Was written by the “meanest of mankind.”
History
Froude in 1869, as Lord Rector of St. Andrew’s University, delivered an address on the demoralizing effect of the Church on history. Soon after Charles Kingsley, his brother-in-law, resigned the professorship of history at Cambridge, saying that no honest man could teach history any more. Thereupon these lines appeared, which are ascribed to Stubs, the Bishop of Oxford:
While Froude assures the Scottish youth
That parsons do not care for truth,
The Reverend Canon Kingsley cries
“All history’s a pack of lies!”
What cause for judgment so malign?
A little thought may solve the mystery;
For Froude thinks Kingsley’s a divine,