ART. VI.-LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BISHOP DOANE.

The Life and Writings of George Washington Doane, D. D., LL. D., for twenty-seven years Bishop of New Jersey, containing his Poetical Works, Sermons, and Miscellaneous Writings, with a Memoir by his son, WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE. 4 vols. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1860.

BISHOP DOANE's Life and Writings form an important contribution to the history and the literature of the American, and therefore of the Universal Church. Whatever may be the estimate of the Bishop, or of the author, whatever the praise or the censure of his various works, there can be but one opinion as to the importance of the part which he took in many prominent movements of his time. There may be a question as to the proportions of the work before us, nor do we suppose that the four massy volumes, to which it expands, will ever be familiarly handled. Some compression will be called for, and the result will be an octavo or two, which will be read, and re-read, and constantly used in quickening and maturing the purposes of Churchmen and Churchwomen for many a generation. To the present collection the historian or the student will have more frequent recourse than the general reader, after personal associations with its subject have died away. But for the time, the extended plan is perhaps the better one; it meets more inquiries, it excites more sympathies, it stirs more pulses; and it may be said to be no more than was due, both to and from the contemporaries of Bishop Doane, as a large photograph of his manifold relations with them, his influence, his labor, his temper, his hope. It is seldom, at all events, in our branch of the Church, during its comparatively brief existence, that we encounter a single figure, so surrounded on all sides, so involved in great efforts and great interests, so provided with opportunities for action and for strong action, as the late Bishop of New Jersey. We have in these volumes, then, the materials for becoming acquainted with a leading

figure of the age, and we accept them, as we should be bound to do in any circumstances, with respect, and, as we have them from the hands of a son, with sympathy.

A recent writer speaks sadly of the unfinished picture which the character of any eminent man presents, as it "remains in history." It is something to be sad about; for, be the lines of such a picture ever so bold, or its colors ever so fresh, there never can be any adequate portrayal of all the impressions and desires, the trials and sacrifices, the prayers and praises, that make up a complete character. But the great man "remains" in history, we are inclined to think, a more finished portrait than he entered it; time has brought out what is most real, and obliterated what was most arbitrary; it has diminished the pressure of detail and softened the tone of face and form and attitude. It is a thought which should lead us to hesitate at portrait-painting, or at contemporary portrait-painting, and by painting we mean the work of the observer or the reader, quite as much as that of the biographer; and the more marked the features, or the more striking the movements, the more hesitation there ought to be about plunging into caricature, magnifying whatever suits us beyond all reasonable bounds, or on the other hand, curtailing whatever does not suit us within the limits of our own prejudices or our own judgments. To get an idea of heights and distances as they are to appear in history, we must separate ourselves from them, we must reject all artificial expression, all local distortion, in short all that results from personal feeling or temporary circumstance. Half the difficulty in knowing those, among whom we have lived, consists in our thrusting ourselves within the framework which should be filled up by them, if we are really to know them. We make ourselves, as it were, the subjects of other men's biographies, and then wonder at the different views which are taken of them, as if they were really the objects of contemplation or of criticism. Sacrifice of self is the one great requisite to the knowledge of things terrestrial, as it is to that of things celestial.

The principal writings of Bishop Doane have been collected in the volumes under review. The First contains copious ex

tracts from his works, as parts of the Memoir, as well as his poetical writings under their early title of "Songs by the Way." The Second consists of Charges and Sermons, most of which, as the editor remarks in the preface, have been in print before. The subjects of these episcopal writings are of the loftiest character; the Church, her Faith, her Ministry and her Work in all its solemnity and all its power, form the vast orbit through which the preacher moves with sustained energy. The Third volume contains sixty-one Parochial Sermons, arranged, as the editor remarks, in "no very definite order," but with the Sermons for the Seasons in sequence, and the last of the collection the last preached by the Bishop on the evening of Passion Sunday, 1859, its subject, "Sin's Wages and God's Gift," and its closing words an appeal to our Lord and Saviour, "Help us to rise to righteousness; that, bearing here Thy Cross, we may hereafter share Thy Crown." It would be necessary to transcribe the table of contents in order to give any idea of the variety of topics treated, and to copy large portions of the text in order to exhibit the power with which they are treated. It is a remarkable volume. The Fourth and concluding volume comprises the Educational writings, and Orations. Foremost are the nine Baccalaureate Addresses to Burlington College, the Sixteen Graduating Addresses to St. Mary's Hall, with other Addresses and Sermons relating to both Institutions, the last of which, and the last of the Bishop's writings, is the Sixteenth to the Graduating Class at St. Mary's-an Address so tender and so touching that one can hardly fancy its being altered, had he who wrote it known that it was his farewell for his life to his children. The miscellaneous contents of this volume are full of interest; the Sermon at the Consecration of the Parish Church, Leeds, 1841, "an occasion of Catholic inter-communion, which has gladdened many hearts, as the new dawning of a brighter day;" the Sermon at the Church of the Advent, Boston, 1851, in commemoration of the the Rev. Dr. Croswell; the Oration before the Lady Managers of the Mount Vernon Association, Burlington, 1859, "One World; One Washington." It must be clear, even from this brief summary of the four volumes, that they form a collec

tion, which must be directly consulted and reverently examined, in order to be in the least degree appreciated.

The most striking stamp upon the collection is its singleness of character. Familiar truths meet the reader on every hand, familiar expressions greet him continually; nor would he have it otherwise, if he believes that the great Articles of our Faith, as well as the great principles of our literature, are not those which are originated, as the phrase is, by our generation, but those which we receive from older and holier sources. The Clergyman who said that the highest compliment his sermons could receive was that they were common-place, felt himself to be dealing with doctrines as venerable as the Creation, and interests as old as the human race, and he desired his people to feel as he did. This is the spirit of Bishop Doane's writings. He makes no claim to the discovery of new truths, for he does not believe that they are to be discovered; he accepts what has been communicated to him, and considers it more than sufficient to exercise and to strain his powers. To such a writer it is refreshing to turn after the weary wanderings, upon which the creative geniuses, as they style themselves, of modern literature sometimes tempt us, notwithstanding all our experience of their incapacity. Bishop Doane leads to no perilous heights or gloomy abysses; he walks, and we follow, with steady eye and unfaltering step, where the air is full of light, and the path is one of pleasantness and of peace. The influence of the Church and her laws of thought is constantly present, and a sense of confidence comes over us, which it is one of the greatest successes of an author to inspire.

But the singleness of Bishop Doane's literary character is not achieved at the expense of all other desirable qualifications. The sound writer is very often the dull one, not because he is sound, but because he is merely sound; because he says nothing for himself, expresses nothing personal, shows no idiosyncrasy by which we can distinguish or recall him. Of such soundness there is something too much in the current literature of the Church, and we are thankful that it is not swollen by the contents of these volumes. Bishop Doane is an author as fresh as he is single-minded. He recognizes every standard

to which he is bound to conform, but he conforms to it as a living thinker and as a living writer; speaking out what is in him, and not simply what is in others; rarely sinking into mere repetition, but original in expression, and sometimes so original as to be careless or even affected. His punctuation, a trifling matter in itself, becomes of some consequence as an illustration of his literary life; it has its theory, and one which he formed in deference to what he considered the laws of the language, but it is so much his own as to be peculiar, and peculiar even to a fault, breaking up the long-rolling wave into feeble ripples, and really interfering with the breadth of his discourse and the effect of his doctrine. Farther, as there is a freshness that weakens as well as a freshness that strengthens thought, so Bishop Doane's power was frequently diminished by the readiness with which idea succeeded idea, and expression succeeded expression; it was often rather fluency than freshness to which he yielded, or, if actual freshness, it was that which escapes its proper bounds and loses depth in proportion as it acquires surface. But whatever exceptions may be allowed, the rule holds good; and Bishop Doane will be regarded, in the Church and out of it, as one of the most animated writers of his period. Test him, not by the larger and more elaborate efforts of his pen, but by its simpler effusions; read what he says to his graduating classes at St. Mary's Hall or Burlington College, finding new topics and new treatments of topics for occasions so apparently exhausted; and we feel the mastery with which he arrests our attention and excites our interest.

As a preacher, Bishop Doane was remarkable for other qualities than those of his general authorship. The directness of his sermons is very striking. No one that heard him, no one that reads him, could doubt his meaning or the application of the principles which he proclaimed. Never had trumpet a less uncertain sound; one blast, and men knew what was waiting at the portal; they heard the summons to repent, to throw off their sins, to put on the whole armour of the Christian, and to lead or to follow in the conflict of the Church against the world. No besetting temptation, no presumptuous sin was spared; forgetfulness and passion, pride and idolatry, all stood