xt7qjq0stw34_5046 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection Charles Kingsley letter fragment and obituary clipping text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. Charles Kingsley letter fragment and obituary clipping 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_58/Folder_79/Multipage27099.pdf 1875 January 30, undated 1875 1875 January 30, undated section false xt7qjq0stw34_5046 xt7qjq0stw34 ///@/@/29f

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 CANON KIXCSLEY.

Tm: accounts we received while we were going
to press last week left little room for hope, and
few, we imagine, of Canon Kingsley‘s many friends
were taken by surprise when, on Saturday evening,
they heard of his death. His decease removes from

among us a considet‘ab e fivure in contemporary

,, " , and vet lew wi l deny that ten-

or fifteen years ago the loss would have stirred the
public more deeply than it does now. The causes
that led to the decline of Mr. Kingsley’s popularity
were many, and we can but briefly touch upon.
them. First and foremost, no doubt, he had

brought out no important work of late years ; but.

there were other causes at work. His influence
was weakened by the general decline of the Broad
Church party—a decline due partly to the fact
that the thought of the day has rejected the Broad-
Church compromise between scepticism and ortho-
doxy, and partly to the intellectual feebleness and
nauseating cant of many who claim to be of the
party. Mr. Kingsley also suffered from the terrible
onslaught of Dr. Newman, an onslaught which
made clear to the world what keener observers
already knew, that with all his brilliant gifts, Mr.
Kingsley was neither an accurate logician nor a-
profound metaphysician; and he was further in—
jured by his appointment to the chair of Modern
History at Cambridge. Although his published
Lectures were too severely handled at the time of
their appearance, and much of the criticism they
encountered was spiteful and unfair, still neither
by previous study nor by nature was he fitted for
the post, and he did a courageous and wise act-
When he resigned.

Mr. Kingsley’s reputation will eventually, we
suspect, rest upon ‘Alton Locke.’ That striking
novel probably occupies a permanent place in
literature, and in it we plainly see the two main
influences that moulded the writer’s opinions. A
great horror of the Calvinistic theory of Rewards
and .Punishments was the basis of his religious
onmons— "

Is selfishness for a time a sin,

Stretched out into eternity celestial prudence?
And coming early under the influence of Mn.
Maurice, he embraced with ardour the doctrines
of that great theologian, whose chief work, "l‘he
Kingdom of Christ,’ appeared just after Mr.
Kingsley took his degree. With these he, curiously
enough, combined the teachings of Mr. Carlyle,
especially in ‘ Sartor Resartus’; and clothing the
doctrines he had thus imbibed in a dramatic and
vigorous form, he at once attained a wide—spread
popularity. It may be objected that both in
‘ Alton Locke’ and in ‘Yeast’ he raises questions
which he by no means answers; but this artistic
incompleteness did not tend to diminish the imme-
diate effect on his readers.

“’0 cannot at all agree with the critics who
consider ‘Hypatia’ and ‘Westward Hol’ llélr.
Kingsley’s ablest fictions ; while we recognize their
many merits, and especially the beautiful descrip-v
tions of scenery in the latter, they seem to us less
sincere and real than their two predecessors. His
later works do not call for much remark. He
himself said, “No man can write a novel after he-
is forty”; and though the maxim will not always.
hold good (Scott began his career as a novelist
when he was forty-three), ‘Hereward’ certainly
confirms it. Many of Mr. Kingsley’s essays are
charming; the descriptive passages in ‘At Last"
well deserved admiration, and his sermons are full
of eloquent and striking passages; but, after all,
he delivered his message in his first two novels.
That the fiery advocate of “Christian Socialism”
became in his latter years somewhat of a Con—
servative was natural enough, and was not due to
any want of courage and straightforwardness on
his part. Courage and straightforwardness were,
indeed, ever his characteristics, and enabled him
to take the popular side at a time when for a

clergyman to do so was almost a phenomenon.

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