Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce: Lord Bishop of Oxford and Afterwards of Winchester With Selections From His Diaries and Correspondence The press has not left us in ignorance of the way in which the "Life of Bishop Wilberforce" has been received in England. The wave of sorrow that swept over the nation, from the throne to the remotest province, at the announcement of his sudden death, has been succeeded, after nearly ten years, by a scarcely less general swell of indignation, on the completion and publication of his biography. The injustice which, during his life, so often held the Bishop accountable for the faults and follies of those with whom he was more or less closely connected, is repeated over his grave, and in the soreness and wrath caused by the injudiciousness of his literary executors, the real worth and beauty of his life is temporarily - we think only temporarily - obscured. For it is almost an insult to the intelligence of an unprejudiced reader to remark that the hasty, crude diary-notes and confidential letters which have made so much stir, were plainly never meant for other eyes than those of the writer or his intimate friends, and that he is therefore in nowise to be blamed for their publication. Not less for its own than others' sake, the kindly, sensitive nature therein portrayed would have protested against such a laying bare of its inmost areana to public gaze and comment. There arc portions which cannot be read without a sense of intrusion and embarrassment, as if one were caught listening at a neighbor's door. And yet, taken for just what they are, how well, on the whole, do these hasty outlines of a busy life bear inspection! - how interesting it undeniably is to look so freely into the depths of a real human soul! For it is the very man himself - with all his joys, sorrows, loves, resentments, ambitions, disappointments, mistakes, weaknesses, earthly gravitations, and heavenly aspirations - who is set before us with rare fidelity of self-portraiture. And how many of us could better endure such an ordeal? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.