A Memoir of the Rev. John Keble, M. A

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A Memoir of the Rev. John Keble, M. A This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com I REV. J. KEBLE, AUTHOR OF THE "CHRISTIAN YEAR." fl -. ' ho ' *JL, (/f /i.. -i * t'h. 7I.L I. A l-T !■ l l ' 1 I I' " C II i I - OF THE REV. JOHN KEBLE, M . A . LATE VICAR OF HURSLEY. BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR J. T. COLERIDGE, D.C.L. " Te mi hi junxerunt nivei sine crimine mores, Simplicitasque sagax, ingenuueque pudor ; Et bene nota fides, et candor frontis honestaa, Et stadia a studiis non aliena meis." Joannes Secundus. VOL. I, With Corrections and Additions, NEW YORK: POTT & AMERY, Cooper Union, Fourth Avenue. 1869. r HARVARD^ UNIVERSITY \ LIBRARY^ [Dedication to tha Itart Edition.] TO SIR WILLIAM HEAfHCOTE, BART. My dear Hea thcote, JN placing your name at the head of this Memoir, I fulfil a plain and pleasant duty. I dedicate it to a favorite pupil of John Keble ; who became his fast friend; and was his only patron. I wish I could feel secure that the Memoir does no injustice to his memory. Such as it is I present it to you, as flowing at least from a grateful heart. To him I owe more than I can well express; and among the greater of those many obligations I count it not the least, that for so many years I have been able to call myself your affectionate and faithful friend, J. T. COLERIDGE. HEATH'S COURT, Dec. 26, 1868. 3 e i PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. SOON after the death of John Keble, a letter was written to his nearest and dearest sur viving relative, by one who knew him as well as he loved him. I venture to print the following extract : — " I suppose that no man has died in England within our memory who has been so dearly loved, and whose memory will be had in such tender reverence by so many good men. It will be long before many will cease to say to themselves when in doubt, ' What would Keble say to this ? ' or to remind them selves of his ways and sayings ; and of Hursley as it was in his time ; and of all that made his judgment a law, and his com panionship delightful. However, I think it is not the com panionship that comes most into the mind just now. What I think remarkable, was not how many people loved him, or how much they loved him, but that everybody seemed to love him with the very best kind of love of which they were capable. "It was like loving goodness itself ; yofl felt that what was good in him was applying itself directly and bringing into life all that was best in you. His ready, lively, transparent affec tion seemed as if it was the very spirit of love, opening out upon you, and calling for a return, such as you could give. At the same time its unsuspectingness was almost alarming. You vi PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. were probably too near to him to know that singular mixture of triumph and shame which, I think, he caused to many of his friends, by the unreserved affection which he poured out upon them, on the faith of their possessing all the singleness and purity of heart which he felt in himself. But it was, I think, very common ; and I believe that numbers of persons were con tinually urged forwards by a kind of shame at feeling themselves so much behind what he appeared to think of them. " His influence for some time has been so silent, that one hardly knows what his loss may be to the Church. But it is impossible not to fear that many people will be liable to do wild or angry things, when they are relieved from that silent control which was exercised by the general reverence which all men felt for him. However, that is in Higher Hands." There is not a syllable of exaggeration in this beautiful extract ; and it is owing to the general feeling so well described in it, that I find myself called on to prepare a second edition of this book very long before I had any expectation of such a call being made on me ; and a sense of this has naturally made me more anxious to cor rect some inaccuracies which had crept into the former edition. This I have endeavored to do. But beside inaccuracies as to facts, friends have suggested in private, and critics through the press have .pointed out, what seem to them omissions, or faults in the conception of the work as well as in the execution. In some respects it will be found, I hope, that attention has been paid to such remarks ; and where it PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. vii has not been, this must not be attributed to want of respect, or consideration. This indeed would have been unpardonable in me ; for so far as I know, I have been treated even by the most decided of my critics with a respect and kindness which I wish I deserved, and for which I feel sincerely grateful. Sometimes, however, I have not agreed with my advisers, sometimes I I have found myself unable to do what they de sired. There are faults I suppose in every work, which are so interwoven with the main web that thev cannot be removed without un- ravelling the whole piece. I am too old to re cast the work ; and I desire it should be borne in mind, that from the beginning I expressly limited myself -to a certain part, and did not un dertake the whole of Keble's history. I must now mention some new matter, which will be found in this edition. Since the issue of the former, two parcels of letters have been found, the one to Hurrell Froude, the other to his father, the Archdeacon ; they were found singu larly enough with a small quantity of plate, and . some personal jewels of little value, in a house formerly the property of the latter, and for many years occupied by his sister, which is now the property of Mr. William Froude. He was good Viii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. enough to place them unreservedly in my hands ; and I have published a few, which will be found in their proper places. All are written in the same spirit, and with the same ability, which are characteristic of the letters I had before printed ; and should it be thought right to publish an in dependent selection of his letters, many of them I hope will be found in it. A more important addition will be found in the Appendix, which I have annexed to this vol ume. This mainly consists of papers from which I made extracts in my concluding chap ter. I have thought it better now on many ac counts to print them at length ; by so doing I am aware some repetition will appear, and it will be seen, I fear, not only that I was too sparing, but also that I was injudicious in my selection. By printing them as I now do, I shall give a more adequate view of the inward and domestic life of Keble, the want of which has justly been complained of ; and I can more conveniently place the purchasers of the first edition on a foot ing with those who may possess themselves of the second, as copies of this appendix will be printed - separately for their convenience. J. T. C. Heath's Court, April 24, 1869. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. SO much time has elapsed since it was under stood that I had commenced the work which I now publish, and in itself it might seem to have required so little, that a few words of ex planation may be proper ; and but a few will be all that I can offer. When I undertook my task, some of my best friends doubted whether I had still strength of body or mind sufficient for it. Beginning it with perhaps too much eagerness and anxiety, it was not long before I was stopped by an illness, some effect of which have never wholly left me — one of them has been the inability, sometimes, to work at all — and always to do so for more than a short period of time from day to day. This will be accepted, I hope, as an excuse for delay ; what effects the same circumstance may have had on the book itself, it is useless for me to consider ; no explanation will cure its faults, or supply its short-comings : though I X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. hope it may help to acquit me of inconsiderate- ness in undertaking, and of carelessness in exe cuting it. I expressed very early, and I believe more than once, what I now desire very earnestly to repeat, my fear that in printing many of John Keble's letters to myself I might lie open to the imputation of bringing my own name too for ward. I find now that in the beginning 1 had hardly realised the extent to which this would go ; and yet, as I advanced, I knew not how to avoid it. I could not think it right to alter his expressions, perfectly sincere as I knew them to be, though certainly exaggerated. The truth is, he was so humble, and at the same time so lov ing to his friends, that it seemed as if in his mind all the weakness and imperfection were in himself, all the strength and goodness in them.
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