...

death of Whately. But he declined the archbishopric, as he declined the bishoprics of Oxford, Durham and London. Nolo episcopari was no idle form of words with him. Apart from the historical associations connected with "the great Abbey," the deanery had for him the special attraction of absolute independence, an independence which he conspicuously asserted when Archbishop Tait gave the Archbishop of York permission to consecrate the Bishop of Durham in the province of Canterbury, designating Westminster Abbey. Thereupon the Dean, leading his chapter, made proclamation, to avoid any misconception and to prevent the establishment of an awkward precedent, that “ we do not intend to acknowledge any jurisdiction or authority of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury over us, the said Dean and Chapter or our collegiate church,. and we have granted the use of our said collegiate church in pursuance of the mandate of Her Majesty the Queen." So broad a Churchman was he, carrying into his tolerance much of the aggressiveness and courage which more frequently accompanied narrowness and bitterness, that he often offended his straiter brethren and was held to err on the side of hospitality to dissenters. Taking the ground that the Establishment could not be too national, and that the agreement between Christians of varying sects was of more importance than the difference, he almost justified the remark that he was a "secular saint," and not quite out of hand-shaking range with Renan. December 28th, 1865, he celebrated the eight hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Westminster Abbey. In 1867, at the assembling of the Pan-Anglican Synod, he declined to grant the use of the Abbey for the Synod, though expressing a hope that the members might see their way to attending at the Abbey to promote some special object in connection with home or foreign missions of unquestioned importance, or for the promotion of brotherly good-will and mutual edification. For Americans Arthur Stanley always had a special predilection. Many bishops from the United States were invited by him to preach in the Abbey, and it was in his time that a colored preacher first occupied the pulpit of that venerable minster. He allowed Max Müller and several Presbyterian divines to lecture there; and when, February 17th, 1871, in the lower House of Convocation he defended his conduct in the matter of the "Westminster Communion," and declared that nothing should prevent him from acting on the principle upon which he had acted when he was the celebrant in Henry VII.'s chapel, he quoted the words of American bishops as to the true catholicity of the English Church. It is only a little while since the Dean was present at the induction of the late Dr. Cummings's successor in the Scotch Church, Covent Garden. No Methodist was a more earnest and sincere admirer and eulogist of the two Wesleys, and almost his last literary work was a discriminating review of the hymns of the gifted brothers who founded the great dissenting English sect. In his wide human sympathy John Bunyan found an honored place, and when, June 10th, 1874, the famous Baptist's statue was unvailed at Bedford-"in a certain place where there was a den "— the sermon in his honor was preached by the Dean. Schools and associations of workingmen found in Dean Stanley the most patient and courteous as well as the most eloquent and accomplished of guides through the chapterhouse and the Abbey; and it is only two years since he was the cicerone of a large party of young Catholics, to whose society he gave the privileges of a private view and his own company.

It is not surprising, after all, that at the time of the selection of preachers for Oxford in 1872, Dean Goulbourn should have entered his protest against choosing Dean

Stanley for throwing "the whole weight of his high character, his brilliant abilities and his eminent position " into the support of a "school which seeks to eliminate from Christianity both its supernatural and its doctrinal element," and that when this protest failed of its object Dr. Goulbourn should have resigned his own preachership with the remark: "The line must be drawn somewhere, but my complaint against the Dean of Westminster is that he seems to draw it nowhere." This complaint Dean Stanley undoubtedly regarded as the highest compliment that could have been paid him, particularly as it was accompanied by this striking declaration : "Our convictions as to truth and right differ very widely, but I can sincerely say that I wish I were habitually as true to my convictions as I well know you have always been to yours." The Abbey, as a great historical monument, gained immensely with the English people in interest and attractiveness under Dean Stanley. The work of cleaning and restoring was prosecuted not only with generous ardor, but with judgment and taste, and supplemented by the abolition of the droning old vergers who with their singsong and their sixpences had vexed so many generations of visitors. He multiplied the number of choral services and gave them a more distinctly musical character. This was an act of positive heroism, since he was not only indifferent to the sound of music, like Louis XVIII, but positively suffered from it. An old London story credits him with saying of Jenny Lind that she was charming in spite of her mania for music.

The character of Dean Stanley as a thinker and writer has been sketched as follows by Mr. J. G. Rogers, of England, in his "Anglican Church Portraits":

"It is hardly possible to commend too highly the character of It is not only that he is amiable, for many men are the man. beauty. A man whose thoughts are always thoughts of peace; that; but in him there is a rare combination of strength and

who regards the region of controversy as a low-lying valley, ever wrapped in cloud and mist, which an earnest Christian will desire to avoid. He has the boldness of a lion in the vindication of his opinions, even though he is gentle as a lamb in his conduct to the champions of error. It is not easy, it seems almost impossible, to ruffle his temper, or to narrow the flow of that expansive charity which marks all his judgments of men and their opinions; indeed, the tenderness he shows to great evils or errors at times becomes almost provoking. Yet he never hesitates in the utterance of his own strong convictions, nor shrinks from the most compromising proceedings if he estimates them right, and feels that they may fairly be required of him.

"The Dean is a prolific author, but his hand loses nothing of its cunning by constant exercise. His style is always charming, and he seldom touches a subject without presenting it in some new light and adorning it with fresh beauty. In his noble catholic spirit he is specially fond of doing honor to departed worthies whose creed and ecclesiastical associations were different from his own. Thus, at Bedford he pronounced a magnificent eulogy on John Bunyan; at Kidderminster one not less striking on Richard Baxter; and still more recently he came out of the solitude into which his heavy sorrow has plunged him to speak of the great work of John and Charles Wesley."

Dean Stanley's personal activities were by no means confined to his native country. In 1852-53 he made an extensive tour in the East, visiting Egypt, Arabia and Palestine, and gathering there materials for his work on those countries. In 1862 he again visited the East, in company with the Prince of Wales. In 1878 he visited this country in search of health and rest, and was greeted everywhere not only with the respect his genius com manded, but with warm personal friendship. During his stay in America he addressed the students of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and preached at Trinity and Grace Churches. He also met a number of

prominent Baptist preachers, and was given receptions by the Methodist Episcopal clergy and the Century Club.

At the Century Club reception, in response to an address of welcome by the Rev. Dr. Adams, Dean Stanley spoke in part as follows on his personal impressions of America:

"There are two impressions which are fixed upon my mind as to the leading characteristics of the people among whom I have passed, as the almanac informs me, but two short months. Everything seems to be fermenting and growing, and yet I have been no further West than Niagara. As I stood in the moonlight

at that great work and ceaseless labor of nature and saw it for the first time, it looked to me like the incessant activity and tireless, restless, beating whirlpool of life and existence here. In the everlasting tumult of the abyss I saw the undying push and activity of America. In the mist-cloud that rose in the moonlight I saw images somewhere of American destiny. In the silver column that rose silent into the night I saw the watchful power that should be the pillar of light to the posterity of each nation. The other impression I have had very strongly forced upon me is the ever-present hopefulness and buoyancy of the people. Ready ever to step forward and try again what had been abandoned as beyond the grasp of the older people of Europe, they work night and day to supersede these progressions by new devices and new methods.

"This will probably be my last visit to this Western World, and

I have likened it to Wordsworth's Yarrow unvisited, Yarrow visited, and Yarrow revisited. The third stage would not in all probability be a full fruition, but if it was, I should come to a land of kindly homes, where I had been treated as the best and with the best. But even were it never to be my pleasure to repeat this visit, I can recall it in the cordial greetings of my American friends abroad. I have a fervent hope and an abiding belief that the bond which fastens America to the mother-land will never be broken, but continue and grow even stronger.

"Near the shores of Lake George, the Loch Katrine of America, I saw an oak and a maple so joined that they seemed like one tree. I am reminded by this of the old oak of England, with its gnarled and twisted root, and the 'young shoot of America, with glorious promise for the future. May the union of the two trees on one root be always typical of the union of America and England !"

Dean Stanley was married in 1862 to Lady Augusta Bruce, daughter of the late Earl of Elgin, and a most intimate friend of Queen Victoria. Her death in 1876 was the occasion of extraordinary manifestations of regard for her memory and sympathy with her bereaved husband both in England and in the United States.

Dean Stanley was a favorite at Court, and was always ready to bring about an informal interview when the Queen wished to meet a person of literary distinction. It was in that way that she met Thomas Carlyle at the Dean's residence, when the sturdy historian amazed the courtiers by violating royal etiquette so far as to inquire for the Queen's health and ask her to sit down. When the monument to the late Prince Louis Napoleon was proposed, Dean Stanley offered a site for the memorial in Westminster Abbey. The Dean withstood bravely the foolish outcry which this act caused, but when the House of Commons declared its disapproval he promptly bowed to its decision. One of his last clerical acts was to defend the revised edition of the New Testament.

The Presbyterian Assembly at Asbury Park, N. J. FOR a number of years past representative men in the Presbyterian Church have been considering the expediency of establishing a vast assembly at a time when most of the churches are closed and the pastors absent on vacation, and at a place that would be attractive and accessible to all. The project has been put into practical form this season, and the Seaside Sabbath-school Assembly, for conference and mutual edification, which was opened at Asbury Park, N. J., on Tuesday, August 2d, under the

auspices of the Synod of New Jersey, and closed on the 12th instant, is the first important effort of the Presbyterian Church in this direction. Educational Hall, on the corner of Second and Grand Avenues, the Presbyterian Church directly opposite, the Presbyterian Tabernacle on the corner of Second Avenue and Bergh Street, and a monster pavilion on the beach, were in turn used for the services. During the assembly, daily discussion was had, and prayers invoked on specified topics, including Christian literature, Sabbath-school missions, science and the Bible, the Sabbath, revivals, foreign missions and home missions, besides which there were a Temperance Day and a Children's Day.

The attendance was very large, both of the clergy and laity. While questions of exceeding great moment to the Church were discussed, the exercises were agreeably interspersed with illustrated lectures on popular astronomical topics, Japan, Oriental life, the use of the microscope, the Dark Continent, etc., besides entertaining "chalk talks" on live and appropriate subjects, and displays of stereopticon views for the children, and concerts and other vocal exercises.

On Sunday, August 7th, the theme for the day was revivals. Prayer was led by Rev. William Harris, and a general meeting for prayer and conference on the theme was held in the Tabernacle. The sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson. In the afternoon there were a Sabbath-school assembly in the Tabernacle, a women's meeting in the church, and later a young men's meeting in the Tabernacle. In the evening a very largely attended service of praise was held in the Ocean Pavilion on the beach, led by Professor C. C. Case.

MOTHER AND CHILD. (DANÆ AND PERSEUS). (From Simonides.)

CLOSED in the fine-wrought chest,

She felt the rising wind the waters move.
Then, by new fear possessed,

With action wild

And cheeks bedewed, she stretched her arms of love
Toward Perseus: "O my child,

What sorrow wrings my breast!
Whilst thou art sunk so deep
In infancy's calm sleep;
Launched in this joyless ark,
Bronze-fastened, glimmering dark,
Yet, pillowed on thy tangled hair,
Thou slumber'st, nor dost care
For billows past thee bounding
Nor breezes shrilly sounding,

Laid in thy mantle red, sweet face, how fair!
Ah! but if Fear

Had aught of fear for thee,
Thou even to me

Wouldst turn thy tender ear.

But now I bid thee rest, my babe; sleep still!
Rest, O thou sea! Rest, rest, unbounded ill!
Zeus, Father, some relief, some change from Thee!
Am I too bold? For His sake, pardon me!

OUR POLL.

THERE was a parrot well known to our family (says Wood, the naturalist) which was able to speak in two languages, and when addressed, always replied in the language used by her interlocutor, speaking English or Portuguese as the case might be.

I never yet met with any owners of pet talking-parrots who had not come to the conclusion that the birds not only imitate human language, but that they understand