Chapter IV: Private Tuition Under Mr. Blomfield

"Had the public masters of the school been attentive to the
advancement of the scholars in learning while negligent of their
morals, and had I been making progress in my studies while losing my
innocence, I might have continued longer in that place; for I did
not fall into gross, outward, vicious habits, and it is possible
that no difference was perceived in my behaviour at home. But I
suppose my father saw a wide difference between the care which Mr.
Godley bestowed on me and that which boys in the public tutors'
houses could receive. I know not exactly the reasons that led to the
change; but, in the Christmas holidays at the end of the year 1813,
Mr. Blomfield was invited to Althorp, and he was pointed out to me
as my intended future tutor. Many of my readers will know at once
that he is now'[Footnote 1] the Protestant Bishop of London. My
father had presented him somewhat before this period with the
rectory of Dunton, in Buckinghamshire, having been led to do so by
the distinguished character which he heard of him from Cambridge for
he did not personally know him when he offered him this piece of
preferment. From the time that I made his acquaintance, and received
some directions from him for private reading at Eton during the
remaining time of my stay there, I began to take some more decided
interest than I had yet done in advancing myself in literary
knowledge. This, as well as my growing older and more independent of
other boys, and falling in {19} with more sensible companions, gave
to my mind a more satisfactory turn during my last year at Eton.
There was no return, though, to religion whilst I remained there,
nor was there likely to be; and so, most blessed was the change for
me when, before Christmas 1814, I left Mr. ***'s, and, after
remaining at home for about three months in company with my brother
Frederick, returned for the first time from sea, I went to Mr.
Blomfield's in March, 1815. I staid there till near the time of my
first going to Cambridge, which was in the summer of 1817.
Simplicity and purity of mind, alas! are not regained with the
readiness with which they are lost: the falling into bad company and
consenting to it will utterly ruin all innocence. The removal of
occasions may prevent the growth of evil habits and the farther
increase of corruption; but this alone will not restore that blessed
ignorance of evil which was no longer mine. My residence with
Blomfield was, however, the means to me of great good. Here I was
confirmed in that love for study and knowledge of which I have
already noticed the commencement. He had himself, as is well known,
though still young, gained a reputation for classical learning among
the scholars of England and the Continent; and his example and
conversations inspired me with desires for the like distinctions, to
which he gave all possible encouragement. This I reckon to have been
a considerable advantage to my religious welfare; for, although the
motive I set before me was merely worldly, and the subjects which I
studied had little of a good and much of a bad tendency, as must
needs be the case with pagan literature, yet, by gaining a habit for
study, I was directed in a line widely distinct from the most
vicious of the society through which I was afterwards to pass; and,
by being a reading man at Cambridge, I was saved from much
perversion."

[Footnote 1: This was written in 1836. See Preface.
Dr. Blomfield died in 1857.]

We shall be pardoned for interrupting the course of this interesting narrative, by inserting an anecdote, which shows how unchanged was his opinion on the merits of pagan literature. In a conversation with his religious companions, shortly before he died, he happened to say something about the discoveries of Cardinal Mai among the Bobbio {20} manuscripts. Some one remarked that it was nothing less than Vandalism for the old monks to erase one of the classic authors, and write some crude chronicle or other over it. "Well," replied Father Ignatius, "I suppose the monks had as much respect for Virgil and Ovid as the angels have."

To resume.

"But what was of the chief importance to me at this time was, being
in a house and with company, where, if subjects of religion were not
so much put before me as with Mr. Godley, and if I was not
constantly exhorted and encouraged in simple piety, I and my fellow
pupils felt that no word of immorality would have been anywise
tolerated. Prayers were daily read in the family, the service of the
Church was performed with zeal and regularity, the Sunday was
strictly observed, and a prominent part of our instruction was on
matters of religion. It was also to me an invaluable benefit, that
the companion with whom I was principally associated, during the
chief part of my time at Dunton, was one who, like me, after a
careful education at home, where he had imbibed religious feelings,
had gone through the corruptions of another public school, but was
now, like me, happy to find himself in purer air.

"With him I was confirmed at Easter, 1816, by Dr. Howley, then
Protestant Bishop of London, now Archbishop of Canterbury. It was an
incalculable blessing to me, slave as I was to false shame, and
cowardly as I was to resist against bold iniquity, that I now had
had a period granted me, as it were, to breathe and gain a little
vigour again, before the second cruel and more ruinous devastation
which my poor heart was shortly to undergo. I prepared seriously for
my confirmation, and for receiving the Sacrament from time to time,
and recovered much of my former good practices of private devotion.
I remember especially to have procured once more a manual of
prayers, and during the last months of my stay at Dunton I spent a
long time in self-examination by the table of sins in that book,
somewhat similar to our Catholic preparation for confession. But,
alas! I could go no further than the preparation. Oh! the great
enemy of our souls knew well what he was {21} doing in abolishing
confession. As before, when I first lost my innocence and piety at
Eton, confession would, I am convinced, have preserved me from that
fall; so now that I was almost recovering from the fall, if I had
had the ear of a spiritual father to whom I might with confidence
have discovered the wounds of my poor soul, he would have assisted
me utterly to extirpate the remains of those evil habits of my
heart. He would have shown me what I knew so imperfectly, the
horrible danger of the state in which I had been so near eternal
damnation; he would have made me feel that holy shame for my sins,
which would have overcome that false earthly shame by which I still
was ready to be mastered; and he would, in short, have poured in
that balm and oil which the ministers of God possess, to heal, and
strengthen, and comfort me for my future trials, so that I might
have stood firm against my enemies. But it pleased Thee, O my God,
that once more, by such sad experience, I should have occasion to
learn the value of that holy discipline of penance, the power and
admirable virtue of the divine sacraments, with the dispensation of
which Thou hast now entrusted me, that I may be a more wise and
tender father to Thy little ones whom Thou committest to my care."

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