MRS HUMPHREY WARD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3801, 28 August 1936, Page 10

MRS HUMPHREY WARD

THINKER, AUTHOR, LEADER. One day in 1850 there walked ashore at Hobart a tall and happy looking young man of twenty-six. He was the second son of the famous Arnold of Rugby, and had come /to Tasmania to organise the education of the colony. Before being long in his new home he met and promptly m'anied Julia Sorell, a descendant of an early Governor of Tasmania. After three children had been born to "him he took his wife and family to London, The eldest of the three daughters was Mary, and as Mrs Humphry Ward, she became known to the world as the brilliant granddaughter of Dr Thomas Arnold, who had nine sons and daughters of his own. Mary had her early schooling in Westmoreland and Shropshire, but the decisive change in her career took place when her father moved to Oxford, where his prestige as a “First Class” won him a lectureship in history.- The vigour of Mary’s mind is sufficiently indicated by her remarks on her Uncle Matt’s (Matthew Arnold’s) “Essays in Criticism.” Venturing to criticise the critic she writes quite superciliously of his calling Christianity the religion of sorrow as compared with the religion of sense. The confidence of youth, is evident, but coming events cast their shadows before.

The world into which she was now ushered presented a curiously variegated aspect. In religion the Ritualistic movement launched by Keble and Newman was confronted by Evangelicism and the Broad church - ism. Science represented by Darwin -and Huxley appeared to be entirely materialistic, and the Higher Criticism threatened to undermine the very foundations of Scripture. The whole period from 1865 to 1906 has sometimes been labelled the era of coliectiveism, marking the transference of political power to the middle classes, while the Reform Bill of 1867 and the Ballot Act of 1872 made the progress of reform more rapid and safe. The air was full of change. There was a ferment in religious, political and industrial spheres. Already habituated to religious controversy by her father’s abandonment of the Protestant principle, and in close touch with her Uncle Matthew’s ideas Mary felt emboldened to raise the standard in favour of what she called a Religion of Reason. She shared his feelings towards the uncultured, and this led her to speak slightingly of Non-comformists. Her treatment of them was not flattering—not even to herself.

Meanwhile between the ages of sixteen and twenty she was busy in the Bodlieian, trying to follow Jowett’s advice to choose a subject and know everything about it. The result was seen in later years when she wrote the lives of the early Spanish kings and ecclesiastics for the Dictionary of Christian Biogitaphy.

In 1872 she was married to Mr T. Humphry Ward, fellow and tutor of Brasenose College. At this time she impressed her friends as capable of tremendous energy in work, as possessing great personal charm, not lessened by a certain shyness, a marked warm-heartedness and an unmistakable sympathy. A lady who painted her portrait and had many chats with her says her religion was vague, and she favoured strongly the rising Dutch, French and German schools of thought, which included “entire denial of miracle, and our Lord only la. great teaoher.” Her principal activity was furthering the movement for the higher education of women. A Brampton lecture delivered by Dr John Wordsworth definitely turned her mind in the direction which laid the publication of “Robert Elsmere.” It showed her the road to. “the church of the future.” Her husband became a leader writer for the “Times,” and they moved to London, where she frequently met Uncle Matt. Professor Huxley, John Morley and other bright peculiar stars. During the year 1884 she began her translation of Apnier’s “Journal,” and wrote her first novel, “Miss Bretherton,” which an eminent critic said was too didactic, and did not touch the great springs of life. In 1885 she brought out Amiel’s “Journal.” Her introduction won the praise of Jowett and Gladstone, but it was never intended to be a popular book.

Her great work had been simmering in her mind for years, but it was only in 1885 she began to write it. The central motive was her conviction, that all was not well with the established forjns of religion. She went back in her studies to the problem of Christian origin, and was impressed by the wholly uncritical records of the faith. Aberglaube, that is, overibelief, in the dogmatism, she thought were crushing out the Spirit of Christ in modern times. She found her book a hard one to write, and a bad arm. hindered its progress, but it finally appeared in 1888 in three Volumes. Naturally it drew eulogy and condemnation. The “Times” call ed it “a clever attack upon revealed religion,” -and Gladstone thundered against it in the “Nineteenth Century.” The message she had to give the public who prefer their theology in the form of fiction was that dogma is not essential to true religion; that Christianity has a rational side, and its demand is not adhesion to a creed, but unselfish devotion to God and man. She did not wholly identify herself with Unitariariism, but she was

virtually one with it. What withheld her from membership was a lingering love of the English Church, with its great history, dignity and culture. The book had an enormous circulation, and ran through many editions. What the author sought is /a. religion in action, having all that is best in Christianity without its encumbrance of dogma. This idea found expression in the creation of University Hall to encourage “an improved popular teaching of the Bible and the history of religion in order to show the adaptability of the faith of the past to the needs of the present.” It was to assist the poor and promote the study of social problems, Lectures were given by distinguished men, and attracted large attendances. Men’s and boys’ clubs were formed. The movement however, did not, develop, although the more popular side of it made a mark on the life of the district. Mr Passmore Edwards, the great newspaper proprietor, generously built a settlement/ Three years were spent in writing “David Grieve,” wihich Jowett said was the best novel since George Eliot, but others regarded it as a failure. She makes her hero a son of the people. All classes, Huxley included, wrote in its praise. One may read through all the succeeding novels and find them rich in ethical purpose and some special phase of reform. The best tribute to be paid to Mrs Humphry Ward is that she. practised what she preached. Her modernistic views have certainly spread far ■beyond the cultured class in which they originated, but it may be questioned Whether the constructive side of the scheme has accomplished what was expected. The attempt to dispense with dogma seems merely to mean accepting other dogma in its place, or, on the other hand, to justify the unthinkirig in rejecting all religion. The baby is apt to be thrown out with the bath water. The faith advocated by Mrs Humphry Ward has not become popular as fa,r as appearances go, (although, no doubt, many hold it without openly admitting it.

Her, conspicuous scholarship, executive ability and deep sympathy with the poor helped her to render noble service to her country. The list of institutions she mothered is a long one. In addition to the settlement there was the invalid children’s school, providing education for the crippled. Ambulances and nurses were needed, and the joy of the children when they found they were not likely to be jostled or knocked down in the playground was good to see. Then came the vacation school for the poor who Acre stranded on the streets during the August holidays. Next came play centres for thousands of children. Mrs Ward spent much money on these, and levied toll on herself, as well as her friends, and never wearied in well-doing. She enrolled herself as an opponent of woman suffrage, and worked hard against it! ! Visits to Canada, America and France occupied part of her last years. When the war broke out she threw herself heartily into the business of telling America what Britain was doing. Roosevelt urged her to do so. She visited munition works, the fleet and the army in France, then wrote “Letters to An American Friend,” in a number of controlled papers in America. They were afterwards published in a little book called “England’s Effort,” translated into every civilised language, and thanks came in showers. Many Americans said it had much to do in bringing their country into the war.

She died in 1920. One of her last appeals was for the formation of “A Faith and Freedom Association,” for the hjeinterpfetation lof the creeds, and one of her lasft regrets was that no young person or group would take up the burden. Dean Inge spoke of her ‘as “perhaps the greatest English wfoman of our time.”