It was at about this time that the
smooth and satisfactory progress of his life was for a moment
interrupted: he began to be troubled by religious doubts. These
doubts, as we learn from one of his contemporaries, who
afterwards became Mr. Justice Coleridge, 'were not low nor
rationalistic in their tendency, according to the bad sense of
that term; there was no indisposition in him to believe merely
because the article transcended his reason, he doubted the proof
and the interpretation of the textual authority'. In his
perturbation, Arnold consulted Keble, who was at that time one of
his closest friends, and a Fellow of the same College. 'The
subject of these distressing thoughts,' Keble wrote to Coleridge,
'is that most awful one, on which all very inquisitive reasoning
minds are, I believe, most liable to such temptations--I mean,
the doctrine of the blessed Trinity. Do not start, my dear
Coleridge; I do not believe that Arnold has any serious scruples
of the UNDERSTANDING about it, but it is a defect of his mind
that he cannot get rid of a certain feeling of objections.' What
was to be done? Keble's advice was peremptory. Arnold was 'bid to
pause in his inquiries, to pray earnestly for help and light from
above, and turn himself more strongly than ever to the practical
duties of a holy life'. He did so, and the result was all that
could be wished.
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