The Critics
The plan of describing all the writers of a period who are not poets,
novelists and historians as critics is open to many objections, although
I intend to adopt it. If Matthew Arnold's plea for poetry as a criticism
of life holds good, it is precisely the poets, novelists and historians
who are the true critics. An alternative plan would have been to give a
chapter to prose writers and another to the poets; and still another
arrangement would have been to divide the subject, as De Quincey
suggested, into the literature of power and the literature of
imagination, the former including the philosophers and historians, the
latter the poets, the novelists, and the more picturesque of the prose
writers--Carlyle and Ruskin, for example.
One unhesitatingly assigns to Mr Ruskin the distinction of the critic
whose work is most eloquent and impressive. =John Ruskin (1819- )= was
born in Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London. He has told us in his
autobiography, "Praeterita," of his early life under a tender mother's
care, of his boyish affection for Byron and Scott, and of the youthful
impulse to art study excited by the present of Rogers's "Italy," with
Turner's illustrations. In 1837 he was entered as a gentleman commoner
at Christ Church, Oxford, gaining, two years later, the Newdigate prize
for English poetry, his subject being "Salsette and Elephanta." In 1843
he produced the first volume of "Modern Painters: their Superiority in
the Art of Landscape Painting to all the Ancient Masters. By a Graduate
of Oxford." The work originated, he says, "in indignation at the shallow
and false criticism of the periodicals of the day on the work of the
great living artist to whom it principally refers." The artist in
question was Joseph Mallord William Turner, upon whom Ruskin has
pronounced somewhat contradictory judgments at different periods in his
career. "Modern Painters" soon extended beyond the mere essay at first
intended, and in its final form of five handsome volumes, it was not
only a philosophical treatise on landscape painting, but an exhaustive
dissertation on many phases of life from one whom Mazzini declared to
possess "the most analytic brain in Europe."
Another important work, "The Seven Lamps of Architecture" (1849), is a
brilliant attempt at reform in domestic and church architecture. The
"lamps" represent the characteristics which good architecture should
possess. The first is the Lamp of Sacrifice: "What of beauty and what of
riches we may possess, let a portion be dedicated to God. It was in this
spirit that our cathedrals were built." The second, the Lamp of Truth,
is a plea for honesty in architecture, no imitation wood or marble, but
solid wood and solid stone. "Exactly as a woman of feeling," he says,
"would not wear false jewels, so would a builder of honour disdain false
ornaments. The using of them is just as downright and inexcusable a
lie." The third is the Lamp of Power: "Until that street architecture of
ours is bettered, until we give it some size and boldness, until we give
our windows recess and our walls thickness, I know not how we can blame
our architects for their feebleness in more important work." The fourth
is the Lamp of Beauty, and in this chapter he maintains that "all the
most lovely forms and thoughts" are directly taken from natural objects.
The fifth is the Lamp of Life. "To those who love architecture," he
says, "the life and accent of the hand are everything." The sixth is the
Lamp of Memory: "All public edifices should be records of national life,
all ordinary dwelling-houses endeared to their owners by sacred and
sweet associations. There is infinite sanctity in a good man's house!"
The seventh is the Lamp of Obedience, and here he pleads eloquently for
the enforcement of an established type of architecture--the Gothic, in
his judgment, lending itself most readily to all services, vulgar or
noble. The "Stones of Venice" (1851-1853), in three volumes, gives in
further detail Ruskin's views of the laws of architecture. The
pre-Raphaelite movement of Millais, Rossetti, and Holman Hunt early
enlisted his sympathy, and in "Pre-Raphaelitism" (1851) he declared that
they had worthily followed the advice given in "Modern Painters," to "go
to nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and
trustingly, having no other thought but how best to penetrate her
meaning; rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing."
From that time until his Slade lectures at Oxford in 1883-1884 Ruskin
wrote several books on painting and architecture, all of them in a style
which attracts even those who are least in sympathy with his opinions.
But as Goethe declared of himself that posterity would honour him, not
for his poetry, but for his discoveries in science, so Ruskin, perhaps
more justly, insists that it is as an economist that he is most
deserving of remembrance. The four essays on the first principles of
political economy, entitled "Unto this Last" (1862), he declares to be
"the truest, rightest-worded, and most serviceable things" he has ever
written. These essays were originally published by Thackeray in the
_Cornhill Magazine_, but the remonstrances of its readers brought the
series to a speedy end. The principles of state socialism there
initiated have since entered the field in direct contest with the
established order of things. Mr Ruskin would have every child in the
country taught a trade at the cost of government; he would have
manufactories and workshops entirely under government regulation for the
production and sale of every necessary of life, and for the exercise of
every useful art; he would permit competition with government
manufactories and shops, but all who desired work could be sure of it at
the state establishments: finally, he would provide comfortable homes
for the old and destitute, as "it ought to be quite as natural and
straightforward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from his
parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man in
higher rank to take his pension from his country because he has deserved
well of his country." Ruskin has amplified his economic doctrines in
"Munera Pulveris," "Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne," and "Fors
Clavigera." "Time and Tide" is a collection of letters on the laws of
work to the late Thomas Dixon, a working corkcutter of Sunderland. They
were originally published in the _Manchester Examiner_. "Fors Clavigera"
is a series of ninety-six letters to working-men, which were issued in
monthly parts, and rendered additionally interesting by the quantity of
autobiographical anecdotes so freely interspersed in their pages. The
title is derived, as Ruskin has explained, from the Latin _fors_, the
best part of three good English words--force, fortitude, and fortune;
the root of the adjective _clavigera_ being either _clava_, a club,
_clavis_, a key, or _clavus_, a nail, and _gero_, to carry. Fors the
Club-bearer therefore represents the strength of Hercules or of Deed;
the Key-bearer, the strength of Ulysses or of Patience; and the
Nail-bearer, the strength of Lycurgus or of Law.
To carry out his principles practically, Ruskin established for a short
time a tea shop in the Marylebone Road, where nothing but the best tea
was sold at a fair price, and he founded the St George's Guild with a
view of showing "the rational organisation of country life independent
of that of cities;" or in other words, the restoration of the peasantry
to the soil of England. One of the conditions of membership was that
every member should give one-tenth of his property to the guild for
carrying out its work. Ruskin led the way, his property being then
estimated at L70,000. He has told us in "Fors" that out of the L157,000
left him by his parents he has spent L153,000. Much of this must have
gone to the Ruskin Museum at Sheffield.
It is, however, in following Carlyle as a bracing, invigorating
influence that Ruskin has most claim on the gratitude of the present
generation. If Carlyle taught us to be content with this "miserable
actual," with such environment as may have fallen to our lot, his
disciple has given the impulse which has led to the beautifying of that
environment. The more refined taste in dress, furniture, and in
dwelling-houses which has characterized the later Victorian era, and,
side by side therewith, a greater simplicity of life on the part of the
more cultured rich, are in an especial degree due to the influence of
Ruskin. "What is chiefly needed in England at the present day," he says,
"is to show the quantity of pleasure that may be obtained by a
consistent, well-administered competence, modest, confessed, and
laborious. We need examples of people who, leaving Heaven to decide
whether they are to rise in the world, decide for themselves that they
will be happy in it, and have resolved to seek--not greater wealth, but
simpler pleasures; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity; making the
first of possessions, self-possession; and honouring themselves in the
harmless pride and calm pursuits of peace." In the "Crown of Wild
Olive," "Time and Tide," and "Sesame and Lilies," he emphasizes this
teaching with his customary eloquence. Of these books, by far the most
important is "Sesame and Lilies," which was written, he says, "while my
energies were still unbroken and my temper unfretted, and if read in
connection with 'Unto this Last,' contains the chief truths I have
endeavoured through all my life to display, and which, under the
warnings I have received to prepare for its close, I am chiefly thankful
to have learnt and taught." It treats of "the majesty of the influence
of good books and of good women, if we know how to read them and how to
honour." How to read books he shows by analyzing the well-known passage
from Milton's "Lycidas" on "The Pilot of the Galilean Lake," and
explaining the deep meaning of its every word. How to honour women, how
women may become worthy of honour, he shows by taking us to Shakspere
and to Scott, whose Portias and Rosalinds, Catherine Seytons and Diana
Vernons are ever ready at critical moments to be a help and a guidance
to men; and finally he appeals to the great Florentine, and shows us
Beatrice leading Dante through the starry spheres of heaven up to the
very throne of light and of truth. But the book is full of healthy and
helpful passages, and is, like so much that its author has written, a
moral inspiration for all who read it. "I am a great man," Ruskin once
said, with a consciousness of genius which reminds us that Horace and
Milton, Shakspere and Goethe were equally outspoken. Posterity, we may
well believe, will endorse the self-criticism, and will not willingly
let his works or his memory die.
Of late years Mr Ruskin has lived, not in the most robust health, in a
house at Coniston, in the English Lake District.
The next most prominent critic of the period is one upon whom Ruskin has
always poured his bitterest scorn, and who yet will be ever remembered
with warmest reverence by those who are old enough to have been his
contemporaries. I mean John Stuart Mill.
Jeremy Bentham, who gave such an impulse to all political reform, and
made a complete revolution in English jurisprudence, died in 1832. His
friend James Mill, who wrote the "History of India" and an "Analysis of
the Human Mind," died four years later. "It was," says Professor Bain,
"James Mill's greatest contribution to human progress to have given us
his son." It may be so, and yet he seems to have done his utmost to
spoil the gift, not, as children are usually spoiled, by
over-indulgence, but by the most excessive severity.
=John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)= born in Rodney Street, Pentonville. His
education, which was conducted by his father, would have been the mental
ruin of a mind of smaller powers. "I never was a boy," he said, "never
played at cricket; it is better to let Nature have her own way." He
began Greek at three, and Latin at eight years of age. The list of
classical authors with whose works he was familiar at thirteen is truly
appalling. This in itself would have been a small matter had not his
cold, stern father discouraged all imaginative reading. Poetry in
particular he was taught to look upon as mere vanity, and there are few
passages in Mill's "Autobiography" more interesting than the story how
in early manhood Wordsworth's poetry came to him like veritable "balm in
Gilead," for spiritual refreshment and healing. In 1823 he obtained a
clerkship in the India House, from which he withdrew, with ample
compensation, when the Indian Government was transferred to the Crown in
1858. Meanwhile he had been an industrious contributor to the
_Westminster Review_ and other periodicals, and regularly attended the
debates of the Speculative Society which met at Grote's house. Scarcely
any scene in literature is better known than the destruction of the
manuscript of Carlyle's "French Revolution" which he had lent to Mill.
Mill lent it to Mrs Taylor, the lady who afterwards became his wife, and
it was inadvertently destroyed. The speechless agony of Mill when he
went to inform his friend, the self-command with which Carlyle and his
wife concealed their own misery in endeavouring to moderate his
self-reproaches--these and many other details have been made familiar to
us by many pens. Mill gave Carlyle what monetary compensation he could,
and acted, as he always acted in life, with all possible nobleness. Mrs
Taylor, who was the real culprit on this occasion, was the wife of a
wholesale druggist in Mark Lane. When Mill made her acquaintance, his
father remonstrated, but he replied that he had no other feelings
towards her than he would have towards an equally able man. The
equivocal friendship, which was the talk of all Mill's circle of
acquaintances, lasted for twenty years, when Mr Taylor died, and Mill
married his widow. It is impossible to regard the enthusiasm of Mill for
this lady without feeling how much there was in it of the humorous, how
much also of the pathetic. That Mill had a most exaggerated opinion of
her intellectual attainments there can be no doubt. He declared her to
be the author of all that was best in his writings. Much of his
"Political Economy," he said, was her work, and also the "Liberty" and
the "Subjection of Women." His language with regard to her was always
extravagant, and Grote said that "only John Mill's reputation could
survive such displays." Mill's brother George declared that she was
"nothing like what John thought her," and there is much evidence to show
that she was but a weak reflection of her husband. Still, it is
impossible not to sympathize with such an illusion. Mrs Mill died in
1858, and was buried at Avignon, in France, where Mill himself spent
many of the later years of his life, and where he died in 1873. It was
at Avignon that the Crown Princess of Prussia and the Princess Alice of
Hesse proposed to visit him, when he, with due courtesy, declined to see
them.
Mill's works, which are very extensive, deal with philosophical,
psychological, economical, and political problems. His "Logic" was
published in 1843, his "Essays on Unsettled Questions in Political
Economy" in 1844, his "Principles of Political Economy" in 1848, and his
"Liberty" in 1858. In 1865 he published his "Examination of Sir William
Hamilton's Philosophy." Four volumes of "Dissertations and Discussions"
appeared between 1859 and 1867, and "Considerations on Representative
Government" in 1861. In 1865 he entered Parliament as Member for
Westminster, losing his seat, however, in 1868. It would be hard to
speak too highly of Mill. As a man he was all kindliness and considerate
thoughtfulness for others, and his ideal of life was a very high one.
Carlyle's Letters, Caroline Fox's Memoirs, and many other sources of
information, make this clear. On the literary side he will be variously
estimated, as we survey him from one or other aspect of his many-sided
career. As a stimulator of public opinion the work he did was enormous.
This is not the place to discuss the value of this or that movement
associated with his name; but there can be no doubt that many questions,
like the reform of the land laws, were initiated by him. In the
seventies his philosophy dominated Oxford. It is of no account to-day.
On the philosophical side Mill's position is weakened by his ignorance
of the more simple sciences, which we now know to be of the greatest
moment in the study of intellectual problems. Mill knew little of
physics, and of biology still less. His education in this respect
belonged to the old-fashioned type. His work in logic is all but
unshaken, although his book has been superseded for school and college
use. His psychology, however, his ethics, much of his economics, and
above all, his metaphysics, must be corrected by later ideas. Doubtless
Mill's readjustments in mental science are most valuable, especially his
rehandling of the old doctrines; but fundamentally these are Hume's.
Mill's chief philosophical work was destructive. He utterly routed the
remnants of a still earlier philosophy, furbished up with all the
knowledge and all the acuteness of Sir William Hamilton. But the great
generalizations which have changed the whole drift of our philosophy are
the Conservation of Energy, and Evolution, including as the latter does
the laws and conditions of life, and in particular the doctrine of
Heredity. For adequate philosophical guidance on these subjects we must
turn to Herbert Spencer.
But first let me point to the number of political economists who have
followed Mill in the discussion of the relation of society to the
"wealth" it produces. Mill's "Political Economy" was more of a
systematic summary of the prevailing doctrines than an original work. It
long formed, however, the basis of ordinary English knowledge on the
subject, and by its adhesion to the Wages Fund and other erroneous
theories, it did not a little harm as well as good to Economic Science.
Mill's most enthusiastic disciple in economics, =Henry Fawcett
(1833-1884)=, went far beyond his master in his acceptance of the main
doctrines of the Ricardo school. Many of the positions maintained in his
"Political Economy" were abandoned by Mill before his death,
particularly the Wages Fund theory; and in his "Autobiography" he traced
his own progress to views which, as he said, would class him "under the
general designation of Socialist." He declared himself in favour of "the
common ownership in the raw material of the globe, and an equal
participation of all in the benefits of combined labour."[18]
Professor Fawcett, who published his "Manual of Political Economy" in
1863, continued to the last to hold to the old views, and especially to
favour as little as possible the intervention of the State. As member of
Parliament, first for Brighton and afterwards for Hackney, he did great
service by his criticisms of Indian finance. For more than four years
(1880-1884) he held the position of Postmaster-General, and introduced
many valuable reforms into the department under his administration.
Other economists of importance, =John Elliott Cairnes (1824-1875)= and
=William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882)=, have differed from Mill in many
theoretic principles; but the fairest survey of the later developments
of Mill's economics is given by =Henry Sidgwick (1838- )=,
Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, and by Alfred
Marshall (born 1842). In his "Principles of Political Economy" (1883)
Sidgwick attempts, with great clearness, to criticise the conflicting
views of the older economists in the light of the modern and more
socialist views. He also attempts in his "Methods of Ethics" (1874) a
compromise between the Utilitarian and the Intuitionist schools, and he
does this also in his "Elements of Politics" (1891), a comprehensive
survey of political science. Mr Marshall, who holds the Chair of
Political Economy at Cambridge, has written "Economics of Industry"
(1879), and "Principles of Economics" (1890). A writer who did much to
make foreign economists known in England, and who seemed at one time
destined to be the able leader of a new school, was =Thomas Edward
Cliffe Leslie (1827-1882)=, whose "Essays" are full of terse and
suggestive criticism. Cliffe Leslie died, however, without writing any
work of first-rate importance. He did something, however, following the
line of writers like Richard Jones (1790-1855), to bring academic theory
to the test of actual facts.
During the last twenty years of the century, economic study has taken
increasingly the direction of elaborate investigation of the
circumstances of industrial life. On the one hand, a school of economic
historians,--Arnold Toynbee, with a brilliant _aperAu_ on "The
Industrial Revolution," Thorold Rogers in his monumental "History of
Agriculture and Prices," Dr Cunningham, in the "Growth of English
History and Commerce," and Professor W. J. Ashley in "Economic History
and Theory," have greatly extended our knowledge of past industry. On
the other, we have the colossal work undertaken at his own expense by Mr
Charles Booth, assisted by a group of zealous students--including H.
Llewellyn Smith, D. F. Schloss, and Miss Clara Collet, now all filling
official posts at the Labor Department of the Board of Trade; and Miss
Beatrice Potter (now Mrs Sidney Webb)--a complete survey of London life,
statistical, economic, industrial, and social. The nine volumes of this
"Life and Labor of the People," already issued, constitute one of the
most important statistical works ever undertaken by a private person. Mr
and Mrs Sidney Webb wrote together another valuable contribution to
economic science in "The History of Trade Unionism" (1894).
But political economy is merely a branch of the larger science of
sociology, and for the first general treatment of the whole science,
since Comte, we turn to the most characteristic philosopher of the
century. =Herbert Spencer (1820- )= was born at Derby, where his
father was a teacher of mathematics. From his father and uncle, the
latter a Congregational minister, he received his early education.
Articled at seventeen years of age to a civil engineer, he followed that
profession with some success for seven or eight years, when he gradually
drifted into literature--a series of letters by him "On the Proper
Sphere of Government" appearing in the _Nonconformist_ for 1842. A few
years later, he wrote for the _Westminster Review_, at the house of the
editor of which magazine he met George Eliot in 1851, and began the most
famous friendship of his life. It was also in 1851 that he published his
first work, "Social Statics," and four years later his "Principles of
Psychology." In 1861 he published his work on "Education," and the
following year his "First Principles." Between that time and 1896 he has
slowly built up a system of synthetic philosophy, in a dozen bulky
volumes, which has secured him a very large following not only in
England, but throughout the Continent and America. His "Descriptive
Sociology" is the production of many writers, who have worked under his
direction, collecting facts from travellers and scientists all over the
world.
To have placed Psychology and Ethics on a scientific basis in harmony
with the discoveries of the century is a truly great achievement. Many
years have now passed away since Herbert Spencer claimed the whole
domain of knowledge as his own, and undertook to revise, in accordance
with the latest lights, the whole sphere of philosophy. What must have
seemed intolerable presumption in 1860 became in 1896 a completed task.
In universality of knowledge he rivals Aristotle and Bacon at a time
when the sphere of learning is immensely larger than in their epochs. It
is not within the province of this survey of literature to go through
the twelve large volumes of his works in detail. We would rather point
out that, to the unphilosophical reader, who would willingly know
something of Spencer's literary powers, the "Study of Sociology," which
he wrote for the "International Scientific Series," and the treatise on
"Education" are books which all who read must enjoy.
To him, with Mill, belongs the glory of restoring to Great Britain the
old supremacy in philosophy given to her by Bacon, continued by Locke,
Hume, and Berkeley, but temporarily interrupted by Kant and Hegel.
Another writer who has attempted to combine psychology with physiology
is =Alexander Bain (1818- )=, who was for many years Professor of
Logic in the University of Aberdeen, and twice Lord Rector. Bain
assisted Mill in the preparation of his "Logic," and has himself written
a treatise on that science, also lengthy works on "The Senses and the
Intellect," and "The Emotions and the Will." Perhaps his work on "Mental
and Moral Science" is his best-known contribution to student literature.
Although he is the author of books on grammar and composition, Professor
Bain's style is always oppressively heavy and unattractive. As Spencer
and Bain combined psychology with physiology, so it was the effort of
Boole and De Morgan to extend the scope of logic by an ingenious
application of mathematics.
The leader for many years of the "Hegelian" school of philosophy at
Oxford, which has long held the field against Mill on the one hand and
Spencer on the other, was =Thomas Hill Green (1838-1882)=, who was
appointed Whyte Professor of Moral Philosophy in 1877, and who published
the same year a series of articles in the _Contemporary Review_, on "Mr
Herbert Spencer and Mr G. H. Lewes: their Application of the Doctrine of
Evolution to Thought." He was preparing for publication his
"Prolegomena to Ethics" at the time of his death, and the work was
finally edited by Professor A. C. Bradley, who has himself written a
treatise on logic, and whose Hegelian work, entitled "Ethical Studies,"
is of the highest interest. Green was a moral force in Oxford, quite
apart from his philosophical speculation, as the following extract from
one of his lectures will indicate:--"I confess to hoping for a time when
the phrase, 'the education of a gentleman,' will have lost its meaning,
because the sort of education which alone makes the gentleman in any
true sense will be within the reach of all. As it was the aspiration of
Moses that all the Lord's people should be prophets, so with all
seriousness and reverence we may hope and pray for a condition of
English society in which all honest citizens will recognize themselves
and be recognized by each other as gentlemen."
=George Henry Lewes (1817-1878)=, whose name is frequently joined with
that of Spencer by his association of biology with ethics and
psychology, was the son of Charles Lee Lewes, the actor, and was one of
the most versatile writers of our times. His first important work was
the "Biographical History of Philosophy," originally published in 1845
in Knight's Shilling Library, but amplified without improvement into two
substantial volumes in 1867. Lewes's distaste for the ordinary
metaphysics, and the severity of his criticism on Hegel, have rendered
this work the _bete noir_ of all transcendental students; but it remains
the one English "History of Philosophy" of any pretension. More
unqualified praise may be given to the "Life of Goethe," which Lewes
published in 1855. Perhaps no other man then living could have shown
himself competent to deal with Goethe's many-sidedness--to discuss
"Faust" and "Tasso," "Hermann und Dorothea" at one moment, the poet's
biological and botanical discoveries the next, and to estimate at their
true worth the speculations on colours, which Goethe held to be more
calculated than his poems to secure him immortality. The book remains
the standard life of the great Weimar sage in this country, and is
popular in Germany, in spite of a vast Goethe literature which has been
published since its appearance. In addition to these great works Lewes
wrote two novels, one of which, "Ranthorpe," Charlotte Bronte praised
enthusiastically. He edited the _Fortnightly Review_, and also initiated
a craze for aquaria, by his "Seaside Studies;" he endeavoured, indeed,
to popularise many of the sciences, particularly physiology. His last
years were devoted to philosophical questions, and his "Problems of Life
and Mind" were published in fragments, the concluding volume, under
George Eliot's editorship, after his death.
The earliest writer of the era to popularise science was =Sir David
Brewster (1781-1868)=, an eminent physicist, in whose _Edinburgh
Cyclopaedia_ Carlyle commenced his literary career. His "Life of Newton,"
"Martyrs of Science," and "More Worlds than One" are still widely read.
=Michael Faraday (1791-1867)=, another famous physicist, is still
better remembered by our own generation, principally for his popular
lectures at the Royal Institution, where he was superintendent of the
laboratory for forty-eight years. He was a blacksmith's son, and was
originally apprenticed to a bookbinder. After his discovery of
magneto-electricity, he had, he told Tyndall, a hard struggle to decide
whether he should make wealth or science the pursuit of his life.
Tyndall calculates that Faraday could easily have realised L150,000; but
he declared for science and died a poor man.
=John Tyndall (1820-1893)=, who once said that it was his great
ambition to play the part of Schiller to this Goethe, succeeded Faraday
at the Royal Institution, and wrote about him eloquently in his "Faraday
as a Discoverer." Tyndall was born at Leighlin Bridge, Carlow, Ireland,
in 1820. His father was a member of the Irish constabulary. His services
to many branches of science were great; but he concerns us here not so
much by his treatises on electricity, sound, light, and heat, or by his
discoveries in diamagnetism, as by his "Lectures on Science for
Unscientific People," which, Huxley said, was the most scientific book
he had ever read, and which has yet the transcendent merit of giving
enjoyment as well as instruction, even to the readers of three-volume
novels. In 1856 Tyndall made a journey to Switzerland, in company with
Professor Huxley, and the friends afterwards wrote a treatise "On the
Structure and Motion of Glaciers." Geological treatises may be said to
have given the fullest play to the literary side of science. The work of
Robert Bentley and Sir Joseph Hooker in botany, of Michael Foster, St
George Mivart, and Francis Maitland Balfour in biology, is, it may be,
equal or superior to that of the bulk of the writers whose achievements
we have chronicled; but it is not a part of literature. Burdon
Sanderson, Balfour Stewart, and a host of other men, have done
incalculable service in the Victorian era--service, it is to be feared,
which scarcely obtains as generous recognition as the cheap
generalisations of smaller men; but scientific text-books, however
important, are scarcely within the scope of these chapters. Geology, on
the other hand, is, as it were, a conglomerate of the sciences, and
lends itself readily to the most eloquent literary expression. Few
writers have been more widely read than =Hugh Miller (1802-1856)=, a
Cromarty stone-mason, whose first enthusiasm for study of the rocks
arose from following his trade, but whose life was mainly devoted to
journalism, and to editing _The Witness_. His "Old Red Sandstone,"
"Footprints of the Creator," and "The Testimony of the Rocks" were
effective in kindling a taste for natural science.
The special study which Miller gave to the Red Sandstone rocks was
extended by =Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871)= to the Silurian
System, and his work entitled "Siluria" has passed through many
editions. Scotland seems to have been the nursery of geologists, for
Miller and Murchison, Lyell and the brothers Geikie, were all born north
of the Tweed. =Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875)= was born at Kinnordy, in
Forfarshire, and educated at Midhurst, and at Exeter College, Oxford.
Called to the bar, he went the Western Circuit for two years, but, when
attending some of Dr Buckland's lectures, he became attached to geology.
His "Principles of Geology," first published in 1830, caused a
revolution in the science. Never before had there been presented such a
connected illustration of the influences which had caused the earth's
changes in the unresting distribution of land and water areas. Much of
Lyell's great work reads like a fairy tale; much might have been thought
the fruit of an imaginative rather than of a scientific mind. Lyell's
smaller book, the "Student's Elements of Geology," was injured in
literary merit by the progressive study of the science of which he had
been the second father. The constant addition of fresh knowledge, and
his conversion to Darwin's views, necessitated the continual rewriting
of parts and further revision by other hands after the author's death.
"The Antiquity of Man" (in defence of Darwin's theory) is of more value
from a literary standpoint. Before the beginning of the reign =William
Buckland (1784-1856)=, Dean of Westminster, by whose lectures Lyell
had so much profited, had written his famous Bridgewater Treatise on
"Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology."
His son, =Frank Buckland (1826-1880)=, wrote clever and readable books
on "Natural History," and had genuine enthusiasm for the study of animal
life; but he was charged with having vulgarised the studies in which he
took so keen an interest. The most distinguished living geologist is Sir
Archibald Geikie, who is now director-general of the Geological Survey
of the United Kingdom. His "Text Book," which was first published in
1882, is a model of lucid writing, and his essays are among the most
pleasant literary products of the age. His brother, James Geikie, has
written an important work on glaciation, entitled "The Great Ice Age."
But the scientific literature of the past sixty years might almost be
said to be summarised in the work of =Charles Darwin (1809-1882)=. A
funeral in Westminster Abbey, amid the mourning of many nations, closed
the career of one whose life-work had often been greeted with scorn.
"Our century is Darwin's century," said a leading German newspaper
(_Allgemeine Zeitung_) at his death, and the statement is no
exaggeration. Those who witnessed the long stream of prelates and nobles
who filed through the Abbey at his funeral, the then Archbishop of
Canterbury (Dr Tait) and the present Prime Minister (Lord Salisbury)
among the number, could not but recall the reception of the great
investigator's theory twenty years before. Bishop Wilberforce in
particular denounced it in the _Quarterly Review_ as "a flimsy
speculation." Darwin's antecedents were of a nature such as, on the
principle of heredity, a great man should possess. His paternal
grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a poet, whose "Botanic Garden" may
still be read with interest. His maternal grandfather was Josiah
Wedgwood, the famous potter. Darwin was the son of a doctor of
Shrewsbury, and was educated at the Grammar School of that city and at
Christ's College, Cambridge. Here his natural history studies were
sympathetically directed by Professor Henslow, the botanist, by whose
recommendation he was selected to accompany the _Beagle_ on its
expedition to survey the South American coast. The results of his
travels were embodied in his first important work, "Journals of
Researches during a Voyage round the World," which was published in
1839, and was republished under the title of "A Naturalist's Voyage
round the World." In the same year he married his cousin, Miss Wedgwood,
and, after a few years of London life, took up his residence in a
pleasant country house at Down, near Beckenham, in Kent. Here he pursued
his remarkable investigations until his death, surrounded by his
accomplished children, and finding, as he told a friend, his highest
emotional gratification in the joys of family life and a love of animate
nature. Two of his sons, George Howard Darwin and Francis Darwin, have
done good work in science, the one in geology and astronomy, the other
in botany. Darwin himself wrote also on the "Structure and Distribution
of Coral Reefs," revolutionising the popular view concerning these
remarkable phenomena. Discovering that reef-building polyps cannot live
at depths of more than twenty fathoms, he found it necessary to explain
the presence of rocks built by them which rise from more than 2000 feet
below the surface of the sea. This he did on the hypothesis of a gradual
subsidence of the sea-floor whilst the polyps are at work. This view has
since been generally accepted by geologists, although somewhat modified
by Dr John Murray's observation in the _Challenger_ expedition, that the
reefs are not always of solid coral, and that they may in many cases
have been formed on the cones of extinct volcanoes.
Darwin had pondered for many years over the theory which was to make him
famous before he decided to bring his conclusions before the public.
After considerable observation of every form of animal and vegetable
life and experiments in selective breeding he concluded that the species
of plants and animals now on the earth were not created in their present
form, but had been evolved by unbroken descent with modification of
structure from cruder forms, the remains of many of which are constantly
discovered in the older rocks. He discovered in 1858 that =Alfred Russel
Wallace (1822- )= had independently arrived at the same conclusions,
and so it was agreed that their views should be jointly laid before the
Linnaean Society. In 1859 the "Origin of Species" was published, and it
was followed by a number of works bearing upon the same subject, the
most notable of all being the "Descent of Man." Darwin's work on "Earth
Worms," perhaps the most purely literary of all his writings, appeared
the year before his death. It is not the province of a sketch of
Victorian literature to discuss the many important bearings of the
Darwinian hypothesis. Received with unbounded contempt by literary men
so eminent as Carlyle and Ruskin, it was accepted only with
qualification by men of science like Agassiz, Carpenter, and Owen; but
an overwhelming majority of scientific men in England, America, and
above all in Continental countries, have declared in its favour. The
theory has received popular interpretation in Germany from Haeckel, and
in England from Huxley, although in this connection we must not forget
=George John Romanes (1848-1894)=, the author of "Animal Intelligence"
and "Mental Evolution in Animals," Grant Allen, and Edward Clodd.
=Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)=, one of the greatest of our men of
science, was of interest not only on account of his vast scientific
attainments, but for his profound acquaintance with metaphysics, as
illustrated in his "Life of Hume," his wide culture, and his exquisite
literary style. He was born and educated at Ealing, in Middlesex, where
his father was a schoolmaster. He studied medicine at the Charing Cross
Hospital, then entered the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon, and went
in the _Rattlesnake_ to survey the Barrier Reef of Australia. The papers
which he sent to the Royal and Linnaean Societies gave him fame. After
his return he devoted himself to original research; but work of that
sort brings no recompense in money, and Huxley's means were narrow. In
1854, however, he obtained the chairs of Natural History and
Palaeontology at the School of Mines, and to this he afterwards added the
appointment of Inspector of Fisheries. The "blue ribbon" of science,
the Presidency of the Royal Society, was conferred on him in 1883.
Huxley wrote much on biological problems, and by the publication of his
"Physiography" gave a new name to the science which has extended the
scope of the old Physical Geography: but his chief interest for us here
is in his "Lay Sermons," "Addresses and Reviews," his "Critiques and
Addresses," and his "American Addresses," all of which may take rank
among the finest prose of our age.
As an interesting contrast to the work of Darwin and Huxley, and all
that it has implied to modern literature, one may refer once again to
the movement inspired by Cardinal Newman. His most prominent associates
for many years, neither of whom, however, left the Church of England for
the Church of Rome, were Pusey and Keble.
=Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882)= was practically the founder of the
modern High Church movement in the Anglican community. A writer of
"Tracts for the Times," he was, after Newman had "gone over to Rome,"
the recognized head of the movement, and his followers were frequently
called "Puseyites." A demoralization of the party seemed inevitable on
Newman's secession, but the publication of Dr Pusey's "Letter to Keble"
gave it fresh life. In 1866 his "Eirenicon," a proposal for the reunion
of Christendom, drew a reply from Cardinal Newman, with whom, however,
he maintained the profoundest friendship to the end. =John Keble
(1792-1866)=, who was born at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, was a man
of far higher gifts. Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he
obtained a fellowship at Oriel. For some years he was Professor of
Poetry at Oxford, a position for which he had qualified himself by the
publication of the "Christian Year," a volume of religious poems for
every Sunday and church festival, many of which have been admitted into
the hymnology of all the Christian sects. Perhaps truer poetry is to be
found in his "Lyra Innocentium," a series of poems on children, for
there the human element is more marked. Keble also wrote a "Life of
Bishop Wilson," and published several volumes of sermons.
The movement of Liberal theology, to which men like Keble gave the name
of "national apostasy," was headed in its earlier developments by
Archbishop Whately and Dr Arnold of Rugby, and more recently by the Rev.
Frederick Denison Maurice and Dean Stanley. =Richard Whately
(1787-1863)=, who was at Oriel with Keble, had published his once
popular "Logic" and "Rhetoric" before the commencement of the reign of
Victoria, and in 1831 had been made Archbishop of Dublin, a position
which he held till his death, in 1863, winning all hearts by his
kindness and liberality, by his generous tolerance and zeal for
progress. His "Logic" is chiefly of importance for the impetus it gave
to the study of that science. His "Christian Evidences" gained in its
day a wider audience. =Thomas Arnold (1795-1842)= was born at East
Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, and was educated at Winchester, and with
Keble at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. After ordination he removed to
Laleham-on-Thames, where he prepared young men for the universities.
When, in 1827, the head-mastership of Rugby became vacant, Arnold was
elected on the strength of a recommendation by Dr Hawkins, to the effect
that he "would change the face of education all through the public
schools of England." The prophecy was fulfilled. He was the first to
introduce modern languages and modern history and mathematics into the
regular school course. At the same time he always insisted on the value
of the classics as a basis of education, and himself prepared an edition
of "Thucydides," and wrote a "History of Rome" in its earlier periods,
which is at least eminently interesting. His services to his country as
an educational reformer were even greater on the moral side. Dr Arnold
was a purifying influence to men of the higher classes, to a degree
which is inexplicable to the present generation. For a time he was
unpopular, and his school suffered, through his advocacy of church
reform and his association with political Liberalism; but the success of
his pupils at the universities had caused a reaction in his favour at
the time of his death, which occurred all too early, for he was only
forty-seven. Of his many distinguished pupils, perhaps the best known
are Tom Hughes and Dean Stanley. =Thomas Hughes (1823-1896)=, who in
1882 was made a county-court judge, wrote many books, but only one of
them entitles him to be remembered to-day. In a moment of happy
inspiration, he wrote the finest boy's book in the language. "Tom
Brown's School Days" was published in 1857. It is a picture of life at
Rugby, under Dr Arnold's healthy, manly guidance.
=Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881)= wrote his "Life of Dr Arnold" in
1844. A son of Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, he was born at
Alderley, in Cheshire. From Rugby he went to Balliol College, Oxford,
where he had an exceptionally distinguished career. In 1851 he became a
canon of Canterbury, and his picturesque "Memorials of Canterbury" were
the outcome of residence in that city. In 1863 he was made Dean of
Westminster, notwithstanding the opposition of the High Church party, to
whom the theological views expressed in his numerous works were
distasteful. Of these writings, "Sinai and Palestine," "Lectures on the
Eastern Church," and "Lectures on the Jewish Church," are the best
known. As Dean of Westminster Dr Stanley became an active leader of the
Broad Church movement. Although not a contributor to "Essays and
Reviews" his services to the movement were incalculable. He invited Max
Mueller to lecture in the Abbey, befriended Pere Hyacinthe, and gave
sympathy to Bishop Colenso. His speeches in the Lower House of
Convocation, particularly one in which he proposed the suppression of
the Athanasian Creed in the services of the Church, made him many
enemies; but few ecclesiastics have been so beloved by both sovereign
and people. One recalls the pleasant, active little man, so proud of his
Abbey Church, with a deep sigh that he should be no more. His life was
written by his successor, Dean Bradley.
Of the contributors to "Essays and Reviews," the manifesto of the Broad
Church party, which appeared in 1860, Frederick Temple must be
mentioned, because his contribution, "The Education of the World," led
to a frantic effort to prevent his receiving the bishopric of Exeter, an
effort which was unsuccessful. In 1885 Dr Temple was made Bishop of
London, and in 1896 Archbishop of Canterbury. Other distinguished
writers in "Essays and Reviews" were Dr Jowett and Mr Mark Pattison.
=Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)=, master of Balliol, who wrote the essay
on "The Interpretation of Scripture," achieved his greatest successes by
his brilliant translations of Plato, Thucydides, and "The Politics" of
Aristotle. His Plato drew from John Bright, who was little inclined to
appreciate the great thoughts of the Athenian philosopher, an expression
of admiration for the classic English of the Oxford professor. Jowett's
life was written by Evelyn Abbott and Lewis Campbell. =Mark Pattison
(1813-1884)=, whose contribution to "Essays and Reviews" was on "The
Tendencies of Religious Thought in England," assisted Newman and Pusey
in the early days of the Tractarian movement, but finally went over to
the Liberalism which they so much dreaded. In 1861 he was elected Rector
of Lincoln College, Oxford. Pattison was a profound scholar. Few men
have led lives so absorbed in books. The results of his learning are
apparent in his interesting "Life of Isaac Casaubon," which he had hoped
to follow by a life of Scaliger.
But men like Jowett and Pattison have been the arm-chair representatives
of a movement which found one of its most active supporters in =John
Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872)=. Maurice was the son of a
Unitarian minister, and was born at Normanstone, near Lowestoft. For a
time he was editor of the _Athenaeum_, but joined the Anglican Church in
1831, and accepted a curacy near Leamington. A treatise entitled
"Subscription no Bondage," which defined his position in the Church,
excited much attention, as did also his tracts on the "Kingdom of
Christ." In conjunction with Kingsley and Hughes he published pamphlets
called "Politics for the People," and organised the Christian socialist
and co-operative movement of 1850. Like Kingsley, Maurice may be
labelled a Broad Churchman, not so much on doctrinal grounds as for the
breadth of his sympathies. It was social rather than theological
problems to which he attached importance. Kingsley, indeed, described
himself to correspondents as a Broad Churchman, a High Churchman, and an
Evangelical, as the mood seemed to take him. Bishop Colenso is a good
type of the more militant theologians. =John William Colenso
(1814-1883)= first came before the public as the author of mathematical
text-books. At this time he was vicar of Forncett St Mary, in Norfolk,
but in 1853 he was made Bishop of Natal. In South Africa he was a
zealous advocate of the rights of the natives against the oppression of
the Boers and Cape Town officials; but in a measure his influence was
weakened by the publication of his work on Biblical criticism, "The
Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined," which was condemned
by both Houses of Convocation as heretical. When Colenso came to England
in 1874 he was inhibited from preaching in the dioceses of London,
Lincoln, and Oxford. At Oxford, however, his sermon was read from the
pulpit of Balliol while the Bishop sat below, and the same device was
pursued at Mr Stopford Brooke's Church in London. Dean Stanley invited
him to the Abbey pulpit, claiming freedom from the jurisdiction of Dr
Jackson, the then Bishop of London; but Colenso declined to increase the
ill-feeling which had been excited.
Another distinguished member of the Broad Church party, =Edwin Abbott
(1838- )=, was head-master of the City of London School from 1865 to
1889. He has published several educational works. His religious
influence has developed itself through "Philochristus; Memoirs of a
Disciple of our Lord," and "Onesimus; Memoirs of a Disciple of St Paul,"
also by a volume of sermons, "Through Nature to Christ," which is
perhaps the best evidence of the development of the Broad Church
movement. Dr Whately, one of its founders, argued for the miracles as
indicative of the Divine origin of Christianity; Dr Abbott esteems the
insistence on miracles as a bar to belief. Perhaps the purest and most
inspiring of all the eloquent teachers belonging to this party was
=Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853)= of Brighton, whose sermons
have been widely read, especially in America, and whose lectures are as
helpful and bracing as any written in our time. Robertson's remarkable
career of only thirty-seven years has been made known to us by the
beautiful life which was written by Mr Stopford Brooke. =Stopford
Augustus Brooke (1832- )= was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity
College. At first he was a Church of England clergyman and a Queen's
Chaplain, but seceded in 1880 on account of his inability to believe in
many supernatural phases of Christian teaching. His "Primer of English
Literature," "History of Early English Poetry," "Theology in the English
Poets," and "Life of Milton" have the ring of the genuine, and, indeed,
of the great, critic.
Outside the pale of the Anglican community, but powerful factors in that
same Broad Church movement which has been charged with "stretching the
old formula to meet the new facts," one recalls the names of Lynch and
Martineau. =Thomas Toke Lynch (1818-1871)= was born at Dunmow, in
Essex, and held for many years the ministry of a small Congregational
Church, first in Grafton Street and afterwards in the Hampstead Road,
London. He died in comparative obscurity; but the poems in his
"Rivulet," once condemned as heretical, have found their way into most
hymnologies.
=James Martineau (1805- )= was born at Norwich, and was originally
educated for the profession of civil engineer, but turned to theological
studies, and was for some time the minister of a Presbyterian Church in
Dublin. Then, during a residence in Liverpool, he became a supporter of
the philosophy of Bentham and the elder Mill, but finally abandoned that
position for Kantian metaphysics. Thenceforth he was to be a great power
on behalf of the Theistic and Unitarian position, and he turned
vigorously upon the materialistic beliefs which he had abandoned, and
was, it may be added, somewhat too harsh to his sister Harriet when,
later in life, she adopted them. His "Endeavour after the Christian
Life" and "Hours of Thought on Sacred Things" are two of his best known
works, although a more philosophical interest attaches to his "Study of
Spinoza" and his "Types of Ethical Theory."
I have dwelt at some length on the work of the High Church and Broad
Church parties during the reign, because with these bodies it has been a
period of great literary achievement, and it can scarcely be claimed
that Evangelicanism, however earnest, zealous, and numerically powerful,
has added much of enduring worth to religious literature. =Richard
William Church (1815-1890)=, Dean of St Paul's, who wrote so
eloquently on Dante and St Anselm, belonged to the Liberal High Church
school, as did also =Henry Parry Liddon (1829-1890)=, a canon of the
same cathedral, whose Bampton lectures "On the Divinity of Jesus Christ"
marked him out as one of the most eloquent of modern preachers. One of
the greatest scholars in the English Church, =Joseph Barber Lightfoot
(1828-1889)=, Bishop of Durham, who replied to the author of
"Supernatural Religion," belonged to the same party. Midway between the
Broad Church and the Evangelical schools we find =Frederick William
Farrar (1831- )=, Dean of Canterbury, who, as head-master of
Marlborough College, wrote stories of boy life. He succeeded Kingsley as
a Canon of Westminster, and excited much attention by his sermons on the
doctrine of eternal punishment. His lives of Christ and of St Paul have
been widely read. =John Charles Ryle (1816- )=, Bishop of Liverpool,
has been perhaps the most famous literary exponent of the Evangelical
position. "Shall we know one another in Heaven" and "Bible Inspiration"
were characteristic books from his pen. =John Saul Howson
(1816-1885)=, Dean of Chester, who, in conjunction with the Rev. W. J.
Conybeare, wrote an able work on "The Life and Epistles of St Paul," was
also a Low Churchman.
The most distinguished Nonconformist minister of the Victorian period,
and the man whose sermons found most readers, was =Charles Haddon
Spurgeon (1834-1892)=, with whom eloquence and earnestness were
combined with the possession of a simple English style, which he derived
from a study of the Puritan fathers. In "John Ploughman's Talk" (1868)
Spurgeon put forth much homely wisdom in a quaint and humorous garb.
I have said well nigh enough concerning speculative writers and
theologians, but it is necessary to mention here =Henry Longueville
Mansel (1820-1871)=, who succeeded Milman as Dean of St Paul's. Mansel
was a vigorous defender of the Anglican position. "The Limits of
Religious Thought" was the title of one of his books; "Metaphysics, or
the Philosophy of Consciousness, Phenomenal and Real" was another, but
he crossed swords with many disputants, with F. D. Maurice, with J. S.
Mill, and indeed he was ever a fighter, subtle and skilful. Another
theologian, =Cardinal Manning (1808-1892)=, was a disputant on behalf
of Roman Catholicism, he having left the Anglican Church in 1851. His
many books and sermons are to-day only of interest to the theological
student. His life was written in 1896, and caused much controversy
through its exceeding candour and indiscretion.
Philosophy has had notable students also in Ferrier, Caird, and
Clifford. =James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864)= who was a nephew of
Susan Ferrier the author of "Marriage," was professor of moral
philosophy at St Andrews. He wrote "Lectures in Greek Philosophy" and
other works. =Edward Caird (1835- )= is master of Balliol and he has
written "Philosophy of Kant," "Essays on Literature and Philosophy," and
"The Evolution of Religion." =William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879)=
belonged to the opposite camp. He obtained an early reputation as a
mathematician and became professor of applied mathematics in University
College, London, in 1871. His powerful contributions to the literary
side of science were contained in "Seeing and Thinking" and "Lectures
and Essays," the latter volume being edited after his death by his
friends Mr Leslie Stephen and Sir Frederick Pollock.
The three most notable books that we have seen from the anti-theological
side, apart from Matthew Arnold's "Literature and Dogma," are "The Creed
of Christendom," "Phases of Faith," and "Supernatural Religion,"
although to these may perhaps be added translations of the Lives of
Christ, of Strauss, and of Renan. The "Creed of Christendom" was the
work of =William Rathbone Greg (1809-1881)=, who wrote also "Enigmas
of Life" (1872), and "Rocks Ahead" (1874). "Phases of Faith" was the
work of =Francis William Newman (1805-1897)=, a younger brother of
Cardinal Newman, but at the opposite pole of religious conviction. He
has written many books, the most successful being one on "The Soul"
(1849). Another on "Theism" (1858), was inspired by the same theistic,
but non-Christian impulse. "Phases of Faith" (1858), was his most
successful work. The author of "Supernatural Religion" is Walter Richard
Cassels, who has also published a reply to Bishop Lightfoot's strictures
upon his larger work--a work now all but forgotten, but which created a
considerable sensation at the time of its appearance.
The age has been, particularly in its later developments, an age of good
critics of literature. Criticism unhappily rarely lasts much beyond its
own decade. Even Mr Matthew Arnold lives now only by his poetry, and the
many good things that he said about books are being steadily forgotten.
Arnold was a great critic, and so also was =Walter Pater (1839-1894)=,
whose "Marius the Epicurean" and "Imaginary Portraits" should have
ranked him with writers of imagination were it not that criticism was
his dominant faculty. Pater has been described as "the most rhythmical
of English prose writers," and his "Renaissance: Studies in Art and
Poetry," and his "Appreciations" give him a very high place among the
writers of our time.
=Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894)= was another great critic, who
wrote at least one work of imagination. "Marmorne" is a very pretty
story of life in France. With every aspect of French life Mr Hamerton
was well acquainted, as he lived in that country for very many years. He
wrote regularly upon art topics, and edited an art magazine, _The
Portfolio_; but it is by his volume of essays entitled "The Intellectual
Life" that he will be most kindly remembered for many a year to come.
Certain writers whom I must mention are entitled to a place both as
critics and as poets. Mr W. E. Henley, Mr F. W. H. Myers, William Bell
Scott, and William Allingham for example. =William Ernest Henley
(1849- )= has written plays in conjunction with R. L. Stevenson, and
his "Book of Verses" and "Song of the Sword" entitle him to very high
rank among the poets of the day. But he is also a critic of exceptional
vigour and force, and since Matthew Arnold there has been no volume of
criticism so full of discrimination and sound judgment as "Views and
Reviews." Ill health has compelled Mr Henley to waste much of his
undoubted talent. He is at present editing fine library editions of
Burns and Byron. =Frederic William Henry Myers (1843- )= wrote "Saint
Paul," a poem of considerable reputation, but his critical essays are
more widely known. They were published in two volumes, "Classical" and
"Modern," and are full of delightful ideas delightfully expressed. His
biography of Wordsworth is a daintily fanciful memoir, abounding in
good criticism. Mr Myers's brother Ernest is also a poet, and so also
was =William Bell Scott (1811-1890)=. He was, it is true, a poet of a
narrow range, but a critic of great energy and industry. Bell Scott
became best known by his "Autobiography," published after his death. In
it he discussed Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite movement with sufficient
frankness. =William Allingham (1824-1889)= wrote many poems and
ballads full of the Celtic spirit, and of Ireland, which he loved as the
land of his birth. Allingham was for a time editor of _Fraser's
Magazine_, and he contributed regularly to the chief literary
periodicals of his day.
Literary critics of importance to-day are Edward Dowden, Richard
Garnett, George Saintsbury, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen, and Andrew
Lang--all of whom are happily living and writing.
=Edward Dowden (1843- )=, who is an Irishman, and a professor of
Trinity College, Dublin, has a genius for accuracy and is a master of
detail. For textual criticism of Wordsworth and Shelley he has no
superior. He has an immense knowledge of the literature of many
languages, and holds without dispute the first place among living
students of German literature in this country. His knowledge of English
literature is profound, and in "Shakspere, his Mind and Art," and
"Studies in Literature," he has said some singularly illuminating
things about books. With his "Life of Shelley" one observes a certain
deterioration; Professor Dowden, with all his profound love of
literature, has scarcely the qualities which would find attraction in
the curiously impulsive character of the poet Shelley. Dowden was
happier when writing about Southey, and he is still more at home with
great impersonal literary figures like Shakspere and Goethe.
=Richard Garnett (1835- )=,--better known to the world to-day as Dr
Garnett--has also written on Shelley, not merely with sympathy but with
partisanship. Dr Garnett, who is honourably associated with the British
Museum Library, is a most acute critic, a biographer of Carlyle and
Emerson, a translator from the Greek and German, and, like Professor
Dowden, a poet.
=George Saintsbury (1845- )=, who is Professor of English Literature
at the University of Edinburgh, has been an industrious critic for many
years, and his knowledge of French literature in particular is profound.
His acquaintance with English literature in the seventeenth century has,
however, considerably vitiated his style. It is not easy to tolerate the
phraseology of the seventeenth century in modern books. This defect of
style is regrettably noticeable in two volumes of literary history which
Professor Saintsbury has published, one dealing with the seventeenth
and the other with the nineteenth century. It is in certain brief
biographies of Sir Walter Scott and others that Professor Saintsbury is
most excellent; but his wide knowledge and his genuine grasp of the most
salient characteristics of good literature are indisputable qualities
which rank him high among the bookmen of his day.
=Edmund Gosse (1849- )= is not less distinguished than the writers I
have named. He would be widely known as a writer of charming verse were
he not actively engaged in literary criticism. The son of a famous
naturalist, Mr Gosse is the author of many admirably written books about
the literature of the past and the present. What Carlyle so largely did
for German literature by introducing it to English readers Mr Gosse has
done for Scandinavian literature. In conjunction with Mr William
Archer--a dramatic critic of singular insight--he has translated Ibsen,
whose influence has been as marked during the past ten years as the
influence of German writers was marked during the previous thirty. Mr
Gosse's best biography is his "Life of Gray."
A critic of remarkable learning is =Leslie Stephen (1832- )=, whose
"Hours in a Library" and "History of English Thought in the Eighteenth
Century" are books which have profoundly impressed the age. Mr Leslie
Stephen has written a large number of biographies, all of them
characterised by singular accuracy, by remarkable graces of style, and
by genuine insight. He was the first editor of the _Dictionary of
National Biography_, a work which has proved invaluable to students of
our later literature.
=Andrew Lang (1844- )= is the last of the critics I have named, and
not the least active. He has shone in many branches of literary work.
His "Ballads and Lyrics of Old France," "Ballades in Blue China," and
numerous other verses, have gained him considerable reputation as a
poet. His translations of Homer and Theocritus are by many counted the
finest translations that our literature has seen. Some have contended
that his musical prose rendering of the Odyssey is incomparably superior
to all the efforts of Pope, of Cowper, and of the many other poets who
have attempted to render Homer in verse. Mr Lang is an authority on
folk-lore; he has joined issue with Professor Max Mueller on many points
which are of keen interest to those who are attracted towards the
science of language and the study of comparative religion. As a writer
of fairy-tales, and as the editor of books of fairy-stories, Mr Lang has
endeared himself to thousands belonging to the younger generation. But
all this is but dimly and inefficiently to appraise Mr Lang's marvellous
versatility. He has written fiction, history, and, above all, biography,
his biographical work including a Life of Sir Stafford Northcote and a
Life of John Gibson Lockhart, Scott's son-in-law.
Biography has generally been written by literary critics, and one
requires no apology in any case for ranking the biographers among the
critics. =John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)= himself was a notable
example. He was editor of the _Quarterly Review_, and an industrious
writer for many years; but he is best known to us by his "Life of Sir
Walter Scott," which was published--it is worthy of note--in 1837, the
year of the Queen's accession. Lockhart's "Scott" is beyond question the
most important biography of the reign. The longest is that of Milton by
Professor Masson. =David Masson (1822- )= has held a chair of
literature in University College, London, and later at Edinburgh. Few
men know English literature better than he. His name will always be
associated with his monumental "Life of Milton," a solid, accurate,
exhaustive book; but he has written pleasantly on "British Novelists and
their Styles" and "Drummond of Hawthornden," besides sundry other books.
Many of our poets have had capable biographers. Professor Knight of St
Andrews has devoted himself for many years to Wordsworth, and has
written his biography besides editing his collected works. The late
James Dykes Campbell (1835-1894) wrote a biography of Coleridge
distinguished by remarkable thoroughness. Professor W. J. Courthope has
proved himself Pope's best biographer and editor, and is giving us a
good "History of English Poetry," which at present reaches only to the
Reformation. Mr Churton Collins, one of the most thorough of our
critics, has written on Swift, as has also Sir Henry Craik; and Swift's
life in Ireland has been gracefully sketched by Mr Richard Ashe King, a
novelist whose "Love the Debt" and "The Wearing of the Green" have
commanded a large audience. Swift has been a favourite subject with the
biographers. A life of him was the task upon which =John Forster
(1812-1876)= was engaged at the time of his death. Forster was an
untiring biographer, and he benefited literature as well by his death as
by his life, in that he bequeathed his fine library of books and
manuscripts to the nation. John Forster wrote a Life of Walter Savage
Landor, another of Goldsmith, and another of Charles Dickens, against
which it was urged that he had introduced too much of his own
personality. Perhaps Forster's best work was his "Life of Sir John
Eliot," an expansion of a biography of that patriot which he had
contributed to his "Statesmen of the Commonwealth."
Biography is the great medium of instruction and inspiration of that
little band of Positive philosophers who accept their gospel from
Auguste Comte, whose "Philosophie Positive" they have translated into
English. "Study the 'Philosophie Positive' for yourself," says George
Henry Lewes, who, with George Eliot, had much enthusiasm for the new
cult; "study it patiently, give it the time and thought you would not
grudge to a new science or a new language; and then, whether you accept
or reject the system, you will find your mental horizon irrevocably
enlarged. 'But six stout volumes!' exclaims the hesitating aspirant:
Well, yes; six volumes requiring to be meditated as well as read. I
admit that they 'give pause' in this busy bustling life of ours; but if
you reflect how willingly six separate volumes of philosophy would be
read in the course of the year the undertaking seems less formidable. No
one who considers the immense importance of a doctrine which will give
unity to his life, would hesitate to pay a higher price than that of a
year's study." Among the most gifted of the Positivists is =Frederic
Harrison (1831- )=, whose "Order and Progress," and "Choice of Books,"
are well known. Among his companions in literary and religious warfare
have been =James Cotter Morison (1831-1888)=, who wrote biographies of
St Bernard of Clairvaux and Macaulay, "The Service of Man" which was a
contribution to religious propaganda; and Richard Congreve (born 1818),
who was a pupil of Dr Arnold at Rugby, and who has written many
thoughtful political tracts.
An attempt to popularise Comte by an abridgment of his great work was
made by =Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)=, who was born at Norwich, and
was one of the most versatile of Victorian writers. None of her work has
stood the test of time, perhaps because she had so little of real
genius, although possessed undoubtedly of great intellectual endowments.
Not the less readily should we recognise that she exercised considerable
influence upon her own generation. She wrote many stories dealing with
social subjects, and tales illustrative of Political Economy, which
dispersed many a popular illusion. In a visit to America she learned to
sympathise with the Northern States, and perhaps no writer of the day
did so much in England to excite sympathy with the cause which
ultimately proved victorious. Miss Martineau's "Biographical Sketches"
were originally published in the _Daily News_, a journal to which she
was for many years a regular contributor, and for which she wrote her
own obituary notice. Her historical work is mere compilation, destitute
alike of originality and thoroughness, and the greater part of her other
work has proved to be ephemeral. Such tales, however, as "Deerbrook" and
"The Hour and the Man" have still admiring readers. The publication of
her "Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development" (1851) excited
much controversy, although her fearless honesty won the respect even of
her opponents.
A writer who distinguished himself most notably at one period by a
combination of antagonism to Supernatural Christianity, and a gift for
writing biography, was =John Morley (1838- )=. Mr Morley was born at
Blackburn, and educated at Cheltenham and at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Much of his work was done in journalism; he edited in succession the
_Morning Star_, the _Literary Gazette_, the _Fortnightly Review_, the
_Pall Mall Gazette_, and _Macmillan's Magazine_. He resigned the
editorship of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ in 1883, when he entered
Parliament as member for Newcastle-on-Tyne, and he gave up his post on
_Macmillan's Magazine_ on entering a Liberal Cabinet in 1886. He still
edits the "English Men of Letters Series," a remarkable collection of
handy biographies, for which he wrote a "Life of Burke." His literary
achievement, apart from his essays, is entirely biographical, but it was
of enormous influence upon the intellectual development of thoughtful
young men at the Universities during the seventies and eighties. He has
written lives of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, which throw much light
on the period prior to the French Revolution, and give abundant evidence
that, had he not devoted himself to politics he would have been able to
produce a history of the French Revolution of inestimable value. On the
other hand his "Life of Cobden" was a failure from a literary
standpoint. The essay "On Compromise" is a most interesting development
of the fundamental idea of Milton's "Areopagitica," and is probably the
most exhaustive treatment of the question--how far we are justified in
keeping back the expression of our opinions in deference to the views
and customs of our fellow-men.
Another good biographer who gave up to Parliament time which might have
been better employed, from the point of view of a lover of letters, is
=Sir George Otto Trevelyan (1838- )=, whose life of his uncle, Lord
Macaulay, is a delightful biography, full of entertainment for the most
frivolous of readers. Not less entertaining is Sir George Trevelyan's
"Early History of Charles James Fox" (1880), a book which makes one wish
that the writer had devoted himself to that epoch of our history, and
had done for the period of the Georges what his uncle had done for their
immediate predecessors.
=Lord Houghton (1809-1885)= wrote poetry as Richard Monckton Milnes,
and his lines are still frequently quoted. But his biography of
Keats--"Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats (1848),"
although not now in any publisher's list, is certain to be long
remembered. Lord Houghton's life was written by his friend, Sir Wemyss
Reid, author also of a "Monograph on Charlotte Bronte." His son, after
serving as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, became Earl of Crewe; his
daughter, Florence Henniker, keeps alive the literary tradition of the
family, and is known as a writer of short stories. Lord Houghton had a
genuine love of letters and of the society of literary men. So also had
=Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867)=, whose diary edited by Dr Sadler
(1869) brings one in touch with all the literary men and women of the
period. At his house in Russell Square Robinson gave breakfasts, to
which it became a distinction to be invited. =Samuel Rogers's
(1763-1855)= breakfasts have been described in many memoirs. Rogers
wrote all his poems long years before the Queen began to reign, but he
lived for another thirty years with the reputation of a good
conversationalist and story-teller. His "Table Talk" was published in
1856, and it is full of good stories. Two valuable books concerning
Rogers have been written by Mr Peter William Clayden, "Early Life of
Samuel Rogers," and "Rogers and His Contemporaries."
An important biography was written by =James Spedding (1810-1881)=,
whose whole life was devoted to a study of Bacon, and to a thorough
destruction of Macaulay's criticism upon the great philosopher. The
"Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon, including all his Occasional
Works, newly collected and set forth, with a Commentary Biographical and
Historical," was published in seven volumes between 1857 and 1874.
Two of the most notable political philosophers of the era were George
Cornewall Lewis and Bagehot. =Sir George Lewis (1806-1863)= held
important posts in the Governments of his day, being at one time Home
Secretary and at another Secretary of State for War. He wrote "A
Dialogue on the Best Form of Government" and many other treatises.
=Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)= was one of the greatest authorities of
his day on banking and finance. He wrote "Physics and Politics,"
"Economic Studies," and several other works which have little relation
to literature; but his "Literary Studies" indicated a critical
acquaintance with the best books. A brilliant publicist of our day, who
combines, like Bagehot, a love of affairs with keen literary instincts,
is =Goldwin Smith (1823- )=, who has made his home in Toronto,
Canada, for many years now, but who was once intimately associated with
Oxford University. Goldwin Smith has written many books and pamphlets,
one on "The Relations between England and America," another on "The
Political Destiny of Canada," and he has written a short biography of
Cowper.
The most famous traveller of the reign and one of our greatest men of
letters was =George Borrow (1803-1881)=, who went to Spain as an agent
of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Hence his "Bible in Spain,"
which has become one of the most popular books in our language as it is
one of the most fascinating. It was first published in 1843 under the
title "The Bible in Spain, or Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of
an Englishman in an attempt to circulate the Scriptures in the
Peninsula." "Lavengro" (1851) and "The Romany Rye" (1857) have enjoyed
almost an equal popularity with "The Bible in Spain."
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American citizen, and his work,
therefore, does not come within the scope of this volume. I am the more
sorry for this, that I consider Melville's name is entitled to rank with
that of George Borrow as one of the two travellers during the epoch
whose books make literature. It is small disparagement to the majority
of our great travellers that they have not been men of letters, that
their books, although serviceable to their generation, are of little
moment considered from the standpoint of art. Although Mr H. M. Stanley,
Dr Nansen, and other adventurous spirits of our time, may be quite as
important in the general drift of the world's doings as any of the
literary men whose names are contained in this volume, their books have
no place whatever in literature. It is noteworthy, however, that books
written by travellers have been, during the past ten years or more, by
far the most popular form of reading, apart from fiction. Interest in
historical study and speculative writing seems to have declined;
interest in travel is as marked as ever.
The journalism of the reign has been so intimately associated with
literature that were my space more ample I should have chosen to devote
a chapter to that subject alone. Many of the men I have mentioned,
perhaps most of them, have at one time or another contributed to the
journals or magazines of the day. Even the novelists have a peculiar
interest in journalism, because of late years as large a proportion of
their pecuniary reward has come from what is called serial publication
in this or that magazine or newspaper as from book publication. Apart
from fiction, access to magazines and newspapers has become, if it has
not always been, an easy and pleasant way of making oneself heard upon
the subject nearest to one's heart. Literary journalists, who have
afterwards republished their contributions in volume form include Sydney
Smith and John Wilson at the beginning of the reign; as also Douglas
Jerrold, Mark Lemon, Edmund Yates, Charles Mackay, and George Augustus
Sala. =Sydney Smith (1771-1845)= left nothing that we can read to-day.
He lives as a pleasant memory. We know that he must have been a
liberal-minded, as he was certainly a very witty clergyman. He wrote on
"The Ballot" in 1837 and on "The Church Bills" in 1838, and he went on
writing zealously until his death. "The Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith"
was published in 1861. =John Wilson (1785-1854)= has a more purely
literary record. As editor of _Blackwood's Magazine_, he made that
publication a power in the land. His "Recreations of Christopher North"
appeared in 1842. Many of his essays and sketches may still be read with
real pleasure, and indeed his influence will be very much alive for many
a year to come. =Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857)= is also well known
to-day by his "Black-eyed Susan" and "Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures."
His son, Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), wrote his life. =Mark Lemon
(1809-1870)= was one of the first editors of _Punch_ newspaper. His
hundreds of articles and many novels are all well nigh forgotten, but
his name will always receive honourable mention in the history of
journalism. =Edmund Yates (1831-1894)=, who founded _The World_
newspaper in 1874, will be remembered by his well written
"Autobiography"--one of the best books of the kind ever issued. Yates
wrote many novels, but they have all passed out of memory. =Charles
Mackay (1814-1889)= was an active journalist for a number of years. He
wrote novels, poems, and criticisms, and an entertaining autobiography
entitled "Forty Years' Recollections of Life, Literature, and Public
Affairs." Dr Mackay was father of Eric Mackay, author of "Love Letters
of a Violinist," and stepfather of Miss Marie Corelli the novelist.
=George Augustus Sala (1828-1895)=, who wrote so continuously for the
_Daily Telegraph_ and other journals, was also author of many books as
well as the inevitable autobiography. "The Land of the Golden Fleece,"
"America Revisited," and "Living London" are well known. =Richard
Jefferies (1848-1887)= published his "Gamekeeper at Home" in the _Pall
Mall Gazette_. "Wood Magic" (1881), "Bevis" (1882), and "The Story of My
Heart" (1883), are his best books.
These names suggest a hundred others. The most honoured journalist of
to-day is =Frederick Greenwood (1830- )=, who has edited "The
Cornhill Magazine" and more than one newspaper. He has written poems,
stories, and essays, his "Lover's Lexicon" and "Dreams" being two of his
latest volumes.
Another editor of _The Cornhill Magazine_, =James Payn (1830- )=, has
written many successful novels, of which "Lost Sir Massingberd" (1864)
and "By Proxy" (1878) are perhaps the most popular. Mr Payn's many
accomplishments, his delightful humour and gift of genial anecdote, have
endeared him to a wide circle.
A journalist of equal distinction was =Richard Holt Hutton
(1826-1897)=, the editor of the _Spectator_, who in that journal
maintained for thirty-five years the high-water mark of dignified and
independent criticism, in an age in which the extensive intercourse of
authors and critics, the constant communication between the writers of
books and the writers for newspapers, has made independent criticism a
difficult, and, indeed, almost impossible achievement. Mr Hutton wrote
many books, two of the most notable being "Essays Literary and
Speculative," which were full of thoughtful and discerning estimates of
the works of Wordsworth, George Eliot, and other writers.
Memoirs abound in the epoch, although we are mainly indebted to
translations. Amiel's "Journal," translated by Mrs Humphry Ward, "Marie
Bashkirtseff's Diary," translated by Mathilde Blind, reflect one side of
this literary taste; while the thousand and one memoirs concerning
Napoleon I. represents another. The most popular series of political
memoirs in English we owed to =Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville
(1794-1865)=, who became Clerk to the Privy Council in 1821, and held
that post until 1860. After his death his diary was edited by Mr Henry
Reeve. The first series of the "Greville Memoirs" dealing with the reign
of George IV. and William IV., appeared in 1875 and created immense
excitement.[19] The later volumes excited less interest.
"The Life of the late Prince Consort" (1874) by =Sir Theodore Martin
(1816- )=, naturally contained no indiscretions although it did much to
enhance, if that were possible, kindly memories of the Queen's husband.
Sir Theodore Martin made his first fame under the pseudonym of Bon
Gaultier. His "Book of Ballads," written in conjunction with Professor
Aytoun, had much success. Sir Theodore Martin also wrote Aytoun's
"Memoir" (1867), and "The Life of Lord Lyndhurst" (1883). He has
translated the Odes of Horace, "The Vita Nuova" of Dante, Goethe's
"Faust," and Heine's "Poems and Ballads." In 1885 he published a "Sketch
of the Life of Princess Alice."
It is difficult to know where to place =Sir Arthur Helps (1817-1875)=,
who wrote plays, novels, histories, and essays. He was an overrated
writer in his time. He is perhaps underrated now. Two series of "Friends
in Council" appeared, the first in 1847, the second in 1859. They dealt
with all manner of abstract subjects, such as "war," "despotism," and so
on, and were very popular. Another volume, "Companions of my Solitude,"
was equally successful. Helps was rash enough to enter into competition
with Prescott in treating of the Spanish Conquest of America; but the
picturesque books of the earlier writer are still with us while Helps's
"Life of Pizarro" (1869) and "Life of Cortes" (1871) are almost
forgotten. That also is the fate of his romance, "Realmah" (1868) and of
his tragedies, "Catherine Douglas" and "Henry II." Sir Arthur Helps was
Clerk to the Privy Council, and he edited the "Principal Speeches and
Addresses of the late Prince Consort" (1862).
Sir Arthur Helps also edited for =Queen Victoria (1819- )= her "Leaves
from a Journal of our Life in the Highlands" (1868). The Queen has also
published "The Early Days of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort"
(1867), and "More Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands"
(1884).
Her Majesty has been credited with a genuine taste for letters, and a
love for good poetry and good fiction. With some show of authority it
has been stated that her favourite novelists are Sir Walter Scott, Miss
Austen, and Miss Bronte; while it is quite evident to the least
inquisitive that many literary theologians have had some measure of her
regard. Happily the times have long passed when literature needed the
patronage of the powerful. To-day it can honourably stand alone. But it
is pleasing to remember that the sovereign whose sixty years of rule
make so remarkable a record in literature, as in many other aspects of
the world's progress, has taken a sympathetic interest in the books and
bookmen of the epoch.
The Queen will have seen reputations blaze forth and flicker out
ignominiously; she will have seen many a writer hailed for immortal
to-day and forgotten to-morrow. She will have seen, however, a
succession of writers, Browning and Tennyson, Carlyle and Ruskin, most
notable of all, who in their impulse towards high ideals of human
brotherhood, in their enthusiasm of humanity, have given us a literature
without a parallel in history; and she will not be without a sense of
gratification that that literature will go down the ages bearing the
name of Victorian.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] "Autobiography" by John Stuart Mill (1869), pp. 232, 233.
[19] A contemporary epigram thus expressed the general feeling:
"For fifty years he listened at the door,
And heard some scandal, but invented more.
This he wrote down; and statesmen, queens, and kings,
Appear before us quite as common things.
Most now are dead; yet some few still remain
To whom these 'Memoirs' give a needless pain;
For though they laugh, and say ''Tis only Greville,'
They wish him and his 'Memoirs' at the D--l."
INDEX
Abbott, Edwin. Distinguished member of Broad Church party;
'Philochristus' and 'Onesimus'; his 'Through Nature to Christ'
perhaps the best evidence of the development of his party, 165.
Abbott, Evelyn, 163.
'Adam Bede,' 49;
Reade on, 50.
'Addresses and Reviews,' 158.
'Admiral's Daughter, The,' 71.
'Adventures of Harry Richmond, The,' 61.
'Agnes Grey,' 47, 48.
'Agriculture and Prices, History of,' 144.
'A Hard Struggle,' 38.
Ainsworth, W. H. 'Old St Paul's,' 'The Tower of London,' and
'Rookwood' his best novels, 67.
'Alec Forbes of Howglen,' 63.
Alexander, Mrs (Mrs Hector), 74.
'Alexander the Great,' 33.
'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,' 64.
Allen, Grant. 'Anglo-Saxon Britain,' 99.
'All in All,' 39.
'All Sorts and Conditions of Men,' 65.
Allingham, William. Writer of Celtic and Irish poems and ballads;
edited _Fraser's Magazine_, 173.
_All the Year Round_, 69.
A.L.O.E. (Miss Charlotte Maria Tucker). Most popular stories,
'Pride and his Pursuers,' 'Exiles in Babylon,' 'House Beautiful,'
and 'Cyril Ashley,' 73.
'Alton Locke,' 53.
'America Revisited,' 188.
'Amiel's Journal,' 189.
'And Shall Trelawney Die,' 38.
'Angel in the House, The,' 31.
'Anglo-Saxon Britain,' 99.
'Animal Intelligence,' 157.
'Ann Sherwood,' 72.
'Annals of the Parish,' 63.
'Anthony Hope,' 63.
'Anthropology' (Tylor's), 99.
'Antiquity of Man, The,' 153.
Anti-theological books. The three most notable, 170.
'Apologia pro Vita Sua,' 110.
'Appreciations,' 171.
Archer, William, 175.
Aristotle's 'Politics,' Jowett's translation, 163.
Arnold, Dr. 'History of Rome,' 102. (_Vide infra._)
Arnold, Matthew, and Wordsworth, 8;
his poetic gifts first recognised by Swinburne, 17;
'Literature and Dogma'; 'God and the Bible'; influence on
contemporary religious thought, 18;
Professor of Poetry; 'Essays in Criticism'; definition of
criticism;
educational work, 19;
best known by his poetry, 19, 20, 171;
'Empedocles on Etna'; 'The Strayed Reveller'; 'Poems,' 20;
'Thyrsis,' 21;
admiration for Emily Bronte, 47.
Arnold, Sir Edwin. 'Light of Asia' and 'Light of the World,' 26;
on Henry Kingsley, 56.
Arnold, Thomas. At Rugby; Dr Hawkins' recommendation; his
methods; 'Thucydides'; 'History of Rome'; a purifying influence,
160;
at first unpopular; reaction in his favour; his best known
pupils, 161. (_Vide supra._)
Ashley, Professor W. J. 'Economic History and Theory,' 144.
_Athenaeum_ The, and Tupper's 'Proverbial Philosophy,' 27.
_Aunt Judy's Magazine_, 73.
'Aurora Leigh,' 14.
Austin, Alfred. Laureate, 39;
'The Golden Age'; 'Savonarola'; 'English Lyrics,' etc., 40.
'Autobiography of W. B. Scott,' 173.
'Autobiography' (Mill), 138, 142.
'Autobiography' (Yates), 188.
'Ave atque Vale,' 17.
'Ayrshire Legatees,' 63.
Aytoun, Professor, 191.
Bagehot, Walter. A great authority on banking and finance;
'Physics and Politics'; 'Economic Studies'; 'Literary Studies,'
184.
Bailey, Philip James; author of 'Festus,' 28.
Bain, Alexander. Assisted Mill in his 'Logic'; 'The Senses and the
Intellect'; 'The Emotions and the Will'; 'Mental and Moral
Science'; style, 147.
Balfour, Francis Maitland, 151.
'Ballades in Blue China,' 30, 176.
'Ballads and Lyrics of Old France,' 176.
'Ballads for the Times,' 27.
'Ballot, The,' 187.
Banim, John and Michael, 34.
'Barchester Towers,' 58.
Barham, Richard Harris. 'Ingoldsby Legends' first appeared in
_Bentley's Miscellany_; his novel, 'My Cousin Nicholas,' all
but forgotten, 30.
'Barnaby Rudge,' 42.
Barnes, William. Philologist and poet; author of 'Poems of Rural
Life in the Dorset Dialect,' 37.
'Barrack-Room Ballads,' 40.
Barrie, J. M. 'A Window in Thrums,' written before he had read
Dr MacDonald's books; probably influenced by John Galt, 63.
'Barry Cornwall,' 35-36.
_Beagle, The_, 154.
'Beau Austin,' 60.
'Beauchamp's Career,' 61.
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, author of 'The Bride's Tragedy' and
'Death's Jest Book,' 36.
Bell, Currer, Ellis, and Acton, 47, 48.
Bentham, Jeremy, 137.
Bentinck, Lord George. Biography of, by Lord Beaconsfield, 57.
Bentley, Robert, 151.
_Bentley's Miscellany_ and 'Ingoldsby Legends,' 30.
Besant, Sir Walter. 'All Sorts and Conditions of Men,' practical
influence of; collaboration with James Rice; 'Ready Money
Mortiboy'; 'The Golden Butterfly,' 65.
'Bevis,' 188.
'Bible Inspiration,' 168.
'Biographical History of Philosophy,' 148-149.
'Biographical Sketches,' 180.
'Black but Comely,' 59.
Black, William. First appearance as a novelist in 'Love or
Marriage,' 68;
'A Daughter of Heth'; 'Madcap Violet'; 'Macleod of Dare,' 69.
'Black-eyed Susan,' 187.
Blackmore, Richard Doddridge. 'Lorna Doone,' received coldly at
first; an unexcelled master of rustic comedy; 'The Maid of
Sker'; 'Christowell'; 'Cripps the Carrier,' 69.
_Blackwood's Magazine_, 49, 70, 74, 187.
'Blessed Damozel, The,' 23.
Blind, Mathilde. Translated 'Marie Bashkirtseff's Diary,' 190.
'Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A,' 12.
'Book of Ballads' (Martin and Aytoun), 191.
'Book of Verses,' 172.
Boole. The Logician, 147.
Booth, Charles. 'Life and Labor of the People,' 144-145.
'Borderers, The,' 9.
Borrow, George. The most famous traveller of the reign; 'Bible
in Spain'; 'Lavengro'; 'The Romany Rye,' 185.
'Botanic Garden, The,' 154.
Braddon, Miss, 74.
Bradley, Professor A. C. Editor of Green's 'Prolegomena,' and
author of 'Ethical Studies,' 148.
Brewer, Rev. John Sherren. Chief work a 'Calendar of Letters and
Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.,' 88;
'The Reign of Henry VIII.,' 89.
Brewster, Sir David. The first writer of the era to popularise
science; founder of _Edinburgh Cyclopaedia_; his 'Life of
Newton,' 'Martyrs of Science,' and 'More Worlds than One'
still widely read, 150.
'Bride's Tragedy, The,' 36.
_Bridgewater Treatises_, 153.
Bright, James Franck. 'English History for the use of Public
Schools,' 97.
'British Novelists and their Styles,' 177.
Broad Church party, manifesto of, 162.
Bronte, Anne. 'Poems'; 'Agnes Grey,' 47;
'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,' 48.
Bronte, Charlotte. Early years, 46;
Brussels; 'Poems'; 'The Professor'; 'Jane Eyre'; 'Shirley';
'Villette'; marriage and death, 47;
Mrs Gaskell's 'Life,' 71.
Bronte, Emily. 'Poems'; 'Wuthering Heights'; 'Last Lines'; 'The
Old Stoic,' 47;
Swinburne's criticism of 'Wuthering Heights,' 48.
Brooke, Stopford Augustus. Secession from the Church of England;
'Primer of English Literature,' 'History of Early English
Poetry,' 'Theology in the English Poets,' and 'Life of
Milton,' 166.
Broughton, Miss Rhoda, 74.
Browne, Hablot, 45.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 13;
not in the least incomprehensible; 'Cry of the Children';
'Cowper's Grave'; 'Aurora Leigh'; 'Sonnets from the
Portuguese'; her opinion of 'Aurora Leigh'; 'Casa Guidi
Windows'; death, 14.
Browning, Robert. Friendship with Tennyson; social traits, 11;
superb characterisation; charge of obscurity; half his work
not obscure; 'The Ring and the Book'; 'Men and Women'; and
'Dramatic Idyls' are exciting stories; 'Luria'; 'In a
Balcony'; and 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon' as readable as
railway novels; his small audience, 12;
'Pauline'; hard fight for recognition; Elizabeth Barrett's
appreciation; marriage, 13-14.
Bryce, James. 'The Holy Roman Empire'; parliamentary life, 104.
Buckland, Frank. Author of books on 'Natural History,' 153.
Buckland, William. Author of 'Geology and Mineralogy considered
with reference to Natural Theology,' 153.
Buckle, Henry Thomas. 'History of Civilization in England';
defects of, 103.
Burney, Fanny, 49.
Burton, John Hill. 'History of Scotland,' 96.
'By Proxy,' 189.
Byron, death of, 5;
attitude towards Wordsworth, 8.
Caird, Edward. 'Philosophy of Kant'; 'Essays on Literature
and Philosophy'; 'The Evolution of Religion,' 170.
Cairnes, John Elliott, 143.
'Calendar of Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.,
A,' 88.
'Calendar of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth,' 89.
'Called to be Saints,' 22.
'Callista,' 111.
Calverley, Charles Stuart. One of the most famous successors of
Hood and Barham; wrote 'Fly Leaves' and 'Verses and
Translations,' 30.
Campbell, James Dykes. Biographer of Coleridge, 178.
Campbell, Lewis, 163.
Carleton, William. 'Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry';
'Tales of Ireland'; 'Fardorougha the Miser'; 'Black Prophet,' 66.
Carlyle, Thomas. Birth; education; his father's influence, 112;
as tutor; biographer; Madame de Stael's influence, 113;
veneration for Goethe, 113-114, 120-121;
'Wilhelm Meister'; 'Life of Schiller,' 113;
marriage; Richter's influence, 114;
personal character, 115-120;
domestic relations, 115-120;
Froude's 'Letters' and Reminiscences, 115-116;
his influence, 118-119, 128;
intentions respecting 'Reminiscences,' 119-120;
'Sartor Resartus'; _Fraser's Magazine_, 121;
influence of his teaching on younger minds, 122-123;
'Past and Present'; 'Latter-day Pamphlets'; John Stuart Mill;
Governor Eyre and Jamaica riots, 123;
'Heroes and Hero-Worship'; 'French Revolution'; 'Cromwell';
'Frederick II. of Prussia'; his place in literature; 'Schiller'
criticised; 'Life of John Sterling,' 124;
Mill on the 'French Revolution,' 125;
Carlyle's judgments endorsed by John Morley; his 'Cromwell';
his 'Frederick II.,' 126-7;
his enormous personality, 127-8;
_Edinburgh Cyclopaedia_, 150;
contempt for Darwinian hypothesis, 156.
Carroll, Lewis. 'Euclid and his Modern Rivals'; 'A Tangled
Tale'; 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'; 'Through the
Looking-glass,' 64.
'Casa Guidi Windows,' 14.
Cassels, Walter Richard. Author of 'Supernatural Religion,' 171.
'Catherine Douglas,' 191.
'Cave-hunting,' 99.
'Caxtons, The,' 56.
Cellini's 'Autobiography' (Symonds'), 104.
Celtic Renaissance, The, and Thomas Moore, 33.
_Challenger_ Expedition, The, 155.
'Channings, The,' 70.
Chapman, Dr, 49.
Charles, Mrs. Author of 'The Schoenberg Cotta Family' and 'Kitty
Trevelyan's Diary,' 73.
'Charles O'Malley,' 66.
Charlesworth, Maria Louisa. Author of 'Ministering Children,' 73.
'Chartist Parson, The,' 53.
Chartist poets, 37.
'Childhood of Religion,' 99.
'Childhood of the World,' 99.
'Child's Garden of Verses, A,' 60.
'Chips from a German Workshop,' 99.
'Choice of Books,' 179.
'Choir Invisible, The,' 50.
'Christian Evidences,' 160.
'Christian Year, The,' 159.
'Christowell,' 69.
'Church Bills, The,' 187.
Church, Richard William. Author of works on _Dante_ and _St
Anselm_, 167.
'Cithara,' 27.
'City of Dreadful Night, The,' 32.
'Civilisation, History of,' 103.
'Classical' essays, 172.
Clayden, Peter William, 183;
'Early Life of Samuel Rogers' and 'Rogers and His
Contemporaries,' 184.
Clifford, Mrs W. K., 74.
Clive, Mrs Archer. Author of 'Paul Ferrell,' 72.
Clodd, Edward. 'Childhood of the World'; 'Childhood of Religion';
'Pioneers of Evolution,' 99.
'Cloister and the Hearth, The,' 58.
Clough, Arthur Hugh, 21;
Lowell's estimate of; a pupil of Dr Arnold; 'The Bothie of
Tober-na-Vuolich'; death, 21.
Colenso, John William. 'The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua
Critically Examined,' condemned as heretical, 164;
invited to the Abbey pulpit, 165.
Coleridge, death of, 5;
on 'Thalaba,' 6;
Dykes Campbell's biography of, 178.
Coleridge, Hartley, 35.
Coleridge, Sara, and Southey, 7;
'Phantasmion,' 35.
Collet, Miss Clara, 144.
Collins, J. Churton, 178.
Collins, William Wilkie. The novelist of sensation. 'The Woman
in White'; 'The Moonstone'; 'The New Magdalen,' 69.
'Companions of my Solitude,' 191.
Comte, Auguste and the 'Philosophie Positive,' 179.
Congreve, Richard. A writer of thoughtful political tracts, 180.
'Coningsby,' 57.
'Conquest of England, The,' 98.
'Considerations on Representative Government,' 140.
'Constitutional History' (Hallam's), 78.
---- (May's), 80.
---- (Stubbs'), 79.
Cook, Eliza. Her claims to consideration; 'The Old Armchair; the
_Journal_, 29.
Cooper, Thomas. Chartist poet, wrote 'The Purgatory of Suicides,'
&c., 37.
Conybeare, Rev. W. J., 168.
'Coral Reefs, Structure and distribution of,' 155.
Corelli, Miss Marie, 74.
_Cornhill Magazine_, The, 45, 93, 133.
'Corn Law Rhymes,' 37.
'Count Cagliostro,' 125.
'Count Julian,' 15.
Courthope, Professor W. J. Pope's best biographer and editor;
'History of English Poetry,' 178.
'Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, The,' 89.
Cowper, 6.
'Cowper's Grave,' 14.
Cox, Sir George. 'Mythology of the Aryan Nations;' 'History of
Greece,' 100.
Craik, Mrs, 72. _See_ Mulock.
Craik, Sir Henry. A writer on Swift, 178.
'Cranford,' 71.
'Creed of Christendom, The,' 170.
Creighton, Mandell. 'History of the Papacy from the Great Schism
to the Sack of Rome,' 103.
Crewe, Earl of, 183.
'Cripps the Carrier,' 69.
Critics of the Era--
Abbott, Dr E., 165.
Allingham, W., 173.
Arnold, Dr, 160.
Arnold, M., 171.
Ashley, Professor W. J., 144.
Bagehot, W., 184.
Bain, A., 147.
Bentley, R., 151.
Booth, C., 144.
Borrow, G., 185.
Bradley, Professor A. C., 148.
Brewster, Sir D., 150.
Brooke, S. A., 166.
Buckland, Dean, 153.
Buckland, F., 153.
Caird, E., 170.
Cairnes, J. E., 143.
Campbell, J. D., 178.
Cassels, W. R., 171.
Church, R. W., 167.
Clayden, P. W., 183.
Clifford, W. K., 170.
Colenso, J. W., 164.
Collet, Miss C., 144.
Collins, C., 178.
Congreve, R., 180.
Conybeare, Rev. W. J., 168.
Courthope, Professor W. J., 178.
Craik, Sir H., 178.
Cunningham, Dr, 144.
Darwin, C., 153.
Dowden, E., 173.
Faraday, M., 150.
Farrar, F. W., 168.
Fawcett, H., 142.
Ferrier, J. F., 169.
Forster, J., 178.
Foster, M., 151.
Garnett, Dr, 174.
Geikie, Sir A., 153.
Geikie, J., 153.
Gosse, E., 175.
Green, T. H., 147.
Greenwood, F., 188.
Greg, W. R., 170.
Greville, C. C. F., 190.
Hamerton, P. G., 171.
Harrison, F., 179.
Helps, Sir A., 191.
Henley, W. E., 172.
Hooker, Sir J., 151.
Houghton, Lord, 183.
Howson, J. S., 168.
Hutton, R. H., 189.
Huxley, T. H., 157.
Jefferies, R., 188.
Jerrold, D., 187.
Jevons, W. S., 143.
Jowett, B., 162.
Keble, J., 159.
King, R. A., 178.
Knight, Professor, 178.
Lang, A., 176.
Lemon, M., 187.
Leslie, T. E. C., 144.
Lewes, G. H., 148.
Lewis, Sir G. C., 184.
Liddon, H. P., 167.
Lightfoot, J. B., 168.
Lockhart, J. G., 177.
Lyell, Sir C., 152.
Lynch, T. T., 166.
Mackay, C., 188.
Manning, Cardinal, 169.
Mansel, H. L., 169.
Marshall, A., 143.
Martin, Sir T., 190.
Martineau, Dr J., 166.
Martineau, Miss, 180.
Masson, D., 177.
Maurice, J. F. D., 163.
Mill, J. S., 137.
Miller, H., 151.
Mivart, St G., 151.
Morison, J. C., 180.
Morley, J., 181.
Murchison, Sir R. I., 152.
Murray, Dr J., 155.
Myers, F. W. H., 172.
Newman, F. W., 170.
Pater, W., 171.
Pattison, M., 163.
Payn, J., 189.
Potter, Miss B., 144-5.
Pusey, E. B., 158.
Reid, Sir W., 183.
Robertson, F. W., 165.
Robinson, H. C., 183.
Rogers, S., 183.
Rogers, T., 144.
Romanes, G. J., 157.
Ruskin, J., 129.
Ryle, J. C., 168.
Saintsbury, G., 174.
Sala, G. A., 188.
Sanderson, B., 151.
Schloss, D. F., 144.
Scott, W. B., 173.
Sidgwick, H., 143.
Smith, H. Ll., 144.
Smith, G., 185.
Smith, S., 187.
Spedding, J., 184.
Spencer, H., 145.
Spurgeon, C. H., 168.
Stanley, A. P., 161.
Stephen, L., 175.
Stewart, B., 151.
Temple, Dr, 162.
Toynbee, A., 144.
Trevelyan, Sir G. O., 182.
Tyndall, J., 150.
Victoria, Q., 192.
Wallace, A. R., 156.
Whately, R., 159.
Wilson, J., 187.
Yates, E., 188.
'Critiques and Addresses,' 158.
'Cromwell,' 124, 126.
'Cromwell's Place in History,' 90.
Cross, J. W., 50.
Cross, Mrs (George Eliot), 50.
'Crotchet Castle,' 62.
Crowe, Mrs. Author of 'Susan Hopley' and 'The Night Side of
Nature,' 71-72.
'Crown of Wild Olive,' 135.
'Cry of the Children,' 14.
Cunningham, Dr. 'Growth of English History and Commerce,' 144.
'Curiosities of Literature,' 57.
'Cyril Ashley,' 73.
_Daily Telegraph, The_, 188.
'Daniel Deronda,' 50.
'Dante and His Circle,' 23.
Darwin, Charles, 153;
early reception of his theory; Bishop Wilberforce in the
_Quarterly Review_; education; Professor Henslow; _Beagle_
expedition, 154;
'Journals of Researches,' republished as 'A Naturalist's Voyage
Round the World'; 'Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs'
a revolutionary work; the theory now somewhat modified; the
theory of evolution; contemporaneous discovery by Dr Wallace;
'Origin of Species'; 'Descent of Man'; 'Earth Worms,' 156;
the hypothesis now generally accepted; popular interpretators,
157.
Darwin, Erasmus, 154.
Darwin, Francis, 155.
Darwin, George Howard, 155.
'Daughter of Heth, A,' 69.
'David Copperfield' and Thackeray, 44.
'David Elginbrod,' 63.
Davis, Thomas. Wrote 'National and Historical Ballads, Songs and
Poems,' 34.
Dawkins, William Boyd, 98;
'Cave-hunting'; 'Early Man in Britain,' 99.
'Death of Marlowe, The,' 36.
'Death's Jest Book,' 36.
'Deerbrook,' 181.
'Defence of Guenevere,' 25.
'Deformed, The,' 71.
De Morgan, 147.
De Quincey's opinion of 'Count Julian,' 15.
'Descent of Man,' 156.
'Descriptive Sociology,' 146.
De Vere, Thomas Aubrey. Wrote 'The Waldenses,' 'Alexander the
Great,' 'St Thomas of Canterbury,' and a volume of critical
essays, &c., 33.
'Dialogue on the best form of Government, A,' 184.
'Diamond Necklace, The,' 125.
'Diana of the Crossways,' 61.
Dickens, Charles. Literary equipment of, 41;
achieved immediate fame with his first great book; birth;
Dickens senior and 'Micawber'; the _Morning Chronicle_;
'Boz'; the _Monthly Magazine_; 'Pickwick'; 'Oliver Twist';
'Nicholas Nickleby'; 'The Old Curiosity Shop'; 'Barnaby
Rudge'; the most popular writer our literature has seen, 42;
criticisms, 43;
Thackeray's enthusiasm, 44;
'Life' of, 178.
_Dictionary of National Biography_, 176.
Disraeli, Benjamin. 'Vivian Grey'; 'The Young Duke'; 'Venetia';
'Henrietta Temple'; 'Coningsby'; 'Tancred'; 'Sybil'; Biography
of Lord George Bentinck, 57.
D'Israeli, Isaac. 'Curiosities of Literature,' 57.
'Dissertations and Discussions,' 140.
Dobell, Sydney, 31;
admiration for Emily Bronte, 47.
Dobson, Austin. Author of 'Vignettes in Rhyme'; 'Proverbs in
Porcelain,' &c., 30.
'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,' 60.
'Dr Thorne,' 58.
Dodgson, Rev. C. L., 64.
Dowden, Edward. Eminent critic of Wordsworth and Shelley;
'Shakspere, his Mind and Art'; 'Studies in Literature,' 173;
'Life of Shelley,' 174.
Doyle, Conan, 63.
'Dramatic Idyls,' 12.
'Dramatic Scenes,' 36.
'Dream of Eugene Aram,' 29.
'Dream of Gerontius,' 111.
'Dream of John Ball,' 24.
'Dreams,' 189.
'Dress,' 74.
'Drink,' 58.
'Drummond of Hawthornden,' 177.
_Dublin University Magazine_, 66.
Dufferin, Lady, 34.
'Early Days of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort,' 192.
'Early History of Charles James Fox,' 182.
'Early Italian Poets, The,' 23.
'Early Life of Samuel Rogers,' 184.
'Early Man in Britain,' 99.
'Earthly Paradise, The,' 25.
'Earth Worms,' 156.
'East Lynne,' 70.
'Ecce Homo,' 105.
'Ecclesiastical Sonnets,' 9.
'Economic History and Theory,' 144.
'Economics of Industry,' 143.
'Economic Studies,' 184.
_Edinburgh Cyclopaedia_ and Carlyle, 150.
_Edinburgh Review_ and Macaulay, 91.
'Education' (Spencer's), 145.
'Education of the World, The,' 162.
'Egoist, The,' 61.
'Eirenicon,' 158.
'Elements of Politics,' 143.
Eliot, George. Early years; Strauss's 'Life of Jesus';
_Westminster Review_; George Henry Lewes; 'Scenes of
Clerical Life'; 'Adam Bede,' 49;
'The Mill on the Floss'; 'Silas Marner'; 'Romola'; 'Felix
Holt'; 'Middlemarch'; 'Daniel Deronda'; marriage; death;
her letters a disappointment; her poetry; 'Spanish Gipsy';
'Choir Invisible'; 'by her novels she must be judged,' 50;
catholicity of sympathy, 51-52;
has not maintained her position, but has an assured place, 53.
Eliot, George, and Spencer, 145.
_Eliza Cook's Journal_, 29.
Elliott, Ebenezer. Author of 'Corn Law Rhymes,' &c., 37.
'Emotions and the Will, The,' 147.
'Empedocles on Etna,' 20.
'Endeavour after the Christian Life,' 167.
'English History and Commerce, Growth of,' 144.
'English History for the Use of Public Schools,' 97.
'English in Ireland, The,' 88.
'English Lyrics,' 40.
'English Men of Letters Series,' 181.
'English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century,' 88.
'Englishwomen of Letters,' 72.
'Enigmas of Life,' 170.
'Eothen,' 96.
'Epic of Hades,' 26.
'Epic of Women and other Poems,' 39.
'Esmond,' 45.
'Essay in Aid of the Grammar of Assent,' 111.
'Essay on Ritualism,' 106.
'Essays and Reviews,' 162.
'Essays and Studies,' 17.
'Essays,' by T. E. C. Leslie, 144.
'Essays, Classical and Modern' (Myers), 172.
'Essays in Criticism' (Arnold), 19.
'Essays, Literary and Speculative' (Hutton), 189.
'Essays on Literature and Philosophy' (Caird), 170.
'Essays on Unsettled Questions in Political Economy' (Mill), 140.
'Ethical Studies,' 148.
'Ethical Theory, Types of,' 167.
'Euclid and his Modern Rivals,' 64.
'European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,' 96.
'Evan Harrington,' 61.
Evans, Mary Ann (George Eliot), 49-53.
'Evolution of Religion, The,' 170.
Ewing, Mrs. Author of 'Remembrances of Mrs Overtheway,' 73.
'Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy,' 140.
'Excursion, The,' 9.
'Exiles in Babylon,' 73.
'Expansion of England, The,' 105.
'Face of the Deep, The,' 22.
Faraday, Michael. Famous physicist; Royal Institution Lectures;
'Magneto-electricity'; devotion to science, 150.
'Faraday as a Discoverer,' 150.
'Fardorougha the Miser,' 66.
'Far from the Madding Crowd,' 68.
'Farina,' 61.
Farrar, Frederick William, 168.
'Faust' (Martin's translation), 191.
Fawcett, Henry. A disciple of the Ricardo school; 'Manual of
Political Economy,' 142-143;
a critic of Indian finance; Postmaster-General, 143.
Ferguson, Sir Samuel, 34.
'Felix Holt,' 50.
Ferrier, James Frederick. Professor of moral philosophy at St
Andrews; 'Lectures in Greek Philosophy,' 169.
'Festus,' 27, 28.
Finlay, George. 'A History of Greece from its Conquest by the
Romans to the Present Time'; Greek War of Independence, 102.
'First Principles' (Spencer's), 145.
Fitzgerald, Edward. 'Letters and Literary Remains' and 'Omar
Khayyam,' 35.
'Fly-Leaves,' 30.
'Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall,' 38.
'Footprints of the Creator,' 152.
'Fors Clavigera,' 133-134.
Forster, John. 'Life of Swift'; 'Life of Walter Savage Landor';
'Goldsmith'; 'Dickens'; 'Life of Sir John Eliot,' 178;
'Statesmen of the Commonwealth,' 179.
_Fortnightly Review_, 93, 181.
'Forty Years' Recollections of Life, Literature and Public
Affairs,' 188.
Foster, Michael, 151.
'Foul Play,' 58.
Fox, Charles James, and 'Madoc,' 6;
'Early History of,' 182.
'Framley Parsonage,' 58.
'Frank Mildmay,' 67.
_Fraser's Magazine_, 45, 173.
'Frederick II. of Prussia,' 124, 126, 127.
Freeman, Edward A. First work, 'A History of Architecture';
'History of Federal Government; 'History of the Norman
Conquest'; 'Reign of William Rufus'; 'Old English History,'
81;
not a metaphysician; the 'Norman Conquest,' worth the effort
of reading it; Regius Professor at Oxford, 82;
contrasted with Froude, 83.
'French Revolution,' 124, 125.
'Frenchwomen of Letters,' 72.
'Friends in Council,' 191.
Froude, James Anthony. Contrasted with Freeman; abandoned
supernatural Christianity, 83;
'The Spirit's Trials'; 'The Lieutenant's Daughter'; 'Nemesis
of Faith'; his great work, 'The History of England,' 84;
his style and sympathies, 85;
the 'A Becket' articles inaccurate; his 'Life of Carlyle';
Sir Fitz James Stephen's defence of the 'Life,' 86-87;
'Short Studies on Great Subjects'; 'Life of Bunyan'; 'Life
of Caesar'; Carlyle's influence in 'The English in Ireland';
'Lectures on the Council of Trent'; 'English Seamen in the
Sixteenth Century'; 'Life and Letters of Erasmus,' 88.
Froude, Richard Hurrell. 'Literary Remains of,' 83.
Fullerton, Lady Georgina. Author of 'Ann Sherwood,' 72.
Gairdner, James. 'Life and Reign of Richard III.,' 96.
'Gamekeeper at Home, The,' 188.
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson. The Historian of the Stuart kings;
now well into the study of the Protectorate, 89;
minor works, 'The Gunpowder Plot'; 'Cromwell's Place in
History'; not a brilliant writer, but absolutely fair and
impartial; his books the safest guide to the period, 90.
Garnett, Richard (Doctor), and Marston, 38;
a partisan of Shelley; an acute critic, 174.
Gaskell, Mrs. 'Mary Barton' her first success; 'Ruth,' 'North
and South,' 'Sylvia's Lovers,' 'Cranford,' and 'The Life of
Charlotte Bronte' her most enduring works, 71.
Gatty, Mrs, 73.
'Gebir,' 15.
Geikie, James. 'The Great Ice Age,' 153.
Geikie, Sir Archibald. His 'Text Book of Geology' a model of
lucid writing, 153.
'Geoffrey Hamlyn,' 55.
'Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural
Theology,' 153.
'Geology, Principles of' (Lyell's), 152.
'Geology, Text Book of' (Geikie's), 153.
_Germ_, The, 23.
Gibbon's 'Rome,' Milman's edition of, 102.
'Glaciers, On the Structure and Motion of,' 151.
'Gladiators, The,' 59.
Gladstone, William Ewart, and Macaulay, 93;
'The State in its Relations with the Church'; Macaulay's
review; 'Essay on Ritualism'; and 'The Vatican Decrees';
'Studies in Homer'; 'Gleanings'; on Newman's secession, 106.
'Gleanings' (W. E. Gladstone), 106.
'Goblin Market,' 22.
'God and the Bible,' 18.
'Golden Age, The,' 40.
'Golden Butterfly, The,' 65.
'Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics, The,' 81.
Goldsmith, 41;
Life of, 178.
Gosse, Edmund. A poet and critic; joint translator with Mr Wm.
Archer of _Ibsen_, 175;
best biography, 'Life of Gray,' 175.
'Government, A Dialogue on the best form of,' 184.
'Government, On the Proper Sphere of,' 145.
'Grammar of Assent,' 111.
'Great Ice Age, The,' 153.
'Greece, History of' (Cox's), 100.
'Greece, History of' (Finlay's), 102.
'Greece, History of' (Grote's), 100, 101.
'Greece, History of' (Thirlwall's), 101.
Green, Alice Stopford. 'Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, '98.
Green, John Richard. 'Short History of the English People'; place
as a historian, 97;
critics, 97-98;
enlarged edition; dedication; Bishop Stubbs and Professor
Freeman; 'The Making of England,'; 'The Conquest of England';
Sir Archibald Geikie's tribute; adverse criticisms, 98.
Green, Thomas Hill. Long a leader of the Hegelian philosophy at
Oxford; published through _Contemporary Review_ articles on
'Mr Herbert Spencer and Mr G. H. Lewes: their Application of
the Doctrine of Evolution to Thought,' 147;
his 'Prolegomena to Ethics,' finally edited by Professor
Bradley; a moral force in Oxford apart from his philosophy,
148.
Greenwood, Frederick. The most honoured journalist of to-day;
edited _Cornhill Magazine_, 188;
writer of poems, stories, and essays; 'Lover's Lexicon';
'Dreams,' 189.
Greg, William Rathbone. Anti-theological writer; 'The Creed of
Christendom'; 'Enigmas of Life'; 'Rocks Ahead,' 170.
Greville, Charles Cavendish Fulke. His political memoirs the
most popular series we have, 190.
'Greville Memoirs,' 190.
'Griffith Gaunt,' 58.
Grote, George. _Westminster Review_, 100;
M.P. for the City of London; 'History of Greece'; Bishop
Thirlwall's appreciation, 101;
influence respecting views of Athenian democracy, 102.
Grote and J. S. Mill, 139.
'Growth of English History and Commerce,' 144.
'Gryll Grange,' 63.
'Gunpowder Plot, The,' 90.
Hallam, Henry. 'View of the State of Europe during the Middle
Ages,' 77;
Constitutional History of England'; 'Introduction to the
Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and
Seventeenth Centuries,' 78.
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert. Author of 'Marmorne,' 171;
intimately acquainted with French life; edited _The Portfolio_;
'The Intellectual Life,' 172.
'Hand and Soul,' 23.
'Handy Andy,' 34.
'Hard Cash,' 58.
Hardy, Thomas. Earlier fame won with 'Far from the Madding
Crowd'; later popularity by 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles,'
'The Return of the Native,' and 'The Woodlanders' greater
than either, 68.
'Harold,' 10, 56.
Harrison, Frederic. A gifted Positivist; 'Order and Progress';
'Choice of Books,' 179.
'Harry Lorrequer,' 66.
Hawker, Robert Stephen. Author of 'Song of the Western Men,'
and 'Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall,' 38.
'Headlong Hall,' 62.
Heine's 'Poems and Ballads' (Martin's translation), 191.
Helps, Sir Arthur. 'Friends in Council'; 'Companions of my
Solitude'; 'Life of Pizarro'; 'Life of Cortes'; 'Realmah';
'Catherine Douglas'; 'Henry II.,' 191;
edited 'Principal Speeches and Addresses of the late Prince
Consort,' and 'Leaves from a Journal,' 192.
Henley, William Ernest. 'Book of Verses'; 'Song of the Sword';
a critic of exceptional vigour; 'Views and Reviews,' 172.
Henley, W. E., and Stevenson, 60.
Hennell, Sarah, 49.
Henniker, Florence, 183.
'Henrietta Temple,' 57.
'Henry II.' 191.
Henslow, Professor, 154.
'Herodotus,' Sayce's edition of, 100.
'Heroes and Hero-Worship,' 124.
'High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,' 29.
'Hillyars and the Burtons, The,' 55.