much unsettled and distressed by difficulties.

It may be asked why this change was not at this time communicated, not
to a few intimates, but to the world? Why did he not at this time hoist
his quarantine flag and warn every one that he was dangerous to come
near? So keen a mind must, it was said, have by this time foreseen how
things would end; he ought to have given earlier notice. His answer was
that he was sincerely desirous of avoiding, as far as possible, what
might prejudice the Church in which he had ministered, even at the
moment of leaving her. He saw his own way becoming clearer and clearer;
but he saw it for himself alone. He was not one of those who forced the
convictions of others; he was not one of those who think it a great
thing to be followed in a serious change by a crowd of disciples.
Whatever might be at the end, it was now an agonising wrench to part
from the English body, to part from the numbers of friends whose loyalty
was immovable, to part from numbers who had trusted and learned from
him. Of course, if he was in the right way, he could wish them nothing
better than that they should follow him. But they were in God's hands;
it was not his business to unsettle them; it was not his business to
ensnare and coerce their faith. And so he tried for this time to steer
his course alone. He wished to avoid observation. He was silent on all
that went on round him, exciting as some of the incidents were. He would
not he hurried; he would give himself full time; he would do what he
could to make sure that he was not acting under the influence of a
delusion.

The final result of all this was long in coming; there was, we know, a
bitter agony of five years, a prolonged and obstinate and cruel struggle
between the deepest affections and ever-growing convictions. But this
struggle, as has been said, did not begin with the conviction in which
it ended. It began and long continued with the belief that though
England was wrong, Rome was not right; that though the Roman argument
seemed more and more unanswerable, there were insuperable difficulties
of certain fact which made the Roman conclusion incredible; that there
was so much good and truth in England, with all its defects and faults,
which was unaccountable and unintelligible on the Roman hypothesis; that
the real upshot was that the whole state of things in Christendom was
abnormal; that to English Churchmen the English Church had immediate and
direct cl