the tie which prevented Keble from joining the secession that he should
have determined if compelled to leave the Church of England (a
contingency which from the growth of heresy in that Church he distinctly
contemplated) to go not into the communion of the Church of Rome but out
of all communion whatever. He would have gone we suppose into some limbo
like the phantom Church of the Nonjurors. It is difficult to see how
such a course can have logically commended itself to the mind of any
member of the theological school which held that the individual reason
afforded no sort of standing ground and that the one thing indispensable
to salvation was visible communion with the true Church.
Sir John Coleridge deals with the question as to the posthumous
alteration in "The Christian Year" the discovery of which caused so much
scandal among its Protestant admirers and brought to a stand, it was
said, the subscription for a memorial college in honour of its author.
It is made clearly to appear that the alteration was in accordance with
Keble's expressed desire, and the suspicion which was cast upon his
executors and those who were about him in his last moments is proved to
be entirely unfounded. But, on the other hand, we cannot think that the
biographer (or rather Keble, who speaks for himself in this matter) will
be successful in convincing many people that the alteration was merely
verbal. The mental interpolation of "only" after "not" in the words "not
in the Hands," is surely a _tour de force_, and it must be
remembered that the passage occurs in the lines on the "Gunpowder
Treason," and is evidently pointed against the Roman Catholic doctrine
of the Eucharist. The Roman Catholics do not deny that the Eucharist is
received "in the heart," but the Protestants deny that it is is received
"in the hands" at all, and the vast majority of Keble's readers could
not fail to construe the passage as an assertion of the Protestant
doctrine. Sir John Coleridge does not confront the real difficulty,
because he does not give the two versions side by side, or exhibit the
passage in its context. A more natural account of the matter is
suggested by a letter of Keble, written when he was contemplating the
publication of the "Lyra Innocentium," and included in the present
memoir. In that letter he says:
"No doubt, there would be the difference in tone which you take notice
of between this and the former book, for when I wrote that, I did not
understand (to mention no more points) either the doctrine of Repentance
_or that of the Holy Eucharist_, as held, _e. g._, by Bishop
Ken, nor that of Justification, and such points as these must surely
make a great difference. But may it please God to preserve me from
writing so unreally and deceitfully as I did then, and if I could tell
you the whole of my shameful history, you would join with all your heart
in this prayer."
The biographer, while he proves his integrity by giving us the letter,
of course protests against our taking seriously the self accusations of
a saint. We certainly shall not take seriously any charge of
deceitfulness against Keble, whether made by himself or by any other
human being, but he was liable, to a certain extent, like all other
human beings, to self-deception. His opinions, like those of his
associates, on theological questions in general and on the question of
the Eucharist in particular, had been moving rapidly in a Romanizing
direction during the interval between the publication of "The Christian
Year" and that of the "Lyra Innocentium." In the passage just quoted, we
see that he was conscious of this, but it was not unnatural that he
should sometimes forget it, and that he should then put upon the words
in "The Christian Year" a construction in conformity with his opinions
as they were in their most advanced stage. It is strange, however, that
he and the rest of his party, if they were even dimly and at intervals
conscious of the fact that their own creed had undergone so much change,
should still have been able to take the ground of immutability and
infallibility in their controversies with other parties and churches.
It has been almost forgotten that Keble held for ten years a (non-
resident) Professorship of Poetry at Oxford. His lectures were
unfortunately written, as the rule of the Chair then was, in Latin. He
thought of translating them, and Sir John Coleridge seems still to hold
that the task would be worth undertaking. For the examples, which are
taken from the Greek and Latin poets, it would be necessary to
substitute translations or examples taken from the modern poets. Mr.
Gladstone chooses, the apt epithet when he calls the lectures "refined."
Refinement rather than vigour or depth was always the attribute of
Keble's productions. His view of poetry, however, as the vent for
overcharged feelings or an imagination oppressed by its own fulness--as
a _vis medica_, to use his own expression--if it does not cover the
whole ground, well deserves attention among other theories.
To the discredit, perhaps, rather of the dogmatic spirit than of either
of the persons concerned, religious differences were allowed to
interfere with he personal friendship formed in youth between Keble and
Arnold. With this single and slight exception, Keble's character in
every relation--as friend, son, husband, tutor, pastor--seems to have
been all that the admirers of "The Christian Year" can expect or desire.
The current of his life, but for the element of theological controversy
and perplexity which slightly disturbed his later days, would have been
limpid and tranquil as that of any rivulet in the quiet scene where the
years of his Christian ministry were passed. He and his wife, the
partner of all his thoughts and labours, and the mirror and partaker of
the beauty of his character, died almost on the same day; she dying
last, and rejoicing that her husband was spared the pain of being the
survivor.
"Within these walls [of the Church] each fluttering guest
Is gently lured to one safe nest--
Without 'tis moaning and unrest."
The writer of those lines perfectly as well as beautifully realized his
ideal.