DUNEDIN CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 46, 14 March 1884, Page 27

DUNEDIN CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

The fortnightly meeting of this Society was held on last Friday evening—the vice- President (Mr. J. B. Callan) in the chair. Mr. C. E. Haughton read his paper on " The Poets of the Oxford Catholic Movement, 1827-45, as follows :— No future historian of England, or even of Europe, can fail to take note of the stirring of religious thought of which Oxford began to be the centre some fifty years ago. It was one of tbe highest waves of that great tide of Catholic reaction, and of counter reformation which set in over the whole of Europe, and has been naturally the strongest where religion was most disintegrated and faith had most waned. That such a reaction will continue is prohable, and many of those even most opposed to Catholic teaching may rejoice that it is so. It is better that the opposing armies of Catholicism and agnosticism or freethought should be drawn up against each other in clear array, and that tbe skirmishing bands which have so long carried on their own conquests or suffered their own losses between the two should join one army or the other, so that the issue . be made plain ; and with this desire the Catholic will concur B^as well as tbe >agnostic. Cardinal Newman has said tbat there y is no logical middle course between the Catholic faith and Atheism ; and if for the word Atheism, which is dogmatic, the word agnosticism is substituted, tbe truth of the proposition must be admitted. If, then, it be allowed that the Oxford movement — though apparently concerned with one sect alone among the many in the land— be of wide and historic importance, it will be seen tbat the literature of that period must have an interest, as indeed,

has all literary work which colors a time, and is devoted to a definite end. In this paper it is proposed to speak of the poets only of tbat movement, John Keble and John Henry Newman. We all know the trite saying, " Let, who will write the laws of a country , give me the making of its lays." It was the singular good fortune of John Keble to stand to the Oxford movement ia the two positions of founder and laureate ; he was " the true and primary author " of it, " the great motive power," as Cardinal Newman calls him. The " Christian Year " was published in 1827. In less than twenty-six years 108,000 copies were issued in forty-three editions ; in the nine months following the author's death, seven more editions were sold of 11,000 copies, and the sale has never flagged since. Yet the large demand has been mainly confined to the Church of England. It has not been, a-3 in degree it deserves to be, to English religious though I what the " De Imitatione Christi " has been to the religious thought of Europe. But within the sphere of its influence the effect was unbounded. " Keble did," says Dr. Newman, " that for the Church of England which none but a poet could do — he made it poetical His happy magic made the Anglic an Church seem what Catholicism was and is." Keble did all this with the unconscious workings of a poet's fancy. What he deliberately set himself to do was to bring out the sacramental system— the doctrine that matter and material phenomena are the types and the instruments of unseen realities. Laws of nature were to Keble phenomena to be altered and set aside at any moment by the Divine will. These are the two main characteristics of Keble's thoughts— to look at all religious ordinances and all subjective movements of the mind by the light of the Catholic Church, and look on Nature as but the revelation of an unseen God. These are the two great characteristics which made the " Christian Year " the devotional hand-book of the Catholic revival in England. I will read you a few short quotations from those exquisite lyrics which, during the last forty-eight years, have turned the hearts of many to the truth, and through the influence of which thousands in England have returned to the ancient faith of the fathers. Amongst the names of eminent Englishmen of the present day, that of John Henry Cardinal Newman stands admittedly in. the foremost rank. He is a man of whom his countrymen are justly proud. It is a remarkable fact that when he was appointed a Cardinal, the leading newspapers in London and throughout the Empire expressed cordial approval of the action of the Pope, and declared that honour had been done to England. His conversion in 1845 dealt a blow to the Anglican Church, under which, to use the language of Dr. Beade, " she still staggers." Cardinal Newman is known throughout the Christian world as an able theologian, an acute philosopher, an eloquent preacher, and a master of English prose, but, possibly, few are aware that he possesses rare poetic gifts. " The Dream of Gerontius," a wonderful poem on the nobler side of the doctrine of purgatory, alone entitles him to a high place among poets. There are passages in it which compare, not unfavourably, with " Paradise Lost." In 1836, three years after the definite foundation of the Oxford School, and when the " Christian Year " had done its work of preparation, appeared the Lyra Apostolica, a collection of poems, written, as the preface states, "in the humble hope that they may be instrumental in recalling, or recommending to the reader important Christian truths which are at this day in a way to be forgotten." The poems of Newman stand alone in this collection as worthy of the name, and with many written at a late period are collected in his volume "Verses on Various Occasions." Mr. Haughton here read several poems. At the close of his paper Mr. Carolin proposed, and Mr. Hayes seconded, a hearty vote of thanks be giv^n Mr. Haugaton for his valuable and interesting paper. Mr. Pitzpatrick then recited Mr. Eagar's original poem, "Thoughts suggested by a Walk by Moonlight at St. Clair," of which we give a few selected lines : — " From St. Glair's gentle slopes, by Luna's mystic light, Nature, clad in her fairest garb, appears before the sight, For beautiful are Nature's scenes, around this lovely place, And bright, entrancing views, the enraptured can trace. * # # # ♦ Peninsula's wooded hills, Mount Cargill's rugged brow, And Flagstaff's time-worn face, look strangely to me now, Fautastic shadows o'er their heights seem to flit and dance, As o'er those awe-inspiring scenes I cast my wandering glance, Surrounded by those grand old hills, and nursling in their arms, Like some maiden grand and fair, whose fascinating charms Growing more beautiful as time its truthful record keeps, Dunedin in the distance in calm contentment sleeps. * * * # # Tho' far from Erin now I stand, beneath the moon's pale ray, I cherish a love for the dear old land, for my kinsmen far away.

Loved Erin, thy sacred memory to my heart is ever dear, I breathe a heartfelt prayer for tbee, commingled with a tear, 0 I may the hour be not far off, when we shall see once more Great freedom's flag o'er thy green hills wave proudly as of yore." Mr. Lennon promised to give a paper at next meeting, and Messrs. Meade and Drurntn to give readings. At the meeting following the next a debate on the French Revolution will take place, the leading speeches to be by Messrs. Jas. Griffen, Hall, 0. O'Driscoll, Power, Scanlan, and Carolin.