and without
effort. A shrewd man, who knew me at this time, said, "Here is a man
who, when he is silent, will never begin to speak; and when he once
begins to speak, will never stop." It was at this time that I began
to have influence, which steadily increased for a course of years.
I gained upon my pupils, and was in particular intimate and
affectionate with two of our probationer fellows, Robert I.
Wilberforce (afterwards archdeacon) and Richard Hurrell Froude.
Whately then, an acute man, perhaps saw around me the signs of an
incipient party of which I was not conscious myself. And thus we
discern the first elements of that movement afterwards called
Tractarian.

The true and primary author of it, however, as is usual with great
motive-powers, was out of sight. Having carried off as a mere boy
the highest honours of the University, he had turned from the
admiration which haunted his steps, and sought for a better and
holier satisfaction in pastoral work in the country. Need I say that
I am speaking of John Keble? The first time that I was in a room with
him was on occasion of my election to a fellowship at Oriel, when I
was sent for into the Tower, to shake hands with the provost and
fellows. How is that hour fixed in my memory after the changes of
forty-two years, forty-two this very day on which I write! I have
lately had a letter in my hands, which I sent at the time to my
great friend, John Bowden, with whom I passed almost exclusively my
Undergraduate years. "I had to hasten to the tower," I say to him,
"to receive the congratulations of all the fellows. I bore it till
Keble took my hand, and then felt so abashed and unworthy of the
honour done me, that I seemed desirous of quite sinking into the
ground." His had been the first name which I had heard spoken of,
with reverence rather than admiration, when I came up to Oxford. When
one day I was walking in High Street with my dear earliest friend
just mentioned, with what eagerness did he cry out, "There's Keble!"
and with what awe did I look at him! Then at another time I heard a
master of arts of my college give an account how he had just then had
occasion to introduce himself on some business to Keble, and how
gentle, courteous, and unaffected Keble had been, so as almost to put
him out of countenance. Then too it was reported, truly or falsely,
how a rising man of brilliant reputation, the present Dean of St.
Paul's, Dr. Milman, admired and loved him, adding,