NOTES

ΤΟ

LECTURE II.

NOTE 1.-Page 124.

The importance to the cause of education, of right theory and practice of translation, which induced Dr. Arnold to speak of it though only slightly connected with the subject of his lecture, leads me to follow it somewhat farther. The note which I wish to add to his remarks will be found in Appendix III. of this volume.

NOTE 2.-Page 127.

In the Preface to the History of Rome, (p. x.,) Dr. Arnold speaks of Niebuhr's "master art of doubting rightly, and believing rightly.”

NOTE 3.-Page 130.

Speaking of the pagan condition of the Anglo-Saxons and their conversion to Christianity, Mr. Burke writes “The introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rude and fierce manners.

"It is by no means impossible, that, for an end so worthy, Providence, on some occasions, might directly have interposed. The books which contain the history of this time and change, are little else than a narrative of miracles; frequently, however, with such apparent marks of weakness or design, that they afford little encouragement to insist on them. They were received with a blind

credulity; they have been since rejected with as undistinguishing a disregard. But as it is not in my design nor inclination, nor indeed in my power, either to establish or refute these stories, it is sufficient to observe, that the reality or opinion of such miracles was the principal cause of the early acceptance and rapid progress of Christianity in this island.”

Essay on English History, book ii. ch. 1.

NOTE 4.-Page 131.

"The clearest notion which can be given of rationalism would, I think, be this; that it is the abuse of the understanding in subjects where the divine and the human, so to speak, are intermingled. Of human things the understanding can judge, of divine things it cannot; and thus, where the two are mixed together, its inability to judge of the one part makes it derange the proportions of both, and the judgment of the whole is vitiated. For example, the understanding examines a miraculous history: it judges truly of what I may call the human part of the case; that is to say, of the rarity of miracles, of the fallibility of human testimony, of the proneness of most minds to exaggeration, and of the critical arguments affecting the genuineness or the date of the narrative itself. But it forgets the divine part, namely, the power and providence of God, that he is really ever present amongst us, and that the spiritual world, which exists invisibly all around us, may conceivably, and by no means impossibly exist, at some times and to some persons, even visibly."

Arnold's Sermons, vol. iv., “Christian Life, its Course, etc.,"

note, p. 465.

*** "I neither affirm nor deny any thing as to the question how often in the history of the Church, or in what periods of it, God may have been pleased to suspend the operations of intermediate agents, for the purpose of showing that He is at all times the Author and Mover of them. This question must be determined by a careful study of historical evidence; upon the result of such a study I should be very sorry to dogmatize. Those who believe that miracles are for the assertion of order, and not for the violation of it, for the sake of proving the constant presence of a spiri

tual power, and not for the sake of showing that it interferes occasionally with the affairs of the world, will be the least inclined to expect the frequent repetitions of such signs, for they hold, that being recorded as facts in the former ages of the world, they become laws in ours, that we are to own Him, who healed the sick of the palsy, in every cure which is wrought by the ordinary physician, Him who stilled the storm on the Lake of Gennesareth, in the guidance and preservation of every ship which crosses the ocean -and that this effect would be lost, if we were led to put any contempt upon that which is daily and habitual. Still, I should think it very presumptuous to say, that it has never been needful, in the modern history of the world, to break the idols of sense and experience by the same method which was sanctioned in the days of old. Far less should I be inclined to underrate the piety, and criticize the wisdom and honesty of those men, who, missing or overlooking intermediate powers, of which they knew little, at once referred the acts and events they witnessed to their primary source."

MAURICE'S' Kingdom of Christ,' Part II., chap. iv., sect. 6.

NOTE 5.-Page 136.

"A good glossary to the schoolmen would be an interesting and instructive work; a glossary collecting all the words which they coined, pointing out the changes they made in the signification of old Latin words, explaining the ground of these innovations, and the wants they were meant to supply, and tracking all these words through the various languages of modern Europe. Valuable as Ducange's great work is for political, legal, ecclesiastical, military, and all manner of technical words, we still want a similar, though a far less bulky and laborious collection of such words as his plan did not embrace, especially of philosophical, scientific, and medical words, before we can be thoroughly acquainted with the alterations which Latin underwent, when, from being the language of Rome, it became that of all persons of education throughout Europe. Even from Ducange it would be well if some industrious grammarian would pick out all such words as have left any offspring amongst us. Then alone shall we be prepared for understanding the history of the English language, when its various elements

have been carefully separated, collected, arranged, and classified."

'Guesses at Truth,' p. 140.

NOTE 6.-Page 138.

"No direct instruction could leave on their (the pupils at Rugby) minds a livelier image of his (Dr. Arnold's) disgust at moral evil, than the black cloud of indignation which passed over his face when speaking of the crimes of Napoleon or of Cæsar, and the dead pause which followed, as if the acts had just been committed in his very presence. No expression of his reverence for a high standard of Christian excellence could have been more striking than the almost involuntary expressions of admiration which broke from him whenever mention was made of St. Louis of France." Life, chap. iii.

NOTE 7.-Page 140.

It is perhaps partly for the pleasure of quoting from a work abounding in beautiful and wise criticism-one of the most valuable contributions that has been made to critical literature-a model of what Christian imaginative criticism should be-that I select Mr. Keble's words respecting the 'simple morality' of Herodotus.

**"Habemus Herodotum, habemus Platonem: quorum alter Homerum refert non lingua tantum Ionica, et simplicitate illa ȧрxаιотρóny, sed et universo genere narrandi, et maxime omnium propter quasdam sententias, de vita caduca, rerumque mortalium ægritudine, quas ille mira dulcedine narrationibus suis intertexi curavit."

KEBLE: Prælectiones, i. 273.

*“If I were called upon to name what spirit of evil predominantly deserved the name of Antichrist, I should name the spirit of chivalry*-the more detestable for the very guise of the

* "Chivalry," or (as Dr. Arnold used more frequently to call the element in the middle ages which he thus condemned) "feudality, is especially Keltic and barbarian -incompatible with the highest virtue of which man is capable, and the last at which he arrives-a sense of justice. It sets up the personal allegiance to the chief above allegiance to God and law."

'Archangel ruined,' which has made it so seductive to the most generous spirits-but to me so hateful, because it is in direct opposition to the impartial justice of the Gospel, and its comprehensive feeling of equal brotherhood, and because it so fostered a sense of honour rather than a sense of duty."

Life and Correspondence, chap. v., letter 4.

***" One relation alone, beyond those of blood, seems to have been acknowledged," (in Cisalpine Gaul in the 3d century, a. c. ;) "the same which, introduced into Europe six hundred years afterwards by the victories of the German barbarians, has deeply tainted modern society down to this hour; the relation of chief and followers, or, as it was called in its subsequent form, lord and vassals. The head of a family distinguished for his strength and courage gathered around him a numerous train of followers from other families; and they formed his clan, or band, or followers, bound to him for life and death, bestowing on him those feelings of devoted attachment, which can be safely entertained only towards the commonwealth and its laws, and rendering him that blind obedience which is wickedness when paid to any less than God. This evil and degrading bond is well described by the Greek and Roman writers, by words expressive of unlawful and anti-social combinations, (Factio,' Cæsar, de Bell. Gallic. vi. 11; rapeía, Polybius, ii. 17:) it is the same which in other times and countries has appeared in the shape of sworn brotherhoods, factions, parties, sects, clubs, secret societies, and unions, everywhere and in every form the worst enemy both of individual and of social excellence, as it substitutes other objects in place of those to which as men and citizens we ought only to be bound, namely, GoD and Law.”

Hist. of Rome, vol. iii., note, p. 476.