The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VI (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland IV
General
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VI (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland IV
Literature -- Collections
Need I say that I am speaking of John Keble?[4] The first time that I
was in a room with him was on the occasion of my election to a
Fellowship at Oriel, when I was sent for into the Tower, to shake
hands with the Provost and Fellows. How is that hour fixt in my memory
after the changes of forty-two years; forty-two this very day on which
I write! I have lately had a letter in my hands which I sent at the
time to my great friend, John William Bowden, with whom I passed
almost exclusively my undergraduate years. "I had to hasten to the
Tower," I say to him, "to receive the congratulations of all the
Fellows. I bore it till Keble took my hand, and then felt so abashed
and unworthy of the honor done to me, that I seemed desirous of quite
sinking into the ground." His had been the first name which I had
heard spoken of, with reverence rather than admiration, when I came up
to Oxford. When one day I was walking in High Street with my dear
earliest friend just mentioned, with what eagerness did he cry out,
"There's Keble!" and with what awe did I look at him! Then at another
time I heard a Master of Arts of my college give an account how he had
just then had occasion to introduce himself on some business to Keble,
and how gentle, courteous, and unaffected Keble had been, so as almost
to put him out of countenance. Then, too, it was reported, truly or
falsely, how a rising man of brilliant reputation, the present Dean of
St. Paul's, Dr. Milman, admired and loved him, adding, that somehow he
was strangely unlike any one else. However, at the time when I was
elected Fellow of Oriel, he was not in residence, and he was shy of me
for years, in consequence of the marks which I bore upon me of the
Evangelical and Liberal schools, at least so I have ever thought.
Hurrell Froude brought us together about 1828; it is one of the
sayings preserved in his "Remains"--"Do you know the story of the
murderer who had done one good thing in his life? Well, if I was ever
asked what good thing I had ever done, I should say I had brought
Keble and Newman to understand each other."
[Footnote 4: Keble, one of the chief promoters of the Oxford movement,
will long be remembered as author of "The Christian Year," published
in 1827. For ten years he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Three of
the "Tracts for the Times" were by him. He was Newman's senior by
eight years.]
II
ON HIS SUBMISSION TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH[5]
I had one final advance of mind to accomplish, and one final step to
take. That further advance of mind was to be able honestly to say that
I was certain of the conclusions at which I had already arrived. That
further step, imperative when, such certitude was attained, was my
submission to the Catholic Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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