Any didactic journalist who uses them is certain at once to
fall heavily on the artistic reputation of Mr. Burne Jones, to rebuke
the philosophy of Mr. Pater, and to hint that the entrance-hall of
the Grosvenor Gallery is that "by-way" with which Bunyan has made us
familiar. In the changes of things our admiration of the Augustan
age of our literature, the age of Addison and Steele, of Marlborough
and Aldrich, has become a sort of reproach. It may be that our
modern preachers know but little of that which they traduce. At all
events, the Oxford of Queen Anne's time was not what they call "un-
English," but highly conservative, and as dull and beer-bemused as
the most manly taste could wish it to be.
The Spectator of the ingenious Sir Richard Steele gives us many a
glimpse of non-juring Oxford. The old fashion of Sanctity (Mr.
Addison says, in the Spectator, No. 494) had passed away; nor were
appearances of Mirth and Pleasure looked upon as the Marks of a
Carnal Mind. Yet the Puritan Rule was not so far forgotten, but that
Mr. Anthony Henley (a Gentleman of Property) could remember how he
had stood for a Fellowship in a certain College whereof a great
Independent Minister was Governor. As Oxford at this Moment is much
vexed in her Mind about Examinations, wherein, indeed, her whole
Force is presently expended, I make no scruple to repeat the account
of Mr. Henley's Adventure:
"The Youth, according to Custom, waited on the Governor of his
College, to be examined.
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