That his life is for the most part a record of sadness and failure is no indication that he was not one of the great men of his time. Independence is no passport to success in a world where, as Swift said, climbing and crawling are performed in much the same attitude. And if we are right in our view that there was something in the composition of his mind which prevented him from being either a complete Catholic or a complete Protestant, this too is no obstacle to our recognition of his greatness. He has left an indelible mark upon two great religious bodies. He has stirred movements which still agitate the Church of England and the Church of Rome, and the end of which is not yet in sight. Anglo-Catholicism and Modernism are alien growths, perhaps, in the institutions where they have found a place; but the man who beyond all others is responsible for grafting them upon the old stems is secure of his place in history.
FOOTNOTES:
[82] Cf. e. Parochial and Plain Sermons, vi. 259.
[83] Mark Pattison, Memoirs, p. 97.
[84] Stray Essays, p. 94.
[85] Parochial and Plain Sermons, v. 112.
[86] Ibid. vi. 259.
[87] Ibid. vi. 340.
[88] Grammar of Assent, part i. c. 1 and 2.
[89] Parochial and Plain Sermons, vii. 73.