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    THE CLASSIC AND THE GOTHIC; or, THE BATTLE OF THE STYLES.* and

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    riUlJU Vtassioi and tno U- are very ;« u » mg « oo ' « «» o « ¦*¦ of modern times . At spirdo or in lecturc-room , everywhere we meet them , frpwinng- and biting the thumb' at each other . The tilt . yard of the press is , however , the special arena for their einffl o combats , and scarcely has the bleeding body of one discomfited orgamentatist boon trailed from th « dusty ring , than another- trumpet sounds Marinffly without , and lo , iu gallops another plumed champion , his quiver full of quills ready to do battle « I ' outranoe with tha « 0 »» 9 » or to die for the honour of the Classics . The battle > s perpetually

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    has indeed trembled since then at the approach of the lord of the manor . . Payet ipse sacerdos :. Accessus , dominuriique timet deprendere luci . , Men and things have changed since the Defender of the Faith in the midst of his zeal for Church reforms and his founding of colleges , could find a reason for investing , a priest with a living because of his " skill in the training of hawks . ( Tytler . ) . When , such divertissements as these were going on , the elero-v might be well content to mumble over the " humbles ( homilies ); and Elizabeth , who did not , on the whole , much approve of sermoning , mig ht easily find the greatest difficulty in collecting a sufficient number of decent select preachers for Lent . ( Aikin . ) -, " ¦ •¦ , The author of the " Faery Queen" says , no doubt justly , of many a country clergyman in those days : — " Of much deep learning-little had he need , Nor yet of Latine , ne of Greelc , that breede Doubts ¦' niongst divines , and difference of texts , From whence arise diversities of sects , And hateful heresies of Grod abhorred , But this good sir did follow the plaine word , Ne meddled with their controversies va'iiie ; AH his care was bis service well to sayn , And to read homilies on Jiolidayes— _ ' When that teas done he migJit attend Ms playes . " There were many causes for this condition of the clergy , dependent on the circumstances of the Church itself , as well as on the general state of society—as readers of history well know , and ¦ on which we need not here dwell . We say readers of history , for those who judge of the state of the Church from the few great stars which shone in the general darkness , are liable to fall into great error in these matters . ¦ . In the riext reign we again find the eloquent preacher and : -CQiirt favourite 1 ) onne complaining that the Ambassadors , of ^ od were held iii small honour in England , noiL can we much wonder at thisv when we find another courtfavourite and . Bishop of Oxford , Coubet , his cotemporary , publicly making the worst possible jokes upon the personal appearance of-those--who ' ¦ came to him for confirmation if such were his confirmations , what probably were the consecrations of one who had to _ use the naive expression of Bossuet with regard to a French ecclesi-.. astic , " La malheureuse habitude d $ trailer comme en se jonantles ehoses ecclesiastiqnes ?" On the condition of the Church in the following period Macaulay may be consulted ; his account , by no means creditable , of the status and conduct of the clergy caused recently great anger , and produced -violent reclamation ; but cotemporary writers prove that it was substantially true , though the state of things which he describes was-becoming less and less the rule , and ° nore and more the exception . Since then improvement on these points has been rapid and , on the whole , steady . The last lialf-century has effected wonders : —in all parties pf the Church we find increased earnestness and increased energy , and much zeal , by no means untempered with charity . The thinking , and now the larger portion of society ,. insists on viewing' serious things seriously . There is scarcely any form of Christianity , in the Ohurch or out of it , which does not find thoughtful and well-read inen to defend it , or charitable ones to excuse it , even in its extravagances . To ' the most obstinate , men are inclined to give the credit of honesty even in their errors ; and absurdities , provided they are religious absurdities , pan no longer be criticised in a spirit of rollicking ridicule with impunity to the character of the writer who docs so . If any man is inclined to make light of the whole subject , at least , . . " In public he complies , . Obliging friends alone with blasphemies . " Even the pious humoristV day is almost gone . Spuiageon ' s jokes are the least approved part of his sermons ; the time for JIowland Hill's facetieo is over 3 and no future Sydney Smitucs are likely to mingle exquisite humour with halting logic , and the utmost charity in action with the greatest want of it in opinion . When such is the temper of society the last tiling it is likely to submit to is the careless laying on of hands of the Bishops . Enough scandals are caused by the cases of those who fall from the violence of sudden or protracted temptation ( cases against which no Church can guarantee itself , ) without suffering the . admission of men originally of ft low standard of character and acquirements , " men to whom a whole parish can point as unfit for the clerical offlico . Improved os it may bo , the Church is by no means out of danger of such appointments . There is many a good living waiting for tho son of the family—an . important county family

    probably- ^ -and a sufficient amount pf character has cooked up to satisfy the good-natured Bishop of the diocese , who as- a Christian and a gentleman is expected to put a hopeful and charitable construction on youthful levities—a hard trial of discrimination , it being almost impossible to tell whether such candidates will in ten years' time turn out hard-working parish priests , or mere sots and fox-hunters . , There are still men in trade who . choose the slowest of their sons for the Church , just as professional men choose their cleverest ; a case of the former kind just occurs to us , where a father selected his son ' s profession 011 that principle , and the mother selected the University on an equally curious one ^ videlicet , that the Cambridge coach , and not the Oxford , daily passed the door of the family mansion . There are still religious parents trusting to their own prayers for the final fitness of their sons , by no means "filii vereaurei " ( we remember a most worthy man who intended to " offer up " three of his sons in this way , not exactly at that time worthy offerings ); and other parents / daily fewer , Who care little for any fitness except fitness for a good entree into the world , a small income , and a gentlemanlike profession . There are still young fellows of colleges' to be presented to college livings , without any over-excessive care on the part of the authorities as to their fitness for presentation . Of such constituents is a college often mainly made lip , as we . cah witness ; some sincerely regretting then : destination , but obeying their parents rather than their consciences , and feeling that it is too late to seek a living elsewhere ; " Put me into one of the priests ' offices , that I may eat a piece of bread : " We could mention many cases of this " sort : let parents look to it . At last , such men reconcile themselves to a lower standard , from the force of example , on the old principle , " Where many men are bad > not to be worst Stands in some rank of praise . " Subsequently they may rise to their duties , or fall so much beneath them as to dismiss a congregation , after having collected one , without a sermon , but with a smiling face , and with the plea " that it . is the first of April ; " this is not an imaginary case , nor an old , though , we fully believe , an unique one , ; Much improvement , for which \ there is still room , will doubtless take place . Bishops themselves are now chosen less frequently with reference to family connection ' s , or mere classical attainments , and are more likely to exact from their examinees qualifications like their own . So many of them arc chosen from amongst the public schoolmasters , that the latter will be tempted to pay increasing attention to the religious knowledge and condition of their pupils previous to sending them up to the university , even for their own sake . Again : as education becomes more general in its character , men will no longer find that , their education has only fitted them for a profession which they would be likely to desecrate , and the competitive examinations throw open many paths for men Avho find that they have more talent than seriousness . Bishops seem so shy of doing anything that can appear to annul the effect of " the laying on of hands , " and ecclesiastical law holds sucii a thick shield over heads once consecrated by a bishop , that the world is scandalised at the determined , and effectual resistance often made by the unworthy and refractory : it behoves the bishops then to take care how they do what it is so difficult to undo . The world , is intensely critical just now of the character of the clergy ; there is scarcely a fashionable novel of the day which has not its imaginary clergyman , and its judgment upon him , till we ai ; o sick of the processions of black coats . And this criticism on the imaginary is not likely to fail on the real . Since the introduction of so much of the voluntary systpm into the Church , the quality of the clergy has been raised , and congregations have become more and more fastidious : tho more clergy of a lpfj h standard the Church has , tho less likely is it to acquiesce in those of a low one . On the whole , Convocation can do nothing more useful or move popular than to attend to the hint given by the Bishop of London .

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    -Mat *™ 3 . 1860 / 1 The Leader and Sattirday Analyst . 203 ,.

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    * JPafftnor ObrMla * / w , N <> te « f <> r tho General Wte oj ' ^ National ArottUeotitre . By W . J . Cookdurn Mvxr , London ; Benuwr .

    The Classic And The Gothic; Or, The Battle Of The Styles.* And

    vwi THE CLASSIC AND THE GOTHIC ; or , THE BATTLE OF THE STYLES . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2336/page/7/