Untitled - Electric Scotland

76 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. iv.
Since Mr. Mozley s reminiscences were published,
Mr. Ward s son has given to the world in graceful form a
detailed and careful account of the life and opinions of
this powerful and eccentric man. 1
Archbishop Tait, who always appreciated and liked
him, used to give an amusing picture in after years of
Ward s peculiarities of appearance and manner in Oxford.
Immensely stout, very careless as to his apparel, brilliant
in conversation, with a restless love of argument and
repartee, and fond above all things of producing startling
effects he was not a man whom those who had
known him would be likely to forget, while his kindness
of heart and genuine goodness made him cling to old
friends, even when they differed from him most widely.
These two stood foremost among Tait s Tractarian
friends. He was never on intimate terms either with Dr.
or Dr. Newman but in the wide circle of his
Pusey ;
Oxford associates he had abundant opportunity of form
ing a competent judgment both as to the characteristics
and the results of the new Church Revival. How far he
ever appreciated its best points must remain a matter
of opinion on which it is not probable that his critics
will agree. Principal Shairp thinks he entirely failed
to do so :
"
His Scotch nature and education, his Whig principles, and,
I may add, the evangelical views wr ich he had imbibed, were
wholly antipathetic to this movement; so entirely antipathetic
that I do not think he ever, from first to last, caught a glimpse
of the irresistible attraction which it had for younger and more
ardent natures, or of the charm which encircled the leaders of it,
especially the character of John Henry Newman. To his down
right common sense the whole movement seemed nonsense, or
at least the madness of incipient Popery. Evening by evening,
in Balliol common-room, he held strenuous debate with Ward,
William George Ward and the Oxford Movement. Macmillan, 1889.