Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/89

Mansel (he held the same position afterwards from October 1869 till June 1871), and contributed to ‘Aids to Faith’ (1861), besides writing various sermons and articles. In 1865 his health suffered from his labours, and he took a holiday abroad, visiting Rome with his wife. On returning, he answered Mill's ‘Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy’ in some articles in the ‘Contemporary Review,’ afterwards republished. He criticised Mill's ignorance of the doctrines of Kant, but breaks off with an impatient expression of contempt without completing his answer. In 1865 he was a prominent member of the committee in support of Mr. Gathorne Hardy against Mr. Gladstone. From 1864 to 1868 he was examining chaplain to the Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. Jeune). At the end of 1866 he was appointed by Lord Derby to the professorship of ecclesiastical history, vacant by the death of Dr. Shirley on 30 Nov. He delivered in the Lent term of 1868 a course of lectures upon ‘The Gnostic Heresies,’ published after his death. In the same year he was appointed to the deanery of St. Paul's by Mr. Disraeli. His health was weakened by the pressure of business at Oxford, and he had been much distressed by the direction in which the university had been developing. He hoped to find more leisure for literary projects in his new position. There was, however, much to be done in arranging a final settlement with the ecclesiastical commissioners, and he was much occupied in finishing his share of the ‘Speaker's Commentary’ (the first two gospels) which he had undertaken in 1863. He also took the lead in promoting the new scheme for the decoration of the cathedral. He paid visits with his wife to his brother-in-law at Cosgrove Hall during his tenure of the deanery, and while staying there in 1871 he died suddenly in his sleep (30 July), from the rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain. A memorial window, representing the incredulity of St. Thomas, was erected to his memory in the north chapel of St. Paul's Cathedral, and unveiled on St. Paul's day 1879.

Many of Mansel's epigrams are remembered, and Dean Burgon has collected some good specimens of his sayings. If a rather large proportion consists of puns, some of them ‘atrocious,’ there are some really good sayings, and they show unforced playfulness. He was invariably cheerful, fond of joining in the amusements of children, and a simple and affectionate companion. The ‘loveliest feature of his character,’ says Burgon, was his ‘profound humility,’ which is illustrated by his readiness to ‘prostrate his reason’ before revelation, having once satisfied himself that the Bible was the word of God. It must be admitted that this amiable quality scarcely shows itself in his controversial writings. He was profoundly convinced that the teaching of Mill and his school was ‘utterly mischievous,’ as tending to materialism and the denial of the freedom of the will. His metaphysical position was that of a follower of Sir William Hamilton, and upon some points the disciple was in advance of his master. Later developments of thought, however, have proceeded upon different lines.

Mansel's works are: 1. ‘The Demons of the Wind and other Poems,’ 1838. 2. ‘On the Heads of Predicables,’ 1847. 3. ‘Artis Logicæ Rudimenta’ (a revised edition of Aldrich's ‘Logic’). 4. ‘Scenes from an unfinished Drama entitled Phrontisterion, or Oxford in the Nineteenth Century,’ 1850, 4th edit. 1852. 5. ‘Prolegomena Logica,’ a series of Psychological Essays introductory to the Science, 1851. 6. ‘The Limits of Demonstrative Science considered’ (in a Letter to Dr. Whewell), 1853. 7. ‘Man's Conception of Eternity,’ 1854 (in answer to Maurice). 8. ‘Psychology the Test of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy’ (inaugural lecture), 1855. 9. ‘On the Philosophy of Kant’ (lecture), 1856. 10. Article on ‘Metaphysics’ in eighth edition of ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 1857. Republished in 1860 as ‘Metaphysics, or the Philosophy of Consciousness, Phenomenal and Real.’ 11. ‘Bampton Lectures,’ 1858 (two editions), 1859 (two editions), and 1867. A preface in answer to critics is added to the fourth edition. 12. ‘Examination of the Rev. F. D. Maurice's Strictures on the Bampton Lectures of 1858,’ 1859 (in answer to Maurice's ‘What is Revelation?’). 13. ‘Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith concerning the Postscript to his Lectures on the Study of History,’ 1861. A second letter replied to Professor Smith's ‘Rational Religion and the Rationalistic Objections of the Bampton Lectures for 1858,’ 1861. 14. ‘Lenten Sermons,’ 1863. 15. ‘The Philosophy of the Conditioned: Remarks on Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy, and on J. S. Mill's Examination of that Philosophy,’ 1866. 16. ‘Letters, Lectures, and Reviews’ (edited by Chandler in 1873). 17. ‘The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries,’ with Sketch by Lord Carnarvon. Edited by J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., 1875. Mansel edited Hamilton's Lectures with Professor Veitch in 1859; contributed a ‘critical dissertation’ to ‘The Miracles,’ by the Right Hon. Joseph Napier, and wrote part of ‘The Speaker's Commentary.’ (see above). 