forty years in a sterile wilderness, who transported Elias and
keeps him hidden till the end, could do this wonder also.'

Here, whatever else there may be, there is certainly no trace of
a desire to deceive. Could a state of mind, in fact, be revealed
with more absolute transparency?

When Newman was a child he 'wished that he could believe the
Arabian Nights were true'. When he came to be a man, his wish
seems to have been granted.

Tract No. 90 was officially condemned by the authorities at
Oxford, and in the hubbub that followed, the contending parties
closed their ranks; henceforward, any compromise between the
friends and the enemies of the Movement was impossible.
Archdeacon Manning was in too conspicuous a position to be able
to remain silent; he was obliged to declare himself, and he did
not hesitate. In an archidiaconal charge, delivered within a few
months of his appointment, he firmly repudiated the Tractarians.
But the repudiation was not deemed sufficient, and a year later
he repeated it with greater emphasis. Still, however, the horrid
rumours were afloat. The "Record" began to investigate matters,
and its vigilance was soon rewarded by an alarming discovery: the
sacrament had been administered in Chichester Cathedral on a
weekday, and 'Archdeacon Manning, one of the most noted and
determined of the Tractarians, had acted a conspicuous part on
the occasion'. It was clear that the only way of silencing these
malevolent whispers was by some public demonstration whose import
nobody could doubt. The annual sermon preached on Guy Fawkes Day
before the University of Oxford seemed to offer the very