YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIFE OF

JOHN KEBLE

JOHN KEBLE.

From a Portrait by George Richmond, R.A.

JOHN KEBLE

A BIOGRAPHY

WALTER LOCK, M.A.
FELLOW OF ST. MART MAGDALEN COLLEGE, AND &TJB-WARDEN OF
KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD

WITH A PORTRAIT FROM A PAINTING BY GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A.

18, BUKY STREET, LONDON, W.C.
1893
[All rights reserved]

Richard Clat & Sons, Limited,
London & Bungay.

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SOROEI ME^E
HAS PRIMITIAS
QUAS IPSA FOVIT, AUXIT, CASTIOAVIT,
GEATUS DEDIQP.

PREFACE.
Two reasons give a special appropriateness to the
publication of a memoir of Mr. Keble at the present
time. This year is the hundredth anniversary of his birth,
a fact which reminds us how quickly time is flying,
and in its flight bearing off those who could speak cf
him with first-hand knowledge.
Again, much has been published of late throwing
light on the Oxford Movement ; The Oxford Movement,
by Dean Church, The Letters and Correspondence of J.
H. Newman, The Autobiography of Isaac Williams, are
books of very varied character, but they all agree in
one point : they all bear a strong witness to the force,
the originality, the stimulating power of that character
whose humility and self-repression have cften caused
his real work to be undervalued.
This memoir will be found, it is heped, more complete
than any yet published. I have been allowed access to
much unpublished correspondence, and have had the

viii PREFACE.
privilege of intercourse with personal friends of Mr.
Keble, and I wish to express my warmest thanks to
those who have helped me in either of these ways.
But the memoir is not complete. I have not had
access tc all the correspondence. There is much still
to be examined and sifted and published, and I can only
hope that this volume may serve for a time to revive
the memory of its subject, and may then pass away
before the completer account of him that ought tc be
given to the world. It ought to be given to the world,
for there is scarcely a letter or a treatise of his through
which there does not shine some glimpse of the beauty
of the writer's character, from which the reader does
not rise without a sense of being brought nearer to the
Presence of God.
Walter Lock.
Feast of SS. Simon and Jude, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I. PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE 1792
1832 
II. THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY 
III. THE CHRISTIAN YEAR
IV. THE STRUGGLE. 1833 — 1841 ...
v. the struggle (continued). 1841 — 1845
VI. LYRA INN0CENT1UM
VII. RECOVERY. 1846 — 1860
VIII. THE END. 1860  1866
IX. THE PREACHER ...
X. THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER . . .
XI. CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE
APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX II.

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JOHN KEBLE.

CHAPTEE I.
PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE, 1792 — 1832.
"Voice of the meekest man,
Now while the Church for combat arms,
Calmly do thou confirm her awful ban.
Thy words to her be conquering, soothing charms.
Voice of tbe fearless saint !
King lite a trump where gentle hearts
Beat high for truth, but doubting lower and faint.
Tell them tbe hour is come, and tbey must take
their parts." J. K., Miscellaneous Poems, p. 36,
(of R. Hooker.)
John Keble sprang from a family which had origin
ally come from Suffolk, but had since the sixteenth
century been settled in Gloucestershire. One of his
ancestors, Sir Henry Keble, grocer, had been Lord
Mayor of London in 1511, and had been noted for his
liberality towards the rebuilding of Aldermanbury
Church and towards other charities ; a descendant of
his, Richard Keble, purchased the manor of East Leech
Turville, in Gloucestershire, which remained in his
B

2 JOHN KEBLE.
family till the beginning of the eighteenth century.
At the end of that century the representative of this
family was the father of the subject of this memoir,
himself also the Rev. John Keble, who, after being a
Scholar and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
had married a lady of Scotch descent, Sarah Maule, the
daughter of the incumbent of Ringwood in Hampshire,
and had settled at Fairford in Gloucestershire, as Vicar
of the neighbouring parish of Coin St. Aldwyn's. Here,
on St. Mark's Day, 1792, John Keble was born, being-
thus eight years older than Dr. Pusey (1800), nine than
Cardinal Newman (1801), ten than Isaac Williams
(1802), eleven than Hurrell Froude (1803). He was
privately baptized the next day, and publicly received
into the Church in July. He was educated entirely by
his father at home, and even if he owed to that, as he
himself thought in later years, a certain desultoriness in
study and a want of practical knowledge of the world,
yet it was probably far the best course for one of his
shy, sensitive temperament : he grew up with a fresh
genuine interest in classics and mathematics, in English
literature and history; with an unquestioning deference
to his parent's wishes, with a warmth of affectionate-
ness to brother and sister, in which he never failed,
which affected his movements at each change in his
life, and which stood him in good stead again and
again, especially in the great strain of Newman's
secession. In his life, as in that of St. Andrew, " Christ
laid the foundations of the Church en brotherly love." 1
The family consisted of five members, the eldest,
Elizabeth (1790—1860), "his wife," as he used playfully
to call her, who was nearly all her life an invalid, and,
1 Sermons, Occasional and\Academical, p.''275.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 3
as such, shy and nervous at first with strangers, yet
gradually winning upon them by her sweetness and
religious spirit, and who for many years shared his
home at Hursley and his work and hopes for the
Church. "I wish you could see my father and eldest
sister," he wrote once to Coleridge ; " to me they are
uniques." Then came John, born in 1792; then Thomas,
in 1793, who followed him as a scholar to Corpus Christi
College, then became Fellow and Tutor there, then acted
as curate to his father, finally settling as vicar at Bisley
in Gloucestershire. With him nearly every scheme of
action was discussed : he was a contributor to the Tracts
for the Times, helped John with the edition of Hooker,
the Library of the Fathers, and the Plain Sermons ;
and was ever felt to be a steadying influence upon his
life. " I was myself inclined to eclecticism at one time
(he wrote in 1838), and had it not been for my father
and brother, where I should have been now, who can
say ? " Then came Sarah (1796 — 1814), whose death
formed the first gap in the circje ; and lastly, Mary
Anne (1799—1826), his " sweetheart," the bright, fresh,
merry-hearted one, who wanted every one to live in sun
shine, to whom he was accustomed to talk more freely
than to any one else in the world, and who was probably
the strongest influence upon his life until the time of
her early unexpected death. Both she and Elizabeth
were highly cultured and religious, and we find them
reading Italian and French with their brother, and also
with great enjoyment Butler's Analogy, Hooker's Eccle
siastical Polity, and Strype's Lives of the Archbishops.
The traditions of the family were Cavalier and Non-
juring ; in later years Dr. Pusey recalled to Keble the
way in which the latter's words about the Stuarts bad

4 JOHN KEBLE.
been one of the first things that broke through his
Libe'ralist tendencies. " I was thoughtlessly, or rather
I must say confidently, taking it for granted that the
Stuarts were rightly dethroned, when I heard for the
first time a hint to the contrary from you. Your
seriousness was an unintended reproof to my petulant
expression about it ; so it stuck by me, though it was
some time before it took root and burst through all
the clods placed upon it." Later still, in answer to
some depreciatory opinion of Dr. Pusey's about the
Nonjurors, Keble replied, " I cannot think that the
Nonjurors' position was so very bad or useless an one.
I seem to trace our present life in good measure to it."
From such a home he came up to Oxford, " a fresh,
glad, bright, joyous boy."1 After an unsuccessful attempt ,
at Magdalen College, he was elected in December 1806
to an open scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and
entered into residence at the beginning of 1807, while
still under fifteen years cf age. His college life was not
eventful ; he threw himself heartily into lectures, and
forty years later dedicates his volume of Sermons to
his tutor, the Rev. W. N. Darnell, " in ever grateful
memory of invaluable helps and warnings received :
from him in early youth;" he also shared fully the
social life of his college, and his letters contain several
references to the Common Room parties held at the
end of each term, and kept with difficulty within due
limits of sobriety. " Our Common Room party was
yesterday," he writes once to his brother, " when I had
the hardest trial I have yet gone through in Oxford in
avoiding ' intostication.' However, they were on this
occasion much more sober than they have been on
1 Dr. Pusey, in the Keble College Proceedings, 1868, p. 43. j

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 5
former." He tvrote frequently, but never successfully,
for the prize for English Poetry ; and several of his
poems composed in this ' Scene of my Earliest Harp-
ings,' will be found in the Miscellaneous Poems. He
calls it Home of my Micse and of my Friends, and it
is as home of his friends that it had most influence on
his after-life. The college was a small college, lending
itself to clcse intimacies, and it contained at this time
a number of striking members. There was J. T.
Coleridge, elected in 1809, fresh from Eton, full of
enthusiasm for the poetry of his uncle and of Words-
wprth — Cpleridge, who remained to the end of his life
the firm friend and wise adviser whom Keble always
consulted in any ecclesiastical questions which were
connected with the law of the State, and who lived te
be his affectionate biographer. There was Noel Ellison,
"the genial, joypus, graceful Elliscn," also elected in
1809, who afterwards became Tutor of Balliol, and
Rector of Huntspill ; John Tucker, " the single-hearted
and devout," who became a missionary in India ; G. J.
Cornish, elected in 1810, a man of keen sensibility, of
poetic taste, but quiet retiring character, who, after
becoming Fellow and Tutor of his college, withdrew
to parochial life, and from 1828 — 1849 was Vicar of
Kenwyn, above Truro. He is author of the poem on
the Redbreast, quoted in the Christian Year, and the
strength of Keble's affection for him is measured by the
words he wrote to a friend on his death, " My dear
Dyson, do ask for me that I may meet him again."
Then there was C. Dyson, to whom these words were
written, rather senior to the other friends, perhaps the
most intimate of all, the fastidious critic, the wise,
cheering, cultured friend, whose influence was mainly

6 JOHN KEBLE.
effectual in procuring the publication of the Christian
Year, and whom Keble seldom omitted to consult at
important moments of his life. Last of all, not elected
till 1811, but at once admitted into this circle, was
Thomas Arnold, the eager, enthusiastic, religious Liberal,
who differed from Keble in almost every point, and yet
wound himself very closely round his heart. " The
more I see of Arnold, the more I love him," he wrote
in 1816; and in 1819, "I hardly know any one now
that Dyson is gone (from Oxford), who would be so
great a loss to me." To him Arnold turned when in
great religious perplexity, and found comfort and peace
in his advice. The line that Arnold took in later years
seemed to him so " wilful and presumptuous in his way
of dealing with holy things," that he felt that he could
not regard him as a fellow-labourer in the same cause.
This was his feeling in 1832, but the break with him
had been a severe strain upon himself, and he writes in
1840, ''I have had an Easter letter from Arnold, so
kind and mitigated in tone that I cannot but be com
forted by it, and in time I trust he may come nearer to
Church views. I feel somehow that we are nearer to
each other than we have been."
To these friends in college should be added one
out-college friend, John Miller of Worcester College.
He was some years senior, having taken his degree
in 1808, and Keble always regarded him with very
great reverence for his seriousness, and loved him for
his genial merriment. Miller's Bampton Lectures for
1817, upon "the Divine authority of Holy Scripture
from its adaptation to the Real State of Human
Nature," impressed his mind very much by its cautious
tone, its tender and scrupulous respect for the simple

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 7
faith of the poor, and its deep reverence in the treat
ment of the Bible. In 1829 he called him "the most
original divine of our days," and one sentence from
the Bampton Lectures seems to have suggested the
poem for St. Bartholomew's Day in the Christian Year;
another sentence in one of his sermons suggested the
title of the volume.
It has been worth while to dwell upon this group of
friends, for with the one exception of Arnold, they were
friendships for life kept up by visits and correspondence,
and never without their influence upon him. But their
main influence was that of the Oxford days. They did
that which was all-important for the shy, sensitive,
home-bred boy; they gave him confidence in himself
by the unrestrained way in which they admitted him
to their confidence. In many a college society such a
temperament would have withered and shrunk into
itself; in this kindly warmth it grew and blossomed.
All the natural gaiety of heart, all the frolicsome
humour which characterizes his home letters, reappears
in his letters to these friends. Just as his brother and
sisters have their comic nicknames, so it is with these
friends. The wise Miller is " Hooker" ; Arnold is "the
sheep " ; Cornish " the monkey " ; Dyson is " Jeremiah,"
or " The Venerable Bede," or " Simorg " ; his own brother
is " Thomas Aquinas " ; J. Tucker is the " Queen of
Babylon," or " Bab," or " Semiramis," and is spoken of
always as " she." Thus when he left Corpus Christi ho
carried away a stronger self-confidence ; and he carried
away also a wider knowledge of English literature,
and a love and reverence for the memory of one of
the noblest names of which the college could boast —
Richard Hooker.

8 JOHN KEBLE.
In the summer of 1810, when he was only a little
over eighteen, he obtained the very rare distinction of
a double first-class in Classics and Mathematics. As it
was then common for Bachelors to reside, he continued ;
in Corpus Christi until, on April 21, 1811, just before
his nineteenth birthday, he was elected to an open
Fellowship at Oriel College ; Whateley, afterwards
Archbishop of Dublin, being elected at the same time.
In the following year he gained both the Chancellor's
Essays, the English Essay on Translation from Dead
Languages; the Latin on a comparison between Xeno-
phon and Julius Caesar as Military Historians. It was
the most brilliant academical career of his time. It
" invested him with a bright halo and something of
awe in the eyes of an undergraduate." * Twelve years
later .the young Newman writes, "I shall only mention
Keble. At eighteen he took two first classes. Soon
after he gained the two Essays in one year and a
Fellowship at Oriel. He is the first man in Oxford" 2
The two leading spirits in the Common Room at
this time were Copleston and Davison ; of these the
latter became a firm and life-long friend of Keble. It
was at his suggestion that the last poems of the
Christian Year were written, and after his death Keble
helped to edit his Remains. But he was never quite
at home in the Oriel Common Room in the sense in
which he had been at Corpus Christi. The tone was
one of vigorous, rough-and-ready discussion of all things
under heaven and earth, wanting in tenderness and
reverence ; he was shy of the criticism of " the Oriel
wags"; among them, he seemed to Newman, "more
1 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 17.
2 Letters, i., p. 75.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 9
like an undergraduate than the first man in Oxford, so
perfectly unaffected and unassuming in his manner ; " 1
and the way in which Pusey and Newman in 1828
failed to understand Keble's character is a sufficient
proof how little he had been really quite himself there.
At first he had no college work, and was busy with
his own reading and with private pupils, taking reading
parties in the vacation and paying visits to his friends ;
and many of the early poems published afterwards in
the Miscellaneous Poems bear witness to the brightness
and hopes of this time. In 1813 he refused the offer of
a Sub-Librarianship at the Bodleian Library. He was
Public Examiner in the Final Schools from 1814 —
1816; Master of the Schools in 1816; and Public
Examiner again 1821 — 1823. One of these occasions
is specially interesting; as he listened to one of his
fellow-examiners assigning the class to one of the
candidates, his mind wandered off to think of the
future that might be in store for the Examiner himself,
and the result was the poem in the Christian Year
for St. John's Day —
" • Lord, and what shall this man do ? '
Ask'st tbou Christian for thy friend ?
If Ms love for Christ be true,
Christ hatb told thee of his end.
This is be wbom God approves,
This is be wbom Jesus loves."
His own reading during these years was very
varied ; we find him reading Ariosto, Chateaubriand,
Madame de Stael, Blackstone's Commentaries, Ockley's
History of the Saracens, Spenser, Wordsworth, Southey,
Byron; but his studies were drawing more and more
1 Letters, i., p. 72.

10 JOHN KEBLE.
towards , Theology. He learnt Hebrew, and wrote in
1813, "The study of Divinity grows upon me. There
are so many questions little and great, grammatical,
historical, and metaphysical, to be answered before one
can say that one thoroughly understands a verse of the
Bible, that I almost despair of reading it through on
this side of threescore." Butler's Analogy, more than
any other book, except perhaps Aristotle, formed the
staple of his thoughts. Butler's humility of tone, his
sense of the vastness and mystery of the Divine system,
his willingness to confess that he knew but a fringe of
a great subject, his determination not to ignore the
facts of what God has done in favour of an a, priori
theory of what He ought to do ; his strong hold upon
the analogy between nature and religion, lending itself
to Keble's poetic love of treating all material phenomena: %
as types of spiritual facts ; his theory that the intellect
cannot carry us farther than a probable result in religion,
and that only faith and love ,can convert probability ,;
into certainty — these fundamental positions reappear
again and again in Keble's writings ; and Newman has
told us how they assumed a new power and meaning
under the influence of Keble's "creative mind"; they
rooted the Sacramental system in the eternal methods
of God's working, and won Newman himself from his
individualism. Almost immediately after reaching his twenty-third
birthday he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford
on Trinity Sunday, 1815, and Priest on Trinity Sunday,
1816 : his Fellowship served as a title, although he also
assisted his father at Coin, riding over from Oxford for
the purpose, and in thesummerof 1815 he took temporary
charge of the two neighbouring villages of East Leech ,

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 11
and Burthorpe. It seemed to him that " the salvation
of one soul was worth more than the framing of the
Magna Charta of a thousand worlds," and he approached
the work with awe and trembling, and yet with un
abated confidence in Christ's power to use his service.
The aim that he set before him helps to explain the
deep language of self-reproach and remorse which is so
strongly marked in the Christian Year and in his
correspondence. Before the ordination he wrote to
Coleridge —
" Pray for me too : pray earnestly, my dear, my best
friend, that He would give me His grace, that I may
not be altogether unworthy of the sacred office on which
I am, rashly I fear, even now entering ; but that some
souls hereafter may have cause to bless me. Pray that
I may be free from vanity, from envy, from discontent,
from impure imaginations ; that I may not grow weary,
nor wander in heart from God's service : that I may not
be judging others uncharitably, nor vainly dreaming how
they will judge me, at the very moment that I seem
most religiously and most charitably employed . Without
any foolish affectation of modesty, I can truly say that
the nearer the time approaches, the more strongly I feel
my own unfitness and unworthiness for the ministry :
yet as I hope it is not such but that it may be removed
in time by earnest and constant use of the means of
grace, I do not think it needful to defer my Ordination,
but I want all the help I can get in the awful and
difficult preparation : do not therefore forget me in
your prayers."
In the preceding year he had lost his sister Sarah,
and perhaps this, combined with the tension of the
Ordination, produced a tone of melancholy, which

12 JOHN KEBLE.
eppressed him at this time and seemed te him wilful.,
and sinful. Much of the Christian Year cannot be
understood without the remembrance of this mood, and
therefore it will be well to add another extract from a
letter to Coleridge —
" Our domestic distresses have furnished me with too
good an excuse for indulging a certain humour calling
itself melancholy, but I am afraid more truly entitled
proud and fantastic, which I find very often at hand,
forbidding me to enjoy the good things and pursue the
generous studies which a kind Providence throws so
richly in my way. ... I have long known this to be
very wrong, but I never felt the mischief of it so much
as in the midst of your happy family. I felt as if I was
saddening everybody, and thousands and thousands of
resolutions did I make that I would shake off this
selfish remembrance of past and distant calamities, that
I would enjoy myself wherever I went. I trust I shall
be able, though late, to accomplish these good reso
lutions, and it will be a long and steady course of
self-discipline alone, grounded upon high motives, and
assisted by the prayers, advice, and example of my
relations and friends, which will enable me by God's
blessing to do so."
His life became thus for a couple of years mainly j
pastoral ; his profession became " my dear delightful ;,'"
profession" : but at the end of 1S17 he was recalled to
a more academical life, being appointed Tutor at Oriel.
In January, 1818, he writes to Coleridge that he is going
back " to lay down the laws of y\ and 5rj to a set of
wriggling watch-consulting undergraduates." The work
was in many ways delightful to him, for tuitipn seemed
to him a species of Pastoral Care. His sense of a tutor's

o

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 13
responsibility will best be illustrated by words which he
wrote years afterwards : " Considerate Catholics know
well that there is practically no separating the high and
comprehensive views which that name imports from any
of the moral branches of education. Silence them as
you may on directly theological questions, how are they
to deal with ethics or poetry or history, so as not to
guide their disciples by the light which the Church
throws on all ? And tliere is a yet deeper consider
ation :'they may perhaps think that College Tuition is a
branch of the Pastoral Care, at least if they are them
selves ordained at God's altar; and then they will
have no further alternative — they must either teach
Catholicism or not teach at all." x
Newman has admitted how he came ultimately to see
that Keble's mind was at one with his own in his con
ception of tutorial work, so that his description of his
ewn tutorial aims might be transferred to Keble ; there
was the same willingness to spend any effort on his
pupils' work (we find Keble working with them some
times as early as six a.m.), the same attempt to culti
vate relations with them not only of intimacy, but of
friendship and almost of equality ; in Hurrell Froude's
words, " Where Keble was, donnishness and humbug
would be no more in college, nor the pride of talent
nor ignoble secular ambition."2
Keble retained this office for six years and formed
many lasting intimacies, one with Sir W. Heathcote
leading ultimately to his appointment as Vicar of
Hursley. One who came into residence just after he
1 The Case of Catholic Subscription to the XXXIX. Articles,
1841, p. 12.
2 J. H. Newman, Letters, i., pp. 152 — 154.

14 JOHN KEELE.
left, and who only saw him when he applied for matricu
lation, Sir C. Anderson, bears striking testimony, in a
letter written in 1889, to the quiet, ppwerful effect
which he had upon young men. " I was entered by
Keble when I went up to matriculate, a raw youth of
nineteen. Keble was then Tutor and Resident, and he
examined me and took me to the Vice-Chancellor to
swear to the Articles, and during the two hours I was
with Keble his manner and kindness and a certain
influence, which I hardly can describe, came over me,
so that when I went to reside, and he had then left
Oxford, I found the Tutors at Oriel so wholly different
that I greatly regretted Keble's absence. I am more
than ever convinced that, had he been elected Provost,
things would have been very different at the University."
The impression which he made upon outsiders is
excellently illustrated by the following contemporaneous
account, written by a sister of his friend, George Cornish,
after a visit of Keble's to Sidmouth —
" Sept. 8, 1819. — Keble went away early. We are all
very sorry to lose him, as he is a person that is not to
be met with every day. I have heard a great deal of
him from George before I saw him, so that it was like
meeting an old friend. His manners are singularly
simple, shy, and unpolished, though without the least
rudeness or roughness, as he is the mildest and quietest'
person I almost ever saw. He speaks very little, but
always seems interested in what is going on, and often
says the cleverest and most witty things as if he was
not the least aware of it. In bis own family I should
think he must be more missed when absent than any
one else could possibly be ; he seems formed for a
domestic circle and all the feelings attendant on home.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 15
Without making any fuss about it, he seems so inter
ested in every one, and has such a continual quiet
cheerfulness about him, that I cannot imagine how his
father and mother, brother and sisters, can do without
him. But it is his religious character that has struck
me more than anything else, as it is indeed that from
which everything else proceeds. I never saw any one
who came up so completely to my ideas of a religious
man as Keble, and yet I never saw any one who made
so little display of it (I use this word for want of a better
at present) ; he seems to me a union of Hooker and
George Herbert — the humility of one with the feeling
and love of the other. In short, altogether he is a man
whom the more you see of and know, the less you must
think of ypurself." 1
During these years he was much interested by
making the acquaintance of Wordsworth (1815), and of
Southey and Heber (1819). His own poetic powers were
reaching their maturity, and some of the freshest and
most melodious poems of the Cliristian Year date from
this time. In 1822 — 1823 he was Select Preacher before
the University, and in 1823 he preached the Assize
sermon ; 2 but the variety of the work and the cares of
discipline were trying to him ; he longed for something
more permanent and more pastoral. " I begin to be
clear that I am out of my element here," he wrote in a
moment of despondency as early as 1819 ; in 1821, " I
have made up my mind to leave Oxford as soon as this
examination affair is over ; " in 1822, " I get fonder
and fonder of the country and of poetry and of such
things every year of my life." Finally, in 1823, he
1 Monthly Packet, 1887, p. 189. " Diary of an Octogenarian."
2 Academical Sermons, i. — iv.

16 JOHN KEBLE.
accepted a college living at Coleby in Lincolnshire ; but
withdrew his acceptance at the last moment. For, on
May 11, his mother died, and he at once decided to live
in his father's neighbourhood that he might be able to
help him. His mother's death inspired the poem on
the Annunciation, which appears, though in an altered
form, in the Christian Year. The first draft (written 'j
on June 1, 1823) will be found in the Miscellaneomi
Poems. It is in the main the same as that in the
Christian Year, but when that was published his sorrow
was still fresh, and the allusions to his mother and him
self seemed too sacred for publication, and the verses
about The Virgin Mother were substituted. In his own
MS. there is written by the side of the last stanza,
'* May 10, 1823. Extract from pocket-book—
' Ebeu, ebeu, vale, vale, carissima, vale, elieu, vale,
at veniet felicius sevum,
Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero.' " :
On his leaving Oriel several of his pupils followed
him to his new sphere of work. He became curate at
Southrop near Fairford, being responsible for this as well
as the other two small villages of East Leech and Bur
thorpe. The home was at Southrop ; here he continued'
for three years, refusing, in 1824, the Archdeaconry of
Barbadoes, which was offered him by Bishop Coleridge,
and these three years are in some ways the most im
portant of his life. They laid the germs of the Trac-
tarian movement. The pupils who were with him, and
from whom he refused to receive any payment, were
men of brilliancy and promise, the first anu chief being
Robert Wilberforce, afterwards Fellow and Tutor of
1 These lines are to be found in Bishop Lowtb's epitaph on his
daughter's tomb at Cuddesdon.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 17
Oriel College; Isaac Williams, afterwards Fellow of
Trinity, and curate to Newman ; and Hurrell Froude,
also Fellow and Tutor of Oriel, and the link between
Keble and Newman. In their society Keble's nature
expanded thoroughly ; their intercourse was free, affec
tionate, joyous, playful : " there is master the greatest
boy of them all," was the gardener's comment upon it.
But under all this gaiety of heart a deep seriousness
was known to lie, and it would break out from time to
time in shy, simple ways, as when once just before Froude
was leaving, Keble took him aside and said, "Froude, you
thought Law's Serious Call was a clever book ; it seemed
to me as if you had said that tbe Day of Judgment
was a pretty sight." 1 The moral and spiritual influ
ence which he wielded over them was enormous.
Robert Wilberforce, when in later years he joined the
Church of Rome, is reported to have said that the
one power which had held him to the Church of Eng
land was John Keble's character and wisdom; Isaac
Williams, the Harrow cricketer and scholar of Trinity,
looked back to the day when Keble invited him to
Southrop as the era of his conversion, when he was
first roused to take a serious view of life. " It was
this short walk of a few yards and a few words spoken
that were the turning-point of my life. If a merciful
God had miraculously interposed to arrest my course, I
could not have had a stronger assurance of His Presence
than I have always had in looking back to that day." 2
Speaking of Keble's classical tuition, he says that he can
remember in no other way to have derived so much
moral benefit and actual religious teaching as when in
1 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 28.
2 Ibid. p. 16.

18 JOHN KEBLE.
a state of tuition himself from this indirect mode of
instruction in another, to whom he owes everything that
renders life valuable.1 Froude, the " bright and beauti
ful Froude," the most original genius of the whole ;
Froude, so aggressive, so restless in inquiry, so audacious,
so relentless in pressing premises to their ultimate con
clusions, so full of mischief, so unmeasured in speech, so
keen an enemy to all that was unreal or pretentious, and
yet withal so affectionate and generous and winning and
imaginative, a " man fitted above all others to kindle
enthusiasm," 2 was touched and awed by the unworldly
simplicity of his tutor, and put himself unreservedly
under his intellectual and spiritual guidance. It was
like a high-bred horse responding at once to a master's
touch. The effect upon these pupils will be best illus
trated by Dean Church's account of it in his description
of Isaac Williams : " He had before him in John Keble
a spectacle which was absolutely new to him. Ambi- i
tious as a rising and successful scholar at college, he
saw a man looked up to and wondered at by every one,
absolutely without pride and without ambition. He
saw the most distinguished academic of his day, to
whom every prospect was open, retiring from Oxford in
the height of his fame to busy himself with a few
hundreds of Gloucestershire peasants in a miserable
curacy. He saw this man caring for and respecting the
ignorant and poor as much as others respected the great
and learned. He saw this man, who had made what
the world would call so great a sacrifice — apparently;
unconscious that he bad made any sacrifice at all — gay/
1 The Clvristian Scholar, Preface, p. liv. Cf. Thoughts in Past
Years : " Others admire in tbee a poet's fire " (written about
Keble). 2 J. H. N., Correspondence, ii., p. 241.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 19
unceremonious, bright, full of play as a boy, ready with
his pupils for any exercise, mental or muscular — for a
hard ride, or a crabbed bit of ^Eschylus, or a logic fence
with disputatious and paradoxical undergraduates,
giving and taking on even ground. These pupils saw
one, the breadth of whose religion none could doubt,
' always endeavouring to do them good, as it were,
unknown to themselves and in secret, and ever avoiding
that his kindness should be felt and acknowledged ' ;
showing in the whole course of daily life the purity of
Christian love, and taking the utmpst pains to make no
prefession or show of it." 1
But the influence was not wholly from him upon
them; they too, and especially Froude, reacted upon
him. His ecclesiastical principles became more clear
cut; on the one hand, there had been growing upon
him an intense distrust of the Evangelicalism of the
day, which seemed te depend entirely upon feeling, to
neglect the sense of duty and the cultivation of char
acter; it seemed to him so often unreal, and he was
fond of quoting William Law's warning to Wesley,
" Remember that a man may deceive himself as easily
by the phrase 'justification by faith,' as by any other
combination of syllables." On the other hand, he
loathed even more strongly the cold Deism of the last
century with its modern Erastianism, which would
reduce the Church to a mere creation of the State, and
would ultimately deny the supernatural. The " Anglo-
Hanoverian " Church tone of the eighteenth century
repelled him with its utilitarian cui bono principles,
its presumptions in favour of liberty and against self-
denying faitb, its preference for external evidences of
1 The Oxford Movement, p. 59.

20 JOHN KEBLE.
religion, its excessive and easy-going toleration, it
want of a charitable austerity.1 It neglected the feel
ings as Evangelicalism neglected the character, and hi
mind craved for a religion which should affect the whol
man, and keep both feelings and intellect under thi
control of the will. To enforce this he fell back upoi
the conception of the Church which he had inherited
as of a body independent of the State, founded by tin
Lord Himself, perpetuated by direct succession fron
the Apostles, one in continuous history and in doctrini
with the Primitive Church, filled with a supematura
and sacramental life, witnessing to a high moral standarc
before the world. Such a conception fired him wit!
indignation at State encroachments, at neglect o:
discipline and doctrine, at the prevailing worldlinesi
of tone ; it made him doubt the wisdom of much thai
the Reformers had done. In 1824 he wrote to Coleridge
that he doubted Davison's application of the apostasy tc
the Church of Rome, and adds, " My impression for e
long time has been that we have as much to do with il
as they."
Such a noble conception of the Church naturallj
laid hold of the imaginations of his pupils, and througl
them passed as a power into Oxford. To make thai
conception a reality he devoted his whole life withs
Quixotic chivalry which nothing could daunt : for thai
he sent forth his pupils as a band of ' missionaries
Not that any immediate result was yet produced : th(
train was laid, but the circumstances were not yei
favourable for firing it, nor was the genius yet wit!
them who was to apply the light.
1 Cf. his Review of " The Unpublished Papers of Bishop War
burton." Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 108.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 21
This intercourse with pupils ceased in the year 1825,
when Keble became eurate in sole charge of Hursley,
near Winchester, under Archdeacon Heathcote. The
Archdeacon, who lived in Winchester, was responsible
for the charge both of Otterbourne and of Hursley, and
was obliged to depute the latter entirely to his curate ;
and as this was a widely-scattered parish of more than
a thousand inhabitants, the new curate had no time to
devote to tuition. He passed a year of great happiness
in this new work, receiving visits from his father and
sisters and many bf his college friends, including Arnold.
But the brightness was clouded and stopped by the
most unexpected and perhaps the deepest sorrow of
his life. , In September, 1826, his favourite sister, Mary
Anne, was taken suddenly ill at Fairford, and died
within a few days. In answer to a letter of sympathy
from Froude he wrote —
" I knew you would be very sorry when you heard of
what has come upon us, and I feel that I can write
freely to you about it ; but I cannot half describe to
you the depth and intensity, at least as it seemed to
me, of my thoughts and feelings during Mary Anne's
illness and for some time since. Certainly no loss
could be so great, humanly speaking, to Elizabeth and
my father, but they are both such sort of people that
I have long been used to consider everything that
happens to them as a certain good; and there was
nothing bitter in my grief as far as they were con
cerned, much less in thinking of Mary Anne herself;
but the real bitterness was when I thought of many
things in which I have been far less kind to her than
I ought to have been. Somehow or other I have for
years been accustomed to talk to her far more freely

22 JOHN KEBLE.
than to anybody else in the world, though of course
there were two or three whom I loved quite as well.
But it has so happened that whenever I was moody or
fretful she has had to bear with me more than any one,
and if I chose I could sit down and torment myself by
the hour with the thought of it. This is the only
feeling of real bitterness that I have on the subject,
but I know it is wrong to indulge it, and I trust soon
to get over it entirely ; indeed, I seem to have done so
already, only I feel one cannot in any way depend upon
one's self. I am certain no person who believes in .the
Atonement ought to indulge in bitter remorse, and
therefore, by God's blessing, I don't mean to be un
comfortable if I can help it, even in the thought of my
past faults. I have been so too much already, and it ,
only seems to make one lazy and weaken one's own
hands and one's friends. If you please, therefore, don't
let us encourage one another in melancholy any more;
but let us always resolutely look to the bright side of "
things, and among other helps to be quiet, let us always ;
talk as freely to one another as we do now, for nothing .
relieves one so much as making a clean breast." 1
To this occasion we owe the short Fragment on Ms
sister Mary Anne's death,2 and the simple unrhymed
poem on The Burial of the Bead, which was intended
for the Christian Year. iHe shrank, however, from
publishing it so soon, but later it appeared in the
Lyra Apostolica, No. 50.3 This loss changed Keble's
plans once more; his father and sister needed some
companion, and he returned to Fairford and acted as
curate there until his father's death in 1835, refusing
1 Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. i.
2 Miscellaneous Poems, p. 236. 3 Ibid. p. 15.

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 23
the living of Hursley when offered bim by Sir W.
Heathcote in 1829, and that of Paignton, which was
offered to him, " as to the most eminently good man in
the Church," by the Bishop of Exeter in 1831.
He still remained a Fellow of Oriel, but his friends
there were not content that he should only appear at
the rare intervals of college meetings, and on more than
one occasion they attempted to revive his connection
with Oxford. At the end of 1827 the Provostship of
Oriel became vacant by the appointment of Dr. Cople-
ston to be Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Paul's.
There was no doubt that the choice would fall either
on Keble or on Hawkins. On December 8th, Hawkins
wrote to Keble what the latter describes as a " kind
little letter," apparently asking whether he would be
a candidate ;"' to which he replied on December 9th,
postponing his answer, but adding, " I am in great
hopes that by not caring too much for things we shall
be enabled to turn what might have been unpleasant
into a time of comfortable recollection as long as we
live. You and I agreed to remember one another at a
trying time for both a little more than a twelvemonth
ago ; if you please, we will do tbe same now."
Meanwhile, Keble's old pupils were strongly in his
favour and urged him to stand. He was quite willing
to de so, feeling that it was not so very much more diffi
cult a trust than any other pastoral employment, and
conscious that he had some qualifications for it ; but
he had left Oxford, and was not intimately known by
many of the Fellows. Hawkins was a resident tutor
in full work; he too had gained a double first-class,
having taken his degree a year after Keble, and he
was a man of shrewd practical -wisdom and intellectual

24 JOHN KEBLE.
keenness, though devoid of any deep power of sympathy.
By a strange irony the balance was decided against
Keble by Newman and Pusey. Neither of them knew
Keble at all intimately, Newman having been elected
in 1822, Pusey in 1823, just as Keble was leaving
Oxford. Pusey wrote to him en December 14th, saying
that he had decided to vote for Hawkins, " yet should
the choice of the majority finally fall upon you, I should
anticipate from your promotion high and extensive
benefits to the college. It is difficult on the subject
not to say too much or too little ; I will therefore only
add that it is not upon any comparison of the indi
viduals, but in relation to a practical office that I have
formed my decision." Newman wrote on December
19th, a letter marked by delicate consideration, and yet,
as experience proved, showing an extraordinary want
of insight into the relative sympathy of Keble and
Hawkins with his own concepiwons of Cpllege and
University reform. On December fc7th, Keble wrote to
Froude withdrawing his candidature, and putting it
with thoughtful unselfishness on selfish reasons; he
doubted whether he would be comfortable there ; he
had calls elsewhere ;,' he was afraid of the Oxford
epidemic of intellectualism. On December 28th, he
wrote to the same effect to Hawkins, and the contest
was ended.
Whether the result would have been less disastrous
to the College and the University if Keble had been
elected is an idle speculation. Newman never regretted
his vote, for it seemed to him afterwards that, had Keble
been elected, he himself would have still retained his
tutorship, and so would have had no leisure for the
Tractarian movement. Pusey regretted it deeply:

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 25
"Unhappily, some of us who loved him did not know
the power of his deep sympathy with the young heart,
and thought another more practical. He could not bear
division, and so withdrew. The whole of the later history
of the Church might have been changed had we been
wiser ; but God, through our ignorance, withdrew him,
and it must have been well with him, since God so over
ruled it. To us it became the sorrow of our lives." 1
Yet the whole correspondence gives such an impression
of considerateness, of thoughtfulness, of sincerity, of
perfect freedom from self-seeking, from jealousy, from
bitterness on all sides, that it is refreshing to read. And
Keble, who had written years before on the occasion of
Hawkins' election to a Fellowship, " Everything was
conducted on so liberal a plan that it does my heart
good to belong to such a society as Oriel," felt this
still, and went back to his pastoral work with no
trace of embittered feeling, but with a deeper devotion
to his duties, as though God had more clearly put them
as a sacred trust into his hand. It may well be that
the way in which he accepted this disappointment may
have gained him the power which he wielded over
Newman and Pusey in later years; it may well be that
the life at a distance from Oxford, amid the realities of
pastoral work, gave him coolness and self-control and
wisdom which would scarcely have been generated in
the heart of the conflict; and thus his very rejection
may have gone to make him " an unseen silent
influence, moving hearts at will." 2
But though absent his voice was still heard in any-
1 Sermon at Keble College, St. Mark's Day, 1876, p. 27.
2 J. H. N., Essays, ii., p. 446. For tbe best account of the
election see tbe Guardian for January 30, 1889.

26 JOHN KEBLE.
thing which stirred the University ; in 1829 Mr. Peel,
having suddenly changed his mind and passed the
Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, offered himself for
re-election at Oxford, but many Churchmen there felt
that they could not change their opinions thus readily ;
the independence of the Church and of Oxford seemed
to them at stake, and Mr. Peel was rejected. Keble
(who afterwards dated the conflict between Church and
State from this time) threw himself heartily into the
opposition, and published with his signature a short
set of queries addressed to the electors, ending with
one,, very characteristic — " Whether, on occasions like
this, we are not bound to look forward and consider not
only how our academical interests may be affected at
present, but how our conduct will appear in the pages
of future history ? "
When the election was over he wrote a humble and
affectionate letter to Pusey, asking pardon of all Mr.
Peel's friends, and especially, through Pusey, of the
Bishop of Oxford, " if anything in which I have had a
part may have given him a moment's pain, or if I have
seemed unworthily suspicious of one for whom he must
be deeply interested."
For a few years his letters give the impression that
he was casting about for some adequate life's work.
The Christian Year was now published, and he had no
pupils. We find him examining for the Ireland Scholar
ship in 1828 ; for the India House in 1830 and 1831 ; he
composes the Index to Cardwell's edition of Aristotle's
Ethics (1830) l; he is working at his translation of the
1 Cf. the Preface : " Indicem toti operi amico cuidam acceptum
referimus, digniorisane qui ipse Aristotelem illustrandum suscipi-
eret, nobis vicissim suas partes traditurus,"

PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 27
Psalter into English verse; he is interested in the
conditions of the poor and studying Malthus, and
anxious to promote emigration on a large scale in order
to relieve the distress. At one time, when there were
agrarian riots in the neighbourhood, he rode out fear
lessly and good-naturedly with the mob, arguing with
them and trying to keep them from mischief. In 1831
he published anonymously a pamphlet entitled A Hint
from Bristol, in which he took advantage of the Bristol
riots to plead against Reform, and to exhort honest men
to have true courage to set themselves calmly and reso
lutely against the " evil spirit which is abroad teaching
this nation all kinds of irreverence." In this year,
however, two different events supplied him with the
work which he desired ; at the beginning of the year he
undertook for the Clarendon Press a complete edition of
the works of his favourite, Richard Hooker ; and in the
winter he was elected Professor of Poetry. His friends
had been anxious that he should be a candidate for the
chair in 1821, but he then refused to oppose Milman.
By this time, however, the Christian Year had established
his poetic reputation, and he was elected without any
opposition. This office had the advantage that it brought
him up to Oxford once a term for his terminal lecture,
and also required his presence at Commemoration in
alternate years to deliver the Creweian oration in com
memoration of the Benefactors of the University.
Thus through the most eventful years of the Tract-
arian movement, he was in constant touch with its
leaders, while the preparation for these two important
works made the next few years some of the busiest of
his life. One of his own poems will best show the spirit
with which he was setting himself to his task.

28 JOHN KEBLE.

THE CHURCHMAN TO HIS LAMP.
" Come, twinkle in my lonely room,
Companion true in hours of gloom ;
Come, light me on a little space,
The heavenly vision to retrace,
By saints and Angels loved so well, —
My mother's glories ere she fell.
There was a time, my friendly Lamp,
When, far and wide, in Jesus' camp,.
Oft as the foe dark inroads made,
They watch'd and fasted, wept and pray'd ;
But now, tbey feast and slumber on,
And say, ' Why pine o'er evil done 1 '
Then hours of Prayer, in welcome round,
Far-severed hearts together bound ;
Seven times a day, on bended knee,
They to tbeir Saviour cried ; and we —
One hour we find in seven long days,
Before our God to sit and gaze !
Then, lowly Lamp, a ray like thine
Waked half the world to hymns divine ;
Now it is much if here and tbere
The dreamer, by the genial glare,
Trace tbe dim Past, and slowly climb
Tbe steep of Faith's triumphant prime.
Yet by His grace whose breathing gives
Life to the faintest spark that lives,
I trim thee, precious Lamp, once more,
Our Father's armoury to explore,
And sort and number wistfully
A few bright weapons, bathed on high.
And may thy guidance ever tend
Where gentle thoughts and courage blend ;
Tby pure and steady gleaming rest
On pages with the Cross imprest ;
Till, touch'd with lightning of calm zeal,
Our Father's very heart we feel.''

CHAPTER II.
the professor of toetrt.
" pij/ia fi' tpypdriiiv xpovulirepov jSiOTevei
o rt -ye cvv ^ttpiTtav Tv-%q
yXwaja fypzvoQ cii\oi j3a&uag." PlNDAE, Nem., IT. 11.
In dealing with Keble as a poet, we start with the
great advantage of having not only his poems them
selves, but also his critical theory of Poetry. Although
the fullest statement of this is subsequent "to the
publication of the Christian Year, whether in the Latin
lectures as Professor of Poetry (1832 — 1841), or in a
shorter English form in his review of the Life of Sir
Walter Scott (British Critic, 1838) ; yet it had already
been sketched in outline in a review of Copleston's
Prcdeetioncs Academicm (British Critic, 1814); and in
an article on " Sacred Poetry " (Quarterly Revieu; 1825) :x
hence it will, both logically and chronologically, be
the true order if we discuss the theory first, and the
application of it to his own poems afterwards.
Keble never professes to give a full definition or
1 These three reviews are reprinted in tbe Occasional Papers
and Reviews ; ibe references will be to that volume.

30 JOHN KEBLE.
description of Poetry, but only to describe and illustrate
one function which it serves ; and this he approaches
from the point of view of the poet, and only incidentally
from that of the reader.
The title De Poeticm Vi Medica points to the kernel
of his theory. Poetry is essentially for him a relief to
the poet, a relief for overcharged emotion. It is the
utterance of feelings which struggle for expression, but
which are too deep for perfect expression at all, much
more for expression in the language of daily life.
Feeling of any kind, he points out, is always seeking
some form of expression for itself; the infant can find
it only in cries, in gestures, in expression of the features;
the grown-up man finds it mainly in the power of speech.
" My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus
musing the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my
tongue" (Ps. xxxix. 3), — this verse is quoted by him
as expressing the secret of all poetry. This is true of
all feelings, but most true of the deepest feelings, which
are stirred either by the sight of external nature or by
the facts of human life. Nature appeals to the feelings
either by its mystery and vastness, stirring man's wonder,
his questioning, his awe ; or by its tranquil beauty and
calm, soothing his wearied spirit. Human life appeals
to them either by its happiness suggesting a perfection
which lies beyond it, through the finite stirring the
passion for the infinite ; or by its sadness, suggesting
the contrast between what it is, and what it might be,
and so stirring tenderness and pity and melancholy.
In either case the feelings are stirred by the sense
of higher spiritual truths which underlie the visible
phenomena. But it follows naturally from this that
the deeper the feeling, the less adequately will it be

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 31
able to be expressed ; language fails it ; the prose
language of daily life is felt at once to be inadequate ;
and further, the feeling itself shrinks from publicity, it
is too sacred to be cast before every one ; true love and
true grief alike shun the light of day and the sight of
men. Hence there is a necessary reserve and modesty
about the expression of it; metrical language serves
both to conceal as well as to reveal the truth ; again,
the poet hides his passion under allegory and simile, or
description of some event in the heroic past which is
sufficiently akin to the present to relieve his feeling
while it does not betray his secret. Hence expression
will be more poetical in proportion as it gives the sense
of struggling with an ideal truth.
Yet another distinction must be noticed. The facts
of life affect people differently according to their
temperament. With one class the feelings are passion
ate, tumultuous, headstrong, bursting out into lyric
utterance on the spot and then passing away. With
another, they are quiet, strong, permanent; they feed
themselves on their object ; they persist throughout life ;
they work themselves out in longer and more sustained
efforts of epic or dramatic poems. Of these two classes
Keble unhesitatingly gives the preference to the second.
" In quietness and calm will always be found the true
praise of poetry, whether you seek for sweetness or for
majesty."1 The permanence of the feeling is a test of
its reality; the self-control is the proof that the poet
feels himself overmastered by a Higher Power.
From this distinction springs his classification of
poets. Primary poets are those who sing because they must,
1 Prod. Acad., p. 608.

32 JOHN KEBLE.
who have some one strong,' consistent, permanent
feeling, which reappears again and again ; secondary
poets are either those who are stirred genuinely by a
passing emotion, or those who are little more than
clever literary imitators, writing for pleasure or for
interest. The form of the poetry is never taken as the
dividing line, though it is used at times as a clue to
guide the reader to the truest and most genuine feeling
in the poet, on the ground that truth of feeling feels
after truth of form. The more trustworthy tests are
modesty, reserve, the absence of paradox and display,
and above all, consistency ; that poet is the highest poet
who, ". . . . when brought
Among the tasks of real life, bath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased bis childish thought."
Taking these tests as his standard, Keble in his
lectures examines all the chief Greek and Latin poets,
not without a touch of humour here and there, as
though he were a Public Examiner once more, as where
he stops to wonder whether Sophocles' love of Attic
scenery may not earn him a first-class, but ultimately
decides to place him in the second ; there are also many
interesting illustrations from modern poets and digres- ,
sions on points where poetry touches on the borderland
of religion. As the lectures have never been translated,
we venture to give an outline of his argument, with a
fuller account of one or two details which he has touched
with a loving fullness himself.
Homer comes first, and is classed at once as a primary
poet. His overmastering feeling is a sad regret for
the heroic age, with its common national feeling, its
reverence for its leaders, its faith in the interposition of

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 33
Gods. The Iliad is the glorification of heroic warfare ;
it represents the feelings of the veteran soldier delight
ing in his past campaigns. Hence it is not merely
" the wrath of Achilles : " it is an Iliad, a story of a
successful warfare, exhibiting every kind of fighting,
singing the praises of every warrior, whether Greek or
Trojan ; dwelling on the incidents of camp life, of the
feasts, the games, the armour, the horses, the hunting,
the peasant life around, the scenes of Nature, and the
wealth of Troy. We see Agamemnon, the proud aristo
crat, caring for his country much but for his dignity
more ; Diomed the ambitious ; Ajax the rough, brusque,
simple, obedient soldier; Hector the lovable, brave,
domestic, human hero ; but above them all, the type of
an almost superhuman consecration, Achilles, the eager,
noble warrior, who knows that death awaits him and
yet has gone forth to the war, self-consecrate, preferring
a glorious death to inglorious inactivity ; full of affec
tionate remembrance for his parents, devoted to his
friend, honouring old age, recognizing excellence in
friend or foe, and, for all these reasons, dear to heaven.
The Odyssey is the work of the same writer, though
in his old age. It is the work of the veteran soldier
with his warrior instincts still alive in him, recording
the love of exploration which marked the heroic era.
As Alexander the Great combined in his own person
the warrior and the explorer, so Homer in his poems.
The type is now Ulysses, the explorer, wise, shrewd,
full of expedients, self-trustful ; longing for home with
a strength of feeling which is proof against all seduc
tions and all perils ; but he is essentially a king ; the
Odyssey is not merely the return of a traveller, it is the
triumphal victory of a king, who comes to enjoy his own

34 JOHN KEBLE.
again and to right his country. The influence of the
Gods is over all : they protect Ulysses and punish the
suitors ; their presence is seen only by their favourites ;
yet sinners are warned against their doom ; there is
nothing like fatalisrn in the story. The suitors are the
type of the arrogant, irreligious democrats, who neither
respect guests, nor honour the dead, nor reverence the
Gods, but measure all things by the standard of their
own enjoyment; and so the poet is against them; for
true poets are almost bound to oppose the popular
party, because of its utilitarian standard, which is never
carried away by any lofty enthusiasm, and because of
its absence of true reverence and self-restraint. It
would have everything open and public. It was this
want of self-restraint which caused the popularity, and
was a fatal flaw in the real poetic power of Byron.
Two other interesting observations lead to comparisons
with modern poets. Homer's frequent references to
simple peasant life, his description of beggars, the dignity
with which he invests slaves, show that, like Burns, he
was a poor man, in sympathy with poverty. But Honier
tries to soothe the lot of the. poor ; he looks with a
simple peasant's admiration on wealth, he treats it as
the gift of heaven ; but he never rails against riches,
nor is indignant at the injustice of Providence. On the
other hand, Burns, with the same love of peasant life
and simple nature, is unable to treat the rich with
courteous gentleness ; his undisciplined love of pleasure
leads to anxiety, indignation, querulousness ; he chafes
against fortune and rails against the rich. Unlike
Homer, he cannot be
" A wise good man, contented to be poor.''
Again, a subtle examination of the treatment of

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 35
Nature in the Iliad and Odyssey leads Keble to think
that the Iliad was written before, and the Odyssey after,
the blindness of Homer. The Iliad is full of similes
which are drawn from the passing phases of Nature, the
gambols of animals, the changes in the sky, the quick
movements of men, and are such as give evidence of
a keen sight. The Odyssey has few such, but more
complete descriptions of places, cities', harbours and
rivers, such as a poet could recall and dwell upon in
memory. If this is true, how much more striking still
becomes the uniform spirit of bravery in the face of
fortune, of happy contentment with the ways of heaven ;
it lifts him to a level above Milton, the other great
blind poet, who even in that poem of endurance and
chastened religious spirit, the sonnet on his blindness,
wants the full charm of Homeric content, and shows
that in political life he would not side with Homer but
rather with the restless popular cause.
The examination of Homer is followed by an inter
esting discussion, in which it is hard not to believe that
Keble is referring to his own poetical history. The
question is raised whether a great example in literature
is likely to deter or to stimulate other poets. On the
one side it is urged that young poets might think that
all was done that could be done in poetry ; and that
the more sensitive a poet was, the more would he be
discouraged from placing his poetry into competition
with his great predecessor. On the other side, — and it
is this with which Keble sympathizes, — contact with a
true poet kindles and inspires the timid; the strong
and sanguine are stirred by emulation ; and the inex
perienced are at least helped in the form of expression.
No doubt thus a danger arises of the growth of a school

36 JOHN KEBLE.
of servile imitators. Servile imitation, however, only
affects the form, and the danger of it can be avoided by
writing in a different kind of poetry. The conclusion
is that a great example stimulates far more than it
depresses. This was the case with Homer's example :
for nearly all the poets of early Greece bear traces
of his influence, and yet they have their own over
mastering impulse, growing naturally out of and meeting
the needs of their own days. The Minor Poets, Alcaeus,
Sappho, Archilochus, Simonides, short as their extant
fragments are, were all clearly primary poets, each of
them striking out new metres to express their feelings.
Such conspicuously was the case with ^Eschylus, who
receives a fuller treatment than any poet. The whole
of the lectures about him are marked by loving and
keen insight ; the treatment of the Oresteia is excellent
and will repay dwelling on at some length.
The dominant feelings in iEschylus are twofold : (1)
a hearty love of fighting, whether by land or sea ; (2)
the sense of the mystery which hangs over human life,
passing into a belief in an overruling Providence. No
doubt the Prometheus Vinctus gives a contradictory
impression ; Zeus seems there to be treated as an arbi
trary tyrant, angry at benefits conferred on mankind;
but this is only one play of an incomplete trilogy, and
even in this there is a glimpse of a future deliverance
for Prometheus, the friend of mankind. It is in the
Oresteia that the religious tone and teaching of iEschylus
find full expression ; it might be even regarded as a
palinode for the Prometheus. It is a great vindication
of the ways of God to man, for the fortunes of the family
of Pelops are not the real centre on which the interest
turns, but rather the triumph of Zeus. Zeus appears as

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 37
a righteous God, sternly inflicting punishment for sin ;
but he is also a kindly God, who teaches mankind
by their sufferings. Throughout the Agamemnon there
runs a sense of awed expectation at the coming
judgment. The half-comic rustic homely wit of the
warder at the opening of the play is like the calm
before a storm. Like the humour of Shakspere, it
heightens the contrast with the tragedy to come ; it is
so true to life, with its grotesque touches in the midst
of sorrow. The sense of doom is intensified in the
Chorus by the omens, given by birds and animals,
which so often seem to share the secrets of heaven : the
destruction of Troy was the act of Zeus taking venge
ance for violated hospitality; there are hints of other
doom yet in store for Agamemnon, and even in the
beautiful picture of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the
interest is centred on Agamemnon as he shelters the
weakness of his will under the plea that the sacrifice is
an act of necessity. Clytemnestra tempts him to his
fate, by forcing him by her taunts to walk on the purple
tapestries; her words are full of double meaning; yet
in her pretence of love, in her defence of the murder, in
her appeal to the genius of the house, in her sacrifices
to the Gods, she seems to bear witness to the stings of
conscience, to the power of an innate fear of God.
Cassandra appears as the type of prophecy, the witness
for a present God though pointing to a future event.
In the presence of the hypocrisy of Clytemnestra she
is silent. When that is withdrawn, she bursts forth
into inarticulate cries; as she finds sympathy in the
Chorus, her prophecies become clearer and clearer.
She is the most touching of all prophets on the Greek
stage ; tender-hearted, full of pity for the sorrows of

38 JOHN KEBLE.
men, ever mindful of parents and of country and of the
love of Phcebus, she pours forth her prophecy, unfeed,
unforced, not summoned from afar as an outsider, but
herself sharing in the events. Her inspiration comes
from no omens or auguries, but direct from the God
himself; she is a standing witness that they who in
crease knowledge increase sorrow for themselves; that
the sharer of the secrets of heaven shares them to her
own ruin; she has well-nigh the dignity of a martyr
for the truth. Thus, though unrighteousness triumphs
for the time, through the clouds and darkness is seen a
hope of retribution : over all is felt a sense that no
chance or fatalism is guiding events, but a wise and
kindly providence.
In the Choephorce this is more marked still. Instead
of brooding expectation there is only serene confidence
in the justice of God. The whole play is like a great
liturgy ; it opens with prayer ; the action is carried on
before the father's tomb ; the death of Clytemnestra is
raised above all suspicion of personal vindictiveness
into an act of righteous vengeance ; prayers recur again
and again ; the Chorus recalls past instances of Divine
Justice ; Orestes is like a priest offering the victims
upon the altar ; over all stands supreme the command
of heaven, and the sense of the presence of the
murdered dead. The terrible character of the act is
softened in the case of Orestes by the fact that he is
acting against his natural instincts at the bidding of
duty ; in the case of Electra by her gentleness for her
mother and fondness for Orestes. The plot, however,
grows more complicated. The murderess is punished,
but a fresh deed of murder has been committed, and
once more the murderer is punished.

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 39
What is to be the solution ? This is given in the
Eumenides. There we see the reconciliation of mercy
with strict justice, effected by an appeal to Zeus.
Orestes is pursued to the very shrine of Apollo ; so
near is he to destruction. The Eumenides represent
the common idea of strict justice insisting on punish
ment : Apollo represents forgiving mercy ; Orestes
says little, he is confident in his cause, but humbly
and reverently leaves it to Apollo. The final appeal is
to the decision of Zeus, given — to please Attic pride —
through the Areiopagus. Mercy triumphs, but the
representatives of Justice are only just outvoted, and
are ultimately reconciled and welcomed to dwell among
men; lest any should think himself pious and good
without godly and reverent fear.
This trilogy is described in much greater detail than
any other poem, and we have lingered over it as a piece
of true criticism, which is of permanent value for the
real appreciation of the plays. Probably no such
sympathetic reading of the character of Cassandra is to
be found elsewhere.
The other Greek tragedians are treated slightly.
But scant justice is done to Sophocles. His strongest
claim to be regarded as a primary poet is based upon
his love of home and the places associated with early
life ; but this is not expressed often enough to put a
permanent stamp upon his poetry. There is, apart
from this, no one dominant feeling ; he does not draw
direct from Nature ; his wonderful descriptions of pain
are rather those of the bystander than of the sufferer ;
the comic element of life is absent ; his minor charac
ters are featureless : whole situations recur in different
plays ; he is too even-tempered (evrcoAos) to sympathize

40 JOHN KEBLE.
with strong feeling. His very excellences, the finished
style, the over-elaborate plots, the scenic effects, make
against his claim ; so he is ranked among the secondary
poets, though first among them.
About Euripides, on the other hand, Keble's opinion
had changed with the deeper study required for these
lectures. He ranks him now as a primary poet. His
faults are, no doubt, obvious — the rhetorical and frigid
sententiousness ; the too frequent political allusions ; the
separation of his choral songs from the subject of the
plot; yet he has a dominant passion in the love of
human life in its domestic and simple forms. As
Socrates brought philosophy into daily life, so Euripides
brought poetry ; slaves are treated with dignity ; the
feelings of his heroines are common to women of all
classes ; he is no misogynist at heart, as the portraits
of Antigone and Polyxena show ; he has no unbelieving
hatred of the Gods, for nowhere are to be found more
religious portraits than those of Hippolytus the chaste,
of Ion, the dedicated servant of the Delphic temple, of
the Bacchaa, the stewards of divine mysteries.
Pindar meets with an even fuller and more enthusi
astic treatment. He is undoubtedly a primary poet,
for through all his elaborate metres, through his many
digressions, through the variety of his themes, there is
seen a genuine love for the old heroic age and for the
great national games of Greece. This may seem a
trivial point ; but as Scott's poetry had sprung from
his love of hunting and of country life, so to a Greek
the national 'games were a training-field for warfare, a
rallying-centre for all his fellow-countrymen ; they were
that which in Pindar's days most nearly reproduced the
heroic age. So he lavishes his praise on everything

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 41
connected with them, the prizes, the banquets, the
processions, the beauty of the victors, the liberality and
virtues of the kings. He is a thorough aristocrat, but
his own belief in an after-world, and the sanctity then
allowed to poets, make him bold to rebuke and to advise
both aristocrats and tyrants ; he combines the courage
and self-confidence of youth with the cheerfulness of
old age : he is true to his childish thought throughout
his life ; fond of children, fond of flowers, fond of his
country and its scenery. He is like the lark, that
lyric bird with its free, joyous, unceasing song ; which
starts from some simple nest in the barest field, and
soars up with joy and song into the highest heavens,
with no care to be uniform, but changing its note with
each new thought in wondrous harmony.
Pastoral poetry is discussed next, the poetry of the
quieter spirits. This has always developed later than
the poetry of action ; there was none in Greece proper
in spite of the Greek love of Nature ; it began in Sicily
and was developed at Rome : and this is partly because
Nature is the natural solace of those who are wearied,
wearied either with the life"of action, like Virgil, or with
the life of thought, like Lucretius. Theocritus is the
real inventor of such poetry, and he is inspired by a
genuine love of the country; but yet he is not to be
ranked as more than a secondary poet. The love of
the country disappears in his later poems ; it was not a
lifelong, overmastering feeling ; his style is diffuse and
luxuriant; he is coarse and wants reserve. On the
other hand, Lucretius and Virgil are both primary poets.
The dominant feeling in Lucretius is his sense of the
sadness of human life and the infinite mystery of
Nature. He is always in earnest about his theme ; he

42 JOHN KEBLE.
dwells mainly on the infinity of the universe, the
swiftness of its movements, the strength of its hidden
forces, the brightness of tbe heaven, the quick changes
of the clouds, the density of the forests. It is true that
he denies the existence of the Gods ; yet we may pardon
one who lived before the fuller revelation had come,
and whose mind was touched with madness; and his
very love of the infinite is a witness to a striving after
God. " It may even happen that while the main theme of
a poem is the. open denial of the existence of the Gods,
yet its tenor and tone is on the side of believers." J So
it was with Lucretius ; this love of the infinite, his
unwilling acknowledgment of a Providence that guides
the world ; his sense of the evils of human life, of the
emptiness of earthly pleasure ; his praise of quiet
thought and philosophy; his reverence for the dead;
the very roughness of his style, preferring truth to
eloquence, and oppressed by the inadequacy of his native
language to express the truth, are signs alike of a poetic
and religious spirit.
Virgil again is a primary poet — but not as the poet of
action, not as the writer of the JEneid. His heart is not
in the battle fray ; he neither loves nor makes us love
his hero ; neither ^Eneas nor the lesser heroes are real,
living characters ; war is " terrible war," breaking up
the operations of peace. Whereas in Homer Nature
is always subordinate to the action, in Virgil, as in a
painting of Claude Lorraine's, action is subordinate to
the natural beauty. The ^Eneid was written only to
please Augustus; if there were any feeling of his own
in it, it was the feeling of gratitude to Augustus for
having secured him the enjoyment of the country life he
1 Prasl. Acad., p. 685.

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 43
loved. There all his heart is ; he loves the country-folk;
he reproduces their quaint phrases and tlieir homely
proverbs; he loves their flocks and their bees, like
the true peasant, who treats them not as mere means of
gain, but as friends and companions, and is alive to all
their wants, anxieties, and comforts. The very vines
are half personified ; their training is like the education
of the young; and the country itself appeals to him
as strongly, though quite differently, as it did to
Lucretius. Lucretius dwells on its infinite mysteries;
Virgil on its tranquil beauty : Lucretius scarcely ever
mentions any particular place, unless it is necessary for
his argument ; Virgil is constantly introducing local
allusions, whether to places known in his childhood, or
visited in travel, or consecrated by some religious
association : Lucretius never mentions his childhood at
all ; Virgil dwells affectionately on his : Lucretius
emphasizes the evils of life ; Virgil faces them as an
optimist, and sees in them a stimulus for action and a
ground of hope. His admiration for Lucretius did not
make him an Epicurean ; rather his belief in the
universal spirit, infused into all life and guiding all
history, his frequent mention of Gods, Nymphs, and
Manes ; his faith in omens ; his sense of the sympathy
of Nature with man ; his reverence in speaking of the
dead — mark him as a Platonist. Thus he — the last
primary poet among the Latins (for Horace with all his
charm has no one overmastering impulse) — in many
ways prepared the way for Christian Truth, and
becoming the text-book of education and the inspirer
of Dante, has remained an influence to the present
day. The examination of the classical poets ends with

44 JOHN KEBLE.
Virgil, in the lectures on Poetry. In the course of* them
there are several interesting illustrations from English
poetry, and some of these are more fully worked out
in the Reviews. Thus Shakspere "gave play to the
real sympathy which he seems to have felt towards all
natural and common affections, in a degree hardly
conceivable by ordinary men." * Spenser is ranked
higher than Milton as a sacred poet, because of the
reserve which led him to throw his poem in the form
of an allegory, and by that means and by his allusive
style to veil the depth of his thought in the Faerie
Queen, which is " a continual, deliberate endeavour to
enlist the restless intellect and chivalrous feeling of an
enquiring and romantic age on the side of goodness and
faith, of purity and justice." 2 Milton was of a cast of
mind originally austere and rigorous. He made a noble
effort to rescue religion from the Puritan's degradation
of it, by choosing a theme of universal and eternal
importance; but he was too out-spoken, too much
marred by intellectual and spiritual pride ; hence his
undervaluing of woman's character, his half-attractive
portraiture of Satan, his want of purity and spirituality
in his conception of heaven, are serious blemishes,
though they do not affect his claim to be considered
"the very lodestar and pattern of that class of sacred
poets in England." 3 The inspiration of Scott is drawn
from the passionate love of Scotch chivalry which was
associated with the scenes of his childhood. His lame
ness, his profession, his domestic sorrows prevented any
active indulgence of such love, and threw back his
feelings upon themselves, until at last they found
1 Life of Sir W. Scott, p. 23. 2 Sacred Poetry, p. 98.
3 Ibid., pp. 102—104.

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 45
expression in his poetry. "His theme is 'a romantic
idealization of Scottish aristocracy ' ; but his romance
is not like Homer's, who rejoiced in describing the
present, and investing it with a supernatural light ; it
is not like Tasso's, told with solemnity and reverence,
as though in fulfilment of a religious vow; nor like
Spenser's, the form and garb in which the visions of an
ideal world and longings for supernatural perfection are
. clothed. It is more like that of Pindar, starting- from
the present and working back into past ages ; yet the
association with his childhood marks him off from all
these poets, and gives his poetry a colouring of sim
plicity short only of that which would have resulted
from actual truth." 2
The theory of poetry here advanced rests mainly
upon the Poetics of Aristotle. " Expression by metrical
words " is Keble's translation of piprjo-Hs ; the refusal to
test poetry merely by its form is common to both. The
distinction of primary and secondary poets corresponds
in some measure to that of the enthusiastic and versatile
temperaments to which Aristotle traces poetry; the
medical effect of poetry is akin to the "purgation"
which Aristotle attributes to tragedy. But Aristotle
writes as a critic, and is thinking of the effect upon the
readers ; Keble, as a poet, dwells primarily on the effect
upon the poet, and secondarily on that upon the readers.
He is independent too of his master, and ventures to
criticize him on several points, such as the importance
which he assigns to the action in a tragedy. He draws
from a much wider store of knowledge than Aristotle,
and takes as his final guide the poems of the Old
Testament, "that sacred volume which corrects so
1 Ufe of Sir W. Scolt, p. 50.

46 JOHN KEBLE.
many of our erring anticipations." 1 " From their perfect
parallelism they are the most artificial of all composi
tions, yet none ever so apt to relieve the deepest and
most overflowing minds ; exhibiting therefore by their
very form, as compared with their matter, the perfection
of that self-control which must itself be the perfection
of a mixed creature like man ; thoughts that breathe
and words that burn, exactly obeying a certain high
law and shaped by it into perfect order." 2
To some such a theory may seem too much to deny
the value of spontaneity, too much dominated by a
religious mood, too relative to a dogmatic standard.
But it must be remembered that Keble does not profess
to explain every function or source of poetry ; he is only
seeking for a standard that shall guide us to the best
poets; he does admit of a different standard in judging
heathen writers ; and he believes that the truest spon
taneity is that which is controlled by the sense of
dependence on a higher Power. " The worshippers of
Baal may be rude and frantic in their cries and gestures,
but the true prophet speaking to or of the true God is
all dignity and calmness."3 The canon for which he
contends is this, that the best poets are those who have
felt throughout their life the deepest feelings about
Nature, about man, and about God which were possible
at their time.
Such a theory at least adds the highest dignity
to the function of the poet. Keble approaches the
subject with something of religious awe. Although in
his review of Copleston's lectures he had condemned
the practice of lecturing in Latin, he defends and even
1 Sacred Poetry, p. 95. 2 Life of Sir W. Scott, p. 18.
3 Sacred Poetry, p. 91.

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 47
welcomes it for himself, as it enforces deeper thought
and makes the lecturer consider what is true, not what
is taking or eloquent. His task is " most serious, well-
nigh sacred." Poetry is treated by him as akin to
philosophy ; they both seek truth, though philosophy
begins with Nature as apparently the more abstruse
theme, and comes back to human life when the
problems of existence become more difficult; poetry
begins with human life, and takes refuge from its
perplexities in Nature. More closely still is poetry akin
to religion. Providence has watched over it, ordering
even the developments of its various styles. As among
the Jews the poetic writings of the prophets prepared
the way for the Messiah, so among tho Gentiles the
best literature, whether philosophical or poetical,
played the same part. Hence it is that Christians can
still read the Pagan poets with a religious interest ;
they can afford to judge such a poet as Lucretius more
tolerantly than Cicero could, as they view him re
latively to bis times. But he fancies he hears the
Puritan objection that the study of such Pagan
literature is unnecessary now that we have a fuller
Revelation. No, he answers, far from it. It is true
that in the early Christian Church some writers de
nounced Pagan literature, but even they used it, and
were only anxious that it should not stand as a rival to the
absolute Truth. It is true, too, that the early Christian
Church had few poets of its own ; but they had as
solace for their overburdened feelings the Hebrew
poetry, the grandeur of the early Liturgies, and the
whole Sacramental system.1 We who have so little
hold on this may well be thankful to God for the poets
1 Pral. Acad., xxxi.

48 JOHN KEBLE.
who soothe our feelings and stir our aspirations. Even
if Pagan poets seem unnecessary, yet Nature is ever
liberal of its gifts; it showers them on man with no
utilitarian hand ; and poetry, such as that of Virgil or
Lucretius, is one of its greatest gifts, with its constant
witness that neither action nor thought are adequate to
satisfy the human spirit. When Christian poets did
arise, they prepared the way for improvements in
Religion, just as Shakspere and Spenser led the way
to the Caroline revival, or Scott revived the interest in
the past in our own times. For in essence Poetry and
Religion are at one, and they demand one and the
same temper of mind. Each is an attempt to express
man's strongest feelings and to lay hold of the highest
truths. Poetry lends its wealth of symbol and simile
to tbe service of Religion, and Religion returns them
glorified. Poetry takes to itself " all subjects which
can anyhow take entire hold of the imagination and
cause it to seek relief by indirect expression."1 "The
poet of the Church will find neither feeling nor
condition in human life or in the works of God beyond
his reach or without his province." 2 Yet Poetry, like
Religion, hides its deepest truths and reveals them only
to the pure in heart, to those who love them enough to
press into their secrets. Thus Poetry rises almost to
the dignity of a Sacrament, with its outward visible
words and inward spiritual truth. As the poet himself
needs, no less than the religious man, to choose his
object of love worthily, to praise it sincerely, to commit
himself heartily to it, to be courageously and con
sistently loyal to it, so the reader has to approach
the poem as a worshipper would a Sacrament, with
1 Life of Sir W. Scott, p. 15. 2 Ibid., p. 79. .< k

THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 49
reverence and a determination to press inward to its
heart. "A good deal is to be gained from the mere
habit of looking at things with a view to something
beyond their qualities merely sensible ; to their sacred
and moral meaning and to the high associations they
were intended to create in us. Neither the works nor
the word of God, neither poetry nor theology, can be
duly comprehended without constant mental exercise
of this kind. Without something of this sort, poetry
and all the other arts would be relaxing to the tone of
the mind." 1 The instrument which the poet uses is
the imagination ; all poetic pleasure is referred to the
awakening ef some moral or religious feeling, not by
direct instruction but by way of association ; hence
there must be some elasticity in the reader's mind, else
it will not vibrate to the touch of the artist. " Wherever,
from the beauty of the thing imitated or from the
skill of the imitator, the mind is excited to fill up the
picture for itself, there is poetical pleasure, not however
produced by the perception of likeness, but by the
workings of the imagination." 2
This outline fails to do justice to a volume which
Dean Church has called "the most original and
memorable course ever delivered from the Chair of
Poetry in Oxford ; " s and Bishop Moberley, in even
stronger praise, " One of the most charming and valuable
volumes of classical criticism that ever issued from the
press." 4 But it may serve to draw the attention of a
later generation to it and may suggest the advisability
of an English translation.
1 Sacred Poetry, p. 100. s Review of Copleston, p. 156.
3 The Oxford Movement, p. 273.
4 Preface to J. K.'s Miscellaneous Poems, p. xxi.

CHAPTER III.
THE CHRISTIAN TEAR.
" Tby book I love because thyself art there."— I. Williams.
Ever since his undergraduate days poetic expression
had been a relief to Keble in his deepest moods, and
at least as early as 1819 he had begun the poems
which now appear in the Christian Year, and by 1820
had formed the idea of a complete collection to illus
trate the Sundays and Holy Days of the year. The
conception was probably original with him, although of
course it is in a line with much of Christian Poetry.
The Peristephanon and Cathemerinon of Prudentius
are exactly parallel, not being hymns for public worship,
but poetic meditations on the Martyrs' festivals and the
daily hours. There is, too, something akin to it in
English poetry in The Hymns and Songs of the Church
by G. Wither (1623), and an even closer analogy is to
be found in Eaton's Holy Calendar of 1661.1 This is
a , small and interesting volume, consisting of a treble
series of epigrams written to illustrate all the chief
1 Tbe Holy Calendar, by N. Eaton, Doctor of Philosophy and
Medicine, and Vicar of Bishop's Castle, Salop, 1661 ; reprinted
by J. Tasker, Shrewsbury, 1888.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 51
festivals and saints' days of the Church of England. It
is written by a strong Cavalier and Churchman. As
is natural at such a moment, the epigrams are fulsome
in their adulation of the King, and quaint and fanciful
in conceit ; yet there is much of real beauty and true
feeling in them, and they are a striking witness to the
continuity of the doctrine of the Church of England ;
there is as strong a reverence for the saints and
especially for the Blessed Virgin, as clear a statement
of the doctrine of the Real Presence of the Lord in
His Sacrament, as would be found in any Tractarian
writings. It will therefore be excused if I quote two
specimens of this book. The first is a good instance of
the writer's simple sweetness of thought.
NEW YEAR'S DAY. (Epigr. 1.)
" 'Tis custome, Lord, this day to send
A gift to every vulgar freind,
And shall I find no gift for Tbee,
That art tbe best of freinds to me 1
There's nothing which my thoughts survey,
My life, my soul, tbe light, the day ;
But they are all Thy gifts to me,
And shall I find no gift for Tbee 1
Yea, Lord, behold I bear conferr
My life, my soul, and wbatsome're
Thy liberal band hath given to me,
Back as a new-year's gift on Tbee.
Say'd I a gift ? Ab ! 'tis not so,
Alas botb men and Angels know
That all these things Thy Cbrist hath bought,
And therefore I can give Tbee naught."
The second will serve to illustrate the writer's
interpretation of the doctrine of the Church of
England — ASCENSION DAY. (Epigr. 2.)
" Look in what sense the Son of Man was said
To be in Heaven whilst yet on earth He stayd.

52 JOHN KEBLE.
In the same sense we grant His body, though
In Heaven, may still be say'd to be below.
He is ascended all agree, that same
Material flesh and blood of His that came
From the pure Virgin's Womb, Heavens now retain,
And until all things be restor'd again,
Must still retain it ; yet it is contest,
That when tbe holy Elements are blest
By tbe Priest's powerful lipe, though nothing there
To outward sense but Bread and Wine appear,
Yet doth there under those dark formes reside
The body of the Son of Man that dy'd :
This, wbat bold tongue soever dotb deny,
Gives in effect even Christ Himself tbe ly.
Yet this wboe're too grossly doth maintain,
Pulls bis ascended Lord from Heaven again.
A middle course 'twixt these two rocks to steer,
Is that becomes the Christian Mariner.
So to beleeve the Ascension as to grant
His Real Presence in tbe Sacrament ;
Yet so His Real Presence there to own
As not to make void His Ascension."
There is no evidence that Keble knew this work,
although his article on Sacred Poetry shows a wide
acquaintance with previous religious poets. His
favourite poets were Shakspere j1 Spenser, whose alle
gorical form seemed to him to suit the true reserve which
a poet ought to feel; George Blerbert, with his deep
penitence and chastened fu^ for his Master ; Words
worth, with his religious ^ihpathy with Nature ; Scott,
with his enthusiasm for the days of chivalry and
loyalty; and, though in a less and lessening degree,
Southey. Ye^ his poems cannot be said to bear the
trace of any direct influence upon their form. The
interesting discussion in the Prmlectiones on the
influence of Homer perhaps suggests that the writer
himself was conscious of having been kindled by some
1 Froude (Remains, i., p. 209), in a letter to J. K., speaks of
" Your favourite play, Measure for Measure."

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 53
one great poet ; if so, was it Homer ? Certainly the
language of Homer has inspired some of the best
poems of the Christian Year.1 Or was it Scott, to
whom he goes back so frequently in the Prmlectiones,
and of wbom he speaks so lovingly in his review of
Lockhart's life ? Certainly either Homer with his
idealization of the heroic age, or Scott with that of
the age of chivalry, would kindle his own love of the
recollections of childhood or the glories of the early
Church, though the very sense of such dependence
would keep him on his guard against direct imitation
of their form. In the earlier poems, indeed, Southey's
influence of form and thought is perceptible, and in a
less degree that of Scott and Wordsworth, but he had
shaken himself free and has a style that is independ
ent and entirely his own in the Christian Year. It is
marred from time to time by want of smoothness of
metre, by obscurity in the connection of the thought
between verse and verse, but on the whole it is spon
taneous, melodious, and clear.
It was while he was Tutor at Oriel that the collection
of poems began to grow, but it was the time of his
curacies in Gloucestershire and Hampshire which was
most prolific. This was a period when his feelings
were deeply stirred, both by his mother's death in
1823, and by that of his favourite sister in 1826. In
1825 a long attachment on which he. had set his heart
ended in a refusal, and some of the sweetest efforts
after resignation in the poems date from this year; and
it was, too, a period which supplied him with the tran
quillity which transfuses emotion into poetry. He had
1 Cf. The Holy Innocents; Sixth Sunday after Epiphany;
Monday before Easter.

54 JOHN KEBLE.
no idea of publication; he would have preferred that
the poems should appear after his death, but they were
shown among his friends. Arnold wrote as early as
1823, "It is my firm opinion that nothing equal to
them exists in our language ; the wonderful knowledge
of Scripture, the purity of heart, and the richness of
poetry, which they exhibit, I never saw paralleled."
Froude was more critical, thinking that they were
addressed too much to matter-of-fact good people, and
that they did not do enough to sober down into practical
piety those whose feelings were acute, and who were
inclined to indulge in a dreamy, visionary existence.
He was afraid that people would take the writer of
them for a Methodist.1 Dyson pressed him to publish ;
Davison suggested that he should add the poems for
the Occasional Services; his own father was anxious
to see the work published before his death, and this
was a pressure which he could never resist. Accordingly
many poems were retouched to meet the criticism of
obscurity, the last poems were written in the spring
of 1827, and on May 30th the Preface was composed.
The draft of this, which is preserved in tbe Library of
Keble College, is written, like so many of his poems, on
the back of an old letter, and consists of two paragraphs.
In the first copy the paragraph which now stands
second came first, but on writing it out he seems to have
thought it better to state first the true spirit of the
Church of England, and then the way in which this
book attempted to conform to it. The whole object of it
was to promote a sober standard of feeling in matters of
practical religion and to illustrate the soothing tendency
of the Prayer-book. It may be interesting to notice
1 Remains, i., p. 184.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 55
two changes which were made at the last moment. In
the MS. of the Morning Hymn there is found after the
fourth stanza a fifth which has not been published —
" Hence tbe poor sinner still has found
Life but one dull unvarying round ;
And mourned ere half bis course was run,
That nought is new beneath tbe sun."
This appears in the proof of the first edition, but it
must have been struck out at the last moment, perhaps
from a feeling that the sad side of life had already been
sufficiently dwelt on in a morning hymn which was to
open the volume. Again, in the poem for Christmas
Day, after stanza v. was inserted —
" The heart imbued with earth
Is but a place of guests.
Where foul- winged tboughts of lowly birth
Successive make tbeir nests ;
Each in bis twilight gloom with cheerless moan,
Fluttering a little while, and then for ever gone."
It will be seen that this gives fresh point to the
contrast in stanza vi. of the pure thoughts which dwell
where Christ is ; but again the writer has not cared to
emphasize the dark side of the picture.
The volume was a success at once : Newman writes
on June 10th, " Keble's hymns seem quite exquisite."
His sister says, " The commendation of them from all
the choicest people is so great as to satisfy even our
voracious appetite for praise." A second edition was
called for within the year, and edition has succeeded
edition with almost unparalleled quickness ever since.
Nowhere in the Preface is there any reference to
himself, and the book (in two volumes of small 8vo.)
was published anonymously ; nor did he add his name
in subsequent editions. In the third edition in 1828

56 JOHN KEBLE.
the last six poems were added, including the poem on
November 5th, which was entitled, An Address to
Converts from Popery. Beyond this no further altera
tions were made, save that on his deathbed he sanctioned
the change in the thirteenth stanza of this poem. This
had run — " 0 come to our Communion Feast !
There, present in the heart,
Not in tbe bands, the eternal Priest
Will his true self impart."
Probably he would not himself have written this line
in later life, for he stated in 1845 that when he wrote
the Christian Year he did not fully understand the
doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, but he frequently
refused to alter it. Froude had criticized it as early'
as 1835 (Remains, i. p. 403) ; Dr. Pusey had discussed
it with him in 1855, and he had then half playfully
said, "I suppose that the real correction would be to
put 'As' instead of 'Not';" but it seemed to him
valuable as a protection against a notion of a gross
carnal Presence (Euch. Ador. Pref. p. xiii, note, 1859) ;
and he argued that on the analogy of such passages
as " I will have mercy and not sacrifice," it might
be legitimately interpreted as meaning "not in the
hands only."1 But on February 9th, 1866, Bishop
Jeune had quoted the lines in Convocation as express
ing Mr. Keble's opinion against a real objective Pre
sence ; and this weighed upon his mind so much that
he decided to make the alteration which he had pre
viously suggested, and it was carried out after his death
by his executor.
1 In one copy of the Original Poems be has written " There,
treasured in the heart." It seems a pity that this was not
preserved,

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 57
He never liked to speak of the volume or hear it
spoken of. Why was it that he shrunk from this ? The
answer shall be given in the words of an old parish
ioner of Hursley, whose husband had been in Keble's
service, and who said twenty-four years after his death,
while her honest face glowed with pleasure as she spoke
of him — "Father and I do read the Christian Year
every Sunday, and it do bring Mm out to us more than
we knew even when he was alive." It laid bare all his
deepest feelings of love and penitence ; it had been
written purely for his own relief, and it seemed to be
wanting in due reserve to publish it. He had fre
quently treated poetry as well-nigh sacramental, as the
outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual
truth ; and this seemed almost like exposing a Sacra
ment to be gazed at. There was too the humbler feeling
that he had such a slight hold upon that inward and
spiritual truth ; that he might have misrepresented it ;
that as far as he had truly represented it, it had only
flashed from time to time upon his sight, and that if
people could only come and gaze into his heart, they
might find it so very different from the ideal which he
had tried to portray. This will appear even more clearly
if we judge him by his own test. He has said that
every true poet has some one permanent overmastering
emotion which breaks out again and again and clamours
for utterance. Would it not be true to' say that with
him it was " the love of innocence " ? There is deep
down in his heart the belief that man can answer to
the love of God ; that sin is an outside element which
need not be with us ; that innocence is possible ; that if
it has been forfeited, still the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ can restore it. It is the passion for purity

58 JOHN KEBLE.
which made him so very gentle to children ; it is this
which inspired the Lyra Innocentium ; it is "the
innocent brightness of an infant's face " 1 which drew him
to them, which made him bend over the children whom
he baptized with such loving tenderness as they recalled
the sense of what he might have been, and what Christ
yet might make him ; it was " the bliss of childlike
innocence" that seemed to him to give such insight
to the old age of a true Christian ; it was this which
made him love the fifty-first Psalm so much, because
it told of that free spirit blest
" Who to the contrite can dispense
Tbe princely heart of innocence." 2
It was this which turned his thoughts so often to
the type of purity, the Virgin Mother "so pure and
sweet," and prompted that which seems to have been
the earliest poem of the volume,
" Bless'd are the pure in heart,
For they shall see our God ;
The secret of the Lord is theirs,
Their soul is Christ's abode."
But this was not simply a personal individual feeling.
M. Renan has said of St. Paul that he felt for his
churches the same affection which ordinarily people
feel for the dearest objects of their love. That is true
of Keble's feeling for the Church of England : he is
jealous for her innocence, her good name, her purity,
her freedom. As he had chosen for his favourite poets
those whose overmastering emotion was for the glories
of the past, so his own enthusiasm was kindled by the
1 The Holy Innocents, stanza iv.
2 Sixth Sunday after Trinity.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 59
glories of the early Church, and the bright spots in her
subsequent history. In his own words, " the Christian
Year always supposes the Church to be in a state of
decay," and he cannot acquiesce in a Church so sluggish,
so worldly, so utilitarian, because of the purity of his
ideal. But he cannot despair : he recalls the student
Jerome " cheering his sickening heart with his own
native air," in the worst days of error; the mailed
monarch St. Louis, through court and camp holding
his heavenward course serene; the calm and sweet of
Isaac Walton's life amidst the age of light, light
without love ; ' and all these memories are meant to
awaken the slumbering, to inspire fresh hope, to lead
the Church to be true to its first eager life of purity
and truth. The whole volume is a dirge over the
lost glory of the Church; but it is much more than
that ; it is a trumpet-call to Christians to be true to the
life which is in them, even though they may have to
face the martyr's death. Christian brothers imust draw
closer together to bear witness to the value of each
soul and to knit firmly the bond of brotherhood. It
seemed to him that it was the true function of poetry
to rise above the marks of sin and woe and to recreate
the ideal before men, and he rouses poets to their
task in these stirring words —
" Ye whose hearts are beating bigb
With the pulse of Poesy,
Heirs of more tban royal race,
Fram'd by Heaven's peculiar grace,
God's own work to do on earth
(If tbe word be not too bold),
Giving virtue a new birth,
And a life that ne'er grows old —
1 First Sunday in Advent.

60 JOHN KEBLE.
Sovereign masters of all hearts !
Know ye wbo batb set your parts 1
He who gave you breath, to sing,
By whose strength ye sweep the string ;
He bath chosen yon, to lead
His Hosannas here below ; —
Mount, and claim your glorious meed ;
Linger not with sin and woe."
It was the thought of this ideal which saddened him
so much that poets like Byron and Shelley — " Lips that
might half heaven reveal " — should linger over passion
and vice and be sealed in thankless silence towards
God. Taking then this love of innocence as our keynote,
we will examine the Christian Year rather more in
detail. Some of its most beautiful poems are drawn
forth by the love of Nature : there is little wealth of
description; the voices of the mountain and of the sea
are but little heard in it ; in the main he depicts the
quiet woodland scenery of the neighbourhood of
Fairford. In his own words about his poems —
" tlieir cherished haunt batb been
By streamlet, violet bank, and orchard green,
Mid lowly views and scenes of common earth.''
The soft green willow that teaches him " content
ment's power " grew on the road from Fairford to Coin
St. Aldwyn. The spot where, near to each other, rise the
Thames and a small tributary of the Severn, suggested
the poem for the Monday in Easter week; a small
island in the river Test that for the next day.1 Or
again, he dwells on the features of the Holy Land
as known to him from travellers' descriptions; but in
both alike he touches with a delicate accuracy the
1 Miss Yonge, Musings on the Christian Year, pp. 47, 129, 131.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 61
characteristic feature and makes it live before our eyes.
His poems have been compared to a woodland scene
by Gainsborough for their freshness, their absence of
exaggeration, their indescribable charm. Sometimes he
describes Nature for the sake of her own beauty ; he is
the poet of the fresh sunrise, of the rainbow pride of
summer days, but — how characteristically — more of the
sunset's beauty and the glory of decaying autumn. As
he watches it, a life seems to pervade the universe ;
nay, it seems to throb to the stirrings of love.
" The clouds that wrap the setting sun
When autumn's softest gleams are ending,
Where all bright hues together run
In sweet confusion blending : —
Why, as we watch their floating wreatb
Seem they tbe breath of life to breathe 1
To fancy's eye their motions prove
They mantle round tbe sun for love.
" When up some woodland dale we catcb
Tbe many- twinkling smile of Ocean,
Or with pleas'd ear bewildered watch
His chime of restless motion ;
Still as the surging waves retire
They seem to gasp with strong desire ;
Sucli signs of love old Ocean gives,
We cannot choose but tbink be lives."
But it is seldom that Nature is described for her own
sake : his mind hurries on to catch her lesson for man,
and to draw out her influence upon him, to interpret
"The secret lore of rural things,
The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale,
Tbe whispers from above that haunt the twilight vale."
The joyous praise of Nature, as she does her work, " all
true, all faultless, all in tune," as she pays her " tribute
to the genial heaven," as,

62 JOHN KEBLE.
" True to her trust, tree, herb, or reed,
Sbe renders for each scattered seed,"
is a type of true, innocent service ; as she passes away
in quiet decay, losing her life though pure from sin and
stain, yet all unmurmuring, she is a type of the gopd
man sinking peacefully to his end.
" How quiet shows the woodland scene !
Each flower and tree, its duty done,
Reposing in decay serene,
Like weary men when age is won,
Sucb calm old age as conscience pure
And self-commanding hearts ensure,
Waiting tbeir summons to the sky,
Content to live, but not afraid to die."
More often a sad contrast is drawn; Nature is ever
" reproving thankless man " ; her obedience stands over
against his "rebel works and will " ; her gratitude against
his "thankless joyless sight " ; her "trust entire and cease
less praise " against his sadness, whether it be that man
only forgets God and yields nought in return for his
lavish gifts, or whether it be that the sinner is borne
down by the sense of remorse and penitence, and cannot
rise to the true joyousness of forgiveness, but idly
¦' dreams of blessings gone,"
" Or wakes tbe spectral forms of woe and crime,
When Nature sings of joy and hope alone,
Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time."
But Nature is no cruel censor of man ; her lesson is
cheerful ; her nurslings are companions gay in child
hood, soothing in the sorrows of older years ; she can
even lend of her own stores of innocence to man, and
will lend ungrudgingly.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 63
" Ye dwell beside our paths and homes,
Our paths of sin, our homes of sorrow,
And guilty man, where'er be roams,
Your innocent mirth may borrow.
The birds of air before us fleet,
They cannot brook our sbame to meet —
But we may taste your solace sweet,
And come again to-morrow." *
But there is a deeper truth still ; the whole of Nature
is rich with symbolic meaning, and full of teaching
about the things of God. " My book," said St. Antony,
" is Nature, and it is always by me if I want to read the
works of God." This is the very spirit of the three
great poems on Nature in the Christian Year, those for
Septuagesima Sunday, and for the Fourth Sunday after
Trinity, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent. It is
brought out in logical argument in Tract No. 89, with
which we shall deal later : here it is expressed in lyrical
beauty. All Nature is the work of God's hand, laid out
by him for man to read. It is, in a word, sacramental,
it is an external, visible sign, through which we ought
to read a spiritual truth;
" The colouring may be of this earth,
Tbe lustre comes of heavenly birth."
Even Pagan seers and poets had a faint consciousness
of this deep meaning of earthly things, but for Christians
all is made clear. Now that the earth has been made
the scene of the Incarnation,
" Henceforth, to eyes of bigb desire,
Tbe meanest things below,
As witb a serapb's robe of fire
Invested, burn and glow."
1 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.

64 JOHN KEBLE.
Christ's death and resurrection have given earth a
newer meaning —
" And tbe base world, now Christ has died,
Ennobled is and glorified."
So the eyes of his high desire are keen to trace these
analogies : his Love to offer of her best. The sky is
like the Maker's Love ; the sun is like the Light of
the World ; the moon like the Church which reflects
its rays ; the stars are the saints above ; the trees the
saints below ; the dew is the grace of heaven ; the fire
and the wind tell of the Spirit; the oleanders on the
shores of the Lake of Gennesaret are like hermits
watching around the sacred hill where the Saviour had
prayed ; the Paschal moon is like a saint left alone
with Christ; the morning sun shining on each dew-
brightened blade of grass, and giving it a new lustre,
speaks of the value of each soul ; or again, as it scatters
the darkness of the night and the mists of the morning
and lights up the whole city with its glow, it is a
symbol of the Gospel message reaching and kindling
Mammon's gloomiest cells, and fills us with the certain
hope that
" No mist that man may raise shall hide the eye of Heaven." 1
Some of these illustrations may seem fanciful, but the
analogy underlies all our Lord's teaching by parables,
and if we do not take Nature as the adequate type of
man with his free will, it must be true. But even in
tracing these analogies the thought of sin breaks in;
Ave may interpret these analogies wrongly ; we may be
entirely deafened to their message ; we may only cast
1 In every summer night "Heaven i^s teaching earth to
comfort man." Miscellaneous Poems, p. 24J2.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 65
wistful looks at the bright things in earth and sky ; but
the fault lies with us, not with them, and not with Him
who made them —
" Two worlds are ours ; 'tis only sin
Forbids us to descry
Tbe mystic beaven and earth within,
Plain as tbe sea and sky."
The passion for innocence is equally marked in the
treatment of human life. Each soul is of infinite value
in Christ's sight: each Christian has received special
privileges, and cannot ever be as the heathen, ever be
as though he had not received them. Hence the true
attitude even of sinless human life is that of grateful
dependence upon God, and while true to that, each
human virtue is strong and beautiful. The son's and
mother's love is of all the most sacred, because that
was Christ's own ; the love of brother for brother lasts
unimpaired although they part in life; a comrade's
song bids the lonely watcher to be bold and strong;
married life seems to have a glory above that of this
earth — " And there are souls which seem to dwell
Above this earth — so rich a spell
Floats round tbeir steps, where'er tbey move,
From hopes fulfilled and mutual love."
Nowhere could we have a more exact description of
all that makes the Englishman's idea of a true home
than in the lines —
" Sweet is tbe smile of home ; tbe mutual look
When hearts are of eacb other sure ;
Sweet all tbe joys that crowd tbe household nook,
Tbe baunt of all affections pure."
And though none need leave the world for cloistered
cell, yet in a sense the " hermits blest and holy maids ''

66 JOHN KEBLE.
are the nearest heaven on earth ; for this earth has
but shadows which we may not rest in; no help save
Him who made it is meet for thej30ul, and all earthly
love must be foregone at His dear call.
Thus much would be true had man never sinned;
but, in fact, he is " a sinner in a life of care " ; even
joy has its dangers, " There is an awe in mortal's joy,
A deep mysterious fear."
Praise is a peril to him ; his tears of penitence may
be self-deceiving; there must be discipline, self-denial,
sobriety, reserve, " clean hands and a self-ruling mind."
Each Christian has to learn " the lowly lesson of con
tent " ; his voice must take " somewhat of Resignation's
tone " ; he must be
" Ready to give thanks and live
On tbe least that Heaven may give,"
for " to be tranquil and be blest " is the path of safety,
and the lesson of sweet peace is " rather to be resigned
than blest." Those who live such lives, who spend with
Christ their happy days, are sure to know Him by proof,
and are able to tell of Him to their brethren, till they
too see the. Saviour plain. And yet we may not have
any sense of assurance such as will let us for one
moment relinquish effort or lose the sense of depend
ence. "The gray-haired saint may fail at last":
nothing but death can bind us fast to the shore of love.
This is a part of our probation, and the thought recurs
again and again in the poems, as we shall find it later
in the arguments about the Roman controversy. It is
found in the most strong of all the outpourings of

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 67
personal affection for the Saviour, in one of his earliest
poems — " Then, fainting soul, arise and sing,
Mount, but be sober on tbe wing ;
Mount up, for heaven is won by prayer,
Be sober, for thou art not there ;
Till Death tbe weary spirit free,
Tby God batb said, 'Tis good for thee
To walk by faith and not by sigbt ;
Take it on trust a little while ;
Soon sbalt tbou read the mystery right
In tbe full sunshine of His smile."
It is found equally strong four years later —
" There are who, darkling and alone,
Would wish the weary night were gone,
Though dawning morn should only shew
The secret of their unknown woe :
Wbo pray for sharpest throbs of pain
To ease them of doubt's galling chain :
' Only disperse tbe cloud,' tbey cry,
' And if our fate be death, give light and let us die.'
" Unwise I deem tbem, Lord, unmeet
To profit by Tby chastenings sweet,
For Tbou wouldst bave us linger still
Upon the verge of good or ill,
That on Thy guiding band unseen
Our undivided, hearts may lean,
And this our frail and foundering bark
Glide in tbe narrow wake of Tby beloved ark."
Sorrow and disappointment are treated as God's
blessings in disguise, because they make us see that
this is to be no world of rest for us. We may not wish
them away, we can only pray for a thankful heart, and
feel that we are never so safe as when
" . . . . our will
Yields undiscerned by all but God."
But what of the sorrow of sin, of remorse, of the secret

68 JOHN KEBLE.
memories of evil, which weigh us down ? That too is
God smiling on us in wrath : but we may not give way
to melancholy; we may not nurse even thoughts of
remorse : we must confess our sins ; but then we must
look away from self to Christ's atoning work —
" .... by tbe judge within
Absolved, in thankful sacrifice to part
For ever with thy sullen heart,
Nor on remorseful thoughts to brood, and stain
Tbe glory of tbe Cross, forgiven and cbeer'd in vain."
Here, where he is speaking of each worshipper taking
part in the Commination Service, the language is only
of the judge within : elsewhere he speaks of the com
fort of human aid —
" How sweet, in that dark bour, to fall
On bosoms waiting to receive
Our sighs, and gently whisper all 1
They love us— will not God forgive 1 "
For through humanity man passes up to God. On the
one hand he who fails in human love will be unable to
respond to the Divine —
"The heart that scorn'd a father's care,
How can it rise in filial prayer 1
How an all-seeing Guardian bear 1
Or how shall envious brethren own
A Brother on tb' eternal throne,
Their Father's joy, their hope alone 1
How shall Thy Spirit's gracious wile
The sullen brow of gloom beguile,
That frowns on sweet Affection's smile ? "
On the other hand, Christ's pastors have to teach
" first filial love and then Divine " ; the love of human
friends is an assurance that God, who loves us better
than He knows, will forgive ; for His love will not

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 69
fail, even if father and mother forsake ; Christ will ever
perform a brother's part.
Principal Shairp has singled it out as one of the
special characteristics of Keble that, combined with
devout reverence for the Person of our Lord, there is
in him, first perhaps of his contemporaries, a closer, more
personal love to Him as a living Friend. Again, Dean
Church has said that one result of Tractarianism was
the increased care for the Gospels and study of them as
compared with other parts of the Bible.1 Is there any
connection between these two facts, and is this another
part of the debt which Tractarianism owes to Keble ?
Certainly the Gospel scenes are dwelt on with loving
details ; certainly the Lord is ever present as the abiding
Friend, as the Saviour. The doctrine of the Atonement
is indeed dear to the writer ; it is only when " sprinkled
with His atoning blood " that Christians can stand before
their God; but (to adapt Dean Church's words) the
great Name stands no longer for an abstract symbol of
doctrine, but for a living Master, who can teach as well
as save. He is the Friend who can abide with us
from morn till eve ; He is dearer than father or mother,
than brother or husband; caring for each of His
followers " as if beside nor man nor angel lived in
heaven or earth." What language could tell of trustful
personal love more directly than this ?
" My Saviour, can it ever be
That I should gain by losing Tbee ?
Tbe watchful mother tarries nigh
Though sleep have closed her infant's eye,
For should be wake and find ber gone,
She knows sbe could not bear bis moan.
1 Oxford Movement, p. 167.

70 JOHN KEBLE.
But I am weaker than a child,
And Thou art more than mother dear ;
Without Tbee beaven were but a wild :
How can I live without Tbee here ? "
This personal love of God is ever round us; in
Nature, in the Gospel, in the Church are His gifts and
His appeals to man; and if man refuse to listen to this
appeal, then the same love has " wrath that can relent
no more." The voice that promised eternal bliss has
also threatened eternal woe ; that warning may not be
neglected; God's truth and justice may not be sacri
ficed. If it were,
" Where is then the stay of contrite hearts ?
Of old they lean'd on Tby eternal word,
But with tbe sinner's fear their hope departs,
Fast link'd as Tby great Name to Thee, O Lord."
As we shall see throughout his life, no false tender
ness can keep back the stern fide of the Gospel ; and
though it is perhaps an accident, it is not an insignifi
cant accident that the last word of the completed
volume is a word of fear —
" And ob, wben worn and tired they sigh
With that more fearful war within,
Wben Passion's storms are loud and high,
And brooding o'er remembered sin
Tbe heart dies down — 0 mightiest then,
Come ever true, come ever near,
And wake their slumbering love again,
Spirit of God's most boly Fear ! *
Yet with all its sternness, the one really descriptive
epithet of the book is "soothing." Its object was to
illustrate " the soothing tendency of the Prayer-book."
"I woo the soothing art" was the writer's professed
aim ; it speaks of the " soothing " power of Nature ; of

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 71
the " soothing charm " of the Holy Communion service ;
of the awful " soothing " calm which alights on mourners.
" It was the most soothing, tranquillizing, subduing
work of the day ; if poems can be found to enliven in
dejection, and to comfort in anxiety, to cool the over-
sanguine, to refresh the weary, and to awe the worldly ;
to instil resignation into the impatient and calmness
into the fearful and agitated — they are these." 1
Its most permanent value lies in this power to
soothe ; but perhaps at the time its power to stir was
of even greater weight. In it will be found nearly all
the truths and the tone which came to the front in
Tractarianism. Dean Church has said that the Oxford
Movement had two great sides, the one theological, the
other resolutely practical. Theologically it forced an
answer to the questions — " What is the Church ? Is it
a reality, or a mode of speech ? On what grounds does
it rest ? How may it be known ? Is it among us ?
How is it to be discriminated from its rivals or counter
feits ? What is its essential constitution ? What does
it teach ? What are its shortcomings ? Does it need
reform ? " On the other hand, its ethical tendency
was shown in its increased care for the Gospels and
study of them ; and in the increased sense of the
necessity of self-discipline. " Seriousness, reverence,
the fear of insincere words and unsound professions,
were essential in the character which alone it would
tolerate in those who made common cause with it."
Both these sides are characteristic of the Christian
Year, written before the movement and confessedly
contributing to it. The detailed questions about the
Church are indeed absent ; its notes, its relation to
1 J. H. Newman : Essays, ii., p. 441.,

72 JOHN KEBLE.
other bodies — these were forced to the front in later
days ; but every reader must have been brought face to
face with the question of its reality and of its claims
upon his own life; he must have been drawn closer
to the Gespels, and braced to self-discipline and the
pursuit of holiness.
The poems awe and stir and soothe alike, because they
are so real; they have so vivid a sense of the spiritual
world, with all its terrors as well as its beauty and grace.
He is the prophet of the fear of God no less than the
poet of His love. For the success of the Christian
lyrist it is " essential that what he sets before us must
be true in substance, and in manner marked by a noble
simplicity and confidence in that truth, by a sincere
attachment to it and entire^ familiarity with it." 2
That was his own ideal, and one who knew him well
has said, " If there is one quality which more than any
other may- be said to mark jhis writings, it is their
intense and absolute veracity. Never for a moment is
the very truth sacrificed to effect. I will venture to
say with confidence that there is not a sentiment to be
found elevated or amplified beyond what he really felt,
nor, I would add, even an epithet that goes beyond his
actual and true thought. What he was in life and
character, that he was transparently in every line he
wrote — entirely, always, reverentially true." 2
The result upon others is best summed up in the
words of Hurrell Froude : " Your poems are the best
helps to conceiving that we really are the people for
whom such great and wonderful things have been
done," 8 and the secret of this in the words of Dr. Pusey :
1 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 91.
2 Bp. Moberley : Preface to Miscellaneous Poems, p. xvii.
3 Remains, i., p. 210,

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 73
" It taught, because his own soul was moved so deeply ;
the stream burst forth, because the heart which poured
it out was full; it was fresh, deep, tender, loving,
because himself was such ; it disclosed to souls secrets
which they knew not, but could not fail to own when
knownj because he was so true and thought aloud ; and
conscience everywhere responded to the voice of
conscience." 1
1 Sermon at Keble College, 1876, p. 26.

CHAPTER IV.
the struggle. 1833 — 1841.
" What if to tbe trumpet's sound-
Voices few come answering round?
Scarce a votary swell tbe burst
Wben tbe anthem peals at first ?
God batb sown and He will reap.
Growth is slow wben roots are deep."
J. K. : Lyra Apostoliaa, clxviii.
We must turn back from poetry to the prose and
struggle of life, or shall we say from Lyric Pastoral to
Tragedy ? While Keble was thus working at his lectures,
Fortune seemed to be turning mnre and more against
the Church. The Reform Bill had flushed the demo
cratic spirit ; everything was to be brought under the
control of the people and tested by a narrow, utilitarian
standard. The Church ceuld be no exception to this;
and as Convocation had been virtually suppressed, she
had no voice by which to speak, and the State pro
ceeded to set her in order through a Parliament which
was no longer essentially a Parliament of Churchmen.
But " when the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses is at
hand." The spirit of Churchmanship was rising in
rebellion against this treatment in many quarters. In
1814, Bishop Jebb. of Limerick had foretold such a

THE STRUGGLE. 75
crisis, and the way in which it would be met. " Perhaps
we may live to see our Dodwells and Hickeses and
Colliers divested of the old peculiarities, shorn of some
excrescences, and enlarged by a philosophic appre
hension of the Scripture. Perhaps, too, a little of
persecution, or of somewhat resembling persecution,
may be providentially permitted to train up men with
an attachment to the Church as a hierarchy, as distinct
from the State, and as dignified only by its intrinsic
excellence, by its venerable antiquity, and by its
apostolical institution." 1 In 1833, as the events drew
nearer, an even more detailed prophecy is to be found
in the striking words of one of the old-fashioned High
Church leaders, Mr. Sikes, of Guilsborough. Noticing
that the great want in the teaching of the time was
that no account was taken of the Holy Catholic Church,
he foretold that the neglect of so important an article
of the Faith must have its reprisals. " When it is
brought forward it will swallow up the rest. . . . Our
present confusion is chiefly owing to the want of it,
and there will be yet more confusion attending its
revival. The effects of it I even dread to contemplate,
especially if it comes suddenly, and woe betide those,
whoever they are, who shall in the course of Providence
have to bring it forward. . . . They will be endlessly
misunderstood and misinterpreted. There will be one
great outcry of Popery from one end of the country to
the other. It will be thrust upon minds unprepared
and upon an uncatechized Church. Some will take it
up as a beautiful theory unrealized ; others will be
frightened and scandalized and reject it, and all will
want a guidance which one hardly knows where they
1 Quoted in Perry: Student's English.Chv,rchHistoi-y)m.,'p. 180.

76 JOHN KEBLE.
shall find. . . . How the doctrine may be first thrown
forward we know not, but the powers of the world may
any day turn their backs upon us, and this probably
will lead to those effects I have described." 1 This is
exactly what was happening ; the powers of the world
were turning their backs upon the Church; but its
champions were being prepared. In London an active
body of Churchmen, with Joshua Watson as their centre,
had done and were doing much to carry Church
principles into active work. The National Society
had been founded in 1811; the Christian Knowledge
Society had been reorganized ; King's College had been
founded in 1829 ; the bishoprics of Calcutta (1814),
Jamaica, and Barbadoes (1824) had been founded and
endowed by the State. At Cambridge, Hugh James
Rose, " the most accomplished divine and teacher in
the English Church,"2 was, as Christian Advocate in
the University pulpit, and, after 1832, as editor of the
British Magazine, bidding " us, when hearts were failing,
stir up the gift that was in us, and betake ourselves
to our own true mother.'' 3
But it is with Oxford that we are primarily con
cerned. There Oriel had become the centre of Church
manship. Newman had entirely emancipated himself
from Whateley's influence, and had accepted Keble's
principles. This had been Froude's doing, and he boasts
of it as the one good work of his life, that he had brought
Keble and Newman to understand each other; and
1 From a conversation with Rev. W. J. Copeland, preserved in
Mr. Copeland's handwriting in bis copy of Sikes' Parochial Com
munion, and printed in J. H. Newman's Letters and Correspond
ence, ii., Appendix, p. 483.
8 R. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 86.
3 J. H. N. : Dedication to Parochial Sermons, vol. iv.

THE STRUGGLE. 77
Keble was the link between Newman and his Fairford
and Bisley friends. In 1831 he had invited Newman
to Fairford with the words, " I want some of your
criticism, for somehow I can't get it out of my head
that you are a real honest man" ; in 1832 he wrote :
" My brother wants to see you, and I want you to see
him." Isaac Williams, who had been curate to T.
Keble at Bisley, was now curate to Newman at St.
Mary's, and formed another link with the older Church
man. Dr. Pusey also was drawing closer to Newman
and his friends, though he had not yet definitely com
mitted himself to them. In this group Newman was
coming clearly to the front as leader in Oxford ; for
since 1830 he had ceased to be tutor, and only held
the Vicarage of St. Mary's, a post which gave him
leisure for study, and made him known as a preacher ;
one writer has even traced the start of the movement to
his sermon on " Personal Influence the means of Pro
pagating Truth," preached in 1832.1 Finally, his
Mediterranean holiday with Froude in the winter of
the same year enabled them both to stand by for a
while, to look at the conditions of the struggle on which
they were entering from the outside, to take its measure,
and to prepare their weapons, while the recovery from
his serious illness in Sicily seemed to Newman a Divine
sanction to the inner conviction that he had a work to
do for the Church.
But Newman, as well as the others, still looked to
Keble as " the true and primary author " of the move
ment;2 he writes of himself that while lying on his
sick-bed at Syracuse, " I began to think of all my
1 The Times : Obituary Notice, August 12, 1890.
2 Apologia, p. 75.

78 JOHN KEBLE.
professed principles, and felt that they were -mere in
tellectual deductions from, one or two admitted truths.
I compared myself with Keble, and felt that I was
merely developing his, not my, convictions." x While
on the journey he had written : " We are in good
spirits about the prospects of the Church. We find
Keble is at length roused, and (if once up) he will
prove a second Ambrose." 2 As a matter of fact, the
signal for concerted action did come from Keble. In
spring of 1833, the difficulty of collecting tithes in
Ireland induced the Government to propose a bill
abolishing the Church cess, one of the most obnoxious
forms of payment, and in order to raise money to meet
the deficiency so produced it was proposed to suppress
ten Irish bishoprics and appropriate their revenues for
the purpose. Bishop Blomfield supported the bill, but
Archbishop Howley opposed it, and to the mass of
bishops and clergy if seemed an act of spoliation. The
grievance was that " bishopricks may be suppressed to
any extent by the sovereign at the request of a body
of laymen, any number of whom may be heretics, con
trary to the express protest of the Episcopal body." 3
The time had come when it seemed to Keble that
"scoundrels must be called scoundrels." The spirit
which stirred him found vent once more in poetry — in
the poems of the Lyra Apostolica — how different from
those of the Christian Year ! Rugged, austere, wanting
the old melody, yet with a ring of the battle trumpet
through them, they breathe defiance
" . . . . against the ruffian band,
Come to reform where ne'er tbey came to pray."
1 Letters, i., p. 416. 2 Ibid., p. 377.
3 J. K. : The State in its Relations to the CJiurch, p. 42.

THE STRUGGLE. 79
Jeremiah is the model; Nadab and Abihu, Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, the messengers of Ahaziah, the
fall of Tyre, the fall of Babylon, these are the themes.
When the Irish Church Bill was brought in he wrote —
" . . . . then welcome whirlwind, anger, woe,
Welcome the flash that wakes tbe slumbering fold
Tb' Almighty Pastor's arm and eye to know,
And turn their dreamy talk to holy Fear's stern glow."
While the bill was still under discussion, an opportunity
for speaking out presented itself, he being nominated
to preach the Assize Sermon before the University on
July 14th.
Taking for his text the words of Samuel, when the
people rejected him and demanded a king : " As for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in
ceasing to pray for you : but I will teach you the good
and the right way " (1 Sam. xii. 23), he cautiously yet
clearly applied the scene to modern times. It was
possible that a Christian state might in the same way
repudiate its duty to God ; it might wish " to be as
the heathen," like the nations around it ; perhaps
external danger or grievances in the government of
the Church might be the pretext, but the real reason
would be decay of faith. Much was pointing to such
a danger : the tendency to a shallow indifferentism, as
though one form of opinion was as good as another ;
the unwillingness to submit to religious restraints ; the
disrespect towards the successors of the Apostles — all
tended one way, and might issue in apostasy. What then
would be the duty of Churchmen at such a moment ?
It would be to imitate Samuel, whose combination of
sweetness with firmness, of consideration with energy,
constituted the temper of a perfect public man. Their

80 JOHN KEBLE.
first duty would be intercession, which would secure
candour, respectfulness, guarded language in their deal
ing with their opponents, and also hopefulness in their
cause. Then there must be remonstrance, calm, distinct,
persevering ; also loyal patriotic submission to the State
within its own sphere ; and above all, each Churchman
would need to be careful of his own spiritual life, of the
daily duties pf piety, purity, charity, justice, lest his
behaviour should disparage the name of his Church,
or lest public concerns should prove ruinous to himself,
by occupying all his care and thoughts to the under
valuing of ordinary duties, more especially those of a
devotional kind. With such precautions, however, it
was impossible to devote oneself too entirely to the
cause of the Apostolical Church, and that with a
certainty of success in the end.
"I have ever considered and kept this day as the
start of the religious movement of 1833," wrote Newman
thirty-one years afterwards.1 Within the following week
the bill was passed, whereupon Keble published the
sermon under the title National Apostasy, with a preface
dated July 22nd, calling on Churchmen to consider
what was their duty in the face of this usurpation by
the State ; for if they were to submit to such profane
intrusion, they must at least record their full conviction
that it was intrusion. The result was immediate com
bination and action. Froude, who had returned to
Oxford before Newman, had secured the co-operation
of Isaac Williams and William Palmer, Fellow of
Worcester College, a learned Irishman, whose work on
Origines Liturgicce, and whose papers on Dissent in the
British Magazine had shown his Church sympathies.
1 Apologia, p. 100.

THE STRUGGLE. 81
Even before the sermon was preached Rose had sum
moned a few friends to meet at his parsonage at Had-
leigh, and the meeting took place from July 25th to
29th. Palmer, Froude, and the Hon. A. P. Perceval —
he, too, a pupil of Keble in former times — were present ;
but Keble was prevented by home ties from coming,
and Newman also was absent.
The meeting did not produce any immediate results,
but the friends were practically agreed in their prin
ciples. Feeling that it was necessary to make Church
men realize the essential bonds of Churchmanship, as
opposed to the artificial and temporary dependence
upon the State, they aimed at asserting the reality of
the Church as a spiritual body perpetuated by the
Apostolical Succession, and conveying life through its
Sacraments — this as against the individualism of the
Evangelicals and the Erastianism of politicians ; the
authoritative dogmatic character of its formula? — this
as against the liberalism of Whateley and Arnold and
Hampden : and more subordinate^ its independence
of Rome. But in all this there was no thpught of
innnvation; the one conception was that they were
reviving neglected truth and '' principles of action which
had been in the minds of our predecessors of the seven
teenth century." " Stir up the gift of God that is in
you," was their motto. Long lists of previous writers
were soon added to the Tracts as more or less upholding
or elucidating the doctrines found in them. Of Keble
himself it has been said that the highest praise which
he seemed able to give to any theological statement
was, " It seems to me just what my father taught me." l
The conferences were continued in Oxford, and
1 His pseudonym in tbe British Magazine was pioovtoXoyos. G

82 JOHN KEBLE.
had two main results. Palmer and Perceval formed
a more conservative group. They aimed first at form
ing a great association of Churchmen, and an appeal
on which such might be ' based was put forth, but
this proposal came to nothing. Instead of it an address
to the Archbishop, thanking him for the firmness
and discretion which he had shown, and assuring
him of their devoted adherence to the Apostolical
Doctrine and Polity of the Church,, was signed by
more than 7000 clergy, and presented in February,
1834. A similar lay address was promoted by Joshua
Watson in London, and received the signatures of
230,000 heads of families, and was presented to the
Archbishop in May. The more uncompromising Oriel
group led by Keble, Froude, and Newman were quite in
sympathy with these addresses, Keble characteristically
pleading that poor people might be allowed to sign or
put their mark, and he formed one of the deputation
to Lambeth.
But this group were not content with mere addresses ;
they were rather afraid of associations; they were
anxious for writing, and anxious that each writer should
be unchecked by any committee. The following basis
of action was ultimately agreed upon : considering that
the only way of salvation is the partaking of the Body
and Blood of our sacrificed Redeemer, that the means of
this is the holy Sacrament of His Supper, and the
security for the due application of this is the Apostolical
commission, and that there is peculiar danger of this '
being slighted and disavowed, " we pledge ourselves
one to another, reserving our canonical obedience, to be
on our watch for all opportunities of inculcating a due
sense of this inestimable privilege; to provide and

THE STRUGGLE. 83
circulate books and tracts to familiarize the imagin
ations of men with the idea ; to attempt to revive among
Churchmen the practice of daily common prayer, and
more frequent participation of the Lord's Supper; to
resist any attempt to alter the Liturgy on any in
sufficient authority, and to explain any points in discip
line or worship which might be liable to be misunder
stood." The form of this agreement was due to Keble,
and the result was the publication of the Tracts. These
were short papers — price Id. or 2d. — dealing with points
of spiritual life or doctrine, attempts to force the world
to realize what the Church meant. No less than forty-
six were issued in the course of 1833-34, in addition to
eighteen short extracts from Patristic writers. Rose
took no part in them at all ; Palmer partly contributed
to one; Froude was out of England nearly the whole
year. They were all published anonymously, except
that Dr. Pusey insisted on attaching his initials to his
tract on Fasting — a fact from which perhaps the name
of Puseyite grew to be attached to the party. Perceval,
J. Keble, T. Keble, J. W. Bowden also contributed,
but nearly a third of the first volume was from New
man himself. To the second volume, which appeared
in November 1835, Keble contributed four tracts (Nos.
52, 54, 57, 60), and as these are closely connected
in thought with those in the first volume, and quite
different from his only other contribution (No. 89), it
will be well to deal with all his earlier tracts at once.
The keynote of these is given in the title of No. 4,
" Adherence to the Apostolical Succession the safest
Course." The clergy are urged to take a higher view of
their privilege as Christ's ordained ministers, whose
duty it is to convey the blessings of the Holy Feast.

84 JOHN KEBLE. v
What if the doctrine is not absolutely certain ? it is at
least probable ; there are sufficient indications in the
New Testament that it was Christ's will, and that is
sufficient for loyal followers who are content to be
guided by the " Lord's eye," without definite command.
No. 13 stands apart by itself: it is a plea against any
change in the lectionary, based upon a subtle but rather
over-strained attempt to trace the principle which
originally guided the selection of Lessons. It is in
teresting as showing his great knowledge of the
underlying principles of the Old Testament; and is
one of the earliest expressions of his favourite principle
that God's dealing with Israel as a nation was a type
of His dealing with Christians as individuals ; but the
changes in the lectionary have deprived it of present
interest for us. No. 40 is a bright, interesting
dialogue on the importance of Holy Baptism, and the
duty of Churchmen in avoiding marriage with Dis
senters. In No. 52 he returns to the importance of
the Apostolic Ministry as conveying the reality of the
Eucharist ; in No. 54 the Ministry is shown in a clear
historical statement to have been the guarantee of
Apostolical Doctrine in the second and third centuries ;
while No. 57 is an historical argument to prove the
converse of the last, that those Churches which have
surrendered the Apostolic Ministry — whether in
ancient or in modern times — have also failed to hold
Apostolic doctrine; even the Roman Church, which
has minimized the doctine of Apostolical succession in
order to exalt the Papacy, having suffered in this way.
No. 62 is a more general argument, illustrated by
historical instances, that mere personal devotion is
inadequate for the Christian life, apart from true

THE STRUGGLE. 85
doctrine : the only safe way is to take God's will
exactly as we find it declared to us in His Word, as
interpreted by His Church.
All these tracts are written freshly and vigorously,
with happy and sometimes humorous illustrations.
They show a great knowledge of the Bible, and love
of its mystical interpretation. The writer has a deep
sense of the corruption of human nature ; for instance,
the very repugnance which people feel to the warnings
of the Athanasian Creed or of certain chapters of the
Bible is to him only a proof of how much they are
needed. For the same reason he dwells upon the need
of caution and reserve in communicating religious
truth, and upon the importance of considering truth
from many sides ; because the intellect alone can not
attain to it ; the feeling and temper of mind must be
right ; and we must be humble enough to be content
with probability. Perhaps the characteristic note of
these Tracts is " safety " ; it is the safest course to
adhere to the Apostolical Succession; it is a word
that will recur again and again in his writings, notably
in his argument about the Roman Church ; and it is a
word which jars upon us at first, for it seems to speak
of a cold calculating prudence. But this would do
Keble a great injustice, for by a safe course he means
that which is most likely to satisfy all sides of our
nature, and to make surest response to the obligations •
which we owe to others. Safety is that which secures
piety and reverence. It had been the safest course
for him to withdraw from the contest for the Pro
vostship of Oriel and to stay at home with his father
and sister, and if now he urges a belief in the
Apostolical Succession as the safest course, he means

86 JOHN KEBLE.
the course which is most likely to make the most
demands upon men's faith and life.
The year 1835 was the most eventful in Keble's
private life. On January 24th his father died in his
ninetieth year, and the home at Fairford was broken
up, his sister retiring to Bisley, and he himself coming
to Oxford for a while to work at his edition of Hooker.
But in the summer the vicarage of Hursley again
became vacant, and it was offered to him at once by
Sir W. Heathcote, and gladly accepted by him. This
added much to his work, as it was a large scattered
parish, being conjoined with Otterbourne and Ampfield ;
but while he was there much was done to relieve the
vicar. Mainly at his own expense a new church and
parsonage-house were erected at Otterbourne ; the same
was done for Ampfield by Sir W. Heathcote, and both
these became separate parishes. But if Hursley added
to his work, it also gave him all the peace and rest of a
fixed home ; for before moving into it he married a lady
— the younger sister of Mrs. Thomas Keble — who was
often indeed an invalid, but through her sweetness and
cultured intellect a strength to him, thoroughly able to
enter into all his hopes for the Church, and to help him
in his work. She was sweet-looking, with beautiful
brown eyes and hair, a very delicate complexion like
porcelain, and an air of extreme refinement. " My
conscience, my memory, and my common sense " is his
own description of her, after nearly thirty years of
married life. Her very delicacy was in some ways a
blessing to him, as it rendered necessary changes of air
and scenery, and led to visits to Wales, Scotland, Ireland,
the Isle of Man, and Switzerland. Whateley is said to
have remarked that Keble was now " a caged eagle " ; it

THE STRUGGLE. 87
was no true prophecy, but it is a striking tribute to one
side of his character that has often escaped notice, the
eager, impetuous, soaring keenness which his strong will
was ever holding in check. Other friends, including
Newman, with whom celibacy was gaining a religious
halo, felt a touch of disappointment ; but to Keble it
was rest, soothing, and safety. Hursley also gave him
the friendship of Dr. Moberley, who was appointed
head-master of Winchester in the same year, and for
thirty years he proved Keble's dearest and most
trusted friend in the neighbourhood.
His Oxford friends soon found that the eagle was
not yet caged. Before the end of the year Newman,
who saw the need that the Tracts should deal
with the Roman claims, pressed Keble to under
take the editorship; but his hands were too full of
work, and he did not feel himself competent to deal
with the subject. In the beginning of 1836, another
attempt was made to bring him to Oxford. Dr.
Burton, the Regius Professor of Divinity, died; and
Keble's name, with those of Newman, Pusey, and
others, was submitted to the Prime Minister. Newman
wrote at once to press Keble to accept the professor
ship, if it should be offered him; and he wrote to
Froude to induce him to use his influence for the same
end, urging that "Keble is a fight too spiritual and
subtle to be seen unless put upon a candlestick." 1
The Archbishop is said to have pressed Keble's
appointment, but it was one which could not have
been expected from a Liberal Government. But
neither was the appointment that was made expected.
Lord Melbourne nominated Dr. Hampden; a nomin-
1 Letters, ii., p. 163.

88 JOHN KEBLE.
ation which stirred up vehement opposition among
Churchmen at Oxford, spreading far beyond the group
of Tract writers. Dr. Hampden had preached in 1832
a set of Bampton Lectures embodying the indi
vidualistic principles, against which the whole move-
ment was directed, and practically undermining Church
authority; in 1834 he had published a pamphlet
advocating the abolition of subscription to the
Thirty-nine Articles, which was required from all
who entered the university, his object being to throw
it open to Dissenters. A proposal, founded on this, to
abolish the subscription had been submitted to Con
vocation by the Heads of Houses in May, 1835, and
rejected by a majority of five to one. This majority
therefore naturally resented the appointment within a
few months of the champion of this cause to the chief
post of religious teaching in their midst. An attempt
to induce the Prime Minister to withdraw the nomination
failed, but a proposal to deprive the new Regius Pro
fessor of his vote in the nomination of Select Preachers
was carried by an enormous majority (474 to 94).
Throughout this controversy, though the whole mass of
Churchmen were in sympathy, the active workers, who
wrote the pamphlets and conducted the campaign, were
Newman and Pusey. Keble was in thorough sympathy,
but he was too busy to render much active co-operation.
During this year, however, he supplied two considerable
contributions to the work of the movement, the edition of
Hooker and the sermon on Primitive Tradition. The
former was published in the spring ; it had been a labour
of love, and we may well fancy how Hooker's " resolution
to make the best of things as they were, and to censure
as rarely and as tenderly as possible what he found

THE STRUGGLE. 89
established by authority," had come home to him and
deepened the tendencies of his own character. It is a
thorough piece of work, and gives proof of the editor's
critical insight. The text was collated with the MSS.
at Corpus Christi and at Dublin ; it was split up into
paragraphs, and accompanied by a running paraphrase ;
the allusions to Holy Scripture and the Fathers were
verified : the references to Cartwright and other contem
porary Puritan writers supplied, and some interesting
MS. notes by Hooker himself in answer to early Puritan
criticisms on the book were reprinted from the Corpus
Christi MS. It is in dealing with the last three books
that his critical acumen found scope. Here he dis
covered that the sixth book, though by Hooker himself,
is not a proper part of the original work, but had been
substituted, whether intentionally or by accident, for a
discussion of Lay-Eldership, which is now lost. The
genuineness of the seventh book was established, though
it was shown to be imperfect. From the eighth book
one whole section was excluded, as being an extraneous
sermon inserted by mistake, and two sermons on St.
Jude were rejected, as being far removed from "the
sedate majesty which reigns in all Hooker's known
compositions." But further, though it always went to his heart to
criticize the great and good man,1 the Preface prefixed
to the edition shows a masterly power of rising above
Hooker's position, and seeing at once its strength and
its limitations. The two points which he examines
fully are Hooker's conceptions of Church authority and
of the relation of the Church to the State. At the
time of the Reformation there were three rival views :
1 Spiritual Letters, cxxi.

90 JOHN KEBLE.
the Papal, centring all authority in the Pope, and
making the civil government the instrument to exe
cute his decrees ; the Erastian, held by the prerogative
lawyers in France and Henry VIII. in England in their
desire to strengthen the local governments, and putting
Church laws and constitution at the mercy of the civil
Government ; and the Presbyterian, a strong ecclesi
astical view, placing the authority in the elders of the
Church, receiving their commission by positive enact
ment of Holy Scripture: this was the view of Calvin
and Beza. The Church of England had clearly broken
with the first view; Cranmer had inclined to the
second, but in the reign of Elizabeth many causes — the
reaction against Queen Mary, the sympathy with the
Protestants abroad and in Scotland, the patriotic
resentment against the bull of Pope Pius— all were
tending to strengthen the Presbyterian view. In order
to meet it, Jewel, Whitgift, and others held that the
authority centred in the Church, which had for
practical convenience centred it in the Bishops; they
only pleaded that Episcopacy was ancient and allowable ;
but as the fear of Rome grew less strong and the
Church felt its own ground firmer" under it, Bancroft,
Saravia, Sutcliffe, the author of the Querimonia
Ecclesioe, and Bishop Bilson had taken up the wiser
and bolder position, that Episcopal authority rested on
Divine appointment. Hooker, although the bias of
his education had been Presbyterian, practically joined
this side, using the strongest language to assert that
" the first institution of bishops was from heaven, was
even of God " ; yet the exigencies of his time compelled
him to make qualifications which were seen to be
impossible after the fuller vindication of the Ignatian

THE STRUGGLE. 91
epistles by Archbishop Ussher, and which would not
have been admitted by Laud ; for he allowed of non-
Episcopal ordination in cases of a supernatural call, or
in the absence of "a bishop. So again he identified
Church and State too absolutely, giving the monarch
the power of dominion over the bishops, with power
to overrule them in matters of jurisdiction and legis
lation as well as in nomination to offices. This could
be only tolerable when the monarch was a Christian,
exerting his sovereignty through a Christian Parlia
ment ; yet, even so, the theory had proved inadequate,
and made the Church a slave to the civil power. With
a Parliament not Christian the theory was impossible.
The true theory is that of a co-ordinate authority of
Church and State, somewhat on the analogy of the
co-ordinate authority of the Sovereign and the Houses
of Parliament. "If their veto on acts of civil legis
lation did not impeach the King's temporal sovereignty,
why should the Church's veto impeach the same
sovereignty in case a way should be found to giving
her a power over any proposed act of ecclesiastical
legislation ? " 1 (p. lxxx). He wrote to Froude — " I am
more and more satisfied that Richard was in most
things a middle term between Laud and Cranmer, but
1 Tbe fullest statement of Keble's views on Cburcb and State
is in bis review (Britwh Critic, Oct. 1839) of Mr. Gladstone's treatise,
The State in relation to the Church. He insists on tbe
essential distinctiveness and superiority of the Church ; on the
duty of the State to guard ber interests as " a nursing father " ;
but at tbe same time to impose no terms which will imply
sacrifice of principle by the Church. There is danger that the
Reformation settlement, as worked by a Parliament not confined
to Churchmen, may impose such terms, and therefore it is
essential that tbe Church should be allowed free exercise of
moral discipline over ber members, a voice in tbe appointment
of bishops, and a legislative power in ber own internal concerns.

92 JOHN KEBLE.
nearer the former ; and also that he was in a transition
state when he was taken from us, and there is no
saying how much nearer he might have got to Laud,
if he had lived twenty years longer." Yet with all
these limitations, Hooker — with his reverent treatment
of the deepest doctrines, his faith in the reality of
Sacramental grace, his sense of the quasi-sacramental
value of all Church usages, his treatment of fast and
festival and of Church property as all being expressions
of man's sacrifice to God — seemed to him God's chief
instrument for saving the Church from Rationalism in
the sixteenth century ; and " bold must he be who
should affirm that, great as was then her need of a
defender, it at all exceeded her peril from the same
quarter at the present moment. Should these volumes
prove at all instrumental in awakening any of her
children to a sense of that danger, and in directing
their attention to the primitive Apostolical Church as
the ark of refuge divinely appointed for the faithful,
such an effect will amply repay the editor " l (p. cviii).
The suggestion of this part of the Preface was due to
Newman, and we find Bowden writing to the latter on
June 30, 1836 — " Keble's Preface is most glorious."
In the autumn of the same year, Keble was
nominated to preach the sermon at the Archdeacon's
Visitation in Winchester Cathedral, and took the
occasion to deliver his " masterly exposition of the
meaning of Tradition." 2 He begins with a statement
of the perplexity of the time : this, it is interesting to
note, he regards as spread over the last seven years, i. e.
he dates it from the Roman Catholic Emancipation
1 J. H. N., Letters, ii., p. 198.
2 K. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 246.

THE STRUGGLE. 93
Act of 1829 ; during that time the foundations of the
Church have been laid bare ; the defenders of the
Church have been obliged to consider the limits of the
civil power in ecclesiastical matters, the vindication of
the Anglican Church against the exorbitant claims of
Rome, and the reconciliation of voluntary combination
of Churchmen with due loyalty to episcopal prerogative.
It is impossible to stand aside and avoid responsibility
any longer. Now one guide in this perplexity is
Tradition, not as overriding the sole and paramount
claim of Holy Scripture as a rule of Faith, but as
supplementing it. Such Tradition has its analogy in
unwritten civil law ; its existence is recognized in
Scripture, itself, and was constantly appealed to in the
early centuries ; it served even as a test for Apostolical
writings until the Canon was formed, which in its turn
served as a check upon Tradition. To it we owe the
systematic arrangement of the Articles of the Faith in
the Creed, the preservation of the typical method of
the interpretation of Scripture, and many practical
points of Church discipline, such as the observance of
Sunday, the method of consecrating the Eucharist, &c.
The security that we still possess the Tradition is
guaranteed by the Apostolical Succession. We cannot
afford as loyal churchmen to neglect this aid. Of the
two tests, Tradition and Holy Scripture, either suffers
if the other is neglected ; and in our present day we
need to be guarded against the desire for novelty,
against the danger of an empty Nominalism, which
resolves the mysteries of the faith into mere externals
and methods of speech with no real counterpart in the
nature of things ; and against Erastianism, > which
would surrender ecclesiastical government to the State.

94 JOHN KEBLE.
The sermon met with a good deal of criticism, to
which Keble replied in an elaborate postscript, showing
the hearty recognition of Tradition in Anglican writers,
and elaborating at great detail the part which Tradition
had borne in the formulation of the Nicene Creed.
During the same year Pusey, Newman, and Keble as
joint editors started the Library of the Fathers; the
proposal was welcomed by the Archbishop, who pressed
the advisability of translating whole treatises instead of
mere selections, and the series was dedicated to him.
To this Keble contributed a translation of St. Irenaeus,
a work on which he was engaged from this time
onwards, though it was not published till after his
death ; he also did much work as editor, revising the
translations of some of the volumes of St. Augustine
and St. Chrysostom.
In the spring of 1837, Pusey writes, asking — " What
are you doing, our father in the faith, perhaps New
man's elder brother only now ? " The answer is that
he was working at his translation, and was with
Newman preparing Froude's Remains for publication.
Froude had died in 1836, and it had been like the loss
of a younger brother to Keble. Both he and Newman
were conscious how much they had owed to Froude,
and when they came to examine his journal, and
understood, as never before, the strength and severity
of his self-discipline, as well as the logical boldness with
which he faced the results of the movement, they
determined that the world should know what he had
been, and decided to publish extracts from his journal
and correspondence as well as his fragmentary writings.
It was a bold step, for Froude was fearlessly out-spoken
in his attacks on Rationalism and on the Reformers,

THE STRUGGLE. 95
and the book was sure to swell the cry of Popery
against the Tractarians. They determined, however,
to face the cry, and the first two volumes appeared in
1838, with a joint preface, in which Keble justified the
publication of matter so private, and Newman showed
that Froude could not be legitimately charged with
Romanism, in the sense of preferring the actual system
of the Church of Rome to the English Church, because
he had been equally outspoken in denunciation of that
Church. At the same time they boldly claim that
ministers of the Established Church owe no sort of
allegiance to any enactments by which the State has
fettered her freedom of action, but at the outside only
such a literal acquiescence as the law requires. "Their
loyalty is already engaged to the Church Catholic, and
they cannot enter into the drift and intentions of her
oppressors without betraying her. For example, they
cannot do more than submit to the statute of Prae
munire ; they cannot defend or concur in the present
suspension, in every form, of the Church's synodal
powers and her power of excommunication; nor can
they sympathize in the provision which hinders their
celebrating five out of the daily services which are their
patrimony equally with Romanists." 1
The outcry raised against the book was bitter and
loud ; to Dr. Arnold the predominant character of the
volume seemed to be extraordinary impudence in its
language about the Reformers. But the editors were
not daunted. Two further volumes were published
in 1839, with a preface almost entirely due to
Keble, and quite unflinching in statement. He recalls
the tone of Church feeling a few years before; he
1 Preface, p. xv.

96 JOHN KEBLE.
shows how Froude's sagacity had anticipated all the
improvements which had occurred since then; only
in some such startling way was it possible to make
a protest heard. All that Froude had done was to
carry out uncompromisingly, in points both of doctrine
and feeling, the appeal to antiquity ; that appeal was
the only ground on which the English Church could
maintain its existence against Rome, and therefore he
was quite justified in denouncing all that was inconsist
ent with it in the dominant tone of theelogical thought.
Further, the same principle justified him in denouncing
any rationalistic or irreverent or Erastian temper in the
Reformers ; no douVAnatural piety and gratitude for our
debt to the Reforj|Btion would make us wish not to
find fault with thenf \ but this was impossible ; they
were not as a party to be trusted on ecclesiastical and
theological questions.! The true plan was to emphasize
the fact that the Chprch was not to be identified with
the Reformers, and tlo claim the right and duty of taking
her formulas an we/find them, and interpreting them
as, God be thankef^they may be always interpreted in
all essentials, .yrformably to the doctrine and ritual
of the Church Universal. Providence has wonderfully
over-ruled the Reformation from expressly contradicting
antiquity, so that, " as a mark of decay and deserved
anger, our Church seems to have been left an inade
quate image of antiquity ; as a token to encourage hope
and penitence and labour, it was not, however, an
untrue image." Thus, whatever they may think of the
Reformers, people need not be driven to Rome ; there is
the ancient Church waiting to receive them, and the
Prayer-book and Anglican Divines of the seventeenth
century ready to cover their retreat. This condemna-

THE STRUGGLE. 97
tion of the Reformers was clinched by a catena of
quotations from the works of Bishop Jewel, to show
the low doctrine which he held on points such as the
Apostolical Succession and Sacramental Grace.
Such language naturally did little to allay any feeling
of bitterness; but before we dwell on the effect pro
duced, it may be well to mention two other works
on which Keble was engaged. In May 1839, he
published anonymously his translation of tlie Psalter.
He himself confesses that it was really impossible to
represent the Hebrew rhythm by metres, but as
metrical versions of the Psalms were in use, and as
he was impressed with the want of reverence of Tate
and Brady's version, he made an attempt to represent
them as faithfully as possible, each Hebrew clause being
represented by one line, and the metre varied, even
within the same Psalm. No attempt was made to
express a -Christian meaning, that he might be true to
the working of God's Holy Spirit, accustomed "to keep
himself to the generality under a veil of reserve, through
which the eyes of men might see just so much and so
clearly as they were purged by Faith and Purity and
Obedience." The whole work was revised by Dr. Pusey,
and consequently it is valuable as a commentary upon
the original. Dr. Cheyne, in the Preface to his own
translation of the Book of Psalms, speaks of Keble's too
little known metrical version as the production of a
poetical student, and acknowledges his indebtedness to
it now and again for a felicitous phrase. Keble had
hoped that the Bishops of Winchester and Oxford would
formally license it for use ; but though the latter
accepted the dedication of the book, neither was willing
to do this ; and, in truth, it is little fitted for congre-
H

98 JOHN KEBLE.
gational worship, the attempt to be literal having
hampered his freedom too much.
At the same time he had been interested in tracing
out the Patristic method of the mystical interpretation
of Holy Scripture. On his visits to Oxford as Professor,
he had read more than one paper on it at the gather
ings for theological study, which Dr. Pusey had insti
tuted at his own house. These were thrown together
in a completed form, and appeared in 1841 as Tract
No. 89. It extends to nearly two hundred pages —
so completely had Dr. Pusey's influence altered the
character of the tracts and converted them into treatises
— and even so is unfinished. He proposes at the outset
to deal with four points, with regard to which the
vague and ambiguous charge of mysticism was urged to
discredit the Fathers, viz. their figurative interpretation
of Holy Scripture, their fanciful application of Nature to
spiritual realities, their readiness to see1 providential
interferences in the events of history, and their counsels
of perfection in favour of a monastic and contemplative
life ; but it is only with the first two of these that the
Tract deals. After a large catena of illustrations of
this mystical interpretation it is urged that this method
has the sanction of the New Testament, that it cannot
be exactly formulated or regulated, but is the result
of a happy sagacity inwrought into the thoughts and
language of the Church, and independent of critical
questions. Yet it was never put forward as the ex
clusive meaning ; it was never allowed to evacuate the
literal truth, nor did it interfere with moral judgments
upon acts of doubtful character. In dealing with such
points the Fathers, while they always upheld the
doctrine of a permanent standard of morality, yet were

THE STRUGGLE. 99
doubtless far more lenient in judgment than modern
writers, and far less willing to condemn any of the
saints of the Old Testament. They were content to
point to a Divine command without justifying it, or
simply to see the typical value in the action ; suggest
ing excuses and shrinking from censure if possible.
Such leniency of judgment was due to two principles ;
on the one hand it sprang from a deep sense of the
communion of saints ; they felt a real bond of union
with the Old Testament saints, their fathers in faith, in
a sense their brethren in grace ; and a natural piety
made them shrink from criticizing : they would rather
pass no judgment than a verdict of guilty upon mem
bers of their own family. On the other hand, they had
also a deep and reverential sense of God's peculiar
presence in Jewish history. The whole Jewish king
dom was to them " a great prophet, because he is great
who was the subject of their prophecy," 1 and so they
had a trembling consciousness that they were near the
invisible line which separates God's agency from that of
His rational creatures, and such a thought will make a
religious man slow to censure, lest he may be found
blaming his Maker's work unawares.
The similar mystical treatment of the New Testa
ment is shown to rest upon a belief in the Divinity
of the Lord ; " the words ' and doings of our Blessed
Saviour, being, as they are, the words and doings of
God, it cannot be but they must mean far more than
meets the ear or the eye, they cannot but be full
charged with heavenly and mysterious meaning."
Finally, in dealing with Nature, it is shown that the
1 S. Aug. c. Faustum xx. 24 ; totum illud regnum gentis
Hebrseorum magnum quemdain, quia et magni cujusdam, fuisse
prophetam.

100 JOHN KEBLE.
Fathers discourage the mere scientific study of it; they
are always piercing through to a mystical sense. This is
analogous to the poet's use of illustrations from Nature ;
but it runs deeper than this, and it is so common that
it cannot be traced to any one Father's influence. It is
the poetry of the Lord Himself, " a set of holy and divine
associations and meanings wherewith it is His will to
invest material things " ; the works of God are so many
visible words, tokens from the Almighty to assure us
of some spiritual fact or other, which it concerns us to
know; in St. Augustine's words, "All beauty in Thy
creatures is but so many beckonings of Thine." 1 Sun,
moon, stars, plants, animals, all are treated as symbols
of spiritual realities ; the body of a man is a symbol of
his soul, and his soul a type even of God Himself. All
are reflections, types, embodiments of Him who is the
Reality, the True Light, the True Vine, the True Bread.
If our own words seem often full of a deeper meaning
than we intended, if the same words produce upon us
quite a different effect at different times, it is natural
that we should be constantly able to find new meanings
in Divine language, and that it should speak a different
language to those whose hearts are prepared to receive it.
Such is the general argument, which is worked out
with great wealth of illustration. But it was an
" inopportune Tract." 2 Why was this ? It was a treatise
which at any time would have provoked opposition and
would have required a nature of delicate insight and
ready sympathy to appreciate its merits. There is no
compromise in his attack on the tendencies of modern
theology ; he is ready to throw it entirely overboard in
1 De Libera Arbitrio, ii., p. 43 : " Nutus tni sunt omne crealu-
rarum decus.
2 R. W. Church, Oxford Movement, pp. 229, 230.

THE STRUGGLE. 101
contrast to ancient methods ; while he urges that the
taste of modern writers may be imperfect, he forgets
that that may be equally true of the ancient. He makes
no attempt to screen fanciful uses of the method, but
selects the examples most likely to startle and scandalize
the modern reader : he goes near to shocking the moral
sense by his unwillingness to condemn immoral actions
in the Bible ; and throughout the whole there is too
great an effort to formulate too exactly a method
which is essentially poetical and imaginative. Yet,
wben all these deductions have been made, it is a
beautiful specimen of the true reverence with which the
Bible should be handled, and all who care for poetry or
spiritual life will value it highly. For it is a poet's
protest against a prosaic age, pleading for the beauty
and fullness of life. Material things are treated as not
only material, but as able to express the spiritual; words,
especially Divine words, are seen to represent realities
greater than they are adequate to express : they are not
to be narrowed down to a dead level of utilitarian
literalism ; they are legitimately capable of the meanings
we can find in them, and therefore Origen, with his
threefold interpretation, was so far superior to the mere
literalist that he had three Bibles to the other's one.
It is the protest again of the religious man against
excluding God from His world. He is there in material
things which are a revelation of Himself. He has been
present at every moment of history, so that there are
" as many different manifestations of the Word, as many
Christs as there are believers." Therefore what He did
then has a lasting value for us, and we are one with the
saints of old and must look to find God in every detail
of our lives. " People little know what they do, when

102 JOHN KEBLE.
they deal contemptuously with anything, be it in
Scripture or in common life, under the notion that it
is too slight, too insignificant for the ordering of the
Most High" (p. 22). Lastly, it is a protest of the heart
against the intellect, a plea that the pure in heart shall
see God, that the love of Him will open our eyes to
see deeper meanings in His words. As the lover sees
likenesses of his mistress in many a face, and loves them
for her sake, so the lover of Christ's Cross will find
symbols and anticipations of it in trifling details of the
Old Testament, which get a new value for its sake.
Such suggestions cannot be tied down to exact details,
nor the mystical method restrained by certain limits, but
this was part of the charm of it to Keble. To him it
seemed " one of the tokens of true theology to acknow
ledge doubtfulness and perplexity, more or less, in every
subject, for the doubtfulness of many things has this
advantage, that it lessens the apparent difference
between the scenes of Scripture and common life ;
lessens the temptation to forget how near God is with
us ; helps us to feel our true condition as full of
supernatural Wonders, could we but realize them, as ever
was that of the Jews and Patriarchs of old."
It would have been difficult for these views to win
ready acceptance at any time, most of all in Oxford in
the beginning of 1841. A nightingale might as soon
have expected to be listened to on a field of battle.
Keble might be willing to remain in doubt and per
plexity ; others were not : neither friend nor foe were in
that frame of mind. For a change had come over the
movement in Oxford, to understand which we must go
back over the last few years.

CHAPTER V.
the STRUGGLE (continued). 1841 — 1845.
" The second Temple could not reach the first ;
And tbe late Reformation never durst
Compare witb ancient times and purer years ;
But in the Jews and us deservetb tears." — G. Herbert.
" aitrjxaviH fpovriSoe <rrepij0fif
EV7ra\a.fxSiV [itpipvav
o—q. Tpdirotfiai, TTtTvovroQ oikov.
deooiica 8' opfipov ktvttov Sofxoa^aXrj
rbv aifiarripbv. fcedi; Si Xijytt."
Msob.. Agam., 1531-6.
We have seen that one of the objects, though but a
subordinate object, of the movement, had been to resist
the claims of the Roman Church. But the Hampden
controversy in 1836 had produced an apparent change.
The stress laid upon the dogmatic character of Catholic
truth, and the importance attached to Church authority,
lent themselves to the charge, which the friends of
Hampden knew well how to use, that the movement
was really Romanizing, that its principles must end in
secession. Nor was this a wholly unfounded suspicion.
The appeal to antiquity, the doctrine of Apostolical
succession, the sense of continuity, all were equally
valid for Rome as for England. The sense of this

'104' JOHN KEBLE.
came home with a strange shock and reversal of opinion
to men who had been accustomed to think of the Pope
as Antichrist; and when once this prejudice was
shaken, the Roman Church, with its wide-spread
organization, its developed life of self-sacrifice in
brotherhoods and sisterhoods, its elaborate system of
dogma and of canon law, offered a more attractive
picture to the imagination than an insular provincial
Church, struggling to preserve a Catholic creed in the
spirit of compromise, and obscuring its witness for self-
sacrifice in what was too often an atmosphere of self-
satisfied worldliness. Were there, then, no ' counter
balancing facts ? or, if not, was the Church of England
to surrender its position? To this problem Newman
addressed himself in his lectures on the Prophetical
Office of the Church, in 1837. Discarding, as indeed
Keble had done as early as 1824, the theory which
identified the Pope with Antichrist, he urged that
we are bound to recognize heartily all that is good in
Rome, that both Rome and England are branches of
the Catholic Church, that Rome has preserved sides of
truth which we have lost, and bears more clearly the
note of Catholicity ; but that on the other hand it bears
less clearly than we the note of Apostolicity ; its
witness to the Truth is less clear, less true, to Tradition ;
its doctrine of Infallibility is not borne out by history,
and it claims for the human mind a greater certainty
than man has a right to claim.
But the suspicions were not allayed. In 1838, the
Bishop of Oxford, in a Charge which was not unsympa
thetic, yet spoke cautiously and warningly of the
movement ; there was " a cloud from Cuddesdon," but
a cloud that soon blew over. Newman's first inclina-

THE STRUGGLE. 105
tion had been to cease the Tracts, but Keble was
strongly for continuing them. " No one has encouraged
me but you," Newman writes to him. But the more
conservative Bisley group of Tractarians had taken
fright at a proposal to translate the Breviary for the
use of English Churchmen ; and again Keble was the
mediating and soothing influence. Yet, " unpleasant
tendencies to split were developing themselves on all
sides";1 for there was a new factor in the problem, a
contingent of allies who were destined to have a great
influence on the issue of the campaign. The excite
ment of battle, the deep spiritual appeal of Newman's
sermons, the intellectual subtlety of his lectures, drew
round him a band of young Oxford men, full of enthusi
asm, ready for self-sacrifice, but untrained in any
historic sense of Churchmanship, and therefore liable
to be carried away by the conception of an ideal
Church presented for the first time to their minds.
The leader of these was W. G. Ward, a man of strong
logical power, with a passion for dialectic, with a long
ing for personal sanctity, who had been converted from
a follower of Arnold to that of Newman, but one who
had no knowledge of history, no real care for it, and
little consideration for the feelings of others ; one who
in some ways was the Hurrell Froude of the later part
of the movement, but Hurrell Froude such as he was
untamed and unsoftened by the influence of Keble.
Such were the " tendencies to split developing them
selves on all sides '' at the beginning of 1839, nor did
they grow less during that year. The publication of
Froude's Remains, with his outspoken language in
1 J. H. N. : Letters, ii., p. 272.

106 JOHN KEBLE.
condemnation of the Reformers, and his praise of many
points in the Roman system, unbalanced by the quali
fications which his love of truth would have supplied
had he been reviewing the whole question, or had he
been writing in the face of the circumstances of the time,
tended to widen the split and to increase the violence
of the Romanizing party : " It delighted me more than
any book of the kind I ever read," wrote Ward to Dr.
Pusey.1 The counter-move of the Oxford residents to
erect the Martyrs' Memorial drove the cleavage further.
Newman would not subscribe to it ; Keble would have
preferred some memorial of the Reformation without
mention of the Reformers, and was unwilling to express
a public dissent from Froude in his opinions of the
Reformers as a party; Pusey was willing to recognize
that we owe to the Reformers our position of adherents
to Catholic antiquity; but all three ultimately refused
to subscribe.
In the course of the same year Newman himself
received the first shocks to his own allegiance to
Anglicanism : in the study of the Monophysite heresy,
a suspicion crossed his mind that the position of the
Anglican Church was similar to that of the Monophy-
sites ; in the study of the Donatist heresy the principle
on which St. Augustine decided against them, " securus
judicat orbis Terrarum," seemed to favour Rome rather
than England. But Newman's doubts were known to
few ; indeed they seemed to pass from his own mind ;
he wrote in the British Critic of January, 1840, an
article on the Catholicity of the English Church, still
upholding the theory that both Churches were true
branches of the Catholic Church, and should be neutral
1 W. G. Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 84.

THE STRUGGLE. 107
in their judgments of each other. He was, however,
very apprehensive of lapses on the part of the younger
writers, who urged that while both Churches were
Catholic, the Roman was the nearer to the ideal, that
it had retained the most valuable truths, and that
English Churchmen were at liberty to revive and
restore everything in doctrine and practice which they
found there. The tone of their articles in the British
Critic was already giving offence to Keble, who was
fearful lest people "should speak in a light, lawless
tone of the Church of England and her authorities in
their greater veneration for the Church of the Fathers."
The position of Newman was intensely difficult. He
craved for quiet and time for thought. He resigned
his editorship of the British Critic to his brother-in-
law, T. Mozley; he prepared to leave his rooms in Oriel
and live entirely at Littlemore; he even consulted
Keble on the duty of resigning the Vicarage of St.
Mary's. He urged that he did not really influence
those who were his bond fide parishioners, that on the
other hand he did influence the undergraduates, for
whom he was not responsible, in a way which the
Heads of Houses resented, and again that he found
that he excited sympathies in favour of Rome stronger
than the arguments which he used against it. Keble
replied shortly on the first two points, that we may not
measure our influence by what we see, and that the
Heads of Houses had no authority over the Vicar of
St. Mary's ; on the third point he was more explicit :
he did not see how the resignation of St. Mary's
would mend matters as long as he continued exercising
influence by his writing. No doubt the Tractarian
position lent itself to such risks, but his presence in

108 JOHN KEBLE.
Oxford helped to minimize the risk ; no one had yet
joined the Church of Rome, and his retirement might
cause equal scandal and distress. His advice was,
then, clearly against retirement, unless Newman could
see some way to obviate the scandals which might
ensue. Newman followed this advice and remained, but the
pressure from the Romanizing party was still upon him ;
and early in 1841 he wrote Tract 90, with the object
of showing that the Articles had been composed as
articles of peace between the two opposing parties at
the time of the Reformation, that they could not have
been intended to contradict the teaching of the Council
of Trent, which was formulated after the Articles, but
were only aimed at the current popular Romanism, and
consequently that they were capable of a Catholic in
terpretation, for they were intended to keep the Catholic
party in the Church : " Though the offspring of an un-
catholic age, they are, through God's good providence,
to say the least, not uncatholic, and may be subscribed
by those who aim at being Catholic in heart and
doctrine." This was proved by a careful apd legal
examination of their language. The Tract before publi
cation was sent to Keble, who read it through with his
curate and strongly recommended its publication. The
tone of it, in its desire to keep men loyal to the
Church in England and yet to recognize thoroughly that
Church's shortcomings, the call to repentance and con
fession and prayer for unity, and meanwhile the ex
hortation to submit to imperfections as a punishment,
to go on teaching, if only " with the stammering lips
of ambiguous formularies and inconsistent precedents
and principles partially developed" — these exactly fell

THE STRUGGLE. 109
in with Keble's own patient humility, and, in fact, the
Tract did not in its position advance an inch beyond
the ground which he had taken in common with New
man in the Preface to Froude's Remains. But the
atmosphere was more charged now with elements of
disturbance. Everywhere were feelings of distrust,
doubt, panic; and panic begat injustice.
On February 27th the Tract was published, but,
like all the other Tracts except Dr. Pusey's, published
anonymously. On March 8th, four tutors, alarmed at
the tendency of it, printed a joint memorial to New
man, as editor of the series, asking that the name of
the writer should be revealed. Newman began at
once to prepare a defence of the Tract, showing how
the tutors had misunderstood him ; but, meanwhile,
the Hebdomadal Board, though no appeal had been
made to them, took cognizance of the matter. On
March 10th the Vice-Chancellor laid tbe Tract before
the Board ; on the 12th it was decided to condemn
it, and a Committee was appointed to draw up the
resolution. In vain Newman wrote, pleading for
delay till his answer to the four tutors should be
printed ; in vain Dr. Pusey wrote privately to the Vice-
Chancellor to bear witness to the loyalty of the writer
of the Tract, and to his desire to keep back anxious
minds from Rome by writing it ; in vain Keble wrote,
taking upon himself the responsibility for the publi
cation. On the 15th a resolution was passed by the
Board, which repudiated the whole series of Tracts as
being in no way sanctioned by the University itself,
and passed judgment on this particular Tract on the
ground that the modes of interpretation suggested in
it, evading rather than explaining the sense of the

110 JOHN KEBLE.
Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to
them with the adoption of errors which they were
designed to counteract, defeat the object and are in
consistent with the due observance of the statutes
which require subscription to the Articles. On the
16th Newman's answer was published ; this was still
anonymous, but on the publication of the decision of
the Board he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor to acknow
ledge the authorship, and to take the sole responsibility
upon himself. The injustice of the decision, and the
touching humility with which Newman received it,
drew Churchmen closer together ; the more conservative
element of the party rallied round him ; the extremer
party, through the mouth of Ward, were equally enthu
siastic, but damaged his cause by pressing the argument
further than Tract 90 had done, and claiming the right
to hold all Roman doctrines. A shower of pamphlets
followed ; but it is only with one that we need concern
ourselves. On April 2nd Keble addressed a letter to
Judge Coleridge, pointing out the dangers involved in
the course proposed by the Board — a letter which was
privately circulated at the time, and not published till
1865. In it he pleaded for patient reflection and
enquiry before any irretrievable step was taken ; for
the danger was that a liberty of interpretation which
had always been allowed in the Church should now
be barred. A resolution of the Board was not authori
tative; but it would be a serious matter if the whole
Convocation of the University were to condemn
authoritatively such an interpretation ; it would be
difficult for any tutor who believed the interpretation
to be true to hold his office ; nay, it would be a question
whether Masters of Arts who had subscribed the Articles

THE STRUGGLE. Ill
when this interpretation was left open, could remain
members of the University. Such an act of Convo
cation would really be the adoption of a new test.
The matter was even more serious if applied to clerical
subscription; if the Catholic interpretation of the
Articles was barred, what were the clergy who believe
it to do ? It was true that only a Synodical act of the
whole Church could make such a change, and such a
Synod was not likely to meet ; yet if all the bishops, or a
majority of them, were to pronounce separately against
the interpretation, if even one's own bishop were officially
to denounce it, the duty of the consistent Churchman
would be very difficult; he must either continue his
work under protest from his bishop to the Metropolitan
or to a Synod, or he must retire into another diocese
or into lay communion. " Farther than it, we could
not even appear to separate from that which we believe
to be the manifestation of the Holy Catholic Church
in our country. We could not be driven into schism
against our will. We ceuld only wait patiently at the
Church door, wishing and praying that our bonds might
be taken off, and pleading our cause as we best might
from reason and Scripture and Church precedents."
The letter ended with an appeal to those who did not
sympathize with him, not to force on extreme measures
which would weaken the Church's position as against
Rome, which would drive many from taking Holy
Orders, and be the cause of schism and controversy.
The extracts quoted above show how much Keble
feared the possibility of some secessions to Rome, and
tried to meet the danger,, even as Newman's words in
Tract 90, " Every change in religion carries with it its
own condemnation, which is not attended by deep re-

112 JOHN KEBLE.
pentance," betray the same fear, and a desire to secure
that, at any rate, a change should not be made with a
light heart. But, for the moment, the danger -passed.
When, on St. Andrew's Day, Keble, who was appointed
to preach before the University, prepared a sermon
against secession, Newman dissuaded him from preach
ing it ; he thought there was no one in Oxford in any
immediate danger of such an act. Moreover, the
Heads took no further steps against him. He was
waiting quietly to see what would happen outside
Oxford ; whether the bishops would acquiesce in or
denounce the Catholic interpretation. Tbe Church
seemed to him on her trial.
In the course of the year two things occurred, each of
which seemed of bad omen. The Archbishop of Canter
bury agreed to a plan suggested by M. Bunsen, for
appointing a Protestant Bishop at Jerusalem, to exer
cise jurisdiction over the German and English residents.
To Newman this was naturally abhorrent, as it showed
that the English Church was ready to ally itself in
common action with Lutherans and Calvinists, and to
admit them to communion without any renunciation of
their errors. " The Archbishop is doing all he can to
unchurch us," he wrote to his sister, and he liberated
his own soul by a formal protest which he forwarded to
the Bishop of Oxford. Keble had been doubtful of the
wisdom of this protest ; it seemed to him rather want
ing in reverence towards those whom he censured, and
the fact of a presbyter protesting against an act of his
Metropolitan seemed to require some very commanding
call of duty to justify it.
The other matter touched Keble more closely. In
July the Bishop of Winchester refused to give Priest's

THE STRUGGLE. US
Orders to his curate, the Rev. Peter Young, on the
ground of his statements about the Real Presence in tbe
Eucharist, and in September spoke severely of Tract
arianism in his Charge. For the moment Keble was
inclined to resign, or at least to challenge the Bishop to
bring the matter to a legal issue ; but he was dissuaded
by Pusey and Newman, and ultimately contented himself
with a formal protest against the Bishop's action,
addressed to his Metropolitan. The Archbishop's answer
was kind, but rather vague and unsatisfactory, and it
produced no result. Mr. Young remained in Deacon's
Orders, a faithful, affectionate, trustworthy, and trusted
curate at Hursley, till 1857, when he removed to the
Exeter diocese, and was ordained for the Bishop of
Exeter by the Bishop of Oxford at Cuddesdon.
Meanwhile the anti-Tractarian party grew more
aggressive, and there was a quick succession of sharp
struggles. On October 19, 1841, Keble delivered his
last lecture as Professor of Poetry, and it became
necessary to elect his successor. Isaac Williams was
the most obvfous candidate, and was at cnce proposed
by his friends. But he was a Tractarian, the author
of Tract 80 on " Reserve in communicating Religious
Knowledge," and on that ground unacceptable to many.
Mr. Garbett of Brasenose was entered as a rival candi
date. Owing, partly, to a kindly but ill-judged letter of
Dr. Pusey 's, the election was treated as a party ques
tion ; and on a comparison of promises it was found
that Mr. Garbett could command 921, as compared with
632 given to Mr. Williams, and the latter withdrew.
In June 1842 further ill-will was caused in con
nection with Dr. Hampden. An attempt made by
his friends to rescind the censure passed upon him
i

114 JOHN KEBLE.
in 1836 was rejected by 334 to 219 ; in the autumn
of the same year Dr. Hampden himself attempted
to crush out the Tractarian teaching by making the
theses which were written by candidates for the B.D.
degree into a test of orthodoxy. This was a new
departure, and beyond the actual power allowed him by
the statutes ; hence Mr. Macmullen, whose degree Dr.
Hampden refused,, appealed against it, and when the
Vice- Chancellor vetoed the degree, his veto was appealed
against and ultimately overthrown. Keble, who felt
the injustice of the treatment, was inclined to throw
himself into the breach. "I suppose it would be a
bravado," he wrote to Dr. Pusey, " if I came up and
took my B.D. degree myself, and so got them to try it
out in my case rather than his."
In the next year the opponents essayed a higher
flight. On May 24th Dr. Pusey preached a sermon
before the University on " The Holy Eucharist a Comfort
to the Penitent." This was delated to the Vice-Chan-
cellor by Dr. Faussett; the Vice-Chancellor at once
sent for the sermon, appointed six doctors, including
Dr. Faussett, to examine it ; they, refusing a hearing
to Dr. Pusey, passed their condemnation upon it as
contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England, and
the Vice-Chancellor suspended Dr. Pusey from preach
ing for the space of two years. A request, signed by sixty
members of Convocation, that he would make known
the grounds of the decision, and state what parts of the
sermon were contrary to the teaching of the Church,
was refused by the Vice-Chancellor.
It was a Cadmean victory. The humility with which
Dr. Pusey accepted the sentence won sympathy for his
cause ; he refused to have its legality challenged, bore

THE STRUGGLE. 115
his silence with patience, and on resuming his turn as
preacher after the suspension, resumed the subject as
though nothing had happened. And further, the effect
of the conduct of the opponents was this. They had
silenced the voices of the two people at Oxford who by
the weight of their character and of their learning could
have controlled and guided the younger spirits. Pusey
was suspended from preaching ; Newman, wincing
under censure, had withdrawn from Oriel and was
living in quiet and retirement at Littlemore, feeling that
one condemned by the Hebdomadal Board had no right
to take active part in academical politics. Meanwhile,
the younger members of the movement were unchecked.
In the pages of the British Critic, Ward and Oakeley
were pressing their views to extremes. The Articles
were treated by them as essentially Puritan, and there
fore needing to be explained away in what Ward after
wards called a " non-natural " sense ; the ideal notes of
the Church were enumerated, and it was argued that the
English Church not only failed to reach that ideal, but
fell far short of the point reached by the Church of
Rome : the Roman teaching was accepted as the right
development of primitive truth. The failures of Rome,
the positive excellences of England in teaching and
in practice, were alike thrown into the background.
Both Pusey and Keble were anxious about the tone of
these articles, and Palmer wrote his Narrative of Events
connected with the Tracts for the Times, in order to
protest against this tendency to Romanism. The result
was that the British Critic was discontinued, but Ward
prepared an answer to Palmer, which appeared in
June, 1844, entitled The Ideal of a Christian Church,
reiterating and developing the superiority of the Roman

116 JOHN KEBLE.
Church, and claiming the right to hold the whele
cycle of Roman doctrine. This, naturally enough,
gave the signal for another great struggle in Oxford.
The Hebdomadal Board took up the matter in the
Michaelmas Term, and in December gave notice that
in the Hilary Term they should propose to condemn
Mr. Ward's book, and to deprive him of his degrees.
Six passages were quoted in full, and were charged with
being inconsistent with the Articles and with Mr. Ward's
good faith in subscribing them. But the Board went
further than the immediate danger, and proposed to
guard against a recurrence of it by enacting that every
one who subscribed the Articles henceforth should
make a declaration that he did so in the sense in which
they were both first published and were now imposed
by the University.
The outcry against this third resolution was so great
that it was withdrawn on January 23rd ; but yielding to
a largely-signed petition, the Board substituted for it an
equally unwise proposal, to pass upon Tract No. 90 the
censure which they themselves had passed upon it when
it first appeared. The outcry against this was as great
as against their previous resolution ; pamphlets were
written, legal opinions circulated on both sides. On a
cold, snowy day in February nearly 1200 members of
Convocation came to vote. Feeling had turned some
what in Ward's favour, but his speech was absolutely
uncompromising and unconciliatory. The proposal to
condemn the book was carried by 777 to 391 ; that to
degrade the writer by 569 to 511 ; while the censure
on Tract No. 90 was vetoed by the two Proctors, Mr.
Guillemard and Mr. Church. An expression of thanks
which was circulated by Mr. Charles Marriott and signed

THE STRUGGLE. 117
by 543 members of Convocation, showed that the Proctors
had rightly interpreted the feeling of the University.
Keble was in the minority on each vote. Early in the con
troversy, on January 16th, he had written from Hursley
a short paper entitled, Heads of Consideration on the
Case of Mr. Ward, " the most weighty of all the pro
tests on Mr. Ward's behalf." x He was not personally
acquainted with Mr. Ward. He was repelled by his
off-handness. He admits that he feels serious disagree
ment with some of his principles ; but he was attracted
by his thoroughness and earnestness. He felt grateful
for much that Mr. Ward had written, and was especially
fired by the injustice which meted out to Romanizing
exaggerations a measure so different from that meted
to ultra-Protestant or even Sabellian teaching. The
two points on which he lays stress are the inexpe
diency and probable illegality of the act. It was
inexpedient for a deliberative body, like Convocation,
ever to perform a judicial act. It was specially inex
pedient in this case, because there was no necessity for
it, as so few people agreed with Mr. Ward ; because there
was no security for impartiality where it was notorious
that more flagrant inconsistencies with the truth passed
unpunished ; and because it impugned the good faith
of Mr. Ward, whereas every one, who knew his
character, knew that that at least was untrue. It was
probably illegal because it was doubtful whether Con
vocation could degrade a Master of Arts except for
offences for which this penalty was imposed by the
statutes. When the degradation had passed, it is said
that Keble refused, for a whole year, to wear his own
1 Wilfrid Ward, in William George Ward and the Oxford
Movement.

118 JOHN KEBLE.
Master's hood, so keenly did he feel the unfairness
of the judgment.
Such was the drama being enacted before the world
— a drama serious enough, though Ward, with his
rollicking humour, with his comic songs, with the
sudden surprise of his engagement to be married at the
moment when he was upholding the celibacy of the
priesthood, contrived to mystify the spectators, and
make them think that it was a comedy which was being
played. But behind the scenes it was a real tragedy
which was being enacted. Newman had retired from
his Oriel rooms, and settled at Littlemore in February,
1842 ; in his retirement there, the charges of the
Bishops, repudiating the principles of Tract 90, seemed
to him to show that the Church of England would
refuse to accept her Catholic heritage. In February,
1843, he retracted the hard things which he had said
about Rome ; in August of the same year, Lockhart,
one of the inmates of his house at Littlemore, who had
come there perplexed about the claims of the Roman
Church, and who had promised to give three years to
the consideration of the question, broke his promise
and joined the Church of Rome before one year had
elapsed. In September, Newman resigned the Vicarage
at St. Mary's, this time with Keble's acquiescence.
In 1845, the "theory of development seemed to open
a way to Newman by which he could explain honestly
the divergences between Primitive and Roman doctrines.
On October 6th he resigned his Fellowship at Oriel,
and within two days was received into the Church
of Rome. They were years of spiritual and physical
tension, painful alike to the sufferer and to those who
knew what was passing. The scene might be com-

THE STRUGGLE. 119
pared to that of Prometheus chained to the rock ; and
meanwhile, from time to time, there came from Hursley
voices of sympathy, of encouragement, of hope, of
delicate suggestion, of respectful tenderness for the
mystery that was passing in the recesses of another's
soul, like the utterances of a chorus, one in heart and
in years with the Protagonist.
Thus, in answer to Newman's request for advice about
resigning St. Mary's, Keble writes, on May 14, 1843 —
" Believe me, my very dear Newman, that any
thought of wilful insincerity in you can find no place
in my mind. You have been and are in a most
difficult position, and I seem to myself in some degree
able to enter into your difficulties; and although one
sees of course how an enemy might misrepresent your
continuing in the English Priesthood with such an
impression on your mind, I have no thought but of
love and esteem and regard and gratitude for you in
this as in everything in this way. But I can only just
say what I feel, perfectly unequal as I know myself on
every account to give you advice on this awful matter.
My feeling is that your withdrawing from the English
Ministry under the present circumstances will be a very
perilous step, not so much in itself, but because of its
bringing you, as I fear it would, in every respect
nearer what I must call the temptation of going over.
(2) That this latter would indeed be a grievous event,
considering that for what is wrong without our fault in
the place where God's providence has set us we are not
ourselves answerable, but we are for what may be wrong
in the position we choose for ourselves. (3) That this
difference in point ol responsibility ought in a matter

120 JOHN KEBLE.
of practice to outweigh the difference you feel on the
other side in the evidence for the claims of Rome and
against her additions to the Creed, and especially as
(4) you seem to ground your impression chiefly on
points of historical evidence ; you speak of it as a
' hideous dream ' from which you would gladly awake ;
it does not overpower you with a sort of intrinsical
lustre, as many Divine truths I suppose might.
(5) You speak in one part of your letter of our
Church showing no sign of repentance, no yearning
after Catholicity; but is not the time too short for any
one to be acting on this impression ? Certainly there
is a great yearning even after Rome in many parts of
the Church, which seems to be accompanied with so
much good that one hopes if it be right it will be
allowed to gain strength. But from Bishops one could
hardly look at present for more than toleration; and
that I consider even myself to have from my Diocesan,
much more you from yours. Are you sure that some
of your feeling on this head is not owing to a natural
reaction from having had too eager expectations at
some time ? (6) I am not sure how far it is right to
talk of consequences, but I suppose, as far as we can
judge of them, that no one thing would tend more entirely
to throw us back and undo what little good may have
been done of late. As to the question itself, I am really
too ignorant of the parts of history to which you refer
to say a word ; but can it be that the evidence seems
so overpowering as to amount to moral certainty ? and
if not, ought not but a small probability on the other
side to weigh against it practically ?
" You see my deep feeling about your withdrawing
from your ministerial place refers almost wholly to what

THE STRUGGLE. 121
I fear might come after ; if I were secure against such
consequences, I cannot say that I should think it wrong,
great as the alarm would perhaps be for a time, and
the loss too in many respects.
" One thing occurs to me. Do you not think it possible
that you may have over-estimated the claims of Rome
in your later studies from a kind of feeling that your
earlier expressions had done her wrong ? and now that
you have retracted them, would it not be well to
examine the matter over again, free as you would be
from that particular bias ?
"And now, my dearest Newman, I have one most
earnest request to make of you : that you will not in the
smallest degree depend on my advice or opinion in this
matter, for you do not, you cannot [words struck out] to
advise with about it, in every respect but true love (I
believe) towards you. It frightens me to think how rashly,
and with how small preparation, I have been dealing with
these great matters, and I have all manner of imagin
ations as to how my defects may have helped to
unsettle people, and in particular to hinder you from
finding peace. Yet do not suppose I would stop you
from writing to me if it is the least relief to you to do
so. On the contrary, not to hear from you would be a
sad loss. All I want is that you should put no sort of
implicit faith in me, but take up with what I say when
you see anything in it that is reasonable and right, not
otherwise. "I still cling to the hope you taught me to entertain,
that in the present distress, where the Succession and
the Creeds are, there is the Covenant, even without
visible inter-Communion.
" God forgive and bless us, and choose our burthen

122 JOHN KEBLE.
for us, and help us to bear it ; and if it be His will,
may we two never be divided in communion.
" Ever your most grateful and affectionate "J. Keble."
Again, on July 29th —
" You may well believe that I have been full of
thoughts about you, the more in one sense that I
feel so utterly helpless and unable to think of any
thing which I can suggest as good for a person tried
as you are, except what I am sure you have thought
of long ago. Thus sometimes I think it would be good
for you to withdraw as much as possible for a while from
theological study and correspondence, and be as entirely
taken up with parochial concerns ; but then I am met
with the recollection that you expect so soon to be
separated from poor Littlemore. Again, I think unre
served confidence in some really worthy confessor might
be a great help to you at times — I mean the sort of
submission which would make you put by a subject if
he bid you, without his assigning any reason. And I
suppose it may be well for one to watch and pray,
especially against the temptation of always being on the
move, which I suppose is the portion of some minds."
On Jan. 22, 1844, he writes —
" These are some of my impressions. First, I feel more
strongly with every month's, week's, day's experience
the danger of tempting God, and the deep responsibility
I should have to bear were I to forsake this Communion ;
and yet with the same lapse of time one seems to feel
more and more the truth and beauty and majesty of so
much which they have and we seem at least to have
not. Secondly, one is at times very very strongly

THE STRUGGLE. 123
impressed with the thought of the Evil One, how surely
he would endeavour to ruin the good work, supposing it
begun, in the English Church, by laying hold of any
undiscerned weakness or ill-tendency in the agents to
entice or drive them out of it ; such tendencies one
can imagine in your case — among the rest a certain
restlessness, a longing after something more, some-
thing analogous to a very exquisite ear in music which
would keep you, I should think in spite of yourself,
intellectually and morally dissatisfied wherever you
were. If you were in a convent, you would be forced to
subdue it and as it were swallow it down; may it
not perhaps be your calling now to do the same, though
under no such definite rule, for others' sake as well as
your own ? May it not be your duty, according to your
pwn line of argument just made public, to suppress
your misgivings — nay, what seem your intellectual con
victions, as you would any other bad thought, making
up your mind that the conclusion is undutiful, and
therefore there must be some delusion in the premises ?
Another thought one has is of the utter confusion and
perplexity, the astounding prostration of heart and
mind into which so many would be thrown, were their
guide and comforter to forsake them all at once, in the
very act, as it would seem to them, of giving them
directions which they most needed. I really suppose
that it would be to thousands quite an indescribable
shock, a trial almost too hard to be borne, making them
sceptical about everything and everybody. Surely, when
it is a person's duty (as St. Paul's) to take such a step
as that, the tokens from above will be such (one
naturally expects) as no one could mistake ; and may we
not piously believe that when it is the will of Divine

124 JOHN KEBLE.
Providence that such persons as Pusey, for example,
should leave their present Communion, something
equivalent to that voice will occur, such as an unequi
vocal act of heresy on the part of our Church, leaving
no doubt on the mind, and that till such tokens are
given, it is His will men should stay where they are ?
I am running on, I fear, not very wisely ; and I wish I
may not be distressing you, but if I could express
myself better, I believe I really mean what I have
learned from yourself.
******
"I am writing in great ignorance, and very likely quite
beside the mark ; if I pain or disturb you, forgive me.
Somehow or other I was almost forced to write. You
know I see you looking at me day after day, and I must
speak to you now and then, and when I speak, I must
say what is in my mind. May it do no harm, if it does
no good. I am sure my account is heavy enough
without that."
This extract from a letter of March 3rd is interesting —
"My grand swallow of pain on the subject was
perhaps three-quarters of a year ago, when I received
a long letter of yours, and retired into a dirty old chalk
pit to read it. I cannot tell you with what sort of
fancy I look at the place now."
In June, he was pained by the publication of
Arnold's Life and Letters, and he writes —
" You will readily understand what is the bitterest
part of one's feelings in the whole matter, both in
respect of Arnold and of your change, not that I mean
to compare the two subjects in the least degree in point
of distressfulness, but in both one has a sad depressing
thought, that if one were or had been other than one

THE STRUGGLE. 125
is, the anguish might have been averted or mitigated.
To think that you remember me continually is indeed
a most consoling thought. May it always be so, and
may I be more worthy of it."
In November, 1844, he sends him an extract from a
letter of Judge Coleridge about the gratitude, vener-
atfon, and love which many in the English Church feel
towards him, and adds —
" Therefore, my dear Newman, do not in any case
imagine that you have not hundreds, not to say
thousands, sympathizing with you, and feeling indeed
that they owe their very selves to you. I can only
speak for one of certain knowledge. Your sermons put
me in the way, and your healing ministration helped
me beyond measure. This is certain knowledge of
mine, .... and wherever I go there is some one to
whom you have been a channel of untold blessing.
You must not be angry, for I feel as if I could not help
saying it, and I am sure the very air of England all
around you would say the same, if it could be made
vocal. They have had unspeakable help from you, and it
is now their turn to help you with their prayers and
good wishes, now that you seem to be called for a while
to be patient in comparative silence and inactivity."
On February 20, 1845, he writes an affectionate
birthday letter, recalling the bright associations of the
day in which the first stone of Littlemore Church was
laid. This is printed in Newman's Letters, and need
not be repeated here ; but the following letter, which
closes the correspondence, though already published, is
too touching to be omitted.
"October 3rd, 1845. — I feel as if I had something to
say to you, although I don't very well know what it

126 JOHN KEBLE.
will be ; but Charlotte's illness having for the present
at least abated, I find that I am better able than I
have been for near a fortnight past to think and speak
coherently of other things, and what can I think of so
much as you, dear friend, and the ayavla which awaits
us with regard to you : except, indeed, when my
thoughts travel on to Bisley to Tom's bedside ; for
tliere, as well as here, everything almost seems to have
been, perhaps to be, hanging by a thread. At such
times one seems in a way to see deeper into realities,
and I must own to you that the impression on my own
mind of the reality of the things I have been brought
up among, and of its being my own fault, not theirs,
whereinsoever I am found wanting, this impression
seems to deepen in me as Death draws nearer ; and I
find it harder and harder to imagine that persons such
as I have seen and heard of lately should be permitted
to live and die deceiving themselves in such a point,
as whether they are aliens to the grace of God's
Sacraments or no.
" October 11th, midnight. — I had written thus far
about a week ago, and then left off for very weariness,
and now that I am thinking of going on with my
writing, I find that the thunderbolt has actually fallen
upon us, and you have actually taken the step which
we greatly feared. I will not plague you, then, with
what I might otherwise have set down — something
which passed directly relating to yourself in what fell
from my dear wife on this day fortnight, wben in
perfect tranquillity and self-possession, having received
the Holy Communion, she took leave of us all,
expecting hourly to sink away. By God's great
mercy she revived, and still continues among us, with

THE STRUGGLE. 127
I trust increasing hopes of recovery ; but the words
which she spoke were such that I must always think
of them as of the last words of a saint. Some of
them I had thought of reporting to you, but this at
any rate is not the time.
" Wilson has told me how kindly you have been
remembering us in our troubles ; it was very kind,
when you must have so much upon your own mind.
Who knows how much good your prayers and those of
other absent friends may have done us both here and
at Bisley ? for there too, as I dare say you know, has
been a favourable change, and a more decided one, I
imagine, than here — at least their doctor has told them
they may make themselves comfortable, which is far
beyond anything that has yet been said to us. But his
recovery is very very slow. There too, as well as here,
everything has fallen out so as to foster the delusion, if
delusion it be, that we are not quite aliens, not living
among unrealities. Yet you have no doubt the other
way. It is very mysterious, very bewildering indeed ;
but being so, one's duty seems clearly pointed out :
to abide where one is, till some new call come upon
one. If this were merely my own reason or feeling, I
should mistrust it altogether, knowing, alas ! that I am
far indeed from the person to whom guidance is
promised, but when I see the faith of others, such as I
know them to be, and so very near to me as God has
set them, I am sure that it would be a kind of impiety
but to dream of separating from them.
" Besides the deep grief of losing you for a guide and
helper, and scarce knowing which way to look (though
I trust, thanks (in good part) to your kindness in many
ways, I am not in so wretched a condition as I was),

128 JOHN KEBLE.
you may guess what uncomfortable feelings haunt me,
as if I, more than any one else, was answerable for
whatever of distress and scandal may occur. I keep on
thinking, 'if I had been different, perhaps N. would
have been guided to see things differently, and we
might have been spared so many broken hearts and
bewildered spirits.' To be sure, that cold hard way of
going on, which I have mentioned to you before, stands
my friend at such times and hinders me, I suppose,
from being really distressed, but this is how I feel
that I ought to feel, and [words struck out] I tell you
[words struck out] and how I wish you to help me. That
way of help, at any rate, is not forbidden you in respect
of any one of us.
" My dearest Newman, you have been a kind and
helpful friend to me in a way in which scarce any
one else could have been, and you are so mixed up
in my mind with old and dear and sacred thoughts,
that I cannot well bear to part with you — most
unworthy as I know myself to be, and yet I cannot go
along with you. I must cling to the belief that we are
not really parted — you have taught me so, and I scarce
think you can unteach me — and having relieved my
mind with this little word, I will only say, God bless
you and reward you a thousandfold all your help in
every way to me unworthy, and to so many others. May
you have peace when you are gone, and help us in
some way to get peace ; but somehow I scarce think
it will be in the way of controversy. And so with
somewhat of a feeling as if the Spring had been taken
out of my year,
" I am always your affectionate and grateful
"J. Keble."

CHAPTER VI.
LYRA INNOGENTIUM.
" Or if perchance a sadden'd heart
That once was gay and felt tbe spring,
Cons slowly o'er its alter'd part,
In sorrow and remorse to sing,
Tby gracious care will send that way
Some spirit full of glee, yet taught
To bear the sight of dull decay,
And nurse it with all-pitying thought ;
Cheerful as soaring larit, and mild
As evening blackbird's full-toned lay,
Wben tbe relenting sun has smiled
Brigbt through a whole December day.
These are tbe tones to brace and cheer
Tbe lonely watcher of tbe fold,
When nights are dark, and foemen near,
Wben visions fade and hearts grow cold."
The Christian Year. SS. Simon and Jude.
The years between 1841 and 1846 were years of
intense strain and weary waiting. Where were things
tending ? Would the Church of England refuse to
answer to the high call made upon her ? What would
J. H. N. do ? If he went to Rome, ought others to
follow ? What would be his own duty ? Such ques
tions were pressing upon Keble's heart, and the tension
K

130 JOHN KEBLE.
once more found relief in verse. Once more, as in the
early days in Gloucestershire, there is strong feeling
and there is tranquillity. Once more Keble goes back
to his ideal. The vision of innocence and of holiness
refreshes him again, and it is seen mirrored in the faces
of young children. " Those who christen children," he
said, "have a right to love them."
In the lines of the Christian Year, quoted above, he
had described the comfort which the young could bring
to the sad ; and he found tones to brace and cheer
him in the simple village children of Hursley, and in
the growing families of Sir W. Heathcote at the Park
and of Dr. Moberley, whose children spent the holidays
in a farm-house in Hursley parish.
As early as 1841 he edited The Child's Christian Year.
This is essentially a book for children ; it had been
compiled by Mrs. Yonge for the parish school at Otter
bourne, under Keble's supervision. Four only of the
hymns have since been reprinted as his own.1 The
object of the book, as described in the Preface, was
" to bring ordinary parochial teaching into unison with
the tone of the Prayer-book, and by consequence with
that of the Ancient Universal Church; and for this
purpose to raise and purify the standard by which the
poor judge of religious teaching. Incidentally it is hoped
that attention to this part of education may do much
towards preparing another generation for something
like a revival of Discipline — the cnly Church Reform
which can really deserve the name. As things are at
present, to speak of such a thing sounds almost like
talk in a dream; yet if the well-disposed of our young
people were trained up in the tone of the Ancient
1 Miscellaneous Poems, pp. 103 — 109.

LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 131
Church, were taught to sympathize with her and look
to her for sympathy, the spirit of discipline, it would
seem, could not fail to revive, and what are now mere
forms would again take to themselves power." 1
This was written on November 6, 1841. During
the following years his own poems on childish life grew
apace ; and in 1845 an external circumstance decided
him to publish them. He had made up his mind to
restore the church at Hursley. Coleridge, Dyson, and
Patteson advanced him money for this on the security
of the copyright of the Christian Year ; but this was
not sufficient, and the need of further funds led to the
publication of the Lyra Innocentium, which appeared —
but without the author's name — in the beginning of
1846. This is not, like the compilation of 1841, a book
for children; it does not profess to be; according to
its title it is a book " on children ; their ways and privi
leges " ; and so it is a " mother's book " — " a sort of
Christian Year for teachers and nurses.'' It is not so
well known as the Christian Year, for it does not appeal
to so wide a circle, and yet in two respects it may
rank above it. First, there is more of lyrical freedom,
more of metrical variety and of musical melody. The
Song of the Manna Gatherers is more dramatic, and
has perhaps more vigorous movement in it than any of
his poems. The Offertory and Continual Services have
1 On a stray piece of paper still preserved in Keble's writing
are found tbe following " principles in choosing and correcting
bymns " —
" (1) Always use ' we ' instead of ' I,' or nearly always.
(2) Insert as many touches of doctrine as may be.
(3) Under every bead have at least an ancient or archaic
hymn." The paper is undated, and probably refers to a later date (1856),
wben be was helping Lord Nelson edit tbe Salisbury Hymnal.

132 JOHN KEBLE.
a charm, the one of bright joyousness, the other of quiet
harmony, that are wonderfully in keeping with their
subject. Again, there is more brightness, more inspiriting
hopefulness about its tone. The tone of the Christian
Year had been sadder ; it always assumed that the
Church is in decay ; the poems of the Lyra Apostolica
had been more defiant against its foes ; whereas these
are gladsome with the signs of life and tokens of revival
that are already to be seen in the Church. Jeremiah has
given place to the stripling David, advancing hopefully
and trustfully against Goliath.
In 1826 he had written, " I hold it to be a selfish
and dangerous sort of thing for people to be always
turning their eyes inwards " : and perhaps it is not untrue
to trace in the brighter and less subjective tone of the
Lyra some result of the discipline which he had exercised
over himself in this matter.
In tbe poetic imagery there is the same loving — some
times over-strained — use of Holy Scripture. There is
less of the mystical interpretation of Nature; more,
as is perhaps natural in dealing with children, of illus
trations from animal life,
" The Lord lends His creatures all,
A tongue to preach His will,"
and the young in the nest, the hen gathering her brood
under her wing, the redbreast carolling during Service,
form some of the softest touches in the picture. The
Christian Year stands to the Lyra Innocentium as Ps.
xix. does to Ps. viii. In Ps. xix. the glory of the heavens,
and the undefiled purity of the Law of the Lord giving
wisdom unto the simple, leads up to the cry to be saved

LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 133
from presumptuous sins. Such is the Christian Year.
In Ps. viii. the glory of the heavens pales before tbe
witness of little children, by whose means God stills
the enemy, in whom man is seen crowned with glory
and worship, and all dumb creatures are in subjection
under his feet. Such is the Lyra Innocentium.
Innocence is the keynote of the whole ; the love of
holiness is the emotion which has inspired it. The
thankful harmony of Nature is lovingly described, and
even the Christian Year has no more beautiful expres
sion of it than is to be found in Continual Services —
" His spheres, recede tbey or advance,
Before bim in mysterious dance
Keep tune and time ; nor e'er
Fails from tbis lower world a wreatb
Of incense such as sweet flowers breathe
And vernal breezes bear.
Only man's frail, sin-wearied heart
Bears, half in sadness,
A wavering intermitted part
In that nigh gladness."
But the innocence of childhood and its winning ways
are most prominent. No beauty in flower or gem can
show half so fair as the charms of the new-baptized ; as
in each dew-drop is mirrored some glory of heaven's
great sun, so in each baptized child some ray of the
Father's likeness. The tender, spotless child rehearsing
his Creed has visions of spiritual truth which his elders
lack ; his presence has more than angelic power to scare
away thoughts of evil and of sadness —
" A little child's soft, sleeping face
Tbe murderer's knife ere now batb stayed ;
Tbe adulterous eye, so foul and base,
Is of a little ohild afraid."
Babes have a sympathy with dumb animals, and

134 JOHN KEBLE. ,
animals with them, which Eastern sages might explain
as due to transmigration of souls, but which is part of
the heritage of Eden ; their ready praise and willingness
to give their toys away is a type of Christ's largess on
the day of Pentecost ; their shyness is a germ of the
true silent awe which all ought to feel in the Presence
of God, and especially the pastor who has to work for
Him. Their life is like that of the angels, in their
white robes, in their ready prayer and praise, in their
willingness to serve — " As angels wait in joy
On saints, so on tbe old tbe dutemis-hea/rted boy "
(p. 250). And the angels catch up their prayers for
home and parents, and expand them and interpret them
before God as prayers for the Church and her Priests.
Duteous — duteous-hearted — that is the special
quality chosen for praise; but even child-life suggests
notes of warning too. The mother as she fooks pn the
child cannot but be anxicus; fear's chastening angel
must, for Love's sweet sake, dwell with the child. David
too was a generous boy with open brow ; the mother of
Judas must have looked on him with joy and hope ;
as the mother's prophet eye reads even in their sports
her child's future life and character, it must be in
" hope and agony " that she prays ; for that life may be
soiled by violent passion or by sullen moroseness, by
neglect of childhood's simple courtesies, by irreverence,
by " the blight of thankless eye," by " the quick untrem-
bling gaze," by the love of .praise making the child rest
in earthly things ; too great display may be as fatal to
the child's future as Hezekiah's display of his treasures
to the ambassadors of Babylon —

LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 135
" For busy bands and an admiring ken
Have blighted ere its time full many a rose."
The child has had the sign of the Cross put upon it ;
therefore it must be ready for suffering, ready to find its
life thenceforward by daily dying.
This child-life is often used to point the contrast
with the grown-up man ; his own sense of sinfulness
breaks in upon the scene, and seems so black against its
whiteness — " Jesus in His babes abiding,
Shames our cold ungentle ways : "
and yet more often He comes in His children not to
judge but to give fife ; with a hope and a suggestion of
what even the sinner may be. The white apparel of
the baptized child and the joyous white of the bride find
their counterpart in the white robe of the penitent.
There is still the same deep sense of sin and of un
worthiness, but there is perhaps a yet stronger hold on
the reality of absolution, a more lively hope that " the
withered bough may blush with fruitage still " —
" 0 fear, 0 joy to think ! and what if yet
In some far moment of eternity,
Tbe love of evil I may quite forget,
And with tbe pure in heart my portion be ! "
Others have come to him by this time for guidance
in the hour of remorse and of perplexity ; he has
trusted that God will use even his unworthiness, and has
found his trust true, and the witness of the reality of
forgiveness in them has deepened it for himself. The
sorrows of the time have drawn him out of himself and
made him cling close to the Church, like a child cling
ing closer to its mother's robe among strangers,, when it

136 JOHN KEBLE.
can only see " far-reaching ways unknown and wide." 1
But that touch has given him boldness, and made his
step free and light/ He has learnt her power to train
her children, to minister to all the varied needs of life.
The tenderness of bright joyous children for a sister just
recovering from death, and the heartfelt prayer of the
parents for the child, have brought closer home to him
the sense of the leve of God and of His Church for the
penitent.2 Moreover he has learnt more of her doctrine ;
" When I wrote the former book," he says to Judge
Coleridge, " I did not understand (to mention no more
points) either the doctrine of Repentance or that of the
Holy Eucharist as held e. g. by Bishop Ken ; nor that of
Justification, and such points as those must surely make
a great difference." s There is certainly greater definite-
ness in this volume on several points. There is a
stronger sense of " the living dead " ; " the pure and
childlike dead," watching our lives and joining in our
prayers. The saints have grown dearer to him, and he
loves to trace in the baptized not only the signs of filial
likeness to the Father which is in heaven, but of like
ness to its brothers the saints, whether they recall the
penitence of St. Peter, the loving smile of the loved
disciple, or the purity of Blessed Mary. Especially , is
the reverence towards the Blessed Virgin marked — her
" Wbom the awful blessing
Lifted above all Adam's race."
The orphaned child is taught to feel that not only her
own mother is praying for her, but also "A holier
mother rapt in more prevailing prayer." He had
1 See the touching poem entitled Separation.
2 Cf. Languor, " tbe tenderest of all the poems " (Miss Yonge).
3 Memoir, ps 282. Cf. I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 117.

LYRA INNOCENTIUM. \VJ
intended to prefix to the volume a poem written on
December 8, 1844, and entitled Mother out of 'Sight,1
in which the Blessed Virgin is " called blessed " as the
one only instrument of the Incarnation, as the type of
the Church, as the pattern of all purity, and in which,
though we may not adore her, we are urged to seek the
love and fear "which bring thee with all saints, near
and more near," and suppliants are invited to greet
her with an " Ave," as
" Children with ' good morrow ' come,
To elders in some borne,"
and in this spirit to invite the saints to join in our
prayers. Such language goes indeed very little, if at
all, beyond that of the Christian Year, but Coleridge,
Dyson, and other friends dissuaded him from publishing
it. The poem tells of doubt and perplexity, of the
wonder of many whether Mother Church could really
be found in the Church of England, yet it bears witness
that he himself is convinced that God's signs are still
around us ; there is no hint of disloyalty ; there is a
sense that the Church places too low the honour she
pays to the highest of God's creatures ; but he is content
to wait, even as, while grieving over the disuse of Infant
Cemmunion in another poem, he was willing to wait
and take such part as the Church — " she whose laws are
sealed on high " — ordains. His feeling towards other
Churches was at the time one of neutrality ; he would
recognize each as separate parts of one great stream,
destined to be united hereafter, but for a while flowing
apart. This is illustrated in the poem called The
Waterfall ; there the value of each separate Christian
1 Printed after his death in Miscellaneous Poems, p. 254.

138 JOHN KEBLE.
life is illustrated by the various streams that rush
together from all sides to make up the glory of Lodore ;
but he is clearly thinking more of Churches than of
individuals as he draws the application —
" E'en so tbe mighty sky-born stream : —
Its living waters from above
All marr'd and broken seem,
No union and no love.
Yet in dim caves they baply blend,
In dreams of mortals unespied ;
One is tbeir awful end,
One their unfailing guide.

And Christ batb lowly hearts, that rest
Amid fallen Salem's rush and strife ;
The pure peace-loving breast
Even here can find her life.
What though in barsb and angry note
The broken flood chafe high ? Tbey muse
On mists that lightly float,
On heaven-descending dews,
On virgin snows, the feeders pure
Of the bright river's mountain springs,
And still tbeir prayers endure,
And Hope sweet answer brings.
If of tbe Living cloud they be
Baptismal drops, and onward press
Toward the Living Sea
By deeds of holiness,
Then to the Living Waters still
(0 joy, with trembling !) tbey pertain,
Join'd by some hidden rill,
Low in earth's darkest vein."
Baptism and the struggle for holiness are to each

LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 139
sufficient assurance that he belongs to the Church ; the
signs of spiritual life around them are full of hope. So
it has been throughout the book. The possibilities of
true spiritual life in the English Church are hinted at
by dwelling upon all that it does for children, by trying
to picture something of what their pure vision sees in
it ; the hope of the penitent is rekindled by recalling to
him his childish innocence, and by pointing to the hope
of re-winning that. So it is that in the Preface which
he substituted (on February 8, 1846), he prays that God
may pardon his sin, and strengthen him that he may
guide the perplexed along their path,
" And with no faint or erring voice
May to tbe wanderer whisper, ' Stay ' :
God chooses for tbee : seal His choice,
Nor from thy Mother's sbadow stray :
For sure thy Holy Mother's shade
Rests yet upon thine ancient borne ;
No voice from Heaven hath clearly said,
' Let us depart ' : then fear to roam.
Pray that the prayer of Innocents
On earth, of saints in heaven above,
Guard, as of old, our lonely tents ;
Till, as one faith is ours, in Love
We own all Churches, and are own'd.
Pray Him to save by cbastenings keen
The harps that hail His Bride enthron'd
From wayward touch of hands unclean.''
A copy of the book was sent to Newman with the
accompanying message —
" I hope you will receive a little book along with this,
which I have asked Copeland to forward to you. You
will kindly take it as a pledge of (I hope) unabated
lave and gratitude and constant remembrance ; though
confidence (sad to say) cannot be what it was. That

140 JOHN KEBLE.
is a very bitter feeling, but it will do one good, if one
can at all adequately perceive and feel that it is one's
own fault.
"May I say God bless you, very dearest friend? —
being always "Your affte. and grateful
"J. Keble."

CHAPTER VII.
recovery. 1846—1860.
" And now what time ye all may read through dimming tears bis
story,
How discord on the music fell and darkness on tbe glory ;
And bow, when one by one sweet sounds and wandering lights
departed,
He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted,
He shall be strong to sanctify tbe poet's high, vocation,
And bow the meekest Christian down in meeker adoration ;
Nor ever shall he be in praise by wise or good forsaken,
Named softly, as the household name of one whom God hath
taken." — Mrs. Browning : Ccncper's Grave.
" The place where the priests' feet stood firm." — Joshua iv. 3.
It will have been noticed that in the letters to
Newman there are erasures from time to time. These
were made by Cardinal Newman, when he deposited
the originals in tbe library of Keble College, and he
prefixed to the correspondence of 1843 — 1846 the
following note —
" In the letters which follow I have made erasures,
which may seem strange and arbitrary, unless I say
something to account for them.
" Let me observe, then, that dear John Keble's heart
was too tender and his religious sense too keen, for him
not to receive serious injury to his spirits and his

142 JOHN KEBLE.
mental equilibrium by the long succession of trials
in which his place in the Oxford movement involved
him. " The affair of No. 90, Williams's failure in his contest
for the Poetry Professorship, the Jerusalem Bishoprick,
Young's rejection when offering himself for Orders,
Pusey's censure by the six Doctors, the promotion of
Thirlwall and others, my own religidus unsettlement
and that of so many others, the charges and hostile
attitude of the Bishops, the publication of Arnold's life
and letters, and the prospect of the future opened upon
him (not to dwell upon the serious illness of his wife
and his brother), were too much for him, and threw him
into a state of extreme depression, which showed itself
to his intimate friends in the language of self-accusation
and even of self-abhorrence.
" This heartrending trial, of which perhaps I saw more
than any one, is remarked upon by Sir John Coleridge
in his Life of Keble (p. 283, &c, ed. 1), though he has
not attempted any sufficient explanation of it. He
seems to attribute what was a surprise to him tp the
intense self-disparagement which, however strange to
the run of men, is natural to a mind so religious as
Keble's. Others have supposed it was a point of duty
with Keble thus to speak and write, as being a proper
form of introducing a religious sentiment, or what was
called in a Bishop's charge some forty years ago, a sort
of ' mystic humility ' — an imputation mpst untrue to
Keble's nature. It is more exact to say that the idea
had grown upon him and vividly possessed him, that he
had allowed himself for the last ten or twelve years to
be engaged in deep religious questions, and in con
troversy rising out of them, without adequate prepara-

RECOVERY. 143
tion. He had set off in the company or at the head of
many others, on a road which he had not explored, and
as he might think, he had been ' the blind leading the
blind.' And, in particular, he considered himself at
least indirectly, if not positively, the cause of my own
abandonment of the Church of England.
" This impression, however, unless he had been at the
time so worried and broken in heart, as I have supposed,
would not have been enough in itself to account for the
obiter dicta, the ejaculations, the single words and half
sentences, the language, so shocking to one who knew
and loved him se well as I did, in which he expressed
his sense ef the difficulties of the moment and his own
responsibility in relation to them.
"To me nothing is more painful than the contrast
between the cheerfulness and playfulness which runs
through his early letters and the sadness of his later.
This must remain anyhow ; it is founded on the succes
sive circumstances of his history ; it is part of his life ;
nor could one expect it to be otherwise; but I could not
be so cruel to that meek, patient, and affectionate soul,
to that dearly, deeply beloved friend, as to leave to a
future generation the exhibition of those imaginary
thoughts about himself which tormented him, which
grew out of grave troubles, which were very real, and
which are sufficiently recorded for posterity, when they
serve, as in a notice like this, to suggest to a reader the
weight of those troubles."
It is only fair to the reader to print also a short
memorandum added by Dean Church on the sight of
tbe above note.
"Nov. 10, 1879. — I was not sure, and I am not
sure, about the accuracy of the impression which such

144 JOHN KEBLE.
a notice might leave, as to Keble's own state of mind
— whether it would not suggest the reflection, 'Poor
Keble, he felt the earth reeling and opening round
him — the foundations are cast down.'
" Great as Keble's troubles were, I do not suppose
that this was his permanent state of mind; nor does the
notice say so ; it only speaks of the distress of the friend
and the brother workman. But I wish, what is too
much to expect, that the distinction had been acknow
ledged or remembered between Keble the broken
hearted friend, and Keble the priest of the English
Church. Because about this, in all his griefs, he never
lost his head or his faith; though if anything could
have made him do so, it would have been the event of
1845 and the parting with Newman.
" But it is a very natural account for N. to give ; and
it is full of his matchless tenderness and considerateness
and surprising affectionateness."
It needs the combination of these two judgments
to do justice to Keble's feelings at this crisis. On no
one person did the blow fall with heavier weight.
All his affection for Hurrell Froude had passed over to
Newman when Froude was taken away ; to Newman he
had given his heart and his generous sympathy to the
last ; he had trusted him when his Bisley friends were
distrustful; he had accepted his intellectual position
and entered into his imaginative enthusiasm for all
that was good in the Church of Rome, and could
understand its attractiveness probably more than Dr.
Pusey, and yet he stood firm under the shock. Tbe
strongest link at the moment was formed by the
evidence of true spiritual grace which he saw on what
seemed to be the deathbed of his wife at Hursley, and

RECOVERY. 145
of his brother at Bisley ; but this was but one instance
of the reality of that spiritual life to which he bad
been accustomed from childhood. "Every day" he
wrote, " things are happening, especially in our two
sick-rooms, which make it more and more impossible
for me to do as he has done." x
The first result of the blow was to deepen the sense
of humility and of repentance, both in him and in Dr.
Pusey ; each accused himself of failures and sins which
had caused the loss of their fellow-worker. Their first
common act was to unite with the other Tractarians,
who remained loyal, — and Newman was the only Tract
writer who at any time joined the Church of Rome, —
in preaching at the consecration of St. Saviour's,
Leeds, a church which had just been built as an act
of gratitude by "a penitent," who wished to give
expression to the revived Catholic doctrines in the
midst of a busy town. Keble was himself unable to
go, but he sent three sermons on God's judgments and
upon Hell, which were read by Dr. Pusey, save that
in the last the tone of sternness about God's judg
ments was so awful that even Dr. Pusey could not
read parts of it. From this time forward the two were
drawn more closely together, and kept up an active
correspondence with each other, in which each
heartened the other in his moments of difficulty, and
pleaded for the other's prayers that he himself might
be truly contrite.
But the second result was a strong, vigorous effort
on the part of each on behalf of Church principles.
The sense of the reality of spiritual life within the
Church was the strongest link that held them loyal ;
1 Letter to Dyson, Oct. 12th (Coleridge, p. 308). L

146 JOHN KEBLE.
if they had not followed Newman, at any rate the
world should see that it was not that self-sacrifice could
exhibit itself less really in the English Church. Active
life went forward without any break and developed
itself in new ways; the Church, lengthened its cords
and strengthened its stakes; in 1836 the first bishop
had been appointed for Australia; in 1840 Bishop
Blomfield had made his great appeal for an extension
of the Colonial Episcopate, which resulted in the
bishopric of New Zealand in 1841, of South Africa in
1847, and of many others. At home the deepening
sense of sin caused the more frequent use of confession,
and the desire for entire self-devotion in the religious
life led to the formation of sisterhoods at Devonport,
at Wantage, and at Clewer, all within a few years of
Newman's secession. In Oxford Charles Marriott was
collecting funds for a new Church College for men of
humbler means, a scheme which failed only through his
illness ; at Hursley the sign of reviving life was seen in
the restoration of the parish church, which was opened
in 1848. Thus, " things were happening" not only at
Hursley, but throughout the whole Church, which made
it more and more impossible to leave her. But all this
was not effected without struggle and loss. The
controversy around Tract 90 and Ward's Ideal had at
any rate laid bare the weak spots in the life of the
Church, and each had to be made good. There were
still losses by secession in the course of this; there
were exasperating appointments to bishoprics; there
were decisions of the Privy Council which seemed to
threaten the very central doctrines of the faith. But
gradually the ground became clearer, and Churchmen
came to see how little the real being of the Church

RECOVERY. 147
could be touched by such a secular court as the Privy
Council or even by the individual utterances of
bishops, and step by step was gained in securing the
free legislative action of the Church. It will be
impossible to deal with all these cases, and we must
select but a few to illustrate Keble's action.
First it became necessary for the leaders who
remained to reassure their followers, to re-examine and
re-assert the grounds on which the claims of the Church
of England were based. At first, in their affection
for Newman and their belief that God had some special
work for him to do in reuniting the Church, they were
content to acquiesce in a position of pure neutrality
towards Rome ; but this became impossible to maintain
as the converts took the offensive. In order to meet
the mere logical appeal to the abstract principle of
authority, " it was necessary further to realize the limits
of pure logic, to distinguish theoretical and practical
issues, and to feel in its fullness the close connection
of all questions of authority with those of practical
life."1 A short paper suggesting subjects for mutual
intercession, viz. the unity and peace of the Church,
the conversion of sinners, the advancement and
perseverance of the faithful, was circulated among
friends by " J. K, E. B. P., and C. M." (Charles Marriott).
Dr. Pusey threw all the weight of his learning into
the controversy, and gradually built up the great
defence of the Anglican position, of which the Eirenicon
was the chief outcome. Keble's line was naturally
different. He was quite clear about his position ; and
when Dr. Pusey wrote in 1847 that there was a
widespread rumour that "you are going to leave us,"
1 The Guardian, July 20, 1892.

•148 JOHN KEBLE.
he answered, "I scarcely think it can do much
harm; it is so utterly without ground or foundation;
however, I have authorized two persons to contradict
it as publicly as they please." And there is no trace of
any hesitation on his part. He did, no doubt, from
time to time, face the possibility of resigning his Orders,
or even of giving up communion with the Church ; but
the position he contemplated was one similar to that of
the Non-jurors. He never showed a desire to join the
Church of Rome. But he was not a controversialist.
Although he had expressed as early as 1836 an
intention to write a course of Bampton Lectures on
Romanism, yet he had never found time for it, and
always felt that he did not know the controversy as a
controversy. He, too, was at first inclined to neutrality;
but as time went on, his exasperation at tbe underhand
methods used by some of the later converts, and the
unfairness of their attacks on Dr. Pusey, and the
growing sense that separate conversions did not
promote peace and unity, made him more strong in
his insistence upon the errors of the Church of Rome.
For the present his contribution to the cause was
the publication of a volume of Sermons, Occasional and
Academical. One of these — the sermon which he had
prepared for St. Andrew's Day, 1841 — dealt directly
with the question of loyalty to the English Church,
but the argument of it was now expanded into a long
and careful Preface, which is the fullest passage in his
writings on tbe subject. In it he makes no attempt to
deal with the controversy controversially : as always he
protests against treating any question on mere intel
lectual grounds ; moral considerations must also be
weighed. Hence he does not primarily ask, What is

RECOVERY. 149
true ? but, What is right to do 1 He attempts calmly, and
" without consternation and amazement," " to direct a
simple man's practice." The method is that of Butler's
Analogy. He will not allow the question to be settled
by a priori considerations of what the Church ought to
be, without regard to historic facts ; but assuming that
historic facts point to a divided Church and prove that
the Church of Rome does not preserve all the notes of
an ideal Church, assuming further that the controversy
is a doubtful one, on which there is much to be said on
both sides, he asks, What is the safe course to pursue ?
The safest course is that which satisfies our moral sense
of what we owe to God as a Father ; in other words,
it will be that course which is most likely to promote a
spirit of acquiescence in His will, of intellectual modesty,
of contrition, of generous recognition of holiness in
others, and which is least likely to give offence to
others. Such a course is supplied by remaining loyal
to the English Church, for as she is less attractive to
the imagination, loyalty to her will show a generous
contentment, like the conduct of one who is not
ashamed of lowly parentage. On the other hand
secession implies a great act of private judgment, and
the power of deciding a number of controverted
questions; it would also minimize the sense of
contrition for the past, because it minimizes the sense
of privilege enjoyed, and would make us disparage the
saints of the English Church, whereas we are free to
reverence all saints of the Roman Communion ; finally
it would cause pain to some and throw others into
scepticism. He tries to show that such an argument would not
apply equally to Dissenters and unbelievers, because

150 JOHN KEBLE.
they disavow nothing on beccming Cathplic Christians ;
they only add to the substance of their faith and prac
tice ; and they have stronger and clearer evidence on
which to act ; nor does it put the English Church in the
position of the Donatists, for we do not anathematize
other Christians, and the difference between us and
Rome is of detail rather than of principle, and it will
probably decrease. We do not deny any important
doctrine, but, at the worst, only tolerate error through
want of strong discipline.
If it is urged that the Roman Church can give a
clearer guidance, the answer is that guidance in all
essentials was providid before the division of the
Church, that the prottiise of guidance to individuals
is always conditional, apid that a reasonable hope is a
more wise trainer of character than a perfect assurance.
Our unity is +h^of a divided family, and therefore
implies the dutyof all the charity and tenderness which
brothers would fefel to each other; but the English
Churchman must remain loyally where he is, as the
position is not one of his own choosing, whereas to
change would be to take the management of his soul
into his own hands. The Church of Christ in England
is a true 'branch of the Catholic Church ; it retains the
essential notes of a Church ; but it is hampered by
want of discipline, by toleration of error, by low ideals
of life ; hence it must be a Church in penitence, and
a Church under appeal to an Oecumenical Council,
whenever such can be summoned.
Such an argument is in a very minor key, and would
not convince, though indeed it might solemnize and
give pause to one who was keenly interested in the
controversy ; but at any rate it makes the appeal to

RECOVERY. 151
the whole nature of man ; and Keble might well
answer that the question never arises whether a man
should choose in the abstract between England and
Rome, without reference to previous claims and obliga
tions upon him.
Two storms followed in 1847 which both seemed at
first to threaten shipwreck to the Church, but which
she weathered safely. In November Dr. Hampden,
who was still under University censure for heterodoxy,
was nominated by Lord John Russell to the Bishopric
of Hereford. Keble at once consulted Coleridge as to
the legal course to be proposed by the opponents of
the nomination. With the help of Dr. Pusey he drew
up the articles of the charge against Dr. Hampden ;
he used every influence he could command with the
Dean and Chapter, and the Dean was induced to
oppose the confirmation of the election in Bow
Church; but his opposition was overruled, and the
new Bishop was consecrated. Nothing was directly
gained, but it had been clearly shown how the Church
was fettered by the State in the choice of her own
officers, and the primary result was the formation of
Church Unions both in Bristol and in London to
watch over the interests of the Church; their special
aims being the increase of the Episcopate, the provision
of some valid security against unfit appointments,
the revival of the Church legislature, and the restor
ation of discipline. Tbe ultimate result was the
revival of Convocation in 1852.
One extract from a letter written by Keble to Dr.
Moberley on March 6, 1848, will illustrate his ultimate
feeling about the importance of the question. Dr.
Moberley had consulted him on behalf of some one

152 JOHN KEBLE.
who was perplexed by the consecration and inclined to
take this as a sign that the Church was no true
Church. He, in his answer, is inclined to regard
such a seeking for a sign as, at the bottom, a profane
and heathenish state of mind, and he adds : " But is
this such a sign ? I mean, if persons have thought
it their duty to bear with the Puritans and Latitu-
dinarians of times past, so far as not to give up the
Church of England to them, nor to acquiesce in
their interpretation of its formularies, what is there
in this case to make them take a different view?
We are not bound in any manner to express
approbation of Hampden's notions; we are not at all
committed by them : we have protested against them
as far as we are able, on the ground that they are
contrary to the Prayer-book, and yet were we to retire
from the Church of England because of them, must it
not be on the very ground that his was the right
interpretation of the Prayer-book? It would be an
other thing were we called on as a condition of Church
manship to subscribe to his views or to refrain from
holding and teaching our own. As I understand it,
so far from retiring on account of the mistaken tolera
tion of such views, it is an additional reason for every
one of us to keep his post and do his best, as I under
stand St. Basil and others to have done with the Semi-
Arian bishops of their time. As long as the formularies
continue unchanged, I cannot see how the toleration
even of heresy in this or that bishop, or even in the
whole Bench, can be other than a question of discipline,
not of doctrine, and I thought it had been ruled ever
since the days of Donatus that questions of discipline
affect the well-being, not the being of the Church. . . .

RECOVERY. 153
As to the Erastianism, the more I think it over, the
more I seem to see that we are on a better ground
than we have been, at least since the Revolution, and
if people will now be patient and persevering, we have
every chance of making that ground good. The one
thing to ruin us would be impatience."
Meanwhile, the Gorham case, which seemed more
serious still, as appearing formally to authorize false
doctrine as the teaching of the Church, and which
proved more serious in the secessions which it caused,
had already commenced. In June, 1847, the Lord
Chancellor presented the Rev. G. C. Gorham to a living
in the diocese of Exeter, but Bishop Phillpotts, having
already had knowledge of his denial of the doctrine of
regeneration in Baptism, formally examined him on the
subject, and as he would only admit a conditional re
generation, the Bishop refused to institute him, in
March, 1848. Mr. Gorham appealed to the Dean of
Arches, who pronounced judgment in August, 1849, in
favour of the Bishop. Against this Mr. Gorham
appealed to the Queen in Council ; and the Committee
of the Privy Council, consisting of six laymen, with the
two Archbishops and the Bishop of London as assessors,
gave judgment on March 8, 1850 — the Bishop of
London alone refusing to concur — against the Bishop of
Exeter. The Judgment did not assert that conditional
regeneration was the doctrine of the Church, but it did
decide that it was not so clearly condemned by the
Church that a bishop could refuse to institute one who
held it. The Bishop of Exeter still refused to institute,
but the Archbishop, in spite of the Bishop's threat to
refuse to hold communion with him, instituted Mr.
Gorham. The Bishop was defeated in an attempt to

154 JOHN KEBLE.
"provide a more satisfactory Court of Appeal, but he
summoned a Diocesan Synod in 1851 which formally
declared its firm and immovable adherence to the
article of the Creed, " one baptism for the remission
of sin." Again the evil was overruled for good; the
unsatisfactory character of the Court of Appeal was
brought home to the consciences of Churchmen : a
'precedent was set for the revival of the synodical action
of the Church, which greatly helped forward the move
ment for the revival of Convocation.
During all this anxious time Keble was incessantly
active. His correspondence and his publications were
"occupied with two problems : How could the Church be
freed from any complicity with the judgment ? and how
could the younger Churchmen who felt the attraction of
Rome, and they were many — Allies, Dodsworth, Maskell,
Manning, and, dearest to his ' heart, his old Southrop
pupil, Robert Wilberforce — be kept loyal in the face of
such a judgment ?
In January, 1850, he consulted Sir John Awdry on
^fhe legal position. His own opinion was that as the
prerogative of deciding doctrine lay with the Bishops,
and as this was a lay Court never formally accepted by
the Church, he was not bound in conscience by its
decisions, but might ignore them and still hold his
position in the Church, because his oath to admit the
Royal Supremacy was taken with the understanding that
^the supremacy would be constitutionally exercised.
But others had taken counsel's opinion on the matter,
which was that they were bound to accept the decision
of the Court, and therefore he asks for guidance. Sir
John Awdry's answer was quite clear : (1) that not every
usurpation in a Church, such as ex hypothesi that of

RECOVERY. 155
this Court was, would justify secession, and (2) that no
judicial decision, though it turn on a matter of doctrine,
binds the conscience; it is only the expression of the
opinion of the judges, which may be treated as a
precedent, but is not law ; as one who thinks some of
the decisions of the House of Lords in secular matters
erroneous is not less a loyal subject, so would one be
no less a loyal member of the Church if he treated
a decision of this Court of Appeal as erroneous, and if
he continued to teach and preach Baptismal Regeneration
as the doctrine of the Church, even though the Court
should hold that unsoundness about it was not a ground
on which a bishop could exclude a presentee from
preferment. This letter cleared away any doubts in Keble's mind,
and he threw himself actively into the controversy.
He published two short papers on Church Matters in
1850, which are among the most clear, pointed, and
vigorous of his writings. The first, The Trial of Doctrine,
was published before the judgment, and is a protest
against the whole constitution of the Court ; on the
grounds that it consisted of laymen, without any
security that they should be members of the Church,
so that the vote of a Nonconformist might decide a case
in a matter of doctrine ; that it had never been accepted!
by the Church, for it was not the same as the old Court/
of Delegates, being neither accompanied by the samel
safeguards nor appointed by the same authority : hence \
the clergy are not bound by their acknowledgment of|
the Royal Supremacy to obey it, for that assumes aj
constitutional exercise of the Supremacy in religion asj
well as in secular matters. A judgment by it cannot}
affect the beinCTjoJjthe_CJmrch, but it can its well-being,

156 JOHN KEBLE.
as it will cause confusion and distress, especially if the
Court has to deal with deeper questions still, such as
Inspiration or Eternal Punishment. Hence the duty of
Churchmen is to petition for some Court with Synodical
authority, and meanwhile to let Christendom ring with
our appeal, and to continue our struggle.
"All this we must do; and there is something else
which must nowise be left undone. For, rovro rb yivos
ovk eKTTOpeverai el /xt) ev irpocrevxri *ai vqarela (St. Matt.
xvii. 21).
As soon as the judgment was declared, he circulated
a petition in his parish praying the Bishop of the
diocese to help them, owing to the doubt which has
arisen, " Whether or no the Church holds it needful to
be believed that by the Blood and merits of our Saviour
Christ, Original Sin is remitted to all infants in Holy
Baptism ?" and this received over 200 signatures, and
was forwarded with a letter assuring the Bishop that
the names had been put down '' with intelligence and
hearty goodwill," and imploring him to repudiate the
decision in order to avoid a distressing separation from
the Establishment. On July 20th he published another
vigorous tract, entitled A Call to Speak Out, in which he
urges that though those who hold communion with the
Archbishop after his sanctioning of the heresy would
not formally be guilty of heresy, yet they must protest
'against his action and the Court. The State must
k allow the decision to be reviewed by the proper
I authority, or else the Church's rulers must disregard the
j decision. If not, we must agitate for a change in the
^relations of Church and State. We have a right to
declare our own doctrines, to confirm, vary, and repeal
our canons, to have a voice in the nomination of our

RECOVERY. 157
chief pastors, and to grant or withhold our sacraments
according to our proper rules. "We had rather be a
Church in earnest, separate from the State, than a
counterfeit Church in professed union with the State."
Clearly his mind was already facing the possibility of/
disestablishment. I
In the autumn of the same year the Church Unions
stirred themselves to unite Churchmen in common
action against the judgment. In the Bristol Union an
unwise attempt to combine the question with an expres
sion of antagonism to Rome nearly caused a split among
its members, and tliere seemed for a moment the fear
of Keble and Pusey taking opposite sides. The more
conservative group of Churchmen, led by William
Palmer, Archdeacon Prevost, and others, wished to make
an expression of such antagonism a test of membership
of the Union. Dr. Pusey offered his strongest oppo
sition to this : it seemed to him that a statement of
antagonism was never a true basis of union, and that
at this time antagonism to Rome might easily be
perverted into repudiation of much that was true and
Catholic. Keble, though opposed to a test, was inclined
to a declaration of similar effect. To this too Dr.
Pusey was opposed. It was a moment of severe strain
for bim, for nothing would induce him to appear
publicly in opposition to Keble ; yet at the same time
he knew that such a declaration would alienate waverers.
He was on the point of leaving the Union, but ultimately
the test was withdrawn, and a declaration of willingness
to live and die in the Church of England was substi
tuted for it. Meanwhile in London a great meeting '/
was summoned on July 23rd at St. Martin's Hall. Thex
Eucharist was celebrated in several of the London

158 JOHN KEBLE.
churches for God's blessing upon the meeting. When
the hour came, the number who attended made it
necessary to have an overflow meeting in the Free-
(masons' Tavern, and at both resolutions were passed
j appealing to the Queen that the -power of Convocation
(might be revived, that ecclesiastical cases might be
(submitted to spiritual judges; appealing to the arch
bishops and bishops to support these movements and to
pronounce independently in favour of the Church doctrine;
appealing to all Churchmen in all lands to uphold the
doctrine, and thanking the Scotch bishops for a Synodical
statement which they had recently issued about it. Both
Pusey and Keble spoke. Keble pleaded for hopefulness
and perseverance : hopefulness because he found that even
his simple village poor cared so much for the doctrine,
and were preparing to defend it; perseverance because
the Church of the fourth century had even a longer
struggle to endure before the doctfine of the Incarnation
was established, and we in our present state had more
/difficulty in reasserting true dpctrine. If an}7 were
[inclined to mistrust the Church •v<af England and to
JHeave her, "the whole air of England seemed to ring
Swith voices from the dead and from the living, especially
from the holy dead, all to this effect, ' Stay here,
(think not of departing, but do your work.' If it
seemed to any unsatisfactory, let him consider that we
were under appeal, and had been so for three hundred
years, and that must be unsatisfactory, like a piece of
music not come to its natural close : but what then ? It
was the condition of the Church in the time of the
blessed saints he had referred to for two whole genera
tions, and if we had to leave it so to those who came
after us, he knew not himself that he could say a better

RECOVERY. 159
word, were it the last word that he had to say, than to
bid men persevere in hope."
During the whole year Keble used in the public
services at Hursley a special form of prayer for the
distress of the Church, and when the Bishop of Exeter
prepared to summon his Synod, he issued a pastoral
letter to his parishioners, explaining that he had done
so because the judges had decided against baptismal re
generation, and so encouraged people to think less of
their sins ; because these judges had no right to decide
at all ; because the Church was no longer free to elect
her bishops; and because, on account of this, many
were inclined to leave the Church, while others were
slandering her work.
When the Synod was over, he wrote an article in the
Christian Remembrancer of December, 1851, reviewing
the gains of it. This is one of the brightest and most
sprightly of his prose writings, characterized by much
humour and delicate satire. He has recovered his
buoyancy of spirits; he admits that the Church oi)
England can only be a Church under appeal, and doing/
penance, but at any rate she is sound at the core ; she has[
justified herself. The eye of faith can see in her actionj
God's hand helping us in our troubles ; the Church still
witnesses to the belief in Sacramental Grace ; she speaks
with a living voice, and therefore there is no ground for
despair. Others, however, had less of hope and patience than
himself; the influence of Keble kept Robert Wilber^
force loyal till 1854, but among others, Allies, Maskell,(
and Dodsworth in 1850, and Manning in 1851, joined
the Roman Church, as the immediate result of thej
Gorham decision.

160 JOHN KEBLE.
The position of Keble and Pusey was made more
difficult because, during these years, 1851-52, Bishop
Wilberforce informally and privately inhibited the latter
from officiating in his diocese, fearing lest his adaptation
of Roman devotional books and his practice about con
fession was tending to lead people to Rome. Through
put the whole difficulty Keble, both by letter and by
personal interview, acted as a mediating influence. " I
say to myself," he wrote, " here are two persons who
really ought to understand one another, and it seems
quite a judgment upon us that they cannot act
together " ; and by a combination of outspoken expres
sion of his agreement with Dr. Pusey, of bold protest
against unfairness in suspending him without a hearing,
and by insistence upon all that was to be said on his
behalf, as actively keeping back waverers from Rome,
he contributed to the happy result that the Bishop
removed the suspension in 1852.
Two events in the next ten years turned Keble's
attention mainly to the defence of the other great
Sacrament. These were the trial of Archdeacon Deni-
son in England, and the censure of Bishop Forbes in
Scotland, for teaching the doctrine of the Real Presence
and of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. In 1853 Archdeacon
Denison preached two sermons in Wells Cathedral on
the Real Presence, the orthodoxy of which was
challenged by his neighbour, the Rev. Joseph Ditcher,
and on his refusal to retract them, he was tried in 1856,
in the Pro-Diocesan Court at' Bath, before the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, who called upon him to retract
the statements that the Body and, Blood of Christ is
received by those who eat aud drink unworthily, and
that worship is due to the real though invisible pre-

RECOVERY. 161
sence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy
Eucharist under the form of bread and wine.
On refusing to retract he was deprived of his vicarage
and archdeaconry, but the sentence was overthrown by
the Final Court of Appeal in 1858. During the
process of the case both Dr. Pusey and Keble had done
what was possible to guide and advise Archdeacon
Denison. Keble had indeed been very doubtful on the
point of the reception by the wicked, but ultimately
was convinced by Dr. Pusey, and on the question of
Adoration he felt very keenly. As soon as the first
judgment was delivered these two circulated a protest,
for the matter was more serious in one respect than the
Gorham case ; the decision being that of the Arch
bishop without any interference of the State Courts.
This protest wras signed by eighteen clergy, and con
sisted of a re-statement of their belief that the doctrine
of the Real Presence had been held as a point of faith
from the earliest times; that the most common view
held in the Church had been that the wicked do eat and
drink unworthily to their own condemnation the Body
and Blood of Christ, which they do not discern, and
that the practice of worshipping Christ then and there,
especially present after consecration, had been common
throughout the Church. They therefore protested
against anything in the judgment which contradicts
these statements, and appealed from it to a lawful Synod
of the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury, and, if
need be, to a free and lawful Synod of all the Churches
of our communion. As a report was circulated that they
intended to form a Non-juring Church, they published
a letter stating that they should regard such an act as
a betrayal of a sacred trust ; that no sentence of one

162 JOHN KEBLE.
archbishop could bind, the conscience, as only the voice
of the whole Church could do that ; but that they had
felt bound in honesty to declare their intention of
continuing to teach what they had always taught, and
of taking the consequences.
Keble followed up the protest by a careful treatise
on Eucharistical Adoration. This consisted partly of a
careful examination of the grounds of the practice,
partly of a consideration of the duty of Churchmen in
face of the judgment. The object was, not to reason
out at large what he calls " that great and comfortable,
and I will add necessary, truth of the Real Presence,"
but rather, " calmly, and not without deep reverence of
heart," to allay troublesome thoughts which interrupt
devotion. Following the method of Hooker in the fifth
book of the Ecclesiastical Polity, he brings the practice
to the test of natural piety, of the teaching of Holy
Scripture, of the Primitive Church, and of the Church
of England. The argument starts from the premise
that natural piety suggests adoration wherever Christ is
present, and especially in this Sacrament, because of
the greatness of the gift given, of the individual
character of the blessing, and of the condescension of
Christ in giving it. "It is as impossible for devout
faith, contemplating Christ in this Sacrament, not to
adore Him, as it is for a loving mother, looking earnestly
at her child, not to love it." The sense of such a gift
calls for the most unreserved surrender that a man can
make of himself, his whole spirit, soul, and body, i. e. for
the most unreserved worship.
Such an instinct would naturally be followed, unless
it was definitely forbidden. But the reverse is the case :
the New Testament shows as that special reverence

RECOVERY. 163
was paid to Christ in every detail of His humiliation,
especially in His death; that virtue was regarded as
proceeding from His Body, which was treated with
reverence in death, and which even then retained its
cleansing power ; that it treats Him as really present in
the Eucharist, both as Priest and Victim. It was natural
then that this reverence should be transferred to the
sacramental elements, so expressive of His humiliation,
" as being in themselves so cheap and ordinary, and as
representing especially His Death and Passion " ; and,
as a matter of fact, the early Liturgies and the lan
guage of the Fathers bear witness to such transference
of reverence to the sacred Body and Blood in the
Eucharist. Further, the Church of England has always
insisted on reverence at the Liturgy, and there has
been a continuous teaching of the Real Presence, though
sometimes it has been attacked, " like Jehoshaphat in
Ahab's robes," because it has been mistaken for Tran-
substantiation. The doctrine has never been formulated
about it by any Council, and therefore error about it is
not formal heresy, so that we are not bound to refuse to
communicate with an archbishop who decides against
it : but it has been continuously taught, and no judicial
interpretation has the right to narrow the liberty
allowed by the Church in the expression of her doctrine.
The only course then for those who believe in the
doctrine, is prayer, willingness to suffer for the truth,
formally expressed protest, and appeal to an Oecumenical
Council. The subject is, as Keble admits, not exhaustively
treated, but nothing could be more of a model of the
right tone of sacred controversy, making each reader
feel that he is dealing with a subject, real, solemn, and

164 JOHN KEBLE.
vital. One - extract may be given, in which the act
of sharing in the Eucharist is shown to typify faith in
the whole Creed.
"By receiving His creatures of bread and wine we
acknowledge Him (as St. Irenseus argues) Creator of
heaven and earth, against all sorts of Manicheans;
receiving Christ's Body is confessing His Incarnation,
and adoring it, His Divinity; it is the memorial of His
death, and the participation of that Sacrifice which
supposes Him raised and ascended into heaven ; it is
obeying His command so to show forth His death till
He come ; it is drinking into one Spirit : it is partaking
of that one Bread which makes us one body, the Holy
Catholic Church ; it is the Communion of Saints ; it is
the Blood shed for the remission of sins ; it is the last
Adam coming to be in us a quickening spirit, to seal
us for the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Ever
lasting." In the preface to the second edition he expressed a
hope that that might be the last time that he would
have to deal with the subject in a controversial way ;
but this prayer was not to be granted.
In August, 1857, Bishop Forbes of Brechin delivered
his Primary Charge to his clergy, the substance of it
being a full statement of the doctrine of the Holy
Eucharist, emphasizing its sacrificial aspect and the
mystical identity of it with Christ's own offering of
Himself, and drawing out the inference of the duty of
adoration of Christ present in the elements. About the
same time Keble, who was an honorary canon of the
college of Cumbrae, sent his own Tract to the Scottish
bishops. The Bishops met in Synod in December, but
after discussion postponed any actien about the charge.

RECOVERY. 165
Three of them, however, the Bishops of Edinburgh,
Argyll, and Glasgow, put out on their own account a
joint declaration on the subject of the Eucharist, protest
ing against any adoration of the elements, and against
the doctrine that the offering in the Eucharist was
anything more than a commemoration of the Offering
upon the Cross. Keble received a copy of this declara
tion, and imagining under a mistaken impression that it
was intended as a criticism upon his own Tract, and
that it had been sent to him by the Bishop of Edinburgh,
wrote to him a long letter of queries, criticizing the
.language and arguments of the declarations.1 In May,
1858, an extraordinary episcopal meeting was held, and
the Bishops, although tbey refused to allow the Bishop of
Brechin to be represented by a legal adviser, and in spite
of his protest that they were acting ultra vires, issued a
pastoral letter to their clergy, regretting the publication
of the charge, as containing views unsound, erroneous,
and calculated to lead to grave error on the two points
of adoration to Christ in the gifts, and of the transcen
dental identification of the Sacrifice of the Cross and the
Sacrifice of the Altar. They then lay down the lines of
teaching which they wish the presbyters to follow, and
issue the letter as words of fatherly guidance and
admonition, "by a right essentially inherent in a
provincial episcopate."
Owing to Dr. Pusey's illness at this time, Keble had
been the Bishop's chief adviser through the whole
discussion ; he was, moreover, an honorary member of
the Church of Scotland, and he felt that by former pub
lications he had incurred a deep responsibility in the
matter. Accordingly, as an effort towards truth and
1 This is quoted in full in Mackey's Life of Bishop Forbes.

166 JOHN KEBLE.
peace, he addressed to the presbyters of the Scotch
Church a pamphlet of "Considerations" on the pastoral
letter. He urges that the letter is not a Synodical act,
because presbyters have a right to be present at a
Synod, and because the discussion was carried on with
closed doors, and the judgment given without any state
ment of the reasons; hence the presbyters are not bound to
accept it as authoritative. They can either acknowledge
the receipt of it and take no further action, or discuss
its statements in full. In view of the possibility of this
latter course being taken, he argues the points at length.
He acknowledges with great gratitude the facts that the
Bishops appeal to the consent of the Undivided Church
as the ultimate ground for decision, that they have not
thought the Bishop of Brechin liable to a judicial
presentment, and that there is so much positive teach
ing in their statements on the reality of sacramental
grace, on the objective Presence even for condemnation
to unworthy recipients, and on the sacrificial character
of the Eucharist. But he criticizes the negative state
ments, showing that the denial of the statement that
the Substance of Christ's Body and Blood, still less His
entire Person as God and Man, now glorified in heaven,
is made to exist with, in, or under the material substances
of bread and wine,' tends to Nestorianism, " which in
one shape or another bids fair to become the prevalent
tendency among the religionists of our day." On the
point of the Sacrifice he proves that the Fathers have
always held that Christ is the real Priest, and that the
offering in the Eucharist is really identical with, not
tbe Sacrifice on the Cross, but rather with the present
offering of Himself by Christ in heaven ; the same
Person offers the same Body'and Blood, but for differ-

RECOVERY. 167
ent purposes — " on the Cross for expiation of sin,
with vicarious suffering, pain, bloodshedding, and
death; in heaven for pleading and application of
those atoning pains." Further, he urges that ador
ation is implied in the fact of the Real Presence,
that it never has been condemned, that all which the
Bishop is pleading for is a toleration which has
always been permitted.
Here he pleads against limitation of toleration ; and
indeed the whole argument is a plea against limitation.
He will not have truth limited by the objection that a
particular doctrine is " Roman " ; though we cannot
accept their terms of communion, yet " we ought always
to be glad to agree with them, when we can do it with
a safe conscience : " surely the right way must be in
this or any other question, " calmly to apply the proper
standards, Scripture as interpreted by our own formu
laries, and where they are ambiguous or silent by the
consent of the Undivided Church ; and if the conclusions
come out agreeable to what the rest of Christendom
has received, thankfully to welcome such agreement : if
not, humbly and reverently to commit the cause to
Almighty God, and to such authorities as it may here
after please Him to raise up for the healing of the
wounds in His Church." So, too, he will not limit
the Presence of the Lord by our possibility of under
standing it, " shedding, as it does, such a glory over
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist." " It were better
philosophy and not worse devotion here, if anywhere,
to apply the maxim of the wise man, ' When you glorify
the Lord, exalt Him as much as you can : for even yet
will He far exceed : and when you exalt Him put
forth all your strength, and be not weary : for ye never

168 JOHN KEBLE.
can go far enough.' " 1 For there is One walking about
who wishes to make us forget that " as Christians we
are altogether in a supernatural condition, that the air
around us is full of miracles, full of great, intense
realities, of which the things that we see are for the
most part faint shadows." '
The " Considerations " had little effect. In October
1859, Bishop Forbes was formally presented for trial ;
the case was postponed till February 1860, and judgment
delivered in March, a formal declaration of censure
being passed, but np penalty imposed. On both of
these last occasions Keble was present at Edinburgh,
in order to help the Bishop by his wide knowledge of
the controversy; and although he blamed himself for
the line that he had taken at times during the con
troversy, yet it was mainly through his agency that
at once truth and peace were secured, and that the
Bishop was kept loyal to the Church even under these
difficulties. Three other subjects, partly academical and partly
political, on which Keble published pamphlets during
those years, deserve a passing notice. In 1852 the
opposition to Mr. Gladstone's re-election as Burgess for
the University drew from him a smart and spirited
protest against the unfairness of charging that states
man with inconsistency in dealing with the Church, on
the ground of his support of the admission of Jews into
Parliament : and in 1854 he tried to rally Churchmen
to a determination to disavow, deprecate, and resist to
the uttermost the attempt to admit Nonconformists to
the University, and threw out the suggestion that the
difficulty might be met by affiliating to the University
> Ecclus. xliii. 30.

RECOVERY. 169
denominational colleges, even though situated at a
distance. But the point which always stung him to the quick
was any attempt by Parliament to interfere with the
sanctity of the Marriage Law. In 1849 he issued a short
appeal ad populum against the Deceased Wife's Sister
Bill, or, as he called it, against profane dealing with Holy
Matrimony in regard of a man and his wife's sister ; and
he obtained 10,000 ladies' signatures to a petition
against it, which he forwarded through Sir G. Grey to
the Queen. In 1857, in opposition to the Divorce Bill,
he wrote a careful, scholarlike treatise on the indis
solubility of marriage. The treatise was an attempt to
explain the difficulty which dutiful children of the
Church might feel in the fact that while the Church
forbade divorce altogether, our Lord seems to permit
it under the condition given in St. Matt. v. 32, xix. 9.
Keble's line of defence was that this limitation was not
meant for Christians at all ; that it was only preserved
in St. Matthew, the specially Jewish Gospel ; that it
occurred in contexts in which Christ was not speaking
to His disciples alone, but to the Jewish multitudes,
and was interpreting rather than adding to the Mosaic
law, and that the limitation was only meant to apply
as long as the Mosaic law was in force. This was
followed by a laborious examination of all the Canons
and Patristic references to the subject, with the result
of showing that, in spite of some conflicting evidence,
there was a continuous stream of opinion against divorce
for any reason among Christians, and against the re
marriage of either party after a separation.
In these, as in all his treatises, the moral considera
tions are the primary with him. He discusses the

170 JOHN KEBLE.
Levitical prohibition, but he does not lay much stress
upon it, because whatever it may require, the " spirit of
the Christian dispensation is to require more of man in
proportion as it gives him more grace." He is especially
indignant at the unfairness with which the two sexes
were treated by the proposers of each measure, and
contrasts it with the language of the Fathers ; 1 he lays
stress on the indissolubility of marriage, because that
gives it a sacramental character, and makes it affect the
whole life ; on the prohibition of re-marriage, because
it leaves room for penitence on the part of the guilty
party, and reconciliation. He pleads that sad experience
has taught him how terribly strong is the feeling among
the poor that marriage erases the blot of previous un-
chastity, and though they have now a horror of adultery,
he dreads the power of One who may avail himself of
the change to suggest to them that offences of that kind
also may be salved by after-marriage.
The pamphlet did not avail to save England from a
Divorce Bill; probably of greater avail to deepen the
religious sense of marriage, and so to avoid divorce, has
1 E. g. St. Augustine (Serm. 392, vol. v., p. 2) : " Who would
endure an adulterous wife ? Yet tbe woman is bidden to endure
an adulterous husband. What justice ! Why, I ask thee?
' Why 1 because I am the man.' Tbou the man 1 Let us prove
tby manhood by thy fortitude. Tbou the man ? Overcome lust.
How art thou tbe man, whose wife is braver tban tbou art?
Tbou art the head of tbe woman, tbe man : it is true. If be is
the head, let him lead, let the wife follow. Only take heed whicb
way tbou goest. Have tbou no mind to go where tbou wouldest
not have her to follow."
And the Emperor Antoninus, as quoted by St. Augustine :
" Care must be taken to enquire whether tbou by living chastely
bast been a pattern of good conduct to her. For it seems to me
most unjust tbat the husband should exact from the wife tbe
chastity which be does not practise himself." — De Conjug. Adult.
§ 5-

RECOVERY. 171
been the hymn which he wrote while the pressure of
the controversy was upon him —
" Tbe Voice that breathed o'er Eden
That earliest wedding-day,
Tbe primal marriage blessing,
It bath not passed away.
Still in tbe pure espousal
Of Christian man and maid,
Tbe Holy Three are with us,
The threefold grace is said."

CHAPTER VIII.
THE END. 1860—1866.
" Wait humbly till tby matin Psalm
Due cadence find in evening calm."
Lyra Innocentium.
The reader will probably have gained the impression
that Keble's interest was only in controversial questions ;
but the case was really much the same as with the
history of the Church. The controversies come to the
front, and must be noticed by the historian. To a reader
of the history of the first four centuries it might seem
that the Church was mainly occupied in a series of
uninteresting speculations and antagonisms ; but behind
the controversy lay a spiritual body, moving through
the world ministering comfort, absolution, inspiration to
its own members, moulding by silent influence the
customs and laws of the world outside it, and so gradually
winning its way to establishment and supremacy. So
behind the controversial writings by which Keble came
before the world, there was the quiet constructive work
both of the student and of the parish priest. As a
student he was engaged through all these years on his
careful translation of Irenseus for the Library of the
Fathers, and also on the life and edition of the

THE END. 173
works of Bishop Wilson. The former was not published
until after his death, but the latter issued from the
press in 1863. The motto prefixed to it, " The care
of Discipline is Love," shows the aspect of the good
Bishop's work, whether in self-discipline or in the dis
cipline of his diocese, which had specially interested his
biographer. Alike the century and the man attracted
him. Around the Bishop's youth were memories of the
Cavalier struggles ; during his life there were glimpses
of the struggles of the Non-jurors, and, carefully trea
sured up, just here and there, sayings and deeds of
Bishop Butler. The struggle between Bishop Wilson
and the representatives of the Earl of Derby, who at
one time boldly claimed that the Earl and not the Arch
bishop was the Metropolitan of the Church of Man,
reminded him of the struggles in England under Henry
II. and Henry VIII., and made the annals of the small
island of Man seem to be a miniature reflection of far
more important histories. It seemed to his heart,
saddened by the decay of faith around him, that Man
had preserved later than any other part of England
that simple faith in the reality and grievous effect of
excommunication, and in the solemn seriousness of an
oath, on which alone ecclesiastical discipline could be
based. No less was he in hearty sympathy with the teaching
and personal character of the Bishop. The sobriety of
his teaching, his readiness to recognize the Roman
Catholics as a real part of the Holy Catholic Church,
the absence of any insistence on the necessity of sensible
conversion and assurance of personal salvation, his
principle that it is safer to obey authority with a
doubting conscience than with a doubting conscience to

174 JOHN KEBLE.
disobey, the public spirit which made him feel national
troubles as keenly as private calamities, his interest in
missionary work and in education, his pastoral spirit,
his care with his candidates for Ordination, some of
whom lived in his house for a year before being or
dained, his own methodical intercessions, his insistence
on family prayer, his loyal use of the daily offices of
Matins and Evensong,1 his simple Prayer-book-like
outspokenness in preaching or writing on subjects of
delicacy, his sternness with all breaches of the marriage
laws, his prompt and fearless exercise of discipline, his
equitable desire to make allowances for difficulties, his
liberality to the poor, extending ultimately to the be
stowal in charity of one-half of his income ; above all,
his reality, his sense of his own personal sinfulness, his
realization of the Communion of Saints, and his grati
tude to God for even the least mercy of his life — every
point found an answering note in Keble's own heart.
He approaches his subject therefore with the greatest
reverence and desire to do it justice. He tries to find
explanation or at least excuse for the few points in the
Bishop's life which he cannot approve. Unstinted
pains are taken in verifying each place and explaining
each allusion ; the relations of the Earl of Derby to the
Island and the conditions of Manx land tenure are
traced out with painstaking accuracy. Some scenes, such
as those of tbe Bishop's imprisonment and of his struggle
with the civil powers, are painted very graphically ; but
1 This was impressed upon the Bishop by bis friend tbe Rev.
M. Hewetson, on his ordination as deacon in 1686, in the church
of Kildare. The whole of Hewetson's Memorandum is a very
striking proof of tbe strength of Church feeling and practices in
the Church of Ireland at the end of tbe seventeenth century (vol. i.
pp. 22-23).

THE END. 175
it must in fairness be admitted that the details rather
overwhelm the general effect, and that the whole is
wanting in a due sense of proportion.
But the main staple of his life was the work, the
incessant, anxious, unsparing, loving work, of a parish
priest. From the first he had held daily service in his
church. For at least four years, during the Gorham
controversy, he said the Litany on Wednesdays and
Fridays at 5.30 a.m., "to give those who fear God and
believe His sacraments and love His Church, a chance
of calling upon Him in the early morning, while they
are on their way to their day's work." 1 He would stay
behind in private prayer for an hour or half an hour.
One hour every morning and two hours every Sunday
were spent in teaching in the school. When a boy had
been turned away from school for disorderliness, he
would take him and train him privately. The prepar
ation for Confirmation was especially careful, sometimes
lasting for a whole year, as he went through with the
candidates the whole of the Baptismal and Eucharistic
services, as well as the Catechism. If any boy or girl
lived too far off to come to the classes, he would walk
out himself at night with a lantern and teach them in
their cottages after their work was over. He went on
with the training until he could win them to come to
the Holy Communion, once getting them to sign the
following paper : " In the presence of Almighty God,
I seriously declare that I am turning my mind towards
Holy Communion : that I hope before very long, by
God's mercy, to be fit for it ; that I will pray to God to
make me fit, and that I will come to Mr. Keble or
1 Cf. Sermons : Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 358, and
Preface, p. vi.

176 JOHN KEBLE.
Mr. Young from time to time if they wish me to do so,
to have their advice about coming or staying away."
When he was away from home he used to receive
accounts of each individual from his curates, and when
absent once from the Confirmation itself, sent a short,
earnest -pastoral letter to the candidates. His favourite
text was, " Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake " ; his
favourite expression, that of waiting on the sick, ever
suiting himself to their hours, delighting if they asked
to receive the Sacrament, but always waiting for the
suggestion to come from them, that it might be a real
act of their own spiritual will. His interest in missions
had always been great, and it developed in later years
when his personal interest in Bishop Selwyn and
Bishop Patteson, and his ecclesiastical sympathy with
the struggle of Bishop Gray for the faith in South
Africa, made the life of the Colonial Church so much
more real to him. After 1861 he sanctioned cricket on
Sundays at the suggestion of Sir W. Heathcote, partly
because he found that otherwise the men played,
though under the conviction that it was wrong, and
partly influenced by the fact that the chief Evangelical
families who might have been offended had left the
parish. So wrapped up was he in his parish that the
villagers had no conception of the part which he played
in the Church, and a new school-mistress, who came to
the place with an enthusiasm for the author of the
Christian Year, found it hard to convince the children
that the Vicar was as clever as the Schocl Inspector,
and cleverer than herself.
The succeeding chapters on his preaching and spirit
ual guidance will complete the picture of his more
constructive work ; but as in the days of Nehemiah

THE END. 177
"the builders every one had his sword girded by his
side, and so builded," so it was in these years. Even
in old age his interest was as keen as ever in all that
concerned both Oxford or the Church. Dr. Pusey
shared with him all his plans about the prosecution
of Professor Jowett and the endowment of the Greek
chair. Before the election of 1865 he wrote a strong
incisive letter to the Guardian, pleading for the re
election of Mr. Gladstone on the ground of that states
man's real services to the Church, especially with
regard to the Divorce Bill, the Burials Bill, the Royal
Supremacy and its relation to the Final Court of
Appeal. " Were I asked," he ends, " to add my name
to the list of his opponents, I should answer, No ! a
thousand times No i for prudence' sake, for justice'
sake, for Oxford's sake, and most of all for the Church's
sake." 1 In the same year he was interested in the
proposals for the extension of the University, and
warmly approved of the report of Dr. Shirley's Com
mittee, which afterwards was taken as the outline on
which the charter of Keble College was framed.
But the chief interest of these years lay in the
struggles caused by the publication of Essays and
Reviews. In 1850 he had contemplated the serious
issues which must arise if such a Court as the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council were to deal with
subjects of such delicacy and seriousness as the Inspir
ation of the Bible and Eternal Punishment ; and these
were the very two points on which they were called to
decide. The book was published in 1860 ; in 1861
Dr. Williams was prosecuted by the Bishop of Salisbury
for virtually denying the Inspiration of the Holy
1 Guardian, Dec. 7, 1864. H

178 JOHN KEBLE.
Scriptures ; Mr. Wilson by the Rev. J. Fendall on the
same charge, and also for denying the doctrine of the
Eternal Punishment of the wicked. Both clergy
were condemned in 1862 by the judgment of Dr.
Lushington in the Arches Court. But in both cases
the judgment was overthrown on appeal to the Privy
Council in 1864. The Court consisted of four lay judges
and three spiritual, the two Archbishops and the Bishop
of London. Its policy was to limit the issues before
it, and treat them with the most exact legal technicality ;
holding that it could take no cognizance of anything
outside the extracts from the Essays laid before it,
and of the Articles referred to in them. It passed no
opinion upon the general teaching or tendency of the
whole Essays, but decided that on the subject of
Inspiration the extracts did not contain any statement
inconsistent with the exact words of our formularies;
and further that " we do not find in the formularies to
which this article refers any such distinct declaration of
our Church upon the subject as to require us to con
demn as penal the expression of a hope by a clergyman
that even the ultimate pardon of the wicked who are
condemned in the day of judgment may be consistent
with the will of Almighty God."
It may be that if the distinction between a judicial
decision in a penal case and the formal legislative
expression of the real mind of the Church had been
clearly grasped, the judgment might have been
acquiesced in. But such a distinction was by no means
clear then : even with the limitation imposed by the
Court's ruling, the two Archbishops refused to concur
in the judgment. Tbe cry of determined, uncom
promising protest was more loud even than after the

THE END. 179
Gorham judgment; leaders who had been opposed to
each other through all the Sacramental struggles joined
hand in hand now. More than 11,000 clergy and
137,000 laity signed declarations affirming their belief
that the Church of England and Ireland, in common
with the whole Catholic Church, maintains without
reserve or qualification the inspiration and divine
authority of the whole Canonical Scriptures, as not
only containing but being the Word of God, and further
teaches, in the words of our blessed Lord, that the
punishment of the cursed, equally with the life of the
righteous, is everlasting.
Keble was indignant alike at the substance of the
decisions and at the composition of the Court which
had given them. A strong movement was made to get
it altered, and when this was ridiculed by the Times
he wrote a letter to that paper justifying the agitation,
as being the constitutional method of remedying a
grievance ; x criticizing acutely the assumptions of his
opponents, and showing that his action rested upon the
belief that " it is better to have a real Church ; that a
real Church cannot exist without dogma, and that the
action of this Committee, tending as it does to do away
with all dogma, tends of course to the annihilation of
the Church.'' In the following month he read a paper
at the Bristol Church Congress, in a discussion on
Church Synods, admitting that there was much to be
said a priori for such a court, but that it had proved
a failure, and that the failure was due to its being
based upon a wrong principle. It was an infringement
of the rights of the Bishops ; it was a human invention ;
its principles for deciding doctrine, and its procedure,
1 Times, Sept. 22nd ; Guardian, Sept. 28, 1864.

180 JOHN KEBLE.
by which dissentients could not justify their opinions,
were alike anomalies. He also alluded to the serious
ness of the points at issue, quoting the saying of a
woman in his parish, who had a son who had been a
great trouble to her because of his wicked habits, and
who, on hearing that the doctrine of eternal punishment
was being called in question, said, " Oh, what an effect
it will have, when my son hears of it, on him ! What
will become of him ? " The lines on which he would
have liked to see reforms are indicated in the following
suggestions embodied in a letter to Judge Coleridge.
" 1. Whether it is impossible to obtain a law taking
away all temporal penalties annexed to excommuni
cation, and leaving the Church really free to enforce
its own rubric and canons in case of notorious sin and
unbelief ?
" 2. Might there not be a declaratory Act to the
effect that the formularies must always be interpreted
agreeably to Holy Scripture and general consent ? . . .
To which Act the assent of Convocation should be
obtained and recited, as in the Act of Uniformity .-
" 3. After providing in the completest way for perfect
investigation and exact legality, still might not the
Bishops in Provincial Council, with full publicity to all
their proceedings, be made judges in the last resort ? " r
But it was not only with the Court that Keble was
indignant. Both the decisions touched him to the
quick. His knowledge of the Bible was remarkable ;
he knew large parts of it by heart, and his sermons, no
less than the Tract on Mysticism, are steeped in the
mystical use of its language, and marked by a striking
insight into its principles. And his reverence for it
1 Coleridge : Memoir, p. 488.

THE END. 181
was no less striking. " His manner of reading Holy
Scripture was very remarkable. In its extreme sim
plicity it was like that of a reverent child; and yet
probably all who were in the habit of hearing him
have felt the wonderful charm of it, and that he made
them understand the Lessons better than any one else,
conveying to them also in some measure his own intense
feeling of the sacredness of every inspired word. He
always paused before reading the Bible, often putting
his hand to his forehead (as was often his way), and
after the Lesson was ended he made the same pause. . .
In some sermon of his he takes it for granted that the
custom of pious people would .be to pray inwardly
before and after reading any portion of Holy Scripture." 1
That he might contribute his part to a true belief in
Scripture, he set himself to work at a Commentary on
St. John's Gospel, and composed the fragment on Chap.
i. 1-18, afterwards printed in the Studia Sacra, the
rich spiritual suggestiveness of which causes regret that
it never was finished. He circulated a protest against
the judgment for signature in his parish. In a letter
to the Times on the whole subject, he urged that the in
spiration of the Bible was a part of the " common law "
of the Church, and therefore as really binding as a
formulated decision; and spoke of the inspiration
of the various parts of the Bible in a way that shows
alike reverence and wisdom.
" The New Testament declares the Old Testament to
be inspired of God ; accordingly, the Book of Esther to
be as really inspired as the Evangelical Prophet, as
really though not as largely. But since it is so inspired
men know that they are bound to believe every word
1 M. T. in Coleridge : Memoir, p. 604.

182 JOHN KEBLE.
of it, and if contradictions appear, to feel sure that they
will one day disappear, either by amended readings or
by satisfactory explanations. All will prove true, all
exactly what was needed for its own peculiar purpose.
But there may be any degrees of difference in love and
fear, the awe and the gratitude with which Almighty
God means us to receive one portion and another,
according to the measure in which He vouchsafes to
disclose Himself, or to draw nearer to us; and again,
according to the measure in which His several gifts of
grace are allowed to manifest themselves through the
several human writers. In this respect we may imagine
a scale ranging from the mere adjustment of a genealogy
in the Chronicles up to the first chapter of St. John.
All are equally true, although all do not contain an
equal amount of Divine Truth."
The denial of the doctrine of Eternal Punishment
seemed even more pressing as a matter of practical
importance. He had an almost Calvinistic sense of
the corruption of the human heart; he knew how
simple villagers are wont to regard the utterance of
the law as the sole standard of truth ; he believed in
the power of the Evil Spirit who was always anxious to
lower the standard of truth and of morality. " We can
not spare one of the severe but most fatherly sayings
by which our loving Lord has revealed to us the issue
of the broad way ; least of all can we spare the thought,
the conviction, of eternity."
Early in 1864 he published a Litany of our Lord's
Warnings, for use by those "whose hearts are aching at
the recent decision." The Litany recalls all the great
acts of God's justice, and His words of warning in the
Bible; and in the light of them prays for mercy, for

THE END. 183
protection from all that can blind men's eyes to the
truth, and for guidance to the Church, the Queen, the
Parliament, and for all who are in danger of neglecting
this special truth.
In the same year he was invited by Bishop Wilber-
force to preach the sermon at the commemoration of
Cuddesdon College. With this subject in his mind he
preached one of the most solemn and touching of his
sermons, on " Fear as a Gift of the Holy Spirit," and
drew out the true fear of God that should be in a
Christian's heart. There is the fear of judgment, of
hell — the lowest form, yet still quite necessary for our
selves and for others ; for " little do they know of their
brethren, how high soever their own rate of goodness
may be, who depend on winning souls without it."
Then there is the nobler fear of losing Christ, the
object of our love ; this remains in the converted soul,
and grows with the growth of our love for Him. Both
these fears will cease with this life, but still beyond the
grave there will be the highest fear, the deep awe and
trembling reverence before God as God, an intense,
unspeakable adoration, a bowing down before the Light
unapproachable ; and this awe begins here, for even
here it is our privilege to be living in a supernatural
state. Thus, as the Christian Year ended with the
" Spirit of God's most holy fear," so his last published
sermon ended with the fear of God's Holy Spirit.
One other public utterance must be noticed. In
1865 the Bishop of London was pressing for a Royal
Commission to deal with the Ornaments Rubric, and
some High Churchmen were inclined to support him.
To one of these Keble wrote a letter,1 very strongly
1 Literary Churchman, January 13, 1866.

184 JOHN KEBLE.
deprecating such a course. It seemed to him suicidal
to invite Parliamentary interference in spiritual matters,
when it was sure to be exercised in an anti-dogmatic
direction. As it was, the Church of England, through
the struggles of the Reformation and Restoration, had,
under Providence, retained the rubric, and so ex
pressed its doctrine as to assert the reality both of
the Presence and of the Sacrifice in the Eucharist;
but further legislation in a moment of excitement might
easily upset the exact proportion of the truth, destroy
the equilibrium of parties in the Church, and quench
all the fond hopes of reunion among Christians, " which
just now appear to be dawning on us from various
quarters." While treating the disregard of the rubric
as a real blemish in our ecclesiastical practices, and
rejoicing whenever the revival is tranquilly accom
plished, he pleads for equity and candid allowance and
charity in the revival, and protests against the scornful,
disparaging tone in which some were speaking of mid
day Communions, " with small consideration for the
aged and infirm, and for such as cannot come early,"
and against the practice of urging all men indiscrimin
ately to be present at the Holy Mysteries.
In his private life there was sadness and happiness,
partings and reconciliations, towards the close. In 1860
his sister Elizabeth died, " for twenty years of health
and fifty of sickness always at hand or within reach,
and never a look nor a word that I know of but was
wise and kind with the true kindness and wisdom."
His great friend Dyson died the same year. From
that time onward Keble's own health was very pre
carious, and constant visits to the seaside kept him a

THE END. 185
good deal from his parish work ; and on St. Andrew's
Day, 1864, he was seized with a slight stroke of
paralysis, after which he never preached again.
In the course of 1863 he had received an account of
the proceeds of the Lyra Apostolica, and this led to a
letter to Newman thanking him for it, and sending him
his own Life of Bishop Wilson. " August 4, 18C3.
"My dear Newman,
" It is a great thing, I know, for me to ask, after
so many years, that you should look kindly upon what
comes from me. For I cannot conceal it from myself,
nor yet acknowledge it without a special sort of pang,
that what I have heard occasionally from Crawley and
Copeland, of your feeling as to your old friend's silence,
touches me perhaps as much or more than any, and it
is one of the many things which now in my old age I
wish otherwise. I ought to have felt more than I did
what a sore burthen you were bearing for conscience'
sake, and that it was the duty of us all to diminish
rather than aggravate it, so far as other claims allowed.
In point of fact I rather imagine the last communica
tion was on my part, with the Lyra Innocentium.
Since then I have been more than once about to write,
but something always happened which seemed to check
me, and I suppose I said to myself, ' It will be but cold
and constrained after all/ and so I gave way to my
dilatory habits ; and it frightens me now to think how
nearly the time has passed away. I can but ask that if
I have been towards you too much as if you had been
dead, you will now be towards me as if I were dying ;
which of course must be nearly my condition, for

186 JOHN KEBLE.
though (D. G.) wonderfully well, I am in my seventy-
second year. Do then, my dear old friend, pardon me
what has been wrong in this (I can see it in some
measure, but I dare say there is more which I do not
see), and let me have the comfort of hoping that your
recollection of me will not henceforth be embittered by
anything more than is inseparable from our sad posi
tion, as I am sure your kindness to me has always
been the same. . . . And now, dear N, let me say
' God be with you ; and may He forgive and bring us
all together, as He will and when He will.' I know
that you will let me have a line or two, to say that you
will believe me still and always " Yours affectionately, " J. Keble."
This renewal of correspondence led to the visit of
Cardinal Newman in October, 1864, when, almost by
accident, Dr. Pusey also was present. Newman has
himself described the strange meeting of the three
friends, each scarcely recognizing the other through the
great changes which time had made. It was necessarily
a meeting at once joyful and painful. Keble seems to-
have formed some idea that Newman was uneasy in his
position ; but it is very doubtful if there was any ground
for this. Newman was probably more ready than he
had been to do justice to the reality of spiritual life
in the English Church ; but there was to be no closer,
no more, visible, union on this earth. For that he
could only wait till beyond the grave ; for the present
he might have taken on his lips almost word for
word, the speech which Browning attributes to Pym
at his parting from Strafford :

THE END. 187
" .... I love him now,
And look for my chief portion in that world
Where great hearts led astray are turned again.
(Soon it may be, and, certes, will be soon :
My mission over, I shall not live long.)
Ay, here I know I talk — I dare and must —
Of England and ber great reward, as all
I look for here ; but in my inmost heart
Believe, I think of stealing quite away
To walk once more with Wentworlh — my youth's friend —
Purged from all error, gloriously renewed.''
"Certes, it will be soon." In the winter of 1865 he
moved to Bournemouth on account of his wife's illness.
He himself was well, able to attend service regularly in
St. Peter's Church; but she grew weaker, and as the
spring came he was daily expecting her death. But he
was taken first from her ; he suffered what seemed to
be another stroke of paralysis on March 22, 1866. He
lay ill for a week. " Whether wandering or clear-
minded, he was constantly intent on holy things or in
actual prayer ; he uttered fragments or ejaculations in
the former case, which showed the habitual prayerful-
ness of his heart ; he repeated, or composed as it seemed,
prayers ; the Lord's Prayer he uttered most commonly."1
He passed away on March 29th, and was buried at
Hursley on April 6th. When she heard that he was
gone, she thanked God that he had been spared the
trial of surviving her, and she said that she knew that
in his dying thoughts were the words of the Christian
Year for Good Friday —
" Lord of my heart, by Tby last cry,
Let not Thy blood on earth be spent —
Lo, at Thy feet I fainting lie,
Mine eyes upon Thy wounds are bent,
Upon Thy streaming wounds my weary eyes
Wait like tbe parched earth on April skies.
1 Coleridge : Memoir, p. 559.

188

JOHN nitEBLE.

Wash me, and dry these
O let my heart no
'Tis Thine by vows, and
Long since — 0 call Th;
To that dear home, safe i
Where only broken heart
hide."

bitter tears,
further roam :
hopes, and fears,
f wanderer borne ;
n Tby wounded side,
s tbeir sin and shame may

Who can doubt that they
when she followed him on th
month, and they who for thirjty
hope and prayer and plan
divided in their death ?

were in her thoughts too,
3 eleventh of the following
years had shared every
for the Church, were not

CHAPTER IX.
THE preacher.
" To gentlest touches sweetest notes reply.
Still humbleness with her low-breathed voice
Can steal o'er man's proud heart, and win his choice
From earth to heaven, with mightier witchery
Than eloquence or wisdom e'er could own."
J. K. : Misc. Poems, p. 217.
" If I were to say what I really feel," wrote Newman
in 1837, " I should say plainly that no greater benefit
could in my opinion be granted to the Church than the
publication of sermons from you, and that on account
of their matter, not only of the authority of your
name." J
Yet the only volume of sermons which Keble
published in his lifetime was the Sermons, Academical
and Occasional (1847), with the preface on the Roman
question, about which I Lave already spoken. This
volume consists mainly of University sermons, preached
as Select Preacher, containing among others the famous
Assize Sermon of 1833, and the Winchester Sermon on
Tradition. The history of two of them has special interest.
On St. Andrew's Day, 1841, Keble was appointed to
1 Letters, ii., p. 229.

190 JOHN KEBLE.
preach before the University. He prepared a sermon
upon the duty of acquiescing in imperfections in the
Church rather than hurriedly leaving the Church for
some other body, and sent it to Newman for his
approval ; but he dissuaded him from preaching it.
The sermon is the clearest and most vigorous statement
anywhere to be found in Keble's writings, of the
duty of loyalty to the English Church, and puts,
perhaps even more effectively, the line of argument
afterwards worked out in the preface. Newman, how
ever, thought it would add to the excitement without
effecting any object. "It will increase," he wrote,
" upon a separate authority, the impression which is
not well founded, that there are men in Oxford who are
on the point of turning to Rome, with a sort of con
fession to the world at large, and as a triumph to the
foe over you and us. I know of none such. There is
doubtless great danger in prospect, but the persons in
danger are far too serious men to act suddenly or
without waiting for what they consider God's direction,
and I should think very few indeed realize to them
selves yet the prospect of a change — nay would change,
provided our rulers showed us any sympathy, or their
brethren kept from saying or believing of them that
they would change." 1
Whatever may be thought of this opinion in the
light of subsequent events, Keble at least ac
quiesced in it. "I shall never be able to thank you
enough," he wrote on December 12th, " for sending
back that sermon of mine." In its stead he preached
a most excellent spiritual sermon on "Counsels of
Perfection," showing deep insight into the secret forces
1 J. H. N. : Letters, ii., p. 370.

THE PREACHER. 191
of character, and drawing out most subtly the dangers
to which religious people are exposed. Both these
sermons were now published.
It is not necessary to dwell at any length upon this
volume. The first three sermons deal with the grounds
of faith, and anticipate much of the preface. They are
slightly laborious in style, but full of quiet, thoughtful
reasoning, steeped in Aristotle and Butler, " one of
the safest teachers of religion, natural and revealed,
that ever blessed the Church."
While emphasizing the essential value of the
" implicit faith " of the simple Christian, which may
seem to be bigotry and yet is true practical wisdom,
" abiding by the dictates of experience, not in defiance
but in default of theoretical and argumentative know
ledge," he yet insists on the duty of each man enquiring
for himself into the grounds of his faith ; in a true
pastoral spirit he pleads that even the poor can under
stand more than we give them credit for : " the
recollection that ' proving all things ' is as much the
duty of the unlearned as it is of the educated, should
make us less afraid to trust them with reasoning than
in matters of this sort we commonly are." One passage
— preached in 1822 — is pathetically prophetic in the
light of the subsequent history of the movement. " Not
being quite satisfied concerning some part of religious
truth, and ill-enduring the condition of doubt and
discomfort (which after all would do them no great
harm, if they would be careful always to take the safe
side in practice), subtle and ingenious men set them
selves to devise argument after argument in its behalf,
and thus they have often succeeded, to a wonder, in
strengthening and extending the fabric of theology,

192 JOHN KEBLE,
perhaps to the benefit of others, without having been
able to find under it any shelter, final and complete, for
their own harassed and perplexed spirits. Thus the
Church has witnessed more than once the sorrowful
spectacle of orthodox teachers falling off in their latter
days from the very truth which they had themselves
before most triumphantly defended ; the law of compen
sation, which has so wide a range in the natural world,
extending, apparently, in this among other instances, to
the moral world also; in that the versatility and in
genuity which enable men to devise new modes of
evidence, are too often accompanied with a disposition
to be restless and unsatisfied with the old."
One other extract from a sermon preached at a
school at Harrow Weald in 1846 shows the spirit in
which he wished to see boys trained in order to fit
them for the difficulties of life : " We hope and pray
that from this day forward this place may begin to be
a nursery, not only of sincere Christians, but of Christians
willing and able to serve the Church of God at home or
abroad in her roughest and barest paths of duty ; and
it is obvious that to this end they must be trained to
endure hardness, to love the poor and low places of the
earth, to give up their own wills more unreservedly than
is expected in a common way, even of those who are
brought up in our Church."
But it is as a parish preacher that Keble will be
best known. Since his death, Dr. Pusey and other
friends have seen through the press twelve volumes of
sermons on the Christian Year, one volume of Sermons,
Occasional and Parochial, a volume on the Baptismal
Office, and a volume of Outlines of Instructions or Medi
tations for the Church's Seasons, consisting of notes for

THE PREACHER. 193
sermons. This last volume does not lend itself to
quotation or analysis but it deserves a special mention.
From 1855 onwards, Keble nearly always preached
extempore, and scarcely any written sermons are pre
served after that date; but these notes date mainly
after that year, and so contain his ripest thought. For
suggestions for preaching or for individual meditation
on the Bible, they are admirable, being stimulating
and original and marked, like all his work, by a simple,
humble, deep reverence for Holy Scripture.
Of the more finished sermons, Dr. Pusey has said
that the chief characteristics are affectionate simplicity
and intense reality.
" Mr. Keble was not a great preacher, was he ? " said
one soon after his death to the landlord of the village
inn at Hursley. "Well, I don't know what a great
preacher is," was the answer, " but he always made us
understand him." That is exactly it : he is never
thinking of himself, but of his hearers. He said himself,
when weighing the relative merits of written or ex
tempore sermons, " That course is probably best for each
which most enables him to forget himself, and to think
only of God, his hearers, and his subject." 1 There is
no display, no elaborate ornament, there is only the
desire that he shall be understanded of the people.
The sermons are what his favourite Bishop Wilson
said sermons should be, " pious instructions to lead men
to heaven and save them from hell." 2 " In delivery
he did not give his sermons the advantages of an
ordinarily eloquent preacher, but he was eminently
winning; he let himself down — I do not mean in
language or argument, but in simplicity and childlike
1 Occasional Papers, p. 370. s Life, ii., p. 875. o

194 JOHN KEBLE.
humility — to the most uneducated of his audience ; he
seemed always to count himself one of the sinners,
one of the penitents, one even of the impenitent and
careless whom he was addressing, and the very quiet
ness, the almost tearful monotony of his delivery
became extremely moving when you recollected how
learned, how able, how moved in his own heart, and
how earnest was the preacher." x " He spoke of good
angels," says Miss Wilbraham, " their loving ministry
and their presence in church, briefly but in words so
simple and real that it seemed as if the rustling of their
wings were close around." 2
This simplicity is very striking in contrast with the
academical sermons, and it is more marked in his later
style : it was indeed the result of a very deliberate
effort on his part. "They said to me," he told Dr.
Pusey, " that I was preaching over the people's heads,
and so I changed my style." 3
For our purpose it will be enough to take one volume
of his sermons, the course on the Baptismal Office, de-i
livered after this change in the years 1849-50, to
serve as a specimen of this village preaching. " Affec
tionate simplicity " is everywhere — yes, very affectionate,
but also very stern ; very winning in charm, but very
clear in warning. Let us analyze the charm of them
a little more exactly. First there is the clear de
termination to be understood. He reverences the
intellect of his simple country folk; he treats it as
worth while to spend trouble in making things clear to
1 Sir J. Coleridge : Life, p. 439.
2 Musings on the Christian Year, p. ex.
3 E. B. P. : Preface to the Village Sermons on the Baptismal
Office.

THE PREACHER. 195
them. The principle of each rubric is drawn out ;
every possible misconception of the Church's teaching
is guarded against. Thus on the essentials of Baptism
(p. 247) : " The two together, the words and the act,
make up (as the Catechism says) the outward visible
sign or form in Baptism. It would not be Baptism were
a child washed or dipped in water in silence with only
good thoughts — no, nor if he were washed and dipped
with the best and most beautiful prayer. It would not
be Baptism unless the very words which our Saviour
appointed were used, ' In the Name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' So on the other
hand, neither would it be Baptism were this most Holy
Name ever so solemnly repeated over the child, with
the Amen of the whole Church. This would not, I say,
be Baptism, unless the child or person at the same time
were actually washed or dipped in the water." Again
on the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration (pp. 273-4) :
" We are to say distinctly, ' This child is regenerate,' — if
there were any doubt, the Church, I suppose, would bid
us say, ' We hope that this child is regenerated.' There
is no reason against our saying that, if it were more
according to the truth, according to our Lord's sayings,
and the mind of His Holy Church. We might say, we
hoped this child was regenerate, just as we say in the
Burial Service, ' our hope is ' that our brother or sister
is now resting in Christ; the word would have been
just as easily spoken. But instead of saying ' we hope,'
we say positively, 'it is regenerate.' We say it con
cerning every child : no distinction is made between
this one and that one. Why should we say it if we
are not to believe it ? Surely the Church meant us
all to believe it, and if we will be true Churchmen we

196 JOHN KEBLE.
must believe it. I say it over and over again, and
I wish you to take notice of it, and always remember
it, that over every child without exception, im
mediately after it has been baptized, the Priest is
desired to say, ' This child is regenerate,' not, ' it
may be,' or, ' we hope it is,' but plainly and distinctly,
' it is.' "
The illustrations are drawn from the ordinary details
of village life. The nurse's care to hold a child care
fully and not let it drop, leads to the thought, "If
helpless mortals can do so much for those little ones,
how much more may we make ourselves certain that
the Everlasting Arms will not fall from under us ; that
Jesus Christ will never of His own accord cease to bear
us in His loving embrace." When the Church asks
God to receive the child according to His promise, this
is " much in the same way as a person might present
a ticket of admission to a hospital; or an order to receive
a little bread or money or clothing, and, if signed by
the proper person, it would ensure him the gift." The
sign of the cross is like the mark with which shepherds
put their master's name upon each lamb separately,
when it has been washed and shorn. The sponsors
can truly say, " That is my desire," on behalf of the
children, being " so very certain that, if the children
could know, they would desire it above all things. Just
as if one had a humble petition to make to the Queen
for any child who was too young to know the meaning
of it, to have its property taken care of or the like, one
should present it in the name of the child and call it
that child's petition. Or if an infant was crying at the
door for hunger, though it were too young to under
stand its own wants, or at all to speak them out in

THE PREACHER. 197
words, yet we should not scruple to say ' the child is
longing and asking for bread.' " The whole service is
"as if a father sending his child a journey should first
give him instructions what to do, then make him
solemnly promise to do it, and lastly cause him to kneel
down and bless him very religiously before he set out."
The good behaviour of children at school before a
holiday or festival is a type of what our conduct should
be in expectation of the great day of Judgment and
Glory. Nay, more boldly still — the anger of the tidy
housewife, when things are wilfully or wantonly stained
or sullied, is a type of the anger which the Lord must
feel when, having washed us clean in His own most
precious Blood, He finds us by our own fault all foul
and filthy again.
Some of these extracts lead up naturally to the
second characteristic note of the preaching : its un
shrinking clearness of doctrine. The statements are
clear, definite, yet always in due proportion ; one side
of truth does not crowd out another. Quite clear is
the sense of the power of original sin, owing to which
the child is born a child of wrath ; quite clear the power
and the personality of the Evil Spirit ; but equally clear
and far stronger is the power and the personality of
God, coming to save the child in Baptism. There the
child is saved, is regenerate : it is newborn unto
righteousness and made a new creature. " Henceforth
One abides in this child, greater than he that is in the
world. A spark of holy fire is lit up in him, which if
it be duly attended to will consume all that is gross
and earthly, and purify him altogether in the like
ness of Jesus Christ." The child receives justification,
which is, being made a member of Christ the Righteous ;

,198 JOHN KEBLE.
and justification brings with it pardon and peace;
pardon for sins past, for original sin, and grace to do
well for the time to come. But then, as natural birth,
so far from relieving man of the necessity of food and
growth, absolutely requires them, so spiritual regener
ation must be followed by spiritual growth, and that
life must be sustained by spiritual food, "the spark
must be kindled into a flame by the unceasing wonder
working Breath of God, i. e. His Holy Spirit." " We
must be made and continue members of Him. That is
being saved by Him." " From beginning to end of
the Baptismal Office two doctrines go together, or
rather two parts of one doctrine. The one that every
baptized babe is regenerate by the Holy Ghost, the
other that every one who lives to the age of actual sin
will stand in need of further grace — the grace of per
severance and improvement, most likely of conversion
also, that he may not after all be a castaway." " Pardon
and grace come first in Holy Baptism, and for the time
they come completely, they save us until they are
forfeited by sinful relapsing ; but as we grow older and
temptations come on, new supplies of grace and pardon,
new ways of partaking of Christ tbe God-man are
needed, and most especially the Sacrament of Holy
Communion." Now, the secret of this dogmatic clearness is no mere
love of intellectual precision, it is the singleness of
spiritual vision. Priest and friends and nurse seem to
pass away : he sees only the Presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Church to which the Lord
commits the child. As clearly as to the eyes of the
mothers by the Lake of Galilee, the Lord is there to
his eyes ; the Lord with His individualizing love, He

THE PREACHER. 199
who had died to redeem this little one, and who loves
it as though there were no other child in the world.
He now takes him into His loving arms, pours the
water upon him, and blesses him with the very
greatest of His gifts, the Holy Spirit. "The good
ness and bounty which is offered to all the world is
here attracted as it were to the soul and body of that
one little boy or girl ; as when the lightning which is
mysteriously and invisibly floating above us in the
whole heaven is attracted to a particular point and
strikes upon it." Saints and angels watch in wonder
at the greatness of the gift. " It is in fact no less than
the Day of Pentecost over again, so far as that infant
is concerned." The Lord, when He said to His Apostles,
" Suffer them to come to Me," implied that there was
something in them, some instinct, which would cause
them, if let alone, to come ; and if we only look rever
entially, we may discern the new man in the baptized,
in their loving and confiding ways, in their little acts
of self-denial, in their contrivances how to be kind and
dutiful and obedient.
Such a vivid sense of the reality of the scene tends
naturally to the last point which needs to be noted, the
solemnity, the sternness, the almost awful sternness of
the tone. " The thought is very blessed, and therefore
very fearful." " Baptism lifts us to a far higher Heaven
or sinks us into a lower and more miserable Hell."
" We never can be as if our promise in Baptism had
not been made. We are baptized, and do what we will,
be as wicked as ever we may, we cannot unbaptize
ourselves. We may turn our Baptism into a curse, but
we cannot get rid of it altogether. We cannot be as if
we had never made any promise to God. His mark is

200 JOHN KEBLE.
set upon our foreheads, and although by wilful sin
unrepented of we wear out all its beauty and glory, all
its saving grace and virtue, we cannot altogether wear
out the mark itself. It will be there to our worst con
demnation, if it is not there to save us."
This solemnity is pressed home to all present. It is
pressed on the parents ; they pretend to love their
children, but "how is it possible you can truly love
them, if you are not very full of love towards Him who
so chooses them out and blesses them, who is even now
taking them in His arms to save them from Hell ? And
if you love Him, you will try to please Him ; you will
not pass slightly over any of His commands, especially
His last dying command, 'Do this in remembrance of
Me.' Your love to your child, if you really believe in
Christ's blessing given to that child in Baptism, will be
enough by God's grace to make you a good Christian."
It is pressed also on the sponsors ; they are not merely
friends of the parents, but deputies appointed by the
Church to offer and present the young child to its
Saviour. It is an honour done to them, that they are
allowed to take charge of the Church's children. " They
ought to feel as if God had put into their hands some
thing of a father's or a mother's trust." The least they
can do is to wish and pray in their hearts that the little
one for whom they answer may keep his vow. But
this they cannot do, they cannot really wish and pray
for the child's soul, except they be really in care for their
own souls also. It is pressed alike upon all present :
they being made witnesses of the baptism are bound
thenceforward to treat the child as a Christian, to pray
for him, and to show all brotherly love to him. They
are reminded of their own past promises, and called to

THE PREACHER. 201
repentance as far as they have been untrue to them.
" As we feel uneasy if any little child belonging to us
is left unbaptized, so should we long to confess our own
sins, which may have brought us perhaps into a worse
than unbaptized condition." For the standard to which
baptism commits us is a standard of willing obedience
and of steadfast faith, a faith not of the tongue only, or
of the mind only, but of the heart. " Consider what it
is to be steadfast in faith. It is to look to the great
things out of sight, not only now and then, but con
tinually and regularly. It is to remember every morning
you have an account to give and every evening that you
are so much nearer, that your doings are being put down
there. It is to turn your heart to Jesus Christ, God
and Man, crucified for you, and to refrain from sin for
His sake ; not merely to speak affectionately and to be
at times touched with the thought of Him. To be
steadfast in faith is, moreover, to believe our Lord when
He says that we must take up our cross, we must lead
strict lives, and be zealous and repent." The volume
closes with words of mingled hope and warning — the
last note a note of warning. " 0 that it would please
Him to pour out upon us, even now, His good and
loving Spirit, upon us, I say, who are here present, that
we might from this very hour begin, one and all of us,
to show forth our baptism in our lives far more truly,
far more courageously, far more lovingly than we have
yet done ! And one fruit of that Good Spirit will
assuredly be, that parents and teachers, godfathers and
godmothers, will go on making more and more of their
precious and tender charge, the little ones of Christ.
If we make much of our own souls and of theirs, they
will learn themselves to make much of them also. If

202 JOHN KEBLE.
we make light of them, fearful indeed is the end we
must expect, both to them and to us." 1
The extracts given above are sufficient to show the
extreme simplicity and directness of style ; from time
to time this is lit up by a touch of poetic imagery.
Baptism is a coronation, in which we are made kings,
"to reign over our own hearts and imaginations, and
to command and order all outward things so that they
shall work together for our good " ; it is a marriage
in which we are wedded to the mystical body of
Christ: it is like a fresh morning breeze: "The re
collections of this deep Baptismal Love breathe over
our hearts like fragrant airs of a summer morning."
Again there is a frequent mystical use of the Old
Testament, verging at times on what would seem to be
fanciful ; but even this use is rare. Everything is
chastened and subdued. Everywhere the tone is of
one living in the Presence of a Truth which he fears to
sully by ornaments of his own ; of one sitting hushed
and silent in a beautiful grove lest words of his should
stay the sweet warbling of the birds or drown the music
of the clear rill which is trickling through the flower-clad
banks. It is the tone of one who brings with him and
tries to win others to bring with them, to such a scene,
" a heart
That watches and receives." 2
1 It will be no surprise to the reader after this to hear that the
Evangelical party in Oxford recognized in Keble, in spite of his
maintenance of Baptismal Regeneration, a spiritual man : or even
that a sturdy Baptist, who used to attend Burthorpe Church
when Keble was curate there, gave it as bis reason that he there
"heard the gospel." Newman, Letters, vol. i. p. 115; Sir J.
Coleridge, Memoir, p. 64.
2 Sermons vi. xiv. xviii. and xxx. are specially recommended
as specimens of Keble's style.

THE PREACHER. 203
The three chief gifts which make a great preacher in
all times and countries have been recently described to
be " the sympathy which can move and lift the hearers,
the insight into spiritual facts which can present them
as luminous realities, and the enthusiasm for a sacred
cause which can fire the soul with a congenial devotion." 1
Certainly if these make a great preacher, Keble was
such. 1 Dr. Bright's Lessons from the Lives of Three Great Fathers,
p. 62.

CHAPTER X.
THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. i
" 6 67rticXij0eig Bapv&Pag airb twv ditoaToKiav, o iariv ixeOipiitivtvi/iivov
Xxbg IlapaKXjjo-lwc." — Acts iv. 36.
From earliest days Keble's advice had been asked
by college friends on religious matters or on such deep
questions of practical life as the choice or change of a
profession, for his friends knew that all such questions
would be pondered over and decided in the light of the
highest motives. From 1840 onwards he was frequently
consulted by strangers needing direction for their own
spiritual life or guidance in ecclesiastical questions.
Often, too, he would himself take the initiative, when
a call was made upon his prompt sympathy; his had
been "a soul in suffering tried," and so was quick to
bear aid to his " suffering brethren's side." There had
always been at home anxieties arising from ill-health.
" Oh what a day of joy a day of perfect health would be
in our family " (he had written in 1814) ; " we are all so
united, so fond of home, and just separated enough to
know the value of each other's society." The deaths of
his two sisters, Sarah and Mary Anne, of his mother and
his father, of Hurrell Froude, the frequent illness of
his wife and care for his invalid sister, Elizabeth, the

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 205
loss of Newman's friendship and companionship, fell
with heavy weight but also with fruitful power upon his
heart ; and so there was no grief from which his alembic
could not distill some drop of consolation. Or, again, he
would take the initiative even to rebuke ; his sense of
justice, his jealousy for the good name of those for
whom he cared, made him bold to speak in very clear
language, whether it were to a stranger — as in the
plain speech of the letter " to the Father of an Illegiti
mate Child," printed in the Letters of Spiritual Counsel —
or privately to friends. But whether he was writing
spontaneously or in answer to appeals, whether to
console or to rebuke, the language ,is always gentle,
humble, courteous, full of delicate suggestion rather
than command, of apology, of self-distrust, even at
times of self-abhorrence. " You have a way of saying
things which does not annoy," 1 wrote J. H. Newman in
1838. " You write so humbly, it would perplex me at
times ; only I construe it in my own way," 2 wrote Dr.
Pusey in 1848.
The reason of this tone is due to two things. It was
caused partly by his high standard of Christian and
especially of clerical duty, emphasizing his own sense of
personal unworthiness. The language that he uses of
himself both in the Confessions of his poetry, and in
the simple prose of his correspondence, is language of
such deep self-accusation that Sir J. Coleridge, in writing
the Memoir, and Mr. Wilson in editing the spiritual
letters, have both felt that it is liable to misinterpretation,
and have both borne their witness to the purity of every
word and act of his life. Each reader will be tempted
to interpret! such hints by the worst with which his
1 Letters, ii., p. 238. 3 July 9, 1848.

206 JOHN KEBLE.
own conscience has to reproach him, but each will
probably be wrong, unless be brings to the consideration
a sense of sin which shall include " rude bad thoughts "
and " cold, ungentle ways " as absolutely defiling, and a
conception of the holiness of God and the possibilities
of human holiness such as does not enter into the heart
of most men. Keble's standard was that of life as one
bright joyous service, with every thought brought into
subjection to Christ, with constant praise of God, with
frequent intercession for man. This was his ideal. Sin
was to him, in St. Anselm's phrase, " nothing else than
the failure to render God His due " ; and therefore, if
ever thoughts of worldly promotion and ambition had
filled his mind, if " rude bad thoughts " had soiled it, if
praise had been cold or intercession had been neglected,
if some hasty word of his had offended a brother or
done harm to the cause of the Church, these fell on his
" sensitive, dutiful mind " (it is Dr. Pusey's phrase) with
a greater weight than gross acts of sin fall upon a less
tender conscience. " My own notion is," he said, " that
clergymen generally have more to blame themselves for
as to neglect in the way of example and the way of
special intercession than in the way of direct warning " 1 ;
and again, when saying that the anxieties of a clerical
life overbalance any sense of comfort, he adds, " If not,
it is, I am afraid, because we are not considerate enough
about the unspeakable awfulness of our trust, and are
therefore too soon satisfied with ourselves ; or else
because we do not rate what God requires of Christian
people high enough, and therefore are too soon satisfied
with our flocks." 2
But there is a second, very different reason, which
1 Letters, ix., p. 23. 2 Ibid., vii., p. 13.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 207
worked to the same end, viz., the deep sense of the
responsibility of each individual in religious matters — in
a word, his reverence for Christ's Presence in each soul.
One who knew him well has said, " What I think remark
able was not how many people loved him, or how much
they loved him, but that everybody seemed to love him
with the very best kind of love of which they were
capable. It was like loving goodness itself: you felt that
what was good in him was applying itself directly and
bringing into life all that was best in you. His ready,
lively, transparent affection seemed as if it was the very
spirit of love opening out upon you and calling for a
return such as you could give." 1
This reverence was kept alive by frequent special
intercession ; the morning hour at 9 a.m. was set aside
for remembrance of those who had been brought into
spiritual relation to himself. " I have never, I believe,
gone a day without thinking of you," is his language to
one whom he did not know personally, but who had
written to him under temptation ; and the language
finds frequent echoes throughout his correspondence.
He encourages one correspondent to send him written
reports of spiritual progress, and assures him that no
other work shall interfere with his attention to such a
case. " I scarce know what could be of more conse
quence, to me, than helping such work .... be it only
by affording you a means of relieving your mind." This
patient intercession kept alive in his own heart a
hopeful faith in his penitents, which was ever urging
them to have " root in themselves," to try " to swim
without corks," which was guiding their eyes away
from himself to the Saviour. It is true that he often
1 Quoted in the Preface to Coleridge's Memoir (ed. 2), p. 92.

208 JOHN KEBLE.
counsels direct auricular confession ; at one time, when
oppressed by the feeling of his own inefficiency in his
parish, he writes, " Whoever can discreetly and effec
tually bring in Confession will do, I should think,
one of the best things for this poor Church, as she
is at present." x Again, he expresses his opinion that
when outward Communion becomes more common and
more frequent, " we shall find it impossible to get on
without the discipline of confession more or less strict.
It seems as if it would be the next thing that would
agitate the Church of England. God send us well
through it, and then, by His blessing, we shall stand
better than ever since the Reformation." 2
When mediating between Dr. Hook and the clergy at
St. Saviour's, Leeds, he was very clear that Confession
should be treated as a means of grace, and not merely
as a means of comfort. For dealing with certain sins
he is persuaded that " in most cases regular confession
and not occasional only will be found the best help by
way both of precaution and remedy." 3 Yet he will
not shift responsibility from the penitent's shoulders
to his own. " The wish for an infallible guide to
relieve one of responsibility is plainly very natural, but
as plainly not intended to be granted in this world."
" I consider that English priests are not only permitted
but commanded to leave to their penitents a certain
discretion with regard to those rules " (i. e. of communi
cating without a fresh confession). " The stricter rules of
the foreign Churches would make one's task easier, but
the line which our Church has taken compels us to
modify them in very charity to the many souls that
would, I fear, otherwise be repelled from the best hope
1 Letters, xxi. 2 Ibid., cxvii. 3 Ibid., cxiv.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 209
of recovery." To an undergraduate, who had asked his
advice about Confession, he writes —
" Whatever people do or decline to do as to confession
should (1) not go upon feeling one way or the other, but
upon calm consideration with prayer ; (2) should not
be allowed to lessen their own sense of responsibility.
(3) To whomsoever the confession is to be made out
wardly, it should be made distinctly to our Lord before
hand, in the conviction that He knows it all beforehand,
and has declared His will that it should somehow be
made known" (St. Luke xii. 2).1 He suggests again
and again to his penitents that they should make their
own rules and even choose their own penances for
themselves. This respect for their own sense of
responsibility appears even in a tart sharpness, which
he sometimes uses when he thinks that his corre
spondents are playing with him, that they have really
made up their minds, but want their own opinion
sanctioned by him, and "seek direction with an
instinctive purpose of directing the director." " Excuse
my saying, I deeply wish you had not said this," is his
criticism on one piece of shallowness. " Will you excuse
my saying that you do not now seem to me to have
really put your mind to these considerations." " If you
cannot help feeling displeased with me, do not therefore
cast aside what I have said until you have well and
long considered it your own self, not borrowing the
eyes of others " (pp. 241, 259, 266, 267).
The best statement of his feeling with regard to
Confession in relation to parish work is to be found in
his review of Monro's Parochial Work? He is quite
1 Letters, xcvi.
2 Reprinted from tbe Christian Remembrancer of 1850, in
Occasional Papers and Reviews.

210 JOHN KEBLE.
clear that real pastoral efficiency must rest upon
the pastor's personal intercourse with his people ; that,
like a doctor, he ought to know the real evils with
which he is dealing. The fear of the priest enslaving
the spirit of an English yeoman or peasant seems to
him foolish and unreal. Those who have once fairly
accepted the doctrine of judgment to come can never
wish to free themselves of their sense of responsibility.
" Their very object in seeking the benefit of absolution
together with ghostly counsel and advice, was to enlarge
their responsibility by obtaining deliverance from the
chain of past sin and better principles to guide them
for the future." At the same time he would avoid the
technical terms of "direction " and "auricular confession,"
" because they are associated in almost all minds with
something more absolute, peremptory, and indispensable
than we should practically mean by them." He is
especially anxious to avoid interfering with that happy
unconsciousness which is the natural ground of true
Christian simplicity; anxious again to check any risk
of hero-worship, and determined to avoid minute and
incessant direction, as the desire of it seemed to him to
be a form of self-will. But all these abuses can be
guarded against. " They have no force against the legiti
mate mode of personal intercourse which the Prayer-
book, enjoins," and it seemed to him that the rubric
requiring notice to be given beforehand of the intention
to communicate, and that which required each com
municant to communicate three times a year, gave
sufficient vantage-ground for such personal intercourse.
" These two rules, duly made known and followed up,
would constitute a regular and effectual system of
Church discipline with adults, even as the rules about

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 211
sponsors, catechizing, and Confirmation would secure a
complete Church education for children. Let there be
a religious and living sense of Church authority, and
the work of discipline, as well as of doctrine, is done
for us."
But to return to the spiritual letters. Their tone is
always this, " I am a very bad person for you to have come
to ; I have had little experience and little knowledge. I
need your prayers and forgiveness much more than you
need mine, and whatever I say, you must see if it is right
and then act upon it." But this is not the whole ; he
always goes on to stay himself upon the Presence of
Christ and His promise to be with His ministers. The
thought of the Atonement braces him to fresh effort.
" It is a fearful thing to think that one owes a heavier
debt than one's fellows to the great Owner of all. Aye,
so fearful that nothing could enable one to support the
thought except it were the same recollection with
which I ended the last paragraph, and with which, if
we brought it in as often as we have occasion, we should
end every paragraph and every sentence which we
write or speak — i. e. that we have One who has redeemed
our debt as well as promised us unfailing supplies for
the future." He reminds a priest who felt that he had
too lightly undertaken his office of the duty of showing
his penitence by all diligence and activity, and quotes
the words of Bishop Bull : " Having laid ourselves at
God's feet, let us not lie idly there, but arise and for the
future do the work of God with all faithfulness and
industry." So there is always something inspiring and
hopeful about his advice. Under all the gentleness
and hesitation there is very seldom anything but
definiteness of advice; there is always in it a strain

212 JOHN KEBLE.
of sober practical common sense, even in the earliest
letters a strange maturity of wisdom which inspired
confidence. This mellow wisdom is equally noticeable whether
he is dealing with the problems of individual life or
of Church organization. In each he starts with a
high ideal; but he is so impressed with the great
degeneracy of the Church, and with the power of
the Evil Spirit, that he does not hastily expect great
progress or startling changes. In the individual life
the one thing necessary is that the motive should be
true ; if that is set on the active service of Christ,
he is ready to make any allowance for differences of
character and of circumstance. Each man has to ask
himself what is reasonable for such an one as he to
do for ' Christ ; and then set calmly and gently about
his own work without breaking through established
customs where they are innocent. There must be a
resolute guard over thoughts and senses, and a control
of the feelings. He is especially distrustful of the
feelings, whether of melancholy or of remorse, or of
excited assurance, or of sorrow. They must have relief,
but they must never be our masters. To one suffering
from a sense of loneliness and want of sympathy he
writes, " One thing occurs to me as a possible help in
soothing and relieving your pent-up feelings, viz., that
you should, if circumstances allow, get into a regular
course of some kind of charitable visiting among poor
and distressed people. Music heard and practised,
poetry read and written, drawing, scenery, gardening
and all kinds of out-door recreations, if not too exciting,
may be made useful in this way, but the specific is
works of charity and devotion." Overmuch sorrow for

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 213
the dead, and even remorse for our sins towards them,
have to be put aside. " No person who believes in the
Atonement ought to indulge in bitter remorse." To Dr.
Pusey, when his wife lay dying and he was feeling it as
a punishment for his own sins, Keble wrote —
" I want you to be on your guard against bitter self-
reproach — against that kind of remorse which I know
is apt to come over one when a blessing of which one
feels one's unworthiness seems taken away ; a feeling,
I mean, which would benumb and prostrate, instead of
softening and quickening our faith. Surely in such
matters, as in all others, we do well not to think or feel
as if we knew positively the cause of God's dealing with
us. The tone of the Prayer-book seems to me so beauti
ful, ' For whatsoever cause this sickness is sent unto you,'
without pretending to search it out or to encourage
the sufferer to do so with anything like certainty. The
thought that it may be this or that, seems to me the
intended way of humbling us. If we go on to treat
ourselves as if we knew it to be this or that, perhaps
we go beyond God's will."
So even with regard to our feelings towards God ; we
have no right to demand of God or to be uncomfortable
if we do not feel sensible comfort or the certain assur
ance of salvation. "To say that such assurance is a
sure and necessary sign of God's favour must be a
mistake, if it were only that it contradicts our Lord's
agony and the feeling that He had upon the Cross, not
to speak of many saintly examples in Scripture." Even
more strongly, " The whole of this doctrine of the
necessity of assurance is to me not left doubtful but
contradicted by such places as Philippians ii. 12, 13 ;
indeed by the whole gospel, our Lord's own teaching in

214 JOHN KEBLE.
particular; and I pray God to keep us all from it." 1 For
such assurance tends so readily to a low standard of
life, and to that which seemed to him the most fatal
thing to spiritual life, the feeling of self-complacency.
"You must pray especially against this," he writes to
one lady, " you must do penance for it by trying in
wardly to turn away from and be pained at the affec
tionate praise, even of those whom you would most
wish to approve you " (p. 151). Even assurance of the
purity of our motive may be denied to us, and we must
not be over-anxious even then. One short letter2
may be quoted in its entirety to illustrate this :
"My Dear Child, — My entire conviction is that
your anxiety about your motive for what you do in the
way of penitence is carried too far. He on purpose for
the most part hides that point from us ; so that few, if
any, shall be able to say in what measure they are
influenced by love, in what by fear and shame and
indignation, and such inferior yet legitimate motives.
You must learn to bear this painful doubt, and to be
thankful that He releases and keeps you from wilful sin
anyhow. You must pray and strive for love, but not be
violently grieved nor angry with yourself should you
still feel as if the lower motives alone, or nearly alone,
were yours. Do not allow yourself to sit for many
minutes moody and dreaming. Your judgment, your
conduct, your feelings towards others — that is where
your minute watchfulness should be, there will be the
proof of your grief being accepted as real contrition,
1 See the whole of this lelter, " On tbe Religious Revivals in
Ireland," cliii.
2 Letter lxx.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 215
much more than in any consciousness you may seem to
have of it at the time. " Your loving father in Christ, " J. K."
Such absence of feeling may be a punishment for
past sins, and " the truly filial feeling is to accept the
punishment of one's iniquity, praying that it may be in
time, not in eternity." (p. 189). It may, too, throw us
out of self on to the Lord. An old clergyman who had
known him in younger days was dying, with a deep
sense of his own sinfulness and a fear that he was
not forgiven, and the absence of comfort in prayer.
He longed to see Keble. " Oh, that John Keble was
here ! " That could not be, but Keble wrote to him
a letter which brought him quiet happiness, and of
which, the following is an extract —
" I could say, for one thing, make your account
beforehand with this trouble coming upon you, as you
would with a fit of bodily pain, to which you might
know yourself liable ; and offer it to God as you would
the bodily pain, in deep resignation, giving yourself up
to Him, to deal with you in this respect also as He
knows best. And, as we know that in some mysterious
way our bodily sufferings are united (if we take them
rightly) to those of our Lord on the Cross, so we may
venture to associate these sadder misgivings of the soul
with the deep agony and sense of desertion which He
vouchsafed to endure for us. And we may believe
that in ways known to Him they are made instrumental
to our final purification and. salvation. One way in
which this may happen, we may well believe, is this :
the more entirely we are made to feel the WQi'thlessngss

216 JOHN KEBLE.
of all that we have ourselves been or done, tbe more
are we thrown, wholly and solely, upon Him who is our
only Hope ; and this deep and bitter feeling may be
our Lord's providential way of causing you to cast all
your care upon Him as you no doubt endeavour to do,
but feel that you do it but inadequately ; this distress
may render you more earnest in doing so ; and ' if there
be first a willing mind ' — you know the rest, and how
fully it applies to the inward offering of Faith and
Repentance, as well as to the outward one of Alms.
Once more : I should wish to say, I am continually
saying, in effect, to persons in such trouble as you
sometimes feel, ' Which do you really want of the
Almighty? Comfort now, or pardon and acceptance
hereafter ? ' The latter, of course ; and it may be that
the imperfection you complain of in the former, may
greatly help towards that better thing, for ' the peace
of God passeth all understanding.' Many, having it,
feel as if they had it not ; but many, alas ! wanting it,
feel (like the Pharisees) as if they certainly had it.
Which is better : to kindle a fire of one's own, and
compass oneself about with sparks, and have to walk in
that light; or to walk in darkness, and have no light,
only trusting (i. e. unweariedly trying to trust) in the
Name of the Lord, and 'staying yourself as you may
' on our God ' ?
" Let me beseech you, dear sir, to go on trying this ;
and in a short time you will see and know what a Rock
you have been indeed standing on."
All sorrow is handled with delicate tact, for he
believed so much in its purging power. " The Almighty
has stores of chastening secret to us as well as of
mercy in its more placid form; and I believe that

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 217
those whom we have every reason to believe His most
beloved have always most earnestly welcomed those
pains which they hoped in some unsearchable way
might help to purify them." " These sufferings are, in
one way, the Father's mode of applying the Cross to
us, as His Sacraments are in another way."1 Or,
again, he asks the special prayers of a friend "now,
when affliction has brought you, in a manner, unusually
near the Throne." Sorrow may be penal, but it may also
be a mark of chastening love, and we are inquiring too
far if, in every case, we are anxious how far and for
what exact sin it is penal.
In the same way it is with a soothing tenderness
that he speaks of death and of " the living dead." In
one letter (cliv.) the whole of the Burial Office is analyzed
to show that it is not merely a form for the burial of
the body, but one of commending the whole person,
body and soul, to Almighty God. It assumes the con
tinued existence of the departed ; it implies our hopes
that the promises may be true of them ; we may believe
that they still sympathize with us in our prayers;
everything is aimed at " lessening the weary interval
between the bereaved and the departed," and so it
becomes a form of communion with the dead. So he
loves Geerge Herbert's phrase that the departed have
only gone into another room in the Father's house ; they
are " entering into their rest, or rather His rest " ; the
bereaved are earnestly pressed to lose no time in using
themselves " to speak freely and calmly to one another
of those who are out of sight, as though they were, as
they are, only out of sight." God is sure to accept the
efforts which affection prompts us to make in the way
1 Letter lxiii.

218 JOHN KEBLE.
of doing that of which the departed would most approve.
The recovery of the practice of prayer for the departed,
which had come with the study of the ancient Church,
seemed to him to compensate for the trouble and
annoyance of tbe times ; in 1837 he regrets the cessation
of prayers for the Founders in the College chapels, '' nor
do I think we shall ever be quite right till it is restored ; "
and he sends to a friend the following prayer from
Bishop Andrewes, " which one very unworthy person at
least has used for years with far greater comfort than
he deserves."
" Remember Thy servants and handmaidens which
have departed hence in the Lord, especially .... and all
others to whom our remembrance is due ; give them
eternal rest and peace in Thy Heavenly Kingdom, and
to us such a measure of communion with them, as Thou
knowest to be best for us. And bring us all to serve
Thee in Thine eternal Kingdom when Thou wilt and as
Thou wilt, only without shame or sin. Forgive my
presumption and accept my prayers, as Thou didst the
prayers of Thine ancient Church, through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
A few points of more ecclesiastical interest may be
added here, as they arise out of his letters and will in
the main illustrate the mellow wisdom of his advice.
In relation to Dissent, while clear of its sinfulness and
of the harm which it causes, he would deal lovingly and
forbearingly with Dissenters, " as being, alas ! the wronged
party in bygone times." He would have each parish
priest regard himself as still responsible for them,
though all appeals to them will require much discretion
and charity. To a young lady who had been brought
up unbaptized and wished for baptism, as she supposed

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 219
against her parents' wish, he advises that clearly she
must make her profession of faith, that it would be
unreal to receive Dissenters' Baptism, that it would be
very undesirable to go away and be baptized without
her parents' knowledge. "It has an air of undutiful-
ness, mistrust, and concealment which ought by all
means to be avoided, if possible." Therefore she must
tell her parents of her wish, and be content to wait for
many months, in the hope of getting their consent or
even winning them to Baptism. Meanwhile, she will
hear what she believes in ill-spoken of, and be tempted
to speak and think the worst of Dissenters; and so he
adds his parting advice, " Force yourself, I beseech
you, rather to keep silence, unless there be some grave
duty in speaking, and to be glad, really glad, when you
can speak and think well of them." 1
Liberalism and speculative unbelief was much more
trying to him than inherited Dissent ; it seemed so often
to go hand in hand with a spirit of irreverence ; yet he
would apply the same measure to liberalists, and of one
such case be writes : " With regard to the very painful
subject with which your letter concludes, I have been
used to think that we are in no sort judges how far
' invincible ignorance ' may excuse a person in the
sight of God for any degree of speculative unbelief,
provided he really tries to act up to the light vouch
safed. This way of thinking the fathers of old applied
to the cases of the good and virtuous heathens, and,
by parity of reasoning, it may, one should think, apply
to many cases among ourselves whom the letter of our
formularies would seem to condemn. Why, then, may
you not hope humbly, that at some time, in some state
i Letter lx.

220 JOHN KEBLE.
or other, the true faith and the mercy which it reveals
may, in some degree at least, reach to such an amiable
person as you describe, though we may not see or know
' how ? In the meantime, your speaking or not on
such matters is surely a question of expediency depend
ing on the chance of doing good. You can but watch
and pray for opportunity ,and guidance, and help to
make the most of any opening that may be granted.
Sayings, doings, and looks, which seem very slight in
themselves, have often a good deal of virtue, I believe,
in such cases ; and waiting on sickness or decline, gives
occasion sometimes to unexpected ways of helping those
whom we love."
In dealing with the three branches of the Catholic
Church, his main wish was that each member should
be faithful to his own branch, without any feeling of
jealousy or hostility to the others ; he would gladly
have maintained neutrality towards Rome, but the
attitude of some of the converts made this more and
more difficult. In 1846 he wrote to Dr. Pusey, " I am
afraid from little symptoms that feelings are growing
bitterer between the converts to R. C. and those whom
they have left behind. Everything indicates that such
separate conversions, whatever else they may be, are not
the way of peace and unity." The truer way seemed
to him to be to labour and pray, not controversially but
practically, for that holiness which alone can truly unite
men, and which, if generally revived, would no doubt
bring back with it visible unity.
The letter x which he wrote on the subject of Non-
Communicating Attendance at the Holy Eucharist, may
serve as a final specimen of the cautious way in which
1 Letter cxxviii.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 221
he handled a subject on which his own feelings were
admittedly strong.
" I cannot deny that I have a strong feeling against
the foreign custom of encouraging all sorts of persons
to 'assist' at the Holy Eucharist, without communi
cating. It seems to me open to two grave objections.
It cannot be without danger of profaneness and
irreverence to very many, and of consequent dishonour
to the Holy Sacrament ; and it has brought in and
encouraged, or both (at least so I greatly suspect), a
notion of quasi-sacramental virtue in such attendance,
which I take to be great part of the error stigmatized
in our Thirty-first Article. Even in such a good book as
the Imitatio Christi, and still more in the Paradisus
Animce, one finds participating 'in Missa vel Com-
munione ' spoken of as if one brought a spiritual
benefit of the same order as the other. This I believe
to be utterly unauthorized by Scripture and antiquity ;
and I can imagine it of very dangerous consequence.
But whatever one thought of this, the former objection
would still stand, and it would not do to answer that
the early Church allowed, or even encouraged, the
practice, because, even if that were granted (I very
much doubt it, to say the least), the existence of
discipline at that time entirely alters the case. I
used to argue in this way with poor R. W., but I could
never get him to mind me.
" Yet of course I cannot deny that there may be any
number of cases in which attendance without communi
cating may be morally and spiritually (I could not say,
sacramentally) beneficial ; and in default of discipline, I
should advise any person who thought that such was
his own case, to consult with his Spiritual Adviser, and

222 JOHN KEBLE.
act accordingly ; the clergyman of the particular church
not objecting." x
1 The books which be most usually recommends are— Do
Imitatione Christi $ Hooker's Sermons on the Certainty and,
Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, and a Remedy for Sorrow and
Fear; J. Taylor, Holy Living, and The Golden Grove; Bishop
Andrewes, Prayers; Bishop Wilson, Sacra Privata; Law's
Serious Call, and Christian Perfection; Kettlewell, Companion
for the Penitent ; Bund, Aids to a Holy Life ; Meditations of J.
Bonnell, Esq. (S.P.C.K.) ; I. Williams, Commentary on the Gospels.

CHAPTER XI.
characteristic and influence.
" Love is a present for a mighty King." — G. Herbert.
" The Gods approve
The depth and not the tumult of our soul,
A fervent, not ungovernable, love." Wordsworth, Laodamia.
" Let it be your great care to go down humbly to your grave."
J. K. : Sermons for the Christian Year, Lent, p. 70.
" How shall I profess to paint a man who will not
sit for his picture ? " 1 These were Newman's words when
asked to describe Keble, and they seem to point to the
central feature which explains his character, a keen
sensitiveness of nature, an instantaneous quickness of
response to every influence from outside, opening out
to the slightest breath of that which was akin to his
true nature, shrinking into itself, and clinging closer
to its native rock, at the approach of an alien hand.
His was a nature of strong and permanent emotions : in
childhood and youth the love of parents and brothers
and sisters, in later years that of friends and of children,
laid hold upon them and drew out all his happy, droll
playfulness of wit and manner. " In power of exceeding
1 J. K. : Occasional Papers and Reviews, Preface, p. xiii.

224 JOHN KEBLE.
enjoyment, in positive admiration he was an unusually
happy man; children, high characters, good people,
noble actions, fine prints or pictures, music, scenery, all
gave him such great delight." x But the nature needed
sympathy to draw it out. He was shy and awkward
with strangers. He would never, his sister said, have
written verses were it not for the encouragement he
met with in his own family.2 Hence any interruption
of a friendship was a terrible strain upon him. After
his mother's death he could not restrain his emotion
while examining in the Schools, as one of the candidates
translated the farewell of Alcestis to her children ; and
more than thirty years afterwards he wrote to a friend,
" Assuredly the world can never be the same again to
any one when one's mother is no longer in it." On the
Sunday after receiving the news of Hurrell Froude's
death, he broke down with emotion while celebrating
the Eucharist; he was seen at times to come away
in tears from the sick-bed of a parishioner; and the
parting with Newman seemed to " take the very spring
out of his year." 3 Such quickness of feeling led to
quickness of expression. Mr. Wilson, on becoming his
curate, was startled by his feady outspokenness, by the
comprehensive and startling enunciation of principles;
an unsympathetic critic could speak of him as one who
quickly lost his temper 4 — nay, he could speak of himself
1 Musings on the Christian Year, p. xlv ; cf. J. B. Mozley,
Letters, p. 77 : " Keble is certainly great fun."
2 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 69.
3 How striking to notice his other use of this same phrase :
" It would indeed be taking the spring out of the year were we
to doubt or deny a special Presence of our High Priest, God and
man, to solemnize with us the feast." Euch. Ador., ed. v., p.
253. * Mozley, Reminiscences, p. 220.

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 225
in later days, in intimate correspondence, as " a certain
testy old clerk whom you know of." It led again at
times to moods of morbid melancholy, against which he
set himself to struggle by active kindness to others and
by falling back upon the deepest religious motives. It
was ever craving for itself some vent, some method of
relief. To one friend he recommended Bishop Wilson's
practice of keeping a journal of one's religious feelings
in cypher, because the very act of devising the cypher
withdraws the mind a little from itself; and " something
in the nature of a journal is a kind of medicine to
many persons." x Poetry was another method of relief;
and his whole theory of poetry sprang from this thought.
Prayer was another, as he thought of the souls dis
tressed by Church perplexities — " Oh, indeed it is a
real trouble to think of them ; it is a real relief to pray
for them." 2 Penance was thought of, partly, as a relief
to souls oppressed with the sense of sin, and this was
part of the attraction of a daily service for him, that
" amid the wear and tear, the forebodings and misgiv
ings incident to the cure of souls, it was well that one
anxious and determined to spend and be spent should
have a place where he might go and rest awhile in
the Life-giving Presence, and keep up his heart and
strength for the work." 8
But all this quickness was kept in check with a
hand which grew more strong and dominant as time
went on. There was an almost provoking refusal to
display his power or abilities when people looked for
them ; " he was jealous of anything brilliant and on his
1 J. H. Newman, Letters, ii., p. 80.
2 Pastoral Letter,'^. 7.
3 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 362. Q

226 JOHN KEBLE.
guard against anything hollow." Whatever he might
be in speech, he was always very careful and guarded
and fair in what he wrote, and his speech too was
controlled. " That is a subject that won't bear talking
about," is a frequent refrain in his letters whenever he
has been drawn on to speak of himself and his own
feelings.1 Thus, as self became eliminated, the quick
ness of feeling was transmuted into a tender sensitive
ness for others. There was the sensitiveness for the
honour, the purity, the freedom of the Church, firing
up with indignation at each act of State aggression, at
each unjust taunt of her foes, but most of all at each
unworthy act of her own children. His earlier writings
are full of protests against the spirit of Fatalism, which
would fold its hands and acquiesce in evil. In every
ecclesiastical event that happened between the years
1833 and 1886, he was a force that had to be reckoned
with, for " all his serious interests were public ones." 2
There was an equal sensitiveness for individuals,
"always chivalrous enough to take the cause of the
weak," 3 stirred at once by any symptom of injustice,
in act or judgment. We see this sensitiveness in his
reverence for each individual soul, in his respect for the
poor, always believing in their power to understand
spiritual truth and to enter into the real moral bearings
of Church doctrine, so that he associated them in his
protests against the Gorham case or against the Privy
1 His comment upon the title " The Word " as applied to Christ
is, " He in whom we are to be restored to God's Image in vouch
safing to call Himself tbe Word and Wisdom of the Father, plainly
teaches us that to be negligent in ordering and guarding our own
thought and speech is in a special manner pouring contempt upon
that Divine Image." Studia Sacra, p. 8.
2 Dean Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 22.
3 J. H. Newman, Letters, ii., p. 285.

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 227
Council. Thus in his lectures he argued against the
theory that the poor could not appreciate the beauties
of Nature or of Poetry. Their fondness for the place of
their birth and youth, their tender speech about the
dead and anxiety to obey their wishes, their external
and half-superstitious forms of reverence, all seemed to
him to betray unconsciously a mind instinctively poetic.1
" I won't have my poor fellows laughed at," was his quick
protest when some one had called them clod-hoppers.2
We see it in his generous trust of Newman till
the last moment before his secession; in the respectful,
delicate suggestiveness of tbe correspondence of those
sad years that preceded it. We see it in the treatment
of those who put themselves in his hands for guidance,
strong and tender, and gradually leading them to self-
confidence. We see it in his desire to put the best
interpretation on people's language ; — " I am most
anxious that we should make the best instead of the
worst of the feelings and opinions of earnest men of all
sections, that we should neither scorn nor ignore the
very large amount of real faith and devotion to a Real
Presence of Our Lord's Humanity, even among those
who in words would perhaps think themselves bound
to disavow it."3 We see it in the* quick outgush of
sympathy towards any friend in trouble or anxiety ; or
in the thoughtfulness which made him induce Miss
Yonge not to use insanity as a topic for fiction, through
fear of the harm it might do to excitable natures.
Yet this reverent sensitiveness had no weakness in
1 Proslectiones, i., pp. 17 — 20.
2 T. Mozley, Reminiscences, ii., p. 250 : cf. I. Williams, Auto
biography, p. 20.
3 Letter to Archdeacon Wilberforce : Bishop Wilberforce's
Life, ii., p. 256.

228 JOHN KEBLE.
it, for it was a reverence not for what men were, but
for what they might be. He was quite fearless, ready
to speak very frankly and boldly even to friends, if
tbeir conduct seemed in any way unworthy of their
cause; very stern and severe if ever ,he had to deal
with cases of disgraceful marriage in his parish. One,
who was then a child, recalls the flashing eye and the
stern satisfaction of his voice, as he read out that a
certain murderer who had escaped had been caught and
would be hanged ; adding, " his fierce indignation with
wrong-doing was very terrible, for he always seemed
to be repressing so much that he did not say."1
The secret of this "blended strength and sweetness"
was that it " glowed from touch of love Divine." He '
looked not to others for his standard or his approval,
but only to the Perfect Example and the judgment of
God. His soul, with all its sensitiveness, seemed to
" Lie bare to the universal prick of light."
Each aspect of truth, each claim of holiness, seemed
to make its way through and to find its response.
It was so with truth. Wherever he saw it, he felt a
reverence for it. To him there was somewhat of a
sacramental character in poetry, even in the poetry of
Paganism ; Nature was reverenced as the veil of the
supernatural ; and this feeling came to its climax in
dealing with the Bible, the least approach to irrever
ence or flippancy in dealing with which was checked
by him at once. Hence one side of his teaching was a
constant protest against narrowness, against anything
1 Newman (Letters, ii., p. 474) thus describes St. Philip Neri —
" He was formed on tbe same type of extreme hatred of humbug,
playfulness, nay, oddity, tender love of others and severity, which
are lineaments of Keble."

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 229
which would limit truth. This caused his feeling
against the old evangelical party ; he was attracted by
their personal devotion to the Lord, and always said
that they had far more in common with him than they
knew, but he felt that their system appealed too ex
clusively to the emotions and did not satisfy the intellect
or the imagination. As against their narrowness, he
would neither exclude the truth that was in Paganism
because it was Pagan, nor the truth that was in Roman
Catholicism because it was Roman Catholic. The same
feeling made him revolt against the intellectualism of
Whateley and his followers; with them the intellect
seemed to have usurped tbe whole function of judgment
and to have driven out the emotions. He revolted
against their utilitarian tests of truth, and as against
them was always pleading for the instincts of the heart,
for consideration for the poor and the simple, for the
moral bearings and spiritual tendencies of a theory.
" Ingenuity in an argument," he wrote, " should always
put us on our guard, because it is in some soft an
appeal to our vanity." No less in. the controversy with
Rome was his position a pleading for width; those who
sided with Rome seemed to him to press one logical
position, the note of unity in the Church, as though
it were the whole; but clearness and symmetry of
doctrine seemed dearly purchased when Christian truth
and duty were impaired for their sake, and he would
never ignore, or allow others to ignore, the facts of the
existence of the Eastern Church, or the past history of
our own branch of the Church, or the duteousness
which its members owe to it for blessings received
through it in their own lives. Truth was to him
always a sacred thing; but it was sacred as a gift, a

230 JOHN KEBLE.
tradition, an heirloom. It has been well said that there
are two kinds of lovers of truth ; there is one whose
instincts are conservative, who loves truth as a posses
sion, who desires to have his results right however
gained, who cares more for his conclusions being true
than for the arguments being sound, who is satisfied to
accept his conclusions already demonstrated, and has a
loyal and sincere devotion to them. On the other hand
the typical liberal thinker loves truth as an object of
quest, it is a holy grail to him, nor does he much grieve
if he does not find it ; he cares more for the soundness
of his methods and the diligence of his studies, than for
the certainty of the result.1 Keble decidedly belonged to
the first rather than to the second of these classes. He
was indeed ready to receive a new truth if it came from
a quarter that he trusted, but he hated the spirit of
eclecticism which would pick and choose at one's own
pleasure amid the doctrines of the Church. Truth was
a master to be served, not to be criticized and patronized ;
it was like the ark which he dreaded to touch with
unconsecrated hand ; it was there, embodied in the
Bible and the Church ; he shrank from harming it, and
above all, he shrank from exposing it to those who
would harm it and would harm themselves by rash and
ignorant treatment of it, and that because it was a truth
which affected spiritual life. He was pained by any
heresy or disloyalty to an extent which made others
think him intolerant, but it was because he saw so
clearly what was at stake. All his struggles about the
doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration — all these, he said,
'' come not of jealousy concerning clerical prerogatives,
nor of a longing to complete and round off an ecclesi-
1 Church Quarterly Review, January, 1876, p. 346.

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 231
astical theory, nor even of tenderness concerning any
single point of truth separately considered, but really
and truly of a wish to save our own souls and the souls
of our people — a fear lest the great things which God
Incarnate has done for us and in us should fail for want
of due appreciation on our part." x Such loving care for
truth begat in him caution and wisdom ; he had spoken
at times hastily, and had been penitent for it ; he had
come to see that "hurry is a cruel thing." "It never
can be necessary for the Church that men should do
grave things in a hurry," he wrote to Newman ; and so
his advice ever grew in wisdom. Dr. Liddon called
him the wisest man he had ever known ; and Miss
Yonge said that she had never been to him to ask his
advice without getting an answer different from what
she expected, and one which showed that he had looked
the matter round on all sides.
But the sensitiveness to truth was surpassed by the
sensitiveness to holiness. The Presence of God was
ever about him, with its loving and awful demand, " Be
ye holy, as I am holy." The sense of the eternal issues
that hung upon life gave him a severity and dignity with
which it was impossible to trifle or take liberties. There
was a note of unearthliness about him ; he was looked
up to by the younger Tractarians with a certain rever
ential awe; — "The slightest word he dropped was all
the more remembered from there being so little of it,
and from it seeming to come from a different and holier
sphere. His manner of talking favoured this, for there
was not much continuity in it, only every word was a
brilliant or a pearl."2 Meekness was the last word to
1 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 302.
2 T. Mozley, Reminiscences, i., p. 38.

232 JOHN KEBLE.
apply to him, but humility was there in the sense that
an eager, impetuous nature was ever controlled by a
sense of God's Presence. This made him most severe
with himself, in obedience to the rules of spiritual life —
for instance, he always celebrated at midday fasting, and
seldom broke his fast at all on Fridays till the evening.
He was very generous in almsgiving, and " as time went
on there was more and more a dispensing with matters of
mere luxury and worldly requirements." x His ideal of
the Christian life was that of the service of a loving son
guided by a Father's eye, content with a reasonable pre
sumption as to what his Father's wishes were, and not
asking for certainty or assurance. This affected his
whole conception of the position of the Church ; as he
contrasted her ideal with her actual practice, he felt
that she too must be a Church in penitence, she must
be content to work patiently for the revival of much
that had been lost. For a time the success of the
Tractarian movement and the contagion of Newman's
sanguine temperament made him sanguine, but with
the great change of 1845 this fell away, and he was
content to walk humbly and to teach others to walk
humbly, even in their hopes about the Church, though
in perfect confidence that she was a true branch of the
Catholic Church. And for himself, his humility was
fostered by that which might threaten to kill it. " It
must, I suppose " (he wrote), " be part of all persons'
penitence in all ages and portions of the Church to bear
with undeserved approbation, with being thought better
than they are." The secession of Newman, of Manning,
of Wilberforce, his friends and pupils, humbled him
more, as he seemed to have had so little power to guide
1 Miss Yonge, Musings, p. vii.

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 233
them right ; his penitence poured itself out in language
which to many would seem extravagant, and he could
speak of " self-abhorrence as a duty, a necessity, and a
joy."1 Yet such language was no exaggeration. Those who
knew him best would combine to say that the words
which he wrote of Bishop Wilson might be transferred
to himself : " He never penned a sentence that savoured
of unreality." It was no exaggeration, because the
things of God were so intensely real to him ; his peni
tence made his vision keener, and as he saw the per
fection of the Perfect, he knew the blackness of a sin-
stained life. He was so conscious of his own sinfulness
that he really esteemed others better than himself, and
treated them with a " humbling humility," as they
found themselves looked up to and their judgment
appealed to by him, and their prayers asked for him ;
so conscious of Christ's sympathy that his own seemed
so poor to him ; '' one tries to feel it all " (he wrote to
a friend in sorrow), "but is the more convinced that
there is but One who really can do so."
Sensitiveness had passed into humility, humility into
reality. He was real because the supernatural was real
to him ; the dead became the living dead to him ;
Baptismal Regeneration and the doctrine of the Real
Presence were so vital because they told of the reality
of a Living Christ touching and giving life to His
members. The power of the Evil One was ever present
to his thoughts as a real living personal power.
The writer to whom reference has been made above
as having grown up as a child in friendly relations with
him, has written thus of him and of Mrs. Keble (for
1 Sermons for Sundays after Trinity.

234 JOHN KEBLE.
indeed they were one in heart and method) : "The
impression left is of something intensely alive. There
was such a combination of strong feeling and intelli
gence, a brimming over of poetical grace and tact,
holiness which was so deep and true, that it seemed
to enhance their common sense and made them free
from any exaggeration of manner or judgment, a
heavenliness and quietness which never failed to stir '
up and encourage one's own efforts, without producing
the least desire merely to admire and honour them.
They were eminently wholesome friends, for they first
believed that we had feet and then made us stand upon
them." One extract from one of his late writings will
show how the sense grew upon him that the one question
at issue in the conflict of Churchmen was the reality of
the supernatural.
"Unless I am greatly mistaken, the real point at
issue in most of the controversies which have troubled
us in the Reformed English Church might be expressed
as follows : ' Is the Church, mingled as we see it of
good and bad, a supernatural body separated off from
the world to live a supernatural life, begun, continued,
and ended in miracles — miracles as real as any of those
which befell the Israelites in the wilderness — as real
but infinitely more gracious and awful ; or is it only a
body providentially raised up to hold the best and
purest philosophy — helped as all good things are from
above, but in itself no more than the heroical and
divine phase of this present life ? ' It is plain at first
glance which side of this alternative brings with it the
more intense obligation to holiness, and represents sin
as more exceedingly sinful." ..." It is a sad habit of
thought for a theologian to train himself up in — that of

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 235
instinctively adopting, out of various expositions, that
which is most earthly and least supernatural." x
What was his influence ? Is his life rightly included
in a series of Leaders of Religion ? He certainly would
have answered No, and indeed he was without many of
the qualities which make a great leader; he was not
great as a statesman ; he was not an original genius as
a thinker ; his style has no attractive brilliance about
it ; his learning, though great, was not to be compared
with that of Dr. Pusey. But, with all these deductions,
he had qualities which made him a real leader. He
was not a general to plan a campaign and marshal his
forces, but he was a leader ready to throw himself into
a breach and inspire enthusiasm by the fearlessness with
which he led a forlorn hope. He, was always, and more
and more as time went on, one whose character could
solemnize and awe those who were fighting on his side
and make them feel the seriousness of the issues ; over all -
the conflict " he cast the cooling shadow of his lowliness," 2
and if he could not lead his followers to victory, he
could and did lead them to that which is a truer part
of religion — to penitence and deeper holiness. " Make
a few saints," was once quoted by him as the test of
success at which a good educator should aim ; and his
work will stand that test. Dean Church was inclined
to attribute to Keble's influence the depth of the
ethical tone which separated Dr. Arnold from the Oriel
school.3 With less hesitation we may point to those
who have confessed the greatness]of their debt to him —
1 Eucharistical Adoration, Preface, ed. ii.
2 Dr. Pusey, Sermon at the opening of Keble College Chapel,
p. 25.
3 W. G. Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 41.

236 JOHN KEBLE.
to Froude, to Robert Wilberforce, to Isaac Williams, to
Newman himself,1 to Dr. Pusey, to Dr. Liddon, to Miss
Yonge ; and these names are sufficient to show what he
did for the Church of England. But we may claim
more than the influence over individuals. There were
moments when his action was the turning-point of a
crisis. It was his influence upon Froude, passing
through him to Newman, which formed a band of
friends at Oxford ready to sacrifice themselves for a
higher ideal of the Church; it was his sermon on
National Apostasy which gave the signal for action ;
his mediating influence which drew together the two
different elements in the Church party of those days ;
and when the break came in 1845, it was his influence,
combined with that of Dr. Pusey, C. Marriott, James
Mozley and others, which prevented the defeat from
being a rout and rallied the forces for further fighting.
And behind all these lay the influence of the Christian
Year, winning a hearing for the deeper truths, and
' soothing and solemnizing and stirring the religious world,
as no one other book has done in this century.
The points which he defined in 1837 as needing modi
fication were that the Church should be less narrowly
Anglican, and more ready to sympathize with all that
was Catholic, that she should be free to exercise moral
discipline over her members, that she should have a
living voice which should be ' consulted in legislation
^ about her own organization and her own officers. As
we look at these we see indeed that much still remains
to be effected, but still how much has been gained !
1 Cf. Letters, ii., p. 87, o w&w Keble. Ibid., p. 155, "I am
conscious I have got all my best things from Keble ; you (Froude)
and Keble are the philosophers and 1 the rhetorician."

CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 237
How entirely different is the tone in which such subjects
are discussed, how different the aspect of Church Life
and Worship ! and this is due to those brave men, who
amidst hostility and scorn, amidst suspicion and in
justice, with loss of friends and much perplexity as to
their own path, yet never permitted themselves to
despair, and by dutifulness and laborious study and
honest controversy spent their lives in adorning the
Sparta in which tbeir lot was cast. Of that band there
was none whose words had more soothing power, whose
life was more of a type of duteous-hearted loyalty than
John Keble.
A few words should be added on his personal
appearance. He was about middle height, with rather
square and sloping shoulders, which made him look
short until he pulled himself up, as he often did with
sprightly dignity. The head was " one of the most
beautifully-formed heads in the world," 1 the face rather
plain-featured, with a large unshapely mouth, but the
whole redeemed by a bright smile which played
naturally over the lips, and under a broad and smooth
forehead, sheltered by thick eyebrows, " clear, brilliant,
penetrating eyes " 2 of dark brown, with what Southey
called a pendulous motion, lighting up quickly with
bright merriment or kindling into fire in a moment
of indignation. Mr. George Richmond, who twice
painted it, described it as one of the most remarkable
faces he had ever seen for one who had eyes to see. His
first portrait, taken in 1843, when Keble was a little
over fifty, is a three-quarter length water-colour, and
gives very effectively the almost boyish sprightliness of
1 T. Mozley, Reminiscences, ii., p. 58.
2 Dr. Pusey, Sermon at tbe opening of Keble College, p. 32.

238 JOHN KEBLE.
his figure, and the bright hopefulness of tone. It was
engraved by Cousins, who went to Hursley for the
purpose, and improved upon the original portrait. The
second portrait was a crayon drawing of the head, taken
not long before his death and engraved by the painter
himself. From it was enlarged the oil painting which
hangs in the hall of Keble College ; in this the hair is too
long and the whole is slightly idealized, but under the
mellowness of years is seen still the eager fire of the
eye and the sweet playful tender merriment of the
winning smile.

" Comfort have thou of tby merit,
Kindly unassuming Spirit,
Careless of thy neighbourhood
Thou dost show thy pleasant face
On the moor and in the wood,
In the land, — there's not a place,
Howsoever mean it be,
But 'tis good enough for thee." — Wordsworth.

APPENDIX I.

THE POEMS OF TEE CHRISTIAN YEAR, ARRANGED IN
THE ORDER OF COMPOSITION.

181£

1 or earlier

... The Purification.

[>,

»

... First Sunday after Easter. Printed
Miscellaneous Poems.]

»

1)

... Whit-Sunday.

»>

)>

... Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

1819

i 

... St. John's Day.

it



.. Septuagesima Sunday.

)j



.. Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

1820

i 

.. St. Mark's Day.

3)

(Aug. 20) .

.. Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

)>

(Nov. 25) .

.. The Evening Hymn.

)J



.. St. Matthias' Day.

»

.. Palm Sunday.

1821

(Aug. 13)' '.

.. Wednesday before Easter (The Lullaby).

»

.. Fourth Sunday after Easter.

) j



.. Dedication.

»

.. Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

)»



.. St. Bartholomew's Day.

»

.. St. Michael and all Angels.
)5
(Sept. 16) '.
.. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
»
.. Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.
»
.. Second Sunday after Epiphany.
1822
(Jan.' 27)' .'
.. St. Andrew's Day.
»
(March 2) .
.. The Conversion of St. Paul.
»
(April 6) .
.. St. Luke's Day.
jj
(April 18) .
.. Easter Day.
j?
(Aug. 7) .
.. Second Sunday after Trinity.
?)
(Aug. 13) .,
,. Ninth Sunday after Trinity.
)j
(Aug. 23) .,
. Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
3»
(Sept. 14) .,
,. St. Matthew's Day.
»
(Sept. 20) ..
,. Tbe Mornirig Hymn.
It
(Sept. 27) .,
,. Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.
240

APPENDIX I.

1822

(Oct. 11) .

.. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.

[»

.. Third Sunday in Lent. An original draft,
much altered afterwards.]

33

. . Fourth Sunday in Advent.

1823

[(June lj" '.

.. The Annunciation. Printed in Miscel
laneous Poems.]

»

(June 5)

.. Thursday before Easter.

»

(July 15) .

.. Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.

u

(Sept. 25) .

.. Twenty- first Sunday after Trinity.

j>

(Sept. 28) .

.. Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.

jj

(Oct. 6)

.. Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.

»

(Oct. 7)

.. St. James' Day.

»j

(Oct. 7)

.. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.

»

(Dec. 26) .

.. Advent Sunday.

1824

(Jan. 5)

.. The Holy Innocents.

j>

(Jan. 20)

.. The Circumcision of Christ.

j?

(Jan. 20)

.. Tbe Epiphany.

»

(Jan. 20)

.. Second Sunday in Advent.

»

(Jan. 26)

.. Third Sunday in Advent.

53

(Feb. 9)

.. St. Thomas' Day.

33

(Feb. 18) .

.. Sexagesima Sunday.

33

(March 6) .

.. Quinquagesima Sunday.

J)

(?) 

.. Second Sunday in Lent.

33

(March 9) .

.. First Sunday in Lent.

33

(April 24) .

.. Fifth Sunday in Lent.

53

(May 17) .

.. First Sunday after Epiphany.

33

(May 18) .

.. Fourth Sunday in Lent.

33

(June 3)

.. Fifth Sunday after Easter.

33

(June 25) .

. . Sunday after Ascension Day.

3)

(?) 

.. Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.

3)

(?) 

.. Third Sunday after Epiphany.

33

(?) 

.. St. Stephen's Day.

33

(?) 

.. Christmas Day.

)5

(?) 

.. Easter Eve.

3)

(?) 

.. Tuesday before Easter. Printed as Six
teenth Sunday after Trinity.

1825

(?) 

. . Tuesday in Whitsun Week.

)j

(May 15) .

.. St. Peter's Day.

)>

(June 7)

.. Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.

»

(June 18) .

.. Ascension Day.

»

(June 25) .

.. First Sunday after Easter.

3)

(July 4) .

.. St. Barnabas' Day.

!J

(July 14) .

.. Sunday before Advent.

)J

(Aug. 3) .

.. St. Philip and St. James' Day.

J)

(Aug. 15) .

.. First Sunday after Christmas.

)!

(Oct. 23) .

.. All Saints' Day.

APPENDIX 1.

241

1826

1825 (Nov. 4)
„ (Nov. 12)
„ (Nov. 29)
(Dec. 19)
(Jan. 15)
(Jan. 22)
(Jan. 27)
(Feb. 3)
(Feb. 7)
(Feb. 12)
(April 3)
(April 7)
(April 11)
(April 13)

(April 15)
(May 9)
(?) 
(?) 
(?) 
(Jan. 31)
(Feb. 9)
(Feb. 16)
(Feb. 21)
(?) 
(?) 
(March 5)

1827

Seventh Sunday after Trinity.
Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.
Second Sunday after Christmas.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
Monday before Easter.
Ash Wednesday.
First Sunday after Trinity.
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.
Monday in Easter Week.
St. Simon and St. Jude's Day.
Third Sunday after Trinity.
St. John Baptist's Day.
[Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Printed
as on Holy Baptism, composed on the
baptism of bis brother's eldest child.]
Sixth Sunday after Trinity.
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany.
Good Friday.
Tuesday in Easter Week.
Third Sunday after Easter.
Holy Communion.
Third Sunday in Lent.
Catechism. Confirmation.
Communion after Matrimony.
Visitation and Communion of the Sick.
Burial of tbe Dead. Published in Mis
cellaneous Poems.]
Eighth Sunday after Trinity.
Commination.Churching of Women.
Tuesday before Easter.
King Charles tbe Martyr.
Gunpowder Treason (address to converts
from popery).
Form of prayer to be used at sea.
Tbe Accession.
Restoration of Royal Family.
Ordination.

„ (?) 
„ (March 9)
„ (March 13)
„ (March 17)
',', (Nov. 11)
» (?) 
,, (?) 
» (?) 
1828 (March 28)
The foUowing poems are not in the MS. books, from which these
dates are taken.
(1) Second Sunday after Easter.
(2) Monday in Whitsun Week.
(3) Trinity Sunday.

242

APPENDIX II.

PUBLISHED WRITINGS.
1812. On Translation from Dead Languages. A Prize Essay,
recited in the theatre at Oxford, June 10, 1812.
1827. Tbe Christian Year (Anon.), 2 vols. [2nd Edition, 1827 ;
3rd Edition, 1828.]
1829. Six Queries by John Keble, tending to oppose Mr. Peel's
candidature to represent tbe University of Oxford.
Feb. 16, 1829, 4to.
¦ 1833. National Apostasy, considered in a sermon preached in St.
Mary's, Oxford, before Her Majesty's Judges of Assize
on July 14. [Oxford : J. H. Parker.]
.1834. Ode for tbe Encsenia at Oxford in honour of His Grace,
Arthur, Duke of Wellington, Chancellor of tbe Uni
versity of Oxford. [Printed in Oxford Prize Poems,
1839.]
- Poems in Lyra Apostolica.
Tracts for the Times : Nos. 4, 13, 40, 52, 54, 57, 60.
Sunday Lessons, tbe Principle of Selection. No. XIII. of
tbe Tracts for the Times. Reprinted in 1867. [Oxford
and London : J. Parker and Co.]
1836. Tbe Works of R. Hooker. A new edition, with additions,
preface, fac-similes, indexes, arranged by Rev. J. Keble,
3 vols. [2nd Edition, 1841 ; 3rd Edition, 1845 ; 7th
Edition, revised by Church and Paget, 1888.]
1836. Primitive Tradition recognized in Holy Scripture, a
Visitation Sermon at Winchester. [2nd Edition, 1837 :
3rd Edition, with postscript, to which is subjoined
Catena Patrum, III. = Tract No. 78.]
1838. Remains of R. H. Froude, 2 vols. 8vo,
1839. „ „ „ 2nd Part, 2 vols., 8vo.

APPENDIX II. 243
• 1839. The Psalter or Psalms of David in English Verse. (Anon.)
[3rd Edition 1840.]
1839. The State in its Relation with the Church. British Critic,
October. [Reprinted with a Preface by H. P. Liddon.
Oxford and London : J. H. Parker, 1869.]
• 1841. On tbe Mysticism attributed to the Early Fathers of the
Church. No. 89 of the Tracts for the Times. [Re
printed in 1868. Oxford and London : J. Parker
and Co.]
* 1841. The Case of Catholic Subscription to tbe XXXIX. Articles
considered in a letter to the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge.
London. Privately printed. [Published in 1865.]
> 1841. The Child's Christian Year : Hymns for every Sunday and
Holy-day. [Edited by J. K.]
1842. Protest against the Bishop of Winchester's Refusal to
Ordain the Rev. P. Young. [Lithographed.]
' 1844. De Poeticas vi Medica. Praelectiones Academicse. 2 vols.
1845. Sermon on Psalm cxix. 164. In a volume of Sermons
preached at Jedburgh.
- 1845. Jan. 16. Heads of Consideration on the Case of Mr.
Ward. 12mo.
1845. Three Sermons [4-6] in Sermons preached at St. Saviour's,
Leeds.
1845. Mutual Intercession : with Preface signed J. K., E. B. P.,
C. M. 16mo.
, 1846. Tbe Duty of Hoping against Hope. A Sermon preached
in the Chapel of Harrow Weald. [Privately printed.]
¦ 1846. Lyra Innocentium : Thoughts in Verse on Christian
Children ; their ways and their privileges. [Anon.]
1847. Sermons Academical and Occasional. [2nd Edition,
1848.]
1849. The Strength of Christ's Little Ones. A Sermon preached
at Coggeshall for the School. [Colchester, 1849.]
• 1849. Against Profane Dealing with Holy Matrimony in regard
of a Man and his Wife's Sister. A Tract for English
Churchmen and Churchwomen. [OxfordJ
? 1850. Church Matters in MDCCCL. I. Trial of Doctrine. II.
A Call to Speak Out. [Reprinted with Preface by H.
. P. Liddon, 1877. Oxford and London : J. H. Parker.]
1850. Tbe Danger of Passing by Christ. In Sermons preached
at St. Barnabas', Pimlico. [London.]
• 1851. A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Hursley ; occa-
\ sioned by tbe Proposed Synodical Meeting in tbe Diocese
of Exeter. Reprinted with Preface by H. P. Liddon,
1877. [1st and 2nd Editions. Oxford and London ;
J. H. Parker.]

244 APPENDIX II.
1852. On the Representation of the University of Oxford. A
Letter to Sir B. W. Bridges, Bart., M.P. [London : J.
H. Parker.]
1853. Putting on Christ. In Sermons preached at St. Bartho
lomew's, Cripplegate, in 1852. [London : 1853.]
1854. A Few Very Plain Thoughts on the Proposed Admission
of Dissenters to the University of Oxford. [Oxford :
A. A. Masson.]
1857. (1) An Argument against immediately Repealing the
Laws which treat the Nuptial Bond as Indissoluble.
[Oxford : J. H. and J. Parker.]
1857. (2) Sequel to the Argument against immediately Repeal
ing the Laws which treat the Nuptial Bond, etc.
1857. (T) Easter, Joy and Easter Work. A Sermon preached on
tb e- Day of Thanksgiving for the Suppression of the
Rebellion in India. [London : J. T. Hayes.]
1857. On Eucbaristical Adoration. [Oxford and London : J.
H. and J. Parker. 2nd Edition, 1859.]
1858. Considerations suggested by a Late Pastoral Letter on the
Doctrine of the, Most Holy Eucharist. [Edinburgh: R.
Len'drum and Go. Oxford and London : J. H. and J.
, Parker:]
1858. • A Sermon preached at St. Paul's Church, Brighton, on
. - St.' Luke's Day, 1858. [Brighton : A. Hawkins and Co.]
1858. The Rich and tbe Poor One in Christ. A Sermon preached
in St. Peter's" Church, Sudbury, August 3, 1858.
[London : J. T. Hayes.]
1863. Women Labouring in the Lord. A Sermon preached at
Wantage, July 22, 1863. [Oxford and London : J. H.
and J. Parker.]
. 1863. Life and Works of T. Wilson, D.D. [Library of Anglo-
Catbolic Theology.] Oxford.
1864. Litany of Our Lord's Warnings, in larger or smaller
forms : the larger with a Preface on the Privy Council
decision about Everlasting Punishment. [Oxford and
London.]
1864. Pentecostal Fear. A Sermon preached in the Parish
Church of Cuddesdon, on May 24. [Oxford and London :
J. H. and J. Parker.]
1866. A Letter to a Member of Convocation. Lit. Churchman,
Jan. 13. [Reprinted June 1867. Oxford apd London :
J. Parker and Co.]
1866. Tracts and Extracts. No. 1. Tbe Rev. J. Keble and tk
Ritual Question. An extract from his recent letter ha.
that subject. o I

APPENDIX II. 245
1868. Sermons Occasional and Parochial. [Oxford.]
1869. Village Sermons on tbe Baptismal Service. [Oxford.]
1869. Miscellaneous Poems. Edited by G. Moberley, D.D.
1870. Letters of Spiritual Counsel. With Preface by R. F.
Wilson. [3rd, and fuller Edition, 1875.]
1875 — 1880. Sermons for the Christian Year. 11 vols.
1877. Occasional Papers and Reviews. With Preface by E. B.
Pusey, D.D.
1877. Studia Sacra. [Commentary on St. John, i. 1-18 ; on
Romans i.-vi. ; Note on the Procession of the Holy
Spirit ; Analysis of St. Paul's Epistles ; Notes on Greek
Testament.] Ed. J. P. N(orris).
1880. Outlines of Instructions or Meditations for the Church's
Seasons. With Preface by R. F. Wilson.
1885. Sermons on the Litany, tbe Church, the Communion of
Saints. Reprinted from Sermons for the Christian
Year, with Preface by E. B. Pusey.

THE END.

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R. A. Hadfield and H. de B. Gibbins, M.A. Crown Svo. 2s.6d.
The above are new volumes of ""Social Questions of To-day " Series.
FICTION.
Norris. HIS GRACE. By W. E. Norris, Author of ' Mdle. de
Mersac,' ' Marcia,' etc. Crown Svo. 2 vols. 2ls.
Pryce. TIME AND THE WOMAN. By Richard Pryce,
Author of ' Miss Maxwell's Affections,' 'The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,'
etc. Crown Svo. 2 vols. 2is.
Parker. PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By Gilbert
Parker. . Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s.

Messrs. Methuen's List 5
Marriott Watson. DIOGENES OF LONDON and other
Sketches. By H. B. Marriott Watson, Author of ' The Web
of the Spider.' Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s.
Baring Gould. IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA. By S. Baring
Gould, Author of 'Mehalah,' 'Urith,' etc. Cheaper edition.
Crown Svo. 6s.
Clark RusselL MY DANISH SWEETHEART. By W.Clark
Russell, Author of 'The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' 'A Marriage
at Sea,' etc. With 6 Illustrations by W. H. Overend. Crown Svo.
6s.
Mabel Eobinson. HOVENDEN, V. C. By F. Mabel
Robinson, Author of 'Disenchantment,' etc Cheaper Edition.
Crown Svo. y. 6d.
Meade. OUT OF THE FASHION. By L. T. Meade, Author
of 'A Girl of the People,' etc. With 6 Illustrations by W. Paget.
Crown Svo. 6s.
Cuthell. ONLY A GUARDROOM DOG. By Mrs. Cuthell.
With 16 Illustrations by W. Parkinson. Square Crown Svo. 6s.
Collingwood. THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By Harry
Collingwood, Author of 'The Pirate Island,' etc. Illustrated by
Gordon Browne. Crown Svo. 6s.
Bliss. A MODERN EOMANCE. By Laurence Bliss.
Crown Svo. Buckram, y. 6d. Paper. 2s. 6d.
CHEAPER EDITIONS.
Baring Gould. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. Baring
Gould, Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. With 67 Illustrations. Crown
Svo. 6s.
Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD. Edited by A.
Clark, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. Svo. 12s. 6d.
RusselL THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLING
WOOD. By W. Clark Russell, Author of ' The Wreck of the
Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. Brangwyn. Svo. 10s. 6d.
Author of 'Mdle. Mori.' THE SECRET OF MADAME DE
Monluc. By the Author of 'The Atelier du Lys,' 'Mdle. Mori.'
Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
' An exquisite literary cameo.' — World.

6 Messrs. Methuen's List
il^eto anli lEUcent 2Boofe&
Poetry
Rudyard Kipling. BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And
Other Verses. By Rudyard Kipling. Fourth Edition. Crown
Svo. 6s.
' Mr. Kipling's verse is strong, vivid, full of character. . . . Unmistakable genius
rings in every line.' — Times.
' The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the world ; for a
man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, beyond all cavilling, that in
its way it also is a medium for literature. You are grateful, and you say to
yourself, half in envy and half in admiration : " Here is a book ; here, or one is a
Dutchman, is one of the books of the year." ' — National Observer.
'"Barrack-Room Ballads" contains some of the best work that Mr. Kipling has
ever done, which is saying a good deal. " Fuzzy- Wuzzy, " "Gunga Din," and
"Tommy," are, in our opinion, altogether superior to anything of the kind that
.English literature has hitherto produced.' — Athenaum.
'These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they are vigorous in
their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the English language more
stirring than "The Ballad of East and West," worthy to stand by the Border
ballads of Scott.' — Spectator.
' The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We read them
with laughter and tears ; the metres throb in our pulses, the cunningly ordered
words tingle with life ; and if this be not poetry, what is ? ' — Pall Mall Gazette.
Ibsen. BRAND. A Drama by Henrik Ibsen. Translated by
William Wilson. Crown Svo. $s.
'The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to "Faust." "Brand"
will have an astonishing interest for Englishmen. It is in the same set with
" Agamemnon," with " Lear," with the literature that we now instinctively regard
as high and holy.' — Daily Chronicle.
Henley. LYRA HEROICA : An Anthology selected from the
best English Verse of the i6th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. By
William Ernest Henley, Author of 'A Book of Verse/ 'Views
and Reviews,' etc. Crown Svo. Stamped gilt buckram, gilt top,
edges uncut. 6s.
1 Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike for poetry and for
chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and even unerringly, right.'—
Guardian.
Tomson. A SUMMER NIGHT, AND OTHER POEMS. By
Graham R. Tomson. With Frontispiece by A. Tomson. Fcap.
Svo. y. 6d.
Also an edition on handmade paper, limited to 50 copies. Large crown
Svo. 10s. 6d. net.
1 Mrs. Tomson holds perhaps the very highest rank among poetesses of English birth.
This selection will help her reputation.' — Black and White.

Messrs. Methuen's List 7
Langbridge. A CRACKED FIDDLE. Being Selections from
the Poems of Frederic Langbridge. With Portrait. Crown Svo. 5*.
Langbridge. BALLADS OF THE BRAVE : Poems of Chivalry,
Enterprise, Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the
Present Day. Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. Langbridge.
Crown Svo.
Presentation Edition, y. 6d. School Edition, 2s. 6d.
1 A very happy conception happily carried out. These " BaUads of the Brave " are
intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit the taste of the great majority.
—Spectator. ' The book is full of splendid things.' — World.
History and Biography
Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES
OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes
and Introductions. Edited hy A W. Hutton, M.A (Librarian of
the Gladstone Library), and H. J. Cohen, M.A. With Portraits.
Svo. Vol. X. \2s. 6d.
Russell. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLING
WOOD. By W. Clark Russell, Author of ' The Wreck of the
Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. Brangwyn. Svo. ior. 6d.
'A really good book.' — Saturday Review.
' A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of
every boy in the country." — St. James's Gazette.
Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD : Their History and
their Traditions. By Members of the University. Edited by A.
Clark, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. Svo. 12s. 6d.
' Whether the reader approaches the book as a patriotic member of a college, as an
antiquary, or as a student of tbe organic growth of college foundation, it will amply
reward his attention.' — Times.
'A delightful book, learned and lively.' — Academy.
1 A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the standard book on
the Colleges of Oxford.' — Atken&um.
Hulton. RIXAE OXONIENSES : An Account of the Battles
of the Nations, The Struggle between Town and Gown, etc. By
S. F. Hulton, M.A. Crown Svo. $s.
James. CURIOSITIES OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY PRIOR
TO THE REFORMATION. By Croake James, Author of
' Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.' Crown Svo. Is. 6d.

8 Messrs. Methuen's List
Clifford. THE DESCENT OF CHARLOTTE COMPTON
(Baroness Ferrers de Chartley). By her Great-Granddaughter,
Isabella G. C. Clifford. Small^to. 10s. 6d. net.

General Literature
Bowden. THE IMITATION OF BUDDHA: Being Quota
tions from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled
by- E. M. Bowden. With Preface by Sir Edwin Arnold. Second
Edition. l6mo. 2s. 6d.
Ditchfield. OUR ENGLISH VILLAGES : Their Story and
their Antiquities. By P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.R.H.S., Rector
of Barkham, Berks. Post Svo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated.
'An extremely amusing and interesting little book, which should find a place in
every parochial library.' — Guardian.
Ditchfield. OLD ENGLISH SPORTS. By P. H. Ditch
field, M.A. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated.
' A charming account of old English Sports.'— Morning Post.
Burne. PARSON AND PEASANT: Chapters of their
Natural History. By J. B. Burne, M.A., Rector of Wasing.
Crown Svo. $s.
' "Parson and Peasant' is a book not only to be interested in, but to learn something
from — a book which may prove a help to many a clergyman, and broaden the
hearts and ripen the charity of laymen." ' — Derby Mercury.
Massee. A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By
G. Massee. Svo. iSs. net.
Cunningham. THE PATH TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE:
Essays on Questions of the Day. By W. Cunningham, D.D.,
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Economics at
King's College, London. Crown Svo. 4s. 6d.
Essays on Marriage and Population, Socialism, Money, Education, Positivism, etc
Anderson Graham. NATURE IN BOOKS : Studies in Literary
Biography. By P. Anderson Graham.. Crown Svo. 6s.
The chapters are entitled : I. ' The Magic of the Fields ' (Jefferies). II. ' Art and
Nature' (Tennyson). III. 'The Doctrine of Idleness' (Thoreau). IV. 'The
Romance of Life ' (Scott). V. ' The Poetry of Toil' (Burns). VI. 'The Divinity
of Nature ' (Wordsworth).

Messrs. Methuen's List 9
Works by S. Baring Gould.
Author of ' Mehalah,' etc.
OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by
W. Parkinson, F. D. Bedford, and F. Masey. Large Crown
Svo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, ios. 6d. Fourth and Cheaper
Edition. 6s. [Ready.
' " Old Country Life," as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move
ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book
to be published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to the core.' —
World.
HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. Third
Edition, Crown Svo. 6s.
1 A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful
reading.' — Times.
FREAKS OF FANATICISM. (First published as Historic
Oddities, Second Series. ) Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
'Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has
chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perfectly
fascinating book.— Scottish Leader.
SONGS OF THE WEST : Traditional Ballads and Songs of
the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected
by S. Baring Gould, M.A., and H. Fleetwood Sheppard,
M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts (containing 25
Songs each), Parts I., II., III., y. each. Part IV., y. In one
Vol., roan, iy.
'A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy.' — Saturday
Review.
YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS.
Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. CrewnSvo. Illustrated.
[In the press.
JACQUETT A, and other Stories. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. Boards, 2s.
ARMINELL : A Social Romance. New Edition. Crown Svo.
3s. 6d. Boards, 2s.
' To say that a book is by the author of " Mehalah " is to imply that it contains a
story cast on strong lines, containing dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic
descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery. All these expecta
tions are justified by " Arminell." ' — Speaker.

10 Messrs. Methuen's List
URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. Third Edition. CrownSvo. y.6d.
' The author is at his best.' — Times.
' He has nearly reached the high water-mark of " Mehalah." '—National Observer.
MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. Crown Svo.
3-r. 6d.
IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA : A Tale of the Cornish Coast.
New Edition. 6s.
Fiction
Author of 'Indian Idylls.' IN TENT AND BUNGALOW:
Stories of Indian Sport and Society. By the Author of 'Indian
Idylls.' Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
Fenn. A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. Manville Fenn, Author
of ' The Vicar's People,' etc. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
Pryce. THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By Richard Pryce,
Author of 'Miss Maxwell's Affections,' etc. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
Picture Boards, 2s.
Gray. ELSA. A Novel. By E. M 'Queen Gray. CrownSvo. 6s.
' A charming novel. The characters are not only powerful sketches, but minutely
and carefully finished portraits.' — Guardian.
Gray. MY STEWARDSHIP. By E. M'Queen Gray.
Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
Cobban. A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By J. MacLaren
Cobban, Author of ' Master of his Fate,' etc. Crown Svo. 4s. 6d.
' The best work Mr. Cobban has yet achieved. The Rev. W. Merrydew is a brilliant
creation.' — National Observer.
' One of the subtlest studies of character outside Meredith.' — Star.
Lyall. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By Edna
Lyall, Author of 'Donovan.' Crown Svo. 3\st Thousand.
3 j. 6d. ; paper, is.
Linton. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON,
Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn Linton. Eleventh and
Cheaper Edition. Post Svo. is.
Grey. THE STORY OF CHRIS. By Rowland Grey,
Author of 'Lindenblumen,' etc. CrownSvo. y.
Dicker. A CAVALIER'S LADYE. By Constance Dicker.
With Illustrations. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.

Messrs. Methuen's List n
Dickinson. A VICAR'S WIFE. By Evelyn Dickinson.
Crown Svo. 6s.
Prowse. THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. Orton Prowse.
Crown Svo. 6s.
Taylor. THE KING'S FAVOURITE. By Una Taylor.
Crown Svo. 6s.

Novel Series

3/6

Messrs. Methuen will issue from time to time a Series
of copyright Novels, by well-known Authors, handsomely
bound, at the above popular price of three shillings and six
pence. The first volumes (ready) are : —
i. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. Mabel Robinson.
2. JACQUETTA. By S. Baring Gould, Author of ' Mehalah,
etc.
3. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. Leith Adams (Mrs.
De Courcy Laffan).
4. ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. Manville Fenn.
5. ARMINELL : A Social Romance. By S. Baring Gould,
Author of ' Mehalah,' etc.
6. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. With Portrait of
Author. By Edna Lyall, Author of ' Donovan,' etc.
7. DISENCHANTMENT. By F. Mabel Robinson.
8. DISARMED. By M. Betham Edwards.
9. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. Norris.
10. MARGERY OF QUETHER. By S. Baring Gould.
ii. A LOST ILLUSION. By Leslie Keith.
12. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. Clark Russell.
13. MR. BUTLER'S WARD. By F. Mabel Robinson.
14. URITH. By S. Baring Gould.
15. HOVENDEN, V.C. By F. Mabel Robinson.
Other Volumes will be announced in due course.

2/"

12 Messrs. Methuen's List
NEW TWO-SHILLING EDITIONS
Crown Svo, Ornamental Boards.
ARMINELL. By the Author of ' Mehalah.'
ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. MANVILLE FENN.
DISENCHANTMENT. By F. Mabel Robinson.
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. MABEL ROBINSON.
JACQUETTA. By the Author of ' Mehalah.'
Picture Boards.
A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. Manville Fenn.
THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By Richard Pryce.
JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS.
A LOST ILLUSION. By Leslie Keith.
Books for Boys and Girls
Walford. A PINCH OF EXPERIENCE. By L. B. Wal-
ford, Author of 'Mr. Smith.' With Illustrations by Gordon
Browne. Crown Svo. 6s.
' The clever authoress steers clear of namby-pamby, and invests her moral with a
fresh and striking dress. There is terseness and vivacity of style, and the illustra
tions are admirable.' — Anti-Jacobin.
Molesworth. THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. Molesworth,
Author of 'Carrots.' With Illustrations by Gordon Browne.
Crown Svo. 6s.
'A volume in which girls will delight, and beautifully illustrated.'— Pall Mall
Gazette.
Clark Russell. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By
W. Clark Russell, Author of ' The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' etc.
Illustrated by Gordon Browne. Crown Svo, $s. 6d.
¦Mr. Clark Russell's story of "Master Rockafellar's Voyage" will be among the
favourites of the Christmas books. There is a rattle and " go" all through it, and
its illustrations are charming in themselves, and very much above the average in
the way in which they are produced. — Guardian.
Author of Mdle. Mori.' THE SECRET OF MADAME DE
Monluc. By the Author of 'The Atelier du Lys,' 'Mdle. Mori.'
Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
* An exquisite literary cameo.' — World.

Messrs. Methuen's List 13
Manville Fenn. SYD BELTON : Or, The Boy who would not
go to Sea. By G. Manville Fenn, Author of ' In the King's
Name,' etc Illustrated by Gordon Browne. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
' Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the sight of the old
combination, so often proved admirable— a story by Manville Fenn, illustrated
by Gordon Browne ! The story, too, is one of the good old sort, full of life and
vigour, breeziness and fun. —Journal of Education.
Parr. DUMPS. By Mrs. PARR, Author of ' Adam and Eve,'
' Dorothy Fox,' etc. Illustrated by W. Parkinson. Crown Svo.
y. 6d.
' One of the prettiest stories which even this clever writer has given the world for a
long time.' — World.
Meade. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. Meade,
Author of ' Scamp and I,' etc. Illustrated by R. Barnes. Crown
Svo. y. 6d.
'An excellent story. Vivid portraiture of character, and broad and wholesome
lessons about life.' — Spectator.
'One of Mrs. Meade's most fascinating books.' — Daily News.
Meade. HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. Meade. Illustrated by
Everard Hopkins. Crown Svo, 2s. 6d.
1 Mrs. Meade has not often done better work than this,' — Spectator.
Meade. THE HONOURABLE MISS : A Tale of a Country
Town. By L. T. Meade, Author of ' Scamp and I,' ' A Girl of the
People,' etc. With Illustrations by Everard Hopkins. Crown
Svo, y. 6d.
Adams. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. Leith Adams.
With a Frontispiece by Gordon Browne. Crown Svo, 3s. 6d.
English Leaders of Religion
Edited by A M. M. STEDM AN, M. A With Portrait, crown Svo, 2s. 6d.
A series of short biographies, free from party bias, of the . -
most prominent leaders of religious life and thought in this /*y I A-^v
and the last century. ~y ^^
The following are already arranged—
CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. Hutton. [Heady.
' Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful insight it displays
into the nature of the Cardinal's genius and the spirit of his life.'— Wilfrid
Ward, in the Tablet.
' Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in criticism. We regard it
as wholly admirable.' — Academy.

14 Messrs. Methuen's List
JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. Overton, M.A. [Ready.
'It is well done : the story is clearly told, proportion is duly observed, and there is
no lack either of discrimination or of sympathy.' — Manchester Guardian.
BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. Daniel, M.A. [Ready.
CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. Moule, M.A. [Ready.
JOHN KEBLE. By W. Lock, M.A. [Nov.
F. D. MAURICE. By COLONEL F. MAURICE, R.E.
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. Oliphant.
CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. Hutton, M.A. [Ready.
Other volumes will be announced in due course.

University Extension Series
A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, suitable
for extension students and home reading circles. Each volume will be
complete in itself, and the subjects will be treated by competent writers
in a broad and philosophic spirit.
Edited by J. E. SYMES, M.A.,
Principal of University College, Nottingham.
Crown Svo. 2s. 6d.
The following volumes are ready : —
THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By H. de
B. Gibbins, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden
Prizeman. Second Edition. With Maps and Plans. [Ready.
' A compact and clear story of our industrial development. A study of this concise
but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader a clear insight into the principal
phenomena of our industrial history. The editor and publishers are to be congra
tulated on this first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant
interest for the succeeding volumes of the series. ' — University Extension Journal.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY. By
L. L. Price, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon.
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial
Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. Hobson, M.A.
VICTORIAN POETS. By A. Sharp.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. Symes, M.A.

2/6

Messrs. Methuen's List 15
PSYCHOLOGY. By F. S. Granger, M.A., Lecturer in Philo
sophy at University College, Nottingham.
THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE : Lower Forms. By
G. Massee, Kew Gardens. With Illustrations.
AIR AND WATER. Professor V. B. Lewes, M.A. Illustrated.
THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By C. W.
Kimmins, M.A. Camb. Illustrated.
THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. Sells, M.A.
Illustrated.
ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. H. de B. Gibbins, M.A.
ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVEN
TEENTH CENTURY. By W. A. S. Hewins, B.A.
The following volumes are in preparation : —
NAPOLEON. By E. L. S. Horsburgh, M.A. Camb., U. E.
Lecturer in History.
ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY. By T. J. Lawrence,
M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Downing College, Cambridge, U. E.
Lecturer in History.
AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY. By J. SOLOMON,
M.A. Oxon., late Lecturer in Philosophy at University College,
Nottingham.
THE EARTH : An Introduction to Physiography. By E. W.
Small, M.A
Social Questions of To-day
Edited by H. de B. GIBBINS, M.A.
Crown Svo, 2s. 6d. r~\ i f^.
A series of volumes upon those topics of social, economic, / ^"^
and industrial interest that are at the present moment fore
most in the public mind. Each volume of the series will be written
by an author who is an acknowledged authority upon the subject
with which he deals.
The following Volumes of the Series are ready : —
TRADE UNIONISM— NEW AND OLD. By G. Howell,
M.P. Author of ' The Conflicts of Capital and Labour.

i6 ¦ Messrs. Methuen's List
THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY. By G. J
Holyoake, Author of ' The History of Co-operation.'
MUTUAL THRIFT. By Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, M.A.,
Author of ' The Friendly Society Movement.'
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial
Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. Hobson, M.A.
THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By C. F. Bastable,
M.A., Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.
THE ALIEN INVASION. By W. H. Wilkins, B.A., Secretary
to the Society for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens.
THE RURAL EXODUS. By P. Anderson Graham.
LAND NATIONALIZATION. By Harold Cox, B.A.
A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By H. de B. Gibbins
(Editor), and R. A. Hadfield, of the Hecla Works, Sheffield.
The following Volumes are in preparation : —
ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. By Hubert Bland
one of the Authors of * Fabian Essays.'
POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. Phelps, M.A.,
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.
ENGLISH LAND AND ENGLISH MEN. By Rev. C. W.
Stubbs, M.A., Author of ' The Labourers and the Land.'
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. B, Rev. J
Carter, M.A., of Pusey House, Oxford.
THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. By J. R. Diggle,
M.A., Chairman of the London School Board.
WOMEN'S WORK. By Lady Dilke, Miss Beilley, and
Miss Abraham.
RAILWAY PROBLEMS PRESENT AND FUTURE. By
R. W. Barnett, M.A., Editor of the 'Railway Times.'

Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty,
at the Edinburgh University Press.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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