MEMOIRS. 



which both sides were entirely and equally genuine 

 and spontaneous, and which therefore (as one 

 result) enabled him to attract with perfect sincerity 

 and naturalness the most opposite kinds of men. 

 He was, on the one hand, one of those whose 

 privilege it is to begin with faith in the Christian 

 Creed, and, so far as man can tell, to walk steadily 

 in its light. We might almost use of himself 

 words which he used of the process by which the 

 Church historically wrought out her theology 

 " starting with the inheritance of faith, the belief in 

 the Divinity, and trusting in the guidance of the 

 Spirit," he " threw himself boldly into the rational 

 problem." And he would have spoken of this as 

 being intellectually a great gain, the gain which it 

 is in any science to start with the right method. 

 In his Assize sermon he claims kinship between 

 theology and law, on the ground that both are 

 deductive and authoritative in their character. It 

 was natural to him to go straight to theology, and 

 look for its voice, and guide himself by its scientific 

 distinctions and inferences. In this connection is 

 to be noticed his familiarity with the schoolmen 

 and love of the " Blessed St. Thomas," as he used 

 half playfully to call him. " Few men," says a 

 friend, " ever had his grasp of the real issues under- 

 lying * Realistic ' and ' Nominalist ' controversies, 

 and their bearing on the history of the Church." 

 The technical and scientific form did not repel, 



