The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Table of Contents
| INTRODUCTION | 1 |
| JOHN HENRY NEWMAN | 21 |
| THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS | 25 |
| THE ETERNAL YEARS | 70 |
From a drawing by G. Richmond in the possession ofH. E. Wilberforce, Esq. [By permission.]
THE
DREAM OF GERONTIUS
BY
CARDINAL NEWMAN
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A.M., LL.D.
Professor of English Language and Literature in the Catholic
University of America, Washington, D. C.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA
1910
Copyright, 1903,
BY
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
All rights reserved
First edition, September 30, 1903;
Reprinted, with additions, September, 1904; August, 1908;
February, 1910.
FRATRI DESIDERATISSIMO
JOANNI JOSEPH GORDON
ORATORII S.P.N. PRESBYTERO
CUJUS ANIMA IN REFRIGERIUM
J. H. N.
In die Comm.
Omn. Fid. Def.
1865
INTRODUCTION
As a rule, when Cardinal Newman's poetry is mentioned,people think of "The Pillar of the Cloud," betterknown as "Lead, Kindly Light." This lyric isonly one of the many beautiful poems written by anauthor whose fame as a writer of the finest modernprose in the English language has eclipsed his reputationas a poet. Nevertheless, he wrote a very greatpoem, "The Dream of Gerontius"—a poem which theintellectual world admires more and more every year,and which yields its best only after careful study andconsideration. It has been described as a metricalmeditation on death. It is more than that; it is therealization by means of a loving heart and a poeticimagination of the state of a just soul after death,—Gerontiustypifying not the soul of a particular personimagined by Cardinal Newman, but your soul, my soul,any soul which may be fortunate enough to satisfy thejudging and merciful God. No poet has ever presentedthe condition of the soul, as made known bythe theology of the Catholic Church, so forcibly andappealingly as Cardinal Newman. The poem is filledwith intense white light, and the soul on earth sees itself[2]as it will be at the moment before its death; as it will bewhen, strengthened by the last sacraments and upborneby