Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Part 8

"Your political prospectus seems to me to be delusive by its vagueness. I mean, that it is no sort of security after misunderstandings between editors and writers. I think it is liable practically to lead to the result that one man's mind seems undesirably to a.s.sume the authority of a confederation;... but where Truth is sought, this is not easily borne.

Have you considered whether you may not do as the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, which admits independent essays with the writer's name signed? I value the convenience of anonymous writing, and I do not wish to see it destroyed; but it is undoubtedly abused and overdone, and I think every movement in the opposite direction has its use."

I think that when reviewing many of Newman's ideas--ideas considered as strongly tending to socialism of a sort--it is wise to bear in mind these words in this letter: "If I _now_ am democratic for Europe, it is not from any abstract or exclusive zeal for democracy, all the weaknesses of which I keenly feel." For they show very clearly that his was a mind which refused any party labelling. The reform was the thing with him, and the means by which this was brought about were only secondary and subordinate.

In September, 1856, Newman was at Ventnor; and though apparently still suffering from his heart and indigestion, found that he was able to bathe in the sea with much pleasure to himself. He gives voice to his surprise that, in those days, there should be so strong a feeling against "mixed bathing," as the term is: and he quotes articles and letters which he had seen in which disgust was expressed at "ladies bathing within reach of telescopes" and "at the indecency of promiscuous bathing"! This excessive over-prudishness, which has always, since early Victorian days, distinguished England, possesses as much vitality (even when, happily, dying) as that of the conger eel, whom no killing seems really to kill!

The earlier part of the letter deals with the disputes of the "three tutors against Dr. Hawkins," Provost of Oriel in 1830, and also with the proposal that his brother, John Henry Newman, should be made third secretary of the local Bible Society.

In the _Letters of Rev. J. B. Mozley, D.D._, edited by his sister in 1884, there is a good deal of information given about the Oxford of that day, and this account of the dispute in 1830 occurs in one of Dr. Mozley's letters from Oriel College:--

"All sorts of rumours have gone abroad respecting the differences between the tutors, and it has received a most amusing variety of versions. It has been described as a strike for advance of wages or more pupils, which of course has fitted well into the probable falling off of the college consequent on the Heresy: at Tunbridge, a friend ... was told, the junior fellows had combined to turn out the Provost! For my part, I think it no more use trying to send abroad a correct account of it, for it is not easy to make it obvious to the meanest capacities, and everybody nowadays seems to feel himself justified in contending that to be truest which is the most consonant to his understanding.... I take it there is little doubt of H. Wilberforce being elected here, to Oriel, next year ... he is considered sure of his Double First...."

Of the Rev. Mr. Hill, mentioned by Newman as the "old secretary of the Bible Society," Dr. Mozley speaks in connection with the constant opposition and ill-humoured references to Pusey which at that time were rife at Oxford.

As regards "Bulteel" of Exeter College, Dr. Mozley thus speaks of him: "Bulteel's sincere belief is that there is a new system of things in the course of revelation now, as there was in our Saviour's time, and that G.o.d has given him the power of working miracles for the same reason as He gave it to the Apostles--in order to convince unbelievers.... There can be little doubt that Bulteel is partially deranged. I should not be much surprised if, before long, he attempts miracles of a more obvious kind."

As regards Hurrell Froude, Fellow and tutor of Oriel College, he, John Henry Newman, and Pusey were all three close friends in 1822. Hurrell Froude exercised a strong influence over J. H. Newman, and it was he who was one of the leaders in the Tractarian movement in 1833. He was a man of wonderful genius and originality, and it was a distinct loss to the world when, in 1836, he died. I cannot help quoting here the "private critique"

written in 1838, and quoted by Miss Mozley in her volume, with reference to his _Remains_:--

"It is very interesting and clever, but I must say I felt as if I was committing an impertinence in reading his private journal-probably the most really private journal that ever was written.... I am very curious to know what kind of sensation his views will make, uttered so carelessly, instead of in Keble's, or Pusey or Newman's grand style."

With respect to Dr. Hawkins, the Provost (whose influence was in many ways a powerful one with J4 H. Newman), I quote two pa.s.sages from letters of Dr. Mozley. One is dated 1836 and the other 1847 (during the Gladstone Election):--

"The Provost alluded in the most distant way to the sore subject (the condemnation of heretics) last Sunday. He observed that it was a disgusting habit in persons finding fault with other people's theology.

Nothing so tended to make the mind narrow and bitter. They had much better be employing themselves in some active and useful way. This is laughable as coming from the Provost, who has been doing nothing else but objecting all his life." And:--

"The Provost has behaved very characteristically. He has been for once in his life fairly perplexed; and he has doubled and doubled again, and s.h.i.+fted and crept into holes; at last vanished up some dark crevice, and nothing was seen but his tail. One thought one was to see no more of him, when, on one of the polling mornings, he suddenly emerged, like a rat out of a haystack, and voted for Round. The Heads, in fact, have been thoroughly inefficient. The election has literally gone on _without_ them.

They have done nothing."

_Dr. Martineau from Francis Newman._

"_18th Sept._, 1856.

"My dear Martineau,

"Your welcome letter finds me still here. I certainly did not contemplate that I was speaking for the public ear on such a subject. I have a pain from it (chiefly from a sense, perhaps, that I should not like my brother to know or suspect that the information came from me), yet I cannot blame your proceeding, or question your right, so carefully and tenderly as you guard against objection.... The Rev. Mr. Hill, Vice-Princ.i.p.al of St.

Edmund's Hall, was the old secretary of the (local) Bible Society. The Rev. Benjamin Parson Symons (now warden of Wadham College) is he who proposed and carried that my brother should be a third secretary.

"I think I told you that Symons was the _second_ secretary; but I now doubt whether the second was not Rev.---- Bulteel, of Exeter College, then an evangelical preacher of St. Ebb's Church in Oxford, much attended by Edmund Hall men. The after vote rescinding my brother's secretarys.h.i.+p was proposed by Benjamin Newton, a young Fellow of Exeter College, if this is of any importance.... The affair of the three tutors against Dr. Hawkins was told me exactly as I had it from my brother's lips; but the whole must have been strictly public. The other tutors were Robert Isaac Wilberforce (since Archdeacon and Roman Catholic), Richard Hurrell Froude, known by his _Remains_; and a much older man, Dornford, now a rector in Devons.h.i.+re, who adhered to Hawkins. This took place in 1830, when my brother was only twenty-nine, Wilberforce his junior, and Hurrell Froude _my_ junior in the University; probably my equal in age, i.e. then twenty-five; so it was _young_ Oxford versus old. When the three tutors resigned (whose youth was a result of the Oriel Fellows going off so quick), Hawkins brought into the tutors.h.i.+p young Coplestone, as he was called--a nephew of the Bishop;... I almost think that for a time he resumed lecturing himself: but it will not do to say so.... I have here found out (after more than ten years' cessation) that I can swim as well as ever, and without discomfort to my heart. I am becoming quite zealous for my daily swim, even when (as to-day) the south-west gives us rather too much sea, to the chagrin of the bathing men. Perhaps you have seen various letters in _The Times_, etc., on the indecency of promiscuous bathing, etc. I cannot understand why they all direct their attack to the wrong point, and insist on driving people into solitudes and separations very inconvenient, instead of demanding that, as on the Continent, both s.e.xes be clad in the water. Last year I saw an article that expressed disgust at ladies bathing within reach of _telescopes_! There is here such a colony of foreigners, that I hope they may teach this lesson. Besides the Pulszkys, who are a family of twelve persons, there are seven of Kossuth's household, a large family of Marras (Italian), three of Janza (Viennese), two or more Piatti's (Italian), who keep company together, and very many of whom bathe statedly. Mrs. Pulszky is not well this year for swimming; but last year she swam daily, with her husband and an intimate male friend at her side.

He will not let her swim in the sea without him, and is amazed at English husbands consenting to abandon their wives as they do. Mrs. Walter, her mother, is a devoted bather, and whenever the breakers are formidable has the aid of one or other male friend. It is a new fact to me, that the Viennese ladies, as a thing of course, are taught to swim in the Danube.

There are regular teachers of swimming for both s.e.xes, and a sort of diploma is granted to those who swim well enough to be at home in the water." [This is a phrase that was used to me; it now occurs to me that it may have been merely _metaphorical_, when the teacher says _Macte virtute_, etc., and concludes his lessons.]

"Of course, our climate does not allow the facilities of tropical waters (where alligators and sharks, however, are not facilities!); but the sea is fit for bathing with us as many months as the Danube, though I suppose never so warm as the Danube at its warmest.... If I could be with you at Derwent.w.a.ter again, I think I should be less indisposed to try an oar.

Indigestion or sleeplessness, not exertion, seems to be the chief enemy of my heart, which yet cannot bear exertion when so suffering. I am giving myself abundant ease, and never enjoyed myself with so much 'abandon.' We both like this place extremely.

"With kindest regards to all around you,

"I am, very affectionately yours,

"F. W. Newman."

In 1857, as I mentioned before, Dr. Martineau came up to London to live, having been asked by the authorities of Manchester New College to take more share in the work there than he had hitherto done. He was made Princ.i.p.al of the College in 1868, and held the post until 1885.

There is something in the letter which follows which must have made a very special appeal to Martineau--for this reason: that there is in it a pa.s.sionate "abandon" quite foreign to Newman's usual style. He seems to have given rein to a sudden impulse of enthusiasm for his friend, and his letter, from start to finish, is full of it. He is evidently longing that Martineau should find in his London audience all the appreciation which his great talents deserved. And perhaps this is the thought which prompted those sentences which seem to urge him to curb the powerful steeds of his intellectual vigour, and not to give so lavishly or in such unstinted measure as in his sermons he had hitherto been accustomed to do. Newman says that in his preaching "there is _superfluous_ intellectual effort."

He adds that from "_intellectual_ persons "he has heard the complaint that the "effort to follow is too great"; and he entreats him to prepare each sermon "with less _intellectual_ effort, though, of course, not with less devotional purpose."

_Dr. Martineau from Newman._

"7 P.V.E., "_30th May_, 1857.

"My dear Martineau,

"Perhaps you are already pulling up your tent-pegs: rather a heart- breaking work, especially to those who so love beauty and have surrounded themselves within doors with so much. You _need_, dear friend, a broad and fruitful field in London for your spiritual activity to recompense the great--the very great--sacrifices you must make in parting from all that you have loved in Liverpool. I have felt this so deeply that I never knew exactly how to _wish_ that you might come to London; and, indeed, this place, so emphatically _dissipated_," [that is, _mente dissipata distracta_] "does not prize its great minds so much as smaller places would. ... Beloved friend, you know that great expectations are formed of you. It is hard, most hard, not to let this draw you into great intellectual effort, from which I fear much. For your literary lecturing, of course, I have no word of dissuasion. But let me a.s.sure you that in your preaching there is _superfluous_ intellectual effort. It would be spiritually more effective if there were far less perfection of literary beauty and less condensation of refined thought and imaginative metaphor.

I hear again and again from _intellectual_ persons the complaint that the effort to follow your meaning is too great, and impairs both the pleasure and profit of listening to you. I myself am conscious that wonder and admiration of your talent is apt to absorb and stifle the properly spiritual influence, and when I _read_ your sermons, I often pause so long on single sentences as to be fully aware that I could have got little good from _hearing_ them. I know that no two men's nature is the same, and habit is a second nature. Do not imagine that I wish you not to be yourself. (There is no danger of that.) But I am sure that by cultivating more of what the French call 'abandon'--by preparing with less _intellectual_ effort for each separate sermon--though, of course, not with less devotional purpose--and by letting your immediate impulse have a large play in comparison to your previous study, there will be less danger of overworking your mind and fuller effect on those who are to benefit.

... I dare say you received from me the new volume of _Religious Duties_.

Its author seems to me _primitively_ to have belonged to what you call the cla.s.s of ethical minds, but to have pa.s.sed beyond it, and now to be at once Pa.s.sionate and Spiritual. And is not this the natural and rightful thing, that though we begin with a fragmentary, we tend towards an integral religion? This book has been to me most delightful and profitable, and I trust you will also find it so. Such a revelation of a pure, tender, ardent spirit is itself an inexpressible stimulus, and has given me quite a flood of joy and sympathy.

"The doctrine of immortality so unhesitatingly avowed (?) affects me as nothing from Theodore Parker on the same subject ever did. The love and joy in G.o.d flowing out of it is so spontaneous and kindling as to make me long to say,--I now no longer _hope_ only, but _I am sure_. In any case I do rejoice that others can so believe, and I pray that if this be a mere cloud over _my_ eyes, it may at length be taken away. Not that I have any deficiency of _happiness_ from this, but I have a great deficiency of _power_, and I am painfully out of sympathy with others by it.

"I want to cultivate, if I knew how, rather more free communication with those who supremely love G.o.d as the Good One, and who will bear with me! I much need this, if I could get it. But however shut up I may seem, believe that a fire of love for you burns in my heart. With warm regards to Mrs.

Martineau,

"Your affectionate friend,

"F. W. Newman."

I should like to quote here words ill.u.s.trative of this side of Newman's personality, that side which reveals him "at once pa.s.sionate and spiritual," longing to attain to religious truth, and not railing against the forms of dogma which have led other men into "the kingdom of heaven,"

as was his too frequent habit. These words were written by him when he seemed to himself to have reached some measure of spiritual intuition, and there is great beauty in them:--

"None can enter the kingdom of heaven without becoming a little child. But behind and after this, there is a mystery revealed to but few, namely, that if the soul is to go on into higher spiritual blessedness it must become a _woman_. Yes, however manly thou be among men, it must learn to love being dependent; must lean on G.o.d, not solely from distress or alarm, but because it does not like independence or loneliness.... G.o.d is not a stern judge, exacting every t.i.ttle of some law from us.... He does _not_ act towards us (spiritually) by generalities... but His perfection consists in dealing with each case by itself as if there were no others."

And now, before concluding this chapter, I take two much later letters written by Newman to Martineau; one is dated 1888 and the other 1892. The first one is written quite clearly--which is wonderful when one remembers that he was then eighty-three--and the other, four years later, is cramped and not so easy to decipher. Still, in the first of these letters he himself says, "I have to write as slow as any little schoolboy... and cannot help some blunders." He had been to Birmingham on the 20th June to see Cardinal Newman, and mentions how travelling by rail tried his head.

The latter part of the letter relates to a big dinner composed chiefly of Anglo-Indians and their _attaches_. There is one lighted sentence near the end which brings before one's mental eye his often-expressed "Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin," with regard to the Indian Empire, our past misgovernments, and our present failure to recognize old promises: "The glorification of our Indian policy only made me melancholy."

The "degree" which Martineau was to receive was no doubt his "Doctor of Divinity" degree which he took in 1884 (Edinburgh). Dr. Jowett, it will be remembered, was, throughout his whole life, closely identified with Balliol College. He was Fellow in 1838, tutor of his college from 1840 till 1870, when he was chosen as Master. Ruskin (to whom reference is made in the second letter) gave the larger part of his originally large fortune to the founding of St. George's Guild. This was intended to be a sort of agricultural community of "old-world virtues" for young and old, "and ancient and homely methods." One of his great aims was the promoting of home industries. As regards Newman's reference to politics at the end of letter No. 2 in 1888, Gladstone's Government was but just _breathing_ after the sharp tussle they had been through with the Home Rule party, with Parnell at their head. In 1886 Gladstone had brought in the measure which was to give Ireland a "statutory parliament." This was practically the signal for a disastrous rent which tore his party in two, and was the precursor of their defeat at the next General Election.

_Dr. Martineau from Newman._

"_6th July_, 1888.

"My dear Martineau,

"I did not know that the day of Oxford Convocation was June 20th. I was engaged to the Worcester College Gaudy for the 21st. Had I known that on the 20th you were to receive the degree, I should have been tempted to come and 'a.s.sist,' though I have always had an instinctive hatred of such mobs.