[Letters and Correspondence—1834]REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. R. H. FROUDE June 15, 1834. I could tell you much, only it is renewing sorrows and {43} nothing else, of the plague the tracts have been to us; and how we have removed them to Rivington's. That the said tracts have been of essential benefit it is impossible to doubt. Pamphlets, sermons, &c., on the Apostolic Succession are appearing in every part of the kingdom; and every other Sunday we have a University sermon on the subject ... H. Wilberforce engaged to marry Miss S. last December—was afraid to tell me, and left Oxford without; spread abroad I had cut R. for marrying. Yet he has not ratted, and will not (so be it). Marriage, when a crime, is a crime which it is criminal to repent of. I have in writing my prediction, given in to the Provost four years since, that if our system of tuition were stopped, the classes would fail; and I referred him to the fact that when Tyler, Keble, and Whately ceased to take private pupils, the series of honours stopped in 1823. Now observe Eden came up the term before, Bliss the term after I was appointed tutor; they are the two first new honours of our series. Rogers took his honours two years since; he was the last of my pupils, and the last of our (Classical, i.e. in College) honours. Nothing is doing now. Men, like young [James] Mozley, who might have been anything, are doing nothing. Well; Denison [the tutor] now wishes to found scholarships (from the Fellows' proceeds, I believe) in order to encourage reading. Qu.: Should not the tuition money supply the fund? [N.B.—October 17, 1860.—I believe from that time till now, and in spite of the scholarship scheme being carried out, Oriel has never regained its place in the class list.] Since schemes are going about, I have a scheme of my own [about the Bosworth lecture]. At present it is useless. Oriel is famous for its careless divinity in the schools. Balliol has catechetical lectures. It is highly desirable then to endow Bos, make the men attend the lectures, &c. &c. June 21. Meanwhile let us read, and prepare ourselves for better things. I am sitting in the Bodleian, collating manuscripts of Dionysius, &c., and intend to be happy. I reflect with some pleasure that some of our most learned men lived and acted in most troublous times, as Usher, Hammond, Taylor, and in primitive times Clement of Alexandria, Dionysius, and Origen. Surely our intervals of repose (so be it) will be many, and give room for much reading and thinking. The edition of Dionysius I am engaged on opens a wide field of reading; it will appear in Latin, and is written therefore for myself chiefly, and the genius loci; but still I hope it may be of use elsewhere. In Germany they eagerly read everything; one may suggest views. Again to have edited respectably such a work gives one a solid influence, built on a foundation which no one can shake, because no one can criticise. It is a [ktema], removed from the profane populace, and the more 'magnificum' because it is unknown. So that even for our purposes it is not without its use; and abundantly useful if it bring me acquainted with the history of the early Church. The Bishop of Lincoln [Kaye] has, in a letter to Rose, criticised my account of the Disciplina Arcani; and he thinks lightly of my learning, which truly is little enough, but yet, I think, enough for my purpose, and far more than he thinks. Because I have given conclusions without noticing objections, and their answers, he thinks me ignorant of the existence of the objections. My present notion is that, in the course of time, I must publish a series of dissertations in a second volume [of the 'Arians']: for example, 'On the Disciplina Arcani'—'On the Primitive Church's Notion of the External World,' &c. &c. As to Rose, he is a fine fellow, certainly he is, and complains he has no one all through London in whom he can confide. Oh, that you were well enough to assist him in London! You are not fit to move of yourself, but you would act through Rose as spirit acts on external matter through a body. He has everything which you are without, and is so inflammable that not even muscles are more sensitive of volition than he would be of you. I wish he were not so passionate. I and Keble have had a quarrel with him; so {45} has Sewell—amantium irĉ, I trust. I want to tell you as a deep secret that the successor of Sanctus Thomas [i.e. Dr. Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury] being indisposed, took up a work on the Arians, which quite took, and fidgeted him. Thanks to Ogilvie and Rose, he is much more decided this session. But every one says, if bad times really come, he will be a confessor, then a martyr. It is now a year since I have been anxious to begin a weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper, but as yet I have not moved a step. I think I shall begin with Saints' days first. What I have done is to have a Wednesday evening's service, beginning in April with the long days, which is followed by a lecture extempore on the Creed. Next year I may take some lives—Hooker, Ridley, Bull, &c. I am quite fluent, although I never shall be eloquent. I at first drew above a hundred, chiefly University men, though they fell off. Further, I think I mean on St. Peter's day, i.e. next Sunday, to announce my intention of reading the morning service daily in the chancel while and whenever I am in Oxford, according to the injunctions of the Church, whether people attend or not. I shall have a desk put up near the altar, facing the south, from which I shall read the Psalms and Lessons, kneeling, however, towards the east. It seems to me that the absurdity, as it appears to many, of Tom Keble's daily plan is, his praying to empty benches. Put yourself near the altar, and you may be solitary. I see this agrees with a notion of yours. I am the more eager to begin this service because the Provost pointedly refused to let me keep open the chapel at Christmas [N.B.—though I was Dean]. I have waited long enough to show that I am not acting from 'irritation.' I shall go on through the term; in which I think there will be no impropriety towards the College [N.B.—i.e. in not attending College chapel], it having been formally ruled by Jenkyns that the Dean had no more to do with the chapel than another Fellow. I gave up my part of the chaplaincy [i.e. College chaplaincy, which was divided between several Fellows] in a quiet way to Eden, on his going into Orders. It seems very desirable that you or I should be Dean; in that way we know the men. J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN June 16, 1834. REV. GEORGE RYDER TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN June 18, 1834. REV. R. F. WILSON TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN June 22, 1834. F. ROGERS, ESQ., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN June 24, 1834. Mr. Newman's protest to a friend against the uses to which Westminster Abbey was about to be applied has been given in a previous letter. Mr. Bowden writes after the event: J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN July 3, 1834. REV. ISAAC WILLIAMS TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN July 2, 1834. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. R. F. WILSON July 3, 1834. As to the number of persons you can visit [pastoral visits], it depends on many circumstances; for example, you are a bad walker. When I was at St. Clement's, I could visit sixteen people without inconvenience, taking half one day and half another; but then they were almost next door to each other. As to the injunction to read the Church service daily, it is curious you should just now have mentioned the subject. After many months' deliberation I have taken advantage of the Long Vacation [when the College Chapel is closed] to begin daily morning service at St. Mary's; how it will succeed is still to be seen ... The whole question of the Rubrics is a melancholy one. Things are so bad that one keeps silence. The following lines, it will be seen, were transcribed from a letter as a sort of act of parting from an old friend, and are inserted here for the sake of the tender recollections they {49} awake in the transcriber, with whom early friendships were very sacred things. REV. S. L. POPE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN Whittlesea: July 5, 1834. [July 4, 1860.—I have kept whole a few letters of this dear friend, so simple, so affectionate, so true, so cheerful. Most of his letters I must destroy as of no interest except to me.—J. H. N.] July 1 of this year (1834) is signalised in the notes by the following entry: Declined marrying a couple, the lady being unbaptized. When questions of principle were once started and an opinion formed, it was Mr. Newman's nature to act. The marriage of Dissenters had given rise to such a question. He was asked to marry a parishioner, a Dissenter with whom he had held conversations on her religious opinions and on the rite of baptism; thus he could not act in ignorance of the fact that she was unbaptized. To his Mother he writes: July 8, 1834. However, I had taken courage to send Keble my letter to the Bishop, and to Pusey a notice I mean to put into the paper, and within the last hour I have had both their opinions. I could not hope that they would be favourable, but they are both quite so, and I think you will like to hear them. Pusey says: 'I like your letter very much'; he adds, 'I am glad of what you have done, and trust it will do good, “through evil report and good report.”' {50} Keble says: 'I hope such a distinct and conscientious protest against one of our crying grievances may have a good effect. It is much to be hoped that no controversy immediately connected with the present case may arise, and I hope, too, the Bishop's answer (which I have no doubt will be as evasive as he can make it) will not be such as to make you think further measures immediately necessary.' I seem as if I could bear anything now. I felt that I could not have done otherwise than I did. Yet it is very distressing to be alone. I do not know that it is inconsistent to say this, much as I think I agree with Keble and Pusey. In new cases and sudden emergencies the most accordant minds differ in judgment. I am more pleased at these letters than I can say. I had taken my vexation as a sort of punishment for my many sins, and did not expect thus to be comforted. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ. Oriel College: July 13, 1834. J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN July 14, 1834. With regard to the Jubber business, I saw the story in the 'Times,' and at once concluded that the rudeness was an unfounded charge. Rose dined with me the day on which it appeared. He said that he did not well see his way while the law recognised no marriages but Church ones. I thought it highly desirable that the anomaly should be shown, and that the point should be brought to an issue. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. A. P. PERCEVAL July 20, 1834. As to the Tracts, every one has his own taste. You object to some things, another to others. If we altered to please every one the effect would be spoiled. They were not intended as symbols ex cathedra, but as the expression of individual minds, and individuals feeling strongly; while, on the one hand, they are incidentally faulty in mode or language, on the other they are still peculiarly effective. No great work was ever done by a system, whereas systems rise out of individual exertions. Luther was an individual. The very faults of an individual excite attention; he loses, but his cause, if good, and he powerful-minded, gains. This is the way of things; we promote truth by a self-sacrifice. There are many things in ——'s tract which I could have wished said otherwise for one reason or other, but the whole was to my mind admirable, most persuasive and striking. [This letter was in answer to a letter of his of June 7, 1834, which I have transcribed elsewhere. On the outside of it I have made a memorandum, as was my custom, 'Answered July 20, 1834,' which agrees with the above. I don't know who the —— is. In Perceval's letter there is no allusion to any particular tract.—J. H. N.] REV. H. W. WILBERFORCE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN July, 1834. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. S. RICKARDS Oriel College: July 30, 1834. I would wish to ask Lady W. whether she uses such words as Pelagian historically or not. If she does, let her tell me {54} what Pelagius's doctrine was and show I agree with it; if not, it is indirectly assuming that I have so committed myself as to fall under the expressed censure of the Church, which is unfair. Next, I observe that it is inconsistent in her calling me a Pelagian and yet spiritually-minded. Let her be quite sure that when I think a person a heretic, I shall never call him religious. A spiritually-minded heretic may exist in the 'Protestant' world, but not in the Church. I conceive a clergyman is likely to have seen as much of persons in distress of mind as Lady W. To conclude, I doubt not you have before now given my Lady a hint on the confident way in which she, a lay person, speaks of Christ's ministers. At first I was amused at the way in which she laid down the law, but on second thoughts it seemed a more serious thing. It is part of the evil of our present system, which puts great people about the Church, and, if they are religious, makes them little Queen Besses. She may be quite sure that, if she comes into collision with me, I shall take some quiet opportunity of hinting this to her. I write currente calamo, having no time for a very finished letter. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ. Oriel College: August 10, 1834. I have been engaged in editing Dionysius since I wrote to you [Note 1]. It is not a very laborious business; most of it was done to my hand, and I have now managed nearly to break the neck of it; so I shall almost lay it by and take it up from time to time, or keep it quietly in hand. I thought it was good to take something easy as a beginning. If you say, Why edit books at all? I answer I have great fears of being {55} superficial. Nothing is a greater temptation in writing such a book as the 'Arians' than to take facts and Fathers at second hand; and I wish to withdraw myself as much as possible from it. The last week I have taken up the subject of the Anglican Convocation, have rummaged out of the library a certain number of pamphlets, and have begun reading and writing. I have long plagued my friends on every side to undertake and get up this passage of history, which seems to me very important now; and, failing, have at length begun myself ... I have a visitation sermon to preach at home, and was unwilling to be away any part of the time, but shall take some of the l689-1780 pamphlets with me afterwards. I go to J. Keble's for a week. I took your hint about Popery immediately, and wrote the tract called 'Via Media,' which appeared the beginning of this month, though I am diffident whether it will answer your aim. I am quite prepared for the charges of both Popery and Pelagianism, nor do I see how to escape them. In my view of the matter, the flood of Puritanism is pouring over the Church, as Liberalism over the world; and any one who believes this and makes a stand will be sure to incur the reputation of those heresies which are the contrary of the fashionable ones. There are multitudes of men who shrink from styling themselves Calvinistic, and yet accuse all doctrine which is short of Calvinism of Pelagianism; again, who call themselves Churchmen, and speak in a sentimental way about the Church (as Cunningham), yet call any man a Papist who begins to act as if he loved it. And now I believe the Saurinians, Peculiars, or in whatever other name they rejoice [Evangelicals], having, after long labour, made progress, and seeing the goal before them, are much irritated at the thought of being thrown back again. Mr. Wilks, of the 'Christian Observer,' seems to pant for the comprehension contemplated in 1689, has schemes for removing the Popery of the services, bringing in Dissenters, and is both frightened and angry at the 'British Magazine,' the Oxford proceedings, &c. How is it possible one can escape? I do not expect, though (of course) the more protests (as you say) one puts on record against the imputations cast on one, the better. As to my marriage business. I suppose the hubbub is at an end. I have gained my point; so let those laugh who win: no one can rail away the protest I have made. I could {56} not avoid it. I did not hunt out the parties. I never should 'ask questions' for conscience sake. I knew the young woman was unbaptized. I had had some months before conversation with her father about it; so had Williams: and she would not be baptized. One of the sons had inquired about baptism with some secular purpose. None of them seemed to have a notion of its religious character. It was not a question of Dissenter or Churchman; not a question who baptized. She was not baptized at meeting-house or church. I could not have taken on me the responsibility, against the wish and spirit of the Church, to commit an act which might have made me the instrument of encouraging persons in a fatal delusion—the notion that baptism was a mere ceremony. It was not a question of infant or adult baptism. I had no time to ask the Bishop. Indeed, I am quite easy, thank God. TO HIS MOTHER August 21, 1834. Mr. Newman's feeling for places was part of his strong memory from a child. Wherever he had lived, thought, formed friendships, enjoyed or suffered, the scenes in which events ran their course remained sharply imprinted on his mind, to be revived, often to painful acuteness, at the sight of them. In writing to his Mother, it was natural to him to describe his feelings more freely than to the closest friend. So to her he wrote on revisiting Alton [Note 2] while the impression was still vivid: {57} TO HIS MOTHER Alton: September 20, 1834. And then the number of painful events, and pleasant too, which have gone between my past and my present self. And, further, the particular season at which we lived here, when I was just entered at Oxford, so that this place is, as it were, the record, as it was the scene, of my undergraduate studies and opinions. The Oxford reminiscences of that time have been effaced by my constant residence there since, but here I am thrown back upon those years which never can come again. There are many little incidents stored in my memory which now waken into life. Especially, I remember that first evening of my return from Oxford in 1818, after gaining the scholarship at Trinity, and my Father saying 'What a happy meeting this!' Often and often such sayings of his come into my mind, and almost overpower me; for I consider he did do very much for me at a painful sacrifice to himself, and was so generous and kind ... All these various thoughts so troubled me as I came along, and the prospect opened clearer and clearer, that I felt quite sick at heart. There was something so mysterious, too, in seeing old sights, half recollecting them and doubting. It is like seeing the ghosts of friends. Perhaps it is the impression it makes upon one of God's upholding power which is so awful—but it seemed to me so very strange that everything was in its place, after so long a time. As we came near, and I saw Monk's Wood, the church and the hollow on the other side of the town, it was as fearful as if I was standing on the {58} grave of some one I knew, and saw him gradually recover life, and rise again. Quite a lifetime seems to divide me from the time I was here. I wished myself away from the pain of it, and then the excitement caused a reaction, and I got quite insensible and callous, and then again got disgusted with myself and thought I had made a great fool of myself in coming here at all, and wondered what I should do with myself now I was here. Meanwhile the coach went on and I found myself at the Swan. In the Long Vacation of 1834, Mr. Newman pays a few days' visit to Mr. Golightly, then just settled at Godalming, and, writing to his sister, describes his house: September 25, 1834. G. is very merry and sportive. I am very well, but people seem to think me very thin, and I certainly think I am. The following thought, or feeling, is more characteristic of the writer's temperament than of his teaching. Addressing the same sister after going over a house splendidly fitted up, he could put into words his personal objection to show and state, and all that might minister to self-indulgence, which no change of circumstances could change in him. {59} I confess I could not (I think) live in so beautiful a place. I should destroy the conservatory, and turn the inner-drawing-room into a chapel. Natural beauties I feel no grudge against; but artificial, whether exotic plants, foreign gems and marbles, rare viands, statues and paintings, seem as out of place as to be waited on by slaves. I think the principle of objection to both is the same. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO HIS SISTER JEMIMA Tunbridge Wells: October 2, 1834. … P.S. There is a lady here who plays most beautifully. I think I never heard such a touch—why, I cannot make out, for she has not long fingers. Your touch is very good; but I thought it required long fingers to be brilliant. So you must set yourself to rival her. It would be interesting to examine the causes of expression, which you might easily do. Strength of finger is one thing, certainly. This lady is not brilliant in the common sense—that is, smart and rattling—but every note is so full-toned, so perfect, that one requires nothing beyond itself. This in Beethoven's effective passages produces a surprising effect. I accompanied her last night, and am to do so again tonight. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO HIS MOTHER October 7, 1834. The following letters are taken from the Life of Archbishop Whately [Note 3]:{61} ARCHBISHOP WHATELY TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN, B.D. Dublin: October 25, 1834. Some Oxford undergraduates, I find, openly report
that when I was at Oriel last spring you absented yourself from chapel
on purpose to avoid receiving the Communion along with me, and that you
yourself declared this to be the case. I would not notice every idle
rumour, but this has been so confidently and so long asserted, that it
would be a satisfaction to me to be able to declare its falsity as a
fact, from your authority. I did, indeed, at once declare my utter
unbelief, but then this has only the weight of my opinion, though an
opinion resting, I think, on no insufficient grounds. I did not profess
to rest my disbelief on our long, intimate, and confidential friendship,
which would make it your right and your duty, if I did anything to
offend you, or anything you might think materially wrong, to remonstrate
with me; but on your general character, which I was persuaded would have
made you incapable, even had no such close connection existed between
us, of conduct so unchristian and inhuman. But, as I said, I should like
for your sake to be able to contradict the report from your
authority.—Ever yours, very truly. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO ARCHBISHOP WHATELY Oriel College: October 28, 1834. I am happy in being thus able to afford an explanation as satisfactory to you as the kind feelings which you have ever entertained towards me could desire; yet on honest reflection I cannot conceal from myself that it was generally a relief to me to see so little of your Grace when you were in Oxford, and it is a greater relief now to have an opportunity of saying so to yourself. I have ever wished to observe the rule, never to make a public charge against another behind his back; and, though in the course of conversation and the urgency of accidental occurrences it is sometimes difficult to keep to it, yet I trust I have not broken it, especially in your own case, i.e. though my most intimate friends know how deeply I deplore the line of ecclesiastical policy adopted under your archiepiscopal sanction, and though in society I may have clearly shown that I have an opinion one way rather than the other, yet I have never in my intention—never, as I believe, at all spoken of your Grace in a serious way before strangers; indeed, mixing little in general society, and not over-apt to open myself in it, I have had little temptation to do so. Least of all should I so forget myself as to take undergraduates into my confidence in such a matter. I wish I could convey to your Grace the mixed and very painful feelings which the late history of the Irish Church has raised in me—the union of her members with men of heterodox views, and the extinction (without ecclesiastical sanction) of half her candlesticks [Note 4], the witnesses and guarantees of the truth and the trustees of the Covenant. I willingly own that, both in my secret judgment and my mode of speaking concerning you to my friends, I have had great alternations and changes of feeling—defending, then blaming, your policy, next praising yourself and protesting against your measures, according as the affectionate remembrances which I had of you, rose against my utter aversion of the secular and unbelieving policy in which I consider the Irish Church to be implicated. I trust I shall never be forgetful of the kindness you uniformly showed me during your residence in Oxford, and anxiously hope that no duty to Christ and His Church may ever interfere with my expression of it. However, on the {63} present opportunity I am conscious to myself, that I am acting according to the dictates both of duty and gratitude, if I beg your leave to state my persuasion that the perilous measures in which your Grace has acquiesced, are but the legitimate offspring of those principles, difficult to describe in few words, with which your reputation is associated—principles which bear upon the very fundamentals of all argument and investigation, and affect almost every doctrine and every maxim on which our faith and our conduct depend. I can feel no reluctance to confess that, when I first was connected with your Grace, gratitude to you and admiration of your character weighed strongly upon me; and had not something from within resisted, I should certainly have adopted views on religious and social questions such as seem to my present judgment to be based on the pride of reason, and tending towards infidelity, and which, in your own case, nothing but your Grace's high religious temper, and the unclouded faith of your mind, have been able to withstand. I am quite confident that, however you may regret my judgment, you will give me credit, not only for honesty, but a deeper feeling, in thus laying it before you. May I be suffered to add that your name is ever
mentioned in my prayers, and to subscribe myself, your Grace's very
sincere friend and servant, S. F. WOOD, ESQ., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN Temple: Saturday, November 1, 1834. I have enjoyed very comfortable health, and have had many blessings to be thankful for. For the last month, owing to the emptiness of London and a delightful freedom from interruption, I have been able to follow other studies more congenial than the law, giving to the last as much attention as duty enjoins. I have chiefly been attending to our own history as regards Church matters. As not alien to this matter, I will just mention how much I have been interested by your two 'Via Medias,' [Note 5] as containing a more systematic exposition of your views than I was before possessed of, and as accounting, to my mind at least, {64} for the mode and form in which your 'Parochial Sermons' exhibit Divine truths. You will be interested, I think, by my referring you to a passage in the preface to the third volume of Burnet's 'History of the Reformation,' p. 13, ed. Clarendon, beginning at 'I cannot conclude' to 'Roman Communion.' REV. W. SEWELL TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN Exeter College: November 1834. I have just heard that the Heads of Houses meditate bringing forward the abolition of it even this term. Surely something ought to be done. Could we meet this evening at Ch. Ch.? Mr. Newman, writing some notes at the back of Mr. Sewell's letter, concludes with the following sentence: There seems to be a general foreboding that religious quarrels and party divisions will be the consequence of such relaxation; and, whether this occurs or not, it is certain that the prospect of religious indifference will impose it as a duty upon such as feel a value for Divine truth, to make every feeling and influence secondary to their determination to support the view they believe to be Scriptural against all, &c. REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN November 10. You will have heard that the Heads of Houses have decided by a majority of one to displace the Articles from undergraduate subscription. I will gladly join in any measures which can be adopted to fight the battle efficiently in Convocation. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. J. KEBLE Oriel: November 10, 1834. 'The University supposes that those who, coming for her instructions, subscribe the Articles, thereby profess, according to their different attainments, that they receive these Articles as believing them to be true, either from their own conviction or at least upon the authority of the Church. She would not, however, wish altogether to exclude those of a scrupulous conscience, who might hesitate to state this of themselves, and yet knew of no opinion which they held opposed either to the discipline or doctrine of the Church of England.' P.S.—Rogers heard from Froude yesterday. He says nothing about his health, but is evidently home-sick and lonely. In Froude's 'Remains,' p. 374, we find the letter probably here spoken of, beginning in the half-fretful, half-humorous tone natural to an expectant, suffering under the intolerable delay incident to distant correspondence in those days. Froude writes: September 25, 1834. By the same post seems to have come some direct letter or message to the N. here spoken of, which elicits the following self-justification and tender remonstrance: REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO REV. R. H. FROUDE November 12, 1834. In the vacation I worked hard at Dionysius Alex., and then at subjects connected with the Anglican Convocation, the fruits of which are beginning to appear in the ['British'] Magazine, though they are not satisfactory. Since that I have got into controversy with a Parisian Abbé, whom Harrison, arabicising with De Saci, fell in with. The war is to be or the whole Romish question, and I have been reading Laud, Stillingfleet, &c. Keble's father has taken to his bed, and is so ill that Keble does not leave him. This keen weather makes his illness very serious. I suppose we shall have a good election. Perhaps Vaughan of Ch. Ch. will stand; a clever man, a friend of Denison's, a connexion of the Provost's. November 18. I am so angry with you, I cannot say. Have we not sent you a full box? That up to September 29 you had not received it, is as hard for us to bear as for you. Why will you not have a little faith? I was week after week saying: 'Now the time's nearly come for the box to arrive,' &c. How I long to see you again if so be! I suppose all this is for your good. You want a taming in various ways. It is to wean you from your over-interest in politics. You are certainly [alethos politikos], and I miss you continually in advice; but of course one is fond of what one does well; so you see you are being taught to unlearn the world—the ecclesiastical as well as the worldly world. A strange thought came across me about you some six weeks ago, when I saw a letter from Tucker of C. C. C., giving an account of his prospects in India. He is not at all an imaginative or enthusiastic man; but really a religious spirit has sprung up among military men at our stations; and having no angel {67} to direct them to Joppa, they have turned Evangelicals The various sects there have a leaning towards the church, and the men of colour are forming centres of operation. My thought was, if your health would not let you come home, you ought to be a bishop in India. It quite amused me for a while, and made me think how many posts there are in His Kingdom, how many offices, Who says to one, Do this, and he doeth it, &c. It is quite impossible that, some way or other, you are not destined to be the instrument of God's purposes. Though I saw the earth cleave, and you fall in, or Heaven open and a chariot appear, I should say just the same. God has ten thousand posts of service. You might be of use in the central elemental fire; you might be of use in the depths of the sea [Note 6]. The tracts now form a thick volume. We have put a title-page and preface to them, and called them 'Tracts for 1833-4.' I think you will like them as a whole. You go too fast yourself. Williams has been so unwell, we were going to send him out to you, but he has lately mended. I have just engaged with Rivington to publish another volume of sermons. The first volume was nearly sold off in the course of nine months—1,000 copies. I have not dared all along to indulge the hope that I should be favoured with having you here again; but now really the prospect seems clearing. I do not like to say so lest I break a spell. Rogers's eyes are little or not at all {68} better. Gladstone is turning out a fine fellow. Harrison has made him confess that the doctrine of the Apostolical Succession is irresistible. REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D., TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN November 17, 1834. [N.B.—To avoid confusion 'Declaration' in these letters means sometimes (1) the Lay Declaration of January 1834, following up the Address to the Archbishop; (2) as here, the Declaration proposed as a substitution for Subscription of the Articles, in the case of Undergraduates at Matriculation; (3) the Declaration of Parents or Guardians against the admission of Dissenters in the spring of 1834; (4) the Declaration. of Adherence and Concurrence in spring of 1834.] REV. R. H. FROUDE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN November 23, 1834. I really believe that an external inflammation which I have been keeping up for some time on my chest touches the internal disorder ... I have entirely left off meat; my dinner is toast and a basin of very weak chicken broth. Breakfast is my chief meal, and consists of a vast joram of milk and arrowroot. It is an odd thing, milk never used to agree with me, but I find that by putting a good lot of cinnamon into it I can digest any quantity. I find I must not take exercise so as to put me out of breath, as that increases my cough; yet the more I take the stronger I get; so that I am in a dilemma, which I shall cut by borrowing one of the Bishop's horses instead of walking. I am perforce as idle as possible; my chief occupation {69} being to keep thoughts out of my head. In this respect I find my friend Sanctus Thomas of infinite use. Dawdling over translations, and picking facts out of allusions, just keep one going for the time, without supplying any materials to brood over. If you see Keble, congratulate him on the Yank edition of the 'Christian Year,' which has gone on Oakeley's plan of putting the fine passages in italics. It is amusing to see the selection which he [the Yankee editor] has made. REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO DR. HAMPDEN, PRINCIPAL OF ST. MARY HALL [This letter was the beginning of hostilities in the University.] November 28, 1834. Such an opportunity I could not let slip without being unfaithful to my own serious thoughts on the subject. While I respect the tone of piety in which the pamphlet is written, I feel an aversion to the principles it professes, as (in my opinion) legitimately tending to formal Socinianism. And also I lament that, by its appearance, the first step has been taken towards an interruption of that peace and mutual good understanding which has prevailed so long in this place; and which, if ever seriously disturbed, will be succeeded by dissensions the more intractable, because justified in the minds of those who resist innovations, by a feeling of imperative duty. [The pamphlet was Hampden's application of his Bampton lectures to the question of Subscription in Oxford.] REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ. December 1, 1834. REV. C. P. GOLIGHTLY TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN Godalming: December 3, 1834. The subject of the following letter is of so private and personal a nature, that the only reason for inserting it here is that one passage in it throws a light on Mr. Newman's habits of devotion, shown in the habitual remembrance in his private prayers of his friends, and those in any way concerned with his daily round of duty and intercourse: REV. J. H. NEWMAN TO J. W. BOWDEN, ESQ. December 17, 1834. REV. J. KEBLE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN About Christmas, 1834. [N.B. The following are some of Keble's remarks or emendations on particular passages:— No. 372.—'Barren orthodoxy; technical subtlety, and the like.' See a letter of Hannah More's to H. Walpole, in which she speaks with bitter contempt; thus, 'Constantinopolitan' metaphysics, or some such expression. No. 373.—'How does the authority of the Psalms stand with their opinions, except at best by a forced figurative interpretation?' There was a lady here who once fairly said to me, 'Don't you think it would be better to have something more spiritual than the Psalms?' Concerning the Sermon on the Mount, see Bickersteth's 'Scripture Help,' one of the most popular of these tracts. 'Moreover as to religious journals.' About religious journals, is not Bishop Wilson's the best mean, who, instead of exactly recording his thoughts, wrote down prayers or texts, having more or less reference to them; thus keeping a sort of journal in cypher? and by the very act of devising the cypher a little withdrawing the mind from itself. Something in the nature of a journal is a kind of medicine to many persons.] REV. J. KEBLE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN December, 1834. Well, but as to Perceval's paper. I am rather in the mind that he should send it to the 'British Magazine' ... as to the Sermon, it is clear, true, and edifying; but query, is it enough out of the common to warrant publication? I presume the passage for the sake of which he thinks of printing it is the statement about Melchizedek ... I cannot find it either expressed or necessarily implied in Scripture, that Melchizedek had long before performed the self-same service, &c., and from the little I have as yet read, I am not able to satisfy myself that such was the tradition of the Church. {72} My difference with the Archdeacon [Froude] was not very serious. I thought, and still think, that private representations to the Bishops are better than public ones. REV. R. H. FROUDE TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN December 26, 1834. My father's letter was a dismal one altogether. He tells me, Isaac is far from well, and Sir G. and Lady Provost obliged to leave England. Also that my poor sister P. has just sailed for Madeira to escape the winter for fear of an affection just like mine ... Also that Mr. Keble [J. K.'s father] is supposed to be on his death-bed. About you personally I hear nothing. As for myself, it really seems as if I were going to have respite. Every one says, and I cannot help observing, that my looks are greatly altered for the better ... but the pertinacity of my trifling ailment has sometimes seemed to me like a warning that fate has put its hand on me for the next world. I find the less I do the better I am, and so on principle resist doing a good deal that I am tempted to. One of the Bishop's horses has contributed much to my recovery, as well as amusement. To my great satisfaction I have found that just beyond the range of my longer walks there is a range of real fine scenery that I had not a dream of.
I start sometimes between three and four, and come back between six and seven, in which interval the thermometer averages between 78 and 76, and there is generally a roaring wind from the sea. Top | Contents | Biographies | Home Notes1. Mr. Newman had agreed to Dr. Burton's request to
edit Dionysius for the University Press. 2.
Mr. Newman's father on leaving London had settled with his family for a
few years at Alton. His children always remembered the place with
affection. 3.
Life of Archbishop Whately, vol. i. p. 233. 4.
By the Irish Church Temporalities Act (passed August 14, 1833, two
archbishoprics were prospectively abolished, and the Suffragan
bishoprics reduced by consolidation from eighteen to ten. 5.
Nos. 38 and 40 of Tracts for the Times. 6. In vol. ii. of the Parochial Sermons there is a passage which throws light on this ardent, confident strain, prompted as it evidently is by the failure of hope in his friend's recovery for service in this present scene:— 'Moreover, this departure of Christ, and coming of
the holy Ghost, leads our minds with great comfort to the thought of
many lower dispensations of Providence towards us … his is a thought
which is particularly soothing as regards the loss of friends, or of
especially gifted men who seem in their day the earthly support of the
Church ... Doubtless “it is expedient“ they should be taken away;
otherwise some great mercy will not come to us. They are taken away
perchance to other duties in God's service, equally ministrative to the
salvation of the elect as earthly service. Christ went to intercede with
the Father; we do not know, we may not boldly speculate; yet it may be
that Saints departed intercede, unknown to us, for the victory of the
Truth upon earth ... they are taken away for some purpose surely; their
gifts are not lost to us; their soaring minds, the fire of their
contemplations, the sanctity of their desires, the vigour of their
faith, the sweetness and gentleness of their affections, were not given
without an object.'—'Ascension Day,' p. 214. Top | Contents | Biographies | Home Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman |