n so. I know that men used to suspect
Dr. Newman,--I have been inclined to do so myself,--of writing a
whole Sermon, not for the sake of the text or of the matter, but
for the sake of one single passing hint--one phrase, one
epithet, one little barbed arrow, which, as he swept
magnificently past on the stream of his calm eloquence,
seemingly unconscious of all presences, save those unseen, he
delivered unheeded, as with his finger-tip, to the very heart of
an initiated hearer, never to be withdrawn again. I do not blame
him for that. It is one of the highest triumphs of oratoric
power, and may be employed honestly and fairly by any person who
has the skill to do it honestly and fairly; but then, Why did he
entitle his Sermon 'Wisdom and Innocence?'

"What, then, could I think that Dr. Newman _meant_? I found a
preacher bidding Christians imitate, to some undefined point,
the 'arts' of the basest of animals, and of men, and of the
devil himself. I found him, by a strange perversion of
Scripture, insinuating that St. Paul's conduct and manner were
such as naturally to bring down on him the reputation of being a
crafty deceiver. I found him--horrible to say it--even hinting
the same of one greater than St. Paul. I found him denying or
explaining away the existence of that Priestcraft, which is a
notorious fact to every honest student of history, and
justifying (as far as I can understand him) that double dealing
by which prelates, in the middle age, too often played off
alternately the sovereign against the people, and the people
against the sovereign, careless which was in the right, so long
as their own power gained by the move. I found him actually
using of such (and, as I thought, of himself and his party
likewise) the words 'They yield outwardly; to assent inwardly
were to betray the faith. Yet they are called deceitful and
double-dealing, because they do as much as they can, and not
more than they may.' I found him telling Christians that they
will always seem 'artificial,' and 'wanting in openness and
manliness;' that they will always be 'a mystery' to the world,
and that the world will always think them rogues; and bidding
them glory in what the world (i.e. the rest of their countrymen)
disown, and say with Mawworm, 'I like to be despised.'

"Now, how was I to kn