BOOKS.

DR. C. WORDSWORTH.* THIS is an age of autobiographies and personal reminiscences, and we are inclined to think that the public are having a surfeit of them. There is no more fascinating kind of literature when skilfully handled, provided the author is himself an interesting character, or has something interesting to tell about the persons and events that are mingled with his life. Unless it can satisfy either of these conditions, an autobiography is an impertinence. Bishop Charles Wordsworth's autobiography satisfies both. He is not only one of the first scholars of our time, and one of the manliest and most human of scholars, but he has had the advantage of mingling with

some of the leading men of his age as an acquaintance, or friend, or teacher. There was no need of the "serious appeal" which he thinks it necessary to make "to the candour of the reader not to think unkindly of him for the tone of ` egotism' which pervades his volume." An autobiography is nothing if it be not egotistical, for " the author," as the Bishop puts it, " must be his own hero." Egotism need not be offensive ; it may, on the contrary, be most attractive and instructive. Bishop Wordsworth's is both. His book gives a singularly pleasing picture of himself,—all the more pleasing from its grow- ing naturally out of the narrative. He was a muscular Christian of the best type,—a famous cricketer, boatman, skater, and racquets-player. He was such a proficient in the cricket-field, that he was in the eleven all through his five years at Harrow, and captain of the eleven during the last two years. He is an instance of a left-hand bowler and a right-hand batter—a fact, by-the-way, which seems to dispose of the theory that the spontaneous use of the left arm is due to the greater strength of the left lung. The annual match between Eton and Harrow was started by him, and in the first regular encounter between the two elevens Wordsworth's left- hand bowling proved so formidable that the Eton eleven en- gaged a left-hand professional to practise them against the next match. The Bishop tells with justifiable pride that in a sub- sequent match between Harrow and Winchester, "the names of two brothers were to be seen placarded in the printed bills opposite each other's at the head of their respective elevens, both being C. Wordsworth = C.' in the one case standing for Charles, and the other for Christopher." The Bishop says that, as a bat, he " could never hope to do himself justice or to make a good score in any great or exciting match, by reason of his nervousness." " Even now," he adds, "in preaching—except on quite ordinary occa- sions, and where I am well known—it affects me painfully; though no one, I believe, is able to discover it." Certainly the present writer never discovered it, though he has heard the Bishop preach more than once on occasions which were not "ordinary." And it is the more singular, since he preaches from manuscript. What do our cricketing readers say to the following incident in Bishop Wordsworth's experiences at Harrow ?-

"On one occasion, as I was batting, I knocked the umpire down with a leg-hit; the ball hit him on the back, and bounded off into the wicket-keeper's hands. Naturally enough, he gave me out ! and out I went, but under protest. The ball, it is true, had not touched the ground ; but if the umpire had not served as a twelfth man in the field, it would not have been caught. What would Doctor Grace or Lord Harris say to this P"

We believe they would say that the umpire was wrong. He had no business to be so near the wicket that the ball could have bounded off his back into the wicket-keeper's hands. But umpires are supposed to be infallible, facts and reason notwithstanding. The present writer still remembers with resentment his having been given out "leg-before-wicket," in spite of his exhibiting a bleeding finger to show where the ball had really hit him. The Bishop carried his cricketing enthusiasm to Oxford, and got up a match

• Annals of my Early Life, with Occasional Compositions in Latin and English Verse. By Charles Wordsworth, D.D., D.O.L., Bishop of St. Andrews, and Fellow of Winchester College. London : Longman and Co. 189L

with Cambridge, in which the latter was beaten by 238 against 92, Wordsworth's left-hand bowling taking no fewer than seven wickets in one innings. Not satisfied with his prowess in the cricket-field, Wordsworth took to rowing as well, and got up an inter-University boat-race, in which also Oxford was victorious. He excelled as skater also, and was the first to introduce into Oxford skates with the blades rounded off behind to facilitate figure-cutting. He could use his fists too, and had a fierce fight with the late Archbishop Trench over a game of quoits at Harrow. "He lost his temper, flew into an Irish rage, took up a quoit and threw it at my head. Such an outrage called for instant chastisement, and I am afraid it must be said that I ad- ministered it, as boys are wont to do, rather savagely ; for the next day he had to go up to London to see a dentist, in order to have his teeth, which had suffered in the fray, put to rights." Who would have thought that the gentle scholar and divine, who adorned successively the Deanery of West- minster and the Archiepiscopal See of Dublin, could have been so passionate as a school-boy ? But those who were intimate with Trench could tell that the disciplined suavity of his matured character concealed a nature as fiery as it was chivalrous. It is not generally known that the ardour of his Liberalism in his youth once nearly cost him his life.

When scarcely out of his teens, he went witl, band of volunteers to fight for the cause of 'aberty in Spain during the old Carlist war. The vessel which they chartered fell into the hands of the enemy, and they were all imprisoned and condemned to death. Their lives were saved with great diffi- culty by the intervention of 1- de British Government, and Trench returned to England a sadder and a wiser man.

It must not be supposed that the author's devotion to athletics interfered with his intellectual pursuits. He dis- tinguished himself in the latter quite as ranch as in the former, ending his academic career with a First-Class in Classics, besides a number of brilliant prizes during his undergraduate course. Some of his prize essays in prose and verse are given in this volume, and the classical reader can judge for himself of the exquisite finish of the Bishop's Latinity. He must have been able to think in the language of Virgil and Cicero to enable him to wield it with such perfect ease and grace. Keble thought so highly of his accuracy and taste in Latin composi- tion, that he asked him some years later to correct his Prwlectiones Acarlemicx, and he acknowledged his obligation to Wordsworth in the preface to that work. Let no one imagine, however, that Bishop Wordsworth won all his laurels by intellectual force alone. To mental abilities of a high order he added method in study and close application. " From my first entrance into life," he says, " I made two wholesome rules for my guidance, and, what is more, I strictly kept to them." These were, never to have a pack of cards in his rooms, and to eschew supper and breakfast parties. This gave him his forenoons and evenings for uninterrupted study, leaving him several hours in the afternoon for recreation. We see the result in the mens sans in corpore sano, which made him facile princeps not only in the schools, but in the cricket-field and on the skating-ground and river, and has enabled him, at the age of eighty-four, to write the annals of the first half of his life with all the freshness and vivacity of youth.

Wordsworth became a tutor of his College (Christ Church) on taking his degree, and among the distinguished pupils'-who passed through his hands were Mr. Gladstone and Cardinal

Manning. Of the former the Bishop says :— ,x/ " In addition to the irreproachable excellence of his c'haracter as a young man, the talents and energy, of which he gave° early evidence were so remarkable that I fully anticipated.and often expressed my conviction, that sooner or later he wouiciskesto be Prime Minister of England. It was not merely that he left Eton with an exceptional reputation, or that in competin- i'the Ireland Scholarship [the blue-ribbon of classical scholartliffq he had won a distinguished place, or that in taking his clagree.be had taken a double-first; he had also shown gifts as a ppeaker atr the Union of the highest order."

Bishop Wordsworth was present at the famous Union 49b ate on Lord Grey's Reform Bill, and in a letter to his brother, gives the following interesting analysis of the debaters on each side :—

" The motion, That the present Ministry is incompetent to manage the affairs of the country,' yas introduced by a son of Sir E. Knatchbull, who was followed by Anstie (double-first); Harrison, Ch. Ch. (Classical 1st, Math. 2nd) ; Palmer, Magd. (1st

Class and Prizeman Latin Verse) ; Hon. S. Herbert ; Earl of Lin- coln ; Rickards (Trin. Scholar and Prizeman Newdigate) ; Doyle, Ch. Ch. (son of Sir John D., will get a Classical 1st) ; Hon. T. Bruce, Ch. Ch. (son of Lord Elgin, reading for double-first) ; Palmer, Scholar of Trinity (talked of for both the Verse Prizes this year) ; Jelf (Student of Ch. Ch.) ; and lastly, Gladstone (a certain double-first), who, after the most splendid speech, out and out, that was ever heard in our Society—not excepting Sunder-

land's Shelleian harangue—moved as an amendment Now see the list on the other side : White, Trin. (nobody) ; Lowe, Univ. (nobody)Thomas, Corp. (nobody) ; Oakes, Mert. (nobody) ; Tait, Bal. (nobody) ; Cox, New Coll. (some reputation, but done nothing) ; Gaskell, Ch. Ch. (nobody) ; Acland, T. (nobody) ; Reeves (nobody) ; Moncrieff, New Coll. (3rd Class in Classics) ; Massie, Wadham (Univers. Scholar and 2nd Classical class), the only academically distinguished character in the whole list, and he disgraced himself by not taking a first—being Ireland Scholar. In short, they possess no aristocracy either of rank or talent. Twisleton was the only respectable person who voted on their side, while our ranks were crammed with prize and first-classmen."

And yet the aristocracy of rank and talent and academic dis- tinction was all wrong, and the "nobodies" (two or three of them turned out afterwards to be somebodies) were in the right. The Bishop himself, strong Tory though he still is, " hopes the foregoing letter may suggest a useful warning to

young men not to allow themselves to be carried away by too much enthusiasm in matters political, or indeed in any other mere worldly cause." His criticism, he candidly avows, " affords a good specimen of the blindness of judgment which is pretty sure to follow from excessive partisan- ship." A propas of Mr. Gladstone, the Bishop tells a curious story. His uncle, the poet, congratulated old Mr. Glad- stone "on the remarkable success of his son William at Oxford." The father replied :—" Yes, Sir, I thank you. My son has certainly distinguished himself greatly at the University, and I trust he will continue to do so when he enters public life, for there is no doubt he is a man of great ability; but he has no stability." " I cannot say," adds the Bishop, "that I had discovered any evidence of instability in Gladstone as a young man, or, in short, anything to confirm

this proof of the father's extraordinary insight into his son's character, until it betrayed itself in his public conduct, of which more anon." The " anon " reveals the fact that it was in 1846 that his old tutor first discovered proofs of " instability " in Mr. Gladstone's character. " On that occasion," he says, "I had much private conversation with Gladstone, which enabled me to see the change which even then his mind had begun to undergo upon political matters, especially in regard to the relations of Church and State." We believe that the first downright shock which Mr. Gladstone's Tory friends received was from his speech in favour of the admission of Jews to Parliament,—a speech which he immediately published, with a long introduction, in which he threw overboard his theory of Church and State, because—while still believing it to be ideally the best—he found that it was impracticable in a country so divided in religious profession and practice. About that time, he wrote an admirable essay on The Thesis of Erastus ; and putting the two things together, we seem to have a key to Mr. Gladstone's subsequent attitude on the question of Church Establishments. The conviction has evidently been growing upon him that the two great dangers of the future for the Church are infidelity on the one hand and Erastianism on the other, and he seems to regard the latter as the greater peril of the two. It is on record that he intimated to the Episcopal Bench his determination to pronounce for Disestablishment in the event of their allowing Lord Beaconsfield and Archbishop Tait to deprive the Bishops of the veto on religious prosecu- tions which the Public Worship Bill, with all its folly and mischief, had allowed them, but of which the Premier and the Primate had deprived them as the Bill was passing through the House of Commons.

In the winter of 1834, Bishop Wordsworth attended lectures in various faculties at the University of Berlin, and he gives a very interesting sketch of the leading Professors,—Schleier- macher, Neander, Bockh, Henning, Bekker, and Strauss. Of Neander we read :—" Walking up hurriedly to his desk, by an instantaneous motion he put his left hand to his forehead, fixed his eyes upon his book, and removed neither—except in the act of spitting, renewed every five minutes—till the end of

his lecture, so that it was impossible to obtain a distinct view of his features." In a conversation with Wordsworth, Neander " expressed himself somewhat strongly in condemnation of what he considered the lax notions of literary morality in England. For instance, lie could not understand how a wau could venture to publish a book under the title of The Diary of a Late Physician, who had never been a physician at all." The Bishop heard Strauss, who had been ordained a short time previously, preach in the Cathedral "an extemporary dis- course upon Christ's entry into Jerusalem, from the Gospel for the day, with a considerable degree of action."

Here is a curious and instructive illustration of the way in which the teaching of a dead language may be made in- teresting. The author, on paying a visit to the Jesuit College at Naples, was invited to examine the boys in the Greek lesson that was going on. He " was quite surprised at their answers :"—

" But what astonished me most was the way in which the lesson was conducted, unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of. The boys were arranged in rows on opposite sides of the room, and were supposed to represent respectively Romans and Carthaginians. On either side, in front of the desks, three flagstaffs had been fixed ; but when I witnessed the scene of combat, the Cartha- ginian side had lost two. A boy was put on, and if he made a mistake, it was liable to be challenged by any one of the opposite side, the teacher of the class acting as moderator ; and the loss of a flag was the result if the teacher's decision was favourable to the challenger. When all three flags had been lost, the side which won them was declared victorious. It need scarcely be said that the keenness with which the boys were on the look-out to detect an opponent's blunder added greatly to the zest of the lesson."

Though a strenuous Conservative in politics, Bishop Words- worth was a very progressive reformer in all educational matters. After an obstinate struggle, he succeeded in super-

seding the shallow and inaccurate Eton Greek grammar, then in extensive use, by his own excellent grammar. He infused a new life into Winchester College both in a religious and scholastic sense, and made such a name for himself as a

successful teacher, that his old pupil, Mr. Gladstone, picked him out (1846) as the fittest man in England to be the first Warden of Glenalmond College, of which Mr. Gladstone him- self, together with his father and the late Mr. Hope Scott were the principal founders; while the first scholar who entered within its walls was the present Marquis of Lothian The present volume of Annals ends with the close of the author's life in England, and is to be followed by a second volume dealing with his career in Scotland, first as Warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, and then as Bishop of St. Andrews. The first volume is full of interest, and pre- sents the author in a very attractive light. All through his life, whether in outdoor games or as a student or teacher, he has been distinguished by one characteristic quality, thoroughness. His Greek and Latin compositions are faultless,—superior even to his English composition, though that too is excellent. This thoroughness he carried sometimes into amusing details. He was assured that his smoky chimney in Tom Quad had smoked for three centuries, and must continue to do so. Wordsworth

refused to acquiesce, and never rested till he cured the chimney. He " read all the literature on the subject which he could lay his hand upon," and found it stated " that the old Hebrews were accustomed to put a bladder or wine-skin (bottle) in a chimney that smoked, upon the principle that, by the movement of the bladder, the smoke would be enabled to escape upwards and the wind would be prevented from coming downwards." So he went to ask Dr. Pusey whether that was not the meaning of Psalm cxix., 83,—" I am become like a bottle in the smoke." Pusey, who thought him " half-joking," could throw no light on the subject. But Wordsworth was not joking at all. So he "tried a bladder, but with no effect ;" then " a gooseberry-bush, upon the same principle, and with the same result." He persevered, however, with one experi- ment after another till he succeeded.

The son of the Master of Trinity, Cambridge, and a com- moner of Christ Church, Oxford, Bishop Wordsworth had an opportunity of comparing the two Universities. At Cam- bridge he found " an animation and energy in the student life " which was wanting at Oxford, where, on the other hand, " there was a stiffness and formality in the social life " in disagreeable contrast to "the freedom and good-fellowship which prevailed at Cambridge." Here is an illustration from a letter written from Oxford in 1826 by the Bishop to his brother at Cambridge :—

"On my journey here I had the pleasure of travelling the greater part of the way with one of our Christ Church tutors. Though I was in lecture with him all last term, and am at pre- sent, and though for the last sixteen miles we two were the only persons outside, he did not favour me with a single syllable—no, not so much as How d'ye do ?' 0 ! the amiableness of Oxford manners !"

But we must take our leave of this most interesting volume. There are a few slips. Longley was not Archbishop Howley's successor (p. 38); and on pp. 39, 43, 1836 and 1837 should be 1826, 1827. " Indispensable " is improperly used for "un- avoidable," where the Bishop says that " colds are indis- pensable in this weather."