Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
was bound by so many strong and tender ties, I feel overcome with the
difficulty of satisfying myself in my account of it, and have recoiled
from the attempt, till the near approach of the day, on which these
lines must be given to the world, forces me to set about the task. For
who can know himself, and the multitude of subtle influences which act
upon him? And who can recollect, at the distance of twenty-five years,
all that he once knew about his thoughts and his deeds, and that, during
a portion of his life, when, even at the time, his observation, whether
of himself or of the external world, was less than before or after, by
very reason of the perplexity and dismay which weighed upon him,--when,
in spite of the light given to him according to his need amid his
darkness, yet a darkness it emphatically was? And who can suddenly gird
himself to a new and anxious undertaking, which he might be able indeed
to perform well, were full and calm leisure allowed him to look through
every thing that he had written, whether in published works or private
letters? yet again, granting that calm contemplation of the past, in
itself so desirable, who could afford to be leisurely and deliberate,
while he practises on himself a cruel operation, the ripping up of old
griefs, and the venturing again upon the "infandum dolorem" of years in
which the stars of this lower heaven were one by one going out? I could
not in cool blood, nor except upon the imperious call of duty, attempt
what I have set myself to do. It is both to head and heart an extreme
trial, thus to analyze what has so long gone by, and to bring out the
results of that examination. I have done various bold things in my life:
this is the boldest: and, were I not sure I should after all succeed in
my object, it would be madness to set about it.
* * * * *
In the spring of 1839 my position in the Anglican Church was at its
height. I had supreme confidence in my controversial _status_, and I had
a great and still growing success, in recommending it to others. I had
in the foregoing autumn been somewhat sore at the Bishop's Charge, but I
have a letter which shows that all annoyance had passed from my mind. In
January, if I recollect aright, in order to meet the popular clamour
against myself and others, and to satisfy the Bishop, I had collected
into one all the strong things which they, and especially I, had said
against the Church of Rome, in order to their insertion among the
advertisements appended to our publications. Conscious as I was that my
opinions in religion were not gained, as the world said, from Roman
sources, but were, on the contrary, the birth of my own mind and of the
circumstances in which I had been placed, I had a scorn of the
imputations which were heaped upon me. It was true that I held a large
bold system of religion, very unlike the Protestantism of the day, but
it was the concentration and adjustment of the statements of great
Anglican authorities, and I had as much right to hold it, as the
Evangelical, and more right than the Liberal party could show, for
asserting their own respective doctrines. As I declared on occasion of
Tract 90, I claimed, in behalf of who would in the Anglican Church, the
right of holding with Bramhall a comprecation with the Saints, and the
Mass all but Transubstantiation with Andrewes, or with Hooker that
Transubstantiation itself is not a point for Churches to part communion
upon, or with Hammond that a General Council, truly such, never did,
never shall err in a matter of faith, or with Bull that man had in
paradise and lost on the fall, a supernatural habit of grace, or with
Thorndike that penance is a propitiation for post-baptismal sin, or with
Pearson that the all-powerful name of Jesus is no otherwise given than
in the Catholic Church. "Two can play at that," was often in my mouth,
when men of Protestant sentiments appealed to the Articles, Homilies, or
Reformers; in the sense that, if they had a right to speak loud, I had
the liberty to speak out as well as they, and had the means, by the same
or parallel appeals, of giving them tit for tat. I thought that the
Anglican Church was tyrannized over by a mere party, and I aimed at
bringing into effect the promise contained in the motto to the Lyra,
"They shall know the difference now." I only asked to be allowed to show
them the difference.
What will best describe my state of mind at the early part of 1839, is
an Article in the British Critic for that April. I have looked over it
now, for the first time since it was published; and have been struck by
it for this reason:--it contains the last words which I ever spoke as an
Anglican to Anglicans. It may now be read as my parting address and
valediction, made to my friends. I little knew it at the time. It
reviews the actual state of things, and it ends by looking towards the
future. It is not altogether mine; for my memory goes to this,--that I
had asked a friend to do the work; that then, the thought came on me,
that I would do it myself: and that he was good enough to put into my
hands what he had with great appositeness written, and that I embodied
it in my Article. Every one, I think, will recognize the greater part of
it as mine. It was published two years before the affair of Tract 90,
and was entitled "The State of Religious Parties."
In this Article, I begin by bringing together testimonies from our
enemies to the remarkable success of our exertions. One writer said:
"Opinions and views of a theology of a very marked and peculiar kind
have been extensively adopted and strenuously upheld, and are daily
gaining ground among a considerable and influential portion of the
members, as well as ministers of the Established Church." Another: The
Movement has manifested itself "with the most rapid growth of the
hot-bed of these evil days." Another: "The _Via Media_ is crowded with
young enthusiasts, who never presume to argue, except against the
propriety of arguing at all." Another: "Were I to give you a full list
of the works, which they have produced within the short space of five
years, I should surprise you. You would see what a task it would be to
make yourself complete master of their system, even in its present
probably immature state. The writers have adopted the motto, 'In
quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' With regard to
confidence, they have justified their adopting it; but as to quietness,
it is not very quiet to pour forth such a succession of controversial
publications." Another: "The spread of these doctrines is in fact now
having the effect of rendering all other distinctions obsolete, and of
severing the religious community into two portions, fundamentally and
vehemently opposed one to the other. Soon there will be no middle ground
left; and every man, and especially every clergyman, will be compelled
to make his choice between the two." Another: "The time has gone by,
when those unfortunate and deeply regretted publications can be passed
over without notice, and the hope that their influence would fail is now
dead." Another: "These doctrines had already made fearful progress. One
of the largest churches in Brighton is crowded to hear them; so is the
church at Leeds. There are few towns of note, to which they have not
extended. They are preached in small towns in Scotland. They obtain in
Elginshire, 600 miles north of London. I found them myself in the heart
of the highlands of Scotland. They are advocated in the newspaper and
periodical press. They have even insinuated themselves into the House of
Commons." And, lastly, a bishop in a charge:--It "is daily assuming a
more serious and alarming aspect. Under the specious pretence of
deference to Antiquity and respect for primitive models, the foundations
of the Protestant Church are undermined by men, who dwell within her
walls, and those who sit in the Reformers' seat are traducing the
Reformation."
After thus stating the phenomenon of the time, as it presented itself to
those who did not sympathize in it, the Article proceeds to account for
it; and this it does by considering it as a re-action from the dry and
superficial character of the religious teaching and the literature of
the last generation, or century, and as a result of the need which was
felt both by the hearts and the intellects of the nation for a deeper
philosophy, and as the evidence and as the partial fulfilment of that
need, to which even the chief authors of the then generation had borne
witness. First, I mentioned the literary influence of Walter Scott, who
turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages. "The general
need," I said, "of something deeper and more attractive, than what had
offered itself elsewhere, may be considered to have led to his
popularity; and by means of his popularity he re-acted on his readers,
stimulating their mental thirst, feeding their hopes, setting before
them visions, which, when once seen, are not easily forgotten, and
silently indoctrinating them with nobler ideas, which might afterwards
be appealed to as first principles."
Then I spoke of Coleridge, thus: "While history in prose and verse was
thus made the instrument of Church feelings and opinions, a
philosophical basis for the same was laid in England by a very original
thinker, who, while he indulged a liberty of speculation, which no
Christian can tolerate, and advocated conclusions which were often
heathen rather than Christian, yet after all installed a higher
philosophy into inquiring minds, than they had hitherto been accustomed
to accept. In this way he made trial of his age, and succeeded in
interesting its genius in the cause of Catholic truth."
Then come Southey and Wordsworth, "two living poets, one of whom in the
department of fantastic fiction, the other in that of philosophical
meditation, have addressed themselves to the same high principles and
feelings, and carried forward their readers in the same direction."
Then comes the prediction of this re-action hazarded by "a sagacious
observer withdrawn from the world, and surveying its movements from a
distance," Mr. Alexander Knox. He had said twenty years before the date
of my Article: "No Church on earth has more intrinsic excellence than
the English Church, yet no Church probably has less practical
influence.... The rich provision, made by the grace and providence of
God, for habits of a noble kind, is evidence that men shall arise,
fitted both by nature and ability, to discover for themselves, and to
display to others, whatever yet remains undiscovered, whether in the
words or works of God." Also I referred to "a much venerated clergyman
of the last generation," who said shortly before his death, "Depend on
it, the day will come, when those great doctrines, now buried, will be
brought out to the light of day, and then the effect will be fearful." I
remarked upon this, that they who "now blame the impetuosity of the
current, should rather turn their animadversions upon those who have
dammed up a majestic river, till it has become a flood."
These being the circumstances under which the Movement began and
progressed, it was absurd to refer it to the act of two or three
individuals. It was not so much a movement as a "spirit afloat;" it was
within us, "rising up in hearts where it was least suspected, and
working itself, though not in secret, yet so subtly and impalpably, as
hardly to admit of precaution or encounter on any ordinary human rules
of opposition. It is," I continued, "an adversary in the air, a
something one and entire, a whole wherever it is, unapproachable and
incapable of being grasped, as being the result of causes far deeper
than political or other visible agencies, the spiritual awakening of
spiritual wants."