Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
what we happened to find established in our respective countries, at the
time when we came into active life. Toryism was the creed of Oxford; he
inherited, and made the best of, the French Revolution.
When, in the beginning of the present century, not very long before my
own time, after many years of moral and intellectual declension, the
University of Oxford woke up to a sense of its duties, and began to
reform itself, the first instruments of this change, to whose zeal and
courage we all owe so much, were naturally thrown together for mutual
support, against the numerous obstacles which lay in their path, and
soon stood out in relief from the body of residents, who, though many of
them men of talent themselves, cared little for the object which the
others had at heart. These Reformers, as they may be called, were for
some years members of scarcely more than three or four Colleges; and
their own Colleges, as being under their direct influence, of course had
the benefit of those stricter views of discipline and teaching, which
they themselves were urging on the University. They had, in no long
time, enough of real progress in their several spheres of exertion, and
enough of reputation out of doors, to warrant them in considering
themselves the _élite_ of the place; and it is not wonderful if they
were in consequence led to look down upon the majority of Colleges,
which had not kept pace with the reform, or which had been hostile to
it. And, when those rivalries of one man with another arose, whether
personal or collegiate, which befall literary and scientific societies,
such disturbances did but tend to raise in their eyes the value which
they had already set upon academical distinction, and increase their
zeal in pursuing it. Thus was formed an intellectual circle or class in
the University,--men, who felt they had a career before them, as soon as
the pupils, whom they were forming, came into public life; men, whom
non-residents, whether country parsons or preachers of the Low Church,
on coming up from time to time to the old place, would look at, partly
with admiration, partly with suspicion, as being an honour indeed to
Oxford, but withal exposed to the temptation of ambitious views, and to
the spiritual evils signified in what is called the "pride of reason."
Nor was this imputation altogether unjust; for, as they were following
out the proper idea of a University, of course they suffered more or
less from the moral malady incident to such a pursuit. The very object
of such great institutions lies in the cultivation of the mind and the
spread of knowledge: if this object, as all human objects, has its
dangers at all times, much more would these exist in the case of men,
who were engaged in a work of reformation, and had the opportunity of
measuring themselves, not only with those who were their equals in
intellect, but with the many, who were below them. In this select circle
or class of men, in various Colleges, the direct instruments and the
choice fruit of real University Reform, we see the rudiments of the
Liberal party.
Whenever men are able to act at all, there is the chance of extreme and
intemperate action; and therefore, when there is exercise of mind, there
is the chance of wayward or mistaken exercise. Liberty of thought is in
itself a good; but it gives an opening to false liberty. Now by
Liberalism I mean false liberty of thought, or the exercise of thought
upon matters, in which, from the constitution of the human mind, thought
cannot be brought to any successful issue, and therefore is out of
place. Among such matters are first principles of whatever kind; and of
these the most sacred and momentous are especially to be reckoned the
truths of Revelation. Liberalism then is the mistake of subjecting to
human judgment those revealed doctrines which are in their nature beyond
and independent of it, and of claiming to determine on intrinsic grounds
the truth and value of propositions which rest for their reception
simply on the external authority of the Divine Word.
Now certainly the party of whom I have been speaking, taken as a whole,
were of a character of mind out of which Liberalism might easily grow
up, as in fact it did; certainly they breathed around an influence which
made men of religious seriousness shrink into themselves. But, while I
say as much as this, I have no intention whatever of implying that the
talent of the University, in the years before and after 1820, was
liberal in its theology, in the sense in which the bulk of the educated
classes through the country are liberal now. I would not for the world
be supposed to detract from the Christian earnestness, and the activity
in religious works, above the average of men, of many of the persons in
question. They would have protested against their being supposed to
place reason before faith, or knowledge before devotion; yet I do
consider that they unconsciously encouraged and successfully introduced
into Oxford a licence of opinion which went far beyond them. In their
day they did little more than take credit to themselves for enlightened
views, largeness of mind, liberality of sentiment, without drawing the
line between what was just and what was inadmissible in speculation, and
without seeing the tendency of their own principles; and engrossing, as
they did, the mental energy of the University, they met for a time with
no effectual hindrance to the spread of their influence, except (what
indeed at the moment was most effectual, but not of an intellectual
character) the thorough-going Toryism and traditionary
Church-of-England-ism of the great body of the Colleges and Convocation.
Now and then a man of note appeared in the Pulpit or Lecture Rooms of
the University, who was a worthy representative of the more religious
and devout Anglicans. These belonged chiefly to the High-Church party;
for the party called Evangelical never has been able to breathe freely
in the atmosphere of Oxford, and at no time has been conspicuous, as a
party, for talent or learning. But of the old High Churchmen several
exerted some sort of Anti-liberal influence in the place, at least from
time to time, and that influence of an intellectual nature. Among these
especially may be mentioned Mr. John Miller, of Worcester College, who
preached the Bampton Lecture in the year 1817. But, as far as I know, he
who turned the tide, and brought the talent of the University round to
the side of the old theology, and against what was familiarly called
"march-of-mind," was Mr. Keble. In and from Keble the mental activity of
Oxford took that contrary direction which issued in what was called
Tractarianism.
Keble was young in years, when he became a University celebrity, and
younger in mind. He had the purity and simplicity of a child. He had few
sympathies with the intellectual party, who sincerely welcomed him as a
brilliant specimen of young Oxford. He instinctively shut up before
literary display, and pomp and donnishness of manner, faults which
always will beset academical notabilities. He did not respond to their
advances. His collision with them (if it may be so called) was thus
described by Hurrell Froude in his own way. "Poor Keble!" he used
gravely to say, "he was asked to join the aristocracy of talent, but he
soon found his level." He went into the country, but his instance serves
to prove that men need not, in the event, lose that influence which is
rightly theirs, because they happen to be thwarted in the use of the
channels natural and proper to its exercise. He did not lose his place
in the minds of men because he was out of their sight.
Keble was a man who guided himself and formed his judgments, not by
processes of reason, by inquiry or by argument, but, to use the word in
a broad sense, by authority. Conscience is an authority; the Bible is an
authority; such is the Church; such is Antiquity; such are the words of
the wise; such are hereditary lessons; such are ethical truths; such are
historical memories; such are legal saws and state maxims; such are
proverbs; such are sentiments, presages, and prepossessions. It seemed
to me as if he ever felt happier, when he could speak or act under some
such primary or external sanction; and could use argument mainly as a
means of recommending or explaining what had claims on his reception
prior to proof. He even felt a tenderness, I think, in spite of Bacon,
for the Idols of the Tribe and the Den, of the Market and the Theatre.
What he hated instinctively was heresy, insubordination, resistance to
things established, claims of independence, disloyalty, innovation, a
critical, censorious spirit. And such was the main principle of the
school which in the course of years was formed around him; nor is it
easy to set limits to its influence in its day; for multitudes of men,
who did not profess its teaching, or accept its peculiar doctrines, were
willing nevertheless, or found it to their purpose, to act in company
with it.
Indeed for a time it was practically the champion and advocate of the
political doctrines of the great clerical interest through the country,
who found in Mr. Keble and his friends an intellectual, as well as moral
support to their cause, which they looked for in vain elsewhere. His
weak point, in their eyes, was his consistency; for he carried his love
of authority and old times so far, as to be more than gentle towards the
Catholic Religion, with which the Toryism of Oxford and of the Church of
England had no sympathy. Accordingly, if my memory be correct, he never
could get himself to throw his heart into the opposition made to
Catholic Emancipation, strongly as he revolted from the politics and the
instruments by means of which that Emancipation was won. I fancy he
would have had no difficulty in accepting Dr. Johnson's saying about
"the first Whig;" and it grieved and offended him that the "Via prima
salutis" should be opened to the Catholic body from the Whig quarter. In
spite of his reverence for the Old Religion, I conceive that on the
whole he would rather have kept its professors beyond the pale of the
Constitution with the Tories, than admit them on the principles of the
Whigs. Moreover, if the Revolution of 1688 was too lax in principle for
him and his friends, much less, as is very plain, could they endure to
subscribe to the revolutionary doctrines of 1776 and 1789, which they
felt to be absolutely and entirely out of keeping with theological
truth.
The Old Tory or Conservative party in Oxford had in it no principle or
power of development, and that from its very nature and constitution: it
was otherwise with the Liberals. They represented a new idea, which was
but gradually learning to recognize itself, to ascertain its
characteristics and external relations, and to exert an influence upon
the University. The party grew, all the time that I was in Oxford, even
in numbers, certainly in breadth and definiteness of doctrine, and in
power. And, what was a far higher consideration, by the accession of Dr.
Arnold's pupils, it was invested with an elevation of character which
claimed the respect even of its opponents. On the other hand, in
proportion as it became more earnest and less self-applauding, it became
more free-spoken; and members of it might be found who, from the mere
circumstance of remaining firm to their original professions, would in
the judgment of the world, as to their public acts, seem to have left it
for the Conservative camp. Thus, neither in its component parts nor in
its policy, was it the same in 1832, 1836, and 1841, as it was in 1845.
These last remarks will serve to throw light upon a matter personal to
myself, which I have introduced into my Narrative, and to which my