Synopsis
Excerpt from Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce: Lord Bishop of Oxford and Afterwards of Winchester With Selections From His Diaries and Correspondence
It is fitting to say a few words about the manner in which the three English volumes have been compressed into the single Ameri can one, without, it is believed, any substantial loss of interest or value. Much was gained, of course, by the use Of smaller print, and scarcely less by the careful excision Of unnecessary or unim portant words and phrases - lists of names, titles, trivialities, redun dancies, and repetitions of all sorts; most of which, especially to an American reader, tended rather to burden than to assist the un derstanding. Even the diary, although at the first glance it ap peared to be abbreviated to the utmost, was found to be suscepti ble of some further compression by leaving such entries as Home, supper, bed, after the mention Of the day's multiform labors, to be taken for granted - though possibly at the risk of leading some reader, amazed at the amount Of work accomplished, to infer that the Bishop seldom did go to bed Finally, it was often necessary to remember that it was not a history Of the English Church, dur ing a certain period, which was in hand - albeit, one might easily fall into that error - but a biography of one of her most illustrious sons. The real Object to be kept in view was a definite, compre hensive exposition Of the life, work, and character of Bishop Wil berforce, and of his influence upon his generation, so far as this was to be found in the original volumes - which, by the way, have been justly said to contain the materials for a good biography, rather than to be one. Therefore, the Bishop's own letters, speeches, and diaries have been largely retained, as well as the personal reminis cences and anecdotes of his friends while the commentary of his biographers, the details of public questions and controversies, and the more general and public papers, whereof the finer essence would less easily escape in the process, have been subjected to a some what more thorough analysis and condensation. In this way the dryness Of a continuous abridgement could be best avoided, and the more lovable, social, and domestic side of the Bishop's life would not be sacrificed to the public one.
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Product Description
Excerpt from Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce: Lord Bishop of Oxford and Afterwards of Winchester With Selections From His Diaries and Correspondence The press has not left us in ignorance of the way in which the "Life of Bishop Wilberforce" has been received in England. The wave of sorrow that swept over the nation, from the throne to the remotest province, at the announcement of his sudden death, has been succeeded, after nearly ten years, by a scarcely less general swell of indignation, on the completion and publication of his biography. The injustice which, during his life, so often held the Bishop accountable for the faults and follies of those with whom he was more or less closely connected, is repeated over his grave; and in the soreness and wrath caused by the injudiciousness of his literary executors, the real worth and beauty of his life is temporarily - we think only temporarily - obscured. For it is almost an insult to the intelligence of an unprejudiced reader to remark that the hasty, crude diary-notes and confidential letters which have made so much stir, were plainly never meant for other eyes than those of the writer or his intimate friends, and that he is therefore in nowise to be blamed for their publication. Not less for its own than others' sake, the kindly, sensitive nature therein portrayed would have protested against such a laying bare of its inmost areana to public gaze and comment. There arc portions which cannot be read without a sense of intrusion and embarrassment, as if one were caught listening at a neighbor's door. And yet, taken for just what they are, how well, on the whole, do these hasty outlines of a busy life bear inspection! - how interesting it undeniably is to look so freely into the depths of a real human soul! For it is the very man himself - with all his joys, sorrows, loves, resentments, ambitions, disappointments, mistakes, weaknesses, earthly gravitations, and heavenly aspirations - who is set before us wi
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