ease in dealing with men and with the world which are the inheritance
of Eton, without the least tincture of worldliness. I remember well
the look he then had, his countenance massive for one so young, with
good sense and good feeling, in fact, full of character. For it was
character more than special ability which marked him out from others,
and made him, wherever he was, whether in cricket in which he
excelled, or in graver things, a centre round which others gathered.
The impression he left on me was of quiet, gentle strength and entire
purity, a heart that loved all things true and honest and pure, and
that would always be found on the side of these. We did not know,
probably he did not know himself, the fire of devotion that lay
within him, but that was soon to kindle and make him what he
afterwards became.'

In truth he was taking deep interest in the religious movement,
though in the quiet unexcited way of those to whom such doctrines
were only the filling out of the teachings of their childhood. He
was present at that sermon on the 'Entire Absolution of the
Penitent,' with which, on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, 1846, Dr.
Pusey broke his enforced silence of three years.

The same evening Coley wrote to his sister Fanny:--

'I have just returned from University sermon, where I have been
listening with great delight to Pusey's sermon on the Keys for nearly
two hours. His immense benevolence beams through the extreme power
of his arguments, and the great research of his inquiry into all the
primitive writings is a most extraordinary matter, and as for the
humility and prayerful spirit in which it was composed, you fancied
he must have been on his knees the whole time he was writing it. I