English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 3: Queen Anne and the GeorgesMitchell, Donald Grant
History
English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 3: Queen Anne and the Georges
Mitchell, Donald Grant
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life
Yet he has faith; and for nearly three years lingers there at his farm
of Whitehall (the old house still standing), within sound of the surf
that breaks upon the ribbed and glistening sands of Newport beaches.
The winter is not so mild as in England, but he "has seen colder ones
in Italy." Possibly it may be well to set up the college in Newport
rather than the Summer Islands--when the grant comes: but the grant
does _not_ come. He makes friends of the farmers about him--of the
Quakers, the Methodists; sometimes he preaches at Trinity Church (still
there), and his sermons are unctuous with the broadest and most liberal
Churchism: "Sad," he says in one, "that {7} Religion, which requires us
to love, should become the cause of our hating one another." He
corresponds with Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, Ct.;[4] also, possibly,
with Mr. Jonathan Edwards, not as yet driven away into the wilds of
Western Massachusetts, by theologic contumacies, from his pleasant
Northampton home. In the hearing of the pleasant lapse of the waters
upon the beaches--while he waits--the Dean sets himself to that
pleasant, curious writing of _The Minute Philosopher_ in which he
adroitly parries thrusts with the whole tribe of Free Thinkers, and
sublimates anew his old and cherished theory--that the spiritual
apprehension of material things is the only condition (or cause) of
their being.
Children are born to him--and death winnows his small flock--while he
waits. John Smibert, who was fellow-voyager with him, painted that
little family of the Dean, and the picture is now in possession of Yale
College. At last, in despair of receiving the royal grant, he goes
back with his {8} family to England (1731). Many of his books,[5] and
eventually his Whitehall farm, were bestowed upon Yale; and in that
lively institution year after year, there be earnest students who
contend still for Berkeley scholarships and Berkeley prizes; while the
name of the good Dean is still further kept in American remembrance, by
that noble site of a Great Pacific University, which on the Californian
shores, looks through a Golden Gate to a pathway still bearing
"Westward."
We may well believe that the Dean was disheartened by the breaking
down--through no fault of his own--of the great scheme and hope of his
life. But he found friendly hands and hearts upon his return to
England. Through the influences of Queen Caroline (consort of George
II.) he was given the bishopric of Cloyne--seated among the heathery
hills which lie northward of the harbor of Queenstown. All the poor
people of that region loved him: and who did not?
{9}
He was never so profound a thinker, as he was ingenious, subtle, and
acute. Though his philosophies all were over-topped by his sweet
humanities,[6] yet American students may well cherish his memory, and
keep his _Alciphron_--if not his _Hylas and Philonous_--upon their
book-rolls.
_A Scholar._
[Sidenote: Richard Bentley]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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