"Bishop Blougram's Apology" is made over the wine after dinner to
defend himself from the criticisms of a doubting young literary man,
who despises him because he considers that he cannot be true to his
convictions in conforming to the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
He builds up his defence from the proposition that the problem of
life is not to conceive ideals which cannot be realized, but to find
what is and make it as fair as possible. The bishop admits his
unbelief, but being free to choose either belief or unbelief, since
neither can be proved wholly true, chooses belief as his guiding
principle, because he finds it the best for making his own life and
that of others happy and comfortable in this world. Once having
chosen faith on this ground, the more absolute the form of faith,
the more potent the results; besides, the bishop has that desire of
domination in his nature, which the authorization of the Church
makes safer for him. To Gigadibs' objection that were his nature
nobler, he would not count this success, he replies he is as God
made him, and can but make the best of himself as he is. To the
objection that he addresses himself to grosser estimators than he
ought, he replies that all the world is interested in the fact that
a man of his sense and learning, too, still believes at this late
hour. He points out the impossibility of his following an ideal
like Napoleon's, for, conceding the merest chance that doubt may be
wrong, and judgment to follow this life, he would not dare to
slaughter men as Napoleon had for such slight ends. As for
Shakespeare's ideal, he can't write plays like his if he wanted to,
but he has realized things in his life which Shakespeare only
imagined, and which he presumes Shakespeare would not have scorned
to have realized in his life, judging from his fulfilled ambition to
be a gentleman of property at Stratford. He admits, however, that
enthusiasm in belief, such as Luther's, would be far preferable to
his own way of living, and after this, enthusiasm in unbelief, which
he might have if it were not for that plaguy chance that doubt may
be wrong. Gigadibs interposes that the risk is as great for cool
indifference as for bold doubt. Blougram disputes that point by
declaring that doubts prove faith, and that man's free will
preferring to have faith true to having doubt true tips the balance
in favor of faith, and shows that man's instinct or aspiration is
toward belief; that unquestioning belief, such as that of the Past,
has no moral effect on man, but faith which knows itself through
doubt is a moral spur. Thus the arguments from expediency,
instinct, and consciousness, all bear on the side of faith, and
convince the bishop that it is safer to keep his faith intact from
his doubts. He then proves that Gigadibs, with all his assumption
of superiority in his frankness of unbelief, is in about the same
position as himself, since the moral law which he follows has no
surer foundation than the religious law the bishop follows, both
founded upon instinct. The bishop closes as he began, with the
consciousness that rewards for his way of living are of a
substantial nature, while Gigadibs has nothing to show for his
frankness, and does not hesitate to say that Gigadibs will consider
his conversation with the bishop the greatest honor ever conferred
upon him. The poet adds some lines, somewhat apologetic for the
bishop, intimating that his arguments were suited to the calibre of
his critic, and that with a profounder critic he would have made a
more serious defence. Speaking of a review of this poem by Cardinal
Wiseman (1801-1865), Browning says in a letter to a friend, printed
in <Poet-lore>, May, 1896: "The most curious notice I ever had was
from Cardinal Wiseman on <Blougram>--<i.e.>, himself. It was in the
<Rambler>, a Catholic journal of those days, and certified to be his
by Father Prout, who said nobody else would have dared put it in."
This review praises the poem for its "fertility of illustration and
felicity of argument," and says that "though utterly mistaken in the
very groundwork of religion, though starting from the most unworthy
notions of the work of a Catholic bishop, and defending a
self-indulgence every honest man must feel to be disgraceful, [it]
is yet in its way triumphant."
6. Brother Pugin: (1810-1852), an eminent English architect, who,
becoming a Roman Catholic, designed many structures for that Church.
34. Corpus Christi Day: Thursday after Trinity Sunday, when the
Feast of the Sacrament of the Altar is celebrated.