ST. mars couKE LIFE AND LETTERS OF BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT Life and Letters of Foss Westcott Brooke / D.D., D.C.L. Sometime Bishop of Durham BY HIS SON ARTHUR WESTCOTT WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I 117252 ILonfcon MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903 Ail rights reserved "To make of life one harmonious whole, to realise the invisible, to anticipate the transfiguring majesty of the Divine Presence, is all that is worth living for." B. F. \V. FRATRI NATU MAXIMO DOMUS NOSTRAE DUCI ET SIGNIFERO PATERNI NOMINIS IMPRIMIS STUDIOSO ET AD IPSIUS MEMORIAM SI OTIUM SUFFECISSET PER LITTERAS CELEBRANDAM PRAETER OMNES IDONEO HOC OPUSCULUM EIUS HORTATU SUSCEPTUM CONSILIIS AUCTUM ATQUE ADIUTUM D. D. D. FRATER NATU SECUNDUS. A. S., MCMIII. FRATKI NATU MAXIMO* 11ace tibi in re. ai<-o magni monnmcnta Parent is Maioi'i natu, frater, amo re pari. Si<jui'i inest dignnni, lactabere ; siquid ineptnm, Non milii tn censor sed, scio, [rater eris. Scis boif qnam duri fnerit res ilia laboris, Qnae melius per te suscipienda fiiit. 1 Tie diex, In nobis rcnoi'ali iwiinis /icres, Agtniw's ct nostri signifer unus eras. Scribcndo scd enim spatiiim, tibi sorte ncgatum, Iniporlnna minus fata dedcre mihi : Rt levin.: TISUDI cst infabrius arnia tulisse (Juain Patre pro tanto nil voluisse pati. lament: opus exaction cst quod, te sitadcnte, siibivi . Aecipc : indicia stctque cadatqne tno. Lcctorurn hand dnbia cst, reor, indulgentia. ; nalo Quodfrater frat ri tu dabis, ilia dabit. Xcc pctinins landcs : magnani depingerc vitani Ingcnio fatcor grandins ess.: nieo. Hoc erat in votis, nt, nos quod atnavinms, Hind Serns in cxtcrnis continnaret amor. Sal milii si Patris dike Ia resnrgat imago Quci/is erat forma, lumine, fronte, gradn . Sat mihi si, qnali 7'ii'iis, Pater ore loijnatnr, J\r,nie rncas nuln: fnlgcat igne site. ag- I am indebted to PREFACE BY CANON WESTCOTT MY brother kindly allows me to say a few words by way of preface to the Life which he has written as a tribute to a sacred memory. This I am very glad to do on many accounts. It enables me to voice the gratitude of my brothers and sisters to him for under- taking and carrying out what must always be a diffi- cult, though it be a congenial task, the compiling of the memoirs of a father. It also enables me to ex- plain why I did not take this duty on myself. It might have seemed to belong to me naturally as the eldest son, and so I could not help feeling. But my brother had and I had none he comparative leisure, ; had had experience in the paths of letters, and I had not so he undertook ; gladly work which to me would have surely proved a very serious burden, even had I been able to achieve it. And there is in it a certain fitness. The Lives of two of my father's dearest " " friends have been written by the Arthurs of their " " families, and now our Arthur has rendered a similar VOL. i A 2 viii LIFE OF BISHOP WESTCOTT filial service to the memory of him who was their comrade in old days. How his work will appear to other readers it is hard for me to tell. Whatever is written of our father must be seen by his children through a halo of hero- worship. I cannot but believe, however, that these few chapters, so simple and so direct, wall convey a worthy impression even to those who did not know my father personally. About his earlier days he was very reticent. .And so it has come about that we who knew him best have gathered fresh ideas of him whom we so revere from such records as were found when he had gone from us. For instance, those who met the teacher in after years would never have guessed he had passed through a struggle of grievous doubt his faith was so serene, so obviously unshaken. We know now it was not always so, as these pages will disclose to those who care to read. And even our conceptions of the oneness of that life have been heightened and enhanced by what my brother has found and brought to light. Of the work of the textual critic others must judge ; of the work of the theologian, the teacher, or the preacher it is hardly for his children to speak. What we treasure above all is the unspeakable heritage of a life which was daily lived before our eyes upon the loftiest plane ol Christian principle. This it is (I hope and believe; which my brother's careful work of editing and selecting and explaining will tend to bring into prominence. His work will fall short of PREFACE ix success if it does not achieve this result. But I truly think it will. Devout people on the small scale are The life of (thank God !) common enough. every society is freshened and beautified by their simple faith and love. But rny father's was a devotion on what may be truthfully called the very grandest scale. As such it was exposed to a certain misconstruction. " " " " " " Unsound or shadowy or mystical were terms often applied to him. There were even who doubted, through misunderstanding of the man, his fidelity to the very foundations of the Faith. But to all who came near to him the irresistible truth was cer- tainly brought home, that here was a servant of Christ who served Him every day and all the day. He would often say of himself that there was inborn " in him a spirit of puritanism." By this he meant, of course, that the sense of life's intense seriousness was always with him. And so it was. Holidays he could take he found no in and hardly ; joy them, more especially so in later years. Expenditure on self was all but impossible. Sometimes the keen delight he took in the realisation of the fulness of family life would lead him to unbend seldom can one have lived ; yet who kept the bow of duty so assiduously strung. This intense earnestness was a help to very many while he lived and so it should be and it will ; still, doubtlessly be. I think also my brother has gone the very nearest way to bring this thing about. Without judg- ment or criticism, without word of praise or blame, he has faithfully tried to bring before the reader the x LIFE OF BISHOP WESTCOTT sketch of a striking life. It will appeal to whom it will appeal ! But I think they will not be few. At least it is an offering (in which we all would share) of real sonly devotion to the memory of a father who was worshipped by his children beyond the common. F. B. WESTCOTT. SCHOOL HOUSE, SHERKORNE, "i^rdJanuary 1903. EDITOR'S NOTE As my brother has explained the circumstances which caused the writing of this work to devolve on me, and has set forth the general character of my work, it only remains for me to express our gratitude to the many friends who have furthered our endeavour by their generous assistance. Some we would thank for the loan of letters written by my father, and for per- mission to make use of the same others for contri- ; buting valuable personal reminiscences. I mention no names, knowing that the help of all, whatever its amount, was in each case offered in the simple desire to do honour to the memory of one whom they loved. I have throughout been conscious that the advice given l to me by my father when I was a boy is as appropriate now as then, but much of the putty which I have em- ployed in this work has, I hope, been honest putty, serving a proper office in binding together the more solid matter supplied by others. It is perhaps unfor- tunate that the conventions of the press have required that the putty should be displayed in the larger type, 1 Vol. i. p. 344. xi xii LIFE OF BISHOP WESTCOTT whereas the sound material furnished by my father and his friends is relegated for the most part to the smaller character but I do not hold for ; myself responsible that arrangement, and the judicious reader, after this fair warning, has the remedy in his own hands. It is a matter for congratulation that the smaller type portion of this work is so large, and it has been my aim, as far as possible, to let my father reveal himself. I am also deeply conscious of the generous trust reposed in me by the other members of the family, especially by my elder brother, who, though far more competent than myself to discharge this filial duty, has fully acquiesced in his enforced withdrawal from the congenial task, and has contented himself with the humbler part of reading the proof and correcting obvious errors, leaving me, at what cost I know not, to do my work in my own way. I am also greatly indebted to Miss Cordeux for similar aid. It seems right that I should add that, in reading through many thousands of letters written to my father (the rapid perusal of which, I cannot but remark, has wonderfully illustrated the reverent esteem in which so many held himj, I have sometimes found a copy of his reply in his own or some other familiar handwriting. Such letters I have occasionally used. < 'K A VKI, KF.I:TOKY, Conz't'>-.,un <>/ .s'/.