CHAPTER XXIII.

1864-5.

AGED 45, 46.

ILLNESS CONTROVERSY WITH DR. NEWMAN-APOLOGIA-JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE-BIARRITZ-PAU-AN EARTHQUAKE-NARBONNETHE SCHOOLBOY'S SEA-BEZIERS-PONT DU GARD-WILD FLOWERSNISMES-AVIGNON-SERMONS IN LONDON AND AT WINDSOR-ENCLOSURE OF EVERSLEY COMMON-DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS ERSKINEUNIVERSITY SERMONS AT CAMBRIDGE-MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY AND CHIVALRY-MR. JOHN STUART MILL'S LONDON COMMITTEE-LETTER ON THE TRINITY-HON. STEPHEN SPRING RICE-LETTER ON SUBSCRIPTIONSAVONAROLA-LUTHER AND DEMONOLOGY-VISIT OF QUEEN EMMA OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS TO EVERSLEY RECTORY AND WELLINGTON COLLEGE-THE LITERARY WORLD-WESLEY AND OXFORD THE MAMMOTH ON IVORY-BEWICK'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY-DEATH OF KING Leopold-LineS WRITTEN AT WINDSOR CASTLE.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE severe illness and great physical depression with which this year began were a bad preparation for the storm of controversy which burst upon Mr. Kingsley, and which eventually produced Dr. Newman's famous "Apologia pro vita sua." That controversy is before the world, and no allusion would be made to it in these pages, but from the fear that silence might be misconstrued into a tacit acknowledgment of defeat on the main question. This fact, however, may be mentioned, that information conveyed to Mr. Kingsley that Dr. Newman was in bad health, depressed, and averse from polemical discussion, coupled with Dr. Newman's own words in the early part of the correspondence, in which he seemed to deprecate controversy, appealed irresistibly to Mr. Kingsley's consideration, and put him to a great disadvantage in the issue. Still throughout there were many who held with him-among them some personal friends in the Roman Catholic Church. Many private letters, too, of generous sympathy from strangers came to cheer him on—some from laymen—some from clergymen-some even from workingmen, who having come in contact with the teaching of Roman Catholic priests, knew the truth of Mr. Kingsley's statements. Last but not least, a pamphlet was published by the Rev. Frederick Meyrick, entitled "But is not Kingsley right after all?" This pamphlet was never answered.

For the right understanding of this controversy, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon, that it was for truth and truth only that Mr. Kingsley craved and had fought. The main point at issue was not the personal integrity of Dr. Newman, but the question whether the Roman Catholic priesthood are encouraged or discouraged to pursue "Truth for its own sake." While no one

more fully acknowledged the genius and power of his opponent than Mr. Kingsley himself, or was more ready to confess that he had "crossed swords with one who was too strong for him," yet he always felt that the general position which he had taken up against the policy of the Roman Catholic Church, remained unshaken.*

"It was his righteous indignation," says Dean Stanley, against what seemed to him the glorification of a tortuous and ambiguous policy, which betrayed him into the only personal controversy in which he was ever entangled, and in which, matched in unequal conflict with the most subtle and dexterous controversialist of modern times, it is not surprising that for the moment he was apparently worsted, what ever we may think of the ultimate issues that were raised in the struggle, and whatever may be the total results of our experiences, before and after, on the main question over which the combat was fought-on the relation of the human conscience to truth or to authority." +

For more than a year past Mr. Kingsley had been suffering from chronic illness increased by overwork of brain, and a thorough rest and change of air had long been seriously urged upon him by his kind friend, Sir James Clarke. At this moment, Mr. Froude, who was going to Spain to look over MSS. in con

* It may be doubted whether any words of Mr. Kingsley's convey a more serious accusation against the Church of Rome, than Dr. Newman's own in the "Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church," when speaking of the professions of Rome he warns those who make advances to her, that "we shall find too late that we are in the arms of a pitiless and unnatural relative who will but triumph in the arts which have inveigled us within her reach . . . for in truth she is a church beside herself . . . crafty, obstinate, wilful, malicious, cruel, unnatural as madmen are-or rather she may be said to resemble a demoniac-possessed with principles, thoughts, and tendencies not her own; in outward form and in natural powers what God made her, but ruled by an inexorable spirit who is sovereign in his management over her, and most subtle and most successful in the use of her gifts. Thus she is her real self only in name, and till God vouchsafes to restore her, we must treat her as if she were that evil one who governs her." (Prophetical Office of the Church, p. 101.)

These words Dr. Newman formally retracted in the advertisement to an Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine," page iv., but when first published, they expressed his deliberate opinion, and as such were accepted without remonstrance by the High Church party.

† Funeral Sermon on Canon Kingsley, in Westminster Abbey, on January 30, 1875, by Dean Stanley.

First Impressions of France.

193

nection with his Historical work, invited him to go with him, to which he answers :

...

"This is too delightful. I had meant to offer myself to you, but my courage failed; but when you propose what can I do but accept? I am ready, for my part, not only to go to Madrid, but on by mail to Alicant, and then by steamer to Gibraltar, via Carthagena and Malaga, coming home by sea. I have always felt that one good sea voyage would add ten years to my life. All my friends say, go, but I must not be the least burden to you. Remember that I can amuse myself in any hedge, with plants and insects and a cigar, and that you may leave me anywhere, any long, certain that I shall be busy and happy. I cannot say how the thought of going has put fresh life into me."

On the 23rd of March he started with Mr. Froude for Spain, but being ill at Biarritz he did not go over the border. It was his first visit to France, of which his impressions are given in his letters to his wife and children.

PARIS, Sunday, March 25, 3 P.M.

"I am writing this from the top of the Hotel Meurice, with the Tuileries gardens beneath blazing in the sun, and as crowded and noisy as a fair. We got here yesterday, with several men we knew, among others Captain Blackett. The splendour of this city is beyond all I could have conceived, and the beautiful neatness and completeness of everything delight my eyes. Verily these French are a civilised people. We went this morning to the Madeleine, where a grand ceremony was going on, consisting of a high priest brushing people with a handkerchief, as far as I could see. Next, to Notre Dame, where old women were adoring the Sacrament in a 'tombeau' dressed up with cloth and darkness, two argand burners throwing light on it above, and over it a fold of white drapery exactly in the form of the sacrificial vitta on the Greek vases, from which it is probably unconsciously derived. For the rest, they are all as busy and gay to-day as on any other. We met John Lubbock in the street going off to examine the new bone-caves in Dordogne. I am much better to-day —I may say, quite well. This air is most bracing, and the sun magnificent. I will write to you to-morrow from Bayonne. Do let me know what sport Maurice had with the hounds.

BAYONNE, March 26, 1864.

"A place utterly unlike anything I ever saw. Certainly very picturesque, with the yellow and brown jalousies to the windows, and the