but in the ‘Essays on the Philosophy of Theism,’ reprinted from the ‘Dublin Review’ (ed. Wilfrid Ward, London, 1884, 2 vols. 8vo), in which he attempted the reconstruction of metaphysics in opposition to the then prevalent empiricism. In these remarkable prolegomena—the substantive argument was never cast into shape—Ward substitutes for the appeal to experience a canon of certitude essentially Cartesian; but while maintaining that the ultimately indubitable is necessarily true, he declines to admit that the ultimately inconceivable is necessarily false. With Kant (though rather perhaps by way of coincidence than of obligation) he insists on the universal presuppositions of experience and experimental science; the foundation of ethics he lays in an intuition of ‘moral goodness’ and resultant ‘moral axioms;’ on the question of liberty and necessity he adopts a middle course, admitting determinism so far as the will obeys ‘the predominant spontaneous impulse,’ but finding place for freedom in ‘anti-impulsive’ effort.
Ward's declining years were passed chiefly on his estate, Weston Manor, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in the intimate society of his near neighbour, Tennyson. The operatic season he usually spent at Hampstead, where he had congenial friends in Richard Holt Hutton, editor of the ‘Spectator,’ and Baron Friedrich von Hügel. There, after a prolonged and painful illness, he died on 6 July 1882. His remains rest beneath a stone octagon base supporting a Gothic cross in Weston Manor catholic churchyard. ‘Fidei propugnator acerrimus,’ so runs the inscription; but the words, though apt, indicate only a small part of a complex character. His best epitaph is by Tennyson (Demeter and other Poems, edit. 1893, p. 281):
Farewell, whose living like I shall not find,
Whose faith and work were bells of full accord,
My friend, the most unworldly of mankind,
Most generous of all ultramontanes, Ward,
How subtle at tierce and quart of mind with mind,
How loyal in the following of thy Lord.’
By his wife, Frances Mary, youngest daughter of John Wingfield, prebendary of Worcester, whom he married on 31 March 1845, Ward had issue, besides five daughters, of whom three took the veil, three sons: 1. Edmund Granville, b. 9 Nov. 1853, appointed private chamberlain in 1888 to Leo XIII; 2. Wilfrid Philip, his father's biographer, b. 2 Jan. 1856; 3. Bernard Nicholas, b. 4 Feb. 1857, priest since 1882, and since 1893 president of St. Edmund's College, Ware. Ward's widow died in August 1898 (cf. Tablet, 13 Aug. 1898).
Besides the works mentioned above, Ward was the author of: 1. ‘Three Letters to the Editor of the “Guardian;” with a preliminary paper on the Extravagance of certain Allegations which imply some similarity between the Anglican Establishment and some Branch existing at some Period of the Catholic Church. And a preface including some Criticism of Professor Hussey's Lectures on the Rise of the Papal Power,’ London, 1852, 8vo. 2. ‘The Relation of Intellectual Power to Man's True Perfection considered in two Essays read before the English Academy of the Catholic Religion,’ London, 1858; reprinted in ‘Essays on Religion and Literature,’ ed. Manning, 2nd series, London, 1867, 8vo. 3. ‘The Authority of Doctrinal Decisions which are not definitions of Faith considered in a short series of Essays reprinted from the “Dublin Review,”’ London, 1866, 8vo. 4. ‘A Letter to Father Ryder,’ and ‘A Second Letter to Father Ryder,’ London, 1867, 8vo; followed by ‘A Brief Summary of the recent Controversy on Infallibility: being a reply to Rev. Father Ryder on his Postscript,’ London, 1868, 8vo. 5. ‘De Infallibilitatis Extensione theses quasdam et quæstiones theologorum judicio subjicit G. G. W.’ London, 1869, 8vo. 6. ‘Strictures on Mr. Ffoulkes's Letter to Archbishop Manning’ (on the filioque question, from the ‘Dublin Review’), London, 1869, 8vo. 7. ‘The Condemnation of Pope Honorius: an essay republished and newly arranged from the “Dublin Review,”’ London, 1879, 8vo. 8. ‘Essays on the Church's Doctrinal Authority, mostly reprinted from the “Dublin Review,”’ London, 1880, 8vo.
