Page:Memoir of Edward Lord Bishop of Salisbury.djvu/11

Rh sense of the responsibilities of his high and holy office to withdraw him as much as possible from the public gaze, and eminently disqualified him for being the favourite of the people.

But there are merits and services which the calm but conscientious discharge of duty does not fail, gradually perhaps, and almost insensibly, to make known and appreciated to those who have lived within the sphere of its performance. More especially does this happen when rare intellectual ability is joined with consummate prudence to make this conscientious performance of duty effectual in the highest degree.

In the truth of this proposition is to be found the reason why, on the 15th of March, 1854, the ancient Cathedral of Sarum was thronged, even to overflowing, with genuine mourners composed of all classes, and of all callings of life, when the remains of their guide, their friend, their protector, their benefactor, were consigned to their restingplace in those cloisters whose holy beauty his private munificence had restored during his life. Everybody then remembered what his seventeen years' episcopate had done for the diocese of Salisbury. Many were able to justify and increase their estimation of the services which he had rendered to the diocese by comparison with results of preceding episcopates. Then it was that men looked back on the past, and observed how silently and