CHAPTER V.

 

SECOND VISIT TO GERMANY--  LECTURES AT BERLIN --

ARABIC STUDIES--  KOSEGARTEN -- LIFE AT BONN --

FREYTAG -- L†CKE -- SACK -- PUSEY'S RELIGIOUS IN–FLUENCE --

DEATH OF YOUNGEST BROTHER--OVER–WORK--DR. LLOYD, BISHOP OF OXFORD.

 

1826-1827

 

'Ardua moliimur: sed nulla, nisi ardua, virtus.

Difficilis nostr‰ poscitur arte labor.'

                                                         OVID, Ars Am. ii. 537-8

 

PUSEY'S first visit to Germany had whetted without satisfying his appetite for the studies which were now more and more identified with the central purpose of his life. He had been working for some time at Hebrew; and he already knew that a real knowledge of Hebrew requires a background of Arabic and the other cognate languages. His mind was also largely at work upon those questions concerning the authority and trustworthiness of the Sacred Scriptures, to which a knowledge of the Oriental tongues is ancillary; and he had made up his mind that a second and longer visit to Germany was already necessary. In December, 1825, he tells his brother that nothing was fixed as to a second visit but that he thought of going in June and returning in September. He had written to Dwight at Berlin, asking him to ascertain from Tholuck where he could best study Syrian. The purpose grew steadily as the spring of 1826 advanced. It was fostered, or rather brought to a practical issue, by Dr. Lloyd. In Lloyd's generous conception of his own office, it was not merely his duty to teach theology, but to encourage and assist younger men who gave promise of theological excel–lence and he had no doubt about Pusey. 'Lloyd sent me to Germany', Pusey would say in later years; and this was so far true that, but for Dr. Lloyd, the second, longer, in every way more important visit would never in all probability have taken place. At last the resolution was taken somewhat suddenly although, at one moment, it seemed not unlikely to be abandoned. In those days a visit to Germany involved a comparatively serious separation from home; and Pusey's father was now 81 years of age. He had been recently unwell and to leave England without his entire approval could not be thought of. Mr. Pusey told his son that in any circumstances he should be unwilling to interfere with plans designed with a view to his improvement; but that, as matters stood, there was no reason, 'more than ordinary' for remaining in England.

Pusey left England on June 17th for Berlin, and soon found himself among old friends. Neander was lecturing on early Ecclesiastical History and the two later groups of St. Paul's Epistles. Schleiermacher was setting forth the Principles of Practical Theology, and explaining the Epistles to the Thessalonians and the Galatians. Among younger men. Hengstenberg--now an Extraordinary Pro–fessor--had begun to lecture on Genesis, and to give private lectures in Syriac; while Bleek and Ullman were engaged, the first on Biblical exposition, the second on Church History before the Reformation. Pusey attended most of these lectures--certainty those of Schleiermacher, Neander, and Hengstenberg. In visiting Germany the second time, 'I went,' he says, 'with the double purpose of acquainting myself further with the German theology, and of learning the cognate dialects of Hebrew' and his attendance at lectures was regulated by this double object.

The summer of I826 was a very warm one, and during the latter part of the term the heat of Berlin proved very trying to Pusey. As soon as term was over he escaped into the country, and took a lodging close to Schönhausen, a place belonging to the King of Prussia, and lent by the King, for the summer, to the Duke of Cumberland. Here Jelf was hard at work as tutor to Prince George; and the Duke, with the consideration that marked all his dealings with his son's instructor, suggested to Jelf that his friend Pusey should live as near the palace as he could. The friends, however, could only meet at irregular times, as Jelf's day was pretty well taken up.

'The hours here,' Jelf writes to Dr, Lloyd, 'are very early. I dine regularly with the Prince at two o'clock. Although there are usually many visitors each day, yet we live on the whole quite a domestic life, as the dinner parties generally break up at five or six. Every evening I read to the Duke and Duchess some English book for about an hour. I have at present not much time without interruption for my own reading, at it is expected that I should spend the greatest part of the day with the Prince·.I believe you have heard from Pusey that he has taken lodgings in the same village He has received many attentions from this family, and we constantly meet in our walks. He is reading very hard. So long as here is it is superfluous for me to offer my services to you for obtaining books or information, but when he is gone I shall hope to he occasionally useful.'

Pusey followed his friends occupations with the closest sympathy, although, his own work was sufficiently exacting. On reaching Berlin he had at once plunged into Syriac and Chaldee, mainly, as it would seem, under the guidance of Hengstenberg, When he went to Schönhausen he set to work at Arabic. He had begun the language with Dr. Macbride at Oxford, and he now engaged the services of Herr Salomun Munk, who had studied Eastern languages at Paris under Chézy and de Sacy, and was then living in Berlin, and afterwards bad a distinguished literary career in Paris.

Munk used to come out from Berlin to Schönhausen five times a week, and on each occasion he gave Pusey a lecture of two hours' length. Pusey at this date spent from fourteen to sixteen hours a day working at Arabic. The vast vocabulary of that language; the almost endless multi–plicity of meanings assigned by the dictionaries to separate words;  the similarity of sound in many of the root-forms which makes it so difficult for a beginner to distinguish them from each other; and the ancient varied, and exten–sive literature, made a very serious effort necessary--so Pusey used to say--if a man wished to be a good Arabist. 'It was worth while', he added, 'to be an Arabist that perchance –something more might be known about the Sacred Language, than would otherwise have been possible.' But Pusey had to fall back again and again on this constraining motive in order to keep himself up to the prescribed measure of exertion.

'The great sacrifice,' so he wrote seven years afterwards, 'or, at least, what was to me such [in mastering Arabic], is that you must employ much of the time on non-Christian literature which you would have wished to bestow on the direct study of God's Holy Word. This was to me, again and again, in my course of study, matter of pain and almost hesitation and misgiving but, this sacrifice made, every–thing else appeared to lie in the lie of duty.'

But Pusey was not engaged only in the study of Oriental languages. Dr. Lloyd had asked him to furnish him with a complete list of the modern German commentators on St Paul, and of the estimate which had been formed of them in Germany. Two months had passed and Pusey in lengthy letter sends him the desired information, and adds :--

                                                                                                              'Berlin, Aug. 29, 1826.

Accident has brought me much nearer to Jelf than I should have conceived to be possible; but the excessive heat of Berlin, which had been bog oppressing me, compelling me at last to leave it, I have I have taken a lodging (at the Duke's recommendation) within 200 yards of the palace in which he is living, about four English miles from Berlin. The Professors with whom I was principally acquainted had previously just left it, and a language-teacher gives me lectures of two hours five times a week here, so that I am nearly as well off, even in this point, as if in Berlin itself. This vicinity to Jelf has been particularly gratifying in that I have been enabled myself to see the kindness and regard shown him by the family generally, and the real attachment the boy seems to feel towards him ·.

'Till the middle of the month I was employed (after a good deal of disappointment and uncertainty) in Syriac and Chaldee together (the languages being nearly the same). My Syriac instructor then left me suddenly and I cannot find one who will be at liberty before the middle of October. I have in the meantime recommenced Arabic, of which I had almost forgotten the little I ever learnt, though I have retained enough to be saved the first drudgery of a new language. I am promised that if I continue these studies till about the end of December with the assistance which I have here, besides a respectable knowledge of Syriac and Chaldee with as much Rabbinic as is necessary to read the best Jewish commentators, I shall have sufficiently mastered the difficulties of Arabic to be able without further sacrifice of time to avail myself of the aids to the interpretation of the Old Testament from the cognate languages...–.

My plan is, if you think it advisable, after continuing Arabic here till towards the middle of September, to read then a more difficult Syriac historian (Bar-Hebraeus) with Professor Kosegarten (an eminent Orientalist) in Greifswald; then to return here till the end of November, in which time, beside assistance in Arabic and Rabbinic, I shall hear (which I am anxious to hear) a solution from a good theologian and Hebraist of the difficulties raised as to the authenticity of the later chapters of Isaiah and after that to spend a month in Bonn, if; as I hope, I ran obtain private lectures from a Professor there (the first Arabic scholar in Germany), returning a little before the recommencement of your lectures in the middle of January·'

At a later period of his stay, Dr. Lloyd commissioned Pusey to make inquiries about the Catechism of Justus Jonas and the text of the Augsburg Confession: on both these points, Pusey sent him elaborate replies.

In  September, Pusey left Schönhausen for Greifswald. He was glad to escape from the heat and dust of Berlin to the breezy shores of the Baltic, but he was also attracted by the name of Professor Kosegarten, an Oriental scholar of high distinction. Tholuck in vain endeavoured to persuade him to settle at Halle.

                                                                  DR. A. THOLUCK TO  E. B. P.

[Translated.]

                                                                                                                               Sept., 1826.

I have a great longing to see you, my dear beloved friend. I shall come to Pankow to-morrow, and I beg you to go to Prediger Weiss, and let him send for me·.I hear you want to go to Greifswald for the sake of your Arabic and other studies. Will you not choose Halle instead ? You can have public and private instruction from Gesenius; and if you wish for my assistance in Arabic or any other language I am willingly at your service. Your company at Halle would give me so much pleasure that I should readily do all I could to make your visit useful and agreeable. Think it over. Perhaps you will change your plan, and gladden me with your society at Halle. More, then, by word of mouth, With all my heart,           Yours,
                                                                                         A. THOLUCK.

But this proposal came too late. Pusey had already made his arrangements with Kosegarten ;and he set out for Greifswald to read Arabic and Syriac for some weeks.

Kosegarten, in whose hands he now placed himself, had studied divinity at Greifswald, and then, like so many other young Germans of his day, had gone to Paris to learn Eastern languages from Silvestre de Sacy. After remaining in Paris during the last two years of the First Empire, he returned to lecture at Greifswald in philosophy, theology, arid Church history. But his true line was the study of language–. In 1817 he became Professor of Oriental Languages at Jena; and although in 1824 he had returned to Greifswald as Professor of Theology, his chief interest was still linguistic.

 With this distinguished scholar Pusey read the Syriac historian, Bar-Hebraeus, but he devoted most of his time to Arabic. Kosegarten was at work on his Arabic Chrestomathy, and he was preparing his edition of the Taberi Annals. In these enterprises he commanded his pupils warm sympathies. When Pusey returned to Eng–land he enlisted subscribers for the Annals; and he makes honourable mention of both works in his continuation of Dr. Nicoll's Arabic Catalogue. In Arabic he read the Life of Saladin with Kosegarten, who (as he tells a younger friend, for his encouragement) although one of the first two Arabists in Europe, often 'had to turn out words in the dictionary,' though he was never was at fault about construction. During his stay at Greifswald, Pusey lived with the family of the warm-hearted professor. He made great friends with his little boy, Gottfried, and taught him fragments of English. 'The little one,' wrote Kosegarten, in 1828, 'still remembers the two English words, "pear"and "apple," which he learnt from you'. His wife, his brother-in-law Grädener, his eldest boy, all looked upon Pusey as a friend whom they could trust and love. Pusey was too deeply indebted to Kosegarten not to regret that his visit to Greifswald was necessarily so brief.

The Professor corresponded with Pusey for some years, mainly on subjects connected with Arabic literature and his own efforts in relation to it. He encouraged Pusey to engage on a new translation of the Old Testament. That he understood Pusey's deepest interests is plain from his recommending the second fasciclus of the Taberi Annals on the grounds of its account of the first invasion of Mesopotamia by the forces of Islam, and of the sufferings of the Christians. He was delighted at the completion of Nicoll's Arabic Catalogue by Pusey, and warmly recom–mended it in Germany; and he made considerable demands upon Pusey's time in relation to the Arabic MSS. in the British Museum and at Oxford. His letters are rarely wanting in the domestic element and signs of mutual personal interest.

After a two months' stay at Greifswald, Pusey returned to Berlin in the middle of November. There he received letters from Hawkins and Newman, urging him to under–take for two years the duties of a tutorship at Oriel. The Provost, Dr. Copleston, desired it. Promotion had lately weakened the teaching staff at Oriel: Tyler had become Rector of St. Giles' in the Fields, Jelf was at Berlin. Before writing to Pusey, his Oxford correspondents had extracted from Dr. Lloyd some expression of opinion to the effect that it would be 'useful, or, at least, not unadvis–able,' for Pusey to accept the offer. Pusey was in great perplexity, and wrote to Dr. Lloyd, as usual, for counsel. He hoped that the College would sanction his proposal to undertake a theological lectureship--as distinct from the classical tutorship: otherwise he offered to resign his fellowship rather than give up his Oriental studies.

In a letter to Newman, Pusey explains himself in the same sense as to Dr. Lloyd, but states more fully his plans, feelings, and ideas.

                                                       E.B.P. to REV. J. H. NEWMAN

                                                                                           –Berlin, Nov. 25, 1826

As Hawkins will receive a letter by the same post which brings you this, containing the only two offers which, much as I regret it, under the circumstances I can make, the only purport of this letter is so convey to you my sincerest thanks for the kindness of yours, for the high grounds upon which you have rested your wish for my compli–ance, and for your friendly anticipations of the mutual interest with which we should act together. My letter to Hawkins was so filled with other explanations that I had not room at the last to thank him for the similar expressions of kindness in his. I do strongly feel them; and I do hope that what I have offered to undertake may be considered sufficient to enable me to act with you. I fear that you will particularly feel the conditions which I have been obliged to annex; yet you will not require theological lectures equally with myself: your private studies have been, and will be, more theological than mine; you are more in the habit of teaching other things, and have more power of abstracting yourself from them when not actually engaged in them. The labours of Oriel, the subsequent ill-health and weakness, the time expended on the Essay, the unfortunate circumstances of my friend, and the consequent examination of Dupuisianism, the immediately ensuing study of German, the subsequent application to Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, have made my studies miserably desultory, and kept me at a distance from the core of Theology. You, too, in making your private reading theological, would have nothing to abandon. If my public tuition were not theological, my private reading must be, and this would involve the loss of my past labours, and how or when I could recover them I know not; probably never.  In England we have no idea of the time which is usually employed, and which ought to be employed, on these languages. Hebrew is here universally commenced at school, probably at fourteen; Arabic fre–quently a year or two later, at al events at the University; we think twenty-two or twenty-three a proper time for entering on the study of the language of one portion of our Scriptures, and if the rest are learnt at all, they necessarily follow at a still later period. Yet I will not weary you with these complaints; I only mention the subject in my excuses. Learnt at his period, their natural difficultly of retention is of course beyond measure increased; and unless I bestow still a considerable period of time upon them, I shall infallibly lose them; and with them should lose the power of executing what I have most at heart, and only have at heart, because I hope it will be useful.  –More of this in my letter to Hawkins. If, however, as I propose, I were made Theological Lecturer, I should of course take the greatest interest in the lectures, would spare no pains to make them useful, and yet should probably have time to keep up in some measure these languages. This I should really like; I should he glad of some active employment; I should he glad also of the stimulus it would give to my own mind; of the opportunity it would give me of correcting my miserable deficiency in expressing myself; and not least, I can assure you, to be enabled thereby to mitigate, however partially, the labours of my friends. With the consciousness of these advantages, I might perhaps be expected to offer more, yet no one but myself can know the structure of my mind and memory, nor see how fatal my undertaking more would be to my object. I need not tell you that I shall take a deep interest in the most important, the moral, part of the office--to do my best for those more especially committed to my care, or to give any quantity of my time to those who attend my lectures, and wish to consult me on points connected with them·

I hope that I need not say that I should introduce no German Theology into my lectures; and on points upon which I should have any difficulties I know my colleagues and Dr. Lloyd would be ready to give me their advice, and I should certainly consult them. I should also of course combine the reading of the best, the most orthodox, and most right-minded of our own divines.

You will be glad to hear that I am satisfied on some points, on which I have mentioned to you that I did not see my way clearly--such as the genuineness of the whole of Daniel, and the application to our Saviour of some of the Psalms--to which I before saw difficulties. My having felt these difficulties will not probably be an objection to my being entrusted with the office I propose, as had they not been removed, God forbid that I should ever have unsettled the opinion of another upon them.

I have not been able to execute your commission about the Fathers in the manner in which I wished. The only two I have yet purchased are Chrysostom (Francf.), 12 vols., I think, for £3; Theodoret, £1 4s. (at Bohn, £5 5.s.). An auction, however, is approaching in which I shall probably bid for Coteler. Patr. Apostol., Clem. Alex. (Sylb.), Tertullian (Rigalt), Hist. Eccl. (Vales)., Greg. Naz. (Col.), Cyril Jerus. (Milles, Oxon), Cyprian (Joann. Ep., Oxon), Optatus (Paris), Jerome (Fref. u. M.), lrenaei fragmn. anecdot. ed. Pfaff, and possibly Augustine (Bened.), but your namesake here is so anxious to possess it, and some of his pupils to give it him, that if they collect sufficient to purchase it, as you do not immediately want it, I must give it up to them. As Jelf will probably remain some time here, there will probably be many other opportunities of procuring it. I also bid for a Plotinus for you, and some smaller Fathers. Should you not wish for some of these purchases, some I should very readily keep myself, others I could easily exchange. I rejoice to hear that you an learning Hebrew, and that you already relish it. I need not say that I shall he glad to give you any assistance in my power. I even think, if my other offer is accepted, of proposing a voluntary Hebrew lecture, if approved of, within the College, as I think many might come to me who would he alarmed at going to Nicoll; but I must feel my way and my strength first, as I should give a good deal of time in she preparation of the other lectures; teaching, however, is one of the best ways of acquiring accuracy in a language, as indeed in everything. You will he glad to hear that Jelf has finally determined upon learning it also; and the final formation of his resolution was owing to your letter.

I had almost forgotten so say that the only part of my letter to Hawkins about which Jelf hesitated, was my offer under any circum–stances to resign my Fellowship. I told him that I did not think, as I had guarded it, that it could be misconstrued into anything but a sincere wish that if I could not serve Oriel by my presence, but could by vacating my Fellowship to one who could, that, however I should regret the bond which joins us, for the sake of Oriel I should wish to do it. I do not think this a nugatory offer, and if the College will be better served thus than by my undertaking the Theological department, I myself entreat it may be done.

In this state of uncertainty, if my rooms are changed, prey let -- he informed that he is on no account to abate a single penny in his valuation of furniture to he paid for by a Fellow, as he is reported to have stated to Des Veaux it has been his practice to do·

Would you have The kindness to ask Dornford to be so good as to pay for me, if he has any money of mine, £5 5s., or if there is any larger donation than this at Oxford, £10 10s., to the Christian Know–ledge Society Schools in India, and £2 2s. annually, or if there is any larger subscription, more·.

Pray express my sincere regrets to Ogilvie that I have accidentally proved thus unworthy and useless a Secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. If, however, I am continued, I will endeavour to be more efficient next year.

This letter faintly expresses what I mean. but I am wearied by the sleeplessness of the last nights·..

The answer to this proposal reached Pusey at Bonn. He waited for it with an anxiety which he does not disguise from Newman. Jelf bad encouraged him to hope that the answer would be favourable and he pictured to himself the satisfaction of 'at last commencing an active life,' of improving himself by having to teach others viva voce, and 'possibly of amending the ill habits which I early and imperceptibly contracted, of a broken and indistinct delivery.' The Fellows of Oriel, however, did not entertain his proposal favourably, They wanted a classical tutor; and as Pusey was not to be had, they were considering the claims or Mr. Hurrell Froude and Mr. R. I. Wilberforce. Pusey was much disappointed. 'The lectures,' he wrote to Newman, are in better hands; though I again sink into practical inactivity, without at present a prospect of altering it.' As he was still working at Arabic fourteen hours a day, his 'practical inactivity' was not so serious a calamity as the expression might seem to suggest. In reply to a gentle rebuke from Newman for low spirits, from which he supposed Pusey to be still suffering, Pusey adds:--                                     

                                                                                                            'Jan. , 1827.

'Thank you for the hortatory parts of your letter, though they are more applicable to what I was when I left England than what I am now·. I do not now, however, suffer from those fits of depression of spirits which oppressed me during the last six months in England; God be thanked, partly through prayer, in some measure perhaps because my objects are not so immediately before my eyes, and I am absent from the scenes of active employment, which I am sacrificing perhaps for an imaginary end; partly from impressing on my mind that if these two weak arms fail of their object, God has thousands of better labourers who are cultivating His vineyard. Through these means, but principally through the first, the return of these attacks became less frequent, and yielded when they did come more rapidly; they now visit me seldom, and I am upon the whole comfortable.'

In visiting Germany Pusey had from the first proposed to attend the lectures of Professor Freytag, at Bonn, who became, if he had not become, the first Arabist in Europe. This intention would have been strengthened by Pusey's intercourse with Munk and Kosegarten and before return–ing front Greifswald to Berlin in November, he had opened communications with Freytag.

Freytag was thirty-nine years old and almost at the height of his great reputation. He had studied theo–logy and the Oriental languages at Göttingen and Paris. In 1819 he became Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Bonn, and in 1826 he was deeply engaged on the great work of his life, his Arabic Lexicon--the publication of which began in 1830, and was com–pleted in 1837.

Pusey reached Bonn on December 5th ; and besides attending Freytag's public lectures, went to him also for private instruction in Arabic. They used to read together the Life of Timur and the Hamasa, which Freytag was editing. He soon came to be on intimate terms with the great Arabist, whom he associated with Kosegarten, and to whom, both in private and in public, he ever acknowledged his indebtedness.

For many years after Freytag was duly informed of all that went on at Pusey and in Oxford, and his pupil was admitted to share his own domestic hopes and not a few of his financial anxieties.

–Freytag introduced Pusey to several remarkable persons, among others to Ewald. In the German Universities, the student who makes the necessary arrangements between the professor and his class is called his 'famulus.' The famulus is generally the professor's best pupil. Ewald was Freytag's famulus, and Freytag recommended him to Pusey as a companion with whom he would find it useful to read Hebrew and Arabic. They were at the time very intimate; Ewald was delighted when Pusey became Hebrew professor, and wrote warmly in praise of his Arabic Catalogue. In later life they were indeed widely sepa–rated and when Ewald last visited Professor Max MŸller at Oxford. he hesitated to call at Christ Church, not know–ing whether Pusey would like to see him 'after all that they had written about each other.' Pusey was at the moment away from Oxford, but when Professor Max MŸller told him on his return about Ewald's scruples he laughed heartily, and said that he should have been delighted to see him again.

But although Pusey's work at Bonn was mainly if not altogether philological, its influence upon him was by no means confined to the sphere of scholarship. The theolo–gical faculty at Bonn was penetrated, nay ruled, however indirectly, by the commanding influence of Schleiermacher. Nitzsch, Sack, and LŸcke--but especially LŸcke--were at once the disciples and, each in his own sense, the interpreters of the master at Berlin; and during his seven months' residence Pusey became more or less intimate with the entire staff of Protestant theological professors at Bonn–. Certainly by far the most interesting theologian of the school of Schleiermacher with whom Pusey became ac–quainted at Bonn was G. C. F. LŸcke, who had been Pro–fessor of Theology there since 1818. LŸcke was, per–haps, beyond any other of Schleiermacher's pupils, his interpreter to the rising generation. In 1857 LŸcke was only 34 years old but his career was already distinguished. He had his hands full of literary work besides his lectures and he endeavoured to engage Pusey, in the compilation of a .Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology.' Pusey--as LŸcke thought--knew enough of German theology to carry out the idea. In this way he would serve both the English and the German Churches and would vindicate the latter from the charges to which it was exposed in England. LŸcke seems to have thus given one of the suggestions which led Pusey a year later to write his first book on the theology of Germany. They corresponded for some time. But as years went on, their theological paths diverged; Pusey was getting less and less able to follow him: but he heard of LŸcke's death in 1855, with sincere sorrow; he had a 'vivid memory of LŸcke's kindness and his genius.'

But there was another of the professors at Bonn, less eminent in after years than those already mentioned, but more definite in his religious faith. This was Karl Heinrich Sack, who after studying law at Göttingen, had read theology under Schleiermacher. After the peace of 1814 he visited England, and on returning to Berlin he published his 'Views and Considerations on Religion and the Church it, England.' After taking his doctor's degree at Berlin, he became in 1818 assistant professor and in 1823 full pro–fessor at Bonn, where he was also Pastor of the Lutheran Congregation from 1819 to 1839.

Sack was a disciple of Schleiermacher, but he had more respect than his master for the authority of the Old Testa–ment and he took fewer liberties with the traditional teaching of the Lutheran body. Although he was not a man of the ability and accomplishments of LŸcke and Freytag, his practical religious seriousness would have won Pusey's respect and affection; and during the spring of 1827 they became intimate with each other. Sack's letters to Pusey are full of warm affection, and they freely and naturally express his genuine piety and keen interest in thin cause of religion. Pusey was often at his home, the appointments of which were simple and unpretending. It was natural that Pusey should turn to a friend with whom he was thus intimate, and who knew more of England than any one else in Bonn, when in the following year he was anxious to show, in reply to Mr. Rose's lectures, what he considered to be the true character of German theology.

Of other prominent men with whom Pusey was well acquainted at Bonn were Augusti, who became an authority on Liturgical Antiquities; Gieseler, the celebrated Church historian; and the celebrated Aristotelian scholar, C. A. Brandis, who was now engaged with E. Bekker upon the great critical edition of the works of Aristotle which appeared at Berlin in 1831.

Pusey's visit to Bonn had other features than the intellectual aspects of academical life might suggest.  He saw more of German domestic life and society than at Berlin or Greifswald. He had some difficulty in keeping out of duels, then as now common among students in a German University. During his walks into the country he sometimes forgot, through absence of mind, or rather through preoccupation with his studies, to observe the rule of the road, and this was looked upon by some fiery young Germans as an intended insult. He was challenged on more than one occasion, but there must be two parties to a duel as to any other sort of quarrel, and his antagonist was softened and amused by discovering the true state of the case. With several students, however, he was on terms of intimacy, and particularly with a young Dane, who, like himself, was interested in Oriental studies, L. N. Boisen. Boisen was a serious and hardworking student, and a man of warm and affectionate disposition. When he made Pusey's acquaintance he was living a care–less life; he describes his own character as 'not entirely barren, but overgrown with thorns and thistles.' From this indifference or worse he was rescued by the influence of his English friend. They were on the most familiar terms, and read for Freytag's lectures in each other's company; but the main substance and result of their intercourse is best described in Boisen's own words:--

'Your pious working in my poor neglected soul has not remained without blessings. I should be most ungrateful towards the heavenly Ruler of my paths if I did not first of all say loudly, nay rejoicingly, that you have in me saved an erring soul and have led it to the one good Shepherd·. Truly, I look to you as to him who has begotten me in Christ Jesus though the Gospel·and I must hope that you whom God has chosen to awake and bring to life my better self, might also be destined to protect and foster whatever is good in me.'

While Pusey was at Bonn he used to make time for visiting the sick and poor. When his eldest niece was travelling in Germany after her father's death in 1855, she discovered some interesting traces of this:--

'When at Bonn in 1855 I gave my name at a shoemaker's shop and the woman asked if I was related to the great Professor. Rather surprised, I said yes, and asked why she inquired. She brightened up, and said that while he was there as a student her mother had been very ill, and that be used to come and read and pray with her.'

Although absent from England he did not forget home ties. His brother William was ten years his junior, and was now about leaving home for Oriel. Pusey always had a kind of paternal relation to him, and the following fragments of a very lengthy letter, illustrating this relation, cannot be read without interest.

                                                        E B. P. TO W. B. Pusey–

                                                                                                    Bonn, Dec. 9, 1826.

While I remained in England, and we had constant opportunities of seeing each other at intervals not very distant, our filling up those intervals by corresponding was less necessary, and I therefore indulged my own occupation and your idleness in not pressing it.  Now, however, that my stay abroad is again so long protracted, all communication between is thus cut off: his should not be. At your age each year makes so much alteration that I should have my acquaintance with a great part of you to make for the first time, and you would think me grown old and grave at once. At this important period, too, of your life, when you are throwing out boyhood and beginning in real earnest the pre–parations for your future usefulness, it will be useful to you to have near you a friend somewhat older·The more I know of your occupations and habits the better--what progress you have made in any branch of study; how you relish it, what difficulties you find in it; for what you have most taste, or what employments you dislike. I cannot promise that my advice will always be what is at the moment the most agreeable, nil sine mango vita labore dedit mortalibus: if you wish to get at the nut you must crack the shell; but having trodden the same ground not long before you I can promise that the roads I show you will be the best.

[Here follows a sketch of a course of classical study']

Recollect that our English holydays are too long to be spent in mere amusement. We should be like the animals who sleep half the year·.

Of what is called Divinity, of the contents, historical or doctrinal, of the Bible, and of any illustrations of them, Eton boys are generally shamefully ignorant: with the contents, however, of the historical books of the O. and N. T, and of the prophecies generally, you, I hope and believe, are acquainted: if, however, you have not read the historical parts of the O.T. lately, it would be well that you should read them straight through·I should have been glad to have been able to have pursued the reading of the Articles with you: they axe important not only as being Articles, of the truth of which you will hereafter have to declare your conviction; but as containing a clear and concise statement of the doctrines of our religion, so that a Commentary upon them comprises at the same time the explanation and proof of the truths which God has revealed to us. At present Tomline's second volume would be the easiest you could take, and it might be well to read it on the first sixteen Articles, and from the 25th to the 29th or to the 31st (those on the Sacraments).

You must now be nearly or quite tired; I will therefore only add two pieces of advice on the manner of reading any of your books.

(1) Whatever you are engaged in, be 'totus in illis'; do it with all your heart and mind: it will soon add immeasurably to the interest and, could there be degrees of what is immeasurable, I should say more than immeasurably to the usefulness of your employment. When you but half attend, the things themselves of course make but a slight impression, and you lose all insight into the connection of what you read, and often but half see even the detached parts ; one strong effort often does more to make your way through a difficulty than a thousand petty one·When you are tired, leave off; but do not mistake restlessness for fatigue: this habit you must acquire, if you ever hope to be useful, r wish to acquire real knowledge.

(2) Do not content yourself with half knowledge of what you read. Nothing is more tempting; novelty hurries one on to what is beyond; the exertion necessary to fix what it before us in our mind deters us from pausing on it; one thinks one can fix it at some future time·

This reminds me of what I had nearly forgotten, that I should wish you to learn your Hebrew letters, and if your sister will teach you a little, so much the better. Every clergyman ought to know it [Hebrew]; it is a disgrace to us that it has been so much neglected: but this neglect, as many others, is now wearing away, and I hope very many of your standing will learn it. You should also begin reading regularly your New Testament in Greek, and it would he well to take a Commentary·You might read a chapter of a Gospel daily; in reading you should attend to the difference between this and other Greek: a chapter a day is easily read; it will make the Gospels familiar to you as they ought to be, and you will find no little benefit from the habit.

In conclusion, I need scarcely say that as learning, though indis–pensable, is yet but a subordinate par of the business of a Christian, should you find yourself in any circumstances where the advice and assistance of one some years further advanced than yourself would be useful to you, all I can do I will at any time most readily and eagerly do for you. Write me then a full account of yourself, and do not be alarmed et the length of this letter; my future ones shall not be so formidable. I much envied Jelf a letter from his William as full as this. I arrived here on last Tuesday, being detained in Berlin by an act of civility of The Duchess of Cumberland. I have, however, to-day made an interesting acquaintance, and shall soon know the rest of the Theological Professors here, some of whom are very valuable men. I much wish I could spend some part of my Christmas at Pusey, but cannot. God bless you.

                                                               With best duty and love,

                                                                             Your very affectionate,

                                                                                               E. B. P.

But a great sorrow was awaiting both the brothers, and indeed their whole family, in the death of Henry, the youngest of the sons, and a general favourite. His bright manners, now and then varied by a flash of rough temper which served as a foil to them and at once passed off, were very endearing. Had he lived he would, it was thought, have been more like his father than any of his brothers. He had only returned to Eton a few weeks when he caught a chill, which was followed by fever. His parents were at once sent for, but when they reached Eton all was over.

When the sad news reached Pusey, for some days he could make little way even with his work for Professor Freytag: he thought that he might have done more for his brother whom he had lost. He had in fact had other work to do but it was his way, even in early life, to take shame to himself for neglecting duties which it would have been difficult for him to discharge.

Writing to Bishop Lloyd two months later, Pusey refers to the subject in this sense:--

'[My brother] was ripening into an advanced boyhood of much promise of heart and mind· With the shock of this sudden void in our family and the sorrow of my parents were united [my] regret, that I had in the last two years contributed next to nothing to his improvement; that his happiness would now have been greater had I better discharged my duties of a brother. It may be that we have not so much influence on the future happiness of others, or its degree, as appears to be entrusted to us, and as it may sometimes be useful to think we have. But this is no source of consolation.'

The sorrow was still fresh when, four months after his brother's death, he wrote to Newman; his letter shows that he was already feeling his way towards that privilege of intercession for the departed faithful, which he afterwards showed to have been taught by St. Paul, and which afforded him no much support and consolation in the sorrows of his later life:--

'It was indeed a mysterious dispensation; and the struggle [to submit to God's will] brought me very low. They are not separated who are not visibly with us. Dare one pray for them? Will you answer me when I see you? Nothing, I am sure, can be found in Scripture against praying fur the dead.'

 

As early as December 1826, and previous to the shock caused by the death or his brother, Newman had, as has been suggested, taxed Pusey with overworking himself. That this imputation was not unfounded Pusey admits, in guarded language, when writing to Dr. Lloyd in the following February. Since his arrival in Germany his only relaxation from his self-imposed severe rule of work had been during his journeys and the fortnight spent in Berlin on his return from Greifswald. Still he must go on until June, if he was to become a good Arabist. Upon this point Freytag was explicit: and Pusey felt that he must obey. But he adds:--

'I am annoyed at this long absence from theology, and at this so predominant exertion of memory. And I fear that you have, possibly on account of a wish which I expressed, altered the books which you have in these terms read with your theological class. But I have done my utmost and must now, at least fur a time, diminish my exertions. I am not unwell, but fatigued, and might soon become [unwell]. Pray do not name this to Bouverie, or so that it should reach my family.'

Dr. Lloyd replies:--

                                                                                         'Ch. Ch., March 30, 1827.

'MY DEAR PUSEY,                             

I was very much distressed by the account you gave of yourself in your letter; and though I hope at signs of indisposition have passed away by this time, yet I must really warn you very seriously against over-exertion and confinement You know me well enough to believe that l would not check you, if I did not think it necessary; but what advantage can it be, either to yourself or the world, that you should kill yourself with study? Besides, I cannot forget that I have a fearful degree of responsibility belonging to myself in this case, as I consider myself to have been, in a great degree, the cause of your German travels. What will your family think of me, if you should kill yourself with studying with your German Professors?

'So send me word that you are quite recovered, and that you do not propose making yourself ill again, and that you will not work more than half as hard as you have done hitherto

'Observe that this in said in all seriousness, and no, as heretofore, half in joke, half in earnest.'

Pusey could not comply with the command to send word that he was quite recovered. He had to admit some two months later that he was in very indifferent health indeed, which he attributed, not very accurately, to the weak–ness of his constitution. His constitution was, in fact, a very good one, but he was subjecting it to an undue strain. However, he was not without occasional intervals of prudence-          

                                                                                                     'Bonn, April 22, 1827.

I am now using every precaution to prevent a recurrence of illness; taking daily exercise; reading as much as I can in a cheerful garden; leaving my books as soon s fatigued ; varying my Arabic studies, though but in a small proportion, with Hebrew and Syriac; besides having made one or two excursions. It is now more than ever neces–sary forms to remain till the end of June.'

Pusey's German friends were not less alive to the real danger of his ruining his health than were his friends in England.

'You will, I trust, pardon me,' writes Professor Freytag, when, by right of our friendship, I recommend you not to work immoderately. –Zeal for science, and for the well-nigh unattainable objects of science, is apt to tempt us to over-exertion. Thus we ourselves, and science through us, suffer. The mental faculties resemble those of the body in this respect, that while moderate exertion strengthens, excessive exertion weakens and cripples them. And, my dear friend, while devoting yourself to sciences, do not forget the great world of men. Each exists for the sake of the other, and they should not be dissociated.'

While Pusey was reading at Born, Dr. Legge, the Bishop of Oxford, died, and the see was offered to Dr. Lloyd. He was consecrated at Lambeth on the 4th of March, 1827, by Archbishop Manners-Sutton, assisted by the Bishops of London, Durham, and Chester. He retained his Professorship; an arrangement which, if possible then, would certainly have been impossible when the diocese had been enlarged by the addition of Buckinghamshire and Berk–shire. Oxford men generally, and Pusey in particular, were delighted at the appointment. A report that it had been made found its way to Bonn; and this report was followed by a letter from Dr. Lloyd announcing it to his friend and pupil. Pusey replied, in terms of hearty, but somewhat conventional congratulation, natural to him at the time, but which would not have been employed ten years later, when his sense of what was involved in high office in the Church had been solemnized and deepened.

Pusey's sojourn in Germany was now over ; it had done him two great services. It had made him a Semitic scholar, and it had largely familiarized him with the history of modern Protestant speculation on religious subjects. He had been brought into contact with several eminent men, especially of the school of Schleiermacher, whom to know was to admire on the score of high character and great personal accomplishments. They had taught him to feel more than ever the vastness of the world of theological enquiry and their examples, and to a certain extent their methods, were cherished arid followed by him to the last days of his life. They could not give that which they did not themselves possess : it was their business, in the order of Divine Providence, to till and fertilize the soil for its reception.

On the 24th of June Pusey left Bonn for England, re–turning by way of Rotterdam, and having amongst his luggage little less than a library, he reached his father's house about the middle of July.

 

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