JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE 293
The work was widely read, and received the censure of the Oxford authorities. In later years Froude referi'ed to it as "something written not wisely, in which heterodoxy was flavored with sentimeatalism." To this sorrowing Werther how like a dash of cold water must have come Carlyle's gruff comment that " he should burn his own smoke and not trouble other people's nostrils with it." The evidence of Froude's courage is to be found in his actions rather than his words. " I found myself unfitted for a clergvman's posi- tion [he was in deacon's orders], and I abandoned it. I did not leave the church. 1 withdrew into the position of a lay member, in which I have ever since remained. I gave up my fellowship and I gave up my profession with the loss of my existing means of maintenance, and with the sacrifice of my future prospects."
He became acquainted with Carlyle in 1849, although not intimately so until 1860. His relationship to Carlyle is the key to his intellectual life. In 1884 he wrote: "I had, . . . from the time I became acquainted with his writings, looked upon him as my own guide and master — so absolutely that I could have said: Malim err are cum Platone quam cum aliis bene sentire ; or, in Goethe's words, which I did indeed often repeat to myself : Mit deifiem Meister zu irren ist dein G-ewinn, The practice of submission to the authority of one whom one recognizes as greater than one's self outweighs the chance of occasional mistake." After all his struggles he was to take a position toward Carlyle essentially the same as that of Newman toward the church, so pervading still was the spirit of the Oxford Movement in the air he breathed. Froude now turned to literature for support, and became a frequent contributor to the Westminster Review and to Frazer's Magazine^ of which he later became the editor. The first two volumes of his History of England appeared in 1856, and he was occupied with this work for the next six- teen years.
His first visit to the United States, in 1872, partook of the nature of a political mission. He delivered lectures to en-
