Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/179

 Church of the past, knowing so little about the actual facts of that development. Historical criticism in the field of theology was not born in his time, above all in England, and there is an utter absence of any appeal to it in these volumes.

Altogether these letters do not impress one with very high ideas of the intellect of the Tractarians. They all seem too deeply immersed in the practical details of their schemes. There is scarcely any discussion of principles, or even any distinct consciousness of the principles to be fought for. Resistance to 'Liberalism' in its inroads on the Church is a more prominent motive, it would seem, than any distinct conception of the ideals which they desired to realise. Even in Newman there is too much immersion in detail, and there is far too little of humanism in his letters to make them interesting. It is the 'Movement,' the 'Movement,' and still again the 'Movement.' Of life, of art, except stray references to music, of letters, there is scarcely anything throughout these thousand pages. It is possible that this was designed by the editor and by the Cardinal, but the result has been to make these volumes terribly technical and monotonous.

The two remaining books on our list deal more fully with the Cardinal's Catholic life.