The use of crossing next appears Now it was verse, then it was prose. Oh, the wearing weariness of it all! Once the earth was without form and void; now it is full of forms, and has not ceased to be void. . . . Certainly this Court is quite informal and the subject void of all interest. One feels inclined to deal with forms without any ceremony, and with ceremonies without much formality. Such quaint cries of despair never went up before, either from a bishop, or from a judge, or even from an assessor. A good man gone wrong Bishop Stubbs could hardly be called. A great man out of place he certainly was. The thing of which he had the greatest horror was wasting time; and nobody wastes more time than a modern bishop. His last duty, which it did not require a bishop to perform, was at once congenial and heroic. The death of Queen Victoria, in January, 1901, found him depressed in spirits, and enfeebled by illness. He had always felt a reverent admiration for the Queen; and, in spite of medical warnings, he obeyed the King's command to preach at St. George's, Windsor, the day after the funeral, which he also attended. His simple, manly, straightforward sermon is compared, with curious infelicity, by Mr. Hutton, to the splendid and highly artificial orations of Bossuet, Massillon, and Bourdaloue. It was a characteristic utterance from the Bishop's heart, and therefore as unlike the "French preachers of the great age" as anything could well be. It was his last public effort. On the 22nd of April he died, in his seventy-seventh year, three months after his friend and brother historian, Mandell Creighton, who was almost twenty years his junior. Both to the lay and to the ecclesiastical mind it must seem that Professor Stubbs's acceptance of a bishopric was the mistake of his life. That he was a great bishop, only flattery will assert. That he was a great, though not a popular, historian, is the unanimous opinion of the few who are competent to judge him. Nine-tenths of his episcopal work was mechanical and secular. His History always upholds the cause of the Church, whose loyal and faithful minister he would always, in any circumstances, have been. What the Church and the world have lost by his "hallowing," as Freeman called it, we shall never know; but we may guess. No man of equal learning has treated the English Reformation from his peculiar platform. We can find Protestantism and eloquence in Froude, Catholicism and accuracy in Lingard. But Stubbs was a sturdy Anglican, whose sympathies were neither with Ridley, nor with Gardiner, but with Laud. Although he would never have perverted evidence or falsified a fact, he would have told the story better than any one else could tell it, as an Englishman and an ecclesiastic. That the Bishop of Rome neither hath nor ought to have any jurisdiction within this realm of England, Stubbs held as strongly as Froude. He adhered with equal firmness to the doctrine, that the Church of England had never lost its identity since Britain was converted to the Christian faith. He was not, like Gibbon, a citizen of the world, with an impartial contempt for everything except historical truth. He was. like Macaulay, an intensely patriotic Englishman, and as much a Tory as Macaulay was a Whig. His Liberal friends, such as Freeman and Green, never made the smallest impression on him. While he admired Gladstone's Churchmanship, he abhorred his politics. I do not myself believe in absolutely impartial history. What we He want is both sides. There is no book In a quiet deanery, Dr. Stubbs would have had all the clerical opportunities he desired, and could have done work which would never have died. What he did as a bishop, hundreds could have done as well, and scores could have done better. His successor in the See of Oxford has contributed to this volume just three pages, which have, no doubt, an esoteric meaning for clergymen, but, to my lay mind, mean noth ing at all. Every page written by Stubbs himself is full of significance, and often suggests far more than it says. That he was an honor to his order, is of course true. But at this moment there is hardly an English bishop known outside his diocese except the Archbishop of Canterbury, who travels, and the Bishop of Hereford, who represents the people in the House of Lords. Yet they are all excellent men; pious, efficient, and industrious, with no sense of divided allegiance to neglected studies. In the House of Lords Bishop Stubbs did not count. What did his dioceses, apart from the University, care for his erudition? As much as a public meeting cares for a Senior Wrangler. Creighton had great gifts for administration, for speaking, for managing men. Stubbs had none. He was the best joker on the Bench, and the most persistent grumbler. Humanly speaking, he was bored with his life. History never bored him, never tired him, never exhausted his keenness, his sagacity, his patience, his love of truth, his faith in the providential government of the world. A late Prime Minister used to say that the clergy might be exhaustively divided into two classes. The first consisted of those who wanted to be bishops, and were unfit to be. The second comprised those who were fit to be bishops, and did not want to be. Stubbs belonged to neither class. Although he thought for some time that his Party neglected him, he was free from ambition. He was a victim to a sense of duty, and to a belief that episcopal functions were religious in some sense in which history is not. The awful line of the great Epicurean poet ascribes to religion the sacrifice of an innocent girl. The religion of which Lucretius speaks was Pagan, as Mr. Pecksniff said, with regret, of the Sirens. That must surely be a narrow view of historical research which ex Church, that it should involve the principle of a round inan for a square hole. Herbert Paul, cludes it from the field of Christian labor. Nor does it conduce to reverence for the ideal of a Christian The Independent Review. I. LIFE'S LITTLE Miss Daisy Hopping to a life-long school friend. (Extract.) DIFFICULTIES. THE SMITHSONS, THE PARKINSONS, AND COL. HOME-HOPKINS. The news is that mother is going to give another No. 1 dinner party, the first for three years. We are to have waiters from London instead of poor old Smart, the greengrocer, who breathes down your back, and two special entrées, and the champagne that grandpapa left us instead of what Dick always calls the Tête Montée brand for local consumption. And the county people are asked this time-no Smithsons and Parkinsons and Col. HomeHopkins, and the other regular old stodgers who go to all the parties within a radius of six miles. It is all because Uncle and Aunt Mordaunt are coming from India, and he has just got a C.S.I. II. Messrs. Patti and Casserole to Mrs. Montgomery Hopping. Madam,-In reply to your esteemed favor of the 22nd we would suggest quenelles de volaille aux champignons as one entrée and ris de veau à l'Armandine as the other. The two waiters will come to you by the 3.5 from Euston. We are, Madam, Yours faithfully, Patti and Casserole. III. Miss Daisy Hopping to the same lifelong school friend. (Extract.) Mother is in her best temper, as all IV. Mrs. Leonard Hatt to Mrs. Montgomery Dear Mrs. Hopping,-I am so very sorry to have to tell you that we shall not be able to dine with you on the 5th after all, as my husband is ill with a chill. You will, I know, be glad to hear that his temperature is now nearly normal, after a very anxious time, but the doctor forbids all thought of going out of doors for at least ten days. I am exceedingly sorry, as we were so looking forward to the evening at your pretty house and to seeing dear Sir Mordaunt again. I am, Yours sincerely, Mildred Hatt. V. Lady Durdham to the Hon. Mrs. Dear Nanny,-We reached town yes. terday, after a delightful cruise, and now we want to see you and Willie more than anything, so come up on the 5th, Thursday, and we will go some My dear Mrs. Hopping,-I very deeply regret to have to write as I must; but we are all servants and at the mercy of our masters, and the Bishop has just signified his intention of visiting Widdesdon on the day of your charming party, and has asked me to be his host. To so good a churchwoman as yourself I need not say more, except that I am deeply concerned to have to break faith with you and to miss a congenial antiquarian gossip with Sir Mordaunt. Believe me, dear Mrs. Hopping, Yours sincerely, Oliver Bath. VIII. Mrs. Vansittart to Mrs. Montgomery Hopping. Dear Mrs. Hopping,-I have put off writing till the last moment, hoping that the necessity might pass, but I am now forced to say that I shall not be able to dine with you on the 5th. Poor Arthur was brought home on Saturday, from mixed hockey, so badly bruised and injured that he has been in bed ever since and requires constant attention. I am sure that you (who also are a mother) will understand that I should not like to leave him in this state even for an evening; and so I hasten to let you know. Yours sincerely, Kate Vansittart. P.S.-You will please tell Sir Mordaunt and Lady Hopping that I am deeply grieved not to meet them. IX. Mrs. Montgomery Hopping to Messrs. Patti and Casserole. (Telegram.) Mrs. Montgomery Hopping will not require either the entrées or the waiters for the 5th. X. Miss Daisy Hopping to the same lifelong school friend. (Extract.) This house isn't fit to live in. Everyone who was invited has backed out, except old General Stores, who says he put off going to the South of France on purpose. Mother never thought he would come at all. If it weren't for him, mother (who is more like a whirlwind than anything I ever experienced) says she would have no party at all; but now she must go on with it, especially as she told Uncle Mordaunt. And so it means the Smithsons and the Parkinsons and Col. Home-Hopkins after all. The worst of it is we are not to have new dresses. XI. Mrs. Parkinson to Mrs. Montgomery Hopping. Dear Mrs. Montgomery Hopping,-It will give Mr. Parkinson and myself such very great pleasure to dine with you on the 5th to meet your distin Mrs. Smithson to Mrs. Montgomery Hopping. My dear Mrs. Hopping,-It would give Mr. Smithson and myself much pleasure to accept your kind invitation were it not that we are a little in bondage to a visitor, a niece of my husband's, such a very nice girl, who is staying with us before taking up a position at Cannes as a companion to a very interesting old lady, the widow of Commander Muncaster, who, you may remember, died a few weeks ago. As we do not quite like to leave her Punch. alone all the evening I wondered if I might bring Madeline with me. She is a very nice girl, and quite the best pupil at the Guildhall School of Music last year. Perhaps you would like her to bring some music with her. I know it is often a help. But of course, dear Mrs. Hopping, you will say at once if it is inconvenient or likely to put your table out, and then we can perhaps get Miss Moberly to come in for the evening and bring her knitting, as I should not like to refuse your very kind invitation. The Doctor was saying only the other day how long it was since we had the pleasure of dining with you. As for short notice, I hope you won't mention it. It is so difficult often to give long notice, as I know only too well. NATURE IN GREEK ART. Is it fair or logical to base any conclusion as to the moral or æsthetic qualities of a nation on the works of its poets and artists? To this question many would reply in the negative, yet they would admit that in dealing with primitive times, when the artist and the poet were indistinguishable from the mass of the people, when each man adorned his own weapon, and poetry consisted of stories handed down from father to son, it would be a perfectly justifiable proceeding. After a little further consideration they would also |