824 



STANLEY, ARTHUR P. 



Under his personal guidance the writer spent 

 several hours in the ancient abbey, while he 

 discoursed on its history as we passed from 

 point to point, and through some of the curious 

 ins and outs of the Deanery, and other sur- 

 roundings of Westminster. The Dean was a 

 great favorite with the royal family, and was 

 always ready to bring about an informal inter- 

 view when the Queen wished to meet a person 

 of literary distinction. In was in that way 

 that she met Thomas Carlyle at Stanley's resi- 

 dence, when the sturdy Scotchman amazed the 

 courtiers by violating royal etiquette so far as 

 to inquire as to her Majesty's health, and to 

 invite her to be seated, instantly setting the 

 Queen an example ! "When the monument to 

 the late Prince Imperial was proposed, Dean 

 Stanley acting, as it is well understood, under 

 court influence readily offered a fine site for 

 the memorial in Westminster Abbey. The Dean 

 stoutly and bravely withstood the widely spread 

 and popular outcry which this act caused, but, 

 when the House of Commons declared its dis- 

 approval, he promptly bowed to its decision. 



Early in July, 1881, the Dean was taken se- 

 riously ill, and, when the end came, his last 

 audible words to the Archbishop of Canterbury 

 were, "I have faithfully labored, amid many 

 frailties and much weakness, to make West- 

 minster Abbey the great center of religious 

 and national life in a truly liberal spirit." The 

 funeral of Dean Stanley brought together one 

 of the most remarkable concourses of people 

 that has ever assembled within the historic 

 abbey, where he was buried July 25th, by the 

 side of his wife. The pall-bearers were the 

 Duke of Westminster, representing the House 

 of Lords; the Bishop of Exeter, the Episco- 

 pate ; the House of Commons by William E. 

 Forster for the Government, and by William 

 H. Smith for the Opposition; the Universities 

 by Dr. Jowett, the Master of Balliol, for Ox- 

 ford, and by Canon Westcott for Cambridge ; 

 English Nonconformity by Dr. John Stough- 

 ton ; the Presbyterians by Dr. Storey ; Science 

 by the President of the Royal Society, and 

 Literature by Matthew Arnold. Among the 

 mourners and friends present were men of all 

 creeds, including Cardinals Manning and New- 

 man. Three memorial sermons were preached 

 in Westminster on the Sunday after the Dean's 

 death, and in St. Paul's Cathedral, and, indeed, 

 throughout the kingdom, his death was the 

 general theme on that day. A memorial win- 

 dow is to be erected, by American subscrip- 

 tions, in Westminster Abbey, and several simi- 

 lar projects are being carried out in Great 

 Britain by the Dean's troops of friends and 

 admirers. 



Dean Stanley was a liberal and highly culti- 

 vated theologian, a graphic and graceful writer 

 on every conceivable subject properly belong- 

 ing to literature, and above all a powerful and 

 popular preacher. For the last twenty years 

 of his life he occupied a large place in the his- 

 tory of our times, and exercised an influence 



on religious thought and feeling which it is im- 

 possible to measure now. It has been alleged 

 by a very few detractors that Dean Stanley 

 was too much of a courtier, but this is only an 

 ungrateful slight on the urbanity of one whose 

 chanty was wide as his learning, and who de- 

 voted the whole of his busy and energetic life 

 to the promotion of true religion. It was, per- 

 haps, the brilliant and varied play of Lis many- 

 sided mind that prevented the late Dean 1mm 

 achieving the very highest place in any one of 

 those departments to which he, by turns, ad- 

 dressed his acute and comprehensive intellect. 

 It has been truly said that sentiment often 

 stood in the way of his critical judgment. His 

 writings generally, like his eloquent and richly- 

 colored sermons, evince a potent attachment 

 to historic places, to wells where Abraham 

 may have rested, to sands that crumbled be- 

 neath the feet of the apostles, and to walls 

 where Becket ministered. This was, doubt- 

 less, one cause why he enjoyed so early such a 

 wide-reaching popularity. Dean Stanley's prin- 

 cipal works are "The Life and Correspondence 

 of Thomas Arnold, D.D.," one of the very best 

 pieces of biography of our day, which has 

 passed through various editions, American and 

 English, and has been translated into several 

 foreign languages. It was first published in 

 1844. "Sinai and Palestine, in Connection 

 with their History," appeared in 1856, the 

 Dean having made a tour of these countries 

 three years previous, and in 1862 visited them 

 a second time, in company with the Prince of 

 Wales. This octavo volume, in every respect 

 superior to any recent work on the Holy Land, 

 was followed, in 1863, by " Sermons preached 

 before the Prince of Wales during his Tour in 

 the East, with Descriptions of Places Visit- 

 ed." In 1867 appeared "Historical Memori- 

 als of Westminster Abbey,"' a carefully pre- 

 pared work, which has since passed through 

 several revised editions, accompanied, in 1870, 

 by a supplementary volume. In the same year 

 there was published "Scripture Portraits and 

 other Miscellanies, collected from the Pub- 

 lished Writings of A. P. Stanley," an octavo 

 volume, which has since passed through three 

 editions. Dean Stanley published several vol- 

 umes of sermons, and was a frequent contribu- 

 tor to the "Edinburgh " and "Quarterly" Re- 

 views, "Macmillan's Magazine," and "Good 

 Words," and supplied a valuable series of bibli- 

 cal biographies to Dr. William Smith's "Dic- 

 tionary of the Bible." His latest literary work 

 was performed as a member of the Association 

 for t*he Revision of the Bible, and his last cler- 

 ical act was in defense of the new translation. 

 No better characterization of the late Dean of 

 Westminster has appeared than is contained in 

 the following paragraph, from the pen of an 

 English writer: 



His greatest successes were not in the pulpit ; and 

 yet, to hear him at an afternoon service in Westmin- 

 ster Abbey, or on some such special occasion as " In- 

 tercession Day," or a service with children, was some- 



