Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and CommentsGuiney, Louise Imogen
History
Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and Comments
Guiney, Louise Imogen
Froude, Richard Hurrell, 1803-1836
‘… Deprived of Froude, and now of his mother, with one sister married,
and the other to be married a few months afterwards, Newman must have
felt alone indeed. How much this feeling of communion with the
departed had been growing in Newman may be seen from the only two
poems of 1835[375] (the last until we come to the Roman period), both
of which bring before us the intercession of the dead for the living.
There can be no doubt whose voice Newman was henceforth to hear most
distinctly amid all the earthly din and uproar of the conflict of the
_Tracts_: it was that of the man whose Breviary (assigned to him by a
chance utterance of some friend, which he accepted as a message from
Heaven) lay always on his study table, destined to lie there for half
a century; to the possession of which he attached such importance,
that besides minutely describing the incident in the _Apologia_, he
records it in the _Letters_, along with his mother’s death, as one of
nine important events of this critical year: “My knowing and using the
Breviary.”[376]
‘Froude (not Froude’s opinions, but Froude himself, or his
personality, Froude first, living, and then, as a posthumous
influence, still more powerful after death), did more than any other
external thing to make Newman what he became, and to shape, through
Newman, the Tractarian Movement. Some of Newman’s most important steps
dated from the year of their intimacy. It was in 1829 that the two
became close friends: Newman the non-political, and Froude the High
Tory…. _A priori_, we ought to be prepared to believe that Froude
pushed Newman on. Froude was a High Churchman from the first, with an
inclination towards the Mediæval Church, and from this he never
swerved: Newman was an Evangelical, extricating himself from
Evangelicalism. The former had no doubts; the latter was at that time
perpetually doubting. How could it be otherwise than natural that the
former should take the lead of the latter?
‘… Froude is not quite fairly, or at least fully, represented in the
_Remains_. The Journal, and even the Letters, fail, perhaps, to
express some latent feeling which might have softened apparent
harshness. To those who knew him well, his words were interpreted by
his personality, which all concur in describing as bright, graceful,
and even “beautiful.” … It was this brilliant and graceful embodiment,
in one so earnest, so ascetically strict, so clear-headed, and so
confident, [one] of definite consistent imaginations about spiritual
things (which imaginations Newman describes as “intellectual
principles”) that first arrested, and ultimately captivated the older
friend, who was at first disposed to smile at, even while admiring,
the erratic, “sillyish,” “red-hot” High Churchman….
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account