The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

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Lzife of Benjamin Jowett

[CHAP. VIII

He was also consulted by Dr. Bagot, Bishop of Bath
and Wells (and formerly of Oxford), on the legal intricacies
of the famous Denison case'. Through Stanley's introduction he stayed with the Bishop (who had ordained
him Deacon) at Wells, from whence he wrote to Stanley:'There is more difficulty in the Denison case than I thought,
owing to the wretched state of the law. It appears to be really
doubtful whether the Archbishop has any option to refuse
Ditcher: there is little or no doubt that the Bishop has under
the peculiar circumstances of George Anthony Denison's living.
But this is merely an accidental power, which the law could
hardly have intended to give.'
Thus matters proceeded in an even tenor, though not
without discouragement, until the appearance of the book
on St. Paul early in June, I855 2. He had been consulting
Stanley, as far as he found it possible, until the last,
showing no small solicitude even about the form of the
page. In a letter written in the summer of I854, he
defends an interpretation which Stanley had questioned,
and asks for reflections on eight different points:I. Scepticism. 2. ChristianSociety. 3. Interpretation
of Scripture. 4. Greek of the New Testament. 5. Controversy. 6. Observance of the Sabbath. 7. Prayer.
8. On a future life. To this he adds: 'On the last subject
I am most anxious. One cannot but have a solemn
feeling in endeavouring to handle it. What between
figures of speech and idealism, and the contrast between
the universal acceptance of it in words, and the common
indifference to it in fact, and the interest of it to us all
1 Ditcher v. Denison; see by Benjamin Jowett, M.A., Fellow
Brodrick and Fremantle's Ecclesi- and Tutor of Balliol College,
astical Judgments, p. 156. Oxford. In two volumes. Lon2 The Epistles of St. Paul to the don: John Murray, Albemarle
Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, Street, I855.
with critical notes and dissertations: