CARDINAL NEWMAN AS A WRITER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 22, 26 September 1890, Page 11

CARDINAL NEWMAN AS A WRITER.

(Prom the Speaker.') Cabdinal Newman's gieat literary characteristics, which place him in the very forefront of English authors, bis force, his fancy, his oratorical rush upon his opponent, are not to be looked for in the '• Apologia " 0864), or in the " Essay on Development " (1845), or in the " History of the Arians " (1833), or even in the " Parochial Sermons " (1837-1842), things of beauty, cold beauty, as they are, but in the books he has written since his mind has swung at ease in the anchorage of Borne, since he caßt off the restraints of an awkward attitude: in his "Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England " (1851), in his " Lectures on Anglican Difficulties " (1850), in bis three books on "University Teaching" (1852-1856-1859), in his " Sermons to Mixed Congregations " (I860), in his '• Discussions and Arguments " (1872). The contrast between the Anglican and the Catholic writer is enormous. It is like the meeting of great waters. Tte one restrained, at times uneasy, eminently unpopular, remote from the trodden paths of feeling ; the other exuberant, though never redundant, triumphant, sometimes almost to the pitch of boisterousness, sweeps along, marshalling his forces, polishiog his ipigrams, and making his appeals, no longer to the scholar and theologian and prim church-goer, but to the man in the street — the rank and file of humanity: In reading these writings of Cardinal Newman's, the great quality which first manifests itself is his splendid fancy. In the actual, positive restraint which he places upon the exuberant energy of this gift or faculty he shows himself the artist. It never runs away with him ; it is his servant, not his master. But his readers are not conBcious of the curb— they believe themselves to be revelling and rioting, whilst in reality they are being driven steadily along. The Bubjects which delight Dr. Newman are not theological or purely philoshphical subjects, but those nmed questions of history and morals and probabilities which really enter into men's minds and form the staple of their beliefs, prejudices, and prepossessions.

In dealing with subjects of this kind, this scholar and celibate, this " pilgrim pale with Paul's sad girdle bour)d, glows with all the enthusiasm and employs all the devices of the greatest of advocates, displays the knowledge and appositeness of the most accomplished man of tne world, and winds himself in and out of his subject with the finished ease of a great leader of Parliamentary debate. To prove these words, if proof be needed, would be easy enough were Bpace for half a dozen quotations at our disposal. It is not, but we will press upon any reader as yet in ignorance (which is an unblessed state) of the general run of the Cardinal's writings, since be cast off his Anglicanism, to read the "Lectures on the present position of Catholics in England." We prophesy the feeling excited by their perusal will be one of mingled amazement and delight — amazement at their enormous forces, and delight in their consummate literary skill and artifice. These lectures are an admirable example of Dr. Newman's favourite method. They are not concerned with the truth of Catholicism, they do not even deny in terms the truth of Protestantism. Logically, their effect would remain the same had they been written by, let us cay, Dr. Maitlandor Mr. Rose. It is apparently a light-hearted book, written in tremendous spirits, bubbling over with fun, decorated with countless fancies — yet what was the task it set itself to perform ? Nothing less than this, to roll back the great Protestant tradition, of the court, the law, of society and literature ; to remove whole mountains of prejudice ; to cleanse the Protestant mind of all the slimy traces of slander ; to shiver in pieces the prejudices of centuries ; and to let the old Faith of Englishmen stand forth as a body of doctrine and rule of life which, though possibly false, nay, even dangerous, is yet not demonstrably founded upon the corruption of man's heart, or directly responsible for every crime in the calendar — what a task 1 Protestants though we are, we can scarce forbear a cheer. The mastery displayed by Dr.Newman in grappling with it is beyond praise and without precedent. He is all that Burke is, and genuinely playful besides. He successfully conceals the prodigious effort he is making and the enormous importance of tbe verdict for which he ib striving, An abler book it would be impossible to name. Another quality of these writings is their warm colouring ifad glow. They are full of life and movement. As we read we hear " Murmur of Living Stir of Existence, Soul of the World." Take down from the Bhelf the " Discourses to Mixed Congregations," *od read the sixth, entitled " God's Will the End of Life," with its picture of " this vain, unprofitable, yet overbearing world," of its

shops and newspapers, " discoveries in art and science, discoveries (so-called) in religion, the court, royalty, the entertainments of the great, places of amusement, strange trials, offences, accidents, escapes, exploits, experiments, contests, ventures. Oh ! thiß curious, restless, clamorous, panting being which we call life." Turn a few pages and you may find yourself reading, " You think it the sign of a gentleman io set yourselves above religion, to criticise the religious and professors of religion, to look at Catholic and Methodist with impartial contempt, to gain a smattering of knowledge on a number of subjects, to cMp into a number of frivolous publications, if they are popular, to have read the latest novel, to have heard the singer and seen the actor of the day, to be up to the news, to know the names and if so be the persons of public men, to be able to bow to thi-m, to walk up and down the Btreet with your heads on high and to stare at whatever meets you ; and to say and do worse things of which theee out* ward extravagances are but the symbol. And this is what you conceive to have come upon earth for. The Creator made you, it seems, my children, for this work and office, to be a bad imitation of polished ungodliness, to be a piece of tawdry and faded finery, or a scent which has lost its freshness and does but offend the sense." Throughout the length and breadth of Dr. Newman's Catholic writings is to be noticed this alertness for humanity, this quickness of eye and ear. He cares little for the abstract, for theory, for treatises and disquisitions, even for theology. His great dread is Atheism, a foe of whom he never speaks save with bated breath. How may mankind best be saved from Atheism 1 This question is for ever sounding in his ears. This eminently practical way of looking at things gives a unity to his numerous writings. We soon learn what he will be at, and how questions will strike him. This is to know an author, when you know beforehand not what he will say, but how he will Bet about Baying it. It mast not be inferred from anything that has been said that Cardinal Newman's interest in hnmanity has made him a democrat. How that may be is not for us to guess, but there ia certainly nothing in his writings which shows any admiration for the common people as such. Hartley Coleridge once wrote an essay to prove Shakespeare a Tory — there is material for an essay to prove Newman one. Amongst the most magnificent of Dr. Newman's writings must be included his "Lectures on the Scope and Extension of University Education." They are not in accord with dominant notions, but if the opinions there expounded, enforced, and illustrated are indeed dead, never did dead opinions lie more richly enshrined.

We are not here concerned with the truth or falsehood of Dr. Newman's position. We are considering him as a great author, as a master of " the thought and the word, distinct but inseparable from each other," He himself has said, "And since the thoughts and reasoning of an author have a personal character, no wonder that his style is not only the image of his subject, but of his mind. That pomp of language, that full and tuneful diction, that f elicitousness in the choice and exquisiteness in the collocation of words, which, to prosaic writers, seem artificial, is nothing else but the mere habit and way of a lofty intellect." What Dr. Newman wrote of others may be said of him. That style of his, what is it but the mere habit and way of a lofty intellect ? It is this and more, it is also the reflex of a benignant spirit. But though we are not concerned with truth, we are sorely reluctant to leave Dr. Newman with nothing better on our lips or more enduring on our mind than praise of his style. This perpetual twaddle about style is becoming just a little sickening. After all, the thought is the thing. When a great writer has a great style, we may, and in the case of Dr. Newman we do, thank God for the union ; when, as in the case of Bishop Butler, the style is lacking, we need only say it is a pity ; but when some starveling intellect prates about his cadences, one longs for cudgels. We will therefore bring these few remarks— and they make no pretence to be anything else — to a close by quoting a famous passage from the Cardinal's letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1875) :— " This at least is how I read the Doctrine of Protestants, as well as of Catholics. The rule and measure of duty is not utility, nor expedience, nor the happiness of the greatest number, nor state convenience, nor fitness, order, and the pulohrum. Conscience is not a long-sighted selfishness, nor a desire to be consistent with oneself, but it is a messenger trom Him who both in nature aud in grace speaks to us behind the veil, and teaches and rules us by His representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ, a prophet in its informations, a monarch in its per^mptoriness, a priest in its blessings and anathemas, and even though the eternal priesthood throughout the Church could cease to be, in it the sacerdotal principle would remain and would have a sway."