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

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Lzfe of Benjamin Jowett

[CHAP. IV

and in 1846 his systematic study of the New Testament
was stimulated by an idea which Stanley had suggested
to him, that he should contribute a series of Essays to the
volume which his friend was preparing for the press.
This particular design was not carried out, as Jowett
ultimately declined to publish in this way; but it was
agreed that they should produce a joint work in Theology
at some future time. Meanwhile, in what he afterwards
called their 'furious' correspondence he communicates
his anxious thoughts on New Testament criticism.
Stanley, in his Life of Dr. Arnold (1844), had laid
special stress on the importance which his master attached to the critical study of Theology, and his intention
of setting on foot a' Rugby Edition' of St. Paul's Epistles
under his own superintendence1. There can be no
reasonable doubt that the work now undertaken had
some reference to this unfulfilled design of the great
Head Master. In one of their afternoon walks, the two
friends were caught in a heavy shower of rain and driven
to take refuge in a quarry. It was under these circumstances, as Jowett afterwards told W. L. Newman, that in
eager conversation the plan of the work was sketched
in outline. Nine years elapsed before the publication in
part of what was then projected. The plan was more
than once modified after its main outlines had been
agreed upon, and at one time it was enlarged to a
scheme for a complete work on the New Testament. In
a letter of 1846, Jowett writes to Stanley:'I have been thinking a good deal about our Opus Magnum,
and trust that by God's blessing we may be able to bring it to
some result. I propose to divide it into two portions, (a) the
Gospels, and (b) the Acts and Epistles, to be preceded respectively by two long prefaces, the first containing the hypothesis

I Arnold's Life and Correspondence, p. i63 of sixth edition.