A few other matters relating to Alfred's first three years at the Manchester Grammar School should not pass unrecorded. Two scenes connected with his success in the Oxford Local Examination must have contributed greatly to that excitement to exertion of which he writes. The former was the presentation of the prizes to the boys who had taken honours in the Manchester division in 1864, in the Free Trade Hall, by Mr. Gladstone, who delivered on the occasion one of his great speeches, marvellous for absolute suitability to the occasion, for nobleness and fittingness of sentiment, for grace and force of language, for perfectness of putting, and, above all, for practical potency as animating to exertion. It was a memorable moment for a boy of fourteen to hear his name read out in that magnificent hall, closely packed with eager and applauding spectators, and to advance in front of the platform to take his laurels from the hand of the great statesman-scholar of the age, and to feel the hearty grasp of that empire-guiding hand. The other scene alluded to was the distribution of prizes in the same hall, in 1865, by Bishop Wilberforce, when Alfred had again the honour, to borrow the eloquent prelate's own words, ' of walking over such a platform, in the face of the intellect, and the industry, and the thought, and the loving care of such a city as Manchester.' Some weeks before the results of the examination were announced Alfred received, through the Secretary, the following communication from the examiner in religious knowledge, the Rev. J. W. Burgon, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, Vicar of the University Church, now Dean of Chichester : ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD, July 22nd, 1865. 'DEAR SIR,-Your answers to the questions set by the Examiners in the divinity part of the Oxford Local Examination do you great credit. They show close attention, and thought, and memory, and a large amount of intelligence. Such an aptitude for sacred studies ought to find exercise in the sacred function, provided there be no barrier of which I am ignorant. Will you communicate with me by letter, and at least let me know something about you. Alfred at once put this letter into my hands, asking my advice as to his reply. I was naturally glad of the opportunity thus offered of ascertaining his life-plan, if any such were already formed. He thoroughly opened to me his mind and heart, declaring his determination to devote himself wholly to the service of God in connection with the Church of his parentage, home-training, spiritual birth, convictions, and affection. He said he thought Methodism had now reached a stage of development when culture would be in greater request than heretofore, and that to transfer whatever culture he might be enabled to acquire from the Church which both Providence and grace had made his home to another Church, comparatively rich in culture already, seemed an unthrifty investment of his Lord's money. True, a university education was what he wished for above all earthly things; but, if it could only be attained at the expense of his Methodism, he should relinquish it without a moment's hesitation. To this I could only reply: 'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.' Replying to Mr. Burgon's letter, he expressed his gratitude for the kindness of the writer, and his deep sense of the honour of having attracted the attention of so eminent a divine. He told him that he was the son of a Wesleyan minister, and being but fifteen years of age, he did not feel himself ripe enough for a practical decision on so important a matter as his undertaking the sacred office. Shortly afterwards I received a letter from Mr. Burgon which began thus: 'REV. SIR,-I take the liberty of congratulating you on the excellent examination your son has passed in the late Oxford Local. Personally, I have been concerned only with his divinity papers, but I have been so struck by the evidences of ability they afford that I venture to suggest that if his taste should incline him to the sacred calling, he would perhaps be able to profit by the advantages held out by this ancient seat of learning.' Mr. Burgon concludes by intimating his willingness and ability to secure for my son a university education free of expense to me or to himself, with a view to his preparation for Holy Orders. To this I replied, of course, after warm acknowledgment of the courtesy and kindness of the communication, that my son's designation to the sacred office, either in the Established Church or any other, was a matter with which I dared not interfere.* In 1866 Alfred produced the Prize Poem of the Manchester Grammar School, a composition of one hundred and ninetyeight lines, which he delivered on Speech-day with considerable effect. The subject, chosen by the High Master, was Sir Galahad; or, The Quest of the Holy Grail. As Tennyson's great poem on that subject did not appear till some years afterwards, no suggestion could be derived from that source. Adhering closely to the legendary framework and mediæval colouring, he makes it the vehicle of Gospel-truth, an allegoric representation of the beatitude: 'Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.' It is spirited. It bursts at once in medias res: 'Joy in the city,' etc. The moral of the myth is thus stated: 'In Arthur's court was many a noble knight, In all the world was none in arms might vie * It seems a curious fact that Alfred's father and paternal grandfather had both declined a gratuitous university education, offered on condition of taking Holy Orders in the Established Church. My own offer came from the great Anglo-Saxon scholar Dr. Bosworth, with whom I had afterwards, during my residence in Oxford, very pleasant intercourse. The overture to my father was made by four Derbyshire gentlemen. It seemed all knightly virtues they possessed, 'Two only on the narrow pathway steep Strove, with God's grace, their faltering feet to keep : Yet even they had not without a fall Pursued their course; but whensoe'er the way For sins on earth commit. Blest is the pure in heart, for none but he The following description of a cathedral anthem will, I think, be admitted to display considerable vigour : 'Sweetly sang In chorus, till the burdened air outrang Throughout its vaulted roof, prolonged the while Now sinking to the earth, and now again Upbounding to the roof; from side to side Rolled the harmonious wave, and then, in melting murmurs, died. Alfred was then fifteen years old, CHAPTER II. THE CRISIS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. S home-influence is alleged by Alfred to have been As amongst the most effective instrumentalities in bringing him to religious decision, it is right to premise that, in view of his father's preoccupations and frequent calls from home, already alluded to, by far the larger share of the happy results of home-influence must, in all fairness, be attributed to his mother. Dr. Norman McLeod says: 'It is very natural for young Christians, at that period of their history when they become powerfully possessed by the truth, and "all things become new," so to separate their later from their earlier life, as almost to deny any preparedness in the one for the other. For so very different from the past are all their present views and feelings, that this result, it is naturally supposed, would have been the same even without that religious training which, for so long a period, appeared to have been given in vain.' That this was not the case with Alfred is plain from his own account of the beginning of his spiritual life, written in his seventeenth year : 'Of the first rise of religious impulses in me I have no distinct recollection. Living as I did in a home where religion was a recognised power, I have no doubt that consciousness of inner life arose and grew with that of outer life. I have faint recollections of serious thought on the subject, and of distinct strivings of the Spirit" while we were living at Barnsley' (1854-1857, when he was from four to seven years of age). But this was, for the present at least, without definite result. I cannot, however, say that I had no spiritual |