ced
higher than either he or anyone else expected, being among the first
three or four senior optimes, and a few weeks later, in the lower half of
the second class of the Classical Tripos. Ill as he was when he got
home, Theobald made him go over all the examination papers with him, and
in fact reproduce as nearly as possible the replies that he had sent in.
So little kick had he in him, and so deep was the groove into which he
had got, that while at home he spent several hours a day in continuing
his classical and mathematical studies as though he had not yet taken his
degree.

CHAPTER XLVII

Ernest returned to Cambridge for the May term of 1858, on the plea of
reading for ordination, with which he was now face to face, and much
nearer than he liked. Up to this time, though not religiously inclined,
he had never doubted the truth of anything that had been told him about
Christianity. He had never seen anyone who doubted, nor read anything
that raised a suspicion in his mind as to the historical character of the
miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments.

It must be remembered that the year 1858 was the last of a term during
which the peace of the Church of England was singularly unbroken. Between
1844, when "Vestiges of Creation" appeared, and 1859, when "Essays and
Reviews" marked the commencement of that storm which raged until many
years afterwards, there was not a single book published in England that
caused serious commotion within the bosom of the Church. Perhaps
Buckle's "History of Civilisation" and Mill's "Liberty" were the most
alarming, but they neither of them reached the substratum of the reading
public, and Ernest and his friends were ignorant of their very existence.
The Evangelical movement, with the exception to which I shall revert
presently, had become almost a matter of ancient history. Tractarianism
had subsided into a tenth day's wonder; it was at work, but it was not
noisy. The "Vestiges" were forgotten before Ernest went up to Cambridge;
the Catholic aggression scare had lost its terrors; Ritualism was still
unknown by the general provincial public, and the Gorham and Hampden
controversies were defunct some years since; Dissent was not spreading;
the Crimean war was the one engrossing subject, to be followed by the
Indian Mutiny and the Franco-Austrian war. These great events turned
men's minds from speculative subjects, and there was no enemy to the
faith which could ar