BOOKS.

[Our attention has been called by the editors of the Pall Mall Magazine to an article which was published in our last impression, entitled "The Uprising against Napoleon in 1813," which made it appear that the " second " of the series of papers on "The Decline and Fall of Napoleon" Lord Wolseley is specially writing for that magazine, was to be found in its February number. It is pointed out to us that this is not the case, and we are informed that the publication of it will not take place until April. We regret that a mistake so calculated to mislead should have been made, and that we should have in any way seemed to anticipate a portion of the contents of an article, which the editors of the Pal/ Mall Magazine have been at special pains to secure ] LIFE OF DEAN STANLEY.*

[SECOND NOTICE.]

DEAN STANLEY cannot be called a great theologian, and yet his theological career is one of great interest. He represented most consistently one of the two principal lines which the revival of religions earnestness and reality took, after the spiritual torpor and conventional churchmanship especially charac- teristic of the days of the Regency had been finally dissi- pated by the movement of 1833. With much leas of masculine strength than his master Arnold, but with greater eloquence and equal enthusiasm, he pleaded the cause of religious freedom and of reality in the use of words. Formularies had been subscribed, doctrines had been taught, prayers and creeds had been used which were simply not believed in by those who professed to accept them. The Hampden contro- versy in 1836, the " degradation" of Ward in 1845, the cases of "Essays and Reviews" and of Dr. Colenso in the sixties, the dis- cussion on the damnatory clauses in the Athanasian Creed so vigorously canvassed in 1871, are all instances which, from one point of view or another, gave occasion for his pro- tests on this subject. The Thirty-nine Articles were elabo- rately contrasted with Hampden's views on the one hand and with Newman's and Ward's on the other. The truth was that in their obvious sens3 they are consistent with the views of neither of the influential parties represented at that time by Arnold and by Newman. Why use phrases which had to be explained away ? The state of opinion in the English Church, which the Articles repre- sented, had passed away. Why then—Stanley argued— encourage the unreality, nay, the insincerity, as he thought it, of giving solemn adherence to formithe which, in their natural sense, you utterly reject ? Such a course appeared to him to make religion savour of hypocrisy, and to make straight- forward and honest men shun all connection with the Church as a pi o'ession. So, too, when students of the rising science of Bibli3a1 criticism began to find the old explanations of inspiration untenable, Stanley wished this to be recognised and allowed for by the authorities of the Church. Penalties or disabilities inflicted on the holders of such views seemed to be intolerable. Thought was advancing on this subject as on

• The Life and Correspondence of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D. By Rowland E. Prattle o, with the co-or oration and sanction of the Ye: y Rey. G. G. Brad'ey. Dean of Westminster. London : John Murray.

the doctrines dealt with in the Articles. Penal measures were an artificial attempt to galvanise into life antiquated. dectrines,. which the thought of the day had really killed or was in pro- cess of killing. To identify the Church of England with such an attempt was to make her retrograde, and to alienate from her the beat intellectual life of the time. Bred under the same early influences as Matthew Arnold, Stanley was a true

believer in the Zeitgeist. Religious thought was, he considered, advancing with great strides just as physical science advanced. Formula belonging to the past, which did not correspond with the eager and able speculations of the critics- and teachers of the day, were relics of barbarism. The sooner. they were got rid of, the better.

The last, and perhaps the most typical, of Stanley's struggles in this direction was directed against the Athanasian Creed, In the Convocation of 1871, he advocated its omission from the services of the Church. The damnatory clauses formed the chief basis of his objections. The Creed had been reintro- duced into the Anglican liturgy comparatively recently, and "educated and earnest men were startled at its unfamiliar words, and candidates for Holy Orders found in its language an insurmountable obstacle." Stanley vehemently rejected the compromise which was proposed, that the creed should be retained, and its words explained in accordance with the views of modern times. He characterised this proposal as "a. miserable attempt to explain away simple and emphatic words." "Words mean," writes the biographer, "what grammar makes them mean, and Stanley could not endure that any meaning should be put on the clauses which was- either less or more than their grammatical construction, implied or declared." His speech on this occasion was very characteristic, and an extract must be made from it :—

"These clauses belong to a state of mind which prevailed no doubt in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and, we must, confess with sorrow, even perhaps to one of the centuries preced- ing. They belong to that state of belief which maintained that error on these theological subjects was the greatest of crimes. Theybelong to that wretched system which regarded heresy as a crime which the Church and the State and all the powers of earth were bound to extirpate, in the same way as murder, theft, or any of the other great moral or social evils that pollute mankind. L hold that this opinion, which is thus incorporated in the damna- tory clauses, is absolutely false, and I will venture to say, not only it is absolutely false, but it is believed by every single

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member of this house to be absolutely false I even admire these clauses for their magnificent perspicuity of lan- guage. Whoever was their author, he knew what he meant. He meant, as the Emperor Charlemagne meant, that any one wh. could not accept these words was everlastingly lost, and should:, be destroyed by sword and fire from the face of Christendom. I admire the Emperor Charlemagne, but I cannot admire those who. come with their modern explanations to draw out the teeth of this- old lion, who sits there in his majesty, and defies any explanation. to take out his fierce and savage fangs."

Stanley was opposed by many who were, however personally estimable, utterly narrow and intolerant. Archdeacon Denison, left the Jerusalem Chamber "in disgust" after his speech, and the nature of the opposition in some quarters gave Stanley. a moral victory in the eyes of many. But his theory on. the practical and all-important principles in debate was opposed by men of greater breadth and depth than himself, and of equal reality and earnestness. In early days Newman,. and in later days such men as Dean Church, represented a view of the nature of formularies and of our duties towards- them, fundamentally different from Stanley's. That view has been indicated most explicitly by Newman himself.. Stanley's view presupposed that formula and liturgical' prayers should normally represent, precisely the existing beliefs and actual sentiments of the worshippers. Newman,. with a wider view of history, deprecated casting the written symbols of an ancient Church into a form representing what might be a passing phase of opinion. Like phonetic spelling, such a method destroyed the sacred history enshrined in the- formulw, for the convenience of a single generation. The pronunciation which is the fashion of the time should not be allowed to obliterate all the history and etymology preserved in the traditional spelling ; and the current religions opinions should not be allowed to stamp out the record of the evolu- tion of doctrine. In both cases such a method would destroy, along with the history of the past, the groundwork for farther advance in the future. Even in early days Newman held, what he developed more fully after joining the Roman Church, that the written documents of a Church which was, the Church of many ages with various characteristics, and of

many men of various capacities and attainments, on the one hay! were very sacred and not to be- lightly tampered with, on the other hand, could not in the nature of the case represent the full living religion of every time. The living teaching Church and its living ministers represented the living religion—alike its special genius and its incidental errors. Time must be allowed for these to be in some degree tested and separated before the new truths were recognisable as such beyond doubt, and available for use in the forraulx. The formula could and should be added to and explained, by degrees, more precisely, but creeds and definitions could not be abrogated. They represented the earlier en- deavour of the Church to put into words the primitive revela- tion. Necessarily, in view of the infinity of questions which revelation must indirectly deal with, the fall defining of the points touched on must be a matter of time, and the original statements are insufficient and become inaccurate and untrue if they are supposed to be, which they are not, exhaustive state- ments. The limitations of the meaning of early creeds and formulx are ascertained by gradual analysis. Let the original formulm preserve the history of the development of this

analysis, and form the basis for still further development. Revolution and wholesale abolition in the formulw would be like revolution and wholesale abolition in the Statute-book. It would destroy continuity and stability. Living men should apply both sets of formate—the legal and the theological—

to the circumstances of the time ; but the wish to identify the Church formularies with existing sentiments and opinions, implied an optimism as to the infallibility of our own age, which, in Newman's eyes, was extravagant. Antiquated formula were to him not mere mistakes, but early and generally incomplete representations of a truth. "Out of the Church no salva- tion" conveyed the rough conception of the necessity to salva- tion of embracing Christianity when it was known to be true. If it was generally interpreted in early ages in a spirit of in- tolerance, and as condemning error which was without moral fault, the remedy lay not in the obliteration of the first rough form in which the truth was conveyed, but in explanation alike of its true meaning and of the causes of its misinterpretation. This may involve what has been called "non-natural" inter- pretations; but once their raison d'être is explained, there is no more objection to them than there is to the non-natural pro- nunciations—pronunciations at variance with the normal rule —which the historical spelling of many an English word necessi- tates. It is part of a regular system, conceived with the definite purpose of preserving at once in the formulx the lessons of the past,—even though their preservation reminds us of the defects of ancient days, as well as of their wisdom,—and of combining them with the emendations of more recent thought.

We have given thus at length the view opposed to Stanley's, because it represents, we consider, the truest criticism of that view,—a criticism which may, however, easily be carried too far. All serious thinkers of our own time tend to one or other of the two lines indicated.

We may cite in conclusion an interesting account by Stanley of his visit to the man who so powerfully represented the principle antagonistic to his own. He paid a visit to Newman at the Oratory in the autumn of 1864, and writes, to Princi- pal Shairp, the following account of his visit :—

" The Oratory is a collegiate building by the roadside, more barred and grated than any Balliol or St. Salvador, but otherwise nothing peculiarly monastic. I sent up my card, and waited in a small parlour. There were two or three religious engravings —some of Overbeck's little prints—over the fire; in one corner, a commonplace bird's-eye view of Oxford, with the text in Latin from Ezekiel over the upper frame, Son of Man, can these dry bones live ? ' and on the lower frame, 0 Lord God, thou knowest.' Presently the "Pilius hominis' appeared. The features are quite unaltered, and the voice, and, as far as I remember, the manner. The same appearance of simplicity and tenderness, and yet withal something of weakness, as if he could offer no resistance to you.

It is very kind of you to come out so far,' were his first words. At first we talked of Oxford—of the time when I had seen him — then of Pusey He then spoke of the Roman Catholics having bought a piece of ground in Oxford for a new church,' to which I may possibly be obliged to go from time to time '— evidently with a profound inner repugnance. He very much deprecated the notion of any proselytism ; as far as he was con- cerned, he would never encourage anything of the kind= No, never.' It was to be for the sake of the Roman Catholic students, —something more acceptable than the small chapel at St. Clement's. I spoke of my travels in France, and mentioned Albert de Broglie. I have heard of his book, but never read it.'

I spoke of its interest. 'Oh, yes; of all subjects it is that • Two Lives a Poem. which has most attraction for me—not the Roman Republic, but Sons. 1894. the Roman Empire.' I then gradually led to Ewald, and he

regretted his ignorance of German I urged the evidently composite character of Genesis. This he at once acknowledged. It struck me the moment I first read those chapters in Hebrew. There must be two documents. And I mentioned it to Pusey, who seemed to acknowledge it. Would he acknowledge it now ?'— A. P. S.: I think not." But then I seem to myself to see the same compilatory character in the Gospels ; not a regular history, but biographical anecdotes strung together.' I put to him the- question how far any speculations on these characteristics of the sacred books or on inspiration were barred by the Council of Trent. Not in the least,' and he entered into an elaborate argu-

ment to confirm ex abutidenti my view that the decrees of Trent are on these points as open as the English formularies interpreted by the Privy Council. But then there is a con-

tinuous tradition as to the peculiar sacredness of these books, and this tradition is incorporated in what they call the

School.' He urged that these questions were so much more vital to us than to them because we had nothing to repose on besides the Bible. They had their Church Authority, &c. I granted this, but said, There is the very reason why you and your Church are far more bound to meet these questions fearlessly and face to face than we are. You, if any, are called to the task and you do nothing to help us." I grant it,' he said,' we can do nothing. Our school is scattPred. We have no theologians left. The French Revolution spoiled us of our revenues. We are forsaken.'

He offered to show me his library. I went up ; it was the complete collection of his Oxford and Littlemore books—hooks given him by his pupils—evidently a great pride and pleasure to him. We passed out through the corridors, passed through the dimly lighted church into another cloister, and rejoined Tom, Arnold in the reading-room of the College."