THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
Ex Ubris
' C. K. OGDEN '
&
LIFE AND LETTERS
BENJAMIN JOWETT, M.A.
I.
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
/'/I'm ,1 i /;///////// VU Jri>)</i , A /,//////'////., /I. '
THE
LIFE AND LETTERS
OF
BENJAMIN JOWETT, M.A.
MASTER OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
BY
EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., LL.D.
AND
LEWIS CAMPBELL, M.A., LL.D.
WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
IN TWO VOLUMES: VOL. I
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1897
V.I
PREFACE
"PROFESSOR JOWETT'S life naturally falls into two
* sections the period before the Mastership, and the
Mastership. The first of these volumes contains the first
period, and is the work of Professor Campbell ; in the
second, I have written the story of the Mastership ; and
I am responsible for the whole. The plan followed in
both volumes is of course the same. A few letters have
been worked into the narrative ; others, far too numerous
to be used in such a manner, but of a personal character,
have been appended to the chapters according to their
dates, and thus form as it were illustrations of the text,
giving in Jowett's own words his thoughts and feelings
at the time T . In the second period the material was to
some extent different from that in the first, for Jowett's
personal memoranda became far more numerous as he
grew older, and from these, as in some respects the truest
record of his life, it was necessary to draw largely. The
second volume is also somewhat more annalistic than
1 A number of very valuable Lansdowne, and others, could not
letters on more general topics, to be included in the Life, and are
Sir R. B. D. Morier, the Marquis of reserved for a separate volume.
a 3
vi Preface
the first ; after 1870 the course of Jowett's life was
more equable; the years are distinguished by the
incidents which occur in them, but with the exception
of the years 1882-1886, when he was Vice-Chancellor,
they do not fall into well-defined sections.
Our warmest thanks are due to Jowett's friends :
first of all to those who have allowed us to see the letters
which he wrote to them, and to make what use of them
we wished l . These letters are among the most cherished
possessions of their owners, but it was felt, and very
truly, that without them, no account of Jowett's life
would be in any sense complete. From others we have
received most valuable reminiscences of the Master from
the time that he went up to Balliol in 1836 to the last
year of his life. The names of these friends will be found
in the book, and I do not repeat them here because it
is impossible to mention all, and any selection would be
invidious. Others have supplied materials and given
access to documents, without which no record could have
been given of Jowett's family, or his own early life. "We
have also received important criticisms and suggestions,
above all from our present Master, who has read the
proof-sheets of both volumes. I hope that our work will
not be found altogether unworthy of the subject of
it, and that this presentation of Jowett's life may be
acceptable to those with whom his memory is a ' light
of other days.'
"When we entered on our task, we looked forward to
much help and guidance from Lord Bowen, who was
1 It must be remembered that were burned in accordance with
all the letters written to Jowett his testamentary direction.
Preface vii
greatly interested in the book. Had our work received
his imprimatur we should have felt that we had at least
satisfied a fastidious censor, and drawn a picture of
Jowett, which was recognized as true by one who knew
him well. Dis aliter visum. What we have lost by his
lamented death, those will realize who remember how
admirable were his judgement and taste.
EVELYN ABBOTT.
OXFORD, January 7, 1897.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
PAGE
Jowetts of Manningham in Yorkshire The Master's great-grand-
father, Henry Jowett, and his four sons The Evangelical move-
ment Musical cultivation The Master's father and mother The
Langhorne family The Jowetts at Camberwell Changes of
position and circumstances The Master's sister Emily His
brothers, Alfred and William Jowett 1-28
CHAPTER II.
INFANCY AND BOYHOOD. 1817-1836.
Early training and companionships Camberwell Blackheath
Mitcham Entrance at St. Paul's School at the age of twelve
Dr. Sleath and his methods School-fellows and school successes
The Balliol Scholarship ' Apposition Day '. . . . 29-44
CHAPTER III.
SCHOLAR AND FELLOW OF BALLIOL. 1836-1840.
Early friendships at Oxford The Hertford Latin Scholarship
A Balliol undergraduate sixty years since Reminiscences of
surviving contemporaries The Master, Richard Jenkyns, and the
Tutors, Tait and Scott The Balliol Fellowship won by the under-
graduate Scholar Work in private tuition Death of Ellen Jowett
Graduation Letters to W. A. Greenhill 45~7i
CHAPTER IV.
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL. 1840-1846.
W. G. Ward and A. P. Stanley Tract XC and the Thirty-nine
Articles First foreign tour The Decade Assistant Tutorship
Ordination The Paris libraries Appointment as Tutor (1842)
x Contents
PAGE
College business With Stanley in Germany Hegel and Schelling
Degradation of Ward Action of the ' Oxford Liberals '
Projected work on the New Testament Archdeacon Palmer's
reminiscences Letters 72-124
CHAPTER V.
TUTORSHIP (continued). COMMENTARY ON ST. PAUL. 1846-1850.
Attachment of his pupils to him His interest in their works Hegel
and Comte Lectures in Political Economy Plato at Oxford
Paris in 1848 Conversation with Michelet, &c. Theological
Essays Long Vacations The Oban reading party Alexander
Ewing, Bishop of Argyll Notes on the Romans Death of William
Jowett A pupil's record of conversations Letters . . 125-171
CHAPTER VI.
UNIVERSITY AND CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 1846-1854.
W. D. Christie, M.P. Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth Roundell Palmer
Goldwin Smith The University Commission East India Civil
Service Examinations Lord Macaulay's Committee Letters on
University Reform 172-194
CHAPTER VII.
TUTORIAL AND OTHER INTERESTS. 1850-1854.
Widening social horizon Bunsen Sir C. Trevelyan Tennyson
Tutorial methods Vacations Mr. W. L. Newman's reminis-
cences . ... ... .. ... 195-225
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. THE PROFESSORSHIP OF GREEK.
1854-1860.
Position in Oxford and elsewhere Repulse for the Mastership
Epistles of St. Paul Greek Professorship Vice-Chancellor Cotton
Endowment withheld Work of the Chair Isolation Death of
his brother Alfred and of his father Second edition of the
Epistles Portrait by G. Richmond W. L. Newman's reminis-
cences (continued} 226-258
CHAPTER IX.
FRIENDS AND PUPILS. 1854-1860.
Theological attitude Desultory studies Advice to young writers
and preachers Society in Scotland and elsewhere Preparation of
Essays atid Reviews Publication of the volume Letters . 259-289
Contents xi
CHAPTER X.
'ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.' 1860-1865.
PAGE
Essays and Reviews Panic in the religious world The Quarterly and
Edinburgh Reviews Bishop Wilberforce Stanley at Oxford Dr.
Pusey's attitude Bishop Colenso Prosecution of Williams and
Wilson The Vice-Chancellor's Court Continued agitation for the
Endowment of the Greek Chair E. Freeman and C. Elton
Endowment of the Chair by Christ Church . . . 290-320
CHAPTER XI.
TUTORIAL WORK. 1860-1865.
Personal effects of controversy Extracts from correspondence
Professorial and Tutorial work Letters from W. Pater and
Professor G. G. Ramsay ' Colonization ' George Rankine Luke
Society at Clifton and in Scotland Vacation parties Letters 321-374
CHAPTER XII.
REFORMS AT BALLIOL. 1865-1870.
Improved circumstances Reforms in Balliol and the University
Effects of experience Characteristics Speculation and action
Health impaired Mr. Robert Lowe The poet Browning Meeting
with Mr. Gladstone Death of his mother Second series of Essays
and Reviews Why never completed Scott made Dean of Rochester
The Mastership in view 375-446
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT FROM CRAYON DRAWING BY G. RICHMOND, R.A.
1854) Frontispiece
SKETCH OF A CONCERT IN THE HALL OF TRINITY HALL,
CAMBRIDGE, GIVEN BY DR. JOSEPH JOWETT. (From a
Contemporary Drawing) ... ... Page 7
FISHER'S BUILDING AND END OF ' RAT'S CASTLE,' BALLIOL
COLLEGE. (Copied from a print in an old Oxford Guide)
To face page 48
FACSIMILE OF EARLY HANDWRITING (1855) . To face page 236
THE OLD CHAPEL AND LIBRARY, BALLIOL COLLEGE (from
the North-east End) To face page 248
BALLIOL COLLEGE BEFORE THE REBUILDING IN 1868
To face page 376
THE OLD HALL AND MASTER'S LIBRARY, BALLIOL COLLEGE
To face page 408
LIFE OF BENJAMIN JOWETT
ERRATA.
Vol. I, p. 48, 1. 8, for G. A. Ogilvie read C. A. Ogilvie.
p. 50, 1. 4, for F. C. Trower read C. F. Trower, and
for the note substitute Fellow of Exeter.
p. 192, note 2 , for 1850 read 1859.
p. 238, note *, for D.D. read D.C.L.
,, p. 268, 1. 24, for Kent read Surrey.
p. 271, 1. 6, for Canon read Student.
Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, Vol. I.
ana anomer urotirer, <juim uuwetu, <t vvuui-auapipj. j. wav T \j,
who had three sons, clergymen, the Keverend William Jowett,
a Missionary among the Copts, the Keverend Joseph Jowett,
Eector of Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire, and the Eeverend
John Jowett, Kector of Hartfield.'
VOL. I. B
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIFE OF BENJAMIN JOWETT
CHAPTER I
BIKTH AND PARENTAGE
JOWETTS of Manningham in Yorkshire The Master's great-
grandfather, Henry Jowett, and his four sons The Evangelical
movement Musical cultivation The Master's father and mother
The Langhorne family The Jowetts at Camberwell Changes of
position and circumstances The Master's sister Emily His brothers,
Alfred and William Jowett.
BENJAMIN JOWETT was born in the parish of
Camberwell, Surrey, on April 15, 1817, and -died
on October i, 1893. The following entry, headed ' On
rising in life/ was found in one of the note-books in
which it was for many years his practice to write down
thoughts and observations :
'My ancestors lived at Manningham near Bradford, where
they had land, part of which they sold in 1740. They were
probably in the condition of yeomen. The Keverend Dr. Joseph
Jowett, Eegius Professor of Civil Law in the University of
Cambridge, who died in 1813, was my great-uncle. He had
a brother, Henry Jowett, Kector of Little Dunham in Norfolk,
and another brother, John Jowett, a wool- stapler I believe,
who had three sons, clergymen, the Eeverend William Jowett,
a Missionary among the Copts, the Eeverend Joseph Jowett,
Eector of Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire, and the Eeverend
John Jowett, Eector of Hartfield.'
VOL. I. B
2 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, two
Jowetts of Manningham l were doing business in London
and York. Henry Jowett, of London, is described as
a man of character and probity and a strict Churchman,
who attended the week-day prayers at his parish church.
His brother Benjamin, of York, counts likewise amongst
the Master's ancestry, through an intermarriage of cousins
to be mentioned by-and-by.
This Henry Jowett, of Manningham and London, had
a son Henry, the Master's great-grandfather.
Henry Jowett, of Leeds and Camberwell, 1719-1801.
He was born in London in 1719, and passed some of
his childhood at Whitby, where he conceived a passion
for the sea. After one voyage, however, he was apprenticed
by his father to a hat-manufacturer in London. While
thus employed, he heard the preaching of Whitefield, and
the impression was deep and permanent. When his
apprenticeship came to an end, he set up for himself
as a skinner or farrier. In 1757 he removed with his
young family to Leeds, where he remained till 1773.
Here he formed two intimacies which had an important
influence upon the life of his sons. William Hey, the
well-known surgeon and Fellow of the Royal Society,
not only shared the same religious impressions, which
were then still comparatively rare, but was also an
accomplished musician, and a student of great writers
whom he loved to introduce to younger men ; and Henry-
Venn, who came to Huddersfield in 1789, helped to con-
firm the spiritual work which Whitefield had begun.
1 The Jowitts (formerly Jow- with the Jowetts of Manningham ;
etts), an old Quaker family in but in the period now under re-
the neighbourhood of Leeds, if view there was no connexion
traced far enough back, might between the branches,
prove to have a common origin
Four Generations 3
About two years after the death, of his wife in 1771,
Henry Jowett removed his place of business to London,
and his home to Camberwell Green. He resided there
until he died in 1801, having survived his eldest son,
John, by one year. He is a dignified, patriarchal figure,
of a strong, determined nature, profoundly imbued with
genuine piety, ruling his house with authority, and
bringing up his children and his grandchildren with
vigilant care ' in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.' His sons in middle life still deferred to his
authority, and prized his counsel, addressing him in
their letters as 'Dear and honoured Sir.' His corre-
spondence is marked by simple gravity of style, and while
often expressed in the peculiar dialect of Methodism, has
the ring of true affection, sagacity, consistent purpose,
and resignation to the Divine Will. In early life he
had owed much to Mr. Hill, a Nonconformist minister,
and in his old age was inclined to Wesleyanism, react-
ing not against the formalism, but the too pronounced
Calvinism, of the parish clergyman 1 . There still remains
1 The following excerpt from minds, make it appear wearisome
the manuscript record of his and gloomy. He usually in the
granddaughter, Mrs. Elizabeth evenings read a whole chapter of
Pratt, is characteristic both of the the Bible with Matthew Henry's
times and of the man : commentary ; which occupied so
' In the government of his much time that the children and
family my grandfather was servants got sleepy and tired,
thought to be strict. His children If the boys showed symptoms of
greatly reverenced him ; yet it drowsiness, they were required to
must be confessed that they often stand up, and their father would
felt a degree of awe in his pre- occasionally ask them their
sence which made them in their opinion of a sentiment or put
boyish days rather shrink from some question which required
his company. His family wor- them to have attended to the
ship, too, was perhaps somewhat reading in order to answer it,
calculated to exhibit religion in ... I shall never forget the
an austere light, and, to young patriarchal benediction which he
B 2
4 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
in his handwriting a solemn form of self -dedication,
signed, sealed, and doubtless executed, October 27,
1770, identical with that recommended in Doddridge's
Else and Progress of Religion in the Soul, chap,
xviii. 7.
To the last he followed with keen interest the course
of public affairs ; disliking the war with America, but
rejoicing in Admiral Duncan's successes ; although he
feared that they might unduly minister to national pride.
Henry Jowett, of Camberwell, had four sons, John,
Joseph, Benjamin (the Master's grandfather), and Henry ;
and two daughters, Elizabeth, who died young, and Sarah,
who lived to old age. The sons, except John, the eldest,
who had been at St. Paul's School for a time before they
left London 1 , attended the Leeds Grammar School, in
company with John Venn, who lived with the Jowetts
as one of the family. Joseph and Henry Jowett, as well
as John Venn, proceeded to the University of Cambridge ;
while Benjamin, like his eldest brother, John, was
apprenticed to his father's business.
As three of these men, his great-uncles, are mentioned
by the Master himself, and as more is known of them
than of his grandfather, it may be allowable to give
a short account of each of them before proceeding in
the main line.
pronounced upon me and Mr. of God the Father, God the Son,
Pratt, when we went to take and God the Holy Ghost might
leave of him. He was sitting by rest upon us. He did this with
the fireside in his dressing-gown much emotion, and I could
with his night-cap and a large have imagined that it was the
cocked hat on his head ; and patriarch Jacob blessing his pos-
before we left him he raised him- terity.'
self on his feet, feeble and totter- * According to the belief of
ing as he was, and with a most his daughter, Mrs. E. Pratt ; but
graceful air took his hat off his his name is not on the Register
head, and prayed that the blessing of St. Paul's scholars.
Four Generations 5
John Jowett, of Leeds and Newington Butts,
1743-1800.
John had been at work in his father's office from the
time of going to Leeds, 1757, being then in his four-
teenth year. But he continued his education through
intercourse with William Hey, who read with him such
works as Locke, Butler, Jonathan Edwards, &c., and
conversed with him on theological subjects. The two
friends often walked to Huddersfield together to listen
to the preaching of Henry Venn. Mr. Hey, who was
a student of thorough-bass and a lover of Corelli and
other early composers, also encouraged his companion's
love for music, and John learned to play the organ.
John was already in partnership with his father,
when in 1771, shortly after his marriage to Elizabeth
Bankes, younger sister of Mrs. Hey, he removed to
London, and opened a warehouse in Red Lion Court,
Bermondsey. Here he was joined by his father and
by his brother Benjamin. The business prospered
after a while, and in 1790 John Jowett purchased the
lease of a house and grounds at Newington, Surrey 1 ,
where he was often visited by his brothers from Cam-
bridge and their friends; and also by the 'worthy
Mr. John Newton 2 ,' who is said to have designated
John Jowett's household as par excellence ' the Christian
family.' He was in fact a pillar of the Evangelical
party in the Church, and his home was also a centre of
musical culture. He died at the age of fifty-six in 1800,
having shortly before assisted at the foundation of the
Church Missionary Society. His profoundly religious
1 The proceeds of the Man- the last heiress,
ningham estate had before this 2 This was in the later period
been divided amongst the cou- of Mr. Newton's career, when he
sins, by the will of Eleanor, was Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth.
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
character, combined as it was with persistent practical
energy, gives him a just claim to prominent considera-
tion in these preliminary pages. His ' enthusiasm,' as
it would then have been termed, was tempered, in
a remarkable degree, with candour and moderation.
On his death-bed, he told his relatives who surrounded
him that he felt ' not rapture, but peace.' ' The Scrip-
tures speak of the Spirit bearing witness with our
spirits, &c. I should like to feel that, but I am not
anxious about it ; I leave the matter to God 1 .'
1 John had five sons, Henry,
John, Joshua, Joseph, andWilliam,
and two daughters, Elizabeth,
who married the Rev. Josiah
Pratt, and Hannah, who married
Mr. Hudson. Three of the sons
became beneficed clergymen, as
appears in the Master's note-book
above quoted : the most remark-
able of these was William. He
was twelfth wrangler at Cam-
bridge in 1810, a Fellow of St.
John's, and the first Cambridge
graduate who volunteered for the
foreign service of the Church
Missionary Society. He ended
his days in the rectory at
Clapham Rise, where he suc-
ceeded John Venn. He had some
peculiar expedients for rousing
the interest of a sleepy congrega-
tion. ' And now I will read you
a dispatch from a great com-
mander at the seat of war : ' this
prelude was followed by a quota-
tion from the Book of Joshua.
The reader will find more about
him in the Dictionary of National
Biography. Joseph, the Rector
of Silk Willoughby, applied the
musical skill which he inherited
to the composition of hymn-tunes,
which have been much appre-
ciated by persons of religious
feeling and fine taste. His Musae
Solitariae, 'A. Collection of Original
Melodies, adapted to various
measures of Psalms and Hymns'
(fourth edition, 1826), was much
valued by James Martineau and
used in his family and congrega-
tion in connexion with his own
selected hymns. John,the Rector
of Hartfield, held for a time an
evening lectureship at Clapham.
It is quite possible that the Master
of Balliol, when a boy, may have
heard the preaching of more than
one of these men, his cousins,
during some of his visits to the
Courthopes at Blackheath or the
Langhornes at Clapham.
Joshua appears to have opened
a business in Liverpool before
1823 ; but he afterwards returned
to London, where he set up as
an ironmonger, and his home
was again the centre of mu-
sical reunions, similar to those
at his father's house at Newing-
Four Generations
Joseph Jowett, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1752-1813.
Joseph Jowett was a prominent figure in the Cambridge
of his day, where he was Professor of Civil Law, and the
main particulars of his life are clearly recorded in the
Dictionary of National Biography 1 .
The biographer of his grand-nephew may be permitted,
however, to dwell, before passing from him, on some
characteristic traits : (i) his persistence in companionship
PEN AND INK SKETCH OF THE CONCERT GIVEN AT TRINITY HALL,
CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 4, 1789.
with his early friend, Isaac Miliier, with whom he spent
two hours twice every week in Term-time, until his
death ; (2) the freshness of his interest in young men ;
(3) the fearless promptitude (called by his friends ' pre-
cipitancy') with which he promoted the foundation of
ton Butts. Henry was for a time
a partner in the furrier trade.
1 For some interesting details
concerning him the reader may
be referred to the Life of Isaac
Milner, Dean of Carlisle. It ap-
pears that the elegance of his
Latinity was much admired.
8 Life of Benjamin Joivett [CHAP, i
the Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society, supporting the
efforts of the serious undergraduates, when even Isaac
Milner recoiled before the fulminations of Doctor after-
wards Bishop Marsh ; (4) as a minor feature, his keen
interest in the progress of music. He sang 'alto 1 ' in
concerts which he had organized, and which took place in
the Combination Room, and on one occasion certainly
June 4, 1 789) in the Hall, of Trinity Hall.
Henry Jowett, of Little Dunham, 1756-1830.
Henry Jowett, after passing several years as Lecturer
and Tutor at Magdalene College, Cambridge, succeeded his
friend John Venn as Rector of Little Dunham, Norfolk,
in 1792. He married Charlotte Iveson, of Leeds, and
had eight children. His daughter Charlotte became
Mrs. Whiting. A good many of his letters have been
preserved. They exhibit him in a very interesting light,
as a faithful pastor, a tutor of young men 2 , a keen
lover of music, and an active and observant traveller.
He assisted in starting the Norfolk branch of the Bible
Society, and is known to have been the founder of the
first of many Clerical Societies.
He was a genial parish priest, who upon occasion, as
at the Peace of 1814, knew how to organize a village
festival, with dancing, &c. There is a touch of play-
fulness in his letters to his sister Sarah, who kept house
for him after he became a widower in 1809. He showed
paternal interest not only in his own, but in his brothers'
families. His life-long friendship with the Venns proves
his warmth and constancy.
1 See below, p. n. James, who, when old enough for
2 See the Life of Henry Venn Cambridge, went to Trinity Hall
Elliot (who was one of his pupils), because of Joseph Jowett. See
chap. i. Another pupil was the Life of Fitzjames Stephen by
James Stephen, afterwards Sir his brother, chap. i.
The Master's Grandfather 9
Benjamin Jowett, of Camberwell, 1754-1837.
Benjamin, the third son of Henry of Leeds, was grand-
father to the Master of Balliol. After leaving the
Grammar School, he commenced business with his father
in Leeds ; and when the family was settled in London,
he became John's partner in the warehouse in Bermond-
sey. In 1785 he married his cousin, Anne Jowett, of
York, whose father is mentioned several times in letters of
this period with a sort of respect, as ' Cousin Jowett V In
right of this lady, who was his grandmother, the Master
(then Professor Jowett) inherited, some eighty years after
this, a property in Yorkshire 2 . She died in 1 799, leaving
five children, Elizabeth Maria, Benjamin, Josiah, and
Henry. In a letter dated February 20, 1 799, Henry Jowett
the elder, now of Camberwell, and in his eightieth year,
speaks feelingly of his son Benjamin's loss. Soon after
his father's death, Benjamin married again, and had
a daughter, Irene. He appears as a witness to the
marriage of his son, the Master's father, in 1814. Nothing
more is known of him until the year 1823, when the
success of Joshua (John's third son), who had opened
a business in Liverpool, seems to have induced Benjamin
senior and his two youngest sons to migrate thither.
They were accompanied by the elder daughters, Elizabeth
and Maria. Benjamin senior remained in Liverpool until
the spring of 1837. In March of that year he writes an
affecting letter to his sister Sarah. It is the year of
influenza, and the prevalence of illness has interfered
with the progress of music. 'Nothing new has been
produced of late.' At this time he must have been
about eighty-two years old. He died very shortly after-
wards, in April, 1837.
1 Henry Jowett, of York (son of was Sheriff of York in 1784-5.
Benjamin, see p. 2), flax-dresser, 2 See p. 375.
10
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
The preceding narrative has carried the reader into
the heart of English Methodism in its earlier stage.
The names of Whitefield and "Wesley, of Henry Venn,
John Newton, Isaac Milner, Farish, Simeon, Eobinson
of Leicester, are as household words to all this family.
The impression which the documents produce is irre-
sistible that in the immediate followers of Wesley and
Whitefield, personal religion was a very real thing. It
was the mainspring of conduct, affecting all relationships,
not in word only, but with power. Their theological
attitude had its limitations, certainly: 'conversion'
meant separation from ' the world l ' ; but it contained
a principle of expansion too. John Newton was not far
from the kingdom of universal brotherhood when he
wrote as follows in 1800 : 'I pray the Lord to bless you
and all who love His Name in Scotland, whether Kirk,
Relief, Burghers, Antiburghers, Independents, Methodists,
or by whatever name they choose to be called. Yea, if
you know a Papist, who sincerely loves Jesus, and trusts
in Him for salvation, give my love to him.' ' Christianity,'
he says elsewhere, ' is not a system of doctrine, but
a new creature V If the religion of the ' Clapham sect '
appeared to cast a sombre colouring over social inter-
course, this apparent sadness was lightened and relieved
in the case of many of them by the warmth of home
affections and by their devotion to music. The scene at
Newington Butts, where Mr. Latrobe of the Moravian
brotherhood introduces Haydn and Mozart to the lovers
of Handel, is suggestive of anything but gloom :
1 ' Come out from among them, tional Remarks, by the late Rev.
and be ye separate,' is a text of John Newton, Rector of St. Mary
which young converts thought Woolnoth, Lombard Street, Lon-
with zeal and awe. don, 1809.
2 See Letters and Conversa-
Religious Antecedents n
'They had discovered,' he says, 'the secret of making Home
the most pleasant place on earth. The young people were
not restrained from following the so-called pleasures and
amusements of the world by any coercive means, but rather
encouraged to be attentive to whatever was innocently and
profitably amusing. It was at home, however, that they
found the greatest happiness, and love and peace and cheer-
fulness reigned in their dwelling.
' What was my astonishment and delight, to find here
a choir of vocal performers, the most perfect of its kind.
The two daughters sang the treble ; Dr. Jowett J , the alto ;
Eeverend H. Jowett * and the father, the tenor ; the eldest
son, Henry, the bass. They sang all Handel's Oratorios, or
rather select portions of them, with great precision, and, by
employing me at the harpsichord, as I was more accustomed
to read scores than any other of the party, I became acquainted
with the exquisite beauties of that inimitable and gigantic
composer. All their voices were good, but Eliza's treble and
Dr. Jowett's alto were, I may truly say, the sweetest and
richest of their kind / have ever heard, either in public or
private. When the doctor was not in town, we tried as well
as we could to supply the alto in choruses, and could always
perform in four parts V
In the matter of education also, they were before
their age. When we find Mr. Hey, the surgeon at Leeds,
sparing time from a laborious profession to read Locke
and study thorough-bass with young John Jowett; or
when old Henry, the patriarch, wishes that his grandson
could have gone to school with Cousin Marriott, ' who has
profited so greatly by Mr. Penticross's tuition ' at Walling-
ford; or when Mr. Eobinson, of Leicester, is carefully
selected as an instructor for young Benjamin (the Master's
father), these incidents are to be noted as instances, not of
obscurantism, but of an expanding culture.
1 Joseph, the Professor of Civil 2 Henry of Little Dunham.
Law. 3 Latrobe, Letterstohis Children.
12
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
Is it wonderful, considering such antecedents, that
the Master should have delighted always in religious
biographies that when most suspected of heresy, he
should have heartily joined with private friends in
singing simple hymns that to the sentimentalities of
more recent hymnody he greatly preferred Dr. "Watts'
version of the ninetieth Psalm or that in his latest years
he should have delighted in commemorating Richard
Baxter and John "Wesley from the pulpit of Westminster
Abbey? "When most convinced of the poverty and
narrowness of the Evangelical school, and the inadequacy
of its scientific and literary culture, he never failed to
distinguish between its earlier and later phases. It
seemed to him that its earlier spirituality had faded,
and that an overgrowth of mingled cant and worldliness
was stifling its vitality.
There is considerable force in the following observa-
tions of the B,ev. W. H. Langhorne : ' In estimating
the religious views of the late Master, those which he
inherited should be taken into account ; and which had
descended to him through four generations. By the
time they reached him, much of what had been lively,
vigorous, and real had become conventional and spirit-
less. The salt had lost its savour and the religious
" movement/' as it has been called, was nearly spent 1 .'
Benjamin Jowett, 1788-1859.
Benjamin Jowett, son of Benjamin, and father of the
Master of Balliol, was born at Camberwell in 1788.
Beyond the fact already referred to, that after his
mother's death, when he was about eleven years old, he
1 The Warden of Merton (the on High Churchmen, I never
Hon. G. C. Brodrick) says : heard him speak unkindly or dis-
' While I often heard him com- respectfully of the Evangelical
meut harshly and even bitterly School.'
The Master's Father and Mother 13
was sent to school with Mr. Eobinson, of Leicester,
nothing is known concerning the course of his education.
His father's second marriage may have in some way
interfered with it. That while retaining the impress of
Evangelical pietism, his mind had been impelled towards
some kind of literary ambition, is evident from the sequel.
He joined his father's business, and at the time of his
marriage in 1814 is designated as 'a furrier.' In the
Directory for 1817, the firm at Bed Lion Court, Ber-
mondsey, is described as 'Benjamin Jowett and Son 1 ,'
so that by this time he was in partnership with his
father. "When the latter removed his family to Liverpool
in 1823, Benjamin junior seems to have remained in
charge of the Bermondsey business, his cousin Henry,
son of John, being in some way associated with him for
a time.
In 1825 the firm 'Benjamin Jowett and Sons, Furriers,
E,ed Lion Court, Bermondsey,' occurs for the last time in
the London Directory, and in the same year there appears
the name of ' Benjamin Jowett Junior, Furrier, 10 George
Yard, Lombard Street.' This entry is continued during
the years 1826-1836. It would seem therefore that the
furrier business lasted all this while, no doubt with
'fluctuations,' and it is probable that the removal from
Bermondsey was caused by some depression 2 ; for 10
George Yard was the place of business of his brother-
in-law, Mr. John Bryan Courthope, stationer, &c., with
whom it is natural to suppose that Mr. Jowett took
refuge, when no longer able to maintain the warehouse
in Bermondsey. But he seems also to have ventured
1 Inthesameyear,inhissonBen- jamin Jowett, Peckham, Furrier.'
jamin's Baptismal Register in the a It is right to bear in mind
church of St. Giles, Camberwell, that 1826 was a time of great
the father is described as ' Ben- commercial depression.
T4 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
upon a wholly different line of business. In the Directory
for 1826 there appears for the first time the firm of
'Mills, Jowett, and Mills, Printers, Bolt Court, Fleet
Street,' and this entry is continued until 1835 l . That
the Jowett of this firm was the Master's father is
proved by the form of his son Benjamin's nomination to
St. Paul's School, dated June 4, 1829. Here the boy is
described as ' son of Benjamin Jowitt (sic) of Bolt Court,
Fleet Street, Printer.'
The marriage of the Master's parents took place in
1814.
He himself wrote as follows on February 24, 1893 2 , with
reference to his mother's ancestry : ' My mother told me
that her father, who died young, lived at or near Kirkby
Lonsdale (Kirkby Stephen?), and that Langhorne the
poet was her great -uncle ; she had no doubt of this. Also
I remember her brother joking her about the member of
their family who was executed for treason.'
Isabella Jowett, nee Langhorne, born December 25,
1790; died October 16, 1869.
Isabella was the daughter of Joseph Langhorne, who
appears from the above statement to have been a nephew
of John Langhorne, the Rector of Blagdon, the poet, and
translator of Plutarch. Joseph is said to have been
a Lancashire cotton merchant, who, after retiring from
business, lived first at "Walworth and then at Stockwell,
in the neighbourhood of Camberwell. ' The member of
their family who was executed for treason' is Richard
Langhorne, the lawyer of King Charles II's reign, who
fell a victim to the accusations of Titus Gates, for the
1 The volume of the Lancet ' 2 To the Rev. W. H. Langhorne,
issued in 1826 bears the imprint acknowledging the latter's book
of Mills, Jowett, and Mills. of Reminiscences.
The Langhorne Family 15
alleged Popish Plot in 1679 : . Burnet 2 speaks of him
as ' in all respects a very extraordinary man.' But
the supposed connexion of Richard Langhorne with the
Kirkby Stephen Langhornes is not clearly proved, unless
a constant family tradition may be taken for proof.
If the Jowetts of Leeds exemplify an important phase
of English pietism, the Langhornes of Kirkby Stephen
are fairly representative of the mental refinement, classical
taste, and liberal culture, which has always characterized
some portion of the clergy of the Church of England.
Joseph Langhorne's son Henry was a banker in Buck-
lersbury 3 , and about 1820 retired to Mitcham. He moved
his family again to Clapham in 1829. Besides Isabella,
there were two elder daughters, twins, both of whom
have a place in this biography: Jane, married to John
Bryan Courthope, above-mentioned, and Frances, married
to the Rev. William Smith. There was frequent inter-
course between the Jowetts and the Courthopes. In
earlier days, while Mr. Courthope was successful in
business, he dwelt in a handsome residence at Blackheath
Hill. He afterwards removed his family to a smaller
house in the same neighbourhood. He died in 1844.
His wife had died in 1840, and they had lost many chil-
dren. Mrs. Courthope retained her charm and youthful
looks until very shortly before her death. She left
behind her the impression of an active practical nature,
which had a great influence on those surrounding her.
1 Further particulars about 8 The bankers were Brown,
him may be found in the Dictio- Langhorne, and Brailsford. ' The
nary of National Biography and firm suffered in the financial
Granger's Biographical History of panic which followed the second
England. American War. H. L. then
2 Burnet's History of my own started as an Insurance Broker.'
Time, vol. ii. p. 259 of the (So writes Mr. C. Langhorne, of
Edinburgh edition (1753). Corncliffe, Sydney, N.S.W.)
1 6 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
The Rev. William Smith was Rector of Brandsby,
in Yorkshire. He died in 1823. His widow, who was
considerably younger than he was, survived him many
years, during which she lived at Bath. She died in
1835, leaving some house property in Bath to the Jowett
family.
Mr. and Mrs. Jowett appear to have spent the earlier
years of their married life at Peckham, in the parish
of Camberwell, where they formed a lasting friendship
with the Channells l . There were nine children of the
marriage, two of whom, Isabella and Francis, died in
infancy. The others were Emily, Benjamin, Agnes,
Alfred, Ellen, "William, and Frederick. Emily and Ben-
jamin were the only two who survived their parents,
and passed the meridian of life.
A change in the family history occurs in 1829, about
the same time as young Benjamin's admission to
St. Paul's School. Mrs. Smith, who was now alone at
Bath, knowing that the Jowetts were in straitened
circumstances, offered a home to her sister and the
children. This was accepted on behalf of all but Ben-
jamin, whose education was already provided for. ' The
little fold at Bath 2 ' remained there after Mrs. Smith's
death until 1841. The father went to and fro between
Bath and London, while young Benjamin stayed in
lodgings in the City. A journey to the West of England
was in those days a matter of no small trouble and
expense. Meanwhile Mr. Jowett's employments, if not
very profitable, were strangely varied. He aspired to
be a publisher's reader, and sought opportunities for
1 See below, p. 27. The late 3 Letter of Mr. Jowett to
Baron Channell was then a boy Mrs. Irwin in December, 1838.
of ten years old.
'The Little Fold at Bath' 17
dabbling in journalism, especially on questions of phi-
lanthropy. Mr. "Wood, of Bradford (brother-in-law to
Mr. G-athorne-Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook), the first
person who seriously took up the question of Factory
Legislation 1 , employed him as a writer, and it was
probably through Mr. "Wood's recommendation that
he became known to Lord Ashley, afterwards Lord
Shaftesbury. For several years he laboured at collecting
statistics and in other ways promoting the great work
which Lord Ashley had so much at heart. At this
time he must have been a familiar figure in the lobby
of the House of Commons. The following entry occurs
in Lord Shaftesbury's Diary for August 24, 1840 : 'Let
no one ever despair of a good cause for want of coad-
jutors ; let him persevere, persevere, persevere, and God
will raise him up friends and assistants ! I have had,
and still have, Jowett and Low ; they are matchless V
In 1835 Mr. Jowett was consulted by Captain F. C. Irwin
with regard to the publication of a work on Western
Australia 3 . Captain, afterwards Colonel, Irwin always
retained a high regard for Mr. Jowett, whom he used
emphatically to describe as ' a Christian, a scholar, and
a gentleman.' The acquaintance ripened into friendship,
and before his return to his post of Commandant of the
troops at the Swan River settlement, Major Irwin had
married Mrs. Jowett's niece, Elizabeth Courthope.
Mrs. Jowett, meanwhile, had been anxious about her
son Benjamin's future, and appealed to several friends
for counsel about his proceeding to the University.
He was at the head of St. Paul's School, and in his
nineteenth year, and himself desired to go to Trinity
1 Life of Lord Shaftesbury, vol. i. s Major Irwin's book was
p. 143. published by Simpkin, Marshall
2 Ibid. p. 301. & Co.
VOL. I. C
i8 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
College, Cambridge : but a Scholarship or some extraneous
help was absolutely necessary J .
Mr. J. Walker, now Eector of Great Billing, North-
ampton, but in 1835 still resident Fellow and Tutor
of Brasenose College, Oxford, replied to Mrs. Wood,
Mr. Gathorne-Hardy's sister, who inquired of him on
Mrs. Jowett's behalf without mentioning the name,
that it was near the time of examination for open
Scholarships at Balliol, and that 'the said youth, if
he was thought clever enough, might try for one of
them.'
This hint may have encouraged him to try at Balliol,
but it can hardly have been necessary, as the Turners,
intimate friends at Bath, had already their son John
entered there, who would naturally be eager to second
such a proposal. However this may have been, the
Scholarship was gained.
Cadetships for William and Alfred Jowett, 1842
and 1846.
Benjamin's younger brothers, Alfred and William,
were educated at the Bath Grammar School ; where the
most active teacher was Mr. James Pears 2 . The boys
seem to have profited at school, and their after history
may be briefly told. Both obtained Indian cadetships
at the recommendation of Lord Ashley. William went
out as Ensign in September, 1842, to Madras, and after
doing excellent service as Quartermaster and interpreter
to his regiment, died at Saugor, September n, 1850.
1 See p. 44. this time practically retired to
2 His father, the Head Master the living of Melconibe which he
of the Grammar School, had by held with the Head Mastership.
Domestic Circumstances 19
Alfred, having qualified as surgeon, went out in Sep-
tember, 1846, and after various services which became
more than ever exacting ' in the year of the Mutiny,
died at Banda, October 4, 1858. His brothers were
probably in the Master's mind when he wrote after-
wards to a cousin in India : ' I hope you know how
to live and not die in India, which I believe to be
greatly an art.'
But for the great and solid happiness of Benjamin's
election to the Balliol Fellowship in 1838, the later years
at Bath must have passed heavily with Mrs. Jowett.
Her husband's constant absence on business of uncertain
profit; the delicacy of her two younger daughters, of
whom Agnes died in 1837 ; the weakness of Frederick,
consequent on an accident in infancy, which arrested
his education, and the anxiety about ways and means
made more trying by her husband's absorption in
that unproductive labour, the metrical version of the
Psalms, which occupied him during the remainder
of his life must have weighed upon her spirits, and
induced a certain tone of depression which is noticeable
in her letters.
The younger daughter, Ellen, was already drooping,
and died shortly afterwards (1839) at Tenby, whither
they had removed for a time on her account. She was
deeply mourned, especially by John Turner, who was
attached to her, and afterwards called his eldest child
by her name.
If we except the promise of the cadetships which were
due to the connexion with Lord Ashley, the father's
prospect of improving the fortunes of his household was
not encouraging. His philanthropic employments, his
leader-writing, his advice to authors, and other ' incidental
C 2
20 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP i
work/ such as the Secretaryship of the Church Exten-
sion Society, had all given way before the fascination of
the metrical Psalter.
In 1841 Mrs. Jowett and Emily returned from Bath
to Blackheath with Alfred and "William l y whose Indian
careers were now in prospect, and towards the end of
1842 removed to Teignmouth. By this time William
was in India, and Alfred must have been ' walking the
Hospitals' in London. In 1846 (Alfred also being now
in India) the home trio, father, mother, and surviving
daughter, took up their abode in a neatly furnished
apartment on the fifth floor of a house in the Rue
Madeleine in Paris, spending the summer months
mostly at St. Germains or Fontainebleau. In 1848 they
were driven by fear of the Revolution to sojourn for
a while at Bonn and Aix-la-Chapelle. But they soon
returned to their old quarters, and in 1850 were visited
there by Mr. F. T. Palgrave, who has thus recorded his
impressions :
'Mr. Jowett had some theories upon Milton's rules of
versification, in which he took great interest, and tried to
set them forth for me. He looked like a man rather past
middle age, and had the manner, more easily recognized
than denned, of one who had not been successful in his
profession. . . . The mother (venerated as much by Jowett
as the father) was a pale, white, graciously dignified lady
of about her husband's age ; her voice, her features, her
bearing, wore the air of a long, perfect, uncomplaining resigna-
tion 2 . The sister, apparently rather younger than the Master,
was also of a thoughtful cast of mind. She had a true feeling
for music, and used to play for me, when I called, several
1 During this brief sojourn Mammas, fell to talking about
at Blackheath, Lord Lingen's their sons at Oxford.'
mother, in visiting her sister, 2 This was the year in which
Mrs. Rea, met Mrs. Jowett, ' and William and Frederick died,
the two, after the manner of
Mrs. Jowett 21
little pieces, which she kindly copied in a writing fine and
clear, much akin to her brother's.'
In removing to Paris they appear to have been guided
by the advice of Benjamin, who had already begun to
contribute largely towards the support of his mother
and sister. In this action, after a few years, he was
nobly seconded by the sons in India, who before 1850
had arranged to remit considerable sums out of their
pay, to lighten the burden which 'their brother had so
long borne.'
After the death of William Jowett in 1850, quickly
followed by that of poor Frederick, who had been left
in England under proper care, Mrs. Jowett's letters to
Alfred in India have a somewhat plaintive tone, but they
also evince a noble calmness of resignation and a loving
spirit of conciliation. The conditions of the little house-
hold were made more difficult by the step which Emily
took about this time, in being received into the Roman
Catholic Communion. This was due to the influence of
their most intimate acquaintances in Paris, the Cruick-
shanks, who were friends of long standing and neighbours
in the same house. Helen Cruickshank and Emily were
fast friends, and Helen's brother was a priest, having
joined the Roman Catholic Church while still a youth.
Mrs. Jowett partly sympathized with Emily; she had
found comfort for herself in Bossuet and Fenelon l ; and
her letters to her son Alfred show some indication of
what was passing in her mind. The father no doubt
1 Jowett wrote to A. P. Stanley time I told Mrs. Stanley I had
in 1856 : ' If you go over to reason to think she would be-
St. Germains, my mother would, come a Roman Catholic, but that
I think, like to see you. . . . She phase has passed away with her,
is much worn with care and years, ending in universal charity to
and I cannot expect that she all the world.'
should live much longer. At one
22
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
remonstrated, but, absorbed in his unprofitable task,
seems to have left his wife and daughter very much to
themselves. He would shut himself up in his study,
even in the evenings, which had heretofore been en-
livened with Emily's exquisite playing on the piano. In
early days she had been used to accompany her father,
who had a fine bass voice. So things continued for some
years; but prices rose under the Empire, and living in
Paris became more difficult. The metrical Psalter, too, was
approaching completion. At last, in 1856, the 'trio' are
found at Dover for a while. Here Mrs. Jowett's letters
reveal fresh uncertainties, and speculations about trying
Germany again. But before the spring, all shadows had
cleared away, and the wish of the mother's heart was
gratified by their returning to their former lodgings
at Tenby. Emily shrank from the scene of old sorrows,
but Mrs. Jowett found comfort in being there, in the
house of Mrs. Lewis, who had known and been kind to
her daughter Ellen. She was again much alone, through
the temporary absence of Emily, in attendance on her
friend, Miss Cruickshank. Mr. Jowett meanwhile re-
newed his friendship with the Laws of Kennington l , the
Channells, and Dr. Blundell (who gave him an annuity
of 40), and at last he published anonymously, with
Samuel Bagster and Sons, A New Metrical Translation
of the Book of Psalms 2 .
In 1857, the year of the Indian Mutiny, deep anxiety
was naturally felt on Alfred's account. He sent his usual
remittance in that year, but died in October of the
year following. His father survived him by only six
1 See Mr. F. Law's account on notion of chanting common
p. 27. English metres. Mr. Jowett had
2 The work is by no means learned enough Hebrew to make
contemptible, although doomed elaborate use of English Corn-
to failure by the impracticable mentaries on the original Text.
His Father's Character 23
months, and was buried at Tenby in March, 1859. The
inscription on his tombstone is probably from the hand
of his son :
'He was greatly beloved for his simple
and disinterested character.'
In one sense it may be said of him that he was too
disinterested. He cared nearly as much for the things
of others as for his own. When Sir "W. Channell was
made a judge, he was hardly less rejoiced, and certainly
much less surprised, than he would have been if Benjamin
had been made a bishop. He seems to have worked
most effectively when he was labouring on behalf of
some one else. While he inherited, even to overflowing,
the traditions of Methodism, he managed to combine
them with a kindly and intelligent outlook upon the
world at large. But his mind was like an eye which
cannot be focussed upon nearer objects. His letters to
Australia are pamphlets on the treatment of Aborigines.
Those to India during the Mutiny are full of just re-
flections on the situation the views are excellent, if
they were not aimed from so far off and they are not
without a family likeness to many passages in his son's
private letters in which he expatiates on home and
foreign politics from a speculative point of view.
Emily speaks of her father with real affection, but
complains that he has so little power of understanding
others or of being understood. Too pliable where firm-
ness was required, he was persistent even to obstinacy
in unpractical ways : a precisian in unimportant matters,
but without much real power of command. He seems
always to have been too little demonstrative at home.
His children hardly saw the best side of his nature : and
the effect of this reserve upon his son Benjamin is not
to be ignored. An unchecked flow of love and confidence,
24 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
and the frank expression of a just pride in the achieve-
ments of his son, might have given a different turn
to some aspects of that son's after-life. Though he was
passionately fond of music, his daughter's playing drew
from him no praise. While affectionately solicitous for
his children's highest welfare, as he conceived it, he
was superstitiously afraid of exciting their vanity by
open encouragement. The Master, in later life, spoke
of his father as having been ' one of the most innocent
of men.' Mr. F. Law, who remembers him well, says,
'He was a lovable old man. I never heard him say
a harsh word of any one.'
After her husband's death, Mrs. Jowett with her
daughter Emily resided at Torquay, where she was
soothed and consoled for her past trials by the devotion
of her two surviving children. She died there October 16,
1869, only a few months before it became a certainty that
her son was to be the Master of Balliol. Those who
knew her during these years describe her as a dignified
and gracious lady of the old school 1 . Her alabaster
complexion, touched with shell-pink, was often suffused
with a girlish blush at some casual surprise. Her simple
black dress, with a white shawl, and a white drawn
satin bonnet, setting off her slim upright figure, made
a beautiful picture of refined old age. Her manner
retained much of its early charm, for young as well as
for old, and she was a favourite with children. She
would not be photographed, and never sat for her picture
although her son desired it. Her niece, Henry Lang-
horne's daughter, has spoken of her as she was in early
days, describing her as 'gentle, sweet, highly educated
in every way, and so devotedly attached to her children
that she sacrificed everything for their sakes, being so
1 This is the impression of Lady Lingen, who saw her at Torquay.
His Sister Emily 25
constantly with them that it was not easy to see her.'
Another hint of the impression which she made on those
nearest to her is afforded by a letter of Mr. Courthope's,
after his wife's death, to his daughter Elizabeth Irwin
in Australia, May 10, 1840 :
' I feel much the absence of your dear Aunt Bella, so cheerful
and affectionate, with sweet feminine person and mind. I fear
that while supporting and consoling others, she had tired
herself too much. I never felt more the distance between
us. Dear Ben is an excellent fellow, so fond of her and so
kind to his beloved mother, it is gratifying to see it.'
With all this softness and amiability she was not
without a touch of womanly pride. On the whole she
well deserves Queen Katharine's praise of 'a great
patience ' ; having borne the vicissitudes of a chequered
lot with meekness and dignity.
Emily survived her mother thirteen years. She lived
quietly, kept up her accomplishment in music, and saw
her brother from time to time, visiting him more than
once at Balliol. She suffered from a stroke of paralysis
in 1880, and spent her remaining time with her cousins
the Irwins at Clifton, in whose house she died in 1882 1 .
She was devoted to her family, above all to her mother,
from whom she was never separated for long together,
and when her brothers went to India she parted with her
share of Mrs. Smith's bequest, in order to furnish them
forth. She was exquisitely refined, but shy and diffident,
above all in the presence of her brother, under whom her
' genius was subdued.' It is said that she could not do
herself justice even in playing the piano before him ; and
when her cousins were inclined to mock at the pomposity
of some Oxford personage, she mustered courage to reply,
' My brother has a high opinion of him.'
1 Mrs. Irwin had died in April of the same year.
26 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, i
In hours of gloom and misunderstanding she loved to
dwell on the earlier days of free and joyous intercourse,
which could never be recalled.
An impression long prevailed at Oxford that Jowett
had no family ties. It used to be jestingly said that he
was like Melchizedec, 'without father, without mother,
without descent.' When one of the Irwin cousins who
was in business at Madras declared his relationship, the
Governor, an old Balliol man, professed to regard him as
a prodigy : ' I thought he had no relatives V Mr. F. T.
Palgrave was almost equally surprised when, on Jowett's
invitation, he was introduced (as above mentioned) to the
little family party in the Rue Madeleine in the summer
of 1850.
The mistake was due to the profound silence in
which Jowett habitually buried what was personal to
himself. Only at rare moments of intimate converse,
under some exceptional stress of feeling, the veil was
lifted, and disclosed the treasures within. Still less
could it be divined that in later years his thoughts were
occupied with his own family. And yet to more than
1 This impression appears to stories of his childhood how-
have been shared even by Arthur deeply historical he then was,
Stanley until, at Jowett's own re- studying Rollin's Ancient History,
quest, he paid a visit to the little well versed in Assyrian dynasties,
menage at St. Germains in March, standing long in silent contempla-
1856. He wrote to (Canon) Hugh tion of a " Stream of Time " sus-
Pearson: ' On Saturday last I went pended in his little bedroom. . . .
to St. Germains, and saw the Deeply musical also, he listens
parents of Melchizedec! a truly with pleasure to Beethoven played
antique and venerable pair, each by his sister, while at work, and
bearing a slight resemblance to even proposes corrections.' Let-
the son, each with some of the ters of Dean Stanley, p. 248. This
qualities in him concentrated; visit of Stanley's took place a short
very kind and rapt in interest con- time before the parents' return to
cerning him, relating singular England.
Mr. F. Law's Reminiscences 27
one friend who suffered from bereavement after speaking
of those of his kindred whom he had lost he wrote:
' I do not expect to see them again, but I am always
thinking about them.'
Mr. F. Law, whose father and the Master's father were
friends, as mentioned above, has favoured us with the
following reminiscences :
' My mother's family had been on very intimate terms with
the family of the late Master, from the early part of the
century 1 . There was not much difference in the ages of
the children, and the two daughters Ellen and Emily Jowett
were amongst my mother's greatest friends ; the friendship
continued after my mother's marriage, and until death put
an end to it.
' My earliest distinct recollections of the Jowetts date back
to 1841, when we were living at Blackheath. Mr. and Mrs.
Jowett, with their surviving daughter Emily and their younger
sons, came to live near us. Mrs. Jowett was not a strong
woman ; in fact, during the rest of her life she was always
delicate, requiring constant care, and she did not go out
much ; but Mr. Jowett or some of his children came to
our house several times a week, and in the course of our
daily walks we were frequently taken to see Mr. and
Mrs. Jowett. Mr. Jowett was not then in business. Ben
was settled at Oxford, and Alfred and William were working
for their future careers in life.
' Mr. Jowett was tall and carried himself well, and as he
had a large face and head, with a quantity of white hair,
which was worn longer than is usual at the present day,
he was conspicuous in a room. His face was entirely shaven.
When I first remember him, he invariably dressed in black,
and usually wore a dress coat, and, until his latter days,
1 This must have been during Peckham Lane. Mrs. Law was a
the Jowetts' early married life at younger sister of the late Baron
Peckham, where the Channells Channell.
also lived, at the corner of
28 Life of Benjamin Jowett
he very rarely put on a great-coat, whatever the weather
might be. He was still active and fond of walking, and
took his constitutional with great regularity till age interfered
with his doing so. Though not a teetotaler, he was most
temperate as regards stimulants. On general subjects he was
a well-informed man, and had an extensive knowledge of
the English Poets. I do not remember his showing any
acquaintance with foreign authors. Still he certainly knew
the French language, in which he could converse fluently,
although his accent, I imagine, was very English. From
time to time he would write a few hymns, and paraphrases
of portions of Scripture, and sometimes set them to music ;
but, so far as I can recall, his translation of the Psalms
was the only thing he published. His handwriting was some-
what cramped, and the formation of his letters small and not
regular, though he gave much time to his pen.
' He was very fond of sacred music, caring little about
secular I do not remember his voice until it was failing
him ; it must have been a powerful and deep bass in its
prime and he was never happier than when he could get
some one to accompany him in the songs from Handel's and
Mendelssohn's Oratorios, to which he would sing by the hour,
without seeming to tire. He himself only touched the piano
when none of the ladies were at hand to accompany him.
' Though not devoid of imagination and sentiment, Mr. Jowett
had not much originality of thought, and was by no means
inclined to develope any new theories, whether in reference
to religious or secular matters.
' Upon political matters, his views were strongly Conservative.
He was a very regular attendant at Divine Service, and a good
Churchman according to his own belief as one of the old
Orthodox School of thinkers. He did not obtrude his opinions
upon others ; but, proud as he was, and he was very proud
of his son's success at Balliol, his most intimate friends under-
stood that he entirely dissented from and deeply regretted his
son's convictions upon these points.'
CHAPTER II
INFANCY AND BOYHOOD. 1817-1836
EARLY training and companionships Camberwell Blackheath
Mitcham Entrance at St. Paul's School at the age of twelve
Dr. Sleath and his methods School-fellows and school successes
The Balliol Scholarship ' Apposition Day.'
T?ROM the preceding survey of two hundred years
-- we return to the second decade of this century,
and to the child Benjamin. He, who all his life was
the friend of children, must have had a happy child-
hood ; but few traces of it can be recovered now. There
is a family rumour or tradition that he was brought up
by two maiden aunts, but if there is any foundation for
this, it must be extremely slight. Mrs. Jowett was
never very strong, and in the years from 1820-1823 her
maternal cares may have been largely engrossed by little
Frank, who died at four years old. Benjamin was then
a child of five or six, and would be often at his grand-
father's, much petted by his father's sisters, Elizabeth
and Maria, after the grave and solemn manner of that
household. Their cousin, Mrs. Whiting (Henry of Little
Dunham's daughter), was often heard to remark on the
docility and gentleness of the child.
But this state of things ceased, as we know, in 1823,
when the old home at Camberwell Green was broken
30 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
up for the removal to Liverpool 1 . In the years which
followed it is unlikely that the boy owed much to
any one except his mother. No doubt there were visits
to his uncle Henry Langhorne at Mitcham, whose good
looks he was supposed to inherit, and to the Courthopes'
house at Blackheath Hill. There he was seen by some
who long remembered it, 'a bright and merry child,
running about on Blackheath Common.' An early recol-
lection, which came back to him in his last years, although
of trivial import, may be touched in passing. He re-
membered that when a child, he had been made to
stand upon the table after dinner and to repeat poetry
for the entertainment of the guests. At Mitcham, as
the years went on, he also received some of his
earlier lessons in Latin and Greek from the tutor who
was employed in teaching his cousins. Miss Lang-
horne (H. Langhorne's daughter) writes : ' He was a
pale, delicate-looking boy, of unusual mental precocity,
and he learned for a while with my brothers' tutor,
Mr. Richardson. I have heard them say that they had
no chance against him in their Greek lessons.' At
other times it is said that his father used to instruct
him 2 . The visits to Blackheath Hill were of a more
holiday kind ; but sometimes, while the other children
were at play, young Benjamin would be stretched upon
the hearth-rug with Pope's Homer or a volume of Rollin's
Ancient History.
If there were bright memories associated with those
early playmates, there were also sad ones. Four of the
Courthope cousins, Jane, Fanny, Emma, and Harriet,
died before reaching the age of twenty-five. Emma
1 p. 9. hithe, who told it to her grandson.
2 The authority for this is Mrs. the Rev. R. B. Gardiner, now a
Thomas Courthope, of Rother- master at St. Paul's School.
1817-1836] Infancy and Boyhood 31
and Harriet were of an age to be companions of Emily
and Benjamin. They were accomplished young women,
with a great natural gift for drawing. Sidney Court-
hope, nearly of the same age with Benjamin, early
became an invalid. He died shortly after his father,
in 1845. His cousin Benjamin was very attentive to
him during his illness.
Speaking of the years after 1826, when Henry Lang-
horne had removed to Clapham, Miss Langhorne says :
'It was customary for Benjamin to shut himself up with
his sister Emily in a room with their books, where they
spent hours in close study together.' Emily was a good
Latin scholar.
It is obvious, from the previous chapter, that the
family life, though attended with some degree of religious
severity, was' cheered with graceful music, with the com-
panionship of books, and an atmosphere of liberal culture.
The force of home impressions appears in the delicate and
characteristic handwriting which Jowett long retained
in spite of school exercises, University essays, and other
causes usually destructive of such an accomplishment.
This was evidently learned from his mother, who wrote
the finest of 'Italian' hands, and as late as 1844 his
writing closely resembled that of his sister l .
The poet most in favour with that household, as with
others of a similar type, was naturally William Cowper.
When a lady who met Jowett at 0. Bowen's 2 house in
Chester Square (at some time in the seventies) happened
to quote Cowper, he said, ' I was brought up on Cowper ' ;
and they continued for good part of an hour repeating
familiar lines without exhausting cither's repertory.
1 It appears, however, that Mr. ticular about the neatness of
Bean, his master during his first exercises,
year at St. Paul's, was very par- 2 Lord Bowen.
32 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
St. Paul's School, 1829-1836.
Jowett was admitted into St. Paul's School June 16,
1829, on the nomination of Thomas Osborne of the Mercers'
Company, Surveyor-Accountant of St. Paul's School,
who is said to have been an engraver and printer at
72 Lombard Street. Benjamin was now twelve years old,
and in consequence missed some advantages which would
have been secured by entering two years earlier. His
previous education, whatever it was, must have been fairly
efficient, for he was placed high on entrance, and rose
rapidly in the school. There were eight forms then as
now, and he was entered in the sixth, where he remained
only for one year. The High Master at this time was
Dr. John Sleath, of Wadham College, Oxford. He held the
post from 1814-1837, and during that time gained much
credit for the school, which was not then regarded at
the Universities as on a level with the great public
schools. He used to say, ' I do not profess to be a good
scholar, but I make my scholars polish one another 1 .'
The ' Sur-master ' was a Mr. "W. A. C. Durham (commonly
called ' Whack Durham '), but Jowett never came under
him, as the sixth were taught by Dr. Sleath's assistant,
Mr. John Phillips Bean. The hours of school-work in
those days were from seven or eight to eleven or
twelve in the morning, and from two to four in the
afternoon three days a week. In the interval Benjamin,
who had his own separate lodging (it was a lonely boy-
hood), used to be taken by his father to dine at some
literary chop-house, such as 'The Cheshire Cheese.' The
habitues of the place were embarrassed by the presence
1 In this boast he was more others. Sleath had been private
than justified, having amongst his tutor to Walter Savage Landor
former pupils such men as Prince when a boy at Rugby.
Lee, Canon Blakesley, and many
1817-1836] At St. Paul's School 33
of the boy, the more so as the father would 'put him
through his facings ' in their hearing.
There is a tradition that at first coming to school
young Jowett was more distinguished in Mathematics
than in Classics (there was little mathematical teaching
then in St. Paul's), but he must have made marked
progress in Greek studies before 1833, in which year
several of his Greek exercises were copied into the
school album or 'playbook,' entitled Musae Paulinae,
where they are still preserved 1 . They are not without
school-boy errors (which to the credit of the authorities
remain uncorrected), but they already show a fine sense
of literary form, and a true feeling for Greek tragedy ;
and as they are not translations, but original compositions
on set themes, they evince no little resource and dexterity
in a boy of sixteen. The following epigram in elegiacs
the other exercises are all in iambics may be quoted as
a sample of his youthful invention :
In Mercurii Imaginem.
*fl </>i'Aos, ei KCIKOS ef, Xafle //,' es X*P as > e ' ^' a/^Aeis /*ov,
/LIT) (TV, xAoTrevs Trep cwv, K\i\l/ov o /AT) voecis*
<rot Se <t'Aos rots (rolcri T e</>w eyne 8' cir^o^ai clvai
TOtCTl KaXoLfTL KdKOV, TOL(Tl Ka/COMTl KdX6v 2 -
1 Cf. Gr. R. Kingdon, S. J., in the captain standing aside, Sleath
The Pauline, 1884 : 'Now and then would say in his most solemn
the High Master would say to the tone, " There will be a play
captain just before the end of to-day for the good compositions
morning school-time, " Fetch the of. . .," whatever the names of the
playbook." Then we knew that favoured ones happened to be. . . .
we were in for a half-holiday ; The particular compositionswhich
and at the sight of the big, gained the half-holiday had to
morocco-bound, gilt-edged book be written out in the playbook,
brought in from the library, there for the admiration of future
would be a deal of finger-snapping generations, or, perhaps, more
among the smaller boys. Taking often for their amusement.'
the book on his arm at prayer-time, 2 I have thrown in the accents,
VOL. I. D
34 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
(Inscription for a statue of Mercury.
'Are you a rogue? Then take me in your hand.
But steal me not before you understand.
I am your friend ! a god of varying mood,
Kind to bad men, but evil to the good.' L. C.)
Puerile as the verses are, and not quite accurate, they
have something in them of the sly simplicity which
marked many of Jowett's sayings in after life.
In these years he formed the habits of industry, of
neatness, and of methodical study, which never left him.
The teachableness, which he always regarded as the best
sign of promise in boyhood, must have been strongly
characteristic of him ; and the rarity of outdoor amuse-
ments, of which the educational value was then little
recognized, also left its impress on his after career. In
compensation for this want he early became a voracious
reader. He would 'fly upon a new book,' as he once
told me, and in the holidays passed with his sister at
Blackheath or Clapham this taste must have been in-
dulged to the full. The habit of learning poetry by
which had been omitted accord- edition :
ing to a fashion of the day. It ' Epigramma, fortasse sepul-
is worth observing that in a crale, ex persona Thucydidis, ad
truly mercurial spirit the form calcem codicis Augustani adiec-
of the epigram is 'conveyed' from turn' (v. Jacobsii Anthol. gr. t. 4,
one on Thucydides, quoted by p. 231).
Bothe in the preface to his
Q (pi\os, ei <ro(f>os fi, Xa/3e /t' ts X*P as ' ' &* ire<pvicas
vrfis Mov<rd(oi>, pfyov a p.?) voids.
elp.1 yap ov ndvTfa<ri $aror, Travpot 8' dyd&aiTO
'OXdpou, KcKpO7ri8rjv TO yevos.
(Friend, art thou learn'd ? Then take me in your hand :
But if unlearn'd, stay till you understand :
Few find their way in me ; the many scorn
The son of Olorus, Athenian born. L. C.)
1817-1836] At St. Paul's School 35
heart was at that time far more cultivated than it is
now, both at school and in enlightened homes. One of
his latest recollections was that he and Emily had once
tried who could first commit to memory a thousand lines
of VirgiL Before he left St. Paul's he could repeat
the greater part of Virgil and Sophocles, probably also
the Trilogy and Prometheus of Aeschylus. He never
regretted this, although he sometimes wished that the
same attention had been given to English literature.
But he had more of English verse at his command
than is at all common nowadays, and could recite long
passages from his favourite authors. His intimate
familiarity with Shakespeare came later.
The teaching at St. Paul's appears to have been well
adapted, if not to produce the extreme accuracy of verbal
scholarship for which (some years after this) other great
schools were famous, at least to imbue the minds of boys
with a genuine love of literature. And one method
was in use, that of retranslating from English into the
original Latin or Greek, in which Jowett himself always
firmly believed.
A characteristic anecdote is told of his early school life.
A statute of the foundation, by which a boy who had
been absent more than a certain number of days for-
feited his place in the school, was about to be revived.
A comrade of Benjamin's was running dangerously near
the limit, and was supposed to be unaware of the declared
intention to put the rule in force. At this boy's home
in some far-lying suburb, the bell was rung late at night,
and a small figure was found on the doorstep. It was
little Benjamin, who had walked for many miles to
warn his friend of the danger he was incurring.
The following reminiscences contributed by persons
D 2,
36 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
who were at St. Paul's with Jowett will be read with
interest :
i. The Eight Eev. C. E. Alford, late Bishop of Victoria,
who was a class-fellow of Jowett's, writes (July 4,
1894):-
'His image as a youth is still before me, a slim weakly
figure, gentle and polished in manner, keen eyes, very intelli-
gent countenance. In reading and construing he had a clear
expressive voice, and in class he spoke out as one who knew
what he meant to say. I only remember Jowett in the eighth,
i. e. in the first class of the school under Dr. Sleath. I think
he stood second boy, and was much associated with Arthur
Shelly Eddis, the captain of our year. Eddis and Jowett had
the charge of, and chiefly occupied together the School Library,
located in the old buildings, between the High Master's house
and the great schoolroom. They seldom appeared in school
except at prayer-time and when we assembled around and
before the table of the High Master in class. Eddis was
Chancellor's Medallist of his year (1839), Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, Professor in Lincoln's Inn, and Judge at
Clerkenwell County Court. As captain, Eddis always took the
lead, daily reading the Latin school prayers from the step of
the dai's on which the High Master's chair was placed
Dr. Sleath, in cap and gown, standing behind him a figure
of great presence and commanding appearance.
'. . . I can call to mind Jowett's return to school after his
successful competition for the Balliol Scholarship. We boys
held up our heads an inch or two higher than we did before,
and it was a sight worth beholding to gaze on the beaming
countenance of our dear old High Master, Dr. Sleath, whose
frown was dreaded, but whose smile of approval and encourage-
ment, never grudgingly bestowed, was a joy and coveted
reward.
' I remember one personal circumstance with pleasure. On
my wedding-day (1841) I alighted at the Great Western Eailway
Station, Paddington, with my wife, and as chance would have
it, as I got out of the carriage at the station Jowett was there !
1817-1836] At St. Paul's School 37
He greeted me warmly, was introduced to my wife, and as
he shook hands with us both wished us all happiness. We
travelled by the same train to Oxford. This was the last
occasion on which we spoke to one another. Some forty years
after, I saw him and heard him say a few words at an " Apposi-
tion " at St. Paul's School, West Kensington. Then he was
an elderly, venerable man in figure and feature and speech, the
Master of Balliol ; but still he reminded me much of old
St. Paul's School and the youthful scholar of 1836.'
2. From the Eev. John B. Brodrick, Hector of Sneaton,
near Whitby, April 9, 1894: ..
' There was so much difference between my standing and
Jowett's as to prevent our having any very intimate intercourse,
and the higher we got in the school the fewer those intimacies
became. My recollection of him at Paul's is of a pretty-looking
boy-youth who wore a perpetual sort of green sateen which
never got, in my time, to the dignity of a coat-tail, but stuck
to the less dignified one of a jacket. He never associated much
with anybody, and on the strength of his looks we used to call
him, though perhaps not to his knowledge, " Miss Jowett." We
used to put him up to say curious things to old Sleath, which
would certainly not lead that scholastic divine to predicate
anything like what was the real future of his simple-minded
pupil. . . . The only thing in the least memorable that I
bear in mind is that on one occasion I, along with another
class companion, went either with or for Jowett to that
historical spot, Bolt Court, where Jowett Senior was then
living, and the door was opened by William Cobbett, who
sported a tricolour ribbon in his button-hole, which then meant
a little more than it would do now. . . .'
3. From Baron 0. E. Pollock, May 18, 1894 :
' I joined the school September 30, 1833, at the age of nine.
Jowett was then in the highest class, the eighth, and con-
sequently a monitor. . . . My brother, George Pollock (now
Queen's Eemembrancer), remembers going with Jowett to see
his father's printing-press in Bolt Court. ... I can myself
38 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
remember Jowett when in the eighth class, a very young-
looking boy with round face and bright eyes, retiring in
manner, but holding his own, and much respected. Barham
and my brother Kobert used to speak of him as "the boy
Jowett," and made fun of his journeys to Oxford outside the
coach and his supposed conversation with the guard.
' On one occasion, when Jowett was in the seventh, he was
struck by a boy bigger than himself but of inferior capacity.
This was immediately resented by his other school-fellows, who
treated it as an offence and thrashed the bigger boy.'
4. From the Rev. John Couchman, of Thornby Rectory,
near Rugby, who was Jowett's class-fellow :
'Concerning Jowett's schooldays, I have not much to say.
He was of a very taciturn and gentle disposition, more devoted
to books than to play : but as far as I remember his quiet
disposition gained him many friends amongst his school-fellows
and no enemies : he was what we all called " a very nice
fellow," and got on very well and amicably with us all. . . .
Dr. Sleath told me that he thought Jowett to be the best Latin
scholar he had ever sent to College. . . . Personally I had
always a great regard for him/
Amongst his contemporaries at school, in the eighth
form, were the late Lord Hannen; Charles C. Roberts,
of Trinity College, Cambridge, Assistant Master at
St. Paul's ; Arthur Shelly Eddis, Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, Judge of the Clerkenwell County Court ; Robert
John Pollock, Trinity College, Cambridge, of the Madras
Light Cavalry, and afterwards of the Inner Temple (who
died in 1853) ; R. H. D. Barham, Rector of Lulworth,
and author of the biography of his father, R. H. Barham
(' Thomas Ingoldsby ') ; C. J. Clay, Printer to the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. This list makes it readily understood
why Benjamin Jowett, when head of the school, began
to turn his thoughts to Trinity College, Cambridge.
But the suggestion that he should try at Balliol,
1817-1836] The Balliol Scholarship 39
which, had come to Mrs. Jowett in the way already
described *, had the approval of Dr. Sleath, and it was
no doubt the more readily acted on from the fact that
John Turner, of Bath, who had been at Winchester
School, was already at Oxford. At all events it was
expected that Turner should take some charge of his
young friend ; and as the latter had not been recently
at Bath, and might have grown out of knowledge, it
was arranged that when he met the coach, John should
recognize Benjamin by the colour of his tie 2 .
The following anecdote connected with Jowett's elec-
tion to the Scholarship is given in the words of the
Rev. Hay S. Escott 3 , who was a witness of the incident,
having gained an Exhibition the same year :
' On the morning after our election we met by appointment
in the Master's dining-room to pay him a formal visit.
Dr. Jenkyns had not yet appeared, and Jowett had seated
himself on a chair in the bay-window overlooking the chapel
quadrangle, arrayed in academicals, then first put on for the
purpose of Matriculation. But, alas ! he had forgotten that the
college cap was only intended for protection out of doors, and
it was still on his head when the door suddenly opened,
and the Master with his usual quick, jerking step swung
himself into the room. Then apparently startled, and inflamed
with real or simulated passion, he attacked without mercy the
innocent young Scholar for so flagrant a breach of the primary
laws of good breeding. "Do my eyes deceive me, or do I see
a gentleman in my dining-room with his cap on ? " The whole
scene was most painful, and the impression it made on me is
indelible. It was one of those occasions on which Dr. Jenkyns
showed his want of sympathy, of the power of appreciating
other minds, and of allowing for circumstances. But his good
feelings quickly came to his aid, and he commenced a more
1 p. 18. had visited him not long before.
2 John Turner became a parish 8 Rector of Kilve, Somerset ;
clergyman, Vicar of Hennock, late Head Master of Somerset
Devon, and died in 1858. Jowett College, Bath.
40 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
friendly and complimentary address, by the half- jesting, half-
sarcastic remark "I suppose it was the novelty of the bauble."
These were the ipsissima verba 1 .'
A welcome glimpse of him in the Christmas vacation
following his election to the Scholarship, and his entrance
at Balliol, is afforded by the Rev. Henry Holden,
Rector of South Luffenham, who was then a Balliol
Scholar of three years' standing. Dr. Holden begins
his recollections from the time of the election. He
says :
' My first acquaintance with him was when he was elected
Scholar at the usual examination in November, 1835, from
St. Paul's School a school at that time not of very high
classical repute, but which has since gradually risen to distinction
inferior to none amongst our greatest schools. I well remember
introducing myself, on the evening of his election, to the
slightly built, curly-headed lad, who seemed the last candidate
likely to gain what was then considered the blue ribbon of
scholarship, nearly all other colleges at that time confining
their privileges to Counties and Founders' kin. The acquain-
tance thus commenced was increased during the subsequent
winter vacation, when, being in London, I frequently visited
him at his lodgings in the City Eoad. He had attended
St. Paul's School as a day-scholar, being one of the 153 Founda-
tioners, and remained even during vacations in London, to
avoid the expense of long journeys to a distant home.
Dr. Sleath was then Head Master, and it was by his advice
that he was sent to try for the Scholarship. All that I then
saw of him bore testimony to his industry, frugality, and
simplicity of character. We worked together frequently during
that winter vacation. When I returned to Oxford he continued
1 This tale is confirmed, with in W. G. Ward and the Oxford
some slight variations, in a letter Movement, p. 441 : 'He was a con-
from the Rev. H. C. Adams, Vicar siderable actor, and would put on
of Shoreham, and late Fellow of severe looks to terrify freshmen,
Magdalen College, Oxford. Cf. but was really kind-hearted and
Jowett's own remark on Jenkyns indulgent to them.'
1817-1836]
Paul's
at St. Paul's School, and I saw nothing more of him till he came
into residence at Balliol.'
When in December, 1835, he returned to London,
bringing with him the ' blue ribbon ' of Oxford, an
honour which no Pauline had at that time won, young
Jowett at St. Paul's was a distinguished figure. There
are contemporaries who still remember how, after his
return, he used to be assailed from all sides whenever
he passed among the younger boys in school, with cries
of 'Give us a construe,' a request with which he com-
plied as far as he could *. Now also he must have taken
a leading place in the little debating society to which
he belonged, and which met somewhere about St. Paul's
Churchyard 2 .
The school was under the shadow of the great cathedral,
and one lasting impression, which may be with con-
fidence referred to this early period, was his love of
classical architecture, and in particular his reverence for
Sir Christopher Wren 3 . Nothing delighted him more in
after years than to take his guests to the Library of All
Souls, Oxford, and to go over with them the various
1 G. R. Kingdon, S.J., in The
Pauline, 1884 : ' The eighth were
supposed to have so many books in
use that their ownlockers were not
enough for them. Consequently
they were allowed the use of the
unoccupied ones on the bottom
bench of some of the lower forms.
I remember when I was in the
second, the boys on the bench
just above the bottom used to take
advantage of a monitor's coming
down to his locker, and coax him
to translate a lesson for them.
I can almost hear myself now,
when stooping under the desk
I would urge my petition : " I say
Jowett, give us a con., there's a
good fellow ! " Jowett was captain
at the time. He was always too
good-natured to refuse, and with
his locker open would translate
Valpy's Delectus for me " straight
oif," to my great satisfaction.'
2 The Rev. W. Guillemard, late
Rector of St. Mary the Less, Cam-
bridge, told me of this in 1880.
L. C.
3 He once heard Sydney Smith
preach in St. Paul's. See Benja-
min Jowett, by L. A. Tollemache,
p. 14.
42 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, n
plans for the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, copies
of which are there preserved.
He very rarely made any reference to his school days,
but eagerly embraced opportunities of renewing ac-
quaintance with old Paulines, and, when occasion served,
he spoke affectionately of those that were gone. In the
light of after years his boyhood does not seem to have
been regarded by him as, on the whole, a time of bright-
ness or of enjoyment. The pleasures which it had for
him lay chiefly in the region of his studies.
The spirit of self-culture, of loyalty and devotion,
of generous and manly ambition, mingled with a pious
aspiration to be doing good, already lay warmly at his
heart. But his hold upon life and upon the outer
world was weakest at the first, and grew steadily with
the increase of his years and the widening of his
opportunities.
In a familiar letter of i86i,he writes, with a humorous
turn which hides a serious meaning : ' No day passes
in which I don't feel the defects of early education.
I was never taught how to play at cards, or even at
billiards, and it seems too late to repair the error now.
Do you think I could learn to waltz ? '
Partly no doubt from the circumstance that his school-
fellows mostly went to Cambridge, no life-long friendship
seems to have been made by him at school.
In one respect, however, the system at St. Paul's was
well suited to prepare the cleverer boys for making their
mark in after life. The ' speeches ' on ' Apposition
Day ' were so managed as to give something like a real
training in elocution. School lessons were suspended for
the rehearsals, which were serious things. ' On one
occasion,' says an old Pauline 1 , 'during the delivery of
1 G. R. Kingdon, S.J., in The Pauline for March, 1884.
1817-1836] Apposition Day 43
a dialogue from Milton's Samson Agonistes, the boy who
personated Harapha, in the line
"I am of Gath, men call me Harapha/'
put rather too much emphasis on men. Sleath instantly
thundered out, " And what do women call you ? " I need
not say that the criticism was appreciated.'
Young Jowett's appearance at his last ' Apposition ' (i. e
Founder's) ' Day ' is thus recorded in the Times of May 6,
1836:
'The Apposition of the Scholars of St. Paul's School took
place yesterday. We had the misfortune not to be present
at the early part of the proceedings, which commenced with
speeches in Greek, Latin, and English, in commemoration
of the founder, by Messrs. Jowett, Wright, and Jephson, the
three senior scholars. Then followed the prize compositions,
Her ad Emmaum in Latin Hexameters, and Fatale Jephthae
Votum in Greek Trimeter Iambics, both by Mr. Jowett, the
senior scholar. . . . We may here remark that gesticulation
appears to be very properly more encouraged at this than at
other public schools, and under the guidance of excellent taste,
rarely, if ever, is ridiculous or degenerates into acting. . . .
The closing piece was highly entertaining ; it was a scene from
the Eanae of Aristophanes, where Bacchus (Mr. Jowett) is
alarmed by his man Xahthias (Mr. Harriott), while in the
Infernal regions, with a supposed spectre. . . . The comic
distress of the former excited much laughter even amongst that
portion of the audience customarily presumed to be ignorant
of the learned languages.'
All these distinctions did not smooth away the financial
difficulties of his entrance at Balliol. It was usual for
the head boy of St. Paul's to take with him the Campden
Exhibition of 100 a year for five years to Trinity
College, Cambridge ; but Jowett was debarred from this,
and also from other Exhibitions which were tenable
at any College in either University, by the fact that he
44
Life of Benjamin Jowett
had passed his twelfth birthday before entering the
school l . Under these circumstances his old patrons of
the Mercers' Company stepped in, and on July 14, 1836,
Jowett was elected to one of Lady North's Exhibitions,
and at the same date a small sum was given to him
by the Company as senior scholar of St. Paul's School,
on his going to College. His friends at St. Paul's be-
thought themselves of a further expedient for rewarding
him. The school library had grown to considerable
magnitude, and had not been catalogued. To this con-
genial task Jowett was appointed, and gained for it an
honorarium of 100 guineas from the Mercers' Company,
which was paid to him in 1837. Even with these
additions to the Balliol Scholarship, his means for living
at Oxford were narrow enough, and must have required
the strictest economy 2 .
1 G. R. Kingdom, S.J., in The
Pauline, 1884 : ' There were then
two Carnpden Exhibitions of 100
and 75, the holders of which must
go to Trinity College, Cambridge,
and besides these as many others
of 50 per annum as there might
be deserving candidates. These
last might be held at any College
of either University. These Ex-
hibitions, in my time, lasted for
five years. ... In order, however,
to be eligible for them, you must
have been on the foundation, i.e.
you must have been admitted
before you were ten years old.'
2 ' On February 10, 1837, ^ e
then Surveyor-Accountant laid
before the Court of the Mercers'
Company copiesof a newly printed
Catalogue of the Library of the
School, prepared by Mr. Benjamin
Jowett, late Senior Scholar, and
shortly afterwards a present of
100 guineas was made to him for
the care and attention he had
bestowed in forming an entirely
new Catalogue of the Library of
that Establishment ' (Letter from
Mr. John Watney, Secretary of
the Mercers 1 Company, April 18,
1894).
CHAPTER III
SCHOLAR AND FELLOW OF BALLIOL. 1836-1840
(Aet. 19-23)
EARLY friendships at Oxford The Hertford Latin Scholarship
A Balliol undergraduate sixty years since Reminiscences of
surviving contemporaries The Master, Richard Jenkyns, and the
Tutors, Tait and Scott The Balliol Fellowship won by the under-
graduate Scholar Work in private tuition Death of Ellen Jowett
Graduation Letters to W. A. Greenhill.
TT was the common practice then as now at Oxford
*- to interpose two or more ' Grace Terms ' between
the election to a Scholarship and coming into residence.
Accordingly the new Scholar of Balliol entered as a fresh-
man in October, 1836, being then nineteen years of age.
How or where the Summer Vacation had been spent does
not appear, except that it seems probable that part of it
had been occupied in the task of cataloguing the St. Paul's
School library. He seems to have remained at St. Paul's
until July, although his attendance there should strictly
have ended with his nineteenth birthday, April 15, or at
latest with Apposition Day.
In old age he spoke of his election to the Scholarship
as the happiest event of his life ; and his entrance on that
career at Oxford, which only terminated with his death,
46 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
cannot fail to have been accompanied with a strong
feeling of enlargement and emancipation. Yet con-
sidering the combination of enterprise and caution, of
moral intrepidity with constitutional shyness, of eager
interest in life with the most delicate refinement and
sensitiveness, which was inherent in his nature, one
cannot suppose that his freshman's term at the University
was altogether unclouded. And the difficulties of be-
ginning life at Oxford were sensibly increased for him
by the fact that, notwithstanding the Scholarship and
the liberality of the Mercers' Company, in comparison
with the public school men amongst whom he found
himself, he was decidedly poor. His first anxiety was
to gain, if possible, the Hertford University Scholarship
for Latin, and for this purpose he felt the need of extra
tuition. An unexpected gift of 20 from an anonymous
donor enabled him to read with Edward Massie of
Wadham, a Shrewsbury man who had taken the Ireland in
1828, and was known to be a successful ( coach.' Jowett
won the Hertford, to the disgust of his competitors,
who, as one of them l says, could not bear to be beaten by
1 a little puny, boyish, chubby-faced youth.' This was in
Lent Term, 1837, the same year in which A. P. Stanley
obtained the Ireland.
Jowett's first success, with the accompanying circum-
stances, produced a marked effect upon him, and was the
beginning of the earliest, and for a time the most intimate,
of his Oxford friendships. His benefactor proved to be
W. A. G-reenhill, a Rugby man, Stanley's senior by about
two years, who was at this time studying Medicine. He
afterwards practised as a physician at Oxford, and married
1 Dr. Frederick H. M. Blaydes, of the Hertford in the following
the well-known editor of Aristo- year, 1838.
phanes, &c. He was the winner
1836-1840] Scholar of Balliol 47
Miss "Ward, a favourite niece of Dr. Arnold. He has
since been known as a learned writer on the history of
Medicine. The following letter, written while the giver
was unknown, shows the feeling with which the gift
was received :
OXFORD, January 31, 1837.
DEAR SIR,
I gratefully avail myself of your wonderful and un-
expected goodness. I do so with the less hesitation as I am
persuaded from the letter with which it was accompanied
that it was really meant. It will give me the opportunity
of obtaining what I have long wished for and could not other-
wise have had.
May I venture to hope that I shall one day have the
pleasure of thanking personally my unknown benefactor.
Should I fail in the ensuing contest (and I feel persuaded
such will be the result) I trust he will believe that this want
of success has been owing to no deficiency of exertion on my
part. With the most sincere gratitude for your kindness,
and the manner in which it was offered,
Believe me to remain, my dear Sir,
Ever yours most truly and respectfully,
B. J.
Should I not hear from you to the contrary, I will leave
a letter for you at the Post Office on March i, directed to
X. Y. Z.
May God bless you for your kindness to me. I never
thought much about religion till a few days before your letter
came, [and] it has left an impression which I trust I shall
never forget.
Many years afterwards (in 1867), when Professor Jowett
was corresponding with Dr. Greenhill on the subject
of Plato's Timaeus, he referred with characteristic grati-
tude to this long-past kindness, adding that he had
48 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
himself known the pleasure of helping others in a similar
way.
Before proceeding further with the narrative, some
attempt should be made to imagine Balliol College as it
was when Jowett entered it. The Scholarships had been
thrown open to competition in 1828, Richard Jenkyns
having then been Master for several years. This was
a most important step, for which G. A. Ogilvie, one of
the Tutors 1 , was largely responsible. The list of Balliol
Scholars, previous to 1836, already held distinguished
names, and the Scotch contingent, supplied chiefly by
the Snell foundation, had long since been an acknow-
ledged source of strength. Adam Smith, John Lockhart,
and Sir William Hamilton, not to mention others, were
Snell Exhibitioners in their day. Archibald Campbell
Tait, who, when Jowett began residence, had recently
been appointed Tutor, was both a Scholar and a Snell
Exhibitioner, having been educated at the Edinburgh
Academy and Glasgow University. The bond of friend-
ship with him, thus early formed, was strained by later
events, but never broken.
Another of the Tutors to whom Jowett owed much as
an undergraduate, was Robert Scott, part author of the
famous Lexicon, who in 1854 became Master of Balliol.
The Mathematical Lecturer at this time was W. G. Ward ' 2 ,
the importance of whose influence over Jowett for a brief
period will shortly appear.
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was now entering on his third
year at College, and, as his custom was, took out the
junior Scholar from time to time for a walk in the
afternoon. On the first of these occasions he is said to
have reported that he never met with such a disputatious
1 Afterwards Professor of Pas- z See Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i.
toral Theology. p. 169, letter to C. J. Vaughan.
FISHER'S BUILDING AND END OF ' RATS' CASTLE,' BALLIOL COLLEGE
Copied from a print in an old Oxford Guide
1836-1840] Scholar of Balliol 49
youth. His surprise was not unnatural. For many years
after this Jowett's appearance was juvenile in the extreme,
and it was long remembered that he first came to College
in a round jacket, and with a turned-down collar. This
gave to his animation in argument the greater piquancy.
"What subjects were discussed between the two young
men, whose friendship was destined to be so closely
cemented afterwards, we can only guess ; but it is difficult
to imagine any discussion at Oxford, in those days, that
did not turn on matters theological. The subscription
to the Articles ; Dr. Arnold's influence ; the observance
of Sunday ; J. H. Newman's sermons ; Clericalism and
Evangelicism ; the relation of Catholics to Protestants ;
the admission of Jews to Parliament; the Divinity
Examination at London University : any or all of these
subjects afforded ample matter for controversy, and had
more fascination for young Oxonians than those eternal
arguments on ' Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate ' in which
Milton's fallen spirits lose themselves. But the event
which had most interested Stanley's mind in 1836 was
the appointment of Dr. Hampden to the B-egius Pro-
fessorship of Theology, and the disputes that followed.
Some others of Jowett's College contemporaries may
be here enumerated. Edward Cardwell 1 had taken his
degree in 1835 and was now a junior Fellow. John
Moore Capes, who afterwards became a Roman Catholic,
was a graduate of the same year. James Lonsdale 2 had
been elected Scholar with A. P. Stanley. W. C. Lake 3 ,
Benjamin C. Brodie 4 , E. M. Goulburn 5 , and Hay S.
Escott, were Jowett's seniors by a year ; also senior
1 Afterwards Lord Cardwell. 4 Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, F.E.S.,
2 Rev. James Lonsdale. See his Professor of Chemistry, Oxford.
Life by Duckworth. 5 Head Master of Rugby ; after-
3 Afterwards Dean of Durham. wards Dean of Norwich.
VOL. I. E
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
to him were John "Wickens 1 , Hugh Pearson 2 , Samuel
Waldegrave 3 , E. Hobhouse 4 , and P. S. H. Payne (who
died in 1841). His immediate contemporaries, who must
have been freshmen with him, were F. C. Trower 5 ,
Stafford H. Northcote 6 , and Reginald Hobhouse 7 . His
juniors while he was still an undergraduate were T. H.
Farrer 8 , "W. Rogers 9 , Arthur Hobhouse 10 , Arthur H.
Clough n , Constantino Prichard 12 , Frederick Temple 13 ,
and John Duke Coleridge 14 . Oxford contemporaries
not at Balliol, who became distinguished in after life,
were W. F. Donkin 15 of University College, Richard
"W. Church 16 of Wadham, James Fraser 17 of Lincoln,
James A. Froude 18 of Oriel, Richard Congreve 19 of
Wadham, R. R. W. Lingen 20 of Trinity, Henry Halford
Vaughan 21 of Christ Church, Bartholomew Price 22 of
Pembroke, Henry W. Acland 23 , Christ Church and
All Souls, John Ruskin 24 , Christ Church, and George
1 Vice Chancellor Wickens.
2 Vicar of Sonning and Canon
of Windsor.
3 Bishop of Carlisle.
4 Bishop of Nelson, New Zea-
land.
5 Bishop of Glasgow, after-
wards of Gibraltar.
6 Lord Iddesleigh.
7 Rector of St. Ives and Arch-
deacon of Bodmin.
8 Lord Farrer.
9 Rector of St. Botolph,
Bishopsgate ; Canon of St. Paul's.
10 Lord Hobhouse.
11 The Poet.
12 Fellow of Balliol, son of
James Cowles Prichard, the
author of Natural History of
Man, &c.
13 Head Master of Rugby ;
Bishop of Exeter, 1869 ; Bishop
of London, 1885 ; Archbishop of
Canterbury, 1896.
14 Lord Chief Justice.
:5 Savilian Professor of Geo-
metry.
16 Dean of St. Paul's.
17 Bishop of Manchester.
18 The Historian.
19 The Founder of English
Positivism.
20 Lord Lingen.
21 Professor of Modern History,
Oxford.
22 Sedleian Professor of Natural
Philosophy, Master of Pembroke
College.
23 Sir Henry W. Acland, Bart.,
M.D., Professor of Medicine,
Oxford.
24 The well-known Author.
1836-1840] Scholar of Balliol 51
Butler x of Exeter. Mark Pattison 2 of Oriel, afterwards
Fellow of Lincoln, was already a young graduate when
Jowett came into residence at Balliol. These names may
suffice to indicate to those who recall their many associa-
tions, the sort of milieu into which the reserved, town-bred
youth, eager and yet shrinking, dutiful and adventurous,
was suddenly plunged. There was the Eton set, brilliant
and careless, full of gentlemanly prejudices, but also of
boyish fun. There were the Scotchmen, in striking con-
trast to these, not less noisy perhaps, but plodding and
industrious, and bringing with them more of metaphysics
than of classical learning. And there were the Rugby
men, full of enthusiasm for Dr. Arnold, in whose un-
popularity they gladly shared. They knew more of
history than the rest, and were eager to break a lance in
theological controversy. That was already filling the air
to the detriment of other studies ; and grave dispassionate
elders lamented the decline of scholarship in the Uni-
versity of Musgrave and Elmsley. Young Jowett kept
his head, we may be sure, but while proving all things,
was taking impressions from all. In these early days he
was eagerly observant, but more receptive than critical ;
and in the pursuit of scholarship, which was his main
business, he made rapid progress, though he did not
immediately come quite to the front. Indeed he was
very little known in his earlier years at Balliol, and did
not see much of any one, even in his own College, except
when he met his brother Scholars daily in Hall. There
was always a good deal of conversation at the Scholars'
table, and it is easy to imagine how the novice, after
listening long in silence, would strike in from time to
time with some unexpectedly pertinent remark. His
1 Canon of Winchester. 2 Rector of Lincoln College.
2
52 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
circumstances forbade his entertaining any one, and he
took no part in athletic exercises, although on rare
occasions he indulged himself with rowing in a solitary
skiff on the river 1 . He took long walks, was fond of
bathing, being a fair swimmer, and, like his friend A. P.
Stanley, took part in visiting the poor 2 . By degrees,
however, his love of conversation and his social nature
made for him an inner circle of companionship drawn
from all the various sets in College, in which the figures
of Arthur Hobhouse, Benjamin C. Brodie, H. S. Escott,
E. M. Goulburn, A. H. Clough, Stafford H. Northcote, and
W. Rogers are still clearly discernible.
In picturing the life of an Oxford undergraduate of
sixty years since, it is necessary to bear in mind that
athletic sports were less developed, and there were
stronger lines of demarcation between the reading,
the boating, and the hunting men, than at a later
time. It was in one of his rare sculling excursions that
Jowett first came in contact with one of the Bunsen
family. Henry Bunsen of Oriel :i happened to be passing
by at the moment when Jowett's skiff was upset in one
of the lower reaches of the river, and he always spoke
of Bunsen as having acted the part of the Good Samaritan
on that occasion. No friendship formed in Jowett's
undergraduate days was more lasting than that with
W. Rogers, a boating man from Eton.
The following reminiscences have been kindly com-
municated by surviving contemporaries. I take first the
narrative of Lord Hobhouse, who seems to have been
1 He took part in a College visited a poor woman,
sculling race in June, 1838. See 8 Eldest son of Baron Bunsen ;
p. 71. Vicar of Lilleshall, Salop ; after-
2 He pointed out to Dr. Evelyn wards Rector of Donington. He
Abbott a house in the neighbour- was educated at Rugby, under
hood of Hinksey, where he had Dr. Arnold.
1836-1840] Lord Hobhouse's Reminiscences
53
brought into specially close companionship with Jowett
when both were undergraduates * :
' I went to reside at Balliol in Oct. 1837, being then under
eighteen years old ; and I made acquaintance with Jowett,
who was a Scholar of the House, and had commenced his
residence a year before. I do not remember how our acquain-
tance began, but it must have been very soon after my arrival ;
probably through Northcote (Lord Iddesleigh), an old Eton
friend, who won a Scholarship a year later than Jowett. The
Scholars dined at a separate table ; and, not being one, I missed
that stimulus of intimacy which is got by companionship at
meals. On the other hand, I was thrown in with Jowett in
this way. The top floor of the staircase on which he lived
was shared between his rooms and those of a man of his own
standing named Vaux. This Vaux was very fond of taking
to his rooms some congenial soul, or it might be more than
one, to imbibe tea, and indulge in talk de omnibus rebus. He
often so received me ; and occasionally his neighbour Jowett
would come in ; and, again occasionally, Jowett would make tea
for us, or for me alone, in his own territory 2 .
' So there sprung up, quickly as is the case with lads,
a mutual attraction, and such intimacy as our natures and
1 I am bound to insert here the
words in which Lord Hobhouse
deprecates the publication of the
contribution so kindly made by
him ; although I think the reader
will agree with me in considering
hi s do ubts unnecessary. ' Review-
ing my intercourse with Jowett
I cannot think that anything
I have to say is fit for publication
or for more than casual talk
across a tea-table. It is pleasant
enough for me to conjure up old
pictures shining in the soft light
of other days ; but to those who
have not that light the case is
different. I conceive that my
remarks are worthy of the blessed
repose of the waste-paper basket.
But of that you, who are writing
the biography, are the best judge,
and not I. So I will throw such
light on your subject as I can.'
-L. C.
2 His poverty was so evident,
that A. H. scrupled even to accept
his invitations to tea, but his
doing so gave B. J. manifest
pleasure. 'It was difficult to
draw him away from his studies,
but when once you had him out
of his shell he was pleasant to
talk to.' (From conversation with
Lord Hobhouse.) L. C.
54 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
circumstances permitted. I may mention in this connexion
that to the end of Vaux's life, through good fortune and
through ill, which he did not escape, Jowett never forgot the
regard for him which existed in these early days.
' I have heard men say that one of Jowett's foibles was to
be too much taken by successful or prominent men. I am
by no means sure of that ; but I am sure that he was a man
of rare fidelity in his attachments. I have known him come
to like adversaries ; I have never known him turn away from
or forget one whom he has called his friend.
' Jowett never joined in our games ; not from any dislike,
I think, for he always took due interest in the doings of the
Balliol boat, in which I then pulled an oar. The only exercise
beyond a walk, which I ever enjoyed with him, was swimming 1 ,
to which we were both addicted. I do not know, but believe,
that in the matter of games, as in other things, such as chess
and entertainments, the necessity of a rigid economy kept him
from doing what was done by others in easier circumstances.
That his means were narrow before he won a Fellowship, was
evident ; but he never spoke to me on the subject. Indeed
he was very reticent on all things connected with his personal
life, either in his school or in his family. It was natural that,
seeking to know more of one to whom I was attracted, I should
invite information on such matters, as in the case of other
friends. But beyond the fact that his anchor was for the
present cast in Bath, I learned little. He would give but
a bare answer to a question ; and of course I soon abstained
from broaching subjects on which he was not communicative.
'The part of Jowett's character which was most attractive
to me was his perfect simplicity, truth, and originality. Behind
his pretty, girlish looks, quiet voice, and gentle, shy manner,
one soon found that there lay a robust masculine under-
standing, which would not accept commonplaces as true or
mere authority as a guide. I think that most boys of eighteen
are apt to repeat without testing what they have been
1 'Jowett took readily to the (From conversation with Lord
water and swam well. The bath- Hobhouse.) L. C.
ing was at Parson's Pleasure.'
1836-1840] Lord Hobhouse's Reminiscences 55
accustomed to hear, to fancy that what they see in print must
be true, and to accept for gospel what conies to them accredited
by the authorities of their little world. Certainly that was
the case with me. And then I came into contact with one
who, not flippant nor irreverent nor specially fond of paradox,
nor specially desirous of victory in a discussion, yet insisted
on seeing everything with his own eyes, and refused to utter
a proposition until his own judgement was sufficiently in accord
with it. I looked upon Jowett as the freshest and most
original mind I had come across ; and I still think that I have
never held converse with any one who was more thoroughly
original, or more careful to say only what he made his own.
Among the living influences which compelled me to think and
tended to invigorate my thoughts in the plastic age between
eighteen and twenty, I put as chiefest the lectures of Arch-
bishop Tait and my intercourse with Jowett. Of course there
were many others playing on a ripening mind, not then realized
in any distinct way, and now impossible to disentangle ; but
in looking back and trying to take stock of my earlier life,
I have always attributed the most powerful effect to the hard-
headed rationalism of these two, combined with their steady
love of truth and their sympathetic natures. Probably the
parts they played in after life will go far to justify my estimate.
Jowett's fearless, and apparently passionless, tenacity under
the storms which, at least during the first half of his working
life, blew with great violence round the heads of the few
who dared to think for themselves and to say so ; his absti-
nence from anything like triumph when he made his position
good all these things seem to me the natural healthy out-
growth of the twenty- year-old boy, whose resolute questionings
startled, posed, interested, and attracted me.
' I have just called his tenacity passionless, and his victory
one without triumph. Of course in the immature time with
which I deal, qualities of this sort are not brought out or
tested by circumstances. But one of his characteristics which
impressed me even then was his calmness when opinions
differed ; that he did not, as other men are wont, get heated
or argue for victory in a wordy war, but contended only when
he had something to say which he believed to be true.
56 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
' Not that he was wanting in feeling ; he had warm feelings
and sympathies ; and he valued sympathy very much. Indeed
I don't know why he should have regarded me with any
favour except from feeling that I liked him. One expression
of his I recall because it touched me at the time, and has
always remained with me. In the spring of 1838 he stood
for the Ireland Scholarship and was defeated. The successful
man, if I rightly recollect, was the present Lord Lingen.
Jowett had hoped to win and was much mortified. Probably,
besides the pleasure of success, the emolument would have
been a great help to him \ I went to his rooms and sat with
him for some time. On parting he thanked me warmly, and
added, perhaps with a little bitterness, " There are plenty who
come when one wins, but you are a losing friend." I don't
say that he was right, but such was the man, quickly respon-
sive to sympathy, hurt if he thought it was withheld.'
Dr. Holden, whose account of Jowett's appearance
among the candidates for the Scholarship has been
quoted in the previous chapter, continues his narrative
as follows :
' As I was three years his senior we did not attend the same
College lectures, and consequently did not regularly meet,
except at the Scholars' dining table in Hall. But there I can
well remember his quiet, unassuming manner, when the elder
and more advanced Scholars led the conversation, and some-
times laid down the law for the juniors in politics or theology,
subjects, at that stirring time, very warmly discussed in
Oxford. . . We little thought that the retiring, unobtrusive
young Pauline was about to develop into a Hertford University
Scholar in the following spring (1837), an d in the year after
that (November, 1838), while still an undergraduate, to be
elected over the heads of all the senior Balliol Scholars and
a score of others, First Class men from other Colleges, to the
high distinction of a Balliol Fellowship.'
1 ' He was much disappointed also greatly disappointed at miss-
when he found that the Hertford ing the Ireland.' (From conversa-
Scholarship which he had gained tion with Lord Hobhouse.) L. C.
was only for one year, and he was
1836-1840] Balliol Sixty Years since 57
The following recollections of the Rev. Hay S. Escott
may be compared with the preceding. His account of
the teaching at Balliol about this time is especially
valuable :
'At the period of Jowett's election the undergraduates of
the College numbered about eighty ; but this small number
had in it a very large amount of intellectual power and energy
of life. It was rather sharply divided into sets, and even
at the tables in Hall, open to all, this division was generally
preserved. But still the borderers in each set were more or
less also members of the adjoining set, and a man might have
friends in other sets than his own. But it was the stirring
activity of the College which most struck the new members
as they joined it. Of course in this vigorous life the Scholars
took the lead ; but it was not confined to them, and the
presence of such men, so intellectual and so studious as
Lonsdale, Stanley, Goulburn, and Lake, may well be supposed
to have kindled and stimulated many minds of less con-
spicuous power. But much was also due to the authorities
of the College. In Dr. K. Jenkyns 1 (afterwards Dean of
Wells) it had a Master, according to his light, thoroughly
devoted to its interest. He was not a man of a great and
large mind and width of thought was neither cultivated nor
affected in his day but he was eminently practical, and
possessed of shrewd common sense, though deficient in
delicacy of touch when handling minds more complex and
more sensitive than his own. His dignity may have been
somewhat pompous, and his energy bustling, but he honestly
exerted all his powers for the improvement of the College,
considering no part of its machinery beneath his notice ; and
the result of his exertions was seen in the character of the
men he gathered round him, first as Scholars or Commoners,
then as Fellows and Tutors, by whose agency the prestige
of Balliol was so rapidly and greatly raised. At the time
of which we write, Moberly had just left Oxford to become
Head Master of Winchester, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury.
1 See Oakeley's ' Balliol under Dr. Jenkyns,' in Reminiscences of
Oxford, Oxford Historical Society, 1892.
58 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
The Classical Tutors were Oakeley, Chapman, Tait, and imme-
diately after (in the Lent Term of 1836) Scott, and the
Mathematical Lecturer was Ward, of the Ideal. Oakeley,
an excellent man, but speculative and dreamy, is more remem-
bered as Catechetical Lecturer than as Tutor, though his
lectures on Lucretius were highly spoken of. Chapman
a truly good man, full of kindness and gentleness usually
took the lectures to freshmen, and the more elementary part
of the work, dividing the Divinity lectures with the other
Tutors. But the nerve and backbone of the teaching lay with
Tait and Scott and with the former even more than with
the latter. Of Tait, tried and approved as he afterwards was
in the highest position, it may seem superfluous to speak.
But in enumerating the influences to which Balliol under-
graduates were then subject, it is important to notice the
impression made by him, as we know, on some at least of
his pupils. There was in him a charm a union, perhaps,
of manliness and kindness, which won for him the affection
and respect of the more susceptible. He seemed to under-
stand character, and to deal with the individual less according
to any trifling occasional error, than according to what he
knew to be his main purpose and aim. He had that dignity
which was natural to his talents and his official position,
but because it was natural, unstudied, and unassumed, he could
exchange it for perfect equality with an undergraduate in
social intercourse. Then, as a Lecturer, he had the remarkable
gift of clearing up obscurities, and of leaving some definite
idea in the minds of his pupils where all had appeared hope-
lessly confused. He could take up some intricate passage,
over which an inexperienced translator was sorely perplexed,
and at once, apparently without effort, elicit a satisfactory
meaning and produce it in idiomatic English.
' Scott had not these gifts. Truly good and kind, and in
pure scholarship immeasurably in advance of Tait, his learned
and careful lectures left comparatively little impression on
the mind. His manner did not commend him, and he was
deficient in tact, and in those qualities, so conspicuous in Tait,
which give influence over others and call forth affection and
respect. Yet to those intimate with him he was, we believe,
1836-1840] Balliol Sixty Years since 59
as lovable as he was talented ; and in young Jowett fonder
then of the literature than of the philosophy of Greece he
had a pupil after his own heart, whose accurate scholarship
he could at once admire and enrich J .
'Besides those already mentioned, a senior Fellow of the
name of Carr 2 occasionally looked over the weekly Essay,
dividing the work with the Master. For the "Essay " was then
in existence, written alternate weeks in English and Latin. . . .
At times a copy of English verses was accepted instead of an
Essay. . . . And as the final schools drew near, it was allowed
to substitute for original composition a translation of a passage
of English into Latin prose.'
With reference to the same period the Rev. John L.
Hoskyns, Hector of Aston Tirrold, writes :
'I was never intimate with Jowett when at Balliol. He
was a shy, retiring student, quite a recluse, and I was not
one of the magic circle of the Scholars and their immediate
friends.
' . . . But I can never forget the deep impression that the
general aspect of things in College made upon me. The scene
in Chapel, Hall, Lecture Eoom; the countenances of the
men of Tait, Scott, Oakeley, Chapman, Ward ; the Scholars'
table, and high table ; the twos and twos going out for
their constitutionals, live fresh in my memory after nearly
sixty years. It was a marvellous time, and a most interesting
set of men.'
1 In his reminiscences (W. G. think the Dean of Eochester's
Ward, 8fc., p. 115), Professor Lectures on Niebuhr first aroused
Jowett says : ' I must not forget in my mind doubt about the
the late Dean of Rochester, after- Gospels, and that the Archbishop
wards Master of the College, who of Canterbury first aroused in
was very kind to me in early life.' me the desire to read German
The lectures of both these distin- theology.'
guished men had effects for their 2 See W. G. Ward, fyc., loc. cit.
youthful listener which they were The Rev. John Carr, afterwards
far from contemplating. He wrote Rector of Brattleby and .an
as follows in one of the note- Honorary Canon of Lincoln,
books, dated October, 1875 : ' I
60 Life of Benjamin Jowett L C AP - m
' The twos and twos going out for their constitutionals,'
recall a feature almost unknown to a more athletic
generation, the ' long walk with a friend,' which Jowett
has often recommended as a recipe for low spirits l .
His failure for the Ireland Scholarship in 1838 may
have been partly due to grief or anxiety for his sister
Agnes, a year younger than himself, who died about this
time. In the same Term, however, he again surprised
his friends, by winning the Powell Prize at Balliol, then
awarded for proficiency in English literature. His father
wrote as follows to Mrs. Irwin :
' During the present term, Benjamin has been trying for the
Powell Prize at Balliol, for English Composition. I wondered
very much at his venturing, as it was quite out of his line
at least, so I should have concluded. We knew nothing about
it till he had obtained it. ... We were glad to find his
English had been respectable enough to carry him through.'
A greater and more joyful surprise was in reserve.
By a statute of the College the Balliol Fellowships were
open to all Bachelors of Arts of the University and to
Scholars of Balliol. On one previous occasion, it was
believed, an undergraduate Scholar had been elected.
In November, 1838, there were four vacancies an un-
precedented number and Jowett was urged by some of
his companions, Goulburn in particular, and it is said
also by his Tutor, Robert Scott, to try his luck.
The biography of Dean Stanley has thrown a curious
light on the conditions of election to a Balliol Fellowship
in those days. Arthur Stanley was induced to try for
a Fellowship at University College in July, 1838, because
his ' supposed theological opinions ' had rendered his
1 M. Arnold's Scholar Gipsy and this familiar habit. Cf. Letters of
Thyrsis enshrine reminiscences of Matthew Arnold, vol. i. pp. 38, 191.
1836-1840] The Balliol Fellowship 61
election at Balliol in November very improbable * !
Amidst the searchings of heart which he went through
before taking that decisive step, the last thing to occur
to his mind would be, that in changing his College he
would be leaving the coast clear for the admission of his
younger friend. Yet so it was ; and we may safely infer
that Jowett had not as yet fallen under suspicion
either for liberal or Tractarian sympathies. In point
of fact, as appears from the letters to W. A. G-reenhill,
while Evangelical prepossessions had been to a great
extent already discarded, he was looking keenly round
him with a suspense of judgement very uncommon in
one so young.
The circumstances of his election may best be told in
Dr. Holden's words :
'As this is an achievement only once before 2 , I believe,
recorded in the annals of Balliol, some particulars may be
interesting, especially as coming from one who was himself
a candidate. Four vacant Fellowships were to be filled up
by examination ; all B.A.'s were eligible. The undergraduate
Scholars of Balliol had also the peculiar privilege of being
eligible, as the Master of the College, Dr. Jenkyns, used some-
times to remind them. It was current at the time that the
Kev. Eobert Scott, afterwards Master of the College for six-
teen years, and who had himself been elected Fellow from
Christ Church just two years before, had persuaded the young
Hertford Scholar, the most promising pupil in his lecture
room, to avail himself of this privilege and to offer himself
as a candidate for one of the four vacant Fellowships 3 . It is
1 Stanley's Life, vol. i. p. 195. nor Oakeley had as yet become
Among the candidates was Mark known as followers of Newman.
Pattison : see his Memoirs, p. 177. 2 In the case of Jenkyns him-
The Master, Jenkyns, was a stern self (so tradition says),
foe to innovations ; Tait's ante- 3 A contemporary letter names
cedents were not Anglican ; Scott E. M. Goulburn and John Turner
and Ward were not originally as ' the persons who with great
Balliol men; and neither Ward difficulty induced him to en-
62 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
said also that when speaking of this pupil to his brother
electors, he often used the words non res sed spes (promise not
performance) l .
Jowett was out of College when the result was
declared. The names had been read out in Chapel, and
the Master and Fellows were waiting to confirm the
election. Jowett was not forthcoming. Men rushed to
his rooms and the rooms of his friends. He was not to
be found. ~W. Jenkins, the Blundell Scholar 2 , by whom
this incident is told, ' chanced to be going out of College,
and when the gate was opened ran full tilt against him.'
' Jowett,' he exclaimed, ' you are elected.' ' Nonsense,' was
the answer. ' You are elected, they are waiting for you
in the Chapel.' Even then he could hardly be persuaded
till on his entering the gate other friends confirmed
the tidings.
The spirit in which Jowett took his success appears
from the letter which he wrote to his father at the
time. It has been preserved in a long epistle of
Mr. Jowett's to Mrs. Irwin in Australia, to whom he
confides what was probably hidden from those more
nearly concerned, his exultant pride and delight in the
success of his son, and the ambitious dreams which it
awakened in him ; but also his fear of spiritual dangers
which this might involve to Benjamin. There is no
trace, as yet, of any constraint in the intercourse between
the father and the son.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, Friday Morning.
MY DEAREST FATHER,
You will be amazed and delighted to hear that I have
been elected a Fellow of Balliol. There were four vacancies,
roll his name among the can- his colleague in the work of Greek
didates.' lexicography. Liddell then heard
1 Immediately after the elec- of Jowett for the first time,
tion Scott reported the fact to z Late Rector of Fillingham.
1836-1840] The Balliol Fellowship 63
and the four successful candidates are Woollcombe of Oriel,
Lonsdale, Lake, and myself. The whole number of candidates
was twenty-nine ; of whom about eighteen had taken a First
Class. I can never be sufficiently thankful to Providence for
giving me the ability to obtain it, or for putting it into their
minds to give it me. The expenses of getting in here are
about .35. What the value of the Fellowship is during the
probationary year I do not know, probably about 60 a year,
and afterwards nearly 200. Scott (one of the Tutors) has,
with his usual kindness, advanced me the money of his own
accord. If repaid in a month it will be sufficient. Pray write
to me by return of post, as your joy at my success is half the
joy of having succeeded.
I am sorry to think of the unsuccessful candidates. One
man whom they rejected, Wickens, is probably the ablest man
in the University, and I should think facile princeps in the
examination. The Master confesses that the only ground for
it was his irregularity, not in moral conduct but in matters
of discipline, when an undergraduate 1 . For Holden, whom
you remember, I am also exceedingly sorry ; he wrote a most
affecting letter to Wickens which the latter showed me this
morning. He said he could not but feel being beaten by one
to whom he had been in the stead of a Tutor, ' the old man
beaten by the boy.' Street's brother is another of the rejected
candidates. I fear I must conclude, as I am engaged for a walk
with Massie, &c. &c.
Believe me,
Yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
PS. I should have written last night, but was really unable.
A few lines to Mamma I scribbled off, but was sent for before
1 Dr. Richard Congreve, who quoted repartee : Dr Jenkyns.
knew Wickens ' at home,' tells me ' Mr. Wickens, I never stand at
that the Master said to the disap- my window, but I see you passing.'
pointed candidate, 'Mr. Wickens, Wickens. ' Indeed, Master, I never
we have elected in preference to pass but I see you standing at the
you a little child.' Wickens is window.'
the accredited author of the often-
64 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
I had finished them. Eemember me to Mr. Turner, Johannes,
Aunt Courthope, Uncle, and all others.
That his letter to his mother should have remained
unfinished is not wonderful, considering the excitement
which his election had caused amongst his comrades.
This is recorded in a letter from James Sandham,
Commoner of St. John's (also transcribed by the glad
father) :
'Nothing has been talked about here so much for a long
time. It is thought to be, as it is, a most wonderful achieve-
ment. "Little Jowett" was nearly pulled to pieces when his
success was known ; one man shaking his hand with all his
might and two or three others contending for the other, till at
last, being hoisted above their heads, he was carried in triumph
round the quadrangle V
When Jowett was Vice-Chancellor, one of his con-
temporaries whom he happened to be entertaining at
luncheon said, referring to this election, ' I then thought
you four the happiest people going.' ' So we were,' said
the Master in a cheerful tone.
A word may be added here a propos of ' little Jowett.'
The undergraduates of his own time seem to have shared
this impression with those who twenty years afterwards
loved to talk of 'little Benjamin their ruler.' Yet it
was only partly justified. Jowett was not ' little ' in the
sense in which Dean Stanley and Dean Johnson of Wells
were little men. He was really middle-sized, with rather
sloping shoulders, and a chest not broad but deep. His
boyish countenance, like Milton's,
'Deceiving the truth
That he to manhood was arrived so near,'
1 Cf. Mr. L. A. Tollemache, as high as he could, and he was
Benjamin Jowett, p. 43 : ' He at carried round the quadrangle on
once testified his joy by leaping the shoulders of his friends.'
1836-1840] Graduation 65
his delicate complexion, high-pitched voice, finely taper-
ing hands, and small well-moulded feet, contributed to
strengthen the illusion.
By a custom which prevailed for some time after
Jowett's election, the lessons in Chapel were read by
the two junior Fellows, and the undergraduates were
interested and perhaps amused to see this function
assumed by one of themselves 1 .
The Long Vacation of 1839 began sadly. Much of
it was spent at home. His sister Ellen, who had long
been in failing health, died at Tenby on July i in that
year. Jowett's grief was silent but very deep. He wrote
of it at the time to his friend Greenhill ; and in more
than one letter written during the last years of life he
spoke tenderly of those of his family whom he had
lost as being never absent from his thoughts.
The name of Benjamin Jowett appears in the First
Class in Literis Humanioribus, Michaelmas Term, 1839, in
the same list with Stafford H. Northcote of Balliol, and
James Fraser and William Kay, both of Lincoln College.
Before taking his degree he had engaged in private
tuition, and among his first pupils not counting his
brothers Alfred and "William Jowett, whom he had
tutored in the Long Vacation of 1838 were T. H. Farrer
of Balliol 2 , who took honours in Easter Term, 1840, and
his brother Oliver, who appeared in the same Class List.
Lord Farrer's reminiscences contain the best record of
the impression which Jowett produced on others at this
time, and may fitly conclude the present chapter :
1 W. L. Newman and Charles to the Fellowship. The Scho-
S. C. Bowen (Lord Bowen) are the lars' privilege was abolished in
onlyundergraduate Scholars who, 1857.
since Jowett, have been elected 2 Lord Farrer.
VOL. I. F
66 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
' My first acquaintance with Jowett was as an undergraduate.
He gained the Balliol Scholarship in 1835, and I went up to
Balliol after Easter in 1837. His youthful person, his round
hairless face, which in later years made that mother of nick-
names, Mrs. Grote, call him "the cherub 1 "; his low shoes
and white stockings ; his brisk, tripping, almost childish gait ;
made him a noticeable figure in Balliol quad ; and they are
still present to me as a vivid image of what he was in early
youth, and the more so since the characteristic features of that
image remained traceable in him to the end. He did not
at that time, I think, give any promise of the power which
he afterwards became. I did not see much of him beyond
an occasional walk together, for he joined in no games ; and
though never an ascetic, or absorbed, as Clough was, in the
theological mists of that polemical time, he was absolutely
devoid of athletic propensities, and was I believe too poor
then to indulge in the hospitality which in later years was
so great a pleasure to him and to his friends. To him, to
Brodie, to Hugh Pearson, and one or two others, I owed
a mental stimulus which was not to be found in the general
healthy, but not intellectual, society of the Eton and Harrow
men with whom I mostly lived. Towards the end of my time
at Oxford, I lost the good coach Elder with whom I was
reading for my degree, and betook me to two Balliol men
equally kind, and perhaps equally well-read, but very different
in their effects on a pupil's mind. One, who shall be name-
less, made Aristotle's Logic as unintelligible to me as confusion
of thought in the interpreter can make the work of a great
master. The other, Jowett (I really cannot remember what
he taught me), managed to make everything he taught sugges-
tive and productive of thought.
' Indeed, if I were to attempt to characterize in a few words
the effect which Jowett's personality had upon me through
1 She was anticipated, if I mis- Another creator of nicknames,
take not, by Mr. Edward Pigott Mrs. Ferrier of St. Andrews, used
in the Leader (weekly) newspaper, to speak of him some years after-
who wrote of him, in the early wards as the ' little downy owl.'-
fifties, as 'the middle- aged cherub.' L. C.
1836-1840] Lord Farrer's Reminiscences 67
life, in our latest visits to one another as well as in those
early days at Balliol, I should say that it was stimulating
rather than formative. His instruction was not the explana-
tion of a system of thought or the communication of cut and
dried propositions, but the opening of a vista which you were
to follow up yourself. He had the Socratic art of saying to
youthful eagerness, "Are you sure you are right?" but of
saying it in such a manner as to develop zeal in the pursuit
of truth. He discouraged dogmatism, he encouraged thought.
Perhaps this temper of mind was at a later period fostered
by what I always felt to be his somewhat equivocal position
with respect to the Church and Church doctrines ; a relation
which, whilst in some respects it gave him great power, I have
often wished otherwise. But however this may be, I have
always felt from those early undergraduate days down to the last
visit I paid him in Balliol in 1893, that his effect on me was one
of the most invaluable services one man can render to another,
viz. the stimulation of mental and moral energy of cVepyeia
1]%$$ K.O.T apeTrjv, and he would have gladly added himself lv
/3iu> TcAetw ("in a complete existence").
' I remember at one of the Balliol gatherings of which he
was so fond, when going through his old friends in his after-
dinner speeches, his referring to those old undergraduate
relations between us by saying of me "And then comes my
old friend Farrer, of whom I may perhaps say, that something
more might have come of him if he had not been my first
pupil." I prize those words for their kindness, not for their
truth.'
68 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
LETTERS, 1837-1839,
To "W. A. GKEENHILL.
COWES, 5 TRAFALGAR PLACE,
September 15, [1837].
... I went to call on Waldegrave. He was in Ireland with
his father's ship, but his mother received me very kindly,
so that I was really glad to have had an opportunity of seeing
her. She almost did as much to dispel my prejudices against
the Evangelicals, as the Welsh clergyman had done to increase
them. Indeed I hope I see more and more the necessity of
not proscribing any order of men, however widely we may
differ from them in opinion.
There is a text very often quoted which it is hard to realize
in its full meaning 'they that do the works shall know of
the doctrine.' In the present state of the Christian world,
especially at Oxford, it is a great consolation to think of this,
if we do but begin at the right end by doing our duty first.
To "W. A. GREENHILL.
ILFRACOMBE, August 26, 1838.
You will be surprised at receiving this letter from me
from the place from which it is written, but before I tell you
anything about my doings, I must beg you to forgive my
long silence, which has been caused by close employment
in reading, and teaching my two brothers.
Whether you think this apology sufficient or no, I most
sincerely hope that you will not interpret my neglect into
unkindness or ingratitude.
You do not like my saying much on the latter head the
obligation to you which I have never sufficiently felt, and
in comparison with which all your other kindness however
Letters, 1831-1839 69
great is as nothing I mean your endeavour to keep me in
the right way 1 .
... I came here three days since, and shall remain till the
end of the week. Before I leave I purpose walking along
the coast to Clovelly and back again, and from Linton to Bridg-
water. We had a terrible passage here by the steamer, which,
although the distance is but 80 miles, lasted two days. After
lying to the greater part of the first day we attempted to
proceed in the evening, but had not gone above a mile when
we were struck by a Welsh steamer. The carrying away of
the figurehead was the only injury we received, but as the sea
was running high the captain was afraid to proceed. We
arrived here after a stormy passage at six o'clock the next day.
. . . Speaking of Newman, there is an article in the last
Edinburgh on the life of Froude 2 in which, though gross in-
justice is done to the subject of it, there are some striking
and useful remarks. It is evidently written by a religious
man, and would I think please, and certainly not displease
you. How full religious people's minds are of what they
term the popery of Oxford their violence against it being
in exact proportion to their ignorance. I do not either agree
with or understand many of Newman's principles, but cannot
help thinking that they will have on the whole a salutary
influence on the Protestant Church in bringing back men's
minds to a class of duties which have been too much neglected.
I fancy that in the ordinary divinity of the day, far too much
stress is laid on words ; there is a sort of theological slang,
if I may be excused the expression, a religious phraseology,
in laying aside which you are supposed to be undermining
1 More than fifty years after days, and had troubles to which
this, in writing to Dr. Greenhill, I was unequal, though I ought
who had congratulated him on not to have been so. ... This
his recovery from the almost fatal College has been a haven to me
illness of 1891, he referred to for fifty-six, or, since I gained
their intercourse at this time : a Fellowship, fifty-three years.'
' I shall always remember with 2 Edinburgh Review for July,
gratitude your great kindness to 1838, 'Remains of Richard Hurrell
me when I was a youth. I was Froude.'
very weak and wayward in those
70 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, in
the fundamentals of the Christian Faith. Thus, if you do
not draw a very distinct line between faith and works you
are supposed to be unsound in doctrine, a distinction which
seems to me to have arisen very much from a wrong applica-
tion of St. Paul's words, referring to the works of the law
and the principles of the Gospel, an opposition which I do not
understand when applied to the faith and practice of the
Christian covenant.
St. Paul's was not, I think, decided when you left. Kynaston
was the successful candidate 1 . One circumstance gave me
great pleasure. I was assured by an impartial person, that
by far the best testimonial sent in was one for Massie, given
by the Bishop of Llandaff without his application or knowledge.
To "W. A. GREENSILL.
TENBY, July 2, 1839, Tuesday Morning.
I should have written to you before this, but the two last
days have been so full of trouble and anxiety that I am sure
you will excuse it.
My beloved sister is gone to her rest, nevermore to be
disturbed by the cares and sorrows of this sinful world. The
last two days of her life, it was the saddest scene I ever
witnessed. At the beginning of the week there had been
a great improvement, all symptoms of the disease having sub-
sided. On Saturday morning a great change took place and
the last struggle began. I am most thankful it is now all
over ; although I never saw death before, I do not think it can
be often seen in so dreadful a form.
From the very beginning of her illness, with far more to
attach her to life than most young persons, she did not wish
to recover. We dwell very much on everything she said,
as, from her being almost insensible during the last few weeks,
she was unable to bear much testimony to the power of
religion. While in health she read the Scriptures and prayed
regularly, latterly visiting among the poor, and this gives me
a far surer confidence than a few rapturous expressions on
1 Kynaston succeeded Sleath as High Master of St. Paul's School,
in June, 1838.
Letters, 1837-1839 71
a death-bed would have done. On Sunday afternoon she
became more sensible, and after reading two prayers from the
Visitation of the Sick I asked her if she felt happy ; she replied
faintly that she did. I asked her to assure my mother that
she was so (as the latter had made herself needlessly unhappy
about it). She said she could hardly venture to do so. On
Saturday, when in the greatest pain of body, she remembered
the servant girl who waited upon her, requesting my elder
sister to talk to her and have her taught to read the Scriptures.
I could tell you a great deal more about her, but my heart
is too full to go on. When I remember her form and dis-
position, such as I never saw united in any one else, I feel
persuaded that I can never again be so happy as I was before.
I do not repine against Providence, but pray God that the
scene of the last few days may for ever dwell in my mind
and be a continual motive to love and serve Him. To me
who feel my own weakness more and more contemptible, her
strength of mind was quite extraordinary. But I feel I am
running away into what I can hardly trust myself to speak
of. Out of a family of nine there are now only five remaining,
and I thank God that He has hitherto been pleased to take
those who were best fitted to serve Him in heaven.
Since these pages were in type, the following entry from the
Balliol Boat Club Records has been supplied by the kindness of the
Hon. A. Henley and Mr. A. L. Smith :
Saturday, June 2, 1838. Sculling sweepstakes at as. 6d. each, at
2 o'clock, from the top of the Long Reach, round the Island, up to Iffley.
Order in rows, numbered as they came in.
I
2
3
4
5
C. Sumner
II
Moberly
17
Davy
18
Estcourt
8
Powya
Swayne
12
Garnett
7
J. Sumner
13
Trower
9
T. Farrer
Jowett
14
Brodie
16
E. Hobhouse 15
Holbeck
3
Pocock
Moncrieff
2
Hardinge
19
E. Hobhouse
S
Northcote
6
ist Prize, 2 IDS. ; 2nd Prize, i xos. ; 3rd Prize, i ; 4th, recovered stake.
Each row had an umpire, who arranged by lot the place of his men the
starting-posts 10 paces apart boats started with their heads level with
the post.
N.B. 10 paces seemed barely enough.
CHAPTEE IV
FELLOW AND TUTOB OF BALLIOL. 1840-1846
(Aet. 23-29)
W. G. WARD and A. P. Stanley Tract XC and the Thirty-nine
Articles First foreign tour The Decade Assistant Tutorship
Ordination The Paris libraries Appointment as Tutor (1842)
College business With Stanley in Germany Hegel and Schelling
Degradation of Ward Action of the 'Oxford Liberals' Projected
work on the New Testament Archdeacon Palmer's reminiscences
Letters.
nriHE years from 1840 onwards, though outwardly
* uneventful, were fertile in consequences. Jowett's
increasing intercourse with Ward and Stanley, both of
whom in different ways were leaders of the theological
agitation then at its height, the commencement of his
Tutorship, his own independent studies and reflections, to
which the prospect of Ordination gave practical signifi-
cance all tended to promote the growth and con-
solidation of his mind. Friendships with younger
men were also formed, which lasted to his latest breath.
Through Stanley he already came into contact with the
great world. An influence of which no one anticipated
the extent or depth had its commencement here.
In the years which immediately followed his degree
he seems to have spent part of the vacations in solitary
William George Ward 73
rambles ; accepting lifts from bagmen, stopping at way-
side inns, visiting Cathedral towns, and conversing with
all and sundry as occasion served him. His familiar
knowledge of English topography often surprised those
who had only known him in the retirement of his study.
Meanwhile in his own case that 'other work of
education - 1 ' of which he wrote in 1860 had begun. This
may be roughly dated from the completion of his Latin
Essay, which won the Chancellor's Prize in the spring of
1841. Stanley's efforts in favour of a large toleration had
his entire sympathy, and their intercourse, even in the
earlier years of Jowett's Fellowship, was pretty constant.
But a more intense albeit temporary influence was
working within the walls of Balliol. The strange and
powerful individuality of William George Ward had
not yet taken its final bent, and the communication
of his questionings and mental struggles in many
a dialectic argument produced a strong effect upon
young Jowett's mind. To Ward more than to any
other man he probably owed his first initiation into meta-
physical inquiry. It is true that the Scotchmen,
especially John Campbell Shairp 2 , brought with them
some Kantian enthusiasm, and that the prose writings
of S. T. Coleridge were already attracting attention in
Oxford ; but the fervid and incessant talk of a senior
1 'As he grows older he mixes St. Paul, 3rd edition, vol. ii.
more and more with others ; first p. 57.
with one or two who have great 2 Principal Shairp used to tell
influence in the direction of how he had brought with him
his mind. At length the world from Glasgow a copy of Kant's
opens upon him ; another work Metaphysic of Ethic (probably in
of education begins; and he Semple's translation) and lent it
learns to discern more truly the to Jowett, who afterwards went
meaning of things and his rela- stamping about the quadrangle,
tion to men in general.' 'Essay as if to assure himself that the
on Interpretation,' Epistles of solid earth was beneath his feet.
74 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
colleague so vivacious as Ward must have been far
more influential. In a conversational intercourse that
never flagged, difficulties raised by Bentham, John Stuart
Mill, or Auguste Comte were laid by the authority of
the Fathers. Such were the strange cross-currents of the
time. Years afterwards Jowett used to speak of Ward
as a kind of Silenus-Socrates, whose delight it was to
deliver young men of their doubts. For a brief while
his influence drew Jowett powerfully in the direction of
Newmanism *.
'I sometimes think,' said Jowett once (about 1856), 'that
but for some divine providence I might have become a Eoman
Catholic. I had resolved to read through the Fathers, and
if I found Puseyism there I was to become a Puseyite. It is
not unlikely that I might have found it, but before I had gone
through my task the vacation ended, and on returning to
Oxford we found that Ward was going to be married ! After
that the Tractarian impulse subsided, and while some of us
took to German Philosophy, others turned to lobster suppers
and champagne. They called that "being unworldly." '
Those words were lightly spoken, and at a later time.
But in the early years of his Fellowship, with Ordination
in prospect, theological difficulties had a serious practical
import, especially in connexion with the then burning
question of the meaning of Subscription. Tract XC
1 Some years after this, January, us German, and who considers
1849, he wrote to Stanley from human nature to be a sign of in-
Bonn, with reference to young terrogation which finds its answer
Cruickshank (see above, p. 21) : in the Church : and the other,
' I think there are two classes just the opposite class of persons,
of persons who turn Roman whose feelings are too deep for
Catholics : one, the rationalizers them ever to get on in the
like Capes and Ward, of whom my highways of the world, and who
present type is a student or rather find the Church a home for the
Ph. D. who comes here to teach lonely.'
1840-1846] Tract XC and Subscription 75
appeared on January 25, 1841, and was immediately
followed by an outburst of controversy. Jowett had
formed the habit, recommended by Locke, of tabulating
reasons for and against disputed propositions ; and on
May 20 of this year he began a series of notes on the
question of Subscription, which still remain amongst
his papers. They are in pencil, and in a neat upright
hand, not unlike that of his sister Emily. While
reflecting much of the intellectual perplexity that was
rife in the Oxford of that day, these observations, which
would occupy about four pages of small print, bear also
the clear impress of an independent and finely balanced
mind, and of the intrepid determination to thrash out
the subject, not blinking any aspect of it, and to reach
a decisive judgement as a basis of action. On the whole
he seems to have been at the moment in favour of getting
the Articles simplified and reimposed by the authority
of the State.
' This seems really the practical thing to struggle for. If it
be said, it would drive many good men from the Church, it can
only be replied, that good men were driven out at the Restora-
tion, and that we are apt to estimate the evil to religion by the
extent of evil to our personal friends. . . .'
' The Articles may include as many as they do now only
without danger to men's consciences those which are am-
biguous now may be omitted the Articles at present are
a sort of movable fence which may be shifted as far as you
please the restraint they impose is purely imaginary. This
ideal restraint may be really useful, until men begin to push
at it ; afterwards it is worse than useless.'
Under the existing conditions it seemed equally im-
possible to admit a strict construction or an indefinite
latitude.
' The original framers were not at one with themselves, or
76 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
with the second revisers, or with the Convocation which
sanctioned, or with the last revisers who put forth the
Articles.'
'It may be said "Why not take them, as all good men do,
in their obvious sense ? " Because this is impossible. The
Articles are irreconcilable with the Liturgy if both are taken
in their most obvious sense : both being equally imposed on
the clergy.'
'Again, it may not be denied that some licence is allowable
it cannot be supposed that all the propositions in the Articles
were to be taken in their fullest sense. But where can we
draw the line about this licence, especially as every man sees
the Articles through his own spectacles ? '
Once more, supposing the Articles to be imposed by the
State
' We should be only obliged to take the test in the letter as
we should obey a law. . . . No one can say we are bound to
carry out in its full spirit a law we conceive to be indefensible. '
These notes are immediately followed by other dis-
cussions, which throw considerable light on this transition
phase of a cautiously comprehensive mind.
On the Relation of Tradition to Scripture.
1 There seem to be several views on this subject.
* i. Of the extreme ultra-Protestant, who takes the Bible
and the Bible alone, without note or comment either of Fathers
or any one else, and professes that by the agency of prayer and
of the Holy Spirit he shall be guided into all truth.
' He would urge that the most ignorant people are capable
of receiving the saving truths of the Gospel and getting
comfort from them. And most truly so : but it must be
remembered as one of the most wonderful parts of Christianity
that it is a scheme which adapts itself not only to different
ages, but to different ranks of mind and education. The poor
man does not need a complete doctrinal system, and therefore
1840-1846] Theological Notes, 1841 77
does not want the helps towards forming them from Scripture * ;
but the educated man does, and ought to, form such
a system. Further, it is impossible to say how much all men
through very different channels get of tradition.
1 2. Of those who consider the Bible as the only inspired
writing, but think that for the right understanding of it
the same ordinary assistances are required as for the under-
standing any other moral or religious system.
' (The second view would give quite a sufficient authority for
all the doctrines and observances of the English Church.)
'3. Of the Anglican, who holds the Bible to be in the
highest sense inspired, but that the oral teaching of the
Apostles has been preserved by the Fathers of the Church,
whose writings, for this reason, have a claim to a secondary
kind of inspiration. That their only authority springs from the
preservation of Apostolical fragments, and that one only test
of this original doctrine is its catholicity " Quod semper, quod
ubique, quod apud omnes " counting the first three centuries
as preferable to all others, because nearer the fountain-head.
1 (The objection to this view seems to be the doubt whether
such genuine remains can be traced ; they would be rather
found in the form of the Church itself than in creeds and
writings.)
' 4. The view of the Eomanist, that the decrees of the Church
represented by the Pope and a general Council (says the
[Cismontane] ), of the Pope singly (says the Ultramontane),
are the sole authority for the interpretation of Scripture, as
well as an independent source from which new truth may flow.
' 5. There is an opinion which may be placed between these
two, which denies the co-ordinate authority of the Church,
but places no limit to the interpretation of Scripture. The
Church may draw an important truth from a metaphor,
a similitude, a single word, any of the various senses which
a particular passage might be made to bear. This seems only
to differ from the former view in being dishonest ; it has the
appearance of reverence to Scripture while it only perverts it.
1 This sympathy with the re- feature which reappears promi-
ligious wants of the poor is a nently in the book on St. Paul.
78 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
It may prove purgatory from "every sacrifice, &c.," papal
supremacy from the two swords of Peter, &c. This is a very
different thing from the use of Scripture to prove Episcopacy.
' (Anglo-Catholic says that his view differs in an important
respect from the papist, because it leads to the study of
Scripture. Such a view would be grounded chiefly on the
interpretation of the Old Testament by St. Paul and the
practice of the early Fathers.
' It might be urged against the Romanist that he gives much
less weight to S. S. 1 than the early Fathers, to which he would
reply that S. S. stands in a much less important place in
respect to the whole body of revealed truth, now than then.) '
These notes sufficiently indicate his attitude at the
moment towards the Tractarian School. Another entry,
' On Strauss's Theory of Christianity,' shows how far his
mind was opening to speculations of a different nature.
' Strauss considers Christianity to have been the offspring
of a mythical age, enlightened indeed by revelation but forming
a slender groundwork of facts into a mythic history. (The
a priori truth which is supposed to be self-evident and
which all these systems are intended to support is the
subordination of Christianity to German philosophy.) A male-
factor named Christ who was put to death for religious
enthusiasm might undoubtedly have existed ; he was brought
into the mythic scheme of the Jews, just as Xuthus into
the Pelasgic mythology, but the attributes given to him
were not those of a person but of a principle : he became the
embodied representative of a new system of belief. (Note.
A much more plausible theory would speak of Christianity
as an inspired myth.) The Gospels were written many years
after his death : they are full of miracles and supernatural
appearances which the common sense of mankind has agreed
to reject. Moreover they bear traces of two schools of mythic
lore, a Jewish and a Greek, and for this reason are as full
of discrepancies as any confused mythology of the Ancients.
The doctrines are the dry core of truth which they contain.
1 Scriptura Sancta.
1840-1846] Influence of W. G. Ward 79
These may be separated from the facts, as they rest too
upon an internal evidence which the other cannot have.'
A brief note on the evidence of prophecy 1 further
indicates the direction in which his thoughts were
moving :
'It is worth while considering in what the real evidence
from prophecy consists not certainly in the exact fulfilment
of minute details giving occasion for all sorts of phantasies
a la Prideaux and Newton, nor in the application of most
of them (except those referring to our Lord) to a particular
individual or time ; but in their general applicability to the
Phenomena of the world in these latter days. They may
be interpreted on large and liberal principles, as the words of
Him " with whom a thousand days are as one day, and one day
as a thousand years."
The same note-book contains the heads of similar dis-
cussions on 'The Respect due to our Mother Church,'
' Prayers for the Dead,' ' Transubstantiation,' ' Internal
and External Evidence,' ' Romanism and Rationalism V
' Romanism and Evangelicism,' ' The Patristic System,'
1 The Power of the Keys,' ' Absolution,' ' The Via Media,'
&c., all showing the drift of his thoughts and the resolu-
tion to let no doctrine pass unchallenged. It is evident
that when, through his intercourse with Ward, he was
most powerfully drawn towards Tractarianism 3 , he was
thinking actively and independently. The attraction
was a strong one, however. "Ward's influence in stimu-
lating theological inquiry was not the less poignant and
invasive, because of the many-sided activity of his
1 Cf. Remains of Rev. J. Davison, other of German Philosophy.'
author of Discourses on Prophecy. 3 There is little evidence of
2 'Both Romanism and Ra- Jowett's having ever come directly
tionalism are founded in a great under the spell which in these
measure on metaphysical specula- years J. H. Newman exercised
tions, one of the Schoolmen, the over many minds.
8o Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
intellect. Readers of that delightful book William
George Ward and the Oxford Movement will not readily
forget either Professor Jowett's recollections therein
embodied (pp. 112-114, 428, 439) or the picture of "Ward
as improvising a ballet d action, in which he impersonated
the Master (Jenkyns), mimicking the well-known voice
and demeanour and ' pirouetting V
It was probably to one who literally could have
' acted Falstaff without padding,' that Jowett owed his
more intimate acquaintance with Shakespeare which
began about this time. He certainly always knew his
Shakespeare best upon the comic side, seldom quoting
any serious passages except from the Tempest 2 , and now
and then a familiar phrase from Hamlet or Macbeth.
His junior contemporary John Duke Coleridge was also
noted as a Shakespearian scholar and reciter. But the
enthusiasm of Coleridge, Shairp, and other friends for
"Wordsworth 3 and Tennyson, had in these earlier days
little effect on Jowett.
After long separation, he met his old friend at Fresh-
water, in the Isle of Wight : this was about 1868, during
one of his many visits to Farringford. He was delighted,
1 W. G. Ward, fyc., p. 40. 2 On September 5, 1846, he
Jowett's words to Stanley a year wrote to E. R. W. Lingen : ' I
or two after Ward's admission to have been reading Shakespeare
the Church of Rome, call up a pic- daily. The Tempest strikes me
ture of the man : ' I cannot resist as one of the most remarkable
the charms of the fat fellow when- and least understood plays. Is
ever I get into his company. You it not a sort of English Faust ? '
like him as you like a Newfound- 3 He said of one who was
land dog. He is such a large, known amongst his comrades as
jolly, shaggy creature. Though he 'the poet' (1846): 'He is a very
is not yet changed into an Italian clever fellow and with consider-
greyhound, the shagginess is be- able powers of mind, but obscured
ginning to wear off with the in- a little by the haze of Emerson
fluences of a Southern climate.' and Wordsworth.'
1840-1846] The Decade 81
as lie told me, to find that his former comrade cherished
warmly the recollection of earlier days. Mr. Lecky, who
was present, witnessed the joyous eagerness of their re-
greetings.
'He (Ward) reminded me,' says Jowett, 'that I charged him
with shallow logic, and that he retorted on me with "misty
metaphysics." This perhaps was not an unfair account of
the state of the controversy between us 1 .'
An outlet for the intellectual activity with which
Jowett was brimming over at this time was afforded by
a small debating society called the Decade. This is
mentioned in a letter of George Butler's in 1841 2 , which
throws a welcome light on Jowett's relations with other
contemporaries and on his position in the University.
It appears that Jowett had proposed that Butler should
be a member of this little club.
' I see Jowett occasionally ; I like him very much. He
is very quiet in manner, and does not show off to advantage
in a roomful of men, but he is a very agreeable companion.
He has made me an exceedingly kind offer, which I think
you would like me to accept. He is a member of a debating
society called the " Decade." I think there are twelve members
now. They meet at each other's rooms for discussion on
a subject previously announced. Among the members are
Jowett himself, Lake (a Fellow of Balliol), Arthur Stanley (son
of Bishop Stanley and Fellow of University College), Coleridge,
Prichard, Matthew Arnold (eldest son of Dr. Arnold), Blackett s ,
and a few others. They elect members without their know-
ledge, and then ask them to join the society, which precludes
all canvassing. I am pleased beyond measure at the prospect
of getting into such an excellent set, consisting, as you may
see, of the picked men of the University.'
1 W. G. Ward, $c., p. 438. 8 John F. B. Blackett, Fellow
2 Recollections of George Butler of Merton, afterwards M.P. for
by Ms wife, Josephine Butler, p. 31. Newcastle. He died in 1856.
VOL. I. G
82 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
In the summer of 1841, Jowett made what seems to
have been his first foreign tour, in company with a friend
whose initials are J. P. Entering the Continent at
Ostend, they visited Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, Grhent,
Liege, and other Cathedral towns in Belgium, Treves and
the valley of the Moselle, Coblentz, the Khine, Mayence,
and Heidelberg. He makes careful notes of the archi-
tecture of the Cathedrals, the sculptures in wood and
marble, the chief pictures, and the religious habits of
the people ; also of the Roman remains at Treves ; and
he gives a picturesque description of the scenery of
the Moselle. He had already commenced the serious
study of Political Economy, and one page is filled
with observations ' On the state of the poor Schwal-
bach.' On another page there is a list of works on
Political Economy to be got for the College Library, and
also a series of acute general remarks on the New
Science, on the Industrial Revolution which had given
rise to it, on the importance of the subject, its relation
to morality, and the uncertainties attending it.
Two extracts from the notes of this tour may serve
to show how his speculative thoughts were balanced
with an active habit of intelligent observation :
' The Moselle, a muddy, rapid stream running between hills
clad with vines and underwood sometimes rugged and pre-
cipitous sometimes shelving down in layers to the water's
edge at others opening into a sort of amphitheatre, at the
foot of which the river takes its winding course. In many
places it has the appearance of a lake seeming to spring from
the successive ranges of hills which cross one another until
lost in the vista. Sometimes scenery varied by the cornfields
which wave on the very top of the steep. The vines in many
places stretch as far as the eye can reach.
' Low down on the river the rocks become more craggy and
terrible, gradually closing in so as to conceal the river from
1840-1846] Ordination 83
view : the ruins of old castles raised on eminences greatly
increase the picturesqueness of the scene.
' Another feature of the river is the villages with which the
bank is studded each with its church and school and picturesque
houses with wooden. frameworks.'
' The Church of St. Paulinus (Treves). Italian architecture,
the sides of the interior ornamented with pilasters terminated
by coloured capitals with projecting entablature, intended to
harmonize with the painted roof, a very curious piece of work
executed about a hundred years ago. It is intended to represent
the martyrdom of 40,000 Christians who perished at Treves in
the Diocletian persecution. At one end of the picture the work of
slaughter has commenced, the waters of the Rhine are flowing
red : about the centre Christ and the Father are represented
with the cross.'
When he returned to Balliol in October, 1841, although
not yet Tutor, he began to take a share in the teaching
of the College. This is evidenced by notes for lectures
on Aristotle and Butler, long strings of questions, and
subjects for essays, and other hints for classical in-
struction, in the note-book of which so much has here
been said. He appears as 'Assistant Tutor' in the
Oxford Calendar of 1842 (brought up to date for
December, 1841).
In 1842 he took Deacon's Orders. From the dry light
of speculation which shines through the disquisitions
above quoted, it is not to be inferred that, at this
time, his emotional nature was not also deeply stirred.
The truth comes out in his letters to his friend Greenhill
(inserted at the end of this chapter), with whom for
a time he seems to have indulged in an interchange of
' religious sympathy.' There are traces in them of some
inequalities of health and spirits perhaps also of inward
struggles.
G 2
84 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
A sentence in the letter from Bonn, June 28, 1842 1 ,
in which he deprecates further correspondence on this
subject, is characteristic and biographically important.
Like every act of his life, his Ordination vows were
realized by him with deep intensity. This was mani-
fested not only by increasing devotion to his pupils,
but by single incidents, in which he boldly broke through
conventionality, in accordance with the spirit of his
profession, and overcame his natural shyness.
From that moment, and to the end of his life, he was
in the truest sense a ' son of consolation.'
Sir Henry Acland has favoured us with the following
account of a fact in his own experience which exemplifies
this :
'I first saw Mr. Jowett in 1844 at the country house of
Sir Benjamin Brodie (Betchworth, Surrey 2 ), the grandfather
of the present Baronet.
' Mr. Jowett was a close friend of the eldest son, afterwards
Professor of Chemistry here, and was on a visit to Sir Benjamin.
I was weak and ill, and one night when Jowett heard I was
sleepless, he came quietly into my room, sat by the bedside,
and said in that small voice, once heard never to be forgotten,
" You are very unwell, I will read to you " : and he read in the
same voice the fourteenth chapter of St. John, and said, " I hope
you will feel better," and went away, and often, often have
I thought of this during Oxford controversies.'
His sense of his vocation in another aspect may be
illustrated by the following anecdote. When staying at
a country house, amongst men of great literary reputation,
when the host, then but slightly known to him, made
use of some Rabelaisian expression unaware perhaps
for the moment that he was entertaining a clergyman
1 See p. 109. Brodie, M.D., the first baronet,
2 Broome Park, Betchworth, who died there in 1862.
Surrey, was the seat of Sir B.
1840-1846] Religious Attitude 85
Jowett said quite simply, ' Mr. - , I do not think myself
better than you, but I feel bound to disapprove of that
remark.' This attitude was maintained consistently in
later life, but with differences of method, in accordance
with his increasing knowledge of men and things. At
a Scotch shooting lodge, somewhere in the sixties, he
insisted on going down to the smoking-room with the
others at a late hour, and when the conversation of the
younger men took a doubtful turn, the small voice that
had been silent hitherto, was suddenly heard ' There is
more dirt than wit in that story, I think.' Once again,
in the eighties, when at Balliol after dinner some old
companion ventured on dangerous ground, he quietly
said, ' Shall we continue this conversation with the
ladies ? ' and rose to go 1 .
From this epoch also may be dated a marked ex-
pansion of that cheerful helpfulness which had always
characterized him, but received a new impulse from
his Ordination vow. No minister of Christ ever more
fully realized the precepts, 'Strengthen thy brethren,'
' Support the weak,' ' It is more blessed to give than to
receive.' Many of his best thoughts on Law, Political
Economy, Statesmanship, the management of an estate,
the conduct of a public office, were drawn from him by
his practical sympathy with friends whose position was
most unlike his own, and whose opportunities, difficulties,
and responsibilities he sought to understand in order to
advise them better. His own work, already sufficiently
heavy, was often multiplied by taking on himself the
duties of others who were temporarily disabled.
A letter to B. C. Brodie, written in October, 1844, shows
his feeling on the subject of religion in the years following
his Ordination. Brodie's scientific studies had led him
1 Cf. Benjamin Jowett, by L. A. Tollemache, p. 116.
86 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
to express opinions which to Jowett's mind savoured
of materialism :
' What appears to me to make the greatest gulph between
us, is not your taking a rationalistic or mythic view of the
Bible, or difficulties about miracles, or even prayer, but that
you do not leave any place for religion at all, so that although
you may hold the being of God as the Author of the Universe,
I do not see how you would be worse off morally if Atheism
were proved to demonstration. What would you lose but
a little poetry, which is a very weak motive to holiness of
life ? And having shut yourself out from any moral relation
to God as an incentive to Duty, does this moral Atheism
satisfy human nature ? '
Behind all ecclesiastical obligations, all speculative
difficulties, were the realities in which he afterwards
summed up the influences of religion ' the Power of
God, the Love of Christ, the efficacy of Prayer 1 .'
And at the centre of his religious life, both then and
afterwards, was his conception of the Person of Christ, the
divine image of the Father, the Elder Brother, the Sinless
One, the Friend of sinners, who went about doing good ;
never sparing rebuke, yet to whom all would soonest go
for confession ; who called His chosen ones not servants
but friends, and having loved His own, loved them to
the end.
The Summer Term of 1842 seems to have been spent in
Paris, where he passed much time in the great libraries,
pursuing eagerly an ambitious course of study. From
Paris he went to Bonn with a pupil, and made the
acquaintance of Nitzsch, the great Homeric scholar. It
was here that he received from A. C. Tait the news of
Dr. Arnold's death. He had been greatly impressed with
Arnold's inaugural lecture in the previous December,
1 Epistles of St. Paul, 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 126.
1840-1846] Tutor of Balliol 87
and had also seen him in the Balliol Common Room,
where he witnessed the meeting of Arnold with W. GL
"Ward after some passages of arms between them 7 .
These visits to Paris and Bonn prepared the way for
his parents' residence in the Rue Madeleine from 1846
onwards, and their temporary retirement to Bonn during
the disturbances of 1848.
In October, 1842, soon after Tait's appointment to
succeed Dr. Arnold at Ru^by, Jowett became a Tutor of
the College. The old Master hesitated about giving the
Tutorship, vacated by Lonsdale 2 , to so young a man.
But he was prevailed upon by the urgency of Wooll-
combe.
The standard of a College Tutor's work at Oxford had
been considerably raised since the commencement of the
century 3 : first by the Tutors of Oriel, amongst whom were
Richard Whately 4 and J. H. Newman, and still more
at Balliol by Jowett's predecessor, Archibald Campbell
Tait. The following entry from Tait's private Journal 5
speaks volumes as to the ideal which he had set before
him:
'Nov. 16, 1839. Memorandum, What caii be done ... to
make more of a pastoral connexion between the Tutors and
1 W. G. Ward and the Oxford James Lonsdale, p. 23).
Movement, p. 438. 8 Cyril Jackson (d. 1819), who
2 Earlier in the same year preferred the Deanery of Christ
Lonsdale had written to his Church to a Bishopric and did
mother : ' You laugh at my pope so much to promote the Oxford
Jowett, but really I know of Honours system, seems to have
nobody so clever. Several here stood almost alone amongst his
look upon him and Stanley as contemporaries as an educator of
quite the cleverest persons here, young men.
The only fault in them both is * Afterwards Archbishop of
that they are too purely intel- Dublin.
lectual, and rack their brains 5 Life of Archibald Campbell
from morning to night ' (Life of Tait, yd ed. 1891, vol. i. p. 72.
88 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
their pupils ? What can be done for making the Tutor more
fully superintend his individual pupil's reading, without mere
reference to the Schools? What for reviving provisions to
enable the lower classes to profit by the Universities, as they
did when Servitorship existed l ? '
Jowett entered upon the task, as thus conceived, with
all the freshness and ardour of youthful devotion. But
some time passed before he began to reap the reward of
his labours. In the years from 1841 to 1844 inclusive,
Balliol was not very fortunate in the Schools. For
whatever reasons, both Arthur Clough and Matthew
Arnold were placed in the Second Class ; and the only
Balliol Firsts of these years, in eight Class Lists, were
Constantine Prichard in Michaelmas Term, 1841, and
Frederick Fanshawe and Frederick Temple in Easter
Term, 1842.
Jowett's power as a teacher did not at once fully
assert itself. His reputation in those early days rested
more upon Scholarship than on Philosophy. All admired
the beauty of his Latin prose, and generally the felicity
and grace of his literary expression. It was only towards
the end of the period now under consideration, that he
commenced those lectures on the History of Philosophy
which first revealed to a select number of his pupils
the larger scope of his thoughts. This was probably
after his return from Germany in 1844. Such men
as Clough and Matthew Arnold were too conscious of
their own powers to see what lay beneath their youth-
ful teacher's quiet but rather peremptory manner; and
in return, while dough's personality certainly impressed
him, for he reverted to it in his last days on earth, it
was not until long afterwards that he learned to take
1 On the position and work of see Mozley's Reminiscences, vol. i.
an Oxford Tutor in 1825-1835, p. 33 ff.
1840-1846] Arthur Penrhyn Stanley 89
Matthew Arnold seriously. His closer intimacy with
R Temple dates from somewhat later, when Temple had
become a Junior Fellow.
From the Easter Term of 1845 onwards Balliol Scholars
again take First Classes, as a matter of course ; and it is
at this point that Jowett's success as a College Tutor
becomes established. The honours gained by James
Riddell and Edwin Palmer 1 , both in 1845, mark the
commencement of a fresh series of Balliol successes ; and
the degree in which this was referable to Jowett may be
gathered from Archdeacon Palmer's reminiscences 2 .
Jowett's position amongst his colleagues appears from
a recollection of Lord Lingen's, who had been elected
to a Fellowship in 1841, and was present at a College
meeting in 1844, "when plans for the rebuilding of the
College, sent in by Pugin and other architects, were
under discussion. The Master (Jenkyns) had given his
opinion in a knock-me-down style, and Lingen imagined
that no one was likely to 'take the bull by the horns.'
His surprise when the youthful Tutor began to speak
was equalled by his admiration of the calm, firm, and
clear manner in which Jowett expressed an opposite
opinion.
If this period begins with Ward, it ends with Arthur
Stanley. It appears from Ward's Life 3 that while pre-
paring his Ideal of a Christian Church in 1844, he
had withdrawn from, close habitual intercourse with
the more liberal amongst his former friends. In the
summer of that year Jowett joined with Stanley in a tour
1 The late Venerable Edwin to their intercourse, says, 'I am
Palmer, Archdeacon of Oxford. speaking chiefly of the years
2 See p. 102. between 1840 and 1844.'
3 p. 438. Jowett, in referring
90 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
to Germany J . An entry in one of the Master's note-books,
shortly after the death of the Dean of Westminster, records
the fact that at this time, more than ever before or after-
wards, he poured out his whole heart to Stanley. They
had already been reading Hebrew together, and Stanley
mentions that in the course of the journey the travellers
' supported their weary minds by alternate reading,
analyzing, and catechizing, on Kant's Pure Reason'
Jowett's familiarity with German is clearly shown by
his writing more than once in that language at some
length to Arthur Stanley, out of mere playfulness, in
1844-6. The interest of the tour did not culminate for
both companions at the same point. Not the Holy Coat
at Treves nor the antiquities at Nuremberg, but the
Congress of Philologers at Dresden ' one of the most
uninteresting places,' says Stanley, ' that I ever saw '-
made the deepest impression upon Jowett's mind. To
converse with Gottfried Hermann 2 , with Lachmann,
Immanuel Bekker, and Ewald, made an era in his
intellectual life. It was probably here also that the two
friends consulted J. E. Erdmann of Halle 3 , the Hegelian
disciple, on the best manner of approaching the works of
Hegel. The introductions which Stanley had brought
with him, due to the friendship between Dr. Arnold and
the Chevalier Bunsen, must have greatly facilitated all
such intercourse. Nor is the performance of the Medea
before the Philologers, presumably in Greek, to be
regarded as a wholly insignificant circumstance.
1 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i. of Nitzsch, Brandis, and Corner,
pp. 326 ff. s Erdmann was born in 1805.
2 To Stanley from Bonn, Janu- His Geschichte der Philosophic was
ary, 1849 : ' Do you know, Her- in course of publication at this
niann died last week, "der frische time, and the Jubilee of his Pro-
lebendige Mann " ? ' At Bonn fessorship at Halle was celebrated
Jowett made the acquaintance in 1889.
1840-1846] Tour in Germany 91
In a letter to B. C. Brodie, where lie sums up the
impressions derived from the tour, he mentions this
congress as especially memorable :
'November 5, 1844.
' I hardly know whether our tour will much interest you :
it went as far as Vienna, and with some disagreeables was
eminently successful. An infinite quantity of talk was one
result, for which there was some excuse, as We had nothing
else to do. ... We returned by Dresden, where we saw
old Hermann, who seemed to be undergoing a sort of apothe-
osis at the hands of a great Philological Association who
dined and feted him in every possible way. Various others,
Zumpt's Latin Grammar, Thiersch's Greek Grammar, Wunder's
Sophocles, Lachmann's Greek Testament, who were formerly
supposed to be myths, also sprang up into life and reality.'
Though Stanley was the more enthusiastic traveller,
his companion appears to have had a chief part in
planning the details of the tour. Stanley would have
spent the whole of every day in sight- seeing, but Jowett
insisted on reserving certain hours for study : he had
brought the still recent Liddell and Scott amongst his
luggage ; Stanley nicknamed this ' the monster grievance,'
in allusion to a phrase of O'Connell's, and dubbed his
friend ' the inexorable Jowett.'
Although the posthumous influence of fiegel in his
own country had already culminated and was beginning
to decline, it was still powerful with many students of
Philosophy, and had begun to exercise a wide influence
upon Theology. The complete edition of his works and
his Life by E-osenkranz had lately appeared, and from
this visit to Germany, repeated in the following year,
Jowett' s more intimate acquaintance with this special
phase of German philosophy may be dated 1 . For several
1 Professor W. Wallace re- Mainz absorbed in Hegel's Preface
members Jowett telling him how to the Encyclopadie.
he once stood on a bridge at
92 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
years after this lie remained an ardent, though still
an independent, student of Hegel 1 . How critically he
studied the philosophy even when most absorbed in it
appears, however, from a letter to Stanley of August 20,
1846, in which he says :
'Hegel is untrue, I sometimes fancy, not in the sense of
being erroneous, but practically, because it is a consciousness
of truth, becoming thereby error. It is very difficult to express
what I mean, for it is something which does not make me
value IJegel the less as a philosophy. The problem of aXrjQtia.
TrpaKTiKrj. Truth idealized and yet in action, he does not seem
to me to have solved ; tlje Gospel of St. John does. Hegel
seems to me, not the perfect philosophy, but the perfect self-
consciousness of philosophy.'
Dr. Whyte's Professorship of Moral Philosophy was
vacated by Sacheverell Johnson in the autumn of 1844,
and Jowett allowed his name to be sent in for the post :
' Because I feel,' he writes 2 , ' that it would suit me better
than any other Chair.' He does not consider himself
a serious candidate if H. H. Vaughan should stand :
' I would much sooner hear him than teach myself.' But
he thinks that Vaughan's theological opinions may
possibly stand in his way. The Chair was ultimately
conferred on H. G. Liddell, who held it only for a year.
In the excitement which followed Newman's retirement
to Littlemore and the publication of the Ideal of a
Christian Church, Stanley and Jowett were intimately
associated, and while the elder man took the more active
part, as at this time his position in the University was
much more prominent, he found no small support and
help from consultation with Jowett, who in November,
1 ' One must go on or perish in any other system after you have
the attempt, that is to say, give begun with this.' Letter to B. C.
up Metaphysics altogether. It is Brodie, September 28, 1845.
impossible to be satisfied with 2 To B. C. Brodie, October 15.
1840-1846] Degradation of Ward 93
1844, was already assisting him in the preparation of a
Protest on the subject. They were together at the scene
of the degradation of "Ward in February, 1845 J . The
events of that day have often been described, but no-
where more graphically than by Dean Stanley and in
the Memoir of Dean Church, who, as Junior Proctor, took
a memorable part in the proceedings. The latter work
contains a graphic piece of description at first hand
which may be quoted here.
'Mr. Church's youngest brother, then an undergraduate at
Oriel . . . had stationed himself at a window in Broad Street,
in order better to view the proceedings ; and he recalls the
excitement of the moment, the sight of the crowd, which still,
after the procession had entered, lingered round the railings
that enclose the Theatre the dull roar of the shouting which
could be heard at intervals from within the building itself
and at last the appearance of the assemblage streaming out
through the snow, the big figure of Ward emerging among the
earliest, with his papers under his arm, to be greeted with
shouts and cheers, which passed into laughter as, in his hurry,
he slipped and fell headlong in the snow, his papers flying in
every direction 2 .'
The scene within the Theatre was vividly described by
Jowett in a letter to Brodie written a day or two after
the great event :
' . . . The i3 e Fevrier came off last Thursday, a most tragic
scene which the inclemency of the weather contributed to
heighten. 1300 wild country parsons are calculated to have
come up to do battle on the occasion : the Theatre was crammed ;
Ward in the rostrum with Oakeley for prompter. The V. C.
and Hebdomadals take their places. Ward requests leave
to speak in English, which is granted ; and then began an
oration containing some of the unpleasantest words to the ears
of country clergy that were ever spoken. He supposed there
1 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i. 2 Dean Church's Life and Let-
P 34- ters, p. 55.
94 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
were men of all parties present High Church, Evangelicals,
&c., and compared the first with the Articles, the second with
the Liturgy. Their difficulties were obvious, but neither
party had the least conception of them. He then supposed the
Evangelical to become High Churchman in what a new light
all things would present themselves ! his view of the Articles
would vary with his opinions. He himself took the Articles
in a non-natural sense, as they all did, and what he wanted
to show was that they were not all dishonest but all honest
together. The rest of his speech was a complaint of the
unfitness of the Court, and the impossibility of making any real
defence before them. In conclusion, he warned them of the
present state of the Church of England, which might last
as a framework to hold them all, but if they pulled out a single
stone would fall together.
' I cannot give you any idea of his manner. He was as much
at home with his audience as he is in the C. K. l after dinner.
He read a passage from a pamphlet of Maurice's to prove some
point, which spoke of himself in a manner far from compli-
mentary, interjecting ''He means me, he has no very good
opinion of me, he says he would rather go to a dame's school
and be a dustman than do what I have done." Another time
he threw in a parenthesis " Believing as I do the whole cycle of
Eoman doctrine " which threw his audience into a titter by
the extreme simplicity with which it was said. At the end
he stood forth with prophetic voice and told us of what was
to happen in "the latter days."
' The vote of censure was passed by a majority of 770 to 380.
Ward again made a short speech in arrest of judgement, but he
was condemned by 570 to 510. Only the drawing and quarter-
ing was remitted. For the " Horrendum Carmen," a fragment
preserved in the statute de dcgradatione, runs as follows :
Hereticum vicecancellarius iudicet.
Si ad convocationem provocatur
Provocatione certanto,
Si vincent, pileum exiiito :
Capuceum, togam detrahito :
Comburito intra vel extra Universitatem.
1 The Balliol Common-room.
1840-1846] The Proctors' Veto 95
'We returned home with the feelings of men who had
witnessed an execution or rather had themselves been execu-
tioners at an Auto da Fe. Perhaps you will wonder at my
levity in treating of the whole affair, but it is the only way
I can revenge myself for having looked upon it seriously
a week ago.
'The tragedy is now at an end, and the comedy or what
I must call the tragi-comedy is about to begin ; but the
curtain is not yet drawn up for the public. Do you remember
the end of the Beggars' Opera where, after the feelings of the
spectators are wrought to the highest pitch, a sort of [dramatic
revolution] takes place and by poetic justice the execution is
turned into a WEDDING? Between the first and second acts
of the above-mentioned tragedy, letters were brought to the
prisoner in his cell, written in a fair Italian hand,
And whiter far than that whereon it wrote
Was the fair hand that writ.
' In a word, our Confessor is going to be married.
' I do not of course blame Ward for this in itself, but I think
he is very much to blame for recklessly writing a book which
has thrown us into confusion and then doing precisely the
thing most inconsistent with his own principles, and lastly,
instead of retiring from the contest as he ought under the
circumstances, he has fought it out to the last. Either he felt
himself called to announce a high and important truth or his
book is absolutely indefensible. A man in love is not exactly
the person to breathe the spirit of Hildebrand or Innocent.
I believe he has not the least conception of the ludicrous point
of view which he will present to a mocking world, and am
truly sorry for it for his sake.'
Stanley always claimed for the little band of Oxford
Liberals, including himself, Jowett,Donkin, and Greenhill,
the merit of having moderated the violence of that day's
proceedings, not only by the moral support they gave the
Proctors (H. P. Guillemard of Trinity and E. "W. Church
of Oriel) in the courageous act of vetoing the condemna-
tion of Tract XC, but still more by their strenuous
g6 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
opposition to the proposal 'that the Vice-Chancellor
should have power at any time to require a member of
the University, in order to prove his orthodoxy, to sub-
scribe the Articles in the sense in which they were both
first published and were now imposed' which motion
was withdrawn within a few days of the meeting of
Convocation, partly in consequence of an opinion of
counsel which Stanley and others had obtained l . This
claim on Stanley's part was admitted thirty-one years
afterwards by the person most competent to speak of it,
when Dean Church wrote to Dean Stanley in 1876, ' It was
a very generous as well as wise action on your part and
that of the men who joined with you 2 .'
With what alacrity Jowett had thrown himself into
this course of action, what part he took both in stimu-
lating and guiding it, how he realized the full significance
of the situation, especially as it affected the future of
the Church of England, is made apparent by a letter to
Stanley written in the Christmas vacation preceding the
event, which vividly reflects both the sanguine eagerness
of the writer and the persons of most account in Oxford
at that critical time. It will also be observed that the
chief stress is laid, not on Ward's danger, but on the
principle involved in the ' New Test.'
' It is difficult to choose out of the medley of opinions you
sent me. I am glad that Liddell signs. In a sense I agree
with them all.
' I agree with Milman in thinking that the short protest
might advantageously be worked up into an eloquent docu-
ment, when you have felt the temper of the people who are
going to sign it. Meanwhile in its prosaic form it is already
printed. I should send it round in MS. to likely persons as
something like the document in its poetic form which they
1 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i. p. 335. 2 Life of Dean Church, p. 58.
i8 4 o-i8 4 6] Second Tour in Germany 97
are hereafter to have. This latter it would be an appropriate
compliment to Milman to ask him to assist in writing, as he
seems to have ideas upon the subject.
' I think persons innumerable should be written to with
respect to the Test exclusively. What Lake says is quite
true Ward's case is comparatively unimportant and very
unpopular. Besides the protest there are clearly only two
things to be done, a shower of pamphlets to be written by
all sorts of persons putting the matter in every different light
also private letters to all one's old College friends, &c. Will
you write to Blackett, Congreve, and Donkin, urging them,
to canvass against the Test immediately ; also to Tait, dropping
the Wardian part of the question ?
'Could any Oxford Bishop, Longley, or Denison, be got to
express his opinion on the Test before it comes on? Would
it not be worth while to write to Hamilton 1 and put a view
of the case before him ? Get Lake to write to Burrows and
Trench and so ascend to Archdeacon Samuel 2 . . . . Write to
H. Vaughan 3 . Might he not be got to write something?
it ought to touch heterodox laymen to the quick. I trust we
shall never have any more agitation. I suppose it to be a duty,
but, as I have often said, I feel peculiarly unfit for it and, what
is more, people think that I am going out of my place, which
is not the case with you.'
In the Long Vacation of 1845, after visiting Lake in
Germany 4 , he again travelled with Stanley, whose
sister joined them at Ischl. The two friends had spent
some weeks together at Berlin, where Jowett observed
curiously the state of Prussian politics, the King's ' idea
of government being to tread in the steps of Frederick
the Great and preserve Prussia as he had raised it, by
1 Afterwards Bishop of Salis- 4 A letter from E. Bastard to
bury. F. T. Palgrave, July 20, 1845^
2 Samuel Wilberforce became mentions that Lake was in Ger-
Bishop of Oxford in 1845. many on account of health, and
8 Henry Halford Vaughan, Jowett had joined him there,
afterwards Professor of Modern ' much to his comfort,' as he had
History. been very solitary before.
VOL. I." H
98 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
a military despotism.' There also lie had the interviews
with Schelling and Neander of which he afterwards
spoke. He wrote to Brodie (September 28) :
' I must say I was very much pleased with the old " twaddler"
Schelling. He was exceedingly kind, and thoroughly modest
and unassuming. We saw him several times, when he talked
about Coleridge, who he said was unfairly attacked for
plagiarism from himself in BlacJcwood's Magazine. He struck
me as having more of the poet than of the philosopher about
him and far more genius than strength of character. I do
not know anything about his philosophy, and to judge from
Schelling's face it is probably somewhat dreamy, but it was
evident that there is so much party spirit that it was impossible
to form a judgement of what you heard, and it is in his favour
that Steffens, who was universally respected, was his follower
to the last.'
"With reference to this tour Mrs. Vaughan (then
Catherine Stanley) writes (1894):
' My sister and I went out alone to Ischl where we met
him and my brother and where we remained with them
a fortnight. After which, we went on our way but what
that "way "was, I am ashamed to say I cannot remember.
I know we went across Bohemia, and we were most anxious
to get into Italy by the Stelvio ; but were prevented by my
brother's inability to get up early enough to accomplish it in
the only time at our disposal. He and B. J. were deep
in those days in the study of Hebrew, and could hardly
be persuaded to look up from their books and contemplate
the beauties of the scenery through which we passed. We
used to exclaim, "Oh, do look! how beautiful!" and they
would hastily raise their eyes, cry out, "Yes, very fine," and
as hastily return to the contemplation of their Grammar. In
those days B. J. was, as I have said, the most charming friend
and companion it was possible to have : never out of temper,
never depressed, never looking weary or discontented always
full of the most interesting subjects of conversation. He was
delightful.'
1840-1846] Hebrew Theological Essays 99
The Hebrew Grammar 1 , with Jowett' s name written in
ink over Stanley's in pencil, and with pencilled annota-
tions by B. J. (chiefly a running analysis of the Hebrew
syntax), is now in the possession of Lady Lingen, to whom
Jowett gave it when he had himself relinquished the
study at the end of 1846, finding that to be a critical
Hebrew scholar required more time than he could give.
He always said that even a smattering of Hebrew was
worth while : ( it gave you a new idea of language.' He
was studying the Hebrew Bible in the autumn of 1846,
when, according to a letter of E. Bastard to F. T.
Palgrave, he had been working very hard at Hebrew :
' The day he went away from here, he was reading (as we
afterwards heard) the Hebrew Bible as he went along, and
ended by leaving it in the coach 2 .'
Shortly before this, while working at Ewald's Hebrew
Grammar, he had written to Stanley, ' I am hard at work
at Hebrew and really begin to find some enjoyment in
reading it.' But at the opening of 1847 he wrote, ' I find
Hebrew too trying to the eyes to be pursued to any great
extent, and am accordingly reading the Republic for
lectures next Term.'
His letters to Stanley, a few of which are appended
to this chapter, make it manifest that the influence
of the elder upon the younger friend was more than
reciprocated. When Stanley was preparing his sermons
on the Apostolic Age, Jowett was consulted at every
step, and his letters reveal in a remarkable way the
character and working of his own mind.
He was ordained priest in 1845. Earlier in that year,
he had been occupied in writing some Theological Essays;
1 Gesenius, ed. Rodiger, Leip- reading party who visited Jowett
zig, 1845. and his pupil at Beaumaris,
2 Bastard was one of Riddell's August 16, 1846.
H 2
ioo Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
and in 1846 his systematic study of the New Testament
was stimulated by an idea which Stanley had suggested
to him, that he should contribute a series of Essays to the
volume which his friend was preparing for the press.
This particular design was not carried out, as Jowett
ultimately declined to publish in this way ; but it was
agreed that they should produce a joint work in Theology
at some future time. Meanwhile, in what he afterwards
called their 'furious' correspondence he communicates
his anxious thoughts on New Testament criticism.
Stanley, in his Life of Dr. Arnold (1844), na d laid
special stress on the importance which his master at-
tached to the critical study of Theology, and his intention
of setting on foot a ' Rugby Edition ' of St. Paul's Epistles
under his own superintendence 1 . There can be no
reasonable doubt that the work now undertaken had
some reference to this unfulfilled design of the great
Head Master. In one of their afternoon walks, the two
friends were caught in a heavy shower of rain and driven
to take refuge in a quarry. It was under these circum-
stances, as Jowett afterwards told "W. L. Newman, that in
eager conversation the plan of the work was sketched
in outline. Nine years elapsed before the publication in
part of what was then projected. The plan was more
than once modified after its main outlines had been
agreed upon, and at one time it was enlarged to a
scheme for a complete work on the New Testament. In
a letter of 1846, Jowett writes to Stanley :
'I have been thinking a good deal about our Opus Magnum,
and trust that by God's blessing we may be able to bring it to
some result. I propose to divide it into two portions, (a) the
Gospels, and (6) the Acts and Epistles, to be preceded respec-
tively by two long prefaces, the first containing the hypothesis
1 Arnold's Life and Correspondence, p. 163 of sixth edition.
1840-1846] Jowett and Stanley 101
of the Gospels, and a theory of inspiration to be deduced from
it; the second to contain the ''subjective mind" of the Apo-
stolic age, historisch-psychologisch dargestellt. I think it should
also contain essays on such subjects as "eschatology," "the
demoniacs," &c., which cannot be properly effigiated in notes.'
In the autumn of 1846 he had a vision of a ' flight to
Ireland with Stanley, to examine into the constitution
and Eevenues of Trinity College, &c.,' which was broken
off by some change in Stanley's plans. The letters
to Stanley belonging to this period which are preserved
are very numerous, and they dwell on many points of
merely temporary interest. But those not here included
contain some morsels which it would be a pity to lose :
as this on self- improvement (1846) :
'Can any summary rule be given more than this, every
day and every hour to frame yourself with a view to getting
over a weakness ? How a person does this can only be learnt
from experience, not, I think, to be intruded on by others.
But the line you quote in the Preface to Arnold's Life, "That
moveth all together if it move at all *," seems to me ever to be
borne in mind in all these things. If a defect be anything
more than a trick, character is too elastic to admit of any
mechanical contrivance for getting rid of it.'
Or again this passing remark on the words 'I, if I be
lifted up from the earth,' ' Does it not seem as if the
Crucifixion and the glory of Christ were absolutely
identical in St. John's Gospel ? '
From another letter (December, 1846) it appears how
much he built on having Stanley at his side in Oxford :
' I am delighted to think that you are committed to Oxford,
as you say : trvv re Su" ep^o/-"^ 2 makes one independent at least.
Where shall we be at the end of the year ? Perhaps not living ;
1 Observe that Wordsworth is only quoted at second hand.
2 ' Two going on together.'
102 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
otherwise, much where we are, getting a little deeper and
filling up a little more in speculation, and reforming the
kitchens of University and Balliol.'
The position of Jowett in Balliol and his growing
credit as a teacher may be further illustrated by the
following reminiscences contributed by the late Arch-
deacon Palmer:
'Balliol College in 1842, when I came into residence as
a Scholar, was in many respects very unlike the Balliol
of the present day. The Chapel and the Hall and more
than half of the other buildings have been erected since that
time, and a College Garden has been created by the union
of two gardens, then walled off for the use of the Master and
of the Fellows respectively, with an irregular piece of ground
called the Grove, which was absolutely devoid of beauty,
though covered with trees. Moreover the number of Com-
moners in the College is at least twice as large now as it was
in my day, and the number of Scholars and of Exhibitioners
has been doubled also. But these differences, however striking,
are only superficial. In more important respects the College has
preserved a uniform character for a good deal more than half
a century. Its Masters, Tutors, and Lecturers have devoted
themselves ungrudgingly to its service, and among its under-
graduates the proportion of reading men to idlers has been
greater than anywhere else in Oxford. But I am asked to set
down briefly my own undergraduate recollections.
'In Michaelmas Term, 1842, when I first came up, there
were only four undergraduate Scholars in residence, four besides
myself, James Eiddell, Matthew Arnold, Edward Walford, and
C. S. Lock. Lock was a Blundell Scholar from Tiverton.
The rest of us came from public schools of greater name.
Indeed, this was the case with all the open Scholars who were
elected from 1838 to 1845 inclusive, except William Young Sellar.
He was a Snell Exhibitioner from Glasgow University. Of
the other fifteen Scholars elected in those eight years, five came
from Eugby, three from Shrewsbury, three from Charterhouse,
two from Eton, one from Harrow, and one from Winchester.
1840-1846] Archdeacon Palmer's Reminiscences 103
Yet no preference was given by the statutes, nor any favour
shown by the electors, to public school men. The emoluments
of a Balliol Scholarship were reckoned in those days at 30
a year or thereabouts. Scholars were exempt from tuition
fees, and had an allowance for maintenance of zos. a week
during actual residence. The competition, however, for these
Scholarships was at least as great as for Scholarships at any
other College in the University, although at some Colleges
(such as Trinity, for example) the emoluments were much
more considerable. The Snell Exhibitioners, then as now,
formed an important element in the College. There were
ten of these Exhibitions, and there were usually five or six
undergraduates holding them in residence. I may mention
among my own contemporaries, John Campbell Shairp, after-
wards Professor of Poetry ; H. A. Douglas, afterwards Bishop
of Bombay ; William Young Sellar, afterwards Professor of
Humanity at Edinburgh ; Francis Sandford, and Patrick Cumin,
who filled successively the post of Secretary to the Committee
of Council on Education. Many or most of the Commoners
were public school men ; Eton in particular was largely repre-
sented. Not a few were reading men, whose pursuits and
ambitions were similar to those of the Scholars and Exhibi-
tioners. In consequence, the Scholars and Exhibitioners did
not form a distinct set, although the Scholars had a table to
themselves in Hall. There was a fast set (as we called it),
which consisted of ten or a dozen men, whose amusements
were more expensive than those of the rest ; but there was
no hard line of demarcation even here, some of the reading
men were more or less intimate with the members of the
fast set. There were also a few men who, for one reason or
another, did not mix much with their neighbours. So far,
however, as I remember, the bulk of the College, some forty men
at least, Scholars, Commoners, and Exhibitioners, associated
freely together. Breakfast-parties and wine-parties, small or
great, at which we all met (though seldom all at once), went
on every day. It is my impression that I myself rarely
breakfasted alone, and rarely failed to pass an hour or more
after dinner in company. But our breakfast-parties broke
up at ten, and the amount of wine drunk at our wine-parties
104 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
was inconsiderable ; and consequently our social habits did not
interfere with the reading of those who, like myself, wished to
read. The men of whom I speak they were too numerous
to be called a set were the representatives of Balliol in
the eyes of the University at large. It was by them that the
reputation of the College was maintained in the Schools, on
the river, and in the cricket-field. Football was not yet played
at Oxford. It is an illustration of the union between Scholars
and Commoners that there was almost always a Scholar in the
College boat. Before I began to reside, Balliol had become
conspicuous for success in University examinations and in the
competition for prizes. My own generation carried on this
tradition. It was not, however, till somewhat later that
Balliol Commoners were found in the First Class as often as
Scholars or Exhibitioners.
' I pass from undergraduates to dons. Dr. Jenkyns, who was
Master from 1819 to 1854, though the subject of many stories
which represent him in a ridiculous light, was a remarkably
efficient and successful head. We laughed much at him our-
selves, but we also liked him much. He had the interest of the
College thoroughly at heart, and the success of each individual in
it was a matter of concern to him. Moreover, he had a great
amount of practical shrewdness. Edward Cooper Woollcombe,
William Charles Lake, and Benjamin Jowett were our Tutors.
Frederick Temple was our mathematical lecturer, and some-
times lectured in other subjects also. Lake, Jowett, and
Temple all began to teach in Balliol in October Term, 1842
the Term in which I came up. Woollcombe had been Tutor
along with Archibald Campbell Tait and James Gylby Lons-
dale during the previous year, in which Dale had been mathe-
matical lecturer. In those days each undergraduate was
assigned to one special Tutor for the whole period of his
residence, but it was only for Latin and Greek composition
that he went, as a matter of course, to his own Tutor ; for his
lectures he went to this or that Tutor, as the Tutors might
arrange among themselves. Undergraduates had then no
choice in the matter. On an average each undergraduate was
required to attend two lectures every week-day. There were
no off-days but Sundays. We had abundant evidence that all
:8 4 o-i8 4 6] Archdeacon Palmer's Reminiscences 105
our teachers were thoroughly in earnest, and that they not
only desired to make us work, but also worked hard them-
selves. I was one of Jowett's pupils. So was James Eiddell,
who was already known for his remarkable scholarship, and
in after years had no superior in Oxford in that department.
Jowett did not spare his labour in preparing us both for
University Scholarship examinations. I had to bring him
during my first year Latin or Greek composition three times
a week. I believe he would have made me come to him still
oftener, if he had not been aware that I was working for the
same examinations with a private Tutor, Mountague Bernard,
who was then a B.A. Scholar of Trinity. Just before the
Christmas vacation, 1842, Jowett put into the hands of Eiddell
and myself a plan of work for that vacation which must
have cost him a considerable amount of time and thought.
Numerous pieces of composition, prose and verse, Greek and
Latin, were prescribed ' ; selected portions of Greek and Latin
authors were to be studied or learned by heart ; one or two
books on philological subjects were to be read. Whether
he gave the same holiday task to other pupils at the same
time I do not remember. I believe that Eiddell and I followed
out his plan completely ; I know that we did all the composition
prescribed, and that Jowett looked it all over with us at the
beginning of the next Term. In dealing with composition,
it was his method to criticize rather than to correct. Of
course he pointed out flagrant errors, but else he did not go
much into detail. He looked rather to the general style, and
(when the composition was original) to the treatment of the
subject. He took great pains also with the criticism of his
pupils' prize compositions. It was the practice then (strange
and indefensible as it now seems) for College Tutors and other
friends to see and comment upon compositions which were
to be sent in for the Chancellor's prizes or Sir Eoger Newdi-
gate's. Such comments must often have given a material
advantage to those competitors whose fortune it was to have
1 The list includes a large pro- Latin Odes, &c., and passages for
portion of original subjects for verse translation from Shake-
Latin letters, Greek dialogues, speare, Milton, and the Bible.
io6 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
good advisers ; but at that time nobody thought the practice
unfair. I remember that in my first year Jowett condemned
absolutely a Latin poem of mine, and made me write another.
My second attempt, however, did not please him better, and
ultimately the first draught went in, with such improvements
as I was able to introduce. I am bound to add that its failure
justified his unfavourable opinion. Jowett's pupils always felt
that they were in the hands of a good scholar, but I do not
think that we attributed to him pre-eminence in this respect
over other good scholars in the University. The same thing
may be said as regards his College lectures generally in those
days. They were the lectures of a well-read and able man,
but they did not give us an impression of learning or of power
to teach which was singular either in kind or in degree.
Indeed, I have a livelier recollection of lectures which I heard
from other teachers in Balliol during my first two years.
One thing I remember, however, which was peculiar to Jowett
among our Lecturers, and it is a thing which distinguished
him through life. It was inventiveness. He was fertile in
experiments. At one time he made a select class turn
Johnson's Easselas into Latin before him without preparation ;
at another, he made us construe Demosthenes' speech against
Midias at sight. He tried his hand at the explanation of
Sophocles' Choric Metres. He introduced us to Wolfs Homeric
theory. He took the Septuagint as his text-book for a lecture
on the Old Testament, Greswell's Harmony of the Gospels for
a lecture on the New. It may have been my own fault, but
I cannot remember any particular advantage which we derived
from these various experiments. A time came, however, at
last (I am unable to fix the exact date) when Jowett began
a course of lectures which made upon me and others a very
different impression from any which he had made upon us
before. His subject was the Fragments of the early Greek
philosophers ; but the lectures did not close without a mention
of Socrates and Plato. They were delivered to a class which
consisted of ten or twelve men Scholars, Commoners, and
Exhibitioners. We had never till then heard him lecture on
any philosophical subject. We were struck by the insight
which he showed into the speculations of ancient thinkers,
1840-1846] Archdeacon Palmer's Reminiscences 107
and by the felicity of expression which enabled him to make
them intelligible to us. These lectures gave him in our eyes
a position all his own. I believe myself that his interpretation
of Greek philosophy, of which this was the first specimen,
was the true foundation of his greatness in the eyes of Balliol
men and of the Oxford world. I suspect, moreover, that his
success in this department brought to himself a consciousness
of power which gradually unlocked his tongue, so that later
generations of pupils were able to enter into his thoughts
and feelings more than the men of my time could do. His
popularity followed the growth of his intellectual reputation ;
it did not precede it. No doubt the pains which he took with
his early pupils showed kindness as well as conscientiousness,
but his manner in dealing with them was such as to repel
rather than to attract. During my undergraduate years he
was singularly silent and undemonstrative. To shy men he
was positively alarming. I remember myself one occasion
on which he invited me to take a walk with him. The
number of words exchanged between us during that walk was
incredibly small, and I believe that it was a relief to both
when we regained the College gate. The experiment was not
repeated, nor did I ever feel at home with him before I took
my degree and became a Fellow. Others less shy than myself
may have found less difficulty in understanding him ; but I do
not think he would ever in those days have been described as
a popular tutor. Something of this early taciturnity remained
with him through life, though it grew less and less as years
went on. Meantime, however, opportunities multiplied for
the display of his kindness in other ways than the promotion
of his pupils' studies ; and that kindness was always ready,
always unstinted. It made an impression upon those who
were least able to appreciate his intellectual gifts. His inde-
pendence of mind, his originality, his fullness of resources,
attracted to him the abler men. At last even his fits of
silence came to have a charm of their own, and to give weight
to the pithy utterances which succeeded them.
'I remember Wall saying of Jowett in 1854, "It is to him
that the College owes its constant supply of Firsts in Greats." '
io8 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
LETTERS, 1840-1846.
To "W. A. GEEENHILL.
Good, Friday [1841].
I send the books for Dr. Arnold \ also the five pounds which
you kindly lent. I have not thanked you for the note which
you sent with them, but have often thought of it since.
I can never forget the way in which our acquaintance began
more than four years ago, and only hope that if you are
ever in need you will put me to the proof. You may be quite
sure you never can be in my debt.
Wishing you a happy Easter,
I am, yours ever,
B. JOWETT.
To W. A. GEEENHILL.
34 LEE ROAD, BLACKHEATH,
April 21, 1842.
... I was very much pleased by your kind note on my
birthday, although, considering how evil the last two years
of my life have been, it is unpleasant to be reminded how old
one has grown. In about a week I am going to bury myself
in Paris it is rather a relief to me to get away from people,
and I still build up dreams of steady reading and devotion.
This, you will think, is rather a misanthropical strain, but I do
not mean to indulge any such feelings. I hope the study
of the Greek Testament and regularity in diet, &c. , may bring
me into a better state of mind and body. Change of scene
does not seem to me of much use, but I mean to go to Paris
to be quiet and get away from all agitating subjects :
' Est Ulubris, animus si non te deficit aequus.'
This is rather like spinning a letter ' out of one's own bowels,'
but as the subject may possibly be not so agreeable to you as it is
1 Dr. Arnold was Mrs. Greenhill's uncle.
Letters, 1840-1846 109
natural to me, I will say nothing more about it. We are very
busy in getting my brother 1 ready for India, as he is to start
in about three weeks. I think it is a nice prospect for him
his pay is quite sufficient to support him, and it is a great
advantage of the East India service that his prospect of rising
depends almost entirely on his diligence and ability. He is
very much pleased himself, and notwithstanding your pithy
remark that it was a better employment to cure than to kill,
considering his disposition, I think he has made the best choice.
I am sorry to hear you are so downcast at Mrs. Greenhill's
absence ; it is one of the misfortunes of married life, I suppose
just sufficient to let you know your happiness.
Will you kindly give me any introductions you can at Paris 2 ?
You mention M. Miller, which may be of real service to me in
case I am unable to get an introduction to the library from my
other friend.
To W. A. GEEENHILL.
BONN, June 28, 1842.
. . . One chief reason I have for writing at this moment is
that I have just received in a letter from Tait the news of Arnold's
death. It must have thrown you and Mrs. Greenhill into
overwhelming trouble. I was quite shocked to hear of it so
very sudden, and a man who seemed so made to enjoy this
world that you might wish him long life for its own sake. No
person could see him without feeling an interest about him.
I shall never forget his noble appearance in the Theatre at the
inaugural lecture. It is pleasing indeed to remember that he
was the first person who really conducted a public school on
Christian principles. I should as soon doubt the truth of
religion itself as doubt that such a man had gone to receive
his reward.
One reason, I would just hint, why I don't write to you
oftener is that I do not like writing about religion ; and it
seems so cold and prosy to write to an intimate friend about
1 William Jowett. 1840. See Life of E. B. Pusey,
2 Greenhill had been pursuing vol. iii. p. 7.
his medical studies at Paris in
no Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
anything else. I doubt not that there may be many persons
to whom religious communion with one another is of great
good ; for myself, I fear that I have received all the good that
I can gain from it. For the future I would rather go on my
way alone, and, to avoid self-deceit, trust to God only.
Your introduction to M. Miller was of great use, as it enabled
me to go to the library and read. What little I saw of him he
seemed a very learned man, but he was so much engaged that
this was not much, and the medium of communication between
us was so imperfect that I am afraid he thought me something
strange. ... A French officer with whom I used to dine, and
two or three Oxford men, were quite enough society for me.
Upon the whole I am very glad that I went to Paris, where
I was getting a great deal better, and should be so at present if
I had not, like an ass, tired myself with walking along the
Moselle last week, and have not got over the effects of it yet.
Nothing can be more delightful than our present situation at
Bonn all our windows command a view of the Drachenfels.
I never was in any place I liked so well. The professors here
seem disposed to be very kind. Yesterday, on the strength
of Tait's acquaintance with him, I went to call on the
illustrious Nitzsch. I always find myself struck dumb in the
presence of a great man, but Nitzsch was so very kind it was quite
easy to get on with him. He talked a good deal and very well
about the English Church, though from not being able to read
English he has but an imperfect idea of things. Afterwards
I went to see Booking, who most kindly gave me an introduction
to another professor who, he said, spoke excellent English.
They were both shocked and grieved to hear of Arnold's death.
Booking seemed quite affected by it.
... I suppose you are too much a man of peace to tell me
anything about the new Hampden row l . The tumult has by
1 In May, 1842, the Heads of delivered a lecture which Stanley
Houses proposed to repeal the strongly condemned. " But," he
Statute depriving Dr. Hampden adds, ..." I still vote for him."
of his right to vote in the nornina- The proposed repeal was rejected
tion of Select Preachers, &c. In by 334 votes to 214.' Life of
the interval before the meeting Dean Stanley, vol. i. pp. 310,
of Convocation, 'Dr. Hampden 311.
Letters, 1840-1846 in
this time dwindled to a calm, and left you in the quiet of
a Long Vacation. From all accounts Hampden's conduct seems
to have been very bad. I hope that Newman and his friends
will become more liberal or perhaps ' charitable ' is the right
word not only towards individuals, but in their own views
of parties ; if so, I think the work they will have done will
be almost one of unmixed good.
To B. C. BEODIE.
BALLIOL, November 24, 1844.
. . . Various new things have happened here since I wrote
last. In the first place, the report about Newman's leaving
the English Church is not immediately true, though it was
generally believed, and I incline to think that it is founded on
fact. A committee of Heads of Houses are sitting on the fat
fellow's book l , who seems likely to have hard measure dealt to
him if the inextricable confusion of the statutes does not save
him. The Heads of Houses are not over scrupulous either
legally or morally in their method of proceedings. Whately
has been backing them, which, considering his liberal views, is,
I think, a mistake. It has been much discussed among us
whether Stanley shall write a pamphlet on the occasion.
Maurice 2 of Guy's Hospital was anxious that we should draw up
a genuine Liberal protest against persecution of the Newmanites,
in which he says he himself, Archdeacon Hare, &c., will join.
The said protest we wish to represent as coming from
F. Maurice himself. Honestly confessing that I am rather
proud of having helped to draw up a document abounding in
Liberal sentiments, I will send it you if it ever gets into print,
which is rather uncertain, as matters are only in embryo yet.
I must tell you another thing which is to me a matter of
great interest. Yesterday I went to dine with Coleridge : just
such a dinner-party as you and I were at together six months
ago. Froude was there, as on the former occasion ; but I was
greatly amazed to find that he has become regularly Germanized,
and talked unreservedly about Strauss, miracles, &c. Of course
1 W. G. Ward's Ideal of the Christian Church.
2 Frederick Denison Maurice.
ii2 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
you will not mention this (a caution which it seeins useless to
give at Giessen l ). I cannot quite tell how entire his change
of opinion is ; he seemed to take such a very artistical view of
things that his conversation gave me no satisfaction, and, if I
do not do him injustice, a want of the earnestness natural to
a person who feels what an aweful thing it is to disbelieve all
he has formerly held and believe something new. I am told
that he justifies his Lives of the Saints and the mythic view
of the miracles contained in them by saying that he did it
to realize to people the absurdity of their belief. Therefore
what you heard him say at dinner was etpwveta. Newman
has disowned the editorship of the tract 2 , so that I suppose
he is aware of all this.
This is regular gossip, I fear very uninteresting to you.
It is too bad to make your sublime spirit, soaring with Prospero
in a world of its own creation, descend to the commonplace
of Oxford life. A propos of Prospero, as a lady would say
who did not know how to connect the next sentence of a letter,
I went to see Charles Kemble read the Merchant of Venice,
from which, in comparison with Macready, one did not get much.
It struck me that there was a good deal of difficulty in explain-
ing the character of Shylock a sort of Italian Jew (the Jew
perfect, and Shakespeare seems to have seized what Newman
hints at in one of his sermons, the ideal of Jewish character
in Jacob), lago-like malignity and cunning, vulgar simplicity,
and violent passion, and withal something of 'the form
left to pine away amid an altered world' which arouses
one's sympathy for him. There is something very deep in
the idea of strict law as opposed to justice, the only notion
of morality which the Jews appear to have. In the trial scene
this is admirably brought out. I wish theologians understood
the relation of Judaism and Christianity half as well.
. . . Your friend Charles Vaughan is a candidate for Harrow
rather late in the field, so that if the Trustees have not great
discernment he will be beaten by Jelf, whom people here
consider the winning man.
1 Where Brodie was studying.
2 i.e. J. A. Froude's contribution to the Lives of the Saints.
Letters, 1840-1846 113
To B. C. BEODIE.
BALLIOL, December^, 1844.
I was very glad to hear from you, and find that you were
happily settled at Giessen. For solitariness I am almost as
lonely as you can be, as there is not a living creature in
College, except the cats, who are wild with hunger.
The politics of the place have been developing themselves
rapidly since I last wrote. About the middle of next Term the
country clergy are to be summoned to Oxford, red with anger,
fiery hot with Protestant zeal, to vote (i) that certain passages
of Ward's book are objectionable, (2) that Ward is to lose
his degrees, (3) that all gentlemen of suspicious character shall
be summoned by the Vice-Chancellor to sign the Thirty-nine
Articles ' in eo sensu quo et primitus editos fuisse constat et
universitas imposuit.' It seems probable that the rage of the
said country clergy will carry the two first, but perhaps the
common sense of the residents may prevail against the test.
The Heads of Houses Aa/3e<V d/mVovs fla-lv TJ yue&e'vai l ; that is
to say, more fond of getting than resigning a power. I strongly
suspect, however, that they will find themselves mistaken in
this mischievous and unjust attempt. No deprivation of
degrees can take away the Fellowship, which is what they seem
to be aiming at, and without this it is a mere brutum fulmen.
They might have put him in the Ecclesiastical Court, or in the
Vice-Chancellor's Court, so that there is no excuse for trying him
by Convocation. He is allowed to be heard in his own defence.
I cannot quite agree in the serene view you incline to take
of the sufferings of the Newmanites. I am quite aware that
I have not very much in common [with them], except so far as
every person who wishes to be in earnest has with every one
else who has the same wish. I think of course that you must
guard against being made a cat's-paw of, and perhaps their
principles would not allow them to do anything of the same
sort for a Latitudinarian 2 ; moreover, they showed a very
ugly spirit about Hampden ; but nevertheless it seems but
right to see justice done to conscientious men, and very
expedient when it is the dominion of Ogilvie and the Heads
1 Aeschylus, Persae, 690. * See pp. 237 ff., 306, 309 ff.
VOL. I. I
ii4 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
of Houses which is to be feared, and not of the Newmanites,
who are beginning to scatter like sheep without a shepherd.
I mentioned to you a book which I had been reading * in
praise of J. M. Turner on landscape painting. I have read it
all through with the greatest delight ; the minute observation
and power of description it shows are truly admirable. His
theory in general is that landscape painting must be true, and
not a mere romance ; and considering the infinite variety of
nature and the individuality of the minutest section, the
only way in which true effects can be given is by suggestion,
not by distinct drawing, which can never produce in the
mind the idea of infinity always found in nature. There is
a great deal on the form of clouds, &c., which gives one, so to
say, some true principles not only of art but of nature. Since
I read it I fancy I have a keener perception of the symmetry
of natural scenery. The book is written by Euskin, a child of
genius certainly.
... Is there any chance of your being found at Rome on
St. Peter's day next summer ? I think, as the Long Vacation
is a temptation, I am very likely [to] be there. I sun myself
with the thought of an Italian sky all the year round ; it would
make life happier to have seen Eome and stood on the Tarpeian
Eock and under the dome of St. Peter's.
Concerning the ' Heilige Eock 2 ' about which you make
merry, I do not quite see the cause of your mirth unless
you believe it to be an imposture, which is very improbable,
even though there are twenty-four of them. I think it would
be more probable to account for the whole twenty-four on
a Straussian hypothesis than to suspect imposture in this
particular case.
Stanley is writing a pamphlet, Donkin is writing a pamphlet,
Ward is writing a pamphlet, Eden is writing a pamphlet,
F. Maurice is writing a pamphlet, Hussey is writing a pam-
phlet ; in short, all the world are pamphleteering.
Concerning matters serious allow me to say one word. I feel
very deeply that one cannot live without religion, and that in
1 Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford.
2 The Holy Coat at Treves.
Letters, 1840-1846 115
proportion as we believe less, that little, if it be only an aweful
feeling about existence, must be more constantly present with
us ; as faith loses in extent it must gain in intensity, if we
do not mean to shipwreck altogether. I go about from one
subject to another just as if we were talking together, and am
well aware how feeble and unmeaning my words are to bring
us to any further agreement on these subjects, but I cannot
help often thinking about you, and sometimes it is at least
a harmless superstition remembering you in prayer.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BOWNESS, January, 1845.
Concerning your pamphlet 1 I have spoken to Tait, who
thinks that he cannot possibly judge without reading it. I do
not think his opinion of much value in such a matter. Ask
Donkin or Price 2 or Clough, if you want a good opinion.
All vulgar reasons seem to me in favour of publishing. It
will be a hit ; even the Newmanites will be propitiated : 'We
have read with pleasure Mr. Stanley's most seasonable pam-
phlet, ' will be the leader of the next week's English Churchman.
The Bishop of N.'s son and Dr. A.'s biographer cannot be
worse off than he is with reference to suspicions of Latitudi-
narianism. The 'gens Newmanica' possesses in an eminent
degree the virtue ascribed to our Master in the Statutes, ' saga-
citer odorat,' sc. Hereticos.
Also, there are many persons like Donkin, Mr. Myers of
Keswick, and myself, who would be glad to see what they feel
and think, well said for them. I do not doubt that it would
have a great sale and gain its author much honour if it
were published. My reasons against are the greatness of
the subject, which I quite believe you will one day have the
opportunity of putting out in a better form. A pamphlet is
inadequate to such an extensive work, which should be the end,
not the beginning, of a life. I think you may mar it in some
1 See Life of A. P. Stanley, the Gorham Case in Edinburgh
vol. i. p. 335. The pamphlet Review, July, 1850.
was not published, but seems 2 Bonamy Price, afterwards
to have furnished some of the Professor of Political Economy
materials for Stanley's article on at Oxford.
I 2
n6 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
measure by publishing now, and cannot imagine you will regret
it [the delay] ten years hence, if you keep the same purpose
steadily in view and do not let yourself fall back into listless-
ness and inactivity. Moreover, the question now is rather legal
than constitutional, whether it is consistent with the law of the
Church of England to hold Roman doctrine. The inexpediency
of deciding the question cannot alter the fact when decided.
... In the last five years, if they had not fallen into a maze
of casuistry, they l would have brought things exactly to the
point most favourable to the real interests of the Church as
well as of themselves. They have never given up No. 90,
and if they did so now, it would seem like an attempt to
draw the Anglo-Catholics to Rome who were caught by it.
And ' honesty versus casuistry ' is a point I am very unwilling
to give up directly or indirectly in favour of Protestantism.
The legal ground, or expediency ground, is one that Oakeley
does not distinctly take, but clings to Bishop Montague and
Ward's sophistical explanations. Also, I am persuaded that
Ward and Oakeley are almost certain to go in any case, and
would soon cease to have any practical idea of doing good in
the Church of England. Oakeley's distinction of holding as
distinct from teaching 2 is not to be tolerated for a moment,
and yet it is the only way in which his Romanist subscription
could possibly be allowed.
All this would strongly determine me in your case to
do nothing. 'In quietness and confidence shall be your
strength.' I hope you will not think what I have said harsh.
The evils of Newman's going I think very great it would be
a mournful fact in the history of the Church of England 3 .
Still, the assault from without would be so much stronger that
it could hardly bring us back to the days of orthodox misrule.
1 The Tractarian party. as an Anglican, which he shortly
2 Oakeley of Balliol, Ward's afterwards abandoned to join the
chief supporter, and contributor Church of Rome. His article on
to the British Critic, at this time Jewel was ' a landmark in the
minister of Margaret Chapel, Lon- progress of Roman ideas ' (Dean
don, had written a pamphlet ( The Church's Oxford Movement, p. 322).
Subject of Tract XC Historically 3 J. H. Newman joined the
Examined) defending his position Church of Rome in October, 1845.
Letters, 1840-1846 117
This is the end of my prose, which you must receive
with all possible suspicion, as coming from a person who feels
daily how unfit he is to advise anybody, and has a natural
prejudice on the side of ' quiescence.'
To B. C. BRODIE.
... I have been reading Hegel's Lectures on the History of
Philosophy, which, although I only half understand, seem to me
to give a deeper and more continuous account of philosophy
than any book I have seen. The manner in which he traces the
growth of self-reflection and the progress of mental analysis is
admirable. The other day I had to give a lecture on the
Atomic philosophy which recalled to my mind what you told
me of Faraday's doctrine of forces. To get rid of the infinite
divisibility of matter he must make abstraction of matter,
space, &c., but the idea of cause which remains seems so abstract
that I do not see how to get back again into the physical world.
... 'Si quid habes imperti.' I did not understand you at the
time, but suppose something of this kind must be meant, only
I wonder that any physical philosopher should hit upon this
method of solving the difficulty.
To B. C. BRODIE.
BOWNESS [ON WINDERMERE],
March 28, 1845.
The country here you probably know, so I will not describe
it. A week ago there was a severe frost, the sky I think
the clearest I ever saw in England, so that the lake seemed
quite like an Italian landscape. There is nothing in the way
of natural beauty I admire so much as the clear Italian sky,
which you seem to look through, not at, and into which
all objects seem to project. The lake here is very beautiful
.on a small scale, especially towards Ambleside, where you
have rich outlines of the mountains and shadows. On
Monday I went over to Fox How and saw the Arnolds, and
am going again in a few days, when I hope to get a sight
of Wordsworth.
n8 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
I quite agree in what you say about Pimlico churches and
modern Luthers. I wonder people do not feel the curse of
having no old to entwine with the new. The said Pimlico
structures very soon become cracked and show the stuff they
are made of. For my own part I get rather to hate logic,
certainly when applied as it usually is to these subjects, and
hope there is a point of view in which you may place yourself
above it without being a fool or a madman. I think it is one
of the chief charges against the Church of Eome, that it has
denned, and subdefined, and deduced, and subdeduced until
religion has come to be something absolutely different from
the religion of the Bible, not merely as to the things believed,
but as to the mode of believing. Systematized theology they
put in the place of the philosophy of religion.
You see I am obliged to have recourse to a kind of shady
dissertation to fill up my letter. Old Ward's marriage you
will have seen by the papers is known to all the world
sonnets are addressed to him, the country newspapers have
impromptus on the subject, the matter has ended in a universal
roar of laughter. I am afraid it is a bad thing for him, which
it would not be on your view, if he would resign himself
to his better nature and become a domesticated animal. This,
however, he is not disposed to do. I fear he will go on
despised by all the world 'Hildebrand the married man'-
with the worst effect on himself if not upon others.
To A. P. STANLEY.
September, 1845.
I have read part of Ewald and part of Bunsen's 1 work.
' Give me a bit of paper and a pencil, and I'll sketch you a plan
of a church. It won't take five minutes, I assure you.' It
seems to show a great ignorance of the truth, 'Ecclesia
nascitur, non fit.' Surely it must be an idle attempt to con-
struct any outward form of a church which is not simply
an expression of religious tendencies in the people. . . .
. . . Ewald I like much better than I did at first. About
1 Die Verfassung der Kirche der Zukunft, published in 1845.
Letters, 1840-1846 119
the miracles it may be said that if there is such uncertainty
about the common facts, you cannot possibly have evidence
sufficient to warrant you in believing the miracles. But is
not this unfair, because the history and the miracles mutually
support each other? The miracles, however improbable in
themselves, make the history probable. And is it not rather
the general question of the probability of miracles in such an
age and dispensation than the evidence for particular miracles
with which we are concerned? Whether, e.g., it is not
natural that these 'vestiges of creation' might be perpetually
going on until the spiritual world were set forth in Chris-
tianity? whether it would not be contrary to analogy that
the God who was believed to dwell in the thunder should
not show Himself in the thunder ? Does it seem consistent
to suppose such vast changes in men's minds and feelings
about religion, and to suppose no changes in the laws of nature
corresponding to it, but a harmony of subject and object which
consists in the ceaseless play of the subject around a never-
varying object ? This seems to me the strongest and the
real ground of defending the Old Testament miracles.
To A. P. STANLEY.
i GREAT GEORGE STREET,
December, 1845.
I return Donkin's letter, which entertained me much. May
I venture one or two criticisms 1 ? If a certain friend of ours
saw that passage about the resurrection of our Lord, would
he not at once say, ' How can I be responsible, in what appears
to me defect of evidence, for not believing a fact ? ' To which
I imagine the only answer would be that this fact is so in-
separably connected with certain doctrines that approve them-
selves to our moral and religious sense, that you must take
the fact with the doctrine. Suppose him to answer I do not
see this connexion ; you may be right, but you only prove a
lack of historical or metaphysical faculties in me for not agreeing
with you. Can that be essential to Christianity, the unbelief
1 On a writing of Stanley's, probably based on the pamphlet
referred to on p. 115.
120 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
of which does not imply any moral guilt, but a want of
acuteness and good sense ? I have not any tendency to doubt
about the miracles of the New Testament, but this seems
to me a very difficult question. May not the answer perhaps
be that of Erdmann, that the ideas are the essential, and that
the facts are a manifestation of the ideas ? If so, and I think
this is partly true at all events, it does matter very much
what we believe, even though we doubt about our Lord's
resurrection. Concerning Hegel, I doubt not that Donkin's
ignorance is far more than my knowledge. I have only
a glimpse of his meaning, but feel restless until I can get
deeper into it. Erdmann's advice, if you remember, was to
read first the Phdnomenologie, then the Logic, and then
the Philosophic der Religion. The Logic I have been toiling
at since I came back, but it is almost impossible to get any
idea of it in the details without first getting an idea of the
whole. I thought the Geschichte der Philosophic gave me
great help at first. As a history I suppose it is bad, because
it sees Hegelianism everywhere, and brings all systems under
its categories. It is an exposition of himself stufenweise,
his philosophy being the result of all former ones, which are
subordinated as ' moments ' and are ever in process of transition.
Without the history of philosophy in which to realize them,
his abstractions and concretions would seem quite unmeaning.
To A. P. STANLEY.
DULOE, LISKEAED, December, 1845.
Samuel of Oxford is not unpleasing, if you will resign
yourself to be semi-humbugged by a semi-humbug. He was
very kind, and would do great good if he could but be per-
suaded to keep off speculative matters. In the latter respect
Mauricianism, diluted by Trench, and still further watered
by himself, seems to be the prevailing tone. But he is a man
of the world and a gentleman, and above all ' head-of-a-house ?
delusions, and exactly agrees with us about the College for
poor students. Nevertheless, with all his practical ability he
shows weakness of character e. g. he said he would print his
charge if we wished it ; but some of us did not wish it, so
Letters, 1840-1846 121
the charge was not printed. I must tell you of a conversation
that occurred between Trench and one of the candidates \
Scene I. The Garden, Cuddesdon.
Trench. Has Newman's book 2 produced much effect at Oxford ?
Cand. Yes, a great one. Very able, do you not think ? How
very striking the last page is !
Trench. Humph ! Yes, touching. The chief thing that strikes
me about the book is the aweful amount of scepticism it dis-
closes. It will do great good, the publication of it.
Scene II. Palace, Cuddesdon.
The Bishop. One of the Candidates.
BisTi. The Irvingites use this passage (' He gave some Apostles ')
to prove the institution of a sevenfold ministry. How
would you answer such an argument ?
Cand. It refers to an accidental state of the Church ; there was
no regular ministry at the time.
Bish. You do not believe, then, that the Episcopal Order
- existed from the beginning ?
Cand. No ; but that it sprang up gradually.
Bish. (Here followed a speech which lasted five minutes.} Let me
hear what you say in answer to this ?
Cand. Bishop and Presbyter are used convertibly in the New
Testament. This place shows that there was no regular
ministry. There is no mention of Bishops in the Apostolical
Fathers ; and it seems more natural that it should grow up,
like other institutions, gradually.
Bish. But might not the thing be older than the name? It
may be in human things that it is more natural institutions
should grow naturally, but not so in divine. And Ignatius
Cand. Have you seen the Syriac Version ?
Bish. And did you see the places at the end which confirm
from the Syriac the authority of the other Epistles ? (This
is a mis-statement.)
Bish. One more question I wish to ask. In what sense do
you sign the Articles ? Certain modes I consider dishonest,
without at all wishing to narrow their limits.
Cand. (A pause.) In Paley's sense.
1 What follows is clearly auto- gree. Richard Chenevix Trench
biographical : cf. p. 240. Jowett (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin)
took Priest's Orders in the winter was Bishop Wilberforce's examin-
of 1845. Every Fellow of Balliol ing Chaplain,
wasbound by statute tobe ordained 2 The Development of Christian
within four years of his M.A. de- Doctrine (1845).
122 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, iv
Bish. What does Paley say ?
Cand. That it is an absurdity if the Legislature meant to say
that you assented to four or five hundred disputed proposi-
tions. It only meant that you were an attached member
of the Church of England.
Bish. No, I don't mean that I require assent to four or five
hundred disputed propositions, &c. &c.
Cand. One question I should like to ask. Do you think that
Dr. Arnold was justified in signing them?
Bish. Yes.
I have omitted the civilities, but the candidate informed me
that nothing could be more bland and amiable than the Bishop's
manner to him.
Scene III. The Tea Table, Cuddesdon.
Bish. Sir E. Peel's scheme when he went out of office is said
to have been a total repeal of the Corn Laws, Malt Tax,
Sugar Duties, &c. This would be a great sacrifice for the
landed interest, &c. But the poor would be the gainers
by it.
Cand. The clergy, my Lord, would be great sufferers.
Bish. Yes, I am afraid they would ; in all changes they suffer.
Cand. But if the poor are the gainers, the clergy ought not
to complain.
To complete the portraiture of Samuel of Oxford, I will add
two extracts from his sermon :
'All saving truth is contained in Scripture, not the germ
of it, not to be developed out of it, but is in it. If you
go to the Primitive Church or to Fathers or to Councils,
there is no amount of superstition to which you may not
be led on.'
' Scripture is to be interpreted by the Creeds and Catholic
consent.'
. . . The Bishop is an excellent man, overflowing with
goodness ; but I doubt whether anybody can do him perfect
justice who has not a spice of humbug in his composition and
therefore a sympathy with the sort of thing.
To A. P. STANLEY.
SONNING, [1846].
I am here in that ' temple of peaceful industry ' at Sonning.
I do not know whether ' indolence ' might not partly express
Letters, 1840-1846
123
it too. It is a charming place, and the vicar 1 is full of virtues
and kindness ; it is delightful to see him get on so well with
his people and with all the world.
I stopped a night in London, first with Lingen, second with
Brodie and Vaughan 2 ; the latter greatly pleased me. I am
afraid we are on different tacks in Moral Philosophy, and
though I cannot compare with him in power and originality,
I doubt whether he is in the right. The truth is he is ' The
Sheepskin ' still works alone, thinks alone, would analyze
the origin of our moral ideas in the individual rather than
the world at large 3 . He will write a more striking book
for not having read German, and certainly a more readable
one, which will be a real accession to English Philosophy ;
but unless a man could, like Descartes, pluck out one by one
the ideas he already has, I do not see what gain there can
really be in travelling alone, and probably losing the way
on the same ground with the German thinkers.
PS. I have forgotten to mention a sudden revolution in
my plans. Last Thursday Scott appeared, and seeing that he
is blind and solitary, I thought it would be better to go and
1 The Rev. Hugh Pearson, a
great friend of Stanley's and of
Jowett's. See vol. ii. p. 195.
2 Henry Halford Vaughan (see
p. 97, note 3). He was a man of
whom great things were expected.
He wrote a metaphysical work,
of which the MS. was destroyed in
some mysterious way before it
could be published. He left be-
hind him three volumes of emenda-
tions on Shakespeare. 'The Sheep-
skin' is a nickname for him, which
recurs several times in the corre-
spondence, perhaps suggested by
his rough shock of lightish-
coloured hair. He was acknow-
ledged to be the most brilliant
of all Dr. Arnold's pupils.
8 This is repeated in a subse-
quent letter : ' Did I tell you that
I saw H. H. V. in London and had
a talk with him ? He looks upon
morality as having its roots in
pleasure and pain, the flower
which it bears being the work of
imagination or reflection on those
first impressions. His great object
seemed to be to find out the origin
of our moral ideas looking for
them, however, only in the indi-
vidual, not in the history of the
world.' Dean Liddell, to whom
portions of the work were read
in MS., understood it to be an
attempt to trace the upward
growth of morality in human
history, finding its consummation
in Christ.
124 Life of Benjamin Jowett
see him for a few weeks, as my presence is not absolutely
necessary at ' the seat of war \ '
To A. P. STANLEY.
[1846.]
About the Evangelical Alliance I do not know anything,
but the views of all parties concerned in it must be so essen-
tially sectarian that it can hardly hold together very long.
I suppose it is a sign that the Dissenters, like the Church,
are getting out of their shallow formalism and ceasing to
declaim about the State Church, as we on our part about our
venerable Establishment. A more interesting question to me
is the more general one What is the real cause and what
the future fortunes of the English Dissenters? . . . One
fancies it [Dissent] must be some kind of cross between
Puritanism, formalism, Anglicanism, political liberty, and
Church authority, &c. ; its constant degeneration into Uni-
tarianism, and never into Latitudinarianism, is a remarkable
feature. A small admixture of religio sceptici would greatly
improve it ; at present it is equally tenacious of all, from the
Beast in the Eevelation down to 'John the Immerser came
preaching in the wilderness.' It is evidently a good deal
shaken at present, and getting out of place like the Church
itself. . .
1 Balliol.
CHAPTER V
TUTOESHIP (continued). COMMENTAEY ON ST. PAUL.
1846-1850
(Act. 29-33)
ATTACHMENT of his pupils to him His interest in their works
Hegel and Comte Lectures in Political Economy Plato at
Oxford Paris in 1848 Conversation with Michelet, &c. Theological
Essays Long Vacations The Oban reading party Alexander Ewing,
Bishop of Argyll Notes on the Romans Death of William Jowett
A pupil's record of conversations Letters.
rp HE preceding years have witnessed the formation and
-*- ripening of opinion and character. It is only now
that these begin to be fully realized in action.
Jowett's ascendency in Balliol reached a new stage
about the year 1846. In the Long Vacation of that year,
spent partly in helping Scott, his former Tutor, who had
lost his wife some months before, and partly in charge
of a pupil at Beaumaris, he was more isolated than
heretofore l . From Scott's rectory of Duloe, near Liskeard,
he wrote to Stanley :
'Many thanks for all your kindness, to which I am not at
all insensible ; perhaps it is better and more useful that we
should work alone sometimes. It cools the nervous fever of
intellectualism. I have already begun to form projects for next
Long Vacation.'
1 The solitude at Beaumaris Riddell and his Balliol reading
was broken by a visit from James party on August 16.
i26 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
Amongst his pupils of the next few years there was a
little inner circle, whose relation to him, partly because
they most needed his support, was peculiarly intimate.
Chief among these were William Y. Sellar, Alexander
Grant, T. C. Sandars, W. S. Dugdale, F. T. Palgrave,
Theodore Walrond, R B. D. Morier, and H. J. S. Smith.
It was within this group that there sprang up what
outsiders designated a sort of ' Jowett-worship ' ; but it
will be seen by-and-by how little there was amongst them
of the spirit of what is called ' the mutual admiration
society.' They were on the best terms of good fellowship,
and devotedly attached to Jowett as their teacher and
friend, submitting to his insistent criticism only because
of his evident good will towards them. His devotion to
his pupils was, at this time, something unique at Oxford ;
and it was rendered more effective by the singular
personal charm which made him irresistible to younger
men, and the candour of his judgement, in which he
always sought to take in the man as a whole, without
regarding minor points of position, conduct, or opinion.
More valuable than all was the penetrating sympathy
with which he discerned the individual wants of his
pupils and the critical points in their mental history,
and the eager promptitude with which he came to
their aid unasked in difficulties which his sagacity had
divined.
Sellar was one of the Glasgow men, but, unlike most
of them, had come up before he was nineteen, and had
gained the Scholarship in addition to the Snell. He had
crowned a brilliant Oxford career by taking an open
Fellowship at Oriel. With great vigour both of mind
and character, he had the temperament of genius ; and in
the year following his degree he suffered from a nervous
reaction after the long intellectual strain. Jowett's
1846-1850] Pupils at Balliol 127
resolute and self-denying kindness was of lasting service
to him ; and a life-long mutual attachment was the result.
At his home in Artornish, Sellar used to talk of 'the
divine Jowett.'
Grant was the heir to a baronetcy, whose expectations
had been reduced by misfortune. Of all the men of his
time he was most generally looked upon as having made
Jowett his ideal. His note-books, from which some
quotations will presently be given, attest the eagerness
with which he drank in every word of the teacher.
Dugdale was a man of fortune, who gained a First
Class, married, and died comparatively young in a mining
accident, where he had risked his life for the sake of
others 1 .
Palgrave's intimate relation to Jowett and their early
intercourse will be amply shown by the letters and
reminiscences which he has contributed to the present
work. His love of poetry and art was one great bond of
intellectual sympathy between them.
Of Morier, Mr. Palgrave says
' He had come up to Balliol a lax and imperfectly educated
fellow, but Jowett, seeing his great natural capacity, took him
in the Long Vacation of 1848 and practically "converted him"
to the doctrine of work. This was the turning-point in
Morier's life, and the warm friendship between them continued
until from his own deathbed (in Switzerland) Morier wrote to
the Master, who himself was then either dying or dead.'
Of Jowett's attachment to this younger friend, who
was then unknown to me, I was myself a witness. One
day in 1852, when I had taken him some work, he
1 He was attempting to rescue Chapel. The inscription there is
the miners who were buried in Jowett's, as appears from several
one of his own pits. See the drafts of it in one of his note-
tablet to his memory in Balliol books.
128 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
turned round from stirring the fire an habitual action
with him with a brighter look than I had ever seen in
his face, and said, ' Morier is coming l \ '
Henry Smith had been a pupil of Highton's at Rugby,
but before obtaining the Scholarship had been travelling
with his family on account of health. He gained the
Ireland and Senior Mathematical Scholarships, but his
work had been again interrupted by illness before taking
his degree. Jowett wrote to him urging an extended
absence in a letter full of wise sympathy, which was
treasured by Smith's mother until her death, but has
been unfortunately destroyed. In earlier years he was
equally distinguished as a Classic and a Mathematician,
but latterly he became absorbed in the special branch
of mathematics on which he has left his mark. He
remained to the last a steadfast friend, and his untimely
death was deeply lamented by Jowett, one of whose latest
writings was a short memoir of his former pupil and
junior colleague 2 .
The careers of these and other friends who had been
his pupils cannot be separated from the course of Jowett's
own existence. Their interests both in private and
public are as coloured strands, which appear and reappear
in the texture of his life. If he gave them support and
strength, they were his ' wings,' to use the quaint phrase of
Niebuhr. He read their books in MS. ; he followed every
step of their success or their discomfiture ; he formed
close friendships with their wives and children. With
1 It was on some such occasion, cutioner. I remember the scene,
on the return of an elder pupil There was certainly a touch of
to Oxford, that he gave the enter- light-heartedness unlike his bear-
tainment in Common Room to ing in after years. L. C.
which Mr. Tollemache refers 2 Memoir of H. J. S. Smith,
(Benjamin Jowett, p. 113), when prefixed to his collected works.
Jowett enacted the Chinese exe- See vol. ii.
1846-1850] Friendship and Study 129
Sellar he renewed his knowledge of Lucretius and
Virgil ; with Grant he saw how Aristotle had a'bsorbed
the ideas of Plato and ' stamped them with logic ' ; with
Morier he took a bird's-eye view of continental politics ;
from F. T. Palgrave he sought to gather new impressions
of German and Italian art. Something of the same kind
was true also of younger contemporaries, who were not his
pupils. While Lingen, ' sensitive to every breath of truth,'
was studying for the Bar and writing for the Morning
Chronicle, he received many a 'prose ' from Jowett on the
philosophy of law and on various questions of the hour ;
and when in 1847 the same friend obtained a secre-
taryship in the Education Department under J. Kay-
Shuttleworth, the office of the Committee of Privy
Council became a centre of sustained interest to Jowett 1 .
Lingen was followed thither by Temple, Sandford, and
several other Balliol men, all friends of Jowett's, while
M. Arnold became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne,
who was President of the Council. And to ffolliott
of University, the heir to an Irish estate, whose acquain-
tance he made through Morier, Jowett expatiates on
the whole Irish question in its bearing on the duties
of a landlord, as well as on farming, the breeding of
cattle, &c. It was thus, through sympathetic (and yet
critical) intercourse with other minds, that his more dis-
cursive thoughts took shape. Meanwhile his own studies
were pursued, above all in vacation time, with greater
assiduity than ever. In company with Temple, his junior
colleague, he now made a close and serious study of
Hegel. They had translated a good deal of the Logic,
when this task was broken off by Temple's being sum-
moned away to practical life. Jowett was for the time
1 He was keenly interested in on Education in Wales in the
Lingen'sKeportasaCommissioner autumn of 1847.
VOL. I. K
130 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
powerfully attracted by the Hegelian philosophy. ' Men
call a page of Hegel difficult,' he said ; ' that is because
they do not sit down to it as to a problem in mathematics.'
In a lecture once, on Jowett's statement of the doctrine
that ' Being both is and is not. 'one of the undergraduates
present could not repress a laugh. 'You may laugh,
Mr. Dugdale,' the teacher is reported to have said, ' but
you will find it true.' But however strongly impressed,
his mind was too elastic and too onward-moving to be
long absorbed in any system. He ' could not be holden of
it.' In speaking, as he sometimes did, of the educational
value of metaphysics, especially of German metaphysics,
he would add, ' The philosophical movement in Greece
was far more important.' He would sometimes dissuade
a pupil from the study of Kant, 'because it takes so
long to see what these fellows would be at.' And even in
these earlier years he was fond of observing that no old
man had ever been a metaphysician. ' Hegel is a great
book,' he would say, ' if you can only get it out of its
dialectical form.' That is heresy, I imagine, in the ears
of a true Hegelian.
In one Long Vacation, about 1850, he made a special
study of Auguste Comte 1 . That which always seemed to
him most valuable, both in Comte and Hegel, was the
historical method which they pursued in different ways,
and the idea of an orderly evolution of the human mind,
which had not been clearly expressed before their time
even in Lessing's suggestive essay on the education
of the human race. On recovering from the impression
which Comte made on him, he said, ' The world will
not be again deceived by a metaphysical system. Comte
has such great knowledge of the world in one way,
1 In 1882 he re-read Comte and made many annotations. See
vol. ii. p. 187. E. A.
1846-1850] Lectures on Philosophy 131
so little in another.' A later epigram of his may be
quoted here : ' Comtism destroys the minds of men ;
Carlyleism destroys their morals.'
For his pupils at the time now spoken of, especially
for Alexander Grant, his philosophical teaching had
a peculiar charm. The course of lectures on the History
of Philosophy, mentioned in the last chapter, became
from year to year more comprehensive. It had no
immediate relation to the examination system as then
constituted, but helped to quicken men's intellects, and
gave them larger views about the books they were
reading. The kind of talk about the Ethics and Butler
which had ' paid ' hitherto no longer satisfied either ex-
aminers or examinees. Single sayings of the great Tutor
passed from mouth to mouth, such as ' Logic is neither
a science nor an art, but a dodge ' ; and ' The efflorescence
of art is the bloom upon decay.' Another quotation, prob-
ably apocryphal (though some may think it prophetic), was
to the effect that ' Education is the grave of a great mind/
He now also gave a course of lectures on the 'new
science ' of Political Economy, which he had been
studying since 1841. Henry Smith was amongst his
auditors *. The lectures were renewed from time to time,
but a few years after this he was wont to observe that
Political Economy, like Benthamism, had done its work,
except that there were problems connected rather with
the distribution than the accumulation of wealth which
had to be settled in the future 2 . A sentence in one of his
letters to Lingen (September, 1846) is significant:
' All the world are become Political Economists, and there
1 See the Economic Journal for ness and also the difficulty of the
1893, p. 745. land question before the subject
2 It may be mentioned as an had been broached by any British
instance of his foresight, that he statesman.
had counted upon the inevitable-
K 2
132 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
is almost as much reason to fear the application of these
abstract principles to Ireland as there was formerly [to fear]
their utter rejection.'
But the most substantial and permanent addition made
by Jowett in the early years of his Tutorship to Oxford
studies, was the introduction of Plato's Republic as
a book to be taken up for the Schools. Hitherto, in
Greek Philosophy at Oxford, the Ethics and the Rhetoric
of Aristotle had been all in all. By lecturing on Plato,
Jowett infused new life into the study of Greek and of
Philosophy. He had been doing so at least as early as
the Lent Term of 1847, although the practice of ' pro-
fessing' the Republic became general only with the
inauguration of the new system in 1853.
In 1846-1847 he was still subject to occasional fits of
depression. His letters contain some curious reflections
on this subject. To a friend, who had owned to the same
weakness, he wrote half humorously in May, 1846 :
' This malady to which we seem both subject, as far as my
experience goes, begins with the stomach, extends itself to the
head, where it dries up the fountains of the intellect, and
is not wholly unconnected with the weather. This, in the
language of Hegel, is its reality. But its ideality embraces
a higher field : life, death, eternity, &c. The misfortune is
that the world see it from the outside, whereas to yourself it
generally retains its sublimer aspect from within.
' But joking apart (you must attribute what I am going to
say to a headache or not), I feel every day what a serious thing
it is, and that there is far more truth in its ideal side than in
the other. It is a most painful thing to fancy that you have
no moral nature, or power of fixing your own character ; no
stamina that seems as if it could last you through life. I think
one wants more resignation and more determined living on
a system to avoid excitement and all ecstatic efforts.
' ... It must depend on oneself whether all this self-
experience and over-sensibility ends in a morbid consciousness
1846-1850] Paris in 1848 133
and dependence on others, or in a real self-sufficient knowledge
of human nature. Let us be of good cheer, and trust that
when the sky clears we may have life and spirits to enjoy it.'
In August, 1847, he ' made acquaintance for the first
time ' (as Boswell would say) with Selden's Table-talk,
a copy of which, in the neat Pickering edition, then first
published, was given to him by his friend Lingen. Two
phrases of John Selden's became ' household words ' with
him : ' The best translation in the world ' (of the English
Authorized Version of the Bible), and ' Rhetoric turned
into logic ' (of some theological notions).
In April, 1848, the Revolution and the flight of Louis
Philippe, which drove Jowett's parents for the time from
Paris to Bonn, was the occasion of his excursion to Paris
in company with Stanley, Palgrave, and Morier, of which
a vivid account is given in the Life of Dean Stanley *.
It there appears how Jowett's encouragement had
rendered the scheme feasible by overcoming his com-
panions' irresolution; and, according to Mr. F. T.
Palgrave's diary of the expedition,
'It was Jowett who, on their arrival, at sight of the
Tricolor and Tree of Liberty, expressed the feelings of the
whole party, when he said, "How absurd all fears seemed
now." . . . We turned a corner, and there was the long line
of the Tuileries, with the Tricolor flying from the central
dome the deepest sign of the great change. . . . The Arch
of Triumph in the Court of the Tuileries was guarded . . .
not as of old by lofty gens d'armes, but by two young, resolute
fellows of the Garde Mobile, in blouses and muskets. . . .
Everywhere these soldiers of the people are on guard ; they
are at present the police of the town, and are said to do their
duty in good earnest, and to the great preservation of public
order. . . . Jowett, however, allows that he does not pass them
without a shudder. One thing, Morier said, that seemed to
1 Vol. i. pp. 390 ff.
134 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
have struck the people most, among the great events of the
three days, was the discovery of the picture of Christ in
the chapel of the Tuileries. Everything was being smashed
de fond en comble by the people, when suddenly they reached
this picture. Some one cried out that ' ' every one should bare
his head." The crowd at once did so, and knelt down, whilst
the picture was carried out through the most utter silence
"you might have heard a fly buzz" into a neighbouring
church. Then the suspended wave of destruction rolled on.
. . . Jowett says Paris is now attristee the people in the
streets remind one of London. '
Stanley brought from Matthew Arnold an introduction
to the veteran historian, Michelet, who told them they
had come too late or too soon : ' C'est 1'entr'acte,' viz.
between Revolution and Counter-revolution. Mr. Pal-
grave says :
' S., J., and I chiefly sat and listened whilst Michelet went
on from one thing to another for more than an hour. He
seemed to anticipate much from the Chartist demonstration
to-day (April 10). J. "It will be of little consequence."
S. "Ireland will be our revolution."'
Besides Rachel's singing of the Marseillaise, they
heard the people's stormy eloquence in the clubs, visited
St. Cloud and Versailles, and fraternized with individual
citizens. Lacordaire's sermon in Notre Dame Jowett
thought far more eloquent than any English preaching
that he knew of. But the most thrilling spectacle in
which they shared was the distribution of colours to the
troops of the Republic.
'April 20. ... The day began in rain, but advanced to
gleams of sunshine, which, passing up and down the long
stream of bayonets that poured for twelve hours incessantly
from the distant Tuileries or Place de la Concorde, lighted up
the waving lines like a silver cornfield. There was every
variety of colour in the advancing thousands, troops of the
1846-1850] Oxford in 1848 135
line (saluted with cries of "Vive la Ligne ! ") mixed with the
dark uniform of the National Guard ; then a splendid cavalry
regiment ; then the ragged, but bold and soldier-like, Garde
Mobile, enfants de la Revolution, with green boughs and
flowers stuck at their musket ends. Stanley, Jowett, and
I joined one regiment and marched round close before
them, with bare heads, to the sound of drums and shouts of
" Vive la Republique ! "
' . . . The members of the Government frequently passed
between the platform and the stairs which led downwards in
front of the gallery under the arch ; . . . and when Dupont de
1'Eure, aged, and dreamily looking out on the scene, or Arago,
or Cremieux, or Ledru-Rollin passed out, they had a free
way between the spectators. But when Louis Blanc, small,
piercing-looking, and thought-wearied, came out, there was
a cry and a rush, and all crowded about the little ami des
ouvriers with enthusiasm ; far more so when Lamartine, tall
and noble, with thoughtful and care-worn looks, passed among
us, with loud shouts of "Vive Lamartine !" There was one
rough fellow in a blouse who offered him a rose-bud, an
" offrande pour la patrie," to cheer him through the long,
weary day.'
I have transcribed this record because of its intrinsic
interest. On the whole it seems improbable that the
events of 1848, either at home or abroad, had any
important influence on Oxford politics or on Oxford
studies. As Canon North Finder well observes :
'The University at that time had not emerged from the
theological stage, and secular politics attracted comparatively
little interest. The best of the Dons were for the most part
Tractarians, and hated Liberalism of every shade as strongly
as Newman did, while the iron heel of the old Hebdomadal
Board crushed out every germ of liberal aspiration. . . .
Excitement in the February of 1848 there was in plenty ; but
it was not of a very intelligent kind, nor had much seriousness
about it. Christian Socialism was taken up ardently by the
few, who for a testimony were content to wear strange
patterned and ill-fitting trousers, made in the workshops of
136 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
the C. S. tailor. Foremost among these was John Conington,
then Fellow of University, and a friend of Richard Congreve's.
A. H. Clough was just then leaving Oxford, or he would
doubtless have been a powerful factor in the new movement 1 .'
Yet a mind like Jowett's, although, as appears in the
above narrative ; he thought little of Chartism, could not
remain unaffected by a great European change which had
come immediately under his view.
"With the exception of this excursion to Paris, his
journeys abroad, after 1845, were less frequent and less
extensive than they had been. His responsibilities were
becoming more grave, and the (fuAofodjuouz; (lover of sight-
seeing) was yielding to the 0iAoVo$o5 (lover of wisdom).
His desire to visit Borne, so keen in 1846-1847, was
never gratified, although in one of those years, with
ffolliott or some other friend, he went as far as to Florence.
An occasional run to Switzerland might follow the annual
visit to his parents at St. Germains (1849), or Fontaine-
bleau (1850) ; he is known to have been at Chamounix in
1851 ; he took short tours with ffolliott, and visited him
more than once in Ireland ; but the bulk of the vacation
was divided between Oxford and some country place,
where he pursued his own studies while assisting those of
some undergraduate friend. His thoughts became more
and more concentrated on Theology. There are still
extant amongst his papers some theological essays, most
of which were probably composed when Stanley was
preparing for publication his Apostolical Age, although,
as mentioned in the last chapter, Jowett eventually
declined to publish them in that volume. An examina-
tion of the essays in question may justify the conjecture
that this refusal was partly due to a consciousness that
1 Clough gave up his Fellowship earnest remonstrances of Jowett
at Oriel in 1848, against the and other friends.
1846-1850] Theological Essays 137
his opinions on Theology were not yet sufficiently matured.
The essay ' On the Person of Christ,' for example, is
an extremely subtle but hardly a satisfactory piece of
work. It has the charm of Jowett's most finished style ;
but if he ever read it afterwards, he must have recognized
in it a moment of transition. Traditional orthodoxy is
sublimated and held in solution by an application of
Hegelian method. The feeling with which, on hearing it
said that Christ was merely human, he answered ' I shall
never say that,' is there in full intensity, but is expressed
in forms which retain a savour of scholasticism. The
' golden haze ' is still surrounding him ; he does not
yet ' look out on the open heaven.' The essay on the
motive of Judas Iscariot in betraying our Lord turns on
a bold conception of the complexity and range of human
character. To the suggestion of "Whately and others,
that Judas acted from the disappointment of a mistaken
patriot, Jowett replies that in Oriental natures there
appear to be depths of treachery and perfidy which cannot
be measured by ordinary standards, but spring suddenly
into full activity no one can tell from whence. A curious
speculation about angels under the title of 'Angelo-
phania ' is very characteristic of the transition phase of
which I have spoken. A great step forwards in the
formation of his theological opinions appears to have
been made in the Long Vacations of 1846 and 1847,
especially the latter. By this time the more compre-
hensive work on the New Testament, to be executed by
Stanley and Jowett in common, had been definitely
planned.
In 1848 began that long series of vacation readings
with Balliol pupils, of which Mr. F. T. Palgrave says :
'During my Oxford time, and for years after, despite his
heavy work during Term-time, and the friends ready to welcome
138 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
him during vacation, he would constantly devote some weeks
of the Long to study in some pleasant place, with any
undergraduate he had noticed as of promise, though disposed
not to make the most of himself. These efforts, of course,
were not always enduringly successful. Yet there must be,
or have been, not a few, perhaps, who could look back to
these vacations as forming, more or less, a critical moment in
their lives, a "choice of Hercules." This, indeed, throughout
his own life was (it has always seemed to me) one of the
most admirable points in his character. The kind counsel
wise, if not always applicable to work while yet it was day,
to do all that a man could a doctrine wherein he may
have been encouraged by Dr. Johnson's example friends
old and young never failed to receive from him at all times
and seasons. One might sometimes have been tempted to
pray that his precious balms might not break one's head, if
the clear candour, good sense, and deep affectionate interest
of the adviser had not been always obvious. Even Tennyson,
between whom and the Master there was equal love and
reverence for some forty years, although he surely had done
a complete man's work, Jowett would still urge, after the
Idylls had appeared, to attempt some new and greater song.
Let us now whisper " Eequiescant in pace." '
Jowett's stay at Oban with Morier. in 1848, unlike
some tutorial engagements in previous years, was a purely
voluntary arrangement on both sides. They had been
together at Paris in the previous spring, witnessing scenes
of revolution, and their life-long friendship was already
begun. They were again together in the Long Vacation
of 1849, occupying a farm-house at Grange in Borrow-
dale ; but the season was unpropitious, and Jowett began
to lose faith in the refreshing qualities of the Lake
country in comparison with Scotland. Accordingly, in
August, 1850, he returned to Oban, this time with a party
of four, comprising Arthur Peel \ T. Fremantle 2 , Henry
1 Lord Peel. 2 Lord Cottesloe.
1846-1850] Oban Bishop Ewing 139
H. Lancaster, a Scotch Exhibitioner, and Donald Owen,
a Blundell Scholar.
Jowett delighted in Oban, the scenery, the bathing, the
walks and climbs, and also in the congenial society which
he found in the neighbourhood. He had been originally
drawn thither through his friendship with Alexander
Ewing, Bishop of Argyll, whom he visited at Duntroon
in successive years, and with whose daughter Nina
(afterwards Mrs. Cram) he formed one of many child-
friendships which have left a life-long impress on the
friends so made. Finding her somewhat vague as to the
use of money, he insisted on sending her small sums from
time to time, of which he required from her a strict
account. The value which the Bishop set on his con-
versation is manifest from several passages in the Memoirs
of Alexander Ewing, by A. J. E/oss. Reference is there
made to an occasion when Jowett read the prayers,
and Stanley preached, in the upper room which took
the place of an episcopal church at Oban ; and the
Rev. H. B. Wilson, afterwards of Essays and Reviews
celebrity, seems also to have been in the neighbour-
hood that summer. Jowett lent the Bishop a copy of
Mr. Myers' Catholic Thoughts, printed for private circula-
tion 1 , a fact which, says the biographer, ' had a very
important bearing on the Bishop's mental development.'
The memoir records long and intimate conversations with
Jowett at Duntroon in June, 1850, on many subjects,
especially Christian evidences and the nature of revealed
religion, also on the nature and development of the
religious life. Jowett was charmed with the Bishop's
simple, genial ways, and wrote to Stanley, ' He is some-
1 Published some years after- from whom he had an introduc-
wards. Jowett's copy was pro- tion to Mr. Myers at Keswick.
bably obtained through Stanley,
140 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
times almost mad with fun.' This was the year of the
wreck of the Orion, and a sermon of Jowett's on the
Resurrection preached at the time seems to have pro-
duced a remarkable impression. The Bishop says, 'I felt
as if, for me, the sea had given up her dead.'
Lord Peel has told me (December, 1895) of an incident
that happened during the stay at Oban. The four pupils
crossed one day in an open boat with one boatman
to the island of Kerrera. While they were enjoying
themselves there, the sky began to threaten, and the
cautious Highlander warned them to return while it
was light. With the recklessness of youth, they dis-
regarded his advice, and when they started home-
wards the sea was rough. The boatman asked if any
of them could row, and Peel, who had rowed at Oxford,
took an oar. They made some headway, but when the
middle of the strait was reached, a big wave laid the
boat on her beam-ends. The man called out to them,
' Jump for your lives ! ' But at that moment the boat
righted, and after much labour they got home. They
found Jowett sitting alone at work. He insisted on
their bathing their heads with spirits to counteract the
chill ; and when they had changed their dripping
garments, taken some food, and recounted their adven-
ture, he said quietly, ' Don't you think we had better
have prayers ? ' They all knelt down, and he offered
up an extempore thanksgiving for their deliverance.
Of all the pupils of this time there was none with
whom his friendship afterwards became more intimate,
or was more constantly maintained, than William Young
Sellar, whose work on the Latin Poets will long remain
a monument of critical erudition. He wrote of Sellar
(after his death in 1890) :
' I shall always think of him as long as I live. He was so
1846-1850] The Tubingen School 141
simple and kind, so free from jealousy or ambition or self in
any form, so " transparent," and so fond of his friends, and
himself so unlike others, that we cannot help mourning when
we think that we shall never see him again. ... I remember
also more than forty years ago his coming up to stand for the
Scholarship and the old Master remarking on his handsome
youthful look. The five or six men who were elected in that,
set were a remarkable band : Sandars, Grant, H. Smith, and
a year or two previous Eiddell and M. Arnold. I am pleased
to think that they stood together and had a strong affection
for one another through life 1 , and that Balliol College was
accidentally the centre of this connexion.'
Meanwhile the notes on the Epistles for the pro-
jected joint work with Stanley were in progress, and
Jowett's theological position was becoming more clearly
defined. The study of philosophy had loosened the bonds
of ecclesiastical tradition. As he says himself in his
reminiscences of Mr. Ward 2 , he had ' put away casuistry
and was determined to place religion on a moral and
historical basis.' ' Really, I think,' he writes to Stanley,
' one must give up admiring or looking for help from
others in Theology.' The writings of the Tubingen
theologians, headed by F. C. Baur, were at this time
the last word of modern criticism, and in his own work,
of which he felt the increasing magnitude, Jowett availed
himself largely of their suggestions : but he could never
be reckoned as a close follower of any school. In all
that he has written, there is the note of first-hand inquiry
and original thought. And throughout the confusion
1 A proof of this appears in the critical moment of opening
Matthew Arnold's letter to Shairp life, were among the same in-
of April 12, 1866 : ' It gives me fluences and (more or less) sought
great pleasure that you and Sellar the same things as I did myself
like Thyrsis : . . . the voices (Letters of M. A., vol. i. p. 326).
I do turn to are those of our old 2 W. G. Ward and the Oxford
set, now so scattered, who, at Movement, p. 434.
142 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
of the years which followed on the collapse of Newman-
ism he held firmly to the pursuit of the ' practical ideal,'
standing jealously aloof both from scientific materialism
and from mere literary and artistic self- culture.
In a letter to Stanley (1847) he remarks, 'It strikes
me that the German theologues get more and more
drawn into the whirlpool of philosophy, and that all
their various harmonies are but faint echoes of Schelling
and HegeL'
In F. C. Baur, however, he found a critical spirit that,
while following in the footsteps of Hegel, was able to use
the weapons of philosophy freely and without pedantry.
This flashed upon him with the light of a new discovery
at the end of the Long Vacation of 1848 ; when, in the
same letter in which he urges Stanley not to refuse
the Modern History Chair if offered, although he still
looked to their joint work on the New Testament as
the source for them both of ' many happy years,' he
writes : ' Baur appears to me the ablest book I have
ever read on St. Paul's Epistles : a remarkable com-
bination of Philological and Metaphysical power, with-
out the intrusion of Modern Philosophy.'
Another letter to Stanley of January 10, 1849, gives
a welcome glimpse of his literary work at the time :
'I have to apologize for much seeming indolence about
the Commentary. It has been really unavoidable. . . . This
vacation I shall have completed my translation of Hegel's
Logic, and, I hope, my part of the work on the Universities l .
Then I have a short paper to write on Kant and Hegel, for
the Moral Philosophy Society. Then, lastly, I desire to write
a short review of your Sermons 2 in the Edinburgh, which has
1 See p. 177. ' Why do you call your Sermons
1 Stanley seems to have been unfortunate? Fortunati nimium !
cast down about the effect of his ... A suspicion sometimes comes
Sermons. Jowett wrote to him : over you that your work is and
1846-1850] Study of the Gospels St. Paul 143
long been in my mind : after which I shall expatiate in
boundless freedom 1 .'
The letter to Dr. Greenhill appended to the last chapter 2
shows his resolution to ' consume his own smoke,' and
to keep his religious feelings to himself. The present
labour afforded an outlet in which some part of his
personal religious life became absorbed. He said long
afterwards to a friend who had purchased his book on
the Epistles, ' I am grateful to every one who reads
that book ; I put so much of myself into it.' It should
be borne in mind that this work had been preceded
by a close study of the Gospels, which had been included
in the original scheme. In the autumn of 1846 he
had written to Stanley:
' I am still at work on the three Gospels, and am trying to
make a careful comparison of them throughout ; a work of
much time with little to show. I think it may be proved that
there is no passage of four or five verses in length, where
there is not either discrepancy or over-close resemblance for
independent writers. If this can be brought home, it blows
away attempts at chronology, harmony, arguments from style,
&c. I mean to read over a part of the Septuagint, to examine
the variations in the MSS. and see whether anything analogous
can be detected.'
The first trace of the concentration of his labours on
will be in vain. Nothing but the must surely be a great evil.'
thought of this can make it so. x In these years he wrote much
No one can tell what will be the which never saw the light, and
effect of these Sermons on the planned more : for example, an
minds of Heads of Houses and Edinburgh Review article on the
country parsons, but it cannot be Hampden Controversy of 1847.
irretrievable or make you "forfeit An Essay on Pascal, which I re-
beyond recovery the confidence member seeing on his table about
of the Church of England." More- 1850, may have been published,
over the sort of ambiguous ortho- but I know not where,
doxy of Hare, Maurice, andBunsen a p. 109.
144 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
St. Paul occurs in a letter to Stanley in the autumn
of 1847 : 'I have to-day finished a short essay on Romans
i. 17 about Natural Religion.' He adds:
' I hope you will always rest assured that I feel it to be the
greatest blessing and happiness to me to bear a part with you
in this work. I feel that I could not do it alone. It has done
more to cure me of nervous headaches, &c., than any Long
Vacation trip I ever took.'
In 1850 William Jowett died. The two brothers,
William and Alfred, had just agreed to make a hand-
some remittance to their mother, and to relieve Benjamin
from a moiety of the burden which he so long had borne.
The amount of that burden, long studiously concealed,
was made known to Dean Stanley when the salary for the
Greek Chair had been at last secured in 1865. It was
then stated at 400 a year 1 .
In a letter to John ffolliott, he says :
'First, of my dearest brother, whom as long as I live I shall
remember. I have the pleasantest recollection of him possible,
and his cheerful happy ways amid the trials we had to undergo
in his early life. He left us eight years ago to go as a cadet
to India, and as far as I can learn during all this time he acted
rightly amid many temptations and was universally beloved.
Perhaps I exaggerate my recollection of him it is hard not
to do so when a person is taken from us I was always proud
of him and used to think that I never knew in a young fellow
a greater union of manliness and gentleness and good sense.
I hoped when he came back in two years' time to introduce
him to my friends : therefore let me talk of him to you now,
as it pleases me to do so, if it does not bore you.'
I have reserved for the following chapter the movement
towards University Reform in which both Jowett and
1 See chap. x. sub fin. Yet in posed to contribute 50 a year
1849 lie was assisting a poor man to the support ot a ' Balliol Hall.'
to emigrate : and in 1852 he pro- (See p. 213.)
1846-1850] From Sir A. Grant's Note-book 145
Stanley took an active part from the spring of 1846.
This went on simultaneously with the activities which
have now been described, but an historical question of
such importance requires consecutive treatment.
This chapter may conclude with some extracts from
a note-book of Sir Alexander Grant's, in which, while an
undergraduate, he recorded conversations with Jowett :
1846. 'We hear people talk of a "free" translation and a
"literal " translation. This is a false distinction. There can
properly be neither the one nor the other. A translation is only
good, and only to be called a translation, when it exactly conveys
in our language the feelings expressed in the foreign language.
To translate well from Greek is as great a work and requiring
as much practice as to turn a piece of English into Greek.'
' To give oneself up to " Scholarship " is much the most use-
ful thing while an undergraduate. To be able to turn a piece
of English into good Latin is a better sign of power, and gives
more promise than knowing the whole of Tennyson and Words-
worth, and all such books.'
' None of those people who were about Coleridge have left us
a good account of him. Gillman died before the second volume
was published the Table-talk does not do him justice at all, for
though it tells us what he said, yet it does not give us any idea
of that stream which used to flow on so uninterruptedly as for
instance it is said of him that, on one occasion, he talked for a
whole night without stopping, in a drawing-room, about Kant's
metaphysics, and made the ladies listen. There are some
remarkable points in his character, as for instance, his extreme
egotism, and his want of truthfulness in certain things. That
case of his taking a whole paragraph of Schelling as his own,
is excused by some on the ground that he had it copied out
among his own papers, and that, as he himself tells us, there were
certain writers who had contributed to form his mind and were
virtually part of himself. But altogether we must look at this
and other acts as different in him from any one else. He seems
often not to have known what he was doing. We must separate
VOL. I. L
146 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
men like him from common persons, and look at them partly
as though they were madmen. But he was a great man, and we
must be thankful for what he has done for us. In his theological
writings he was always truthful and fair ; but his political views
seem very warped ; that essay on international law in the
Friend goes on a very distorted view of morals. His character
of Pitt is full of a personal bitterness which perhaps later in
life he might not have felt. His gradual conversion to a right
belief is to be attributed partly to his gaining sounder views
of philosophy, partly perhaps to his bad health, which, coming
upon him as it did, would dispose him to seriousness. At
Berlin I talked to Schelling about Coleridge's plagiarism ; he
seemed very good-natured about it, and said that Coleridge had
expressed many things better than he could himself, that in one
word he had comprised a whole essay, saying that mythology was
not allegorical but tautegorical.'
1 Sunday, February 20, 1848. B. J. sent for me to ask me
about Harrow. I could not give him much information. I was
leaving him, but I could not open his outer door. After trying
in vain we called for Herbert * and sent for a blacksmith. I sat
down for about half an hour. I tried to draw him into con-
versation. He answered by detached sentences, and of course
as I could not enter into his thoughts sufficiently, we could
not get thoroughly interested, so as to now on spontaneously.'
[Jowett's detached sentences are represented in the
following notes.]
[ J.] ' I like the Sundays at home much better. The parish
service is so much nicer. If we had music in our chapels
I should like it better ; the singing and the heartiness of the
congregation at home adds so much. Newman's influence
in University preaching is exaggerated. There used to be
perhaps twenty-five undergraduates in the gallery ; very few
cared about him or went to hear him. There was, in all his
practical earnestness, an undercurrent of his own peculiar
views. A remarkable instance of that was a sermon on
1 The College servant in the Fisher Building.
1846-1850] Conversation with A. Grant 147
Elijah in which to the uninitiated nothing would have
appeared remarkable, but which was in reality a claiming
for himself to remain in the Church on the same terms
as Elijah had remained under an unregenerate Kingdom in
Israel. High Church principles can never be really impressed
upon the poor. Sewell has gone far to produce that very
doubt and scepticism and want of an objective standard of
which he himself complains. It must unsettle people to hear
men like him talking so rashly and positively about things
which they have been accustomed to hold most sacred. The
verbal inspiration of the Scriptures was necessary to the
mystical interpretation of them, such as the Fathers employed,
therefore those who hold to the one must hold to the
other. It was never doubted before this century. Christian
Evidences must vary much at different times. Some people
find the argument of miracles some the indications of a Creator
some the internal evidence some analogy, most convincing.
Perhaps a time may come when we shall see them all combined.
Paley's argument must not be pressed too far : it consists of two
propositions, (i) that the miracles are evidenced by the Apostles
dying in vindication of them ; (2) the miracles of the fourth
century, &c., have no such evidence. But the first limb will
not stand, because Paul can hardly be said to have " counted all
lost " for the sake of the miracles alone. It was rather Chris-
tianity as a whole, all he had seen and heard and felt, that im-
pressed him, so that he would even lay down his life. No more
will the second limb, because, whether true or not, we believe
that Loyola would quite have died to vindicate what he believed
to be miracles.'
L 2
148 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
LETTERS, 1846-1850.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BEAUMARIS 1 , AugUStl, 1846.
. . . Have you read Hook's Pamphlet 2 , and how do you like
it? All Liberals, of course, do : at the same time the text of it
seems rather to be, ' Let us teach Church principles without the
bore of having to teach children to read.' It is surely a great
Schief heit, ' that anti-Hegelian mode of distinguishing religious
and moral and secular education. One might much more truly
say, ' You cannot teach reading without teaching morality,' and
then, of course, teaching morality is a sort of infidelity without
teaching religion. Upon Dr. Hook's plan the secular education
must be absolutely mechanical the better it is, the worse it is
no more morality must be allowed than is absolutely neces-
sary to teach people to read. And then the tickets that
the children are to bring to prove attendance at the Church or
Chapel School before they can be allowed to go to the secular
and in a free country ! And the squirearchy guardians of
education ! . . . Fancy the Squire, especially if he is the Parson
of the Parish, considering impartially the claims of his ' Dissent-
ing brethren.'
I think there are only two ways in respect of Education which
are worth considering a national scheme of general religion,
i. e. in what men of the world and thoughtful men acknowledge
the essentials, leaving the Sunday Schools untouched, whether
Church or Dissent ; in short, a ' gigantic scheme of unbelief ' as
1 Beaumaris in Anglesey was in 1846 a Letter to the Bishop
near to Penrhyn, where some of of St. David's, How to render
Stanley's relatives lived. more efficient the Education of
2 The Rev. Walter Farquhar the People. See Dean Stanley's
Hook, Vicar of Leeds, afterwards Letters, p. 106 (letter of August 4,
Dean of Chichester, published 1846).
Letters, 1846-1850 149
Evangelicals and Puseyites would call it and the giving money
to each sect separately to apply as they please. Government
Inspectors ' in plain clothes ' might be stationed in the distance,
who should gradually approach nearer and nearer until the clergy
at length discovered that they had taken the whole into their
custody. Any scheme of education . . . must be done by some
great doer of the age, who is able to act out the discovery of
a truth through all its stages, and who does not get too soon
convinced of the whole truth.
The only thing to be thought of in favour of Dr. Hook's plan
as it seems to me, is whether secular education will not of itself
break up sectarianism. But one does not like to lose so great an
opportunity for moral and religious good. Look forward thirty
years, and all Dr. Hook can hope for is twice as many Puseyites as
at present, twice as many Evangelicals, and the great solid mass of
the world with its many virtues external to the Church utterly
unimpressed with twice as much education as at present,
with twice as many newspaper and railroad influences. . . .
How Arnold would have blown his trumpet !
To R. E. W. LTNGEN.
BEAUMARIS, August 7, 1846.
... I have been working lately at the three first Gospels, to
try if possible to find out the manner in which they came into
their present form. Nothing can exceed the absurdities which
the orthodox English divines have talked about this subject.
They very nearly all believe that by attentive and accurate
observation of facts, the three Evangelists, without any concert,
were led to describe them in the same words. If you have any
curiosity about this, which is a most curious question for lawyers',
you will find a resume of the opinions in Home's Introduction
(Vol. ii. p. 2, at the end), whose only zeal is, of course, how to be
most orthodox. I would sooner believe that every Cross in
Christendom is of the wood of the true Cross, than that such
a miracle as their theory requires had taken place. So much
seems clear, but the problem is so hopelessly complex, where
1 Lingen was at this time studying for the Bar.
150 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
you have the power of assuming ad libitum Aramaic documents
and oral Gospels, that I think the only thing to be done is to
prove it insoluble except in a general way. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
BEATJMARIS, August 17, 1846.
... A thought has struck me often during the last few weeks,
which is, I think, comforting about one's vocation in life. Con-
sidering how little sympathy I have with the clergy, for I never
hear a sermon scarcely which does not seem equally divided
between truth and falsehood, it seems like a kind of treachery
to be one of them. But I really believe that treachery to the
clergy is loyalty to the Church, and that if religion is to be saved
at all it must be through the laity and statesmen, &c., not through
the clergy. Is there any reason to think that if the clergy with
their present intolerance, ignorance, narrowness and love of
pious frauds, could succeed to the utmost of their wishes, they
would produce any other revival than such a one as seems to
be going on in France at present, four out of five women
made semi-Catholics, four out of five men made semi-Infidels ?
What I mean is, that I do not see that one need look upon
one's occupation as gone because the usual routine is very much
shut up. It is in reality a higher work that opens, trying to
make the laity act up to and feel their own religious principles.
Surely it is a surprising thing what a much higher tone they
have of late years taken, e.g. in the House of Commons, &c., while,
at the same time, the old talk of the clergy about sacrilege, &c.,
Irish Bishoprics, Penal Acts, divine right of education, has been
gradually exploding. While Arnold was chiefly known among
the clergy, he was reviled and despised : I doubt whether, even
now, there are a hundred clergymen over forty who feel any
sympathy with him ; but the laity ' rose at him.'
His theory of Church and State seems to me chiefly a mistake,
because it is for making a work outward and external which
should be inward and spiritual, and also because it implies that
Church and State is a device of statesmen or of Churchmen, and
not a natural dualism, which except among angels who are above
this world or infidels who know of no other, must ever be. It
Letters, 1846-1850 151
involves two impossibilities, to destroy one Church and build up
another. I think too that in his way of speaking it was wrong
to imply that we, and especially the clergy, were so very bad and
corrupt. Altogether, whatever truth there was in it seems to
have been inconsiderately expressed. If there should ever be
a second Keformation we shall not say ' Lo here or Lo there.'
... I find rest here a good thing, and my pupil works hard and
is very considerate. About September 20 I am free. It has
struck me you might like to go over to Ireland for a fortnight
about that time, see Dublin, ' Derrynane Abbey,' &c. Would
not this be more relaxation than hovering about the coast of
Norfolk ? Therefore come to Ireland ; shake hands with the
Liberator : ; see Koman Catholicism in a new form, get a
nostrum to cure Irish evils, and qualify yourself to talk with
country gentlemen all your life on the subject.
To B. R. W. LINGEN.
BEAUMARIS, August 18, 1846.
. . . The Aristocracy is too long a subject to discuss in a letter.
You seem to me to imagine this oligarchy to be a much more
narrow .thing than it really is. It cannot do without wealth
it is liable to become a jest : it cannot do without education,
for [then] it is robbed of more than half its associations. And
in this way the Plutocracy and the aristocracy of talent, the
latter partly through the professions, are ever blending with
it, and as it seems to me becoming greatly improved by it. It
may sound natural to say 'I value a man at what he really
is'; but can you separate a man from circumstances in this
way? ... If you say 'No, but I will resist artificial dis-
tinctions' this seems to me the very point does not all
experience show that this is a natural distinction ? If it were
true that there is no sense in which the aristocracy are better
than shopkeepers, is it conceivable that in these days they
could keep up a merely feudal distinction ? No distinction
lingers so long in a revolution or so soon returns. Is it not
true that the gentlemanly virtues (I do not mean real worth)
exist tenfold among the aristocracy for one 'gentleman by
1 O'Connell.
152 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
nature ' you find among the middling classes? A gentleman's
motto ought to be regardlessness of money except in great
things and as a matter of duty a tradesman's motto ought
to be, ' Take care of the pence and the pounds, &c. ' And when
one remembers what a hold this principle must get, I do not
think we can afford to give up aristocracy as an element of
National Education. . . .
To R. E. W. LINGEN.
BEAUMARIS, August 24, 1846.
. . . I confess it is the priestcraft of S. Oxon. I am most
afraid of. Coming the Bishop of Oxford is, I am afraid, likely to be
a much more successful game than coming the Bishop of Exeter
over the world. Think of a man who always looks good, out
of whose mouth Christian charity flows like rivers of oil, equally
respected by old women and prime ministers, who never for
a moment loses sight of spiritual in his search after temporal
things. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
August, 1846.
. . . You have everything to encourage you both in the
past and the future, if you would but bring yourself to believe
that you have the power of self-improvement. I sometimes
think that you indulge a kind of fatalism about character ;
there are no faults intellectual or otherwise which may not
be got rid of, if the right methods are used sometimes fighting
them, sometimes flying from them. Let us think of journey-
ing on until seventy in these kind of pursuits ; the thought,
perhaps you will say, is oppressive. But let us try and
'victual ourselves for such a voyage as this.'
There is something impertinent in this sort of 'subjective'
letter, even between two intimate friends ; therefore excuse it.
It is needless to say that I know a thousand times more folly
in myself than these defects in you I mean, indecision and
premature theorizing. I have been anxious about it for a long
time, and as your letter gives me an occasion, say what I feel
once for all.
Letters, 1846-1850 153
To A. P. STANLEY.
August, 1846.
. . . About publishing them l in your book I scarcely know
what answer to give. It would be pleasant to have them put
with your Sermons and would, perhaps, get them readers, and
might give me some note, good or evil. I have often dreamed
of this, and feel most sincerely that it is truly kind of you
to give me a chance I might never have again of putting
myself ' in oculis hominum.' But, for reasons that do not in the
least degree apply to you, I must, however reluctantly, say No.
. . . I do not ever wish or desire or think it possible that the
clergy should be done away ; their institution is ' a supply
to the imperfection of our nature,' and though essentially
imperfect may ever approximate to something better. The
Woods and Hansards must give up sectarianism, keep their
common sense, and get more if they can. A sort of instinct,
it may be hoped, will make them retire from debateable
ground. I think that the position of the clergy is only
melancholy where it is neither speculative nor practical. If
Biblical criticism spreads they will be driven, as many of
them have been by Puseyism, into the practical, and cease
to give such an account of the visitation of Ahab's sins on
his posterity as I heard last Sunday from Mr. Blomfield 2 ,
a true younger brother of the Bishop ; or such an account
of the internal evidences of religion as he favoured us with
to-day. Keally, I never hear a sermon of which it is possible
to conceive that the writer has a serious belief about things
if you could but cross-examine him he would perjure himself
every other sentence. Morality is, for the sort of men you
speak of, a great light ; they must bury themselves in their
parishes and learn humility and drink no more the dregs
of Orthodoxy. If they could get rid of Theology altogether
and learn the New Testament, especially the Gospels, by
heart, it would be well. From the side of Christian charity,
too, they are quite accessible. Politics, Maynooth Grants,
Education questions must with or without them be settled
1 His Theological Essays. Stevenage, Hants, Prebendary of
2 Rev. G. B. Blomfield, Rector of Chester, and Rural Dean.
154 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
in the next ten years, and unless they are prepared for an
irreconcilable war with the course of events they will sit
down and be ' rationally pious. ' There seems good hope,
I think, that what has already taken place in politics among
statesmen will take place among Churchmen plain matter
of fact people in a matter of fact country will honestly look
about them and see what wants doing.
About Arnold's theory I do not quite agree. Its fault is not
simply, I think, that it is too concrete, but that it does not
acknowledge the true concreteness of the Church as it is.
When it gets out of the Ideal, it is not merely impracticable,
but a falsehood. Men must have religion, but they are not
all equally religious ; their inward requires an outward ; but
external institutions are not things of degrees, they cannot
represent shades of feeling and opinion. And therefore when
you say, ' If they must have a Church externally, this is the
true external,' I cannot consent, because it is leading men
to expect an outward form of the Church which never can
be while human nature remains, and drawing them from the
true form which we have at present and [which] may ever
approximate towards the spiritual, although the dualism will
still remain :
Was i-st wirklich, das 1st verniinftig:
Was ist verniinftig, das 1st wirklich.
Granting the truth of Christianity, the opposition having
lasted 1800 years is a tolerable proof that it is ' wirklich.'
No, it is not the system, but the ^os 1 of the English Church,
which is distasteful to me. The change of this r/Oos ought to
preserve, not destroy the system. If we could once get out
of the pious fraud line, Englishmen would not soon relapse
into it, whereas Germans are, I think, ever liable to returns
of the malady.
Your two last letters gave me great delight. I feel every
day of my life that if one is ever to be of any good, idiosyn-
crasies, eccentricities, irritabilities, excitements, self-conscious-
nesses, follies of all sorts must be got rid of. No more sub-
jectivity, but I hope you are going on your way rejoicing.
1 The moral tone.
Letters, 1846-1850 155
To A. P. STANLEY.
Saturday, August,, 1846.
. . . Another Tablet 1 came to-day one still missing.
Number one I like better than number two. The beginning
conciliates me ; but it really makes me sick at heart to think
of the past, to find mutatis mutandis the same thing going
on still on a humbler scale, a self-deception so uncommonly
like truth, and so all-pervading. Is it possible that a man
of his great activity of mind, with all his recollections of
Arnoldism, Whatelyism, as well as of his deep faith in the
weaknesses of Puseyism, can remain as he is with nothing
short of ' vera sunt vera,' &c. 2 ? It is not Catholicism I care
about, but he is such a monstrous unnatural Catholic, not like
Pascal giving up human learning, or like the Hermesians
throwing up a sort of Pantheistic outwork, but distorting
every kind of human knowledge which he does not ignore.
Many a sceptic there must have been in the Eoman Catholic
Church who has died humbly receiving the Sacraments, and
believing in eternal possibilities, but this is very different from
this concentrated scepticism with its ponderous front of dog-
matism, which not only does not believe, but is incapable of
believing because it believes everything. With Pascal or
Newman I cannot help feeling the deepest sympathy ; they
do not say it, of course, but you feel they are clinging to it
as a last resource, if the mercy of God may accept them now
that they have given up the strife. With the lusty orthodoxy
of Ward I have no sympathy ; he is too flush and full-blown,
and too light in condemning others, considering all the past.
1 W. G. Ward, having become a vera" ' (True things are true and
Roman Catholic, was now writing false things are false ; but if
a series of articles in the Tablet. the Church should say that false
2 See W. G. Ward, 4'c., p. 115, things were true and true things
note*: ' One of his ( John Carr's) were false, then true things are
inventions which I happen to false and false things are true),
remember, is worth preserving: 'This oracular sayinghe brought
"Vera sunt vera ac falsa sunt out with great seriousness as a
falsa. At si Ecclesia dixerit vera quotation from Bellarmine.'
esse falsa ac falsa esse vera, turn For John Carr see above,
vera sunt falsa ac falsa sunt p. 59.
156 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
To R. R. W. LTNGEN.
BEAUMARIS, September 5, 1846.
... It is impossible that we can have the faith of our
fathers, because the light will be always breaking in upon
us. . . . Religion, it might be said, has become more a matter
of reason . . . more extended, less concentrated, not one
belief but an equilibrium of all the elements of belief.
... A man may live in a happy valley with respect to
religion ; the misfortune of which is, that he excommunicates
his neighbours ; but if he looks out into the world East
and West, in Jiac immensitate l&ngitudinum latitudinum, &c., of
speculative truth, it is impossible that his views of Christianity
should not be modified ; and one man will think that he is
defiling the simplicity of Christ, and puffed up with knowledge
falsely so called, while another might fancy that there may
be here something of the wisdom which St. Paul or St. John,
living now, would have spoken among those that are perfect.
Think of how many unpleasant truths there are that remain
untold about Christianity and Christendom, and yet we all
give an implied assent to interpreting the Gospel by the course
of the world. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
BEAUMARIS, September 6, 1846.
. . . What a grand fellow the new Pope ' seems to be ! What
say you to this as a politico-historical prophecy for 1856?
I mean, worthy to be the picture at the beginning of Moore's
Almanack and nothing more : Italy an ecclesiastical Republic,
Pansclavismus with one arm reaching into Poland become an
independent province, and the other in Bohemia ; two great
German kingdoms, Protestant and Catholic, the first advancing
on Denmark with a navy on the Baltic, the second looking
upon Switzerland as though it loved it ; Spain a sort of
dependent on France, which should have moved onward to
the Rhine ; America with towns and ports all along the
Pacific, and England steaming it over the whole world, a
great Steam Navigation Company with stations at Oceania.
1 Pio Nono.
Letters, 1846-1850 157
New Zealand, Australia, India, the Cape, &c. There should
be railroads, too, intersecting India, and ' British Capital '
should have cut through the Isthmus of Darien ; mountains
being blown up by some unknown Warner 1 invention, and
locks made sufficient to support the weight of an ocean. Here
I am getting out of my latitude and shall therefore stop,
but I think you must allow that the plan for Europe is about
as good as the treaty of Vienna, if it were only possible. My
balance of power should be Protestant against Catholic Germany,
France and England against Pansclavismus and despotism ;
Germany a debateable ground, and the Pope without reference
to nice distinctions of doctrine looking simply to the question
of how he might best keep his head above water. I find
reading prosper here and therefore purpose staying about
three weeks longer, when I wend my way probably to the
Lakes, Durham, York, Lincoln, Peterborough, Cambridge ; a
Cathedral tour, you see. . . .
To R R. W. LINGEN.
BEAUMARIS, September, 1846.
. . . Just now persons who are at all thoughtful about
things do seem strangely solitary, ' wandering about in sheep-
skins and goatskins ' : at first sight there might seem no limit
to scepticism in speculation, and that practical changes were
getting altogether unmanageable. I do not think this is so
really. Is not the sin of infidelity in a great measure despair
about the course of the world ?
. . . The Vestiges of Creation I have read. The way in
which it was attacked by Sedgwick disgusted me. I dare say
it is all wrong, but cannot see that there is any religious
interest against it any more than against science in general.
All science tends to demonstration, to lock up the world under
a series of causes and effects. It is no use to make religion
fill up the interstices of science which are merely accidental ;
I mean, to seek the freedom of the will, for example, in the
denial of materialism. As to revelation, you are retreating
1 Warner's Explosive Force : July 20, 1844. See Times for
first widely known through an July 22, 1844.
experiment in Shoreham Roads,
158 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
inch by inch from before astronomy, geology, linguistik,
history, and criticism in general. As to natural religion,
the German metaphysicians would all find a place for material-
ism as a complete though one-sided account of the world.
Sedgwick and Co. do unmixed evil by making that the battle-
ground, on which they must be beaten.
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
March 10, 1847.
. . . What is to be done about Ireland ? a question every
day becoming more aweful.
Dufferin of Christ Church, who seems a most excellent tuft,
went over to Skibbereen about a fortnight since and brings
back, as you may expect, the most horrible accounts. He says
that the dead from starvation and fever are about one-third, that
a regular cart goes about like the descriptions in the plague, that
the men who are employed on the public works can scarcely stand
from their meagre food and diet, &c. Lord Lansdowne told
M. Arnold the other day that he expected 1,000,000 of persons
would die before it was over. Notwithstanding the 200,000
subscription it is difficult to persuade oneself that enough is
doing in England. I do not quite understand why 1,000,000 of
people should die with a free trade in corn and an income
in this country of 300,000,000 a year : it could not cost more
than about 6 a year to keep them alive per head. Is it
absolutely impossible for persons who have the greatest know-
ledge of Ireland, to hit upon some method between public
works and mere charity which might apply 6, 000,000 usefully ?
Now, it does seem to me, has come the time for England
to repay all her debts to Ireland and lay the foundation of a
new connexion between the countries. There is of course the
double difficulty how to get it and how to use it English
credit and Irish corruption ; but I can hardly think insuper-
able. Such a mistake as the Government have made about the
public works is, surely, without excuse, although civil things
are said about it in the House of Commons. It must have
been easy to foresee, that the small farmers without money
or means of subsistence would be driven on the public works
instead of cultivating their own land.
Letters, 1846-1850 159
It is against all the rules of Political Economy to be in
favour of a poor law, but in the present case, does it not seem
as if the barbarous nature of the people and the interests of the
landholders are leagued against it equally ? Suppose the rental
of Ireland 36,000,000, and one-third of it to have been
collected, why not reduce the landholders a little and make
them understand that the crisis of their country requires
a little more than ' giving up pastry ' ? Unless Ireland makes
much greater sacrifices it is impossible to persuade England to
make the necessaiy sacrifices.
To A. P. STANLEY (ON HIS BETUEN FROM SPAIN).
[OXFORD, April or May, 1847.]
*fl /AaKapie /cat Tpr/xafcaptc KCU yu,a/captWaT6 \ ut sis vitalis metuo 2 :
but think you may possibly recover from this historical surfeit.
. . . This is only to greet you ; it is a waste of time writing
as you return to these bustling scenes so soon. ' Had it not
been for the battle of Tours,' Oxford might have been Granada,
St. Mary's a mosque, you exegetical professor of the Koran,
giving equal offence both to the Sonnites and Shuites.
I am delighted to hear of the prosperity of your tour,
although I was not there to plan it. I hope I shall live to see
the East some day and (not in Moses's company) 'make
a pilgrimage to the Holy City.'
There is nothing to tell here ; stagnant omnia. With your
Sermons and my Essays I have done nothing; the last, because
I found it so difficult to rewrite them.
I have been reading the Counter-Reformation in Eanke.
How strange the causes which religious changes depend upon !
At one time scarce any Catholics in Austria, at another all
France on the point of joining the Huguenots. At Gratz
in 1596 all Protestants, 1598 all the Lutheran Ministers ex-
pelled ; compare Oxford 1844 to 1847. ' If you mark the
history of the Popes well, look you, the history of the Heads of
Houses comes indifferent well after it 3 .'
1 'Happy, thrice happy, nay 2 'Too happy to live long. 1
most happy ! ' Cf. Ar. EccL Horace, Sat. II. i. 60.
1129. s Cf. Shakesp., //enry F, iv. 7. 35.
160 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
DULOE, NEAK LlSKEARD,
Augmt 21, [1847].
I have got so transcendentalized lately with reading Schelling's
Systems of Nature that it is quite a blessing to get back again
to the outward world. I confess I begin to look upon meta-
physics rather as a necessity than as a great good the air
is too rarefied to breathe long, and you are like a balloon,
a good deal at the mercy of the currents. Yet the spiritual
world is so much like the ideal one that it is impossible to stir
a step in theology without them. . . .
. . . Do you think that the existing state of opinions in
morals, theology, &c., will ' break up before we are yet old
men ' ? Looking at the progress of criticism and of physical
science, at the plasters we have been applying to theology,
I fancy that a second Eeformation is not impossible even in
our time. I hope that whatever comes of it will not be
egotheism which seems a compound of indomitable egotism
with the artistic love of truth but some real and practical
good. I notice in several persons whose opinions on many
things are much to be respected a great tendency to this artist-
like perception of right and wrong Truth under the image
of a beautiful statue, a naked statue too, stripped bare of
the garment in which education has clothed her. I greatly
lament I cannot myself get more practical ; one has such
a weak hold on the world or on other people you acquire
a sort of feeble intelligence of everything and lose force of
mind and character. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
[August, 1847.]
... I think we ought to do more towards it [the book on the
New Testament] than we have done in the last two years, if we
are to live to see it finished. I wish we could read through the
New Testament together, to begin with : otherwise there will
be no sort of unity in what we write. I know very well how
ignorant one of the commentators is, who has been spinning
Letters, 1846-1850 161
cobwebs for the last four years instead of arranging facts and
gaining real knowledge.
My own wish would be, if it is to your taste, to work at it
together, something in the same fashion that Liddell and Scott
did at their Lexicon. We might read separate series of
authors, and if our work could be made to square with the
Lectures it would be a great gain. Next Term I could read
the Epistles with you three or four evenings in the week, if you
are not alarmed by such a proposal.
What think you of making a paraphrase of the Epistles, like
Locke ? I wish there were any one to whom we could look,
like Arnold, for advice and assistance, but it is no use to lean
upon broken reeds.
. . . Do you know Selden's Table-Talk ? If you have not got
it, I will order it and make you a present of it. ' All the best
commentators on hard texts of Scripture have been laymen.'
' Now oaths are so frequent they should be taken like pills. If
you chew them they are bitter : if you think what you swallow,
it will hardly go down.' Bishop Wilkins, editor of Selden's
works, cannot believe them l to be genuine.
Where are you going after September 22? I must go to
Paris first of all to see my father and mother ; but for the last
fortnight or three weeks I would gladly meet you in Normandy
or at Paris, if you liked a short French tour.
To B. C. BEODIE.
i Great George Street, [1848].
I hope it will not seem to be from any unkindness that
I have not seen so much of you as formerly. It grieves me to
think how very much we disagree in opinion, but I trust we
have still the ' common ground of conscientiousness ' of which
you once spoke to me. I do not like to say anything more
about these subjects, because I shall only seem to condemn you,
and show myself inconsistent. The strongest feeling that I have
is that no merely artistic religion or morality has any real
truth or usefulness, or can have any hold on the minds of men
1 Viz. the sayings recorded in Selden's Table-Talk.
VOL. I. X.
1 62 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
in general. Do let me urge you to be as serious as you possibly
can in considering these things, which, if not aweful realities,
are still very aweful when we think of our absolute ignorance
about them.
To A. P. STANLEY.
OBAN, {September,] 1848.
My own feeling would be that you should not refuse a position
[the Chair of Modern History] for which, without flattery, you
are fitter than any one else who could be found. I do not like
to urge your standing for it, considering how we are circum-
stanced with the Commentary, out of which I look for us both
for many happy years' work : oirep OVK ei/Se'^crcu irdpepyov ctvai \
But, if it is offered, I would not refuse. . . . Any scheme of
University improvement would be greatly aided by your having
the Chair.
Many thanks for your letter, which amused me greatly.
Le gros Citoyen 2 and ffolliott (who is here and speaks of you
in the kindest manner) desire their best regards. I am just
returned from Staffa and lona. . . . Baur appears to me the
ablest book I have ever read on St. Paul's Epistles : a re-
markable combination of the philological and metaphysical
power, without the intrusion of modern philosophy as in
Usteri
To F. T. PALGRAVE.
DUNTBOON, LOCH GlLPHEAD,
April 14, 1849.
... I have been reading with great pleasure Schelling's
VerMltniss der Mldenden Kunst zur Natur. I wish you
would get it and read it, as the German is not difficult.
It shows a mind ' sensitive to every breath ' of beauty, and
combining with this the highest metaphysical power. I should
think Schelling was the only one of the German Philosophers
who had any true feeling for art.
1 ' Which cannot be made a secondary task.' 2 Morier.
Letters, 1846-1850 163
To F. T. PALGEAVE.
BORROWDALE, August 21, 1849.
I quite agree with you in thinking Malvern one of the most
beautiful places I ever saw. The style of country I like much
better than this, which is not open enough, or grand enough, or
fresh enough to suit me, though there are magnificent views in a
few places. Scotland is a far finer country than this to my mind,
with brighter colours, and richer skies, and a fine line of coast.
I have been simmering over my notes to the Eomans ever
since I have been here : the mere notes I think I could com-
plete in a few months. But there are so many other subjects,
such as the Text of the New Testament, the ' Lehr-begriff ' of
St. Paul, the language of the New Testament in relation to
Philo and the Alexandrians, and the ' Analoga ' in the present
day or in history to the state of things for which St. Paul
wrote, &c. &c., that I hardly venture to think of the end of
my work.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BOREOWDALE, NEAR KESWICK,
[August, 1849].
I should be glad to know whereabouts you are, and
whether there is any chance of your coming into this part of
the world. I hope the Eastern tour is finally settled.
I have been reading Baur, and confess myself a convert to
his view of the ' Christus-partei ' as a matter of probability,
which is all that can be attained to on such a subject. Was
hdben Sie dagegen einzuwenden? It strikes me a good deal,
however, how uncertain and unpromising any Niebuhrian
attempts are on ecclesiastical history. The Fathers and the
heretics between them have so sophisticated matters, and
the circumstances are so new, there being no analogy to guide
us, that the end of all inquiries is almost an even balance
of probabilities about the first century. If the Fathers were
right, the heretics were wrong : if the heretics were right, the
Fathers were wrong. It seems to me absolutely necessary to
place oneself at some higher or lower point of criticism or
M 2
164 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
scepticism, if we are to do anything more than add another
guess to the many already made by Genus Theologicum. I was
very sorry to hear of De Wette's death : an honest man and
a great critic.
Last night I read a good part of the Apostolical Fathers. It
is difficult to imagine how anything so poor and so miserably
rhetorical could have been written so near the Apostolical Age
and the writings of the New Testament.
Muller J and Morier are here with me the first busy with
his book on 'the Arian nations before their separation, as
traceable in language.' The book is in many parts interesting,
but requires a much more artistic working up. . . .
I am sorry to see the democratic cause falling so low : there
is still a hope ' of the Prince of Wales being King of England. '
I would sooner live in the backwoods than in Cossack Europe.
Whether the democratic party or the despotic aristocratic party
is uppermost is almost equally bad. Chartism and Protection-
ism, Legitimist, Socialist, Church and State, Manchester and
Almack's, wealth and birth, should balance each other, and all
be regulated by education, common sense, and Sir Eobert Peel.
One is especially sorry to see Germany in its present state,
seeming to fulfil all the worst prognostications of Tories and
bigots, and destroying -all faith in ideals. . . .
To R E. W. LINGEN.
KESWICK, [September 8, 1849].
What an extravagant value for human life seems to be
springing up, seen in Peace Congresses and Eush 2 petitions,
such as would have been despised in an ancient state. I don't
like to see the military spirit of a people destroyed in this way.
And as to Eush petitions : to give the poor wretch time to
repent, who has lived all his life in the moral sink of Field
1 Mr. Max Muller had recently made a Fellow of Balliol, but the
come to Oxford, introduced by the negotiation ended in his becom-
Chevalier Bunsen, and was pre- ing a Student of Christ Church
paring the Essay on Comparative under Gaisford's headship.
Mythology which appeared in 2 i. e. for the reprieve of the
1856. Jowett had tried to get him murderer of that name.
Letters, 1846-1850 165
Lane and St. Giles's, with uncleansed sewers, for whom Society
has done nothing to come in at last with this sentimentalism
about repentance, &c., seems disgusting. People will find out at
last that there is something more valuable in the world than
human life, as they are beginning to find out that there is
something more valuable than the abstract idea of freedom
on the Slavery question. It strikes me that one might make
three divisions of practical questions which have a bearing on
the morals of the community, (i) How to make the worst
better ; Prison Discipline, Juvenile Offenders, &c. (2) How to
raise all up to a certain fair level of morals and education the
Education question, the business of Kay-Shuttleworth and his
heirs or assignees. (3) How to make the decent intelligent
member of Society into a real high-minded Christian, rising
above the ordinary tone and rules of Society the business of
the clergy.
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
BALLIOL, October 16, 1849.
. . . This is 'the busiest time of all the busy year,' and
therefore I hope you will excuse my sending you only a few
lines. I heard from Palgrave this morning that Temple had
just left for his holiday. The John Bull, I see, has been attacking
'the Infidel College 1 .'
It would be a strange thing to collect together all the evils
that have sprung from religion, not merely from downright
persecution, but from the prejudices and narrownesses which
in the mass of men seem inseparable from it. How seldom
you meet with a religious man who is quite sensible also as
politicians, most are almost insane. When anything touches the
very name of religion, tvOvs //.a^crai 2 and becomes so stupefied
and isolated in his prejudices, that it is impossible for him to
understand the real state of the case. One cannot give up the
hope of better things, but there is small sign of them at present.
At Oxford persons are considerably excited just now by a sermon
of L 's, which, if it was truly reported to me, seems to have
been very bold indeed, implying that he desired to get rid of
1 University College, London. 2 ' He is ready to fight.'
1 66 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
the definitions of the Trinity, Sacraments, &c. It was a dis-
covery that in the progress of time had been made, that these
things were undefinable.
I should be glad to hear from you, though, as you knew long
ago, I am a very bad correspondent. You must take care of
yourself and let your mind be at rest or your body will never
nourish. I think one is often oppressed with a sort of night-
mare of work and anxiety and trouble which disappears the
instant we attack it vigorously. There is a great truth in that
verse, ' Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.'
To A. P. STANLEY.
[October, 1849.]
. . . The difficulty about St. John's Gospel is, first, the
general difficulty about so short a work, which cannot be
verified from our other knowledge of the writer : second, the
silence of about a century, which must be taken in connexion
with the other fact of its being the one book which all Christians
would naturally have sought for, appealed to, and thought
about : third, from the silence of Justin, a writer of the same
tendencies, who knows the ideas of the Gospel, but not the
Gospel itself: fourth, what Baur urges, the question which
cannot be excluded, of its relation to the other Gospels and to
authentic history, as viewed from the internal evidence :
lastly, the cumulative force of all these points together, if they
can be all proved.
On the other side, the spirituality of the Gospel is a testi-
mony to its being no fiction nay, to its inspiration, in almost
any sense of the term. And its general reception and recog-
nition by heretics and orthodox alike about the year 160, say, is
an immense difficulty on the Tubingen hypothesis. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
October 23, 1849.
I could not help feeling pained at the latter part of your very
kind letter l . I know well how much better and wiser I ought
to be at all to be worthy of that high opinion you express. It
1 Cf. Letters of Dean Stanley, pp. 138, 139.
Letters, 1846-1850 167
will always be a motive with me to try and make myself very
different from what I am. I think it is true (and I am glad
you mentioned it) that we have not had the same mutual
interest in talking over subjects of theology that we had
formerly. They have lost their novelty, I suppose : we know
better where we are, having rolled to the bottom together, and
being now only able to make a few uphill steps. I acknow-
ledge fully my own want of freshness : my mind seems at times
quite dried up, partly, I think, from being strained out of pro-
portion to the physical powers. And at times I have felt an
unsatisfied desire after a better and higher sort of life, which
makes me impatient of the details of theology. It is from this
source only I can ever look for any 'times of refreshment.'
Had I always done rightly, my life would doubtless have been
happier and my mind clearer.
I think sometimes we have been a little too intellectual and
over-curious in our conversations about theology. We have
not found rest and peace in them so much as we might have
done. As to the other point you mention, I am quite sure you
cannot be too independent. Your supposed want of judgement
is a mere delusion, and if it were not, and I were really able to
guide you, it is the greatest absurdity for one man to submit
his will to another, merely because he has the power of sym-
pathizing and has greater energy at a particular moment.
I think I see more clearly than formerly that you and I and all
men must take our own line and act according to our character,
with many errors and imperfections and half- views, yet upon
the whole we trust for good. We must act boldly, and feel
the world around us as a swimmer feels the resisting stream.
There is no use in desultory excitement, of which perhaps we
have had too much : steady perseverance and judgement are
the requisite. And Oxford is as happy and promising a field
as any, such as we are, could desire.
I earnestly hope that the friendship which commenced
between us many years ago may be a blessing to last us through
life. I feel that if it is to be so, we must both go onward :
otherwise the wear and tear of life and the ' having travelled
over each other's minds,' and a thousand accidents, will be
sufficient to break it off. I have often felt the inability to
i68 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
converse with you, but never for an instant the least alienation.
There is no one who would not think me happy in having
such a friend. We will have no more of this semi-egotistical
talk : only I want you to know that I will do all I can to
remedy the evil, which is chiefly my fault.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BATH, December, 1849.
... I am staying here for a day or two (until Thursday) with
Morier. Mr. Morier has much to tell of battles of Leipsic, of
the Congress of Vienna, &c. . . .
Get Newman's new volume of Sermons 1 most remarkable.
I don't know whether it is old association, or not, but his
writings certainly have an extraordinary power over one.
I think that Romanism was never so glorified before. No one
ever mixed up such subtle untruths with such glorious truths.
It is like the old Sermons, only aggravated in beauties as well
as defects.
To JOHN FFOLLIOTT.
BALLIOL, January 20, [1850 ?]
I have just been reading Cicero to revive if possible a
lost faculty of writing Latin prose, and may as well add an
extract :
' Omnium rerum ex quibus aliquid exquiritur nihil est
Agricultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil homine libero dignius.'
You have the Text. Let me add another passage which I am
not quite sure exists in all the MSS. : ' Nihil procuratori aut
villico mandandum nisi tute ipse intersis.'
Let me say first a word about your taking Orders. I confess
I think it is a desertion of your post. It would compel you
to leave your home and family, nor is there any point of view
in which you could do as much good as a clergyman, as you
might being a layman. It might be that from taking to it
with thorough good will, you would devote yourself to it more
successfully from feeling that you were suited to it ; but, on the
3 Discourses addressed to Mixed Congregations, 1849.
Letters, 1846-1850 169
other hand, I doubt whether you are suited to many of its
duties, as for example that of writing a weekly sermon ; and
also, I fear, you would always reproach yourself for having left
Ireland and neglected the peasantry on your father's estates.
I ventured to mention it to Temple, and no one else. You
will see from the enclosed what he thinks. But indeed,
I understood when you last talked about it that you yourself
had given it up and thought it inexpedient.
' Well, and what has your confounded jroXvjrpayp.oariivri 1 got
to suggest next?' you exclaim. I want you to be an agri-
culturalist, a cattle-breeder (don't laugh), a model Irish squire,
beloved by the finest * pisantry ' in the world. I do not think
you are right in looking forward to a time when your estates
will be worth nothing. Is it not possible to contrive that the
time shall never arrive ? Is not the one duty tolerably plain,
to save yourself from ruin and the people from starving?
I do not in the least doubt that you see this, yet forgive
my impertinence for repeating it things sometimes strike
us more when said by another person. To effect this is the
business of a life, spent in enduring all the disagreeables of
Ireland, the dulness of society, the bore of the landlords,
the perversity of the tenants, the idiot farming of the
peasantry, who may possibly, but not probably, turn out
ungrateful after all.
... If you wish to become an agriculturalist, I fear you
would find it a mistake to begin with chemistry. Any real
knowledge of such subjects requires so much bookwork and
also so much experiment, that you would find it, I fear,
very difficult and irksome ; also, the practical result too dis-
tant to be of any use. I do not mean to doubt its use as
a means of general improvement and a subject of great
interest, but merely that I do not think any one is very
likely to make two blades of wheat grow where one grew
before by the study of it. The first point in a farm must
always be economy and good management.
. . . Well, I hope you will forgive me for saying all this.
I will not trouble you again. Indeed I know, especially in
1 Meddlesomeness.
i yo Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, v
Ireland, that every one must judge for himself, and it would
not at all surprise me if you felt it right to disregard
everything I have ventured to say.
To JOHN FPOLLIOTT.
BALLIOL, February 12, [1850 ?]
Many thanks for your kind letter. I am sure I never meant
to say that you were incapable of writing a sermon (I don't
doubt that you could write a very good one), but only that you
were not one of those ' regular posters ' who could accomplish
two sermons per week with comfort to yourself. I could give,
I think, exquisite reasons for this, but dare say you would not
wish to be further bored by the subject.
No letters from 'Joe 1 ,' but only tidings through Mliller,
now at Paris and soon to be at Oxford, that the said Joseph
is diverting himself at Berlin, where he thinks of remaining
for some months. Warburton is here ; also Stanley. Goldwin
Smith is to have a Fellowship, under whose auspices ' Floreat
magna Aula Universitatis. '
I hope you will write and tell me whether you find ' farming
concerns' thriving and interesting. Free trade I fear will
press more heavily on Ireland, as there is no great manu-
facturing interest which is proportionably benefited. I should
not think it was likely any degree of protection would be
restored either for cattle or grain, for, as Lord John Eussell
said, the moment it was clearly seen that a part of the increased
value of cattle or corn went to raise rents, it was impossible
to maintain this state of things even if good in the abstract.
It is said, or more strictly it was told me by a man who said he
heard it from Lord Charles Eussell, that the Ministry had con-
sidered the proposal of an eight shillings fixed duty, that Lord
John Russell was in favour of it, Lord Grey against it ; but
that the idea was finally given up on finding that the leaders
of the Free Trade party would not hear of it, that none would
consent to more than a five shillings duty, and Lord John
Russell thought that the Ministry would lose more by this
than the agricultural interest could gain.
1 R. B. D. Morier.
Letters, 1846-1850 171
I will inquire about the carols to-morrow, as I ought to
have done long since, and send them to you in remembrance
of the Christmas Eve which we spent together.
Kespecting farming, Shairp tells me that an excellent
Scotch bailiff may be procured for .100 a year. I fear you
will find the responsibility irksome, if you have the manage-
ment in your own hands. There is a good article respecting
'Draining' in the last Quarterly deep draining for all soils
whatever appears to be the writer's theory.
. . . Fare you well, and do not forget the line
Who feeds fat oxen must himself be fat.
To A. P. STANLEY.
OBAN, August 12, [1850].
... I hope you are placable about letters, and do not think
I have less regard for you than four years ago, when we had
a furious correspondence.
. . . Get to Italy if you can, and look upon the blue waters
of an Italian lake it is a sight that refreshes one for the rest
of the year. I think I shall hardly rest another year without
getting a sight of one myself.
... I have four pupils here, Fremantle, Owen, Lancaster, and
Peel. What I have seen of the latter I decidedly like he is
very manly and intelligent. I hope something may be made
of him.
My sermons make some progress 1 , and I have written a
weekly one for the congregation here. A zealous member of
the congregation asked how many Presbyterians we had con-
verted. I was happy to assure her that there was no danger
of our converting any.
There is a poor young lady here (an Episcopalian) who is
dying. I have been to see her several times, as there was
no one else here. It is a strange sight to see a person so
entirely resigned to death, saying with the greatest placidness,
' I wonder whether I shall be alive the day after to-morrow.'
1 He was now Select Preacher.
CHAPTER VI
UNIVERSITY AND CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 1846-1854 l
W. D. CHRISTIE, M.P. Sir J. Kay- Shuttle-worth Roundell Palmer
Goldwin Smith The University Commission East India Civil
Service Examinations Lord Macaulay's Committee Letters on
University Reform.
fTlHE movement for reform at Oxford, which cul-
-*- minated in the Act of 1850, was the result of long-
continued agitation both without and within the
University. The first beginnings of it may be traced
to Sir William Hamilton's articles in the Edinburgh
Review of 1831-1834. The external pressure was directed
to the nationalization of the University through
the admission of Dissenters, while the earliest efforts
from within aimed rather at the revival of the Pro-
fessoriate, and the abolition of obsolete restrictions.
Early in 1839 a motion had been introduced in Convoca-
tion by the Hebdomadal Board 2 proposing to institute
new Professorships, and to require the attendance of
all undergraduates at Professors' lectures. This proposal
was rejected at the time, but its principles were embodied
1 Cf. vol. ii, chap. v.
8 It proposed a revision of the Statute ' De Lectoribus Publicis.'
University Reform 173
in an important pamphlet, which was drawn up that
autumn by Archibald Campbell Tait with the help
of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley 1 . In this it was proposed
to institute what would have amounted in effect to a
system of post-graduate Professorial teaching.
The practical reforming spirit was eclipsed for a time
by clerical reaction and the excitement which followed
the publication of Tract XC. But Stanley, who had
already done good service in the cause of reform, began
a new crusade when the ecclesiastical ferment was abated.
This appears from several letters in the Stanley-Jowett
correspondence of 1845-6. On April 10, 1845, Mr. W. D.
Christie, the public-spirited member for "Weymouth, who
had previously championed the cause of the Dissenters
and of the University of London, brought forward a
motion for a Royal Commission of Inquiry 2 . He said
in an able speech of the following year 3 , 'he believed
that some of the most eminent and distinguished men in
the University would rejoice if such a Commission were
issued.' Two references to Mr. Christie occur in Jowett's
letters to Stanley of the year 1846. In one he says lightly,
' Think of a Parliamentary Committee at which . . .
everybody should tell tales of everybody.' The other is
more serious, being in fact an elaborate draft of questions
that might be submitted by such a Parliamentary
Committee to Heads of Houses and other persons in
1 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i. ment towards a comprehensive
pp. 230, 418 ; Life of Archibald measure. Sir Robert Inglis, as
Campbell Tait, vol. i. pp. 69-71. member for Oxford, was the
Several other pamphlets on the strenuous opponent of all such
subject appeared in the same year legislation.
one by the Rev. P. S. H. Payne, 3 Hansard, vol. Ixxxvii. p. 1242.
a Fellow of Balliol. Debate on Mr. Ewart's motion
2 Hansard, vol. Ixxix. p. 393. This for the education of the people,
was the first attempt in Parlia-
174 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
Oxford. This document is crossed with, a memorandum
in another hand, 'from Stanley for Mr. Christie,
25/2/1 846 V From 1846 onwards movements were pro-
ceeding simultaneously from within and from without.
In the autumn of that year a scheme for the reform
of the Examination Statute was proposed by F. Jeune,
Master of Pembroke 2 , in a Committee of the Heads, but
never got beyond the Hebdomadal Board. In September,
1846, Mr. Horsman proposed to advocate the cause of
University reform in Parliament, and in 1847 J. Kay-
Shuttleworth visited Oxford to obtain further information
with a view to legislative action. But Jowett was not
minded to leave the matter in the hands either of Dissent-
ing members of Parliament or the Education Department.
In a letter to Mr. Roundell Palmer 3 he urged him to
represent the views of the Oxford reformers in the House
of Commons. His letter exhibits clearly the scope of
the writer's aims at this time, while the scruple which
withheld his correspondent from acceding to the desire
sufficiently indicates the general state of opinion 4 . On
March 4, 1848, a Memorial signed by two-thirds of
the Tutors, proposing a revision of the Examination
Statute, was presented to the Hebdomadal Board. It
maintained the principle of an intermediate examina-
tion. This was immediately followed up with an anony-
mous pamphlet 5 , of which the ' advertisement ' is dated
March 13, 1848. A letter to Lingen of April 3 shows
this pamphlet to have been the joint work of Jowett
1 About the same time Dr. Pusey - Afterwards Bishop of Peter-
was interested in a scheme for the borough,
extension of University education 3 Afterwards Lord Selborne.
through the foundation of Halls 4 pp. 188-192.
or Colleges under Church autho- 5 Suggestions for an improvement
rity. Life ofE. B. Pusey, vol. iii. of the Examination Statute. Ox-
P- 79- ford, 1848.
1846-1854] University Reform 175
and Stanley 1 , and both, the preface and several of the
suggestions are unquestionably Jowett's.
The following sentences are curiously characteristic
of him :
' Our only defence against attacks from without is to build
up from within, to enlarge our borders that we may increase the
number of our friends. We have no one to fear but ourselves.
At this moment, to use the language of an eminent writer,
are we not living "behind our dykes" in fear of the German
Ocean ? There may be enemies from whom it is right to
fly, but the tide of opinion cannot be escaped in this way.'
One peculiarity of these Suggestions was the inclusion
of a School of Theology (both Pass and Class) side by
side with the subjects of Philosophy, History, and Philo-
logy. When a Theological School was founded under
different auspices in 1867, Jowett, though Professor of
Greek, was excluded from the Examining Board ! In
recommending the study of theology in the spring of
1848, he employed arguments which are strangely familiar
to readers of his work on St. Paul :
'Keligious persons feel that the evidences of Paley or
Lardner are not the reasons of their belief, or the answers to
their difficulties. Can it be truly said that much has been
done in this place during the last twenty years for Scriptural
interpretation, which seems to be the most hopeful mine in
theology, and strangely enough the least explored ? It would
hardly have been an unreasonable hope that the meaning of
Scripture, like that of any other book, might by this time have
become fixed, and raised above the fancies of sects or individuals.'
The discussion of the new Examination Statute came
on in the following autumn, and it was passed in 1849.
The result was not altogether in accordance with Jowett's
views, which had aimed at something like the old final
examination to come at the end of the second year, after
1 P- J 93-
176 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
which, undergraduates should be encouraged to specialize
within certain limits. This would have been in effect
to carry out the principle of Tait and Stanley's pamphlet
of 1839. As a preparatory step, Jowett suggested a plan
for courses of lectures to be given in the Schools by dis-
tinguished graduates, which might serve as a temporary
substitute for a Professorial system 1 . But in this as
in some other schemes, by which he sought to lure
back friends to Oxford, and make them sharers of his
own labours there, he was disappointed 2 .
From the. facts above stated it appears how distinctly
in the reforming movement at Oxford, which is commonly
dated from 1848, Stanley and Jowett were foremost in the
field.
By the autumn of 1848, however, several other eminent
men had joined in the agitation; amongst whom were
Mark Pattison, Richard Congreve, John Conington, and
Goldwin Smith, who became Secretary to the Executive
Commission of 1854. The whole movement appears to
him to have grown out of Newmanism through a re-
action. He writes (1894) :
' Newman's romantic picture of the mediaeval Church
carried away the young, who had before seen nothing but
high and dry Anglicanism, with its social and political
accompaniments. But Newmanism, though ecclesiastical and
reactionary, was at the same time revolutionary in its way.
1 See p. 31 of the Suggestions : for any Master of Arts, or Doctor
' It would only be acting up to of Theology, Law or Medicine,
the spirit of our own institutions to deliver lectures on any branch
if the liberty which at present of knowledge which fell within
only exists in the Statute book his sphere or capacity.'
were practically recognized and 2 It is worth remembering that
encouraged by allowing (under a Cambridge Syndicate was work-
such instructions [sic] as were ing at the same time and prepar-
thought necessary) the free use of ing the way for the Moral Sciences
the public Schools as lecture rooms and Natural Sciences Triposes.
1846-1854] University Reform 177
It was a revolt against the old high and dry regime. It cut
active minds loose from their traditional moorings and launched
them on a sea of speculation over which they at last floated to
a great diversity of havens. Nor was Newmanism politically
conservative. On the contrary, it sneered at conservatism, which
was closely connected with Protestant orthodoxy, and a par-
ticular object of its hatred and contempt was Peel. Ward, if
I remember rightly, professed himself a Eadical. Then came
the crisis, brought on by the condemnation of Ward, which
was followed by the secession of Newman. Those who
refused the leap recoiled more or less from the brink. Some of
them, such as Mark Pattison, recoiled, as you know, the whole
length of thorough-going Liberalism. They by degrees tacitly
coalesced with the knot of original Liberals, though they
were rather liable to mental irresolution and to recurrences
of asceticism in a new form.
1 In some of us Liberalism soon took the practical shape of
an effort to reform and emancipate the University, to strike off
the fetters of mediaeval statutes from it and from its Colleges,
set it free from the predominance of ecclesiasticism, recall it
io its proper work, and restore it to the nation.'
In 1848-9 Jowett and Stanley were actively engaged
in preparing a joint work on the Universities to which
others were to have contributed, but before it could
be published the Commission had been issued. The pre-
paration of the book, however, laid the ground for
Jowett's evidence and for Stanley's memorable Report.
"While efforts towards reform had thus been ripening
from within, the attacks on the existing system from
without became more and more clamorous ; the Noncon-
formists insisting on the admission of Dissenters, and the
advocates of Natural Science, Modern History, and ' useful
knowledge ' deprecating the narrowness of the old cur-
riculum. The curriculum, indeed, had been already
widened by the change in the Examination Statute ; but
the new regulations had not yet taken effect.
VOL. I. N
178 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
The crisis came in 1850, when, on April 25, Mr. Hey-
wood, the Radical member for North Lancashire, moved
in the House of Commons a long resolution requesting
the issue of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the
state of the Universities. This was strongly opposed
by Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Roundell Palmer, and Sir Robert
Inglis. But Lord John Russell, as Prime Minister, while
declining to vote for Mr. Heywood's resolution, promised
on behalf of the Government that a Royal Commission
of Inquiry should be issued. The Commissioners were.
Samuel Hinds, Bishop of Norwich; A. C. Tait, Dean
of Carlisle ; F. Jeune, Master of Pembroke ; H. G. Liddell,
Head Master of "Westminster ; J. L. Dampier, M. A. ;
Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry ; G. H. S.
Johnson, Fellow of Queen's ; with A. P. Stanley, Fellow
of University, as Secretary.
A copy of the following unpublished document, which
was addressed to Lord John Russell, has been furnished
by the kindness of the Very Rev. "W. C. Lake, late Dean
of Durham :
' We, the undersigned, Tutors of Colleges in the University
of Oxford, beg to thank your Lordship for the intention you
have expressed, as Head of Her Majesty's Government, of
advising Her Majesty to appoint a Koyal Commission to
inquire into the state of the Universities, and for the friendly
terms in which your intention was announced. We do not
think it desirable at present to address your Lordship publicly,
but we wish to express our belief that changes are necessary
which can only be made by the assistance of Parliament, and
in the confident hope that the proposed inquiry will be carried
on with a real desire for the good of the University, we are
ready to give the Commissioners every information in our
power.
B. JOWETT W. C. LAKE
A. P. STANLEY GOLD WIN SMITH.'
1846-1854] University Reform 179
Those who in Oxford bore the name of reformers had
not all precisely the same ends in view. They were
agreed that the constitution of the University must
be altered, that its benefits must be extended, restric-
tions abolished, and the Professoriate strengthened. But
Oxford would not have been Oxford, if individuals had
not widely differed as to the particular changes required.
As usual, there were many who thought more of their own
rights than of educational needs. Resident members of
the University were naturally jealous of the non-resident
vote, and sought to revive Congregation, i. e. the House
of Residents, for legislative purposes, in place of Con-
vocation, i. e. the body of M. A.'s at large. They would
have transferred the initiative from the Heads of Houses
(whose action in the Tractarian controversy had pre-
judiced their cause not only with Liberal reformers,
but with High Churchmen of the newer school) to the
whole body of residents. College Tutors were made
uneasy by the increasing importance of private tuition ;
and opinions differed greatly as to the best way of
making the University a national institution.
Jowett's evidence before the Commission sets forth the
points which at this time he considered at once desirable
and practicable. His views as there expressed are any-
thing but revolutionary : far less so, for example, than
those of Mr. Robert Lowe, who had recently returned
from Australia.
Jowett sought to strengthen what he found existing 1 .
For example, while proposing to enlarge the Professoriate,
he emphatically approved of the Tutorial system.
1 'What I want to see is the Church and State, instead of
Universities made somewhat more representing the worst half of
dependent on the State, so as to the clergy.' Letter to A. P. S.,
become a real link between 1850.
N 2
180 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
'In foreign Universities/ he says, ' the Professoriate system
has been resorted to, not from choice, but from necessity.
Our wealth gives us the means of combining the two, and
of carrying out the spirit of each more perfectly. '
Nor does it appear that he was, as yet, in full sympathy
with those who anticipated the extension of the benefits
of the University to non-Collegiate students. In other
ways his evidence is not that of a violent reformer.
He would have limited the powers of Convocation without
extending the powers of Congregation or constituting
an elective Hebdomadal Board. He clearly foresaw the
evil that was likely to result, when the unobtrusive
performance of College duties would give way to the
excitement of debates in Congregation. This would
probably ' have the effect of plunging us into a perpetual
state of agitation.' Instead of giving Congregation the
initiative, as had been proposed, he would have simply
added the Professors, whose number was to be increased,
to the Hebdomadal Board. He says, 'The changes at
present required are such as have become necessary from
lapse of time in institutions that have not the power
to amend themselves. We are not to infer from this that
the University needs to continue for ever legislating, or
that it is well to form a constitution which will give the
greatest facility for such an object.'
For University extension, he looks to improvements
in College management, rather than to private lodgings
or ' independent Halls,' but suggests that noblemen and
men of large fortune might be allowed to reside with
private Tutors in the town; referring to the advantage
which Lord Palmerston and others had received from
such residence in a former generation, at Edinburgh.
'The benefits of a University education cannot be thought
to consist merely in the acquirement of knowledge, but in
1846-1854] University Reform 181
the opportunities of society and of forming friends ; in short,
in the experience of life gained by it and the consequent im-
provement of character. With many, a College is their first
means of introduction to the world. Advantages of this kind
cannot be wholly secured to the poorer student, although he
most stands in need of them, yet they should not be completely
lost sight of. ... The poor student should be scrupulously
treated as a gentleman.'
When, however, the Commissioners proposed a scheme
for establishing new Halls in connexion with the Colleges,
he approved of it and looked upon such Halls as a
useful occasion for the gradual admission of Dissenters,
'so getting rid of the scandal of requiring youths of
eighteen to sign the Thirty-nine Articles.' At this time
and long afterwards, Jowett had little sympathy with
Nonconformists, but he regarded their admission to the
University as an essential part of any national scheme,
though ' their admission on the Foundations would upset
things too much V
He thinks that sinecure Fellowships are doomed, but
is strongly in favour of removing the existing restrictions
upon Fellowships, including the clerical restriction. He
does not explicitly touch the question of the marriage
of Fellows. He treats very lightly the scruple about
Founders' intentions, which had been twice already over-
ridden 2 . For the extension of the Professoriate he suggests
the addition of Professorships of Latin, English Litera-
ture, Ethnology, Comparative Philology, and Geography ;
also additional Professorships in Greek, Latin, Ancient
History, Modern History, Ancient Philosophy, Modern
Philosophy, Logic, the Physical Sciences, and Hebrew.
In establishing new Professorships (not Theological),
he says :
1 From a letter to R. R. W. 2 i. e. once at the Reformation,
Lingen in 1846. once in the time of Laud.
1 82 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
'It appears to me unnecessary that religious tests should
be required. There seems to be no reason to fear in scientific
men any peculiar hostility to our ecclesiastical institutions ;
while, on the other hand, their habit of mind renders them
averse to such restrictions. In this way only can we fulfil
the injunction which Sir H. Savile lays upon his Trustees,
that they should seek for the fittest persons out of the whole
world. It would be of little use to multiply professors of
physical science, if such men as Liebig or Faraday were liable
to be excluded.'
One object which he alleges for the extension of the
Professoriate is 'to encourage persons resident in the
University to carry on their studies with the view of
hereafter filling Professorial chairs. The College Tutor,
who is in most cases waiting for a living, has no induce-
ment to study beyond what is necessary for the pre-
paration of his lectures.' Jowett is in favour of a Theo-
logical School, in preference to the establishment of
Theological Colleges. And, lastly, he sees no harm in the
system of Private Tutors, characteristically adding : ' The
evils arising from the excessive use of Private Tutors can
only be corrected (i) by College Tutors getting up their
lectures carefully, and rendering private assistance them-
selves, (2) by the manner in which the Public Examina-
tions are conducted.' About the time of the nomination
of the Commissioners he wrote to Stanley l :
1 At a still earlier time, he had fidious, nobody could trust him.
written, with reference to their . . . The natural first step would
joint work on the Universities : have been the revival of the Pro-
' I should be almost inclined to fessorial system, and the second,
make a fight for open Fellowships the stimulus of examinations :
and Professorships only. I am only we have inverted the order,
afraid the necessity of getting because one could be done with-
rid of the Heads is the same as out the assistance of Parliament,
the necessity for getting rid of the other not.'
Charles I, that he was so per-
1846-1854] University Reform 183
' . . . I hope the Commissioners will chiefly rely on them-
selves and not on the witnesses whom they examine. . . .
We have long ago settled, I mean as our own opinion, that
open Fellowships, Professorships, modification of clerical
restrictions (certainly), change in the constitution (probably),
should be the great topics. To which I would be glad to add
"Poor Students" and "Expenses" (although there are diffi-
culties in the matter) ; first, because it is a most popular topic
the University educates 1,500, why not 3,000? Is it a
sufficient ov lve/<a * of a national institution that in the nine-
teenth century it educates 1,500, two-thirds of whom are the
sons of country gentlemen and clergymen? Jeune will be
lukewarm in this matter, but I hope you and Tait will take it
up. If the object of the Commission is only to make a more
intellectual aristocracy, this may be good, but will hardly
command much sympathy. Secondly, unless the Universities
are to be wholly separated from the Church it is of the greatest
importance that poor clergymen should be educated at the
University and not at Theological Colleges. The poor student
clergy have always a tendency to High Church views, because
they give them a position which they had not before. This
tendency would, I think, be very much diminished if the
University became their home more and its Professors their
teachers.
' The general principle I would be guided by in reference to
the Commission is to ask oneself plainly what changes have
taken place in the country in the last 200 years, and then as far
as possible transfer them to the University. If the relation of
one class to another is different, if the subjects of knowledge
are different, the University must receive corresponding changes
sooner or later before it can return to a natural state ; only
remembering that it is a place of education chiefly, and that
education clings naturally to the past. . . .
' I feel that I do not agree either with Vaughan's intellectual
aristocracy as the idea of a University, nor with the " gentle-
men heresy" that appears to be partially entertained by
Jeunt and by G. Smith. I hope that the small numbers
1 Raison d'etre.
184 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
educated at a University will be prominently urged by the
Commission it is an effective topic. And although it can do
no good to force men to Oxford who are unfitted by previous
education, it is of the greatest use to awaken in people's minds
a sense of the necessity of a liberal education for more than the
numbers contained in Harrow, Winchester, Eton, &c. The
abused Grammar-school and Charity foundations supply abun-
dant means. . . .'
Although the Commissioners issued their Report in 1852,
the Universities Act embodying their recommendations
was passed only in 1854, when it received the active
support of Mr. Gladstone. It established Congregation,
but instead of giving the initiative to that body, created
an elective Council l representing Heads, Professors, and
resident M.A.'s ; and, what Jowett always regarded as
more important, it provided for the abolition of many
local restrictions upon Fellowships, and opened them to
general competition. Before the measure left the House
of Commons, Dissenters had been admitted to Matricula-
tion and to all degrees lower than M.A.
Jowett was anxious to impress upon his pupils his
conviction that life at the University would be much the
same after the reforms as it had been before. Mean-
while his part in the whole business brought Mm
forward, and made his real position better known to
public men. He was one of the first set of Public
Examiners under the new system 2 , and was recognized
along with Mark Pattison and J. M. "Wilson as one of the
leaders of the Liberal party, an estimation which earned
1 This appears to have been who was a Wadham man, and
partly due to a suggestion of Dr. though he declined the oflbe, he
Pusey's. See Life of E. B. Pusey, was touched by the generosity of
vol. iii. pp. 391-393. Jowett, who had said thit he
2 Richard Congreve had been would not take the post if Con-
nominated by one of the Proctors greve were passed over.
1846-1854] Civil Service Reform 185
for him the suspicion of the older Tutors and of the
majority of the Heads of Colleges.
His position at Oxford led to his being consulted with
regard to educational movements of a wider scope, such
as that for opening to competition posts in the Home
Civil Service and in that of the East India Company, in
which Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth and Sir Charles Tre-
velyan severally took a leading part. Two sayings of
theirs recorded by Lord Lingen, may be repeated as illus-
trating the courage of public servants in those days, of
which posterity now reaps the benefit. Sir J. Kay-Shuttle-
worth had said to Lingen, who was serving under him, with
reference to some change, ' Get it done ; let the objectors
howl.' Sir Charles Trevelyan said, "The Civil Service
requires as much pluck as the Military.' A letter from
the Rev. B. Jowett (January, 1854) is printed together
with the Report on the Organization of the Permanent
Civil Service, by Sir Stafford H. Northcote and Sir
C. Trevelyan, dated November 23, 1853. The reformers
in the Civil Service were turned into ridicule by Anthony
Trollope in his novel of The Three Clerks, where Sir
Charles Trevelyan figures as ' Sir Gregory Hardlines,'
and an imaginary caricature of Jowett appears as
'Mr. Jobbles.'
It was perhaps through his friend Lingen, who was now
at the head of the Education Office in London, and also
through Sir Stafford Northcote, that Jowett came to corre-
spond with Mr. (afterwards Lord) Macaulay and Sir Charles
Trevelyan about the Indian appointments. He gave an
eager welcome to the plan, not only on general grounds,
but because he saw in it a new stimulus for the Higher
Education in England. Thus commenced his life-long
interest in the public service of India ; and he was thence-
186 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
forth actively engaged in the promotion of measures
which had no less far-reaching consequences even than
the Oxford reforms. The correspondence led to his
nomination as a member of Mr. Macaulay's Committee
under the India Act of 1853 for opening to general com-
petition the appointments of the Honourable East India
Company's Service.
The Committee held its sittings in 1854, and reported
in November of that year. Macaulay drew up the Eeport,
but some passages bear the stamp of Jowett's mind. For
example :
' We believe that men who have been engaged up to one or
two-and-twenty in studies which have no connexion with the
business of any profession, and of which the effect is merely
to open, to invigorate, and to enrich the mind, will generally
be found, in the business of every profession, superior to men
who have at eighteen or nineteen devoted themselves to
the special studies of their calling. The most illustrious
English jurists have been men who have never opened a law-
book till after the close of a distinguished academical career ;
nor is there any reason to believe that they would have
been greater lawyers if they had passed in drawing pleas and
conveyances the time which they gave to Thucydides, to
Cicero, and to Newton. . . .
' We propose to include the moral sciences in the scheme of
examination. . . . Whether this study shall have to do with
mere words or with things, whether it shall degenerate into
a formal and scholastic pedantry, or shall train the mind for
the highest purposes of active life, will depend, to a great extent,
on the way in which the examination is conducted. We are
of opinion that the examination should be conducted in the
freest manner, that mere technicalities should be avoided, and
that the candidate should not be confined to any particular
system. . . . The object of the examiners should rather be to
put to the test the candidate's powers of mind than to ascertain
the extent of his metaphysical reading.'
i8 7
LETTERS ON UNIVERSITY REFORM,
1846-1848.
To R. R. W. LINGEN.
BEAUMAKIS, September 5, 1846.
... I am very glad you have made acquaintance with
Horsman, of whom I have heard Stanley speak highly. If he
is up to the speaking part of it I should think he was a very
fit person to take up University reform. The Universities
seem to me a more promising nucleus for education, if we
could but educate them first, than Dr. Kay-Shuttleworth and
Privy Council schemes. If you and I and Stanley were Canons
of Christ Church, I wonder what difference it would make
in the perspective of our view. In what increased ratio, think
you, should we feel the responsibility of change? Not of
course in the gross palpable form of as 200 : 1200 but in some
remote corner of the mind a maturer wisdom would spring up,
and we should say of the efforts of the juveniles, ' This also
is vanity.' After all, men not systems might seem to be
wanted. Quid ultra tendis. Here are we. . . .
To R. R. W. LINGEN.
BEAUMARIS, September, 1846.
. . . About University reform, I fully agree in the necessity
of getting practical suggestions ready for the opportunity when
it occurs. The greatest change within, the least without,
nothing unprecedented, nothing without regard to the better
spirit of the place, seems the conservative side of the question.
What is the feeling among lawyers respecting Corporation
property? I suppose to save additional theories as much as
possible and class it all with private property. If so, to assert
a constitutional against the legal view is the indoctrination
to be instilled. Something may be made of the anomalous
i88 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
character of the University, neither national, ecclesiastical,
nor private, but all three together : to a case so complicated, it
might be urged, it is impossible to apply the simple principles
which regulate either corporate or private property, and College
property might be isolated from the general fear about vested
interests.
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
BALLIOL, Sunday Evening, [1847].
Your master, 'master Doctor Caius 1 ,' not the French
Doctor, paid a visit of inspection to our Normal School
yesterday. You can guess his object.
The particulars you can hear from Temple. . . . My purpose
in writing is to say for myself and for Stanley that we are
quite willing to be guided by your judgement in the matter.
Shuttleworth's name is I think an omen of success in the
scheme, at the same time he is as unfit as the two barbarians
Hengist and Horsa to reform the University, and the prospect
of good is really how far he will be advised by others.
We think that if we and others undertake the somewhat
invidious part he assigns to us, we ought to have some
understanding with the Ministry that they are to support
us, time and opportunity favouring, with a friendly measure
of University reform ; in other words, that we are not simply
made a cat's-paw of by Kay-Shuttle worth in a private specula-
tion of his own.
We have, I think, provided this sort of assurance were given,
a sufficient respect for K.-S.'s usefulness to be willing to
act with him in such a cause, unless you dissuade.
To EOUNDELL PALMER, ESQ., M.P. 2
BALLIOL, November 15, [1847].
MY DEAE PALMER,
I take the liberty of writing to you under the idea
that you are half an M.P. for the University of Oxford.
I have heard several persons lately speak of University reform,
1 J. P. Kay-Shuttleworth, M.D., head of the Education Department.
He received a Baronetcy on retiring in 1849. 2 Lord Selborne.
Letters on University Reform, 1846-48 189
and express a strong wish that you could be induced to turn
your attention to the subject. They were Clough, Lake,
Lingen, Temple, Stanley, T. Arnold, and others whom you
probably do not know. Their feeling was that there was
no one so well acquainted with the question, or so likely
to take it up in a fair and friendly spirit, or who was more
really sensible of the great and increasing intellectual de-
ficiencies of the place. They seemed to think, and I heartily
agree, that, for many reasons, the subject would be far better
in your hands than in those of Gladstone.
Excuse this exordium, which looks like flattery, but is not
meant so. The immediate occasion of my writing to you
is as follows. Mr. Horsman was intending to take up the
matter and bring it before the Ministry, but owing to the
representations of Lingen, Stanley, and Clough, who thought
that he was going to fight the battle ' nee dis nee viribus
aequis,' although not in an unfriendly spirit, he has been
induced to give it up and will now confine himself to seconding
Christie's motion. What we hoped was that you might be
induced in good time to take the question out of their hands,
and prevent much evil and gain for us many things which
would be a great boon.
Perhaps I am assuming too much in supposing that you
would favour any movement to assist the Universities from
without. Let me ask what chance is there of reform from
within. It is now twelve years since the Duke of Wellington
answered Lord Eadnor's question in the House of Lords about
University reform, that the Colleges were reforming them-
selves, and since then I do not think a resident in the place
can point to any change, except perhaps the abolition of the
oath to the Statutes, which touches our real abuses. It is
nobody's fault we cannot reform ourselves. To say nothing
of the stationary nature of the place the close Fellows are
interested in keeping up close Fellowships. Merton and All
Souls desire to hand down their privileges to posterity OVK
eAacro-w i) avrol TrapeSe^ovro l the true Filius Aedis Christi has
a theory ready to show that the Christ Church method of
1 In no less measure than they received them. Cf. Thuc. i. 71.
1 90 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
giving away Studentships is the sound and right one, although
out of a hundred students it is continually found impossible to
choose distinguished men to fill the Tutorships.
These things are so invidious, that although they are
strictly true I am almost ashamed to state them. It would
be great injustice, too, not to acknowledge that there are
a great many persons in all those societies who are sincerely
anxious about altering the present state of things. Only what
fills me with despair about these internal reforms, [is that]
partly from the want of power, partly, as I think, from a too
narrow view of duty, they involve some crotchet which mars
the practical good : for example, a return to some obsolete
Statute which won't work or which works mischievously,
when the consuetudines of the College would have formed
a much better basis for a useful reform, and so the real
and crying evil remains untouched.
There is nothing 1 wish less than to see Oxford turned into
a German or a London University. On the other hand, is
it at all probable that we shall be allowed to remain as we are
for twenty years longer, the one solitary, exclusive, unnational
Corporation our enormous wealth without any manifest utili-
tarian purpose ; a place, the studies of which belong to the
past, and unfortunately seem to have no power of incorporating
new branches of knowledge ; so exclusive, that it is scarcely
capable of opening to the wants of the Church itself; and
again, the mere funds of which considered as a trust fund
can by no means be said to have been administered with
strict conscientiousness for the promotion of 'virtue and good
learning ' ? And the good done here, which is certainly very
great, [is] not of a kind to be paraded before the public, ov
Xoyo) Ti/j.(i>/j.ev a\Xa -777 crwoucria 7rA.eov ', though we readily admit
it in talking to one another ; while the abuse and inefficiency
is flagrant.
You will perhaps excuse, if you do not agree with me,
for writing all this. I do not wish to make a paper con-
stitution for the University. If Parliament interferes, should
1 ' Honoured, not in story, but in the hearts of those who know it
best.' Soph. Oed. Col. 62, 3.
Letters on University Reform, 1846-48 191
not the effort be to limit the interference to one or two great
and simple points, such as the opening of the Fellowships
and providing by an effectual system of visitation, and perhaps
by a declaration on the part of the electors like the Simony
Oath, for their being honestly given away? Second, the
establishment of Professorships which might be formed out of
extinguished Fellowships (which would, perhaps, if they were
thrown open be too numerous), and might be attached as a sort
of compensation to the Colleges from which the Fellowships
are taken. To which, third, I would add a pet crotchet of my
own, to raise the value of the Scholarships (to make them really
Demyships) from the same source, to provide the means for
many more persons of the middling class to find their way
through the University into professions.
I think at present the close Fellowships work very badly,
especially in holding out the prospect of a provision for life,
which provision is generally not obtained until a man is
twenty-seven or twenty-eight, when it would be better for
him to leave the University altogether and settle in a parish :
to say nothing of the evil of superannuating in Oxford so many
men who are not fitted by nature for a student's life.
As to the Professorships, there is not at present a single well-
endowed one for any of those subjects which form the staple
of the University course, except Theology. There is no
inducement for any College Tutor to carry on his reading
of Aristotle beyond the routine of his lectures, as far as
prospects of this sort are concerned. Does not this in some
measure account for our not having yet settled the province of
Logic ? Is it likely that we can expect the process of simply
converting Butler into Aristotle, and Aristotle into Butler,
and making them both mean pretty much what we believed
before, can lead to any permanent good ? The great evil at
Oxford is the narrowness and isolation of one study from
another, and of one part of a study from the other. We are
so far below the level of the German Ocean that I fear one
day we shall be utterly deluged.
I must again apologize for writing in this desultory manner
to you about these matters. If you were disposed to take
np the question it would be a great pleasure to Stanley and
192 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vi
myself to assist you in every possible way, not of course that
we expect you to agree in our suggestions.
Believe me, my dear Palmer,
Yours very truly,
B. JOWETT.
Note by Lord Selborne.
[N.B. My answer to this letter, declining to undertake the
question as suggested, was mainly grounded upon the im-
pediment arising out of the oaths which I had taken on
my election to my Fellowship at Magdalen. On this subject
there is in print a letter, which I addressed in 1853 or 1854
to a Fellow of Magdalen. K. P.J
To E. E. "W. LINGEN.
BALLIOL, December 3, 1847.
. . . Last Saturday K. Palmer came down here to talk over
University reform. He was liberal as one could wish, but has
some difficulty in stirring about the matter himself from the
oath he has taken at Magdalen he does not consider the oath
binding himself, but as the terms of it are very explicit he
dislikes the scandal it would make. This I mention in confi-
dence. He is quite willing however to present a petition for
open Fellowships and Professorships, and to speak in its favour.
He is not sanguine at present, and thinks with you that enough
has not been done to bring the matter before the public : our
best chance, he said, would be to get the ear of some one of the
Ministers, especially if Campbell's 1 father 2 were made Lord
Chancellor, which is a possible event.
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
OXFORD, February 20, 1848.
. . . We are getting up a petition to the Heads from Tutors
of Colleges in favour of Jeune's scheme or something like
it. The main objects are three : (a) to get the ' Little Go ' placed
1 W. F. Campbell, afterwards 2 Lord Campbell, made Chan-
Lord Stratheden. cellor in 1850.
Letters on University Reform, 1846-48 193
so early as to stand in the place of a University Matriculation ;
(/?) to extend the studies of the place so as to give passmen
something as well as Latin and Greek which may interest
them ; (y) to place the present ' Great Go ' at the end of two
years, somewhat contracting the number of books, and allowing
the third year [of residence] for separate studies, as Theology,
Mathematics and Physics, History and Law. I do not expect
that nearly all this will be gained, nor see how the University
could be carried on if it were at present, but something useful
will probably come of it.
... I have not heard anything about the Price 1 schemes ;
I quite admit that the plan mentioned above does alter the
character of the place, but not objectionably. At present for
the greater part of the passmen it is little more than a place
of brute discipline, where they may be drawn out by their
companions and amusements, but certainly not by polite
literature. The chief fear is lest we fritter ourselves among
too many things.
To R. R W. LINGEN.
OXFORD, April 3, 1848.
I send herewith a pamphlet 2 which is a joint production of
Stanley's and mine. As there is a good deal of talk about
these things at present, it may perhaps survive into the next
Term, and reappear in an enlarged edition. Will you look
through the scheme carefully and see if you can suggest amend-
ments and alterations ?
I am going to attack you about another scheme, which as far
as I can see at present I shall pursue tooth and nail. It is the
formation of an association to give a course of lectures in the
Schools on all principal subjects connected with our present
examinations. Stanley would lecture on Herodotus and early
Greek history, Clough on Livy, myself on the history of the
Greek Philosophy. We hope that Scott and Vaughan would
be induced to give lectures in Scholarship and Moral Philosophy
respectively, also G[oldwin] Smith.
1 Bonamy Price. 2 See above, p. 174.
VOL. I. O
194 Life of Benjamin Jowett
Now here lies the point : do you think you can assist us,
by giving, say, twelve lectures in a year on some philological
or general subject, something which might be the re'Aos J of
all your dilettante work during the year ? Latin literature
or Homer or Aeschylus would upon the whole be the most
useful. I mean something of this kind, in which the
University has been always weak.
The first step we propose is to request the sanction of the
V.-C. (not the permission) for the use of the Schools, to which
as Masters we have a right this memorial to be signed by
all those who are going to take a part in the plan. A fee of
a pound to be required from every one who attends.
The great object as you will see would be to form a nucleus
for a Professorial system, to give a better standard of lectures,
also to construct a little from within in expectation of changes
from without.
Well ! the Deluge has come in our time. I think of going
to Paris at the end of the week -, and shall call at the Privy
Council Office to see you, as I come through on Friday.
To E. E. W. LINGEN.
BALLIOL, November 17, 1848.
. . . The reform of the Examination Statute progresses
very badly. The second examination is to be in 'words,' in
the third men are to give up words altogether and return
to things. This is the final form in which the Statute is to be
proposed, nothing but Philology to the end of the second year
and no Philology afterwards. It would be surely better to
keep our present system to the end of the second year and then
commence separate studies not excluding Philology. Love to
Temple.
1 ' End and aim.' 2 p. 133.
CHAPTER VII
TUTORIAL AND OTHER INTERESTS. 1850-1854
(Aet. 33-36)
WIDENING social horizon Bunsen Sir C. Trevelyan Tennyson
Tutorial methods Vacations Mr. W. L. Newman's reminiscences.
AS we turn from these public activities to resume the
** tenor of his life in Oxford, we may take occasion
to observe the expansion of Jowett's social interests,
which were scarcely ever separated from his educational
and other labours. His pupils of some years back were
about to enter public life : his friends and colleagues
were rising to positions where they could help him in
pushing the fortunes of younger men. Lingen became
Head of the Education Department in 1849, and in
appointing Examiners and Inspectors relied on Jowett's
recommendation more than on that of any other of the
Oxford Tutors 1 . C. J. Vaughan, Stanley's brother-in-
law, was Head Master of Harrow, and Balliol men
became assistant masters there. Temple, in whose con-
versation Jowett delighted more than in that of any
other man, had gone to be the Head of a training
college for workhouse school teachers, which had been
recently founded at Kneller Hall in the neighbourhood
of Twickenham ; and in 1858 succeeded Goulburn at
Rugby. At Jowett's recommendation, Temple took
Palgrave to be his lieutenant at Kneller Hall. Morier,
1 W. H. Thompson of Trinity was similarly Lingen's mainstay at
Cambridge.
O 2
196 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
after spending the years 1851 and 1852 at the Educa-
tion Office, became attached to the Diplomatic service
at Vienna and afterwards at Berlin.
Through Stanley Jowett was introduced to the Chevalier
Bunsen Baron Bunsen who spoke of him to his son
Henry as the deepest mind he had met with in England.
Henry de Bunsen's own impression of him, as he told me
afterwards, was that of a man who lived intimately with
a few friends, but was shy and retiring in general society.
William Young Sellar had gone to assist his old
teacher, Professor William Ramsay, in Glasgow, and
there became engaged to Miss Eleanor Dennistoun, whom
he married in 1852. That home was thenceforward a
centre of growing interest for Jowett.
Lingen, too, had married Miss Hutton in 1852, and they
often received him at their house in Gloucester Place,
Hyde Park. Mrs. Lingen l was greatly struck by the ' joy-
ousness ' of her husband's friend. He used to rally her
on the strictness of her Politico-Economical principles,
with which, at that time, he agreed. They took him to
a theatre, where the after-piece turned on disputes between
husband and wife. At this he laughed heartily, not, as
Mrs. Lingen thought, without a spice of side-long malice.
Lord Lingen writes (1895) :
' He has left on me the impression of being in those years
lighthearted and gay : and this impression agrees with the
earliest portrait of him, that by Richmond, to which, let me
add, his likeness after death returned with striking reality.
I was constantly seeing him during those years, and we talked
unreservedly about everything, being orthodox and rather ad-
vanced Liberals of the time both in Church and State such
as Oxford Toryism had made us. His visits, generally un-
announced, are among the pleasantest recollections of my life.
Punctual as he was to the last in business and duty, there
1 Lady Lingen.
1850-1854] Acquaintance with Tennyson 197
was a humorous irregularity about his social observance of
hours. I shall never forget our frequent anxieties, in which
he never shared, whether he would really catch the ten o'clock
train to Oxford, on which he was bent, with his breakfast to
finish, and our servant packing his things. Then, as up to
the end of his life, he always carried with him papers which
he had in hand, and would work at them upstairs and down,
and at all spare times.'
The question of competitive examinations for India
led to an intimacy with Sir Charles Trevelyan and his
family, including the present Lady Knutsford and Mrs.
Dugdale. At their house he had opportunities of per-
sonal intercourse with Macaulay. Sir George Trevelyan
says, ' I remember a period of one or two years, when
the question of Civil Service reform was at its height,
during which Mr. Jowett constantly came to us at
"Westbourne Terrace, and used to sit through the evening,
as my boyish recollection goes, quite silent.'
At Harrow he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Vaughan's
cousin Rosalind Stanley, now Lady Carlisle, then a child
of eleven, who rated him soundly much to his delight
for not having read the Arabian Nights, and commanded
him to do so without delay 1 . And he had many a
friendly battle on theological subjects with Mrs. Vaughan
Catherine Stanley his fellow-traveller of 1845.
Meanwhile he kept up his correspondence with still
older friends. He writes to James Lonsdale, who had
lost his mother :
'No one who had known ever so little of her could help
seeing that she was just one of those persons who spread
light and peace over their homes. Stanley has several times
mentioned her to me as what he termed . . . one of his three
pattern ladies : . . . her grace and goodness were admired by
others as much as they were appreciated by her own children. '
1 Mrs. Vaughan is my authority for this. L. C.
198 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
Jowett's intercourse with Tennyson, which like
a golden thread ran through the whole of his remaining
years, began in the following way. In 1852 Tennyson
resided at Twickenham ; where both Temple and Pal-
grave, then at Kneller Hall, saw much of him. When
Jowett visited his two friends, they invited Tennyson to
meet him. He came, and the poet and 'philosopher' were
charmed with each other. After settling at Farringford,
the Tennysons invited Jowett to stay with them. When
the invitation had gone forth, Tennyson humorously
confessed to Palgrave his apprehensions at the thought
of entertaining a cleric and a don, but was assured that
Jowett was, after all, a human being. Mrs. Tennyson was
delighted with her guest's discourse upon high subjects,
such as the freedom of the will l .
It may be mentioned in passing that Jowett examined
more than once at Durham University, where James
Lonsdale was one of the Tutors for a time.
Men have been known to rise to high places in Church
and State by taking advantage of such opportunities
as now opened for Jowett in the great world,
to the neglect of more immediate duties. That was
not Jowett's way. The Balliol Tutorship was still
his main employment, and he laboured in it as if
it were the sole purpose of his life ; turning all
other interests to account in ennobling and enriching
this. It might without exaggeration be said of him in
relation to his pupils, that ' all things were for their
sakes.' With each new batch of undergraduates there
came an accession to those living influences, whose
fountain seemed inexhaustible and which flowed onward
1 Grant, also, and William Grant's connexion with Mr. Cotton
Sellar, soon became frequent of Afton, Tennyson's neighbour at
guests at Farringford, through Freshwater.
1850-1854] Tutorial Methods 199
throughout the remainder of his career. The freshmen
used to be assigned to the care of the several Tutors by
some arrangement of a College meeting ; but those
whose promise and aspiration were above the average,
if they had not the good fortune to be Jowett's pupils,
were only too glad to avail themselves of the permission
which he readily gave them, to bring essays or pieces of
composition to his room, in addition to the regular work
with their Tutor. He treated them, in such cases, as if they
were really his pupils, and the work done for him was
entered into with greater eagerness and delight than
the ordinary College exercises. It was not that he spent
more pains in looking over such attempts than other
Tutors did ; his remarks were brief, and he seldom rewrote
a sentence, but, somehow, his merely saying of a copy of
iambics, ' That is not so Greek as the last you did,' had the
effect of sending one off upon a quest of higher excellence,
the craving for which was not to be satisfied at once 1 .
He seized upon what was best in one's attempts, and
showed a way in which the whole might have been better.
He managed always to direct the study of language
so as to promote literary culture. The pieces set by
him for composition were choice specimens of classical
English, which prompted higher efforts, and led to
a closer intimacy with great writers, than such passages as
used often to be prescribed. And he impressed upon his
pupils an idea which was new to most of them, that in
translating from Greek or Latin classics into English,
as much of time and labour might be usefully spent
as in turning an English passage into Latin or Greek.
1 A contrary instance should verses. He glanced over them
perhaps be quoted. Somewhat and, looking up rather blankly,
earlier than this a Scholar of the said, ' Have you any taste for
College brought him a set of Greek mathematics ? ' ,
200 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
His criticism in those days stimulated without dis-
couraging. In setting before the mind a lofty ideal,
he implied a belief in powers hereafter to be developed,
and the belief seemed to create the thing believed in.
But the intellectual stimulus was not all. He seemed
to divine one's spiritual needs, and by mere contact
and the brightness of his presence, to supply them. If
he was ready to repress conceit, he was no less ready to
bestow encouragement on the diffident, and sympathy
upon the depressed ; not without timely warning, when
he saw that danger or temptation was at hand. His
intimate knowledge of his former pupils' lives was
applied to heal the errors of their successors, and his
own experience of early struggles also had its effect. He
ignored trifles, but never let pass any critical point.
The mornings were of course spent in the Lecture
Room. This was the larger of the two rooms in the
Fisher Building which he then occupied. The lecture
list, like the choice of Tutors for the men, was a matter
of College arrangement. The subjects were distributed
amongst the Tutors and Lecturers, the division of
labour being, however, less minute than it became after-
wards ; and attendance on the prescribed lectures was
supposed to be compulsory.
Although Jowett had made his early reputation by
Latin scholarship, it has been observed that he seldom
if ever lectured on a Latin subject. His favourites were
Sophocles, Aristophanes, Thucydides, and the Republic
of Plato. There was no listlessness at any of his lectures,
and often one man would remain after the rest to discuss
a difficulty. If there was less of exact scholarship
imparted by him, than, for example, by James Eiddell.
the whole subject was surrounded with an air of literary
grace and charm which had a more educative effect. As
i8 5 o-i8 54 ] College Discipline 201
an interpreter, and above all as a translator, he seemed
to his pupils to be unrivalled. He was never satisfied
with any interpretation that could not be expressed in
perfect English. There were also Divinity Lectures on
the Epistles of St. Paul, and the History of Philosophy
Lectures already referred to ; also a Logic Lecture (for
Moderations) in the Hall of the College, of which
Aldrich's Logic was still the text-book, though we were
expected to read Whately too ; but the commentary-
was diversified with many suggestive remarks and illus-
trations, especially on the subject of fallacies. Jowett
would suddenly ask for a quotation from English poetry,
which, if given, he would make the pupils analyze, and
recast in logical form. It was a sort of conversational
lecture. Besides all these, he now and then gave
a special course on Political Economy to a few
volunteers, and at one time held a very useful com-
position lecture for half an hour between morning Chapel
and breakfast-time, in which men were expected to turn
a piece of classical English, taken down from dictation,
extemporaneously and viva voce into Greek or Latin.
He would read out a passage, sentence by sentence,
inviting first one and then another to improvise a version
in Greek or Latin, welcoming any improvement of that
version from other members of the class, and settling
the ultimate form by general consent.
When it came to Jowett's turn to be Dean, some
men looked for a slack regime in regard to morning
Chapel, as Jowett himself, being a sound sleeper, and
studying late at night, was not always regular in his
attendance. They soon discovered their mistake ; every
defaulter was immediately sent for, and instead of being
admonished for his failure in religious observance, was
told that morning Chapel was a rule of the College. In
202 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
case of continued delinquency, an imposition was in-
flicted and inexorably required. The "Warden of Merton
(the Honourable Gr. C. Brodrick) says :
' One morning several of us, including Jowett himself, were
just too late and found the door closed. Nevertheless he sent
for the absentees as usual and anticipated the allusion to
his own misfortune which I was on the point of making, by
asking shortly, " Why were you not in Chapel, Mr. Brodrick ? "
and adding in the same breath, ' It's no use saying that I was
late too, for it was very wrong in both of us." '
No business of this kind really affected his relation
to his pupils. If his anger ever showed itself, it was
momentary, and left no trace on after intercourse.
In special cases he was lavish of his time and energy,
already, it might be thought, only too fully occupied.
If a promising but unequal scholar seemed to him to
have a chance for the Ireland, he would say, ' Bring me
a piece of composition every evening till the examina-
tion.' The evenings after Hall were given up to
interviews of this nature; the afternoons were often
spent in walks with undergraduates. His summer
reading-parties had made for him a little nucleus of
friends in College, to whom the extension of his influence
was largely due.
The Warden of Merton, who was an undergraduate at
this time, has made some valuable remarks which include
the period now under review :
' In my opinion Jowett's heroic industry, during his Tutorial
career, has never been fully appreciated. At almost all hours
of the day, and up to a very late hour at night, his door was
always open to every man in the College seeking help, and,
though I was never among his chosen disciples, I continued
after taking my degree to bring him answers to questions
at my own request, which he looked over and criticized as
carefully as ever. No other Tutor within my experience has
1850-1854] Shyness and Reserve 203
ever approached him in the depth and extent of his pastoral
supervision, if I may so call it, of young thinkers ; and it
may truly be said that in his pupil-room, thirty, forty, and
fifty years ago, were disciplined many of the minds which are
now exercising a wide influence over the nation/
Even amongst the Balliol undergraduates, however.
Jowett was not universally popular. He had no false
dignity, but he had an adequate sense of his position l ,
and his native shyness had not worn off. His long
silences were felt as an awkward bar to conversation
by those who did not understand that he himself was
hardly aware of them, as the intervals were filled with
active thought. He was apt to disclaim this when taxed
with it, and to declare that he was thinking of nothing 2 ,
but the fact was often proved by the pregnancy of the
few words that followed the silence. It seemed as if the
thought had to make a long circuit through his capacious
brain before the result, brief, terse, and pointed, was evolved 3 .
To interrupt this silent process by starting a fresh
topic was often to provoke a snub. This was partly due,
as a friend remarks, ' to his absorption in his work, but
also to a natural shyness and aversion to the commonplaces
of society. As he never made an unmeaning remark him-
self, he was impatient of unmeaning remarks from others/
In an early letter to Stanley he speaks of the
' idiosyncrasy ' which led to these awkward silences :
' Cromer is such an immense distance that it rather appals
1 He was said to have rebuked was so perfectly expressed as to
Riddell for being too familiar seem final. This made the give
with the undergraduates. and take of conversation difficult.
2 Life of J. A. Symonds, vol. i. He seemed to be holding up an
p. 227. ideal, but one could not breathe
3 A shrewd observer remarked freely in that high air. It was
long afterwards on his conversa- true elevation however, and not
tion at high table : ' Everything the donnishness of an academi-
he said had an edge on it ; and cal poseur'
204 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
me, but to say the truth, I would go there after your kind
letter, were it not for some idiosyncrasy that makes me, at
times, very unwilling to be among strangers, which it would
probably involve. I hardly like to mention it : it looks so
like affectation. But somehow or other I get thinking about
matters speculative or otherwise, and, when not perfectly well,
they get such a hold that I cannot relax, and one becomes a
sort of tSiwT7/s, wrapped in selfish care and out of tune with
ordinary life.'
Another thing that somewhat hampered his intercourse
with younger men was his fastidiousness on the score of
language, which he regarded almost as a sacred thing,
making it part of his vocation to impress this feeling upon
others. Hence the abhorrence of slang, which some under-
graduates thought a piece of donnishness. With one of
his child-friends in the country he took a singular way
of enforcing this lesson. He insisted on giving her
a shilling every time she used the word ' awfully,' and so
shamed her out of the habit.
He never flinched from acts of necessary discipline,
although when anything severe was done, his intimate
friends knew well how his heart bled for the youth whose
prospects were affected. On the other hand, it was in-
directly known that he had stoutly resisted what appeared
to him unnecessary harshness, and some of his chief
friends, as Mr. W. L. Newman observes, were amongst the
' unsteady ones ' whose lives he was insensibly guiding.
One who appears to speak with feeling writes : ' Though
he did not spare you in private, he stood between you and
harm in public. He would send for you, and you found
him sitting, poker in hand, before his fire. It would
be many minutes sometimes before he would speak,
but when he did speak, it was to the purpose.'
His appearance at this time was still very youthful,
but at moments, at least to younger men, his personality
1850-1854] Personal Appearance Influence 205
was very impressive. The look of great refinement,
yet of manly strength, of subtlety, combined with
simplicity; his unaffected candour, tempered with reserve,
could not fail to attract even when it baffled observa-
tion. His soft wavy locks were already touched with
grey, beginning to recede from the temples, so as to
ma.ke more prominent the expansive brow, in which
phrenologists would say that ' idealism ' was balanced
with 'comparison' and ' causality.' His full grey eyes
spoke of the clearness of the mind within, yet had
a dreamy wistful look, sometimes increased by a slight
twitching of the eyelid. His mouth in repose appeared
full and slack, but the expressive lips were under absolute
control. He was always clean-shaven except the scanty
whiskers, and the small chin seemed hardly to promise
the strength of volition which lay concealed within.
The effect of his sloping shoulders was rather enhanced
by the black dress coat of fine broadcloth which he
always wore. His waistcoat disclosed a faultless shirt-
front and white neckerchief loosely tied about the
upright collar, which he continued to wear long after
it ceased to be the fashion. He never wore a great-
coat before 1859, when he purchased one of roughish
cloth for travelling purposes, described by J. A. Symonds
as 'a barrel-bodied great-coat.' In walking about Oxford,
if the cold happened to be extreme, he would propose to
his companion to run for warmth. He seldom wore
gloves, but when he did so they were of cloth, not kid.
His hands seemed the only parts of him that were
sensitive to cold. When cap and gown were discarded
he wore a soft wideawake, which he called his ' cap.'
In writing, if there was no chair at hand, he would kneel
at a table. Those who knew him only in late years,
would have been surprised to see his slight figure racing
206 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
about the Balliol quadrangle, or to hear him, as he
often did, hum or whistle, as he came back to his
room, some broken phrases of a familiar melody.
He had still some lessons to learn in the management
of men ; and his advice to other Tutors at a somewhat
later time probably reflects his own early experience:
' Young men are so sensitive. You will find one burning
with indignation for some neglect of which you were
profoundly unconscious. It will not do to speak roughly
to them.' Yet it was often observed how as with a silken
thread he put a check on those whom others found
unmanageable. The frankness of his dealings with them,
even when they had left College, may be illustrated
by the following extract from a letter which is too
intimate to be quoted at length :
' There are many things which must give you, as all of us,
pain in your past life. In your case they come rather under
the head of weaknesses than of faults. You are now a man,
so must put away childish things. . . . God has blessed you
hitherto in your Oxford course, but you have been wanting to
yourself. You have many friends looking on, and hoping that
you will not allow egotism, or any mental or bodily weakness, to
get the better of you. Forgive me for mentioning these things. '
This is a specimen of what some used to call ' a paternal
from Jowett.'
A peculiarity which impressed many undergraduates
was the beauty of his delivery, especially in reading
Scripture. Mr. Isambard Brunei, who came to Balliol
in the fifties, says that he and others used to make
an effort to go to morning Chapel when it was known
that Jowett was likely to read the Epistle and Gospel.
Though rather high-pitched, his voice in reading had
a richness in its tones, as of a silver bell, which charmed
the ear; and the absence of mannerism, the sincerity
1850-1854] Sermons and Addresses 207
and reverence of the expression, and the perfect rendering
of every shade of meaning, without undue emphasis,
made an entireness of effect unlike anything that could
be heard elsewhere. Poor young D'Arcy *, a scholar of
genius, and of a deeply religious turn, remarked to me
after one Communion, how devoutly, in administering
it, Jowett had said the sacred words. There were no
sermons then in Balliol Chapel, the institution of the
Catechetical Lecture having taken their place. But
during the week before Communion, it was the practice
for each of the Tutors to give a short discourse to his
pupils. Jowett's addresses were much valued by those
who heard them. When they had assembled quietly in
the Lecture Room, he would come out of his inner room,
with the ink still wet upon the notepaper, and read
what he had prepared. Two subjects are especially
remembered : ' Rejoice, young man, in thy youth,' and
'Let me die the death of the righteous/ In one he
spoke plainly of the temptations to which young men
were liable at College ; 'All this,' he said, ' because
young men are weak.' In another address he made
some subtle remarks on social difficulties, observing that
the secret of true influence was not conscious effort,
' nor sympathy, which may be weakness, but a consistent
life.' In the sermon on death he dwelt on a favourite
topic, of which he had lately been reminded by con-
versations with Sir Benjamin Brodie, the great surgeon,
that the current notions about death-bed scenes were
an illusion, and that the desire of life often failed with
life itself 2 . One sentence in that sermon still remains
1 He died in his second year at sion which he took from converse
College. with Sir Benjamin was that ' the
2 See Brodie's Psychological In- force of specifics can go only a
quiries (1855). Another impres- little way.'
2o8 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
with me : ' God will not judge of men by what they
know; yet to have used knowledge rightly will be
a staff to support and comfort us in passing through the
dark valley.'
Jowett's voice as a preacher was so long silent in
Oxford, that there is a special interest in recalling
the few occasions on which he is known to have
occupied the University pulpit. Besides the Assize
Sermon in the autumn of 1849, there were some which
he delivered as Select Preacher in 1850-51. Of one
of these he writes to ffolliott, October, 1851 : 'My sermon
was greatly admired by the wooden benches, who found
something in it exactly adapted to the ecclesiastical
position which they had taken up. It was an animating
sight to see them ; they echoed every word that was
said.' But there are some who still remember an im-
pressive discourse on the text, 'The hairs of your head
are all numbered/ treating of the Reign of Law ; and
Mr. Gladstone, in a recent letter to P. Lyttelton Gell,
spoke of a discourse which he had heard from Jowett
about this time, on the contrast between faith and
experience, as ' epoch-making.'
The small hours were given, when not demanded by
special calls upon his attention or sympathy, to the
systematic study of St. Paul.
Stanley's departure from Oxford in 1850, and his
appointment to a Canonry of Canterbury in 1851, were
events of trying significance for his chief Oxford friend.
Their paths in life were sundering ; they could no longer
work at the New Testament together 1 , and the dream
of a visit to the Holy Land could only be fulfilled for
one of them. The Homeric ideal of nvv re bv e/axo^eVw,
' two going on together,' became for the time unrealizable
1 See p. 160.
1850-1854] Free Thought at Oxford 209
in Oxford. Jowett was more than ever isolated in the
studies of his choice, to which he held on with unre-
mitting tenacity '.
Theological agitation had died down at Oxford;
Tractarianism was no longer persecuted, and though
increasingly influential in country districts, was at
a standstill in the University. No onslaught had as
yet been made on liberal thought ; the Broad Church
had hardly even been named 2 , yet suspicion was rife in
certain quarters. Mr. Henry Bristow Wilson's Bampton
Lectures in 185 1 (The Communion of Saints: an attempt to
illustrate the true principles of Christian union) sounded
the first clear note of a demand for freedom in theological
inquiry, a demand which was destined to grow and
strengthen for years to come.
The challenge was not taken up. The High Church
party felt that their 'strength was to sit still.' The
moment was inopportune for active measures : the
Gorham judgement had been a severe discouragement,
and the two chief powers on the orthodox side, Dr.
Pusey and ' Samuel of Oxford,' were in sharp contention
concerning the Eucharist and the Confessional. But
that Pusey at least was on the watch appears from
his letter to the Bishop, dated May 5, 1851 :
'Mr. Stanley . . . has been forming a school, known as
the Germanizing school. . . . The present Bampton Lecturer,
Mr. Wilson, of St. John's, has been preaching such doctrine
1 Already in 1846 there had into general vogue by an article
been some questionings as to on Church Parties in the Edin-
' Arthur's future,' and Jowett burgh Review for October, 1853,
had written earnestly to Mrs. where it is employed to include
Stanley in favour of the Oxford Arnold and his followers, Julius
career. and Augustus Hare, Frederick
2 This Saxon equivalent for Denison Maurice, and Bishop
' Latitudinarian ' was first brought Jackson.
VOL. I. P
2io Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
as has much scandalized many of the Heads of Houses. . . . You
will be asked why they are allowed to officiate, I forbidden V
Nor did the ' great Tutor,' as Sir Robert Inglis called
Jowett, escape calumnious strokes. ' He reads Plato on
Sundays ' (the Phaedo, for example !), said the simpler
Evangelical sort amongst the Oxford youth. But the
imputation of ' Germanism ' cut much deeper. Readers
of Arnold's Life will remember the interest awakened
in his mind by the impulse which the genius of Niebuhr
had given to historical criticism, an influence which
about this time reached the abler minds at both the
Universities, through the translation of Niebuhr's History
of Rome, by Julius Hare and Connop Thirlwall of Trinity,
Cambridge. There were some who foresaw that the
same spirit would not ultimately be warned off from
the sacred territory. Milman's historical writings were
already giving proof of this, and Pusey, who had
himself at one time hoped much from such moderate
theologians as Tholuck and Neander, was beginning
to fear that the more recent visit to Germany of
Stanley and Jowett might bear such fruit as would
deepen the remorse he felt for his own former interest in
German theology. It is idle to suppose, because Jowett
had not yet published, and was therefore not openly
attacked, that he was not suspected. His complaint
in 1855, that men in private conversation would listen
with apparent assent to opinions which they were
ready to denounce when published, is enough to prove
that he had given some cause for suspicion. In his
lectures he was freely putting forth the interpretations
which were afterwards embodied in his writings. And
his letters to Stanley show quite clearly that as early as
1846 he was disturbed by accusations of heresy.
1 Life of E. B. Pusey, vol. iii. p. 335.
1850-1854] Salvin Building Practical Schemes 211
' What you say about does appear to be some reason for
telling people what you think. I have been very cautious
for the last two years past, so that has no reason for his
charges, except reports of my lectures which he gets from
and misrepresents. . . . He takes those things from and
distils them. . . . He talks about my atrocities, which, con-
sidering I have not spoken to him for the last two years on
these subjects, is rather cool : nor can I ever remember to have
held an "esoteric" conversation with him.'
That he had read Lessing and Schleiermacher, and
had studied Hegel, could not but be known to the
younger men, and less than this was enough to com-
promise a clerical reputation in the early fifties.
I have spoken of special calls on his attention which
interrupted his private study. Amongst these the duties
of the Bursarship, which he had undertaken in 1849, must
have occupied an important place. To the surprise of some
who then regarded him as a dreamy, speculative thinker,
he displayed administrative abilities of no common
order. Not only were the accounts kept with a lucidity
and precision which had not always been observed 1 ,
but the work of pulling down and rebuilding the north-
west angle of the College, known as the Caesar Building,
was now projected, and was carried out largely under his
superintendence. He stayed up in vacation time for this
purpose, and kept things going in spite of the obstructive
tactics of the Master, of which he writes to ffolliott :
' We have got a very beautiful plan, but that little fellow
of whom you must have heard many stories which ought to
have been true, all of them falling far short of the truth, makes
a stout resistance, and valiantly takes his stand upon his brew-
house, which he disputes our right to pull down.'
Jowett took a pride in making suggestions to the
architect, some of which were adopted. Other practical
1 W. G. Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 436.
P 2
212 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
schemes were already germinating, two of which, at
least, were ultimately realized.
First, that of a Balliol Hall for out-College students.
This, although mentioned by him in confidence to two
persons only, was a practical idea which he had very
warmly at heart for some time before the Report of
the Commission in 1852. He even indulged himself
in a fond vision of bringing Stanley back to Oxford
as the Head of such a Hall. A letter to Stanley on this
subject is of sufficient interest to be embodied here :
RUGBY, June 6, 1852.
I am going to trouble you with a scheme for University
Extension, ' cujus tu pars magna es.'
While other people are writing pamphlets and reports and
theorizing about ' caste,' and trying to meet on paper difficulties
that can only be got over in practice, might we not attempt
the thing itself?
I remember proposing it to you at Christmas : you did not
encourage it then and I would not like to annoy you by
pressing it again. But your taking part has struck me so
strongly since as likely to be for the great good of all and also
for your own good, that I hope you will consider the following
points, and if you feel hearty in the cause we may work
together in it.
i. I think it may be fairly urged against us University
reformers that we are unpractical. S can raise
and - - which fall to pieces again from his folly and Tracta-
rianism, and we who ' being the children of this world imagine
ourselves wiser than the children of light,' sit still and do
nothing. M will be deluging the Church of England with
his straight-coated buttonless clergy, and no one is ready to
show the same energy and self-denial in a better cause. As re-
ligious men I think we can give no account of our indifference
to such an opportunity. As University reformers we must
appear to the world rather as seeking to make an intellectual
aristocracy or, to express it more coarsely, to form good places
for ourselves out of the revenues of the Colleges, than earnest
1850-1854] Plan for a ' Balliol Hall J 213
about anything which the world in general cares for or which
can do any extensive good.
2. This appears to me true of all of us myself included
of course with the exception of Temple. Let me add a few
reasons why I would rather see you than any one else at the
head of such a move, (i) You have a far greater name and
distinction than any one else. (2) You have independent
means. (3) Such an attempt would come with especial good
grace from the Secretary of the Commission. (4) If, as
I should expect, we had a lower class of men at the proposed
Hall, I believe you would be one of the few persons who
would treat them and make others treat them with perfect
kindness and consideration. It is a blessed use to be able to
make of aristocratic birth and family.
I think, if in this way you could be connected with Oxford,
you would be brought back to us in the most honourable way,
and you would not only have deserved your Canonry as every-
body allows, but you would work for it. ...
The scheme is, shortly, a Hall attached to Balliol College
with intercommunion of Lectures ; Tuition to be free. Eoom
rent also free the total expense to be reduced (by common
meals, &c.) to the lowest point, say 50 a year. Of such a Hall
I should hope you might be induced to become Principal,
with Walrond perhaps for Vice-Principal. . . .
I should propose to begin by renting houses. The necessary
funds for furnishing them and paying the rent, and also for
salarying the Vice-Principal, might, I think, be easily raised
by subscription. I would endeavour to give 50 a year, and
I think we should have many warm supporters.
Suppose you were to make the application before going to
the East. I do not think it need interfere with your journey,
if you thought of entering on the plan. In your absence
Temple and myself and others might set the thing afloat to
commence a year hence.
I have not mentioned the matter to any one excepting
Shairp, and shall not do so until I hear from you.
The position I am anxious to see you take is not that of
a drudging College Tutor, but one quite consistent with
a Professorship and with the completion of our book, also one
214 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
which would not require residence of more than eighteen weeks
in the year, and one in which you would be perfectly independent
instead of being vexed as at University with & Co.
Ever yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
Some years afterwards (January, 1855) he wrote :
' I am sorry for the annoyance which that and similar
counsels of mine may have caused you. I should not care
about it with any one else, but I am aware that those sort of
things give you pain. No one's position is more justifiable
than yours : I only wish that we had some additional tie to
connect you with Oxford.
Twenty or thirty years of life and leisure with the power
of writing is a grand prospect, enough to make a man's heart
leap within him.'
It would seem that Stanley had been hurt by the
. implied reflection on his enjoyment of a clerical sinecure,
and that Jowett's heart smote him (after his own repulse
for the Mastership) for having ' made sad ' the mind of
his friend. But an earlier effect of that friend's refusal
to undertake the work so eagerly pressed on him, was to call
forth a long and elaborate letter on the Reform of Cathe-
dral Establishments, beginning 'How may Cathedral
Institutions be made to teem with life at every pore ? '
The second scheme above referred to was the acquisi-
tion of a convenient Cricket-field for the College. The
late Archdeacon Palmer wrote in 1894 :
' It may be of interest to record that some years before the
University purchased the land which now forms the University
Park, Jowett asked me to accompany him and Chitty (now
Lord Justice Chitty), who was then a Balliol undergraduate or
a new B.A., through the fields on the west side of the Cher-
well, in search of an eligible piece of ground for a Balliol
Cricket ground. We entered them near Holywell Church and
made our way northwards at least as far as the northern fence
of the park. Nothing came of this, but it may serve to show
1850-1854] The Old Master 215
how early Jowett had conceived the idea which was realized
in the establishment of the Balliol Eecreation Ground. This
search must have taken place in 1851 or 1852.'
The Public Examinership, which came to him in 1849,
and was renewed under the changed Statute in 1851,
compelled him to relinquish the Bursarship for a while.
This was another serious interruption to study ; although
the burden of the Examination was less heavy then than it
is now. Jowett felt the responsibility of reorganizing the
Final Examination in Classics, especially in the direction of
encouraging the study of Plato, the History of Philosophy,
and the illustration of Ancient Philosophy by Modern.
On March 6, 1854, the old Master died, and was
buried at Wells, of which he had held the Deanery
since 1845. He was one of those men whom, when
placed in authority, their juniors at once like, and
laugh at. In his reminiscences of Ward, Jowett has
given a vivid picture of his eccentric predecessor * :
'He was a gentleman of the old school, in whom were
represented old manners, old traditions, old prejudices ; a Tory
and a Churchman, high and dry, without much literature,
but having a good deal of character. He filled a great space
in the eyes of the undergraduates. " His young men," as
he termed them, speaking in an accent which we all remember,
were never tired of mimicking his voice, drawing his portrait,
and inventing stories about what he said and did. . . . His
sermon on the "Sin that doth so easily beset us," by which,
as he said in emphatic and almost acrid tones, he meant "the
habit of contracting debts," will never be forgotten by those
who heard it. Nor, indeed, have I ever seen a whole congrega-
tion dissolved in laughter for several minutes except on that
remarkable occasion. The ridiculousness of the effect was
heightened by the old-fashioned pronunciation of certain words,
such as "rayther," "wounded," (which he pronounced like
"wow" in "bow-wow"). ... It was sometimes doubted
1 W. G. Ward, fyc., p. 440 ff.
2i6 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
whether he was a wit or not ; I myself am strongly of opinion
that he was. . . . He was short of stature and very neat in
his appearance ; the deficiency of height was more than com-
pensated by a superfluity of magisterial or ecclesiastical dignity.
He was much respected, and his great services to the College
have always been acknowledged. But even now (1890), at the
distance of more than a generation, it is impossible to think of
him without some humorous or ludicrous association arising
in the mind.'
The ' old Master ' had served Balliol long and faith-
fully, and his loss was sincerely mourned. Jowett was
one of those who represented the College at his funeral.
The following reminiscences of Mr. "W. L. Newman,
the editor of Aristotle's Politics, who was a Scholar of
Balliol from 1851 to 1854, when he was elected to
a Fellowship, like Jowett, while still an undergraduate,
bear reference to the period now described :
'When I went into residence at Balliol in October, 1852, I
became one of Jowett's pupils. He then occupied rooms in the
Fisher Building, which have since undergone alterations. The
outer and larger of the two sitting-rooms has been parted from
the inner one, and has been assigned to another set of rooms.
Jowett used his outer sitting-room for many of his lectures, till
on the completion of the Salvin Building he moved them all
to the upper Lecture Room there. The inner sitting-room, under
the window of which the well-known inscription " Verbum non
amplius Fisher 'is still to be seen he used as his living-room,
and for seeing his pupils. I well recollect one or two of the
engravings which hung on the walls in the outer room an en-
graved portrait of Niebuhr, the face of which always had a
charm for me, and in the inner one an engraving of Sir Joshua
Reynolds' "Age of Innocence," which also delighted me 1 .
'Jowett himself, though only thirty-five, was already grey-haired,
and he was altogether much more unlike other people than he
1 There was also an engraving letters, and the title was written
of the companion picture of 'Sim- on the under margin in Jowett's
plicity.' It was a proof before hand. L. C.
1850-1854] IV. L. Newman's Reminiscences 217
became in after years. I despair of conveying to any one who
did not know him then anything like an exact idea of what he
was. He left on me a stronger impression of genius at that time
of his life than at any other. Moments of musing and abstrac-
tion were allied in him with a singular alertness and rapidity of
mind, meditative power went hand in hand with keen insight.
' I well remember his ways. When one took him composition,
he used commonly to seat himself in a chair placed immediately
in front of the fire and close to it, and to intersperse his abrupt,
decided and pithy comments on one's work with vigorous pokes
of the fire. Occasionally he would lapse into silence, and say
nothing whatever perhaps for two or three minutes ; but,
if one rose to go, one often found that his best remarks still
remained to be uttered. The silent interval had been a time of
busy thought. The same thing sometimes happened on the
walks which he often took me ; I remember one day when we
walked for some miles in the Cumnor direction side by side with-
out exchanging a word ; then I said something which caught his
attention, and roused him, and for the rest of the way we talked
eagerly and without intermission. He always had a dislike for
small-talk and trivialities, and never talked unless he had some-
thing to say. I have heard of his excusing his silence and saying :
"If I say nothing, it is not because I am out of temper, but because
I have nothing to say." His occasional abstraction or apparent
abstraction now and then accompanied by the half-unconscious
" crooning " in a low voice of a kind of tune never disguised to
those who knew him his real alertness or the keen watchfulness
of his interest in his pupils. In later days all this passed away,
not altogether unregretted by some of us. The intervals of
silence also became rarer ; I remember a half-jocose remark
of Pattison's about him towards the end of the sixties, "Now
there's affability."
' I liked his abrupt and peremptory, yet always serene and
kindly ways. " I want you to do this or that," he would say,
poker in hand. He was good as a critic of composition, and
especially as a critic of Latin prose. He had a quick instinct
for what was Ciceronian and what was not, perhaps rather in
connexion with the flow of the sentence than in matters of
diction. He never gave me fair copies, an omission which I often
2i8 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
regretted ; I do not know whether he ever gave them. He
certainly did not spoil his pupils. He was most kind to them,
but he expected them to work hard, and he set them the example
himself. I have often taken composition to him at half-past
twelve at night. He was, in the days when I was his pupil,
rather severe as a critic of his pupils' work. I have been told
on good authority that in earlier days than mine he always had
high praise for Eiddell's composition, but for that of hardly any
one else. As to Eiddell he was unquestionably right. No
doubt his strict criticism was a wholesome discipline for us. One
of his many useful remarks has remained in my memory ; there
is nothing, perhaps, particularly new about it. He used to say
that in good English writing he illustrated his remark by the
practice of Macaulay one sentence always leads on to the next.
' College lectures were in those days smaller and more conver-
sational than they have since become, and much of the hour they
occupied was spent in listening to construing. I remember two
lectures of Jowett's in my first Term, if I do not mistake
(Michaelmas Term, 1852), one an elementary lecture, at which
we used to sit round a table in the Hall with Jowett at the head,
and pull to pieces the fallacious arguments collected for that
purpose at the end of Whately's Logic, and another on the
Agamemnon of Aeschylus. Jowett was little given to enthu-
siastic comments on what we read, but I think I recollect that
he dropped half a dozen emphatic words at the end of one lecture,
to the effect that the scene with Cassandra was the finest in any
tragedy. Later on I attended his lectures on Plato's Republic,
in connexion with which I specially recall the grace and felicity
of a kind of paraphrastic analysis (if I remember right), portions
of which he used to read to us, and also an excellent lecture on
Political Economy, in which he often broke off his remarks to
address questions to some of us which occasionally led to an
argument or even a discussion. One or two of my contempo-
raries were very useful to the rest of us on these occasions.
' Jowett's lectures were not in my experience of much direct
use for the examination Schools, they were hardly systematic
enough for that but they showed us how to state and handle
questions, and, as Green * once said to me, they " gave one
1 Professor T. H. Green.
1850-1854] W. L. Newman's Reminiscences 219
glimpses. " In those days the University was not as much in the
grasp of its examination system as it has since come to be ; we
kept the Schools in view, but they were not the Alpha and Omega
of our reading as undergraduates. Jowett's lectures were very
useful to me ; I found them a welcome addition to the teaching
of others and to the books which one read for examination or
otherwise.
' But I think that his conversation was even more useful. He
often took his pupils for walks and invited them to breakfast,
and I am sure that I learnt much from this familiar intercourse
with him. In those days he was quite unconventional, and his
occasional intervals of silence may have been baffling and dis-
appointing to some, but no conversation was more stimulating to
thought than his. It did not stimulate to research or to learned
inquiry, but to thought. The value of a conversation with him
arose partly from the fact that he listened as well as talked, and
often made one's own remarks the starting-point of what he said.
Indeed it was frequently necessary for his companion to set the
conversation going ; I think he rather liked those who were
useful in that way ; I remember his saying once how much he
appreciated the company of a friend, " he starts so many hares."
The remark which gave the first impulse to the conversation was
commonly of little value in itself, but it elicited comments and
additions from him which were of the greatest value. His
quick apprehension and ready sympathy were encouraging ; one
felt sure that if there was anything whatever in what one had to
say, more than justice would be done to it. He was himself quite
candid and very ready in comment, and one learnt much from
the pithy sense and subtle insight which were never lacking in
what he said. He was at his best when some observation threw
him into a momentary reverie ; he would be silent for a minute
or two, and then would say something which went to the heart
of the matter. His strength lay especially in quick perception
quick perception of fact, quick perception of character, quick
perception of the best thing to be done. His insight into
character was very keen and was aided by his ready imaginative
sympathy. No one was more alive than he was to the subtle
mingling of good and bad in human nature, to the frequent com-
bination in it of characteristics apparently opposite and incom-
220 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
patible. As Sir A. Grant, one of his earliest and most attached
pupils, once observed to me, his talk was less remarkable for
knowledge than for thoughtfulness.
' Nothing, however, in his relation to his pupils pleases me
more in retrospect than the fatherly vigilance with which he
watched over able but unsteady young men. He was untiring
in his efforts to keep them straight, and when he failed in this,
to set them on their feet again. He cared for them as few
fathers care for unsteady sons, saving them from themselves and
persevering in the face of disappointment.'
LETTERS, 1850-1853.
To A. P. STANLEY.
August 22, 1850.
This is dated Oban, though I am really at Duntroon,
spending a day with the Bishop. His powers of entertainment
are as good as ever indeed, he is at times quite mad with fun.
I have left off assisting in the affairs of the Scotch Episcopal
Church, which he does best in his own peculiar fashion.
I work with my pupils of an evening, and for an hour in the
morning. The sermons make some progress. I still find
ghostly comfort in reading Plato and Hegel and Bacon, after
Mauricianism, Niebuhrism, Bunsenism, &c., have departed, and
the shades of German divines begin to vanish. Many thanks
for your account of Neander. I wish he had lived to finish his
history. Yet it is not the Church History how different in
command of his subject when compared with Gibbon ! It is
uninteresting and uncritical, and yet too critical to retain
a religious or devotional interest.
To A. P. STANLEY.
OBAN, September 9, 1850.
Manning and Co. have issued a circular to the Clergy
to the effect that they never intended by taking the Oath of
Supremacy to imply that the Queen could decide spiritual
questions ; and requesting to know the opinions of others.
The whole question is getting to a very false position. Five
Letters, 1850-1853 221
years hence let us imagine the possible issues, i. A free
Church with spires reaching to heaven, deriving its succession
from H. Exeter or S. Oxon., or haply from a poor Scottish
sister, ornamented with the bust of St. Barnabas, and with
the virtues of Bennett, Manning, Wilberforce ; having as many
priests as people, with clerical Colleges for the study of the
schoolmen, like the primitive Church in every respect but one,
that it preaches to the rich.
2. Bennett, Manning, Wilberforce are already Romanists,
preaching 'extra Ecclesiam nulla salus,' winding themselves in
and out of society, pulling hard at the pockets of the aristocracy,
and also at the opinions of the clergy, upon whom they will make
a much greater impression than Newman did, whose influence
decreased as he was better understood. Notwithstanding, the
huge creature goes on its way for a time apparently uninjured.
3. The last act of the history of the Church of England.
Convocation has met : they are revising the liturgy : the
Bishop of Oxford is addressing them : by a final vote they are
going to settle who is to keep possession of the Establishment.
What a system of terrorism it is with people about 'Re-
generation ' ! Twenty years ago no bishop or clergyman
would have hesitated to take it in a non-natural sense : now
every one seems 'mum' for fear of the letter of the law.
Formerly the High Churchman was the black sheep.
FKOM MRS. JOWETT TO HER SON ALFRED, IN INDIA.
April, 1851.
It is a great pleasure to hear from you, dearest Alfred, you
are such a comfort to us. Benjamin often speaks of it. He is
such a great fag at College, we seldom hear from him ; for he
says, though he thinks of us often, when he is so tired, he
cannot settle his mind to write, so you must not wonder if
he does so to you. I can truly assure you it does not arise from
forgetfulness or want of affection. I hope you have reached
safely your destined station and that you like it ; the most
minute details in your letters are acceptable ; what would be
nothing to a stranger is everything to us. I have passed
a better winter than usual, and am quite as strong as I can
expect to be for sixty years old. In my next I shall have some-
222 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VII
thing to tell you ; little or much, I must write. I wish I had
done so oftener to others *. Emily says I must send the letter.
To W. Y. SELLAK.
BALLIOL, October 26, 1851.
Grant told me that you wished to hear from me. Indeed,
my dear fellow, I wish I could say anything to comfort you.
I do not doubt that it is well with your father after his long
and honourable life. There is another world too, in which he
will be as happy as in this, though we are unable altogether
to conceive its nature. ' The souls of the righteous are in the
hand of God, and there shall no evil touch them.' I think
we cannot help turning to ourselves as we see the dying, and
asking what lesson the sight of them conveys to ourselves.
Can it be anything but this, that we should find our true
comfort in leading a higher life, such a life as makes death
and life indifferent to us and raises us into communion with
them ? They leave us alone, and yet the world is not lonely
if we look upon it as the scene in which duties are to be
performed and work to be done, ere after another generation
we follow them to rest in peace. I hope you will feel it to be
a duty you owe to your father to nerve yourself for your
new post. Could he live to see it, there is nothing that
would give him so much pleasure as your success in it. I was
very much struck more than a year ago with what your father
told Harvey, ' that he had lain awake at night thinking of your
illness, because he fancied that he had encouraged you to
overwork at Glasgow.' You only need a small portion of his
energy and decision of character to give you success in life.
To F. T. PALGEAVE.
[LUFFENHAM], June 8, 1852.
Many thanks for your long letter, which I was very glad to get.
I am on the way to Durham and lingering for a day at Scott's.
I am sorry of course not to agree with Temple and Lingen
and you respecting Gladstone, and really feel half inclined to
sign. But though not of very much importance I think it would
be a mistake. We should obtrude ourselves on the public and
1 William Jowett had died in the previous year.
Letters, 1850-1853 223
show our weakness in numbers. I don't at present intend to
vote for Gladstone, because not agreeing with him either about
University reform or Church and State. Also I feel a strong
dislike to that over-conscientiousness of his, which, instead of
walking in the great highway of political truth and honesty,
is always winding round to his own interest and coming out at
odd places where nobody expects him. Were it not for this
I think him a noble fellow : at present he is too good to be
trusted. I dare say, however, that Temple is right in seeking
to tie him up with the coil of his own tail.
I have been thinking for some time past of a Balliol Hall
and University Extension. At present it has only been men-
tioned to one person. If anything can be made of it I will
write to you and Temple and tell you, but it is difficult to
manage, as some of the Fellows and the Master would oppose
it, and others only desire to carry it out on a Puseyite model.
Meantime don't mention it, please.
... I am sorry, very sorry, to hear of Lady Palgrave's sad
state. When I saw her she used to strike me as a wonder of
patience and cheerfulness and thoughtfulness for others amid
her own great sufferings. Remember me most kindly to her.
I thought last time I had sent the last message there would be
an opportunity of sending may she be spared to you yet
for long.
Scott's children for the last half-hour have been trying to
make me come out for a walk, and as their patience is now
exhausted I must conclude l .
To F. T. PALGBAVE.
CANTERBURY, August n, 1852.
Many thanks for your note. I am very sorry to hear that
one for whom I had so much regard is gone.
The last time I saw her was about a year ago. She was as
cheerful and pleasing in conversation, and as much interested
about others, as if she had been in health. I remember her
repeating several passages of Wordsworth. She said that she
1 Scott was now at Luffenham, rectory in 1850. He had married
having exchanged Duloe for this again in 1849.
224 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vn
wished to tell me, as I was a friend of yours, what a comfort
you had been to her in her illness. She also mentioned the
pleasure it had given her to be able to continue writing your
father's history.
I cannot think any death otherwise than happy in which
the mind so completely triumphs over suffering. I do not
doubt that she is with God, and that all this has not passed
away, though what this means I cannot tell. I do not wish
for any other end than hers, notwithstanding the pain she
must have endured.
Do not think that there is a blank or solitude because she
has departed. There are many pleasant memories of the dead
come back upon us if we keep them daily in the mind's eye.
They seem to urge us onward to do something in life before
the end which is so near.
To R T. PALGRAVE.
BALLIOL, December 13, 1852.
It is very good of you and Temple to want me to come to
Kneller for Christmas ; at present my face is set in another
direction, to Malvern ; like Gabriel Grubb I am going to dig
while others are making merry.
Owing to a great many interruptions my work has not pros-
pered this Term. I am anxious to get one volume completely
finished before the Schools begin.
It often strikes me as a doubt (independent of defects in the
execution) whether the book will not be too heterodox for the
orthodox to read, and too orthodox for the heterodox. If
the world is divisible into these two classes I see not where the
readers are to be found. . . .
When is your article coming out ? I hope you and Temple
rejoice with us in the Class List '.
PS. Don't think I am indifferent to your kindness. The
only reason you have for calling me a Don is that I won't smoke
and talk aesthetics in the tower 2 , and don't like to hear people,
especially my friends, run down.
1 Balliol had four Classical Firsts Kneller Hall, which was used as
in the list for Michaelmas, 1852. a smoking-room by the subordi-
J A room in the tower at nates.
Letters, 1850-1853 225
To MBS. GrREENHILL.
WEST MALVERN, New Year's Day, 1853.
... I am here alone at this place, and have had no one to
speak to for a fortnight. It is not unfavourable to composition.
Fortunately I am two miles from the Water Cures, and therefore
have no temptation to dilute my intellects in that way. But
when I think upon how many merry parties and Christmas
children dancing round trees and playing at flap-dragon there
have been, I fear I am a fool for my pains, and feel like
Charles Lamb bursting into tears when he gave away his aunt's
nice cake to a worthless beggar in the streets.
Give my love to Kate, and tell her to learn more songs, and
to paste up the enclosed piece of red paper in her bedroom as
a remembrance of me. It is a New Year's Gift.
Remember me most kindly to Dr. Greenhill. I hope his
practice flourishes and increases. There is nothing I desire so
much as to see him a rich man. Don't let him go to church
on week-days too often, for no one will imagine that he has
a large practice if he does, and no one would go to Esculapius
himself unless they thought he had a large practice. I should
not object to Dr. Greenhill being called out of church every
Sunday morning by a flunkey, but I know his high principles
would revolt at this.
I hear of Stanley from Marseilles and Alexandria ; he is
enchanted, as might be expected, with Eastern life, and seems
quite bounding with delight. His mother and sister came back
a few days ago.
Oxford, you see, is bustling with two elections. I hear
Gladstone is to be opposed by the Marquis of Chandos.
I always thought his election for Oxford would end like
Peel's. He will go through one more ' conscientious ' betrayal
of his friends, one more 'conscientious' resignation of office.
What a pity it is that the most religious and in many ways
high-principled man in the House of Commons should have
got himself with all mankind the character of being the
least straightforward !
VOL. I. Q
CHAPTER VIII
THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. THE PROFESSORSHIP OF
GREEK. 1854-1860
(Aet. 36-43)
POSITION in Oxford and elsewhere Repulse for the Mastership
Epistles of St. Paul Greek Professorship Vice-Chancellor Cotton
Endowment withheld Work of the Chair Isolation Death of his
brother Alfred and of his father Second edition of the Epistles
Portrait by G. Richmond W. L. Newman's reminiscences (continued).
A MONGr the ' stately homes,' where Jowett had now
**"*- become a welcome guest l , was Ockham Park,
Surrey, the seat of Dr. Stephen Lushington, Judge
of the High Court of Admiralty, whose son Godfrey had
lately passed from Rugby to Balliol. It was several
years after this that Dr. Lushington became Dean of the
Court of Arches, and thus had jurisdiction in ecclesiastical
causes. No shadow of events to come fell between the
elderly lawyer and the young divine. He was also
a visitor in Dr. Lushington's house in London. Here,
amongst other interesting persons, he met Brunei, the
engineer, then engaged in the construction of the Great
Eastern. Jowett had always been an admirer of the
Thames Tunnel and the Great "Western Railway, and
this meeting must have been a delight to him 2 . He
1 e. g. The Limes, Hurstmon- tion with Brunei that he was first
ceux, Broome Park (Sir Benjamin struck with the idea which so long
Brodie's), &c. haunted him, that of draining the
1 It may have been in conversa- Thames valley so as to improve
Relation to Contemporaries 227
delighted also in the ripe and varied experience of his
host, who had vivid recollections of the state of England
at the beginning of the century. Dr. Lushington, when
in Parliament, had advocated the abolition of capital
punishment, and used to describe the feelings of the
peasantry in the home counties, who, when a relative
went up to London, regarded him as literally doomed
to the gallows. Jowett often repeated this. To the
young people at Ockham, their father's guest appeared
as a mild and amiable cleric, in whom they saw no
promise of great things to come.
Hitherto Jowett's relations to those about him had been
almost uniformly friendly. Some may have thought him
opinionated, but there is no trace of any actual discord.
He goes to visit Scott in his country parish, and does
duty for him when he is ' blind and solitary,' relinquish-
ing pleasant plans for this purpose ; he stays with him
again under altered circumstances, rejoicing in his new
prospects, and the children insist on his coming out
to walk with them. He looks up Lake, when on the
Continent and out of health, as if they had not enough
of one another in Term-time ; reads Trench's Hulsean
Lectures aloud to him with frank comments l , and works
in his favour when a candidate for the Head Mastership
of Rugby in 1849. He presses Henry Wall's claims
the climate of Oxford. Some repeated in a letter to Stanley :
years afterwards he told a party ' Is there one theological writer
of guests that a great opportunity of the present day who can be
had been lost in making the said to be morally and intel-
G.W.R., when this had been part lectually truthful ? And if so,
of the great engineer's original the mournful fact forces itself
plan, but had been opposed by upon one that there is no elder
the Heads of Houses, with two person in whose footsteps one can
exceptions Wynter of St. John's, tread, however little or nothing
and Harrington of Brasenose. it is possible for us to do.'
1 The substance of these is (1846.)
Q 2
228 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
for the Registrarship of the University. To Lonsdale he
gives unstinted help and sympathy. His friendship with
Stanley is the closest possible ; with Temple he is on an
intimate and affectionate footing, and when his friend
goes to London and engages in practical work, urges
upon Lingen the advisability of procuring for him
a higher salary. He is pressing forward every man's
interest except his own. When he goes with the
Lingens to see a review of the troops at Chobham,
they meet Bishop "Wilberforce, who is on horseback,
while they are on foot. He greets them cheerfully, with
a jesting remark on the Church Militant.
In London the Oxford Tutor is respected and esteemed
by public men, such as Macaulay, and he is a contributor
to Dr. "William Smith's Dictionaries of Antiquities and
of Classical Biography, in which the first scholars of
the country took part from 1842 to 1849. On the whole
he is swimming with the stream 1 . But a time was
approaching when these waters were to be troubled, and
his powers as a ' strong swimmer ' would be put to the
test.
After the death of the old Master, Jowett seems for
a time to have looked upon the succession to the vacant
office as an open question, in which he had no immediate
concern. A letter of his to James Lonsdale in which
he tries to rouse his friend's dormant ambition by saying,
' Perhaps you may be our new Master ; who knows ?
It would be a great happiness to me if you are 2 ' is
sufficient evidence of this. But in the course of a few
weeks, he found enough of favour amongst his colleagues
1 Lord Lingen says (1895) : ' Up its light over his presence among
to 1855, his life was one of growing his friends.'
honour and success, which shed * Life of James Lonsdale, p. 45.
1854-1860] The Mastership missed 229
to awaken bis own hopes. Nearly half of the Balliol
Fellows, by this time, had been his pupils, and the
self-devoted labour of twelve years and more had had its
effect. It was largely recognized that no College Tutor
had worked so well. And it became apparent that, of the
residents, he had the strongest chance. This is proved
by the fact that his opponents adopted the expedient
of bringing up a candidate from the country. Robert
Scott had taken a College living, Duloe near Liskeard,
in Cornwall, in 1840, before Jowett's work as a Tutor
had begun, and in 1850 had exchanged this for Luffen-
ham, in Rutlandshire. He was an accomplished scholar,
and his lectures had been valuable (this Jowett himself
had found), but he could not be described as a ' great
Tutor/ and his one distinguished service, namely, his
share in the production of Liddell and Scott's Lexicon,
did not clearly mark him out as fitted for the control and
guidance of younger men. But he was orthodox ; and
the opposition to Jowett, of which the strength was
proved by the event, found in him the most likely card
to play. Not that the objections taken to Jowett were
wholly theological. There were those who resented
the firmness of his attitude in College controversies,
and did not choose to place him in authority. The
parties were nearly balanced, and all depended on one
or two waverers, who on general grounds were thought
likely to be on Jowett's side. It is not necessary to
mention names ; but two votes, on which Jowett had
counted, went the other way. One of these may have
been influenced by family associations. The other, who
really turned the scale, was said to have been talked over,
at the last moment, on theological grounds, by a disciple
and friend of Dr. Pusey.
The bitterness of the repulse was aggravated by the
230 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vm
reasonable confidence of success which had preceded
it. That Jowett resented it long and deeply, although
silently, there is no reason to doubt. His feeling on
the subject appears not only from his letters to Pal-
grave of April 7, 1854 1 , and to Stanley on April 12,
but also from the sympathy which he afterwards ex-
pressed in writing to a friend who had met with a
similar disappointment. The language then used appeared
exaggerated, but revealed what had passed in his own
mind many years before. In later life, however, he felt
that this rude check had not been wholly a misfortune.
He said to a friend on one occasion, ' I should not have
been fit for the Mastership then. I did not know enough
of the world.' Severely as he felt the blow, it produced
on him a very different effect from that which a similar
rejection had upon Mark Pattison. Instead of para-
lyzing his energies, it roused him to renewed efforts. He
went straight from Oxford to the Vaughans' at Harrow,
where he remained six weeks, and devoted himself to the
work of finishing his book ; and on returning to College
in the summer, he threw himself more than ever into
his labours for the undergraduates. .He again became
Junior Bursar, the Senior Bursarship being retained by
H. Wall. While keenly resenting his defeat, he was
sensitive to every breath of sympathy. ' It gave me real
pleasure to-day to hear that Johnson the Observer had
said that "he did not agree with me in opinions, but
that there was no one whom he would sooner have
seen Master of Balliol." '
In June, 1854, he went for a short walking tour in
Derbyshire with F. Temple, who was still Principal of
Kneller Hall. Temple wrote to F. T. Palgrave, July i,
,854:-
1 P- 277-
1854-1860] A Vacation Ramble 231
' We walked up the Derwent and down the Dove, and managed
to make out a veiy pleasant tour . . . discoursed of every con-
ceivable subject; sometimes "making picture-galleries of our
friends " ; sometimes settling the destinies of the University ;
sometimes examining the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles ;
most often, I think, comparing the scenery with other that we
had seen, or trying to recollect all that books of any sort had
said about it. The Philosopher has only two faults ; he walks
too slow and too unevenly, and he prefers tea or even ginger-beer
and biscuits to more generous meat and drink.'
He must have frequently visited London as a member
of Macaulay's Committee, referred to on p. 186.
In the autumn, a majority of the College, headed by
the Master, passed a by-law requiring every Scholar
to declare himself a member of the Church of England.
This attempt to violate the spirit of the new Statute
was vetoed by the Visitor, to Jowett's great relief.
Two other matters may be mentioned here. His friend
Brodie was repeatedly in difficulty about the subscription
to the Articles which was still required for the M.A.
degree. He wished to obtain leave to have recourse to
an obsolete process of 'incorporation,' and so to obtain
the degree without subscription. Jowett clearly saw this
to be impracticable. His advice to Brodie is marked by
a singular union of calm moderation with serious appre-
hension of the gravity of the position :
' I think you will rouse the " Odium Theologicum " without
any grounds to justify you in the eyes of the public. ... I
cannot see any reason to suppose that this process of incorpora-
tion was intended in the case of members of the University to
relieve men from any of the forms gone through at the time of
taking the degree : but only from the residence and exercises
at that time required for a superior degree : . . . much as I wish
that you should come here, and dislike subscriptions of this
sort, I could not think the Vice-Chancellor wrong for inter-
posing his veto.'
232 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
He was also consulted by Dr. Bagot, Bishop of Bath
and Wells (and formerly of Oxford), on the legal intricacies
of the famous Denison case 1 . Through Stanley's intro-
duction he stayed with the Bishop (who had ordained
him Deacon) at Wells, from whence he wrote to Stanley:
' There is more difficulty in the Denison case than I thought,
owing to the wretched state of the law. It appears to be really
doubtful whether the Archbishop has any option to refuse
Ditcher : there is little or no doubt that the Bishop lias under
the peculiar circumstances of George Anthony Denison's living.
But this is merely an accidental power, which the law could
hardly have intended to give.'
Thus matters proceeded in an even tenor, though not
without discouragement, until the appearance of the book
on St. Paul early in June, 1855 2 . He had been consulting
Stanley, as far as he found it possible, until the last,
showing no small solicitude even about the form of the
page. In a letter written in the summer of 1854, he
defends an interpretation which Stanley had questioned,
and asks for reflections on eight different points:
i. Scepticism. 2. Christian Society. 3. Interpretation
of Scripture. 4. Greek of the New Testament. 5. Con-
troversy. 6. Observance of the Sabbath. 7. Prayer.
8. On a future life. To this he adds : ' On the last subject
I am most anxious. One cannot but have a solemn
feeling in endeavouring to handle it. What between
figures of speech and idealism, and the contrast between
the universal acceptance of it in words, and the common
indifference to it in fact, and the interest of it to us all
1 Ditcher v. Denison ; see by Benjamin Jowett, M.A., Fellow
Brodrickand Fremantle's.E'ccJm- and Tutor of Balliol College,
OKtical Judgments, p. 156. Oxford. In two volumes. Lon-
2 The Epistles of St. Paul to the don : John Murray, Albemarle
Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, Street, 1855.
with critical notes and dissertations:
1854-1860] Odium Theologicum 233
as we get older, it seems to me the most important
and most difficult of all theological questions.'
As has been told elsewhere *, his two volumes and
Stanley's on the Corinthians appeared on the same day.
A common spirit was perceptible in both works, but
Jowetf s Essays went far more deeply into the heart
of theological questions. This was felt immediately by
friends and foes. Stanley's book, though it soon came
to a second edition, was comparatively little noticed,
while that of Jowett at once became the centre of
animated discussion 2 . The literary excellence of some
parts was highly praised, especially the Essay on Natural
Religion, and the Fragment on the Character of St. Paul.
This last inspired an ideal work of Woolner's, a repro-
duction of which, presented to Jowett by Palgrave, is
the subject of an interesting letter of October 24, 1858 3 .
Very different was the fortune of the book in theo-
logical circles. Grant truly apprehended the situation
when he spoke of the work as c a miracle of boldness.'
Religious prejudice was especially aroused by the Essay
on the Atonement, in which the moral objections to the
popular Evangelical doctrine were stated with a passion-
ate vehemence, that broke through the habitual serenity
1 In my Preface to the third to find a further explanation in
edition of St. PauFs Epistles, fyc. the characteristics of the men.
2 Lord Lingen writes (Decem- Both were fearless, honest, well
ber, 1895) : ' It is an interesting informed of their subject, and
subject of inquiry why the re- of commanding address ; but
ligious outcry was so much louder Stanley was, perhaps by tempera-
against Jowett than against Stan- ment, Roman rather than Greek,
ley, whose published opinions Ciceronian rather than Socratic.
were not very different. One The Master, like Socrates, asks
reason, said to be given by Stanley provoking and unexpected ques-
himself, was " because my name tions, which are easier to resent
is Stanley." There may be some- than to answer.'
thing in that. But I am disposed 3 p. 286.
234 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
of the style. As the first edition has long been out of
print, a few sentences may here be quoted :
'No difference between God and Man can be a reason for
regarding God as less just or less true than the being whom
He has made. He is only incomprehensible to us because He
is infinitely more so.
' It might seem at first sight no hard matter to prove that God
was just and true. It might seem as if the suggestion of the
opposite needed no other answer than the exclamation of the
Apostle, "God forbid, for how shall God judge the world?"
But the perplexities of the doctrine of the Atonement are the
growth of above a thousand years ; rooted in language, disguised
in figures of speech, fortified by logic, they seem almost to have
become a part of the human mind itself. . . . One cannot but
fear whether it be still possible so to teach Christ as not to cast
a shadow on the holiness and truth of God. Whether the
wheat and the tares have not grown so long together that
the husbandmen, in pulling up the one, may be plucking up the
other also.'
Then, after a statement of the doctrine of human
guilt, as commonly expounded, he continues :
' Were we to stop here, every honest and good heart would
break in upon these sophistries, and dash in pieces the pre-
tended freedom and the imputed sin of mankind, as well as the
pretended justification of the Divine attributes, in the state-
ment that man necessarily or naturally brought everlasting
punishment on himself. No slave's mind was ever reduced
so low as to justify the most disproportionate severity inflicted
on himself : neither has God so made His creatures that they
will lie down and die, even beneath the hand of Him who
gave them life. '
He then states the doctrine of vicarious satisfaction,
which he criticizes with equal warmth, and adds :
' We are trespassing on holy ground. There will be many
who say it is good to adore in silence a mystery that we can
never understand. But there are " idols of the temple," as well
1854-1860] Essay on the Atonement 235
as idols of the market-place. These idols consist in human
reasonings and definitions which are erected into Articles of
Faith. We are willing to adore in silence, but not the inventions
of man. The controversialist naturally thinks that in assailing
the doctrine of satisfaction as inconsistent with truth and
morality, we are fighting not with himself, but with God.'
These passages are quoted, not as fair samples of the
Essay, which, like every part of Jowett's book, is full
of spiritual thought and far-sighted suggestion, but as
helping to explain the acrimony of the assaults which
followed. There was no mistaking what this man
meant. He was one to reckon with, and could not be
safely ignored. In some quarters, however, the work was
being estimated on its merits. The Chevalier Bunsen
had been recalled from the Prussian Embassy in London,
and was residing in the neighbourhood of Heidelberg,
where his house, which he had named Charlottenburg,
was hospitably open to English visitors. One of these,
a pupil of Jowett's, had the privilege of introducing the
volumes to the Chevalier, whose own copy had not yet
arrived. He remarked emphatically, ' Das Buch muss
seinen Weg machen ' : but added that he had heard
incidentally that the Archbishop of Canterbury (' though
otherwise pleased,' as he diplomatically phrased it) had
his doubts about the Essay on the Atonement. Partly
fired by Bunsen's encouragement, the young Oxonian
wrote a review of the book, which Henry de Bunsen
recommended to the Times, through a friendly channel
The article was printed, but not published, having been
crossed by counter-influences, which are thus charac-
terized in a letter of Stanley's to Jowett, referring
to Dr. Lightfoot's able review in the Journal of Classical
and Sacred Philology (vol. iii. pp. 81-121) of March,
1856:
236 Life of Benjamin Jozvett [CHAP.VIII
' I must say I was pleased, more pleased with the good he said
of you than displeased with the evil he said of myself ; and in a
man of his turn of mind, I think it specially creditable not to
have been deterred from saying this much by the popular clamour
which has hounded on the Conybeares, Goulburns, or Wilber-
forces, and has muzzled the North British, the Edinburgh^ and
the Times 1 .'
As late as September 24, 1855, Jowett was fully
possessed with the idea of continuing his work on
St. Paul. He then wrote to Stanley :
' I propose in a few days commencing regularly with the
Ephesians and Colossians, and think with health I might get
them out by this time next year. When you see Murray, will
you sound him about it ? If he likes, it may be advertised at
once as preparing. Are you of the same mind touching the
Philippians and Philemon? If you are, I shall be glad; if
not, I shall try them myself. What do you propose for what
you once called the final work of life ? '
The Regius Professorship of Greek had been vacated
by the death of Dean Gaisford in June, 1855, and Jowett
was singled out by Lord Palmerston's Government for
the appointment, which was made before the end of
the vacation. His reputation as a College Tutor and
University Reformer, and his public services in the cause
of higher education generally, may have naturally
drawn attention to him, and the first impression produced
by his book on competent judges had confirmed the
opinion of his exceptional erudition. There can be no
doubt that Stanley, now a Canon of Canterbury, with
whom Jowett stayed in the beginning of 1855, exerted
1 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i. St. Paul and Modern Thought.
p. 476. It must suffice here to This pamphlet and Dr. Light-
refer in a note to the candid and foot's article formed marked ex-
able critique of Mr. J. Llewellyn ceptions to the general run of
Davies in his pamphlet entitled comment.
FACSIMILE OF EARLY HANDWRITING (1855)
'
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sJr o
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* * * * * *
1854-1860] Professorship of Greek 237
much influence on his friend's behalf, and H. G. Liddell,
Gaisford's destined successor in the Deanery, to whom
in point of fact the Chair was in the first instance offered,
was also believed by Jowett to have given him valuable
support l .
Most fortunately the appointment had been made and
confirmed before the 'cross influences' had had time to
work ; and the announcement greeted us at the com-
mencement of the October Term. Jowett said at the
time, that he preferred this to any other Professorship
' except one of Theology.' The impossibility of this latter
aspiration was soon to be made manifest.
In a previous chapter it has been seen that the action
of the young Oxford Liberals in 1845, and of Jowett
amongst them, in opposing the institution of a new
test, was regarded by Dean Church, who was the Junior
Proctor on that occasion, as 'a very generous as well
as wise action on their part V
In the measure now meted out to Jowett, there was
not much generosity, though there may have been
something of ' the wisdom of the Serpent.' The Vice-
Chancellor at this time was Dr. Pusey's brother-in-law,
E. L. Cotton, D.D., the Provost of Worcester, a dry little
1 The following is Dean Lid- of each. In the end he recom-
dell's own account (1895): 'The mended Jowett to Her Majesty,
death of Dean Gaisford left the and he was appointed.' Amongst
Professorship of Greek vacant. the names under the consideration
Lord Palmerston, who was then of Lord Palmerston were Charles
Prime Minister, offered to re- Newton (afterwards Sir Charles
commend me for the place. I Newton) and Robert Scott, co-
declined it for reasons that it editor of the Lexicon and Master
is needless to specify. He asked of Balliol. Newton could not
me to furnish him with names of have afforded to take it, and it
scholars whom I thought com- was thought better not to appoint
petent to fill the office. I gave the Head of a House,
him several names with my 2 p. 96.
opinions upon the qualifications
238 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
wizened man, whose notions of theological ' soundness '
were undoubtedly strict, but would hardly have moved
him to act thus of his own accord 1 . The real actor was
said to be the Rev. C. P. Golightly, with Dr. Pusey and
Bishop Wilberforce in the background. Mr. Golightly,
whom some witty Newmanite had re-christened ' Agag/
was a local clergyman, of Evangelical principles and
restless activity, whose betes-noires, of about equal black-
ness to him, were Newmanism and Germanism. He had
raised the storm against Tract XC 2 , and it was he who
now stirred up this trouble. Acting upon a section in
the University Statutes 3 , dating from a time when the
term Fides Catholica included dogmas which the Thirty-
nine Articles explicitly condemn, two members of Con-
vocation, J. D. Macbride 4 and C. P. Golightly, denounced
Jowett to the Vice-Chancellor as having denied the
Catholic Faith. The powers of the Vice-Chancellor in
such matters, even under the revised Statute, although
rarely exercised, were virtually unlimited, and Jowett
was summoned to appear before Vice-Chancellor Cotton
and to subscribe the Articles anew. This act of dis-
cipline, it will be observed, was in the spirit of the
proposal which, when aimed against the Tractarians,
had been withdrawn in consequence of the opposition
of Jowett and other Liberals, ten years before.
The only preparation for this contumely had been a note
from Pusey to Jowett, to which he made no reply, but,
apparently while the matter was still pending, enclosed
it to Stanley with the remark, ' I was very much affected
by it at first, but since reading it I have seen too much
1 He had been one of the most had been originally enacted in
stubborn opponents of the Uni- the time of Henry VIII, at the
versity Commission. instance of Cardinal Pole.
2 Life of Dean Cliurch, p. 29. * D.D., Principal of Magdalen
3 Tit. IV. 3, subsection 2. It Hall.
1854-1860] The Articles again 239
of the writer to be capable of being affected by what
he says : of whom I have much to say to you when we
meet.' He thought less bitterly of Pusey afterwards 1 ,
but it is right that the first impression produced on
him by these ' gentle cruelties ' should be recorded here.
Jowett appeared in answer to the summons, and Vice-
Chancellor Cotton began to address him solemnly on
the ' awfulness ' of his situation. Jowett cut him short
with the words, ' Mr. Vice-Chancellor, I have come to sign
the Articles.' Dr. Cotton recommenced his harangue,
but was again interrupted. Tradition has it that Jowett
simply asked for a new pen 1 . He was always very
particular, in beginning any writing, to have a quill
pen ready made, and was a proficient in the art of
mending them. But the anecdote has been treasured
as indicating his perfect coolness on the occasion. And
such truly was his demeanour outwardly. But in reality
he was much perturbed, and on returning to his room,
where a friend awaited him, his first words were, ' They
have done me harm; but I shall live it down.' And
then he added : ' I hope my friends and pupils will not
care for what is said for or against my book, but study
the Scriptures for themselves.'
Jowett's own account of the matter to Stanley omits
some of the preceding details, but is more unquestionably
authentic, and may be inserted here :
December 14, [1855].
MY DEAR CANON,
Your letter was most welcome. Since I made up my
mind what to do, I have been quite at rest about the whole
subject. You will perhaps have seen in the newspapers that
I have taken the meaner part and signed. It seemed to me
1 This is recorded in Cox's Reminiscences of Oxford, and has been
often repeated since.
240 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
that I could not do otherwise without giving up my position
as a Clergyman.
Scene. Vice-Chancellor's Study.
A. domestic picture of Dr. and Mrs. C. . . . Enter Hereticus
' I am come to comply with your request.' ' Will you write
your name on this sheet of paper and on that ? ' Done. Vice-
Chancellor turns over letters from Golightly and Heurtley 1 ,
mumbling something in an undertone of voice. But before
the words are out, Hereticus says ' Good morning ' and escapes.
It grieves me to have been put to this sort of schoolboy degra-
dation, and also to think that such things are possible nowadays.
I don't intend to write a single word in reply to the attacks on
me. Without taking any notice of them, I shall enlarge the
Essay on the Atonement in a second edition ; also some of the
other essays in the Long Vacation, and then all the help you can
give me will be most welcome. Liddell has been most kind.
I often think of a sentence in a sermon of his which you
repeated to me : ' No man can enter into controversy without
being sorry for it : many reasons might be given for this, but
I prefer to repeat it, No man, &c.'
There is a text in the Psalms which often comes into my mind
in these troubles : ' Happy is the man that hath his quiver full
of them 2 : he shall not be ashamed when he speaks with his
enemies in the gate 3 .'
It was shortly after this that he ceased from dining
in Hall and attending Common Room. He said, ' I have
no pleasure in looking forward to my lectures now,'
1 The Rev. C. A. Heurtley, eludes as follows : ' Mr. Jowett's
Margaret Professor of Divinity, case shows that no clergyman,
1853-1895. not even the strongest pietist and
2 i. e. of friends. a man of the highest religious
3 The writer of an article in character and influence, can ven-
the Leader (weekly) newspaper ture so far to depart from ecclesi-
for December 22, 1855, on ' The astical tradition and clerical forms
Regius Professor's Submission,' of belief as to admit, even in such
after exhorting laymen to take an age as the present, that God
up the study of Theology, con- is not unjust.'
1854-1860] The Greek Chair 241
and he gave no inaugural address; but opened at once
with a course of lectures on the Republic, which were
delivered in the Hall of Balliol College (now the Under-
graduates' Library). I was present at his opening lecture;
and well remember how, after a few sentences of critical
prolegomena, he continued, ' And now having, as it were,
blown off the dust from the outside of the Volume, let
us proceed to examine what I may call the greatest un-
inspired writing. 3 The lectures drew, and continued to
be well attended, at least for several years. Three years
after this, Grant wrote to his fiancee, ' Jowett's lectures
have still a crowded attendance.' In 1862 Jowett himself
made a similar report to Stanley 1 ; and in 1865 the Hall
was filled with undergraduates from various Colleges.
He had again been thwarted in his career: the path
of Theology which he had marked out for himself was
found to be beset with thorns; and the academical
appointment in which he gloried had been made the
occasion for an humiliating rebuff. But the effect was
once more to redouble his labours. Gaisford had sus-
tained the reputation of the Greek Chair by a series
of critical editions of Classical books the Greek Minor
Poets, Stobaeus and Suidas which are still valuable.
But he had not lectured, and it might be counted as
a sufficient excuse that while his emoluments as Dean
of Christ Church were considerable, the salary attached
to the Greek Professorship was only 40 a year. To
many in the University it appeared that the Chair was
a mere ornament to decorate a specially deserving Tutor.
But such was not Jowett's view of the situation.
It had been a capital point in the Reform of the Uni-
versity to strengthen the Professoriate and to render
it more efficient. And with regard to this particular
1 p. 325 : cf. p. 312.
VOL. I. E
242 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vin
Chair, when the Commission had applied to the Dean
and Chapter of Christ Church with a view to their con-
tributing to Academical purposes, they had replied that
the most proper object for such benevolence on their
part was the endowment of the Professorship of Greek.
This was in I854 1 . But after the death of Dean Gaisford
and the appointment of his successor, this virtuous inten-
tion was not fulfilled. The cause of such a change of
front is somewhat obscure. So much, however, is toler-
ably clear. In December, 1856, the Chapter were in
the midst of their dealings with the Executive Com-
mission 2 , and at the same time Dean Liddell was attacked
by a severe illness, which compelled him to winter in
Madeira. During his absence one of the Canons was
examined before the Commission, and on his representing
that Christ Church already supported several Professor-
ships in the University, it was agreed that two canonries
should be suppressed, and their emoluments applied to
the improvement of the Studentships as rearranged.
The truth was that the authorities at Christ Church
had become aware of the difficulty of their position
consequent upon 'the opening of Fellowships and Scholar-
ships in the other Colleges, and by strengthening their
own Studentships sought to improve the relative status
of the College as an educational corporation. Stanley,
although only a Canon elect, having been recently
appointed to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History, was
already using his influence on Jowett's behalf; but he
1 Correspondence respecting the to the Dean's illness : ' Christ
Proposed Measures of Improvement Church at the present moment is
in the Universities and Colleges of " full of stirs, a tumultuous city,"
Oxford and Cambridge, 1854, p. and they are in the midst of their
46. dealings with the Commission.
2 Jowett wrote to Stanley on This must be very irritating to
December 14, 1856, with reference him.'
1854-1860] Professorial Labours 243
had no vote in the Chapter until March, 1858, and the
Christ Church Ordinance by which the question was de-
termined had appeared on January 9 in that year. On
coming into residence, therefore, Stanley at once began
to moot the subject in the University at large, but he
could only do so indirectly until he was himself elected
a Professorial Member of the Hebdomadal Council in
November, 1860.
The course which Jowett took under these circum-
stances was to work the Professorship in addition to
the Tutorship, and on the same lines 1 , without asking
for reward. He would not even exact the Statutory Fee.
Not only were his lectures gratis, but he invited all
who attended them to send in exercises to be personally
looked over by himself. A special duty which was ful-
filled about this time, was, in conjunction with Liddell,
the new Dean of Christ Church, to make regulations
for the Greek Composition Prizes, which had been estab-
lished by subscription as a Memorial to Dean Gaisford.
The examination of the exercises sent in by competitors
for these prizes, and the arrangement of the subjects,
was another piece of work which came in annually,
and was entirely gratuitous. It appears also from a letter
of Mrs. Jowett's, that in order to do his work as Pro-
fessor, he again relinquished the College Bursarship,
which was a salaried office.
These absorbing cares and occupations were not
1 Jowett never admitted the chetical instruction in the Uni-
broad distinction that is some- versity, and the substitution of
times drawn between Professorial lectures to large classes, for the
and Tutorial teaching. All teach- College lectures of old times;
ing that is worthy of the name though this was perhaps an inevit-
appeared to him to involve close able result of the inter-collegiate
dealing with individual minds. system which he approved.
He regretted the decay of Cate-
2
244 Ltf e f Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vm
altogether unrelieved. He found refreshment in inter-
course with his old pupils and in identifying himself
with their interests. Sellar had now been married for
some years, and in the summer of 1855 he and his wife
visited Oxford just at the time when Jowett had revised
the last sheets of the St. Paul. He received them with
all the honours of College hospitality, and Mrs. Sellar's
presence brought in an element of gaiety and brightness,
to which he fully responded. He visited them at Artornish,
where there was a large family gathering in the autumn.
That visit was long remembered on both sides, especially
one incident, which is worth preserving. Conversation
had turned on Political Economy, and Jowett had
declared that he never gave to beggars. Mrs. Sellar was
an adept in ' Mystifications/ an accomplishment popular
in Scotch society since Sir Walter Scott's time. She
disguised herself as a poor Highland woman and waylaid
her husband and Jowett at a cross-road, begging importu-
nately and telling her tale of woe so piteously that
Jowett at last said : ' Poor thing ! She seems very miser-
able ; give her half a crown.' Sellar had no money with
him, and before the alms were forthcoming, the secret
was triumphantly unveiled. The same friends had invited
him to spend Christmas at their home, Abbey Park,
St. Andrews ; and their little boy Frank better known
as 'Tornie 1 ,' not yet three years old, had dictated a letter
entreating his friend to come. To this Jowett, who had
taken refuge with the Tennysons, sent the following
reply :
FARRINGFORD, I. OF WIGHT,
December 26, 1855.
MY DEAR TORNIE,
I was very pleased to have a letter from you. I always
thought ' Pupsy was a brick. ' Give my love to him. Mr. Grant
1 A derivative from Artornish.
1854-1860] Isolation
245
is coming to see you, and has promised to bring a ball as [big
as your head.
I hope that you are a good boy and never afraid of anything.
Has Mama been dressing up like a beggar-woman lately ?
I will come and play at soldiers next summer, but in the winter-
time I must do lessons. A little monkey of an old gentleman,
who dresses himself in black and has three pokers walk before
him, has been teazing me lately, and I should be in a great row
if I had not such good friends as Mama, Papa, and Tornie.
Good-bye, Tornie dear.
Don't forget UNCLE JOWETT.
PS. Please not to let anybody read this letter but yourself.
The friendship of Bishop Ewing was another source of
comfort which did not fail him at this time. The Bishop
wrote as follows, shortly after Mrs. Ewing's death J :
' Jowett has been of use to me, because he believes in the great
essentials the life of the dead and the deity of Christ. What
he says is very comforting, because he knows on what founda-
tions our faith rests. Others have been most kind and sympa-
thizing ; but cut-and-dry sentiments, in which everything is
taken for granted, do me no good at all.'
In spite of such alleviations, the situation was not the
less grave. He retained his calm demeanour, keeping an
obstinate silence under all attacks, and could even make
allowance for the asperity of his assailants, taking account
of Pusey's Huguenot ancestry and S. Wilberforce's
Evangelical origin. ' Mere Christian love,' he said,
' should make one tolerant, but philosophy is also a great
help.' What grieved him more than the attacks, was to
find that (through the action of others) he had given real
offence to simple minds, and also that he received so
little support from his old comrades. ' I thought I had
so expressed myself that religious minds could not be
offended.' ' Men join in denouncing what they admit in
1 Life of Alexander Ewing, p. 253.
246 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
private conversation.' ' How hard it is to find a perfectly
firm will ! ' With reference to one whom he had thought
at least as far advanced in speculation as himself, he said,
' I have often talked to on these subjects ; he was
as free as air/ Even the attitude of Stanley, his fellow-
labourer, did not altogether satisfy him : ' He has failed
to make people understand what he meant.' On the
other hand he was quite touched when the Bishop of
Bath and Wells, whom he had formerly visited (and
had aided with salutary counsel in the conduct of the
Denison case), paid him the common attention of
a morning call. In what Jowett felt about all this,
as he himself was afterwards fully aware, there was
some exaggeration of sensitiveness, an almost fond
simplicity, and a want of knowledge of the world. He
said in 1857, ' People go on expecting more from friend-
ship than it can ever give.' And when a pupil, who was
leaving Oxford for another sphere, on Jowett's saying,
'I am sorry for you, going amongst people whom you
cannot understand,' replied cheerfully, ' I suppose I shall
find them out in time,' he rejoined with sudden bitterness,
' Oh yes, you will find them out ! ' His letters to younger
men, and his own memoranda, are full of remarks on
the evils of a sensitive nature.
; Without were fightings ; ' but there was no sign of
' fears within.' His courage was unabated and his will
only roused to more strenuous action. The Balliol Tutor-
ship, which he could not afford to relinquish, con-
tinued to be the main centre of his operations. It
was natural, after what had happened, that he should
feel the limitations of the sphere. His ambition had been
awakened only to be suppressed, and he sometimes
hankered after the society and culture of Trinity College,
i8 5 4 1860] Balliol Chapel the Old and New 247
Cambridge, the natural home of distinguished Paulines.
But he found much comfort in working amongst his pupils.
Some hope of enlargement was afforded by the Visitor's
reversal of the new Master's policy for the continued
exclusion of Dissenters from the College. But he was out
of sympathy with his colleagues, and had no pleasure in
the proposal to rebuild the Chapel, which was carried
out in 1855-7. ' They may build another Chapel,' he
said, 'but never one that has the same associations.'
The new Chapel was opened on October 15, 1857, and
there was, of course, a gathering of old Balliol men.
Jowett said to me, 'I rejoice in the prospect of seeing
so many old friends ; but not in the destruction of the
old ChapeL'
He was still absenting himself from Hall and Common
Room, and on this occasion he did not take his place
at the high table. He sat amongst the undergraduates,
about halfway down the room, on the left side of the long
central table. His old friend Tait, by this time Bishop of
London, who had officiated at the opening service, made
a generous reference to him in his speech, dwelling on the
excellence of his Tutorial work : ' I was his Tutor in the
old days ; he was much more worthy to teach me.' There
was a pause after this speech; then Jowett rose from
where he sat, and said with deep emotion, 'Any one
who labours amongst the young men will reap his reward
in an affection far beyond his deserts V
1 There is no appearance as yet mendous long name to call a
of any strained relations between fellow ? ' (Life of A. C. Tait, vol. i.
Jowett and Tait. He had written p. 199). Some time before this,
a line of hearty congratulation when visiting the Taits in their
to the Bishop on his appointment, affliction, at Carlisle, he writes
and had simply added in a post- his host to Stanley : ' He still
script, ' Will you tell Mrs. Tait retains his interest in many sub-
that " latitudinarian " is a tre- jects, reading Grote, &c. (most
248 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
His many occupations made him sometimes appear ob-
livious, and as if unconscious of his own speech or silence;
and his fastidiousness about language, touched on in the
last chapter, led to a sort of incapacity, real or assumed,
of understanding anything that was not perfectly ex-
pressed. Instead of helping out his interlocutor, who
was struggling with some half- formed conception, he
would say, ' I don't think so,' or ' I don't understand,'
or if some word were used which did not come into his
purist vocabulary, he would say, ' What does that mean ?
I never heard it.' He was totally unaware of the effect
this had on youths who were already more than suf-
ficiently in awe of him. He had a command of countenance
which made it difficult sometimes to know his real
intention. Like Ulysses, he had a way of c trying the
spirits/ by taking an unexpected line. ' I suppose you
get your parallels out of Ast's Lexicon' he would say, and
one had gravely to assure him that they were the result
of one's own reading. In dealing with his most intimate
friends, he seemed to work on general views of human
nature. "When persuading them to some attempt which
they were really eager to make, out of affection for him,
he would preface the proposal with ' One man is as good
as another until he has written a book,' or ' I am thinking
how much money you may make by that work ' (one of
critical scholarship !).
The Professorial lectures were continued, and he
was full of schemes for rendering the Greek Chair
more effective. There also he was exposed to detraction.
commendable in a Dean), and not say that the observations
practising "robust Sophistries" appear to me to be of much
as you and I remember him in weight, but it is much to the
former days. He makes many credit of a Dean to make them
observations, prudential and at all.'
otherwise, on my book. I can-
\i
1854-1860] Odium Philologicum 249
Although his name had been more prominent in the
world, there were others who, from the peculiar Oxford
point of view, were regarded in the University as
' technically ' better scholars \ Jowett had failed for the
Ireland, and Pauline scholarship was not considered on
a par with that of Shrewsbury, or even Rugby. John
Conington, a man extraordinarily gifted and possessed of
wide literary culture, had in the previous year (1854)
been elected to the new Corpus Professorship of Latin.
His edition of Aeschylus' Agamemnon had given him
a great reputation for Greek scholarship, which was
fully sustained by his subsequent edition of the
Choephoroe. This Jowett afterwards acknowledged.
But in those opening years the Latin and Greek
Professors were not in sympathy. Although a pupil of
Arnold's, and in earlier days 2 an 'Oxford Liberal,'
Conington had recently fallen under religious impressions
of a different order; and to his old friends it seemed
that his intellectual interests were becoming strangely
narrow. He was not unnaturally distressed at the
vague, rhetorical tendencies of Oxford scholarship, and
sought to correct them by professing a predilection for
the exact, verbal methods of the contemporary Cambridge
School. And when Jowett, in his dislike of conjectural
emendation 3 , betrayed a sceptical doubt as to the infalli-
bility of Person's famous rule, Professor Conington was
genuinely scandalized. Thus an Odium Philologicum
entered into conspiracy with the Odium Theologicum.
Yet Conington was generous enough to say, in speaking
1 Among those who had been Kennedy at Shrewsbury,
talked about were James Rid- 2 p. 176.
dell and Basil Jones, afterwards 3 See this expressed in the
Bishop of St. David's. Before ' Essay on Interpretation ' (pub-
coming to Oxford, both these lished 1860), St. Paul's Epistles,
men had studied Greek under third edition, vol. ii. p. 53.
250 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, vm
to a younger man for his good, ' Whatever one may think
of Jowett's scholarship, it must be admitted that he lives
the life of a Philosopher.'
Jowett himself took these carpings very lightly.
' I often think,' he said with a touch of irony, ' that
unworthy as I am, I have to deal with the greatest of all
literatures/ He must have found no small compensation
for the local disparagement, although he never spoke on
the subject, in the recognition of continental scholars.
Otto Jahn, in the preface to his standard edition of
Plato's Symposium (published in 1864) for which Jowett
had collated afresh the MS. in the Bodleian Library,
spoke of him as 'an accomplished Grecian, and a man
distinguished alike for independence and liberality of
mind.' He set himself at once to revive his classical
attainments going regularly through Pindar, and at
one time reading a book of Homer every day. He
had a note-book filled with lectures upon Sophocles,
and Aeschylus was continually in his thoughts. But his
main designs already centred on Plato. About a year after
his appointment he was making preparations for an
edition of the Republic, and enlisting various old pupils x
and other friends for an edition of the chief Dialogues
to be prepared independently, but in a common spirit. He
had commenced his own portion of this work, in which
some of his lectures were to be embodied, when the
demand came upon him for a new edition of the St. Paul,
the rapid sale of which was a natural result of the recent
outcry. His first impulse had been to say, ' I will not
alter a word.' The book was the ripe fruit of intense,
unremitting study through the best years of manhood.
1 J. Riddell, Sellar, Grant, Philebus, and Jowett at one time
Henry Smith, Lewis Campbell, hoped that Max Miiller might help
E. Poste of Oriel undertook the him with the Cratylus.
1854-1860] Essay on Interpretation reserved 251
In preparing it he had learned all the Epistles in the
Greek by heart. When he brought it out he said,
' I hope I shall not change my opinions again.' He did
not change his opinions. But reflection brought calmer
thoughts, and less for his own sake than for that of the
religious public, he determined to explain himself more
perfectly. He had written to Stanley in 1856: 'It is
a great misfortune to be even unintentionally the
cause of stirring up a row in a place of education.'
Indeed, he had himself grown dissatisfied with some
things in the first edition ; ' Six months ago I thought
these Essays perfect, but now I see such gaps and rents
in them ! ' The revision was a work of great labour ; and
it was not made easier by the attacks to which he was
still subject. He asked friends for suggestions, but
would listen to no advice that seemed to imply a yielding
to clamour.
'I fear I cannot expunge the Paley,' he writes to Stanley,
' because, however disagreeable, it is perfectly true, and it
would be thought that I retracted it if I did. Notwithstanding
the counsels of Johnson and Temple, it seems to me that any
cowardice would be very injurious to me.'
He wrought at the new edition through constant head-
aches, and, as Grant told me, was compelled to reserve for
future completion an Essay on the Interpretation of Scrip-
ture, begun some years before, which he had intended
to form part of the new edition. Of this more will be
heard in the sequel.
The unexpected return of his parents to England from
Paris in 1856 did not lessen his embarrassments. His
father, always unconscious of the actual situation, was bent
on bringing out his own metrical version of the Psalms ;
and while interested in his son's labours, was far from
understanding or sympathizing with them. A note of
252 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
Mr. Jowett's dated 'The Norton, Tenby, October 9,'
is curiously significant :
' Benjamin has just spent five days with us, but he has been
so taciturn that I think everything he has said might have been
said perhaps in five minutes. He is certainly much occupied,
but this need not prevent him from unbending a little. I had
for my portion one brief question on business, and the mono-
syllable " No," in answer to a question. I am happy to say that
he appears to be carefully revising his work, which certainly
needed it.'
Yet the old man was keenly alive to any shadow
of outward success. Towards the end of 1857 an attempt
was made to have Jowett elected as a representative of
the Professoriate on the new Hebdomadal Council. He
was not elected, but the minority was a strong one, and
he was touched and moved by the expression of sympathy.
When Henry Smith and others went to see him on the
declaration of the result : ' My old pupils ! My old
pupils ! ' in a voice broken with emotion, was all that he
was able to say.
On this subject Mr. Jowett wrote to his son Alfred in
India :
'The contest was creditable for your brother, though not
successful. Macbride had sixty- four votes, Benjamin sixty-one.
At one part of the day Benjamin, by the newspapers, was
likely to get in V
This was the year of the Indian Mutiny, and there
was naturally much anxiety on Alfred's account. Though
not in immediate danger, he was constantly transferred
from station to station, and was liable to much harassing
overwork. His death in 1858 was a blow from which
the father never recovered.
1 He was also really much in- St. Paul, and copied out long
terested in his son's book on passages of it for Alfred's benefit.
1854-1860] Second Edition of the Epistles 253
Alexander Grant of Oriel, on going to India with
his young bride, Professor Ferrier's daughter, was
charged with the duty of inquiring into the circum-
stances of Alfred's illness and of recovering his papers.
These were afterwards kept by Mrs. Jowett amongst
her treasures.
Jowett's father died at Tenby in March, 1859. When
in hourly expectation of his death, Jowett wrote to
F. T. Palgrave : ' He has been the most innocent and
blameless man possible. I don't suppose he ever did
a wrong thing. Though not wanting in ability, he has
been like a child through life. I am glad you saw him.'
After this his mother and sister resided at Torquay.
The second edition of the Epistles was published in
the summer of the same year. The work was in great
part re-written and was much enlarged. The Essay on
the Atonement in particular was entirely re-written,
and had threatened at one time to grow into a separate
volume. The concluding passage of the new Essay on
the Atonement may be taken as the author's one answer
to his many assailants :
' If our Saviour were to come again on earth, which of all the
theories of Atonement and Sacrifice would He sanction with His
authority ? Perhaps none of them, yet perhaps all may be con-
sistent with the true service of Him. The question has no answer.
But it suggests the thought that we shrink from bringing con-
troversy into His presence. The same kind of lesson may be
gathered from the consideration of theological differences in the
face of death. Who as he draws near to Christ will not feel him-
self drawn towards his theological opponents ? At the end of life,
when a man looks back calmly, he is most likely to find that he
exaggerated in some things ; that he mistook party spirit for a
love of truth. Perhaps he had not sufficient consideration for
others, or stated the truth itself in a manner which was calcu-
lated to give offence. In the heat of the struggle, let us at least
pause to imagine polemical disputes as they will appear a year,
254 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
two years, three years hence ; it may be, dead and gone cer-
tainly more truly seen than in the hour of controversy. For the
truths about which we are disputing cannot partake of the pass-
ing stir ; they do not change even with the greater revolutions
of human things. They are in eternity, and the image of them
on earth is not the movement on the surface of the waters, but
the depths of the silent sea. Lastly, as a measure of the value
of such disputes, which above all other interests seem to have
for a time the power of absorbing men's minds and rousing their
passions, we may carry our thoughts onwards to the invisible
world, and there behold, as in a glass, the great theological
teachers of past ages, who have anathematized each other in their
lives, resting together in the Communion of the same Lord.'
The Times was no longer ' muzzled.' Stanley was now
established at Christ Church, as Professor of Ecclesiastical
History 1 ; and though his welcome from Pusey was
a strange one 2 , his canonry had not been disputed. He
sent to the Times a review of Jowett's second edition
which appeared in due course, October 15, 1859. In
this article, while deprecating what seemed to him
a disproportion between the constructive and destructive
elements in the work, and drawing somewhat illusory
parallels, as his manner was, between Jowett's position
and that of Butler, or even Anselm, he fearlessly puts
forth his just appreciation of the beneficial tendency
of the book's main purpose and effect. The article con-
cludes as follows :
' We congratulate the University of Oxford and the Church
of England on the completion of a work of which we may be
justly proud. We gratefully acknowledge that a treatise such
as this, which has been able to win for itself a place in the
Theological Libraries of foreign countries, and which commands
1 His appointment dated from Church only in March, 1858.
December, 1856, but he became 2 Life of Dean Stanley, vol. i.
a member of the Chapter of Christ p. 508.
1854-1860] Stanley's ' Times J Review 255
the respectful attention of the intelligent classes of our own, is
the best kind of support which the cause of religion can receive
in an age like ours. Professor Jowett is well known to have
acquired by his personal character, and by his unwearied devo-
tion to the work of education, an influence over the rising
generation such as few, if any, of his academical contemporaries
have attained. Let that influence be used in the direction indi-
cated in the foregoing extracts from his work, and we may rest
well assured that the cynical and sceptical spirit of the time will
have met with an antidote such as we shall vainly expect from
any other quarter.'
That was well and truly said, and has been too little
regarded ; but it was rather strange that Stanley,
who prided himself on having an eye for resemblances
where other men saw differences, should have put so
clearly as he does in other parts of this review the
points of divergence between his own opinions and those
of his ally. Yet the fact of the contrast only makes
the bravery of the defence more honourable. His
friend's picturesqueness, on the other hand, sometimes
rather grated upon Jowett. At a luncheon party in the
room in the Fisher Building, Stanley once described
with great animation a Byzantine procession in which
the fasces, which had been the symbol of Imperial power
and were carried before some magistrate, had been gradu-
ally reduced to a single reed. ' And with that reed,'
said Jowett, looking archly mischievous, ' disappeared
the last vestige of the Roman empire ! ' 'I am glad,'
said Bunsen, speaking of the Introduction to the Thessa-
lonians, ' that he has touched on the topographical fanci-
fulness of some of his good friends.'
Conversing in Christ Church meadow in October,
1859, Stanley showed great curiosity as to the author-
ship of the review of the first edition, which had
been stifled in 1855. The author confessed, and the
256 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.VIII
printed copy was sent to Stanley, who acknowledged
it as follows :
' Many thanks for the enclosed. Had it appeared when it was
intended to have appeared, the whole history of the last five,
perhaps of the next fifty, years would have been different.
The beginning and end will be always available for future use.
I envy you the adaptation of the story of David in the last
paragraph.'
Almost immediately on the publication of the second
edition of St. Paul, after indulging himself, as Mr. W. L.
Newman tells us, with Aristophanes, Jowett returned
to his commentary on the Republic of Plato, and had
finished the series of notes in a first draft before the
beginning of September. These notes, however, though
he continued working at them, were not to see the
light for thirty-five years to come.
It was about this time that a group of his old pupils,
including Sellar, Grant, Palgrave, and a few more, sub-
scribed for a portrait of Jowett, in crayons, by Gr. Rich-
mond, which was presented to Mrs. Jowett. The repro-
duction of this drawing is well known, and a reduced
copy of the original forms the frontispiece of this volume.
One who was not a ' Jowett-worshipper ' remarked at
the time, ' To do Jowett justice, he is not such a lady-
killer as that makes him.' On the other hand, some
of those who saw his face in the repose of death were
involuntarily reminded of this early portrait x .
Mr. W. L. Newman's Reminiscences (continued from p. 210).
'His gifts ensured him unbounded influence with young
men of ability. His marked individuality of character,
which made itself felt in everything he said or did, his kindly
peremptoriness, his combination of force of character with gentle-
1 See Lord Lingen's remark, p. 228.
1854-1860] W. L. Newman's Reminiscences 257
ness, of many-sidedness with intensity, of great powers of
thought with practical ability, won enthusiastic acceptance
from clever young men. His interests were almost as
varied as his gifts. Here was a man who seemed to
stand at the parting of many ways. Keligion, philosophy,
poetry, Greek literature these were his favourite studies, but
he added to them a keen interest in human nature and in
practical business. There was nothing cramping about his influ-
ence over us. I never found that he made any effort to enforce
on me any particular set of views. His strong sense of humour
was an added charm. I think it was just after he brought out
the second edition of his book on St. Paul that he said to me,
needing no doubt some relief from the drudgery of proofs,
" Now I must read some Aristophanes."
' When the disappointment about the Mastership came, some
slight indications of vexation were traceable in his conversation
even with an undergraduate like me, but his work with his
pupils continued precisely as before. It was not, I think, till
some time later that he ceased to dine in Hall and to appear
after dinner in Common Room. The exact date at which this
happened I am unable to recollect. I was absent from Oxford
owing to illness from December, 1855, to October, 1857, and I
think that this change in his ways may have commenced during
my absence. I doubt whether he dined much in Hall after my
return to Oxford. We lost much by his absence, but even
without him the Balliol Common Room remained a notable
gathering. There is nothing in my Oxford life to which I look
back with more pleasure than to the evenings which I spent
there in the company of H. J. S. Smith, E. Palmer, J. Riddell,
T. H. Green, and many others who might be named, men
who were as valuable and acceptable socially as they were in
all other ways. Jowett's withdrawal did not make his rela-
tions with the rest of our body otherwise than amicable. Some
of the Fellows had been his pupils, and felt towards him as
pupils would. Achilles preferred his tent, but his tent was
a hospitable one, and I used often to breakfast and dine
with him, and we often took walks together. Smith, and
I think Green, saw still more of him. He of course saw
much of his pupils, but he also saw much of friends
VOL. I. S
258 Life ' of Benjamin Jowett
from London and elsewhere of an age and position similar to
his own. Our friendship for him did not interfere in any
degree with friendly relations with the rest of our seniors among
the Fellows. On some topics our opinions were not theirs, but
we found them, and the new Head of the College, so genial and
kindly, and some of them so useful as models and advisers, that
we worked together with real pleasure and in complete harmony.
The College prospered well, and Jowett's influence in it grew
as one of his pupils after another was added to the body of
Fellows. As far back as I can remember, Jowett always sug-
gested the subject of the English Essay in Scholarship and Fellow-
ship examinations. Many good and useful measures adopted
in College meeting originated with him. One of the earliest
of these was the foundation of the Domus Exhibitions (about
1858). At a still earlier time, if I do not mistake, the whole-
some rule was adopted, thanks, I believe, to Theodore Walrond.
that all undergraduate members of the College should go in for
honours in some examination school or other. Another useful
change was made when undergraduates were allowed, with the
advice of their Tutor, to choose their own lectures 1 . Jowett
was unwearied in maintaining or increasing the strictness
of the matriculation examination. All these things did much
for the College.'
1 This was not carried out till 1867. L. C.
CHAPTEE IX
FRIENDS AND PUPILS. 1854-1860
THEOLOGICAL attitude Desultory studies Advice to young
writers and preachers Society in Scotland and elsewhere Pre-
paration of Essays and Reviews Publication of the volume Letters.
rTlHE preceding chapter does not exhaust the interest
of the years from 1854-60. I proceed to make
a few general observations on Jowett's mental attitude
during this period.
First as to Theology : ' after toil and storm/ having
mournfully realized 'that there is no elder person in
whose footsteps one can tread 1 ,' he had by persistent
efforts reached a point of view from which, while
retaining all that seemed essential in the traditions of
the past, he felt able to bring the spiritual principles
involved in them to bear with fresh significance on
the life of the present. He wrote to a young friend :
' I do not know that you care to plunge into the abyss of
theology. But I shall always maintain that there is no
abyss, and that, without relying on fables or fancies, any
who will may find their way through this world with
sufficient knowledge to light them to another.' But
there were obstructions to be overcome, and these proved
more serious than he had reckoned. He was all the
1 p. 227, note.
S 2
260 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
more bent on overcoming them. No greater benefit
could be conferred on any age, he thought, than to
clear and purify religious ideas. The greatest of all
difficulties lay in the attitude of religious men, who
refused to recognize the obvious results of historical
criticism, and persisted in maintaining the sacredness of
propositions, against which the intellect and moral sense
of mankind, at the stage of culture which the world
had attained, could not but revolt. They appeared to
think it possible to keep knowledge at one level in
England, when it had reached another level in Germany.
He had felt this even before the publication of his
book, as appears from his letters to Stanley of August,
I846 1 . The great danger, in his opinion, was not lest
reason should destroy religion, but lest intellectual
persons should reject the truth itself, when stated in
grotesque and impossible forms. Jowett was profoundly
attached to Christianity, which had penetrated to the
very core of his nature ; to the Bible, which he desired
to see made the rule of life, not in the letter, but in
the spirit ; and to the Church of England, whose ministry
seemed likely to be impoverished by the unrealities of
popular theology, and the refusal of Ordination on the
part of highly educated men. To cast off the incrusta-
tions with which historical Christianity was so heavily
encumbered, and to bring into clearer light what was
of eternal import, without breaking rudely with the past
or ignoring present needs, was the problem which he
had set himself to solve. He was thwarted in this course,
but, having set his face that way, was more and more
determined to continue in it. Reformations, he began
to feel, were not to be made with rose-water.
Philosophy held the second place in his thoughts.
1 PP- 150. i53 ; cf. p. 175.
1854-1860] Religion and Philosophy 261
He still acknowledged the debt which as a thinker he
owed to German philosophy. The hope which Kant
had raised of laying hold upon an Absolute behind the
Relative, had involved the mind in difficulties, which
Hegel seemed to have cleared away, by showing that
the Absolute was a unity within which all relations were
embraced, and that it was to be sought in the universe
and not beyond it.
'The study of Hegel has given me a method/ he
used to say; but he refused to be bound within the
limits of any system, making fact the final test of
theory.
He looked with interest, but with imperfect sympathy,
upon the rise of the Positivist sect in Oxford. R. Con-
greve had returned to Wadham from Rugby about
1848; his pupils, Frederic Harrison, J. H. Bridges, and
E. S. Beesly, graduated in 1853-4. These were amongst
Comte's earliest converts in England. When he saw
young men taking up a radical or extreme position,
Jowett always wondered what their future would be.
Speaking of G. H. Lewes's History of Philosophy, he said
he thought it a poor thing to have studied all philosophies
and to end in adopting that of Auguste Comte.
At this time he still encouraged the ablest of his
pupils in the study of Hegel. He valued Plato even
more for his marvellous originality and suggestiveness.
'Germs of all ideas are to be found in Plato.' And
in recommending the study he used to say, 'Aristotle
is dead, but Plato is alive.'
In interpreting Plato, as before in interpreting St. Paul,
he sought to get behind the accretions of after ages, such
as the Neo-Platonism of the fifth and fifteenth centuries,
and to bring out the original meaning of his author.
Neither in religion nor in philosophy did he ever
262 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
seek to form a school. He rather discouraged some
too eager disciples, saying that ' to meddle in theology
required an exceptionally happy nature.' His one
thought in dealing with his pupils was, what was best
individually for them. Nothing angered him so much
as to find that a former pupil had been incurring odium
in defending him. ' "We must all fight our own battles,'
were his last words at parting from one of them, and
they were said with energetic warmth. 'I was sorry
to hear that you had got a reputation for heterodoxy
with Mr. . Will you be careful of this ? A young
man is in great danger of becoming powerless who is
shelved in this way.' The power of personal influence,
which had been conspicuous in some members of the
High Church party, he thought might have been valuable
if they had also had the power of respecting the inde-
pendence of the persons whom they had influenced.
Once in passing Littlemore, he glanced at the building
where Newman had drawn together his followers in the
year before his secession. ' It was very unfair to those
young men,' he said. Nor was he readily disposed to
strengthen his own position by allying himself with
others, merely because they had also fallen under the
ecclesiastical ban. Some of F. D. Maurice's disciples
were provoked at his persistent silence with regard to
their teacher. ' I shall never join with that modern Neo-
Platonism,' was his remark to one who had hinted this :
' it is so easy to substitute one mysticism for another.'
No speculative difficulties confused his practical sense.
While exercising the utmost freedom in speculation,
his constant aim was to hold a just balance between
philosophy and actual life. He often quoted the saying
of Coleridge, ' The only common sense worth having
is that which is based on metaphysics ' ; and he upheld
1854-1860] The Church and the World 263
the converse proposition, ' Metaphysics should be grounded
in common sense.' Far-seeing as were his views of future
possibilities for mankind, he seldom practically approved
of radical change.
No part of his theological writings was more directly
the outcome of his experience, than the passage in the
essay on Natural Religion, in which he seeks to overcome
the opposition which religious minds had been too apt
to make between the Church and the "World, 'the one
half of human nature and the other 1 .' He was fond
of that sentence of Sir Thomas Browne's, ' For my con-
versation, it is as the sun's with all men, and with
a friendly aspect towards good and bad.' Another
paradox which sometimes led to misunderstanding was
his determination to keep apart moral and political
considerations, and at this period he was sometimes under-
stood to insist that while moral goodness made for the
happiness of its owner, intellectual power was more
beneficent in its action upon the world at large. Yet
in his dealings with the world he never lost sight of
his religious vocation. He knew well how to blend
the tenderest sympathy with unbending severity.
The widow of one of his old friends, who had observed
his dealings with undergraduates about this time, says :
'I always admired Mr. Jowett's wonderful reticence and
refinement, coupled with sternness and swift, decided action,
1 The Epistles of St. Paul, fyc., he was always disposed to regard
third edition, vol. ii. pp. 241-243. worldly success as a test of merit
A remark of the Warden of Mer- in a sense against which I rebel,
ton expresses a very general view and, in one of my early conver-
upon this subject : ' He never af- sations with him, he expressed a
fected or specially admired an most earnest hope that his pupils
" unworldly " character. Though would not, like those of another
no man was ever less actuated great teacher, " make a mess of
by the lower forms of ambition, life " ! '
264 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
when needful, in cases where moral corruption called for
drastic measures. At the same time he never seemed to
give any man up as hopeless or beyond the reach of sympathy
and help.'
He found time amidst all his pressing avocations to
write to a young friend, who was going for the first
time to a public school, a letter to which the recipient
reverted in later life, with mingled gratitude and
admiration, as having conveyed to him with equal
^delicacy and frankness a horror of schoolboy vice, which
secured him from contamination.
He still found relief from his exhausting labours
in voracious reading, going back again and again to
his old favourites, Boswell's Johnson, Pepys' Diary, &c.,
and fastening upon each book of interest as it came
out. He was greatly interested in Adam Bede, which,
it will be remembered, was at first attributed to a clergy-
man. 'He has succeeded in seizing the characteristics
of all the classes of English society.'
To the few whose vocation it was to carry classical
studies into later life, he held up an ideal which differed in
several ways from the ordinary models. Although he felt
the slur which had been cast on his reputation as a scholar,
he returned with interest the disparagement of pedantic
critics. Ignorance of Greek, he thought, was more excus-
able than ignorance of the nature of language. ' I some-
times think the souls of the old grammarians must have
transmigrated into our verbal scholars.' His method was
to read the great writers over and over again ; ' One
gets to know them in this way far better than in reading
about them. I have read Sophocles hundreds of times.'
"When he heard of some one who had a wonderful know-
ledge of the commentators on Aristotle, he said, 'That
sort of learning is a great power, if a man can only
1854-1860] Society in Scotland 265
keep his mind above it.' His influence thus tended, at
this time more than afterwards, rather to discourage
extensive reading. ' It is so easy to give an impression
of great learning. The power of interpretation is a
different thing. Every author is best interpreted from
himself.' He had already formed the fixed opinion,
which he held to the last, as to the futility of conjectural
emendation. He thought Bekker had deserved more
of Greek Philology than Bentley.
He was always ready to read over a friend's writings
and to criticize them. 'I can do no less,' he would
say, 'for one who has done so much for me.' But it
must be owned that his gratitude sometimes took rather
a trying shape. It was difficult not to feel some con-
trariety between the sanguine eagerness with which he
had encouraged some attempt, and the dry light of judge-
ment which seemed apt to burn up the thing attempted.
And sometimes, though not often, what he trenchantly
rejected has not proved a failure. But when he
disapproved of a friend's work, on grounds of taste,
or even of morality, though he expressed himself with
candour, it made no difference whatever in the warmth
and strength of his attachment. His was a spirit which
always gave more than it received.
He repeated his visits to the Sellars and other friends
in Scotland, amongst whom was Thomas Erskine, of
Linlathen, a friend of Bishop Ewing's. He was a
thoughtful mystic, of great liberality of mind, and after
retiring from the Scottish Bar, had written several theo-
logical essays, which had a powerful influence in
promoting the reaction against Calvinism. He was
an admirer of William Law, and F. D. Maurice acknow-
ledged himself to have derived something from him.
Jowett used to say that his defect as a religious leader
266 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
was, that he had not set himself to any great practical
effort for the good of mankind. Erskine's conversation,
which from whatever point it started always came round
to his theological ideas, had a peculiar charm. He was
the sworn brother in matters spiritual of J. Macleod
Campbell of Row, who had been ousted from the
Church of Scotland on account of his opinions shortly
after the secession of Edward Irving l . Campbell's book
on the Atonement, in which he sought by metaphysical
argument to eliminate the crudities of current theology,
and justify the ways of God, appeared in 1856, a year
after Jowett's St. Paul ; and about the same time Jowett's
annual visits to Linlathen began. Here he also made
the acquaintance of Sir "W. Stirling Maxwell of Keir.
Henry Hill Lancaster was settled in Edinburgh as
an advocate, and was interested in the North British
Review. Another Edinburgh acquaintance which he
greatly valued was that with Dr. John Brown, the author
of Bab and his Friends.
At St. Andrews he was introduced to Principal Tulloch,
then in vigorous youth, and to Professor Ferrier, the
metaphysician, whose daughter was married to Jowett's
friend and pupil Sir Alexander Grant.
Visits to Scotland were continued annually for about
thirty years ; and he often expressed his admiration
of the country and people, against whom he had shared
Dr. Johnson's prejudice in earlier days. At the Sellars'
summer home, which at this time was Harehead in
Yarrow, he seems to have relaxed his studies more than
elsewhere, and a photographic group with Jowett in his
wide-awake, playing croquet there, was extant a year or
two ago.
His life in Oxford itself was not unrelieved by rare
1 Cf. the Duke of Argyll's Preface to his Philosophy of Belief {1895).
1854-1860] Mrs. Cradock' s Rose-garden 267
intervals of social enjoyment. The Greenhills, before
settling at Hastings, remained in Oxford for a while.
George Butler of Exeter had married, and was for a time
settled there with his young wife : their house was
a pleasant centre of reunion for the younger dons.
Mrs. Josephine Butler, in her memoir of her husband, has
given us her impression of the Oxford society of that
day, with its curious limitations and its intellectual
interests, tempered with ignorance of the world. Another
oasis in the wilderness of celibates was the home of the
Principal of Brasenose, Dr. Cradock, whose wife was sister-
in-law to Lord John Russell. Mrs. Cradock was a lady
of decided originality, and loved to bring young people
together in her drawing-room and her rose-garden.
A. P. Stanley was much at home there, and brought
Jowett with him when he could. Charles "Wood (Lord
Halifax), Augustus Hare, Charles Bo wen, and Lyulph
Stanley, then a junior undergraduate, were also frequent
visitors at the house. There was hymn-singing on
Sunday evenings, and little fetes champetres in summer,
especially on June .18 Waterloo day which was the
genial hostess's birthday. On these occasions Jowett's
unworldly simplicity sometimes amused the younger men :
as when he gave a rose that had been plucked for him
by one young lady to another who happened to have
none! Mrs. Cradock's young friends were expected to
provide entertainment for these birthday fetes by writing
short stories or poems. One day when the party were
driven in from the garden by rain, these compositions,
which had been thrown into a bag, were taken out at
random and read aloud. One story greatly struck Jowett's
fancy ; he asked to be allowed to take it home, and had
it copied.
It was here that Jowett made some friendships which,
268 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
like all his friendships, remained through life ; Lady
Stanley of Alderley, the daughters of the Dean of
Bristol 1 , and others. Through Mrs. Cradock he after-
wards had a meeting with Lord John Russell, which
interested him greatly, and was the first step in
an acquaintance with the Duke of Bedford's family,
which ultimately, through other circumstances, became
more intimate. Dr. Symonds, of Hill House, Clifton,
was another friend with whom he repeatedly stayed,
having made his acquaintance on young J. A. Symonds'
coming to Oxford in 1858. He had casually met
Dr. Symonds at a banquet in Magdalen College, earlier
in the same year.
Jowett used to say of Dr. Symonds, that he was the
only busy man who made an agreeable host, always
seeming at leisure for the entertainment of his guests.
He often spoke of him as the ' beloved physician.' About
the same time he became acquainted with the family
of Mr. Nightingale, of Embley, Surrey, and Lea Hurst,
Derbyshire, with whom he gradually formed a friendship
which continued to the end of his life.
Through Stanley he made the acquaintance of Mr. and
Mrs. Grote (whom he afterwards visited at their country
house, Barrow Green, in Kent), and had at least one
interview with Dean Milman.
His friendships were multiplying. Grant could already
say of him, ' He is the only man who can maintain close
friendship with about fifty people at once.'
All these threads were interwoven in his after life.
More conscious than heretofore of the limitations both
of his circumstances and of his powers, he was more
than ever determined to make his mark ; and as he was
1 The Very Rev. Gilbert Elliot.
1854-1860] State of the College 269
thrown back upon Balliol he was resolved henceforth
to do what in him lay to make Balliol great. He was
still for some time after this in a minority amongst his
colleagues, but the minority was a strong one. With
Henry Smith, W. L. Newman, and Charles Bowen on
his side, he felt confident that he could fight his way.
And he obtained some concessions of real importance,
such as the foundation of the open Exhibitions in 1858.
But the contention was acute and undisguised. He
said to a friend who was opposing some measure in
another College. 'Your Head seems to be an astute
person, who works by winning confidence ; here we have
a bare struggle for power.' Very rarely, however, out
of College meeting, did any resentful word escape him,
although he knew that he was himself the subject
of perpetual obloquy. Such words had always reference
to the state of the College. A case of gambling had
been discovered, and it had been treated, as he thought,
too lightly. 'I do not know what is to become of
the College, 1 he said. He was also concerned about
the selection of men for entrance. The ' old Master ' had
been used to select men from two classes ; first, those who
had high connexions, and, secondly, men of marked
ability; and by offering rooms to those who did well
for the Scholarship, the Tutors had given the preponder-
ance to the latter. Jowett fancied that the new Master
was departing from this tradition, but his fears were
hardly justified in the sequel ; this, however, was
largely due to the attractive force of Jowett's own
personality. The silence which he maintained about all
that concerned himself, and his indomitable persistence
in doing what he saw to be best for his pupils, and for
the truth which he held sacred, did not prevent his
judgement from being coloured to some extent by his
270 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
personal feeling. His remarks to private friends during
these years had often a tinge of bitterness, but even what
appeared like cynicism was the veil of deeper feeling.
When told of a young family who were beginning life
with prospects of a roseate hue, he said, ' Is life to be all
art and culture and music ? poor people, poor people ! '
The slight tone of contempt belied his real sympathy.
However pressed with occupation, he never turned
aside from helping those who sought his assistance,
reading and criticizing long ambitious arguments in
MS., and often hoping more from them than the result
has justified.
Yet it was to the interest he took in other people's
writings that he owed some of those intimate friendships
that were his chief solace during the years of gloom.
After reading a book in MS., which had been introduced
to him, I think, through Arthur Clough, he said, 'It
seemed to me as if I had received the impress of a new
mind.' Philanthropic efforts also greatly interested him,
and he rejoiced in any opportunity that brought them
within his ken. A familiar passage in the Essay on Inter-
pretation having obvious reference to the nurses in the
Crimea, strongly reflects this feeling : ' And there may
be some tender and delicate woman among us, who feels
that she has a Divine vocation to fulfil the most repulsive
offices towards the dying inmates of a hospital, or the
soldier perishing in a foreign land 1 .' How he found
time for all these interests is a perplexing thought, but
one thing which secured him some degree of leisure was
his resolute avoidance of polemical disputation. ' There
1 St. Paul's Epistles, third thized in the movement started
edition, vol. ii. p. 33. He visited in that quarter for the relief of
Miss Carpenter' s industrial school destitute incurables,
at Bristol, and keenly sympa-
1854-1860] Colonization 271
is nothing to be done, but to do nothing,' was his single
rule for meeting all attacks.
His judgement on persons, then and always, was wholly
independent of their opinions ; but not of their conduct.
Personal character counted with him for much. For
R. Hussey, Canon of Christ Church, Stanley's predecessor
in the Chair of Church History, who was a consistent
High Churchman, he had the most unfeigned respect. He
said of Canon F. C. Cook 1 , an opponent of Liberalism,
' He is the only person in England, whom I have met, that
could be called really learned.' He was disappointed in
Thirlwall, contrasting his attitude on leaving Cambridge
' multa et praeclara minantis,' with his episcopal charges.
' A man should not be broken down with fifteen years of
being a bishop.'
The time had now arrived when the opening of the
Fellowships, the most important factor in University
reform, was taking full effect. And one result of it,
which was cheering to Jowett, was the colonizing of the
rest of Oxford by Balliol men. He took intense interest
in their work, especially when they became Tutors.
* You will turn those rough undergraduates into First
Class men,' he used to say : ' You must treat them very-
much as gentlemen,' and (perhaps thinking of his own
experience) ' Do not assert your authority too soon : let it
come naturally and by degrees.' Also, ' Never speak
of their faults to any but themselves. You are sure to
lose influence if you do.'
Three Balliol men, A. G. Watson, "W. H. Fremantle,
and Godfrey Lushington, had been elected Fellows of All
Souls under the reformed Statute. But in a year or two
an attempt was made to revert to the former system, in
which birth and breeding were preferred to learning and
1 Editor of Aids to Faith,
272 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
ability as qualifications for election. The three juniors
fought hard to vindicate the spirit of the University Act,
and were successful in doing so. Jowett was keenly
interested in this contest, and greatly pleased with the
result, which was obtained in 1861.
To those of his pupils who became parish clergymen,
he gave advice which was sometimes ironical, but always
sagacious, and kindly meant. If asked how to manage
one's parishioners, he would say, ' Please every one,
and displease none.' He repeated the saying of the
butler at Lichfield Palace, who, when asked how
Master James Lonsdale was getting on, had replied, ' He
offends the people by reproving them for drunkenness.
'E should 'a stuck to the doctrine, sir, that could do no
'arm ! ' Then without irony he would say, ' You can do
good to the poor by visiting, and to the rich by society.'
About preaching, he had a more serious tone. ' I have
long thought about the value of sermons, and I think
I know it now. They idealize life for us. But there
must be more in your discourse than mere morality. If
you give them a moral essay, not a poor woman in the
congregation but will feel that there is something wrong.'
In the same spirit he wrote to James Lonsdale, when
appointed to the preachership at Lincoln's Inn :
' There is nothing by which more good might be done than
by good preaching. I mean chiefly : (i) The connexion of
religion with life, (2) The assertion of a regard for truth as
a sort of religious duty the spirit of truth. I hope you will
devote yourself to sermon writing ; no one can succeed better ;
and don't be over simple (if I may say so) ; simplicity is the
best of faults, yet there is some danger of mannerism even
from simplicity.'
He spoke with respect of Benan's article on the Future
of Metaphysic (Revue des Deux Mondes, Jan. 15, 1860).
1854-1860] Plan of 'Essays and Reviews' 273
I have referred above to an Essay on Interpretation,
which had been prepared with a view to the second
edition of the book on St. Paul J . Having this in
reserve, Jowett was approached by the Rev. H. B. "Wilson,
the Bampton Lecturer of 1851, once his colleague in the
Examinership, who desired a contribution from him to
a volume, in which theological subjects should be freely
handled in a becoming spirit.
Henry Bristowe "Wilson was a man of great elevation
of character, and of an extraordinarily keen and pene-
trative mind, who, after serving his College and the
University for a quarter of a century, had taken a
St. John's living, the Vicarage of Great Staughton,
Huntingdonshire, in the year 1850. , The widening
of theological opinion and of Christian communion was
thenceforward the main interest of his life. The
concluding passage of his essay finely expresses the
restrained fervour and intense spiritual thoughtfulness
which characterized him. Those who read it here will
think it strange that it should have been made the ground
of a condemnation which, though afterwards reversed,
suspended him from his office for a year :
' The Christian Church can only tend on those who are
committed to its care, to the verge of that abyss which parts
this world from the world unseen. Some few of those fostered
by her are now ripe for entering on a higher career ; the many
are but rudimentary spirits, germinal souls. What shall
become of them ? If we look abroad in the world and regard
the neutral character of the multitude, we are at a loss to
apply to them, either the promises, or the denunciations of
Revelation. So, the wise heathens could anticipate a reunion
1 p. 251. The first hint of such and it will perhaps have two
an essay occurs in a letter to subordinate essays, on the Critical
Stanley in the autumn of 1847 : Study of Scripture, and on the
' I find that St. John expands, relation of Faith to Knowledge.'
VOL. I. T
274 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
with the great and good of all ages ; they could represent
to themselves, at least in a figurative manner, the punishment
and the purgatory of the wicked ; but they would not expect
the reappearance in another world, for any purpose, of a
Thersites, or an Hyperbolos social and poetical justice had
been sufficiently done upon them. Yet there are such as
these, and no better than these, under the Christian name
babblers, busy-bodies, livers to get gain, and mere eaters and
drinkers. The Koman Church has imagined a linibus infantium ;
we must rather entertain a hope that there shall be found,
after the great adjudication, receptacles suitable for those who
shall be infants, not as to years of terrestrial life, but as to
spiritual development nurseries, as it were, and seed grounds,
where the undeveloped may grow up under new conditions
the stunted may become strong, and the perverted be restored.
And when the Christian Church in all its branches shall have
fulfilled its sublunary office, and its Founder shall have sur-
rendered His kingdom to the great Father all, both small and
great, shall find a refuge in the bosom of the Universal Parent,
to repose, or be quickened into higher life, in the ages to come,
according to His Will.'
The remaining contributors to the volume were Rowland
"Williams, Vice-Principal of Lampeter College, the author
of a work on Rational Godliness 1 , a man of genius,
somewhat dangerously blent with Celtic fire, whose
essay was on Bunsen's Biblical Researches ; Baden
Powell, the mathematician, who had written an essay on
Theism for the Burnett Prize, and now wrote on Christian
Evidences ; Mark Pattison, who described eighteenth-
century Theology, and C. W. Goodwin, the only layman
of the seven, whose subject was the Mosaic Cosmogony.
One valuable trace of the negotiations by which the
work was arranged, appears in a letter of Jowett's to
Stanley, inviting him to contribute :
1 It was reviewed, with Jowett and Stanley on St. Paul, in the
Quarterly Review for October, 1855 (' The Neology of the Cloister ').
1854-1860] Stanley is asked to join 275
CHESTNUT HILL, KESWICK,
August 15, 1858.
' Wilson wishes me to write to you respecting a volume of
Theological Essays which he has already mentioned, the object
of which, however, he thinks he has not clearly set before
you, trusting to my being at Oxford, &c.
' The persons who have already joined in the plan are Wilson.
E. Williams of King's, Pattison, Grant *, Temple, Mtiller, if
he has time, and myself. The object is to say what we think
freely within the limits of the Church of England. A notice
will be prefixed that no one is responsible for any notions but
his own. It is, however, an essential part of the plan that
names shall be given, partly for the additional weight which the
articles will have if the authors are known, and also from
the feeling that on such subjects as theology it is better not
to write anonymously. We do not wish to do anything rash
or irritating to the public or the University, but we are
determined not to submit to this abominable system of terror-
ism, which prevents the statement of the plainest facts, and
makes true theology or theological education impossible.
Pusey and his friends are perfectly aware of your opinions,
and the Dean's, and Temple's and Muller's, but they are
determined to prevent your expressing them. I do not deny
that in the present state of the world the expression of them
is a matter of great nicety and care, but is it possible to do any
good by a system of reticence ? For example, I entirely agree
with you that no greater good could be accomplished for religion
and morality than the abolition of all subscriptions ; but how
will this ever be promoted in the least degree, or how will it
be possible for any one in high station ever to propose it, if
we only talk it over in private ? We shall talk A. D. 1868.
I want to point out that the object is not to be attained by any
anonymous writing.
' As it is good to look at things on all sides, I don't object
1 Grant's Indian appointment prevented him from carrying out
his intention of contributing.
T 2
276 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
to Mrs. Stanley or Mrs. Vaughan, if she is in Oxford, applying
the fable of the fox who has lost his tail.
' I don't write so often as I once did, but am not the less
truly your sincere and affectionate friend.'
Stanley disapproved of the policy of such an open alli-
ance, and Jowett, in persevering with it, acted against his
friend's advice. As he told Dr. Symonds of Clifton 1 , he
strongly felt the duty of continuing his efforts to clear the
minds of his countrymen from religious prejudices. He
determined, therefore, to complete his Essay and to send
it in. He also obtained the adhesion of Dr. Temple, whose
University sermon on the Education of the World lay in
the direction indicated, and when preached had given no
offence, escaping even the suspicion of heresy, except, it
is said, in the mind of Dr. Hawkins, the keen-scented
Provost of Oriel. Dr. John Muir of Edinburgh, the
Sanskrit scholar, was a zealous promoter of the scheme.
Jowett was hampered with the accumulation of many
duties: he said one day to a friend, with momentary
impatience, ' I ought not to have so much to do ' : but
if he could only get to the seaside for a few weeks
together, he thought he might make a good thing of this
piece of writing. He was working at it during a visit
to the Tennysons in the winter of 1859, and wrote one
passage at least, that on the Parables, at Milford Vicarage,
Hampshire 2 , where he talked anxiously over this and other
schemes. At one moment he turned suddenly and asked
his hostess, ' Can the truth do harm ? ' On her replying,
' It can surely do no harm to tell the truth,' he said, ' That
is the verdict of the simple mind.' Not that he had
fully calculated on the storm which followed, but he was
apprehensive of some misunderstanding, and he desired
1 Life of J. A, Symonds, vol. i. 2 I was then Vicar of Mil-
p. 188. ford.-L. C.
Letters, 1854-1860 277
to make his own position clear 1 . The book appeared
in March, 1860. He wrote to me quite simply, on April 6,
' I am glad that you like the volume of Essays'
Henry Smith remarked soon afterwards, with reference
to the enterprise, which he appears to have watched with
some misgiving, 'The stone has sunk quietly into the
waters after all.'
LETTEKS, 1854-1860.
To F. T. PALGEAVE.
HARROW, April 7, 1854.
I cannot but write to thank you for your most
kind note. It is the last thing I should have imagined
that you were indifferent to the event of last Tuesday. You
and a few others (if you will excuse my saying so) have
a ridiculous opinion of what I am and can do, but though
I am aware of this, I must always feel deeply grateful for
the affection you show. . . . The event of Tuesday, about
which you speak so kindly, is a little hard upon me. . . . But
while I can keep the regard of my pupils, I shall stay on
and do the utmost I can, though I cannot but feel sadly at
having lost a position that in this world seemed all I could
desire.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BALLIOL, April 12, 1854.
I will not trouble you any more with the hateful subject
of the Balliol election.
1 He wrote in 1861 : ' The tension of your readers.' Cf.
great difficulty in writing is to Autobiography of F. P. Cobbe,
adapt your thoughts to the appre- vol. i. p. 349.
278 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
. . . On Monday we had another meeting at Macaulay's. He
talked again about the Oxford Bill said the debate was as dull
as possible, that the Ministry were going to give up the certifi-
cate clauses, and declaimed against Whewell's bigotry ; gave an
amusing account of what he called Lord Rutherford's conversion
by being taken to Trinity College Chapel, illustrative of the
effect on the minds of Dissenters of so many hundred surplices.
His conversation does not give you a high idea of his intellect.
He strikes one rather as a fine old fellow, very hearty and simple,
but 'excellent at monologue,' with a most sincere and genuine
pleasure in hearing himself talk. In power of mind he is
very inferior to Gladstone, but more straightforward, with no
'ins and outs.' On the whole the Commission has prospered
greatly thus far. We have agreed to leave the age for exit
from Haileybury twenty-three, and only to require six months'
residence there, which will open the Indian service to the
Universities. Macaulay does not believe that any University
men will be found to go. He would rather be a serving man
himself,
dv8pl Trap' aK\r]pa> . . .
fj iraa-tv vtnveao-i Kara(j)dififvoi(Tiv dvdaa-fiv 1
i. e. be Governor General.
A large work of Pusey v. Vaughan 2 has appeared.
I still look forward to some happy time when you and I and
Temple may be working together at Oxford. Many thanks
more than I can express for your deep affection and sympathy
for me.
To A. P. STANLEY.
BALLIOL, July n, 1854.
. . . How many things have happened since we met, though
only three months ago. I am delighted at the abolition of
tests, which is a real good and rests the University on a solid
national foundation, independent of Church, Ministries, &c.
Notwithstanding the great number who signed the petition 3
1 ' Under apoor master . . . than Teaching ; see Life of E. B. Pusey,
lord it over the people of the vol. iii. pp. 386-388.
dead.' Horn. Odyss. xi. 490. 3 Against the abolition of tests.
- Collegiate and Professorial
Letters, 1854-1860 279
I believe that people are already a good deal softened, and in a
few months will have shifted to a new point of view. Gladstone
is a great peacemaker. At present they busy themselves with
the hope that by enforcing a very strict system of chapels, &c.,
they will be able to exclude Dissenters from the Colleges.
If you are not likely to be in town next week, will you be at
Canterbury in the middle of August ? I cannot tell you how
strongly the isolation in which I feel myself here makes me
turn to you and Temple and the few true and warm friends
of my own standing whom I have elsewhere. If I could begin
life again it should not be in a College.
To A. P. STANLEY.
[October'} 1854.]
To hear from you reminds me of old times which I wish
I could recall, when you and I and Temple were Tutors here
together. 'Omnes composui felices! nunc ego resto.'
There seems to be little hope of good from the new Heb-
domadal Board. It is said to be the general intention to vote
for as many Heads as possible, e. g. three for Professors, four for
Masters, besides their own six. That is to say in other words,
the worst Heads are to be elected with a view to the exclusion
of the best Professors. Such a Board will throw every impedi-
ment in the way of a Commission. It seems that the admission
of Dissenters, who will be excluded by every means it is possible
to devise, has led to this result. This is a weary place, in which
little good is effected by much pains and thought. I bury
myself in my book and pupils. . ^-
To A. P. STANLEY.
[January 1 ? 1855.]
Your letters are a great pleasure and comfort to me. I shall
try to follow your advice and bury all animosities towards
everybody.
Yet allow me to make a philosophical reflection. What
a bad school for character a College is ! so narrow and artificial,
280 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
such a soil for maggots and crotchets of all sorts, fostering
a sort of weak cleverness, but greatly tending to impair
manliness, straightforwardness, and other qualities which are
met with in the great world. A man said to me the other
day, 'How very unworldly a friend of ours is,' which meant
that he was disposed to lose the best years of his life between
twenty-three and twenty-eight in reading poetry and dreaming
about philosophy. . . .
To go to another subject. It has occurred to me several
times lately that I have been inconsiderate in trying to press
upon you opinions and ways of life that, whether right or
wrong, were natural to me, but not natural to you. I re-
member your writing to me about this in September, 1849'.
Afterwards I wanted you to come to Oxford and help a
scheme for poor students. I entirely see now that it was
a mistake 2 . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
[1855-]
I do not propose my rule of proceeding with the Puseyites
for anybody else. I only allude to the subject again to
explain that I wish them to have entire toleration, but I do not
wish to act with them because I think the union hollow and
false. They will be too much for me and I shall get nothing
out of them.
Certainly I desire also to remember that there will come
a time when all these differences will have an end, and that in
some way, we know not how, those who have any shadow
of love or truth will be transfigured into His image. But
I wish to wait for another world before joining in a closer
union with them.
I write this in a reading-room at Folkestone, where I took up
the Record. There were two articles in it ; the first on Miss
Stanley and Miss Nightingale, explaining that the Record
had done the latter injustice, and that it was still willing to
do Miss Stanley injustice. Then followed an article on
1 p. 166. Cf. Letters of Dean Stanley, p. 137. z p. 212.
Letters, 1854-1860 281
Mr. Stanley and Mr. Jowett, setting forth that the former
was bad, but the latter worse, and that the former was
implicated in the sins of the latter. Remember me to your
sister. Though I protested above that I wished to have
nothing to do with Puseyites, I was glad to see my name
honoured by being on the same page with hers.
Pascal does not clear up to me. His evidences of Christianity
are only for those whom he can first bring into that state of
spiritual desolation in which he finds himself. It appears only
during the last five years of his life that he had any deep
religious feeling.
To A. P. STANLEY.
[July* 1855.]
Yesterday I was at Fox How and spent the day with
Mrs. Arnold, who sent her love to you. It was a great plea-
sure to me to see the place again in w r hich he lived. I think the
thing which interested me most was that old portrait of Arnold
as a young man in the dining-room, which has a strong
resemblance to Tom : also more of the fierceness of untamed
youth than is traceable in his later years.
Mrs. Arnold seemed very happy and cheerful, but I was
soriy to see her looking so aged ; it is ten years since I saw her
last, and she has become, as she called herself, an old woman
in the interval.
... I have brought your book with me, which I am reading
with great pleasure. Two criticisms I have heard made on it
by one who had a great value for it : first, that it was in
places too rhetorical, and that there was too great an absence
of doctrinal statements. The first criticism I agree in, and if
I may venture to give a judgement in such a matter, I would
be glad if you would tone down your style in the new book ',
because it would be more effective with rather more of the
'ars celare artem.' The pleasantest picture loses its beauty
when it does not seem 'to come sweetly from nature.'
I am not quite a fair critic in the matter, because I feel that
1 i. e. Sinai and Palestine.
282 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
my dreamy, hazy suggestions of things are not to be compared
with the good, substantial, bright colours in which you
present them.
To MBS. GREENHILL.
BALLIOL, October 21, 1855.
I have not answered your kind note because I have been
overwhelmed with work during the last three weeks, and
I wished to sit down and feast upon the congratulations l
which I have received, and answer them at leisure. Con-
gratulations is a bad word, because it is supposed to mean
nothing, and I am sure the letters that were addressed to
me meant something, viz. the attachment of a great many
warm-hearted persons to me, for which I cannot be too grateful
both to them and to Providence who has given me such friends.
They make me half believe what the Dean of Wells 2 said to me
the other day : ' You have the sympathy of everybody.'
I ought to except your friends, the Heads of Houses, with
whom, however, I wish to be on peaceable terms. I sincerely
pity them, for they are fallen on evil days. And you will
observe that we have now got two trusty reformers among the
Heads, in the Dean of Christ Church (Liddell), and in the Provost
of Queen's (Thomson). The first is one of the most able
and most honest men living, quite free from Christ Church or
any other prejudices. His first act has been to abolish the
Servitors, whom he intends to convert into Exhibitioners. He
has been very kind to me about the Professorship : not that
I asked him, but of his own accord he took great pains and
trouble about it.
I wish Arnold were alive : how gladly we would have
welcomed him, if he had settled amongst us !
To A FKIEND ON A CONVERSION TO THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
1856.
I am indeed sorry to hear that your thoughts have been occu-
pied by a painful subject. Think of it as it will be a year hence
1 On the Greek Professorship. 2 G. H. S. Johnson.
Letters, 1854-1860 283
and as it will seem in another world when these miserable
divisions will have passed away, and keep it to yourselves and
God. The greatest possible allowance must be made for things
done or said by persons in a half-distracted state of mind.
How it is, as I have seen it, that the best persons pass into
such states of mind, is a great mystery ; yet their Heaven may
clear before they die, and we may be perfectly reconciled to see
them such as God has pleased or allowed them to be. ...
It is a part of the illusion that converts to a new faith do
not feel the pain that they cause to others. Happy for them,
I think, that it is so or they would break down under the
conflict.
The mind is so abstracted and so perfectly at rest that
they cannot admit any distracting thought. Does not this
seem to have been the case with the first Christians ? . . . .
To SIR ALEXANDER GRANT.
August 19, 1856.
DEAR GRANT,
I was sorry to observe in the Illustrated London News
to-day a mention of the death of your father.
I am afraid this event is a great trouble to you and
Lady Grant, more especially as you had seen little of him
of late years. Do not let this grieve you. Family trials
frequently cannot be avoided. I do not think accidents of
this sort should increase sorrow. Death is an aweful thing,
about which our greatest comfort must ever be that the
departed are in the hands of God, to be judged not by the
pedantry of divines on earth, but by the larger rules of
His mercy. It seems to me wrong and foolish to dwell much
on anything but this. There is nothing probably that those
who are gone would less wish than that we should recall
painful recollections.
To yourself I think the succession to the Baronetcy a great
good. Many persons say that rank is a misfortune without
wealth. This is not true. There are three kinds of goods, as
our friend Aristotle would say, rank, wealth, and talent. It
seems to me that a man may do well with two out of the
three. With the last only, life is a painful struggle.
284 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
Your book 1 is often in my mind. I hope it has prospered
during the vacation. But if not, do not be discouraged.
Nothing seems to me more uncertain than composition. One
month a good harvest is reaped : the next all barren. In these
fits and starts, with much pain and melancholy I calculate
that I accomplish somewhat less than half of what I always
intend. Whether you accomplish the work six months sooner
or later must depend on health and many other causes. I feel
confident that you will succeed at last.
This letter is nothing, yet I send it because I do not want
you, who have shown such warm sympathy and kindness for
me, to suppose that I can be forgetful of you at any crisis
of your life.
Ever yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
To JOHN NICHOL.
August 22, 1856.
. . . The subject of the Stanhope Essay is 'The Life and
Place of Wycliffe as a Eeformer. '
You could not have a more interesting subject. The books
about it you probably know better than I do.
. . . Great reformers are generally misrepresented when the
world has settled down into a calm. Mankind are afraid to
acknowledge how wild and fierce they were. I expect you will
find Wycliffe to have been a kind of 'Socialist,' as a man
whose mind was turned loose upon Scripture might very well
become, especially in an age when the division of ranks was so
strongly marked. The rebellious spirits of the Middle Ages
are a strange phenomenon.
To A. P. STANLEY.
DOVER, 1856.
I took up the Record at the reading-rooms to-day ; it
points out for the edification of the Ministry that Providence
whitewashed their misdoings by two large majorities imme-
diately after the Sunday bands were put an end to. ' I had
Edition of Aristotle's Ethics.
Letters, 1854-1860 285
rather believe all the fables in the Talmud and Alkoran than
this.' ... I think Arnold was dangerous in the sense that every
man is dangerous. Arnold's peculiar danger was not knowing
the world and character not knowing where his ideas would
take other people, and ought to take himself. Yet had he
been living, how we would have nestled under his wings !
To MBS. STANLEY.
December, 1856.
I write to thank you for your kind note. Shall I con-
gratulate you ? It is no great matter as a preferment for
him, but I congratulate myself three times a day. Yet it
is also a matter of congratulation to you that he is in the
right niche a place in which he can build up a reputation
worth many bishoprics. As Professor of Ecclesiastical His-
tory, he may have an influence on the English Church which
no bishop has ever exercised or can exercise. And therefore,
though stripped of some of the accidents of greatness and with-
out the sweet sound of 'my Lord,' I do not think he could be
better off than he is.
Of course he will keep the Canonry at Canterbury until
Dr. Barnes, who is now about eighty-six, sleeps with his fathers.
I do not know whether he would care to have a permanent
abode at Oxford at present ; if so, he could probably have
Mr. Butler's house, one of the few habitations convenient and
suitable for him.
We will give him a welcome such as shall gladden you.
To F. T. PALGRAVE.
December 4, 1857.
Many thanks for your kind present, which was most
welcome to me, both for the sake of the giver and the beauty
of the work itself. It seems to me as though I had not seen
you for an immense time. . . .
I have now got three works of A[lbert] D[urer]. My ambition
is next to possess a little landscape of Eembrandt. All the
ideas I have about art I learnt from you, though you have not
much reason to be satisfied with my proficiency. A little real
286 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
pleasure I get from it, whether to be set in the scale against
a good dinner I do not know. Certainly not against an opera or
oratorio of Handel.
You should have tried for the Balliol Scholarship this year.
Our subject for English Essay was 'Whether a good artist
must also be a good man.'
To MRS. GREENHILL.
KNELLEB HALL, ISLEWORTH,
Christmas Day, [1857].
It is extremely kind of you to write and ask me to come and
stay with you. Alas ! I fear the visions of going to Rome
have melted into thin air. I have engaged to take some
undergraduates this vacation, with the view if possible of
keeping them to their work.
Therefore I fear I must put off until Easter or the summer the
pleasure of coming to see you. Give my love to Kate, who
I hope is becoming an accomplished young lady, and tell
her not to forget me until then. I wonder whether she is
up to writing a letter to me yet. My little godson is, I sup-
pose, grown and more entertaining than when I last saw him.
Oxford is at last beginning to stir itself and set its house in
order. During the last part of the Term we were very busy at
Balliol with a scheme of reform which has just received
the consent of the Visitor, and will, as we hope, shortly become
law 1 . It is charming to see the way in which the anti-
reformers change their opinions, and a great satisfaction
to have been a 'republican of the day before.' Everybody
seems to be discovering that the founder after all is only
the ghost of a founder.
To F. T. PALGRAVE.
October 24, 1858.
' I will be guilty of this sin no longer 2 , ' and only hope you
will not measure the value I set on the gift by the apparent
1 pp. 258, 269. The Balliol or- ' Shakespeare, i Henry IV, ii. 4.
dinance of the Executive Com- It was a favourite phrase of
mission of 1854 was issued in Jowett's, and, as often happened
1857. in quotations, was applied by him
Letters, 1854-1860 287
thanklessness of not answering your letter. The St. Paul l
seems to me to be a very fine work, which I am extremely glad
to possess. I like particularly the style in which you have
mounted it ; it hangs over the mantelpiece in the outer room.
I hope that you will soon come and pay a visit to it.
Shall I offer a criticism on the St. Paul, a very general
one ? I think I would have thrown into it more of unrest
and perturbation of feeling at any rate more trace of the
struggle and conquest over it. The 2 Cor. xii, xiii, i Cor.
ix, Gal. vi. 17, 2 Tim. iv. 5-8 would express what I mean.
But I am not sure whether it would be possible to make so
great a departure from conventional ideas on the subject.
My book is nearly all printed, but is at present interrupted
for Homer, in which I find great delight.
To A. P. STANLEY.
TENBY, Friday, March, i8=.g.
MY DEAR STANLEY,
I write to you as one of my dearest and oldest friends
to tell you that my dear father has been taken from us.
He died peacefully after about a fortnight's illness, and I
believe without pain to himself.
He was one of the best men I ever knew, perfectly guileless
and childlike, and would have been one of the happiest, if life
could have been spent only in doing kindnesses to others.
Though possessed of considerable ability and very great activity
of mind, he was entirely ignorant of the world and of business,
in some respects like a child throughout life.
There is no need of knowledge of the world or of business
where he is now.
My mother and sister are better than I could have expected,
and have borne up and are borne up under this great blow.
The post is just going out.
Ever yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
without any reference to the trick of association had taken
original meaning and connexion his fancy.
of the words, which through some 1 Woolner's relief, pp. 233,289.
288 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, ix
To A. P. STANLEY.
TENBY, March 10, 1859.
I write to thank you for your most kind letter, which was
a great comfort and good to me as far as words could be.
We have experienced the greatest kindness here from
very many persons. The Eector told me that it was the
impression of the whole place ' that a good man had passed
away.'
I make no progress with my book, for my mind seems dried
up. I have written what would make above 100 pages of
print for the two last essays of the second volume (all the rest
is printed), but the form of it is not good, and just at present
I feel incapable of putting it into a better. I will wait a day
or two and try again ; therefore do not expect the book for a few
weeks. I return on Monday evening.
To THE TENNYSON CHILDREN.
_ T February, 1860.
MY DEAR HALLAM AND LIONEL,
What an age it is since I saw you ! Love and kisses.
I must write you a few lines, for I want to hear from you.
Can you carry a message? Tell Papa that I have got a
Homer for him, but not a Boswell. The Homer is in five
volumes and costs five shillings.
I wish I had you after dinner to sit opposite me on two
chairs and hear about ' Louisa ' or the tale of Troy. Try and
persuade Papa to bring you in the summer.
I think I told you that I keep a large school to which you
are to come by-and-by. All the boys in my school are very
big, some of them six feet high and more. They are very
busy playing at soldiers at present ; in fact, they can hardly
be got to do anything else 1 . But they are good boys, and
I like them very much.
Do you know the name of a large school where there are
only old boys ? It is called a University.
1 The Rifle Corps movement was at its height in 1860.
Letters, 1854-1860 289
Give my love to Papa and Mama. I shall add two pieces
of advice to you in large letters that you may remember
them :
NEVER FEAR.
NEVER CRY.
Good-bye. You may as well guess from whom this comes,
therefore I shall only sign myself
Your affectionate friend,
OXONIENSIS.
Note on Woolner's St. Paul (p. 287).
Mr. F. T. Palgrave has kindly furnished us with the
following account (October, 1896):
' Woolner's St. Paul with three similar figures, Moses,
David, and (perhaps) St. John Baptist was modelled by him
and cast in plaster ; from which the four figures were carved,
in some local stone, for the pulpit in Llandaff Cathedral nave.
Woolner did not superintend the carving, which I have heard
is rough. The series was in the E. A. Exhibition about 1858
or 1859. He never did better work.'
VOL. I. U
CHAPTEK X
'ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.' 1860-1865
(Aet. 43-48)
Essays and Reviews Panic in the religious world The Quarterly
and Edinburgh Reviews Bishop Wilberforce Stanley at Oxford
Dr. Pusey's attitude Bishop Colenso Prosecution of Williams and
Wilson The Vice-Chancellor's Court Continued agitation for the
Endowment of the Greek Chair E. Freeman and C. Elton Endow-
ment of the Chair by Christ Church.
TN this chapter it will be necessary for the sake of
-*- clearness to travel beyond the strict limits of Bio-
graphy, and to recall a series of incidents which had
important consequences not only for the subject of this
memoir, but for some public institutions. They gave
to his career its final bent by binding him to Balliol;
and while thus enriching that College, left Christ Church,
and the Church of England also, poorer than they might
otherwise have been.
In the summer of 1860 a the meeting of the British
Association was held at Oxford. The encounter on that
occasion between Mr. Huxley 2 and Bishop Wilberforce,
during the discussion that arose concerning Mr. Darwin's
Origin of Species 3 , was long vividly remembered and
1 June 27 -July 3. 2 The Right Hon. T. H. Huxley.
3 Published in 1859.
'Essays and Reviews' 291
has been described elsewhere 1 . But the excitement
evoked by that great argument gave place in clerical
circles to the outcry shortly afterwards raised about Essays
and Reviews. Dean Church, in writing to his American
correspondent, Dr. Asa Gray, early in 1861, observes
with reference to Darwin's volume, ' The book I have
no doubt would be the subject still of a great row, if
there were not a much greater row going on about
Essays and Reviews V
It is hard for the present generation to realize the
violence of this disturbance. The ' religious world ' lost
their heads at once, and there was a danger lest even
sensible persons among the laity should be carried
away. Few indeed of those who professed orthodox
opinions shared the temperate and calm judgement of
the distinguished clergyman whose words I have just
quoted. ' There has been a great deal of unwise panic/
he adds, ' and unjust and hasty abuse ; and people who
have not an inkling of the difficulties which beset the
questions, are for settling them in a summary way,
which is perilous for every one.' The mischief was
already afoot, when it was sedulously fomented at a
great gathering of the Oxford M.A.'s, who had come up to
vote in Convocation against the appointment of Mr. Max
Muller to the Chair of Sanskrit. That distinguished
Orientalist was suspected of ' Germanism,' being in fact
a German, and also an acquaintance of the Chevalier
Bunsen, whose name (if only on account of Dr. Arnold's
friendship for him) was a bugbear to many of the orthodox
at the time.
The clergy who came up on that occasion had their
attention called to an article in the Westminster and
1 See Life of Charles Darwin, vol. ii. pp. 321, 322.
2 Dean Church's Life, p. 157.
U 2
292 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
Foreign Quarterly Review of October i, 1860, headed
' Neo-Christianity,' and dealing with, the volume in
question 1 . The tenor of that article was calculated to
excite their horror. The Westminster was then the
organ of the Positivist school, whose reputed aim
was to reconstruct society upon the ruins of existing
systems ; and the liberalizing of Christianity plainly
did not fall in with such a project. Accordingly the
line taken by this periodical was to caricature a position
such as that of the Essayists, in which Conservative
and Progressive principles were combined, as one of
hopeless inconsistency, and, in short, to push these
writers over the precipice, on the brink of which it
represented them as standing. Instead, however, of con-
sidering the questionableness of the warning ('Quis
tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes?'), the clergy, who
had hardly recovered from the Darwinian scare, were
in the mood to think, 'If this gives offence in such
a quarter, how bad it must be ! '
The clerical * caucus ' was immediately followed by an
outburst of abuse, more or less tempered with decorum,
in the Record, Guardian, and other 'religious' news-
papers ; and the matter was seriously taken up by the
Church's representatives, assembled in both Houses of
Convocation (whose powers, long suppressed, had been
revived in i86o) 2 . The bishops, led by the Bishop of
Oxford, formally denounced the book, and every diocese,
1 A letter from Jowett to 2 They met on March 26. In the
Stanley of April, 1862, shows that Upper House Thirlwall supported
the writer of this article was after- Wilberforce,and Bishop Ham pden
wards believed to have regretted (of all persons) said, ' This was a
his vehemence, and that when he question between Infidelity and
was threatened with persecution Christianity, and that we ought
for his opinions, Jowett exerted to prosecute.' Life ofBp. Wilber-
himself strenuously on his behalf, force, vol. iii. p. 213.
1860-1865] Motives misunderstood 293
archdeaconry, and rural-diaconate throughout the land
became a busy hive for the manufacture of memorials
against the notorious ' seven.' Still heavier artillery
was brought to bear. In the January number of the
Quarterly Review for 1861, there appeared an article
on Essays and Reviews, in which the subtle influence
of Bishop Wilberforce l was easily detected, at once
depreciating the literary merit of the volume, and
emphasizing both its dangerous tendency and the invi-
dious position of the clerical contributors. This article
became a rallying point for controversialists on the
orthodox side. And two imposing volumes, Aids to
Faith and Replies to Essays and Reviews, both now
forgotten, though produced under high auspices, helped
to swell the cry of alarm which they proposed to allay.
But besides the Comtist critics, and the clergy of
every grade, the book had other enemies. There were
laymen who claimed that 'Free Inquiry' should be the
privilege of ' Free Inquirers.' To such persons Jowett's
position was wholly incomprehensible. Penetrated as
he was with the conviction that the religion of Christ
ought to be the religion of all men, and seeing in the
Church of England could she but know 'the things
belonging to her peace' the best hope for the future
of Christianity, he had overcome the difficulties of
his position, difficulties which were not greater
for the Christian Philosopher than for the Sacer-
dotalist or the Evangelical Protestant. He saw the
religion of his countrymen dying, like poor Dean Swift,
'from the top' losing touch, that is to say, with in-
tellectual and rational life; the clergy, meanwhile,
1 The writer professes to trace concealed bitterness.' This was
in Mr. Jowett's Essay ' a certain shrewdly aimed,
sense of disappointment and
294 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
ignoring plain facts, or industriously obscuring them,
or explaining them away, and the civilization of the
age in danger of becoming, as he himself described
humanity without religion, 'a truncated, half-educated
sort of being 1 .' The average English layman 'cared for
none of these things.' His withers were unwrung.
Looking at the matter from outside, he only saw the
prima facie discrepancy between seventeenth-century
Articles, or mediaeval formularies (already at variance
with each other), and nineteenth-century enlightenment 2 .
It followed that no enlightened person should become
a clergyman, and that the clergyman who became
enlightened and let men know it should be unfrocked.
It did not occur to such observers to ask the further
question, what then would happen to religion? Nor
did they stop to think that by maintaining silence,
the Essayist might have served his personal interest,
but would have sacrificed a noble end. Hence they
were ready to join in the cry of ' disloyalty.'
Mr. Carlyle, the Chelsea oracle, who often cared not
whom or what he smote, so he smote hard enough,
was at once ready with his epigram. He had himself
proclaimed the 'Exodus from Houndsditch 3 ,' but had
not shown a way through the Wilderness; yet the
moment some one from within the camp spoke words of
truth and soberness, he broke out with ' The sentinel who
deserts, should be shot V And the organ of sceptical Con-
1 Epistles of St. Paul, third force, vol. iii. p. 8 : ' Eode with
edition, vol. ii. p. 96. Carlyle . . . Carlyle against the
* See Letters of Matthew Arnold, Essayists on dishonesty ground
vol. i. pp. 131, 135, 178. and atheistic.' Some who cling
8 His quaint phrase for getting to Carlyle's authority in such a
rid of Hebrew old clothes, that is, matter may bear to be reminded
of Jewish tradition. of the more considerate utterance
4 Cf. ihe Life of Bishop Wilier- of John Stuart Mill: 'I hold
1860-1865] ' The Storm in the Church '
295
servatism, not untinged with clericalism the Saturday
Review in two articles, headed 'Essays and Reviews'
(March 2, 1861) and 'The Storm in the Church'
(March 23, 1861), while solemnly professing reluctance to
meddle with the subject, indulged in unworthy sneers
at the position of the writers :
'Fair dealing, after all, is an essential part of practical
religion ; and liberty of conduct may do as much harm to
morality as liberty of speculation can do good to Truth. That
there has been, and will be, abundance of applause, as well
as of indignation, is true ; but it does not follow that those
who think it politic to drive in the wedge, in their hearts
respect the wedge which they drive in 1 .'
Then with reference to the foolish action of the
bishops in denouncing, i. e. advertising, the book :
' Has any perpetual curate with fourteen children a volume
of dull sermons which no publisher will take ? Let him
entirely with those clergymen
who elect to remain in the national
Church, so long as they are able
to accept its Articles and confes-
sions in any sense or with any
interpretation consistent with
common honesty, whether it be
the generally received interpre-
tation or not. If all were to
desert the Church who put a
large and liberal construction on
its terms of communion, or who
would wish to see those terms
widened, the national provision
for religious teaching and wor-
ship would be left utterly to
those who take the narrowest,
the most literal, and purely
textual view of the formularies;
who, though by no means neces-
sarily bigots, are under the great
disadvantage of having the bigots
for their allies, and who, however
great their merits may be and
they are often very great yet, if
the Church is improvable, are not
the most likely persons to improve
it. ... Almost all the illustrious
reformers of religion began by
being clergymen, but they did
not think that their profession
as clergymen was inconsistent
with their being reformers. They
mostly indeed ended their days
outside the Churches in which
they were born; but itwas because
the Churches, in an evil hour for
themselves, cast them out.' In-
augural Address at St. Andrews,
February i, 1867.
1 Saturday Review, March 2,
1861.
296 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
insert into the volume a few passages sufficiently questionable
in their tendency to call down his diocesan, and his little
ones will be fed. Is any would-be popular preacher languish-
ing under a sense of neglected talent? Let him spice high
with heterodoxy, and he is a famous man V
Such words, in looking back upon them, only provoke
a smile ; but they caused some anger at the time ; not in
Jowett himself, who attributed them to ' a fit of indiges-
tion ' on the part of the writer, but in his friend Charles
Bowen 2 , who withdrew from the staff of the Saturday
Review in consequence of them. Yet the writer of the
first article made an important admission : ' The book
has a conservative as well as a destructive side, which it
is not fair or wise to overlook.' Had this conservative
purpose been carefully weighed by those ecclesiastics, who,
like Dean Church, were not unaware of the difficulties
involved, the Church might have profited by a con-
troversy, which, as it was, had only a desolating effect 3 .
I mean for the time. For that the joint endeavour
of the seven Essayists was fruitless, it is idle to affirm 4 .
To say that they formed no party is wholly to mis-
1 Saturday Review, March 23, than secret propagandism. Free
1861. speech, indeed, is not truth ; but
2 The late Lord Bowen. it is the condition of securing
3 The Spectator of those days truth.'
formed an honourable exception 4 Cf. Lecky's Democracy and
to the spirit of panic which had Liberty, vol. i. p. 425 : ' The first
seized on the periodical press, very marked change in this re-
in reviewing the Essays on April spect followed, I think, the publi-
7, 1860 ('Open Teaching in the cation in 1860 of the Essays and
Church of England '), it spoke of Reviews ; and the effect of this
the book as a ' splendid example book in making the religious
of sincerity, of courage and truth- questions which it discussed fa-
fulness in action ' ; and the writer miliar to the great body of edu-
of an article on May 25, 1861, cated men was probably by far
pleaded against legal measures as the most important of its conse-
unwise: 'Opendiscussionisbetter quences.'
1860-1865] The 'Edinburgh Review' 297
apprehend the situation. Professor Jowett, at least, as
I have already shown, never sought to form a party.
His object was to reconcile intellectual persons to
Christianity, and to exhort the clergy to the love of
Truth. If he was not wholly successful, he shared that
fate with others who have striven to combat the pre-
judices of their age.
Why is it that what then raised such a tempest
appears so harmless now ? May not something be attri-
buted to the contention of those days ? Not that Jowett
openly took part in any contention. Again he acted
on the rule 'The only thing to do is to do nothing.'
The Bishop of London, A. C. Tait, after saying to
Dr. Stanley that he saw no matter for condemnation in
Temple, Jowett, or Pattison, gave his signature to the
Bishops' letter, which condemned the Essayists in general.
This course of his, although it shook Jowett' s confidence
for the moment 'It is natural in him but it ruins
confidence ' did not interrupt his friendship towards his
former Tutor. He wrote an elaborate letter to A. C. T.,
but did not send it 1 . Dr. Stanley, who was still at
Oxford, came to the front in his own gallant fashion
with what his biographer describes as a 'fiery' article
in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1861 2 , in which, with
provoking coolness, he claims the declared adversaries
of the volume as its real supporters 3 ; and quotes many
latitudinarian precedents from Anglican divines. This
action was the more chivalrous on his part, as he had
1 p. 346. of piety and of Christian feeling
2 He had previously taken part which pervaded those writings,
with T. H. Green in the publi- 3 He begins with an effective
cation of some extracts from Prof, appeal to Bishop Thirlwall as an
Jowett's works entitled Statements historian, who had himself ad-
of Christian Doctrine and Practice, mirably described the effect of
intended to illustrate the spirit religious panic.
298 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
dissuaded Jowett from allying himself with, others in
this attack on the orthodox position 1 . Jowett always
maintained that Stanley's article made the whole situa-
tion different from what it might have been.
It was in January of the next year (1862) that Bishop
"Wilberforce said to Stanley at Cuddesdon, with a furtive
smile, ' The Augurs have met/ so confessing the author-
ship of the attack in the Quarterly 2 . The restless
activity of the bishop had not ended there. He de-
nounced the Essayists from the University pulpit in two
sermons which he published 3 . One of these contained
an amazing paragraph on 'the Doubter's death,' which
was much approved in certain quarters at the time.
In a series of ' Tracts for Priests and People ' which
were coming out as a manifesto of the Maurician
school, a sort of middle course was taken, claiming some
latitude of interpretation and deprecating injustice, but,
with evident sincerity, professing to hold firmly by the
Creeds and Articles 4 .
Even if he had chosen, the Tutor so assailed had no
opportunity of reply. He had long been excluded from
the University pulpit. In Balliol itself ' Catechetics '
had taken the place of the sermon (the successive
Lecturers being Lonsdale, Biddell, and Woollcombe), and
the terminal address before the Communion gave even
less room for controversy. Jowett's voice was occasion-
ally heard, however, in out-of-the-way parts of London.
His old friend W. Rogers was glad to have his aid in
Bishopsgate Street from time to time. (They had
renewed their intercourse while Rogers was acting
1 p. 276. preached before the University
3 Dean Stanley's Letters, p. of Oxford, 1861.
313. * See especially F. D. Maurice's
3 The Revelation of God, the own essay, entitled The Mote and
Probation of Man : two sermons the Beam.
1860-1865] Unflinching Loyalty 299
on the Duke of Newcastle's Commission of Inquiry into
popular Education, which, reported in 1861.) The
Eev. Harry Jones, of St. Luke's, Berwick Street, was
another clergyman who honoured himself by welcoming
the heretic to his church. Miss F. P. Cobbe, who heard
him there, has given a good description of his manner
in preaching 1 . A sermon preached in 1864 so struck
some of those who heard it that they requested him to
publish it; but he would not. It was not till 1866 that
Dean Stanley ventured to nominate him as a Preacher
in Westminster Abbey, and in 1870 it was still an
exceptional privilege to hear him, as, for example, in
Mr. Haweis's pulpit, St. James's, Marylebone. Although
the sermons generally contained some expression of liberal
opinion, their main tenor was hortatory 'idealizing life.'
He was also afterwards silently left out of the Board
of Theological Studies, whose institution he had advocated
in 1848-51, and on which the Professor of Greek as well
as the Professor of Hebrew had a natural right to appear.
Jowett himself did not heartily accept the appellation
' Broad Church.' What is broad has limits. He would
have preferred some expression conveying more the sense
of a diffusive and expansive spirit, leavening humanity.
He wrote to Stanley in 1862 : 'A lady said to me some
time ago that we Liberals should not talk about freedom,
but about truth that was the flag under which to fight.
I think that was a just criticism.' He grew very weary
of the continual buzz. When eleven editions of Essays
and Reviews had sold, he said, ' We have had enough of
this volume : let us turn to something else.' He never
' started aside,' however, from supporting his companions
in distress, but stood by them with unflinching loyalty.
1 Autobiography, fyc., vol. i. p. 356 : ' He looks at one as I never
knew any preacher do.'
300 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
Some friendly clerics, amongst others Tait, the Bishop
of London, sought to divide Jowett and Temple from the
other Essayists, 'making a difference,' according to an
Apostolic precept l . Jowett deliberately refused to second
this attempt, although he hinted, in conversation with
his private friends, the discomfort which attended his
alliance with the perfervid Celtic spirit in such an
enterprise.
But he stood manfully by Rowland "Williams and by
H. B. "Wilson, in the well-known trial 2 . He wrote on the
subject : ' I am not anxious about the event of B-. "W.'s
case. I feel convinced that sooner or later the Church
of England will find it impossible to subsist as a fabric
of falsehood and fiction.'
The scandal caused by the claim for latitude on the
part of the six clerical contributors to Essays and
Reviews, was quickly followed by a fresh excitement
arising from a similar claim on the part of a bishop of
the Church of England, though only a Colonial bishop
Dr. Colenso, the well-known Bishop of Natal 3 . Noncon-
formist bodies were similarly disturbed. Dr. Samuel
Davidson, the author of a learned Introduction to the
Old Testament, was cast out by the Independent Synod.
The last-mentioned fact recalls an incidental result of
this whole controversy. Not only were the differences
between the High and Low Church parties consider-
ably softened in making common cause against the
supposed enemy, but the jealousy of Dissent, only
a short while since 'so rich within their souls,' gave
way before the advantage of a temporary alliance with
1 Jude 22. and Fremantle (Murray, 1865),
2 See Ecclesiastical Judgments pp. 247-290.
of the Privy Council, by Brodrick 3 Oct. 1862 ; ib., pp. 293-317.
1860-1865] Dr. Lushington's Judgement 301
the right wing of Nonconformity. Church order for
the time seemed less important than orthodox belief.
Among the Essayists, the chief sufferer in all this was
the Rev. H. B. Wilson, who defended his own cause with
great ability and learning : and although suspended
from his office for a year, and completely broken
down in health, probably did more by his individual
efforts towards enlarging the boundaries of free inquiry
within the Church of England than any other single
man. Both with Wilson and Colenso Jowett main-
tained an active friendship, in which, while preserving
his own independence of action, he gave invaluable
support to others.
His first impression of Colenso's book appears in
a letter to Stanley:
'I think the tone is a good deal mistaken. But don't be
hurt or pained by it. You work in one way, he in another,
I perhaps in a third way. All good persons should agree in
heartily sympathizing with the effort to state the facts of
Scripture exactly as they are. Then you really seem like
Athanasius against the whole Christian world, past and
present. My impression is that mankind will never seek for
anything better, until they are convinced of their true position
about Scripture.'
He wrote to me in reference to the Judgement in the
Court of Arches (in a letter dated Linlathen, July 16,
1862): 'I am satisfied and pleased with the Judgement
of Dr. Lushington on the whole. A great step has
been gained in freedom for the Church of England.'
He meant, no doubt, that although the two Essayists
had been condemned on single points, the rejection of
so many of the articles of accusation formed a precedent
of solid value.
Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson, however, were naturally
302 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
not satisfied ; and on their appeal to the Queen in
Council. Dr. Lushington's partial condemnation was
reversed by Lord Chancellor Westbury's Judgement on
February 8, I864 1 . Jowett had written to Stanley in
August, 1862, 'I think it well that the suit should
continue. More freedom will probably be gained.'
Meanwhile Jowett himself had become involuntarily
the centre of a local conflict which harassed him for
several years. The question of the salary had slumbered
until March, 1858, when Stanley as Professor of Ecclesi-
astical History succeeded to a Canonry at Christ Church,
and came into residence at Oxford. For the reasons
stated 2 in a previous chapter he found the question at
Christ Church already foreclosed. But he at once began
to exert his influence in the University, especially with
members of the Hebdomadal Council ; and the motions
recorded by him in his speech of November 20, 1861 3 ,
were due to his suggestion. All that had been done
before his coming had been to refer the question of
unendowed Professorships generally to a Committee of
Council, which had not reported.
The first intimation of one of these efforts of Stanley
and his friends came to Jowett when away from Oxford
after hearing of his brother Alfred's death. He wrote
to Stanley in a letter which it would be wrong to
mutilate, although the part referring to his personal
loss is not relevant in this connexion:
' I return the papers which you sent me. I have hardly
looked at them, but enough to show me the great kindness
1 Mr. Bowen, afterwards Lord 3 A Speech delivered, in the
Bowen, wrote on the margin of his House of Congregation on the
copy of the Chancellor's deliver- Endowment of the Regius Pro-
ance 'Hell dismissed with costs.' fessorship of Greek, by Arthur
2 p. 242. Penrhyn Stanley, &c., p. 5.
1860-1865] Question of Endowment of Greek Chair 303
of my friends. I hope that they will not think me cold or
ungrateful. I had no idea that you were going to take any
step during this Term, or I should have written to ask you
to do so in the way you have done.
' I cannot express to you what I feel about this matter, or
about your kind sympathy respecting my dear brother's death.
It does not make any great difference to the world, but it
makes a great difference to me, for he was a dear good brother
to me, and always to the end of his life retained the strongest
sense of what I had done for his education in old times
amid many troubles and difficulties, which are with the past
now. But I sometimes wish that I could bring them
back, if I could bring back all those who were then living,
and especially if I could use the experience that I now have
for their good.' (Tenby, December, 1858.)
Stanley's hands were strengthened by the return to
Oxford of Dean Liddell, who resumed his place in the
Council in 1859. And in Michaelmas Term, 1860, Stanley
himself became a Professorial Member of Council, while
Dr. Pusey was re-elected. Then both champions were
in the field, and the fight began in earnest. After
several proposals, including that of the Dean of Christ
Church, had been successively overborne, Dr. Pusey,
to the surprise of every one, took the matter in hand.
He had probably begun to see that the continued
withholding of the salary was likely to alienate young
men from the party of which he was the head, the
more so if Stanley gained his point, which he was
sure to do in the end. And, although the movements
of such a mind are somewhat inscrutable, there is no
reason to doubt that Dr. Pusey, as an English gentleman,
was acutely alive to the painfulness of his position.
He sought, however, to reconcile the step with his
peculiar principles, by introducing a proviso, which
would have given the University authorities an effective
304 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
voice in future appointments l . Cumbrous as the resolu-
tion was, Stanley accepted it as a pis aller, and it was
proposed in Convocation 2 , but not carried. A scheme
involving so many complications had little chance with
a body so ready to listen to objections. Dr. Pusey
sought to throw the burden of odium on those Liberals
who had voted against his measure 3 , and remained
deaf to any further proposal.
Jowett not only possessed his soul in patience all this
while, but was ready to extend sympathy to others who
like himself were victims of the spirit of religious
intolerance which had gone abroad. I select one of
several letters which he wrote about this time to
Mr. Charles Voysey, whose theological views expressed in
sermons had brought him into trouble with ecclesiastical
superiors :
'WHITBY, July 26, [1861].
' I think I told you in one of my former letters that I had
little means of assisting others. But I will certainly do what
I can to help you. I am very glad that you went to Yarmouth
and proved what you could do in parish work. Would it
be possible to stay on till Christmas and so leave with as
little of "a scene" as possible? Supposing that an attempt
were made at any future time to get you a living from the
Bishop of London or the Chancellor, it would go much against
you that you had left a curacy for what they call " heterodoxy."
This is what Sydney Smith would have called "a dreary time
for clergymen of liberal opinions." But I believe that it will
clear and that we shall live to see much truer ideas pre-
vailing of the nature of Christianity.
1 For Dr. Pusey's views on tion, because the motion took the
the Professoriate and on Crown form of a resolution to petition
appointments, see Life of E. B. Parliament.
Pusey, vol. iii. pp. 382-391, and 3 With whom lies the responsi-
his pamphlet on Collegiate and bility of the approaching Conflict
Professoriate Teaching, 1854. as to the Greek Chair? by Pacificus,
2 Convocation, not Congrega- Nov. 1861.
1860-1865] Debate in Congregation 305
'I have sent your two enclosures to Dr. Stanley, and re-
quested him to show them to a friend of his and mine who
may have it in his power to assist your views.
' Thank you for your sympathy amid all this noise. I really
do not think it has occasioned me any trouble or anxiety.'
In October, 1861, Stanley again brought the matter
forward in Council, and carried there a form of Statute
for endowing the Greek Chair, which, was accordingly
submitted to Congregation 1 . The vote took place on
November 26, 1861, and the measure was rejected by
a majority of three (99 to 96). The majority in this case
was only partly moved by theological prepossessions.
Academical prejudice also had its share, and Pusey's
contention that Crown appointments were dangerous
because the ecclesiastical authorities were no longer
consulted, as formerly (see next page) found an echo
amongst those who thought that, on the ground of
scholarship, a University Board would have made
a better choice. They demurred to subsidizing the
nominee of the Crown. The measure had been promul-
gated in a previous meeting, November 20, 1861. The
discussion as reported in the Oxford Chronicle for
November 23, 1861, contained some points which should
not be passed over. One speaker said ' he did not see
that the present Professor had any claim on account
of his labours, which were purely voluntary.'
Mr. Osborne Gordon, Student and Censor of Christ
Church, said, 'The proper quarter from which to obtain
the endowment was Christ Church, which had accepted an
estate from the Crown chargeable with the stipend, and
had actually proposed in 1854 to endow the Professorship.'
1 The Hebdomadal Council Measures passed in Council were
(see p. 183) had the sole initi- afterwards submitted (i) to Con-
ative in University Legislation. gregation and (2) to Convocation.
VOL. I. X
306 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
The former fact was flatly denied by Professor Pusey.
who said 'that Christ Church had received no estate,
but only the burden of making the payment. . . . Crown
nominations were likely to be made on political grounds.
Formerly such nominations were good, because the
highest ecclesiastical advice was taken, but this practice
had been discontinued 1 . He must oppose the endow-
ment of the present holder on theological grounds : . . .
in his opinion the second edition of the work 2 was
worse than the first.' Professor Mountague Bernard
disliked Jowett's theology, but ' did not think it advis-
able to discountenance unsound theology by means of
bad morality.'
It was after this adverse vote in Congregation, which
effectually stopped further proceedings for the time, that
some of Jowett's private friends without his knowledge
subscribed 2000, which sum was presented to him
through Mr. Lingen.
He replied as follows :
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
-,.- T January 24, 1862.
MY DEAR LINGEN,
I hardly know how to express the feeling with which
I received through you the information that the sum of 2000
had been placed at my disposal in payment of the salary of
the Eegius Professor of Greek, which has hitherto been
withheld.
It is the greatest pleasure to obtain from my friends such
a testimony of their regard. I will try to show my gratitude
in the only way that I am able, by increasing energy in the
work of the Professorship.
But I cannot accept their munificent present. Though
I wish to see an endowment provided for the Chair, I ought
not to receive money from those on whom I have no claim.
1 The Dean of Christ Church had by Lord Paknerston. See p. 237.
been consulted in the present case 2 The Epistles of St. Paul, fyc.
1860-1865] Troubles in College 307
Could I have anticipated such generosity, I would never
have allowed you and others to take so much trouble on
my behalf.
Will you give my best thanks to the subscribers, and assure
them that the possession of the list of their names gives me
a satisfaction far greater than the pecuniary advantage which
they designed for me ?
In a private letter to a friend abroad, he wrote as
follows on February 2 :
' You saw in the Italian papers about the poor indotato
Professor. What do you think has happened to him since ?
His friends collected a subscription of 2000 to pay his salary
for the last five years r (Earl Eussell, Lord Lansdowne, and
various old Whigs and lovers of religious liberty were among
the subscribers). It is a great pity that though he loves
money, which he believes to be the source of every good, he
could not make up his mind to accept it. ... It does not do,
and is not consistent with the dignity of a human being, to
have received about 20 from everybody you meet at dinner.
Yet he is very sensible that it is a great thing to have such
friends. . . .'
Strangely enough, at this juncture Stanley seems to
have imagined the possibility of Jowett's preferment to
the Deanery of Exeter. Jowett refuses to believe it
(unless indeed some pious Minister wished to remove
his influence from Oxford), but adds that while he would
not be sorry if it were offered (on public grounds), he
is clear that it would be wrong to accept it, and that
he ought to continue there the educational work in
which he and Stanley were jointly engaged.
The troubles of this period were aggravated by
his relation to his colleagues in Balliol, which, as he
wrote to Palgrave in 1861, sometimes affected him more
than any public attacks. His attitude in withdrawing
from Hall and Common Room had no doubt tended to
X 2
308 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
make the position there more strained, and though he
had the support of a minority, chiefly amongst the junior
Fellows, these men had not yet that experience of life
and of the world which would have enabled them to
enter into all his anxieties. They were sometimes
neutral where he felt most need of help, and his obsti-
nate silence on all personal matters prevented them from
understanding the effect of this. In the summer of
1862, a permissive ordinance of the Commissioners for
relaxing the marriage restriction in the case of a Pro-
fessorial Fellow gave rise to a practical question, which
was settled in favour of another Fellow of the College ;
and a motion of Jowett's for abolishing the restriction
altogether and making Fellowships terminable except for
College officials, was referred to a Committee which did
not report. Whether or not Jowett would have availed
himself of the privilege, had it been granted, must be left
in doubt, but it is certain that he felt himself aggrieved.
' My College want to get rid of me, which is rather hard V
he wrote to an intimate friend at the time, and expressed
himself on the subject with considerable bitterness to
two others severally, of whom the late Professor Mchol
was one. It is also true that when the salary of the
Greek Chair was augmented in 1865, he observed to
more than one friend that the benefit had come too late
to be of importance to him personally, though it might
have been so a few years before 2 . It has been already
seen, on two previous occasions, that where Jowett was
thwarted he renewed his energies. And the result of
this and of other crosses in his relation to the College
1 A piece of gossip repeated by his Fellowship for his heresies '
Matthew Arnold in a letter of (Letters of Matthew Arnold, vol. i.
Nov. 19, 1862, probably reflects p. 175).
this feeling : ' There is a move 2 See Autobiography of Frances
to turn the latter (Jowett) out of Power Cobbe, vol. i. p. 353.
1860-1865] Prosecution in Chancellor's Court 309
was that he threw himself with ever-increasing perti-
nacity into the educational work to which his life was
now irrevocably devoted. Even his younger colleagues,
however, after this perceived that he was more reserved
in his dealings with them than formerly. They were
aware of a coolness which they could not account for.
There is an entry in one of the latest of his note-books,
where in counting up the blessings of his life he says,
' There is one happiness which I have never had ' ; and
some years earlier, in 1880, 'The great want of life can
never be supplied, and I must do without it.' The
reasons for this are expressed in his letter to Dean Stanley
of March 10, I865 1 .
Whatever he may have thought and felt in his own case,
he was strangely persistent in advising more than one of
his friends to marry 'It is not good for man to be
alone ' ; ' It won't do to live without a companion V And
in congratulating another friend he wrote : ' There is
nothing better under the sun than to be happily married.'
But if he ever felt a void in his life, he had rich
compensation in his many warm friendships, and in the
College which, as he said long afterwards, was to him
in the place of a family : ' I mean it seriously,' he added
after a pause. He rejoiced in the happiness of other
married lives, and the ideal light in which he had viewed
such relationships in the days of his youth never really
left him, though he talked sometimes with playful irony
about the actual state of things and persons in the world.
Prosecution in the Chancellor s Court.
Professor Jowett's opponents had been often encountered
with the taunt : ' You should not treat as a heretic one
3 See p. 374. 2 This is from a letter dated July 9, 1893.
310 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
who has not been condemned in any court.' They
waited until the Dean of the Arches had pronounced
judgement in the cases of Dr. "Williams and Mr. Wilson.
This he did in effect on June 25, 1862, although the sen-
tence of suspension was not pronounced until September
12. Then Dr. Phillimore, the Queen's Advocate, was
consulted (i) Whether Professor Jowett, in his Essay and
Commentary, had so distinctly contravened the doctrines
of the Church of England that a court of law would
pronounce him guilty ; and (2) as to the legal position
of Professor Jowett.
The answers of counsel were to the effect (i) that
Professor Jowett's Essay on the Atonement contradicts
the Articles, while the Essay on Interpretation is at
variance with the doctrine of the Church of England
concerning inspiration ' according to the recent judgement
of the Dean of the Arches,' and also that it contradicts
the eighth Article, concerning the Three Creeds : (2)
That while the provisions of the Clergy Discipline Act
could hardly be construed so as to affect proceedings
against a Professor, the Vice-Chancellor would notwith-
standing be bound to admit articles containing charges
of heresy against any Professor resident in the Univer-
sity, and might be compelled by mandamus to hear and
try such a charge.
Professor Baden Powell, ' after denying Miracles,' had,
in the pious language of the Preface to the ' Case and
Opinion,' been 'removed before a higher Tribunal'; and
the Professor of Greek was therefore singled out as the
object of the proceedings which followed J .
1 Of the remaining members of a layman ; Mr. Pattison held a
the seven, Mr. Goodwin had re- small living, which, however, as
signed his Fellowship at Christ's ' donative,' was not subject to
College, Cambridge, while still episcopal institution ; and Dr.
1860-1865] The Chancellor's Monition
This new move made no difference in Jowett's outward
bearing, but the first intimation of it caused him real
anxiety both for himself and for the cause he had at
heart. He wrote to Stanley :
' February 3, 1863.
'I hear that this monition 1 is to be issued at the V.-C.
Court next week. This seems to take for granted that the
V.-C. will act. Will you consider the matter, and, if an
opportunity offers, talk the matter over with Bowen (33 Alfred
Place, Thurlow Square) ? Pattison counsels submission. But
submission appears to imply that the limits of the Church of
England in the University are acknowledged to be narrowed,
and gives up all the legal difficulties.
' Will you get two copies of the Church Discipline Act ?
Do you think I should put the matter in the hands of
Stephen? Will you call on Murray and warn him not to
Temple as Head Master of Rugby
and Queen's Chaplain was subject
to other than ecclesiastical or
academical discipline.
1 The monition (a copy of
which seems to have been enclosed
in the above letter) purported
to be issued by the Chancellor to
the Yeoman Bedell of Law in
the University, commanding him
to cite the Rev. Benjamin
Jowett, &c., ' to appear before our
Vice-Chancellor or his Assessor
... to answer to certain articles
to be administered and objected
to him by virtue of our office
concerning the reformation and
correction of his manners and
excesses, but more especially for
infringing the Statutes and privi-
leges of the University by having
published ... a certain book
entitled The Epistles of St. Paul,
&c., &c. : also in a book called
Essays and Reviews a certain
article . . . entitled " On the In-
terpretation of Scripture " ; and
by having in such book and such
article . . . advisedly promul-
gated . . . certain erroneous and
strange doctrines . . . contrary
to and inconsistent with the
doctrines of the Church of
England. . . .
Prayer.
' On legal proof being made of
the charges, the said Professor
Jowett be duly corrected and
punished according to the gravity
of the offence and the exigency
of the Law and Statutes of the
University.' The original docu-
ment is in the possession of
Mr. H. A. Pottinger, of Worcester
College.
312 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
give any assistance in proving the publication ? he cannot be
compelled.
'I am sorry to give you trouble. But I need the help of
friends and feel the value of such a friend as you. I must
get you, when you return, to stir up the Dean and Jackson 1
and everybody to help. It is the isolation in which they
have left me which makes the attack possible.
' I never had a better class than this Term, or so many men
coming to me as pupils, I think.
' PS. Can A. C. T. be got to do anything in the matter ? '
The case was opened in the Chancellor's Court on
February 20, 1863, before Mountague Bernard, Esq.,
B.C.L., as the Vice-Chancellor's Assessor.
Parties were summoned to the Apodyterium (or
' Vestry ') of the Convocation House ; but the Court
actually sat in what was commonly called the ' Cock-pit,'
where viva voce examinations used to be held; and
the place was of course crowded with undergraduates.
The prosecution relied partly on the Church Discipline
Act, but chiefly on the University Statutes respecting
Tutors and Professors and the powers of the Vice-Chan-
cellor.
It was urged for the defence ' that the Court has no
jurisdiction in the matter.'
Mr. Pottinger, who was Proctor for Professor Jowett,
based his protest (i) upon section 23 of the Church
Discipline Act of 1840 (3 & 4 Viet. c. 86), which enacted
that no prosecution can be brought against a clergyman
except according to that Act : (2) on the special privilege
of the Regius Professors as holding of the Crown : (3)
on the absence of any provision for the jurisdiction of
the Court in matters spiritual : (4) on the absence of any
precedent for a judgement of the Chancellor's Court in
such matters.
1 Bishop of Lincoln, Visitor of Balliol.
1860-1865] Collapse of the Suit 313
The Assessor refused to admit that the Court had no
jurisdiction, but said :
'If I have jurisdiction in this matter, which is doubtful,
it is a jurisdiction which the Statutes do not imperatively
bind me to exercise upon this citation ... I shall reject the
protest, but I shall refuse to order Professor Jowett to appear,
and shall refuse to admit articles on the part of the promoters.
. . . From that refusal the promoters are of course at liberty
to appeal.'
Mr. Frederick W. Fairer, of the Messrs. Fairer,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, who was professionally present on
the occasion, writes : ' In a walk with Jowett afterwards,
he was very low at the decision. I remember his saying,
" You don't know Pusey ; he has the tenacity of a bull-
dog." ' Jowett wrote to a trusted friend on March 15 :
' I think I have escaped from my adversaries. Their only
way of proceeding now is by an appeal to the Court of Queen's
Bench for a mandamus. But lawyers seem to think that
there is so little chance of their obtaining the mandamus that
I should doubt whether they will make the attempt.'
The question was not finally determined until the
second week of May.
It appears that in their anxiety to follow Dr. Phillimore's
first opinion, the three prosecutors overlooked a Statute
(Tit. XVII. 1 8) which required them to appeal, if at all,
to the House of Congregation ; and they consulted
counsel again as to the expediency of applying for a
mandamus. Under all the circumstances the advice of
Dr. Phillimore and Mr. J. D. Coleridge was adverse to
their taking that step. And the withdrawal of further
proceedings was intimated to the Vice-Chancellor in a
314 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
letter from C. A. Ogilvie, E. B. Pusey, and C. A. Heurtley,
the Prosecutors in the case, dated Christ Church, May 8.
The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Lightfoot of Exeter, on
May ii sent a copy of the letter to Jowett, who lost
no time in forwarding it to his mother.
In March, 1863, on the evident collapse of this vexa-
tious suit, Stanley returned to the charge about the
salary, with a motion in Council, which was lost by
a narrow majority. Next autumn Dr. Pusey, in his char-
acter of Pacificus, again endeavoured at once to obviate
the increasing odium against his party, and to satisfy
an exacting conscience, by proposing a form of Statute
according to which the salary of the Greek Professor
was to be made up to 400 from the University Chest,
until such time as other provision should be made,
on the understanding that the University shall be held
to have pronounced no judgement upon his writings, in so
far as they touch the Catholic Faith. This arrangement
had been formerly suggested by Mr. Keble, and was now
accepted by Stanley. Jowett himself seems to have hoped
that it would succeed. Having passed Congregation by
a good majority, it was submitted to Convocation on
March 8, 1864. But Dr. Pusey found that it is easier
to raise a storm than to allay it. Many of those in
the University who had hitherto supported him saw
clearly the inconsistency of the measure, and the futility
of the reservation ; and their appeal to the country
M. A.'s proved for once more potent than his own. The
stalwart Archdeacon, George Anthony Denison, stood
forth manfully as the champion of the opposition, and
strongly protested in Latin against the proposed Statute.
A curious incident occurred, characteristic of the flurry
and excitement which had seized the whole assembly.
1860-1865] Lord Westbury's Bill 315
The Senior Proctor, W. Chambers of Worcester, pro-
claimed, 'Major! parti placet.' Liddell ran with the
false news to Jowett, who took it very quietly. But
the words had barely escaped the Proctor's lips, when
he discovered that he had made a mistake, 'not in
time, however, to prevent a burst of cheering from
the undergraduates and friends of Professor Jowett,
which being continued for some few minutes, left the
Proctor in a very unpleasant position. 5 The Vice-
Chancellor after some difficulty having restored order,
the Proctor announced, 'Majori parti non placet,' the
numbers being : non placet 467, placet 395 ; majority
against, 72. The result was received with loud cheers
from the opponents of the Statute, and violent hissing
from the undergraduates' gallery.
This Act of Convocation 1 raised an all but unanimous
outcry in the public Press, with copious correspondence
in the Times and other newspapers, the most remarkable
feature of which was an encounter between Dr. Pusey
and Mr. F. D. Maurice. The wheel of public opinion
had come fully round ; the two Essayists who were
suspended by the Court of Arches had been finally
acquitted by the Judgement of the Privy Council,
delivered by Lord Westbury on February 8, and it may
be noted as an interesting fact, that amongst those who
came at great inconvenience to vote in favour of the
salary, was Dr. Stephen Lushington, now an aged man
though not so aged as when he voted afterwards for
Stanley's appointment as Select Preacher.
At this juncture, Lord Chancellor "Westbury initiated
a new phase of the struggle by introducing in the House
1 Jowett to Stanley, March 15, except the noise and bustle.
1864 : ' I see nothing to lament The move of throwing out the
in the business of last Tuesday, endowment was a false one.'
316 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
of Lords a Bill entitled, An Act for the better endowment
of the Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford.
By this it was proposed that the first Canonry or Prebend
in the Chancellor's gift which should become vacant after
the passing of the Act should be annexed to the Regius
Professorship of Greek in the University of Oxford.
The Bill was thrown out in Committee on May 14,
the previous question, moved by Lord Redesdale, being
carried by 55 votes against 25 ; majority 30. The ob-
jections which appeared to have most weight with the
Lords were that endowment by a Canonry would preclude
the appointment of a layman in the future, and that
Canonries were now designed by public opinion for
purely ecclesiastical purposes. Lord Westbury's argu-
ment 1 that the University had broken faith in not
endowing the Chair so repudiating the obligation in-
volved in the privilege granted to the University Press,
and the remission of the Stamp Duties was two-
edged and provoked some opposition. The rejoinder
was obvious, that if the onus lay on the University, the
University should see to it ; and Lord Derby (on May
23), as Chancellor of the University, somewhat feebly
denied the existence of any such obligation. It appears
from a letter to Stanley that Jowett himself doubted
the wisdom of introducing such a measure in Parliament
at all.
On October 31, 1864, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Lightfoot,
started a fresh proposal to make up the salary to 400
out of the University Chest, in a form of Statute which
still reserved judgement on the Theological opinions of
the Professor. But this motion, although supported by
Dr. Pusey, who had now become the defender of the
J Anticipated by Dr. Stanley and Professor Conington.
1860-1865] Mr. Freeman interposes 317
Greek Chair against George Anthony Denison, was lost
in the Hebdomadal Council by a majority of one 1 .
Soon afterwards a wholly new face was put upon the
question by Mr. E. A. Freeman 2 , then residing at his
place of Somerleaze in Somersetshire, who published in
pamphlet form a letter of his which had appeared in the
Daily News 3 ,
He showed that in a letter addressed by the Dean and
Chapter of Christ Church to Viscount Palmerston, which
had been printed in the ' Correspondence respecting the
proposed measures of improvement in the Universities
and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, presented to both
Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 1854,'
the following statement occurs :
' If it should be deemed desirable to make any further
disposal of the College funds for Academic purposes, the
Dean and Chapter would respectfully submit that it is the
Eegius Professor of Greek who is best entitled to benefit
by it. For of the ten original Chairs founded by King Henry
VIII, five at Oxford and five at Cambridge, and endowed by
that monarch with stipends of 40 per annum, the Greek
Chair of Oxford is the only one which never received an
additional endowment; while the Greek Professor at Cam-
bridge, by virtue of a recent Act of Parliament, holds a stall at
Ely, his brother Professor at Oxford only receives his original
40 per annum. Unless the Crown should be graciously
pleased to make some other provision for the Chair at Oxford,
1 Dr. Stanley was by this time March, 1858, when a brother Fel-
Dean of Westminster, and had low of Trinity, Mr. North Finder
therefore no longer a seat in the (now a Canon of Windsor and
Council. Rector of Greys), wrote to him
2 Afterwards Professor of His- that ' almost the only subject
tory, Oxford. they ' (the Hebdomadal Council)
3 ' The Oxford Regius Pro- ' can agree about is the best
fessorship of Greek,' October, means of starving a Professor
1864. Mr. Freeman's attention with whom they do not happen
had been called to the subject in to concur.'
318 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, x
the Dean and Chapter would propose that they should be
empowered to set apart an estate of the value of between .300
and 400 per annum, of which the lease is now running out,
and that upon the next avoidance of the Greek Chair, the same
estate should be made over to the new Professor and his
successors.'
The Historian proceeded to show the reasonableness
of this proposal, which he characterized as especially
creditable on the part of a corporate body, from whom
fair dealing in such matters was not always to be ex-
pected. King Henry's manifest intention had been that
the estates of Christ Church should provide for Regius
Professors and Canons in the proportion indicated by the
original charge on the estates of 40 a year and 25
a year respectively.
But the Chapter had the right of administration ; and,
as Mr. Freeman with characteristic bluntness adds
'Wherever money stipends have to be paid to officers of
any kind, the story is always the same . . . there is always
some class of people receiving a less proportion of the cor-
porate income than the founder meant them to receive. . . .
The old Bishops who founded the elder Cathedrals, more
wise in their generation, guarded against this evil by giving
so many officers separate estates. But when a Chapter has
to pay certain payments, though after three centuries it is
very plain that the 40 ought to be increased to 400, there
is no particular year in which it is plain that 40 should be
increased to .45 or 45 to =50. Had King Hariy, instead of
granting estates to Christ Church, granted them to the Univer-
sity, the Professor would now have his proper income. '
The burden thus fell on Christ Church (i) of showing
why the proposal made in 1854 had not been carried out,
and (2) why it should not now be renewed.
On the part of Christ Church it was explained (i) that
' the Commissioners had stated their opinion that, since
1860-1865] Mr. Charles Elton's Discovery 319
five Canonries of Christ Church were now employed
in endowing Professorships (including the Margaret
Professorship of Divinity), enough had been done
out of the funds of the College for the service of the
University.' The Commissioners preferred therefore to
suppress two Canonries for the better endowment of the
studentships as rearranged. 'And (2) that it had not
been shown that the Chapter held lands specifically
granted for the purpose of paying the Professor.' The
Dean added that if this could be shown, he would ' im-
mediately propose to the Chapter to augment the stipend
now paid to the Professor according to a fair estimate
of the changed value of money V
This promise stimulated the investigations of another
historical inquirer, Mr. Charles Elton, formerly of
Balliol, then a Fellow of Queen's, who discovered the
missing link by tracing the conveyance of certain lands
which (i) had been granted by King Henry to the
Chapter of "Westminster for the support of Professors of
Divinity, Hebrew, and Greek, and (2) when that Chapter
declined the burden and restored the lands, had again
been granted by the King to Christ Church under a cor-
responding obligation 2 , the revenue of these lands (120)
exactly covering the three salaries of 40 each.
The authorities at Christ Church were now fairly
brought to bay. But instead of at once carrying out
the proposal of the Dean, they consulted counsel as to
the existence of a legal obligation. None such was
found to exist, because the income of the lands was not
by the Instrument of Foundation apportioned in certain
proportions against different objects, but given subject
1 Statement by H. G. Liddell, z See Mr. Elton's letter in the
Dean of Christ Church, November Times of January 16, 1865.
18, 1864.
320 Life of Benjamin Jowett
to the payment of certain specific sums, and because on
an appeal of the Students in 1629 the King as Visitor had
stated that the improved Revenues of the House wholly
and properly belonged to the Dean and Chapter.
Armed with this opinion, and refusing as a body to
recognize any moral obligation, the Dean and Chapter
notwithstanding on the ground of expediency ' agreed to
take such measures as might be necessary for increasing
the yearly salary of the Regius Professor of Greek to
the sum of 500.' This resolution was intimated by the
Dean to the Vice-Chancellor on February 17, 1865 \
1 The Dean declares (May, 1895) had great difficulty in bringing
that even at the last moment he the Chapter to agree to this.
CHAPTER XI
TUTORIAL WOEK. 1860-1865
(Aet. 43-48)
PERSONAL effects of controversy Extracts from correspondence
Professorial and Tutorial work Letters from W. Pater and Professor
G. G. Ramsay 'Colonization' George Rankine Luke Society at
Clifton and in Scotland Vacation parties Letters.
rPHUS ended the ten years of deprivation, by which, not
-*- to dwell here upon the personal aspect, the University
had not lost, while Balliol had gained ; but Christ Church,
in all probability, had been a heavy loser. Had she earlier
taken thought to provide an adequate endowment for
the Greek Chair, she might have enlisted in her service
an educational force of hitherto unsuspected potency.
It were long and tedious to repeat the ingenious argu-
ments and more or less brilliant witticisms l which the
conflict had evoked. In reviewing them, one cannot but
be struck with the slight account that was taken of
devoted educational work as a service to the University.
The opinion expressed in Congregation that Professor
Jowett's labours might have earned gratitude from indi-
viduals, but the University had nothing to do with that,
was one in which the speaker did not by any means
1 That which attracted most attention, 'The Evaluation of lit,'
was attributed to ' Lewis Carroll.'
VOL. I. Y
322 Life of Benjamin Jowett CHAP, xi
stand alone. It concerns us more to collect some hints
of the way in which Jowett himself regarded the whole
business. He retained outwardly, all through, his serene.
unruffled bearing. J. M. "Wilson, Professor of Moral
Philosophy, the most staunch of Oxford Liberals, said :
' If Jowett continues to take these things as he is doing,
and keeps up the freshness of his interest in high subjects,
he will be a great man.' But he was not really apathetic.
Amongst many other expedients, it had been suggested
that a new Professorship of Greek might be endowed
with a Fellowship at Corpus or St. John's, and that Jowett
might be appointed to it. I referred to this in walking
with him in Christ Church meadow. It was one of the
only two occasions on which I have known him shed
tears. ' I shall never leave Balliol,' he said.
In order to give some indication of the personal
feelings which at the time were hidden from the world,
I will here insert some extracts from a series of his
familiar letters which now lies before me.
1. October 27, 1860. '. . . There is to be Another battle at
Oxford about the endowment of the Greek Professorship. If
anything good happens to me, I will write and tell you. But
I do not much expect that they will succeed. For five years
I have had only a nominal salary. One of my friends asks
whether I don't like the idea of being a Martyr. Indeed
I don't ; it is extremely inconvenient.'
2. January 22, 1861. 'Do you see the Quarterly Review?
If you do, you will see no good about me. The book called
Essays and Reviews has been making an unreasonable stir
among the intolerant world. I am astonished at the careless-
ness about truth which there is in the Church of England.
If it goes on, it will lead to utter unbelief among intellectual
men. I mean to be quiet, and take no notice of attacks.
I used to be grieved to find how readily my friends chimed
in with the attack (though in private they agreed with me,
I suppose on the principle that there is something in the
1860-1865] Extracts from Correspondence 323
misfortunes of one's best friends not wholly unpleasing. But
after the first bite or sting, the power of feeling is almost lost ;
it is worth while to be attacked for the sake of being free
from attacks for the rest of your life.'
3. February 8, 1861. (To Dean Elliot.) 'A new attempt
is to be made to endow the Greek Professorship with 400
a year, which the University is to consent to give at the
instigation of Dr. Pusey, on the condition of the Crown handing
over the Patronage to a Board consisting of three Cabinet
Ministers and the Chancellor and Vice- Chancellor of the
University. Having been appointed by the Crown, I cannot
say that I like the Crown giving up the nomination to an
important position, and wrote to say so, that the Government
might know the exact state of the case ; but having been
hard-worked and starved for five years, I feel that it would
be quixotic in me to oppose what the Government sees no
objection to. I think however the measure, though agreed
to by the Government and the Council, is very likely to come
to grief in the House of Commons 1 .'
4. March 22, 1861. (To Mrs. Tennyson.) 'I cannot but
express to you what I feel, especially in all this tumult, that it
is the greatest blessing and good to me to have friends like
you and Mr. Tennyson, who are so true and affectionate to me.'
5. March 22, 1861. (To F. T. Palgrave.) ' Many thanks to
you for caring whether I am troubled about the ''persecution."
I think I am not deceiving myself in saying that I don't mind
about it. Annoyances in College, which I sometimes receive,
trouble me more.'
6. April i, 1861. (To Dean Elliot.) ' I feel a great and in-
creasing responsibility about this Spirit which has come (not
at our call) from the vasty deep. But I have had, thank God,
no pain or annoyance from the attacks on me, though the
clergyman of this parish (Freshwater) does call me and others
"Judas Iscariot " in his sermons.'
7. April i, 1861. ' No one ever stood by a friend better than
Dr. Stanley has stood by me in this tumult. While he lives
1 P- 33- I* was thrown out averred, through some ' Liberals '
in Convocation as Dr. Pusey having joined the Opposition.
Y 2
324 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
I shall certainly not be ashamed when I speak with my
enemies in the gate.'
8. April 16, 1861. 'I think the "tumult" has dwindled
to a calm, and therefore I shall say no more about
it. I can only hope that some good may spring out of all
this notoriety (you should see the letter of the Bishops and
the names of those whom it condemns printed on an enormous
placard which was sent me the other day), and I am very
grateful to friends who show me sympathy in all this row. . . .
'Attacks on the Utilitarians have their place and their
use : only they were not meant for people who " revel in
Scepticism '" like me. Is it not very Irish of them to say so?'
9. April 27, 1861. (To Sir A. Grant.) ' I cannot tell you
what good and pleasure I have in Stanley's active help and
support.'
10. May 9, 1861. (To Stanley.) 'I won't trouble you with
reflections about the event of Tuesday 2 . I am glad that
Pusey behaved well. ... I should not altogether despair of
his mind, having exhausted itself with religious experiences,
taking a healthier tone.
' I hope I shall live to see a better state of feeling in Oxford,
in which those who hold liberal opinions in religion or in
University matters will not have the troubles that I have had.'
11. August 4, 1861. 'It was very good of you to tell me
the kind things Mrs. Somerville said of me. Of course I don't
deserve them, but I have a sort of hope that I may deserve
such fine things to be said some day, if I devote myself to
the truth and to the good of my pupils. Mr. Carlyle says
"men put there as sentinels should be shot instantly"; so
I must balance Mrs. Somerville with him.'
12. November, 1861. (To Miss Cobbe.) 'The vote of last
Tuesday, deferring indefinitely the endowment of my Pro-
fessorship, makes me feel that life is becoming a serious
business to me ; not that I complain ; the amount of
sympathy and support which I have received has been
enough to sustain any one, if they needed it. ... But
1 Saturday Review, March 9, seems almost to revel in un-
1861, on 'Intolerance at Oxford' : certainty and doubt.'
' Mr. Jowett's genius is one which 2 p. 304.
1860-1865] Extracts from Correspondence 325
my friends are sanguine in imagining they will succeed here-
after. Next year it is true that they will get a small majority
in Congregation. This however is of no use, as the other
party will always bring up the country clergy in Convocation.
I have therefore requested Dr. Stanley to take no further steps
in the Council on the subject ; it seems to me undignified to
keep the University squabbling about my income 1 .'
13. 1862. (To Stanley.) ' As to " comph'city " with Baden
Powell or Wilson, I do not wish to be separated from them or
any other professing Christian man who cares for truth. I think
this is right in the long run, though it leads to immediate mis-
representation.
' I have no personal feeling about any more than about
2 (not from Christian charity or magnanimity), but
because it seems to me absurd to allow personal feelings to
come into public questions.'
14. July 19, 1862. (To Stanley.) ' I think I had an average
of between fifty and sixty at the lecture on Thucydides last
Term, more at first and fewer at last : and about forty brought
me exercises in Greek and English.
' It gives me pleasure to see that I am in a better position
now than I was a year ago at Oxford. And I cannot feel or
express too often to you and to every one, how much I owe
it to your courage and generosity.
' May I not be wanting to myself.'
15. February, 1863. (To Mrs. Tennyson.) 'Thank God, I
fight my enemies with a cheerful heart 3 . On Friday at Oxford
we object to the jurisdiction of the Court, which is trying to
smuggle in an ecclesiastical cause under colour of a breach
of the Statutes of the University. If the Assessor refuses to
hear the cause, all will be at an end ; if not, I am advised
to apply to the Court of Queen's Bench for an inhibition of
their proceeding. Will you give my best love to Alfred and
the children ? I certainly believe that no harm will come of
the matter.'
16. March, 1863. (To Mrs. Tennyson.) 'I think I am in
1 This letter has been published 2 The writers in the Saturday
in the Autobiography of Frances Review and the Westminster.
Power Coble, voL i. p. 353. 3 See pp. 311-314-
326 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
a better plight than when I wrote to you last ; and have only
now to fear the appeal to the Queen's Bench, which is not very
likely to succeed. ... I cannot but be greatly pleased and
inspirited at the support my old friends have given me in the
matter of this stupid prosecution.'
17. December 21, 1863. (To Mrs. Tennyson.) ' I mean to do
a great deal more mischief now that they are going to give
me some money 1 .'
18. December 25, 1863. (To his mother.) ' You and Emily
will be glad to hear . . . that there is a prospect of their
paying me my income, with a chance of the arrears 2 hereafter.
... I thought you would like to hear of this on your birth-
day, and therefore write.'
19. March 12, 1864. (To Mrs. Tennyson.) ' I am truly sorry
that so kind a friend as you are should be disappointed. I
believe the Judgement 3 was the cause of the result ; if so, there
is ample compensation.'
20. July 12, 1864. (To Sir A. Grant.) ' As for myself, I get
on well except as to personal interests ; and those, I really
feel, are lost in higher ones. I have in the thought of my old
pupils in India and elsewhere a great deal to make me happy.'
21. February 19, 1865. ' This is the last you will ever hear
of this matter. I am greatly indebted to some of my young
friends, who without my knowledge hunted this matter out
and assailed the Dean and Chapter in the newspapers.'
22. February 27, 1865. ' I wish to thank you for your kind
letter of congratulations which gave me great pleasure. I am
glad that the world will cease to hear any longer about the
Greek Professorship. As to being a Martyr, I am afraid that
is impossible, unless you are bodily burned in the flesh ; and
no pious old woman can be found, "in holy simplicity," to
pile faggots nowadays, though they are not indisposed to
practise lesser modes of annoyance. Speaking quite seriously,
I am sure that I place the support and sympathy that I have
received far above the money, and therefore I consider I have
1 p. 314. the arrears.
2 This was never realized : un- 3 Lord Westbury's, February 8,
less the grant of 500 in place 1864. See P- 5 I 5-
of 400 was meant to cover
1860-1865] Tutorial Work 327
been a gainer on the whole. I am delighted that my friends
are so pleased, and the money will really enable me to do
work more efficiently than before.'
The best proof of his * happy nature * ' and firm will is
the unimpeded energy with which he had been throwing
himself all this while into his educational and literary
labours. These went on precisely as before, only with
increased assiduity, as if nothing particular were hap-
pening in the world outside.
The work both of his Tutorship and his Professorship
became more and more interesting to him. Among his
pupils at Balliol during these years were men of marked
ability, and also men whose position in life, com-
bined as it was with intellectual promise, made their
education of exceptional importance to themselves and
others. Amongst these were Lord Duncan 2 , Lord
Boringdon 3 , Lord Kerry 4 , and others whom it is super-
fluous to name. Jowett felt to the full the responsibilities
involved in this. Already men accused him of flattering
the great. Attentive readers of the letters in these
volumes will perceive the hollowness of the imputation.
But they will also perceive the obligations which
he laid upon himself, or which he conceived the whole
position to involve. 'If I had not hampered myself
with these ties,' he once said to me, ' I should be all over
Europe, collating MSS.' And in writing to another
friend, excusing himself from foreign travel : ' If I had
gone abroad, - - would have done nothing, at the most
critical moment of his life.'
In other ways also these were brilliant years for
Balliol. Atalanta in Calydon was written about this time,
and for many years to come Balliol was never without its
1 p. 262. 8 Earl of Morley.
2 Earl of Camperdown. * The Marquis of Lansdowne.
328 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
poet (or poets rather). Not that as a rule Jowett's in-
fluence lay in that direction. In speaking of some one
who had been doing well in a profession, he would say :
' At College he took to poetry and that sort of nonsense.'
But he rejoiced in any real success ; and although the
genius of Swinburne, the ever-active brain of J. A.
Symonds, and the vigorous individuality of John Nichol
were largely independent of his teaching, they yet owed
to him what was more valuable still, the blessing of
a friendship which never wavered, which gave unstinted
help at critical moments both in youth and after life,
and would make any sacrifice of leisure and of ease
to serve them. In former days he had said, on its being
suggested that a poet might come forth from Balliol, ' If
a poet came here, we could never hold him.'
A few words may be added parenthetically on his
supposed worship of genius and of success. The former
imputation was more rife in earlier years, the latter
afterwards, when his own position was now assured.
Both really turned on one peculiarity : that in judging
of persons and in determining his relation to them,
he never separated their individual characteristics from
the thought of what they might effect. This was equally
his way of regarding his own life and the lives of
others. But neither in his choice of friends, nor in his
treatment of those with whom he had to do, can it be
truly said that he was ever influenced by any sordid or
self-regarding motive. If he sometimes argued as if men
of genius should not be judged according to common
rules, or that allowance should be made for irregularities
which seem inseparable from an exalted station, his
estimate of the worthiest aims and his ideal of character
and conduct remained unaltered. Nor is it a wholly
insignificant circumstance that he knew from experience
1860-1865] Professorial Work 329
what consequences may ensue from an ineffectual, albeit
blameless life.
In College meetings he still contended for the objects
which he thought desirable, supported by an increasing
minority, to which the powerful aid of the Hon.
E. Lyulph Stanley was added in 1863.
The Professorial lectures continued as before, chiefly
in connexion with his work on Plato. A pleasing
testimony to his labours as Greek Professor in 1860-62
was given me by the late Mr. Walter Pater, in a letter
which has since acquired a pathetic interest through the
writer's too early death :
B.N.C., May 6, 1894.
MY DEAR CAMPBELL,
You have asked me to write a few lines ' describing the
impression Jowett made on out-College, i. e. non-Balliol men,'
when he taught the University for nothing. Like many
others I received much kindness and help from him when
I was reading for my degree (1860 to 1862) and afterwards.
A large number of his hours in every week of Term-time must
have been spent in the private teaching of undergraduates,
not of his own College, over and above his lectures, which
of course were open to all. They found him a very en-
couraging but really critical judge of their work essays, and
the like, listening from 7.30-10.30 to a pupil, or a pair
of pupils, for half an hour in turn. Of course many availed
themselves of the, I believe, unprecedented offer to receive
exercises in Greek or English in this way, and on the part
of one whose fame among the youth, though he was then
something of a recluse, was already established. Such fame
rested on his great originality as a writer and thinker. He
seemed to have taken the measure not merely of all opinions,
but of all possible ones, and to have put the last refinements
on literary expression. The charm of that was enhanced by
a certain mystery about his own philosophic and other
opinions. You know at that time his writings were thought
by some to be obscure. These impressions of him had been
330 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
derived from his Essays on St. Paul's Epistles, which at that
time were much read and pondered by the more intellectual
sort of undergraduates. When he lectured on Plato, it was
a fascinating thing to see those qualities as if in the act of
creation, his lectures being informal, unwritten, and seemingly
unpremeditated, but with many a long-remembered gem of
expression, or delightfully novel idea, which seemed to be
lying in wait whenever, at a loss for a moment in his some-
what hesitating discourse, he opened a book of loose notes.
They passed very soon into other note-books all over the
University ; the larger part, but I think not all of them, into
his published introductions to the Dialogues. Ever since
I heard it, I have been longing to read a very dainty dialogue
on language, whi ,1 formed one of his lectures, a sort of 'New
Cratylus.' Excuse the length to which my 'brief remarks
have run. On this closely-written sheet there is only room
to sign myself
Very sincerely yours,
WALTER PATER.
Professor G. G. Ramsay, of Glasgow, with reference
to the same period, after a similar description of the
evenings in Jowett' s study, adds :
' An acquaintance was thus begun which was of interest
and value to us throughout our lives. His criticisms were
kindly and encouraging ; but it was a severe ordeal to have
to listen to them, especially in the presence of others. You
did not feel exactly that you could resent anything that he
said: and he took you at your word when you replied "Cer-
tainly not " to his not unusual query, ' ' You don't mind my
saying what I think about this essay ? " When the criticism
came, it was often pretty cutting, always curt, simple and
fundamental ; his eyes twinkled with satisfaction when you
made a point in which you agreed with him . . . not less
when he made some point himself in which he felt he could
carry you along with him. But he never struck undeservedly,
never harshly, unless he detected a flavour of impudence : he
never seemed to wound you, but only to put into your hands
1860-1865] George Rankine Luke 331
a weapon for discovering that you were a fool. To most men
the discovery was invaluable, and constituted the great in-
tellectual effect of his criticisms. Some few were sceptical
and resentful, and these usually would not return.'
The ' colonization ' of other Colleges by Balliol men had
begun to make itself distinctly felt ; and Jowett watched
with keen interest the growing influence of some of his
pupils, especially of Mr. George Kankine Luke, who had
gained a senior Studentship at Christ Church in 1860, and
held a Tutorship there until his lamented death on
March 3, 1862. He was the son of an Edinburgh trades-
man, and, after a distinguished career at the Edinburgh
Academy l and Glasgow University, had come to Balliol
with a Snell Exhibition in 1855. After obtaining a senior
Studentship at Christ Church, he devoted himself to his
Tutorial labours there with the most enthusiastic energy
and extraordinary success. When told that Luke was
killing himself with work, Jowett said, with a kind of
fatherly pride, ' Young men don't die so easily.' Young
Luke became subject to fits of giddiness, however, and
was upset in his skiff upon the river. When the body
was brought home, his friend Nichol, wild with grief,
went straight to Jowett's rooms. With eager promptitude
and resolute calmness, Jowett set himself at once to
prepare an obituary notice of his friend, which appeared
in the Times next day. Some passages in this are so
expressive of his own habitual thoughts that they are
inserted here :
' During the last two years he had been quietly growing in
reputation, and was exercising a great and beneficent influence
in the University by devoted and unremitting attention to
1 I was present once at an voce by A. C. Tait, then Dean of
examination of the Academy Carlisle. L. C.
where Luke was examined viva
332 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
his pupils. The secret of this influence, which was exerted
over his contemporaries as well as his pupils, lay in the un-
common energy and intensity of his character, which blended
with a singular affectionateness. . . . Though instinctively
a lover of truth, he was never led from his practical duties by
vague speculation. The supposed theological difficulties of
Oxford passed through his mind, but certainly left no hurtful
impression on his strong and innocent nature. A few days
ago he had said to a friend that he was not afraid to die at
any moment. Nor was such a feeling, combined with such
a life, in any degree a presumptuous one. . . . He understood
perfectly the secret of success as a College Tutor. The secret
is chiefly devotion to the work, and consideration for the
characters of young men. No young man is really hostile
to one who is labouring, evening as well as morning, wholly
for his good who troubles him only about the weightier
matters who knows how to sympathize with his better
mind who can venture to associate with him without
formality or restraint. To men like Mr. Luke, the difficulties
of maintaining authority in a College absolutely disappear.
The feelings with which the young are capable of regarding
such a man. and the true estimate they form of him, are indeed
surprising. . . . No one would do more for a friend or think
less about it.
* His work is left unfinished, and has to be continued by
others. Those who come after him will find that their only
chance of raising the great aristocratic seminary with which
he was connected to its rightful position in public estimation
is the performance of services like his, with the same un-
tiring energy, the same regardlessness of self. In the fulfil-
ment of such a duty to the University and to the nation,
the lives of many good or even great men will not be spent
in vain.'
The grief for Luke's death was shared by Stanley, who
had witnessed his success at Christ Church. He made an
affecting reference to him in the sermon on ' Great Oppor-
tunities ' with which he bade farewell to Christ Church and
to Oxford on November 29, 1863. This is mentioned
1860-1865] Summer Haunts Analysis of Plato 333
in a letter from Caird 1 to Nichol, which reflects the
feeling of the younger graduates at this time :
'How I wish you had been up to hear Stanley's noble
sermon on Sunday last, with its picture of Oxford as it is and
as it might be, and above all to hear his eloquent tribute to
our dear friend. . . . The University turned out to hear it
better than I have ever seen them do before. I said to Jowett
after, " Who will sing us battle-songs any more ? " " We must
carry on the fight though," said he, looking as pertinacious
and as saintly- wicked as usual.'
Jowett was eager to complete his edition of the
Republic, 'to get rid of Plato and return to Theology,'
and he actually took leave of absence for the Summer
Term of 1861, with this object in view. But his literary
work was being more and more crowded into vacation-
time. In Term-time he could only direct his reading
with a view to it, and to the preparation of his lectures.
For the sake of Plato, and of a select number of his
pupils, including some old friends, he resided for long
spells in summer at some country place chiefly during
these years at Whitby (1861), Braemar (1862), High
Force in Teesdale (1863), Askrigg in "Wensleydale (1864) 2 ,
Pitlochry, and Tummel Bridge. The Plato, which he
had hoped to finish in a year or two, still remained on
hand, throwing the projected works on Theology more and
more into the background. In revising the notes to the
Republic, it had occurred to him that a complete analysis
of the Dialogues would form a suitable ' Prolegomena '
to his book. The analysis, as he conceived it, was to be
a sort of condensed translation, in which nothing essential
should be omitted, and even the force of connecting
1 Now Master of Balliol. White.' From a letter of 1883.
a 'Askrigg was recommended to White was the author of A Month
me by an old fellow named Walter in Yorkshire, &c.
334 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
particles should be preserved. All was to be in perfect
English., and the labour spent on such a work was
naturally great. When I was with him at Askrigg, in
the summer of 1864, he was struggling with the analysis
of the Parmenides and the other dialectical dialogues.
His taste in language was becoming more and more
fastidious. At this time he was resolved to turn every
sentence so as to exclude the colourless pronoun ''.'
I troubled him with the remark that ' which ' was not
much better, and one or other was inevitable. After
this he became more tolerant of 'it,' but still objected
to it, except in the impersonal verb. Finding the com-
mentary sometimes tedious, he used to say, 'I am
longing to get at the more general treatment of the
subject. '
While speaking of our Yorkshire sojourn, it may be
worth while to trace the course of a day. Breakfast
was not very early, and was apt to be unpunctual. partly
because Jowett would take a pupil or a friend, Lord
Kerry, Lord Boringdon, or Lord Duncan, for a walk
and talk. Conversation after breakfast lasted some time,
and it was well after ten before we settled to work. But
the work continued with hardly any intermission till
dinner-time, four o'clock. This also was apt to be a
movable feast, as Jowett disliked stopping in the middle
of a piece of writing, and sometimes had letters to finish.
About six we started for a two hours' walk, returning
to tea at eight, and work was resumed before nine and
continued till midnight. Jowett wrote his letters at
odd times, mostly, I suspect, after the day's task was
done. Four pages of fresh writing and rather more of
revision were his quantum for the day. In working
with him, one was astonished at the number of ways
which occurred to him for turning a particular phrase.
1860-1865] Ascent of Loch-na-gar 335
If, holding firmly by the Greek, I objected to an expres-
sion, another was produced, and then another and another,
until Greek and English appeared to coincide. But
perhaps the one last hit upon would be afterwards dis-
carded, as not harmonizing with the rhythm or colour
of the whole. This protracted labour was almost finished,
when a casual remark of Pattison's (I think) convinced
him that the analysis could never be complete, and that
the Republic, at all events, must be translated in full.
As he proceeded with this in 1865, he formed the resolu-
tion of translating the whole of Plato.
But to return. On Sundays the work was so far laid
aside as to secure attendance at morning church, and
a longer walk in the afternoon. Lord Camperdown (then
Lord Duncan), who was with him at Braemar in 1862 J ,
tells how one Sunday there was spent. Jowett decided
to climb Loch-na-gar, and fixed on Sunday for the
expedition. Lord Duncan expected to start early, but
Jowett insisted on going to the Kirk. No guide being
found available on the Sabbath, they had to make their
own way, and the shades of evening were falling ere
they had descended far from the summit. Jowett got
very tired with stumbling in and out of the peat hags,
and his companion had to support him, while feeling
apprehensive that they had lost the path. He would
only take one sip from the spirit-flask.
At this point they heard the floundering of an animal,
which for a moment they supposed to be a deer, but
Lord Duncan went up to it and discovered that it was
a pony with the saddle turned right round. He put the
saddle straight, but Jowett would not mount. However,
the pony, kept moving by Lord Duncan, led them
1 His other companion there was Mr. G. W. Kekewich, after-
wards of the Education Office.
336 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
to the keeper's lodge at Callater. There, the ground
being smoother, Jowett consented to mount, and they
got back safely. The fact was that J. M. Wilson, of
Corpus, who was at Braemar at the time, had heard of
the projected expedition and had expressed himself rather
doubtfully as to its success. He had started to follow them
on the pony, but had given up the chase and, leaving
the creature to its fate, had descended on foot. There
was a good deal of talk about this escapade, for they had
disturbed a great herd of deer at the summit, and the
sportsmen, whose Sunday occupation was to watch the
deer, had their spy-glasses directed that way.
The following letter from E-. A. H. Mitchell, Assistant
Master at Eton, April 15, 1894, contains some further
reminiscences of Jowett's manner of spending the vaca-
tions in these years:
'Nearly thirty years have now passed since I journeyed to
Yorkshire to join the Master at a little country inn in the
village of Askrigg, some twelve miles' drive from the station
at Leyburn. I found there, besides the Master himself, the
present Lord Lansdowne, who was about my own standing,
Lord Camperdown, who had I think taken his degree, and
Purves, who was, I believe, helping the Master with his
work. . . . Our method of living did not altogether commend
itself to the hungry undergraduate, for we had only two
regular meals in the day, breakfast nominally at nine, dinner at
four. I don't think the Master ever supplemented these meals,
though we did, as you will not be slow to understand. The
Master never thought anything about his food, and was
content with the simplest diet. At that time his whole
thought seemed to be engrossed in his Plato, and he was
not so ready to talk as he was in his later years. He worked
entirely in his own room. I have never seen him at work,
but be used to begin immediately after breakfast and work
on till dinner at four o'clock. He then went for a walk,
and on coining in retired again and worked, I believe, till
1860-1865] With Pupils in Vacation 337
about twelve o'clock. He was not an early riser, seldom
appearing before ten, but he would not allow breakfast to
be ordered later than nine not altogether a comfortable
arrangement. When we subsequently moved off together to
Pitlochry he proposed that any one who was five minutes
late for breakfast should be fined the sum of one shilling.
The first morning he appeared quite punctually, the second he
was a little late, the next he said that, as he was late,
he thought he would take his shilling's worth. After that, he
found that ten o'clock suited him better than nine. However,
at the end of the time he insisted on paying a shilling a day
to the common expenses.
' His example of hard work and simplicity was of great
value to us, and made hard work all the easier at a time
when it was very essential for me to be kept to my books.
He did not profess or attempt to coach us regularly, but
he was anxious that we should ask him questions, and he
took great trouble in explaining difficulties and making his
answers clear. Knowing that he was working so hard himself,
I think we were reluctant to burden him with too many
questions, ever ready though he was to help us. What
I found most valuable was his sympathy and encouragement ;
he led one to suppose that one could do well, provided there
was hard work, and there can be no doubt that many in
life "possunt quid posse videntur." His encouragement caused
many to persevere. I do not think that we found it very
easy to converse with him : his interests and thoughts were
veiy far removed from those of the ordinary undergraduate,
or the small-talk of life ; but he had a quiet sympathy for
all that with one's pursuits, with a word of warning against
spending too much time upon them.
'I was afterwards with him at Pitlochry, and in the following
year (1866) at St. Andrews, where we were both the guests
of Professor Lewis Campbell \ . . .'
1 Mr. Mitchell adds, ' Jowett's against Christ Church. On that
interests did not lie, as mine did, occasion, the only one within my
in cricket. But I remember he knowledge, he indulged in the
once said that he was coming to evil habit of betting, for he
see me play in a College match wagered one shilling, I think, with
VOL. I. Z
338 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
In 1863 he attended the meeting of the British
Association at Newcastle, where he was the guest of
Sir W. and Lady Armstrong.
The range of his friendships was still widening.
Clifton now becomes an important centre. His widowed
cousin, Mrs. Irwin, came thither to reside with her
children in Canynge Square. Jowett continued his
visits to Dr. Symonds and his son and daughter, at
Hill House. They persuaded him, somewhat against
the grain, to be photographed, October 7, 1861 *. He
also accepted an invitation to the Deanery of Bristol
in 1860.
Before doing so, however, he thought it necessary
to show his colours, and presented a copy of his Essay to
the Dean. It was kindly received, as appears from
a letter of July 29, 1860 :
(To Dean Elliot.) ' I am glad you do not wholly disapprove
of my Essay. I hardly expect any one engaged in practical
work to approve of it. But I hope liberal-minded persons
may indirectly find some help and service from it, though
they may disagree.'
The Dean was liberal-minded, and willing to reason
temperately with the younger clergyman on the limits
of free discussion within the borders of the Church.
Dean Elliot's position, as Prolocutor of the Lower House
of Convocation, might have been of great importance
at this crisis ; but he was compelled to travel for the
health of one of his daughters, and on his return
circumstances had occurred which induced him to resign.
the late Principal of B.N.C. he did not lose his money.'
(Dr. Cradock) that I got forty. 1 Life of J. A. Symonds, vol. i.
A rash bet, but I am glad to say pp. 184-189.
1860-1865] Cortachy, Lea Hurst, Farringford 339
Jowett, -with, characteristic tenacity, endeavoured to
dissuade him from this step ; and not less characteristic-
ally acquiesced in it when taken, and congratulated his
friend on his freedom. He still ventured, however, to
remonstrate with him on his entire withdrawal from
the proceedings of the Lower House : ' I am sorry to
see that you no longer lend the weight of your presence
to that disorderly assembly over which you used to
preside.'
In 1 86 1 he paid his first visit to Lord and Lady
Stanley at Alderley. The friendship which was thus
cemented with that family continued through his after
life, and led in particular to his acquaintance with Lord
and Lady Airlie, which he improved with annual visits
to their seat of Cortachy, in Forfarshire. In 1862 he
began his frequent visits to Mr. Nightingale, of Embley.
Hants, and Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, and also to the
Earl of Camperdown.
An annual visit to the Tennysons at Freshwater
about Christmas-time became a matter of course, and
besides the Christmas visit he often took a lodging near
them, at Woodland Cottage, or elsewhere. He writes to
Mrs. Tennyson (December, 1862): 'I sometimes think
that merely being in the neighbourhood of Alfred keeps
me up to a higher standard of what ought to be in
writing and thinking.'
In the autumn of 1862 the death of Archbishop
Sumner left the See of Canterbury vacant, and in the
changes that were sure to follow, it seemed likely that
a Bishopric of some kind might be offered to Stanley.
Jowett urged him to accept one if offered, whether
small or great. ' In some respects a small one is better
than a great one, because allowing more leisure and
having less routine.' Not that he could desire his friend
Z 2
340 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
to be Archbishop of Dublin : ' an Irish Bishop or Arch-
bishop I could not be, as I should feel always judico me
cremari V By-and-by it appeared likely that Tait might
be called to Lambeth. On this Jowett wrote still more
urgently, giving reasons why Stanley should not refuse
London if offered. The situation changed again when
Longley was translated to Canterbury and Tait was
offered the Archbishopric of York. While Tait hesitated
Jowett wrote once more to Stanley, repeating his advice.
He was equally decided in dissuading him from accepting
a Deanery. Whilst Stanley was at Canterbury, the
Deanery of Westminster had seemed to Jowett a desirable
position for his friend ; but now, in the midst of the
great battle for liberty at Oxford, he would not have him
leave it for any Deanery ; and when Stanley, on returning
from his Italian tour with his sister Mary and Canon
Hugh Pearson, in October, 1863, announced at once his en-
gagement to be married and his acceptance of the Deanery
of Westminster, Jowett, while rejoicing in the former
announcement, regarded the latter as a disastrous step.
To him personally the loss of Stanley's help at Oxford
was in any case a severe blow, and the new position
did not seem to offer any compensating advantage
to the cause of liberal thought. That he did not
immediately recover from the change appears from his
writing in a familiar letter some years afterwards, ' I have
not yet quite forgiven Anglicanus for deserting me ' ; but
when he saw the step to be irrevocable he resolutely
made the best of it; and, besides the opportunity of
preaching at Westminster which came in 1866 and the
1 When the Archbishopric of it would cross him." Cf. Dean
Dublin was vacant and Stanley Stanley s Life, vol. ii. pp. 97-99,
was talked of for the place, Jowett 131, 132.
said, ' I hope he will not take it :
1860-1865] Professorships in Scotland 341
following years, Jowett gained from Stanley's new position
an additional foothold in London society, where the
Deanery, graced with Lady Augusta's presence, became
a rallying-point for all that was most illustrious both
in the Church and in the world. It is evident, however,
from the letters above referred to, that in dissuading
Stanley from accepting "Westminster he had no thought
of interfering with his friend's preferment; the truth
was that he had larger views for him.
In the autumn of 1863 the Sellars went to Edinburgh,
where Lancaster was now married, and had young
children 1 . Jowett had god-children in both houses,
and made friendships with all the young ones, becoming
most intimate with those that were the liveliest, and
had least of what was called intellectual promise. His
own shyness made him relish talkativeness in others.
Several of his old Scottish pupils were pushing their
fortunes in their own country. I had succeeded Sellar
at St. Andrews (1863), where our home became one of
his favoured resorts ; Nichol, after being rejected for the
Logic Chair at St. Andrews, had been appointed to the
new Chair of English Literature at Glasgow (1861).
Another contest in which he took great interest was that
of T. H. Green for the Chair of Moral Philosophy at
St. Andrews, vacated by Ferrier's death in 1864. The
Rev. Robert Flint, of Kilconquhar, was the rival candi-
date. The University Court, of whom Professor
J. C. Shairp was one, preferred the Scotch minister to
the young Oxonian, whose youth and, it must be said
also, what was then regarded as the obscurity of his Essay
on Aristotle, told against him.
Burdened as he was, there was no trouble which Jowett
1 See Jowett's Preface to H. H. Lancaster's posthumous volume of
Essays and Reviews.
342 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
would not take for a friend, travelling any distance to
a marriage or a christening, at either of which ceremonies
he was often the officiating minister. He went to
Berlin in 1864, for example, merely to christen Morier's
child. He sought to reconcile his work with travelling,
by reading and writing a great deal in railway trains.
I have seen a pencil analysis of Plato's Laws, which
bore evident marks of having been composed in a shaky
carriage.
Jowett never sought for Court favour, and he sometimes
felt that Stanley's real position had been rather weak-
ened by it. But he was genuinely pleased by two
instances of sympathy in high places which reached him
in 1863.
The Tennysons had been at Osborne, and Mrs.
Tennyson had written a letter which Jowett reported to
his mother. Mr. and Mrs. Tennyson had both spoken
of Jowett to the Queen, who said that 'Oxford had
used him shamefully,' on which Tennyson burst forth
again with, 'I am so glad your Majesty appreciates
Mr. Jowett.'
To Mrs. Tennyson Jowett wrote in reply :
' I am very glad you went to see the Queen. It is a great
recollection for the children to have ; and good for her to see
people who come from the fresh air of the outer world. . . .
Best love and grateful thanks to Alfred.'
Soon afterwards the Crown Princess of Prussia went
incognita to Oxford on purpose to have an interview with
him. This also is recorded in a letter to his mother:
' I never saw a person who pleased me better. She sat
and talked about an hour about Philosophy and matters
of that sort. I thought her quite a genius. . . . This
is partly due to Dr. Stanley, partly to my old friend
Morier, who is a friend of hers.'
343
LETTERS, 1860-1865.
To DEAN ELLIOT.
[OXFORD,] October 17, 1860.
I venture to send you a short paper that I have written
upon the revision of the Liturgy. I have no intention of
publishing it, but think I would like to inflict upon you,
and one or two other persons who are acquainted with the
subject, the trouble of reading it. Would you kindly return
the paper to me when you have looked at it, as I have
no copy ; though if you care to keep it, I could easily get
one made and send it you ?
You will perhaps consider that I am making for you, a
propos of nothing, a very laborious amusement.
I hear that you are going to leave England for an indefinite
time. I am very sorry indeed that you should be obliged
to take such a step, even as a measure of precaution. The
Cradocks tell me that they have begged you to come here
before your departure for a day or two. Another person will
be glad to welcome you also.
. . . You will smile at my Act of Parliament to revise
the Liturgy. I merely wanted to show, from beginning to
end, by what simple means the suggestion might be effected.
To Miss ELLIOT.
January 22, 1861.
I read yesterday with great pleasure a pamphlet on Destitute
Incurables 1 (it appears to be written by some one who bears
your name). I thought it extremely well done, very touching
and simple, and really practical and businesslike. When you
have any scheme of Philanthropy on hand (like Miss Cobbe,
I hate Philanthropists), it is a very good rhetorical artifice
to pretend to be hard-hearted. If you are a political economist,
1 Destitute Incurables in Work- Science Meeting in Glasgow,
houses: a paper by Miss Elliot September, 1860. Autobiography
and Miss Cobbe, read at the Social of F. P. Cobbe, vol. i. pp. 316, 317.
344 Life of Benjamin Jowctt [CHAP, xi
you should appear before the world as a philanthropist ; if
you are a philanthropist, make people believe that you are
a political economist ; always appear to be what you are
not, and use words to conceal your thoughts. What shocking
advice ! If you think so, it can be reversed ; but is it not
partly true notwithstanding?
I, who am really, and not in pretence only, very hard-
hearted, read the pamphlet about the poor Incurables, not
without some excitement of feeling. It was a very happy
and Christian thought of the person who first took up their
cause. Perhaps they will be met by a company of incurables
at the gate of the celestial city coming to welcome them.
For myself, I do little or nothing for the poor, but I have
always a very strong feeling that they are not as they ought
to be in the richest country that the world has ever known.
In theory I have a great love for them, and some day, if
I live, hope I may be able to write something about them.
To DEAN ELLIOT, AT CANNES.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
February 8, 1861.
DEAR MR. DEAN,
It is a formidable thing to commence a correspondence
uninvited (especially with a dignitary of the Church) when
you are secretly conscious that you have nothing worth
telling to say. Nevertheless I venture to trouble you with
a few lines, lest I should wholly fall out of acquaintance.
I was glad to hear that you have found the experiment
of going abroad so completely successful. The columns of
the Times will show you that this winter has been very
ungentle to invalids. Surely the desire of life must be very
slight, or the spirit of indolence strong, to make weak chests
and throats stay out such a season in England.
As I really feel a difficulty in 'breaking the ice,' I shall
hope you will receive all I say wise, foolish, amusing or
otherwise with the same kindness you showed me at the
Deanery last summer. Now I shall imagine myself at home
and begin to talk. I should be glad if you would repent
Letters, 1860-1865 345
of the ' Nolo Episcopari ' but as you refuse, I can only
wish you the best of Deaneries and many peaceful days in
it. Do you know that Convocation, at the instigation of
Dr. Jelf, are going to consider and perhaps censure the book
called Essays and Reviews'} How injurious to Convocation,
to what is termed orthodoxy, to every one except the writers
of the book and their friends ! I am glad you are not likely
to be there. I should not wish to draw upon friends (if I may
call you so) to drag us out of the ditch. At present the
book is a sort of bugbear among the Bishops and Clergy,
showing, I venture to think, that some inquiries of the sort
were needed, if the evidences of religion are to have anything
but a conventional value. In a few years there will be no
religion in Oxford among intellectual young men, unless
religion is shown to be consistent with criticism.
I wish the Bishops were alive to the great and increasing
evil of the want of ability among young clergymen. The
two great literary professions of the Bar and the Church
seem to be fast degenerating. In the Church I am convinced
that one of the principal I think the greatest cause is
'Subscription.' To-day I was walking with a grandson of
the Bishop of Exeter, who was expressing his strong desire
to go into Orders and his inability to do so.
The political horizon seems unusually dark, by which
I don't mean that I myself have no chance of obtaining
preferment, or that the country is going to ruin, but that
'our friends' the Whigs appear to me unlikely to retain
their places and to have by no means a good store of political
capital with which to commence opposition. I wonder they
have not felt that Keform was needed, not only for the
good of the country, but to enable them to retain office ;
without it the Conservatives gain on them every year, and
would have been in office long ago if they had been trusted
in their foreign policy. I suppose that Lord Palmerston
has cast his spell over the party, and is satisfied if the present
strange combination last his time.
I hope you will go to Borne and see the last of the Pope.
What is to be the future of the Church of Eome ? I suppose
we may reckon that it will not die for centuries, but go
346 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
on in a perpetual state of relaxation and nationalization. The
Ultramontane element however, which is said to be so strong
among the Clergy (the less the power, the greater the assump-
tion), makes a difficulty : it will neither learn nor unlearn
anything. I expect L. Napoleon and Cavour will give it
a knock on the head when the time comes. Marrying the
Clergy in the present state of Catholic feeling is impossible,
perhaps ; but educating them in the light of day and not
in Catholic Seminaries is feasible ; and something of this
kind we shall perhaps see attempted. Do you ever see the
Eevue des Deux Mondes ? You will be interested with an article
of E. Kenan's on the subject. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
{February, 1861,] Friday.
I have just written out my letter 1 in fair calligraphic hand
(beautiful writing, and the term which you added about the
Formularies of the Church of England quite admirable). But
I have determined not to send it. My reasons are :
1. The enclosed letter from Wilson 2 , which is very amusing
(the description of the old squire is charming). I should do
more harm by seeming to detach myself from them, with
whom I don't (nevertheless) wholly agree, than any advantage
I should gain, if the letter were successful, from a sharp hit
at the Bishop of London.
2. I should irritate the Bishop of London, who perhaps has
more reason for his conduct than we know (though I cannot
conceive of what kind) : at any rate he would have to cast
about in his mind for a defence, which would end in an
attack on me or some one.
3. The contest will be a long one ; I am afraid in my
case as long as life ; and there will be other opportunities
of showing that I am not cowed by this apparition of the
twenty-five Bishops ; in the meantime it is of great importance
to speak evil of no one and to irritate no one.
Whether this plan is successful or not, depends partly on
1 To the Bishop of London, A. C. Tait. See p. 297.
2 The Rev. H. B. Wilson.
Letters, 1860-1865 347
the manner in which it is carried out, and this on health
and other matters over which I have no control. When
I look at the matter seriously and not comically, as I do
sometimes with you and Mrs. Vaughan who is positively
deserting me in my misfortunes, no doubt for good and wise
reasons, (when I am burnt in the Churchyard at Doncaster,
the Vicar l preaching a sermon on the occasion, I expect her
to give me breakfast) I believe the motto should be, 'in
quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' Therefore
I shall cease to trouble you and Mrs. Stanley 2 any more on
the subject.
To F. T. PALGBAVE.
March 22, 1861.
It is almost too late to answer your first note about the
joint authorship of the Essays, except to say that Grant's
statement goes beyond the truth, which is, that the authors
knew one another slightly, for the most part, and took the
subjects which suited them, without concert and without
seeing one another's writing, except in the case of Wilson,
who edited and superintended, but without, as far as I was
concerned, making any alteration.
I do not know anything about the address to Temple,
unless it be one set on foot by Spottiswoode. My own
impression is that addresses are no good, unless they are
intended to avert some libel or danger of ejectment, which
in Temple's case is not likely.
I hope that you are not taking life too sadly. ' Be cheerful,
sir V
To DEAN ELLIOT, AT GENOA.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
April i, 1861.
You kindly ask whether there is anything which you can
do. I believe not (I mean as far as I am concerned). The
worse the behaviour of Convocation, the better for those
1 Dr. C. J. Vaughan, now Dean 2 Dr. Stanley's mother,
of Llandaff. 3 Shakespeare, Tempest, iv. i.
348 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
who are attacked by it, though not, perhaps, the better for
the Church of England. I made up my mind at the com-
mencement of the clamour that the best course was also
the easiest to do nothing. With my College and University
work I have not had time hitherto to write answers, hardly
to write letters, if I had had the inclination.
I am sorry that the Clergy are so determinedly set against
all the intellectual tendencies of the age. They are trying
to pledge the Church of England to the same course in which
the Church of Eome has already failed. The real facts and
truths of Christianity are quite a sufficient basis for a national
Church, but they want to maintain a conventional Christianity
into which no one is to inquire, which is always being patched
and plastered with evidences and apologies. I wish I could
persuade you that it was right to alter the Church of England
from within, for I think that it will never be altered from
without, unless it is destroyed.
I had not forgotten your words to me at Bristol about
freethinkers entering the ministry. But unless you admit
some freedom of thought, men of ability will be absolutely
excluded, and the Church of England will become more and
more the instrument of bigotry and intolerance. Moreover
I cannot see that freethinkers about Scripture, &c., who were
not contemplated by the Articles, are more nearly touched
by them than the High Churchmen who were, or than the
Evangelicals are by the Baptismal Service. Though I dislike
'Subscription,' I am inclined to think that if we are all dis-
honest together that proves us to be all honest together \
Do you think of writing anything on the present position
of the Church of England 'A letter to Convocation from
the Prolocutor of the Lower House ' ? There will hardly occur
such an opportunity again of saying useful truths with equal
effect. And yet, perhaps, by the time the letter was ready
the tempest may have lulled ; and it seems a kind of profana-
1 An application of W. Gr. scribing to them (the Articles) we
Ward's saying as recorded by were not all dishonest together,
Jowett in W. G. Ward and the but all honest together.' Cf. the
Oxford Movement, p. 438, ' At one letter to B. C. Brodie of February,
time he used to say that in sub- 1845 (p. 94).
Letters, 1860-1865 349
tion to contaminate the lakes and cities of the North of
Italy with controversy. I hope you will write, however,
some day.
To Miss ELLIOT.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFOBD,
April i, 1861.
Let me only thank you for your great kindness and con-
sideration in troubling yourself about me in this storm. Such
letters as yours and the Dean's outweigh many times the
attacks of the Guardian and Record.
The truth is we have nothing to complain of and are in
no danger. It is obvious that any one who runs against the
religious prejudices of the time must expect to be a mark
for attacks. There seems to me to be very little malignity,
except perhaps in the subtle genius of the Saturday Review,
who no doubt supposes himself (whoever he is) to be writing
in the most honourable and conscientious spirit. I think
it should be understood that in controversy, as in love, every-
thing is fair. I think people may be allowed to tell lies,
for they really can't help it.
To DEAN ELLIOT, AT FLOKENCE.
FBESHWATER, April 16, 1861.
... I think matters are calming down. I am very glad
that you were not in Convocation, as it would have been
impossible to have stemmed the first strength of the torrent,
and it would probably have been a waste of power to have
attempted it.
Looking at the subject (not with reference to our personal
interests or feelings, but) with reference to the questions
at stake and the interest of the Church in the long run,
which cannot really be separated from the interests of truth,
I think the course of events has been favourable. Many
persons have admitted into their minds inquiries which they
would have resisted but for the manner in which the subject
has been forced upon them by the Bishops. It is the be-
ginning of a long controversy which has now for the first
350 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
time taken hold of the Church of England. And I believe
it may tend not merely to a negative and critical theology,
but to the making of religion more natural and effectual.
The false position of educated persons with reference to
their practice is quite as striking as their false position in
speculation.
This will probably reach you at Genoa or Florence, or an
Italian lake, some beautiful spot which should make one
forget that there is such a thing as controversy in the world.
To SIB ALEXANDER GRANT, IN INDIA.
FKESHWATEK, April 27, 1861.
Perhaps I shall be as well employed in writing to an
absent friend this Sunday morning as in going to hear
Mr. Isaacson preach, who calls me Judas Iscariot. Let me
thank you, once more, for the great pains you took about
my brother's * affairs, which are now quite settled, and assure
you what great pleasure your last letter gave me and others
who read it.
Lady Grant 2 is here, quite well and satisfied, as she tells
me, that you should be useful in a distant land. We all look
forward, however, to your coming home to a changed world
and to a changed Oxford perhaps, (for it really is changing
more rapidly than could have been expected,) but not to
changed friends.
I am living here at a lodging about half a mile from
Tennyson's, who talks of you with great regard and affection.
The other evening, going upstairs we stopped to look at
Maurice and you, as you hang beside one another. Tennyson
said, 'That man (Maurice) I never allow anything to be
said against, and that Mannie (Grant) there is nothing to
be said against.' Mrs. Tennyson wants you to be governor,
not of the island of Barataria, but of Madras or Bombay.
And / wish for you that you should leave behind you in
India a sort of reputation like Bishop Heber's for kindness
and friendship to the natives.
1 Alfred Jowett : see p. 253.
2 The Dowager Lady Grant, Sir A. Grant's mother.
Letters, 1860-1865 351
I believe that you are in a far better position for doing
them good than you would be as a missionary or Bishop.
Is not the late change in the admission to writerships favour-
able to education? Men who owe their admission to the
service to education will surely believe more in its value
than the old civil servants. I hope you will not depend
only on the College 1 , but write and try to get political con-
nexions. We students and pedagogues lose influence often
by not doing our part sufficiently in the world and in society.
There has been a great tumult about Essays and Reviews,
which is now dwindling to a calm. The folly of the Bishops
has led to the book selling about 20,000 copies. I have been
a great deal more pleased by the kindness and support which
the book has called forth than hurt by the attacks of enemies,
which, like the attacks of mosquitoes, seem to produce little
impression after the first day or two.
At present I am busy with Plato, which is my reason for
staying away from Oxford, and have hope of finishing by the
end of the year.
Please to reconsider what you say about the Ethics*. It
must be out of print and may be set aside by some interloper.
Would you like me to do anything or get anything done in
the course of the next year ?
... I am very desirous that you should write about India,
not hastily, but when you have had time to collect facts
and review impressions. Probably no one at present in India
could do so as well, and it would at once give you a position
above the ordinary civil servants.
So you have got a son 3 . He has my best wishes. Some
day you will send him over to Eton or Rugby, and perhaps
to Balliol, if I am living : I get more and more determined
to cast in my lot for life at Oxford.
Pray let me hear from you about India. I am always
interested.
1 Grant was now Principal of 3 The child died in infancy.
Elphinstone College, Bombay. In writing to the mother, Jowett
2 The first volume of Grant's said, ' One can say of infants,
edition of the Nicomachean Ethics more truly than of any one else,
of Aristotle was published in 1857. they fall asleep in Jesus.'
352 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
To Miss ELLIOT.
TORQUAY, June 9, 1861.
I hope you will enjoy Switzerland. Don't relinquish Venice
(if Eome has become impossible), nor Verona, which is almost
equally beautiful, and the Lago di Garda. Let me tell you
also what I thought the most beautiful thing in the Alps the
Val d'Anzasca ; you go to it from Vogogna, and, if you are
very brave, might contrive to get over the Monte Moro to Saas
and Zermatt. I see you don't like to trust yourself with an
English summer.
The Essays and Reviews have long ceased to be talked of in
good society. They are permeating, as people say, the lower
strata : ' Gents ' in railways talk about them to their sweet-
hearts : God help them ! The last I heard of them was that
they had been condemned by a Synod of Quakers (who have
a certain affinity with the Bishops), which, my Quaker in-
formant adds, has greatly stimulated the appetite of young
Quakers. Though I try to make fun of them to you, you
must not suppose that I regard the whole affair altogether
as a joke.
Lord John Eussell is said to have produced a great effect
by a speech on Foreign Politics about ten days ago. There
seems to be a general feeling that he has entirely succeeded
as Foreign Minister. No one has gained so much in this
session.
To A. P. STANLEY.
i ROYAL CRESCENT, WHITBY, [1861].
Will you kindly read the enclosed and show them to
Fremantle if you have an opportunity ? This ' is a man whom
we ought not to desert, I think. Can you find him a curacy
under some Eector or Bishop by whom he will not be molested?
He appears to me to be just the man for a Bethnal Green
church, or something of that sort.
I received this morning a copy of the articles against
Rowland Williams. They appear to be concocted in the most
1 The Rev. Charles Voysey.
Letters, 1860-1865 353
monstrous spirit. . . . The Bishop of London, and still more
Thirl wall, have not a leg to stand upon in the Church of Eng-
land if the articles against Eowland Williams are affirmed.
Pseudo-orthodox as the Bishops are, I believe that there is not
one of them who might not be dethroned by a similar process
of inferential and constructive treason.
To Miss ELLIOT.
WHITBY, August 4, 1861.
On my way here, I went to see the Arch-heretic Dr. Williams,
who, for ' his soul's health ' (that is the form), has been put into
the Ecclesiastical Court by the Bishop of Sarum. Dr. Williams
is a learned and good man, and a gentleman but a Welshman,
which (as is the case with all Welshmen) it is absolutely
necessary to bear in mind, if you would judge them fairly.
The articles against him are monstrous. If they are admitted,
I think it will be impossible for any Clergyman who preaches
or writes or says anything, to escape the charge of heresy.
All Bishops (also Deans) have certainly been guilty. The only
possibility of avoiding such a charge will be to read the homilies
instead of composing anything of your own. The case comes
on after the Long Vacation : I do not think it will succeed
on any article, especially as the prosecution of it is against
the wish of Canterbury and London, and against an implied
understanding of the Bishops when they signed the letter to
Mr. Fremantle 1 .
Three acquaintances whom I have made this vacation
deserve to be noticed. One was Mr. Macleod Campbell, author
of the book on the Atonement, a more than ordinarily good, and
truthful, and spiritual man : (there are a small class of such
persons who lift themselves and others out of common life).
He was deposed in the Church of Scotland about thirty years
ago, Dr. Chalmers, who partly agreed with him, refusing to
raise a finger in his defence. My next new acquaintance (I am
afraid that this cannot possibly interest you) was Mr. A. J. Scott,
of Owens College (did you ever hear of him ?), a most excellent
1 The Vicar of Islip, to whose published letter the denunciation of
the twenty-five Bishops was the reply.
VOL. I. A a
354 -Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
talker, one of the very few persons who satisfies you in con-
versation. He is also a deposed minister, and what the poor
call a very fine man, of handsome presence and full of thoughts
and words. My third acquaintance was Dr. John Brown,
a physician at Edinburgh, best known to the world as the
author of Bab and Ms Friends, and also of a most admirable
memoir of his own father. He is certainly a writer of real
genius and feeling, and a most excellent man. He had
a charming wife, I am told ; but his life has been utterly
spoiled and darkened by her going hopelessly out of her mind.
Do you agree with Mr. Mill in the last number of Fraser, that
if persons manage properly they can be sure of getting con-
siderable portions of happiness out of life ?
Dr. Williams's cause has as yet made no progress. He has
got Mr. Stephen 1 , brother of Miss Stephen at Clifton, for one
of his counsel. A law court is better for justice than Convo-
cation, but a law court easily gets inspired in these questions
by public opinion. None of the ordinary rules of law are
applicable : the judge does what he likes and the world calls
this common sense. Still, I hope that a Protestant judge will
pause before he determines that the evidences, prophecies,
&c., are a fiction (for that is what the decision would involve)
to be maintained not by weapons of reason and argument, but
by the authority of the Court.
Do you ever hear anything of Mazzini? He seems to be
more abused than any other man in this world. I think
he must be a great man, though a visionary and perhaps
dangerous. The present state of Italy is greatly due to him.
His defence of Borne raised the Italian character. I don't
suppose that you hear the truth about him in the North of
Italy. Some friends of mine, who know him, assure me
that he has the greatest fascination of manner they have
ever met with.
I am sorry to see Mr. resigning his living. No
doubt one ought to say, ' God bless him,' to every man who
makes a sacrifice for what he believes to be the truth. But
1 Sir J. Fitzjames Stephen. The Miss Stephen referred to was
really his cousin.
Letters, 1860-1865 355
if men drop off in this way, they will at best only get into the
position of Nonjurors or Unitarians. If the present condition
of religion in England is ever to be improved, I am convinced
it must be through the Church of England. . . .
To DEAN ELLIOT, AT FLORENCE.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
October 10, 1861.
I hear that you are thinking of giving up the Prolocutorship
on the ground 'that Convocation is so unjust.'
Perhaps your mind is made up. But indeed, I am truly
sorry if it is, and hope you will not think me impertinent for
telling you the reason why :
1. It seems to me that you would be doing what all High
Churchmen and enemies of inquiry most desire. They would
be extremely pleased to enthrone Canon Wordsworth in your
place. I hope that you will not give them this pleasure.
2. I think it is an error (and one which is almost sure to
cause pain in the retrospect) to retire from any position in
which you have attained success and honour. Never resign,
especially in the Church, where such a magic power attends the
words of any person in authority. It is true that you cannot
say as much, but what you say has tenfold weight and power.
In any matter affecting Convocation you would have a claim,
as Prolocutor, to be listened to by the Ministry, which you
would not have as a mere Dean. Though, as Chairman, you do
not take part in the discussion, there are doubtless ways in
which you may prevent evil and do good.
3. Let me suppose that you resign : in doing so, you would
either hold your peace or publicly give reasons. If the first,
your High Church friends would get exactly what they want,
and would repay your kindness to them by a warmly expressed
vote of thanks for your services. The latter course would
certainly produce a great effect, but hardly a lasting one. In
this impossible country no statement, however ably written,
holds out against a powerful party more than a few days. My
own impression is that, in case of resignation, it would be better
to give reasons. Still this would make you the mark for
A a 2
356 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
violent attacks, and would lead to the attempt to push you
out of the stream, of religious feeling in England. I. do not
think that any good could be done by a statement of reasons
so great as might be done by remaining.
4. As to the injustice, it is quite right that Convocation
should be reproached with it, for the sake of the Church of
England. But as far as the authors of heretical books are
concerned, it does them no harm, and is indeed absolutely
unmeaning. The proceedings of Convocation ought never to
give them a moment's pain or uneasiness. I don't think you
need mind Convocation thundering against opinions with
which in some measure you agree. Those who hold such
opinions would wish, not that you should sacrifice yourself out
of a sense of the wrong to them (if any), but that you should
use all the weight which high station assists in giving, to
bring Convocation and the Church of England to more tolerant
and also more natural views of religion. . . .
To MRS. TENNYSON.
BALLIOL, November 13, 1861.
I was very glad to see your handwriting again. I am afraid
the last year has been an anxious and troubled one to you.
Still a long journey, notwithstanding its cares and illnesses, is
a good patch in life to look back upon. I have always found
pleasure in travelling after it is over.
If I am not troubling you I should like to hear again how
Mr. Tennyson is ; perhaps, one of the children could write and
tell me. I am very sorry that he should be suffering. Indeed
a poet deserves to have some of the good and enjoyment that he
gives to others. But it seems often to be otherwise. My doings
have been so very monotonous, that they are not worth nar-
rating to you. I have gone on with Plato, slowly, but I hope
steadily, and shall finish in the course of the next Long Vacation.
The interminable battle about the endowment of the Greek
Professorship still goes on. When I am old and the endow-
ment is of no value to me, it will probably be carried.
Dr. Stanley is the best of friends to me ; I am afraid in
some degree to the injury of his own interests.
Letters, 1860-1865 357
To A. P. STANLEY.
FKESHWATEK, ISLE OF WIGHT,
[January, 1862].
I am so glad that you are going with the Prince of Wales.
I have received from Lingen a document l that fills me with
astonishment. It is most kind, generous, thoughtful to take
so much trouble about me. It will be one of the happiest
recollections of my life that I have received such a testimonial.
But, my dear friend, I cannot accept it.
1. No one ought to take money from others who is not in
absolute need of it, or without a definite public object.
2. I am far from wishing to feast upon a grievance or go
in for being a martyr (don't suppose this), but I am afraid of
lowering the position in which you and others have placed me,
far beyond my deserts.
3. I should not feel on equal terms with my great friends
and should feel pained at my poor friends if they gave me
money.
Yet I really feel the greatest contentment and satisfaction
in the matter. I shall never complain again, but work on
cheerfully. If anything is done for me, well ; and if nothing
is done, well too. Taking the whole of my life I am sure that
I should do wrong in accepting a sum of money : it is not
worth while. I should never feel disinterested and could
never be equally thought so again. . . .
To A. P. STANLEY.
March 9, 1862.
MY DEAREST FRIEND,
The greatest trial that you could ever have in this world
has come at last 2 . I wish I could be with you ; it grieves me
to think of what you must suffer when you receive this
packet. May you have strength to bear it.
1 p. 306. vol. ii. p. 75. Most of the letter
2 For Stanley's answer to this has been published in the volume
letter, see Life of Dean Stanley, of Dean Stanley's Letters, p. 325.
358 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
I have no faith in words being able to do anything to
alleviate such a blow. But the remembrance of the strong
inextinguishable affection of many friends may be of some
value even in this great trouble. Let me assure you how many
care for you as though you were a relative, and what a sense
there is (as a person said to me) of the noble and useful life
you have been leading- how increasing this has been since
your return to Oxford. Indeed, though the blank and the
chasm is great, other ties are beginning to weave themselves
for your support. Don't let yourself wither in sorrow like
one without hope, but embrace the ever increasing field of
duties that is opening before you.
I know that she was father, mother, brothers, and friends
to you all in one. Considering her extraordinaiy ability and
intense affection it was most natural. And now perhaps
there is only one thing that she would have cared for on
earth, or does care for if the spirits of the departed retain the
memories of such things : that the end of your life should
answer to the beginning of it and be consecrated, not without
the thought of her, to the service of God and of mankind.
I can hardly conceal from myself that life must be for
years painful to you ; but things may be done in it far
beyond, and of another sort from the dreams of youthful
ambition.
Please write to me, if you are able, to tell me whether there
is anything you would like me to do for you. I called in
Grosvenor Crescent on Friday and saw your sisters : they
were quite well and took their great sorrow quite naturally :
they were full of kindness and thought about others. You
need have no anxiety about them : they are sure to do exactly
what you would wish. All that I heard from them and from
Lady Stanley would have given you comfort if accidents could
give comfort in such an overwhelming trouble.
Write to me for another reason, which is, perhaps, a selfish
one, that life is very dark with me at present. I can't bear to
think that I shall never more see that dear kind smile which
used to greet me at Christ Church : that I have lost a friend
who will never be replaced, who always greatly over-estimated
me for your sake. Alas, too, we have both of us lost poor
Letters, 1860-1865 359
Luke there was no life in Oxford more valuable. And on
Monday I sent away poor Simcox, the young undergraduate
that I pointed out to you as a genius as I fear in consumption.
He was as innocent as a girl of fourteen, and had a great
intelligence. It grieves me that the life should be crushed
out of so rare and tender a flower.
I trust you will have strength to continue your journey
and fulfil the great trust which you have undertaken. Don't
allow yourself to think of any other alternative ; indeed, it
would be wrong. It was her last request, and I hope you
will not think me hard for saying that you ought to show
yourself able to fulfil such a request and worthy of such a
mother. They told me that she never for a moment regretted
your absence, she was glad of it and said that 'she had
thought much of its being better as it is.' What should
you come back for? To leave a duty and do nothing, for
nothing can be done. All her arrangements, as I heard of
them from Lady Stanley, were as good and wise as possible,
and such as might have been expected from her.
Kest assured, my dear friend, that there is a divine love as
well as a human love which encompasses us, the dead and
the living together, which leads us through deserts and
solitudes for a time to make us extend the sphere of our
affections beyond living relatives to other men, to Himself
and to the unseen world. I am most afraid of your being
stunned by the first news ; not at all of your failing in the
duty which you have undertaken, if you would reflect for
a moment.
Let me remind you that your sermon at Oxford was one
of the last, if not the very last sermon that she could have
heard with what happiness and pride ! Will you think that
I make a singular request if I ask you to read over the last
chapters of St. John when you receive this news ?
Ever affectionately yours,
B. JOWETT.
I shall often talk to you about her when you come home, if
the subject is not too sad a one.
360 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
To MRS. TENNYSON.
BALLIOL, March 31, 1862.
Will you be very much surprised if I propose a short
visit about Friday week? I think of spending a few days
with you and then going into lodgings with two of my
friends and pupils, either at your house or at Mrs. Dawes'
for a fortnight.
I can't make up my mind to leave Oxford next Term.
Plato, you will be glad to hear, has been making good
progress, but this Term has been sad to me, owing to the
loss of two friends, Mrs. Stanley, and Mr. Luke of Christ
Church, and I fear I must add a third (one of the most
promising undergraduates who ever came up to Oxford), who
appears to be in a consumption.
I hope Alfred is well, and the boys. Give my love to them.
I trust the poem is prospering.
To Miss ELLIOT, AT PAEIS.
OXFOBD, June 4, 1862.
. . . You greatly undervalue Plato, who is a most faithful
friend to me too faithful, for indeed I can't get rid of
him, and he is even now inviting me to come and see him
at Paris where he resides Bibliotheque Imperiale 1 , and I
would go if I could get away. I wish you would write
a book, and then you would be at once absolved from all the
duties of life.
A friend of mine says that his heart always sinks within him
when he sees the Dover cliffs. Do you experience this patriotic
sensation? I hope not. The good people of Bristol will be
mighty glad to see you, and especially the poor people.
Your friend Johnny Symonds was examined to-day, viva
voce, in the Schools ; I am told that he did capitally, and believe
there is no doubt of his getting a first class. Every one
must be glad of any good or happiness or honour coming to
1 The chief MS. of Plato's consulted in this library, now
Republic, Paris A., can only be Bibliotheque Nationale.
Letters, 1860-1865 361
Dr. Symonds. I don't wonder at the respect felt for him.
I never knew any one who had such a genius for kindness.
I hope you are a Northern and not a Southern. ... I am
provoked with English people for siding with the South
because they fancy the North are 'snobs.' We were very
eager to teach the North good manners five months ago ; now
that they are winning, we seem to grow more respectful
towards them.
Your letter is written from the most beautiful place in the
world '. The place to which I direct this is, I fear, losing
upon the whole rather than gaining in interest and beauty.
I am told that you can no longer stand on the Pont Henri
Quatre, and look on one side at the Old, and on the other at
the New, for that all is new.
To HALLAM TENNYSON.
October 31, 1862.
MY DEAR HALLAM,
It is a long time since I have heard of you or Lionel
or Papa and Mama. Suppose you write and tell me the
news. . . .
I have been in Scotland most part of the summer. Such
a beautiful country, with mountains and streams and woods
and huge deer forests. (You must know that these forests
have no trees in them ; they are only huge bare hills many
miles in extent.) And one day I went out deer-stalking :
I wish you had been there. First we went on ponies to
the top of a mountain with dogs and men and guns and
a great way off in a valley and on the opposite hill we
saw two herds of red deer, and they did not see us, and the
wind did not carry the scent of us to them, as it was blowing
the other way. Then the people who were with the guns
and dogs went all round the head of the valley on the other
side, out of sight of the deer, several miles, and we sat at the
top watching them. At last they crawled down the bed of
a torrent (we could only just see them with a glass) ; and
then we heard two shots fired and down came two stags, and
1 Venice.
362 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
away all the rest bounded with leaps that would make you
wonder. I ought to tell you that the stags were not like those
you see in a park, but red deer, much larger and stronger.
Give my love to Lionel and to Papa and Mama. I am writing
this at Torquay and go back to Oxford to-morrow.
I hope you improve in chess, and learn to look a few moves
forward. Think of the consequences in chess and in some
other things too.
Ever yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
Are you a Northerner or a Southerner ?
To DEAN ELLIOT.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
March 4, 1863.
... I begin to believe that the ice of the Church of England
is breaking up, and that the mass of the educated laity, if not
of the clergy, are learning to look on these subjects in a more
natural manner. I cannot help anticipating that increased
freedom of opinion may lead to a real amendment of life.
Hitherto, religion seems to have become more and more
powerless among the educated classes. Do we not want a
Gospel for the educated not because it is more blessed to
preach to the educated than to the poor, but because the
faith of the educated is permanent, and ultimately affects
the faith of the poor?
To MRS. TENNYSON.
HIGH FOECE INK, MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE,
July 14, 1863.
It is so long since I have written to you, that I am almost
afraid of falling out of acquaintance with you ; therefore I write,
a propos of nothing, from a wish to have some tidings in return
about yourself and Alfred and the boys. I am staying with
Lord Boringdon, a pupil of mine, at a country inn amid the
moors in Durham, busy with Plato, which is an everlasting
thing on my hands. We are as far out of the world as we can
Letters, 1860-1865 363
well be, having no railroad within fourteen miles, and no
gentleman's house within five or six. I think this, and a very
fine country, and a warm welcome, and a curious geological
formation, might be an inducement to Alfred, if he comes
northward, to come and see us.
I have been reading Kenan's Vie de Jesus during the last
few days. If you have not read it, shall I give you Mr. Punch's
advice to young gentlemen disposed to marry don't ? Yet
I hardly know, as I incline to think that an intelligent and
educated person ought to be willing to read anything and find
a higher faith, not in denying but in being above everything
that can be said. The book is extremely interesting, and will
no doubt have a great effect. The Christ with which Kenan
presents us appears to me to be essentially a ' French ' Christ
with some traits taken from Kenan's own character. The
miracles are for the most part explained as a sort of unintentional
impostures, forced upon Him by the credulity of the multitude.
The book, though very far from presenting the ultimate truth
in which the world will rest, is very significant of the change
which is coming over the Christian Faith. May we be prepared
to meet it !
I should like to hear about the boys. I hope you will find
a good school and send them to it without delay, as they
are getting too old for the matriarchal form of government.
To LADY STANLEY OF ALDEELEY.
BALLIOL COLLEGE,
November g, 1863.
This note will reach you in a house of mourning. I was
sorry to hear of the death of the venerable lady 1 . I am
glad to have seen her, and talked with her of ' the times before
the flood.'
Will you and Lord Stanley kindly consider Arthur's interest
about the Deanery of Westminster ? There is but one opinion
on the subject here. That cannot be better expressed than in
the words of one of the opposite party : ' Lord Palmerston has
1 Maria Josepha, Lady Stanley d. 1863, aged 92. See the record
Dowager of Alderley (nee Holroyd), of her Girlhood, Longmans, 1896.
364 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
done very wisely in removing him from a position in which he
was doing great mischief to one in which he will be compara-
tively innocuous.' I am grieved beyond measure that such
a joyful occasion as his marriage should be spoilt and undone
by such a fatal error.
He has had a great and signal success at Oxford. If his
ambition were only preferment, I should be well content to
let him follow ' limping ' after the Archbishop of York. But
his ambition is of another sort than this. At present he
has one of the first positions in the country, touching both ends
of society the Queen at one end, and the poor students of
Oxford at the other. He is not regarded as a courtier, but
as the independent friend of the Queen and the Prince. If
he goes to Westminster, all this will be changed. Besides, he
is excellently fitted for Oxford, and is an admirable link
between College life and the world. But for London, except
perhaps for society, he is not equally well fitted. The clergy
are not capable of being influenced in the way that he supposes,
and his most eloquent sermons are ill-suited to an average
London audience. He can never expect to have any influence
at Oxford again ; the people here will regard him as having
deserted them, and will say (though untruly) that he has
degenerated into a courtier. My impression is that he had
better turn his mind at once to the antiquities of Westminster
Abbey. The High Churchmen will say, ' We always welcome
him in this field.' You see that I, and others, feel pained
at his leaving us without a cause. Since I wrote to him on
Sunday evening, I have seen several persons who all speak
as I do ; the Dean of Christ Church even more strongly.
I am sure that a person needs counsel when all his friends
think that he is going to make a fatal mistake. This makes
me write to you. I will not trouble you with any other
reasons.
To LADY STANLEY OF ALDERLEY.
[1863.]
I write a line to thank you very much for your note. If
the time at which any change can properly be made has
passed, I shall do all I can to soothe and help Arthur.
Letters, 1860-1865 365
To LADY STANLEY OF ALDEELEY.
December 6, 1863.
Arthur's sermon ' was exceedingly interesting, and gave me
great hopes that my sinister auguries about the Deanery of
Westminster will not be verified. I thought he had a ' poke '
at me in one passage which he has not printed, in retaliation
for various offences, such as writing to you. I most entirely
desire his happiness and success.
To MRS. TENNYSON.
RECTORY, DEVONSHIRE SQUARE, BISHOPSGATE,
December 21, 1863.
We all go to-morrow to see Dr. Stanley married at the
Abbey. I was very glad to hear that you had succeeded
in finding a tutor.
I am afraid that I have not thanked you for the verses 2 ,
which I like extremely. The Homer is excellent (except
' honey-hearted '). I think the alcaics a very noble imita-
tion, and I doubt whether people will be found for the future
to write barbarous hexameters, of which I am glad.
Will you give my best love to Alfred and the boys ?
I always think with pride and pleasure of your friendship
for me.
To DEAN STANLEY.
ALDERLEY, January, 1864.
Here am I in your old haunts, enjoying the kindness and
hospitality of Alderley. I suppose you have been rejoicing in
that unclouded happiness which is only granted to human
beings once in the course of a lifetime.
Since I saw you I have been to Berlin, and had a good deal
of conversation with ' our friend ' the Princess. . . . Nothing
could be kinder than she was to me. I think she left a some-
1 Dean Stanley's farewell ser- 2 Translation from 11. viii, and
mon on leaving Oxford, ' Great ' Experiments.'
Opportunities.'
366 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
what different impression from what I got at Oxford, but not
a worse one. . . . She was very much interested about your
marriage, and both the Prince and she talked about you and
Lady Augusta and sent kind messages. Will you give my
most kind regards to Lady Augusta ? I scarcely know her, but
cannot regard her as a stranger, as she has become yours.
I went to-day to see your dear mother's monument. The
inscription is excellently descriptive of her.
To LADY STANLEY OF ALDEELEY.
March, 1864.
I was greatly pleased at your most kind letter. I often
think myself truly fortunate in having such friends. I
certainly would not exchange them for the best of positions
or preferments.
I shall try to avoid being 'snuffed out.' But I suppose that
life (which through a combination of unfortunate accidents
has been rather against me) must be a battle, and no battle
can be won without a battle. I believe the Judgement was the
cause of the defeat l . I wonder what the end of all this will be.
It sometimes seems as if no educated man, w r oman, or child
would have any more belief, if religion is to be identified with
the union of Dr. Pusey with the Record.
I have been reading a very clever little book (with a bad
title) by Miss Cobbe, called Broken Lights. It is an ex-
tremely good statement of the present condition of things in
the Church.
To MRS. TENNYSON.
BALLIOL, April 12, 1864.
I write a line to thank you for the photograph of
Hallam, which gave me great pleasure. I sometimes pull
him out and look at his honest intelligent face. I hope
that I shall live to be of some use to both the boys, remem-
bering the long and faithful friendship which their father and
mother have shown me.
1 See p. 315.
Letters, 1860-1865 367
I hope that Alfred is not troubled at my small criticisms 011
his poems. I consider myself to be a ' foolometer ' and nothing
more. I should make the ' Sermon ' more intelligible for the
benefit of stupid people, and leave out the ' Sea Dreams ' and
'The Kinglet' and (perhaps) 'The Lincolnshire Farmer,' as
tending to dislocate the volume although a first-rate thing
of its kind. I have no doubt of the general success of the
volume 1 . But it should have the character of a new book
as much as possible.
So you have had Garibaldi with you. What did he say
and do ? Will Hallam or Lionel write and tell me ? I think
he must be intensely bored by fetes, and must wish himself
back in some scene of real danger and interest. I perceive
that the common people recognize that he is their friend
and one of them, and that the higher classes fall in with
the general admiration.
I am always anxious that Alfred should be employed about
some great poetical work which should express what this
age is longing to have expressed. When old things are
beginning to pass away and new things to appear, I think
the poet's function is very plain and clear. He fancies that
his thoughts have been killed by the Quarterly. My impression
is that he could do the work now, but could hardly have done
it five-and-twenty years ago. I know that I bore him about
this. But I shall hardly let him rest until he makes the
attempt.
I saw Mr. Dakyns in passing through Clifton ; he is very
prosperous and much liked at the College.
Love to Alfred and the boys.
To DEAN STANLEY.
ASKRIGG, July 17, 1864.
... I have some thoughts, if there is anything left of me
from the Plato, of coming to town for eight or ten Sundays
next year and preaching and publishing the sermons in a small
volume. I don't mention this to any one but you, because so
many accidents of health, &c., may prevent.
1 Enoch Arden, &c.
368 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
... I was sorry to see Tait's speech in the House of Lords \
cautious in a certain way, yet so utterly unconscious of the real
state of matters. What is Truth against an esprit de corps ?
The Bishops think that they are fighting a few clergymen who
must be put down. They are really fighting against Science,
against Criticism, against the Law or at least the spirit of the Law,
against the Conscience and moral perceptions of mankind ; things
which I believe to be invincible even when arrayed against that
figment of theologians, the Catholic Church. The Bishop
of Oxford certainly puts clergymen in an awkward position by
bringing them back to the letter of their obligation. Does he
consider in what a much more awkward position he puts
himself and the Church by wholly, without a rag to cover him,
giving up the very pretence of truth of fact ?
This is a village at the head of Wensleydale up in the hills,
far out of the world and the atmosphere of Convocation. . . .
I heard of your chivalrous speech in Convocation 2 . I think the
Bishop of London is encumbering himself and the world
a good deal by proclaiming the necessity of consulting Convoca-
tion on all occasions : especially at this time when they are
acting with so much violence. The natural sense of truth or
fair play seems to be quite ridiculous in these Church questions,
and no Bishop can be expected to utter them.
. . . The Ministry and the foreign policy appears to me
utterly contemptible, and a positive discredit to have shouted
for place and office while the Danes were bleeding.
To
SCOTLAND, September, 1864.
I don't know whether one colours objects with one's own
vision, but I sometimes think that the state of religion in
England gets worse and worse. The very idea of the truth is
becoming ridiculous, and, more and more, religious teaching is
losing its moral character. The two great parties which really
could say ' Rise up and walk ' in the last generation, hardly
1 Powers of Convocation to pass 2 Synodical condemnation of
judgement on Books : Hansard, Essays and Reviews : June 22 and
clxxvi, 1553. 24, 1864.
Letters, 1860-1865 369
have any moral purpose at all. The effervescence of their
spirituality has passed away, and cunning, and activity, and
political tactics, have filled up the vacuum. Build churches,
fill them with Low Church ministers, or set up the authority of
the Church that is the great end. One healing word of the
evils of mankind, one voice in behalf of truth among the so-
called orthodox clergy, I cannot hear. I am rather afraid that
the Established Church, which has many advantages, rather
increases the evil you have not the chances of Dissent.
I often feel that I should like, if I could, to write about
this. What seems to be wanted is a restoration of natural
religion, not in the narrow abstract sense, but as based on the
past history of man, and as witnessed to by conscience and
faith, and supported by our first notions of a divine Being.
Natural religion should so leaven and penetrate Christianity
(without the word ' natural religion ' ever appearing) that the
doubtful points and doctrines of Christianity should drop off
of themselves. Utilitarianism and German theology have both
of them, in different ways, a zeal for criticism and for truth
which is very commendable. But neither of them have ever
found a substitute for that which they were displacing. They
have never got hold of the heart of the world. The attempt
to show the true character of the Pentateuch and the Gospel
History is very important negatively. But it does nothing
towards reconstructing the religious life of the people.
To
SCOTLAKD, September, 1864.
This is a farm-house in which I am writing : it is full of
religious books of the worst and most unmeaning kind ; The
Arminian Skeleton, &c. The people's ways seem to be honest
enough, so I suppose that they are not much affected by them.
Still a great opportunity seems to be utterly lost in the
education of the common people. Half the books that are
published are religious books. And what trash this religious
literature is ! Either formalisms or sentimentalisms about the
Atonement, or denunciations of rational religion, or prophecies
VOL. I. B b
370 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
of the end of the world, explanations of the Man of Sin, the
little Horn, and the number of the Beast even these last are
no inconsiderable part of English literature.
People sometimes say to me, 'Ah, you don't mind raising
a blister occasionally, but you won't tell us what you think. '
If you won't think me very egotistical I will tell you why
I have as yet been able to do so little on these subjects. First
of all because I know that it is very doubtful whether I could
in any degree succeed in working them out, and I certainly
could not succeed without entire health and rest, and a good
deal of reading and thought. But then at present I have the
translation and edition of Plato on hand, and besides this, my
pupils ; this last is a perfectly unlimited field, and when
I see men passing through College or in the University, to
whose course I might have given a twist in the right way,
if I had only had time or energy, I feel very much the re-
sponsibility of this. And the result is that I cannot possibly
add a third object to the two which I have already. But
when Plato is completed, if I live, I shall try schemes of
another sort.
To -
BALLIOL, October, 1864.
I send you a book of Polish Travels which is written by
a pupil of mine 1 . I want you to look at the poem of
Krasinski, at the end. That touches a chord far deeper than
ordinary poetry.
I sometimes wonder that a poet does not understand that
he ought to be a prophet. But no English poets seem to have
felt this. They have art and sentiment and imagination, but
no moral force. Our dear friend Clough had a touch of some-
thing that might have been great had he been in other
circumstances. There is no one whom I oftener wish for
back again.
I hope you cultivate peace of mind. I am sure no one has
more right to do so. No one can overcome physical pain ;
beyond this I don't see why there should be one anxious
1 W. H. Bullock, Esq., now Mr. W. H. Hall.
Letters, 1860-1865 371
moment or one mental pain in our lives : at least when we
have determined to give everything to God. Then I think
we have fairly won and ought to enjoy rest. The thought
that should fill our minds is His all-pervading truth and love.
The result is with Him. Why should we vex ourselves
over the details of our work ? or seem to deny at each step
the general principle on which our minds really repose ?
To
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
January, 1865.
I see that you think I am hungering after the fleshpots of
Egypt. But indeed that is not the case. I have long been
aware that this head is so oddly constructed that, if' mitres
were to rain from heaven as thick as hail, not one of them
would fit it : also I agree with Lord Melbourne, ' My dear
fellow, would you wear such a dress as that for 10,000 a year?'
Deaneries have more to be said for them. But not having
quite forgiven ' Anglicanus a ' for deserting me, I am not going
to give up the young life of Oxford (so full of hope) for the
dead men's bones of a Cathedral town. Still I have difficul-
ties ; the greatest of them all is perhaps Balliol College,
which is to me 'the War Office,' in which I am only an
inferior clerk, having to force along the inefficiency of others,
and this will probably continue all my life. Also, though
I am aware of the great opportunity which has been given me
at Oxford, and truly thankful to have such an opportunity,
I feel often very uncertain whether I can use this, owing to
my being tired in mind. Though I have the will, and am
really not afraid, yet I believe that I never had the intellec-
tual power which was needed for the task. But I am not
going to trouble you with any more such reflections. You
know Carlyle's saying, 'Consume your own smoke,' which
perhaps has the advantage of increasing the internal heat.
I entirely agree with you about the TJieodicee 2 . Instead of
1 Dean Stanley wrote in the newspapers under this nom de guerre.
2 P- 384-
B b 2
372 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xi
this sham religion, which is true neither to the facts of
history nor to human nature, people must begin again and
gather first from conscience, secondly from experience, [more]
of the nature of God, and of His manner of working in the
world. There is a good deal of difficulty in reconciling these
not the old metaphysical difficulty but a practical one.
For though conscience tells us that God is just and true, and
though experience tells us that man has an indefinite power
of turning evil into good, both in himself and in the world
this hardly seems true for the mass of mankind ; the stream
of improvement is so narrow in the whole of the world and
the whole of histoiy, and such a mere rivulet, even in the
improving countries, that instead of casting your eyes far
and wide over the world, you have rather to look forward to
some ideal future. And so far as religion has any dwelling-
place on earth, I suppose we should rather, like the Jewish
prophets, get the habit of looking onwards to the future and
not backwards to the past. This would be a new kind of
Millenarianism founded on fact and not on the interpretation
of prophecy. All countries and all individuals hang to the
past, but they seem hardly to think of the future ; and the
tendency of the popular religion is to make us imagine that
it will be at least as bad, if not worse than the present, and
to be cured by the same fictitious remedies. The world are
always being told that they are to make no progress in religion,
and therefore they never do make any progress.
The danger in this Theodicee is the danger of being too
abstract. There seem to be wanting intermediate ideas and
associations to take the place of the systems of doctrine in the
human mind. ' God is just ; God is true.' These are great
'types,' as Plato would have said, in which to cast our ideas
of God ; but where are they to be found in nature, and how
are they to be engraven in the human heart ? The best chance
seems to me to be through the old forms of religion, showing that
this, more really and persistently than anything else, was what
th%y meant, though often, as for example in their ideas of the
divine justice, led from entertaining such an idea into a per-
version of all justice in the popular doctrine of the Atonement.
' Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.' The
Letters, 1860-1865 373
whole world and all things in it, instead of being secular and
external to revelation, needs to be brought back within the
sphere of revelation.
I have been staying with Tennyson, who is in great want
of a subject for a poem. Can you think of one ? It is worth
while, if you can. I have given him one the ' Grandmother,'
which has answered, and have been urging Galileo upon him,
but he is not inclined to this. He has been amusing himself
with translating passages of Homer.
To MRS. TENNYSON.
BALLIOL, February 27, 1865.
You will have seen that Christ Church have agreed to
endow the Greek Professorship at last, after having done and
undone the same thing ten years ago. But Dr. Pusey, who
first raised the opposition, has got his party into a scrape, and
therefore to get them out again has made Christ Church fulfil
their obligation (not a legal one, but I think a moral one, as
they had estates given them for the support of the Professor-
ship). I am neither grateful nor ungrateful. You must not
look a gift horse in the mouth. I was rather glad that you
did not write to congratulate. Having more money I hope
to get more done for the undergraduates.
I hope Alfred is well and at work. I always maintain that
he should look forward with hope to the remaining age of life,
as he may do greater, more human, more divine things than
he has done yet. Life ought to harmonize man and become
stronger and also gentler as we get older. ... I sometimes
think that poets have not done enough for the good and
elevation and inspiration of the world. I believe that the
world, however bad, would put a crown upon the head of any
one who would really instruct them.
To DEAN STANLEY.
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
March 10, 1865.
Many thanks indeed for your kind letter. We thought
that my mother was dying on Saturday, but since then she
374 Life of Benjamin Jowett
has revived and the disease seems to have left her she is
however so very weak that we are quite uncertain about her
recovery, which can only be a very slow one. All last week
she must have been very near death. I am glad that you
saw her. I cannot thank you enough for your kind letter.
So you wish me to marry. I don't wonder at this when
I see and rejoice to see how happy and successful the experi-
ment has been in your case. But I have come to the conclusion
that I am better as I am now. I could not marry without
giving up Balliol, on which my life has been spent, and pro-
bably signing the XXXIX Articles over again, or having to make
a statement of opinions to a Bishop, if I took a living or could
get a Deanery or Canonry : and I am obliged always to deduct
about 400 a year from my income (this is a matter which
I never mention and do not you mention ; it has continued
nearly twenty-five years I never like to speak or to think
of it). The position at Balliol is a painful one, but I get more
used to it, and I think the influence and usefulness, if I may
say so, are greater or, certainly, not less. My chief desire is
to make the most of the years that remain. I am glad of this
additional 460 a year because it will enable me to do a great
deal more than I do at present in the Professorship in the
way of composition and additional lectures, and also leave
more leisure for permanent work.
Life has had a good deal of painfulness to me (not this
matter of the Professorship, or the attacks of people in the
newspapers). But I always feel that I have had a wonderful
compensation in the devotion and attachment of friends and
pupils. ' No one has better friends ' (don't you think so ?), and
among them I reckon you and Lady Augusta.
CHAPTER XII
REFOEMS AT BALLIOL. 1865-1870
(Aet. 48-53)
IMPROVED circumstances Reforms in Balliol and the Univer-
sity Effects of experience Characteristics Speculation and
action Health impaired Mr. Robert Lowe The poet Browning
Meeting with Mr. Gladstone Death of his mother Second series
of Essays and Reviews Why never completed Scott made Dean of
Rochester The Mastership in view.
' "DROSPERITY is the blessing of the Old Testament,
-*- adversity of the New. Still that Old Testament
blessing would do a great deal of good to some of us.'
So Jowett had written to Mrs. Tennyson in November,
1 86 1. A portion of 'that Old Testament blessing' was
now his. And as good fortune, like bad, sometimes comes
; not single,' the grant of the salary was shortly followed
by his becoming the owner of the small estate in the
West Riding of Yorkshire which derived to him from
his grandmother's family 1 . To a friend meeting him
in the north of England about this time he said,
' I am going to look after my estate ; you did not
know that I was a landed proprietor ! ' Years passed,
however, before the settlement of certain legal com-
plications enabled him to enter fully into his inheritance,
and, by realizing, to shake off that burden. The estate
(at Birstwith and Telliscliffe, in the forest of Knares-
borough) was finally sold for about 5,500.
1 See p. 9.
376 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
It was now that he began those liberal gifts to younger
men, which were so often repeated in later years. His
manner in doing such things was always felt to enhance
the benefit 1 , and it should be added that while his
generosity had no limit, the claims of kindred obtained
the foremost place.
In November, 1865, Mr. Ilbert 2 , who had been elected
to a Fellowship in 1864, completed his year of probation,
and his vote turned the scale in favour of the promotion
of liberal measures in College meetings. This put an
end to what had sometimes troubled Jowett more than
the ' persecution ' the weary striving against the dead
weight of a majority in his efforts to make Balliol
what he saw that it ought to be. Some plans which
he had long meditated now took practical shape. The
ground was laid for a revision of the College Statutes ;
Balliol Hall was established ; College lectures, instead of
being imposed compulsorily, were left open to the free
choice of the undergraduates, if only they attended
a certain number ; the Divinity teaching was remodelled,
Jowett himself undertaking part of it ; and the first
step was made towards an inter-collegiate system, by
having one Lecture-list for Balliol and New College
combined. All this was effected in the years between
1865 and 1868. In January, 1869, Jowett was appointed
preacher for the College 3 . By the summer of 1868
1 The following paragraph, to give up his hope of going
signed W. Y. A., appeared in the to Germany in the vacation. A
New York Nation, in 1893, after few days later the Tutor was sent
the Master's death : for, and received an envelope
' Meeting a young graduate with the words, " I hope you will
who was making a living by pri- go to Germany : good-bye ! "
vate tuition, he asked him how 2 SirCourtenayPeregrinellbert,
he was getting on ; the Tutor K.C.S.I., C.I.E.
replied that he had few pupils 3 Resolutions of the majority
that Term, and had been obliged (i) for abolishing Catechetics,
E-ssh4**Sw .''";.;
^TlfiSf': ; ifef
1865-1870] College Reforms 377
the front quadrangle had been rebuilt by Waterhouse;
Jowett, as usual, showing a keen interest in matters
architectural ; and some of his old pupils were invited
by him to lecture in the new Lecture Room. An oppor-
tunity was thus given to the young Scotch Professors
who were Balliol men (and having no summer duties,
were able to give their courses in the Easter Term)
to make their voices heard in Oxford. In lecturing
on Sophocles, I suppose that I was his deputy, as
Professor of Greek. Nichol also lectured on English
Literature in the Hall of New College, and E. Caird
on Moral Philosophy.
The question of extending the benefits of the Uni-
versity to poorer students had greatly occupied him for
several years. A scheme which he had proposed was
thus explained by him in a letter to a friend on October 19.
1866:
' I found that my scheme of University Extension was very
favourably received. I want men (i) to live in lodgings which
we are to build and furnish, and let at a rent of 10 a year :
(2) to be allowed to attend the College lectures free : (3) to
have small Exhibitions of .25 a year given away by exami-
nation among the successful candidates of the middle-class
examinations 1 and others. I reckon that paying 10 a year
for rent, and having nothing to pay for instruction, they could
live for the academical year of twenty-four weeks on 50
a year, or, deducting the Exhibition, for 25 a year: (4)
I would allow the ordinary Scholars and Exhibitioners to live
in the same way, and their expenses would be completely
covered. The College would take the responsibility of the
management and instruction of all these lodgers out.
1 At present not a tenth or a twentieth part of the ability of
(2) for restricting the number of * These, since called the Local
Clerical Fellowships,were quashed Examinations, had been estab-
by the Visitor on appeal. lished in 1861.
378 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
the countiy comes to the University. This scheme is intended
to draw from a new class, and with this object I should propose
that the subjects of examination be not confined to Latin and
Greek, but embrace physical science, mathematics, &c. The
great difficulty in working it out is the present state of the
Grammar schools.
' I think that this College in five or six years' time would be
able to give 600 a year towards such a scheme. But a large
outlay would be required for the building and the Exhibitions.
I should hope to raise this by subscription.'
This scheme was carried in College meeting without
a division, and it was agreed also to petition the Heb-
domadal Council to pass a Statute giving the necessary
permission to lodge out l . Meanwhile, in pursuance of the
main object, the long since thought of plan of a Balliol
Hall was carried into effect: suitable premises were
rented in St. Giles', and the young institution was placed
under the charge of Mr. T. H. Green, a lay Fellow of
Balliol already much respected in Oxford as a philoso-
phical teacher and thinker. He had friends amongst the
Nonconformists, and had done excellent public service
as a member of the Schools Inquiry Commission of
1862. Jowett wrote to H. H. Lancaster:
'At this College we are going to try a small scheme of
University Extension : e. g. men to lodge out and pay no
College fees, receiving education gratuitously ; and we hope also
to supplement this by Exhibitions.'
The Hall was still maintained, and proved a valuable
aid, although in 1868 it became less essential, through
the success of a larger scheme. For plans of University
Reform were again rife in Parliament and in Oxford. The
relation of the Colleges to the University was much dis-
1 From a leaflet entitled The ' originated in a request addressed
Hebdomadal Council and the Lodg- to the Hebdomadal Council by
ing Statute, Dec. 6, 1867, it appears Balliol College at the end of
that the proposed Statute had October, 1866.' Cf. vol. ii. p. 126.
1865-1870] < Lodgers out * 379
cussed. In 1867 two Statutes were promulgated at Oxford,
and then several measures introduced in the House of
Commons. That which found most favour was Mr. Ewart's
Bill, 'To open the benefits of Education in the Universities
to students without obliging them, to be members of
a College.' Jowett made it known that Balliol, at all
events, was ready to give teaching gratis to members
of the College not living within its walls. And on the
second reading, June 5, 1867, Mr. Lowe remarked that
' to their great honour the Tutors of Balliol had resolved
that, if poor students were allowed to become members
of the College without being obliged to live within the
walls, they would give to all such students the benefit of
their tuition the best in the University of Oxford
making no charge whatever for it V The Bill was referred
to a Select Committee, and Jowett was examined on July
15 and 1 6. He not only accepted the principle of 'un-
attached students,' but suggested methods for applying
it successfully, such as the appointment of a Delegacy for
the purpose, and special arrangements for their tuition
and discipline. He further observed that to render the
scheme effectual, a good share of the emoluments, in the
shape of ' University Scholarships,' should be thrown open
to them. Against those who, with Mr. Mark Pattison,
were clamouring for the ' endowment of research '
and the absorption of College Revenues for the pro-
motion of learning, he steadily maintained that learning
should not be dissevered from teaching, and that no
Professorship should be endowed without the prospect of
a class 2 . In the following year (i 868) a Statute was passed
at Oxford by which the requirement of twelve terms'
residence in College, which had remained for four
1 Hansard, vol. Ixxxvii. p. 1613.
2 Reports from Committees, 1867, xiii. 132 ff.
380 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
centuries, was finally done away l . This measure on the
part of the University may have been hastened not
only by the petition above referred to, but by the
action of Balliol College. No time was lost by Jowett
in taking advantage of the Statute. He gave notice
of two important motions to be proposed in College
meeting in October, 1868: (i) for a remission of the
terminal charges to out-College students, and (2) for the
foundation of 40 Exhibitions (six to be awarded in each
year) : the candidates to be elected after an examination
in general subjects as well as in Latin and Greek. This
involved a very serious sacrifice of time and money on
the part of the Tutorial staff, as the Exhibitioners paid
no Tutorial fees.
An important factor which came in aid of these improve-
ments, was the munificence of Miss Brakenbury, who gave
a large benefaction for the new buildings, and founded
scholarships, which were applied to the support of students
in law, in history and physical science. On October 20,
1868, Jowett wrote to his mother :
' Oxford, or rather Balliol, is much pleasanter than formerly '.
I have no longer any trouble in carrying out my views, from
the Fellows ; and I believe that we shall succeed in making
it a really great place of education. One thing gives me great
pleasure ; that our new building is really beautiful the best
thing that has been done in Oxford in this way. An old lady
has given us about 15,000 towards the completion of it. You
will be glad to hear also that I carried a plan for poor students.'
He said to a friend who remarked on the prosperity of
Balliol : ' Yes, I think we have repaired the old house
pretty well.'
There were other features in the life of Oxford at this
1 The enactment that every a responsible Principal dates from
Scholar or Scholar's servant 1420. See Lyte, Hist, of Univ.
shoulddwell in a Hall governed by p. 200.
1865-1870] Ritualism at Oxford 381
period which were less pleasing to him, but he does not
seem to have regarded them with very deep anxiety.
Sacerdotalism was reviving, in the shape of Ritualism,
a phenomenon not unconnected with the then nascent
phase of Aestheticism. There was also a movement in
the Catholic world to take advantage of the admission of
Dissenters by bringing Newman back to Oxford, and
establishing a Roman Catholic College in the University.
Jowett witnessed this without alarm ; he was more con-
cerned about the new fashion of ritualism which seemed
to be spreading amongst the weaker undergraduates ;
some of whom got up the semblance of a chapel in their
rooms, with vestments and incense. The silliness of this
'playing at church,' even more than the superstition,
annoyed him *. A similar feeling had been expressed in
a letter of December 24, 1865 :
'If you were to walk abroad you would be very much
surprised to see the changes in our London churches. There
is a sort of aesthetico-catholic revival among them. I wonder
how many more spurious forms of Christianity are to appear in
these latter days. Muscular Christianity, which was upon the
whole a better form, is gone out. A sagacious High Church-
man whom I know thinks that there will be an Evangelical
Kevival, which impresses me chiefly because he says it. How
strange these "toys in the blood" are! I find myself often
wishing that the Established Church were either demolished
or greatly enlarged. Certainly the tyranny is very great on
education and opinion.'
It is needless to say that the project of a Roman
1 After describing this to a sometimes I could compound for
friend he adds, ' Is not this very this Bibliolatry by accepting the
funny ? ' But he had given one of Sacrifice of the Mass. There is
his undergraduate pupils a man- an idea in that.' Now, Bibliolatry
vais quart dheure on the subject. seemed to be giving place to a
Once he had said, ' I almost think more paltry form of superstition.
382 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
Catholic College was over-ruled, and Cardinal Newman,
though he afterwards visited Oxford, remained at the
head of the Oratory at Birmingham.
From this point onwards Jowett's energies were
more than ever concentrated upon Balliol and Oxford ;
and the intensity with which he now threw himself
into practical life created an impression, which prevailed
even among those who worked with or under him, that
his mind was relaxing its former speculative bent, and
that the self-imposed task of translating the Classics was
lessening his interest in Theology. That this idea
represented only a partial truth appears from the tenor
of the correspondence appended to this chapter, and will
be still more evident when the contents of some of his
note-books are made public 1 . Reason has been shown
above why he may have been less communicative than
formerly in his intercourse with some of those amongst
whom his life was cast, and whom he was bent on
directing towards definite ends.
His intellectual activities were to a great extent
absorbed in the work on Plato, which appeared intermin-
able. But his contemplative faculties were not idle,
although the expression of his thoughts on the greatest
things, except what could be made relevant to the Platonic
Dialogues, seems to have been reserved for intimate
friends away from Oxford. The problem of which he
had written to Stanley many years earlier, ' Truth ideal-
ized and yet in action 2 ,' was still that which he
persistently set himself to solve. Nor had he by any
means relinquished his theological designs, which grew
from year to year. A Commentary on the Gospels was
to follow hard on the translation of Plato. On this there
gradually supervened the vision, which never left him.
1 See vol. ii. p. 85, &c. 2 p. 92.
1865-1870] Sermons in London 383
of a Life of Christ, and also the conception, which
sometimes competed with this, of a short treatise upon
moral ideas. These far-reaching plans remained inevit-
ably in abeyance while Plato was unfinished. And there
was another reason why the prosecution of such schemes
should be delayed : to have given the world a new
speculative shock before his practical efforts had taken
a firm hold, might have checked the rising prosperity
of Balliol.
Meanwhile it occurred to him that by means of preach-
ing he might give form and substance to those positive
views of religious truth which he regarded as essential
and permanent. The expedient of making sermons the
vehicle of his theological views had been suggested to
him by Mrs. Vaughan in 1857, in the hope that he
might entertain it instead of republishing his work
on the Epistles. He then wrote to A. P. Stanley:
' I have two doubts about the proposal : (i) "Whether
it is possible ; (2) Whether it is expedient ; because it
seems cowardly to delay publishing a second edition
which I find it almost impossible to get time to
complete.' But the reception of his sermons in London,
about 1864, led him to think more favourably of the
notion, and, with this object, in the summer of 1865 he
wrote a whole volume of theological notes. And the
idea was further encouraged by the opportunity of
preaching in Westminster Abbey 1 , which came in 1866
and was repeated annually till 1893.
1 How little he had sought for He adds, ' I wish you were
this appears from a letter to Dean a Bishop. Then the national
Stanley, of April 24, 1865 : ' I shall clergy might find a place in which
not expect you to appoint me to they could dwell securely. A
preach at the Abbey either in this great effort will be made to
or in future years. I really don't prevent this. That is a reason for
care, and I think this is better.' desiring it.'
384 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
The more ambitious plans, however, though post-
poned, were not relinquished, but often occupied his
thoughts, especially in vacation time.
A valued friend the same, if I mistake not, whose
MS., when submitted to him by Arthur Clough, had
' given him the impress of a new mind l ' had projected
a work on the Moral Government of God, frequently
referred to in his letters as the Theodicee. His remarks
on this and other high subjects show that his specu-
lative thought was still awake 2 . Nor does he abate one
jot of heart or hope, although his hope is less firmly
anchored than formerly upon the Church of England.
For his thoughts about the religion of the future had
taken a wider range, and seemed to draw him at
different times in different directions. That decay of
religion against which he had so long striven, appeared
to him at times inevitable and yet most lament-
able, since no other form of idealism could reach the
poor. But again, the position of an English clergy-
man, being independent of his congregation and of
clerical synods, was favourable to freedom. And yet
once more the actual constitution of the Church was
seen to foster prejudice and subserviency. ' The Church
is in a bad way in the nineteenth century,' he wrote
to Mrs. Lewis Campbell, 'but not worse than it has
always been. I suppose that while using its services
we ought not to set our hearts either upon the Church
of the present or the Church of the future, but to fix
our minds upon God and upon our own lives.'
1 See p. 270. except as their own employers.
2 A speculation on the Labour I cannot help hoping that Eng-
question appears as early as land, the old country, may raise
June, 1865 : ' I sometimes think the condition of the working
that the time will come when classes as much as America, the
workmen will refuse to work new one.'
1865-1870] Self-criticism 385
But the old hopes were ever ready to revive. 'Our
younger clergy,' he would say, ' are preaching more
about the Christian life, and less on points of doubtful
disputation.' He was ever scanning the horizon to
discern the rise of any new spirit or mode of life, and
to estimate it. All claimed his observation that entered
into the genius of the time. His strong conservative
instincts remained averse to ' new moralities V and to
aesthetic or sentimental fancies, but he looked calmly
and steadily at all. To one set of so-called phenomena
indeed he deliberately closed his eyes. In one of his
earlier essays he had spoken by way of illustration of
' Clairvoyance, if there be such a thing.' But in the
end he refused to listen to the whisperings of occult
doctrine which from time to time prevailed. He loved
the open day. ' I do not mean to say that I can
account for everything; and I feel that there is some-
thing in me to which such things appeal. But they
are so inextricably mixed up with charlatanism and
lies that it is mere waste of time and intellect to inquire
into them V
Above all, at this period, as at each critical stage
in his career, he was busy in reviewing his own life
and bent on beginning anew from within. To one who
asked, ' Can a man improve himself after forty ? ' he
replied, ' I am long past forty, and I mean to improve
myself pretty considerably, I can tell you ! ' The result
of this was often apparent in his advice to younger
men. His power of generalizing and of detaching
his thought, or rather the expression of it, from all
personal content, often veiled what was really the out-
come of intimate experience : his seemingly abstract
observations were really autobiographical. The trials to
1 Cf. Sir T. Browne, Christian Morals, i. 12. 2 Cf. vol. ii. p. 76.
VOL. I. C C
3 86
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
which he had been subjected, and the effort involved
in acting as if they were not, had given to his mental
constitution the touch of iron. To be independent of
all persons, never to worry, to listen more to what
his enemies said of him than to his friends 1 , to find
a modus vivendi with everybody, and above all c never
quarrel V were among the rules which he laid down for
himself. He perceived that he had resented some things
too keenly, and that his opinions of persons and their
acts had been too much influenced by his own feelings ;
also that he had been too free and open in criticizing
persons to one another 3 .
In looking round on his acquaintance he had been
amazed to think of the amount of promise and capability
which they had shown in youth, compared with the
inadequacy of their performances, whether the failure
arose from mistaking their career or from the fatal indul-
1 What did his enemies say ?
I may be permitted here to quote
an advocatus didboli who shall be
nameless : ' With a singleness of
mind which is more than merely
Christian, he has an element of
bitterness, which nothing but his
solitary character can have pre-
vented him from struggling
against and which makes it no-
toriously difficult for most of his
equals in age to get on with him.
With all his goodness he is a
tyrant and careless of giving pain,
or rather can't help giving it.'
2 This was a piece of advice
which Jeune, when Master of
Pembroke, had been in the habit
of giving to undergraduates. A
young relative who had been
pushing his fortunes abroad was
entertained by Jowett on his
return. In giving an account of
his proceedings he happened to
say, 'When a man insults me, I
always ask him to dinner.' Jowett
burst into loud laughter and,
rubbing his hands, exclaimed,
' You'll do, my dear boy, you will
do!'
3 The motive of this ' defect of
his quality' appears in an early
letter to Stanley : ' Here I am at
my old trade, Detraction ! I think
the greatest evil of the present
day insincerity, half moral, half
intellectual.' His later feeling
was, ' I want to know people as
they are, but to have expressed
my thoughts about them some-
times makes me helpless in deal-
ing with them.'
1865-1870] Increasing Gentleness 387
gence of some foible (as Hamlet says, 'the o'ergrowth
of some complexion ') ; and he was resolved, within his
sphere of influence, to obviate or check such waste to
the utmost of his power. Though often foiled he would
return to the charge again and again. Even amidst
playful sallies (as in his letters to Morier) this serious
aim is not lost sight of. But his criticism, while it
became more searching, was more and more softened
with gentleness and courtesy, and at rare moments he felt
and expressed compunction for having 'made the heart
of the righteous sad ' by pressing friends with counsel
which he afterwards saw to have been unsuited to their
case. In these unwearied attempts at guiding others,
he found as Socrates had found men of poetic tempera-
ment his chief difficulty. The poet seemed to him a
kind of prophet ; and he thought with St. Paul, that
' the spirit of the prophets ' ought to be ' subject to the
prophets ' : but their genius was too wilful, too uncon-
trollable. Any impression made on them was sure to be
washed out by the next tide. Yet he persevered.
It was sometimes thought that in urging people
against the grain he had misread their characters, and
it may be that in individual cases he miscalculated.
He was sanguine in his view of possibilities, and apt to
credit others with a power of self-conquest equal to his
own 1 . But if his advice could have been followed it
would often have been for good.
He found that his own studies had been too restricted ;
and he set himself tasks apart from Plato, such as
1 Much of his own work was Stanley, ' I should be slow to un-
done invita Minerva. He was dertake again a work requiring
impatient of detail, yet he so much minute labour as a corn-
laboured out four long commen- mentary on Scripture. It dims
taries, each a task sufficient for the eyes of the mind.'
a lifetime. In 1853 he wrote to
C C 2
388 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP.XII
reading through the Bible, Polybius, Lucian, Plutarch,
&c. Also he began to see, in looking backward, that his
life had been too predominantly intellectual, and that
for deeper and more lasting influence some fusion of
intellect and feeling was indispensable. Emotion as well
as will and intellect there had always been, but the
critical faculty had taken head, and he now realized
anew the force of Aristotle's words, ' pure thought alone
is ineffectual.' What Jowett says of Greek literature
became more and more applicable to himself: 'Under
the marble exterior was concealed a soul thrilling with
spiritual emotion 1 .' While more than ever convinced
that nothing in the world not even the Christ of
the Gospels should be exempt from criticism, and that
no fact of history not even the miracle of the Resur-
rection should be accepted without sufficient evidence,
he was also more and more persuaded that mere intel-
lect, however keen, was barren apart from the full and
just development of feeling, imagination, and, above all,
volition.
Reaction against his former self is one source of
continual growth in Jowett's life-career, which must be
recognized in appreciating any part of it. And yet
the combination of criticism with will and sympathy,
though, as has just been said, it only now came
fully into consciousness, must always be regarded as
one of his most pervading and permanent character-
istics. A friendship, once established, meant for him
that his friend should have no rest while any fault
remained unreproved, any defect unremedied. And if
that friend's position in life were such as to give oppor-
tunities for influence or distinction, Jowett was never
1 Introduction to the Phaedrus, sub fin. (vol. i. p. 423 of third
edition).
1865-1870] Persistent Counsel 389
weary of inciting to fresh exertions, nor would desist
from the attempt because of advancing age, although
he was well aware that 'miracles are only wrought
upon the young.' Perhaps never was an equal friend-
ship more complete than that between him and Stanley,
from 1844 to 1849, and at no moment was that friend-
ship more perfectly attuned than when Jowett wrote
the letter from Beaumaris in I846 1 , in which he dwelt
on his friend's deficiencies, and urged him to over-
come them. Again and again throughout their inter-
course the same persistent effort reappears. At one
moment indeed, in 1849, 'the inexorable Jowett' has
been somewhat too insistent, and his comrade begins
to find it irksome to have his genius thus subdued.
The irrepressible Mentor retires for a space ; but again,
years afterwards, he sees a crushing blow impending
over his friend far from home, when in the midst of a
responsible task ; and he writes to him that letter of
thoughtful sympathy in which he seeks to obviate a
possible shrinking from the course of duty 2 . And only
a twelvemonth before Stanley died came that strange
exhortation to ' fix his mind exclusively on higher things,'
to ' plan out a course of study and writing,' and in short
to commence a ten years' labour that should crown his
life 3 . That is the way in which Jowett dealt with
other persons also, too numerous to think of. And it
was the presence of a firm, persistent will, in combination
whether with the criticism or the sympathy, which made
it so effectual. Hence it resulted that a letter of consola-
tion from him, as a friend remarks, 'was not only the
greatest comfort, but seemed to have the effect of making
one pull oneself together.' There was a depth of reality
1 See p. 152. 2 p. 359.
3 Vol. ii. p. 177. Dean Stanley s Letters, p. 442.
390 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
in all his intercourse that is difficult to describe : inex-
haustible hopefulness went along with unaffected disap-
pointment even at small defects. And when he saw
that some fault, such as egotism or eccentricity, was all
but ineradicable, he still laboured at overcoming it.
But his advice even when distasteful was always care-
fully weighed, and if it were sometimes aimed too high,
this was in accordance with his rejection of the practical
fatalism 'that men can only be what they are,' and
his resolute clinging to the ideal which he saw so clearly.
Still in some cases it might be rejoined that his counsel
resolved itself into, ' Do as I mean to do,' or ' Do not
as I did formerly.'
He tried to meet every man, woman, and child on their
own ground, yet in such a way as to impress on each
of them something that was all his own. It cannot be
denied that in general society, especially in Oxford,
the scene of so many responsibilities, this persistent
effort was apt to create about him an atmosphere of
restraint. His presence was felt to dominate all that
surrounded him, giving an almost painful thrill, and,
unconsciously to himself, tending to damp the initiative
of other men. When a topic had been raised that
interested him, he at once put the question that went
directly to the heart of the matter ; and there he left it.
His ideas were gaining at once in speculative range
and comprehensiveness and in directness of aim. He
reasoned more and more in the concrete, striving at
every step to take in the many-sidedness of things and
persons, and to look steadily at the whole of everything.
Plato in the Phaedrus has imagined a dialectic in which
the various complexity both of outward things and of
personalities is to be comprised. Jowett's mind seemed
always to be approaching some such goal, and in con-
1865-1870] Characteristics 391
versation he sought to present that aspect of a complex
subject which he conceived best suited to his respondent,
and to the purpose in view. In this sense he might be
said to argue ad hominem : to the believer he appeared
a sceptic, to the sceptic a believer, to the Humanitarian
an Economist, to the Conservative politician a Socialist,
and so forth. If told that some liberal-minded friend
was growing conservative, he would say, 'Is he ? the
rascal ! I must prick him.' In his fearless outlook on
the future he kept clear possession of the present with
all its conditions ; and if these were altered in a manner
contrary to his previous ideas, he adapted himself to
the altered state with unfailing readiness of resource.
Thus practical and speculative thoughts were never wholly
sundered, yet they were resolutely kept apart.
One thing is very noticeable throughout, as to his
estimate of character: his judgement of those with
whom he had to do invariably softened when they were
dead. This may seem a commonplace ; but it is true
of Jowett in a special degree. It then appeared how
deeply he had appreciated what was best in them, and
that the temporary difference which had veiled this
appreciation even from himself had been magnified by
the earnestness with which he had sought to perfect
what he thought defective, and to draw those round him
on towards some goal of perfection. In this effort, as he
was ready to acknowledge, he was sometimes mistaken,
and failed to take sufficient account of individual
peculiarities.
Two sayings of Erasmus might well be applied to him
in every period of his career : first, what he said of Colet :
' Conversation is his chief pleasure, and he will keep it
up till midnight, if he finds a companion ' : and, secondly,
what he said of Sir Thomas More: ' When he can give
392 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
nothing else, he gives advice. He is patron general
to all poor devils.'
The energy with which he threw himself into each
fresh avocation led to a forgetting of ' the things behind,'
that was sometimes a little provoking to those who
worked with him. In resuming a piece of work which
had been laid aside, instead of taking it up again where
it was left, he seemed to regard it as a res Integra to
be considered over again from the beginning. This
was one of many causes of apparent procrastination.
The period now under review was in many ways
a time of new departures. For example, he was gradually
becoming aware of impending changes in Political
Economy. ' I used to know the old science,' he says ;
' the new applications rather puzzle me, but I shall
have to make them for myself.'
Two public questions mainly occupied him during these
years : (i) the Condition of the Poor, and (2) Education.
(i) His attention had been recalled to the former
subject through the sympathy with philanthropic efforts,
which began at Clifton, in connexion with the Destitute
Incurables 1 . He now becomes more deeply concerned
about the state of the lower classes generally and the
best methods of dealing with it.
In 1865- he wrote elaborate papers on the subject,
in which he took up the question of equalizing rates
on property, and the best means of using the money
when obtained ; and also made a number of suggestions
as to (a) Sick ; (6) Aged ; (c) Incurables ; . (d) Mad persons ;
(e) Destitute children. It was in this connexion that he
became finally convinced of the importance of Sanitary
Reform. Although he had long held generally that
moral improvement could not be effected without
1 P- 343-
1865-1870] Primary Education and Mr. Lowe 393
material changes, a certain fastidiousness, and perhaps
some prejudice from early association 1 , had kept his
mind from dwelling on the subject. But when once
persuaded, he held firmly to the importance of these
things. ' That is a good gospel that you preach,' he
said to a friend who was zealous about such matters.
(2) With the Education question his mind had long
been busy, and it was stimulated into fresh activity
on the subject through his increasing intimacy with
Mr. Robert Lowe. He had always thought that a great
opportunity for educational purposes was lost for the
country by statesmen taking no advantage for this end
of the high tide of prosperity which followed the aboli-
tion of the Corn Laws. He now pressed his views very
earnestly upon Mr. Lowe, whose name, after the
enactment of the Revised Code, was more identified
with popular education than that of any other public
man. Two letters on the subject attest his eager
interest and his characteristic way of going to work :
[1867?]
' I had a very pleasant stay with Gorgias 2 , who is the best
of friends with me. I can hardly tell whether he will be
induced to take up the subject of Education. We had a sort
of consultation about it at which L. assisted, and he said that
he would see what could be done if opportunity offered. L.
and he both thought that it was useless for any one to bring
forward the subject who was not in the Ministry. They agreed
that the first step was to have educational districts, on which
the inspectors could report, and that this would involve divesting
the inspectors of their denominational character. Gorgias
thought strongly that a general permissive Bill for rating
should be introduced, and was quite willing to support this.
But he was against introducing any compulsion on parents.'
1 See the letter to F. T. Palgrave, p. 414.
2 i.e. Mr. Lowe.
394 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
[1868.]
' I went and took luncheon with Lowe, who appears to be
profoundly in earnest about Education, and talked extremely
well about it. I ventured to give him a sort of lecture about
being more conciliatory, and the necessity of uniting persons
and classes if he means to do anything with Education. He
quite agreed, and thought that he would draw up a short Bill.
I am more hopeful about him than I ever was before, notwith-
standing his desertion of the classics 1 .'
He visited Mr. and Mrs. Lowe at their country house
near Caterham, Surrey, and on one occasion entertained
the company there by reading long passages from his
translation of the Phaedrus.
The edition of the Republic, which he had hoped to
finish, in a year or two, was now thrown aside for
the translation of the whole of Plato, that is to say,
of the genuine Dialogues, to which some doubtful ones
were afterwards added. It is not wonderful that the
end of this labour seemed to fade before him as he
advanced in it. For his design enlarged ; he revised
again and again, and he never turned aside from
other calls upon him, which grew and multiplied.
Also, lie was at last forced to limit his hours of labour.
For the long strain of the preceding years had
told. ' All things come to those that wait ; ' but some-
times they come when the power of using them is
partly spent. He had never had a severe illness, but
his health from time to time had been unequal 2 , though
1 In lecturing at Edinburgh wearing of broadcloth to people
(Nov. 1867), and in a speech who had not a shirt to their backs.'
to the Liverpool Philomathic 2 In the summer of 1858, when
Society (Jan. 1868), Mr. Lowe was struggling with his second edi-
understood to disparage classical tion of St. Paul, he made a short
education. Jowett told me that expedition in the Lake country,
when taxed with this Lowe had ' Even then, 1 says the Warden of
said, 'I could not recommend the Merton, 'he felt that he could
1865-1870] Loss of Health 395
his great recuperative powers enabled him to rally from
brief intervals of exhaustion and depression. But in
the years 1866 and 1867 he became gradually convinced
of the necessity of husbanding his physical powers in
order to make the most of life. He tried certain ex-
periments in diet, and for a time even attempted total
abstinence 1 . As early as 1861 he had complained to
Dr. Symonds, of Clifton, of ' headache, powerlessness of
brain, want of sustained thought, and imperfect memory V
A throat affection to which he was liable, especially in
springtime, now threatened to become chronic. He had
overworked his eyesight : the pince-nez, so familiar in
the recollection of many friends, became a necessity, and
this, with the use of the steel pen, which he reluctantly
adopted, tended to alter his handwriting. His advice
to friends in sickness, which often both consoled and
strengthened them, was ' to keep the mind above the
body.' 'Little time is lost through ill-health, though much
is lost through idleness,' he would say in encouraging
a delicate pupil 3 ; and he had a profound belief in
the possibility of dominating infirmities by an effort of
will ; but he now found that there were limits to this.
A friend who had shared many of his thoughts, now
not trust his heart for mountain help one of his dependents by his
climbing : and in walking from example.
Langdale to Lodore he paused so 2 Life of J. A. Symonds, vol. i.
often and advanced so slowly up p. 188. His power of memory
the steep ascent of Rossett Gill as often seemed dependent on con-
to make it impossible to reach our ditions of health. But it is also
destination before dark.' Cf. Life true that the very vividness of his
of J. A. Symonds, vol. i. p. 187 : thoughts tended to swallow up
' Toiling up Constitution Hill from details in general views, and that
the cathedral (at Bristol), he the intensity of each new phase
said, " Our young legs don't mind of mind obliterated past impres-
this, do they ? " puffing all the sions for the time.
time. 1 3 Benjamin Jowett, by Lionel
1 His motive in this was to Tollemache, p. i.
396 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP. XH
pressed upon him the expediency of remitting somewhat
the intensity of his continuous labour. ' I perceive,' he
wrote, 'that you will keep me living and thinking to
the utmost of my power. And I am very glad to have
a friend who can help me to do this. Twenty years
of life probably remain to both of us, and how much
might be done in that time, with the experience that we
already have and the increasing influence that time gives.'
He yielded to his friend's advice in promising to cease
from study always at midnight ; and when this did
not prove sufficient, he cut down his work for a time
to three hours a day. Writing from Alderley Edge in
March, 1867, he says :
' I am not going to work hard, but only three hours a day,
and never more than an hour at a time, or after eleven o'clock
at night. I think that you are partly right and have done me
a great service.'
'But I mean to do more in three hours than I used to
do in six,' he said to me. He had given similar advice
to pupils who suffered from overwork, as early as 1853.
' I owe him,' says one, ' what I consider the most valuable
piece of practical advice which I ever received : to limit
my reading to five hours a day, including lectures, but
always to read with concentrated attention V
This change in his habits was on the whole maintained,
although the late hours were after a while replaced by
an hour or more every morning before breakfast. In
the course of 1867 he hit upon another plan for easing
his labours. His College servant, Knight, had a son,
Matthew 2 , now aged fourteen, to whose education Jowett
had given attention personally : making him repeat the
Latin Grammar and lines of Virgil at odd times (for
example, while his dinner, brought from the kitchen half
1 Cf. p. 203. 2 See vol. ii. p. 3, &c.
1865-1870] Pupils at Balliol 397
an hour before, was lying still untouched within the
fender). Under Jowett's supervision Matthew had
learned to write a beautiful hand, and had, as Jowett once
said to me before the boy, ' a good sprag memory V He
now employed him regularly in transcribing the notes to
the Republic -, and in other ways as an amanuensis. The
use he made of Matthew may serve to exemplify Jowett's
method of composition. A page which had been written
would be scribbled over with corrections almost innumer-
able, and given to Knight to copy. The copy was again
corrected till it was almost illegible, and then had to be
copied over again, and so on. His amanuensis became, as
a matter of course, a favoured pupil.
'He would occasionally ask me to write essays for him,
says Mr. Knight, 'but he taught me most more Socratico, by
conversation. We talked of everything under the sun, and he
endeavoured to arouse my interest in the most varied topics.
This educational process was the more effective because he
expected me to understand all of which he spoke, and so com-
pelled me to use my mind to the utmost of my power. Finding
that I had a taste for Architecture, he gave me a copy of
Fergusson's Architecture, and used to discuss the various
buildings in Oxford with me, and to speak of the Cathedrals
which he had visited.'
If the completion of his literary labours was frequently
delayed, the work of teaching and educating was unin-
terrupted. The cry of heresy did not succeed in warning
off men of high standing in the country from sending
their sons to Balliol. It is needless to enumerate well-
known names, but one connexion with a noble house
deserves to be mentioned, as it was the commencement
1 Shakespeare, Merry Wives, transcribed for him by the kind-
iv. i. ness of Mr. Jackson of Worcester,
2 A great part of the com- a former pupil,
mentary had been previously
398 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
of one of Jowett's deepest and most lasting friendships.
The Honourable Francis Charteris, son of Lord Elcho 1 ,
came to Balliol in 1865.
Other pupils belonging to this period who were de-
stined to after distinction were : "William Addis, William
R. Anson, Ernest H. Coleridge, Henry Craik, John Arthur
Godley, C. B. Heberden, F. H. Jeune, Andrew Lang,
Kenneth Muir Mackenzie, Ernest J. Myers, Richard
Lewis Nettleship, William Wallace, John Cook Wilson.
Also of exceptional promise, though foiled by ill health
or early death, were Alfred Barratt and Edwin Harrison.
The latter was one of Jowett's chiefest friends.
From 1867 onwards Jowett held the College in his
hand, and he was practically Master. Still his ends
could not be effected without a certain amount of friction.
His views were steadily opposed by a small but compact
minority; nor were his followers in Balliol the sort
of persons who could be absolutely reckoned on to vote
mechanically in his favour. They were men of active
intellects and independent minds, who shared his liberal
principles, but did not therefore accept his fiat on every
practical question. The continual need of persuasion
and management, and of over-ruling opposition, grew
more and more distasteful to him ; it was the one crook
in his lot ; and it may be that the painfulness of the
position in part accounted for what seemed to his younger
colleagues the undue vehemence with which he some-
times pressed his advantages. Long pent-up forces are
impetuous when they find an outlet, and impetuosity,
although mostly held under firm control, and often
unsuspected, was one of his native characteristics.
The annual progress amongst his friends in Scotland,
preceding and following his summer sojourn at Pitlochry,
1 Now the Earl of Wemyss.
1865-1870] Friends in Scotland 399
Tummel Bridge, or Grantown, had now become an
established custom with. him. His visits to Lord Airlie
at Cortachy and the Tulchan, and to Linlathen and
Camperdown, as well as to St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and
Glasgow, were amongst his rare pleasures. A visit to
Cortachy, in which he met Lord Kimberley and others, is
referred to in a letter to his mother.
The competition for vacant Scotch Professorships, on
the part of old Balliol men, continued, and became
painfully interesting. John Nichol's rejection for the
Logic Chair at Glasgow in 1864 had been a keen
disappointment to Jowett; and when, in 1866, the Chair
of Moral Philosophy in the same University fell vacant,
he was disposed to press Nichol's claim. Edward Caird
was unwilling to stand against Nichol. But there were
other strong candidates ; and when it became known
that a majority of the electors would in any case not
vote for Nichol, Jowett, with Nichol's full concurrence,
urged Caird to declare his candidature. In the successful
result of this policy, no one rejoiced more heartily
than Nichol himself. Jowett was much pleased with
the way in which Nichol took his friend's election and
his own failure.
Jowett made a special visit to Edinburgh in the winter
of 1866, having agreed to give two lectures at the Philo-
sophical Institution on Socrates 1 . He stayed with the
Sellars. On this or some similar occasion, in the Sellars'
drawing-room, Professor Blackie sang, unasked, a song of
his own making on ' The Burning of the Heretic ' : then
stepped across to Jowett and said, ' I hope you in Oxford
don't think we hate you.' ' We don't think about you/
was the impassive reply.
Again, in the spring of 1869, soon after his friend
1 The first of these will be published in Lectures and Addresses.
400 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
Sir A. Grant's election to the Principalship of Edinburgh
University, he delivered before the same audience two
lectures on Education, (i) in Youth and (2) in After Life,
which were much appreciated 1 . He also preached for
Dean Ramsay in St. John's Episcopal Church, taking
for his subject the Divisions of Christendom 2 .
On his southward journeys he was a frequent guest
at Lea Hurst, in Derbyshire, the seat of Mr. Nightingale.
A new acquaintance of great interest comes now to be
mentioned. Mr. Robert Browning had returned to
England from Florence in 1865, after the death of Mrs.
Browning, and was engaged in composing The Eing and
the Book, which appeared in 1868. He was anxious to
have his son educated at Oxford, and made Jowett's
acquaintance. A warm friendship was quickly formed
between the two men; not the less sincere on Jowett's
part because he was not, as yet, an admirer of Mr.
Browning's poetry. ' Ought one to admire one's friend's
poetry ? ' was one of the few questions of casuistry which
I have heard him raise. But he was keenly interested
in the story which Browning had told him as forming
the subject of the new poem. Jowett's first impressions
of his new acquaintance were thus communicated in
a letter to a friend:
1 June 12, 1865.
1 1 thought I was getting too old to make new friends. But
I believe that I have made one Mr. Browning, the poet, who
has been staying with me during the last few days. It is
impossible to speak without enthusiasm of his open, generous
nature and his great ability and knowledge. I had no idea
that there was a perfectly sensible poet in the world, entirely
free from vanity, jealousy, or any other littleness, and thinking
no more of himself than if he were an ordinary man. His
1 These will also appear in the volume mentioned above.
2 The text was i Cor. xii. 13.
1865-1870] Hospitalities 401
great energy is very remarkable, and his determination to make
the most of the remainder of life. Of personal objects he
seems to have none except the education of his son, in which
I hope in some degree to help him 1 .'
Another friendship, maintained by many pleasant
visits, was that for Sir Henry Taylor and his family.
This he probably owed to Mrs. Cameron.
In the summer of 1867, being now more in funds than
formerly, he sought to return some of the hospitality
which he had received. He thus describes the occasion
to a friend who could not be present : ' What do you
think that I have been doing for the last two days?
Entertaining a large party of folks, Mr. Browning, Lady
Airlie, Mr. Matthew Arnold 2 , Mr. Munro of Cambridge,
Mr. Lecky, the Lingens, &c. Mr. Lecky is an extremely
tall and very thin man, with a free expression and a great
deal of genius. I like him and Mr. Munro of Cambridge
(who is a great scholar) very much.' It appears from
his letter to Mrs. Tennyson of July 29, 1867, that he
had indulged a vain hope of persuading the Laureate
to be of the party, and so to effect a meeting between
Tennyson and Browning.
These festivities, repeated in May, 1869, were a char-
acteristic anticipation of many similar hospitalities
during his Mastership, which was not yet in view. He
felt the interruption to his work, but threw himself into
the unaccustomed business with hearty enjoyment ; over-
coming, as well as he could, his habitual shyness. While
expecting his guests, he said to me, quoting Abraham
Slender, 'I had rather than forty shillings I had my
1 The lastwords I heard Brown- and said, 'Jowett knows how I
ing utter were spoken to myself love him.'
shortly after his visit to the 2 See Matthew Arnold's account
Master, in the summer of 1889. of the dinner in Hall, Letters of
He grasped my hand at parting Matthew Arnold, vol. i. p. 365.
VOL. I. D d
402 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
book of songs and sonnets here 1 .' When they had all
departed, he said, ' It is sad dissipation ; but it is worth
doing, though one can do nothing else for the time.'
It may be mentioned, in passing, that his rooms in the
Salvin Building had been decorated with a collection of
works of art : etchings of Rembrandt, casts from Michael
Angelo, &c., which he had gathered from time to time
with the advice and assistance of his friend, Mr. F. T.
Palgrave 2 .
In the following year (1868) he took Browning's
poems with him into the country, and, when staying with
Mr. Evelyn Abbott on his way north, at Filey, in York-
shire, he read one night a passage from Luria 3 'very
beautifully.' He thought that Browning's poetry showed
great learning, but that the world had succeeded better
in assimilating Tennyson. ' Browning deserves a shady
First,' he said, as reported by Mr. Tollemache. To me
somewhat earlier he had said, ' Browning has more know-
ledge, wit, and force of mind than Tennyson, and I can
imagine him at any moment rising to the first rank in
poetry. At present he is hardly a poet.'
Two matters of grave importance claimed his atten-
tion in 1869-1870, the Voysey trial and the project for a
second series of Essays and Reviews. The prosecution of
the Rev. Charles Voysey for heretical doctrine became
imminent in the course of 1869. In spite of many
wise cautions from Jowett 4 , Mr. Voysey had found it
1 Shakespeare, Merry Wires, for a clergyman holding liberal
i. i. opinions to be too cautious in his
2 See p. 285. mode of stating them ? Such
3 Act v. The speech of Luria caution is not timorousness or
beginning ' My own East ! ' self-interest, but the condition
* e.g. 'Shall I state to you my of any real usefulness.' (Feb. 8.
conviction that it is impossible 1861.)
1865-1870] Mr. Charles Voysey 403
impossible to avoid this entanglement. Far from re-
proaching him, Jowett continued to advise and help
him : attending meetings of counsel, suggesting the line
of defence, &c. But the case in its earlier stage had
gone adversely, and the constitution of the Committee
of Privy Council at this juncture made it improbable
that they would reverse the judgement of the court
below. Jowett saw that to proceed further would
endanger freedom, not for himself, but for others in the
Church of England. The following letters to Mr. Voysey
will show what course he took :
OXFORD, February, [1870].
I do not think that there would be any giving up of the
truth or of the cause of freedom by your resignation. That
appears to me to be the right course, if your counsel and
lawyers are of opinion that there is no hope of a favourable
issue on the principal points.
Your reason for resigning would be generally appreciated,
viz. that you fear lest by trying the question under unpropitious
circumstances you may curtail the liberty of others. Your
sermons and the articles of accusation against you contain
most of the distinctive tenets of the Anglican Church, and
it would appear ridiculous and impolitic to settle these at
one swoop by the authority of Phillimore, Chelmsford, and
others, and would probably overthrow the tribunal itself.
That is my view, and is in general that of H. B. Wilson,
with whom I had the opportunity of conversing about the
matter last week. I should like you to hear his opinion ;
for he has experience and is very acute in these matters.
I should like also to talk the matter over with Bowen,
whom I shall see this day week.
There is no hurry, I suppose, about the resignation, as
the cause cannot come on until November, and perhaps
not then. I shall not mention your possible intention
of resignation to Bowen or to any one, and I would advise
you not to speak of it yourself. It will require some
D d 2
404 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
consideration if you determine to resign : What is the best
time and manner of doing it? I shall be glad to help in
any way that I can.
With sincere regard and respect,
Believe me, yours most truly,
B. JOWETT.
TUMMEL BRIDGE, PITLOCHRY, N.B.,
August 14, [1870].
I have nothing to say in answer to your note except to
assure you that I have never considered you as under the
slightest personal obligation to me. In giving my name to
your defence fund I acted on public grounds.
As to the main question, I still think with Dean Stanley,
Mr. Westlake, Lord Justice James, and others, that it is
very undesirable to pursue this trial further ; that nothing
can be gained and that something will probably be lost
in the way of liberty; that though to myself personally
these decisions are not important, they affect very hardly
a great many Liberal clergymen ; and also that the discussion
of the limits of the Articles and Liturgy leads to casuistical
questions (like No. 90) about the meaning of the words,
which the public ill understand, and which do not tend to
the cause of truth.
I saw Messrs. Shaen's letters some time ago. But I do
not think that the decision of the York Court does bind the
Church ; and that I find to be the opinion of others.
Although his own special work in Theology had
been relegated to the future, he now consented to
undertake a more immediate task, which was nothing
less than to contribute two long essays to a second
series of Essays and Reviews. Mr. H. B. Wilson had
been pressing for this for some time past ; and Dr. John
Muir, of Edinburgh, the Sanskrit scholar, was eager
in promoting the idea. Other possible contributors are
mentioned in the letter to Professor Caird appended
to this chapter.
1865-1870] New Testament Revision 405
Jowett had applied to Grant, who declined, on the
ground that his share in such a volume might cripple
his usefulness in Edinburgh l . Mr. "Wilson himself under-
took two essays, (i) on the Principles of the Reformation,
and (2) on the Sacramentarian Theory, and Jowett finally
chose for his subjects the Religions of the World and
the Reign of Law. For the former he read largely
and wrote many notes, but neither essay was completed.
The volume came to nothing, chiefly, I believe, in con-
sequence of the illness of Mr. Wilson, whose health,
already broken, was shattered by a stroke of paralysis
shortly after this. But Jowett himself may well have
hesitated, after his appointment to the Mastership, to
risk another storm while his honours, in which Balliol
was involved, were ' in their newest gloss.' The only
portion of the projected work which saw the light, so
far as I am aware, was my own essay on the Revision
of the English New Testament, which was published
in the Contemporary Review, in May, June, and August,
1876.
The subject recalls another consideration. The Com-
mittee of Revisers began to sit in 1870. It is perhaps
one of the most regrettable consequences of the theo-
logical odium which surrounded Jowett's name, that
he was passed over, not only for the Oxford Theological
Board of Studies (which he had recommended in 1848),
but for this more important committee, which included,
as a matter of course, the name of Dr. Kennedy, as
Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge 2 .
A remark of Jowett's on the work of the committee
when it appeared is perhaps worth recording here.
1 He bad accepted a share in ment had come in the way.
the former volume (see above, 2 The selection rested with the
p. 275), but the Madras appoint- Convocation of the English Clergy.
406 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
' They seem to have forgotten that, in a certain sense,
the Authorised Version is more inspired than the original. '
Early in the October of 1869, Jowett met Mr. Gladstone
at Camperdown House, Dundee, where both were guests
of the Earl of Camperdown. It was not the first occasion
of their meeting 1 ; but a country house gives opportunities
which are not to be had in London, and for the few days
which Jowett spent at Camperdown the politician and
the thinker were much together. He had looked forward
with great eagerness to this visit, and his host reports
that he had never seen him so absorbed in any one. They
talked incessantly for hours in the library and about
the grounds. Jowett was very much provoked one
morning when Gladstone had insisted on rising early
and going to hear an Episcopal preacher at Perth.
Mr. Gladstone at this time was considering the outline
of his first Land Bill of 1870, and Ireland was one chief
topic of their conversations. Mr. Gladstone tried to
impress on Jowett's mind that no one hitherto had
understood the Irish, or had rightly sympathized with
them. Jowett came straight from Camperdown to
St. Andrews, and told me of the great interest he had
felt in this meeting. ' It was the first time,' he said, ' that
any one of such great simplicity had been in so exalted
a position.' It would be curious and interesting to mark
the sequel ; but it seemed to him to be full of peril,
because the great statesman was 'so powerful and so
unsound.' He observed that Mr. Gladstone failed to
recognize the truth, that the moral excuses for political
crime ought not to make a statesman less firm in
repressing it.
On the Sunday after his return to Balliol in October,
1 They had breakfasted together in London.
1865-1870] The Loss of his Mother 407
he was summoned to Torquay, where his mother was
dying. She died on October 16. Her death moved him
deeply, and called up many old memories. The following
passage from a sermon which he preached a few years
afterwards may be, to some extent, as the Rev. W. H.
Langhorne has suggested, a picture drawn from recollec-
tions of his own family :
' The thought of our childhood touches us when we remember
that we were once as they are now surrounded by brothers
and sisters who have gone different ways in life : some to
distant lands, where they rest and will no more return to us ;
and others, like ourselves, have been fighting the battle of life
here for twenty or thirty years or more, to rest like them
before long.
' The history of any family recalls many recollections known
to themselves only : of little acts of kindness done to one
another, and inseparable companionships, and old servants and
their rare devotedness and self-surrender : of some mistakes
and misunderstandings, too, which may have arisen out of
differences of character. We can see now how they might
have been avoided, but we could not place ourselves above
them at the time.
'The old family life, the house in which we dwelt, the
circle which met round the fire or the dinner-table, the very
books and furniture we used, are still present in the mind's eye,
and the memory of these is sweet to us. They are a sort of
Kingdom of Heaven in the past, and to some of us there seem
to be none who can look on us as others have.'
After this he spent what time he could at Torquay,
haunted by his mother's image, ruminating on old
memories, and finding the quiet of the bereaved house-
hold conducive to uninterrupted labour. 'I like this
place, at which I always do more and with less exertion
than anywhere else.'
His work proceeded as before, without check or
intermission. Returning from Torquay to Oxford on
408 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
November 18, he was once more 'immersed in juvenile
English Essays,' and 'feeling that a new place puts
the sorrow in a new light.' He found satisfaction in
the election to a Fellowship of Mr. Lewis Nettleship,
'a University scholar, and a man of some genius as
well, with a slight trace of Clough in him.' Clough's
sister was at this time looking for some post in which
she might promote the higher education of women, and
Jowett conferred often with his friend William Rogers,
of Bishopsgate, about a scheme for a new girls' school of
which they hoped that she would be the head. The
arrangement was not concluded, for shortly after this
Miss Clough saw her way to starting Merton Hall at
Cambridge, the germ of Newnham College, over which
she presided so long with eminent success. But the
fact is noticeable, as marking Jowett's first contact with
a movement which sprang into vigorous life soon after
this ; but from which at first he seemed to hold back,
with his habitual tendency to resist practical novelties.
It is pathetic to recall the fact that Mrs. Jowett did
not live to see the dawn of a new hope about the Master-
ship, which had been the object of her son's frustrated
ambition sixteen years before. The first trace of this in
his correspondence appears in a letter of December 26,
1869 (the day after his mother's birthday), written from
Torquay, with reference to a visit to Caterham in the
previous week :
' I had a delightful visit to Mr. Lowe, who is a devoted
friend to me. It is impossible to see him at home and not to
be charmed with him. . . . He said that he had been told by
Gladstone to ask whether he could do anything for me. I told
him that I did not intend to leave Oxford, and therefore that
the only thing that could be done for me would be to make
Scott a Dean or a Bishop. Mr. Lowe thought that this would
u5
The Mastership Letters, 1865-1870 409
be done, and set about the matter with great zeal. But I do
not expect this, nor much care 1 .'
Dr. Scott was appointed to the Deanery of Rochester
in June, 1870, and Jowett's election as his successor in
the Mastership was a foregone conclusion. The news
came to him when staying at a country house, the home
of a friend. ' He leant his head against the mantel-
piece and prayed aloud, " spare me a little, that I may
recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more seen." '
He wrote to his sister :
' You will have seen that Scott is to be the new Dean of
Kochester, which will make me Master of Balliol. This is
Lowe's doing. I find great good will in Oxford about the
proposal. I consider this is the second piece of good luck
which I have had in life the election to the Fellowship thirty-
two years ago was the first.
' I wish that our dear mother had been alive to hear this
news.'
LETTEES, 1865-1870.
To E. B. D. MORIER.
Address OXFORD, March 7, [1865].
My DEAR SIR JoHN 2 ,
I knew that you would have died for me (at least after
the fashion in which your renowned ancestor died on the field
of battle) ; but I had no idea that you would write to me
1 It appears, however, from a the vacant bishopric of Man-
previous letter, written early in Chester was given to Jowett's old
October, that be had already been acquaintance, Fraser of Oriel,
counting on the possibility of pre- 2 He jestingly compared his
ferment coming to Scott. Even 'fat friend' to Fal&taff; see
now this was a hope deferred, for Shakespeare, i Henry IV, v. 4.
410 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
of your own accord. I did not believe such a thing to be
within the compass of nature.
I am delighted to hear of the commissionership *. That is
a real opportunity for doing something. . . .
You are very good in rejoicing at my endowment. Christ
Church are getting great credit for this, which they did and undid
ten years ago, and which Dr. Pusey has now carried because he
knew that he must be beaten in the University. But I shan't
look a gift horse in the mouth. I was always very fond of
money, for money is a means of doing mischief, and I have
always been a great lover of mischief. I am not insensible
to the value of 125 a quarter, though on the other hand I do
not know how to get on without the character of a 'martyr.'
To be a martyr is a delightful position and just suits me ; it
consists in doing nothing, and that I understand. As an un-
feeling but sagacious friend once said to me, ' Next to having
a good place, there is nothing like a good grievance.' How
much more truly might you be called a martyr to the gout !
Like your great ancestor, again, you have found that there was
something mysteriously wrong in the great toe. Yet don't
suppose, my dear fellow, that I am not sorry you should have
been in bed for six weeks. . . .
When do you go to Vienna? and will you be in England
next summer? I wonder whether your wife, who is worth
ten of you for any practical purpose, would write and tell me.
To
OXFORD, March 16, 1865.
Prayer, as at present conducted, is an absurdity, if it means
praying for fine weather, &c. (faith must snap in the face of
universal obvious facts) ; or an ambiguity of the worst kind,
if the Theologian refuses to say, in reference to an action of
everyday life, whether it is supposed to have this effect or not.
There is nothing that more requires to be stated than that
prayer is a mental, moral, spiritual process, a communion or
1 Morier was British member of to inquire into the Austrian tariff
the Mixed Commission at Vienna (March, 1865).
Letters, 1865-1870 411
conversation with God, or an aspiration after Him and resig-
nation to Him, an anticipation of heaven, an identification of
self with the highest law, the truest idea, the blending of true
thought and true feeling, of the will and the understanding,
containing also the recognition that we ask for nothing but to
be better, stronger, truer, deeper than we are. I am afraid
that the anthropomorphism of much of what is called revealed
religion has obscured the natural religion of men on this subject.
On the old theory, all answers to prayer were necessarily
miraculous, and therefore the belief in them could not be
otherwise than unreal.
I think that 'the human race is inspired.' But how short
the moments of inspiration have been a little stream in Greece
and Judaea dammed up after a century or two in the original
fountain : all other progress, or nearly all, is but the dilution
of this water of life. Great men like Luther and Bacon have
been inspired, but how muddy the inspiration has been with
the previous elements ! Even Spinoza is a schoolman warring
against scholasticism : I mean in such things as his notion
of substance and the importance that he attaches to mere logical
demonstration.
To
May 28, 1865.
I send you some books, one very good book among them, the
works of a Saint, and one very bad book, Fable of the Bees
one of those books which are condemned equally by the world
and the Church ; by the world because it is partly true, and
by the Church because it is partly false, or vice versa one
of those books which delight in turning out the seamy side
of society to the light. (Don't read it if you object to the coarse-
ness of parts.) Dr. Johnson says, 'Mandeville, sir, never did
me any harm, but he opened my views into life very much.'
Nor do I think it a bad thing to read the book with patience
and ask how much is true of ourselves.
Also I send you some of my translations 1 of Plato. I have
done the whole of Plato in that way. If you look at any-
1 This refers to the Analysis, The Republic was still the only
which was now nearly complete, dialogue fully translated.
Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
thing, read the Crito, and the end of the Phacdo and the
Apology.
Plato has been a great labour. Yet I like being in such
good company always. There is nothing better in style and
manners, not even 'in the first circles.' I more and more
wonder at the things which he saw and prophesied. Hardly
anything important about law or natural religion which has
ever been said may not be found in Plato.
To
PlTLOCHRY, August 31, 1865.
1 certainly mean when my Plato is finished to devote two
or three years to preaching, giving up my whole mind to this
and publishing the sermons. (I try to collect 'stock' for
myself ; that is the term cooks give to their materials for soup. )
I have not told this design to any one but you, and I mean to
go about it as quietly as I can, putting off the more heterodox
aspect of things until I have gained, if I can, some hold.
There are a great many other things that might be done,
e.g. a Commentary on the New Testament, at once true and
practical. This should be the joint labour of many persons.
Also tracts of another sort from those which are commonly
circulated among the poor.
Any religious movement should be also, like that of the
Jesuits, an educational movement. And this, I think, is to
a considerable extent going on at the schools ; e. g. Harrow,
Eugby, Marlborough, and even Winchester. And there is
a great change in education at the Universities, especially at
Oxford. When I was an undergraduate we were fed upon
Bishop Butler and Aristotle's Ethics, and almost all teaching
leaned to the support of doctrines of authority. Now there
are new subjects, Modern History and Physical Science, and
more important than these, perhaps, is the real study of
metaphysics in the Literae Humaniores school every man for
the last ten years who goes in for honours has read Bacon,
and probably Locke, Mill's Logic, Plato, Aristotle, and the
history of ancient philosophy. See how impossible this makes
a return to the old doctrines of authority.
Letters , 1 865-18 jo 413
The ' Hebrew Conservative l ' has just found this out, which
he ought to have found out long ago, and is going to try to
upset all this by appointing what he calls a Board of Studies,
who would be nominated by himself and his friends. But
I think that we can hinder him, as the Tutors are almost all
on our side.
I was going to say when I made this digression, that I think
something needs to be done for the educated, similar to what
J. Wesley did for the poor. A real religious movement among
the educated would be more permanent than any revival.
What is wanted just now is not preaching for the poor, but
teaching in schools, better and more of it, and preaching to
the clergy and educated classes.
To SIB ALEXANDER GEANT.
August 27, 1865.
I have been working at Plato steadily for the last two months,
and make some impression, although the work is veiy long.
I believe you will see the four volumes in India in the course
of next year.
I have been reading Grote with very great interest, but
with a good deal of disagreement. The mode of handling
critical questions is very defective : his arguments about
the Canon of Plato are like the arguments of divines about
the Canon of Scripture, and I think also without fancy
that there is far more in Plato than he supposes. I object
to a kind of modern rule by which he judges him, and I
don't believe Socrates to have been a mere professor of
negation, as he supposes.
I hope we shall live to see more of one another before life is
over. Meanwhile take care of your health, save your money
and come home as fast as you can, and keep the notion of
collecting materials and thoughts for some work in view which
you may execute when you come home. I may possibly live
twenty or twenty-five- years longer, and I can assure you that
I mean to make the utmost of the years that remain, more than
I have done, and I hope you will do the same. . . .
1 Dr. Pusey.
414 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
This is really written in Scotland, Tummel Bridge Inn.
Pitlochry, which has been the best, I think, of my summer
residences.
To F. T. PALGRAVE.
OXFOED, September 26, 1865.
I most entirely agree with your remark about the [Cambridge]
Apostles. We must try and avoid that at Oxford. To teach
men how they may learn to grow independently and for them-
selves, is perhaps the greatest service that one man can do for
another, and how to grow, if possible, in after life. I hate to
meet a man whom I have known ten years ago, and find that
he is at precisely the same point, neither moderated, nor
quickened, nor experienced, but simply stiffened ; he ought
to be beaten. He had the charm of youth once ; now, like
many a pretty girl, he has the plainness of middle life.
Is it too late to alter ' Sanatory ' ? The word has a bad
smell, and reminds me of a story that some one told me of
Mr. Chadwick's children, 'playing at drains.' Poor innocents !
'gracious,' 'ennobling,' 'elevating.' ... I mean to make the
utmost use of my money and my time for the future, and I am
a good deal strengthened in this by the affection that you and
many of my pupils have so abundantly shown me it seems
to me like the only return that I can make. And perhaps
my free way of life is as good for this purpose as any position
could be.
To E. B. D. MORIER, C.B.
OXFORD, January 10, 1866.
MY DEAR OLD FELLOW,
Let me tell you what real and honest pleasure your
success gives me. You have, indeed, accomplished a great
work. And I think this is only the beginning and not
the end J .
I am sure that you are right about these international
questions becoming of great importance. Europe will be
much more one nation in fifty or even in twenty-five years
(if only some of the limbs could be reset by L. N. 2 or any
1 See p. 436. 2 Louis Napoleon.
Letters, 1865-1870 415
other operator). The force of the international commercial
principle will be much greater on the continent than in
England, because there is no insularity.
I should like to see two rough calculations made : (i) the
present cost of the standing armies of Europe, (2) the loss
(incalculable really) that the nations of Europe incur from
Protection, (i) would probably be much above 100 millions
sterling per annum ; (2) would probably be much above 1000
millions sterling per annum. Subtract (i), add (2). When
we think of these things and think of the evils of caste, priest-
hood, petty princes, oppressed nationalities, &c., does not
Europe seem to be at the beginning and not at the end of
her politics ?
I am fond of dreaming of a millennium, not in the super-
stitious sense, but of one which we may make, and which
you may help to make when you have reached the higher
diplomatic position many opportunities will occur.
I am delighted at the C.B. I never thought you would be
the 'fat knight'; that is the only thing wanting to complete
the parallel.
You kindly ask me to write to you about myself, but that
subject will soon come to an end. For I have had no adven-
tures ; only carrying on pupils and the everlasting book which
has now got into four or perhaps five volumes, including
a complete translation of Plato. I keep on hand also notes
for sermons, which I mean to work up when Plato is finished ;
in one respect I am glad to have held my tongue about
Theology, for I begin, as I fancy, to see my way clearer.
Five hundred a year additional is certainly a great comfort.
Thou wilt come to me yet to borrow a thousand pounds and
thy love, Jack, is worth a thousand pounds 1 .
I have made two new friends during the last year one.
Mr. Browning, whom 1 like extremely ; he is a man of great
genius and power without the faults of genius the other,
R. Lowe, whom I also like ; he is a very honest man and very
clear and able ; it is only in politics that he is a cynic, for in
his natural character he is a kindly, genial man, having a great
1 Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV, i. 2.
416 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
interest in Plato and the classics, which is a bond between us.
Also he has administrative imagination, but is devoid of all
power of political construction ; his measures contradict his
own first principles.
I see that I am getting to gossip with you as we used to do
at Berlin. Are you coming to England this summer ? If not,
I shall certainly go to Darmstadt ; I shall like making friends
with your little girl, being always a lover of children, who
are delightful creatures. . . .
Will you give my kindest regards and love to your wife and
child ? Two things I wonder at : (i) Why you retain your old
undergraduate affection for me. (2) Why your wife is not
jealous. I can only wish you in return the accomplishment
of some really great work, not this year or next, but as the
result of life. That is a reward fitting the most faithful of
friends.
I believe that your wife thinks me an ambitious dreamer
who suggests impossibilities to you. I should like to make
all my old pupils ambitious, if I could, of living like men and
doing silently a real work. I think that this sort of idealism
increases upon me as I get older. But I should be more
disposed also to leave the way and manner to themselves,
and to allow for differences of individual character.
To
April 6, 1866.
Surely while life can be of any use the prayer should be
not only, ' Thy will be done,' but, ' Let me live to do Thy will,
O Lord.'
Thank you for wishing me a long life. I think that I do
desire that, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans ears, sans everything,
except mind. It seems to me that I have made so many
mistakes, and started so late in life, that I would, if I can,
still have my life before me. I think that I had hardly any
idea of what sort of a place the world was until about fifteen
years ago. I see the same fault in the rising generation of
young men they ought to be in character and judgement
at twenty-three where they don't arrive until thirty-three.
And they take so long fermenting.
Letters, 1865-1 8 jo 417
To
[THE DEANERY, WESTMINSTER,] June, 1866.
I shall not answer your letter, but I shall do what you ask.
Part of my work cannot be given up for three weeks or
a month. But I shall reduce the Plato to about one-half
for the next two months, and that will leave the work very
light during the first part of the vacation. And I will never
work after twelve for the future.
I am quite well in health, but I am aware that my
mind is tired. It seems wrong to give up any man who is
dependent on me, and it seems wrong to give up the Plato.
And the end of that has been that every meal is utilized,
and every hour taken up in seeing the men, or in lecturing,
or both. But I will manage better another Term.
Lowe's speech * was one of the most able speeches ever made
against all reform in all ages. There was a sort of philoso-
phical appeal to history and experience, which in the House of
Commons neither Gladstone nor any one else seems able to
answer. I suspect that L. has supplied a good many political
ideas to London society this season.
My friends here talk to me a great deal about Carlyle,
whom they saw in the winter. I can't say that I altogether
like him : a man of genius, and in some respects the first man
living, an independent man, a tender-hearted man the most
graphic of all painters, though in an irregular, magic-lantern way.
Yet, on the other hand, a man totally regardless of truth,
totally without admiration of any active goodness a self-
contradictory man, who investigates facts with the most
extraordinary care in order to prove his own preconceived
notions. He has stirred up the minds of young men (those
impressionable beings), but not really elevated them. I know
that he can say things with a tenderness and power in con-
versation that no one else attains. But this does not atone
at all to me for his utter recklessness and his habit of ex-
pressing his own personal fancies in the likeness of intellectual
truths. If I were engaged in any work more than usually
1 On the Reform Bill of 1866.
VOL. I. E e
418 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
good (which I never shall be), I know that he would be the
first person to utter a powerful sneer, and if I were seeking
to know the truth, he would ridicule the very notion of
an ' homunculus ' discovering the truth. I don't think that
he has any real insight, but only a great power of painting
and embossing and crystallizing scenes real or imaginary.
Nor is he a great doer, nor even a great artist.
The spirit of the twenty-third Psalm and the spirit of the
ninetieth Psalm should be united in our lives.
To
August 12, 1866.
I don't think that the war 1 was right, or the coup d'etat
right, or that Germany may not very likely become an odious
military aristocracy. But I think that we must accept fails
accomplis, or in politics we become hopeless and isolated, anti-
pathetic to all things, sympathetic with nothing. This is a
state of great weakness, when all our ideas are dominated by
antagonism to L. N. The L. N. regime has fallen very hard
on the press and literary men ; it was bad in its beginning and
is immoral in its private ways. Still it has some elements
of real greatness which are wanting in other Governments of
Europe.
I am really taking care of my health, for I never work more
than six hours a day, and before going back to Oxford I mean
to have an entire rest. You see that I am obliged to go
through this long mechanical labour of translating Plato,
about 2100 pages ; this will be finished next March. Then
I have about half-finished a sketch of the history of the Early
Greek Philosophy, and of Plato. I fancy this to be important
because the history of Greek ideas is the history of the ideas
of the civilized world, and to most persons the very notion
that ideas have a history is a new one. I want to throw
my whole mind into this when the translation is done. Then
I have also an edition of the Republic with notes, which
is likely to be used by students in the Schools, in which I try
1 The ' Seven Weeks' War ' between Prussia and Austria.
Letters, 1865-1870 419
to give, in a condensed form, modern views of the questions
treated of, as well as explanations of the Greek. So that, you
see, I have my hands full, and am not idle, though people
naturally think I am gone to sleep or am dead.
(I told my mother to send you one of my sermons. The
other 1 is, I fear, still in the pocket of Dr. Stanley's cassock.
The sermon on Prayer has too much negation and too little
positive. A lady told me that it would be a good excuse to
my pupils for not going to church.)
To PROFESSOR LEWIS CAMPBELL.
TUMMEL BRIDGE, PITLOCHRY, N.B., [1866].
I am at one of my old haunts with Lord Donoughmore and
E. Myers, who is good enough to be his tutor, preparing
the Republic for the press ; also some Divinity lectures for
next Term. I shall hope to come to St. Andrews about
September 8 for a month, and then, as iron sharpeneth iron,
I shall be sharpened by you. At present I am going on in
a very plodding, mechanical manner.
To PROFESSOR JOHN NICHOL.
[1866.]
I imagine that when this reaches you the matter of the
Professorship will have been settled. . . . But I cannot help
writing to assure you that nothing which happens to you is
indifferent to me. I think that I would do anything to promote
your interests, and you must promote them yourself. You and
I are in the same difficulty ; we can look for no external help,
but must fashion our lives for ourselves, and that ought to unite
us : if opportunities don't come, we must look at life calmly and
make them ; it is no use complaining of having public opinion
against us. We have challenged that, although perhaps un-
designedly, and now we must fight it out and make a place for
ourselves. You know as well as I do that to have written
a good book is worth a great deal more both in real useful-
1 i.e. the first which he preached at Westminster.
E e 2
420 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
ness and distinction than to have gained many professorships.
... I hope that you will contrive to do something in the way
of writing this vacation. Don't fall into the mistake that
I have made during the last ten years, of being too much of
a drudge, and getting nothing done. 'Mais nous changerons
tout cela \ '
To HENRY H. LANCASTER.
October 18, 1866.
Whately was a very narrow, clear intellect logical, shallow,
with a genius for illustration very conceited and egotistical,
but also very noble and disinterested, quite princely in his use
of money, and utterly careless of popular favour. He was
certainly a man of great force of character in a narrow sense
a great man ; much more distinguished than any other Bishop
and much more honest. Considering the pranks he played as
Archbishop, putting his head under water at a dinner-party,
crowing like a cock to the clergy, sitting swinging on a chain
in College Green while his house was building, throwing a
boomerang on Sunday, &c., he must have been a very remark-
able man to be respected at all, for he trampled underfoot all
respectabilities and conventionality. He was narrow and bigoted
in theology v. his charges.
To
ALDERLEY EDGE, January i, 1867.
I must tell you again and again not to despair to keep some
sort of life and light in your mind, and not to lose sight of the
consolations of the future. Most persons of deep feeling have
alternations of light and dark, and we should let the sun shine
sometimes. Even in London it does this.
January, 1867.
What do you think that I am doing ? Nothing. For during
the last week I felt an extreme idleness and stupidity, and
satisfied myself with the sophistical theory that you suggested
to me, that the brain needed to go to sleep, and put off beginning
1 This letter has been quoted in Knight's Life of Nichol.
Letters, 1865-1870 421
again till January 15, and feel as unwilling to work as any
negro.
Now I am putting your doctrines into practice, you must
occasionally enforce them by your own example, or I shall
relapse. I am changing my views of life and begin to think
that rest and recreation are really required if I am to last for
twenty years longer. And I mean to get younger as I get
older, even sans hair, sans teeth, and, what is worse, sans
memory, and sans everything. And I am hoping that ten
years hence, according to your advice, I shall succeed in
making myself disagreeable to somebody. Will you adopt my
view? . . .
The worst of planning anything for Gorgias is that the
execution, even if he could be got to take it up, requires not
more ability, but more policy, more reticence and management
of mankind, than he seems to be capable of. He is the quickest,
the clearest, the ablest, and one of the most public-spirited men
(really) whom I have ever known, but he wants to do every-
thing by force. He is the only man that I see who would
fearlessly attempt great administrative reforms. But when
he came to have a whole profession, the Army, Church, arrayed
against him. and he came to be deserted by his colleagues, he
would be likely to sink under the load of unpopularity.
I trust that you never allow yourself to doubt that you can
still complete your life (lives, like pictures, lose more than
half their value by being unfinished), and that in the greatest
suffering you are in the hands of God, who has thus far made
you His instrument.
To DR. GREENHILL, AT HASTINGS.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, April 3, [1867].
MY DEAR GREENHILL,
It may be, as you say, that in what remains of life we
shall not see much of one another. For our work has to be
done in different places, and probably we have got to look
at many things in very different ways. But I shall always
remember with pleasure and gratitude that old kindness of
thirty years ago. I have since found the blessing and the good
422 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
of giving away money to others, and I think that you first
showed me the way to do this.
I cannot say that I shall pray for your boy at his confirmation
(though he has my best wishes). But, if he comes to Oxford,
I will try to help him as far as I can, in his College course, for
your sake.
With very kind regards to Mrs. Greenhill,
Believe me, yours truly and affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
To
OXFORD, May 31, 1867.
I want you to admit the possibility of better and happier
days coming ; and I believe that they will come, not exactly
in the sense which youthful holiday-making, love-making
follies expect them, but days in which you will see your work
more fully carried out, and bless God for the retrospect
of the past with all its great trials.
What do you think that I have been doing during the last
month? Translating the Politics of Aristotle. You will say
that I am mad about translating. But I am not. It was
necessary to read the book carefully for my work upon Plato,
and the translation is much wanted, and is now half finished.
To
OXFORD, June, 1867.
At what a rate the chariot of democracy is driving ! It
almost takes away one's breath. Last week the democratic
movement might have been stopped, the Ministry driven
from office, and a Bill something like that of last session
introduced. But all that is now impossible. Household
suffrage, lodger franchise, one year's residence, are fairly
given and cannot be withheld. And if the Conservatives
are, as appears, really willing to give up principles which
they held sacred a month ago, the Bill is certain to pass.
For their opponents cannot, if they would, oppose them,
and the Lords dare not.
Think of the effects on the Church of England (that of
Letters, 1865-1870 423
Ireland is gone anyhow) and on the whole country. Then
of the exultation of the Jew, who has revenged all his
personal wrongs, triumphed over the virtue of Gladstone,
made himself an historical name, and really done a great
service (not taking into account the means). He has got
his pound of flesh out of these Tory magnates, who have
scoffed at him. People have often said that he would be
the leader of the Eadicals, but they never guessed that he
would accomplish it by making the Tories Eadicals. There
is something that is not quite intelligible in his colleagues
neither actively supporting nor opposing him. Think of all
this also in connexion with the Conservative reaction of six
years ago. . . .
That you may not think me mad in translating the Politics,
I transcribe a short passage for you.
' Now we ought to be careful of the health of the inhabitants ;
and this will depend, first, on the situation and aspect of the
place ; secondly, on the use of good water, the care of which
ought to be made a first object. For those things which we
use most and oftenest have the greatest influence on health ;
and water and air are of this nature,' &c. Ar. Pol. vii. 2. 4.
And I could find similar passages in Plato's Laws.
To
OXFORD, June, 1867.
When you think that you have done nothing, that may
be in some degree true, as a fact, amid the difficulties and
hindrances of human things. But is not the greater part
a certain state of nerves or a certain attitude of character,
like the way which good people have of declaring that they
are miserable sinners?
I like to hear my friend Mr. Browning say, 'I have just
finished a poem (I am ashamed to tell you the length about
20,000 lines) : I am sure that it is by far the best thing
which I have yet done, and when I have done that I shall
try to do something better still, and so on as long as I
live.' And I like to think of myself as beginning and not
ending.
424 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
My boy 1 , who is extremely clever, has been reading
St. Theresa's life in the English. 'Don't you think, sir,
that she was religiously mad ? ' ' Well, not a very bad kind
of madness.' 'Are not all persons mad who take sincerely
to a monastic life ? ' He is only fourteen, and he seems to
me to be always reading and thinking about what he reads.
To
-. \J
OXFORD, July 18, 1867.
I went before the Committee z on Monday, and was examined
for an hour, and then cross-examined for more than three hours
on Tuesday. Lowe, who was present, was quite satisfied, and
very much pleased, but I don't trust his judgement of my
performance, because he is partial to me. (And yet how often
in the last four years have I been encouraged by good words,
which I did not believe notwithstanding?) To return to our
Committee, I really believe that we shall succeed in getting
free Education at Oxford independent of the Colleges, which
will make an enormous difference. You have no idea how
much greater liberality there is at Oxford than at Cambridge
about University matters. I read the Cambridge evidence ; it
was quite miserable to see the adhesion, even of liberal men
among them, to the old routine.
I sometimes think that the work of Christ lasted only three
years, and we have (probably) five, six, and seven times three
years to live though I remember that you object to having
life parcelled out to you twenty years at a time. But why not
look at this another way ? God has given you a work to do,
of which about one-third or about one-half is completed : why
should you not look forward to saying ' It is finished ' ? If
there have been mistakes, let us watch and observe them for
the future, and let us try to get the intensity without the
drawbacks. If we don't, are we not as stupid as the people
who refuse to clear out drains, which as you, and I who have
been taught by you, know is the lowest depth of human
stupidity ?
1 Matthew Knight. z See p. 379.
Letters, 1865-1870 425
To MES. TENNYSON.
July 29, 1867.
I daresay that you have received a book of Persian poems
(Omar Khayyam) with a French translation. When Alfred
has read them, will you send them to Mr. Fitzgerald ? I heard
that they were being published under the superintendence
of M. Jules Mohl, and begged a copy of them for him, as he
certainly has a right to the first copy which arrives in England.
I hope that he will be stimulated to make some more of his
admirable translations.
M. Mohl is only responsible for the printing of the Persian.
He disapproves of the translation and the notes, which, he says,
are written under a 'pernicious Sufi influence.' I am on my
way to Scotland, where I hope to be settled in a day or two at
the old work. However, I feel that I am printing, which is
the beginning of the end.
The party was very pleasant. Mr. Browning was very sorry
to miss you and Alfred. I shan't give up all hope of seeing
you next year.
Will you do me a little favour ? There is an old lady whose
courage and clear-headedness have done (or rather may have
done) me a very considerable service. She is very desirous
of having Alfred's autograph. Will you send me, without
troubling him, a few lines ? I hope Hallam is well. Tell him
to write to me : I always like to hear from the boys. . . .
I am very glad to hear of your Surrey purchase.
To PROFESSOR LEWIS CAMPBELL.
STKATHPEFFEE, NB. DINGWALL,
August 3, [1867].
I made acquaintance with ' Ecce Homo ' the other day.
He is a very modest, good sort of man. His book has the
advantage of considering the subject in some way, whereas
most persons are contented with words and formulas. But
it is wholly uncritical in not examining the documents and
unspiritual in regarding Christ as the founder of a Church
rather than as a sacred individual and unphilosophical in
426 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
imagining that moral defects are reached by the Church in
the same way that legal offences are reached by the law.
I should have liked very much to have seen and talked
with Eothe l , who is an excellent man. In criticism all the
German divines seem to me unsatisfactory, with the exception
of the Tubingen (barring some degree of fancifulness and
hypercriticism in them), and in a religious point of view these
are unsatisfactory too.
To
STRATHPEFFER, DING WALL,
August 4, 1867.
I read St. Theresa yesterday (the book which the boy 2
says that I am always reading). I know that the visions
are all imaginations. Still the book has a great interest for
me. I think that this is in some degree due to the style,
for as a literary work it has very great merit : but much
more the attraction is the intensity of feeling, so far beyond
anything that is now to be found in the world. Some day
I should like to draw out at length in a sermon how feeling
and intellect ought to be combined. The secret seems to be
lost in modern times.
To THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.
ST. ANDREWS, September 14, 1867.
I think that you deserve your holiday after eight weeks'
work. Still I hope that you will not give up the resolution
of finishing the Ethics before you return to Oxford. One
owes it to oneself as a matter of honour and conscience to
carry out resolutions. I am always sensible when I say these
sort of things to you that if I had been placed in your
circumstances in early life I should never have read at all.
The great importance of the matter makes me dwell on these
' personal ' subjects.
The object of reading for the Schools is not chiefly to attain
1 Author of the Theologische Ethik. I had seen him at Heidel-
berg. L. C. 2 Matthew Knight.
Letters, i86f-i8jo 427
a First Class, but to elevate and strengthen the character for life.
If you ask how this is to be effected, I would say the means
was, first, hard work ; secondly, a real regard for the truth, and
independence of mind and opinion ; thirdly, a consciousness
that we are put here in different positions of life to cariy out
the will of God, although this is rather to be felt than expressed
in words. I think you would find an advantage also in getting
more hold on politics and literature, and getting to know all
manner of persons who are worthy of being known.
To E. B. D. MOEIER, C.B.
[1867.]
MY DEAR SIB JOHN \
I was just thinking of sending another letter in search of
the last, when your first letter came. I rejoice at your victory
over the man in buckram, but I am sorry to hear that, like your
great namesake, you are still troubled with the gout. . . .
How is it, my dear Sir John, that you make so many
enemies ? I have quoted the place to you before, but I must
quote it again, because it contains such excellent advice : ' Use
them well, Davy, use them well ' (that is to say, all the genteel
rogues, sneaks, and men in buckram that you come across),
'for they are arrant knaves and will backbite.' Also, as I am
taking upon me to give advice to a great diplomatist, hear
another wise saying : 'I forgave him, not from any magnanimity
of soul and still less from Christian charity, but simply because
it was convenient to me. ' The moral of which is that you should
make friends with the Eight Honourable H at the earliest
opportunity. If you 'imitate the honourable Romans,' I com-
mend to you as a diplomatist the example of that great Ancient
(not that I believe he ever lived) to whom it was only necessary
to do an injury in order to make him your friend.
I am getting on well with my Oxford plans. By the dog
of Egypt if I may be allowed to swear after the manner of
Socrates it is not difficult to manage a College when you have
a large majority. Formerly all my schemes used to fail, but
now they succeed.
1 See pp. 409, 436.
428 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
To ALFRED TENNYSON.
m March 8, 1868.
MY DEAR TENNYSON,
Will you look at the enclosed letter which, though long, is
not unamusing, and will you see whether you can write a few
lines addressed to Sellar or Professor Fraser (who is an ex-
cellent man) which might be of service ? I would not ask you
to do such a thing for any one but Grant, and there is no reason
why you should do it at all if you think that you can't or
would rather not, as I have not spoken to them. But I am
sure that a ' pithy ' word from you would have effect, and if
you don't mind it had better be addressed to Professor Fraser,
as he is not supposed to be a friend of Grant's \
I hope that you are well and have ' thoughts which voluntary
move harmonious numbers ' : I heard of you in London, where
you were reported to be looking ' quite youthful. '
Don't write any more in Magazines if you can help : indeed
it is a good-natured mistake and will do you harm. The
Magazine- writers say, ' Art thou become as one of us ? ' &c.
With most kind regards to Mrs. Tennyson and the boys,
Believe me, dear Tennyson,
Ever yours,
B. JOWETT.
To
December 16, 1868.
My voluntary Divinity lectures have come to an end :
I think prosperously, judging by the examination. I must
invent some more general subjects for next Term. I think
that I shall endeavour to preach once a month as long as I live.
. . . There is nothing I believe in less than the effect of a
great deal of routine or mechanical work.
To
December 28, 1868.
I have been looking through Janet's book on Materialism ;
interesting but not very good, and written with a party spirit
1 Sir Alexander Grant was standing for the Principalship of Edin-
burgh University against Sir James Simpson.
Letters, 1865-1 8 jo 429
against Materialists. I think that a philosopher may very well
ask himself whether he is writing for his own generation or
for the ages to come. All flatter themselves that they are
doing the last when they are really doing the first ; and the
beginning of philosophy is to be aware of the illusion. As
Hegel, Kant, Sir W. Hamilton, Cousin have passed away, so
also Comte and Mill will pass away. And what next ? Any-
thing that is to be permanent must recognize all facts and all
our highest moral ideas, and leave no sort of knowledge outside
which may undermine the fabric. And it must begin again,
like Bacon, by purging away indirect notions, such as matter
and mind, cause and effect, which to many seem to be the
foundation of the faith. And it must avoid sentiment and
sentimentalism, and must be aware how all classes, poets,
prophets, metaphysicians, physicists, have their narrow and
limiting points of view.
To
January 17, 1869.
All persons' thoughts seem to be turning towards the poor
of London, and your thoughts should be in that direction too.
The question is : How is this perpetual flocking into the towns
and accumulation of masses of pauperism there to be prevented ?
Is it practicable to say that food shall under no circumstances
be given without a previous labour test ? First, the Poor Law
requires to be recognized in London ; secondly, all private
charity must be required to conform to certain regulations.
I do not see why there should not be a rate in aid, say, over
the whole of London, when the poor's rate is less than 25. in
the pound : (i) for Education, (2) Emigration, (3) Sanatory
Improvements.
I am appointed College Preacher. I begin my preaching on
Sunday, January 31. I see that I have undertaken a difficult
enterprise, and if I do not succeed greatly, I shall fail greatly.
What shall I begin preaching about ? ' The Truth makes free, '
or 'The Nature of God,' or 'In understanding be ye men'?
I want to keep before myself that the work which I have to do
in Oxford, both in the way of religion and education, is much
430 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
greater than it has been hitherto, now I have got a standing
ground in the College. The preliminaries are all well enough
now, but a long time has been taken in attaining them. And
I do not know whether life or power remains for all that
I have to do. Where I am now I ought to have been ten
years ago.
To
January 31, 1869.
I send you my sermon written (rather hastily) but never
preached, through a ridiculous contretemps. The Catechetical
Lecturer l had forgotten that I was to preach on the last Sunday
in every month, and started to his legs before I could stop him.
As the sermon is rather patchy and ill expressed I am not very
sorry. The fault of all my sermons is that they have many
crude ideas and jump from one to another, instead of a single
one well developed. I wish that I had more time.
I tried the subject which you suggested, but got into a muddle
about it and gave it up. I seem to have so little to say about
this when I have once said that God works by fixed laws and
that we have the power of co-operating with them.
I think that biographical sermons would be good, reading
the lesson of individual lives. This is suited to mixed con-
gregations and is new : Wesley, St. Bernard, &c.
I have been reading some of Newman's sermons over again.
I am rather surprised at their great reputation. For they are
not really good, except here and there, as literary works.
I think that South's are the best sermons in English. In
general the Puritan divines have a great deal more life in them
than the Anglican. Kobertson is far better than Newman.
To
March 16, 1869.
Now the hour of midnight is striking, so, in accordance with
our compact (having read Polybius), I will leave off. And
some day I will make another compact with you. not to speak
1 Edwin Palmer. Jowett had a habit of making a long pause
before rising to preach.
Letters, 1865-1870 431
evil of any one, which I am always doing, and which I always
feel to be a great weakness, and can often trace in myself to
a personal motive. I think it is well to know people as they
really are, but that it would be nobler and better to hold one's
tongue about them.
I was glad to see Mr. Mundella exhorting the trades unions
to take up education. I am inclined strongly to think that
the spirit of education and improvement of the dwellings of the
poor may come from some inspiration of their own.
To
May 19, 1869.
I don't mind real prophetic denunciations of bad people,
and I wish to keep my head clear about political people and
their motives. But I think if you ever mean to act in the
world you should exercise great reticence in speaking of them.
This is my theory, but has not been my practice hitherto.
I think that things are said against people chiefly from a want
of self-control. And when you come to act with them or talk
with them, your influence over them seems to be taken away
by the consciousness that you have not always spoken well
of them (perhaps deservedly). I think that the world requires
infinitely more courage and infinitely more caution than it
possesses at present.
I had a very nice party here on Saturday.
To
May 28, 1869.
We have three compacts : First, that you are to give an
hour a day to writing or some unprofessional occupation (and
not to overwork), in return for which I will observe hours
and days. All this is to be strictly observed. Secondly, we
have a minor compact, not to be observed so strictly, not to
speak evil of others even against Simon Magus not to ' bring
a railing accusation '; this, however, may be occasionally broken
when human nature can endure no longer. N.B. It does not
rest on any religious ground, butmerelyon expediency. Thirdly,
we will have a great compact that every year is to be calmer,
432 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
happier, and more efficient and productive of results than the
one which has preceded.
I lecture on Political Economy. I really knew the old
Political Economy, but I have to invent the new, which is not
a satisfactory process.
To
June 28, 1869.
Please not to suppose that I am thinking about the Master-
ship when I said that I ought to have been where I am ten
years ago 1 . That used to trouble me in days before I knew
you, and when I was uncertain of the future of the College.
But I have sometimes thought that I ought not to have spent
so much time in lecturing and so little in writing. To lecture
is a great strain and the effect is comparatively slight. How-
ever, if the mistake has been made, I shall not continue to
make it. I intend not to give more than four lectures a week
after this Term.
To MRS. JOWETT.
July 4, 1869.
I was intending to come and see you this week. But
I found that I must stay at Oxford and get a portion of Plato
completed. The first volume, pp. 620, is now completed. There
will be five or six of them.
I think the sermons 2 have been fairly successful. I will
send you one or two of them when I get them back, as I have
lent them.
On Saturday I go to Mr. Nightingale's at Lea Hurst, when
I hope to meet Miss Nightingale, who has not been there for
nine or ten years. (Did you see her paper in Good Words called
' Una and the Lions 3 ' ?) Thence I am going to see the Vaughans
and Mr. Wilson, and to Scotland to work.
You will be glad to hear that I am prospering in College,
and in every way I am in a better position than formerly.
They have been making great changes in the University, which
will. I think, be for the advantage of Balliol College. Students
1 p. 430. 2 Preached in Balliol Chapel.
3 Good Words for June i, 1869.
Letters, 1865- i8jo 433
are now to be allowed to lodge out, which will enable them to
come to Balliol instead of going to other Colleges. If we had
a little more money we could absorb the University.
To
[DoNCASTEK, with the Vaughans],
July, [1869].
The first condition of working for a few years longer is
absolute calmness : the great effort must be a quieter one,
more free from anxiety and personality. As we get older we
ought to know ourselves, and to know the world, better, and
to direct the blow better, and to be indifferent about the result,
knowing that no single thing is of so much importance as
appears at the time, if we only go on to the end. The secret
of rest is to live and act on a higher stage of life.
To
TUMMEL BRIDGE, July 15, [1869].
I will promise you not to work after eleven o'clock at
night. I enjoy being here, and work with pleasure. Here
is a good air, good food, perfect retirement, and a pleasant
stream, which is always murmuring night and day much
better than the best society.
To
July 29, [1869].
I get more and more struck, I think, with the practical
infidelity of the present age, including the Bishops and the
newspapers. The spirit of a part of the age is expressed
in C. Buller's witticism : ' Destroy the Church of England,
sir? why you must be mad ! It is the only thing which
stands between us and real religion.'
Is the Church of England like an old house which will
stand for ever unless it is pulled down ; or like the figure of
the Etruscan king suddenly exposed to the air? Figures of
speech may be found for all things. But I think there will
be changes : Because ideas have sustained a rude shock by
VOL. I. F f
434 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
the easy victory over the Irish Church ; because Bibliolatry
can only support itself by priestcraft, and that the English
people will not stand.
To THE MAEQUIS OP LANSDOWNE.
TUMMEL BRIDGE, PITLOCHEY,
August 8, 1869.
I was very much pleased to hear of your approaching
marriage, and wish you and both of you every good and
happiness in life. A marriage brightens up a family and
does good in all sorts of ways. And the greatest good of
all is the effect on a man's own character of having some
one for whom he deeply cares and who deeply cares for him.
There is a considerable touch of poetry in being in love,
and there ought to be also a touch of poetry in life. I mean
by ' a touch of poetry ' some romantic desire to do good,
some ideal higher than the opinions of the world. There
is nothing that your future wife will care about half so
much as your being honoured and distinguished.
No one ever had blessings more richly showered upon
them than you have, including this last and greatest blessing.
And, to speak plainly, I want you to consider how you can
use this great wealth and rank for the highest purposes.
You have two almost inexhaustible interests, the manage-
ment of your estates and political life. You will probably
hold your estates for fifty years, in which time almost any-
thing may be accomplished for the agriculture, for the houses,
and, above all, for the people. I wish that you would
sometimes think what you would desire to have done twenty-
five years hence. This seems to be very important in the
management of landed property. There is another thing
which occurs to me to say to you. It is of great importance
if you have a large property to know all about it with the
least possible trouble. And with this view I would train all
the people whom I employed to make returns of the state of
the farms, houses, schools, and sums spent upon them. I
should begin by getting an accountant to put the accounts into
the very best form. But I daresay that you have already much
Letters, 1865-1870 435
greater experience of business than I have, and therefore my
hints may appear superfluous.
Great success in politics depends on working, and the
power which you have of taking an interest in them. It is
easy to foresee the coming questions. The Irish Land,
National Education, Pauperism. Do you possess the art of
picking other people's brains? I mean, besides reading
and study of questions, getting hold of the person who knows
most about them viva voce, and learning his opinions. This
is a great shortening of labour and saves many mistakes.
I look back with great pleasure to the time which we
spent together at this place. We might have succeeded
better, but I don't care much about the Second Class, as I see
that you are not going to be a second-class man for life. I feel
very strongly your regard for me, and I wish that I could
have done more for you than I did. I shall be delighted
to see you again, and hope that you will bring your bride to
visit me at Oxford.
[PS.] I heard of the engagement from you first.
To
TUMMEL BRIDGE, August 9, 1869.
I agree with you very much about the Prayer Book, and
have never thought that the relaxation of subscription is any
great assistance to us. The making people repeat the Creed,
prayer for fine weather, and other relief from temporal
calamities ; also, in another way, the reading of parts
of the Old Testament, is thoroughly demoralizing. And do
but think of the hymns they sing. A good essay might be
written on the Ideal of Public Worship.
You require (i) some common feeling concentrated in special
acts or words ; (2) the greatest latitude for individual thought
or prayer ; (3) every word should be true ; (4) every word
should be elevating. You would have to select out of
ancient liturgies and mediaeval prayers. For no one can
write a prayer now any more than he can compose an epic
poem : and in some ways antiquity has such a curious religious
power, stronger perhaps than the belief in a future life.
F f 2
436 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
To
[September i, 1869, at CORTACHY.]
I enclose a letter from my beloved ' Jack l . ' Jack ' has got
two commissions from the Government, or rather, three : (i) to
report upon the land laws of Prussia (this is for the Cobden
Club) ; (2) to report upon the Poor Law in Prussia (I helped
to get him this) ; (3) the Ecumenical Council.
To (AFTER THE DEATH OF MRS. JOWETT).
TOEQUAY, October 23, 1869.
I have her face following me as she looked when she was
alive. It was the pleasantest face, when she was laid to rest,
and the youngest for her age that I ever saw.
More and more for myself I see two or three things which
this late trouble rather tends to impress on me. First, that
I must be absorbed in my work and use all means towards
this (not neglecting health), and shut out all trivial thoughts
and personal feelings of all sorts. Secondly, that I must
aim at perfect calmness. As you get on in life this is the
only way in which strength can be husbanded and made
effectual. Thirdly, that I must try to act more simply and
on a larger scale, not tiring myself with mere drudgery, or
shrinking into a coterie, or caring only for the affection
of admiring friends. Few persons have worked harder,
and yet I have wasted a great deal of time and have not
managed well.
TORQUAY, October 31, 1869.
I went to see my dear mother's resting-place to-day. Her
appearance seems to follow me about. I was pleased to see
that some friend had put flowers on the grave.
To E. B. D. MORIER, GB.
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
November 3, 1869.
I should like very much to hear from you. I am staying
here (for the next fortnight) in consequence of the death of my
1 Mr. Morier, who, from being blance, was always called ' Jack '
very fat, ' his waist being great,' with his familiars,
as well as other points of resem-
Letters, 1865-1870 437
dear mother. She was taken from us a few days ago, quite
painlessly (for she was thought to be asleep). As you may
suppose, this has made a great blank to us.
I hope you are well and vigorous and have made progress
in your three schemes. To be at Darmstadt is very dull,
but in some respects it is advantageous, because it gives
you time to read and write and make a name for yourself,
which you may never have again. I like being here because
I never go out and have absolute undivided time for work.
In this way I get on far better, for I have generally been
at a great disadvantage, having two lives to lead instead
of one.
I hope you will not disappoint us in your reports ; if you
send me any of them I shall read them carefully.
To E. B. D. MOEIEE, C.B.
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
November 12, 1869.
Many thanks for your kind letter, which gives me great
pleasure. My mother's death makes me think of many things.
I seem to see her constantly, and I hope the memory of her
will follow me about through life. Her loss makes me feel
that the time is shorter for myself, and I am determined to
make the utmost use of the years which remain.
I am glad that you are so well ; now that you are well do
not let yourself get ill again or you will spoil all. I believe
that anybody may keep well, (i) who takes great care about
diet and exercise, (2) who lives in fresh air, and who, (3)
being determined to do his work, never allows an anxious
thought to intrude : (4) Shall I add, who does not make
a chimney of himself ?
I am rather sorry that you are going so much intp the historical
and antiquarian view of the question J , because I do not see
how this can be made a basis of legislation for the present,
and people like Lord Granville or Lord Clarendon (as you
know better than I do) will not read further than Charlemagne
1 Of the Prussian Land Laws : see p. 436.
438 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
in your essay, if you go back to such topics. Do not be
oppressed with your work, but limit it, and if you get per-
plexed, stop for a day or two and begin again. My plan in
writing now is to read over and over again every day twenty
or thirty pages of what I have written, after reading some-
thing on the subject. I generally find that without trouble to
myself new thoughts occur to me. You will be an eminent
writer some day. But no one reaches that without immense
labour.
To -
TORQUAY, November 12, 1869.
The weeks pass well with me here, for I do neither more
nor less than I intended, and am none the worse. My dear
mother's face follows me about, and though I can hardly
believe that she is gone, never to return, I feel a sort of
companionship in that.
To
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
December 31, 1869.
There was a time ten or twelve years ago when I was out
of health and overworked and had only lukewarm help from
friends. Then life did seem dark and miserable. But that
has long passed away.
I do not anticipate much from Mr. Lowe's zeal and kindness.
For Gladstone will surely say (if he has no mind to appoint
Scott) that he cannot make a man a Bishop for the sake of
doing me a favour, for which too he will never get any credit.
I am quite happy to be as I am. Though I acknowledge that
I should be glad to carry on the College without this perpetual
strife.
To MBS. TENNYSON.
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
-MT m December 31, 1869.
DEAR MRS. TENNYSON,
I am at the old place, and at the old work, though indeed
I feel that this is not the old place, since my dear mother was
taken from us.
Letters, i86^-i8jo 439
I am very much pleased with the new volume l . I think that
Alfred must feel a great satisfaction in having worked out,
though in another way, his old thought of King Arthur. He
has done enough and more than enough for a lifetime. But
still I hope that he means to go on, and that he may find new
ideas and feelings suggested by the successive periods of life.
I have come here to work at my book, of which I hope
that a few months will now see the completion. At the end
of the vacation, about the last week in January, I shall hope
to come and spend a day or two with you, if you will have me.
I often think with gratitude how many happy days during the
last fourteen years I have spent with you, and hope that this
much-prized friendship may last as long as I live.
With most kind regards to Alfred and the boys,
Believe me, dear Mrs. Tennyson,
Ever yours affectionately,
B. JOWETT.
To
INGLEWOOD, TORQUAY,
January 12, 1870.
. . . The Bishopric 2 with which I amused you and myself
is all a flare, as I suspected. Mr. Lowe says : ' Try again, better
luck next time.'
But I can tell you a better thing. I finished Vol. iii to-
day, and shall send the few remaining sheets to the printer
to-morrow.
I do not care about the matter at all. I have long seen that
my main chance either of usefulness or distinction is writing. . . .
I stay here to Sunday week and shall then take a few days'
holiday. I work hard, but I find myself quite well. . . .
To
TORQUAY, January 14, 1870.
How very good of you to write me a scrap of a note because you
thought I should be grieved about the Bishopric of Manchester.
1 The Holy Grail: published an 'advanced' copy,
early in 1870. Jowett had seen 2 For R. Scott : see p. 408.
440 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
Fraser is a contemporary and acquaintance of mine an
honest, free-spoken man a good speaker and preacher not
much speculative intelligence, and what there is will probably
disappear in the episcopal swaddling.
There is a good deal both of comfort and of serious meaning
in that saying of Lord Melbourne's, 'My dear fellow, would
you wear such a dress as that for 10,000 a year ? '
This is the best place in which I ever was for work, the
only place in which I do any work. And as yet I do not feel
the worse, and expect to survive until the ist of June.
To E. B. D. MOEIEE, C.B.
[January, 1870.]
... I spent two days in a Scotch house 1 with Gladstone,
who talks (I thought) rashly about the Land Question.
I imagine that he and Bright are the only members of
the Cabinet who are likely to be in favour of extreme
measures.
Have you read any books about the Irish Question ? I am
told that the right books are : (i) The Eeport of Lord Devon's
Commission ; (2) Lord Dufferin's book ; (3) Mr. Maguire's
book. The great difficulty is the small holder. When it is
said, as Gladstone says, that land is a question of life and
death to the Irish peasant, I think it should be remembered
that he has the Poor Law and employment as a farm labourer
and emigration. G. had a ridiculous notion (he had a great
many) that the reason why the Irishman in America hung
about the great cities was that he had such melancholy
recollections of agriculture in his own country !
I am hoping to finish Plato if I am industrious and don't go
visiting this spring. If I am alive I shall come and see you at
the beginning of the summer, and bring the four volumes with
me. It would have been a gain for me if Scott had been
made a Bishop, but I don't complain, for I have the College
better in hand than formerly. I shall go on as I have done
with the College, and try to find more time for writing.
Though I am not yet old, I feel that the years are getting
1 Viz. Camperdown, near Dundee. See p. 406.
Letters, 1865-1870 441
on. I think in the next ten or fifteen years I must do what
I have to do.
... I am very anxious that you should take care of your
health, and should make the reports 1 a success. Would you
like me to look at any of them ? I am sure that you may
become a first-rate writer : the great art is to combine weighty
words with perfect consecutiveness. You have plenty of
imagination and expression a severer logic is the thing to be
aimed at.
If you come over to England for a day or two, let me know
and I will try to meet you. We must both of us do our
utmost in life, and a good talk is sometimes a great help
in this.
To PROFESSOR EDWARD CAIRD.
January 28, [1870].
I feel very guilty in not having answered either of your kind
letters. I did not answer the first because I hoped to come to
you, and I did not answer the second because I had something
of importance to say which I was not able finally to determine.
These are the excuses that bad correspondents make. I do not
defend myself, and can only hope that you have attributed my
silence to the true cause carelessness, and the pressure of other
matters during the last few months.
What I am going to speak about I will request you to keep
strictly private. Wilson and I have determined to have
a second volume of Essays and Reviews, to appear on or about
January i, 1871. We mean to take every possible pains that
this volume should be adequate to the subjects of which it treats,
and should be written in a religious spirit. Wilson proposes
to write on the progressive principle of Protestantism, showing
the element of progress in the Eeformation, and the element
of fixedness. I am intending to write (perhaps) two essays.
The first, on the Keign of Law, showing (i) the relation of
the laws of Nature to Morality, and (2) the impossibility of
1 Morier's report on The Agra- by the Cobden Club in their series
rian Legislation of Prussia during of Essays on Systems of Land
the Present Century was published Tenure in Various Countries.
442 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
basing religion on miracles. The second essay would be on
the present and future position of the Church of England,
discussing its present state and possibilities of establishment
and disestablishment. Campbell has promised to write on the
mis-translations and mis-readings of the English New Testa-
ment. Wejfchink also of applying to Stanley, to Miiller, to
Deutsch, cPattison, and Dean Elliot. I think that we shall go
on even if several or all of these refuse.
You will anticipate that this explanation is a preface to
a request that you would join us. We are going to propose to
you to write on Morality, Religion, Theology, though any
other subject which agreed with the general design of the
book we should gladly accept. What do you think ? (Excuse
bad writing in a railway.) Of course no one can write on
these subjects without incurring a certain amount of odium,
and the adversaries will probably be bitter, because they think
that they have extinguished us, and will find that they have
not. The old name is likely both to command attention and
bring odium. The position which we are likely to take up is
the most hateful to them, that of religious men who care about
the truth. On the other hand I care nothing at all for abuse
I have nothing to fear or expect and I think it a duty to do
what I can to meet the low superstition and the low material-
ism of the day. In another ten years half the English clergy
will be given up to a fetish priest-worship of the Sacrament.
What course religion will take in Scotland it is difficult to say.
But it is plainly our duty to see what we can do towards
meeting this. The English bishops will do nothing nor,
I fear, Dr. Temple. . . . Our principles are not worth much if
they are not intended to elevate human life and are only matter
of academical discussion.
I think you are much in the same independent position as
myself, and that is a reason why I ask you. We propose to
be careful not to get entangled with the law. I have great
confidence in Wilson's ability and high principle. Poor
Williams, whose warmth of temper might have been trouble-
some to us, has been taken just as we were about to apply
to him. I think that we shall probably insert in the preface
a short notice of Baden Powell and of him. If you join us
Letters, 1865-1870 443
I shall hope that we may have suggestions from you about the
form of the book, and about the persons to be^ engaged. We
feel that it is a very serious undertaking and great responsibility,
but are determined <rw $ea> 1 to go on. The volume would be
500 or 550 pages, and your essay might be of any length up to
sixty or eighty pages. In June I get rid of Plato, and shall
devote the last six months to this.
To
OXFORD, January 30, 1870.
... I am glad that you liked my sermon. They none of
them seem to me at all good. I want boundless leisure to
write really good sermons, if I could at all, and these are
struck off rather at a heat and scamped towards the end. . . .
Here I commence the old routine for the thirtieth time at
least. I have a better chance now than formerly, having
the whole entirely under my control. And I hope to take
a particular and individual interest in every man in College.
That is my aim. The College re-elected me preacher yesterday.
To
February 19, 1870.
I go on happily here. I see nearly every undergraduate
once a week, and I find that has a good effect on me, and
I hope on them.
To PEOFESSOE EDWAED CAIED.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, February 24, [1870].
I am very glad to hear that you are able and willing to
join us. The Plato will be off my hands by July i, and
then I shall devote my time to constructing two essays
one on the Keign of Law and another on the Life of Christ
as the Centre of the Christian world for the book.
Since I wrote to you I have spoken to Bowen and to Max
Miiller. Max Miiller hesitates. He is giving some lectures
in London on the Science of Eeligion, and he says that he
1 'God helping us.'
444 Life of Benjamin Jowett [CHAP, xn
wishes to see the effect of them first. Bowen will help us
if he can possibly find time, and is to let me know in April.
He will take for his subject the position of the Church of
England, (i) if established, (2) if disestablished ; and the future
modes of proceeding in either alternative. He is an excellent
writer and will be a most valuable aid.
Wilson is also writing to Dr. Davidson, and will ask him
to write an essay on the important mis-translations of the
Old Testament parallel to Campbell's on important mis-transla-
tions of the New Testament. I put before Campbell the con-
siderations of which you speak, but he does not seem to be
moved by them, and if our book is what I hope we shall make
it, and he is careful with his own essay, I do not think he will
be injured by his association with us.
I quite agree with you in what you say about the importance
of having an eminent scientific man among the contributors.
The difficulty is to find a suitable person. I think that
I will talk over the matter in confidence with Henry Smith
and will write to you again about this in a few days.
I hope that we may be able to spend a few days together
in the summer and talk over our respective portions of
the work. I sometimes think that the world is getting de-
moralized by the utter disregard of truth. People have no
fixed principles and no education in the higher sense, and all
sorts of Eitualisms and Spiritualisms and Aestheticisms take
their place (just at this moment the Aesthetic seems to have
got a curious hold at Oxford). The spirit in which we want
to write is the simple love of truth, the reassertion of the
truism that there is such a thing as truth, and that the alarms
and vague fears of scepticism foundations of society under-
mined, &c., &c. are simply tiresome, and unmeaning to a
reasonable man.
I think that an interesting mode of treating your subject
would be to point out historically how Keligion comes first
in the growth of Human Nature then Morality parts company
with it and in some degree reacts upon it : and how they
must be reunited and perfectly identified before the work is
completed. The true conception of Theology would seem
to be the perfect intellectual expression of this.
Letters, 1865-1870 445
The more we can avoid Hegelianism, Germanism, or direct
assaults upon received opinions, the better.
There is a striking expression of Diderot's that ' all revealed
or national religions are only perversions of the Religion of
Nature.' This is true if the words ' Religion of Nature ' be taken
in the highest sense. And perhaps the truth would be better ex-
pressed by calling them tendencies toward a Religion of Nature.
Excuse my writing to you by the hand of another, which,
having a great deal to do, I find to be a great assistance.
I am very sorry to hear of the death of Lord Barcaple 1 .
Did you know him at all ? He was one of the best people in
Scotland.
To LADY STANLEY OF ALDERLEY.
OXFORD, June u, 1870.
Thank you very much for your kind note. I believe that it
is to be as you suppose. There is certainly a great pleasure
and pride in being the Head of Balliol College, and I hope
that I may be able to do something worth doing.
Lyulph's letter is extremely interesting. I wish that he
were still a Fellow 2 .
To DEAN STANLEY.
OXFORD, June 13, 1870.
MY DEAR STANLEY,
Thank you for your most kind note, which gave me great
pleasure. I am delighted at the prospect of having the
Mastership, because it offers such great opportunities, and
also because I want more rest and leisure to think, and I
have been overworked for many years past. It doubles the
pleasure to me that you and many others rejoice with me.
I have two schemes in which I want your help : I will tell
you about them when we meet on Saturday.
Thank you for reminding me that your mother would have
been pleased.
1 Edward Francis Maitland, a Jowett's great regret, had resigned
Scottish Judge. his Fellowship in 1869.
2 The Hon. E. L. Stanley, to
446 Life of Benjamin Jowett
To MBS. TENNYSON.
June, 1870.
MY DEAR MRS. TENNYSON,
A thousand thanks for your kind note : it rejoices my
heart that my friends rejoice. I must now endeavour to see
very seriously 'what can be made of a College.'
May I have the pleasure of coming to see you for a few
days on Wednesday next ?
Plato is nearly finished, and I hope to bring him out on
the same day, September 7, on which I am formally elected
to the Mastership.
With love to Alfred (in haste).
Ever yours,
B. JOWETT.
END OF VOL. I.
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