Part 22 (1/2)
”Christianity, of coursebut why journalism?”
When men said, which they have done now for over thirty years, that Arthur Balfour was too much of a philosopher to be really interested in politics, I always contradicted them With his intellectual taste, perfect literary style and keen interest in philosophy and religion, nothing but a great love of politics could account for his not having given up ht that he was not interested because he had nothing active in his political aspirations; he saw nothing that needed changing Loages, drink, disease, sweating and overcrowding did not concern him; they left hination which he was too detached to feel
He was a great Parliamentarian, a brilliant debater and a famous Irish Secretary in difficult tiies lay in tactics He took a Puck-like pleasure in watching the game of party politics, not in the interests of any particular political party, nor from esprit de corps, but from taste This was very conspicuous in the years 1903 to 1906, during the fiscal controversy; but any one with observation could watch this peculiarity carried to a fine art wherever and whenever the Governht place
Politically, what he cared urated the Committee of Defence and appointed as its per connected with the size of the army and navy interested him The size of your army, however, must depend on the aims and quality of your diplon Office and jesters on your War Staff, you ine any one in this country advocating a large standing army plus a navy, which is vital to us; but such there were and such there will always be With the minds of these militarists, protectionists and conscriptionists, Arthur Balfour had nothing in common at any time He and the men of his opinions were called the Blue Water School; they deprecated fear of invasion and in consequence were violently attacked by the Tories But, in spite of an army corps of enthusiasts kept upon our coasts to watch the traitors with towels signalling to the sea with full instructions where to drive the county cows to, no Gerreat War atte Arthur Balfour's views
The artists who have expressed with the greatest perfection huhted in He preferred appeals to his intellect rather than clais Handel in music, Pope in poetry, Scott in narration, Jane Austen in fiction and Sainte-Beuve in criticis he wanted He hated introspection and shunned emotion
What interested me most and what I liked best in Arthur Balfour was not his char and his religion
Any one who has read his books with a searching mind will perceive that his faith in God is what has really moved him in life; and no one can say that he has not shown passion here Religious speculation and conte else that he felt justified in treating politics and society with a certain levity
His mother, Lady Blanche Balfour, was a sister of the late Lord Salisbury and a woman of influence I was deeply impressed by her character as described in a short private life of her written by the late ehame, Mr Robertson I should be curious to know, if it were possible, how ious mothers I think much fewer than in mine My husband's mother, Mr McKenna's and Lord Haldane's were all profoundly religious
This is part of one of Lady Blanche Balfour's prayers, written at the age of twenty-six:
Froers of metaphysical subtleties and froin of evil--Good Lord deliver me
From hardness of manner, coldness, misplaced sarcasm, and all errors and imperfections of ood h me, or not promoted to the utmost of my ability--Good Lord deliver me
Teach entleness and kindliness of htful heart such as Thou lovest; leisure to care for the little things of others, and a habit of realising in race to trust --to Thy love and care Teach me to use my influence over each and all, especially children and servants, aright, that I ive account of this, as well as of every other talent, with joy--and especially that I uide with the love and wisdoious education of my children
By Lady Blanche Balfour, 1851
Born and bred in the Lowlands of Scotland, Arthur Balfour avoided the narrowness andChurchman I wrote in a very early diary: ”I wish Arthur would write so on the Established Church, as he could express better than any one living how ood in the future will depend on the spirit in which it is worked”
His mind was ious writings which I have read have been purely analytical
My attention was first arrested by an address he delivered at the Church Congress at Manchester in 1888 The subject which he chose was Positivism, without any special reference to the peculiarities of Coion of Huress, Manchester, and printed in a pamphlet] In this essay he first disoes on to discuss the Positivist view of ive so:
Man, so far as natural science itself is able to teach us, is no longer the final cause of the universe, the heaven-descended heir of all the ages His very existence is an accident, his history a brief and discreditable episode in the life of one of the meanest of the planets Of the combination of causes which first converted a piece or pieces of unorganised jelly into the living progenitors of huh that frohter, fit nurses of the future lord of creation, have gradually evolved, after infinite travail, a race with conscience enough to know that it is vile, and intelligence enough to know that it is insignificant We survey the past and see that its history is of blood and tears, of helpless blundering, of wild revolt, of stupid acquiescence, of empty aspirations We sound the future, and learn that after a period, long compared with the individual life, but short indeed coation, the energies of our systelory of the sun will be dier tolerate the race which has for a o down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish The uneasy consciousness, which in this obscure corner has for a brief space broken the contented silence of the Universe, will be at rest Matter will know itself no longer Imperishable er than death, will be as though they had never been Nor will anything that is be better or be worse for all that the labour, genius, devotion, and suffering of enerations to effect
He continues on Positivisarded: