" But he grounded a claim to promotion on the fact that he had
"always avoided speculative, and preached practical, religion." He spoke of
a "theological" bishop in the sense of dispraise, and linked the epithet
with "bitter" and "bustling." Beyond question he had read the Bible, but he
was not alarmingly familiar with the sacred text. It is reported[178] that
he once referred to the case of the man who puts his hand to the plough and
looks back[179] as being "somewhere in the Epistles." He forgot the names
of Job's daughters, until reminded by a neighbouring Squire who had called
his greyhounds Jemima, Kezia, and Keren-Happuch. He attributed the _Nunc
Dimittis_ to an author vaguely but conveniently known as "The Psalmist,"
and by so doing drew down on himself the ridicule of Wilson Croker.[180] It
may be questioned whether he ever read the Prayer Book except in Church.
With the literature of Christian antiquity he had not, so far as his
writings show, the slightest acquaintance; and his knowledge of Anglican
divines--Wake, and Cleaver, and Sherlock, and Horsley--has a suspicious air
of having been hastily acquired for the express purpose of confuting Bishop
Marsh. So we will not cite him as a witness in a case where the highest and
deepest mysteries of Revelation are involved, and where a minute
acquaintance with documents is an indispensable equipment.
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