

LIFE OF DR. ROLLESTON. XV 



shifting of crude opinions formed as each new aspect of life 

 opens on the mind, to be strengthened or displaced as the 

 ultimate resultant shapes itself. To the writer of these pages, 

 who knew Kolleston well, but not till middle age, when his 

 character had long since set into the sharp lines of liberal and 

 reformer, it is curious to come upon him reading Macaulay's 

 Essays for the first time, and remarking, ' He is rather radicalised, 

 and is full of Progress and Whiggery, but in other respects is 

 most delightful.' And again, 'What a charming history Ali- 

 son's is. I almost wonder at people's taste for novels.' ' I can- 

 not see how the most fervent admirer of Carlyle could ever be 

 so far carried away as to enter him into competition in a 

 historical contest with Alison.' In his second year he describes 

 a characteristic University scene : — ' Last Sunday I heard in the 

 beautiful Norman ante-chapel of Christ Church the man whose 

 name Evangelical ribaldry has so long applied to all not of their 

 own persuasion, which meaneth that Dr. Pusey preached. There 

 was an immense crush, perilous indeed to the bones of all 

 therein engaged, caused by those who were eager to hear him. 

 The whole Cathedral, i. e. all used for the University, was filled 

 in the space of three minutes completely as regards seats. Such 

 is the regard the University of Oxford pays to a man humble in 

 guise, holy in demeanour, self-denying in life, whom, however, 

 the irreverent Dissenter and robed Schismatic scruple not to call 

 a Jesuit, a Papist, a hypocrite. The pith of his sermon was in- 

 tended to show the truth of the fact that evil shall hunt the 

 wicked man, and that sin always in this life even superinduces 

 an adequate punishment. And yet, which you, I am afraid, will 

 hardly believe, there was no reference, as the "Record" would say, 

 to inanimate mediation, such as that of Crucifixes, etc. How- 

 ever, I am afraid that though there was no impression of the 

 cloven foot in the sermon, yet Puseyites would not be so called if 

 their Founder were not like them.' By 1850 his ideas had swung 

 into a direction nearer that of his after-life: — 'Though I take 

 now, for the present, little interest in anything not immediately 

 connected with my reading, I yet every now and then catch 



