those who encountered him, though due to his wholesome
scorn for pretenders, and his hatred of falsehood and injustice,
seemed inconsistent with the real kindliness of his nature. The
kindliness, however, no one who knew him could doubt; it showed itself
not only in his care for dumb creatures and for children, but in the
depth and tenderness of his affections. Of religion he spoke little,
and only to his most intimate friends. In opinion he had drifted a
long way from the Anglo-Catholic position of his early manhood; but he
remained a sincerely pious Christian.

Though his health had been infirm for some years before his death, his
literary activity did not slacken, nor did his powers show signs of
decline. There is nothing in his writings, nor in any writings of our
time, more broad, clear, and forcible than many chapters of the
_History of Sicily_. Much of his work has effected its purpose, and
will, by degrees, lose its place in the public eye. But much will
live on into a yet distant future, because it has been done so
thoroughly, and contains so much sound and vigorous thinking, that
coming generations of historical students will need it and value it
almost as our own has done.

-----

[37] An excellent Life of Freeman has been written by his friend Mr.
W. R. W. Stephens, afterwards Dean of Winchester, whose death
while these pages were passing through the press has caused the
deepest regret to all who had the opportunity of knowing his
literary gifts and his lovable character.

[38] The scholars of Trinity were then (1843) all High Churchmen, and
never dined in hall on Fridays. Fourteen years later there was
not a single High Churchman among them. Ten or fifteen years
afterwards Anglo-Catholic sentiment was again strong. Freeman
said that his revulsion against Tractarianism began from a
conversation with one of his fellow-scholars, who had remarked
that it was a pity there had been a flaw in the consecration of
some Swedish bishops in the sixteenth century, for this had
imperilled the salvation of all Swedes since that time. He was
startled, and began to reconsider his position.

[39] Having had about the same time a brush with George Anthony
Denison (Archdeacon of Taunton), and a less friendly passage of
arms with James Anthony Froude, he wrote to me in 1870: "I am
greater than Cicero, who