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    and people stigmatize it as an " affectation ; " nevertheless he is not one of the " creatures of imagination . " Put him into a prison and he will have the walls painted over with flowers , will run up a trelliswork of vine , surround himself with his books and pictures , and , writing verses , reading verses , make his prison almost enchanting . So it is ever with him ; in great things and small , down to the most trivial ; if

    there be no beauty or grace to be extracted from the object , he insists on forcing some beauty on to it . Herein lies the secret of that " cockneyism " which has been flung at him by the critics who not themselves being accustomed to introduce the Graces into their daily routine , but put on their imagination like their best clothes on " highdays and holidays , " cannot inderstand his •* affectation . "

    Another point : with a child-like simplicity and trustingness he unites a certain knowingness , which seems to throw a doubt upon his simplicity . He has sequestered habits , a pastoral turn of mind , and a gentle disposition ; at the same time you see in his animal spirits , in his sympathy with licence and passion , wit and love of the things wits talk about , a certain Cavalier element which strangely puzzles you .

    Beneath the hermit ' s robe of serge , you perceive frills and ruffles of beautiful lace . He carries a scrip and wallet , yet on his head there is a velvet hat and dancing plume . The incongruity makes you sceptical . You find it difficult to believe in the extreme simplicity and faith of this man so perfectly " " to the wits ; and if your puzzlement take an ungenerous side you pronounce ** affected " all those paseages in his writings which imply simplicity and sequestered

    tastes . Any psychologist would be able to reconcile these differences . In truth there are no contradictions in human beings ; they may seem contradictory to us , but to the soul in which they exist there is no mystery about them . In Leigh Hunt ' s case there is considerable interest in tracing the effect of his parentage upon his disposition , and he has done something more than produce a charming book in the Autobiography , he has also added to our store of

    ethological facts . To others we leave the pleasant task of tracing in Leigh Hunt the influences of his West Indian blood , his father ' s joviality , recklessness , and elegance of mind , and his mother ' s timidity , generosity , and truthfulness . The picture of his early life , here given , is enchanting . It reads like a novel , with the feeling of its truth enhancing our delight . The portrait of his father may stand beside any of the great creations of character , for the way in which it is made to live before our eyes . The

    closing passage we must give : — " Unfortunately for others , it might be said of him , what Lady Mary Wortley said of her kinsman , Henry Fielding , ' that give him his leg of mutton and bottle of wine , and in the very thick of calamity he would be happy for the time being . ' Too well able to seize a passing moment of enjoyment , he was always scheming , never performing : always looking forward , with some romantic plan which was sure to succeed , and never put in practice . I believe he wrote more titles of nonexisting books than Rabelais . At length he found his mistake . My poor father ! He grew deeply acquainted to lose his and his

    with prisons , and began graces good name , and became irritable with conscious error , and almost took hope out of the heart that loved him , and was too often glad to escape out of its society . Yet such an art had he of making his home comfortable , when he chose , and of settling himself to the most tranquil pleasures , that if she could have ceased to look forward about her children , I believe , with all his faults , those evenings would have brought unmingled satisfaction to her , when , after settling the little apartment , brightening the fire , and bringing out the coffee , my mother knew that her husband was going to read Saurin or Barrow to her , with his fine voice and unequivocal enjoyment . "

    Leigh Hunt speaks with gratitude of not having been frightened by the bugbears of impiety mistaking itself for religion : — " My father , though a clergyman of the Established Church , had settled , as well as my mother , into a Christian of the Universalist persuasion , which believes in the final restoration of all things . It was hence that I learned the impiety ( as I have expressed it ) of the doctrine of eternal punishment . In the present day , a sense of that impiety , in some way or other , whether of

    doubt or sophistication , is the secret feeling of nmetenths of all churches : and every church will discover , before long , that it must rid itself of the doctrine , if it would not cease to exist . Love is the only creed destined to survive all others . They who think that no church can exist without a strong spice of terror , should watch the growth of education , and see which system of it is the most beloved . They should see also which system in the very nursery is growing the most ridiculous . The threat of the « black man and the coal-hole'

    vanished from all decent infant training . What , answer , is the father , who would uphold the worst form of it , to gire to the child whom he has spared the beat ?"

    But yet so difficult—if not impossible ( perhaps it is not desirable ) is it to keep away all the terrors of the supernatural even in the " best regulated families , " that we always see children frustrating the care of parents , and frightening their younger brothers and sisters . Leigh Hunt ' s elder brother used to torment him in this way : — " I had unfortunately let him see that I did not like to be in the darkand that I had a horror of dreadful faces ;

    , even in books . I had found something particularly ghastly in the figure of an old man crawling on the ground , in some frontispiece—I think to a book called the Looking-Glass ; and there was a fabulous wildbeast , a portrait of which , in some picture-book , unspeakably shocked me . It was called the Mantichora . It had the head of a man , grinning with rows of teeth , and the body of a wild beast , brandishing a tail armed with stings . * _ _ * * . * . .., trickwith

    " In vain my brother played me repeated s this frightful anomaly . I was always ready to be frightened again . At one time he would grin like the mantichora ; then he would roar like him ; then call about him in the dark . I remember his asking me to come up to him one night at the top of the house . I ascended , and found the door shut . Suddenly a voice came through the keyhole , saying , in its hollowest tones , the mantichora ' s coming . ' Down I rushed to the parlour , fancying the terror at my heels . " Nothing can be pleasanter than his school reminiscences of Christ ' s Hospital . Here ; is a genuine bit of boyish nature : —

    " Indeed , the whole of the Navigation School , upon the strength of cultivating their valour for the navy , and being called King ' s Boys , had succeeded in establishing an extraordinary pretension to respect . This they sustained in a manner as laughable to call to mind as it was grave in its reception . It was an etiquette among them never to move out of a right line as they walked , whoever stood in their way . I believe there was a secret understanding with Grecians and Deputy Grecians , the former of whom were unquestionably lords paramount in point of fact , and stood and walked aloof when all the rest of do not remember

    the school were marshalled in bodies . I any clashing between these civil and naval powers ; but I remember well my astonishment when I first beheld some of my little comrades overthrown by the progress of one of these very straightforward marine personages , who walked on with as tranquil and unconscious a face as if nothing had happened . It was not a fierce-looking nush ; there seemed to be no intention in it . The insolence lay in the boy not appearing to know that such inferior creatures existed . It was always thus , wherever he came . If aware , the boys got out of his way ; if not , down they went , one or more ; away rolled the top or the marbles , and on walked the future captain

    In maiden navigation , frank andjree . These boys wore a badge on the shoulder , of which they were very proud ; though in the streets it must have helped to confound them with charity boys . For charity boys , I must own , we all had a great contempt , or thought so . We did not dare to know that there might have been a little jealousy of our own position in it , placed as we were midway between the homeliness of the common charity- school and the dignity of the foundations . We called them ' chizzy-wags , ' and had a particular scorn and hatred of their nasal tone in singing .

    " The under grammar-master , in my time , was the Reverend Mr . Field . He was a good-looking man , very gentlemanly , and always dressed at the neatest . I believe he once wrote a play . He had the reputation of being admired by the ladies . A man of a morehandsnme incompetence for his situation perhaps did not exist . He came late of a morning ; went away soon in the afternoon ; and used to walk up and down , languidly bearing his cane , as if it was a lily , and hearing our eternal Dominuses and As % n prtesentVs with an air of ineffable endurance . Often he did not hear at all . It was a joke with us , when any of our friends cajne to the door , and we asked his permission to go to them , to address him with some preposterous question wide of the mark ; to which he used to not

    assent . We would say , for instance , Are you a great fool , sir ? ' or ' Isn ' t your daughter a pretty girl ?' to which he would reply , ' , child . ' When he condesoendpd to hit us with the cane , he made a face as if he was taking physic . Miss Field , an agreeable-looking girl , was one of the goddesses of the school ; as far above us as if she had lived on Olympus . Another was Miss Patrick , daughter of the lamp-manufacturer in Newgatestreet . I do not remember her face so well , not seeing it so often ; but she abounded in admirers . I write the names or these ladies at full length , because there is nothing that should hinder their being pleased at having caused us so many agreeable visions . We used to identify them with the picture of Venus in Tooke ' s Pantheon . "

    Old Boyer—Coleridge ' s Boyer—does not inspire Leigh Hunt with any tender recollections , but there is great vividness in the portrait ; we see him with his little balustrade leg " and cruel coarse face . His servility to the sons of rich men and ferocity to the others is wittily painted in this one sentence : — » r was meeker and willing to be encouraged ; nnd there would the master sit with his arm round his tail waist , helping him to his Greek verbs as a nurse docs bread and milk to an infant ; and repeating them when he missed , with a fond patience that astonished us criminals in drugget . " There was one unfortunate boy " Whose great fault lay in a deep-toned drawl of hisr

    syllables and the omission of his stops , stood halflooking at the book , and half casting his eye towards the right of him , whence the blows were to proceed . The master looked over him ; and his hand was ready . I > na not exact in my quotation at this distance of time ; but the spirit of one of the passages that I recollect was to the following purport , and thus did the teacher and his pupil proceed : — " Master : ' Now , young man , have a care ; or I 11 sei you a swinging task . ' common phrase of his . ) " Pupil : ( Making a sort of heavy bolt at his calamity , and never remembering his stop at the word Missionary ., Missionary Can you see the wind ? " ( Master gives him a slap on the cheek ., ) " Pupil : ( Raising his voice to a cry , and still forgetting his stop . ) ' Indian NoV " Master : « God ' s-my-life , young man ! have a care

    how you provoke me . . " Pupil : ( Always forgetting the stop . ) ' Missionary How then do you know that there is such a thing i " ( Here a terrible thump . ) " Pupil : fWitb . a shout of agony . ) 'Indtdn Because I feel it . '" * Here is another glimpse of boyish nature : — " I remember , in explaining pigs of iron or lead to us , he made a point of crossing one of his legs with the other , and cherishing it up and down with great satisfaction , saying , * A pig , children , is about the thickness of my leg . ' Upon which , with a slavish pretence of novelty , we all looked at it , as if he had not told us so a

    hundred times . We have almost outrun our limits , and still find ourselves at the very threshold of the subject , so that we must reserve for another week our outline of the contents of this work .

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    kewman's phases op faith . Phases of Faith ; or . Passages from the History of my Creed , By Francis William . Newman . John Chapman . ( Concluding Article . } The great importance of Mr . Newman ' s work at the present time , and the timidity which prevents almost every journal from treating the work with the fulness and explicitness it demands , have made us altogether step beyond our usual limits , and devote a space to its examination which would otherwise be quite disproportionate . And yet we feel , now that our remarks are about to close , how very inadequate the space has been , and that we have done no more , at the best , than indicate the spirit of the work , and stimulate the minds of our readers to a thorough

    study of the work itself . It has been seen how from doubts on the most trifling points his mind passed onwards to doubts of graver kind , till he emerged entirely from the intellectual sphere in which he had been bred up , and ranged abroad in the wider sphere of free discussion and untrammelled thought : — " I could not for a moment allow weight to the topic , that « it is dangerous to ctobelieve wrongly ; ' for I felt , and bad always felt , that it gave a premium to the most boastful and tyrannizing superstition : —as if it were not equally dangerous to believe wrongly ! Nevertheless , I

    tried to plead for farther delay , by asking : Is not the subject too vast for me to decide upon?—Think how many wise and good men have fully examined , and have cpme to a contrary conclusion . What a grasp of knowledge and experience of the human mind it requires ! Perhaps too 1 have unawares been carried away by a love of novelty , which I have mistaken for a love of truth . " But the argument recoiled upon me . Have I not been twenty-five years a reader of the Bible ? have I not full eighteen years been a student of Theology ? have I not employed 6 even of the best , years of my life , with ample leisure in this very investigation;—without any intelligible earthly bribe to carry me to my present

    conclusion , against all my interests , all my prejudices , and all my oducation ? There are many far more learned men than I , —many men of greater power of mind ; but there are also a hundred times as many who are my inferiors : and if I have been seven years labouring in vain to solve this vast literary problem , it is an extreme absurdity to imagine that the solving of it is imposed by God on the whole human race . Let me renounce my little learning ; let me be as the poor and simple ; what then follows ? Why , then , still the same thing follows , that as I cannot solve literary problems concerning distant history , they can form no " part of my religion .

    " It is with hundreds or thousands a favourite idea , that they have an inward witness of the truth of ( the historical and outward facts of ) Christianity . ' Perhaps the statement would bring its own refutation to them if they would express it clearly . Suppose a biographer of Sir Isaac Newton , after narrating his sublime discoveries and ably stating some of his most remarkable doctrines , to add , that Sir Isaac was a great magician , and had been used to raise spirits by hiB arts , and finally was himself carried up to heaven one night while he was gazing

    at the moon ; and that this event had been foretold by Merlin : —it would surely be the height of absurdity to dilate on the truth of the Newtonian theory as tho moral evidence * of the truth of the miracles and prophecy . Yet this is what those do , who adduce the excellence of the precepts and spirituality of the general doctrine of the New Testament , as the moral evidence * of its miracles and of its fulfilling the Messianic prophecies . But for the ambiguity of the word ddctrine probably such confusion of thought would hay © been impossible .

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    June 29 , 1850 . ] ffit » 0 : % , ** &tt * 329

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 29, 1850, page 329, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1844/page/17/