i
 
 
 FRANCIS CAROLUS 
 EELES
 
 J A ft*,/ 3
 
 THE LIFE OP 
 
 JOHN KEBLE
 
 JOHN KEBLE. 
 From a I'orltail by George Richmond, R.A.
 
 JOHN KEBLE 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 WALTER LOCK, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN COLLEGE, AND SUB-WARDEN OF 
 KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 WITH A PORTRAIT FROM A PAINTING BY GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A. 
 
 iletfjuen & Co, 
 
 18, BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C. 
 1893 
 
 [All rightt retesvtd]
 
 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNOAY.
 
 SORORI MEJE 
 
 HAS PRIMITIAS 
 
 QUA8 IPSA FOVIT, AUXIT, CASTIQAVIT, 
 GRATUS DEDICO.
 
 SRLR 
 
 URL 
 
 512683S 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Two reasons give a special appropriateness to the 
 publication of a memoir of Mr. Keble at the present 
 time. 
 
 This year is the hundredth anniversary of his birth, 
 a fact which reminds us how quickly time is flying, 
 and in its flight bearing off those who could speak of 
 him with first-hand knowledge. 
 
 Again, much has been published of late throwing 
 light on the Oxford Movement ; The Oxford Movement, 
 by Dean Church, The Letters and Correspondence of J. 
 H. Newman, The Autobiography of Isaac Williams, are 
 books of very varied character, but they all agree in 
 one point : they all bear a strong witness to the force, 
 the originality, the stimulating power of that character 
 whose humility and self-repression have often caused 
 his real work to be undervalued. 
 
 This memoir will be found, it is hoped, more complete 
 than any yet published. I have been allowed access to 
 much unpublished correspondence, and have had the
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 privilege of intercourse -frith personal friends of Mr. 
 Keble, and I wish to express my warmest thanks to 
 those who have helped me in either of these ways. 
 
 But the memoir is not complete. I have not had 
 access to all the correspondence. There is much still 
 to be examined and sifted and published, and I can only 
 hope that this volume may serve for a time to revive 
 the memory of its subject, and may then pass away 
 before the completer account of him that ought to be 
 given to the world. It ought to be given to the world, 
 for there is scarcely a letter or a treatise of his through 
 which there does not shine some glimpse of the beauty 
 of the writer's character, from which the reader does 
 not rise without a sense of being brought nearer to the 
 Presence of God. 
 
 WALTER LOCK. 
 
 Feast of SS. Simon and Jiide, 189%.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE 1792 
 
 1832 1 
 
 II. THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY ... ... ... 29 
 
 III. THE CHRISTIAN YEAR ... ... ... ... 50 
 
 IV.. THE STRUGGLE. 1833 1841 74 
 
 v. THE STRUGGLE (continued). 1841 1845 ... 103 
 
 VI. LYRA INKOCENTIUM ... ... ... ... 129 
 
 vii. RECOVERY. 18461860 141 
 
 vin. THE END. 18601866 172 
 
 IX. THE PREACHER ... ... ... ... ... 189 
 
 X. THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER... ... ... ... 204 
 
 XL CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE 223 
 
 APPENDIX 1 239 
 
 APPENDIX II. 242
 
 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE, 1792 1832. 
 
 "Voice of the meekest man, 
 Now while the Church for combat arms, 
 Calmly do thou confirm her awful ban, 
 
 Thy words to her be conquering, soothing charms. 
 
 Voice of the fearless saint ! 
 Ring like a trump where gentle hearts 
 Beat high for truth, but doubting lower and faint. 
 Tell them the hour is come, and they must take 
 their parts." 
 
 J. K., Miscellaneous Poems, p. 36, 
 
 (of B. Hooker.) 
 
 JOHN KEBLE sprang from a family which had origin- 
 ally come from Suffolk, but had since the sixteenth 
 century been settled in Gloucestershire. One of his 
 ancestors, Sir Henry Keble, grocer, had been Lord 
 Mayor of London in loll, and had been noted for his 
 liberality towards the rebuilding of Aldermanbury 
 Church and towards other charities ; a descendant of 
 his, Richard Keble, purchased the manor of East Leech 
 Turville, in Gloucestershire, which remained in his 
 
 B
 
 2 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 family till the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 At the end of that century the representative of this 
 family was the father of the subject of this memoir, 
 himself also the Rev. John Keble, who, after being a 
 Scholar and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 
 had married a lady of Scotch descent, Sarah Maule, the 
 daughter of the incumbent of Ringwood in Hampshire, 
 and had settled at Fairford in Gloucestershire, as Vicar 
 of the neighbouring parish of Coin St. Aldwyn's. Here, 
 on St. Mark's Day, 1792, John Keble was born, being 
 thus eight years older than Dr. Pusey (1800), nine than 
 Cardinal Newman (1801), ten than Isaac Williams 
 (1802), eleven than Hurrell Froude (1803). He was 
 privately baptized the next day, and publicly received 
 into the Church in July. He was educated entirely by 
 his father at home, and even if he owed to that, as he 
 himself thought in later years, a certain desultoriness in 
 study and a want of practical knowledge of the world, 
 yet it was probably far the best course for one of his 
 shy, sensitive temperament : he grew up with a fresh 
 genuine interest in classics and mathematics, in English 
 literature and history ; with an unquestioning deference 
 to his parent's wishes, with a warmth of affectionate- 
 ness to brother and sister, in which he never failed, 
 which affected his movements at each change in his 
 life, and which stood him in good stead again and 
 again, especially in the great strain of Newman's 
 secession. In his life, as in that of St. Andrew, " Christ 
 laid the foundations of the Church on brotherly love." l 
 The family consisted of five members, the eldest, 
 Elizabeth (17901860), "his wife," as he used playfully 
 to call her, who was nearly all her life an invalid, and, 
 1 Sermons, Occasional ana Academical, p. 275.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 3 
 
 as such, shy and nervous at first with strangers, yet 
 gradually winning upon them by her sweetness and 
 religious spirit, and who for many years shared his 
 home at Hursley and his work and hopes for the 
 Church. " I wish you could see my father and eldest 
 sister," he wrote once to ColeriJge ; " to me they are 
 uniques." Then came John, born in 1792; then Thomas, 
 in 1793, who followed him as a scholar to Corpus Christi 
 College, then became Fellow and Tutor there, then acted 
 as curate to his father, finally settling as vicar at Bisley 
 in Gloucestershire. With him nearly every scheme of 
 action was discussed : he was a contributor to the Tracts 
 for the Times, helped John with the edition of Hooker, 
 the Library of the Fathers, and the Plain Sermons ; 
 and was ever felt to be a steadying influence upon his 
 life. " I was myself inclined to eclecticism at one time 
 (he wrote in 1838), and had it not been for my father 
 and brother, where I should have been now, who can 
 say?" Then came Sarah (1796 1814), whose death 
 formed the first gap in the circle ; and lastly, Mary 
 Anne (17991826), his " sweetheart," the bright, fresh, 
 merry-hearted one, who wanted every one to live in sun- 
 shine, to whom he was accustomed to talk more freely 
 than to any one else in the world, and who was probably 
 the strongest influence upon his life until the time of 
 her early unexpected death. Both she and Elizabeth 
 were highly cultured and religious, and we find them 
 reading Italian and French with their brother, and also 
 with great enjoyment Butler's Analogy, Hooker's Eccle- 
 siastical Polity, and Strype's Lives of the Archbishops. 
 The traditions of the family were Cavalier and Non- 
 juring ; in later years Dr. Pusey recalled to Keble the 
 way in which the latter's words about the Stuarts had
 
 4 JOHN KKBLE. 
 
 been one of the first things that broke through his 
 Liberalist tendencies. " I was thoughtlessly, or rather 
 1 must say confidently, taking it for granted that the 
 Stuarts were rightly dethroned, when I heard for the 
 first time a hint to the contrary from you. Your 
 seriousness was an unintended reproof to my petulant 
 expression about it ; so it stuck by me, though it was 
 some time before it took root and burst through all 
 the clods placed upon it." Later still, in answer to 
 some depreciatory opinion of Dr. Pusey's about the 
 Nonjurors, Keble replied, "I cannot think that the 
 Nonjurors' position was so very bad or useless an one. 
 I seem to trace our present life in good measure to it." 
 From such a home he came up to Oxford, " a fresh, 
 glad, bright, joyous boy." l After an unsuccessful attempt 
 at Magdalen College, he was elected in December 1806 
 to an open scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and 
 entered into residence at the beginning of 1807, while 
 still under fifteen years of age. His college life was not 
 eventful ; he threw himself heartily into lectures, and 
 forty years later dedicates his volume of Sermons to 
 his tutor, the Rev. W. N. Darnell, " in ever grateful 
 memory of invaluable helps and warnings received 
 from him in early youth;" he also shared fully the 
 social life of his college, and his letters contain several 
 references to the Common Room parties held at the 
 end of each term, and kept with difficulty within due 
 limits of sobriety. " Our Common Room party was 
 yesterday," he writes once to his brother, " when I had 
 the hardest trial I have yet gone through in Oxford in 
 avoiding ' intostication.' However, they were on this 
 occasion much more sober than they have been on 
 1 Dr. Pusey, in the Keble CoUege Proceedings, 1868, p. 43.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 5 
 
 former." He wrote frequently, but never successfully, 
 for the prize for English Poetry ; and several of his 
 poems composed in this ' Scene of my Jfarliest Harp- 
 ings,' will be found in the Miscellaneous Poems. He 
 calls it Home of my Muse and of my Friends, and it 
 is as home of his friends that it had most influence on 
 his after-life. The college was a small college, lending 
 itself to close intimacies, and it contained at this time 
 a number of striking members. There was J. T. 
 Coleridge, elected in 1809, fresh from Eton, full of 
 enthusiasm for the poetry of his uncle and of Words- 
 worth Coleridge, who remained to the end of his life 
 the firm friend and wise adviser whom Keble always 
 consulted in any ecclesiastical questions which were 
 connected with the law of the State, and who lived to 
 be his affectionate biographer. There was Noel Ellison, 
 "the genial, joyous, graceful Ellison," also elected in 
 1809, who afterwards became Tutor of Balliol, and 
 Rector of Huntspill ; John Tucker, " the single-hearted 
 and devout," who became a missionary in India ; G. J. 
 Cornish, elected in 1810, a man of keen sensibility, of 
 poetic taste, but quiet retiring character, who, after 
 becoming Fellow and Tutor of his college, withdrew 
 to parochial life, and from 1828 1849 was Vicar of 
 Kenwyn, above Truro. He is author of the poem on 
 the Redbreast, quoted in the Christian Year, and the 
 strength of Keble's affection for him is measured by the 
 words he wrote to a friend on his death, " My dear 
 Dyson, do ask for me that I may meet him again." 
 Then there was C. Dyson, to whom these words were 
 written, rather senior to the other friends, perhaps the 
 most intimate of all, the fastidious critic, the wise, 
 cheering, cultured friend, whose influence was mainly
 
 6 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 effectual in procuring the publication of the Christian 
 Year, and whom Keble seldom omitted to consult at 
 important moments of his life. Last of all, not elected 
 till 1811, but at once admitted into this circle, was 
 Thomas Arnold, the eager, enthusiastic, religious Liberal, 
 who differed from Keble in almost every point, and yet 
 wound himself very closely round his heart. " The 
 more I see of Arnold, the more I love him," he wrote 
 in 1816; and in 1819, "I hardly know any one now 
 that Dyson is gone (from Oxford), who would be so 
 great a loss to me." To him Arnold turned when in 
 great religious perplexity, and found comfort and peace 
 in his advice. The line that Arnold took in later years 
 seemed to him so " wilful and presumptuous in his way 
 of dealing with holy things," that he felt that he could 
 not regard him as a fellow-labourer in the same cause. 
 This was his feeling in 1832, but the break with him 
 had been a severe strain upon himself, and he writes in 
 1840, " I have had an Easter letter from Arnold, so 
 kind and mitigated in tone that I cannot but be com- 
 forted by it, and in time I trust he may come nearer to 
 Church views. I feel somehow that we are nearer to 
 each other than we have been." 
 
 To these friends in college should be added one 
 out-college friend, John Miller of Worcester College. 
 He was some years senior, having taken his degree 
 in 1808, and Keble always regarded him with very 
 great reverence for his seriousness, and loved him for 
 his genial merriment. Miller's Bampton Lectures for 
 1817, upon "the Divine authority of Holy Scripture 
 from its adaptation to the Real State of Human 
 Nature," impressed his mind very much by its cautious 
 tone, its tender and scrupulous respect for the simple
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 7 
 
 faith of the poor, and its deep reverence in the treat- 
 ment of the Bible. In 1829 he called him "the most 
 original divine of our days," and one sentence from 
 the Bampton Lectures seems to have suggested the 
 poem for St. Bartholomew's Day in the Christian Year; 
 another sentence in one of his sermons suggested the 
 title of the volume. 
 
 It has been worth while to dwell upon this group of 
 friends, for with the one exception of Arnold, they were 
 friendships for life kept up by visits and correspondence, 
 and never without their influence upon him. But their 
 main influence was that of the Oxford days. They did 
 that which was all-important for the shy, sensitive, 
 home-bred boy; they gave him confidence in himself 
 by the unrestrained way in which they admitted him 
 to their confidence. In many a college society such a 
 temperament would have withered and shrunk into 
 itself; in this kindly warmth it grew and blossomed. 
 All the natural gaiety of heart, all the frolicsome 
 humour which characterizes his home letters, reappears 
 in his letters to these friends. Just as his brother and 
 sisters have their comic nicknames, so it is with these 
 friends. The wise Miller is " Hooker" ; Arnold is "the 
 sheep " ; Cornish " the monkey " ; Dyson is " Jeremiah," 
 or " The Venerable Bede," or " Simorg " ; his own brother 
 is " Thomas Aquinas " ; J. Tucker is the " Queen of 
 Babylon," or " Bab," or " Semiramis," and is spoken of 
 always as "she." Thus when he left Corpus Christi he 
 carried away a stronger self-confidence ; and he carried 
 away also a wider knowledge of English literature, 
 and a love and reverence for the memory of one of 
 the noblest names of which the college could boast 
 Richard Hooker.
 
 8 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 In the summer of 1810, when he was only a little 
 over eighteen, he obtained the very rare distinction of 
 a double first-class in Classics and Mathematics. As it 
 was then common for Bachelors to reside, he continued 
 in Corpus Christi until, on April 21, 1811, just before 
 his nineteenth birthday, he was elected to an open 
 Fellowship at Oriel College ; Whateley, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Dublin, being elected at the same time. 
 In the following year he gained both the Chancellor's 
 Essays, the English Essay on Translation from Dead 
 Languages, the Latin on a comparison between Xeno- 
 phon and Julius Caesar as Military Historians. It was 
 the most brilliant academical career of his time. It 
 "invested him with a bright halo and something of 
 awe in the eyes of an undergraduate." 1 Twelve years 
 later the young Newman writes, " I shall only mention 
 Keble. At eighteen he took two first classes. Soon 
 after he gained the two Essays in one year and a 
 Fellowship at Oriel. He is the first man in Oxford." 2 
 
 The two leading spirits in the Common lloom at 
 this time were Copleston and Davison; of these the 
 latter became a firm and life-long friend of Keble. It 
 was at his suggestion that the last poems of the 
 Christian Year were written, and after his death Keble 
 helped to edit his Remains. But he was never quite 
 at home in the Oriel Common Room in the sense in 
 which he had been at Corpus Christi. The tone was 
 one of vigorous, rough-and-ready discussion of all things 
 under heaven and earth, wanting in tenderness and 
 reverence; he was shy of the criticism of "the Oriel 
 wags"; among them, he seemed to Newman, "more 
 
 1 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 17. 
 
 2 Letters, i., p. 75.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 9 
 
 like an undergraduate than the first man in Oxford, so 
 perfectly unaffected and unassuming in his manner;" l 
 and the way in which Pusey and Newman in 1828 
 failed to understand Keble's character is a sufficient 
 proof how little he had been really quite himself there. 
 At first he had no college work, and was busy with 
 his own reading and with private pupils, taking reading 
 parties in the vacation and paying visits to his friends; 
 and many of the early poems published afterwards in 
 the Miscellaneous Poems bear witness to the brightness 
 and hopes of this time. In 1813 he refused the offer of 
 a Sub-Librarianship at the Bodleian Library. He was 
 Public Examiner in the Final Schools from 1814 
 1816; Master of the Schools in 1816; and Public 
 Examiner again 1821 1823. One of these occasions 
 is specially interesting; as he listened to one of his 
 fellow-examiners assigning the class to one of the 
 candidates, his mind wandered off to think of the 
 future that might be in store for the Examiner himself, 
 and the result was the poem in the Christian Year 
 for St. John's Day 
 
 " ' Lord, and what shall this man do ? ' 
 Ask'st thou Christian for thy friend 1 
 
 If his love for Christ be true, 
 Christ hath told thee of his end. 
 
 This is he whom God approves, 
 
 This is he whom Jesus loves." 
 
 His own reading during these years was very 
 varied ; we find him reading Ariosto, Chateaubriand, 
 Madame de Stael, Blackstone's Commentaries, Ockley's 
 History of the Saracens, Spenser, Wordsworth, Southey, 
 Byron; but his studies were drawing more and more 
 1 Letters, i., p. 72.
 
 10 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 towards Theology. He learnt Hebrew, and wrote in 
 1813, "The study of Divinity grows upon me. There 
 are so many questions little and great, grammatical, 
 historical, and metaphysical, to be answered before one 
 can say that one thoroughly understands a verse of the 
 Bible, that I almost despair of reading it through on 
 this side of threescore." Butler's Analogy, more than 
 any other book, except perhaps Aristotle, formed the 
 staple of his thoughts. Butler's humility of tone, his 
 sense of the vastness and mystery of the Divine system, 
 his willingness to confess that he knew but a fringe of 
 a great subject, his determination not to ignore the 
 facts of what God has done in favour of an a priori 
 theory of what He ought to do ; his strong hold upon 
 the analogy between nature and religion, lending itself 
 to Keble's poetic love of treating all material phenomena 
 as types of spiritual facts ; his theory that the intellect 
 cannot carry us farther than a probable result in religion, 
 and that only faith and love can convert probability 
 into certainty these fundamental positions reappear 
 again and again in Keble's writings ; and Newman has 
 told us how they assumed a new power and meaning 
 under the influence of Keble's " creative mind " ; they 
 rooted the Sacramental system in the eternal methods 
 of God's working, and won Newman himself from his 
 individualism. 
 
 Almost immediately after reaching his twenty-third 
 birthday he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford 
 on Trinity Sunday, 1815, and Priest on Trinity Sunday, 
 1816 : his Fellowship served as a title, although he also 
 assisted his father at Coin, riding over from Oxford for 
 the purpose, and in thesummerof 1815 he took temporary 
 charge of the two neighbouring villages of East Leech
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 11 
 
 and Burthorpe. It seemed to him that " the salvation 
 of one soul was worth more than the framing of the 
 MagnaCharta of a thousand worlds," and he approached 
 the work with awe and trembling, and yet with un- 
 abated confidence in Christ's power to use his service. 
 The aim that he set before him helps to explain the 
 deep language of self-reproach and remorse which is so 
 strongly marked in the Christian Year and in his 
 correspondence. Before the ordination he wrote to 
 Coleridge 
 
 " Pray for me too : pray earnestly, my dear, my best 
 friend, that He would give me His grace, that I may 
 not be altogether umvorthy of the sacred office on which 
 I am, rashly I fear, even now entering ; but that some 
 souls hereafter may have cause to bless me. Pray that 
 I may be free from vanity, from envy, from discontent, 
 from impure imaginations ; that I may not grow weary, 
 nor 'wander in heart from God's service : that I may not 
 be judging others uncharitably, nor vainly dreaming how 
 they will judge me, at the very moment that I seem 
 most religiously and most charitably employed. Without 
 any foolish affectation of modesty, I can truly say that 
 the nearer the time approaches, the more strongly I feel 
 my own unfitness and unworthiness for the ministry : 
 yet as I hope it is not such but that it may be removed 
 in time by earnest and constant use of the means of 
 grace, I do not think it needful to defer my Ordination, 
 but I want all the help I can get in the awful and 
 difficult preparation : do not therefore forget me in 
 your prayers." 
 
 In the preceding year he had lost his sister Sarah, 
 and perhaps this, combined with the tension of the 
 Ordination, produced a tone of melancholy, which
 
 12 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 oppressed him at this time and seemed to him wilful 
 and sinful. Much of the Christian Year cannot be 
 understood without the remembrance of this mood, and 
 therefore it will be well to add another extract from a 
 letter to Coleridge 
 
 "Our domestic distresses have furnished me with too 
 good an excuse for indulging a certain humour calling 
 itself melancholy, but I am afraid more truly entitled 
 proud and fantastic, which I find very often at hand, 
 forbidding me to enjoy the good things and pursue the 
 generous studies which a kind Providence throws so 
 richly in my way. ... I have long known this to be 
 very wrong, but I never felt the mischief of it so much 
 as in the midst of your happy family. I felt as if I was 
 saddening everybody, and thousands and thousands of 
 resolutions did I make that I would shake off this 
 selfish remembrance of past and distant calamities, that 
 I would enjoy myself wherever I went. I trust I shall 
 be able, though late, to accomplish these good reso- 
 lutions, and it will be a long and steady course of 
 self-discipline alone, grounded upon high motives, and 
 assisted by the prayers, advice, and example of my 
 relations and friends, which will enable me by God's 
 blessing to do so." 
 
 His life became thus for a couple of years mainly 
 pastoral ; his profession became " my dear delightful 
 profession" : but at the end of 1S17 he was recalled to 
 a more academical life, being appointed Tutor at Oriel. 
 In January, 1818, he writes to Coleridge that he is going 
 back " to lay down the laws of ye and Srj to a set of 
 wriggling watch-consulting undergraduates." The work 
 was in many ways delightful to him, for tuition seemed 
 to him a species of Pastoral Care. His sense of a tutor's
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 13 
 
 responsibility will best be illustrated by words which he 
 wrote years afterwards : " Considerate Catholics know 
 well that there is practically no separating the high and 
 comprehensive views which that name imports from any 
 of the moral branches of education. Silence them as 
 you may on directly theological questions, how are they 
 to deal with ethics or poetry or history, so as not to 
 guide their disciples by the light which the Church 
 throws on all ? And there is a yet deeper consider- 
 ation : they may perhaps think that College Tuition is a 
 branch of the Pastoral Care, at least if they are them- 
 selves ordained at God's altar; and then they will 
 have no further alternative they must either teach 
 Catholicism or not teach at all." l 
 
 Newman has admitted how he came ultimately to see 
 that Keble's mind was at one with his own in his con- 
 ception of tutorial work, so that his description of his 
 own tutorial aims might be transferred to Keble ; there 
 was the same willingness to spend any effort on his 
 pupils' work (we find Keble working with them some- 
 times as early as six a.m.), the same attempt to culti- 
 vate relations with them not only of intimacy, but of 
 friendship and almost of equality ; in Hurrell Froude's 
 words, " Where Keble was, donnishness and humbug 
 would be no more in college, nor the pride of talent 
 nor ignoble secular ambition." 2 
 
 Keble retained this office for six years and formed 
 many lasting intimacies, one with Sir W. Heathcote 
 leading ultimately to his appointment as Vicar of 
 Hursley. One who came into residence just after he 
 
 1 The Case of Catholic Subscription to the XXXIX. Articles, 
 1841, p. 12. 
 
 2 J. H. Newman, Letters, i., pp. 152 154.
 
 14 JOHN KEDLE. 
 
 left, and who only saw him when he applied for matricu- 
 lation, Sir C. Anderson, bears striking testimony, in a 
 letter written in 1889, to the quiet, powerful effect 
 which he had upon young men. " I was entered by 
 Keble when I went up to matriculate, a raw youth of 
 nineteen. Keble was then Tutor and Resident, and he 
 examined me and took me to the Vice-Chancellor to 
 swear to the Articles, and during the two hours I was 
 with Keble his manner and kindness and a certain 
 influence, which I hardly can describe, came over me, 
 so that when I went to reside, and he had then left 
 Oxford, I found the Tutors at Oriel so wholly different 
 that I greatly regretted Keble's absence. I am more 
 than ever convinced that, had he been elected Provost, 
 things would have been very different at the University." 
 
 The impression which he made upon outsiders is 
 excellently illustrated by the following contemporaneous 
 account, written by a sister of his friend, George Cornish, 
 after a visit of Keble's to Sidmouth 
 
 " Sept. 8, 1819. Keble went away early. We are all 
 very sorry to lose him, as he is a person that is not to 
 be met with every day. I have heard a great deal of 
 him from George before I saw him, so that it was like 
 meeting an old friend. His manners are singularly 
 simple, shy, and unpolished, though without the least 
 rudeness or roughness, as he is the mildest and quietest 
 person I almost ever saw. He speaks very little, but 
 always seems interested in what is going on, and often 
 says the cleverest and most witty things as if he was 
 not the least aware of it. In his own family I should 
 think he must be more missed when absent than any 
 one else could possibly be ; he seems formed for a 
 domestic circle and all the feelings attendant on home.
 
 PREPAEATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 15 
 
 Without making any fuss about it, he seems so inter- 
 ested in every one, and has such a continual quiet 
 cheerfulness about him, that I cannot imagine how his 
 father and mother, brother and sisters, can do without 
 him. But it is his religious character that has struck 
 me more than anything else, as it is indeed that from 
 which everything else proceeds. I never saw any one 
 who came up so completely to my ideas of a religious 
 man as Keble, and yet I never saw any one who made 
 so little display of it (I use this word for want of a better 
 at present) ; he seems to me a union of Hooker and 
 George Herbert the humility of one with the feeling 
 and love of the other. In short, altogether he is a man 
 whom the more you see of and know, the less you must 
 think of yourself." 1 
 
 During these years he was much interested \>y 
 making the acquaintance of Wordsworth (1815), and of 
 Southey and Heber (1819). His own poetic powers were 
 reaching their maturity, and some of the freshest and 
 most melodious poems of the Christian Year date from 
 this time. In 1822 1823 he was Select Preacher before 
 the University, and in 1823 he preached the Assize 
 sermon ; 2 but the variety of the work and the cares of 
 discipline were trying to him ; he longed for something 
 more permanent and more pastoral. " I begin to be 
 clear that I am out of my element here," he wrote in a 
 moment of despondency as early as 1819 ; in 1821, " I 
 have made up my mind to leave Oxford as soon as this 
 examination affair is over;" in 1822, "I get fonder 
 and fonder of the country and of poetry and of such 
 things every year of my life." Finally, in 1823 ; he 
 
 1 Monthly Packet, 1887, p. 189. " Diary of an Octogenarian." 
 2 Academical Sermons, i. iv.
 
 16 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 accepted a college living at Coleby in Lincolnshire ; but 
 withdrew his acceptance at the last moment. For, on 
 May 11, his mother died, and he at once decided to live 
 in his father's neighbourhood that he might be able to 
 help him. His mother's death inspired the poem on 
 the Annunciation, which appears, though in an altered 
 form, in the Christian Year. The first draft (written 
 on June 1, 1823) will be found in the Miscellaneous 
 Poems. It is in the main the same as that in the 
 Christian Year, but when that was published his sorrow 
 was still fresh, and the allusions to his mother and him- 
 self seemed too sacred for publication, and the verses 
 about TJie Virgin Mother were substituted. In his own 
 MS. there is written by the side of the last stanza, 
 " May 10, 1823. Extract from pocket-book 
 
 ' Eheu, eheu, vale, vale, carissima, vale, eheu, vale, 
 
 at veniet felicius sevum, 
 Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero.' " l 
 
 On his leaving Oriel several of his pupils followed 
 him to his new sphere of work. He became curate at 
 Southrop near Fairford, being responsible for this as well 
 as the other two small villages of East Leech and Bur- 
 thorpe. The home was at Southrop ; here he continued 
 for three years, refusing, in 1824, the Archdeaconry of 
 Earbadoes, which was offered him by Bishop Coleridge, 
 and these three years are in some ways the most im- 
 portant of his life. They laid the germs of the Trac- 
 tarian movement. The pupils who weie with him, and 
 from whom he refused to receive any payment, were 
 men of brilliancy and promise, the first and chief being 
 Robert Wilberforce, afterwards Fellow and Tutor of 
 
 1 These lines are to be found in Bishop Lowth's epitaph on his 
 daughter's tomb at Cuddesdon.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 17 
 
 Oriel College; Isaac Williams, afterwards Fellow of 
 Trinity, and curate to Newman ; and Hurrell Froude, 
 also Fellow and Tutor of Oriel, and the link between 
 Keble and Newman. In their society Keble's nature 
 expanded thoroughly ; their intercourse was free, affec- 
 tionate, joyous, playful: "there is master the greatest 
 boy of them all," was the gardener's comment upon it. 
 But under all this gaiety of heart a deep seriousness 
 was known to lie, and it would break out from time to 
 time in shy, simple ways, as when once just before Froude 
 was leaving, Keble took him aside and said, " Froude, you 
 thought Law's Serious Call was a clever look; it seemed 
 to me as if you had said that the Day of Judgment 
 was a pretty sight." x The moral and spiritual influ- 
 ence which he wielded over them was enormous. 
 Robert Wilberforce, when in later years he joined the 
 Church of Korne, is reported to have said that the 
 one power which had held him to the Church of Eng- 
 land was John Keble's character and wisdom; Isaac 
 Williams, the Harrow cricketer and scholar of Trinity, 
 looked back to the day when Keble invited him to 
 Southrop as the era of his conversion, when he was 
 first roused to take a serious view of life. " It was 
 this short walk of a few yards and a few words spoken 
 that were the turning-point of my life. If a merciful 
 God had miraculously interposed to arrest my course, I 
 could not have had a stronger assurance of His Presence 
 than I have always had in looking back to that day." 2 
 Speaking of Keble's classical tuition, he says that he can 
 remember in no other way to have derived so much 
 moral benefit and actual religious teaching as when in 
 
 1 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 28. 
 a Ibid. p. 16.
 
 18 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 a state of tuition himself from this indirect mode of 
 instruction in another, to whom he owes everything that 
 renders life valuable. 1 Froude, the " bright and beauti- 
 ful Froude," the most original genius of the whole ; 
 Froude, so aggressive, so restless in inquiry, so audacious, 
 so relentless in pressing premises to their ultimate con- 
 clusions, so full of mischief, so unmeasured in speech, so 
 keen an enemy to all that was unreal or pretentious, and 
 yet withal so affectionate and generous and winning and 
 imaginative, a " man fitted above all others to kindle 
 enthusiasm," 2 was touched and awed by the unworldly 
 simplicity of his tutor, and put himself unreservedly 
 under his intellectual and spiritual guidance. It was 
 like a high-bred horse responding at once to a master's 
 touch. The effect upon these pupils will be best illus- 
 trated by Dean Church's account of it in his description 
 of Isaac Williams : " He had before him in John Keble 
 a spectacle which was absolutely new to him. Ambi- 
 tious as a rising and successful scholar at college, he 
 saw a man looked up to and wondered at by every one, 
 absolutely without pride and without ambition. He 
 saw the most distinguished academic of his day, to 
 whom every prospect was open, retiring from Oxford in 
 the height of his fame to busy himself with a few 
 hundreds of Gloucestershire peasants in a miserable 
 curacy. He saw this man caring for and respecting the 
 ignorant and poor as much as others respected the great 
 and learned. He saw this man, who had made what 
 the world would call so great a sacrifice apparently 
 unconscious that he had made any sacrifice at all gay, 
 
 1 TJie Cliristian Scholar, Preface, p. liv. Cf. Thoughts in Past 
 Years : " Others admire in thee a poet's fire " (written about 
 Keble). 
 
 2 J. H. N., Correspondence, ii., p. 241.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 19 
 
 unceremonious, bright, full of play as a boy, ready with 
 his pupils for any exercise, mental or muscular for a 
 hard ride, or a crabbed bit of ^Eschylus, or a logic fsnce 
 with disputatious and paradoxical undergraduates, 
 giving and taking on even ground. These pupils saw 
 one, the breadth of whose religion none could doubt, 
 'always endeavouring to do them good, as it were, 
 unknown to themselves and in secret, and ever avoiding 
 that his kindness should be felt and acknowledged ' ; 
 showing in the whole course of daily life the purity of 
 Christian love, and taking the utmost pains to make no 
 profession or show of it." l 
 
 But the influence was not wholly from him upon 
 them ; they too, and especially Froude, reacted upon 
 him. His ecclesiastical principles became more clear 
 cut ; on the one hand, there had been growing upon 
 him an intense distrust of the Evangelicalism of the 
 day, which seemed to depend entirely upon feeling, to 
 neglect the sense of duty and the cultivation of char- 
 acter; it seemed to him so often unreal, and he was 
 fond of quoting William Law's warning to Wesley, 
 " Remember that a man may deceive himself as easily 
 by the phrase 'justification by faith,' as by any other 
 combination of syllables." On the other hand, he 
 loathed even more strongly the cold Deism of the last 
 century with its modern Erastianism, which would 
 reduce the Church to a mere creation of the State, and 
 would ultimately deny the supernatural. The " Anglo- 
 Hanoverian " Church tone of the eighteenth century 
 repelled him with its utilitarian cui lono principles, 
 its presumptions in favour of liberty and against self- 
 denying faith, its preference for external evidences of 
 1 The Oxford Movement., p. 59.
 
 20 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 religion, its excessive and easy-going toleration, its 
 want of a charitable austerity. 1 It neglected the feel- 
 ings as Evangelicalism neglected the character, and his 
 mind craved for a religion which should alfect the whole 
 man, and keep both feelings and intellect under the 
 control of the will. To enforce this he fell back upon 
 the conception of the Church which he had inherited, 
 as of a body independent of the State, founded by the 
 Lord Himself, perpetuated by direct succession from 
 the Apostles, one in continuous history and in doctrine 
 with the Primitive Church, filled with a supernatural 
 and sacramental life, witnessing to a high moral standard 
 before the world. Such a conception fired him with 
 indignation at State encroachments, at neglect of 
 discipline and doctrine, at the prevailing worldliness 
 of tone ; it made him doubt the wisdom of much that 
 the Reformers had done. In 1824 he wrote to Coleridge 
 that he doubted Davison's application of the apostasy to 
 the Church of Rome, and adds, " My impression for a 
 long time has been that we have as much to do with it 
 as they." 
 
 Such a noble conception of the Church naturally 
 laid hold of the imaginations of his pupils, and through 
 them passed as a power into Oxford. To make that 
 conception a reality he devoted his whole life with a 
 Quixotic chivalry which nothing could daunt : for that 
 he sent forth his pupils as a band of missionaries. 
 Not that any immediate result was yet produced : the 
 train was laid, but the circumstances were not yet 
 favourable for firing it, nor was the genius yet with 
 them who was to apply the light. 
 
 1 Cf. his Review of " The Unpublished Papers of Bishop War- 
 burton.'' Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 108.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 21 
 
 This intercourse with pupils ceased in the year 1825, 
 when Keble became eurate in sole charge of Hursley, 
 near Winchester, under Archdeacon Heathcote. The 
 Archdeacon, who lived in Winchester, was responsible 
 for the charge both of Otterbourne and of Hursley, and 
 was obliged to depute the latter entirely to his curate ; 
 and as this was a widely-scattered parish of more than 
 a thousand inhabitants, the new curate had no time to 
 devote to tuition. He passed a year of great happiness 
 in this new work, receiving visits from his father and 
 sisters and many of his college friends, including Arnold. 
 But the brightness was clouded and stopped by the 
 most unexpected and perhaps the deepest sorrow of 
 his life. In September, 1826, his favourite sister, Mary 
 Anne, was taken suddenly ill at Fairford, and died 
 within a few days. In answer to a letter of sympathy 
 from Froude he wrote 
 
 " I knew you would be very sorry when you heard of 
 what has come upon us, and I feel that I can write 
 freely to you about it ; but I cannot half describe to 
 you the depth and intensity, at least as it seemed to 
 me, of my thoughts and feelings during Mary Anne's 
 illness and for some time since. Certainly no loss 
 could be so great, humanly speaking, to Elizabeth and 
 my father, but they are both such sort of people that 
 I have long been used to consider everything that 
 happens to them as a certain good ; and there was 
 nothing bitter in my grief as far as they were con- 
 cerned, much less in thinking of Mary Anne herself; 
 but the real bitterness was when I thought of many 
 things in which I have been far less kind to her than 
 I ought to have been. Somehow or other I have for 
 years been accustomed to talk to her far more freely
 
 22 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 than to anybody else in the world, though of course 
 there were two or three whom I loved quite as well. 
 But it has so happened that whenever I was moody or 
 fretful she has had to bear with me more than any one, 
 and if I chose I could sit down and torment myself by 
 the hour with the thought of it. This is the only 
 feeling of real bitterness that I have on the subject, 
 but I know it is wrong to indulge it, and I trust soon 
 to get over it entirely ; indeed, I seem to have done so 
 already, only I feel one cannot in any way depend upon 
 one's self. I am certain no person who believes in the 
 Atonement ought to indulge in bitter remorse, and 
 therefore, by God's blessing, I don't mean to be un- 
 comfortable if I can help it, even in the thought of my 
 past faults. I have been so too much already, and it 
 only seems to make one lazy and weaken one's own 
 hands and one's friends. If you please, therefore, don't 
 let us encourage one another in melancholy any more ; 
 but let us always resolutely look to the bright side of 
 things, and among other helps to be quiet, let us always 
 talk as freely to one another as we do now, for nothing 
 relieves one so much as making a clean breast." l 
 
 To this occasion we owe the short fragment on his 
 sister Mary Anne's death, 2 and the simple unrhymed 
 poem on The Burial of the Dead, which was intended 
 for the Christian Year. -He shrank, however, from 
 publishing it so soon, but later it appeared in the 
 Lyra Apostolica, No. 50. 3 This loss changed Keble's 
 plans once more; his father and sister needed some 
 companion, and he returned to Fairford and acted as 
 curate there until his father's death in 1835, refusing 
 
 1 Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. i. 
 
 2 Miscellaneous Poems, p. 236, 3 Jliid. p. 13.
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 23 
 
 the living of Hursley when offered him by Sir W. 
 Heathcote in 1829, and that of Paignton, which was 
 offered to him, " as to the most eminently good man in 
 the Church," by the Bishop of Exeter in 1831. 
 
 He still remained a Fellow of Oriel, but his friends 
 there were not content that he should only appear at 
 the rare intervals of college meetings, and on more than 
 one occasion they attempted to revive his connection 
 with Oxford. At the end of 1827 the Provostship of 
 Oriel became vacant by the appointment of Dr. Cople- 
 ston to be Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Paul's. 
 There was no doubt that the choice would fall either 
 on Keble or on Hawkins. On December 8th, Hawkins 
 wrote to Keble what the latter describes as a " kind 
 little letter," apparently asking whether he would be 
 a candidate ; ' to which he replied on December 9th, 
 postponing his answer, but adding, " I am in great 
 hopes that by not caring too much for things we shall 
 be enabled to turn what might have been unpleasant 
 into a time of comfortable recollection as long as we 
 live. You and I agreed to remember one another at a 
 trying time for both a little more than a twelvemonth 
 ago ; if you please, we will do the same now." 
 
 Meanwhile, Keble's old pupils were strongly in his 
 favour and urged him to stand. He was quite willing 
 to do so, feeling that it was not so very much more diffi- 
 cult a trust than any other pastoral employment, and 
 conscious that he had some qualifications for it ; but 
 he had left Oxford, and was not intimately known by 
 many of the Fellows. Hawkins was a resident tutor 
 in full work; he too had gained a double first-class, 
 having taken his degree a year after Keble, and he 
 was a man of shrewd practical wisdom and intellectual
 
 24 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 keenness, though devoid of any deep power of sympathy. 
 By a strange irony the balance was decided against 
 Keble by Newman and Pusey. Neither of them knew 
 Keble at all intimately, Newman having been elected 
 in 1822, Pusey in 1823, just as Keble was leaving 
 Oxford. Pusey wrote to him on December 14th, saying 
 that he had decided to vote for Hawkins, " yet should 
 the choice of the majority finally fall upon you, I should 
 anticipate from your promotion high and extensive 
 benefits to the college. It is difficult on the subject 
 not to say too much or too little ; I will therefore only 
 add that it is not upon any comparison of the indi- 
 viduals, but in relation to a practical office that I have 
 formed my decision." Newman wrote on December 
 19fch, a letter marked by delicate consideration, and yet, 
 as experience proved, showing an extraordinary want 
 of insight into the relative sympathy of Keble and 
 Hawkins with his own conceptions of College and 
 University reform. On December 27th, Keble wrote to 
 Froude withdrawing his candidature, and putting it 
 with thoughtful unselfishness on selfish reasons; he 
 doubted whether he would be comfortable there ; he 
 had calls elsewhere ; he was afraid of the Oxford 
 epidemic of intellectualism. On December 28th, he 
 wrote to the same effect to Hawkins, and the contest 
 was ended. 
 
 Whether the result would have been less disastrous 
 to the College and the University if Keble had been 
 elected is an idle speculation. Newman never regretted 
 his vote, for it seemed to him afterwards that, had Keble 
 been elected, he himself would have still retained his 
 tutorship, and so would have had no leisure for the 
 Tractarian movement. Pusey regretted it deeply :
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 25 
 
 "Unhappily, some of us who loved him did not know 
 the power of his deep sympathy with the young heart, 
 and thought another more practical. He could not bear 
 division, and so withdrew. The whole of the later history 
 of the Church might have been changed had we been 
 wiser ; but God, through our ignorance, withdrew him, 
 and it must have been well with him, since God so over- 
 ruled it. To us it became the sorrow of our lives." l 
 Yet the whole correspondence gives such an impression 
 of considerateness, of thoughtfulness, of sincerity, of 
 perfect freedom from self-seeking, from jealousy, from 
 bitterness on all sides, that it is refreshing to read. And 
 Keble, who had written years before on the occasion of 
 Hawkins' election to a Fellowship, " Everything was 
 conducted on so liberal a plan that it does my heart 
 good to belong to such a society as Oriel," felt this 
 still,, and went back to his pastoral work with no 
 trace of embittered feeling, but with a deeper devotion 
 to his duties, as though God had more clearly put them 
 as a sacred trust into his hand. It may well be that 
 the way in which he accepted this disappointment may 
 have gained him the power which he wielded over 
 Newman and Pusey in later years; it may well be that 
 the life at a distance from Oxford, amid the realities of 
 pastoral work, gave him coolness and self-control and 
 wisdom which would scarcely have been generated in 
 the heart of the conflict; and thus his very rejection 
 may have gone to make him " an unseen silent 
 influence, moving hearts at will." 2 
 
 But though absent his voice was still heard in any- 
 
 1 Sermon at Keble College, St. Mark's Day, 1876, p. 27. 
 
 2 J. H. N., Essays, ii., p. 446. For the best account of the 
 election see the Giuirdian for January 30, 1889.
 
 26 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 thing which stirred the University ; in 1829 Mr. Peel, 
 having suddenly changed his mind and passed the 
 Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, offered himself for 
 re-election at Oxford, but many Churchmen there felt 
 that they could not change their opinions thus readily ; 
 the independence of the Church and of Oxford seemed 
 to them at stake, and Mr. Peel was rejected. Keble 
 (who afterwards dated the conflict between Church and 
 State from this time) threw himself heartily into the 
 opposition, and published with his signature a short 
 set of queries addressed to the electors, ending with 
 one, very characteristic " Whether, on occasions like 
 this, we are not bound to look forward and consider not 
 only how our academical interests may be affected at 
 present, but how our conduct will appear in the pages 
 of future history ? " 
 
 When the election was over he wrote a humble and 
 affectionate letter to Pusey, asking pardon of all Mr. 
 Peel's friends, and especially, through Pusey, of the 
 Bishop of Oxford, "if anything in which I have had a 
 part may have given him a moment's pain, or if I have 
 seemed unworthily suspicious of one for whom he must 
 be deeply interested." 
 
 For a few years his letters give the impression that 
 he was casting about for some adequate life's work. 
 The Christian Year was now published, and he had no 
 pupils. We find him examining for the Ireland Scholar- 
 ship in 1828 ; for the India House in 1830 and 1831 ; he 
 composes the Index to Cardwell's edition of Aristotle's 
 Ethics (1830) l ; he is working at his translation of the 
 
 1 Cf. the Preface : " Indicem toti operi amico cuidam acceptum 
 referimus, digniori sane qui ipse Aristotelem illustrandum suscipi- 
 eret, nobis vicissim suas partes traditurus."
 
 PEEPARATION FOR THE WORK OF LIFE. 27 
 
 Psalter into English verse; he is interested in the 
 conditions of the poor and studying Malthus, and 
 anxious to promote emigration on a large scale in order 
 to relieve the distress. At one time, when there were 
 agrarian riots in the neighbourhood, he rode out fear- 
 lessly and good-naturedly with the mob, arguing with 
 them and trying to keep them from mischief. In 1831 
 he published anonymously a pamphlet entitled A Hint 
 from Bristol, in which he took advantage of the Bristol 
 riots to plead against Reform, and to exhort honest men 
 to have true courage to set themselves calmly and reso- 
 lutely against the " evil spirit which is abroad teaching 
 this nation all kinds of irreverence." In this year, 
 however, two different events supplied him with the 
 work which he desired ; at the beginning of the year he 
 undertook for the Clarendon Press a complete edition of 
 the works of his favourite, Richard Hooker ; and in the 
 winter he was elected Professor of Poetry. His friends 
 had been anxious that he should be a candidate for the 
 chair in 1821, but he then refused to oppose Milman. 
 By this time, however, the Christian I^'had established 
 his poetic reputation, and he was elected without any 
 opposition. This office had the advantage that it brought 
 him up to Oxford once a term for his terminal lecture, 
 and also required his presence at Commemoration in 
 alternate years to deliver the Creweian oration in com- 
 memoration of the Benefactors of the University. 
 
 Thus through the most eventful years of the Tract- 
 arian movement, he was in constant touch with its 
 leaders, while the preparation for these two important 
 works made the next few years some of the busiest of 
 his life. One of his own poems will best show the spirit 
 with which he was setting himself to his task.
 
 28 JOHN' KEBLE. 
 
 THE CHURCHMAN TO HIS LAMP. 
 
 " Come, twinkle in my lonely room, 
 Companion true in hours of iiloom ; 
 Come, light me on a little space, 
 The heavenly vision to retrace, 
 By saints and Angels loved so well, 
 My mother's glories ere she Ml. 
 
 There was a time, my friendly Lamp, 
 When, far and wide, in Jesus' camp, 
 Oft as the foe dark inroads made, 
 They watch'd and fasted, wept and pray'd ; 
 But now, they feast and slumber on, 
 And say, ' Why pine o'er evil done 1 ' 
 
 Then hours of Prayer, in welcome round, 
 Far-severed hearts together bound ; 
 Seven times a day, on bended knee, 
 They to their Saviour cried ; and we 
 One hour we find in seven long days, 
 Before our God to sit and gaze ! 
 
 Then, lowly Lamp, a ray like thine 
 Waked half the world to hymns divine ; 
 Now it is much if here and there 
 The dreamer, by the genial glare, 
 Trace the dim Past, and slowly climb 
 The steep of Faith's triumphant prime. 
 
 Yet by His grace whose breathing gives 
 Life to the faintest spark that lives, 
 I trim thee, precious Lamp, once more, 
 Our Father's armoury to explore, 
 And sort and number wistfully 
 A few bright weapons, bathed on high. 
 
 And may thy guidance ever tend 
 
 Where gentle thoughts and courage blend ; 
 
 Thy pure and steady gleaming rest 
 
 On pages with the Cross imprest ; 
 
 Till, touch'd with lightning of calm zeal, 
 
 Our Father's very heart we feel.''
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 
 
 MV \poviiaripov torivii 
 o ri yt GVV %aplTttV Tii^y, 
 yXuiaia 4>pai/o(; jt\oi /SatJeme." 
 
 PINDAR, Nem., iv. 11. 
 
 IN dealing with Keble as a poet, we start with the 
 great advantage of having not only his poems them- 
 selves, but also his critical theory of Poetry. Although 
 the fullest statement of this is subsequent to the 
 publication of the Christian Year, whether in the Latin 
 lectures as Professor of Poetry (1832 1841), or in a 
 shorter English form in his review of the Life of Sir 
 Walter Scott (British Critic, 1838) ; yet it had already 
 been sketched in outline in a review of Copleston's 
 Prcelcctioncs Academiccc (British Critic, 1814); and in 
 an article on " Sacred Poetry " (Quarterly Review, 1825) i 1 
 hence it will, both logically and chronologically, be 
 the true order if we discuss the theory first, and the 
 application of it to his own poems afterwards. 
 
 Keble never professes to give a full definition or 
 
 1 These three reviews are reprinted in the Occasional Papers 
 and Revieu-a ; the references will be to that volume.
 
 30 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 description of Poetry, but only to describe and illustrate 
 one function which it serves ; and this he approaches 
 from the point of view of the poet, and only incidentally 
 from that of the reader. 
 
 The title De Pocticce Vi Medico, points to the kernel 
 of his theory. Poetry is essentially for him a relief to 
 the poet, a relief for overcharged emotion. It is the 
 utterance of feelings which struggle for expression, but 
 which are too deep for perfect expression at all, much 
 more for expression in the language of daily life. 
 
 Feeling of any kind, he points out, is always seeking 
 some form of expression for itself; the infant can find 
 it only in cries, in gestures, in expression of the features ; 
 the grown-up man finds it mainly in the power of speech. 
 " My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus 
 musing the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my 
 tongue" (Ps. xxxix. 3), this verse is quoted by him 
 as expressing the secret of all poetry. This is true of 
 all feelings, but most true of the deepest feelings, which 
 are stirred either by the sight of external nature or by 
 the facts of human life. Nature appeals to the feelings 
 either by its mystery and vastness, stirring man's wonder, 
 his questioning, his awe ; or by its tranquil beauty and 
 calm, soothing his wearied spirit. Human life appeals 
 to them either by its happiness suggesting a perfection 
 which lies beyond it, through the finite stirring the 
 passion for the infinite ; or by its sadness, suggesting 
 the contrast between what it is, and what it might be, 
 and so stirring tenderness and pity and melancholy. 
 In either case the feelings are stirred by the sense 
 of higher spiritual truths which underlie the visible 
 phenomena. But it follows naturally from this that 
 the deeper the feeling, the less adequately will it be
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 31 
 
 able to be expressed ; language fails it ; the prose 
 language of daily life is felt at once to be inadequate; 
 and further, the feeling itself shrinks from publicity, it 
 is too sacred to be cast before every one ; true love and 
 true grief alike shun the light of day and the sight of 
 men. Hence there is a necessary reserve and modesty 
 about the expression of it; metrical language serves 
 both to conceal as well as to reveal the truth ; again, 
 the" poet hides his passion under allegory and simile, or 
 description of some event in the heroic past which is 
 sufficiently akin to the present to relieve his feeling 
 while it does not betray his secret. Hence expression 
 will be more poetical in proportion as it gives the sense 
 of struggling with an ideal truth. 
 
 Yet another distinction must be noticed. The facts 
 of life affect people differently according to their 
 temperament. With one class the feelings are passion- 
 ate, tumultuous, headstrong, bursting out into lyric 
 utterance on the spot and then passing away. With 
 another, they are quiet, strong, permanent; they feed 
 themselves on their object ; they persist throughout life ; 
 they work themselves out in longer and more sustained 
 efforts of epic or dramatic poems. Of these two classes 
 Keble unhesitatingly gives the preference to the second. 
 " In quietness and calm will always be found the true 
 praise of poetry, whether you seek for sweetness or for 
 majesty." 1 The permanence of the feeling is a test of 
 its reality ; the self-control is the proof that the poet 
 feels himself overmastered by a Higher Power. 
 
 From this distinction springs his classification of 
 poets. 
 
 Primary poets are those who sing because they must, 
 1 Prod. Acad., p. 608.
 
 32 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 who have some one strong," consistent, permanent 
 feeling, which reappears again and again ; secondary 
 poets are either those who are stirred genuinely by a 
 passing emotion, or those who are little more than 
 clever literary imitators, writing for pleasure or for 
 interest The form of the poetry is never taken as the 
 dividing line, though it is used at times as a clue to 
 guide the reader to the truest and most genuine feeling 
 in the poet, on the ground that truth of feeling feels 
 after truth of form. The more trustworthy tests are 
 modesty, reserve, the absence of paradox and display, 
 and above all, consistency ; that poet is the highest poet 
 who, 
 
 ". . . . when brought 
 Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
 Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought." 
 
 Taking these tests as his standard, Keble in his 
 lectures examines all the chief Greek and Latin poets, 
 not without a touch of humour here and there, as 
 though he were a Public Examiner once more, as where 
 he stops to wonder whether Sophocles' love of Attic 
 scenery may not earn him a first-class, but ultimately 
 decides to place him in the second ; there are also many 
 interesting illustrations from modern poets and digres- 
 sions on points where poetry touches on the borderland 
 of religion. As the lectures have never been translated, 
 we venture to give an outline of his argument, with a 
 fuller account of one or two details which he has touched 
 with a loving fullness himself. 
 
 Homer comes first, and is classed at once as a primary 
 poet. His overmastering feeling is a sad regret fur 
 the heroic age, with its common national feeling, its 
 reverence for its leaders, its faith in the interposition of
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 33 
 
 Gods. The Iliad is the glorification of heroic warfare ; 
 it represents the feelings of the veteran soldier delight- 
 ing in his past campaigns. Hence it is not merely 
 "the wrath of Achilles:" it is an Iliad, a story of a 
 successful warfare, exhibiting every kind of fighting, 
 singing the praises of every warrior, whether Greek or 
 Trojan; dwelling on the incidents of camp life, of the 
 feasts, the games, the armour, the horses, the hunting, 
 the peasant life around, the scenes of Nature, and the 
 wealth of Troy. We see Agamemnon, the proud aristo- 
 crat, caring for his country much but for his dignity 
 more ; Diomed the ambitious ; Ajax the rough, brusque, 
 simple, obedient soldier; Hector the lovable, brave, 
 domestic, human hero ; but above them all, the type of 
 an almost superhuman consecration, Achilles, the eager, 
 noble warrior, who knows that death awaits him and 
 yet has gone forth to the war, self-consecrate, preferring 
 a glorious death to inglorious inactivity ; full of affec- 
 tionate remembrance for his parents, devoted to his 
 friend, honouring old age, recognizing excellence in 
 friend or foe, and, for all these reasons, dear to heaven. 
 
 The Odyssey is the work of the same writer, though 
 in his old age. It is the work of the veteran soldier 
 with his warrior instincts still alive in him, recording 
 the love of exploration which marked the heroic era. 
 As Alexander the Great combined in his own person 
 the warrior and the explorer, so Homer in his poems. 
 The type is now Ulysses, the explorer, wise, shrewd, 
 full of expedients, self-trustful ; longing for home with 
 a strength of feeling which is proof against all seduc- 
 tions and all perils ; but he is essentially a king ; the 
 Odyssey is not merely the return of a traveller, it is the 
 triumphal victory of a king, who comes to enjoy his own 
 
 D
 
 34 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 again and to right his country. The influence of the 
 Gods is over all : they protect Ulysses and punish the 
 suitors ; their presence is seen only by their favourites ; 
 yet sinners are warned against their doom ; there is 
 nothing like fatalism in the story. The suitors are the 
 type of the arrogant, irreligious democrats, who neither 
 respect guests, nor honour the dead, nor reverence the 
 Gods, but measure all things by the standard of their 
 own enjoyment; and so the poet is against them; for 
 true poets are almost bound to oppose the popular 
 party, because of its utilitarian standard, which is never 
 carried away by any lofty enthusiasm, and because of 
 its absence of true reverence and self-restraint. It 
 would have everything open and public. It was this 
 want of self-restraint which caused the popularity, and 
 was a fatal flaw in the real poetic power of Byron. 
 
 Two other interesting observations lead to comparisons 
 with modern poets. Homer's frequent references to 
 simple peasant life, his description of beggars, the dignity 
 with which he invests slaves, show that, like Burns, he 
 was a poor man, in sympathy with poverty. But Homer 
 tries to soothe the lot of the poor ; he looks with a 
 simple peasant's admiration on wealth, he treats it as 
 the gift of heaven; but he never rails against riches, 
 nor is indignant at the injustice of Providence. On the 
 other hand, Burns, with the same love of peasant life 
 and simple nature, is unable to treat the rich with 
 courteous gentleness ; his undisciplined love of pleasure 
 leads to anxiety, indignation, querulousness ; he chafes 
 against fortune and rails against the rich. Unlike 
 Homer, he cannot be 
 
 " A wise good man, contented to be poor." 
 
 Again, a subtle examination of the treatment of
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 35 
 
 Nature in the Iliad and Odyssey leads Keble to think 
 that the Iliad was written before, and the Odyssey after, 
 the blindness of Homer. The Iliad is full of similes 
 which are drawn from the passing phases of Nature, the 
 gambols of animals, the changes in the sky, the quick 
 movements of men, and are such as give evidence of 
 a keen sight. The Odyssey has few such, but more 
 complete descriptions of places, cities, harbours and 
 rivers, such as a poet could recall and dwell upon in 
 memory. If this is true, how much more striking still 
 becomes the uniform spirit of bravery in the face of 
 fortune, of happy contentment with the ways of heaven ; 
 it lifts him to a level above Milton, the other great 
 blind poet, who even in that poem of endurance and 
 chastened religious spirit, the sonnet on his blindness, 
 wants the full charm of Homeric content, and shows 
 that in political life he would not side with Homer but 
 rather with the restless popular cause. 
 
 The examination of Homer is followed by an inter- 
 esting discussion, in which it is hard not to believe that 
 Keble is referring to his own poetical history. The 
 question is raised whether a great example in literature 
 is likely to deter or to stimulate other poets. On the 
 one side it is urged that young poets might think that 
 all was done that could be done in poetry; and that 
 the more sensitive a poet was, the more would he be 
 discouraged from placing his poetry into competition 
 with his great predecessor. On the other side, and it 
 is this with which Keble sympathizes, contact with a 
 true poet kindles and inspires the timid ; the strong 
 and sanguine are stirred by emulation ; and the inex- 
 perienced are at least helped in the form of expression. 
 No doubt thus a danger arises of the growth of a school
 
 36 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of servile imitators. Servile imitation, however, only 
 affects the/orm, and the danger of it can be avoided by 
 writing in a different kind of poetry. The conclusion 
 is that a great example stimulates far more than it 
 depresses. This was the case with Homer's example : 
 for nearly all the poets of early Greece bear traces 
 of his influence, and yet they have their own over- 
 mastering impulse, growing naturally out of and meeting 
 the needs of their own days. The Minor Poets, Alcseus, 
 Sappho, Archilochus, Simonides, short as their extant 
 fragments are, were all clearly primary poets, each of 
 them striking out new metres to express their feelings. 
 Such conspicuously was the 1 case with ^Eschylus, who 
 receives a fuller treatment than any poet. The whole 
 of the lectures about him are marked by loving and 
 keen insight ; the treatment of the restrict, is excellent 
 and will repay dwelling on at some length. 
 
 The dominant feelings in ^Eschylus are twofold : (1) 
 a hearty love of fighting, whether by land or sea; (2) 
 the sense of the mystery which hangs over human life, 
 passing into a belief in an overruling Providence. No 
 doubt the Prometheus Vinctus gives a contradictory 
 impression ; Zeus seems there to be treated as an arbi- 
 trary tyrant, angry at benefits conferred on mankind ; 
 but this is only one play of an incomplete trilogy, and 
 even in this there is a glimpse of a future deliverance 
 for Prometheus, the friend of mankind. It is in the 
 Orestcia that the religious tone and teaching of ^schylus 
 find full expression; it might be even regarded as a 
 palinode for the Prometheus. It is a great vindication 
 of the ways of God to man, for the fortunes of the family 
 of Pelops are not the real centre on which the interest 
 turns, but rather the triumph of Zeus. Zeus appears as
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 37 
 
 a righteous God, sternly inflicting punishment for sin ; 
 but he is also a kindly God, who teaches mankind 
 by their sufferings. Throughout the Agamemnon there 
 runs a sense of awed expectation at the coming 
 judgment. The half-comic rustic homely wit of the 
 warder at the opening of the play is like the calm 
 before a storm. Like the humour of Shakspere, it 
 heightens the contrast with the tragedy to come ; it is 
 so true to life, with its grotesque touches in the midst 
 of sorrow. The sense of doom is intensified in the 
 Chorus by the omens, given by birds and animals, 
 which so often seem to share the secrets of heaven : the 
 destruction of Troy was the act of Zeus taking venge- 
 ance for violated hospitality; there are hints of other 
 doom yet ia store for Agamemnon, and even in the 
 beautiful picture of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the 
 interest is centred on Agamemnon as he shelters the 
 weakness of his will under the plea that the sacrifice is 
 an act of necessity. Clyternnestra tempts him to his 
 fate, by forcing him by her taunts to walk on the purple 
 tapestries; her words are full of double meaning; yet 
 in her pretence of love, in her defence of the murder, in 
 her appeal to the genius of the house, in her sacrifices 
 to the Gods, she seems to bear witness to the stings of 
 conscience, to the power of an innate fear of God. 
 Cassandra appears as the type of pvophecy, the witness 
 for a present God though pointing to a future event. 
 In the presence of the hypocrisy of Clytemnestra she 
 is silent. When that is withdrawn, she bursts forth 
 into inarticulate cries ; as she finds sympathy in the 
 Chorus, her prophecies become clearer and clearer. 
 She is the most touching of all prophets on the Greek 
 stage ; tender-hearted, full of pity for the sorrows of
 
 38 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 men, ever mindful of parents and of country and of the 
 love of Phoebus, she pours forth her prophecy, unfeed, 
 unforced, not summoned from afar as an outsider, but 
 herself sharing in the events. Her inspiration comes 
 from no omens or auguries, but direct from the God 
 himself; she is a standing witness that they who in- 
 crease knowledge increase sorrow for themselves ; that 
 the sharer of the secrets of heaven shares them to her 
 own ruin; she has well-nigh the dignity of a martyr 
 for the truth. Thus, thougli unrighteousness triumphs 
 for the time, through the clouds and darkness is seen a 
 hope of retribution : over all is felt a sense that no 
 chance or fatalism is guiding events, but a wise and 
 kindly providence. 
 
 In the Choeplwrce this is more marked still. Instead 
 of brooding expectation there is only serene confidence 
 in the justice of God. The whole play is like a great 
 liturgy ; it opens with prayer ; the action is carried on 
 before the father's tomb ; the death of Clytemnestra is 
 raised above all suspicion of personal vindictiveness 
 into an act of righteous vengeance ; prayers recur again 
 and again ; the Chorus recalls past instances of Divine 
 Justice ; Orestes is like a priest offering the victims 
 upon the altar ; over all stands supreme the command 
 of heaven, and the sense of the presence of the 
 murdered dead. The terrible character of the act is 
 softened in the case of Orestes by the fact that he is 
 acting against his natural instincts at the bidding of 
 duty ; in the case of Electra by her gentleness for her 
 mother and fondness for Orestes. The plot, however, 
 grows more complicated. The murderess is punished, 
 but a fresh deed of murder has been committed, and 
 once more the murderer is punished.
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 39 
 
 What is to be the solution ? This is given in the 
 JHumenides. There we see the reconciliation of mercy 
 with strict justice, effected by an appeal to Zeus. 
 Orestes is pursued to the very shrine of Apollo ; so 
 near is he to destruction. The Eumenides represent 
 the common idea of strict justice insisting on punish- 
 ment : Apollo represents forgiving mercy ; Orestes 
 says little, he is confident in his cause, but humbly 
 and reverently leaves it to Apollo. The final appeal is 
 to the decision of Zeus, given to please Attic pride 
 through the Areiopagus. Mercy triumphs, but the 
 representatives of Justice are only just outvoted, and 
 are ultimately reconciled and welcomed to dwell among 
 men ; lest any should think himself pious and good 
 without godly and reverent fear. 
 
 This trilogy is described in much greater detail than 
 any other poem, and we have lingered over it as a piece 
 of true criticism, which is of permanent value for the 
 real appreciation of the plays. Probably no such 
 sympathetic reading of the character of Cassandra is to 
 be found elsewhere. 
 
 The other Greek tragedians are treated slightly. 
 But scant justice is done to Sophocles. His strongest 
 claim to be regarded as a primary poet is based upon 
 his love of home and the places associated with early 
 life ; but this is not expressed often enough to put a 
 permanent stamp upon his poetry. There is, apart 
 from this, no one dominant feeling ; he does not draw 
 direct from Nature ; his wonderful descriptions of pain 
 are rather those of the bystander than of the sufferer ; 
 the comic element of life is absent ; his minor charac- 
 ters are featureless : whole situations recur in different 
 plays ; he is too even-tempered (evKoXos) to sympathize
 
 40 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 with strong feeling. His very excellences, the finished 
 style, the over-elaborate plots, the scenic effects, make 
 against his claim ; so he is ranked among the secondary 
 poets, though first among them. 
 
 About Euripides, on the other hand, Keble's opinion 
 had changed with the deeper study required for these 
 lectures. He ranks him now as a primary poet. His 
 faults are, no doubt, obvious the rhetorical and frigid 
 sententiousness ; the too frequent political allusions ; the 
 separation of his choral songs from the subject of the 
 plot; yet he has a dominant passion in the love of 
 human life in its domestic and simple forms. As 
 Socrates brought philosophy into daily life, so Euripides 
 brought poetry ; slaves are ' treated with dignity ; the 
 feelings of his heroines are common to women of all 
 classes ; he is no misogynist at heart, as the portraits 
 of Antigone and Polyxena show ; he has no unbelieving 
 hatred of the Gods, for nowhere are to be found more 
 religious portraits than those of Hippolytus the chaste, 
 of Ion, the dedicated servant of the Delphic temple, of 
 the Bacchae, the stewards of divine mysteries. 
 
 Pindar meets with an even fuller and more enthusi- 
 astic treatment. He is undoubtedly a primary poet, 
 for through all his elaborate metres, through his many 
 digressions, through the variety of his themes, there is 
 seen a genuine love for the old heroic age and for the 
 great national games of Greece. This may seem a 
 trivial point ; but as Scott's poetry had sprung from 
 his love of hunting and of country life, so to a Greek 
 the national games were a training-field for warfare, a 
 rallying-centre for all his fellow-countrymen ; they were 
 that which in Pindar's days most nearly reproduced the 
 heroic age. So he lavishes his praise on everything
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 41 
 
 connected with them, the prizes, the banquets, the 
 processions, the beauty of the victors, the liberality and 
 virtues of the kings. He is a thorough aristocrat, but 
 his own belief in an after-world, and the sanctity then 
 allowed to poets, make him bold to rebuke and to advise 
 both aristocrats and tyrants ; he combines the courage 
 and self-confidence of youth with the cheerfulness of 
 old age : he is true to his childish thought throughout 
 his life ; fond of children, fond of flowers, fond of his 
 country and its scenery. He is like the lark, that 
 lyric bird with its free, joyous, unceasing song ; which 
 starts from some simple nest in the barest field, and 
 soars up with joy and song into the highest heavens, 
 with no care to be uniform, but changing its note with 
 each new thought in wondrous harmony. 
 
 Pastoral poetry is discussed next, the poetry of the 
 quieter spirits. This has always developed later than 
 the poetry of action ; there was none in Greece proper 
 in spite of the Greek love of Nature ; it began in Sicily 
 and was developed at Rome : and this is partly because 
 Nature is the natural solace of those who are wearied, 
 wearied either with the life of action, like Virgil, or with 
 the life of thought, like Lucretius. Theocritus is the 
 real inventor of such poetry, and he is inspired by a 
 genuine love of the country ; but yet he is not to be 
 ranked as more than a secondary poet. The love of 
 the country disappears in his later poems ; it was not a 
 lifelong, overmastering feeling; his style is diffuse and 
 luxuriant; he is coarse and wants reserve. On the 
 other hand, Lucretius and Virgil are both primary poets. 
 The dominant feeling in Lucretius is his sense of the 
 sadness of human life and the infinite mystery of 
 Nature. He is always in earnest about his theme ; he
 
 42 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 dwells mainly on the infinity of the universe, the 
 swiftness of its movements, the strength of its hidden 
 forces, the brightness of the heaven, the quick changes 
 of the clouds, the density of the forests. It is true that 
 he denies the existence of the Gods ; yet we may pardon 
 one who lived before the fuller revelation had come, 
 and whose mind was touched with madness; and his 
 very love of the infinite is a witness to a striving after 
 God. " It may even happen that while the main theme of 
 a poem is the open denial of the existence of the Gods, 
 yet its tenor and tone is on the side of believers." 1 So 
 it was with Lucretius ; this love of the infinite, his 
 unwilling acknowledgment of a Providence that guides 
 the world ; his sense of the evils of human life, of the 
 emptiness of earthly pleasure ; his praise of quiet 
 thought and philosophy; his reverence for the dead; 
 the very roughness of his style, preferring truth to 
 eloquence, and oppressed by the inadequacy of his native 
 language to express the truth, are signs alike of a poetic 
 and religious spirit. 
 
 Virgil again is a primary poet but not as the poet of 
 action, not as the writer of the JEneid. His heart is not 
 in the battle fray ; he neither loves nor makes us love 
 his hero ; neither /Eneas nor the lesser heroes are real, 
 living characters ; war is " terrible war," breaking up 
 the operations of peace. Whereas in Homer Nature 
 is always subordinate to the action, in Virgil, as in a 
 painting of Claude Lorraine's, action is subordinate to 
 the natural beauty. The jflneid was written only to 
 please Augustus; if there were any feeling of his own 
 in it, it was the feeling of gratitude to Augustus for 
 having secured him the enjoyment of the country life he 
 
 1 Prod. Acad., p. 685.
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 43 
 
 loved. There all his heart is ; he loves the country-folk; 
 he reproduces their quaint phrases and their homely 
 proverbs ; he loves their flocks and their bees, like 
 the true peasant, who treats them not as mere means of 
 gain, but as friends and companions, and is alive to all 
 their wants, anxieties, and comforts. The very vines 
 are half personified ; their training is like the education 
 of the young; and the country itself appeals to him 
 as strongly, though quite differently, as it did to 
 Lucretius. Lucretius dwells on its infinite mysteries; 
 Virgil on its tranquil beauty : Lucretius scarcely ever 
 mentions any particular place, unless it is necessary for 
 his argument ; Virgil is constantly introducing local 
 allusions, whether to places known in his childhood, or 
 visited in travel, or consecrated by some religious 
 association : Lucretius never mentions his childhood at 
 all ; ' Virgil dwells affectionately on his : Lucretius 
 emphasizes the evils of life ; Virgil faces them as an 
 optimist, and sees in them a stimulus for action and a 
 ground of hope. His admiration for Lucretius did not 
 make him an Epicurean ; rather his belief in the 
 universal spirit, infused into all life and guiding all 
 history, his frequent mention of Gods, Nymphs, and 
 Manes ; his faith in omens ; his sense of the sympathy 
 of Nature with man ; his reverence in speaking of the 
 dead mark him as a Platonist. Thus he the last 
 primary poet among the Latins (for Horace with all his 
 charm has no one overmastering impulse) in many 
 ways prepared the way for Christian Truth, and 
 becoming the text-book of education and the inspirer 
 of Dante, has remained an influence to the present 
 day. 
 
 The examination of the classical poets ends with
 
 44 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Virgil, in the lectures on Poetry. In the course of them 
 there are several interesting illustrations from English 
 poetry, and some of these are more fully worked out 
 in the Reviews. Thus Shakspere "gave play to the 
 real sympathy which he seems to have felt towards all 
 natural and common affections, in a degree hardly 
 conceivable by ordinary men." * Spenser is ranked 
 higher than Milton as a sacred poet, because of the 
 reserve which led him to throw his poem in the form 
 of an allegory, and by that means and by his allusive 
 style to veil the depth of his thought in the Faerie 
 Queen, which is " a continual, deliberate endeavour to 
 enlist the restless intellect and chivalrous feeling of an 
 enquiring and romantic age on the side of goodness and 
 faith, of purity and justice." 2 Milton was of a cast of 
 mind originally austere and rigorous. He made a noble 
 effort to rescue religion from the Puritan's degradation 
 of it, by choosing a theme of universal and eternal 
 importance; but he was too out-spoken, too much 
 marred by intellectual and spiritual pride ; hence his 
 undervaluing of woman's character, his half-attractive 
 portraiture of Satan, his want of purity and spirituality 
 in his conception of heaven, are serious blemishes, 
 though they do not affect his claim to be considered 
 " the very lodestar and pattern of that class of sacred 
 poets in England." 3 The inspiration of Scott is drawn 
 from the passionate love of Scotch chivalry Avhich was 
 associated with the scenes of his childhood. His lame- 
 ness, his profession, his domestic sorrows prevented any 
 active indulgence of such love, and threw back his 
 feelings upon themselves, until at last they found 
 
 1 Life of Sir W. Scott, p. 23. 2 Sacred Poetry, p. 98. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 102104.
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 45 
 
 expression in his poetry. " His theme is ' a romantic 
 idealization of Scottish aristocracy ' ; but his romance 
 is not like Homer's, who rejoiced in describing the 
 present, and investing it with a supernatural light ; it 
 is not like Tasso's, told with solemnity and reverence, 
 as though in fulfilment of a religious vow; nor like 
 Spenser's, the form and garb in which the visions of an 
 ideal world and longings for supernatural perfection are 
 clothed. It is more like that of Pindar, starting from 
 the present and working back into past ages ; yet the 
 association with his childhood marks him off from all 
 these poets, and gives his poetry a colouring of sim- 
 plicity short only of that which would have resulted 
 from actual truth." 1 
 
 The theory of poetry here advanced rests mainly 
 upon the Poetics of Aristotle. " Expression by metrical 
 words " is Keble's translation of /ju'jwjo-i? ; the refusal to 
 test poetry merely by its form is common to both. The 
 distinction of primary and secondary poets corresponds 
 in some measure to that of the enthusiastic and versatile 
 temperaments to which Aristotle traces poetry ; the 
 medical effect of poetiy is akin to the "purgation" 
 which Aristotle attributes to tragedy. But Aristotle 
 writes as a critic, and is thinking of the effect upon the 
 readers ; Keble, as a poet, dwells primarily on the effect 
 upon the poet, and secondarily on that upon the readers. 
 He is independent too of his master, and ventures to 
 criticize him on several points, such as the importance 
 which he assigns to the action in a tragedy. He draws 
 from a much wider store of knowledge than Aristotle, 
 and takes as his final guide the poems of the Old 
 Testament, " that sacred volume which corrects so 
 1 Life of Sir W. Scolt, p. 50.
 
 46 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 many of our erring anticipations." l " From their perfect 
 parallelism they are the most artificial of all composi- 
 tions, yet none ever so apt to relieve the deepest and 
 most overflowing minds ; exhibiting therefore by their 
 very form, as compared with their matter, the perfection 
 of that self-control which must itself be the perfection 
 of a mixed creature like man ; thoughts that breathe 
 and words that burn, exactly obeying a certain high 
 law and shaped by ifc into perfect order." ' 
 
 To some such a theory may seem too much to deny 
 the value of spontaneity, too much dominated by a 
 religious mood, too relative to a dogmatic standard. 
 But it must be remembered that Keble does not profess 
 to explain every function or source of poetry ; he is only 
 seeking for a standard that shall guide us to the lest 
 poets ; he does admit of a different standard in judging 
 heathen writers ; and he believes that the truest spon- 
 taneity is that which is controlled by the sense of 
 dependence on a higher Power. " The worshippers of 
 Baal may be rude and frantic in their cries and gestures, 
 but the true prophet speaking to or of the true God is 
 all dignity and calmness." 3 The canon for which he 
 contends is this, that the best poets are those who have 
 felt throughout their life the deepest feelings about 
 Nature, about man, and about God which were possible 
 at their time. 
 
 Such a theory at least adds the highest dignity 
 to the function of the poet. Keble approaches the 
 subject with something of religious awe. Although in 
 his review of Copleston's lectures he had condemned 
 the practice of lecturing in Latin, he defends and even 
 
 1 Sacred Poetry, p. 95. 2 Life of Sir W. Scott, p. 18. 
 
 3 Sacred Poetry, p. 91.
 
 THE PKOFESSOK OF POETRY. 47 
 
 welcomes it for himself, as it enforces deeper thought 
 and makes the lecturer consider what is true, not what 
 is taking or eloquent. His task is " most serious, well- 
 nigh sacred." Poetry is treated by him as akin to 
 philosophy ; they both seek truth, though philosophy 
 begins with Nature as apparently the more abstruse 
 theme, and comes back to human life when the 
 problems of existence become more difficult; poetry 
 begins with human life, and takes refuge from its 
 perplexities in Nature. More closely still is poetry akin 
 to religion. Providence has watched over it, ordering 
 even the developments of its various styles. As among 
 the Jews the poetic writings of the prophets prepared 
 the. way for the Messiah, so among the Gentiles the 
 best literature, whether philosophical or poetical, 
 played the same part. Hence it is that Christians can 
 still read the Pagan poets with a religious interest ; 
 they can afford to judge such a poet as Lucretius more 
 tolerantly than Cicero could, as they view him re- 
 latively to his times. But he fancies he hears the 
 Puritan objection that the study of such Pagan 
 literature is unnecessary now that we have a fuller 
 Revelation. No, he answers, far from it. It is true 
 that in the early Christian Church some writers de- 
 nounced Pagan literature, but even they used it, and 
 were only anxious that it should not stand as a rival to the 
 absolute Truth. It is true, too, that the early Christian 
 Church had few poets of its own ; but they had as 
 solace for their overburdened feelings the Hebrew 
 poetry, the grandeur of the early Liturgies, and the 
 whole Sacramental system. 1 We who have so little 
 hold on this may well be thankful to God for the poets 
 1 Prcd. Acad., xxxi.
 
 48 . JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 who soothe our feelings and stir our aspirations. Even 
 if Pagan poets seem unnecessary, yet Nature is ever 
 liberal of its gifts; it showers them on man with no 
 utilitarian hand ; and poetry, such as that of Virgil or 
 Lucretius, is one of its greatest gifts, with its constant 
 witness that neither action nor thought are adequate to 
 satisfy the human spirit. When Christian poets did 
 arise, they prepared the way for improvements in 
 Religion, just as Shakspere and Spenser led the way 
 to the Caroline revival, or Scott revived the interest in 
 the past in our own times. For in essence Poetry and 
 Religion are at one, and they demand one and the 
 same temper of mind. Each is an attempt to express 
 man's strongest feelings and to lay hold of the highest 
 truths. Poetry lends its wealth of symbol and simile 
 to the service of Religion, and Religion returns them 
 glorified. Poetry takes to itself " all subjects which 
 can anyhow take entire hold of the imagination and 
 cause it to seek relief by indirect expression." 1 "The 
 poet of the Church will find neither feeling nor 
 condition in human life or in the works of God beyond 
 his reach or without his province." 2 Yet Poetry, like 
 Religion, hides its deepest truths and reveals them only 
 to the pure in heart, to those who love them enough to 
 press into their secrets. Thus Poetry rises almost to 
 the dignity of a Sacrament, with its. outward visible 
 words and inward spiritual truth. As the poet himself 
 needs, no less than the religious man, to choose his 
 object of love worthily, to praise it sincerely, to commit 
 himself heartily to it, to be courageously and con- 
 sistently loyal to it, so the reader has to approach 
 the poem as a worshipper would a Sacrament, with 
 1 Life of ,Str W. Scott, p. 15. 2 Ibid., p. 79.
 
 THE PROFESSOR OF POETRY. 49 
 
 reverence and a determination to press inward to its 
 heart. "A good deal is to be gained from the mere 
 habit of looking at things with a view to something 
 beyond their qualities merely sensible ; to their sacred 
 and moral meaning and to the high associations they 
 were intended to create in us. Neither the works nor 
 the word of God, neither poetry nor theology, can be 
 duly comprehended without constant mental exercise 
 of this kind. Without something of this sort, poetry 
 and all the other arts would be relaxing to the tone of 
 the mind." l The instrument which the poet uses is 
 the imagination ; all poetic pleasure is referred to the 
 awakening of some moral or religious feeling, not by 
 direct instruction but by way of association ; hence 
 there must be some elasticity in the reader's mind, else 
 it will not vibrate to the touch of the artist. " Wherever, 
 from the beauty of the thing imitated or from the 
 skill of the imitator, the mind is excited to fill up the 
 picture for itself, there is poetical pleasure, not however 
 produced by the perception of likeness, but by the 
 workings of the imagination." 2 
 
 This outline fails to do justice to a volume which 
 Dean Church has called "the most original and 
 memorable course ever delivered from the Chair of 
 Poetry in Oxford ; " 3 and Bishop Moberley, in even 
 stronger praise, " One of the most charming and valuable 
 volumes of classical criticism that ever issued from the 
 press." 4 But it may serve to draw the attention of a 
 later generation to it and may suggest the advisability 
 of an English translation. 
 
 1 Sacred Poetry, p. 100. * Review of Copleston, p. 156. 
 
 3 The Oxford Movement, p. 273. 
 
 4 Preface to J. K.'s Miscellaneous Poems, p. xxi. 
 
 E
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN TEAR. 
 " Thy book I love because thyself art there." I. WILLIAMS. 
 
 EVER since his undergraduate days poetic expression 
 had been a relief to Keble in his deepest moods, and 
 at least as early as 1819 he had begun the poems 
 which now appear in the Christian Year, and by 1820 
 had formed the idea of a complete collection to illus- 
 trate the Sundays and Holy Days of the year. The 
 conception was probably original with him, although of 
 course it is in a line with much of Christian Poetry. 
 The Peristephanon and Cathemerinon of Prudentius 
 are exactly parallel, not being hymns for public worship, 
 but poetic meditations on the Martyrs' festivals and the 
 daily hours. There is, too, something akin to it in 
 English poetry in The Hymns and Songs of the Church 
 by G. Wither (1623), and an even closer analogy is to 
 be found in Eaton's Holy Calendar of 1661. 1 This is 
 a small and interesting volume, consisting of a treble 
 series of epigrams written to illustrate all the chief 
 
 1 The Holy Calendar, by N. Eaton, Doctor of Philosophy and 
 Medicine, and Vicar of Bishop's Castle, Salop, 1661 ; reprinted 
 by J. Tasker, Shrewsbury, 1888.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 51 
 
 festivals and saints' days of the Church of England. It 
 is written by a strong Cavalier and Churchman. As 
 is natural at such a moment, the epigrams are fulsome 
 in their adulation of the King, and quaint and fanciful 
 in conceit ; yet there is much of real beauty and true 
 feeling in them, and they are a striking witness to the 
 continuity of the doctrine of the Church of England ; 
 there is as strong a reverence for the saints and 
 especially for the Blessed Virgin, as clear a statement 
 of the doctrine of the Real Presence of the Lord in 
 His Sacrament, as would be found in any Tractarian 
 writings. It will therefore be excused if I quote two 
 specimens of this book. The first is a good instance of 
 the writer's simple sweetness of thought. 
 
 NEW YEAR'S DAY. (Epigr. 1.) 
 
 " 'Tis custome, Lord, this day to send 
 A gift to every vulgar freind, 
 And shall I find no gift for Thee, 
 That art the best of freinds to me 1 
 There's nothing which my thoughts survey, 
 My life, my soul, the light, the cUiy ; 
 But they are all Thy gifts to me, 
 And shall I find no gift for Thee ? 
 Yea, Lord, behold I hear conferr 
 My life, my soul, and whatsome're 
 Thy liberal hand hath given to me, 
 Back as a new-year's gift on Thee. 
 Say'd I a gift 1 Ah ! 'tis not so, 
 Alas both men and Angels know 
 That all these things Thy Christ hath bought, 
 And therefore I can give Thee naught." 
 
 The second will serve to illustrate the writer's 
 interpretation of the doctrine of the Church of 
 England 
 
 ASCENSION DAY. (Epigr. 2.) 
 
 " Look in what sense the Son of Man was said 
 To be in Heaven whilst yet on carlh He stayd.
 
 52 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 In the same sense we grant His body, though 
 
 In Heaven, may still be say'd to be below. 
 
 He is ascended all agree, that same 
 
 Material flesh and blood of His that came 
 
 From the pure Virgin's Womb, Heavens now retain, 
 
 And until all things be restor'd again, 
 
 Must still retain it ; yet it is confest, 
 
 That when the holy Elements are blest 
 
 By the Priest's powerful lip?, though nothing there 
 
 To outward sense but Bread and Wine appear, 
 
 Yet doth there under those dark formes reside 
 
 The body of the Son of Man that dy'd : 
 
 This, what bold tongue soever doth deny, 
 
 Gives in effect even Christ Himself the ly. 
 
 Yet this whoe're too grossly doth maintain, 
 
 Pulls his ascended Lord from Heaven again. 
 
 A middle course 'twixt these two rocks to steer, 
 
 Is that becomes the Christian Mariner. 
 
 So to beleeve the Ascension as to grant 
 
 His Real Presence in the Sacrament ; 
 
 Yet so His Real Presence there to own 
 
 As not to make void His Ascension." 
 
 There is no evidence that Keble knew this work, 
 although his article on Sacred Poetry shows a wide 
 acquaintance with previous religious poets. His 
 favourite poets were Shakspere ; J Spenser, whose alle- 
 gorical form seemed to him to suit the true reserve which 
 a poet ought to feel; George Herbert, with his deep 
 penitence and chastened love for his Master; Words- 
 worth, with his religious sympathy with Nature ; Scott, 
 with his enthusiasm for the days of chivalry and 
 loyalty; and, though in a less and lessening degree, 
 Southey. Yet his poems cannot be said to bear the 
 trace of any direct influence upon their form. The 
 interesting discussion in the Prcclcdioncs on the 
 influence of Homer perhaps suggests that the writer 
 himself was conscious of having been kindled by some 
 
 1 Fronde (Remains, i., p. 209), in a letter to J. K., speaks of 
 " Your favourite play, Measure for Measure"
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 53 
 
 one great poet ; if so, was it Homer ? Certainly the 
 language of Homer has inspired some of the best 
 poems of the Christian Year. 1 Or was it Scott, to 
 whom he goes back so frequently in the Prcelectioncs, 
 and of whom he speaks so lovingly in his review of 
 Lockhart's life ? Certainly either Homer with his 
 idealization of the heroic age, or Scott with that of 
 the age of chivalry, would kindle his own love of the 
 recollections of childhood or the glories of the early 
 Church, though the very sense of such dependence 
 would keep him on his guard against direct imitation 
 of their form. In the earlier poems, indeed, Southey's 
 influence of form and thought is perceptible, and in a 
 less degree that of Scott and Wordsworth, but he had 
 shaken himself free and has a style that is independ- 
 ent and entirely his own in the Christian Year. It is 
 marred from time to time by want of smoothness of 
 metre, by obscurity in the connection of the thought 
 between verse and verse, but on the whole it is spon- 
 taneous, melodious, and clear. 
 
 It was while he was Tutor at Oriel that the collection 
 of poems began to grow, but it was the time of his 
 curacies in Gloucestershire and Hampshire which was 
 most prolific. This was a period when his feelings 
 were deeply stirred, both by his mother's death in 
 1823, and by that of his favourite sister in 1826. In 
 1825 a long attachment on which he had set his heart 
 ended in a refusal, and some of the sweetest efforts 
 after resignation in the poems date from this year; and 
 it was, too, a period which supplied him with the tran- 
 quillity which transfuses emotion into poetry. He had 
 
 1 Cf. The Holy Innocents; Sixth Sunday after Epiphany; 
 Monday before Easter.
 
 54 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 no idea of publication; he would have preferred that 
 the poems should appear after his death, but they were 
 shown among his friends. Arnold wrote as early as 
 1823, "It is my firm opinion that nothing equal to 
 them exists in our language ; the wonderful knowledge 
 of Scripture, the purity of heart, and the richness of 
 poetry, which they exhibit, I never saw paralleled." 
 Froude was more critical, thinking that they were 
 addressed too much to matter-of-fact good people, and 
 that they did not do enough to sober down into practical 
 piety those whose feelings were acute, and who were 
 inclined to indulge in a dreamy, visionary existence. 
 He was afraid that people would take the writer of 
 them for a Methodist. 1 Dyson pressed him to publish ; 
 Davison suggested that he should add the poems for 
 the Occasional Services; his own father was anxious 
 to see the work published before his death, and this 
 was a pressure which he could never resist. Accordingly 
 many poems were retouched to meet the criticism of 
 obscurity, the last poems were written in the spring 
 of 1827, and on May 30th the Preface was composed. 
 The draft of this, which is preserved in the Library of 
 Keble College, is written, like so many of his poems, on 
 the back of an old letter, and consists of two paragraphs. 
 In the first copy the paragraph which now stands 
 second came first, but on writing it out he seems to have 
 thought it better to state first the true spirit of the 
 Church of England, and then the way in which this 
 book attempted to conform to it. The whole object of it 
 was to promote a sober standard of feeling in matters of 
 practical religion and to illustrate the soothing tendency 
 of the Prayer-book. It may be interesting to notice 
 1 Remains, i., p. 184.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN TEAE. 55 
 
 two changes which were made at the last moment. In 
 the MS. of the Morning Hymn there is found after the 
 fourth stanza a fifth which has not been published 
 
 " Hence the poor sinner still has found 
 Life but one dull unvarying round ; 
 And mourned ere half his course was run, 
 That nought is new beneath the sun." 
 
 This appears in the proof of the first edition, but it 
 must have been struck out at the last moment, perhaps 
 from a feeling that the sad side of life had already been 
 sufficiently dwelt on in a morning hymn which was to 
 open the volume. Again, in the poem for Christmas 
 Day, after stanza v. was inserted 
 
 " The heart imbued with earth 
 
 Is but a place of guests, 
 Where foul-winged thoughts of lowly birth 
 
 Successive make their nests ; 
 Each in his twilight gloom with cheerless moan, 
 Fluttering a little while, and then for ever gone." 
 
 It will be seen that this gives fresh point to the 
 contrast in stanza vi. of the pure thoughts which dwell 
 where Christ is ; but again the writer has not cared to 
 emphasize the dark side of the picture. 
 
 The volume was a success at once : Newman writes 
 on June 10th, " Keble's hymns seem quite exquisite." 
 His sister says, " The commendation of them from all 
 the choicest people is so great as to satisfy even our 
 voracious appetite for praise." A second edition was 
 called for within the year, and edition has succeeded 
 edition with almost unparalleled quickness ever since. 
 
 Nowhere in the Preface is there any reference to 
 himself, and the book (in two volumes of small 8vo.) 
 was published anonymously ; nor did he add his name 
 in subsequent editions. In the third edition ia 1828
 
 56 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 the last six poems were added, including the poem on 
 November 5th, which was entitled, An Address to 
 Converts from Popery. Beyond this no further altera- 
 tions were made, save that on his deathbed he sanctioned 
 the change in the thirteenth stanza of this poem. This 
 had run 
 
 " come to our Communion Feast ! 
 
 There, present in the heart, 
 Not in the hands, the eternal Priest 
 Will his true self impart." 
 
 Probably he would not himself have written this line 
 in later life, for he stated in 1845 that when he wrote 
 the Christian Year he did not fully understand the 
 doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, but he frequently 
 refused to alter it. Froude had criticized it as early 
 as 1835 (Remains, i. p. 403) ; Dr. Pusey had discussed 
 it with him in 1855, and he had then half playfully 
 said, " I suppose that the real correction would be to 
 put 'As' instead of 'Not';" but it seemed to him 
 valuable as a protection against a notion of a gross 
 carnal Presence (Euch. Ador. Pref. p. xiii, note, 1859) ; 
 and he argued that on the analogy of such passages 
 as " I will have mercy and not sacrifice," it might 
 be legitimately interpreted as meaning "not in the 
 hands only." 1 ' But on February 9th, 1866, Bishop 
 Jeune had quoted the lines in Convocation as express- 
 ing Mr. Keble's opinion against a real objective Pre- 
 sence ; and this weighed upon his mind so much that 
 he decided to make the alteration which he had pre- 
 viously suggested, and it was carried out after his death 
 by his executor. 
 
 1 In one copy of the Original Poems he has written " There, 
 treasured in the heart." It seems a pity that this was not 
 preserved.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 57 
 
 He never liked to speak of the volume or hear it 
 spoken of. Why was it that he shrunk from this ? The 
 answer shall be given in the words of an old parish- 
 ioner of Hursley, whose husband had been in Keble's 
 service, and who said twenty-four years after his death, 
 while her honest face glowed with pleasure as she spoke 
 of him "Father and I do read the Christian Year 
 every Sunday, and it do tiring Mm out to us more than 
 we knew even when he was alive." It laid bare all his 
 deepest feelings of love and penitence ; it had been 
 written purely for his own relief, and it seemed to be 
 wanting in due reserve to publish it. He had fre- 
 quently treated poetry as well-nigh sacramental, as the 
 outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual 
 truth ; and this seemed almost like exposing a Sacra- 
 ment to be gazed at. There was too the humbler feeling 
 that he had such a slight hold upon that inward and 
 spiritual truth ; that he might have misrepresented it ; 
 that as far as he had truly represented it, it had only 
 flashed from time to time upon his sight, and that if 
 people could only come and gaze into his heart, they 
 might find it so very different from the ideal which he 
 had tried to portray. This will appear even more clearly 
 if we judge him by his own test. He has said that 
 every true poet has some one permanent overmastering 
 emotion which breaks out again and again and clamours 
 for utterance. Would it not be true to say that with 
 him it was " the love of innocence " ? There is deep 
 down in his heart the belief that man can answer to 
 the love of God ; that sin is an outside element which 
 need not be with us ; that innocence is possible ; that if 
 it has been forfeited, still the grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ can restore it. It is the passion for purity
 
 58 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 which made him so very gentle to children ; it is this 
 which inspired the Lyra Innocentium ; it is " the 
 innocent brightness of an infant's face " l which drew him 
 to them, which made him bend over the children whom 
 he baptized with such loving tenderness as they recalled 
 the sense of what he might have been, and what Christ 
 yet might make him ; it was " the bliss of childlike 
 innocence" that seemed to him to give such insight 
 to the old age of a true Christian ; it was this which 
 made him love the fifty-first Psalm so much, because 
 it told of that free spirit blest 
 
 " Who to the contrite can dispense 
 The princely heart of innocence." 2 
 
 It was this which turned his thoughts so often to 
 the type of purity, the Virgin Mother "so pure and 
 sweet," and prompted that which seems to have been 
 the earliest poem of the volume, 
 
 " Bless'd are the pure in heart, 
 
 For they shall see our God ; 
 The secret of the Lord is theirs, 
 Their soul is Christ's abode." 
 
 But this was not simply a personal individual feeling. 
 M. Renan has said of St. Paul that he felt for his 
 churches the same affection which ordinarily people 
 feel for the dearest objects of their love. That is true 
 of Keble's feeling for the Church of England : he is 
 jealous for her innocence, her good name, her purity, 
 her freedom. As he had chosen for his favourite poets 
 those whose overmastering emotion was for the glories 
 of the past, so his own enthusiasm was kindled by the 
 
 1 The Holy Innocents, stanza iv. 
 
 2 Sixth Sunday after Trinity.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 59 
 
 glories of the early Church, and the bright spots in her 
 subsequent history. In his own words, " the Christian 
 Year always supposes the Church to be in a state of 
 decay," and he cannot acquiesce in a Church so sluggish, 
 so worldly, so utilitarian, because of the purity of his 
 ideal. But he cannot despair : he recalls the student 
 Jerome " cheering his sickening heart with his own 
 native air," in the worst days of error ; the mailed 
 monarch St. Louis, through court and camp holding 
 his heavenward course serene ; the calm and sweet of 
 Isaac Walton's life amidst the age of light, light 
 without love ; l and all these memories are meant to 
 awaken the slumbering, to inspire fresh hope, to lead 
 the. Church to be true to its first eager life of purity 
 and truth. The whole volume is a dirge over the 
 lost glory of the Church; but it is much more than 
 that ; it is a trumpet-call to Christians to be true to the 
 life which is in them, even though they may have to 
 face the martyr's death. Christian brothers >must draw 
 closer together to bear witness to the value of each 
 soul and to knit firmly the bond of brotherhood. It 
 seemed to him that it was the true function of poetry 
 to rise above the marks of sin and woe and to recreate 
 the ideal before men, and he rouses poets to their 
 task in these stirring words 
 
 " Ye whose hearts are beating high 
 With the pulse of Poesy, 
 Heirs of more than royal race, 
 Fram'd by Heaven's peculiar grace, 
 God's own work to do on earth 
 (If the word be not too bold), 
 Giving virtue a new birth, . 
 
 And a lifc that ne'er grows old 
 
 1 First Sunday in Advent.
 
 (50 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Sovereign masters of all hearts ! 
 Know ye who hath set your parts ? 
 He who gave you breath to sing, 
 By -whose strength ye sweep the string ; 
 He hath chosen you, to lead 
 
 His Hosannas here below ; 
 Mount, and claim your glorious meed ; 
 
 Linger not with sin and woe." 
 
 It was the thought of this ideal which saddened him 
 so much that poets like Byron and Shelley " Lips that 
 might half heaven reveal " should linger over passion 
 and vice and be sealed in thankless silence towards 
 God. 
 
 Taking then this love of innocence as our keynote, 
 we will examine the Christian Year rather more in 
 detail. Some of its most beautiful poems are drawn 
 forth by the love of Nature : there is little wealth of 
 description ; the voices of the mountain and of the sea 
 are but little heard in it ; in the main he depicts the 
 quiet woodland scenery of the neighbourhood of 
 Fairford. In his own words about his poems 
 
 "their cherished haunt hath been 
 By streamlet, violet bank, and orchard green, 
 Mid lowly views and scenes of common earth." 
 
 The soft green willow that teaches him " content- 
 ment's power " grew on the road from Fairford to Coin 
 St. Aldvvyn. The spot where, near to each other, rise the 
 Thames and a small tributary of the Severn, suggested 
 the poem for the Monday in Easter week ; a small 
 island in the river Test that for the next day. 1 Or 
 again, he dwells on the features of the Holy Land 
 as known to him from travellers' descriptions; but in 
 both alike he touches with a delicate accuracy the 
 
 1 Miss Yonge, Musings on the Christian Year, pp. 47, 129, 131.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAE. 61 
 
 characteristic feature and makes it live before our eyes. 
 His poems have been compared to a woodland scene 
 by Gainsborough for their freshness, their absence of 
 exaggeration, their indescribable charm. Sometimes he 
 describes Nature for the sake of her own beauty ; he is 
 the poet of the fresh sunrise, of the rainbow pride of 
 summer days, but how characteristically more of the 
 sunset's beauty and the glory of decaying autumn. As 
 lie watches it, a life seems to pervade the universe ; 
 nay, it seems to throb to the stirrings of love. 
 
 " The clouds that wrap the setting sun 
 
 When autumn's softest gleams are ending, 
 
 Where all bright hues together run 
 In sweet confusion blending : 
 
 Why, as we watch their iloating wreath 
 
 Seem they the breath of life to breathe ? 
 
 To fancy's eye their motions prove 
 
 They mantle round the sun for love. 
 
 " When up some woodland dale we catch 
 The many- twinkling smile of Ocean, 
 
 Or with pleas'd ear bewildered watch 
 His chime of restless motion ; 
 
 Still as the surging waves retire 
 
 They seem to gasp with strong desire ; 
 
 Such signs of love old Ocean gives, 
 
 We cannot choose but think he lives." 
 
 But it is seldom that Nature is described for her own 
 sake : his mind hurries on to catch her lesson for man, 
 and to draw out her influence upon him, to interpret 
 
 "The secret lore of rural things, 
 The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, 
 The whispers from above that haunt the twilight vale." 
 
 The joyous praise of Nature, as she does her work, " all 
 true, all faultless, all in tune," as she pays her " tribute 
 to the genial heaven," as,
 
 62 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 " True to her trust, tree, herb, or reed, 
 She renders for each scattered seed," 
 
 is a type of true, innocent service ; as she passes away 
 in quiet decay, losing her life though pure from sin and 
 stain, yet all unmurmuring, she is a type of the good 
 man sinking peacefully to his end. 
 
 " How quiet shows the woodland scene ! 
 Each flower and tree, its duty done, 
 Reposing in decay serene, 
 
 Like weary men when age is won, 
 Such calm old age as conscience pure 
 And self-commanding hearts ensure, 
 Waiting their summons to the sky, 
 Content to live, but not afraid to die." 
 
 More often a sad contrast is drawn ; Nature is ever 
 "reproving thankless man "; her obedience stands over 
 against his "rebel works and will " ; her gratitude against 
 his "thankless joyless sight " ; her "trust entire and cease- 
 less praise " against his sadness, whether it be that man 
 only forgets God and yields nought in return for his 
 lavish gifts, or whether it be that the sinner is borne 
 down by the sense of remorse and penitence, and cannot 
 rise to the true joyousness of forgiveness, but idly 
 " dreams of blessings gone," 
 
 " Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime, 
 When Nature sings of joy and hope alone, 
 Beading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time." 
 
 But Nature is no cruel censor of man ; her lesson is 
 cheerful ; her nurslings are companions gay in child- 
 hood, soothing in the sorrows of older years ; she can 
 even lend of her own stores of innocence to man, and 
 will lend ungrudgingly.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 63 
 
 " Ye dwell beside our paths and homes, 
 Our paths of sin, our homes of sorrow, 
 
 And guilty man, where'er he roams, 
 Your innocent mirth may borrow. 
 
 The birds of air before us fleet, 
 
 They cannot brook our shame to meet 
 
 But we may taste your solace sweet, 
 And come again to-morrow." l 
 
 But there is a deeper truth still ; the whole of Nature 
 is rich with symbolic meaning, and full of teaching 
 about the things of God. " My book," said St. Antony, 
 " is Nature, and it is always by me if I want to read the 
 works of God." This is the very spirit of the three 
 great poems on Nature in the Christian Year, those for 
 Septuagesima Sunday, and for the Fourth Sunday after 
 Trinity, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent. It is 
 brought out in logical argument in Tract No. 89, with 
 which we shall deal later : here it is expressed in lyrical 
 beauty. All Nature is the work of God's hand, laid out 
 by him for man to read. It is, in a word, sacramental, 
 it is an external, visible sign, through which we ought 
 to read a spiritual truth; 
 
 " The colouring may be of this earth, 
 The lustre comes of heavenly birth." 
 
 Even Pagan seers and poets had a faint consciousness 
 of this deep meaning of earthly things, but for Christians 
 all is made clear. Now that the earth has been made 
 the scene of the Incarnation, 
 
 " Henceforth, to eyes of high desire, 
 
 The"laeanest things below, 
 
 As with a seraph's robe of fire 
 
 Invested, burn and glow." 
 
 1 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
 
 64 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Christ's death and resurrection have given earth n 
 newer meaning 
 
 " And the base world, now Christ has died, 
 Ennobled is and glorified." 
 
 So the eyes of his high desire are keen to trace these 
 analogies : his Love to offer of her best. The sky is 
 like the Maker's Love ; the sun is like the Light of 
 the World ; the moon like the Church which reflects 
 its rays ; the stars are the saints above ; the trees the 
 saints below; the dew is the grace of heaven; the fire 
 and the wind tell of the Spirit; the oleanders on the 
 shores of the Lake of Gennesaret are like hermits 
 watching around the sacred hill where the Saviour had 
 prayed ; the Paschal moon is like a saint left alone 
 with Christ; the morning sun shining on each dew- 
 brightened blade of grass, and giving it a new lustre, 
 speaks of the value of each soul ; or again, as it scatters 
 the darkness of the night and the mists of the morning 
 and lights up the whole city with its glow, it is a 
 symbol of the Gospel message reaching and kindling 
 Mammon's gloomiest cells, and fills us with the certain 
 hope that 
 
 " No mist that man may raise shall hide the eye of Heaven." * 
 
 Some of these illustrations may seem fanciful, but the 
 analogy underlies all our Lord's teaching by parables, 
 and if we do not take Nature as the adequate type of 
 man with his free will, it must be true. But even in 
 tracing these analogies the thought of sin breaks in; 
 we may interpret these analogies wrongly ; we may be 
 entirely deafened to their message ; we may only cast 
 
 1 In every summer night "Heaven is teaching earth to 
 comfort man." Miscellaneous Poems, p. 242.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 65 
 
 wistful looks at the bright things in earth and sky ; but 
 the fault lies with us, not with them, and not with Him 
 who made them 
 
 " Two worlds are ours ; 'tis only sin 
 
 Forbids us to descry 
 The mystic heaven and earth within, 
 Plain as the sea and sky." 
 
 The passion for innocence is equally marked in the 
 treatment of human life. Each soul is of infinite value 
 in Christ's sight: each Christian has received special 
 privileges, and cannot ever be as the heathen, ever be 
 as though he had not received them. Hence the true 
 attitude even of sinless human life is that of grateful 
 dependence upon God, and while true to that, each 
 human virtue is strong and beautiful. The son's and 
 mother's love is of all the most sacred, because that 
 was Christ's own ; the love of brother for brother lasts 
 unimpaired although they part in life; a comrade's 
 song bids the lonely watcher to be bold and strong; 
 married life seems to have a glory above that of this 
 earth 
 
 " And there are souls which seem to dwell 
 Above this earth so rich a spell 
 Floats round their steps, where'er they move, 
 From hopes fulfilled and mutual love." 
 
 Nowhere could we have a more exact description of 
 all that makes the Englishman's idea of a true home 
 than in the lines 
 
 " Sweet is the smile of home ; the mutual look 
 
 When hearts are of each other sure ; 
 Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, 
 The haunt of all affections pure." 
 
 And though none need leave the world for cloistered 
 cell, yet in a sense the " hermits blest and holy maids "
 
 66 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 are the nearest heaven on earth ; for this earth has 
 hut shadows which we may not rest in ; no help save 
 Him who made it is meet for thejsoul, and all earthly 
 love must be foregone at His dear call. 
 
 Thus much would be true had man never sinned ; 
 but, in fact, he is " a sinner in a life of care " ; even 
 joy has its dangers, 
 
 " There is an awe in mortal's joy, 
 A deep mysterious fear." 
 
 Praise is a peril to him ; his tears of penitence may 
 be self-deceiving; there must be discipline, self-denial, 
 sobriety, reserve, " clean hands and a self-ruling mind." 
 Each Christian has to learn " the lowly lesson of con- 
 tent " ; his voice must take " somewhat of Resignation's 
 tone " ; he must be 
 
 " Ready to give thanks and live 
 On the least that Heaven may give," 
 
 for " to be tranquil and be blest " is the path of safety, 
 and the lesson of sweet peace is " rather to be resigned 
 than blest." Those who live such lives, who spend with 
 Christ their happy days, are sure to know Him by proof, 
 and are able to tell of Him to their brethren, till they 
 too see the Saviour plain. And yet we may not have 
 any sense of assurance such as will let us for one 
 moment relinquish effort or lose the sense of depend- 
 ence. " The gray-haired saint may fail at last " : 
 nothing but death can bind us fast to the shore of love. 
 This is a part of our probation, and the thought recurs 
 again and again in the poems, as we shall find it later 
 in the arguments about the Roman controversy. It is 
 found in the most strong of all the outpourings of
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 67 
 
 personal affection for the Saviour, in one of his earliest 
 poems 
 
 " Then, fainting soul, arise and sing, 
 Mount, but be sober on the wing ; 
 Mount up, for heaven is won by prayer, 
 Be sober, for thou art not there ; 
 Till Death the weary spirit free, 
 Thy God hath said, 'Tis good for thee 
 To walk by faith and not by sight ; 
 
 Take it on trust a little while ; 
 Soon shalt thou read the mystery right 
 In the full sunshine of His smile." 
 
 It is found equally strong four years later 
 
 " There are who, darkling and alone, 
 Would wish the weary night were gone, 
 Though dawning morn should only shew 
 The secret of their unknown woe : 
 Who pray for sharpest throbs of pain 
 To ease them of doubt's galling chain : 
 ' Only disperse the cloud,' they cry, 
 ' And if our fate be death, give light and let us die.' 
 
 " Unwise I deem them, Lord, unmeet 
 To profit by Thy chastenings sweet, 
 For Thou wouldst have us linger still 
 Upon the verge of good or ill, 
 That on Thy guiding hand unseen 
 Our undivided hearts may lean, 
 And this our frail and foundering bark 
 Glide in the narrow wake of Thy beloved ark." 
 
 Sorrow and disappointment are treated as God's 
 blessings in disguise, because they make us see that 
 this is to be no world of rest for us. We may not wish 
 them away, we can only pray for a thankful heart, and 
 feel that we are never so safe as when 
 
 " . . . . our will 
 Yields undiscerned by all but God." 
 
 But what of the sorrow of sin, of remorse, of the secret
 
 68 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 memories of evil, which weigh us down ? That too is 
 God smiling on us in wrath : but we may not give way 
 to melancholy; we may not nurse even thoughts of 
 remorse : we must confess our sins ; but then we must 
 look away from self to Christ's atoning work 
 
 ". . . . by the judge within 
 Absolved, in thankful sacrifice to part 
 
 For ever with thy sullen heart, 
 Nor on remorseful thoughts to brood, and stain 
 The glory of the Cross, forgiven and cheer'd in vain." 
 
 Here, where he is speaking of each worshipper taking 
 part in the Commination Service, the language is only 
 of the judge within : elsewhere he speaks of the com- 
 fort of human aid 
 
 " How sweet, in that dark hour, to fall 
 
 On bosoms waiting to receive 
 Our sighs, and gently whisper all ! 
 They love us will not God forgive ? " 
 
 For through humanity man passes up to God. On the 
 one hand he who fails in human love will be unable to 
 respond to the Divine 
 
 " The heart that scorn'd a father's care, 
 How can it rise in filial prayer ? 
 How an all-seeing Guardian bear ? 
 
 Or how shall envious brethren own 
 A Brother on th' eternal throne, 
 Their Father's joy, their hope alone ? 
 
 How shall Thy Spirit's gracious wile 
 The sullen brow of gloom beguile, 
 That frowns on sweet Affection's smile ? " 
 
 On the other hand, Christ's pastors have to teach 
 " first filial love and then Divine " ; the love of human 
 friends is an assurance that God, who loves us better 
 than He knows, will forgive; for His love will not
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 69 
 
 fail, even if father and mother forsake ; Christ will ever 
 perform a brother's part. 
 
 Principal Shairp has singled it out as one of the 
 special characteristics of Keble that, combined with 
 devout reverence for the Person of our Lord, there is 
 in him, first perhaps of his contemporaries, a closer, more 
 personal love to Him as a living Friend. Again, Dean 
 Church has said that one result of Tractarianisrn was 
 the increased care for the Gospels and study of them as 
 compared with other parts of the Bible. 1 Is there any 
 connection between these two facts, and is this another 
 part of the debt which Tractarianism owes to Keble ? 
 Certainly the Gospel scenes are dwelt on with loving 
 details ; certainly the Lord is ever present as the abiding 
 Friend, as the Saviour. The doctrine of the Atonement 
 is indeed dear to the writer ; it is only when " sprinkled 
 with His atoning blood " that Christians can stand before 
 their God; but (to adapt Dean Church's words) the 
 great Name stands no longer for an abstract symbol of 
 doctrine, but for a living Master, who can teach as well 
 as save. He is the Friend who can abide with us 
 from morn till eve ; He is dearer than father or mother, 
 than brother or husband; caring for each of His 
 followers "as if beside nor man nor angel lived in 
 heaven or earth." What language could tell of trustful 
 personal love more directly than this ? 
 
 " My Saviour, can it ever be 
 That I should gain by losing Thee 1 
 The watchful mother tarries nigh 
 Though sleep have closed her infant's eye, 
 For should he wake and find her gone, 
 She knows she could not bear his moan. 
 
 1 Oxford Movement, p. 167.
 
 70 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 But I am weaker than a child, 
 
 And Thou art more than mother dear ; 
 
 Without Thee heaven were but a wild : 
 How can I live without Thee here ? " 
 
 This personal love of God is ever round us; in 
 Nature, in the Gospel, in the Church are His gifts and 
 His appeals to man ; and if man refuse to listen to this 
 appeal, then the same love has " wrath that can relent 
 no more." The voice that promised eternal bliss has 
 also threatened eternal woe ; that warning may not be 
 neglected; God's truth and justice may not be sacri- 
 ficed. If it were, 
 
 " Where is then the stay of contrite hearts ? 
 Of old they lean'd on Thy eternal word, 
 But with the sinner's lear their hope departs, 
 Fast link'd as Thy great Name to Thee, Lord." 
 
 As we shall see throughout his life, no false tender- 
 ness can keep back the stern tide of the Gospel ; and 
 though it is perhaps an accident, it is not an insignifi- 
 cant accident that the last word of the completed 
 volume is a word of fear 
 
 " And oh, when worn and tired they sigh 
 
 With that more fearful war within, 
 When Passion's storms are loud and high, 
 And brooding o'er remembered sin 
 
 The heart dies down mightiest then, 
 
 Come ever true, come ever near, 
 And wake their slumbering love again, 
 
 Spirit of God's most holy Fear ! " 
 
 Yet with all its sternness, the one really descriptive 
 epithet of the book is "soothing." Its object was to 
 illustrate " the soothing tendency of the Prayer-book." 
 "I woo the soothing art" was the writer's professed 
 aim ; it speaks of the " soothing " power of Nature ; of
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 71 
 
 the " soothing charm " of the Holy Communion service ; 
 of the awful " soothing " calm which alights on mourners. 
 " It was the most soothing, tranquillizing, subduing 
 work of the day ; if poems can be found to enliven in 
 dejection, and to comfort in anxiety, to cool the over- 
 sangiiine, to refresh the weary, and to awe the worldly ; 
 to instil resignation into the impatient and calmness 
 into the fearful and agitated they are these." l 
 
 Its most permanent value lies in this power to 
 soothe ; but perhaps at the time its power to stir was 
 of even greater weight. In it will be found nearly all 
 the truths and the tone which came to the front in 
 Tractarianism. Dean Church has said that the Oxford 
 Movement had two great sides, the one theological, the 
 other resolutely practical. Theologically it forced an 
 answer to the questions " What is the Church ? Is it 
 a reality, or a mode of speech ? On what grounds does 
 it rest ? How may it be known ? Is it among us ? 
 How is it to be discriminated from its rivals or counter- 
 feits ? What is its essential constitution ? What does 
 it teach ? What are its shortcomings ? Does it need 
 reform ? " On the other hand, its ethical tendency 
 was shown in its increased care for the Gospels and 
 study of them ; and in the increased sense of the 
 necessity of self-discipline. " Seriousness, reverence, 
 the fear of insincere words and unsound professions, 
 were essential in the character which alone it would 
 tolerate in those who made common cause with it." 
 
 Both these sides are characteristic of the Christian 
 
 Year, written before the movement and confessedly 
 
 contributing to it. The detailed questions about the 
 
 Church are indeed absent ; its notes, its relation to. 
 
 1 J. H. Newman : Essays, ii., p. 441..
 
 72 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 other bodies these were forced to the front in later 
 days ; but every reader must have been brought face to 
 face with the question of its reality and of its claims 
 upon his own life; he must have been drawn closer 
 to the Gospels, and braced to self-discipline and the 
 pursuit of holiness. 
 
 The poems awe and stir and soothe alike, because they 
 are so real; they have so vivid a sense of the spiritual 
 world, with all its terrors as well as its beauty and grace. 
 He is the prophet of the fear of God no less than the 
 poet of His love. For the success of the Christian 
 lyrist it is " essential that what he sets before us must 
 be true in substance, and in manner marked by a noble 
 simplicity and confidence in that truth, by a sincere 
 attachment to it and entire familiarity with it." 1 
 That was his own ideal, and one who knew him well 
 has said, " If there is one quality which more than any 
 other may be said to mark ibis writings, it is their 
 intense and absolute veracity. Never for a moment is 
 the very truth sacrificed to effect. I will venture to 
 say with confidence that there is not a sentiment to be 
 found elevated or amplified beyond what he really felt, 
 nor, I would add, even an epithet that goes beyond his 
 actual and true thought. What he was in life and 
 character, that he was transparently in every line he 
 wrote entirely, always, reverentially true." 2 
 
 The result upon others is best summed up in the 
 words of Hurrell Froude : " Your poems are the best 
 helps to conceiving that we really are the people for 
 whom such great and wonderful things have been 
 done," 8 and the secret of this in the words of Dr. Pusey : 
 
 1 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 91. 
 
 2 Bp. Moberley : Preface to Miscellaneous Poems, p. xvii. 
 
 3 Remains, i., p. 210.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR, 73 
 
 " It taught, because his own soul was moved so deeply ; 
 the stream burst forth, because the heart which poured 
 it out was full; it was fresh, deep, tender, loving, 
 because himself was such ; it disclosed to souls secrets 
 which they knew not, but could not fail to own when 
 known, because he was so true and thought aloud ; and 
 conscience everywhere responded to the voice of 
 conscience." l 
 
 1 Sermon at Keble College, 1876, p. 26.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 1833 1841. 
 
 " What if to the trumpet's sound 
 Voices few come answering round? 
 Scarce a votary swell the burst 
 When the anthem peals at first ? 
 God hath sown and He will reap. 
 Growth is slow when roots are deep." 
 
 J. K. : Lyra, Apostolica, clxviii. 
 
 WE must turn back from poetry to the prose and 
 struggle of life, or shall we say from Lyric Pastoral to 
 Tragedy ? While Keble was thus working at his lectures, 
 Fortune seemed to be turning more and more against 
 the Church. The Reform Bill had flushed the demo- 
 cratic spirit ; everything was to be brought under the 
 control of the people and tested by a narrow, utilitarian 
 standard. The Church could be no exception to this ; 
 and as Convocation had been virtually suppressed, she 
 had no voice by which to speak, and the State pro- 
 ceeded to set her in order through a Parliament which 
 was no longer essentially a Parliament of Churchmen. 
 
 But " when the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses is at 
 hand." The spirit of Churchmanship was rising in 
 rebellion against this treatment in many quarters. In 
 1814, Bishop Jebb of Limerick had foretold such a
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 75 
 
 crisis, and the way in which it would be met. " Perhaps 
 we may live to see our Dodwells and Hickeses and 
 Colliers divested of the old peculiarities, shorn of some 
 excrescences, and enlarged by a philosophic appre- 
 hension of the Scripture. Perhaps, too, a little of 
 persecution, or of somewhat resembling persecution, 
 may be providentially permitted to train up men with 
 an attachment to the Church as a hierarchy, as distinct 
 from the State, and as dignified only by its intrinsic 
 excellence, by its venerable antiquity, and by its 
 apostolical institution." l In 1833, as the events drew 
 nearer, an even more detailed prophecy is to be found 
 in the striking words of one of the old-fashioned High 
 Church leaders, Mr. Sikes, of Guilsborough. Noticing 
 that the great want in the teaching of the time was 
 that no account was taken of the Holy Catholic Church, 
 he foretold that the neglect of so important an article 
 of the Faith must have its reprisals. " When it is 
 brought forward it will swallow up the rest. . . . Our 
 present confusion is chiefly owing to the want of it, 
 and there will be yet more confusion attending its 
 revival. The effects of it I even dread to contemplate, 
 especially if it comes suddenly, and woe betide those, 
 whoever they are, who shall in the course of Providence 
 have to bring it forward. . . . They will be endlessly 
 misunderstood and misinterpreted. There will be one 
 great outcry of Popery from one end of the country to 
 the other. It will be thrust upon minds unprepared 
 and upon an uncatechized Church. Some will take it 
 up as a beautiful theory unrealized ; others will be 
 frightened and scandalized and reject it, and all will 
 want a guidance which one hardly knows where they 
 
 1 Quoted in Perry : Student's English CJmrch History, iii., p. 180..
 
 76 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 shall find. . . . How the doctrine may be first thrown 
 forward we know not, but the powers of the world may 
 any day turn their backs upon us, and this probably 
 will lead to those effects I have described." l This is 
 exactly what was happening ; the powers of the world 
 were turning their backs upon the Church ; but its 
 champions were being prepared. In London an active 
 body of Churchmen, with Joshua Watson as their centre, 
 had done and were doing much to carry Church 
 principles into active work. The National Society 
 had been founded in 1811 ; the Christian Knowledge 
 Society had been reorganized ; King's College had been 
 founded in 1829 ; the bishoprics of Calcutta (1814), 
 Jamaica, and Barbadoes (1824) had been founded and 
 endowed by the State. At Cambridge, Hugh James 
 Eose, " the most accomplished divine and teacher in 
 the English Church," 2 was, as Christian Advocate in 
 the University pulpit, and, after 1832, as editor of the 
 British Magazine, bidding " us, when hearts were failing, 
 stir up the gift that was in us, and betake ourselves 
 to our own true mother." 3 
 
 But it is with Oxford that we are primarily con- 
 cerned. There Oriel had become the centre of Church- 
 manship. Newman had entirely emancipated himself 
 from Whateley's influence, and had accepted Keble's 
 principles. This had been Froude's doing, and he boasts 
 of it as the one good work of his life, that he had brought 
 Keble and Newman to understand each other; and 
 
 1 From a conversation with Rev. W. J. Copeland, preserved in 
 Mr. Copeland's handwriting in his copy of Sikes' Parochial Com- 
 munion, and printed in J. H. Newman's Letters and Correspond- 
 ence, ii., Appendix, p. 483. 
 
 ' R. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 86. 
 
 3 J. H. N. : Dedication to Parochial Sermons, vol. iv.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 77 
 
 Keble was the link between Newman and his Fairford 
 and Bisley friends. In 1831 he had invited Newman 
 to Fairford with the words, " I want some of your 
 criticism, for somehow I can't get it out of my head 
 that you are a real honest man"; in 1832 he wrote : 
 " My brother wants to see you, and I want you to see 
 him." Isaac Williams, who had been curate to T. 
 Keble at Bisley, was now curate to Newman at St. 
 Mary's, and formed another link with the older Church- 
 man. Dr. Pusey also was drawing closer to Newman 
 and his friends, though he had not yet definitely com- 
 mitted himself to them. In this group Newman was 
 coming clearly to the front as leader in Oxford ; for 
 since 1830 he had ceased to be tutor, and only held 
 the Vicarage of St. Mary's, a post which gave him 
 leisure for study, and made him known as a preacher ; 
 one writer has even traced the start of the movement to 
 his sermon on " Personal Influence the means of Pro- 
 pagating Truth," preached in 1832. 1 Finally, his 
 Mediterranean holiday with Froude in the winter of 
 the same year enabled them both to stand by for a 
 while, to look at the conditions of the struggle on which 
 they were entering from the outside, to take its measure, 
 and to prepare their weapons, while the recovery from 
 his serious illness in Sicily seemed to Newman a Divine 
 sanction to the inner conviction that he had a work to 
 do for the Church. 
 
 But Newman, as well as the others, still looked to 
 Keble as " the true and primary author " of the move- 
 ment; 2 he writes of himself that while lying on his 
 sick-bed at Syracuse, " I began to think of all my 
 
 1 The Times : Obituary Notice, August 12, 1890. 
 
 2 Apologia, p. 75.
 
 78 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 professed principles, and felt that they were mere in- 
 tellectual deductions from one or two admitted truths. 
 I compared myself with Keble, and felt that I was 
 merely developing his, not my, convictions." l While 
 on the journey he had written : " We are in good 
 spirits about the prospects of the Church. We find 
 Keble is at length roused, and (if once up) he will 
 prove a second Ambrose." 2 As a matter of fact, the 
 signal for concerted action did come from Keble. In 
 spring of 1833, the difficulty of collecting tithes in 
 Ireland induced the Government to propose a bill 
 abolishing the Church cess, one of the most obnoxious 
 forms of payment, and in order to raise money to meet 
 the deficiency so produced it was proposed to suppress 
 ten Irish bishoprics and appropriate their revenues for 
 the purpose. Bishop Blomfield supported the bill, but 
 Archbishop Howley opposed it, and to the mass of 
 bishops and clergy it seemed an act of spoliation. The 
 grievance was that " bishopricks may be suppressed to 
 any extent by the sovereign at the request of a body 
 of laymen, any number of whom may be heretics, con- 
 trary to the express protest of the Episcopal body." * 
 The time had come when it seemed to Keble that 
 "scoundrels must be called scoundrels." The spirit 
 which stirred him found vent once more in poetry in 
 the poems of the Lyra Apostolica how different from 
 those of the Christian Year ! Rugged, austere, wanting 
 the old melody, yet with a ring of the battle trumpet 
 through them, they breathe defiance 
 
 " . . . . against the ruffian band, 
 Come to reform where ne'er they came to pray." 
 
 1 Letters, i., p. 416. 2 Ibid., p. 377. 
 
 3 J. K. : The State in its Edaiiom to the Church, p. 42.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. '79 
 
 Jeremiah is the model; Nadab and .Abihu, Korah, 
 Dathan, and Abirarn, the messengers of Ahaziah, the 
 fall of Tyre, the fall of Babylon, these are the themes. 
 When the Irish Church Bill was brought in he wrote 
 
 " . . . . then welcome whirlwind, anger, woe, 
 Welcome the flash that wakes the slumbering fold 
 Th' Almighty Pastor's arm and eye to know, 
 And turn their dreamy talk to holy Fear's stern glow." 
 
 While the bill was still under discussion, an opportunity 
 for speaking out presented itself, he being nominated 
 to preach the Assize Sermon before the University on 
 July 14th. 
 
 Taking for his text the words of Samuel, when the 
 people rejected him and demanded a king: "As for 
 me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in 
 ceasing to pray for you : but I will teach you the good 
 and the right way" (1 Sam. xii. 23), he cautiously yet 
 clearly applied the scene to modern times. It was 
 possible that a Christian state might in the same way 
 repudiate its duty to God ; it might wish " to be as 
 the heathen," like the nations around it ; perhaps 
 external danger or grievances in the government of 
 the Church might be the pretext, but the real reason 
 would be decay of faith. Much was pointing to such 
 a danger : the tendency to a shallow indifferentisrn, as 
 though one form of opinion was as good as another ; 
 the unwillingness to submit to religious restraints ; the 
 disrespect towards the successors of the Apostles all 
 tended one way, and might issue in apostasy. What then 
 would be the duty of Churchmen at such a moment ? 
 It would be to imitate Samuel, whose combination of 
 sweetness with firmness, of consideration with energy, 
 constituted the temper of a perfect public man. Their
 
 80 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 first duty would be intercession, which would secure 
 candour, respectfulness, guarded language in their deal- 
 ing with their opponents, and also hopefulness in their 
 cause. Then there must be remonstrance, calm, distinct, 
 persevering ; also loyal patriotic submission to the State 
 within its own sphere ; and above all, each Churchman 
 would need to be careful of his own spiritual life, of the 
 daily duties of piety, purity, charity, justice, lest his 
 behaviour should disparage the name of his Church, 
 or lest public concerns should prove ruinous to himself, 
 by occupying all his care and thoughts to the under- 
 valuing of ordinary duties, more especially those of a 
 devotional kind. With such precautions, however, it 
 was impossible to devote oneself too entirely to the 
 cause of the Apostolical Church, and that with a 
 certainty of success in the end. 
 
 "I have ever considered and kept this day as the 
 start of the religious movement of 1833," wrote Newman 
 thirty-one years afterwards. 1 Within the following week 
 the bill was passed, whereupon Keble published the 
 sermon under the title National Apostasy, with a preface 
 dated July 22nd, calling on Churchmen to consider 
 what was their duty in the face of this usurpation by 
 the State ; for if they were to submit to such profane 
 intrusion, they must at least record their full conviction 
 that it was intrusion. The result was immediate com- 
 bination and action. Froude, who had returned to 
 Oxford before Newman, had secured the co-operation 
 of Isaac Williams and William Palmer, Fellow of 
 Worcester College, a learned Irishman, whose work on 
 Origines Liturgicce, and whose papers on Dissent in the 
 British Magazine had shown his Church sympathies. 
 
 1 Apologia, p. 100.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 81 
 
 Even before the sermon was preached Rose had sum- 
 moned a few friends to meet at his parsonage at Had- 
 leigh, and the meeting took place from July 25th to 
 29th. Palmer, Froude, and the Hon. A. P. Perceval 
 he, too, a pupil of Keble in former times were present ; 
 but Keble was prevented by home ties from coming, 
 and Newman also was absent. 
 
 The meeting did not produce any immediate results, 
 but the friends were practically agreed in their prin- 
 ciples. Feeling that it was necessary to make Church- 
 men realize the essential bonds of Churchmanship, as 
 opposed to the artificial and temporary dependence 
 upon the State, they aimed at asserting the reality of 
 the Church as a spiritual body perpetuated by the 
 Apostolical Succession, and conveying life through its 
 Sacraments this as against the individualism of the 
 Evangelicals and the Erastianism of politicians ; the 
 authoritative dogmatic character of its formulae this 
 as against the liberalism of Whateley and Arnold and 
 Hampden : and more subordinately its independence 
 of Rome. But in all this there was no thought of 
 innovation; the one conception was that they were 
 reviving neglected truth and " principles of action which 
 had been in the minds of our predecessors of the seven- 
 teenth century." " Stir up the gift of God that is in 
 you/' was their motto. Long lists of previous writers 
 were soon added to the Tracts as more or less upholding 
 or elucidating the doctrines found in them. Of Keble 
 himself it has been said that the highest praise which 
 he seemed able to give to any theological statement 
 was, " It seems to me just what my father taught me." 1 
 The conferences were continued in Oxford, and 
 
 1 His pseudonym in the British Magazine was 
 
 G
 
 82 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 had two main results. Palmer and Perceval formed 
 a more conservative group. They aimed first at form- 
 ing a great association of Churchmen, and an appeal 
 on which such might be based was put forth, but 
 this proposal came to nothing. Instead of it an address 
 to the Archbishop, thanking him for the firmness 
 and discretion which he had shown, and assuring 
 him of their devoted adherence to the Apostolical 
 Doctrine and Polity of the Church, was signed by 
 more than 7000 clergy, and presented in February, 
 1834. A similar lay address was promoted by Joshua 
 Watson in London, and received the signatures of 
 230,000 heads of families, and was presented to the 
 Archbishop in May. The more uncompromising Oriel 
 group led by Keble, Froude, and Newman were quite in 
 sympathy with these addresses, Keble characteristically 
 pleading that poor people might be allowed to sign or 
 put their mark, and he formed one of the deputation 
 to Lambeth. 
 
 But this group were not content with mere addresses ; 
 they were rather afraid of associations; they were 
 anxious for writing, and anxious that each writer should 
 be unchecked by any committee. The following basis 
 of action was ultimately agreed upon : considering that 
 the only way of salvation is the partaking of the Body 
 and Blood of our sacrificed Redeemer, that the means of 
 this is the holy Sacrament of His Supper, and the 
 security for the due application of this is the Apostolical 
 commission, and that there is peculiar danger of this 
 being slighted and disavowed, " we pledge ourselves 
 one to another, reserving our canonical obedience, to be 
 on our watch for all opportunities of inculcating a due 
 sense of this inestimable privilege ; to provide and
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 83 
 
 circulate books and tracts to familiarize the imagin- 
 ations of men with the idea ; to attempt to revive among 
 Churchmen the practice of daily common prayer, and 
 more frequent participation of the Lord's Supper; to 
 resist any attempt to alter the Liturgy on any in- 
 sufficient authority, and to explain any points in discip- 
 line or worship which might be liable to be misunder- 
 stood." The form of this agreement was due to Keble, 
 and the result was the publication of the Tracts. These 
 were short papers price Id. or 2d dealing with points 
 of spiritual life or doctrine, attempts to force the world 
 to realize what the Church meant. No less than forty- 
 six were issued in the course of 1833-34, in addition to 
 eighteen short extracts from Patristic writers. Rose 
 took no part in them at all ; Palmer partly contributed 
 to one ; Froude was out of England nearly the whole 
 year. They were all published anonymously, except 
 that Dr. Pusey insisted on attaching his initials to his 
 tract on Fasting a fact from which perhaps the name 
 of Puseyite grew to be attached to the party. Perceval, 
 J. Keble, T. Keble, J. W. Bowden also contributed, 
 but nearly a third of the fir. v t volume was from New- 
 man himself. To the second volume, which appeared 
 in November 1835, Keble contributed four tracts (Nos. 
 52, 54, 57, 60), and as these are closely connected 
 in thought with those in the first volume, and quite 
 different from his only other contribution (No. 89), it 
 will be well to deal with all his earlier tracts at once. 
 
 The keynote of these is given in the title of No. 4, 
 " Adherence to the Apostolical Succession the safest 
 Course." The clergy are urged to take a higher view of 
 their privilege as Christ's ordained ministers, whose 
 duty it is to convey the blessings of the Holy Feast.
 
 84 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 What if the doctrine is not absolutely certain ? it is at 
 least probable ; there are sufficient indications in the 
 New Testament that it was Christ's will, and that is 
 sufficient for loyal followers who are content to be 
 guided by the "Lord's eye," without definite command. 
 No. 13 stands apart by itself: it is a plea against any 
 change in the lectionary, based upon a subtle but rather 
 over-strained attempt to trace the principle which 
 originally guided the selection of Lessons. It is in- 
 teresting as showing his great knowledge of the 
 underlying principles of the Old Testament; and is 
 one of the earliest expressions of his favourite principle 
 that God's dealing with Israel as a nation was a type 
 of His dealing with Christians as individuals ; but the 
 changes in the lectionary have deprived it of present 
 interest for us. No. 40 is a bright, interesting 
 dialogue on the importance of Holy Baptism, and the 
 duty of Churchmen in avoiding marriage with Dis- 
 senters. In No. 52 he returns to the importance of 
 the Apostolic Ministry as conveying the reality of the 
 Eucharist ; in No. 54 the Ministry is shown in a clear 
 historical statement to have been the guarantee of 
 Apostolical Doctrine in the second and third centuries ; 
 while No. 57 is an historical argument to prove the 
 converse of the last, that those Churches which have 
 surrendered the Apostolic Ministry whether in 
 ancient or in modern times have also failed to hold 
 Apostolic doctrine ; even the Roman Church, which 
 has minimized the doctine of Apostolical succession in 
 order to exalt the Papacy, having suffered in this way. 
 No. 62 is a more general argument, illustrated by 
 historical instances, that mere personal devotion is 
 inadequate for the Christian life, apart from true
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 85 
 
 doctrine : the only safe way is to take God's will 
 exactly as we find it declared to us in His Word, as 
 interpreted by His Church. 
 
 All these tracts are written freshly and vigorously, 
 with happy and sometimes humorous illustrations. 
 They show a great knowledge of the Bible, and love 
 of -its mystical interpretation. The writer has a deep 
 sense of the corruption of human nature ; for instance, 
 the very repugnance which people feel to the warnings 
 of the Athanasian Creed or of certain chapters of the 
 Bible is to him only a proof of how much they are 
 needed. For the same reason he dwells upon the need 
 of caution and reserve in communicating religious 
 truth, and upon the importance of considering truth 
 from many sides ; because the intellect alone can not 
 attain to it ; the feeling and temper of mind must be 
 right ; and we must be humble enough to be content 
 with probability. Perhaps the characteristic note of 
 these Tracts is " safety " ; it is the safest course to 
 adhere to the Apostolical Succession ; it is a word 
 that will recur again and again in his writings, notably 
 in his argument about the Roman Church ; and it is a 
 word which jars upon us at first, for it seems to speak 
 of a cold calculating prudence. But this would do 
 Keble a great injustice, for by a safe course he means 
 that which is most likely to- satisfy all sides of our 
 nature, and to make surest response to the obligations 
 which we owe to others. Safety is that which secures 
 piety and reverence. It had been the safest course 
 for him to withdraw from the contest for the Pro- 
 vostship of Oriel and to stay at home with his father 
 and sister, and if now he urges a belief in the 
 Apostolical Succession as the safest course, he means
 
 86 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 the course which is most likely to make the most 
 demands upon men's faith and life. 
 
 The year 1835 was the most eventful in Keble's 
 private life. On January 24th his father died in his 
 ninetieth year, and the home at Fairford was broken 
 up, his sister retiring to Bisley, and he himself coming 
 to Oxford for a while to work at his edition of Hooker. 
 But in the summer the vicarage of Hursley again 
 became vacant, and it was offered to him at once by 
 Sir W. Heath cote, and gladly accepted by him. This 
 added much to his work, as it was a large scattered 
 parish, being conjoined with Otterbourne and Arnpfield ; 
 but while he was there much was done to relieve the 
 vicar. Mainly at his own expense a new church and 
 parsonage-house were erected at Otterbourne ; the same 
 was done for Ampfield by Sir W. Heathcote, and both 
 these became separate parishes. But if Hursley added 
 to his work, it also gave him all the peace and rest of a 
 fixed home ; for before moving into it he married a lady 
 the younger sister of Mrs. Thomas Keble who was 
 often indeed an invalid, but through her sweetness and 
 cultured intellect a strength to him, thoroughly able to 
 enter into all his hopes for the Church, and to help him 
 in his work. She was sweet-looking, with beautiful 
 brown eyes and hair, a very delicate complexion like 
 porcelain, and an air of extreme refinement. " My 
 conscience, my memory, and my common sense " is his 
 own description of her, after nearly thirty years of 
 married life. Her very delicacy was in some ways a 
 blessing to him, as it rendered necessary changes of air 
 and scenery, and led to visits to Wales, Scotland, Ireland, 
 the Isle of Man, and Switzerland. Whateley is said to 
 have remarked that Keble was now " a caged eagle " ; it
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 8T 
 
 was no true prophecy, but it is a striking tribute to one 
 side of his character that has often escaped notice, the 
 eager, impetuous, soaring keenness which his strong will 
 was ever holding in check. Other friends, including 
 Newman, with whom celibacy was gaining a religious 
 halo, felt a touch of disappointment; but to Keble it 
 was rest, soothing, and safety. Hursley also gave him 
 the friendship of Dr. Moberley, who was appointed 
 head-master of Winchester in the same year, and for 
 thirty years he proved Keble's dearest and most 
 trusted friend in the neighbourhood. 
 
 His Oxford friends soon found that the eagle was 
 not yet caged. Before the end of the year Newman, 
 who saw the need that the Tracts should deal 
 with the Roman claims, pressed Keble to under- 
 take the editorship; but his hands were too full of 
 work, and he did not feel himself competent to deal 
 with the subject. In the beginning of 1836, another 
 attempt was made to bring him to Oxford. Dr. 
 Burton, the Regius Professor of Divinity, died; and 
 Keble's name, with those of Newman, Pusey, and 
 others, was submitted to the Prime Minister. Newman 
 wrote at once to press Keble to accept the professor- 
 ship, if it should be offered him; and he wrote to 
 Froude to induce him to use his influence for the same 
 end, urging that "Keble is a light too spiritual and 
 subtle to be seen unless put upon a candlestick." x 
 The Archbishop is said to have pressed Keble's 
 appointment, but it was one which could not have 
 been expected from a Liberal Government. But 
 neither was the appointment that was made expected. 
 Lord Melbourne nominated Dr. Hampden; a nomin- 
 1 Letters, ii., p. 163.
 
 88 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 ation which stirred up vehement opposition among 
 Churchmen at Oxford, spreading far beyond the group 
 of Tract writers. Dr. Hampden had preached in 1832 
 a set of Bampton Lectures embodying the indi- 
 vidualistic principles, against which the whole move- 
 ment was directed, and practically undermining Church 
 authority; in 1834 he had published a pamphlet 
 advocating the abolition of subscription to the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, which was required from all 
 who entered the university, his object being to throw 
 it open to Dissenters. A proposal, founded on this, to 
 abolish the subscription had been submitted to Con- 
 vocation by the Heads of Houses in May, 1835, and 
 rejected by a majority of five to one. This majority 
 therefore naturally resented the appointment within a 
 few months of the champion of this cause to the chief 
 post of religious teaching in their midst. An attempt 
 to induce the Prime Minister to withdraw the nomination 
 failed, but a proposal to deprive the new Regius Pro- 
 fessor of his vote in the nomination of Select Preachers 
 was carried by an enormous majority (474 to 94). 
 Throughout this controversy, though the whole mass of 
 Churchmen were in sympathy, the active workers, who 
 wrote the pamphlets and conducted the campaign, were 
 Newman and Pusey. Keble was in thorough sympathy, 
 but he was too busy to render much active co-operation. 
 During this year, however, he supplied two considerable 
 contributions to the work of the movement, the edition of 
 Hooker and the sermon on Primitive Tradition. The 
 former was published in the spring ; it .had been a labour 
 of love, and we may well fancy how Hooker's " resolution 
 to make the best of things as they were, and to censure 
 as rarely and as tenderly as possible what he found
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 89 
 
 established by authority," had come home to him and 
 deepened the tendencies of his own character. It is a 
 thorough piece of work, and gives proof of the editor's 
 critical insight. The text was collated with the MSS. 
 at Corpus Christi and at Dublin ; it was split up into 
 paragraphs, and accompanied by a running paraphrase ; 
 the allusions to Holy Scripture and the Fathers were 
 verified : the references to Cartwright and other contem- 
 porary Puritan writers supplied, and some interesting 
 MS. notes by Hooker himself in answer to early Puritan 
 criticisms on the book were reprinted from the Corpus 
 Christi MS. It is in dealing with the last three books 
 that his critical acumen found scope. Here he dis- 
 covered that the sixth book, though by Hooker himself, 
 is not a proper part of the original work, but had been 
 substituted, whether intentionally or by accident, for a 
 discussion of Lay-Eldership, which is now lost. The 
 genuineness of the seventh book was established, though 
 it was shown to be imperfect. From the eighth book 
 one whole section was excluded, as being an extraneous 
 sermon inserted by mistake, and two sermons on St. 
 Jude were rejected, as being far removed from "the 
 sedate majesty which reigns in all Hooker's known 
 compositions." 
 
 But further, though it always went to his heart to 
 criticize the great and good man, 1 the Preface prefixed 
 to the edition shows a masterly power of rising above 
 Hooker's position, and seeing at once its strength and 
 its limitations. The two points which he examines 
 fully are Hooker's conceptions of Church authority and 
 of the relation of the Church to the State. At the 
 time of the Reformation there were three rival views : 
 1 Spiritual Letters, cxxi.
 
 90 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 the Papal, centring all authority in the Pope, and 
 making the civil government the instrument to exe- 
 cute his decrees ; the Erastian, held by the prerogative 
 lawyers in France and Henry VIII. in England in their 
 desire to strengthen the local governments, and putting 
 Church laws and constitution at the mercy of the civil 
 Government ; and the Presbyterian, a strong ecclesi- 
 astical view, placing the authority in the elders of the 
 Church, receiving their commission by positive enact- 
 ment of Holy Scripture: this was the view of Calvin 
 and Beza. The Church of England had clearly broken 
 with the first view; Cranmer had inclined to the 
 second, but in the reign of Elizabeth many causes the 
 reaction against Queen Mary, the sympathy with the 
 Protestants abroad and in Scotland, the patriotic 
 resentment against the bull of Pope Pius all were 
 tending to strengthen the Presbyterian view. In order 
 to meet it, Jewel, Whitgift, and others held that the 
 authority centred in the Church, which had for 
 practical convenience centred it in the Bishops; they 
 only pleaded that Episcopacy was ancient and allowable ; 
 but as the fear of Rome grew less strong and the 
 Church felt its own ground firmer under it, Bancroft, 
 Saravia, Sutcliffe, the author of the Querimonia 
 Ecclesice, and Bishop Bilson had taken up the wiser 
 and bolder position, that Episcopal authority rested on 
 Divine appointment. Hooker, although the bias of 
 his education had been Presbyterian, practically joined 
 this side, using the strongest language to assert that 
 " the first institution of bishops was from heaven, was 
 even of God " ; yet the exigencies of his time compelled 
 him to make qualifications which were seen to be 
 impossible after the fuller vindication of the Ignatian
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 91 
 
 epistles by Archbishop Ussher, and which would not 
 have been admitted by Laud ; for he allowed of non- 
 Episcopal ordination in cases of a supernatural call, or 
 in the absence of a bishop. So again he identified 
 Church and State too absolutely, giving the monarch 
 the power of dominion over the bishops, with power 
 to overrule them in matters of jurisdiction and legis- 
 lation as well as in nomination to offices. This could 
 be only tolerable when the monarch was a Christian, 
 exerting his sovereignty through a Christian Parlia- 
 ment ; yet, even so, the theory had proved inadequate, 
 and made the Church a slave to the civil power. With 
 a Parliament not Christian the theory was impossible. 
 The true theory is that of a co-ordinate authority of 
 Church and State, somewhat on the analogy of the 
 co-ordinate authority of the Sovereign and the Houses 
 of Parliament. "If their veto on acts of civil legis- 
 lation did not impeach the King's temporal sovereignty, 
 why should the Church's veto impeach the same 
 sovereignty in case a way should be found to giving 
 her a power over any proposed act of ecclesiastical 
 legislation ? " 1 (p. Ixxx). He wrote to Froude " I am 
 more and more satisfied that Richard was in most 
 things a middle term between Laud and Cranmer, but 
 
 1 The fullest statement of Keble's views on Church and State 
 is in his review (British Critic, Oct. 1839) of Mr. Gladstone's treatise, 
 The State in relation to the Church. He insists on the 
 essential distinctiveness and superiority of the Church ; on the 
 duty of the State to guard her interests as "a nursing father" ; 
 but at the same time to impose no terms which will imply 
 sacrifice of principle by the Church. There is danger that the 
 Reformation settlement, as worked by a Parliament not confined 
 to Churchmen, may impose such terms, and therefore it is 
 essential that the Church should be allowed free exercise of 
 moral discipline over her members, a voice in the appointment 
 of bishops, and a legislative power in her own internal concerns.
 
 92 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 nearer the former ; and also that he was in a transition 
 state when he was taken from us, and there is no 
 saying how much nearer he might have got to Laud, 
 if he had lived twenty years longer." Yet with all 
 these limitations, Hooker with his reverent treatment 
 of the deepest doctrines, his faith in the reality of 
 Sacramental grace, his sense of the quasi-sacramental 
 value of all Church usages, his treatment of fast and 
 festival and of Church property as all being expressions 
 of man's sacrifice to God seemed to him God's chief 
 instrument for saving the Church from Rationalism in 
 the sixteenth century ; and " bold must he be who 
 should affirm that, great as was then her need of a 
 defender, it at all exceeded her peril from the same 
 quarter at the present moment. Should these volumes 
 prove at all instrumental in awakening any of her 
 children to a sense of that danger, and in directing 
 their attention to the primitive Apostolical Church as 
 the ark of refuge divinely appointed for the faithful, 
 such an effect will amply repay the editor " x (p. cviii). 
 The suggestion of this part of the Preface was due to 
 Newman, and we find Bowden writing to the latter on 
 June 30, 1836 " Keble's Preface is most glorious." 
 
 In the autumn of the same year, Keble was 
 nominated to preach the sermon at the Archdeacon's 
 Visitation in Winchester Cathedral, and took the 
 occasion to deliver his "masterly exposition of the 
 meaning of Tradition." 5 He begins with a statement 
 of the perplexity of the time : this, it is interesting to 
 note, he regards as spread over the last seven years, i. e. 
 he dates it from the Roman Catholic Emancipation 
 
 1 J. H. N., Letters, ii., p. 198. 
 
 2 R. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 246.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 93 
 
 Act of 1829 ; during that time the foundations of the 
 Church have been laid bare ; the defenders of the 
 Church have been obliged to consider the limits of the 
 civil power in ecclesiastical matters, the vindication of 
 the Anglican Church against the exorbitant claims of 
 Rome, and the reconciliation of voluntary combination 
 of Churchmen with due loyalty to episcopal prerogative. 
 It is impossible to stand aside and avoid responsibility 
 any longer. Now one guide in this perplexity is 
 Tradition, not as overriding the sole and paramount 
 claim of Holy Scripture as a rule of Faith, but as 
 supplementing it. Such Tradition has its analogy in 
 unwritten civil law ; its existence is recognized in 
 Scripture itself, and was constantly appealed to in the 
 early centuries ; it served even as a test for Apostolical 
 writings until the Canon was formed, which in its turn 
 served as a check upon Tradition. To it we owe the 
 systematic arrangement of the Articles of the Faith in 
 the Creed, the preservation of the typical method of 
 the interpretation of Scripture, and many practical 
 points of Church discipline, such as the observance of 
 Sunday, the method of consecrating the Eucharist, &c. 
 The security that we still possess the Tradition is 
 guaranteed by the Apostolical Succession. We cannot 
 afford as loyal churchmen to neglect this aid. Of the 
 two tests, Tradition and Holy Scripture, either suffers 
 if the other is neglected ; and in our present day we 
 need to be guarded against the desire for novelty, 
 against the danger of an empty Nominalism, which 
 resolves the mysteries of the faith into mere externals 
 and methods of speech with no real counterpart in the 
 nature of things ; and against Erastianism," which 
 would surrender ecclesiastical government to the State.
 
 94 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 The sermon met with a good deal of criticism, to 
 which Keble replied in an elaborate postscript, showing 
 the hearty recognition of Tradition in Anglican writers, 
 and elaborating at great detail the part which Tradition 
 had borne in the formulation of the Nicene Creed. 
 
 During the same year Pusey, Newman, and Keble as 
 joint editors started the Library of the Fathers; the 
 proposal was welcomed by the Archbishop, who pressed 
 the advisability of translating whole treatises instead of 
 mere selections, and the series was dedicated to him. 
 To this Keble contributed a translation of St. Irenaeus, 
 a work on which he was engaged from this time 
 onwards, though it was not published till after his 
 death ; he also did much work as editor, revising the 
 translations of some of the volumes of St. Augustine 
 and St. Chrysostom. 
 
 In the spring of 1837, Pusey writes, asking " What 
 are you doing, our father in the faith, perhaps New- 
 man's elder brother only now ? " The answer is that 
 he was working at his translation, and was with 
 Newman preparing Froude's Remains for publication. 
 Froude had died in 1836. and it had been like the loss 
 of a younger brother to Keble. Both he and Newman 
 were conscious how much they had owed to Froude, 
 and when they came to examine his journal, and 
 understood, as never before, the strength and severity 
 of his self-discipline, as well as the logical boldness with 
 which he faced the results of the movement, they 
 determined that the world should know what he had 
 been, and decided to publish extracts from his journal 
 and correspondence as well as his fragmentary writings. 
 It was a bold step, for Fronde was fearlessly out-spoken 
 in his attacks on Rationalism and on the Reformers,
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 95 
 
 and the book was sure to swell the cry of Popery 
 against the Tractarians. They determined, however, 
 to face the cry, and the first two volumes appeared in 
 1838, with a joint preface, in which Keble justified the 
 publication of matter so private, and Newman showed 
 that Froude could not be legitimately charged with 
 Romanism, in the sense of preferring the actual system 
 of the Church of Rome to the English Church, because 
 he had been equally outspoken in denunciation of that 
 Church. At the same time they boldly claim that 
 ministers of the Established Church owe no sort of 
 allegiance to any enactments by which the State has 
 fettered her freedom of action, but at the outside only 
 such a literal acquiescence as the law requires. "Their 
 loyalty is already engaged to the Church Catholic, and 
 they cannot enter into the drift and intentions of her 
 oppressors without betraying her. For example, they 
 cannot do more than submit to the statute of Prse- 
 munire; they cannot defend or concur in the present 
 suspension, in every form, of the Church's synodal 
 powers and her power of excommunication; nor can 
 they sympathize in the provision which hinders their 
 celebrating five out of the daily services which, are their 
 patrimony equally with Romanists." l 
 
 The outcry raised against the book was bitter and 
 loud ; to Dr. Arnold the predominant character of the 
 volume seemed to be extraordinary impudence in its 
 language about the Reformers. But the editors were 
 not daunted. Two further volumes were published 
 in 1839, with a preface almost entirely due to 
 Keble, and quite unflinching in statement. He recalls 
 the tone of Church feeling a few years before; he 
 1 Preface, p. xv.
 
 96 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 shows how Froude's sagacity had anticipated all the 
 improvements which had occurred since then; only 
 in some such startling way was it possible to make 
 a protest heard. All that Froude had done was to 
 carry out uncompromisingly, in points both of doctrine 
 and feeling, the appeal to antiquity ; that appeal was 
 the only ground on which the English Church could 
 maintain its existence against Rome, and therefore he 
 was quite justified in denouncing all that was inconsist- 
 ent with it in the dominant tone of theological thought. 
 Further, the same principle justified him in denouncing 
 any rationalistic or irreverent or Erastian temper in the 
 Reformers ; no doubt natural piety and gratitude for our 
 debt to the Reformation would make us wish not to 
 find fault with them, but this was impossible; they 
 were not as a party to be trusted on ecclesiastical and 
 theological questions. The true plan was to emphasize 
 the fact that the Church was not to be identified with 
 the Reformers, and to claim the right and duty of taking 
 her formulae as we find them, and interpreting them 
 as, God be thanked, they may be always interpreted in 
 all essentials, conformably to the doctrine and ritual 
 of the Church Universal. Providence has wonderfully 
 over-ruled the Reformation from expressly contradicting 
 antiquity, so that, " as a mark of decay and deserved 
 anger, our Church seems to have been left an inade- 
 quate image of antiquity ; as a token to encourage hope 
 and penitence and labour, it was not, however, an 
 untrue image." Thus, whatever they may think of the 
 Reformers, people need not be driven to Rome ; there is 
 the ancient Church waiting to receive them, and the 
 Prayer-book and Anglican Divines of the seventeenth 
 century ready to cover their retreat. This condemna-
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 97 
 
 tion of the Reformers was clinched by a catena of 
 quotations from tlie works of Bishop Jewel, to show 
 the low doctrine which he held on points such as the 
 Apostolical Succession and Sacramental Grace. 
 
 Such language naturally did little to allay any feeling 
 of bitterness; but before we dwell on the effect pro- 
 duced, it may be well to mention two other works 
 on which Keble was engaged. In May 1839, he 
 published anonymously his translation of the Psalter. 
 He himself confesses that it was really impossible to 
 represent the Hebrew rhythm by metres, but as 
 metrical versions of the Psalms were in use, and as 
 he was impressed with the want of reverence of Tate 
 and Brady's version, he made an attempt to represent 
 them as faithfully as possible, each Hebrew clause being 
 represented by one line, and the metre varied, even 
 within the same Psalm. No attempt was made to 
 express a -Christian meaning, that he might be true to 
 the working of God's Holy Spirit, accustomed "to keep 
 himself to the generality under a veil of reserve, through 
 which the eyes of men might see just so much and so 
 clearly as they were purged by Faith and Purity and 
 Obedience." The whole work was revised by Dr. Pusey, 
 and consequently it is valuable as a commentary upon 
 the original. Dr. Cheyne, in the Preface to his own 
 translation of the Book of Psalms, speaks of Keble's too 
 little known metrical version as the production of a 
 poetical student, and acknowledges his indebtedness to 
 it now and again for a felicitous phrase. Keble had 
 hoped that the Bishops of Winchester and Oxford would 
 formally license it for use ; ' but though the latter 
 accepted the dedication of the book, neither was willing 
 
 to do this ; and, in truth, it is little fitted for congre- 
 
 H
 
 98 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 gatioual worship, the attempt to be literal having 
 hampered his freedom too much. 
 
 At the same time he had been interested in tracing 
 out the Patristic method of the mystical interpretation 
 of Holy Scripture. On his visits to Oxford as Professor, 
 he had read more than one paper on it at the gather- 
 ings for theological study, which Dr. Pusey had insti- 
 tuted at his own house. These were thrown together 
 in a completed form, and appeared in 1841 as Tract 
 No. 89. It extends to nearly two hundred pages 
 so completely had Dr. Pusey's influence altered the 
 character of the tracts and converted them into treatises 
 and even so is unfinished. He proposes at the outset 
 to deal with four points, with regard to which the 
 vague and ambiguous charge of mysticism was urged to 
 discredit the Fathers, viz. their figurative interpretation 
 of Holy Scripture, their fanciful application of Nature to 
 spiritual realities, their readiness to see providential 
 interferences in the events of history, and their counsels 
 of perfection in favour of a monastic and contemplative 
 life ; but it is only with the first two of these that the 
 Tract deals. After a large catena of illustrations of 
 this mystical interpretation it is urged that this method 
 has the sanction of the New Testament, that it cannot 
 be exactly formulated or regulated, but is the result 
 of a happy sagacity inwrought into the thoughts and 
 language of the Church, and independent of critical 
 questions. Yet it was never put forward as the ex- 
 clusive meaning ; it was never allowed to evacuate the 
 literal truth, nor did it interfere with moral judgments 
 upon acts of doubtful character. In dealing with such 
 points the Fathers, while they always upheld the 
 doctrine of a permanent standard of morality, yet were
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 99 
 
 doubtless far more lenient in judgment than modern 
 writers, and far less willing to condemn any of the 
 saints of the Old Testament. They were content to 
 point to a Divine command without justifying it, or 
 simply to see the typical value in the action ; suggest- 
 ing excuses and shrinking from censure if possible. 
 Such leniency of judgment was due to two principles; 
 on the one hand it sprang from a deep sense of the 
 communion of saints ; they felt a real bond of union 
 with the Old Testament saints, their fathers in faith, in 
 a sense their brethren in grace ; and a natural piety 
 made them shrink from criticizing : they would rather 
 pas's no judgment than a verdict of guilty upon mem- 
 bers of their own family. On the other hand, they had 
 also a deep and reverential sense of God's peculiar 
 presence in Jewish history. The whole Jewish king- 
 dom was to them " a great prophet, because he is great 
 who was the subject of their prophecy," 1 and so they 
 had a trembling consciousness that they were near the 
 invisible line which separates God's agency from that of 
 His rational creatures, and such a thought will make a 
 religious man slow to censure, lest he may be found 
 blaming his Maker's work unawares. 
 
 The similar mystical treatment of the New Testa- 
 ment is shown to rest upon a belief in the Divinity 
 of the Lord ; " the words and doings of our Blessed 
 Saviour, being, as they are, the words and doings of 
 God, it cannot be but they must mean far more than 
 meets the ear or the eye, they cannot but be full 
 charged with heavenly and mysterious meaning." 
 
 Finally, in dealing with Nature, it is shown that the 
 
 1 S. Aug. c. Faustum xx. 24 ; totum illud regnum gentia 
 Hebrseurum magnum quemdam, quia et magni cujusdam, i'uisse 
 prophetam.
 
 100 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Fathers discourage the mere scientific study of it ; they 
 are always piercing through to a mystical sense. This is 
 analogous to the poet's use of illustrations from Nature ; 
 but it runs deeper than this, and it is so common that 
 it cannot be traced to any one Father's influence. It is 
 the poetry of the Lord Himself, " a set of holy and divine 
 associations and meanings wherewith it is His will to 
 invest material things " ; the works of God are so many 
 visible words, tokens from the Almighty to assure us 
 of some spiritual fact or other, which it concerns us to 
 know; in St. Augustine's words, "All beauty in Thy 
 creatures is but so many beckonings of Thine." l Sun, 
 moon, stars, plants, animals, all are treated as symbols 
 of spiritual realities ; the body of a man is a symbol of 
 his soul, and his soul a type even of God Himself. All 
 are reflections, types, embodiments of Him who is the 
 Reality, the True Light, the True Vine, the True Bread. 
 If our own words seem often full of a deeper meaning 
 than we intended, if the same words produce upon us 
 quite a different effect at different times, it is natural 
 that we should be constantly able to find new meanings 
 ID Divine language, and that it should speak a different 
 language to those whose hearts are prepared to receive it. 
 Such is the general argument, which is worked out 
 with great wealth of illustration. But it was an 
 " inopportune Tract." 2 Why was this ? It was a treatise 
 which at any time would have provoked opposition and 
 would have required a nature of delicate insight and 
 ready sympathy to appreciate its merits. There is no 
 compromise in his attack on the tendencies of modern 
 theology ; he is ready to throw it entirely overboard in 
 
 1 De Libero Arlitrio, ii., p. 43 : "Nutus tni snnt omne creatu- 
 rarum decus. 
 
 * R. W. Church, Oxford Movement, pp. 29, 230.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 101 
 
 contrast to ancient methods ; while he urges that the 
 taste of modern writers may be imperfect, he forgets 
 that that may be equally true of the ancient. He makes 
 no attempt to screen fanciful uses of the method, but 
 selects the examples most likely to startle and scandalize 
 the modern reader : he goes near to shocking the moral 
 sense by his unwillingness to condemn immoral actions 
 in the Bible ; and throughout the whole there is too 
 great an effort to formulate too exactly a method 
 which is essentially poetical and imaginative. Yet, 
 when all these deductions have been made, it is a 
 beautiful specimen of the true reverence with which the 
 Bible should be handled, and all who care for poetry or 
 spiritual life will value it highly. For it is a poet's 
 protest against a prosaic age, pleading for the beauty 
 and fullness of life. Material things are treated as not 
 only material, but as able to express the spiritual ; words, 
 especially Divine words, are seen to represent realities 
 greater than they are adequate to express : they are not 
 to be narrowed down to a dead level of utilitarian 
 literalism ; they are legitimately capable of the meanings 
 we can find in them, and therefore Origen, with his 
 threefold interpretation, was so far superior to the mere 
 literalist that he had three Bibles to the other's one. 
 It is the protest again of the religious man against 
 excluding God from His world. He is there in material 
 things which are a revelation of Himself. He has been 
 present at every moment of history, so that there are 
 "as many different manifestations of the Word, as many 
 Christs as there are believers." Therefore what He did 
 then has a lasting value for us, and we are one with the 
 saints of old and must look to find God in every detail 
 of our lives. " People little know what they do, when
 
 102 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 they deal contemptuously with anything, be it in 
 Scripture or in common life, under the notion that it 
 is too slight, too insignificant for the ordering of the 
 Most High" (p. 22). Lastly, it is a protest of the heart 
 against the intellect, a plea that the pure in heart shall 
 see God, that the love of Him will open our eyes to 
 see deeper meanings in His words. As the lover sees 
 likenesses of his mistress in many a face, and loves them 
 for her sake, so the lover of Christ's Cross will find 
 symbols and anticipations of it in trifling details of the 
 Old Testament, which get a new value for its sake. 
 Such suggestions cannot be tied down to exact details, 
 nor the mystical method restrained by certain limits, but 
 this was part of the charm of it to Keble. To him it 
 seemed " one of the tokens of true theology to acknow- 
 ledge doubtfulness and perplexity, more or less, in every 
 subject, for the doubtfulness of many things has this 
 advantage, that it lessens the apparent difference 
 between the scenes of Scripture and common life ; 
 lessens the temptation to forget how near God is with 
 us ; helps us to feel our true condition as full of 
 supernatural wonders, could we but realize them, as ever 
 was that of the Jews and Patriarchs of old." 
 
 It would have been difficult for these views to win 
 ready acceptance at any time, most of all in Oxford in 
 the beginning of 1841. A nightingale might as soon 
 have expected to be listened to on a field of battle. 
 Keble might be willing to remain in doubt and per- 
 plexity ; others were not : neither friend nor foe were in 
 that frame of mind. For a change had come over the 
 movement in Oxford, to understand which we must go 
 back over the last few years.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE STRUGGLE (continued}. 1841 1845. 
 
 " Tie second Temple could not reach the first ; 
 And the late Reformation never durst 
 Compare with ancient times and purer years ; 
 But in the Jews and us deserveth tears." G. HERBERT. 
 
 O7T(f rpaTTW/iai, TrirvovTog olieov. 
 
 Siooiica $' opfipov KTUTTOV 5o 
 
 rbv aifiaTrjpbv. WtKOLs $s \ijy." 
 
 ^Escn. Agam., 1531-6. 
 
 WE have seen that one of the objects, though but a 
 subordinate object, of the movement, had been to resist 
 the claims of the Roman Church. But the Hampden 
 controversy in 1836 had produced an apparent change. 
 The stress laid upon the dogmatic character of Catholic 
 truth, and the importance attached to Church authority, 
 lent themselves to the charge, which the friends of 
 Hampden knew well how to use, that the movement 
 was really Romanizing, that its principles must end in 
 secession. Nor was this a wholly unfounded suspicion. 
 The appeal to antiquity, the doctrine of Apostolical 
 succession, the sense of continuity, all were equally 
 valid for Rome as for England. The sense of this
 
 104. JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 came home with a strange shock and reversal of opinion 
 to men who had been accustomed to think of the Pope 
 as Antichrist; and when once this prejudice was 
 shaken, the Roman Church, with its wide-spread 
 organization, its developed life of self-sacrifice in 
 brotherhoods and sisterhoods, its elaborate system of 
 dogma and of canon law, offered a more attractive 
 picture to the imagination than an insular provincial 
 Church, struggling to preserve a Catholic creed in the 
 spirit of compromise, and obscuring its witness for self- 
 sacrifice in what was too often an atmosphere of self- 
 satisfied worldliness. Were there, then, no counter- 
 balancing facts ? or, if not, was the Church of England 
 to surrender its position? To this problem Newman 
 addressed himself in his lectures on the Prophetical 
 Office of the Church, in 1837. Discarding, as indeed 
 Keble had done as early as 1824, the theory which 
 identified the Pope with Antichrist, he urged that 
 we are bound to recognize heartily all that is good in 
 Rome, that both Rome and England are branches of 
 the Catholic Church, that Rome has preserved sides of 
 truth which we have lost, and bears more clearly the 
 note of Catholicity ; but that on the other hand it bears 
 less clearly than we the note of Apostolicity ; its 
 witness to the Truth is less clear, less true to Tradition ; 
 its doctrine of Infallibility is not borne out by history, 
 and it claims for the human mind a greater certainty 
 than man has a right to claim. 
 
 But the suspicions were not allayed. In 1838, the 
 Bishop of Oxford, in a Charge which was not unsympa- 
 thetic, yet spoke cautiously and warningly of the 
 movement; there was "a cloud from Cuddesdon," but 
 a cloud that soon blew over. Newman's first inclina-
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 105 
 
 tion liad been to cease the Tracts, but Keble was 
 strongly for continuing them. " No one has encouraged 
 me but you," Newman writes to him. But the more 
 conservative Bisley group of Tractarians had taken 
 fright at a proposal to translate the Breviary for the 
 use of English Churchmen ; and again Keble was the 
 mediating and soothing influence. Yet, " unpleasant 
 tendencies to split were developing themselves on all 
 sides"; 1 for there was a new factor in the problem, a 
 contingent of allies who were destined to have a great 
 influence on the issue of the campaign. The excite- 
 ment of battle, the deep spiritual appeal of Newman's 
 sermons, the intellectual subtlety of his lectures, drew 
 round him a band of young Oxford men, full of enthusi- 
 asm, ready for self-sacrifice, but untrained in any 
 historic sense of Churchmanship, and therefore liable 
 to be carried away by the conception of an ideal 
 Church presented for the first time to their minds. 
 The leader of these was W. G. Ward, a man of strong 
 logical power, with a passion for dialectic, with a long- 
 ing for personal sanctity, who had been converted from 
 a follower of Arnold to that of Newman, but one who 
 had no knowledge of history, no real care for it, and 
 little consideration for the feelings of others ; one who 
 in some ways was the Hurrell Froude of the later part 
 of the movement, but Hurrell Froude such as he was 
 untamed and unsoftened by the influence of Keble. 
 
 Such were the " tendencies to split developing them- 
 selves on all sides " at the beginning of 1839, nor did 
 they grow r less during that year. The publication of 
 Froude's Remains, with his outspoken language in 
 
 1 J. II. N. : Letters, ii., p. 272.
 
 106 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 condemnation of the Reformers, and liis praise of many 
 points in the Roman system, unbalanced by the quali- 
 fications which his love of truth would have supplied 
 had he been reviewing the whole question, or had he 
 been writing in the face of the circumstances of the time, 
 tended to widen the split and to increase the violence 
 of the Romanizing party: "It delighted me more than 
 any book of the kind I ever read," wrote Ward to Dr. 
 Pusey. 1 The counter-move of the Oxford residents to 
 erect the Martyrs' Memorial drove the cleavage further. 
 Newman would not subscribe to it ; Keble would have 
 preferred some memorial of the Reformation without 
 mention of the Reformers, and was unwilling to express 
 a public dissent from Froude in his opinions of the 
 Reformers as a party; Pusey was willing to recognize 
 that we owe to the Reformers our position of adherents 
 to Catholic antiquity ; but all three ultimately refused 
 to subscribe. 
 
 In the course of the same year Newman himself 
 received the first shocks to his own allegiance to 
 Anglicanism : in the study of the Monophysite heresy, 
 a suspicion crossed his mind that the position of the 
 Anglican Church was similar to that of the Monophy- 
 sites ; in the study of the Donatist heresy the principle 
 on which St. Augustine decided against them, " securus 
 judicat orbis Terrarum," seemed to favour Rome rather 
 than England. But Newman's doubts were known to 
 few ; indeed they seemed to pass from his own mind ; 
 he wrote in the British Critic of January, 1840, an 
 article on the Catholicity of the English Church, still 
 upholding the theory that both Churches were true 
 branches of the Catholic Church, and should be neutral 
 
 1 \V. G. Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 84.
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 107 
 
 in their judgments of each other. He was, however, 
 very apprehensive of lapses on the part of the younger 
 writers, who urged that while both Churches were 
 Catholic, the Roman was the nearer to the ideal, that 
 it had retained the most valuable truths, and that 
 English Churchmen were at liberty to revive and 
 restore everything in doctrino and practice which they 
 found there. The tone of their articles in the British 
 Critic was already giving offence to Keble, who was 
 fearful lest people "should speak in a light, lawless 
 tone of the Church of England and her authorities in 
 their greater veneration for the Church of the Fathers." 
 The position of Newman was intensely difficult. He 
 craved for quiet and time for thought. He resigned 
 his editorship of the British Critic to his brother-in- 
 law, T. Mozley; he prepared to leave his rooms in Oriel 
 and live entirely at Littlemore; he even consulted 
 Keble on the duty of resigning the Vicarage of St. 
 Mary's. He urged that he did not really influence 
 those who were his bond fide parishioners, that on the 
 other hand he did influence the undergraduates, for 
 whom he was not responsible, in a way which the 
 Heads of Houses resented, and again that he found 
 that he excited sympathies in favour of Eorne stronger 
 than the arguments which he used against it. Keble 
 replied shortly on the first two points, that we may not 
 measure our influence by what we see, and that the 
 Heads of Houses had no authority over the Vicar of 
 St. Mary's ; on the third point he was more explicit : 
 he did not see how the resignation of St. Mary's 
 would mend matters as long as he continued exercising 
 influence by his writing. No doubt the Tractarian 
 position lent itself to such risks, but his presence in
 
 108 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Oxford helped to minimize the risk ; no one had yet 
 joined the Church of Rome, and his retirement might 
 cause equal scandal and distress. His advice was, 
 then, clearly against retirement, unless Newman could 
 see some way to obviate the scandals which might 
 ensue. 
 
 Newman followed this advice and remained, but the 
 pressure from the Romanizing party was still upon him ; 
 and early in 1841 he wrote Tract 90, with the object 
 of showing that the Articles had been composed as 
 articles of peace between the two opposing parties at 
 the time of the Reformation, that they could not have 
 been intended to contradict the teaching of the Council 
 of Trent, which was formulated after the Articles, but 
 were only aimed at the current popular Romanism, and 
 consequently that they were capable of a Catholic in- 
 terpretation, for they were intended to keep the Catholic 
 party in the Church : " Though the offspring of an un- 
 catholic age, they are, through God's good providence, 
 to say the least, not uncatholic, and may be subscribed 
 by those who aim at being Catholic in heart and 
 doctrine." This was proved by a careful and legal 
 examination of their language. The Tract before publi- 
 cation was sent to Keble, who read it through with his 
 curate and strongly recommended its publication. The 
 tone of it, in its desire to keep men loyal to the 
 Church in England and yet to recognize thoroughly that 
 Church's shortcomings, the call to repentance and con- 
 fession and prayer for unity, and meanwhile the ex- 
 hortation to submit to imperfections as a punishment, 
 to go on teaching, if only " with the stammering lips 
 of ambiguous formularies and inconsistent precedents 
 and principles partially developed" these exactly fell
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 109 
 
 in with Keble's own patient humility, and, in fact, the 
 Tract did not in its position advance an inch beyond 
 the ground which he had taken in common with New- 
 man in the Preface to Froude's Remains. But the 
 atmosphere was more charged now with elements of 
 disturbance. Everywhere were feelings of distrust, 
 doubt, panic; and panic begat injustice. 
 
 On February 27th the Tract was published, but, 
 like all the other Tracts except Dr. Pusey's, published 
 anonymously. On March 8th, four tutors, alarmed at 
 the tendency of it, printed a joint memorial to New- 
 man, as editor of the series, asking that the name of 
 the writer should be revealed. Newman began at 
 once to prepare a defence of the Tract, showing how 
 the tutors had misunderstood him ; but, meanwhile, 
 the Hebdomadal Board, though no appeal had been 
 made to them, took cognizance of the matter. On 
 March 10th the Vice-Chancellor laid the Tract before 
 the Board ; on the 12th it was decided to condemn 
 it, and a Committee was appointed to draw up the 
 resolution. In vain Newman wrote, pleading for 
 delay till his answer to the four tutors should be 
 printed ; in vain Dr. Pusey wrote privately to the Vice- 
 Chancellor to bear witness to the loyalty of the writer 
 of the Tract, and to his desire to keep back anxious 
 minds from Rome by writing it ; in vain Keble wrote, 
 taking upon himself the responsibility for the publi- 
 cation. On the 15th a resolution was passed by the 
 Board, which repudiated the whole series of Tracts as 
 being in no way sanctioned by the University itself, 
 and passed judgment on this particular Tract on the 
 ground that the modes of interpretation suggested in 
 it, evading rather than explaining the sense of the
 
 110 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to 
 them with the adoption of errors which they were 
 designed to counteract, defeat the object and are in- 
 consistent with the due observance of the statutes 
 which require subscription to the Articles. On the 
 16th Newman's answer was published ; this was still 
 anonymous, but on the publication of the decision of 
 the Board he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor to acknow- 
 ledge the authorship, and to take the sole responsibility 
 upon himself. The injustice of the decision, and the 
 touching humility with which Newman received it, 
 drew Churchmen closer together ; the more conservative 
 element of the party rallied round him ; the extreme r 
 party, through the mouth of Ward, were equally enthu- 
 siastic, but damaged his cause by pressing the argument 
 further than Tract 90 had done, and claiming the right 
 to hold all Roman doctrines. A shower of pamphlets 
 followed ; but it is only with one that we need concern 
 ourselves. On April 2nd Keble addressed a letter to 
 Judge Coleridge, pointing out the dangers involved in 
 the course proposed by the Board a letter which was 
 privately circulated at the time, and not published till 
 1865. In it he pleaded for patient reflection and 
 enquiry before any irretrievable step was taken ; for 
 the danger was that a liberty of interpretation which 
 had always been allowed in the Church should now 
 be barred. A resolution of the Board was not authori- 
 tative ; but it would be a serious matter if the whole 
 Convocation of the University were to condemn 
 authoritatively such an interpretation ; it would be 
 difficult for any tutor who believed the interpretation 
 to be true to hold his office ; nay, it would be a question 
 whether Masters of Arts who had subscribed the Articles
 
 THE STRUGGLE. Ill 
 
 when this interpretation was left open, could remain 
 members of the University. Such an act of Convo- 
 cation would really be the adoption of a new test. 
 The matter was even more serious if applied to clerical 
 subscription; if the Catholic interpretation of the 
 Articles was barred, what were the clergy who believe 
 it to do ? It was true that only a Syiiodical act of the 
 whole Church could make such a change, and such a 
 Synod was not likely to meet ; yet if all the bishops, or a 
 majority of them, were to pronounce separately against 
 the interpretation, if even one's own bishop were officially 
 to 'denounce it, the duty of the consistent Churchman 
 would be very difficult; he must either continue his 
 work under protest from his bishop to the Metropolitan 
 or to a Synod, or he must retire into another diocese 
 or into lay communion. " Farther than it, we could 
 not even appear to separate from that which we believe 
 to be the manifestation of the Holy Catholic Church 
 in our country. We could not be driven into schism 
 against our will. We could only wait patiently at the 
 Church door, wishing and praying that our bonds might 
 be taken off, and pleading our cause as we best might 
 from reason and Scripture and Church precedents." 
 The letter ended with an appeal to those who did not 
 sympathize with him, not to force on extreme measures 
 which would weaken the Church's position as against 
 Rome, which would drive many from taking Holy 
 Orders, and be the cause of schism and controversy. 
 The extracts quoted above show how much Keble 
 feared the possibility of some secessions to Rome, and 
 tried to meet the danger, even as Newman's words in 
 Tract 90, " Every change in religion carries with it its 
 own condemnation, which is not attended by deep re-
 
 112 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 pentance," betray the same fear, and a desire to secure 
 that, at any rate, a change should not be made with a 
 light heart. But, for the moment, the danger passed. 
 When, on St. Andrew's Day, Keble, who was appointed 
 to preach before the University, prepared a sermon 
 against secession, Newman dissuaded him from preach- 
 ing it ; he thought there was no one in Oxford in any 
 immediate danger of such an act. Moreover, the 
 Heads took no further steps against him. He was 
 waiting quietly to see what would happen outside 
 Oxford ; whether the bishops would acquiesce in or 
 denounce the Catholic interpretation. The Church 
 seemed to him on her trial. 
 
 In the course of the year two things occurred, each of 
 which seemed of bad omen. The Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury agreed to a plan suggested by M. Bunsen, for 
 appointing a Protestant Bishop at Jerusalem, to exer- 
 cise jurisdiction over the German and English residents. 
 To Newman this was naturally abhorrent, as it showed 
 that the English Church was ready to ally itself in 
 common action with Lutherans and Calvinists, and to 
 admit them to communion without any renunciation of 
 their errors. " The Archbishop is doing all he can to 
 unchurch us," he wrote to his sister, and he liberated 
 his own soul by a formal protest which he forwarded to 
 the Bishop of Oxford. Keble had been doubtful of the 
 wisdom of this protest ; it seemed to him rather want- 
 ing in reverence towards those whom he censured, and 
 the fact of a presbyter protesting against an act of his 
 Metropolitan seemed to require some very commanding 
 call of duty to justify it. 
 
 The other matter touched Keble more closely. In 
 July the Bishop of Winchester refused to give Priest's
 
 STRUGGLE;. us 
 
 Orders to his curate, the Rev. Peter Young, on the 
 ground of his statements about the Real Presence in the 
 Eucharist, and in September spoke severely of Tract- 
 arianism in his Charge. For the moment Keble was 
 inclined to resign, or at least to challenge the Bishop to 
 bring the matter to a legal issue ; but he was dissuaded 
 by Pusey and Newman, and ultimately contented himself 
 with a formal protest against the Bishop's action, 
 addressed to his Metropolitan. The Archbishop's answer 
 was kind, but rather vague and unsatisfactory, and it 
 produced no result. Mr. Young remained in Deacon's 
 Orders, a faithful, affectionate, trustworthy, and trusted 
 curate at Hursley, till 1857, when he removed to the 
 Exeter diocese, and was ordained for the Bishop of 
 Exeter by the Bishop of Oxford at Cuddesdon. 
 
 Meanwhile the anti-Tractarian party grew more 
 aggressive, and there was a quick succession of sharp 
 struggles. On October 19, 1841, Keble delivered his 
 last lecture as Professor of Poetry, and it became 
 necessary to elect his successor. Isaac Williams was 
 the most obvious candidate, and was at once proposed 
 by his friends. But he was a Tractarian, the author 
 of Tract 80 on " Reserve in communicating Religious 
 Knowledge," and on that ground unacceptable to many. 
 Mr. Garbett of Brasenose was entered as a rival candi- 
 date. Owing, partly, to a kindly but ill-judged letter of 
 Dr. Pusey 's, the election was treated as a party ques- 
 tion ; and on a comparison of promises it was found 
 that Mr. Garbett could command 921, as compared with 
 632 given to Mr. Williams, and the latter withdrew. 
 
 In June 1842 further ill-will was caused in con- 
 nection with Dr. Hampden. An attempt made by 
 his friends to rescind the censure passed upon him 
 
 i
 
 114 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 in 1836 was rejected by 334 to 219; in the autumn 
 of the same year Dr. Hampden himself attempted 
 to crush out the Tractarian teaching by making the 
 theses which were written by candidates for the B.D. 
 degree into a test of orthodoxy. This was a new 
 departure, and beyond the actual power allowed him by 
 the statutes ; hence Mr. Macmullen, whose degree Dr. 
 Hampden refused, appealed against it, and when the 
 Vice- Chancellor vetoed the degree, his veto was appealed 
 against and ultimately overthrown. Keble, who felt 
 the injustice of the treatment, was inclined to throw 
 himself into the breach. "I suppose it would be a 
 bravado," he wrote to Dr. Pusey, " if I came up and 
 took my B.D. degree myself, and so got them to try it 
 out in my case rather than his." 
 
 In the next year the opponents essayed a higher 
 flight. On May 24th Dr. Pusey preached a sermon 
 before the University on "The Holy Eucharist a Comfort 
 to the Penitent." This was delated to the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor by Dr. Faussett; the Vice-Chancellor at once 
 sent for the sermon, appointed six doctors, including 
 Dr. Faussett, to examine it ; they, refusing a hearing 
 to Dr. Pusey, passed their condemnation upon it as 
 contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England, and 
 the Vice-Chancellor suspended Dr. Pusey from preach- 
 ing for the space of two years. A request, signed by sixty 
 members of Convocation, that he would make known 
 the grounds of the decision, and state what parts of the 
 sermon were contrary to the teaching of the Church, 
 was refused by the Vice-Chancellor. 
 
 It was a Cadmean victory. The humility with which 
 Dr. Pusey accepted the sentence won sympathy for his 
 cause ; he refused to have its legality challenged, bore
 
 THE STKUGGLE. 115 
 
 Lis silence with patience, and on resuming his turn as 
 preacher after the suspension, resumed the subject as 
 though nothing had happened. And further, the effect 
 of the conduct of the opponents was this. They had 
 silenced the voices of the two people at Oxford who by 
 the weight of their character and of their learning could 
 have controlled and guided the younger spirits. Pusey 
 was suspended from preaching; Newman, wincing 
 under censure, had withdrawn from Oriel and was 
 living in quiet and retirement at Littlemore, feeling that 
 one condemned by the Hebdomadal Board had no right 
 to take active part in academical politics. Meanwhile, 
 the younger members of the movement were unchecked. 
 In the pages of the British Critic, Ward and Oakeley 
 were pressing their views to extremes. The Articles 
 were treated by them as essentially Puritan, and there- 
 fore needing to be explained away in what Ward after- 
 wards called a " non-natural " sense ; the ideal notes of 
 the Church were enumerated, and it was argued that the 
 English Church not only failed to reach that ideal, but 
 fell far short of the point reached by the Church of 
 Rome : the Roman teaching was accepted as the right 
 development of primitive truth. The failures of Rome, 
 the positive excellences of England in teaching and 
 in practice, were alike thrown into the background. 
 Both Pusey and Keble were anxious about the tone of 
 these articles, and Palmer wrote his Narrative, of Events 
 connected with the Tracts for the Times, in order to 
 protest against this tendency to Romanism. The result 
 was that the British Critic was discontinued, but Ward 
 prepared an answer to Palmer, which appeared in 
 June, 1844, entitled The Ideal of a Christian Church, 
 reiterating and developing the superiority of the Roman
 
 116 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Church, and claiming the right to hold the whole 
 cycle of Roman doctrine. This, naturally enough, 
 gave the signal for another great struggle in Oxford. 
 The Hebdomadal Board took up the matter in the 
 Michaelmas Term, and in December gave notice that 
 in the Hilary Term they should propose to condemn 
 Mr. Ward's book, and to deprive him of his degrees. 
 Six passages were quoted in full, and were charged with 
 being inconsistent with the Articles and with Mr. Ward's 
 good faith in subscribing them. But the Board went 
 further than the immediate danger, and proposed to 
 guard against a recurrence of it by enacting that every 
 one who subscribed the Articles henceforth should 
 make a declaration that he did so in the sense in which 
 they were both first published and were now imposed 
 by the University. 
 
 The outcry against this third resolution was so great 
 that it was withdrawn on January 23rd ; but yielding to 
 a largely-signed petition, the Board substituted for it an 
 equally unwise proposal, to pass upon Tract No. 90 the 
 censure which they themselves had passed upon it when 
 it first appeared. The outcry against this was as great 
 as against their previous resolution; pamphlets were 
 written, legal opinions circulated on both sides. On a 
 cold, snowy day in February nearly 1200 members of 
 Convocation came to vote. Feeling had turned some- 
 what in Ward's favour, but his speech was absolutely 
 uncompromising and unconciliatory. The proposal to 
 condemn the book was carried by 777 to 391 ; that to 
 degrade the writer by 569 to 511 ; while the censure 
 on Tract No. 90 was vetoed by the two Proctors, Mr. 
 Guillemard and Mr. Church. An expression of thanks 
 which was circulated by Mr. Charles Marriott and signed
 
 THE STEUGGLE. 117 
 
 by 543 members of Convocation, showed that the Proctors 
 had rightly interpreted the feeling of the University. 
 Keble was in the minority on each vote. Early in the con- 
 troversy, on January 16th, he had written from Hursley 
 a short paper entitled, Heads of Consideration on the 
 Case of Mr. Ward, " the most weighty of all the pro- 
 tests on Mr. Ward's behalf." l He was not personally 
 acquainted with Mr. Ward. He was repelled by his 
 off-handness. He admits that he feels serious disagree- 
 ment with some of his principles ; but he was attracted 
 by. his thoroughness and earnestness. He felt grateful 
 for much that Mr. Ward had written, and was especially 
 fired by the injustice which meted out to Romanizing 
 exaggerations a measure so different from that meted 
 to ultra-Protestant or even Sabellian teaching. The 
 two points on which he lays stress are the inexpe- 
 diency and probable illegality of the act. It was 
 inexpedient for a deliberative body, like Convocation, 
 ever to perform a judicial act. It was specially inex- 
 pedient in this case, because there was no necessity for 
 it, as so few people agreed with Mr. Ward ; because there 
 was no security for impartiality where it was notorious 
 that more flagrant inconsistencies with the truth passed 
 unpunished ; and because it impugned the good faith 
 of Mr. Ward, whereas every one, who knew his 
 character, knew that that at least was untrue. It was 
 probably illegal because it was doubtful whether Con- 
 vocation could degrade a Master of Arts except for 
 offences for which this penalty was imposed by the 
 statutes. When the degradation had passed, it is said 
 that Keble refused, for a whole year, to wear his own 
 
 1 Wilfrid "Ward, in William George Ward and the Oxford 
 
 Movement
 
 118 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Master's hood, so keenly did lie feel the unfairness 
 of the judgment. 
 
 Such was the drama being enacted before the world 
 a drama serious enough, though Ward, with his 
 rollicking humour, with his comic songs, with the 
 sudden surprise of his engagement to be married at the 
 moment when he was upholding the celibacy of the 
 priesthood, contrived to mystify the spectators, and 
 make them think that it was a comedy which was being 
 played. But behind the scenes it was a real tragedy 
 which was being enacted. Newman had retired from 
 his Oriel rooms, and settled at Littlemore in February, 
 1842 ; in his retirement there, the charges of the 
 Bishops, repudiating the principles of Tract 90, seemed 
 to him to show that the Church of England would 
 refuse to accept her Catholic heritage. In February, 
 1843, he retracted the hard things which he had said 
 about Rome ; in August of the same year, Lockhart, 
 one of the inmates of his house at Littlemore, who had 
 come there perplexed about the claims of the Roman 
 Church, and who had promised to give three years to 
 the consideration of the question, broke his promise 
 and joined the Church of Rome before one year had 
 elapsed. In September, Newman resigned the Vicarage 
 at St. Mary's, this time with Keble's acquiescence. 
 In 1845, the theory of development seemed to open 
 a way to Newman by which he could explain honestly 
 the divergences between Primitive and Roman doctrines. 
 On October 6th he resigned his Fellowship at Oriel, 
 and within two days was received into the Church 
 of Rome. They were years of spiritual and physical 
 tension, painful alike to the sufferer and to those who 
 knew what was passing. The scene might be com-
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 119 
 
 pared to that of Prometheus chained to the rock ; and 
 meanwhile, from time to time, there came from Hursley 
 voices of sympathy, of encouragement, of hope, of 
 delicate suggestion, of respectful tenderness for the 
 mystery that was passing in the recesses of another's 
 soul, like the utterances of a chorus, one in heart and 
 in years with the Protagonist. 
 
 Thus, in answer to Newman's request for advice about 
 resigning St. Mary's, Keble writes, on May 14, 1843 
 
 . " Believe me, my very dear Newman, that any 
 thought of wilful insincerity in you can find no place 
 in my mind. You have been and are in a most 
 difficult position, and I seem to myself in some degree 
 able to enter into your difficulties; and although one 
 sees of course how an enemy might misrepresent your 
 continuing in the English Priesthood with such an 
 impression on your mind, I have no thought but of 
 love and esteem and regard and gratitude for you in 
 this as in everything in this way. But I can only just 
 say what I feel, perfectly unequal as I know myself on 
 every account to give you advice on this awful matter. 
 My feeling is that your withdrawing from the English 
 Ministry under the present circumstances will be a very 
 perilous step, not so much in itself, but because of its 
 bringing you, as I fear it would, in every respect 
 nearer what I must call the temptation of going over. 
 (2) That this latter would indeed be a grievous event, 
 considering that for what is wrong without our fault in 
 the place where God's providence has set us we are not 
 ourselves answerable, but we are for what may be wrong 
 in the position we choose for ourselves. (3) That this 
 difference in point of responsibility ought in a matter
 
 120 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of practice to outweigh the difference you feel on the 
 other side in the evidence for the claims of Rome and 
 against her additions to the Creed, and especially as 
 
 (4) you seem to ground your impression chiefly on 
 points of historical evidence ; you speak of it as a 
 ' hideous dream' from which you would gladly awake ; 
 it does not overpower you with a sort of intrinsical 
 lustre, as many Divine truths I suppose might. 
 
 (5) You speak in one part of your letter of our 
 Church showing no sign of repentance, no yearning 
 after Catholicity; but is not the time too short for any 
 one to be acting on this impression ? Certainly there 
 is a great yearning even after Rome in many parts of 
 the Church, which seems to be accompanied with so 
 much good that one hopes if it be right it will be 
 allowed to gain strength. But from Bishops one could 
 hardly look at present for more than toleration; and 
 that I consider even myself to have from my Diocesan, 
 much more you from yours. Are you sure that some 
 of your feeling on this head is not owing to a natural 
 reaction from having had too eager expectations at 
 some time ? (6) I am not sure how far it is right to 
 talk of consequences, but I suppose, as far as we can 
 judge of them, that no one thing would tend more entirely 
 to throw us back and undo what little good may have 
 been done of late. As to the question itself, I am really 
 too ignorant of the parts of history to which you refer 
 to say a word ; but can it be that the evidence seems 
 so overpowering as to amount to moral certainty ? and 
 if not, ought not but a small probability on the other 
 side to weigh against it practically ? 
 
 " You see my deep feeling about your withdrawing 
 from your ministerial place refers almost wholly to what
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 121 
 
 I fear might come after ; if I were secure against such 
 consequences, I cannot say that I should think it wrong, 
 great as the alarm would perhaps be for a time, and 
 the loss too in many respects. 
 
 " One thing occurs to me. Do you not think it possible 
 that you may have over-estimated the claims of Rome 
 in your later studies from a kind of feeling that your 
 earlier expressions had done her wrong ? and now that 
 you have retracted them, would it not be well to 
 examine the matter over again, free as you would be 
 from that particular bias ? 
 
 "And now, my dearest Newman, I have one most 
 earnest request to make of you : that you will not in the 
 smallest degree depend on my advice or opinion in this 
 matter, for you do not, you cannot [loords struck out] to 
 advise with about it, in every respect but true love (I 
 believe) towards you. It frightens me to think how rashly, 
 and with how small preparation, I have been dealing with 
 these great matters, and I have all manner of imagin- 
 ations as to how my defects may have helped to 
 unsettle people, and in particular to hinder you from 
 finding peace. Yet do not suppose I would stop you 
 from writing to me if it is the least relief to you to do 
 so. On the contrary, not to hear from you would be a 
 sad loss. All I want is that you should put no sort of 
 implicit faith in me, but take up with what I say when 
 you see anything in it that is reasonable and right, not 
 otherwise. 
 
 " I still cling to the hope you taught me to entertain, 
 that in the present distress, where the Succession and 
 the Creeds are, there is the Covenant, even without 
 visible inter-Communion. 
 
 " God forgive and bless us, and choose our burthen
 
 122 JOHN KERLE. 
 
 for us, and help us to bear it ; and if it be His will, 
 may we two never be divided in communion. 
 
 " Ever your most grateful and affectionate 
 
 "J. KEBLE." 
 
 Again, on July 29th 
 
 " You may well believe that I have been full of 
 thoughts about you, the more in one sense that I 
 feel so utterly helpless and unable to think of any- 
 thing which I can suggest as good for a person tried 
 as you are, except what I am sure you have thought 
 of long ago. Thus sometimes I think it would be good 
 for you to withdraw as much as possible for a while from 
 theological study and correspondence, and be as entirely 
 taken up with parochial concerns ; but then I am met 
 with the recollection that you expect so soon to be 
 separated from poor Littlemore. Again, I think unre- 
 served confidence in some really worthy confessor might 
 be a great help to you at times I mean the sort of 
 submission which would make you put by a subject if 
 he bid you, without his assigning any reason. And I 
 suppose it may be well for one to watch and pray, 
 especially against the temptation of always being on the 
 move, which I suppose is the portion of some minds." 
 
 On Jan. 22, 1844, he writes 
 
 " These are some of my impressions. First, I feel more 
 strongly with every month's, week's, day's experience 
 the danger of tempting God, and the deep responsibility 
 I should have to bear were I to forsake this Communion ; 
 and yet with the same lapse of time one seems to feel 
 more and more the truth and beauty and majesty of so 
 much which they have and we seem at least to have 
 not. Secondly, one is at times very very strongly
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 123 
 
 impressed with the thought of the Evil One, how surely 
 he would endeavour to ruin the good work, supposing it 
 begun, in the English Church, by laying hold of any 
 undiscerned weakness or ill-tendency in the agents to 
 entice or drive them out of it ; such tendencies one 
 can imagine in your case among the rest a certain 
 restlessness, a longing after something more, some- 
 thing analogous to a very exquisite ear in music which 
 would keep you, I should think in spite of yourself, 
 intellectually and morally dissatisfied wherever you 
 were. If you were in a convent, you would be forced to 
 subdue it and as it were swallow it down ; may it 
 not perhaps be your calling now to do the same, though 
 under no such definite rule, for others' sake as well as 
 your own ? May it not be your duty, according to your 
 own line of argument just made public, to suppress 
 your misgivings nay, what seem your intellectual con- 
 victions, as you would any other bad thought, making 
 up your mind that the conclusion is undutiful, and 
 therefore there must be some delusion in the premises ? 
 Another thought one has is of the utter confusion and 
 perplexity, the astounding prostration of heart and 
 mind into which so many would be thrown, were their 
 guide and comforter to forsake them all at once, in the 
 very act, as it would seem to them, of giving them 
 directions which they most needed. I really suppose 
 that it would be to thousands quite an indescribable 
 shock, a trial almost too hard to be borne, making them 
 sceptical about everything and everybody. Surely, when 
 it is a person's duty (as St. Paul's) to take such a step 
 as that, the tokens from above will be such (one 
 naturally expects) as no one could mistake; and may we 
 not piously believe that when it is the will of Divine
 
 124 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Providence that such persons as Pusey, for example, 
 should leave their present Communion, something 
 equivalent to that voice will occur, such as an unequi- 
 vocal act of heresy on the part of our Church, leaving 
 no doubt on the mind, and that till such tokens are 
 given, it is His will men should stay where they are ? 
 I am running on, I fear, not very wisely ; and I wish I 
 may not be distressing you, but if I could express 
 myself better, I believe I really mean what I have 
 learned from yourself. 
 
 ****** 
 
 "I am writing in great ignorance, and very likely quite 
 beside the mark ; if I pain or disturb you, forgive me. 
 Somehow or other I was almost forced to write. You 
 know I see you looking at me day after day, and I must 
 speak to you now and then, and when I speak, I must 
 say what is in my mind. May it do no harm, if it does 
 no good. I am sure my account is heavy enough 
 without that." 
 
 This extract from a letter of March 3rd is interesting 
 
 "My grand swallow of pain on the subject was 
 perhaps three-quarters of a year ago, when I received 
 a long letter of yours, and retired into a dirty old chalk- 
 pit to read it. I cannot tell you with what sort of 
 fancy I look at the place now." 
 
 In June, he was pained by the publication of 
 Arnold's Life and Letters, and he writes 
 
 " You will readily understand what is the bitterest 
 part of one's feelings in the whole matter, both in 
 respect of Arnold and of your change, not that I mean 
 to compare the two subjects in the least degree in point 
 of distressfulness, but in both one has a sad depressing 
 thought, that if one were or had been other than one
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 125 
 
 is, the anguish might have been averted or mitigated. 
 To think that you remember me continually is indeed 
 a most consoling thought. May it always be so, and 
 may I be more worthy of it." 
 
 In November, 1844, he sends him an extract from a 
 letter of Judge Coleridge about the gratitude, vener- 
 ation, and love which many in the English Church feel 
 towards him, and adds 
 
 " Therefore, my dear Newman, do not in any case 
 imagine that you have not hundreds, not to say 
 thousands, sympathizing with you, and feeling indeed 
 that they owe their very selves to you. I can only 
 speak for one of certain knowledge. Your sermons put 
 me in the way, and your healing ministration helped 
 me beyond measure. This is certain knowledge of 
 mine, .... and wherever I go there is some one to 
 whom you have been a channel of untold blessing. 
 You must not be angry, for I feel as if I could not help 
 saying it, and I am sure the very air of England all 
 around you would say the same, if it could be made 
 vocal. They have had unspeakable help from you, and it 
 is now their turn to help you with their prayers and 
 good wishes, now that you seem to be called for a while 
 to be patient in comparative silence and inactivity." 
 
 On February 20, 1845, he writes an affectionate 
 birthday letter, recalling the bright associations of the 
 day in which the first stone of Littlemore Church was 
 laid. This is printed in Newman's Letters, and need 
 not be repeated here ; but the following letter, which 
 closes the correspondence, though already published, is 
 too touching to be omitted. 
 
 "October 3rd, 1845. I feel as if I had something to 
 say to you, although I don't very well know what it
 
 126 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 will be ; but Charlotte's illness having for the present 
 at least abated, I find that I am better able than I 
 have been for near a fortnight past to think and speak 
 coherently of other things, and what can I think of so 
 much as you, dear friend, and the dyow'a which awaits 
 us with regard to you : except, indeed, when my 
 thoughts travel on to Bisley to Tom's bedside ; for 
 there, as well as here, everything almost seems to have 
 been, perhaps to be, hanging by a thread. At such 
 times one seems in a way to see deeper into realities, 
 and I must own to you that the impression on my own 
 mind of the reality of the things I have been brought 
 up among, and of its being my own fault, not theirs, 
 whereinsoever I am found wanting, this impression 
 seems to deepen in me as Death draws nearer ; and I 
 find it harder and harder to imagine that persons such 
 as I have seen and heard of lately should be permitted 
 to live and die deceiving themselves in such a point, 
 as whether they are aliens to the grace of God's 
 Sacraments or no. 
 
 "October llth, midnight. I had written thus far 
 about a week ago, and then left off for very weariness, 
 and now that I am thinking of going on with my 
 writing, I find that the thunderbolt has actually fallen 
 upon us, and you have actually taken the step which 
 we greatly feared. I will not plague you, then, with 
 what I might otherwise have set down something 
 which passed directly relating to yourself in what fell 
 from my dear wife on this day fortnight, when in 
 perfect tranquillity and self-possession, having received 
 the Holy Communion, she took leave of us all, 
 expecting hourly to sink away. By God's great 
 mercy she revived, and still continues among us, with
 
 THE STRUGGLE. 127 
 
 I trust increasing Lopes of recovery ; but the words 
 which she spoke were such that I must always think 
 of them as of the last words of a saint. Some of 
 them I had thought of reporting to you, but this at 
 any rate is not the time. 
 
 " Wilson has told rue how kindly you have been 
 remembering us in our troubles ; it was very kind, 
 when you must have so much upon your own mind. 
 Who knows how much good your prayers and those of 
 other absent friends may have done us both here and 
 at Bisley ? for there too, as I dare say you know, has 
 been a favourable change, and a more decided one, I 
 imagine, than here at least their doctor has told them 
 they may make themselves comfortable, which is far 
 beyond anything that has yet been said to us. But his 
 recovery is very very slow. There too, as well as here, 
 everything has fallen out so as to foster the delusion, if 
 delusion it be, that we are not quite aliens, not living 
 among unrealities. Yet you have no doubt the other 
 way. It is very mysterious, very bewildering indeed ; 
 but being so, oiie's duty seems clearly pointed out : 
 to abide where one is, till some new call come upon 
 one. If this were merely my own reason or feeling, I 
 should mistrust it altogether, knowing, alas ! that I am 
 far indeed from the person to whom guidance is 
 promised, but when I see the faith of others, such as I 
 know them to be, and so very near to me as God has 
 set them, I am sure that it would be a kind of impiety 
 but to dream of separating from them. 
 
 " Besides the deep grief of losing you for a guide and 
 helper, and scarce knowing which way to look (though 
 I trust, thanks (in good part) to your kindness in many 
 ways, I am not in so wretched a condition as I was),
 
 128 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 you may guess what uncomfortable feelings haunt me, 
 as if 1, more than any one else, was answerable for 
 whatever of distress and scandal may occur. I keep on 
 thinking, ' if I had been different, perhaps N. would 
 have been guided to see things differently, and we 
 might have been spared so many broken hearts and 
 bewildered spirits.' To be sure, that cold hard way of 
 going on, which I have mentioned to you before, stands 
 my friend at such times and hinders me, I suppose, 
 from being really distressed, but this is how I feel 
 that I ought to feel, and [words struck out] I tell you 
 [words struck out] and how I wish you to help me. That 
 way of help, at any rate, is not forbidden you in respect 
 of any one of us. 
 
 " My dearest Newman, you have been a kind and 
 helpful friend to me in a way in which scarce any 
 one else could have been, and you are so mixed up 
 in my mind with old and dear and sacred thoughts, 
 that I cannot well bear to part with you most 
 unworthy as I know myself to be, and yet I cannot go 
 along with you. I must cling to the belief that we are 
 not really parted you have taught me so, and I scarce 
 think you can unteach me and having relieved my 
 mind with this little word, I will only say, God bless 
 you and reward you a thousandfold all your help in 
 every way to me unworthy, and to so many others. May 
 you have peace when you are gone, and help us in 
 some way to get peace ; but somehow I scarce think 
 it will be in the way of controversy. And so with 
 somewhat of a feeling as if the Spring had been taken 
 out of my year, 
 
 " I am always your affectionate and grateful 
 
 " J. KEBLE."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 
 
 " Or if perchance a sadden'd heart 
 
 That once was gay and felt the spring, 
 Cons slowly o'er its alter'd part, 
 In sorrow and remorse to sing, 
 
 Thy gracious care will send that way 
 Some spirit full of glee, yet taught 
 
 To bear the sight of dull decay, 
 And nurse it with all-pitying thought ; 
 
 Cheerful as soaring lark, and mild 
 As evening blackbird's full-toned lay, 
 
 When the relenting sun has smiled 
 Bright through a whole December day. 
 
 These are the tones to brace and cheer 
 
 The lonely watcher of the fold, 
 When nights are dark, and foemen near, 
 
 When visions fade and hearts grow cold." 
 
 The Christian Year. SS. Simon and Jude. 
 
 THE years between 1841 and 1846 were years of 
 intense strain and weary waiting. Where were things 
 tending ? Would the Church of England refuse to 
 answer to the high call made upon her ? What would 
 J. H. N. do ? If he went to Rome, ought others to 
 follow ? What would be his own duty ? Such ques- 
 tions were pressing upon Keble's heart, and the tension 
 
 K
 
 130 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 once more found relief in verse. Once more, as in the 
 early days in Gloucestershire, there is strong feeling 
 and there is tranquillity. Once more Keble goes back 
 to his ideal. The vision of innocence and of holiness 
 refreshes him again, and it is seen mirrored in the faces 
 of young children. " Those who christen children," he 
 said, "have a right to love them." 
 
 In the lines of the Christian Year, quoted above, he 
 had described the comfort which the young could bring 
 to the sad ; and he found tones to brace and cheer 
 him in the simple village children of Hursley, and in 
 the growing families of Sir W. Heathcote at the Park 
 and of Dr. Moberley, whose children spent the holidays 
 in a farm-house in Hursley parish. 
 
 As early as 1841 he edited The Child's Christian Year. 
 This is essentially a book for children ; it had been 
 compiled by Mrs. Yonge for the parish school at Otter- 
 bourne, under Keble's supervision. Four only of the 
 hymns have since been reprinted as his own. 1 The 
 object of the book, as described in the Preface, was 
 " to bring ordinary parochial teaching into unison with 
 the tone of the Prayer-book, and by consequence with 
 that of the Ancient Universal Church; and for this 
 purpose to raise and purify the standard by which the 
 poor judge of religious teaching. Incidentally it is hoped 
 that attention to this part of education may do much 
 towards preparing another generation for something 
 like a revival of Discipline the only Church Reform 
 which can really deserve the name. As things are at 
 present, to speak of such a thing sounds almost like 
 talk in a dream; yet if the well-disposed of our young 
 people were trained up in the tone of the Ancient 
 1 Miscellaneous Poems, pp. 103 109.
 
 LYHA INNOCENTIUM. 131 
 
 Church, were taught to sympathize with her and look 
 to her for sympathy, the spirit of discipline, it would 
 seem, could not fail to revive, and what are now mere 
 forms would again take to themselves power." l 
 
 This was written on November 6, 1841. During 
 the following years his own poems on childish life grew 
 apace ; and in 1845 an external circumstance decided 
 him to publish them. He had made up his mind to 
 restore the church at Hursley. Coleridge, Dyson, and 
 Patteson advanced him money for this on the security 
 of the copyright of the Christian Year ; but this was 
 not sufficient, and the need of further funds led to the 
 publication of the Lyra Innocentium, which appeared 
 but without the author's name in the beginning of 
 1846. This is not, like the compilation of 1841, a book 
 for children ; it does not profess to be ; according to 
 its title it is a book "on children ; their ways and privi- 
 leges " ; and so it is a " mother's book " " a sort of 
 Christian Year for teachers and nurses." It is not so 
 well known as the Christian Year, for it does not appeal 
 to so wide a circle, and yet in two respects it may 
 rank above it. First, there is more of lyrical freedom, 
 more of metrical variety and of musical melody. The 
 Song of the Manna Gatherers is more dramatic, and 
 has perhaps more vigorous movement in it than any of 
 his poems. Tlie Offertory and Continual Services have 
 
 1 On a stray piece of paper still preserved in Keble's writing 
 are found the following " principles in choosing and correcting 
 hymns " 
 
 "(1) Always use ' we ' instead of ' I,' or nearly always. 
 
 (2) Insert as many touches of doctrine as may be. 
 
 (3) Under every head have at least an ancient or archaic 
 hymn." 
 
 The paper is undated, and probably refers to a later date (1856), 
 when he was helping Lord Nelson edit the Sctlisbunj Hymiud.
 
 132 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 a charm, the one of bright joyousness, the other of quiet 
 harmony, that are wonderfully in keeping with their 
 subject. 
 
 Again, there is more brightness, more inspiriting 
 hopefulness about its tone. The tone of the Christian 
 Year had been sadder ; it always assumed that the 
 Church is in decay ; the poems of the Lyra Apostolica 
 had been more defiant against its foes ; whereas these 
 are gladsome with the signs of life and tokens of revival 
 that are already to be seen in the Church. Jeremiah has 
 given place to the stripling David, advancing hopefully 
 and trustfully against Goliath. 
 
 In 1826 he had written, " I hold it to be a selfish 
 and dangerous sort of thing for people to be always 
 turning their eyes inwards " : and perhaps it is not untrue 
 to trace in the brighter and less subjective tone of the 
 Lyra some result of the discipline which he had exercised 
 over himself in this matter. 
 
 In the poetic imagery there is the same loving some- 
 times over-strained use of Holy Scripture. There is 
 less of the mystical interpretation of Nature ; more, 
 as is perhaps natural in dealing with children, of illus- 
 trations from animal life, 
 
 " The Lord lends His creatures all, 
 A tongue to preach His will," 
 
 and the young in the nest, the hen gathering her brood 
 under her wing, the redbreast carolling during Service, 
 form some of the softest touches in the picture. The 
 Christian Year stands to the Lyra Innocentium as Ps. 
 xix. does to Ps. viii. In Ps. xix. the glory of the heavens, 
 and the undefiled purity of the Law of the Lord giving 
 wisdom unto the simple, leads up to the cry to be saved
 
 LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 133 
 
 from presumptuous sins. Such is the Christian Year. 
 In Ps. viii. the glory of the heavens pales before the 
 witness of little children, by whose means God stills 
 the enemy, in whom man is seen crowned with glory 
 and worship, and all dumb creatures are in subjection 
 under his feet. Such is the Lyra Innocentium. 
 
 Innocence is the keynote of the whole ; the love of 
 holiness is the emotion which has inspired it. The 
 thankful harmony of Nature is lovingly described, and 
 even the Christian Year has no more beautiful expres- 
 sion of it than is to be found in Continual Services 
 
 " His spheres, recede they or advance, 
 Before him in mysterious dance 
 
 Keep tune and time ; nor e'er 
 Fails from this lower world a wreath 
 Of incense such as sweet flowers breathe 
 
 And vernal breezes bear. 
 Only man's frail, sin-wearied heart 
 
 Bears, half in sadness, 
 A wavering intermitted part 
 
 In that high gladness." 
 
 But the innocence of childhood and its winning ways 
 are most prominent. No beauty in flower or gem can 
 show half so fair as the charms of the new-baptized ; as 
 in each dew-drop is mirrored some glory of heaven's 
 great sun, so in each baptized child some ray of the 
 Father's likeness. The tender, spotless child rehearsing 
 his Creed has visions of spiritual truth which his elders 
 lack ; his presence has more than angelic power to scare 
 away thoughts of evil and of sadness 
 
 " A little child's soft, sleeping face 
 
 The murderer's knife ere now hath stayed ; 
 The adulterous eye, so foul and base, 
 Is of a little child afraid." 
 
 Babes have a sympathy with dumb animals, and
 
 134 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 animals with them, which Eastern sages might explain 
 as due to transmigration of souls, but which is part of 
 the heritage of Eden ; their ready praise and willingness 
 to give their toys away is a type of Christ's largess on 
 the day of Pentecost ; their shyness is a germ of the 
 true silent awe which all ought to feel in the Presence 
 of God, and especially the pastor who has to work for 
 Him. Their life is like that of the angels, in their 
 white robes, in their ready prayer and praise, in their 
 willingness to serve 
 
 " As angels wait in joy 
 On saints, so on the old the duteous-hearted boy " 
 
 (p. 250). And the angels catch up their prayers for 
 home and parents, and expand them and interpret them 
 before God as prayers for the Church and her Priests. 
 
 Duteous duteous-hearted that is the special 
 quality chosen for praise; but even child-life suggests 
 notes of warning too. The mother as she looks on the 
 child cannot but be anxious; fear's chastening angel 
 must, for Love's sweet sake, dwell with the child. David 
 too was a generous boy with open brow ; the mother of 
 Judas must have looked on him with joy and hope ; 
 as the mother's prophet eye reads even in their sports 
 her child's future life and character, it must be in 
 " hope and agony " that she prays ; for that life may be 
 soiled by violent passion or by sullen moroseness, by 
 neglect of childhood's simple courtesies, by irreverence, 
 by " the blight of thankless eye," by " the quick untrem- 
 bling gaze," by the love of praise making the child rest 
 in earthly things ; too great display may be as fatal to 
 the child's future as Hezekiah's display of his treasures 
 to the ambassadors of Babylon
 
 LYEA INNOCENTIUM. 135 
 
 " For busy hands and an admiring ken 
 Have blighted ere its time full many a rose." 
 
 The child has had the sign of the Cross put upon it ; 
 therefore it must be ready for suffering, ready to find its 
 life thenceforward by daily dying. 
 
 This child-life is often used to point the contrast 
 with the grown-up man ; his own sense of sinfulness 
 breaks in upon the scene, and seems so black against its 
 whiteness 
 
 " Jesus in His babes abiding, 
 Shames our cold ungentle ways : " 
 
 and yet more often He comes in His children not to 
 judge but to give life ; with a hope and a suggestion of 
 what even the sinner may be. The white apparel of 
 the baptized child and the joyous white of the bride find 
 their counterpart in the white robe of the penitent. 
 There is still the same deep sense of sin and of un- 
 worthiness, but there is perhaps a yet stronger hold on 
 the reality of absolution, a more lively hope that " the 
 withered bough may blush with fruitage still " 
 
 " fear, joy to think ! and what if yet 
 
 In some far moment of eternity, 
 The love of evil I may quite forget, 
 
 And with the pure in heart my portion be ! " 
 
 Others have come to him by this time for guidance 
 in the hour of remorse and of perplexity ; he has 
 trusted that God will use even his unworthiness, and has 
 found his trust true, and the witness of the reality of 
 forgiveness in them has deepened it for himself. The 
 sorrows of the time have drawn him out of himself and 
 made him cling close to the Church, like a child cling- 
 ing closer to its mother's robe among strangers, when it
 
 136 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 can only see " far-reaching ways unknown and wide." l 
 But that touch has given him boldness, and made his 
 step free and light. He has learnt her power to train 
 her children, to minister to all the varied needs of life. 
 The tenderness of bright joyous children for a sister just 
 recovering from death, and the heartfelt prayer of the 
 parents for the child, have brought closer home to him 
 the sense of the love of God and of His Church for the 
 penitent. 2 Moreover he has learnt more of her doctrine ; 
 " When I wrote the former book," he says to Judge 
 Coleridge, " I did not understand (to mention no more 
 points) either the doctrine of Repentance or that of the 
 Holy Eucharist as held e. g. by Bishop Ken ; nor that of 
 Justification, and such points as those must surely make 
 a great difference." 3 There is certainly greater definite- 
 ness in this volume on several points. There is a 
 stronger sense of " the living dead " ; " the pure and 
 childlike dead," watching our lives and joining in our 
 prayers. The saints have grown dearer to him, and he 
 loves to trace in the baptized not only the signs of filial 
 likeness to the Father which is in heaven, but of like- 
 ness to its brothers the saints, whether they recall the 
 penitence of St. Peter, the loving smile of the loved 
 disciple, or the purity of Blessed Mary. Especially is 
 the reverence towards the Blessed Virgin marked her 
 
 " Whom the awful blessing 
 Lifted above all Adam's race." 
 
 The orphaned child is taught to feel that not only her 
 own mother is praying for her, but also "A holier 
 mother rapt in more prevailing prayer." He had 
 
 1 See the touching poem entitled Separation. 
 
 2 Cf. Languor, " the tenderest of all the poems " (Miss Yonge). 
 " Memoir, p. 282. Cf. I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 117.
 
 LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 137 
 
 intended to prefix to the volume a poem written on 
 December 8, 1844, and entitled Mother out of 'Sight, 1 
 in which the Blessed Virgin is " called blessed " as the 
 one only instrument of the Incarnation, as the type of 
 the Church, as the pattern of all purity, and in which, 
 though we may not adore her, we are urged to seek the 
 love and fear "which bring thee with all saints, near 
 and more near," and suppliants are invited to greet 
 her with an " Ave," as 
 
 " Children with ' good morrow ' come, 
 To elders in some home," 
 
 and in this spirit to invite the saints to join in our 
 prayers. Such language goes indeed very little, if at 
 all, beyond that of the Christian Year, but Coleridge, 
 Dyson, and other friends dissuaded him from publishing 
 it. The poem tells of doubt and perplexity, of the 
 wonder of many whether Mother Church could really 
 be found in the Church of England, yet it bears witness 
 that he himself is convinced that God's signs are still 
 around us ; there is no hint of disloyalty ; there is a 
 sense that the Church places too low the honour she 
 pays to the highest of God's creatures ; but he is content 
 to wait, even as, while grieving over the disuse of Infant 
 Communion in another poem, he was willing to wait 
 and take such part as the Church " she whose laws are 
 sealed on high " ordains. His feeling towards other 
 Churches was at the time one of neutrality ; he would 
 recognize each as separate parts of one great stream, 
 destined to be united hereafter, but for a while flowing 
 apart. This is illustrated in the poem called The 
 Waterfall ; there the value of each separate Christian 
 
 1 Printed after his death in Miscellaneous Poems, p. 254.
 
 138 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 life is illustrated by the various streams that rush 
 together from all sides to make up the glory of Lodore ; 
 but he is clearly thinking more of Churches than of 
 individuals as he draws the application 
 
 "E'en so the mighty sky-born stream : 
 
 Its living waters from above 
 All marr'd and broken seem, 
 No union and no love. 
 
 Yet in dim caves they haply blend, 
 In dreams of mortals unespied ; 
 
 One is their awful end, 
 One their unfailing guide. 
 
 And Christ hath lowly hearts, that rest 
 Amid fallen Salem's rush and strife ; 
 
 The pure peace-loving breast 
 Even here can find her life. 
 
 What though in harsh and angry note 
 
 The broken flood chafe high ? They muse 
 
 On mists that lightly float, 
 On heaven-descending dews, 
 
 On virgin snows, the feeders pure 
 
 Of the bright river's mountain springs, 
 
 And still their prayers endure, 
 And Hope sweet answer brings. 
 
 If of the Living cloud they be 
 Baptismal drops, and onward press 
 
 Toward the Living Sea 
 By deeds of holiness, 
 
 Then to the Living Waters still 
 
 (O joy, with trembling !) they pertain, 
 
 Join'd by some hidden rill, 
 Low in earth's darkest vein." 
 
 Baptism and the struggle for holiness are to each
 
 LYRA INNOCENTIUM. 139 
 
 sufficient assurance that he belongs to the Church ; the 
 signs of spiritual life around them are full of hope. So 
 it has been throughout the book. The possibilities of 
 true spiritual life in the English Church are hinted at 
 by dwelling upon all that it does for children, by trying 
 to picture something of what their pure vision sees in 
 it ; the hope of the penitent is rekindled by recalling to 
 him his childish innocence, and by pointing to the hope 
 of re-winning that. So it is that in the Preface which 
 he substituted (on February 8, 1846), he prays that God 
 may pardon his sin, and strengthen him that he may 
 guide the perplexed along their path, 
 
 " And with no faint or erring voice 
 
 May to the wanderer whisper, ' Stay ' : 
 God chooses for thee : seal His choice, 
 
 Nor from thy Mother's shadow stray : 
 For sure thy Holy Mother's shade 
 
 Kests yet upon thine ancient home ; 
 No voice from Heaven hath clearly said, 
 
 ' Let us depart ' : then fear to roam. 
 
 Pray that the prayer of Innocents 
 
 On earth, of saints in heaven above, 
 Guard, as of old, our lonely tents ; 
 
 Till, as one faith is ours, in Love 
 We own all Churches, and are own'd. 
 
 Pray Him to save by chastenings keen 
 The harps that hail His Bride enthron'd 
 
 From wayward touch of hands unclean." 
 
 A copy of the book was sent to Newman with the 
 accompanying message 
 
 " I hope you will receive a little book along with this, 
 which I have asked Copeland to forward to you. You 
 will kindly take it as a pledge of (I hope) unabated 
 love and gratitude and constant remembrance ; though 
 confidence (sad to say) cannot be what it was. Tliat
 
 140 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 is a very bitter feeling, but it will do one good, if one 
 can at all adequately perceive and feel that it is one's 
 own fault. 
 
 " May I say God bless you, very dearest friend ? 
 being always 
 
 " Your affte. and grateful 
 
 " J. K EBLE."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RECOVERY. 18461860. 
 
 "And now what time ye all may read through dimming tears his 
 
 story, 
 
 How discord on the music fell and darkness on the glory ; 
 And how, when one by one sweet sounds and wandering lights 
 
 departed, 
 He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted, 
 
 He shall be strong to sanctify the poet's high vocation, 
 And bow the meekest Christian down in meeker adoration ; 
 Nor ever shall he be in praise by wise or good forsaken, 
 Named softly, as the household name of one whom God hath 
 taken." MRS. BROWNING : Cowper's Grave. 
 
 " The place where the priests' feet stood firm." Joshua iv. 3. 
 
 IT will have been noticed that in the letters to 
 Newman there are erasures from time to time. These 
 were made by Cardinal Newman, when he deposited 
 the originals in the library of Keble College, and he 
 prefixed to the correspondence of 1843 1846 the 
 following note 
 
 "In the letters which follow I have made erasures, 
 which may seem strange and arbitrary, unless I say 
 something to account for them. 
 
 " Let me observe, then, that dear John Keble's heart 
 was too tender and his religious sense too keen, for him 
 not to receive serious injury to his spirits and his
 
 142 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 mental equilibrium by the long succession of trials 
 in which his place in the Oxford movement involved 
 him. 
 
 " The affair of No. 90, Williams's failure in his contest 
 for the Poetry Professorship, the Jerusalem Bishoprick, 
 Young's rejection when offering himself for Orders, 
 Pusey's censure by the six Doctors, the promotion of 
 Thirlwall and others, my own religious unsettlement 
 and that of so many others, the charges and hostile 
 attitude of the Bishops, the publication of Arnold's life 
 and letters, and the prospect of the future opened upon 
 him (not to dwell upon the serious illness of his wife 
 and his brother), were too much for him, and threw him 
 into a state of extreme depression, which showed itself 
 to his intimate friends in the language of self-accusation 
 and even of self-abhorrence. 
 
 "This heartrending trial, of which perhaps I saw more 
 than any one, is remarked upon by Sir John Coleridge 
 in his Life, of Keble (p. 283, &c., ed. 1), though he has 
 not attempted any sufficient explanation of it. He 
 seems to attribute what was a surprise to him to the 
 intense self-disparagement which, however strange to 
 the run of men, is natural to a mind so religious as 
 Keble's. Others have supposed it was a point of duty 
 with Keble thus to speak and write, as being a proper 
 form of introducing a religious sentiment, or what was 
 called in a Bishop's charge some forty years ago, a sort 
 of ' mystic humility ' an imputation most untrue to 
 Keble's nature. It is more exact to say that the idea 
 had grown upon him and vividly possessed him, that he 
 had allowed himself for the last ten or twelve years to 
 be engaged in deep religious questions, and in con- 
 troversy rising out of them, without adequate prepara-
 
 RECOVERY. 143 
 
 tion. He had set off in the company or at the head of 
 many others, on a road which he had not explored, and 
 as he might think, he had been ' the blind leading the 
 blind.' And, in particular, he considered himself at 
 least indirectly, if not positively, the cause of my own 
 abandonment of the Church of England. 
 
 " This impression, however, unless he had been at the 
 time so worried and broken in heart, as I have supposed, 
 would not have been enough in itself to account for the 
 obiter dicta, the ejaculations, the single words and half 
 sentences, the language, so shocking to one who knew 
 and loved him so well as I did, in which he expressed 
 his sense of the difficulties of the moment and his own 
 responsibility in relation to them. 
 
 " To me nothing is more painful than the contrast 
 between the cheerfulness and playfulness which runs 
 through his early letters and the sadness of his later. 
 This must remain anyhow ; it is founded on the succes- 
 sive circumstances of his history ; it is part of his life ; 
 nor could one expect it to be otherwise; but I could not 
 be so cruel to that meek, patient, and affectionate soul, 
 to that dearly, deeply beloved friend, as to leave to a 
 future generation the exhibition of those imaginary 
 thoughts about himself which tormented him, which 
 grew out of grave troubles, which were very real, and 
 which are sufficiently recorded for posterity, when they 
 serve, as in a notice like this, to suggest to a reader the 
 weight of those troubles." 
 
 It is only fair to the reader to print also a short 
 memorandum added by Dean Church on the sight of 
 the above note. . 
 
 "Nov. 10, 1879. I was not sure, and I am not 
 sure, about the accuracy of the impression which such
 
 144 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 a notice might leave, as to Keble's own state of mind 
 whether it would not suggest the reflection, 'Poor 
 Keble, he felt the earth reeling and opening round 
 him the foundations are cast down.' 
 
 " Great as Keble's troubles were, I do not suppose 
 that this was his permanent state of mind ; nor does the 
 notice say so ; it only speaks of the distress of the friend 
 and the brother workman. But I wish, what is too 
 much to expect, that the distinction had been acknow- 
 ledged or remembered between Keble the broken- 
 hearted friend, and Keble the priest of the English 
 Church. Because about this, in all his griefs, he never 
 lost his head or his faith; though if anything could 
 have made him do so, it would have been the event of 
 1845 and the parting with Newman. 
 
 " But it is a very natural account for N. to give ; and 
 it is full of his matchless tenderness and considerateness 
 and surprising afiectionateness." 
 
 It needs the combination of these two judgments 
 to do justice to Keble's feelings at this crisis. On no 
 one person did the blow fall with heavier weight. 
 All his affection for Hurrell Froude had passed over to 
 Newman when Froude was taken away ; to Newman he 
 had given his heart and his generous sympathy to the 
 last ; he had trusted him when his Bisley friends were 
 distrustful; he had accepted his intellectual position 
 and entered into his imaginative enthusiasm for all 
 that was good in the Church of Rome, and could 
 understand its attractiveness probably more than Dr. 
 Pusey, and yet he stood firm under the shock. The 
 strongest link at the moment was formed by the 
 evidence of true spiritual grace which he saw on what 
 seemed to be the deathbed of his wife at Hursley, and
 
 KECOVEKY. 145 
 
 of his brother at Bisley ; but this was but one instance 
 of the reality of that spiritual life to which he had 
 been accustomed from childhood. " Every day," he 
 wrote, " things arc happening, especially in our two 
 sick-rooms, which make it more and more impossible 
 for me to do as he has done." x 
 
 The first result of the blow was to deepen the sense 
 of humility and of repentance, both in him and in Dr. 
 Pusey ; each accused himself of failures and sins which 
 had caused the loss of their fellow-worker. Their first 
 common act was to unite with the other Tractarians, 
 who remained loyal, and Newman was the only Tract 
 writer who at any time joined the Church of Rome, 
 in preaching at the consecration of St. Saviour's, 
 Leeds, a church which bad just been built as an act 
 of gratitude by "a penitent," who wished to give 
 expression to the revived Catholic doctrines in the 
 midst of a busy town. Keble was himself unable to 
 go, but he sent three sermons on God's judgments and 
 upon Hell, which were read by Dr. Pusey, save that 
 in the last the tone of sternness about God's judg- 
 ments was so awful that even Dr. Pusey could not 
 read parts of it. From this time forward the two were 
 drawn more closely together, and kept up an active 
 correspondence with each other, in which each 
 heartened the other in his moments of difficulty, and 
 pleaded for the other's prayers that he himself might 
 be truly contrite. 
 
 But the second result was a strong, vigorous effort 
 
 on the part of each on behalf of Church principles. 
 
 The sense of the reality of spiritual life within the 
 
 Church was the strongest link that held them loyal ; 
 
 1 Letter to Dyson, Oct. 12th (Coleridge, p. 308). 
 
 L
 
 146 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 if they had not followed Newman, at any rate the 
 world should see that it was not that self-sacrifice could 
 exhibit itself less really in the English Church. Active 
 life went forward without any break and developed 
 itself in new ways; the Church lengthened its cords 
 and strengthened its stakes; in 1836 the first bishop 
 had been appointed for Australia; in 1840 Bishop 
 Blomfield had made his great appeal for an extension 
 of the Colonial Episcopate, which resulted in the 
 bishopric of New Zealand in 1841, of South Africa in 
 1847, and of many others. At home the deepening 
 sense of sin caused the more frequent use of confession, 
 and the desire for entire self-devotion in the religious 
 life led to the formation of sisterhoods at Devonport, 
 at Wantage, and at Clewer, all within a few years of 
 Newman's secession. In Oxford Charles Marriott was 
 collecting funds for a new Church College for men of 
 humbler means, a scheme which failed only through his 
 illness ; at Hursley the sign of reviving life was seen in 
 the restoration of the parish church, which was opened 
 in 1848. Thus, " things were happening" not only at 
 Hursley, but throughout the whole Church, which made 
 it more and more impossible to leave her. But all this 
 was not effected without struggle and loss. The 
 controversy around Tract 90 and Ward's Ideal had at 
 any rate laid bare the weak spots in the life of the 
 Church, and each had to be made good. There were 
 still losses by secession in the course of this; there 
 were exasperating appointments to bishoprics; there 
 were decisions of the Privy Council which seemed to 
 threaten the very central doctrines of the faith. But 
 gradually the ground became clearer, and Churchmen 
 came to see how little the real being of the Church
 
 RECOVERY. 147 
 
 could be touched by such a secular court as the Privy 
 Council or even by the individual utterances of 
 bishops, and step by step was gained in securing the 
 free legislative action of the Church. It will be 
 impossible to deal with all these cases, and we must 
 select but a few to illustrate Keble's action. 
 
 First it became necessary for the leaders who 
 remained to reassure their followers, to re-examine and 
 re-assert the grounds on which the claims of the Church 
 of England were based. At first, in their affection 
 for Newman and their belief that God had some special 
 work for him to do in reuniting the Church, they were 
 content to acquiesce in a position of pure neutrality 
 towards Rome ; but this became impossible to maintain 
 as the converts took the offensive. In order to meet 
 the mere logical appeal to the abstract principle of 
 authority, " it was necessary further to realize the limits 
 of pure logic, to distinguish theoretical and practical 
 issues, and to feel in its fullness the close connection 
 of all questions of authority with those of practical 
 life." l A short paper suggesting subjects for mutual 
 intercession, viz. the unity and peace of the Church, 
 the conversion of sinners, the advancement and 
 perseverance of the faithful, was circulated among 
 friends by " J. K., E. B. P., and C. M." (Charles Marriott). 
 Dr. Pusey threw all the weight of his learning into 
 the controversy, and gradually built up the great 
 defence of the Anglican position, of which the Eirenicon 
 was the chief outcome. Keble's line was naturally 
 different. He was quite clear about his position ; and 
 when Dr. Pusey wrote in 1847 that there was a 
 widespread rumour that "you are going to leave us," 
 1 The Guardian, July 20, 1892.
 
 148 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 he answered, " I scarcely think it can do much 
 harm ; it is so utterly without ground or foundation ; 
 however, I have authorized two persons to contradict 
 it as publicly as they please." And there is no trace of 
 any hesitation on his part. He did, no doubt, from 
 time to time, face the possibility of resigning his Orders, 
 or even of giving up communion with the Church ; but 
 the position he contemplated was one similar to that of 
 the Non-jurors. He never showed a desire to join the 
 Church of Rome. But he was not a controversialist. 
 Although he had expressed as early as 1836 an 
 intention to write a course of Bampton Lectures on 
 Romanism, yet he had never found time for it, and 
 always felt that he did not know the controversy as a 
 controversy. He, too, was at first inclined to neutrality; 
 but as time went on, his exasperation at the underhand 
 methods used by some of the later converts, and the 
 unfairness of their attacks on Dr. Pusey, and the 
 growing sense that separate conversions did not 
 promote peace and unity, made him more strong in 
 his insistence upon the errors of the Church of Rome. 
 For the present his contribution to the cause was 
 the publication of a volume of Sermons, Occasional and 
 Academical. One of these the sermon which he had 
 prepared for St. Andrew's Day, 1841 dealt directly 
 with the question of loyalty to the English Church, 
 but the argument of it was now expanded into a long 
 and careful Preface, which is the fullest passage in his 
 writings on the subject. In it he makes no attempt to 
 deal with the controversy controversially : as always he 
 protests against treating any question on mere intel- 
 lectual grounds ; moral considerations must also be 
 weighed. Hence he does not primarily ask, What is
 
 RECOVERY. 149 
 
 true ? but, What is right to do ? He attempts calmly, and 
 " without consternation and amazement," " to direct a 
 simple man's practice." The method is that of Butler's 
 Analogy. He will not allow the question to be settled 
 by d priori considerations of what the Church ought to 
 be, without regard to historic facts ; but assuming that 
 historic facts point to a divided Church and prove that 
 the Church of Rome does not preserve all the notes of 
 an ideal Church, assuming further that the controversy 
 is a doubtful one, on which there is much to be said on 
 both sides, he asks, What is the safe course to pursue ? 
 The safest course is that which satisfies our moral sense 
 of what we owe to God as a Father ; in other words, 
 it will be that course which is most likely to promote a 
 spirit of acquiescence in His will, of intellectual modesty, 
 of contrition, of generous recognition of holiness in 
 others, and which is least likely to give offence to 
 others. Such a course is supplied by remaining loyal 
 to the English Church, for as she is less attractive to 
 the imagination, loyalty to her will show a generous 
 contentment, like the conduct of one who is not 
 ashamed of lowly parentage. On the other hand 
 secession implies a great act of private judgment, and 
 the power of deciding a number of controverted 
 questions ; it would also minimize the sense of 
 contrition for the past, because it minimizes the sense 
 of privilege enjoyed, and would make us disparage the 
 saints of the English Church, whereas we are free to 
 reverence all saints of the Roman Communion ; finally 
 it would cause pain to some and throw others into 
 scepticism. 
 
 He tries to show that such an argument would not 
 apply equally to Dissenters and unbelievers, because
 
 150 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 they disavow nothing on becoming Catholic Christians 
 they only add to the substance of their faith and prac- 
 tice ; and they have stronger and clearer evidence on 
 which to act ; nor does it put the English Church in the 
 position of the Donatists, for we do not anathematize 
 other Christians, and the difference between us and 
 Rome is of detail rather than of principle, and it will 
 probably decrease. We do not deny any important 
 doctrine, but, at the worst, only tolerate error through 
 want of strong discipline. 
 
 If it is urged that the Roman Church can give a 
 clearer guidance, the answer is that guidance in all 
 essentials was provided before the division of the 
 Church, that the promise of guidance to individuals 
 is always conditional, and that a reasonable hope is a 
 more wise trainer of character than a perfect assurance. 
 
 Our unity is that of a divided family, and therefore 
 implies the duty of all the charity and tenderness which 
 brothers would feel to each other ; but the English 
 Churchman must remain loyally where he is, as the 
 position is not one of his own choosing, whereas to 
 change would be to take the management of his soul 
 into his own hands. The Church of Christ in England 
 is a true branch of the Catholic Church ; it retains the 
 essential notes of a Church ; but it is hampered by 
 want of discipline, by toleration of error, by low ideals 
 of life ; hence it must be a Church in penitence, and 
 a Church under appeal to an (Ecumenical Council, 
 whenever such can be summoned. 
 
 Such an argument is in a very minor key, and would 
 not convince, though indeed it might solemnize and 
 give pause to one who was keenly interested in the 
 controversy ; but at any rate it makes the appeal to
 
 RECOVERY. 151 
 
 the whole nature of man ; and Keble might well 
 answer that the question never arises whether a man 
 should choose in the abstract between England and 
 Rone, without reference to previous claims and obliga- 
 tions upon him. 
 
 Two storms followed in 1847 which both seemed at 
 first to threaten shipwreck to the Church, but which 
 she weathered safely. In November Dr. Hampden, 
 who was still under University censure for heterodoxy, 
 was nominated by Lord John Russell to the Bishopric 
 of Hereford. Keble at once consulted Coleridge as to 
 the legal course to be proposed by the opponents of 
 the nomination. With the help of Dr. Pusey he drew 
 up the articles of the charge against Dr. Hampden ; 
 he used every influence he could command with the 
 Dean and Chapter, and the Dean was induced to 
 oppose the confirmation of the election in Bow 
 Church; but his opposition was overruled, and the 
 new Bishop was consecrated. Nothing was directly 
 gained, but it had been clearly shown how the Church 
 was fettered by the State in the choice of her own 
 officers, and the primary result was the formation of 
 Church Unions both in Bristol and in London to 
 watch over the interests of the Church; their special 
 aims being the increase of the Episcopate, the provision 
 of some valid security against unfit appointments, 
 the revival of the Church legislature, and the restor- 
 ation of discipline. The ultimate result was the 
 revival of Convocation in 1852. 
 
 One extract from a letter written by Keble to Dr. 
 Moberley on March 6, 1848, will illustrate his ultimate 
 feeling about the importance of the question. Dr. 
 Moberley had consulted him on behalf of some one
 
 152 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 who was perplexed by the consecration and inclined to 
 take this as a sign that the Church was no true 
 Church. He, in his answer, is inclined to regard 
 such a seeking for a sign as, at the bottom, a profane 
 and heathenish state of mind, and he adds : " But is 
 this such a sign? I mean, if persons have thought 
 it their duty to bear with the Puritans and Latitu- 
 dinarians of times past, so far as- not to give up the 
 Church of England to them, nor to acquiesce in 
 their interpretation of its formularies, what is ihere 
 in this case to make them take a different view ? 
 We are not bound in any manner to express 
 approbation of Hampden's notions; we are not at all 
 committed by them : we have protested against them 
 as far as we are able, on the ground that they are 
 contrary to the Prayer-book, and yet were we to retire 
 from the Church of England because of them, must it 
 not be on the very ground that his was the right 
 interpretation of the Prayer-book ? It would be an- 
 other thing were we called on as a condition of Church - 
 manship to subscribe to his views or to refrain from 
 holding and teaching our own. As I understand it, 
 so far from retiring on account of the mistaken tolera- 
 tion of such views, it is an additional reason for every 
 one of us to keep his post and do his best, as I under- 
 stand St. Basil and others to have done with the Semi- 
 Arian bishops of their time. As long as the formularies 
 continue unchanged, I cannot see how the toleration 
 even of heresy in this or that bishop, or even in the 
 whole Bench, can be other than a question of discipline, 
 not of doctrine, and I thought it had been ruled ever 
 since the days of Donatus that questions of discipline 
 affect the well-being, not the being of the Church. . . .
 
 RECOVERY. 153 
 
 As to the Erastianism, the more I think it over, the 
 more I seem to see that we are on a better ground 
 than we have been, at least since the Revolution, and 
 if people will now be patient and persevering, we have 
 every chance of making that ground good. The one 
 thing to ruin us would be impatience." 
 
 Meanwhile, the Gorham case, which seemed more 
 serious still, as appearing formally to authorize false 
 doctrine as the teaching of the Church, and which 
 proved more serious in the secessions which it caused, 
 had already commenced. In June, 1847, the Lord 
 Chancellor presented the Rev. G. C. Gorham to a living 
 in the diocese of Exeter, but Bishop Phillpotts, having 
 already had knowledge of his denial of the doctrine of 
 regeneration in Baptism, formally examined him on the 
 subject, and as he would only admit a conditional re- 
 generation, the Bishop refused to institute him, in 
 March, 1848. Mr. Gorham appealed to the Dean of 
 Arches, who pronounced judgment in August, 1849, in 
 favour of the Bishop. Against this Mr. Gorham 
 appealed to the Queen in Council ; and the Committee 
 of the Privy Council, consisting of six laymen, with the 
 two Archbishops and the Bishop of London as assessors, 
 gave judgment on March 8, 1850 the Bishop of 
 London alone refusing to concur against the Bishop of 
 Exeter. The Judgment did not assert that conditional 
 regeneration was the doctrine of the Church, but it did 
 decide that it was not so clearly condemned by the 
 Church that a bishop could refuse to institute one who 
 held it. The Bishop of Exeter still refused to institute, 
 but the Archbishop, in spite of the Bishop's threat to 
 refuse to hold communion with him, instituted Mr. 
 Gorham. The Bishop was defeated in an attempt to
 
 154 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 provide a more satisfactory Court of Appeal, but he 
 summoned a Diocesan Synod in 1851 which formally 
 declared its firm and immovable adherence to the 
 article of the Creed, " one baptism for the remission 
 of sin." Again the evil was overruled for good ; the 
 unsatisfactory character of the Court of Appeal was 
 brought home to the consciences of Churchmen : a 
 precedent was set for the revival of the synodical action 
 of the Church, which greatly helped forward the move- 
 ment for the revival of Convocation. 
 
 During all this anxious time Keble was incessantly 
 active. His correspondence and his publications were 
 occupied with two problems : How could the Church be 
 freed from any complicity with the judgment? and how 
 could the younger Churchmen who felt the attraction of 
 Rome, and they were many Allies, Dodsworth, Maskell, 
 Manning, and, dearest to his heart, his old Southrop 
 pupil, Robert Wilberforce be kept loyal in the face of 
 such a judgment ? 
 
 In January, 1850, he consulted Sir John Awdry on 
 the legal position. His own opinion was that as the 
 prerogative of deciding doctrine lay with the Bishops, 
 and as this was a lay Court never formally accepted by 
 the Church, he was not bound in conscience by its 
 decisions, but might ignore them and still hold his 
 position in the Church, because his oath to admit the 
 Royal Supremacy was taken with the understanding that 
 the supremacy would be constitutionally exercised. 
 But others had taken counsel's opinion on the matter, 
 which was that they were bound to accept the decision 
 of the Court, and therefore he asks for guidance. Sir 
 John Awdry 's answer was quite clear : (1) that not every 
 usurpation in a Church, such as ex liypothesi that of
 
 RECOVERY. 155 
 
 this Court was, would justify secession, and (2) that no 
 judicial decision, though it turn on a matter of doctrine, 
 binds the conscience ; it is only the expression of the 
 opinion of the judges, which may be treated as a 
 precedent, but is not law ; as one who thinks some of 
 the decisions of the House of Lords in secular matters 
 erroneous is not less a loyal subject, so would one be 
 no less a loyal member of the Church if he treated 
 a decision of this Court of Appeal as erroneous, and if 
 he continued to teach and preach Baptismal Regeneration 
 as the doctrine of the Church, even though the Court 
 should hold that unsoundness about it was not a ground 
 on which a bishop could exclude a presentee from 
 preferment. 
 
 This letter cleared away any doubts in Keble's mind, 
 and he threw himself actively into the controversy. 
 He published two short papers on Church Matters in 
 1850, which are among the most clear, pointed, and 
 vigorous of his writings. The first, The Trial of Doctrine, 
 was published before the judgment, and is a protest 
 against the whole constitution of the Court ; on the 
 grounds that it consisted of laymen, without any 
 security that they should be members of the Church, 
 so that the vote of a Nonconformist might decide a case 
 in a matter of doctrine ; that it had never been accepted 
 by the Church, for it was not the same as the old Court 
 of Delegates, being neither accompanied by the same 
 safeguards nor appointed by the same authority : hence 
 the clergy are not bound by their acknowledgment of 
 the Royal Supremacy to obey it, for that assumes a 
 constitutional exercise of the Supremacy in religion as 
 well as in secular matters. A judgment by it cannot 
 affect the being of the Church, but it can its well-being,
 
 156 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 us ifc will cause confusion and distress, especially if the 
 Court has to deal with deeper questions still, such as 
 Inspiration or Eternal Punishment. Hence the duty of 
 Churchmen is to petition for some Court with Synodical 
 authority, and meanwhile to let Christendom ring with 
 our appeal, and to continue our struggle. 
 
 "All this we must do; and there is something else 
 which must nowise be left undone. For, TOVTO TO yevos 
 OVK (KiropevfTdi cl /x?) (v TTpoortvxr} KOI vr)<TTfiq (St. Matt. 
 xvii. 21). 
 
 As soon as the judgment was declared, he circulated 
 a petition in his parish praying the Bishop of the 
 diocese to help them, owing to the doubt which has 
 arisen, " Whether or no the Church holds it needful to 
 be believed that by the Blood and merits of our Saviour 
 Christ, Original Sin is remitted to all infants in Holy 
 Baptism ?" and this received over 200 signatures, and 
 was forwarded with a letter assuring the Bishop that 
 the names had been put down " with intelligence and 
 hearty goodwill," and imploring him to repudiate the 
 decision in order to avoid a distressing separation from 
 the Establishment. On July 20th he published another 
 vigorous tract, entitled A Call to Speak Out, in which he 
 urges that though those who hold communion with the 
 Archbishop after his sanctioning of the heresy would 
 not formally be guilty of heresy, yet they must protest 
 against his action and the Court. The State must 
 allow the decision to be reviewed by the proper 
 authority, or else the Church's rulers must disregard the 
 decision. If not, we must agitate for a change in the 
 relations of Church and State. We have a right to 
 declare our own doctrines, to confirm, vary, and repeal 
 our canons, to have a voice in the nomination of our
 
 RECOVERY. 157 
 
 chief pastors, and to grant or withhold our sacraments 
 according to our proper rules. " We had rather be a 
 Church in earnest, separate from the State, than a 
 counterfeit Church in professed union with the State." 
 Clearly his mind was already facing the possibility of 
 disestablish inent. 
 
 In the autumn of the same year the Church Unions 
 stirred themselves to unite Churchmen in common 
 action against the judgment. In the Bristol Union an 
 unwise attempt to combine the question with an expres- 
 sion of antagonism to Rome nearly caused a split among 
 its members, and there seemed for a moment the fear 
 of Keble and Pusey taking opposite sides. The more 
 conservative group of Churchmen, led by William 
 Palmer, Archdeacon Prevost, and others, wished to make 
 an expression of such antagonism a test of membership 
 of the Union. Dr. Pusey offered his strongest oppo- 
 sition to this : it seemed to him that a statement of 
 antagonism was never a true basis of union, and that 
 at this time antagonism to Rome might easily be 
 perverted into repudiation of much that was true and 
 Catholic. Keble, though opposed to a test, was inclined 
 to a declaration of similar effect. To this too Dr. 
 Pusey was opposed. It was a moment of severe strain 
 for him, for nothing would induce him to appear 
 publicly in opposition to Keble ; yet at the same time 
 he knew that such a declaration would alienate waverers. 
 He was on the point of leaving the Union, but ultimately 
 the test was withdrawn, and a declaration of willingness 
 to live and die in the Church of England was substi- 
 tuted for it. Meanwhile in London a great meeting 
 was summoned on July 23rd at St. Martin's Hall. The 
 Eucharist was celebrated in several of the London
 
 158 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 churches for God's blessing upon the meeting. When 
 the hour came, the number who attended made it 
 necessary to have an overflow meeting in the Free- 
 masons' Tavern, and at both resolutions were passed 
 appealing to the Queen that the power of Convocation 
 might be revived, that ecclesiastical cases might be 
 submitted to spiritual judges; appealing to the arch- 
 bishops and bishops to support these movements and to 
 pronounce independently in favour of the Church doctrine; 
 appealing to all Churchmen in all lands to uphold the 
 doctrine, and thanking the Scotch bishops for a Synodical 
 statement which they had recently issued about it. Both 
 Pusey and Keble spoke. Keble pleaded for hopefulness 
 and perseverance : hopefulness because he found that even 
 his simple village poor cared so much for the doctrine, 
 and were preparing to defend it; perseverance because 
 the Church of the fourth century had even a longer 
 struggle to endure before the doctrine of the Incarnation 
 was established, and we in our present state had more 
 difficulty in reasserting true doctrine. If any were 
 inclined to mistrust the Church of England and to 
 leave her. "the whole air of England seemed to ring 
 
 o o 
 
 with voices from the dead and from the living, especially 
 from the holy dead, all to this effect, ' Stay here, 
 think not of departing, but do your work.' If it 
 seemed to any unsatisfactory, let him consider that we 
 were under appeal, and had been so for three hundred 
 years, and that must be unsatisfactory, like a piece of 
 music not come to its natural close : but what then ? It 
 was the condition of the Church in the time of the 
 blessed saints he had referred to for two whole genera- 
 tions, and if we had to leave it so to those who came 
 alter us, he knew not himself that he could say a better
 
 RECOVERY. 159 
 
 word, were it the last word that he had to say, than to 
 bid men persevere in hope." 
 
 During the whole year Keble used in the public 
 services at Hursley a special form of prayer for the 
 distress of the Church, and when the Bishop of Exeter 
 prepared to summon his Synod, he issued a pastoral 
 letter to his parishioners, explaining that he had done 
 so because the judges had decided against baptismal re- 
 generation, and so encouraged people to think less of 
 their sins ; because these judges had no right to decide 
 at all ; because the Church was no longer free to elect 
 her bishops; and because, on account of this, many 
 were inclined to leave the Church, while others were 
 slandering her work. 
 
 When the Synod was over, he wrote an article in the 
 Christian Remembrancer of December, 1851, reviewing 
 the gains of it. This is one of the brightest and most 
 sprightly of his prose writings, characterized by much 
 humour and delicate satire. He has recovered his 
 buoyancy of spirits; he admits that the Church of 
 England can only be a Church under appeal, and doing 
 penance, but at any rate she is sound at the core ; she has 
 justified herself. The eye of faith can see in her action 
 God's hand helping us in our troubles ; the Church still 
 witnesses to the belief in Sacramental Grace ; she speaks 
 with a living voice, and therefore there is no ground for 
 despair. 
 
 Others, however, had less of hope and patience than 
 himself; the influence of Keble kept Robert Wilber- 
 force loyal till 1854, but among others, Allies, Maskell, 
 and Dodsworth in 1850, and Manning in 1851, joined 
 the Roman Church, as the immediate result of the 
 Gorhain decision.
 
 160 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 The position of Keble and Pusey was made more 
 difficult because, during these years, 1851-52, Bishop 
 Wilberforce informally and privately inhibited the latter 
 from officiating in his diocese, fearing lest his adaptation 
 of Roman devotional books and his practice about con- 
 fession was tending to lead people to Rome. Through- 
 out the whole difficulty Keble, both by letter and by 
 personal interview, acted as a mediating influence. " I 
 say to myself," he wrote, " here are two persons who 
 really ought to understand one another, and it seems 
 quite a judgment upon us that they cannot act 
 together " ; and by a combination of outspoken expres- 
 sion of his agreement with Dr. Pusey, of bold protest 
 against unfairness in suspending him without a hearing, 
 and by insistence upon all that was to be said on his 
 behalf, as actively keeping back waverers from Rome, 
 he contributed to the happy result that the Bishop 
 removed the suspension in 1852. 
 
 Two events in the next ten years turned Keble' s 
 attention mainly to the defence of the other great 
 Sacrament. These were the trial of Archdeacon Deni- 
 son in England, and the censure of Bishop Forbes in 
 Scotland, for teaching the doctrine of the Real Presence 
 and of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. In 1853 Archdeacon 
 Denison preached two sermons in Wells Cathedral on 
 the Real Presence, the orthodoxy of which was 
 challenged by his neighbour, the Rev. Joseph Ditcher, 
 and on his refusal to retract them, he was tried in 1856, 
 in the Pro-Diocesan Court at- Bath, before the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, who called upon him to retract 
 the statements that the Body and i Blood of Christ is 
 received by those who eat and drink unworthily, and 
 that worship is due to the real though invisible pre-
 
 RECOVERY. 161 
 
 sence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy 
 Eucharist under the form of bread and wine. 
 
 On refusing to retract he was deprived of his vicarage 
 and archdeaconry, but the sentence was overthrown by 
 the Final Court of Appeal in 1858. During the 
 process of the case both Dr. Pusey and Keble had done 
 what was possible to guide and advise Archdeacon 
 Denison. Keble had indeed been very doubtful on the 
 point of the reception by the wicked, but ultimately 
 was convinced by Dr. Pusey, and on the question of 
 Adoration he felt very keenly. As soon as the first 
 judgment was delivered these two circulated a protest, 
 for the matter was more serious in one respect than the 
 Gorham case ; the decision being that of the Arch- 
 bishop without any interference of the State Courts. 
 This protest was signed by eighteen clergy, and con- 
 sisted of a re-statement of their belief that the doctrine 
 of the Real Presence had been held as a point of faith 
 from the earliest times ; that the most common view 
 held in the Church had been that the wicked do eat and 
 drink unworthily to their own condemnation the Body 
 and Blood of Christ, which they do not discern, and 
 that the practice of worshipping Christ then and there, 
 especially present after consecration, had been common 
 throughout the Church. They therefore protested 
 against anything in the judgment which contradicts 
 these statements, and appealed from it to a lawful Synod 
 of the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury, and, if 
 need be, to a free and lawful Synod of all the Churches 
 of our communion. As a report was circulated that they 
 intended to form a Non-juring Church, they published 
 a letter stating that they should regard such an act as 
 a betrayal of a sacred trust ; that no sentence of one 
 
 M
 
 162 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 archbishop could bind the conscience, as only the voice 
 of the whole Church could do that ; but that they had 
 felt bound in honesty to declare their intention of 
 continuing to teach what they had always taught, and 
 of taking the consequences. 
 
 Keble followed up the protest by a careful treatise 
 on Eucharistical Adoration. This consisted partly of a 
 careful examination of the grounds of the practice, 
 partly of a consideration of the duty of Churchmen in 
 face of the judgment. The object was, not to reason 
 out at large what he calls " that great and comfortable, 
 and I will add necessary, truth of the Real Presence," 
 but rather, " calmly, and not without deep reverence of 
 heart," to allay troublesome thoughts which interrupt 
 devotion. Following the method of Hooker in the fifth 
 book of the Ecclesiastical Polity, he brings the practice 
 to the test of natural piety, of the teaching of Holy 
 Scripture, of the Primitive Church, and of the Church 
 of England. The argument starts from the premise 
 that natural piety suggests adoration wherever Christ is 
 present, and especially in this Sacrament, because of 
 the greatness of the gift given, of the individual 
 character of the blessing, and of the condescension of 
 Christ in giving it. " It is as impossible for devout 
 faith, contemplating Christ in this Sacrament, not to 
 adore Him, as it is for a loving mother, looking earnestly 
 at her child, not to love it." The sense of such a gift 
 calls for the most unreserved surrender that a man can 
 make of himself, his whole spirit, soul, and body, i. e. for 
 the most unreserved worship. 
 
 Such an instinct would naturally be followed, unless 
 it was definitely forbidden. But the reverse is the case : 
 the New Testament shows as that special reverence
 
 RECOVERY. 163 
 
 was paid to Christ in every detail of His humiliation, 
 especially in His death; that virtue was regarded as 
 proceeding from His Body, which was treated with 
 reverence in death, and which even then retained its 
 cleansing power ; that it treats Him as really present in 
 the Eucharist, both as Priest and Victim. It was natural 
 then that this reverence should be transferred to the 
 sacramental elements, so expressive of His humiliation, 
 " as being in themselves so cheap and ordinary, and as 
 representing especially His Death and Passion " ; and, 
 as a matter of fact, the early Liturgies and the lan- 
 guage of the Fathers bear witness to such transference 
 of reverence to the sacred Body and Blood in the 
 Eucharist. Further, the Church of England has always 
 insisted on reverence at the Liturgy, and there has 
 been a continuous teaching of the Real Presence, though 
 sometimes it has been attacked, " like Jehoshaphat in 
 Ahab's robes," because it has been mistaken for Tran- 
 substantiation. The doctrine has never been formulated 
 about it by any Council, and therefore error about it is 
 not formal heresy, so that we are not bound to refuse to 
 communicate with an archbishop who decides against 
 it : but it has been continuously taught, and no judicial 
 interpretation has the right to narrow the liberty 
 allowed by the Church in the expression of her doctrine. 
 The only course then for those who believe in the 
 doctrine, is prayer, willingness to suffer for the truth, 
 formally expressed protest, and appeal to an (Ecumenical 
 Council. 
 
 The subject is, as Keble admits, not exhaustively 
 treated, but nothing could be more of a model of the 
 right tone of sacred controversy, making each reader 
 feel that he is dealing with a subject, real, solemn, and
 
 164 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 vital. One extract ma} 7 be given, in which the act 
 of sharing in the Eucharist is shown to typify faith in 
 the whole Creed. 
 
 "By receiving His creatures of bread and wine we 
 acknowledge Him (as St. Irenseus argues) Creator of 
 heaven and earth, against all sorts of Manicheans; 
 receiving Christ's Body is confessing His Incarnation, 
 and adoring it, His Divinity ; it is the memorial of His 
 death, and the participation of that Sacrifice which 
 supposes Him raised and ascended into heaven ; it is 
 obeying His command so to show forth His death till 
 He come ; it is drinking into one Spirit : it is partaking 
 of that one Bread which makes us one body, the Holy 
 Catholic Church; it is the Communion of Saints; it is 
 the Blood shed for the remission of sins ; it is the last 
 Adam coming to be in us a quickening spirit, to seal 
 us for the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Ever- 
 lasting." 
 
 In the preface to the second edition he expressed a 
 hope that that might be the last time that he would 
 have to deal with the subject in a controversial way ; 
 but this prayer was not to be granted. 
 
 In August, 1857, Bishop Forbes of Brechin delivered 
 his Primary Charge to his clergy, the substance of it 
 being a full statement of the doctrine of the Holy 
 Eucharist ; emphasizing its sacrificial aspect and the 
 mystical identity of it with Christ's own offering of 
 Himself, and drawing out the inference of the duty of 
 adoration of Christ present in the elements. About the 
 same time Keble, who was an honorary canon of the 
 college of Cumbras, sent his own Tract to the Scottish 
 bishops. The Bishops met in Synod in December, but 
 after discussion postponed any action about the charge.
 
 RECOVERY. 165 
 
 Three of them, however, the Bishops of Edinburgh, 
 Argyll, and Glasgow, put out on their own account a 
 joint declaration on the subject of the Eucharist, protest- 
 ing against any adoration of the elements, and against 
 the doctrine that the offering in the Eucharist was 
 anything more than a commemoration of the Offering 
 upon the Cross. Keble received a copy of this declara- 
 tion, and imagining under a mistaken impression that it 
 was intended as a criticism upon his own Tract, and 
 that it had been sent to him by the Bishop of Edinburgh, 
 wrote to him a long letter of queries, criticizing the 
 language and arguments of the declarations. 1 In May, 
 1858, an extraordinary episcopal meeting was held, and 
 the Bishops, although they refused to allow the Bishop of 
 Brechin to be represented by a legal adviser, and in spite 
 of his protest that they were acting ultra vires, issued a 
 pastoral letter to their clergy, regretting the publication 
 of the charge, as containing views unsound, erroneous, 
 and calculated to lead to grave error on the two points 
 of adoration to Christ in the gifts, and of the transcen- 
 dental identification of the Sacrifice of the Cross and the 
 Sacrifice of the Altar. They then lay down the lines of 
 teaching which they wish the presbyters to follow, and 
 issue the letter as words of fatherly guidance and 
 admonition, " by a right essentially inherent in a 
 provincial episcopate." 
 
 Owing to Dr. Pusey's illness at this time, Keble had 
 been the Bishop's chief adviser through the whole 
 discussion ; he was, moreover, an honorary member of 
 the Church of Scotland, and he felt that by former pub- 
 lications he had incurred a deep responsibility in the 
 matter. Accordingly, as an effort towards truth and 
 
 1 This is quoted in full in Mackey's Life of Bishop Forbes.
 
 166 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 peace, he addressed to the presbyters of the Scotch 
 Church a pamphlet of "Considerations" on the pastoral 
 letter. He urges that the letter is not a Synodical act, 
 because presbyters have a right to be present at a 
 Synod, and because the discussion was carried on with 
 closed doors, and the judgment given without any state- 
 ment of the reasons; hence the presbyters are not bound to 
 accept it as authoritative. They can either acknowledge 
 the receipt of it and take no further action, or discuss 
 its statements in full. In view of the possibility of this 
 latter course being taken, he argues the points at length. 
 He acknowledges with great gratitude the facts that the 
 Bishops appeal to the consent of the Undivided Church 
 as the ultimate ground for decision, that they have not 
 thought the Bishop of Brechin liable to a judicial 
 presentment, and that there is so much positive teach- 
 ing in their statements on the reality of sacramental 
 grace, on the objective Presence even for condemnation 
 to unworthy recipients, and on the sacrificial character 
 of the Eucharist. But he criticizes the negative state- 
 ments, showing that the denial of the statement that 
 the Substance of Christ's Body and Blood, still less His 
 entire Person as God and Man, now glorified in heaven, 
 is made to exist with, in, or under the material substances 
 of bread and wine, tends to Nestorianism, "which in 
 one shape or another bids fair to become the prevalent 
 tendency among the religionists of our day." On the 
 point of the Sacrifice he proves that the Fathers have 
 always held that Christ is the real Priest, and that the 
 offering in the Eucharist is really identical with, not 
 the Sacrifice on the Cross, but rather with the present 
 offering of Himself by Christ in heaven ; the same 
 Person offers the same Body and Blood, but for differ-
 
 RECOVERY. 167 
 
 ent purposes " on the Cross for expiation of sin, 
 with vicarious suffering, pain, bloodshedding, and 
 death; in heaven for pleading and application of 
 those atoning pains." Further, he urges that ador- 
 ation is implied in the fact of the Real Presence, 
 that it never has been condemned, that all which the 
 Bishop is pleading for is a toleration which has 
 always besn permitted. 
 
 Here he pleads against limitation of toleration ; and 
 indeed the whole argument is a plea against limitation. 
 He will not have truth limited by the objection that a 
 particular doctrine is " Roman " ; though we cannot 
 accept their terms of communion, yet " we ought always 
 to be glad to agree with them, when we can do it with 
 a safe conscience : " surely the right way must be in 
 this or any other question, " calmly to apply the proper 
 standards, Scripture as interpreted by our own formu- 
 laries, and where they are ambiguous or silent by the 
 consent of the Undivided Church ; and if the conclusions 
 come out agreeable to what the rest of Christendom 
 has received, thankfully to welcome such agreement : if 
 not, humbly and reverently to commit the cause to 
 Almighty God, and to such authorities as it may here- 
 after please Him to raise up for the healing of the 
 wounds in His Church." So, too, he will not limit 
 the Presence of the Lord by our possibility of under- 
 standing it, " shedding, as it does, such a glory over 
 the celebration of the Holy Eucharist." " It were better 
 philosophy and not worse devotion here, if anywhere^ 
 to apply the maxim of the wise man, ' When you glorify 
 the Lord, exalt Him as much as you can : for even yet 
 will He far exceed : and when you exalt Him put 
 forth all your strength, and be not weary : for ye never
 
 168 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 can go far enough.' " l For there is One walking about 
 who wishes to make us forget that " as Christians we 
 are altogether in a supernatural condition, that the air 
 around us is full of miracles, full of great, intense 
 realities, of which the things that we see are for the 
 most part faint shadows." 
 
 The " Considerations " had little effect. la October 
 1859, Bishop Forbes was formally presented for trial ; 
 the case was postponed till February 1860, and judgment 
 delivered in March, a formal declaration of censure 
 being passed, but no penalty imposed. On both of 
 these last occasions Keble was present at Edinburgh, 
 in order to help the Bishop by his wide knowledge of 
 the controversy; and although he blamed himself for 
 the line that he had taken at times during the con- 
 troversy, yet it was mainly through his agency that 
 at once truth and peace were secured, and that the 
 Bishop was kept loyal to the Church even under these 
 difficulties. 
 
 Three other subjects, partly academical and partly 
 political, on which Keble published pamphlets during 
 those years, deserve a passing notice. In 1852 the 
 opposition to Mr. Gladstone's re-election as Burgess for 
 the University drew from him a smart and spirited 
 protest against the unfairness of charging that states- 
 man with inconsistency in dealing with the Church, on 
 the ground of his support of the admission of Jews into 
 Parliament : and in 1854 he tried to rally Churchmen 
 to a determination to disavow, deprecate, and resist to 
 the uttermost the attempt to admit Nonconformists to 
 the University, and threw out the suggestion that the 
 difficulty might be met by affiliating to the University 
 * Ecclus. xliii. 30.
 
 RECOVERY. 169 
 
 denominational colleges, even though situated at a 
 distance. 
 
 But the point which always stung him to the quick 
 was any attempt by Parliament to interfere with the 
 sanctity of the Marriage Law. In 1849 he issued a short 
 appeal ad populum against the Deceased Wife's Sister 
 Bill, or, as he called it, against profane dealing with Holy 
 Matrimony in regard of a man and his wife's sister ; and 
 he obtained 10,000 ladies' signatures to a petition 
 against it, which he forwarded through Sir G. Grey to 
 the Queen. In 1857, in opposition to the Divorce Bill, 
 he wrote a careful, scholarlike treatise on the indis- 
 solubility of marriage. The treatise was an attempt to 
 explain the difficulty which dutiful children of the 
 Church might feel in the fact that while the Church 
 forbade divorce altogether, our Lord seems to permit 
 it under the condition given in St. Matt. v. 32, xix. 9. 
 Keble's line of defence was that this limitation was not 
 meant for Christians at all ; that it was only preserved 
 in St. Matthew, the specially Jewish Gospel ; that it 
 occurred in contexts in which Christ was not speaking 
 to His disciples alone, but to the Jewish multitudes, 
 and was interpreting rather than adding to the Mosaic 
 law, and that the limitation was only meant to apply 
 as long as the Mosaic law was in force. This was 
 followed by a laborious examination of all the Canons 
 and Patristic references to the subject, with the result 
 of showing that, in spite of some conflicting evidence, 
 there was a continuous stream of opinion against divorce 
 for any reason among Christians, and against the re- 
 marriage of either party after a separation. 
 
 In these, as in all his treatises, the moral considera- 
 tions are the primary with him. He discusses the
 
 170 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Levitical prohibition, but he does not lay much stress 
 upon it, because whatever it may require, the " spirit of 
 the Christian dispensation is to require more of man in 
 proportion as it gives him more grace." He is especially 
 indignant at the unfairness with which the two sexes 
 were treated by the proposers of each measure, and 
 contrasts it with the language of the Fathers ; x he lays 
 stress on the indissolubility of marriage, because that 
 gives it a sacramental character, and makes it affect the 
 whole life ; on the prohibition of re-marriage, because 
 it leaves room for penitence on the part of the guilty 
 party, and reconciliation. He pleads that sad experience 
 has taught him how terribly strong is the feeling among 
 the poor that marriage erases the blot of previous un- 
 chastity, and though they have now a horror of adultery, 
 he dreads the power of One who may avail himself of 
 the change to suggest to them that offences of that kind 
 also may be salved by after-marriage. 
 
 The pamphlet did not avail to save England from a 
 Divorce Bill; probably of greater avail to deepen the 
 religious sense of marriage, and so to avoid divorce, has 
 
 1 E. g. St. Augustine (Serm. 392, vol. v., p. 2) : " Who would 
 endure an adulterous wile ? Yet the woman is bidden to endure 
 an adulterous husband. What justice! Why, I ask thee? 
 ' Why 1 because I am the man.' Thou the man ? Let us prove 
 thy manhood by thy fortitude. Thou the man ? Overcome lust. 
 How art thoxi the man, whose wife is braver than thou art ? 
 Thou art the head of the woman, the man : it is true. If he is 
 the head, let him lead, let the wife follow. Only take heed which 
 way thou goest. Have thou no mind to go where thou wouldest 
 not have her to follow." 
 
 And the Emperor Antoninus, as quoted by St. Augustine : 
 " Care must be taken to enquire whether thon by living chastely 
 hast been a pattern of good conduct to her. For it seems to me 
 most unjust that the husband should exact from the wife the 
 chastity which he does not practise himself." De Conjitg. Adult. 
 5.
 
 RECOVERY. 171 
 
 been the hymn which he wrote while the pressure of 
 the controversy was upon him 
 
 " The Voice that breathed o'er Eden 
 
 That earliest wedding-day, 
 The primal marriage blessing, 
 It hath not passed away. 
 
 Still in the pure espousal 
 
 Of Christian man and maid, 
 The Holy Three are with us, 
 
 The threefold srace is said."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE END. 18601866. 
 
 " Wait humbly till thy matin Psalm 
 Due cadence find in evening calm." 
 
 Lyra Innocentiitm. 
 
 THE reader will probably have gained the impression 
 that Keble's interest was only in controversial questions ; 
 but the case was really much the same as with the 
 history of the Church. The controversies come to the 
 front, and must be noticed by the historian. To a reader 
 of the history of the first four centuries it might seem 
 that the Church was mainly occupied in a series of 
 uninteresting speculations and antagonisms; but behind 
 the controversy lay a spiritual body, moving through 
 the world ministering comfort, absolution, inspiration to 
 its own members, moulding by silent influence the 
 customs and laws of the world outside it, and so gradually 
 winning its way to establishment and supremacy. So 
 behind the controversial writings by which Keble came 
 before the world, there was the quiet constructive work 
 both of the student and of the parish priest. As a 
 student he was engaged through all these years on his 
 careful translation of Irenaeus for the Library of the 
 Fathers, and also on the life and edition of the
 
 THE END. 173 
 
 works of Bishop Wilson. The former was not published 
 until after his death, but the latter issued from the 
 press in 1863. The motto prefixed to it, " The care 
 of Discipline is Love," shows the aspect of the good 
 Bishop's work, whether in self-discipline or in the dis- 
 cipline of his diocese, which had specially interested his 
 biographer. Alike the century and the man attracted 
 him. Around the Bishop's youth were memories of the 
 Cavalier struggles ; during his life there were glimpses 
 of the struggles of the Non-jurors, and, carefully trea- 
 sured up, just here and there, sayings and deeds of 
 Bishop Butler. The struggle between Bishop Wilson 
 and the representatives of the Earl of Derby, who at 
 one time boldly claimed that the Earl and not the Arch- 
 bishop was the Metropolitan of the Church of Man, 
 reminded him of the struggles in England under Henry 
 II. and Henry VIII., and made the annals of the small 
 island of Man seem to be a miniature reflection of far 
 more important histories. It seemed to his heart, 
 saddened by the decay of faith around him, that Man 
 had preserved later than any other part of England 
 that simple faith in the reality and grievous effect of 
 excommunication, and in the solemn seriousness of an 
 oath, on which alone ecclesiastical discipline could be 
 based. 
 
 No less was he in hearty sympathy with the teaching 
 and personal character of the Bishop. The sobriety of 
 his teaching, his readiness to recognize the Roman 
 Catholics as a real part of the Holy Catholic Church, 
 the absence of any insistence on the necessity of sensible 
 conversion and assurance of personal salvation, his 
 principle that it is safer to obey authority with a 
 doubting conscience than with a doubting conscience to
 
 174 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 disobey, the public spirit which made him feel national 
 troubles as keenly as private calamities, his interest in 
 missionary work and in education, his pastoral spirit, 
 his care with his candidates for Ordination, some of 
 whom lived in his house for a year before being or- 
 dained, his own methodical intercessions, his insistence 
 on family prayer, his loyal use of the daily offices of 
 Matins and Evensong, 1 his simple Prayer-book-like 
 outspokenness in preaching or writing on subjects of 
 delicacy, his sternness with all breaches of the marriage 
 laws, his prompt and fearless exercise of discipline, his 
 equitable desire to make allowances for difficulties, his 
 liberality to the poor, extending ultimately to the be- 
 stowal in charity of one-half of his income ; .above all, 
 his reality, his sense of his own personal sinfulness, his 
 realization of the Communion of Saints, and his grati- 
 tude to God for even the least rnercy of his life every 
 point found an answering note in Keble's own heart. 
 
 He approaches his subject therefore with the greatest 
 reverence and desire to do it justice. He tries to find 
 explanation or at least excuse for the few points in the 
 Bishop's life which he cannot approve. Unstinted 
 pains are taken in verifying each place and explaining 
 each allusion ; the relations of the Earl of Derby to the 
 Island and the conditions of Manx land tenure are 
 traced out with painstaking accuracy. Some scenes, such 
 as those of the Bishop's imprisonment and of his struggle 
 with the civil powers, are painted very graphically ; but 
 
 1 This was impressed upon the Bishop by his friend the Rev. 
 M. Hewetson, on his ordination as deacon in 1686, in the church 
 of Kildare. The whole of Hewetson's Memorandum is a very 
 striking proof of the strength of Church feeling and practices in 
 the Church of Ireland at the end of the seventeenth century (vol. i, 
 pp. 22-23).
 
 THE END. 175 
 
 it must in fairness be admitted that the details rather 
 overwhelm the general effect, and that the whole is 
 wanting in a due sense of proportion. 
 
 But the main staple of his life was the work, the 
 incessant, anxious, unsparing, loving work, of a parish 
 priest. From the first he had held daily service in his 
 church. For at least four years, during the Gorham 
 controversy, he said the Litany on Wednesdays and 
 Fridays at 5.30 a.m., "to give those who fear God and 
 believe His sacraments and love His Church, a chance 
 of calling upon Him in the early morning, while they 
 are on their way to their day's work." l He would stay 
 behind in private prayer for an hour or half an hour. 
 One hour every morning and two hours every Sunday 
 were spent in teaching in the school. When a boy had 
 been turned away from school for disorderliness, he 
 would take him and train him privately. The prepar- 
 ation for Confirmation was especially careful, sometimes 
 lasting for a whole year, as he went through with the 
 candidates the whole of the Baptismal and Eucharistic 
 services, as well as the Catechism. If any boy or girl 
 lived too far off to come to the classes, he would walk 
 out himself at night with a lantern and teach them in 
 their cottages after their work was over. He went on 
 with the training until he could win them to come to 
 the Holy Communion, once getting them to sign the 
 following paper : " In the presence of Almighty God, 
 I seriously declare that I am turning my mind towards 
 Holy Communion : that I hope before very long, by 
 God's mercy, to be fit for it ; that I will pray to God to 
 make me fit, and that I will come to Mr. Keble or 
 
 1 Cf. Sermons : Septuagesiina lo Ash Wednesday, p. 358, and 
 Preface, p. vi.
 
 176 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Mr. Young from time to time if they wish me to do so, 
 to have their advice about coming or staying away." 
 When he was away from home he used to receive 
 accounts of each individual from his curates, and when 
 absent once from the Confirmation itself, sent a short, 
 earnest -pastoral letter to the candidates. His favourite 
 text was, " Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake " ; his 
 favourite expression, that of waiting on the sick, ever 
 suiting himself to their hours, delighting if they asked 
 to receive the Sacrament, but always waiting for the 
 suggestion to come from them, that it might be a real 
 act of their own spiritual will. His interest in missions 
 had always been great, and it developed in later years 
 when his personal interest in Bishop Selwyn and 
 Bishop Patteson, and his ecclesiastical sympathy with 
 the struggle of Bishop Gray for the faith in South 
 Africa, made the life of the Colonial Church so much 
 more real to him. After 1861 he sanctioned cricket on 
 Sundays at the suggestion of Sir "W. Heathcote, partly 
 because he found that otherwise the men played, 
 though under the conviction that it was wrong, and 
 partly influenced by the fact that the chief Evangelical 
 families who might have been offended had left the 
 parish. So wrapped up was he in his parish that the 
 villagers had no conception of the part which he played 
 in the Church, and a new school-mistress, who came to 
 the place with an enthusiasm for the author of the 
 Christian Year, found it hard to convince the children 
 that the Vicar was as clever as the School Inspector, 
 and cleverer than herself. 
 
 The succeeding chapters on his preaching and spirit- 
 ual guidance will complete the picture of his more 
 constructive work ; but as in the days of Nehemiah
 
 THE END. 177 
 
 '' the builders every erne had his sword girded by his 
 side, and so builded," so it was in these years. Even 
 in old age his interest was as keen as ever in all that 
 concerned both Oxford or the Church. Dr. Pusey 
 shared with him all his plans about the prosecution 
 of Professor Jowett arid the endowment of the Greek 
 chair. Before the election of 1865 he wrote a strong 
 incisive letter to the Guardian, pleading for the re- 
 election of Mr. Gladstone on the ground of that states- 
 man's real services to the Church, especially with 
 regard to the Divorce Bill, the Burials Bill, the Royal 
 Supremacy and its relation to the Final Court of 
 Appeal. " Were I asked," he ends, " to add my name 
 to the list of his opponents, I should answer, No ! a 
 thousand times No ! for prudence' sake, for justice' 
 sake, for Oxford's sake, and most of all for the Church's 
 sake." l In the same year he was interested in the 
 proposals for the extension of the University, and 
 warmly approved of the report of Dr. Shirley's Com- 
 mittee, which afterwards was taken as the outline on 
 which the charter of Keble College was framed. 
 
 But the chief interest of these years lay in the 
 struggles caused by the publication of Essays and 
 Reviews. In 1850 he had contemplated the serious 
 issues which must arise if such a Court as the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council were to deal with 
 subjects of such delicacy and seriousness as the Inspir- 
 ation of the Bible and Eternal Punishment ; and these 
 were the very two points on which they were called to 
 decide. The book was published in 1860 ; in 1861 
 Dr. Williams was prosecuted by the Bishop of Salisbury 
 for virtually denying the Inspiration of the Holy 
 
 1 Guardian, Dec. 7, 1864. 
 
 N
 
 178 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Scriptures ; Mr. Wilson by the Rev. J. Fend all on the 
 same charge, and also for denying the doctrine of the 
 Eternal Punishment of the wicked. Both clergy 
 were condemned in 1862 by the judgment of Dr. 
 Lushington in the Arches Court. But in both cases 
 the judgment was overthrown on nppeal to the Privy 
 Council in 1864. The Court consisted of four lay judges 
 and three spiritual, the two Archbishops and the Bishop 
 of London. Its policy was to limit the issues before 
 it, and treat them with the most exact legal technicality ; 
 holding that it could take no cognizance of anything 
 outside the extracts from the Essays laid before it, 
 and of the Articles referred to in them. It passed no 
 opinion upon the general teaching or tendency of the 
 whole Essays, but decided that on the subject of 
 Inspiration the extracts did not contain any statement 
 inconsistent with the exact words of our formularies; 
 and further that " we do not find in the formularies to 
 which this article refers any such distinct declaration of 
 our Church upon the subject as to require us to con- 
 demn as penal the expression of a hope by a clergyman 
 that even the ultimate pardon of the wicked who are 
 condemned in the day of judgment may be consistent 
 with the will of Almighty God." 
 
 It may be that if the distinction between a judicial 
 decision in a penal case and the formal legislative 
 expression of the real mind of the Church had been 
 clearly grasped, the judgment might have been 
 acquiesced in. But such a distinction was by no means 
 clear then : even with the limitation imposed by the 
 Court's ruling, the two Archbishops refused to concur 
 in the judgment. The cry of determined, uncom- 
 promising protest was more loud even than after the
 
 THE END. 179 
 
 Gorham judgment; leaders who had been opposed to 
 each other through all the Sacramental struggles joined 
 hand in hand now. More than 11,000 clergy and 
 137,000 laity signed declarations affirming their belief 
 that the Church of England and Ireland, in common 
 with the whole Catholic Church, maintains without 
 reserve or qualification the inspiration and divine 
 authority of the whole Canonical Scriptures, as not 
 only containing but being the AVord of God, and further 
 teaches, in the words of our blessed Lord, that the 
 punishment of the cursed, equally with the life of the 
 righteous, is everlasting. 
 
 Keble was indignant alike at the substance of the 
 decisions and at the composition of the Court which 
 had given them. A strong movement was made to get 
 it altered, and when this was ridiculed by the Times 
 he wrote a letter to that paper justifying the agitation, 
 as being the constitutional method of remedying a 
 grievance ; l criticizing acutely the assumptions of his 
 opponents, and showing that his action rested upon the 
 belief that " it is better to have a real Church ; that a 
 real Church cannot exist without dogma, and that the 
 action of this Committee, tending as it does to do away 
 with all dogma, tends of course to the annihilation of 
 the Church." In the following month he read a paper 
 at the Bristol Church Congress, in a discussion on 
 Church Synods, admitting that there was much to be 
 said a priori for such a court, but that it had proved 
 a failure, and that the failure was due to its being 
 based upon a wrong principle. It was an infringement 
 of the rights of the Bishops ; it was a human invention ; 
 its principles for deciding doctrine, and its procedure, 
 1 Times, Sept. 22nd ; Guardian, Sept. 28, 1864.
 
 180 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 by which dissentients could not' justify their opinions, 
 were alike anomalies. He also alluded to the serious- 
 ness of the points at issue, quoting the saying of a 
 woman in his parish, who had a son who had been a 
 great trouble to her because of his wicked habits, and 
 who, on hearing that the doctrine of eternal punishment 
 was being called in question, said, " Oh, what an effect 
 it will have, when my son hears of it, on him ! What 
 will become of him ? " The lines on which he would 
 have liked to see reforms are indicated in the following 
 suggestions embodied in a letter to Judge Coleridge. 
 
 " 1. Whether it is impossible to obtain a law taking 
 away all temporal penalties annexed to excommuni- 
 cation, and leaving the Church really free to enforce 
 its own rubric and canons in case of notorious sin and 
 unbelief ? 
 
 " 2. Might there not be a declaratory Act to the 
 effect that the formularies must always be interpreted 
 agreeably to Holy Scripture and general consent ? . . . 
 To which Act the assent of Convocation should be 
 obtained and recited, as in the Act of Uniformity. 
 
 " 3. After providing in the completest way for perfect 
 investigation and exact legality, still might not the 
 Bishops in Provincial Council, with full publicity to all 
 their proceedings, be made judges in the last resort ? " l 
 
 But it was not only with the Court that Keble was 
 indignant. Both the decisions touched him to the 
 quick. His knowledge of the Bible was remarkable ; 
 he knew large parts of it by heart, and his sermons, no 
 less than the Tract on Mysticism, are steeped in the 
 mystical use of its language, and marked by a striking 
 innght into its principles. And his reverence for it 
 1 Coleridge : Memoir, p. 488.
 
 THE END. 181 
 
 was no less striking. " His manner ui reading Holy 
 Scripture was very remarkable. In its extreme sim- 
 plicity it was like that of a reverent child; and yet 
 probably all who were in the habit of hearing him 
 have felt the wonderful charm of it, and that he made 
 them understand the Lessons better than any one else, 
 conveying to them also in some measure his own intense 
 feeling of the sacredness of every inspired word. He 
 always paused before reading the Bible, often putting 
 his hand to his forehead (as was often his way), and 
 after the Lesson was ended he made the same pause. . . 
 In some sermon of his he takes it for granted that the 
 custom of pious people would ..be to pray inwardly 
 before and after reading any portion of Holy Scripture." l 
 
 That he might contribute his part to a true belief in 
 Scripture, he set himself to work at a Commentary on 
 St. John's Gospel, and composed the fragment on Chap, 
 i. 1-18, afterwards printed in the Studio, Sacra, the 
 rich spiritual suggestiveness of which causes regret that 
 it never was finished. He circulated a protest against 
 the judgment for signature in his parish. In a letter 
 to the Times on the whole subject, he urged that the in- 
 spiration of the Bible was a part of the " common law " 
 of the Church, and therefore as really binding as a 
 formulated decision ; and spoke of the inspiration 
 of the various parts of the Bible in a way that shows 
 alike reverence and wisdom. 
 
 " The New Testament declares the Old Testament to 
 be inspired of God ; accordingly, the Book of Esther to 
 be as really inspired as the Evangelical Prophet, as 
 really though not as largely. But since it is so inspired 
 men know that they are bound to believe every word 
 1 M. T. in Coleridge : Memoir, p. 604.
 
 182 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of it, and if contradictions appear, to feel sure that they 
 will one day disappear, either by amended readings or 
 by satisfactory explanations. All will prove true, all 
 exactly what was needed for its own peculiar purpose. 
 But there may be any degrees of difference in love and 
 fear, the awe and the gratitude with which Almighty 
 God means us to receive one portion and another, 
 according to the measure in which He vouchsafes to 
 disclose Himself, or to draw nearer to us; and again, 
 according to the measure in which His several gifts of 
 grace are allowed to manifest themselves through the 
 several human writers. In this respect we may imagine 
 a scale ranging from the mere adjustment of a genealogy 
 in the Chronicles up to the first chapter of St. John. 
 All are equally true, although all do not contain an 
 equal amount of Divine Truth." 
 
 The denial of the doctrine of Eternal Punishment 
 seemed even more pressing as a matter of practical 
 importance. He had an almost Calvinistic sense of 
 the corruption of the human heart ; he knew how 
 simple villagers are wont to regard the utterance of 
 the law as the sole standard of truth ; he believed in 
 the power of the Evil Spirit who was always anxious to 
 lower the standard of truth and of morality. " We can- 
 not spare one of the severe but most fatherly sayings 
 by which our loving Lord has revealed to us the issue 
 of the broad way ; least of all can we spare the thought, 
 the conviction, of eternity." 
 
 Early in 1864 he published a Litany of our Lord's 
 Warnings, for use by those " whose hearts are aching at 
 the recent decision." The Litany recalls all the great 
 acts of God's justice, and His words of warning in the 
 Bible; and in the light of them prays for mercy, for
 
 THE END. 183 
 
 protection from all that can blind men's eyes to the 
 truth, and for guidance to the Church, the Queen, the 
 Parliament, and for all who are in danger of neglecting 
 this special truth. 
 
 In the same year he was invited by Bishop Wilber- 
 force to preach the sermon at the commemoration of 
 Cuddesdon College. With this subject in his mind he 
 preached one of the most solemn and touching of his 
 senxons, on " Fear as a Gift of the Holy Spirit," and 
 dre\\ out the true fear of God that should be in a 
 ChrLtian's heart. There is the fear of judgment, of 
 hell the lowest form, yet still quite necessary for our- 
 selves and for others; for " little do they know of their 
 breth-en, how high soever their own rate of goodness 
 may De, who depend on winning souls without it." 
 Then there is the nobler fear of losing Christ, the 
 object of our love ; this remains in the converted soul, 
 and glows with the growth of our love for Him. Both 
 these ears will cease with this life, but still beyond the 
 grave ;here will be the highest fear, the deep awe and 
 trembtng reverence before God as God, an intense, 
 unspeakable adoration, a bowing down before the Light 
 unappioachable ; and this awe begins here, for even 
 here it is our privilege to be living in a supernatural 
 state. Thus, as the Christian Year ended with the 
 " Spiri of God's most holy fear," so his last published 
 sermoi ended with the fear of God's Holy Spirit. 
 
 One other public utterance must be noticed. In 
 1865 tie Bishop of London was pressing for a Royal 
 Commssion to deal with the Ornaments Rubric, and 
 some High Churchmen were inclined to support him. 
 To oni of these Keble wrote a letter, 1 very strongly 
 1 Literary Churchman, January 13, 1866.
 
 184 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 deprecating such a course. It seemed to him suicidal 
 to invite Parliamentary interference in spiritual matters, 
 when it was sure to be exercised .in an anti-dogmatic 
 direction. As it was, the Church of England, through 
 the struggles of the Reformation and Restoration, had, 
 under Providence, retained the rubric, and so ax- 
 pressed its doctrine as to assert the reality both of 
 the Presence and of the Sacrifice in the Eucharist; 
 but further legislation in a moment of excitement might 
 easily upset the exact proportion of the truth, dejtroy 
 the equilibrium of parties in the Church, and quench 
 all the fond hopes of reunion among Christians, " vhich 
 just now appear to be dawning on us from vinous 
 quarters." While treating the disregard of the mbric 
 as a real blemish in our ecclesiastical practice!, and 
 rejoicing whenever the revival is tranquilly accom- 
 plished, he pleads for equity and candid allowante and 
 charity in the revival, and protests against the sornful, 
 disparaging tone in v.hich some were speaking cf mid- 
 
 day Communions, " with small consideration J 
 
 aged and infirm, and for such as cannot come 
 
 early," 
 
 the 
 
 and against the practice of urging all men mdisrimin- 
 ately to be present at the Holy Mysteries. 
 
 In his private life there was sadness and haziness, 
 partings and reconciliations, towards the close. Ji 1860 
 his sister Elizabeth died, " for twenty years of jhealth 
 and fifty of sickness always at hand or withirj reach, 
 and never a look nor a word that I know of tut was 
 wise and kind with the true kindness and wkdom." 
 His great friend Dyson died the same year. From 
 that time onward Keble's own health was vey pre- 
 carious, and constant visits to the seaside keptirim a
 
 THE END. 185 
 
 good deal from his parish work ; and on St. Andrew's 
 Day, 1864, he was seized with a slight stroke of 
 paralysis, after which he never preached again. 
 
 In the course of 1863 he had received an account of 
 the proceeds of the Lyra Apostolica, and this led to a 
 letter to Newman thanking him for it, and sending him 
 his own Life of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 " August 4, 1863. 
 
 "MY DEAR NEWMAN, 
 
 " It is a great thing, I know, for me to ask, after 
 so many years, that you should look kindly upon what 
 comes from me. For I cannot conceal it from myself, 
 nor yet acknowledge it without a special sort of pang, 
 that what I have heard occasionally from Crawley and 
 Copeland, of your feeling as to your old friend's silence, 
 touches me perhaps as much or more than any, and it 
 is one of the many things which now in my old age I 
 wish otherwise. I ought to have felt more than I did 
 what a sore burthen you were bearing for conscience' 
 sake, and that it was the duty of us all to dimmish 
 rather than aggravate it, so far as other claims allowed. 
 In point of fact I rather imagine the last communica- 
 tion was on my part, with the Lyra Innocentium. 
 Since then I have been more than once about to write, 
 but something always happened which seemed to check 
 me, and I suppose I said to myself, ' It will be but cold 
 and constrained after all,' and so I gave way to my 
 dilatory habits ; and it frightens me now to think how 
 nearly the time has passed away. I can but ask that if 
 I have been towards you too much as if you had been 
 dead, you will now be towards me as if I were dying ; 
 which of course must be nearly my condition, for
 
 186 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 though (D. G.) wonderfully well, I am in my seventy- 
 second year. Do then, my dear old friend, pardon me 
 what has been wrong in this (I can see it in some 
 measure, but I dare say there is more which I do not 
 see), and let me have the comfort of hoping that your 
 recollection of me will not henceforth be embittered by 
 anything more than is inseparable from our sad posi- 
 tion, as I am sure your kindness to me has always 
 been the same. . . . And now, dear N., let me say 
 ' God be with you ; and may He forgive and bring us 
 all together, as He will and when He will.' I know 
 that you will let me have a line or two, to say that you 
 will believe me still and always 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " J. KEBLE." 
 
 This renewal of correspondence led to the visit of 
 Cardinal Newman in October, 1864, when, almost by 
 accident, Dr. Pusey also was present. Newman has 
 himself described the strange meeting of the three 
 friends, each scarcely recognizing the other through the 
 great changes which time had made. It was necessarily 
 a meeting at once joyful and painful. Keble seems to 
 have formed some idea that Newman was uneasy in his 
 position ; but it is very doubtful if there was any ground 
 for this. Newman was probably more ready than he 
 had been to do justice to the reality of spiritual life 
 in the English Church ; but there was to be no closer, 
 no more visible, union on this earth. For that he 
 could only wait till beyond the grave ; for the present 
 he might have taken on his lips almost word for 
 word, the speech which Browning attributes to Pym 
 at his parting from Stratford :
 
 THE END. 187 
 
 " .... I love him now, 
 And look for my chief portion in that world 
 Where great hearts led astray are turned again. 
 (Soon it may be, and, certes, will be soon : 
 My mission over, I shall not live long.) 
 Ay, here I know I talk I dare and must 
 Of England and her great reward, as all 
 I look for here ; but in my inmost heart 
 Believe, I think of stealing quite away 
 To walk once more with Wentworth my youth's friend 
 Purged from all error, gloriously renewed." 
 
 "Certes, it will be soon." In the winter of 1865 he 
 moved to Bournemouth on account of his wife's illness. 
 He himself was well, able to attend service regularly in 
 St. Peter's Church ; but she grew weaker, and as the 
 spring came he was daily expecting her death. But he 
 was taken first from her ; he suffered what seemed to 
 be another stroke of paralysis on March 22, 1866. He 
 lay ill for a week. " Whether wandering or clear- 
 minded, he was constantly intent on holy things or in 
 actual prayer ; he uttered fragments or ejaculations in 
 the former case, which showed the habitual prayerful- 
 ness of his heart ; he repeated, or composed as it seemed, 
 prayers ; the Lord's Prayer he uttered most commonly." 1 
 
 He passed away on March 29th, and was buried at 
 Hursley on April 6th. When she heard that he was 
 gone, she thanked God that he had been spared the 
 trial of surviving her, and she said that she knew that 
 in his dying thoughts were the words of the Christian 
 Year for Good Friday 
 
 " Lord of my heart, by Thy last cry, 
 
 Let not Thy blood on earth be spent 
 Lo, at Thy feet I fainting lie, 
 
 Mine eyes upon Thy wounds are bent, 
 Upon Thy streaming wounds my weary eyes 
 Wait like the parched earth on April skies. 
 
 1 Coleridge : Memoir, p. 559.
 
 188 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 Wash me, and dry these bitter tears, 
 
 let my heart no further roam : 
 'Tis Thine by vows, and hopes, and fears, 
 
 Long since call Thy wanderer home ; 
 To that dear home, safe in Thy wounded side, 
 Where only broken hearts their sin and shame may 
 hide." 
 
 Who can doubt that they were in her thoughts too, 
 when she followed him on the eleventh of the following 
 month, and they who for thirty years had shared every 
 hope and prayer and plan for the Church, were not 
 divided in their death ?
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PREACHER. 
 
 " To gentlest touches sweetest notes reply. 
 Still humbleness with her low-breathed voice 
 Can steal o'er man's proud heart, and win his choice 
 From earth to heaven, with mightier witchery 
 Than eloquence or wisdom e'er could own." 
 
 J. K. : Misc. Poems, p. 217. 
 
 " IF I were to say what I really feel," wrote Newman 
 in 1837, " I should say plainly that no greater benefit 
 could in my opinion be granted to the Church than the 
 publication of sermons from you, and that on account 
 of their matter, not only of the authority of your 
 name." l 
 
 Yet the only volume of sermons v>hich Keble 
 published in his lifetime was the Sermons, Academical 
 and Occasional (1847), with the preface on the Roman 
 question, about which I have already spoken. This 
 volume consists mainly of University sermons, preached 
 as Select Preacher, containing among others the famous 
 Assize Sermon of 1833, and the Winchester Sermon on 
 Tradition. 
 
 The history of two of them has special interest. 
 
 On St. Andrew's Day, 1841, Keble was appointed to 
 1 Letters, ii., p. 229.
 
 190 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 preach before the University. He prepared a sermon 
 upon the duty of acquiescing in imperfections in the 
 Church rather than hurriedly leaving the Church for 
 some other body, and sent it to Newman for his 
 approval ; but he dissuaded him from preaching it. 
 The sermon is the clearest and most vigorous statement 
 anywhere to be found in Keble's writings, of the 
 duty of loyalty to the English Church, and puts, 
 perhaps even more effectively, the line of argument 
 afterwards worked out in the preface. Newman, how- 
 ever, thought it would add to the excitement without 
 effecting any object. "It will increase," he wrote, 
 " upon a separate authority, the impression which is 
 not well founded, that there are men in Oxford who are 
 on the point of turning to Rome, with a sort of con- 
 fession to the world at large, and as a triumph to the 
 foe over you and us. I know of none such. There is 
 doubtless great danger in prospect, but the persons in 
 danger are far too serious men to act suddenly or 
 without waiting for what they consider God's direction, 
 and I should think very few indeed realize to them- 
 selves yet the prospect of a change nay would change, 
 provided our rulers showed us any sympathy, or then- 
 brethren kept from saying or believing of them that 
 they would change." l 
 
 Whatever may be thought of this opinion in the 
 light of subsequent events, Keble at least ac- 
 quiesced in it. "I shall never be able to thank you 
 enough," he wrote on December 12th, " for sending 
 back that sermon of mine." In its stead he preached 
 a most excellent spiritual sermon on "Counsels of 
 Perfection," showing deep insight into the secret forces 
 1 J. H. N. : Letters, it, p. 370.
 
 THE PREACHER. 191 
 
 of character, and drawing out most subtly the dangers 
 to which religious people are exposed. Both these 
 sermons were now published. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell at any length upon this 
 volume. The first three sermons deal with the grounds 
 of faith, and anticipate much of the preface. They are 
 slightly laborious in style, but full of quiet, thoughtful 
 reasoning, steeped in Aristotle and Butler, " one of 
 the safest teachers of religion, natural and revealed, 
 that ever blessed the Church." 
 
 While emphasizing the essential value of the 
 " implicit faith " of the simple Christian, which may 
 seem to be bigotry and yet is true practical wisdom, 
 " abiding by the dictates of experience, not in defiance 
 but in default of theoretical and argumentative know- 
 ledge," he yet insists on the duty of each man enquiring 
 for himself into the grounds of his faith ; in a true 
 pastoral spirit he pleads that even the poor can under- 
 stand more than we give them credit for : " the 
 recollection that ' proving all things ' is as much the 
 duty of the unlearned as it is of the educated, should 
 make us less afraid to trust them with reasoning than 
 in matters of this sort we commonly are." One passage 
 preached in 1822 is pathetically prophetic in the 
 light of the subsequent history of the movement. " Not 
 being quite satisfied concerning some part of religious 
 truth, and ill-enduring the condition of doubt and 
 discomfort (which after all would do them no great 
 harm, if they would be careful always to take the safe 
 side in practice), subtle and ingenious men set them- 
 selves to devise argument after argument in its behalf, 
 and thus they have often succeeded, to a wonder, in 
 strengthening and extending the fabric of theology,
 
 192 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 perhaps to the benefit of others, without having been 
 able to find under it any shelter, final and complete, for 
 their own harassed and perplexed spirits. Thus the 
 Church has witnessed more than once the sorrowful 
 spectacle of orthodox teachers falling off in their latter 
 days from the very truth which they had themselves 
 before most triumphantly defended ; the law of compen- 
 sation, which has so wide a range in the natural world, 
 extending, apparently, in this among other instances, to 
 the moral world also; in that the versatility and in- 
 genuity which enable men to devise new modes of 
 evidence, are too often accompanied with a disposition 
 to be restless and unsatisfied with the old." 
 
 One other extract from a sermon preached at a 
 school at Harrow Weald in 1846 shows the spirit in 
 which he wished to see boys trained in order to fit 
 them for the difficulties of life : " We hope and pray 
 that from this day forward this place may be^in to be 
 a nursery, not only of sincere Christians, but of Christians 
 willing and able to serve the Church of God at home or 
 abroad in her roughest and barest paths of duty ; and 
 it is obvious that to this end they must be trained to 
 endure hardness, to love the poor and low places of the 
 earth, to give up their own \vills more unreservedly than 
 is expected in a common way, even of those who are 
 brought up in our Church." 
 
 But it is as a parish preacher that Keble will be 
 best known. Since his death, Dr. Pusey and other 
 friends have seen through the press twelve volumes of 
 sermons on the Christian Year, one volume of Sermons, 
 Occasional and Parochial, a volume on the Baptismal 
 Office, and a volume of Outlines of Instructions or Medi- 
 tations for the Church's Seastns, consisting of notes for
 
 THE PREACHER. 103 
 
 sermons. This last volume does not lend itself to 
 quotation or analysis but it deserves a special mention. 
 From 1855 onwards, Keble nearly always preached 
 extempore, and scarcely any written sermons are pre- 
 served after that date; but these notes date mainly 
 after that year, and so contain his ripest thought. For 
 suggestions for preaching or for individual meditation 
 on the Bible, they are admirable, being stimulating 
 and original and marked, like all his work, by a simple, 
 humble, deep reverence for Holy Scripture. 
 
 Of the more finished sermons, Dr. Pusey has said 
 that the chief characteristics are affectionate simplicity 
 and intense reality. 
 
 " Mr. Keble was not a great preacher, was he ? " said 
 one soon after his death to the landlord of the village 
 inn at Hursley. "Well, I don't know what a great 
 preacher is," was the answer, " but he always made us 
 understand him." That is exactly it : he is never 
 thinking of himself, but of his hearers. He said himself, 
 when weighing the relative merits of written or ex- 
 tempore sermons, " That course is probably best for each 
 which most enables him to forget himself, and to think 
 only of God, his hearers, and his subject." l There is 
 no display, no elaborate ornament, there is only the 
 desire that he shall be understanded of the people. 
 The sermons are what his favourite Bishop Wilson 
 said sermons should be, " pious instructions to lead men 
 to heaven and save them from hell." 2 " In delivery 
 he did not give his sermons the advantages of an 
 ordinarily eloquent preacher, but he was eminently 
 winning; he let himself down I do not mean in 
 language or argument, but in simplicity and childlike 
 
 1 Occasional Papers, p. 370. 2 Life, ii., p. 875. 
 
 o
 
 194 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 humility to the most uneducated of his audience ; he 
 seemed always to count himself one of the sinners, 
 one of the penitents, one even of the impenitent and 
 careless whom he was addressing, and the very quiet- 
 ness, the almost tearful monotony of his delivery 
 became extremely moving when you recollected how 
 learned, how able, how moved in his own heart, and 
 how earnest was the preacher." x " He spoke of good 
 angels," says Miss Wilbrahain, " their loving ministry 
 and their presence in church, briefly but in words so 
 simple and real that it seemed as if the rustling of their 
 wings were close around." 2 
 
 This simplicity is very striking in contrast with the 
 academical sermons, and it is more marked in his later 
 style : it was indeed the result of a very deliberate 
 effort on his part. " They said to me," he told Dr. 
 Pusey, " that I was preaching over the people's heads, 
 and so I changed my style." 3 
 
 For our purpose it will be enough to take one volume 
 of his sermons, the course on the Baptismal Office, de- 
 livered after this change in the years 1849-50, to 
 serve as a specimen of this village preaching. " Affec- 
 tionate simplicity" is everywhere yes, very affectionate, 
 but also very stern ; very winning in charm, but very 
 clear in warning. Let us analyze the charm of them 
 a little more exactly. First there is the clear de- 
 termination to be understood. He reverences the 
 intellect of his simple country folk; he treats it as 
 worth while to spend trouble in making things clear to 
 
 1 Sir J. Coleridge : Life, p. 439. 
 
 2 Musings an the Christian Year, p. ex. 
 
 3 E. B. P. : Preface to the Village Sermons on the Baptismal 
 Office.
 
 THE PREACHER. 195 
 
 them. The principle of each rubric is drawn out ; 
 every possible misconception of the Church's teaching 
 is guarded against. Thus on the essentials of Baptism 
 (p. 247) : " The two together, the words and the act, 
 make up (as the Catechism says) the outward visible 
 sign or form in Baptism. It would not be Baptism were 
 a child washed or dipped in water in silence with only 
 good thoughts no, nor if he were washed and dipped 
 with the best and most beautiful prayer. It would not 
 be Baptism unless the very words which our Saviour 
 appointed were used, ' In the Name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' So on the other 
 hand, neither would it be Baptism were this most Holy 
 Name ever so solemnly repeated over the child, with 
 the Amen of the whole Church. This would not, I say, 
 be Baptism, unless the child or person at the same time 
 were actually washed or dipped in the water." Again 
 on the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration (pp. 273-4) : 
 " We are to say distinctly, ' This child is regenerate,' if 
 there were any doubt, the Church, I suppose, would bid 
 us say, ' We hope that this child is regenerated/ There 
 is no reason against our saying that, if it were more 
 according to the truth, according to our Lord's sayings, 
 and the mind of His Holy Church. We might say, we 
 hoped this child was regenerate, just as we say in the 
 Burial Service, ' our hope is ' that our brother or sister 
 is now resting in Christ; the word would have been 
 just as easily spoken. But instead of saying ' we hope/ 
 we say positively, 'it is regenerate.' We say it con- 
 cerning every child : no distinction is made between 
 this one and that one. Why should we say it if we 
 are not to believe it? Surely the Church meant us 
 all to believe it, and if we will be true Churchmen we
 
 196 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 must believe it. I say it over and over again, and 
 I wish you to take notice of it, and always remember 
 it, that over every child without exception, im- 
 mediately after it has been baptized, the Priest is 
 desired to say, ' This child is regenerate/ not, ' it 
 may be,' or, ' we hope it is,' but plainly and distinctly, 
 4 it is.'" 
 
 The illustrations are drawn from the ordinary details 
 of village life. The nurse's care to hold a child care- 
 fully and not let it drop, leads to the thought, "If 
 helpless mortals can do so much for those little ones, 
 how much more may we make ourselves certain that 
 the Everlasting Arms will not fall from under us ; that 
 Jesus Christ will never of His own accord cease to bear 
 us in His loving embrace." When the Church asks 
 God to receive the child according to His promise, this 
 is " much in the same way as a person might present 
 a ticket of admission to a hospital, or an order to receive 
 a little bread or money or clothing, and, if signed by 
 the proper person, it would ensure him the gift." The 
 sign of the cross is like the mark with which shepherds 
 put their master's name upon each lamb separately, 
 when it has been washed and shorn. The sponsors 
 can truly say, "That is my desire," on behalf of the 
 children, being " so very certain that, if the children 
 could know, they would desire it above all things. Just 
 as if one had a humble petition to make to the Queen 
 for any child who was too young to know the meaning 
 of it, to have its property taken care of or the like, one 
 should present it in the name of the child and call it 
 that child's petition. Or if an infant was crying at the 
 door for hunger, though it were too young to under- 
 stand its own wants, or at all to speak them out in
 
 THE PREACHER. 197 
 
 words, yet we should not scruple to say ' the child is 
 longing and asking for bread.' " The whole service is 
 "as if a father sending his child a journey should first 
 give him instructions what to do, then make him 
 solemnly promise to do it, and lastly cause him to kneel 
 down and bless him very religiously before he set out." 
 The good behaviour of children at school before a 
 holiday or festival is a type of what our conduct should 
 be .in expectation of the great day of Judgment and 
 Glory. Nay, more boldly still the anger of the tidy 
 housewife, when things are wilfully or wantonly stained 
 or sullied, is a type of the anger which the Lord must 
 feel when, having washed us clean in His own most 
 precious Blood, He finds us by our own fault all foul 
 and filthy again. 
 
 Some of these extracts lead up naturally io the 
 second characteristic note of the preaching : its un- 
 shrinking clearness of doctrine. The statements are 
 clear, definite, yet always in due proportion ; one side 
 of truth does not crowd out another. Quite clear is 
 the sense of the power of original sin, owing to which 
 the child is born a child of wrath ; quite clear the power 
 and the personality of the Evil Spirit ; but equally clear 
 and far stronger is the power and the personality of 
 God, coming to save the child in Baptism. There the 
 child is saved, is regenerate : it is newborn unto 
 righteousness and made a new creature. " Henceforth 
 One abides in this child, greater than he that is in the 
 world. A spark of holy fire is lit up in him, which if 
 it be duly attended to will consume all that is gross 
 and earthly, and purify him altogether in the like- 
 ness of Jesus Ciirist." The child receives justification, 
 which is, being made a member of Christ the Righteous ;
 
 198 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 and justification brings with it pardon and peace; 
 pardon for sins past, for original sin, and grace to do 
 well for the time to come. But then, as natural birth, 
 so far from relieving man of the necessity of food and 
 growth, absolutely requires them, so spiritual regener- 
 ation must be followed by spiritual growth, and that 
 life must be sustained by spiritual food, "the spark 
 must be kindled into a flame by the unceasing wonder- 
 working Breath of God, i. e. His Holy Spirit." " We 
 must be made and continue members of Him. That is 
 being saved by Him." " From beginning to end of 
 the Baptismal Office two doctrines go together, or 
 rather two parts of one doctrine. The one that every 
 baptized babe is regenerate by the Holy Ghost, the 
 other that every one who lives to the age of actual sin 
 will stand in need of further grace the grace of per- 
 severance and improvement, most likely of conversion 
 also, that he may not after all be a castaway." " Pardon 
 and grace come first in Holy Baptism, and for the time 
 they come completely, they save us until they are 
 forfeited by sinful relapsing ; but as we grow older and 
 temptations come on, new supplies of grace and pardon, 
 new ways of partaking of Christ the God-man are 
 needed, and most especially the Sacrament of Holy 
 Communion." 
 
 Now, the secret of this dogmatic clearness is no mere 
 love of intellectual precision, it is the singleness of 
 spiritual vision. Priest and friends and nurse seem to 
 pass away : he sees only the Presence of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and the Church to which the Lord 
 commits the child. As clearly as to the eyes of the 
 mothers by the Lake of Galilee, the Lord is there to 
 his eyes ; the Lord with His individualizing love, He
 
 THE PREACHER. 199 
 
 who had died to redeem this little one, and who loves 
 it as though there were no other child in the world. 
 He now takes him into His loving arms, pours the 
 water upon him, and blesses him with the very 
 greatest of His gifts, the Holy Spirit. "The good- 
 ness and bounty which is offered to all the world is 
 here attracted as it were to the soul and body of that 
 one little boy or girl; as when the lightning which is 
 mysteriously and invisibly floating above us in the 
 whole Leaven is attracted to a particular point and 
 strikes upon it." Saints and angels watch in wonder 
 at the greatness of the gift. " It is in fact no less than 
 the Day of Pentecost over again, so far as that infant 
 is concerned." The Lord, when He said to His Apostles, 
 " Suffer them to come to Me," implied that there was 
 something in them, some instinct, which would cause 
 them, if let alone, to come ; and if we only look rever- 
 entially, we may discern the new man in the baptized, 
 in their loving and confiding ways, in their little acts 
 of self-denial, in their contrivances how to be kind and 
 dutiful and obedient. 
 
 Such a vivid sense of the reality of the scene tends 
 naturally to the last point which needs to be noted, the 
 solemnity, the sternness, the almost awful sternness of 
 the tone. " The thought is very blessed, and therefore 
 v ery fearful." " Baptism lifts us to a far higher Heaven 
 or sinks us into a lower and more miserable Hell." 
 "We never can be as if our promise in Baptism had 
 not been made. We are baptized, and do what we will, 
 be as wicked as ever we may, we cannot unbaptize 
 ourselves. We may turn our Baptism into a curse, but 
 we cannot get rid of it altogether. We cannot be as if 
 we had never made any promise to God. His mark is
 
 200 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 set upon our foreheads, and although by wilful sin 
 unrepented of we wear out all its beauty and glory, all 
 its saving grace and virtue, we cannot altogether wear 
 out the mark itself. It will be there to our worst con- 
 demnation, if it is not there to save us." 
 
 This solemnity is pressed home to all present. It is 
 pressed on the parents ; they pretend to love their 
 children, but "how is it possible you can truly love 
 them, if you are not very full of love towards Him who 
 so chooses them out and blesses them, who is even now 
 taking them in His arms to save them from Hell ? And 
 if you love Him, you will try to please Him ; you will 
 not pass slightly over any of His commands, especially 
 His last dying command, ' Do this in remembrance of 
 Me.' Your love to your child, if you really believe in 
 Christ's blessing given to that child in Baptism, will be 
 enough by God's grace to make you a good Christian." 
 It is pressed also on the sponsors ; they are not merely 
 friends of the parents, but deputies appointed by the 
 Church to offer and present the young child to its 
 Saviour. It is an honour done to them, that they are 
 allowed to take charge of the Church's children. " They 
 ought to feel as if God had put into their hands some- 
 thing of a father's or a mother's trust." The least they 
 can do is to wish and pray in their hearts that the little 
 one for whom they answer may keep his vow. But 
 this they cannot do, they cannot really wish and pray 
 for the child's soul, except they be really in care for their 
 own souls also. It is pressed alike upon all present : 
 they being made witnesses of the baptism are bound 
 thenceforward to treat the child as a Christian, to pray 
 for him, and to show all brotherly love to him. They 
 are reminded of their own past promises, and called to
 
 THE PREACHER, 201 
 
 repentance as far as they have been untrue to them. 
 " As we feel uneasy if any little child belonging to us 
 is left unbaptized, so should we long to confess our own 
 sins, which may have' brought us perhaps into a worse 
 than unbaptized condition." For the standard to which 
 baptism commits us is a standard of willing obedience 
 and of steadfast faith, a faith not of the tongue only, or 
 of the mind only, but of the heart. " Consider what it 
 is. to be steadfast in faith. It is to look to the great 
 things out of sight, not only now and then, but con- 
 tinually and regularly. It is to remember every morning 
 you have an account to give and every evening that you 
 are so much nearer, that your doings are being put down 
 there. It is to turn your heart to Jesus Christ, God 
 and Man, crucified for you, and to refrain from sin for 
 His sake ; not merely to speak affectionately and to be 
 at times touched with the thought of Him. To be 
 steadfast in faith is, moreover, to believe our Lord when 
 He says that we must take up our cross, we must lead 
 strict lives, and be zealous and repent." The volume 
 closes with words of mingled hope and warning the 
 last note a note of warning. " O that it would please 
 Him to pour out upon us, even now, His good and 
 loving Spirit, upon us, I say, who are here present, that 
 we might from this very hour begin, one and all of us, 
 to show forth our baptism in our lives far more truly, 
 far more courageously, far more lovingly than we have 
 yet done ! And one fruit of that Good Spirit will 
 assuredly be, that parents and teachers, godfathers and 
 godmothers, will go on making more and more of their 
 precious and tender charge, the little ones of Christ. 
 If we make much of our own souls and of theirs, they 
 will learn themselves to make much of them also. If
 
 202 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 we make light of them, fearful indeed is the end we 
 must expect, both to thorn and to us." 1 
 
 The extracts given above are sufficient to show the 
 extreme simplicity and directness of style ; from time 
 to time this is lit up by a touch of poetic imagery. 
 Baptism is a coronation, in which we are made kings, 
 "to reign over our own hearts and imaginations, and 
 to command and order all outward things so that they 
 shall work together for our good " ; it is a marriage 
 in which we are wedded to the mystical body of 
 Christ : it is like a fresh morning breeze : " The re- 
 collections of this deep Baptismal Love breathe over 
 our hearts like fragrant airs of a summer morning." 
 Again there is a frequent mystical use of the Old 
 Testament, verging at times on what would seem to be 
 fanciful ; but even this use is rare. Everything is 
 chastened and subdued. Everywhere the tone is of 
 one living in the Presence of a Truth which he fears to 
 sully by ornaments of his own ; of one sitting hushed 
 and silent in a beautiful grove lest words of his should 
 stay the sweet warbling of the birds or drown the music 
 of the clear rill which is trickling through the flower-clad 
 banks. It is the tone of one who brings with him and 
 tries to win others to bring with them, to such a scene, 
 
 . " a heart 
 That watches and receives." 2 
 
 1 It will be no surprise to the reader after this to hear that the 
 Evangelical party in Oxford recognized in Keble, in spite of his 
 maintenance of Baptismal Regeneration, a spiritual man : or even 
 that a sturdy Baptist, who used to attend Burthorpe Church 
 when Keble was curate there, gave it as his reason that he there 
 "heard the gospel." Newman, Letters, vol. i. p. 115; Sir J. 
 Coleridge, Memoir, p. 64. 
 
 2 Sermons vi. xiv. xviii. and xxx. are specially recommended 
 as specimens of Keble's style.
 
 THE PREACHER. 203 
 
 The three chief gifts which make a great preacher in 
 all times and countries have been recently described to 
 be " the sympathy which can move and lift the hearers, 
 the insight into spiritual facts which can present them 
 as luminous realities, and the enthusiasm for a sacred 
 cause which can fire the soul with a congenial devotion." l 
 Certainly if these make a great preacher, Keble was 
 such. 
 
 - 1 Dr. Briglit's Lessons from the Lives of Three Great Fathers, 
 p. 62.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 
 " 6 iiriK\t)Qtic BapvajSag airo TWV aVotrroXwv, o iari 
 
 Y!OC IlapaicXjjffswe." Acts iv. 36. 
 
 FROM earliest days Keble's advice had been asked 
 by college friends on religious matters or on such deep 
 questions of practical life as the choice or change of a 
 profession, for his friends knew that all such questions 
 would be pondered over and decided in the light of the 
 highest motives. From 1840 onwards he was frequently 
 consulted by strangers needing direction for their own 
 spiritual life or guidance in ecclesiastical questions. 
 Often, too, he would himself take the initiative, when 
 a call was made upon his prompt sympathy ; his had 
 been " a soul in suffering tried," and so was quick to 
 bear aid to his " suffering brethren's side." There had 
 always been at home anxieties arising from ill-health. 
 *' Oh what a day of joy a day of perfect health would be 
 in our family" (he had written in 1814); " we are all so 
 united, so fond of home, and just separated enough to 
 know the value of each other's society." The deaths of 
 his two sisters, Sarah and Mary Anne, of his mother and 
 his father, of Hurrell Froude, the frequent illness of 
 his wife and care for his invalid sister, Elizabeth, the
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 205 
 
 loss of Newman's friendship and companionship, fell 
 with heavy weight but also with fruitful power upon his 
 heart ; and so there was no grief from which his alembic 
 could not distill some drop of consolation. Or, again, he 
 would take the initiative even to rebuke ; his sense of 
 justice, his jealousy for the good name of those for 
 whom he cared, made him bold to speak in very clear 
 language, whether it were to a stranger as in the 
 plain speech of the letter " to the Father of an Illegiti- 
 mate Child," printed in the Letters of Spiritual Counsel 
 or privately to friends. But whether he was writing 
 spontaneously or in answer to appeals, whether to 
 console or to rebuke, the language ,.is always gentle, 
 humble, courteous, full of delicate suggestion rather 
 than command, of apology, of self-distrust, even at 
 times of self-abhorrence. " You have a way of saying 
 things which does not annoy," x wrote J. H. Newman in 
 1838. " You write so humbly, it would perplex me at 
 times ; only I construe it in my own way," 2 wrote Dr. 
 Pusey in 1848. 
 
 The reason of this tone is due to two things. It was 
 caused partly by his high standard of Christian and 
 especially of clerical duty, emphasizing his own sense of 
 personal unworthiness. The language that he uses of 
 himself both in the Confessions of his poetry, and in 
 the simple prose of his correspondence, is language of 
 such deep self-accusation that Sir J. Coleridge, in writing 
 the Memoir, and Mr. Wilson in editing the spiritual 
 letters, have both felt that it is liable to misinterpretation, 
 and have both borne their witness to the purity of every 
 word and act of his life. Each reader will be tempted 
 to interpret such hints by the worst with which his 
 1 Letters, ii., p. 238. 2 July 9, 1848.
 
 206 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 own conscience has to reproach him, but each will 
 probably be wrong, unless he brings to the consideration 
 a sense of sin which shall include " rude bad thoughts " 
 
 O 
 
 and " cold, ungentle ways " as absolutely defiling, and a 
 conception of the holiness of God and the possibilities 
 of human holiness such as does not enter into the heart 
 of most men. Keble's standard was that of life as one 
 bright joyous service, with every thought brought into 
 subjection to Christ, with constant praise of God, with 
 frequent intercession for man. This was his ideal. Sin 
 was to him, in St. Anselm's phrase, " nothing else than 
 the failure to render God His due " ; and therefore, if 
 ever thoughts of worldly promotion and ambition had 
 filled his mind, if " rude bad thoughts " had soiled it, if 
 praise had been cold or intercession had been neglected, 
 if some hasty word of his had offended a brother or 
 done harm to the cause of the Church, these fell on his 
 " sensitive, dutiful mind " (it is Dr. Pusey's phrase) with 
 a greater weight than gross acts of sin fall upon a less 
 tender conscience. " My own notion is," he said, " that 
 clergymen generally have more to blame themselves for 
 as to neglect in the way of example and the way of 
 special intercession than in the way of direct warning " 1 ; 
 and again, when saying that the anxieties of a clerical 
 life overbalance any sense of comfort, he adds, " If not, 
 it is, I am afraid, because we are not considerate enough 
 about the unspeakable awfulness of our trust, and are 
 therefore too soon satisfied with ourselves ; or else 
 because we do not rate what God requires of Christian 
 people high enough, and therefore are too soon satisfied 
 with our flocks." 2 
 
 But there is a second, very different reason, which 
 1 Letters, ix., p. 23. 2 Ibid., vii., p. 13.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 207 
 
 worked to the same end, viz., the deep sense of the 
 responsibility of each individual in religious matters in 
 a word, his reverence for Christ's Presence in each soul. 
 One who knew him well has said, " What I think remark- 
 able was not how many people loved him, or how much 
 they loved him, but that everybody seemed to love him 
 with the very best kind of love of which they were 
 capable. It was like loving goodness itself: you felt that 
 what was good in him was applying itself directly and 
 bringing into life all that was best in you. His ready, 
 lively, transparent affection seemed as if it was the very 
 spirit of love opening out upon you and calling for a 
 return such as you could give." l 
 
 This reverence was kept alive by frequent special 
 intercession ; the morning hour at 9 a.m. was set aside 
 for remembrance of those who had been brought into 
 spiritual relation to himself. " I have never, I believe, 
 gone a day without thinking of you," is his language to 
 one whom he did not know personally, but who had 
 written to him under temptation ; and the language 
 finds frequent echoes throughout his correspondence. 
 He encourages one correspondent to send him written 
 reports of spiritual progress, and assures him that no 
 other work shall interfere with his attention to such a 
 case. " I scarce know what could be of more conse- 
 quence, to me, than helping such work . . . . be it only 
 by affording you a means of relieving your mind." This 
 patient intercession kept alive in his own heart a 
 hopeful faith in his penitents, which was ever urging 
 them to have " root in themselves," to try " to swim 
 without corks," which was guiding their eyes away 
 from himself to the Saviour. It is true that he often 
 
 1 Quoted in the Preface to Coleridge's Memoir (ed. 2), p. 92.
 
 208 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 counsels direct auricular confession ; at one time, when 
 oppressed by the feeling of his own inefficiency in his 
 parish, he writes, " Whoever can discreetly and effec- 
 tually bring in Confession will do, I should think, 
 one of the best things for this poor Church, as she 
 is at present." l Again, he expresses his opinion that 
 when outward Communion becomes more common and 
 more frequent, " we shall find it impossible to get on 
 without the discipline of confession more or less strict. 
 It seems as if it would be the next thing that would 
 agitate the Church of England. God send us well 
 through it, and then, by His blessing, we shall stand 
 better than ever since the Reformation." 
 
 When mediating between Dr. Hook and the clergy at 
 St. Saviour's, Leeds, he was very clear that Confession 
 should be treated as a means of grace, and not merely 
 as a means of comfort. For dealing with certain sins 
 he is persuaded that " in most cases regular confession 
 and not occasional only will be found the best help by 
 way both of precaution and remedy." 3 Yet he will 
 not shift responsibility from the penitent's shoulders 
 to his own. " The wish for an infallible guide to 
 relieve one of responsibility is plainly very natural, but 
 as plainly not intended to be granted in this world." 
 " I consider that English priests are not only permitted 
 but commanded to leave to their penitents a certain 
 discretion with regard to those rules " (i. e. of communi- 
 cating without a fresh confession). " The stricter rules of 
 the foreign Churches would make one's task easier, but 
 the line which our Church has taken compels us to 
 modify them in very charity to the many souls that 
 would, I fear, otherwise be repelled from the best hope 
 1 letters, xxi. * find., cxvil. 3 Ibid., cxiv.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 209 
 
 of recovery." To an undergraduate, who had asked his 
 advice about Confession, he writes 
 
 " Whatever people do or decline to do as to confession 
 should (1) not go upon feeling one way or the other, but 
 upon calm consideration with prayer ; (2) should not 
 be allowed to lessen their own sense of responsibility. 
 (3) To whomsoever the confession is to be made out- 
 wardly, it should be made distinctly to our Lord before- 
 hand, in the conviction that He knows it all beforehand, 
 and has declared His will that it should somehow be 
 made known" (St. Luke xii. 2). 1 He suggests again 
 and again to his penitents that they should make their 
 own rules and even choose their own penances for 
 themselves. This respect for their own sense of 
 responsibility appears even in a tart sharpness, which 
 he sometimes uses when he thinks that his corre- 
 spondents are playing with him, that they have really 
 made up their minds, but want their own opinion 
 sanctioned by him, and "seek direction with an 
 instinctive purpose of directing the director." " Excuse 
 my saying, I deeply wish you had not said this," is his 
 criticism on one piece of shallowness. " Will you excuse 
 my saying that you do not now seem to me to have 
 really put your mind to these considerations." " If you 
 cannot help feeling displeased with me, do not therefore 
 cast aside what I have said until you have well and 
 long considered it your own self, not borrowing the 
 eyes of others " (pp. 241, 259, 266, 267). 
 
 The best statement of his feeling with regard to 
 Confession in relation to parish work is to be found in 
 his review of Monro's Parochial Work? He is quite 
 
 1 Letters, xcvi. 
 
 3 Reprinted from the Christian Remembrancer of 1850, in 
 Occasional Papers and Reviews. 
 
 P
 
 210 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 clear that real pastoral efficiency must rest upon 
 the pastor's personal intercourse with his people ; that, 
 like a doctor, he ought to know the veal evils with 
 which he is dealing. The fear of the priest enslaving 
 the spirit of an English yeoman or peasant seems to 
 him foolish and unreal. Those who have once fairly 
 accepted the doctrine of judgment to come can never 
 wish to free themselves of their sense of responsibility. 
 " Their very object in seeking the benefit of absolution 
 together with ghostly counsel and advice, was to enlarge 
 their responsibility by obtaining deliverance from the 
 chain of past sin and better principles to guide them 
 for the future." At the same time he would avoid the 
 technical terms of "direction " and " auricular confession," 
 " because they are associated in almost all minds with 
 something more absolute, peremptory, and indispensable 
 than we should practically mean by them." He is 
 especially anxious to avoid interfering with that happy 
 unconsciousness which is the natural ground of true 
 Christian simplicity; anxious again to check any risk 
 of hero-worship, and determined to avoid minute and 
 incessant direction, as the desire of it seemed to him to 
 be a form of self-will. But all these abuses can be 
 guarded against. " They have no force against the legiti- 
 mate mode of personal intercourse which the Prayer- 
 book enjoins," and it seemed to him that the rubric 
 requiring notice to be given beforehand of the intention 
 to communicate, and that which required each com- 
 municant to communicate three times a year, gave 
 sufficient vantage-ground for such personal intercourse. 
 " These two rules, duly made known and followed up, 
 would constitute a regular and effectual system of 
 Church discipline with adults, even as the rules about
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 211 
 
 sponsors, catechizing, and Confirmation would secure a 
 complete Church education for children. Let there be 
 a religious and living sense of Church authority, and 
 the work of discipline, as well as of doctrine, is done 
 for us." 
 
 But to return to the spiritual letters. Their tone is 
 always this, " I am a very bad person for you to have come 
 to ; I have had little experience and little knowledge. I 
 need your prayers and forgiveness much more than you 
 need mine, and whatever I say, you must see if it is right 
 and then act upon it." But this is not the whole ; he 
 always goes on to stay himself upon the Presence of 
 Christ and His promise to be with His ministers. The 
 thought of the Atonement braces him to fresh effort. 
 " It is a fearful thing to think that one owes a heavier 
 debt than one's fellows to the great Owner of all. Aye, 
 so fearful that nothing could enable one to support the 
 thought except it were the same recollection with 
 which I ended the last paragraph, and with which, if 
 we brought it in as often as we have occasion, we should 
 end every paragraph and every sentence which we 
 write or speak i. e. that we have One who has redeemed 
 our debt as well as promised us unfailing supplies for 
 the future." He reminds a priest who felt that he had 
 too lightly undertaken his office of the duty of showing 
 his penitence by all diligence and activity, and quotes 
 the words of Bishop Bull : " Having laid ourselves at 
 God's feet, let us not lie idly there, but arise and for the 
 future do the work of God with all faithfulness and 
 industry." So there is always something inspiring and 
 hopeful about his advice. Under all the gentleness 
 and hesitation there is very seldom anything but 
 defmiteness of advice; there is always in it a strain
 
 212 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of sober practical common sense, even in the earliest 
 letters a strange maturity of wisdom winch inspired 
 confidence. 
 
 This mellow wisdom is equally noticeable whether 
 he is dealing with the problems of individual life or 
 of Church organization. In each he starts with a 
 high ideal; but he is so impressed with the great 
 degeneracy of the Church, and with the power of 
 the Evil Spirit, that he does not hastily expect great 
 progress or startling changes. In the individual life 
 the one thing necessary is that the motive should be 
 true ; if that is set on the active service of Christ, 
 he is ready to make any allowance for differences of 
 character and of circumstance. Each man has to ask 
 himself what is reasonable for such an one as he to 
 do for Christ ; and then set calmly and gently about 
 his own work without breaking through established 
 customs where they are innocent. There must be a 
 resolute guard over thoughts and senses, and a control 
 of the feelings. He is especially distrustful of the 
 feelings, whether of melancholy or of remorse, or of 
 excited assurance, or of sorrow. They must have relief, 
 but they must never be our masters. To one suffering 
 from a sense of loneliness and want of sympathy he 
 writes, " One thing occurs to me as a possible help in 
 soothing and relieving your pent-up feelings, viz., that 
 you should, if circumstances allow, get into a regular 
 course of some kind of charitable visiting among poor 
 and distressed people. Music heard and practised, 
 poetry read and written, drawing, scenery, gardening 
 and all kinds of out-door recreations, if not too exciting, 
 may be made useful in this way, but the specific is 
 works of charity and devotion." Overmuch sorrow lor
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 213 
 
 the dead, and even remorse for our sins towards them, 
 have to be put aside. " No person who believes in the 
 Atonement ought to indulge in bitter remorse." To Dr. 
 Pusey, when his wife lay dying and he was feeling it as 
 a punishment for his own sins, Keble wrote 
 
 " I want you to be on your guard against litter self- 
 reproach against that kind of remorse which I know 
 is apt to come over one when a blessing of which one 
 feels one's unworthiness seems taken away ; a feeling, 
 I mean, which would benumb and prostrate, instead of 
 softening and quickening our faith. Surely in such 
 matters, as in all others, we do well not to think or feel 
 as if we knew positively the cause of God's dealing with 
 us. The tone of the Prayer-book seems to me so beauti- 
 ful, ' For whatsoever cause this sickness is sent unto you,' 
 without pretending to search it out or to encourage 
 the sufferer to do so with anything like certainty. The 
 thought that it may be this or that, seems to me the 
 intended way of humbling us. If we go on to treat 
 ourselves as if we knew it to be this or that, perhaps 
 we go beyond God's will." 
 
 So even with regard to our feelings towards God ; we 
 have no right to demand of God or to be uncomfortable 
 if we do not feel sensible comfort or the certain assur- 
 ance of salvation. "To say that such assurance is a 
 sure and necessary sign of God's favour must be a 
 mistake, if it were only that it contradicts our Lord's 
 agony and the feeling that He had upon the Cross, not 
 to speak of many saintly examples in Scripture." Even 
 more strongly, " The whole of this doctrine of the 
 necessity of assurance is to me not left doubtful but 
 contradicted by such places as Philippians ii. 12, 13 ; 
 indeed by the whole gospel, our Lord's own teaching in
 
 214 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 particular; and I pray God to keep us all from it." l For 
 such assurance tends so readily to a low standard of 
 life, and to that which seemed to him the most fatal 
 thing to spiritual life, the feeling of self-complacency. 
 "You must pray especially against this," he writes to 
 one lady, " you must do penance for it by trying in- 
 wardly to turn away from and be pained at the affec- 
 tionate praise, even of those whom you would most 
 wish to approve you" (p. 151). Even assurance of the 
 purity of our motive may be denied to us, and we must 
 not be over-anxious even then. One short letter 2 
 may be quoted in its entirety to illustrate this : 
 
 "M.Y DEAR CHILD, My entire conviction is that 
 your anxiety about your motive for what you do in the 
 way of penitence is carried too far. He on purpose for 
 the most part hides that point from us ; so that few, if 
 any, shall be able to say in what measure they are 
 influenced by love, in what by fear and shame and 
 indignation, and such inferior yet legitimate motives. 
 You must learn to bear this painful doubt, and to be 
 thankful that He releases and keeps you from wilful sin 
 anyhow. You must pray and strive for love, but not be 
 violently grieved nor angry with yourself should you 
 still feel as if the lower motives alone, or nearly alone, 
 were yours. Do not allow yourself to sit for many 
 minutes moody and dreaming. Your judgment, your 
 conduct, your feelings towards others that is where 
 your minute watchfulness should be, there will be the 
 proof of your grief being accepted as real contrition, 
 
 1 See the whole of this letter, " On the Religious Revivals in 
 Ireland," cliii. 
 
 2 Letter Ixx.
 
 THE SPIEITUAL ADVISER. , 215 
 
 much more than in any consciousness you may seem to 
 have of it at the time. 
 
 " Your loving father in Christ, 
 
 " J. K." 
 
 &uch absence of feeling may be a punishment for 
 past sins, and " the truly filial feeling is to accept the 
 punishment of one's iniquity, praying that it may be in 
 time, not in eternity." (p. 189). It may, too, throw us 
 out oiself on to the Lord. An old clergyman who had 
 known him in younger days was dying, with a deep 
 sense (f his own sinfulness and a fear that he was 
 not forjiven, and the absence of comfort in prayer. 
 He longed to see Keble. " Oh, that John Keble was 
 here ! " That could not be, but Keble wrote to him 
 a letter vhich brought him quiet happiness, and of 
 which th> following is an extract 
 
 " I coud say, for one thing, make your account 
 beforehanc with this trouble coming upon you, as you 
 would witi a fit of bodily pain, to which you might 
 know yourelf liable ; and offer it to God as you would 
 the bodily >ain, in deep resignation, giving yourself up 
 to Him, to deal with you in this respect also as He 
 knows best. And, as we know that in some mysterious 
 way our bodly sufferings are united (if we take them 
 rightly) to tbse of our Lord on the Cross, so we may 
 venture to asociate these sadder misgivings of the soul 
 with the deo agony and sense of desertion which He 
 vouchsafed i> endure for us. And we may believe 
 that in ways hiown to Him they are made instrumental 
 to our final purification and salvation. One way in 
 which this my happen, we may well believe, is this : 
 the more en tidy we are made to feel the worth! essness
 
 21(! JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of all that we have ourselves been or done, the more 
 are we thrown, wholly and solely, upon Him who is our 
 only Hope ; and this deep and bitter feeling may be 
 our Lord's providential way of causing you to cast .til 
 your care upon Him as you no doubt endeavour to do, 
 but feel that you do it but inadequately ; this distress 
 may render you more earnest in doing so ; and ' if there 
 be first a willing mind ' you know the rest, and how 
 fully it applies to the inward offering of Faiti and 
 Kepentance, as well as to the outward one of Alms. 
 Once more : I should wish to say, I am continually 
 saying, in effect, to persons in such trouble as you 
 sometimes feel, ' Which do you really want of the 
 Almighty? Comfort now, or pardon and acceptance 
 hereafter ? ' The latter, of course ; and it mzf be that 
 the imperfection you complain of in the fotfner, may 
 greatly help towards that better thing, for the peace 
 of God passeth all understanding.' Many, naving it, 
 feel as if they had it not ; but many, alas ! wanting it, 
 feel (like the Pharisees) as if they certaiily had it. 
 Which is better : to kindle a fire of one? own. and 
 compass oneself about with sparks, and hav/ to walk in 
 that light; or to walk in darkness, and bare no light, 
 only trusting (i. e. unweariedly trying to fust) in the 
 Name of the Lord, and ' staying yourself/ as you may 
 ' on our God ' ? / 
 
 " Let me beseech you, dear sir, to go on trying this ; 
 and in a short time you will see and knoWvvhat a Rock 
 you have been indeed standing on." 
 
 All sorrow is handled with delicate tact, for he 
 believed so much in its purging power. 'The Almighty 
 has stores of chastening secret to uslas well as of 
 mercy in its more placid form ; and J believe that
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISEE. 217 
 
 those whom we have every reason to believe His most 
 beloved have always most earnestly welcomed those 
 pains which they hoped in some unsearchable way 
 might help to purify them." " These sufferings are, in 
 one way, the Father's mode of applying the Cross to 
 us, as His Sacraments are in another way." 1 Or, 
 again, he asks the special prayers of a friend "now, 
 when affliction has brought you, in a manner, unusually 
 near the Throne." Sorrow may be penal, but it may also 
 be a mark of chastening love, and we are inquiring too 
 far if, in every case, we are anxious how far and for 
 what exact sin it is penal. 
 
 In the same way it is with a soothing tenderness 
 that he speaks of death and of " the living dead." In 
 one letter (cliv.) the whole of the Burial Office is analyzed 
 to show that it is not merely a form for the burial of 
 the body, but one of commending the whole person, 
 body and soul, to Almighty God. It assumes the con- 
 tinued existence of the departed ; it implies our hopes 
 that the promises may be true of them ; we may believe 
 that they still sympathize with us in our prayers ; 
 everything is aimed at " lessening the weary interval 
 between the bereaved and the departed," and so it 
 becomes a form of communion with the dead. So he 
 loves George Herbert's phrase that the departed have 
 only gone into another room in the Father's house ; they 
 are " entering into their rest, or rather His vest " ; the 
 bereaved are earnestly pressed to lose no time in using 
 themselves " to speak freely and calmly to one another 
 of those who are out of sight, as though they were, as 
 they are, only out of sight." God is sure to accept the 
 efforts which affection prompts us to make in the way 
 1 Letter Ixiii.
 
 218 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 of doing that of which the departed would most approve. 
 The recovery of the practice of prayer for the departed, 
 which had come with the study of the ancient Church, 
 seemed to him to compensate for the trouble and 
 annoyance of the times ; in 1837 he regrets the cessation 
 of prayers for the Founders in the College chapels, "nor 
 do I think we shall ever be quite right till it is restored ; " 
 and he sends to a friend the following prayer from 
 Bishop Andrewes, " which one very unworthy person at 
 least has used for years with far greater comfort than 
 he deserves." 
 
 " Remember Thy servants and handmaidens which 
 have departed hence in the Lord, especially .... and all 
 others to whom our remembrance is due ; give them 
 eternal rest and peace in Thy Heavenly Kingdom, and 
 to us such a measure of communion with them, as Thou 
 knowest to be best for us. And bring us all to serve 
 Thee in Thine eternal Kingdom when Thou wilt and as 
 Thou wilt, only without shame or sin. Forgive my 
 presumption and accept my prayers, as Thou didst the 
 prayers of Thine ancient Church, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." 
 
 A few points of more ecclesiastical interest may be 
 added here, as they arise out of his letters and will in 
 the main illustrate the mellow wisdom of his advice. 
 In relation to Dissent, while clear of its sinfulness and 
 of the harm which it causes, he would deal lovingly and 
 forbearingly with Dissenters, "as being, alas! the wronged 
 party in bygone times." He would have each parish 
 priest regard himself as still responsible for them, 
 though all appeals to them will require much discretion 
 and charity. To a young lady who had been brought 
 up unbaptized and wished for baptism, as she supposed
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISEE. 219 
 
 against her parents' wish, he advises that clearly she 
 must make her profession of faith, that it would be 
 unreal to receive Dissenters' Baptism, that it would be 
 very undesirable to go away and be baptized without 
 her parents' knowledge. " It has an air of undutiful- 
 ness, mistrust, and concealment which ought by all 
 means to be avoided, if possible." Therefore she must 
 tell her parents of her wish, and be content to wait for 
 many months, in the hope of getting their consent or 
 even winning them to Baptism. Meanwhile, she will 
 hear what she believes in ill-spoken of, and be tempted 
 to speak and think the worst of Dissenters ; and so he 
 adds his parting advice, " Force yourself, I beseech 
 you, rather to keep silence, unless there be some grave 
 duty in speaking, and to be glad, really glad, when you 
 can speak and think well of them." l 
 
 Liberalism and speculative unbelief was much more 
 trying to him than inherited Dissent ; it seemed so often 
 to go hand in hand with a spirit of irreverence ; yet he 
 would apply the same measure to liberalists, and of one 
 such case he writes : " With regard to the very painful 
 subject with which your letter concludes, I have been 
 used to think that we are in no sort judges how far 
 ' invincible ignorance ' may excuse a person in the 
 sight of God for any degree of speculative unbelief, 
 provided he really tries to act up to the light vouch- 
 safed. This way of thinking the fathers of old applied 
 to the cases of the good and virtuous heathens, and, 
 by parity of reasoning, it may, one should think, apply 
 to many cases among ourselves whom the letter of our 
 formularies would seem to condemn. Why, then, may 
 you not hope humbly, that at some time, in some state 
 1 Letter Ix,
 
 220 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 or other, the true faith and the mercy which it reveals 
 may, in some degree at least, reach to such an amiable 
 person as you describe, though we may not see or know 
 how ? In the meantime, your speaking or not on 
 such matters is surely a question of expediency depend- 
 ing on the chance of doing good. You can but watch 
 and pray for opportunity and guidance, and help to 
 make the most of any opening that may be granted. 
 Sayings, doings, and looks, which seem very slight in 
 themselves, have often a good deal of virtue, I believe, 
 in such cases ; and waiting on sickness or decline, gives 
 occasion sometimes to unexpected ways of helping those 
 whom we love." 
 
 In dealing with the three branches of the Catholic 
 Church, his main wish was that each member should 
 be faithful to his own branch, without any feeling of 
 jealousy or hostility to the others ; he would gladly 
 have maintained neutrality towards Rome, but the 
 attitude of some of the converts made this more and 
 more difficult. In 1846 he wrote to Dr. Pusey, " I am 
 afraid from little symptoms that feelings are growing 
 bitterer between the converts to R. C. and those whom 
 they have left behind. Everything indicates that such 
 separate conversions, whatever else they may be, are not 
 the way of peace and unity." The truer way seemed 
 to him to be to labour and pray, not controversially but 
 practically, for that holiness which alone can truly unite 
 men, and which, if generally revived, would no doubt 
 bring back with it visible unity. . 
 
 The letter l which he wrote on the subject of Non- 
 Communicating Attendance at the Holy Eucharist, may 
 serve as a final specimen of the cautious way in which 
 1 Letter cxxviii.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL ADVISER. 221 
 
 he handled a subject on which his own feelings were 
 admittedly strong. 
 
 " I cannot deny that I have a strong feeling against 
 the foreign custom of encouraging all sorts of persons 
 to ' assist ' at the Holy Eucharist, without communi- 
 cating. It seems to me open to two grave objections. 
 It cannot be without danger of profaneness and 
 irreverence to very many, and of consequent dishonour 
 to the Holy Sacrament ; and it has brought in and 
 encouraged, or both (at least so I greatly suspect), a 
 notion of quasi-sacramental virtue in such attendance, 
 which I take to be great part of the error stigmatized 
 in our Thirty-first Article. Even in such a good book as 
 the Imitatio Christi, and still more in the Paradisus 
 Animce, one finds participating 'in Missa vel Com- 
 munione ' spoken of as if one brought a spiritual 
 benefit of the same order as the other. This I believe 
 to be utterly unauthorized by Scripture and antiquity ; 
 and I can imagine it of very dangerous consequence. 
 But whatever one thought of this, the former objection 
 would still stand, and it would not do to answer that 
 the early Church allowed, or even encouraged, the 
 practice, because, even if that were granted (I very 
 much doubt it, to say the least), the existence of 
 discipline at that time entirely alters the case. I 
 used to argue in this way with poor R. W., but I could 
 never get him to mind me. 
 
 " Yet of course I cannot deny that there may be any 
 number of cases in which attendance without communi- 
 cating may be morally and spiritually (I could not say, 
 sacramentally) beneficial ; and in default of discipline, I 
 should advise any person who thought that such was 
 his own case, to consult witti his Spiritual Adviser, and
 
 222 JOUN KEBLE. 
 
 act accordingly ; the clergyman of the particular church 
 not objecting." l 
 
 1 The books which he most usually recommends are DC 
 Imitations Christi; Hooker's Sermons on the Certainty and 
 Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, and a Remedy for Sorrow and 
 Fear; J. Taylor, Holy Living, and The Golden Grove; Bishop 
 Andrewes, Prayers ; Bishop Wilson, Sacra Privata ; Law s 
 Serious Call, and Christian Perfection; Kettlewell, Companion 
 for Hie Penitent ; Bund, Aids to a Holi/ Life ; Meditations of J. 
 Bonndl, Esq. (S.P.C.K.) ; I. Williams, Commentary on the Gospels.
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 CHAEACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 
 " Love is a present for a mighty King." G. HERBERT. 
 
 " The Gods approve 
 
 The depth and not the tumult of our soul, 
 A fervent, not ungovernable, love." 
 
 WORDSWORTH, Laodamia. 
 
 " Let it be your great care to go down humbly to your grave." 
 J. K. : Sermons far the Christian Tear, Lent, p. 70. 
 
 " How shall I profess to paint a man who will not 
 sit for his picture ? " * These were Newman's words when 
 asked to describe Keble, and they seem to point to the 
 central feature which explains his character, a keen 
 sensitiveness of nature, an instantaneous quickness of 
 response to every influence from outside, opening out 
 to the slightest breath of that which was akin to his 
 true nature, shrinking into itself, and clinging closer 
 to its native rock, at the approach of an alien hand. 
 His was a nature of strong and permanent emotions : in 
 childhood and youth the love of parents and brothers 
 and sisters, in later years that of friends and of children, 
 laid hold upon them and drew out all his happy, droll 
 playfulness of wit and manner. " In power of exceeding 
 
 1 J. K. : Occasional Papers and Revieios, Preface, p t xiii.
 
 224 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 enjoyment, in positive admiration he was an unusually 
 happy man; children, high characters, good people, 
 noble actions, fine> prints or pictures, music, scenery, all 
 gave him such great delight." l But the nature needed 
 sympathy to draw it out. He was shy and awkward 
 with strangers. He would never, his sister said, have 
 written verses were it not for the encouragement he 
 met with in his own family. 2 Hence any interruption 
 of a friendship was a terrible strain upon him. After 
 his mother's death he could not restrain his emotion 
 while examining in the Schools, as one of the candidates 
 translated the farewell of Alcestis to her children ; and 
 more than thirty years afterwards he wrote to a friend, 
 " Assuredly the world can never be the same again to 
 any one when one's mother is no longer in it." On the 
 Sunday after receiving the news of Hurrell Froude's 
 death, he broke down with emotion while celebrating 
 the Eucharist; he was seen at times to come away 
 in tears from the sick-bed of a parishioner; and the 
 parting with Newman seemed to " take the very spring 
 out of his year." 3 Such quickness of feeling led to 
 quickness of expression. Mr. Wilson, on becoming his 
 curate, was startled by his ready outspokenness, by the 
 comprehensive and startling enunciation of principles ; 
 an unsympathetic critic could speak of him as one who 
 quickly lost his temper 4 nay, he could speak of himself 
 
 1 Musings on the Christian Tear, p. xlv ; cf. J. B. Mozley, 
 Letters, p. 77 : " Keble is certainly great fun." 
 
 2 I. Williams, Autobiography, p. 69. 
 
 3 How striking to notice his other use of this same phrase : 
 " It would indeed be taking the spring out of the year were we 
 to doubt or deny a special Presence ot our High Priest, God and 
 man, to solemnize with us the feast." Ewh. Ador., ed. v., p. 
 253. 
 
 4 Mozley, lieminiscences, p. 220.
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 225 
 
 in later days, in intimate correspondence, as " a certain 
 testy old clerk whom you know of." It led again at 
 times to moods of morbid melancholy, against which he 
 set himself to struggle by active kindness to others and 
 by falling back upon the deepest religious motives. It 
 was ever craving for itself some vent, some method of 
 relief. To one friend he recommended Bishop Wilson's 
 practice of keeping a journal of one's religious feelings 
 in cypher, because the very act of devising the cypher 
 withdraws the mind a little from itself; and " something 
 in the nature of a journal is a kind of medicine to 
 many persons." l Poetry was another method of relief; 
 and his whole theory of poetry sprang from this thought. 
 Prayer was another, as he thought of the souls dis- 
 tressed by Church perplexities " Oh, indeed it is a 
 real trouble to think of them ; it is a real relief to pray 
 for them." 2 Penance was thought of, partly, as a relief 
 to souls oppressed with the sense of sin, and this was 
 part of the attraction of a daily service for him, that 
 " amid the wear and tear, the forebodings and misgiv- 
 ings incident to the cure of souls, it was well that one 
 anxious and determined to spend and be spent should 
 have a place where he might go and rest awhile in 
 the Life-giving Presence, and keep up his heart and 
 strength for the work." 3 
 
 But all this quickness was kept in check with a 
 hand which grew more strong and dominant as time 
 went on. There was an almost provoking refusal to 
 display his power or abilities when people looked for 
 them; "he was jealous of anything brilliant and on his 
 
 1 J. H. Newman, Letters, ii., p. 80. 
 
 2 Pastoral Letter, p. 7. 
 
 3 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 362. 
 
 Q
 
 226 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 guard against anything hollow." Whatever he might 
 be in speech, he was always very careful and guarded 
 and fair in what he wrote, and his speech too was 
 controlled. " That is a subject that won't bear talking 
 about," is a frequent refrain in his letters whenever he 
 has been drawn on to speak of himself and his own 
 feelings. 1 Thus, as self became eliminated, the quick- 
 ness of feeling was transmuted into a tender sensitive- 
 ness for others. There was the sensitiveness for the 
 honour, the purity, the freedom of the Church, firing 
 up with indignation at each act of State aggression, at 
 each unjust taunt of her foes, but most of all at each 
 unworthy act of her own children. His earlier writings 
 are full of protests against the spirit of Fatalism, which 
 would fold its hands and acquiesce in evil. In every 
 ecclesiastical event that happened between the years 
 1833 and 1886, he was a force that had to be reckoned 
 with, for " all his serious interests were public ones." 2 
 
 There was an equal sensitiveness for individuals, 
 "always chivalrous enough to take the cause of the 
 weak," 3 stirred at once by any symptom of injustice, 
 in act or judgment. We see this sensitiveness in his 
 reverence for each individual soul, in his respect for the 
 poor, always believing in their power to understand 
 spiritual truth and to enter into the real moral bearings 
 of Church doctrine, so that he associated them in his 
 protests against the Gorham case or against the Privy 
 
 1 His comment upon the title " The Word " as applied to Christ 
 is, " He in whom we are to be restored to God's Image in vouch- 
 safing to call Himself the Word and Wisdom of the Father, plainly 
 teaches us that to be negligent in ordering and guarding our own 
 thought and speech is in a special manner pouring contempt upon 
 that Divine Image." Studia Sacra, p. 8. 
 
 2 Dean Church, TJie Oxford Movement, p. 22. 
 
 3 J. H. Newman, Letters, ii., p. 285.
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. . 227 
 
 Council. Thus in his lectures he argued against the 
 theory that the poor could not appreciate the beauties 
 of Nature or of Poetry. Their fondness for the place of 
 their birth and youth, their tender speech about the 
 dead and anxiety to obey their wishes, their external 
 and half-superstitious forms of reverence, all seemed to 
 him to betray unconsciously a mind instinctively poetic. 1 
 " I won't have my poor fellows laughed at," was his quick 
 protest when some one had called them clod-hoppers. 2 
 We see it in his generous trust of Newman till 
 the last moment before his secession ; in the respectful, 
 delicate suggestiveness of the correspondence of those 
 sad years that preceded it. We see it in the treatment 
 of those who put themselves in his hands for guidance, 
 strong and tender, and gradually leading them to self- 
 confidence. We see it in his desire to put the best 
 interpretation on people's language ; " I am most 
 anxious that we should make the best instead of the 
 worst of the feelings and opinions of earnest men of all 
 sections, that we should neither scorn nor ignore the 
 very large amount of real faith and devotion to' a Real 
 Presence of Our Lord's Humanity, even among those 
 who in words would perhaps think themselves bound 
 to disavow it." 3 We see it in the' quick outgush of 
 sympathy towards any friend in trouble or anxiety ; or 
 in the thoughtfulness which made him induce Miss 
 Yonge not to use insanity as a topic for fiction, through 
 fear of the harm it might do to excitable natures. 
 
 Yet this reverent sensitiveness had no weakness in 
 
 1 Prcelectiones, i., pp. 17 20. 
 
 2 T. Mozley, Beminiscences, ii., p. 250 : cf. I. Williams, Auto- 
 biography, p. 20. 
 
 3 Lettei- to Archdeacon Wilberforce : Bishop Wilberforce's 
 Life, ii., p. 256.
 
 228 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 it, for it was a reverence not for what men were, but 
 for what they might be. He was quite fearless, ready 
 to speak very frankly and boldly even to friends, if 
 their conduct seemed in any way unworthy of their 
 cause; very stern and severe if ever he had to deal 
 with cases of disgraceful marriage in his parish. One, 
 who was then a child, recalls the flashing eye and the 
 stern satisfaction of his voice, as he read out that a 
 certain murderer who had escaped had been caught and 
 would be hanged ; adding, " his fierce indignation with 
 wrong-doing was very terrible, for he always seemed 
 to be repressing so much that he did not say." l 
 
 The secret of this " blended strength and sweetness" 
 was that it " glowed from touch of love Divine." He 
 looked not to others for his standard or his approval, 
 but only to the Perfect Example and the judgment of 
 God. His soul, with all its sensitiveness, seemed to 
 
 " Lie bare to the universal prick of light." 
 
 Each aspect of truth, each claim of holiness, seemed 
 to make its way through and to find its response. 
 
 It was so with truth. Wherever he saw it, he felt a 
 reverence for it. To him there was somewhat of a 
 sacramental character in poetry, even in the poetry of 
 Paganism ; Nature was reverenced as the veil of the 
 supernatural ; and this feeling came to its climax in 
 dealing with the Bible, the least approach to irrever- 
 ence or flippancy in dealing with which was checked 
 by him at once. Hence one side of his teaching was a 
 constant protest against narrowness, against anything 
 
 1 Newman (Letters, ii., p. 474) thus describes St. Philip Neri 
 " He was formed on the same type of extreme hatred of humbug, 
 playfulness, nay, oddity, tender love of others and severity, which 
 are lineaments of Keble."
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 229 
 
 which would limit truth. This caused his feeling 
 against the old evangelical party ; he was attracted by 
 their personal devotion to the Lord, and always said 
 that they had far more in common with him than they 
 knew, but he felt that their system appealed too ex- 
 clusively to the emotions and did not satisfy the intellect 
 or the imagination. As against their narrowness, he 
 would neither exclude the truth that was in Paganism 
 because it was Pagan, nor the truth that was in Roman 
 Catholicism because it was Roman Catholic. The same 
 feeling made him revolt against the intellectualism of 
 Whateley and his followers; with them the intellect 
 seemed to have usurped the whole function of judgment 
 and to have driven out the emotions. He revolted 
 against their utilitarian tests of truth, and as against 
 them was always pleading for the instincts of the heart, 
 for consideration for the poor and the simple, for the 
 moral bearings and spiritual tendencies of a theory. 
 " Ingenuity in an argument," he wrote, " should always 
 put us on our guard, because it is in some sort an 
 appeal to our vanity." No less in the controversy with 
 Rome was his position a pleading for width ; those who 
 sided with Rome seemed to him to press one logical 
 position, the note of unity in the Church, as though 
 it were the whole; but clearness and symmetry of 
 doctrine seemed dearly purchased when Christian truth 
 and duty were impaired for their sake, and he would 
 never ignore, or allow others to ignore, the facts of the 
 existence of the Eastern Church, or the past history of 
 our own branch of the Church, or the duteousness 
 which its members owe to it for blessings received 
 through it in their own lives. Truth was to him 
 always a sacred thing ; but it was sacred as a gift, a
 
 230 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 tradition, an heirloom. It has been well said that there 
 are two kinds of lovers of truth ; there is one whose 
 instincts are conservative, who loves truth as a posses- 
 sion, who desires to have his results right however 
 gained, who cares more for his conclusions being true 
 than for the arguments being sound, who is satisfied to 
 accept his conclusions already demonstrated, and has a 
 loyal and sincere devotion to them. On the other hand 
 the typical liberal thinker loves truth as an object of 
 quest, it is a holy grail to him, nor does he much grieve 
 if he does not find it ; he cares more for the soundness 
 of his methods and the diligence of his studies, than for 
 the certainty of the result. 1 Keble decidedly belonged to 
 the first rather than to the second of these classes. He 
 was indeed ready to receive a new truth if it came from 
 a quarter that he trusted, but he hated the spirit of 
 eclecticism which would pick and choose at one's own 
 pleasure amid the doctrines of the Church. Truth was 
 a master to be served, not to be criticized and patronized ; 
 it was like the ark which he dreaded to touch with 
 unconsecrated hand ; it was there, embodied in the 
 Bible and the Church ; he shrank from harming it, and 
 above all, he shrank from exposing it to those who 
 would harm it and would harm themselves by rash and 
 ignorant treatment of it, and that because it was a truth 
 which affected spiritual life. He was pained by any 
 heresy or disloyalty to an extent which made others 
 think him intolerant, but it was because he saw so 
 clearly what was at stake. All his struggles about the 
 doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration all these, he said, 
 '* come not of jealousy concerning clerical prerogatives, 
 nor of a longing to complete and round off an ecclesi- 
 1 Church Quarterly Review, January, 1876, p. 346.
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 231 
 
 asticat theory, nor even of tenderness concerning any 
 single point of truth separately considered, but really 
 and triJy of a wish to save our own souls and the souls 
 of our people a fear lest the great things which God 
 Incarnate has done for us and in us should fail for want 
 of due appreciation on our part." 1 Such loving care for 
 truth btgat in him caution and wisdom ; he had spoken 
 at times hastily, and had been penitent for it ; he had 
 come to see that "hurry is a cruel thing." "It never 
 can be recessary for the Church that men should do 
 grave thiigs in a hurry," he wrote to Newman ; and so 
 his advio ever grew in wisdom. Dr. Liddon called 
 him the visest man he had ever known ; and Miss 
 Yonge sail that she had never been to him to ask his 
 advice wiliout getting an answer different from what 
 she expecied, and one which showed that he had looked 
 the mattei round on all sides. 
 
 But the sensitiveness to truth was surpassed by the 
 sensitivenes to holiness. The Presence of God was 
 ever abouthim, with its loving and awful demand, " Be 
 ye holy, asl am holy." The sense of the eternal issues 
 that hung ipon life gave him a severity and dignity with 
 which it ws impossible to trifle or take liberties. There 
 was a note )f unearthliness about him ; he was looked 
 up to by tie younger Tractarians with a certain rever- 
 ential awe "The slightest word he dropped was all 
 the more runembered from there being so little of it, 
 and from itseeming to come from a different and holier 
 sphere. Hs manner of talking favoured this, for there 
 was not mich continuity in it, only every word was a 
 brilliant or i pearl." 2 Meekness was the last word to 
 
 1 Occasional Papers and Reviews, p. 302. 
 
 2 ". Mozley, Reminiscences, i., p. 38.
 
 232 
 
 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 apply to him, but humility was there in the sense that 
 an eager, impetuous nature was ever controlled by a 
 sense of God's Presence. This made him most severe 
 with himself, in obedience to the rules of spiritual life 
 for instance, he always celebrated at midday fasting, and 
 seldom broke his fast at all on Fridays till the evening. 
 He was very generous in almsgiving, and " as tirre went 
 on there was more and more a dispensing with mttters of 
 mere luxury and worldly requirements." * Hisideal of 
 the Christian life was that of the service of a loving son 
 guided by a Father's eye, content with a reasonable pre- 
 sumption as to what his Father's wishes were and not 
 asking for certainty or assurance. This afflicted his 
 whole conception of the position of the Churdi ; as he 
 contrasted her ideal with her actual practice he felt 
 that she too must be a Church in penitence, she must 
 be content to work patiently for the revival of much 
 that had been lost. For a time the succfis of the 
 Tractarian movement and the contagion of Newman's 
 sanguine temperament made him sanguine] but with 
 the great change of 1845 this fell away, aid he was 
 content to walk humbly and to teach othes to walk 
 humbly, even in their hopes about the Chuih, though 
 in perfect confidence that she was a true' DK ich of the 
 Catholic Church. And for himself, his htnility was 
 
 fostered by that which might threaten to k 
 
 1 it. " It 
 
 must, I suppose" (he wrote), "be part of :ll persons' 
 penitence in all ages and portions of the Chu ch to bear 
 with undeserved approbation, with being thojght better 
 than they are." The secession of Newman, rf Manning, 
 of Wilberforce, his friends and pupils, hupbled him 
 more, as he seemed to have had so little po\er to guide 
 1 Miss Yonge, Musings, p. vii
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 233 
 
 them right ; his penitence poured itself out in language 
 which to many would seem extravagant, and he could 
 speak of " self-abhorrence as a duty, a necessity, and a 
 
 joy." 1 
 
 Yet such language was no exaggeration. Those who 
 knew him best would combine to say that the words 
 which he wrote of Bishop Wilson might be transferred 
 to himself: "He never penned a sentence that savoured 
 of unreality." It was no exaggeration, because the 
 things of God were so intensely real to him ; his peni- 
 tence made his vision keener, and as he saw the per- 
 fection of the Perfect, he knew the blackness of a sin- 
 stained life. He was so conscious of his own sinfulness 
 that he really esteemed others better than himself, and 
 treated them with a " humbling humility," as they 
 found themselves looked up to and their judgment 
 appealed to by him, and their prayers asked for him ; 
 so conscious of Christ's sympathy that his own seemed 
 so poor to him ; " one tries to feel it all " (he wrote to 
 a friend in sorrow), "but is the more convinced that 
 there is but One who really can do so." 
 
 Sensitiveness had passed into humility, humility into 
 reality. He was real because the supernatural was real 
 to him ; the dead became the living dead to him ; 
 Baptismal Regeneration and the doctrine of the Real 
 Presence were so vital because they told of the reality 
 of a Living Christ touching and giving life to His 
 members. The power of the Evil One was ever present 
 to his thoughts as a real living personal power. 
 
 The writer to whom reference has been made above 
 as having grown up as a child in friendly relations with 
 him, has written thus of him and of Mrs. Keble (for 
 1 Sermons for Sundays after Trinity.
 
 234 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 indeed they were one in heart and method) : " The 
 impression left is of something intensely alive. There 
 was such a combination of strong feeling and intelli- 
 gence, a brimming over of poetical grace and tact, 
 holiness which was so deep and true, that it seemed 
 to enhance their common sense and made them free 
 from any exaggeration of manner or judgment, a 
 heavenliness and quietness which never failed to stir 
 up and encourage one's own efforts, without producing 
 the least desire merely to admire and honour them. 
 They were eminently wholesome friends, for they first 
 believed that we had feet and then made us stand upon 
 them." One extract from one of his late writings will 
 show how the sense grew upon him that the one question 
 at issue in the conflict of Churchmen was the reality of 
 the supernatural. 
 
 "Unless I am greatly mistaken, the real point at 
 issue in most of the controversies which have troubled 
 us in the Reformed English Church might be expressed 
 as follows : ' Is the Church, mingled as we see it of 
 good and bad, a supernatural body separated off from 
 the world to live a supernatural life, begun, continued, 
 and ended in miracles miracles as real as any of those 
 which befell the Israelites in the wilderness as real 
 but infinitely more gracious and awful ; or is it only a 
 body providentially raised up to hold the best and 
 purest philosophy helped as all good things are from 
 above, but in itself no more than the heroical and 
 divine phase of this present life ? ' It is plain at first 
 glance which side of this alternative brings with it the 
 more intense obligation to holiness, and represents sin 
 as more exceedingly sinful." ..." It is a sad habit of 
 thought for a theologian to train himself up in that of
 
 CHAEACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 235 
 
 instinctively adopting, out of various expositions, that 
 which is most earthly and least supernatural." l 
 
 What was his influence ? Is his life rightly included 
 in a series of Leaders of Religion ? He certainly would 
 have answered No, and indeed he was without many of 
 the qualities which make a great leader; he was not 
 great as a statesman ; he was not an original genius as 
 a thinker ; his style has no attractive brilliance about 
 it ; his learning, though great, was not to be compared 
 with that of Dr. Pusey. But, with all these deductions, 
 he had qualities which made him a real leader. He 
 was not a general to plan a campaign and marshal his 
 forces, but he was a leader ready to throw himself into 
 a breach and inspire enthusiasm by the fearlessness with 
 which he led a forlorn hope. He^was always, and more 
 and more as time went on, one whose character could 
 solemnize and awe those who were fighting on his side 
 and make them feel the seriousness of the issues ; over all 
 the conflict " he cast the cooling shadow of his lowliness," 2 
 and if he could not lead his followers to victory, he 
 could and did lead them to that which is a truer part 
 of religion to penitence and deeper holiness. " Make 
 a few saints," was once quoted by him as the test of 
 success at which a good educator should aim ; and his 
 work will stand that test. Dean Church was inclined 
 to attribute to Keble's influence the depth of the 
 ethical tone which separated Dr. Arnold from the Oriel 
 school. 3 With less hesitation we may point to those 
 who have confessed the greatness'of their debt to him 
 
 1 Eucharistical Adoration, Preface, ed. ii. 
 
 2 Dr. Pusey, Sermon at the opening of Keble College Chapel, 
 p. 25. 
 
 3 W. G. Ward Mid the Oxford Movement, p. 41.
 
 236 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 to Froude, to Eobert Wilberforce, to Isaac Williams, to 
 Newman himself, 1 to Dr. Pusey, to Dr. Liddon, to Miss 
 Yonge ; and these names are sufficient to show what he 
 did for the Church of England. But we may claim 
 more than the influence over individuals. There were 
 moments when his action was the turning-point of a 
 crisis. It was his influence upon Froude, passing 
 through him to Newman, which formed a band of 
 friends at Oxford ready to sacrifice themselves for a 
 higher ideal of the Church; it was his sermon on 
 National Apostasy which gave the signal for action ; 
 his mediating influence which drew together the two 
 different elements in the Church party of those days ; 
 and when the break came in 1845, it was his influence, 
 combined with that of Dr. Pusey, C. Marriott, James 
 Mozley and others, which prevented the defeat from 
 being a rout and rallied the forces for further fighting. 
 And behind all these lay the influence of the Christian 
 Year, winning a hearing for the deeper truths, and 
 soothing and solemnizing and stirring the religious world, 
 as no one other book has done in this century. 
 
 The points which he defined in 1837 as needing modi- 
 fication were that the Church should be less narrowly 
 Anglican, and more ready to sympathize with all that 
 was Catholic, that she should be free to exercise moral 
 discipline over her members, that she should have a 
 living voice which should be 'consulted in legislation 
 about her own organization and her own officers. As 
 we look at these we see indeed that much still remains 
 to be effected, but still how much has been gained ! 
 
 1 Cf. Letters, ii., p. 87, 6 iravv Keble. Ibid., p. 155, "I am 
 conscious I have got all my best things from Keble ; you (Froude) 
 and Keble are the philosophers and 1 the rhetorician."
 
 CHARACTERISTIC AND INFLUENCE. 237 
 
 How entirely different is the tone in which such subjects 
 are discussed, how different the aspect of Church Life 
 and Worship ! and this is due to those brave men, who 
 amidst hostility and scorn, amidst suspicion and in- 
 justice, with loss of friends and much perplexity as to 
 their own path, yet never permitted themselves to 
 despair, and by dutifulness and laborious study and 
 honest controversy spent their lives in adorning the 
 Sparta in which their lot was cast. Of that band there 
 was none whose words had more soothing power, whose 
 life was more of a type of duteous-hearted loyalty than 
 John Keble. 
 
 A few words should be added on his personal 
 appearance. He was about middle height, with rather 
 square and sloping shoulders, which made him look 
 short until he pulled himself up, as he often did with 
 sprightly dignity. The head was " one of the most 
 beautifully-formed heads in the world," l the face rather 
 plain-featured, with a large unshapely mouth, but the 
 whole redeemed by a bright smile which played 
 naturally over the lips, and under a broad and smooth 
 forehead, sheltered by thick eyebrows, " clear, brilliant, 
 penetrating eyes" 2 of dark brown, with what Southey 
 called a pendulous motion, lighting up quickly with 
 bright merriment or kindling into fire in a moment 
 of indignation. Mr. George Richmond, who twice 
 painted it, described it as one of the most remarkable 
 faces he had ever seen for one wlio had eyes to see. His 
 first portrait, taken in 1843, when Keble was a little 
 over fifty, is a three-quarter length water-colour, and 
 gives very effectively the almost boyish sprightliness of 
 
 1 T. Mozley, Reminiscences, ii., p. 58. 
 
 2 Dr. Pusey, Sermon at the opening of Keble College, p. 32.
 
 238 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 his figure, and the bright hopefulness of tone. It was 
 engraved by Cousins, who went to Hursley for the 
 purpose, and improved upon the original portrait. The 
 second portrait was a crayon drawing of the head, taken 
 not long before his death and engraved by the painter 
 himself. From it was enlarged the oil painting which 
 hangs in the hall of Keble College ; in this the hair is too 
 long and the whole is slightly idealized, but under the 
 mellowness of years is seen still the eager fire of the 
 eye and the sweet playful tender merriment of the 
 winning smile. 
 
 " Comfort have thou of thy merit, 
 Kindly unassuming Spirit, 
 Careless of thy neighbourhood 
 Thou dost show thy pleasant face 
 On the moor and in the wood, 
 In the land, there's not a place, 
 Howsoever mean it be, 
 But 'tis good enough for thee." WORDSWORTH.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE POEMS OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR, ARRANGED IN 
 
 THE ORDER OF COMPOSITION. 
 
 1819 or earlier ... The Purification. 
 
 [ ... First Sunday after Easter. Printed in 
 
 Miscellaneous Poems.'] 
 
 ... Whit-Sunday. 
 
 ... Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 1819 St. John's Day. 
 
 Septuagesi ma Sunday. 
 
 Tenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 1820 St. Mark's Day. 
 
 (Aug. 20) ... Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Nov. 25) ... The Evening Hymn. 
 
 St. Matthias' Day. 
 
 Palm Sunday. 
 
 1821 (Aug. 13) ... Wednesday before Easter (The Lullaby). 
 Fourth Sunday after Easter. 
 
 ,, Dedication. 
 
 Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 St. Michael and all Angels. 
 
 (Sept. 16) ... Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Second Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 1822 (Jan. 27) ... St. Andrew's Day. 
 
 (March 2) ... The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 (April 6) ... St. Luke's Day. 
 
 (April 18) ... Easter Day. 
 
 (Aug. 7) ... Second Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Aug. 13) ... Ninth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Aug. 23) ... Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Sept. 14) ... St. Matthew's Day. 
 
 (Sept. 20) ... The Morning Hymn. 
 
 (Sept. 27) ... Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.
 
 240 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 1822 (Oct. 11) ... Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 [ Third Sunday in Lent. An original draft, 
 
 much altered afterwards.] 
 
 Fourth Sunday in Advent. 
 
 1823 [(June V) ... The Annunciation. Printed in Miscel- 
 
 laneous Poems.] 
 
 (June 5) ... Thursday before Easter. 
 
 (July 15) ... Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Sept. 25) ... Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Sept. 28) ... Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Oct. 6) ... Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Oct. 7) ... St. James' Day. 
 
 (Oct. 7) ... Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (Dec. 26) ... Advent Sunday. 
 
 1824 (Jan. 5) ... The Holy Innocents. 
 (Jan. 20) ... The Circumcision of Christ. 
 (Jan. 20) ... The Epiphany. 
 
 (Jan. 20) ... Second Sunday in Advent. 
 
 (Jan. 26) ... Third Sunday in Advent. 
 
 (Feb. 9) ... St. Thomas' Day. 
 
 (Feb. 18) ... Sexagesima Sunday. 
 
 (March 6) ... Quinquagesima Sunday. 
 
 (?) Second Sunday in Lent. 
 
 (March 9) ... First Sunday in Lent. 
 
 (April 24) ... Fifth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 (May 17) ... First Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 (May 18) ... Fourth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 (June 3) ... Fifth Sunday after Easter. 
 
 (June 25) ... Sunday after Ascension Day. 
 
 (?) Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 (?) Third Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 (?) St. Stephen's Day. 
 
 (?) Christmas Day. 
 
 (?) Easter Eve. 
 
 (?) Tuesday before Easter. Printed as Six- 
 teenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 1825 (?) Tuesday in Whitsun Week. 
 
 (May 15) ... St. Peter's Day. 
 
 (June 7) ... Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 (June 18) ... Ascension Day. 
 
 (June 25) ... First Sunday after Easter. 
 
 (July 4) ... St. Barnabas' Day. 
 
 (July 14) ... Sunday before Advent. 
 
 (Aug. 3) ... St. Philip and St. James' Day. 
 
 (Aug. 15) ... First Sunday after Christmas. 
 
 (Oct. 23) ... All Saints' Day.
 
 APPENDIX 1. 
 
 241 
 
 1825 (Nov. 4) 
 (Nov. 12) 
 (Nov. 29) 
 (Dec. 19) 
 
 1826 (Jan. 15) 
 (Jan. 22) 
 (Jan. 27) 
 
 (Feb. 3) 
 (Feb. 7) 
 (Feb. 12) 
 (April 3) 
 (April 7) 
 (April 11) 
 (April 13) 
 
 (April 15) 
 
 (May 9) 
 
 (?) 
 
 (?) 
 
 (?) ...... 
 
 1827 (Jan. 31) 
 
 (Feb. 9) 
 
 (Feb. 16) 
 
 (Feb. 21) 
 
 (0 ...... 
 
 (?) ...... 
 
 [ (March 5) 
 
 (?) ...... 
 
 (March 9) 
 
 (March 13) 
 
 (March 17) 
 
 ',', (Nov. 11) 
 
 (?) ...... 
 
 1828 (March 28) 
 
 Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 
 Twenty -third Sunday after Trinity. 
 Second Sunday after Christmas. 
 Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 Monday before Easter. 
 Ash Wednesday. 
 First Sunday after Trinity. 
 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 Twenty -second Sunday after Trinity. 
 Monday in Easter Week. 
 St. Simon, and St. Jude's Day. 
 Third Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 St. John Baptist's Day. 
 
 [Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Printed 
 as on Holy Baptism, composed on the 
 baptism of his brother's eldest child.] 
 
 Sixth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 Good Friday. 
 
 Tuesday in Easter Week. 
 
 Third Sunday after Easter. 
 
 Holy Communion. 
 
 Third Sunday in Lent. 
 
 Catechism. 
 
 Confirmation. 
 
 Communion after Matrimony. 
 
 Visitation and Communion of the Sick. 
 
 Burial of the Dead. Published in Mis- 
 cellaneous Poems.] 
 
 Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Commination. 
 
 Churching of Women. 
 
 Tuesday before Easter. 
 
 King Charles the Martyr. 
 
 Gunpowder Treason (address to converts 
 from popery). 
 
 Form of prayer to be used at sea. 
 
 The Accession. 
 
 Eestoration of Royal Family. 
 
 Ordination. 
 
 The following poems are not in the MS. books, from which these 
 dates are taken. 
 
 (1) Second Sunday after Easter. 
 
 (2) Monday in Whitsun Week. 
 
 (3) Trinity Sunday.
 
 242 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 PUBLISHED WHITINGS. 
 
 1812. On Translation from Dead Languages. A Prize Essay, 
 
 recited in the theatre at Oxford, June 10, 1812. 
 1827. The Christian Year (Anon.), 2 vols. [2nd Edition, 1827 ; 
 
 3rd Edition, 1828.] 
 1829. Six Queries by John Keble, tending to oppose Mr. Peel's 
 
 candidature to represent the University of Oxford. 
 
 Feb. 16, 1829, 4to. 
 
 1833. National Apostasy, considered in a sermon preached in St. 
 
 Mary's, Oxford, before Her Majesty's Judges of Assize 
 on July 14. [Oxford : J. H. Parker.] 
 
 1834. Ode for the Encaenia at Oxford in honour of His Grace, 
 
 Arthur, Duke of Wellington, Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford. [Printed in Oxford Prize Poems, 
 1839.] 
 
 Poems in Lyra Apostolica. 
 
 Tracts for the Times : Nos. 4, 13, 40, 52, 54, 57, 60. 
 Sunday Lessons, the Principle of Selection. No. XIII. of 
 the Tracts for the Times. Reprinted in 1867. [Oxford 
 and London : J. Parker and Co.] 
 
 1836. The Works of R. Hooker. A new edition, with additions, 
 preface, fac-similes, indexes, arranged by Rev. J. Keble, 
 3 vols. [2nd Edition, 1841 ; 3rd Edition, 1845 ; 7th 
 Edition, revised by Church and Paget, 1888.] 
 
 1836. Primitive Tradition recognized in Holy Scripture, a 
 Visitation Sermon at Winchester. [2nd Edition, 1837 ; 
 3rd Edition, with postscript, to which is subjoined 
 Catena Patrum, III. = Tract No. 78.] 
 
 1838. Remains of R. H. Froude, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 1839. 2nd Part, 2 vols., 8vo.
 
 APPENDIX II. 243 
 
 1839. The Psalter or Psalms of David in English. Verse. (Anon.) 
 [3rd Edition 1840.] 
 
 1839. The State in its Eelation with the Church. British Critic, 
 October. [Reprinted with a Preface by H. P. Liddon. 
 Oxford and London : J. H. Parker, 1869.] 
 
 1841. On the Mysticism attributed to the Early Fathers of the 
 Church. No. 89 of the Tracts for the Times. [Re- 
 printed in 1868. Oxford and London : J. Parker 
 and Co.] 
 
 1841. The Case of Catholic Subscription to the XXXIX. Articles 
 considered in a letter to the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge. 
 London. Privately printed. [Published in 1865.] 
 
 1841. The Child's Christian Year : Hymns for every Sunday and 
 
 Holy-day. [Edited by J. K.] 
 
 1842. Protest against the Bishop of Winchester's Refusal to 
 
 Ordain the Rev. P. Young. [Lithographed.] 
 
 1844. De Poeticse vi Medica. Praelectiones Academicae. 2 vols. 
 
 1845. Sermon on Psalm cxix. 164. In a volume of Sermons 
 
 preached at Jeclburgh. 
 1845. Jan. 16. Heads of Consideration on the Case of Mr. 
 
 Ward. 12mo. 
 1845. Three Sermons [4-6] in Sermons preached at St. Saviour's, 
 
 Leeds. 
 
 1845. Mutual Intercession : with Preface signed J. K., E. B. P., 
 
 C. M. 16mo. 
 
 1846. The Duty of Hoping against Hope. A Sermon preached 
 
 in the Chapel of Harrow Weald. [Privately printed.] 
 
 1846. Lyra Innocentium : Thoughts in Verse on Christian 
 
 Children ; their ways and their privileges. [Anon.] 
 
 1847. Sermons Academical and Occasional. [2nd Edition, 
 
 1848.] 
 
 1849. The Strength of Christ's Little Ones. A Sermon preached 
 at Coggeshall for the School. [Colchester, 1849.] 
 
 1849. Against Profane Dealing with Holy Matrimony in regard 
 
 of a Man and his Wife's Sister. A Tract for English 
 Churchmen and Churchwomen. [Oxford.] 
 
 1850. Church Matters in MDCCCL. I. Trial of Doctrine. II. 
 
 A Call to Speak Out. [Reprinted with Preface by H. 
 P. Liddon, 1877. Oxford and London : J. H. Parker.] 
 
 1850. The Danger of Passing by Christ. In Sermons preached 
 
 at St. Barnabas', Pimlico. [London.] 
 
 1851. A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Hursley ; occa- 
 
 sioned by the Proposed Synodical Meeting in the Diocese 
 of Exeter. Reprinted with Preface by H. P. Liddon, 
 1877. [1st and 2nd Editions. Oxford and London : 
 J. H. Parker.]
 
 244 APPENDIX II. 
 
 1852. On the Eepresentation of the University of Oxford. A 
 
 Letter to Sir B. W. Bridges, Bart., M.P. [London : J. 
 H. Parker.] 
 
 1853. Putting on Christ. In Sermons preached at St. Bartho- 
 
 lomew's, Cripplegate, in 1852. [London : 1853.] 
 
 1854. A Few Very Plain Thoughts on the Proposed Admission 
 
 of Dissenters to the University of Oxford. [Oxford : 
 A. A. Masson.] 
 
 1857. (1) An Argument against immediately Repealing the 
 Laws which treat the Nuptial Bond as Indissoluble. 
 [Oxford : J. H. and J. Parker.] 
 
 1857. (2) Sequel to the Argument against immediately Repeal- 
 ing the Laws which treat the Nuptial Bond, etc. 
 
 1857. (?) Easter Joy and Easter Work. A Sermon preached on 
 the Day of Thanksgiving for the Suppression of the 
 Rebellion in 'India. [London : J. T. Hayes.] 
 
 1857. On Eucharistical Adoration. [Oxford and London : J. 
 
 H. and J. Parker. 2nd Edition, 1859.] 
 
 1858. Considerations suggested by a Late Pastoral Letter on the 
 
 Doctrine of the Most Holy Eucharist. [Edinburgh : R. 
 
 Lendrum and Co. Oxford and London : J. H. and J. 
 
 Parker.] 
 1858. A Sermon preached at St. Paul's Church, Brighton, on 
 
 St. Luke's Day, 1858. [Brighton : A. Hawkins and Co.] 
 1858. The Rich and the Poor One in Christ. A Sermon preached 
 
 in St. Peter's Church, Sudbury, August 3, 1858. 
 
 [London : J. T. Hayes.] 
 1863. Women Labouring in the Lord. A Sermon preached at 
 
 Wantage, July 22, 1863. [Oxford and London : J. H. 
 
 and J. Parker.] 
 
 1863. Life and Works of T. Wilson, D.D. [Library of Anglo- 
 
 Catholic Theology.] Oxford. 
 
 1864. Litany of Our Lord's Warnings, in larger or smaller 
 
 forms : the larger with a Preface on the Privy Council 
 
 decision about Everlasting Punishment. [Oxford and 
 
 London.] 
 1864. Pentecostal Fear. A Sermon preached in the Parish 
 
 Church of Cuddesdon, on May 24. [Oxford and London : 
 
 J. H. and J. Parker.] 
 1866. A Letter to a Member of Convocation. Lit. Churchman, 
 
 Jan. 13. [Reprinted June 1867. Oxford and London : 
 
 J. Parker and Co.] 
 
 1866. Tracts and Extracts. No. 1. The Rev. J. Keble and the 
 Ritual Question. An extract from his recent letter on 
 that subject.
 
 APPENDIX II. 245 
 
 1868. Sermons Occasional and Parochial. [Oxford.] 
 
 1869. Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service. [Oxford.] 
 
 1869. Miscellaneous Poems. Edited by G. Moberley, D.D. 
 
 1870. Letters of Spiritual Counsel. With Preface by E. F. 
 
 Wilson. [3rd, and fuller Edition, 1875.] 
 1875 1880. Sermons for the Christian Year. 11 vols. 
 1877. Occasional Papers and Keviews. With Preface by E. B. 
 
 Pusey, D.D. 
 1877. Studia Sacra. [Commentary on St. John, i. 1-18 ; on 
 
 Romans i.-vi. ; Note on the Procession of the Holy 
 
 Spirit ; Analysis of St. Paul's Epistles ; Notes on Greek 
 
 Testament.] Ed. J. P. N(orris). 
 1880. Outlines of Instructions or Meditations for the Church's 
 
 Seasons. With Preface by E. F. Wilson. 
 1885. Sermons on the Litany, the Church, the Communion of 
 
 Saints. Eeprinted from Sermons for the Christian 
 
 Year, with Preface by E. B. Pusey. 
 
 THE END.
 
 HICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNG AY.
 
 A LIST OF NEW BOOKS 
 
 AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF 
 
 METHUEN AND COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS : LONDON 
 
 1 8 BURY STREET 
 
 W.C. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 FORTHCOMING BOOKS, . 
 
 POETRY, 
 
 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, 
 
 GENERAL LITERATURE, 
 
 WORKS BY S. BARING GOULD, . 
 
 FICTION, 
 
 NOVEL SERIES, . 
 
 BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, . 
 
 ENGLISH LEADERS OF RELIGION, 
 
 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES, 
 
 SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY, 
 
 OCTOBER 1892
 
 OCTOBER 1892. 
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S 
 
 AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 GENERAL LITERATURE 
 
 Eudyard Kipling. BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And 
 Other Verses. By RUDYARD KIPLING. Extra Post 8vo, pp. 208. 
 Laid paper, rough edges, buckram, gilt top. 6s. 
 
 A special Presentation Edition, bound in white Buckram, with 
 extra gilt ornament, 'js. 6d. 
 
 The First Edition -was sold on publication, and two further large Editions have 
 been exhausted. The Fourth Edition is Now Ready. 
 
 Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes. 
 Edited by A. W. HUTTON, M.A. (Librarian of the Gladstone 
 Library), and H. J. COHEN, M.A. With Portraits. 8vo. Vol. IX. 
 125. dd. 
 
 Messrs. METHUEN beg to announce that they are about to issue, in ten volumes 
 8vo, an authorised collection of Mr. Gladstone's Speeches, the work being under- 
 taken with his sanction and under his superintendence. Notes and Introductions 
 will be added. 
 
 In view of the interest in the Home Rule Question, it is proposed to issue Vols. IX. 
 and X., which, will include the speeches of the last seven or eight years, im- 
 mediately, and then to proceed with the earlier volumes. Volume X. is already 
 published. 
 
 Collingwood. JOHN RUSKIN : His Life and Work. By 
 W. G. COLLINGWOOD, M.A., late Scholar of University College, 
 Oxford, Author of the 'Art Teaching of John Ruskin,' Editor of 
 Mr. Ruskin's Poems. 2 vols. Svo. %2s. 
 
 Also a limited edition on hand-made paper, with the Illustrations 
 on India paper. 3, 3*. net. 
 
 Also a small edition on Japanese paper. ^5, 5^. net. 
 This important work is written by Mr. Collingwood, who has been for some years 
 Mr. Ruskin's private secretary, and who has had unique advantages in obtaining 
 materials for this book from Mr. Ruskin himself and from his friends. It will 
 contain a large amount of new matter, and of letters which have never been pub- 
 lished, and will be, in fact, as near as is possible at present, a full and authoritative 
 biography of Mr. Ruskin. The book will contain numerous portraits of Mr. 
 Ruskin, including a coloured one from a water-colour portait by himself, and also 13 
 sketches, never before published, by Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Arthur Severn. A biblio- 
 graphy will be added.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 3 
 
 Baring Gould. THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS : The 
 
 Emperors of the Julian and Claudian Lines. With numerous Illus- 
 trations from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By S. EARING GOULD, 
 Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. zvols. Royal 8v0. 30^. 
 This book is the only one in English which deals with the personal history of the 
 Caesars, and Mr. Baring Gould has found a subject which, for picturesque detail 
 and sombre interest, is not rivalled by any work of fiction. The volumes are 
 copiously illustrated. 
 
 Baring Gould. SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. With 
 Illustrations. By S. BARING GOULD. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 
 A book on such subjects as Foundations, Gables, Holes, Gallows, Raising the Hat, 
 Old Ballads, etc. etc. It traces in a most interesting manner their origin 
 and history. 
 
 Perrens. THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM THE 
 TIME OF THE MEDICIS TO THE FALL OF THE 
 REPUBLIC. By F. T. PERRENS. Translated by HANNAH 
 LYNCH. In three volumes. Vol. I. &vo. I2s. 6d. 
 This is a translation from the French of the best history of Florence in existence. 
 This volume covers a period of profound interest political and literary and 
 is written with great vivacity. 
 
 Henley & Whibley. A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE. 
 Collected by W. E. HENLEY and CHARLES WHIBLEY. Crown 
 8v0. 6s. 
 
 Also small limited editions on Dutch and Japanese paper. 2is. 
 and Q.2S. 
 A companion book to Mr. Henley's well-known Lyra Heroica. 
 
 "Q." GREEN BAYS : A Book of Verses. By " Q.," Author of 
 ' Dead Man's Rock ' &c. Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. 
 Also a limited edition on large Dutch paper. 
 
 A small volume of Oxford Verses by the well-known author of ' I Saw Three Ships, 
 etc. 
 
 Wells. OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of 
 the University. Edited by J. WELLS, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of 
 Wadham College. Crown 8v0. 35. 6d. 
 
 This work will be of great interest and value to all who are in any way connected 
 with the University. It will contain an account of life at Oxford intellectual, 
 social, and religious a careful estimate of necessary expenses, a review of recent 
 changes, a statement of the present position of the University, and chapters on 
 Women's Education, aids to study, and University Extension. 
 
 Driver. SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. By S. R. DRIVER, D.D., Canon of 
 Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of 
 Oxford. Crown 8z>o. 6s. 
 
 An important volume of sermons on Old Testament Criticism preached before the 
 University by the author of 'An Introduction to the Literature of the Old 
 Testament.'
 
 4 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 Prior. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by C. H. PRIOR, 
 
 M. A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 A volume of sermons preached before the University of Cambridge by various 
 preachers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Westcott. 
 
 Kaufinann. CHARLES KINGSLEY. By M. KAUFMANN, 
 
 M.A. Crown 8vo. $s. 
 A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his a< hievements in social reform. 
 
 Lock. THE LIFE OF JOHN KEBLE. By WALTER LOCK, 
 M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. With Portrait. 
 Crown 8vo. $s. 
 
 Button. CARDINAL MANNING: A Biography. By A. W. 
 
 HUTTON, M.A. With Portrait. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 
 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Sells. THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. 
 SELLS, M. A. Illustrated. Crmvn 8vo. 2s. 6<f. 
 
 Kimmins. THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. 
 By C. W. KIMMINS, Downing College, Cambridge. Illustrated. 
 Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Potter. AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. By M. C. POTTER, 
 Lecturer at Newcastle College of Science. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 
 
 2S. 6J. 
 The above are new volumes of the " University Extension Series." 
 
 Cox. LAND NATIONALISATION. By HAROLD Cox, M.A. 
 Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Hadfield & Gibbins. A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By 
 R. A. HADFIELD and H. de B. GIBBINS, M.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6J. 
 
 The above are new volumes of " Social Questions of To-day " Series. 
 FICTION. 
 
 Norris. H I S GRACE. By W. E. NORRIS, Author of ' Mdle. de 
 Mersac,' ' Marcia,' etc. Crown 8vo. 2vols. 2ls. 
 
 Pryce. TIME AND THE WOMAN. By RICHARD PRYCE, 
 
 Author of ' Miss Maxwell's Affections,' 'The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,' 
 etc. Crown 8vo. 2 vols. 2ls. 
 
 Parker. PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By GILBERT 
 PARKER. Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 5 
 
 Marriott Watson. DIOGENES OF LONDON and other 
 Sketches. By H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON, Author of ' The Web 
 of the Spider.' Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s. 
 
 Baring Gould. IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA. By S. BARING 
 
 GOULD, Author of 'Mehalah,' 'Urith,' etc. Cheaper edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Clark Eussell. MY DANISH SWEETHEART. By W.CLARK 
 RUSSELL, Author of ' The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' ' A Marriage 
 at Sea,' etc. With 6 Illustrations by W. H. OVEREND. Crown 8vo. 
 6s. 
 
 Mabel Robinson. HOVENDEN, V. C. By F. MABEL 
 ROBINSON, Author of 'Disenchantment,' etc. Cheaper Edition. 
 Crown 8v0. 35. 6d. 
 
 Meade. OUT OF THE FASHION. By L. T. MEADE, Author 
 of 'A Girl of the People,' etc. With 6 Illustrations by W. PAGET. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Cuthell. ONLY A GUARDROOM DOG. By Mrs. CUTHELL. 
 With 1 6 Illustrations by W. PARKINSON. Squart Crown 8v0. 6s. 
 
 Collingwood. THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By HARRY 
 COLLINGWOOD, Author of 'The Pirate Island,' etc. Illustrated by 
 GORDON BROWNE. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Bliss. A MODERN ROMANCE. By LAURENCE BLISS. 
 Crown 8vo. Buckram. 3.?. 6d. Paper. 2s. 6d. 
 
 CHEAPER EDITIONS. 
 
 Baring Gould. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. BARING 
 
 GOULD, Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. With 67 Illustrations. Crown 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD. Edited by A. 
 CLARK, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 Eussell. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLING- 
 WOOD. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, Author of ' The Wreck of the 
 Grosvenor. ' With Illustrations by F. BRANGWYN. 8vo. ioj. 6d. 
 
 Author of ' Mdle. Mori.' THE SECRET OF MADAME DE 
 Monluc. By the Author of 'The Atelier du Lys,' 'Mdle. Mori.' 
 Crown 8vo. %s. 6d. 
 ' An exquisite literary cameo." World.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 and decent 
 Poetry 
 
 Rudyard Kipling. BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And 
 Other Verses. By RUDYARD KIPLING. Fourth Edition. Crown 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' Mr. Kipling's verse is strong, vivid, full of character. . . . Unmistakable genius 
 rings in every line.' Times. 
 
 ' The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the world ; for a 
 man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, beyond all cavilling, that in 
 its way it also is a medium for literature. You are grateful, and you say to 
 yourself, half in envy and half in admiration : " Here is a book ; here, or one is a 
 Dutchman, is one of the books of the year." ' National Observer. 
 
 '"Barrack-Room Ballads" contains some of the best work that Mr. Kipling has 
 ever done, which is saying a good deal. " Fuzzy- Wuzzy," "Gunga Din," and 
 " Tommy," are, in our opinion, altogether superior to anything of the kind that 
 English literature has hitherto produced.' Athenavm. 
 
 ' These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they are vigorous in 
 their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the English language more 
 stirring than "The Ballad of East and West, " worthy to stand by the Border 
 ballads of Scott.' Spectator. 
 
 ' The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We read them 
 wiih laughter and tears ; the metres throb in our pulses, the cunningly ordered 
 words tingle with life ; and if this be not poetry, what is?' Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Ibsen. BRAND. A Drama by HENRIK IBSEN. Translated by 
 WILLIAM WILSON. Crown 8vo. $s. 
 
 'The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to "Faust." "Brand" 
 will have an astonishing interest for Englishmen. It is in the same set with 
 "Agamemnon," with " Lear," with the literature that we now instinctively regard 
 as high and holy.' Daily Chronicle. 
 
 Henley. LYRA HEROICA : An Anthology selected from the 
 best English Verse of the i6th, I7th, i8th, and igth Centuries. By 
 WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY, Author of 'A Book of Verse,' 'Views 
 and Reviews,' etc. Crown 8vo. Stamped gilt buckram, gilt top, 
 edges uncut. 6s. 
 
 ' Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike for poetry and for 
 chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and even unerringly, right.' 
 Guardian. 
 
 Tomson. A SUMMER NIGHT, AND OTHER POEMS. By 
 
 GRAHAM R. TOMSON. With Frontispiece by A. TOMSON. Fcap. 
 
 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 Also an edition on handmade paper, limited to 50 copies. Large crown 
 
 8vo. los. 6d. net. 
 1 Mrs. Tomson holds perhaps the very highest rank among poetesses of English birth. 
 
 This selection will help her reputation.' Black and White.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 7 
 
 Langbridge. A CRACKED FIDDLE. Being Selections from 
 the Poems of FREDERIC LANGBRIDGE. With Portrait. Crown&vo. $s. 
 
 Langbridge. BALLADS OF THE BRAVE : Poems of Chivalry, 
 Enterprise, Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the 
 Present Day. Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. LANGBRIDGE. 
 Crown Svo. 
 
 Presentation Edition, %s. 6d. School Edition, 2s. 6d. 
 ' A very happy conception happily carried out. These " Ballads of the Brave " are 
 intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit the taste of the great majority. 
 Spectator. ' The book is full of splendid things.' World. 
 
 History and Biography 
 
 Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes 
 and Introductions. Edited by A. W. HUTTON, M.A. (Librarian of 
 the Gladstone Library), and H. J. COHEN, M.A. With Portraits. 
 Svo. Vol. X. \2s. 6d. 
 
 Russell. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLING- 
 W T OOD. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, Author of { The Wreck of the 
 Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. BRANGWYN. Svo. los. 6d. 
 'A really good book.' Saturday Review. 
 
 ' A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of 
 every boy in the country.' St. James's Gazette. 
 
 Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD : Their History and 
 
 their Traditions. By Members of the University. Edited by A. 
 
 CLARK, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. Svo. izs. 6d. 
 ' Whether the reader approaches the book as a patriotic member of a college, as an 
 
 antiquary, or as a student of the organic growth of college foundation, it will amply 
 
 reward his attention.' Times. 
 'A delightful book, learned and lively." Academy, 
 4 A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the standard book on 
 
 the Colleges of Oxford.' Athetueum. 
 
 Hulton. RIXAE OXONIENSES : An Account of the Battles 
 of the Nations, The Struggle between Town and Gown, etc. By 
 S. F. HULTON, M.A. Crown Svo. $s. 
 
 James. CURIOSITIES OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY PRIOR 
 TO THE REFORMATION. By CROAKE JAMES, Author of 
 ' Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.' Crown Svo. JS. 6d,
 
 8 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 Clifford. THE DESCENT OF CHARLOTTE COMPTON 
 
 (BARONESS FERRERS DE CHARTLEY). By her Great-Granddaughter, 
 ISABELLA G. C. CLIFFORD. Small 4/0. los. 6d. net. 
 
 General Literature 
 
 Bowden. THE IMITATION OF BUDDHA: Being Quota- 
 tions from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled 
 by E. M. BOWDEN. With Preface by Sir EDWIN ARNOLD. Second 
 Edition. i6mo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Ditchfield. OUR ENGLISH VILLAGES : Their Story and 
 their Antiquities. By P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.R.H.S., Rector 
 of Barkham, Berks. Post 8vo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated. 
 1 An extremely amusing and interesting little book, which should find a place in 
 every parochial library.' Guardian. 
 
 Ditchfield. OLD ENGLISH SPORTS. By P. H. DITCH- 
 FIELD, M.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated. 
 ' A charming account of old English Sports.' Morning Post. 
 
 Burne. PARSON AND PEASANT: Chapters of their 
 Natural History. By J. B. BURNE, M.A., Rector of Wasing. 
 Crown %vo. 55. 
 
 ' " Parson and Peasant ' is a book not only to be interested in, but to learn something 
 from a book which may prove a help to many a clergyman, and broaden the 
 hearts and ripen the charity of laymen." ' Derby Mercury. 
 
 Massee. A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By 
 
 G. MASSEE. 8w. i8s. net. 
 
 Cunningham. THE PATH TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE: 
 Essays on Questions of the Day. By W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Economics at 
 King's College, London. Crown 8vo. 4*. 6d. 
 Essays on Marriage and Population, Socialism, Money, Education, Positivism, etc. 
 
 Anderson Graham. NATURE IN BOOKS : Studies in Literary 
 
 Biography. By P. ANDERSON GRAHAM. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 The chapters are entitled : I. ' The Magic of the Fields ' (Jefferies). II. ' Art and 
 Nature' (Tennyson). III. 'The Doctrine of Idleness' (Thoreau). IV. 'The 
 Romance of Life ' (Scott). V. ' The Poetry of Toil ' (Burns). VI. ' The Divinity 
 of Nature ' (Wordsworth).
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 9 
 
 Works by S. Baring Gould. 
 
 Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. 
 
 OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by 
 W. PARKINSON, F. D. BEDFORD, and F. MASEY. Large Crown 
 8vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, lew. 6d. Fourth and Cheaper 
 Edition, 6s. \_Ready. 
 
 ' " Old Country Life," as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move- 
 ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book 
 to be published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to the core.' 
 World. 
 
 HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. Third 
 
 Edition, Crown f,vo. 6s. 
 
 ' A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful 
 reading.' Times. 
 
 FREAKS OF FANATICISM. (First published as Historic 
 Oddities, Second Series. ) Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has 
 chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perfectly 
 fascinating book. Scottish Leader. 
 
 SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional Ballads and Songs of 
 the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected 
 by S. BARING GOULD, M.A., and H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD, 
 M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts (containing 25 
 Songs each), Parts I., II., Ill,, 3*. each. Part IV,, $s. In one 
 Vol., roan, 155. 
 
 'A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy.' Saturday 
 Review. 
 
 YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. 
 
 fourth Edition. Crown &vo. 6s. 
 
 SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. CrownZvo. Illustrated. 
 
 [In the press, 
 
 JACQUETTA, and other Stories. Crown 8v0. ^s.6d. Boards,2s. 
 
 ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 
 
 3.?. 6d. Hoards, 2s. 
 
 ' To say that a book is by the author of " Mehalah " is to imply that it contains a 
 story cast on strong lines, containing dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic 
 descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery. All these expecta- 
 tions are justified by " Arminell." ' Speaker,
 
 io MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. Third Edition. Crown%-j?. y.6d. 
 
 ' The author is at his best.' Times. 
 
 ' He has nearly reached the high water-mark of " Mehalah." ' National Observer. 
 
 MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. Crown 8vo. 
 3s. 6d. 
 
 IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA : A Tale of the Cornish Coast. 
 
 New Edition. 6s. 
 
 Fiction 
 
 Author of 'Indian Idylls.' IN TENT AND BUNGALOW: 
 
 Stories of Indian Sport and Society. By the Author of ' Indian 
 Idylls.' Crown 8vo. y. 6d. 
 
 Fenn. A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. MANVILLE FENN, Author 
 of ' The Vicar's People,' etc. Crown 8vo. $s. 6d. 
 
 Pryce. THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By RICHARD PRYCE, 
 
 Author of 'Miss Maxwell's Affections,' etc. Crown 8vo. $s. 6d. 
 Picture Boards, zs. 
 
 Gray. ELSA. A Novel. By E. M'QuEEN GRAY. CrownZvo. 6s. 
 
 ' A charming novel. The characters are not only powerful sketches, but minutely 
 and carefully finished portraits.' Guardian. 
 
 Gray. MY STEWARDSHIP. By E. M'QUEEN GRAY. 
 Crown 8vo. $s. 6d. 
 
 Cobban. A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By J. MACLAREN 
 
 COBBAN, Author of ' Master of his Fate,' etc. Crown 8vo. qs. 6d. 
 1 The best work Mr. Cobban has yet achieved. The Rev. W. Merrydew is a brilliant 
 
 creation." National Observer. 
 ' One of the subtlest studies of character outside Meredith.' Star. 
 
 Lyall. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By EDNA 
 LYALL, Author of * Donovan.' Crown 8v0. $ist Thousand. 
 35. 6d. ; paper, is. 
 
 Linton. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON, 
 Christian and Communist. By E. LYNN LINTON. Eleventh and 
 Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo. is. 
 
 Grey. THE STORY OF CHRIS. By ROWLAND GREY, 
 
 Author of ' Lindenblumen,' etc. Crown 8vo. $s. 
 Dicker. A CAVALIER'S LAD YE. By CONSTANCE DICKER. 
 
 With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3.?. 6d.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST n 
 
 Dickinson. A VICAR'S WIFE. By EVELYN DICKINSON. 
 Crown %vo. 6s. 
 
 Prowse. THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. ORTON PROWSE. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 Taylor. THE KING'S FAVOURITE. By UNA TAYLOR. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Novel Series 
 
 3/6 
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN will issue from time to time a Series 
 of copyright Novels, by well-known Authors, handsomely 
 bound, at the above popular price of three shillings and six- 
 pence. The first volumes (ready) are : 
 
 1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 
 2. JACQUETTA. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of ' Mehalah, 
 
 etc. 
 
 3. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. LEITH ADAMS (Mrs. 
 
 De Courcy Laffan). 
 
 4. ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. MANVILLE FENN. 
 
 5. ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. By S. BARING GOULD, 
 
 Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. 
 
 6. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. With Portrait of 
 
 Author. By EDNA LYALL, Author of ' Donovan,' etc. 
 
 7. DISENCHANTMENT. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 
 8. DISARMED. By M. BETHAM EDWARDS. 
 
 9. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS. 
 
 10. MARGERY OF QUETHER. By S. BARING GOULD. 
 
 11. A LOST ILLUSION. By LESLIE KEITH. 
 
 12. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. CLARK RUSSELL. 
 
 13. MR. BUTLER'S WARD. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 
 14. URITH. By S. BARING GOULD. 
 
 15. HOVENDEN, V.C. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 
 Other Volumes will be announced in due course.
 
 12 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 NEW TWO-SHILLING EDITIONS 
 
 Crown 8v0, Ornamental Boards. . 
 
 ARM I NELL. By the Author of ' Mehalah.' 
 ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. MANVILLE FENN. 
 DISENCHANTMENT. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. 
 JACQUETTA. By the Author of ' Mehalah.' 
 
 Picture Boards. 
 
 A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. MANVILLE FENN. 
 THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By RICHARD PRYCE. 
 JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS. 
 A LOST ILLUSION. By LESLIE KEITH. 
 
 . Books for Boys and Girls 
 
 Walford. A PINCH OF EXPERIENCE. By L. B. WAL- 
 FORD, Author of ' Mr. Smith." With Illustrations by GORDON 
 BROWNE. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' The clever authoress steers clear of namby-pamby, and invests her moral with a 
 fresh and striking dress. There is terseness and vivacity of style, and the illustra- 
 tions are admirable.' Anti-Jacobin. 
 
 Molesworth. THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. MOLESWORTH, 
 Author of 'Carrots.' With Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 'A volume in which girls will delight, and beautifully illustrated.' Pall Afall 
 Gazette. 
 
 Clark Russell. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL, Author of ' The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' etc. 
 Illustrated by GORDON BROWNE. Crown %vo. $s. 6d. 
 
 'Mr. Clark Russell's story of "Master Rockafellar's Voyage" will be among the 
 favourites of the Christmas books. There is a rattle and " go" all through it, and 
 its illustrations are charming in themselves, and very much above the average in 
 the way in which they are produced. Guardian. 
 
 Author of Mdle. Mori.' THE SECRET OF MADAME DE 
 Monluc. By the Author of 'The Atelier du Lys,' 'Mdle. Mori.' 
 Crown 8vo. $s. 6d. 
 'An exquisite literary cameo.' World.
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 13 
 
 Manville Fenn. SYD BELTON : Or, The Boy who would not 
 
 go to Sea. By G. MANVILLE FENN, Author of ' In the King's 
 Name,' etc. Illustrated by GORDON BROWNE. Crown Sv0. $s. 6d, 
 ' Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the sight of the old 
 combination, so often proved admirable a story by Manville Fenn, illustrated 
 by Gordon Browne ! The story, too, is one of the good old sort, full of life and 
 vigour, breeziness and fun. Journal of Education. 
 
 Parr. DUMPS. By Mrs. PARR, Author of ' Adam and Eve,' 
 ' Dorothy Fox,' etc. Illustrated by W. PARKINSON. Crown 8vo. 
 . 35. 6d, 
 
 ' One of the prettiest stories which even this clever writer has given the world for a 
 long time.' World. 
 
 Meade. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. MEADE, 
 Author of ' Scamp and I,' etc. Illustrated by R. BARNES. Crown 
 8v0. 35. 6d, 
 'An excellent story. Vivid portraiture of character, and broad and wholesome 
 
 lessons about life.' Spectator. 
 'One of Mrs. Meade's most fascinating books.' Daily News, 
 
 Meade. HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. MEADE. Illustrated by 
 
 EVERARD HOPKINS. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 ' Mrs. Meade has not often done better work than this.'- Spectator. 
 
 Meade. THE HONOURABLE MISS : A Tale of a Country 
 Town. By L. T. MEADE, Author of ' Scamp and I,' ' A Girl of the 
 People,' etc. With Illustrations by EVERARD HOPKINS. Crown 
 8vo, 3.r. f>d. 
 
 Adams. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By MRS. LEITH ADAMS. 
 With a Frontispiece by GORDON BROWNE. Crown 8vo, 3^. 6d. 
 
 English Leaders of Religion 
 
 Edited by A. M. M. STEDMAN, M. A. With Portrait, crown %vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A series of short biographies, free from party bias, of the . - 
 
 most prominent leaders of religious life and thought in this /^ / f^ 
 and the last century. \ ^~J 
 
 The following are already arranged 
 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. HUTTON. [Ready. 
 
 ' Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful insight it displays 
 into the nature of the Cardinal's genius and the spirit of his life.' WILFRID 
 WARD, in the Tablet. 
 
 ' Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in criticism. We regard it 
 as wholly admirable." Academy,
 
 14 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. OvERTON, M.A. [Ready. 
 
 ' It is well done : the story is clearly told, proportion is duly observed, and there is 
 no lack either of discrimination or of sympathy.' Manchester Guardian. 
 
 BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. DANIEL, M.A. [Ready. 
 CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A. [Ready. 
 JOHN KEBLE. By W. LOCK, M.A. [Nov. 
 
 F. D. MAURICE. By COLONEL F. MAURICE, R.E. 
 THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. 
 CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. HUTTON, M.A. [Ready. 
 Other volumes will be announced in due course. 
 
 University Extension Series 
 
 A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, suitable 
 for extension students and home reading circles. Each volume will be 
 complete in itself, and the subjects will be treated by competent writers 
 in a broad and philosophic spirit. 
 
 Edited byj. E. SYMES, M.A., 
 Principal of University College, Nottingham. 
 
 Crown 8v0. 2s. 6d. 
 
 The following volumes are ready : 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By H. DE 
 
 B. GIBBINS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden 
 Prizeman. Second Edition. With Maps and Plans. [Ready. 
 
 1 A compact and clear story of our industrial development. A study of this concise 
 but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader a clear insight into the principal 
 phenomena of our industrial history. The editor and publishers are to be congra- 
 tulated on this first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant 
 interest for the succeeding volumes of the series.' University Extension Journal. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY. By 
 L. L. PRICE, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon. 
 
 PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial 
 Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. 
 
 VICTORIAN POETS. By A. SHARP. 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. SYMES, M.A. 
 
 2(6
 
 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 15 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. By F. S. GRANGER, M.A., Lecturer in Philo- 
 sophy at University College, Nottingham. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE : Lower Forms. By 
 G. MASSEE, Kew Gardens. With Illustrations. 
 
 AIR AND WATER. Professor V. B. LEWES, M.A. Illustrated. 
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By C. W. 
 
 KIMMINS, M.A. Camb. Illustrated. 
 
 THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. SELLS, M.A. 
 
 Illustrated. 
 ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A. 
 
 ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVEN- 
 TEENTH CENTURY. By W. A. S. HEWINS, B.A. 
 
 The following volumes are in preparation : 
 NAPOLEON. By E. L. S. HORSBURGH, M.A. Camb., U. E. 
 
 Lecturer in History. 
 ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY. By T. J. LAWRENCE, 
 
 M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Downing College, Cambridge, U. E. 
 
 Lecturer in History. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY. By J. SOLOMON, 
 M.A. Oxon., late Lecturer in Philosophy at University College, 
 Nottingham. 
 
 THE EARTH : An Introduction to Physiography. By E. W. 
 SMALL, M.A. 
 
 Social Questions of To-day 
 
 Edited by H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. /^ / f-^ 
 
 A series of volumes upon those topics of social, economic, | ^~^ 
 
 and industrial interest that are at the present moment fore- 
 most in the public mind. Each volume of the series will be written 
 by an author who is an acknowledged authority upon the subject 
 with which he deals. 
 
 The following Volumes of the Series are ready : 
 
 TRADE UNIONISM NEW AND OLD. By G. HOWELL, 
 M.P., Author of ' The Conflicts of Capital and Labour.
 
 16 MESSRS. METHUEN'S LIST 
 
 THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY. By G. J 
 
 HOLYOAKE, Author of ' The History of Co-operation.' 
 
 MUTUAL* THRIFT. By Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, M.A., 
 Author of ' The Friendly Society Movement.' 
 
 PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial 
 Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By C. F. BASTABLE, 
 M.A., Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 THE ALIEN INVASION. By W. H. WILKINS, B.A., Secretary 
 to the Society for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens. 
 
 THE RURAL EXODUS. By P. ANDERSON GRAHAM. 
 LAND NATIONALIZATION. By HAROLD Cox, B.A. 
 
 A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By H. DE B. GIBBINS 
 (Editor), and R. A. HADFIELD, of the Hecla Works, Sheffield. 
 
 The following Volumes are in preparation : 
 
 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. By HUBERT BLAND 
 
 one of the Authors of ' Fabian Essays. ' 
 
 POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. PHELPS, M.A., 
 Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 
 
 ENGLISH LAND AND ENGLISH MEN. By Rev. C. W. 
 STUBBS, M.A., Author of ' The Labourers and the Land.' 
 
 CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. B, Rev. J 
 CARTER, M.A., of Pusey House, Oxford. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. By J. R. DIGGLE, 
 M. A., Chairman of the London School Board. 
 
 WOMEN'S WORK. By LADY DILKE, Miss BEILLEY, and 
 Miss ABRAHAM. 
 
 RAILWAY PROBLEMS PRESENT AND FUTURE. By 
 R. W. BARNETT, M.A., Editor of the 'Railway Times.' 
 
 Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, 
 at the Edinburgh University Press.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed.
 
 JE80/TM 

 
 9BB9