The thing had seemed so obvious to him, in his
sense of unspeakable masculine superiority, and his fine
contempt for what is only sanctioned by antiquity and common
consent, he had imagined that, at the first hint, men would
arise and shake off the debasing tyranny. He found himself
wrong, and he showed that he could be moderate in his own
fashion, and understood the spirit of true compromise. He
came round to Calvin's position, in fact, but by a different
way. And it derogates nothing from the merit of this wise
attitude that it was the consequence of a change of interest.
We are all taught by interest; and if the interest be not
merely selfish, there is no wiser preceptor under heaven, and
perhaps no sterner.
(1) BAYLE'S HISTORICAL DICTIONARY, art. Knox, remark G.
Such is the history of John Knox's connection with the
controversy about female rule. In itself, this is obviously
an incomplete study; not fully to be understood, without a
knowledge of his private relations with the other sex, and
what he thought of their position in domestic life. This
shall be dealt with in another paper.
II. - PRIVATE LIFE.
TO those who know Knox by hearsay only, I believe the matter
of this paper will be somewhat astonishing. For the hard
energy of the man in all public mattress has possessed the
imagination of the world; he remains for posterity in certain
traditional phrases, browbeating Queen Mary, or breaking
beautiful carved work in abbeys and cathedrals, that had long
smoked themselves out and were no more than sorry ruins,
while he was still quietly teaching children in a country
gentleman's family.
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