John Henry Newman [antikvár]

John Henry NewmanByJOYCE SUGGBeginningsJohn Henry Newman was born in 1801, in London. It is easy to picture the England that he was born into when we know that one of his earliest memories was of lying in bed one night watching the candles set in the windows to mark the battle of Trafalgar when Nelson defeated Napoleon. The small boy who noted the candies had a remarkable memory. He was storing pictures in his head that he could describe years and years later. Lucky child - the scenes were all happy ones. He remembered a morning when he lay in bed, listening to the ring of the gardener's scythe as he cut the grass. He remembered going downstairs and seeing the breakfast cups set out very shining and clear. He could recall idle mornings when it was easy to get into the kitchen garden to eat gooseberries and redcurrants and hard to get out again. As an old man he could remember the house and garden where he and his family lived when he was very young, at Ham near Richmond, as if he had been there yesterday.It is a curious thing that the small boy who had such a vivid memory for even the little details of the world around him, the clearness of a cup or a candle's light, had such a deep sense that the world was rather cloudy in comparison with two beings who seemed intensely real: himself and God.When he was seven he went away to school, to Dr Nicholas' school at Ealing, west of London. He learned a great deal of Latin and Greek (the main subjects in schools at that time) and