499. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 128–130.
Sidmouth.
Monday. [Postmark: 23 March 1835]
My dear friend,
I have read according to your desire the passage in Gregory. I think that it is a very eloquent passage, & eloquent too, Gregoricè. I think besides that, Gregoricè, it rolls along many stones which are not precious, & some mud which colours even the foam of the current. Had it been shorter by at least one third, the effect would have been more impulsive to the mind—if I might use that word. And all eloquence must be impulsive, to be eloquence. In this passage, the mind seems to me to be impelled forwards, & then pulled back again, & then impelled forwards again, until it is rather harrassed than elevated. But I may be writing all this time, what may be very wrong; only, you know, I am not to be scolded; because I have done ‘as I was bid’ in writing my ‘exact opinion’.
And now, my dear Mr Boyd, will you be candid, just as Mr Boyd ought to be, and confess to me that you meant to throw ‘her Majesty the Queen in to a passion’ on the subject of Calvinism? [1] Oh yes! you did. And I will be revenged—for I wont be in a passion. I wont be in a passion, albeit destined perhaps to be “groaned at, & hooted at” in the company of far “better men” & women!– You know well how many clouds over the sky of divine truth, this subject, or rather the consideration of it, has gathered for me. I have ‘mourned in my prayer’, because of it. Since I came to Sidmouth, I think I have been enabled by God—(I would speak with diffidence of His teaching—) not, to understand, but to be reconciled to not understanding. I believe, not only that this question presents a difficulty, but that God means it for a difficulty. I believe besides, that he means it to remain a difficulty; & that in the midst of such difficulties, in the midst of such thorns pricking men’s minds into vexation & impatience—‘He giveth His beloved, sleep’ [2] —& teacheth us, that what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. My dear friend—there is one truth kept in heat & life by the brooding of the Holy Spirit—i.e. if we love Him, we do so, because He first loved us! Oh! let us hold fast this cord of love—for thro’ it, we feel the vibrations of the heart of Jesus. And above all things, dear friend,—forgive me for saying so—above all things, let us not use harsh hating language against those whom our Lord has loved, & loveth unto the end. If we love not our brother, with all his weaknesses & errors upon him, whom we have seen, how can we love Him whom we have not seen. [3] Oh! let us take heed, rather to walk together in love as far as we are agreed, [4] than to measure the distance of the way where we must walk apart.——
Now you wont be angry with me, & call me “fanatical”. [5] It is clear that two opinions are strong in the Church of Christ. Then if they are in that church, Christ must bear with them,—and if He, the Holy One, can, how much more easily can we the unholy—!
Papa is much better, & left us for London a few days ago. I cannot tell you one word of what we shall do about either staying here or going from hence. I know nothing. How glad I am that Miss Boyd is with you.– Does she remember me, so as to care for my love? If she does, here it is for her—and for dear Annie too, from whom Arabel is anxiously expecting a letter.
Miss Harriet Baynes (now I am going to surprise you) is going to be married to Mr Groves the Persian missionary [6] —& they sail for India immediately upon their marriage. She is quite well—& at Malvern still.
Mr Hunter has received a unanimous invitation from the Independent Church at Axminster, which he has accepted—& intends to remove there in the course of next month.
Mr Bradney’s chapel is not yet built. It was not his Calvinism, but his spirituality abstracted from it, which expelled him from Mr Jenkins’s pulpit. The new curate preaches regeneration by baptism.
Arabel says that I am writing a great deal too much, and that you will certainly never hear my letter to the end.
And so, believe me, my dear friend,
Affectionately yours
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: H S Boyd Esqr– / To 3 Circus Road / St John’s Wood / Regents Park / London.
Publication: Publications of the Modern Language Association, March 1961, 154–155.
Manuscript: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
1. The adherents of John Calvin (1509–64) held that the Bible was the only authority in matters of belief. Consequently, they held that man was depraved through Adam’s fall; that the will of God was absolute; that faith was superior to good works; and that salvation of the Elect was divinely predestined.
2. Psalms, 127:2.
3. Cf. I John, 4:20.
4. Cf. Amos, 3:3.
5. Underscored three times.
6. Anthony Norris Groves (1795–1853), whose first wife had died of the plague in Bagdad in 1831. He had returned to England in December 1834; his marriage to Miss Baynes took place on 25 April.
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