* Vaughan's Modern Pulpit, p. 87.
' " Authority of tlie IMagistrate in Religion Discussed," &c., by J. H.; whom Anthony Wood (Atheti. Oxon., iv. 101) supposes to be John Humphrey.
^ Wood's Athen. Oxon., ibid. — We subjoin Wood's own caricature : "While he [Owen] did undergo the same office, he, instead of being a grave example to the university, scorned ;ill formality, undervalued his office by going in quirpo like a
HIS VICE-CHANCELLOESHIP. XLiX
addressed the assembled heads of colleges, when he assumed the helm at Oxford with tremulous hand, yet with firm determination to do his utmost to discharge his high stewardship.
" I am well aware," said he, " gentlemen of the university, of the grief you must feel that, after so many venerable names, reverend persons, depositaries and preceptors of the arts and sciences, the fates of the university should have at last placed him as leader of the com- pany who almost closes the rear. Neither, indeed, is this state of our affairs, of whatever kind it be, very agreeable to myself, since I am compelled to regard my return, after a long absence, to my be- loved mother as a prelude to the duties of a laborious and difficult situation. But complaints are not remedies of any misfortune. Whatever their misfortune, groans become not grave and honourable men. It is the part of an undaunted mind boldly to bear up under a heavy burden. For, as the comic poet says, —
« ' The life of man Is like a game at tables. If the cast Which is most necessary be not thrown, That which chance sends, you must correct by art.' ^
•' The academic vessel, too long, alas ! tossed by storms, being almost entirely abandoned by all whose more advanced age, longer experi- ence, and well-earned literary titles, excited great and just expecta- tions, I have been called upon, by the partiahty and too good opinion of him whose commands we must not gainsay, and with whom the most earnest entreaties to be excused were urged in vain, and also by the consenting suffrage of this senate; and, therefore, although there is perhaps no one more unfit, I approach the helm. In what times, what manners, what diversities of opinion (dissensions and calumnies everywhere raging in consequence of party spirit), what bitter passions and provocations, what pride and malice, our academi- cal authority has occurred, I both know and lament. Nor is it only the character of the age that distracts us, but another calamity to our literary establishment, which is daily becoming more conspicuous, — the contempt, namely, of the sacred authority of law, and of the reverence due to our ancestors; the watchful envy of Malignants; the despised tears and sobs of our almost dying mother, the univer- sity (with the eternal loss of the class of gownsmen, and the no small hazard of the whole institution) ; and the detestable audacity and licen- tiousness, manifestly Epicurean beyond all the bounds of modesty and piety, in which, alas ! too many of the students indulge. Am
young scholar, with powdered hair, snakebone bandstrings (or bandstrings with very large tassels), lawn bands, a very large set of ribbons pointed at his knees, and Spanish leather boots with large lawn tops, and his hat mostly cock'd." — Ibid. 98. 1 Terence, Adelph. iv. 7, 21.
L LIFE OF DR OWEN.
I, then, able, in this tottering state of all things, to apply a remedy to this complication of difficulties, in which so many and so great heroes have, in the most favourable times, laboured in vain ? I am not, gentlemen, so self-sufficient. Were I to act the part of one so im- pertinently disposed to flatter himself, nay, were the slightest thought of such a nature to enter my mind, I should be quite displeased with myself I live not so far from home, nor am such a stranger to my- self, I use not my eyes so much in the manner of witches, as not to know well how scantily I am furnished with learning, prudence, authority, and wisdom. Antiquity hath celebrated Lucullus as a pro- digy in nature, who, though unacquainted with even the duty of a common soldier, became without any difficulty an expert general ; so that the man whom the city sent out inexperienced in fighting, him the army received a complete master of the art of war. Be of good courage, gentlemen. I bring no prodigies; from the obscurity of a rural situation, from the din of arms, from journeys for the sake of the gospel into the most distant parts of the island, and also beyond sea, from the bustle of the court, I have retreated unskil- ful in the government of the university ; unskilful, also, I am come hither.
" 'What madness is this, then?' 3^011 will say. 'Why have you undertaken that which you are unable to execute, far less to adorn? You have judged very ill for yourself, for the university, and for this venerable senate.'' Softly, my hearers ; neither hope nor courage wholly fails one who is swayed by the judgment, the wishes, the commands, the entreaties of the highest characters. We are not ourselves the sources of worthy deeds of any kind. ' He who muiistereth seed to the sower,' and who from the mouths of infants hath ordained strength, is able graciously to supply all defects, whether caused from without or felt within. Destitute, therefore, of any strength and boldness of my own, and of any adventitious aid through influence with the uni- versity, so far as I know or have deserved, it nevertheless remains to me to commit myself wholly to Him ' who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.' He hath appointed an eternal fountain of sup- ply in Christ, who fumisheth seasonable help to every pious endea- vour, unless our littleness of faith stand in the way; thence must I wait and pray for light, for strength, and for courage. Trusting, there- fore, in his graciously promised presence, according to the state of the times, and the opportunity which, through divine Providence, we have obtained, — conscious integrity alone supplying the place of arts and of all embellishments, — without either a depressed or semle spirit, I address myself to this undertaking."^