from me, and
deceiving me with the semblance of a material world."

In his youth he imitated the style of Addison, Johnson, and Gibbon.
Few boys of his generation had as much practice in writing English
prose. At the age of fifteen years and ten months he entered Trinity
College, Oxford, from which he was graduated at nineteen. Two years
later he won an Oxford fellowship, and in 1824 he became a clergyman
of the Church of England.

The rest of his life belongs mainly to theological history. He became
one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement (1833-1841) toward stricter
High-Church principles, as opposed to liberalism, and in 1845 he
joined the Catholic Church. He was rector of the new Catholic
University at Dublin from 1854 to 1858. In 1879 he was made a
cardinal. Most of his later life was spent at Edgbaston (near
Birmingham) at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.

Works and General Characteristics.--Newman was a voluminous writer.
An edition of his works in thirty-six volumes was issued during his
lifetime. Most of these properly belong to the history of theological
thought. His _Apologia pro Vita Sua_, which he wrote in reply to an
attack by Charles Kingsley, an Episcopal clergyman, is really, as its
sub-title indicates, _A History of His Religious Opinions_. This
intimate, sympathetic account of his religious experiences won him
many friends. He wrote two novels: _Loss and Gain_ (1848), which gives
an excellent picture of Oxford society during the last days of the
Oxford Movement, and _Callista_ (1852), a vivid story of an early
Christian martyr in Africa. His best-known hymn, _Lead kindly Light_,
remains a favorite with all Christian denominations. _The Dream of
Gerontius_ (1865) is a poem that has been called "the happiest effort
to represent the unseen world that has been made since the time of
Dante."

Those who are not interested in Newman's Episcopal or Catholic sermons
or in his great theological treatises will find some of his best prose
in the work known as _The Idea of a University_. This volume,
containing 521 pages, is composed of discussions, lectures, and
essays, prepared while he was rector of the University at Dublin.

Newman's prose is worthy of close study for the following reasons:--

(1) His style is a clear, transparent medium for the presentation of
thought. He molded his sentences with the care of an artist. He
said:--

"I have been obliged to take great pains with everything I have