[72] “The most important theological work which has lately appeared is Mr. Palmer’s Treatise on the Church....  Whatever judgment may be formed of the conclusions to which he has come on the variety of points which he had to consider, we cannot contemplate without admiration, and (if it were right) without envy, the thorough treatment which his subject has received at his hands.  It is indeed a work quite in character with the religious movement which has commenced in various parts of the Church, displaying a magnificence of design similar to that of the Bishop of London’s plan of fifty new churches, and Dr. Pusey, of Oxford’s, projected translation of the Fathers.”—­Brit.  Crit..  July 1838.  Short Notices.

CHAPTER XII

CHANGES

The first seven years of the movement, as it is said in the Apologia, had been years of prosperity.  There had been mistakes; there had been opposition; there had been distrust and uneasiness.  There was in some places a ban on the friends of Mr. Newman; men like Mr. James Mozley and Mr. Mark Pattison found their connexion with him a difficulty in the way of fellowships.  But on the whole, things had gone smoothly, without any great breakdown, or any open collision with authority.  But after 1840 another period was to begin of trouble and disaster.  The seeds of this had been partially sown before in the days of quiet, and the time was come for their development.  Differences in the party itself had been growing sharper; differences between the more cautious and the more fearless, between the more steady-going and the more subtle thinkers.  The contrast between the familiar and customary, and the new—­between the unknown or forgotten, and a mass of knowledge only recently realised—­became more pronounced.  Consequences of a practical kind, real or supposed; began to show themselves, and to press.  And above all, a second generation, without the sobering experience of the first, was starting from where the first had reached to, and, in some instances, was rising up against their teachers’ caution and patience.  The usual dangers of all earnest and aggressive assertions of great principles appeared:  contempt for everything in opinion and practice that was not advanced, men vying with each other in bold inferences, in the pleasure of “talking strong.”  With this grew fear and exasperation on the other side, misunderstandings, misgivings, strainings of mutual confidence, within.  Dr. Hook alternated between violent bursts of irritation and disgust, and equally strong returns of sympathy, admiration, and gratitude; and he represented a large amount of feeling among Churchmen.  It was but too clear that storms were at hand.  They came perhaps quicker than they were anticipated.