138 



The Thirty -Fifth General Meeting. 



condition of men which we were able from various little indications 

 here and there, and especially from the comparison of one country 

 with another, to piece together, so that we got a picture of the life 

 of man, without any annals of the events which succeeded one 

 another; and onwards, through the mediaeval period, and up till 

 quite recently, when, as they knew, that neighbourhood had very 

 interesting literary associations connected with the names of Bowles 

 and Coleridge and Moore, to some of which he believed their at- 

 tention would be specially called on the morrow. The one thing 

 which would come out strongly and probably impress them most as 

 they took their rapid survey of the whole history of mankind as it 

 presented itself to them in a tour of that kind, would be the effect 

 of religion in England, as shaping the history of the country, and 

 the power of the family. There was a time when these two things 

 were in contrast, if not in conflict. Speaking at Calne, one could 

 not help remembering that wonderful meeting when the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester were set face to face, 

 one, as it were, as the champion of monastic life, antagonistic to 

 the family, and the other the champion of family life. It was re- 

 ported that Archbishop Dunstan and his supporters, the champions 

 of monastery life, were left standing masters of the field, when the 

 champions of family life were swallowed up in the ruins of the 

 building in which they were gathered. He did not know whether 

 this was true or not, but that was the legend. Now, as they looked 

 round and saw so many ladies of their friends and families about 

 them, they could not help feeling that after all in England family 

 life had won the day. And a very happy thing it was for us. But 

 on the other hand, side by side with that, he thought they would 

 find, as they went about, not only relics of personal histories of 

 families which would be extremely interesting, and which such 

 annalists as so happily belonged to their Society would be able to 

 explain with the greatest facility and power, but they would also 

 find proofs of the great power of the Church in moulding the 

 history of the country. Speaking as Bishop of Salisbury, he could 

 not help recording (this was the first time he had spoken in that 

 neighbourhood on such a subject) his deep regret at the severance 



