Untitled - Electric Scotland

CHAPTER XVII.
THE LONDON EPISCOPATE (continued).
DEFIN1TENESS OF BELIEF DIOCESAN CHARGES SUBSCRIPTION
TO FORMULARIES.
1863-1867.
AN endeavour has been made in the preceding chapters
to describe the Bishop s relation to the two dangers-
Rationalism on the one side, and Superstition on the other
-which were supposed, thirty years ago, to be threaten
ing the life of the Church of England. It is possible that
some reader of these chapters, unfamiliar otherwise with
the facts, may have been led to picture
to himself the
Bishop of London as a strong but unattractive man,
reserved and cautious in his opinions and policy, just and
considerate no doubt, as should become a Christian
gentleman, but eager to repress in other men the en
thusiasm of which he had himself no trace, and tolerant
of the religious opinions of all sorts of people, mainly
because he had no very precise or definite opinions of
his own.
If such a picture of Bishop Tait should present itself
to any, the fault must lie with his biographer. It may
safely be said that no one of those who knew him personally
either then or afterwards, would, from such a description,
recognise
the man whom he remembers. It is true that
throughout his public years he was at a frequent disadvan-
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