The Project Gutenberg EBook of Victorian Literature, by Clement K. Shorter
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Title: Victorian Literature
Sixty Years of Books and Bookmen
Author: Clement K. Shorter
Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39851]
Language: English
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VICTORIAN LITERATURE
SIXTY YEARS OF BOOKS
AND BOOKMEN
_Births have brought us richness and variety,
And other births will bring us richness and variety;
I do not call one greater and one smaller;
That which fills its period and place is equal to any_.
_Walt Whitman_
VICTORIAN
LITERATURE
SIXTY YEARS
OF BOOKS AND
BOOKMEN
BY
CLEMENT SHORTER
LONDON: JAMES BOWDEN
10 HENRIETTA STREET
COVENT GARDEN W.C. 1897
INTRODUCTORY
Asked by a kindly publisher to add one more to the Jubilee volumes which
commemorate the sixtieth year of the Queen's reign, I am pleased at the
opportunity thus afforded me of gathering up a few impressions of
pleasant reading hours. "Every age," says Emerson, "must write its own
books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of
an older period will not fit this." It is true, of course, and as a
result the popular favourite of to-day is well-nigh forgotten to-morrow.
In reading the critical journals of thirty years ago it is made quite
clear that they contain few judgments which would be sustained by a
consensus of critical opinion to-day. Whether time will deal as hardly
with the critical judgments of to-day we may not live to see. I have no
ambition to put this book to a personal test. So far as it has any worth
at all it is meant to be bibliographical and not critical. It aspires to
furnish the young student, in handy form, with as large a number of
facts about books as can be concentrated in so small a volume. That this
has been done under the guise of a consecutive narrative, and not in
the form of a dictionary, is merely for the convenience of the writer.
I have endeavoured to say as little as possible about living poets and
novelists. With the historians and critics the matter is of less
importance. To say that Mr Samuel Rawson Gardiner has written a useful
history, or that Professor David Masson's "Life of Milton" is a valuable
contribution to biographical literature, will excite no antagonism. But
to attempt to assign Mr W. B. Yeats a place among the poets, or "Mark
Rutherford" a position among the prose writers of the day, is to
trespass upon ground which it is wiser to leave to the critics who write
in the literary journals from week to week. It was not possible to
ignore all living writers. I have ignored as many as I dared.
It was my intention at first to devote a chapter to Sixty Years of
American Literature. But for that task an Englishman who has paid but
one short visit to the United States has no qualification. He can write
of American literature only as seen through English eyes. That is to see
much of it, it is true. Few Americans realise the enormous influence
which the literature of their own land has had upon this country.
Probably the most read poet in England during the sixty years has been
Longfellow. Probably the most read novel has been "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Among people who claim to be distinctly literary Hawthorne has been all
but the favourite novelist, Washington Irving not the least popular of
essayists, and Emerson the most invigorating moral influence. In my
youth "The Wide, Wide World" and "Queechy" were in everybody's hands; as
the stories of Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, Thomas Bailey Aldrich,
Frank Stockton, Henry James, and Mary Wilkins are to-day. Apart from
Dickens, nearly all our laughter has come from Mark Twain and Artemus
Ward.
In history, we in England have read Prescott and Motley; in poetry we
have read Walt Whitman, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier,
and, above all, James Russell Lowell, who endeared himself to us alike
as a poet, a critic, and in his own person when he represented the
United States at the Court of St James's. Lastly I recall the delight
with which as a boy I read the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," and
the joy with which as a man I visited the author, Dr Oliver Wendell
Holmes, in his pleasant study in Beacon Street, Boston. These and many
other writers have made America and the Americans very dear to
Englishmen, and this in spite of much wild and foolish talk in the
journals of the two countries.
I have to thank Mr William Mackenzie, the well-known publisher of
Glasgow, for kindly letting me draw upon some articles which I wrote
for his "National Cyclopædia" ten years ago, and upon the literary
section, which he and his editor, Mr John Brabner, permitted me to
contribute at that time to a book entitled "The Victorian Empire." I
have also to thank my friends, Dr Robertson Nicoll and Mr L. F. Austin,
for kindly reading my proof-sheets, Mr Edward Clodd for valuable
suggestions, and Mr Sydney Webb, a friend of old student days, for
reading the chapter which treats briefly of sociology and economics.
A compilation of this kind can scarcely hope to escape the defects of
most such enterprises--errors both of date and of fact. I shall be glad
to receive corrections for the next edition.
CLEMENT K. SHORTER.
_September 27, 1897._
CHAPTER I
The Poets
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, most of the great poets
who had been inspired by the French Revolutionary epoch were dead. Keats
had died in Rome in 1821, Shelley was drowned in the Gulf of Spezzia in
1822, Byron died at Missolonghi in 1824, Scott at Abbotsford in 1832,
and Coleridge at Highgate in 1834. Southey was Poet Laureate, although
Wordsworth held a paramount place, recognised on all hands as the
greatest poet of the day.
The gulf which separates the =Southey (1774-1843)= of the laureateship
from the Southey who presents himself to our judgment to-day is almost
impossible to bridge over. Southey, as the average bookman thinks of him
now, is the author of a "Life of Nelson" and of one or two lyrics and
ballads.[1] The "Life of Nelson" is constantly republished for an age
keenly bent on Nelson worship, but for the exacting it has been
superseded by at least two biographies from living authors.[2] That
Southey should live mainly by a book which was merely a publisher's
commission, and not by the works which he and his contemporaries deemed
immortal, is one of the ironies of literature. Southey's "Cowper" is a
much better biography than his "Nelson," but in Cowper the world has
almost ceased to be interested. It does not now read "Table Talk" and
"The Task" any more than it reads "Thalaba" and "Madoc," although every
cultivated household of sixty years ago could talk freely of these
poems. There will probably be a revival of interest in Cowper. It is
safe to assume that there will never be a revival of interest in
Southey, and that his very lengthy poems are doomed to oblivion.
And yet it is interesting to note where Southey's contemporaries placed
him. Shelley thought "Thalaba" magnificent, and its influence was marked
in "Queen Mab." Coleridge spoke of its "pastoral charm." Landor found
"Madoc" superb. Scott said that he had read it three or four times with
ever-increasing admiration. It kept Charles James Fox out of bed till
the small hours! But inexorable time has declared that these poems have
no permanent place in literature. Time, however, has left us a kindly
memory of Southey the man. Sara Coleridge's assertion that he was "on
the whole the best man she had ever known," tallies with the judgment of
many others of his contemporaries--who did not come into collision with
his relentless prejudices.
Relentless prejudice was equally a characteristic of Southey's greater
successor as Poet Laureate. =William Wordsworth (1770-1850)= had written
all the poems by which he will live when the Queen came to the throne,
but further recognition awaited the author of "Lyrical Ballads" and
"Laodamia" in the thirteen years of his life that were yet to come. It
was in 1839 that Keble, as Professor of Poetry at Oxford, welcomed
Wordsworth when he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. with the
eulogy that he had "shed a celestial light upon the affections, the
occupations and the piety of the poor." In 1842 he obtained an annuity
from the Civil List, and in the following year he succeeded Southey as
laureate. The mere fact, however, that Wordsworth wrote nothing of
importance in the present reign does not permit of his dismissal as a
pre-Victorian author. His real influence, splendid and serene, was made
upon the age which is passing away.
He found us when the age had bound
Our souls in its benumbing round;
He spoke, and loosed our heart in tears.
During the period in which Wordsworth's poems were coming from the press
he was scoffed at alike by Byron and by the authors of "Rejected
Addresses," and they appealed to a sympathetic audience. Coleridge had,
indeed, praised him generously enough, but the author of "The Ode to
Duty" knew nothing of the enthusiastic partisanship which was to be his
lot in the later years of his life, and for more than a quarter of a
century after his death. I have before me two books which will serve to
indicate the high-water-mark of Wordsworth's popularity. One is a volume
of selections from his poems, which was edited by Mr Matthew Arnold,[3]
the other, a volume of Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, which was
privately issued to the members. In his little volume of "Selections" Mr
Arnold, then recognised on all hands as our most important living
critic, insisted upon Wordsworth's pre-eminence in poetry, placing him
indeed on a level with Shakspere and Milton, and assigning to Byron and
Shelley a secondary rank.
Mr Arnold, as events proved, only echoed a pervading sentiment. The
Wordsworth Society was founded, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Dean of St Paul's, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the then American
Minister--Mr Lowell--and a number of distinguished literary men, among
its members. The Transactions of that Society give evidence that among
the thoughtful men and women of the last decade Wordsworth was by far
the strongest influence, that he was not merely a literary tradition,
but that he was a vital force in the minds and hearts of nearly all the
most interesting people of the period. Students of to-day, however, will
be well content to read Wordsworth only in Matthew Arnold's
"Selections." Here they will find him as a sonneteer proclaiming liberty
with scarcely less zeal and power than Milton. They will find him as the
sympathetic friend of the poor and of the oppressed. To be dead to the
charm of Matthew Arnold's "Selections from Wordsworth" is to care
nothing for poetry. To appreciate with any measure of enthusiasm the
twelve volumes of Wordsworth's collected writings is equally to have
one's sense of true poetry deadened and destroyed. We have no time now
for "The Excursion" and "The Prelude." We have less for Wordsworth's
"Ecclesiastical Sonnets" and "The Borderers." For his copious prose
moralizings one has no toleration whatever.
It is not easy to judge whether =Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)= will ever
cease to retain the very wide hold upon the public which was his for at
least thirty years prior to his death, and which is his to-day. The
poems of Tennyson might be read by succeeding generations of Englishmen
if only for their exquisite purity of style. Music he has also in
abundance. In "Harold," "Queen Mary," and his other plays there is no
great gift of characterisation, and these assuredly will go the way of
Southey's more ambitious poems. But in "Maud" Tennyson caught the social
aspiration of his time with singular insight. The world, he pleaded--and
England in particular--was given over to money-getting. The capitalist
was more tyrannical than the old, expiring slave-owner. Even peace was a
mere word. There was a worse tyranny than that which left men for dead
on the battle-field. There was the tyranny which ground them to dust for
a bare pittance in mill and factory. Tennyson never wrote with greater
force or with more perfect dramatic and lyric art, and his poem is as
striking and effective to-day as at the time of its publication in 1855.
Lord Tennyson--for the Poet Laureate accepted a peerage in 1890--won the
hearts of a wider audience by "In Memoriam," and of a still larger one
by "The Idylls of the King." "In Memoriam," a lengthy elegy on his
college friend, Arthur Hallam, touched the great religious public of
England. The poem reflected a certain transcendentalism of view which
was fast becoming fashionable.
"There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds"
was, in fact, more and more the prevailing tone among all phases of
Protestantism where a few years earlier the exact opposite had been
insisted upon.
One of the most agreeable pictures which our literary period affords is
offered by the friendship between Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. The
two men were not seldom compared; each had his partisans, and each his
enthusiastic disciples. Neither from a social nor from a literary point
of view would they seem to have had much in common. Browning was a
regular diner-out, he appeared systematically at every picture-gallery,
and at every public entertainment, and in all these things he was keenly
interested: he loved society. Lord Tennyson, on the other hand, lived a
retired life in one or other of his country houses. He was morbidly
sensitive to the attentions of the crowd, and amusing stories are told
of his desire to avoid the "vulgar" gaze. Considered as literary men,
the contrast between these poets was greater. Tennyson's language was
dainty, simple, full of grace; his characters monotonous, lacking in
vigour. Browning wrote with rugged force, and sometimes with an
obscurity which left the reader bewildered. But his gift of
characterisation was superb, and his men and women for individuality are
comparable only to those of Shakspere. The hearts of all of us go out to
Tennyson when we think of the music of his verses, of his gifts of
natural description, his fine and captivating imagination; but our
hearts and our intellects go out to Browning, as to one who has
enshrined our best thoughts, who has touched all our deepest emotions.
It is true that half of Browning's sixteen volumes are flatly
incomprehensible to the majority of us; but the other half are equal in
bulk to the whole of Lord Tennyson's writings, and quite free from any
suspicion of obscurity. The "Ring and the Book" is not obscure. It is an
exciting story, dramatically told. So also are the poems called "Men and
Women," and the "Dramatic Idyls." "Luria," "In a Balcony," "A Blot in
the 'Scutcheon," are as readable as railway novels. And yet Browning
had, and has, none of the popularity of Tennyson. The one writer sold by
thousands, and his financial reward was probably unprecedented in
poetry; the other had but a small audience, an audience which never
approached to one-third of his rival's. Notwithstanding all this, it is
pleasing to note that the two poets loyally esteemed one another, as
the dedication of some of their books conspicuously proves.
To write thus early of =Robert Browning (1812-1889)= is to anticipate in
the literary record. "Pauline," the poet's first poem, was published, it
is true, in 1833; and that and successive poems were accepted by good
critics as the work of a true poet. Nevertheless, Browning had to fight
his way as no poet of equal merit has ever had to do, and it was very
late indeed in the Victorian epoch that he became more than the poet of
a limited circle. One there was, certainly, who appreciated his work
from the first with no common fervour, for the world has long been
familiar with the statement that a reference by Elizabeth Barrett in
"Lady Geraldine's Courtship" first brought the two poets together in
1845--
"From Browning some 'Pomegranate'
Which, if cut deep down the middle,
Shows a heart within blood-tinctured,
Of a veined humanity."
They were married a year later. As exemplifying the condescension of
their earlier contemporaries it is interesting to note Wordsworth's
observation on the event--and Wordsworth had no humour--"So, Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett have gone off together! Well, I hope they
may understand each other--nobody else could!" Lord Granville, who was
staying in Florence when a son was born to the poets there in 1849, was
still more amusing although equally uncritical. "Now there are not two
incomprehensibles but three incomprehensibles," he said.
It cannot be charged against =Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)=
that she was in the least incomprehensible. Her "Cry of the Children,"
"Cowper's Grave," and "Aurora Leigh," have the note of extreme
simplicity. Nor is obscurity a characteristic of "Sonnets from the
Portuguese," which were not translations, but so named to disguise a
wife's devotion to her husband. "Aurora Leigh" she styled a "novel in
verse," and it was in fact a very readable romance, marked by that zest
for social reform which characterised the period.[4] "The most mature of
my works, and the one into which my highest convictions upon Life and
Art have entered," she wrote of it.
After the marriage the pair lived principally at Florence. In their
Florentine home--Casa Guidi--"Aurora Leigh," and "Casa Guidi Windows"
were written, and here Mrs Browning died in June 1861. One may still see
the house upon which the Florentine municipality has inscribed a tablet
in gratitude for the "golden ring" of poetry with which the
enthusiastic woman poet had attempted to unite England and Italy.
Another great Florentine by adoption, =Walter Savage Landor
(1775-1864)=, came to live near the Brownings. His rugged nature must
have been not a little soothed by the gentle little woman with "a soul
of fire enclosed in a shell of pearl." Landor was educated at Rugby, at
Ashbourne, and at Trinity College, Oxford. From Rugby he was removed to
avoid expulsion, and at Oxford he was rusticated. All this was the
outcome of an excitable temperament, which led in later life to domestic
complications, and to exile from his family in Florence. It found no
reflection in his many beautiful works. As a poet, however, Landor holds
no considerable rank, although here placed among them. "Gebir" was
published in 1798 and "Count Julian" in 1812. Both these lengthy poems
have received the rapturous praise of authoritative critics, De Quincey
even declaring that Count Julian was a creation worthy to rank beside
the Prometheus of Æschylus and Milton's Satan. Southey insisted indeed
that Landor had written verses "of which he would rather have been the
author than of any produced in our time." But Landor's poems, although
obtainable in his collected works, and published in selections, command
no audience to-day. With his prose the case is otherwise. There is
little in the six volumes of "Imaginary Conversations," or in the two
volumes of "Longer Prose Works," that does not merit attention alike for
style and matter. "Give me," he says in one of his prefaces, "ten
accomplished men for readers and I am content." Landor has all
accomplished men for readers now. And all are at one with the critic who
said that, "excepting Shakspere, no other writer has furnished us with
so many delicate aphorisms of human nature." Mr Swinburne's expression
of veneration is well known.
"I came as one whose thoughts half linger,
Half run before;
The youngest to the oldest singer
That England bore.
I found him whom I shall not find
Till all grief end;
In holiest age our mightiest mind,
Father and friend."
The connecting link between Landor and his young admirer is sufficiently
apparent. In genuine accomplishment, the imaginative literature of our
era has produced no one comparable to Landor, save only =Algernon
Charles Swinburne (1837- )=. Mr Swinburne has written well in several
languages other than his own. In his own he has written tragedies of
wider purpose than those of Tennyson, of equal insight with those of
Browning. He has written noble sonnets, lyrics of exquisite melody, and
one poem, "Ave atque Vale," which takes rank among the imperishable
elegies of our literature. He has abundant spontaneity and a marvellous
gift of rhythm. Added to all this, he is a critic of almost unequalled
learning and distinction. He was the first to give adequate recognition
to the poetic genius of Matthew Arnold and Emily Brontë. He knows
Elizabethan literature with remarkable thoroughness, and he knows the
literature of many ages and many lands better than most of the
professors. His appreciation of Charles Lamb endears him to English
readers, and his eulogies of Victor Hugo command the respect of
Frenchmen. A great poet and a great prose writer, Mr Swinburne is
perhaps the most distinguished literary figure of our day. Only when in
the distant years his country has lost him, will a great folly be
generally recognised. Why, it will be asked, did we not spontaneously
call for him--arch democrat and arch rebel though he may have been--as
the only possible successor to Lord Tennyson as Poet Laureate?
It has been said that Mr Swinburne was the first to recognise the great
poetical gifts of =Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)=. Writing in the
Fortnightly Review in 1867,[5] he remarked that the fame of Mr Matthew
Arnold had for some years been almost exclusively the fame of a prose
writer. "Those students," he continued, "could hardly find hearing, who
with all esteem and enjoyment of his essays ... retained the opinion
that, if justly judged, he must be judged by his verse and not by his
prose." The view that Arnold excelled as a prose writer continued to
hold sway for many years after Mr Swinburne wrote, and it was current up
to the date of Arnold's death. "Literature and Dogma" and "God and the
Bible," the former of which first appeared in 1873, excited an
extraordinary amount of attention, and helped largely to modify the
religious beliefs of many men and women now rapidly approaching middle
age. The son of a famous clergyman, Dr Thomas Arnold of Rugby, Matthew
Arnold was a product of that Broad Church movement which Dr Arnold had
helped largely to inspire. A fellow-pupil of Dr Stanley, Dean of
Westminster, Arnold went further than the Dean in his opposition to
supernaturalism in religion, though he stopped short of the fiery
antagonism which another eminent Anglican churchman, Bishop Colenso,
displayed towards the miraculous stories of the Old Testament. But far
more than Stanley or Colenso did he influence the Protestant
Christianity of his day. This, however, scarcely enters into the
discussion of Matthew Arnold the poet. More akin to that side of
Arnold's life is his literary criticism. For many years he held in this
field a well nigh undisputed throne. For a time he was Professor of
Poetry at Oxford. But his influence came mainly through a volume called
"Essays in Criticism" (1865), of which it is not too much to say that
the paper entitled "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time," gave
a new impulse to all students of books. Here and elsewhere Arnold
emphasised the opinion that not only a fine artistic instinct but a vast
amount of knowledge, admitting of comparisons, is necessary as the
equipment of a critic. Criticism he defined as "a disinterested
endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in
the world." Matthew Arnold had other claims as a prose writer. His
appeal for the study of Celtic literature initiated and encouraged a
revival of learning in Wales and in Ireland; and his books and essays on
Education--for his main income for many years was derived from his
salary as an Inspector of Schools--did much to further the cause which
his brother-in-law, Mr W. E. Forster, began with the great Education Act
of 1870.
But it is as a poet, as Mr Swinburne foretold, that Matthew Arnold lives
in literature. It is strange to some of us to note how largely the bulk
of his prose work has dropped out of the memory of the younger
generation. The diligent collector possesses some forty-five volumes of
Mr Arnold's writings; but although there has been a cheap reprint of
many of these, it is only by his collected poems that he is widely known
to-day. Mr Swinburne, in the essay to which I have referred, tells of
the joy with which, as a schoolboy, he came upon a copy of "Empedocles
on Etna." He must then have been about fifteen years of age, as
"Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems by A" was published in 1852. It
contained "Tristram and Iseult," "Stanzas in Memory of the Author of
'Obermann,'" and many now accepted favourites. "The Strayed Reveller" by
"A" was a still earlier volume of anonymous verse (1849); and, in 1853,
"Poems" by Matthew Arnold made the poet known by name to a small circle.
A substantial recognition as a poet did not however fall to Matthew
Arnold while he lived. His career is, indeed, a striking example of the
fact that our views of contemporary literature require to be revised
every decade. Ten years ago everyone was discussing Matthew Arnold's
views concerning Isaiah and St Paul, and the Nonconformists, whom he
chaffed good-humouredly, have reconstructed many of their beliefs
through a study of his works. People were excited by his views on
education and by his views on literature, but not by his poetry. To-day
his poetry is all of him that remains, and its charm is likely to
soothe the more strenuous minds among us for at least another
generation, and perhaps for all time.
In "Thyrsis," a striking elegy on =Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)=,
Arnold struck a note which has only Milton's "Lycidas" and Shelley's
"Adonais" to call forth comparisons. Clough was not a Keats, but he was
a more considerable personage than Milton's friend, and indeed he has
been persistently underrated by many men of letters. Not indeed by all.
"We have a foreboding," said Mr Lowell, "that Clough will be thought a
hundred years hence, to have been the truest expression in verse of the
moral and intellectual tendencies of the period in which he lived."
Clough was the son of a cotton merchant of Liverpool, and he was a pupil
of Dr Arnold at Rugby. He gained a Balliol scholarship, and went into
residence in 1837. The coming years brought doubts and distractions,
religious and political, and Clough parted from Oxford. His most famous
poem, "The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich," was published in 1848. In 1852
he sailed to Boston in the same ship that carried Thackeray and Lowell.
Emerson, who had met him in England, welcomed him there. Travelling
through Europe for his health, he died of paralysis in Florence in
1861.[6]
The catalogue of great English poets of the period is completed with the
names of Rossetti and Morris. Perhaps there is no more romantic figure
in modern literature than =Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)=, although
he has suffered cruelly from the biographer. His father, Gabriele, was
an Italian exile, a critic of Dante, a teacher of Italian in London. His
mother was a sister of the notorious Polidori, whose charlatanry is
remembered wherever an interest in Lord Byron prevails.
The younger Rossetti had relatives--a brother, William Michael, who has
written verses, criticisms, and a ponderous biography of Gabriel; and a
sister, =Maria Francesca Rossetti (1827-1876)=, whose "Shadow of Dante"
makes good reading for admirers of the great Florentine, and, indeed,
may be recommended to every English student of Dante. Another sister,
=Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)=, wrote many books. She will
live by her "Goblin Market" (1862), and by numerous short poems. Books
of the type of "Called to be Saints" and "The Face of the Deep: A
Commentary on the Revelation," have also won her much affection and
admiration from religious sympathisers. She was not responsible for
"Maude" and "New Poems," inadequate works which her brother thought fit
to publish after her death. They are practically worthless.
Dante Rossetti was a considerable painter as well as a poet. His name is
written large in that pre-Raphaelite movement which gave him for
associates Mr Holman Hunt and Sir John Millais. The movement, which had
Mr John Ruskin for its literary champion, when reduced to simple
statement, meant a harking back to early mediæval art. Sir John Millais
and Mr Holman Hunt speedily abandoned this position, and Rossetti
himself was never a pre-Raphaelite in any real sense. The
pre-Raphaelites issued in 1850 a journal under the editorship of
Rossetti's brother, and to the _Germ_, as it was called, Rossetti
contributed his poem, "The Blessed Damozel," and a story, "Hand and
Soul." To the _Germ_ also, Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), the sculptor,
contributed the poems of "My Beautiful Lady."
One epoch in the life of Rossetti was his introduction to Mr Ruskin, and
another was his first acquaintance with William Morris. Ruskin bought
his pictures with characteristic generosity, and further assisted
Rossetti to publish "The Early Italian Poets" (1861), afterwards
reprinted as "Dante and his Circle" (1874). William Morris introduced
Rossetti to his Oxford friends, including Mr Swinburne, and to the
_Oxford and Cambridge Magazine_, in which many of his finest poems were
published. After his wife's death, from an overdose of laudanum in 1862,
Rossetti moved to Queen's House, Cheyne Walk, where for a time he had
for associates in payment of rent Mr Swinburne and Mr George Meredith,
though the latter never actually lived in the house. From that time to
his death he published many important poems--ballads of singular power
like "The White Ship," "The King's Tragedy," and "Sister Helen," and the
many splendid sonnets of "The House of Life." The two volumes of
Rossetti's collected works must always command readers. Rossetti died at
Birchington-on-Sea, and a simple tomb in the churchyard marks his grave.
The name of =William Morris (1834-1896)= closes the list of Victorian
poets of the first rank. Morris was as versatile as Rossetti. He touched
many branches of Art with remarkable success. Now he was designing
wall-papers, and became a successful manufacturer in this branch of
commerce: now he was indefatigable in printing notable books in English
literature from a type which he had himself selected. The wall-paper has
given a new direction to the decoration of English houses, and the
Kelmscott Press has added many beautiful books to our libraries, and
given an impetus to a revival of taste in printing. This was but a part
of Morris's life. Although a rich man, he was a vigorous lecturer on
behalf of Socialism, and wrote many books, such as, for example: "The
Dream of John Ball" (1888), and "News from Nowhere" (1891), in support
of his ideals. From the appearance of his "Defence of Guenevere" (1858),
and "Life and Death of Jason" (1867), he was always publishing, and his
translations from Homer, Virgil, and Scandinavian literature make a
small library by themselves. But a practical handbook to Victorian
literature needs but to mention one of his books. "The Earthly Paradise"
(1868-70), will live as long as a love of good story-telling remains to
us. The tales are told by twenty-four travellers who desire to find the
earthly paradise, and the book opens as do the Canterbury Tales with a
Prologue. The lyrical introduction is one of the most quotable things in
our later literature:--
"Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing,
I cannot ease the burden of your fears,
Or make quick-coming death a little thing,
Or bring again the pleasure of past years,
Nor for my words shall ye forget your tears,
Or hope again for aught that I can say,
The idle singer of an empty day.
"Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.
"Folk say, a wizard to a Northern King
At Christmastide such wondrous things did show
That through one window men beheld the Spring,
And through another saw the Summer glow,
And through a third the fruited vines arow,
While still, unheard, but in its wonted way,
Piped the drear wind of that December day."
William Morris has not seldom been confused with a writer with whom he
had nothing in common but the name. =Sir Lewis Morris (1833- )=, a
Welsh squire, and candidate for Parliament, has stood for convention as
decisively as William Morris has stood against it. His "Songs of Two
Worlds" (1871-5), and "Epic of Hades" (1876), brought him a considerable
popularity, which "A Vision of Saints," and later books have not been
able to maintain. Another literary knight of our time who has secured a
large share of public attention through his verse is =Sir Edwin Arnold
(1832- )=, whose "Light of Asia" interpreted to many the story of
Buddha's career. A poem upon Christ and Christianity "The Light of the
World," owed the fact of its smaller success to the greater familiarity
of the public with its main incidents. Sir Edwin Arnold has won other
laurels as a traveller and as a journalist.
Some of the best poetry of the era has been produced by writers whose
principal achievements are in the realm of prose. The Brontës, Charles
Kingsley, George Meredith, and George Eliot--to name but a few--all
wrote verse which must ultimately have secured attention had they not
made great reputations as novelists.
Assuredly, the three most successful poems in Victorian literature, of
that portion of it which is already passing into oblivion, are
"Proverbial Philosophy," "Festus," and "Philip Van Artevelde." The
"Proverbial Philosophy" of =Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889)=
created an excitement in literary and non-literary circles, which it is
difficult for the present generation to comprehend. It is true that when
it was first published, in 1838, it was greeted by the _Athenaeum_ as "a
book not likely to please beyond the circle of a few minds as eccentric
as the author's." In spite of this, it sold in thousands and hundreds of
thousands; it went through over nine hundred editions in England, and
five hundred thousand copies at least were sold in America. It was
translated into French, German, and many other tongues; its author was a
popular hero, although of his later books, including "Ballads for the
Times," "Raleigh, his Life and Death," and "Cithara," the very names are
by this time forgotten. Of "Proverbial Philosophy" itself there are few
enough copies in demand to-day, and it is difficult for us to place
ourselves in the position of those who felt its charm. What to the early
Victorian Era was counted for wisdom, and piety, and even for beauty,
counts to the present age for mere commonplace verbiage. Tupper's name
has taken a place in our language as the contemptuous synonym for a
poetaster. "Festus," on the other hand, although not read to-day, has
always commanded respectful attention. Its author, =Philip James Bailey
(1816- )=, wrote "Festus" in its first form, at the age of twenty, and
it was published in 1839. The book was enlarged again and again, till it
reached to three times its original length. It may be that this
enlargement has had something to do with its fate. "Festus" was
frequently compared to the best work of Goethe and of Mr Browning. Even
a more pronounced recognition accrued to the dramatic poems of =Sir
Henry Taylor (1800-1886)=, and more particularly to "Philip Van
Artevelde" (1834), which was described by the _Quarterly Review_ as "the
noblest effort in the true old taste of our English historical drama,
that has been made for more than a century," and which attracted the
keenest attention of all Sir Henry Taylor's contemporaries. His
entertaining "Autobiography" has told us that Taylor, who was an
important official at the Colonial Office, knew all the famous men of
his time.
Women have occupied no small share in the literary history of the past
sixty years, although it is in fiction that their most enduring
triumphs have been secured. The most popular women poets, next in order
to Mrs Browning, have been Eliza Cook and Jean Ingelow. =Eliza Cook
(1818-1889)= wrote for the most part the kind of verses which would now
be rejected by the editor of the Poet's Corner of a provincial
newspaper. She would be little more than a vague memory, were it not for
"The Old Arm-Chair"; but she has other claims to consideration. In the
forties and the fifties _Eliza Cook's Journal_ was one of the most
prominent publications of the day, and it did much for the cause of
literature and philanthropy. =Jean Ingelow (1820-1897)= survived, as
did Eliza Cook, to see her verse well-nigh forgotten, and yet it is
stated that two hundred thousand copies of her poems have been sold in
America alone. Miss Ingelow, who was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, and
died in London, will live in anthologies by her ballad, "High Tide on
the Coast of Lincolnshire," by a song in "Supper at the Mill," and by
sundry short poems.
A certain brighter and more humorous kind of verse had its beginnings
with Thomas Hood and the author of "The Ingoldsby Legends." =Thomas
Hood (1798-1845)= has endeared himself to the whole reading world by
his "Song of the Shirt" (1844); and his "Dream of Eugene Aram" (1829) is
not less familiar. But in addition to this he had an abundance of wit
and drollery side by side with pathos and tenderness, which will always
make a splendid tradition and a great inspiration. Hood was a
journalist. His prototype, =Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845)=, was an
Anglican clergyman. His pseudonym of Thomas Ingoldsby calls up memories
of some of the quaintest and drollest verse ever written. "The Ingoldsby
Legends" were first contributed to _Bentley's Miscellany_, and
afterwards collected in volumes. "The Jackdaw of Rheims" is the most
popular. Barham's once successful novel, "My Cousin Nicholas," is now
all but forgotten.
The most famous successors of Hood and Barham have been Calverley and Mr
Austin Dobson. =Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884)= wrote "Fly
Leaves" and "Verses and Translations." Mr Dobson has published, in
addition to many valuable prose works, the exquisite "Vignettes in
Rhyme" and "Proverbs in Porcelain," which, with Mr Andrew Lang's
"Ballades in Blue China," form a dainty contribution to the lighter
literature of the epoch.
A determination to say as little as possible concerning writers still
young in years, though already famous, will make, it may be, my summary
of Victorian poetry seem inadequate to many. Mr Traill, a discerning
critic, has specified some hundred or more "minor poets" who flourish
to-day! But it cannot be doubted that the minor poet of our era, with
his excellent technique, his deep feeling, and his high-minded
impulsiveness, is separated by an immense gulf from the minor poet of an
earlier period. The Pyes and the Hayleys, who were famous in an age when
criticism was less of an art, had little enough of the real poetical
faculty. That faculty can scarcely be denied to the hundred or more of
living bards who now claim the suffrages of the poetry-loving reader. It
cannot be denied also to many men who have passed away during the
present era--to Alexander Smith and Sydney Dobell in one period, and to
Coventry Patmore and James Thomson in another. =Alexander Smith
(1830-1867)= was an industrious essayist as well as a poet. Tennyson
and Mrs Browning concurred in their esteem of Smith as a poet "whose
works show fancy, and not imagination"; and this might with truth be
said of too many of the minor bards, and, indeed, constitutes the
dividing line. Sydney Yendys, under which pseudonym =Sydney Dobell
(1824-1874)= co-operated with Smith in "Sonnets on the War" (1855), was
a poet of similar temperament.
=Coventry Patmore (1823-1896)= is known to the many through his "Angel
in the House," a poem upon domestic bliss which breathed a note not
always sincere, but to which Mr Ruskin assured a certain popularity
through effective quotation in his "Sesame and Lilies." A certain
ecstatic band of admirers attached more importance to Patmore's "Unknown
Eros." These admirers spoilt him by adulation. He probably looked
forward with the same keen assurance to the verdict of posterity as did
Southey; and posterity it is all but certain will be as ruthless in the
one case as in the other.
Patmore's life was one of luxury and independence. Quite the reverse was
the fate of =James Thomson (1834-1882)=, whose great poem, "The City
of Dreadful Night," was published in Mr Charles Bradlaugh's _National
Reformer_ in 1874, and not republished as a book until 1880. Thomson had
a melancholy career which ended in drink and disaster. He died in
University Hospital, London. His "City of Dreadful Night" is peculiarly
a reflection of the age that is passing. It secured even during the
poet's life the commendation of George Eliot, of George Meredith, and of
other critics; and it may yet command a large audience, who breathe the
note of pessimism which was always characteristic of the writer:--
"The sense that every struggle brings defeat
Because Fate holds no prize to crown success,
That all the oracles are dumb or cheat
Because they have no secret to express;
That none can pierce the vast black veil uncertain
Because there is no light beyond the curtain;
That all is vanity and nothingness."
A poet whom one names with peculiar reverence is =Thomas Aubrey de Vere
(1814- )=, the son of Sir Aubrey de Vere, who was also a poet. Aubrey
de Vere, the younger, knew and loved Wordsworth, to whom in 1842 he
dedicated "The Waldenses: A Lyrical Tale," and yet retains, sixty years
later, the most sympathetic interest in modern literary effort. Mr de
Vere is an Irishman, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has
written many volumes of poetry and prose, his dramatic poems "Alexander
the Great" and "St Thomas of Canterbury" having, no doubt, been largely
inspired by the successes of his friend and relative, Sir Henry Taylor,
and by his father's brilliant drama, "Mary Tudor." One of his most
recent books was a volume of critical essays containing a notable study
of Wordsworth.
Irishmen have been fairly conspicuous in the poetry of the epoch, and
the term "Celtic Renaissance" has begun to be used hopefully by lovers
of Ireland who desire that country to have a literature as distinctly
Irish as Scotland has a literature definitely Scottish. =Thomas Moore
(1779-1852)= was the pioneer of this movement. He had, it is true, done
all his work before the Queen came to the throne, although he lived yet
another fifteen years. His "Irish Melodies" began to appear in 1807,
"Lalla Rookh" was published in 1817, and the "Life of Byron" in 1830.
Moore was as much an inspiration to modern Ireland as Burns to modern
Scotland, and the one country holds the name of its poet as
reverentially in memory as does the other. Moore, however, lacked the
note of passionate sincerity which pertained to Burns; although we may
fairly ask what would have been the career of Burns had he been thrown
early into the literary and social life of London--the London of Byron's
time.
The influence of Moore was strong in =Thomas Davis (1814-1845)= whose
"National and Historical Ballads, Songs and Poems" caused so great a
ferment in the heart of Young Ireland. Many other Irish writers deserve
to be named, such as James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849), Sir Samuel
Ferguson (1810-1886), Lady Dufferin (1807-1867) and John Banim
(1798-1842), who wrote, in conjunction with his brother Michael, some
twenty-four volumes of Irish stories and verses. =Samuel Lover (1797-1868)=
is best known in England by his romance "Rory O'More" and
his ever popular "Handy Andy," but in Ireland he is remembered as a
writer of lyrics and ballads of heart-stirring character.
An Irishman by descent, although not by birth, was =Edward FitzGerald
(1809-1883)=, who was born in Suffolk and lived all his life in the
neighbourhood of Woodbridge in that county. FitzGerald's "Letters and
Literary Remains" fill three substantial volumes, but he lives for us by
his translation or rather paraphrase of the "Rubáyát of Omar Khayyám of
Naishápur," which first appeared in 1859. It is generally agreed that
FitzGerald, a nineteenth century pagan, always reverently questioning
the mystery of existence, superadded his own personal thoughts and
feelings to the verses of the old Persian singer. In doing this he
touched deeply a certain aspect of the second half of the nineteenth
century and founded a cult. FitzGerald's verses, however, have been
ardently admired by many who are far from accepting their pessimist view
of life.
=Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)= wrote and published his admirable
sonnets before 1837. He was a son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834), whose literary remains were edited by Henry Nelson
Coleridge, a nephew and son-in-law. H. N. Coleridge married the great
poet's only daughter, =Sara Coleridge (1803-1852)=, who wrote one
poem, "Phantasmion," and whose letters throw much light on an important
chapter of literary history.
=Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874)=, better known as "Barry Cornwall,"
was at school with Lord Byron at Harrow. His "Dramatic Scenes,"
"Marcian Colonna," and "Mirandola" were much talked of in their day.
Procter was admired as a poet by Byron, Moore, and other famous
contemporaries, but no one reads him now. A happier fate has befallen
his daughter, =Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864)=, whose "Legends and
Lyrics" are still widely popular.
Winthrop Mackworth Praed, who wrote much admirable humorous and
satirical verse, is not a Victorian author, although his present
popularity makes that rather hard to realise. He died in 1839. =Richard
Hengist Horne (1803-1884)=, on the other hand, although he lived into
our time, is now remembered only by his friendship with Mrs Browning and
by the humorous freak of publishing his epic "Orion" at a farthing. He
was the author of a miracle play entitled "Judas Iscariot," a tragedy
entitled "The Death of Marlowe," and many other works.
Another writer of well-nigh forgotten tragedies was =Thomas Lovell
Beddoes (1803-1849)=, who wrote "The Bride's Tragedy" and "Death's
Jest Book." A like extinction, it is to be feared, has befallen Ebenezer
Jones and Ebenezer Elliott--the former of whom belonged to that
spasmodic school of poets of which Alexander Smith and Philip James
Bailey were supposed to be the leaders. =Ebenezer Jones (1820-1860)=
wrote "Studies in Sensation and Event," to which in 1879 his brother,
Sumner Jones, attached an interesting biography. There is very genuine
poetry in the volume, but it is not likely to be republished. =Ebenezer
Elliott (1781-1849)= had a very different fate. He enjoyed for many
years the suffrages of the multitude. His "Corn Law Rhymes" played a
considerable part in the political agitation of the period. James
Montgomery called him "the poet of the poor." Another writer with a fine
democratic impulse was =Gerald Massey (1828- )=, who was associated
with the Chartist movement, and wrote "Poems and Charms" and "Voices of
Freedom and Lyrics of Love." Another Chartist was =Thomas Cooper
(1805-1892)=, who wrote "The Purgatory of Suicides" and many other poems
and an entertaining autobiography. Cooper was an active political
agitator, and was imprisoned for two years in Stafford gaol for
sedition.
A poet who holds a great place in the minds of many is =William Barnes
(1820-1886)=, who kept a school for a time in Mr Thomas Hardy's town of
Dorchester. He afterwards became a clergyman and rector of
Winterbourne-Came. He was a philologist as well as a poet, and published
many works on language. His interest for us here is in his "Poems of
Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect" (1844). Another poet-clergyman of
great learning was =Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875)= whose work
reflects Devonshire and Cornwall as Barnes' reflects Dorsetshire. He
wrote the "Song of the Western Men" which he deceived Macaulay into
believing to be an old Cornish ballad, and the great historian
introduced it into his "History of England" as an example of the
excitement caused by the arrest of the seven bishops.[7] Its stirring
refrain:--
"And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die?
Then thirty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why"
will always keep Hawker in remembrance. He was vicar of Morwenstow and
wrote several volumes of poems and some prose, including "Footprints of
Former Men in Far Cornwall."
Two poets, father and son, made the name of Marston honoured in their
days. John Westland Marston (1819-1890) was born at Boston,
Lincolnshire. He wrote two dramas, "Strathmore" and "Marie de Méranie,"
which had much success some years ago. Another work, "A Hard Struggle,"
obtained the enthusiastic praise of Dickens. Dr Garnett claims for
Marston that he was long the chief upholder of the poetical drama on the
English stage. =Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887)=, a son of Westland
Marston, should not have failed of literary success, as he had for
godfather Philip James Bailey, the author of "Festus," and for godmother
Miss Mulock, author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." He, however, became
blind at three years of age. He published three volumes of verse, "Song
Tide and Other Poems" (1871), "All in All" (1875) and "Wind Voices"
(1883). They were never popular, although his poetry gained him the
esteem of many eminent men, Rossetti and Mr Swinburne among others. Mrs
Chandler Moulton, an American lady who wrote "Swallow Flights," gave us
a memoir of Philip Bourke Marston. In this she was assisted by Mr
William Sharp, who was also one of Rossetti's biographers. Mrs Moulton
did a like good office to the memory of =Arthur O'Shaughnessy
(1844-1881)=, a poet of considerable distinction in his day.
O'Shaughnessy married the younger Marston's sister. His "Epic of Women &
Other Poems," published in 1870, was a volume of very great promise. He
wrote other verses, which never attained to quite the same measure of
success.
It only remains for me to name =Alfred Austin (1835- )= the Poet
Laureate. After Lord Tennyson's death in 1892 the office remained vacant
for four years. The two poets who might have been considered to have
had some claim, William Morris and Mr Swinburne, were supposed to be
impossible on account of democratic sympathies, although it is doubtful
if either would have accepted the office. Almost every living poet,
however small the bulk of his achievement, and however inconsiderable
his years, was nominated--by the press--in turn. Finally, in 1896, by a
pleasant irony of circumstances, the laureateship was given to a
journalist,--for Mr Austin had been a leader-writer on the staff of the
_Standard_ newspaper for many years. He has written "The Golden Age, a
Satire" (1871), "Savonarola" (1881), "English Lyrics" (1891), and many
prose works. His "English Lyrics" contained an appreciative introduction
by William Watson, the author of "Wordsworth's Grave," "Lachrymæ
Musarum," and other poems which have been received with abundant
cordiality by the press and public. Another living poet who has been
well and justly praised is =Rudyard Kipling (1864- )=. He made his
earliest fame as a writer of short stories of Indian military life.
"Soldiers Three" and "Wee Willie Winkie" have entirely captivated the
imagination of Mr Kipling's contemporaries. It is as a poet, however,
that he will perhaps longest retain his hold upon them. His
"Barrack-Room Ballads" (1892) are finely touched with that martial
spirit which so strongly appeals to the heart of our nation.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As, for example, _The Battle of Blenheim_, _The Inchcape Rock_ and
_The Cataract of Lodore_.
[2] "The Nelson Memorial," by J. K. Laughton, 1896. "The Life of Nelson.
The embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain," by Captain A. T.
Mahan, 1897.
[3] "Select Poems of Wordsworth," by Matthew Arnold. "Golden Treasury
Series."
[4] Charles Kingsley's "Two Years Ago" appeared the same year--in 1857.
[5] Reprinted in 1875 in "Essays and Studies."
[6] See "Poems and Prose Remains" by Arthur Hugh Clough, with a
Selection from his Letters, and a Memoir, edited by his wife. 2 vols.,
1888.
[7] All over the country the peasants chanted a ballad of which the
burden is still remembered. MACAULAY, History, Vol. II., p. 371.
CHAPTER II
The Novelists
Any comparison of the novels of the Victorian Era, with the novels of
the Georgian Period, must be very much to the disadvantage of the
former. The great epoch of English fiction began with Goldsmith and
Richardson, and ended with Sir Walter Scott. It was an epoch which gave
us "The Vicar of Wakefield," "Clarissa," "Tom Jones," "Pride and
Prejudice," "Humphrey Clinker," and "Tristram Shandy." That fiction had
a naturalness and spontaneity to which the novels of the Victorian Era
can lay no claim. The novels of the period with which we are concerned
aspire to regenerate mankind. Dickens, indeed, started off with but
little literary equipment save sundry eighteenth century novels. He had
read Smollett, and Fielding, and Sterne, diligently. But the influence
of these humourists--so marked in "Pickwick"--became qualified in his
succeeding books by the strenuous spirit of the times.
It is alike interesting in itself and convenient for my purpose that
the most popular novelist of the Victorian era should have published his
first great book in 1837. Dickens awoke then to abundant fame, and his
popularity has never waned for an instant during the sixty succeeding
years. To-day he may be more or less decried by "literary" people, but
his audience has multiplied twofold. He has added to it the countless
thousands whom the School Board has given to the reading world.
=Charles Dickens (1812-1870)= was born at Landport, Portsea, his
father being an improvident clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth.
Dickens senior has been immortalized for us by the not too pleasing
portrait of "Micawber." After infinite struggle and penury, Dickens
became a reporter for the _Morning Chronicle_. Under the signature of
"Boz" he wrote "Sketches" for the _Monthly Magazine_ in 1834. "Pickwick"
appeared from April 1836 to November 1837, and alike in parts and in
book form took the world by storm. It was succeeded by "Oliver Twist"
(1838), "Nicholas Nickleby" (1839), "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1840), and
"Barnaby Rudge" (1841). From this time forth Dickens was the most
popular writer that our literature has seen. Within twelve years after
his death some four millions of his books were sold in England, and
there is no reason to believe that this popularity has in any way
abated, although George Eliot foretold that much of Dickens's humour
would be meaningless to the next generation, that is to say, to the
generation which is now with us. It is the fashion to call Dickens the
novelist of the half-educated, to charge him with lack of
reflectiveness, with incapacity for serious reasoning. His humour has
been described as insincere, his pathos as exaggerated. Much of this
indictment may with equal justice be made against Richardson and even
against Jane Austen, who surely anticipated Dickens by the creation of
the Rev. William Collins.
If Dickens had been a learned University Professor he would not have
possessed the equipment most needful for the artist who was to portray
to us in an imperishable manner the London which is now fast
disappearing. The people who censure Dickens are those for whom he has
served a purpose and is of no further use. They are a mere drop in the
ocean of readers. It is not easy to-day to gauge his precise position.
The exhaustion of many of his copyrights has given up his work to a host
of rival publishers. There are probably thousands of men and women now,
as there were in the fifties and sixties, who have been stimulated by
him, and who have found in his writings the aid to a cheery optimism
which has made life more tolerable amid adverse conditions. Mrs Richmond
Ritchie, Thackeray's daughter, tells us how keenly Dickens's capacity
for stirring the heart was felt even in the home of the rival novelist.
Thackeray's youngest daughter, then a child, looked up from the book she
was reading to ask the question, "Papa, why do you not write books like
'Nicholas Nickleby'"? Thackeray himself shared the general enthusiasm.
"David Copperfield!" he writes to a correspondent, "By Jingo! It is
beautiful! It is charming! Bravo Dickens! It has some of his very
brightest touches--those inimitable Dickens touches which make such a
great man of him. And the reading of the book has done another author a
great deal of good.... It has put me on my mettle and made me feel that
I must do something; that I have fame and name and family to support."
If Dickens is still beloved by the multitude, the name of =William
Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)= has entirely eclipsed his in the
minds of a certain literary section of the community. Thackeray stands
to them for culture, Dickens for illiteracy. Thackeray had indeed a more
polished intellect; he had also a more restrained style. Thackeray was
born at Calcutta. His father, who was an Indian civil servant, died when
the boy was only five years old. He was educated at Charterhouse School
and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1831 he went to Weimar. He studied
long at Paris with a view to becoming an artist, and when "Pickwick"
wanted an illustrator to continue the work of Seymour who had committed
suicide, Thackeray applied to Dickens, but Hablot Browne was chosen, and
Thackeray was disappointed--happily for the world, which lost an
indifferent artist to gain a great author. Thackeray in 1837--the year
which saw the publication of "Pickwick" as a volume--joined the staff of
_Fraser's Magazine_. In that journal appeared in succession "The History
of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond," "The Yellowplush
Papers," and "The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon." In 1847 "Vanity Fair" was
begun in numbers, and not till then did its author secure real renown.
"Pendennis" was published in 1850, and "Esmond" in 1852. "The Newcomes"
(1854) is in some measure a sequel to "Pendennis," as "The Virginians"
(1858) is in some measure a sequel to "Esmond." These are the five works
by Thackeray which everyone must read. In 1857 Thackeray unsuccessfully
contested Oxford. In 1859 he undertook the editorship of the new
_Cornhill Magazine_ which flourished in his hands. These were the
halcyon days of magazine editors. On Macaulay's death in 1859, Thackeray
talked of purchasing the historian's vacant house. A friend remarked
upon his prosperity. "To make money one must edit a magazine," was the
answer. He did not buy Macaulay's house, but built himself one at
Palace Green, and here he died the day before Christmas-day 1863. His
daughter, Anne Thackeray, who became Mrs Richmond Ritchie, has written
"Old Kensington" and other stories of singular charm.
The twenty-six volumes of Thackeray's works make a veritable nursery of
style for the modern literary aspirant. But it is, as has been said,
upon his five great novels that his future fame must rest. They are as
permanent a picture of life among the well-to-do classes as those
Dickens has given us of life among the poor.
=Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)=, who gave to Thackeray the enthusiastic
hero-worship of her early years, called him a Titan, and dedicated "Jane
Eyre" to him, had little enough in common with the author of "Vanity
Fair." The daughter of a poor parson of Irish birth, she was born at
Thornton in Yorkshire. She and two sisters grew up in the cramped
atmosphere of a vicarage at Haworth, in the centre of the moorlands.
They wrote stories and poems from childhood, and dreamed of literary
fame. Meanwhile it was necessary to add to the scanty stipend of their
father; two of them went back as governesses to the school in which they
had been educated; and all of them a little later attempted the
uncongenial life of private governesses. The desire to have a school of
their own led Charlotte and her sister Emily to Brussels, where they
studied French and German. Returning to the Haworth parsonage, the three
sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, with money left them by an aunt,
published a volume of verse--"Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell."
Then each sister produced from her drawer the manuscript of a novel, and
Charlotte's "Professor," Emily's "Wuthering Heights," and Anne's "Agnes
Grey" were sent round to the publishers and returned more than once to
the parsonage. Finally the "Professor" was read by Smith & Elder, who
asked for a longer story by the writer. "Jane Eyre" (1847) was the
result, and that story became one of the most successful novels of the
day. It was followed by "Shirley" (1849) and "Villette" (1853). In 1854
Charlotte Brontë became Mrs Arthur Bell Nicholls, and the wife of her
father's curate. In the following year she died. "The Professor" was
published two years after her death.
=Emily Brontë (1818-1848)= accomplished less than her elder sister,
but her name will live as long. She secured the admiration of Sydney
Dobell, of Matthew Arnold, and of Mr Swinburne, and her best verse is
perhaps the greatest ever written by a woman. "Last Lines" and "The Old
Stoic" will rank with the finest poetry in our literature. Her one
novel, "Wuthering Heights," has been most happily criticised by Mr
Swinburne: "As was the author's life so is her book in all things;
troubled and taintless, with little of rest in it and nothing of
reproach. It may be true that not many will ever take it to their
hearts; it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very
much better in the whole world of poetry or prose."
Emily Brontë's sole contributions to literature were the poems written
in conjunction with her two sisters under the name of Ellis Bell, some
further poems published by her sister Charlotte after her death, and the
single novel "Wuthering Heights."
=Anne Brontë (1819-1849)= wrote more than her sister Emily, but with
less of recognition. She contributed verses to the little volume of
poems under the name of Acton Bell, and additional verses were published
after her death by Charlotte. In addition to this she wrote two novels,
the first of them "Agnes Grey," and the second "The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall." This last, curiously enough, went into a second edition during
Anne's lifetime, and she contributed a preface to it defending herself
against her critics. Neither Anne's poetry nor her novels are of any
account to-day. They would not be read, were it not for the glory with
which her two sisters have surrounded the name of Brontë.
Women novelists have abundantly flourished during the Victorian Era, but
then the path was made easy for them by Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth,
and Fanny Burney. By all those who delight in debatable comparisons the
name of George Eliot is frequently brought into contrast with that of
Charlotte Brontë. =George Eliot (1819-1880)= was born at Griff in
Warwickshire, her real name being Mary Ann Evans. She was for a time at
a school at Nuneaton, and afterwards at Coventry. At first she was an
evangelical churchwoman, but about 1842 she became acquainted with two
or three cultivated women friends at whose houses she met Froude,
Emerson, and Francis Newman, all of whom represented a reverent
antagonism to supernatural Christianity. In conjunction with Sarah
Hennell, she undertook a translation of Strauss's "Life of Jesus." On
her father's death, in 1849, she came to London and became associated
with Dr Chapman in the editorship of the _Westminster Review_. It was
her friendship with George Henry Lewes, whom she met in 1851, which gave
her the first impulse towards fiction. Lewes was an active critic, and a
writer of two now forgotten novels. Miss Evans's "Scenes of Clerical
Life" were sent to Blackwood's Magazine in 1856. The stories were a
great success. Thackeray and Dickens were loud in expressions of
admiration. In 1859 "Adam Bede" was published and made George Eliot
famous. "It is the finest thing since Shakspere," said Charles Reade.
Her success, however, did not lead to hasty production. She wrote only
six novels during the remainder of her life. "I can write no word that
is not prompted from within," she said. "The Mill on the Floss" was
written in 1860; "Silas Marner" in 1861; "Romola" in 1863; "Felix Holt"
in 1866; "Middlemarch" in 1871-1872; and "Daniel Deronda" in 1876.
In 1880 Miss Mary Ann Evans became Mrs Walter Cross, but after a few
months of wedded life she died of inflammation of the heart at 4 Cheyne
Walk, Chelsea. Her husband wrote her biography, not with much success.
So entirely was George Eliot's best mind concentrated upon her books
that her letters, and indeed her personality, were a disappointment to
all but a few hero-worshippers.
The novels, with two volumes of poems and two of essays, make up George
Eliot's collected works. The essays written before and after her novels
give, like her letters, but few indications of her remarkable powers.
Nor, although "The Spanish Gipsy" is deeply interesting, can her poetry
be counted for much. "The Choir Invisible" is her best known poem. It is
by her novels that she must be judged, and these, for insight into
character, analysis of the motives which guide men, and sympathy with
the intellectual and moral struggles which make up so large a part of
life, have a literary niche to themselves. With singular catholicity she
paints the simplest faith and the highest idealism. Whether it be an
Evangelical clergyman, a Dissenting minister, or a Methodist
factory-girl, she enters into the spirit of their lives with fullest
sympathy. Carlyle could see in Methodism only "a religion fit for gross
and vulgar-minded people, a religion so-called, and the essence of it
_cowardice_ and _hunger_, terror of pain and appetite for pleasure both
carried to the infinite." George Eliot's sympathies were wider. She won
the heart of Methodists, who have stood in imagination listening to
Dinah Morris addressing the Hayslope peasantry, as she gained the
devotion of Roman Catholics like Lord Acton, who have seen in her
portrait of Savonarola a wise expression of their faith. And it is not
only in religious matters that her sympathies are so broad. The
sententious dulness of Mr Macey is as much within the range of her
feelings as the manliness of Adam Bede or the scholastic pride of old
Bardo. She feels equally for the weak and frivolous Hetty and the lofty,
self-sustained Romola. "At least eighty out of a hundred," she says, "of
your adult male fellow-Britons returned in the last census are neither
extraordinarily silly nor extraordinarily wicked, nor extraordinarily
wise; their eyes are neither deep and liquid with sentiment, nor
sparkling with suppressed witticisms; they have probably had no
hairbreadth escapes or thrilling adventures; their brains are certainly
not pregnant with genius, and their passions have not manifested
themselves at all after the fashion of a volcano. They are simply men of
complexions more or less muddy, whose conversation is more or less bald
and disjointed. Yet these commonplace people--many of them--bear a
conscience, and have felt the sublime promptings to do the painful
right; they have their unspoken sorrows and their sacred joys; their
hearts have perhaps gone out towards their first-born, and they have
mourned over the irreclaimable dead. Nay, is there not a pathos in their
very insignificance, in our comparison of their dim and narrow existence
with the glorious possibilities of that human nature which they share?
Depend upon it you would gain unspeakably if you would learn with me to
see some of the poetry and the pathos, the tragedy and the comedy, lying
in the experience of a human soul that looks out through dull gray eyes,
and that speaks in a voice of quite ordinary tones." The creations of
George Eliot,--Tito and Baldassare, Mrs Poyser and Silas Marner, Dorothy
Brooke and Gwendolen,--are not as familiar to the reading public of
to-day as they were to that of ten or fifteen years ago. Of the
idolatry which almost made her a prophetess of a new cult we hear
nothing now. She has not maintained her position as Dickens, Thackeray,
and Charlotte Brontë have maintained theirs. But if there be little of
partisanship and much detraction, it is idle to deny that George Eliot's
many gifts, her humour, her pathos, her remarkable intellectual
endowments, give her an assured place among the writers of Victorian
literature.
The next in order of prominence among the novelists of the period is
=Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)=. He was born at Holne Vicarage, on the
borders of Dartmoor, and was educated at King's College, London, and
Magdalen College, Cambridge. After this he received the curacy of
Eversley, in Hampshire, of which parish he finally became rector. In
1848 he published a drama entitled "The Saint's Tragedy," with St
Elizabeth of Hungary as heroine. A year later his novel of "Alton Locke"
gained him the title of "The Chartist Parson." This tale, in which
Carlyle is introduced in the person of an old Scotch bookseller, was a
crude and yet vigorous expression of sympathy with the Chartist
movement, and its influence was tremendous. For its sympathy with the
working classes, and in its reflection of the broad and tolerant
Christianity of which Kingsley was always the eloquent preacher, "Alton
Locke," in common with "Yeast" and "Two Years Ago," is a valuable
contribution to literature. Kingsley, however, became a truer artist
when, as in "Hypatia" and "Westward Ho!" he had not social and religious
ends in view. "Hypatia," in spite of many historical errors, is a
brilliant sketch of the early Church at Alexandria. Gibbon, from whom
Kingsley obtained the hint for this book, would have revelled in the
apparent endorsement by a latter-day clergyman of his estimate of the
early Christianity of the East. "Westward Ho!" is a picturesque
narrative of English rivalry with Spain in the reign of Elizabeth. The
contrasts of character in Frank and Amyas Leigh perhaps give this novel
a claim to be considered Kingsley's best effort. He wrote many other
works, including children's stories, scientific lectures, and poems,
among which last the beautiful ballads, "The Three Fishers" and "The
Sands of Dee," are the most popular. For nine years he held the office
of Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, but his
unphilosophical views of history made his presence there a misfortune. A
model country clergyman, a man essentially healthy-minded and interested
in all phases of life and thought, Kingsley's influence, especially on
young men, during the past five-and-thirty years, has been very great
and very beneficial.
=Henry Kingsley (1830-1876)=, a younger brother of Charles, wrote many
novels and romances, three of them memorable. "Geoffrey Hamlyn" is
popular as the best novel of Australian life. To Australia he had gone
to make his fortune at the diggings. He did not make a fortune, but
joined the colonial mounted police instead. Compelled by his office to
attend an execution, he threw up the post in disgust, and returned to
England to find his brother installed as Vicar of Eversley and on the
high road to fame. Little wonder that he attempted to emulate him, and
he succeeded.
Never, surely, has literature produced two brothers so remarkable, and
at the same time so different. Both gave us energetic heroes, and loved
manliness. In Charles Kingsley, however, the novelist was always largely
subordinated to the preacher. In Henry there was nothing of the preacher
whatever. "Geoffrey Hamlyn," "Ravenshoe" and "The Hillyars and The
Burtons," are all forcible, effective works, and they have secured
generous praise and appreciation from many a literary colleague. But
Henry was a bit of a ne'er-do-well, and so his personality has been
carefully screened from the public. His name is not even mentioned in
Charles Kingsley's biography. Sir Edwin Arnold, however, who knew him
at Oxford, and Mrs Thackeray Ritchie, who knew him towards the end of
his life, testify to certain delightful qualities of mind and heart
which peculiarly appealed to them.[8]
A writer not less successful than Charles Kingsley, but in no way
comparable as a man, was =Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873)=, Baron
Lytton, who was born in London, and created no small sensation in 1828
by the publication of "Pelham." This was followed by a long list of
novels of infinite variety. Some dealt with the preternatural like
"Zanoni," and others with history, psychology, and ethics. Of these the
most popular were doubtless the historical "Harold," "Rienzi," "The Last
of the Barons," and "The Last Days of Pompeii," which still hold their
own with the younger generation. The thoughtful men of to-day do not
however read "The Caxtons" as they did in the sixties and seventies.
Lytton was one of the cleverest men of his age--using the word in no
friendly sense--he was a clever novelist, a clever dramatist (his comedy
of "Money," and his tragedies "Richelieu" and "The Lady of Lyons,"
still hold the stage), and a clever Parliamentary debater.
Another writer, with higher claims to consideration than those of
literature, was =Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)=, Earl of Beaconsfield.
Disraeli entered life under conditions peculiarly favourable to a
successful literary career. His father, Isaac D'Israeli, was an
enthusiastic bookworm, whose "Curiosities of Literature" and other books
are an inexhaustible mine of anecdote on the quarrels and calamities of
authors. The young Disraeli wrote "Vivian Grey" in 1827, following this
very successful effort with "The Young Duke," "Venetia," "Henrietta
Temple," and other novels. In 1837 he was returned to Parliament as
member for Maidstone. His career as an orator and statesman does not
concern us here; suffice to say that of his many later novels
"Coningsby," "Tancred," and "Sybil" are by far the ablest and most
brilliant, and that "Sybil" was an effective exposure of many abuses in
the relations of capital to labour. In addition to his work as a
novelist, Lord Beaconsfield wrote an able biography of his friend and
colleague, Lord George Bentinck.
One of the most successful of the greater novelists of the reign was
=Charles Reade (1814-1884)=, who first became famous by "Peg
Woffington" in 1852. "The Cloister and the Hearth" was published in
1861, and "Griffith Gaunt" in 1866. Several of his later novels were
written "with a purpose." In "Hard Cash" he drew attention to the abuses
of private lunatic asylums; in "Foul Play" he aroused public interest in
the iniquities of ship-knackers; in "Put Yourself in His Place," he
attacked Trades Unions, and in "Never Too Late to Mend" he exposed some
of the abuses of our prison system as it existed at that time. Reade was
also an industrious dramatist; "Masks and Faces," and "Drink," are among
his most popular plays. Of all his books "The Cloister and the Hearth"
is the best, and also the most widely read. It has for its hero the
father of Erasmus.
Those who in days to come will want to know what provincial life was
really like in England in early Victorian times will enquire for the
novels of =Anthony Trollope (1815-1822)=. "Barchester Towers,"
"Framley Parsonage," and "Dr Thorne," are the most popular of a series
of tales, in all of which the country life of England, its clergy and
squirearchy, are portrayed. Trollope wrote on many subjects. His "Life
of Cicero" secured the commendation of Professor Freeman, and his
biography of Thackeray, though all too slight, is the best book about
the author of "Vanity Fair" that has so far been given us.
Another novelist of about equal status with Trollope in mid-Victorian
fiction is =George John Whyte Melville (1821-1878)=. Major Whyte
Melville is the novelist of all lovers of the hunting-field, and
strangely enough he fell a victim to the very sport which he had done so
much to picture. He was killed by a fall from his horse. Whyte
Melville's hunting novels include "Katerfelto" and "Black but Comely."
He also wrote historical novels, of which "The Queen's Maries" and "The
Gladiators" were the most popular, and he had a pretty gift of verse.
Literature has rarely produced a more picturesque figure than =Robert
Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)=. The son of a famous Scottish engineer he
was destined, like his great countryman Sir Walter Scott, for a
Writership to the Signet. He took, however, to literature instead, and
died at forty-four in Samoa,--where he had gone for his health,--after a
remarkable literary achievement. With a style not always rigidly
grammatical, but always impressive and distinguished, he shone in many
branches of literary work. He wrote travel pictures like "With a Donkey
in the Cevennes," which were incomparably superior to those of any
contemporary; his plays--written in collaboration with Mr W. E.
Henley--had a power of their own, and one of them, "Beau Austin,"
although not accepted by the public, is probably the greatest
contribution to the drama of the era. As a critic of life and of books
Stevenson has also an honourable place. I know of no better treatment of
the one than "Virginibus Puerisque," or of the other than "Some Aspects
of Robert Burns." He has given abundant pleasure to children by "A
Child's Garden of Verses," and in "Underwoods" he has scarcely less
successfully appealed to their elders.
It is as a novelist, however, that Stevenson fills the largest place. He
is the inheritor of the traditions of Scott, with the world-pain of his
own epoch superadded. Men and boys alike have found "Treasure Island"
absorbing, while men have also pondered over the widely different powers
which are displayed in "The New Arabian Nights" and "The Master of
Ballantrae," "Prince Otto," and "St Ives." "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" is a
parable which has thrilled us all.
Stevenson delighted to call Mr George Meredith his master, and the two
men were friends of years. =George Meredith (1828- )= began his
literary career in 1851, with a volume of poems, one of which, "Love in
a Valley," is still an unqualified joy to all who read it. Mr Meredith
has published several volumes of poems since then, and all of them have
their loyal admirers, but it is as a novelist that the world at large
appraises him.
His concentrated thought and vivid passion have gained for him the title
of the "Browning of novelists." Each of his books in turn has had its
ardent partisans among cultivated and thoughtful readers. "The Shaving
of Shagpat" appeared in 1856, and "Farina" in 1857. "The Ordeal of
Richard Feverel," which appeared in 1859, is by many considered
Meredith's best novel. It treats, with subtle humour and profound
philosophical insight, of the problem of a youth's education, and is
full of truth to life. "Feverel" was followed by "Evan Harrington"
(1861), while "Rhoda Fleming" (1865), "The Adventures of Harry Richmond"
(1871), "Beauchamp's Career" (1876), "The Egoist" (1879), "The Tragic
Comedians" (1881), and "Diana of the Crossways" (1885), have each of
them abundance of readers. Merely to enumerate George Meredith's novels
is to call to the memory of all who have read them a widening of mental
and moral vision. The rich vein of poetry running through the books,
their humour and imagination, place their author in the very front rank
of English novelists. "I should never forgive myself," said Robert Louis
Stevenson, "if I forgot 'The Egoist,' which, of all the novels I have
read (and I have read thousands), stands in a place by itself. I have
read 'The Egoist' five or six times, and I mean to read it again."
Others have spoken with equal enthusiasm of "Sandra Belloni," with its
sweet singer Emilia; others of "Beauchamp's Career," with its
aristocratic Radical, now generally understood to have been intended for
Admiral Maxse.
Mr Meredith dedicated his volume of "Poems" of 1851 to =Thomas Love
Peacock (1785-1866)=, who, perhaps, more than any other writer
influenced his own style. Peacock was born at Weymouth, and he was
mainly self-educated. In 1804 and 1806 he published two small volumes of
poetry, "The Monks of St Mark" and "Palmyra." In 1812 he became
acquainted with Shelley, and the two were intimate at Great Marlow where
Peacock lived in 1815, and later. Peacock's novels "Headlong Hall"
(1816-1817), "Melincourt" (1817) and "Nightmare Abbey" (1818), which
have been two or three times reprinted within the last five or six
years, gained no commensurate attention on their appearance, although
one of them was translated into French. In 1819 Peacock became a clerk
in the India House, and married a Welsh girl, Jane Gryffdh. "Maid
Marion" appeared in 1822, "Crotchet Castle" in 1831, and in 1837 "Paper
Money Lyrics and other Poems." All the novels I have named, and they
are his most famous, belong to the pre-Victorian period, but "Gryll
Grange," his last novel, was published in 1861. Peacock is interesting
as a novelist and for his relations with other famous men. He was, as I
have said, the friend of Shelley, and he was the father-in-law of Mr
George Meredith. Added to this he succeeded to James Mill's post at the
India House, and vacated it for James Mill's son, John Stuart Mill.
To R. L. Stevenson we undoubtedly owe much of the impulse to the modern
romantic movement, which adds every day an historical novel or a story
of adventure to our libraries. It has given us Stanley Weyman, "Q" (A.
T. Quiller Couch), "Anthony Hope," Max Pemberton, and Conan Doyle, the
creator of Sherlock Holmes. Another Scotsman, =George MacDonald (1824- )=,
whose "Robert Falconer," "David Elginbrod," and "Alec Forbes
of Howglen," have charmed nearly a generation, had less influence than
might have been thought upon the younger Scottish writers, who have made
Scottish scenes and Scottish dialect so marked an element in many
popular works. James Matthew Barrie, for example, had written "A Window
in Thrums," before he had read one of Dr MacDonald's books. Mr Barrie
was probably influenced, however, by John Galt (1779-1859), whose
"Ayrshire Legatees" and "Annals of the Parish" were written before the
Queen began to reign.
A writer whose most striking book was published sufficiently long ago to
justify its inclusion here, was =Joseph Henry Shorthouse (1834- )=. His
"John Inglesant" gained for him a reputation which his "Sir Percival"
did not sustain. Mr Shorthouse has written nothing since "John
Inglesant" so beautiful as his "Little Schoolmaster Mark," a singularly
poetical conception of abnormal childhood.
The best stories for children have been written by =Lewis Carroll
(1833- )=. This is the pseudonym of the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a
lecturer on mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, and the author of
several mathematical text-books. In "Euclid and his Modern Rivals" and
"A Tangled Tale," Mr Dodgson has succeeded in combining his taste for
science with a rich humour, but his fame rests upon his remarkable
fairy-stories, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," published in 1865,
and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," which appeared in 1872. Men
and women, quite as much as little children, have found pleasure and
entertainment in these happy efforts of a genius as individual as
anything our age has produced.
I have purposely all but ignored many writers of fiction who are still
actively engaged in literary pursuits. The daily journals bring their
achievements sufficiently to the front. But literary workers owe so much
to the untiring zeal of =Sir Walter Besant (1838- )= in their behalf,
that at the risk of inconsistency I mention his "All Sorts and
Conditions of Men," a story which not only sold by thousands, but had a
practical influence such as is rarely given to poet or novelist to
achieve. The writer dreams of a wealthy heiress devoting her time and
money to purifying and elevating the East End of London. She builds a
Palace of Delight, and devotes it to the service of the people. In May,
1887, the dream was realised, for the Queen opened just such a Palace
for the People in the Mile-End Road. How far this institution, the
outcome of a novelist's imagination and the generous subscriptions of
philanthropists, has achieved the regeneration of the London poor,
history has yet to record. Sir Walter Besant wrote at an earlier period
twelve novels in conjunction with =James Rice (1843-1882)=, a
collaborator of singular humour and imagination. Of the books written
conjointly, "Ready Money Mortiboy" and "The Golden Butterfly" are the
most popular.
Passing from the acknowledged masters in imaginative literature, one
turns to a crowd of popular and interesting writers who have charmed and
delighted multitudes of readers. Foremost among these are Lever and
Marryat. =Charles Lever (1806-1872)= was for some time editor of the
_Dublin University Magazine_, but his Irish stories, "Charles O'Malley"
and "Harry Lorrequer" are his chief title to fame. That the rollicking
humour of these books still commands attention is proved by a recent
luxurious re-issue of them.[9]
Another Irishman, who won the affections of Irishmen as Lever won their
laughter, was =William Carleton (1798-1869)=, who was born at
Prillisk, county Tyrone. He was the youngest of fourteen children. His
equal knowledge of Irish and English gave him an intimacy with the
folk-lore and fairy tales, which make up so large a part in the lives of
the poorer among his countrymen, and "Traits and Stories of the Irish
Peasantry" (1833) and "Tales of Ireland" (1834), were the result. His
romance, "Fardorougha the Miser," appeared in 1839, and he treated in
1847 of the horrors of the Irish famine in his "Black Prophet." Carleton
has for many years ceased to be read in England, but he shares in the
revived interest in Irish literature, which has taken the place of
interest in Irish politics. =Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)= also
made a great success with "Uncle Silas" (1864) and "In a Glass Darkly"
(1872).
=Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)= ran away to sea several times before
his father, a member of Parliament of great wealth, consented to his
being a sailor. He was a successful and popular naval officer before he
was twenty-one. He was thirty-seven years of age when he wrote his first
novel, "Frank Mildmay," the success of which led him to adopt literature
as the profession of his later life. Of his many novels, of which "Mr
Midshipman Easy" and "Peter Simple" are perhaps the best, several
appeared in the _Metropolitan Magazine_, which Marryat edited for four
years. Not only is Marryat the most delightful of writers for boys, but
it is interesting to note that both Carlyle and Ruskin during long terms
of illness solaced themselves with his wonderful sea-stories.
A writer who gave much healthy pleasure to schoolboys was =William Henry
Giles Kingston (1814-1880)=, who left behind him one hundred and
twenty-five stories of the sea. Another writer for boys, =William
Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)=, was the son of a Manchester
solicitor. The majority of his thirty novels treat of historical themes.
The best of them, "Old St Paul's," "The Tower of London," and
"Rookwood," have been translated into most modern languages. Scarcely
less popular for a time was =G. P. R. James (1801-1860)=, who also
dealt freely with history. Thackeray burlesqued James so skilfully that
he has already become a tradition. He was British Consul in Virginia,
and afterwards at Venice, where he died.
Living English novelists of well-deserved popularity, are Mr Hardy, Mr
Black, and Mr Blackmore.
=Thomas Hardy (1840- )= made his earlier fame by "Far from the Madding
Crowd" (1874). He made his later popularity by "Tess of the
D'Urbervilles" (1892). Between these books came two stories greater than
either--"The Return of the Native" (1878) and "The Woodlanders" (1887).
One must read those books to appreciate how very great a novelist Mr
Hardy is, how full of poetry and of insight. The Dorsetshire landscape
which, under the guise of "Wessex," he has made so familiar, will be
classic ground for many a day to all lovers of good literature.
Although =William Black (1841- )=, who was born in Glasgow, has
written numerous stories about the West Highlands of Scotland, he has no
affinity whatever to the new Scotch school. He made his first appearance
as a novelist in 1867 with "Love or Marriage," and almost every year
since he has published a story, over thirty novels now bearing his name.
Black has recognised the value of the picturesque back-ground afforded
by West Highland scenery, with its accompanying incidents in the outdoor
life of the deer stalker and angler. He has given us some real
characterization in "A Daughter of Heth" (1871), in "Madcap Violet"
(1876): while "Macleod of Dare" (1878) is perhaps the best thing he has
written.
=Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825- )= has written many interesting
novels, but it has been his perverse fate to live by only one of them.
"Lorna Doone" was published in 1869, and although received coldly at
first, finally achieved great popularity: and visits to the Lorna Doone
country, as that part of Devonshire is called, make part of the
travelled education of every literary American. As a master of rustic
comedy he stands unexcelled in our day, and the merits of certain other
novels--"The Maid of Sker," "Christowell" and "Cripps the Carrier"--may
some day become more fully recognised.
Not less popular than the novelist of locality--for this description may
surely be applied to Mr Hardy and the two other writers I have named--is
the novelist of sensation. =William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)= was
the most prominent exponent of that School. "The Woman in White," which
appeared in 1860 in _All the Year Round_, took the town by storm, but
Count Fosco would be pronounced a tiresome villain to-day. With "The
Moonstone" and "The New Magdalen" Wilkie Collins secured almost equal
success. Although it has been affirmed that a new Wilkie Collins, that
is to say a novelist of pure sensation, might even now have a great
vogue, it is quite certain that the actual Wilkie Collins has lost the
greater part of his.[10] Another novelist who presents himself as little
more than a name to the present generation is =Samuel Warren
(1807-1877)=. He was a doctor, and, like his homotype, Mr Conan Doyle
half a century later, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
His "Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician" began in _Blackwood's
Magazine_ in 1830, and was well received, but a still greater success
attended his "Ten Thousand a Year," which appeared first in the same
periodical.
Time has dealt unkindly with Samuel Warren: it is yet to be seen how
time will deal with another popular favourite, =Mrs Henry Wood
(1820-1887)=, who was born in Worcestershire and made the city of
Worcester the centre of many of her stories. The "Channings" and "Mrs
Halliburton's Troubles" are her best novels and they have had a
well-deserved popularity, for Mrs Wood had a splendid faculty for
telling a story. Her even more popular novel, "East Lynne," will
probably survive for many a year as a stage play.
Next to Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot the most distinguished woman
novelist of the era is =Mrs Gaskell (1810-1865)=, who, as Elizabeth
Cleghorn Stevenson, married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister of
Manchester. Mrs Gaskell's first literary success was "Mary Barton," the
story of a Manchester factory girl. "Ruth," "North and South," and
"Sylvia's Lovers" were equally successful, but the two books which are
certain to secure immortality to their author are "Cranford" (1853), and
"The Life of Charlotte Brontë" (1857). "Cranford" is an idyll of village
life which is sure to charm many generations of readers, and not a few
artists have delighted to illustrate its quaint and fascinating
character studies. "Cranford" has been identified with Knutsford in
Cheshire. Mrs Gaskell's biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë has
probably had a larger sale than any other biography in our literature.
Many causes contributed to this--the popularity of the Brontë novels,
the exceptionally romantic and pathetic life of their authors, Mrs
Gaskell's own fame as a writer of fiction, and the literary skill with
which she treated the material at her command.
Other women writers who have had a large measure of fame, and are now
well-nigh forgotten, are Mrs Marsh (1791-1874), who wrote "The Admiral's
Daughter" and "The Deformed," Mrs Crowe (1800-1876), who wrote "Susan
Hopley" and "The Night Side of Nature," Mrs Archer Clive (1801-1873),
who wrote "Paul Ferroll," Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1812-1885), the
author of "Ann Sherwood," Mrs Stretton (1812-1878), who wrote "The
Valley of a Hundred Fires."
All these are now little more than names to us, but not so =Anne
Manning (1800-1879)=, whose "Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell"
will long continue to be read. It is an effective presentation of Milton
and his first wife. =Mrs Norton (1808-1877)=, "the Byron of
poetesses," as Lockhart described her, wrote several novels, "Stuart of
Dunleath" and "Lost and Saved" being perhaps the best known in their
time, but she lives now mainly in George Meredith's "Diana of the
Crossways." =Dinah Mulock (1826-1887)= (Mrs Craik) may still be ranked
among our most popular novelists, although her best and most successful
book, "John Halifax, Gentleman," was published in 1857. The memory of
=Julia Kavanagh (1824-1877)=, although her "Madeleine" was
enthusiastically greeted on its appearance, has all but faded away. Miss
Kavanagh's "Woman in France in the 18th Century," "English Women of
Letters," and "French Women of Letters," were handsomely got-up books,
and are still to be found in many old-fashioned libraries.
Two of the most popular writers for children were A.L.O.E. and Mrs
Ewing. A.L.O.E. or A Lady of England, was the pseudonym of =Charlotte
Maria Tucker (1821-1893)=, who after many years of successful literary
labour, went out to India for the Church Missionary Society, at the age
of fifty-four. Miss Tucker's most popular stories were "Pride and his
Pursuers," "Exiles in Babylon," "House Beautiful," and "Cyril Ashley."
Scarcely less popular was =Mrs Ewing (1841-1885)=, whose mother, Mrs
Gatty, edited _Aunt Judy's Magazine_. It was in this magazine that Mrs
Ewing's "Remembrances of Mrs Overtheway" made their appearance.
Another writer of great popularity, =Mrs Charles (1828-1896)=, secured
an immense success with "The Schönberg-Cotta Family," "Kitty Trevelyan's
Diary," and other books of a semi-religious, semi-historical tendency.
It is a natural association, not derived from similarity of name, to
mention =Maria Louisa Charlesworth (1819-1880)= at the same time,
because Miss Charlesworth's "Ministering Children" had an enormous
success with the religious public of England,--the public which supports
Missionary Societies and Sunday Schools.
I might easily devote many pages to the living women novelists who have
impressed themselves upon the era; but that scarcely comes within the
scope of this little book. There are, to name but a few, Mrs Lynn
Linton, Mrs Humphry Ward, Ouida, Miss Braddon, Miss Marie Corelli, Miss
Olive Schreiner, Miss Rhoda Broughton, Edna Lyall, Lucas Malet, Miss
Charlotte Yonge, Miss Adeline Sergeant, Mrs Macquoid, Mrs Alexander, Mrs
W. K. Clifford--names which recall to thousands of readers many familiar
books and some of the happiest hours they have ever spent.
With the name of =Mrs Oliphant (1828-1897)=, who has recently died, I
may fitly close this survey of Victorian fiction. Mrs Oliphant struck
the note of the era alike in her versatility and in her lack of
thoroughness. She was so versatile that she once offered to write a
whole number of _Blackwood's Magazine_, a publication to which she was
for years a valued contributor. And she would have done it with fair
effectiveness. That she wrote good fiction is now generally
acknowledged. She wrote also biography, criticism, and every form of
prose. Her "Makers of Florence" has been a popular history,--it treats
of Dante, Giotto, and Savonarola,--as her "Life of Edward Irving" has
been a popular biography. She wrote many other books apart from her
fiction, "A History of Eighteenth Century Literature," a "Memoir of
Principal Tulloch," biographies of Cervantes and Molière, and a volume
on "Dress." But she was not a good critic, nor was she a very accurate
student. It is upon her novels that her fame will have to rest. "Salem
Chapel," a skilful delineation of a minister and his congregation, has
been compared to George Eliot's "Silas Marner." "Passages in the Life of
Margaret Maitland" (1849) was her first novel and "The Lady's Walk"
(1897) her last, and in the intervening years she probably wrote sixty
or seventy stories, each of them containing indications of a genius
which, with more concentration, would have given her an enduring place
in English fiction.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Charles Kingsley's novels and miscellaneous writings are published
by Macmillan & Co., in twenty-nine volumes. Henry Kingsley's novels have
been recently issued by Ward & Lock in twelve volumes.
[9] "The Collected Works of Charles Lever." Downey & Co.
[10] A New Library Edition of the novels of Wilkie Collins has just been
published by Chatto and Windus.
CHAPTER III
The Historians
The reign of Victoria has been pre-eminently the reign of the historian
in our literature. Greater poets we had seen in the reigns of the
Georges, greater essayists in the reign of Anne. But Grote and Carlyle,
Macaulay and Gardiner, Bishop Stubbs and Dr Freeman, had no counterparts
in an earlier age--always excepting the one great name of Gibbon. Before
them there were chroniclers of contemporary events and pamphleteers
under the guise of historians, but little more. Goldsmith's histories
are the laughing-stock of those to whom the modern methods of research
are familiar, and even Hume had little of the spirit of the genuine
student. Hallam and Lingard were the pioneers in this branch of
literature, although both of them had done their work before Queen
Victoria came to the throne.
=Henry Hallam (1777-1859)= was born at Windsor, where his father held
a canonry. His first great work, entitled "View of the State of Europe
during the Middle Ages," was published in 1818, and his "Constitutional
History of England, from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of
George II.," in 1827. In 1838 he produced his "Introduction to the
Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth
Centuries." Of these three works the first and the last are valuable
mainly for their stimulus to the more philosophical and imaginative work
of later writers, but the "Constitutional History" remains the text-book
for the period which it covers. Macaulay praised it highly, possibly
because of the Whiggism which undoubtedly underlies some of the more
debatable propositions in the book; but Macaulay and many other writers
have disputed the correctness of many of Hallam's judgments. To write
the constitutional history of England from the earliest period to the
year 1485, where Hallam begins, was a far more difficult undertaking
than to deal with the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts. This work
devolved on Dr Stubbs.
=William Stubbs (1825- )=, who was appointed Bishop of Oxford in 1889,
was born at Knaresborough, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and
at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1850 he became vicar of Navestock, in
Essex, and in 1862 he was made librarian at Lambeth Palace. His editions
of mediæval chronicles were well calculated to smooth the path of any
future historian, and the critical introductions showed the profound
scholarship of the editor. Probably no one man has done so much to throw
light on the obscure by-ways of history, and as Regius Professor of
Modern History at Oxford, a post he accepted in 1866, he gave so great a
stimulus to historical study that many brilliant writers have since been
proud to call him "master." In 1870 he published his "Select Charters,"
of which the "Introductions" are also invaluable, and between 1874 and
1878 he wrote his great work, "The Constitutional History of England in
its Origin and Development," the three volumes of which carry us down to
the death of Richard III. The book is profoundly scientific in its
method, but it is a mistaken, although popular, belief which classes Dr
Stubbs among Dryasdust investigators. The work glows with life and
interest, and is full of suggestive parallels for modern political
society.
The work of tracing the growth of the English constitution, which had
been so worthily begun by Hallam, and continued in so wise and scholarly
a fashion by Bishop Stubbs, was carried on by =Sir Thomas Erskine May
(1815-1886)=, who, a few days before his death, was created Baron
Farnborough. After a long official career in connection with the House
of Commons, he was appointed Clerk to the House in 1871. In addition to
several publications dealing with Parliamentary forms, and a book on
"Democracy in Europe," he wrote a "Constitutional History since the
Accession of George III.," thus continuing the work from the point at
which Hallam had dropped it, and completing a continuous history of the
English Constitution.
When we turn to what is more popularly understood by the history of a
country, the political and social life of peoples, and the wars and
conquests of nations, we are not less fortunate in the results attained.
=John Lingard (1771-1851)= had, it is true, written his great work
before 1837. "The History of England, from the First Invasion by the
Romans to the Commencement of the Reign of William III.," appeared in
eight volumes between 1819 and 1830. Lingard was the son of a Winchester
carpenter. He was for some time the Professor of Moral Philosophy at a
Roman Catholic College. His religious views doubtless affected, in
considerable measure, his judgment of events, especially in the reign of
Henry VIII., but he is a fairly impartial historian. He confesses that
he has been more anxious to arrive at the facts than troubled as to the
garb in which those facts were presented to the public, and his work is
really very dull in consequence. A contemporary of Lingard, who covered
much of the same historic ground, was Sharon Turner (1768-1847), and yet
another was =John Mitchell Kemble (1807-1857)=, whose "Saxons in
England" (1849) still fills a useful place. Another distinguished
writer, of what we may term the earlier school of historical research,
was =Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861)=, one of whose accomplished sons,
Francis Turner Palgrave, is still living (born 1824), whilom Professor
of Poetry at Oxford and the friend of Tennyson, the author of excellent
verse, and, moreover, the editor of that incomparable volume, the
"Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics." Sir Francis was the son of a
Jewish stockbroker named Cohen, and changed his name on becoming a
Christian. His best book, the "History of Normandy and of England," lost
much of its value by the publication of Freeman's monumental work, "The
History of the Norman Conquest."
=Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892)= was born at Harborne, in
Staffordshire, and educated at Trinity College, Oxford. His first work
was a "History of Architecture," published in 1849. In 1863 he issued
the first volume of a "History of Federal Government." The "History of
the Norman Conquest," in five large volumes, appeared between 1867 and
1876, and the "Reign of William Rufus, and Accession of Henry I.," in
1882. His "Old English History" was a most delightful collection of the
primitive stories which have always had a great fascination for
beginners in history. There was scarcely any period of European history
with which the author of the "Norman Conquest" did not show a thorough
familiarity. No historian has had a keener grasp of hard solid facts, or
is more able to make common-sense deductions from them. "I am quite
unable," he candidly confessed, "to appreciate physical or metaphysical
works in any language," and he hated literary discussion, which he
contemptuously termed "Chatter about Harriet," in reference to the
debatable question of Shelley's treatment of his wife. Perhaps this lack
of breadth did not materially spoil him for his work. Of his many
volumes of histories and essays, those on the "Norman Conquest" must be
given the first place. It has been said, indeed, that the work takes as
long to read as the event took to achieve, but it is worth reading
nevertheless. The battle of Hastings, or, as Mr Freeman would say, of
Senlac, was a turning-point in our national history, and we have here
the most complete description of that great struggle. Since Freeman's
death some attempt has been made to question his accuracy and his
scholarship; but it has not amounted to very much. When Dr Stubbs, with
whom difference of political views has in no way impaired a lifelong
friendship, was appointed Bishop of Chester in 1884, Mr Freeman
succeeded him as Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, where he
was followed on his death by Mr Froude.
It would be hard to find a greater contrast, both in method and in
manner, than between Edward Freeman and James Anthony Froude. Freeman's
style, though clear and trenchant, was never brilliant; Froude's
language compares with that of the best artists in literature. Freeman
was always scrupulously exact, never at fault in a fact or a date;
Froude was notoriously careless, and slipped at every turn. Freeman
cared nothing for theories; Froude was never so happy as when he stopped
abruptly in a description to discourse on the mysteries of Providence or
the follies of mankind. Between men of such opposite natures no
friendship was possible, and in the _Saturday Review_ and other
periodicals Freeman commented vigorously, and not always fairly, on the
other's inaccuracy.
=James Anthony Froude (1818-1894)= was one of three gifted brothers,
another being William Froude (1810-1879), the mathematician and
engineer; and the third, Richard Hurrell Froude (1803-1836), a leader of
the Tractarian movement, whose "Literary Remains" were published after
his death by Keble and Newman. Froude was educated at Oriel College,
Oxford, and for a time came under the influence of the movement of which
his elder brother was a leading spirit, but ultimately he abandoned
supernatural Christianity altogether, substituting for it a kind of
poetic Theism which he partly adopted from Carlyle. In 1847 he published
anonymously two novels, "The Spirit's Trials" and "The Lieutenant's
Daughter," which contained some not very generous criticisms on his
brother and former friends. His "Nemesis of Faith," which appeared in
1848, was a further criticism of the doctrines which he had abandoned.
Between the years 1856 and 1869 he published the twelve volumes of his
great work, "The History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the
Defeat of the Spanish Armada," which achieved a great and, in many
respects, a well-deserved popularity. Rarely indeed has history been
written with so much brilliancy and picturesque power. The earlier
volumes have been much discredited among historical students: yet we
would not willingly miss such delightful word-painting as his
description of the Pilgrimage of Grace and other scenes in the career of
the Eighth Henry, whom he selected for rehabilitation. It was, of
course, a vain and impossible task to remove the odium which has settled
upon the name of Henry VIII.; but it was as well that the attempt should
be made. Henry had appeared to the mass of modern Englishmen as an
old-world ogre, and Mr Froude has at least enabled them to see that he
was after all a man. Mr Freeman, himself the most conscientious and
laborious of writers, expressed his hearty contempt for an author who
professed in the preface to his history that he took up the subject
because he had "nothing better to do." As, however, Froude warmed to his
work his book increased in value, and there are few who will deny the
most sterling worth to his "Edward VI.," "Mary," and "Elizabeth." His
escape from Tractarianism had made him unfriendly to all kindred
movements, and his views of the struggle between Catholicism and
Evangelicalism in the sixteenth century are more worthy of a Puritan
divine than of an academic writer of our own day. But we can forgive all
this, and much more, to one who has described with so much delicate
fancy the adventurous life of Drake and Hawkins, the intrigues of the
Scottish Queen, and the restless fickleness and untruthfulness of
Elizabeth. His exquisite literary style and general breadth of sympathy
are shown in such passages as his sketch of the rise of Protestantism
and the execution of More and Fisher:--
"Whilst we exult in that chivalry with which the Smithfield martyrs
bought England's freedom with their blood, so we will not refuse our
admiration to those other gallant men whose high forms, in the sunset of
the old faith, stand transfigured on the horizon, tinged with the light
of its dying glory."[11]
Inaccuracy and tactlessness, however, seemed to haunt Mr Froude like
evil spirits. He wrote a series of articles on Thomas à Becket, but the
numerous mistakes and misstatements brought down on him once again the
strictures of Mr Freeman. He wrote a biography of Carlyle, to whom he
acted as literary executor, and the whole of the literary world was in
arms at the revelations of Carlyle's somewhat unamiable relations with
his wife, and of his too contemptuous sentiments about many personal
friends. Still, Mr Froude's great literary faculty will secure to this
biography a far greater permanence than will fall to the lot of the
thousand-and-one memoirs which have appeared during the reign. Even
should Carlyle's writings cease to be generally studied, it is not
improbable that Froude's "Life of Carlyle" will always be read as an
important chapter in literary history. In this connection I cannot do
better than quote from an unpublished letter from Sir Fitz James
Stephen, Mr Froude's co-executor, to Mr Froude:--
"For about fifteen years I was the intimate friend and constant
companion of both you and Mr Carlyle, and never in my life did I see any
one man so much devoted to any other as you were to him during the whole
of that period of time. The most affectionate son could not have acted
better to the most venerated father. You cared for him, soothed him,
protected him as a guide might protect a weak old man down a steep and
painful path. The admiration you habitually expressed for him both
morally and intellectually was unqualified. You never said to me one
ill-natured word about him down to this day. It is to me wholly
incredible that anything but a severe regard for truth, learnt to a
great extent from his teaching, could ever have led you to embody in
your portrait of him a delineation of the faults and weaknesses which
mixed with his great qualities.
"Of him I will make only one remark in justice to you. He did not use
you well. He threw upon you the responsibility of a decision which he
ought to have taken himself in a plain, unmistakable way. He considered
himself bound to expiate the wrongs which he had done to his wife. If he
had done this himself it would have been a courageous thing; but he did
not do it himself. He did not even decide for himself that it should be
done after his death. If any courage was shown in the matter, it was
shown by you, and not by him. You took the responsibility of deciding
for him that it ought to be done. You took the odium of doing it, of
avowing to the world the faults and weaknesses of one whom you regarded
as your teacher and master. In order to present to the world a true
picture of him as he really was, you, well knowing what you were about,
stepped into a pillory in which you were charged with treachery,
violation of confidence, and every imaginable base motive, when you were
in fact guilty of no other fault than that of practising Mr Carlyle's
great doctrine that men ought to tell the truth."
Mr Froude has other claims to remembrance. In his "Short Studies on
Great Subjects," many of them essays written for _Fraser's Magazine_, of
which he was for a long time editor, are some very wise and thoughtful
papers, particularly one on the Book of Job. His "Life of Bunyan" is
characteristic, as is also his "Life of Cæsar." Carlyle taught him
hero-worship, and from Carlyle also he learnt the disposition which
inspired his powerful book, "The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth
Century."
He also wrote two picturesque books of travel, and three volumes of
lectures[12] delivered at Oxford during his occupancy of the chair of
history, which had been previously held in succession by his two great
rivals, Bishop Stubbs and Dr Freeman.
The historian who devoted himself most earnestly to Mr Froude's chief
historical period, and whose writings were in some measure a reply to
his, was the =Rev. John Sherren Brewer (1810-1879)=, who for many
years was Professor of English Literature at King's College, London.
Brewer's chief work, a "Calendar of Letters and Papers, Foreign and
Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.," comes down, however, to 1530,
the year in which Mr Froude's history commences, and thus Brewer stands
alone as an authority on Henry's early reign. A compressed work in one
volume, "The Reign of Henry VIII.," was published after his death. Mr
Froude concludes his narrative at the year 1588, the year of the Spanish
Armada, but no recent writer of mark has treated of the closing years of
Elizabeth's reign in any detail, although we owe to Major Martin Hume a
well-written study entitled "The Year after the Armada." Major Hume, who
is the best living authority upon this period, has also written upon
"The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth," and has edited for the Public
Record Office the Calendar of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth.
The next great period of English history, that of the Stuart kings, is
dealt with by Professor Gardiner. =Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1829- )=
was born at Ropley, in Hampshire, and was educated at Winchester and at
Christ Church, Oxford. His whole life has been devoted to the most
laborious research in the annals of the reigns of James I., Charles I.,
and the Protectorate of Cromwell. He has not, like Mr Froude, taken up
history as a pleasant literary recreation, but has given years of
unremitting labour to the production of each separate volume. He is now
well into the study of the Protectorate, the first volume of his history
of which appeared in 1894. He has written many minor books, one dealing
with "The Gunpowder Plot," and another with "Cromwell's Place in
History." Mr Gardiner will not perhaps be counted a brilliant writer. He
gives us none of the fire and eloquence, almost bordering on poetry,
which we find so abundantly in Froude; but he has been described by Sir
John Seeley as the only historian who has trodden the controversial
ground of seventeenth-century English political history with absolute
fairness and impartiality. James and Charles, Buckingham and Bristol,
Strafford and Pym, stand out in clear and well-defined lineaments. There
is no hero-worship to blind us; no flowing rhetoric to atone for
insufficient knowledge. We see these men in their weakness and in their
strength, neither side monopolising the virtue and the patriotism, but
each, on occasion, acting from noble or ignoble motives. It may be urged
that too much attention is devoted to the follies of princes and the
intrigues of courtiers, and certainly of the inner life of the nation we
get all too little in Mr Gardiner's pages: but it may be fairly said
that these books are the safest and best of guides to one of the most
important and critical periods in our political history. It is
impossible to avoid contrasting Mr Gardiner with a far more popular and
more brilliant historian, Lord Macaulay, and the contrast is, in some
respects, in favour of the former. Mr Gardiner sees that in dealing
with the complexities of human motives we are on very uncertain and
delicate ground. We need to pause step by step to weigh probabilities
and to qualify our every statement, although such hesitancy and
qualification is not conducive to brilliant writing.
The importance of this rhetorical principle was fully grasped by =Thomas
Babington Macaulay, (1800-1859)= and, accordingly, in his writings a
single definite and distinct motive is seized upon as the guiding
principle of every action, and, by the simple plan of ignoring
complexities in human character, we are carried along in an easy manner
to positive and undoubting opinions. "I wish," said Lord Melbourne,
"that I were as cock-sure of _anything_ as Tom Macaulay is of
everything;" and the remark hit off an undoubted failing, at least from
the standpoint of sound and trustworthy workmanship. Macaulay, whose
father was a distinguished philanthropist and slavery abolitionist, was
born at Rothley Temple, in Leicestershire. From a private school he went
to Trinity College, Cambridge. His earliest efforts in literature were
articles for Knight's _Quarterly Magazine_, and contributions to the
_Edinburgh Review_, the first of which, on "Milton," drew from Lord
Jeffrey the remark, "The more I think the less I can conceive where you
picked up that style." Perhaps Macaulay's essays have been more popular
even than his history. The extraordinary knowledge they display, the
discursive familiarity with all poetry and fiction, ancient and modern,
and their enthusiastic interest in historical events, make them a kind
of education to men whose reading has been slight, or who are beginners
in the art of reading--an art at which Macaulay was such an adept. In
1830 Macaulay entered Parliament as member for Calne, and four years
later received the post of member of the Indian Council at Calcutta,
with a salary of £10,000 a year. He left India in 1838, having rendered
great service to that country by assisting to frame the Indian penal
code. After his return to England he sat in Parliament for many years as
member for Edinburgh, and for a short time held a seat in Lord
Melbourne's Cabinet. Some of his speeches in the House were among the
most eloquent and successful to which that assembly has listened. In
1849 the first two volumes of his "History of England from the Accession
of James II." were published. The great success of these and the
succeeding volumes made him one of the most popular authors of his day.
In 1857 Macaulay was made a Peer, but he never spoke in the House of
Lords. He died in December 1859, before he had finished the "Reign of
William III.," and was buried in Westminster Abbey. During the later
years of Macaulay's life, and for many years after his death, he
received the unstinted praise, not only of the great mass of readers,
but even of cultured brother authors. Of late years this has changed; a
reaction has set in, and perhaps the time has not yet come to assign to
him his true place in literature. When Sir George Trevelyan's admirable
life of his uncle appeared in 1876, a number of eminent writers based
upon that book a criticism of Macaulay's work. Mr Gladstone wrote in the
_Quarterly Review_, Mr Leslie Stephen in the _Cornhill Magazine_, and Mr
John Morley in the _Fortnightly Review_. In each separate case the
review was unfavourable. All alike agreed as to his high qualities as a
man; his sincerity, generosity, kindliness, and purity, his love of
children and his brotherly devotion; but each in turn found matter for
censure in his work. One condemned his style, another his Whig
partialities, another his boundless optimism, and another his errors of
judgment or alleged misstatements of facts. It is true that Macaulay is
sometimes inaccurate, that he is not seldom unjust to the characters
whom he paints so vividly. It is now a commonplace to say that his
history was written, as Carlyle said, "to prove that Providence was on
the side of the Whigs." It is clear that he was a man of strong literary
prejudices, and he undoubtedly owes much of his popularity to the fact
that he expresses in grandly rhetorical language the average sentiment
of his day, its belief in material prosperity, and its delight in being
told that there has been no age of the world so happy as our own. All
this is true, and yet it is also true that Macaulay's real services to
literature are lost sight of when such an estimate is propounded too
harshly.
In spite of obvious deficiencies, Macaulay's history is a great work. It
fills up a gap in historical literature, and such incidents as the trial
of the seven bishops and the siege of Londonderry excel both in
picturesqueness and in accuracy. But Macaulay has claims far beyond his
merits as a historian. The critics who condemn him so freely seem to
have forgotten their own early years. "If I am in the wrong," said
Macaulay of his history, "I shall at least have set the minds of others
at work." He has set the minds of others at work. What cultivated man or
woman lives, with whom Macaulay's writings have not been among the first
books read, who has not been made to feel that all the great poetry, and
fiction, and history to which he alludes so freely must be well worth
careful study? What matter if in after-years we discover that Macaulay
was unjust to Bacon the man, and was entirely ignorant of Bacon the
philosopher; or understand clearly what he meant by saying that such
critiques as Lessing's "Laocoon" "filled him with wonder and despair?"
If we have been encouraged by him to desire a wider knowledge, if we
have learnt from him to admire so many great writers, so many famous
statesmen, we may surely forgive him much, if indeed there be anything
to forgive.
=Earl Stanhope (1805-1875)=, who did most of his historical work when,
as an expectant peer, he was known as Lord Mahon, was a great friend of
Macaulay's. In 1870 he published a "History of the Reign of Queen Anne,"
which began at the year 1701, and thus served as a connecting link
between Macaulay's history and his own larger work--the "History of
England, from the Peace of Utrecht down to the Peace of Versailles
(1713-1783)." The continuation of Earl Stanhope's narrative may be found
either in Mr Lecky's "Eighteenth Century," or in =William Nathaniel
Massey's (1809-1881)= "History of England under George III." Mr Massey
brings us down to the Peace of Amiens in 1801, from which date Harriet
Martineau leads us to 1846 in a work ("History of the Peace") which is
quite unworthy of her abilities. The reign of Victoria has been written
by many hands, not the least successful being the "History of England,
1830-1873" of the =Rev. William Nassau Molesworth (1816-1890)= of
Rochdale, the author also of a "History of the Church of England."
Equally popular is the "History of Our Own Time, 1830-1897," of =Justin
MacCarthy (1830- )=, who has also written a "History of the Four
Georges," and many popular novels. Nor must we forget the brilliant
literary effort of =Alexander William Kinglake (1811-1891)= who, in
his "History of the War in the Crimea," has made a younger generation
familiar with a struggle in which their fathers took so brave a part. Mr
Kinglake was for some years the Liberal member for Bridgewater. His
first literary effort, "Eothen," a volume of travels, is scarcely less
popular than his history. By far the most important work, however, on
English history, in a period subsequent to that dealt with by Macaulay,
is Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," a work of
great thoroughness and thoughtfulness, the eighth and concluding volume
of which was published in 1890. =William Edward Hartpole Lecky
(1838- )=, who was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, which he now
represents in Parliament, is one of the most brilliant and suggestive
writers of our age. His "Rise and Influence of the Spirit of
Rationalism," and "European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne," as
well as the "History of the Eighteenth Century," are justly popular.
It is impossible to enumerate all the important contributions to
historical study of the past few years, but the "History of Scotland,
from the Invasion of Agricola to the Revolution of 1688," by =John Hill
Burton (1809-1881)=, and the "Life and Reign of Richard III.," by
James Gairdner must not be forgotten, nor the "History of the War in
the Peninsula," by Sir Charles Napier (1786-1860). Many writers have
embodied the main conclusions of the historians we have named, in brief,
but useful, histories for the use of the more advanced schools. The more
successful of these are the Rev. James Franck Bright and the late John
Richard Green. =James Franck Bright (1832- )= is master of University
College, Oxford, and his "English History for the use of Public Schools"
is a work so lucidly and carefully written, that it is entitled to be
lifted out of the category of mere text-books, and to take rank as good
literature. Still more is this true of Green's "Short History of the
English People." =John Richard Green (1837-1883)= was born at Oxford,
and educated at Magdalen College School and at Jesus College. For some
time he was vicar of St Philip's, Stepney. His "Short History,"
published in 1874, was speedily adopted in schools, and had an enormous
sale among general readers. It was immediately recognised that a
brilliant writer had appeared, one who had assimilated all that was
worthy in the work of laborious contemporary historians, had himself
made much study of original documents, and had welded all together by
the power of real genius. A critic here and there devoted himself to
discovering the errors, mainly of dates, which, owing to the illness of
the author, disfigured the first edition. But the popular instinct
which declared this to be a great work, was a sound one. In the main its
conclusions are just. There is not a line of cheap sentiment or
rhetorical clap-trap in the book. Mr Green soon afterwards enlarged his
work, and published it in four handsome volumes, which he dedicated to
his friends--"My Masters in the Study of English History,"--Bishop
Stubbs and Professor Freeman. Later on appeared "The Making of England,"
and, after his decease, another volume, "The Conquest of England,"
written on his deathbed, was published by his widow, Alice Stopford
Green, who has written "Town Life in the Fifteenth Century." Sir
Archibald Geikie, the geologist, once rendered a tribute to Green for
endeavouring to bring geological science to the aid of historical
research; but on the question of the Teutonic element in our nation, it
has been urged that Green follows his friends, Stubbs and Freeman, all
too readily, and ignores the evidence from anthropology in favour of the
very great prevalence of Celtic blood in the English-speaking race.
I regret that my space will not permit me to write at length of the men
who have studied so thoroughly sciences which have so much bearing upon
history, and who have written delightful books upon them. I must be
content merely to mention the names of William Boyd Dawkins, who has
written "Cave-hunting" and "Early Man in Britain;" and Sir John Lubbock,
banker and member of Parliament, who has written "Pre-historic Times"
and "The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man,"
also various books on natural science, and some very inadequate literary
essays. Nor must I forget Edward Burnett Tylor's "Primitive Culture" and
"Anthropology," Grant Allen's "Anglo-Saxon Britain," and Edward Clodd's
"Childhood of the World," "Childhood of Religion," and "Pioneers of
Evolution." From such works as these it is but a very short step to the
writings of Max Müller. =Friedrich Max Müller (1823- )=, son of the
German poet, Wilhelm Müller, was educated at the University of Leipzig,
and made a special study of philosophy in Germany for many years before
he came to the land of his adoption, in 1846. Appointed an Oxford
professor, first of modern languages and later of comparative philology,
a science which he may almost be said to have created, he has become an
Englishman both in speech and in writing. Max Müller's most popular
works are his interesting "Lectures on the Science of Language," and his
"Chips from a German Workshop," in which he deals not only with the
common origin of the world's leading languages, but in a skilful and
almost startling manner reconstructs, by the aid of language alone, the
conditions out of which have risen the various religious and social
systems of the early nations. The writers who have most prominently
followed in Max Müller's footsteps, as elucidators of primitive
religious belief, are Professor Sayce and the Rev. Sir George Cox.
=Archibald Henry Sayce (1846- )=, who succeeded Max Müller in the
chair of comparative philology at Oxford, has written numerous books and
treatises dealing with the Chaldean and other ancient nations, and has
also published an annotated edition of Herodotus, noticeable chiefly for
its unfavourable verdict on the "Father of History." =Sir George Cox
(1827- )=, whose "Mythology of the Aryan Nations" has provoked much
adverse criticism from its extreme application of the "Solar" theory to
the interpretation of myth, epic, and romance, has also written an
interesting "History of Greece" in two volumes.
The "History of Greece" which may be considered one of the most
satisfactory achievements of the Victorian era, is that by Grote,
published in twelve volumes. =George Grote (1794-1871)= was born at
Clay Hill, near Beckenham, and was educated at the Charterhouse School.
He early went into the banking-house in Threadneedle Street, of which
his father was one of the partners, but found time to devote himself to
philosophy and history, and to write for the _Westminster Review_, the
organ of philosophical Radicalism. It was as a representative of this
phase of thought that he was returned as member of Parliament for the
city of London in 1833. He sat in the House as one of a small body of
philosophical Radicals until 1841, bringing forward annually a
resolution in favour of the ballot. He retired from Parliamentary life
to devote himself more energetically to his "History of Greece," the
first two volumes of which appeared in 1846; the twelfth, and last,
which takes us to the death of Alexander the Great, was published in
1856. During the same years, but unknown to Grote, =Connop Thirlwall
(1797-1875)=, Bishop of St David's, a former schoolfellow of his, was
engaged upon the same task. Each acknowledged the superiority of his
rival's work, and Grote said that he should never have written his had
Thirlwall's book appeared a few years earlier; but there can be little
hesitation in assigning the higher place to Grote. Of Thirlwall it may
be said, however, that but for Grote his history would have taken high
rank, and would have been a welcome relief from the foolish but once
popular work of William Mitford. Thirlwall is also interesting for
having translated, in 1825, Schleiermacher's "Essay on St Luke," and
thus first introduced German theology into England. Grote's history is a
book of high educational value. In it we have all that is best in
Herodotus, Thucydides, and the other ancient historians, added to the
sound and weighty judgment of a clear-sighted modern critic,
exceptionally free from prejudice. It was Grote's great destiny to free
the English mind from the erroneous impressions which had so long
prevailed as to the real character of the Athenian democracy, and we
cannot find elsewhere a truer or juster picture of Athens at the height
of her power. A great work on Greek history in later aspects than those
of Grote and Thirlwall is "A History of Greece, from its Conquest by the
Romans to the Present Time," by =George Finlay (1799-1875)=. Finlay
fought in the Greek War of Independence, and lived for the greater part
of his life in Athens.
A number of clergymen besides Dr Thirlwall have shown an able grasp of
classical history. Dr Arnold wrote a "History of Rome," based on
Niebuhr, which, although interesting, is scarcely worthy of so great a
man. =Charles Merivale (1808-1893)=, Dean of Ely, wrote an admirable
summary of Roman history from the foundation of the city in B.C. 753 to
the fall of Augustulus in A.D. 476; but his great work is the "History
of the Romans under the Empire," which is indispensable for a thorough
appreciation of Gibbon. =Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868)=, Dean of St
Paul's, did good service to historical scholarship by his edition of
Gibbon's pre-eminent work, and by his own "History of the Jews,"
"History of Christianity under the Empire," and "Latin Christianity."
The nine volumes of this last were called by Dean Stanley "a complete
epic and philosophy of mediæval Christianity." Milman is said to have
described himself as "the last learned man in the Church," but in the
presence of so eminent a scholar as =Mandell Creighton (1843- )=,
Bishop of London, the statement is meaningless. Dr Creighton's great
work, "A History of the Papacy From the Great Schism to the Sack of
Rome," is of the highest value in the consecutive study of European
history; and so also is the work of another clergyman, =George William
Kitchin (1827- )=, Dean of Durham, whose "History of France previous
to the Revolution," is very attractively written.
A writer who generalises freely from the facts of history, and whose
generalisations were once very popular, and, according to Sir Mackenzie
Wallace, are still widely read in Russia, was =Henry Thomas Buckle
(1821-1862)=, who published in 1857 the first volume of the "History of
Civilisation in England;" a second volume appeared in 1861, but the
author died before he had completed his intended undertaking. Buckle
unduly emphasises the influence of national and moral laws upon the
progress of civilisation, minimises the influence of individuals, and
overlooks the momentous action of heredity. A writer of equal importance
with Buckle was =John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)=, whose
"Renaissance in Italy" is a work of great literary merit, and whose
translation of Cellini's "Autobiography" has superseded Roscoe's.
Passing from historic Italy to Germany we may note that "The Holy Roman
Empire" of =James Bryce (1838- )= created quite a _furore_ as a prize
essay at Oxford, and, in its enlarged shape, forms the only English
sketch of German history of great literary merit. Mr Bryce was, some
years ago, announced to write a "History of Germany" of more formidable
dimensions, but the glamour of parliamentary life and a seat in the
Cabinet have robbed us of a capable historian. Although we are without a
satisfactory German history we possess two very solid contributions to
such a work. With one of these, Carlyle's "Frederick II.," I shall deal
later; the other is =Sir John Robert Seeley's (1834-1895)= "Life and
Times of Stein; or, Germany and Prussia in the Napoleonic Age." When
this work appeared it was received with high commendation in Germany,
but in England with the qualification that it had none of the literary
charm of the author's earlier efforts. To such criticism Professor
Seeley--he received the professorship of modern history at Cambridge on
Kingsley's resignation in 1869--replied in a series of papers entitled
"History and Politics," wherein he practically contended that it was the
business of historians to be dull, and that brilliant history-writing
was, as a matter of fact, little other than fiction. Still, in his
lectures on "The Expansion of England" (1883) and "A Short History of
Napoleon" (1886) he succeeded in making himself entirely interesting.
The books which gave Sir John Seeley his greatest fame--he received a
knighthood in 1893--were not, however, historical, but, in a sense,
theological; and with him we find ourselves in the midst of the great
religious controversies of the reign. "Ecce Homo; a Survey of the Life
and Work of Jesus Christ," was published anonymously in 1865. While
censured on many sides on account of its alleged heterodoxy, it drew
from opponents unstinted admiration on account of its perfect literary
workmanship. One of these opponents was Mr Gladstone, who ventured the
prophecy that the author would at a later period write something from a
more orthodox standpoint. The prediction was not verified, for in 1882 a
further work, "Natural Religion," by the Author of "Ecce Homo," showed
still less sympathy with the supernatural side of religion.
Mr Gladstone, who flung himself into this as into so many other
controversies, has a fame quite apart from any literary achievement. But
whatever posterity may say of his influence on the destinies of the
nation which he has helped for so many years to rule, it is certain that
his powers as an author would have made the reputation of a man of less
versatility.
=William Ewart Gladstone (1809- )=, the son of a Lancashire merchant,
was born at Liverpool. Into his political career it is not my province
to enter. His first literary work, "The State in its Relations with the
Church," was made famous through a review by Macaulay. Later in life he
indulged in theological controversy, publishing an "Essay on Ritualism"
and "The Vatican Decrees." Mr Gladstone's chief work is, however, his
"Studies in Homer," in which he argues for the unity of the poem, for
the foundation in fact of its main incidents, and for the definite
personality of the author. His contributions to periodical literature
have been innumerable, and only a few--and those non-controversial and
non-classical--have been republished in his five volumes of "Gleanings."
Mr Gladstone's chief opponent in theological controversy, Cardinal
Newman, has profoundly influenced his religious views. "In my opinion,"
wrote Mr Gladstone many years after Newman had become a Roman Catholic,
"his secession from the Church of England has never yet been estimated
among us at anything like the full amount of its calamitous importance.
It has been said that the world does not know its greatest men; neither,
I will add, is it aware of the power and weight carried by the words and
the acts of those among its greatest men whom it does know. The
ecclesiastical historian will perhaps hereafter judge that this
secession was a much greater event even than the partial secession of
John Wesley, the only case of personal loss suffered by the Church of
England since the Reformation which can be at all compared with it in
magnitude."
=John Henry Newman (1801-1890)= was born in London, and educated at a
private school at Ealing and at Trinity College, Oxford. Inclined at
first to the liberal Christianity which men like Whately and Milman were
furthering among churchmen, he was, he says, "rudely awakened by two great
blows--illness and bereavement"; and he devoted himself to a life-long
opposition to what he has called "the great apostasy--liberalism in
religion." "My battle," he writes, "was with liberalism; by liberalism I
mean the anti-dogmatic principle and its developments." From 1828 to
1843 he held the incumbency of St Mary's Church, Oxford, and the
influence which he then exerted was of the deepest moment for the future
of religious life in England. "Who," says Matthew Arnold, himself, like
his father before him, one of the leaders of the movement which Newman
has hated so intensely, "who could resist the charm of that spiritual
apparition, gliding in the dim afternoon light through the aisles of St
Mary's, rising into the pulpit, and then, in the most entrancing of
voices, breaking the silence with words and thoughts which were a
religious music--subtle, sweet, mournful? I seem to hear him still,
saying: 'After the fever of life, after wearinesses and sicknesses,
fightings and despondings, languor and fretfulness, struggling and
succeeding; after all the changes and chances of this troubled,
unhealthy state,--at length comes death, at length the white throne of
God, at length the beatific vision.'" During these years at St Mary's
what is called the Tractarian movement sprang to life--a movement, as we
have said, against Broad-Churchism. It was at the beginning of the
movement, on his way home from Sicily in 1833, whilst pondering over the
difficulties of the task he had undertaken, that Newman wrote the hymn
"Lead, kindly Light," which is now as popular in the most advanced and
liberalized churches as it can be in those nearest to its author's
religious standpoint. The "Tracts for the Times," whence Tractarians
derived their name, were written by Newman, Hurrell Froude, Pusey, and
others. Bishop Bloomfield said that the whole movement was nothing but
Newmania. The writers argued now in short papers, now in elaborate
treatises, for the Divine mission of the Anglican Church. Not till
"Tract XC." was reached did the alarm of the Protestant party manifest
itself in any practical form. In that Tract Newman declared that
subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles was not inconsistent with the
acceptance of Roman Catholic teaching on purgatory, on the invocation of
saints, and on the mass. The Hebdomadal Council of the University
condemned the Tract. Two years later Newman resigned his position at St
Mary's, and in 1845 formally joined the Church of Rome. According to
Disraeli, Anglicanism "reeled under the shock," and Dean Stanley
remarked to a friend that the fortunes of the English Church might have
been very different "had Newman been able to read German."[13]
In 1848 he was appointed head of the Birmingham Oratory, and there he
resided--with one short break as rector of the Roman Catholic University
at Dublin--for nearly forty years. In 1879 he was created a cardinal,
and his visit to Rome and installation as a Prince of the Sacred College
excited much attention in England. Although by temperament and
inclination one of the least combative and most retiring of men,
Cardinal Newman found himself again and again in the thick of the
argumentative fray. At one time he was involved in a libel action by an
ex-priest and ultra-Protestant lecturer named Father Achilli, and this
cost Newman and his friends twelve thousand pounds; at another time he
was arguing with the foremost English statesman, Mr Gladstone, as to the
probable loyalty of English Roman Catholics if the Papacy and the
English Government were brought into collision. In one great controversy
of his life he was generally admitted to have achieved a success, and
this success is associated with an enduring literary work, the
autobiography which he calls his "Apologia pro Vitâ Suâ." Reviewing
Froude's "History of England" in _Macmillan's Magazine_ (January 1864),
Charles Kingsley charged Newman with being careless about truth, and
with teaching that cunning and not truth-seeking was the acceptable
method of the Roman Catholic clergy. Brought to bay by Newman, Kingsley
contradicted himself in an amazing fashion, and even the most
enthusiastic Protestants were compelled to admit that the clever
novelist was no match for the trained dialectician. Mrs Kingsley, in her
charming life of her husband, practically admits that he was worsted in
the conflict, and J. A. Froude, his brother-in-law, wrote: "Kingsley
entirely misunderstood Newman's character. Newman's whole life had been
a struggle for truth. He had neglected his own interests; he had never
thought of them at all. He had brought to bear a most powerful and
subtle intellect to support the convictions of a conscience which was
superstitiously sensitive. His single object had been to discover what
were the real relations between man and his Maker, and to shape his own
conduct by the conclusions at which he arrived. To represent such a
person as careless of truth was neither generous nor even reasonable."
The final outcome of the controversy was the publication of the
"Apologia," a work which, alike in beauty of style and devotion of
spirit, must be assigned a very high place in religious literature. My
space is too limited to pass in review, or even to name, the thirty-six
volumes which contain the writings of this eloquent preacher and
teacher. His "Dream of Gerontius" and "Verses on Various Occasions" show
his high qualities as a poet; his "Apologia," "Callista," and "Essay in
aid of the Grammar of Assent," display his genius as a prose stylist. In
"Callista: a Sketch of the Third Century," he pictures a beautiful Greek
girl, who becomes a convert to Christianity after a severe struggle
between human affection and religious faith. The "Grammar of Assent" is
an apology for Christianity, far above the narrow controversies in which
the author took so distinguished a part.
The question whether Cardinal Newman or Carlyle has been the most
influential personality in Victorian literature will be largely decided
by the temperament of the critic. Mr Swinburne, looking at them both
from a standpoint of antagonism to the priestly proclivities of the one
and to the tyrannical proclivities of the other, apostrophised them
jointly in the well-known lines:--
"With all our hearts we praise you whom ye hate,
High souls that hate us; for our hopes are higher,
And higher than yours the goal of our desire,
Though high your ends be as your hearts are great."
Newman, indeed, left England more dominated by ritual than in any other
period of its history, the Roman Church more powerful than ever before,
the new High Church party in the Establishment a great institution, with
the rival Prime Ministers, Mr Gladstone and Lord Salisbury, among its
supporters, and a taste for ritual conspicuous in the chapels of the
Nonconformists. And yet with all this Carlyle was the more dominant
personality.
=Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)= was born at Ecclefechan, in
Dumfriesshire, on the 4th of December 1795. His father was a stonemason,
at whose death Carlyle thus tenderly wrote in his Diary:--"I owe him
much more than existence. I owe him a noble inspiring example. It was he
_exclusively_ that determined on educating me; that from his small
hard-earned funds sent me to school and college, and made me whatever I
am and may become. Let me not mourn for my father, let me do worthily of
him. So shall he still live, even here in me, and his worth plant itself
honourably forth into new generations." From Annan Grammar School the
young Carlyle went to Edinburgh University, where he became a voracious
reader, although never a great classical scholar. He then took the post
of mathematical tutor at Annan school, and afterwards at Kirkcaldy,
where he was friendly with Edward Irving, afterwards the famous
preacher. Disgusted with this life he flung up his appointment, and
determined to study for the law. For some time he eked out a scanty
subsistence in Edinburgh by writing biographies for Brewster's
_Encyclopædia_. It was at this period that he obtained some measure of
mental and moral stimulus from his German studies. Goethe opened a new
world to him. He began to study German in 1819, induced thereto by
Madame de Staël's interesting account of the German poets and
philosophers. Goethe was seventy-five years old when in 1824 he received
from Carlyle an English translation of "Wilhelm Meister," with a letter,
saying, "Four years ago, when I read your 'Faust' among the mountains of
my native Scotland, I could not but fancy I might one day see you, and
pour out before you, as before a father, the woes and wanderings of a
heart whose mysteries you seemed so thoroughly to comprehend, and could
so beautifully represent." Two years later Carlyle sent Goethe his "Life
of Schiller," and once again he expressed his intense devotion to one
"whose voice came to me from afar, with counsel and help, in my utmost
need." "For if," he continues, "I have been delivered from darkness
into any measure of light, if I know aught of myself and my destination,
it is to the study of your writings more than to any other circumstance
that I owe this; it is you more than any other man that I should always
thank and reverence with the feeling of a disciple to his Master, nay,
of a son to his spiritual Father." In the meantime Carlyle had married
Jane Welsh, the daughter of a doctor in Haddington, and had settled at
the lonely farm-house of Craigenputtock, in Dumfriesshire. There he was
visited by Emerson, and there he remained for six years, before removing
to London. Not only had Carlyle then translated "Wilhelm Meister" and
written the "Life of Schiller," but he had made numerous translations
from Musæus, Tieck, and Richter, and had published essays on these and
other German authors. Jean Paul Richter had a peculiar attraction for
him, and there can be no doubt that Carlyle owed his extraordinary
style, in some degree, to his study of the German humorist.
The forty-seven years of Carlyle's London life (1834-1881) were years of
incessant literary activity. The thirty volumes which came from his pen
during that time not only secured for him a permanent place amongst the
historians, biographers, and essayists of our literature, but they
kindled for him a glow of intense personal enthusiasm amongst the best
of his contemporaries, such as, perhaps, no other English author has
enjoyed. At his death on the 5th of February, 1881, the world knew
Carlyle, apart from his books, as a man of simple tastes, content, in
spite of the wealth which literary success had brought, to reside amidst
unostentatious surroundings, ever ready to help the distressed and
needy, refusing a title and the like official recognitions, and carrying
out to the letter the reverence, earnestness, and unobtrusive manliness
which he had inculcated in his writings; devotedly attached to his wife,
whom he described on her tombstone as having "unweariedly forwarded him
as none else could, in all of good that he did or attempted;" and, in
short, worthy of the address presented to him on his eightieth birthday,
by nearly all the men of literary and scientific eminence in England,
including, amongst others, Lord Tennyson and George Eliot, Robert
Browning and Professor Huxley. "A whole generation has elapsed," they
said, "since you described for us the hero as a man of letters. We
congratulate you and ourselves on the spacious fulness of years which
has enabled you to sustain this rare dignity amongst mankind in all its
possible splendour and completeness." The publication of Mr Froude's
nine volumes of memorials caused a considerable revulsion of feeling.
The Carlyle of these "Letters" and "Reminiscences" appeared to be
over-censorious in his estimate of his contemporaries, not too
considerate in his relations with his wife, and, however admirable he
might find contentment in Richter or Heyne, not content without much
murmuring to accept a life of restricted means.
To give too much emphasis to this view of Carlyle's character is to
ignore certain peculiarities of Mr Froude's biographical and historical
style, to which reference has already been made. It will suffice to
point out here that there are other sources of information about Carlyle
than the books of his accredited biographer. Sir Henry Taylor, Mrs
Oliphant, Mr Charles Eliot Norton, Mrs Gilchrist, and other friends of
Carlyle's later life have published much additional matter, and have
shown, as it were, the other side of the shield. To Sir Henry Taylor,
who knew him well, he seemed "the most faithful and true-hearted of
men," and from many sources we learn that Mr Froude's picture is not
that of the true Carlyle; that he was not a selfish husband, that his
married life was not unhappy, that he was not altogether dumb to the
heroes living, whilst eloquent over heroes dead, and that, in spite of
many faults, he was a noble high-minded man, a "kingly soul," as
Longfellow called him. Writing in his Diary during his second visit to
England in 1847, Emerson says:--"Carlyle and his wife live on beautiful
terms. Their ways are very engaging, and in her bookcase all his books
are inscribed to her as they came from year to year, each with some
significant lines."
The letters which Carlyle wrote to his wife at the time she lost her
mother are most touchingly affectionate. This is what she wrote to a
friend at that time:--"In great matters he is always kind and
considerate, but these little attentions which we women attach so much
importance to, he was never in the habit of rendering to anyone. And,
now, the desire to replace the irreplaceable makes him as good in little
things as he used to be in great." And to Carlyle himself she
writes:--"God keep you, my dear husband, and bring you safe back to me.
The house looks very desolate without you, and my mind feels empty too.
I expect, with impatience, the letter that is to fix your return."
On another occasion, writing to her husband's mother, she says:--"You
have others behind and I have only him--only him in the whole wide world
to love me and take care of me--poor little wretch that I am. Not but
that numbers of people love me, after their fashion, far more than I
deserve, but then his fashion is so different from theirs, and seems
alone to suit the crotchety creature that I am." And then her pride in
her husband is well exemplified by an experience related in a letter to
him, which shows also how wide and deep is that mysterious impersonal
influence of great authors on men who are totally unknown to them:--"A
man of the people mounted the platform and spoke; a youngish,
intelligent-looking man, who alone, of all the speakers, seemed to
understand the question, and to have feelings as well as notions about
it. He spoke with a heart-eloquence that left me warm. I never was more
affected by public speaking.... A sudden thought struck me: this man
would like to know you. I would give him my address in London. I
borrowed a piece of paper and handed him my address. When he looked at
it he started as if I had sent a bullet into him, caught my hand, and
said, 'Oh, it is your husband! Mr Carlyle has been my teacher and
master! I have owed everything to him for years and years!' I felt it a
credit to you really to have had a hand in turning out this man, was
prouder of that heart-tribute to your genius than any amount of
reviewers' praises or aristocratic invitations to dinner."
It is because the spirit which breathes in the words of this young
workman has been the guiding moral force of numbers of men and women in
all stations of life, during the last sixty years, that I have devoted
so much space to Carlyle. It is of the greatest importance to literature
that the man whose eloquent preaching of justice, sincerity, and
reverence has turned the hearts of thousands of his fellowmen towards
nobility and simplicity of life, should not himself have been out of
harmony with all that he taught. "The world," says Thackeray's gifted
daughter, "has pointed its moral finger of late at the old man in his
great old age, accusing himself in the face of all, and confessing the
overpowering irritations which the suffering of a lifetime had laid upon
him and upon her he loved. That old caustic man of deepest feeling, with
an ill-temper and a tender heart, and a racking imagination, speaking
from the grave, and bearing unto it that cross of passionate remorse
which few among us dare to face, seems to some of us now a figure nobler
and truer, a teacher greater far than in the days when all his pain and
love and remorse were still hidden from us all."[14]
Of the "Reminiscences" which excited so much criticism on account of
their references to persons still living, Carlyle wrote on the last
page:--"I still mainly mean to _burn_ this book before my own departure,
but feel that I shall always have a kind of grudge to do it, and an
indolent excuse. 'Not _yet_; wait, any day that can be done!' and that
it is possible the thing _may_ be left behind me, legible to interested
survivors--_friends_ only, I will hope, and with _worthy_ curiosity, not
_un_worthy! In which event, I solemnly forbid them, each and all, to
_publish_ this bit of writing _as it stands here_, and warn them that
_without fit editing_ no _part_ of it should be printed (nor so far as I
can order _shall_ ever be), and that the 'fit editing' of perhaps
nine-tenths of it will, after I am gone, have become _impossible_."[15]
The only editing which Mr Froude deemed "fit" was the omission of this
paragraph from his edition of the work. And yet to read, with the
"worthy curiosity" of which he speaks, of his love for father and wife,
and of his kindly solicitude for brothers and sisters, whom he
constantly assisted, is to make him nearer and dearer to those who care
to remember that he was after all but human. Carlyle spoke with too
little kindness, it must be owned, of Wordsworth, and Coleridge, and
Lamb, because he saw only the palpable weaknesses of their characters,
and was blinded by forbidding externals to the sterling worth of these
great men; but he loved Emerson, and Tennyson, and Ruskin, and he
profoundly revered Goethe, who, after all, was the only one of his
contemporaries who could take rank anywhere near him.[16] Carlyle
recognised that Goethe was incomparably his superior in every way; that
he was, as Matthew Arnold calls him, "the greatest poet of the present
age, and the greatest critic of all ages," the one man of transcendent
genius whom Europe has produced since Dante and Shakspere. To have first
led England to appreciate Goethe is not the least of Carlyle's many
services to his country. To have acted as an inspiring and helpful
prophet is perhaps his greatest. "Sartor Resartus" first appeared in
_Fraser's Magazine_ for 1833, where it met with but scanty recognition,
and, indeed, half-ruined the editor, whose subscribers anxiously asked
when the "tailor sketches" were coming to an end. It is surely something
more than a passing fashion in literature which leads us now to take up
these well-worn pages with so much of tenderness and sympathy. "There is
in man," he says, "a Higher than Love of Happiness; he can do without
Happiness, and instead thereof find Blessedness! Was it not to preach
forth this same Higher that sages and martyrs, the Poet and the Priest,
in all times, have spoken and suffered; bearing testimony, through life
and through death, of the Godlike that is in Man, and how, in the
Godlike only, has he Strength and Freedom?" How can it be said that
Carlyle did not love humanity when we read the lines in which he
expresses reverence for the "toilworn Craftsman that, with earth-made
Implement, laboriously conquers the Earth and makes her man's?"
"Venerable to me," he continues, "is the hard Hand; crooked, coarse;
wherein notwithstanding lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of
the Sceptre of this Planet. Venerable, too, is the rugged face, all
weather-tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face
of a Man living manlike. O, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and
even because we must pity as well as love thee! Hardly entreated
Brother! For us was thy back so bent, for us were thy straight limbs and
fingers so deformed; thou wert our Conscript on whom the lot fell, and
fighting our battles wert so marred."
It is impossible to exaggerate the effect upon the younger minds of his
age of Carlyle's stirring words, inciting to worthy and ever worthier
effort:--"Do the duty which lies nearest to thee, which thou knowest to
be a duty. In all situations out of the pit of Tophet, wherein a living
man has stood, there is actually a prize of quite infinite value placed
within his reach, namely a duty for him to do; this highest of Gospels
forms the basis and worth of all other gospels whatever." "Brother," he
says elsewhere, "thou hast possibility in thee for much, the possibility
of writing on the eternal skies the record of a heroic life. Is not
every man, God be thanked, a potential hero? The measure of a nation's
greatness, of its worth under the sky to God and to man, is not the
quantity of bullion it has realised, but the quantity of heroisms it has
achieved, of noble pieties and valiant wisdoms that were in it, that
still are in it."
Little less valuable than "Sartor Resartus" is "Past and Present," which
was published in 1843. The reverence and delicacy with which it touches
the monasticism of a bygone age are as remarkable as the prophetic
vision with which it deals with the social problems of our latter-day
life. State-aided emigration, co-operation and national education, are
some of the many changes advocated here and elsewhere. Not till the
"Latter-day Pamphlets" (1850) did Carlyle become an eloquent advocate of
"force" as a guide in politics, thereby alienating John Stuart Mill and
many of his old friends. His language then seemed to degenerate into
mere shrieking and scolding. The world must be governed, he declared, by
men of heroic mould, who know what is good for the inferior natures
around them. Let such inferior natures, if need be, be scourged into
silence. Parliaments he spoke of contemptuously as "talking shops," and
his sympathies went out heartily to Governor Eyre at the time of the
Jamaica riots, and to the Southern States at the time of the American
Civil War. An admiration for "heaven-sent heroes" had always been
strong in Carlyle, although it certainly had not its after meaning when
he wrote in early life, "Not brute force, but only persuasion and faith
are the kings of this world." In "Heroes and Hero-worship," a course of
lectures delivered in 1840, he had waxed eloquent over Mahomet, Luther,
and Napoleon, and three years earlier, in 1837, he had published in his
"French Revolution" a brilliant eulogy of Mirabeau. His vindication of
Cromwell was brought about perhaps mainly by his appreciation of the
Protector's high-handed resoluteness, and his "Life of Frederick II. of
Prussia" was the apology for a man who was the very embodiment of
despotic ideals.
But quite apart from Carlyle's worth as a moral teacher or as a
controversialist, his place in literature is very high. His short
biography of Schiller was an epoch-making book, because of the influence
it has exercised upon the study of German literature: but it bears
little evidence of the genius of its author, and, in consequence of the
abundance of Schiller correspondence subsequently brought to light, it
has been superseded by the biographies of Palleskie and Duntzer.
Carlyle's "Life of John Sterling" is, however, a work of great power, a
kind of prose "Lycidas," which, like that great elegy, has rescued from
oblivion a man in whom the world would soon have ceased to be
interested. Carlyle, again, was an essayist of striking individuality.
Few literary sketches are more picturesque than his "Count Cagliostro"
and "The Diamond Necklace," and the essays on Johnson and Burns are
models of generous human insight. With literary insight, however,
Carlyle was not too well endowed, at least, when purely imaginative
literature was concerned, and he once expressed the opinion that
Shakspere had better have written in prose. "It is part of my creed," he
wrote to Emerson, "that the only poetry is history could we tell it
right." His method of telling it gives him a place by himself among
historians, a place so singular that it is impossible to classify him.
"Carlyle's 'French Revolution,'" said John Stuart Mill, "is one of those
productions of genius which is above all rule, and is a law to itself."
The deathbed of Louis XV., the taking of the Bastille, and the execution
of Danton, are never-to-be-forgotten descriptions, and the poetical
passage which follows the relation of the bloody horrors of 1789 cannot
be too often quoted:--"O evening sun of July, how, at this hour, thy
beams fall slant on reapers amid peaceful woody fields; on old women
spinning in cottages; on ships far out in the silent main; on Balls at
the Orangerie of Versailles, where high-rouged Dames of the Palace are
even now dancing with double-jacketed Hussar-Officers;--and also on this
roaring Hell-porch of a Hôtel-de-Ville!"
The scientific history of the French Revolution has yet to be written;
and even to appreciate Carlyle's prose epic adequately we should know
something of Mignet, Thiers, Morse Stephens, and von Sybel, but neither
the accumulation of fresh facts, nor a philosophical deduction from such
facts, can impair the value of Carlyle's work. That, in spite of all his
fire and passion, Carlyle could delineate character with most judicial
fairness, may be demonstrated by turning to Mr John Morley's essays on
Robespierre and the other revolutionists, and observing how his calm and
unprejudiced intellect has pronounced judgments in every way endorsing
Carlyle's.
Carlyle's "Cromwell" has less attraction for us to-day than the "French
Revolution"; but the service to historical study was even greater.
Opinions will always differ as to the wisdom of the Protector's policy
and the righteousness of his deeds, but since the publication of these
letters and speeches, "edited with the care of an antiquarian and the
genius of a poet,"[17] Cromwell's sincerity and genuine piety have been
unimpugned. There are others beside Mr Froude who esteem the "History of
Frederick II." Carlyle's greatest work. The humour of the book is
wonderful, for Carlyle is the greatest humorist since Sterne, and
nowhere is this humour more conspicuous than in "Frederick." The
splendid portraits of all the most important figures in the eighteenth
century fix themselves indelibly in the memory, and it is even said that
German soldiers study the art of war from the descriptions of
Frederick's campaigns. Nevertheless, the book has much in it that is
unsatisfying to Englishmen. Frederick and his father could not easily
excite the hero-worshipping inclinations of a free people, and even
Carlyle became disillusioned as he proceeded with his task, and finally
admitted that Frederick was not worth the trouble he had given to him.
He commenced it as a "History of Frederick the Great," and concluded it
as a "History of Frederick, _called_ the Great."
Carlyle is surely the greatest figure in our modern literature. He wrote
no poetry worth consideration, it is true. His verse would long since
have been forgotten had it not been for his effectiveness as a prose
writer. But although we are accustomed to the claim for poetry that it
ranks higher than prose, it must be conceded that in Victorian
literature this is not the case, and that Carlyle's enormous
personality, his capacity for influencing others for good and ill, have
made him the greatest moral and intellectual force of his age. To him we
owe the indifference to mere political shibboleths, the lull in party
warfare, which is the note of our age. He gave no definite answer to any
question, but he gave us the impetus which led others to seek for
solutions. His literary influence on Froude and Mill, Mr Ruskin and Mr
Lecky, and numbers of others was tremendous. The place which was
occupied by Swift in the eighteenth century is held by Carlyle in the
nineteenth, and though every line that he has written should cease to be
read, he will still be remembered as the greatest of literary figures in
an age of great men of letters.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Froude's "History of England," vol. ii. chap. ix.
[12] "Lectures on the Council of Trent," "English Seamen in the
Sixteenth Century," and "Life and Letters of Erasmus."
[13] "Memoirs of Mark Pattison."
[14] Mrs Thackeray-Ritchie, _Harper's Magazine_ (1883).
[15] "Reminiscences," by Thomas Carlyle. 2nd Edition. Edited by C. E.
Norton (1887).
[16] When George Eliot read Carlyle's eulogy on Emerson in introducing
his essays to the British public, she wrote:--"I have shed many tears
over it: this is a world worth abiding in while one man can thus
venerate and love another."--Cross's "Life of George Eliot."
[17] Green's "Short History of the English People."
CHAPTER IV
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, "Præterita," 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 £70,000. He has told us in "Fors" that out of the £157,000
left him by his parents he has spent £153,000. 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 _aperÁu_ 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 _bête 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 Brontë 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
Cyclopædia_ 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 £150,000; 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
Linnæan 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 Linnæan 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
Palæontology 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
Müller to lecture in the Abbey, befriended Père 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 _Athenæum_, 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 Müller 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 Brontë." 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 Brontë; 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 Vitâ Suâ,' 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 Brontë, 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.
_Athenæum_ 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 Cyclopædia_; 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.
Brontë, Anne. 'Poems'; 'Agnes Grey,' 47;
'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,' 48.
Brontë, Charlotte. Early years, 46;
Brussels; 'Poems'; 'The Professor'; 'Jane Eyre'; 'Shirley';
'Villette'; marriage and death, 47;
Mrs Gaskell's 'Life,' 71.
Brontë, 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 Staël'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 Cyclopædia_, 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 Schönberg 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 Brontë, 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 Cyclopædia_ 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
Khayyám,' 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 'À 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 Cæsar'; 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 Brontë' 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.
Historians of the Era--
Allan, G., 99.
Arnold, Dr, 102, 160.
Brewer, Rev. J. S., 88.
Bright, J. B., 97.
Bryce, J., 104.
Buckle, H. T., 103.
Burton, J. H., 96.
Carlyle, T., 112.
Clodd, E., 99.
Cox, Sir G., 100.
Creighton, M., 103.
Dawkins, W. B., 98.
Finlay, G., 102.
Freeman, E. A., 81.
Froude, J. A., 83.
Gairdner, J., 96.
Gardiner, S. R., 89.
Gladstone, W. E., 105, 106.
Green, J. R., 97.
Green, Mrs, 98.
Grote, G., 100.
Hallam, H., 77.
Hume, Major M., 89.
Kemble, J. M., 80.
Kinglake, A. W., 96.
Kitchin, G. W., 103.
Lecky, W. E. H., 96.
Lingard, J., 80.
Lubbock, Sir J., 99.
Macaulay, T. B., 91.
MacCarthy, J., 95.
Massey, W. M., 95.
May, Sir T. E., 79.
Merivale, C., 102.
Milman, H. H., 102.
Molesworth, Rev. W. N., 95.
Müller, F. M., 99.
Napier, Sir Charles, 97.
Newman, J. H., 107.
Palgrave, Sir F., 81.
Sayce, A. H., 100.
Seeley, Sir J. R., 104.
Stanhope, Earl, 95.
Stubbs, W., 78.
Symonds, J. A., 103.
Thirlwall, C., 101.
Tylor, E. B., 99.
'History and Politics,' 104.
'History of Agriculture and Prices' (Rogers), 144.
'History of Christianity under the Empire' (Milman), 102.
'History of Civilization in England' (Buckle), 103.
'History of Early English Poetry' (Brooke), 166.
'History of Eighteenth Century Literature, A' (Oliphant), 74.
'History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the
Spanish Armada, The' (Froude), 84, 85.
'History of England from 1603-1642' (Gardiner), 89.
'History of England from the Accession of James II.' (Macaulay),
92.
'History of England from 1713 to 1783' (Earl Stanhope), 95.
'History of England' (Lingard), 80.
'History of England under George III.' (Massey), 95.
'History of England, 1830-1873' (Molesworth), 95.
'History of English Poetry' (Courthope), 178.
'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century' (Stephen),
175.
'History of France previous to the Revolution' (Kitchin), 103.
'History of Federal Government' (Freeman), 81.
'History of Greece' (Cox), 100.
'History of Greece' (Finlay), 102.
'History of Greece' (Grote), 100-102.
'History of Greece' (Thirlwall), 101.
'History of Normandy and England' (Palgrave), 81.
'History of Our Own Time, 1830-1897 (MacCarthy), 95.
'History of Rome' (Arnold), 102, 160.
'History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond, The,'
45.
'History of Scotland' (Burton), 96.
'History of Trade Unionism, The' (Webb), 145.
'History of the Church of England' (Molesworth), 95.
'History of the Eighteenth Century' (Lecky), 96.
'History of the Four Georges' (MacCarthy), 96.
'History of the Jews' (Milman), 102.
'History of the Norman Conquest' (Freeman), 81.
'History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome'
(Creighton), 103.
'History of the Peace' (Martineau), 95.
'History of the Romans under the Empire' (Merivale), 102.
'History of the Reign of Queen Anne' (Stanhope), 95.
'History of the War in the Crimea,' (Kinglake), 96.
'Holy Roman Empire, The,' 104.
'Homer' (Lang's translation), 176.
'Homer, Studies in,' 106.
Hood, Thomas. 'Song of the Shirt' and 'Dream of Eugene Aram' most
popular, 29.
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 151.
Horne, Richard Hengist. Wrote 'Orion,' 'Judas Iscariot,' 'The
Death of Marlowe,' &c., 36.
Houghton, Lord (Monckton Milnes). 'Life, Letters, and Literary
Remains of John Keats'; his life written by Sir Wemyss Reid,
183.
'Hour and the Man, The,' 181.
'Hours in a Library,' 175.
'Hours of Thought on Sacred Things,' 167.
'House Beautiful,' 73.
'House of Life, The,' 24.
Howson, John Saul. Joint authorship with Rev. W. J. Conybeare
of 'The Life and Epistles of St Paul,' 168.
Hughes, Thomas. A pupil of Dr Arnold's; wrote finest boy's
book in the language, 'Tom Brown's School Days,' 161.
Hume, Major Martin. 'The Year after the Armada'; 'The Courtships
of Queen Elizabeth'; 'Calendar of Spanish State Papers of
Elizabeth,' 89.
Hunt, Holman, and the pre-Raphaelite Movement, 23.
Hutton, Richard Holt. Editor of the _Spectator_; A dignified
and independent critic; 'Essays, Literary and Speculative,' 189.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. A profound Metaphysician as well as a great
scientist; early days; _Rattlesnake_ Voyage; Royal and
Linnæan Society Papers; Natural History and Palæontology
Chairs, 157;
Inspector of Fisheries; President of the Royal Society;
'Physiography'; his 'Lay Sermons,' 'Addresses and Reviews,'
'Critiques and Addresses,' and 'American Addresses,' rank
among the finest prose of our age, 158.
'Hypatia,' 54.
Ibsen. Gosse and Archer's translations, 175.
'Ice Age, The Great,' 153.
'Idylls of the King, The,' 10.
'Imaginary Conversations,' 16.
'Imaginary Portraits,' 171.
'In a Balcony,' 12.
'In a Glass Darkly,' 66.
'Industrial Revolution, The,' 144.
Ingelow, Jean. Outlived her popularity; 'High Tide on the Coast
of Lincolnshire' and 'Supper at the Mill' her most enduring
work, 29.
'Ingoldsby Legends,' 30.
'In Memoriam,' 10.
'Intellectual Life, The,' 172.
'International Scientific Series' and Spencer, 146.
'Interpretation of Scripture, The,' 163.
'Irish Melodies,' 33.
'Jackdaw of Rheims,' 30.
James, G. P. R., 67.
'Jane Eyre,' 46, 47.
Jefferies, Richard. 'Gamekeeper at Home,' published in the _Pall
Mall Gazette_; 'Wood Magic'; 'Bevis'; 'The Story of My Heart,'
188.
Jerrold, Douglas. 'Black-eyed Susan'; 'Mrs Caudle's Curtain
Lectures,' 187.
'Jesus, Strauss's Life of,' 49.
Jevons, William Stanley, 143.
'John Inglesant,' 64.
'John Ploughman's Talk,' 168.
Jones, Ebenezer. Wrote 'Studies in Sensation and Event,' 37.
Jones, Sumner, 37.
'John Halifax, Gentleman,' 72.
Journalism and Novelists, 186-7.
'Journals of Researches during a Voyage round the World,'
154-155.
Jowett, Benjamin, 162;
'The Interpretation of Scripture'; brilliant translations of
Plato, Thucydides, and 'The Politics' of Aristotle; John
Bright's admiration of Jowett's classic English; 'Life,'
written by Evelyn Abbott and Lewis Campbell, 163.
'Judas Iscariot,' 36.
'Katerfelto,' 59.
Kavanagh, Julia. Now little known. Wrote 'Madeleine,' 'Women in
France in the 18th Century,' 'Englishwomen of Letters,' and
'Frenchwomen of Letters,' 72.
Keats, death of, 5;
Biography, 183.
Keble, John. Professor of Poetry at Oxford; 'Christian Year';
'Lyra Innocentium'; 'Life of Bishop Wilson,' 159.
Kemble, John Mitchell. His 'Saxons in England' still useful, 80.
King, Richard Ashe. Has sketched Swift's life in Ireland; 'Love
the Debt'; 'The Wearing of the Green,' 178.
'Kingdom of Christ,' 164.
Kinglake, Alexander William. 'History of the War in the Crimea,'
a brilliant effort; his 'Eothen' scarcely less popular, 96.
Kingsley, Charles. 'The Saint's Tragedy'; 'Alton Locke,' 53;
'Yeast'; 'Two Years Ago'; 'Hypatia'; 'Westward Ho'; 'The Three
Fishers'; 'The Sands of Dee'; Professor of History at
Cambridge; his influence great and beneficial, 54-55.
Kingsley, Henry. 'Geoffrey Hamlyn,' the best novel of Australian
life; 'Ravenshoe,' and 'The Hillyars and The Burtons'
forcible effective works, 55;
Sir Edwin Arnold and Mrs Thackeray Ritchie's testimony, 56.
Kingston, W. H. G. Author of one hundred and twenty-five stories
of the sea, 67.
'King's Tragedy, The,' 24.
Kipling, Rudyard. 'Soldiers Three'; 'Wee Willie Winkie';
'Barrack-Room Ballads,' 40.
Kitchin, George William. 'History of France previous to the
Revolution,' 103.
'Kitty Trevelyan's Diary,' 73.
Knight, Professor, of St Andrews. Biographer of Wordsworth and
editor of his collected works, 178.
'Lachrymæ Musarum,' 40.
'Lady Geraldine's Courtship,' 13.
'Lady of Lyons, The,' 56.
'Lady's Walk, The,' 75.
'Lalla Rookh,' 33.
'Land of the Golden Fleece, The,' 188.
Landor, Walter Savage. Temperament; 'Gebir'; 'Count Julian,' 15;
'Imaginary Conversations' and 'Longer Prose Works' have all
cultured men for readers now; Swinburne's admiration of, 16.
Landor and 'Madoc,' 6.
Lang, Andrew. 'Ballads and Lyrics of Old France'; 'Ballades in
Blue China'; translator of Homer and Theocritus, 176;
'Life of Sir Stafford Northcote'; 'Life of John Gibson
Lockhart,' 177.
'Laodamia,' 7.
'Last Days of Pompeii,' 56.
'Last Lines,' 47.
'Last of the Barons, The,' 56.
'Latin Christianity,' 103.
'Latter-day Pamphlets,' 123.
Laureate, The present, 39-40.
'Lavengro,' 185.
'Lay Sermons,' 158.
'Lead Kindly Light,' 108.
'Leaves from a Journal,' 192.
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. 'History of England in the
Eighteenth Century'; 'Rise and Influence of the Spirit of
Rationalism' and 'European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne'
justly popular, 96.
'Lectures in Greek Philosophy,' 169.
'Lectures on the Council of Trent,' 88.
'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' 162.
'Lectures on Science for Unscientific People,' 151.
'Lectures on the Eastern Church,' 161-162.
'Lectures on the Science of Language,' 99.
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 'Uncle Silas'; 'In a Glass Darkly,' 66.
'Legends and Lyrics,' 36.
Lemon, Mark, 187.
Editor of _Punch_, 187-8.
Leslie, Thomas Edward Cliffe. His 'Essays' full of terse and
suggestive criticism, 144.
'Letters and Life of Francis Bacon' (Spedding), 184.
'Letters' and 'Reminiscences' of Carlyle, 115-116, 119-120.
'Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development,' 181.
'Letter to Keble,' 158.
Lever, Charles. _Dublin University Magazine_; 'Charles O'Malley'
and 'Harry Lorrequer' still command attention, 66.
Lewes, George Henry. 'Biographical History of Philosophy,' 148;
his 'Life of Goethe' the standard work; 'Ranthorpe'; edited
_Fortnightly Review_; 'Seaside Studies'; 'Problems of Life
and Mind,' 149;
on 'Philosophie Positive,' 179.
Lewes, George Henry, and George Eliot, 49.
Lewis, Sir George Cornewall. A notable political philosopher;
wrote 'A Dialogue on the Best Form of Government,' 184.
'Liberty,' 139.
Liddon, Henry Parry. Bampton lectures 'On the Divinity of Jesus
Christ'; one of the most eloquent of preachers, 167.
'Lieutenant's Daughter,' 84.
'Life and Death of Jason,' 25.
'Life and Epistles of St Paul,' 168.
'Life and Letters of Erasmus,' 88.
'Life and Reign of Richard III.,' 96.
'Life and Times of Stein,' 104.
'Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats,' 183.
'Life of Bishop Wilson,' 159.
'Life of Bunyan,' 88.
'Life of Burke,' 181.
'Life of Byron,' 34.
'Life of Cardinal Manning,' 169.
'Life of Carlyle,' 86.
'Life of Cæsar,' 88.
'Life of Charlotte Brontë, The,' 71.
'Life of Christ,' 168.
'Life of Cicero,' 58.
'Life of Cobden,' 182.
'Life of Cortes,' 191.
'Life of Cowper,' 6.
'Life of Dickens,' 178.
'Life of Dr Arnold,' 161.
'Life of Edward Irving,' 74.
'Life of F. W. Robertson,' 166.
'Life of Goethe,' 149.
'Life of Gray,' 175.
'Life of Hume,' 157.
'Life of Isaac Casaubon,' 163.
'Life of Jesus,' 49.
'Life of John Gibson Lockhart,' 177.
'Life of John Sterling,' 124.
'Life of Jowett,' 163.
'Life of Lord Lyndhurst,' 191.
'Life of Lord Macaulay,' 182.
'Life of Milton,' 166, 177.
'Life of Nelson' (Mahan's), 6.
'Life of Nelson' (Southey's), 5.
'Life of Newton,' 150.
'Life of Pizarro,' 191.
'Life of St Paul,' 168.
'Life of Schiller,' 113, 124.
'Life of Shelley,' 174.
'Life of Sir John Eliot,' 178-179.
'Life of Sir Stafford Northcote,' 177.
'Life of Sir Walter Scott,' 177.
'Life of the late Prince Consort, The,' 190.
'Life of Walter Savage Landor,' 178.
Lightfoot, Joseph Barber. One of the greatest scholars in the
English Church, 168.
'Light of Asia, The,' 26.
'Light of the World, The,' 26.
'Limits of Religious Thought, The,' 169.
Lingard, John. 'History of England' impartial, but dull, 80.
Linton, Mrs Lynn, 74.
_Literary Gazette_, 181.
'Literary Studies,' 184.
'Literature and Dogma,' 18.
'Literature of Europe' (Hallam's), 78.
'Little Schoolmaster Mark,' 64.
'Living London,' 188.
Lockhart, John Gibson. Editor of the _Quarterly Review_; his
'Life of Scott,' the most important biography of the reign, 177.
'Logic' (Mill's), 140.
'Logic,' (Whately's), 159.
'Longer Prose Works,' 16.
'Lorna Doone,' 69.
'Lost and Saved,' 72.
'Lost Sir Massingberd,' 189.
'Love in a Valley,' 60.
'Love Letters of a Violinist,' 188.
'Love or Marriage,' 68.
'Love the Debt,' 178.
Lover, Samuel. Best known works, 'Rory O'More' and 'Handy Andy,'
34.
'Lover's Lexicon,' 189.
Lubbock, Sir John. 'Pre-historic Times'; 'Origin of
Civilization,' 99.
'Luria,' 12.
Lyall, Edna, 74.
Lyell, Sir Charles. Abandoned law for geology; his 'Principles
of Geology' a revolutionary work; the smaller 'Student's
Elements of Geology' injured in literary merit, 152;
converted to Darwin's views; 'The Antiquity of Man,' 153.
Lynch, Thomas Toke. His poems in the _Rivulet_ now in most
hymnologies, 166.
'Lyra Innocentium,' 159.
'Lyrical Ballads,' 7.
Lytton, Edward Bulwer. 'Pelham'; 'Zanoni'; 'Harold'; 'Rienzi';
'The Last of the Barons'; 'The Last Days of Pompeii'; 'The
Caxtons'; 'Money'; 'Richelieu'; 'The Lady of Lyons'; one of
the 'cleverest' men of his age, 56.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. His work guided by rhetorical
principles; earliest efforts in _Quarterly Magazine_ and
_Edinburgh Review_; Jeffrey on his 'Milton,' 91;
qualities of his 'Essays'; his career; 'History of England
from the Accession of James II.' very successful, 92;
now severely criticised, 93;
in spite of its deficiencies, a great work, 94-95.
Macaulay and Hawker, 38.
MacCarthy, Justin. 'History of Our Own Time, 1830-1897,' 95;
'History of the Four Georges,' 96.
MacDonald, George. 'Robert Falconer'; 'David Elginbrod'; 'Alec
Forbes of Howglen,' 63.
Mackay, Charles. Novelist, poet and critic; 'Forty Years'
Recollections of Life, Literature and Public Affairs,' 188.
Mackay, Eric. 'Love Letters of a Violinist,' 188.
'Macleod of Dare,' 69.
Macquoid, Mrs, 74.
_Macmillan's Magazine_, 181.
'Madcap Violet,' 69.
'Madeleine,' 72.
'Madoc,' 6.
Mahon, Lord, 95.
'Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell,' 72.
'Maid of Sker, The,' 69.
'Maid Marion,' 62.
'Makers of Florence,' 74.
'Making of England, The,' 98.
Malet, Lucas, 74.
_Manchester Examiner_ and Ruskin, 133.
Mangan, James Clarence, 34.
Manning, Anne. Author of 'Maiden and Married Life of Mary
Powell,' 72.
Manning, Cardinal. Books and sermons of theological interest
only; his 'Life,' 169.
Mansel, Henry Longueville. 'The Limits of Religious Thought';
'Metaphysics, or the Philosophy of Consciousness, Phenomenal
and Real'; a skilful fighter, 169.
'Manual of Political Economy' (Fawcett's), 142.
'Marie Bashkirtseff's Diary,' 190.
'Marcian Colonna,' 36.
'Marie de Méranie,' 38.
'Marius the Epicurean,' 171.
'Marmorne,' 171.
Marryat, Captain Frederick. 'Frank Mildmay'; 'Mr Midshipman
Easy'; 'Peter Simple'; editor of _Metropolitan Magazine_;
appreciated by Carlyle and Ruskin, 66-67.
Marsh, Mrs. Author of 'The Admiral's Daughter' and 'The
Deformed,' 71.
Marshall, Alfred. Author of 'Economics of Industry' and
'Principles of Economics,' 143.
Marston, John Westland. Author of 'Strathmore,' 'Marie de
Méranie,' and 'A Hard Struggle,' 38.
Marston, Philip Bourke. Published 'Song Tide and other Poems,'
'All in All,' and 'Wind Voices,' 39.
Martin, Sir Theodore. 'Life of the late Prince Consort,' 190;
'Book of Ballads'; 'Memoir of Aytoun'; 'Life of Lord
Lyndhurst'; translated the Odes of Horace; 'The Vita Nuova';
'Faust'; and Heine's 'Poems and Ballads'; 'Sketch of the Life
of Princess Alice,' 191.
Martineau, Harriet. 'History of the Peace,' 95;
Abridgment of Comte; influence upon her own generation; very
versatile writer; her 'Biographical Sketches' originally
published in _Daily News_, 180;
her historical work mere compilation; 'Deerbrook'; 'The Hour
and the Man'; 'Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and
Development,' 181.
Martineau, James. Early career, 166;
from Bentham to Kant; 'Endeavour after the Christian Life';
'Hours of Thought on Sacred Things'; 'Study of Spinoza';
'Types of Ethical Theory,' 167.
'Martyrs of Science,' 150.
'Mary Barton,' 71.
'Mary Tudor,' 33.
'Masks and Faces,' 58.
Massey, Gerald. Chartist poet. Wrote 'Poems and Charms' and
'Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love,' &c., 37.
Massey, William Nathaniel. 'History of England under George III.'
95
Masson, David. 'Life of Milton'; 'British Novelists and their
Styles'; 'Drummond of Hawthornden,' 177.
'Master of Ballantrae, The,' 60.
'Maud,' 10.
'Maude,' 22.
Maurice, John Frederick Denison. Editor of the _Athenæum_; joined
the Anglican Church, 163;
'Subscription no Bondage'; 'Kingdom of Christ' tracts; 'Politics
for the People'; organised the Christian socialist and
co-operative movement, 164.
Maxse, Admiral, 62.
May, Sir Thomas Erskine. Continued the work of Hallam and Stubbs,
79;
'Democracy in Europe'; 'Constitutional History,' 80.
Melbourne, Lord, and Macaulay, 91.
'Melincourt,' 62.
Melville, George John Whyte. The novelist of the hunting field;
'Katerfelto'; 'Black but Comely'; 'The Queen's Maries'; 'The
Gladiators,' 59.
'Memoirs of Barry Lyndon,' 45.
'Memoir of Principal Tulloch,' 74.
'Memorials of Canterbury,' 161.
'Men and Women,' 12.
'Mental and Moral Science,' 147.
'Mental Evolution in Animals,' 157.
Meredith, George. 'Love in a Valley,' 60;
The Browning of Novelists; 'The Shaving of Shagpat'; 'Farina';
'The Ordeal of Richard Feverel' considered his best novel;
'Evan Harrington'; 'Rhoda Fleming'; 'The Adventures of Harry
Richmond'; 'Beauchamp's Career'; 'The Egoist'; 'The Tragic
Comedians'; 'Diana of the Crossways'; Stevenson's admiration
for 'The Egoist,' 61;
'Sandra Belloni,' 62.
Meredith, George, and Rossetti, 24.
Merivale, Charles. 'History of the Romans under the Empire,' 102.
'Metaphysics, or the Philosophy of Consciousness, Phenomenal and
Real,' 169.
Methodism and Carlyle, 51.
'Methods of Ethics,' 143.
_Metropolitan Magazine, The_, 67.
'Middle Ages' (Hallam's), 77.
'Middlemarch,' 50.
Mill, James. 'History of India'; 'Analysis of the Human Mind,' 137.
Mill, John Stuart. Ruskin's scorn of; education, 137;
influence of Wordsworth; the India House; _Westminster Review_;
Carlyle's 'French Revolution,' 138;
'Political Economy'; 'Liberty'; 'Subjection of Women';
contemporary opinion of Mrs Mill, 139;
'Logic'; 'Essays on Unsettled Questions in Political Economy';
'Principles of Political Economy'; 'Liberty'; 'Sir William
Hamilton's Philosophy'; 'Dissertations and Discussions';
'Considerations on Representative Government'; a stimulator
of public opinion, 140;
his philosophical weaknesses, 141-42;
abandonment of early positions; 'Autobiography'; a socialist
at the last, 142.
Miller, Hugh, 151.
Journalist; _The Witness_; 'Old Red Sandstone'; 'Footprints
of the Creator'; 'The Testimony of the Rocks,' 152.
'Mill on the Floss, The,' 50.
Millais, Sir John, and the pre-Raphaelite movement, 23.
Milman, Henry Hart. 'Gibbon's Rome'; 'History of the Jews';
'History of Christianity under the Empire,' 102;
'Latin Christianity'; Dean Stanley's appreciation, 103.
'Milton, Masson's Life of,' 177.
'Ministering Children,' 73.
Minor Poets, The, of our era, 31.
'Mirandola,' 36.
'Mr Herbert Spencer and Mr G. H. Lewes; their application of the
Doctrine of Evolution to Thought,' 147.
'Mr Midshipman Easy,' 67.
'Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures,' 187.
'Mrs Halliburton's Troubles,' 70.
Mivart, St George, 151.
'Modern' Essays (Myers), 172.
'Modern Painters,' 130, 132.
Molesworth, Rev. William Nassau. 'History of England, 1830-1873';
'History of the Church of England,' 95.
'Molière,' by Mrs Oliphant, 74.
'Money,' 56.
'Monks of St Mark, The,' 62.
'Monograph on Charlotte Brontë,' 183.
_Monthly Magazine, The_, 42.
'Moonstone, The,' 69.
Moore, Thomas. The pioneer of the 'Celtic Renaissance'; 'Irish
Melodies,' 33;
'Lalla Rookh'; 'Life of Byron,' 34.
'More Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands,' 192.
'More Worlds than One,' 150.
Morison, James Cotter. Biographer of St Bernard of Clairvaux and
Macaulay; 'The Service of Man,' 180.
Morley, John. Antagonist of 'Supernatural Christianity'; a gifted
biographer and journalist; editor of _Morning Star_, _Literary
Gazette_, _Fortnightly Review_, _Pall Mall Gazette_, and
_Macmillan's Magazine_; editor of 'English Men of Letters
Series'; 'Life of Burke'; influence, 181;
lives of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot; 'Life of Cobden'; his
essay 'On Compromise' probably the most exhaustive treatment
of the question, 182.
Morley, John, and Macaulay, 93.
_Morning Chronicle, The_, 42.
_Morning Star_, 181.
Morris, Sir Lewis. Wrote 'Songs of Two Worlds'; 'Epic of Hades';
'A Vision of Saints,' &c., 26.
Morris, William. Connection with Rossetti, 23;
versatility of his genius; 'Dream of John Ball'; 'News from
Nowhere,' 24;
'Defence of Guenevere'; 'Life and Death of Jason'; 'The Earthly
Paradise,' 25.
Moulton, Mrs Chandler, 39.
Müller, Friedrich Max. Eminent Philologist; 'Lectures on the
Science of Language'; 'Chips from a German Workshop,' 99;
early religious systems, 100.
Mulock, Dinah. 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' her best and most
successful book, 72.
'Munera Pulveris,' 133.
Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey. Geologist; popularity of his
'Siluria,' 152.
Murray, Dr John, 155.
'My Beautiful Lady,' 23.
'My Cousin Nicholas,' 30.
Myers, Ernest, 173.
Myers, Frederick William Henry. 'Saint Paul'; his 'Classical'
and 'Modern' critical essays full of delightful ideas; biography
of Wordsworth, 172.
'Mythology of the Aryan Nations,' 100.
Nansen, Dr, 186.
'Napoleon, A Short History of,' 105.
'National and Historical Ballads, Songs and Poems,' 34.
_National Reformer, The_, and 'The City of Dreadful Night,' 32.
'Natural History,' 153.
'Natural Religion,' 105.
'Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, A,' 155.
'Nelson Memorial, The,' 6.
'Nemesis of Faith,' 84.
'Never too Late to Mend,' 58.
'New Arabian Nights, The,' 60.
'Newcomes, The,' 45.
'New Magdalen, The,' 69.
Newman, Francis William. 'The Soul,' 'Theism,' 'Phases of Faith,'
170, 171.
Newman, John Henry. Early religious tendencies; 'My Battle with
Liberalism,' 107;
Matthew Arnold's description of Newman, 107-108;
Tractarian movement; 'Lead Kindly Light'; 'Tracts for the Time';
Tract XC., 108-109;
joins Church of Rome; Father Achilli, 109;
'Apologia pro Vitâ Suâ,'; Kingsley's attack and defeat, 110-111;
Froude on Newman's character, 110;
'Dream of Gerontius'; 'Verses on Various Occasions,' 111;
'Callista'; 'A Sketch of the Third Century'; 'Essay in Aid of
the Grammar of Assent,' 111;
Swinburne's 'Apostrophe'; Newman's influence on England and her
Prime Ministers, 112.
'New Poems,' 22.
'News from Nowhere,' 24.
'Nicholas Nickleby,' 42.
'Nightmare Abbey,' 62.
'Night Side of Nature, The,' 72.
_Nonconformist, The_, and Spencer, 145.
'North and South,' 71.
Norton, Mrs. Author of 'Stuart of Dunleath' and 'Lost and Saved,'
72.
Novelists and journalism, 186-187.
Novelists of the Era:--
Alexander, Mrs, 74.
A.L.O.E., 73.
Ainsworth, W. H., 67.
Barrie, J. M., 63.
Besant, Sir W., 65.
Black, W., 68.
Blackmore, R. D., 69.
Braddon, Miss, 74.
Brontë, Anne, 48.
Brontë, Charlotte, 46.
Brontë, Emily, 47.
Broughton, Miss R., 74.
Carleton, W., 66.
Carroll, Lewis, 64.
Charles, Mrs, 73.
Charlesworth, Miss M. L., 73.
Clifford, Mrs W. K., 74.
Clive, Mrs Archer, 72.
Craik, Mrs, 72.
Crowe, Mrs, 71.
Collins, W. W., 69.
Corelli, Miss M., 74.
Dickens, C., 42.
Disraeli, B., 57.
Doyle, Conan, 63.
Eliot, George, 49.
Ewing, Mrs, 73.
Fullerton, Lady G., 72.
Gaskell, Mrs, 71.
Hardy, T., 68.
Hope, Anthony, 63.
James, G. P. R., 67.
Kavanagh, Miss J., 72.
Kingsley, C., 53.
Kingsley, H., 55.
Kingston, W. H. G., 67.
Le Fanu, J. S., 66.
Lever, C, 66.
Linton, Mrs Lynn, 74.
Lyall, Edna, 74.
Lytton, E. B., 56.
MacDonald, G., 63.
Macquoid, Mrs, 74.
Malet, L., 74.
Manning, Anne, 72.
Marryat, Captain F., 66.
Marsh, Mrs, 71.
Melville, G. J. W., 59.
Meredith, G., 60.
Mulock, Miss D., 72.
Norton, Mrs, 72.
Oliphant, Mrs, 74.
Ouida, 74.
Peacock, T. L., 62.
Pemberton, Max, 63.
'Q.', 63.
Reade, C., 57.
Rice, J., 65.
Schreiner, Miss O., 74.
Sergeant, Miss A., 74.
Shorthouse, J. H., 64.
Stevenson, R. L., 59.
Stretton, Mrs, 72.
Thackeray, W. M., 44.
Trollope, A., 58.
Tucker, Miss C. M., 73.
Ward, Mrs H., 74.
Warren, S., 70.
Weyman, S., 63.
Wood, Mrs H., 70.
Yonge, Miss C., 74.
Odes of Horace (Martin's translation), 191.
'Old Arm Chair, The,' 29.
'Old Curiosity Shop, The,' 42.
'Old English History,' 81.
'Old Red Sandstone,' 152.
'Old St Paul's,' 67.
'Old Stoic, The,' 47.
Oliphant, Mrs. Type of the age; wrote biography, criticism, and
every form of prose; 'Makers of Florence'; 'Life of Edward
Irving'; 'History of Eighteenth Century Literature'; 'Memoir
of Principal Tulloch'; 'Cervantes'; 'Molière'; 'Dress';
neither a good critic nor a very accurate student; her fame
will have to rest on her novels, 74;
'Salem Chapel'; 'Passages in the life of Margaret Maitland'
her first novel; 'The Lady's Walk' the last, 75.
'Oliver Twist,' 42.
'Omar Khayyám,' 35.
'On Compromise,' 182.
'Onesimus,' 165.
'On the Divinity of Jesus Christ,' 167.
'On the Proper Sphere of Government,' 145.
'On the Structure and Motion of Glaciers,' 151.
'Ordeal of Richard Feverel,' 61.
'Order and Progress,' 179.
'Origin of Civilization,' 99.
'Origin of Species,' 156.
'Orion,' 36.
O'Shaughnessy, Arthur. Wrote 'Epic of Women and other Poems,' 39.
Ouida, 74.
_Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, The_, 23.
Palgrave, Francis Turner. Editor of the 'Golden Treasury of Songs
and Lyrics,' 81.
Palgrave, Sir Francis. Wrote 'History of Normandy and England,'
81.
_Pall Mall Gazette_, 181, 188.
'Palmyra,' 62.
'Paper Money Lyrics and other Poems,' 62.
'Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician,' 70.
'Passages in the Life of Margaret Maitland,' 75.
'Past and Present,' 123.
Pater, Walter. A great Critic; 'Marius the Epicurean'; 'Imaginary
Portraits'; 'The most Rhythmical of English Prose Writers';
'Renaissance'; 'Appreciations,' 171.
Patmore, Coventry. 'Angel in the House' not always sincere, 31;
'Unknown Eros,' 32.
Pattison, Mark. 'The Tendencies of Religious Thought in England';
profound scholar; 'Life of Isaac Casaubon,' 163.
'Paul Ferrell,' 72.
'Pauline,' 13.
Payn, James. Editor _Cornhill Magazine_; 'Lost Sir Massingberd'
and 'By Proxy' the most popular of his novels, 189.
Peacock, Thomas Love. Influence of, on Meredith; 'The Monks of
St Mark'; 'Palmyra'; 'Headlong Hall'; 'Melincourt'; 'Nightmare
Abbey'; 'Maid Marion'; 'Crotchet Castle'; 'Paper Money Lyrics
and other Poems,' 62;
'Gryll Grange'; his relations with other famous men, 63.
'Peg Woffington,' 58.
'Pelham,' 56.
Pemberton, Max, 63.
'Pendennis,' 45.
'Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined, The,' 164.
'Peter Simple,' 67.
'Phantasmion,' 35.
'Phases of Faith,' 170, 171.
'Philip Van Artevelde,' 28.
'Philochristus,' 165.
'Philosophy of Kant,' 170.
'Physics and Politics,' 184.
'Physiography,' 158.
'Pickwick Papers,' influence of eighteenth century humorists
marked in, 41;
first appearance of, 42.
'Pioneers of Evolution,' 99.
'Poems and Charms,' 37.
'Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell,' 47.
'Poems' by George Meredith, 60, 62.
'Poems,' by Matthew Arnold, 20.
'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect,' 37.
Poets of the Era:--
Arnold, M., 17-21.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 26.
Austin, A., 39.
Bailey, P. J., 28.
Banim, J., 34.
Banim, M., 34.
Barham, R. H., 30.
Barnes, W., 37.
Beddoes, T. L., 36.
Browning, Mrs, 14-15.
Browning, Robert, 13-14.
Calverley, C. S., 30.
Clough, A. H., 21.
Coleridge, H., 35.
Coleridge, Sara, 35.
Cook, Eliza, 29.
Cooper, T., 37.
Davis, T., 34.
De Vere, T. A., 33.
Dobell, S., 31.
Dobson, A., 30.
Dufferin, Lady, 34.
Elliott, E., 37.
Ferguson, Sir S., 34.
FitzGerald, E., 34.
Hawker, R. S., 38.
Hood, T., 29.
Horne, R. H., 36.
Ingelow, Jean, 29.
Jones, E., 37.
Kipling, R., 40.
Landor, W. S., 15-16.
Lang, A., 30.
Lover, S., 34.
Mangan, J. C, 34.
Marston, J. W., 38.
Marston, P. B., 39.
Massey, G., 37.
Moore, T., 33.
Morris, Sir Lewis, 26.
Morris, William, 24.
O'Shaughnessy, A., 39.
Patmore, C., 31.
Procter, A. A., 36.
Procter, B. W., 35.
Rossetti, Christina, 22.
Rossetti, Dante G., 22.
Rossetti, Maria Francesca, 22.
Smith, A., 31.
Southey, R., 5.
Swinburne, A. C., 16.
Taylor, Sir Henry, 28.
Tennyson, A., 10.
Thomson, J., 32.
Tupper, M. F., 27.
Watson, W., 40.
Woolner, T., 23.
Wordsworth, 7.
'Political Destiny of Canada,' 185.
'Political Economy' (Fawcett's), 142.
'Political Economy' (Mill's), 139-141.
'Political Economy' (Sidgwick's), 143.
'Politics for the People,' 164.
_Portfolio, The_, 172.
Potter, Miss Beatrice, 144.
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, 36.
'Præterita,' 130.
'Pre-historic Times,' 99.
'Prelude, The,' 9.
'Pre-Raphaelitism,' 132.
'Pre-Raphaelite Movement, The,' 23.
'Pride and his Pursuers,' 73.
'Primer of English Literature,' 166.
'Primitive Culture,' 99.
'Prince Otto,' 60.
'Principles of Economics,' 143.
'Principles of Geology,' 152.
'Principles of Psychology,' 145.
'Problems of Life and Mind,' 149.
Procter, Adelaide Anne. Wrote 'Legends and Lyrics,' &c., 36.
Procter, Bryan Waller. Wrote 'Dramatic Scenes'; 'Marcian
Colonna'; 'Mirandola,' &c., 35-36.
'Professor, The,' 47.
'Prolegomena to Ethics,' 148.
'Proverbial Philosophy,' 27.
'Proverbs in Porcelain,' 30.
_Punch_, 187.
'Purgatory of Suicides, The,' 37.
Pusey, Edward Bouverie. Founder of the modern high church
movement; a writer of 'Tracts for the Times'; 'Letter to
Keble'; 'Eirenicon,' 158.
'Put Yourself in His Place,' 58.
'Q,' 63.
_Quarterly Magazine, The_, 91.
_Quarterly Review, The_, 28, 93, 154, 177.
'Queen's Maries, The,' 59.
'Queen Mary,' 10.
'Raleigh,' 27.
'Ranthorpe,' 149.
_Rattlesnake_ Survey, The, 157.
'Ravenshoe,' 55.
Reade, Charles, 57-58.
'Peg Woffington'; 'The Cloister and the Hearth'; 'Griffith
Gaunt'; 'Hard Cash'; 'Foul Play'; 'Put Yourself in His Place';
'Never Too Late to Mend'; 'Masks and Faces'; 'Drink,' 58.
'Ready Money Mortiboy,' 65.
'Realmah,' 191.
Reid, Sir Wemyss. 'Monograph on Charlotte Brontë,' and life of
Lord Houghton, 183.
'Reign of Henry VIII.', 89.
'Reign of William Rufus and Accession of Henry I.,' 81.
'Rejected Addresses,' 8.
'Relations between England and America, The,' 185.
'Remembrances of Mrs Overtheway,' 73.
'Renaissance in Italy,' 103.
'Renaissance. Studies in Art and Poetry' (later), 171.
'Return of the Native, The,' 68.
'Rhetoric' (Whately's), 159.
'Rhoda Fleming,' 61.
Rice, James. Collaborated with Walter Besant in 'Ready Money
Mortiboy' and 'The Golden Butterfly,' &c., 65.
'Richelieu,' 56.
'Rienzi,' 56.
'Ring and The Book, The,' 12.
'Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism,' 96.
'Ritualism, Essay on,' 106.
'Rivulet, The,' 166.
'Robert Falconer,' 63.
Robertson, Frederick William, 165;
'Life,' 166.
Robinson, Henry Crabb. 'Diary,' edited by Dr Sadler, 183.
'Rocks Ahead,' 170.
Rogers, Thorold. 'History of Agriculture and Prices,' 144.
Rogers, Samuel. His 'Table Talk' full of good stories, 183.
'Rogers and his Contemporaries,' 184.
'Rogers, Early Life of,' 184.
'Roman Empire, The Holy,' 104.
'Rome, History of' (Dr Arnold's), 160.
Romanes, George John. 'Animal Intelligence,' 'Mental Evolution in
Animals,' 157.
'Romany Rye, The,' 185.
'Romola,' 50.
'Rookwood,' 67.
'Rory O'More,' 34.
Rossetti, Christina Georgina. 'Goblin Market,' 'Called to be
Saints,' 'The Face of the Deep,' 'Maude,' 'New Poems,' 22.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 22;
the pre-Raphaelite movement; the _Germ_; 'The Blessed Damozel';
'Hand and Soul'; connection with Ruskin, Morris, Swinburne,
and _Oxford and Cambridge Magazine_; 'The Early Italian
Poets,' 23;
'The White Ship'; 'The King's Tragedy'; 'Sister Helen'; 'The
House of Life,' 24.
Rossetti, Maria Francesca. 'Shadow of Dante,' 22.
'Recreations of Christopher North,' 187.
'Rubáyát of Omar Khayyám of Naishápur,' 35.
Ruskin, John, 129.
'Præterita'; early influences; Oxford; 'Salsette and Elephanta';
'Modern Painters'; Mazzini's opinion of, 130;
'Seven Lamps of Architecture,' 130-131;
the 'Stones of Venice'; 'Pre-Raphaelitism'; Slade lectures; as
economist; 'Unto this Last,' 132;
the _Cornhill Magazine_ readers; his socialism; 'Munera
Pulveris'; 'Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne'; _Manchester
Examiner_; 'Fors Clavigera,' 133;
the tea-shop in the Marylebone Road; St George's Guild; Ruskin
museum, 134;
his influence; 'Crown of Wild Olive'; 'Time and Tide,' 'Sesame
and Lilies,' 135-6;
his self criticism, 136;
scorn of John Stuart Mill, 137.
'Ruth,' 71.
Ryle, John Charles. Famous literary exponent of the Evangelical
position; 'Shall we know one another in Heaven'; 'Bible
Inspiration,' 168.
Saintsbury, George. Profound knowledge of French and English
literature, 174;
in brief biographies of Sir Walter Scott and others most
excellent, 175.
'Saint Paul,' 172.
'Saint's Tragedy, The,' 53.
'St Ives,' 60.
St Luke. Schleiermacher's Essay on, 101.
'St Thomas of Canterbury,' 33.
Sala, George Augustus. 'The Land of the Golden Fleece'; 'America
Revisited'; 'Living London,' 188.
'Salem Chapel,' 75.
'Salsette and Elephanta,' 130.
Sanderson, Burdon, 151.
'Sandra Belloni,' 62.
'Sands of Dee, The,' 54.
'Sartor Resartus,' 121.
_Saturday Review, The_, and Freeman, 83.
'Savonarola,' 40.
'Saxons in England,' 80.
Sayce, Archibald Henry, 100.
'Scenes of Clerical Life,' 49.
Schloss, D. F., 144.
'Schönberg-Cotta Family, The,' 73.
Schreiner, Miss Olive, 74.
'Science, Lectures on, for Unscientific People,' 150-151.
Scott, Sir Walter. Death of, 5;
on 'Madoc,' 6;
Lockhart's 'Life of,' 177.
Scott, William Bell. Best known by his 'Autobiography,' 173.
'Seaside Studies,' 149.
Seeley, Sir John Robert. 'Life and Times of Stein'; German and
English criticisms; 'History and Politics,' 104;
'Expansion of England'; 'A Short History of Napoleon'; 'Ecce
Homo'; censure and praise; Mr Gladstone; 'Natural Religion,'
105.
'Select Charters,' 79.
'Selections from Wordsworth,' 8, 9.
'Senses and the Intellect, The,' 147.
Sergeant, Miss Adeline, 74.
'Service of Man, The,' 180.
'Sesame and Lilies,' 135-136.
'Seven Lamps of Architecture,' 130-131.
'Shadow of Dante,' 22.
'Shakspere, his Mind and Art,' 173.
'Shall we know one another in Heaven,' 168.
'Shaving of Shagpat, The,' 61.
Shelley. Death of, 5;
on Southey's 'Thalaba,' 6;
acquaintance with Peacock, 62;
Dowden's 'Life of,' 174.
Sherlock Holmes, 63.
'Shirley,' 47.
'Short History of Napoleon, A,' 105.
'Short History of the English People,' 97.
Shorthouse, Joseph Henry. 'John Inglesant'; 'Sir Perceval';
'Little Schoolmaster Mark,' 64.
'Short Studies on Great Subjects,' 88.
Sidgwick, Henry. 'Principles of Political Economy'; 'Methods of
Ethics'; a compromise; 'Elements of Politics,' 143.
'Silas Marner,' 50.
'Siluria,' 152.
'Sinai and Palestine,' 161.
'Sir Perceval,' 64.
'Sister Helen,' 24.
'Sketches by Boz,' 42.
'Sketch of the Life of Princess Alice,' 191.
Smith, Alexander, 31.
Smith, Goldwin. 'The Relations between England and America'; 'The
Political Destiny of Canada,' 185.
Smith, H. Llewellyn, 144.
Smith, Sydney. 'The Ballot'; 'The Church Bills'; 'The Wit and
Wisdom of Sydney Smith,' 187.
'Social Statics,' 145.
'Soldiers Three,' 40.
'Some Aspects of Robert Burns,' 60.
'Song of the Shirt,' 29.
'Song of the Sword,' 172.
'Song of the Western Men,' 38.
'Songs of Two Worlds,' 26.
'Song Tide and other Poems,' 39.
'Sonnets from the Portuguese,' 14.
'Sonnets on the War,' 31.
'Soul, The,' 170.
Southey, 5-7, 15.
'Spanish Gypsy,' 50.
Spedding, James. 'Letters and Life of Francis Bacon,' 184.
'Speeches and Addresses of the late Prince Consort,' 192.
Spencer, Herbert. The most characteristic philosopher of the
century; 'On the Proper Sphere of Government'; _Nonconformist_;
_Westminster Review_; 'Social Statics'; 'Principles of
Psychology'; 'Education'; 'First Principles,' 145;
'Descriptive Sociology'; universality of his knowledge; his
'Study of Sociology' and 'Education' books which all who read
must enjoy, 146.
'Spencer, Mr Herbert, and Mr G. H. Lewes: their Application of
the Doctrine of Evolution to Thought,' 147.
'Spirit's Trials, The,' 84.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. Most distinguished Nonconformist minister
of the period; 'John Ploughman's Talk,' 168.
_Standard, The_. Austin's connection with, 40.
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn. 'Life of Dr Arnold'; 'Memorials of
Canterbury'; 'Sinai and Palestine,' 161;
'Lectures on the Eastern Church'; 'Lectures on the Jewish
Church'; leader of the Broad Church movement; proposed
the suppression of the Athanasian creed in church services;
his 'Life,' written by Dean Bradley, 162.
Stanley, H. M., 186.
Stanhope, Earl (Lord Mahon). 'History of the Reign of Queen
Anne,' and 'History of England from 1713-1783,' 95.
'State in its Relations with the Church, The,' 106.
'Statesmen of the Commonwealth,' 179.
'Stein, Life and Times of,' 104.
Stephen, Leslie. A critic of remarkable learning; 'Hours in a
Library'; 'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth
Century,' 175;
first editor of the _Dictionary of National Biography_, 176.
Stephen, Leslie, and Macaulay, 93.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. One of the most picturesque figures
in literature; 'With a Donkey in the Cevennes,' 59;
his plays; 'Beau Austin,' probably the greatest contribution
to the drama of the era; 'Virginibus Puerisque'; 'Some
Aspects of Robert Burns'; 'A Child's Garden of Verse';
'Underwoods'; his place as a novelist; 'Treasure Island';
'The New Arabian Nights'; 'The Master of Ballantrae'; 'Prince
Otto'; 'St Ives'; 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,' 60;
his admiration of 'The Egoist,' 61;
his influence on the modern historical romance, 63.
Stewart, Balfour, 151.
'Stones of Venice,' 132.
'Story of My Heart, The,' 188.
'Stuart of Dunleath,' 72.
Stubbs, William. Librarian at Lambeth Palace; edited mediæval
chronicles, 78;
Regius Professor of History at Oxford; 'Select Charters';
'Constitutional History'; profoundly scientific, but not
dry-as-dust, 79.
'Student's Elements of Geology,' 152.
'Studies in Art and Poetry,' 171.
'Studies in Homer,' 106.
'Studies in Literature,' 173.
'Studies in Sensation and Event,' 37.
'Study of Sociology,' 146.
'Study of Spinoza, 167.
'Strathmore,' 38.
Strauss, 49.
'Strayed Reveller, The,' 20.
Stretton, Mrs. Author of 'The Valley of a Hundred Fires,' 72.
'Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs,' 155.
'Subjection of Women,' 139.
'Subscription no Bondage,' 164.
'Supernatural Religion,' 171.
'Supper at the Mill,' 29.
'Susan Hopley,' 71.
'Swallow Flights,' 39.
Swift, modern biographies of, 178.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Only comparable to Landor, 16;
'Ave atque Vale' an imperishable elegy; a great poet and a
great prose writer, 17;
connection with Rossetti, 24;
admiration for Matthew Arnold, 17,
and Emily Brontë, 48.
'Sybil,' 57.
'Sylvia's Lovers,' 71.
Symonds, John Addington. 'Renaissance in Italy,' 103;
Cellini's 'Autobiography,' 104.
'Table Talk' (Rogers's), 183.
'Table Talk' (Southey's), 6.
'Tales of Ireland,' 66.
'Tancred' 57.
'Tangled Tale, A,' 64.
'Task, The,' 6.
Taylor, Sir Henry. Author of 'Philip Van Artevelde,' &c., 28.
Temple, Frederick. 'The Education of the World'; Bishop of
London, Archbishop of Canterbury, 162.
'Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The,' 48.
'Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, The,' 163.
Tennyson, Alfred. Purity of his style; music; no great
characterisation in 'Harold' or 'Queen Mary'; insight of
'Maud'; 'In Memoriam' and 'The Idylls of the King' won him
wider audiences, 10;
his transcendentalism; friendship with Browning; social traits,
11;
popularity, 12.
'Ten Thousand a Year,' 70.
'Tess of the D'Urbervilles,' 68.
'Testimony of the Rocks, The,' 152.
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 44-46;
admiration for 'David Copperfield'; his literary position, 44;
_Fraser's Magazine_; 'History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great
Hoggarty Diamond'; 'Yellow Plush Papers'; 'Memoirs of Barry
Lyndon'; 'Vanity Fair'; 'Pendennis'; 'Esmond'; 'The
Newcomes'; 'The Virginians'; contested Oxford; _Cornhill
Magazine_, 45;
his death; his five great novels the basis of his future fame,
46;
Trollope's biography of, 58;
burlesqued G. P. R. James, 67.
'Thalaba,' 6.
'Theism,' 170.
Theocritus (Lang's), 176.
'Theology in the English Poets,' 166.
Thirlwall, Connop (Bishop). 'History of Greece'; Grote's
appreciation of; Schleiermacher's 'Essay on St Luke,' 101.
'Thomas à Becket,' 86.
Thomson, James. Author of 'The City of Dreadful Night,' 32.
'Three Fishers, The,' 54.
'Through Nature to Christ,' 165.
'Through the Looking-Glass,' 64.
'Thucydides,' 160.
'Thyrsis,' 21.
'Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne,' 133, 135.
'Tom Brown's School Days,' 161.
'Tower of London, The,' 67.
'Town Life in the Fifteenth Century,' 98.
Toynbee, Arnold. 'The Industrial Revolution,' 144.
'Tract XC.,' 108.
'Tracts for the Time,' 108.
'Trade Unionism, History of,' 145.
'Tragic Comedians, The,' 61.
'Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry,' 66.
'Treasure Island,' 60.
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto. His 'Life of Lord Macaulay' a
delightful biography; 'Early History of Charles James Fox,'
182.
Trollope, Anthony. 'Barchester Towers'; 'Framley Parsonage';
'Dr Thorne'; 'Life of Cicero'; his biography of Thackeray
the best that has yet appeared, 58.
Tucker, Miss C. M. (A.L.O.E.), 73. (_Vide supra._)
Tupper, Martin Farquhar. 'Proverbial Philosophy'; 'Ballads for
the Times,' 'Raleigh,' 'Cithara,' 27.
Turner, Sharon, 80.
'Two Years Ago,' 54.
Tylor, Edward Burnett. 'Primitive Culture'; 'Anthropology,' 99.
Tyndall, John. 'Faraday as a Discoverer,' 150;
'Lectures on Science for Unscientific People'; Huxley's eulogy
of; 'On the Structure and Motion of Glaciers,' 151.
'Types of Ethical Theory,' 167.
'Uncle Silas,' 66.
'Underwoods,' 60.
'Unknown Eros,' 32.
'Unto this Last,' 132-3, 136.
'Valley of a Hundred Fires, The,' 72.
'Vanity Fair,' 45.
'Vatican Decrees, The,' 106.
'Venetia,' 57.
'Verses and Translations,' 30.
'Verses on Various Occasions,' 111.
Victoria, Queen. 'Leaves from a Journal'; 'The Early Days of the
Prince Consort'; 'More Leaves from the Journal,' 192.
'Views and Reviews,' 172.
'Vignettes in Rhyme,' 30.
'Villette,' 47.
'Virginians, The,' 45.
'Virginibus Puerisque,' 60.
'Vision of Saints, A,' 26.
'Vita Nuova' (Martin's), 191.
'Vivian Grey,' 57.
'Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love,' 37.
'Waldenses, The,' 33.
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 156.
Ward, Mrs Humphry, 74;
Translated Amiel's 'Journal,' 189.
Warren, Samuel. 'Passages from a Diary of a Late Physician,' 'Ten
Thousand a Year,' 70.
Watson, William. Author of 'Wordsworth's Grave,' 'Lachrymæ
Musarum,' &c., 40.
'Wearing of the Green, The,' 178.
Webb, Mr and Mrs Sidney. 'The History of Trade Unionism,' 145.
'Wee Willie Winkie,' 40.
_Westminster Review_, 49, 138, 145.
'Westward Ho,' 54.
Weyman, Stanley, 63.
Whately, Richard. His 'Logic' and 'Rhetoric,' pre-Victorian;
Archbishop of Dublin, 159;
'Christian Evidences,' 160.
'White Ship, The,' 24.
Wilberforce, Bishop, and Darwin, 154.
'Wilhelm Meister,' 113.
Wilson, John. Editor of _Blackwood's Magazine_; 'Recreations
of Christopher North,' 187.
'Window in Thrums, A,' 63.
'Wind Voices,' 39.
'Wit and Wisdom of Sidney Smith, The,' 187.
'With a Donkey in the Cevennes,' 59.
_Witness, The_, 152.
'Woman in White, The,' 69.
'Woman in France in the 18th Century,' 72.
Women novelists, 49.
'Woodlanders, The,' 68.
'Wood Magic,' 188.
Wood, Mrs Henry. 'The Channings' and 'Mrs Haliburton's Troubles'
her best novels; 'East Lynne' the most popular, 70.
Woolner, Thomas, 23.
Wordsworth, William. 'Lyrical Ballads'; 'Laodamia'; Keble's eulogy
on; laureate, 7;
Arnold's estimate of, 8;
Wordsworth Society; a vital force in the last decade; Arnold's
'Selections'; 'The Excursion,' 'The Prelude,' 'Ecclesiastical
Sonnets,' 'The Borderers,' 9;
on the Brownings' marriage, 13.
'Wordsworth's Grave,' 40.
Wordsworth, Knight's biography of, 178.
Wordsworth Society, The, 8, 9.
'Wuthering Heights,' 47, 48.
Yates, Edmund. Founded _The World_; his 'Autobiography' one of
the best books of the kind ever issued, 188.
'Yeast,' 54.
'Yellow Plush Papers, The,' 45.
Yonge, Miss Charlotte, 74.
'Young Duke, The,' 57.
'Zanoni,' 56.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
London: 10 Henrietta Street
Covent Garden, W.C.
A Selected List
of
Books
published by
Mr James Bowden
Telegraphic Address:
"Reperuse, London"
_Mr JAMES BOWDEN'S Announcements._
NEW NOVEL BY JOSEPH HOCKING.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d._
The Birthright
By Joseph Hocking, Author of "All Men are Liars," "Andrew Fairfax," &c.
With Illustrations by Harold Piffard.
_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._
"This volume proves beyond all doubt that Mr Hocking has mastered the
art of the historical romancist. 'The Birthright' is, in its way, quite
as well constructed, as well written, and as full of incident as any
story that has come from the pen of Mr Conan Doyle or Mr Stanley
Weyman."--_The Spectator._
"We read Mr Hocking's book at a sitting; not because we had any leisure
for the task, but simply because the book compelled us.... We hold our
breath as each chapter draws to an end, yet cannot stop there, for the
race is unflagging.... We congratulate Mr Hocking upon his book, for it
is a great advance upon anything he has done. We prophesy a big public
for 'The Birthright.'"--_The Daily Chronicle._
"'The Birthright' will be appreciated on account of its successions of
exciting scenes, its crisp dialogue, its play of varied character, and a
certain eerie air of superstition with which it is pervaded....--_The
Daily Mail._
"A thoroughly enjoyable romance.... Mr Hocking has woven a story which
few will lay down unfinished. The interest never flags for a moment, and
the faithfulness with which the scenery of the land of Tre, Pol and Pen
is described, and the quaint dialect and traditions of its older
inhabitants are reproduced, is beyond praise."--_Weekly Times._
"We feel certain that, were we still condemned to go to bed at nine, we
should sleep with the book under our pillow, and wake with the birds to
see what happened.... A capital story of its class."--_The Star._
THE LAUREL LIBRARY--VOLUME I.
SECOND EDITION NOW READY.
_Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, gilt top, 2s._
Litanies of Life
By Kathleen Watson
Mr T. P. O'CONNOR, M.P., in _The Weekly Sun_ ("A Book of the Week")
"Fancy a woman ... so gifted, sitting down with the resolve to crush
into a few words the infinite tale of all the whole race of her sex can
suffer, and you have an idea of what this remarkable book is like.... As
wonderful an epitome of a world of sorrow as I have ever read."
"A work of great charm, over which one likes to linger, and dream, and
think.... The words flow with that tuneful felicity which belongs more
to poetry than to prose."--_Liverpool Post._
"The five short, poignant stories which make up this excellent little
book, are remarkable for distinction of style, and interesting by reason
of the writer's observation of life and character, and the originality
of her reflections.... Miss Watson can tell a story in a way to cut the
reader to the heart.... The reader of sensibility will find a chastened
pleasure in every one of them."--_The Morning._
"So real is this first sketch, so human, so sensitively delicate, so
successful in its curious mingling of boldness and tenderness, that the
reader necessarily imagines it to be autobiographical, believing that
only out of actual sorrow could be distilled so true a record of passion
and of regret."--_The Daily Mail._
"Written in most admirable prose, this collection of five beautiful,
though sad stories, will appeal to all lovers of good literature.... It
adds to its worth as a clever book the additional charm of being a good
one."--_Lloyd's Newspaper._
THE LAUREL LIBRARY--VOLUME II.
_Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, gilt top, 2s._
The Widow Woman
A CORNISH TALE.
By Charles Lee.
_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._
"Such a delightfully natural love story is this that even staid old
people who have not read one for a score of years will admit that it is
quite unromantic enough to be sensible.... We close the book with a
feeling of gratitude to the author who has supplied us with such a
delightful study."--_Manchester Courier._
"A delightful little work.... Mr Lee knows these fisher folk by heart,
and has the ability to draw them to the life in a few bright strokes of
drollery.... The character sketching is admirable, the scenes and
situations are most vividly brought out, and the pervading humour is of
a genuine stamp."--_Sheffield Independent._
"An entertaining story.... A clever, humorous and thoroughly enjoyable
book."--_Scotsman._
"A fascinating book.... From beginning to end it is delightfully fresh
and vigorous; the vignettes of Cornish life and character are quaint and
humorous; and the snatches of unsophisticated philosophy, not without a
dash of subtlety, are as amusing as they are original.... Nothing so
deliciously witty as John Trehill's courtship has been written of late,
and another story from the author's pen will be awaited with the keenest
pleasure and interest."--_Dundee Advertiser._
"The story, simple and homely in its nature, is told with a humour and
abandon that makes the book most delightful reading."--_Glasgow Daily
Mail._
"The book is one to read, having the blessed quality of making you
chuckle: the best of qualities in literature, one is inclined to say, in
these tired days."--_Black and White._
STORIES OF LOWER LONDON.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d._
East End Idylls
By A. St John Adcock.
"This is a remarkable book. It is a collection of short stories on East
End life, but they are told with that real realism of observation of
which Mr Morrison has set the fashion. The setting is real, the slang is
real, the manners and customs seem to have been drawn from life."--_The
Daily News._
"It does not need any actual experience of East End life to tell the
reader of these 'East End Idylls' that they are the work of a
master-hand.... The little idylls are all exquisitely done--exquisitely,
we say, because there is no other word which will do full justice to the
performance."--_The Sun._
"Very vivid sketches of the East End as it is to-day. In the intimacy
they display with life in the slums, and in the terseness and force of
their style, they boldly challenge comparison with 'Tales of Mean
Streets,' nor do they lose by the comparison. Mr Adcock's themes are
less gloomy and hopeless than Mr Morrison's. Amid all the misery he
loves to recount deeds of unselfish devotion and simple heroism; nor do
I believe that he is less true to life because his realism is less
grim."--_The Pall Mall Gazette._
"Distinctly a book worth reading. There is heroism here, and
knowledge--true insight, in fact--and sympathy."--_The Leeds Mercury._
"A series of touching and delightful sketches. Much has been written of
the East End, but rarely with more charm or sympathy than by Mr
Adcock."--_The Star._
"Mr Adcock possesses a graphic pen, and has sketched the loves and
hates, the joys and the sorrows of the dwellers in London's mighty East
in a series of short, vigorous stories that make up a very delightful
volume."--_Lloyd's Newspaper._
A BOOK OF YACHTING STORIES FOR HOLIDAY READING.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 3s. 6d._
The Paper Boat
By "Palinurus."
_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._
"Lively tales of yachting adventure.... 'The Paper Boat' will be a
pleasant companion on any cruise, and we wish her a prosperous voyage on
her own account as well."--_Glasgow Herald._
"Bright and amusing.... There is some charming description in the book,
which is in every respect eminently readable, making no heavy demands on
the reader, and keeping him in good humour."--_The Sportsman._
"Brightly written stories of the sea.... The stories have a brightness
and freshness which cannot fail to give pleasure."--_Manchester
Courier._
"We unreservedly recommend this book to any one on holiday as a sure
tonic against business worries and city soot. It has the same effect as
a whip of salt spray on the face of a jaded worker."--_N. B. Daily
Mail._
"The author writes with strength and picturesqueness on a subject of
which he is evidently a master, and one cannot read his stories without
a thrill of the excitement that is one of the greatest charms of
yachting."--_Dundee Advertiser._
"A charming volume in all respects.... A more delightful story, or
better told, than 'The Voyage of the Florette' there could not be. We
envy those who have not read it. The book is full of life and
go."--_Sheffield Telegraph._
"As bright and breezy as can be wished.... One of the best volumes of
light short stories offered to the public for a long time
past."--_Lloyd's Newspaper._
NEW WORK BY THE REV. FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d._
The Dreams of Dania
By Frederick Langbridge, Author of "Sent back by the Angels," &c.
With Four Full-Page Illustrations by J. B. Yeats.
"Mr Langbridge's novel is one which will be read with unmixed pleasure.
It is sprightly and often amusing, reproducing the talk of Irish
peasants and Irish editors. It is also pathetic as it gives us with much
sympathy and good taste a picture of an Irish rector in sickness and
sorrow.... Narrated by Mr Langbridge in a manner that holds the interest
of the reader from beginning to end. Bridget is one of the raciest
characters in recent fiction, and a novel at once so healthy and so
pleasant should be heartily welcomed."--_British Weekly._
_Crown 8vo, Art Linen, 3s. 6d._
Orgeas and Miradou
With other Pieces
By Frederick Wedmore
Author of "Renunciations," "English Episodes," &c.
"The beautiful story of 'Orgeas and Miradou,' is specially typical of Mr
Wedmore's power of expressing and translating the poignancy of human
emotion.... It is charged with depths of feeling, and vivid in its
extreme reticence and discrimination of touch. In it there is nothing
short of divination."--_The Athenæum._
SECOND EDITION NOW READY.
_Fcap. 4to, art canvas, gilt, 3s. 6d._
The House of Dreams
_An Allegory_
By an Anonymous Author.
"'The House of Dreams' belongs to the same class as Mrs Oliphant's 'A
Pilgrim in the Unseen,' and may rival the great popularity of that
striking fancy.... A book of signal literary beauty, of profound
tenderness, and deeply reverent throughout; the work of a man who finds
in earth and heaven alike the sign and token of the Cross."--_The
British Weekly._
"A very beautiful allegory.... The author's deep reverence and exalted
phantasy never ring false, and his work cannot fail to inspire the
reader with reverence for ideals undreamed of in worldly
philosophy."--_The Pall Mall Gazette._
"An allegory worthy to rank among the greatest achievements of that form
of literature.... The great gospel of love and hope shines out from these
splendid pages.... 'The House of Dreams' is a book which religious teachers
will find it abundantly worth their while to study."--_Christian World._
"It is in truth a prose poem, one of the most beautiful and delightful
we have ever read.... Nothing could be better than that the leaders of
all Churches should breathe the pure and tender atmosphere of 'The House
of Dreams,' and carry it with them into the world of daily
reality."--_Methodist Times._
"A vision of extraordinary force and significance.... It seems to us
that no thoughtful reader will be likely to rise from a perusal of this
book without feeling himself heartened, so inspiring are certain of its
passages.... It is full of high suggestion, of pathos, and of
poetry."--_The Literary World._
THE FIFTIETH THOUSAND NOW READY.
_Long 8vo, sewed, 1s.; cloth extra, gilt, gilt top, 2s._
The Child, the Wise Man, and the Devil
By Coulson Kernahan
Author of "God and the Ant."
_SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._
_The Bookman_ says--
"It is the author's special gift to stimulate the minds of Christian
teachers.... In this little work he has given us work which deserves to
live.... No one can read these pages without emotion."
_The Daily Mail_ says--
"The writer's views are expressed with bold and manly sincerity, and in
a spirit of true reverence. His little book must make a very deep and
abiding impression upon the hearts and minds of all who read it to the
end."
_The Echo_ says--
"There will be few readers of this work who will not allow with
enthusiasm the moral earnestness, the poetic imagination, and the
literary charm of Mr Kernahan's stern muse."
_The British Weekly_ says--
"By far the best piece of work that Mr Kernahan has done.... The spirit
of the age, with its yearnings, its sorrows, its vague aspiration, finds
expression in these pages."
_The Queen_ says--
"A work of genius. No one who has read it will ever be likely to forget
it."
_The Saturday Review_ says--
"There is a touch of genius, perhaps even more than a touch, about this
brilliant and original booklet."
_The Illustrated London News_ says--
"All must recognise the boundless charity, the literary power, and the
intense sincerity of one of the most interesting works of the year."
"We put first of the books for girls 'When Hearts are Young' by Deas
Cromarty."--_The Christian World_ on "The Season's Gift Books."
_Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 2s. 6d._
When Hearts are Young
By Deas Cromarty
With Eight Illustrations by Will Morgan.
_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._
_The Manchester Guardian_ says--
"It is delightful to read. One has come across few recent books that
leave a pleasanter impression on the reader's memory."_
_The Star_ says--
"There is true insight into the peasant character of the lower fringe of
the Highlands.... The girl Maggie is true to the life.... _One is
grateful for the wholesomeness of this gentle story._"
_Lloyd's News_ says--
_"This is one of the pleasantest volumes we have picked up for a long
time.... It is a tender, beautiful love story, very fresh and wholesome,
with a wealth of fine descriptive writing."_
_The Methodist Times_ says--
"Deas Cromarty ... comes in a good second to these great writers (Barrie
and Maclaren). _There is the freshness of the mountain breezes about the
book which gives zest to the reading of it._"
_The Manchester Courier_ says--
_"Those who pick up the book will find difficulty in laying it down
before the last page is reached."_
_The Methodist Recorder_ says--
"One of the most charming stories of the season.... _This is as truly an
'Idyll' as anything Tennyson ever wrote._"
NEW BOOK BY CUTCLIFFE HYNE.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 6s._
The 'Paradise' Coal Boat
By Cutcliffe Hyne, Author of "The Recipe for Diamonds," &c.
"In Mr Cutcliffe Hyne our great Anglo-Indian romancer (Rudyard Kipling)
seems to have found a worthy comrade.... Grim and powerful tales....
Alike from a literary and political point of view Mr Cutcliffe Hyne has,
in his latest volume, deserved well of the commonwealth."--_The Star._
"Mr Hyne knows the sea, and the seamy side of sea life. He also knows
the West Coast of Africa, and whether we are voyaging with him in a
tramp steamer between London and Shields, or off the Lagos Coast, we
feel that we are somehow in the proper atmosphere. Constructively his
stories are always excellent."--_The Scotsman._
A NEW VOLUME OF SERMONS.
_Just Published, crown 8vo, buckram, 3s. 6d._
The Sorrow of God
And Other Sermons
By Rev. John Oates.
"For the contents of 'The Sorrow of God' we have nothing but praise, and
we could wish for nothing more than that the book might be widely
circulated. Spiritual insight, large culture, with its consequent
breadth of sympathy and eloquent expression, are the distinguishing
features of what is, without exaggeration, a collection of notable
sermons.... Those of our readers who value a fresh utterance on the
great problems of religion will lose no time in getting acquainted with
a book we have been able to notice all too briefly."--_The Sunday School
Chronicle._
"There are many noble utterances in these sermons.... It is because the
author helps us to feel purer and better that we so heartily commend his
book."--_The New Age._
FOURTH EDITION. _Long 8vo, cloth, 1s._
Manners for Men
By Madge of "Truth"
(Mrs Humphry.)
"Always in most excellent taste as well as astonishingly complete.
Certainly the world would be a very much pleasanter place to live in if
all men did read and practise her admirable precepts."--_Saturday
Review._
"It is a charmingly-written code of true manners."--_Leeds Mercury._
"Very welcome will be this little book, written sensibly and
brightly."--_Daily Telegraph._
"Mrs Humphry's book will be worth more than its weight in gold....
Excellent, robust common sense, tempered by genuine goodness of heart,
is a characteristic of everything she writes."--_The Queen._
"A very dainty and instructive epitome of all that we ought to be.... To
a shy young man this tactful volume should be invaluable."--_To-Day._
NEW BOOK BY MRS HUMPHRY.
_Long 8vo, cloth, round corners, 1s._
Manners for Women
By the Author of, and a Companion to, the above.
This new work is intended to mirror the social and home life of a girl
and woman of the present day. The subjects treated will include: The
Girl in Society--Cards and Calls--Engagement--Marriage--Weddings--
Entertaining--Restaurants--Clubs--Correspondence--Dress--Mothers
and Daughters--Mourning--Home Life, &c.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d._
The White Slaves of England
Being true Pictures of Certain Social Conditions of England in the year
1897.
By Robert H. Sherard.
With about 40 Illustrations by Harold Piffard.
Dr ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE says:--"You have done a service to the cause of
humanity in publishing it, and the author in writing it. That such
things as Mr Sherard describes should exist at the very end of the
century, when all our public writers are boasting of our wealth, our
progress, and our civilisation, is a sufficient proof that our so-called
civilisation is rotten to the core, worse in many respects than it has
ever been before."
Mr HALL CAINE says:--"The appalling revelations of Robert Sherard in his
recent book are enough to make a man's heart bleed for the awful
sufferings of women in the bitter struggle for bread. On the fate of our
women, especially our working women, the future of our country, I truly
believe, depends; and it is amazing that Parliament and the Press, and,
above all, the Church, have hitherto given so little attention to so
great a problem."
Dr MAX NORDAU says:--"I have now read your book 'The White Slaves of
England.' I am not easily unnerved, but at times it was almost too much
for me.... May it be your lot to become the Plimsoll of the alkali and
lead-workers. This would be an achievement grand enough to satisfy the
ambition of the greatest."
"An indictment which should rouse a cry of passionate indignation
throughout the land. A careful and noble exposure of industrial
iniquity."--_The Echo._
NEW NOVEL BY SHAN F. BULLOCK.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d._
The Charmer
A SEASIDE COMEDY
By Shan F. Bullock,
Author of "The Awkward Squads," "By Thrasna River," &c.
With Illustrations by Bertha Newcombe.
"Mr Anthony Hope at his best has given us nothing more delicious in
humour. The pages of the book ripple--as we turn them--with fun as
sparkling and spontaneous as the ripple of the salt water upon the sandy
beach whither Mr Bullock leads us. Surely no more delightful picture of
Irish life and of Irish people--the people whom we love while we laugh
at, and laugh at while we love--has been drawn than is to be found in
'The Charmer.'"--From an illustrated article on Mr Bullock and his work
in _The Young Man_.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s._
Methodist Idylls
By Harry Lindsay.
"Worthy of any writer who has yet set himself to depict Methodist
life.... A very helpful and right religious book."--_Methodist Times._
"A book which in its lovely prose chapters gives an insight into the
true romance, the April sunshine, of Methodist life.... We hope that the
volume may find its way into every Methodist home."--_Methodist
Recorder._
"A most admirable attempt to throw into permanent form some portraits of
the old and vanishing Methodists.... As a study in Methodism, Mr
Lindsay's work can be cordially and heartily commended."--_The Sun._
"Extremely interesting stories ... admirably told."--_The Scotsman._
NEW BOOK BY REV. F. B. MEYER.
Work-a-day Sermons
By Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A.
Few names in the Christian ministry are held in such honour as is
accorded by earnest Christian men and women of every sect to that of the
Rev. F. B. Meyer, who has an enormous audience outside his own church.
Hence the announcement of a new volume of Sermons by him will be
peculiarly welcome, and all the more so for the fact that this is a book
which is intended, not for the few, but for the work-a-day many, for
whose encouragement and consolation Mr Meyer has here given the very
fine gold of his thoughts upon spiritual things and upon the intimate
association which exists--or should exist--between the things of the
work-a-day life and the higher life.
NEW BOOKLET BY RICHARD LE GALLIENNE
_Long 8vo, price One Shilling._
If I Were God
By Richard Le Gallienne.
The announcement of a new book--and especially of a new book of a
peculiarly Le Galliennesque and characteristic description by the author
of "The Book-Bills of Narcissus," "The Religion of a Literary Man," and
"Prose Fancies," will be received with very eager and unusual interest.
Whatever may be the opinions entertained by individual readers about Mr
Le Gallienne's own views, there is no denying that no book by him has
yet appeared which has not aroused exceptional interest and exceptional
discussion. His last venture is likely to be even more universally
talked about. It is a greatly-daring but extremely beautiful and
reverent attempt to deal with the terrible problem of the presence of
moral and physical evil, but quite apart from its value as a
contribution to the philosophy of life, it is a singularly striking and
beautiful piece of literary work, full of the exquisite imaginings and
lovely fancies of the accomplished poet and man of letters.
BY THE LATE WM. BRIGHTY RANDS.
_Fcap. 8vo, buckram, 340 pp., 3s. 6d._
I. Lazy Lessons and Essays on Conduct.
_Fcap. 8vo, buckram, 192 pp., 2s. 6d._
II. Lilliput Lectures.
With Introductions by R. Brimley Johnson.
These two instructive books for Children by the late William Brighty
Rands, "the laureate of the nursery," as he has been called, may be
classed as entirely new works, although some portions appeared in
magazine form under the author's numerous pen-names. The two books have
been edited by Mr R. Brimley Johnson, who supplies a biographical and
critical introduction.
NEW NOVEL BY E. PHIPPS TRAIN.
_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d._
A Deserter from Philistia
By E. Phipps Train
Author of "A Social Highwayman," etc.
This is a book which, with ordinary luck, should bid fair to rival the
popularity of "Called Back" or "Mr Barnes of New York." From first to
last it is enthrallingly interesting, and dealing, as it does, with the
life "behind the scenes" of a great dancer who is the "darling" of her
public, it gives its readers a peep into a world of which little is
known by outsiders. Rarely have the trials and temptations, the thousand
and one cares and anxieties of those whose business it is always to wear
a smiling face, in order that they may entertain their public, been
drawn with such skill and vividness.
_London: 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C._
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