable +and tremendous vastness of that amid which man plays his part. In such +sermons as those on the "Intermediate State," the "Invisible World," +the "Greatness and Littleness of Human Life," the "Individuality of the +Soul," the "Mysteriousness of our Present Being," we may see +exemplified the enormous irruption into the world of modern thought of +the unknown and the unknowable, as much as in the writers who, with far +different objects, set against it the clearness and certainty of what +we do know. But, beyond all, the sermons appealed to men to go back +into their own thoughts and feelings, and there challenged them; were +not the preacher's words the echoes and interpreting images of their +own deepest, possibly most perplexing and baffling, experience? From +first to last this was his great engine and power; from first to last +he boldly used it. He claimed to read their hearts; and people felt +that he did read them, their follies and their aspirations, the blended +and tangled web of earnestness and dishonesty, of wishes for the best +and truest, and acquiescence in makeshifts; understating what ordinary +preachers make much of, bringing into prominence what they pass by +without being able to see or to speak of it; keeping before his hearers +the risk of mismanaging their hearts, of "all kinds of unlawful +treatment of the soul." What a contrast to ordinary ways of speaking on +a familiar theological doctrine is this way of bringing it into +immediate relation to real feeling:-- + + It is easy to speak of human nature as corrupt in the general, to + admit it in the general, and then get quit of the subject; as if, + the doctrine being once admitted, there was nothing more to be done + with it. But, in truth, we can have no real apprehension of the + doctrine of our corruption till we view the structure of our minds, + part by part; and dwell upon and draw out the signs of our + weakness, inconsistency, and ungodliness, which are such as can + arise from nothing but some strange original defect in our original + nature.... We are in the dark about ourselves. When we act, we are + groping in the dark, and may meet with a fall any moment. Here and + there, perhaps, we see a little; or in our attempts to influence + and move our minds, we are making experiments (as it were) with + some delicate and dangerous instrument, which works we do not know + how, and may produce unexpected and disastrous effects. The + management of our hearts is quite above us. Under these + circumstances it becomes our comfort to look up to God. "Thou, God, + seest me." Such was the consolation of the forlorn Hagar in the + wilderness. He knoweth whereof we are made, and He alone can uphold + us. He sees with most appalling distinctness all our sins, all the + windings and recesses of evil within us; yet it is our only comfort + to know this, and to trust Him for help against ourselves.--Vol. I. + Serm. XIII. + +The preacher contemplates human nature, not in the stiff formal +language in which it had become conventional with divines to set out +its shortcomings and dangers, but as a great novelist contemplates and +tries to describe it; taking in all its real contradictions and +anomalies, its subtle and delicate shades; fixing upon the things which +strike us in ourselves or our neighbours as ways of acting and marks of +character; following it through its wide and varying range, its +diversified and hidden folds and subtle self-involving realities of +feeling and shiftiness; touching it in all its complex sensibilities, +anticipating its dim consciousnesses, half-raising veils which hide +what it instinctively shrinks from, sending through it unexpected +thrills and shocks; large-hearted in indulgence, yet exacting; most +tender, yet most severe. And against all this real play of nature he +sets in their full force and depth the great ideas of God, of sin, and +of the Cross; and, appealing not to the intelligence of an aristocracy +of choice natures, but to the needs and troubles and longings which +make all men one, he claimed men's common sympathy for the heroic in +purpose and standard. He warned them against being fastidious, where +they should be hardy. He spoke in a way that all could understand of +brave ventures, of resolutely committing themselves to truth and duty. + +The most practical of sermons, the most real and natural in their way +of dealing with life and conduct, they are also intensely dogmatic. The +writer's whole teaching presupposes, as we all know, a dogmatic +religion; and these sermons are perhaps the best vindication of it +which our time, disposed to think of dogmas with suspicion, has seen. +For they show, on a large scale and in actual working instances, how +what is noblest, most elevated, most poetical, most free and searching +in a thinker's way of regarding the wonderful scene of life, falls in +naturally, and without strain, with a great dogmatic system like that +of the Church. Such an example does not prove that system to be true, +but it proves that a dogmatic system, as such, is not the cast-iron, +arbitrary, artificial thing which it is often assumed to be. It is, +indeed, the most shallow of all commonplaces, intelligible in ordinary +minds, but unaccountable in those of high power and range, whether they +believe or not, that a dogmatic religion is of course a hard, dry, +narrow, unreal religion, without any affinities to poetry or the truth +of things, or to the deeper and more sacred and powerful of human +thoughts. If dogmas are not true, that is another matter; but it is the +fashion to imply that dogmas are worthless, mere things of the past, +without sense or substance or interest, because they are dogmas. As if +Dante was not dogmatic in form and essence; as if the grandest and +worthiest religious prose in the English language was not that of +Hooker, nourished up amid the subtleties, but also amid the vast +horizons and solemn heights, of scholastic divinity. A dogmatic system +is hard in hard hands, and shallow in shallow minds, and barren in dull +ones, and unreal and empty to preoccupied and unsympathising ones; we +dwarf and distort ideas that we do not like, and when we have put them +in our own shapes and in our own connection, we call them unmeaning or +impossible. Dogmas are but expedients, common to all great departments +of human thought, and felt in all to be necessary, for representing +what are believed as truths, for exhibiting their order and +consequences, for expressing the meaning of terms, and the relations of +thought. If they are wrong, they are, like everything else in the +world, open to be proved wrong; if they are inadequate, they are open +to correction; but it is idle to sneer at them for being what they must +be, if religious facts and truths are to be followed out by the +thoughts and expressed by the language of man. And what dogmas are in +unfriendly and incapable hands is no proof of what they may be when +they are approached as things instinct with truth and life; it is no +measure of the way in which they may be inextricably interwoven with +the most unquestionably living thought and feeling, as in these +sermons. Jealous, too, as the preacher is for Church doctrines as the +springs of Christian life, no writer of our time perhaps has so +emphatically and impressively recalled the narrow limits within which +human language can represent Divine realities. No one that we know of +shows that he has before his mind with such intense force and +distinctness the idea of God; and in proportion as a mind takes in and +submits itself to the impression of that awful vision, the gulf widens +between all possible human words and that which they attempt to +express:-- + + When we have deduced what we deduce by our reason from the study of + visible nature, and then read what we read in His inspired word, + and find the two apparently discordant, _this_ is the feeling I + think we ought to have on our minds;--not an impatience to do what + is beyond our powers, to weigh evidence, sum up, balance, decide, + reconcile, to arbitrate between the two voices of God,--but a sense + of the utter nothingness of worms such as we are; of our plain and + absolute incapacity to contemplate things _as they really are_; a + perception of our emptiness before the great Vision of God; of our + "comeliness being turned into corruption, and our retaining no + strength"; a conviction that what is put before us, whether in + nature or in grace, is but an intimation, useful for particular + purposes, useful for practice, useful in its department, "until the + day break and the shadows flee away"; useful in such a way that + both the one and the other representation may at once be used, as + two languages, as two separate approximations towards the Awful + Unknown Truth, such as will not mislead us in their respective + provinces.--Vol. II. Serm. XVIII. + + "I cannot persuade myself," he says, commenting on a mysterious + text of Scripture, "thus to dismiss so solemn a passage" (i.e. by + saying that it is "all figurative"). "It seems a presumption to say + of dim notices about the unseen world, 'they only mean this or + that,' as if one had ascended into the third heaven, or had stood + before the throne of God. No; I see herein a deep mystery, a hidden + truth, which I cannot handle or define, shining 'as jewels at the + bottom of the great deep,' darkly and tremulously, yet really + there. And for this very reason, while it is neither pious nor + thankful to explain away the words which convey it, while it is a + duty to use them, not less a duty is it to use them humbly, + diffidently, and teachably, with the thought of God before us, and + of our own nothingness."--Vol. III. Serm. XXV. + +There are two great requisites for treating properly the momentous +questions and issues which have been brought before our generation. The +first is accuracy--accuracy of facts, of terms, of reasoning; plain +close dealing with questions in their real and actual conditions; +clear, simple, honest, measured statements about things as we find +them. The other is elevation, breadth, range of thought; a due sense of +what these questions mean and involve; a power of looking at things +from a height; a sufficient taking into account of possibilities, of +our ignorance, of the real proportions of things. We have plenty of the +first; we are for the most part lamentably deficient in the second. And +of this, these sermons are, to those who have studied them, almost +unequalled examples. Many people, no doubt, would rise from their +perusal profoundly disagreeing with their teaching; but no one, it +seems to us, could rise from them--with their strong effortless +freedom, their lofty purpose, their generous standard, their deep and +governing appreciation of divine things, their thoroughness, their +unselfishness, their purity, their austere yet piercing sympathy--and +not feel his whole ways of thinking about religion permanently enlarged +and raised. He will feel that he has been with one who "told him what +he knew about himself and what he did not know; has read to him his +wants or feelings, and comforted him by the very reading; has made him +feel that there was a higher life than this life, and a brighter world +than we can see; has encouraged him, or sobered him, or opened a way to +the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed." They show a man who saw very +deeply into the thought of his time, and who, if he partly recoiled +from it and put it back, at least equally shared it. Dr. Newman has +been accused of being out of sympathy with his age, and of disparaging +it. In reality, no one has proved himself more keenly sensitive to its +greatness and its wonders; only he believed that he saw something +greater still. We are not of those who can accept the solution which he +has accepted of the great problems which haunt our society; but he saw +better than most men what those problems demand, and the variety of +their often conflicting conditions. Other men, perhaps, have succeeded +better in what they aimed at; but no one has attempted more, with +powers and disinterestedness which justified him in attempting it. The +movement which he led, and of which these sermons are the +characteristic monument, is said to be a failure; but there are +failures, and even mistakes, which are worth many successes of other +sorts, and which are more fruitful and permanent in their effects. + + + + +XXIX + +CARDINAL NEWMAN[33] + + + [33] + _Guardian_, 21st May 1879. + +It is not wonderful that people should be impressed by the vicissitudes +and surprises and dramatic completeness of Cardinal Newman's career. +It is not wonderful that he should be impressed by this himself. That +he who left us in despair and indignation in 1845 should have passed +through a course of things which has made him, Roman Catholic as he +is, a man of whom Englishmen are so proud in 1879, is even more +extraordinary than that the former Fellow of Oriel should now be +surrounded with the pomp and state of a Cardinal. There is only one +other career in our time which, with the greatest possible contrasts in +other points, suggests in its strangeness and antecedent improbabilities +something of a parallel. It is the train of events which has made +"Disraeli the Younger" the most powerful Minister whom England has seen +in recent years. But Lord Beaconsfield has aimed at what he has +attained to, and has fought his way to it through the chances and +struggles of a stirring public life. Cardinal Newman's life has been +from first to last the life of the student and recluse. He has lived in +the shade. He has sought nothing for himself. He has shrunk from the +thought of advancement. The steps to the high places of the world have +not offered themselves to him, and he has been content to be let alone. +Early in his course his rare gifts of mind, his force of character, his +power over hearts and sympathies, made him for a while a prominent +person. Then came a series of events which seemed to throw him out of +harmony with the great mass of his countrymen. He appeared to be, if not +forgotten, yet not thought of, except by a small number of friends--old +friends who had known him too well and too closely ever to forget, and +new friends gathered round him by the later circumstances of his life +and work. People spoke of him as a man who had made a great mistake and +failed; who had thrown up influence and usefulness here, and had not +found it there; too subtle, too imaginative for England, too +independent for Rome. He seemed to have so sunk out of interest and +account that off-hand critics, in the easy gaiety of their heart, might +take liberties with his name. + +Then came the first surprise. The _Apologia_ was read with the keenest +interest by those who most differed from the writer's practical +conclusions; twenty years had elapsed since he had taken the unpopular +step which seemed to condemn him to obscurity; and now he emerged from +it, challenging not in vain the sympathy of his countrymen. They +awoke, it may be said--at least the younger generation of them--to +what he really was; the old jars and bitternesses had passed out of +remembrance; they only felt that they had one among them who could +write--for few of them ever heard his wonderful voice--in a way which +made English hearts respond quickly and warmly. And the strange thing +was that the professed, the persistent denouncer of Liberalism, was +welcomed back to his rightful place among Englishmen by none more +warmly than by many Liberals. Still, though his name was growing more +familiar year by year, the world did not see much more of him. The +head of a religious company, of an educational institution at +Birmingham, he lived in unpretending and quiet simplicity, occupied +with the daily business of his house, with his books, with his +correspondence, with finishing off his many literary and theological +undertakings. Except in some chance reference in a book or newspaper +which implied how considerable a person the world thought him, he was +not heard of. People asked about him, but there was nothing to tell. +Then at last, neglected by Pius IX., he was remembered by Leo XIII. +The Pope offered him the Cardinalship, he said, because he thought it +would be "grateful to the Catholics of England, and to England +itself." And he was not mistaken. Probably there is not a single thing +that the Pope could do which would be so heartily welcomed. + +After breaking with England and all things English in wrath and sorrow, +nearly thirty-five years ago, after a long life of modest retirement, +unmarked by any public honours, at length before he dies Dr. Newman is +recognised by Protestant England as one of its greatest men. It watches +with interest his journey to Rome, his proceedings at Rome. In a crowd +of new Cardinals--men of eminence in their own communion--he is the +only one about whom Englishmen know or care anything. His words, when +he speaks, pass _verbatim_ along the telegraph wires, like the words of +the men who sway the world. We read of the quiet Oxford scholar's arms +emblazoned on vestment and furniture as those of a Prince of the +Church, and of his motto--_Cor ad cor loquitur_. In that motto is the +secret of all that he is to his countrymen. For that skill of which he +is such a master, in the use of his and their "sweet mother tongue," is +something much more than literary accomplishment and power. It means +that he has the key to what is deepest in their nature and most +characteristic in them of feeling and conviction--to what is deeper +than opinions and theories and party divisions; to what in their most +solemn moments they most value and most believe in. + +His profound sympathy with the religiousness which still, with all the +variations and all the immense shortcomings of English religion, marks +England above all cultivated Christian nations, is really the bond +between him and his countrymen, who yet for the most part think so +differently from him, both about the speculative grounds and many of +the practical details of religion. But it was natural for him, on an +occasion like this, reviewing the past and connecting it with the +present, to dwell on these differences. He repeated once more, and +made it the keynote of his address, his old protest against +"Liberalism in religion," the "doctrine that there is no positive +truth in religion, but one creed is as good as another." He lamented +the decay of the power of authority, the disappearance of religion +from the sphere of political influence, from education, from +legislation. He deplored the increasing impossibility of getting men +to work together on a common religious basis. He pointed out the +increasing seriousness and earnestness of the attempts to "supersede, +to block out religion," by an imposing and high morality, claiming to +dispense with it. + +He dwelt on the mischief and dangers; he expressed, as any Christian +would, his fearlessness and faith in spite of them; but do we gather, +even from such a speaker, and on such an occasion, anything of the +remedy? The principle of authority is shaken, he tells us; what can he +suggest to restore it? He under-estimates, probably, the part which +authority plays, implicitly yet very really, in English popular +religion, much more in English Church religion; and authority, even in +Rome, is not everything, and does not reach to every subject. But +authority in our days can be nothing without real confidence in it; +and where confidence in authority has been lost, it is idle to attempt +to restore it by telling men that authority is a good and necessary +thing. It must be won back, not simply claimed. It must be regained, +when forfeited, by the means by which it was originally gained. And +the strange phenomenon was obviously present to his clear and candid +mind, though he treated it as one which is disappearing, and must at +length pass away, that precisely here in England, where the only +religious authority he recognises has been thrown off, the hold of +religion on public interest is most effective and most obstinately +tenacious. + +What is the history of this? What is the explanation of it? Why is it +that where "authority," as he understands it, has been longest +paramount and undisputed, the public place and public force of +religion have most disappeared; and that a "dozen men taken at random +in the streets" of London find it easier, with all their various +sects, to work together on a religious basis than a dozen men taken at +random from the streets of Catholic Paris or Rome? Indeed, the public +feeling towards himself, expressed in so many ways in the last few +weeks, might suggest a question not undeserving of his thoughts. The +mass of Englishmen are notoriously anti-Popish and anti-Roman. Their +antipathies on this subject are profound, and not always reasonable. +They certainly do not here halt between two opinions, or think that +one creed is as good as another. What is it which has made so many of +them, still retaining all their intense dislike to the system which +Cardinal Newman has accepted, yet welcome so heartily his honours in +it, notwithstanding that he has passed from England to Rome, and that +he owes so much of what he is to England? Is it that they think it +does not matter what a man believes, and whether a man turns Papist? +Or is it not that, in spite of all that would repel and estrange, in +spite of the oppositions of argument and the inconsistencies of +speculation, they can afford to recognise in him, as in a high +example, what they most sincerely believe in and most deeply prize, +and can pay him the tribute of their gratitude and honour, even when +unconvinced by his controversial reasonings, and unsatisfied by the +theories which he has proposed to explain the perplexing and +refractory anomalies of Church history? Is it not that with history, +inexorable and unalterable behind them, condemning and justifying, +supporting and warning all sides in turn, thoughtful men feel how much +easier it is to point out and deplore our disasters than to see a way +now to set them right? Is it not also that there are in the Christian +Church bonds of affinity, subtler, more real and more prevailing than +even the fatal legacies of the great schisms? Is it not that the +sympathies which unite the author of the _Parochial Sermons_ and the +interpreter of St. Athanasius with the disciples of Andrewes, and Ken, +and Bull, of Butler and Wilson, are as strong and natural as the +barriers which outwardly keep them asunder are to human eyes +hopelessly insurmountable? + + + + +XXX + +CARDINAL NEWMAN'S COURSE[34] + + + [34] + _Guardian_, 13th August 1890. + +The long life is closed. And men, according to their knowledge and +intelligence, turn to seek for some governing idea or aspect of things, +by which to interpret the movements and changes of a course which, in +spite of its great changes, is felt at bottom to have been a uniform +and consistent one. For it seems that, at starting, he is at once +intolerant, even to harshness, to the Roman Church, and tolerant, +though not sympathetic, to the English; then the parts are reversed, +and he is intolerant to the English and tolerant to the Roman; and then +at last, when he finally anchored in the Roman Church, he is seen +as--not tolerant, for that would involve dogmatic points on which he +was most jealous, but--sympathetic in all that was of interest to +England, and ready to recognise what was good and high in the English +Church. + +Is not the ultimate key to Newman's history his keen and profound sense +of the life, society, and principles of action presented in the New +Testament? To this New Testament life he saw, opposed and in contrast, +the ways and assumptions of English life, religious as well as secular. +He saw that the organisation of society had been carried, and was still +being carried, to great and wonderful perfection; only it was the +perfection of a society and way of life adapted to the present world, +and having its ends here; only it was as different as anything can be +from the picture which the writers of the New Testament, consciously +and unconsciously, give of themselves and their friends. Here was a +Church, a religion, a "Christian nation," professing to be identical in +spirit and rules of faith and conduct with the Church and religion of +the Gospels and Epistles; and what was the identity, beyond certain +phrases and conventional suppositions? He could not see a trace in +English society of that simple and severe hold of the unseen and the +future which is the colour and breath, as well as the outward form, of +the New Testament life. Nothing could be more perfect, nothing grander +and nobler, than all the current arrangements for this life; its +justice and order and increasing gentleness, its widening sympathies +between men; but it was all for the perfection and improvement of this +life; it would all go on, if what we experience now was our only scene +and destiny. This perpetual antithesis haunted him, when he knew it, or +when he did not. Against it the Church ought to be the perpetual +protest, and the fearless challenge, as it was in the days of the New +Testament. But the English Church had drunk in, he held, too deeply the +temper, ideas, and laws of an ambitious and advancing civilisation; so +much so as to be unfaithful to its special charge and mission. The +prophet had ceased to rebuke, warn, and suffer; he had thrown in his +lot with those who had ceased to be cruel and inhuman, but who thought +only of making their dwelling-place as secure and happy as they could. +The Church had become respectable, comfortable, sensible, temperate, +liberal; jealous about the forms of its creeds, equally jealous of its +secular rights, interested in the discussion of subordinate questions, +and becoming more and more tolerant of differences; ready for works of +benevolence and large charity, in sympathy with the agricultural poor, +open-handed in its gifts; a willing fellow-worker with society in +kindly deeds, and its accomplice in secularity. All this was admirable, +but it was not the life of the New Testament, and it was _that_ which +filled his thoughts. The English Church had exchanged religion for +civilisation, the first century for the nineteenth, the New Testament +as it is written, for a counterfeit of it interpreted by Paley or Mr. +Simeon; and it seemed to have betrayed its trust. + +Form after form was tried by him, the Christianity of Evangelicalism, +the Christianity of Whately, the Christianity of Hawkins, the +Christianity of Keble and Pusey; it was all very well, but it was not +the Christianity of the New Testament and of the first ages. He wrote +the _Church of the Fathers_ to show they were not merely evidences of +religion, but really living men; that they could and did live as they +taught, and what was there like the New Testament or even the first +ages now? Alas! there was nothing completely like them; but of all +unlike things, the Church of England with its "smug parsons," and +pony-carriages for their wives and daughters, seemed to him the most +unlike: more unlike than the great unreformed Roman Church, with its +strange, unscriptural doctrines and its undeniable crimes, and its +alliance, wherever it could, with the world. But at least the Roman +Church had not only preserved, but maintained at full strength through +the centuries to our day two things of which the New Testament was +full, and which are characteristic of it--devotion and self-sacrifice. +The crowds at a pilgrimage, a shrine, or a "pardon" were much more like +the multitudes who followed our Lord about the hills of Galilee--like +them probably in that imperfect faith which we call superstition--than +anything that could be seen in the English Church, even if the +Salvation Army were one of its instruments. And the spirit which +governed the Roman Church had prevailed on men to make the sacrifice of +celibacy a matter of course, as a condition of ministering in a regular +and systematic way not only to the souls, but to the bodies of men, not +only for the Priesthood, but for educational Brotherhoods, and Sisters +of the poor and of hospitals. Devotion and sacrifice, prayer and +self-denying charity, in one word sanctity, are at once on the surface +of the New Testament and interwoven with all its substance. He recoiled +from a representation of the religion of the New Testament which to his +eye was without them. He turned to where, in spite of every other +disadvantage, he thought he found them. In S. Filippo Neri he could +find a link between the New Testament and progressive civilisation. He +could find no S. Filippo--so modern and yet so Scriptural--when he +sought at home. + +His mind, naturally alive to all greatness, had early been impressed +with the greatness of the Church of Rome. But in his early days it was +the greatness of Anti-Christ. Then came the change, and his sense of +greatness was satisfied by the commanding and undoubting attitude of +the Roman system, by the completeness of its theory, by the sweep of +its claims and its rule, by the even march of its vast administration. +It could not and it did not escape him, that the Roman Church, with all +the good things which it had, was, as a whole, as unlike the Church of +the New Testament and of the first ages as the English. He recognised +it frankly, and built up a great theory to account for the fact, +incorporating and modernising great portions of the received Roman +explanations of the fact. But what won his heart and his enthusiasm was +one thing; what justified itself to his intellect was another. And it +was the reproduction, partial, as it might be, yet real and +characteristic, in the Roman Church of the life and ways of the New +Testament, which was the irresistible attraction that tore him from the +associations and the affections of half a lifetime. + +The final break with the English Church was with much heat and +bitterness; and both sides knew too much each of the other to warrant +the language used on each side. The English Church had received too +much loyal and invaluable service from him in teaching and example to +have insulted him, as many of its chief authorities did, with the +charges of dishonesty and bad faith; his persecutors forgot that a +little effort on his part might, if he had been what they called him, +and had really been a traitor, have formed a large and compact party, +whose secession might have caused fatal damage. And he, too, knew too +much of the better side of English religious life to justify the fierce +invective and sarcasm with which he assailed for a time the English +Church as a mere system of comfortable and self-deceiving worldliness. + +But as time went over him in his new position two things made +themselves felt. One was, that though there was a New Testament life, +lived in the Roman Church with conspicuous truth and reality, yet the +Roman Church, like the English, was administered and governed by +men--men with passions and faults, men of mixed characters--who had, +like their English contemporaries and rivals, ends and rules of action +not exactly like those of the New Testament. The Roman Church had to +accept, as much as the English, the modern conditions of social and +political life, however different in outward look from those of the +Sermon on the Mount. The other was the increasing sense that the +civilisation of the West was as a whole, and notwithstanding grievous +drawbacks, part of God's providential government, a noble and +beneficent thing, ministering graciously to man's peace and order, +which Christians ought to recognise as a blessing of their times such +as their fathers had not, for which they ought to be thankful, and +which, if they were wise, they would put to what, in his phrase, was an +"Apostolical" use. In one of the angelical hymns in the _Dream of +Gerontius_, he dwells on the Divine goodness which led men to found "a +household and a fatherland, a city and a state" with an earnestness of +sympathy, recalling the enumeration of the achievements of human +thought and hand, and the arts of civil and social life--[Greek: kai +phthegma kai aenemoen phronaema kai astynomous orgas]--dwelt on so +fondly by Aeschylus and Sophocles. + +The force with which these two things made themselves felt as age came +on--the disappointments attending his service to the Church, and the +grandeur of the physical and social order of the world and its Divine +sanction in spite of all that is evil and all that is so shortlived in +it--produced a softening in his ways of thought and speech. Never for a +moment did his loyalty and obedience to his Church, even when most +tried, waver and falter. The thing is inconceivable to any one who ever +knew him, and the mere suggestion would be enough to make him blaze +forth in all his old fierceness and power. But perfectly satisfied of +his position, and with his duties clearly defined, he could allow large +and increasing play, in the leisure of advancing age, to his natural +sympathies, and to the effect of the wonderful spectacle of the world +around him. He was, after all, an Englishman; and with all his +quickness to detect and denounce what was selfish and poor in English +ideas and action, and with all the strength of his deep antipathies, +his chief interests were for things English--English literature, +English social life, English politics, English religion. He liked to +identify himself, as far as it was possible, with things English, even +with things that belonged to his own first days. He republished his +Oxford sermons and treatises. He prized his honorary fellowship at +Trinity; he enjoyed his visit to Oxford, and the welcome which he met +there. He discerned how much the English Church counted for in the +fight going on in England for the faith in Christ. There was in all +that he said and did a gentleness, a forbearance, a kindly +friendliness, a warm recognition of the honour paid him by his +countrymen, ever since the _Apologia_ had broken down the prejudices +which had prevented Englishmen from doing him justice. As with his +chief antagonist at Oxford, Dr. Hawkins, advancing years brought with +them increasing gentleness, and generosity, and courtesy. But through +all this there was perceptible to those who watched a pathetic yearning +for something which was not to be had: a sense, resigned--for so it was +ordered--but deep and piercing, how far, not some of us, but all of us, +are from the life of the New Testament: how much there is for religion +to do, and how little there seems to be to do it. + + + + +XXXI + +CARDINAL NEWMAN'S NATURALNESS[35] + + + [35] + _Guardian_, 20th August 1890. + +Every one feels what is meant when we speak of a person's ways being +"natural," in contrast to being artificial, or overstrained, or +studied, or affected. But it is easier to feel what is meant than to +explain and define it. We sometimes speak as if it were a mere quality +of manner; as if it belonged to the outside show of things, and denoted +the atmosphere, clear and transparent, through which they are viewed. +It corresponds to what is lucid in talk and style, and what ethically +is straightforward and unpretentious. But it is something much more +than a mere surface quality. When it is real and part of the whole +character, and not put on from time to time for effect, it reaches a +long way down to what is deepest and most significant in a man's moral +nature. It is connected with the sense of truth, with honest +self-judgment, with habits of self-discipline, with the repression of +vanity, pride, egotism. It has no doubt to do with good taste and good +manners, but it has as much to do with good morals--with the resolute +habit of veracity with oneself--with the obstinate preference for +reality over show, however tempting--with the wholesome power of being +able to think little about oneself. + +It is common to speak of the naturalness and ease of Cardinal Newman's +style in writing. It is, of course, the first thing that attracts +notice when we open one of his books; and there are people who think it +bald and thin and dry. They look out for longer words, and grander +phrases, and more involved constructions, and neater epigrams. They +expect a great theme to be treated with more pomp and majesty, and they +are disappointed. But the majority of English readers seem to be agreed +in recognising the beauty and transparent flow of his language, which +matches the best French writing in rendering with sureness and without +effort the thought of the writer. But what is more interesting than +even the formation of such a style--a work, we may be sure, not +accomplished without much labour--is the man behind the style. For the +man and the style are one in this perfect naturalness and ease. Any one +who has watched at all carefully the Cardinal's career, whether in old +days or later, must have been struck with this feature of his +character, his naturalness, the freshness and freedom with which he +addressed a friend or expressed an opinion, the absence of all +mannerism and formality; and, where he had to keep his dignity, both +his loyal obedience to the authority which enjoined it and the +half-amused, half-bored impatience that he should be the person round +whom all these grand doings centred. It made the greatest difference in +his friendships whether his friends met him on equal terms, or whether +they brought with them too great conventional deference or solemnity of +manner. "So and so is a very good fellow, but he is not a man to talk +to in your shirt sleeves," was his phrase about an over-logical and +over-literal friend. Quite aware of what he was to his friends and to +the things with which he was connected, and ready with a certain +quickness of temper which marked him in old days to resent anything +unbecoming done to his cause or those connected with it, he would not +allow any homage to be paid to himself. He was by no means disposed to +allow liberties to be taken or to put up with impertinence; for all +that bordered on the unreal, for all that was pompous, conceited, +affected, he had little patience; but almost beyond all these was his +disgust at being made the object of foolish admiration. He protested +with whimsical fierceness against being made a hero or a sage; he was +what he was, he said, and nothing more; and he was inclined to be rude +when people tried to force him into an eminence which he refused. With +his profound sense of the incomplete and the ridiculous in this world, +and with a humour in which the grotesque and the pathetic sides of life +were together recognised at every moment, he never hesitated to admit +his own mistakes--his "floors" as he called them. All this ease and +frankness with those whom he trusted, which was one of the lessons +which he learnt from Hurrell Froude, an intercourse which implied a +good deal of give and take--all this satisfied his love of freedom, his +sense of the real. It was his delight to give himself free play with +those whom he could trust; to feel that he could talk with "open +heart," understood without explaining, appealing for a response which +would not fail, though it was not heard. He could be stiff enough with +those who he thought were acting a part, or pretending to more than +they could perform. But he believed--what was not very easy to believe +beforehand--that he could win the sympathy of his countrymen, though +not their agreement with him; and so, with characteristic naturalness +and freshness, he wrote the _Apologia_. + + + + +XXXII + +LORD BLACHFORD[36] + + + [36] + _Guardian_, 27th Nov. 1889. + +Lord Blachford, whose death was announced last week, belonged to a +generation of Oxford men of whom few now survive, and who, of very +different characters and with very different careers and histories, had +more in common than any set of contemporaries at Oxford since their +time. Speaking roughly, they were almost the last product of the old +training at public school and at college, before the new reforms set +in; of a training confessedly imperfect and in some ways deplorably +defective, but with considerable elements in it of strength and +manliness, with keen instincts of contempt for all that savoured of +affectation and hollowness, and with a sort of largeness and freedom +about it, both in its outlook and its discipline, which suited vigorous +and self-reliant natures in an exciting time, when debate ran high and +the gravest issues seemed to be presenting themselves to English +society. The reformed system which has taken its place at Oxford +criticises, not without some justice, the limitations of the older one; +the narrow range of its interests, the few books which men read, and +the minuteness with which they were "got up." But if these men did not +learn all that a University ought to teach its students, they at least +learned two things. They learned to work hard, and they learned to make +full use of what they knew. They framed an ideal of practical life, +which was very variously acted upon, but which at any rate aimed at +breadth of grasp and generosity of purpose, and at being thorough. This +knot of men, who lived a good deal together, were recognised at the +time as young men of much promise, and they looked forward to life with +eagerness and high aspiration. They have fulfilled their promise; their +names are mixed up with all the recent history of England; they have +filled its great places and governed its policy during a large part of +the Queen's long reign. Their names are now for the most part things of +the past--Sidney Herbert, Lord Canning, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Elgin, +Lord Cardwell, the Wilberforces, Mr. Hope Scott, Archbishop Tait. But +they still have their representatives among us--Mr. Gladstone, Lord +Selborne, Lord Sherbrooke, Sir Thomas Acland, Cardinal Manning. It is +not often that a University generation or two can produce such a list +of names of statesmen and rulers; and the list might easily be +enlarged. + +To this generation Frederic Rogers belonged, not the least +distinguished among his contemporaries; and he was early brought under +an influence likely to stimulate in a high degree whatever powers a man +possessed, and to impress a strong character with elevated and enduring +ideas of life and duty. Mr. Newman, with Mr. Hurrell Froude and Mr. +Robert Wilberforce, had recently been appointed tutors of their college +by Dr. Copleston. They were in the first eagerness of their enthusiasm +to do great things with the college, and the story goes that Mr. +Newman, on the look-out for promising pupils, wrote to an Eton friend, +asking him to recommend some good Eton men for admission at Oriel. +Frederic Rogers, so the story goes, was one of those mentioned; at any +rate, he entered at Oriel, and became acquainted with Mr. Newman as a +tutor, and the admiration and attachment of the undergraduate ripened +into the most unreserved and affectionate friendship of the grown +man--a friendship which has lasted through all storms and difficulties, +and through strong differences of opinion, till death only has ended +it. From Mr. Newman his pupil caught that earnest devotion to the cause +of the Church which was supreme with him through life. He entered +heartily into Mr. Newman's purpose to lift the level of the English +Church and its clergy. While Mr. Newman at Oxford was fighting the +battle of the English Church, there was no one who was a closer friend +than Rogers, no one in whom Mr. Newman had such trust, none whose +judgment he so valued, no one in whose companionship he so delighted; +and the master's friendship was returned by the disciple with a noble +and tender, and yet manly honesty. There came, as we know, times which +strained even that friendship; when the disciple, just at the moment +when the master most needed and longed for sympathy and counsel, had to +choose between his duty to his Church and the claims and ties of +friendship. He could not follow in the course which his master and +friend had found inevitable; and that deepest and most delightful +friendship had to be given up. But it was given up, not indeed without +great suffering on both sides, but without bitterness or unworthy +thoughts. The friend had seen too closely the greatness and purity of +his master's character to fail in tenderness and loyalty, even when he +thought his master going most wrong. He recognised that the error, +deplorable as he thought it, was the mistake of a lofty and unselfish +soul; and in the height of the popular outcry against him he came +forward, with a distant and touching reverence, to take his old +friend's part and rebuke the clamour. And at length the time came when +disagreements were left long behind and each person had finally taken +his recognised place; and then the old ties were knit up again. It +could not be the former friendship of every day and of absolute and +unreserved confidence. But it was the old friendship of affection and +respect renewed, and pleasure in the interchange of thoughts. It was a +friendship of the antique type, more common, perhaps, even in the last +century than with us, but enriched with Christian hopes and Christian +convictions. + +Lord Blachford, in spite of his brilliant Oxford reputation, and though +he was a singularly vigorous writer, with wide interests and very +independent thought, has left nothing behind him in the way of +literature. This was partly because he very early became a man of +affairs; partly that his health interfered with habits of study. It +used to be told at Oxford that when he was working for his Double First +he could scarcely use his eyes, and had to learn much of his work by +being read to. The result was that he was not a great reader; and a man +ought to be a reader who is to be a writer. But, besides this, there +was a strongly marked feature in his character which told in the same +direction. There was a curious modesty about him which formed a +contrast with other points; with a readiness and even eagerness to put +forth and develop his thoughts on matters that interested him, with a +perfect consciousness of his remarkable powers of statement and +argument, with a constitutional impetuosity blended with caution which +showed itself when anything appealed to his deeper feelings or called +for his help; yet with all these impelling elements, his instinct was +always to shrink from putting himself forward, except when it was a +matter of duty. He accepted recognition when it came, but he never +claimed it. And this reserve, which marked his social life, kept him +back from saying in a permanent form much that he had to say, and that +was really worth saying. Like many of the distinguished men of his day, +he was occasionally a journalist. We have been reminded by the _Times_ +that he at one time wrote for that paper. And he was one of the men to +whose confidence and hope in the English Church the _Guardian_ owes its +existence. + +His life was the uneventful one of a diligent and laborious public +servant, and then of a landlord keenly alive to the responsibilities of +his position. He passed through various subordinate public employments, +and finally succeeded Mr. Herman Merivale as permanent Under-Secretary +for the Colonies. It is a great post, but one of which the work is done +for the most part out of sight. Colonial Secretaries in Parliament come +and go, and have the credit, often quite justly, of this or that +policy. But the public know little of the permanent official who keeps +the traditions and experience of the department, whose judgment is +always an element, often a preponderating element, in eventful +decisions, and whose pen drafts the despatches which go forth in the +name of the Government. Sir Frederic Rogers, as he became in time, had +to deal with some of the most serious colonial questions which arose +and were settled while he was at the Colonial Office. He took great +pains, among other things, to remove, or at least diminish, the +difficulties which beset the _status_ of the Colonial Church and +clergy, and to put its relations to the Church at home on a just and +reasonable footing. There is a general agreement as to the industry and +conspicuous ability with which his part of the work was done. Mr. +Gladstone set an admirable example in recognising in an unexpected way +faithful but unnoticed services, and at the same time paid a merited +honour to the permanent staff of the public offices, when he named Sir +Frederic Rogers for a peerage. + +Lord Blachford, for so he became on his retirement from the Colonial +Office, cannot be said to have quitted entirely public life, as he +always, while his strength lasted, acknowledged public claims on his +time and industry. He took his part in two or three laborious +Commissions, doing the same kind of valuable yet unseen work which he +had done in office, guarding against blunders, or retrieving them, +giving direction and purpose to inquiries, suggesting expedients. But +his main employment was now at his own home. He came late in life to +the position of a landed proprietor, and he at once set before himself +as his object the endeavour to make his estate as perfect as it could +be made--perfect in the way in which a naturally beautiful country and +his own good taste invited him to make it, but beyond all, as perfect +as might be, viewed as the dwelling-place of his tenants and the +labouring poor. A keen and admiring student of political economy, his +sympathies were always with the poor. He was always ready to challenge +assumptions, such as are often loosely made for the convenience of the +well-to-do. The solicitude which always pursued him was the thought of +his cottages, and it was not satisfied till the last had been put in +good order. The same spirit prompted him to allow labourers who could +manage the undertaking to rent pasture for a few cows; and the +experiment, he thought, had succeeded. The idea of justice and the +general welfare had too strong a hold on his mind to allow him to be +sentimental in dealing with the difficult questions connected with +land. But if his labourers found him thoughtful of their comfort his +farmers found him a good landlord--strict where he met with dishonesty +and carelessness, but open-minded and reasonable in understanding their +points of view, and frank, equitable, and liberal in meeting their +wishes. Disclaiming all experience of country matters, and not minding +if he fell into some mistakes, he made his care of his estate a model +of the way in which a good man should discharge his duties to the land. + +His was one of those natures which have the gift of inspiring +confidence in all who come near him; all who had to do with him felt +that they could absolutely trust him. The quality which was at the +bottom of his character as a man was his unswerving truthfulness; but +upon this was built up a singularly varied combination of elements not +often brought together, and seldom in such vigour and activity. Keen, +rapid, penetrating, he was quick in detecting anything that rung hollow +in language or feeling; and he did not care to conceal his dislike and +contempt. But no one threw himself with more genuine sympathy into the +real interests of other people. No matter what it was, ethical or +political theory, the course of a controversy, the arrangement of a +trust-deed, the oddities of a character, the marvels of natural +science, he was always ready to go with his companion as far as he +chose to go, and to take as much trouble as if the question started had +been his own. Where his sense of truth was not wounded he was most +considerate and indulgent; he seemed to keep through life his +schoolboy's amused tolerance for mischief that was not vicious. No one +entered more heartily into the absurdities of a grotesque situation; of +no one could his friends be so sure that he would miss no point of a +good story; and no one took in at once more completely or with deeper +feeling the full significance of some dangerous incident in public +affairs, or discerned more clearly the real drift of confused and +ambiguous tendencies. He was conscious of the power of his intellect, +and he liked to bring it to bear on what was before him; he liked to +probe things to the bottom, and see how far his companion in +conversation was able to go; but ready as he was with either argument +or banter he never, unless provoked, forced the proof of his power on +others. For others, indeed, of all classes and characters, so that they +were true, he had nothing but kindness, geniality, forbearance, the +ready willingness to meet them on equal terms. Those who had the +privilege of his friendship remember how they were kept up in their +standard and measure of duty by the consciousness of his opinion, his +judgment, his eagerness to feel with them, his fearless, though it +might be reluctant, expression of disagreement It was, indeed, that +very marked yet most harmonious combination of severity and tenderness +which gave such interest to his character. A strong love of justice, a +deep and unselfish and affectionate gentleness and patience, are +happily qualities not too rare. But to have known one at once so +severely just and so indulgently tender and affectionate makes a mark +in a man's life which he forgets at his peril. + + +THE END + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Occasional Papers, by R.W. 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