Norse language and laws lingered 200 years longer. Sutherland was the land south of the Orkneys; and the so-called Bishop of Sodor and Man reminds us that the Hebrides were once known as the Sudreyjar or southern islands. With the exception of two or three isolated colonies in safe positions near the sea, Danish names chiefly abound in that portion of England anciently denominated the Danelagh, because of the Danish laws and customs that prevailed there. The Danelagh was situate North of Watling-street—a rough line from London to Chester. North of this line all the characteristic Danish terminations abound, while South of it they are of very rare occurrence, as indicating permanent possession. The suffix by occurs 600 times North of Watling-street; and thorpe, also meaning a village, is found in Lincolnshire alone 63 times. There is a small district in the neighbourhood of Spilsby in Lincolnshire, nine miles by twelve, which from the evidence of names must be pronounced to have been more thoroughly Danish than any other in the kingdom. It was the men of the Danelagh who made a last stand against the Norman usurper; when at the dire defeat at Senlac or Hastings the dragon standard-the last symbol of the sovereignty of Wessex-had fallen into the hands of the enemy; when the men of Kent and Sussex and Wessex, in bitterness of heart, bowed their necks to the yoke, then the descendants of the Vikings, favoured by the natural peculiarities of their district, carried on a fierce guerilla warfare with the Normans, and fought on until even valour and desperation could fight no more.* BICKERSTAFFE, ART. VI.-DR. NEWMAN. Parochial and Plain Sermons. By J. H. NEWMAN, formerly Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford. In 8 Vols. New Edition. Rivingtons, London, Oxford, and Cambridge. 1869. Verses on Various Occasions. By J. H. NEWMAN. Burns, Oates, and Co., London. 1868. Apologia pro Vita Sua: Being a reply to a Pamphlet entitled "What then does Dr. Newman mean?" By J. H. NEWMAN. London: Longman and Co. THE HE republication of these sermons will be hailed with joy by thousands who only knew them by extracts, or by the fame of the preacher. For many years they have been out of print, and * See Kingsley's Hereward, the last of the English. when copies found their way into the market, they commanded famine prices. The present writer heard a bookseller offer eighteen shillings per volume for them. Here we have them, in capital "getting up," at a price within the reach of all who are likely to care for them; and all will care for them who value pure and forcible English, vigorous thinking, subtle reasoning, and hightoned spirituality. It is admitted by competent judges that Dr. Newman is the greatest living master of the English language, and among the acutest of logicians. We defer the consideration of these sermons till, from the last volume at the head of this paper, we have learnt something of the inner and outer history of the preacher. The title indicates the object of the work. It is a personal vindication of himself, in connection with a history of his religious opinions. In 1863 the Rev. C. Kingsley wrote an article of no small ability in Macmillan's Magazine, upon one of these very sermons, which was entitled "Wisdom and Innocence," and from its statements deduced certain propositions which may be thus summarised that truth need not, and on the whole ought not, to be considered a virtue for its own sake. The well-known doctrines of Roman casuists, and Dr. Newman's speedy secession to Rome, combined with his reticence, all favoured the assumptions of Mr. Kingsley. He thus eloquently speaks of Roman economising: "Truth is a capital virtue, the virtue of virtues, without which all others are rotten, and with which there is hope for man's repentance and conversion, in spite of every vice, if he only remain honest. They (Romanist priests and casuists) have not seen that facts are the property, not of man, to be economised' as man thinks fit, but of God, who ordereth all things in heaven and earth; and that, therefore, not only every equivocation, every attempt at deception, is a sin, not against man but against God; they have not seen that no lie is of the truth, and that God requires truth, not merely in outward words, but in the inward parts, and that, therefore, the first and most absolute duty of every human being is to speak and act the exact truth; or if he wish to be silent, to be silent simply and courageously, and take the risk, trusting in God to protect him as long as he remains on God's side in the universe, by scorning to sully his soul by stratagem or equivocation." Upon this Dr. Newman came forth from his long silence and retirement, and with amazing skill and ability at once defended himself and assailed his assailant. On both sides, in this literary duel, the words were rather loud, though never really impolite, but the temper soon grew considerably embittered. It is beside our purpose to enter into the merits of this combat, and we only remark that the Cambridge Professor was scarcely a match for the astute and doughty Romanist. In the first chapter of the "Apologia" he characterises, with terrible severity, Mr. Kingsley's method of dis L putation. Then he occupies the second chapter with explaining that he had come, not to answer Mr. Kingsley, but to set himself right before the world, biased by his allegations; and thus unceremoniously dismisses his antagonist: "And now I am in a train of thought higher and more serene than any which slanders can disturb; away with you, Mr. Kingsley, fly into space, your name shall occur again as little as I can help in these pages; I shall henceforth occupy myself not with you, but with your charges." So he enters upon a full and detailed history of his religious opinions. Our limits will not allow us to epitomise this history, but only to indicate points along the road. He was born and reared in a godly household, and was "taught to take great delight in reading the Bible." He had also a perfect knowledge of the catechisms. When he was sixteen, in the autumn of 1816, a great inward change took place. "I fell," he says, "under the influence of a definite creed, and received into my intellect impressions of dogma, which, through God's mercy, have never been effaced or obscured." He became, and remained till he was twenty-one, a full-blown Calvinist. Romaine and Thomas Scott were his favourite authors, and Daniel Wilson's preaching delighted him. A study of Newton on the Prophecies fully convinced him that the Pope was the Antichrist of Daniel, Paul, and John. This "stain" was never erased till 1843. The extracts from the Fathers in Milner's Church History, "nothing short of enamoured him." He read them "as expressing the religion of the Primitive Christians." A "deep imagination took hold of him that it was the will of God that he should lead a single life;" this was connected "with a great drawing he had for many years to missionary work among the heathen." These spiritual and mental workings strengthened his tendency to speculate upon the realities of the invisible world. His imagination, naturally vigorous, thus impelled, ran wild till he lived in a region unreal and fanciful. The world around him seemed to have no material reality. He peopled the air with angels, and they were his companions, and the movers of the things about him. "I used to wish," he says, "that the Arabian Tales were true; my imagination ran on unknown influences, on magical powers and talismans. I thought life might be a dream or I an angel, and all this world a deception, my fellow angels, by a playful device, concealing themselves from me, and deceiving me with the semblance of a material world." Again, "I was very superstitious, and for some time previous to my conversion used constantly to cross myself on going into the dark." Here is the child the father of the man. This is the very constitution to make a good Papist; a strong vein of mysticism runs through his nature. Even now he holds that all outward things are a parable, with hidden voices and occult meanings. The symbolism of the Church, and the hoar of antiquity about its institutions, creeds, and ceremonies, fascinated him, and he sought by external ordinances and Church authority to surround himself with the glory and presence of God. He surrendered his Calvinism upon reading Archbishop Sumner's book on Apostolic preaching and practice, and embraced the dogma of baptismal regeneration. This was his first step Romewards. Then, through the influence of Blanco White and Dr. Hawkins, he modified his views upon inspiration. From Dr. Hawkins, too, he learned and adopted the doctrine of tradition; holding that the Scriptures only proved doctrine, not taught it. The Church must expound, define, and teach doctrine; hence he withdrew his support from the Bible Society. Here we see the foundation laid of his after course. Here are the seeds, the harvest we shall see further on. In 1822 he was brought into close contact with that great and noble man, Dr. Whately. Whately "opened his mind, taught him to think and to use his reason; to see with his own eyes, and walk with his own feet." But these two men were so diverse in their mental composition that they could not remain long on one line. One thing Dr. Whately did to make a Romanist of Dr. Newman, unwittingly of course, he "indoctrinated his mind with those anti-Erastian views which were the most prominent features of the Tractarian movement," and which helped to loosen him from the State Church. Under Whately's liberal (using the term more in a theological than a political sense) teaching and spirit, Newman was fast becoming liberal. "The truth is," he says "I was beginning to prefer intellectual excellence to moral; I was drifting in the direction of liberalism." So in 1827 he finally and fully broke away from "Whately's Clientela." Breaking with Whately he got into close intimacy and fellowship with one of the most learned and amiable of men, Dr. Pusey. What came of this friendship those conversant with recent ecclesiastical movements know full well. Newman, about this time, 1827, rose into prominence as a tutor, writer, preacher, and examiner in the University. He also gathered two young men of note into his spirit and fellowship, R. I. Wilberforce and Hurrell Froude; and with these four, Newman, Pusey, Wilberforce, and Froude, the Anglo-Catholic party began. Newman contends that the real author of the movement was Keble. Well, perhaps he was, as from him Pusey and Newman learned the two foundation principles of Romanism as well as Tractarianism: "The Sacramental system, including Church communion and the mysteries of faith; and the doctrine of Church authority, with ecclesiastical miracles and the sanctity of Church life." Newman's young disciple, Hurrell Froude, made rapid strides under his new master, and being a man of brilliant parts, * he began to exercise great influence upon the master. What Froude's opinions were, let the following extract show: "He professed openly his admiration of the Church of Rome and his hatred of the Reformers. He delighted in the notion of an hierarchical system of sacerdotal power; he felt scorn for the maxim, ‘The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants;' and he gloried in accepting Tradition as a main instrument of religious teaching. * He was more than inclined to believe a large amount of miraculous interference as occurring in the early and middle ages; he embraced the principle of penance and mortification; he had a deep devotion to the Real Presence; he was powerfully drawn to the Medieval Church, not the Primitive; he made me look with admiration towards the Church of Rome, and in the same degree to dislike the Reformation; he fixed deep in me the idea of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and led me gradually to believe in the Real Presence." These views of Newman were greatly strengthened by a deep study of the Fathers. Still he had no idea of leaving the Anglican Establishment, but he became convinced that a second Reformation was needed. This he set about effecting in connection with Dr. Pusey and a few ardent young men. But still we see him drifting towards Popery. He at this time went upon an extensive continental tour. It was upon his return journey, while in deep distress as to what he should do in the future, that he wrote the well-known beautiful lines, "The Pillar of the Cloud." hath blest me, sure it still The night is gone; ̧ Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile." On his return, and for several years, he was the subject of severe mental struggles. He had let go the Bible as his only guide, he had no other; his judgment rebelled against the dogmas of Rome, whilst his love of the sensuous and symbolic in religious ceremony |