Dean Stanley

“ Arnold's biographer, Dean Stanley, collected and republished his 'Miscellaneous Works' in 1845, and his 'Travelling Journals, with Extracts from his Life and Letters,' in 1852. But it is chiefly through Stanley's 'Life and Correspondence,' first pubished in two volumes in 1844, and reaching its twelfth edition in 1881, that the 'hero of schoolmasters,' the champion alike of reverent faith and of independent thought, is and will be known to the world.
In person he was a little above the middle height; spare, but vigorous, and healthy without being robust. ”

“ Frances A. Humphrey. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.00. In this tastefully printed volume are brought together five sermons to children, preached by Dean Stanley, prefaced with a biographical sketch by Mrs. Humphrey and with an introduction by Canon Farrar. Every reader knows what a charming man Dean Stanley was, and how ardently he loved children, and devoted himself to pleasing them. The sermons here given are full of exquisite tenderness, and form admirable models for discourses of like character. ”

“ With these men he went to "André Hill," where they identified the place of the spy's grave. [59] The requisite plot of ground was secured by Mr. [Pg 112] Field, who was compelled to buy many surrounding acres at an exorbitant price. Then, relying upon the good sense, the intelligence, and the patriotism of the American people for a just appreciation of his motives, he proceeded to have a memorial-stone prepared.
Soon after Dean Stanley returned home he wrote the promised inscription, and, in a letter to Mr. Whittemore (January, 1879) , he said:
Dean Stanley's Autograph. ”

“ He was a good Latin scholar and an accomplished liturgiologist and antiquary. The words of many anthems published by Messrs. Novello, Ewer & Co., and not a few inscriptions, among them those on the windows placed to the memory of Dean Stanley in the chapter-house of Westminster, are from his pen. His discovery, as it may be called, of James Frank Redfern [q. v.] , and his encouragement of George Edmund Street [q. v.] in the early stages of his career, should not be forgotten. ”

“ His idea was simply to mark an event in the history of the country; but a part of the press insisted that an American had erected a monument to a British spy, and this was reiterated far and wide, and flew from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Dean Stanley felt this keenly, and wrote:
“If you find that there is really a feeling against it, pray do not think of it. The game is not worth the candle. Poor Major André, engaging as he was, is not worth the rekindling forgotten animosities.” ”

“ His essays show more clearly even than his sermons his opinions on society, literature, and religion. They place him where he belongs, in that "small transfigured band the world cannot tame,"--the world of Cranmer, Jeremy Taylor, Robertson, Arnold, Maurice. His paper on Dean Stanley discloses his theological views as openly as do his addresses on 'Heresies and Orthodoxy.'
As might be expected of one who, in the word's best sense, was so thoroughly a man, he had great influence with young men and was one of the most popular of Harvard preachers. ”

“ Rowland Edmund Prothero, besides editing The Quarterly, has published The Life of Dean Stanley, besides editing the latter's Letters, Letters of Edward Gibbon, Letters of Byron and Letters of Richard Ford. He has also written a Life of Queen Victoria, a memoir of Prince Henry of Battenburg, The Psalms in Human Life and Pioneers of English Farming. ”

“ Dean Church, who was perhaps the most freely consulted by the prime minister, says, “Of one thing I am quite certain, that never for hundreds of years has so much honest disinterested pains been taken to fill the primacy—such inquiry and trouble resolutely followed out to find the really fittest man, apart from every personal and political consideration, as in this case.”63
Another ecclesiastical vacancy that led to volumes of correspondence was the deanery of Westminster the year [pg 098] before. In the summer of 1881 Dean Stanley died, and it is interesting to note how easy Mr. ”

“ But if there is much narrowness in the Church of England, there is much nobleness also; much true Christian liberality 52 and hearty sympathy with all good men and good movements, not only in England but throughout the world. Dean Stanley (whom I love and honor as the manliest man in the Church of England) is but the representative and leader of hundreds who, if they have not his genius, have at least much of his generous and intrepid spirit, that despises sacerdotal cant, and claims kindred with the good of all countries and ages, with the noble spirits, the brave and true, of all mankind. ”

“ And if an endless sleep He wills so best. André When Dean Stanley was invited to send an inscription for the André Monument at Tappan, it was a delicate and difficult task to avoid wounding the sensitiveness of either country, and he showed good taste not only in the composition of the English inscription, but 531also in the selection of the Latin one. In the latter case, however, the Dean was more happy in what he omitted than in what he admitted. He selected this very appropriate verse from Virgil: “Sunt lacrimæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.” ”

“ He is also the author of many volumes of sermons and lectures, and has contributed largely to periodical literature. He travelled in the East with the Prince of Wales, and was, no doubt, a most suitable chaplain, and appreciated by his Royal Highness at his true worth. When in the East, Dr. Stanley let his beard grow long, which gave him a patriarchal appearance he does not wear in London, where many are familiar with the figure of the small, thin, spiritual-looking man who is Dean of Westminster. ”

“ He left the pulpit for his bed. His illness proved to be erysipelas, of which he died on Monday, 18 July 1881. On Monday, 25 July, he was buried in Westminster Abbey by the side of his wife.
Stanley's principal works have been already mentioned. None of them, with the possible exception of the ‘Life of Dr. Arnold,’ belong to the highest or most permanent class of literature. His personal charm was a stronger influence than his books. Of the fascination that he exercised over his friends, a vivid picture will be found in Dean Bradley's ‘Recollections of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley’ (1883) . ”

“ His countenance was majestic and dignified. His brow had a care-worn and anxious expression, yet withal an air of calm resignation inexpressibly sublime. His locks were almost completely white, though his dark and intelligent eye still retained much of the fire of early youth, while the hale cheek, and undaunted presence indicated patience and content in the greatest suffering that can befall humanity.
Stanley neither spoke nor moved; but remained with his eyes riveted on the attractive countenance before him with a species of holy awe. ”

“ But whether there were a hundred or a thousand of them, Stanley always managed to drive them back. It was his cool courage, quite as much as the rifles of his men, which gave him the victory. Had he not been a man born to command, he could never have inspired his men with courage to face such swarms of savages; and had he not been as brave a man as ever lived, he could never have fought hand to hand with a score of hungry cannibals all at once, and driven them back in terror of the dauntless white man. ”

“ Alban’s Court, Nonington, near Canterbury. Following the almost unbroken law of the heredity of genius, Stanley derived his chief mental qualities from his mother; and through her he was nearly related to the poets George Sandys, William Hammond, Sir John Marsham the chronologer, Richard Lovelace and his less famous brother; as, through his father, to a fellow-poet perhaps dearer to him than any of these, Sir Edward Sherburne.
His tutor, at home, not at College, was William Fairfax, son of the translator of Tasso. ”

“ Stanley has done so much to make us acquainted with, hides him from us at present in her innermost recesses. [1] Speculation is rife not only as to his whereabouts, but even as to his being alive. Mystery always enshrouds the doings and fate of him who ventures beyond those gloomy barriers of forest, mountain, swamp and river, which screen Central Africa from even the faint and reflected gleams of civilization. ”

“ The man, therefore, who had the courage to give speech to them could not fail to be popular among the worthy yeomanry of Bucks; and such, in reality, had become the occupant of Stone Dean, in a few short weeks after taking up his residence in their county.
This individual possessed other claims to popular favour. He was a gentleman—nobly born and highly bred. His appearance and behaviour proclaimed these points beyond cavil; and in such matters the instinct of the rustic is rarely incorrect. ”

“ This wonderful achievement was accomplished in the face of difficulties so great that they could have been overcome only by such a man as Stanley proved himself to be—a man of inflexible will, who having conceived a vast design carried it to its conclusion regardless of any obstacles, sparing neither himself nor his associates and, if opposed, prepared to shed blood to attain his object. ”

“ Henceforth the field of adventure and exploration was his, and he easily became the most noted of African travelers, till Stanley established for himself a greater fame. What the Church lost a whole world gained. His further travels, how he lost and buried his faithful wife on the banks of the Shiré, his own sad death in the swamps of Lake Bangweola, the return of his dead body to Zanzibar, borne by his faithful servants Chuma and Susi, have all been described elsewhere in this volume. ”

“ At 26 he had become a journalist, and was about to represent the New York Herald with the British army in Abyssinia. On returning from this expedition he delivered lectures on his adventures, a handbill of which we reproduce on the page opposite, as a veritable curiosity. At 31 he had discovered Dr. Livingstone, and had returned with glory. What Mr. Stanley has done recently is known to all the world. ”

“ He’s never told anything yet, and he’s had lots of chances. If you have to scrap here, Dick, go over to the brickyard. That’s where all the best things are pulled off. It’s funny about that, too,” continued Stanley musingly. “Faculty usually knows what’s going on, but in my time there have been at least two dozen fights in the brickyard and nothing’s ever been said or done about them. Looks as if Jud sort of winked at it, doesn’t it? [184] Maybe he has a hunch that a square fight is the best medicine sometimes.”
“Well, if Sandy wants to go on with it I’ll meet him there.” ”

“ Stanley died at his lodgings in Suffolk Street, Strand, on 12 April 1678, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His wife Dorothy was daughter and coheiress of Sir James Enyon, baronet, of Flower, Northamptonshire. By her he had a son Thomas, born in 1650, who was admitted a fellow-commoner at Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 6 April 1665, and published in the same year a translation of ‘Claudius Ælianus Various Histories,’ London, 1665, 8vo; this was dedicated, like his father's edition of Æschylus, to Sir Henry (Puckering) Newton [q. v.] ”

“ He frequently accompanied Stanley abroad, and was with him in Italy just before his marriage and his decision to accept the deanery of Westminster in 1863; he was present at Stanley's deathbed on 18 July 1881. He declined an invitation to succeed Stanley in the deanery at Westminster, on the ground that he wished to remain what he had always been—a private person. He died, unmarried, on 13 April 1882, and at his funeral in Sonning church, on 18 April, Lord-chief-justice Coleridge, Matthew Arnold, Benjamin Jowett, John Walter, and Professor Goldwin Smith were among the principal mourners. ”

“ Almost as he spoke Stanley walked into the middle of the little group. I have never in the whole course of my life seen two men so thoroughly and entirely amazed. Mr. Harding dropped his cigar on the carpet, where he let it remain. They stared at Stanley as though they were looking upon a ghost. Both men seemed somehow to have lost their confident bearing— seemed to have shrunken into smaller, less assertive, meaner beings.
"Sixty thousand pounds," Mr. Bundercombe went on—"one-third of which belongs to Stanley here."
"Absurd!" Harding faltered.
"Nothing—nothing of the sort!" Densmore declared. ”

“ Stanley wrote that for the four months he had lived with Livingstone he never found a fault in him, and that though himself a man of a quick temper, with Livingstone he never had cause for resentment, but each day's life with him added to his admiration of him. A search expedition under Commander Dawson, R.N., and Lieutenant Henn, and including the Rev. Charles New and Oswell Livingstone, youngest son of the doctor, had been sent by the Royal Geographical Society and others to look for Livingstone, but meeting Stanley at Bagamoio, returned to England with him. ”

“ At the corner of Powell street he bumped rather unceremoniously into a tall figure, top-hatted, long-coated, carrying a stick.
"I beg your pardon," he apologized. "Oh--why it's Mr. Pickering."
"Where are you bound so--impetuously?"
"Home," smiled Stanley. "Jeanne and I are going to the show tonight." He was about to pass on when a thought struck him. "Got a minute to spare, Mr. Pickering?"
"Always to you, my boy," returned the editor of the Bulletin, with his old-fashioned courtesy.
"My boy ... you're wasting your time as a reporter. Listen," he laid a hand upon Francisco's knee. ”