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86 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. iv.
there is little additional information to be gained from it.
In a letter to Professor Sewell, who had published a
pamphlet against the Tract, 1 he thus describes his own
action :
"
I cannot tell you how strongly I feel the danger of young
men s minds being altogether unsettled by the tone which char
acterises the Tract, and in which I have long been accustomed to
hear individuals of the same sentiments with the writer express
themselves in private. This danger has been forced upon my
attention by several very painful Instances that have fallen under
my personal observation. If young men lose their confidence in
that branch of the Church of Christ of which they are members,
and have their attention forced to curious questions that seem
only to minister strife, there seems no telling to what extent
their whole religious character may be affected. It wras
under a
strong sense of this danger that I felt bound to put myself in the
invidious position of signing the letter which mainly called the
attention of the University to this Tract. And I cannot tell you
how glad I am to find that one who justly stands so high in public
estimation as yourself has thought it necessary to enter a public
protest against this unsettling spirit."
Among the following letters of thanks that he received,
the following, from Dr. Arnold, has, in the light of subse
quent events, a peculiar interest :-
The Rev. Dr. Arnold to the Rev. A. C. Tail.
"
RUGBY, March n, 1841.
" MY DEAR SIR, I thank you much for sending me your
address to the Author of the Tract.
"
I am extremely glad that the Tract has been so noticed ; yet
it is to me far more objectionable morally than theologically and
;
especially the comment on the 2ist Article, to which you
have not alluded, is of such a character, that if subscription to
the 2ist Article, justified by such rules of interpretation, may
be honestly practised, I do not see why an Unitarian may not
subscribe the first Article or the second. The comparative im-
1
"A Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., on the Publication of No. 90.
By William Sewell, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Oxford."