Character
Thirlwall's private life was happy and busy. Though never married, he was fond of children and of all weak things except weak-minded clergymen. He had a very judicial mind, and John Stuart Mill said he was the best orator he had ever heard. During his latter years he took great interest in the revision of the authorized version of the Bible, and was chairman of the revisers of the Old Testament.
He resigned his see in May 1874, and retired to Bath, where he died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in the same grave as Grote.
As scholar, critic and ecclesiastical statesman Thirlwall stands very high. He was not a great original thinker; he lacked the creative faculty and the creative impulse. His character, with its mixture of greatness and gentleness, was thus read by Carlyle: "A right solid, honest-hearted man, full of knowledge and sense, and, in spite of his positive temper, almost timid."
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