ST. AUGUSTINE, OF CANTERBURY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Stn,—Perhaps I may be allowed, while thanking you for your favourable notice of my " Chapters of Early English Church History," to disclaim all intention of disparaging our first Arch- bishop. I was, indeed, specially desirous of expressing a higher estimate both of the man himself and of the results of his mission than the one given by Dr. Hook ; and I thought I had suc- ceeded in doing so. The few words quoted by your reviewer from pp. 95-96 would certainly of themselves form no " fit epitaph for the founder of English Christianity." But there is a good deal more in the near context of the former quotation, which concludes thus :—" Whatever his shortcomings, Augustine, of Canterbury, was a good man, a devout and laborious Christian worker, who could, and did, face threatening difficulties and accept serious risks in loyalty to a sacred call,—a missionary whose daily con- duct was a recommendation of his preaching, who could impress and convince men of various classes in a Teutonic people that had little in common with his Italian antecedents ; who, as Arch- bishop, did his duty, as be read it, with all his might, if not with- out mistakes and failures, such as we may be tempted to judge more harshly than they merit ; who, acting thus, accomplished more than appears at first sight, in that he originated so much of the work which was to make England Christian."—I am, Sir, &c., [We must be permitted to retain our opinion that Canon Bright fastens a little too much on the " shortcomings," " mis- takes and failures," to use his own words, of Augustine.—En. Spectator.]
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