DEAN STANLEY. 4G3 



^^'hicll it must draw its inspirations and illusfrations. The most char- 

 acteristic works are liis '• Lectures on tlie History of tlie Jewish 

 Church," published from 18G3 to 18G5, his "Lectures on the History 

 of the Eastern Church," pubh'shed in 18G1, his " Commentary oh the 

 Epistles to the Corinthians," published in 18.34, his " Essays on Church 

 and State," published in 1870, his " Memorials of Westminster Ab- 

 bey," published in 1807, and his last book on "Christian Institu- 

 tions," published shortly before his death. In all these works there is 

 a wonderful vitality. No historical student of our time has surpassed 

 Dean Stanley in the power of realizing a period of history, of catch- 

 ing its spirit, of sympathizing with the feelings and motives of its men, 

 and of making it live in light and color on the printed stage. 



But he is far more than a mere historical artist. He is always 

 full of an interest, which is almost painfully eager and intense, in the 

 present problems and conditions of the world. The past is rich to 

 him in suggestions, illustrations, warnings, j^recedents, which throw 

 remarkable illumination on his own times. The identity of human 

 nature in all times is the conviction which underlies all his writing. 

 It is, indeed, one of the first articles of his religion. It proceeds at 

 once from that profound belief in God and His Fatherhood which is 

 the substance of this teacher's creed. Hence, even so remote a book 

 as the " Memorials of Westminster Abbey " is full of application to 

 the writer's times. The dead truly speak out of their tombs. There 

 is hardly a political puzzle now bewildering the English brain, hardly 

 an exhortation now heeded by the English heart, which is not to be 

 found breaking forth somewhere, most unexpectedly but most natu- 

 rally, in his descriptions of tlie venerable London church. And his 

 " Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians " has passages which 

 read like a latter-day pamphlet from a prophet of the nineteenth 

 century. 



Among our historians Dean Stanley must always be remembered 

 for this desire and this purpose to translate the past to the present. 

 He does not make the dead past live for nothing. There is a purpose 

 in everything which he has written. And yet he is too true an artist 

 and has too genuine a love for the beauty of an historic picture or a 

 graphic word to let his pages become dull and didactic. His literary 

 skill is full of charm. Sometimes involved and complicated, and 

 almost obscure, as if he wrote in haste and stress of thought, but gen- 

 erally of a crystal clearness, his style flows on, always full of life and 

 movement. It is perhaps too fervid for the pure historian perfectly to 

 approve, but it bears the best test of never growing dull. 



