New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-10-21

WRITER. LECTURER AND RECTOR OF
ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY.
London. Oct 2o-James Anthony FIR uie, Ii. d.
the celebrated religious writer and historian. died
at $50 o'clock this morning, aged seventy-sx
years.
AS historian James Anthony Troude WIS as
tinc:ivey a special pleader. 1T often seems 10 me-
ne wrote in lecture on the science o, history de-
lyered M the ROYAL Institution in 1854 las II history
was like chd's box OF letters, with which We can
spell any word please. We have only TO PICK ou'
such letters want arrange them as We IKE
and say nothing about those which do not SUIT our
purpose" Win such conception OF the HISTORICAL
method, an ordinary. conventional writer would have
been worse than useless 10 tire world. But froude
was not ordinary man He was unconventional
to a degree. The result Is that his work has proved
exactly the weight needed to restore equilibrium IN
many cases where views as one-sided and prejudiced
lis own. but 10 which he was opposed had OBJ
tai ned n fictitious Importance by constant iteration
He was a son Of Archdeacon r. H. Froude Of
srotnes and was born April g. 1878 His educa-
ton was obtained a Westminster and at orel Coz
Iege. oxford where he was graduated IN ISp seconn
class IN classics He took his masters degree IN
course. and in 1912 he sgnalzed his SIKH as III
erary workman a skill that never deserted him. by
carrying off the English prize with an essay en-
titled "rhe Influence of the Science Of Political
Economy the Moral and Social Welfare Of the
Nation" He became Fellow of Exeter College IN
the same year. and two years later he was ordained
a deacon In the Established Church OF England 40
far. at least externally. he following the GUS
tonlary path Of English youth Of good parts de-
signed by his family for the Church But now he
began 10 find the future thus marked out for him
an irksome to contemplate and burdensome to
fulfill With the training of a clergyman. he had no
taste for clerical duties. A few years later he de-
scribed in terms bitter enough that which he dis
h. rla aimed -
patter through two Sunday services. For little
money one OF them will undertake the others duty
Cor him. And what do they all aim at? Getting lv-
Sings? Not cures Of souls. but livngs something
which will keep their wretched bodies living in the
comforts they have found indispensable. What bus!-
have they any one of them. with thought Of
what becomes of their poor wretched selves at all?
To hear them preaching. to hear the words they use
IN these duties of theirs. would suppose
they really believed that getting on and getting rich
were quite the last things Christian should pro-
pose TO himself. They certainly say So" But by
this time Froude's antipahy TO the life for which
he intended had taken very definite shape and
ne had fallen under an influence diametrlcally OPP
posed 10 those that strongest in his education
Like Carlyle. he was a hero-worshipper. Like Car
lyle. he could create his hero out of very unpromis
ing material. But he lacked Carlyle's rugged self
reliance. His nature demanded living teacher
guide. He beginnings marked by the influence
quently Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church
This doubtless In large part due 10 his elder
brother, Richard Hurrell Froude extreme Trac
tartan. whose posthumous works were characterized
by Southey as the utterance of mistaken zeal. In
such an atmosphere he wrote THE Lives of the Eng
lish Saints In 1877 he published. under the pseu
donyme of Zeta. volume entitled Shadows of the
Clouds" which comprised two stories-"The Spirits
Trials and The Leutenant's Daughter" These
were significant only showing the irreversible bent
Of the authors mind toward exclusively literary oc-
equations
THE NEMESIS OF FAITH"
The break came in the following year with the
publication of a book famous in its day ard still
we'll known though probably now read, If read at
all. with indifference The Nemesis of Faith" in
view OF the fact that its author was thirty years
OF age. was a rather boyish piece OF work There
is in 1t but little which shows a profound study Of
religion from any point of view, least of all from
that Of the scepc. In appearance novel;
its structure lacked artistic well logical form.
Substantially it amounted to narrative Of the
experience OF a young of university educa-
ton who first convinced himself that the cardinal
doctrines of Christianity were invalid-that the
received theories of sin and the atonement. for
example, were not sustanable in good reason-and
then proceeded to put his negative opinions into
practice by seducing another mans wife A more
conclusive argument to justify the odium theo-
loglcum could hardly be conceived If right action
Is indispensable to correct opinions. il wrong acts
are the trustworthy index OF opinions held TO be
theologically unsound, all doubt is condemned at
the outset Froudes hero was morbid, perhaps
insane; he certainly lacked every glimmer Of com
mon sense which would have taught him. as it
has taught many another unSeliever. TO rule his
life rigidy for the very reason that his convictions
or want OF convictions must seem TO his contern-
porares the mark Of an erratic and misguided
mind. While the fiction portrays a soul In the
mazes Of doubt almost from the dawn Of child
hood, the execution Of 1t seems to show that the
author had really by his doubts In some
haste and at a comparatively late period In life.
There are signs of what may be called progress In
doubt to be gathered from the book Itself. Be
tween the lines 1t is record Of the transfer OF
allegiance which Froude was then making from
Newman to Carlyle. 1t betrays at least two very
distinct phases In this process OF transition. On
one Of the earlier pages the hero OF the book,
Markham Sutherland In represented as writing to
his friend Carlyle only raises questions he can
not answer, and seems best contented II he can
make the rest of us as disseminated as himself
Plainly, in pennng these lines the author felt him
self TO have drawn away from his old companion
ship but not yet to have taken up with the new.
But before he reached the end Of his book he was
in position 10 draw this forcble contrast between
the man who had been the leader Of his youth and
the man who TO be the guide of his mature
years:
an earnest believing man like Newman. who had an
eye to see 1t and to hear its voices?
foolish Church, chattering parrotlike old notes. OF
which II had forgot the meaning; clergy who not
only thought not at all but whose heavy ignorance
ment and who mlstook their FOOLS cap and bells
Tor crown Of wisdom and the music OF IN.
spheres. IL was worldly Chufch. yes. tnei
was no doubt of 1t: and being so. 1t early began to
scent danger to cry out and anathematIze the ne"
were trying to shame the clergy into more con.
sistent life by reminding them of the dignity OF
their office Newman had dared TO tell them tina
the armor pasteboard; the oil dying out Of
their lamps: that a tempest was rising which would
scatter them like chaff before 1t. And what
was his reward? He was denounced as Cassandra
prophet: bid go get him gone, snake the aust Iroii
on his feet and depart to his own place. lie took
them at their word and left the falling house no.
Without scorn. A little more sumber a little more
sleep 1t was the sluggard's cry: let them find tht
siuggards doom Blu, l had LEFT him. TOO: Dero a,
then living in this England think he was one OF