BOOKS.
BISHOP TH1RLWALL'S REMAINS.—VOL. III.*
WHILE quite agreeing with all that has been said in praise of the first two volumes of the Literary and Theological Remains of Connop Thirlwall, we are inclined to give the palm over them to the present volume. It contains a selection from the Essays, Sermons, Speeches, Addresses, and miscellaneous writings of the late Bishop, and to borrow a phrase from Coleridge, there is more "weighty bullion sense" to be found in this book, than in any work upon similar topics that has been published in England during the last half-century. Half a century, indeed, has nearly elapsed since the publication of the essay on the Irony of Sophocles, but the admirable sermon on the Spirit of Truth was preached before the University of Cambridge as late as May 16th, 1869; and the splendid speech on the Athanasian Creed was de- livered in the Upper House of Convocation on February 9th, 1872. Neither in the speech nor in the sermon can we detect the slightest signs of falling-off in the author's extraordinary abilities, and so far as style is concerned, age had no more power over the masculine eloquence of Thirlwall's prose than it has over the inimitable beauties of J. H. Newman's. It is hard, indeed, at the present day to review the writings of a man who knew a great deal of Greek and spelled Socrates with a c, and not be tempted into a little exaggerated praise ; but on the other band, it would be bard to praise this book too highly. It would, however, be infinitely harder to attempt to give in other words, than his own a just idea of the author's views on the topics which he handles so vigorously. It happens, too, that we agree entirely with all of them about which we feel competent to form an opinion, and this must be at once the excuse and the justification for the number and length of our quotations. Other excuse and justification the reader will readily see that they need not. As, however, we do not propose to make any quotation from the famous essay on the Irony of Sophocles, we will briefly say of that essay that it is in every respect the best criticism known to us in English, not merely of Sophocles, but of any other Greek poet. We write this with Mr. Symonds's brilliant effusions well in our remembrance, but there is a solidity, a sober, well-reasoned, common-sense solidity in Thirlwall's essay which we confess we miss in the more impassioned and poetical rhetoric of Mr. Symonds. Time would fail us to compare this little masterpiece with the criticisms of other scholars, and there is less need to do so because, although buried alive, so to speak, in the pages of a defunct magazine, a knowledge of it has always been kept alive among those who take interest in classical subjects. None the less are we thoroughly glad to welcome its appearance in a form which will attract rather than repel attention, and we are pleased to think that it will serve the good old cause of honest scholarship much better now that it has been set, as it were, upon a candlestick, than it did when hid beneath the bushel of the Philological Museum. We shall be still more * Remains, Literary and Theological, of Connor Thirlicall. Edited by J. S. Perowne, D.D. London: Daldy, Istbder, and Co. 1878. pleased if, from its present coign of vantage, it should serve to modify that undue preference of Eschylus to Sophocles which is at present so much in vogue. lynotum pro magnifico is, we really believe, at the bottom of this preference ; but if we are to weigh authority against authority, it should not be forgotten that although the older poet has upon his side a host of poetical critics, whose genius we are far from wishing to depreciate, the younger poet has upon his side a poet and a critic not one whit inferior to the best of that host, and one, too, whose knowledge of Greek was infinitely superior to that of all of them,—we mean, of course, Aristophanes. But we must return to the Bishop. Merely as regards the variety of the topics which it embraces, this volume is a remarkable one. Science, novels, water-worship, education, Homer, Aristotle on Greek poetry, the connection of Greece with the East, the disabilities of the Jews, the English Church Union, diocesan synods, the Broad Church, the revision of the Authorised Version, the Apostolical succession,—does the reader care for any of these things? He will find them all, and many others, even more important, treated in this book by a master's hand. With the fewest possible words of comment and admiration, we will now give some specimens of that treat- ment. We begin with one from the essay on the "Submer- sion of Ancient Cities," and we do so because the Bishop is commonly supposed to have been a hard-headed man, without much poetry or enthusiasm in his composition :— " In general," he says, "according to Irish belief, there is under water a land of perpetual youth, of uninterrupted delight, of per- fect happiness. It seems to me evident that there must be some thread which runs through these legends, that they rest upon some common basis ; and further, that this basis is not either physical or historical, but ideal, though it may well have happened in some cases that physical or historical facts were combined and amalgamated with it." After briefly discussing and dismissing Daumer's mystical theory that the uprising of the present world of senses was the down-going of a higher ideal world, and that this down-going, in the symbolical language of antiquity, was a down- going in water, he suggests that the idea which lay at the bottom of the legends was "the idea—whether derived from tradition or the projection of an inward consciousness—of a good old time, a better order of things, a golden age, which has disappeared from the face of the earth, yet not so as to leave no hope of its return. It still exists, but out of sight, beneath the water. There lies the happy land, the realm of youth, beauty, and joy ; there dwells the golden race (grits aurea) ; there are preserved the treasures and glories of the past. If it be asked, what was the cause of the disappearance ? the answer is everywhere the same in substance, though varying in form. It was the penalty of an offence which provoked the divine wrath. It was impious arrog- ance, or profanation of sacred things, or wrongful dealing, or bard-hearted selfishness. Still, that which has vanished is only hidden, not lost. Even now occasional glimpses of it are vouch- safed to some favoured mortals, and sooner or later, it shall be brought to light again. There is yet a good time coming ; when is it to be ? When might shall cease to trample upon right, and
men shall learn to love one another as children of a Father in heaven. Then heroes and sages shall again find a home upon earth. Arthur and Merlin shall be released from their dark prison. Even in Lake Despair, Mondgas's spell shall be broken, and Kasimataka shall come forth, to find a renovated land,
purged from the curse of slavery and war, of tyranny and super- stition, an open field of beneficent enterprise, of secure and friendly intercourse, enriched by the arts of peace, transfigured in the light of a pure religion, the abode of a free, civilised, industrious, and happy people."
From this 'high-fantastical' picture we may pass to a still more beautiful passage, which, in spite of Dr. Faustus and the Pessimists, we hold to be entirely true :—
Genesis to the last of Revelation. No doubt we must resign ourselves to the consciousness of our utter inability to trace his working through all the successive stages of nature and of history. We must reconcile ourselves to the admission that 'God's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts.' Is that so hard a confession for a creature whose dwelling-place is as a grain of sand on the seashore ? But yet it is given us to see in the light of experience, that the result of that brooding of the Spirit of God over the seething chaos has been an even clearer manifestation of a loving will, presiding over its development, of a reign of law, order, beauty, and goodness, gradually prevailing in the midst of seeming planlessness and confusion, and culminating in a kingdom of God upon earth."
Very different is the style of our next quotation, which we select as a specimen of the Bishop's oratorical powers, and of that
verbal irony, as distinct from the practical irony, which he has marked as so noticeable in Sophocles. He is speaking about the Athanasian Creed, and says :— "I am afraid I may be also found to differ from some of my right reverend brethren here present. I really don't know whether that be so or not. But I have one ground of comfort, and that is, that I know I have the countenance and support of another very eminent person, who, although not living, yet speaketh in his works and writings. I moan no less a man than Bishop Jeremy Taylor ; and I must say with regard to him that however eminent may be the persons who hold a contrary opinion, I cannot believe they are so immeasurably superior to Jeremy Taylor, either in learning, or in judgment, or in piety, or in any quality of mind or character, as to warrant their looking down upon him with contempt, and either scouting, or ignoring, or forgetting that which he has written on this subject."
Or what can be finer than the strenuous sarcasm of a passage farther on in the same speech?—
" Can anything be capable of proof by more certain warrant of Holy Scripture than the doctrine of human free-will ? I think not. Can anything be more clearly proved by warrant of Holy Scripture than the doctrine of divine foreknowledge and predestination ? I trow not. Has any human intellect ever been found capable of reconciling those two doctrines with one another, or do we wait for the future state to solve that mystery ? I do not believe I should be advancing a paradox, if I say that Transubstantiation may be most clearly proved by certain warrant of Holy Scripture. Yet I utterly disbelieve it, because I believe that the contrary also may be proved by most certain war- rant of Holy Scripture. But I know that different minds take different views of the subject. Luther thought the text of Scripture so plain and certain, that the difficulty could only be solved by adopting the theory of Consubstantiation. That, I think, is another example of the facility with which we may find proofs of directly opposite propositiont in the language of Scripture ; but I am not sure whether it was necessary even to dwell on this point, because there is another observation which I would submit to your Lordships. Although it were the fact that by this Eighth Article, the clergy are bound to the adoption of certain views on this subject, it must be remembered that the laity are not bound by the Thirty-nine Articles. They are at perfect liberty to hold an entirely different opinion with regard to the warrant of Scripture, and the necessity of believing those things. They are not bound to admit that they have any need of the excuse so charitably provided for their ignor- ance and infirmity by the English Church Union,—that the clauses in question can only apply to those whom God knows to be misbelievers through their own wilful ignorance, neglect or default. They may say, —Speak for yourselves. We do not admit that we are guilty of wilful ignorance, neglect, or default. We are of opinion, with a highly. respected bishop of our own Church, that these are matters which it is much better for us not to pry into at all, and that it is an error bordering upon sinful presumption for any one to pry into thole mysteries, and above all, to pretend to impose them as matters of faith upon others, who refuse so to pry into them.'"
It may be thought, perhaps, that some of the philological articles reprinted in this book should have been omitted, but we do not think so. Great discoveries have been made concerning the subject-matter of some of the themes which Thirlwall dis- cusses, but the value of his conclusions has not been seriously impaired, and we may be allowed to regret that his unrivalled critical acumen is no longer available to correct and place upon their right footing some portions of the theories to which those "great discoveries" have given rise.
A sound Churchman, a sound scholar, a sound statesman, pre- eminent, too, as an historian, for, except among bread-students and " honour " hunters, the immortal work of Grote has supple- mented rather than supplanted Thirlwall's, the late Bishop of St. David's was a man whose like, take him for all in all, we shall not soon look upon again. We may add that the thanks of all students are due to the Rev. J. J. S. Perowne for the admirable way in which he has edited this book, and especially due to the publishers, for the correct and careful way in which it has been printed. Easy as it was for misprints to occur in a volume of this description, we have failed to discover one.
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