He betrays his martial lineage in the vigor of his
pen, and in that unswerving purpose to counteract what, in his opinion,
are serious barriers to the progress of the age. That he should
entertain sympathy with Coleridge might be expected from the very cast
of his mind, but his adoption of such a large proportion of that
thinker's sentiments may be due to his private education under the care
of Derwent Coleridge, son of the philosopher. Though only forty-six
years old, twenty of which have been passed in the rectorship of
Eversley, an enumeration of his works shows him to have written
theology, philosophy, poetry, and romance. But his publications betray
unity of purpose. Instead of suffering Christianity to be a dead weight
upon society, he would adapt it to the wants of the masses. He holds
that when the adaptation becomes thorough, when, by any means, the
people can be made to grasp Christianity, the reflexive influence will
be so great as to elevate them to a point unthought of by the sluggish
Church. But what is the Christianity which Kingsley would incorporate
into the life of society? Upon the answer to this inquiry depends the
difference between him and evangelical theologians.
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