Mansel

“ Mansel incurred much odium as having been Henry's chief adviser during the long era of his unpopularity, and also on account of his vast accumulation of preferment. An ecclesiastic only from the custom of his time, he was no doubt more at home in the council chamber or even the battle-field than in the church. But whatever his demerits, he must certainly have been a capable and diligent administrator. ”

“ Perceval, the prime minister, selected Mansel for the bishopric of Bristol, to which he was consecrated on 30 Oct. 1808, and in his capacity of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster the same 'friend' presented him to the rich rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet in Yorkshire. He died at the master's lodge, Trinity College, on 27 June 1820, aged 68, and was buried in the chapel on 3 July. ”

“ In July he went over with the king to France as keeper of the great seal, but resigned the office on 10 Oct., and after that date is again called the king's secretary. He returned to England with the king on 20 Dec. When open war broke out in the following spring, Mansel was one of the chief objects of the barons' wrath. After sheltering for some time in the Tower, he proceeded stealthily with the king's son Edmund to Dover, and thence on 29 June crossed over to Boulogne, Henry of Almaine, then a supporter of De Montfort, pursuing him in hot haste. ”

“ When at the parliament of Oxford in June 1258 Henry had to assent to a new scheme of government, 'the provisions of Oxford,' Mansel was named one of the royal representatives on the committee of twenty-four, and was likewise a member of the council of fifteen, having previously been one of the two royal electors appointed for its choice. In March he was associated with the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester and others in the mission to France, which led to the abandonment of the English king's claims on Normandy. ”

“ Mansel was ordained in the English church on 30 June 1783, was recommended by Trinity College to the Bishop of Ely for the sequestration of the living of Bottisham, near Cambridge, where he inserted in the registers a singular entry recording the death of Soame Jenyns (Wrangham, English Libr. p. 296) , and was presented by his college, on 6 Nov. 1788, to the vicarage of Chesterton in Cambridgeshire. While tutor at Trinity College he numbered among his pupils the Duke of Gloucester and Spencer Perceval, and was generally known as the chief wit and mimic of academic society. ”

“ Mansel has discarded as a fiction any 'absolute law of duty,' it is hard to conjecture whence he could derive any compulsory choice of rules. Why God commands some things in preference to others—whether from a regard to the happiness of all his creatures, or of some only; whether with, a view to his own glory, or from conformity with some abstract notion—has been much disputed, and it is quite conceivable that he may not adopt any of those objects. ”

“ When Mr Mansel, in the extract quoted, speaks of "two selves," I cannot suppose him to mean that, according to my doctrine, there are two separate selves involved in the process of cognition, although his words might seem to imply that such is his understanding of my position. The ego, which is known by itself, is one and the same with that which knows itself. The other grounds on which Mr Mansel dissents from my system have been already dealt with, in the answers which I have given to my other antagonists. ”

“ In the case of Nagpur there had been no adoption; but the British resident, Mansel, advocated the continuance of a native government on the ground that it would conciliate the prejudices of a native aristocracy, admitting at the same time that ‘if the public voice were polled it would be greatly in favour of escaping from the chance of a rule like that of the late chief in his latter years.’ Mansel's proposal was supported by Colonel (afterwards Sir John) Low [q. v.] , but was negatived by Dalhousie and the other members of the council. ”

“ Herbert Spencer, in the ‘prospectus’ of his philosophical writings (issued March 1860) , said that he was ‘carrying a step further the doctrine put into shape by Hamilton and Mansel.’ F. D. Maurice (whom Mansel had already criticised in 1854, in a pamphlet called ‘Man's Conception of Eternity’) attacked Mansel from this point of view in ‘What is Revelation?’ Mansel called this book ‘a tissue of misrepresentations without a parallel in recent literature,’ and replied in an ‘Examination.’ Maurice answered, and was again answered by Mansel. ”

“ In 1842 she returned to Cosgrove. In 1838 Mansel won the prize for English verse and a Hebrew medal given by Sir Moses Montefiore. In 1839 he won two of the four chief classical prizes, and on 11 June 1839 was matriculated as a scholar of St. John's College, Oxford. He was a model undergraduate, never missing the morning service at chapel, rising at six, and, until his health manifestly suffered, at four, and working hard at classics and mathematics, while at the same time he was sociable and popular. ”

“ General Mansel rushing into the thickest of the enemy, devoted himself to death; and animated by his example, that very brigade performed such prodigies of valour, as must have convinced the world that Britons, once informed how to act, justify the highest opinion that can possibly be entertained of their native courage. Could such men have ever been willingly backward? ”

“ Mr Mill repudiates the explanatory hypothesis tendered by Mr Mansel, as a solution, but without suggesting any better hypothesis of his own. For ourselves, we are far from endorsing Mr Mansel's solution as satisfactory; yet we can hardly be surprised if he considers it less unsatisfactory than no solution at all. And when we reflect how frequently and familiarly predicates applicable to man are applied to the Supreme Being, when they cannot possibly be understood about Him in the same sense—we see no ground for treating the proceeding as disingenuous, which Mr Mill is disposed to do. ”

“ Accordingly Mr Mansel combats as a heresy of his opponents, the opinion that infinite goodness differs only in degree from finite goodness.—Here, then, I take my stand upon the acknowledged principle of logic and of morality; that when we mean different things we have no right to call them by the same name, and to apply to them, the same predicates, moral and intellectual. ”

“ Maurice, of the Church of England, in an able pamphlet—have opposed with great force the arguments and conclusions of this volume. It is true that some Orthodox divines consider that Mr. Mansel has demonstrated that the human consciousness is unequal to the speculative conception of a Being at once absolute, infinite, and personal, and seem gladly to have the aid of this book in defending the Trinity. ”

“ Not the least of its praises was Mansel's confession, years after its appearance, that this was the book which 'more than any other gave me a taste for philosophical study.' Chalmers was so impressed that he tried to secure for Morell the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh. ”

“ I have said well nigh enough concerning speculative writers and theologians, but it is necessary to mention here Henry Longueville Mansel1820-1871, who succeeded Milman as Dean of St Paul's. Mansel was a vigorous defender of the Anglican position. "The Limits of Religious Thought" was the title of one of his books; "Metaphysics, or the Philosophy of Consciousness, Phenomenal and Real" was another, but he crossed swords with many disputants, with F. D. Maurice, with J. S. Mill, and indeed he was ever a fighter, subtle and skilful. ”

“ The philosophy of Mansel, like that of Sir William Hamilton, was mainly due to Aristotle, Kant and Reid. Like Hamilton, Mansel maintained the purely formal character of logic, the duality of consciousness as testifying to both self and the external world, and the limitation of knowledge to the finite and “conditioned.” ”

“ Mansell?" he remarked, inquiringly.
"Oh, no; he is in trouble. A near relative of his was murdered in cold blood the other day, and under the most aggravating circumstances. Haven't you heard about it? She was a Mrs. Clemmens, and lived in Sibley. It was in all the papers."
"Ah, yes; I remember about it very well. And so he is her nephew," he went on, recklessly repeating himself in his determination to elicit all he could from these young and thoughtless misses. "A peculiar-looking young man; has the air of thoroughly understanding himself." ”

“ Mansell selected a fine birch of long, thin, green twigs, and leaving my drawers open behind, ordered Jemima to stand in front of her.
Mrs. Mansell, whisking her birch, said, "I feel sure this young lady is in the secret, but we shall get nothing out of her, she is so obstinate, but I will try my best.
Sir Eyre. Now, Miss Rosa, tell the truth if you want to save your bottom; are you quite as sure as ever of your own innocence?" ”

“ Although far from easy to follow, his lectures were heard by large audiences. They made a great impression when published, and led to a sharp controversy. Mansel's theory was a development of that first stated by Sir William Hamilton in his article upon ‘The Philosophy of the Unconditioned.’ He aimed at proving that the ‘unconditioned’ is ‘incognisable and inconceivable,’ in order to meet the criticisms of deists upon the conceptions of divine morality embodied in some Jewish and Christian doctrines. ”

“ MANSEL, HENRY LONGUEVILLE (1820–1871) , metaphysician, born on 6 Oct. 1820 at the rectory of Cosgrove, Northamptonshire, was the eldest son and fourth of the eight children (six daughters and two sons) of Henry Longueville Mansel (1783–1835) , rector of Cosgrove, by his wife Maria Margaret, daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom. The Mansels are said to have been landowners in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire from the time of the Conquest (Historical and Genealogical Account of the Ancient Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel, by William W. Mansell, privately printed in 1850) . ”

“ Mansel was not a more frequent lecturer than the somewhat indulgent conditions of the English Universities, especially Oxford, even [Pg 353] after the Commission, required; but his deliverances were of exceptional importance, both in conception and expression. At the death of Milman, his political friends being in power, he was made Dean of St. ”

“ It should be some consolation to those he has left behind him, that his reputation was as unsullied as his soul was honest; and that he died as he lived, an example of true courage, honour, and humility. On the 24th General Mansel narrowly escaped being surrounded at Villers de Couché by the enemy, owing to a mistake of General Otto's aide-de-camp, who was sent to bring up the heavy cavalry: in doing which he mistook the way, and led them to the front of the enemy's cannon, by which the 3rd Dragoon Guards suffered considerably."—Extract from the Evening Mail, May 14, 1794. ”

“ Mansell was a fine figure of a man, and beside him the other looked slight, even weedy. But his face and head spoiled him. Both were small and mean, and gave the impression of a low order of intelligence. Yet he was reputed one of the finest sawyers in the valley, and a man, when not on the drink, to be thoroughly trusted. Before he went away to the Yukon with Jim he had been a teetotaler for two years, and on that account, and his unrivaled powers as a sawyer, he had acted as the other's foreman in his early lumbering enterprise. ”

“ He argued that belief in God was reasonable, although our conceptions of the deity were inadequate; that our religious beliefs are ‘regulative,’ not ‘speculative,’ or founded rather upon the conscience than the understanding, and that a revelation was not only possible, but actual.
While carrying on this controversy Mansel was actively employed in other ways. In 1859 he edited (with Professor Veitch) Sir William Hamilton's lectures. ”

“ Completing an Unfinished Stanza It is related that Dr. Mansel, of Trinity College, Cambridge, by chance called at the rooms of a brother Cantab, who was absent, but had left on his table the opening of a poem, in the following lofty strain:
290“The sun’s perpendicular rays
Illumined the depths of the sea.” Here the flight of the poet, by some accident, stopped short, but Dr. Mansel, equal to the occasion, completed the stanza in the following facetious style:
“And the fishes, beginning to sweat,
Cried ‘Damn it,’ how hot we shall be.” Sonnet to a Cow
Why cow, how canst thou be so satisfied? ”

“ One fine afternoon, however, being in the garden with the housekeeper, I remarked to her, "What a pity it was grandfather let the nectarines hang and spoil, and no one allowed to taste them."
"My dear," said Mrs. Mansell, "if you take two or three he'll never miss them, only you must not tell that I said so, it's a shame to let them rot."
"But, Mrs. Mansell, that would be stealing," I replied.
"When nothing's lost nothing can have been stolen; it's only a false sense of honesty, and you, the little mistress of the house," she urged. ”

“ He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality. [Dr. William Lort Mansel (1753-1820) was, in 1798, appointed Master of Trinity College, by Pitt. He obtained the bishopric of Bristol, through the influence of his pupil, Spencer Perceval, in 1808. He died in 1820.] ”

“ John Maunsell or Mansel, to whom the town of Wigan is indebted for its first charter of freedom. This remarkable man was distinguished rather as a soldier, diplomatist, financier, and statesman than as an ecclesiastic ”