Skip to main content

Full text of "Chips from a German workshop"

See other formats 


■  ■'■'Jiif'i/'■B01^'ii^'B 


■wsm^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/chipsfromgermanw01ml 


COLLECTED  WORKS 


OF 


THE   RIGHT   HON.   F.  MAX  MULLER 


V 

CHIPS  FROM  A    GERMAN   WORKSHOP 

1.   RECENT  ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES 


ANDREA      DEL     SARTO    .S     CARITA 
{Original  size  ^/l.  ^  in.  hy  ■;./?.  i  /«.) 


Vol  I.     Scf  f'dge  406 


CHIPS 

FROM    A 

GERMAN   WORKSHOP 

BY 

F.    MAX    MiJLLER,    K.M. 

FOREIGN   MEMBER   OP  THE   FRENCH    INSTITUTE 


VOL.   I 
RECENT  ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES 


NEW  IMPRESSION 


LONGMANS,     GREEN,    AND    CO. 

39   PATERNOSTER   ROW,    LONDON 
AND   BOMBAY 

1902 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


Original  Edition,  Vols.  I  and  II,  8vo,  November,  1867  ; 
Reprinted,  October,  1868; 

Vol.  Ill,  8vo,  November,  1870;  Eeprinted,  August,  1880; 
Vol.  IV,  8vo,  October,  1875; 

New  Edition,  with  Additions,  4  Vols.  Crown  8vo,  1894-5; 
Reprinted  in  Collected  Edition  of  Prof.  Max  Miiller's  Works, 
Vol.  I,  July,  i8y8  ;  March,  1902. 


n 
mi 

V.I 


DEDICATED 

TO    HIS    IMPEllIAL   AND    ROYAL   MAJESTY 

WILHELM    II 

GERMAN    EMPEROR   AND    KING    OF    PRUSSIA 
THE   WORTHY    SUCCESSOR   OF    GLORIOUS   ANCESTORS 

AS    A    VERY    SMALL   TOKEN    OP 
DEEPFELT    GRATITUDE    AND    SINCERE    ADMIRATION 


PEEFACE. 


AFTER  reaching  the  age  of  threescore  years 
-  and  ten,  a  scholar  may  fairly  claim  the 
right  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  spectators,  and  to 
leave  the  dusty  arena  to  younger  gladiators. 
Yet  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  temptation  to 
descend  once  more  on  the  scene  of  action, 
particularly  if  encouraged  by  the  call  of  our 
friends.  This  is  exactly  what  has  happened 
to  me.  My  '  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,' 
published  in  four  volumes  in  1867  (second 
edition,  1868),  have  been  out  of  print  for  many 
years.  I  am  informed  that  it  is  difficult  now 
to  find  a  copy  even  at  second  hand.  Some 
years  ago,  when  asked  to  prepare  a  new  edition 
of  my  collected  Essays,  I  preferred  to  make 
a  selection,  which  was  published  in  two  volumes 
under  the  title  of  '  Selected  Essays,'  1881. 
This  selection,  however,  has  failed  to  please  the 
public.  I  was  told  that  an  author  was  a  very 
bad  judge  of  his  own  work,  and  that  my  friends 


VI  PREFACE. 


missed  In  this  collection  the  very  papers  which 
they  liked  best  and  wished  most  to  possess. 

What  was  I  to  do  but  to  obey  ?  Had  I  fol- 
lowed my  own  inclination  only,  I  should 
certainly  have  preferred  to  see  some  of  the 
essays  written  by  me  when  I  was  a  very  young 
man,  consigned  to  oblivion.  But  there  they 
are,  and  whether  I  allowed  them  to  be  published 
once  more  or  not,  I  knew  I  should  have  been 
held  responsible  just  the  same  for  what  I  had 
written  in  any  one  of  them.  I  am  still  taken  to 
task  for  my  'Letter  on  the  Turanian  Languages,' 
which  I  addressed  to  Bunsen  in  the  year 
1853,  and  which  was  published  by  him  in  his 
'Christianity  and  Mankind'  in  1854,  though 
I  never  allowed  it  to  be  reprinted,  and  though 
I  have  taken  every  opportunity  to  declare  that 
I  have  ceased  to  hold  several  of  the  opinions 
put  forward  in  that  letter,  and  that  by 
Turanian  I  never  meant  a  family  of  speech,  in 
the  same  sense  in  which  we  sj)eak  of  an  Aryan 
and  a  Semitic  family,  but  only  a  class  of  lan- 
guages, held  together  by  little  more  than  the. 
negative  characteristic  of  being  neither  Aryan 
nor  Semitic.  Turanian  seemed  to  me  a  better 
name  than  Allophylian.  It  has  been  used  by 
many  scholars  in  that  sense,  and  in  that  sense 
I  still  continue  to  use  it. 

If  then  I  allow  my  old  'Chips  from  a  German 


PEEFACE.  VU 

Workshop  '  to  appear  once  more  in  a  new  and 
cheaper  edition,  I  must  ask  my  friends  in 
reading^  them  to  remember  the  date  of  everv 
one  of  them,  and  also  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
studies  in  which  I  have  taken  an  active  part 
have  been  advancing  very  rapidly  during  the 
last  fifty  years.  There  is  no  one  who  has  taken 
an  active  part  in  the  cultivation  of  my  three 
favourite  studies,  the  Science  of  Language,  the 
Science  of  Thought,  and  the  Science  of  Religion, 
who  has  not  had  many  things  to  learn  and 
many  things  to  unlearn  during  the  half-centuiy 
that  lies  behind  us.  Much  of  the  work  that 
had  to  be  done  by  myself  and  my  early  fellow- 
workers — most  of  them  lono;  at  rest  from  their 
labours — was  of  necessity  tentative  only.  Much 
of  what  I  have  written  ran  counter  to  current 
opinions,  and  met,  therefore,  with  strong  opposi- 
tion, while  many  things,  which  formerly  required 
elaborate  proof,  are  now  accepted  as  matters  of 
course.  I  have,  during  the  whole  of  my  life, 
tried  to  profit  as  much  as  I  could  by  the 
excellent  criticisms  passed  by  competent  critics 
on  my  numerous  contributions.  But  though  it 
was  easy  to  remove  mere  mistakes,  arising  from 
ignorance  or  from  pudenda  negligentia,  I  found 
it  difficult,  nay  impossible,  to  change  the  whole 
drift  of  an  argument,  to  leave  out  what  required 
no   longer   any   proof,   or   to   present  the   old 


vm  PREFACE. 

problems  under  an  entirely  new  aspect.  I  must, 
therefore,  throw  myself  on  the  indulgence  of 
my  friends  who  have  expressed  a  wish  to 
possess  a  complete  collection  of  my  essays,  old 
and  new,  and  I  must  ask  them  to  accept  them 
as  what  they  are,  chips  from  my  workshop, 
mere  contributions  to  the  history  of  the  studies 
to  which  my  life  has  been  devoted,  and,  in  one 
sense,  a  sketch  of  my  life,  and  perhaps  the  most 
approjDriate  sketch  that  the  life  of  a  scholar 
deserves. 

But  though  I  thought  it  right,  in  revising 
my  essays,  to  correct  any  statements  that 
seemed  to  require  correction,  I  can  honestly 
say  that,  with  regard  to  the  leading  theories 
which  I  advanced  in  them  and  in  my  larger 
works,  and  with  regard  to  the  arguments  by 
which  I  tried  to  support  them,  I  have  had 
little  to  alter.  To  mention  only  a  few  of  the 
theories  which  I  advanced,  or  the  heresies,  as 
others  would  like  to  call  them,  for  which  I  still 
consider  myself  responsible,  I  hold  as  strongly 
as  ever, 

I.  That  language  and  thought  are  inseparable, 
are  in  fact  two  sides  of  the  same  psychological 
])rocess,  and  that  the  Science  of  Language  is 
therefore  the  only  safe  foundation  for  the 
Science  of  Thought  ^ ;   or,  to  put  it  in   other 

^  See  'The  Science  of  Thought,' by  F.  M.  M.  1887. 


PREFACE.  IX 

words,  that  a  study  of  the  origin  and  historical 
growth  of  our  words  forms  the  best  preparation 
for  a  definition  of  our  words,  and  that  without 
such  definitions  all  philosophy  is  and  must  be 
vain. 

II.  Another  heresy  of  mine,  which  I  have 
not  yet  abjured,  is  that  language  and  race  are 
incommensurable,  and  that  languages  must  be 
classified  independently  of  all  physiological 
considerations.  On  this  point  I  should  now 
repeat  every  word  which  I  wrote  in  the  chapter 
'  Ethnology  versus  Phonology,'  in  the  year  1853, 
in  my  Letter  to  Bunsen  '  On  the  Turanian 
Languages,'  second  chapter,  second  section. 
Terms  such  as  Aryan  blood  or  Semitic  skulls 
sound  to  me  still  as  preposterous  as  dolicho- 
cephalic grammar. 

III.  I  consider  it  as  much  as  ever  a  real 
misfortune  that  the  theory  of  evolution,  so 
triumphantly  applied  by  Darwin  to  the  pro- 
ductions of  nature,  should  ever  have  been 
transferred  from  the  productions  of  nature  to 
the  works  of  man.  Evolution  may  be,  as  Lord 
Salisbury  remarked,  a  very  comfortable  term ; 
it  saves  much  trouble  and  can  be  made  to 
account  for  everything.  Everything,  as  Topsy 
said,  may  be  'spected  to  have  grow'd.  But  the 
history  of  the  human  mind,  Avhether  studied  in 
language,  religion,  politics  or  art,  requires,  if 


X  PREFACE. 

I  am  not  quite  mistaken,  a  strictly  historical  or, 
as  it  used  to  be  called,  pragmatical  treatment ; 
requires,  before  all  things,  a  knowledge  of  facts, 
in  order  to  enable  us  to  discover  the  faintest 
footsteps  of  that  glorious  but  by  no  means 
continuous  procession  which  has  carried  the 
savage  from  his  cave  and  his  forest  to  the 
height  of  the  Parthenon,  the  summit  of  the 
Capitol,  and  to  the  majestic  arches  of  West- 
minster Abbey.  We  want  to  know  not  how 
man  may  have  become  what  he  is,  but  how  he 
advanced  actually  and  step  by  step  from  the 
lowest  depth  to  what  we  consider  the  highest 
height  of  civilised  life  reached  in  our  own 
century.     But  this  is  history,  not  evolution. 

IV.  I  still  look  upon  the  Science  of  Language 
as  one  of  the  Natural  Sciences.  But  while  in 
its  material  aspect,  as  sound,  language,  as 
I  have  tried  to  show,  belongs  to  the  realm  of 
nature,  it  is  in  its  spiritual  aspect  a  work  of 
the  human  will,  though  acting  under  external 
restraints. 

V.  Taking  into  account  this  double  charac- 
ter of  language,  I  have  tried  to  make  it  clear 
that  mythology  has  to  be  recognised  as  an 
early  and  inevitable  stage  in  the  growth  of 
language  and  thought,  nay,  in  one  sense,  as 
an  affection,  or,  as  I  expressed  it  perhaps  too 
drastically,  as  a  disease  of  language.     To  this 


PREFACE.  XI 


heresy  also,  If  heresy  it  can  be  called,  I  still 
cling  as  strongly  as  when  I  published  my  first 
essay  on  '  Comparative  Mythology,'  now  forty 
years  ago.  There  may  be  much  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  right  application  of  this 
principle  in  analysing  the  mythologies  of  civil- 
ised and  uncivilised  races,  but  the  principle 
itself  can  never  be  set  aside  again.  Mythology 
has  been  recognised,  once  for  all,  as  a  remnant 
of  ancient  thought  and  language,  reflecting  the 
salient  phenomena  of  nature.  A  large  portion 
of  it,  but  by  no  means  the  whole  of  it,  is  in 
consequence  solar  and  lunar.  Scholars  may 
differ  on  certain  etymologies,  but  the  learned 
researches  and  brilliant  discoveries  of  such  men 
as  Eug.  Burnouf,  Bopp,  Grinmi,  Pott,  Kuhn, 
Curtius,  Benfey,  Grassmann,  Michel  Breal  and 
Darmesteter,  and  more  lately  of  Hillebrandt, 
Victor  Henry  and  others,  in  the  domain  of 
mythological  etymology,  are  not  likely  to  be 
brushed  away  by  mere  ridicule.  The  Solar 
Myth  has  survived  all  badinage,  even  the  most 
ponderous,  and,  if  we  make  allowance  for  one 
or  two  startling  or  rather  amusing  exceptions, 
we  may  truly  say  that  no  serious  scholar,  ac- 
quainted with  the  principles  of  Comparative 
Philology,  doubts  any  longer  that  the  philo- 
logical key  is  the  only  one  that  can  disclose 
to   us    the    origin    and   the    true    meaning   of 


XH  PEEFACB. 

mythological  names,  nay,  even  of  totems  and 
fetishes. 

VI.  Another  heresy  of  mine,  that  religion 
can  be  traced  back  to  the  perception  of  the 
Infinite  under  its  various  manifestations  and 
conceptions,  is  still  a  subject  of  fierce  contro- 
versy. All  depends  here  on  the  meaning  which 
we  assign  to  the  Infinite.  I  readily  admit  that 
not  everything  that  is  postulated  as  lying 
behind  the  Finite  is  fit  for  religious  ideas ;  all 
I  maintain  is  that  whatever  religious  ideas 
we  meet  with,  have  all  their  roots  in  the  soil 
which  underlies  the  surface  of  our  finite  per- 
ceptions. But  whatever  may  be  thought  on 
this  point,  I  may  at  all  events  claim  this, 
that  the  facts  on  which  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  the  origin  of  religion  depends,  are 
much  more  freely  accessible  now  than  they 
were  fifty  years  ago,  and  that  here  also  mere 
theory  has  had  to  give  way  to  history  \  No 
doubt,  that  history  begins  late,  and  there  are 
vast  periods  beyond  the  first  utterances  of 
religious  thought  which  are  altogether  beyond 
our  ken.  The  idea  that  the  Veda  or  the  Old 
Testament  could  reveal  to  us  the  very  be- 
ginnings of  religious  thought  was  a  fond  hope 
which,  if  it  ever  was,  is  no  longer  cherished  by 

1  'Sacred  Books  of  the  East,' vols.  I  to  XLIX,  Oxford, 
1879-1894. 


PREFACE.  Xlll 


anybody,  and  the  contention  that  we  may 
recognise  in  savages,  now  living  or  but  lately 
extinct,  the  nearest  approach  to  what  man 
was  in  his  primordial  cradle,  or  when  just 
shaking  off  the  fetters  of  his  purely  animal 
existence,  is  now  but  timidly  supported,  after 
such  immense  vistas  have  been  opened  dis- 
closing endless  antecedents  presupposed  by  the 
dialects,  the  customs  and  the  complicated  super- 
stitions of  these  so-called  primitive  savages. 

I  hope  I  may  not  be  called  an  unrepentant 
sinner  for  declining  to  surrender  these  my  old 
articles  of  faith.  I  have  lived  to  see  many 
theories  which  were  called  heretical  or  unscien- 
tific gradually  changed  into  orthodox  tenets. 
No  doubt  I  have  also  seen  orthodox  tenets 
cast  aside,  and  so  long  as  man  values  truth  more 
than  authority  this  process  of  natural  selection, 
or  what  I  prefer  to  call  rational  elimination, 
must  always  continue.  What  would  have 
become  of  religion  without  heretics,  and  what 
would  become  of  science  without  men  beinor 
allowed  to  defend  their  own  convictions,  reg-ard- 
less  of  authorities  and  majorities  ? 

For  one  thing  only  I  have,  in  conclusion,  to 
apologise.  There  is,  no  doubt,  much  repetition 
in  this  collection  of  Essays  and  Addresses.  They 
were  all  written  with  a  purpose  and,  in  order 
to  carry  out  my,  purpose,  I  had  often  to  dwell 


XIV  PREFACE. 

on  the  same  facts  and  use  the  same  arguments. 
It  was  quite  impossible,  when  I  had  decided 
to  pubUsh  these  papers  in  a  collected  form,  to 
leave  out  all  paragraphs  which  had  occurred 
before.  They  were  links  in  an  argument,  and, 
if  cut  out,  would  have  broken  the  chain  and 
left  a  gap.  I  well  remember  how  Mendelssohn 
disliked  reminiscences  in  his  compositions,  and 
how  he  often  spoiled  some  of  his  most  beau- 
tiful songs  by  cutting  out  whole  bars  which  he 
remembered  having  used  before.  I  think  that 
my  readers  will  find  it  very  easy  to  pass  by 
a  sentence  or  a  whole  page  which  they  re- 
member having  read  before,  while  they  would 
have  lost  the  thread  of  the  argument,  if  these 
pages  had  been  cut  out.  It  is  sometimes  a  help 
to  look  at  the  same  things  from  different  points 
of  view,  and  though  iteration  is  no  argument, 
it  often  helps  to  drive  home  an  argument. 
Anyhow,  it  is  a  sin  for  which  I  hope  to 
be  forgiven  by  my  friends,  nay,  even  by  my 
enemies,  if  such  there  be,  for  as  to  my  honest 
critics  and  opponents,  I  have  always  counted 
them  as  among  my  best  friends. 

F.  M.  M. 

Oxford,  September  3,  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface  (1894)         v-xiv 

Inteoduction  (1867) I 

The   Ninth   International   Congress   of   Orientalists, 

Presidential  Address  (1892) 27 

Eeply  by  Hofrath  G.  Buhler,  C.I.E 86 

Eeply  by  Count  Angelo  De  Gcbernatis       .        .        .  91 

A  School  of  Oriental  Languages  (1890)    .        .        .        .  97 

Keply  by  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales       .        ,        .  113 

Frederick  III  (1888) 116 

What  to  do  with  our  Old  People  (18S8)    ,        .        .        ,126 

The  True  Antiquity  of  Oriental  Literature  (1891)         ,  146 

A  Lecture  in  Defence  of  Lectures  (1890)  .        .        .        ,173 

Some  Lessons  of  Antiquity  (1889) 194 

On  the  Classification  of  Mankind  by  Language  or  by 

Blood  (1891) 217 

Letter  to  Mr.  Eisley  on  the  Ethnological  Survey 

of  India  (1886) 255 

Horatio  Hale,  On  the  True  Basis  of  Anthropology 

(1S91) 263 

On  Freedom  (1879) 269 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Goethe  and  Carltle  (r888) 323 

Correspondence   between    Schiller    and    the  Duke   ok 

schleswig-holstein  (1875) 364 

Andrea  del  Sarto's  Cakita   (1886) 406 

Letter  fkom  Robert  Browning  (1S89) ....  426 

Buddhist  Charity  (1884)       .......  427 

The  Indian  Child-Wife  (1890) 456 

An  Indian  Child- Widow  (1894)   ......  464 

On  thk  Proper  Use  op  Holy  Scriptures  (1S93)         ,        .  469 

Index 493 


REOEE'T    ESSAYS. 


INTRODUCTION, 

(Written  1867.) 

More  tlian  twenty  years  have  passed  since  my 
revered  friend  Bunsen  called  me  one  day  into  his 
library  at  Carlton  House  Terrace,  and  announced  to 
me  with  beaming  eyes  that  the  publication  of  the 
Rig'-veda  was  secure.  He  had  spent  many  days  in 
seeing  the  Directors  of  the  East-India  Company, 
and  explaining  to  them  the  importance  of  this  work, 
and  the  necessity  of  having  it  published  in  England. 
At  last  his  efforts  had  been  successful,  the  funds 
for  printing  my  edition  of  the  text  and  commentary 
of  the  Sacred  Hymns  of  the  Brahmans  had  been 
granted,  and  Bunsen  was  the  first  to  announce  to 
me  the  happy  result  of  his  literary  diplomacy.  '  Now,' 
he  said,  '^  you  have  got  a  work  for  life — a  large  block 
that  will  take  years  to  plane  and  polish.'  'But 
mind,'  he  added,  '  let  us  have  from  time  to  time  some 
chips  from  your  workshop.' ' 

'  This  edition  of  the  text  and  native  commentary  of  the  Rig-veda 
has  since  been  published  in  six  volumes,  4to  :  vol.  i.,  1849  ;  vol.  ii., 
1853;  vol.  iii.,  1856;  vol.  iv.,  1862;  vol.  v.,  1872;  vol.  vi.,  1874. 
Kew  edition  in  four  volumes,  1890-92. 
VOL.   I.  B 


Z  INTRODUCTION. 

1  have  tried  to  follow  tlie  advice  of  my  departed 
friend,  and  I  have  published  almost  every  year  a  few 
articles  on  such  subjects  as  had  engaged  my  attention, 
while  prosecuting  at  the  same  time,  as  far  as  altered 
circumstances  would  allow,  my  edition  of  theEig-veda, 
and  of  other  Sanskrit  works  connected  with  it.  These 
articles  were  chiefly  published  in  the  *  Edinburgh ' 
and  '  Quarterly  '  Reviews,  in  the  '  Oxford  Essays,'  and 
'  Macmillan's '  and  'Eraser's'  Magazines,  in  the 
'  Saturday  Eeview,'  and  in  the  '  Times.'  In  writing 
them  my  principal  endeavour  has  been  to  bring  out 
even  in  the  most  abstruse  subjects  the  points  of  real 
interest  that  ought  to  engage  the  attention  of  the 
public  at  large,  and  never  to  leave  a  dark  nook  or 
corner  without  attempting  to  sweep  away  the  cob- 
webs of  false  learning,  and  let  in  the  light  of  real 
knowledge.  Here,  too,  I  owe  much  to  Bunsen's  ad- 
vice, and  when  last  year  I  saw  in  Cornwall  the  large 
heaps  of  copper  ore  piled  up  around  the  mines,  like 
so  many  heaps  of  rubbish,  while  the  poor  people  were 
asking  for  coppers  to  buy  bread,  I  frequently  thought 
of  Bunsen's  words,  'Your  work  is  not  finished  when 
you  have  brought  the  ore  from  the  mine  :  it  must  be 
sifted,  smelted,  refined,  and  coined  before  it  can  be  of 
real  use,  and  contribute  towards  the  intellectual  food 
of  mankind.'  I  can  hardly  hope  that  in  this  my  en- 
deavour to  be  clear  and  plain,  to  follow  the  threads  of 
every  thought  to  the  very  ends,  and  to  place  the  web 
of  every  argument  clearly  and  fully  before  my  readers, 
I  have  always  been  successful.  Several  of  the  sub- 
jects treated  in  these  essays  are,  no  doubt,  obscure 
and  difficult :  but  there  is  no  subject,  I  believe,  in 
the  whole  realm  of  human  knowledge,  that  cannot  be 


INTKODUCTION.  3 

rendered  clear  aud  intelJigible,  if  we  ourselves  have 
perfectly  mastered  it.  And  now  wliile  the  two  last 
volumes  of  my  edition  of  the  Eig-veda  are  passing 
through  the  press,  I  thought  the  time  had  come  for 
gathering  up  a  few  armfuls  of  these  chips  and 
splinters,  throwing  away  what  seemed  worthless,  and 
putting  the  rest  into  some  kind  of  shape,  in  order  to 
clear  my  workshop  for  other  work. 

The  volumes  which  I  am  now  publishing  contain 
a  selection  of  essays  on  language,  mythology,  and 
rehgion,  three  subjects  intimately  connected  with 
each  other.  There  is  to  my  mind  no  subject  more 
absorbing  than  the  tracing  the  origin  and  first 
growth  of  human  thought ; — not  theoretically,  or  in 
accordance  with  the  Hegelian  laws  of  thought,  or 
the  Comtian  epochs ;  but  historically,  and  like  an 
Indian  trapper,  spying  for  every  footprint,  every  layer, 
every  broken  blade  that  might  tell  and  testify  of  the 
former  presence  of  man  in  his  early  wanderings  and 
searchings  after  truth  and  light. 

In  the  languages  of  mankind,  in  which  every- 
thing new  is  old  and  everything  old  is  new,  an  in- 
exhaustible mine  has  been  discovered  for  researches 
of  this  kind.  Language  still  bears  the  impress  of  the 
earliest  thoughts  of  man,  obliterated,  it  may  be, 
buried  under  new  thoughts,  yet  here  and  there  still 
recoverable  in  their  sharp  original  outline.  The 
growth  of  language  is  continuous,  and  by  continuing 
our  researches  backward  from  the  most  modern  to  the 
most  ancient  strata,  the  very  elements  and  roots  of 
human  speech  have  been  reached,  and  with  them  the 
elements  and  roots  of  human  thought.  What  lies 
beyond  the  beginnings  of  language,  however  interest- 

B  2 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

ing  it  may  be  to  the  biologist,  does  not  yet  belong 
to  the  history  of  man,  in  the  true  and  original  sense 
of  that  word.  Man  means  the  thinker,  and  the  first 
manifestation  of  thought  is  speech. 

But  more  surprising  than  the  continuity  in  the 
growth  of  language,  is  the  continuity  in  the  growth 
of  religion.  Of  religion,  too,  as  of  language,  it  may 
be  said  that  in  it  everything  new  is  old  and  every- 
thing old  is  new,  and  that  there  has  been  no  entirely 
new  religion  since  the  beginning  of  the  world.  The 
elements  and  roots  of  religion  were  there,  as  far 
back  as  we  can  trace  the  histoiy  of  man;  and 
the  history  of  religion,  like  the  history  of  lan- 
guage, shoAvs  us  throughout  a  succession  of  new 
combinations  of  the  same  radical  elements.  An  in- 
tuition of  God,  a  sense  of  human  wealmess  and  de- 
pendance,  a  belief  in  a  Divine  government  of  the 
world,  a  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  and  a 
hope  of  a  better  life,  these  are  some  of  the  radical 
elements  of  all  religions.  Though  sometimes  hidden, 
they  rise  again  and  again  to  the  surface.  Though 
frequently  distorted,  they  tend  again  and  again  to 
their  perfect  form.  Unless  they  had  formed  part  of 
the  oldest  dowry  of  the  human  soul,  religion  would 
have  remained  an  impossibility,  and  the  tongues  of 
angels  would  have  been  to  human  ears  but  as  sound- 
ing brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  If  we  once  under- 
stand this  cleai'ly,  the  words  of  St.  Augustine,  which 
have  seemed  startling  to  many  of  his  admirers,  be- 
come perfectly  clear  and  intelligible,  when  he  says  ^ : 

'  August.  Retr.  1,  13.  'Res  ipsa,  qi:?e  nunc  religio  Christiana 
nunciipatur,  erat  apud  antiques,  nee  defuit  ab  initio  generis  humani, 
quousque  Christus  veniret  in  carnem,  unde  vera  religio,  quas  jam 
erat,  coepit  appellari  Christiana.' 


INTRODUCTION'.  5 

'  What  is  now  calleJ  the  Christian  religiou,  has 
existed  among  the  ancients,  and  was  not  absent 
from  the  beginning  of  the  human  race,  until  Christ 
came  in  the  flesh  :  from  which  time  the  true  relisrion, 
which  existed  already,  began  to  be  called  Christian.' 
From  tliis  point  of  view  the  words  of  Christ,  too, 
which  startled  the  Jews,  assume  their  true  meaning, 
when  He  said  to  the  centurion  of  Capernaum  :  '  Many 
shall  come  from  the  east  and  the  west,  and  shall  sit 
down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.' 

During  the  last  fifty  years  the  accumulation  of 
new  and  authentic  materials  for  the  study  of  the 
religions  of  tlie  world,  has  been  most  extraordinary ; 
but  such  are  the  difficulties  in  mastering  these 
materials  that  I  doubt  whether  the  time  has  yet  come 
for  attempting  to  trace,  after  the  model  of  the  Science 
of  Language,  the  definite  outlines  of  the  Science 
of  Religion.  By  a  succession  of  the  most  fortunate 
circumstances,  the  canonical  books  of  three  of  the 
principal  religions  of  the  ancient  world  have  lately 
been  recovered,  the  Yeda,  the  Zend-Avesta,  and  the 
Tripi^aka.  But  not  only  have  we  thus  gained  ac- 
cess to  the  most  authentic  documents  from  which 
to  study  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Brahmans,  the 
Zoroastrians,  and  the  Buddhists,  but  by  discovering 
the  real  origin  of  Greek,  Eoman,  and  likewise  of 
Teutonic,  Sclavonic,  and  Celtic  mythology,  it  has 
become  possible  to  separate  the  truly  religious  ele- 
ments in  the  sacred  traditions  of  these  nations  from 
the  mythological  crust  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
and  thus  to  gain  a  clearer  insight  into  the  real  faith 
of  the  ancient  Aryan  world. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Semitic  world,  we  fiud  that 
although  but  few  new  materials  have  been  discovered 
from  which  to  study  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Jews, 
yet  a  new  spirit  of  inquiry  has  brought  new  life  into 
the  study  of  the  sacred  records  of  Abraham,  Moses, 
and  the  Prophets ;  and  the  recent  researches  of 
Biblical  scholars,  though  starting  from  the  most 
0]3posite  points,  have  all  helped  to  bring  out  the  his- 
torical interest  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  a  manner 
not  dreamt  of  by  former  theologians.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  another  Semitic  religion,  the  religion 
of  Mohammed,  since  the  Koran  and  the  literature 
connected  with  it  were  submitted  to  the  searching 
criticism  of  real  scholars  and  historians.  Important 
materials  for  the  study  of  the  Semitic  religions  have 
come  from  the  monuments  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh. 
The  very  images  of  Bel  and  Nisroch  now  stand  before 
our  eyes,  and  the  inscriptions  on  the  tablets  may 
hereafter  tell  us  even  more  than  they  do  at  present 
of  the  thoughts  of  those  who  bowed  their  knees 
before  them.  The  religious  worship  of  the  Pheni- 
cians  and  Carthaginians  has  been  illustrated  by 
Movers  from  the  ruins  of  their  ancient  temples, 
and  from  scattered  notices  in  classical  writers  ;  nay, 
even  the  religious  ideas  of  the  Nomads  of  the  Arabian 
peninsula,  previous  to  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism, 
have  been  brought  to  light  by  the  patient  researches 
of  Oriental  scholars. 

There  is  no  lack  of  idols  among  the  ruined  and 
buried  temples  of  Egypt  with  which  to  reconstruct 
the  pantheon  of  that  primeval  country :  nor  need  we 
despair  of  recovering  more  and  more  of  the  thoughts 
which  are  buried  under  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  in- 


IKTKODUCTIOK.  7 

scriptioiis,  or  preserved  in  hieratic  and  demotic 
MSS.,  if  we  watch  the  brilliant  discoveries  that 
have  rewarded  the  patient  researches  of  the  disciples 
of  Champollion. 

Besides  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  families  of  re- 
ligion, we  have  in  China  three  recognised  forms 
of  public  worship,  the  religion  of  Confucius,  that 
of  Laotse,  and  that  of  Fo  (Buddha) ;  and  here, 
too,  recent  publications  have  shed  new  light,  and 
have  rendered  an  access  to  the  canonical  works 
of  these  religions,  and  an  understanding  of  their 
highest  objects,  more  easy,  even  to  those  who  have 
not  mastered  the  intricacies  of  the  Chinese  language. 

Among  the  Turanian  nations,  a  few  only,  such 
as  the  Finns  and  the  Mongolians,  have  preserved 
some  remnants  of  their  ancient  worship  and  mytho- 
logy, and  these  too  have  lately  been  more  carefully 
collected  and  explained  by  D'Ohson,  Castren,  and 
others. 

In  America  the  religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru  had 
long  attracted  the  attention  of  theologians ;  and 
of  late  years  the  impulse  imparted  to  ethnological  re- 
search has  induced  travellers  and  missionaries  to 
record  any  traces  of  religious  life  that  could  be  dis- 
covered among  the  savage  inhabitants  of  Africa, 
America,  and  the  Polynesian  islands. 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  few  indications,  that 
there  is  no  lack  of  materials  for  the  student  of 
religion;  but  we  shall  also  perceive  how  difficult  it  is 
to  master  such  vast  materials.  To  gain  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  Veda,  or  the  Zend-Avesta,  or  the 
Tripi^aka,  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Koran,  or  the 
sacred  books  of  China,  is  the  work  of  a  whole  life« 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

How  then  is  one  man  to  survey  the  whole  field  of 
religious  thought,  to  classify  the  religions  of  the 
world  according  to  definite  and  permanent  criteria, 
and  to  describe  their  characteristic  features  with  a 
sure  and  discriminating  hand? 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  to  seize  than  the  salient 
features,  the  traits  that  constitute  the  permanent 
expression  and  real  character  of  a  religion.  Religion 
seems  to  be  the  common  property  of  a  large  com- 
munity, and  yet  it  not  only  varies  in  numerous  sects, 
as  language  does  in  its  dialects,  but  it  escapes  our 
firm  grasp  till  we  can  trace  it  to  its  real  habitat, 
the  heart  of  each  true  believer.  We  speak  glibly  of 
Buddhism  and  Brahmanism,  forgetting  that  we  are 
generalising  on  the  most  intimate  convictions  of 
millions  and  millions  of  human  souls,  divided  by  half 
the  world  and  by  thousands  of  years. 

It  may  be  said  that  at  all  events  where  a 
religion  possesses  canonical  books,  or  a  definite 
number  of  articles,  the  task  of  the  student  of  re- 
ligion becomes  easier,  and  this,  no  doubt,  is  true  to  a 
certain  extent.  But  even  then  we  know  that  the 
interpretation  of  these  canonical  books  varies,  so 
much  so  that  sects  appealing  to  the  same  revealed 
authorities,  as,  for  instance,  the  founders  of  the 
Vedanta  and  the  Saukhya  systems,  accuse  each  other 
of  error,  if  not  of  wilful  error  or  heresy.  Articles 
too,  though  drawn  up  with  a  view  to  define  the 
principal  doctrines  of  a  religion,  lose  much  of  their 
historical  value  by  the  treatment  they  receive  from 
subsequent  schools ;  and  they  are  frequently  silent 
on  the  ver}'  points  which  make  religion  what  it  is. 

A  few  instances  may  serve  to  show  what  diffi- 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

culties  tlie  student  of  religion  has  to  contend  witli, 
before  lie  can  hope  firmly  to  grasp  the  facts  on  which 
theories  may  safely  be  based. 

Eoman  Catholic  missionaries  who  had  spent  their 
lives  in  China,  who  had  every  opportunit}^,  while 
staying  at  the  court  of  Pekiii,  of  studying  in  the 
original  the  canonical  works  of  Confucius  and  their 
commentaries,  who  could  consult  the  greatest  theo- 
logians then  living,  and  converse  with  the  crowds 
that  thronged  the  temples  of  the  capital,  differed 
diametrically  in  their  opinions  as  to  the  most  vital 
jDoints  in  the  state-religion  of  China.  Lecomte, 
Fouquet,  Premare,  and  Bouvet  thought  it  undeniable 
that  Confucius,  his  predecessors  and  his  discijples, 
had  entertained  the  noblest  ideas  on  the  constitution 
of  the  universe,  and  had  sacrificed  to  the  true  God 
in  the  most  ancient  temple  of  the  earth.  According 
to  Maigrot,  Navarette,  on  the  contrary,  and  even 
according  to  the  Jesuit  Longobardi,  the  adoration 
of  the  Chinese  was  addressed  to  inanimate  tablets, 
meaningless  inscriptions,  or,  in  the  best  case,  to 
coarse  ancestral  spirits  and  beings  without  intelli- 
gence.^ If  we  believe  the  former,  the  ancient  deism 
of  China  approached  the  purity  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion ;  if  we  listen  to  the  latter,  the  absurd  fetishism 
of  the  multitude  degenerated  amongst  the  educated 
into  systematic  materialism  and  atheism.  In  answer 
to  the  peremptory  texts  quoted  by  one  party,  the 
other  adduced  the  glosses  of  accredited  interpreters, 
and  the  dispute  of  the  missionaries  who  had  lived  in 
China  and  knew  Chinese,  had  to  be  settled  in  the 
last  instance  by  a  decision  of  the  see  of  Rome. 

'  Abel  Remusat,  Milangest,  p.  162. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

There  is  hardly  any  religion  that  has  been  studied 
in  its  sacred  literature,  and  watched  in  its  external 
worshij)  with  greater  care  than  the  modern  religion 
of  the  Hindus,  and  yet  it  would  be  extremely  hard 
to  give  a  faithful  and  intelligible  description  of  it. 
Most  people  who  have  lived  in  India  would  main- 
tain that  the  Indian  religion,  as  believed  in  and 
practised  at  present  by  the  mass  of  the  people,  is 
idol-worship  and  nothing  else.  But  let  us  hear  one 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  a  Hindu  of  Benares,  who 
in  a  lecture  delivered  before  an  English  and  native 
audience  defends  his  faith  and  the  faith  of  his  fore- 
fathers against  such  sweeping  accusations.  *  If  by 
idolatry,'  he  says,  '  is  meant  a  system  of  worship 
which  confines  our  ideas  of  the  Deity  to  a  mere 
image  of  clay  or  stone,  which  prevents  our  hearts 
from  being  expanded  and  elevated  with  lofty  notions 
of  the  attributes  of  God,  if  this  is  what  is  meant  by 
idolatry,  we  disclaim  idolatry,  we  abhor  idolatry,  and 
deplore  the  ignorance  or  uncharitableuess  of  those 
that  charge  us  with  this  grovelling  system  of  wor- 
ship   But  if,  firmly  believing,  as  we  do, 

in  the  omnipresence  of  God,  we  behold,  by  the  aid 
of  our  imagination,  in  the  form  of  an  image  any  of 
His  glorious  manifestations,  ought  we  to  be  charged 
with  identifying  them  with  the  matter  of  the  image, 
whilst  during  those  moments  of  sincere  and  fervent 
devotion,  we  do  not  even  think  of  matter?  If  at 
the  sight  of  a  portrait  of  a  beloved  and  venerated 
friend  no  longer  existing  in  this  world,  our  heart 
is  filled  with  sentiments  of  love  and  reverence ;  if 
we  fancy  him  present  in  the  picture,  still  looking 
upon  us  with  his  woated  tenderness  and  afiection, 


INTEODUCTION.  ]] 

and  then  indulge  our  feelings  of  love  and  gratitude, 
should  we  be  charged  with  offering  the  grossest 
insult  to  him — that  of  fancying  him  to  be  no  other 
than  a  piece  of  painted  paper  ?  .  .  .  .  We  really 
lament  the  iernorance  or  uncharitableness  of  those 
who  confound  our  representative  worship  with  the 
Phenician,  Grecian,  or  Eoman  idolatry  as  repre- 
sented by  European  writers,  and  then  charge  us  with 
polytheism  in  the  teeth  of  thousands  of  texts  in  the 
Puran.as,  declaring  in  clear  and  unmistakeable  terms 
that  there  is  but  one  God  who  manifests  Himself 
as  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Rudra  (Siva)  in  his  func- 
tions of  creation,  preservation,  and  destruction.*  ^ 

In  support  of  these  statements,  this  eloquent 
advocate  quotes  numerous  passages  from  the  sacred 
literature  of  the  Brahmans,  and  he  sums  up  his 
view  of  the  three  manifestations  of  the  Deity  in 
the  words  of  their  great  poet  Kalidasa,  as  translated 
by  Mr.  Griffith : 

In  those  Three  Persons  the  One  God  was  shown, 
Each  First  in  place,  each  Last — not  one  alone  ;    • 
Of  <Siva,  Vish«u,  Brahma,  each  may  be 
First,  second,  third,  among  the  Blessed  Three. 

If  such  contradictory  views  can  be  held  and 
defended  with  regard  to  religious  systems  still  pre- 
valent amongst  us,  where  we  can  cross-examine 
living  witnesses,  and  appeal  to  chapter  and  verse  in 

'  The  modern  pandit's  reply  to  the  missionary  who  accuses  him 
of  poly  theism  is :  'Oh,  these  are  only  various  manifestations  of  the 
one  God;  the  same  as,  though  the  sun  be  one  in  the  heavens,  yet  he 
appears  in  multiform  reflections  upon  the  lake.  The  various  sects 
are  only  different  entrances  to  the  one  city.' — See  W.  W.  Hunter, 
Annals  of  Rural  Bengal,  p.  116  ;  and  Medhurst  on  Shins  in  China, 
inliis  'Inquiry  on  the  Proper  Mode  of  Translating  liuach.^ 


12  IKTRODUCTION. 

their  sacred  writings,  wliat  must  th.e  difficulty  be 
when  we  have  to  deal  with  the  religions  of  the 
past?  I  do  not  wish  to  disguise  these  difficulties, 
which  are  inherent  in  a  comparative  study  of  the 
religions  of  the  world.  I  rather  dwell  on.  them 
strongly,  in  oj'der  to  show  how  much  care  and 
caution  is  required  in  so  difficult  a  subject,  and  how 
much  indulgence  should  be  shown  in  judging  of  the 
shortcomings  and  errors  that  are  unavoidable  in  so 
comprehensive  a  study.  It  was  supposed  at  one 
time  that  a  comparative  analysis  of  the  languages 
of  mankind  must  transcend  the  powers  of  man :  and 
yet  by  the  combined  and  well-directed  efforts  of 
many  scholars,  great  results  have  here  been  obtained, 
and  the  principles  that  must  guide  the  student  of 
the  Science  of  Language  are  now  firmly  established. 
It  will  be  the  same  with  the  Science  of  Eeligion. 
By  a  proper  division  of  labour,  the  materials  that 
are  still  wanting  will  be  collected  and  published  and 
translated,  and  when  that  is  done,  surely  man  will 
never  rest  till  he  has  discovered  the  purpose  that 
runs  through  the  religions  of  manldud,  and  till  he  has 
reconstructed  the  true  Civitas  Dei  on  founda- 
tions as  wide  as  the  ends  of  the  world.  The  Science 
of  Keligion  may  be  the  last  of  the  sciences  which 
man  is  destined  to  elaborate  ;  but  when  it  is  elabo- 
rated, it  will  change  the  aspect  of  the  world,  and 
give  a  new  life  to  Christianity  itself. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Church,  though  living  in  much 
more  dangerous  proximity  to  the  ancient  religions 
of  the  Gentiles,  admitted  freely  that  a  comparison 
of  Christianity  and  other  religions  was  useful.  '  If 
there  is  any  agreement,'  Basilius  remarked, '  between 


raTEODUCTION.  13 

tlieir  [the  Greeks']  doctrines  and  our  own,  it  may 
benefit  us  to  know  them :  if  not,  then  to  compare 
them,  and  to  learn  how  they  differ,  will  help  not  a 
little  towards  confirming  that  which  is  the  better  of 
the  two.'' 

But  this  is  not  the  only  advantage  of  a  compara- 
tive study  of  religions.  The  Science  of  Religion 
will  for  the  first  time  assign  to  Christianity  its  right 
place  among  the  religions  of  the  world  ;  it  will  show 
for  the  first  time  fully  what  was  meant  by  the  ful- 
ness of  time ;  it  will  restore  to  the  whole  history 
of  the  world,  in  its  unconscious  progress  towards 
Christianity,  its  true  and  sacred  character. 

Not  many  years  ago  great  offence  was  given  by 
an  eminent  writer  who  remarked  that  the  time  had 
come  when  the  history  of  Christianity  should  be 
treated  in  a  truly  historical  spirit,  in  the  same  spirit 
in  which  we  treat  the  history  of  other  religions,  such 
as  Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  or  Mohammedanism. 
And  yet  what  can  be  truer?  He  must  be  a  man 
of  little  faith  who  would  fear  to  subject  his  own 
religion  to  the  same  critical  tests  to  which  the 
historian  subjects  all  other  religious.  We  need  not 
surely  crave  a  tender  or  merciful  treatment  for  that 
faith  which  we  hold  to  be  the  only  true  one.  We 
should  rather  challenge  for  it  the  severest  tests  and 
trials,  as  the  sailor  would  for  the  good  ship  to  which 
he  entrusts  his  own  life,  and  the  lives  of  those  who 
are  most  dear  to  him.     Tn  the  Science  of  Eeligion, 

'  Basilius,  '  De  legendis  Grjec.  libris,'  c.  v.  Ei  ^€;'  oZu  ia-rl  nr 
oiKeicJTTjr  wphs  aWriXovs  to7s  \6yois,  irpofjpyov  hv  t]/.i7u  avToiv  tj  yvSxris 
yevoiTO.  el  5e  /u^,  dW^  t6  ye  irapdWijXa  Bivras  Karay-aOelv  rh  bia4>opov, 
oh  fxiKphw  els  pffialaxTtv  fieXrlovos, 


14:  INTEODUCTION. 

we  can  decline  no  comparisons,  nor  claim  any  immu- 
nities for  Christianity,  as  little  as  the  missionary  can, 
when  wrestling  with  the  subtle  Brahman,  or  with  the 
fanatical  Mussulman,  or  the  plain-speaking  Zulu. 
And  if  we  send  out  our  missionaries  to  every  part 
of  the  world  to  face  every  kind  of  religion,  to  shrink 
from  no  contest,  to  be  appalled  by  no  objections,  we 
must  not  give  way  at  home  or  within  our  own  hearts 
to  any  misgivings,  lest  a  comparative  study  of  the 
religions  of  the  world  should  shake  the  firm  founda- 
tions on  which  we  must  stand  or  fall. 

To  the  missionary  more  particularly  a  compara- 
tive study  of  the  religions  of  mankind  will  be,  I 
believe,  of  the  greatest  assistance.  Missionaries  are 
apt  to  look  upon  all  other  religions  as  something 
totally  distinct  from  their  own,  as  formerly  they 
used  to  describe  the  languages  of  barbarous  nations 
as  something  more  like  the  twittering  of  birds 
than  the  articulate  speech  of  men.  The  Science  of 
Language  has  taught  us  that  there  is  order  and 
wisdom  in  all  languages,  and  that  even  the  most 
degraded  jargons  contain  the  ruins  of  former  great- 
ness and  beauty.  The  Science  of  Eeligion,  I  hope, 
will  produce  a  similar  change  in  our  views  of  barba- 
rous forms  of  faith  and  worship ;  and  missionaries, 
instead  of  looking  only  for  points  of  diflFerence,  will 
look  out  more  anxiously  for  any  common  ground, 
any  spark  of  the  true  light  that  may  still  be  revived, 
any  altar  that  may  be  dedicated  afresh  to  the  true 
God.  » 

'  Joguth  Chundra  Gangooly,  a  native  convert,  says:  'I  know 
from  personal  experience  that  the  Hindu  Scriptures  have  a  great 
deal  of  truth.    ...  If  you  go  to  India,  and  examine  the  common 


INTEODUCTIOX.  1 5 

And  even  to  us  at  home,  a  wider  view  of  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  world  may  prove  a  very  useful  lesson. 
Immense  as  is  the  difference  between  our  own  and 
all  other  religions  of  the  world — and  few  can  know 
that  difference  who  have  not  honestly  examined  the 
foundations  of  their  own  as  well  as  of  other  re- 
ligions— the  position  which  believers  and  unbelievers 
occupy  with  regard  to  their  various  forms  of  ftiith 
is  very  much  the  same  all  over  the  world.  The 
difiiculties  which  trouble  us  have  troubled  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  men  as  far  back  as  we  can  trace  the 
beginnings  of  religious  life.  The  great  problems 
touching  the  relation  of  the  Finite  to  the  Infinite, 
of  the  human  mind  as  the  recipient,  and  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  as  the  source  of  truth,  are  old  problems 
indeed :  and  while  watching  their  appearance  in 
different  countries,  and  their  treatment  under  vary- 
ing circumstances,  we  shall  be  able,  I  believe,  to 
profit  ourselves,  both  by  the  errors  which  others 
committed  before  us,  and  by  the  truth  which  they 
discovered.  We  shall  know  the  rocks  that  threaten 
every  religion  in  this  changing  and  shifting  world 
of  ours,  and  having  watched  many  a  storm  of  re- 
ligious controversy  and  many  a  shipwreck  in  distant 

sayings  of  the  people,  you  will  be  surprised  to  see  what  a  splendid 
religion  the  Hindu  religion  must  be.  Even  the  most  ignorant 
women  have  proverbs  that  are  full  of  the  purest  religion.  Now  I 
am  not  going  to  India  to  injure  their  feelings  by  saying,  '*  Your 
Scripture  is  all  nonsense,  is  good  for  nothing;  anything  outside  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  is  a  humbug."  No ;  I  tell  you  I  will 
appeal  to  the  Hindu  philosophers,  and  moralists,  and  poets,  at  the 
same  time  bringing  to  them  my  light,  and  reasoning  with  them  in 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  That  will  be  my  work.' — '  A  Brief  Account  of 
Jognth  Chundra  Gangooly,  a  Brahmin  and  a  Convert  to  Christianity.' 
ChHstian  Reformer,  August,  1860. 


16  INTEODUCTION. 

seas,  we  sTiall  face  with  greater  calmness  and  pru- 
dence the  troubled  waters  at  home. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  a  comparative  study 
of  religions  places  in  the  clearest  light,  it  is  the  in- 
evitable decay  to  which  every  religion  is  exposed. 
It  may  seem  almost  like  a  truism,  that  no  religion 
can  continue  to  be  what  it  was  during  the  lifetime 
of  its  founder  and  its  first  apostles.  Tet  it  is  but 
seldom  borne  in  mind  that  without  constant  reforma- 
tion, i.e.  without  a  constant  return  to  its  fountain- 
head,  every  religion,  even  the  most  perfect — nay  the 
most  perfect,  on  account  of  its  very  perfection,  more 
even  than  others — suffers  from  its  contact  with  the 
world,  as  the  purest  air  suffers  from  the  mere  fact  of 
being  breathed. 

Whenever  we  can  trace  back  a  religion  to  its  first 
beginnings,  we  find  it  free  from  many  of  the  blemishes 
that  offend  us  in  its  later  phases.  The  founders 
of  the  ancient  religions  of  the  world,  as  far  as  we  can 
judge,  were  minds  of  a  high  stamp,  full  of  noble 
aspirations,  yearning  for  truth,  devoted  to  the  wel- 
fare of  their  neighbours,  examples  of  purity  and  un- 
selfishness. What  they  desired  to  found  upon  earth 
was  but  seldom  realised,  and  their  sayings,  if  pre- 
served in  their  original  form,  often  offer  a  strange 
contrast  to  the  practice  of  those  who  profess  to  be 
their  disciples.  As  soon  as  a  religion  is  established, 
and  more  particularly  when  it  has  become  the  re- 
ligion of  a  powerful  state,  the  foreign  and  worldly 
elements  encroach  more  and  more  on  the  original 
foundation,  and  human  interests  mar  the  simplicity 
and  purity  of  the  plan  which  the  founder  had  con- 
ceived in  his  own  heart,  and  matured  in  his  com- 


INTEODUCTION.  17 

munings  with  his  God.     Even  those  who  lived  with 
Buddha  misunderstood  his  words,  and  at  the  Great 
Council  which  had  to  settle  the  Buddhist  canon,  Asoha, 
the  Indian  Constantine  had  to  remind  the  assembled 
priests  that  '  what  had  been  said  by  Buddha,  that 
alone  was  well  said.''    With  every  century,  Buddhism, 
when  it  was  accepted  by  nations  differing  so   widely 
as   Mongols  and  Hindus,  when  its  sacred  writings 
were    translated    into    languages    as  far   apart  as 
Sanskrit  and  Chinese,  assumed  widely  different  as- 
pects,  till  at  last  the  Buddhism  of  the  Shamans  in 
the  steppes  of  Tartary  became  as  different  from  the 
teaching  of  the  original  Sama7ia,  as  the  Christianity 
of  the  leader  of  the  Chinese  rebels  is  from  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ.     If    missionaries  could  show  to  the 
Brahmans,  the  Buddhists,  the  Zoroastrians,  nay,  even 
to  the  Mohammedans,  how  much  their  present  faith 
differs   from    the     faith    of    their   forefathers    and 
founders,   if  they  could  place  in    their    hands  and 
read  with  them  in  a  kindly  spirit  the  original  docu- 
ments on  which  these  various  religions  profess  to  be 
founded,  and  enable  them  to  distinguish  between  the 
doctrines  of  their  own  sacred  books  and  the  additions 
of  later  ages,  an   important  advantage   would    be 
gained,  and   the    choice  between  Christ  and  other 
Masters  would  be  rendered  far  more  easy  to  many  a 
truth-seeking  soul.     But  for  that  purpose  it  is  neces- 
sary that  we  too  should  see  the  beam  in  our  own  eyes, 
and  learn  to  distinguish  between  the  Christianity  of 

'  Second  Bairat  Inscription,  in  Cunningham,  Corjms  In.tcriptiomim. 
Indicarum,  p.  97:  'Bhagavatu,  Budhena  bhusite  save  se  subhasite  va.' 
1Lqtx\,  Indian  Antiquary,  vol.  v.,  p.  257.  Oldenberg,  Vinaya,  intro- 
duction, p.  xl.     Burnouf,  Lotus  de  la  houne  Loi,  Appendice,  No,  X., 

VOL.  I.  0 


18  INTRODUCTION, 

tlie  nineteenth  century  and  the  religion  of  Christ. 
If  we  find  that  the  Christianity  of  the  nineteenth 
century  does  not  Avin  as  many  hearts  iu  India  and 
China  as  it  ought,  let  us  remember  that  it  was  the 
Christianity  of  the  first  century  in  all  its  dogmatic 
simplicity,  but  with  its  overpowering  love  of  God  and 
man,  that  conquered  the  world  and  superseded  re- 
ligions and  philosophies,  more  difficult  to  conquer 
than  the  religious  and  philosophical  systems  of 
Hindus  and  Buddhists.  If  we  can  teach  something 
to  the  Brahmans  in  reading  with  them  their  sacred 
hymns,  they  too  can  teach  us  something  when  read- 
ing with  us  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Never  shall  I  for- 
get the  deep  despondency  of  a  Hindu  convert,  a 
real  martyr  to  his  faith,  who  had  pictured  to  him- 
self from  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament  what  a 
Christian  country  must  be,  and  who  when  he  came 
to  Europe  found  everything  so  different  from,  what 
he  had  imagined  in  his  lonely  meditations  at  Be- 
nares !  It  was  the  Bible  only  that  saved  him  from 
returning  to  his  old  religion,  and  helped  him  to 
discern  beneath  theological  futilities,  accumulated 
during  nearly  two  thousand  years,  beneath  phari- 
saical  hypocrisy,  infidelity,  and  want  of  charity,  the 
buried,  but  still  living  seed,  committed  to  the  earth 
by  Christ  and  His  Apostles.  How  can  a  missionary  in 
such  circumstances  meet  the  surprise  and  question- 
ings of  his  pupils,  unless  he  may  point  to  that  seed, 
and  tell  them  what  Christianity  was  meant  to  be : 
unless  he  may  show  that,  like  all  other  religions, 
Christianity,  too,  has  had  its  history ;  that  the 
Christianity  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  not  the 
Christianity  of  the  Middle   Ages,  that  the    Chris- 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

tianity  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  not  that  of  the  early 
Councils,  that  the  Christianity  of  the  early  Councils 
was  not  that  of  the  Apostles,  and  '  that  what  has  been 
said  by  Christ,  that  alone  was  well  said  '  ? 

The  advantages,  however,  which  missionaries  and 
other  defenders  of  the  faith  will  gain  from  a  com- 
parative study  of  religions,  though  important  here- 
after, are  not  at  present  the  chief  object  of  these 
researches.  In  order  to  maintain  their  scientific 
character,  they  must  be  independent  of  all  extraneous 
considerations  :  they  must  aim  at  truth,  trusting  that 
even  unj)alatable  truths,  like  unpalatable  medicine, 
will  reinvigorate  the  system  into  which  they  enter. 
To  those,  no  doubt,  who  value  the  tenets  of  their  re- 
ligion as  the  miser  values  his  pearls  and  j^recious 
stones,  thinking  their  value  lessened  if  pearls  and 
stones  of  the  same  kind  are  found  in  other  parts  of 
the  world,  the  Science  of  Religion  will  bring  many 
a  rude  shock  ;  but  to  the  true  believer,  truth  wher- 
ever it  aj^pears  is  welcome,  nor  Avill  any  doctrine 
seem  the  less  true  or  the  less  precious  because  it  was 
seen,  not  only  by  Moses  or  Christ,  but  likewise  by 
Buddha  or  Laotse.  It  should  never  be  forgotten 
that  while  a  comparison  of  ancient  religions  will  cer- 
tainly show  that  some  of  the  most  vital  articles  of 
faith  are  the  common  property  of  the  whole  of 
mankind,  at  least  of  all  who  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply 
they  might  feel  after  Him,  and  find  Him,  the  same 
comparison  alone  can  possibly  teach  us  what  is 
peculiar  to  Christianity,  and  V7hat  has  secured  to  it 
that  pre-eminent  position  which  now  it  holds  in 
spite  of  all  obloquy.  The  gain  ^fill  be  greater  than  the 

c  2 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

loss,  if  loss  there  be,  which  I,  at  least,  can  never 
admit. 

There  is  a  strong  feeling,  I  know,  in  the  minds  of 
all  people  against  any  attempt  to  treat  their  own  re- 
ligion as  a  member  of  a  class,  and  in  one  sense  that 
feeling  is  perfectly  justified.  To  each  individual, 
his  own  religion,  if  he  really  believes  in  it,  is  some- 
thing quite  inseparable  from  himself,  something 
unique,  that  cannot  be  compared  to  anything  else, 
or  replaced  by  anything  else.  Our  own  religion  is,  in 
that  respect,  something  like  our  own  language.  In 
its  form  it  may  be  like  other  languages ;  in  its  essence 
and  its  relation  to  ourselves,  it  stands  alone  and  ad- 
mits of  no  peer  or  rival. 

But  in  the  history  of  the  world,  our  religion,  like 
our  own  language,  is  but  one  out  of  many  ;  and  in 
order  to  understand  fully  the  position  of  Christianity 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  its  true  place  among 
the  religions  of  mankind,  we  must  compare  it,  not 
with  Judaism  only,  but  with  the  religious  aspirations 
of  the  whole  world,  with  all,  in  fact,  that  Christianity 
came  either  to  destroy  or  to  fulfil.  From  this  point 
of  view  Christianity  forms  part,  no  doubt,  of  what 
people  call  profane  history,  but  by  that  very  fact, 
profane  history  ceases  to  be  profane,  and  regains 
throughout  that  sacred  character  of  which  it  had 
been  deprived  by  a  false  distinction.  The  ancient 
Fathers  of  the  Cliurch  spoke  on  these  subjects  with 
far  greater  freedom  than  we  venture  to  use  in  these 
days.  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  'Apology'  (a.d.  139), 
has  this  memorable  passage  (Apol.  i.  46) :  *'  One 
article  of  our  faith  then  is,  that  Christ  is  the  first- 
begotten  of  God,  and  we  have  already  proved  Him  to 
be  the  very  Logos  (or  universal  Reason),  of  which  man- 


INTKODUCTION.  21 

kind  are  all  partakers  ;  and  therefore  those  wlio  live  ac- 
cording to  the  Logos  are  Christians,  notwithstanding 
they  may  pass  with  you  for  Atheists ;  such  among 
the  Greeks  were  Sokrates  and  Herakleitos,  and  the 
like  ;  and  such  among  the  Barbarians  were  Abraham, 
and  Ananias,  and  Azarias,  and  Misael,  and  Elias,  and 
many  others,  whose  actions,  nay  whose  very  names, 
I  know  would  be  tedious  to  relate,  and  therefore 
shall  pass  them  over.  So,  on  the  other  side,  those 
who  have  lived  in  former  times  in  defiance  of  the 
Logos  or  Eeason,  were  evil,  and  enemies  to  Christ  and 
murderers  of  such  as  lived  according  to  the  Logos ; 
hut  they  who  have  made  or  maJce  the  Logos  or  Reason 
the  rule  of  their  actions  are  Christians,  and  men  with- 
out fear  and  trembling." 

*God,'  says  Clement  (200  A.D.),  'is  the  cause  of 
all  that  is  good  :  only  of  some  good  gifts  He  is  the 
primary  cause,  as  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  of 
others  the  secondary,  as  of  (Greek)  philosophy.  But 
even  philosophy  may  have  been  given  primarily  by 
Him  to  the  Greeks,  before  the  Lord  had  called  the 
Greeks  also.  For  that  philosophy,  like  a  schoolmaster, 
has  guided  the  Greeks  also,  as  the  Law  did  Israel, 
towards  Christ.  Philosophy,  therefore,  prepares  and 
opens  the  way  to  those  who  are  made  perfect  by 
Christ.' 2 

'  Thv  Xpiffrhv  ■irpcoT6T0K0v  TOvQfovelvat  fSiSaxdrmev,  Kol  irpoe;U7jj/u(raufy 
Aoyov  vvra,  ou  Tray  yivos  a.v6pwn<j}v  p-iricrxi  '  koI  ol  /tera  A6yov  fiidcravTes 
Xptariavol  eiVi,  k\i/  &d(oi  ivofu(T&r\(rav,  oTov  «VEAAT)(rt  ixev  'S.jiKpa.TTjs  Koi 
'HpoKAeiTOS  Koi  ol  dixoioi  ahrols,  eV  fiap^dpots  Se  ^Afipakfx  Koi  'Avavlas  Kol 
^ACapias  Kol  Mio-O7j\  Kol  *HAi«  Ka\  &\\oi  noWol,  uv  Tas  irpd^fis  f)  to. 
ov6jx<na  KaraXiyfiv  ixaKp^v  tluai  i-niaTdixivoi,  ravvv  irapanovfifda.  u'CTTf 
Ka\  ol  Trpoyev6ixivoi  &viv  A6yov  fiidi(Tai'Tfs,  itXPI"'''''"  '^"■'^  ^X^P"^  '''V  XpicrT<J5 
?iaav,  Kol  (povus  twp  fina  Adyov  ^iovvroiv  ol  5e  /xfra  A6yov  fiiwaavrfs 
Kol  ^lOvvTis  XpiffTiavol  Koi  &<po$oi  Kol  OTapoxot  virdpxovaiv. 

^  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  lib.  I.  cap.  v.  §    28.     TldfTwu  ntv  yap  afxio? 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

And  again  :  '  It  is  clear  that  the  same  God  to 
whom  we  owe  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  gave 
also  to  the  Greeks  their  Greek  philosophy  by  which 
the  Almighty  is  glorified  among  the  Greeks.'' 

And  Clement  was  by  no  means  the  only  one  who 
spoke  tlins  freely  and  fearlessly,  though,  no  doubt, 
his  knowledge  of  Greek  philosophy  qualified  him 
better  than  many  of  his  contemporaries  to  speak 
with  authoi'ity  on  such  subjects. 

St.  Augustine  writes :  '  If  the  Gentiles  also  had 
possibly  something  divine  and  true  in  their  doctrines, 
our  Saints  did  not  find  fault  with  it,  although  for 
their  superstition,  idolatr}-,  and  pride,  and  other  evil 
habits,  they  had  to  be  detested,  and,  unless  they 
improved,  to  be  punished  by  divine  judgment.  For 
the  apostle  Paul,  when  he  said  something  about 
God  among  the  Athenians,  quoted  the  testimony  of 
some  of  the  Greeks  who  had  said  something  of  the 
same  kind :  and  this,  if  they  came  to  Christ,  would 
be  acknowledged  in  them,  and  not  blamed.  Saint 
Cyj)rian,  too,  uses  such  witnesses  against  the  Gentiles. 
For  when  he  speaks  of  the  Magians,  he  says  that 
the  chief  among  them,  Hostanes,  maintains  that  the 
true  God  is  invisible,  and  that  true  angels  sit  at 
His  throne ;  and  that  Plato  agrees    with  this,  and 

Tuiv  KaXwv  6  Qehs,  aWa  rtav  fihu  Kara  irporiyuvfxevou,  ds  t?75  re  5ia07J/cT)s 
TTjs  TTaXaias  Kol  ttjs  Vias,  rwv  5e  kot'  eiraKoXovdriixa,  iis  Trjs  <pi\oa'o(pias' 
To-xo.  5e  KOL  Trpo7tyovfiev(i!s  toTs  "EWriati/  eS(J(??j  tJt6  -nplu  fj  rhv  Kvpiov 
KaXfffat  Kol  Tovs"EWr]vas.  'KiraiBaywyei  yap  Kal  outtj  rh  'EWriVLKhv  iis 
6  i>6fxos  Tovs  'E^paious  (Is  XpL(TT6v.  TrpoTrapaffKivd^ei  roivvv  rj  cpt\o(ro(pla 
vpooSoiroiovcra  rbv  iiirh  XpiaTov  TeKfiov/xevuv. 

'  Strom,  lib.  VI.  cap.  v.  §  42.  Vphs  Si  Kal  '6ti  6  avrhs  Qehs  ajj.(t>o7i/ 
Touv  SiaOiiKaiv  x"P''iy^s,  6  Koi  Trjs  'EAXriviiirjs  <pi\oao(pias  SoTr]pTots"E\\r,<ni'. 
Si'   i]s    6    irai'TOKpdru'p    irap'  "EWr]in    5o^a(,"?Ta(,   TrapfaTTjcrev,     SrjXov    8e 

KCLt/dfuSe, 


INTEODUCTION.  23 

believes  in  one  God,  considering  the  others  to  be 
angels  or  demons ;  and  that  Hermes  Trismegistus 
also  speaks  of  one  God,  and  confesses  that  He  is 
incomprehensihle.'  (Augustinus,  '  De  Baptismo  con- 
tra Donatistas,'  lib.  VI.  cap.  xliv.) 

Every  religion,  even  the  most  imperfect  and 
degraded,  has  something  that  ought  to  be  sacred 
to  us,  for  there  is  in  all  religions  a  secret  yearning 
after  the  true,  though  unknown,  God.  Whether 
we  see  the  Papua  squatting  in  dumb  medita- 
tion before  his  fetish,  or  whether  we  listen  to 
Firdusi  exclaiming :  '  Of  the  world  the  height  and 
the  depth  art  thou  ; — I  know  not  what  thou  art ; 
whatever  is,  art  thou '  (see  Ouseley,  '  Persian  Poets/ 
p.  90) — we  ought  to  feel  that  the  place  whereon 
we  stand  is  holy  ground.  There  are  philosophers, 
no  doubt,  to  whom  both  Christianity  and  all  other 
religions  are  exploded  errors,  things  belonging  to 
the  past,  and  to  be  replaced  by  more  positive 
knowledge.  To  them  the  study  of  the  religions 
of  the  world  could  only  have  a  pathological  interest, 
and  their  hearts  could  never  warm  at  the  sparks 
of  truth  that  light  up,  like  stars,  the  dark  yet 
glorious  night  of  the  ancient  world.  They  tell  us 
that  the  world  has  passed  through  the  phases  of 
religious  and  metaphysical  errors,  in  order  to  arrive 
at  the  safe  haven  of  positive  knowledge  of  facts. 
But  if  they  would  but  study  positive  facts,  if  they 
would  but  read,  patiently  and  thoughtfully,  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  as  it  is,  not  as  it  might  have 
been :  they  would  see  that,  as  in  geology,  so  in  the 
history  of  human  thought,  theoretic  uniformity  does 
not  exist,  and  that  the  past  is  never  altogether  lost. 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

The  oldest  formations  of  thought  crop  out  every- 
Avhere,  and  if  we  dig  but  deep  enough,  we  shall  find 
that  even  the  sandy  desert  in  which  we  are  asked  to 
live  rests  everywhere  on  the  firm  foundation  of  that 
primeval,  yet  indestructible,  granite  of  the  human 
soul — religious  faith. 

There  are  other  philosophers,  again,  who  would 
fain  narrow  the  limits  of  the  Divine  government  of 
the  world  to  the  history  of  the  Jewish  and  of  the 
Christian  nations,  who  would  grudge  the  very  name 
of  religion  to  the  ancient  creeds  of  the  world :  nay, 
to  whom  the  name  of  natural  religion  has  almost 
become  a  term  of  reproach.  To  them,  too,  I  should 
like  to  say  that  if  they  would  but  study  positive 
facts,  if  they  would  but  read  their  own  Bible,  they 
would  find  that  the  greatness  of  Divine  Love  cannot 
be  measured  by  human  standards,  and  that  God  has 
never  forsaken  a  single  human  soul  that  has  not 
first  forsaken  Him.  *  He  hath  made  of  one  blood 
all  nations  of  men,  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of 
the  earth;  and  hath  determined  the  times  before 
appointed,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation ;  that 
they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel 
after  Him,  and  find  Him,  though  He  be  not  far  from 
every  one  of  us.'  If  they  would  but  dig  deep  enough, 
they,  too,  would  find  that  what  they  contemptuously 
call  natural  religion  is  in  reality  the  greatest  gift 
that  God  has  bestowed  on  the  children  of  man,  and 
that  without  it  revealed  religion  itself  would  have 
no  firm  foundation,  no  living  roots  in  the  heart 
of  man. 

If  by  the  essays  here  collected  I  should  succeed 
in  attracting   more   general   attention   towards   an 


INTRODUCTION.  26 

independent,  jet  reverent,  study  of  the  ancient  reli- 
gions of  tlie  world,  and  in  dispelling  some  of  the 
prejudices  with  which  so  many  have  regarded  the 
yearnings  after  truth  embodied  in  the  sacred  writings 
of  the  Brahmans,  the  Zoroastrians,  and  the  Bud- 
dhists, in  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
nay,  even  in  the  wild  traditions  and  degraded 
customs  of  Polynesian  savages,  I  shall  consider 
myself  amply  rewarded  for  the  labour  which  they 
have  cost  me.  That  they  are  not  free  from  errors, 
in  spite  of  a  careful  revision  to  which  they  have  been 
submitted  before  I  published  them  in  this  collection, 
I  am  fully  aware,  and  I  shall  be  grateful  to  anyone 
who  will  point  them  out,  little  concerned  whether 
it  is  done  in  a  seemly  or  unseemly  manner,  as  long 
as  some  new  truth  is  elicited,  or  some  old  error 
eflfectually  exploded.  Though  I  have  thought  it 
right  in  preparing  these  essays  for  publication,  to 
alter  what  I  could  no  longer  defend  as  true,  and  also, 
though  rarely,  to  add  some  new  facts  that  seemed 
essential  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  what  I 
wished  to  prove,  yet  in  the  main  they  have  been  left 
as  they  were  originally  published.  I  regret  that,  in 
consequence,  certain  statements  of  facts  and  opinions 
are  repeated  in  different  articles  in  almost  the  same 
words ;  but  it  will  easily  be  seen  that  this  could  not 
have  been  avoided  without  either  breaking  the  con- 
tinuity of  an  argument,  or  rewriting  large  portions 
of  certain  essays.  If  what  is  contained  in  these 
repetitions  is  true  and  right,  I  may  appeal  to  a  high 
authority  *  that  in  this  country  true  things  and  right 
things  require  to  be  repeated  a  great  many  times.' 
If  otherwise,  the  very  repetition  will  provoke  cri- 


26     ^  INTRODUCTION. 

tieism  and  ensure  refutation.  I  have  added  to  all 
the  articles  the  dates  when  they  were  written,  these 
dates  ranging  over  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  I  must 
beg  my  readers  to  bear  these  dates  in  mind  when 
judging  both  of  the  form  and  the  matter  of  these 
contributions  towards  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
creeds  and  praj-ers,  the  legends  and  customs,  the 
languages  and  dialects  of  the  ancient  world. 

Ojfonl,  1867. 


THE  NINTH  INTEENATIONAL  CONGEESS 
OF   OEIENTALISTS,  1892. 


PRESIDENTIAL   ADDRESS. 

IT  is  generally  at  the  end,  not  at  the  beginning, 
of  scientific  meetings  that  votes  of  thanks  are 
proposed.  But  in  our  case,  when  we  owe  our  very 
existence  to  the  valuable  help  received  from  so  many 
quarters,  it  seems  but  right  that  we  should  express 
our  gratitude  at  the  very  outset. 

Our  first  thanks  are  due  to  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of 
York,  for  having  granted  us  that  sympathy  and 
gracious  support  without  which,  I  am  afraid,  our 
Congress  would  never  have  drawn  its  first  breath, 
and  our  labours  might  indeed  have  been  in  vain. 

We  could  not  venture  to  disturb  a  father  s  grief  and 
ask  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  grant  us  his  royal 
protection.  But  His  Royal  Highness  has  testified  the 
warm  interest  which  he  feels  for  our  Congress,  as  for 
everything  that  is  likely  to  draw  the  bonds  of  friend- 
ship between  England  and  her  great  Indian  Empire 
more  closely  together,  by  authorising  H.R.H.  the  Duke 
of  York  to  act  at  the  present  Congress  as  the  worthy 
successor  of  H.M.  the   King   of  Sweden,  the   Royal 


28  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

Patron  of  our  last  Congress.  In  granting  us  his  royal 
protection  the  Duke  of  York  has  but  proved  himself 
the  true  son  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  worthy  grand- 
son of  the  Queen,  and  has  shown  once  more  to  the 
world,  that  nothing  which  concerns  the  highest  interests 
of  India  can  ever  fail  to  evoke  the  warmest  sympathies 
on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  a  Divine  Providence  has 
entrusted  the  Crown  and  the  care  of  that  glorious 
Empire.  We  regret  the  unavoidable  absence  of  H.R.H. 
the  Duke  of  York  to-day  ;  but  we  all  rejoice  that  his 
place  has  been  filled  by  one  of  the  wisest  and  most 
beloved  Viceroys  of  India,-the  President  of  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society,  the  Earl  of  Northbrook. 

We  have  next  to  express  our  thanks  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  India  and  to  the  illustrious  Members  of  his 
Council,  for  having  given  us  every  encouragement  in 
theii'  power  for  successfully  carrying  out  an  under- 
taking which  has  excited  a  widespread  interest  in 
India,  and  has  received  powerful  approval  and  sup- 
port from  some  of  the  most  respected  leaders  of  public 
opinion  in  that  country. 

It  has  been  said  indeed  that,  in  a  free  country  like 
England,  a  Scientific  Congress  should  not  look  for  royal 
favour  and  protection,  or  for  help  from  Government. 
But  it  seems  to  me,  on  the  contrary,  that  in  a  country 
like  England,  which  is  called  a  free  country,  because 
its  Government  is  truly  representative  of  the  will  of 
the  people,  and  because  the  Crown  is  so  completely 
identified  with  all  that  is  good  and  noble  in  the 
aspirations  of  science  and  art,  the  absence  of  royal 
patronage  and  governmental  support  would  have 
conveyed  a  very  false  impression. 

What  would  the  people  of  India  have  thought  if 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  29 

this  meeting  of  scholars  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  improvement 
and  enlargement  of  our  knowledge  of  the  East,  after 
having  been  recognised  and  patronised  by  the  Sove- 
reigns and  their  Ministers  in  every  country  of  Europe 
in  which  they  met  before,  had  been  ignored  or  slighted 
in  England  ?  And  what  would  those  scholars  them- 
selves  have  said  who  remember  the  kindness  with 
which  they  were  received  in  France,  Italy,  Germany, 
Holland,  Austria,  Russia,  and  last,  not  least,  in 
Sweden,  if  in  this,  the  greatest  Oriental  Empire  which 
the  world  has  ever  known,  the  Government,  and 
more  particularly  the  Indian  Government,  had  de- 
clined to  give  the  same  hospitable  welcome  to  the 
Delegates  of  other  countries,  which  the  Delegates  of 
the  Indian  Government  have  accepted  year  after  year 
from  foreign  Governments'? 

By  accepting  the  Honorary  Presidency  of  our 
Conoress,  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of  York  seems  to  me 
to  have  testified  his  conviction,  and  the  conviction 
of  the  nation  at  large,  that  the  East  can  never  be 
foreign  to  the  sympathy  of  the  people  of  England, 
and  that  thej^  consider  a  scholarlike  study  of  the 
literature  and  the  antiquities  of  their  great  Eastern 
Empire  as  deserving  of  every  encouragement,  and 
worthy  of  the  most  generous  support.  Need  I  add 
that  the  presence  of  the  Queen's  grandson  is  but 
another  proof,  if  any  proof  were  wanted,  that  Her 
Majesty  the  Queen,  the  first  Empress  of  India,  who 
has  so  often  shown  her  warm  and  tender  feelings  for 
her  Indian  subjects,  is  with  us  in  spirit,  and  wishes 
success  to  our  labours. 

We   have   next   to    express    our   gratitude   to  the 


30  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

Chancellor  and  Senate  of  the  University  of  London, 
to  the  President  and  Council  of  the  Royal  Society, 
to  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  to  the  Astronomical 
and  Geographical  Societies,  for  having  placed  some 
of  their  rooms  at  the  disposal  of  our  Congress.  The 
authorities  of  the  British  Museum  have  granted  us 
facilities  which  will  be  highly  appreciated  by  the 
members  of  our  Congress.  The  valuable  Library  and 
collections  at  the  India  Office  have  been  thrown  open 
to  all  our  guests.  They  will  find  there  in  Sir  George 
Eirdwood  a  most  valuable  guide,  as  well  as  in 
Dr.  Rost,  whose  services,  I  am  glad  to  say,  have 
been  retained  for  another  year  for  the  Library  of  the 
India  Office. 

Nor  would  it  be  right  for  me  to  open  this  Congress 
without  giving  expression  to  the  warmest  feelings 
of  gratitude  and  admiration,  which  all  who  had  the 
good  fortune  of  being  present  at  our  last  Congress 
in  Sweden  must  ever  entertain  for  our  Royal  Patron, 
His  Majesty  King  Oscar  of  Sweden  and  Norway. 
He  too  is  the  ruler  of  a  free  countr}^,  and  in  him  too 
we  could  recognise  the  true  representative  of  the  will 
and  wish  of  his  people.  The  brilliant  success  of  our 
Congress  at  Stockholm  and  Christiania  was  due  no 
doubt  to  the  popular  sj'mpathy  by  which  w^e  were 
greeted  everywhere,  and  the  truly  Scandinavian  hos- 
pitality with  which  we  were  received  in  every  town 
and  village  through  which  we  passed,  whether  in 
Sweden  or  in  Norway,  and  likewise  to  the  active 
participation  of  the  best  intellects  of  the  country  in 
our  labours.  Yet  it  was  an  exceptional  good  fortune 
that  His  Majesty  King  Oscar  should  personally  have 
felt  so  enthusiastic  an  interest  and  so  warm  a  love 


CONGllESS    OF    OraENTALISTS.  31 

fur  all  that  is  beautiful  in  the  East.  Not  only  did 
he  show  himself  the  most  gracious  host  and  most 
generous  patron,  but  he  made  time  to  sit  patiently 
through  our  lengthy  and  often  tedious  meetings. 
Who  can  ever  forget  his  noble  presence  when  he 
stepped  in  among  us,  every  inch  a  king,  a  head  and 
shoulders  taller  than  all  the  rest ;  and  who  was  not 
surprised  on  hearing  him  not  only  conversing  in  all 
the  languages  of  his  guests,  but  delivering  eloquent 
addresses  in  Swedish,  in  English,  in  German,  in 
French,  and  in  Italian,  nay,  bidding  us  all  farewell 
in  a  Latin  speech  full  of  vigour  and  kindliness? 
I  doubt  whether  at  any  former  Congress  so  much 
solid  work  was  done  as  at  Stockholm  and  Christiania. 
There  are  idlers  and  mere  camp-followers  at  every 
Congress;    but,  as  President  of  the  Aryan    section, 

1  can  bear  true  testimony  to  the  indefatigable  in- 
dustry of  our  members,  who  never  allowed  the 
festivities  of  the  evening  to  interfere  with  the  duties 
of  the  next  morning.  Our  minutes  and  transactions 
are  there  to  speak  for  themselves.  We  learn  from 
a  report  published  by  an  Indian  scholar,  Mr.  Dhruva, 
that  there  were  in  all  io6  papers  read  by  86  members, 
48  being  in   French,  '^']  in   German,  18   in  English, 

2  in  Italian,  and  several  by  Orientals  in  their  own 
lano"uages.  This  proves  once  more,  if  any  proof  were 
wanted,  how  popular  Oriental  studies  are  and  always 
have  been  in  France,  how  carefully  they  have  been 
fostered  by  the  French  Government,  and  how  much 
the  progress  of  true  scholarship  owes  to  the  brilliant 
genius,  and  even  more,  to  the  indefatigable  industry 
of  the  Oriental  scholars  of  France. 

His  Majesty  has  lately  given  us  a  new  proof  of 


32  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

his  continued  interest  in  the  principal  object  of  our 
Congresses,  the  advancement  of  sound  Oriental  scholar- 
ship. His  Majesty  has  deputed  his  personal  friend, 
Count  Landberg,  to  present  to  us  a  lasting  memorial 
of  his  Eoyal  favour,  a  Swedish  drinking-horn,  to  be 
handed  down  from  President  to  President,  and  he 
has  offered  a  gold  medal  for  an  essay  on  some  subject 
connected  with  Aryan  philology.  Like  many  of  our 
most  distinguished  guests,  Count  Landberg,  I  regret 
to  say,  has  been  prevented  by  quarantine  regulations 
from  attending  the  Congress  in  person. 

We  are  also  deeply  indebted  to  a  former  Patron, 
H.LH.  the  Archduke  Rainer,  who  has  never  ceased 
to  take  an  active  and  powerful  interest  in  the  success 
of  our  meetings.  You  know  what  we  owe  to  him 
and  to  his  princely  liberality  in  securing  the  unique 
treasures  of  Egyptian  papyri  which,  in  the  hands 
of  Professor  Karabacek  and  his  learned  colleagues, 
have  become  a  monumental  landmark  in  the  history 
of  Oriental  literature.  Another  of  our  Patrons,  H.R.H. 
Prince  Philip  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  might  claim  his 
place  among  us,  not  simply  as  a  Royal  Prince,  but 
as  a  learned  numismatist  and  a  persevering  and 
judicious  collector  of  Eastern  coins. 

You  will  probably  expect  me  to  say  a  few  words 
about  some  misunderstandings  and  personal  jealousies 
which  broke  out  after  our  last  Congress.  I  should 
much  prefer  to  say  nothing  about  these  truly  childish 
squabbles,  but  I  hope  I  shall  be  able  to  explain  and 
justify  our  position  without  giving  offence  to  any- 
body. At  the  end  of  our  former  Congresses  there  was 
generally  an  official  invitation  from  some  Government 
or  University,  asking  us  to  hold  our  next  Congress 


CONGHESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  33 

in  one  or  other  of  the  great  capitals  of  Europe. 
None  had  been  received  when  we  dispersed  after 
our  Scandinavian  Congress,  though  several  places 
had  been  privately  suggested.  As  we  had  no  per- 
manent Committee,  a  resolution  was  passed  by  the 
Congress,  according  to  the  oiBcial  minutes,  nnani- 
mously ;  or,  according  to  the  statements  of  certain 
members,  with  one  or  two  dissentient  voices,  that 
our  former  Presidents  should  be  requested  ^57'o  hac 
vice  to  form  such  a  Committee  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  receiving,  and  either  accepting  or  rejecting,  such 
invitations  as  might  be  sent  to  them.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  natural,  more  correct,  more  business- 
like in  every  respect.  But  a  French  savant,  M.  de 
Rosny,  and  some  of  his  friends,  professing  to  represent 
the  founders  of  our  Congresses,  and  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  the  Oriental  scholars  of  France — though 
many  of  these  French  scholars  have  declined  to 
accept  M.  de  Rosny  as  their  spokesman — suddenly 
protested  against  this  resolution  as  idtra  vires.  They 
appealed  to  a  body  of  Statutes  which  had  been 
drawn  up  in  1873  by  M.  de  Rosny  himself  and  those 
who  called  themselves  the  founders  of  these  Oriental 
Congresses.  These  Statutes,  it  is  now  admitted, 
had  never  been  discussed  in  pl^no,  and  never  been 
formally  ratified  by  any  subsequent  Congress.  And 
how  can  unratified  Statutes  claim  any  legal  or 
binding  character?  But  even  supposing  that  these 
Statutes,  unknown  to  most  of  the  members  of  our 
Congress,  and  never  appealed  to  before  when  they 
were  broken  year  after  year  by  their  very  authors, 
could  claim  any  legal  force,  it  can  hardly  be  disputed 
that  every  corporate  bod}^  which   has    the   right   of 

VOL.  T.  D 


34  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

drawing  up  Statutes  has  also  the  right  of  suspending 
or  over-riding  them  by  a  majority  of  votes.  Without 
such  a  right  no  Society  could  possibly  exist  and  cope 
successfully  with  the  sudden  emergencies  that  are 
sure  to  arise.  However,  though  the  members  of  the 
Oriental  Congress  could  not  recognise  the  exclusive 
proprietorship  in  these  international  Congresses  which 
M.  de  Rosny  and  his  confederates  claimed  for  them- 
selves, they  had  no  objection  whatever  to  a  friendly 
separation  of  elements  which  had  often  proved  dis- 
cordant at  former  Congresses.  It  seemed  to  many 
of  us  simply  a  case  of  what  is  called  development 
by  differentiation  or  growth  by  fission.  There  were 
at  former  Congresses  a  number  of  visitors^  most 
welcome  in  many  respects,  but  whose  tastes  and 
interests  differed  widely  from  those  of  the  majority ; 
and  though  we  should  never  have  parted  with  them 
of  our  own  free  will,  many  of  us  feel  that  we  shall 
be  better  able  to  maintain  the  character  of  our 
Congresses,  if  each  party  follows  its  own  way. 
There  will  be  in  future  the  so-called  Statutory 
Congresses  of  M.  de  Rosny  and  his  associates,  while 
we  shall  try  to  preserve  the  old  character  and  the 
continuity  of  the  International  Congress  of  Orien- 
talists, and  shall  gladly  welcome  some  of  the  old 
members  who  for  a  time  have  deserted  our  Congress. 
"What  we  chiefly  want  are  Oriental  scholars,  that 
is  to  say,  men  who  have  proved  themselves  able  to 
handle  their  own  spade,  and  who  have  worked  in 
the  sweat  of  their  brow  in  disinterring  tile  treasures 
of  Oriental  literature.  We  do  not  wish  to  exclude 
mere  lovers  of  Eastern  literature,  nor  travellers,  or 
dragomans,  or  even  intelligent  couriers ;  they  are  all 


CONGRESS    OP    ORIENTALISTS.  35 

welcome ;  but  when  we  speak  of  Oriental  scholars, 
we  mean  men  who  have  shown  that  they  are  able  at 
least  to  publish  texts  that  have  never  been  published 
before,  and  to  translate  texts  which  have  never  been 
translated  before.  Of  such  I  am  glad  to  say  we  have 
lost  hardly  any. 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  we  have  received 
an  invitation  to  hold  our  next,  the  tenth  Congress, 
in  Switzerland,  The  names  of  the  members  of  the 
Swiss  Committee  are  the  best  guarantee  that  our 
meeting  there  will  keep  up  the  standard  of  our  former 
meetings,  and  will  hand  down  our  tradition  to  those 
who  will  continue  our  work  when  we  are  gone. 
We  have  also  received  a  most  tempting  invitation 
from  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Roumania,  to  hold  our 
eleventh  meeting  at  Bucharest.  The  present  Congress 
will  have  to  decide  on  both  these  proposals.  We 
wish  to  part  with  our  former  colleagues  without  any 
reproach  or  recriminations.  We  say  indeed  with 
Abraham,  '  Let  there  be  no  strife  ;  separate  thyself, 
I  pray  thee,  from  me.  If  thou  wilt  take  the  left 
hand,  I  will  go  to  the  right;  and  if  thou  depart  to 
the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  left.' 

Having  now  disposed  of  these  preliminary  matters, 
I  shall  try  to  discharge  the  duty  that  falls  to  the 
President,  in  openiug  this  International  Congress  of 
Orientalists.  No  one  can  feel  more  deeply  than 
myself  how  totally  unequal  I  am  to  the  task  imposed 
upon  me,  how  unworthy  of  the  honourable  post 
which  you  wished  me  to  occupy.  I  know  but  too 
well  that  there  are  many  Oriental  scholars  who 
would  have  filled  the  office  of  President  of  this  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Orientalists  far  more  worthily 

d2 


36  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

than  I  can  hope  to  do.  If  after  long  hesitation,  as 
you  know,  I  accepted  at  last  your  repeated  invita- 
tion, it  was  because  I  saw  in  it  but  another  proof 
of  that  exceeding  kindness  which  I  have  experienced 
again  and  again  during  my  long  life  in  England, 
and  which  seems  to  me  to  spring  chiefly  from  a  wish 
to  make  me  feel  that  you  do  no  longer  consider  me 
as  a  stranger,  but  have  accepted  me  as  one  of  your- 
selves, as  a  comrade  who  has  fought  now  for  nearly 
fifty  years  in  the  ranks  of  the  brave  army  of  Oriental 
scholars  in  England.  Never  indeed  could  a  general 
boast  of  a  more  brilliant  staff;  and  if  we  value  those 
honours  most  which  are  bestowed  upon  us  by  our 
peers,  believe  me  that  I  value  the  honour  which  you 
have  conferred  on  me  in  electing  me  your  President, 
as  the  highest  bestowed  upon  me  during  the  whole 
of  my  long  life  in  England,  because  it  has  been 
bestowed  on  me  not  only  by  my  peers,  but  by  my 
betters,  not  only  by  my  best  friends,  but  by  my 
best  judges. 

But  though  the  Presidential  chair  is  this  year  so 
inadequately  filled,  never,  I  believe,  has  our  Congress 
been  able  to  boast  of  so  illustrious  an  array  of  Patrons, 
Vice-Presidents,  and  Presidents  of  Sections  as  on  this 
occasion.  We  count  among  our  Presidents  of  Sections 
one  who,  by  common  consent,  may  be  called  the  most 
celebrated  man  of  our  country,  Mr.  Gladstone,  cele- 
brated alike  as  a  statesman  and  as  a  scholar.  We 
are  proud  of  the  presence  of  another  statesman, 
Sir  Mount-Stuart  Elphinstone  Grant-DufF,  who,  as 
Governor  of  Madras,  has  rendered  an  illustrious  name 
still  more  illustrious,  and  whose  knowledge  often 
surprises  us  by  its  accuracy  even  more  than  by  its 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  37 

extent  and  variety.  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  find 
stronger  representatives  in  tlieir  special  departments 
of  Oriental  scholarship  in  this  country  than  our 
Presidents,  Sir  Thomas  Wade,  Sir  Raymond  West, 
Professor  Cowell,  Professor  Sayce,  Professor  Le  Page 
Renouf,  Professor  Robertson  Smith,  Sir  Arthur 
Gordon,  Sir  Frederick  Goldsmid,  and  Dr.   Tylor. 

To  each  and  ail  of  them  and  to  their  distinguished 
Secretaries  I  now  express,  in  the  name  of  the  Congress, 
our  most  respectful  and  cordial  thanks. 

I  have  thus  far  explained  to  you  our  right  to  exist; 
I  shall  now  try  to  explain  the  reason  of  our  existence, 
or  the  objects  which  we  have  in  view  in  holding  from 
time  to  time  these  Oriental  Congresses  in  the  principal 
towns  of  Europe. 

When  we  wish  to  express  something  removed  from 
us  as  far  as  it  can  be,  we  use  the  expression, '  So  far  as 
the  East  is  from  the  West.'  Now  what  we  who  are 
assembled  here  are  aiming  at,  what  may  be  called  our 
real  raison  d'etre,  is  to  bring  the  East,  which  seems  so 
far  from  us,  so  distant  from  us,  nay,  often  so  strange 
and  indifferent  to  many  of  us,  as  near  as  possible — 
near  to  our  thoughts,  near  to  our  hearts.  It  seems 
stransfe  indeed  that  there  should  ever  have  been  a 
frontier  line  to  separate  the  East  from  the  West,  nor  is 
it  easy  to  see  at  what  time  that  line  was  first  drawn, 
or  whether  there  were  any  physical  conditions  which 
necessitated  such  a  line  of  demarcation.  The  sun 
moves  in  unbroken  continuity  from  East  to  West, 
there  is  no  break  in  his  triumphant  progress.  Why 
should  there  ever  have  been  a  break  in  the  trium- 
phant progress  of  the  human  race  from  East  to  West, 
and  how  could  that  break  have  been  brought  about  ? 


38  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

It  is  quite  true  that  as  long  as  we  know  anything 
that  deserves  the  name  of  history,  that  break  exists. 
The  Mediterranean  with  the  Black  Sea,  the  Caspian 
with  the  Ural  Mountains,  may  be  looked  upon  as  the 
physical  boundary  that  separates  the  East  from  the 
West.  The  whole  history  of  the  West  seems  so 
strongly  determined  by  the  Mediterranean,  that 
Ewald  was  inclined  to  include  all  Aryan  nations 
under  the  name  of  Mediterranean.  But  the  Medi- 
terranean ought  to  have  formed  not  only  the  barrier, 
but  likewise  the  connecting-link  between  Asia  and 
Europe.  Without  the  high-road  leading  to  all  the 
emporia  of  the  world,  without  the  pure  and  refresh- 
ing bi'eezes,  without  the  infinite  laughter  of  the 
Mediterranean,  there  would  never  have  been  an 
Athens,  a  Rome,  there  would  never  have  been  that 
spirited  and  never-resting  Europe,  so  different  from 
the  solid  and  slowly-changing  Asiatic  continent. 
Northern  Africa,  however,  Egypt,  Palestine,  Phenicia, 
and  Arabia,  though  in  close  proximity  to  the  Medi- 
terranean, belong  in  their  history  to  the  East,  quite 
ap  much  us  Babylon,  Assyria,  Media,  Persia,  and 
India.  Even  Asia  Minor  formed  only  a  temporary 
bridge  between  East  and  West,  which  was  drawn  up 
again  when  it  had  served  its  purpose.  We  ourselves 
have  grown  up  so  entirely  in  the  atmosphere  of  Greek 
thought,  that  we  hardly  feel  surprised  when  we  see 
nations,  such  as  the  Phenicians  and  Persians,  looked 
upon  by  the  Greeks  as  strangers  and  barbarians, 
though  in  ancient  times  the  former  were  far  more 
advanced  in  civilisation  than  the  Greeks,  and  though 
the  latter  spoke  a  language  closely  allied  to  the 
language   of   Homer,   and    possessed   a  religion    far 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  39 

more  pure  and  elevated  than  that  of  the  Homeric 
Greeks.  The  Romans  were  the  heirs  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  whole  of  Europe  succeeded  afterwards  to  the 
intellectual  inheritance  of  Kome  and  Greece.  Nor 
can  we  disguise  the  fact  that  we  ourselves  have 
inherited  from  them  somethiug  of  that  feeling  of 
strangeness  between  the  West  and  the  East,  between 
the  white  and  the  dark  man,  between  the  Aryan  and 
the  Semite,  which  ought  never  to  have  arisen,  and 
which  is  a  disgrace  to  everybody  who  harbours  it. 
No  one  would  in  these  Darwinian  days  venture  to 
doubt  the  homogeneousness  of  the  human  species,  the 
brotherhood  of  the  whole  human  race ;  but  there 
remains  the  fact  that,  as  in  ancient  so  in  modern 
limes,  members  of  that  one  human  species,  brothers 
of  that  one  human  family,  look  upon  each  other,  not 
as  brothers,  but  as  strangers,  if  not  as  enemies,  divided 
not  only  by  language  and  religion,  but  also  by  what 
people  call  blood,  whatever  they  may  mean  by  that 
term. 

I  wish  to  point  out  that  it  constitutes  one  of  the 
greatest  achievements  of  Oriental  scholarship  to  have 
proved  by  irrefragable  evidence  that  the  complete 
break  between  East  and  West  did  not  exist  from  the 
beginning ;  that  in  prehistoric  times  language  formed 
really  a  bond  of  union  between  the  ancestors  of  many 
of  the  Eastern  and  Western  nations,  while  more  recent 
discoveries  have  proved  that  in  historic  times  also 
language,  which  seemed  to  separate  the  great  nations 
of  anti(pnty,  never  separated  the  most  important 
among  them  so  completely  as  to  make  all  intellectual 
commerce  and  exchange  between  them  impossible. 
These  two  discoveries  seem  to  me  to  form  the  highest 


40  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

glory  of  Oriental  scholarship  during  the  present  cen- 
tury. Some  of  our  greatest  scholars — some  of  them 
here  present — have  contributed  to  these  discoveries ; 
and  I  thought,  therefore,  that  they  formed  the  most 
worthy  subject  to  occupy  our  thoughts  at  the  begin- 
ning of  our  International  Congress  of  Orientalists. 
The  Presidents  of  our  Sections  will  probably  dwell 
on  the  results  obtained  during  the  last  years  in  their 
own  more  special  departments.  I  was  anxious  to 
show  that  Oriental  scholarship  has  also  made  some 
substantial  contributions  to  the  general  stock  of 
human  knowledge,  that  it  has  added,  in  fact,  a  com- 
pletely new  chapter  to  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
has  changed  another  chapter,  formerly  the  oldest,  but 
also  the  most  barren,  into  a  living  picture,  full  of 
human  thought,  of  human  fears,  of  human  hopes. 

I  begin  with  the  prehistoric  world,  which  has 
actually  been  brought  to  light  for  the  first  time  by 
Oriental  scholarship. 

I  confess  I  do  not  like  the  expression  preldstoric. 
It  is  a  vague  term  and  almost  withdraws  itself  from 
definition.  If  I'eal  history  begins  only  with  the  events 
of  which  we  possess  contemporaneous  witnesses,  then, 
no  doubt,  the  whole  period  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking,  and  many  later  periods  also,  would  have 
to  be  called  prehistoric.  But  if  history  means,  as  it 
did  originally,  research,  and  knowledge  of  real  events 
based  on  such  research,  then  the  events  of  which  we 
are  going  to  speak  are  as  real  and  as  truly  historical 
as  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  It  is  often  supposed  that 
students  of  Oriental  languages  and  of  the  Science  of 
Language  deal  with  words  only.  We  have  learnt  by 
this  time  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  '  words  only,' 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  41 

that  every  new  word  represented  a  new  thought,  that 
is  a  most  momentous  event  in  the  development  of  our 
race.  What  people  call  '  mere  words,'  are  in  truth 
the  monuments  of  the  fiercest  intellectual  battles, 
triumphal  arches  of  the  grandest  victories  won  by 
the  intellect  of  man.  When  man  had  formed  names 
for  body  and  soul,  for  father  and  mother,  and  not  till 
then,  did  the  first  act  of  human  history  begin.  Not 
till  there  were  names  for  right  and  wrong,  for  God 
and  man,  could  there  be  anything  worthy  of  the  name 
of  human  society.  Every  new  word  was  a  discovery, 
and  these  early  discoveries,  if  but  properly  under- 
stood, are  more  important  to  us  than  the  greatest 
conquests  of  the  kings  of  Egypt  and  Eabylon.  Not 
one  of  our  greatest  explorers  has  unearthed  with  his 
spade  or  pickaxe  more  splendid  palaces  and  temples, 
whether  in  Egypt  or  in  Babylon,  than  the  etymologist. 
Every  word  is  the  palace  of  a  human  thought ;  and  in 
scientific  etymology  we  possess  the  charm  with  which 
to  call  these  ancient  thoughts  back  to  life.  It  is  the 
study  of  words,  it  is  the  Science  of  Language,  that 
has  withdrawn  the  curtain  Avhich  formerly  concealed 
these  ancient  times  and  their  intellectual  struggles 
from  the  sight  of  historians.  Even  now,  when  scholars 
speak  of  languages,  and  families  of  languages,  they 
often  forget  that  families  mean  speakers  of  languages, 
and  families  of  speech  presuppose  real  families,  or 
classes,  or  powerful  confederacies,  Avhich  have  strug- 
gled for  then-  existence  and  held  their  ground  against 
all  enemies.  Languages,  as  we  read  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  are  the  same  as  nations  that  dwell  on  all  the 
earth.  If,  therefore,  Greeks  and  Romans,  Celts,  Ger- 
mans, Slavs,  Persians,  and  Indians,  speaking  different 


42  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

language?,  and  each  forming  a  separate  nationality, 
constitute,  as  long  as  we  know  them,  a  real  historical 
fact,  there  is  another  fact  equally  real  and  historical, 
though  we  may  refer  it  to  a  prehistoric  period,  namely, 
that  there  was  a  time  when  the  ancestors  of  all  these 
nations  and  languages  formed  one  compact  body, 
speaking  one  and  the  same  language,  a  language  so 
real,  so  truly  historical,  that  without  it  there  would 
never  have  been  a  real  Greek,  a  real  Latin  language, 
never  a  Greek  Republic,  never  a  Roman  Empire ; 
there  would  have  been  no  Sanskrit,  no  Vedas,  no 
Avesta,  no  Plato,  no  Greek  New  Testament.  We 
know  with  the  same  certainty  that  other  nations  and 
languages  also,  which  in  historical  times  stand  before 
us  so  isolated  as  Phenician,  Hebrew,  Babylonian,  and 
Arabic,  presuppose  a  prehistoric,  that  is,  an  antecedent 
powerful  Semitic  confederacy,  held  together  by  the 
bonds  of  a  common  language,  possibly  by  the  same 
laws,  and  by  a  belief  in  the  same  gods.  Unless  the 
ancestors  of  these  nations  and  languages  had  once 
lived  and  worked  together,  there  would  have  been  no 
common  arsenal  from  which  the  leading  nations  of 
Semitic  history  could  have  taken  their  armour  and 
their  swords,  the  armour  and  swords  which  they 
wielded  in  their  intellectual  struggles,  and  many  of 
wbicli  we  are  still  wielding  ourselves  in  our  wars 
of  liberation  from  error,  and  in  our  conquests  of  truth. 
These  are  stern,  immoveable  facts,  just  as  Mont  Blanc 
is  a  stern,  irremoveable  fact,  though  from  a  distance 
we  must  often  be  satisfied  with  seeing  its  gigantic 
outline  only,  not  all  its  glaciers  and  all  its  crevasses. 
What  I  mean  is  that  we  must  not  attempt  to  discover 
too  much  of  what  happened  tliousands  of  ye.ars  ago. 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  43 

or  strain  our  sight  to  see  what,  from  this  distance  in 
time,  we  cannot  see. 

When  we  are  asked,  for  instance,  in  what  exact 
part  of  the  world  these  ancient  consolidations  took 
place,  every  true  scholar  and  every  honest  historian 
knows  that  such  a  question  is  almost  idle,  because  it 
does  not  admit  of  a  definite  or  positive  answer.  It  is 
easy  to  fix  on  this  or  that  indication  in  order  to  assign 
with  the  greatest  confidence  the  original  home  of  the 
Aryas  to  this  or  that  place  in  Asia  or  Europe.  The 
very  North  Pole  has  been  pointed  out  by  a  learned 
and  ingenious  American  scholar  as  the  most  probable 
home  of  the  whole  of  mankind.  All  true  scholars, 
I  believe,  admit  that  we  must  be  satisfied  with  the 
general  statement  that  the  consolidation  of  the  Aryan 
speakers  took  place  '  somewhere  in  Asia,'  for  they 
know  that  this  '  somewhere  in  Asia '  is  not  quite  so 
vast  and  vag-ue  as  it  sounds,  there  being  a  number 
of  countries  which  no  scholar  would  ever  dream  of 
as  possible  homes  of  the  Aryas  at  that  early  time, 
such  as  Siberia  in  the  North,  China  in  the  East,  India 
in  the  South,  Arabia  and  Asia  Minor  in  the  West  of 
the  Asiatic  continent. 

Nothing  has  shaken  the  belief,  for  I  do  not  call  it 
more,  that  the  oldest  home  of  the  Aryas  was  in  the 
East.  All  theories  in  favour  of  other  localities,  of 
which  we  have  heard  so  much  of  late,  whether  in 
favour  of  Scandinavia,  Russia,  or  Germany,  rest  on 
evidence  far  more  precarious  than  that  which  was 
collected  by  the  founders  of  Comparative  Philology. 
Onl}'  we  must  remember,  what  is  so  often  forgotten, 
that  when  we  say  Aryas,  we  predicate  nothing — we 
can  predicate  nothing — but  language.     We  know,  of 


44  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

course,  that  languages  presuppose  speakers  ;  but  when 
we  say  Aryas,  we  say  nothing  about  skulls,  or  hair, 
or  eyes,  or  skin,  as  little  as  when  we  say  Christians 
or  Mohammedans,  English  or  Americans.  All  that 
has  been  said  and  written  about  the  golden  hair,  the 
blue  eyes,  and  the  noble  profile  of  the  Aryas,  is  pure 
invention,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  say  that  Socrates, 
the  wisest  of  the  Greeks,  was  not  an  Arya,  but  a  Mon- 
golian. We  ought,  in  fact,  when  we  speak  of  Aryas, 
to  shut  our  eyes  most  carefully  against  skulls,  whether 
dolichocephalic  or  brachycephalic,  or  mesocephalic, 
whether  orthognathic,  prognathic,  or  mesognathic. 
We  are  completely  agnostic  as  to  all  that,  and  we 
gladly  leave  it  to  others  to  discover,  if  they  can, 
whether  the  ancestors  of  the  Aryan  speakers  rejoiced 
in  a  Neanderthal  or  any  other  kind  of  skull  that  has 
been  discovered  in  Europe  or  Asia.  Till  people  will 
learn  this  simple  lesson,  which  has  been  inculcated 
for  years  by  such  high  authorities  as  Horatio  Hale, 
Powell,  and  Brinton,  all  discussions  on  the  original 
home  of  the  Aryas  arc  so  much  waste  of  time  and 
temper. 

There  is  the  same  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
original  home  of  the  Semites,  but  all  Semitic  scholars 
agree  that  it  was  '  somewhere  in  Asia.'  The  idea  that 
the  Semites  proceeded  from  Armenia  has  hardly  any 
defenders  left,  though  it  is  founded  on  an  ancient 
tradition  preserved  in  Genesis.  An  eminent  scholar, 
who  at  the  last  moment  was  prevented  by  domestic 
affliction  from  attending  our  Congress,  Professor 
Guidi^,  holds  that  the  Semites  came  probably  from 

'  Delia  sede  primitiva  dei  Popoli  Semitici,  'Proceedings  of  the 
Accademia  dei  Liiicei,'  1878-79. 


CONGRESS    or    ORIENTALISTS.  45 

the  Lower  Euphrates.  Other  scholars,  particularly 
Dr.  Sprenger,  place  the  Semitic  cradle  in  Arabia. 
Professor  Nokleke  takes  much  the  same  view  with 
regard  to  the  home  of  the  Semites,  which  I  take  with 
regard  to  the  home  of  the  Aryas.  We  cannot  with 
certainty  fix  on  any  particular  spot,  but  that  it  was 
'  somewhere  in  Asia/  no  scholar  would  ever  doubt. 

It  is  well  known  also  that  some  high  authorities, 
Dr.  Hommel,  for  instance,  and  Professor  Schmidt,  hold 
that  the  ancestors  of  the  Semites  and  Aryas  must  for 
a  time  have  lived  in  close  proximity,  which  would  be 
a  new  confirmation  of  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  Aryas. 
But  we  hardly  want  that  additional  support.  Benfey's 
arguments  in  favour  of  a  European  origin  of  the  x\ryas 
w^ere,  no  doubt,  very  ingenious.  Put,  as  his  objections 
have  now  been  answered  one  by  one  ^,  the  old  argu- 
ments for  an  Asiatic  home  seem  to  me  to  have  con- 
siderably gained  in  strength.  I,  at  all  events,  can  no 
longer  join  in  the  jubilant  chorus  that,  like  all  good 
things,  our  noble  ancestors,  the  Aryas,  came  from 
Germany.  Dr.  Schrader,  who  is  often  quoted  as 
a  decided  supporter  of  a  German  or  European  origin 
of  the  Aryas,  is  far  too  conscientious  a  scholar  to  say 
more  than  that  all  he  has  written  on  the  subject 
should  be  considered  '  as  purely  tentative '  (Preface, 
p.  v^). 

With  regard  to  time,  our  difficulties  are  greater 
still,  and  to  attempt  to  solve  difficulties  which  cannot 
be  solved,  seems  to  me  no  better  than  the  old  attempt 
to  square  the  circle.  If  people  are  satisfied  with 
approximate  estimates,  such  as  we  are  accustomed  to 

*  '  Tliree  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,'  pp.  60  seq. 


46  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

in  geology,  they  may  say  that  some  of  the  Aryan 
languages,  such  as  Sanskrit  in  India,  Zend  in  Media, 
must  have  been  finished  and  used  in  metrical  form 
about  200O  B.  c.  Greek  followed  soon  after.  And 
when  it  is  said  that  these  lano-uaf^es  were  finished 
20CO  B.  c,  that  means  simply  that  they  had  become 
independent  varieties  of  that  typical  Aryan  language 
which  had  itself  reached  a  highly  finished  state  long 
before  it  was  broken  up  into  these  dialects.  This 
typical  language  has  been  called  the  Froto-Aryan 
language.  We  are  often  asked  why  it  should  be 
impossible  to  calculate  how  many  centuries  it  must 
have  taken  before  that  Proto-Aryan  language  could 
have  become  so  difierentiated  and  so  widely  divergent 
as  Sanskrit  is  from  Greek,  or  Latin  from  Gothic.  If 
we  argued  geologically,  we  might  say,  no  doubt,  that 
it  took  a  thousand  years  to  produce  so  small  a  diver- 
gence as  that  between  Italian  and  French,  and  that 
therefore  many  thousands  of  years  would  not  suffice 
to  account  for  such  a  divergence  as  that  between 
Sanskrit  and  Greek.  We  might  therefore  boldly  place 
the  first  divergence  of  the  Aryan  languages  at  5000 
B.  C,  and  refer  the  united  Aryan  period  to  the  time 
before  5000  B.C.  That  period  again  would  require 
many  thousands  of  years,  if  we  are  to  account  for  all 
that  had  ab-eady  become  dead  and  purely  formal  in 
the  Proto-Aryan  language,  before  it  began  to  break 
up  into  its  six  ethnic  varieties,  that  is,  into  Celtic, 
Teutonic,  Slavonic,  Greek,  Latin,  and  Indo-Eranic. 
The  whole  grammatical  framework  of  that  Proto- 
Aryan  language  must  have  been  finished  before  that 
time,  so  that  but  little  had  to  be  added  afterwards. 
Not  only  was  there  a  common  stock  of  roots,  but  all 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  47 

thematic  suffixes  for  the  formation  of  nouns,  adjec- 
tives, and  derivative  words  had  been  settled,  the 
terminations  of  declension  and  conjugation  had  be- 
come fixed,  the  formation  of  feminines  was  recognised 
as  well  as  the  degrees  of  comparison,  and  there  was 
a  whole  treasury  of  words,  many  of  them  already  with 
secondary  and  tertiary  meanings.  All  this  must  have 
been  finished  before  there  was  a  Sanskrit  lano-uagfe 
different  from  Greek,  or  a  Greek  language  different 
from  Latin.  These  common  Aryan  words  have  often 
been  used  as  reflecting  the  state  of  thouo-ht  and  civil- 
isation  previous  to  what  I  call  the  Aryan  Separation, 
previous  to  5000  B.  c,  nowhere  more  completely  than 
in  Schrader's  useful  work,  '  Prehistoric  Antiquities.' 
The  original  elaboration  of  that  wonderful  work  of 
art  which  we  call  language  must  have  required  even 
more  time  than  its  later  differentiation.  When  I  say 
that  the  elaboration  of  a  whole  system  of  grammatical 
forms  must  have  taken  more  time  than  its  later 
differentiation,  what  I  mean  is  that  many  of  the 
features  which  distinguish  Sanskrit  from  Greek,  and 
Greek  from  Latin,  need  not  be  considered  at  all  as 
new  creations,  but  should  rather  be  looked  upon  as 
remnants  of  a  great  mass  of  dialectic  variety  which 
existed  in  the  common  Aryan  speech,  and  were  re- 
tained some  by  Sanskrit,  others  by  Greek.  It  has 
been  clearly  established,  for  instance,  through  the 
labours  of  Brugmann,  Osthoff",  CoUitz,  Fick,  and  others, 
that  the  Proto- Aryan  language  possessed  three  varieties 
of  the  short  vowel  a,  which  had  been  differentiated 
before  the  Aryan  separation  took  place  into  a,  e,  o. 
In  Sanskrit  we  have  no  short  e  and  0,  at  least  not  in 
classical  Sanskrit.     But  it  must  be  remembered  that 


48  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

in  Sanskrit  the  short  vowel  a  is  never  written  after 
consonants,  and  that  we  know  nothing  whatever  of 
its  peculiar  pronunciation  at  different  times,  except, 
as  Pariini  says,  that  it  differed  from  that  of  all  the 
other  vowels.  That  at  one  time  it  was  in  Sanskrit 
also  pronounced  like  e,  we  know  by  the  effect  which 
that  palatal  vowel  has  produced  on  a  preceding  k, 
by  imparting  to  it  the  palatal  character  of  ch.  The 
fact  that  in  Sanskrit  the  copula  which  corresponds  to 
Latin  que  and  Greek  re  is  cha,  and  not  ka,  shows  that 
the  vowel  must  at  one  time  in  Sanskrit  also  have 
been  pronounced  e,  and  not  a  or  o,  as  it  was  in  the 
interrogative  pronoun  ka. 

If  we  find  the  verbal  augment  in  Sanskrit  and 
Zend  and  then  again  in  Armenian  and  Greek,  we  may 
be  quite  certain  that  these  four  languages  did  not 
invent  it  independently,  Irat  that  it  existed  as  an 
optional  element  in  Proto-Aiyan  times. 

Even  the  Greek  passive  Aorist  in  drjv,  which  has 
often  been  pointed  out  as  a  piece  of  purely  Greek 
workmanship,  has  many  analogies  in  other  Aryan 
lano-uaofes,  as  Curtius  has  shown  in  his  excellent  work 
on  the  Greek  Verb. 

If  then  we  must  follow  the  example  of  geology  and 
fix  chronological  limits  for  the  growth  of  the  Proto- 
Aryan  language,  previous  to  the  consolidation  of  the 
six  national  languages;  io,oco  B.C.  would  by  no  means 
be  too  distant,  as  the  probable  limit  of  what  I  should 
call  our  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  Aryan  speakers 
'somewhere  in  Asia.' 

And  what  applies  to  those  Aryan  speakers  applies 
with  even  greater  force  to  the  Semitic  speakers, 
because  the  earliest   monuments  of  Semitic  speech, 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  49 

differentiated  as  Babylonian,  Phenician,  Hebrew,  and 
Arabic,  go  back,  as  we  are  told,  far  beyond  the  earliest 
documents  of  Sanskrit  or  Greek.  Here  also  we  must 
admit  a  long  period  previous  to  the  formation  of  the 
great  national  languages,  because  thus  only  can  the 
fact  be  accounted  for  that  on  many  points  so  modern 
a  language  as  Arabic  is  more  primitive  than  Hebrew, 
while  in  other  grammatical  formations  Hebrew  is 
more  primitive  than  Ai'abic^. 

Whether  it  is  possible  that  these  two  linguistic 
consolidations,  the  Aryan  and  Semitic,  came  originally 
from  a  common  source,  is  a  question  which  scholars 
do  not  like  to  ask,  because  they  know  that  it  does 
not  admit  of  a  scholarlike  answer.  No  scholar  would 
deny  the  possibility  of  an  original  community  between 
the  two,  during  their  radical  period,  and  previous  to 
the  development  of  any  grammatical  forms.  But 
the  handling  of  this  kind  of  linguistic  protoplasm 
is  not  congenial  to  the  student  of  language  and  must 
be  left  to  other  hands.  Still,  such  attempts  should 
not  be  discouraged  altogether,  and  if  they  are  carried 
out  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  in  the  last  number  of 
the  '  Journal  of  the  German  Oriental  Society,'  Pro- 
fessor Erman  has  tried  to  prove  a  close  relationship 
between  Semitic  and  Egyptian,  they  deserve  the 
highest  credit.  Another  question  also  which  carries  us 
back  still  further  into  unknown  antiquity,  viz.  whether 
it  is  possible  to  account  for  the  origin  of  languages 
or  rather  of  human  speech  in  general,  is  one  which 
scholars  eschew,  because  it  is  one  to  be  handled  by 
philosophers  rather   than  by   students    of  language. 

'  See  Driver,  'Hebrew  Tenses,  p.  132. 
VOL.  I.  E 


50  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

I  must  confess,  the  deeper  we  delve,  the  farther  the 
solution  of  this  problem  seems  to  recede  from  our 
grasp  ;  and  we  may  here  too  learn  the  old  lesson  that 
our  mind  was  not  made  to  grasp  beginnings.  We 
know  the  beginnings  of  nothing  in  this  world,  and 
the  problem  of  the  beginning  of  language,  which 
is  but  another  name  for  the  beginning  of  thought, 
evades  our  comprehension  quite  as  much  as  the 
problem  of  the  origin  of  our  planet  and  of  the  life 
upon  it,  or  the  origin  of  space  and  time,  whether 
without  or  within  us.  History  can  dig  very  deep, 
but,  like  the  shafts  of  our  mines,  it  is  always  arrested 
before  it  has  reached  the  very  lowest  stratum.  Stu- 
dents of  language,  and  particularly,  students  of 
Oriental  languages,  have  solved  the  problem  of  the 
origin  of  species  in  language,  and  they  had  done  so 
long  before  the  days  of  Darwin  ;  but,  like  Darwin, 
they  have  to  accept  certain  original  germs  as  given, 
and  they  do  not  venture  to  pierce  into  the  deepest 
mysteries  of  actual  creation  or  cosmic  beginnings. 

And  yet,  though  accepting  this  limitation  of  their 
labours  as  the  common  fate  of  all  human  knowledge, 
Oriental  scholars  have  not  altogether  laboured  in 
vain.  No  history  of  the  world  can  in  future  be 
written  without  its  introductory  chapter  on  the  great 
consolidations  of  the  ancient  Aryan  and  Semitic 
speakers.  That  chapter  may  be  called  prehistoric, 
but  the  facts  with  which  it  deals  are  thoroughly 
historical,  and  I  say  once  more,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
student  of  language  they  are  as  real  as  the  battle 
of  Waterloo.  They  form  the  solid  foundation  of  all 
later  history.  They  determine  the  course  of  the 
principal  nations  of  ancient  history  as  the  mountains 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  51 

determine  the  course  of  rivers.  Try  only  to  realise 
what  is  meant  by  the  fact  that  there  was  a  time, 
and  there  was  a  place,  where  the  ancestors  of  the 
poets  of  the  Veda  and  of  the  prophets  of  the  Zend 
A  vesta  shook  hands  and  conversed  freely  with  the 
ancestors  of  Homer,  na}^,  with  our  own  linguistic 
ancestors,  and  you  will  see  w^hat  a  shifting  of  scenery, 
what  a  real  transformation-scene  Oriental  students 
have  produced  on  the  historical  stage  of  the  world. 
They  have  brought  together  the  most  valuable,  and 
yet  the  least  expensive  museum  of  antiquities,  namely, 
the  words  which  date  from  the  time  of  an  undivided 
Aryan  and  an  undivided  Semitic  brotherhood  ;  relics 
older  than  all  Babylonian  tablets  or  Egyptian  papyri ; 
relics  of  their  common  thoughts,  their  common  re- 
ligion, their  common  mythology,  their  common  folk- 
lore, nay,  as  has  lately  been  shown  by  Leist,  Kohler, 
and  others,  relics  of  their  common  jurisprudence  also. 
Here  too  there  has  been  much  useless  controversy. 
It  is  as  clear  as  daylight  that  w^hen  we  find  a  number 
of  words  which  all  Aryan  languages  share  in  common, 
these  words  and  the  ideas  which  they  express  must 
have  been  known  before  the  Proto-Aryan  language 
was  differentiated  as  Sanskrit,  Persian,  Greek,  Latin, 
and  all  the  rest.  It  has  been  possible  to  put  together 
these  fragmentary  words  into  a  kind  of  mosaic  picture, 
giving  us  an  idea  of  the  degree  of  civilisation  reached 
before  the  Aryan  separation.  To  some  students  this 
picture  or  this  idyll  [elhvKXiov),  seemed  to  disclose 
a  much  higher  advance  of  civilisation  than  they 
expected  in  such  early  times.  They  therefore  wrote 
rapturously  of  those  early  Aryas,  who  called  them- 
selves  drya,  or   noble,   though    originally  this  self- 

E  2 


D.^  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

glorious  name  need  not  have  meant  more  than  tillers 
of  the  soil.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  still  under  the 
influence  of  Eousseau's  school,  claimed  these  Aryas 
as  true  representatives  of  the  Noble  Savage,  with 
all  the  vices  as  well  as  the  virtues  of  the  Child  of 
Nature.  Such  a  controversy  is  simply  barren.  What 
the  true  scholar  values  are  the  linguistic  materials, 
brought  together  and  critically  sifted  by  the  industry 
and  ingenuity  of  men  such  as  Bopp,  Kuhn,  Benfey, 
and  last  not  least,  Dr.  Schrader,  who  have  drawn  this 
picture  of  ancient  Aryan  civilisation  with  almost 
Pre-Raphaelite  minuteness.  Till  some  one  has  given 
us  a  definition  of  what  is  meant  by  Savage,  it  does 
not  matter  whether  we  call  these  undivided  Aryas 
savages  or  sages.  The  only  important  point  in  the 
eyes  of  a  scholar  is  that  we  should  know  the  words, 
and  therefore  the  thoughts,  which  the  Aryas  shared 
in  common  before  they  broke  up  from  their  old 
common  Aryan  home. 

At  the  present  moment,  when  the  whole  world  is 
preparing  for  the  celebration  of  the  discovery  of 
America,  or  what  is  called  the  New  World,  let  us 
not  forget  that  the  discoverers  of  that  Old,  that 
Prehistoric  World  of  which  I  have  been  speaking, 
deserve  our  gratitude,  as  much  as  Columbus  and 
his  companions.  The  discoveries  of  Sir  William 
Jones,  Schlegel,  Humboldt,  and  of  my  own  masters 
and  fellow- workers,  Bopp,  Pott,  Burnouf,  Benfey, 
Kuhn,  and  Curtius,  will  for  ever  remain  a  landmark 
in  the  studies  devoted  to  the  history,  that  is,  the 
knowledge  of  our  race,  and,  in  the  end,  the  know- 
ledge of  ourselves.  If  others  have  followed  in  their 
footsteps,  and  have  proved  that  these  bold  discoverers 


CONGllESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  53 

have  sometimes  been  on  a  wrong  track,  let  them 
have  full  credit  for  what  they  have  added,  for  what 
they  have  corrected,  and  what  they  have  rejected — 
but  a  Moses  who  fights  his  way  through  the  wilder- 
ness, though  he  dies  before  he  enters  on  the  full 
possession  of  the  promised  land,  is  greater  than  all 
the  Joshuas  that  cross  the  Jordan  and  divide  the 
land.  Many  travellers  now  find  their  way  easily 
to  Africa  and  back ;  but  the  first  who  toiled  alone  to 
discover  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  men  such  as  Burton, 
Speke,  and  Livingstone,  requii-ed  often  greater  faith 
and  greater  pluck  than  those  wlio  actually  discovered 
them.  As  long  as  I  live,  I  shall  protest  against 
all  attempts  to  belittle  the  true  founders  of  the 
Science  of  Language.  Their  very  mistakes  often 
display  more  genius  than  all  the  corrections  of  their 
Epigoni. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  great  discovery  of  a  whole 
act  in  the  drama  of  the  world,  the  very  existence  of 
which  was  unknown  to  our  forefathers,  was  due  to 
the  study  of  the  Science  of  Language  rather  than  to 
Oriental  Scholarship.  But  where  would  the  Science  of 
Languajze  have  been  without  the  students  of  Sanskiit 
and  Zend,  of  Hebrew  and  Arabic'?  At  a  Congress 
of  Orientalists  we  have  a  right  to  claim  what  is  due 
to  us,  and  I  doubt  whether  anybody  here  present 
would  deny  that  it  is  due  in  the  first  place  to 
Oriental  scholars,  such  as  Sir  W.  Jones,  Colebrooke, 
Schlegel,  Bopp,  Burnouf,  Lassen,  and  Kuhn,  if  we 
now  have  a  whole  period  added  to  the  history  of 
the  world,  if  we  now  can  prove  that  long  before  we 
know  anything  of  Homeric  Greece,  of  Vedic  Lidia, 
of  Persia,  Greece.  Italy,  and  all  the  rest  of  Europe, 


54  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

there  was  a  real  historical  community  formed  by  the 
speakers  of  Aryan  tongues,  and  that  they  were  closely 
held  together  by  the  bonds  of  a  common  speech  and 
common  thoughts.  It  is  equally  due  to  the  industry 
and  genius  of  Oriental  scholars  such  as  De  Sacy, 
Gesenius,  Ewald,  and  my  friend  the  late  Professor 
Wright,  if  it  can  no  longer  be  doubted  that  the 
ancestors  of  the  speakers  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian, 
Syriac,  Hebrew,  Phenician,  Ethiopic,  and  Arabic 
formed  once  one  consolidated  brotherhood  of  Semitic 
speech,  and  that,  however  different  they  are,  when 
they  appear  for  the  first  time  in  their  national 
costumes  on  the  stage  of  history,  they  could  once 
understand  theii'  common  words  and  common  thoughts, 
like  members  of  one  and  the  same  family.  Surely 
this  is  an  achievement  on  which  Oriental  scholarship 
has  a  right  to  take  pride,  when  it  is  challenged  to 
produce  its  titles  to  the  gratitude  of  the  world  at 
large. 

If  we  now  turn  our  attention  to  another  field  of 
Oriental  scholarship  which  has  been  fruitful  of  results 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  student  of  history, 
and  to  the  world  at  large,  we  shall  be  able  to  show, 
not  indeed  that  Oriental  scholars  have  created  a  whole 
period  of  history,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Aryas  and 
Semites,  before  their  respective  separation,  but  that 
they  have  inspired  the  oldest  period  in  the  history  of 
the  world  with  a  new  life  and  meaning.  Instead 
of  learning  by  heart  the  unmeaning  names  of  kings 
and  the  dates  of  their  battles,  whether  in  Egypt,  or 
Babylon,  in  Syria  and  Palestine,  we  have  been  en- 
abled, chiefly  through  the  marvellous  discoveries  of 
Oriental  scholars,  to  watch  their  most  secret  thoughts. 


CONGRESS    OF    OUIENTALISTS.  55 

to  comprehend  their  motivesj  to  listen  to  their  prayers, 
to  read  even  their  private  and  confidential  letters. 
Think  only  what  ancient  Egypt  was  to  us  a  hundred 
years  ago !  A  Sphinx  buried  in  a  desert,  with  hardly 
any  human  features  left.  And  now — not  only  do  we 
read  the  hieroglyphic,  the  hieratic,  and  demotic  inscrip- 
tions, not  only  do  we  know  the  right  names  of  kings 
and  queens  40CO  or  5000  years  B.C.,  but  we  know 
their  gods,  their  worship  ;  we  know  their  laws  and 
their  poetry ;  we  know  their  folk-lore  and  even  their 
novels.  Their  prayers  are  full  of  those  touches  which 
make  the  whole  world  feel  akin.  Here  is  the  true 
Isis,  here  is  Human  Nature,  unveiled.  The  prayers 
of  Babylon  are  more  formal ;  still,  how  much  more 
living  is  the  picture  they  give  us  of  the  humanity  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh,  than  all  the  palaces,  temples, 
and  halls  ?  And  as  to  India,  think  what  India  was 
to  the  scholars  of  the  last  century  ?  A  name  and  not 
much  more.  And  now!  Not  only  have  the  ancient 
inhabitants  ceased  to  be  mere  idolaters  or  niggers, 
they  have  been  recognised  as  our  brothers  in  language 
and  thouo-ht.  The  Veda  has  revealed  to  us  the  earliest 
phases  in  the  history  of  natural  religion,  and  has 
placed  in  our  hands  the  only  safe  key  to  the  secrets 
of  Aryan  mythology.  Nay,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  there  are  rays  of  light  in  the  Upanishads  and  in 
the  ancient  philosophy  of  the  Vedanta  which  will 
throw  new  light  even  to-day  on  some  of  the  problems 
nearest  to  our  own  hearts.  And  not  only  has  each  one 
of  the  ancient  Oriental  Kingdoms  been  reanimated  and 
made  to  speak  to  us,  like  the  gi'ey,  crumbling  statue 
of  Memnon,  when  touched  by  the  rays  of  the  dawn, 
but  we   have   also   oained   a   new  insi"ht   into   the 


56  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

mutual  relations  of  the  principal  nations  of  antiquity. 
Formerly,  when  we  had  to  read  the  history  of  the 
ancient  world,  every  one  of  the  great  Kingdoms  of 
the  East  seemed  to  stand  by  itself,  isolated  from  all 
the  rest,  having  its  own  past,  unconnected  with  the 
past  history  of  other  countries. 

China,  for  instance,  was  a  world  by  itself.  It  had 
always  been  inhabited  by  a  peculiar  people,  different 
in  thought,  in  language,  and  in  writing  even  from  its 
nearest  neighbours. 

Egypt,  in  the  grey  morning  of  antiquity,  seemed  to 
stand  alone,  like  a  pyramid  in  a  desert,  self-contained, 
proud,  and  without  any  interest  in  the  outside  world, 
entirely  original  in  its  language,  its  alphabet,  its 
literature,  its  art,  and  its  religion. 

India,  again,  has  always  been  a  world  by  itself, 
either  entirely  unknown  to  the  Northern  nations,  or 
surrounded  in  their  eyes  by  a  golden  mist  of  fable 
and  mystery. 

The  same  applies  more  oi*  less  to  the  great  Mesopo- 
tamian  Kingdoms,  to  Babylon  and  Nineveh.  They 
too  have  their  own  language,  their  own  alphabet, 
their  own  religion,  their  own  art.  They  seem  to  owe 
nothing  to  anybody  else. 

It  is  somewhat  different  with  Media  and  Persia, 
but  this  is  chiefly  due  to  our  knowing  hardly  any- 
thing of  these  countries  before  they  appear  on  the 
ancient  battlefields  of  history  in  conflict  with  their 
neighbours,  either  as  conquerors  or  as  conquered. 

In  fact  if  we  look  at  the  old  maps  of  the  ancient 
world,  we  see  them  coloured  with  different  and  strongly 
contrasting  colours,  which  admit  of  no  shading,  of 
no  transition  from  one  to  the  other.     Every  country 


CONGRESS    OF    OllIENTALISTS.  57 

seemed  a  world  by  itself,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge 
from  the  earliest  traditions  which  have  reached  us, 
each  nation  claimed  even  its  own  independent  crea- 
tion, whether  from  their  own  gods,  or  from  their  own 
native  soil.  China  knows  nothing  of  what  is  going 
on  in  Babylon  and  Egypt,  Eg^pt  hardly  knows  the 
name  of  India,  India  looks  upon  all  that  is  beyond 
the  Himalayan  snows  as  fabulous,  while  the  Jews 
more  than  all  the  rest  felt  themselves  a  peculiar 
people,  the  chosen  people  of  God. 

Until  lately,  if  it  was  asked  whether  there  was 
any  communication  at  all  between  the  leading  his- 
torical nations  of  the  East,  the  answer  was  that  no 
communication,  no  interchange  of  thought,  no  mutual 
influence  was  possible ;  because  language  placed  a 
barrier  between  them  which  made  communication, 
and  more  particularly  free  intellectual  intercourse, 
entirely  impossible. 

If,  therefore,  it  seemed  that  some  of  these  ancient 
nations  shared  certain  ideas,  beliefs  or  customs  in 
common,  the  answer  always  was  that  they  could  not 
have  borrowed  one  from  the  other,  because  there  was 
really  no  channel  through  which  they  could  have 
communicated,  or  borrowed  from  each  other  by  means 
of  a  rational  and  continuous  converse.  Thanks  to  the 
more  recent  researches  of  Oriental  scholars,  this  is  no 
longer  so.  One  of  the  first  and  one  of  the  strongest 
proofs  that  there  was,  in  very  ancient  times,  a  very 
active  intellectual  intercourse  between  Aryan  and 
Semitic  nations  is  the  Greek  Alphabet.  The  Greeks 
never  made  any  secret  of  their  having  borrowed  their 
letters  from  Phenician  schoolmasters.  They  called 
their  letters  Phenician.  as  we  call  our  numerical  figures 


58  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

Arabic,  while  the  Arabs  called  them  Indian,  The  very 
name  of  Alphabet  in  Greek  is  the  best  proof  that  at 
the  time  when  the  Greeks  were  the  pupils  of  Phenician 
writing-masters,  the  secondary  names  of  the  Semitic 
letters,  Aleph,  Beth,  Gimel,  Daleth,  had  already  been 
accepted.  Originally  the  Aleph  was  the  picture  not 
of  a  bull,  but  of  an  eagle  ;  Beth  not  of  a  house,  but  of 
another  bird ;  Gimel  not  of  a  camel,  but  of  a  vessel 
with  a  handle  ;  Daleth  of  a  stretched-out  hand.  This 
intercourse  between  Phenicians  and  Greeks  must  have 
taken  place  previous  to  the  beginning  of  any  written 
literature  in  Greece,  previous  therefore  to  the  seventh 
century  at  least.  When  we  speak  of  Greeks  and 
Phenicians  in  general,  we  must  guard  against  think- 
ing of  whole  nations,  or  of  large  numbers.  The  work 
of  humanity  in  the  past,  more  even  than  in  the 
present,  was  carried  on  by  the  few,  not  by  the  many, 
by  what  Disraeli  called  'the  men  of  light  and  lead- 
in  o-'  the  so-called  Path-makers  of  the  ancient  world. 
They  represent  unknown  millions,  standing  behind 
them,  as  a  Commander-in-chief  represents  a  whole 
army  that  follows  him.  The  important  point  is  that 
in  the  alphabet  we  have  before  us  a  tangible  docu- 
ment, attesting  a  real  communication  between  these 
leaders  of  progress  and  civilisation  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West,  a  bridge  between  Phenicia  and  Greece, 
between  Semitic  and  Aryan  people.  The  name  of  the 
letter  alpha  in  the  Greek  alphabet  is  a  more  irre- 
sistible proof  of  Phenician  influence  than  all  the 
legends  about  Kadmos  and  Thebes,  about  a  Phenician 
Herakles  or  a  Phenician  Aphrodite,  It  is  strange 
that  not  one  of  the  classical  scholars  who  have  written 
on  the  traces  of  Phenician  influence  in  the  religion 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  59 

and  mythologj'-  of  Greece  should  have  availed  himself 
of  the  Greek  alphabet  as  the  most  palpable  proof  of 
a  real  and  most  intimate  intercourse  between  the 
Phenicians  and  the  early  inhabitants  of  Greece. 

But  later  discoveries  have  opened  even  wider  vistas. 
It  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  achievements,  due  to 
the  genius  of  the  Vicomte  de  Roug^,  to  have  shown 
that,  though  they  discovered  many  things,  the  Pheni- 
cians did  not  discover  the  letters  of  the  alphabet. 
Broken  arches  of  the  same  bridge  that  led  from 
Phenicia  to  Greece,  have  been  laid  bare,  and  they  lead 
clearly  from  Phenicia  back  to  Egj'pt.  It  is  well 
known  that  even  the  ancients  hardly  ever  doubted 
that  the  alphabet  was  originally  discovered  in  Egypt, 
and  carried  from  thence  by  the  Phenicians  to  Greece 
and  Italy.  Plato,  Diodorus  Siculus,  Plutarch,  and 
Gellius,  all  speak  of  Egypt  as  the  cradle  of  the 
alphabet,  and  Tacitus  (Annals,  xi.  14),  who  seems  to 
have  taken  a  special  interest  in  this  subject,  is  most 
explicit  on  that  point.  It  was  supposed  for  a  time 
that  the  Egyptians  simply  took  certain  hieroglyphic 
signs,  and  made  them  stand  for  their  initial  letters. 
This  was  called  the  akrological  theory,  but  it  is  no 
longer  tenable.  The  alphabet  was  never  a  discovery, 
in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word  ;  it  was  like  all  the 
greatest  discoveries,  a  natural  growth.  It  arose,  with- 
out any  intentional  effort,  from  the  employment  of 
what  are  called  complementary  hieroglyphics  ^  Thus 
in  hieroglyphic  writing  the  wall  with  battlements 
expresses  the  syllable  Men ;  but  with  the  waved  line 
written    under   it.     This   waved    line    is    called    the 

*  Hincks,  '  Egyptian  Alphabet,'  p.  7. 


60  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

complement  of  the  battlements,  and  is  always  to  be 
understood  after  it,  even  if  it  is  not  written.  In  like 
manner,  the  crux  ansata  has  for  its  complements  the 
waved  line  and  the  sieve,  and  if  they  are  not  there, 
they  have  to  be  supplied.  This  crux  ansata  means 
life,  and  is  pronounced  anch.  It  was  therefore  an 
almost  irresistible  conclusion  that  led  the  ancient 
Egyptians  to  suppose  that  the  battlement,  when 
followed  by  the  waved  line,  stood,  not  for  31en,  but 
only  for  m,  while  the  waved  line  stood  for  n ;  or  that 
the  crux  ansata  seemed  to  represent  the  initial  A 
only,  while  the  nch  were  figured  by  the  waved  line 
and  the  sieve.  In  the  end  the  result  is  the  sam.e ; 
certain  hieroglyphics  were  accepted  as  standing  for 
their  initial  letters,  but  the  process,  as  I  have  tried 
to  explain  it,  is  far  more  natural,  and  therefore,  from 
an  historical  point  of  view,  more  true. 

What  the  Vicomte  de  Eoug^  did  was  to  select  the 
most  ancient  forms  of  the  Phenician  alphabet,  as  they 
are  found  on  the  sarcophagus  of  Eshmunezar  (or 
better  still,  on  the  Stone  of  Mesha,  which  w^as  not 
known  in  his  time),  and  to  show  how  near  they  came, 
not  indeed  to  the  most  ancient  hieroglyphics,  but  to 
certain  hieratic  cursive  signs  which  have  the  same 
phonetic  values  as  their  corresponding  Phenician 
letters.  This  was  a  most  brilliant  discovery,  and 
I  still  possess  a  very  scarce  paper  which  he  sent  me 
in  1859.  He  never  published  a  full  account  of  his 
discovery  himself,  but  after  his  death  his  notes  were 
published  by  his  son  in  1874. 

I  know  quite  well  that  some  scholars  have  remained 
sceptical  as  to  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  Phenician 
letters,  and  I  have  had  to  fight  Rough's  battle  for 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  61 

many  years  almost  single-handed.  My  friend  Lepsius 
was  never  quite  convinced.  Attempts  have  been 
made  to  derive  the  Phenician  letters  from  a  cunei- 
form source  or  from  the  Cypriote  letters,  but  the 
result  has  hitherto  been  far  from  satisfactory.  The 
Phenician  letters  must  have  had  ideogi^aphic  ante- 
cedents. Where  are  we  to  look  for  them,  if  not  in 
Egypt?  What  has  always  made  me  feel  convinced 
that  Pouse  was  right,  is  the  fact  that  we  have  to  deal 
with  a  series,  and  that  fifteen  out  of  the  twenty-three 
letters  of  this  series  are  almost  identical  in  Phenician 
and  in  Egyptian.  We  are  perfectly  justified,  therefore, 
in  making  a  certain  allowance  for  some  modifications 
in  the  rest^.  These  modifications  are  certainly  not 
greater  than  the  modifications  which  the  Phenician 
letters  themselves  underwent  later  in  their  travels 
over  the  whole  civilised  world.  But  there  is  another 
argument  in  Eoug^'s  favour  which  has  often  been 
ignored,  namely,  the  fact  that  the  Egyptians,  when- 
ever they  had  to  transcribe  foreign  words,  have 
fixed  in  many  cases  on  the  identical  letters  which 
served  as  the  prototypes  of  the  Phenician  alphabet. 
This  fact,  first  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Hincks,  is  one 
of  the  many  valuable  services  which  that  ingenious 
scholar  has   rendered  to   hieroglyphic   studies ;   and 

^  It  was  tlie  Vicomte  de  Roug^  ('  Memoire,'  p.  93)  who  pointed 
out  that  as  the  Egyptians  had  no  sound  corresponding  to  the  Semitic 
y,  'Ain,  the  Phenicians  coukl  not  have  borrowed  that  letter  from  the 
hieroglyphic  or  hieratic  alphabet.  Professor  Brugsch,  however  (' Uber 
Eildung  der  Schrift,'  p.  22),  seems  to  think  that  the  hieratic  sign  xl^ 
may  have  been  the  abbreviated  form  of  the  hieroglyphic  group  n  _. 
which  represents  the  'Ain  in  hieroglyphic  transcripts  of  Semitic  names, 
and  that  this  hieratic  sign  was  rounded  off  to  O  in  the  Phenician  alpha- 
bet.    See  'Physical  Religion,'  p.  217  (no.  16). 


62  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  Vicomte  de  Roug^  has  been  the  first  to  acknow- 
ledge how  much  his  own  discovery  owes  to  the 
labours  of  Dr.  Hincks,  particularly  to  his  paper 
on  the  Egyptian  alphabet  published  in  the  'Trans- 
actions of  the  Irish  Academy'  in  1H47,  All  the 
facts  concerning  the  history  of  the  alphabet  have 
been  carefully  put  together  in  Lenormant's  great 
work  :  Ensai  sur  la  Pro'pagation  de  V Alphabet 
Fhenicien.  Here,  then,  we  have  a  clear  line  of  com- 
munication between  Egypt,  Phenicia,  and  Greece, 
which  Oriental  scholarship  has  laid  bare  before  our 
eyes.  To  judge  from  the  character  of  the  hieratic 
letters  as  copied  by  the  Phenicians,  the  copying  must 
have  taken  place  about  the  nineteenth  century  B.  c.^ ; 
according  to  others,  even  at  an  earlier  date.  The 
interval  between  this  and  the  date  of  the  oldest  in- 
scription in  a  Semitic  alphabet,  that  of  King  Mesha, 
the  contemporary  of  Ahab  (918-897),  is  no  doubt 
very  large,  but  the  attempts  to  bridge  it  over  by  the 
Minaean  inscriptions  discovered  by  Dr.  Glaser  in 
Arabia,  are,  to  say  the  least,  premature,  until  there  is 
something  like  agreement  among  competent  scholars 
on  the  date  of  these  Arabian  inscriptions.  Nor  do 
I  see  how,  without  a  great  stretch  of  imagination,  the 
forms  of  these  Minaean  letters  can  account  for  the  late 
names  of  the  Semitic  letters,  such  as  Aleph,  Beth, 
Gimel,  &c.,  which  were  probably  invented  ex  post  for 
the  sake  of  teaching,  like  the  names  of  the  Runes  2. 
It  is  well  known  that  hieroglyphic  writing  for  monu- 
mental pui-poses  goes  back  in  Egypt  to  the  Fourth,  or 

*  J.  de  Eoug^,  *  Memoire  sur  I'Origine  Egyptienne   de  I'Alphabet 
Ph<?nicien,'  1874,  p.  108. 

^  See,  however,  Prof.  Saj'ce  in  'Higher  Criticism,'  p.  44. 


CONGRESS    OF    OUIENTALISTS.  63 

even  the  Second  Dynasty  ^,  and  on  these  earliest 
inscriptions  we  not  only  find  the  hieroglyphic  system 
of  writing  fully  developed,  but  we  actually  see  hiero- 
glyphic pictures  of  papyrus  ^  and  rolls,  of  inkstands 
and  pens.  But  here,  again,  the  beginnings  escape  us, 
and  the  oricjin  of  writing,  though  we  know  the  con- 
ditions  under  which  it  took  place,  withdraws  itself 
from  our  sights,  almost  as  much  as  the  origin  of 
language  itself.  The  question  has  been  asked  whether, 
as  the  oldest  cuneiform  writing  clearly  betrays  an 
ideographic  origin,  its  first  germs  could  be  traced 
back  to  the  ideographic  alphabet  of  Egypt.  This 
would  make  Egypt  the  schoolmaster,  or  at  least  the 
older  schoolfellow  of  the  Mesopotamian  kingdoms. 
But  whatever  the  future  may  disclose,  at  present 
Oriental  scholarship  has  no  evidence  with  which  to 
confirm  such  a  hypothesis. 

The  same  applies  to  another  hypothesis  which  has 
been  advocated  with  great  perseverance  by  one  of  the 
members  of  our  Congress,  M.  Terrien  de  Lacouperie. 
He  thinks  it  possible  to  show  that  the  oldest  Chinese 
letters  which,  as  is  generally  admitted,  had  an  ideo- 
graphic beginning,  like  that  of  the  Egyptian  hiero- 
gl3^phics,  owed  their  first  origin  to  Babylon.  It  is 
generally  supposed  that  the  cuneiform  alphabet  used 
by  the  Semitic  inhabitants  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria 
was  invented  by  a  non-Semitic  race,  called  Sumerians 
and  Accadians.  Whether  the  Chinese  borrowed  from 
these  races  or  from  the  Babylonians  is  difficult  to 
decide.     It  must  likewise  remain  for  the  present  an 

*  In  the  Ashmolean  Museum  at  Oxford  is  a  monument  ascribed 
to  the  Second  Dynasty. 

*  Roug^,  1.  c,  p.  103. 


64  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

open  question  whether  these  Sumerians  and  Accadians 
can  be  identified  with  a  race  dwelliog  originally  in 
the  North  and  East  of  Asia.  There  are  scholars  who 
place  the  original  home  of  the  Accadians  on  the 
Persian  Gulf,  though  the  evidence  for  this  view  also 
is  very  weak.  We  must  not  forget  that  ideographs, 
such  as  pictures  of  sun  and  moon,  or  of  the  super- 
incumbent sky,  of  mountains  and  plants,  of  the  mouth 
and  nose,  of  eyes  and  ears,  must  of  necessity  share 
certain  features  in  common,  in  whatever  country  they 
are  used  for  hieroglyphic  purposes.  The  scholar  has  the 
same  feeling  with  regard  to  these  very  general  ideo- 
graphic pictui'es  which  he  has  with  regard  to  the 
very  indefinite  roots  of  language,  which  are  supposed 
to  be  shared  in  common  by  the  Semitic  and  Aryan 
families  of  speech.  Both  are  too  protoplastic,  too 
jelly  like,  too  indefinite  for  scientific  handling^.  Still 
no  researches,  if  only  carried  on  methodically,  should 
be  discouraged  a  j^Tiori,  and  we  must  always  be 
willing  to  learn  new  lessons,  however  much  they 
may  shock  our  inherited  opinions.  It  is  not  so  very 
long  ago  that  the  best  Semitic  scholars  stood  aghast 
at  the  idea  that  the  cuneiform  letters  were  borrowed 
from  a  non-Semitic  race,  and  that  some  of  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions  should  contain  specimens  of  a  non- 
Semitic  or  Accadian  language.  We  have  got  over  this 
surprise,  and  though  there  are  still  some  formidable 
sceptics,  the  fact  seems  now  generally  recognised  that 

'  Professor  Hommel,  in  his  excellent  paper  submitted  to  our  Con- 
gress, has  pointed  out  striking  similarities  between  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics and  corresponding  Babylonian  ideogra])hs.  Who  was  the 
inventor  and  who  the  borrower,  adhuc  suh  judice  lis  est,  but  sucli  a  Us 
o\\"\\t  not  to  be  allowed  to  continue  long. 


CONGRESS    OF   ORIENTALISTS.  65 

there  was  in  very  ancient  times  an  intercourse  be- 
tween the  Semitic  and  non-Semitic  races  of  Asia,  as 
there  was  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  Phenicians, 
and  between  the  Phenicians  and  Greeks,  that  is 
between  the  greatest  people  of  antiquity,  and  that 
these  non-Semitic  people  or  Accadians  were  really 
the  schoolmasters  of  the  founders  of  the  ffreat  Meso- 
potamian  kingdoms.  Put  though  we  must  for  the 
present  consider  any  connexion  between  Chinese  and 
Babylonian  writing  as  not  yet  proven,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  as  to  the  rapid  advance  of  the  cuneiform 
system  of  writing  itself,  from  East  to  West.  This 
wonderful  invention,  more  mysterious  even  than  the 
hieroglyphic  alphabet,  soon  overflowed  the  frontiers 
of  the  Mesopotamian  kingdoms,  and  found  its  way 
into  Persia  and  Armenia,  where  it  was  used,  though  for 
the  purpose  of  inscriptions  only,  by  people  speaking 
both  Aryan  and  non- Aryan  languages.  Here,  then, 
we  see  again  an  ancient  intercourse  between  people 
who  were  formerly  considered  by  all  historians  as 
entirely  separate,  and  we  are  chiefly  indebted  to 
English  scholars,  such  as  Rawlinson,  Norris,  Sayce, 
Pinches,  and  others,  for  having  brought  to  light  some 
of  the  ruins  of  that  long-buried  bridge  on  which  the 
thoughts  of  the  distant  East  may  have  wandered 
towards  the  West. 

Few  generations  have  witnessed  so  many  discoveries 
in  Oriental  scholarship,  and  have  Hved  through  !^o 
many  surprises  as  our  own.  If  any  two  countries 
seemed  to  have  been  totally  separated  in  ancient 
times  by  the  barriers  both  of  language  and  writing, 
they  were  Egypt  with  its  hieroglyphic  and  Babylon 
with  its  arrow-headed  literature.     We  only  knew  of 

VOL.  I.  V 


66  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

one  communication  between  Egypt  and  its  powerful 
neighbours  and  enemies,  carried  on  through  the  in- 
articulate and  murderous  language  of  war,  of  spears 
and  arrows,  but  not  of  arrow-headed  writings.  Who 
could  have  supposed  that  the  rows  of  wedges  covering 
the  cylinders  of  Babylonian  libraries,  which  have 
taxed  the  ingenuity  of  our  cleverest  decipherers,  were 
read  without  any  apparent  difficulty  by  scribes  and 
scholars  in  Egypt  about  1500  B.C.?  Yet  we  possess 
now  in.  the  tablets  found  at  Tel-el- Amarna  in  Egypt, 
a  kind  of  diplomatic  correspondence,  carried  on  at 
that  early  time,  more  than  a  thousand  years  before 
the  invasion  of  Greece  by  Persia,  between  the  kings 
of  Egypt  and  their  friends  and  vassals  in  Babylon, 
Syria,  and  Palestine.  These  letters  were  docketed 
in  Egypt  in  hieratic  writing,  like  the  despatches  in 
our  Foreign  Office.  They  throw  much  light  on  the 
political  relations  then  existing  between  the  kings  of 
Egypt  and  the  rulers  of  Western  Asia,  their  political 
and  matrimonial  alliances,  and  likewise  on  the  trade 
carried  on  between  different  countries.  They  confii-m 
statements  known  to  us  from  hieroglyphic  inscriptions 
in  Egj^ptj  more  particularly  those  in  the  temple  of 
Karnak.  The  spelling  is  chiefly  syllabic,  the  language 
an  Assyrian  dialect.  Doubtful  Accadian  words  are 
often  followed  and  explained  by  glosses  in  what  may 
be  called  a  Canaanite  dialect,  which  comes  very  near 
to  Hebrew.  But  how  did  the  kings  of  Egypt  under- 
stand these  cuneiform  despatches  ?  It  is  true  we  meet 
sometimes  with  the  express  statement  that  those  to 
whom  these  missives  were  addressed  had  understood 
them^  as  if  this  could  not  always  be  taken  for  granted. 

*  See  tablets  xxvi,  Ix,  Ixix,  Ixxxiv. 


CONGllESS    OF    OllIENTALlSTS.  67 

It  is  true  also  that  these  letters  wore  mostly  brought 
by  messengers  who  might  have  helped  in  interpreting 
them,  provided  they  had  learnt  to  speak  and  read 
Egyptian.  But  what  is  more  extraordinary  still,  the 
king  of  Egypt  himself,  Amenophis  III,  when  writing 
to  a  king  whose  daughter  he  wishes  to  marry,  writes 
a  despatch  in  cuneiform  letters,  and  in  a  language  not 
his  own,  unless  we  suppose  that  the  tablet  which  we 
possess  was  simply  a  translation  sent  to  the  king 
Kallimma  Sin,  and  as  such  kept  in  the  archives  of 
the  Egyptian  Foreign  Office. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  that  the  king  of  Egypt, 
though  quite  willing  to  marry  the  daughters  of 
smaller  potentates,  is  not  at  all  disposed  to  send 
Egyptian  princesses  to  them.  For  he  writes  in  one 
of  his  letters  (p.  29),  'A  daughter  of  the  king  of  the 
land  of  Egypt  has  never  been  given  to  a  "  Nobody."  ' 
Whatever  else  we  may  learn  from  these  letters,  they 
are  not  patterns  of  diplomatic  language,  if  indeed  the 
translation  is  in  this  case  quite  faithful  ^  In  these 
despatches,  dating  from  1400  B.C.,  a  number  of  towns 
are  mentioned,  many  of  which  have  the  same  names 
as  those  known  to  us  from  hieroglyphic  inscriptions. 
Some  of  these  names  have  even  survived  to  our  own 
time,  such  as  Misirim  for  Egypt,  Damascus,  Megiddo, 
Tyre  (Surrii),  Sidon  (Sidima),  Byblos  (Guble),  Beyrut 
(Biruta).  Joppa  (Yapu),  and  others.  Even  the  name 
of  Jerusalem  has  been  discovered  by  Sayce  in  these 
tablets,  as  Uru'salim,  meaning  in  Assyrian  the  town 
of  peace,  a  name  which  must  have  existed  before  the 

'  My  scepticism  on  this  point  haa  been  confirmed,  for  I  see  in 
an  article  in  tlie  last  number  of  the  Academy  that  this  translation 
'was  not  quite  correct. 

F  2 


68  RECENT    ESSAYS, 

Jews  took  possession  of  Canaan,  Some  of  these 
tablets  (eighty-two)  may  be  seen  at  the  British 
Museum,  others  (160)  at  Berlin,  most  of  the  rest  are 
in  the  Museum  at  Gizeh,  We  are  indebted  to  Mr, 
Budge  for  having  secured  these  treasures  for  the 
British  Museum,  and  to  Dr.  Eezold  and  Mr.  Budge  for 
having  translated  and  published  them. 

To  us  this  correspondence  is  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance, as  showing  once  more  the  existence  of  a 
literary  and  intellectual  intercourse  between  Western 
Asia  and  Egypt,  of  which  historians  had  formerly 
no  suspicion.  If  we  can  once  point  to  such  an  open 
channel  as  that  through  which  cuneiform  tablets  tra- 
velled from  Babylonia  and  Syria  to  Egypt,  we  shall 
be  better  prepared  to  understand  the  presence  in 
Egypt  of  products  of  artistic  workmanship  also,  from 
Western  Asia,  nay,  from  Cyprus,  and  even  from 
Mycenae.  I  possessed  potsherds  sent  to  me  by 
Schliemann  from  Mycenae,  which  might  have  been 
broken  off  from  the  same  vessels  of  which  fragments 
have  been  found  at  lalysos,  and  lately  in  Egj^pt  by 
Mr.  Flinders  Petrie.  I  have  sent  these  potsherds  to 
the  British  Museum  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the 
pottery  from  lalysos,  and  to  our  University  Museum 
at  Oxford.  Mr.  Flinders  Petrie  in  the  Academy, 
June  25,  1892,  writes:  '  Mykenaean  vase-types  are 
found  in  Egypt  with  scarabs,  S:c.,  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty,  and  conversely  oljects  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty,  including  a  royal  scarab,  are  found  at 
Mykenae.  And  again,  hundreds  of  pieces  of  pottery, 
purely  Mykenaean  in  style,  have  been  found  in  various 
dateable  discoveries  in  Egypt,  and  without  exception 
every  datum  for  such  lies  between  1^00  and  1 100  B.C., 


COXGHESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  69 

and  earlier  rather  than  later  in  that  range.'  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  this  fixes  the  date  of  the  Mykenaean 
pottery,  nor  do  I  wish  to  rely  on  evidence  which  is 
contested  by  some  of  the  best  Egyptian  scholars  ; 
otherwise  I  should  gladly  have  appealed  to  the  names 
of  the  Mysians,  Lycians,  Carians,  lonians,  and  Darda- 
nians,  discovered  in  the  Epic  of  Pantaur  about  14C0 
B.C.,  in  the  reign  of  Rameses  II ;  and  to  the  name  of 
Achaeans  read  by  certain  Egyptian  scholars  in  an 
inscription  at  Karnak.  ascribed  to  the  time  of  Mene- 
ptah,  the  son  of  Rameses  II.  What  w^e  shall  have  to 
learn  more  and  more  is  that  the  people  of  antiquity, 
even  though  they  spoke  different  languages  and  used 
different  alphabets,  knew  far  more  of  each  other,  even 
at  the  time  of  Amenophis  III,  or  1400  B.C.,  than  was 
supposed  by  even  the  best  historians.  The  ancient 
world  was  not  so  large  and  wdde  as  it  seemed,  and 
the  number  of  representative  men  w^as  evidently  very 
small.  The  influence  of  Babylon  extended  far  and 
wide.  We  know  that  several  of  the  strange  gods 
worshipped  by  the  Jews,  such  as  Rimmon,  Nebo,  and 
Sin,  came  from  Babylon.  The  authority  of  Egypt 
also  was  felt  in  Palestine,  in  Syria,  and  likewise  in 
Babylon.  The  authenticity  of  the  cuneiform  de- 
spatches found  at  Tel-el- Amarna  in  Egypt  has  lately 
received  an  unexpected  confirmation  from  tablets 
found  at  Tel-el*Hesy,  probably  the  ancient  Lachish. 
Here  a  letter  has  been  found  addressed  to  Zimrida, 
who  in  the  Tel-el-Amarna  tablets  was  mentioned  as 
governor  of  Lachish,  where  he  was  murdered  by  his 
people^.     In  the  same  place  cylinders  were  found  of 

'  Avademy,  July  9   1892. 


70  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

Babylouian  manufacture,  between  2coo  and  15COB.C., 
and  copies,  evidently  made  of  them  in  the  West. 
Similar  cylinders  occur  in  the  tombs  of  Cyprus  and 
Syria,  helping  us  to  fix  their  dates,  and  showing  once 
more  the  intercourse  between  East  and  West,  and  the 
ancient  migration  of  Eastern  thought  towards  Europe. 

Nor  should  we,  when  looking  for  channels  of  com- 
munication between  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Asia, 
forget  the  Jews,  who  were  more  or  less  at  home  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  We  must  remember  that 
they  came  originally  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  then 
migrated  to  Canaan,  and  afterwards  sojourned  in 
Egypt,  before  they  settled  in  Palestine.  After  that 
we  know  how  they  were  led  into  captivity  and  lived 
in  close  proximity  and  daily  intercourse  with  Medians, 
Persians,  Babylonians,  and  Assyrians.  They  spoke 
of  Cyrus,  a  believer  in  Ormazd,  as  the  anointed  and 
the  shepherd  of  Jehovah,  because  he  allowed  them  to 
return  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem.  Darius,  likewise 
a  follower  of  Zoroaster,  was  looked  on  by  them  as 
their  patron,  because  he  favoured  the  rebuilding  of 
the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  When  we  consider  these 
intimate  relations  between  the  Jews  and  their  neigh- 
bours and  conquerors,  we  can  easily  imagine  what 
useful  intermediaries  they  must  always  have  been  in 
the  intellectual  exchange  of  the  ancient  world. 

There  are  two  countries  only  which  really  remained 
absolutely  isolated  in  the  past,  China  and  India.  It 
is  true  that  attempts  have  been  made  to  show  that 
the  Chinese  influenced  the  inhabitants  of  India  in 
very  ancient  times  by  imparting  to  them  their  earliest 
astronomy.  But  Blot's  arguments  have  hardly  con- 
vinced anybody.     And  as  to  Chinese  porcelain  being 


CONGllESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  71 

found  in  ancient  Egj^ptian  tombs,  this  too  has  long 
been  surrendered  for  lack  of  trustworthy  evidence. 

Nor  have  the  attempts  been  more  successful  which 
were  intended  to  show  that  the  ancient  astronomy  of 
India  was  borrowed  from  Babylon.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  Babylonians  excelled  in  astronomy,  and  that 
in  later  times  they  became  the  teachers  of  the  Greeks, 
and  indirectly  of  the  Indians.  But  the  twenty-seven 
Vedic  Nakshatras  or  Lunar  Stations  are  perfectly 
intelligible  as  produced  on  Indian  soil,  and  require 
no  foreign  influences  for  their  explanation.  If  the 
Indians  had  in  Vedic  times  been  the  pupils  of  the 
Babylonians,  other  traces  of  that  intercourse  could 
hardly  be  absent.  It  w^as,  indeed,  thought  for  a  time 
that  one  word  at  least  of  Babylonian  origin  had  been 
discovered  in  the  hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda,  the  Baby- 
lonian mand,  a  certain  weight  of  gold.  This  word 
has  certainly  travelled  far  and  wide.  We  find  it  in 
the  tablets  of  Tel-el-Amarna,  in  Hebrew,  in  Arabic. 
in  Greek,  and  in  Latin  ^  mina,  a  mine.  But  the  verse 
in  the  Rig- Veda  in  which  this  mand  w'as  supposed 
to  occur,  requires  a  different  interpretation,  nor  w^ould 
one  word  be  sufficient  to  indicate  a  real  intellectual 
intercourse  betw^een  Babylonians  and  Vedic  Indians. 
On  the  same  ground  we  can  hardly  use  the  word 
sindhu  in  the  Babylonian  inscriptions,  as  proving 
a  commercial  intercourse  between  India  and  Babylon. 
Sindhu,  as  my  learned  friend,  Professor  Sayce,  in- 
formed me,  occurs  in  cuneiform  texts  as  far  back  as 
3000  B.C.  as  the  name  of  some  textile  fabric.  In 
Sanskrit  saindhava  would  mean  what  grows  on  the 

'  Possibly  in  Egyptian:  ' Zeitsclirift  der  D.  Mor^enl.  Ge^ells.,' 
vol.  xlvi.  p.  III. 


72  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

Sindhu  or  the  Indus  ^  and  would  therefore  be  a  very 
good  name  for  cotton  or  linen.  But  so  long  as  this 
word  stands  alone,  it  would  not  be  safe  to  build  any 
conclusions  on  it  as  to  an  ancient  trade  between  India 
and  Babylon. 

For  the  present,  therefore,  we  must  continue  to  look 
upon  China  and  India  as  perfectly  isolated  countries 
during  the  period  of  which  we  are  here  speaking. 
But  though  in  the  eyes  of  the  historian  the  ancient 
literature  of  these  two  countries  loses  in  consequence 
much  of  its  interest,  it  acquires  a  new  and  peculiar 
interest  of  its  own  in  the  eyes  of  the  philosopher.  It 
is  entirely  home-grown  and  home-spun,  and  thus 
forms  an  independent  parallel  to  all  the  other  litera- 
tures of  the  world.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the 
religion  and  the  philosophy  of  India  come  upon  us 
like  meteors  from  a  distant  planet,  perfectly  inde- 
pendent in  their  origin  and  in  their  character.  Hence, 
when  they  do  agree  with  other  religions  and  philo- 
sophies of  the  ancient  world,  they  naturally  inspire 
us  with  the  same  confidence  as  when  two  mathe- 
maticians, working  quite  independently,  arrive  in  the 
end  at  the  same  results  ^. 

It  is  true  that  in  these  days  of  unexpected  dis- 
coveries we  are  never  entirely  safe  from  surprises. 
But  as  far  as  our  evidence  goes  at  present — and  we 
can  never  say  more — the  idea  once  generally  enter- 
tained, and  lately  revived  by  Professor  Gruppe,  that 
there  was  some  connexion  between  the  ancient  reli- 
gion of  India  and  those  of  Egypt  and  Babylon,  is, 
from   a   scholar's  point  of  view,  simply  impossible. 

'  M.  M.,  'Physical  Religion,'  p.  87. 

*  Deussen,  '  Die  Sutras  des  Vedanta,'  p.  vi. 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  7S 

Before  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  it  would  be 
very  difficult  to  point  out  any  foreign   intellectual 
importation  into  the  land  of  the  Indus  or  the  Seven 
Rivers.     The  knowledge  of  the  alphabet  may  have 
reached   India    a   little  before   Alexander's  invasion. 
We   know  that  Darius  sent   Skylax  on  a  scientific 
expedition  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Indus.     This 
expedition,  like  other  scientific  expeditions,  was  the 
forerunner  of  Persian  conquests  along  the  Indus.    The 
people  called  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  Gaddra 
and   Hidliu,    that    is    in    Sanskrit,    Gavdhdra    and 
Sindhu,  occur  among  the  conquests  of  Darius,  though 
in  his  later  inscriptions  only.     It  is  quite  possible, 
therefore,  that  even  at  that  early  time  a  knowledge 
of  reading  and  writing  may  have  been  communicated 
to  India.    Travellers  from  India  were  seen  by  Ktesias 
in  Persia  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  b.  C, 
and  he  describes  some  whom  he  had  seen  himself,  as 
being  as  fair,   or  actually  as  white,  as   any  in  the 
world.     Others  he  describes  as  black,  not  by  expo- 
sure to  the  sun,  but  by  nature.     This  was  probably 
written  at  the  same  time  when  Buddha,  in  a  sermon 
which   he    delivered    (the    Assalayana    Sutta),    said  : 
'  The  Brahmans  are  the  white  caste,  the  other  castes 
are  black.'     This  refers  to  their  colour  (varna),  not, 
as  has  been  supposed,  to   their  character.      But  in 
India  we  have  as  yet  no  real  evidence  of  writino'. 
not  even  of  inscriptions,  before  the  time  of  Asoka, 
in  the  third  century  B.C.     The  Indian  alphabets  cer- 
tainly came    from   a   Semitic   alphabet,   which   was 
adapted    systematically  to    the   requirements    of  an 
Aryan  language.     We  can  see  it  still  in  a  state  of 
fermentation  in  the  local  varieties  that  have  lately 


74  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

been  pointed  out  by  my  friend,  Professor  Blihler,  the 
highest  authority  on  this  subject.  As  to  the  religion 
of  Buddha  being  influenced  by  foreign  thought,  no 
true  scholar  now  dreams  of  that.  The  religion  of 
Buddha  is  the  daughter  of  the  old  Brahmanic  religion, 
and  a  daughter  in  many  respects  more  beautiful 
than  the  mother.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  through 
Buddhism  that  India  for  the  first  time  stepped  forth 
from  its  isolated  position,  and  became  an  actor  in  the 
historical  drama  of  the  world.  A  completely  new 
idea  in  the  history  of  the  w^orld  was  started  at  the 
great  Buddhist  Council  in  the  third  century  B.C., 
under  king  Asoka,  the  idea  of  conquering  other 
nations,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  power  of 
truth.  A  resolution  was  proposed  and  carried  at  that 
Council  to  send  missionaries  to  all  neighbouring 
nations  to  preach  the  new  gospel  of  Buddha.  Such 
a  resolution  would  never  have  entered  into  the  minds 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  Babylonians,  Assyrians,  not 
even  of  the  Brahmans.  It  presupposed  quite  a  new 
conception  of  the  world.  It  announced  for  the  first 
time  a  belief  that  the  different  nations  of  the  world, 
however  separated  from  each  other  by  language,  reli- 
gion, colour,  and  customs,  formed  nevertheless  one 
united  family  ;  that  each  of  its  members  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  rest,  in  fact,  that  humanity  was  not 
an  empty  word. 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence,  if  no  more,  that  the 
name  of  the  missionar}^  who,  according  to  the  chronicle 
of  Ceylon,  was  sent  to  the  North,  to  the  Himalayan 
border-lands,  namely,  Madliyama,  should  have  been 
found  in  a  Stupa  near  Sanchi,  as  well  as  that  of  his 
fellow- worker,  Kasyapa.     We  read  in  an  inscription  : 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  75 

*  These  are  (the  relics)  of  the  good  iTi<an  of  the  family 
of  Kasapa,  the  teacher  of  the  whole  Haimavata,'  that 
is,  the  Himalayan  border-land ^  We  seldom  find 
such  monumental  confirmations  in  Indian  history- 
This  important  discovery,  like  so  many  others,  was 
due  to  General  Cunningham,  in  one  of  his  earlier 
works  ('The  Bhilsa  Topes,'  pp.  119,  187,  317). 

China,  the  other  isolated  country  of  antiquity,  was 
soon  touched  by  the  rising  stream  of  Buddhism,  and 
thus  brought  for  the  first  time  into  contact  with 
India  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  first  waves  of 
Buddhism  seem  to  have  reached  the  frontiers  of  China 
as  early  as  the  third  century  (217  B.C.),  and  so  rapid 
and  constant  was  its  progress,  that  in  61  B.C.  Bud- 
dhism was  accepted  by  the  emperor  Mingti  as  one 
of  the  three  state-religions  of  China.  We  soon  hear 
of  Buddhists  in  other  countries  also,  and  if  we  con- 
sider that  we  have  now  arrived  at  a  third  period  in 
the  history  of  antiquity,  which  may  truly  be  called 
the  Alexandrian  or  Alexandrinian  period,  we  need 
not  wonder  that  the  military  roads  which  had  been 
opened  from  the  Indus  to  the  Euphrates  and  to  the 
Mediterranean,  were  soon  trodden  by  peaceful  travel- 
lers also,  carrying  both  industrial  and  intellectual 
merchandise  from  East  to  West.  From  Kashmir, 
Buddhist  missionaries  seem  to  have  penetrated  into 
Hellenised  Bactria.  Alexander  Polyhistor,  who  wrote 
between  80  and  60  b.  c,  attests  ^  their  presence  there 
under  the  name  of  Samanaioi,  which  stands  for  the 

*  Lassen,  'Indische  Alterthumskunde,  vol.  ii.  p.  234,  and  p.  xxxix. 

*  See  Cyrillus,  'Contra  Julian.,'  lib.  iv.  133:  ioTopu  fovv  'A\(^ay- 
fpoy  o  (rr'tKXTjv  HoXviarajp — ecpi\oau>fn](rav  Si — koi  ik  Y^aKrptiiv  twv  llfp- 
aiKoiv  Sa/xavaToi  Kal  rrapa  Tltpffan  ol  Ma70i  Kal  trap'  IvSois  viTvp.voao<p.aTai. 
Lassen,  1.  e.,  ii.  p.  1073. 


76  EECENT  ESSAYS. 

PdVi  name  Samana,  a  Euddhist  friar.  Their  presence 
in  Bactria  is  attested  somewhat  later,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century  A.D.,  by  Clement  of  Alexandria^, 
who  speaks  of  the  Samanaioi  as  powerful  philosophers 
among  the  Bactrians,  and  again  by  Eusebius  -  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  who  writes  that 
among  the  Indians  and  Bactrians  there  are  many 
thousands  of  Brahmans.  With  regard  to  Bactria  this 
can  refer  to  Buddhists  only,  for  the  old  orthodox 
Brahmans  did  not  leave  their  country,  and  Brahmana 
has  always  been  retained  by  the  Buddhists  as  a  title 
of  honour  for  themselves.  Early  traces  of  the  Bud- 
dhist religion  have  been  discovered  likewise  in  the 
countries  north  of  Bactria,  in  Tukhara,  and  in  the 
towns  of  Khoten,  Yarkand,  and  Kashyar.  M.  Dar- 
mesteter  has  shown  that  in  the  second  century  B.C. 
Buddhist  missionaries  were  hard  at  work  in  the 
western  part  of  Persia,  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that 
the  name  of  Gautavia,  the  founder  of  Buddhism,  occurs 
in  the  Avesta,  in  the  Fravardin  Yasht^.  This  shows 
how  closely  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world  had 
been  brought  together  by  the  genius  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  and  by  the  genius  of  that  still  greater 
conqueror,  Gautama  /S'akyamuni.  Here,  again,  it  is 
mainly  due  to  the  labours  of  Oriental  scholars  that  so 
many  traces  of  the  work  done  by  Alexander  and  his 
successors  have  been  rediscovered.  With  Alexander 
we  have  entered  on  a  new  period  in  the  history  of 


*  '  Strom.,'  i.  p.  359  :  ^tXoaofia  toivw — ird\at  fJ.(V  ^Kfiatre  irapa  t 
pots — TTpoiaTTjcrav^Kai  ^afxavaiot  BiKrpojv — 'IcScDi'  t«   01  TvpvoaocpiaTal. 
I-as.sen,  1.  c,  ii.  p.  1075  ;  Sclnvanbeck,  '  Meg.Tstlienis  Indioa,'  p.  139. 

^  Praep.  Ev.  vii.  10  :  Hap'  'IvZoTs  kw.  'BaKTpois  ilai  x'-^'oSff  ■noWal  tiuv 
\f^iinivQ)v  'Bpaxyuivoiv.     Lassen,  1.  c,  ii.  p.  1075. 

•'  'Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  vol.  xxiii.  p.  iS^. 


CONGllESS   Oi"    ORIEXTALISTS.  It 

the  world,  a  period  marked  by  the  first  strong  re- 
action of  the  West  against  the  East,  inaugurated  in 
the  fifth  century  B.C.  by  the  victories  of  Marathon, 
Thermopylae,  and  Salamis,  which  were  almost  con- 
temporary with  the  first  victories  of  Buddha.  But 
while  the  victories  of  Miltiades,  Leonidas,  and  Alex- 
ander the  Great  belong  to  history  only,  Buddha,  the 
Gina  or  Victor,  as  he  is  called,  is  still  the  ruler  of  the 
majority  of  mankind. 

If  now,  after  having  reached  a  period  which  is 
illuminated  by  the  bright  daylight  of  well-authenti- 
cated history,  we  turn  our  eyes  back  once  more  to 
the  two  preceding  periods,  we  may  assert  without 
fear  of  contradiction  that  our  knowJedge  of  the  very 
existence  of  the  first  period  is  entirely  due  to  Oriental 
scholarship,  while  it  is  equally  due  to  the  discoveries 
of  Oriental  scholars  that  the  second  period  has  been 
invested  for  the  first  time  with  a  truly  human  interest. 
The  ancient  history  of  the  world  may  be  said  to  have 
assumed,  under  the  hands  of  Oriental  scholars,  the 
character  of  a  magnificent  dramatic  trilogy.  The 
first  drama  tells  us  of  the  fates  of  the  Aryan  and 
the  Semitic  race,  each  a  compact  confederacy  before 
the  separation  into  various  languages  and  historical 
nationalities.  The  second  drama  is  formed  by  the 
wars  and  conquests  of  the  great  Eastern  Empires  in 
Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Syria,  but  it  shows  us  that, 
besides  these  wars  and  conquests,  there  was  a  con- 
stant progress  of  Eastern  culture  towards  the  West, 
towards  the  shores  and  islands  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  lastly  towards  Greece. 

The  third  drama  represents  the  triumphant  progress 
of  Alexander,  the  Greek  far  more  than  the  Macedonian, 


7  b  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

from  Europe  through  Persia,  Palestine,  Phenicia,  Egypt, 
Pabylon,  Hyrcania,  and  Pactria  to  India,  in  fact 
through  all  the  great  empires  of  the  ancient  East. 
Here  we  see  the  first  attempt  at  re-estabJishing  the 
union  between  the  East  and  the  West.  It  is  said  ^  that 
among  the  papers  of  Alexander,  a  plan  was  found 
how  to  unite  all  these  conquered  nations  into  one 
Greek  Empire  by  a  mixture  of  families  and  manners, 
and  by  colonies,  and  thus  to  raise  humanity  to 
a  higher  level.  Common  religious  services  and  com- 
meicial  unions  were  meant  to  teach  Europeans  and 
Asiatics  to  look  upon  each  other  as  fellow-citizens. 
Though  this  plan,  worthy  of  the  pupil  of  Aristotle, 
was  never  realised,  his  wars  and  victories  have  cer- 
tainly drawn  the  most  distant  nations  closely  together, 
and  enabled  them  to  pour  the  stores  of  their  ancient 
wisdom  into  one  common  treasury.  The  rays  from 
the  Pharos  of  Alexandria  may  be  said  to  have  pierced 
across  Egypt,  Persia,  Babylonia,  and  Pactria  into  the 
dark  shades  of  Indian  forests,  while  the  name  of  the 
dwellers  in  these  Indian  forests,  the  Samanas  or 
Semnoi,  the  Venerable,  as  they  were  called  by  the 
Greeks,  might  be  heard  in  the  halls  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Library.  The  very  name  of  Puddha  {Bovtto) 
was  not  unknown  to  the  later  philosophers  of  Alex- 
andria, for  we  see  that  the  mind  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria^,  in  the  second  century  a. D.,  was  occupied 
with  the  question  whether  Buddha  really  deserved  to 
be  worshipped  as  a  God,  though  we  know  now  that 

'  See  Johannes  von  Miillei-,  '  AUgemeine  (lesoliichte,'  p.  63. 

*  'Strom.,'  i.  p.  131,  S^lb.  :  Eiai  Si  rwv  '\\hwv  o\  roh  BoiIxTa  uuQoyLivoi 
■napa-f^iXnaatv,  uv  5i'  vntpjioXfiv  aefiVuTrjTOS  u)j  6(ov  T(TifJ.TjKa(n  ;  possibly 
resting  on  Megastlunes ;  see  *  Meg;ist)ienis  Indica,'  ed.  Scbwanbeck, 
p.  46. 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  79 

this  was  the  very  last  thing  that  the  real  Buddha 
would  ever  have  desired.  Clement  knew  also  that 
the  Buddhists  built  some  kind  of  temple  or  A'aityas 
in  which  they  preserved  the  bones  and  other  relies  of 
Buddha  and  his  disciples,  the  earliest  specimens  of 
stone  architecture  in  India,  some  of  them  preserved  to 
the  present  day  ^. 

After  the  seeds  which  Alexander  had  transplanted 
from  Greece  to  Egypt  and  the  different  parts  of  the 
East  had  begun  to  grow  and  abound,  Alexandria 
became  more  and  more  the  centre  of  gravitation  of 
the  ancient  world,  the  point  to  which  all  the  streams 
of  ancient  thought  converged.  Here  in  Alexandria 
the  highest  aspirations  of  Semitic  thought;  embodied 
in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  Jews,  became  blended 
with  the  sublime  speculations  of  Aryan  thought,  as 
taught  in  the  Platonist  and  Neo-Platonist  schools  of 
philosophy,  so  that  Alexandria  may  truly  be  called, 
after  Jerusalem,  the  second  birthplace  of  that  religion 
of  universal  love,  which  more  than  any  other  religion 
was  meant  to  re-unite  all  the  members  of  the  human 
race,  scattered  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  into  one 
universal  brotherhood.  In  this  way  the  whole  history 
of  the  world  becomes  indeed  a  Preparatio  Evangelka, 
if  only  we  have  eyes  to  see  in  Christianity  not  a  mere 
refacimento  of  an  ancient  Semitic  faith,  but  a  quick- 
ening of  that  religion  by  the  highest  philosophical 
inspirations  of  the  Aryan,  and  moi-e  particularly  of 
the  Greek  mind. 

I  have  so   far  tried  to   show  you  what   Oriental 

*  Clem.  Alex.  'Strom.,'  i.  3,  p.  57,9,  ed.  Potter:  Oi  KaXovp.ivoi  5J 
^ffivol  (i.  e.  Saiiiana)  t£v  'Ij/So)!/  —atlSovai  riva  irvpafxiSa  v<p'  ^j/  oaria 
Tivds  Otov  vo/jA^ovat  dnoKaaOat. 


80  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

scholarship  has  done  for  us  in  helping  us  to  a  right 
appreciation  of  the  historical  development  of  the 
human  race,  beginning  on  the  Asiatic  continent  and 
reaching  its  highest  consummation  on  this  small 
Asiatic  peninsula  of  ours,  which  we  call  Europe,  nay 
on  this  very  spot  where  we  are  now  assembled,  which 
has  truly  been  called  the  centre  of  the  whole  world. 
It  is  due  to  Oriental  scholarship  that  the  grey  twilight 
of  ancient  history  has  been  illuminated  as  if  by  the 
rays  of  an  unsuspected  sunrise.  We  see  continuity 
and  unity  of  purpose  from  beginning  to  end,  when 
before  we  saw  nothing  but  an  undecipherable  chaos. 
With  every  new  discovery  that  is  made,  whether  in 
the  royal  libraries  of  Babylonia,  oi-  in  the  royal  tombs 
of  Egypt,  or  in  the  sacred  books  of  Persia  and  India, 
the  rays  of  that  sunrise  are  spreading  wider  and  wider, 
and  under  its  light  the  ancient  history  of  our  race 
seems  to  crystallise,  and  to  disclose  in  the  very  forms 
of  its  crystallisation,  laws  or  purposes  running  through 
the  most  distant  ages  of  the  world,  of  which  our  fore- 
fathers had  no  suspicion.  Here  it  is  where  Oriental 
studies  appeal  not  to  specialists  only,  but  to  all  who 
fece  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  the  supreme 
problem  of  all  philosophy,  a  problem  which  in  the 
future  will  have  to  be  studied,  net  as  heretofore,  by 
a  priori  reasoning,  but  chiefly  by  the  light  of  his- 
torical evidence.  The  Science  of  Language,  the  Science 
of  Mythology,  the  Science  of  Religion,  aye,  the  Science 
of  Thought,  all  have  assumed  a  new  aspect,  chiefly 
through  the  discoveries  of  Oriental  scholars,  who  have 
placed  facts  in  the  place  of  theories,  and  displayed 
before  us  the  historical  development  of  the  human 
race,  as  a  worthy  rival  of  the  development  of  nature, 


CONGRESS    OF   ORIENTALISTS.  81 

displayed  before  our  eyes  by  the  genius  and  patient 
labours  of  Darwin. 

It  seemed  to  me  the  most  obvious  duty  of  the 
President  in  opening  an  International  Congress  of 
Orientalists,  to  show  to  the  world  at  large  how  much 
Oriental  scholarship  has  contributed  to  the  common 
stock  of  human  knowledge.  In  England  more  par- 
ticularly, Oriental  studies  are  too  often  looked  upon 
as  interesting  to  specialists  only,  and  as  far  removed 
from  the  general  interests  of  our  age.  I  thought  it 
right  therefore  to  show  once  for  all  that  this  is  wrong, 
and  that  Oriental  studies  are  well  deserving  of  general 
sympathy  and  support.  I  hope  I  have  shown  that 
these  studies  are  forming  now,  and  will  always  form, 
the  only  safe  foundation  for  a  study  of  the  history  of 
mankind,  and,  more  particularly,  for  a  clear  appre- 
ciation of  that  intellectual  atmosphere  in  which  even 
we,  in  the  far  West,  still  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being.  Another  prejudice  against  Oriental  studies 
has  found  frequent  expression  of  late.  It  is  charged 
against  us  that  the  results  of  our  labours  are  con- 
stantly shifting  and  changing,  and  that  the  brilliant 
discoveries  of  this  year  become  invariably  the  exploded 
errors  of  the  next.  This  is  greatly  exaggerated.  True, 
Oriental  scholarship  has  advanced  very  rapidly  during 
this  century ;  true,  it  has  had  to  suffer  much  from 
dabblers,  babblers,  and  half-scholars ;  but  I  hope 
I  have  shown  that  the  permanent  gains  of  Oriental 
research  are  both  massive  and  safe,  and  that  the  con- 
tributions of  Oriental  scholars  to  the  capitalised  wealth 
of  human  knowledge  need  not  fear  comparison  with 
those  of  any  other  scholars. 

It  might  no  doubt  have  seemed  more  attractive  if 

VOL.  I.  G 


82  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

in  this  inaugural  address  I  had  dwelt  on  the  latest 
discoveries  of  Oriental  scholarship  only.  But  it  would 
have  ill  become  me  as  the  President  of  this  Congress, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  very  authors  of  some  of 
these  discoveries,  if  I  had  tried  to  act  as  their  inter- 
preter or  ventured  to  criticise  their  results.  We  shall 
have  plenty  of  this  work  in  our  special  sections,  but 
in  this  General  Meeting  of  the  Members  of  all  the 
Sections,  I  felt  convinced  that  I  should  best  carry  out 
your  wishes  by  trying  to  sum  up,  in  the  presence  of 
the  most  critical  judges,  what  I  consider  the  safe 
conquests  of  that  glorious  campaign  which  was  opened 
by  Sir  William  Jones,  Colebrooke,  Sylvestre  de  Sacy, 
Champollion,  Ewald,  Burnouf,  Bopp,  and  Lassen, 
was  carried  on  by  some  of  the  veterans  present  here 
to-day,  and  will,  I  feel  sure,  lead  on  to  even  more 
important  conquests  under  the  guidance  of  those 
young  and  bold  generals,  many  of  whom  we  greet 
here  for  the  first  time. 

But  before  I  conclude,  may  I  be  allowed  to  tax 
your  patience  a  few  minutes  longer,  and  to  ask  one 
more  question,  though  I  know  that  many  here  present 
are  far  more  competent  to  return  an  authoritative 
answer  to  it  than  your  President.  Is  the  benefit  to 
be  derived  from  Oriental  studies  confined  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  past,  to  a  truer  insight  into  that 
marvellous  drama,  the  history  of  the  human  race  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West,  whether  in  historic  or  prehistoric 
times  ?  May  not  our  Oriental  studies  call  for  general 
sympathy  and  support,  as  helping  us  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  present,  nay,  of  the  future  also, 
with  regard  to  the  ever-increasing  intercourse  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  Westl     Why  should  so  many 


COXGRESS    OK    OUIEXTALISTS.  83 

practical  men,  so  many  statesmen,  and  rulers,  and 
administrators  of  Eastern  countries,  have  joined  our 
Congress,  if  they  did  not  expect  some  important 
practical  advantages  from  the  study  of  Eastern 
languages  and  Eastern  literature  ? 

If  the  old  pernicious  prejudice  of  the  white  man 
against  the  black,  of  the  Aryan  against  the  Semitic 
race,  of  the  Greek  against  the  Barbarian,  has  been 
inherited  by  ourselves,  and  there  are  few  who  can 
say  that  they  are  entirely  free  from  that  damnosa 
haereditas,  nothing,  I  believe,  has  so  powerfully  helped 
to  remove,  or  at  least  to  soften  it,  as  a  more  widely- 
spread  study  of  Oriental  languages  and  literature. 

England  is  at  present  the  greatest  Oriental  Empii-e 
which  the  world  has  ever  known.  England  has 
proved  that  she  knows  not  only  how  to  conquer,  but 
how  to  rule.  It  is  simply  dazzling  to  think  of  the 
few  thousands  of  Englishmen  ruling  the  millions  of 
human  beings  in  India,  in  Africa,  in  America,  and  in 
Australasia.  England  has  realised,  and  more  than 
realised,  the  dream  of  Alexander,  the  marriage  of  the 
East  and  the  West,  and  has  drawn  the  principal 
nations  of  the  world  together  more  closely  than  they 
have  ever  been  before.  But  to  conquer  and  rule 
Eastern  nations  is  one  thing,  to  understand  them  is 
quite  another.  In  order  to  understand  Eastern 
nations,  we  must  know  not  only  their  languages,  but 
their  literature  also ;  we  must  in  a  certain  sense 
become  Orientalised,  students  of  the  East,  lovers  of 
the  East.  In  this  respect  much  remains  to  be  done. 
I  believe  that  the  small  kingdom  of  Saxony,  counting 
fewer  inhabitants  than  the  city  of  London,  does  more 
for  encouraging  the  study  of  Eastern  languages  and 

G  a 


84  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

literature  than  England.  It  is  quite  true  that  when 
new  and  really  important  discoveries  had  to  be  made, 
English  scholars,  men  of  true  genius,  have  always 
been  in  the  van  of  the  victorious  progress  of  Oriental 
scholarship.  Their  work  has  always  been  what  in 
German  is  called  BahnbrecJiend,  breaking  the  first 
road  through  a  dark  and  impervious  forest.  But 
it  has  long  been  felt  that  we  are  deficient  in  providing 
instruction  in  Eastern  languages,  such  as  is  offered  to 
young  men  in  Russia,  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  at 
the  expense  of  the  State.  We  have  lately  made  one 
step  in  the  right  direction.  Under  the  personal 
patronage  of  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  School  of 
Modern  Oriental  Studies  has  at  last  been  established 
at  the  Imperial  Institute^.  This  is  the  realisation  of 
a  plan  for  which  I  pleaded  forty  years  ago,  and  which 
was  warmly  advocated  at  the  time  by  that  most  far- 
seeing  statesman,  the  late  Prince  Consort.  But  we 
want  help,  we  want  much  larger  funds,  if  this 
excellent  scheme  is  to  grow  and  bear  fruit.  If  the 
public  at  large  could  only  be  made  to  see  the  practical 
advantages  that  would  accrue  to  English  commerce 
from  a  sufiicient  supply  of  young  men  qualified  to 
travel  in  the  East  and  to  carry  on  a  correspondence 
in  Eastern  dialects,  we  should  probably  get  from  our 
rich  merchants  that  pecuniary  support  which  we  want, 
and  which  in  other  countries  is  suj^plied  from  the 
general  taxation  of  the  country.  But  far  higher 
interests  than  the  commercial  supremacy  of  England 
are  at  stake.  The  young  rulers  and  administrators 
who  are  sent  every  year  to  the  East,  ought  to  be  able 
to  keep  up  much  more  intimate  relations  with  the 

*  See  p.  97. 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  85 

people  whom  they  are  meant  to  rule  and  to  guide, 
than  exist  at  present.  It  is  well  known  that  one  of 
our  Koyal  Dukes,  during  his  stay  in  India,  acquired 
a  knowledge  of  Hindustani  in  order  to  be  able  to 
converse  freely  with  his  soldiers.  It  is  no  secret  that 
even  our  Queen,  the  first  Empress  of  India,  has  devoted 
some  of  her  very  precious  leisure  to  a  study  of  the 
language  and  literature  of  India.  Here  are  bright 
examples  to  follow.  Without  an  intimate  knowledge 
and  an  easy  conventional  command  of  a  common 
language,  a  real  intimacy  between  rulers  and  ruled 
is  impossible.  It  has  been  truly  said  by  the  Times 
(July  9,  1892),  that  if  the  Transatlantic  Cable  had 
been  available  in  1858,  there  would  have  been  no 
Trent  Affair.  One  may  say  with  the  same  truth, 
that  if  there  had  been  a  more  free  and  friendly  inter- 
course between  the  rulers  and  the  ruled,  between 
oflficers  and  soldiers  in  India,  an  intercourse  such 
as  can  only  be  kept  up  by  the  electric  current  of 
a  common  language,  there  would  have  been  no  Indian 
Mutiny. 

When  I  accepted  the  honourable  post  of  President 
of  this  Congress,  it  was  chiefly  because  I  hoped  that 
this  Congress  would  help  to  kindle  more  enthusiasm 
for  Oriental  Scholarship  in  England.  But  that 
enthusiasm  must  not  be  allowed  to  pass  away  with 
our  meeting.  It  should  assume  a  solid  and  lasting- 
form  in  the  shape  of  a  permanent  and  powerful 
association  for  the  advancement  of  Oriental  learning, 
having  its  jn'oper  home  in  the  Imperial  Institute. 
If  the  members  of  this  Congress  and  their  friends  will 
help  to  carry  out  this  plan,  then  our  Congress  might 
hereafter  mark  an  important  epoch  in  the  history  of 


8G  RECEXT    ESSAYS. 

this  the  greatest  Eastern  Empire,  and  I  should  feel 
that,  in  spite  of  all  my  shortcomings,  I  had  proved 
not  quite  unworthy  of  the  confidence  which  my 
friends  and  fellow-labourers  have  reposed  in  me. 

PROPOSAL  OF  A  VOTE  OF  THANKS  TO  THE 
PRESIDENT. 

[By  HOFRATH  G.  BUHLER,  C.I.E.,  Professor  in  the  Imperial  and 
Royal  University  of  Vienna,  Austrian  Delegate.] 

The  admirable  sketch  of  the  achievements  of 
Oriental  scholarship  during  the  last  fifty  years,  and 
of  its  consequent  rise  in  dignity  and  importance, 
which  Professor  Max  Mliller  has  just  given  us,  must 
indeed  fill  the  hearts  of  Orientalists  with  just  pride. 
And  it  naturally  affords  particular  gratification  to 
those  among  us  who  are  able  to  remember  the  not 
very  remote  times  when  matters  stood  very  differently. 
Even  so  late  as  thirty-five  years  ago,  war  was  still 
being  waged,  especially  in  Germany,  between  the 
Classicists  and  the  Sanskritists.  The  simplest  and 
most  indisputable  results  of  comparative  philology 
were  by  no  means  received  with  general  respect,  and 
in  the  Universities  the  study  of  Sanskrit  was  by  no 
means  viewed  favourably.  Latine  loqui  malumus 
quani  balLutire  Sanskrite,  said  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  philologists  of  the  time,  to  a  presump- 
tuous adherent  of  the  new  school  who  dared  to 
express  a  doubt  regarding  the  all-sufficiency  of  the 
two  classical  languages.  His  dictum  was  not  rarely 
repeated  with  complacency,  and  among  others  by  one 
of  my  own  teachers,  who  wished  to  warn  me  against 
my  dangerous  proclivities  towards  the  sacred  language 


COXGUKSS  OF    ORIENTAT-ISTS,  b/ 

of  the  Brahmans.  The  study  of  Arabic  and  other 
literary  Semitic  languages  was  regarded  with  more 
favour,  but  by  many  only  under  the  proviso  that  it 
laid  no  claim  to  any  higher  position  than  to  that 
of  a  humble  handmaiden  of  the  study  of  Divinity. 
Egyptology  and.  Assyriology,  especially  the  latter, 
were  still  looked  upon  with  distrust,  and  very  com- 
monly declared  to  bo  pursuits  unworthy  of  the 
attention  of  serious  scholars.  In  short,  though  there 
were  no  doubt  most  honourable  exceptions,  the 
classical  philologists  and  the  historians,  as  well  as 
the  educated  public,  whom  they  influenced,  mostly 
regarded  special  Oriental  research  with  no  friendly 
sentiments ;  the  Orientalist  was  often  made  to  feel 
that  he  was  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  if  not  of 
actual  hostility,  yet  of  scarcely  disguised  contempt. 

If  in  the  present  day  a  great  revulsion  of  feeling 
has  taken  place,  and  the  work  of  the  Orientalist  is 
now  everywhere  regarded  with  sympathy  and  followed 
with  intelligent  interest,  the  change  is  owing  partly, 
as  we  have  been  told,  to  the  growth  of  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  its  results,  but  to  a  great  extent  also — 
and  this  has  not  been  mentioned — to  the  indefatigable 
industry  and  the  consummate  skill,  displayed  by 
some  of  the  master  workmen  in  setting  forth  their 
own  and  their  fellow-labourers'  discoveries. 

Among  these  men  who  have  conquered  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  public,  and  who  have  brought  home  the 
value  of  Oriental  research  even  to  those  reluctant  to 
acknowledge  it,  hardly  one  has  done  so  much  and 
occupies  so  prominent  a  position  as  our  illustrious 
President,  Professor  Max  Miiller.  He  has  laboured 
for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  laboured  to  the  very  best 


88  KECEXT   ESSAYS. 

purpose  "both  for  the  specialists  and,  what  in  my 
opinion  and  according  to  my  experience  is  even  more 
difficult,  for  the  general  public.  To  the  specialists 
he  has  given  such  works  as  his  '  History  of  Ancient 
Sanskrit  Literature/  which  after  the  lapse  of  a  genera- 
tion is  still  a  standard  book,  and  his  splendid  editions 
of  the  Rig-Veda,  the  greatest  and  most  extensive  among 
which  has  just  now  appeared  in  a  second  edition. 
The  large  collection  of  translations,  unique  of  its 
kind,  which  appears  under  his  guidance,  renders  the 
greatest  services  both  to  the  specialists  and  to  all 
interested  in  the  history  of  religion.  Neither  the 
specialist  nor  the  student  of  general  history  can  aflbrd 
to  pass  by  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  The  works, 
which  our  President  has  addressed  chiefly,  though 
never  exclusively,  to  beginners  and  to  the  general 
public,  refer  to  an  exceedingly  great  variety  of 
subjects,  extending  from  the  highest  problems  of  the 
science  of  religion  to  the  history  of  the  alphabets,  and 
even  to  the  art  of  spelling.  Their  number  makes  an 
attempt  at  enumeration  impossible,  and,  as  they  are 
all  admirably  adapted  for  their  several  purposes,  even 
a  selection  of  titles  would  be  invidious.  It  must 
suffice,  and,  I  believe,  it  will  suffice,  if  I  here  call 
attention  to  the  well-known  fact  that  these  works 
have  made  Professor  Max  Muller's  name  a  household 
word  in  every  country  where  the  English  language  is 
spoken  or  understood,  and  not  less  in  all  lands  where 
his  native  tongue  prevails.  These  long- continued  and 
eminent  services  to  the  common  cause  will,  I  am 
sure,  make  all  Orientalists  here  present  agree  with 
me,  that  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  find  anybody 
better  qualified  than  Professor  Max  Mliller  to  fill  the 


CONGRESS    OF    OKIEXTALISTS.  89 

most  honourable  post  of  President  of  this  our  Ninth 
International  Oriental  Congress,  and  to  give  us  in  an 
Inaugural  Address  a  general  outline  of  the  results  of 
Oriental  research. 

Turning  to  the  other  causes  of  the  elevation  of 
Oriental  research,  I  can  only  agree  with  Professor 
Max  Miiller,  that  one  of  the  chief  points  which  has 
contributed  to  raise  it  in  dignity  and  importance  is 
the  discovery  of  connecting-links  between  its  various 
branches.  Much  has  indeed  been  done  to  convert  the 
outcome  of  the  several  sections  of  Oriental  studies 
into  connected  chapters  of  the  history  of  the  human 
race.  Much  also  remains  to  be  accomplished,  and 
there  is  every  hope  that,  if  the  search  for  ancient 
literary  documents  and  the  excavation  of  the  old  sites, 
once  the  homes  of  civilisation,  are  carried  on  with  the 
same  vigour  and  skill  as  during  late  years,  much 
more  will  be  effected. 

Thus  there  is  a  gap  in  the  history  of  the  relations 
of  India  to  its  neighbours,  the  complete  filling  up  of 
w^hich  may  be  expected  with  full  confidence^  nay, 
which  indeed  now  akeady  may  be  said  to  be  half 
filled.  This  gap  is  found  in  the  history  of  the  spread 
of  the  Indian  civilisation  towards  the  southern  portion 
of  the  Far  East.  It  has  been  long  known  that  there 
are  more  or  less  distinct  traces  of  Indian  immigra- 
tions, and  of  Indian  influence  in  certain  islands  of 
the  Indian  Archipelago,  such  as  Java,  Sumatra,  Bali, 
Eorneo,  and  even  in  the  distant  Philippines,  as  well 
as  in  some  districts  of  Further  India,  such  as  Siam, 
Kamboja,  and  Champa.  But  it  is  only  since  Professor 
Kern  began,  and  Messieurs  Barth,  Bergaigne,  and 
iSenart  carried  on  with  signal  success  the  examination 


GO  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

of  the  epigrapliic  documents  collected  by  M.  Aymonier 
and  others,  that  we  have  obtained  an  insight  into  the 
true  character  of  the  relations  of  the  Hindus  with 
these  regions.  It  now  appears  that  this  portion  of 
the  Far  East  did  not  receive  its  share  of  the  Indian 
civilisation,  like  China  and  Japan,  through  the  bare- 
footed friars  of  the  Buddhist  persuasion,  but  after 
being  conquered  with  the  sword  by  the  Brahminical 
warriors  of  Eastern  India. 

Not  much  later  than  the  time  when  Rome  began 
to  extend  its  sway  beyond  the  fr-ontiers  of  Italy,  the 
Indian  princes  and  nobles  entered  on  a  career  of  con- 
quest which  probably  began  with  the  subjection  of 
portions  of  Sumatra  and  Java,  and  certainly  extended 
as  far  as  Kambqja  and  Champa,  to  the  south  of  Cochin 
China,  They  carried  with  them  their  civilisation  and 
their  religion,  following,  it  would  seem,  the  advice 
addressed  by  Manu  to  the  successful  conquerors, 
whom  he  exhorts  to  settle  in  newly-acquired  king- 
doms, learned  Brahmans,  artists,  and  artisans  skilled 
in  various  handicrafts.  The  inscriptions  from  Kam- 
boja  and  Champa,  the  oldest  known  among  which 
belongs  to  the  second  century  of  our  era,  proves  that 
Sanskrit  was  the  official  language,  and  that  these 
countries  boasted  of  poets,  able  to  turn  out  very 
respectable  Sanskrit  verses.  We  also  learn  from  them 
that  the  Samans  were  sung,  the  Riks,  the  Mahabha- 
rata,  the  Ramiyawa,  and  the  Purana  were  recited  in 
the  Far  East  just  as  in  Arydvarta,  the  true  abode 
of  the  Aryas  ;  that  >S'iva  and  Vishtiu  were  worshipped 
in  the  new  country  just  as  in  the  old  home  ;  and  that 
temples  were  dedicated  to  them,  built  in  the  Indian 
style  of  architecture,  the  ruins  of  which  even  now 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  91 

strike  the  beholder  with  admiration.  Much  remains 
still  to  bo  done  in  order  to  bring  out  the  details  of 
the  conquest  and  of  the  civilisation  of  the  Far  East 
by  the  Indian  Aryas.  But  the  outlines  of  the  inte- 
resting story  are  clearly  discernible,  and  even  at 
present  it  would  be  possible  to  enrich  the  history 
of  Asia  by  a  chapter  which  would  prove  equally 
attractive  to  European  readers,  and  to  the  modern 
Hindus,  the  descendants  of  the  conquerors  of  the 
Far  East.  ' 

Professor  Max  MUller's  practical  suggestion  for  the 
advancement  of  Oriental  learning  has,  of  course,  my 
warmest  sympathies,  and  I  wish  it  all  possible  success. 
As  a  Sanskritist,  I  have  good  reasons  for  regarding 
England  as  the  fountain-head  of  the  studies  to  which 
I  have  devoted  myself,  and,  naturally,  I  can  only 
rejoice  at  every  undertaking  calculated  to  raise  the 
standard  of  Oriental  scholarship  in  England,  and  to 
make  England  more  and  more  the  headquarters  of 
Oriental  learn  in  cj. 

I  now  fulfil  the  pleasant  and  honourable  task, 
imposed  upon  me  by  the  Managing  Committee,  of 
moving  a  hearty  vote  of  thanks  to  our  President  for 
the  eloquent  and  impressive  address  to  which  we  have 
just  listened. 

VOTE  OF  THANKS  TO  THE  PRESIDENT. 

[Seconded  by  COUNT  ANGELO  DE  GUBERNATIS,  Piofessor  in 
the  Royal  University  of  Rome,  Italian  Delegate.] 

Dopo  la  parola  autorevolissima  dal  professor  Giorgio 
Biihler,  in  risposta  al  vostro  alto  discorsO;  o  glorioso 
Max  Miiller,  potrebbe  apparii-vi  superflua  ogni  altra 


92  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

parola ;  ed,  in  ogni  modo,  piu  efficace  della  mia  e  piii 
lusinghiera  al  vostro  orecchio^  avvezzo  alle  carezze 
ed  agli  incensi  dell'  Olimpo,  dove  il  vostro  genio 
luminoso  ha  sempre  spaziato,  giungerebbe  1'  assenso 
di  uno  de'  sommi  maestri  della  linguistica  contempo- 
ranea,  del  mio  illustre  collega  e  concittadino,  il  sena- 
tore  Graziadio  Ascoli,  il  quale,  in  una  memorabile 
monografiaj  intitolata  Lingue  e  Nazloni,  ormai  antica, 
preeorse  di  alcuni  anni,  gia  secondato  da  un  nucleo  di 
valentuomini  che  sta  per  divenire  falange,  il  moto 
felice  presente,  per  mettere  in  accordo  le  indagini 
e  divinazioni  del  linguista  comparatore  con  quelle 
deir  etnologo  e  preparar  conclusioni  piu  comprensive, 
le  quali  permetteranno  finalmente  di  rendere  una 
maggior  giustizia  alia  parte  che  ciascun  popolo,  anche 
uinile,  ha  preso  inconsciamente  alia  formazione  pro- 
gressiva de'  linguaggi  e  ad  ogni  palese  documento 
deir  umana  civilta. 

Ma  e  sembrato  forse  al  Comitate,  che,  nella  mia 
privata  qualita  d'  indianista,  mitologo  e  folk-lorista, 
fceguace  lontano  delle  vostre  prime  orme  luminose, 
o  geniale  maestro,  e  di  cooperatore  assiduo  all'  opera 
benefica  de'  Congressi  degli  Orientalisti,  io  potessi 
portar  qui  una  voce  non  dissonante  e  forse  simpatica, 
nel  concerto  di  lodi  che  saluta,  ad  un  tempo,  1'  opera 
vostra  lunga  e  magnanima  a  pro'  degli  studii,  special- 
mente  ariani,  e  il  lavoro  solerte  e  meritorio,  invano 
contrastato,  de'  savii  ordinatori  di  questo  nono  Con- 
gresso,  continuatore  legittimo  dello  splendido  ottavo 
Congrcsso  che  ci  riuni,  sotto  la  presidenza  augusta 
del  Re  di  Svezia  e  di  Norvegia,  a  Stoccolma  ed 
a  Christiania. 

Ne,  dopo  ch'  io  consentii  al  troppo  cortese  invito, 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIEXTALISTS.  93 

io  mi  scusero  piu  d'  adoperaro,  in  questa  occasione 
solenne,  la  mia  dolce  favella  nativa,  posto  che  non 
posse  nfe  pure  aver  dimenticato  come  Giuseppe  Bai-etti, 
Ugo  Foscolo,  Giuseppe  Pecchio,  Gabriele  Eossetti, 
Giuseppe  Mazzini,  Giovanni  RufEni,  Gerolamo  Pic- 
chioni,  Antonio  Panizzi,  Aurelio  Saffi  ed  altri  illustri 
profughi  italiani,  lungamente  beneficati  in  questo 
suolo  ospitale,  hanno  insegnato  la  lingua  di  Dante 
alia  parte  piu  eletta  del  popolo  inglese,  non  ignaro 
poi  cite  lo  stesso  grand  old  Englishman,  il  quale 
regge  ora  le  sorti  politiche  del  Regno  Unito  e  che 
dovea  presiedere  una  sezione  del  nostro  Congresso, 
cosi  bene  architettato,  studio  gia,  con  lo  stesso  am  ore 
6  con  uguale  profondita,  la  lingua  di  Dante  e  quella 
d'  Omero. 

L'  opera  de'  Congress!  Internazionali  degli  Orienta- 
listi  mi  appare,  del  resto,  o  Signori,  per  due  grandi 
aspetti,  importante.  Oltre  al  porre  nuovi  capisaldi 
ed  alti  segnali  visibili  a  tutti,  nella  via  kboriosa,  ma 
un  po'  disseminata,  degli  studii  oriental!,  pel  concorso 
cb'  essi  promuovono,  d'  ogni  maniera  di  studiosi  da 
ogni  contrada  piil  remota  e  dispersa,  arrecanti  come 
ad  un'  ara  sacrificale,  1'  ultimo  ed  il  miglior  frutto 
delle  loro  pazienti  indagini,  accrescono  pure  visi- 
bilmente,  nel  paese  stesso  dove  ogni  Congresso  felice- 
mente  s'  aduna,  la  gara  operosa  degli  studiosi  nazionali, 
e  la  mettono  in  piu  nobile  evidenza,  somministrando 
ad  ogni  nuova  riunione  internazionale  un  contributo 
di  studii  locali  di  un  valore  non  dispregevole. 

Ora  a  me,  particolarmente  studioso  di  cose  Indian e, 
questo  Congresso  promosso  dalla  nobile  e  forte  Inghil- 
terra,  la  quale  non  solo  possiede  e  governa,  ma  studia, 
educa  e   incivilisce   tutto  il  magnifico  e  portentoso 


94  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

universo  dell'  India,  dovea  destare  nou  solo  un  parti- 
colare  interesse,  ma  un  sense  di  viva  e  singolare 
riconoscenza.  Posseduta  invano  e  disputata  col  ferro 
e  col  fuoco,  per  quasi  tre  secoli,  da  tre  altre  valorose 
nazioni  europee,  1'  India  sapiente,  se  proprio  non  ci 
fu  rivelata,  h  stata  di  certo  aperta  e  comunicata,  per 
la  prima  volta,  all'  Europa,  dalla  sola  Inghilterra,  sul 
fine  del  secolo  passato.  L'  Inghilterra  trovo  poi,  in 
altre  nazioni  europee,  e  specialmente  nella  Francia 
e  nella  Germania,  le  sue  cooperatrici  piii  valide  ;  e  voi, 
illustre  Max  Miiller,  con  la  genialita  dell'  opera  vostra, 
avete  certamente,  nella  vostra  sola  persona,  rappre- 
sentata  V  anima  congrediente  di  piu  civilta,  intese  del 
pari  a  difFondere  sopra  di  noi  la  luce  dell'  India.  La 
somma  dell'  opera  vostra,  illuminata  de'  piu  centri  di 
vita  intellettuale  poderosa,  e  percio  stata  fruttifera ; 
e  di  ottimo  augurio  ai  lavori  di  questo  Congresso 
Internazionale,  ma  particolarmente  Anglo-Indiano,  di 
Orientalisti,  sara  1'  inspirazione  che  gli  verra  dalla 
parola  luminosa,  con  la  quale  oggi  li  avete  iniziati. 
Onde,  fiducioso  d'  interpretare,  alia  mia  volta,  il  senti- 
mento  della  maggioranza  degli  studiosi  di  ogni  disci- 
plina  che  si  riferisce  all'  Oriente,  riuniti  in  questo 
Congresso,  mi  associo,  di  gran  cuore,  alia  proposta  del 
chiarissimo  professor  Biihler,  perch^  1'  Assemblea, 
dopo  il  plauso  che  giagli  concesse  spontanea,  risponda 
con  un  singolar  voto  di  ringraziamento  all'  alto  e 
sereno  discorso  inspiratore  del  professor©  Max  Miiller. 
Ed  ora,  passando  ad  altro,  ad  un  innamorato  del- 
r  India,  che  ha  pure  la  rara  ventura  di  esser  nato  nella 
patria  di  Marco  Polo  e  di  Filippo  Sassetti,  sia  lecito 
di  profittare  di  questa  occasione  propizia,  per  una 
presentazione  che  spera  poter  tornare  bene  accetta. 


CONGRESS    OF    ORIENTALISTS.  95 

In  questi  primi  giorni  di  settembre,  si  compiono 
quattrocento  anni  per  1'  appunto  che,  solo  co'  suoi 
alti  propositi,  sopra  una  modesta  nave  spagnuola, 
dal  noroe  inistico  di  Santa  Maria,  quasi  ugualmente 
lontano  dalle  due  rive  del  mondo,  un  nuovo  argonauta 
italiano,  con  la  mente  rivolta  all'  India,  sostenuto  da 
una  forte  conscienzaj  portato  dal  suo  sogno  luminoso, 
impavido,  solcava,  per  la  prima  volta,  1'  Oceano.  Al 
termine  della  sua  navigazione  affannosa,  una  meta 
del  mondo,  popolata  di  gente  che  gli  apparve  e  forse, 
in  origine,  era  stata  indiana,  o  prossima  all'  India, 
balzo  per  lui  fuori  dalle  acque,  lucente ;  e  di  quella 
luce  conquistatrice  fu  irradiata,  di  quella  conquista  fu 
beneficata  1'  umanita  intiera.  Sognatore  dell'  Oriente 
al  pari  di  noi  era  il  grande  ammiraglio  Genovese, 
e  pero  il  suo  nome  non  ci  e  estraneo,  come  1'  opera  di 
lui  non  ci  rimane  indifFerente.  Se  egli  non  fu  il  vero 
ritrovatore  dell'  India  asiatica,  discoprendo,  per  sub- 
lime errore,  un'  India  nuova  piu  grande,  diede  pure 
maggior  animo  e  nuova  luce  alia  conquista  porto- 
ghese  di  Vasco  de  Gama.  E  pero  Cristiano  Lassen, 
uno  de'  piu  grandi  maestri  nell'  Indianismo,  col  nome 
glorificato  del  genovese  Cristoforo  Colombo,  apriva 
degnamente  il  classico  suo  libro  sopra  le  Antichitd 
dell'  India. 

Non  rechi  dunque  meraviglia  clie  uno  studioso 
italiano  delle  cose  d'  oriente,  messosi  d'  accordo  con 
un  coraggioso  editore  milanese,  abbia  promosso  un 
Albo  di  onoranze  internazionali  a  Cristoforo  Colombo 
e  ch'  egli  abbia  trovata  molta  e  cortese  adesione  non 
pure  tra  gli  Orientalist!  europei,  ma  fra  gli  stessi 
Orientali,  e,  in  particolar  modo,  fra  gli  Indiani,  i  quali 
andarono  a  gara  per  rendere  omaggio  alia  memoria 


96  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

del  grande  navigatore,  con  ogni  maniera  di  laudi,  in 
ogni  lor  lingua,  fino  a  quella  piti  universale  della 
musica,  come  si  rilevera  dal  sago-io  d'  inno  vedico  in 
onore  di  Colombo,  scritto  dal  Eagia  Surindro  Mohun 
Tagor  di  Calcutta. 

L'  Albo  verra  soltanto  pubblicato  il  t2  ottobre 
prossimo  pel  giorno  anniversario  del  primo  memorabile 
approdo  del  Gcnovese  all'  Isola  del  Salvatore.  Ma 
i  fogli  staccati  in  varie  lingue  oriental!  che  qui  gia 
depongo  riverente,  in  omaggio  al  Nono  Congress© 
degli  Orientalisti,  attestano  una  specie  di  misterioso 
congresso  spirituale  d'  ogni  popolo  e  d'  ogni  linguaggio, 
intorno  ad  un  centro  di  alta  luce  ideale  diffusa  sulla 
terra  dal  nome  di  Colombo.  La  concordia  di  pensieri 
e  di  sentimenti  umani  innanzi  ad  uno  stesso  faro  di 
luce,  rende  1'  opera  conciliatrice  e  pacifica  di  questa 
specie  di  Congressi  intieramente  salutare ;  la  sola 
arma  de'  Congressi  essendo  poi  la  parola  luminosa, 
la  parola  che  ci  viene  dal  religiose  Oriente  ha  piu 
d'  ogni  altra  1'  obbligo  di  esser  buona,  come  la  luce 
che  investe  d'  una  sola  armonia  il  Creatore  ed  il 
Creato. 


A  SCHOOL  OF  ORIENTAL  LANGUAGES. 

YOUR  Eoyal  Highness,  My  Lords,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen, — For  more  than  thirty  years,  I  may 
honestly  say,  I  have  been  looking  forward  to  what 
at  last  I  see  realised  to-night. 

If  you  could  look  back  to  the  old  numbers  of  the 
Times,  you  would  find  there,  just  Ihirty-two  years 
ago,  my  last  urgent  appeal  for  the  establishment  of 
a  School  of  Oiiental  Languages  in  London.  It  bears 
the  date  of  the  loth  of  January,  and  was  published 
on  the  13th  of  January,  1857. 

And  I  may  say  now,  what  was  not  generally  known 
at  the  time,  that  he  who  took  the  warmest  interest  in 
this  plan,  who  saw  not  only  its  great  literary,  but  its 
supreme  national  importance,  and  who  never  gave  up 
his  hope  that  sooner  or  later  that  plan  would  be 
realised,  was,  Sir,  your  Royal  Father.  You  know, 
Sir,  how  nothing  that  concerned  the  greatness  and 
honour  of  England  was  foreign  to  his  noble  heart, 
and  how  the  duties,  however  distasteful  and  unpopular 
at  times,  which  that  greatness  imposes  on  all  of  us, 
found  in  him  alwaj^s  the  most  faithful  and  determined 
champion.  The  Prince  Consort  could  not  bear  to  see 
other  countries  outstripping  England  in  a  work  which 
was  peculiarly  her  own.    England  may  have  her  rivals 

VOL.  I.  H 


98  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  competitors  in  the  West ;  in  the  East  she  stands 
supreme,  unrivalled,  unapproached.  England  rules 
over  nearly  300  millions  of  people  who  speak  Oriental, 
languages  ;  she  probably  supplies  the  markets  of  1,000 
millions  of  the  people  of  the  East,  and  yet,  for  culti- 
vating a  practical  or  scholarlike  knowledge  of  these 
languages,  for  educating  a  sufficient  number  of  young 
men  qualified  to  strve  her  interests  and  to  maintain 
her  power  in  the  East,  England  has  hitherto  been 
doing  less  than  either  Russia,  France,  or  Germany. 

When  I  say  England.  I  mean  the  Government.  For 
during  the  many  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
Crimean  War,  and  since  the  Indian  Mutiny,  the 
different  Universities  and  Colleges  of  the  country 
have  indeed  bestirred  themselves  and  made  the  greatest 
efforts  to  supply  Oriental  teaching  according  to  their 
means,  nay,  even  beyond  their  means.  The  expense 
incurred  by  some  of  them  in  providing  a  staff  of 
competent  professors  and  teachers  of  the  ancient,  and, 
more  particularly,  of  the  modern  languages  6f  the 
East,  has  been  very  serious.  It  is  quite  right  that 
the  ancient  and  classical  languages  of  the  East  should 
be  represented  in  every  University  by  the  very  best 
scholars,  far  more  even  than  they  are  at  present. 
Eut  it  cannot  be  expected  that  Oxford,  Cambridge, 
Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  St.  Andrew's,  Aberdeen,  Dublin, 
King's  College,  and  University  College  should  each 
provide  a  staff  of  teachers  for  Hindi,  Hindustani, 
Bengali,  Marathi,  Guzarathi,  Tamil,  Telugu,  Canarese, 
Burmese,  to  say  nothing  of  such  vernaculars  as  Tashon, 
Baungsho,  Chinbok,  Chinm(^,  and  others  for  the  study 
of  which,  as  I  see  from  the  Times  of  January  1st,  the 
Indian  Government  has  just  offered  very  temj)ting 


A    SCHOOL    OF    ORIENTAL    LANGTAGES.  99 

rewards.  Nothing  can  be  more  creditable  than  what 
has  been  achieved  by  the  two  Colleges  who  have  now 
united  their  forces  under  the  auspices  of  the  Imperial 
Institute.  Were  I  free  to  speak  of  my  own  University, 
I  could  easily  show  that  the  generosity  of  Oxford  in 
supplying  the  necessary  funds  for  Orientnl  teaching 
need  fear  no  comparison.  The  same  applies,  I  know, 
to  Cambridge. 

But  when  Imperial  interests  are  at  stake,  the 
country  has  a  right  to  expect  Imperial,  that  is, 
concentrated  action.  Otherwise,  what  is  the  good  of 
having  an  Empire?  We  might  as  well  go  back  to 
the  Heptarchy. 

The  Russian  Empire  has  long  been  the  most  liberal 
patron  of  Oriental  studies.  In  the  Imperial  Academy 
of  St.  Petersburg  there  has  always  been  a  chair  for 
almost  every  branch  of  Oriental  learning,  and  the 
principal  spoken  languages  of  the  East  continue  to 
be  taught  there  by  professors,  both  European  and 
Oriental. 

In  France  the  Government  has  long  ago  founded 
a  school  pour  les  laiigues  orlentales  vivantes,  where 
Hindustani,  Persian,  Arabic,  Turkish,  Chinese,  and 
Tibetan  are  taught  by  eminent  scholars,  while  the 
French  Institute  has  always  counted  among  its 
members  the  chief  representatives  of  every  depart- 
ment of  Oriental  research. 

At  Vienna  there  is  nn  Oriental  Seminary,  and  the 
Imperial  Press  has  acquired  one  of  the  richet^t  collec- 
tions of  Oriental  types.  When  other  Universities 
and  Academies  to  which  I  had  applied  for  assistance 
hesitated  about  publishing  a  translation  of  the '  Sacred 
Pooka  of  the  East,'  the  Austrian  Government  in  the 

H  2 


]C0  KECEXT    ESSAYS. 

most  liberal  spirit  came  forward,  ready  to  bear  the 
expense  of  an  undertaking  that  was  intended  to  remove 
the  religious  prejudices  which  separate  the  East  from 
the  West. 

At  Berlin  a  Seminary  of  Oriental  languages  has 
lately  been  inaugurated  which,  under  the  direction 
of  my  learned  friend,  Professor  Sachau,  bids  fair  to 
surpass  all  the  others.  As  this  is  the  younge&t  of 
these  institutions,  allow  me  to  tell  you  what  excellent 
work  is  being  done  there  at  present. 

According  to  an  official  report  just  received,  this 
Oriental  Seminary  at  Eerlin  has  now  the  following 
staff  of  professors  and  teachers  : 

One  Professor  of  Chinese  ;  two  Teachers  of  Chinese, 
both  natives — one  for  teaching  Northern-Chinese,  the 
other  Southern-Chinese. 

One  Professor  of  Japanese,  assisted  by  a  native 
teacher. 

One  Professor  of  Arabic,  assisted  by  two  native 
teachers — one  for  Arabic  as  spoken  in  Egypt,  the 
other  for  Arabic  as  spoken  in  Syria. 

One  native  teacher  of  Hindustani  and  Persian. 

One  native  teacher  of  Turkish. 

One  teacher  of  Swaheli,  an  important  language 
spoken  on  the  East  coast  of  Africa,  assisted  by  a 
native. 

Besides  these  special  lectures,  those  given  by  the 
most  eminent  Professors  of  Sanskrit,  Arabic,  Persian, 
and  Chinese  in  the  Universities  of  Berlin  are  open  to 
the  students  of  the  Oriental  Seminary. 

The  number  of  students  amounts  at  present  to  115. 
Of  these,  fifty- six  are  said  to  belong  to  the  Faculty  of 
Law,  which  must  be  taken  to  include  all  who  aspire 


A    SCHOOL    OF    ORIEXTAI.    I.ANGIAGES.  101 

to  any  employment  in  the  consular  and  colonial 
services.  Fifteen  belong  to  the  Faculties  of  Philo- 
sophy, Medicine,  and  Physical  Science ;  four  to  the 
Faculty  of  Theology,  who  are  probably  intended  for 
Missionary  work.  IVenty-three  are  mentioned  as 
engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits  three  are  technical 
students,  five  officers  in  the  arm}^,  and  nine  are 
returned  as  studying  Modern  Greek  and  Spanish, 
languages  not  generally  counted  as  Oriental,  though, 
no  doubt,  of  great  usefulness  in  the  East  and  in 
America. 

Suppose  that  out  of  this  number,  fifty  only  are 
turned  out  every  year,  well  grounded  in  one  of  the 
Eastern  languages — think  what  a  leaven  (hat  will  be 
in  different  parts  of  the  East.  Think  also  of  what 
a  power  they  will  constitute,  I  do  not  say  hostile  to 
England,  but  at  all  events  in  competition  and  rivalry 
with  her,  whenever  her  diplomatic  and  her  commercial 
interests  are  at  stake ! 

Of  course,  diplomatists  of  the  old  school  will  tell 
you  that  interpreters  are  quite  sufficient  for  transacting 
any  official  business  in  the  East,  and  that  having  to 
wait  for  an  answer  while  the  dragoman  is  translating, 
allows  time  useful  for  reflection.  Our  young  diplo- 
matists know  better.  They  know  that  a  friendly 
tete-d-tete  in  impossible  in  the  presence  of  a  third 
person,  however  neutral  and  machine-like.  Drago- 
mans are  often  irritatinjj,  sometimes  misleading, 
sometimes  actually  dishonest. 

If  a  new  commercial  treaty  has  to  be  negotiated 
in  Japan,  if  a  concession  has  to  be  secured  in  China, 
if  rights  of  suzerainty  have  to  be  acquired  in  Africa, 
who    is    likely  to    be    successful?      The   envoy  who 


102  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

arrives  in  full  state  with  a  posse  of  secretaries  and 
dragomans,  or  the  diplomatic  agent  who  can  converse 
freely  with  natives  of  all  ranks,  who  can  make  allow- 
ance for  the  prejudices,  the  temper,  the  susceptibilities 
of  Eastern  potentates,  and  who  in  the  end  may  become 
their  best  fiiend  and  adviser? 

No  country  has  appreciated  the  importance  of 
Oriental  studies  more  highly  than  Russia,  none  has 
been  better  served  by  her  polyglot  diplomatists.  Let 
me  give  you  one  instance  only.  More  than  fifty 
years  ago  there  was  at  the  Imperial  Academy  of 
St.  Petersburg  a  Professor  of  Pushtu,  then  the  only 
one  in  Europe.  People,  ignorant  of  the  East,  asked 
what  that  language  might  be.  We  know  now,  but 
too  well,  that  it  is  the  language  of  the  Afghans.  In 
1 840,  Professor  Dorn  published  at  St.  Petersburg  his 
Granimaire  Jfghane.  We  are  speaking  of  ancient 
history,  for  at  that  time  Dost  Mohammed  was  still 
the  ruler  of  Afghanistan,  Burnes  and  Macnaghten  had 
not  yet  been  murdered,  and  the  awful  tragedy  of  the 
Khyber  Pass  had  not  yet  been  enacted.  Yet  Russia 
was  all  that  time  quietly  encouraging  the  study  of 
Pushtu,  of  which  there  is  even  now,  I  believe,  no 
teacher  in  England.  Call  this  what  you  like,  en- 
lightened patronage  of  Oriental  scholarship,  or  keen 
political  foresight — in  either  case  Russia  deserves  full 
<;redit,  and  she  has  had  her  reward. 

But  it  is  not  only  for  the  purposes  of  statecraft  and 
diplomacy  that  England  should  follow  the  example  of 
Russia,  and  secure  a  constant  supply  of  well-qualified 
Oriental  scholars.  The  chief  object  of  diplomacy  is  to 
prevent  war.  But  if  diplomacy  fails,  and  war  breaks 
out,  what  is  an  army  to  do,  how  is  it  to  live  in  Eastern 


A   SCHOOL   OF   ORIENTAL    LANGUAGES.  103 

countries  without  ofRcei-s  who  can  freely  communicate 
with  the  people,  whether  friendly  or  hostile?  The 
German  army  has  always  been  very  proud  because 
it  possessed  in  its  ranks  one  officer  who  could  write 
a  report  of  the  battle  of  Worth  in  Sanskrit.  This 
might  possibly  prove  an  emharras  de  richesse,  and 
I  am  not  going  to  recommend  Sanskrit  as  a  panacea 
for  all  evils.  But  at  the  present  moment,  whether 
in  the  Soudan  or  in  Burmah,  we  are  told  that  the 
Commissariat  is  sadly  in  want  of  officers  who  can 
freely  converse  with  the  natives,  who  can  write 
letters  in  Ai-abic  or  Burmese,  and  are  able  to  explain  to 
Ihe  people  whether  they  want  an  ox  or  a  cow,  a  sheep 
or  a  goat.  The  Commissariat  always  claims,  perhaps 
rightly,  that  no  victory  has  ever  been  gained  on  an 
empty  stomach.  Much  can,  no  doubt,  be  requisitioned 
by  sign  language,  to  say  nothing  of  the  language 
of  blows  and  revolvers.  But  a  good  understanding 
between  an  army  and  the  people  of  the  country  is 
impossible  without  officers  understanding  and  speak- 
ing the  language.  Many  surprises,  painful  surprises, 
might  have  been  spared  to  the  English  army,  if  what 
is  called  the  ' Litelligence  Department'  had  been 
better  cared  for  in  times  past.  I  remember  during 
the  Crimean  War,  a  letter  from  Shamyl  arriving  in 
England,  and  no  one  being  able  to  read  it.  It  could 
not  well  be  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  for  translation. 
About  the  same  time  the  Eussian  Governor  of  the 
Caucasus  was  said  to  have  received  the  first  infor- 
mation of  a  carefully-planned  conspiracy  in  Georgia 
from  Georgian  scholars  at  St.  Petersburg.  I  see  that 
at  present  German  officers  are  studying  Chinese, 
Turkish,  and  Swaheli  in  the   Oriental  Seminary  at 


104  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

Berlin.  Why  should  we  not  produce  the  same  article 
in  the  School  of  Oriental  Languages  M^iich  is  inaugu- 
rated to-night  under  such  brilliant  auspices  ? 

And  when  after  war,  peace  has  been  restored  once 
more,  when  commercial  intercourse  on  a  large  scale 
has  to  be  established,  so  as  to  knit  the  bonds  of 
peace  with  the  strongest  chains,  is  not  a  knowledge  of 
the  languages  more  essential  to  the  English  than  to 
any  other  merchants?  You  would  hardly  believe  the 
number  of  letters  I  receive  from  time  to  time  from 
manufacturers,  requesting  me  to  translate  advertise- 
ments, inquiring  whether  advertisements  inserted  in 
Oriental  newspapers  really  mean  what  they  are  in- 
tended to  mean,  or  asking  for  translation  of  notices 
in  Oiiental  journals.  I  am  not  responsible  for  the 
reputation  of  Afezz  fantiasis,  a  kind  of  linguistic 
Elephantiasis,  which  I  seem  to  enjoy  in  certain 
quarters.  I  have  protested  against  it  again  and 
again.  Still  people  will  write  to  me  and  address 
me  as  '  the  Professor  of  the  Oriental  Language  at 
Oxford,'  evidently  imagining  that  one  unknown  lan- 
guage— some  Oriental  Volapilk — is  spoken  all  over 
the  East.  No  one  who  knows  what  it  is  to  know 
a  language  would  ever  imagine  that  it  is  possible 
for  any  human  being  to  know  more  than  two,  or  at 
the  utmost,  three  languages  thoroughly.  He  may  be 
acquainted  with  many  more,  he  may  even  handle 
some  of  them  dexterously  enough  in  conversation, 
but  to  know  a  language  is  the  work  of  a  lil'e.  To 
learn  a  new  language  means  to  become  a  new  man. 
I  hope,  therefore,  that  in  future  I  shall  be  relieved 
of  the  title  of  Professor  of  tlie  Oriental  Language,  and 
that  the    Imperial    Institute,  and   more    particularly 


A    SCHOOL    OF    OIUENTAL    LANGUAGES.  105 

the  New  School  of  Oriental  Languages,  will  supply 
to  every  merchant  in  P^ngland,  Scotland  and  L'eland 
such  information  as  I  in  my  ignorance  was  often 
unable  to  give.  Every  pound  laid  out  on  the  proper 
endowment  of  this  school  will  bear  interest  a  hundred 
and  a  thousandfold,  by  opening  new  and  splendid 
channels  to  British  commercial  enterprise.  England 
cannot  live  an  isolated  life.  She  must  be  able  to 
breathe,  to  grow,  to  expand,  if  she  is  to  live  at  all. 
Her  productive  power  is  far  too  much  for  herself, 
too  much  even  for  Europe.  She  must  have  a  wider 
tield  for  her  unceasing  activity,  and  that  field  is  the 
East,  with  its  many  races,  its  many  markets,  its  many 
languages.  To  allow  herself  to  be  forestalled,  or  to 
be  ousted  by  more  eloquent  and  persuasive  compe- 
titors from  those  vast  fields  of  commerce  would  be 
simple  suicide.  Our  school  in  claiming  national 
support,  appeals  first  of  all  to  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation.  It  says  to  every  manufacturing  town 
in  England,  Help  us  !  and,  in  doing  so,  help  thyself ! 
Whenever  the  safety  and  honour  of  England  are  at 
stake  we  know  what  enormous  sums  Parliament  is 
willing  to  vote  for  army  and  navy,  for  fortresses  and 
harbours — sums  larger  than  any  other  Parliament 
would  venture  to  name.  We  want  very  little  for  our 
School  of  Oriental  Languages,  but  we  want  at  least 
as  much  as  other  countries  devote  to  the  same  object. 
We  want  it  for  the  very  existence  of  England ;  for 
the  vital  condition  of  her  existence  is  her  commerce, 
and  the  best  markets  for  that  commerce  lie  in  the 
East.  Let  the  world  call  England  a  nation  of  shop- 
keepers— omen  accipio — but  let  England  show  that 
she    means    to   keep    her   shops   against   the   world. 


105  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

The  nobler  feeling  of  patriotism  may  lie  dormant  for 
a  time,  but  if  once  roused,  it  awakes  with  irresistible 
force  and  fury,  and  knows  how  to  defend 

'This  blessed  plot,   this  earth,  this  realm,  this  Englanci, 
Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands.' 

Perhaps  I  have  now  said  enough,  and  ought  to 
detain  }  ou  no  longer.  But,  if  you  could  spare  me 
some  moments  more,  there  is  one  subject,  very  near 
to  my  heart,  on  which  I  should  be  glad  if  you  allowed 
me  to  say  a  few  words.     Need  I  say  that  it  is  India. 

For  ruling  India  in  harmony  with  the  wishes  and 
the  highest  interests  of  its  inhabitants,  and  at  the 
same  time  with  a  due  regard  for  the  tremendous 
responsibility  incurred  by  England  in  becoming  the 
guardian  of  that  enormous  Empire,  we  want  young 
men  who  are  able  to  do  more  than  merely  chatter 
Hindustani  or  Tamil.  If  we  look  once  more  to  the 
Lectures  provided  in  the  Oriental  Seminary  at  Berlin, 
we  shall  find  that  they  are  not  confined  to  teaching 
Oriental  languages,  or  how  to  write  a  commercial 
letter,  how  to  draw  up  an  official  document,  and  how 
to  draft  a  political  treaty.  In  every  department  the 
professors  have  to  lecture  on  the  history,  the  geo- 
graphy the  literature,  the  manners,  customs  laws,  and 
religions  of  the  principal  nations  of  the  East.  This  is 
the  kind  of  knowledge  which  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  those  who  are  destined  to  rule  over  a  population 
nearly  ten  times  as  large  as  the  population  of  Eng- 
land, a  population  not  only  speaking  different  lan- 
guages, but  thinking  different  thoughts  believing  in 
different  religions,  nourished  by  different  historical 
traditions,  and  divided  by  different  aspirations  for 
the  futuro. 


A    SCHOOL   OF    ORIEXTAL    LANGUAGES.  107 

It  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  not  altogether  easy 
to  govern  England,  Scotland,  and  Ii-eland,  because  on 
certain  points  their  interests  seem  divergent.  It  is 
said  that  English  statesmen  do  not  understand  Ireland, 
Irish  statesmen  do  not  understand  England,  and 
Scotch  statesmen  do  not  understand  either.  And  yet 
these  three  countries  speak  a  common  language,  have 
a  common  religion,  and,  in  spite  of  occasional  jars  and 
bickerings,  would  resist  with  a  common  indignation 
any  insult  offered  to  their  common  honour,  any  in- 
vasion of  their  commonwealth.  Think,  then,  what 
a  task  is  imposed  on  that  handful  of  young  English- 
men, Scotchmen,  and  Irishmen  who  are  sent  out  every 
year  to  govern  India,  and  how  much  depends  on 
their  being  well  equipped  for  that  task. 

The  history  of  England's  taking  possession  of  India 
is  more  marvellous  than  any  story  of  the  Arabian 
Nights,  and  w^hat  is  the  most  marvellous  in  it  is  the 
apparent  absence  of  any  plan  or  plot  from  beginning 
to  end.  No  English  statesman  Avas  ever  so  hare- 
brained as  to  conceive  the  plan  of  sending  out  an  expe- 
dition for  the  conquest  of  India.  But  though  there  was 
neither  plan  nor  plot,  nowhere  in  the  whole  history 
of  the  world  is  there  a  higher  purpose  more  visible 
than  in  the  advance  of  England  towards  the  East. 
It  was  the  innate  vigour  of  the  Saxon  race,  its  strong 
political  instincts,  its  thirst  for  work,  its  love  of 
enterprise,  its  craving  for  progress,  that  drove  its 
sous  across  the  sea,  and  made  them  the  founders  of 
new  Empires  in  India  and  the  Colonies.  There  was 
no  plan,  no  plot ;  but  read  the  history  of  the  English 
Empire  in  India,  and  you  will  find  that  the  readiness, 
the  presence  of  mind,  the  self-reliance,  the  endurance, 


108  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  heroic  bravery  in  moments  of  supreme  anguish 
of  English  men  and  Enolish  women,  and,  taking  it  all 
in  all,  the  political  wisdom  and  moderation  of  the 
best  of  India's  rulers  and  statesmen,  would  supply 
materials  for  a  perfect  epic,  more  wonderful  than  the 
Iliad  and  Odyssey.  And  as  in  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey  the  old  poet  shows  us  behind  the  human 
heroes  the  Greek  gods  fighting  their  battle,  though 
unseen  by  mortal  eye,  the  true  historian  also  must 
try  to  discover,  behind  the  conflicts  of  races  and 
rulers  in  India,  the  working  out  of  higher  purposes, 
though  at  the  time  be}ond  the  ken  of  the  human 
mind. 

The  great  historical  drama,  of  which  we  are  witness- 
ing the  last  act  in  India,  began  thousands  of  years 
ago,  when  the  Aryan  family  separated,  one  branch 
moving  towards  the  North-West,  the  other  towards 
the  South-East.  Let  us  not  waste  our  time  on  ques- 
tions which  admit  of  no  scientific  solution  as  to  the 
exact  spot  of  the  oiiginal  Aryan  home.  Nothing  new 
or  true  has  yet  been  advanced  against  it  having 
been  '  somewhere  in  Asia.'  For  us,  however,  it  is 
enough  to  know  that  our  ancestors  and  the  ancestors 
of  the  Hindus  had  once  a  common  home,  that  they 
lived  in  the  same  pastures,  spoke  the  same  language, 
and  worshipped  the  same  gods.  Their  blood  may 
have  been  mixed,  and  by  mixture  may,  we  hope, 
have  been  improved.  But  stronger  than  the  affinity 
of  mere  blood  is  the  affinity  of  language  and  thought, 
which  makes  Englishmen  and  Hindus  brothers  indeed. 

The  ring  that  was  broken  thousands  of  years  ago 
is  now  being  welded  together  once  more.  The  world 
is  becoming  Indo  European.     The  young  men  whom 


A    SCHOOL    OF    OltlENTAl,    lANGUAGKS.  109 

England  sends  to  India  can  greet  the  Aryan  in- 
habitants, not  as  conquerors  meet  the  conquered,  but 
as  brothers  meet  brothers,  as  fiiends  meet  friends. 

It  is  generally  said  that  India  has  been  conquered 
by  England.  Eut  the  true  conquest  of  India,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  still  to  come.  The  true  conquerors  of  India, 
of  the  heart  of  India,  will  bo  those  very  men  whom 
our  new  School  of  Oriental  Languages  means  to  fit 
for  their  arduous  work.  No  doubt  they  have  to 
acquire  the  spoken  vernaculars,  but  in  order  to  un- 
derstand the  people,  in  order  to  take  a  deep  human 
interest  in  their  own  work,  in  order  to  sympathise 
with,  nay,  to  love  the  people,  with  whom  they  are 
brought  into  daily  contact,  they  must  do  more.  There 
ought  to  be  a  real  plan  and  plot  in  this  new  conquest. 
There  ought  to  be  a  will,  for  we  know  that  where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way.  Our  new  conquerors 
will  have  to  study  the  ancient  literature  of  India, 
which  is  still  the  leaven  of  Indian  thought.  They 
must  gain  an  insight  into  the  ancient  religion,  which 
is  still  the  best  key  to  the  religious  convictions  and 
superstitions  of  the  present  day.  They  must  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  law  of  the  country 
before  attempting  to  reconcile  native  customs  with 
the  principles  of  modern  legislation.  They  must 
learn  to  appreciate  the  beauty  of  Indian  literature 
before  measuring  it  with  the  standard  of  our  own 
poetry,  or  condemning  it  unheard.  If  our  young 
statesmen  go  out  to  India,  half  acclimatised  already 
to  the  intellectual  atmosphere  in  which  they  are  to 
spend  the  best  part  of  their  lives,  they  will  not  look 
upon  the  country  as  an  exile,  and  on  its  inhabitants 
as  mere  strangers.     They  are  not  strangers,  they  are 


110  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

brothers.  They  are  made  of  the  same  stuff  as  we 
ourselves. 

I  have  never  been  in  Intlia,  but  I  have  known 
many  Indians,  both  men  and  women,  and  I  do  not 
exaggerate  when  I  tell  you  that  some  of  them  need 
fear  no  comparison  with  the  best  men  and  women 
whom  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  know  in 
England,  France,  or  Germany.  Whether  for  un- 
selfishness, or  devotion  to  high  ideals,  truthfulness, 
purity,  and  real,  living  religion,  I  know  no  hero 
greater  than  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  no  heroine  greater 
than  Ramabai,  and  I  am  proud  to  have  been  allowed  to 
count  both  among  my  personal  friends.  You  may  say 
that  these  are  exceptions.  No  doubt  they  are,  and 
they  would  be  exceptions  in  Europe  as  much  as  in 
India.  Mount  Everest  is  an  exception ;  Mont  Blanc 
is  an  exception ;  but  if  we  reckon  the  height  of 
mountain  ranges  by  their  highest  peaks,  we  have 
a  right  to  measure  the  sublimity  of  a  whole  nation 
by  its  best  men  and  its  best  women. 

Look  for  these  men  and  women,  and  you  will  find 
them,  if  not  in  the  great  towns,  yet  in  the  countless 
villages  of  India.  The  great  towns  in  India,  more 
than  in  Europe,  contain  the  very  dregs  of  Indian 
society,  and  it  is  from  them  that  our  opinion  of  the 
character  of  the  Hindus  has  been  too  often  formed. 
And  yet  what  does  Elphinstone  say,  who  knew  India, 
if  anybody  ever  knew  it:  'No  set  of  people  among 
the  Hindus,'  he  says,  '  are  so  depraved  as  the  dregs  of 
our  own  great  towns.  The  villagers  are  ever3'where 
amiable,  affectionate  to  their  families,  kind  to  their 
neighbours,  and,  towards  all  but  the  Government, 
honest  and  sincere.' 


A   SCHOOL   OF    ORIENTAL    LANGUAGES.  Ill 

What  does  Bishop  Heber  say? — 'The  Hindus  are 
brave,  courteous,  intelligent,  most  eager  for  know- 
ledge and  improvement,  sober,  industrious,  dutiful 
to  parents,  affectionate  to  their  children,  uniformly 
gentle  and  patient,  and  more  easily  affected  by  kind- 
ness and  attention  to  their  wants  and  feelings  than 
any  people  I  ever  met  with.' 

Sir  Thomas  Mumo  bears  even  stronger  testimony. 
He  w^rites  :  '  If  a  good  system  of  agriculture,  unrivalled 
manufacturing  skill,  a  capacity  to  produce  whatever 
can  contribute  to  either  convenience  or  luxury,  schools 
established  in  every  village  for  teaching  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  arithmetic,  the  general  practice  of  hospitality 
and  charity  amongst  each  other,  and,  above  all,  a 
treatment  of  the  female  sex  full  of  confidence,  respect, 
and  delicacy,  are  among  the  signs  which  denote  a  civil- 
ised people,  then  the  Hindus  are  not  inferior  to  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  if  civilisation  is  to  become  an 
article  of  trade  between  England  and  India,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  England  will  gain  by  the  imj^ort  cargo.' 

These  are  the  unprejudiced  opinions  of  men  who 
knew  the  Hindus,  their  language,  literature,  and 
rehgion  thoroughly,  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  the 
Civil  Service,  and  had  risen  in  it  to  the  highest  rank 
— '  Old  Indians,'  as  they  are  sometimes  contemptuously 
called.  Who  after  that  will  dare  to  say  that  the 
Hindus  are  a  nation  of  liars  and  hypocrites,  and  that 
no  English  gentleman  could  ever  be  on  terms  of  inti- 
macy and  friendship  with  such  niggers ! 

I  have  hitherto  spoken  chiefly  of  Hindus,  of  those 
who  are  still  under  the  sway  of  their  ancient  native 
literature  and  religion,  and  who  speak  languages  de- 
rived from,  or  strongly  impregnated  with,  Sanskrit. 


112  EECEXT    ESSAYS. 

But  what  I  have  said  applies  with  equal  truth  to 
the  Mohammedan  inhabitants  of  India.  No  one  can 
understand  them,  can  sympathise  with  them,  can 
influence  them,  who  does  not  know  their  religion, 
who  cannot  read  the  Koran  and  the  classical  works 
of  Arabic  literature.  We  have  no  idea  how  often 
their  feelings  are  hurt  by  the  free  and  easy  way,  by 
the  ignorant  manner,  in  which  we  speak  of  what  is 
sacred  to  them.  No  Hindu  likes  to  hear  his  religion 
called  idolatry,  no  Parsi  can  bear  to  be  called  a  fire- 
worshipper.  In  the  same  way  a  Mohammedan  does 
not  like  to  hear  his  religion  curtly  called  Mohamme- 
danism, still  less  to  hear  Mohammed  spoken  of  as 
an  arch- impostor.  Mohammed  was  no  more  an  im- 
postor than  any  of  the  founders  of  the  great  religions 
of  the  world.  And  nothing  marks  the  progress  of 
an  enlightened  study  of  religion,  of  the  Science  of 
Fveligion,  better  than  the  bright  pictui'e  which  an 
eloquent  and  large-hearted  Bishop  of  the  Church  of 
England  has  lately  given  of  Mohammed  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures.  Still,  with  all  their  veneration 
for  Mohammed,  those  who  follow  him  do  not  quite 
like  to  hear  their  religion  called  Mohammedanism, 
though  it  seems  to  us  a  most  inoffensive  name.  Their 
religion  was  not  made  hy  Mohammed,  they  say,  it 
was  revealed  to  hiin,  and  its  true  name  is  Islam, 
surrender.  I  doubt  whether  a  better  name  has  ever 
been  invented  for  any  religion,  than  surrender,  I  dam. 

It  is  a  knowledge,  a  thorough  knowledge,  not  only 
of  the  languages  of  India,  but  of  its  classical  litera- 
ture, its  religion,  its  laws  and  customs,  its  supersti- 
tions and  prejudices,  its  whole  social  life,  that  will 
form  the  best  preparation  for  those  who,  after  passing 


A    SCHOOL   OF   ORIENTAL   LANGUAGES.  113 

through  this  School  of  Oriental  Languages,  are  to 
become  both  the  servants  and  the  rulers  of  India. 

When  I  look  at  the  list  of  those  who  have  already 
been  enrolled  on  the  staff  of  professors  and  teachers, 
I  see  names  that  offer  the  best  security  for  the  success 
of  this  institution. 

And  when  I  see  the  name  of  its  Royal  Patron, 
I  know  for  certain  that  whenever  this  institution 
requires  help  and  support  it  will  be  granted  readily 
and  generously. 

To  carry  on  the  work  which  our  fathers  had  to 
leave  unfinished  is  the  best  tribute  we  can  pay 
to  their  memory.  We  could  not  wish  for  better 
auguries  than  when  we  see,  as  we  see  to-night,  the 
cherished  idea  of  a  noble  father  called  back  to  life 
by  a  loyal  and  devoted  son. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  I  think  I  may  speak  in 
your  name,  and  on  behalf  of  all  present,  when  I  say 
how  deeply  indebted  we  are  to  Professor  Max  Miiller 
for  the  interesting  and  eloquent  lecture  which  you 
have  just  heard  from  him.  To  me,  especially,  it  has 
been  a  great  gratification  to  preside  on  this  occasion, 
and  to  hear  such  words  spoken  by  one  whom,  ever 
since  my  undergraduate  days  at  the  University  of 
Oxford,  upwards  of  thirty  years  ago,  I  have  had  the 
great  advantage  and  privilege  of  knowing.  I  can 
also  say  that  the  Governing  Body  of  the  Imperial 
Institute  are  especially  beholden  to  him  for  having 
so  kindly  and  readily  acceded  to  my  request  that  he 

VOL.  I.  I 


114)  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

would  lend  his  aid — and  no  one  could  render  more 
valuable  assistance — in  the  inauguration  of  the  School 
of  Modern  Oriental  Studies  which,  with  the  most 
cordial  and  important  co-operation  of  the  Councils  of 
University  and  King's  Colleges,  has  recently  been 
organised  by  the  Institute.  The  sphere  of  future  use- 
fulness of  this  new  school  which  Professor  Max  Miiller 
has  foreshadowed  is  indeed  a  comprehensive  one,  and 
cannot  but  greatly  encourage  the  Special  Committee 
of  Management  of  the  School  to  increased  zeal  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  work  which  they  have  so  kindly  under- 
taken at  the  request  of  the  Institute.  The  Professor 
has  directed  our  serious  attention  to  the  important 
practical  results  attained  by  Government  schools  for 
Oriental  languages  in  Eussia,  France,  and  Austria, 
and  especially  by  the  recently  established  school  in 
Berlin,  and  to  the  great  influence  which  such  results 
(to  the  attainment  of  which  our  new  school  aspires) 
must  exercise  upon  the  commercial  interests  of  a 
country.  I  am  sure,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  Professor's  illustrations  of  the 
invaluable  nature  of  the  assistance  which  the  school 
is  calculated  to  render  to  those  who  are,  by  their 
future  services,  to  contribute  to  a  wise  and  prosperous 
government  of  the  Indian  Empire,  were  most  interest- 
ing. That  the  new  School  of  Modern  Oriental  Studies 
is  a  worthy  object  of  material  support  by  this  country 
none  can  doubt  who  have  listened  to  the  important 
observations  and  the  eloquent  appeal  of  Professor 
Max  Miiller  this  evening ;  but  the  best  aid  and  sup- 
port which  it  can  receive  will  be  derived  from  the 
extension  of  an  active  encouragement,  by  Public 
Bodies  and  by  Government  Departments,  to  all  those 


A  SCHOOL    OF    ORIENTAL  LANGUAGES.  115 

whose  future  duties  will  involve  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  languages  of  Oriental  countries,  to  avail 
themselves  freely  of  the  resources  for  study  and  prac- 
tice which  the  school  will  place  at  their  disposal. 
In  conveying  to  you,  Professor  Max  Miiller,  my 
personal  thanks,  as  well  as  those  of  all  present,  for 
the  intellectual  treat  you  have  afforded  us  this  even- 
ing, let  me  add  that  I  listened  with  special  gi-atification 
to  your  reference  to  the  very  warm  interest  my 
lamented  father  evinced  in  the  strenuous  efforts  made 
by  you  so  many  years  ago,  in  the  interests  of  this 
country,  to  bring  into  existejice  such  an  Institution 
as  that  which  we  inaugurate  this  evening,  and  the 
success  of  which  has  ni}^  warmest  wishes,  both  for 
its  own  sake  and  because  I  regard  it  as  an  earnest 
of  the  useful  work  which  the  Imperial  Institute  is 
destined  to  accomplish. 


1  2 


TEEDEEICK  UV 

EVERY  one  who  last  June  witnessed  the  glorious 
procession  of  the  Queen  to  and  from  West- 
minster Abbey,  will  for  ever  remember  one  royal 
figure  towering  above  all  the  rest,  the  Crown  Prince 
of  Germany,  as  he  was  then,  resplendent  in  his  silver 
helmet  and  the  white  tunic  of  the  Prussian  Cuiras- 
siers— the  very  picture  of  manly  strength.  He  is  now 
the  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  when  we  think  of  him 
as  travelling  from  San  Remo  to  Berlin  through  storm 
and  snow,  wrapped  up  in  his  grey  Hohenzollern  cloak, 
a  sad  and  silent  man,  is  there  in  all  history  a  more 
tragic  contrast  1  But  there  beats  in  the  breast  of 
Frederick  III  the  same  stout  heart  that  upheld 
Frederick  II  at  Hochkirchen,  He  does  not  know 
what  danger  means,  whether  it  come  from  within  or 
from  without.  '  I  face  my  illness,'  he  said  to  his 
friends,  '  as  I  faced  the  bullets  at  Koniggriitz  and 
Worth.'  And  forward  he  rides  undismayed,  follow- 
ing the  trumpet-call  of  duty,  and  not  swerving  one 
inch  from  the  straight  and  rugged  j)ath  which  now 
lies  open  before  him. 

There  was  a  time  when  his  friends  imagined  a  very 
different  career  for  him.  They  believed  that  he  might 
succeed  to  the  throne  in  the  very  prime  of  manhood. 

*  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1888. 


FREDERICK    III.  117 

His  father,  the  late  Emperor,  then  Prince  of  Prussia, 
had  become  very  unpopular  in  1848,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered by  no  means  impossible  that  he  might  think 
it  right  to  decline  the  crown  and  to  abdicate  in  favour 
of  his  son.  The  star  of  Prussia  was  very  low  in  1848, 
and  it  sank  lower  and  lower  during  the  last  years  of 
the  afflicted  King,  Frederick  William  IV.  Few  people 
only  were  aware  of  the  changes  that  had  taken  place 
in  the  political  views  of  the  Prince  of  Prussia,  chiefly 
during  his  stay  in  England,  and  the  best  spirits  of  the 
time  looked  upon  his  son.  Prince  Frederick  William, 
as  the  only  man  who  could  be  trusted  to  inaugurate 
a  new  era  in  the  history  of  Prussia.  His  marriage 
with  the  Princess  Royal  of  England  gave  still  stronger 
zest  to  these  hopes,  for  while  he  was  trusted  as  likely 
to  realise  the  national  yearnings  after  a  united  Ger- 
many, she  was  known  as  the  worthy  daughter  of  her 
father  and  mother,  at  that  time  the  only  truly  consti- 
tutional rulers  in  Europe.  England  was  then  the 
ideal  of  all  German  Liberals,  and  a  close  political 
alliance  with  England  was  considered  the  best  solu- 
tion of  all  European  difficulties.  Young  men,  and 
old  men  too,  dreamt  dreams,  little  knowing  how 
distant  their  fulfilment  should  be,  and  how  dashed 
with  sorrow,  when  at  last  they  should  come  to  be 
fulfilled. 

The  Prince  himself  knew  probably  nothing  about 
the  hopes  that  were  then  centred  on  him,  but,  for 
a  man  of  his  vigour  and  his  eagerness  to  do  some 
useful  work,  the  long  years  of  inactivity  which  fol- 
lowed were  a  severe  trial.  It  has  been  the  tradition 
in  Prussia  that  the  heir  to  the  throne  is  allowed  less 
power  and  influence  than  almost  anybody  else.     He 


118  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

may  be  a  soldier,  but,  whether  as  a  soldier  or  as 
a  politician,  he  is  expected  to  stand  aloof,  to  keep 
silent  and  to  obey.  In  the  violent  constitutional 
conflicts  which  began  soon  after  his  father's  accession 
to  the  throne,  the  young  Crown  Prince  felt  himself 
isolated  and  unable  to  side  with  either  party  in 
a  struggle  the  nature  of  VN^hich  he  could  not  approve, 
and  the  distant  objects  of  which  he  was  not  allowed 
to  foresee.  What  could  be  more  trying  to  him  than 
this  enforced  neutrality,  when  he  and  those  nearest 
and  dearest  to  him  felt,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
that  the  safety  of  the  throne  was  being  jeopardized, 
and  the  great  future  of  Prussia,  as  the  leader  of  the 
German  people,  forfeited  for  ever  ? 

It  would,  however,  be  a  mistake  to  imagine  that 
the  years  of  his  manhood  were  passed  in  idleness. 
Good  care  is  taken  in  Prussia  that  no  one,  not  even 
the  heir  to  the  Crown,  should  enjoy  a  sinecure.  It 
required  hard  work  for  the  Crown  Prince  to  make 
himself  a  soldier,  such  as  he  has  proved  himself  in 
two  wars,  but  he  never  flinched  from  these  military 
duties,  whether  they  were  congenial  to  him  or  not. 
Then  came  his  social  duties,  his  constant  visits  to 
foreign  courts,  his  representative  functions  on  every 
great  occasion  in  Germany  or  in  Prussia.  And,  besides 
these  public  duties,  he  made  plenty  of  work  for  him- 
self in  which,  helped  and  inspired  by  the  Crown 
Princess,  he  could  more  freely  follow  the  natural  bent 
of  his  mind  and  his  heart.  The  pupil  of  Professor 
Curtius,  he  preserved  through  life  a  warm  interest 
in  historical  and  archaeological  researches.  Wlien  he 
was  able  to  help  he  was  ready  to  do  so,  and  a  limited 
sphere  of  independent  action  was  at  last  given  him, 


FREDEllICK    III.  119 

as  the  patron  of  all  museums  and  collections  of  works 
of  art  in  Prussia.  The  conscientious  discharge  of  these 
duties,  often  under  considerable  difficulties,  has  borne 
ample  fruit,  and  will  not  easily  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  worked  under  him  and  with  him.  And,  as  the 
Crown  Princess  assisted  him,  so  he  was  able  to 
support  the  Crown  Princess  in  her  indefatigable 
endeavours  to  improve  the  education  of  women,  the 
nursing  of  the  poor,  the  sanitary  state  of  dwellings, 
and  in  many  other  social  reforms  which  were  far  from 
popular  when  they  were  first  started  in  Prussia  by 
an  Englishwoman.  Only  in  political  questions  which 
were  so  near  his  heart  he  had  no  voice,  nay,  his  own 
ideas  had  often  to  be  kept  concealed,  lest  they  might 
encounter  even  more  determined  opposition  than  they 
would  if  advanced  by  others.  The  political  views  of 
the  Crown  Prince  and  those  who  thought  wdth  him 
have  often  been  criticised,  and  the  best  answer  to 
them  has  been  found  in  the  success  of  that  policy 
of  which  neither  he  nor  his  father,  when  he  was  still 
Prince  of  Prussia,  could  fully  approve.  Men  think, 
because  they  are  wiser  now,  they  were  wiser  then ; 
but  a  successful  policy  is  not  necessarily  the  wisest 
policy. 

'There  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Uough-hevv  them  how  we  will.' 

During  the  Crimean  war  there  were  most  com- 
petent judges  who  considered  an  alliance  of  Prussia 
with  Austria  and  the  Western  Powers  as  the  wisest 
policy,  and  w^ho  looked  on  the  course  adopted  by  the 
wavering  brain  of  Frederick  William  IV  as  disastrous 
to  the  future  of  Germany.  Those  who  persuaded  the 
Kino-  of  Prussia  to  side  with  Russia  may  no  doubt 


120  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

point  with  pride  to  the  immense  success  which  their 
policy  has  since  achieved.  They  may  claim  the  merit 
of  having  cajoled  Russia  into  neutrality  during  the 
Austrian  campaign,  and  again  of  having  secured  her 
sympathies  by  secret  promises  during  the  Franco- 
German  war.  But  they  forget  that  an  open  alliance 
of  Prussia  and  Austria  with  England,  France,  and 
Italy  might  have  prevented  the  Crimean  war  alto- 
gether, and  many  of  the  fatal  consequences  that  have 
sprung  from  it.  Anyhow,  we  have  now  reached 
again  the  same  point  where  the  principal  nations  of 
Europe  stood  before  the  beginning  of  the  Crimean 
war.  Many  changes,  no  doubt,  have  taken  place  in 
the  meantime,  but  the  fundamental  question  remains 
the  same.  How  can  the  permanent  peace  of  Europe 
be  secured  ?  So  long  as  that  question  remains  un- 
answered, so  long  as  that  old  riddle  remains  unsolved, 
the  new  Emperor  need  not  think  that  even  now  he 
has  come  too  late,  or  that  his  father  has  left  him  no 
laurels  to  win. 

The  question  is,  whether  the  Germanic  nations  of 
Europe  and  America  can  be  made  to  combine,  and 
to  form  a  League  of  Peace  which  will  make  war  in 
Europe  impossible.  It  is  no  secret  that  the  formation 
of  such  a  League  has  been  the  chief  aim  of  German 
diplomacy  ever  since  1872.  That  league  was  to  be 
formed  on  the  uti  possidetis  principle,  not  for  offensive, 
but  entirely  for  defensive  purposes.  Much  progress 
has  already  been  made,  and  nothing  has  done  so 
much  to  clear  the  political  atmosphere  of  Europe  as 
the  recent  publication  of  the  treaty,  concluded  some 
years  ago,  between  Germany  and  Austria.  Though 
it  may  have  been  known  before  to  those  whom  it 


FREDERICK    III.  121 

most  concerns,  its  simple  avowal  has  opened  the  eyes 
of  both  the  Russian  and  the  French  people,  and  has 
shown  them  what  are  the  risks  which  they  have  to 
face  if  they  mean  once  more  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
Europe.  The  treaty  of  amity  between  Germany  and 
Italy  has  not  yet  been  divulged,  but  politicians  must 
be  very  dull  if  they  cannot  guess  its  spirit.  That 
Spain  and  Sweden  are  animated  by  the  same  love  of 
peace  as  Germany,  and  that  they  anticipate  danger 
from  the  same  quarters  which  threaten  German}^  on 
the  East  and  on  the  West,  has  likewise  been  shown 
by  signs  that  cannot  be  misunderstood.  What  re- 
mains to  be  done  in  order  to  complete  the  European 
League  of  Peace  ?  Nothing  but  a  clear  understanding 
between  Germany  and  England.  This  is  the  work 
which  Providence  seems  to  have  carved  out  for  the 
present  Emperor  of  Germany.  There  is  no  time  to 
be  lost,  and  he  should  try  to  achieve  it  with  all  his 
might. 

It  is  not  an  easy  work  ;  if  it  were,  it  would  not 
have  been  delayed  so  long.  But  never  was  there 
a  time  more  favourable  than  now.  England  and 
America  are  forgetting  their  petty  rivalries,  and  there 
is  a  strong  feeling  oa  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
that  war  between  two  kindred  nations  would  be  an 
absurdity,  and  that  all  questions  that  might  lead  to 
war  should  be  decided  by  arbitration.  The  recog- 
nition of  such  a  principle  by  two  of  the  most  powerful 
nations  in  the  world  must  react  in  time  on  the  minds 
of  European  statesmen.  England  and  Germany  too 
are  kindred  nations,  and  though  divided  by  the 
'  silver  streak,'  they  feel  more  and  more,  as  dynastic 
policy  is  giving  way   before   the    supremacy  of  the 


122  RECENT    ESSAYS, 

national  will,  that  blood  is  thicker  than  water.  The 
little  squabbles  arising  from  the  new  colonial  enter- 
prises of  Germany  are  unworthy  of  two  great  nations. 
There  is  room  in  the  world  for  both  of  them,  and 
even  side  by  side  no  colonists  can  work  so  heartily 
together  as  Germans  and  Englishmen. 

But  what  makes  the  present  moment  particularly 
favourable  for  diplomatic  action  is  the  existence  of 
a  strong  Government  in  Enoland,  a  Government 
above  party,  or  representing  the  best  elements  of 
both  parties.  Even  those  who  form  the  Opposition 
seem,  with  few  exceptions,  to  be  inspired  by  the  same 
sentiments  with  regard  to  foreign  policy  as  those  which 
Lord  Salisbury  has  very  openly  expressed.  There  is, 
of  course,  a  strong  feeling  that  England  should  not 
with  a  light  heart  enter  on  a  quarrel  with  France, 
but  there  is  no  necessity  whatever  for  that.  When- 
ever England  and  Germany  can  come  to  a  perfect 
mutual  understanding,  the  League  of  Peace  will 
become  so  powerful  that  no  gun  can  be  fired  in  the 
whole  of  Europe  against  the  combined  and  compact 
will  of  England,  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  Sweden, 
and  Spain.  To  no  countries  will  the  formation  of 
such  a  league  be  a  greater  blessing  than  to  those 
against  whom  it  may  seem  to  be  formed,  France 
and  Russia.  If  Russia  can  be  taught  that  wars  of 
conquest  in  Europe  are  hereafter  a  sheer  impossibility, 
she  may  continue  the  conquest  of  Central  Asia,  or, 
better  still,  begin  the  conquest  of  Russia  herself  by 
means  of  agriculture,  industry,  schools,  universities, 
and  political  organisation.  If  France  finds  herself 
faced  once  for  all  by  the  determined  No  of  England, 
Germany,   Austria,  Italy,  and  Spain,  she  may  again 


FPiEDERICK    III.  123 

enjoy  peace  with  honour  at  home,  and  this  her  toiling 
millions  -will  soon  learn  to  appreciate  far  better  than 
honour  without  peace  abroad. 

No  doubt  such  a  Peace -Insurance  requires  pre- 
miums. Each  country  will  have  to  sacrifice  some- 
thing, and  make  up  its  mind  once  for  all  as  to  its 
alliances  in  the  future.  England  has  to  choose  between 
an  alliance  with  Russia  and  France,  or  an  alliance 
with  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Sweden. 
The  former  means  chronic  war,  the  latter  peace,  at 
least,  for  some  time  to  come.  As  to  a  mere  dallying 
policy,  it  is  not  only  unworthy  of  a  great  nation,  but 
in  the  present  state  of  Europe  threatens  to  become 
suicidal.  Nor  should  there  be  any  secrecy  about  all 
this,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  the  treaty  between  Germany 
and  Austria,  there  should  be  perfect  outspokenness 
between  nation  and  nation.  The  benefit  will  be 
immeasurable.  England,  Germany,  Austria,  Italy, 
Sweden,  and  Spain,  all  want  peace.  Not  one  of 
them  wants  an  inch  of  ground  in  Europe  more  than 
they  have  at  present,  and  yet  they  are  crushed  and 
crippled  by  their  military  armaments  which  are 
necessitated  solely  by  the  unfulfilled  ambition  of 
France  and  Russia.  The  majority  of  the  French 
nation  is  still  hankering  for  war,  and  if  Russia  could 
only  be  persuaded  to  join  the  French  Republic  against 
the  German  Empire  we  should  have  another  war  more 
terrible  than  any  which  our  century  has  witnessed. 

But  will  not  even  France  and  Russia  combined 
recoil  before  the  determined  and  united  will  of  Europe  ? 
The  present  Emperor  of  Germany  is  a  true  German, 
but  he  knows  that  above  patriotism  there  soar  the 
higher  duties  of  humanity.     The  present  Government 


124  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

in  England  is  a  patriotic  rather  than  a  party  Govern- 
ment, and  it  has  learnt  this  one  lesson  at  least  from 
the  experience  of  Free  Trade,  that  the  welfare  of 
every  country  is  intimately  connected  with  the  wel- 
fare of  its  neighbours.  The  present  Government  may 
dare  to  do  what  no  mere  party  Government  would 
have  power  to  do.  It  can  speak  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  nation,  and  pledge  the  good  faith,  not  of  one 
party  only,  but  of  the  English  people  at  large,  in 
support  of  a  foreign  policy  which  would  change,  as 
if  by  magic,  the  whole  face  of  the  world,  and  relieve 
millions  of  toiling  and  almost  starving  people  from 
the  crushing  weight  of  what  is  called  the  armed  peace 
of  Europe. 

There  is  here  a  glorious  battle  to  win,  more  glorious 
even  than  Koniggratz  and  Sedan,  and  whatever  the 
future  may  have  in  store  for  the  new  Emperor,  this 
work  is  distinctly  pointed  out  for  him  to  do.  He 
has  often,  brave  soldier  that  he  is,  expressed  his 
horror  of  war,  and  has  never  hesitated  to  show  his 
love  and  admiration  for  England,  sometimes  perhaps 
more  than  his  own  countrymen  have  liked.  What 
the  feelings  of  the  English  people  are  for  him  and 
his  consort  has  been  clearly  shown  during  the  last 
weeks.  England  has  been  truly  mourning,  and  not 
even  in  their  own  country  could  more  fervent  prayers 
have  been  offered  for  the  Emperor  and  the  Empress,  or 
more  hearty  sympathy  have  been  expressed  for  them 
in  their  sore  trials.  Whatever  the  terms  may  be  on 
which  England  can  join  the  League  of  Peace,  the 
Emperor  may  be  trusted  as  an  honest  friend  and 
mediator.  His  task  will  be  no  easy  one,  for  his 
loyalty  will  never  allow  him  to  forget  what  is  due 


FREDERICK   III.  125 

to  Russia  as  a  powerful  neighbour,  and  on  many 
occasions  a  faithful  ally.  And  if  any  one  is  strong 
enough  in  Germany  to  dare  to  satisfy  some  of  the 
national  desires  of  France,  it  is  again  he  alone  who 
as  Crown  Prince  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  for 
the  reconquest  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  His  impulses 
are  generous,  sometimes  too  generous,  and  will  have 
to  be  moderated  by  that  wise  counsellor  to  whom 
the  new  Emperor  looks  up  with  the  same  trust  and 
loyalty  as  his  father  before  him.  But  if  the  new 
Emperor  craves  for  work,  real  work  that  is  worth 
living  for,  the  work  is  there  ready  for  him.  As  long 
as  there  is  hfe  there  is  hope,  and  as  long  as  there  is 
hope  there  ought  to  be  life  and  work  and  devotion 
to  royal  duty.  The  greatest  of  the  Hohenzollerns 
have  always  been  distinguished  by  their  indefatigable 
industry,  their  self-denial,  and  their  exalted  sense  of 
duty.  The  world  will  wait  and  watch  with  the 
deepest  interest  whether  even  the  shadow  of  death, 
under  which,  after  all,  all  human  endeavour  has  to 
be  carried  on,  will  be  able  to  darken,  or  will  not 
rather  bring  out  in  fuller  relief  the  noble  qualities 
inherited  by  the  present  Emperor,  and  which  from 
his  earliest  youth  have  made  him  the  hope  and  the 
darling  of  his  people. 


WHAT  TO  DO  WITH  OUE  OLD  PEOPLE/ 

r|^ HOUGH  the  ideal  of  human  life,  as  represented 
J-  to  us  in  the  literature  of  ancient  nations,  may 
often  have  been  very  far  from  being  realised,  yet  in 
one  sense  even  the  conception  of  an  ideal  is  a  reality 
that  ought  to  count  in  our  estimate  of  a  nation's 
character.  It  may  be  said  of  some  of  the  noblest 
characters  that  they  must  be  judged  not  so  much  by 
what  they  achieved  as  by  what  they  strove  to  achieve, 
and  what  holds  good  of  individuals  holds  good  of 
nations  also.  In  magnis  et  voluiste  sat  est.  When 
we  read  the  account  which  the  laws  of  the  Manavas, 
or,  as  they  are  commonly  called,  the  Laws  of  Manu, 
give  us  of  social  life  in  ancient  India,  or  when  we 
checii  these  statements  by  the  earlier  accounts  which 
we  find  in  the  Sutras  and  the  Brahma7?as,  we  are 
inclined  at  first  to  look  upon  the  picture  of  early 
Indian  society  as  a  mere  Utopia.  Nor  can  it  be 
denied  that  the  laws  of  the  Manavas  tell  us  rather 
what,  according  to  the  ideas  of  an  orthodox  Brahman, 
the  world  ought  to  be,  than  what  it  ever  could  have 
been.  We  must  hope  on  one  side  that  the  privileges 
of  the  priestly  caste  could  never  have  been  so  excessive, 
nay,  so  outrageous,  as  they  are  represented  in  that 
code.     Nor  can  we  believe,  on  the  other  side,  that  the 

'  New  Eeciciv,  December,  i8S8. 


WHAT   TO    DO    WITH    OUR    OLD    PEOPLE.  127 

large  majority  of  the  inliabitants  of  India  ever  took 
so  unseltish  and  so  elevated  a  view  of  life  as  is  preached 
by  their  legislators. 

Still,  even  a  Utopia  is  never  entirely  air-drawn, 
and  in  its  general  outlines  the  social  life  of  India,  as 
described  by  its  law-givers,  must  have  had  some  real 
foundation.  In  judging  of  what  was  possible  and 
impossible,  we  must  not  forget  that  many  things  were 
possible  in  the  climate  of  that  country  which  would 
be  simply  absurd  in  more  northern  latitudes.  In 
a  country  where  even  now  an  agricultural  labourer 
can  live  on  live  shillings  a  month ;  where  he  can 
build  his  hut  from  the  mud  of  the  field,  or  live  in  the 
open  air  during  a  great  part  of  the  year ;  where  his 
clothing  costs  hardly  anything ;  where  a  handful  of 
rice  is  enough  to  assuage  hunger,  while  butter  and 
sugar  are  counted  as  delicacies — in  such  a  country 
a  kind  of  village -life  is  possible  which  involves  no 
more  trying  efforts  than  are  necessary  for  a  healthful 
exercise  of  the  body. 

If,  therefore,  we  want  to  understand  Manu's  ideal 
of  social  life,  we  must  not  think  of  London — not  even 
of  Calcutta,  or  Eombay,  or  Simla — but  of  the  villages 
which  still  hold  nine-tenths  of  the  population  of 
India.  And  we  must  try  to  realise  a  time  when  there 
existed  no  railways,  few  high-roads,  few  bridges,  and 
when  the  horizon  of  their  village  was  to  millions  of 
human  beings  the  horizon  of  their  world.  Dynasties 
might  come  and  go,  religions  might  spring  up  and 
wither,  but  the  life  in  these  happy  villages  would  go 
on  for  generations  unconscious  of  the  storms  that 
raged  in  the  camps  of  powerful  conquerors  or  in  the 
temples  of  ambitious  priests. 


128  EKCENT    ESSAYS. 

Life  in  those  village-communities  consisted,  accord- 
ing to  Manu,  of  four  Asramas,  or  stations.  Every 
boy,  not  only  of  the  first,  but  of  the  second  and  third 
castes  also,  was  to  begin  his  school-life  between  his 
seventh  and,  at  the  latest,  his  eleventh  year.  The 
pupil  had  to  live  in  the  house  of  his  teacher,  and 
perform  services  which  seem  to  us  menial,  but  which 
in  India  were  looked  upon  as  honourable.  He  had  to 
keep  the  fires  on  the  hearths  or  the  altars  burning, 
clean  the  floor,  attend  to  the  cattle,  collect  fij^ewood, 
and  walk  daily  through  the  village  to  collect  gifts 
for  his  teacher.  Morniug  and  evening  he  had  to 
say  his  prayers,  and  then  to  receive  from  his  teacher 
all  necessary  instruction.  This  instruction  consisted 
chiefly  in  learniug  by  heart.  Writing  is  never  men- 
tioned. The  whole  method  of  teaching  is  carefully 
described,  how  every  day  the  pupil  had  to  learn 
a  few  lines^  and  to  repeat  them  with  the  greatest 
care,  distinguishing  long  and  short  vowels,  acute  and 
grave  syllables,  surd  and  sonant  consonants  and  all 
the  rest.  Ey  going  on  day  after  day,  the  memory  of 
the  pupil  was  strengthened  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
whole  of  their  sacred  literature,  instead  of  being 
handed  down  in  writing,  was  handed  down  by  oral 
tradition  with  the  utmost  accuracy  from  generation 
to  generation,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  so  handed 
down  to  the  present  day. 

The  time  assigned  to  education  and  study  varied 
from  twelve  to  forty-eight  years.  Twenty,  therefore, 
was  the  earliest  time  when  a  young  man  might  take 
his  degree,  become  a  Snataka,  or  M.A.,  and  think 
of  entering  on  the  second  station  in  life — that  of  a 
married  man  and  householder.     This  is  a  lesson  to 


WHAT   TO    DO   WITH    OUR    OLD    PEOPLE.  129 

be  taken  to  heart  by  those  who  imagine  that  early 
marriao-es,  or  child-sacrifices,  are  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  ancient  laws  of  India. 

When  returned  to  his  home  (samav7'itta),  the  young 
man  had  to  find  a  wife,  and  become  a  G^^ihastha,  or 
householder.  During  that  second  period  of  life  he  had 
to  perform  all  the  duties  of  a  husband  and  a  father, 
offer  a  number  of  obligatory  and  optional  sacrifices, 
continue  his  study  of  the  Veda,  and,  if  a  Brahman, 
be  ready  to  teach.  When,  however,  his  children  were 
grown  up  and  had  themselves  children,  w^hen  his  hair 
had  turned  grey  and  his  skin  had  become  wrinkled, 
the  householder  ought  to  know  that  the  time  had 
come  for  leaving  his  house  and  all  its  cares,  and 
retiring  from  the  village  into  the  forest.  This  seems 
to  us  a  great  wrench,  and  a  sacrifice  difficult  to  be^r. 
It  could,  however,  hardly  have  been  so  in  India.  Life 
in  the  forest  there  was  a  kind  of  viUeggiatura. 
Property  being  almost  entirely  family-property,  the 
father  simply  gave  up  to  his  sons  what  he  himself 
no  longer  required.  When  he  withdrew  from  the 
village,  he  became  released  from  many  duties.  He 
was  allow^ed  to  take  his  wife  with  him,  and  his 
friends  and  relations  were  allowed  to  see  him  in 
his  sylvan  retreat.  He  was  then  called  a  Vana- 
prastha,  a  dweller  in  the  forest,  and,  released  from 
the  duties  of  a  householder,  from  sacrificial  and 
other  ceremonial  obligations,  he  was  encouraged  to 
meditate  on  the  great  problems  of  life,  to  rise  above 
the  outward  forms  of  religion,  and  to  free  himself 
more  and  more  from  all  the  fetters  which  once  bound 
him  to  this  life.  Even  religion,  in  the  usual  sense 
of  the  word,  was  no  longer  binding  on  him.     He  wag 

VOL.  I.  K 


130  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

above  religion,  above  sacred  books,  above  sacrifices, 
above  a  belief  in  many  gods.  With  the  help  of  the 
mystical  doctrines  contained  in  the  Upanishads,  he 
was  led  to  discover  the  Infinite  hidden  in  the  Finite, 
the  True  behind  the  semblances  of  the  senses,  the  Self 
behind  the  Ego,  and  the  indestructible  identity  of  his 
own  true  Self  with  the  Supreme  Self.  During  all 
that  time  he  might  be  visited,  he  might  be  consulted, 
he  certainly  continued  to  be  loved  and  revered  by  his 
friends.  But  when  at  last  life  and  all  its  interests 
ceased  to  have  any  attraction,  when  he  lived  already 
more  in  the  next  world  than  in  this,  then  the  time 
came,  for  members  of  the  first  caste  at  least,  to  bid 
farewell  to  all,  to  leave  the  forest-abode  near  the 
villaere.  and  to  enter  on  the  final  Asrama,  that  of 
Sajinyasin.  Sannyasin  means  a  man  who  has  divested 
himself  of  everything,  who  is  free  from  all  fetters,  not 
only  from  the  too  great  love  of  things,  but  also  from 
the  too  ffi'eat  love  of  friends  and  relations.  That  last 
stage  could  not  have  lasted  long.  It  was  simply  a 
preparation  for  death,  which  could  not  tarry  much 
before  it  released  the  wanderer  (parivraf/aka)  from 
his  last  enemy,  and  restored  him  to  that  bliss  of 
which  this  life  had  so  long  deprived  him. 

This  is,  no  doubt,  an  ideal  scheme  of  life,  and  it  is 
difficult  for  us  to  believe  that  it  should  ever  have 
been  realised  in  all  its  fulness.  The  first  and  second 
stages  in  the  life  of  man  are  natural  enough,  and  exist 
more  or  less  in  every  well-organised  society.  It  is  the 
third  stage,  the  withdrawal  from  active  life,  the  retire- 
ment into  the  forest,  and,  more  particularly,  the  sur- 
render of  all  claim  on  the  family  property,  that  seems 
to  us  hardly  credible.     We  receive,  however,  from  an 


WHAT  TO  DO  WITH  OUR  OLD  PEOPLE.      131 

unexpected  quarter,  a  confirmation  that  this  retire- 
ment into  the  forest  was  at  one  time  a  reality  in 
India.  The  companions  of  Alexander  were  so  much 
impressed  with  the  number  of  people  who  led  this 
forest-life  away  from  towns  and  villages  that  they 
invented  a  new  word,  and  translated  the  Sanskrit 
vanaprastha  by  vKo^lol,  dwellers  in  the  forest. 

How  pleasant  such  a  life  must  have  been  in  the 
Indian  climate  we  may  gather  from  the  fact  that  we 
never  hear  of  any  force  being  used  to  drive  old  people 
away  from  their  home  into  the  forest.  It  is  very 
important  also  to  observe  that  while  the  periods  of 
studentship  and  of  household-life  are  fixed  within 
narrow  limits  by  legal  authority,  the  time  for  em- 
bracing the  life  of  a  hermit  is  far  less  accurately 
defined,  so  as  to  leave  a  considerable  latitude  to 
individual  choice. 

What  strikes  us  as  the  most  cruel  feature  in  the 
Indian  scheme  of  life  is  the  fourth  period,  when  old 
people,  incapable  of  taking  care  of  themselves,  seem 
to  have  been  entirely  deprived  of  the  loving  attentions 
of  their  children,  so  that  they  must  necessaiily  have 
fallen  a  prey  to  hunger  or  to  wild  animals.  It  is 
.  curious  that  this  fourth  stage  is  a  privilege  which  the 
Brahmans  claimed  exclusively  for  themselves. 

The  Indians,  however,  are  by  no  means  the  only 
people  who  seem  to  us  to  have  been  guilty  of  cruelty 
towards  old  people  and  towards  children.  In  a  primi- 
tive state  of  society  there  existed  difficulties  of  which 
we  have  no  idea.  When  the  struggle  of  life  became 
extreme,  and  when  it  was  utterly  impossible  for 
a  community  to  support  more  than  a  given  number 
of  lives,  it  was   necessarily  left   to   the   parents  to 

K  2 


133  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

determine  what  children  should  be  allowed  to  live  or 
be  destroyed.  Among  Greeks  and  Komans  vestiges 
of  this  ancient  custom  may  be  discovered \  and  among 
the  Germans,  also,  the  right  of  the  father  to  decide  on 
the  life  of  a  child,  by  raising  it  from  the  place  where 
the  mother  had  given  birth  to  it,  was  long  maintained^. 
Tlie  Brahmans  also  seem  to  have  conceded  to  the  father 
the  right  to  expose  his  children,  or,  at  all  events,  his 
female  progeny  ^, 

But  if  in  an  early  state  of  society  children  became 
sometimes  a  burden  impossible  to  bear,  a  still  greater 
difficulty  arose  with  regard  to  old  people  when  they 
were  no  longer  able  to  support  or  to  defend  them- 
selves. In  a  nomadic  state  of  life  this  difficulty  is  so 
great  that  it  could  not  be  solved  except  by  killing  the 
old  people.  For  what  is  to  be  done  when  the  soil  is 
exhausted  and  a  tribe  has  to  move  forward  to  occupy 
new  pastures  ?  The  old  people  cannot  support  the 
fatigue  of  the  march,  and  to  leave  them  behind  would 
be  to  expose  them  to  starvation  or  a  violent  death. 
It  was  considered  merciful  under  those  circumstances, 
nay,  it  was  believed  to  be  a  sacred  duty  of  the  nearest 
relations,  to  kill  the  aged  members  of  a  family. 
Storks,  before  they  migrate  south,  are  said  to  kill  the 
old  and  lame  birds  who  are  unable  to  follow.  In  the 
same  way,  if  we  may  trust  Su-  John  Lubbock,  there 
are  even  now  among  certain  tribes  whole  villages 
where  no  old  people  can  be  discovered,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  they  all  have  been  put  to  death.    Mr.  Hunt, 

*  Schumann,   *  Giiechische   Altertliumer,'  3rd   ed.,  i.  p.  531;  Mar- 
quardt,  '  Privatleben  der  Romer,'  i.  p.  3,  note  i,  p.  81. 
2  Giiinm,  '  Deutsche  Recht«alterthumer,'  p.  455. 
'  Maitrayanl-sawihita  IV,  6,  4 ;  Nirukta  ITI,  4. 


WHAT    TO    DO    WITH    OUR    OLD    PEOPLE.  133 

as  quoted  by  Sir  John  Lubbock,  tells  us  that  one 
day  a  young  man  in  whom  he  took  much  interest 
came  to  him  and  invited  him  to  attend  his  mother's 
funeral.  Mr.  Hunt  accepted  the  invitation,  but  as  he 
walked  along  in  the  procession  he  was  surprised  to 
see  no  corpse.  When  he  asked  the  young  man  where 
his  mother  was,  he  pointed  to  a  w^oman  who  was 
walking  along  just  in  front,  to  use  Mr.  Hunt's  words, 
'as  gay  and  lively  as  any  of  those  present.'  When 
they  arrived  at  the  grave,  she  took  an  affectionate 
farewell  of  her  children  and  friends,  and  then  sub- 
mitted to  be  strangled. 

It  is  not  innate  cruelty  that  can  account  for  this 
barbarous  treatment  of  the  aged  :  it  was  a  dira  neces- 
sitas.  Among  our  own  ancestors,  the  ancient  Germans, 
Grimm  tells  us  that  when  the  master  of  the  house 
was  over  sixty  years  old,  if  the  signs  of  the  weakness 
of  age  were  of  such  a  character  that  he  no  longer  had 
the  power  to  walk  or  stand  or  to  ride  unassisted  and 
unsupported,  with  collected  mind,  free  will,  and  good 
sense,  he  was  obliged  to  give  over  his  authority  to 
his  son,  and  to  perform  menial  service.  Those  who 
had  grown  useless  and  burdensome  were  either  killed 
outright  or  exposed  and  abandoned  to  death  by  star- 
vation ^. 

However  strange  and  horrible  these  various  ways  of 
disposing  of  old  people  may  seem  to  us,  there  is,  never- 
theless, a  lesson  to  be  learnt  from  our  savage  ancestors, 
viz.  that  there  is  a  time  when  old  people  ought  to 
retire.  Our  religion,  our  moralitj^  our  very  humanity 
would  make   us  shrink  from    any  violent  measures 

'  Grimm,  'Deut=che  EeclitsalterUiiimer,'  p.  4S7  ;  Wt-iiihokl,  '  Alt- 
nordisches  Leben,*  p.  473. 


134  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

to  enforce  this  lesson ;  but  we  must  not,  for  all  that, 
shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  some  of  the  most  serious 
evils  of  our  modern  society  are  due  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  old  age  on  the  legitimate  functions  of  youth 
and  manhood.  If,  in  ancient  times,  the  difficulty  was 
what  to  do  with  old  people,  the  difficulty  in  our 
modern  society  is  what  to  do  with  young  people. 
And  why  1  Because  every  sphere  of  active  life  in 
which  young  men  might,  naturally  and  legitimately, 
hope  to  find  an  opening  for  making  themselves  useful 
to  the  world,  and  gaining  a  livelihood  for  themselves, 
is  filled  with  men  who,  nearly  or  altogether,  belong 
to  the  class  of  the  Depontani.  It  will  be  argued,  no 
doubt,  that  old  age  possesses  more  experience  and 
wisdom  than  youth  and  early  manhood  can  possibly 
possess.  Eut  surely  there  is  a  senile  as  well  as 
a  juvenile  folly;  and  even  admitting  the  superior 
experience  of  old  people,  that  experience  would 
become  far  more  useful  to  the  world  if  they  were 
satisfied  in  their  old  age  to  become  counsellors,  and 
leave  the  toil  and  moil  of  the  daily  warfare  of  life  to 
younger  men.  Besides,  the  affairs  of  life  require  not 
only  prudence  and  caution,  but  likewise  decision  and 
courage ;  and  when  it  is  considered  that  the  conse- 
quences of  good  or  bad  counsels  must  fall,  after  all, 
on  the  heads  of  the  next  generation,  it  is  but  fair  that 
the  young  should  have  some  share  in  determining 
w^hat  is  to  be  done.  Besides,  we  cannot  stultify 
nature.  Youth  and  manhood  are  better  than  old  age ; 
and  with  all  the  advantages  that  old  age  may  justly 
be  proud  of,  there  are  weaknesses  which,  like  grey 
hairs,  steal  almost  unperceived  over  old  heads.  Ko 
art  is  able  to  disguise,  and  no  effort  of  will  strong 


WHAT   TO   DO   WITH    OUR   OLD    PEOPLE.  133 

enough  to  resist  them.  Hygienic  science  may  in 
our  days  keep  people  alive  longer  than  in  former 
centuries,  and  a  proper  discipline  of  body  and  mind 
may  in  some  cases  preserve  a  mens  sana  in  corpore 
saiio  beyond  the  usual  limits.  But,  as  a  rule,  man  is 
meant  to  learn  in  his  youth,  to  act  in  his  manhood, 
to  counsel  in  his  advancing  years,  and  to  meditate  in 
his  extreme  old  age.  It  is  the  disregard  of  this  clear 
and  simple  lesson,  conveyed  by  the  four  ages  of  man, 
which  is  responsible  for  the  worst  of  our  social  evils. 
A  young  man  is  meant  to  marry ;  but  how,  in  the 
present  state  of  society,  is  it  possible  for  a  young  man 
and  a  young  woman  to  contract  matrimony  at  the 
proper  time,  unless  their  parents  have  saved  enough 
to  enable  them  to  do  so  ?  Almost  every  career  is 
now  closed  against  the  young  man  who  thinks  that 
he  ought  to  be  able  to  earn  a  livelihood  by  his  arms 
or  his  brains.  And  the  principal  reason  is  that  old 
men  now  remain  too  long  in  active  service  and  enjoy 
large  incomes  for  doing  work  which  their  juniors 
could  do  as  well,  if  not  better.  Wo  get  accustomed 
to  everything  which  has  existed  for  centuries  and 
has  the  sanction  of  custom  and  of  law.  We  know 
that  a  man  who  has  children,  grandchildren,  and 
great-grandchildren  may  hold  the  family  estate  as 
his  exclusive  property,  only  making  to  his  descen- 
dants such  allowance  as  he  thinks  proper.  What 
seems  quite  right  and  fair  to  us  w^ould  seem  very 
wrong  and  unfair  in  India,  where  the  law  enables 
the  sons,  when  they  have  come  of  age,  to  insist  on 
a  division  of  the  family  property,  w^hich  is  considered 
to  be  theirs  as  much  as  their  father's.  How  many 
a  life  in  EngLmd  has  become  useless  by  the  ancestral 


136  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

property  being  managed  or  mismanaged  by  a  man  of 
eighty,  while  the  son  of  forty,  or  even  sixty,  is  care- 
fully excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  improve- 
ment of  his  future  estate.  Young  men  are  often  blamed 
because  they  imagine  they  must  have  as  large  an 
income  as  their  parents,  before  they  will  condescend 
to  marry.  There  may  be  some  truth  in  this,  but 
there  is  also  some  truth  in  the  answer  of  young  men 
that  parents,  after  their  children's  education  is  finished, 
might  be  satisfied  with  a  quieter  and  less  expensive 
style  of  life,  and  not  grudge  their  children  those  en- 
joyments which  nature  has  clearly  intended  for  youth 
and  manhood. 

In  most  professions  a  man  who  has  worked  for 
twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ought  to  be  enabled  to 
retire  on  a  pension  ;  that  is,  be  satisfied  with  a  smaller 
income.  Whatever  exceptions  may  be  cited  to  the 
contrary,  our  schools  and  universities,  for  instance, 
are  clearly  sufferers,  because  professors  and  tutors 
are  not  enabled,  or  forced,  to  retire  at  the  approach 
of  old  age.  Dr.  Arnold  expressed  a  very  strong 
opinion  as  to  the  maximum  of  years  that  a  master 
or  headmaster  of  a  public  school  should  be  allowed 
to  carry  on  his  work.  Other  voices  have  been  raised 
against  the  Universities  allowing  heads  of  houses, 
professors,  and  tutors  to  retain  their  offices  to  the 
very  last  day  of  their  life.  We  know,  of  course,  of 
exceptions,  of  men  lecturing,  and  lecturing  success- 
fully, for  thirty  and  forty  years.  But,  as  a  rule, 
a  professor  as  he  grows  old,  however  excellent  work 
he  may  still  do  by  himself,  finds  it  impossible  to 
maintain  that  warm  sympathy  with  the  rising  gene- 
ration which  is  essential  in  order  to  make  his  lectures 


"WHAT  TO  DO  WITH  OUR  OLD  PEOPLE.      137 

really  efficient.  His  own  studies  are  apt  to  become 
more  and  more  special  and  narrow,  and  he  often  finds 
it  impossible  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  progress  of 
discovery  that  changes  the  whole  aspect  of  every 
science  from  year  to  year.  By  all  means  let  the  old 
professor  continue  to  lecture,  if  he  likes,  but  let 
younger  men  be  appointed  as  his  deputies  or  asso- 
ciates. It  is  a  real  injustice  to  younger  men,  whose 
lives  are  passing  away,  that  they  should  have  no 
opportunity  of  utilising  their  knowledge  by  teaching 
in  our  Universities,  or  that  they  should  succeed  to 
a  Chair  when  they  themselves  are  no  longer  in  the 
vigour  of  life.  Sometimes  the  study  of  a  science  has 
been  paralysed  for  years  because,  all  professorial 
chairs  being  occupied  by  men  who  would  not,  be- 
cause they  could  not,  resign,  there  was  no  prospect 
of  employment  for  younger  men,  and  when  at  last 
a  vacancy  occurred  there  were  hardly  any  candidates 
fit  to  be  successors.  In  Continental  universities  the 
system  of  Professores  extraordinarii  and  Privat- 
docents  supplies  a  certain  remedy  of  the  evil  com- 
plained of,  but  here,  too,  the  Professores  ordinarii 
become  sometimes  a  drag  on  the  advance  of  science, 
because  there  is  too  little  inducement  to  make  them 
resign. 

It  would  be  easy  to  point  out  the  same  mischief 
in  other  professions,  caused  by  men  remaining  in 
office  beyond  the  limits  of  time  so  clearly  indicated 
by  nature.  Old  generals,  gouty  admirals,  deaf  judges, 
and  bedridden  bishops  are  not  unknown  in  this  as 
in  other  countries.  But  nowhere  does  this  incubus 
of  old  age  prove  more  disastrous  than  in  politics. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  knowing  when  to  retire 


138  RECENT   ESSAYS, 

is  the  true  test  of  a  great  statesraan.  But  if  there  is 
any  office  which  it  seems  almost  impossible  to  sur- 
render it  is  political  office.  Nearly  all  Ministers 
nowadays  are  over  fifty  or  sixty,  and  they  often  cling 
to  office  till  they  are  seventy  or  eighty.  It  is  in 
their  case,  more  than  in  any  other,  that  the  necessity 
of  experience  and  wisdom  is  pleaded  as  an  excuse 
for  their  unnatural  pretensions.  But  experience  and 
wisdom  are  not  the  exclusive  property  of  old  age, 
while  too  much  experience  may  even  unfit  a  man  for 
that  quick  insight  which  is  constantly  required  for 
political  action.  That  old  men  should  be  consulted 
is  perfectly  natural,  but  that  they  should  have  the 
decision  of  the  fate  of  the  next  generation  entirely  in 
their  hands  admits  of  no  justification.  The  Germans 
had  an  old  proverb  which  went  much  further,  and 
denied  to  those  who  could  no  longer  tight  the  right 
of  giving  advice. 

'  Die  niclit  init  thaten, 
Die  nicht  mit  rathen.* 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  even  in  council  the 
presence  of  old  men  is  dangerous.  The  authority 
claimed  by  old  age,  and  the  respect  naturally  paid 
to  it  by  the  younger  generation,  must  interfere  with 
the  easy  and  natural  transaction  of  business.  If  it 
is  difficult  for  an  old  man  to  bear  opposition  and  to 
brook  rebuke  from  a  younger  man,  it  is .  equally 
difficult  for  a  young  politician  to  bow  to  authority 
or  to  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  old  age.  What 
is  the  result  ■?  The  old  statesman  gradually  finds 
himself  deserted  by  his  honest  and  independent  friends, 
while  opportunists  and  flatterers  surround  the  old 
chief  and  help  to  extinguish  in  him  the  last  remnants 


WHAT   TO    DO  WITH    OUR    OLD  PEOPLE.  139 

of  humility  and   of  mistrust  in  his  own  judgment. 
Members    of  the    Cabinet,    it   has    often    been   said, 
ought  to   be   on   terms   of  perfect   equality,    and   in 
discussions   concerning   the   welfare   of  the   country 
argument   ought   always    to    be   stronger   than    any 
amount  of  authority.     Men  of  about  the  same  age 
can  afford  to  give  and   take,  but  a  man   of  thirty 
cannot  well  give  to  a  man  of  eighty,  and  a  man  of 
eighty  cannot  well  take  from  a  man  of  thirty.     And 
yet,  if  we  look  at  the  history  of  the  world,  political 
wasdom  has  certainly  not  been  the  exclusive  property 
of  old  age.     A  mere  stripling,  such  as  Pitt,  was  a 
better  man  at  the  wheel  than  even  the  creat  Duke  of 
Wellington  when,  in  his  old  age,  he  acted  as  steersman 
to  the  vessel  of  State.     In  cur  days  it  seems  difiicult 
to  imagine  that   a  man    of  twenty  or    thirty   could 
possibly    be   an    Under-Secretary   of   State,   to   say 
nothing  of  his  being  Prime  Minister.     And  yet,  take 
it  all  in  all,  for  practical  work,  a  man  of  thirty  is 
a  better  man  than  a  man  of  eighty,  and  the  sooner 
men  of  eighty  learn  that  lesson  the  better  for  them- 
selves   and    for   the    country  they  profess    to    serve. 
There  are  exceptions,  there  are  brilliant  exceptions, 
at    the    present    moment,  both    in   England    and   in 
Germany.    Put  exceptions  in  such  cases  are  apt  here- 
after to  become  precedents,  and  to  piove  extremely 
dangerous  in  less  exceptional  cases.    Outside  the  fight 
of  parties  the  voice  of  the  old  statesman  will  always 
be  listened  to,  and  carry  conviction  to  many  a  waver- 
ing  mind.      But    if   he    remains    in    the    turmoil   of 
political  w^arfare  he  Avill  meet  with  harsh  usage,  his 
best  motives   will  be  suspected,  and  the  good  fame 
of  his  vouth  and  manhood  will  often  be  tarnished 


140  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

Ly   the   mistakes,   however  well  intentioned,  of  his 
old  age. 

To  return  once  more  to  India,  from  whence  we 
started.  No  doubt  the  ideal  scheme  of  life,  traced 
out  by  Manu,  is  no  longer  possible,  after  the  contact 
between  the  ancient  civilisation  of  the  East  and  the 
modern  civilisation  of  the  West.  But  the  spirit  of 
the  past  still  exercises  its  fascination  over  some  supe- 
rior minds,  and  the  idea  that  there  is  a  time  when 
the  old  should  make  room  for  the  young,  and.  when 
meditation  should  take  the  place  of  active  life,  is  not 
yet  quite  forgotten  among  the  sons  of  India.  A  bio- 
graphy has  lately  been  published  of  the  Prime  Minister 
of  Bhavnagar,  Gaorishankar  Udayashankar,  C.S.I.  ^ 
It  relates  a  life  full  of  hard  and  most  important  work, 
a  life  of  struggle,  of  temptation,  and  of  wonderful 
success ;  the  life  not  only  of  a  conscientious  adminis- 
trator, but  of  a  determined  diplomatist,  holding  his 
own  against  the  best  men  in  the  Indian  service,  and 
in  the  end  recognised  by  all,  from  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone  to  Lord  Reay,  as  an  honest  and  unselfish 
man,  worthy  to  be  named  by  the  side  of  such  native 
statesmen  as  Sir  Salar  Jung,  Sir  T.  Madao  Rao,  and 
Sir  Dinkar  Eao.  Only  three  years  ago,  in  December, 
1 886,  when  Lord  Reay  had  paid  a  visit  to  the  vener- 
able statesman,  he  said  of  him  :  '  Certainly,  of  all  the 
happy  moments  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  spend 
in  India,  those  wdiich  I  spent  in  the  presence  of  that 
remarkable  man  remain  engrafted  on  my  memory. 
I  was  struck  as  much  by  the  clearness  of  his  intellect 

*  'Gaorishankar  Udayashankar,  C.S.I.,  Ex-Minister  of  Bhavnagar, 
now  on  retirement  as  ii  Sanyilsi.'  By  Javerilal  Umiashankar  Yajuik. 
Bombay,  1889. 


WHAT    TO    DO    WITH    OUR    OLD    PEOPLE.  141 

as  by  tho  simplicity  and  fairness  and  openness  of  his 
mind ;  and  if  we  admire  wiso  administrators,  we  also 
admire  straightforward  advisers,  those  who  tell  their 
chiefs  the  real  truth  about  the  condition  of  their 
country  and  their  subjects.  In  seeing  the  man  who 
freed  the  State  from  all  encumbrances,  who  restored 
civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction  to  the  villages,  who 
settled  grave  disputes  with  Junaghad,  who  got  rid 
of  refractory  Jemadars,  I  could  not  help  thinking 
what  could  bo  done  by  singleness  of  purpose  and 
strength  of  character.'  It  would  be  useless  to  attempt 
to  give  even  a  short  outline  of  the  excellent  services 
rendered  to  his  country,  and  indirectly  to  England, 
by  Gaorishankar  during  the  fifty-seven  years  of  his 
active  life.  The  affairs  of  Servia,  Bulgaria,  and 
Montenegro,  the  intrigues  of  King  Milan,  Queen 
Natalie,  and  Prince  Karageorgo witch,  would  seem  to 
be  of  greater  interest  to  the  public  at  large  than  the 
healthy  growth  and  powerful  development  of  the 
native  States  of  India  under  English  protection.  And 
yet  Gaorishankar's  life  is  full  of  dramatic  interest. 
He  had  to  do  battle  with  many  King  Milans,  with 
many  Queen  Natalies,  even  with  some  rebellious 
mountain-chiefs,  such  as  Karageorgo  witch,  and  he 
has  come  out  victorious  from  all  his  fights.  He  not 
only  established  the  independence  of  the  state  of 
Bhavnagar,  but  he  introduced  a  reformed  system  of 
administration,  founded  excellent  schools,  built  model 
prisons,  encouraged  useful  railways,  and  made  Bhav- 
nagar a  model  among  the  protected  principalities  of 
India.  In  1878,  when- he  was  seventy  -  three  years 
of  age,  and  when  the  idea  of  retiring  from  the  world 
had  already  ripened  in  his  mind,  he  was  once  more 


142  RECENT  ESSAYS. 

complimented  by  Sir  J.  B.  Peile  in  the  following 
terms  : — '  Gaorishankar  has  risen  tlirough  every  stage 
of  a  laborious  life  to  this  crown  and  consummation 
of  an  honourable  public  career,  a  career,  which  he 
began  in  a  humble  position  in  the  old  school  of 
custom  and  ends  as  a  cautious  leader  in  the  new 
school  of  reform.' 

This  is  the  man  who,  on  January  13,  1879,  resigned 
his  office  as  Minister,  and,  full  of  years  and  honours, 
declared  his  intention  of  following  the  example  of 
the  ancient  Brahmans,  and  retiring  into  the  forest. 
He  prepared  himself  for  that  step  by  a  deeper  study 
of  the  Upanishads  and  the  Vedanta  philosophy  than 
had  been  possible  to  him  during  the  years  of  his  busy 
life.  He  then  retired  to  a  garden-house  outside  the 
old  town,  where  he  was  still  accessible  to  his  friends, 
and  where  his  chief  and  his  former  colleagues  often 
came  to  consult  him.  He  had  become  a  counsellor, 
but  he  no  longer  interfered  in  public  or  private  affairs. 
At  last,  in  1887,  his  yearning  after  a  purely  spiritual 
life,  and  his  desire  to  throw  off  all  the  fetters  and 
affections  that  might  still  bind  him  to  this  life,  became 
so  strong  that  he  determined  to  enter  on  the  fourth 
stage  of  life  and  to  become  a  Sannyasin.  The  time 
had  come,  he  declared,  that  he  should  prepare  himself 
for  holy  d}ing  by  a  complete  renunciation  of  the 
active  concerns  of  this  world  and  by  an  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  thoughts  of  a  life  to  come.  He  wrote 
letters  to  all  his  friends,  bidding  them  farewell  for 
this  life.  I  myself  was  one  of  those  to  whom  he  said 
good-bye,  declaring  that  he  had  left  the  world,  that 
he  had  changed  his  name,  and  that  all  correspondence 
between  him   and  the  outer  world   must  hencefoi'th 


"WHAT  TO  DO  WITH  OUR  OLD  PEOPLE.      143 

cease.     These  were  the  last  lines  of  a  letter  which  he 
addressed  to  me  in  July,  1886  : — 

'  My  health  is  failing  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
to  enter  into  the  fourth  order  or  Asrama.  Thereby 
I  shall  attain  that  stage  in  life  when  I  shall  be  free 
from  all  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  this  world  and 
shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  my  present  circum- 
stances. 

'After  leading  a  public  life  for  more  than  sixty 
years,  I  think  there  is  nothing  left  for  me  to  desire, 
except  this  life,  which  will  enable  my  Atma  [Self]  to 
be  one  with  Paramatma  [Supreme  Self],  as  shown  by 
the  enlightened  sages  of  old.  When  this  is  accom- 
plished a  man  is  free  from  births  and  re-births,  and 
what  can  I  wish  more  than  what  will  free  me  from 
them,  and  give  me  means  to  attain  Moksha  [spiritual 
freedom]  ? 

'  My  learned  Friend,  I  shall  be  a  Sannyasin  in  a  few 
days,  and  thus  there  will  be  a  total  change  of  life. 
I  shall  no  more  be  able  to  address  you,  and  I  send 
you  this  letter  to  convey  my  last  best  wishes  for  your 
success  in  life,  and  my  regards  which  you  so  well 
deserve.' 

Every  effort  was  made  by  his  native  friends  and  by 
the  highest  officials  of  the  English  Government  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  purpose.  Every  argument  that 
could  appeal  to  his  common- sense,  his  sense  of  duty, 
aye,  even  his  vanity,  was  used,  but  used  in  vain.  He 
was  not  so  silly  as  to  attempt  to  copy  slavishly  the 
example  of  the  ancient  Sannyasins,  and  to  court  death 
in  the  wilderness.  He  remained  in  his  retirement, 
only  he  adopted  a  much  stricter  discipline,  and  a  more 
rigorous  seclusion  from  the  outer  world.     He  was  not 


144  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

SO  childish,  or  rather  so  senile,  as  to  imagine  that  any 
one  in  this  life  was  really  indispensable.  He  knew  that 
younger  men  would  do  his  work  as  well,  if  not  better 
than  himself.  And  he  felt  that,  having  done  his  duty 
to  the  world,  he  might  be  free  during  the  few  remain- 
ing years  to  do  his  duty  ta  himself.  I  believe  the  old 
man  is  still  alive,  now  in  his  eighty-fourth  year  ^. 
When  I  last  heard  of  him,  through  his  son,  he  was 
in  full  possession  of  his  intellectual  powers,  with 
a  memory  unimpaired.  He  has  become,  in  his  old 
age,  a  zealous  student  of  Sanskrit,  and,  to  judge  from 
what  he  has  published,  his  knowledge  of  the  Vedanta 
philosophy  is  profound.  He  is  now  simply  waiting 
for  death,  and  fitting  himself  to  die,  following  the 
words  of  Manu  (VI,  43) : — 

^Lefc  not  the  hermit  long  for  deatli, 
Nor  cling  to  this  terrestrial  state ; 
Their  Lord's  behests  as  servants  wait^ 
So  let  him,  called,  resign  his  breath.' 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Minister  of  Bhavnagar 
remained  in  office  long  beyond  the  time  when  he  had 
a  perfect  right  to  retire.  He  was  seventy-four  when 
he  surrendered  the  Ministry.  Still,  he  is  one  of  very 
few  statesmen  who,  even  at  that  time,  would  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  make  room  for  others,  and  to 
reserve  a  span  of  life  for  themselves,  as  a  preparation 
for  a  better  life.  His  intellect  was  unimpaired,  his 
body  vigorous,  and  his  friends  were  clamorous  for 
him  to  remain  in  power.  But  he  did  not  allow  him- 
self to  be  persuaded.  He  was  influenced,  no  doubt, 
in  his  choice,  by  the  teaching  of  the  old  sages  of 
India,  but  his  own  judgment  also  must  have  helped 

*  He  has  departed  since. 


WHAT   TO    DO    WITH    OUR    OLD    PEOPLE.  145 

him  to  obey  the  voice  of  nature.  To  all  who  have 
ears  to  hear,  that  voice  declares  in  unmistakable 
tones  that  there  is  a  time  for  everj^thing-.  There  is 
a  time  to  be  young  and  there  is  a  time  to  be  old. 
Our  modern  society  is  out  of  gear  because  that  lesson 
of  nature  is  not  obeyed.  To  die  in  harness  has 
become  the  ideal  of  almost  every  old  man.  But 
what  might  be  the  right  ideal  for  a  cab-horse  is  not 
necessarily  the  right  ideal  for  a  human  being.  In 
several  branches  of  the  public  service  a  remedy  has 
been  applied — not  the  drastic  remedy  of  the  Bactrians 
and  Caspians,  but  the  more  gentle  pressure  of  the 
Indian  law-givers.  Men  are  made  to  withdraw  into 
the  forest  on  a  retiring  pension,  and  it  has  not  been 
found  that  the  army  and  navy  have  suffered  under 
3'oung  generals  and  vigorous  admirals.  The  same 
system  ought  to  be  applied  to  all  other  professions, 
more  particularly  to  our  schools  and  universities. 
After  twenty-five  years  of  hard  work  a  man  ought 
to  be  enabled  to  rest  from  his  labours,  if  he  likes,  and 
the  young  should  be  allowed  to  have  their  day. 


VOL.  I. 


THE  TEUE  ANTIQUITY  OP  OEIENTAL 
LITERATUEE/ 

WHEN  people  speak  of  the  East,  of  Oriental 
languages,  Oriental  literature,  Oriental  art,  or 
Oriental  religion,  their  idea  generally  seems  to  be 
that  all  that  belongs  to  the  East  is  extremely  old 
and  very  mysterious.  There  is  a  charm  which  it  is 
difficult  to  account  for,  but  there  certainly  is  a  charm 
that  attracts  us  to  everything  that  is  supposed  to 
be  very  old,  and  to  everything  that  seems  wrapt  in 
mystery.  If,  then,  these  lectures  which  I  have  the 
honour  to  inaugurate  to-night  are  meant  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  public  at  large  towards  Oriental 
studies,  and  to  arouse  an  interest  in  the  languages, 
the  literatures,  the  art,  and  the  religion  of  the  East, 
not  only  among  scholars,  but  among  the  ever-widen- 
ing circles  of  intelligent  men  and  cultivated  women, 
it  may  not  seem  very  wise  to  say  anything  that  might 
break  that  charm,  that  might  reduce  the  enormous 
antiquity  so  often  claimed  for  Oriental  literature  to 
more  modest  limits,  and  dispel  those  golden  clouds  of 
mystery  which  are  supposed  to  surround  the  sanctuary 
of  the  primeval  wisdom  of  the  East. 

'  Inaugural  Address,  delivered  before  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society, 
on  Wednesday,  March  4,  1891. 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     147 

And  yet,  if  I  were  asked  to  say  what  in  our  own 
time  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  Oriental  research, 
I  should  say  that  it  was  the  endeavour  to  bring  the 
remote  East  closer  and  closer  to  our  own  time,  and  to 
dispel  as  much  as  possible  that  mystery  which  used 
to  shroud  its  language,  its  literature,  and  its  religion. 
Oriental  scholarship  is  no  longer  a  mere  matter  of 
curiosity.  It  appeals  to  higher  sympathies,  and 
teaches  us  that  we  can  study  in  the  East  as  well  as 
in  the  West  the  great  questions  of  humanity — those 
questions  that  furnish  the  first  impulse  and  the 
highest  purpose  to  all  human  inquiries.  So  long  as 
the  Egyptian  is  a  mere  mummy  to  us,  the  Babylonian 
a  mere  image  in  stone,  the  Jew  a  prophet,  the  Hindu 
a  dreamer,  the  Chinaman  a  joke,  we  are  not  yet 
Oriental  scholars.  The  Wise  Men  of  the  East  are 
still  mere  strangers  to  us,  coming  we  know  not 
whence,  going  we  know  not  whither,  and  leaving 
behind  them  nothing  but  gold,  frankincense,  and 
myrrh. 

It  is  only  when  these  strangers  cease  to  be  strangers, 
when  they  become  friends,  people  exactly  like  our- 
selves in  their  strength  and  in  their  weakness,  in 
their  ideals  and  their  failures,  in  their  hopes  and 
their  despairs — it  is  then  only  that  we  can  claim  to 
be  Oriental  scholars,  real  students  of  the  East,  true 
lovers  of  humanity  which  is  always  the  same,  what- 
ever its  age,  whatever  its  language,  whatever  the 
many  disguises  which  it  has  assumed  in  the  different 
acts  of  the  great  drama  of  history. 

What  charm  is  there  in  mere  antiquity  ?  Antiquity 
seems  difficult  to  define.  Very  often  what  is  old  is 
despised,  however  good  it  may  be ;   at  other  times, 


148  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

what  is  old  is  valued,  though  its  merit  seems  to 
consist  in  nothing  but  its  age.  A  book  printed  in 
the  fifteenth  century  is  competed  for  by  all  collectors, 
while  many  a  manuscript  of  the  same  date  will  hardly 
tempt  a  buyer.  A  Greek  work  of  art,  say,  of  500  B.C., 
finds  a  place  of  honour  in  any  museum.  An  Egyptian 
monument  of  the  same  age  is  referred  to  the  decadence 
of  Egyptian  art.  When  we  come  to  one  thousand 
years,  to  two  thousand  years,  or,  as  ?ome  will  have  it, 
to  three  or  four  thousand  years  b.  c,  everything 
that  can  claim  descent  from  those  distant  ages  is 
valued,  and  almost  worshipped.  And  yet,  what  are 
four  thousand,  what  are  six  thousand  years,  when 
we  become  geologists  ?  What  are  the  oldest  Egyptian 
mummies  compared  to  the  megatheria  embalmed  in 
the  sarcophagi  of  the  earth  ?  And  again,  how  modern 
are  those  stratified  cemeteries  on  the  surface  of  our 
globe,  nay,  even  the  unstratified  foundations  of  this 
earth,  in  the  eyes  of  the  astronomer,  to  whom  our 
globe  dwindles  away  into  a  mere  infinitesimal  globule 
that  has  not  yet  been  touched  by  the  rays  of  light 
proceeding  from  more  distant  suns !  Mere  antiquity, 
it  has  always  seemed  to  me,  can  lend  no  real  charm 
to  Oriental  studies. 

First  of  all,  what  we  call  ancient  in  literary  produc- 
tions is  not  so  very  ancient  after  all.  Our  libraries 
and  museums  contain  little  that  is  more  than  four 
thousand  yeai's  old,  If  one  century  is  easily  spanned 
by  three  generations,  a  little  more  than  one  hundred 
generations  would  span  the  whole  history  of  the  litera- 
ture of  the  world.  What  the  Egyptians  said  to  the 
Greeks  we  must  learn  to  say  to  ourselves — '  We  are  as 
yet  but  children.'     Man's  life  on  earth  is  only  in  its 


THE    TRUE    AXTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     149 

beginnings.  The  future  before  him  is  immense ;  the  past 
that  lies  behind  us  is  but  the  short  preface  to  a  work 
that  will  require  many  volumes  before  it  is  finished, 
before  man  has  become  what  he  was  meant  to  be. 

Secondly,  we  must  not  forget  that  when  we  speak 
of  literary  works  of  two,  or  three,  or  four  thousand 
years  before  our  era,  we  are  not  really  on  what  is 
properly  called  historical  ground.  I  am  by  no  means 
a  sceptic  as  to  the  remote  antiquity  assigned  to 
Chinese,  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  and  Indian  literature  ; 
but  I  think  we  are  too  easily  tempted  to  forget  the 
important  difference  between  authentic  and  construc- 
tive history.  Authentic  history,  as  Niebuhr  often 
pointed  out,  begins  when  we  have  the  testimony  of 
a  contemporary,  or  an  eye-witness,  testifying  to  the 
events  which  he  relates.  Constructive  history  and  con- 
structive chronology  rest  on  deduction.  Constructive 
history  may  be  quite  as  true  as  authentic  history. 
Still,  we  should  never  forget  the  difference  between 
the  two. 

If  we  bear  this  difference  in  mind,  I  should  say  that 
the  authentic  history  of  India  does  not  begin  before 
the  third  century  b,c.  We  have  at  that  time  the 
insciiptions  of  the  famous  king  Asoka,  the  grandson 
of  Chandragupta,  the  Sandrokyptos  of  Greek  his- 
torians. Everything  in  the  history  of  India  before 
that  time  is  purely  constructive.  But  is  it  therefore 
less  certain  ?  I  believe  not.  The  language  of  these 
inscriptions,  in  its  various  dialects,  stands  to  Sanskrit 
as  Italian  stands  to  Latin.  Such  changes  require 
centuries.  The  religion  of  Asoka  is  Buddhism,  and 
Buddhism  stands  to  Brahmanism  as  Brotestantism 
stands  to  Roman  Catholicism.     Such  changes  require 


150  llECEXT    ESSAYS. 

centuries.  Lastly,  the  literature  of  Vedic  Bralimanism 
shows  three  successive  layers  of  language,  ceremonial, 
and  thought.  Such  changes,  again,  require  centuries, 
and  though  I  never  looked  upon  the  two  centuries 
which  I  assigned  to  each  of  these  three  layers  as  more 
than  a  guess,  the  layers  themselves  and  their  suc- 
cession cannot  be  doubted.  Constructive  history  places 
the  earliest  Vedic  hymns  about  1500  B.C.  But  even 
at  that  time  the  language  of  these  Vedic  hymns  is  full 
of  faded,  decayed,  and  quite  unintelligible  words  and 
forms,  and  these  in  some  points  more  near  to  Greek 
than  to  ordinary  Sanskrit.  It  possesses,  for  instance, 
a  subjunctive,  like  Greek,  of  which  there  is  hardly 
a  trace  left  in  the  Epic  poems  or  in  the  Laws  of  Manu. 
Such  changes  require  time.  In  fact,  if  wo  ask  our- 
selves how  long  it  must  have  taken  before  a  language 
like  that  of  the  Vedic  hymns  could  have  become  what 
we  find  it  to  be,  ordinary  chronology  seems  altogether 
to  collapse,  and  we  should  feel  grateful  if  geological 
chronology  would  allow  us  to  extend  the  limits  as- 
signed to  man's  presence  on  earth  beyond  the  end  of 
the  Glacial  Period. 

Egyptian  chronology  carries  us,  no  doubt,  much 
further  than  the  chronology  of  India.  Menes  is  sup- 
posed to  have  reigned  4000  B.C.,  and,  if  we  do  not 
admit  a  division  of  the  empire  among  different  royal 
d3nasties,  the  date  of  Menes  might  be  pushed  back 
even  further,  to  5600  B.  c.  Lepsius,  however,  is  satis- 
fied with  3H92,  Bunson  with  3623  B.C.  But,  whatever 
date  we  accept,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that,  like  all 
ancient  Egyptian  dates,  they  depend  on  the  construc- 
tion which  we  put  on  Manetho's  dynasties,  and  on 
the  fragments  of  papyri,  like  the  Royal  Papyrus  of 


THE    TRUE   ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     151 

Turin.     We  are  dealing  again  with  constructive,  not 
with  authentic  history^. 

The  chronoloGi:y  of  the  Old  Testament  is  likewise 
constructive.  Those  who  have  carefully  summed  up 
the  dates  in  the  Books  of  Moses  fix  the  day  of  the 
Creation  in  4160  B.C. — not  very  long,  you  see,  before 
the  reign  of  Menes  in  Egypt — possibly  even  later. 
The  universal  Deluge  is  fixed  by  the  same  scholars 
in  2504,  which  is  about  the  time  of  the  twelfth 
Egyptian  dynast}^  But  in  constructing  this  chrono- 
logy we  must  not  forget  that,  whatever  the  age  of  the 
Mosaic  traditions  may  be,  the  Hebrew  text,  as  we  now 
possess  it,  can  hardly  be  referred  to  an  earlier  date  than 
the  sixth  century  B.C.  If,  then,  we  admit  with  Peter- 
mann  that  the  Samaritan  text  was  settled  in  the 
fourth  century,  we  find  that  the  interval  between 
Adam  and  Abraham,  which  is  reckoned  as  1,948  years 
in  the  Hebrew  text,  has  in  the  Samaritan  text  been 
raised  to  2,249  years.  Lastly,  if  we  admit  that  the 
Septuagint  translation  was  made  in  Egypt  between 
the  third  and  second  centuries  B.  c,  we  find  that  there 
the  same  interval  has  been  raised  to  3,314  years.     It 

'  The  following  dates  liave  been  assigned  to  Menes  by  hieroglyphio 
scholars : — 

6467  B.C.  by  Henne  von  Sargans. 


.15702 

» 

by  Boeckh. 

5613 

') 

by  Unger. 

4717 

,, 

by  Lieblein. 

4455 

„ 

by  Briig>ch. 

4157 

» 

by  Lauth. 

39>7 

>t 

by  von  Peffl. 

3S92 

>> 

by  Lepsius. 

3623 

,, 

by  Bunsen. 

27S2 

,, 

by  Seyffarth, 

23S7 

>» 

by  Knotel. 

2224 

„ 

by  Palmer. 

152  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

is  clear,  therefore,  that  in  the  history  of  the  Jews  also, 
the  ancient  dates,  though  more  moderate  than  those 
of  Egyptian  antiquity,  are  of  a  purely  constructive 
character. 

And  what  applies  to  Egypt  and  Judaea  applies  even 
more  strongly  to  China.  China  claims  a  history  of 
at  least  four  thousand  years.  Chinese  scholars  assure 
us  that  the  date  of  the  emperor  Yao  is  historical.  Yet 
it  varies  between  2357  B.C.  and  2145  B.C.,  the  latter 
being  the  date  of  the  Bamboo  Annals.  Beyond  Yao 
it  is  generally  admitted  that  Chinese  history  is  fabu- 
lous, though  we  are  told  by  some  authorities  that  the 
emperor  Hwang-ti  was  an  historical  character,  and 
began  his  reign  in  2697  B.C.  All  this  may  be  true. 
The  historical  traditions  of  China  may  reach  back 
very  far.  But  we  must  never  forget  the  fact,  which 
Chinese  historians  are  very  apt  to  forget^  namely,  the 
destruction  of  all  ancient  books  by  the  edict  of  the 
emperor  Khin  in  213  B.C.  The  edict,  we  are  told,  was 
ruthlessly  enforced,  and  hundreds  of  scholars  who 
refused  obedience  to  the  imperial  command  were 
buried  alive.  The  edict  was  not  repealed  till  191. 
It  lasted,  therefore^  twenty-two  years.  There  are,  no 
doubt,  traditions  that  some  of  the  books  were  recovered 
from  hiding-places  or  from  memory ;  yet  authentic 
history  in  China  cannot  be  said  to  date  from  before 
the  burning  of  the  books  and  the  beginning  of  the 
Han  dynasty. 

As  to  the  ancient  history  of  Babylon,  it  is  well  to 
learn  to  be  patient  and  to  wait.  The  progress  of 
discovery  and  decipherment  is  so  rapid,  that  what  is 
true  this  year  is  shown  to  be  wrong  next  year.  Our 
old  friend  Gisdubar  has  now,  thanks  to  the  ingenious 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    OEIENTAL    LITERATURE.     153 

combinations  of  Mr.  Pinches,  become  Gilgames  ^  This 
is  no  discredit  to  the  valiant  pioneers  in  this  glorious 
campaign.  On  the  contrary,  it  speaks  well  for  their 
perseverance  and  for  their  sense  of  truth.  I  shall  only 
give  you  one  instance  to  show  what  I  mean  by  calling 
the  ancient  periods  of  Babylonian  history  also  con- 
structive rather  than  authentic.  My  friend  Professor 
Sayce  claims  4000  b.  c.  as  the  beginning  of  Babylonian 
literature.  Nabonidus,  he  tells  us  ('  Hibbert  Lectures/ 
p.  21),  in  550  B.C.  explored  the  great  temple  of  the 
Sun-god  at  Sippara.  This  temple  was  believed  to 
have  been  founded  by  Naram  Sin,  the  son  of  Sargon. 
Nabonidus,  however,  lighted  upon  the  actual  founda- 
tion-stone— a  stone,  we  are  told,  which  had  not  been 
seen  by  any  of  his  predecessors  for  3,200  years.  On 
the  strength  of  this  the  date  of  3,200  +  550  years,  that 
is,  3750  B.C.,  has  been  assigned  to  Naram  Sin,  the  son 
of  Sargon.  These  two  kings,  however,  are  said  to  be 
quite  modern,  and  to  have  been  preceded  by  a  number 
of  so-called  Proto-Chaldaean  kings,  who  spoke  a  Proto- 
Chaldaean  language,  long  before  the  Semitic  popula- 
tion had  entered  the  land.  It  is  concluded,  further, 
from  some  old  inscriptions  on  diorite,  brought  from 
the  Peninsula  of  Sinai  to  Chaldaea,  that  the  quarries 
of  Sinai,  which  were  worked  by  the  Egyptians  at  the 
time  of  their  third  dynasty,  say  6,000  years  ago,  may 
have  been  visited  about  the  same  time  by  these  Proto- 
Chaldaeans.  4000  B.C.,  we  are  told,  would  therefore 
be  a  very  moderate  initial  epoch  for  Babylonian  and 
Egyptian  literature. 

I  am  the  very  last  person  to  deny  the  ingeniousness 

'  Academi/,  Jan.  17,1891  ;  see  'Gilgamos'  in  Aelian,  '  Hist.  Auim.' 
xii.  21. 


154  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

of  these  arguments,  or  to  doubt  the  real  antiquity  of 
the  early  civilisation  of  Babylon  or  Egypt.  All  I  wish 
to  point  out  is,  that  we  should  always  keep  before  our 
eyes  the  constructive  character  of  this  ancient  history 
and  chronology.  To  use  a  foundation-stone,  on  its 
own  authority,  as  a  stepping-stone  over  a  gap  of  3,200 
years,  is  purely  constructive  chronology,  and  as  such 
is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  what  historians 
mean  by  authentic  history,  as  when  Herodotus  or 
Thucydides  tells  us  what  happened  during  their  own 
lives  or  before  their  own  eyes. 

Eut,  whatever  the  result  of  these  chronological 
speculations  may  be — whether  Oriental  history  begins 
six,  or  five,  or  four,  or  three,  or  two,  or  one  thousand 
before  our  ei"a — I  ask  again,  what  is  the  charm  of 
mere  antiquity,  if  antiquity  means  no  more  than 
what  is  remote,  what  is  separated  from  us  by  wide 
gaps  of  millenniums  ? 

I  am  quite  willing  to  grant  that  there  is  a  certain 
charm  in  what  is  old,  whether  its  age  counts  by  years, 
or  centuries,  or  millenniums,  only ;  that  charm  must 
come  from  ourselves,  from  the  students  of  antiquity, 
whether  in  the  East  or  in  the  West.  We  should 
remember  that  antiquity  means  not  only  what  is  old. 
It  is  derived  from  mite.  It  means  what  is  before  us, 
what  is  arderiox,  what  is  cni  decedent  to  the  present. 
It  means,  and  it  should  mean,  the  firm  historical 
foundation  on  which  we  stand. 

If  we  can  discover  in  the  past  the  key  to  some  of 
the  riddles  of  the  present ;  if  we  can  link  the  past  to 
the  present  by  the  strong  chains  of  cause  and  effect ; 
if  we  can  unite  the  broken  and  scattered  links  of 
tradition  into  one  continuous  wire,  then  the  electric 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     155 

spark  of  human  sympathy  will  flash  from  one  end  to 
the  other.  The  most  remote  antiquity  will  cease  to 
be  remote.  It  will  be  brought  near  to  us,  home  to  us, 
close  to  our  very  heart.  We  shall  ourselves  become 
the  ancients  of  the  world,  and  the  distant  childhood 
of  the  human  race  wall  be  to  us  like  our  own 
childhood. 

And  mark  the  change,  the  almost  miraculous 
change,  wdiich  Oriental  scholarship  has  wrought 
among  the  ruins  of  the  past.  What  was  old  has 
become  young ;  what  w^as  young  has  become  old. 

Take  our  languages.  We  call  English,  French,  and 
German  modern,  modern  languages.  But  w'hen  we 
have  traced  back  English  to  Anglo-Saxon,  Anglo- 
Saxon  to  Gothic,  and  Gothic  to  that  '  Home  of  the 
Aryas '  in  which  the  language  spoken  in  India,  San- 
skrit, had  as  much  right  as  Persian,  as  Greek  and 
Latin,  and  Celtic  and  Slavonic,  nay,  as  Gothic,  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  Eno-lish — when  the  student  of  lano-uao^e 
has  gathered  the  broken  links  of  that  Arj'an  chain 
and  fitted  them  together  once  more  into  one  organic 
whole — wdiat  happens?  Does  not  the  young  become 
old  and  the  old  become  young?  Our  modern  lan- 
guages stand  now  before  us  as  the  most  ancient 
languages  of  the  world — grey,  bald,  shrivelled,  and 
wizened ;  while  the  more  ancient  a  lanouawe,  the 
fresher  its  features,  the  more  vigorous  its  muscles, 
the  more  expressive  its  countenance.  Our  oiun  words 
are  old ;  our  own  philosophy  is  old  ;  our  own  religion 
is  old  ;  our  o^vn  social  institutions  are  old.  The  youth 
of  the  world,  the  irne  juventus  mundi,  lies  far  beyond 
us,  far  beyond  the  Greeks,  far  beyond  Troy.  And 
v^ven  when  we  have  tracked  the  young  Aryas  to  thdr 


156  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

common  home  in  Asia,  even  then  we  find  in  their 
so-called  Proto-Aryan  speech  words  full  of  wrinkles, 
and  thoughts  which  disclose  rings  within  rings  in 
innumerable  succession. 

Therefore,  neither  mere  old  a^e  on  one  side  nor 
mere  youth  and  childhood  on  the  other  can  satisfy 
the  true  historical  student,  unless  he  is  a.ble  at  the 
same  time  to  discover  the  laws  of  growth  which 
explain  what  is  young  by  what  is  old,  what  is 
secondary  by  what  is  primitive,  which  show  that 
there  is  and  always  has  been  growth  and  purpose  in 
the  world.  There  lies  the  true  charm  of  our  Oriental 
studies.  China,  Egypt,  Eabylon,  India,  and  Persia, 
are  no  longer  distant  from  us  as  the  East  is  from  the 
West.  They  have  really  become  to  us  the  true  East — 
that  is,  the  point  of  orientation  and  direction  for  all 
the  studies  of  the  West. 

Think  of  that  one  word  Indo-European,  which  is 
now  so  familiar  to  us  that  we  actually  speak  of  Indo- 
European  telegraphs,  and  railways,  and  newspapers. 
I  remember  the  time  when  that  word  was  framed,  and 
the  shiver  which  it  sent  through  the  limbs  of  classical 
scholarship.  Nor  do  I  wonder.  Think  what  the  syn- 
thesis of  these  two  words,  India  and  Europe,  implies ! 
It  implies  that  the  people  who  migrated  into  India 
thousands  of  years  before  the  beginning  of  our  era 
spoke  the  same  language  which  we  speak  in  England. 
When  I  call  English  and  Sanskrit  the  same  language, 
I  do  not  wish  to  raise  false  hopes  in  the  hearts  of 
candidates  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  All  I  mean 
is,  that  English  and  Sanskrit  are  substantially  the 
same  language— are  but  two  varieties  of  the  same 
type,  rivers  flowing  from  the  same  source,  though  each 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     157 

running  in  its  own  bed.  The  bold  S3'nthesis  contained 
in  the  term  Indo-European  brought  the  words  and 
thoughts  of  the  dark-skinned  inhabitants  of  India, 
brought  those  very  dark-skinned  inhabitants  of  India 
themselves,  at  one  swoop  as  close  to  us  as  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  have  been  for  many  centuries.  It  united 
the  people  of  Europe,  the  speakers  of  English,  German, 
Celtic,  and  Slavonic,  of  Greek  and  Latin,  into  one 
family  with  the  speakers  of  Sanskrit,  Persian,  and 
Armenian.  It  constituted  a  Unionist-League  em- 
bracing the  greatest  nations  of  history,  and  made 
them  all  conscious  of  a  new  nobility  in  thought  and 
word  and  deed,  the  nobility  of  the  Indo-European,  or, 
as  it  is  also  called,  the  nobility  of  the  ancient  Aryan 
brotherhood. 

I  have  been  told  again  and  again  by  my  Hindu 
friends  that  nothing  has  given  the  intelligent  popula- 
tion of  India  a  greater  sense  of  their  dignity,  and 
that  nothing  has  drawn  the  bonds  of  fellowship 
between  India  and  England  more  closely  together, 
than  this  discovery  of  the  common  origin  of  their 
language  and  of  the  principal  languages  of  Europe, 
and  more  particularly  of  English. 

You  know,  of  course,  that  we  share  most  of  our 
words  in  common  with  Sanskrit  and  the  other 
members  of  the  Aryan  family  of  speech.  You  know 
that  the  grammar  of  all  the  Aryan  languages  was 
fixed  once  for  all,  and  that  it  is  totally  different  from 
the  grammar  of  the  Semitic  and  other  families  of 
speech. 

But  thouQ-h  these  facts  have  become  familiar  to 
us,  yet  it  is  difficult  to  resist  sometimes  a  feeling  of 
oiddiness  that  comes  over  us  when  we  see  how  near 


158  HECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  past  is  really  to  the  present,  how  close  the  East 
has  really  been  brought  to  the  West. 

Let  us  take  one  instance.  You  know,  of  course, 
that  in  every  language  of  the  Aryan  race  all  the 
numerals  are  the  same.  But  think  what  that  means. 
The  decimal  system  must  have  been  elaborated  and 
accepted  by  the  ancestors  of  our  race  before  they 
separated,  and  every  number,  from  one  to  one  hundred, 
must  have  received  its  name,  and  all  these  names 
must  have  been  sanctioned,  not  by  agreement,  but 
by  use,  or,  if  you  like,  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
How  old  these  numerals  are  is  best  shown  by  the 
fact  that  they  cannot  be  derived  from  any  of  the 
roots  known  to  us,  so  that  we  cannot  tell  why  six 
was  ever  called  six,  or  seven  seven.  And  yet  in 
Sanskrit,  Zend,  Armenian,  Greek,  Latin,  Slavonic, 
Celtic,  and  English  we  find  exactly  the  same  series 
of  numerals. 

But  the  relationship  is  even  more  close  in  other 
parts  of  the  language,  and  the  dependence  of  the 
English  of  to-day  on  the  Sanskrit  as  spoken  two  or 
three  thousand  years  ago  is  sometimes  jDerfectly 
startling.  Allow  me  to  give  you  one  illustration, 
which,  though  it  is  somewhat  tedious,  will  surprise 
3'OU  by  what  the  French  would  call  the  solidarite 
which  still  exists  between  Sanskrit  and  English. 

Why  do  we  say  in  English  dead  and  decdh "?  I  mean, 
why  is  there  a  cZ  as  the  termination  of  the  participle, 
and  a  th  as  the  termination  of  the  substantive  ?  This 
may  seem  a  very  far-fetched  question.  Most  people 
would  say  that  it  is  no  use  asking  such  questions, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  answer  them.  Grammar 
tells  us  that  the  participle  is  formed  by  d,  and  the 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     159 

substantive  by  th,  and  there  must  be  an  end  of  it. 
The  Science  of  Language,  however,  takes  a  very 
different  view.  It  holds  that  everything  in  language 
has  a  reason,  and  that  it  is  our  own  fault  if  we  cannot 
discover  it.  Now  here,  in  order  to  discover  the  reason 
for  d  in  dead  and  for  th  in  death,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  enter  into  some  Diinidiae  of  comparative  grammar. 
You  have  all  heard  of  Grimnis  Latv.  It  is  a  very 
wonderful  law,  but  we  have  now  got  far  beyond  it. 
Well,  according  to  Grimm's  Law,  Avherever  we  find  in 
Sanskrit,  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  Celtic  and  Slavonic 
a  t,  we  find  in  Gothic,  in  Anglo-Saxon,  and  therefore 
in  English,  the  aspirated  t  or  th.  Even  this,  if  you 
come  to  think  about  it,  seems  a  marvellous  fact. 
There  is  no  exception  to  this  rule ;  at  least,  none 
that  cannot  be  accounted  for.  And  an  exception 
that  can  be  accounted  for  is  no  longer  an  exception ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  an  exception  which  was  said  to 
prove  the  rule. 

If  'three'  is  tray  as  in  Sanskrit,  tres  in  Latin, 
Tpeis  in  Greek,  it  must  be  three  in  English.  If  '  thou ' 
is  tuam  in  Sanskrit,  tu,  in  Latin,  a-v  for  tv  in  Greek, 
it  must  be  thou  in  English.  Thus  Latin  tonitrus  is 
thunder,  tectum  is  thatch,  tenuis  is  thin.  In  the 
middle  of  a  word,  also,  t  becomes  th,  as  in  father  for 
pater,  mother  for  mcder.  And  likewise  at  the  end,  as 
in  tooth  for  dens,  dent  is. 

With  this  rule  clearly  before  our  mind,  let  us  now 
advance  a  step  further. 

The  termination  of  the  past  participle  in  all  Indo- 
European  languages  is  formed  by  t.  Thus  in  Sanskrit 
we  have  from  yng,  'to  join,'  yuk-ta,  'joined,'  as  we 
have  in  Latin  h-om  j'longo,  '  I ^oin'  Junctus,  'joined.' 


160  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

If,  then,  our  rule  that  t  becomes  th  in  Anglo-Saxon 
holds  good,  that  t  of  the  participle  should  appear  in 
English  as  th.  It  should  be  death  (A.-S.  death),  not 
dead  (A.-S.  dead).  In  the  substantive  death  (A.-S. 
death),  on  the  contrary,  we  have  quite  regularly,  and 
in  accordance  with  Grimm's  Law,  the  th,  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  i  of  a  suffix  well  known  in  many  Aryan 
languages,  used  for  forming  abstract  and  other  nouns, 
namely  tu.  In  many  cases  this  suffix  tu  leaves  the 
accent  in  Sanskrit  on  the  radical  portion  of  a  word. 
Thus  from  vas,  'to  shine,' we  have  vas-tu,  'shining,' 
or  the  morning.  From  vas, '  to  dwell,'  we  have  vastu, 
'  a  dwelling,'  the  Greek  aoru,  '  town.'  The  Sanskrit 
kratu,  'might,'  appears  in  Greek  as  Kparvs,  'might.' 
In  some  cases,  however,  the  accent  in  Sanskrit  as  in 
Greek  falls  on  the  last  syllable,  as  in  ritu,  'season,' 
gatii,  'going,'  'path.'  As  forming  abstract  nouns  the 
same  suffix  tu  is  most  frequent  in  Latin,  in  such 
words  as  status,  from  sta,  Ho  stand,'  tactus,  'touch,' 
from  tangere,  and  many  more. 

By  means  of  the  same  suffix,  Gothic  formed  the 
word  dauthu-s,  'death,'  and  here  you  see  that  the 
rule  holds  good,  and  that  the  original  t  appears  as  th. 

Why,  then,  we  ask,  was  Grimm's  Law  broken  in 
the  case  of  the  participle  dead,  and  maintained  in  the 
case  of  the  substantive  death  1  Why  is  it  to  be  called 
a  law  at  all,  if  it  can  be  broken  so  easily  ? 

You  will  hardly  believe  it  when  I  tell  you  that  the 
reason  why  in  dead  the  participial  t  was  changed  into 
d  and  not  into  th,  and  the  reason  why  in  death  the 
original  t  has  been  changed  into  th,  has  been  discovered 
in  India,  and  in  the  language  as  spoken  there  three 
or  four  thousand  years  ago.     It  is  a  general  rule  in 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     161 

the  ancient  Vedic  language  that  the  accent  must  fall 
on  the  vowel  following  the  t  of  the  participle.  We 
have  to  say,  yukta,  ki'ita,  datta.  But  in  many  of 
the  substantives  ending  in  tu,  the  accent  falls  on  the 
vowel  preceding  the  t.  Hence  vastu,  kratu,  &c. 
Whenever  the  accent  in  ancient  Sanskrit  falls  on  the 
vowel  following  the  t,  as  in  the  participle,  Grimm's 
Law  does  not  apply ;  t  does  not  become  th,  but  d. 
But  whenever  the  accent  precedes  the  t,  Grimm's  Law 
applies,  and  t  is  changed  into  th,  as  in  death.  Grimm's 
Law  is  therefore  not  broken.  It  is  rather  confirmed 
by  a  new  law  that  comes  in,  and  shows  once  more 
the  marvellous  regularity  in  the  growth  of  language — 
a  regularity  which,  if  we  fully  realise  what  it  means, 
seems  almost  miraculous.  The  same  hidden  influences 
which  were  at  work  in  producing  two  such  words  as 
dead  and  death  were  likewise  active  in  all  similar 
cases.  They,  and  they  alone,  help  us  to  account  for 
the  difference  between  such  words  as  healed  and 
healthy  to  seethe  and  sodden,  when  we  have  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  seothan,  seath,  but  sudon  and  sodin. 

My  chief  object  in  drawing  your  attention  to  this 
one  case  was,  to  show  how  near  such  a  language  as 
Sanskrit,  which  has  sometimes  been  called  the  most 
ancient  language  of  the  world,  is  really  to  us.  The 
ghost  of  that  dead  language,  or  of  some  even  more 
ancient  ancestor,  still  haunts  the  dark  passages  of  our 
own  speech.  Though  dead,  it  still  speaketh.  Sanskrit 
ceased  to  be  a  spoken  language  in  the  third  century 
B.  c.  Even  at  that  time  its  accents  had  ceased  to  be 
what  they  were  in  Vedic  times.  Instead  of  being 
complicated,  like  the  accent  in  Greek,  they  had  become 
simplified,  like  the  accents  in  Latin  or  English.     We 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

did  not  even  know  that  Sanskrit  had  ever  been 
pronounced  according  to  the  strict  rules  of  accent 
till  we  became  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the 
Vedic  age.  There,  and  there  alone,  the  accents  were 
marked  in  our  MSS,,  and  explained  to  us  by  the 
ancient  grammarians  of  India,  who  composed  their 
grammars  in  about  500  B.C. 

Think,  then,  on  the  other  side,  for  how  many 
centuries,  if  not  for  how  many  thousands  of  years, 
Teutonic  has  been  a  separate  and  independent  branch 
of  Aryan  speech,  spoken  as  Gothic  on  the  Danube,  as 
Saxon  near  the  Elbe,  as  Anglo-Saxon  on  the  banks 
of  the  Thames.  Think  of  its  free  and  independent 
growth  within  these  realms — and  then  try  to  under- 
stand how  such  a  minute  point  in  English  grammar, 
the  d  of  the  participles  and  th  of  its  abstract  sub- 
stantives, is  still  under  the  sway  of  a  change  of 
accent  from  the  ultimate  to  the  penultimate  syllable, 
wliich  took  place  thousands  of  years  ago  in  the 
language  spoken  by  the  poets  of  the  Veda  in  the 
vallej's  of  the  Penjab.  Is  not  this  more  marvellous 
than  a  ghost  story  by  Rider  Haggard  ?  Does  it  not 
make  our  hair  stand  on  end  when  we  see  a  dead 
lansfuasre  standino;  before  us  so  much  alive,  so  much 
able  to  will  us,  and  to  make  us  say  either  d  or  th, 
whether  we  like  it  or  not  ?  We  have  heard  of  letters 
from  the  Mahatmas  of  Tibet  flying  through  the  air 
from  Lhassa  to  Calcutta  and  to  London..  This  does 
very  well  for  a  novel.  But  here  we  have  in  sober 
earnest  the  very  accents  of  the  ancient  language  of 
the  Veda  flying  across  thousands  of  years  from  the 
Sutledj  to  the  Thames,  so  that  we,  in  this  very  hall 
here,  must  say  death  but  dead,  health  but  healed,  to 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     163 

seethe  but  sodden,  simply  and  solely  because  some 
dark-skinned  poets  in  the  common  home  of  the  Aryan 
race,  in  Asia,  chose  to  say  something  like  *dhuta 
for  'dead,'  and  *dhavatu  for  'death.' 

I  am  afraid  this  illustration  may  have  proved 
rather  tedious  and  difficult  to  follow.  But  it  was 
necessary  to  give  it  in  order  to  make  you  see  with 
3'our  own  eyes  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  the  true 
charm  of  antiquity  lies  in  its  being  so  modern — not 
in  its  being  remote,  but  in  its  being  so  near  to  us,  so 
clo&e,  so  omnipresent.  If  Sanskrit  -were  simply  a 
piece  of  antiquity — aye,  if  it  were  as  old  as  the 
megatheria,  or  as  old  as  the  hills — we  might  stare 
at  it,  we  might  w^onder  at  it,  but  it  would  never 
attract  us,  it  would  never  make  us  ponder,  it  would 
never  help  us  to  learn  how  we  came  to  be  what  we 
are,  how  we  speak  as  w^e  do. 

I  say,  therefore,  that  antiquity  by  itself  is  nothing 
to  us,  and  if  Oriental  languages,  such  as  the  ancient 
language  of  India,  or  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  China,  could 
display  no  other  attractions  than  the  wrinkles  of  old 
age,  they  would  never  have  gained  such  ardent 
admirers  as  they  still  count  among  the  young  and 
the  old  members  of  this  society. 

Sanskrit,  no  doubt,  has  an  immense  advantage  over 
all  the  other  ancient  languages  of  the  East.  It  is  so 
attractive,  and  has  been  so  widely  admired,  that  it 
almost  seems  at  times  to  excite  a  certain  amount  of 
feminine  jealousy.  We  are  ourselves  Indo-Europeans. 
In  a  certain  sense  we  are  still  speaking  and  thinking 
Sanskrit ;  or,  more  correctly,  Sanskrit  is  like  a  dear 
aunt  to  us,  and  she  takes  the  place  of  a  mother  who  is 
no  more. 

M  a 


164  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

But  other  languages  of  the  East  also  have  lost  their 
remoteness,  and  have  entered  by  one  way  or  another 
into  the  arena  of  modern  thouf^ht.  The  monuments 
of  Babylon  and  Assyria  may  be  very  old,  but  what 
would  they  have  been  to  us  if  those  long  rows  of 
wedge-shaped  inscriptions  had  not  been  deciphered 
by  the  brilliant  genius  and  the  persevering  industry 
of  our  honoured  Director — and  had  not  disclosed  an 
intimate  relationship  between  the  language  of  the 
Mesopotamian  kingdoms  and  what  we  call  the  Semitic 
languages,  languages  still  spoken  by  Arabs,  by  Syrians, 
and  by  Jews  ?  Nor  was  it  their  language  only  that 
has  brought  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  within  the 
sphere  of  our  scientific  interests.  After  all,  though 
we  are  Aryas  in  language  and  thought,  our  religion 
has  drawn  many  elements  from  Semitic  sources.  The 
Old  Testament  is  nearer  to  us  than  the  Veda.  It  was 
by  showing  us  the  real  historical  position  of  the 
sacred  traditions  of  the  Jews  among  the  traditions  of 
the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  and  of  the  whole 
Semitic  race,  that  cuneiform  studies  have  taken  their 
place  within  the  sphere  of  modern  research,  and  are 
helping  us  to  solve  questions  which  have  perplexed 
Biblical  students  for  centuries.  The  traditions  about 
the  Creation  of  the  world,  about  the  Deluge,  about 
the  Tower  of  Babel,  are  now  known  to  have  been 
Semitic  in  a  general  sense ;  they  were  not,  as  we 
imagined — nay,  as  we  were  called  upon  to  believe — 
the  exclusive  property  of  the  Jewish  race. 

Egypt  also  has  been  drawn  into  this  enchanted 
and  enchanting  cii'cle.  Its  hieroglyphic,  hieratic,  and 
demotic  literature  now  claims  a  voice  in  the  council 
of  the  most   modern  research.     The   close   relations 


THE    TRL'E    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.    165 

between  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Palestine  in  the  mo&t 
ancient  times  have  lately  received  an  unexpected 
confirmation.  A  diplomatic  correspondence  between 
the  Courts  of  Egypt  and  Babylon  has  been  discovered 
which  is  referred  to  1500  b.c.^  That  Egypt  influenced 
not  only  Palestine  from  the  days  of  Moses,  but  likewise 
Babylon  and  Nineveh,  as,  in  later  times,  Greece,  can 
no  longer  be  doubted.  With  every  year  new  rays 
of  light  from  the  land  of  the  pyramids  help  us  to 
see  how  much  in  our  most  familiar  thoughts  comes 
from  Egypt.  I  will  not  tell  you  again  the  fairy  story 
of  the  migration  of  our  alphabet.  Suffice  it  to  say  that, 
as  in  speaking  English  we  speak  Sanskrit,  in  writing 
our  letters  we  are  really  scrawling  hieroglyphic  signs. 

But  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  folk-lore  of 
Egypt.  Folk-lore,  j^ou  know,  is  very  popular  just 
now,  and  it  has  not  been  slow  to  avail  itself  of 
the  Mdhrchen  of  ancient  Egypt  in  order  to  show 
how  even  the  nurseries  of  the  whole  world  are  akin. 
The  solemn  Egyptians  were  as  fond  of  stories  as 
any  other  nations.  Some  of  these  stories  have  lately 
been  translated,  and  these  translations  may,  on  the 
whole,  be  accepted  as  trustworthy.  I  shall  read  you 
one,  translated  by  Professor  Brugsch,  and  which  he 
considers  as  the  prototype  of  another  story  with  which 
we  have  all  been  familiar  from  our  early  childhood  : 

'  The  two  sons  of  one  father  and  one  mother  were, 
on  some  beautiful  day,  doing  their  work  in  the  field. 

'  The  great  brother  gave  an  order  to  the  little  brother, 
saying,  "  Go  away  from  here,  and  fetch  me  seed-corn 
from  the  village."  The  little  brother  went  to  find  the 
wife  of  his  great  brother,  and  found  her  sitting  and 

^  See  before,  p.  65. 


166  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

busy  plaiting  her  hair.  And  he  said  to  her,  "  Rise 
and  give  me  seed-corn,  that  I  may  return  to  the  field, 
for  my  great  brother  has  commanded  me,  saying, 
'  Hasten  back  to  me  and  do  not  tarry.'  "  And  the 
woman  said  to  him,  "  Go  and  open  the  seed-chest, 
that  thou  mayest  take  what  thy  heart  desires,  and 
that  my  hair  may  not  be  unfastened  while  I  go." 

'  Then  the  youth  went  to  his  chamber  to  fetch 
a  large  measure,  for  he  wished  to  carry  off  as  much 
seed  as  possible.  After  he  had  loaded  himself  with 
barley  and  buck-wheat,  he  marched  away  with  his 
heavy  burden.  But  the  woman  stood  in  his  way  and 
said,  "How"  heavy  is  the  burden?"  He  answered, 
"  Three  bushels  of  buck-wheat  and  two  bushels  of 
barley ;  together  they  are  five  bushels  that  rest  on 
m}'  shoulders." 

'  Thus  he  spoke  to  her,  and  she  laid  hold  of  him 
and  said,  "  let  us  rest  for  an  hour.  I  shall  give  thee 
precious  garments  and  all  that  is  most  beautiful." 

*  Eut  the  youth  became  furious  at  this  base  proposal, 
like  a  panther  from  the  South,  and  she  was  very 
much  terrified,  yes,  very  much.  And  he  addressed  her, 
saying,  "  Look,  thou,  O  w^oman,  hast  been  to  me 
like  a  mother,  and  thy  husband  like  a  father,  because 
he  is  older  than  I,  and  he  has  brought  me  up.  Is 
it  not  a  great  sin  what  thou  hast  said  to  me  ?  Never 
repeat  that  speech.  Then  no  man  shall  hear  a  word 
of  it  out  of  my  mouth." 

'  Then  he  lifted  his  burden  and  walked  to  the  field, 
and  came  to  his  great  brother  and  they  found  plenty 
of  work  to  do.  And  when  the  evening  drew  near,  his 
great  brother  returned  home,  but  his  little  brother 
remained   with    the   fiock,  laden  with   all   the  oood 


THE   TllUE    AXTIQ,UITY    OF    ORIEXTAL    LITERATUEE.     107 

thinjrs  of  the  field.  And  he  led  the  flock  home,  that 
it  misfht  rest  in  the  stable  in  the  villacje. 

'  But  lo,  the  wife  of  his  great  brother  was  afraid 
on  account  of  the  proposal  which  she  had  made  to  the 
little  brother.  And  she  swallowed  a  potful  of  fat. 
and  became  as  one  who  was  sick,  for  she  wished 
her  husband  to  think  that  she  was  sick  on  account 
of  his  little  brother. 

*  And  when  her  husband  came  home  in  the  evening 
and  entered  the  house,  as  was  his  wont,  he  found 
his  wife  lying  on  her  couch,  as  if  going  to  die.  She 
did  not  pour  water  over  his  hands,  according  to 
custom,  nor  did  she  light  the  lamp  before  him,  so 
that  the  house  was  dark.  And  she  lay  still  and 
was  sick. 

'  Then  her  husband  said  to  her,  "  Who  has  spoken 
to  thee  ?  "  And  she  answered,  "  No  one  has  spoken 
to  me  except  thou  and  thy  little  brother.  When 
he  came  home  to  fetch  the  seed,  he  found  me  alone 
and  asked  me  to  rest  with  him  for  an  hour.  But 
I  did  not  listen  to  him,  and  said,  '  Am  I  not  thy 
mother,  and  is  not  thy  great  brother  to  thee  like 
a  father?'  Thus  I  spake  to  him,  but  he  did  not 
mind  my  words,  but  beat  me,  that  I  should  not  inform 
thee.  Now,  if  you  allow  him  to  live,  I  shall  kill 
myself." ' 

Professor  Brugsch  thinks  that  we  have  to  recognise 
in  this  popular  Egyptian  story  the  source  of  the  story 
of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife,  as  preserved  to  us 
in  the  Book  of  Genesis.  Most  students  of  folk-lore 
will  probably  agree  with  him  ;  but  I  think,  we  ought 
to  pause.  We  may  admit  that  it  is  possible,  that 
it  is  probable ;  but  we  cannot  say  that  it  is  proven. 


168  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

There  is  one  objection  pointed  out  by  Professor 
Brugsch  himself.  He  says  that  such  names  as  Potl- 
phar  never  occur  in  Egyptian  before  the  ninth  century, 
and  that  therefore  Moses  himself  could  never  have 
heard  the  name  of  Potiphar  and  his  wife.  Potiphar 
in  Egyptian  means  the  gift  of  the  god  Ra,  from  puti, 
gift,  and  ra,  the  god  Pa,  with  the  article  p.  It  would, 
therefore,  have  meant  the  same  as  the  Greek  name 
Heliodoros.  Professor  Brugsch  is,  no  doubt,  a  very 
high  authority  on  such  matters,  perhaps  the  highest. 
Still  it  seems  to  me  that  very  important  arguments 
have  been  brought  forward  to  show  that  proper 
names,  formed  on  the  same  lines  as  Potiphar,  do 
occur  at  a  much  earlier  time.  On  this  point  we 
must  wait  for  Professor  Brugsch's  reply.  But  even 
if  he  were  right  on  this  point,  folk-lorists  would  say 
that  the  story  in  Genesis  might  still  have  been 
borrowed  from  Egyptian,  because  no  scholar  now 
maintains  that  the  text  of  Genesis,  as  we  possess  it, 
is  older  than  the  ninth  century,  or  that  it  w^as  written 
down  much  before  the  sixth  century  B.C. 

What  makes  me  feel  doubtful  whether  the  story  in 
Genesis  was  ideally  borrowed  from  the  Egyptian  story 
is  something  different.  It  is  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  Egyptian  story.  The  sinfulness  of  the  Egyptian 
woman  consists  not  so  much  in  her  falling  in  love 
with  a  stranger,  as  in  her  almost  incestuous  passion 
for  her  husband's  younger  brother,  who  had  the  same 
father  and  the  same  mother,  and  to  whom  she  herself 
had  been  like  a  mother.  These  characteristic  features 
are  entirely  absent  in  the  story  of  Potiphar's  wife. 
She  is  simply  a  frail  woman,  the  wife  of  a  captain 
of  the  guard ;  and  I  must  leave  it  to  my  friends  the 


THE    TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF   ORIENTAL    LITERATURE.     169 

folk-lorists  to  determine  whether  there  coiilJ  only- 
have  been  one  Potiphar's  wife  in  the  whole  ancient 
history  of  Egypt,  or  whether  the  chapter  of  accidents 
and  accidental  coincidences  is  not  larger  than  we 
imagine. 

Having  thus  shown  by  a  few  examples  how  near 
the  language,  the  literature,  the  religion,  and  even  the 
folk-lore  of  India,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  and  Egypt  have 
been  brought  to  us,  and  how  closely  they  touch  even 
spme  of  the  burning  questions  of  our  own  time, 
I  should  like,  by  way  of  contrast,  to  say  a  few  words 
about  China.  China  claims  to  possess  the  most  ancient 
literature  of  the  world,  but  you  see  that  its  extreme 
old  age,  supposing  it  were  granted,  has  proved  as  yet 
of  very  little  attraction.  Chinese  studies  are  confined 
to  a  very  small  number  of  scholars.  The  public  at 
large,  which  is  always  ready  and  anxious  to  listen 
to  anything  new  or  old  from  India,  from  Babylon, 
Nineveh,  or  from  Egypt,  takes  little  notice  as  yet  of 
the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  old  emperors  of  China. 

Why  is  that?  Because  there  are  no  intellectual 
bonds  that  unite  us  with  ancient  China.  We  have 
received  nothing  from  the  Chinese.  There  is  no  electric 
contact  between  the  white  and  the  yellow  race.  It 
has  not  been  brought  near  to  our  hearts.  China  is 
simply  old,  very  old,  that  is,  remote  and  strange.  If 
Chinese  scholars  would  bring  the  ancient  literature 
near  to  us,  if  they  would  show  us  soinethiug  in  it  that 
really  concerns  us,  something  that  is  not  merely  old 
but  eternally  young,  Chinese  studies  would  soon  take 
their  place  in  public  estimation  by  the  side  of  Indo- 
European,  Babylonian,  and  Egyptian  scholarship. 
There  is  no   reason   why  China   should  remain  so 


1 70  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

strange,  so  far  removed  from  our  common  interests. 
There  is  much  to  be  learnt,  for  instance,  in  watching 
the  origin  and  growth  of  the  Chinese  system  of  writing. 
There  is  more  of  psychology  and  logic  to  be  gathered 
from  the  pictorial  representation  of  thought  in  China 
than  from  many  lengthy  treatises  on  the  origin  of 
language  and  the  classification  of  concepts.  Chinese 
religion  also  is  a  subject  well  worth  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  the  theologian,  and  the  very  contrast  between 
their  philosophy  and  our  own  might  teach  us  at  least 
that  one  useful  lesson  that  there  is  more  to  ba  learnt 
even  there  than  is  dreamt  of  in  our  philosophy. 

If  the  facts  which  I  have  so  far  placed  before  you 
are  true,  what  follows?  It  follows  that  Oriental 
scholarship  must  no  longer  rely  on  the  old  saying 
that  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  scene.  Mere 
distance,  mere  antiquity,  mere  strangeness,  will  not 
secure  to  it  a  lasting  hold  on  our  affections. 

Unless  the  scholar  has  a  heart,  and  unless  he  can 
discover  something  in  the  ancient  world  that  appeals 
to  our  hearts,  his  labour  will  be  in  vain.  The  world 
will  pass  by,  after  a  cursory  glance  at  our  mummies, 
and  will  take  its  lantei'n,  if  possibly  it  may  find 
a  man,  somewhere  else.  It  is  sometimes  supposed 
that  physical  science  as  distinguished  from  historical 
science,  the  study  of  the  works  of  nature  as  kept 
apart  from  the  study  of  the  works  of  man,  possesses 
great  advantages.  It  deals  with  tangible  facts,  it 
clears  up  many  mysteries,  and  it  often  leads  to  useful 
and  lucrative  discoveries.  All  that  is  true.  But 
I  confess  I  wonder  how  my  old  friend  Renan, 
who  has  done  so  much  to  make  the  study  of  Eastern 
antiquity  a  living  study,  could  have  expressed  a  regret 


*riIE   TRUE    ANTIQUITY    OF    ORIEXTAL    LITERATURE.     171 

at  having  dedicated  liis  life  and  energies  to  Oriental 
languages  and  not  to  chemistry.  Man  has  been,  is, 
and  always  will  be,  the  centre  of  the  world,  the 
measurer  of  all  things.  Take  even  the  cliemist's 
atoms.  Who  made  them?  who  thought  and  named 
them  ?  Nature  gives  us  no  atoms.  Nature  knows 
nothing  that  is  not  divisible.  Men  postulated  atoms 
in  spite  of  nature  ;  and  that  fundamental  concept, 
that  belief  in  the  infinite,  in  the  infinitely  small,  as 
well  as  in  the  infinitely  gi-eat,  is  more  important  to 
a  thoughtful  student  than  the  whole  table  of  atoms  of 
the  chemist. 

It  is  man  who  has  to  find  the  key  to  all  the  mysteries 
of  nature,  and  when  all  these  mysteries  have  been 
solved,  there  still  remains  the  greatest  mystery  of  all 
mysteries — man.  However  much  we  may  forget  it 
when  absorbed  in  minute  researches,  man  is,  and  will 
always  remain,  the  hidden  subject  of  all  our  thoughts. 

Philosophers  imagine  that  they  can  study  man  in 
the  abstract,  or  that  they  are  able  to  discover  all  his 
secrets  by  introspection.  Much,  no  doubt,  has  been 
achieved  by  that  method  ;  but,  at  the  very  best,  all 
it  can  teach  us  is  what  man  is,  not  how  man  has  come 
to  be  what  he  is.  To  solve  this  problem,  the  most 
important  of  all  problems  that  concern  us,  our  age 
has  discovered  a  now  method,  the  Iddorical  method. 
What  is  called  the  Historical  School  has  taken  posses- 
sion not  only  of  philosophy,  but  likewise  of  the  wide 
fields  of  language,  mythology,  religion,  customs,  and 
laws.  The  study  of  all  these  subjects  has  been  com- 
pletely reformed — has  received  a  fresh  foundation  and 
a  new  life  by  being  based  on  historical  research,  and 
by  being  pervaded  by  the  historical  spirit. 


172  ilECENT    ESSAYS. 

Here,  then,  in  the  study  of  the  past  lies  the  "bright 
future  of  Oriental  studies.  Let  Oriental  scholars 
remember  that  they  have  to  work  for  a  great  object, 
and  let  them  never  mistake  the  means  for  the  end; 
That  is  the  dandier  that  besets  Oriental  more  than 
any  other  studies.  It  is,  no  doubt,  very  creditable 
to  learn  to  read  hieroglyphics,  to  understand  cunei- 
form inscriptions,  to  decipher  the  language  of  the 
Vedic  hymns,  to  read  Arabic,  Persian,  or  Hebrew. 
But  unless,  while  engaged  in  our  special  studies, 
whatever  they  may  be,  we  can  contribute  some  stones, 
however  small,  to  the  building  of  that  temple  which 
is  dedicated  to  the  knowledge  of  man,  and  therefore 
to  the  knowledge  of  God,  we  are  but  beasts  of  burden, 
carrying,  it  may  be,  heavy  loads,  but  throwing  them 
down  by  the  road,  where  they  are  more  likely  to 
impede  than  to  help  the  progress  of  true  knowledge. 
Give  us  men  who  are  not  only  scholars  but  thinkers, 
men  like  Sir  W.  Jones  and  Colebrooke  in  England, 
like  Cbampollion  and  Eugene  Burnouf  in  France,  like 
Schlegel  and  Humboldt  in  Germany,  and  Oriental 
scholarship  will  soon  take  the  place  that  of  right 
belongs  to  it  among  the  studies  of  mankind.  Man 
loves  man.  Discover  what  is  truly  human,  not  only 
what  is  old,  in  India,  Persia,  Arabia,  in  Babylon  and 
Nineveh,  in  Egypt — aye,  and  in  China  also — and 
Oriental  studies  will  not  only  become  popular — that 
may  be  worth  very  little — but  they  will  become 
helpful  to  the  attainment  of  man's  highest  aim  on 
earth,  which  is  to  study  man,  to  know  man,  and, 
with  all  his  weaknesses  and  follies,  to  learn  to  love 
man. 


A  LECTURE  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LECTURES,' 


IT  is  very  satisfactory  to  watch  the  steady  and 
healthy  gi'owth  of  anything,  whether  it  be  a  tree 
in  our  garden,  or  a  child  in  our  family,  or  some  good 
work  in  which  we  have  been  allowed  to  take  an  active 
share.  In  this  life  so  many  plans  that  seem  excellent 
in  themselves  are  doomed  to  failure,  that  we  feel  all 
the  more  gi'ateful  whenever  one  of  them  succeeds. 

When  some  years  ago  my  friends  first  explained  to 
me  their  plan  of  extending  the  benefits  of  University 
teaching  to  a  wider  area,  and  when  at  a  later  time 
they  suggested  the  idea  of  inviting  those  who  had 
attended  the  lectures  given  by  members  of  our  Uni- 
versity in  different  centres,  to  spend  some  weeks  in 
this  centre  of  all  centres,  within  the  ancient  ivy-clad 
walls  of  Oxford,  I  must  confess  that  I  did  not  feel  very 
confident  of  success.  Still  it  seemed  to  me  a  plan 
worth  trying,  if  only  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Uni- 
versities, which  enjoy  so  many  ancient  privileges, 
are  always  ready  to  respond  to  any  demand  which 
the  country  at  large  may  make  on  them  in  the  interest 
of  national  education  and  general  enlightenment. 

The   success   of  this   experiment  has   been   much 

•  Inaugural  address  delivered  at  the  Opening  of  the  Oxford  University 
Extension  Lectures,  August  i,  1890. 


174  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

greater  than  any  of  us  could  have  expected.  It  has 
really  taken  even  the  most  sanguine  among  us  by 
surprise. 

Think  that  these  Oxford  University  Extension 
Lectures  were  started  only  five  years  ago.  In  1885 
to  1886  we  began  with  27  courses  ;  in  the  year  1889 
to  1890  the  number  of  courses  had  risen  to  148.  In 
the  first  year  the  number  of  places  which  invited  our  ' 
lecturers  was  31  ;  in  the  last  year  the  number  of  so- 
called  centres  was  109.  We  do  not  know  what  was 
the  exact  number  of  students  in  the  first  year,  from 
1885  to  1886.  But  last  year  the  number  of  students 
reported  by  the  local  committees  as  being  in  average 
attendance  amounted  to  17,904. 

This  surely  is  not  what  the  French  call  tine  quanilte 
negligeahle.  It  exceeds,  I  believe,  the  number  of 
students  at  all  the  Universities  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland  taken  together.  And  what  is  more  im- 
portant still,  attendance  on  all  these  courses  of  lectures 
is  purely  voluntary;  nay,  it  often  entails  an  effort 
and  a  sacrifice  of  time  and  money,  and  it  does  not 
cost  the  country  a  single  penny.  I  know  that  some 
of  my  friends  consider  that  we  have  a  very  strong 
claim  on  Government  assistance.  I  do  not  deny  it. 
All  I  say  is  that  nothing  gives  us  such  confidence  in 
the  healthy  growth  of  what  we  may  call  the  People  s 
University,  as  seeing  it  walk  so  vigorously  without 
the  help  of  crutches. 

But  this  very  success  ought  to  make  us  careful, 
ought  to  make  us  consider  whether  we  are  really 
doing  the  best  we  can.  We  have  had,  no  doubt,  the 
approval  of  the  most  competent  judges,  but  we  have 
also  had  our  critics,  and  all  through  life  I  have  always 


A    LECTURE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  175 

found  it  far  more  useful  to  listen  to  those  who  are 
against  us  than  to  those  who  are  with  us. 

You  are  aware  that  the  system  of  imparting  in- 
struction by  means  of  lectures,  the  system  on  which 
we  chiefly  rely,  has  for  some  time  been  subjected  to 
an  uncompromising  criticism.  Lectures  are  said  to  be 
a  mere  survival  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Eefore  the 
invention  of  printing,  and  so  long  as  MSS.  were  rare, 
it  is  admitted  that  teaching  could  only  be  carried  on 
by  word  of  mouth.  It  has  been  so  from  the  time  of 
Pythagoras  and  Plato  to  the  time  of  Justinian,  in 
Greece  and  in  Rome ;  it  is  so  to  the  present  day 
among  the  Brahmans  of  India,  who,  if  they  adhere  to 
their  ancient  orthodox  system  of  education,  have  to 
learn  their  sacred  writings,  the  Vedas,  from  the  mouth 
of  a  teacher,  and  not  from  a  MS.,  still  less  from 
a  printed  book. 

But  it  is  now  four  centuries  and  a-half  since  print- 
ing was  invented.  Books  have  not  only  been  rendered 
accessible,  but  they  have  in  our  days  become  so  cheap 
that  it  certainly  entails  less  expense  of  money  and 
time  to  bu}^  a  book  and  read  it  than  to  attend  a  course 
of  lectures.  We  are  told,  therefore,  that  the  time  for 
oral  teaching  has  gone  b}^  and  that  we  are  fighting 
against  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  trying  to  maintain, 
and  even  to  extend,  the  antiquated  system  of  impart- 
ing instruction  by  means  of  public  lectures. 

This  sounds  very  plausible,  nay,  I  am  willing  to 
admit,  it  contains  some  truth,  but  not.  as  we  shall  see, 
the  whole  truth.  We  may  readily  admit  that  the  old 
style  of  lecturing  admits  of  improvement,  but  we  need 
not  therefore  discard  lecturing  altogether  as  used  up, 
useless,  nay,  even  mischievous. 


17'6  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

First  of  all,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  system  of  oral 
instruction  will  always  remain  the  only  possible 
system  with  boys  and  gii-ls  at  school.  Try  to  imagine 
what  schools  would  be  with  books  only,  and  without 
masters !  To  the  boys  it  might  seem  an  earthly 
paradise,  to  others,  I  fear,  more  like  the  opposite 
place.  It  is  difficult  enough  with  the  best  of  teachers 
and  the  most  attractive  of  books  to  lead  our  young 
barbarians  to  the  water  and  to  make  them  drink. 
Without  a  master  to  guide  them,  to  help  them,  to 
drive  them,  to  coax  them,  if  not  to  cram  them,  I  am 
afraid  that  but  few  would  slake  their  thirst  at  the 
fountain  of  knowledge  of  their  own  free  will. 

We  need  not  dwell  on  this  point.  Everybody 
admits  it.  Eut  it  may  be  useful  to  remember  that, 
during  that  early  stage  at  all  events,  the  personal 
element,  the  human  influence  of  the  teacher,  is 
altogether  indispensable. 

The  question  with  which  v:e  have  to  deal  is  whether 
that  human  influence  is,  if  not  indispensable,  at  all 
events  useful  at  a  later  stage  also,  or  whether  a  system 
which  has  proved  itself  useful  at  school  becomes,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  really  hurtful  at  the  Univer- 
sities, and  if  at  the  Universities,  then  all  the  more  so 
in  our  attempt  at  extending  the  benefits  of  University 
teaching  to  larger  classes,  who  of  necessity  remain 
debarred  from  some  very  important  advantages  of 
our  academic  life. 

That  lectures  have  their  drawbacks  who  would 
deny  1  I  have  suftered  in  my  youth  from  lectures 
as  a  passive  hearer,  and  I  am  well  aware  how  often 
I  must  have  inflicted  the  same  suffering  on  other 
passive  hearers  by  my  own  lectures  in  later  life. 


A    LECTURE   IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTLKES.  177 

Let  US  openly  confess  what  these  drawbacks  are. 

First  of  all,  most  lectures  are  too  long.  A  whole 
hour  is  very  long,  even  for  a  sermon,  which  we  may 
follow  w^ith  our  eyes  closed  ;  it  is  certainly  too  long 
for  a  lecture  that  requires  us  to  be  wide  awake  from 
beginning  to  end.  It  is  generally  the  last  quarter 
of  an  hour  that  does  all  the  mischief,  that  makes  us 
impatient,  dissatisfied,  angry — that  often  ruins  the 
very  best  of  lectures.  I  strongly  recommend,  there- 
fore, the  remedy  which  has  been  accepted  in  all 
German  Universities,  the  so-called  Academic  Quarter. 
The  German  professor  begins  punctually  at  a  quarter- 
past  and  ends  punctually  as  the  clock  strikes.  This 
gives  the  German  students  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
breathing  time — I  won't  say,  smoking  time — between 
two  lectures. 

Secondly,  our  audiences  are  generally  too  large, 
or,  I  should  rather  say,  they  are  too  mixed.  This 
is  a  very  serious  drawback,  particularly  from  the 
lecturer's  point  of  view.  If  we  aim  at  one  target 
we  may  possibly  hit  it ;  if  we  have  to  aim  at  two 
or  three  or  four,  we  are  almost  sure  to  miss  them  all. 
Here  also  I  speak  feelingly.  It  might  be  supposed 
that  in  a  university  which  is  protected  by  a  matricu- 
lation examination,  this  difficulty  did  not  exist.  But 
it  does  exist.  We  have  in  Oxford  the  ablest  and 
best-taught  young  men,  who  need  not  fear  comparison 
with  the  first-class  men  of  any  other  country.  But 
we  have  also  a  very  large  number  of  students  to 
whom  real  academic  teaching  can  be  of  no  use  what- 
ever. To  them  professorial  lectures,  as  I  know  from 
sad  experiences,  are  hurtful  rather  than  useful.  Often 
when  in  former  days  I  looked  over  the  notes  of  some 

VOL.  I.  N 


178  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

of  my  pupils  or  listened  to  their  questions,  I  was 
perfectly  amazed  at  the  utter  confusion  of  thought. 
Not  only  had  what  I  said  been  completely  misunder- 
stood, but  I  seemed  to  have  laboured  for  a  whole 
hour  in  order  to  inculcate  the  very  opposite  of  what 
I  wished  to  convey, 

I  shall  give  you  one  instance  of  what  happened 
to  me — not  at  Oxford,  for  one  ought  not  to  tell  tales 
out  of  school — but  at  the  Royal  Institution  in  London. 
The  audience  there  is  certainly  the  most  enlightened, 
the  most  brilliant,  the  most  learned  and  critical 
audience  one  has  to  face  anywhere  in  the  world — but 
it  is  mixed. 

Years  ago,  when  it  was  still  necessary  to  prove 
that  Hebrew  was  not  the  primitive  language  of  all 
mankind,  I  had  devoted  a  whole  lecture  to  showing 
the  impossibility  of  this  opinion.  I  explained  how  it 
arose,  and  I  placed  before  my  audience  a  complete 
genealogical  tree  of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  languages, 
where  everybody  could  see  with  his  own  eyes  the 
place  which  Hebrew  really  holds  in  the  historical 
pedigree  of  human  speech. 

After  the  lecture  was  over  one  of  my  audience 
came  up  to  me  to  shake  hands  and  thank  me  for 
having  shown  so  clearly  how  all  languages,  including 
Sanskrit  and  English,  were  derived  from  Hebrew, 
the  language  spoken  in  Paradise  by  Adam  and  Eve. 

Imagine  my  consternation  !  I  well  remember  how 
I  went  to  Faraday,  who  had  listened  to  my  lecture, 
and  told  him  that  after  that  it  really  was  no  use 
lecturing  any  more.  He  smiled,  and  with  a  twinkle 
in  his  dark  eyes,  he  said :  '  You  need  not  complain. 
I  have  been  lecturing  in  this  Institution  for  many 


A  LECTURE   IN   DEFENCE   OE    LECTURES.  170 

years,  and  over  and  over  again,  after  I  have  explained 
and  shown  before  their  very  eyes  how  water  consists 
of  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  some  stately  dowager  will 
march  up  to  me  after  the  lecture  and  say  in  a  conti- 
dential  whisper,  "  Now,  Mr.  Faraday,  you  don't  really 
mean  to  say  that  this  water  here  in  your  tumbler 
is  nothing  but  hydrogen  and  oxygen?  "  Go  on  lec- 
turing,' he  said,  '  something  will  alwa3's  stick.' 

I  believe  Faraday  was  right.  Something  will 
always  stick,  and  light  will  sometimes  spring  from 
the  very  densest  confusion  of  thought  in  which  a  pupil 
leaves  the  lecture-room.  Still  a  laige  and  mixed 
audience  is  a  real  evil,  and  I  do  not  see  why  our 
Society  should  not  devise  some  means  of  sifting  and 
dividing  audiences^  instead  of  depending  altogether  on 
the  all-powerful  principle  of  natural  selection,  which 
no  doubt  will  keep  most  people  away  from  lectures 
that  seem  to  them  both  useless  and  tedious. 

All  other  objections,  however,  which  have  been 
raised  against  the  usefulness  of  lectures,  our  delegacy 
has  carefully  considered,  and,  as  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  show,  has  met  as  successfully  as  they  can  be  met. 

It  has  been  said  that,  when  there  is  a  really  good 
book,  it  is  better  to  read  that  book  than  to  attend 
a  course  of  lectures. 

This  sounds  very  plausible,  no  doubt.  The  best 
book  on  any  subject  must  contain  more  valuable 
and  more  trustworthy  information  than  can  possibly 
be  claimed  by  any  of  the  ninety-nine  professors 
who  lecture  on  the  same  subject.  But  supposing  Ihat 
there  is  such  a  best  book — one  of  those  mythical 
Hundred  Best  Books  of  which  we  have  heard  so 
much  of  late — that   book   may  be  a  monument  of 

N  a 


180  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

industry,  a  storehouse  of  learning,  a  perfect  work 
of  genius,  but  is  it  the  best  book,  therefore,  for  the 
purposes  of  teaching  1  No  man  will  become  a  painter 
by  looking  at  a  Raphael.  No  one  wnll  become  a 
musician  by  listening  to  a  symphony  of  Beethoven. 
And  no  one  will  become  a  philosopher  by  pondering 
over  the  pages  of  Kant's  '  Critique  of  Pure  Reason.' 
A  ycung  man  may  not  want  the  same  amount  of 
guidance  as  a  boy,  but  he  wants  help,  advice,  en- 
couragement, and  human  sympathy,  and  these  he  can 
get  from  a  man  only,  not  from  a  book. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  reading  a  book  we  can 
sit  and  ponder  silently  over  a  difficult  passage,  we 
can  turn  back  to  a  former  chapter,  and  wait  till  the 
fog  has  lifted  and  the  air  has  become  clear  again, 
while  a  professor  has  to  talk  on  for  ever  and  ever, 
without  stopping.  Now^  it  is  quite  true,  we  cannot 
interrupt  a  professor  and  say  :  '  Stop,  stop,  sir,  I  have 
not  quite  taken  in  your  argument.'  But  surely  a 
professor  who  is  worth  his  salt  will  himself  pause 
occasionally,  will  go  over  the  same  ground  again, 
because  he  feels,  nay  he  sees,  if  he  has  eyes  to  see, 
from  the  bewildered  looks  of  his  pupils,  that  he 
has  not  treated  the  subject  quite  successfully. 

I  remember  professors  who  lectured  on  Metaphysics 
—  for  instance.  Professor  Weisse  at  Leipzig,  who 
paused  very  often,  who  seemed,  indeed,  to  wrestle, 
like  Jacob  with  the  angel,  till  he  found  the  right 
name  and  the  right  words  for  what  he  wished  to  say. 
It  was  often  like  an  intellectual  stammer  and  stutter, 
and  yet  that  very  stammer  and  stutter  has  left  a  deep 
impression  on  my  mind  of  an  honest  thinker,  of  a  real 
wrestler  with  truth. 


A    LECTURE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTLRES.  181 

Every  professor  in  Germany  publishes  books,  but  he 
seldom  publishes  his  lectures.  I  do  not  think  that 
this  arises  from  the  sordid  motive  attributed  to  him, 
that  he  does  not  like  to  part  with  the  goose  that  lays 
the  golden  eggs.  It  arises  chiefly  from  the  fact  that 
if  written  at  all,  his  lectures  are  written  in  a  didactic, 
conversational,  a  Socratic  style.  Besides  they  must 
always  contain  so  much  that  has  been  said  by  others 
that  there  seldom  is  any  demand  for  such  lectures 
outside  the  lecture-room.  In  cases  where  they  have 
been  published,  generally  after  a  professor's  death, 
they  have  seldom  added  much  to  his  reputation, 
though,  of  course,  there  are  exceptions,  such  as,  for 
instance,  '  Niebuhr's  Lectures,'  published  by  my  late 
friend,  Dr.  Schmitz.  They  are  certainly  more  read- 
able and  more  enjoyable  than  his  '  History  of 
Rome.' 

Much,  however,  depends,  of  course,  on  the  lecturer. 
It  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  every  lecturer  should 
be  an  original  genius,  a  great  discoverer,  or  an  elo- 
quent orator.  What  is  necessary  is  that  he  should  be 
an  honest  man,  a  man  who  has  acquired  his  know- 
ledge by  patient  study,  who  has  made  it  entirely  his 
own,  and  who  feels  so  perfectly  at  home  in  his  own 
subject  that  he  is  willing  to  answer  any  reasonable 
questions  that  may  be  addressed  to  him,  without 
being  ashamed  to  say  occasionally,  '  I  don't  know.' 
That  kind  of  lecturer  does  not  simply  teach  facts  ; 
his  object  is  to  teach  how  to  master  the  facts,  how  to 
arrange,  how  to  digest,  how  to  remember  them.  He 
knows  his  own  struggles  in  acquiring  knowledge,  and 
he  fights,  as  it  were,  his  own  battles  over  once  more 
before  the  eyes  of  his  pupils.     If  he  has  faith  in  what 


182  RECENT    ESSAY?. 

he  teacbes,  his  voice  appeals  more  powerfully  to  our 
imagination  than  a  silent  page.  No  italics,  no  signs 
of  exclamation,  can  equal  in  impressiveness  the  natural 
emphasis  of  conviction  that  issues  at  times,  like  an 
electric  current,  from  the  voice  of  a  teacher,  or  even 
of  the  most  unimpassionecl  preacher. 

We  must  not  forget  that  there  is  room  for  preaching 
as  well  as  for  teaching  lectures.  When  we  want  to 
stimulate  interest  before  we  convey  information,  we 
have  to  plead  for  our  subject,  we  have  to  exhibit 
its  charms,  expound  its  usefulness,  and  show  our 
pupils  how  they  themselves  may  in  time  take  their 
place  in  the  noble  army  for  the  conquest  of  truth. 
No  doubt  a  book  also  may  sometimes  kindle  en- 
thusiasm, but  the  shortest  and  safest  way  from  the 
heart  to  the  heart  is,  and  always  will  be,  the  human 
voice. 

Most  of  our  own  lectures  here  are  no  doubt  meant 
to  bo  teaching  lectures.  And  with  regard  to  them 
I  quite  agree  with  our  critics  that  they  ought  to  be 
based  on  a  text-book.  A  teacher  should  either  dictate 
the  outlines  of  his  lectures,  or  he  should  prepare  a  very 
full  syllabus,  giving  what  may  be  called  by  an  ugly 
name  the  skeleton  of  his  lectures,  which  by  his  oral 
teaching  he  has  to  endow  with  flesh,  with  muscles  and 
nerves  and  life.  Such  a  syllabus  ought  likewise  to 
contain  bibliographical  notices,  recommending  certain 
books  or  portions  of  books  for  private  study — nay, 
if  it  were  not  too  invidious,  giving  warnings  also 
against  useless  books.  The  time  that  is  wasted  by 
students  in  the  country  by  reading  useless,  stupid, 
nay,  mischievous  books  is  incredible.  I  know  it  from 
numerous  letters  which  I  receive^  and  which  I  have 


A    LECTURE    IX    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  183 

often  to  answer  by  saying,   'Tiy  to  forget  all  that 
you  have  read  in  that  book.' 

I  must  not  mention  these  books  by  name.  Some 
of  them  are  very  popular,  and  enjoy  a  large  circu- 
lation. I  can  onl}'  say  that  some  of  them  are  intended 
to  prove  the  descent  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  from 
the  Lost  Tribes  of  Israel.  I  never  could  understand 
why  so  many  people,  particularly  old  ladies,  should 
be  so  anxious  to  prove  themselves  lineal  descendants 
of  these  lost  tribes.  Another  favourite  subject  which 
attracts  a  large  number  of  readers,  to  judge  from  the 
numerous  letters  which  I  receive,  is  Esoteric  Bud- 
dhism. I  always  recommend  as  an  antidote  a  dose 
of  Exoteric  Buddhism,  of  real  historical  Buddhism, 
as  we  find  it  in  the  sacred  books  of  its  numerous 
sects.  But,  alas !  to  most  people  esoteric  sounds  so 
much  better  than  exoteric,  and  fiction  is  so  much 
more  attractive  than  dry  facts !  Next  follow  books, 
pamphlets,  and  even  regular  journals  on  Spiritism, 
Mesmerism,  Fetishism,  Comtism,  and  all  the  rest,  and 
the  amount  of  mischief  that  is  done  by  these  different 
propagandas  is  incalculable. 

But  even  if  the  compilers  of  a  syllabus  should  be 
afraid  of  issuing  such  warnings,  a  new  kind  of  an  Index 
expurgatorius  of  ignorant  or  reallj'  dangerous  books, 
their  recommendation  of  useful  books  would  prevent 
many  of  the  accidents  which,  we  are  told,  happen  to 
those  who  attend  public  lectures.  With  a  syllabus 
in  his  hands  no  hearer  need  carry  away  wrong  dates 
or  misspelt  names.  The  misfortune  that  happened  to 
a  student  of  metaphysics,  who  spelt  the  Universal 
I  or  Ego,  Eye,  is  ludicrous,  no  doubt.  But  is  it  really 
so  serious  as  it  seems  1    Would  there  really  be  much 


]84  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

difference  between  the  Universal  I  or  Ego  and  the 
Universal  Eye  or  Oculus  ?  Both  are  metaphors,  and 
it  seems  to  me  the  Universal  Eye  or  Percipient 
would  convey  much  the  same  lesson  as  the  Universal 
I  or  Ego,  that  is,  the  universal  person,  the  persona, 
literally,  the  mask.  Still,  I  quite  admit  we  must  not 
spell  I,  eye ;  it  is  not  even  phonetic  spelling. 

I  doubt  whether  those  who  profess  an  entire  want 
of  confidence  in  our  so-called  Extension-lectures  are 
really  aware  of  all  the  pains  that  are  taken  in  order 
to  ensure  the  efficiencyof  our  lectures. 

Remember  what  our  lectui'ers  have  to  do.  They 
have,  first  of  all,  to  prepare  a  very  elaborate  syllabus. 
They  have  then  to  lecture  a  whole  hour  before  a 
somewhat  mixed  audience.  They  have  then  to  go 
over  the  same  subject  with  those  who  remain  for 
another  hour,  answer  questions,  and  give  advice  for 
private  reading.  Before  they  give  their  next  public 
lecture  they  have  to  examine  essays  and  answers  to 
questions  sent  in  by  their  pupils,  and  again  advise 
and  direct  them  in  their  home  work.  At  the  end  of 
each  course,  consisting  of  six,  of  twelve,  sometimes 
of  twenty  such  lectures,  examiners  are  appointed  to 
test  the  progress  made  by  the  pupils,  and  those  only 
who  have  satisfied  both  the  examiners  and  the  lec- 
turers have  a  right  to  receive  a  certificate.  I  really 
doubt  whether  our  critics  could  be  aware  of  all  these 
safeguards  which  our  delegacy  has  devised  in  order 
to  make  these  University  lectures  really  effective. 
I  confess  I  do  not  see  what  fault  even  the  most 
captious  critic  can  find  with  them.  Anyhow,  if  a 
book  by  itself  could  really  do  all  that  we  try  to  do 
by  means  of  lectures  and  books,  I  doubt  whether  our 


A    LECTUilE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  185 

lecturers  would  have  been  so  thoroughly  appreciated 
in  the  various  provincial  centres  as  they  evidently 
have  been  hitherto.  Si  argumentum  quaeris,  cir- 
cumspice! 

And  as  to  our  annual  gatherings  here  at  Oxford, 
though  they  have  been  called  mere  picnics,  we  know 
that  they  are  more  than  that,  and  that  they  have 
borne  good  fruit.  They  are  no  doubt  intended  as  a 
mixture  of  what  is  sweet  and  what  is  useful.  A  fort- 
night or  a  month  spent  at  Oxford  at  the  best  time  of 
the  year  is  certainly  delightful,  and  it  is  meant  to 
be  so.  But  I  believe  it  is  also  a  lesson,  and,  it  may 
be,  a  very  important  lesson.  The  mere  sight  of  our 
venerable  and  beautiful  University,  so  full  of  historical 
memories,  wherever  you  look,  must  leave  on  those 
who  come  to  visit  us  an  impression  of  reverence  for 
what  is  old  and  of  sympathy  for  what  is  young. 
Ruins  are  very  eloquent,  but  Oxford  is  not  all  ruins. 
You  all  know  the  story  of  the  j'oung  American  lady 
who  was  lost  in  admiration  in  the  cloisters  of  Mao-- 
dalen  College.  Suddenly  a  window  was  opened,  and 
a  young  man  looked  out.  *  O,  my ! '  she  exclaimed, 
•  are  these  ruins  inhabited  ?  '  Yes,  they  are  inhabited  ; 
these  old  ruins  of  ours  are  full  of  young  life.  I  re- 
member many  years  ago  another  visitor  at  Oxford, 
Frederick  William  IV,  the  King  of  Prussia.  He  also 
was  lost  in  admii-ation  of  our  ruins.  '  Gentlemen,' 
he  said,  when  he  left  us, '  Oxford  is  a  wonderful  place ; 
everything  old  in  it  is  young,  everything  young  is 
old.' 

In  these  few  words  3'ou  have  the  whole  secret 
of  the  political  and  social  life  of  England — reverence 
for  the  past,  faith  in  the  future.     And  here  is  a  lesson 


186  RECKIfT   ESSAYS. 

which  Oxford  can  teach  and  does  teach  without  any 
lecturer  and  without  any  book. 

But  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  these  summer 
meetings  are  all  play  and  no  work.  If  you  look  at 
the  programme  of  our  lectures  this  year,  you  will  see 
liow  carefully  they  have  been  arranged,  and  if  you 
look  at  our  lecture-rooms  you  will  see  how  zealously 
these  lectures  are  attended. 

But  you  must  not  expect  that  lectures  can  work 
miracles.  It  requires  two  people  to  make  a  lecture : 
one  who  is  willing  to  teach  and  one  who  is  anxious 
to  learn.  Lectures  run  off  like  water  from  a  duck's 
back,  or,  as  the  Hindus  say,  like  rain  from  a  lotus 
leaf,  unless  we  are  determined  to  drink  them  in ;  and, 
not  only  to  drink  them  in,  but,  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  word,  to  masticate,  to  denticate,  to  chump,  and  to 
grind  them,  and  then  only  to  swallow  them.  It  is 
not  enough  to  be  simpl}^  passive  or  receptive,  while 
listening  to  a  lecturer.  We  should  be  active  ourselves, 
nay,  even  independent,  and  always  try  to  combine  the 
new  knowledge  which  we  receive  with  the  old  know- 
ledge which  we  already  possess.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  our  attitude  in  listening  to  a  lecturer  should 
always  be  sceptical  or  captious.  Far  from  it.  But 
it  should  always  be  free  and  critical,  and  critical  not 
so  much  with  regard  to  facts  as  with  regard  to  words. 

There  are  many  facts  which  we  must  all  accept  on 
trust.  Life  would  be  too  short  if  every  one  had  to  go 
step  by  step  through  the  whole  process  by  which  the 
knowledge  of  certain  events  has  reached  us.  There 
are  few  scholars,  I  believe,  who  could  explain  by  what 
process  of  chronological  calculation  even  so  simple 
a  fact  as  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Marathon  has  been 


A    LECTURE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  187 

ostablished ;  still  fewer  who  couLl  tell  how  it  has 
been  proved  that  Buddha,  the  founder  of  the  Euddhist 
religion,  was  preaching  about  the  same  time  in  India 
the  doctrines  of  a  new  faith.  "We  know  that  there  are 
scholars  who  have  devoted  their  whole  attention  to 
special  subjects,  and  who  could  tell  us  how  to  deter- 
mine the  date  when  the  Old  Testament  was  for  the 
first  time  reduced  to  writing ;  how  to  distinguish 
between  the  genuine  and  the  spurious  books  of 
Aristotle ;  how  to  prove,  what  sounds  at  first  almost 
incredible,  that  English  is  intimately  related  with 
Sanskrit,  and  how  to  silence  those  who  represent 
Sanskrit  literature  as  a  mere  forgery  of  wily  Brah-. 
mans.  But  unless  we  feel  ourselves  specially  inter- 
ested in  any  one  of  these  questions,  we  must  accept 
the  answers  on  the  authority  of  special  students,  just 
as  many  of  us  accept  the  Copernican  system  of  the 
world  and  Newton's  law  of  gravitation,  without  being 
able  to  defend  either  the  one  or  the  other  against  all 
gainsayej's. 

It  is  not  so  much  with  regard  to  facts  as  with 
regard  to  words  that  we  have  to  assert  our  indepen- 
dence. Words  are  the  wings  of  our  mind,  but  they 
often  become  the  most  dangerous  snares. 

When  last  year  I  had  the  pleasure  of  delivering 
Itefore  this  meeting  some  lectures  on  the  Science  of 
Language  ^,  my  chief  object  was  to  warn  you  against 
the  snares  of  words,  and,  at  all  events,  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  superlative  importance  of  language 
in  all  the  operations  of  our  mind.  If  language  and 
thought  are  inseparable,  if  they  are  but  the  two  sides 
of  one  and  the  same  process,  it  must  be  clear  how 

'  'Three  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language, 'Longman?,  1SS9. 


188  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

much  accuracy  of  thought  depends  on  accuracy  of 
language. 

Now,  I  am  glad  to  say,  these  lectures  of  mine  were 
listened  to  as  all  lectures  ought  to  he  listened  to,  in 
an  independent  and  a  critical  spirit.  Some  of  my 
hearers  found  it  hard  to  give  up  the  usual  terminology 
which  distinguishes  between  language  and  thought, 
as  we  distinguish  between  body  and  soul.  It  required 
an  effort  with  many  to  adopt  the  old  Greek  termi- 
nology, which  has  but  one  term.  Logos,  both  for 
language  and  for  thought.  They  did  not  see  at  once 
that  worded  thought  or  Logos  is  but  the  highest 
sphere  of  our  mental  life,  and  lays  no  claim  on  the 
lower  strata,  such  as  perception,  emotion,  intuition, 
calculation,  which  do  not  require  the  help  of  language, 
and  which,  therefore,  we  share  in  common  with  the 
dumb  creation.  But  all  of  my  correspondents — some 
of  them  quite  as  intelligent  as  my  critics  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century  and  the  Contemi^orary  Review — 
came  to  see  in  the  end  that  what  is  called  discursive 
thought  was  altogether  impossible  and  inconceivable 
without  lancfuaGfe. 

As  all  lectures  have,  we  may  hope,  to  deal  with 
discursive  and  deliberate  thought,  let  me  impress  once 
more  on  my  hearers  that  they  should  themselves 
deliberate  on  the  words  in  which  information  is  con- 
veyed to  them.  It  is  chiefly  by  taking  so  many  words 
on  trust  that  we  find  ourselves  entangled  in  so  many 
difficulties,  so  many  contradictions,  or,  to  use  a  Kantian 
phrase,  so  many  antinomies  of  thought.  Consider  that 
the  materials  of  our  knowledge,  the  objects  around 
us,  have  always  been  the  same.  Consider  that  the 
instruments  of  our  knowledge,  call  tbem  the  senses. 


A    LECTURE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  189 

the  understanding,  the  reason,  or  anything  else,  are 
likewise  the  same.  How,  then,  can  we  account  for 
the  fact  that  every  system  of  philosophy,  from  Thales 
to  Kant,  is  contradicted  by  another  system  ?  It  is 
chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  language  that  has  thrown  the 
apple  of  discord  among  us.  We  call  the  same  thing 
by  different  names,  and  different  things  by  the  same 
name,  and  then  we  wonder  that,  as  at  the  time  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel,  so  even  now,  we  do  not  understand 
one  another's  speech. 

But  this  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  for 
a  lecture  on  metaphysics.  Nor  is  it  so  much  from 
philosophical  or  technical  terms  that  the  evil  of  con- 
fused thought,  or  what  is  called  intellectual  fog, 
arises.  Some  of  the  most  familiar  terms  are  really 
causing  the  greatest  mischief,  terms  which  look  so 
simple,  so  innocent,  that  it  seems  almost  an  imperti- 
nence to  ask  them  what  they  are  and  what  they  mean. 

Take  such  a  term  as  heredity.  If  a  child  has  blue 
eyes  and  the  father  has  blue  eyes,  of  course  the  child 
has  inberited  the  father's  blue  eyes.  If  the  child  has 
brown  eyes  and  the  mother  has  brown  eyes — again, 
the  child  has,  of  course,  inherited  the  mother's  brown 
eyes.  And  if  the  child  has  green  eyes,  and  neither 
his  father  nor  his  mother  was  a  green-eyed  monster, 
nevertheless  the  eyes  of  the  child  are  again  inherited. 
Their  green  colour  is  due  either  to  some  obscure 
mixture  of  blue  and  brown,  or  to  some  atavismal 
influence,  going  back  ever  so  far.  Heredity,  you  see, 
is  always  right ;  it  cannot  possibly  be  wrong,  whatever 
happens. 

Yet  it  requires  but  little  reflection  to  see  that 
heredity,  as  applied  to  peculiarities  of  body  and  mind, 


190  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

is  one  of  the  boldest  of  poetical  metaphors  which,  as 
I  said,  form  both  the  wings  and  the  snares  of  that 
strange  bird  which  we  call  our  mind.  What  we  want 
is  a  definition  of  heredity,  when  applied  either  to 
acquired  or  to  non-acquired  peculiarities  of  living- 
beings.  Those  who  had  the  advantage  of  listening  to 
some  thoughtful  lectures  on  heredity,  delivered  here 
last  year,  will  remember  how  difficult  a  subject  heredity 
really  is,  and  how  carefully  it  has  to  be  defined  and 
subdivided  before  it  can  be  used  for  sound,  scientific 
speculation. 

Another  word  used  at  random,  which  seems  to 
explain  everything  and  really  explains  nothing,  is 
race.  If  you  ask  what  is  meant  by  that  word,  you 
are  generally  told  that  race  means  blood,  common 
blood.  But  we  are  told,  not  only  in  the  Bible,  but 
by  Darwin  also,  that  the  whole  human  race  is  of  the 
same  blood,  and  we  know  that,  if  it  were  otherwise, 
such  has  been — in  historic  and  pre-historic  times — 
the  mixture  of  blood  by  war,  extirpation,  captivity, 
and  migration,  that  a  race,  or  a  family,  or  a  single 
individual  of  unmixed  blood,  would  in  these  latter 
days  be  an  utter  impossibility.  What  applies  to 
blood,  applies  to  bones,  skull,  hair,  skin,  and  all  that 
constitutes  the  outward  character  of  an  organic  being. 
And  yet  this  undefined  word  race  is  called  in  to 
explain  almost  anything.  Historians  will  tell  us  that 
the  Jews  worshipped  one  God,  because  they  belonged 
to  the  Semitic  race,  and  the  Semitic  race  has  a  mono- 
theistic instinct.  Politicians  will  tell  us  that  the  Irish 
and  the  Welsh  hale  union  with  England  because  they 
belong  to  the  Celtic  race,  and  Celtic  blood  has  an 
instinctive  aversion  to  Saxon  blood.    All  this  is  meta- 


A    LECTUllE    IN    DEFENCE    OE    LECTURES.  101 

plior,  nothing  but  metaphor.  No  chemist  can  (.listiu- 
guish,  as  yet,  between  Semitic  and  Aryan,  or  between 
Celtic  and  Saxon  blood.  No  physiologist  can  define 
what  he  means  by  an  Aryan  or  Semitic  skull,  by 
Aryan  or  Semitic  hair,  by  Aryan  or  Semitic  coloured 
skin.  What  holds  these  so-called  races  together  is 
not  common  blood  or  common  bone,  or  common  hair, 
but  the  intellectual  bond  of  a  conmion  language,  of 
a  common  literature,  or  of  a  common  religion,  in  fact, 
of  common  long-continued  historical  traditions.  If 
race  is  once  defined  in  that  sense,  lectures  on  racial 
peculiarities  or  similarities  will  become  really  useful, 
far  more  so  than  if  the  word  is  accepted  as  an  in- 
explicable something  which  nevertheless  has  to  explain 
everything. 

And  what  applies  to  race  applies  to  species  also. 
Darwin,  as  you  know,  has  written  a  whole  book  on 
the  '  Origin  of  Species,'  without  ever  giving,  so  far  as 
I  remember,  any  real  definition  of  what  is  meant  by 
that  term.  If  I  understand  the  drift  of  his  argument 
rightly,  what  he  has  really  proved  in  his  'Origin  of 
Species '  is  that  in  nature  there  is  no  room  for  species 
at  all.  Nature  knows  of  individuals  and  of  genera. 
Individuals,  in  order  to  be  individuals,  must  differ 
from  each  other,  however  slight  and  imperceptible 
their  differences  may  be.  For  our  own  purposes,  we 
may  call  individuals  which  share  certain  more  or 
less  stable  peculiarities  in  common,  species.  But  no 
species  has  an  independent  existence  in  nature,  apart 
from  the  genus  to  which  it  belongs.  Species  are 
entirely  of  our  own  making ;  they  are  names  by 
which  we  comprehend  and  classify  individuals,  be- 
longing to  the  same  genus,  and  sharing  certain  more 


193  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

or  less  variable  peculiarities  in  common.  If  we  once 
see  this  clearly,  then  we  can  enter  into  the  true  spirit 
of  Darwin's  speculations,  and  see  how  intimately  they 
are  connected  with  the  oldest  problems  that  have 
occupied  the  mind  of  man — how  to  name,  that  is,  how 
to  know,  the  endless  variety  of  the  phenomenal  world. 

Take  whatever  words  you  like,  and  you  will  find 
that  the}^  require  to  be  examined  from  time  to  time. 
You  remember  how  when  we  start  on  a  railway  jour- 
ney there  is  a  tapping  noise  all  along  the  line  of 
cariiao-es.  It  arises  from  a  man  striking  each  wheel 
with  an  iron  hammer,  to  see  whether  it  is  sound  and 
has  the  right  ring.  That  is  what  we  ought  to  do  with 
our  words,  at  least  with  the  more  important  ones, 
before  we  start  on  a  course  of  reading,  or  while  we 
are  attending  a  course  of  lectures.  We  ought  from 
time  to  time  to  tap  our  words  with  the  iron  hammer 
of  the  Science  of  Language,  to  see  whether  they  have 
the  rio-ht  rinsr.  How  often  of  late,  when  listening  to 
the  wrangling  about  Home  Rule,  have  I  said  to  my- 
self, '  Oh,  that  some  one,  whoever  he  be,  would  tap 
that  word,  and  give  us  a  definition  of  what  is  meant 
and  what  is  not  meant  by  Home  Rule.'  Nothing 
would  be  more  useful  for  shortening  the  Sessions  of 
Parliament.  Or,  when  theologians  are  for  ever  dis- 
puting about  inspiration,  how  much  bad  blood  and 
bad  language  might  be  saved  if  some  Bishop  or 
Archbishop  would  give  us  an  accurate  definition  of 
inspiration,  so  that  we  might  know  once  for  all  what 
is  comprehended  by  that  name  and  what  is  not. 

Though  I  have  tried  to  defend  lectures,  and  have 
endeavoured  to  show  how  even  in  these  days,  when 
the  deluge  of  books  seems  to  have  set  in,  we  cannot 


A    LECTURE    IN    DEFENCE    OF    LECTURES.  193 

do  without  lectures,  I  must  admit  that  there  is  with 
lectures,  more  particularly  with  eloquent  lectures,  this 
great  danger,  that  they  produce  too  implicit  a  defer- 
ence to  authority.  Jurare  in  verba  magistri,  to 
swear  by  the  words  of  a  professor,  is  a  real  danger, 
against  which  we  must  be  on  our  guard.  And  the 
best  safeguard  is  that  which  the  Science  of  Language 
supplies  in  showing  us  the  intimate  connexion  be- 
tween language  and  thought,  and  letting  us  see  how 
words  arise,  how  they  change  from  generation  to 
generation,  how  they  grow  old  and  corrupt,  and  have 
often  to  be  discarded  altogether.  Words  will  govern 
us  unless  we  govern  them.  This  is  perhaps  the  most 
valuable  lesson  which  the  Science  of  Language  has 
taught  us.  It  is  not  a  new  lesson,  but  it  is  a  lesson 
which  has  to  be  inculcated  again  and  again,  on  the 
teacher  as  well  as  on  the  learner.  Most  of  those  who, 
not  without  a  considerable  effort,  have  come  to  attend 
our  lectures,  are  men  and  women  who  have  thought 
for  themselves,  who  have  grappled  with  time-honoured 
watchwords,  who  have  retained  their  faith  in  some, 
and  have  rejected  others.  I  congratulate  our  lecturers 
on  having  such  classes  to  teach,  where  they  may 
reckon  on  a  genuine  desire  to  learn,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  on  a  strong  independence  of  thought  in  accept- 
ing instruction.  And  I  doubt  not  that  while  teachers 
and  learners  are  exploring  together  in  this  place,  the 
ruins  of  ancient  thought,  and  the  labyrinths  of  modern 
science,  they  will  feel  the  silent  influence  of  Oxford, 
and  take  to  heart  the  lesson  which  our  University 
has  taught  to  so  many  generations  of  Englishmen, 
Scotchmen,  and  L'ishmen — respect  for  what  is  old 
and  the  warmest  sympathy  for  what  is  new  and  true. 

VOL.  I.  o 


SOME  LESSONS  OF  ANTIQUITY/ 

AWELL- KNOWN  student  once  expressed  his 
admiration  for  Oxford,  by  saying  that  it  would 
be  Paradise  Regained,  if  only  the  Long  Vacation  lasted 
the  whole  year.  But  remember,  he  was  not  an  idle 
Fellow,  but  one  of  those  who  construe  vacate  with 
a  dative,  when  it  means  to  be  free  from  all  interrup- 
tions for  the  pursuit  of  study.  Well,  this  peaceful 
sanctuary  of  Oxford  was  suddenly  changed  last 
summer  into  a  perfect  bee-hive.  The  Colleges,  the 
libraries,  the  gardens,  the  streets,  the  river  were  all 
swarming  with  visitors.  As  the  clock  struck,  from 
ten  in  the  morning  till  five  in  the  afternoon,  streams 
of  gentlemen  and  ladies  were  seen  coming  out  and 
going  back  to  the  lecture-rooms.  Every  lecture-room 
was  as  full  as  it  could  hold,  and  the  eager  faces  and 
the  quick-moving  pens  and  pencils  showed  that  the 
students  had  come  on  earnest  business  bent.  It  was 
in  fact  a  realised  dream  of  what  a  University  might 
be,  or  what  it  ought  to  be,  perhaps,  what  it  will  be 
again,  when  the  words  of  our  President  are  taken  to 
heart  that'  man  needs  knowledge,  not  only  as  a  meana 
of  livelihood,  but  as  a  means  of  life.' 

*  An  Address  delivered  at  the  Mansion  House,  February  23,  i8<S9, 
before  the  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching. 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  195 

This  sudden  metamorphosis  of  Oxford  was  duo  to 
the  first  meeting  of  students  under  the  University 
Extension  system.  They  had  been  invited  to  reside 
in  Oxford  for  the  first  ten  days  in  August.  Nearly 
a  thousand  availed  themselves  of  this  invitation,  of 
whom  about  seven  hundred  were  University  Exten- 
sion students  from  the  Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  London 
centres.  Sixty-one  lectures  were  delivered  during 
the  ten  days,  on  literature,  history,  economics,  and 
science.  Besides  these  lectures,  conferences  were  held 
for  discussing  questions  connected  with  extended 
University  teaching.  All  these  lectures  and  confer- 
ences were  remarkably  well  attended  from  beginning 
to  end,  and  yet  there  was  time  for  afternoon  excur- 
sions and  social  gatherings.  The  antiquities  of  Oxford, 
the  Colleges,  libraries  and  chapels,  were  well  explored, 
generally  under  the  guidance  of  the  Head  or  the 
Fellows  of  each  College.  The  success  of  the  whole 
undertaking,  thanks  very  much  to  the  exertions  of 
Mr.  Sadler  and  Mr.  Hewins,  was  so  brilliant  that  at 
the  end  of  the  meeting  it  was  unanimously  decided  to 
repeat  the  experiment  next  year. 

To  my  mind  that  gathering  at  Oxford,  though  it 
was  but  little  noticed  by  the  outer  world,  was  an 
historical  event,  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  national  education.  And  I  rejoiced  that 
this  new  growth  should  have  sprung  from  the  old 
Universities,  because  it  had  thus  secured  a  natural 
soil  and  an  historical  foundation  on  which  to  strike 
root,  to  grow,  and  to  flourish. 

There  is  no  doubt  a  strong  feeling  abroad  that  the 
instruction  which  is  given  by  the  old  Universities  is 
antiquated  and  useless  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  exist- 

o  2 


196  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

ence.  We  are  told  that  we  teach  dead  languages,  dead 
literatures,  dead  philosophy,  as  if  there  could  be  such 
a  thing  as  a  dead  language,  a  dead  literature,  a  dead 
philosophy.  Is  Greek  a  dead  language  ?  It  lives  not 
only  in  the  spoken  Greek,  it  runs  like  fire  through 
the  veins  of  all  European  speech.  Is  Homer,  is 
Aeschylos,  is  Sophocles  a  dead  poet?  They  live  in 
Milton,  Racine,  and  Goethe,  and  I  defy  any  one  to 
understand  and  enjoy  even  such  living  poets  as 
Tennyson  or  Browning  without  having  breathed  at 
school  or  at  the  Universities,  the  language  and 
thought  of  those  ancient  classics.  Is  Plato  a  dead 
philosopher  ?  It  is  impossible  for  two  or  three  philo- 
sophers to  gather  together  without  Plato  being  in  the 
midst  of  them. 

I  should  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  all  living 
languages,  all  living  literatures,  all  living  philosophy 
would  be  dead,  if  you  cut  the  historical  fibres  by 
which  they  cling  to  their  ancient  soil.  What  is  the 
life-blood  of  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  if  not 
Latin  ?  You  may  call  French  an  old  and  wizened 
speech,  not  Latin.  You  may  call  Comte's  philosophy 
effete,  but  not  that  of  Aristotle.  You  may  see  signs 
of  degeneracy  in  the  mushroom  growth  of  our  modern 
novels,  not  in  the  fresh  and  life-like  idylls  of  Nausikaa 
or  Penelope. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not  want 
everybody  to  be  a  classical  scholar  or  antiquarian, 
but  I  hold  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  university  teach- 
ing never  to  lose  toucli  with  the  past.  It  seems  to 
me  the  highest  aim  of  all  knowledge  to  try  to  under- 
stand what  is,  by  learning  how  it  has  come  to  be  what 
it  is.     That  is  the  true  meaning  of  history,  and  that 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  197 

seems  to  me  the  kind  of  knowledge  which  schools  and 
universities  are  called  upon  to  cultivate  and  to  teach. 
1  believe  it  is  in  the  end  the  moi'e  useful  knowledge 
also.  It  is  safe  and  sound,  and  by  being  safe  and 
sound,  it  not  only  eni-iches  the  intellect,  but  it  forms 
and  strengthens  the  character  of  a  man.  A  man  who 
knows  what  honest  and  thorough  knowledge  means, 
in  however  small  a  sphere,  will  never  allow  himself  to 
be  a  mere  dabbler  or  smatterer,  whatever  subject  he 
may  have  to  deal  with  in  later  life.  He  may  abstain, 
but  he  will  not  venture  in. 

What  is  the  original  meaning  of  all  instruction?  It 
is  tradition.  It  was  from  the  beginning  the  handing 
over  of  the  experience  of  one  generation  to  the  other, 
the  establishment  of  some  kind  of  continuity  between 
the  past,  the  present,  and  tho  future.  This  most 
primitive  form  of  education  and  instruction  marks 
everywhere  the  beginning  of  civilised  life  and  the 
very  dawn  of  history. 

History  begins  when  the  father  explains  to  his  son 
how  the  small  world  in  which  he  has  to  live  came  to 
be  what  it  is ;  when  the  present  generation  accepts 
the  inheritance  of  the  past,  and  hands  down  a  richer 
heirloom  to  the  future  ;  when,  in  fact,  the  present  feels 
itself  connected  and  almost  identified  with  the  future 
and  the  past.  It  is  this  solidarity,  as  the  French  call 
it,  this  consciousness  of  a  common  responsibility, 
which  distinguishes  the  civilised  and  historical  from 
the  uncivilised  and  unhistorical  races  of  the  world. 

There  are  races  for  whom  the  ideas  of  the  past  and 
the  future  seem  hardly  to  exist.  We  call  them  un- 
civilised races,  savages,  ephemeral  beings  that  are 
born  and  die  without  leaving  any  trace  behind  them. 


198  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

The  only  bond  which  connects  them  with  the  past  is 
their  language,  possibly  their  religion,  and  a  few 
customs  and  traditions  which  descend  to  their  suc- 
cessors without  any  effort  on  either  side. 

But  there  were  other  races — not  many — who  cared 
for  the  future  and  the  past,  who  were  learners  and 
teachers,  the  founders  of  civilised  life,  and  the  first 
makers  of  history.  Such  were  the  Egyptians  and 
the  Babylonians,  and  those  who  afterwards  followed 
their  example,  the  Persians,  Greeks,  and  Romans. 
To  us  it  seems  quite  natural  that  the  ancient  Egyptians 
and  Babylonians  should  have  erected  monuments  of 
an  almost  indestructible  character  and  covered  them 
with  inscriptions  to  tell,  not  only  the  next  generation, 
but  all  generations  to  come,  what  they  had  achieved 
during  their  short  sojourn  on  earth.  Why  should 
they  and  they  alone  have  conceived  such  an  ideal  The 
common  answer  is,  because  they  possessed  the  art  of 
writing.  But  the  truer  answer  would  be  that  they  in- 
vented and  perfected  the  art  of  writing  because  they 
had  something  to  say  and  something  to  write,  because 
they  wished  to  communicate  something  to  their  chil- 
dren, their  grandchildren,  and  to  generations  to  come. 

They  would  have  carried  out  their  object  even 
without  hieroglyphic,  hieratic,  and  demotic  alphabets. 
For  we  see  that  even  among  so-called  savage  tribes, 
in  some  of  the  Polynesian  islands,  for  instance,  a  desire 
to  perpetuate  their  deeds  manifests  itself  in  a  kind  of 
epic  or  historical  poetry.  These  poems  tell  of  wars, 
of  victories  and  defeats,  of  conquests  and  treaties  of 
peace.  As  writing  is  unknown  in  these  islands,  they 
are  committed  to  memory  and  entrusted  to  the  safe 
keeping  of  a  separate  caste  who  are,  as  it  were,  the 


SOME    LESSOXS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  199 

living  archives  of  the  island.  They  are  the  highest 
authorities  on  questions  of  disputed  succession,  on 
the  doubtful  landmarks  of  tribes,  and  the  boundaries 
of  families.  And  these  poems  are  composed  according 
to  such  strict  rules  and  preserved  with  such  minute 
care,  that  when  they  have  to  be  recited  as  evidence 
on  disputed  frontiers,  any  fraudulent  alteration  would 
easily  be  detected.  Mere  prose  evidence  is  regarded  as 
no  evidence ;  it  must  be  poetical,  metrical,  and  archaic. 

Whenever  this  thought  springs  up  in  the  human 
mind,  that  we  live  not  only  for  ourselves,  but  that  we 
owe  a  debt  to  the  future  for  what  wo  have  received 
from  the  past,  the  world  enters  upon  a  new  stage,  it 
becomes  historical.  The  work  which  was  begun 
tentatively  in  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  of  Egypt 
was  carried  on  in  the  cuneiform  records  of  Babylon, 
in  the  mountain  edicts  of  Darius  and  Xerxes,  till  it 
reached  Greece  and  Rome,  and  there  culminated  in 
the  masterworks  of  such  historians  as  Herodotus  and 
Thucydides,  Livy  and  Tacitus. 

It  may  seem  to  you  that  these  early  beginnings  of 
tradition  and  history  are  far  removed  from  us,  and 
that  the  knowledge  w^hich  w^e  possess  and  which  we 
wish  to  hand  down  to  future  generations  in  schools 
and  universities  is  of  a  totally  diffei-ent  character. 
But  this  is  really  not  the  case.  We  are  what  we  are, 
we  possess  what  we  possess  even  in  the  very  elements 
of  our  knowledge,  thanks  to  the  labours  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  Babylonians,  Indians,  Persians,  to  say 
nothing  of  Greeks  and  Romans. 

What  should  w^e  be  without  our  ABC,  without 
being  able  to  wi'ite?  Mere  illiterate  savages,  know- 
ing nothing   of  the  past  except  by  hearsay,  caring 


200  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

little  for  the  future  except  for  our  own  immediate 
posterit}^  Now  whenever  we  read  a  book  or  write 
a  letter  we  ought  to  render  thanlcs  in  our  heart  to 
the  ancient  scholars  of  Egypt  who  invented  and  per- 
fected writing,  and  whose  alphabetic  signs  are  now 
used  over  the  whole  civilised  world,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  China.  Yes,  whenever  3^ou  write  an  a  or  a  6 
or  a  c  you  write  what  was  originally  a  hieroglyphic 
picture.  Your  L  is  the  crouching  lion,  your  F  the 
cerastes,  a  serpent  with  two  horns ;  your  H  the 
Egyptian  picture  of  a  sieve  ^. 

There  is  no  break,  no  missing  link  between  our 
ABC  and  the  hieroglyphic  letters  as  you  see  them 
on  the  obelisk  on  the  Thames  Embankment,  and  on 
the  much  older  monuments  in  Egypt.  The  Egyptians 
handed  their  letters  to  the  Phoenicians,  the  Phoeni- 
cians to  the  Greeks,  the  Greeks  to  the  Romans,  the 
Romans  to  us.  All  the  Semitic  alphabets  also,  as 
used  in  Persian  and  Arabic,  and  the  more  important 
alphabets  of  India,  Ceylon,  Burmah,  and  Siam,  all 
come  in  the  end  from  Phoenicia  and  Egypt.  The 
whole  of  Asia,  except  that  part  of  it  which  is  over- 
shadowed by  Chinese  influence,  Europe,  America, 
Africa,  and  Australia,  so  far  as  they  write  at  all,  all 
write  Egyptian  hieroglyphics.  The  chain  of  tradition 
has  never  been  broken,  the  stream  of  evolution  is 
more  perfect  here  than  anywhere  else. 

Reading  and  writing,  theiefore,  have  come  to  us 
from  ancient  Egypt.  But  whence  did  we  get  our 
arithmetic?  When  I  say  our  arithmetic  I  do  not 
mean  our  numerals  only,  or  our  knowledge  that  two 
and  two  make   four.     That  kind   of  knowledge    is 

*  See  p.  286. 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  201 

home-grown,  and  can  be  traced  back  to  that  common 
Aryan  home  from  which  we  derive  our  language, 
that  is  to  say,  our  whole  intellectual  inheritance. 
I  mean  our  numerical  figures.  There  are  many  people 
Avho  have  numerals,  but  no  numerical  figures  like  our 
own.  There  are  others,  such  as  the  Chiquitos  in 
Columbia,  who  count  with  their  fingers,  but  have  no 
numerals  at  all ;  at  least  we  are  told  so  by  the  few 
travellers  who  have  visited  them  ^  There  are  others 
again  who  have  a  very  perfect  system  of  numerals, 
but  who  for  numerical  notation  depend  either  on  an 
abacus  or  on  such  simple  combinations  of  strokes  as 
we  find  in  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Babylon,  China,  India, 
and  even  among  the  redskins  of  America.  There  are 
others  again,  like  the  Greeks  and  the  Hindus,  who, 
under  certain  circumstances,  use  letters  of  their 
alphabet  instead  of  figures. 

You  may  imagine  that  with  such  contrivances 
arithmetic  could  never  have  advanced  to  its  present 
stage  of  perfection,  unless  some  one  had  invented  our 
numerical  figures.  Whence  then  did  we  get  our 
figures  ?  We  call  them  Arabic  figures,  and  that  tells 
its  own  tale.  But  the  Arabs  call  them  Indian 
figures,  and  that  tells  its  own  tale  likewise.  Our 
figures  came  to  us  from  the  Arabs  in  Spain,  they 
came  to  them  from  India,  and  if  you  consider  wdiat 
we  should  be  without  our  figures  from  one  to  nine, 
I  think  you  will  admit  that  we  owe  as  much  grati- 
tude to  India  for  our  arithmetic,  as  to  Egypt  for  our 
readiug  and  writingr.  When  I  am  sometimes  told 
that  the  Hindus  w^ere  mere  dreamers  and  never  made 

'  Brett,  '  History  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West  Indies,'  4th  eJ., 
London,  1887. 


202  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

any  useful  discovery,  such  as  our  steam-engines  and 
electric  telegraphs,  I  tell  my  friends  they  invented  that 
without  which  mechanical  and  electric  science  could 
never  have  become  what  they  are,  that  without  which 
we  should  never  have  had  steam-engines  or  electric 
telegraphs — they  invented  our  figures  from  i  to  9 — 
and  more  than  that,  they  invented  the  nought,  the 
sign  for  nothing,  one  of  the  most  useful  discoveries 
ever  made,  as  all  mathematicians  will  tell  you. 

Let  us  remember  then  the  lessons  Mdiich  we  have 
learnt  from  antiquity.  We  have  learnt  reading  and 
writing  from  Egypt,  we  have  learnt  arithmetic  from 
India.     So  much  for  the  famous  three  E-'s. 

But  that  is  not  all.  If  we  are  Egyptians  whenever 
we  read  and  write,  and  Indians  whenever  we  do  our 
accounts,  we  have  only  to  look  at  our  watches  to  see 
that  we  are  Babylonians  also.  We  must  go  to  the 
British  Museum  to  see  what  a  cuneiform  inscription 
is  like ;  but  it  is  a  fact  nevertheless  that  every  one 
of  us  carries  something  like  a  cuneiform  inscription 
in  his  waistcoat  pocket.  For  why  is  our  hour  divided 
into  sixty  minutes,  each  minute  into  sixty  seconds,  and 
so  forth  ?  Simply  and  solely  because  in  Babylonia  there 
existed,  by  the  side  of  the  decimal  system  of  notation, 
another  system,  the  sexagesimal,  which  counted  by 
sixties.  Why  that  number  should  have  been  chosen 
is  clear  enough,  and  it  speaks  well  for  the  practical 
sense  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  merchants.  There 
is  no  number  which  has  so  many  divisors  as  sixty. 

The  Babylonians  divided  the  sun's  daily  journey  into 
twenty-four  parasangs  or  720  stadia.  Each  parasang 
or  hour  was  subdivided  into  sixty  minutes.  A  parasang 
is  about  a  German  mile,  and  Babylonian  astronomers 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  203 

compared  the  progress  made  by  the  sun  during  one  hour 
at  the  time  of  the  equinox  to  the  progress  made  by  a 
good  walker  during  the  same  time,  both  accomplish- 
ing one  parasang.  The  whole  course  of  the  sun  during 
the  twenty-four  equinoctial  hours  was  fixed  at  twenty- 
four  parasangs  or  730  stadia,  or  360  degrees.  This 
system  was  handed  on  to  the  Greeks,  and  Hipparchus, 
the  great  Greek  philosopher,  who  lived  about  150  B.C., 
introduced  the  Babylonian  hour  into  Europe.  Ptolemy, 
who  wrote  about  150  a.d.,  and  whose  name  still  lives 
in  that  of  the  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy,  gave 
still  wider  currency  to  the  Babylonian  way  of  reckon- 
ing time.  It  was  carried  along  on  the  quiet  stream 
of  traditional  knowledge  through  the  Middle  Ages, 
and,  strange  to  say,  it  sailed  down  safely  over  the 
Niagara  of  the  French  Revolution.  For  the  French, 
when  revolutionising  weights,  measures,  coins,  and 
dates,  and  subjecting  all  to  the  decimal  system  of 
reckoning,  were  induced  by  some  unexplained  motive 
to  respect  our  clocks  and  watches,  and  allowed  our 
dials  to  remain  sexagesimal,  that  is,  Babylonian,  each 
hour  consisting  of  sixty  minutes.  Here  you  see 
again  the  wonderful  coherence  of  the  world,  and  how 
what  we  call  knowledge  is  the  result  of  an  unbroken 
tradition,  of  a  teaching  descending  from  father  to  son. 
Not  more  than  about  a  hundred  arms  would  reach 
from  us  to  the  builders  of  the  palaces  of  Babylon,  and 
enable  us  to  shake  hands  with  the  founders  of  the 
oldest  pyramids  and  to  thank  them  for  what  they 
have  done  for  us. 

And  allow  me  to  point  out  what  I  consider  most 
important  in  these  lessons  of  antiquity.  They  are 
not  mere  guesses  or  theories ;    they  are  statements 


$04  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

resting  on  historical  facts,  on  evidence  that  cannot  be 
shaken.  Suppose  five  thousand  years  hence,  or,  let 
us  be  more  merciful  and  say  fifty  thousand  years 
hence,  some  future  Schliemann  were  to  run  his 
shafts  into  the  ruins  of  what  was  once  called  London, 
and  discover  among  the  debris  of  what  is  now 
the  British  Museum,  charred  fragments  of  news- 
papers, in  which  some  Champolion  of  the  future  might 
decipher  such  names  as  centimetre  or  'niiUiinetre. 
On  the  strength  of  such  evidence  every  historian 
would  be  justified  in.  asserting  that  the  ancient  inha- 
bitants of  London — we  ourselves — had  once  upon  a 
time  adopted  a  new  decimal  system  of  weights  and 
measures  from  the  French,  because  it  was  in  French, 
in  primaeval  French  only,  that  such  words  as  centi- 
metre or  millimetre  could  possibly  have  been  formed. 
We  argue  to-day  on  the  strength  of  the  same  kind  of 
evidence,  on  the  evidence  chiefly  of  language  and 
inscriptions,  that  our  dials  must  have  come  from  the 
Babylonians,  our  alphabets  from  Egypt,  our  figures 
from  Ludia.  We  indulge  in  no  guesses,  no  mere  possi- 
bilities, but  wo  go  back  step  by  step  from  the  Times 
of  to-day  till  we  arrive  at  the  earliest  Babylonian 
inscription  and  the  most  ancient  hieroglyphic  monu- 
ments. What  lies  beyond,  we  leave  to  the  theoretic 
school,  which  begins  its  work  where  the  work  of  the 
historical  school  comes  to  an  end. 

I  could  lay  before  you  many  more  of  these  lessons 
of  antiquity,  but  the  Babylonian  dial  of  my  watch 
reminds  me  that  my  parasang,  or  my  German  mile, 
or  my  hour,  is  drawing  to  an  end,  and  I  must  confine 
myself  to  one  or  two  only.  You  have  heard  a  great 
deal  lately  of  bi-metallism.     I  am  not  going  to  inflict 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  205 

on  this  audience  a  lecture  on  that  deeply  interesting 
subject,  certainly  not  in  the  presence  of  our  chairman, 
the  Lord  Mayor,  and  with  the  fear  of  the  Chancellor 
ol  the  Exchequer  before  my  eyes.  But  I  may  just  men- 
tion this,  that  when  I  saw  that  what  the  bi-metallists 
were  contending  for  was  to  fix  and  maintain  in  per- 
petuity a  settled  ratio  between  gold  and  silver,  I  asked 
myself  how  this  idea  arose ;  and  being  of  an  historical 
turn  of  mind,  I  tried  to  find  out  whether  antiquity 
could  have  any  lessons  to  teach  us  on  this  subject. 
Coined  money,  as  you  know,  is  not  a  very  ancient 
invention.  There  may  have  been  a  golden  age  when 
gold  was  altogether  unknown,  and  people  paid  with 
cows,  not  with  coins.  When  precious  metals,  gold, 
silver,  copper,  or  iron  began  to  be  used  for  payment, 
they  were  at  first  simply  weighed  ^  Even  we  still  speak 
of  a  pound  instead  of  a  sovei-eign.  The  next  step  was 
to  issue  pieces  of  gold  and  silver  properly  weighed, 
and  then  to  mark  the  exact  weight  and  value  on 
each  piece.  This  was  done  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia, 
where  we  find  shekels  or  pounds  of  gold  and  silver. 
The  commerce  of  the  Eastern  nations  was  carried  on 
for  centuries  by  means  of  these  weights  of  metal. 
It  was  the  Greeks,  the  Greeks  of  Phocaea  in  Ionia, 
who  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  first  conceived  the 
idea  of  coining  money,  that  is  of  stamping  on  each 
piece  their  city  arms,  the  phoca  or  seal,  thus  giving 
the  warranty  of  their  state  for  the  right  weight  and 
value  of  those  pieces.  From  Phocaea  this  art  of  coin- 
ing spread  rapidly  to  the  other  Greek  towns  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  was  thence  transplanted  to  Aegina,  the 
Peloponnesus,  Athens,  and  the  Greek  colonies  in  Africa 
1  See  p.  288. 


206  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  in  Italy,  The  weight  of  the  most  ancient  gold 
coin  in  all  these  countries  was  originally  the  same 
as  that  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  gold  shekel,  only 
stamped  with  the  arms  of  each  country,  which  thus 
made  itself  responsible  for  its  proper  weight.  And 
this  gold  shekel  or  pound,  in  spite  of  historical  dis- 
turbanceSj  has  held  its  own  through  centuries.  The 
gold  coins  of  Croesus,  Darius,  Philip,  and  Alexander 
have  all  about  the  same  weight  as  the  old  Babylonian 
gold  shekel,  sixty  of  them  going  to  one  mina  of  gold; 
and  what  is  stranger  still,  our  own  sovereign,  or 
pound,  or  shekel,  has  nearly  the  same  weight,  sixty 
of  them  going  to  an  old  Babylonian  mina  of  gold. 
In  ancient  times  twenty  silver  drachmas  or  half- 
shekels  went  to  one  gold  shekel,  just  as  with  us  twenty 
silver  shillings  are  equivalent  to  one  sovereign.  This 
ancient  shilling  was  again  subdivided  into  sixty  copper 
coins,  sixty  being  the  favourite  Babylonian  figure. 

Knowing  therefore  the  relative  monetary  value  of 
a  gold  and  silver  shekel  or  half-shekel,  knowing  how 
many  silver  shekels  the  ancient  nations  had  to  give 
for  one  gold  shekel,  it  was  possible  by  merely  weigh- 
ing the  ancient  coins  to  find  out  whether  there  was 
then  already  any  fixed  ratio  between  gold  and  silver. 
Thousands  of  ancient  coins  have  thus  been  tested, 
and  the  result  has  been  to  show  that  the  ratio  between 
gold  and  silver  was  fixed  from  the  earliest  times  with 
the  most  exact  accuracy. 

That  ratio,  as  Dr.  Brugsch  has  shown,  was  one 
to  twelve  and  a  half  in  Egypt;  it  was,  as  proved 
by  Dr.  Brandis,  one  to  thirteen  and  one-third  in 
Babylonia  and  in  all  the  countries  which  adopted  the 
Babylonian  standard.     There  have  been  slight  flue- 


SOME    LESSORS    OF   ANTIQUITY.  207 

tuations,  and  there  are  instances  of  debased  coinage 
in  ancient  as  ■well  as  in  modern  times.  But  for 
international  trade  and  tribute,  the  old  Babylonian 
standard  was  maintained  for  a  very  long  time. 

These  numismatic  researches,  which  have  been 
carried  on  with  indefatigable  industry  by  some  of 
the  most  eminent  scholars  in  Europe,  may  seem 
simply  curious,  but  like  all  historical  studies  they 
may  also  convey  some  lessons. 

They  prove  that,  in  spite  of  inherent  difficulties, 
the  great  political  and  commercial  nations  of  the 
ancient  world  did  succeed  in  solving  the  bi-metallic 
problem,  and  in  maintaining  for  centuries  a  fixed 
standard  between  gold  and  silver. 

They  prove  that  this  standard,  though  influenced, 
no  doubt,  by  the  relative  quantity  of  the  two  metals, 
by  the  cost  of  production,  and  by  the  demand  for 
either  silver  or  gold  in  the  markets  of  the  ancient 
world,  was  maintained  by  the  common  sense  of  the 
great  commercial  nations  of  antiquity,  who  were 
anxious  to  safeguard  the  interests  both  of  their  whole- 
sale and  retail  traders. 

They  prove  lastly  that,  though  a  change  in  the 
ratio  between  gold  and  silver  cannot  be  entirely 
prevented,  it  took  place  in  ancient  time  by  very 
small  degrees.  From  the  sixteenth  century  B.C.,  oi-, 
at  all  events,  if  we  restrict  our  remarks  to  coined 
money,  from  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  to  nearly  our 
own  time,  the  appreciation  of  gold  has  been  no  more 
than  1 1,  namely,  from  13^  to  15.  If  now,  within  our 
own  recollection,  it  has  suddenly  risen  from  15  to  20, 
have  we  not  a  right  to  ask  whether  this  violent 
disturbance  is  due  altogether  to  natural  causes,  or 


208  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

whether  what  we  are  told  is  the  effect,  is  not  to 
a  certain  extent  the  cause  of  it — I  mean  the  sudden 
resolution  of  certain  Governments  to  boycott  for  their 
own  purposes  the  second  precious  metal  of  the  world. 

But  I  must  not  venture  further  on  this  dangerous 
ground,  and  shall  invite  you  in  conclusion  to  turn 
your  eyes  from  the  monetary  to  the  intellectual 
currency  of  the  world,  from  coins  to  what  are  called 
the  counters  of  our  thoughts. 

The  lessons  which  antiquity  has  taught  us  with 
regard  to  language,  its  nature,  its  origin,  its  growth 
and  decay,  are  more  marvellous  than  any  we  have 
hitherto  considered. 

What  is  the  age  of  Alexander  and  Darius,  of  the 
palaces  of  Babylon  and  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  com- 
pared with  the  age  of  language,  the  age  of  those  very 
words  which  we  use  every  day,  and  which,  forsooth, 
we  call  modern  ?  There  is  nothing  more  ancient  in 
the  world  than  every  one  of  the  words  which  you 
hear  me  utter  a,t  present. 

Take  the  two  words  '  there  is,'  and  you  can  trace 
them  step  by  step  from  English  to  Anglo-Saxon,  from 
Anglo-Saxon  to  Gothic;  you  can  trace  them  in  all  the 
Teutonic,  Celtic,  Slavonic  languages,  in  the  language 
of  Darius  and  Cyrus,  in  the  prayers  of  Zoroaster, 
finally  in  the  hymns  of  the  Rig  Veda.  Instead  of 
there  is,  the  old  Vedic  poets  said  tatra  asti.  It  is  the 
same  coin,  it  has  the  same  weight,  only  it  has  suffered 
a  little  by  wear  and  tear  during  the  thousands  of 
years  that  it  has  passed  from  hand  to  hand  or  from 
mouth  to  mouth.  Those  two  words  would  suffice  to 
prove  that  all  the  languages  of  the  civilised  races  of 
Europe,  the  languages  of  Persia  and  India  also,  all 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  209 

sprang  from  one  source  ;  and  if  you  place  before  your 
imagination  a  map  of  Europe  and  Asia,  you  -would  see 
aU  the  fairest  portions  of  these  two  continents,  all  the 
countries  where  you  can  discover  historical  monu- 
ments, temples,  palaces,  forums,  churches,  or  houses 
of  parliament,  lighted  up  by  the  rays  of  that  one 
language  which  we  are  speaking  ourselves,  the  Aryan 
language,  the  classical  language  of  the  past,  the  living 
language  of  the  present,  and  in  the  distant  future  the 
true  Volapuk,  the  language  of  the  world. 

I  have  no  time  to  speak  of  the  other  large  streams 
of  historical  speech,  the  Semitic,  the  Ugro-Altaic,  the 
Chinese,  the  Polynesian,  the  African,  and  American. 
But  think  what  a  lesson  of  antiquity  has  here  been 
thrown  open  to  us.  We  learn  that  we  are  bound 
together  with  all  the  greatest  nations  of  the  world  by 
bonds  more  close,  more  firm  and  fast,  than  flesh,  or 
bone,  or  blood  could  ever  furnish.  For  what  is  flesh, 
or  bone,  or  blood  compared  to  language"?  There  is 
no  continuity  in  flesh,  and  bone,  and  blood.  They 
come  and  go  by  what  we  call  birth  and  death,  and 
they  change  from  day  to  day.  In  ancient  times,  in 
the  struggle  of  all  against  all,  when  whole  tribes  were 
annihilated,  nations  carried  away  into  captivity,  slaves 
bought  and  sold^  and  tho  centres  of  civilised  life  over- 
whelmed again  and  again  by  a  deluge  of  barbarian 
invasions,  what  chance  was  there  of  unmixed  blood 
in  any  part  of  the  world  ?  But  language  always 
remained  itself,  and  those  who  spoke  it,  whatever 
their  blood  may  have  been,  marched  in  serried  ranks 
along  the  highroad  of  history  as  one  noble  army, 
as  one  spiritual  brotherhood.  What  does  it  matter 
whether  the  same  blood  runs  in  our  veins  and  in  the 

VOL.  I.  p 


210  RECENT  ESSAYS. 

veins  of  our  black  fellow-men  in  India'?  Their  lan- 
guage is  the  same,  and  has  been  the  same  for  thousands 
of  years,  as  our  own  language ;  and  whoever  knows 
what  language  means,  how  language  is  not  only  the 
vestment,  but  the  very  embodiment  of  thought,  will 
feel  that  to  be  of  the  same  language  is  a  great  deal 
more  than  to  be  of  the  same  flesh. 

With  the  light  which  the  study  of  the  antiquity  of 
language  has  shed  on  the  past,  the  whole  world  has 
been  changed.  We  know  now  not  only  what  we  are, 
but  whence  we  are.  W^e  know  our  common  Aryan 
home.  We  know  what  we  carried  away  from  it,  and 
how  our  common  intellectual  inheritance  has  grown 
and  grown  from  century  to  century  till  it  has  reached 
a  wealth,  unsurpassed  anywhere,  amounting  in  English 
alone  to  250,000  words.  What  does  it  matter  whether 
we  know  the  exact  latitude  and  longitude  of  that 
Aryan  home,  though  among  reasonable  people  there 
is,  I  believe,  very  little  doubt  as  to  its  whereabouts 
'  somewhere  in  Asia.'  The  important  point  is  that 
we  know  that  there  was  such  a  home,  and  that  we 
can  trace  the  whole  intellectual  growth  of  the  Aryan 
family  back  to  roots  which  sprang  from  a  common 
soil.  And  we  can  do  this  not  by  mere  guesses  only, 
or  theoretically,  but  by  facts,  that  is,  historically. 
Take  any  word  or  thought  that  now  vibrates  through 
our  mind,  and  we  know  now  how  it  was  first  struck 
in  countries  far  away,  and  in  times  so  distant  that 
hardly  any  chronology  can  reach  them.  If  anywhere  it 
is  in  language  that  we  may  say,  We  are  what  we  have 
been.  In  language  everything  that  is  now  is  old,  and 
everything  that  is  old  is  new.  That  is  true  evolution, 
true  historical   continuity.     A  man  who  knows  his 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  211 

language,  and  all  that  is  implied  by  it,  stands  on 
a  foundation  of  ages.  He  feels  the  past  under  his 
feet,  and  feels  at  home  in  the  world  of  thought,  a  loyal 
citizen  of  the  oldest  and  widest  republic. 

It  is  this  historical  knowledge  of  language,  and  not 
of  language  only,  but  of  everything  that  has  been 
handed  down  to  us  by  an  uninterrupted  tradition 
from  father  to  son,  it  is  that  kind  of  knowdedge  which 
I  hold  that  our  Universities  and  schools  should  strive 
to  maintain.  It  is  the  historical  spirit  with  which 
they  should  try  to  inspire  every  new  generation.  As 
we  trace  the  course  of  a  mighty  river  back  from  valley 
to  valley,  as  we  mark  its  tributaries,  and  watch  its 
meanderings  till  we  reach  its  source,  or,  at  all  events, 
the  watershed  from  which  its  sources  spring ;  in  the 
same  manner  the  historical  school  has  to  trace  every 
current  of  human  knowledge  from  century  to  century, 
back  to  its  fountain-head,  if  that  is  possible,  or  at  all 
events  as  near  to  it  as  the  remaining  records  of  the 
past  will  allow.  The  true  interest  of  all  knowledge 
lies  in  its  growth.  The  very  mistakes  of  the  past 
form  the  solid  ground  on  which  the  truer  knowledjre 
of  the  present  is  founded.  Would  a  mathematician  be 
a  mathematician  who  had  not  studied  his  Euclid  ? 
Would  an  astronomer  be  an  astronomer  who  did  not 
know  the  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy,  and  had 
not  worked  his  way  through  its  errors  to  the  truer 
views  of  Copernicus  1  Would  a  philosopher  be  a 
philosopher  who  had  never  grappled  with  Plato  and 
Aristotle?  Would  a  lawyer  be  a  lawyer  who  had 
never  heard  of  Roman  law  ?  There  is  but  one  key  to 
the  present— that  is  the  past.  There  is  but  one  way 
to  understand  the  continuous  growth  of  the  human 

P  2 


212  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

mind  and  to  gain  a  firm  grasp  of  what  it  has  achieved 
in  any  department  of  knowledge — that  is  to  watch  its 
historical  development. 

No  doubt,  it  will  be  said,  there  is  no  time  for  all 
this  in  the  hurry  and  flurry  of  our  modern  life.  There 
are  so  many  things  to  learn  that  students  must  be 
t^atisfied  with  results,  without  troubling  themselves 
how  these  results  were  obtained  by  the  labours  of 
those  who  came  before  us.  This  really  would  mean 
that  our  modern  teaching  must  confine  itself  to  the 
surface,  and  keep  aloof  from  what  lies  beneath.  Know- 
ledge must  be  what  is  called  cut  and  dry,  if  it  is  to 
prove  serviceable  in  the  open  market. 

My  experience  is  the  very  opposite.  The  cut-and- 
dry  knowledge  which  is  acquired  from  the  study  of 
manuals  or  from  so-called  crammers  is  very  apt  to 
share  the  fate  of  cut  flowers.  It  makes  a  brilliant 
show  for  one  evening,  but  it  fades  and  leaves  nothing 
behind.  The  only  knowledge  worth  having,  and 
which  lasts  us  for  life,  must  not  be  cut  and  dry,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  it  should  be  living  and  growing- 
knowledge,  knowledge  of  which  we  know  the  begin- 
ning, the  middle,  and  the  end,  knowledge  of  which  we 
can  produce  the  title-deeds  whenever  they  are  called 
for.  That  knowledge  may  be  small  in  appearance, 
but,  remember,  the  knowledge  required  for  life  is  really 
very  small. 

We  learn,  no  doubt,  a  great  many  things,  but  what 
we  are  able  to  digest,  what  is  converted  in  succum  et 
sanguinem,  into  our  very  life-blood,  and  gives  us 
strength  and  fitness  for  practical  life,  is  by  no  means 
so  much  as  we  imagine  in  our  youth.  There  are  cer- 
tain things  which  we  must  know,  as  if  they  were  part 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  213 

of  ourselves.  But  there  are  many  other  things  which 
we  simply  put  into  our  pockets,  which  we  can  find 
there  whenever  we  want  them,  but  which  we  do  not 
know  as  we  must  know,  for  instance,  the  grammar  of 
a  language.  It  is  well  to  remember  this  distinction 
between  what  we  know  intuitively,  and  what  we 
know  by  a  certain  effort  of  memory  only,  for  our  suc- 
cess in  life  depends  greatly  on  this  distinction — on  our 
knowing  what  we  know,  and  knowing  what  we  do 
not  know,  but  what  nevertheless  we  can  find,  if 
wanted. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  we  only  know  thoroughly 
what  we  can  teach,  and  it  is  equally  true  that  we  can 
only  teach  what  we  know  thoroughly.  I  therefore 
congratulate  this  Society  for  the  extension  of  Univer- 
sity teaching,  that  they  have  tried  to  draw  their 
teachers  from  the  great  Universities  of  England,  and 
that  they  have  endeavoured  to  engage  the  services  of 
a  large  number  of  teachers,  so  that  every  single  teacher 
may  teach  oiie  subject  only,  his  own  subject,  his 
special  subject,  his  hobby,  if  you  like — anyhow,  a  sub- 
ject in  which  he  feels  perfectly  at  home,  because  he 
knows  its  history  from  beginning  to  end.  The  Uni- 
versities can  afford  to  foster  that  race  of  special 
students,  but  the  country  at  large  ought  to  be  able  to 
command  their  services.  If  this  Society  can  bring 
this  about,  if  it  can  help  to  distribute  the  accumulated 
but  often  stagnant  knowledge  of  university  professors 
and  tutors  over  the  thirsty  land,  it  will  benefit  not 
the  learners  only,  but  the  teachers  also.  It  will  im- 
part new  life  to  the  universities,  for  nothing  is  so 
inspiriting  to  a  teacher  as  an  eager  class  of  stu- 
dents, not  students   who  wish  to  be  drilled  for  an 


214  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

examination,  but  students  who  wish  to  be  guided 
and  encouraged  in  acquiring  real  knowledge.  And 
nothing  is  so  delightful  for  students  as  to  listen  to  a 
teacher  whose  whole  heart  is  in  his  subject.  Learning 
ought  to  be  joy  and  gladness,  not  worry  and  weari- 
ness. When  I  saw  the  eagerness  and  real  rapture 
with  which  our  visitors  at  Oxford  last  summer  listened 
to  the  lectures  provided  for  them,  I  said  to  myself, 
This  is  what  a  university  ought  to  be.  It  is  what,  if 
we  may  trust  old  chronicles,  universities  were  in  the 
beginning,  and  what  they  may  be  once  more  if  this 
movement,  so  boldly  inaugurated  by  the  Universities 
of  Cambridge,  Oxford,  and  London,  and  so  wisely 
guided  by  Mr.  Goschen  and  his  fellow-workers,  be- 
comes what  we  all  hope  it  may  become,  a  real  and 
lasting  success. 

Pobtscript. 

As  the  correctness  of  my  statements  with  regard  to 
the  relative  weight  of  silver  and  gold  coins  in  ancient 
times  was  doubted,  I  had  to  send  the  following  letter 
to  the  Times,  to  say  that  thousands  of  coins  in 
our  museums  and  in  private  collections  had  been 
weighed  b}^  men  like  Brandis  and  Brugsch,  that  the 
results  of  their  labours  had  been  published,  and  could 
not  be  put  aside  by  critics  who  had  never  weighed 
a  single  coin. 

THE  SILVER  QUESTION. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  2'imeg. 

Sir, — I  am  not  aware  that  any  learned  treatise 
dealing  with  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  deprecia- 
tion of  silver  has  been  discovered  as  yet  among  the 


SOME    LESSONS    OF    ANTIQUITY.  215 

papp-i  of  Egypt.  But  there  is  hotter  evidence  of 
how  the  ancient  people  dealt  with  this  difficulty — 
namely,  their  gold  and  silver  coins  which  exist  in  our 
museums.  Though,  as  your  correspondent  'B.  S.' 
remarks  in  the  Times  of  to-day,  '  silver  was  nothing 
accounted  of  in  the  days  of  Solomon,'  and  '  Solomon 
made  silver  to  be  as  stones  in  Jerusalem,'  yet  the  ratio 
between  silver  and  gold,  when  coined,  seems  to  have 
been  strictly  maintained,  and  the  commercial  trans- 
actions between  Palestine,  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Persia, 
and  Greece  were  never  seriously  disturbed  by  the 
depreciation  of  one  of  the  two  metals.  After  weigh- 
in  sf  thousands  of  sfold  and  silver  coins  Professor 
Brugsch  has  shown  that  the  ratio  between  silver  and 
gold  in  the  Egyptian  coins  was  always  maintained  at 
I  to  12I,  while  Dr.  Brandis  has  shown  that  in  Baby- 
lonia and  all  the  countries  which  adopted  the 
Babylonian  standard,  it  was  i  to  13^. 

There  have  been  slight  fluctuations,  and  there  are 
instances  of  debased  coinage  in  ancient  as  well  as  in 
modern  times.  But  for  international  trade  and 
tribute  the  old  Babylonian  standard  was  maintained 
for  a  very  long  time. 

How,  in  spite  of  the  uncertain  quantity  of  silver 
and  gold  in  the  markets  of  the  ancient  world,  in  spite 
of  the  varying  cost  of  production  and  of  the  fluctuat- 
ino-  demand  for  either  silver  or  gold  at  different  times 
and  in  different  countries,  this  standard  was  main- 
tained it  is  difficult  to  say,  unless  we  suppose  that  the 
right  of  coining  money  was  reserved  for  the  king,  and 
that  in  ancient  times  this  warranty  was  considered 
of  greater  value  than  it  is  in  our  days  of  free  coin- 
age and  slight  seigniorage.    Whatever  it  was,  the  fact 


216  KECENT   ESSAYS. 

remains  that  from  the  sixteenth  century  b.  C,  or. 
at  all  events,  if  we  restrict  our  remarks  to  coined 
money,  from  the  seventh  century  b.  c,  to  nearly  our 
own  time,  the  appreciation  of  gold  has  not  been 
more  than  i|,  that  is  from  13 J  to  15.  We  know 
that  at  various  periods  in  the  history  of  the  world — 
for  instance,  at  the  time  of  the  Persian  wars,  of  tho 
discovery  of  the  East  Indies,  and  of  the  conquest  cf 
America — there  was  a  sudden  influx  of  one  or  the 
other  of  the  precious  metals  ;  yet  the  common  sene-e 
of  the  great  commercial  nations  of  antiquity,  in  their 
anxiety  to  safeguard  the  interests  both  of  their  whole- 
sale and  retail  traders,  seems  to  have  been  able  to 
maintain  the  respect  for  the  relative  value  of  silver 
and  gold  coin,  if  safeguarded  by  the  warranty  of  the 
State. 

I  am  not  going  to  rush  into  the  question  of  bimetal- 
lism, where  wrens  make  prey  and  eagles  dare  not 
perch,  but  remain,  silentio  et  spe, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

F.  Max  Muller. 

OxFOBD,  Bee.  27,  1889. 


ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  MANKIND 
BY  LANGUAGE  OK  BY  BLOOD.' 

IT  was  fortj'-four  years  ago  that  for  the  first  and 
for  the  last  time  I  was  able  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  meetings  of  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science.  It  was  at  Oxford,  in 
1847,  when  I  read  a  paper  on  the  'Relation  of  Ben- 
gali to  the  Aryan  and  Aboriginal  Languages  of  India,' 
which  received  the  honour  of  being  published  in  full 
in  the  '  Transactions  '  of  the  Association  for  that  year. 
I  have  often  regretted  that  absence  from  England 
and  pressure  of  work  have  prevented  me  year  after 
year  from  participating  in  the  meetings  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. But,  being  a  citizen  of  two  countries — of 
Germany  by  birth,  of  England  by  adoption — my  long 
vacations  have  generally  drawn  me  away  to  the  Con- 
tinent, so  that  to  my  great  regret  I  found  myself 
precluded  from  sharing  either  in  your  labours  or  in 
your  delightful  social  gatherings. 

I  wonder  whether  any  of  those  who  were  present 
at  that  brilliant  meeting  at  Oxford  in  1847  are  present 
here  to-day.     I  almost  doubt  it.     Our  President  then 

'  Presidential  Address  to  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the  Briti.sh 
Afjsociation  ;  Cardiff,  1891. 


218  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

was  Sir  Robert  Inglis,  who  will  always  be  known  in 
the  annals  of  English  history  as  having  been  preferred 
to  Sir  Robert  Peel  as  Member  of  Parliament  for  the 
University  of  Oxford.  Among  other  celebrities  of 
the  day  I  remember  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  Sir 
David  Brewster,  Dean  Buckland,  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
Professor  Sedgwick,  Professor  Owen,  and  many  more 
— a  galaxy  of  stars,  all  set  or  setting.  Young  Mr. 
Ruskin  acted  as  Secretary  to  the  Geological  Section. 
Our  Section  was  then  not  even  recognised  as  yet  as 
a  Section.  We  ranked  as  a  sub-Section  only  of  Sec- 
tion D,  Zoology  and  Botany.  We  remained  in  that 
subordinate  position  till  1851,  when  we  became  Sec- 
tion E,  under  the  name  of  Geogrcqj'liy  and  Ethnology. 
From  1869,  however,  Ethnology  seems  almost  to  have 
disappeared  again,  being  absorbed  in  Geography,  and 
it  was  not  till  the  year  1884  that  we  emerged  once 
more  as  what  we  are  to-day,  Section  H,  or  Anthro- 
pology. 

In  the  year  1H47  our  sub-Section  was  presided  over 
by  Professor  Wilson,  the  famous  Sanskrit  scholar. 
The  most  active  debaters,  so  far  as  I  remember,  were 
Dr.  Prichard,  Dr.  Latham,  and  Mr.  Crawfurd,  well 
known  then  under  the  name  of  the  Objector-General. 
I  was  invited  to  join  the  meeting  by  Bunsen,  then 
Prussian  Minister  in  London,  who  also  brought  with 
him  his  friend,  Dr.  Karl  Moyer,  the  Celtic  scholar. 
Prince  Albert  was  present  at  our  debates,  so  was 
Prince  Louis  Lucien  Bonaparte.  Our  Ethnological 
sub-Section  was  then  most  popular,  and  attracted 
very  large  audiences. 

When  looking  once  more  through  the  debates  carried 
on  in  our  Section  in  1847  I  was  very  much  surprised 


CLASSIFICATION'    OF    MAXKIXD.  219 

when  I  saw  Low  very  like  the  questions  which  occupy 
us  to-day  are  to  those  which  we  discussed  in  1847. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  has  been  no  advance 
in  our  science.  Far  from  it.  The  advance  of  linguistic, 
ethnological,  anthropological,  and  biological  studies, 
all  of  which  claim  a  hearing  in  our  Section,  has  been 
most  rapid.  Still  that  advance  has  been  steady  and 
sustained ;  there  has  been  no  cataclysm,  no  deluge, 
no  break  in  the  advancement  of  our  science,  and 
nothing  seems  to  me  to  prove  its  healthy  growth 
more  clearly  than  this  uninterrupted  continuity  which 
unites  the  past  with  the  present,  and  will,  I  hope, 
unite  the  present  with  the  future. 

No  paper  is  in  that  respect  more  interesting  to 
read  than  the  address  which  Bunsen  prepared  for 
the  meeting  in  1H47,  and  which  you  will  find  in 
the  '  Transactions  '  of  that  year.  Its  title  is  '  On  the 
Results  of  the  recent  Egyptian  Researches  in  reference 
to  Asiatic  and  African  Ethnology,  and  the  Classitica- 
tion  of  Languages.'  But  you  will  find  in  it  a  great 
deal  more  than  -svhat  this  title  w^ould  lead  you  to 
expect. 

There  are  passages  in  it  which  are  truly  prophetic, 
and  which  show  that,  if  prophecy  is  possible  any- 
where, it  is  possible,  nay,  it  ought  to  be  possible,  in 
the  temple  of  science,  and  under  the  inspii'ing  in- 
fiuence  of  knowledge  and  love  of  truth. 

Allow  me  to  dwell  for  a  little  while  on  this  remark- 
able paper.  It  is  true,  we  have  travelled  so  fast  that 
Bunsen  seems  almost  to  belong  to  ancient  history. 
This  very  year  is  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  his 
birth,  and  this  very  day  the  centenary  of  his  birth  is 
being  celebrated  in  several   towns  of  Germany.     In 


220  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

England  also  his  memory  should  not  be  forgotten. 
No  one,  not  being  an  Englishman  by  birth,  could, 
I  believe,  have  loved  this  country  more  warmly,  and 
could  have  worked  more  heartily,  than  Bunsen  did  to 
bring  about  that  friendship  between  England  and 
Germany  which  must  for  ever  remain  the  corner- 
stone of  the  peace  of  Europe,  and,  as  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  declared  the  other  day  in  his  speech  at 
the  Mansion  House,  the  sine  qua  non  of  that  advance- 
ment of  science  to  which  our  Association  is  devoted. 
Bunsen' s  house  in  Carlton  Terrace  was  a  true  inter- 
national academy,  open  to  all  who  had  something  to 
say,  something  worth  listening  to,  a  kind  of  sanctuary 
against  vulgarity  in  high  places,  a  neutral  ground 
where  the  best  representatives  of  all  countries  were 
welcome  and  felt  at  home.  But  this  also  belongs  to 
ancient  history.  And  yet,  when  we  read  Bunsen's 
paper,  delivered  in  1847,  it  does  not  read  like  ancient 
history.  It  deals  with  the  problems  which  are  still 
in  the  foreground,  and  if  it  could  be  delivered  again 
to-day  by  that  genial  representative  of  German  learn- 
ing, it  would  rouse  the  same  interest,  provoke  the 
same  applause,  and  possibly  the  same  opposition  also, 
which  it  roused  nearly  half  a  century  ago.  Let  me 
give  you  a  few  instances  of  what  I  mean. 

We  must  remember  that  Darwin's  '  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies '  was  published  in  1 859,  his  '  Descent  of  Man '  in 
1 871.  But  here  in  the  year  1847  one  of  the  burning 
questions  which  Bunsen  discusses  is  the  question  of 
the  possible  descent  of  man  from  some  unknown 
animal.  He  traces  the  history  of  that  question  back 
to  Frederick  the  Great,  and  quotes  his  memorable 
answer    to    D'Alembert.     Frederick  the    Great,  you 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  221 

know,  was  not  disturbed  by  any  qualms  of  orthodoxy. 
'  In  my  kingdom/  he  used  to  say,  '  everybody  may 
save  his  soul  according  to  his  own  fashion.'  But 
when  D'Alembert  washed  him  to  make  what  he  called 
the  salto  mortcde  from  monkey  to  man,  Frederick  the 
Great  protested.  He  saw  what  many  have  seen  since, 
that  there  is  no  possible  transition  from  reasonless- 
ness  to  reason,  and  that  with  all  the  likeness  of  their 
bodily  organs  there  is  a  barrier  which  no  animal  can 
clear,  or  which,  at  all  events,  no  animal  has  as  yet 
cleared.  And  what  does  Bunsen  himself  consider  the 
real  barrier  between  man  and  beast  'i  '  It  is  language,' 
he  says, '  which  is  unattainable,  or  at  least  unattained, 
by  any  animal  except  man.'  In  answer  to  the  argu- 
ment that,  given  only  a  sufficient  number  of  years, 
a  transition  by  imperceptible  degrees  from  animal 
cries  to  articulate  language  is  at  least  conceivable,  he 
says :  '  Those  who  hold  that  opinion  have  never  been 
able  to  show  the  possibility  of  the  first  step.  They 
attempt  to  veil  their  inability  by  the  easy  but  fruit- 
less assumption  of  an  infinite  space  of  time,  destined 
to  explain  the  gradual  development  of  animals  into 
men ;  as  if  millions  of  years  could  supply  the  want  of 
the  agent  necessary  for  the  first  movement,  for  the 
first  step,  in  the  line  of  progress!  No  numbers  can 
effect  a  logical  impossibility.  How,  indeed,  could 
reason  spring  out  of  a  state  which  is  destitute  of 
reason  1  How  can  speech,  the  expression  of  thought, 
develop  itself,  in  a  year,  or  in  millions  of  years,  out 
of  inarticulate  sounds,  which  express  feelings  of  plea- 
sure, pain,  and  appetite  1 ' 

He  then  appeals  to  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  whom 
he  truly  calls  the  greatest  and  most  acute  anatomist 


222  RECKNT  ESSAYS, 

of  almost  all  human  speech.  Humboldt  goes  so  far 
as  to  say,  '  Rather  than  assign  to  all  language  a 
uniform  and  mechanical  march  that  would  lead  them 
step  by  step  from  the  grossest  beginnings  to  their 
highest  perfection,  I  should  embrace  the  opinion  of 
those  who  ascribe  the  origin  of  language  to  an  imme- 
diate revelation  of  the  Deity.  They  recognise  at  least 
that  divine  spark  which  shines  through  all  idioms, 
even  the  most  imperfect  and  the  least  cultivated.' 

Bunsen  then  sums  up  by  saying :  '  To  reproduce 
Monboddo's  theory  in  our  days,  after  Kant  and  his 
followers,  is  a  sorry  anachronism,  and  I  therefore 
resret  that  so  low  a  view  should  have  been  taken 
of  the  subject  lately  in  an  English  work  of  much 
correct  and  comprehensive  reflection  and  research 
respecting  natural  science.'  This  remark  refers,  of 
course,  to  the  '  Vestiges  of  Creation  ^,'  which  was  then 
producing  the  same  commotion  that  Darwin's  '  Origin 
of  Species'  produced  in  1859. 

Bunsen  was  by  no  means  unaware  that  in  the  vocal 
expression  of  feelings,  whether  of  joy  or  pain,  and 
in  the  imitation  of  external  sounds,  animals  are  on 
a  level  with  man.  'I  believe  with  Kant,'  he  says, 
'that  the  formation  of  ideas  or  notions,  embodied 
in  words,  presupposes  the  action  of  the  senses  and 
impressions  made  by  outward  objects  on  the  mind.' 
'  But,'  he  adds,  '  what  enables  us  to  see  the  genus 
in  the  individual,  the  whole  in  the  many,  and  to  form 
a  word  by  connecting  a  subject  with  a  predicate, 
is  the  power  of  the  mind,  and  of  this  the  brute 
creation  exhibits  no  trace.' 

You  know  how  for  a  time,  and  chiefly  owing  to 

*  See  an  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1845. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  223 

Darwin's  predominating  influence,  ever}^  conceivable 
effort  was  made  to  reduce  the  distance  which  language 
places  between  man  and  beast,  and  to  treat  laDguage 
as  a  vanishing  line  in  the  mental  evolution  of  animal 
and  man.  It  required  some  courage  at  times  to  stand 
up  against  the  authority  of  Darwin,  but  at  present 
all  serious  thinkers  agree,  I  believe,  with  Buusen, 
that  no  animal  has  developed  w^hat  we  mean  by 
rational  language,  as  distinct  from  mere  utterances 
of  pleasure  or  pain,  from  imitation  of  sounds  and 
from  communication  by  means  of  various  signs,  a  sub- 
ject that  has  lately  been  treated  with  great  fullness 
by  my  learned  friend  Professor  Romanes  in  his 
'  Mental  Evolution  of  Man.'  Still,  if  all  true  science 
is  based  on  facts,  the  fact  remains  that  no  animal  has 
ever  formed  what  we  mean  by  a  language.  There 
must  be  a  reason  for  that,  and  that  reason  is  reason 
in  its  true  sense,  namely  the  power  of  forming  general 
concepts,  of  naming  and  judging.  We  are  fully 
justified,  therefore,  in  holding  with  Bunsen  and  Hum- 
boldt, as  against  Darwin  and  Professor  Romanes, 
that  there  is  a  specific  difference  between  the  human 
animal  and  all  other  animals,  and  that  tliat  difference 
consists  in  language  as  the  outward  manifestation 
of  what  the  Greeks  meant  by  Logos. 

Another  question  which  occupies  the  attention  of 
our  leading  anthropologists  is  the  proper  use  to  be 
made  of  the  languages,  customs,  laws,  and  religious 
ideas  of  so-called  savages.  Some,  as  you  know,  look 
upon  these  modern  savages  as  representing  human 
nature  in  its  most  primitive  state,  while  others  treat 
them  as  representing  the  lowest  degeneracy  into  which 
human  nature  may  sink.     Here,  too,  we  have  learnt 


224  RECENT  ESSAYS. 

to  distinguish.  We  know  that  certain  races  have  had 
a  very  slow  development,  and  may,  therefore,  have 
preserved  some  traces  of  those  simple  institutions 
■svhich  are  supposed  to  be  characteristic  of  primitive 
life.  But  we  also  know  that  other  races  have  de- 
generated and  are  degenerating  even  now.  If  we 
hold  that  the  human  race  forms  but  one  species, 
we  cannot,  of  course,  admit  that  the  ancestors  even 
of  the  most  savage  tribes,  say  of  the  Australians, 
came  into  the  world  one  day  later  than  the  ancestors 
of  the  Greeks,  or  that  they  passed  through  fewer 
evolutions  than  their  more  favoured  brethi-en.  The 
whole  of  humanity  would  be  of  exactly  the  same  age. 
But  we  know  its  history  from  a  time  only  when 
it  had  probably  passed  already  through  many  ups 
and  downs.  To  suppose,  therefore,  that  the  modern 
savage  is  the  nearest  approach  to  primitive  man 
would  be  against  all  the  rules  of  reasoning.  Because 
in  some  countries,  and  under  stress  of  unfavourable 
influences,  some  human  tribes  have  learnt  to  feed 
on  human  flesh,  it  does  not  follow  that  our  first 
ancestors  were  cannibals.  And  here,  too,  Buusen's 
words  have  become  so  strikingly  true  that  I  may 
be  allowed  to  quote  them :  '  The  savage  is  j  ustly 
disclaimed  as  the  prototype  of  natural,  original  man  ; 
for  linguistic  inquiry  shows  that  the  languages  of 
savages  are  degraded  and  decaying  fragments  of 
nobler  formations.' 

I  know  well  that  in  unreservedly  adopting  Bunsen's 
opinion  on  this  point  also  I  run  counter  to  the 
teaching  of  such  well-known  wa-iters  as  Sir  John 
Lubbock,  Reclus,  and  others.  It  might  be  supposed 
that  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  also  looked  upon  savages 


CLASSIFICATION    OF   MANKIND.  225 

as  representing  the  primitive  state  of  mankind.  But 
if  he  ever  did  so,  he  certainly  does  so  no  longer,  and 
there  is  nothing  I  admire  so  much  in  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  as  this  simple  love  of  truth,  which  makes 
him  confess  openly  whenever  he  has  seen  occasion 
to  change  his  views.  '  What  terms  and  what  con- 
ceptions are  truly  primitive,'  he  writes,  '  would  be 
easy  if  we  had  an  account  of  truly  primitive  men. 
But  there  are  sundry  reasons  for  suspecting  that 
existing  men  of  the  lowest  type  forming  social  groups 
of  the  simplest  kind  do  not  exemplify  men  as  they 
originally  were.  Probably  most  of  them,  if  not  all, 
had  ancestors  in  a  higher  state  ^.* 

Most  important  also  is  a  hint  which  Bunsen  gives 
that  the  students  of  lansfuage  should  follow  the  same 
method  that  has  been  followed  with  so  much  success 
in  Geology ;  that  they  should  begin  by  studying  the 
modern  strata  of  speech,  and  then  apply  the  principles, 
discovered  there,  to  the  lower  or  less  accessible  strata. 
It  is  true  that  the  same  suggestion  had  been  made  by 
Leibniz,  but  many  suggestions  are  made  and  are 
forgotten  again,  and  the  merit  of  rediscovering  an 
old  truth  is  often  as  great  as  the  discovery  of  a  new 
truth.  This  is  what  Bunsen  said :  '  In  order  to  arrive 
at  the  law  which  we  are  endeavouring  to  find  (the 
law  of  the  development  of  language)  let  us  first 
assume,  as  Geology  does,  that  the  same  principles 
which  we  see  working  in  the  (recent)  development 
were  also  at  work  at  the  very  beginning,  modified 
in  degree  and  in  form,  but  essentially  the  same  in 
kind.'  We  know  how  fruitful  this  suggestion  has 
proved,  and  how  much  light  an  accurate  study   of 

'   Open  Court,  No.  205,  p.  2896. 
VOL.  I.  Q 


226  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

modern  languages  and  of  spoken  dialects  has  thrown 
on  some  of  the  darkest  problems  of  the  science  of 
language.  But  fifty  years  ago  it  was  Sanskrit  only, 
or  Hebrew,  or  Chinese,  that  seemed  to  deserve  the 
attention  of  the  students  of  Comparative  Philology. 
Still  more  important  is  Bunsen's  next  remark,  that 
language  begins  with  the  sentence,  and  that  in  the 
beginning  each  word  was  a  sentence  in  itself.  This 
view  also  has  found  strong  supporters  at  a  later  time, 
for  instance,  my  friend  Professor  Sayce,  though  at 
the  time  we  are  speaking  of  it  was  hardly  thought  of. 
I  must  here  once  more  quote  Bunsen's  own  words  : 
'  The  supreme  law  of  progress  in  all  language  shows 
itself  to  he  the  progress  from  the  substantial  isolated 
word,  as  an  undeveloped  expression  of  a  whole  sen- 
tence, towards  such  a  construction  of  language  as 
makes  every  single  word  subservient  to  the  general 
idea  of  a  sentence,  and  shapes,  modifies,  and  dissolves 
it  accordingly.' 

And  again :  '  Every  sound  in  language  must 
originally  have  been  significative  of  something.  The 
unity  of  sound  (the  syllable,  pure  or  consonantised) 
must  therefore  originally  have  corresponded  to  a  unity 
of  conscious  plastic  thought,  and  every  thought  must 
have  had  a  real  or  substantial  object  of  perception. 
.  .  .  Every  single  word  implies  necessarily  a  com- 
plete proposition,  consisting  of  subject,  predicate,  and 
copula.' 

This  is  a  most  pregnant  remark.  It  shows  as  clearly 
as  daylight  the  enormous  difference  there  is  between 
the  mere  utterance  of  the  sound  Pah  and  Mah,  as 
a  cry  of  pleasure  or  distress,  and  the  pronunciation 
of  the  same  syllable  as  a  sentence,  when   Pah  and 


CLASSIFICATIOX   OF    MAXKIXD.  227 

Itlali  are  meant  for  '  This  is  Pah^  '  This  is  Mah  ;'  or, 
after  a  still  more  characteristic  advance  of  the  human 
intellect, '  This  is  a  Pah,'  'This  is  a  Mah,'  which  is 
not  very  far  from  saying,  '  This  man  belongs  to  the 
class  or  genus  of  fathers.' 

Equally  important  is  Bunsen's  categorical  state- 
ment that  everything  in  language  must  have  been 
originally  significant,  that  everything  formal  must 
originally  have  been  substantial.  You  know  what 
a  bone  of  contention  this  has  been  of  late  between 
what  is  called  the  old  school  and  the  new  school  of 
Comparative  Philology.  The  old  school  maintained 
that  every  word  consisted  of  a  root  and  of  certain 
derivative  suffixeS;  prefixes,  and  infixes.  The  modern 
school  maintained  that  there  existed  neither  roots 
by  themselves  nor  suffixes,  prefixes,  and  infixes  by 
themselves,  and  tliat  the  theory  of  agglutination — 
of  gluing  suffixes  to  roots — was  absurd.  The  old 
school  looked  upon  these  suffixes  as  originally  in- 
dependent and  significative  words ;  the  modern  school 
declined  to  accept  this  view  except  in  a  few  irrefrag- 
able instances.  I  think  the  more  accurate  reasoners 
are  coming  back  to  the  opinion  held  by  the  old  school, 
that  all  formal  elements  of  language  were  originally 
substantial,  and  therefore  significative ;  that  they  are 
the  remnants  of  predicative  or  demonstrative  words. 
It  is  true  we  cannot  always  prove  this  as  clearly  as 
in  the  case  of  such  words  as  hard-ship,  wis-dom, 
rtian-hood,  where  hood  can  be  traced  back  to  hdd, 
which  in  Anglo-Saxon  exists  as  an  independent  word, 
meaning  state  or  quality.  Nor  do  we  often  find  that 
a  suffix  like  mente,  in  claramente,  clairenient,  con- 
tinues to  exist  by  itself,  as  when  we  say  in  Spanish 

Q  2 


228  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

clara,  concisa  y  elegantemente.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that  the  French,  when  they  say  that  a  hammer  falls 
lourdertient,  or  heavily,  do  not  deliberately  take 
the  suffix  ment — originally  the  Latin  mente,  '  with 
a  mind  ' — and  glue  it  to  their  adjective  lourd.  Here 
the  new  school  has  done  good  service  in  showing 
the  working  of  that  instinct  of  analogy  which  is 
a  most  important  element  in  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  human  speech.  One  compound  was  formed 
in  which  iniente  retained  its  own  meaning  ;  for  in- 
stance, forti  mente,  '  with  a  brave  mind.'  But  when 
this  had  come  to  mean  hravely,  and  no  more,  the 
working  of  analogy  began  ;  and  if  fortement,  from 
fort,  could  mean  '  bravely,'  tlien  why  not  lourde- 
r)ient,  fvova  lourd,  'heavily'?  But  in  the  end  there 
is  no  escape  from  Bunsen's  fundamental  principle 
that  everything  in  language  was  originally  language 
— that  is,  was  significative,  was  substantial,  was 
material — before  it  became  purely  formal. 

But  it  is  not  only  with  regard  to  these  general 
problems  that  Bunsen  has  anticipated  the  verdict  of 
our  own  time.  Some  of  his  answers  to  more  special 
questions  also  show  that  he  was  right  when  many  of 
his  contemporaries,  and  even  successors,  were  wrong. 
It  has  long  been  a  question,  for  instance,  whether  the 
Armenian  language  belonged  to  the  Iranic  branch  of 
the  Aryan  family,  or  whether  it  formed  an  inde- 
pendent branch,  like  Sanskrit,  Persian,  or  Greek. 
Bunsen,  in  1H47,  treated  Armenian  as  a  separate 
branch  of  Aryan  speech  ;  and  that  it  is  so  was  proved 
by  Professor  Hubschmann  in  iH(S3. 

Again,  there  has  been  a  long  controversy  whether 
the  language  of  the  Afghans  belonged  to  the  Indie  or 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  229 

the  Iranic  branch.  Dr.  Trurapp  tried  to  show  that 
it  belonged,  by  certain  peculiarities,  to  the  Indie  or 
Sanskritic  branch.  Professor  Darmesteter  has  proved 
but  lately  that  it  shares  its  most  essential  charac- 
teristics in  common  with  Persian.  Here,  too,  Bunsen 
guessed  rightly — for  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  was 
more  than  a  guess — when  he  stated  that  'Pushtu,  the 
language  of  the  Afghans,  belongs  to  the  Persian 
branch.' 

I  hope  you  will  forgive  me  for  having  detained 
you  so  long  with  a  mere  retrospect.  I  could  not 
deny  myself  the  satisfaction  of  paying  this  tribute  of 
gratitude  and  respect  to  my  departed  friend^  Baron 
Bunsen.  To  have  known  him  belongs  to  the  most 
cherished  recollections  of  my  life.  But  though  I  am 
myself  an  old  man — much  older  than  Bunsen  was  at 
our  meeting  in  1847 — do  not  suppose  that  I  came 
here  as  a  mere  laudator  temporis  acti.  Cei'tainly 
not.  If  one  tries  to  recall  what  Anthi-opology  was 
in  1847,  and  then  considers  what  it  is  now,  its 
progress  seems  most  marvellous.  I  do  not  think  so 
much  of  the  new  materials  which  have  been  collected 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  These  last  fifty  years 
have  been  an  age  of  discovery  in  Africa,  in  Central 
Asia,  in  America,  in  Polynesia,  and  in  Australia, 
such  as  can  hardly  be  matched  in  any  previous 
century. 

But  what  seems  to  me  even  more  important  than 
the  mere  increase  of  material  is  the  new  spirit 
in  which  Anthropology  has  been  studied  during 
the  last  generation.  I  do  not  mean  to  depreciate 
the  labours  of  so-called  dilettanti.  After  all,  dilet- 
tanti are  lovers  of  knowledge,  and  in  a  study  such 


^30  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

as  the  study  of  Anthropology  the  labours  of  these 
volunteers,  or  francs-tlreurs,  have  often  proved  most 
valuable.  But  the  study  of  man  in  every  part  of 
the  world  has  ceased  to  be  a  subject  for  curiosity 
only.  It  has  been  raised  to  the  dignity,  but  also  to 
the  responsibility,  of  a  real  science,  and  it  is  now 
guided  by  principles  as  strict  and  as  rigorous  as  any 
other  science— such  as  Zoology,  Botany,  Mineralog}'', 
and  all  the  rest.  Many  theories  which  were  very 
popular  fifty  years  ago  are  now  completely  exploded ; 
nay,  some  of  the  very  principles  by  which  our  science 
was  then  guided  have  been  discarded.  Let  me  give 
you  one  instance — perhaps  the  most  important  one — 
as  determining  the  right  direction  of  anthropological 
studies. 

At  our  meeting  in  1847  it  was  taken  for  granted 
that  the  study  of  Comparative  Philology  would  be  in 
future  the  only  safe  foundation  for  the  study  of 
Anthropology.  Linguistic  Ethnology  was  a  very 
favourite  term  used  by  Bunsen,  Prichard,  Latham, 
find  others.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  chief  purpose  of 
Punsen's  paper  to  show  that  the  whole  of  man- 
kind could  be  classified  accordino-  to  language. 
I  protested  against  this  view  at  the  time,  and  in 
1853  I  published  my  formal  protest  in  a  letter  to 
Punsen,  '  On  the  Turanian  Languages.'  In  a  chapter 
called  '  Ethnology  vertus  Phonology '  I  called,  if 
not  for  a  complete  divorce,  at  least  for  a  judicial 
separation  between  the  study  of  Philology  and  the 
study  of  Ethnology.  '  Ethnological  race.'  I  said, 
'and  phonological  race  are  not  commensurate,  except 
in  antehistorical  times,  or,  perhaps,  at  the  very 
dawn    of  history.      With    the    migration    of    tribes, 


CLASSIFICATTOX    OF    MAXKIND.  231 

their  wars,  their  colonies,  their  conquests  and  alli- 
ances, which,  if  we  may  judge  from  their  effects, 
must  have  been  much  more  violent  in  the  ethnic  than 
ever  in  the  political  periods  of  history,  it  is  impossible 
to  imagine  that  race  and  language  should  continue  to 
run  parallel  The  physiologist  should  pursue  his  own 
science,  unconcerned  about  language.  Let  him  see 
how  far  the  skulls,  or  the  hair,  or  the  cobur,  or  the 
skin  of  different  tribes  admit  of  classification ;  but  to 
the  sound  of  their  words  his  ear  should  be  as  deaf  as 
that  of  the  ornitholordst's  to  the  notes  of  cased  birds. 
If  his  Caucasian  class  includes  nations  or  individuals 
speaking  Aryan  (Greek),  Turanian  (Turkish),  and 
Semitic  (Hebrew)  languages,  it  is  not  his  fault.  His 
Bystem  must  not  be  altered  to  suit  another  system. 
There  is  a  better  solution  both  for  his  difficulties  and 
for  those  of  the  phonologist  than  mutual  compromise. 
The  phonologist  should  collect  his  evidence,  arrange 
his  classes,  divide  and  combine  as  if  no  Blumenbach 
had  ever  looked  at  skulls,  as  if  no  Camper  had  ever 
measured  facial  angles,  as  if  no  Owen  had  ever 
examined  the  basis  of  a  cranium.  His  evidence  is 
the  evidence  of  language,  and  nothing  else ;  this  he 
must  follow,  even  though  in  the  teeth  of  history, 
physical  or  political.  .  .  .  There  ought  to  be  no 
compromise  between  ethnological  and  phonological 
science.  It  is  only  by  stating  the  glaring  contradic- 
tions between  the  two  that  truth  can  be  elicited.' 

At  first  my  protest  met  with  no  response ;  nay, 
curiously  enough,  I  have  often  been  supposed  to  be 
the  strongest  advocate  of  the  theory  which  I  so 
fiercely  attacked.  Perhaps  I  was  not  entirely  with- 
out  blame,  for,   having   once    delivered    my  soul,  I 


232  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

allowed  myself  occasionally  the  freedom  to  speak  of  the 
Aryan  or  the  Semitic  race,  meaning  thereby  no  more 
than  the  people,  whoever  and  whatever  they  were, 
who  spoke  Aryan  or  Semitic  languages.  I  wish  we 
could  distinguish  in  English  as  in  Hebrew  between 
nations  and  languages.  Thus  in  the  Book  of  Daniel, 
iii.  4,  'the  herald  cried  aloud,  .  .  .  O  people,  nations 
and  languages.'  Why  then  should  we  not  distinguish 
between  nations  and  languages  ?  But  to  put  an  end 
to  every  possible  misunderstanding,  I  declared  at 
last  that  to  speak  of  'an  Aryan  skull  would  be  as 
great  a  monstrosity  as  to  speak  of  a  dolichocephalic 
lano^uage.' 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  old  heresy,  which 
went  by  the  name  of  linguistic  ethnology,  is  at  present 
entirely  extinct.  But  among  all  serious  students, 
whether  physiologists  or  philologists,  it  is  by  this 
time  recognised  that  the  divorce  between  Ethnology 
and  Philology,  granted  if  only  for  incompatibility  of 
temper,  has  been  productive  of  nothing  but  good. 

Instead  of  attempting  to  classify  mankind  as  a 
whole,  students  are  now  engaged  in  classing  skulls,  in 
classing  hair,  and  teeth,  and  skin.  Many  solid  results 
have  been  secured  by  these  special  researches ;  but. 
as  yet,  no  two  classifications,  based  on  these  charac- 
teristics, have  been  made  to  run  parallel. 

The  most  natural  classification  is,  no  doubt,  that 
according  to  the  colour  of  the  skin.  This  gives  us 
a  black,  a  brown,  a  yellow,  a  red,  and  a  white  race, 
with  several  subdivisions.  This  classification  has 
often  been  despised  as  unscientific ;  but  it  may  still 
turn  out  far  more  valuable  than  is  at  present  supposed. 

The  next  classification  is  that  by  the  colour  oi  the 


CLASSIFICATIOX    OF    MANKIND.  233 

eyes,  as  black,  brown,  hazel,  grey,  and  blue.  This 
subject  also  has  attracted  much  attention  of  late,  and, 
within  certain  limits,  the  results  have  proved  very 
valuable. 

The  most  favourite  classification,  however,  has 
always  been  that  according  to  the  skulls.  The  skull, 
as  the  shell  of  the  brain,  has  by  many  students  been 
supposed  to  betray  something  of  the  spiritual  essence 
of  man  ;  and  who  can  doubt  that  the  general  features 
of  the  skull,  if  taken  in  large  averages,  do  correspond 
to  the  general  features  of  human  character?  We 
have  only  to  look  round  to  see  men  with  heads  like 
a  cannon-ball  and  others  with  heads  like  a  hawk. 
This  distinction  has  formed  the  foundation  for  a  more 
scientific  classification  into  bracJty cephalic,  dolicho- 
cephalic, and  mesocephalic  skulls.  The  proportion 
80  :  ICO  between  the  transverse  and  longitudinal 
diameters  gives  us  the  ordinary  or  mesocephalic  type, 
the  proportion  of  75  :  100  the  dolichocephalic,  the 
proportion  of  85  :  100  the  brachycephalic  type.  The 
extremes  are  70  :  100  and  90  :  ico. 

If  we  examine  any  large  collection  of  skulls,  we 
have  not  much  difficulty  in  arranging  them  under 
these  three  classes ;  but  if,  after  we  have  done  this, 
we  look  at  the  nationality  of  each  skull,  we  find  the 
most  hopeless  confusion.  Pruner  Eey,  as  Peschel  tells 
us  in  his  '  Volkerkunde,'  has  observed  brachycephalic 
and  dolichocephalic  skulls  in  children  born  of  the 
same  mother ;  and  if  we  consider  how  many  women 
have  been  carried  away  into  captivity  by  Mongolians 
in  their  inroads  into  China,  India,  and  Germany,  we 
cannot  feel  surprised  if  we  find  some  longheads  among 
the  roundheads  of  those  Central  Asiatic  hordes. 


234  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

Only  we  must  not  adopt  the  easy  expedient  of  certain 
anthropologists  who,  when  they  find  dolichocephalic 
and  brachycephalic  skulls  in  the  same  tomb,  at  once 
jump  to  the  conclusion  that  they  must  have  belonged 
to  two  different  races.  When,  for  instance,  two  doli- 
chocephalic and  three  brachycephalic  skulls  were  dis- 
covered in  the  same  tomb  at  Alexanderpol,  we  were 
told  at  once  that  this  proved  nothing  as  to  the  simul- 
taneous occurrence  of  different  skulls  in  the  same 
family  ;  nay,  that  it  proved  the  very  contrary  of  what 
it  might  seem  to  prove.  It  was  clear,  we  were  assured, 
that  the  two  dolichocephalic  skulls  belonged  to  Aryan 
chiefs  and  the  three  brachycephalic  skulls  to  their  non- 
Aryan  slaves,  who  were  killed  and  buried  with  their 
masters,  according  to  a  custom  well  known  to  Hero- 
dotus. This  sounds  very  learned,  but  is  it  really  quite 
straightforward  1 

resides  the  general  division  of  skulls  into  doli- 
chocephalic, brachycephalic,  and  mesocephalic,  other 
divisions  have  been  undertaken,  according  to  the 
heio-ht  of  the  skull,  and  ao'ain,  according  to  the  maxil- 
lary  and  the  facial  angles.  This  latter  division  gives 
us  orthognathic,  prognathic,  and  onesognathic  skulls. 

Lastly,  according  to  the  peculiar  character  of  the  hair, 
we  may  distinguish  two  great  divisions,  the  people 
with  woolly  hair  ( Ulutrlcliea)  and  people  with  smooth 
hair  {Lissoti'ichei>).  The  former  are  subdivided  into 
Lophocomi,  people  with  tufts  of  hair,  and  Eriocomi,  or 
people  with  fleecy  hair.  The  latter  are  divided  into 
Euthycomi,  straight-haired,  and  Euplocanii^,  wavy- 
haired.  It  has  been  shown  that  these  peculiarities  of 
the  hair  depend  on  the  peculiar  form  of  the  hair-tubes, 

^  Not  Huplo-comic,  wavv-liaiicd,  as  Brfnton  gives  it. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  235 

which,  in  cross- sections,  are  found  to  be  either  round 
or  elongated  in  different  ways. 

Now  all  these  classifications,  to  which  several  more 
inight  be  added,  those  according  to  the  orbits  of  the 
eyes,  the  outlines  of  the  nose,  the  width  of  the  pelvis, 
are  by  themselves  extremely  useful.  But  few  of  them 
only,  if  any,  run  strictly  parallel.  It  has  been  said 
that  all  dolichocephalic  races  are  prognathic^,  and  have 
woolly  hair.  I  doubt  whether  this  is  true  without 
exception  ;  but,  even  if  it  were,  it  would  not  allow  us 
to  draw  any  genealogical  conclusions  from  it,  because 
there  are  ceitainly  many  dolichocephalic  people  who 
are  not  woolly-haired,  as,  for  instance,  the  Eskimos  ^ 

Now  let  us  consider  whether  there  can  be  any 
organic  connection  between  the  shape  of  the  skull,  the 
facial  angle,  the  conformation  of  the  hair,  or  the  colour 
of  the  skin  on  one  side,  and  what  we  call  the  great 
families  of  language  on  the  other.  That  we  speak  at 
all  may  rightly  be  called  a  work  of  nature,  ojjera 
OKtturale,  as  Dante  said  long  ago  ;  but  that  we  speak 
thus  or  thus,  cosi  o  cosi,  that,  as  the  same  Dante  said, 
depends  on  our  pleasure — that  is,  our  work.  To 
imagine,  therefore,  that  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  or 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  dolichocephalic  skulls  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  Aryan,  mesocephalic  with  Semitic, 
or  brachycephalic  with  Turanian  speech,  is  nothing 
but  the  wildest  random  thought ;  it  can  convey 
no  rational  meaning  whatever.  We  might  as  well 
say  that  all  painters  are  dolichocephalic,  and  all 
musicians  brachycephalic,  or  that  all  lophocomic  tribes 
work  in  gold,  and  all  lissocomic  tribes  in  silver. 

If  anything  must  be  ascribed  to  prehistoric  times, 
'  Eriuton,  '  Races  of  People,'  p.  249. 


236  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

surely  the  differentiation  of  the  human  skull,  the 
human  hair,  and  the  human  skin,  would  have  to  be 
ascribed  to  that  distant  period.  No  one,  I  believe, 
has  ever  maintained  that  a  mesocephalic  skull  was 
split  or  differentiated  into  a  dolichocephalic  and  a 
brachycephalic  variety  in  the  bright  sunshine  of 
history. 

But  let  us.  for  the  sake  of  argument,  assume  that 
in  prehistoric  times  all  dolichocephalic  people  spoke 
Aryan,  all  mesocephalic,  Semitic,  all  brachycephalic, 
Turanian  languages ;  how  would  that  help  us  ? 

So  long  as  we  know  anything  of  the  ancient  Aryan, 
Semitic,  and  Turanian  languages,  we  find  foreign 
words  in  each  of  them.  This  proves  a  very  close  and 
historical  contact  between  them.  For  instance,  in 
Babylonian  texts  of  3000  b.  c.  there  is  the  word  sindhu 
for  cloth  made  of  vegetable  fibres,  linen.  That  can 
only  be  the  Sanskrit  sindhu,  the  Indus,  or  saindhava, 
what  comes  from  the  Indus.  It  might  be  the  same 
word  as  the  Homeric  (rivb(i>v,  fine  cloth  ^.  In  Egyptian 
we  find  so  many  Semitic  words  that  it  is  difiicult  to 
say  whether  they  were  borrowed  or  derived  from 
a  common  source.  I  confess  I  am  not  convinced,. but 
Egyptologists  of  high  authority  assure  us  that  the 
names  of  several  Aryan  peoples,  such  as  the  Sicilians 
and  Sardinians,  occur  in  the  fourteenth  century  B.C., 
in  the  inscriptions  of  the  time  of  Menephthah  I. 
Again,  as  soon  as  we  know  anything  of  the  Turanian 
languages — Finnish,  for  instance — we  find  them  full 
of  Aryan  words.  All  this,  it  may  be  said,  applies 
to  a  very  recent  period  in  the  ancient  history  of 
humanity.     Still,  we  have  no  access  to  earlier  docu- 

'  'Physical  Religion,' p.  87. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  S37 

ments,  and  we  may  fairly  say  that  this  close  contact 
which  existed  then  existed,  probably,  at  an  earlier 
time  also. 

If,  then,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the 
ancestors  of  the  people  speaking  Aryan,  Semitic,  and 
Turanian  languages  lived  in  close  proximity,  would 
there  not  have  been  marriages  between  them,  so  long 
as  they  lived  in  peace,  and  would  they  not  have  killed 
the  men  and  carried  off  the  women  in  time  of  war? 
What,  then,  would  have  been  the  effect  of  a  marriage 
between  a  dolichocephalic  mother  and  a  brachy- 
cephalic  father?  The  materials  for  studying  this 
question  of  metissage,  as  the  French  call  it,  are  too 
scanty  as  yet  to  enable  us  to  speak  with  confidence. 
But  whether  the  paternal  or  the  maternal  type  pre- 
vailed, or  whether  their  union  gave  rise  to  a  new 
permanent  variety,  still  it  stands  to  reason  that  the 
children  of  a  dolichocephalic  captive  woman  might  be 
found,  after  fifty  or  sixty  years,  speaking  the  language 
of  the  brachy cephalic  conquerors. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  speak  of  the  early  Arj^an, 
Semitic,  and  Turanian  races  as  large  swarms — as 
millions  pouring  from  one  country  into  another,  and  it 
has  been  calculated  that  these  early  nomads  would 
have  required  immense  tracts  of  meadow  land  to  keep 
their  flocks,  and  that  it  was  the  search  of  new  pastures 
that  drove  them,  by  an  irresistible  force,  over  the 
whole  inhabitable  earth. 

This  may  have  been  so,  but  it  may  also  have  not 
been  so.  Anyhow,  we  have  a  right  to  suppose  that, 
before  there  were  millions  of  human  beings,  there 
were  at  first  a  few  only.  We  have  been  told  of  late 
that  there  never  was  a  first  man ;    but  we  may  be 


238  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

allowed  to  suppose  at  all  events,  that  there  were  at 
one  time  a  few  first  men  and  a  few  first  women.  If, 
then,  the  mixture  of  blood  by  marriage  and  the 
mixture  of  language  in  peace  or  war  took  place  at 
that  early  time,  when  the  world  was  peopled  by  some 
individuals,  or  by  some  hundreds,  or  by  some  thousands 
only,  think  what  the  necessary  result  would  have  been. 
It  has  been  calculated  that  it  would  require  only  600 
years  to  populate  the  whole  earth  with  the  descendants 
of  one  couple,  the  first  father  being  dolichocephalic  and 
the  first  mother  brachycephahc.  They  might,  after 
a  time,  all  choose  to  speak  an  Aryan  language,  but 
they  could  not  choose  their  skulls,  but  would  have  to 
accept  them  from  nature,  whether  dolichocephalic  or 
brachycephalic. 

"Who,  then,  would  dare  at  present  to  lift  up  a  skull 
and  say  this  skull  must  have  spoken  an  Aryan 
language,  or  lift  up  a  language  and  say  this  language 
must  have  been  spoken  by  a  dolichocephalic  skull? 
Yet,  though  no  serious  student  would  any  longer 
listen  to  such  arguments,  it  takes  a  long  time  before 
theories  that  were  maintained  for  a  time  by  serious 
students,  and  were  then  surrendered  by  them,  can  be 
completely  eradicated.  I  shall  not  touch  to-day  on 
the  hackneyed  question  of  the  '  Home  of  the  Aryas,' 
except  as  a  warning.  There  are  two  quite  distinct 
questions  concerning  the  home  of  the  Aryas. 

When  students  of  Philology  speak  of  Aryas,  they 
mean  by  Aryas  nothing  but  people  speaking  an  Aryan 
language.  They  affirm  nothing  about  skulls,  skin, 
hair,  and  all  the  rest,  for  the  simple  reason  that  nothing 
can  be  knov/n  of  them.  When,  on  the  contrary,  students 
of  Physiology  speak  of  dolichocephalic,  orthognathic,, 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  239 

euthycomic  people,  they  speak  of  their  physiological 
characteristics  only,  and  affirm  nothing  whatever 
about  language. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  home  of  the  Aryas,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  that  word,  can  be  determined  by 
linguistic  evidence  only,  while  the  home  of  a  blue- 
eyed,  blond-haired,  long-skulled,  fair-skinned  people 
can  be  determined  by  physiological  evidence  only. 
Any  kind  of  concession  or  compromise  on  either  side 
is  simply  fatal,  and  has  led  to  nothing  but  a  promis- 
cuous slaughter  of  innocents.  Separate  the  two  armies, 
and  the  whole  physiological  evidence  collected  by 
D'Omalius  dHalloy,  Latham,  and  their  followers  will 
not  fill  more  than  an  octavo  page  ;  while  the  linguistic 
evidence  collected  by  Benfey  and  his  followers  will 
not  amount  to  more  than  a  few  words.  Everything 
else  is  mere  rhetoric. 

The  physiologist  is  grateful,  no  doubt,  for  any  ad- 
ditional skull  whose  historical  antecedents  can  be 
firmly  established ;  the  philologist  is  grateful  for  any 
additional  word  that  can  help  to  indicate  the  historical 
or  geographical  whereabouts  of  the  unknown  speakers 
of  Aryan  speech.  On  these  points  it  is  possible  to 
argue.  They  alone  have  a  really  scientific  value  in 
the  eyes  of  a  scholar,  because,  if  there  is  any  difference 
of  opinion  on  them,  it  is  possible  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment. As  soon,  however,  as  we  go  beyond  these  mere 
matters  of  fact,  which  have  been  collected  by  real 
students,  everything  becomes  at  once  mere  vanity 
and  vexation  of  spirit.  I  know  the  appeals  that  have 
been  made  for  concessions  and  some  kind  of  compro- 
mise between  Physiology  and  Philology  ;  but  honest 
students  know  that  on  scientific  subjects  no  compro- 


240  RECENT    ESSAYS, 

mise  is  admissible.  With  regard  to  the  home  of  the 
Aryas,  no  honest  philologist  will  allow  himself  to  be 
driven  one  step  beyond  the  statement  that  the  un- 
known people  who  spoke  Aryan  languages  were,  at 
one  time,  and  before  their  final  separation,  settled 
somewhere  in  Asia.  That  may  seem  very  small  com- 
fort, but  for  the  present  it  is  all  that  we  have  a  right 
to  say.  Even  this  must  be  taken  with  the  hmitations 
which,  as  all  true  scholars  know,  apply  to  speculations 
concerning  what  may  have  happened,  say,  five  thou- 
sand or  ten  thousand  years  ago.  As  to  the  colour  of 
the  skin,  the  hair,  the  eyes  of  those  unknown  speakers 
of  Aryan  speech,  the  scholar  says  nothing  ;  and  when 
he  speaks  of  their  blood  he  knows  that  such  a  word 
can  be  taken  in  a  metaphorical  sense  only.  If  we 
once  step  from  the  narrow  domain  of  science  into  the 
vast  wilderness  of  mere  assertion,  then  it  does  not 
matter  what  we  say.  We  may  say,  with  Penka,  that 
all  Aryas  are  dolichocephalic,  blue-eyed,  and  blond, 
or  we  may  say,  with  Pietrement,  that  all  Aryas  are 
brachj'cephalic,  with  brown  eyes  and  black  hair^. 
There  is  no  difference  between  the  two  assertions. 
They  are  both  perfectly  unmeaning.  They  are  vox 
et  j^raeterea  nildl.  May  I  be  allowed  to  add  that 
Latham's  theory  of  the  European  origin  of  Sanskrit, 
which  has  lately  been  represented  as  marking  the 
newest  epoch  in  the  study  of  Anthropology,  was 
discussed  by  me  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  1H51  1 

My  experiences  during  the  last  forty  years  have 
only  served  to  confirm  the  opinion  which  I  expressed 
forty  years  ago,  that  there  ought  to  be  a  complete 

1  V.  d.  Gheyn,  1889,  p.  26. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  241 

separation  between  Philology  and  Physiology.  And 
yet,  if  I  were  asked  whether  such  a  divorce  should 
now  be  made  absolute,  I  should  say,  No.  There  have 
been  so  many  unexpected  discoveries  of  new  facts, 
and  so  many  surprising  combinations  of  old  facts, 
that  we  must  always  be  prepared  to  hear  some  new 
evidence,  if  only  that  evidence  is  brought  forward 
accordingf  to  the  rules  which  sjovern  the  court  of  true 
science.  It  may  be  that  in  time  the  classification  of 
skulls,  hair,  eyes,  and  skin  may  be  brought  into  har- 
mony with  the  classification  of  language.  We  may 
even  go  so  far  as  to  admit,  as  a  postulate,  that  the 
two  must  have  run  parallel,  at  least  in  the  beginning 
of  all  things.  But  with  the  evidence  before  us  at 
present  mere  wrangling,  mere  iteration  of  exploded 
assertions,  mere  contradictions,  will  produce  no  effect 
on  that  true  jury  which  in  every  country  hardly  ever 
consists  of  more  than  twelve  trusty  men,  but  with 
whom  the  final  verdict  rests.  The  very  things  that  most 
catch  the  popular  ear  will  by  them  be  ruled  altogether 
out  of  court.  But  every  single  new  word,  common 
to  all  the  Aryan  languages,  and  telling  of  some 
climatic,  geographical,  historical,  or  physiological 
circumstance  in  the  earliest  life  of  the  speakers  of 
Aryan  speech,  will  be  truly  welcome  to  philologists 
quite  as  much  as  a  skull  from  an  early  geological 
stratum  is  to  the  physiologist,  and  both  to  the  an- 
thropologist, in  the  widest  sense  of  that  name. 

But,  if  all  this  is  so,  if  the  alliance  between  Philo- 
logy and  Physiology  has  hitherto  done  nothing  but 
mischief,  what  right,  it  may  be  asked,  had  I  to  accept 
the  honour  of  presiding  over  this  Section  of  Anthro- 
pology ?     If  you  will  allow  me  to  occupy  your  valu- 

VOL.  I.  R 


242  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

able  time  a  little  longer,  I  shall  explain,  as  shortly  as 
possible,  why  I  thought  that  I,  as  a  philologist,  might 
do  some  small  amount  of  good  as  President  of  the 
Anthropological  Section. 

In  spite  of  all  that  I  have  said  against  the  unholy 
alliance  between  Physiology  and  Philology,  I  have 
felt  for  years — and  I  believe  I  am  now  supported  in 
my  opinion  by  all  competent  anthropologists — that 
a  knowledge  of  languages  must  be  considered  in 
future  as  a  sine  qua  non  for  every  anthropologist. 

Anthropology,  as  you  know,  has  increased  so  rapidly 
that  it  seems  to  say  now,  N'ihil  humani  a  me  alienum 
puto.  So  long  as  Anthropology  treated  only  of  the 
anatomy  of  the  human  body,  any  surgeon  might 
have  become  an  excellent  anthropologist.  But  now, 
when  Anthropology  includes  the  study  of  the  earliest 
thoughts  of  man,  his  customs,  his  laws,  his  traditions, 
his  legends,  his  religions,  ay,  even  his  early  philoso- 
phies, a  student  of  Anthropology  without  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  languages,  without  the  conscience  of 
a  scholar,  is  like  a  sailor  without  a  compass. 

No  one  disputes  this  with  regard  to  nations  who 
possess  a  literature.  No  one  would  listen  to  a  man 
describing  the  peculiarities  of  the  Greeks  the  Roman, 
the  Jew,  the  Arab,  the  Chinese,  without  knowing 
their  languages  and  being  capable  of  reading  the 
master-works  of  their  literature.  We  know  how 
often  men  who  have  devoted  the  whole  of  their  life 
to  the  study,  for  instance,  of  Hebrew  differ  not  only 
as  to  the  meaning  of  certain  words  and  passages,  but 
as  to  the  very  character  of  the  Jews.  One  authority 
states  that  the  Jews,  and  not  only  the  Jews,  but  all 
Semitic   nations,  were   possessed    of  a   monotheistic 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  243 

instinct.  Another  authority  shows  that  all  Semitic 
nations,  not  excluding  the  Jews,  were  polytheistic 
in  their  religion,  and  that  the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews 
was  not  conceived  at  first  as  the  Supreme  Deity,  but 
as  a  national  god  only,  as  the  God  of  the  Jews,  who, 
according  to  the  latest  view,  was  originally  a  fetish 
or  a  totem  (?),  like  all  other  gods. 

You  know  how  widely  classical  scholars  differ  on 
the  character  of  Greeks  and  Romans,  on  the  meanino- 
of  their  customs,  the  purpose  of  their  religious  cere- 
monies— nay,  the   very  essence  of  their  gods.     And 
yet  there  was  a  time,  not  very  long  ago,  when  anthro- 
pologists  would   rely   on  the   descriptions   of  casual 
travellers,  who,  after  spending  a  few  weeks,  or  even 
a  few  years,  among  tribes  whose  language  was  utterly 
unknown  to  them,  gave  the  most  marvellous  accounts 
of  their  customs,  their  laws,  and  even  of  their  religion. 
It  may  be  said  that  anybody  can  describe  what  he 
sees,  even  though  unable  to  converse  with  the  people. 
I  say.  Decidedly  no  ;  and  I  am    supported    in   this 
opinion  by  the  most  competent  judges.     Dr.  Codring- 
ton,   who  has  just  published  his  excellent  book   on 
the  'Melanesians  :  their  Anthropology  and  Folk-lore,' 
spent  twenty-four  years  among  the  Melanesians,  learn- 
ing their  dialects,  collecting  their  legends,  and  making 
a  systematic  study  of  their  laws,  customs,  and  super- 
stitions.    But  what  does  he  say  in  his  preface?     'I 
have  felt  the  truth,'  he  says,  '  of  what  Mr.  Fison,  late 
missionary  in  Fiji,  has  written :  "  When  a  European 
has  been  living  for  two  or  three  years  among  savages, 
he  is  sure  to  be  fully  convinced  that  he   knows  all 
about  them  ;  when  he  has  been  ten  years  or  so  amongst 
them,  if  he  be  an  observant  man,  he  knows  that  he 

R  a 


244  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

knows  very  little  about  them^  and  so  begins  to 
learn.'" 

How  few  of  the  books  in  which  we  trust  with 
regard  to  the  characteristic  peculiarities  of  savage 
races  have  been  written  by  men  who  have  lived 
among  them  for  ten  or  twenty  years,  and  who  have 
learnt  their  languages  till  they  could  speak  them 
as  well  as  the  natives  themselves ! 

It  is  no  excuse  to  say  that  any  traveller  who  has 
eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear  can  form  a  correct 
estimate  of  the  doings  and  sayings  of  savage  tribes. 
It  is  not  so,  and  anthropologists  know  from  sad 
experience  that  it  is  not  so.  Suppose  a  traveller 
came  to  a  camp  where  he  saw  thousands  of  men 
and  women  dancing  round  the  image  of  a  young  bull. 
Suppose  that  the  dancers  w^ere  all  stark  naked,  that 
after  a  time  they  began  to  fight,  and  that  at  the  end 
of  their  orgies  there  were  three  thousand  corpses 
lying  about  weltering  in  their  blood.  Would  not 
a  casual  traveller  have  described  such  savages  as 
worse  than  the  negroes  of  Dahomey  ?  Yet  these 
savages  were  really  the  Jews,  the  chosen  people  of 
God.  The  image  was  the  golden  calf,  the  priest  was 
Aaron,  and  the  chief  who  ordered  the  massacre  was 
Moses.  We  may  read  the  32nd  chapter  of  Exodus  in 
a  very  different  sense.  A  traveller  who  could  have 
conversed  with  Aaron  and  Moses  might  have  under- 
stood the  causes  of  the  revolt  and  the  necessity  of  the 
massacre.  But  without  this  power  of  interrogation 
and  mutual  explanation,  no  travellers,  however  graphic 
and  amusing  their  stories  may  be,  can  be  trusted  ; 
no  statements  of  theirs  can  be  used  by  the  anthropo- 
logist for  truly  scientific  purposes. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  245 

From  the  day  when  this  fact  was  recognised  by 
the  highest  authorities  in  Anthropology,  and  was 
sanctioned  by  some  at  least  of  our  anthropological, 
ethnological,  and  folk-lore  societies,  a  new  epoch 
began,  and  Philology  received  its  right  place  as  the 
handmaid  of  Anthropology.  The  most  important 
paragraph  in  our  new  charter  was  this,  that  in  future 
no  one  is  to  be  quoted  or  relied  on  as  an  authority  on 
the  customs,  traditions,  and  more  particularly  on  the 
religious  ideas  of  uncivilised  races  who  has  not  ac- 
quired an  acquaintance  with  their  language,  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to  converse  with  them  freely  on  these 
difficult  subjects. 

No  one  would  object  to  this  rule  when  we  have 
to  deal  with  civilised  and  literary  nations.  But  the 
languages  of  Africa,  America,  Polynesia,  and  even 
Australia  are  now  being  studied  as  formerly  Greek, 
Latin,  Hebrew,  and  Sanskrit  only  were  studied.  You 
have  only  to  compare  the  promiscuous  descriptions 
of  the  Hottentots  in  the  works  of  the  best  ethnologists 
with  the  researches  of  a  real  Hottentot  scholar  like 
Dr.  Hahn  to  see  the  advance  that  has  been  made. 
When  we  read  the  books  of  Bishop  Callaway  on 
the  Zulu,  of  William  Gill  and  Edward  Tregear  on 
the  Polynesians,  of  Horatio  Hale  on  some  of  the 
North  American  races,  we  feel  at  once  that  we  are  in 
safe  hands,  in  the  hands  of  real  scholars.  Even  then 
we  must,  of  course,  remember  that  their  knowledge 
of  the  languages  cannot  compare  with  that  of  Bentley, 
or  Hermann,  or  Burnouf,  or  Ewald.  Yet  we  feel  that 
we  cannot  go  altogether  wrong  in  trusting  to  their 
guidance. 

I  venture  to  go  even  a  step  further,  and  I  believe 


246  llECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  time  will  come  when  no  anthropologist  will 
venture  to  write  on  anything  concerning  the  inner 
life  of  man  without  having  himself  acquired  a  know- 
ledge of  the  language  in  which  that  inner  life  finds 
its  truest  expression. 

This  may  seem  to  be  too  exacting,  but  you  have 
only  to  look,  for  instance,  at  the  descriptions  given 
of  the  customs,  the  laws,  the  legends,  and  the  religious 
convictions  of  the  people  of  India  about  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  before  Sanskrit  began  to  be  studied, 
and  you  will  be  amazed  at  the  utter  caricature  that 
is  often  given  there  of  the  intellectual  state  of  the 
Brahmans  compared  with  what  we  know  of  it  now 
from  their  own  literature. 

And  if  that  is  the  case  with  a  people  like  the 
Indians,  who  are  a  civilised  race,  possessed  of  an 
ancient  literature,  and  well  within  the  focus  of  history 
for  the  last  two  thousand  years,  what  can  be  expected 
in  the  case  of  really  savage  races  1  One  can  hardly 
trust  one's  eyes  when  one  sees  the  evidence  placed 
before  us  by  men  whose  good  faith  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned, and  who  nevertheless  contradict  each  other 
flatly  on  the  most  ordinary  subjects.  We  owe  to 
one  of  our  secretaries,  Mr.  Ling  Roth,  a  most  careful 
collection  of  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  Tasmanians 
by  eye-witnesses.  Not  the  least  valuable  part  of 
this  collection  is  that  it  opens  our  eyes  to  the  utter 
untrustworthiness  of  the  evidence  on  which  the  an- 
thropologist has  so  often  had  to  rely.  In  an  article 
on  Mr.  Roth's  book  in  '  Nature,'  I  tried  to  show  that 
there  is  not  one  essential  feature  in  the  religion  of  the 
Tasmanians  on  which  different  authorities  have  not 
made  assertions  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  247 

Some  say  that  the  Tasmanians  have  no  idea  of 
a  Supreme  Eeing,  no  rites,  no  ceremonies ;  others 
call  their  religion  Dualism,  a  worship  of  good  and 
evil  spirits.  Some  maintain  that  they  had  deified 
the  powers  of  nature,  others  that  they  were  Devil- 
worshippers.  Some  declare  their  religion  to  be  pure 
monotheism,  combined  with  belief  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  the  efficacy  of  prayers  and  charms.  Nay, 
even  the  most  recent  article  of  faith,  the  descent  of 
man  from  some  kind  of  animal,  has  received  a  religious 
sanction  among  the  Tasmanians.  For  Mr.  Horton, 
who  is  not  given  to  joking,  tells  us  that  they  believed 
'  they  were  originally  formed  with  tails,  and  without 
knee-joints,  by  a  benevolent  being,  and  that  another 
descended  from  heaven  and,  compassionating  the 
sufferers,  cut  off  their  tails,  and  with  grease  softened 
their  knees.' 

I  would  undertake  to  show  that  what  applies  to 
the  descriptions  given  us  of  the  now  extinct  race 
of  the  Tasmanians  applies  with  equal  force  to  the 
descriptions  of  almost  all  the  savage  races  with 
whom  anthropologists  have  to  deal.  In  the  case 
of  large  tribes,  such  as  the  inhabitants  of  Australia, 
the  contradictory  evidence  may,  no  doubt,  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  the  observations  were  made  in 
different  localities.  But  the  chief  reason  is  always 
the  same— ignorance  of  the  language,  and  therefore 
want  of  sympathy  and  impossibility  of  mutual  ex- 
planation and  correction. 

Let  me  in  conclusion  give  you  one  of  the  most 
flagrant  instances  of  how  a  whole  race  can  be  totally 
misrepresented  by  men  ignorant  of  their  language, 
and  how  these  misrepresentations  are  at  once  removed 


248  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

if  travellers  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  language,  and 
thus  have  not  only  eyes  to  see,  but  ears  to  hear, 
tongues  to  speak,  and  hearts  to  feel. 

No  race  has  been  so  cruelly  maligned  for  centuries 
as  the  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands.  An  Arab 
writer  of  the  ninth  century  states  that  their  com- 
plexion was  frightful,  their  hair  frizzled,  their  counte- 
nance and  eyes  terrible,  their  feet  very  large  and 
almost  a  cubit  in  length,  and  that  they  go  quite 
naked.  Marco  Polo  (about  1285)  declared  that  the 
inhabitants  are  no  better  than  wild  beasts,  and  he 
goes  on  to  say :  '  I  assure  you,  all  the  men  of  this 
island  of  Angamanain  have  heads  like  dogs,  and  teeth 
and  eyes  likewise;  in  fact,  in  the  face  they  are  just 
like  big  mastiff  dogs.' 

So  long  as  no  one  could  be  found  to  study  theii 
language  there  was  no  appeal  from  these  libels.  But 
when,  after  the  Sepoy  mutiny  in  1 857,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  find  a  habitation  for  a  large  number  of 
convicts,  the  Andaman  Islands,  which  had  already 
served  as  a  penal  settlement  on  a  smaller  scale, 
became  a  large  penal  colony  under  English  officers. 
The  havoc  that  was  wrought  by  this  sudden  contact 
between  the  Andaman  Islanders  and  these  civilised 
Indian  convicts  was  terrible,  and  the  end  will  prob- 
ably be  the  same  as  in  Tasmania — the  native  popula- 
tion will  die  out.  Fortunately  one  of  the  English 
officers  (Mr.  Edward  Horace  Man)  did  not  shrink 
from  the  trouble  of  learning  the  language  spoken 
by  these  islanders,  and,  being  a  careful  observer  and 
perfectly  trustworthy,  he  has  given  us  some  accounts 
of  the  Andaman  aborigines  which  are  real  masterpieces 
of  anthropological  research.     If  these  islanders  must 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  249 

be  swept  away  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  they 
will  now  at  all  events  leave  a  better  name  behind 
them.  Even  their  outward  appearance  seems  to  be- 
come different  in  the  eyes  of  a  sympathising  ob- 
server from  what  it  was  to  casual  travellers.  They 
are,  no  doubt,  a  very  small  race,  their  average  height 
being  4  ft.  10 1  in.  But  this  is  almost  the  only  charge 
brought  against  them  which  Mr.  Man  has  not  been 
able  to  rebut.  Their  hair,  he  says,  is  fine,  very 
closely  curled,  and  frizzly.  Their  colour  is  dark, 
but  not  absolutely  black.  Their  features  possess 
little  of  the  most  marked  and  coarser  peculiarities 
of  the  negro  type.  The  projecting  jaws,  the  promi- 
nent thick  lips,  the  broad  and  flattened  nose  of  the 
genuine  negro  are  so  softened  down  as  scarcely  to 
be  recognised. 

Eut  let  us  hear  now  -what  Mr.  Man  has  to  tell 
us  about  the  social,  moral,  and  intellectual  qualities 
of  these  so-called  savages,  who  had  been  represented 
to  us  as  cannibals  ;  as  ignorant  of  the  existence  of 
a  deity;  as  knowing  no  marriage,  except  what  by 
a  bold  euphemism  has  been  called  communal  mar- 
riage ;  as  unacquainted  with  fire ;  as  no  better  than 
wild  beasts,  having  heads,  teeth,  and  eyes  like  dogs — 
being,  in  fact,  like  big  mastiffs. 

'  Before  the  introduction  into  the  islands  of  what  is 
called  European  civilisation,  the  inhabitants,'  Mr.  Man 
writes,  '  lived  in  small  villages,  their  dwellings  built 
of  branches  and  leaves  of  trees.  They  were  ignorant 
of  agriculture,  and  kept  no  poultry  or  domestic 
animals.  Their  pottery  was  hand-made,  their  cloth- 
ing very  scanty.  They  were  expert  swimmers  and 
divers,  and  able  to  manufacture  well-made  dug-out 


250  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

canoes  and  outriggers.  They  were  ignorant  of  metals, 
ignorant,  we  are  told,  of  producing  fire,  though  they 
kept  a  constant  supply  of  burning  and  smouldering 
wood.  They  made  use  of  shells  for  their  tools,  had 
stone  hammers  and  anvils,  bows  and  arrows,  har- 
poons for  killing  turtle  and  fish.  Such  is  the  fertility 
of  the  island  that  they  have  abundance  and  variety 
of  food  all  the  year  round.  Their  food  was  invariably 
cooked,  they  drank  nothing  but  water,  and  they  did 
not  smoke.  People  may  call  this  a  savage  life.  I  know 
many  a  starving  labourer  who  would  gladly  exchange 
the  benefits  of  European  civilisation  for  the  blessings 
of  such  savagery.' 

These  small  islanders  who  have  always  been  repre- 
sented by  a  certain  class  of  anthropologists  as  the 
lowest  stratum  of  humanity  need  not  fear  comparison, 
so  far  as  their  social  life  is  concerned,  with  races  who 
are  called  civilised.  So  far  from  being  addicted  to 
what  is  called  by  the  self-contradictory  name  of 
communal  marriage,  Mr.  Man  tells  us  that  bigamy, 
polygamy,  polyandry,  and  divorce  are  unknown  to 
them,  and  that  the  mamage  contract,  so  far  from 
being  regarded  as  a  merely  temporary  contract,  to 
be  set  aside  on  account  of  incompatibility  of  temper 
or  other  such  causes,  is  never  dissolved.  Conjugal 
fidelity  till  death  is  not  the  exception  but  the  rule, 
and  matrimonial  differences,  which  occur  but  rarely, 
are  easily  settled  with  or  without  the  intervention 
of  friends.  One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  their 
social  relations  is  the  marked  equality  and  affection 
which  exist  between  husband  and  wife,  and  the  con- 
sideration and  respect  with  which  women  are  treated 
might,  with  advantage,  be  emulated  by  certain  classes 


CLASSIFICATIOX    01'    MAXKIXD.  251 

in  our  own  land.  As  to  cannibalism  or  infanticide, 
they  are  never  practised  by  them. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  Mr.  Man  may  be  prejudiced 
in  favour  of  these  little  savages  whose  language  he 
has  been  at  so  much  pains  to  learn.  Fortunately, 
however,  all  his  statements  have  lately  been  con- 
firmed by  another  authority,  Colonel  Cadell — the 
Chief  Commissioner  of  these  islands.  He  is  a  Victoria 
Cross  man,  and  not  likely  to  be  given  to  overmuch 
sentimentality.  Well,  this  is  what  he  says  of  these 
fierce  mastiffs,  with  feet  a  cubit  in  length  : — 

They  are  merry  little  people,  he  says.  One  could 
not  imagine  how  taking  they  were.  Every  one  who 
had  to  do  with  them  fell  in  love  with  them  (these 
fierce  mastiffs).  Contact  with  civilisation  had  not 
improved  the  morality  of  the  natives,  but  in  their 
natural  state  they  were  truthful  and  honest,  generous 
and  self-denying.  He  had  watched  them  sitting  over 
their  fires  cooking  their  evening  meal,  and  it  was 
quite  pleasant  to  notice  the  absence  of  greed  and  the 
politeness  with  which  they  picked  off  the  tit-bits  and 
thrust  them  into  each  others  mouths.  The  forest 
and  sea  abundantly  supplied  their  wants,  and  it  was 
therefore  not  surprising  that  the  attempts  to  induce 
them  to  take  to  cultivation  had  been  quite  unsuccess- 
ful, highly  though  they  appreciated  the  rice  and 
Indian  corn  which  were  occasionally  supplied  to  them. 
All  was  grist  that  came  to  their  mill  in  the  shape 
of  food.  The  forest  supplied  them  with  edible  roots 
and  fruits.  Bats,  rats,  flying  foxes,  iguanas,  sea- 
snakes,  molluscs,  wild  pig,  fish,  turtle,  and  last,  though 
not  least,  the  larvae  of  beetles,  formed  welcome  ad- 
ditions to  their  larder.     He  remembered  one  morninof 


252  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

landing  by  chance  at  an  encampment  of  theirs,  under 
the  shade  of  a  gigantic  forest  tree.  On  one  fire  was 
the  shell  of  a  turtle,  acting  as  its  own  pot,  in  which 
was  simmering  the  green  fat  delicious  to  more  edu- 
cated  palates  ;  on  another  its  flesh  was  being  broiled, 
together  with  some  splendid  fish  ;  on  a  third  a  wild 
pig  was  being  roasted,  its  drippings  falling  on  wild 
yams,  and  a  jar  of  honey  stood  close  by,  all  delicacies 
fit  for  an  alderman's  table. 

These  are  things  which  we  might  suppose  anybody 
who  has  eyes  to  see,  and  who  is  not  wilfully  blind, 
might  have  observed.  But  when  we  come  to  tra- 
ditions, laws,  and  particularly  to  religion,  no  one 
ought  to  be  listened  to  as  an  authority  who  cannot 
converse  with  the  natives.  For  a  long  time  the 
Mincopies  have  been  represented  as  without  any 
religion,  without  even  an  idea  of  the  Godhead.  This 
opinion  received  the  support  of  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
and  has  been  often  repeated  without  ever  having 
been  re-examined.  As  soon,  however,  as  these  Min- 
copies began  to  be  studied  more  carefully — more 
particularly  as  soon  as  some  persons  resident  among 
them  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  their  language, 
and  thereby  a  means  of  real  communication — their 
religion  came  out  as  clear  as  daylight.  According 
to  Mr.  E.  H.  Man,  they  have  a  name  for  God — 
Puluga.  And  how  can  a  race  be  said  to  be  without 
a  knowledge  of  God  if  they  have  a  name  for  God  ? 
PiXluga  has  a  very  mythological  character.  He  has 
a  stone  house  in  the  sky  ;  he  has  a  wife,  whom  he 
created  himself,  and  from  whom  he  has  a  large  family, 
all,  except  the  eldest,  being  girls.  The  mother  is 
supposed   to   be  green   (the   earth  ?},    the    daughters 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  S53 

black ;  they  are  the  spirits,  called  Morowin  :  his  son 
is  called  Fijchor.  He  alone  is  permitted  to  live  with 
his  father  and  to  convey  his  orders  to  the  Morowin. 
But  Piiluga  was  a  moral  character  also.  His  appear- 
ance is  like  fire,  though  nowadays  he  has  become 
invisible.  He  was  never  born,  and  is  immortal. 
The  w^hole  world  was  created  by  him,  except  only  the 
powers  of  evil.  He  is  omniscient,  knowing  even  the 
thoughts  of  the  heart.  He  is  angered  by  the  com- 
mission of  certain  sins  — some  very  trivial,  at  least 
to  our  mind — but  he  is  pitiful  to  all  who  are  in 
distress.  He  is  the  judge  from  whom  each  soul 
receives  its  sentence  after  death. 

According  to  other  authorities,  some  Andamanese 
look  on  the  sun  as  the  fountain  of  all  that  is  good, 
the  moon  as  a  minor  power  ;  and  they  believe  in 
a  number  of  inferior  spirits,  the  spirits  of  the  forest, 
the  water,  and  the  mountain,  as  agents  of  the  two 
higher  powders.  They  believe  in  an  evil  spirit  also, 
who  seems  to  have  been  originally  the  spirit  of  the 
storm.  Him  they  try  to  pacify  by  songs,  or  to 
frighten  aw^ay  with  their  arrows. 

I  suppose  I  need  say  no  more  to  show  how  in- 
dispensable a  study  of  language  is  to  every  student 
of  Anthropology.  If  Anthropology  is  to  maintain 
its  hio-h  position  as  a  real  science,  its  alliance  with 
linofuistic  studies  cannot  be  too  close.  Its  weakest 
points  have  always  been  those  where  it  trusted  to  the 
statements  of  authorities  ignorant  of  language  and  of 
the  science  of  language.  Its  greatest  triumphs  have 
been  achieved  by  men  such  as  Dr.  Hahn,  Bishops 
Callaway  and  Colenso,  Dr.  W.  Gill,  and  last,  not 
least,  Mr.  Man,  who  have  combined  the   minute  ac- 


254  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

curacy  of  the  scholar  with  the  comprehensive  grasp 
of  the  anthropologist,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  use 
the  key  of  language  to  unlock  the  perplexities  of 
savage  customs,  savage  laws  and  legends,  and,  par- 
ticularly, of  savage  religions  and  mythologies.  If 
this  alliance  between  Anthropology  and  Philology 
becomes  real,  then,  and  then  only,  may  we  hope  to 
see  Bunsen's  prophecy  fulfilled,  that  Anthropology 
will  become  the  highest  branch  of  that  science  for 
which  this  British  Association  is  instituted. 

Allow  me  in  conclusion  once  more  to  quote  some 
prophetic  words  from  the  Address  which  Bunsen 
delivered  before  our  Section  in  1847  : — 

'If  man  is  the  apex  of  the  creation,  it  seems  right, 
on  the  one  side,  that  a  historical  inquiry  into  his 
origin  and  development  should  never  be  allowed 
to  sever  itself  from  the  general  body  of  natural  science, 
and  in  particular  from  Physiology.  But,  on  the  other 
side,  if  man  is  the  apex  of  the  creation,  if  he  is  the 
end  to  which  all  organic  formations  tend  from  the 
very  beginning,  if  man  is  at  once  the  mystery  and 
the  key  of  natural  science,  if  that  is  the  only  view  of 
natural  science  worthy  of  our  age,  then  Ethnological 
Philology  (I  should  prefer  to  say  Anthropology),  once 
established  on  principles  as  clear  as  the  physiological 
are,  is  the  highest  branch  of  that  science  for  the 
advancement  of  which  this  Association  is  instituted. 
It  is  not  an  appendix  to  Physiology  or  to  anything 
else  ;  but  its  object  is,  on  the  contrary,  capable  of 
becoming  the  end  and  goal  of  the  labours  and  trans- 
actions of  a  scientific  association.' 

Much  has  been  achieved  by  Anthropology  to  justify 
these  hopes  and  fulfil  the  prophecies  of  my  old  friend 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  255 

Bimsen.  Few  men  live  to  see  the  fulfilment  of  their 
own  prophecies,  but  they  leave  disciples  whose  duty 
it  is  to  keep  their  memory  alive,  and  thus  to  preserve 
that  vital  continuity  of  human  knowledge  which 
alone  enables  us  to  see  in  the  advancement  of  all 
science  the  historical  evolution  of  eternal  truth. 


LETTER  TO  MR.  RISLEY 
ON  THE  ETHNOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  INDIA. 

OxFOED,  the  2oth  July,  iSS6. 

I  HAVE  read  with  real  interest  and  pleasure  the 
papers  referring  to  an  Ethnological  Purvey  of  India 
which  you  have  done  me  the  honour  to  send  to 
me.  Both  from  a  practical  and  scientific  point  of 
view  the  inquiries  which,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
Indian  Government,  you  have  set  on  foot  will,  I  have 
no  doubt,  be  productive  of  most  valuable  results. 
They  will  enable  the  statesman  to  understand  more 
thoroughly  many  of  the  traditional  beliefs,  local 
customs,  and  deep-rooted  prejudices  of  those  Avhom 
he  has  to  influence  and  to  control, — nay,  they  may 
possibly  help  the  native  inhabitants  of  India  also  to 
gain  a  truer  insight  into  the  meaning  of  many  of 
their  apparently  irrational  customs  and  a  more  correct 
appreciation  of  the  original  purport  of  their  religious 
faiths  and  superstitions. 

But  apart  from  the  practical  utility  of  such  a  survey 
as  is  contemplated  by  you  and  your  colleagues,  its 
value  to  the  scholar  and  the  student  of  ethnology  can 


256  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

hardly  be  overestimated.  India,  with  the  immense 
variety  of  its  inhabitants,  representing  almost  every 
stage,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  in  the  progress 
of  civilisation,  is  the  most  promising  country  for  a 
scientific  study  of  the  development  of  the  human  race. 
Ethnology,  though  a  science  of  very  ancient  date, 
has  of  late  attracted  very  general  attention,  and  has 
extended  its  influence  over  many  important  branches 
of  philosophy.  The  words  of  Charron's  repeated  by 
Pope,  '  La  vraye  science  et  la  vraye  etude  cle  Vhomone 
c'est  rkomme,'  seem  at  last  to  have  come  true,  and 
there  is  hardly  a  problem  connected  with  the  origin 
of  man  and  the  faculties  of  the  human  mind  which 
has  not  been  illuminated  of  late  by  fitful  rays  pro- 
ceeding from  the  science  of  ethnology. 

But,  as  you  truly  observe,  'many  of  the  ethnological 
speculations  of  recent  years  have  been  based  far  too 
exclusively  upon  comparatively  unverified  accounts 
of  the  customs  of  savages  of  the  lowest  type,'  and,  as 
an  inevitable  result,  the  whole  science  of  ethnology 
has  lost  much  of  the  prestige  which  it  formerly 
commanded.  It  has  almost  ceased  to  be  a  true 
science  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  conceived  by 
Prichard,  Humboldt,  Waitz  and  others,  and  threatens 
to  become  a  mere  collection  of  amusing  anecdotes  and 
moral  paradoxes.  It  is  a  science  in  which  the  mere 
amateur  can  be  of  great  use,  but  which  requires  for 
its  successful  cultivation  the  wide  knowledge  of  the 
student  of  physical  science  and  the  critical  accuracy 
of  the  scholar. 

The  questions  which  you  have  drawn  up,  and  the 
leading  principles  which  you  recommend  for  the 
guidance  of  your  collahovateurs,  seem  to  me  excellent. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  257 

If  you  could  consult  the  Annual  Reports  of  the 
American  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  and  more  particu- 
larly the  excellent  papers  of  its  Director,  Mr.  J.  W. 
Powell,  you  would  find  them,  Ttiutatis  mutandis,  very- 
useful  for  3'our  own  purposes. 

If  I  may  point  out  some  dangers  which  seem  to 
me  to  threaten  the  safe  progress  of  ethnological 
inquiry  in  India  and  everywhere  else,  they  are  the 
same  to  which  you  yourself  have  called  attention. 
Foremost  among  them  I  should  mention  the  vague- 
ness of  the  ordinary  ethnological  terminology,  which 
has  led  to  much  confusion  of  thouo^ht  and  ought  to 
be  remedied  ferro  et  igne.  You  are  fully  aware  of 
the  mischief  that  is  produced  by  employing  the  ter- 
minology of  Comparative  Philology  in  an  ethnological 
sense.  I  have  uttered  the  same  warniug  again  and 
again.  In  my  letter  to  the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  on  the 
Turanian  languages,  published  as  far  back  as  1853, 
I  devoted  a  whole  chapter  to  pointing  out  the  necessity 
of  keeping  these  two  lines  of  research  —  the  philo- 
logical and  the  ethnological — completely  separate,  at 
least  for  the  present.  In  my  later  works,  too,  I  have 
protested  as  strongly  as  I  could  against  the  unholy 
alliance  of  these  two  sciences — Comparative  Philo- 
logy and  Ethnology.  But  my  warnings  have  been 
of  little  effect;  and  such  is  the  influence  of  evil 
communications,  that  I  myself  cannot  plead  quite 
not-guilty  as  to  having  used  linguistic  terms  in  an 
ethnological  sense.  Still  it  is  an  evil  that  ought  to  be 
resisted  with  all  our  might.  Ethnologists  persist  in 
writing  of  Aryas,  Skemites,  and  Turanians,  Ugrians, 
Dravidians,  Munda,  Bantib  races,  &c.,  forgetting 
that  these  terms  have  nothing  to  do  with  blood,  or 

VOL.  I.  s 


258  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

bones,  or  hair,  or  facial  angles,  but  simply  and  solely 
with  language.  Aryas  are  those  who  speak  Aryan 
languages,  whatever  their  colour,  whatever  their  blood. 
In  calling  them  Aryas  we  predicate  nothing  of  them 
except  that  the  grammar  of  their  language  is  Aryan. 
The  classification  of  Aryas  and  Shemites  is  based  on 
linguistic  grounds  and  on  nothing  else ;  and  it  is  only 
because  languages  must  be  spoken  by  somebody  that 
we  may  allow  ourselves  to  speak  of  language  as 
synonymous  with  peoples. 

In  India  we  have,  first  of  all,  the  two  principal 
ingredients  of  the  population  —  the  dark  aboriginal 
inhabitants  and  their- more  fair-skinned  conquerors. 
Besides  these  two,  there  have  been  enormous  floods 
of  neighbouring  races,  —  Scythians  from  the  North- 
West,  Mongolians  from  the  North-East,  overwhelming 
from  time  to  time  large  tracts  of  Northern  India. 
There  have,  besides,  been  im*oads  of  Persians,  Greeks, 
Komans,  Mohammedans  of  every  description,  Afghans, 
and  last,  but  not  least,  Europeans, — all  mingling  more 
or  less  freely  with  the  original  inhabitants  and 
among  themselves.  Here,  therefore,  the  ethnologist 
has  a  splendid  oj)portuuity  of  discovering  some  tests, 
apart  from  language,  by  which,  even  after  a  neigh- 
bourly intercourse  lasting  for  thousands  of  years, 
the  descendants  of  one  race  may  be  told  from  the 
descendants  of  the  others. 

We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  deceived  by 
sacred  law  books.  The  veiy  fact  of  their  forbidding 
intermarriages  between  different  races  shows  that 
human  nature  was  too  strong  for  them.  Inter- 
marriages, whether  forbidden  or  sanctioned  by  the 
law,  took  place ;  and  we  know  that  the  consequence 


CLASSinCATION    OP    MANKIND.  259 

of  one  single  intermarriage  might  tell  in  a  few  gene- 
rations on  thousands  of  people.  Here,  then,  there  is 
a  promising  field  for  the  ethnologist,  if  only  he  will 
shut  his  ears  to  the  evidence  of  language.  As  the 
philologist  classifies  his  languages  without  asking  a 
single  question  by  whom  they  were  spoken,  let  the 
ethnologist  classify  his  skulls  without  inquiring  what 
language  had  its  habitat  in  them.  After  each  has 
finished  his  classification,  it  will  be  time  for  the 
ethnologist  or  the  linguist  to  compare  their  results, 
but  not  till  then ;  otherwise  wo  shall  never  arrive  at 
truly  scientific  conclusions. 

To  give  one  instance.  When  Mr.  Hodgson  had 
published  his  valuable  vocabularies  of  the  non-San- 
skritic  dialects  spoken  in  India,  he,  like  Lassen,  seems 
to  have  been  so  convinced  that  the  people  who  spoke 
them  in  the  interior  of  India  must  have  been  either 
the  aboriginal  races  or  their  fair-skinned  Brahmanic 
conquerors,  that  in  spite  of  most  characteristic  differ- 
ences he  referred  that  whole  cluster  of  dialects  which 
we  now  call  Munda  or  Kolarian  to  the  Dravidian 
family  of  speech.  Trusting  simply  to  the  guidance 
of  language,  and  wdthout  paying  the  slightest  regard 
to  the  strangely  conflicting  accounts  as  to  the  physical 
characteristics  of  these  Munda  tribes,  I  pointed  out  in 
1853  that  these  dialects  differed  as  much  from  the 
Dravidian  as  from  the  Sanskritic  type,  and  that  they 
must  be  admitted  as  a  separate  family  of  speech  on  the 
soil  of  India.  Everybody  accepted  my  discovery,  but 
unfortunately  very  soon  the  term  Munda  or  Kolarian, 
which  was  intended  as  a  linguistic  term  only,  was 
used  ethnologically ;  and  we  now  constantly  read  of 
a  Kolarian  race,  as  if  we  knew  anything  to  prove 

s  2 


260  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

that  the  people  who  speak  Kolarian  languages  share 
all  the  same  unmixed  blood. 

If  you  were  to  issue  an  interdict  against  any  of 
your  collahorateurs  using  linguistic  terms  in  an  ethno- 
logical sense,  I  believe  that  your  Ethnological  Survey 
of  India  would  inaugurate  a  new  and  most  important 
era  both  in  the  science  of  language  and  in  the  science 
of  man.  And  while  I  am  speaking  of  the  confusion  of 
terms  with  regard  to  language  and  race,  may  I  point 
out  a  similar  danger  which  seems  to  me  to  threaten 
your  searches  into  the  origin  of  castes  and  tribes  in 
India.  On  this  point  also  you  have  to  a  certain 
extent  anticipated  my  apprehensions,  and  I  need  not 
fear  that  you  will  misapprehend  my  remarks,  though 
they  can  only  be  very  short  and  imperfect. 

Caste  is  a  European  word,  but  it  has  become  so 
completely  naturalised  in  India  that  the  vagueness 
of  its  meaning  seems  to  have  reacted  even  on  the 
native  mind.  The  Sanskrit  word  for  caste  is  var^ia, 
literally  '  colour,'  or  (/ati,  literally  '  kith,'  But  though 
the  original  meaning  of  these  words  is  clear,  it  is 
w^ell  known  how  much  their  meaning  has  varied 
during  different  periods  in  the  history  of  Indian 
society.  As  to  colour,  there  are  now  true  Brahmans 
in  the  south  of  India  as  black  as  Pariahs ;  as  to  kith 
and  kin,  whatever  the  orthodox  doctrine  may  be,  the 
Brahmans  themselves  are  honest  enough  to  confess 
that  even  in  the  earliest  times  Kshatriyas  became 
Brahmans,  such  as  Visvamitra ;  nay  more,  outsiders, 
such  as  the  carpenters  under  Bribu,  were  admitted 
to  the  Brahmanic  community  and  endowed  with 
Brahmanic  gods  the  i^ibhus  (see  '  Chips  from  a  German 
Workshop,'  ii.  p.  131,  and  my  article  on  Caste,  ibid., 


CLASSIFICATION    OP    MANKIND.  261 

pp.  301-359).  What  took  place  during  the  Vedic 
period  is  taking  place,  as  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  has  so  well 
shown,  at  the  present  day,  only  we  must  take  care 
not  to  ascribe  to  the  proselytising  spirit  of  the  Brah- 
mans  what  is  simply  the  result  of  the  religious  and 
social  flunkeyism  of  the  lower  races  of  India. 

Caste  ought  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  school, 
K&T&na. — from  race  and  family,  gotra  and  kula. 
This  subject  is  beset  with  many  difficulties,  and  I  do 
not  myself  profess  to  see  quite  clearly  on  the  many 
intricate  questions  connected  with  it.  With  regard 
to  the  early  history  of  races  and  families  there  is 
a  rich  literature  in  Sanskrit,  and  it  would  be  very 
desirable  if  you  could  secure  the  assistance  of  a  really 
learned  pundit  to  give  you  a  clear  and  full  account 
of  what  can  be  known  from  these  sources.  Some  of 
them  are  of  very  ancient  date.  Thus  you  will  find 
in  the  Vedic  G7'ihya-sutras  a  list  of  Brahmanic  gotras 
(see  my  '  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,' 
pp.  379-3^8),  and,  strange  to  say,  you  will  see  that 
the  interdict  against  marriages  between  members  of 
the  same  gotra  is  by  no  means  so  universal  as  it  is 
supposed  to  be.  Even  if  some  of  the  statements  set 
forth  in  these  Brahmanic  treatises  may  seem  to  repre- 
sent pia  vota  rather  than  real  facts,  we  must  not 
forget  that  such  theories  have  often  very  power- 
fully influenced  the  later  development  of  social  life 
in  India.  I  have  no  doubt  that  with  proper  pre- 
cautions you  might  derive  most  valuable  help  from 
educated  natives,  who  know  the  meaning  of  the  terms 
taken  from  their  own  language  and  how  far  they 
really  correspond  with  the  terms  which  we  use  in 
English. 


262  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

It  seems  to  me  a  dangerous  habit  to  transfer  terms 
which  have  their  proper  and  well-defined  meaning  in 
one  country  to  similar  objects  in  other  countries.  It 
is,  of  course,  very  tempting  when  we  see  in  India — 
nay,  almost  in  every  country  of  the  world, — two  or 
more  vertical  stones  with  another  on  the  top  of  them 
to  greet  them  as  cromlechs.  But  a  cromlech  is  a 
stone  monument  erected  by  Celtic  people,  and  to 
speak  of  cromlechs  in  India  is  apt  to  be  misleading. 
It  is  far  better  to  describe  each  class  of  rude  stone 
monuments  by  itself,  and,  if  possible^  to  call  them  by 
their  own  local  name.  In  that  way  their  individual 
features  will  not  be  overlooked ;  and  this  is  of  great 
importance, — nay,  often  of  greater  importance  than 
to  perceive  the  general  similarity  of  such  stone  monu- 
ments in  the  most  distant  quarters  of  our  globe. 

I  am  even  afraid  of  such  words  as  totemism, 
fetialdsin,  and  several  other  isms,  which  have  found 
their  way  into  ethnological  science.  They  are  very 
convenient  and  commodious  terms,  and,  if  used  with 
proper  care,  quite  unobjectionable.  But  they  often 
interfere  with  accurate  observation  and  distinction. 
A  fetish,  from  meaning  originally  something  very  defi- 
nite in  the  worship  of  the  Negroes  on  the  west  coast 
of  Africa,  has  become  a  general  name  of  almost  any 
inanimate  object  of  religious  worship.  The  Palladium, 
the  Cross,  the  black  stone  of  Kaaba,  have  all  been 
called  fetishes  as  much  as  the  tail  of  a  dog  worshipped 
on  the  Congo,  as  if  we  could  arrive  at  any  sound 
conclusions  by  throwing  together,  regardless  of  their 
antecedents,  objects  of  worship  belonging,  it  is  sup- 
posed, to  the  earliest  and  to  the  latest  phases  of 
religious  belief. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MAXKIXD.  263 

Again,  if  there  is  anything  like  totem  ism  in  India, 
let  us  have  a  full  and  detailed  description  of  each 
individual  case,  instead  of  hiding  all  that  may  be 
really  enlightening  under  the  large  bushel  of  totemism. 
Almost  anything  that  outwardly  distinguishes  one 
race  from  another  is  now  called  totem,  though  what 
seems  to  be  the  same,  and  even  what  answers  the 
same  purpose,  is  by  no  means  always  the  same  in  its 
origin.  Think  only  of  the  different  nagas  or  snakes 
in  India.  People  are  called  nagas,  they  worship 
nagas,  they  use  emblems  of  nagas,  and  we  maj'' 
believe  that  they  do  not  eat  nagas.  Is  the  naga  or 
serpent  therefore  to  be  simply  classed  as  a  totem  ? 
There  are  fagots  et  fagots,  and  any  one  who  has  lived 
in  India  knows  that  in  India,  as  elsewhere,  nothing 
has  such  various  antecedents,  and  nothing  serves  such 
different  purports,  as  naga,  the  serpent. 

I  have  written  down  these  few  remarks,  not  with 
a  view  of  offering  you  advice  in  the  prosecution  of 
your  ethnological  inquiries  in  India,  but  in  order  to 
show  to  you  how  entirely  I  agree  with  the  spirit 
in  which  you  have  hitherto  conducted  your  Ethno- 
logical Survey  of  India,  and  I  hope  will  continue  it 
and  brin^c  it  to  a  successful  issue. 


HORATIO  HALE  ON  '  THE  TRUE  BASIS  OF 
ANTHROPOLOGY  i.' 

The  Nestor  of  American  philologists,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  indefatigable  Ulysses  of  comparative 

'  *  Language  as  a  Test  of  Mental   Capacity.'     Ey   Horatio  Kale. 
From  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  1891. 


264  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

philology  in  that  country,  Mr.  Horatio  Hale,  has  just 
published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of 
Canada,  an  important  essay  on  '  Language  as  a  Test 
of  Mental  Capacity,'  being  an  attempt  to  demonstrate 
the  true  basis  of  anthropology.  His  first  important 
contribution  to  the  science  of  language  dates  back  as 
far  as  1838-42,  when  he  acted  as  ethnographer  to  the 
United  States  Exploring  Expedition,  and  published 
the  results  of  his  observations  in  a  valuable  and  now 
very  scarce  volume,  '  Ethnography  and  Philology.' 
He  has  since  left  the  United  States  and  settled  in 
Canada.  All  his  contributions  to  American  ethnology 
and  philology  have  been  distinguished  by  their 
originality,  accuracy,  and  trustworthiness.  Every 
one  of  them  marks  a  substantial  addition  to  our 
knowledge,  and,  in  spite  of  the  hackneyed  disapproval 
with  which  reviewers  receive  reprints  of  essays  pub- 
lished in  periodicals,  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that 
his  essays  have  never  been  published  in  a  collected 
form. 

Mr.  Horatio  Hale's  object  in  the  essay  before  us  is 
to  show  that  language  separates  man  from  all  other 
animals  by  a  line  as  distinct  as  that  which  separates 
a  tree  from  a  stone,  or  a  stone  from  a  star. 

'  A  treatise,'  he  writes,  '  which  should  undertake  to 
show  how  inanimate  matter  became  a  plaut  or  an 
animal,  would,  of  course,  possess  great  interest  for 
biologists,  but  it  would  not  be  accepted  by  them  as 
a  treatise  on  biology.  In  like  manner  a  work  dis- 
playing the  anatomy  of  man  in  comparison  with  that 
of  other  animals  cannot  but  be  of  great  value,  and 
a  treatise  showing  how  the  human  frame  was  probably 
developed  from  that  of  a  lower  animal  must  be  of 


CLASSIFICATION    OJF    MANJs-IXD.  265 

extreme  interest ;  but  these  would  be  works,  not  of 
anthropology,  but  of  physiology  or  biology.  Anthro- 
pology begins  where  mere  brute  life  gives  way  to 
something  widely  different  and  indefinitely  higher. 
It  begins  with  that  endowment  which  characterises 
man,  and  distinguishes  him  from  all  other  creatures. 
The  real  basis  of  the  science  of  anthropology  is  found 
in  articulate  speech,  with  all  that  it  indicates  and 
embodies.'  He  does  not  hesitate  to  maintain  that 
solely  by  their  languages  can  the  tribes  of  men  be 
scientifically  classified,  their  affiliations  discovered, 
and  their  mental  qualities  discerned.  These  premises, 
he  says,  compel  us  to  the  logical  conclusion  that 
linguistic  anthropology  is  the  only  '  Science  of  Man.' 
These  words  explain  at  once  the  whole  character  of 
this  important  essay.  Mr.  Horatio  Hale  is  a  great 
admirer  of  Darwin,  but  not  of  the  Darwinians.  He 
contrasts  Darwin's  discernment  of  the  value  of 
language  with  the  blindness  of  his  followers,  who  are 
physiologists  and  nothing  else.  Why  anthropology 
has  of  late  been  swamped  by  physiology,  Mr.  Horatio 
Hale  explains  by  the  fact  that  the  pursuit  of  the  latter 
science  is  so  infinitely  the  easier.  '  To  measure  human 
bodies  and  human  bones,  to  compute  the  comparative 
number  of  blue  eyes  and  black  eyes  in  any  community, 
to  determine  whether  the  section  of  a  human  hair  is 
circular,  or  oval,  or  oblong,  to  study  and  compare  the 
habits  of  various  tribes  of  man,  as  we  would  study 
and  compare  the  habits  of  beavers  and  bees,  these  are 
tasks  which  are  comparatively  simple.  Eut  the  patient 
toil  and  protracted  mental  exertion  required  to  pene- 
trate into  the  mysteries  of  a  strange  language,  and 
to  acquire  a  knowledge  profound  enough  to  afford  the 


S66  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

means  of  determining  the  intellectual  endowments  of 
the  people  who  speak  it,  are  such  as  very  few  men  of 
science  have  been  willing  to  undergo.'  Mr.  Horatio 
Hale  has  a  right  to  speak  with  authority  on  this 
point,  for,  besides  having  studied  the  several  lan- 
guages of  North  America,  of  Australia  and  Polynesia, 
no  one  has  more  carefully  measured  skulls,  registered 
eyes,  measured  hair,  and  collected  antiquities  and 
curiosities  of  all  kinds  than  he  has  done  during  his 
long  and  busy  life.  His  knowledge  of  the  customs  of 
uncivilised  races  is  very  considerable.  No  one  knows 
the  Indian  tribes  and  likewise  the  Australians  better 
than  he  does,  and  he  is  in  consequence  very  severe  on 
mere  theorisers  who  imagine  they  have  proved  how 
the  primitive  hordes  of  human  beings,  after  herding 
together  like  cattle,  emerged  slowly  through  wife- 
capture,  mother-right,  father-right,  endogamy,  exo- 
gamy, totemism,  fetichism,  and  clan  systems,  to  what 
may  be  called  a  social  status.  He  holds  with  Darwin 
that  man  was  from  the  beginning  a  pairing  animal, 
and  that  the  peculiar  usages  of  barbarous  tribes  are 
simply  the  efforts  of  men,  pressed  down  by  hard 
conditions,  below  the  natural  stage,  to  keep  them- 
selves from  sinking  lower.  He  gives  a  most  graphic 
description  of  changes  of  civilisation  produced  by 
change  of  surroundings  in  the  case  of  the  savage 
Athapascans,  and  their  descendants,  the  quick-witted 
and  inventive  Navajos.  He  holds  that  the  inhabitants 
of  Australia  were  originally  Dravidians,  and  that  their 
socialand linguistic  deterioration  is  due  to  the  miserable 
character  of  the  island  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge, 
possibly  from  the  Aryans,  when  pressing  upon  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  Dekhan.     He  points  out 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    MANKIND.  267 

a  few  grammatical  terminations  in  the  Dravidian 
languages  which  show  some  similarity  to  the  ter- 
minations of  Australian  dialects.  The  dative,  for 
instance,  is  formed  in  the  Dravidian  Tulu  by  ku,  and 
in  the  Lake  Macquario  and  Wiradhurei  dialects  of 
Australia  by  ho.  In  both  families  the  /*;  of  hu  and 
ko  is  liable  to  be  changed  into  g.  The  plural  suffix 
in  Tamil  is  gal,  in  Wiradhurei  galan.  Thus  in  Tamil 
viaram,  tree,  forms  the  nom.  plur.  marangal,  the  dat. 
plur.  marangaluk-ku ',  while  in  Wiradhurei,  bagai, 
shell,  appears  in  the  nom.  plur.  as  hagaigalan,  in  the 
dat.  plur.  as  hugaigalan-gu.  On  this  point,  however, 
Mr.  Horatio  Hale  ought  to  produce  fuller  evidence, 
particularly  from  numerals,  and  the  common  house- 
hold words  of  uncivilised  tribes.  The  pronouns  show 
many  coincidences  with  Dravidian  and  Australian 
languages.  No  one  is  better  qualified  for  that  task 
than  he  is,  for  we  really  owe  to  him  the  first  trust- 
worthy information  about  the  Australian  dialects. 
He  considers  all  the  dialects  spoken  in  Australia  as 
varieties  of  one  original  speech,  and  he  has  proved 
their  wonderful  structure  by  several  specimens  con- 
tained in  his  first  book,  published  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  and  again  in  this  last  essay  of  his. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  essay  will  provoke  much 
opposition,  but  no  one  can  read  it  -without  deriving 
most  valuable  information  from  it,  and  without  being 
impressed  with  the  singularly  clear  and  unbiassed 
judgment  of  the  author.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  if 
there  is  any  controversy  it  may  be  carried  on  in  the 
same  scientific  and  thoroughly  gentlemanlike  tone  in 
which  Mr.  Horatio  Hale  deals  with  those  whom  he 
has  to  reprove.     Thus,  when  Prof.  Whitney,  a  fertile 


268  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

■writer  on  linguistic  science  in  America,  commits 
himself  to  the  statement  that  the  Dravidian  languages 
have  '  a  general  agglutinative  structure  ivith  prefixes 
only'  Mr.  Horatio  Hale  good-naturedly  remarks,  '  this 
is  doubtless  a  misprint  for  iv'dh  suffixes  only.'  And 
when  Prof.  Gerland,  in  his  continuation  of  Waitz's 
invaluable  work,  'Die  Anthropologic  der  Naturvolker,' 
refers  to  Mr.  Horatio  Hale  as  describing  the  hair  of 
the  Australians  as  long,  fine,  and  woolly,  he  points 
out  that  he,  on  the  contrary,  described  their  hair  as 
neither  woolly,  like  that  of  the  Africans  and  Mela- 
nesians ;  nor  frizzled,  like  that  of  the  Feejeeans ;  nor 
coarse,  stiff,  and  curling,  as  with  the  Malays ;  but  as 
long,  fine,  and  wavy,  like  that  of  Europeans.  He 
naturally  protests  against  Prof.  Friedrich  Mliller 
charging  him  with  having  committed  such  a  blunder, 
which,  as  he  remarks,  would  be  as  bad  as  if  he  had 
described  the  Eskimos  as  having  black  skins.  But 
there  is  not  a  single  offensive  expression  in  the  whole 
of  his  essay,  though  the  opportunities  would  have 
been  many  for  adopting  the  style  of  hitting  in- 
discriminately above  and  below  the  belt.  Though 
he  differs  from  Prof.  Whitney,  he  evidently  ranks 
him  very  high,  and  treats  him  with  that  courtesy 
with  which  every  scholar  ought  to  treat  his  fellow- 
labourers. 


ON   FEEEDOM/ 

NOT  more  than  twenty  years  have  passed  since 
John    Stuart    Mill    sent    forth    his    plea    for 
Liberty  ^. 

If  there  is  one  among  the  leaders  of  thought  in 
England  who,  by  the  elevation  of  his  character  and 
the  calm  composure  of  his  mind,  deserved  the  so 
often  misplaced  title  of  Serene  Highness,  it  was, 
I  think,  John  Stuart  Mill. 

But    in    his   Essay    '  On   Liberty,'    Mill   for    once 

*  An  AdJres3  delivered  on  the  20th  October,  1879,  before  the  Eir- 
mingham  and  Midland  Institute. 

*  Mill  tells  us  that  his  Essay  'On  Liberty'  was  planned  and  written 
down  in  1S54.  It  was  in  mounting  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  in  January, 
1855,  that  the  thought  first  arose  of  converting  it  into  a  volume,  and  it 
was  not  published  till  1S59.  '^^^  author,  who  in  his  Autobiography 
speaks  with  exquisite  modesty  of  all  his  literary  performances,  allows 
himself  one  single  exception  when  speaking  of  his  Essay  '  On  Liberty.' 
'  None  of  my  writing?,'  he  says,  '  Lave  been  eitlier  so  carefully  com- 
posed or  so  sedulously  corrected  as  this.'  Its  final  revision  was  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  winter  of  1858  to  1859,  which  he  and  his  wife  had 
arranged  to  pass  in  the  South  of  Europe,  a  hope  which  was  frustrated 
by  his  wife's  death.  '  The  "  Liberty,"  '  he  writes,  '  is  likely  to  survive 
longer  than  anything  else  that  I  have  written  (with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  "Logic"),  because  the  conjunction  of  her  mind  with 
mine  has  rendered  it  a  kind  of  philosophic  text-book  of  a  single  truth, 
which  the  changes  progressively  taking  place  in  modern  society  tend  to 
bring  out  into  stronger  relief :  the  importance,  to  man  and  society,  of 
a  large  variety  of  character,  and  of  giving  full  freedom  to  human  nature 
to  expand  itself  in  innumerable  and  conflicting  directions.' 


270  r.ECENT    ESSAYS. 

becomes  passionate.  In  presenting  his  Eill  of  Rights, 
in  stepping  forward  as  the  champion  of  individual 
liberty,  a  new  spirit  seems  to  have  taken  possession 
of  him.  He  speaks  like  a  martyr,  or  the  defender 
of  martyrs.  The  individual  human  soul,  with  its 
unfathomable  endowments,  and  its  capacity  of  growing 
to  something  undreamt  of  in  our  philosophy,  becomes 
in  his  eyes  a  sacred  thing,  and  every  encroachment 
on  its  world-wide  domain  is  treated  as  sacrilege. 
Society,  the  arch-enemy  of  the  rights  of  individuality, 
is  represented  like  an  evil  spirit,  whom  it  behoves 
every  true  man  to  resist  with  might  and  main,  and 
whose  demands,  as  they  cannot  be  altogether  ignored, 
must  be  reduced  at  all  hazards  to  the  lowest  level. 

I  doubt  whether  any  of  the  principles  for  which 
Mill  pleaded  so  warmly  and  strenuously  in  his  Essay 
'  On  Liberty '  would  at  the  present  day  be  challenged 
or  resisted,  even  by  the  most  illiberal  of  philosophers, 
or  the  most  conservative  of  politicians.  Mill's  demands 
sound  very  humble  to  ouo^  ears.  They  amount  to  no 
more  than  this,  'that  the  individual  is  not  accountable 
to  society  for  his  actions  so  far  as  they  concern  the 
interests  of  no  person  but  himself,  and  that  he  may 
be  subjected  to  social  or  legal  punishments  for  such 
actions  only  as  are  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of 
others.' 

Is  there  any  one  here  present  who  doubts  the 
justice  of  that  principle,  or  who  would  wish  to  reduce 
the  freedom  of  the  individual  to  a  smaller  measure? 
Whatever  social  tyranny  may  have  existed  twenty 
years  ago,  when  it  wrung  that  fiery  protest  from  the 
lips  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  can  we  imagine  a  state  of 
society,  not  totally  Utopian,  in  which  the  individual 


ON  FREEDOM.  271 

man  need  be  less  ashamed  of  his  social  fetters,  in 
which  he  could  more  freely  utter  all  his  honest 
convictions,  more  boldly  propound  all  his  theories, 
more  fearlessly  ngitate  for  their  speedy  realisation ; 
in  which,  in  fact,  each  man  can  be  so  entirely  himself 
as  the  society  of  England,  such  as  it  now  is,  such 
as  generations  of  hard-thinking  and  hard-workiug 
Englishmen  have  made  it,  and  left  it  as  the  most 
sacred  inheritance  to  their  sons  and  daughters  ? 

Look  through  the  whole  of  history,  not  excepting 
tho  brightest  days  of  republican  freedom  at  Athens 
and  Rome,  and  I  know  you  will  not  find  one  single 
period  in  which  the  measure  of  Liberty  accorded  to 
each  individual  was  larger  than  it  is  at  present,  at 
least  in  England.  And  if  you  wish  to  realise  the  full 
blessings  of  the  time  in  which  we  live,  compare  Mill's 
plea  for  Liberty  with  another  written  not  much  more 
than  two  hundred  years  8,go,  and  by  a  thinker  not 
inferior  either  in  power  or  boldness  to  Mill  himself. 
According  to  Hobbes,  the  only  freedom  which  an 
individual  in  his  ideal  state  has  a  right  to  claim  is 
what  he  calls  '  freedom  of  thought,'  and  that  freedom 
of  thought  consists  in  our  being  able  to  think  what 
we  like — so  long  as  we  keep  it  to  ourselves.  Surely, 
such  freedom  of  thought  existed  even  in  the  days  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  we  should  never  call  thought  free, 
if  it  had  to  be  kept  a  prisoner  in  solitary  and  silent 
confinement.  By  freedom  of  thought  we  mean  freedom 
of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press,  freedom  of  action, 
whether  individual  or  associated,  and  of  that  freedom 
the  present  generation,  as  compared  with  all  former 
generations,  the  English  nation,  as  compared  with  all 
other  nations,  enjoys,  there  can  be  no  doubt.,  a  good 


272  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

measure,  pressed  down,  and  shaken  together,  and 
sometimes  running  over. 

It  may  be  said  that  some  dogmas  still  remain  in 
politics,  in  religion,  and  in  morality ;  but  those  who 
defend  them  claim  no  longer  any  infallibility,  and 
those  who  attack  them,  however  small  their  minority, 
need  fear  no  violence,  nay,  may  reckon  on  an  impar- 
tial and  even  sympathetic  hearing,  as  soon  as  people 
discover  in  their  pleadings  the  true  ring  of  honest 
conviction  and  the  w^armth  inspired  by  an  unselfish 
love  of  truth. 

It  has  seemed  strange  therefore  to  many  readers  of 
Mill,  particularly  on  the  Continent,  that  this  cry  for 
Liberty,  this  demand  for  freedom  for  every  individual 
to  be  what  he  is,  and  to  develop  all  the  germs  of  his 
nature,  should  have  come  from  what  is  known  as  the 
freest  of  all  countries,  England.  We  might  well 
understand  such  a  cry  of  indignation  if  it  had  reached 
us  from  Russia ;  but  why  should  English  philo- 
sophers, of  all  others,  have  to  protest  against  the 
tyranny  of  society  ?  It  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  in 
countries  governed  despotically,  the  individual,  unless 
he  is  obnoxious  to  the  Government,  enjoys  greater 
freedom,  or  rather  licence,  than  in  a  country  like 
England,  which  governs  itself.  Russian  society,  for 
instance,  is  extremely  indulgent.  It  tolerates  in  its 
rulers  and  statesmen  a  haughty  defiance  of  the 
simplest  rules  of  social  propriety,  and  it  seems 
amused  rather  than  astonished  or  indignant  at  the 
vagaries,  the  frenzies,  and  outrages,  of  those  who  in 
brilliant  drawing-rooms  or  lecture-rooms  preach  the 
doctrines  of  what  is  called  Nihilism  or  Individualism^, 

^  Herzen    defined  Nihilism  as  *  the  most  jicTfect  freedom  from  all 


ON    FUEEDOM.  2  73 

viz.  '  that  society  must  be  regenerated  by  a  struggle 
for  existence  and  the  survival  of  the  strongest,  pro- 
cesses which  Nature  has  sanctioned^  and  which  have 
proved  successful  among  wild  animals.'  If  there  is 
danger  in  these  doctrines  the  Government  is  expected 
to  see  to  it.  It  may  place  watchmen  at  the  doors  of 
every  house  and  at  the  corner  of  every  street,  but  it 
must  not  count  on  the  better  classes  coming  forward 
to  enrol  themselves  as  special  constables,  or  even  on 
the  co-operation  of  public  opinion  which  in  England 
would  annihilate  that  kind  of  Nihilism  with  one 
glance  of  scorn  and  pity. 

In  a  self-governed  country  like  England,  the  re- 
sistance which  society,  if  it  likes,  can  oppose  to  the 
individual  in  the  assertion  of  his  riorhts,  is  far  more 
compact  and  powerful  than  in  Russia,  or  even  in 
Germany.  Even  where  it  does  not  employ  the  arm 
of  the  law,  society  knows  how  to  use  that  softer,  but 
more  crushing  pressure,  that  calm,  but  Gorgon-like 
look  which  only  the  bravest  and  stoutest  hearts  know 
how  to  resist. 

It  is  rather  against  that  indirect  repression  which 
a  well- organised  society  exercises,  both  through  its 
male  and  female  representatives,  that  Mill's  demand 
for  Liberty  seems  directed.  He  does  not  stand  up  for 
unlimited  licence;  on  the  contrary,  he  would  have 
been  the  most  strenuous  defender  of  that  balance  of 
power  between  the  weak  and  the  strong  on  which  all 
social  life  depends.  But  he  resents  those  smaller 
penalties  which  society  likes  to  inflict  on  those  who 

settled  concepts,  from  all  inherited  restraints  and  impediments  wliich 
hamper  the  progress  of  the  Occidental  intellect  with  the  historical  drag 
tied  to  its  foot.' 

VOL.  I.  T 


274  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

disturb  its  dignified  peace  and  comfort : — avoidance, 
exclusion,  a  cold  look,  a  stinging  remark.  Had 
Mill  any  right  to  complain  of  these  social  penalties  ■? 
Would  it  not  rather  amount  to  an  interference  with 
individual  liberty  to  wish  to  deprive  any  individual 
or  any  number  of  individuals  of  those  weapons  of 
self-defence'?  Those  who  themselves  think  and  speak 
freely,  have  hardly  a  right  to  complain,  if  others  claim 
the  same  privilege.  Mill  himself  called  the  Conserva- 
tive party  the  stupid  party  'par  excellence y  and  he 
took  great  pains  to  explain  that  it  was  so,  not  by 
accident,  but  by  necessity.  Need  he  wonder  if  those 
whom  he  whipped  and  scourged  used  their  own  whips 
and  scourges  against  so  merciless  a  critic. 

Freethinkers,  and  I  use  that  name  as  a  title  of 
honour  for  all  who,  like  Mill,  claim  for  every  indi- 
vidual the  fullest  freedom  in  thought,  word,  or  deed, 
compatible  with  the  freedom  of  others,  are  apt  to 
make  one  mistake.  Conscious  of  their  own  honest 
intentions,  they  cannot  bear  to  be  mistrusted  or 
slighted.  They  expect  society  to  submit  to  their 
often  very  painful  operations  as  a  patient  submits 
to  the  knife  of  the  surgeon.  That  is  not  in  human 
nature.  The  enemy  of  abuses  is  always  abused  by 
his  enemies.  Society  will  never  yield  one  inch  without 
resistance,  and  few  reformers  live  long  enough  to 
receive  the  thanks  of  those  whom  they  have  reformed. 
Mill's  unsolicited  election  to  Parliament  was  a  triumph 
not  often  shared  by  social  reformers ;  it  was  as 
exceptional  as  Bright's  admission  to  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet,  or  Stanley's  appointment  as  Dean  of  West- 
minster. Such  anomalies  will  happen  in  a  country 
fortunately  so  full  of  anomalies  as  England ;  but,  as 


ON    FREEDOM.  275 

a  rule,  a  political  reformer  must  not  ho  angry  if  ho 
passes  through  life  without  the  title  of  Right  Honour- 
able ;  nor  should  a  man,  if  ho  will  always  speak  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth, 
be  disappointed  if  he  dies  a  martyr  rather  than  a 
Bishop. 

Bat  CTantinof  even  that  in  Mill's  time  there  existed 
some  traces  of  social  t3'ranny,  where  are  they  now  ? 
Look  at  the  newspapers  and  the  journals.  Is  there 
any  theory  too  wild,  any  reform  too  violent,  to  be 
openly  defended  ?  Look  at  the  drawing-rooms  or  the 
meetinefs  of  learned  societies.  Are  not  the  most 
eccentric  talkers  the  spoiled  children  of  the  fashionable 
world  1  When  young  lords  begin  to  discuss  the  pro- 
priety of  limiting  the  rights  of  inheritance,  and  young 
tutors  are  not  afraid  to  propose  curtailing  the  long 
vacation,  surely  we  need  not  complain  of  the  intoler- 
ance of  English  society. 

Whenever  I  state  these  facts  to  my  German  and 
French  and  Italian  friends,  who  from  reading  Mill's 
Essay  '  On  Liberty '  have  derived  the  impression  that, 
however  large  an  amount  of  political  liberty  England 
may  enjoy,  it  enjoys  but  little  of  intellectual  freedom, 
they  are  generally  willing  to  be  converted  so  far  as 
London,  or  other  great  cities,  are  concerned.  But 
look  at  your  Universities,  they  say,  the  nurseries  of 
English  thought !  Can  you  compare  their  mediaeval 
spirit,  their  monastic  institutions,  their  scholastic 
philosophy,  with  the  freshness  and  freedom  of  the 
Continental  Universities  ?  Strong  as  these  prejudices 
about  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have  always  been,  they 
have  become  still  more  intense  since  Professor  Uelm- 
holtz,  in  an  inaugural  address  which  he  delivered  at 

T  2 


276  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

liis  installation  as  Rector  of  the  University  of  Berlin, 
lent  the  authority  of  his  great  name  to  these  miscon- 
ceptions. 'The  tutors,'  he  says  \  'in  the  English 
Universities  cannot  deviate  by  a  hair's -breadth  from 
the  dogmatic  system  of  the  English  Church,  without 
exposing  themselves  to  the  censure  of  their  Arch- 
bishops and  losing  their  pupils.'  In  German  Univer- 
sities, on  the  contrary,  we  are  told  that  the  extreme 
conclusions  of  materialistic  metaphysics,  the  boldest 
speculations  within  the  sphere  of  Darwin's  theory  of 
evolution,  may  be  propounded  without  let  or  hin- 
drance, quite  as  much  as  the  highest  apotheosis  of 
Papal  infallibility. 

Here  the  facts  on  which  Professor  Helmholtz  relies 
are  not  quite  correct,  and  the  writings  of  some  of  our 
most  eminent  tutors  supply  a  more  than  sufficient 
refutation  of  his  statements.  Archbishops  have  no 
official  position  whatsoever  in  English  universities, 
and  their  censure  of  an  Oxford  tutor  would  be  resented 
as  impertinent  by  the  whole  University.  Nor  does 
the  University,  as  such,  exercise  any  very  strict  con- 
trol over  the  tutors,  even  when  they  lecture  not  to 
their  own  College  only.  Each  Master  of  Arts  at 
Oxford  claims  now  the  right  to  lecture  [venia  docendi), 
and  I  doubt  whether  they  would  ever  submit  to  those 
restrictions  which,  in  Germany,  the  Faculty  imposes 
on  every  Pi^ivat-docent.  Privat-docevds  in  German 
Universities  have  been  rejected  by  the  Faculty  for 
incompetence,  and  silenced  for  insubordination.  I 
know  of  no  such  cases  at  Oxford  during  my  residence 

*  Ueber  die  akademische  Freiheit  der  deutschen  Universitaten, 
Eede  beim  Antritt  des  Kectorats  an  der  rriediich-Willielnis  Universitat 
in  Berlin,  am  15.  October,  1877,  gebalteu  von  Dr.  H.  Helmholtz, 


ON    FllEKDOAI.  27  7 

of  more  than  thirty  years,  nor  can  I  think  it  likely 
that  they  should  ever  occur. 

As  to  the  extreme  conclusions  of  materialistic 
metaphy.^ics,  there  are  Oxford  tutors  who  have  grap- 
pled with  the  systems  of  such  giants  as  Hobbes, 
Locke,  or  Hume,  and  who  are  not  likely  to  be 
frightened  by  Blichner  and  Vogt. 

I  know  comparisons  are  odious,  and  I  am  the  last 
man  who  w^ould  wish  to  draw  comparisons  between 
English  and  German  Universities  unfavourable  to  the 
latter.  But  with  regard  to  freedom  of  thought,  of 
speech,  and  action,  Professor  Helmholtz,  if  he  would 
spend  but  a  few  weeks  at  Oxford,  would  find  that 
we  enjoy  a  fuller  measure  of  freedom  here  than  the 
Professors  and  Privat-docents  in  any  Continental 
University.  The  publications  of  some  of  our  pro- 
fessors and  tutors  ought  at  least  to  have  convinced 
him  that  if  there  is  less  of  brave  w^ords  and  turbulent 
talk  in  their  writings,  they  display  throughout  a 
determination  to  speak  the  truth,  which  may  be 
matched,  but  could  not  easily  be  excelled,  by  the 
leaders  of  thought  in  France,  Germany,  or  Italy. 

The  real  difference  between  English  and  Conti- 
nental Universities  is  that  the  former  govern  them- 
selves, the  latter  are  governed.  Self-government 
entails  responsibilities,  sometimes  restraints  and  re- 
ticences. I  may  here  be  allowed  to  quote  the  words 
of  another  eminent  Professor  of  the  University  of 
Berlin,  Du  Bois  Reymond,  who,  in  addressing  his 
colleagues,  ventured  to  tell  them  \  '  We  have  still  to 

'  Ueber  eine  Akadeniie  der  deutsclien  Sprache,  p.  34.  Anotlur 
keen  observer  of  English  life,  Dr.  K.  Hillebrand,  in  an  article  in  the 
October  number  of  tlie  Nineteenth  Century,  remarks :  '  Nowhere  is 


278  KECENT    ESSAYS, 

learn  from  the  English  how  the  greatest  independence 
of  the  individual  is  compatible  with  willing  sub- 
mission to  salutary,  though  irksome,  statutes.'  That 
is  particularly  true  when  the  statutes  are  self-imposed. 
In  Germany,  as  Professor  Helmholtz  tells  us  himself, 
the  last  decision  in  almost  all  the  more  important 
affairs  of  the  Universities  rests  with  the  Government, 
and  he  does  not  deny  that  in  times  of  political  and 
ecclesiastical  tension,  a  most  inconsiderate  use  has 
])een  made  of  that  power.  There  are,  besides,  the  less 
important  matters,  such  as  raising  of  salaries,  leave  of 
absence,  scientific  missions,  even  titles  and  decorations, 
all  of  which  enable  a  clever  Minister  of  Instruction 
to  assert  his  personal  influence  among  Ihe  less  inde- 
pendent members  of  the  University.  In  Oxford  the 
University  does  not  know  the  Ministry,  nor  the 
Ministry  the  University.  The  acts  of  the  Govern- 
ment, be  it  Liberal  or  Conservative,  are  freely  dis- 
cussed, and  often  powerfully  resisted  by  the  academic 
constituencies,  and  the  personal  dislike  of  a  Minister 
or  Ministerial  Councillor  could  as  little  injure  a  pro- 
fessor or  tutor  as  his  favour  could  add  one  penny  to 
his  salary. 

But  these  are  minor  matters.  What  gives  their 
own  peculiar  character  to  the  English  Universities  is 
a  sense  of  power  and  responsibility:  power,  because 
they  are  the  most  respected  among  the  numerous 
corporations  in  the  country ;  responsibility,  because 
the  higher  education  of  the  whole  country  has  been 
committed  to  their  charge.  Their  only  master  is 
public  opinion   as    represented    in  Parliament,  their 

tiiere  greater  imiiviilual  liberty  tlian  in  England,  and  nowhere  do 
people  renounce  it  more  readily  of  their  own  accord.' 


ON    FREEDOM.  279 

only  incentive  their  own  sense  of  duty.  There  is  no 
country  in  Europe  where  Universities  liokl  so  exalted 
a  position,  and  where  those  who  have  the  honour  to 
belong  to  them  may  say  with  greater  truth,  Noblesse 
oblige. 

I  know  the  dangers  of  self-government,  particularly 
where  higher  and  more  ideal  interests  are  concerned, 
and  there  are  probably  few  who  wish  for  a  real  reform 
in  schools  and  Universities  who  have  not  occasionally 
yielded  to  the  desire  for  a  Dictator,  for  a  Bismarck 
or  a  Falk.  But  such  a  desire  springs  only  from 
a  momentary  weakness  and  despondency  ;  and  no 
one  who  knows  the  difference  between  being  governed 
and  governing  oneself,  would  ever  wish  to  descend 
from  that  higher  though  dangerous  position  to  a  lower 
one,  however  safe  and  comfortable  it  might  seem.  No 
one  who  has  tasted  freedom  would  ever  wish  to 
exchange  it  for  anything  else.  Public  opinion  is 
sometimes  a  hard  taskmaster,  and  majorities  can  be 
great  tyrants  to  those  who  want  to  be  honest  to  their 
own  convictions.  But  in  the  struggle  of  all  against 
all,  each  individual  feels  that  he  has  his  rightful 
place,  and  that  he  may  exercise  his  rightful  influence. 
If  he  is  beaten,  he  is  beaten  in  fair  fight ;  if  he 
conquers,  he  has  no  one  else  to  thank.  No  doubt 
despotic  Governments  have  often  exercised  the  most 
beneficial  patronage  in  encouraging  and  rewarding 
poets,  artists,  and  men  of  science.  But  men  of 
genius  who  have  conquered  the  love  and  admiration 
of  a  whole  nation  are  greater  than  those  who  have 
gained  the  favour  of  the  most  brilliant  Courts ;  and 
we  know  how  some  of  the  fairest  reputations  have 
been  wrecked  on  the  patronage  which  they  had  to 


280  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

accept  at  the  hands  of  powerful  Ministers  or  ambitious 
Sovereigns. 

Eut  to  return  to  Mill  and  his  plea  for  Liberty. 
Though  I  can  hardly  believe  that,  were  he  still  among 
us,  he  would  claim  a  larger  measure  of  freedom  for 
the  individual  than  is  now  accorded  to  every  one  of 
us  in  the  society  in  which  we  move,  yet  the  chief 
cause  on  which  he  founded  his  plea  for  Liberty,  the 
chief  evil  which  he  thought  could  be  remedied  only 
if  society  would  allow  more  elbow-room  to  individual 
genius,  exists  in  the  same  degi-ee  as  in  his  time — aye, 
even  in  a  higher  degree.  The  principle  of  Indi- 
viduality has  suffered  more  at  present  than  perhaps 
at  any  former  period  of  history.  The  world  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  gregarious,  and  what  tV.e 
French  call  our  nature  moutonniere,  '  our  mutton- 
like nature,'  our  tendency  to  leap  where  any  bell- 
wether has  leapt  before,  becomes  more  and  more 
prevalent  in  politics,  in  religion,  in  art,  and  even  in 
science.  M.  de  Tocqueville  expressed  his  surprise  how 
much  more  Frenchmen  of  the  present  day  resemble 
one  another  than  did  those  of  the  last  generation. 
The  same  remark,  adds  John  Stuart  Mill,  might  be 
made  of  England  in  a  greater  degree.  '  The  modern 
r&jlme  of  public  opinion,'  he  writes,  '  is  in  an  unor- 
franised  form  what  the  Chinese  educational  and 
political  systems  are  in  an  organised ;  and  unless 
individuality  shall  be  able  successfully  to  assert  itself 
against  this  yoke,  Europe,  notwithstanding  its  noble 
antecedents  and  its  professed  Christianity,  will  tend 
to  become  another  China.' 

I  fully  agree  with  Mill  in  recognising  the  dangers 
of  uniformity,  but  I  doubt  whether  what  he  calls  the 


ON    FREEDOJr.  281 

regime  of  public  opinion  is  alone,  or  even  chietly, 
answerable  for  it.  No  doubt  there  are  some  people 
in  whose  eyes  uniformity  seems  an  advantage  rather 
than  a  disadvantage.  If  all  were  equally  strong, 
equally  educated,  equally  honest,  equally  rich,  equally 
tall,  or  equally  small,  society  would  seem  to  them  to 
have  reached  the  highest  ideal.  The  same  people 
admire  an  old  French  garden,  wnth  its  clipped  yew- 
trees,  forming  artificial  walls  and  towers  and  pyramids, 
far  more  than  the  giant  yews  which,  like  large  ser- 
pents, clasp  the  soil  with  their  coiling  roots,  and 
overshadow  with  their  dark  green  branches  the  white 
chalk  cliffs  of  the  Thames.  Eut  those  French  gardens, 
unless  they  are  constantly  clipped  and  prevented  from 
growing,  soon  fall  into  decay.  As  in  nature,  so  in 
society,  uniformity  means  but  too  often  stagnation, 
while  variety  is  the  surest  sign  of  health  and  vigour. 
The  deepest  secret  of  nature  is  its  love  of  continued 
novelty.  Its  tendency,  if  unrestrained,  is  towards  con- 
stantly creating  new  varieties,  which,  if  they  fulfil  their 
purpose,  become  fixed  for  a  time,  or,  it  may  be,  for  ever; 
while  others,  after  they  have  fulfilled  their  purpose, 
vanish  to  make  room  for  new  and  stronger  types. 

The  same  is  the  secret  of  human  society.  It  con- 
sists and  lives  in  individuals,  each  being  meant  to 
be  different  from  all  the  rest,  and  to  contribute  his 
own  peculiar  share  to  the  common  wealth.  As  no 
tree  is  like  any  other  tree,  and  no  leaf  on  the  same 
tree  like  any  other  leaf,  no  human  being  is  exactly 
like  any  other  human  being,  nor  is  it  meant  to  bo. 
It  is  in  this  endless,  and  to  us  inconceivable,  variety 
of  human  souls  that  the  deepest  purpose  of  human 
life  is  to  be  realised  ;  and  the  more  society  fulfils  that 


282  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

purpose,  the  more  it  allows  free  scope  for  the  develop- 
ment of  every  individual  germ,  the  richer  will  be  the 
harvest  in  no  distant  future.  Such  is  the  mystery  of 
individuality  that  I  do  not  wonder  if  even  those 
philosophers  who,  like  Mill,  reduce  the  meaning  of 
the  word  sacred  to  the  very  smallest  compass,  see  in 
each  individual  soul  something  sacred,  something  to 
he  revered,  even  where  we  cannot  understand  it,  some- 
thing to  be  protected  against  all  vulgar  violence,  even 
where  we  cannot  agree  with  it. 

Where  I  differ  from  Mill  and  his  school  is  on  the 
question  as  to  the  quarter  from  whence  the  epidemic 
of  uniformity  springs  which  threatens  the  fiee  de- 
velopment of  modern  society.  Mill  points  to  the 
society  in  which  we  move ;  to  those  who  are  in  front 
of  us,  to  our  contemporaries.  I  feel  convinced  that 
our  real  enemies  are  at  our  back,  and  that  the  heaviest 
chains  which  are  fastened  on  us  are  those  made,  not 
by  the  present,  but  by  past  generations — by  our 
ancestors^  not  by  our  contemporaries. 

It  is  on  this  point,  on  the  trammels  of  individual 
freedom  with  which  we  may  almost  be  said  to  be 
born  into  the  world,  and  on  the  means  by  Avhich  we 
may  shake  off  these  old  chains,  or  at  all  events  carry 
them  more  lightly  and  gracefully,  that  I  wish  to  speak 
to  you  this  evening. 

You  need  not  be  afi-aid  that  I  am  o-oinff  to  enter 
upon  the  much  discussed  subject  of  heredity,  whether 
in  its  physiological  or  psychological  aspects.  It  is 
a  favourite  subject  just  now,  and  the  most  curious 
facts  have  been  brought  together  of  late  to  illustrate 
the  working  of  what  is  called  heredity.  Eut  the  more 
we  know    of  these  facts,  the   less  we  seem   able  to 


0\    FREEDOM,  283 

comprehend  the  underlying  principle.  Inheritance  is 
one  of  those  numerous  words  which  by  their  very 
simplicity  and  clearness  are  so  apt  to  darken  our 
counsel.  If  a  father  has  blue  eyes  and  the  son  has 
blue  eyes,  what  can  be  clearer  than  that  he  inherited 
them  ?  If  the  father  stammers  and  the  son  stammers, 
who  can  doubt  but  that  it  came  by  inheritance  ?  If 
the  father  is  a  musician  and  the  son  a  musician,  we 
say  very  glibly  that  the  talent  was  inherited.  But 
what  does  inherited  mean?  In  no  case  does  it  mean 
what  inherited  usually  means — something  external, 
like  money,  collected  by  a  father,  and,  after  his  death, 
secured  by  law  to  his  son.  Whatever  else  inherited 
may  mean,  it  does  not  mean  that.  But  unfortunately 
the  word  is  there,  it  seems  almost  pedantic  to  chal- 
lenge its  meaning,  and  people  are  always  grateful  if 
an  easy  word  saves  them  the  trouble  of  hard  thought. 

Another  apparent  advantage  of  the  theory  of 
hei^dity  is  that  it  never  fails.  If  the  son  has  blue, 
and  the  father  black,  eyes,  all  is  right  again,  for 
either  the  mother,  or  the  grandmother,  or  some  his- 
toric or  prehistoric  ancestor,  may  have  had  blue  e3'es, 
and  atavism,  we  know,  will  assert  itself  after  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  years. 

Do  not  suppose  that  I  deny  the  broad  facts  of  what 
is  called  by  the  name  of  heredity.  What  I  deny  is 
that  the  name  of  heredity  offers  any  scientific  solution 
of  a  most  difficult  problem.  It  is  a  name,  a  metaphor, 
quite  as  bad  as  the  old  metaphor  of  inmate  ideas ;  for 
there  is  hardly  a  single  point  of  similarity  between 
the  process  by  which  a  son  may  share  the  black  eyes, 
the  stammerinff,  or  the  musical  talent  of  his  father, 
and  that  by  which,  after  his  father's  death,  the  law 


284  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

secures  to  the  son  the  possession  of  the  pounds,  shillings, 
and  pence  which  his  father  held  in  the  Funds. 

But  whatever  the  true  meaning  of  heredity  may  be, 
certain  it  is  that  every  individual  comes  into  the 
world  heavy-laden.  Nowhere  has  the  coDsciousness 
of  the  burden  which  rests  on  each  generation  as  it 
enters  on  its  journey  through  life  found  stronger 
expression  than  among  the  Buddhists.  What  other 
people  call  by  various  names,  '  fate  or  providence,' 
'tradition  or  inheritance,'  'circumstances  or  environ- 
ment,' they  call  Karma  n,  deed — what  has  been  done, 
whether  by  ourselves  or  by  others,  the  accumulated 
work  of  all  who  have  come  before  us,  the  consequences 
of  which  we  have  to  bear,  both  for  good  and  for  evil. 
Originally  this  Karnian  seems  to  have  been  conceived 
as  personal,  as  the  w^ork  which  w^e  ourselves  have 
done  in  former  existences.  But,  as  personally  we  are 
not  conscious  of  having  done  such  work  in  former 
ages,  that  kind  of  Karrtian,  too,  might  be  said  to  be 
impersonal.  To  the  question  how  Karman  began, 
the  accumulation  of  what  forms  the  condition  of  all 
that  exists  at  present.  Buddhism  has  no  answer  to 
give,  any  more  than  any  other  system  of  religion  or 
philosophy.  The  Buddhists,  as  the  disciples  of  the 
Vedantists,  say  it  began  with  avUJyd,  i.e.  ignorance  ^ 
They  are  much  more  interested  in  the  question  how 
Karman  may  be  annihilated,  how  each  man  may  free 
himself  from  the  influence  of  Karman,  and  Nirvana, 
the  highest  object  of  all  their  dreams,  is  often  defined  by 
Buddhist  philosophers  as  '  freedom  from  Karman  ^.' 

What  the  Buddhists  call  by  the  general  name  of 

*  Si'encer  Hardy,  '  Manual  of  Euddliism,'  p.  391. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  39. 


ox    IREKDOM.  285 

Karinan,  comprehends  all  influences  which  the  past 
exercises  on  the  present,  both  physically  and  mentally  ^ 
It  is  not  my  object  to  examine  or  even  to  name  all 
these  influences,  though  I  confess  nothing  is  more 
interesting  than  to  look  upon  the  surface  of  our 
modern  life  as  we  look  on  a  geological  map,  and  to 
see  the  most  ancient  formations  cropping  out  every- 
where under  our  feet.  Difhcult  as  it  is  to  colour 
a  geological  map  of  England,  it  would  be  still  more 
difticult  to  find  a  sufhcient  variety  of  colours  to  mark 
the  different  ingredients  of  the  intellectual  surface  of 
this  island. 

That  all  of  us,  whether  we  speak  English  or  German, 
or  French  or  Russian,  are  really  speaking  an  ancient 
Oriental  tongue,  incredible  as  it  would  have  sounded 
a  hundred  years  ago,  is  now  admitted  by  everybody. 
Though  the  various  dialects  now  spoken  in  Europe 
have  been  separated  many  thousands  of  years  from 
the  Sanskrit,  the  ancient  classical  language  of  India, 
yet  so  unbroken  is  the  bond  that  holds  the  West  and 
East  together  that  in  many  cases  an  intelligent 
Englishman  might  still  guess  the  meaning  of  a 
Sanskrit  word.  How  little  difference  is  there  between 
Sanskrit  sunu  and  English  son,  between  Sanskrit 
duhitar  and  English  daughter,  between  Sanskrit  vid, 
to  know,  and  English  to  tvit,  between  Sanskrit  vaksh, 
to  grow,  and  English  to  ivax !  Think  how  we  value 
a  Saxon  urn,  or  a  Roman  coin,  or  a  Celtic  weapon ! 

*  '  As  one  generation  dies  and  gives  way  to  another,  the  heir  of  the 
consequences  of  all  its  virtues  and  all  its  vices,  the  exact  result  of  pre- 
existent  causes,  so  each  indiviilual,  in  the  long  chain  of  life,  inherits 
all,  of  good  or  evil,  which  all  its  predecessors  have  done  or  been;  and 
takes  up  the  struggle  towards  enlightenment  precisely  there  where  they 
left  it.' — Rhys  Davids,  *  Buddhism,'  p.  104. 


286  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

how  we  dig  for  them,  clean  them,  label  them,  and 
carefully  deposit  them  in  our  museums !  Yet  what 
is  their  antiquity  compared  with  tlie  antiquity  of 
such  words  as  son  or  daughter,  father  and  mother'^ 
There  are  no  monuments  older  than  those  collected 
in  the  handy  volumes  which  we  call  Dictionaries,  and 
those  who  know  how  to  interpret  those  English 
antiquities — as  you  may  see  them  interpreted,  for 
instance,  in  Grimm's  Dictionary  of  the  German,  in 
Littr^'s  Dictionary  of  the  French,  or  in  Professor 
Skeat's  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  English 
language — will  learn  more  of  the  real  growth  of  the 
human  mind  than  by  studying  many  volumes  on 
logic  and  psychology. 

And  as  by  our  language  we  belong  to  the  Aryan 
stratum,  we  belong  through  our  letters  to  the  Hamitic. 
We  still  write  English  in  hieroglyphics ;  and  in  spite 
of  all  the  vicissitudes  through  which  the  ancient 
hieroglyphics  have  passed  in  their  journey  from 
Egypt  to  Phoenicia,  from  Phoenicia  to  Greece,  from 
Greece  to  Italy,  and  from  Italy  to  England,  when  wo 
write  a  capital  F  ^,  when  we  draw  the  top  line  and 
the  smaller  line  through  the  middle  of  the  letter,  we 
really  draw  the  two  horns  of  the  cerastes,  the  horned 
serpent  which  the  ancient  Egyptians  used  for  repre- 
senting the  sound  of  f.  They  write  the  name  of  the 
king  whom  the  Greeks  called  Cheops,  and  they  them- 
selves Chu-fu,  like  this  ^ :  /^"^^  ^^^  Here  the  first  sign, 
the  sieve,  is  to  be  pro-  ^^^^-^  f^  nounced  chu ;  the 
second,  the  horned  ser-  Us  u  pent,  fu,  and  the 
little  bird,  again,  u.     In   V:iL^  the   more    cursive 

or  Hieratic  writing  the  horned  serpent  appears  as  ^  ; 

'  Bunsen,  'Egypt,'  ii.  jip.  77.  150. 


ON    FREEDOM.  287 

in  the  later  Demotic  as  y  and  y.  The  Phoenicians, 
who  borrowed  their  letters  from  the  Hieratic  hiero- 
glyphics, -wrote  ^  and  y .  The  Greeks,  who  took  their 
letters  from  the  Phoenicians,  wrote  ■].  When  tlie 
Greeks,  instead  of  writing  like  the  Phoenicians  from 
right  to  left,  began  to  write  from  left  to  right,  they 
turned  each  letter,  and  as  >|  became  K,  our  k,  so 
"1j  vau,  became  F,  the  Greek  so-called  Digamma,  the 
Latin  F. 

The  first  letter  in  Chu-fu,  too,  still  exists  in  our 
alphabet,  and  in  the  transverse  line  of  our  H  we  must 
recognise  the  last  remnant  of  the  lines  which  divide 
the  sieve.  The  sieve  appears  in  Hieratic  as  Q,  in 
Phoenician  as  ^,  in  ancient  Greek  as  B,  which  occurs 
on  an  inscription  found  at  Mycenae  and  elsewhere  as 
the  sign  of  the  spu'itus  asper,  while  in  Latin  it  is 
known  to  us  as  the  letter  H  K  In  the  same  manner 
the  undulating  line  of  our  capital  J^.  still  recalls  very 
strikingly  the  bent  back  of  the  crouching  lion,  which 
in  the  later  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  represents  the 
sound  of  L. 

If  thus  in  our  language  wc  are  Aryan,  in  our  letters 
Egyptian,  we  have  only  to  look  at  our  watches  to  see 
that  we  are  Babylonian.  Why  is  our  hour  divided 
into  sixty  minutes,  our  minutes  into  sixty  seconds? 
Would  not  a  division  of  the  hour  into  ten,  or  fifty,  or 
a  hundred  minutes  have  been  more  natural?  We 
have  sixty  divisions  on  the  dials  of  our  watches 
simply  because   the    Greek  astronomer   Hipparchus, 

*  M^moire  sur  I'Origine  Egyptieime  de  1' Alphabet  Phenicien,  par 
E.  de  Roug«^,  Paris,  1874. 


288  HECENT   ESSAYS. 

Avho  lived  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  accepted  the 
Babylonian  system  of  reckoning  time,  that  system 
being  sexagesimal.  The  Babj'lonians  knew  the 
decimal  system,  but  for  practical  purposes  they 
counted  by  sossi  and  sari,  the  sossos  representing  60, 
the  saros  60  x  60,  or  3,600.  From  Hipparchus  that 
system  found  its  way  into  the  works  of  Ptolemy, 
about  150  A.  D.,  and  thence  it  was  carried  down  the 
stream  of  civilisation,  finding  its  last  resting-place  on 
the  dial-plates  of  our  clocks. 

And  why  are  there  twenty  shillings  to  our 
sovereign  1  Again  the  real  reason  lies  in  Babylon. 
The  Greeks  learnt  from  the  Babylonians  the  art  of 
dividing  gold  and  silver  for  the  purpose  of  trade.  It 
has  been  proved  that  the  current  gold  piece  of  Western 
Asia  was  exactly  the  sixtieth  part  of  a  Babylonian 
'nind,  or  niina.  It  was  nearly  equal  to  our  sovereign. 
The  difficult  problem  of  the  relative  value  of  gold  and 
silver  in  a  bi-monetary  currency  had  been  solved  to 
a  certain  extent  in  the  ancient  Mesopotamian  kingdom, 
the  proportion  between  gold  and  silver  being  fixed  at 
1  to  13!^.  The  silver  shekel  current  in  Babylon  was 
heavier  than  the  gold  shekel  in  the  proportion  of  13I 
to  10,  and  had  therefore  the  value  of  one-tenth  of 
a  gold  shekel ;  and  the  half  silver  shekel,  called  by 
the  Greeks  a  drachma,  was  worth  one-twentieth  of 
a  gold  shekel.  The  drachma,  or  half  silver  shekel, 
may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  the  most  ancient 
type  of  our  own  silver  shilling  in  its  relation  of  one- 
twentieth  of  our  gold  sovereign  ^. 

I  shall  mention  only  one  more  of  the  most  essential 

'  See  Brandis,  '  Das  Miiuzwesen.' 


0\    FREEDOM.  289 

tools  of  our  mental  life — namel3%  our  figures,  which 
we  call  Arabic,  because  we  received  them  from  the 
Arabs,  but  which  the  Arabs  called  Indian,  because 
they  received  them  from  the  Indians — in  order  to 
show  you  how  this  nineteenth  century  of  ours  is 
under  the  sway  of  centuries  long  past  and  forgotten ; 
how  we  are  what  we  are,  not  by  ourselves,  but  by 
those  who  came  before  us,  and  how  the  intellectual 
ground  on  which  we  stand  is  made  up  of  the  detritus 
of  thoughts  which  were  first  thought,  not  on  these 
isles  nor  in  Europe,  but  on  the  shores  of  the  Oxus,  the 
Nile,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Indus. 

Now  you  may  well  ask  Quortum  haec  omnia? — 
What  has  all  this  to  do  with  freedom  and  with  the 
free  development  of  individuality "?  Because  a  man 
is  born  the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  can  it  be  said  that  he 
is  not  free  to  grow  and  to  expand,  and  to  develop  all 
the  faculties  of  his  mind  ?  Are  those  who  came  before 
him,  and  who  left  him  this  goodly  inheritance,  to  be 
called  his  enemies  ?  Is  that  chain  of  tradition  which 
connects  him  with  the  past  really  a  galling  fetter,  and 
not  rather  the  leading-strings  without  which  he  would 
never  learn  to  walk  straight  ? 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  more  closely.  No  one 
would  venture  to  say  that  every  individual  should 
begin  life  as  a  young  savage,  and  be  left  to  form  his 
own  language,  and  invent  his  own  letters,  numerals, 
and  coins.  On  the  contrary,  if  we  comprehend  all 
this  and  a  great  deal  more,  such  as  religion,  morality, 
and  secular  knowledge,  under  the  general  name  of 
education,  even  the  most  advanced  defenders  of  in- 
dividualism would  hold  that  no  child  should  enter 
society  without  submitting,  or  rather  without  being 

VOL.  I.  u 


290  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

submitted,  to  education.  Most  of  us  would  even  go 
further,  and  make  it  criminal  for  parents  or  even  for 
communities  to  allow  children  to  grow  up  uneducated. 
The  excuse  of  worthless  parents  that  they  are  at 
liberty  to  do  with  their  children  as  they  like,  has  at 
last  been  blown  to  the  winds,  I  still  remember  the 
time  when  pseudo-Liberals  were  not  ashamed  to  say 
that,  whatever  other  nations,  such  as  the  Germans, 
might  do,  England  would  never  submit  to  compulsory 
education.  That  wicked  sophistry,  too,  has  at  last 
been  silenced,  and  among  the  principal  advocates  of 
compulsory  education,  and  of  the  necessity  of  curtailing 
the  freedom  of  savage  parents  of  savage  children,  have 
been  Mill  and  his  friends,  the  apostles  of  liberty  and 
individualism  ^.  A  new  era  may  be  said  to  date  in 
the  history  of  every  nation  from  the  day  on  which 
'  compulsory  education  '  becomes  part  of  their  statute- 
book  ;  and  I  may  congratulate  the  most  Liberal  town 
in  England  on  having  proved  itself  the  most  inexorable 
tyrant  in  carrying  out  the  principle  of  compulsory 
education. 

But  do  not  let  us  imagine  that  compulsory  education 
is  without  its  dangers.  Like  a  powerful  engine,  it 
must  be  carefully  watched,  if  it  is  not  to  produce, 
what  all  compulsion  will  produce,  a  slavish  recep- 
tivity, and,  what  all  machines  do  produce,  monotonous 
uniformity. 

We  know  that  all  education  must  in  the  beginnino: 
be  purely  dogmatic.     Children  are  taught  language, 

'  '  Is  it  not  almost  a  self-evident  axiom,  that  the  State  should 
require  and  compel  the  education,  up  to  a  certain  standard,  of  every 
human  being  who  is  born  its  citizen  ?  Yet  who  is  there  that  is  not 
afraid  to  recognise  and  assert  this  truth  ? ' — '  On  Liberty,'  p.  188. 


ON    FREEDOM.  291 

religion,  morality,  patriotism,  and  afterwards  at  school, 
history,  literature,  mathematics,  and  all  the  rest,  long 
before  they  are  able  to  question,  to  judge,  or  choose 
for  themselves,  and  there  is  hardly  anything  that 
children  will  not  believe  if  it  comes  from  those  in 
whom  they  believe. 

Reading,  writijig,  and  arithmetic,  no  doubt,  must 
be  taught  dogmatically,  and  they  take  up  an  enormous 
amount  of  time,  particularly  in  English  schools. 
English  spelling  is  a  national  misfortune,  and  in  the 
keen  international  race  between  all  the  countries  of 
Europe,  it  handicaps  the  English  child  to  a  degree 
that  seems  incredible  till  we  look  at  statistics.  I 
know  the  difficulties  of  a  Spelling  Reform,  I  know 
what  people  mean  when  they  call  it  impossible ;  but 
I  also  know  that  personal  and  national  virtue  consists 
in  doing  so-called  impossible  things,  and  that  no  nation 
has  done,  and  has  still  to  do,  so  many  impossible 
thino's  as  the  Enci;lish. 

But,  granted  that  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic 
occupy  nearly  the  whole  school-time  and  absorb  the 
best  powers  of  the  pupils,  cannot  something  be  done 
in  play -hours  ?  Is  there  not  some  work  that  can  be 
turned  into  play,  and  some  play  that  can  be  turned 
into  work  ?  Cannot  the  powers  of  observation  be  called 
out  in  a  child  while  collecting  flowers,  or  stones,  or 
butterflies'?  Cannot  his  judgment  be  strengthened 
either  in  gymnastic  exercitrcs,  or  in  measuring  the 
area  of  a  Held  or  the  height  of  a  tower  1  Might  not 
all  this  be  done  without  a  view  to  examinations  or 
payment  by  results,  simply  for  the  sake  of  filling  the 
little  dull  minds  with  some  sunbeams  of  joy,  such 
sunbeams  being  more  likely  hereafter  to  call  hidden 

U  3 


292  llECENT   ESSAYS. 

precious  germs  into  life  than  tlie  deadening  weight  of 
such  lessons  as,  for  instance,  that  th-ougk  is  though, 
thr-ough  is  through,  en-ough  is  enough.  A  child  who 
believes  that  will  hereafter  believe  anything.  Those 
who  wish  to  see  Natural  Science  introduced  into 
elementary  schools  frighten  schoolmasters  by  the  very 
name  of  Natural  Science.  But  surely  every  school- 
master who  is  worth  his  salt  should  be  able  to  teach 
children  a  love  of  Nature,  a  wondering  at  Nature, 
a  curiosity  to  pry  into  the  secrets  of  Nature^  an 
acquisitiveness  for  some  of  the  treasures  of  Nature, 
and  all  this  acquired  in  the  fresh  air  of  the  field  and 
the  forest,  where,  better  than  in  frouzy  lecture -rooms, 
the  edge  of  the  senses  can  be  sharpened,  the  chest  be 
widened,  and  that  freedom  of  thought  fostered  which 
made  England  what  it  was  even  before  the  days  of 
compulsory  education. 

But  in  addressing  you  here  to-night  it  was  my 
intention  to  speak  of  the  higher  rather  than  of 
elementary  education. 

All  education,  as  it  now  exists  in  most  countries  of 
Europe,  may  be  divided  into  three  stages — elementary, 
scholabtic,  and  academical;  or  call  it  primary, 
secondary,  and  tertiary. 

Elementary  education  has  at  last  been  made  com- 
pulsory in  most  civilised  countries.  Unfortunately, 
however,  it  seems  impossible  to  include  under  com- 
pulsory education  anythiug  beyond  the  very  elements 
of  knowledge — at  least  for  the  present ;  though,  with 
proper  management,  I  know  from  experience  that 
a  well-conducted  elementary  school  can  afford  to 
provide  instruction  in  extra  subjects — such  as  natural 
science,  modern  languages,  and  political  economy' — 


ON    FREEDOM.  293 

and  yet,  with  the  present  system  of  Government 
grants,  be  self-suppoiting  ^ 

The  next  stage  above  the  elementary  is  scholastli- 
education,  as  it  is  supplied  in  grammar  schools, 
whether  public  or  private.  According  as  the  pupils 
are  intended  either  to  go  on  to  a  university,  or  to 
enter  at  once  on  leaving  school  on  the  practical  work 
of  life,  these  schools  are  divided  into  two  classes.  In 
the  one  class,  which  in  Germany  are  called  Real- 
schulen,  less  Latin  is  taught,  and  no  Greek,  but 
more  of  mathematics,  modern  languages,  and  physical 
science;  in  the  other,  called  Gymnasia  on  the  Conti- 
nent, classics  form  the  chief  staple  of  instruction. 

It  is  during  this  stage  that  education,  whether  at 
private  or  public  schools,  exercises  its  strongest 
levelling  influence.  Little  attention  can  be  paid  at 
large  schools  to  individual  tastes  or  talents.  In 
Germany,  even  more  perhaps  than  in  England,  it  is 
the  chief  object  of  a  good  and  conscientious  master 
to  have  his  class  as  uniform  as  possible  at  the  end  of 
the  year ;  and  he  receives  far  more  credit  from  the 
official  examiner  if  his  whole  class  marches  well  and 
keeps  pace  together,  than  if  he  can  parade  a  few 
brilliant  and  forward  boys,  followed  by  a  number  of 
straggling  laggards. 

And  as  to  the  character  of  the  teaching  at  schou], 
how  can  it  be  otherwise  than  authoritative  or  dog- 
matic"? The  Socratic  method  is  very  good  if  we  can 
find  the  v«H  Socratici  and  leisure  for  discussion.  But 
at  school,  "svhich  now  may  seem  to  be  called  almost  in 
mockery  axoA?/,  or  leisure,  the  true  method  is,  after 

'  See  Tjme,«,  January  25,  ]'*^79. 


294  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

all,  that  patronised  by  the  great  educators  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Boys  at  school 
must  turn  their  mind  into  a  row  of  pigeon-holes, 
filling  as  many  as  they  can  with  useful  notes,  and 
never  forgetting  how  many  are  empty.  There  is  an 
immense  amount  of  positive  knowledge  to  be  acquired 
between  the  ages  of  ten  and  eighteen — rules  of 
grammar,  strings  of  vocables,  dates,  names  of  towns, 
rivers,  and  mountains,  mathematical  formulas,  &c. 
All  depends  here  on  the  receptive  and  retentive 
powers  of  the  mind.  The  memory  has  to  be 
strengthened,  without  being  overtaxed,  till  it  acts 
almost  mechanically.  Learning  by  heart,  I  believe, 
cannot  be  too  strongly  recommended  during  the  years 
spent  at  school.  There  may  have  been  too  much  of  it 
when,  as  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Adams  informs  us  in  his 
'  Wykehamica '  (p.  357),  boys  used  to  say  by  heart 
13,000  and  14,000  lines,  when  one  repeated  the  whole 
of  Virgil,  nay,  wdien  another  was  able  to  say  the 
whole  of  the  English  Eible  by  rote — '  Put  him  on 
where  you  would,  he  would  go  fluently  on,  as  long  as 
any  one  would  -listen.' 

No  intellectual  investment,  I  feel  certain,  bears  such 
ample  and  such  regular  interest  as  gems  of  English, 
Latin,  or  Greek  literature  deposited  in  our  memory 
during  our  childhood  and  youth,  and  taken  up  from 
time  to  time  in  the  happy  hours  of  our  solitude. 

One  fault  I  have  to  find  with  most  schools,  both  in 
England  and  on  the  Continent.  Boys  do  not  read 
enough  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics.  The  ma- 
jority of  our  masters  are  scholars  by  profession,  and 
they  are  apt  to  lay  undue  stress  on  what  they  call 
accurate  and  minute  scholarship,  and  to  neglect  wide 


ox    FREEDOM.  295 

and  cursory  reading.  I  know  the  arguments  for 
minute  accuracy,  but  I  also  know  the  mischief  that 
is  done  by  an  exclusive  devotion  to  critical  scholarship 
Itefore  we  have  acquired  a  real  familiarity  with  the 
principal  works  of  classical  literature.  The  time 
spent  in  our  schools  in  learning  the  rules  of  grammar 
and  syntax,  writing  exercises,  and  composing  verses, 
is  too  large.  Look  only  at  our  Gi-eek  and  Latin 
grammars,  with  all  their  rules  and  exceptions,  and 
exceptions  on  exceptions!  It  is  too  heavy  a  weight 
for  any  boy  to  carry ;  and  no  wonder  that  when  one 
of  the  thousand  small  rules  which  they  have  learnt 
by  heart  is  really  wanted,  it  is  seldom  forthcoming. 
The  end  of  classical  teaching  at  school  should  be  to 
make  our  boys  acquainted  not  only  with  the  language, 
l>ut  with  the  literature  and  history,  the  ancient  thought 
of  the  ancient  world.  Rules  of  grammar,  syntax,  or 
metre,  are  but  means  towards  that  end  ;  they  must 
never  be  mistaken  for  the  end  itself.  A  young  man 
of  eighteen,  who  has  probably  spent  on  an  average 
ten  years  in  learning  Greek  and  Latin,  ought  to  be 
able  to  read  any  of  the  ordinary  Greek  or  Latin 
classics  without  much  difficulty  ;  nay,  with  a  certain 
amount  of  pleasure.  He  might  have  to  consult  his 
dictionary  now  and  then,  or  guess  the  meaning  of 
certain  words ;  he  might  also  feel  doubtful  sometimes 
whether  certain  forms  came  from  u/yit,  I  send,  or  eTjwt, 
I  go,  or  d^L,  I  am,  particularly  if  preceded  by 
prepositions.  In  these  matters  the  best  scholars  are 
least  inclined  to  be  pharisaical ;  and  whenever  I  meet 
in  the  controversies  of  classical  scholars  the  favourite 
phrase,  '  Every  schoolboy  knows,  or  ought  to  know, 
this/  I  generally  say  to  myself,  •  No,  he  ought  not.' 


296  HECENT    ESSAY?. 

Anyhow,  those  who  wish  to  see  the  study  of  Greek 
and  Latin  retained  in  our  public  schools  ought  to  feel 
convinced  that  it  will  certainly  not  be  retained  much 
longer,  if  it  can  be  said  with  any  truth  that  young 
men  who  leave  school  at  eighteen  are  in  many  cases 
unable  to  read  or  to  enjoy  a  classical  text,  unless  they 
have  seen  it  before. 

Classical  teaching,  and  all  purely  scholastic  teaching, 
ought  to  be  finished  at  school.  When  a  young  man 
goes  to  the  University,  unless  he  means  to  make  scholar- 
ship his  profession,  he  ought  to  be  free  to  enter  upon 
a  new  career.  If  he  has  not  learnt  by  that  time  so 
much  of  Greek  and  Latin  as  is  absolutely  necessary 
in  after-life  for  a  lawyer,  or  a  student  of  physical 
science,  or  even  a  clergyman,  either  he  or  his  school 
is  to  blame.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  would  not 
be  most  desirable  for  every  one  during  his  University 
career  to  attend  some  lectures  on  classical  literature, 
on  ancient  history,  philosophy,  or  art.  What  is  to  be 
deprecated  is,  that  the  University  should  have  to  do 
the  work  which  belongs  properly  to  the  school. 

The  best  colleges  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have 
shown  by  their  matriculation  examinations  what  the 
standard  of  classical  knowledge  ought  to  be  at 
eighteen  or  nineteen.  That  standard  can  be  reached 
by  boys  while  still  at  school,  as  has  been  proved  both  by 
the  so-called  local  examinations,  and  by  the  examina- 
tions of  schools  held  under  the  Delegates  appointed 
by  the  Universities.  If,  therefore,  the  University 
would  reassert  her  old  right,  and  make  the  first 
examination,  called  at  Oxford  Responsions,  a  general 
matriculation  examination  for  admission  to  the  Uni- 
versity, not  only  would  the  public  schools  be  stimulated 


ON    FREEDOM.  297 

to  greater  efforts,  but  the  teacLing  of  the  University 
might  assume,  from  the  very  beginning,  that  academic 
character  which  ought  to  distinguish  it  from  mere 
schoolboy  work. 

Academic  teaching  ought  to  be  not  merely  a  con- 
tinuation, but  in  one  sense  a  correction  of  scholastic 
teaching.  While  at  school  instruction  must  be  chiefly 
dogmatic,  at  University  it  is  to  be  Socratic,  for  I  find 
no  better  name  for  that  method  which  is  to  set  a  man 
free  from  the  burden  of  purely  traditional  knowledge  ; 
to  make  him  feel  that  the  words  which  he  uses  aie 
often  empty,  that  the  concepts  he  employs  are,  for  the 
most  part,  mere  bundles  picked  up  at  random ;  that 
even  where  he  knows  facts,  he  does  not  know  their 
evidence ;  and  where  he  expresses  opinions,  they  are 
mostly  mere  dogmas,  adopted  by  him  without  ex- 
amination. 

But  for  the  Universities,  I  should  indeed  fear  that 
Mill's  prophecies  might  come  true,  and  that  the 
intellect  of  Europe  might  drift  into  dreary  monotony. 
The  Universities  always  have  been,  and,  unless  they 
are  diverted  from  their  original  purpose,  always  will 
be,  the  guardians  of  the  freedom  of  thought,  the 
protectors  of  individual  spontaneity ;  and  it  was 
owing,  I  believe,  to  Mill's  ignorance  of  true  academic 
teaching  that  he  took  so  desponding  a  view  of  the 
generation  growing  up  under  his  eyes. 

When  we  leave  school,  our  heads  are  naturally 
brimful  of  dogma,  that  is,  of  knowledge  and  opinions 
at  second-hand.  Such  dead,  knowledge  is  extremely 
dangerous,  unless  it  is  sooner  or  later  revived  by  the 
spirit  of  free  inquiry.  It  does  not  matter  whether 
our  scholastic  dogmas  be  true  or  false.     The  dano-er 


298  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

is  the  same.  And  why  ?  Because  to  place  either 
truth  or  error  above  the  i-each  of  argument  is  certain 
to  weaken  truth  and  to  strengthen  error.  Secondly, 
liecause  to  hold  as  true  on  the  authority  of  others 
anything  which  concerns  us  deeply,  and  which  we  could 
prove  ourselves,  produces  feebleness,  if  not  dishonesty. 
And,  thirdly,  because  to  feel  unwilling  or  unable  to 
meet  objections  b}^  facts  and  arguments  is  generally 
the  first  step  towards  violence  and  persecution. 

I  do  not  think  of  religious  dogmas  only.  They  are 
generally  the  first  to  rouse  inquiry,  even  during  our  ' 
schoolboy  da^'s,  and  they  are  by  no  means  the  most 
difficult  to  deal  with.  Dogma  often  rages  where  we 
least  expect  it.  Among  scientific  men  the  theory  of 
evolution  is  at  present  becoming,  or  has  become, 
a  dogma.  What  is  the  result"?  No  objections  are 
listened  to,  no  difficulties  recognised,  and  a  man  like 
Virchow,  himself  the  strongest  supporter  of  evolution, 
who  has  the  moral  courage  to  say  that  the  descent  of 
man  from  any  ape  wdiatsoever  is,  as  yet,  before  the 
tribunal  of  scientific  zoology,  'not  proven,'  is  howled 
down  in  Germany  in  a  manner  worthy  of  Ephesians 
and  Galatians.  But  at  present  I  am  thinking  not  so 
much  of  any  special  dogmas,  but  rather  of  that 
doo-matic  state  of  mind  which  is  the  almost  inevitable 
result  of  the  teaching  at  school.  I  think  of  the  whole 
intellect,  what  has  been  called  the  intcllectus  sibi 
pevnii^sus,  and  I  maintain  that  it  is  the  object  of 
academic  teaching  to  rouse  that  intellect  out  of  its 
slumber  by  questions  not  less  startling  than  when 
Galileo  asked  the  world  whether  the  sun  was  really 
moving  and  the  earth  stood  still;  or  when  Kant  asked 
whether  time  and  space  were  objects,  or  necessary 


ox    FREEDOM.  299 

forms  of  our  sensuous  intuition.  Till  our  opinions 
have  thus  been  tested  and  stood  the  test,  we  can 
hardly  call  them  our  own. 

How  true  this  is  with  regard  to  religion  has  been 
boldly  expressed  by  Bishop  Beveridge. 

'  Being  conscious  to  myself,'  he  writes  in  his  '  Pri- 
vate Thoughts  on  Religion,'  '  how  great  an  ascendant 
Christianity  holds  over  me  beyond  the  rest,  as  being 
that  religion  whereinto  I  was  born  and  baptised ; 
that  which  the  supreme  authority  has  enjoined  and 
my  parents  educated  me  in  ;  that  which  every  one 
I  meet  withal  highly  approves  of,  and  which  I  myself 
have,  by  a  long- continued  profession,  made  almost 
natural  to  me:  I  am  resolved  to  be  more  jealous  and 
suspicious  of  this  religion  than  of  the  rest,  and  be 
sure  not  to  entertain  it  any  longer  without  being 
convinced,  by  solid  and  substantial  arguments,,  of  the 
truth  and  certainty  of  it.' 

This  is  bold  and  manly  language  from  a  bishop 
nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  I  certainly  think 
that  the  time  has  come  when  some  of  the  divinity 
lecturers  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  might  w^ell  be 
employed  in  placing  a  knowledge  of  the  sacred  books 
of  other  religions  within  the  reach  of  undergraduates. 
Many  of  the  difficulties— most  of  them  of  our  own 
making — with  regard  to  the  origin,  the  handing  down, 
the  later  corruptions  and  misinterpretations  of  sacred 
texts,  would  find  their  natural  solution,  if  it  was 
shown  how  exactly  the  same  difficulties  arose  and 
had  to  be  dealt  with  by  theologians  of  other  creeds. 
If  some — ay,  if  many — of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
were  met  with  in  other  religions  also,  surely  that 
would  not  affect  their  value,  or  diminish  their  truth; 


300  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

while  nothing,  I  feel  certain,  would  raore  effectually 
secure  to  the  pure  and  simple  teaching  of  Christ  its 
true  place  in  the  historical  development  of  the  human 
mind  than  to  place  it  side  by  side  with  the  other 
religions  of  the  world.  In  the  series  of  translations 
of  the  '  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  of  which  the  first 
three  volumes  have  just  appeared  \  I  wished  myself 
lo  include  a  new  translation  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments ;  and  when  that  series  is  finished  it  will, 
I  believe,  be  admitted  that  nowhere  would  these  two 
books  have  had  a  grander  setting,  or  have  shone  with 
a  brighter  light,  than  surrounded  by  the  Veda,  the 
Zendave&ta,  the  Buddhist  Tripiiaka,  and  the  Qoran. 

But  as  I  said  before,  I  was  not  thinking  of  religious 
dogmas  only,  or  even  chiefly,  when  I  maintained  that 
the  character  of  academic  teaching  must  be  Socratic, 
not  dogmatic.  The  evil  of  dogmatic  teaching  lies 
much  deeper^  and  spreads  much  further. 

Think  only  of  language,  the  work  of  other  people, 
not  of  ourselves,  which  we  pick  up  at  random  in  our 
race  through  life.  Does  not  every  word  we  use 
require  careful  examination  and  revision  1  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  language  assists  our  thoughts  cr 
colours  them,  or  possibly  obscures  them.  No,  we 
know  now  that  language  and  thought  are  indivisible. 
It  was  not  from  poverty  of  expression  that  the  Greek 
called  reason  and  language  by  the  same  word,  Ao'yos. 
It  was  because  they  knew  that,  though  we  may 
distinguish  between  thought  and  speech,  as  we  dis- 
tino-uish  between  body  and  soul,  it  is  as  impossible 
to  tear  the  one  by  violence  away  from  the  other  as 

'  '  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  edited  by  M.  M.,  vols,  i,  ii,  iii  ;  Claren- 
don Pre^e,  Oxford,  1S79. 


ox    FREEDOir.  301 

it  is  to  separate  the  concave  side  of  a  lens  from  its 
convex  side.  Tliis  is  something  to  learn  and  to 
understand,  for,  if  properl}^  understood,  it  will  supply 
the  key  to  most  of  our  intellectual  puzzles,  and  serve 
as  the  safest  thread  through  the  whole  labyrinth  of 
philosophy. 

'  It  is  evident,'  as  HobLes  remarks  \  '  that  truth  and 
falsity  have  no  place  but  amongst  such  living  creatures 
as  use  speech.  For  though  some  brute  creatures, 
looking  upon  the  image  of  a  m.an  in  a  glass,  may  be 
affected  with  it,  as  if  it  were  the  man  himself,  and 
for  this  reason  fear  it  or  fawn  upon  it  in  vain  ;  yet 
they  do  not  apprehend  it  as  true  or  false,  but  only  as 
like;  ai:id  in  this  they  are  not  deceived.  Wherefore, 
as  men  owe  all  their  true  ratiocination  to  the  right 
vmderstanding  of  speech,  so  also  they  owe  their  errors 
to  the  misunderstanding  of  the  same ;  and  as  all  the 
ornaments  of  philosophy  proceed  only  from  man,  so 
from  man  also  is  derived  the  ugly  absurdity  of  false 
opinion.  For  speech  has  something  in  it  like  to  a 
spider's  web  (as  it  was  said  of  old  of  Solon's  laws), 
for  by  contexture  of  words  tender  and  delicate  wits 
are  ensnared  or  stopped,  but  strong  wits  break  easily 
through  them.' 

Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning  by  at  least  one 
instance. 

Among  the  words  which  have  proved  spiders'  webs, 
ensnaring  even  the  greatest  intellects  of  the  world 
from  Aristotle  down  to  Leibniz,  the  terms  genu  hi, 
tij^ecies,  and  individual  occup}^  a  very  prominent  place. 
The  opposition  of  Aristotle  to  Plato,  of  the  Nominalists 
to  the  Realists,  of  Leibniz  to  Locke,  of  Herbart  to 

^  '  Comj>utatiun  or  Logic,'  t.  iii.  viii.  p.  36. 


302  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

Hegel,  turns  on  the  true  meaning  of  these  words.  At 
school,  of  course,  all  we  can  do  is  to  teach  the  received 
meaning  of  genus  and  species ;  and  if  a  boy  can  trace 
these  terms  back  to  Aristotle's  yevos  and  €160?,  and 
show  in  what  sense  that  philosopher  used  them,  every 
examiner  would  be  satisfied. 

Eut  the  time  comes  when  we  have  to  act  as  our 
own  examiners,  and  when  we  have  to  give  an  account 
to  ourselves  of  such  words  as  genus  and  species. 
Some  people  write,  indeed,  as  if  they  had  seen  a 
species  and  a  genus  walking  about  in  broad  daylight; 
but  a  little  consideration  will  show  us  that  these 
words  express  subjective  concepts,  and  that,  if  the 
whole  world  were  silent,  there  would  never  have  been 
a  thought  of  a  genus  or  a  species.  There  are  languages 
in  which  we  look  in  vain  for  corresponding  words ; 
and  if  we  had  been  born  in  such  a  language,  these 
terms  and  thoughts  would  not  exist  for  us  at  all.  They 
came  to  us,  directly  or  indii'ectly,  from  Aristotle.  But 
Aristotle  did  not  invent  them,  he  only  defined  them 
in  his  own  way,  so  that^  for  instance,  according  to 
him,  all  living  beings  would  constitute  a  genus,  men 
a  species,  and  Socrates  an  individual. 

No  one  would  say  that  Aristotle  had  not  a  perfect 
right  to  define  these  terms,  if  those  who  use  them  in 
his  sense  would  only  always  remember  that  they  are 
thinking  the  thoughts  of  Aristotle,  and  not  their  own. 
The  true  way  to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  old  words, 
and  to  learn  to  think  our  own  thoughts,  is  to  follow 
them  up  from  century  to  century,  to  watch  their 
development,  and  in  the  end  to  bring  ourselves  face 
to  face  with  those  who  first  found  and  framed  both 
words  and  thoughts.     If  we  do  this  with  genus  and 


ON    rilEEDO.M.  c03 

species,  "we  shall  find  that  the  worJs  which  Aristotle 
defined — viz.  yivos  and  dhos — had  originally  a  very 
different  and  far  more  useful  application  than  that 
which  he  gave  to  them,  FeVos,  genus,  meant  genera- 
tion, and  comprehended  such  living  beings  only  as 
were  known  to  have  a  common  origin,  however  they 
might  differ  in  outward  appearance,  as,  for  instance, 
the  spaniel  and  the  bloodhound,  or,  according  to 
Darwin,  the  ape  and  the  man.  Etoo?  or  species,  on 
the  contrary,  meant  appearance,  and  comprehended 
all  such  things  as  had  the  same  form  or  appearance, 
whether  they  had  a  common  origin  or  not,  as  if  we 
were  to  speak  of  a  species  of  four-footed,  two-footed, 
horned,  winged,  or  blue  animals. 

That  two  such  concepts,  as  we  have  here  explained, 
had  a  natural  justification  we  may  best  learn  from 
the  fact  that  exactly  the  same  thoughts  found  expres- 
sion in  Sanskrit.  There,  too,  we  find  gfati,  genera- 
tion, used  in  the  sense  of  genus,  and  opposed  to 
akriti,  appearance,  used  in  the  sense  of  species. 

So  long  as  these  two  words  or  thoughts  were  used 
independently  (much  as  we  now  speak  of  a  genealo- 
gical as  independent  of  a  morphological  classification) 
no  harm  could  accrue.  A  family,  for  instance,  might 
be  called  a  y(vos,  the  gens  or  clan  was  a  yhos,  the 
nation  (gnatio)  was  a  yko^,  the  whole  human  kith 
and  kin  was  a  yeVo? ;  in  fact,  all  that  was  descende<l 
from  common  ancestors  was  a  true  yivos.  There  is  no 
obscurity  of  thought  in  this. 

On  the  other  side,  taking  etSo?  or  species  in  its 
original  sense,  one  man  might  be  said  to  be  like 
another  in  his  eiSo?  or  appearance.  An  ape,  too, 
might  quite  truly  be  said  to  have  the  same  dhos  or 


304  ItECENT    ESSAYS. 

Rpecies  or  appearance  as  a  man,  without  any  prejudice 
as  to  their  common  origin.  People  might  also  speak 
of  different  etbi]  or  forms  or  classes  of  things,  such  as 
different  kinds  of  metals,  or  tools,  or  armour,  without 
committing  themselves  in  the  least  to  any  opinion  as 
to  their  common  descent. 

Often  it  w^ould  happen  that  things  belonging  to  the 
same  y^vos,  such  as  the  white  man  and  the  negro, 
differed  in  their  etSoy  or  appearance  ;  often  also  that 
things  belonging  to  the  same  uho^,  such  as  eatables, 
differed  in  their  yivos,  as,  for  instance,  meat  and 
vegetables. 

All  this  is  clear  and  simple.  The  confusion  began 
when  these  two  terms,  instead  of  being  co-ordinate, 
were  subordinated  to  each  other  by  the  philosojDhers 
of  Greece,  so  that  what  from  one  point  of  view  was 
called  a  genus,  might  from  another  be  called  a  species, 
and  vice  vend.  Human  beings,  for  instance,  were 
now  called  a  i'2:)ecies,  all  living  beings  a  genus,  which 
may  be  true  in  logic,  but  is  utterly  false  in  what  is 
older  than  logic — viz.  language,  thought,  or  fact. 
According  to  language,  according  to  reason,  and 
according  to  nature,  all  human  beings  constitute 
a  yivos,  or  generation,  so  long  as  they  are  supposed  to 
have  common  ancestors  ;  but  with  regard  to  all  living 
beings  we  can  only  say  that  they  form  an  eiSo? — that 
is,  agree  in  certain  appearances,  until  it  has  been 
proved  that  even  Mr.  Darwin  was  too  modest  in 
admitting  at  least  four  or  five  different  ancestors  for 
the  whole  animal  world  ^. 

In  tracing  the  history  of  these  two  words,  yho^  and 

'  Lectures  on  Mr.  Darwin's  '  Philosophy  of  Language,'  Frasei's 
Nnonzine,  June,  1^73,  p.  26. 


ox  FREEDOM.  305 

ftSo?,  you  may  see  passing  before  your  eyes  almost 
the  whole  panorama  of  philosophy,  from  Plato's  ideas 
down  to  Hegel's  Idee.  The  question  of  genera,  their 
origin  and  subdivision,  occupied  chiefly  the  attention 
of  natural  philosophers,  who,  after  long  controversies 
about  the  origin  and  classification  of  genera  and 
i^l^ecies,  seem  at  last,  thanks  to  the  clear  sight  of 
Darwin,  to  have  arrived  at  the  old  truth  which  was 
prefigured  in  language — namely,  that  Nature  knows 
nothing  but  genera,  or  generations,  to  be  traced  back 
to  a  limited  number  of  ancestors,  and  that  the  so-called 
species  are  only  genera  whose  genealogical  descent  is 
as  yet  more  or  less  obscure. 

But  the  question  as  to  the  nature  of  the  eiooj  be- 
came a  vital  question  in  every  system  of  philosophy. 
Granting,  for  instance,  that  women  in  every  clime 
and  country  formed  one  species,  it  was  soon  asked 
what  constituted  a  species  1  If  all  women  shared 
a  common  form,  what  was  that  form  1  Where  was 
if?  So  long  as  it  was  supposed  that  all  women 
descended  from  Eve,  the  difiiculty  might  be  slurred 
over  by  the  name  of  heredity.  But  the  more  thoughtful 
would  ask  even  then  how  it  was  that,  while  all  indi- 
vidual women  came  and  went  and  vanished,  the  form 
in  which  they  were  cast  remained  the  same  ? 

Here  you  see  how  philosophical  mythology  springs 
up.  The  very  question  what  cTSos  or  species  or  form 
was,  and  where  these  things  were  kept,  changed  those 
words  from  predicates  into  subjects.  Et8os  was  con- 
ceived as  something  independent  and  substantial, 
something  within  or  above  the  individuals  partici- 
pating in  it,  something  unchangeable  and  eternal. 
Soon  there  arose  as  many  eXhr]  or  forms  or  types  as 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

there  were  general  concepts.  They  were  considered 
the  only  true  realities  of  which  the  phenomenal  world 
is  only  as  a  shadow  that  soon  passoth  away.  Here 
we  have,  in  fact,  the  origin  of  Plato's  ideas,  and  of  the 
various  systems  of  idealism  which  followed  his  lead, 
while  the  opposite  opinions  that  ideas  have  no  inde- 
pendent existence,  and  that  the  one  is  nowhere  found 
except  in  the  many  (to  ev  irapa  ra  -noXXd),  was  strenu- 
ously defended  by  Aristotle  and  his  followers  ^. 

The  same  red  thread  runs  through  the  whole 
philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Men  were  cited 
before  councils  and  condemned  as  heretics  because 
they  declared  that  animal,  man,  or  ivoman  were 
mere  names,  and  that  they  could  not  bring  themselves 
to  believe  in  an  ideal  animal,  an  ideal  man,  an  ideal 
woman  as  the  invisible,  supernatural,  or  metaphysical 
types  of  the  ordinary  animal,  the  individual  man,  the 
single  woman.  Those  philosophers,  called  Nominalists, 
in  opposition  to  the  Realists,  declared  that  all  general 
terms  were  names  only,  and  that  nothing  could  claim 
reality  but  the  individual. 

We  cannot  follow  this  controversy  further,  as  it 
turns  up  again  between  Locke  and  Leibniz,  between 
Herbart  and  Hegel.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  knot, 
as  it  was  tied  by  language,  can  be  untied  by  the  science 
of  language  alone,  which  teaches  us  that  there  is  and 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  'a  name  only,'  or  'a  mere 
word.'  Such  expressions  ought  to  be  banished  from 
all  works  on  philosophy.  A  name  is  and  always  has 
been  the  subjective  side  of  our  knowledge,  but  that  sub- 
jective side  is  as  impossible  without  an  objective  side 
as  a  l^ey  is  without  a  lock.     It  is  useless  to  ask  which 

*  Prantl,  '  Geschichle  der  Logik,'  vol.  i.  p.  121. 


ON  FREEDOM.  307 

of  the  two  is  the  more  real,  foi*  they  are  real  only  by 
being,  not  two,  but  one.  Realism  is  as  one-sided  as 
Nominalism.  But  there  is  a  higher  Nominalism,  which 
might  better  bo  called  the  Science  of  Language,  and 
which  teaches  us  that,  apart  from  sensuous  perception, 
all  human  knowledge  is  by  names  and  by  names  only, 
and  that  the  object  of  names  is  always  the  general. 

This  is  but  one  out  of  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
cases  to  show  how  names  and  concepts  which  come  to 
us  by  tradition  must  be  submitted  to  very  careful 
snuffing  before  they  will  yield  a  pure  light.  What 
I  mean  by  academic  teaching  and  academic  study  is 
exactly  this  process  of  snuffing,  this  changing  of 
traditional  words  into  living  words,  this  tracing-  of 
modern  thought  back  to  ancient  primitive  thought, 
this  living,  as  it  were,  once  more,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
us,  the  whole  history  of  human  thought  ourselves,  till 
we  are  as  little  afraid  to  differ  from  Plato  or  Aristotle 
as  from  Comte  or  Darwin. 

Plato  and  Ai'istotle  are,  no  doubt,  great  names; 
every  schoolboy  is  awed  by  them,  even  though  he 
may  have  read  very  little  of  their  writings.  This, 
too,  is  a  kind  of  dogmatism  that  requires  correction. 
Now,  at  University,  a  young  student  might  hear  the 
following,  by  no  means  respectful,  remarks  about  Aris- 
totle, which  I  copy  from  one  of  the  greatest  English 
scholars  and  philosophers: — 'There  is  nothing  so 
absurd  that  the  old  philosophers,  as  Cicero  saith,  who 
was  one  of  them,  have  not  some  of  them  maintained ; 
and  I  believe  that  scarce  anything  can  be  more 
absurdly  said  in  natural  philosophy  than  that  which 
now  is  called  Aristotle's  Metaphysics  ;  or  more  repug- 
nant to  government  than  much  of  that  he  hath  said  in 

X  % 


808  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

his  Politics  ;  nor  more  ignorantly  than  a  great  part  of 
his  Ethics.'  I  am  far  from  approving  this  judgment, 
but  I  think  that  the  shock  which  a  young  scholar 
receives  on  seeing  his  idols  so  mercilessly  broken  is 
salutary.  It  throws  him  back  on  his  own  resources  ; 
it  makes  him  honest  to  himself.  If  he  thinks  the 
criticism  thus  passed  on  Aristotle  unfair,  he  will 
begin  to  read  his  works  with  new  eyes.  He  will  not 
only  construe  his  words,  but  try  to  reconstruct  in  his 
own  mind  the  thoughts  so  carefully  elaborated  by 
that  ancient  philosopher.  He  will  judge  of  their 
truth  without  being  swayed  by  the  authority  of 
a  great  name,  and  probably  in  the  end  value  what  is 
valuable  in  Aristotle,  or  Plato,  or  any  other  great 
philosopher,  far  more  highly  and  honestly  than  if  he 
had  never  seen  them  trodden  under  foot. 

But  do  not  suppose  that  I  look  upon  the  Univer- 
sities as  purely  iconoclastic,  as  chiefly  intended  to 
teach  us  how  to  break  the  idols  of  the  schools.  Far 
from  it !  But  I  do  look  upon  them  as  meant  to 
freshen  the  atmosphere  which  we  breathe  at  school, 
and  to  shake  our  mind  to  its  very  roots,  as  a  storm 
shakes  the  young  oaks,  not  to  throw  them  down,  but 
to  make  them  grasp  all  the  more  firmly  the  hard  soil 
of  fact  and  truth.  '  Stand  upright  on  thy  feet '  ought 
to  be  written  over  the  gate  of  every  college,  if  the 
epidemic  of  uniformity  and  sequacity  which  Mill  saw 
approaching  from  China,  and  which  since  his  time 
has  made  such  rapid  progress  Westward,  is  ever  to  be 
stayed. 

Academic  freedom  is  not  without  its  dangers ;  but 
there  are  dangers  which  it  is  safer  to  face  than  to 
avoid.     In  Germany — so  far  as   my  own  experience 


ON    FREEDOM.  309 

goes — students  are  often  left  too  much  to  themselves, 
and  it  is  only  the  cleverest  among  them,  or  those  who 
are  personally  recommended,  who  receive  from  the 
professors  that  personal  guidance  and  encouragement 
which  should  and  could  be  easily  extended  to  all. 

There  is  too  much  time  given  in  the  German 
Universities  to  mere  lecturing,  and  often  in  simply 
retailing  to  a  class  what  each  student  might  read  in 
books  often  in  a  far  more  perfect  form.  Lectures  are 
useful  if  they  teach  us  how  to  teach  ourselves  ;  if  they 
stimulate  ;  if  they  excite  sympathy  and  curiosity;  if 
they  give  advice  that  springs  from  personal  experience; 
if  they  warn  against  wrong  roads ;  if,  in  fact,  they 
have  less  the  character  of  a  show-window  than  of 
a  workshop.  Half  an  hour's  conversation  with  a 
tutor  or  a  professor  often  does  more  than  a  whole 
course  of  lectures  in  giving  the  right  direction  and 
the  right  spirit  to  a  young  man's  studies.  Here  I  may 
quote  the  words  of  Professor  Helmholtz,  in  full  agree- 
ment with  him.  '  When  I  recall  the  memory  of  my 
own  University  life,'  he  writes,  'and  the  impression 
which  a  man  like  Johannes  Miiller,  the  professor  of 
physiology,  made  on  us,  I  must  set  the  highest  value 
on  the  personal  intercourse  with  teachers  from  whom 
one  learns  how  thought  works  on  independent  heads. 
Whoever  has  come  in  contact  but  once  with  one  or 
several  first-class  men  will  find  his  intellectual 
standard  changed  for  life.' 

In  English  Universities,  on  the  contrary,  there  is 
too  little  of  academic  freedom.  There  is  not  only 
guidance,  but  far  too  much  of  constant  personal 
controL  It  is  often  thought  that  English  under- 
graduates could  not  be  trusted  with  that  amount  of 


310  RECEXT    ESSAYS. 

academic  freedom  which  is  granted  to  German 
students,  and  that  most  of  them,  if  left  to  choose 
their  own  work,  their  own  time,  their  own  books, 
and  their  own  teachers,  would  simply  do  nothing. 
This  seems  to  me  unfair  and  untrue.  Most  horses, 
if  you  take  them  to  the  water,  will  drink  ;  and  the 
best  way  to  make  them  drink  is  to  leave  them  alone. 
I  have  lived  long  enough  in  English  and  in  German 
Universities  to  know  that  the  intellectual  fibre  is  as 
strono-  and  sound  in  the  English  as  in  the  German 
youth.  But  if  you  supply  a  man,  who  wishes  to 
learn  swimming,  with  bladders — nay,  if  you  insist 
on  his  using  them — he  will  use  them,  but  he  will 
probably  never  learn  to  swim.  Take  them  away,  on 
the  contrary,  and  depend  en  it,  after  a  few  aimless 
strokes  and  a  few  painful  gulps,  he  will  use  his  arms 
and  his  legs,  and  he  will  swim.  If  young  men  do  not 
learn  to  use  their  arms,  their  legs,  their  muscles,  their 
senses,  their  brain,  and  their  heart  too,  during  the 
bright  years  of  their  University  life,  when  are  they 
to  learn  if?  True,  there  are  thousands  who  never 
learn  it,  and  who  float  happily  on  through  life  buoyed 
up  on  mere  bladders.  The  worst  that  can  happen  to 
them  is  that  some  day  the  bladders  may  burst,  and 
they  may  be  left  stranded  or  drowned.  But  these 
are  not  the  men  whom  England  wants  to  fight  her 
battles.  It  has  often  been  pointed  out  of  late  that 
many  of  those  who,  during  this  century,  have  borne 
the  brunt  of  the  battle  in  the  intellectual  warfare  in 
England,  have  not  been  trained  at  our  Universities^ 
while  others  who  have  been  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
and  have  distinguished  themselves  in  after-life,  have 
openly  declared  that  they  attended  hardly  any  lectures 


ox  FREEDOM.  311 

in  college,  or  that  they  derived  no  benefit  from  them. 
What  can  be  the  ground  of  that?  Not  that  there  is 
less  work  done  at  Oxford  than  at  Leipzig,  but  that 
the  work  is  done  in  a  different  spirit.  It  is  free  in 
Germany ;  it  has  now  become  almost  compulsory  in 
England.  Though  an  old  professor  myself,  I  like  to 
attend,  when  I  can,  some  of  the  professorial  lectures 
in  Germany  ;  for  it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  see  hundreds 
of  young  faces  listening  to  a  teacher  on  the  history  of 
art,  on  modern  history,  on  the  science  of  language, 
or  on  philosophy,  without  any  view  to  examinations, 
simply  from  love  of  the  subject  or  of  the  teacher. 
No  one  who  knows  what  the  real  joy  of  learning  is, 
how  it  lightens  all  drudgery  and  draws  away  the 
mind  from  mean  pursuits,  can  see  without  indignation 
that  what  ought  to  be  the  freest  and  happiest  years 
in  a  man's  life  should  often  be  spent  between  cram- 
ming and  examinations. 

And  here  I  have  at  last  mentioned  the  word,  which 
to  many  friends  of  academic  freedom,  to  many  who 
dread  the  baneful  increase  of  uniformity,  may  seem 
the  cause  of  all  mischief,  the  most  powerful  engine 
of  intellectual  levelling — Examination. 

There  is  a  strong  feeling  springing  up  everywhere 
against  the  tyranny  of  examinations,  against  the 
cramping  and  withering  influence  which  they  are 
supposed  to  exercise  on  the  youth  of  England.  I  can- 
not join  in  that  outcry.  I  well  remember  that  the 
first  letters  which  I  ventured  to  address  to  the  Times, 
in  very  imperfect  English,  were  in  favour  of  examina- 
tions. They  were  signed  La  Carriere  ouverte,  and 
were  written  long  before  the  days  of  the  Civil  Service 
Commission!     I  well   remember,   too,  that   the   first 


312  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

time  I  ventured  to  speak,  or  rather  to  stammer,  in 
public,  was  in  favour  of  examinations.  That  was  in 
1857,  at  Exeter,  when  the  first  experiment  was  made, 
under  the  auspices  of  Sir  T.  Acland,  in  establishing  the 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  Local  Examinations.  I  have 
been  an  examiner  myself  for  many  years,  I  have 
watched  the  growth  of  that  system  in  England  from 
year  to  year,  and  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said 
and  written  of  late  against  examinations,  I  confess 
I  do  not  see  how  it  would  be  possible  to  abolish  them, 
and  return  to  the  old  system  of  appointment  by 
patronage. 

But  though  I  have  not  lost  my  faith  in  examina- 
tions, I  cannot  conceal  the  fact  that  I  am  frightened  by 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  conducted,  and  by  the 
results  which  they  pi'oduce.  As  you  are  interested 
yourselves  at  this  Midland  Institute,  in  the  successful 
working  of  examinations,  you  will  perhaps  allow  me 
in  conclusion  to  add  a  few  remarks  on  the  safeguards 
necessary  for  the  efficient  working  of  examinations. 

All  examinations  are  a  means  to  ascertain  how 
pupils  have  been  taught ;  they  ought  never  to  be 
allowed  to  become  the  end  for  which  pupils  are 
taught. 

Teaching  with  a  view  to  examinations  lowers  the 
teacher  in  the  eyes  of  his  pupils ;  learning  with  a  view 
to  examinations  is  apt  to  produce  shallowness  and 
dishonesty. 

Whatever  attractions  learning  possesses  in  itself, 
and  whatever  efforts  were  formerly  made  by  boys  at 
school  from  a  sense  of  duty,  all  this  is  lost  if  they 
once  imagine  that  the  highest  object  of  all  learning  is 
gaining  marks  in  examinations. 


ON    FKEEDOir.  313 

In  order  to  maintain  the  proper  relation  batween 
teacher  and  pupil,  all  pupils  should  be  made  to  look 
to  their  teachers  as  their  natural  examiners  and  fairest 
judges,  and  therefore  in  every  examination  the  report 
of  the  teacher  ought  to  carry  the  greatest  weight. 
This  is  the  principle  followed  abroad  in  all  examina- 
tions of  candidates  at  public  schools ;  and  even  in 
their  examination  on  leaving  school,  which  gives 
them  the  right  to  enter  the  University,  they  know 
that  their  success  depends  far  more  on  the  work 
which  they  have  done  during  the  years  at  school, 
than  on  the  work  done  on  the  few  days  of  their 
examination.  There  are  outside  examiners  appointed 
by  Government  to  cheek  the  work  done  at  schools 
and  during  the  examinations ;  but  the  cases  in  which 
they  have  to  modify  or  reverse  the  award  of  the 
masters  are  extremely  rare,  and  they  are  felt  to  reflect 
seriously  on  the  competency  or  impartiality  of  the 
school  authorities. 

To  leave  examinations  entirely  to  strangers  reduces 
them  to  the  level  of  lotteries,  and  fosters  a  cleverness 
in  teachers  and  taught  often  akin  to  dishonesty.  An 
examiner  may  find  out  what  a  candidate  knows  not, 
he  can  hardly  ever  find  out  all  he  knows ;  and  even 
if  he  succeeds  in  finding  out  how  tnuch  a  candidate 
knows,  he  can  never  find  out  how  he  knows  it.  On 
these  points  the  opinion  of  the  masters  who  have 
watched  their  pupils  for  years  is  indispensable  for  the 
sake  of  the  examiner,  for  the  sake  of  the  pupils,  and 
for  the  sake  of  then*  teachers. 

I  know  I  shall  be  told  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  trust  the  masters,  and  to  be  guided  by  their  opinion, 
because  they  are  interested  parties.     Now,  first  of  all, 


314  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

there  are  far  more  honest  men  in  the  world  than  dis- 
honest, and  it  does  not  answer  to  legislate  as  if  all 
schoolmasters  were  rogues.  It  is  enough  that  they 
should  know  that  their  reports  would  be  scrutinized, 
to  keep  even  the  most  reprobate  of  teachers  from 
bearing  false  witness  in  favour  of  their  pupils. 

Secondly,  1  believe  that  unnecessary  temptation  is 
now  being  placed  before  all  parties  concerned  in 
examinations.  The  proper  reward  for  a  good  examina- 
tion should  be  honour,  not  pounds,  shillings,  and 
ponce.  The  mischief  done  by  pecuniary  rewards 
offered  in  the  shape  of  scholarships  and  exhibitions 
at  school  and  University,  begins  to  be  recognised 
very  widely.  To  train  a  boy  of  twelve  for  a  race 
against  all  England  is  generally  to  overstrain  his 
faculties,  and  often  to  impair  his  usefulness  in  later 
life ;  but  to  make  him  feel  that  by  his  failure  he  will 
entail  on  his  father  the  loss  of  a  hundred  a  year,  and 
on  his  teacher  the  loss  of  pupils,  is  simply  cruel  at 
that  early  age. 

It  is  always  said  that  these  scholarships  and  exhibi- 
tions enable  the  sons  of  poor  parents  to  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  the  best  education  in  England,  from 
which  they  would  otherwise  be  debarred  by  the  ex- 
cessive costliness  of  our  public  schools.  But  even 
this  argument,  strong  as  it  seems,  can  hardly  stand, 
for  I  believe  it  could  be  shown  that  the  majority  of 
those  who  are  successful  in  obtaining  scholarships 
and  exhibitions  at  school  or  at  University  are  boys 
whose  parents  have  been  able  to  pay  the  highest 
price  for  their  children's  previous  education.  If  all 
these  prizes  were  abolished,  and  the  funds  thus  set 
free  used  to  lessen  the  price  of  education  at  school 


ON    I'EEKDOJr.  315 

and  in  college,  I  believe  that  the  sons  of  poor  parents 
would  be  far  more  benefited  than  by  the  present 
system.  It  might  also  be  desirable  to  lower  the  school- 
fees  in  the  case  of  the  sons  of  poor  parents,  who 
were  doing  well  at  school  from  year  to  year;  and, 
in  order  to  guard  against  favouritism,  an  examina- 
tion, particularly  viva  voce,  before  all  the  masters 
of  a  school,  possibly  even  with  some  outside  examiner, 
might  be  useful.  But  the  present  system  bids  fair  to 
degenerate  into  mere  horse-racing,  and  I  shall  not 
wonder  if,  sooner  or  later,  the  two-year  olds  entered 
for  the  race  have  to  be  watched  by  their  trainer  that 
they  may  not  be  overfed  or  drugged  against  the  day 
of  the  race.  It  has  come  to  this,  that  schools  are 
bidding  for  clever  boys  in  order  to  run  them  in  the 
races,  and  in  France,  I  read,  that  parents  actually 
extort  money  from  schools  by  threatening  to  take 
away  the  young  racers  that  are  likely  to  win  the 
Derby  \ 

If  we  turn  from  the  schools  to  the  Universities  we 
find  here,  too,  the  same  complaints  against  over- 
examination.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that  every  Uni- 
versity, in  order  to  maintain  its  position,  has  a  perfect 
light  to  demand  two  examinations,  but  no  more :  cne 
for  admission,  the  other  for  a  degree.  Various 
attempts  have  been  made  in  Germany,  in  Russia,  in 
France,  and  in  England  to  change  and  improve  the 
old  academic  tradition,  but  in  the  end  the  original, 
and,  as  it  would  seem,  the  natural  system,  has 
generally  proved  its  wisdom  and  reasserted  its 
right. 

If  a  University  surrenders  the  right  of  examining 
1  L.  Noire,  Tiidagogischea  SkizzeiiLuch,'  p.  157;  'Todtts  Wi.isen.' 


316  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

those  who  wish  to  be  admitted,  the  tutors  will  often 
have  to  do  the  work  of  schoolmasters,  and  the  pro- 
fessors can  never  know  how  high  or  how  low  they 
should  aim  in  their  public  lectures.  Besides  this,  it 
is  almost  inevitable,  if  the  Universities  surrender  the 
right  of  a  matriculation-examination,  that  they  should 
lower,  not  only  their  own  standard,  but  likewise  the 
standard  of  the  public  schools.  Some  Universities,  on 
the  contrary,  like  over-anxious  mothers,  have  multi- 
plied examinations  so  as  to  make  quite  sure,  at  the 
end  of  each  term  or  each  year,  that  the  pupils  confided 
to  them  have  done  at  least  some  work.  This  kind  of 
forced  labour  may  do  some  good  to  the  incorrigibly 
idle,  but  it  does  the  greatest  harm  to  all  the  rest.  If 
there  is  an  examination  at  the  end  of  each  year,  there 
can  be  no  freedom  left  for  any  independent  work. 
Both  teachers  and  taught  will  be  guided  by  the  same 
pole-star — examinations;  no  deviation  from  the  beaten 
track  will  be  considered  safe,  and  all  the  pleasure 
derived  from  work  done  for  its  own  sake,  and  all  the 
just  pride  and  joy,  which  those  only  know  who  have 
ever  ventured  out  by  themselves  on  the  open  sea  of 
knowledge,  must  be  lost. 

We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  deceived  by  the 
brilliant  show  of  examination  papers. 

It  is  certainly  marvellous  what  an  amount  of  know- 
ledge candidates  will  produce  before  their  examiners  ; 
but  those  who  have  been  both  examined  and  examiners 
know  best  how  fleeting  that  knowledge  is,  and  how 
different  from  that  other  knowledge  which  has  been 
acquired  slowly  and  quietly,  for  its  own  sake,  for  our 
own  sake,  without  a  thought  as  to  whether  it  would 
ever  pay  at  examinations  or  not.     A  candidate,  after 


ox  FREEDOM.  817 

giving  most  glibly  the  dates  and  the  titles  of  the 
principal  works  of  Cobbett,  Gibbon,  Burke,  Adam 
Smith,  and  David  Hume,  was  asked  whether  he  had 
ever  seen  any  of  their  writings,  and  he  had  to  answer, 
No.  Another,  who  was  asked  which  of  the  works  of 
Pheidias  he  had  seen,  replied  that  he  had  only  read 
the  first  two  books.  That  is  the  kind  of  dishonest 
knowledge  which  is  fostered  by  too  frequent  examina- 
tions. There  are  two  kinds  of  knowledge,  the  one 
that  enters  into  our  very  blood,  the  other  which  we 
carry  about  in  our  pockets.  Those  who  read  for 
examinations  have  generally  their  pockets  cram  full ; 
those  who  work  on  quietly  and  have  their  whole 
heart  in  their  work  are  often  discouraged  at  the  small 
amount  of  their  knowledge,  at  the  little  life-blood 
they  have  made.  But  what  they  have  learnt  has 
really  become  their  own,  has  invigorated  their  whole 
frame,  and  in  the  end  they  have  often  proved  the 
strongest  and  happiest  men  in  the  battle  of  life. 

Omniscience  is  at  present  the  bane  of  all  our  know- 
ledge. From  the  day  he  leaves  school  and  enters  the 
University  a  man  ought  to  make  up  his  mind  that  in 
many  things  he  must  remain  either  altogether  igno- 
rant, or  be  satisfied  with  knowledge  at  second-hand. 
Thus  only  can  he  clear  the  deck  for  action.  And  the 
sooner  he  finds  out  what  his  own  work  is  to  be,  the 
more  useful  and  delightful  will  be  his  life  at  the  Univer- 
sity and  later.  There  are  few  men  who  have  a  passion 
for  all  knowledge,  there  is  hardly  one  who  has  not 
a  hobby  of  his  own.  Those  so-called  hobbies  ought 
to  be  utilized,  and  not,  as  they  are  now,  discouraged, 
if  we  wish  our  Universities  to  produce  more  men  like 
Faraday,  Carlyle,  Grote,  or   Darwin.     I  do  not  say 


318  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

that  in  an  examination  for  a  University  degree  a 
minimum  of  what  is  now  called  (jeueral  culture  should 
not  be  insisted  on ;  but  in  addition  to  that,  far  more 
freedom  ouofht  to  be  gfiven  to  the  examiner  to  let  each 
candidate  produce  his  own  individual  work.  This  is 
done  to  a  far  greater  extent  in  Continental  than  in 
English  Universities,  and  the  examinations  are  there- 
fore mostly  confided  to  the  members  of  the  Sena- 
tus  Acadeviicus,  consisting  of  the  most  experienced 
teachers,  and  the  most  eminent  representatives  of  the 
different  branches  of  knowledge  in  the  University. 
Their  object  is  not  to  find  out  how  many  marks  each 
candidate  may  gain  by  answering  a  larger  or  smaller 
number  of  questions,  and  then  to  place  them  in  order 
before  the  world  like  so  many  organ  pipes.  They 
want  to  find  out  whether  a  man,  by  the  work  he  has 
done  during  his  three  or  four  years  at  the  University, 
has  acquired  that  vigour  of  thought,  that  maturity  of 
judgment,  and  that  special  knowledge,  which  fairly 
entitle  him  to  an  academic  status,  to  a  degree,  with 
or  without  special  honours.  Such  a  degree  confers 
no  material  advantages  ^ ;  it  does  not  entitle  its  holder 
to  any  employment  in  Church  or  State ;  it  does  not 
vouch  even  for  his  being  a  fit  person  to  be  made  an 
Archbishop  or  Prime  Minister.  All  this  is  left  to  the 
later  struggle  for  life;  and  in  that  struggle  it  seems 
as  if  those  who,  after  having  surveyed  the  vast 
field  of  human  knowledge,  have  settled  on  a  few 
acres  of  their  own  and  cultivated  them  as  they  were 
never  cultivated  before,  who  have  worked  hard  and 
have  tasted  the  true  joy  and  happiness  of  hard  work, 
who  have  gladly  listened  to  others,  but  always  de- 

'  Mill,  '  On  Liberty,'  p.  193. 


ON    FllEEDOAf.  819 

pendcJ  on  themselves,  were,  after  all,  the  men  whom 
great  nations  delighted  to  follow  as  their  royal  leaders 
in  their  onward  march  towards  greater  enlighten- 
ment, greater  happiness,  and  greater  freedom. 

To  sum  up.  No  one  can  read  Mill's  Essay  'On 
Liberty '  at  the  present  moment  without  feeling  that 
even  during  the  short  period  of  the  last  twenty  years 
the  cause  which  he  advocated  so  strongly  and  pas- 
sionately, the  cause  of  individual  freedom,  has  made 
rapid  progress,  aye,  has  carried  the  day.  In  no 
country  Tiiay  a  man  be  so  entirely  himself,  so  true  to 
himself  and  yet  loyal  to  society,  as  in  England. 

But,  although  the  enemy  whose  encroachments  Mill 
feared  most  and  resented  most  has  been  driven  back 
and  forced  to  keep  within  his  own  bounds, — though 
such  names  as  Dissent  and  Nonconformity,  which 
were  formerly  used  in  society  as  fatal  darts,  seem  to 
have  lost  all  the  poison  which  they  once  contained, — 
Mill's  principal  fears  have  nevertheless  not  been  be- 
lied, and  the  blight  of  uniformity  which  he  saw 
approaching  with  its  attendant  evils  of  feebleness, 
indifference,  and  sequaeity,  has  been  spreading  more 
widely  than  ever  in  his  days- 
It  has  even  been  maintained  that  the  very  freedom 
which  every  individual  now  enjoys  has  been  detri- 
mental to  the  growth  of  individuality ;  that  you  must 
have  an  Inquisition  if  you  want  to  see  martyrs ;  that 
you  must  have  despotism  and  tyranny  to  call  forth 
heroes.  The  very  measures  which  Mill  and  his  friends 
advocated  so  warmly,  compulsory  education  and  com- 
petitive examinations,  are  pointed  out  as  having 
chiefly  contributed  to  produce  that  large  array  of 
pass-men,  that  dead  level  of  uninteresting  excellence, 


820  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

which  is  the  heau  ideal  of  a  Chinese  Mandarin,  while 
it  frightened  and  disheartened  such  men  as  Humboldt, 
Tocqueville,  and  John  Stuart  Mill. 

There  may  be  some  truth  in  all  this,  but  it  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  whole  truth.  Education,  as  it  has  to 
be  carried  on,  whether  in  elementary  or  in  public 
schools,  is  no  doubt  a  heavy  weight  which  might  well 
press  down  the  most  independent  spii-it ;  it  is,  in  fact, 
neither  more  nor  less  than  placing,  in  a  systematized 
form,  on  the  shoulders  of  every  generation  the  ever- 
increasing  mass  of  knowledge,  experience,  custom, 
and  tradition  that  has  been  accumulated  by  former 
generations.  We  need  not  wonder,  therefore,  if  in 
some  schools  all  spring,  all  vigour,  all  joyousness  of 
work  is  crushed  out  under  that  load  of  names  and 
dates,  of  anomalous  verbs  and  syntactic  rules,  of 
mathematical  formulas  and  geometrical  axioms,  which 
boys  are  expected  to  bring  up  for  competitive  ex- 
aminations. 

But  a  remedy  has  been  provided,  and  we  are  our- 
selves to  blame  if  we  do  not  avail  ourselves  of  it  to 
the  fullest  extent.  Europe  erected  its  Universities, 
and  called  them  the  homes  of  the  Liberal  Arts,  and 
determined  that  between  the  slavery  of  the  school 
and  the  routine  of  practical  life  every  man  should 
have  at  least  three  years  of  freedom.  What  Socrates 
and  his  great  pupil  Plato  had  done  for  the  youth  of 
Greece  ^,  these  new  academies  were  to  do  for  the 
youth  of  Italy,  France,  England,  Spain,  and  Germany ; 
and,  though  with  varying  success,  they  have  done  it. 
The  mediaeval  and  modern  Universities  have  been 

'  Zeller,  'Ueber  den  wissenschaftlichen  Unterricht  bei  den  Griechen,' 
1878,  p.  9. 


ON"    FREEDOir.  321 

from  century  to  century  the  homes  of  free  thougb.t. 
Here  the  mcst  eminent  men  have  spent  their  lives, 
not  merely  in  retailing  traditional  knowledge,  as  at 
school,  but  in  extending  the  frontiers  of  science  in 
all  dii-ections.  Here,  in  close  intercourse  with  their 
teachers,  or  under  their  immediate  guidance,  genera- 
tion after  generation  of  boys,  fresh  from  school,  have 
gi-own  up  into  men  during  the  three  years  of  their 
academic  life.  Here,  for  the  first  time,  each  man  has 
been  encouraged  to  dare  to  be  himself,  to  follow  his 
own  tastes,  to  depend  on  his  own  judgment,  to  try 
the  wings  of  his  mind,  and,  lo,  like  young  eagles 
thrown  out  of  their  nest,  they  could  fly.  Here  the 
old  knowledge  accumulated  at  school  was  tested,  and 
new  knowledge  acquired  straight  from  the  fountain- 
head.  Here  knowledge  ceased  to  be  a  mere  burden, 
and  became  a  power  invigorating  the  whole  mind, 
like  snow  which  during  winter  lies  cold  and  heavy 
on  the  meadows,  but  when  it  is  touched  by  the  sun 
of  spring  melts  away,  and  fructifies  the  ground  for 
a  rich  harvest. 

That  was  the  original  purpose  of  the  Universities  f 
and  the  more  they  continue  to  fulfil  that  purpose  the 
more  will  they  secure  to  us  that  real  freedom  from 
tradition,  from  custom,  from  mere  opinion  and  super- 
stition, which  can  be  gained  by  independent  study 
only  ;  the  more  will  they  foster  that  '  human  develop- 
ment in  its  richest  diversity'  which  Mill,  like  Hum- 
boldt, considered  as  the  highest  object  of  all  society. 

Such  academic  teaching  need  not  be  confined  to  the 
old  Universities.  There  is  many  a  great  University 
that  sprang  from  smaller  beginnings  than  your  Mid- 
land Institute.    Nor  is  it  necessary,  in  order  to  secure 

VOL.  I.  y 


3.'22  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  real  benefits  of  academic  teacliing,  to  have  all  the 
paraphernalia  of  a  University,  its  colleges  and  fellow- 
ships, its  caps  and  gowns.  What  is  really  wanted 
are  men  who  have  done  good  work  in  their  life,  and 
who  are  walling  to  teach  others  how  to  work  for 
themselves,  how  to  think  for  themselves,  how  to 
judge  for  themselves.  That  is  the  true  academic 
stage  in  every  man's  life,  when  he  learns  to  work, 
not  to  please  others,  be  they  schoolmasters  or  ex- 
aminers, but  to  please  himself,  when  he  works  from 
sheer  love  of  work,  and  for  the  highest  of  all  purposes, 
the  conquest  of  truth.  Those  only  who  have  passed 
throuoh  that  stage  know  the  real  blessinos  of  work. 
To  the  world  at  large  they  may  seem  mere  drudges — 
but  the  w^orld  does  not  know  the  triumphant  joy 
with  which  the  true  mountaineer,  high  above  clouds 
and  mountain  walls  that  once  seemed  unsurpassable, 
drinks  in  the  fresh  air  of  the  High  Alps,  and  away 
from  the  fumes,  the  dust,  and  the  noises  of  the  city, 
revels  alone,  in  freedom  of  thought,  in  freedom  of 
feeling,  and  in  the  freedom  of  the  highest  faith. 


GOETHE  AND  CArxLYLE^ 


rilHE  English  Goethe  Society  which  we  inaugurate 
A  to-day  has  been  founded  to  promote  and  extend 
the  study  of  Goethe's  works  and  thoughts.  We  do 
not  meet  here  simply  to  worship  the  poetical  genius 
of  Goethe,  and  to  call  every  line  he  wrote  great  and 
beautiful  and  divine.  That  kind  of  slavish  idolatry 
is  unworthy  of  Goethe,  and  it  would  be  equally  un- 
worthy of  our  Society.  The  time  has  passed  when 
Goethe  was  preached  as  a  new  Gospel,  the  time 
also  when  he  was  sneered  at  and  cursed  seems  to 
have  come  to  an  end.  We  think  the  time  has  come 
to  study  him,  and  to  study  him  seriously,  critically, 
historically.  If  worship  there  must  bo,  we  cannot 
offer  better  and  truer  worship  to  the  departed  spirits 
of  men  of  true  genius  than  by  trying  to  understand 
thoroughly  the  thoughts  which  they  have  bequeathed 
to  us.  Such  study  bestows  on  them  their  true  immor- 
tality, nay,  it  proves  that  their  spirit  never  will  and 
never  can  die. 

And  never  was  there  a  time  when  it  seemed  more 
necessary  that  Goethe's  spirit  should  be  kept  alive 
among  us,  whether  in  Germany  or  in  England,  than 

,    *  Inaugural  Address  delivered  before  the  English  Goethe  Society  by 
the  President,  May  28,  18S8. 

Y  2 


324  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

now  when  the  international  relations  between  the 
leading  countries  of  Europe  have  become  worse  than 
among  savages  in  Africa;  when  national  partisanship 
threatens  to  darken  all  Avise  counsel  and  to  extinguish 
all  human  sympathies ;  when  men  are  no  longer 
valued  by  their  intrinsic  worth,  but  by  their  acci- 
dental wealth  ;  when  philosophy,  in  its  true  sense,  as 
a  passionate  love  of  wisdom  and  truth  is  wellnigh 
forgotten ;  when  religion  has  become  a  dry  bone  of 
theological  contention,  and  nothing  can  be  called 
true,  honest,  pure,  lovely,  or  sublime  without  evoking 
the  smiles  and  sneers  of  those  who  profess  to  be 
wisest  in  their  o-eneration.  The  o-eneral  view  of  life 
has  become  so  distorted  with  us  that  we  can  hardly 
trust  our  eyes  when  we  turn  them  on  the  life  which, 
not  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  satisfied  the 
desires  of  such  men  as  Lessing,  Wieland,  Herder, 
Schiller,  and  Goethe.  Life  in  Germany  was  at  that 
time  what  Goethe  himself  called  idyllisch'^,  the  same 
Avord,  no  doubt,  as  the  English  idyUlc,  but  endowed 
with  a  flavour  peculiarly  its  own.  The  valley  in 
which  those  poets  lived  was  narrow,  their  houses 
small,  their  diet  simple,  but  their  hearts  were  large, 
their  minds  soared  high,  their  sympathies  embraced 
the  whole  world.  They  knew  the  blessings  of  a  laeta 
paxipertas,  of  cheerful  poverty,  and  high  aims.  As 
Goethe  writes  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Carhde,  '  We 
then  thought  of  nothing  but  striving,  no  one  thought 
of  asking  for  rewards,  but  was  only  anxious  to  de- 
serve them^.'    The  idea  of  making  money  for  monej's 

*  Idylliscli,  see  Goethe's  Works  (1833%  vol.  xlix.  p.  132. 
^  Speaking'    of  the    correspondence    between    himself  and    Schiller, 
Goethe   writes   to  Carlylc   (July    26,    1829);    '  Mfjgen    sie    Ihnen    als 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  325 

sake  seeiiis  never  to  have  troubled  them.  Politics,  too, 
occupied  a  very  sruall  place  in  their  daily  interests, 
and  even  those  who  were  statesmen  by  profession, 
did  not  obtrude  their  opinions  on  the  world  at  large, 
any  more  than  an  attorney  would  always  talk  about 
the  squabbles  and  lawsuits  of  his  clients,  or  a  medical 
man  of  the  imprudences  and  ailments  of  his  patients. 
To  many  people  the  life  at  Weimar  in  Goethe's  time 
may  seem  provincial,  narrow,  pedantic,  mean,  and  yet 
I  doubt  wliether  at  any  time  in  the  world's  history 
society,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  reached  a  more 
Olympian  height  and  revelled  in  more  fabulous  wealth 
than  at  the  beginning  of  our  century  in  the  small 
valley  of  the  11m.  If  you  want  to  measure  the 
gigantic  stature  of  Goethe,  go  to  Weimar  and  look 
at  the  small  town,  the  small  street,  the  small  house, 
the  small  rooms  in  which  he  lived.  Weimar  had 
then  about  io,coo  inhabitants,  London  has  now  nearly 
4,cco.coo.  But  as  4,000,000  is  to  lo.coo^  so  was  the 
intellectual  wealth  of  Goethe's  Weimar  compared  to 
what  we  could  find  at  present  if  we  ransacked  all  our 
clubs  and  all  our  palaces.  To  me,  whenever  I  can 
afibrd  the  time,  to  plunge  once  more  into  Goethe, 
Schiller,  Herder,  Wieland,  Lessing — not  to  forget  Jean 
Paul — is  like  taking  a  header  into  the  sea  at  the  end 
of  a  sultry  day — it  is  a  washing,  a  refreshing,  a  com- 
plete rejuvenescence  all  in  one.  And  what  it  is  to 
me,  it  will  be  to  others  who  are  wearied  with  the  gaze 


Zauberwngen  zu  Diensten  stehen,  um  sicli  in  die  damalige  Zeit  in 
imsere  Mitte  zu  veisetzen,  wo  es  eine  unbedingte  Strebsanikeit  gait,  wo 
niemand  zu  fordern  daclite  und  nur  zu  verdienen  bemiiht  war.  Ich 
liabe  niir  die  vieleu  Jalire  her  den  Sinn,  das  Gefiihl  jener  Tage  zu 
erhidten  gesucht,  und  ich  glaube,  es  soil  niir  fernerhin  gelingen.' 


3.26  KECEXT    ESSAYS. 

of  fools  and  pageants  of  the  day.  To  pass  an  hour 
with  Goethe  now  and  then  will  reinvigorate  our 
belief  in  the  much-derided  ideals  of  life,  it  will  make 
us  remember  our  common  humanity,  it  will  lift  up 
our  eyes  beyond  clouds  and  planets  and  comets  to 
those  fixed  stars  which,  though  they  may  be  useless 
to  lighten  our  streets,  lighten  up  our  minds  with 
visions  of  heavens  above  heavens,  and  in  the  fierce 
tempests  of  life  remain  after  all  our  only  true  guides 
to  steer  our  vessel  bravely  through  winds  and  waves 
to  a  safe  harbour. 

What,  then,  were  Goethe's  ideals  ?  I  am  not  so 
reckless  as  to  try  to  raise  that  spirit  before  you  in 
all  his  fulness — the  old  man  covered  with  his  mantle, 
whom  no  witch  of  Endor  could  conjure  up.  Many- 
sided  {vielseiiig),\i  has  been  often  said,  is  an  adjective 
that  belongs  to  Goethe  by  the  same  right  as  venercdjle 
belongs  to  Bede,  judicious  to  Hooker.  I  shall  confine 
my  remarks  to-day  to  one  of  his  ideals  only,  one 
which  he  cherished  with  intense  devotion,  particularly 
during  the  closing  years  of  his  life,  and  for  which 
his  own  countrymen  have  often  rather  blamed  than 
praised  him.  I  mean  his  cosmopolitan  sympathies,  and, 
more  particularly,  his  constant  endeavours  after  what 
he  called  cine  Wclt-litercdur,  a  World-litercdure.  You 
know  how  much  this  idea,  this  dream,  as  wise  people 
will  call  it,  occupied  Goethe's  thoughts.  When  he 
wrote  his  preface  to  the  German  translation  of  Car- 
lyle's  '  Life  of  Schiller,'  about  two  j-ears  before  his 
death,  he  begins  by  giving  his  own  thoughts  on  what 
he  means  by  World-literature. 

'  Many  people,'  he  says  \  '  have  been  talking  of  a 

'  Goethe's  Works,  xlvi.  p.  233. 


OOKTIIE    AND    CAin.YLE.  o.il 

\Vo]-ld-litei-ature  for  some  time,  and  not  without  some 
reason,  for  all  nations,  after  having  been  shaken 
together  by  the  most  dreadful  wars,  and  then  l»eing 
left  again  each  to  itself,  could  not  but  see  that  they 
had  observed  and  absorbed  many  strange  things,  and 
had  felt  here  and  there  certain  intellectual  wants, 
heretofore  unknown  to  them.  Hence  arose  a  sense 
of  neighbourly  relations,  and  while  formerly  they  had 
lived  secluded,  people  now  felt  in  their  mind  a  growang 
desire  to  be  received  into  the  move  or  less  free  intel- 
lectual commerce  of  the  whole  world.  This  movement 
has  lasted  for  a  short  time  only,  yet  long  enough  to 
deserve  consideration,  so  that  we  may  derive  from  it 
as  soon  as  possible,  as  in  material  commerce,  profit 
and  delight.' 

To  see  a  man  like  Goethe  watching  the  growth  of 
every  literature — not  only  English,  French,  Italian. 
Spanish,  but  Serbian,  Bohemian,  Lithuanian,  Modern 
Greek,  Swedish,  nay,  Persian,  Arabic,  Sanskrit,  and 
Chinese — and  trying  to  find  out  wliat  is  true  jmd 
beautiful  in  every  one  of  them,  is  a  real  treat  in  an 
ao-e  wdien  most  critics  imagine  that  their  chief  dut\' 
is  to  discover  in  every  work  of  art  not  what  is  good, 
but  w^hat  is  bad.  It  sounds  quite  strange  wdieu  read- 
ing Goethe,  to  hear  in  German  the  warmest  praises 
of  French  and  English  literature,  wdiile  at  present  no 
German  new^spaper,  which  looks  for  light  from  above, 
would  dare  to  say  a  kind  word  of  Victor  Hugo  or  of 
Tennyson.  The  lesson  which  Goethe  wished  to  teach 
was  that  the  true  poet,  the  true  philosopher,  the  true 
historian  belongs  not  to  one  country  only,  but  to  the 
Avorld  at  large.  He  belongs,  not  to  the  present  only, 
but  likewise  to  the  past  and  to  the  future.     We  owe 


3.28  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

much  of  what  we  are  and  what  we  have  to  those  who 
came  hefure  us,  and  in  our  hands  rest  the  destinies 
of  those  who  will  come  after  us.  It  is  under  the 
sense  of  this  universal  responsibility,  and  in  that 
world-embracing-  spirit,  that  Goethe  thinks  the  highest 
intellectual  work  ought  to  be  done.  It  was  in  com- 
munion with  the  past  and  with  the  future,  and  in 
sympathy  with  the  whole  world,  that  he  himself 
achieved  his  greatest  triumphs. 

And  why  should  this  ideal  of  a  universal  republic 
of  letters  be  called  a  dream  ?  Anyhow,  it  is  a  dream 
that  has  heen  dreamt  long  before  Goethe.  It  is  we 
in  the  last  four  centuries  of  the  world  who  have 
grown  so  very  narrow-minded,  so  intensely  national. 
Till  about  four  hundred  years  ago  all  really  great 
writers  wrote  for  the  world,  and  not  for  their  own 
small  country  only.  Nay,  I  make  bold  to  say  that  some 
of  the  ideas  to  which  Goethe  gave  such  powerful 
expression,  and  which  have  often  been  called  Utopian, 
stirred  more  or  less  consciously  in  the  minds  of  the 
earliest  writers  when  they,  for  the  fh'st  time,  took  their 
chisel  to  engrave  on  the  walls  of  temples  and  pyramids 
what  they  had  thought  and  what  they  had  done 
during  their  short  sojourn  hero  on  earth.  With  us 
Avriting  has  become  a  habit.  But  why  did  people 
first  begin  to  write  and  erect  monuments  which  they 
hoped  would  last  for  ever "? 

I  believe  it  was  the  same  awakening  spirit  of 
human  sympathy  which  Goethe  preached,  the  same 
reverence  for  a  past  that  was  no  more,  the  same 
faith  in  a  iuture  that  was  not  yet,  which  led  the 
great  historical  nations  of  the  world  to  lay  the  first 
foundations  of  what  we  now  call  literature,  and  what 


GOETHE    AND    CAULYLE.  320 

to  them  was  world-literature,  so  fur  as  tlicy  could 
realize  it.  When  wo  look  at  the  ]\o-yptiiin  monu- 
ments, ornamented  with  their  beautiful  hieroglyphic 
inscriptions,  when  wo  exan)lne  the  palaces  of  Babylon 
and  Nineveh,  as  it  were  embroidered  with  cuneiform 
writing,  we  may  recognise  even  there  the  rudiments 
of  a  world-literature.  Those  ancient  Egyptian  and 
Babylonian  scribes  were  thinking,  not  of  their  owii 
time  and  their  own  country  only,  when  busily  en- 
graving their  primitive  archives :  they  were  thinking 
of  us.  They  believed  in  a  future  of  the  human  race, 
and,  call  it  weakness  or  strength,  they  wished  to  be 
remembered  by  those  who  should  come  after  then-i. 

Such  a  belief  in  posterity  marks  indeed  a  new 
period  in  the  growth  of  the  human  mind,  it  heralds 
the  dawn  of  a  new  life.  At  first  man  lives  for  the 
present  only,  from  day  to  day,  from  year  to  year. 
One  of  the  first  steps  in  advance  is  a  regard  for  the 
past,  so  far  as  he  knows  it,  a  worship  of  his  ancestors, 
a  belief  in  their  continued  existence,  nay,  even  in 
their  power  to  reward  and  to  punish  him.  After  that 
belief  in  a  distant  past  follows  a  belief  in  a  distant 
future,  and  from  these  two  combined  beliefs  springs 
the  first  feeling  of  humanity  in  our  hearts,  the  con- 
viction that  we  are  by  indissoluble  bonds  connected 
with  those  that  came  before  us  and  those  who  wall 
come  after  us,  that  we  form  one  universal  family  on 
earth.  As  these  feelings  grow  up  slowly  and  gradu- 
ally in  our  own  heart,  so  they  required  long  periods 
of  growth  in  the  history  of  the  world,  but  among 
the  most  favoured  races  they  asserted  their  powerful 
influence  at  a  very  early  time. 

Let  us  look  first  of  all  at  the  Egyptians,  who  seem 


330  RECENT    ESSAVS. 

to  me  to  possess  the  consciousness  of  tlie  most  distant, 
an  almost  immeasurable  past.  They  did  not  adorn 
their  temples  with  inscriptions  for  their  own  pleasure 
only.  They  had  a  clear  idea  of  the  past  and  of  the 
future  of  the  world  in  which  they  lived ;  and  as  they 
cherished  the  recollections  of  the  past,  they  wished 
themselves  to  be  remembered  by  unknown  genera- 
tions in  times  to  come.  The  biographical  inscription 
of  Aahmes,  a  captain  of  marines  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  is  addressed,  as  ChampoUion  sa3"S,  'to  the 
whole  human  race'  {t'et-a  en-ten  ret  iieh,  loquor  vohis 
hominihus  omnibus).  A  monument  in  the  Louvre 
(A.  84)  says  :  '  I  speak  to  you  who  shall  come  a  million 
of  years  after  my  death.' 

These  are  the  inscriptions  of  private  persons.  Kings, 
naturally,  are  still  more  anxious  that  posterity  and 
the  world  at  large  should  be  informed  of  their  deeds. 
Thus  Sishak  I,  the  conqueror  of  Judah,  prays  in  one 
of  his  inscriptions  at  Silsilis:  '  M3-  gracious  Lord, 
Amon,  grant  that  my  words  may  live  for  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  years.' 

The  great  Harris  Papyrus,  which  records  the  dona- 
tions of  Rameses  III  to  the  temples  of  Egypt  together 
with  some  important  political  events,  was  written  to 
exhibit  to  'the  gods,  to  men  now  living  and  to  unborn 
generations  [hamemef),  the  many  good  works  and 
valorous  deeds  which  he  did  upon  earth,  as  the  great 
King  of  Egypt  ^' 

Whatever  other  motives,  high  or  low.  may  have 
influenced  the  authors  of  these  hieroglyphic  inscrip- 

'  T  have  to  thnnk  Mr.  lo  Page  TJenonf,  the  worthy  suece^sor  of 
r>r.  r>ir(;h  at  the  J'.ritisli  Mvisenni,  for  these  and  a  large  number  of 
similar  insciiptions  fotind  among  Egyptian  antitinitie^. 


GOETHE    A\D    CAIMAT.K.  331 

tions,  one  of  them  was  certainly  their  love  or  fear  of 
humanity,  their  dim  conviction  that  they  belonged  to 
a  race  which  would  go  on  for  ever  filling  the  earth, 
and  to  which  they  were  bound  by  some  kind  of  moral 
responsibility.  They  wrote  for  the  world,  and  it  is 
in  that  sense  that  I  call  their  writings  the  first  germs 
of  a  world-literature. 

And  as  in  Egypt  so  it  was  in  Babylon,  Nineveh, 
and  Persia.  When  the  dwellers  on  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris  had  learnt  that  nothing  seemed  to  endure, 
that  fire  and  water  would  destroy  wood  and  stone, 
even  silver  and  gold,  they  took  clay  and  baked  it,  and 
hid  the  cylinders,  covered  with  cuneiform  writing,  in 
the  foundations  of  their  temples,  so  that  even  after 
the  destruction  of  these  'temples  and  palaces  future 
generations  might  read  the  story  of  the  past.  And 
there  in  their  safe  hiding-places  these  cylindei-s  have 
been  found  again  after  three  thousand  years,  unharm.ed 
by  water,  unscathed  by  fire,  and  fulfilling  the  very 
purpose  for  wdiich  they  were  intended,  carrying  to  us 
the  living  message  which  the  ancient  rulers  of  Chaldaea 
wished  that  we,  their  distant  descendants,  should 
receive. 

Often  these  inscriptions  end  with  imprecations 
against  those  who  should  dare  to  injure  or  eff"ace 
them. 

At  Khorsabad,  at  the  very  interior  of  the  construc- 
tion, was  found  a  large  stone  chest,  which  enclosed 
several  inscribed  plates  in  various  materials — one 
tablet  of  gold,  one  of  silver,  others  of  copper,  lead, 
and  tin  ;  a  sixth  text  was  engraved  on  alabaster,  and 
the  seventh  document  was  written  on  the  chest  itself. 
They  all  commemorate  the  foundation  of  a  city  l>y 


332  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

a  famous  king,  commonly  called  Sargon,  and  they 
end  with  an  imprecation :  '  Whoever  alters  the  works 
of  my  hand,  destroys  my  constructions,  pulls  down 
the  walls  which  I  have  raised — may  Asshur,  Ninib, 
Kaman,  and  the  great  gods  who  dwell  there,  pluck 
his  name  and  seed  from  the  land,  and  let  liim  sit 
bound  at  the  feet  of  his  foe^' 

The  famous  inscription  of  Behistun,  a  lasting 
monument  of  the  victories  of  Darius  and  of  the  still 
more  glorious  victory  of  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  was 
placed  high  on  a  mountain,  wall,  where  no  one  could 
touch  and  but  few  could  read  it.  It  was  written  not 
in  Persian  only,  not  for  the  Persians  only,  but  in  three 
dialects — an  Aryan,  a  Semitic,  and  a  Turanian,  so 
that  the  three  peoples,  nations,  and  languages  might 
all  read  and  remember  the  mighty  deeds  of  Darius, 
the  Achaemenian,  the  King  of  Kings.  And  when  all 
is  finished  and  all  is  said,  Darius,  the  king,  adds  : 
'  Be  it  known  to  thee  what  has  been  done  by  me, 
thus  publicly,  on  that  account  that  thou  conceal  not. 
If  thou  publish  this  tablet  to  the  Avorld,  Onnazd  shall 
be  a  friend  to  thee,  and  may  thy  oti'spring  bcnumerous, 
and  mayest  thou  live  long.  But  if  thou  shalt  conceal 
this  record,  thou  shalt  not  be  thyself  recorded.  May 
Ormazd  be  th}-  enemy  and  mayest  thou  be  childless  -.' 

It  seems  to  me  that  such  words  were  written  in  the 
prophetic  spirit  of  a  world-literature.  And  the  same 
spirit  may  be  traced  in  Greece,  in  Rome,  and  else- 
where. 

When  Thucydidcs  writes  his  history  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  war,  he  looks  back  to  the  past  and  forward 

^   '  Ch.ildea,'  by  Z.  Il.-iyoziii,  p.  Ii6. 

2   llawliii.s'  n,  '  Inscriplidiis  of  Bfhistun,'  p.  36. 


OOETIIE    AXD    CAllLYLE.  333 

to  the  future,  and  then  pronounces  with  complete 
a>ssurance  his  conviction  that  this  book  of  his  is  to 
last  for  ever,  that  it  is  to  teach  future  generations  not 
only  what  has  happened,  but  what  may  happen  again  ; 
that  it  is  to  be  a  Kniixa  h  ad,  a  possession  for  ever. 

Few  historians  now  would  venture  to  speak  like 
this,  even  those  who  write  their  works  here  in  London, 
the  centre  of  the  whole  world,  and  with  all  the  recol- 
lections of  two  thousand  years  behind  them.  But  the 
liomans  had  inherited  the  same  spirit.  We  all  admire 
Horace,  but  there  have  been  many  poets  like  him, 
both  before  and  after  his  time,  and  it  lequired  a 
considerable  amount  of  self-esteem  and  a  strong  belief 
in  the  future  destinies  of  Rome  and  Roman  literature 
to  end  his  odes  with  the  words  :  '  Exe<jimonumentu'ni 
aere  perennius' — 

'  I  have  built  a  niouument  tliaii  bronze  more  lasting, 

Soaring  more  high   than  royjil  pyramids, 
Which  nor  the  stealthy  gnawing  of  tlie  rain-drops, 

Nor  tlie  vain  rush  of  Boreas  shall  destroy  ; 
Nor  shall  it  pass  away  with   the  unnumbered 

Series  of  ages  and  the  flight  of  time — 
I  shall  not  wholly  die  ■'.' 

Even  when  we  proceed  to  the  literature  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  we  seldom  find  any  trace  of  national  exclusive- 
ness.  The  only  literary  language  was  Latin — the 
language  of  the  Church,  the  language  of  law,  the 
language  of  diplomacy — and  what  was  written  in 
that  language  was  meant  to  be  understood  by  the 
whole  civilised  world.  A  world-literature,  therefore, 
so  far  from  being  a  modern  dream,  was  one  of  the 
most  ancient  historical  realities.     It  was  not  till  the 

^  Sir  Theodore  Martin's  translation. 


334  llECENT    ESSAYS. 

fleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  that  national  litei'atures 
arose,  and  that,  as  before  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  the 
language  of  men  was  confounded  so  that  they  did  not 
understand  one  another's  speech.  This  dispersion  of 
literatures  has  had  its  advantages ;  it  has  increased 
the  wealth  and  variety  of  European  thought.  But  it 
had  its  dangers  also.  It  divided  the  greatest  thinkers 
of  the  world,  and  thus  retarded  the  victory  of  many 
a  truth  which  cannot  triumph  except  by  the  united 
efforts  of  the  whole  human  race.  It  also  produced 
a  certain  small  self-sufficiency  among  poets  who 
thought  that  they  might  accept  the  applause  of  their 
own  country  as  the  final  judgment  of  the  world. 
Many  writers  before  Goethe  had  protested  against 
this  provincialism  or  nationalism  in  literature.  Schiller 
declared  that  the  poet  ought  to  be  a  citizen  not  only 
of  his  country,  but  of  his  time.  But  Goethe  was  the 
first  to  give  powerful  expression  to  these  longings 
after  a  universal  literature.  Goethe  was  not  such 
a  dreamer  as  to  beUeve  in  the  near  approach  of  a 
universal  language,  though  even  that  dream  has  been 
dreamt  by  men  of  far  more  powerful  intellect  than 
their  deriding  critics  seem  to  be  aware  of.  Goethe 
accepted  the  world  as  it  was,  but  he  endeavoured  to 
make  the  best  of  it.  What  he  aimed  at  was  a  kind 
of  intellectual  free-trade.  Each  country  should  pro- 
duce what  it  could  produce  best,  and  the  ports  of 
every  country  should  welcome  intellectual  merchandise 
from  whatever  part  of  the  world  it  might  be  sent. 
Some  articles,  no  doubt,  particularly  in  poetry,  would 
always  be  reserved  for  home-consumption  only;  but 
the  great  poets  and  great  thinkers  ought  never  to 
forget  that  they  belong  to  the  whole  human  race,  and 


GOCTIIE    AND    CARLYI-E.  33') 

that  the  higher  the  aim  the  stronger  the  effort,  ami 
the  greater  the  triumph. 

When  you  look  at  tlie  numerous  passages,  more 
particularly  in.  his  posthumous  writings,  you  will 
easily  perceive  that  though  Goethe's  sympathies  were 
very  universal,  yet  his  strongest  leaning  was  towards 
England.  Had  he  not  been  nursed  in  his  youth,  and 
reinvigorated  in  his  manhood,  by  Shakespeare  ■?  Was 
not  Sir  Walter  Scott  his  favourite  food  in  later  life, 
and  did  not  Lord  Byron's  poetry  excite  him  even  in 
his  old  age  to  a  kind  of  dithyrambic  enthusiasm  i 
And  England  at  that  time  responded  with  equal 
warmth  to  Goethe's  advances.  '  Line  upon  line,'  as 
an  eminent  writer  said  in  the  Edinhurgh  Review, 
1850 — 'line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  Goethe's 
writings  have  found  their  way  into  English  literature, 
and  he  is  as  much  one  of  the  fathers  of  the  present 
educated  generation  of  Englishmen  as  our  own  Gibbon, 
or  Johnson,  or  W^ords worth.' 

No  episode,  however,  during  the  closing  years  of 
Goethe's  life  is  more  instructive  as  to  his  endeavours 
after  a  world-literature  than  his  friendship  with 
Carlyle.  Carlyle,  as  you  may  remember  from  reading 
Mr.  Froudes  eloquent  volumes,  learnt  German  Avith 
nothing  but  a  granuuar  and  dictionary  to  help  him, 
because  he  wanted  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  what 
those  men,  Schiller  and  Goethe,  really  were — names 
which,  as  he  tells  us,  excited  at  that  time  ideas  as 
vague  and  monstrous  as  the  words  Gorgon  and 
Chimaera.  The  first  tasks  which  he  set  himself  was 
to  write  a  'Life  of  Schiller,'  and  to  translate  Goethe's 
'  Wilhelm  Meister.'  Carlyle  at  that  time  would  have 
seemed  the  very  last  person  to  feel  any  real  sympathy 


336  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

for  Goethe.  Ho  was  still  a  raw,  narrow-minded, 
scrappily  educated  Scotchman,  with  strong  moral 
sentiments  and  a  vaofue  feelinsc  that  he  was  meant 
to  do  some  great  work  in  the  world.  But  otherwise 
his  ideals  were  very  different  from  Goethe's  ideals  of 
life.  Nor  does  he  make  any  secret  to  himself  or  to 
his  friends  of  what  his  true  feelings  towards  Schiller 
and  Goethe  were  at  that  time.  Schiller,  who,  we 
might  suppose,  would  have  attracted  him  far  more 
strongly  than  Goethe,  repelled  him  by  what  he  calls 
his  aesthetics. 

'  Schiller  V  he  writes,  'was  a  very  worth  3^  character, 
possessed  of  great  talents,  and  fortunate  in  always 
finding  means  to  employ  them  in  the  attainment  of 
v/orthy  ends.  The  pursuit  of  the  beautiful,  the 
representing  it  in  suitable  forms,  and  the  diffusion  of 
feelings  arising  from  it,  operated  as  a  kind  of  religion 
in  his  soul.  He  talks  in  some  of  his  essays  about  the 
aesthetic  being  a  necessary  means  of  improvement 
among  political  societies.  His  efforts  in  this  cause 
accordingly  not  only  satisfied  the  restless  activit}^, 
the  desire  of  creating  and  working  upon  others,  which 
form  the  great  want  of  an  educated  mind,  but  yielded 
a  sort  of  balance  to  his  conscience.  He  viewed  himself 
as  an  apostle  of  the  sublime.  Pity  that  he  had  no 
better  way  of  satisfying  it.  One  is  tired  to  death 
with  his  and  Goethe's  2)alah')'a  about  the  nature  of 
the  fine  arts.  They  pretend  that  Nature  gives  people 
true  intimations  of  true,  hearty,  and  just  principles 
in  art ;  that  the  Jjildende  Kunstler  and  the  richtende 
(the  creative  and  the  critical  artist)  ought  to  investi- 

'  Froiule,  '  Thomas  Tarlyle,'  vol.  i.  p.  196, 


GQETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  337 

gate  the  true  foundation  of  these  obscure  intimations, 
and  set  them  fast  on  the  basis  of  reason.  Stuff  and 
nonsense,  I  fear  it  is !  ...  .  Poor  silly  sons  of  Adam ! 
you  have  been  prating  on  these  things  for  two  or 
three  thousand  years,  and  you  have  not  advanced 
a  hair's  breadth  towards  the  conclusion.  Poor  fellows, 
and  poorer  me,  that  take  the  trouble  to  repeat  such 
insipidities  and  truisms.' 

Here  we  see  a  Saul,  not  likely  yet  to  be  turned  into 
a  Paul.  Miss  Welsh,  too,  whom  Carlyle  at  that  time 
was  worshipping  as  a  distant  star  far  beyond  his 
reach,  could  not  bear  Goethe  and  poor  little  Mignon. 
Carlyle  tries  to  reprove  her.  '  O,  the  hardness  of 
man's  and  still  more  of  woman's  heart ! '  he  exclaimed. 
And  yet  he  gives  in.  '  Do  what  you  like,'  he  adds  ; 
'  seriously,  you  are  right  about  the  book.  It  is  worth 
next  to  nothing  as  a  novel.' 

Still,  the  book  told  slowly  and  surely  on  the  rugged, 
stone-hearted  critic ;  but  perhaps  more  even  than  the 
book  the  personal  kindness  of  Goethe.  Goethe  was 
in  a  good  mood  when  he  received  Carlyle's  translation 
of  '  Wilhelm  Meister.'  He  was  thinking  of  his  world- 
literature,  and  here,  quite  unexpectedly,  came  the  first 
fruits  of  it.  We  must  remember  that  at  that  time 
a  translation  of  a  German  book  was  an  event.  At 
present  an  English  translation  is  generally  a  mere 
bookseller's  speculation.  People  do  not  ask  whether 
the  book  is  good,  original,  classical,  but  whether  it  is 
possible  to  sell  a  thousand  copies  of  it  with  the  help  of 
a  few  telling  reviews.  With  Carlyle  the  translation 
of  '  Wilhelm  Meister'  was  a  labour  of  love,  and  he  was 
probably  surprised  when  an  English  publisher  offered 
him  £i8o  for  the  first  edition,  and  afterwards  £200  for 

VOL.  I.  Z 


338  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

every  new  edition  of  a  thousand  copies.  '  Any  way,* 
he  says,  '  I  am  paid  sufficiently  for  my  labours.' 

This  was  in  1824.  Goethe  was  then  seventy-five, 
Carlyle  twenty-nine.  The  correspondence  was  carried 
on  till  the  year  1831,  Goethe's  last  letter  being  dated 
the  2nd  of  June  of  that  year,  while  he  died  on  the 
22nd  of  March,  1832.  It  may  be  imagined  how 
Carlyle  valued  Goethe's  letters,  how  he  treasured 
them  as  the  most  precious  jewels  of  hia  household. 
I  was  told  that  he  gave  them  to  Mrs.  Carlyle  to  keep 
in  a  safe  place.  Eut,  alas !  after  her  death  they  could 
nowhere  be  found.  It  was  a  painful  subject  with  the 
old  man,  and  a  grievous  loss  to  his  biographer. 
Mr.  Froude  tells  us  in  his  '  Life  of  Carlyle  '  that  copies 
of  one  or  two  of  Goethe's  letters,  which  Carlyle  had 
sent  to  his  brother,  were  recovered,  and  these  have 
been  translated  and  published  by  Mr.  Froudo. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  that  the  archives  of  the  Goethe 
family  had  become  accessible,  having  been  bequeathed 
by  the  last  of  his  grandsons,  Walther  Wolfgang,  to  Her 
Royal  Highness  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Saxe-Weimar, 
I  made  inquiries  whether  possibly  Goethe,  as  he  was 
wont  to  do  in  his  later  years,  had  preserved  copies  of 
his  letters  to  Carlyle.  I  was  informed  by  Professor 
Erich  Schmidt  that  copies  of  most  of  Goethe's  letters 
to  Carlyle  existed  ;  and  on  making  application  for 
them  in  the  name  of  my  old  friend,  Mr.  Froude,  Her 
Royal  Highness  the  Grand  Duchess  gave  permission 
that  copies  should  be  made  of  them,  which  Mr.  Froude 
might  publish  in  his  new  edition  of  the  *  Life  of 
Carlyle,'  and  which  I  might  use  for  my  opening 
address  as  President  of  tlie  English  Goethe  Society. 

It  was  really  the   unexpected   possession   of  this 


GOETHE    AND    CAULYLE.  339 

literary  treasure^  which  emboldened  me  to  accept 
your  kind  invitation  to  become  the  first  President  of 
the  English  Goethe  Society,  and  which  induced  me  to 
select  as  the  subject  of  my  inaugural  address  Goethe's 
ideal  of  a  World  Literaiiire,  a  subject  which  I  might 
thus  venture  to  treat  with  the  hope  of  bringing  some- 
thing new  even  to  such  experienced  students  of  Goethe 
as  I  see  to-day  assembled  around  me.  For  it  is  in  his 
letters  to  Carlyle  that  this  idea  finds  its  fullest  expres- 
sion. Carlyle  was  the  very  man  that  Goethe  wanted, 
for.  however  different  their  characters  might  be,  they 
had  one  object  in  common,  Carlyle  to  preach  German 
literature  in  England,  Goethe  to  spread  a  taste  for 
English  literature  in  Germany.  And  how  powerful 
personal  influence  can  be,  we  see  in  the  very  relation 
which  soon  sprang  up  between  the  mature  and  stately 
German  and  the  impetuous  Scot.  Carlyle,  as  we  saw, 
was  as  yet  but  a  half-hearted  admirer  of  Schiller  and 
Goethe,  but  the  nearer  he  was  brought  to  Goethe  and 
the  more  he  came  to  know  the  man  and  his  ideals  in 
life,  the  stronger  grew  his  admiration  and  his  love  of 
the  old  prophet,  whose  name,  he  says,  had  floated 
through  his  fancy  like  a  sort  of  spell  over  his  boy- 
hood, and  whose  thoughts  had  come  to  him  in  his 
maturer  years  almost  with  the  impressiveness  of 
revelations.  Goethe  seems  from  the  first  to  have 
trusted  Carlyle's  honesty,  and  to  have  formed  a  right 
opinion  of  his  literary  powers.  Of  course,  Carlyle  was 
hardly  known  in  England  at  that  time,  much  less  in 

*  There  is  a  rumour  that  the  originals  have  lately  been  found  in  an  old 
box  and  forwarded  to  America,  to  be  published  by  Mr.  Charles  Norton. 
See  Dr.  Eugen  Oswald's  article  in  the  Ma'jnzinfiir  die  Literatnr  dcs 
Aiidandes,  April  24,  1886.  These  letters  have  since  been  published  by 
Mr.  Charles  Norton  (Macmillan). 

Z  2 


BiO  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

Germany,  and  there  is  a  curious  entry  in  Goethe's 
Diary,  or,  as  he  calls  them,  Concept-hefte,  from  which 
it  appears  that  he  made  private  inquiries  about  him 
and  his  character.  In  a  note  addressed  to  Mr.  Skinner 
who  spent  some  time  at  Weimar,  and  died  there  in 
1829  ^,  Goethe  writes  on  the  20th  May,  1827  : — 

'  Thomas  Carlyle,  domiciled  at  Edinburgh, translator 
of  "  Wilhelm  Meister,"  author  of  a  "  Life  of  Schiller," 
has  published  lately  in  four  volumes  octavo  a  work 
entitled  "  German  Eomance,"  containing  all  tales  in 
prose  of  any  name.  I  should  like  much  to  learn  what 
is  known  of  his  circumstances  and  his  studies,  and 
what  English  and  German  journals  may  have  said  of 
him.  He  is  in  every  respect  a  highly  interesting  man. 
If  you  like  sometimes  to  spend  an  hour  with  me  in  the 
evening,  you  are  always  welcome.  There  are  always 
many  things  to  discuss  and  to  communicate.  Written 
in  my  garden,  the  20th  May,  1827.' 

At  that  time,  however,  the  correspondence  between 
Goethe  and  Carlyle  was  already  progressing.  Carlyle 
tells  us  himself,  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  with  what 
delight  he  received  Goethe's  first  letter  which  was 
written  the  26th  of  October,  1824^.  He  was  then 
lodging  in  Southampton  Street,  in  very  bad  humour 
with  the  world  at  large,  and  particularly  with  the 
literary  world  of  London,  which  he  calls  the  poorest 
part  of  its  population  at  present.  On  the  i8th  of 
December,  he  writes  to  his  brother,  John  Carlyle  : — 

'  The  other  afternoon,  as  I  was  lying  dozing  in 
a  brown  study  after  dinner,  a  lord's  lackey  knocked  at 
the  door  and  presented  me  with  a  little  blue  parcel, 

'  In  Goethe's  letter  dateil  25th  June,  1829  (8). 
2  Froude,  '  Thomas  Carlyle,'  i.  265. 


GOETUE    AND    CAELYLE.  341 

requiring  for  it  a  note  of  delivery.  I  opened  it,  and 
found  two  pretty  stitched  little  books  and  a  letter 
from  Goethe.  I  copy  it  and  send  it  for  your  edifica- 
tion.    The  patriarchal  style  of  it  pleases  me  much  '. 

'  "Weimar,  October  26,  1824. 

"•My  dearest  Sir, 

'  "  If  I  did  not  acknowledge  on  the  spot  the  safe 
arrival  of  your  welcome  present,  it  was  because  I  was 
unwilling  to  send  you  an  empty  acknowledgment 
merely,  but  I  purposed  to  add  some  careful  remarks 
on  a  work  so  honourable  to  you. 

*  "  My  advanced  years,  however,  burdened  as  they 
are  with  many  unavoidable  duties,  have  prevented  me 
from  comparing  your  translation  at  my  leisure  with 
the  original  text — a  more  difficult  undertaking,  per- 
haps, for  me  than  for  some  third  person  thoroughly 
familiar  with  German  and  English  literature.  Since, 
however,  I  have  at  the  present  moment  an  opportunity, 
through  Lord  Bentinck,  of  forwarding  this  note  safely 
to  London,  and  at  the  same  time  of  bringing  about  an 
acquaintance  between  yourself  and  Lord  Bentinck 
which  may  be  agreeable  to  both  of  you,  I  delay  no 
longer  to  thank  you  sincerely  for  the  interest  which 
you  have  taken  in  my  literary  works  as  well  as  in 
the  incidents  of  my  life,  and  to  entreat  you  earnestly 
to  continue  the  same  interest  for  the  future  also.  It 
may  be  that  hereafter  I  shall  yet  hear  much  of  you. 
I  send  herewith  a  number  of  poems  which  you  will 
scarcely  have  seen,  but  with  which  I  venture  to  hope 

1  Froude,  '  Life  of  Carlyle,'  i.  p.  265.  The  translation  has  been  but 
sl'glitly  altered  in  one  or  two  places  in  accordance  with  the  original  of 
Goethe's  letter  sent  to  me  from  Weimar. 


342  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

that  you  will  feel  a  certain  sympathy.     With  the  most 
sincere  good  wishes,  your  most  obedient 

'"J.  W.  Goethe.'" 

After  this  there  seems  to  have  been  a  long  pause, 
for  the  next  letter  from  Goethe  is  dated  Weimar, 
May  15,  1827.  This  is  only  a  short  acknowledgment 
of  a  pleasant  parcel  received  from  Carlyle,  evidently 
containing  his  '  Life  of  Schiller,'  and  a  promise  of 
a  fuller  letter  which  is  to  follow. 

'To  Mr,  Thomas  Carlyle,  EdinhurgJi. 

*I  announce  hurriedly  that  the  pleasant  parcel 
accompanied  by  a  kind  letter,  dispatched  from  Edin- 
burgh on  the  15th  of  April,  via  Hamburg,  reached 
me  on  the  i.^th  May,  and  found  me  in  good  health 
and  busy  for  my  friends.  To  my  sincerest  thanks  to 
the  esteemed  couple  (Carlyle  was  married  by  this 
time),  I  will  add  the  information  that  a  packet  will 
shortly  be  dispatched  from  here,  likewise  via  Ham- 
burg, to  attest  my  sympathy  and  to  recall  me  to  your 
minds.  I  take  my  leave  with  best  and  sincerest 
wishes.' 

In  the  meantime  Goethe,  after  reading  Carlyle's 
'  Life  of  Schiller,'  had  evidently  taken  his  young 
friend's  true  measure.  He  thought  he  had  found  in 
him  the  very  man  he  had  been  looking  for  to  be  the 
interpreter  of  German  thought  in  England,  and  in 
July  of  the  same  year  he  wrote  him  a  very  full  letter, 
which  may  almost  be  called  an  essay  on  World- 
literature  ^  In  his  conversations  with  Eckermann 
he  speaks   of  Carl^  le    '  as  a   moral   power  of  great 

'  Froude,  i.  399. 


GOETHE   AND    CARLYLE.  343 

importance.  There  is  much  future  in  him,'  he  adds, 
'and  it  is  quite  impossible  to  see  all  that  he  may  do 
and  produce  ^.'  Before  I  read  you  some  of  the  more 
important  passages  of  this  and  the  following  letters, 
I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  a  curious  fact  which 
I  discovered  while  examining  the  copies  sent  me  from 
Weimar.  Several  passages  seemed  to  me  so  familiar 
that  I  began  to  look  through  Goethe's  works,  and 
here,  particularly  in  the  volumes  published  after  his 
death,  I  found  long  passages  of  his  letters  to  Carlyle 
worked  up  into  short  reviews.  Here  and  there  Goethe 
has  made  slight  alterations,  evidently  intended  as 
improvements,  and  these,  too,  are  curious  as  allowing 
us  an  insight  into  Goethe's  mind.  I  also  came  across 
several  letters  of  Carlyle's  to  Goethe,  probably  trans- 
lated into  German  by  Goethe  himself.  These  are 
interesting  too,  but  as  the  originals  have  now  been 
found  in  the  Goethe  Archives,  and  will  soon  be  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Charles  Norton,  I  need  not  quote  them 
at  present. 

In  his  third  letter  to  Carlyle,  after  the  usual  pre- 
liminaries, Goethe  writes : 

'Let  me,  in  the  first  place,  tell  you,  my  dear  sir, 
how  very  highly  I  esteem  your"  Biography  of  Schiller." 
It "  is  remarkable  for  the  careful  study  which  it  dis- 
plays of  the  incidents  of  Schiller's  life,  and  one  clearly 
perceives  in  it  a  study  of  his  works  and  a  hearty 
sympathy  with  him.  The  complete  insight  which 
you  have  thus  obtained  into  the  character  and  high 
merits  of  this  man  is  really  admirable,  so  clear  it  is 

*  Gesprache  mit  Eckermann,  July  25,  1828. 

'^  From  here  to  '  his  task  accomplished,'  the  text  is  found  in  Goethe's 
Works  (1833),  vol.  XXX vi.  p.  230. 


344  HECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  so  appropriate,  so  far  beyond  what  might  Lavo 
been  looked  for  in  a  writer  in  a  distant  country. 

'  Here  the  old  saying  is  verified,  "  A  good  will  helps 
to  a  full  understanding."  It  is  just  because  the  Scot 
can  look  with  affection  on  a  German,  and  can  honour 
and  love  him,  that  he  acquires  a  sure  eye  for  that 
German's  finest  qualities.  He  raises  himself  into 
a  clearness  of  vision  which  Schiller's  own  countrymen 
could  not  arrive  at  in  earlier  days.  For  those  who 
live  with  superior  men  are  easily  mistaken  in  their 
judgments.  Personal  peculiarities  irritate  them.  The 
swift-changing  current  of  life  displaces  their  points  of 
vieW;  and  hinders  them  from  perceiving  and  recog- 
nising the  true  worth  of  such  men.  Schiller,  however, 
was  of  so  exceptional  a  nature  that  the  biographer 
had  only  to  keep  the  idea  of  an  excellent  man  before 
his  eyes,  and  carry  that  idea  through  all  his  individual 
destinies  and  achievements,  and  he  would  see  his  task 
accompli.shed  ^' 

*  The  next  paragraphs  are  found,  with  slight  alterations,  evidently  of 
later  date,  in  Goethe's  Works  (1833),  xlvi.  p.  254.  Whereas  in  his 
draft  Goethe  wrote  Kenntniss,  he  altered  it  to  Vorkenntniss  in  the 
letter  he  sent  to  Carlyle,  and  retained  that  word  in  his  notice  of  '  Ger- 
man Romance.'  There  is  one  paragraph  added  by  Goethe,  when 
f^peaking  of  the  impartiality  with  which  a  foreigner  treats  the  history  of 
German  literature,  which  deserves  to  be  translated.  In  his  letter  he 
breaks  off  after  'he  gives  individuals  their  credit  each  in  his  place.'  In 
his  review  of '  German  Romance,'  he  continues  :  *  And  thus  to  a  certain 
extent  settles  the  conflict  which  within  the  literature  of  every  nation  is 
inevitable;  for  to  live  and  to  act  is  much  the  same  as  to  form  or  to  join 
a  party.  No  one  can  be  blamed  if  he  fights  for  place  and  rank,  which 
secures  his  existence,  and  gives  him  influence  which  promises  future 
happy  success. 

'Ifthustlie  horizon  is  often  darkened  during  many  years  for  those 
who  live  within  a  literature,  the  foreigner  lets  dust,  mist,  and  darkness 
settle  down,  disperse  and  v.inish,  and  sees  those  distant  regions  revealed 
in  brigiit  and  dark  spots  with  the  same  calmness  which  we  are  wont  to 
observe  the  moon  in  a  clear  night.' 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  345 

After  some  remarks  on  Carlyle's  '  German  Romance,' 
Goethe  is  evidently  anxious  to  unburden  himself  on 
the  subject  of  World-literature,  which  was  nearest  to 
his  heart.  Probably  he  had  jotted  down  his  own 
thoughts  on  several  occasions  before,  and  so  he 
abruptly  says  to  Carlyle — 

'  Let  me  add  a  few  observations,  which  I  have  long 
harboured  in  silence,  and  which  have  been  stirred  up 
by  these  present  works.' 

It  is  curious  that  in  the  published  review  of 
'  German  Romance,'  too,  Goethe  uses  the  same  artifice. 
After  he  has  compared  the  mind  of  the  foreign  his- 
torian to  the  calm  and  brightness  of  a  moonlight 
night,  he  writes : 

'In  this  place,  some  observations,  written  down 
some  time  ago,  may  stand  interpolated,  even  if  people 
should  find  that  I  repeat  myself,  so  long  as  it  is 
allowed  at  the  same  time  that  repetition  may  serve 
some  useful  purpose.' 

Then  follow  his  observations  on  the  advantage  of 
international  literary  relations,  which  I  shall  read  to 
you: 

'  It  is  obvious  that  for  a  long  time  the  efforts  of  the 
best  poets  and  aesthetic  writers  throughout  the  world 
have  been  directed  towards  what  is  universal,  and 
common  to  all  mankind.  In  every  single  work,  be  it 
historical,  mythological,  fabulous,  more  or  less  arbi- 
trarily conceived,  we  shall  see  the  universal  more  and 
more  showing  and  shining  through  what  is  merely 
national  and  individual^.' 

'  Goethe,  in  his  letter  to  Carlyle,  wrote  :  '  Durch  Nationnlitdl  und 
Personlichheit  hindarch  .  .  .  durchlenchten  und  durchschimmern 
athn' — In  the  printed  paper  he  changed  hinduick  iuto  /tin. 


346  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

*In  practical  life  we  perceive  the  same  tendency, 
which  pervades  all  that  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  crude, 
wild,  cruel,  false,  selfish,  treacherous,  and  tries  evei'y- 
where  to  spread  a  certain  serenity.  We  may  not 
indeed  hope  from  this  the  approach  of  an  era  of 
universal  peace ;  but  yet  that  strifes  which  are  un- 
avoidable may  grow  less  extreme,  wars  less  savage, 
and  victory  less  overbearing. 

*  Whatever  in  the  poetry  of  all  nations  aims  and 
tends  towards  this,  is  what  the  others  should  appro- 
priate. The  peculiarities  of  each  nation  should  be 
studied,  so  that  we  should  be  able  to  make  allowance 
for  them— nay,  gain  by  their  means  real  intercourse 
with  a  nation.  For  the  special  characteristics  of 
a  people  are  like  its  language  and  its  currency :  they 
facilitate  exchange— nay,  they  first  make  exchange 
possible.' 

The  next  paragraph  is  not  in  the  printed  text  of 
Goethe's  review  ;  it  was  meant  for  Carlyle  alone  : 

'  Pardon  me,  my  dear  sir^  for  these  remarks,  which 
perhaps  are  not  quite  coherent,  nor  to  be  scanned  all 
at  once.  They  are  drawn  from  the  great  ocean  of 
observations,  which,  as  life  passes  on,  swells  up  more 
and  more  round  every  thinking  person.' 

A  truly  Goethe-like  sentence,  which  I  must  repeat 
in  German : 

'  Verzeihen  Sie  mir,  mein  Werthester,  diese  vielleicht 
nicht  ganz  zusammenhangcnden,  noch  alsbald  zu 
uberschauenden  Ausserungen.  Sie  sind  geschopft  aus 
dem  Ocean  der  Betrachtungen,  der  um  jeden  Den- 
kenden  mit  den  Jahren  immer  mehr  anschwillt.' 

He  then  continues : 

'Let  me  add  some  more  observations, which  I  wrote 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  347 

down  on  another  occasion,  but  which  apply  specially 
to  the  business  on  which  you  are  now  engaged.' 

What  follows  next,  on  the  advantages  of  a  free 
literary  exchange  between  nation  and  nation,  has 
been  utilized  by  Goethe  in  the  same  article  on 
'  German  Romance ' : 

'  We  arrive  best  at  a  true  toleration  when  we  can 
let  pass  individual  peculiarities,  whether  of  persons 
or  peoples,  without  quarrelling  with  them ;  holding 
fast,  nevertheless,  to  the  conviction  that  genuine 
excellence  is  distinguished  by  this  mark,  that  it 
belongs  to  all  rtiankind.  To  such  intercourse  and 
mutual  recognition  the  Germans  have  long  contri- 
buted. 

'He  who  knows  and  studies  German  finds  himself 
in  a  market  where  the  wares  of  all  countries  are 
offered  for  sale ;  while  he  eni-iches  himself  he  is 
officiating  as  interpreter. 

'A  translator,  therefore,  should  be  regarded  as 
a  trader  in  this  great  spiritual  commerce,  and  as  one 
who  makes  it  his  business  to  advance  the  exchange 
of  commodities.  For,  say  what  we  will  of  the  in- 
adequacy of  translation,  it  always  will  be  among  the 
weightiest  and  worthiest  factors  in  the  world's  affairs. 

'  The  Koran  says  that  God  has  given  each  people 
a  prophet  in  his  own  tongue.  Each  translator  is 
also  a  prophet  to  his  people.  Tlie  effects  of  Luther's 
translation  of  the  Bible  have  been  immeasurable, 
though  criticism  has  been  at  work  picking  holes  in  it 
to  the  present  day.  What  is  the  enormous  business 
of  the  Bible  Society  but  to  make  known  the  Gospel 
to  every  nation  in  its  own  tongue  ? ' 

Carlyle  felt  proud,  as  well  he  might,  as  the  recipient 


348  EECENT    ESSAYS, 

of  such  letters  from  Goethe.  '  A  ribbon  with  the 
order  of  the  Garter,'  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  '  would 
scarcely  have  flattered  either  of  us  more.'  In  his 
replies  he  expressed  his  warmest  sympathy  with 
Goethe's  ideas.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  some  frag- 
ments at  least  of  Carlyle's  correspondence,  but  the 
originals,  which  are  preserved  at  Weimar,  have  been 
confided  to  much  worthier  hands,  and  will  soon  be 
published,  I  hope,  by  Mr.  Charles  Norton.  In  the 
meantime,  all  I  can  do  is  to  try  to  re-translate  one  of 
Carlyle's  letters  from  Goethe's  German  translation 
into  English — a  bold  undertaking,  I  confess,  but  one 
for  which,  under  the  circumstances,  I  may  claim  your 
indulgence : 

'December  22,  1829. 

*I  have  read  a  second  time,  with  no  small  satis- 
faction, the  "  Correspondence  "  (between  Schiller  and 
Goethe),  and  send  off  to-day  to  the  Foreign  Review 
an  article  on  Schiller,  founded  on  it.  You  will  be 
pleased  to  hear  that  a  knowledge  and  appreciation  of 
foreign,  and  particularly  of  German,  literature  is 
spreading  with  increasing  speed  as  far  as  rules  the 
English  tongue,  so  that  among  the  Antipodes,  even 
in  New  Holland,  the  wise  men  of  your  country  are 
preaching  their  wisdom.  I  heard  lately  that  even  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  our  two  English  Universities, 
which  have  hitherto  been  considered  the  strongholds 
of  our  peculiar  insular  conservatism,  things  begin  to 
move.  Your  Niebuhr  has  found  an  able  translator  at 
Cambridge,  and  at  Oxford  two  or  three  Germans  have 
sufficient  occupation  as  teachers  of  their  language. 
The  new  light  may  be  too  strong  for  certain  eyes,  but 


GOETHE    AND    CAKLYEE.  349 

BO  one  can  doubt  of  the  o-ood  results  which  in  the  end 
will  arise  from  it.  Let  only  nations,  like  individuals, 
know  each  other,  and  the  mutual  hatred  will  be 
changed  into  mutual  help,  and  instead  of  natural 
enemies,  as  neighbouring  countries  are  sometimes 
called,  we  shall  all  become  natural  friends.' 

In  another  letter  from  Goethe  to  Carlyle,  dated 
August  8,  1828,  there  are  some  more  interesting 
remarks  on  the  high  functions  of  the  translator. 
They  are  called  forth  by  Coleridge's  translation  of 
Schiller's  '  Wallenstein/  and  though  they  have  been 
used  by  Goethe  in  a  short  review  of  this  work,  they 
deserve  to  be  quoted  here  in  their  freshness  as 
addressed  to  Carlyle  ^  : 

'  The  translation  of  "  Wallenstein "  made  quite  a 
peculiar  impression  upon  me.  The  whole  time  that 
Schiller  was  working  at  this  drama  I  hardly  left  his 
side ;  and  after  I  had  thus  become  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  piece,  I  co-operated  with  him  in 
putting  it  on  the  stage.  In  this  task  I  met  with  more 
trouble  and  vexation  than  I  might  fairly  have  expected, 
and  I  had  finally  to  be  present  at  the  successive 
representations,  in  order  to  bring  the  difficult  theatrical 
presentation  to  higher  and  higher  perfection.  You 
may  imagine,  therefore,  that  this  glorious  piece  became 
at  length  quite  trivial,  nay,  even  tedious  to  me. 
For  twenty  years  I  have  neither  seen  nor  read  it.  But 
now  that  quite  unexpectedly  I  see  it  again  in  the 
language  of  Shakespeare,  it  suddenly  appears  before 
me  in  all  its  details,  like  a  newly  varnished  picture, 
and  I  delight  in  it  as  of  yore,  but  also  in  a  new  and 
peculiar  way.     Tell  this  to  the  translator  with  my 

^  Goethe's  Works,  1853,  xlvi.  p.  258. 


350  RECENT    ESSAYS, 

greetings,  and  do  not  omit  to  add  that  the  preface, 
written  just  in  that  same  sympathetic  tone  which 
I  referred  to  before,  gave  me  great  pleasure.  Let  me 
also  know  his  name,  so  that  he  may  stand  forth  as 
an  individual  person  in  the  chorus  of  Philo-Germans. 
This  suggests  to  me  a  new  observation,  perchance 
hardly  realised,  and  probably  never  uttered  before — 
namely,  that  the  translator  does  not  work  for  his  own 
nation  only,  but  also  for  the  nation  from  whose 
language  he  has  transferred  the  work.  For  it 
happens  oftener  than  one  imagines  that  a  nation 
draws  the  sap  and  thought  out  of  a  work,  and  absorbs 
it  so  entirely  in  its  own  inner  life,  that  it  can  no 
longer  take  any  pleasure  in  it  or  draw  from  it  any 
nourishment.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  the 
Germans,  who  use  up  all  too  quickly  anj'thing  that 
is  offered  them,  and  who,  by  reproducing  and  altering 
a  work  in  many  ways,  annihilate  it  to  a  certain 
extent.  Hence  it  is  very  salutary  if  what  is  their 
own  appears  before  them  again  at  a  later  time,  en- 
dowed with  fresh  life  by  the  help  of  a  successful 
translation.' 

With  the  same  warmth  with  which  Goethe  greeted 
Coleridge's  translation  of  '  Wallenstein,'  he  received 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  'Life  of  Napoleon.'  In  a  letter  to 
Carlyle,  dated  December  27,  1827,  he  writes  : 

^If  you  see  Mr.  Walter  Scott  thank  him  most 
warmly  in  my  name  for  his  dear,  cheerful  letter, 
written  exactly  in  that  beautiful  conviction  that  man 
must  be  dear  to  his  Maker.  I  have  also  received  his 
"  Life  of  Napoleon,"  and  have  in  these  winter  evenings 
and  nights  read  it  through  attentively  from  beginning 
to  end.     To  me  it  was  highly  significant  to  see  how 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  351 

the  first  master  of  narrative  in  this  century  takes 
upon  himself  so  uncommon  a  task,  and  brings  before 
us  in  calm  succession  those  momentous  events  which 
we  ourselves  were  compelled  to  witness.  The  division 
by  chapters  into  large  and  well-defined  portions, 
renders  the  complicated  events  distinct  and  compre- 
hensible ;  and  thus  the  narration  of  single  events 
becomes,  what  is  most  inestimable,  perfectly  clear 
and  visible.  I  read  it  in  the  original,  and  thus  it 
impressed  me  as  it  ought.  It  is  a  patriotic  Briton 
who  speaks,  who  cannot  well  look  on  the  acts  of  the 
enemy  with  favourable  eyes,  and  who,  as  an  honest 
citizen,  wants  to  see  all  political  undertakings  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  demands  of  morality,  who,  in 
the  happy  course  of  his  enemy's  good  fortune,  threatens 
him  with  disastrous  consequences,  and  is  unable  to 
pity  him  even  in.  his  bitterest  disgrace. 

'And  further,  this  work  was  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  me,  in  that  it  not  only  reminded  me  of 
things  which  I  had  myself  witnessed,  but  brought 
before  me  afresh  much  that  had  been  overlooked  at 
the  time.  It  placed  me  on  an  unexpected  standpoint ; 
made  me  reconsider  what  I  had  thought  settled,  while 
I  was  also  enabled  to  do  justice  to  the  opponents  who 
cannot  be  wanting  of  so  important  a  work,  and  to 
appreciate  fairly  the  exceptions  which  they  take  from 
their  point  of  view.  You  will  see  by  this  that  no 
more  valuable  gift  could  have  reached  me  at  the  end 
of  the  year.' 

And  now  follows  a  truly  Goethe-like  sentence,  which 
it  is  difficult  to  render  in  English : 

CD 

'  Es  ist  dieses  Werk  mir  7a\  einem  goldenen  Netzo 
geworden,  womit  ich  die  Schattenbilder  meines  ver- 


352  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

gangenen  Lebens  aus  den  letlieischcn  Fluthen  mit 
reichem  Zuge  heraufzufischen  mich  beschaftige.' 

'This  work  has  become  to  me  a  kind  of  golden  net, 
wherewith  I  have  been  busily  drawing  up  in  a  mira- 
culous draught  the  shadows  of  my  past  life  from  the 
flood  of  Lethe.' 

Thus  we  see  Goethe  busy  day  and  night  in 
gathering-in  the  treasures  of  foreign  literature,  and 
establishing  friendly  relations  with  the  foremost 
representatives  of  poetry,  art,  and  science,  not  only 
in  England,  but  in  every  country  in  Europe.  He  saw 
the  era  of  a  World-literature  approaching,  and  he  did 
his  best  in  the  evening  of  his  life  to  accelerate  its 
advent. 

In  a  letter  of  Goethe's  dated  October  5,  1830,  we 
see  how  anxious  the  old  man  became  that  the  threads 
which  he  had  spun,  and  which  united  him  with 
so  many  eminent  correspondents  in  different  parts 
of  the  world,  should  not  be  broken  after  his  death. 
Goethe  himself  had  become  an  international  poet 
in  the  full  sense  of  the  word.  Ho  knew  the  excellent 
effects  which  had  been  produced,  even  during  his 
lifetime,  from  the  more  intimate  relations  established 
between  himself  and  some  representative  men  in 
England,  France,  Italy,  and  Spain,  and  he  wished 
to  see  them  perpetuated.  Thus,  when  sending  Carlyle 
the  German  translation  of  his  '  Life  of  Schiller,'  he 
tells  him  that  he  wished  to  bring  him  and  his  Berlin 
friends  into  more  active  and  fruitful  intercourse. 
He  had  Carlyle  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Berlin  Society  for  Foreign  Literature,  and  requested 
him  to  send  some  acknowledgment  in  return. 

'At  my    time   of  life,'  he  writes,  'it  must  be  a 


GOKTIIE    AXD    CAllLYLE.  353 

matter  of  concern  to  me  to  see  the  various  ties  -vvliich 
centred  in  me  linked  on  again  elsewhere,  so  as  to 
hasten  the  object  which  every  good  man  desires  and 
must  desire,  namely,  to  spread,  even  unobserved  and 
often  hindered,  a  certain  harmonious  and  liberal 
sentiment  throughout  the  world.  Thus  many  things 
can  settle  down  peaceably  at  once,  without  being- 
first  scattered  and  driven  about  before  they  are 
brought  into  some  kind  of  order,  and  even  then  not 
without  great  loss.  May  you  be  successful  in  making 
the  good  points  of  the  Germans  better  known  to  your 
nation,  as  we,  too,  are  unceasing  in  our  endeavours 
to  make  the  good  points  of  foreign  nations  clear 
to  our  own  people.' 

In  another  letter  (dated  Weimar,  December  27, 
3827)  Goethe  dwells  on  the  softening  influence  which 
travelling  in  Germany,  and  prolonged  stays  in  German 
towns,  produced  on  young  Englishmen,  fitting  them 
to  become  in  later  life  connecting  links  between  the 
two  countries.  As  this  letter  throws  some  light  on 
the  simple,  3'et  refined,  life  at  Weimar,  to  which 
I  referred  in  the  beginning  of  my  address,  I  shall 
give  a  longer  extract  from  it : — 

'  While  books  and  periodicals  at  present  join  na- 
tions, so  to  speak,  by  the  mail-post,  intelligent 
travellers  also  contribute  not  a  little  to  the  same 
object.  Mr.  Heavyside  who  visited  you  (Carlyle 
never  refers  to  this  visit)  has  brought  back  to  us 
many  pleasant  tidings  of  yourself  and  your  surround- 
ings, and  will  probably  have  given  you  a  full  de- 
scription of  our  life  and  doings  in  Weimar.  As  tutor 
of  the  young  Hopes,  he  spent  some  pleasant  and  useful 
years  in  our  modest,  yet  richly  endowed  and  animated 

VOL.  I.  A  a 


354  llECENT    ESSAYS. 

circle.  I  hear  that  the  Hope  family  are  quite  satisfied 
with  the  education  which  the  young  men  were  enabled 
to  acquire  here.  And,  indeed,  this  place  unites  many 
advantages  for  young  men,  and  especially  for  those 
of  your  nation.  The  double  court  of  the  reigning 
and  the  hereditary  family,  where  they  are  always 
received  with  kindness  and  liberality,  forces  them 
by  the  very  favour  which  is  shown  them,  to  a  refined 
demeanour,  at  various  social  amusements.  The  rest 
of  our  society  keeps  them  likewise  within  certain 
pleasant  restraints,  so  that  anything  rude  and  un- 
becoming in  their  conduct  is  gradually  eliminated. 
In  intercourse  with  our  beautiful  and  cultivated 
women  they  find  occupation  and  satisfaction  for  heart, 
mind,  and  imagination,  and  are  thus  preserved  from 
all  those  dissipations  to  which  youth  gives  itself  up 
more  from  ennui  than  from  necessity.  This  free 
discipline  is  perhaps  inconceivable  in  any  other  place, 
and  it  is  pleasant  to  see  that  those  members  of  our 
society  who  have  gone  from  here  to  try  life  at  Berlin 
or  Dresden  have  very  soon  returned  to  us  again. 
Moreover,  our  women  keep  up  a  lively  correspondence 
with  Great  Britain,  and  thus  prove  that  actual  pre- 
sence is  not  absolutely  essential  to  keep  alive  and 
continue  a  well-founded  esteem.  And  I  must  not 
omit  that  all  friends,  as,  for  instance,  just  now 
Mr.  Lawrence,  return  to  us  from  time  to  time,  and 
delight  in  taking  up  at  once  the  charming  threads 
of  earlier  intercourse.  Mr.  Parry  has  concluded  a 
residence  of  many  years  with  a  good  marriage.' 

Goethe,  however,  was  not  simply  a  literary  man ; 
he  was  a  man,  a  complete  man,  and  his  interests 
in  a  world-literature  had  their  deepest  roots  in  his 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  355 

strong  human  heart.  '  He  was  neither  noble  nor 
plebeian,'  to  quote  the  words  of  the  Foreign  Review 
(iii.  87),  'neither  liberal  nor  servile,  neither  infidel 
nor  devotee,  but  the  best  excellence  of  all  of  them, 
joined  in  pure  union,  a  clear  and  universal  rtian.' 
Napoleon,  too,  wLen  he  had  seen  Goethe  and  con- 
versed with  him,  could  say  no  more  than  Voild  un 
homme  !  His  own  countrymen,  however,  often  blamed 
Goethe  for  his  wide  human  sympathies,  and  his  want 
of  national  sentiment — most  unjustly,  I  think,  for 
when  the  time  of  trial  came,  he  proved  himself  as 
good  a  patriot  as  many  who  tried  to  be  more  eloquent 
than  Goethe  in  their  patriotic  songs  and  sermons. 
Goethe  had  his  faults  and  weaknesses,  but  there 
is  one  redeeming  feature  in  his  character  which  atones 
for  almost  everything — he  was  thoroughly  true.  He 
was  too  great  to  dissemble.  He  could  not  pretend  to 
be  a  patriot  in  the  sense  in  which  Ai-ndt,  Jahn,  and 
Schill  were  patriots.  '  I  should  have  been  miserable/ 
he  says,  '  if  I  had  made  up  my  mind  ever  to  dissemble 
or  to  lie.  But  as  I  was  strong  enough  to  show 
myself  exactly  as  I  was  and  as  I  felt,  I  was  con- 
sidered proud.'  O  that  we  had  more  of  that  pride, 
and  less  of  the  miserable  pretence  of  unreal  senti- 
ment !  National  sentiment  is  right  and  good,  but 
we  must  not  forget  that  national  sentiment  is 
a  limited  and  limiting  sentiment,  particularly  to 
a  mind  of  such  universal  grasp  as  Goethe.  We  were 
told  not  long  ago  by  the  greatest  English  orator 
'  that  there  is  a  local  patriotism  which  in  itself  is 
not  bad,  but  good.  The  Welshman  is  full  of  local 
patriotism,  the  Scotchman  is  full  of  local  patriotism, 
the  Scotch  nationality  is  as  strong  as  it  ever  was, 

A  a  2 


856  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  should  the  occasion  arise — which  I  believe  it 
never  can — it  will  be  as  ready  to  assert  itself  as  in 
the  days  of  Banuockburn.  I  do  not  believe  that  that 
local  patriotism  is  an  evil.  I  believe  it  is  stronger 
in  Ireland  even  than  in  Scotland.  Englishmen  are 
eminently  English,  Scotchmen  are  profoundly  Scotch, 
and,  if  I  read  Irish  history  aright,  misfortune  and 
calamity  have  wedded  her  sons  to  her  soil.  The 
Irishman  is  more  profoundly  Irish,  but,'  Mr.  Glad- 
stone adds,  '  it  does  not  follow  that  because  his  local 
patriotism  is  keen,  he  is  incapable  of  Imperial  pa- 
triotism.' 

Nor  does  it  follow  that  because  our  Imperial 
patriotism  is  keen,  our  hearts  are  incapable  of  larger 
sympathies.  There  is  something  higher  even  than 
Imperial  patriotism.  Our  sympathies  are  fostered 
at  home,  but  they  soon  pass  the  limits  of  our  family 
and  our  clan,  and  embrace  the  common  interests  of 
city,  county,  party,  and  country.  Should  they  stop 
there  1  Should  we  for  ever  look  upon  what  is  out- 
side our  Chinese  Walls  as  foreign,  barbarian,  and 
hateful,  we  more  particularly,  the  nations  of  Europe 
in  whose  veins  runs  the  same  Teutonic  blood,  and 
who  profess  a  religion  which,  if  it  is  anything,  is 
a  world-relio^ion  ?  Goethe,  feeling  at  home  amoncf 
the  monuments  of  past  greatness,  and  in  harmony 
with  the  spirits  of  all  true  poets  and  prophets  of 
the  world,  could  not  confine  his  sympathies  within 
the  narrow  walls  of  Weimar,  not  even  within  the 
frontiers  of  Germany.  Wherever  he  found  beauty  and 
nobility  there  he  felt  at  home ;  wherever  he  could 
make  himself  truly  useful,  there  was  his  country. 
Patriotism  is  a  duty,  and  in  times  of  danger  it  may 


GOETHE    AXD    CAKLYLE.  357 

become  an  enthusiasm.  We  want  patriotism,  just 
as  we  want  municipal  spirit,  nay,  even  clannishncss 
and  family  pride.  But  all  these  are  steps  leading 
higher  and  higher  till  we  can  repeat  with  some  of 
the  greatest  men  the  words  of  Terence,  '  I  count 
nothing  strange  to  me  that  is  human/ 

There  is  no  lack  of  international  literature  now. 
The  whole  world  seems  writing,  reading,  and  talking 
together.     The  same  telegrams  which  we  are  reading 

o  o  o 

in  London  are  read  at  nearly  the  same  time  in  Paris, 
Berlin,  Rome,  St.  Petersburg,  New  York,  Alexandria, 
Calcutta,  Sydney,  and  Peking.  The  best  newspapers, 
English,  French,  or  German,  are  read  wherever  people 
are  able  to  read.  Goethe  was  struck  with  the  number 
of  languages  into  which  the  Bible  had  been  translated 
in  his  time.  What  would  he  say  now,  when  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  alone  has  published 
translations  in  267  languages  ?  Goethe  was  proud 
when  he  saw  his  '  Wilhelm  Meister '  in  an  English 
garb.  Every  season  now  produces  a  rich  crop  of 
sensational  international  novels.  Our  very  school- 
books  are  largely  used  not  only  in  America,  but  in 
Burmah,  Siam,  China,  and  Japan.  Newton's  '  Prin- 
cipia '  are  studied  in  Chinese,  and  the  more  modern 
works  of  Hersehell,  Lyell,  Darwin,  Tyndall,  Huxley, 
Lockyer,  have  created  in  the  far  East  the  same 
commotion  as  in  Europe.  Even  books  like  my  own, 
which  stir  up  no  passions,  and  can  appeal  to  the 
narrow  circle  of  scholars  only,  have  been  sent  to  me, 
translated  not  only  into  the  principal  languages  of 
Europe,  but  into  Bengali,  Mahratti,  Guzerathi,  Tamil, 
Japanese — nay,  even  into  Sanskrit. 

A  world-literature,  such  as  Goethe  longed  for,  has 


358  HECEXT    ESSAYS. 

to  a  great  extent  been  realised,  but  tbe  blessings 
which  he  expected  from  it  have  not  yet  come,  at  least 
not  in  that  fulness  in  which  he  hoped  for  them. 
There  have  been,  no  doubt,  since  Goethe's  time  great 
thinkers  and  writers,  who  felt  their  souls  warmed 
and  their  powers  doubled  by  the  thought  that  their 
work  would  be  judged,  not  by  a  small  clique  of  home 
critics  only,  but  by  their  true  peers  in  the  whole 
woi-Id.  Goethe  himself  points  out  how  much  more 
unprejudiced,  how  much  more  pure  and  sure  the 
opinion  of  foreign  critics  has  been  to  him  and  to 
Schiller,  and  the  old  saying  has  often  been  confirmed 
since,  that  the  judgment  of  foreign  nations  anticipates 
the  judgment  of  posterity. 

But  the  gi'eatest  blessing  which  Goethe  hoped  for 
from  the  spreading  of  a  world-literature — namely, 
that  there  should  spring  up  a  real  love  between 
nation  and  nation — has  not  yet  been  vouchsafed.  Of 
this  he  speaks  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Carlyle  with 
a  kind  of  patriarchal  unction. 

Goethe  had  received  the  early  numbers  of  the 
Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  and  was  much  pleased 
with  an  article  on  German  Literature,  on  Ernst 
Schulze,  Hoffmann,  and  the  German  Theatre,  which 
he  ascribed  to  Carlyle's  pen. 

'  I  fancy,'  he  writes  in  a  letter  dated  December  27, 
1827,  'I  recognise  in  it  the  hand  of  my  English  friend, 
for  it  would  be  truly  wonderful  if  old  Britain  should 
have  produced  a  pair  of  Menaechmi,  both  equally 
capable  and  willing  to  picture  the  literary  culture 
of  a  foreign  continental  countr}^  divided  from  their 
own  by  geographical,  moral,  and  aesthetic  differences  ; 
and  to  describe  it  in  the  same  quiet,  cheerful  tone, 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE.  o59 

and  with  the  same  tlioiightfulness,  modest}',  thorough- 
ness, clear-sightedness,  perspicuity,  exhaustiveness, 
nnd  -whatever  good  qualities  might  still  be  added. 
The  other  criticisms,  too,  in  so  far  as  I  have  read 
them,  seem  to  me  to  show  insight,  mastery,  and 
moderation  on  a  solid  basis  of  national  feeling.  And 
though  I  esteem  very  highl}-  the  crismopolitan  works, 
such  as,  for  instance,  Dupin's,  still  the  remarks  of 
the  reviewer  on  p.  496  of  vol.  ii.  were  very  welcome 
to  me.  The  same  applies  to  much  that  is  stated  in 
connection  with  the  religious  strife  in  Silesia. 

'I  intend  in  the  next  number  of  Ruvst  unci  Alter- 
tJtum,  to  make  friendly  mention  of  these  approaches 
from  afar,  and  shall  recommend  such  a  reciprocal 
treatment  to  my  friends  at  home  and  abroad,  finally 
declaring  as  my  own,  and  inculcating  as  the  essence 
of  true  wisdom,  the  Testament  of  St.  John,  "  Little 
children,  love  one  another."  I  may  surely  hope  that 
this  saying  may  not  seem  so  strange  to  my  con- 
temporaries as  it  did  to  the  disciples  of  the  Evangelist, 
who  expected  from  him  a  very  different  and  higher 
revelation.' 

And  3'ct  these  last  words  of  Goethe  sound  strange 
to  us  also,  stranger  even,  it  may  be,  than  to  his 
contemporaries.  The  great  nations  of  Europe  have 
been  brought  nearer  together.  We  have  international 
exhibitions,  international  congresses,  international 
journals,  but  of  international  love  and  esteem  we 
have  less  than  ever.  Europe  has  become  like  a 
menagerie  of  wild  beasts,  ready  to  fly  at  each  other 
whenever  it  pleases  their  keepers  to  open  the  grates. 
Why  should  that  be  so  ?  Sweet  reason  has  been 
able  to  compose  family  quarrels.     In  society  at  large 


360  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

people  do  not  come  to  blows ;  and  duels,  though 
tolerated  in  some  countries  as  survivals  of  a  bar- 
Imrous  age,  are  everywhere  condemned  by  the  law. 
Why  should  it  be  considered  seemly  for  every  country 
to  keep  legions  of  lighting  men,  ready  to  kill  and 
to  be  killed  for  their  country,  if  it  should  please 
emperors  and  kings,  or,  still  more  frequently,  ministers 
and  ambassadors,  to  lose  their  temper.  Goethe  did 
not  hope  for  universal  peace,  but  he  certainly  could 
not  have  anticipated  that  chronic  state  of  war  into 
which  we  have,  drifted,  and  which  in  the  annals 
of  future  historians  will  place  our  vaunted  nineteenth 
century  lower  than  the  age  of  Huns  and  Vandals. 

I  believe  that  the  members  of  this  English  Goethe 
Society  can  best  prove  themselves  true  students  of 
Goethe,  true  disciples  of  Goethe,  by  helping,  each  one 
according  to  his  power,  to  wape  out  this  disgrace  to 
humanity.  With  all  the  ill-feeling  against  England 
that  has  been  artificially  stirred  up,  Shakespeare 
Societies  flourish  in  all  the  best  towns  of  Germany. 
And  I  have  never  yet  met  a  Shakespearian  scholar 
who  was  not,  I  will  not  say  an  Anglomanlac,  but 
a  friend  of  England,  a  fair  judge  of  all  that  is  great 
and  noble  in  this  great  and  noble  race.  Shakespeare 
has  done  more  to  cement  a  true  union  between 
Germany  and  England  than  all  English  Ministers  and 
ambassadors  put  together.  Let  us  hope  that  Goethe 
may  do  the  same,  and  that  each  and  every  member  of 
this  English  Goethe  Society  may  work  in  the  spirit 
which  he,  who  has  often  been  called  the  Great 
Heathen,  expressed  so  well  and  so  powerfully  in  the 
simple  words  of  the  great  Apostle  of  Love,  '  Little 
children,  love  one  another.'     Let  Goethe  and  Shake- 


GOETHE    AND    CARLYLE,  301 

speare  remain  the  perpetual  ambassadors  of  these  two 
nations,  and  we  may  then  hope  that  those  who  can 
esteem  and  love  Shakespeare  and  Goethe,  may  learn 
once  more  to  esteem  and  love  one  another. 

And  do  not  suppose  that  I  exaggerate  the  influence 
of  literature  on  politics.  If  Mr.  Gladstone  had  not 
})een  so  devoted  a  student  of  Italian  literature,  possibly 
■\ve  should  not  have  had,  as  yet,  a  united  Italy.  If 
our  fathers  had  not  been  so  full  of  enthusiasm  for 
their  Homer,  their  Sophocles,  their  Plato,  possibly 
Greece  would  never  have  been  freed  from  the  Turkish 
yoke.  And  whenever  I  hear  that  Prince  Bismarck 
knows  his  Shakespeare  by  heart,  1  gather  courage, 
and  seem  to  understand  much  in  the  ground-swell  of 
his  policy  which  on  the  curling  surface  appears  often 
so  perplexing. 

Let  us  hope  that  we  may  soon  count  some  of  the 
leading  statesmen  of  England  among  the  members  of 
our  Society.  If  they  have  once  learnt  to  construe 
a  German  sentence,  they  may  learn  in  time  to  construe 
the  German  character  also,  w^hich,  though  it  ditfers  on 
some  points  from  the  English,  is,  after  all,  bone  of  the 
same  bone,  flesh  of  the  same  flesh,  soul  of  the  same 
soul. 

We  do  not  wish  that  our  Society  shall  ever  become 
a  political  society,  and  it  would  be  against  the  cosmo- 
politan spirit  of  Goethe  if  it  w^ere  to  be  narrowed  down 
to  English  and  German  members  only.  There  are 
Frenchmen,  Italians,  Russians,  Danes,  and  Swedes 
who  have  proved  themselves  excellent  students  of  his 
works.  Gcethe  himself,  wiien  speaking  of  the  different 
Avays  in  which  different  nations  appreciated  the 
character  of  his  Helena,  gives  credit  to  the  French- 


362  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

man,  the  Englishman,  and  the  Russian,  for  having, 
each  in  his  own  way,  interpreted  the  poet's  thoughts. 
Writing  to  Carlyle,  on  August  8,  i82cS,  he  says  : 

'  All  the  more  delightful  w^as  it  to  me  to  see  how 
you  had  treated  my  '•  Helena."  You  have  here,  too, 
acted  in  your  own  beautiful  manner,  and  as  at  the 
same  time  there  arrived  articles  from  Paris  and 
Moscow  on  this  work  of  mine— a  work  which  had 
occupied  my  mind  and  my  heart  for  so  many  years — 
I  expressed  my  thoughts  somewhat  laconically  in  the 
following  way :  the  Scot  tries  to  penetrate,  the 
Frenchman  to  comprehend,  the  Russian  to  appro- 
priate it.  These  three  have  therefore  in  an  unpre- 
concerted  manner  represented  all  possible  categories 
of  sympathy  which  a  work  of  art  can  appeal  to ; 
though,  of  course,  these  three  can  never  be  quite 
separated,  but  each  must  call  the  other  to  its  aid.' 

Penetrated  by  the  same  world-embracing  spirit,  the 
Goethe  Society  calls  to  its  aid  all  lovers  of  Goethe's 
genius,  to  whatever  nation  they  may  belong  ;  and  it 
may  promise  them  that  of  politics,  in  the  narrow 
sense  of  the  word,  they  shall  within  these  w^alls  hear 
as  little  as  in  Goethe's  garden  at  Weimar. 

But  literature,  too,  has  its  legitimate  influence,  at  first 
on  individuals  only,  but  in  the  end  on  whole  nations  ; 
and  if  we  consider  what  literature  is — the  embodi- 
ment of  the  best  and  highest  thoughts  which  human 
genius  has  called  into  being — it  w^ould  bo  awful 
indeed  if  it  wore  otherwise.  Goethe's  spirit  has 
become  not  only  a  German  power,  not  only  a  Euro- 
pean power :  it  has  become  a  force  that  moves  the 
w^hole  w^oild.  That  force  is  now  committed  to  our 
hands,  to  use  it  as  best  we  can.     But  in  using  it  we 


GOETHE    AXD    CARLYLE.  3G3 

must  remember  that  all  spiritual  influences  work  by 
slow  and  almost  imperceptible  degrees,  and  we  ought 
not  to  allow  ourselves  to  be  discouraged,  if  prejudices, 
piled  up  by  a  thousand  bus}'  tongues,  are  not  removed 
in  a  day.  We  must  work  on  like  true  scholars, 
silent io  ct  spe — in  silence  and  hope — and,  depend 
upon  it,  our  work  will  then  not  be  in  vain. 

Our  nearest  work  lies  in  England.  Our  Society 
has  been  called  into  life  chiefly  by  Englishmen  and 
Germans.  We,  both  German  and  English,  want  to 
put  our  shoulders  together  to  study  the  works  and 
thoughts  of  Goethe.  This  may  seem  a  small 
beginning,  but  powerful  oaks  spring  from  small 
seeds.  Let  us  hope,  therefore,  that  our  young  Society 
ma}'  grow  stronger  and  stronger  from  year  to  year, 
and  that  it  may  help,  according  to  its  talents  and 
opportunities,  to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  blood  which 
unite  the  English  and  German  nations  by  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  mind,  which  may  become  stronger  even 
than  the  bonds  of  blood.  If  these  two  nations,  the 
German  and  English,  stand  once  more  together, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  respecting  each  other  and 
respected  by  their  neighbours,  we  may  then  hope 
to  see  the  realisation  of  what  Goethe  considered  the 
highest  blessing  of  a  world-literature, '  Peace  on  earth, 
goodwill  towards  men  ' — yes,  towards  all  men. 


COERESPONDENCE^  BETWEEN  SCHIELER 

AND   THE 

DUXE  or  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 

Edited  for  the  First  Time  from  the  Ducal  Family  Archives. 

IF  in  the  noisy  deafening  hurry  of  the  times  in 
which  we  live,  we  are  able  now  and  then  to  win 
for  ourselves  a  few  quiet  hours  to  turn  over  the 
pages  of  the  journals  of  our  fathers  and  grandfathers 
of  about  a  century  back,  we  find  ourselves  in  a  world 
which  seems  more  like  poetry  than  reality.  Not  only 
do  the  men  and  women  appear  to  be  of  a  different 
race,  but  a  different  spirit  animates  their  life,  their 
feelings,  their  thoughts,  their  deeds.  Just  as  the 
Greeks  talked  of  a  golden  age,  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  iron  age,  the  present,  so  we  feel  that  the  men  of 
a  hundred  years  since  were  made  of  very  different 
stuff  from  ourselves.  Souls  like  Goethe  and  Schiller 
could  hardly  breathe  in  our  atmosphere — things  which 

^  Translated  from  Scliiller's  ' Briefweclisel  mit  dein  Heizog  Friedrich 
Chiihtian  von  Schleswig-Holsteiu-Aiigustenburg.'  Eingeleitet  und 
heiaupgegeben  von  F.  Max  Miillur.     Berlin,  1875. 

Duke  Friedrich  Christian  was  tlie  grandfather  of  the  Prince  Christian 
of  Schleswig-HoLsiein-Augustenburg,  and  it  was  chiefly  due  to  the 
exertions  of  H.ll.H.  that  Schiller's  letters,  long  supposed  to  be  lo.st, 
were  discovered  in  the  family  archives. 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIX.     365 

were  possible  in  that  time  are  scarcely  conceivable  to 
us.  The  world  has  become  hard  and  iron — then  it 
was  soft  and  golden.  Men  had  wings,  and  faith  in 
ideals,  and,  borne  aloft  on  these  pinions,  they 
soared  above  the  rugged  path  of  life,  their  eyes  fixed 
on  the  clear  sky,  the  superterrestrial,  the  eternal. 
We  plod  on  foot  through  thick  and  thin,  along  the 
straight  dusty  highway  of  our  business  and  calling 
and  our  eyes  can  scarcely  perceive  the  old  bridge  over 
which  at  length,  whether  we  will  or  no,  we  pass  into 
the  clear  sky,  the  superterrestrial,  the  eternal. 

If  any  one  wishes  vividly  to  realise  what  a  beauti- 
ful world  lies  buried  there,  how  little,  j-et  how  great, 
is  the  golden  age  of  a  hundred  years  back,  let  him  go, 
after  a  crowded  party  in  one  of  our  largest  cities, 
where  we  have  everything  which  money  can  buy, 
everything  but  true  men  and  women — let  him  go  for 
once  to  the  old  fairy  town  of  Weimar.  Remembering 
the  magic  pictures  of  its  youth,  such  as  he  had  drawn 
from  Goethe's  and  Schiller's  own  description — let  him 
look  for  the  palaces  and  villas,  the  bright  windows, 
the  flights  of  steps,  with  their  niches  and  pillars,  for 
the  art-treasures,  the  armour,  the  natural  curiosities 
and  books — let  him  descend  into  the  vault,  the 
richest  on  earth,  where  the  Duke  Karl  August  rests, 
with  Goethe  and  Schiller  on  either  side — and  he  will 
be  filled  with  astonishment  and  dismay  when  he 
perceives  the  smallness  and  poverty  of  the  stage  on 
which  those  heroes  once  acted  their  part.  In  this 
small  room  Schiller  lived,  in  that  bed  Goethe  slept. 
Now,  no  servant  would  be  satisfied  with  such 
accommodation.  And  yet  here,  where  everything 
now  seems  so  small,  so  quiet,  so  dull,  at  one  time  the 


366  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

waves  of  thought  foamed  and  sparkled  till  their 
dancing  motion,  in  over-widening  circles,  beat  on  the 
remotest  shores  of  our  globe.  Here  glowed  that 
beautiful  and  divine  spark,  delight  in  life  ;  here  high 
spirits  raged  ;  here  love  revelled  ;  here  genius 
ran  wild,  till  all  philistines  closed  their  eyes  in 
alarm,  and  stood  aside ; — and  yet  here  everything 
before  the  sun  reached  its  meridian  height,  became 
peaceful  and  clear — a  '  wide,  still  sea,  a  happy,  glorious 
calm.' 

Yes,  life  was  there  and  then  as  rich,  and  sunny, 
and  heavenly  as  men  ever  can  make  it,  through 
themselves,  through  genius,  and  art,  and  love. 
Shadows  and  darkness  were  not  wanting  even  then, 
I'or  great  men  cannot  always  be  great,  and  when  they 
fall,  '  great  is  the  fall  thereof.' 

Goethe  had  his  cold,  repellent  hours.  He  could  play 
the  Privy  Counsellor  even  towards  Schiller.  But  who 
could  triumph  more  nobly  over  his  own  weaknesses 
than  Goethe,  when  he  recognised  in  the  long-avoided 
Schiller  the  long-sou ght-for  equal  and  friend? 

Schiller,  too,  sufiered  from  attacks  of  narrow- 
mindedness.  Sometimes  he  longs  for  Goethe ;  then, 
again,  he  is  miserable  when  near  him.  At  times  he 
rejoiced  in  the  halo  of  the  court ;  then,  again,  he 
mourned  over  the  self-deception  which  made  him  see 
ordinary  things  in  a  false  radiance.  Schiller's  mind 
suffered  from  Schiller's  body ;  and  how  truly  and 
touchingly  he  expresses  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
weakness,  the  sufferings  and  struggles  of  his  genius, 
when  he  says, '  How  difficult  it  iis  for  a  suffering  man 
to  be  a  good  man ! ' 

It  is  true  that  Wieland  in  youth,  as  in  old  age,  was 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-IIOLSTEIN.     367 

full  of  weaknesses ;  but  where  do  we  lind  now  such 
a  delightful  old  man  as  he  was,  bearing  ever_j  thing, 
ready  to  forgive  even  unmerited  blame,  prizing  and 
praising  the  old  and  the  past,  but  at  the  same  time 
hoping  all  that  was  beautiful  for  the  future  1  How 
characteristic  of  him,  the  favourite  of  the  grandmother, 
when  in  his  seventy-second  year  he  exclaimed,  on  the 
arrival  of  the  Grand  Duchess  Maria  Paulowna,  the 
bride  of  her  grandson,  the  hereditary  Prince  of 
Weimar,  '  I  thank  heaven  that  X  have  been  allowed 
to  live  long  enough  to  enjoy  the  blessed  vision  of 
such  an  angel  in  human  form.  With  her  a  new  epoch 
will  surely  begin  for  Weimar  ;  she  will,  through  her 
powerful  influence,  carry  on,  and  bring  to  higher 
perfection,  the  work  which  Amalia  began  more  than 
forty  years  ago.' 

Herder  was  proud,  often  discontented,  perhaps  not 
altogether  free  from  that  worst  of  all  human  passions, 
envy;  but  the  old  giant  mind  always  breaks  through; 
and  where  have  we  now  a  General-Superintendent  so 
ready  to  recognise  the  divine  afilatus  in  all  poetry,  the 
heavenly  spirit  in  all  religions,  the  Godlike  in  eveiy- 
thing  human  '^ 

No  doubt  there  are  still  many  *  beautiful  souls '  as 
well  as  mischievous  ladies-in-waiting ;  but  where 
shall  we  find  a  gnome  like  Madlle.  Gochhausen?  or 
where  a  soul  formed  of  such  fine-grained  marble  as 
Frau  von  Stein  1 

German  thrones  are  not  wanting  in  brave  and  gifted 
princesses  ;  but  where  is  there  an  Amalia  or  Louisa  ? 
We  have  princes  who  would  be  more  than  princes ; 
but  where  is  the  robust  strength,  the  life,  the  truth^  the 
honesty  of  a  Karl  August? 


368  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

Men  dared  much  in  those  days.  Why?  Because 
they  trusted  themselves,  and,  still  more,  they  trusted 
others.  They  created  the  greatest  from  the  smallest. 
The  soul  still  possessed  the  magic  power  which  imparts 
to  everything  earthly  a  heavenly  character,  which  feels 
life  to  be  the  most  beautiful  gift  of  God,  that  cannot 
be  loved  and  prized  enough,  or,  as  long  as  it  lasts,  be 
enough  enjoyed  in  all  its  fulness. 

In  order  to  estimate  this  heroic  past  of  the  German 
people  at  its  full  value,  it  is  not  necessary  to  depre- 
ciate the  present  or  to  despair  of  the  future.  It  is 
only  necessary  for  the  historian  to  establish  the  iact 
that  those  heroes  were  of  another  mould  and  grain 
than  we  are. 

Our  life  has  become  more  quiet,  but  at  the  same 
time  more  earnest:  harder,  but  also  more  enduring. 
We  have  less  kindly  light,  but  also  fewer  false 
meteors  ;  less  laughter  and  enjoyment,  but  perhaps 
also  fewer  tears  and  sighs.  Not  only  the  old  people, 
but  even  the  young,  and  possibly  these  latter  even 
more  than  the  former,  have  grown  old  with  the 
century.  Still,  let  us  hope,  in  spite  of  all  this,  as  old 
Wieland  did,  for  a  new  youth  for  German  genius, 
more  beautiful  even  than  that  which  dazzles  us  in  the 
works  of  our  classic  writers.  And  if  we  ourselves 
long  for  3'outhful  courage  and  vigour,  let  us  draw 
refreshment,  even  in  these  barren  days,  from  the 
living  fountain  of  history,  which  revives  us  as  does 
the  memory  of  the  beautiful  dreams  of  youth,  and 
transports  all  who  desire  it  into  a  world  where  weary 
souls  may  find  rest  and  cheerfulness  and  strength. 

It  is  not  a  hundred  years  ago  since  the  Danish  poet 
Baggesen  got  up  a  festival,  the  descrijstion  of  which. 


SCHILLER  AXD  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-HOLSTEIN.    3G9 

whenever  we  come  across  it  in  the  numerous  accounts 
of  Schiller's  life,  always  appears  a  mere  myth.  The 
enthusiastic  Dane  had,  in  the  year  1790,  on  his 
way  home  from  Switzerland,  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Jena,  in  order  to  make  the  personal  acquaintance  of 
Professor  Schiller.  Schiller  himself  was  unwell,  and 
somewhat  cold  towards  his  ovcrpoweringly  enthusi- 
astic Danish  visitor.  Baggesen,  however,  formed  a  close 
friendship  with  Reinhold,  and  from  him  learnt  the 
narrow  circumstances  of  Schiller  and  his  young  wife. 
On  his  return  to  Copenhagen,  Baggesen  preached 
Schiller,  and  nothing  but  Schiller.  How  he  did  it 
we  may  picture  to  ourselves  when  wo  read  how  he 
jumbled  up  together  'our  philosophical  Messiahs. 
Christ  and  Kant,  and  Schiller  and  Reinhold.'  How- 
ever, he  went  on  preaching,  and  found  listeners,  whom 
he  soon  converted  to  his  own  faith,  and  among  them 
the  Danish  minister  of  state,  Count  Schimmelmann,  and 
his  wife ;  but  above  all  others,  Duke  Frederick  Christian 
of  Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburo-.  Bao-o-esen  was 
not  content  to  read  Schiller's  works  aloud ;  he  be- 
thought himself  of  a  Schiller  festival,  which  should  be 
celebrated  in  June  at  Hellebek,  a  beautifully-situated 
sea-place,  a  few  miles  north  of  Copenhagen,  'by  the 
thundering  ocean.'  There  the  'Ode  to  Joy'  should  be 
sung,  and  scenes  from  Schiller's  works  read  and  acted ; 
every  one  should  revel  in  nature  and  poetry,  as  they 
knew  how  in  those  days,  not  only  in  Germany,  but 
in  Denmark. 

But  suddenl}',  just  as  they  were  starting,  the  news 
reached  Copenhagen  that  Schiller  was  dead,  a  report 
which  was  widely  circulated  throughout  Germany  at 
the  same  time.     Baggesen,  overpowered  with   grief, 

vor,.  I.  B  b 


370  RECENT  ESSAYS. 

threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  his  wife.  But  the 
friends  would  not  console  themselves  at  home,  they 
must  reach  the  '  thundering  ocean.'  All  the  prepara- 
tions for  the  festival  were  made,  and,  though  the  skies 
seemed  lowering,  and  a  storm  raged,  they  all  started 
for  Hellebek  to  transform  the  festival  into  a  funeral 
feast. 

The  sky  cleared  whilst  they  were  on  the  road,  the 
sea  sparkled  in  the  sunshine,  the  lofty  Kullen  rose 
majestically  on  the  Swedish  coast,  and  the  friends  sat 
down  to  feast  with  sad  and  solemn  feelings.  They 
gradually  recovered  from  their  despair.  Ministers 
and  poets,  with  their  waves  and  friends,  warmed  over 
the  sparkling  wine,  and  when  the  right  moment 
arrived,  Baggesen  rose  and  recited  the  lost  poet's 
'  Ode  to  Joy ' — '  Joy,  thou  beauteous  divine  spark ' — 
to  the  assembled  friends.  Musical  choirs,  hidden  in 
the  bushes,  jorued  in;  and,  in  conclusion,  Baggesen 
added  the  following  two  verses : — 

Solo. 

'Take,  dead  friend,  this  friendly  greeting! 
All  ye  friends  rejoice  and  sing  ; 
Hei'e  in  our  Elysian  meeting. 
May  his  spirit  round  us  cling. 

Chords. 

'  Lift  your  hearts  and  hands  in  union, 
Drink  this  full  and  sparkling  wine, 
Till  we  meet  in  new  communion, 
Tiiou  art  ours,   and  we  are  thine.' 

Even  this  was  not  enough.  Shepherds  and  shep- 
herdesses appeared  in  ballet  dress,  and  executed  a 
round  dance  ;  and  all  this  under  the  blue  sky.  They 
read,  they  sang,  they  rejoiced,  they  wept,  and  knew 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-HOLSTEIN.    371 

not  how  to  separate.     The  funeral  feast  lasted  three 
whole  days ! 

Does  not  this  sound  like  Greek  mythology  ?  And 
yet  it  is  only  eighty  years  ago  since  ministers  of  state 
and  their  friends  could  celebrate  such  a  fete  in  the 
open  air.  This  festival  was  much  ridiculed,  and  yet 
we  owe  to  it  the  richest,  the  most  perfect  fruits  of 
Schiller's  genius.  Schiller  was  indeed  dangerously 
ill  at  that  time,  and  even  when  he  recovered  his  mind 
was  weary  to  death.  He  was  nearly  dying  of  starva- 
tion in  the  desert  of  life.  It  is  true  that  he  returned 
to  Jena,  strengthened  by  tJte  Karlsbad,  as  he  calls  it ; 
but  his  sky  was  overcast  with  heavy  clouds  of  care, 
and  it  seemed  as  if '  Don  Carlos'  would  be  the  last  effort 
of  his  genius.  Just  at  this  moment  arrived  a  letter 
from  Baggesen  to  Reinhold,  describing  the  funeral 
feast  of  the  yet  living  poet.  The  letter  was  shown  to 
Schiller,  and  convinced  him  that  he,  the  unfortunate, 
the  self-desponding,  was  honoured  and  loved  far  and 
near.  '  I  doubt,'  writes  Reinhold,  '  whether  any  medi- 
cine could  have  done  him  so  much  good.' 

But  yet  more  beautiful  and  fresh  'blossoms  as  of 
nectar'  were  to  bloom  for  Schiller  on  the  distant 
Danish  shore.  Baggesen  told  the  minister  all  that 
he  had  heard  of  Schiller's  miserable  circumstances ; 
the  minister  mentioned  it  to  the  Duke  of  Schleswier- 
Holstein-Augustenburg,  and  on  November  27,  1791, 
a  joint  letter  was  sent  to  Schiller,  which  whenever 
we  read  it  fills  us  with  admiration,  not  only  for  the 
generous  liberality,  but  still  more  for  the  exalted,  noble 
minds,  the  refined  tact,  and  the  warm  love  shown  by 
these  two  men. 

There  are  plenty  of  men  now  who  in  private  make 
B  b  2 


372  .  RECEN^T    ESSAYS. 

the  same  use  of  their  wealth.  A  large  sum  was  once 
entrusted  to  me,  in  strict  confidence,  for  a  like  pur- 
pose, and  I  can  truly  say  with  a  like  good  result.  But 
where  is  the  duke,  where  is  the  minister,  who  now- 
adays could  write  such  a  letter?  And  it  must  not 
be  supposed  that  this  letter  was  drawn  up  by  some 
clever  private  secretary.  I  give  it  here  for  the  first 
time,  from  the  draft  in  the  Duke's  own  handwriting, 
without  altering  the  orthography  or  style  of  the 
original.  I  will  only  state  that  some  passages  are 
here  given  for  the  first  time  in  their  correct  form. 
Thus,  for  instance,  in  the  first  sentence  the  Duke 
wrote — '  the  lofty  flight  of  your  genius,  which  stamps 
many  of  your  more  recent  works  as  among  the  most 
eminent  of  all  human  works.'  Like  a  sensible  man, 
he  does  not  avoid  using  the  same  word  twice  or  even 
three  times  when  the  same  thought  has  to  be  ex- 
pressed as  often.  Only  a  schoolboy  would  imagine 
that  anything  could  be  gained  by  substituting  another 
word  for  the  second  'works.'  Yet  in  printing  the  letter, 
either  '  endeavours,'  which  has  no  meaning,  was  used 
instead  of  'works,'  or  the  word  was  left  out  alto- 
gether. A  paragraph  further  on  has  met  with  still 
worse  treatment.  The  Duke  speaks  of  a  respectful 
hesitation  inspired  by  Schiller's  delicate  sensibility. 
He  then  goes  on :  '  This '  (i.  e.  Schiller's  delicate  sensi- 
bility) 'would  frighten  us,  did  we  not  know  that  a 
certain  limit  is  prescribed  even  to  this  virtue  of  noble 
and  cultivated  souls,  which  it  may  not  overstep 
without  offence  to  reason.'  This  is  clearly  thought 
out,  and  sharply  expressed.  Instead  of  this  we  read 
in  former  editions :  '  This  would  frighten  us  did  we 
nob  know  that  a  certain  limit  is  prescribed  even  in 


SClllLLKll  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-IIOLSTEIN.     373 

virtue  to  noble  and  cultivated  souls,'  &c.    This  is  poor 
and  confused  both  in  thought  and  in  expression. 
But  here  is  the  whole  letter : — 


Letter  from  the  Duke  ami  Count  Schimmelmann 

to    SCHILLEll. 
{From  a  transcript  of  the  rowjK  draft  in  the  Dule^s  handioriting') 

'  Two  friends  bound  together  simply  as  brothers 
and  citizens  of  the  same  world,  address  this  writing 
to  3'ou,  noble  man.  They  are  both  of  them  unknown 
to  you,  but  they  both  of  them  honour  and  love  you. 
They  both  admire  the  lofty  flight  of  your  genius  which 
stamps  many  of  3'our  more  recent  works  as  amocg 
the  most  eminent  of  all  human  works.  They  found 
in  these  works,  the  disposition  of  mind,  the  feeling, 
the  enthusiasm  which  was  the  foundation  of  their 
own  friendship,  and  they  soon  accustomed  themselves 
to  the  idea  of  looking  upon  the  author  as  a  member 
of  their  friendly  league.  Great  therefore  was  their 
sorrow  at  the  news  of  his  death,  and  their  tears  were 
not  the  least  abundant  among  the  great  number  of 
good  men  who  know  and  love  him.  This  vivid 
interest  with  which  you  have  inspired  us,  noble-  and 
honoured  man,  will  save  us  from  appearing  to  you 
as  indiscreetly  obtrusive.  May  it  also  prevent  any 
mistake  as  to  the  intention  of  this  letter.  We  draw 
it  up  with  respectful  hesitation,  inspired  by  j^our 
delicate  sensibility.  This  would  frighten  us,  did  we 
not  know  that  a  certain  limit  is  prescribed  even  to 
this  virtue  of  noble  and  cultivated  souls,  which  it 
inay  not  overstep  without  offence  to  reason. 


374  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

'Your  health,  injured  by  all-tco-hurried  efforts  and 
work,  requires,  so  we  are  told,  perfect  rest  for  a  while, 
if  it  is  to  be  restored  and  the  danger  averted,  which 
now  threatens  your  life ;  but  your  situation,  your 
circumstances,  prevent  3'ou  from  giving  yourself  this 
rest.  Will  you  allow  us  the  pleasure  of  aiding  you 
in  the  enjoyment  of  this?  We  offer  you,  for  this 
purpose,  for  three  years,  an  annual  present  of  i.coo 
thalers  ^. 

'  Accept  this  offer,  noble  man  !  Do  not  let  the  sight 
of  our  titles  move  you  to  refuse.  We  know  what 
value  to  set  on  them.  We  only  pride  ourselves  on 
being  men,  citizens  of  the  great  republic,  whose 
boundaries  embrace  more  than  the  life  of  single 
generations,  more  than  the  boundaries  of  one  globe. 
You  are  only  dealing  here  with  men,  your  brothers, 
not  with  haughty  grandees,  who  in  making  such  use 
of  their  wealth  indulge  in  a  higher  kind  of  pride. 

'Where  you  will  enjoy  this  rest  must  depend  on 
yourself  Here,  with  us,  you  would  not  fail  in  finding 
what  you  need  for  the  requirements  of  your  mind, 
in  a  capital  which  is  the  seat  of  government  and  also 
a  great  commercial  city,  and  which  possesses  very 
valuable  libraries.  Esteem  and  friendship  would 
strive  on  many  sides  to  make  the  stay  in  Denmark 
agreeable  to  you,  for  we  are  not  the  only  ones  who 
know  and  love  you.  And  if  when  your  health  is 
restored  you  should  wish  to  enter  the  service  of  our 
country,  it  would  not  be  difticult  for  us  to  gratify 
such  a  wish. 

'  But  we  are  not  so  selfish  and  narrow-minded  as  to 
make  a   condition  of  such  a  change  of  abode.     Wo 
'  150I. 


SClIILLKll  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-IIOLSTEIX.     375 

leave  this  entirely  to  your  free  choice.  We  wish  to 
preserve  to  mankind  one  of  its  teachers,  and  to 
this  wish  every  other  consideration  must  be  sub  ■ 
ordinate.' 

Schiller  accepted  the  offer,  and  any  one  who  care- 
fully notices  Schiller's  spirits   before    and    after  the 
receipt  of  this  letter  must  see  clearly  that  we  owe 
his  recovery,  his  renewed  vigour,  the  fresh  develop- 
ment of  his  creative  activity,  entirely  to  the  Duke  of 
Schleswig-Holstein-Auffustenbui'ii:  and  Count  Schim- 
melmann.     We  do  not  by  this  mean  to  reflect  in  the 
least  on  the  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Weimar  or  of 
Schiller's   friends,  and  especially  of  Korner.      They 
did  what  they  could,  Korner  even  more  than  he  could. 
But  in  everything  they  did  for  him,  Schiller  felt  the 
burden  of  obligation.     Here  the  rescue  came  as  from 
Heaven ;  nay,  better  than  from  Heaven,  it  came  from 
men  who  loved  and  honoured   him,  who  were  per- 
sonally  strangers   to   him,   but  from   men  who  were 
just  what  he,  the  poet,  had  imagined  in  his  Marquis 
Posa.    The  gift  made  him  rich,  not  poor.    The  burden 
of  gratitude  did  not  oppi'ess  him,  it  only  roused  and 
incited  him  to  prove  himself  by  fresh  work  the  more 
worthy  of  the  love  of  his  unknown  friends.     '  I  have 
to  show  my  gratitude,'  he  wrote,  '  not  to  you  but  to 
mankind.     This  is  the  common  altar  on  which  you 
lay    your   gift    and    I    my    thanks.'      What    Schiller 
himself   felt   at    this    turning   point   of  his    life    we 
hitherto  knew  principally  from  his  letter  to  Baggesen, 
and  this,  fur  the  sake  of  completeness,  must  be  re- 
printed here.     It  is  dated  December  i6,  1791. 


376  RECENT  ESSAYS. 

II. 

Letter  from  Schiller  to  Baggesen. 

'Jena,  Dec.  i6,  1791. 

'  How  shall  I  succeed,  my  dear  and  highly- valued 
friend,  in  describing  the  feelings  which  have  arisen 
in  me  since  I  received  that  letter.  Astonished  and 
overwhelmed  as  I  am  by  its  contents,  do  not  expect 
an}i;hing  collected  from  me.  My  heart  alone  is  still 
able  to  speak,  and  even  it  will  be  but  badly  aided  by 
a  head  so  weak  as  mine  now  is.  I  cannot  better 
reward  a  heart  like  yours  for  the  loving  interest  it 
takes  in  the  state  of  my  mind  than  by  raising  the 
proud  satisfaction  which  the  noblo  and  unique  action 
of  3'our  admirable  friends  must  have  afforded  you,  to 
the  purest  joy,  by  the  agreeable  conviction  that  their 
benevolent  intention  is  perfectly  fulfilled. 

'  Yes,  my  dear  friend,  I  accept  the  offer  of  the 
Prince  of  H.  and  Count  S.  with  a  thankful  heart, 
not  because  the  graceful  manner  in  which  it  was 
made  overpowers  all  other  considerations,  but  because 
a  duty  which  is  above  all  other  considerations  impels 
me  to  do  so.  To  do  and  to  be  that  which,  according 
to  the  measure  of  power  given  me,  I  can  do  and  be, 
is  to  me  the  highest  and  most  indispensable  of  all 
duties.  But  hitherto  my  outward  circumstances  have 
made  this  altogether  impossible,  and  only  a  distant 
and  still  uncertain  future  inspires  me  with  better 
hopes.  The  generous  assistance  of  your  exalted 
friends  suddenly  places  me  in  a  position  to  develop 
all  that  lies  in  me^  to  make  myself  all  that  I  can 
become — therefore  no  choice  remains   to  me.     That 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OP  SCIILESTVIG-HOLSTEIN.     377 

tho  excellent  Prince,  wliile  deciding  of  his  own  accord 
to  amend  for  me  what  fate  had  left  to  be  desired, 
should  bj'-  the  noble  manner  in  which  he  does  it 
spare  any  susceptibility  which  might  have  made  the 
decision  difficult,  that  he  allows  me  to  obtain  this 
important  amelioration  of  my  circumstances  without 
any  struggle  with  myself,  increases  my  gratitude 
immensely,  and  makes  me  at  the  same  time  rejoice 
at  the  kind  heart  of  its  author. 

'  A  morally  admirable  act  like  the  one  which 
suggested  that  letter  does  not  derive  its  worth  only 
from  its  results  ;  even  if  it  failed  entirely  in  its  aim, 
it  would  itself  remain  what  it  is.  But  if  the  act  of 
a  large-minded  heart  is  at  the  same  time  the  needed 
link  in  a  chain  of  events,  if  it  alone  was  wanting 
in  order  to  make  some  good  possible,  if  it,  the  fair 
offspring  of  freedom,  settles  a  tangled  fate  as  though 
it  had  long  been  destined  by  Providence  for  this 
very  purpose,  then  it  belongs  to  the  fairest  phenomena 
that  can  touch  a  feeling  heart.  I  must  and  will  tell 
you  how  much  that  was  the  case  here. 

'  From  the  birth  of  my  mind  to  the  moment 
when  I  write  this,  I  have  struggled  with  fate,  and 
ever  since  I  knew  how  to  value  freedom  of  thought 
I  have  been  doomed  to  live  without  it.  A  rash  step 
ten  years  ago  deprived  me  for  ever  of  the  means 
of  living  except  by  literary  labour.  I  had  adopted 
this  calling  before  I  understood  all  it  entailed,  or 
perceived  all  its  difficulties.  The  necessity  of  pur- 
suing this  path  was  laid  upon  me  before  I  was  fit 
for  it  in  knowledge  or  ripeness  of  mind.  That  I  felt 
this,  that  my  ideal  of  literary  duties  was  not  restricted 
within  the  same  narrow  bounds  in  which  I  was  myself 


378  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

confined,  I  acknowledge  as  a  favour  from  Heaven, 
which  thus  kept  open  to  me  the  possibility  of  higher 
progress,  and  yet  in  my  circumstances  it  only  increased 
m}'  misery.  I  saw  that  all  that  I  gave  to  the  world 
was  unripe  and  far  beneath  the  ideal  that  lived  in 
me ;  notwithstanding  all  presentiment  of  possible 
perfection,  I  had  to  hurry  before  the  eyes  of  the  public 
with  immature  fruit;  in  need  of  teaching  myself, 
I  had  against  my  will  to  put  myself  forward  as 
a  teacher  of  mankind.  Under  these  miserable  circum- 
stances, each  only  moderately  successful  product  made 
me  feel  more  painfully  how  many  germs  fate  had 
smothered  in  me.  The  masterworks  of  other  writers 
made  me  miserable,  because  I  renounced  the  hope 
of  ever  sharing  their  happy  leisure,  through  which 
alone  works  of  genius  can  come  to  perfection.  What 
would  I  not  have  given  for  two  or  three  quiet  years, 
free  from  all  literary  work,  which  I  might  have 
devoted  to  study  only,  to  the  cultivation  of  my  mind, 
to  the  maturing  of  my  ideas.  It  is  impossible  in 
our  German  literary  world,  as  I  now  know,  to  satisfy 
the  strict  requirements  of  art,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
provide  the  necessary  support  for  one's  literary  in- 
dustry. For  two  years  I  have  exerted  myself  to 
combine  both,  but  doing  so  even  in  an  imperfect 
degree  has  cost  me  my  health.  Interest  in  my  work, 
and  some  sweet  flowers  of  life,  which  fate  strewed 
on  my  path,  concealed  this  loss  from  me,  till  early 
in  this  year,  I  was — you  know  how?  aroused  from 
my  dream.  At  a  time  when  life  was  beginning  to 
show  me  its  full  importance,  when  I  found  myself 
just  able  to  join  reason  and  fancy  within  my  mind  in 
a  tender  and  lasting  union,  when  I  was  girding  myself 


SCHILLER  A\D  THE  DIKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIX.     379 

for  a  new  undertaking  in  the  province  of  art — death 
threatened  me.  This  danger  passed,  but  I  woke  to 
new  life,  only  to  renew  the  conflict  with  fate,  with 
weakened  powers  and  diminished  hopes.  Thus  the 
letter  which  came  from  Denmark  found  me.  Forgive, 
my  dear  friend,  these  details  about  myself.  They  are 
only  meant  to  enable  you  to  judge  of  the  effect  which 
the  generous  ofter  of  the  Prince  and  Count  S.  pro- 
duced on  me.  I  see  myself,  through  it,  suddenly 
enabled  to  realise  the  plans  for  mj^self  which  my 
fancy  had  pictured  in  its  happiest  moments.  I  possess 
at  length  the  long  and  ardently  desired  freedom  of 
spirit,  the  perfectly  free  choice  of  my  literary  activity. 
I  gain  leisure,  through  which  I  may  regain  my  lost 
health ;  and  even  should  this  not  be,  my  illness  will 
not  in  future  be  increased  by  the  anxieties  of  my  mind. 
I  look  cheerfully  on  the  future ;  and  although  it 
should  prove  that  my  expectations  as  to  myself  were 
only  pleasant  deceptions,  by  which  my  oppressed 
pride  revenged  itself  on  fate,  at  all  events  my  perse- 
verance shall  not  be  wanting  to  justify  the  hopes 
which  two  admirable  citizens  of  our  century  have 
founded  on  me.  As  my  lot  does  not  permit  me  to 
act  beneficially  in  their  way,  I  will  try  to  do  so  in 
the  only  manner  that  is  allowed  me— and  may  the 
germ  which  they  planted  develop  itself  in  me  to 
a  ftiir  harvest  for  the  good  of  mankind ! 

'  I  come  to  the  second  half  of  your  wish — dear  and 
valued  friend ;  why  cannot  I  fulfil  this  as  quickly  as 
the  first  ?  No  one  can  suffer  more  than  I  do,  from 
the  impossibility  of  undertaking  the  journey  to  you 
as  soon  as  you  wish.  You  can  judge  from  the  long- 
ing of  my   heart  for  truly  good  and  noble  society 


380  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

which  meets  with  little  here  to  satisfy  it,  with  what 
impatience  I  should  hasten  to  the  circle  of  such  men 
as  await  me  in  Copenhagen — if  it  depended  only  on 
my  own  decision.  But  besides  that  my  still  unsettled 
health  would  not  allow  me  in  the  least  to  fix  a  time 
w^hen  I  could  undertake  so  important  a  change  in  my 
life,  and  that  I  must  probably  next  summer  again 
visit  the  Karlsbad,  I  am  in  such  a  position  as  regards 
the  Duke  of  Weimar,  whose  fault  it  certainly  is  not 
that  I  do  not  enjoy  more  leisure,  as  obliges  me  for  at 
least  a  year  to  appear  as  an  active  member  of  the 
Academy,  however  certain  I  may  be  that  I  can  never 
be  a  useful  one.  After  that  he  w^ould  certainly  not 
oppose  my  wish  to  leave  the  University  for  a  time. 
Were  I  but  once  with  you,  the  genius  which  presides 
over  all  good  things  w^ould  surely  settle  the  rest. 

'  Till  then,  dear  friend,  let  us  be  as  united  as  fate 
allows  at  a  distance.  To  correspond  wuth  you,  and 
rekindle  my  half-dead  spirit  from  your  fresh  and  fiery 
genius,  will  be  a  constant  necessity  to  my  heart. 
Never  during  my  lifetime  shall  I  forget  the  friendly, 
the  important  service  w^hich,  without  this  object,  you 
rendered  me  on  my  return  to  hfe.  Hardly  had  I 
begun  to  get  better  when  I  heard  of  the  expedition  to 
Hellebek  ;  and  soon  after  Reinhold  showed  me  your 
letter.  It  was  like  fresh  flowers,  full  of  nectar,  pre- 
sented by  a  heavenly  genius  to  the  scarcely  revivified 
soul.  Oh,  I  can  never  tell  you  what  you  were  to  me ! 
And  that  expedition  itself !  It  was  intended  for  the 
departed,  and  the  living  will  never  venture  to  dwell 
on  it.  Forgive  this  long  letter,  my  admirable  friend, 
which  unfortunately  treats  of  little  but  myself.  But 
it  may  serve  as  a  opening  of  our  correspondence  ;  that 


SCIIILLER  AXD  THE   DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIX.     S81 

you  ma}'  once  for  all  become  acquainted  with  me,  and 
then  the  /  can  henceforth  be  kept  out  of  sight.  For- 
give me,  too,  for  having  without  any  preliminaries 
claimed  all  the  rights  of  a  friendship  which  I  ought 
to  try  to  deserve  by  a  series  of  proofs.  In  such 
a  world  as  that  from  whence  that  letter  came,  other 
laws  are  honoured  than  the  decrees  of  petty  prudence 
which  rule  in  real  life.  All  hearty  greeting  to  your 
dear  Sophie  from  my  Lottie  and  from  me,  and  tell 
her  to  be  ready  to  listen  gi-aciously  to  a  correspondent 
who  means  soon  to  intrude  herself  upon  her.  Like 
two  bright  visions,  you  both  floated  past  us  swiftly, 
but  never  to  be  forgotten.  The  forms  have  long 
vanished,  but  our  eyes  follow  them  still. 

'  Ever  yours, 

'  Schiller.' 

Whenever  I  came  to  read  this  letter,  I  always  felt 
what  a  loss  it  was  that  the  correspondence  between 
the  Duke  and  Schiller  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  It 
is  known  that  such  a  correspondence  was  carried  on 
for  a  considerable  time,  and  that  Schiller's  Aesthetic 
Letters  were  first  of  all  composed  in  letters  to  the 
Duke.  It  was  said  that  the  whole  correspondence 
had  been  lost  in  the  fire  at  the  Palace  at  Copenhagen. 
But  the  correspondence  was  carried  on  even  after  the 
fire.  What,  therefore,  had  become  of  these  later 
letters?  I  sought  in  vain  for  information,  until  at 
last,  when  publishing  an  Essay  on  Schiller  ('  Chips 
from  a  German  Workshop,'  vol.  iii,  p.  i),  I  applied  to 
the  Duke's  grandson.  Prince  Christian  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  and  begged  H.R.H.  to  permit  a  search  to  be 
made  for  these  letters  in  the  archives  of  the  ducal 


382  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

family.  Prince  Christian,  as  well  as  his  elder  brother, 
the  present  Duke  of  Schleswig-Hol stein,  took  the 
warmest  interest  in  the  matter,  and  I  can  now  present 
Schiller  s  admirers  with  at  least  a  few  of  the  supposed 
lost  letters.  Many  are  still  wanting  ;  and  it  is  hoped 
that  here  and  there  letters  may  yet  be  discovered. 
But  what  has  already  been  found  must  no  longer  be 
kept  from  the  public,  and,  by  permission  of  the  Duke, 
is  therefore  here  published. 

The  following  is  the  first  letter  addressed  by  Schil- 
ler to  the  Duke  and  Count  Schimmelmann,  three  days 
after  he  had  written  to  Baggesen  : — 


III. 

Letter  from  Schtllee  to  the  Duke  and 
Count  Schimmelmann. 

'  Allow  me  to  address  you  together,  as  my  revered 
friends,  and  thus  to  join  two  noble  names  in  one,  in 
that  name  under  which  you  have  joined  yourselves 
in  addressing  me.  The  occasion  which  prompts  me 
to  take  this  liberty  is  itself  so  astonishing  an  exception 
to  all  custom,  that  I  must  tremble  lest  I  tarnish  the 
pure  and  ideal  relation  in  which  you  approach  me 
by  too  much  regard  to  accidental  distinctions. 

'  At  a  time  when  the  remains  of  a  serious  illness 
overclouded  my  soul,  and  frightened  me  with  a  dark 
and  sad  future,  you,  like  two  protecting  genii, 
stietched  out  a  hand  to  me  from  the  clouds.  The 
generous  offer  which  you  make  me  fulfils,  yes, 
exceeds  my  boldest  desires.  The  manner  in  which 
you    make    it  frees   me    from  the  dread  of  showing 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.     383 

myself  unworthy  of  your  kindness,  whilst  accepting 
this  proof  of  it.  I  should  blush,  if  in  such  an  offer  I 
could  think  of  anything  but  the  pure  love  of  humanity 
which  prompts  it,  and  of  the  moral  good  which  it 
is  to  effect.  I  hope  that  I  can  accept  as  simply  and 
nobly  as  you  give.  Your  intention  is  to  help  on 
what  is  good.  Could  I  have  any  feeling  of  shame 
about  anything,  it  would  be  that  you  have  mistaken 
the  instrument  3'ou  employ  to  effect  that  good.  But 
the  motive  which  permits  me  to  accept,  justifies  me  to 
myself,  and  allows  me,  though  fettered  by  the  highest 
obligations,  to  appear  before  you  with  perfect  freedom 
of  sentiment.  I  have  to  pay  my  debts,  not  to  you, 
but  to  mankind.  This  is  the  common  altar  on  which 
you  lay  your  gift,  and  I  my  thanks.  I  know,  most 
honoured  friends,  that  the  conviction  only  that 
I  understand  you  can  perfectly  satisfy  you  ;  for  this 
reason,  and  for  this  alone,  I  allow  myself  to  say  this. 

'  But  the  great  share  which  your  too  partial  favour 
towards  me  has  in  your  generous  determination,  the 
prerogative  which  you  give  me,  in  preference  to  so 
many  others,  of  considering  myself  as  the  instrument 
of  your  noble  intentions,  the  goodness  with  which 
you  descend  to  the  petty  wants  of  a  citizen  of  the 
world  who  is  a  stranger  to  you,  lay  me  under 
personal  obligations  to  you,  and  add  to  my  reverence 
and  admiration  the  feelings  of  warmest  affection. 
How  proud  I  feel,  that  you  should  think  of  me  in 
a  bond  which  is  consecrated  by  the  noblest  of  all 
aims,  and  which  springs  from  enthusiasm  for  the 
good,  the  great,  and  the  beautiful ! 

'  But  how  far  is  the  enthusiasm,  which  shows  itself 
in  deeds,  higher  than  that  which  must  limit  itself  to 


334  TiECENT   ESSAYS. 

rousing  others  to  deeds.  To  arm  truth  and  virtue 
with  the  victorious  power  which  enables  them  to 
subdue  the  heart,  is  all  that  the  philosopher  and  the 
dramatic  artist  can  effect — how  far  different  is  it  to 
realise  the  ideal  of  both  in  a  noble  life !  I  must  here 
answer  you  with  the  words  of  Fiesco,  with  which  he 
dismisses  the  pride  of  an  artist :  *'  You  have  clone, 
what  I  could  only  2^cdnt.^' 

'  But  even  if  I  could  forget  that  I  am  myself  the 
object  of  your  kindness,  that  I  owe  to  you  the  happy 
prospect  of  the  accomplishment  of  my  projects, 
I  should  still  be  indebted  to  you  in  no  common 
degree.  An  apparition  such  as  yours  to  me,  rekindled 
my  faith  in  good  and  noble  men,  destroyed  by  the 
numerous  examples  of  the  opposite  in  real  hfe.  It  is 
an  inexpressible  delight  to  the  painter  of  humanity 
to  meet  in  real  life  with  the  lineaments  of  that  ideal 
which  must  exist  in  his  own  mind,  and  forms  the 
groundwork  of  his  descriptions. 

'But  I  feel  how  much  I  lose  in  accepting  the  great 
obligations  you  lay  me  under.  I  thus  lose  the  happy 
power  of  giving  utterance  to  my  admiration,  and  of 
praising  so  disinterested  and  beautiful  a  deed  with 
feelings  equally  disinterested.  Your  generous  help 
will  malic  it  possible  to  present  to  you  in  person  him 
whom  you  have  laid  under  such  deep  obligations. 
I  see  mj-self  placed  by  it  in  a  position  to  regain 
gradually  my  health,  and  to  bear  the  difficulties  of 
a  journey,  and  the  difference  of  life  and  of  climate. 
At  present  I  am  still  liable  to  relapses  into  an  illness 
which  prevents  the  enjoyment  of  the  purest  joys  of 
life,  and  which  will  leave  me  as  slowly  as  it  came. 
Among  the  many  sacrifices  which  it  entails  upon  me, 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.    385 

it  is  not  the  least  that  it  postpones  the  happy  time 
when  living"  sight  and  intercourse  will  bind  me,  with 
a  thousand  bonds  that  can  never  be  broken,  to  two 
hearts,  Avhich  now,  like  heaven,  bless  me  from  a  dis- 
tance, and  which,  like  heaven,  are  further  than  my 
thanks  can  reach.  To  live  in  this  beautiful  future, 
and  in  thoughts  and  dreams  to  anticipate  that 
moment,  Avill  till  then  be  the  dearest  employment 
of  your  deeply  indebted  and  ever  grateful, 

•FiiiDR.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  Dec-  19,  1791.' 

The  answer  of  the  Duke,  then  still  the  hereditary 
prince  of  Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg,  is  in  the 
private  possession  of  a  collector  of  autographs,  and 
unfortunately  inaccessible  to  me.  It  is  dated  Janu- 
ary 7,  1792. 

In  August  of  1793,  Schiller  received  another  letter 
from  the  Duke,  but  this  letter,  as  well  as  Schiller's 
answer,  are  lost.  Six  other  letters,  written  by  Schiller 
in  the  course  of  the  winter  from  Ludwitrsburfj  to 
Copenhagen,  have  also  disappeared,  but  there  is  hope 
that  they  may  be  found.  The  next  letter  we  have  is 
one  from  Schiller,  of  June  lo,  1794,  as  an  answer  to 
a  letter  from  the  Duke  of  April  4  of  the  same  year, 
which  is  in  the  possession  of  a  collector,  and  will  soon 
be  published.  But  an  earlier  letter  of  the  Duke's 
does  not  appear  to  have  reached  Schiller,  and  he 
excuses  himself  on  this  point  to  the  Duke. 


VOL.  I.  C  c 


336  HECENT    ESSAYS. 

IV. 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

*Mo3T  Serene  Highness, 

*  The  gracious  letter  of  your  Highness  to  mc, 
of  the  4th  April  of  this  year,  which  was  enclosed  to 
Councillor  Reinhold,  was,  on  account  of  the  departure 
of  the  latter  from  this  neighbourhood,  despatched  to 
Kiel,  and  from  thence  again  hither,  where  it  reached 
my  hands  only  a  few  days  ago.  This  is  the  reason, 
gracious  Prince,  that  I  am  able  to  answer  its  contents 
only  to-day. 

'  Your  Highness  mentions  in  it  a  letter  to  me,  which 
I  have  never  answered.  This  perplexes  me,  as  I  know 
of  no  later  letter  from  Your  Highness  to  me  than  the 
one  forwarded  after  me  in  August  of  last  year  to 
Swabia.  But  that  this  letter  was  not  left  unanswered 
I  see  from  a  copy  which  I  kept  of  my  letter,  and 
a  series  of  six  other  letters  which  I  sent  in  the  course 
of  last  winter  from  Ludwigsburg  to  Your  Highness, 
containing  the  continuation  of  my  remarks  on  the 
Beautiful  and  the  Sublime.  Therefore  either  my 
letters,  or  that  of  Your  Highness  to  me,  must  have 
been  lost.  The  former  loss  is  not  very  important,  the 
less  so  as  I  can  replace  all  my  letters  from  copies ; 
but  every  line  from  Your  Highness  to  me,  which 
I  fail  to  receive,  is  a  loss  which  nothing  can  repay  me. 

'  The  news  of  the  unfortunate  fire  in  Copenhagen, 
which  reduced  the  royal  palace  to  ashes,  has  troubled 
me  very  much,  and  all  the  more  so,  that  I  felt  how 
nearly  this  calamity  must  have  touched  Your  Highness. 


SCHILLER  AND  TUE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIN.     387 

The  wise  and  generous  use  which  you  always  make 
of  your  wealth  turns  every  calamity  which  you  sufi'er 
into  a  misfortune  for  thousands.  But  every  friend 
of  Denmark,  and  especially  every  citizen  of  the  world, 
must  be  satisfied  with  the  decrees  of  Providence, 
in  seeing  the  good  moral  effects  produced  by  this 
physical  evil ;  for  the  love  of  a  good  people  for  its 
rulers,  shown  on  this  occasion  in  so  splendid  a  w^ay,  is 
a  far  greater  possession  than  anything  which  could  fall 
a  prey  to  the  flames.  This  fine  trait  in  the  character 
of  the  Danish  burghers,  and  the  remarks  of  Your 
Highness  on  it,  interested  me  so  much  that  I  should 
like  to  ask  your  permission  to  make  public  use  of  the 
same,  for  it  contains  a  good  hint  for  all  governments, 
and  is  a  beautiful  testimony  to  that  of  Denmark. 

'Your  Highness'  wish  to  possess  the  letters  from 
me  that  are  lost  is  most  flattering  to  me,  and  I  will 
lose  no  time  in  fulfilling  it.  How  willingly  would 
I,  did  circumstances  permit,  give  up  my  whole  literary 
activity,  in  order  to  devote  myself  to  the  agreeable 
occupation  of  communicating  my  thoughts  to  you 
without  reserve.  Everything  that  I  discover  or  create 
should  take  shape  in  a  letter  to  Your  Highness,  and 
in  your  soul,  so  sensitive  to  truth  and  beauty,  I  should 
joyfully  store  up  each  creation  of  my  spirit  and  each 
thought  of  my  heart — a  happiness  for  which  I  have 
often  envied  Baggesen. 

'  With  sentiments  of  the  purest  respect  and  devotion, 
I  remain 

'  Your  Highness'  most  obedient, 

*Fr.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  June  lo,  1794.' 

C  C  -Z 


388  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

The  next  letter  from  Schiller,  of  January  20,  1795, 
contains  the  poet's  congratulations  on  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Duke  as  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
in  Denmark. 

Schiller  at  the  same  time  asks  permission  to  dedicate 
to  his  benefactor  in  a  new  and  more  perfect  form  the 
letters  he  had  written  to  the  Duke,  and  which  had 
been  destroyed  in  the  fire. 

V. 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

•Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince, 

'  I  have  with  the  liveliest  sympathy,  which 
I  feel  for  everything  affecting  the  good  of  mankind, 
heard  of  the  happy  change  which  has  opened  to  Your 
Highness  a  sphere  of  activity  so  suitable  to  your  great 
merit  and  so  fitted  to  your  beneficent  inclinations.  The 
welfare  of  many  is  now  in  your  hands,  and  your  large 
and  noble  heart,  which  from  its  own  free  impulse  was 
always  acting  for  the  good  of  mankind,  has  now 
received  from  Providence  a  public  charge,  and  a  worthy 
sphere  for  such  activity.  How  highly  should  I  extol 
the  fate  of  my  German  fellow-citizens,  if  it  were  always 
committed  to  the  guidance  of  such  a  Prince  ;  and  with 
what  surety  might  one  answer  for  the  fulfilment  of 
all  that  happiness  of  the  people,  w^hich  hitherto, 
alas !  is  only  an  idea  of  the  philosopher  and  a  dream 
of  the  poet. 

'  The  consideration  I  am  bound  to  show  to  the 
delicacy  of  your  feelings  does  not  permit  me  to 
enlarge  the  picture  which  my  prophetic  imagination 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIN.     389 

promises  itself  from  the  rule  of  a  prince  as  full  of 
feeling  as  of  philosophic  thought.  But  my  heart  has 
spoken  in  the  characters  of  Don  Carlos  and  Posa,  and 
■what  I  then  only  dreamt  as  a  poet  I  here,  as  the 
contemporary  of  Frederick  Christian,  utter  with  the 
firmest  conviction  that  all  the  good  that  circumstances 
can  make  possible  will  he  realised  by  you  and  in  your 
sphere  of  work. 

'  It  has  long  been  my  wish  to  give  public  expression 
to  the  feelings  of  veneration  and  gratitude  with  which 
Your  Highness  has  in  so  high  a  degree  inspired 
me ;  but  I  would  only  do  so  in  a  work  that  should 
not  be  unworthy  of  your  honoured  name.  All  my 
powers  have  long  been  directed  to  this  work,  and 
unless  I  utterly  fail  in  carrying  out  to  some  degree 
the  ideal  which  I  have  set  before  me,  I  shall  beg 
Your  Highness  for  the  gracious  permission  to  crown 
such  a  work  with  your  name, 

'  When  I  began  last  year  to  prepare  a  copy  of  my 
letters  lost  in  Copenhagen,  I  perceived  so  many  im- 
perfections in  them,  that  I  could  not  allow  myself  to 
place  them  again  in  Your  Highness'  hand  in  their 
first  form.  I  therefore  began  a  revision,  which  led 
me  further  than  I  expected,  and  the  wish  to  produce 
something  worthy  of  your  approbation  induced  me 
not  merely  to  give  a  totally  new  form  to  those  letters, 
but  also  to  enlarge  the  plan  of  them  considerably. 

'  Of  this  new  edition  a  few  letters  are  printed  in 
the  volume  which  I  respectfully  enclose  to  Your 
Highness,  that  I  may  learn  the  opinion  of  a  judge 
before  putting  the  last  touch  to  the  whole.  May 
you,  gracious  Prince,  perceive  in  this  slight  specimen 
my  earnest  endeavour  to  impart  to  a  work,  which 


390  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

I   venture   to   address    to    you,   all    the    perfection 
possible. 

'  With  deepest  devotion  and  veneration,  I  remain, 
'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 
'  F.  Schiller, 

'Jena, /a)?.  20,  1795.' 

The  Aesthetic  Letters,  which  appeared  in  the  Horae, 
were  sent  regularly  to  the  Duke,  and  the  next  letters 
from  Schiller  are  little  more  than  an  accompaniment 
to  them. 

VI. 
ScHiLLEii  to  'the  Duke. 
'Mo3T  Seeene  Highness,  Mqst  'Gracious  Prince, 
'  I  ventured  a  few  weeks  ago  to  send  in  all  sub- 
mission to  Your  Highness  the  first  part  of  my  monthly 
work,  containing  the  beginning  of  my  Aesthetic  Letters. 
Allow  me  now,  most  gracious  Prince,  to  lay  at  your 
feet  the  continuation  of  this  work,  to   which  I  can 
wish  no  better  success  than  that  it  may  be  worthy  of 
Your  Highness'  approval. 

'  I  know  that  higher  affairs  than  these  literary 
occupations  now  claim  your  attention ;  but  when 
your  mind,  after  more  important  business,  looks 
around  for  refreshment,  tlie  Muses  may  venture  to 
approach  you,  and  you  will  find  in  the  enjoyment  of 
truth  and  beauty  a  pleasure  that  is  reserved  only  for 
the  most  noble  souls. 

'  May  I  have  offered  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  Your 
Highness  something  not  quite  unworthy  of  you. 
'  With  boundless  devotion  and  respect,  I  remain, 
'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'  F.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  IShtrch  4,  1795.' 


SCIIILLErL,  AXD  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIX.     391 

There  is  said  to  be  a  letter  from  the  Duke  to  Schiller 
of  March  lo,  1795?  in  the  private  collection  before 
mentioned;  but  the  following  is  the  answer  to 
Schiller's  letter  accompanying  the  continuation  of 
the  Horae : — 

VII. 

Letter  of  the  Duke  to   Schiller. 

{^From  the  draft  in  the  Dnhe's  h.andioriting.') 

'Copenhagen,  March  19,  179.1. 

'  I  have  received  the  first  two  parts  of  the  Horae, 
and  the  letters  accompanying  these  two  parts.  I  owe 
3-ou  indeed  an  apology  that  I  have  not  till  now,  dear 
Hofrath,  told  j^ou  that  I  had  received  them ;  but 
constant  occupations  and  frequent  indisposition  have 
made  me  through  the  whole  winter  an  idle  corre- 
spondent. My  thanks,  though  late,  are  not  the  less 
warm  and  sincere.  They  are  due  to  you  for  the 
opinion  which  you  entertain  of  me.  May  I  only  in 
some  degree  deserve  it. 

'I  was  delighted  to  find  your  Aesthetic  Letters  again 
in  the  Horae.  But  through  my  ignorance  of  the 
terminology,  and  indeed  of  the  meaning  of  the  critical 
philosophy,  they  contain  much  that  is  dark  to  me, 
which  can  only  disappear  by  repeated  readings ; 
therefore,  I  would  rather  at  present  remain  silent  as 
to  these  letters.  In  the  summer,  in  the  country,  with 
more  leisure  and  fewer  interruptions,  I  shall  again 
take  up  this  study.  It  is  no  small  pleasure  to  me  to 
find  in  your  thoughts  on  what  constitutes  the  wants 
of  mankind  so  much  agreement  with  my  own  convic- 
tions.    Improvement  in  the  circumstances  of  mankind 


S92  EECEXT    ESSAYS. 

must  originate  from  man.  If  this  is  not  the  case, 
every  political  erection,  however  beautiful  it  may  be, 
must  soon  fall  to  pieces,  and  serve,  it  may  be,  as  a 
still  more  convenient  refuge  for  unbridled  and  wild 
passions.  It  depends  less  on  the  form  than  on  the 
spirit  through  which  this  form  receives  life.  If  this 
spirit  is  the  spirit  of  humanity,  then  improvement 
will  follow,  be  the  outer  form  what  it  will.  It  has 
fallen  to  your  lot,  noble  man,  to  awaken,  to  sustain, 
to  spread  abroad  this  spirit  of  humanity,  and  I  hope 
and  expect  that  your  latest  literary  undertaking,  as 
Avell  as  some  of  your  former  works,  will  serve  for  its 
advancement.  My  interest  and  my  wishes  will  always 
attend  you.' 

To  this  Schiller  answered  by  a  letter  of  April  5, 
3795,  wdiich  contains  some  striking  remarks  on  the 
difficulties  of  the  German  language. 

VIII. 

ScHiLLEK  to  the  Duke. 

'  Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Peince 
AND  Master, 

'In  the  letter  of  the  19th  March,  with  which 
Your  Highness  honoured  me,  I  find  the  encouraging 
assurance  that  the  first  parts  of  my  new  journal  were 
not  displeasing  to  you  ;  that  indeed  your  own  con- 
victions accord  with  the  principal  contents  of  my 
Aesthetic  Letters.  I  now  pursue  the  work  with  more 
courage,  and  only  ask  your  most  gracious  permission 
to  send  you  each  new  number  of  this  periodical.  Your 
Highness's  remarks  wdth  regard  to  the  difficulty  of 
style  are  well  founded,  and  it  requires,  of  course,  the 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.    393 

greatest  care  on  the  part  of  the  author  to  unite  tlie 
necessary  profoundness  and  depth  of  thought  \vith  an 
intelligible  style.  But  our  language  is  not  yet  quite 
capable  of  this  revolution,  and  all  that  good  writers 
can  do  is  to  work  towards  this  goal  of  a  more  perfect 
form.  The  language  of  the  more  refined  society,  and 
of  conversation,  is  still  too  much  afraid  of  the  sharp, 
often  subtle  precision,  which  is  so  necessary  to  the 
philosopher,  and  the  language  of  the  scholar  is  not 
capable  of  the  lightness  and  life  which  the  man  of  the 
world  is  riofht  in  desirinjr.  It  is  a  misfortune  to 
Germans  that  their  language  has  not  been  allowed  to 
become  the  organ  of  refined  society,  and  it  will  long 
continue  to  feel  the  evil  effects  of  this  exclusion. 

'  Should  I,  however,  but  succeed  a  little  in  helping 
to  spread  philosophical  ideas  in  the  circle  of  the 
fashionable  world,  I  should  consider  every  effort 
which  my  undertaking  costs  me  as  richly  repaid. 

'  With  deep  devotion,  I  remain, 

'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'F.    SCHILLEE. 
*  Jexa,  April  5,  1795.' 

On  the  9th  June  of  the  same  year  Schiller  writes 
again,  sending  the  Duke  the  fifth  part  of  the  Horae, 
and  announcing  the  sixth,  with  eleven  new  Aesthetic 
Letters. 

IX. 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

*  Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince 
AND  Master, 

'  How  greatly  do  I  hope  that  the  Horae,  of  which 
I  lay  the  fifth  part  at  Your  Serene  Highness'  feet,  may 


394  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

not  be  found  unworthy  of  your  further  attention.  My 
zeal  in  collecting  good  writings  wherever  they  can  be 
found  does  not  diminish,  but,  rich  as  Germany  is  in 
journals  and  writers,  it  is  poor  in  good  authors,  and 
in  the  fresh,  healthy  productions  of  genius,  and  of 
philosophical  minds.  I  own  I  never  realised  this 
want  so  much  as  since  the  publication  of  my  journal, 
in  which  so  large  and  influential  a  society  takes  part, 
and  where  it  is,  nevertheless,  so  difficult  always  to 
find  something  satisfactory  to  lay  before  the  public. 
It  is  indeed  to  the  honour  of  the  nation  that  it  is  more 
difficult  to  please ;  but  it  is  to  be  desired  that  the 
cleverness  of  the  authors  might  answer  to  these  high 
requirements. 

'  I  have  employed  myself  all  this  time,  as  far  as  my 
health  allowed,  in  continuing  my  Aesthetic  Letters, 
and  the  sixth  part,  now  in  the  press,  will  contain 
eleven  new  Letters.  Could  I  but  hope  that  this  enter- 
tainment might  enliven  a  few  hours  to  Your  Highness 
during  your  present  visit  to  the  country,  I  should  find 
in  this  a  sweet  reward. 

'  With  feelings  of  the  deepest  devotion  and  gratitude, 
I  remain, 

*  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

•F.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  Jitne  9,  1795.' 

The  sixth  part  of  the  Ilorae  is  also  accompanied  by 
a  letter  from  Schiller,  in  which  he  excuses  himself  to 
the  Duke  for  the  free  tone,  opposed  to  conventional 
decency,  of  Goethe's  '  Elegies,'  printed  in  it. 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.    395 

X. 

Schiller  to  ilie  Duke. 

'Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince 
AND  Master, 

'  It  is  not  -vvitliout  embarrassment  that  I  venture 
to  lay  the  sixth  part  of  the  Horae  before  Your  Serene 
and  Ducal  Highness. 

'The  "Elegies"  which  it  contains  are  perhaps 
written  in  too  free  a  tone,  and  perhaps  the  subject 
which  they  treat  should  have  excluded  them  from  the 
Horae.  But  I  was  carried  away  by  the  great  poetical 
beauty  of  their  style,  and  then  I  confess  that  I  believe 
they  only  offend  conventional  and  not  true  and  natural 
decency.  I  shall,  in  a  future  number  of  the  journal, 
take  the  liberty  of  stating  in  detail  my  creed  as  to 
what  is  allowable  or  not  allowable  to  the  poet  with 
regard  to  propriety.  May  the  continuation  of  my 
letters  on  aesthetic  education,  of  which  this  part  con- 
tains a  large  instalment,  be  read  by  Your  Serene 
Highness  not  without  interest.  In  it  I  approach  ever 
nearer  to  my  goal,  and  hope  that  I  have  unfolded 
many  things  which  were  left  doubtful  in  my  former 
letters. 

'  In  the  deepest  devotion  and  reverence,  I  remain, 
'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'F.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  Julif  5,  1795.' 

For  the  ninth  part  of  the  Horae  we  have  again  an 
accompanying  letter  in  Schiller's  hand.  His  hopes  as 
to  the  successful  effects  of  his  periodical  are  again  in 
the  ascendant,  and  the  high    aim  which    he    placed 


396  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

before  himself  and  bis  coadjutors,  the  nnion  of  deep 
thought,  with  clearness  and  elegance  of  diction,  appears 
to  him  as  not  unattainable.  His  self-reliance  is 
lirmer.  He  will  win  the  approbation  of  the  best 
people,  let  the  common  herd  say  what  they  like. 

XI. 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

'  Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince, 
'  Though  the  numbers  of  the  Ilorae  which  have 
hitherto  appeared  have  often,  from  their  speculative 
contents,  been  very  tiresome  and  unproductive,  this 
ninth  part,  which  I  humbly  venture  to  send  to  Your 
Ducal  Highness,  is  perhaps  more  entertaining.  Various 
philosophical  ideas  are  veiled  in  it  under  a  free  poet- 
ical covering,  and  may  perhaps  in  this  form  commend 
themselves  to  lovers  of  the  beautiful. 

'  After  a  long  separation  from  the  poetic  muse, 
I  have  again  ventured  to  make  some  attempts  in  this 
realm,  and  may  I  have  succeeded  in  reconciling  the 
taste  of  Your  Highness  and  of  the  whole  cultivated 
world  to  my  former  metaphysical  lucubrations.  By 
every  means,  in  every  form,  I  strive  always  and  ever 
after  the  same  end — Truth.  Should  I  not  succeed  in 
finding  her  in  everything,  or  in  procuring  admission 
I'or  her  when  found,  I  can  at  least  hope  from  a  heart 
like  yours  for  recognition  of  my  good  intentions  and 
honest  zeal. 

'  With  feelings  of  deepest  devotion,  I  remain, 

'Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'  Fridrich  Schiller. 

'Jen A,  Oct.  5,  1795.' 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIN,     307 

The  last  numLcr  of  tlio  first  annual  issue  of  tlie 
Ilorae  was  sent  to  the  Duke  on  January  9,  1796, 
and  in  the  annexed  letter  Schiller  expresses  his 
dissatisfaction  with  the  execution  of  this  undertaking, 
which  he  had  begun  with  such  enthusiasm.  The 
thought  consoles  him  that  he  had  attempted  some- 
thing good  and  great  ;  but  he  does  not  appear  to 
have  made  it  quite  clear  to  himself  that  those  who 
seek  for  the  good  and  the  great  must  not  reckon  on 
the  applause  of  the  small  and  the  bad. 

XIL 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

'Most  SereiNe  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince, 

'The  monthly  number  which  I  here  humbly 
send  to  Your  Ducal  Highness  completes  the  first  year 
of  my  periodical,  and  in  looking  over  the  finished 
course,  I  feel  vividly  how  far  what  has  really  been 
attained  falls  short  of  the  rightful  expectations  of 
good  judges.     . 

'  I  am  afraid.  Most  Gracious  Prince,  that  you  have 
found  many  of  our  philosophical  inquiries  far  too 
abstract  and  scientific,  and  many  of  our  lighter 
conversations  not  interesting  enough;  but  it  is  not 
to  be  attributed  to  my  want  of  zeal  and  good  will 
that  your  expectations  of  both  were  not  more  grati- 
fied. The  demands  of  the  learned,  and  the  wishes  of 
readers  of  refined  taste,  are  too  often  opposed  to  each 
other ;  the  former  require  depth  and  solidity,  which 
easily  beget  obscurity  and  dryness ;  the  latter  demand 
a  light  and  elegant  style,  which  may  easily  lead  to 


398  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

superficiality.  The  great  difficulty  of  steering  safely 
between  the  two  rocks  must  in  some  measure  be  the 
cause  for  the  defects  in  our  work. 

'  I  confess  to  you,  my  gracious  Prince,  that  in  this 
periodical  I  set  before  myself  this  aim — with  all  my 
mio-ht  to  ficjht  ao^ainst  shallowness  of  thought  and 
that  insipid,  lax  taste  in  poetry  and  art,  which  have 
gained  ground  in  our  days,  and  to  drive  aw^ay  the 
reigning  spirit  of  frivolity  by  more  manly  principles. 
My  undertaking  may  fail,  but  I  can  never  regret 
having  attempted  it. 

'  Could  I  but  flatter  myself,  most  noble  Prince, 
that  the  continuation  of  this  journal  is  not  indifferent 
to  you,  I  should  begin  the  new  publication  with  all 
the  more  courage  and  confidence. 

'  With  deepest  devotion,  I  remain, 

'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'  Fk.  Schiller. 

'Jena,  Jan.  9,  1796.' 

As  yet  only  one  other  letter  from  Schiller  has  been 
found.  It  is  dated  February  5,  1796,  and  shows  that 
the  Prince  in  this  3'ear  still  sent  Schiller  the  annuity, 
at  first  promised  for  three  years  only. 

XIII. 

Schiller  to  the  Duke. 

'Most  Serene  Highness,  Most  Gracious  Prince, 

'  The  repeated  proof  of  your  Highness'  gracious 
sentiments  towards  me  which  I  received  a  few  days 
ago,  through  Privy  Councillor  Kirstein,  from  Copen- 
hagen, renews  in  me  the  feeling  of  deep  and  great 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCIILESWIG-IIOLSTEIN.    399 

obligation,  and  recalls  vividly  to  my  mind  all  that 
I  owe  to  your  generosity.  As  there  can  be  no  greater 
reward  to  a  heart  like  youra  than  the  conviction  of 
having  effected  real  good,  and  of  having  truly  attained 
a  noble  end,  I  may  venture,  without  danger  of  indis- 
cretion, to  assure  your  Serene  Highness  that  your 
benevolent  intentions  towards  me  have  not  missed 
their  aim.  The  independence  and  leisure  which  I  owe 
till  now  to  your  generosity  have  made  it  possible  for 
me,  notwithstanding  my  extremely  shattered  health, 
to  devote  my  powers  steadfastly  to  one  important 
design,  and  to  effect  as  much  for  my  own  cultivation 
as  the  limits  of  my  strength  allowed.  Without  your 
generous  support,  I  must  either  have  given  up  this 
design  or  sunk  under  it. 

'The  progress  that  I  have  made  in  the  last  four 
years  towards  the  goal  which  I  have  before  my  soul, 
is  more  rapid  and  important  than  all  I  had  hitherto 
been  able  to  make,  and  whom  must  I  thank  for  this 
happiness  but  you,  most  excellent  Prince,  and  your 
noble  friends  ?  I  write  this  with  a  grateful  heart,  and 
the  deep  feeling  of  all  I  owe  you  wall  ever  live  in 
my  soul. 

'  With  boundless  devotion  and  reverence,  I  remain, 
'  Your  Ducal  Highness'  most  obedient, 

'  Fr.  Schiller. 

'  Jeva,  Feb.  5,  1796,' 

Notwithstanding  repeated  searches  in  different 
places,  till  now^  no  further  letters  have  been  found  in 
the  archives  of  the  Ducal  family.  I  have  to  thank 
Professor  Goedecke  for  the  information  that  Schiller, 
according   to  his   printed    diary,  sent  the  following 


400  HECENT    ESSAYS. 

letters  to  the  Duke  of  Schleswiof-Holstein-Auo-usten- 
burg: — 1795,  August  3,  November  6,  December  11  ; 
1796,  March  11,  April  22,  May  27,  July  4,  October  21, 
November  25  ;  1797,  January  16.  The  three  letters 
of  the  Duke  mentioned  before,  of  January  7,  1792  ; 
April  4,  1794;  and  March  10,  1795,  are  in  a  private 
collection,  as  well  as  several  other  letters  from 
Baggesen  and  Count  Schimmelmann  to  Schiller,  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  they  may  soon  be  given  to  Schiller's 
admirers. 

Schiller  died  on  May  9,  180,5  ;  and  the  Duke  nine 
years  later,  June  14,  1814.  His  name  stands  high 
in  the  history  of  Denmark,  and  will  always  occupy  an 
honourable  position  in  the  glorious  annals  of  his  own 
house.  He  it  was  who,  when  chosen  as  the  successor 
of  Charles  XIII,  declined  the  royal  crown  of  Sweden. 
Little  did  the  noble  prince  imagine,  when,  following 
the  dictates  of  his  heart,  he  gave  an  annuity  to  the 
impoverished  Professor  Schiller  in  Jena,  that  he  was 
thus  engraving  his  own  name  on  the  tablets  of  the 
world's  history;  or,  what  is  of  far  more  importance, 
that  his  simple  generous  act  would,  like  a  refreshing 
breeze,  quicken  the  latest  posterity  to  like  deeds,  that 
it  would  continue  to  produce  fair  fruit,  and,  like  a 
grain  of  corn,  spring  up  to  a  rich  harvest. 

So  powerful  is  the  influence  of  an  individual,  if  he 
will  use  it,  if  ho  will  follow  the  first  impulse  of  his 
heart,  if  he  has  faith  in  himself  and  his  fellow-men. 
In  my  Essay  on  Schiller,  written  in  1 859  ('  Chips,' 
vol.  iii,  p.  1),  it  was  my  principal  object  to  prove 
clearly  how  Schiller's  development  as  a  man  and 
poet  was  principally  determined  by  the  influence  of 
the  great  minds  with  whom  it  was  his  good  fortune  to 


SCIHT.LER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-IIOLSTEIX.      401 

come  in  contact.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  deny 
this,  and  what  cannot  be  denied?  But  Schiller 
himself  felt  it,  and  clearly  acknowledged  it  once,  in 
a  letter  of  November  23,  1800,  to  Countess  Schimmel- 
mann,  the  wife  of  the  Danish  minister.  '  Whatever 
of  good  may  be  in  me,'  he  writes,  '  was  planted  in  me 
by  a  few  excellent  men  :  my  happy  fate  brought  me  in 
contact  with  them  at  the  most  decisive  periods  of  my 
life  ;  my  friends,  thereforo,  are  the  history  of  my  life.' 

The  unexpected  and  generous  intervention  of  the 
Duke  of  Schleswiff-Holstein-Auo'ustenburg  marks 
certainly  one  of  the  decisive  moments  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Schiller's  genius,  and  it  is  impossible  to  deny 
that  without  this  intervention  the  career  of  the  poet 
would  have  been  totally  different.  It  is  true  that 
a  poet  is  born,  but  he  is  also  made ;  he  is  made  by  his 
countrj-men  who  understand  and  love  him.  Where 
love  and  sympathy  are  wanting  in  a  people,  poetry 
flourishes  as  little  as  the  rose  will  yield  its  fragrance 
without  sunshine.  In  this  sense  each  great  poetical 
work  is  a  national  poem.  It  is  quite  true  that  a  nation 
makes  no  national  songs,  but  it  makes  the  poet,  who 
sings  to  it  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  heart  and  soul. 
A  national  song  arises  only  from  a  combination  of 
creative  thought  and  receptive  understanding;  so 
does  a  national  literature.  The  poet  is  himself  the 
child  of  his  asre,  and  must  understand  his  aofe  and  his 
people  ;  he  must  have  sympathy  wdth  the  Past  and 
the  Present,  and  a  prophetic  insight  into  the  Future. 
He  must  advance  firmly,  without  looking  behind  him, 
but  his  people  must  be  able  and  willing  to  follow,  or 
he  will  vanish  like  a  shadow,  as  many  a  true  poet 
has  vanished. 

VOL.  I.  D  d- 


402  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

It  was  one  of  the  noblest  characteristics  of  the 
golden  age  of  Weimar  that  men  still  professed  the  art 
of  discovering  the  beautiful  and  of  overcoming  the 
unlovely.  They  knew  how  to  enjoy.  They  loved  and 
praised  the  beautiful,  and  because  they  knew  how 
difficult  art  is,  they  did  not  shake  their  head  at  every 
false  note,  as  men  do  now,  just  to  prove  how  true 
their  ear  is.  How  rare  the  gift  of  admiring,  how 
difficult  the  art  of  praise  is,  those  men  do  not  appear 
to  im,agine  by  whose  fault  the  name  of  critic  has 
become  almost  s}nonymous  with  that  of  censurer. 
When  Baggesen  and  the  Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein- 
Augustenburg  and  Count  Schimmelmann  admired 
the  high  flight  of  Schiller's  genius,  and  wished  to  give 
energetic  expression  to  their  admii^ation,  there  were 
doubtless  witty  ladies-in-waiting  and  literary  secre- 
taries of  legation  in  Copenhagen  who  said,  'But  think, 
Your  Highness,  what  you  are  doing.  Schiller  is 
certainly  very  popular  in  certain  classes  of  society 
in  Oermany.  But  it  is  in  reality  only  wild  students 
and  eccentric  maids  of  honour  who  rave  about  him  ; 
competent  judges  consider  his  works  a  failure.  He  is 
no  classical  writer,  like  Gellert  or  Klopstock ;  and 
then,  Your  Highness,  bis  political  and  religious 
opinions !  He  is  said  to  be  a  democrat,  an  atheist. 
Would  it  not  bo  better  to  wait,  and  get  more  accurate 
information  about  the  author  of  "The  Robbers"?' 
This  is  the  mildew  which  blasts  all  fresh  emotions  ; 
whilst  honest  admiration  and  sympathy,  like  spring 
showers  and  sunshine,  bring  out  the  hidden  buds  of 
genius  at  all  points  into  blossom  and  fruit.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  Duke  of  Holstoin-Augustenburg 
might  have  deceived  himself.     Schiller's  spirit  might 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OE  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIX.    403 

have  succumbed  to  his  bodily  sufferings,  without 
having  produced  a  '  Wallenstein,'  a  '  William  Tell.' 
But  what  then  ?  Better  be  deceived  a  hundred  times 
in  admiration  and  love,  than  lose  the  power  of 
admiring  and  loving.  It  is  this  power  in  which  we 
are  wanting.  We  are  not  wanting  in  objects  of 
admiration,  but  in  the  talent  of  admiring.  We  have 
great  poets,  great  artists,  great  savants,  great  states- 
men, great  princes,  but  we  no  longer  have  a  great  and 
generous  people. 

Schiller  and  Goethe  appear  to  us  now  as  surrounded 
by  a  classic  halo.  We  think  it  is  perfectly  natural 
that  such  literary  heroes  should  have  attracted  atten- 
tion and  admiration.  But  let  us  only  read  the 
journals  of  their  time,  and  we  can  easily  see  that  even 
Schil]er  and  Goethe  had  to  be  discovered.  Frederick 
the  Great  spoke  of  '  Goetz  von  Berlichingen '  as 
*ces  platitudes  degoittantes.'  Goethe  put  Schiller's 
'  Robbers'  and  *  Fiesco'  in  the  same  class  with  Heinse's 
'  Ai'dinghello.'  And  even  later,  when  Goethe  and 
Schiller  had  formed  their  literary  duumvirate,  and 
tried  to  exercise  a  critical  dictatorship  through  the 
Horae,  the  educated  mob  attacked  them  mercilessly 
in  the  German  newspapers.  It  is  known  that  Cotta, 
the  publisher  of  the  Horae,  ordered  favourable  notices 
of  that  new  periodical  in  the  then  influential  Jena 
literary  newspaper.  It  appears  to  us  impossible  that 
a  man  like  Schiller  could  condescend  to  such  a  pitiful 
action.  But  so  it  was,  and  naturally  an  under- 
taking supported  by  such  means  came  to  a  miser- 
able end,  in  spite  of  Schiller,  in  spite  of  Goethe. 
Schiller  complains  of  the  pert,  incisive,  cutting,  and 
prejudicial  style  of  the  criticism  directed  against  him, 

D  d  2 


404  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

chiefly  by  the  party  of  Schlogel.  He  raves  like 
modern  poets  about  general  emptiness,  party  feeling 
for  the  extreme  of  mediocrity,  eye-service,  cringing, 
emptiness,  lameness,  &c.,  and  naturally  receives  the 
same  coin  in  return.  I  mention  all  this  only  to  show 
that  when  what  is  truly  great  has  once  been  dis- 
covered, every  one  can  admire  it ;  but  that  two  powers 
are  necessary  to  everything  really  great,  one  creative, 
the  other  receptive.  The  world  is  still  rich  ;  the 
precious  stones  are  there,  but  of  what  good  are  they, 
when  the  fowls  only  look  for  grains  of  corn  ?  Is  the 
sea  beautiful  to  the  herring-fisher  1  Is  the  desert 
grand  to  the  camel-driver'?  Are  the  mountains 
imposing  to  the  foot-messenger  1  What  we  are 
wanting  in  is  sympathy,  compassion,  power  of 
rejoicing  and  suffering  with  others.  We  shall  perhaps 
never  learn  to  be  enthusiastic  again  like  the  noble 
Duke  of  Holstein,  like  Count  Schimmelmann,  Bag- 
gesen,  and  his  friends.  But  what  the  present  genera- 
tion can  and  ought  to  learn,  the  young  as  well  as 
the  old,  is  spirit  and  perseverance  to  discover  the 
beautiful,  pleasure  and  joy  in  making  it  known, 
and  resigning  ourselves  with  grateful  hearts  to  its 
enjoyment ;  in  a  word — love,  in  the  old,  true,  eternal 
meaning  of  the  word.  Only  sweep  away  the  dust  of 
Belf-conceit,  the  cobwebs  of  selfishness,  the  mud  of 
envy,  and  the  old  German  type  of  humanity  will  soon 
reappear,  as  it  was  when  it  could  still  '  embrace 
millions.'  The  old  love  of  mankind,  the  true  fountain 
of  all  humanity,  is  still  there ;  it  can  never  be  quite 
choked  up  in  the  German  people.  He  who  can 
descend  into  this  fountain  of  youth,  who  can  again 
recover  himself,  who  can  again  be  that  which  he  was 


SCHILLER  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  SCHLESWIG-UOLSTEIN.    405 

by  nature,  loves  the  beautiful  wherever  he  finds  it ; 
he  saj-s  with  Schiller, '  For  all  that,  life  is  beautiful ; ' 
he  understands  enjoyment  and  enthusiasm,  if  not  by 
the  'thundering  ocean,'  yet  in  the  few  quiet  hours 
which  he  can  win  for  himself  in  the  noisy,  deafening 
hurry  of  the  times  in  which  we  live. 


ANDEEA  DEL  SAKTO'S  CAKITA. 

A  NDREA  DEL  SARTO,  '  the  faultless  painter,'  has 
jl\  been  a  friend  of  mine  for  many  years.  I  met 
him  first,  when  I  was  a  boy,  in  the  Dresden  Gallery, 
where  his  picture  of '  Abraham  preparing  to  sacrifice 
Isaac'  left  a  lasting  impression  on  my  memory. 
There  was  also  in  the  same  gallery  '  The  Betrothal 
of  St.  Catherine/  which  exercised  a  perplexing  fas- 
cination on  my  youthful  brain.  But  what  made  me 
feel  a  more  personal  interest  in  this  contemporary 
and  rival  of  Rafael  and  INlichel  Angelo  was  his 
Biography,  by  Alfred  Reumont.  The  learned  author 
was  a  friend  of  Bunsen,  and  in  Eunsen's  house,  many 
years  ago,  I  made  his  acquaintance,  and  was  led  to 
read  his  interesting  sketch  of  Andrea's  life,  first  pub- 
lished in  1835.  It  is  a  sad  life;  on  many  points 
a  most  bewildering  life.  Browninij  has  tried  to  solve 
its  riddle  in  his  own  way,  but  much  remains  dark 
in  the  grey  twilight  which  his  thoughtful  poem  has 
shed  over  it.  Andrea's  life  is  soon  told.  He  was 
bora  at  Florence  in  14S8,  though,  of  course,  there  is 
the  usual  doubt  about  the  exact  date  of  his  birth, 
some  placing  it  ten  years  earlier,  in  1478.  Brought 
up  to  be  a  goldsmith,  he,  like  many  others  of 
his  trade,  took  to  painting,  became  soon  known  as 
a  rising  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  fell  in  love  with 


AxmiEA  DEL  s auto's  carita.  407 

a  beautiful  woman,  married  her  after  her  husbands 
death,  and  became  her  slave  for  life.  Called  to  Paris 
by  Francis  I,  a  brilliant  future  opened  before  him, 
but  fondness  for  his  wife  made  him  sacrifice  every- 
thing. He  returned  to  Florence,  broke  the  solemn 
promise  given  to  the  King  to  return  to  Paris,  squan- 
dered, it  would  seem,  the  money  entrusted  to  him  by 
the  King,  and  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  the 
production  of  the  greatest  masterpieces  of  art,  but 
under  a  dark  shadow  that  never  left  him  again.  He 
died  at  Florence  in  the  year  1530,  forsaken  by  most 
of  his  friends,  uncared  for,  it  is  said,  even  by  his  wife 
— a  great,  but  a  poor  and  unhappy  man. 

Rafael,  Michel  Angelo,  and  Andrea  del  Sarto  have 
long  been  considered  the  three  greatest  painters  of  the 
greatest  period  in  the  history  of  Italian  art,  though 
of  late  poor  Andrea  has  not  been  fortunate  in  his 
friends  and  admirers.  What  Michel  Angelo  said  of 
him  may  be  legend,  but  legends  cannot  spring  up 
without  some  foundation  of  truth.  I  quote  Michel 
Angelo's  words,  as  interpreted  by  Browning  : — 

'  For,  do  yon  know,  Lucrezia,  as  God  lives. 
Said  one  day  Angelo,  his  very  self, 
To  Rafael,   ...     I  bave  known  it  all  these  years — 
Friend,  there's  a  certain  sorry  little  scrub 
Goes  up  and  down  our  Florence,  none  cares  how. 
Who,  were  he  set  to  plan  and  execute 
As  you  are,  pricked  on  by  your  popes  and  kings, 
Would  bring  the  sweat  into  that  brow  of  yours.' 

Why  should  Rafael's  life  have  been  so  bright  and 
joyous,  that  of  Michel  Angelo  so  noble  and  majestic, 
and  that  of  Andrea  del  Sarto  so  sad  and  almost 
ignoble?  In  spite  of  all  that  his  own  pupil  Vasari 
says  against  him  and  against  his  M'ife  Lucrezia,  his 


403  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

sins  do  not  seem  to  have  been  so  very  much  greater 
than  those  of  many  of  his  contemporaries.  Vasari, 
in  later  editions  of  his  work,  had  to  withdraw  or 
suppress  some  of  the  charges  he  had  brought  against 
his  master,  and  his  anger,  even  in  the  first  sketch  of 
his  life  of  Andrea,  is  directed  far  more  against  his 
wife  than  against  him.  If  Andrea's  relations  with 
Lucrezia  before  their  marriage  were  blameworthy, 
he  sufiered  right!}'.  But  there  is  no  certain  evidence 
of  that,  and  the  chief  anger  of  his  friends  dates  from 
the  time  when,  after  her  first  husband's  death,  ho 
married  her.  She  seems  to  have  drawn  him  away 
from  his  parents  and  friends,  and  to  have  been  con- 
sidered a  vain  and  cold-hearted  woman.  But  all 
this  does  not  explain  why,  particularly  in  the  light 
buoyant  atmosphere  of  Italian  artist  life  at  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  Andrea  del  Sarto  should  have 
been  ostracised,  when  much  more  serious  faults  were 
forgotten  and  forgiven,  particularly  in  artists.  His 
behaviour  towards  Francis  I  was  inexcusable,  but  it 
is  not  on  this  breach  of  faith,  not  even  on  the  appro- 
priation of  the  King's  money,  that  Andrea  is  generally 
aiTaigned,  but  on  his  infatuation  for  Lucrezia,  while 
htill  the  wife  of  Carlo  di  Domeuico,  and  on  his 
marriage  with  her  after  her  husband's  death  in  1512. 
We  know  very  little,  and  we  shall  never  know 
much  more,  to  enable  us  to  gain  an  insight  into 
Andrea's  true  self.  What  we  know  of  him  are  his 
pictures,  and,  taking  them  all  in  all,  they  reveal  to 
us  a  beautiful  soul.  In  none  of  them  is  there  any- 
thing vulgar,  offensive,  or  unclean.  The  spirit  is  good, 
even  though  the  flesh  is  sometimes  weak.  Vasari's 
testimony   against  him  is  not  above  suspicion.     He 


ANDltEA    DEL    SARTORS    CAllITA.  400 

evidently  hated  Lucrczia,  and  could  not  understand 
how  an  artist  like  Andrea  del  Sarto  could  have 
sacrificed  his  friends  for  such  a  woman.  But  that 
she  was  beautiful  even  Va^ari  does  not  deny,  and 
beauty  is  a  mystery  that  tells  on  an  artist's  soul  in 
many  ways  undreamt  of  by  the  vulgar.  '  La  forza 
d'  un  bel  volto  al  ciel  mi  sprona,'  so  sang  Michel 
Angelo^.  And  why  should  not  Andrea  have  seen  in 
Lucrezia's  face  something  that  drew  him  away  from 
earth  and  lifted  him  up  to  heaven,  there  to  enjoy 
a  grace  seldom  granted  to  mortal  man,  'grazia  ch'  ad 
uom  mortal  raro  si  dona  1 '  There  is  hardly  a  picture 
of  Andrea's  over  which  that  face  does  not  shed  its 
luring  witchery.  Take  away  that  face  and  you  take 
away  the  very  life  out  of  Andrea's  art. 

There  are  men  with  one  ideal  in  life,  and  that  ideal 
satisfies  all  their  desires.  Why  should  not  the  living 
revelation  of  the  Beautiful,  even  if  hidden  behind 
sombrous  clouds,  have  satisfied  all  wishes  of  Andrea's 
loving  heart?  Such  a  devotion  deadens  all  other 
desires  for  pleasure,  comfort,  wealth,  and  glory.  It 
leaves  the  one  desire  of  purifying  and  glorifying  the 
vision  that  rises  from  its  earthly  tomb  before  the 
poet's  eye.  Such  seems  to  have  been  Andrea's  fated 
devotion.  He  gave  all  his  work,  all  the  power  of 
his  genius,  in  order  to  elaborate  and  to  perpetuate  the 
glorious  vision  of  the  Beautiful  with  which  his  life 
had  once  been  blessed.  That  was  his  call  and  his 
apostleship.  For  that  he  was  willing  to  leave  father 
and  mother,  and  everything  else  on  earth.  To  us  he 
seems  as  if  in  a  trance,  as  if  dreaming  a  dream  laden 

'   '  Rime  di  Michelangelo  Buonarotti,'  Milano,  iSai,  p.  a. 


410  KECENT    ESSAYS. 

with  tlie  memories  of  a  former  life  and  come  true 
once  more  in  the  face  of  Lucrezia,  '  a  mad  blind  man 
who  sees.' 

What  do  we  know  of  the  Beautiful,  after  all  that 
has  been  written  about  it  ?  Whence  does  it  come  1 
How  does  it  touch  us?  Whither  is  it  meant  to  carry 
us?  It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  Beautiful  is  harmonious 
like  music,  bright  like  the  dawn,  sweet  like  violets, 
pure  like  snow,  innocent  like  childhood.  But  is  it 
no  more  than  all  that  ? 

Is  the  Beautiful  without  us,  or  is  it  not  rather 
within  us  ?  What  we  call  sweet  and  bitter  is  our 
own  sweetness,  our  own  bitterness,  for  nothing  can  be 
sweet  or  bitter  without  us.  Is  it  not  the  same  with 
the  Beautiful  ?  The  world  is  like  a  rich  mine,  full  of 
precious  ore,  but  each  man  has  to  assay  the  ore  for 
himself,  before  he  knows  what  is  gold  and  what  is 
not.  What  then  is  the  touchstone  by  which  we  assay 
the  Beautiful  ?  We  have  a  touchstone  for  discovering 
the  Good.  Whatever  is  unselfish  is  good.  But  that 
applies  to  moral  beings  only,  to  men  and  women,  net 
to  Nature  at  large.  And  though  nothing  can  be 
beautiful,  whether  in  the  acts  of  men  or  in  the  works 
of  Nature,  except  what  in  some  sense  or  other  is  good, 
not  everything  that  is  good  is  also  beautiful.  What 
then  is  that  something  which,  added  to  the  good, 
makes  it  beautiful,  that  heavenly  grace,  that  dea-neau] 
Xa/)ts  which  the  gods  alone  can  shed  over  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  man  1  The  gods  may  know  what  it 
is.  man  can  only  see  and  feel  that  it  is.  Some  say 
that  what  we  call  beautiful  is  the  Good,  as  seen 
through  the  golden  veil  of  Maya  ;  others  hold  that 
what  we  call  good  is  the   Beautiful,  hidden  in  the 


ANDREA    DEL    SARTO's    CARITA.  411 

Holy  of  Holies,  but  seen  by  the  true  priest  in  the 
glory  of  Nature,  and  heard  by  the  true  prophet  in  the 
still  small  voice  of  the  heart.  It  is  a  great  mystery. 
It  is  so  to  us  as  it  was  to  Plato.  We  must  have  ijazed 
on  the  Beautiful  somewhere  in  the  dreams  of  child- 
hood, or.  it  may  be,  in  a  former  life,  and  now  we  look 
for  it  everywhere,  but  we  can  never  find  it — never  at 
least  in  all  its  brightness  and  fulness  again,  never  as 
we  remember  it  once  as  the  vision  of  a  half- forgotten 
dream.  Nor  do  we  all  remember  the  same  ideal — 
some  poor  creatures  remember  none  at  all — and  where 
we  see  glimpses  of  the  Beautiful,  they  see  nothing  but 
what  is  pleasing  and  sweet.  The  ideal  therefore  of 
what  is  beautiful  is  within  us,  that  is  all  w^e  know ; 
how  it  came  there  we  shall  never  know.  It  is 
certainly  not  of  this  life,  else  we  could  define  it ;  but 
it  underlies  this  life,  else  we  could  not  feel  it.  Some- 
times it  meets  us  like  a  smile  of  Nature,  sometimes 
like  a  glance  of  God  ;  and  if  anything  proves  that 
there  is  a  great  past  and  a  great  future,  a  Beyond, 
a  higher  world,  a  hidden  life,  it  is  our  faith  in  the 
Beautiful.  Here  on  earth  we  can  only  surmise  and 
divine  it,  as  we  surmise  the  sun  behind  the  golden 
dawn,  and  the  moon  behind  silvery  clouds  ;  and  be- 
cause we  ourselves  are  the  diviners,  because  what  is 
beautiful  in  heaven  or  earth,  or  in  the  human  face,  is 
our  owm  making,  our  own  remembering,  our  own 
believing,  therefore  we  welcome  it,  love  it,  and  call  it 
lovely,  whether  loving  or  loved — therefore  we  lose 
ourselves,  and  find  ourselves  in  it,  in  contemplation, 
meditation,  and  distant  worship.  But  he  w^ho  sees  it 
once  too  near,  face  to  face,  eye  to  eye,  blest  as  he  may 
feel  in  his  own  soul,  soon  grows  blind  to  everything 


412  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

else.     The  world   calls  him   dazed  and  foolish,  and 
Andi'ea  was  one  of  those  blest  dazed  mortals. 

'Von  Schonheit  ward  von  jeher  viel  gesungen, — 
Wem  sie  erscheint,   wird  aus  sich  selbst  entriickt.* 

Think  of  a  young  painter  called  to  Paris  by  Francis  I, 
enjoying  the  luxuries  and  revelling  in  the  honours  be- 
stowed on  him  by  the  most  brilliant  Court  of  the  time. 
There  was  wealth  for  him  as  much  as  he  desired. 
There  was  sweet  flattery  from  royal  lips,  smiles  from 
bewitchiug  eyes,  a  welcome  from  all  that  was  fair, 
and  gay,  and  fashionable.  And  in  the  midst  of  all 
this,  Andrea,  like  a  fool,  sat  reading  the  letters  which 
his  wdfe  sent  him  to  Paris,  and  the  vision  of  her  face 
and  the  presentiment  of  her  grace  left  him  no  peace. 
In  order  not  to  be  unfaithful  to  the  idol  which  he  had 
learnt  to  worship,  he  became  unfaithful  to  everything 
else,  threw  away  his  chances,  left  the  Court,  and,  still 
clad  in  his  courtly  frippery,  appeared  before  Lucrezia, 
to  lead  henceforth  the  life  of  an  exile  from  society,  but 
at  the  same  time  the  life  of  a  devotee,  a  devotee  to 
his  art  and  to  the  beautiful  ideal  of  his  love. 

I  have  known  men  of  a  similar  temperament, 
absorbed  by  one  idea,  satisfied  with  one  vision,  care- 
less of  life,  of  applause,  of  wealth,  of  honour,  and 
devoting  all  their  powers  to  the  w^orking  out  of  what 
they  thought  their  own  salvation.  For  all  we  know, 
they  may  be  fools  ;  but,  at  all  events,  if  the  outcome 
of  their  lolly  is  something  as  glorious  as  Andrea's  art, 
they  have  a  right  to  our  sympathy,  nay,  to  our 
gratitude. 

I:  lorcnce  is  full  of  Andrea's  works ;  the  churches, 
the  monasteries,  the  academies  and  galleries  have  pre- 


ANDREA    DEL   SAllTO^S    CAllITA.  413 

served  magnificent  specimens  of  his  art.  There  is  one 
place,  however,  where  the  whole  history  of  the  artist 
may  be  studied  to  the  greatest  advantage,  and  which 
is  but  seldom  visited  by  travellers,  I  mean  the  Col- 
legio  dello  Scalzo.  It  is  troublesome  to  get  admission. 
One  has  to  find  the  key  and  a  guide  at  the  Convent  of 
San  Marco,  and  most  people  have  so  much  to  do  in 
Florence  that  they  forget  how  interesting  a  collection 
of  Andrea's  frescoes  is  still  to  be  seen  in  that  old  quad- 
rangle. I  say  still  to  be  seen,  but,  in  spite  of  all  that 
the  Government  does  for  the  preservation  of  the  anti- 
quities and  art-treasures  of  the  country,  it  cannot  do 
everything,  and  Andrea's  frescoes  are  perishing  by 
slow  decay. 

'  Wherever  a  fresco  peels  and  drops, 

Wherever  an  outline  weakens  and  wears, 
Till  the  latest  life  in  the  painting  stops. 

Stands  One  whom  each  fainter  pulse-tick  pains : 

One,  wishful  each  scrap  should  clutch  the  brick, 
Each  tinge  not  wholly  escape  the  plaster, 

A  lion  who  dies  of  an  ass's  kick, 

The  wronged  great  soul  of  an  ancient  Master.' 

These  lines  express  my  feelings  as  I  walked  last 
autumn  (1885)  past  the  sixteen  frescoes  of  Andrea  in 
the  Collegio  dello  Scalzo.  The  outlines  have  faded, 
the  fresco  peels  and  drops.  Much  is  lost ;  and  what  is 
left,  exposed  as  it  is  to  wind  and  weather,  will  not, 
I  fear,  resist  much  longer.  These  frescoes  were  the 
first  great  work  of  Andrea's.  They  formed  the 
pedestal  of  his  fame  at  Florence.  He  was  still  young, 
about  twenty-two,  and  had  not  yet  been  called  upon 
to  perform  any  great  public  work,  when  the  Com- 
pagnia  dello  Scalzo — so-called  because  in  their  pro- 


414  RECEXT    ESSAYS. 

cessions  the  bearer  of  the  Crucifix  had  to  walk 
barefoot — invited  him  to  cover  the  walls  of  their  court 
with  frescoes.  Their  Patron  Saint  being  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  the  frescoes  were  to  represent  scenes  from  his 
life.  Andrea  was  young,  and,  though  the  remunera- 
tion offered  him  was  very  small,  he  was  glad  of  the 
opportunity  of  showing  in  a  public  place  what  he  was 
capable  of.  He  determined  to  paint  the  frescoes  in 
grey  or  chiaroscuro,  and  the  first  which  he  finished 
(1510  ?)  represented  '  St.  John  the  Baptist  Preaching.' 
Reumont  speaks  of  '  The  Baptism  of  Christ '  as 
Andrea's  first  picture,  but  that  was  surely  the  work 
of  Francabigio.  Andrea  was  accused  of  having  copied 
in  this  figure  some  of  Albrecht  Durer's  figures,  a  charge 
Avhich  to  a  true  artist  is  almost  unintelligible.  No 
doubt  Albrecht  Durer's  drawings  were  at  that  time 
well  known  in  Italy,  and  they  may  have  impressed 
themselves  on  Andrea's  memory.  But  to  accuse  him 
of  plagiarism  is  like  accusing  Mendelssohn  of  having 
copied  Handel  or  Mozart,  because,  forsooth,  he  did  not 
suppress  every  bar  in  his  own  compositions  that  might 
remind  us  of  those  great  masters. 

The  next  picture,  ascribed  to  the  year  15 11,  was 
'  St.  John,  Baptizing  the  People.'  In  this,  too,  simi- 
larities have  been  pointed  out  between  Andrea  and 
Albrecht  Durer,  and  still  more  between  Andrea  and 
Domenico  Ghirlandajo.  No  doubt  they  are  there, 
but  in  my  eyes  they  do  not  in  the  least  detract  from 
the  originality  of  Andrea's  compositions,  nor  do  they 
in  any  way  aff'ect  his  honesty  as  an  artist. 

These  two  pictures  attracted  much  attention  at 
Florence,  and  Andrea  found  himself  at  once  honoured 
and  courted  as  a  painter  of  great  promise.     The  walls 


ANDREA    DEL    SAllTO's    CARITA.  415 

in  the  Chiostro  of  the  Annunziata  had  to  be  painted, 
and  Andrea  was  invited  to  undertake  the  work.  He 
accepted ;  for  though  the  payment  was  miserable — 
ten  scudi,  according  to  the  records  of  the  monastery; 
ten  ducati,  according  to  Vasari,  for  each  picture — it 
was  another  opportunity  of  showing  his  fellow-citizens 
that  a  new  painter  had  arisen  among  them.  This  was 
about  151 1.  Andrea  finished  five  pictures,  but,  'as 
the  pay  was  too  small  for  the  very  great  honour,'  he  left 
oflT,  promising  to  paint  two  more  at  some  future  time. 

At  this  time  Andrea  had  become  acquainted  with 
Lucrezia,  and  as  her  husband  died  in  1512,  it  is  most 
likely  that  Andrea  married  her  soon  after,  say  in  15 13, 
when  he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age.  It  is  generally 
supposed  that  her  portrait  appears  for  the  first  time 
in  'The  Birth  of  the  Virgin  Mary,'  painted  in  15 14, 
but  we  shall  see  that  there  may  possibly  be  an  earlier 
and  more  youthful  sketch.  This  picture  of '  The  Birth 
of  the  Virgin  Mary '  may  be  seen  in  the  Annunziata, 
being  one  of  the  two  which  Andrea  had  promised  to 
finish,  and  which  he  did  finish  sooner  than  was  ex- 
pected, perhaps  because  the  monks  had  commissioned 
his  colleague  Francabigio  to  carry  on  the  frescoes, 
when  Andrea  seemed  little  inclined  to  finish  them. 
His  last  contribution  to  the  pictures  in  the  Annunziata 
was  'The  Epiphany.' 

After  these  works  became  more  widely  known, 
Andrea's  success  was  secured,  and  his  pictures  be- 
came so  popular  that  the  youthful  King  of  France, 
Francis  I,  invited  him  to  Paris  in  1518.  There  he 
spent  some  time  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  an  artist's 
life,  producing  some  of  his  greatest  pictures,  among 
the  rest  the  glorious  *  Garita,'  now  in  the  Louvre,  and 


416  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

establishing  his  fame  as  the  worthy  rival  of  Rafael. 
But  the  image  of  Lucrezia,  as  we  saw,  left  him  no 
rest,  and  he  exchanged  luxury,  wealth,  and  the  glory 
of  Paris  for  poverty  and  contempt  at  her  feet.  Poor 
as  he  was  now  again,  he  had  to  look  out  for  work, 
and  I  believe  it  is  chiefly  to  his  poverty  that  we  owe 
the  continuation  of  his  frescoes  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
in  the  CoUegio  dello  Scalzo,  During  his  absence  two 
of  these  frescoes  had  been  entrusted  to  Francabigio, 
'  The  Meeting  of  Christ  and  John '  and  '  Christ, 
Baptized  by  John\' 

Andrea  now  resumed  his  work,  and  soon  finished 
'  The  Imprisonment  of  St.  John,'  '  The  Feast  of  the 
Tetrarch  w^ith  the  Daughter  of  Herodias,'  'The  Be- 
heading of  St.  John,'  and  '  The  Presentation  of  the 
Head  of  St.  John  to  Salome.'  These  five  pictures  are 
assigned  by  Reumont  to  the  year  1520. 

After  this  there  was  a  fresh  pause,  and  for  several 
years  the  cloisters  remained  unfinished,  until  about 
the  years  1523  to  1525,  wdien  Andrea  supplied  three 
more  frescoes,  one  representing  '  Zacharias  in  the 
Temple,'  the  other,  '  The  Meeting  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  St.  Elizabeth,'  and  a  third,  'The  Birth  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist.'  I  am  uncertain  as  to  the  date  of  the 
fourth  fresco,  'The  Blessing  of  St.  John  by  his 
Parents,'  which  Reumont  ascribes  to  Francabigio,  but 
which  I  venture  to  claim  for  Andrea  del  Sarto. 

1  Eenmont  asTibes  this  fresco  to  Andrea,  and  'The  Blessing  of 
St.  John  by  his  Parents '  to  Francabigio.  This  must  be  .1  mistake,  as 
the  hitter  fully  displays  Andrea's  style,  while  the  two  pictures  of 
Francabigio  show  his  usual  weakness.  In  the  engravings  by  Eredi  and 
Cecchi,  'The  Meeting  of  Christ  and  St.  John'  and  'The  Baptism  of 
Christ'  are  rightly  ascribed  to  Francabigio,  the  rest  to  Andrea  del 
Sarto. 


ANDEEA   DEL   SAETO's    CARITA.  417 

Thus  the  work  of  his  youth,  the  great  work  of  his 
life,  seemed  finished  at  last.  But  Andrea  had  from  the 
beginning  left  room  for  four  symbolical  figures,  repre- 
senting the  divine  virtues.  Faith,  Hope,  Justice,  and 
Charity.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  executed 
in  fresco  in  1525,  after  the  whole  cycle  of  the  larger 
frescoes  had  been  finished  ;  but  the  sketches  probably 
date  from  a  much  earlier  time.  One  of  these  sketches, 
Faith,  was  for  a  time  in  the  possession  of  Don  Gaspero 
d'Haro  e  Guzman,  March ese  del  Carpio,  Spanish 
Ambassador  in  Rome ;  the  others  seemed  to  b'e  lost. 
Ludwig,  the  King  of  Bavaria,  bought  whatever  could 
still  be  discovered  in  Italy,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  of  Andreas  drawings  and  sketches,  and  they 
may  be  seen  at  Munich. 

I  must  now  return  to  my  visit  to  Florence  last 
autumn,  when  I  determined  to  see  what  remained  of 
this  curious  collection  of  Andrea's  frescoes.  I  found 
them  injured  and  faded,  in  some  places  hopelessly 
destroyed,  still  sufliciently  clear  and  visible  to  give 
one  an  idea  of  what  these  grey  silvery  outlines 
must  have  been  w^hen  fresh  from  the  hand  of  the 
artist.  They  ought  certainly  to  be  copied  carefully 
before  it  is  too  late,  and,  if  well  engraved,  they 
would  indeed  be  a  treasure.  I  only  possess  the 
engravings  by  Eredi  and  Cecchi,  Firenze,  1794, 
and  they  certainly  give  one  but  a  poor  idea  of  the 
originals. 

To  me,  for  various  reasons,  the  most  attractive 
picture  was  that  of  the  '  Carita,'  clearly  the  portrait 
of  Lucrezia,  and,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  the  first,  the  most 
youthful  and  graceful  portrait  which  he  has  left  us  of 
her.  The  expression  of  the  eyes  and  mouth  together 
VOL.  I.  E  e 


418  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

is  marvellous.     Did  Browning  mean  that  expression 
when  he  wrote  : 

'  While  she  looks  no  one's :  very  dear,  no  less '  ? 

Yes,  that  is  the  true  reading  of  that  face.  She  is 
no  one's,  she  is  hardly  of  this  earth.  She  is  conscious 
of  her  beauty,  but  she  seems  to  submit  rather  to  the 
admiration  which  it  excites  than  to  enjoy  it.  Well 
might  Andrea,  while  trying  to  transfer  that  revelation 
of  beauty  on  to  the  paper,  while  lost  between  the 
feelings  of  the  artist  and  the  lover,  have  exclaimed: — 

'  With  that  same  perfect  brow 
And  perfect  eyes,  and  more  than  perfect  mouth, 
And  the  low  voice  my  soul  hears,  as  a  bird 
The  fowler's  pipe,  and  follows  to  the  snare.  .  .  .' 

No  doubt  that  '  Carita,'  at  the  Collegio  dello  Scalzo, 
is  the  gem  of  the  whole  collection,  and  it  was  known 
to  be  so  long  ago.  Eeumont  (p.  146),  when  describing 
it,  says  :  '  One  of  his  most  perfect  compositions  is  the 
"Carita."  She  is  represented  as  a  youthful  woman. 
Her  look  turns  full  of  love  to  a  charming  boy,  who 
lays  hold  of  her  hand  and  smilingly  looks  up  to  her. 
She  carries  a  second  boy  on  her  arm,  while  a  third, 
holding  her  dress,  hides  himself  behind  it.  On  her 
head  burns  the  divine  flame.  With  regard  to  the 
grouping  the  picture  is  superior  to  the  "  Cai-ita " 
which  Andrea  painted  at  Paris.' 

When  I  left  the  Collegio  dello  Scalzo,  I  tried  to 
carry  away  a  true  copy  of  that  face  in  my  memory. 
None  of  the  engravers  seems  to  me  to  have  even 
guessed  its  meaning.  It  was  a  rainy  day,  and  I  lost 
my  way  through  some  of  the  few  old  narrow  streets 
which  are  left  at  Florence  between  the  Collegio  dello 


ANDREA    DEL   SARTO'S    CARITA.  419 

Scalzo  and  the  Lung-Arno.  As  one  passes  along,  one 
cannot  help  looking  at  the  old  shops  and  the  hideous 
pictures  which  are  for  sale  everywhere,  none  of  them 
showing:  a  trace  of  what  is  beautiful  or  even  careful. 
Whatever  is  only  tolerable  or  inoffensive  has  long 
been  snapped  up  by  Jews  or  artists.  However,  while 
passing  one  of  these  shops  I  saw  against  the  wall,  the 
rain  streaming  over  it,  the  face  of  Lucrezia.  Yes, 
silver-grey,  placid,  and  perfect.  And  there  was  the 
boy  holding  her  hand,  and  the  other  boy  on  her  arm, 
and  the  third  hiding  behind  her  dress.  It  was  a  copy 
of  the  '  Carita,'  and  whoever  copied  it  had  been  able 
to  read  Lucrezia' s  face  rightly  : 

'Yes,  she  looks  no  one's:   very  dear,  no  less.' 

I  had  no  difficulty  in  buying  the  picture  for  a  mere 
nothing,  less  even  than  Andrea  received  for  his 
frescoes.  It  was  so  deplorably  spoiled  that  at  first 
I  thought  I  could  save  nothing  of  it  except  the  head. 
But  when  I  came  home  and  examined  it  more  care- 
fully, I  was  struck  by  the  perfection  of  the  feet  and 
hands,  the  fingers  and  the  toes.  I  went  carefully 
over  it,  and  the  more  I  examined  it  the  more  I  felt 
convinced  that  this  was  a  copy  executed  by  no  mean 
master. 

After  a  time,  however,  I  was  startled  more  and 
more.  It  was,  no  doubt,  Andrea's  '  Carita,'  but  there 
were  strange  discrepancies.  My  copy  was  the  picture 
of  a  real  woman.  In  the  fresco  Andrea  had  given 
her  a  kind  of  pentagonal  glory,  with  a  flame — the 
divine  flame  of  charity — issuing  from  it.  Then  there 
were  slight  discrepancies  in  the  head-dress,  in  the 
fingers,  in  the  drapery,  and  the  more  I  looked  the 

E  e  2 


420  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

more  I   felt  convinced  that  no  copyist  would  have 
dared  to  take  such  liberties. 

Was  it  then  Andrea's  ovrn  sketch  ?  Did  his  right 
hand  really  pass  over  this  very  picture  while  the 
youthful  Lucrezia  was  for  the  first  time  sitting  to 
him  as  his  model,  turning  her  eyes  away  from  the 
artist,  an  unwilling  martyr  to  her  own  beauty  ?  I  do 
not  like  to  jump  at  conclusions,  but  I  confess  that 
thought  made  me  more  inquisitive.  I  examined  the 
back  of  the  picture.  It  was  on  paper,  on  very  old 
paper,  not  on  one  large  piece  (the  picture  is  five  feet 
two-and-a-half  inches  by  two  feet  ten  inches),  but  on 
a  number  of  small  sheets  carefully  pasted  together. 
In  one  place,  where  it  has  been  patched  very  roughly, 
as  if  by  a  paper-hanger,  the  paste  had  almost  ob- 
literated a  few  words  in  Italian,  written  in  a  hurried 
hand,  and  with  some  eftbrt  still  legible  as  '  Abbozzo  di 
Andrea  del  Sarto ' — the  first  sketch  of  Andrea  del 
Sarto.  This,  of  course,  would  have  solved  many 
difficulties^.  A  copyist  would  hardly  have  ventured 
to  leave  out  the  characteristic  glory  and  the  fiamma 
delta  Carita.  An  artist,  striving  with  all  his  heart  to 
throw  the  living  likeness  of  Lucrezia  on  his  paper, 
would  shrink  from  spoiling  it  by  that  unnatural 
pentagonal  design  which  has  been  added  to  every  one 
of  the  four  symbolical  figures,  when  transferred  to 
the  walls  of  the  Chiostro.  Again,  the  artist  when  at 
a  later  time  transferring  his  cherished  abbozzo  to  the 
fresco,  might  please  himself.     No  one  could  blame 

^  Ahhozzo,  like  the  French  ibaurhe,  means  the  first  plan  or  sketch  of 
an  artist.  Diez  derives  it  from  hozzo,  a  roughly  cut  stone  ;  while  the 
French  ebauche  is  derived  from  balco,  ebaucher  signifying  to  set  up 
the  balcos  of  a  building. 


ANDREA    DEL   SARTO's    CARITA.  421 

him  for  altering,  it  may  be  improving,  the  hair  and 
the  riband  round  Lucrezia's  head.  If  three  fingers 
and  half  of  a  fourth  seemed  to  show  too  much  of  her 
left  liand,  who  would  prevent  the  artist  from  slightly 
departing  from  his  own  ahhozzol  Eesides,  if  it  had 
been  a  copia,  not  an  ahhozzo,  would  not  an  early 
copy  have  been  considered  far  more  valuable,  as 
a  marketable  article,  than  an  ahhozzol  Why  then 
call  it  an  ahhozzo  1  That  it  is  an  early  drawing,  no 
one  who  looks  at  the  patch ed-up  paper  can  doubt. 
The  very  handwriting  of  the  words,  'Abbozzo  di 
Andrea  del  Sarto,'  is  certainly  not  of  this  century. 
More  and  more  I  felt  driven  to  the  suspicion  that 
this  was  really  a  genuine  relic  of  Andrea's  love  and 
of  Lucrezia's  beauty,  and  when  I  began  to  examine 
my  treasure  more  keenly,  I  discovered  behind  a 
horrible  patch  of  thick  modern  paper,  another 
writing:  'Bono  d  .  .  .  Marchellini^  Nel  1848,  per 
ricordo,  Carrara.' 

This  was  puzzling  again.  Could  anybody  have 
given  this  picture,  as  an  original  ahhozzo  of  Andrea's, 
and  evidently  as  a  cherished  remembrance,  to  a 
gentleman  at  Carrara  so  late  as  1848,  and  could  such 
a  treasure,  when  known  so  late  as  1848,  have  found 
its  way,  in  these  times  of  art-hunger,  into  a  miserable 
shop  at  Florence  1  Besides,  the  writing  is  old- 
fashioned,  and  almost  obliterated.  I  looked  once 
more,  and  I.  saw  that  the  first  8  differed  most  de- 
cidedly from  the  second,  that  it  was  indeed  the  old  6, 
only  with  the  central  stroke  carried  a  little  too  far. 
I  should  for  some  reasons  have  preferred  1848,  for 
this  date  would  have  implied  a  better  warrant  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  ahhozzo,  coming  from  a  far  more 


422  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

critical  age.  But  taking  the  wliole  evidence  together, 
I  think  the  friend  at  Garrara  must  have  written  his 
inscription  in  1648. 

After  that  I  surrendered.  Andrea's  pictures  were 
much  copied,  no  doubt,  but  are  there  extant  any 
copies  of  his  grey-in-grey  frescoes  of  the  Collegio 
dello  Scalzo?  Certainly  there  is  no  ahhozzo  of  the 
'Carita'  among  Andi-ea's  drawings  at  Munich.  Se- 
condly, supposing  it  was  a  copy,  why  should  any 
copyist  in  1648  have  degraded  his  copy  to  an  ahhozzo, 
for  at  that  time  a  careful  copy  of  the  original  would 
probably  have  commanded  a  higher  price  than  a  mere 
sketch.  Thirdly,  would  any  copyist  have  dared  to 
take  such  liberties  with  the  original,  and  yet  have 
been  able  at  the  same  time  to  reproduce  that  in- 
definable witchery  of  the  original  which  no  one  ever 
understood  except  the  loving  artist  himself?  My 
mind  was  made  up.  I  felt  as  if  my  old  friend 
himself  had  sent  me  this  memento  as  the  true 
key  of  his  mysterious  passion.  Look  at  this,  he 
seemed  to  say,  and  you  will  understand  my  life's 
frenzy. 

I  do  not  profess  to  be  an  art  critic,  and  I  know  so 
little  of  the  various  styles  of  drawing  and  painting 
adopted  by  Andrea  del  Sarto  during  different  periods 
of  his  career,  that  I  should  not  venture  to  assign  this 
'  Carita '  with  any  confidence  either  to  his  earliest  or 
to  his  latest  period.  If  connoisseurs  who  have  made 
a  special  study  of  Andrea  del  Sarto's  works  should 
tell  me  that  the  ahhozzo  could  not  come  from  his  hand 
at  all,  I  should  bow  to  their  judgment  so  far  as  internal 
evidence  is  concerned,  but  I  should  call  upon  them-, 
at  the  same  time,  to  explain  the  external  evidence, 


AXDREA    DEL    SARTO's    CARITA.  423 

the  nature  of  the  paper,  the  inscription,  the  date,  the 
style  of  the  writing,  and,  above  all,  the  discrepancies 
between  the  drawing  and  the  fresco.  If  we  take  the 
drawing  as  a  copy  of  Andrea's  fresco,  executed  before 
1648,  or  even  before  1848,  we  cannot  reconcile,  as  far 
as  I  can  see,  the  general  faithfulness  of  the  copy  with 
the  strange  discrepancies  between  it  and  the  original. 
If  we  take  the  drawing  as  an  early  sketch,  cari'ied  out 
at  a  later  time,  when  Andrea's  hand  had  acquired  its 
full  mastery  of  brush  and  pencil,  all  seems  to  become 
intelligible,  except  the  strange  fatality  that  such 
a  drawing,  marked  as  an  ahbozzo  in  1648,  or  even  in 
1848,  should  have  escaped  the  lynx  eyes  of  collectors, 
particularly  in  such  a  town  as  Florence.  That  the 
inscription  was  put  where  we  now  see  it,  on  the  back 
of  the  picture,  with  perfect  good  faith,  no  one  who  is 
a  judge  of  handwriting  will  fail  to  see.  That  it  was 
pasted  over,  and  has  nearly  become  invisible,  is  another 
proof  that  the  picture  has  never  passed  tln'ough  the 
hands  of  dealers  or  operators.  Criticism  based 
entirely  on  internal  evidence  has  perhaps,  of  late 
years,  been  too  much  discredited  by  students  of  ai"t. 
If  I  can  tell  the  age  of  a  MS.  by  the  shape  of  one 
letter,  why  should  not  an  artist,  familiar  with  the 
works  of  Andrea  del  Sarto,  be  competent  to  say,  with 
perfect  assurance,  that  the  style  of  the  drawing  is  not 
Andrea  del  Sarto's  style?  But,  however  willing  we 
may  be  to  listen  to  internal  evidence,  external  evidence 
is  a  stubborn  thing.  If  it  could  be  shown,  for  instance, 
that  the  notorious  palimpsest  of  Uranius  had  been  in 
the  hands  of  Eusebius,  we  could  not  have  helped 
ourselves.  We  should  have  had  to  admit,  though 
much  against  the  grain,  that  the  shape  of  the  letter 


424  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

M  had  changed  at  an  earlier  time  than  had  been 
hitherto  supposed. 

My  cartoon  of  the  '  Carita '  has  been  seen  by 
eminent  judges,  both  in  Italy  and  in  England.  That 
it  is  a  gem,  they  all  admit ;  that  the  evidence  of  its 
being  Andrea's  own  handiwork  is  strong,  most  admit ; 
that  the  evidence  is  irresistible,  some  deny ;  but  they 
base  their  denial  on  very  different  grounds. 

One  of  the  most  trustworthy  judges  in  England 
holds  that  the  very  perfection  of  the  drawing  is 
against  its  being  an  ahbozzo,  because  great  artists 
never  finished  their  sketches  as  this  is  finished. 
Granted ;  but  was  not  this  an  exceptional  sketch  ? 
This  was  probably  Andrea's  first  opportunity  of  fixing 
Lucrezia's  features  on  paper.  Was  it  not  natural 
that  he  should  have  done  his  very  best  to  please 
himself,  and,  even  more,  to  please  her  who  as  yet 
hardly  knew  what  her  unknown  admirer  could 
achieve?  Might  he  not  have  said  to  her,  while 
trying  to  master  her  beauty,  what  Browning  makes 
him  say  : — 

'I  can  do  with  my  pencil  what  I  know, 
What  I  see,  when  at  the  bottom  of  my  heart 
I  wish  for,  if  I  ever  wish  so  deep — 
Do  easily,  too— when  I  say  perfectly, 
I  do  not  boast  perhaps.' 

In  one  word,  was  not  the  sketch  made  con  amove, 
and  does  not  that  suffice  to  explain  both  its  life-like 
truthfulness,  unspoiled  by  any  symbolism,  and  its 
remarkable  finish  ■? 

Another  artist,  however,  and  an  excellent  judge 
of  artistic  manipulation,  declares  quite  positively 
that,   after    carefully   examining    the    drawing    and 


ANDREA   DEL    SAETO's    CARITA.  425 

comparing  it  with  a  photograph  of  the  fresco,  he  is 
convinced  that  the  two  cannot  have  been  executed 
by  the  same  hand.  '  The  drawing,'  he  wiites,  '  is 
tediously  and  timidly  finished  up  in  a  method  that 
no  artist  of  Andrea's  capacity  would  employ.  That 
kind  of  finish  does  not  constitute  perfection  of  draw- 
ing ;  it  is  mere  neatness  and  tidiness.' 

Let  it  be  so,  but  let  us  remember  how  often  even 
more  confident  critical  judgments,  based  on  internal 
evidence  only,  have  had  to  yield  to  one  single  historical 
document.  If  we  may  trust  Vasari,  Giulio  Romano, 
the  pupil  of  Rafael,  would  not  believe  that  a  copy 
made  by  Andrea  del  Sarto  of  a  picture  by  Rafael  was 
not  the  original,  till  he  saw  a  mark  which  Andrea 
himself  had  put  on  it.  Even  then,  with  the  art- 
critic's  usual  stubbornness,  he  declared  that  Andrea's 
copy  was  far  better  than  Rafael's  original.  It  is 
well  known  how  of  late  years  nearly  all  the  catalogues 
of  our  greatest  galleries  have  been  revolutionised,  and 
this  owing  mainly  to  a  more  careful  study  of  historical 
or  external  evidence. 

However,  I  do  not  wish  to  plead ;  I  only  wish  to 
state  with  perfect  frankness  the  opinions  that  have 
been  advanced  for  and  against  the  idea  that  the 
drawing  which  I  discovered  at  Florence  came  from 
Andrea's  own  hand.  To  me  personally  the  belief 
that  this  picture  stood  once  between  Lncrezia  and 
Andrea — was,  it  may  be,  the  fii-st  confession,  as  that 
in  the  Pitti  may  have  been  the  last  sigh  of  his  love 
for  her — has  its  value.  But  that  is  mere  sentiment. 
It  does  not  add  to  the  beauty  of  the  picture  which 
I  saved  from  certain  destruction,  and  which  to  me 
seems   far  more    expressive,  far   more   successful   in 


426  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

rendering  the  deep  meaning  of  Lucrezia's  face,  than 
the  copy  which  Andrea  later  in  life  executed  in  fresco, 
and  which  may  now  be  seen  in  the  Chiostro  dello 
Scalzo.  My  cartoon,  call  it  copy  or  abhozzo,  is  now 
the  only  trustworthy  record  of  Andrea's  first  and  last 
passionate  ideal  of  the  Beautiful,  and  while  the  fresco 
at  Florence  peels  and  drops,  this  drawing,  I  hope,  as 
repaired  and  resuscitated,  not  retouched,  by  the  hand 
of  a  true  master,  will  for  ever  remain  the  monument 
of  a  deep  passion  unrewarded,  it  may  be  never  even 
comprehended — 

*  For  she  looks  no  one's :  very  dear,  no  less.' 
OxFOBD,  July,  1 886. 


The  following  is  a  letter  from  Robert  Browning,  to 
whom  I  had  sent  a  copy  of  my  paper  on  Andrea  del 
Sarto : — 

19  Warwick  Crescent,  Feb.  27,  1889. 

My  dear  Professor, 
It  was  indeed  good  of  you  to  think  of  my  old 
feeling  for  Andrea,  when  you  might  well  have  been 
solely  occupied  with  your  own  signal  godsend — as  the 
cartoon  seems  likely  to  prove. 

I  sympathize  with  your  well-deserved  fortune,  for 
it  always  struck  me  as  remarkable  that  the  wrong 
picture  should  so  seldom  escape  notice,  while  the  right 
man  perhaps  was  daily  pacing  some  calle  where, 
hidden  by  rubbish,  such  a  prize  as  the  one  in 
question  eluded  him.  All  thanks  for  the  beautiful 
little  notice,  full  of  the  true  spirit  of  appreciation. 

Ever  yours  most  sincerely, 
Robert  Browning. 


BUDDHIST  CHAKITY\ 


A  PROMISE,  even  if  it  has  been  rashly  and  some- 
what thoughtlessly  given,  must  be  kept.  This 
is  my  apology  for  standing  here  to-day  to  inaugurate 
a  course  of  lectures  on  Charity,  as  viewed  and  prac- 
tised by  the  followers  of  the  principal  religions  of 
the  world. 

The  subject  was  to  my  mind  most  attractive,  but 
even  more  so  the  object  for  which  these  lectures 
are  intended — namely,  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
our  excellent  friends  who  have  formed  themselves 
into  an  association  for  befriending  young  servants 
in  this  vast  metropolis.  Think  what  that  means ! 
Think  of  the  courage  it  requires,  and  think  also  of 
the  expenditure,  not  only  of  time  and  energy,  but 
also  of  money,  which  is  necessitated  by  such  an 
undertaking.  Such  work  is  difficult  enough  even 
in  a  small  town  like  Oxford.  But  in  London,  in 
this  bewildering  chaos  of  human  toil  and  sufferinof, 
it  seems  almost  hopeless.  It  seems  like  trying  to 
arrest  an  avalanche  with  our  outstretched  arms. 

Now  let  me  tell  you  what  I  admire  more  than 
anything  else  in  this  labyrinth  of  London,  and  wliat 

'  The  first  of  a  course  of  lectures  on  '  Ancient  and  Modern  Charitj',' 
dL'livered  at  the  Town  Hall,  Kensington,  April  24,  18S4. 


428  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

stirred  my  sympathy  with  this  '  Metropolitan  Associa- 
tion for  Befriendinf^:  Young  Servants.' 

It  is  the  courage  to  do  small  things.  All  honour 
to  those  who  undertake  to  do  grand  things,  who 
are  willing  to  lead  a  whole  nation  through  the  Red 
Sea  of  sorrow  and  despair  to  the  Land  of  Promise. 
In  a  great  battle  the  very  drummer-boy  becomes 
a  hero  without  being  aware  of  it. 

But  to  go  every  day  to  some  task,  quietly  and 
unobserved,  a  task  which,  the  more  you  work  at 
it,  seems  only  to  gi-ow  more  difficult,  more  unmanage- 
able, more  hopeless — that  is  what  I  call  true  courage. 

This  hopeless,  and  yet  hopeful,  work  which  is  car- 
ried on  by  this  Association  i-eminds  me  of  a  child's 
story,  which  I  shall  try  to  tell  you  as  well  as  I  can. 
A  little  girl  was  taken  to  the  sea-side,  and  her  heart 
was  delighted  with  the  smooth  pebbles,  and  the 
bright  shells,  and  the  graceful  sea-weeds  scattered 
all  over  the  beach.  She  began  to  collect  till  her 
lap  was  full,  and  she  could  hardly  carry  her  precious 
load.  Then  the  nurse  told  her  that  she  must  go 
home,  because  the  sea  would  soon  come  and  cover 
the  whole  beach.  Eut  the  more  the  nurse  warned 
the  child,  the  more  eager  it  grew,  picking  up  pebble 
after  pebble,  shell  after  shell,  weed  after  weed.  And 
as  the  waves  came  nearer  and  nearer,  howling  and 
dashing  and  crashing  along  the  coast,  the  child  began 
to  rush  about  wildly,  trying  to  rescue  every  darling 
pebble  from  the  fangs  of  that  ugly  monster,  the  sea. 
Then  the  nurse  had  to  take  her  up  in  her  arms  ;  and 
while  she  was  carried  home,  pebble  after  pebble,  shell 
after  shell,  weed  after  weed  di-opped  from  her  lap. 
At  last  she  was   brought  to  her  mother,  and  well 


BUDDHIST    CUARITY.  429 

scolded  for  having  disobeyed  her  nurse  and  for  being 
so  silly  as  to  try  to  pick  up  every  pebble  on  the 
beach.  But  the  child  did  not  mind  the  scolding,  and 
when  she  had  dried  her  tears  she  held  up  one  small 
pebble  with  an  air  of  triumph  and  said  to  her  mother : 
'  Mother,  I  have  saved  one  from  that  ugly  sea.* 

This  seems  to  me,  indeed,  the  right  spirit  in  which 
we  should  go  to  work,  and  in  which  you  are  working, 
in  trying  to  save,  if  only  one  young  servant,  from 
that  ugly  sea  that  is  breaking  over  them  in  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  London  life.  And  when  I  heard 
of  this,  and  was  told  by  a  friend  of  mine,  who  is 
spending  herself  with  a  childlike  enthusiasm  and 
faith  on  this  noble  work,  that  I  might  be  of  some 
use  in  helping  you  to  pick  up  if  only  one  soul  on 
the  very  brink  of  ruin,  I  could  not  say  '  No.' 

But  apart  from  this  excellent  object,  the  subject, 
too,  on  which  I  was  asked  to  speak — '  Buddhist 
Charity' — had  great  attractions  for  me.  My  dear 
friend  the  late  Dean  of  Westminster  said :  '  I  re- 
member the  time  when  the  name  of  Gautama,  the 
Buddha,  was  scarcely  known,  except  to  a  few  scholars, 
and  not  always  well  spoken  of  by  those  who  knew 
it ;  and  now — he  is  second  to  One  only.' 

Now  this  shows  after  all  that  we  are  not  standing 
still,  that  our  hoiizon,  in  religion  also,  is  growing 
wider,  and  our  hearts,  I  believe,  growing  larger  and 
truer. 

There  was  a  time  when  it  was  almost  an  article 
of  faith  that  you  could  not  be  a  true  believer  in  your 
own  religion  unless  you  also  believed  that  all  other 
religions  were  false  ;  and  false,  not  on  certain  points 
only,  but  altogether  false,  altogether  mischievous,  the 


430  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

very  work  of  the  devil.  They  might  teach  the  same 
doctrine,  they  might  use  ahnost  the  same  words  :  still 
the  one  voice  was  supposed  to  come  from  heaven,  the 
other  from  the  very  opposite  region. 

Nor  was  this  a  prejudice  peculiar  to  Christians 
only.  As  they  divided  the  world  into  true  believers 
and  heathens,  the  Aryas  of  India  looked  upon  them- 
selves only  as  twice-born,  or  regenerate,  upon  all 
the  rest  of  mankind  as  mere  Mlekkha.a.  The  Jews 
knew  of  one  chosen  people  only,  all  the  rest  were 
Gentiles  ;  while  the  Mohammedans  spoke  of  all,  of 
Hindus,  Jews,  and  Christians,  as  mere  Kafirs  or  un- 
believers, and  declared  that  they  only  were  the  true 
Muslim,  that  is,  the  people  who  trust  and  submit 
themselves  to  God. 

At  present  all  the  great  religions  of  the  world, 
all  the  dialects  in  which  man  has  tried  to  speak 
of  God  and  to  God,  are  treated  with  perfect  equality. 
The  stronger  the  faith  in  one's  own  religion,  the 
stronger  also  the  readiness  to  judge  of  other  religions 
with  kindness  and  tenderness,  nay  almost  with  in- 
dulgence. This  strikes  me  as  one  of  the  most  charac- 
teristic  tendencies  of  our  century — I  might  almost 
say,  of  our  age.  Formerly  a  student  of  theology 
was  expected  to  have  read  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament,  and  possibly,  if  he  was  very  learned, 
he  might  try  to  read  the  Qoran.  But  as  to  reading 
the  sacred  books  of  other  religions,  the  Vedas,  the 
Avesta,  the  Tripifaka,  the  Kings  of  the  Chinese,  it 
was  never  dreamt  of,  and  to  suppose  that  they  could 
teach  us  anything  would  have  been  considered  an 
insult.  At  present  the  University  Press  at  Oxford 
has  just  finished  the  first  series  of  translations  of  the 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  431 

'  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  consisting  of  twenty-four 
large  octavo  volumes  ;  and  as  the  result,  so  far  as  the 
interest  of  the  public  is  concerned,  has  not  been 
discouraging,  a  second  series  has  been  started  which 
is  to  comprise  as  many  volumes  again.  Surely  there 
is  an  increasing  purpose  perceptible  in  all  this,  and 
we  may  feel  that  we  have  not  altogether  laboured 
in  vain.  This  very  meeting  bears  witness  to  the 
same  spirit.  We  all  believe  in  the  duty  and  the 
delight  of  charity.  We  know  what  is  meant  by 
Christian  charity.  But  we  are  not  satisfied  to  know 
what  Christ  taught  on  charity.  We  want  to  know 
whether  we  stand  alone  in  our  belief  in  charity,  and 
whether  Christianity  alone  inculcates  that  sacred 
duty.  It  is  not  that  we  have  any  doubt  as  to  the 
supreme  duty  of  charity,  but,  knowing  that  the  same 
heart  beats  in  all  human  breasts,  we  want  to  know 
what  the  Buddha  taught  on  almsgiving,  what  Mo- 
hammed taught,  what  the  best  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  taught.  And  we  want  to  know  all  this, 
not  as  a  matter  of  mere  curiosity,  but  as  a  matter 
of  the  deepest  human  concern. 

If  men  had  been  originally  wild  beasts,  then,  no 
doubt,  it  would  have  required  an  angel  from  heaven 
to  persuade  them  to  give  up  a  bone  which  they  were 
gnawing  and  to  share  it  with  their  starving  fellow- 
creatures.  Then,  no  doubt,  that  religion  only  would 
be  true  which,  by  some  supernatural  authority,  could 
frighten  human  beings  into  doing  what  is  so  unnatural 
as  to  give  up  a  bone.  But  if  the  witness  of  truth 
was  present  in  the  hearts  of  men  at  all  times  and  in 
all  places,  in  the  hearts  of  the  lowest  savages  as  well 
as  of  the  highest  sages,  then  this  general  recognition 


432  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

of  the  duty  of  charity  in  all  religions  serves  as  a 
confirmation  of  our  own  faith,  or,  at  all  events,  as 
an  admonition  to  fulfil  a  duty  so  universally  recog- 
nised as  charity,  more  faithfully  and  more  zealously 
than  the  followers  of  any  other  faith. 

There  has  been  so  much  written  of  late  on  Bud- 
dhism that  I  ought  to  make  it  quite  clear  from  the 
very  beginning  that  when  I  speak  of  Buddhism, 
I  mean  real,  historical  Buddhism,  not  Esoteric,  Exo- 
teric, or  any  other  kind  of  fashionable  Buddhism. 
Historical  Buddhism  took  its  rise  about  500  years 
B.C.,  and  it  can  be  studied  in  historical  documents, 
the  date  of  which  admits  of  little  doubt. 

We  have,  first  of  all,  the  inscriptions  which  King 
Asoka  had  graven  on  rocks  and  pillars  scattered 
all  over  India  from  Afghanistan  to  Orissa.  These 
records  date  from  the  third  century  B.C.,  and  are 
as  intelligible  now  as  the  old  Latin  inscriptions  of 
the  Scipios.  Nothing  can  shake  their  historical  value 
as  attesting  the  existence  of  Buddhism  as  the  State 
relio-ion  in  the  kingdom  of  Asoka  in  the  third  cen- 
tury  B.C. 

Secondly,  we  can  study  historical  Buddhism  in 
its  canonical  books.  These  books  exist  in  two  collec- 
tions, the  one  written  in  a  peculiar  kind  of  Sanskrit, 
the  other  in  one  of  the  Prakrit  or  popular  dialects 
of  India,  commonly  called  Pali.  The  Pali  canon  was 
reduced  to  writing  during  the  reign  of  Vai/Ja-Gamani, 
who  began  to  reign  in  88  B.C.  ^  Before  that  time  the 
sacred  books  had  been  preserved  by  oral  tradition 
only.     We  are  told  that  the  first  collection  of  the 

*  See  '  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  vol.  xiii.  p.  xxxv. 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  433 

doctrines  of  the  Buddha  was  made  at  the  First 
Council  ^,  and  shortly  after  the  death  of  Gautama 
in  477  B.C.  During  the  century  which  elapsed  be- 
tween the  death  of  the  Buddha  and  the  Second 
Council,  377  B.C.,  considerable  additions  had  been 
made  to  the  sacred  literature  of  the  new  reli2[ion, 
and  whatever  could  claim  canonical  authority  was 
collected,  at  the  Second  Council,  in  what  is  called 
the  Tltree  Baskets,  the  Tripifaka,  the  Bible  of  the 
Southern  Buddhists.  By  Southern  Buddhists  I  mean 
chiefly  the  Buddhists  of  Ceylon,  Burmah,  and  Siam. 

A  second  collection  of  sacred  writings  was  made 
by  the  Northern  Buddhists,  those  who  spread  their 
doctrines  ftom  India  to  Tibet,  China,  Mongolia,  and 
Japan.  It  is  written  in  Sanskrit,  partly  in  prose, 
partly  in  poetry,  and  often  in  very  corrupt  dialects, 
commonly  called  Gatha  dialects.  The  date  when  this 
collection  was  made  is  more  difficult  to  determine, 
but  as  we  know  of  Chinese  translations  of  some  of 
its  books  dating  from  the  fii-st  century  after  Christ, 
we  may  safely  suppose  that  some  kind  of  canon  of 
the  Northern  Buddhist  Bible  also  existed  before  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  Southern  and 
Northern  canons  share  much  in  common,  sometimes 
whole  chapters  literally  the  same,  a  fact  which  seems 
to  point  to  the  existence  of  a  body  of  sacred  texts 
previous  to  the  compilation  of  the  Southern  and  the 
Northern  collections. 

Buddhism,  no  doubt,  has  changed  enormously, 
according  to  the  character  of  the  people  by  whom 

*  See  *  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  vol.  xiii.  p.  12. 
VOL.  I.  F  f 


434  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

it  was  adopted,  and  to  whose  intellectual  capacities 
it  readily  adapted  itself.  The  Buddhism  of  the  meta- 
physical Hindu  is  not  the  Buddhism  of  the  matter- 
of-fact  Chinaman,  or  of  the  stolid  Mongolian,  as  little 
as  the  Christianity  of  Bishop  Berkeley  is  the  Chris- 
tianity of  a  ploughboy  who  can  neither  read  nor 
write.  Still,  whenever  we  speak  of  historical  Bud- 
dhism, we  mean  one  Buddhism  only — namely,  that 
which  in  its  two  aspects  of  Southern  and  Northern 
Buddhism  can  be  studied  in  its  recognised  canonical 
writings,  as  we  study  historical  Christianity  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  historical  Mohammedanism  in 
the  Qoran. 

I  have  no  time  to  say  more  on  this  subject  to-day, 
but  I  may  refer  those  who  wish  to  study  historical 
Buddhism  in  trustworthy  and  scholarlike  books  to 
the  great  work  of  Burnouf,  '  Introduction  a  THistoire 
du  Buddhisme,'  and  to  the  more  recent  works  of 
Spence  Hardy,  Childers,  Rhys  Davids,  Kern,  and 
Oldenberg ;  also  to  several  volumes  in  the  '  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,'  containing  literal  translations  of 
canonical  texts,  both  Pali  and  Sanskrit. 

To  my  mind,  having  approached  Buddhism  after 
a  study  of  the  ancient  religion  of  India,  the  religion 
of  the  Veda,  Buddhism  has  always  seemed  to  be,  not 
a  new  religion,  but  a  natural  development  of  the 
Indian  mind  in  its  various  manifestations,  religious^ 
'philosojyhical,  social,  and  political.  As  to-day  I  have  to 
speak  of  Buddhist  charity,  it  is  Buddhism  chiefly  in  its 
social  aspect  which  we  shall  have  to  consider.  Now 
Buddhist  charity  is,  as  it  were,  the  full  bloom  of  that 
more  ancient  charity  which  was  preached  in  the  Veda, 
and  practised  during  the  Vedic  age.     It  has  always 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  435 

struck  me  as  exceedingly  strange  that  in  a  country 
like  India  there  should  be  any  call,  any  room  for 
charity.  Nature  in  India  is  so  kind  a  mother,  and 
man  is  a  child  so  easily  satisfied  there,  that  one 
wonders  how  anybody  could  have  been  poor.  In 
ancient  India,  anybody  might  have  land  who  would 
clear  it.  The  game  belonged  to  him  who  stuck  the 
lirst  arrow  into  it.  The  rivers  were  full  of  fish, 
the  trees  full  of  fruit.  There  was  enough,  and  more 
than  enough,  for  everybody,  and  yet  there  were  the 
poor  begging  at  the  doors  of  the  rich.  Just  think 
that  even  at  present,  with  all  the  new  artificial  wants 
that  have  sprung  up,  a  man  in  an  Indian  village  may 
live  decently  on  a  shilling  a  week,  and  a  woman  on 
even  less.  Fancy  a  married  couple  living  contentedly 
on  ^"5  a  year !  And  yet  with  their  small  wants — say 
a  mud  cottage,  a  few  rags  for  clothing,  some  rice, 
milk,  and,  as  a  great  luxury,  butter — the  Hindus,  from 
the  times  of  the  Veda  to  the  present  day,  have  always 
complained  of  poverty,  amounting  to  starvation,  and 
have  always  praised  liberality  or  charity  as  one  of  the 
fii'st  duties,  and  one  of  the  highest  virtues.  Among  the 
hymns  of  the  Eig-veda  there  is  one  (X,  117)  ascribed 
to  Bhikshu.  Bhikshu  means  a  beggar,  and  is  the 
name  assumed  in  later  times  by  the  Buddha  him- 
self, and  by  every  member  of  his  brotherhood.  In 
that  hymn  it  is  said  that  the  gods  do  not  wish  that 
men  should  die  of  hunger,  but  that  the  rich  should 
give  to  the  poor.  He  who  is  charitable,  the  poet 
asiys,  will  never  know  want.  Men  are  reminded 
that  fortune  changes,  and  that  we  are  meant  to  be 
different.  This  at  least  seems  to  be  the  purport  of 
the  last  verse,  which  says: — 

rf  3 


436  HECENT   ESSAYS. 

*  Even  the  two  hand?,  though  tlie  same,  do  not  act  in  the  same  way: 
Two  cows  of  the  same  mother  do  not  yield  the  same  milk : 
Even  twins  have  not  the  same  powers : 
Even  dose  kindred  do  not  give  the  same  gifts,' 

The  same  idea  runs  through  the  whole  Veda.  He 
who  gives  liberally  is  beloved  by  the  gods ;  he  who 
does  not  give  is  actually  called  impious,  an  unbeliever, 
a  heretic.  Nothing  perhaps  shows  so  clearly  the 
difference  between  our  modern  society  and  the  society 
of  ancient  India  than  that,  whereas  with  us  begging- 
is  punished  by  the  law,  the  beggar  in  India  was 
recognised  as  a  legitimate  member  of  the  community, 
protected  by  the  law — nay,  watched  over  by  the  gods. 

No  doubt  we  should  remember  that  we  know  very 
little  of  the  state  of  society  in  India  during  the  Vedic 
period,  except  from  sacred  or  priestly  sources.  All 
may  not  have  been  exactly  as  the  Brahmans  thought 
that  it  ought  to  be.  Whatever  we  see,  we  can  see 
through  Brahmanic  glasses  only,  and  we  have  not 
even  the  means  to  correct  their  angle  of  vision,  except 
by  a  kind  of  general  scepticism.  But,  for  all  that, 
we  may  look  on  the  ancient  Vedic  Law-books  which 
have  lately  been  discovered,  and  which  are  certainly 
anterior  to  the  so-called  Laws  of  Manu,  as  giving  us, 
if  not  a  faithful  record  of  human  failures  in  ancient 
India,  at  all  events  the  ideal  of  what,  according  to 
the  notions  of  their  authors,  life  ought  to  be.  And 
for  a  true  insight  into  a  man's  character,  are  not  his 
ideals  often  far  more  instructive  than  his  failures  ? 

If  I  dwell  for  a  moment  on  this  ideal  of  ancient 
Vedic  society,  as  supplied  to  us  in  the  ancient  Law- 
books, it  is  because  I  hope  to  show  that  Buddhist 
society,  as  we  know  it  from  the  sacred  writings  of  the 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  437 

Euddhists,  is  far  more  the  fulBlment  than  the  denial 
of  the  ancient  schemes  and  dreams  of  the  Brahmanic 
law-givers. 

Society,  at  least  in  the  twice-born,  the  regenerate, 
and,  in  our  sense,  the  upper  classes,  consisted  in 
ancient  times  of  four  stages,  called  a.sramas.  The 
first  stage  was  that  of  the  pupil.  When  a  boy  had 
reached  the  age  of  eight,  he  was  initiated,  or  appren- 
ticed to  a  Brahman,  lived  in  his  house,  and  was 
educated  and  taught  by  him.  The  boy  was  under 
the  strictest  moral  discipline,  and  had  to  perform 
every  kind  of  menial  service  for  his  master.  What 
is  important  for  our  purpose  is  that  every  day  the 
pupil  had  to  go  round  the  village  begging  for  food, 
which  he  handed  to  his  master  before  he  was  allowed 
to  touch  it.  This  was  charity,  but  hardly  voluntary. 
It  was,  in  our  sense,  an  educational  rate  levied  not 
only  on  the  parents  of  the  children,  but  on  the  whole 
coramunit}'. 

When  his  education  was  finished — hardly  ever 
before  the  age  of  twenty — the  young  man  was  ex- 
pected to  marry  and  found  a  household.  During  this 
second  stage  the  householder  was  still  under  very 
strict  religious  discipline.  He  had  to  perform  con- 
stant sacrifices,  every  one  of  which  involved  charitable 
gifts  to  the  Brahmans ;  and  one  of  the  five  Great 
Sacrifices,  which  had  to  be  performed  every  day,  con- 
sisted in  charity  and  hospitality  to  all  who  wanted 
it.     Even  animals  had  a  right  to  daily  gifts. 

This  second  stage  lasted  till  a  man's  children  had 
grown  up  and  his  own  hair  had  grown  grey.  Then, 
according  to  the  old  law,  the  father  was  expected  to 
retire  from  the  village  into  the  forest  with  or  without 


438  HECENT    ESSAYS, 

his  wife.  His  property  went  to  his  family.  He  him- 
self was  released  from  performing  any  but  the  simplest 
sacrifices,  but  he  was  expected  to  mortify  the  flesh  by 
the  most  painful  penances,  and  to  meditate  on  the 
highest  problems  of  life. 

During  that  third  stage,  the  dweller  in  the  forest, 
the  Vanaprastha,  or  Vaikhanasa,  was  entitled  to  receive 
charity  if  he  wanted  it,  but  he  was  likewise  expected 
in  his  humble  way  to  show  hospitality  to  all  who 
claimed  it. 

The  final  stage  was  that  of  the  hermit,  the  solitary 
saint,  the  Sannyasin,  or,  as  he  was  also  called,  the 
beggar,  the  Bhikshu,  who  had  no  longer  any  fixed 
home,  not  even  in  the  forest,  except  during  the  rainy 
season.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  world,  and,  while 
engaged  in  meditation  on  the  vanity  of  all  earthly 
things,  he  looked  forward  to  death  as  the  moment  of 
release.  It  is  important  to  observe  that,  like  the 
Buddhist  mendicant,  the  Bhikshu,  or  beggar,  was 
expected  to  shave  his  head,  and  that  he  also  depended 
for  his  life  on  the  charity  of  the  people. 

This  was  the  Brahmanic  ideal  of  life,  and  you  will 
discover  how  entirely  it  depended  on  the  recognition 
of  the  duty  of  charity  in  every  stage.  We  may  doubt 
whether  this  ideal  was  ever  fully  realised  during  the 
ancient  Vedic  period,  but  what  we  cannot  doubt  is 
that  Buddhism  achieved,  in  one  sense,  the  full  realisa- 
tion of  this  Brahmanic  ideal.  This  will  require  some 
explanation.  I  have  already  pointed  out  how  during 
the  first  and  second  stages  of  life  the  pupil  and  the 
householder  were  both  completely  under  priestly 
sway.  Every  word  of  the  Veda  which  the  pupil 
learned  from  the  mouth  of  his  teacher  was   to   be 


BUDDHIST    CIIARITY.  439 

accepted  as  revelation ;  every  sacrifice  which  the 
householder  was  expected  to  perform  was  considered 
as  the  fulfilment  of  a  divine  command.  But  as  soon  as 
a  man  entered  on  the  third  stage,  as  soon  as  he  left  his 
village,  his  house,  his  family  to  dwell  in  the  forest,  first 
as  an  ascetic,  and  finally  as  a  hermit,  all  was  changed. 
He  was  not  only  released  from  nearly  all  sacrificial 
and  ceremonial  fetters,  but  he  was  expected  to  know 
the  vanity,  the  uselessness,  or  even  the  mischievous 
nature  of  all  ceremonies  and  sacrifices.  And  when  all 
sacrifices  and  prayers,  addressed  to  the  gods  with 
a  hope  of  reward,  had  once  been  recognised  as  selfish 
acts,  productive  of  evil  rather  than  of  good,  the  old 
belief  in  the  numerous  gods  of  the  Veda  also  had  to 
be  surrendered,  at  first  for  a  belief  in  one  god,  Pra(/a- 
pati,  the  lord  of  all  living,  and  at  last  for  a  belief  in 
what  we  should  scarcely  call  a  god.  Brahman,  or  the 
highest  Self.  We  should  think  that  a  system  appar- 
ently so  self-contradictory  could  hardly  be  maintained 
for  any  length  of  time.  Yet  it  is  presupposed  during 
almost  the  whole  of  the  Vedic  period.  And  what  to  my 
mind  proves  its  historical  reality  more  than  anything 
else  is  this,  that  the  whole  social  system  of  Buddhism 
is  evidently  built  up  upon  its  ruins.  Even  during  Vedic 
times  we  hear  the  murmurings  of  an  approaching  storm. 
Thinkers,  both  young  and  old,  ask  the  question — 
'  Why,  if  all  the  gods  of  the  Veda  are  mere  names,  if 
all  discipline  is  unnecessary  torture  if  all  sacrifices 
are  a  deceit,  all  domestic  cares  and  affections  a  snare, 
all  penance  mere  cruelty,  why  should  the  best  part  of 
our  life  on  earth  be  wasted  on  such  things? — why 
should  we  not  enter  at  once  into  the  freedom  of 
thoucrht  which  all  who  have  entered  on  the  third  and 


440  llECENT    ESSAYS. 

Iburth  stages  praise  as  the  highest  blessing  on  earth?' 
Answers  of  various  kinds  were  given.  First  of  all  it 
was  said  to  be  impossible  for  the  human  mind  to 
perceive  the  highest  truth  before  the  body  had  been 
disciplined,  the  passions  subdued,  and  the  mental 
atmosphere  rendered  calm  and  serene.  Secondly,  the 
domestic  cares  and  afFectionS;,  though  for  a  time  draw- 
ing away  our  thoughts  from  the  highest  objects,  were 
represented  as  a  debt  due  to  our  forefathers,  and  as 
a  necessary  condition  of  the  continuance  of  human 
society.  The  belief  in  a  number  of  personal  gods  was 
defended  as  harmless,  because  all  these  mythological 
names  were  really  intended  for  the  one  God,  or  for 
that  which  is  even  beyond  all  gods. 

Such  explanations  may  have  answered  for  a  while, 
but  the  doubts  of  the  few  and  the  dissatisfaction  of 
the  many  grew  stronger  and  stronger,  till  at  last  the 
old  dams  and  dykes  of  Brahmanism  were  swept  away 
by  that  strong  tidal  wave  which  we  call  Buddhism. 
Buddhism,  in  one  sense,  was  simply  the  carrying 
out,  or  the  practical  realisation,  of  the  half-uttered 
thoughts  of  Brahmanism.  If  sacrifices,  particularly 
those  which  involve  the  killing  of  animals  and 
extravagant  expenditure,  are  not  only  useless  but 
mischievous,  Buddha  said,  '  Let  them  be  forbidden.' 
If  the  Vedas  have  no  claim  to  a  revealed  character, 
let  them  be  treated  like  any  other  book,  but  do  not 
waste  your  whole  youth  in  learning  them  by  heart. 
If  the  Vedic  gods  are  mere  figures  and  names,  let 
us  look  for  something  which  is  more  than  figure 
and  name.  If  penances,  particularly  those  excessive 
penances  of  the  dwellers  in  the  forest,  benefit  neither 
the   spirit    nor   the   flesh,   but   produce   only  bodily 


BUDDHIST   CHAHITY.  44l 

decrepitude  and  spiritual  pride,  let  them  be  abolished, 
or  at  all  events  rendered  less  severe.  Lastly,  if  he 
who  leaves  home,  and  wife,  and  children,  or  who 
never  knew  what  a  home  was,  is  nearer  to  heaven 
than  the  best  of  householders,  let  all  who  can,  leave 
their  homes  as  soon  as  possible  and  become  'homeless,' 
the  very  name  which  Buddha  gave  to  the  members  of 
his  fraternity. 

It  is  true  that  Brahmanism  already  tolerated  certain 
exceptions.  A  pupil,  if  he  did  not  wish  to  marry  and 
become  a  householder,  might  remain  for  life  as  a  per- 
petual pupil  and  under  strict  discipline  in  the  house 
of  his  master.  Now  and  then,  also,  we  hear  of  a  house- 
holder who,  without  passing  through  the  penances  of  the 
third  stage,  became  at  once  a  hermit,  fully  enlightened, 
fully  emancipated  from  all  fetters.  But  what  formed 
the  exception  before  became  the  rule  when  the 
Buddhist  fraternity  had  once  been  established.  That 
fraternity  was  a  new  society.  It  was  open  to  all, 
though  it  did  not  condemn  those  who  refused  to  enter, 
if  only  they  were  willing  to  support  the  fraternity  by 
regular  alms,  as  they  had  formerly  supported  the 
mendicants,  whether  as  students  or  as  hermits.  Here 
Ave  see  the  Buddhist  solution  of  the  old  social  problem. 
All  who  were  poor,  miserable,  heavy-laden,  were 
welcome  to  enter  the  fraternity.  No  brother  or  friar 
possessed  anything,  and  even  the  rich  young  man  who 
wished  to  follow  Buddha  had  to  give  up  all  his  wealth 
and  all  outward  distinctions  before  he  could  become 
a  real  disciple.  Again,  we  see  from  the  large  numbers 
that  flocked  to  join  Buddha's  new  brotherhood  how 
much  poverty,  how  much  misery,  wretchedness,  and 
sin,  must  have  existed  in  that  country  which  seems  to 


442  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

US  an  earthly  paradise.  Enles  had  soon  to  he  laiil 
down  to  guard  the  hrotherhood  from  unworthy 
applicants,  but  once  admitted,  his  head  having  been 
shaved,  a  man  was  safe  in  his  j-ellow  dress.  He 
belonged,  not  only  to  a  new  society,  but  to  a  new 
state  within  the  State,  recognised  by  the  State  and 
supported  by  the  people  at  large.  Though  private 
property  ceased  within  the  brotherhood,  the  brother- 
hood itself  soon  became  rich  and  influential.  It 
possessed  the  privilege  that  once  or  twice  a  day  the 
friars  were  allowed  to  go  from  house  to  house  collect- 
ing alms.  These  collections  were  a  kind  of  voluntary 
tax  for  the  support  of  the  poor,  and  as  every  kind  of 
contribution  might  be  given,  from  a  handful  of  rice 
to  large  tracts  of  land,  the  wealth  of  the  Buddhist 
fraternities  all  over  India  became  soon  very  con- 
siderable. 

This  social  side  of  Buddhism  is  but  seldom  taken 
into  account,  though  the  social  revolution  it  represents 
has  but  few  parallels  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Most  people  are  attracted  by  the  doctrines  of  Buddhism, 
by  its  moral  code,  its  parables,  and  its  metaphysical 
teaching.  But  as  one  of  the  many  solutions  of  the 
problem  of  poverty,  or  as  an  attempt  at  constructing 
a  society  in  which  no  one  should  stand  alone  or  feel 
himself  forsaken,  in  which,  in  fact,  each  neighbour 
should  love  his  neighbour  as  himself,  not  only  in 
word  but  in  very  deed,  I  think  it  deserves  the 
attention  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  historical 
development  of  charity.  Those  who  wish  to  know 
more  of  the  organisation  of  the  Buddhist  fraternities 
will  find  the  fullest  information  in  the  translation  of 
the  'Vinaya  Texts'  by  Professor  Rhys  Davids  and 


BUDDHIST    CIIARITY.  443 

Professor  Oldenberg,  in  the  '  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East,'  numbers  xiii,  xvii,  and  xx,  contaiuicg  the  very 
statutes  of  these  fraternities,  as  settled  at  the  First 
and  Second  Councils. 

You  will  now  understand  what  I  moan  by  saying 
that  in  one  sense  Buddhism  and  charity  are  syno- 
nymous terms.  The  Buddhist  brother  lives  on  the 
charity  of  his  brotherhood,  or  of  the  monastery  or 
college  to  which  he  belongs.  The  brotherhood  lives 
on  the  charity  of  what  we  may  call  the  laity,  the 
Upasakas,  those  who,  though  they  do  not  join  the 
brotherhood,  support  it  as  a  religious  duty  by  their 
alms.  Charity,  therefore,  is  the  very  life  and  soul  of 
Buddhism  :  or,  as  it  has  been  expressed  by  a  Buddhist, 
'  Charity,  courtesy,  benevolence,  unselfishness,  are  to 
the  world  what  the  linchpin  is  to  the  rolling  chariot  ^' 

But  charity  with  the  Buddhists  is  not  confined  to 
giving  alms ;  charity  with  them  is  one  of  the  six,  or 
ten,  highest  perfections,  what  they  call  paramitas, 
and  then  becomes  complete  self-surrender,  carried  to 
such  an  extreme  that  to  our  Western  minds  it  becomes 
unreal  and  almost  grotesque.  The  six  paramitas 
are  —  charity,  morality,  long-suffering,  earnestness, 
concentration,  wisdom,  and  prudence.  On  every  one 
of  these  virtues  I  might  speak  to  you,  not  for  hours, 
but  for  da3's,  and  it  is  this  abundance  of  mateiial 
which  makes  it  so  difficult  to  speak  or  write  of 
Buddhism. 

However,  I  must  try  to  follow  the  good  example  of 
our  friends  here,  who,  in  grappling  with  an  immensity 
of  misery  by  which  they  find  themselves  surrounded, 

'  Childers,  '  Whole  Duty  of  a  Buddhist  Layman,'  Conf.  Eeiiew, 
p.  418. 


444  HECENT   ESSAYS. 

are  satisfied  to  do  what  they  can  do,  who  have  the 
courage  to  do  a  little,  and  not  to  leave  everything 
undone,  because  they  cannot  do  everything  they 
w^ould  wish  to  do. 

Buddhism  is  very  fond  of  parables :  in  fact,  most  of 
the  fables  and  parables  of  European  literature  come 
from  the  East.  Again  a  subject  of  immense  propor- 
tions which  we  must  leave  aside  K  Instead  of  long 
philosophical  or  moral  discussions,  the  Buddhist 
Scriptures  constantly  give  us  a  short  parable.  And 
there  is  a  very  peculiar  class  of  parables  which  are 
called  Gatakas,  or  stories  of  former  lives.  Strange 
as  they  seem  to  us,  the}''  are  quite  natural  in  Buddhism. 
No  Hindu,  whether  Brahman  or  Buddhist,  was  ever 
so  foolish  as  to  imagine  that  his  real  existence  began 
with  this  life  of  his  on  earth.  How  this  idea  could 
ever  have  taken  possession  of  the  Western  mind  would 
be  a  curious  subject  of  study — but,  again,  we  can  only 
look  and  pass  on. 

Now  while  much  of  our  moral  teaching  is  based  on 
a  belief  in  rewards  and  punishments  in  a  future  life, 
the  Buddhist  morality  was  based  on  a  belief  in  rewards 
and  punishments  in  this  life. 

When  we  ask,  and  ask  in  vain,  why  a  man  whom 
we  know  to  be  good  is  overwhelmed  with  misery, 
while  another  whom  we  know  to  be  bad  enjoys  every 
blessing  that  life  can  give,  the  Buddhist  is  never  at 
a  loss.  It  is  so,  he  says,  because  the  man  had  done 
good  or  evil  in  a  former  life,  which  is  now  bearing 
fruit.  It  cannot  be  otherwise,  according  to  the 
Buddhist  views  of  the  world,  and  according  to  the 
Buddhist  belief  in  the  continuity  of  good  and  evil 

'  See  '  Migration  of  Fables/  in  '  Selected  Essays,'  vol.  i.  p.  50D. 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  445 

for  all  time.  And  the  moral  effect  is  much  the  same. 
The  unhappy  man  is  told  that  he  is  sufiering  here 
justly  for  his  former  misdeeds,  and  that,  knowing 
now  the  wages  of  sin,  he  must  strive  continually  to 
lay  up  a  better  store  for  the  life  to  come.  A  happy 
man  is  told  that,  having  once  tasted  the  happiness 
which  can  only  be  the  reward  of  good  w^orks,  he 
ought  to  strive  all  the  more  to  secure  his  further 
progress  towards  the  highest  perfection. 

No  one  is  exempt  from  the  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
not  even  the  Buddha  himself,  at  least  before  he 
became  Buddha,  that  is,  'fully  enlightened.'  Before 
he  could  reach  Buddhahood,  which  is  a  rank  higher 
than  that  of  all  the  gods,  he  had  to  work  his  way 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  stage,  and  had  to  pass 
through  many  existences  before  finding  himself,  or 
his  true  Self,  and  thus  reaching  the  highest  beatitude. 

The  Buddha,  when  fighting  on  earth  his  last  fight 
with  the  powers  of  darkness,  with  Mara,  the  lord  of 
death,  the  spirit  of  evil,  challenges  Mara  by  saying : 
'To  me  now  belongs  the  throne  which  was  occupied 
by  former  Bodhisattvas  after  they  had  practised  the 
ten  perfections.  Or  canst  thou  produce  any  witness 
as  to  thy  having  practised  the  high  virtue  of  charity?' 
Then  the  Spirit  of  darkness  stretched  out  his  hand 
and  called  upon  his  followers,  saying,  'All  these  are 
my  witnesses.'  And  a  shout  arose  from  the  people, 
crying,  'We  testify,  we  testify  ! '  Then  Mara,  the  evil 
spirit,  said,  'And  thou,  Siddhartha^,  who  can  bear 

'  The  name  given  to  the  Buddha  by  his  parents.  It  means 'he  in 
whom  or  by  whom  all  desires  are  fulfilled.'  The  father  of  Mahavira 
was  likewise  called  Siddhartha.  See  '  Kalpa-Siitra,'  translated  by 
Jacobi, '  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,'  vol.  xxii.  p.  241. 


446  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

witness  to  thy  acts  of  charity  ? '  The  Euddha  replied, 
'  Thou  hast  living  witnesses  here.  I  have  none.  Eut 
I  call  upon  the  Earth,  though  she  is  unconscious,  to 
bear  witness  that  during  my  last  existence,  I,  as 
Visvantara '  (in  Pali,  Vessantara),  '  have  performed 
seven  hundred  great  acts  of  charity,  to  s&j  nothing 
of  acts  of  mercy  performed  in  earlier  existences.' 
Then  he  drew  his  right  hand  from  under  his  cloak 
and  stretched  it  forth  to  the  Earth.  And  a  voice 
arose  from  the  Earth,  saying,  '  I  can  bear  witness  to 
thy  charity.'  And  such  was  the  thunder  of  that 
voice  that  it  crushed  the  host  of  the  enemy.  The 
followers  of  Mara  fled,  and  heavenly  voices  shouted, 
'  Mara,  Death,  is  conquered !  Prince  Siddhartha  has 
triumphed ! ' 

The  story  of  the  Buddha's  last  life  as  Visvantara, 
to  which  the  Buddha  himself  here  appeals  as  the 
crowning  achievement  in  his  endeavours  to  become 
a  Euddha,  is  one  of  the  most  popular  stories  of  the 
Buddhists  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  exists  in  the 
Northern  as  well  as  in  the  Southern  canon.  We 
see  it  represented  on  some  of  the  earliest  Buddhist 
sculptures,  and  we  shall  probably  not  be  wrong  in 
looking  upon  it  as  the  earliest  attempt  at  telling  the 
history  of  the  Buddha,  previous  to  his  last  life  on 
earth.  The  story  is  rather  long,  and  I  shall  have  to 
shorten  it  if  I  mean  to  keep  within  the  limits  assigned 
to  this  lecture.  Much  in  it  will  sound  strange  and 
repellent  to  your  ears.  Eut  in  spite  of  Eastern 
fervour  and  Eastern  extravagance  you  will  easily 
discern  behind  the  theatrical  veil  the  high  ideal  of 
charity  which  enlightened  the  minds  and  warmed  the 
hearts  of  the  early  followers  of  the  Buddha,  as   it 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  447 

enlisrbtened  the  minds  and  warmed  the  hearts  of  the 
early  followers  of  the  Christ. 

'  There  ruled  in  remote  times  in  the  city  of  Gayatuni 
(die  capital  of  the  Sivis)  a  king  called  Sanda.  His 
Avife,  Phusati,  had  desired  during  many  years  to 
Lecome  the  mother  of  a  Buddha. 

'  At  last  she  had  a  son,  wdiom  they  called  Vessantara. 
From  the  moment  of  his  birth — for  he  could  speak  at 
once — he  gave  proof  that  his  heart  was  full  of  charity. 
When  he  had  arrived  at  manhood,  he  married  the 
beautiful  princess  Madri.  His  father  ceded  the  king- 
dom to  him,  and  during  the  few  years  of  their  happy 
married  life  two  children  w^ere  born  to  them,  called 
Galiya  and  Krishna  f/ina. 

'  At  this  time  there  was  a  famine  in  Kalinga,  and 
the  king  of  that  country,  hearing  that  Vessantara 
possessed  a  White  Elephant  w^ho  had  the  power  to 
cause  rain  (most  likely  intended  at  first  for  a  cloud), 
sent  eight  Brahmans  to  ask  for  it.  When  they 
arrived,  King  Vessantara  was  just  riding  on  the 
AVhite  Elephant  on  his  way  to  the  public  alms-hall 
to  distribute  the  royal  bounty.  He  asked  the  Brah- 
mans what  they  w^anted,  and  when  he  heard  their 
request,  he  expressed  his  regret  that  they  did  not 
ask  for  more :  for  his  e}' es  and  his  very  life  would 
have  been  at  their  service,  if  by  such  generosity  he 
might  in  the  future  become  a  Euddha.  The  people, 
however,  were  displeased  at  the  departure  of  the 
White  Elephant,  and  requested  the  father  of  King 
Vessantara  to  punish  his  son  for  his  reckless  generosity. 
The  father  consented,  and  the  next  morning  King 
Vessantara  was  banished  to  the  rock  Vankagiri.  The 
young  king  accepted  his  punishment  gladly.    He  told 


443  HECEXT   ESSAYS. 

his  wife  that  she  might  remain  at  Court  to  watch 
over  their  children  ;  but  his  wife  declared  she  would 
rather  die  than  leave  him.  They  then  collected  all 
their  treasures  and  distributed  them  among  the  beggars. 
Their  treasury  was  thrown  open  to  the  people,  who 
swarmed  in  like  bees  flj'ing  to  a  forest  covered  with 
lotus-flowers  newly  blown.  When  the  king  and 
queen  had  given  away  all  theii'  valuables,  elephants 
and  horses,  jewels  and  pearls,  they  took  leave  of 
their  parents  and  departed  towards  the  north  in  a 
chariot,  the  young  queen  taking  her  daughter  in  her 
arms  and  her  son  by  the  hand. 

'  The  queen-mother  sent  after  them  a  thousand 
waggons  filled  with  useful  and  valuable  things,  but 
they  gave  them  all  away. 

'  Soon  after  their  departure  two  Brahmans,  who 
knew  of  Vessantara's  charity,  came  to  ask  alms  from 
him,  and  when  they  found  he  had  left  the  city  they 
followed  him  and  asked  him  for  the  horses  of  his 
chariot. 

'  Vessantara  gave  them  at  once,  but  Indra,  the  king 
of  the  gods,  immediately  replaced  them  by  four  divine 
horses.  They  had  hardly  proceeded  a  few  steps  further, 
when  another  Brahman  beggar  cried  out,  "  Sir,  I  am 
old,  sick,  and  weary ;  give  mo  your  chariot."  Ves- 
santara descended  from  his  chariot,  gave  it  to  the 
beggar,  and  proceeded  with  his  wife  and  children  on 
foot.  Though  the  road  was  rough,  and  they  had  now 
to  live  on  the  fruits  of  trees  and  water  from  the 
ponds,  their  minds  were  full  of  happiness,  from  the 
remembrance  of  the  alms  they  had  bestowed  on  the 
beggars. 

'  On  their  way  north  they  had  to  pass  through  the 


BUDDHIST    CHARITY.  449 

kingdom  of  the  father  of  Madri,  Vessantara's  queen. 
They  were  persuaded  to  stay  with  him  seven  days, 
enjoying  all  the  luxuries  of  his  court,  but  they  then 
proceeded  further  on  their  painful  journey  to  the  rock 
Vankagiri.  When  they  had  arrived  there,  they  found 
two  huts,  built  for  them  by  the  architect  of  the  gods. 
They  now  assumed  the  dress  and  adopted  the  life  of 
ascetics.  Vessantara  dwelt  in  one  hut,  his  wife  and 
children,  in  the  other.  Only  when  the  mother  went 
into  the  forest  to  collect  fruits,  the  two  children  came 
to  stay  with  their  father. 

'  When  they  had  thus  spent  seven  months  in  the 
solitude  of  the  forest,  an  old  Brahman,  who  wanted 
a  slave  for  his  young  wife,  came  to  Vessantara's 
hermitage.  During  the  night,  while  the  old  Brahman 
was  in  hiding  in  the  forest,  the  mother  had  a  frightful 
dream.  She  saw  a  black  man,  who  cut  ofi"  her  arms 
and  tore  out  her  heart.  The  next  morning  she  went, 
as  usual,  though  with  a  heavy  heart,  to  gather  fruits 
for  the  children,  and  while  she  was  away  the  old 
Brahman  came  to  Vessantara,  demanding  as  an  alms 
his  two  children.  The  father  rejoiced  at  this  new 
sacrifice.  True,  he  first  tried  to  persuade  the  Brah- 
man to  wait  till  the  mother  had  come  back  to  bid 
a  last  farewell  to  her  children,  and  he  then  asked  him 
to  take  the  children  to  his  father's  court,  where  they 
would  be  ransomed  with  boundless  treasure.  But 
when  the  Brahman  insisted  on  carrying  ofi"  the  chil- 
dren as  his  slaves,  the  father  yielded  assent.  The 
children,  on  hearing  the  conversation,  became  fright- 
ened, ran  away,  and  hid  themselves  under  the  leaves 
of  a  lotus  growing  in  a  pond  near  their  cottage.  The 
Brahman  accused  the  father  of  having  himself  sent 

VOL.   I.  G  or 


450  EECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  children  away.  Then  Vessantara  cried  aloud, 
and  when  the  little  boy  heard  his  father's  voice,  he 
said,  "  The  Brahman  may  take  me,  I  am  willing  to 
become  his  slave.  I  cannot  remain  here  and  listen  to 
my  father  s  cries."  He  then  tore  the  lotus-leaf  which 
covered  him  in  two.  His  sister  did  the  same,  and 
both  children  stood  crying  and  clinging  to  their  un- 
happy father.  At  last  the  father,  seeing  that  thus 
only  he  could  become  a  Buddha  and  save  all  beings 
from  the  misery  of  repeated  births,  poured  water  on 
the  heads  of  the  Brahman,  thus  delivering  the  children 
to  be  his  property  and  his  slaves.' 

More  harrowing  scenes  follow.  The  children  escape 
from  the  old  Brahman  and  run  back  to  their  father. 
The  boy  wants  to  see  his  mother  once  more  ;  and  then 
he  wishes  to  go  alone,  because  his  little  sister  is  too 
tender  and  unfit  to  walk  on  the  hard  stones.  Soon, 
however,  the  old  Brahman,  looking  like  an  executioner, 
returns  and  claims  the  children  once  more,  ties  them 
together  by  a  withy,  and  drives  them  along  with 
a  stick.  ^Yhen  the  father  saw  the  blood  trickling 
down  their  backs,  his  heart  began  to  fail  him  once 
more ;  but  it  was  too  late. 

The  poet  now  describes  how  the  children  passed 
along  the  shady  places  where  they  had  often  played 
together,  and  the  cave  in  which  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  make  figures  in  clay,  and  the  trees  growing 
by  their  favourite  pond.  '  Fare  ye  well,'  they  said, 
'  ye  trees  that  put  forth  your  beautiful  blossoms,  and 
ye  pools  in  whose  waters  we  have  dabbled  ;  ye  birds 
that  have  sung  us  sweet  songs,  and  ye  nymphs  that 
have  danced  before  us  and  clapped  your  hands.  Tell 
our  mother  that  we  have  given  you  all  a  parting  fare- 


BUDDHIST    CIIArvITY.  451 

well.  You  dear  spirits,  and  ye  animals  with  whom 
we  have  sported,  let  our  mother  know  Itow  we  have 
passed  along  this  road.' 

Enough  of  this,  for  even  much  worse  is  to  follow. 
The  poor  mother,  frightened  by  her  dream  and  by 
other  ominous  signs,  returns  home,  rushes  into  her 
husband's  cottage,  and  asks,  '  Where  are  the  children  1 ' 

The  father  remained  silent  for  a  time,  but  at  last  he 
had  to  confess  that  he  had  given  the  childi-en  away 
because  a  Brahman  had  demanded  them  as  an  alms. 
On  hearing  this  the  mother  falls  to  the  ground  sense- 
less. Her  husband  sprinkles  her  with  water,  and  at 
last  she  revives.  Then  her  husband  explains  to  her 
that  even  the  surrender  of  his  children  was  necessary 
for  obtaining  the  Buddhahood;  and  she  exclaims, 
'  The  Buddhahood  is  better  than  a  hundred  thousand 
of  children — only  let  the  reward  for  this  act  of  charity 
be  shared  by  the  whole  world.' 

Husband  and  wife  were  now  left  alone  in  the  forest, 
and  the  very  gods  began  to  be  afraid  of  what  might 
follow — namely,  that  Vessantara,  if  asked,  would  part 
even  with  his  beloved  wife.  Indra  therefore,  the 
chief  of  the  gods,  assumed  the  shape  of  a  Brahman 
mendicant,  and  begged  Vessantara  to  give  him  his 
wife  to  be  his  slave.  Husband  and  wife  look  at  each 
other,  and  say,  '  Yes,  let  it  be  so,  if  thus  only  Vessan- 
tara can  become  the  Buddha,  the  saviour  of  the 
world.'  Then  the  earth  shook,  and  Indra  showed 
himself  in  his  real  character,  telling  Vessantara  that 
his  wife  was  to  remain  with  him,  and  that  as  she  now 
belonged  to  another,  namely  to  Indra,  he  had  no  right 
ever  to  part  with  her. 

After  this,  of  course,  all  ends  well.     The  old  Brah- 

G  .2:  2 


452  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

man  dies  from  over-eating.  The  children, Vessantara's 
father  and  mother,  all  their  old  friends,  even  the 
White  Elephant,  come  to  the  hermitage  to  conduct 
the  two  hermits  back  to  their  capital  and  their  throne  ; 
and,  after  a  prosperous  reign,  Vessantara  ascends  to 
the  world  of  the  Blessed,  to  be  re-born  once  more 
only,  as  Gautama,  the  Buddha,  the  founder  of  what  we 
call  historical  Buddhism,  in  the  fifth  century  B.C. 

Here  you  see  what  the  Buddha  meant  by  charity, 
not  simply  giving  of  alms,  not  simply  giving  out  of 
our  abundance,  giving,  in  fact,  what  we  ourselves  do 
neither  want  nor  miss,  but  a  readiness  to  give  up 
everything,  even  what  is  dearest  to  us  ;  not  only  our 
jewels  and  our  land,  but  our  life,  nay,  even  more  than 
our  life,  our  wife  and  children,  that  so  we  may  obtain 
what  is  called  Buddhahood,  and  be  able  to  save  our- 
selves and  our  brethren  from  ignorance,  misery,  sin, 
and  eternal  transmigration. 

I  said  before  that  Buddhism  and  charity  are  syno- 
nymous. It  was  charity,  as  preached  and  practised 
in  his  last  life,  that  enabled  Gautama  to  reach  the 
highest  perfection  in  his  life,  when  he  preached  and 
practised  the  Law.  There  is  one  more  Buddha  to 
come,  who  is  called  Maitreya,  the  teacher  of  Maitri  or 
Love.  That  love  is  described  in  the  following  words  : — 
'  As  a  mother,  even  at  the  risk  of  her  own  life,  pro- 
tects her  son,  her  only  son,  so  let  there  be  love  with- 
out measure  among  all  beings.  Let  love  without 
measure  prevail  in  the  whole  world,  above,  below, 
around,  unstinted,unnuxed  with  any  feeling  of  differing 
or  opposing  interests.  Then  the  saying  will  be  fulfilled : 
"  Even  in  this  world  holiness  has  been  found." ' 

Will  Buddhists  ever  learn  that  this  Buddha  of  the 


BUDDHIST   ClIArLlTY.  453 

future,  this  Maitreya,  this  teacher  of  love,  not  of  the 
law,  lias  appeared?  Or  is  it  really  true  that  he  has 
not  appeared  yet,  and  that  we  ourselves  are  living, 
like  Gautama,  five  hundred  years  before  Christ  1 

I  told  you  before  that  in  speaking  of  Buddhist 
charity  I  was  speaking  of  Buddhism  in  its  social 
aspect  only.  No  doubt  Buddhist  charity  has  a  reli- 
gious and  metaphysical  character  also ;  but  there  is 
no  time  to  speak  of  all  that  to-day. 

Buddhism  teaches  in  the  very  words  of  Christianity 
that  we  should  love  our  neighbours  as  ourselves. 
And  why?  Not  from  any  enthusiasm  of  humanity, 
but  simply  because  they  are  like  ourselves ;  because 
they  suffer  as  we  suffer,  and  rejoice  as  we  rejoice. 

The  Indian  philosopher,  however,  goes  a  step 
further.  He  would  show  that  we  are  all  mere  sparks 
or  rays  of  light  from  one  common  source,  perceptive 
glances  of  one  common  mind ;  that  we  all  are  one, 
as  soon  as  we  know  ourselves,  and  have  found  our 
true  self  in  the  Highest  Self.  Having  reached  that 
point,  we  recognise  ourselves  in  others,  and  others  in 
ourselves.  We  not  only  love  our  neighbours  like 
ourselves  ; — we  know  and  love  them  as  ourselves. 

But  even  as  a  mere  social  duty,  as  a  solution  of 
social  difficulties,  charity,  as  enjoined  by  the  Buddha, 
has  its  deep  significance  for  us.  Poverty  and  misery 
must  have  reached  the  same  climax  in  India  in  the 
days  of  the  historical  Buddha  which  they  have  reached 
with  us.  On  the  one  side  absurd  wealth,  on  the  other 
hideous,  hopeless  penury.  We  read  of  a  man  who, 
when  he  wanted  to  buy  a  piece  of  land  to  present  to 
the  Buddha,  was  able  to  cover  every  inch  of  it  with 
pieces  of  gold.     We  read  of  beggars  who  came  to  the 


454  RECEXT    ESSAYS. 

Buddha  asking  for  a  rag  and  a  few  grains  of  rice. 
Wliat  was  the  Buddha's  remedy  1  He  did  not  invent 
poor  laws,  or  workhouses,  or  out-door  relief.  He  did 
not  say  to  the  poor,  '  Might  is  right,'  '  Property  is 
theft,'  '  Take  what  you  can.'  He  turned  to  the  rich 
and  said,  '  Give  !  Give,  not  only  one  tithe  ;  give,  not 
only  what  you  do  not  want ;  but  give  all  that  is 
wanted  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe  the  naked,  to 
teach  the  ignorant,  to  nurse  the  sick,  to  save  the 
sinner.  Give,  bec.iuse  nothing  belongs  to  you,  nothing 
can  belong  to  you,  neither  land  nor  treasure,  not 
even  your  own  body.  Give,  because  life  is  a  fleet- 
ing shadow,  which  will  scon  pass  awa}^  from  you  with 
all  that  you  now  call  your  own.  Give,  because  what 
you  leave  to  your  own  children,  and  not  to  all,  is 
more  often  a  curse  than  a  blessing  to  them.' 

We  all  admit  that  the  present  state  of  things,  what 
we  see  every  day  in  our  clubs  and  in  our  slums,  in 
St.  James's  and  in  St.  Giles's,  cannot  be  right,  and 
cannot  last.  Social  philosoph}^  and  political  economy 
stand  by  the  deathbed  of  society,  and  with  all  their 
statistics  and  all  their  learning  they  stand  helpless. 
They  have  nothing  more  to  prescribe.  Is  there  no 
remedy,  then  1  Do  the  words  that '  the  poor  shall  never 
cease  from  the  land  'really  mean  that  there  must  always 
be  squalor,  starvation,  and  sin  on  one  side  of  the 
street,  and  gorgeous  extravagance,  sensuality,  and 
hypocrisy  on  the  other  1  Was  this  life  really  meant 
to  be  nothing  but  a  struggle  for  life,  in  which  might 
is  right,  and  the  weakest  are  trampled  under  foot  ? 

Buddha  saw  what  w^e  see,  Buddha  saw  what  Christ 
saw,  and  he  knew  that  there  was  a  remedy  for  all  this 
misery,  the  misery  of  the  rich  quite  as  much  as  the 


BUDDHIST   CHARITY.  455 

misery  of  the  poor.  One  of  the  Buddha's  many 
names  was  the  Good  Physician,  And  wliat  did  he 
prescribe  ?  Something  that  required  one  grain  of 
faith  in  another  and  a  better  world,  one  grain  of  love, 
or,  as  he  called  it,  pity  for  those  who  are  our  neigh- 
bours, our  brethren,  nay  even  more  than  our  brethren  : 
one  grain  of  nobility  to  feel  that  the  hoarding  of  un- 
necessary wealth  is  mean,  and  one  grain  of  wisdom  to 
see  that  a  bow  which  is  bent  too  far  will  snap.  Tlie 
medicine  which  he  mixed  out  of  all  these  ingredients 
was  called  Charity,  and  if  we  may  judge  by  the 
number  of  those  who  have  taken  that  medicine,  or  by 
the  new  life  which  it  once  instilled  into  a  dead  or 
dying  society  all  over  Asia,  charity,  and  charity  alone, 
true  Buddhist  charity,  true  Christian  charity,  will  be, 
I  believe,  the  remedy  for  all  the  evils  of  which  our 
society  sutFers.  We  have  heard  its  bitter  cry.  In  Eng- 
land that  cr}^  may  be  hushed  by  royal  commissions,  in 
Germany  it  may  be  stifled  by  a  state  of  siege.  But  there 
is  one  sweet  remedy  for  that  bitter  cry — royal  charity, 
such  as  it  was  practised  by  the  young  and  fair  prince 
of  Kapilavastu  whom  we  call  the  Buddha,  and  Chris- 
tian charity,  such  as  it  was  preached  by  the  Christ 
Himself,  though  few  of  His  disciples  have  had  the 
courage  to  interpret  His  words  as  He  meant  them. 

However,  I  did  not  come  here  to-day  to  preach 
grand  things,  but  to  ask  you  to  help  those  who  have 
the  courage  to  do  small  things.  Remember  all  living 
seeds  are  small.  Gautama,  the  Buddha,  had  at  first 
five  disciples  only.  He  now  commands  the  allegiance 
of  the  majority  of  mankind,  and,  if  I  may  quote  once 
more  the  words  of  my  departed  but  never  absent 
friend — '  he  is  now  second  to  One  only.' 


THE  INDIAN  CHILD-WIFE. 


WHEN  we  hear  of  child-wives  or  of  child- widows 
in  India,  we  almost  shrink  from  realising  all 
that  is  implied  in  these  words.  Our  thoughts  turn 
away  in  pity  or  disgust.  We  think  of  our  own 
children,  and  to  imagine  them  as  wives  when  ten 
years  old,  or  as  mothers  of  children  when  twelve, 
sends  a  shiver  through  our  hearts.  Even  the  Hindus 
themselves  are  ashamed,  when  questioned  about  these 
infant  marriages.  They  know  that  as  long  as  the 
existence  of  such  horrors  as  have  now  and  then 
been  brought  to  light  can  be  suspected  in  their  own 
families,  no  real  trust  or  fellowship  or  friendship 
is  possible  between  Hindus  and  Englishmen.  And 
yet  they  feel  offended.  They  know  that  the  reality 
is  not  so  bad  as  outsiders  imagine.  They  know  that 
a  criminal  treatment  of  young  wives  is  the  exception 
as  much  as  brutal  treatment  of  wives  is  the  exception 
in  England.  They  resent  interference  in  the  sanc- 
tuary of  their  domestic  hfe.  '  Leave  us  alone,'  is 
what  even  the  most  enlightened  among  them  seem 
to  say.  '  Leave  us  alone,  and  we  shall  soon  adapt 
ourselves  to  the  new  conditions  of  life.  We  shall 
in  future  have  to  give  to  our  children  a  more  com- 
plete, and,  therefore,  a  more   protracted,  education, 


THE    IXDIAN    CHILU-WIFE.  457 

and  the  result  will  be  that  they  themselves  will  object 
to  early  engagements  and  premature  marriages.  All 
will  come  right  in  time,  only  do  not  force  us  to  do 
what  we  are  quite  willing  to  do  ourselves.' 

This  is  by  no  means  to  be  considered  as  a  real 
argument  against  the  measure  which  the  Indian 
Legislature  has  taken  in  raising  the  age  of  consent. 
If  what  the  best  representatives  and  leaders  of  public 
opinion  in  India  tell  us  is  true,  then  this  measure 
does  no  more  than  oive  a  leijal  sanction  to  what  was 
the  recognised  custom  in  well-conducted  families, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  will  have  opened  the 
eyes  of  thoughtless  people  to  the  fact  that  any  dis- 
regard of  such  custom  is  not  only  wrong  in  the  eyes 
of  their  own  Svamis,  but  criminal  in  the  eyes  of 
the  law. 

But  while  every  lover  of  India  must  congratulate 
the  people  of  that  country  on  the  passing  of  that 
much-debated  Bill,  it  is  only  fair  to  them  to  listen 
to  what  they  have  to  say  on  the  real  state  of  their 
domestic  life.  We  cannot,  of  course,  imagine  any- 
thing like  what  we  ourselves  mean  by  love  between 
man  and  woman,  as  possible  between  children  of  ten 
and  twelve  years  of  age.  But  Nature  is  wonderfully 
kind  even  towards  those  who  seem  to  us  to  disregard 
her  clearest  intimations.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
loving  devotion  even  among  children,  and  the  absence 
of  all  passion  surrounds  those  early  attachments  with 
a  charm  unknown  in  later  life.  If,  as  we  learn  from 
the  biographies  of  some  of  our  greatest  men,  these 
childish  or  boyish  attachments  are  not  unknown 
among  ourselves,  why  should  we  be  so  determinately 
incredulous  as  to  the  possibility  of  a  pure  attachment 


458  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

between  children  under  the  warmer  sky  of  India  ? 
Those  who  have  lived  much  with  little  children  know 
the  transport  of  love  with  which  some  cling  to  their 
mothers,  or  sisters  to  brothers,  or  boys  to  souie  pretty 
child  of  their  acquaintance.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
of  children  being  capable  of  the  strongest  fervour 
of  devotion,  not  even  unmixed  at  times  with  bitter 
jealousy.  We  should  remember  that  in  India  the 
childlike  devotion  of  a  young  girl  is  concentrated 
from  the  first  on  one  object  only,  never  dissipated, 
never  frustrated  by  any  early  disappointments.  A 
husband,  though  a  mere  boy,  is  accepted  by  the  young 
bride,  as  we  have  to  accept  father  and  mother,  sister 
and  brother.  He  is  her  own,  for  better  for  worse,  for 
this  life  and  for  the  next.  Heaven  has  ordained  it  so. 
A  husband  is  not  chosen,  he  is  given,  and  to  repudiate 
such  a  gift  seems  as  unnatural  to  them  as  to  repudiate 
father  and  mother,  sister  and  brother,  would  seem  to 
us.  Some  natives  who  speak  at  aU  of  the  mysteries 
of  their  heart  dwell  with  rapture  on  the  days  of  their 
boyhood  and  boyish  love  as  the  most  blissful  of  their 
whole  lives. 

It  is  difficult  to  remove  the  veil  that  covers  all  the 
happiness,  and,  no  doubt,  all  the  misery  also,  of 
a  Hindu  family.  It  is  the  exception  if  that  veil  is 
ever  lifted  and  we  are  allowed  an  insight  into  the 
sanctuary  of  wedded  life.  Such  a  case  happened  not 
long  ago  at  the  death  of  Srimati  Soudamini  Ray,  the 
wife  of  one  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  Brahmo 
Samaj,  Eabu  Kedar  Nath  Ray.  Do  not  let  us  mind 
these  long  and  awkward  names.  They  may  cover 
human  souls  as  simple,  as  pure,  as  brave  as  any 
known  to  us  under  more  familiar  names.     Let  us  call 


THE    IXDIAX    CHILD-WIFE.  459 

her  Srimati,  which  means  the  blessed,  or  Soudamini, 
which  means  a  lightning-Hash,  and  let  us  learn  what 
blight  liglit  she  shed  in  her  short  life  on  all  around 
her,  and  what  a  blessing  she  was  to  the  husband  of 
her  childhood,  her  youth,  and  her  womanhood.  She 
was  born  in  1858,  in  the  village  of  Matla,  in  the 
district  of  Dacca.  I  quote  now  chiefly  from  com- 
munications which  appeared  after  her  recent  death 
in  Indian  papers.  As  an  infant,  we  are  told,  she  used 
to  cling  to  her  grandfather,  preferring  his  to  all  other 
society.  She  had  but  few  playfellows,  but  those  who 
were  once  her  friends  remained  so  for  life.  Her 
father  was  poor,  but  so  fond  was  he  of  his  little 
daughter  that  till  she  married  there  was  a  new  suit 
provided  for  her  every  Sunday.  She  married  when 
she  was  only  nine  years  old,  her  husband  being  about 
twelve  at  the  time.  They  were  as  happy  as  children 
all  day  long,  and  yet  their  thoughts  were  engaged  on 
subjects  which  form  but  a  small  portion  of  the 
conversation  even  of  more  mature  married  couples 
in  England.  Young  as  they  were,  they  were  old 
enough  to  think  of  serious  subjects.  They  soon  felt 
dissatisfied  with  their  religion,  and  after  two  or  three 
years  of  anxious  thought  they  determined  to  take 
a  step  the  full  import  of  which  few  people  who  do  not 
know  Indian  life  are  able  to  fathom.  Her  husband 
joined  the  followers  of  Rammohun  Roy,  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen,  and  other  refoi-mers  of  the  old  Indian 
religion,  and  she,  as  a  faithful  wife,  followed  his 
example.  They  surrendered  all  idolatry,  all  super- 
stitious practices.  Their  faith  w^as  henceforth  summed 
up  in  a  few  simple  articles.  Thi-y  held  '  that  God 
alone  existed  in  the  beginning,  and  that  He  created 


460  HECEXT   ESSAYS. 

the  universe.  He  is  intelligent,  they  say,  injBnite, 
benevolent,  eternal,  governor  of  the  universe,  all- 
knowing,  omnipotent,  the  refuge  of  all,  devoid  of 
limbs,  immutable,  alone  without  a  second,  all-power- 
ful, self-existent,  and  beyond  all  comparison.  They 
believe  that  by  worshipping  Him,  and  Him  alone, 
they  can  attain  the  highest  good  in  this  life  and  in 
the  next,  and  that  this  true  worsliip  consists  in  their 
loving  Him  and  doing  His  works.' 

This  may  seem  a  very  harmless  kind  of  creed.  But 
to  adopt  this  creed  of  the  Brahmos  meant  for  the 
3^oung  husband  and  his  wife  complete  social  degrada- 
tion. They  might  have  kept  up  the  appearance  of 
orthodoxy  while  holding  in  their  hearts  these  simple 
and  more  enlightened  convictions.  It  is  so  easy  to 
find  an  excuse  for  being  orthodox.  The  temptation 
was  great,  but  they  resisted.  The  families  to  which 
she  and  her  husband  belonged  occupied  a  prominent 
position  in  Hindu  society.  Much  as  she  and  her 
husband  had  been  loved,  they  were  now  despised, 
avoided,  excommunicated.  The  allowance  on  which 
they  had  to  live  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and 
in  order  to  fit  himself  for  gaining  a  livelihood  the 
husband  entered  as  a  student  in  one  of  the  Govern- 
ment colleges,  while  his  little  wife  had  to  look  after 
their  small  household. 

Soon  there  came  a  new  trial.  Her  husband's  father, 
who  had  renounced  his  son,  died  broken-hearted,  and 
the  duty  of  performing  the  >Sraddha,  or  funeral  cere- 
monies, fell  on  his  son.  To  neglect  the  performance 
of  those  cei'emonies  means  to  deprive  the  departed 
of  all  hope  of  eternal  life,  and  this  belief  is  so  deeply 
inorained  in  the  mind  of  the  Hindus  that,  however 


THE    INDIAN    CHILD-WIFE. 


461 


sceptical  they  may  be  about  all  the  rest  of  their 
relio-ion,  they  always  cling  to  their  ASVaddha.  Kedar 
Nath  Ray,  the  son,  was  quite  ready  to  perforin  on 
this  occasion  all  ceremonies  which  were  not  clearly 
idolatrous,  but  no  more.  All  his  relations  and  friends, 
the  whole  village  to  which  he  belonged,  urged  him  to 
yield.  His  little  wife  alone  stood  bravely  by  his 
side,  and  when  the  time  of  the  funeral  ceremony  came 
she  helped  him  to  escape  by  night  from  his  perse- 
cutors. His  father's  brothers  thereupon  stopped  all 
allowances,  and  wrote  to  him  :  '  It  now  rests  with 
you  to  support  your  wife  and  mother.  The  income 
of  the  ancestral  property  is  swallowed  up  by  the 
religious  endowments  of  our  forefathers.  Your  family 
will  get  only  Rs.  8  per  month  for  their  maintenance.' 
With  this  pittance  Srimati  managed  to  maintain 
herself,  her  husband's  mother,  who  had  become  in- 
sane, his  little  sister,  and  a  nurse,  while  her  husband 
was  at  the  Presidency  College  in  Calcutta  to  finish, 
if  possible,  his  studies.  This,  however,  proved  an 
impossibility,  on  account  of  the  expense.  He  had 
to  go  to  Dacca  to  prosecute  his  studies  there,  being 
assisted  by  a  maternal  uncle.  They  all  lived  together 
again,  and  though  they  often  were  almost  starving, 
Srimati  considered  those  years  the  happiest  of  her 
life.  She  herself  attended  the  Adult  Female  School, 
and  so  rapid  was  her  progress  that,  on  one  occasion, 
'she  was  chosen  to  read  an  address  to  Lord  North- 
brook  when  he  visited  Dacca. 

The  rest  of  her  life  was  less  eventful.  Her  husband 
after  a  time  secured  a  certain  independence,  and 
though  their  life  was  always  a  struggle,  and  though 
their  relatives  never  forgave  them  for  their  apostasy, 


462  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

their  small  home,  blessed  with  healthy  children,  was 
all  that  she  desired  on  earth.  Her  household  seems 
to  have  been  managed  in  the  most  exemplary  way. 
Her  friends  tell  us  how  her  few  servants  loved  her 
and  would  never  leave  her.  Overkindness  to  them 
sometimes  brought  on  irregularity,  and  her  husband 
had  to  complain  that  she  was  not  severe  enough 
with  them.  But  she  said  :  'Why  should  I  lose  patience 
and  thereby  my  peace  of  mind  ?  It  is  better  that 
I  should  suffer  a  little  by  their  conduct.' 

Her  love  for  her  children  was  most  ardent.  She 
was  not  only  a  fond  mother,  but  watched  over  her 
children  and  guided  them  with  a  firm  hand  through 
all  the  temptations  of  their  childhood  and  youth. 
Her  highest  desire,  however,  was  the  happiness  of 
her  husband.  She  twined  round  him,  as  her  friends 
used  to  say,  like  a  creeper,  but  it  was  the  creeper  that 
gave  strength  to  him,  and  upheld  him  in  all  his  trials 
and  all  his  aspirations. 

Such  a  life  may  be  called  uneventful,  without 
excitement,  without  social  triumphs.  This  quiet 
couple  did  their  daily  round  of  duty  in  the  village 
which  had  been  the  home  of  their  ancestors.  They 
did  not  travel  to  see  distant  towns.  They  hardly 
knew  the  enjoyment  derived  from  the  contemplation 
of  great  works  of  art.  What  we  call  society  did  not 
exist  for  them.  No  theatres,  no  concerts,  no  dinners, 
no  balls.  Nature  supplied  them  with  all  the  objects' 
of  their  admiration,  and  religion  lifted  their  souls 
to  the  sublimest  happiness.  Many  a  delightful  moon- 
light night  they  passed  together  in  calm  contempla- 
tion of  Nature  and  of  the  Great  Spirit  who  liveth 
and  worketh  in   all.     They  well   knew  the  rapture 


THE    INDIAN    CHILD-WIFE.  463 

that  springs  from  feeling  a  divine  presence  in  every- 
thinir,  in  the  soft  breezes  of  the  evening,  in  the  whis- 
per  of  the  leaves,  in  the  silver  rays  of  the  moon,  and 
most  of  all  in  the  deep,  silent  glances  of  two  loving 
eyes.  Every  morning  and  every  evening  the  happy 
wife  prayed  with  her  husband,  and  later  in  life  she 
conducted  the  domestic  service  for  her  children  and 
servants.  When  at  last  her  health  began  to  fail, 
young  and  happy  as  she  w^as,  she  was  quite  willing  to 
go.  She  complained  but  little  on  her  sick-bed,  and 
her  only  fear  was  that  she  disturbed  her  husband's 
slumber  and  deprived  him  of  the  rest  which  he 
needed  so  much.  She  watched  and  prayed,  and  when 
the  end  came,  she  quietly  murmured:  'Dayamaya,' 
'  O  All-merciful.'  Thus  she  passed  away,  a  true 
child-wife,  pure  as  a  child,  devoted  as  a  wife,  and 
yearning  for  that  Father  whom  she  had  sought  for, 
if  haply  she  might  feel  after  Him  and  find  Him — and 
surely  He  was  not  far  from  her — nor  she  from  Him. 


AN  INDIAN  CHILD-WIDOW\ 

STRIKE  the  iron  while  it  is  hot  is  very  good 
advice,  nor  should  the  warning  of  the  Eastern 
proverb  be  neglected,  that  it  only  makes  a  hideous 
clatter  to  strike  the  iron  when  it  is  not  hot.  There 
was  a  time  when  the  iron — that  is,  the  heart  of 
England — was  hot  over  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  the 
miserable  child- widows  of  India,  and  something  was 
done  to  prevent  child-marriages  and  to  protect  the 
little  girls  who  had  become  widows  before  they  had 
been  wives.  Mr.  Malabari,  the  true  friend  of  these 
poor  widows,  went  home  to  India  trusting  that  the 
heart  of  England  would  not  forget  them.  He  had 
done  all  that  one  man  could  do  ;  he  had  sacrificed  his 
time,  his  money,  his  friendships — ay,  his  prospects  in 
life.  He  had  done  what  he  called  his  duty,  and  he 
wanted  no  thanks.  But  he  had  forgotten  that  customs 
which  have  lasted  for  hundreds  of  years  cannot  be 
rooted  out  by  one  pull.  They  spring  up  again  and 
again,  at  first  timidly,  at  last  as  if  they  had  a  right 
to  exist,  and  as  if  nothing  could  ever  touch  them. 
The  accounts  that  reach  us  from  India  are  very  dis- 
heartening. Pandita  Ramabai  had  founded  a  refuge 
for  Indian  child- widows  at  Poona.  She  had  collected 
money  in  England  and  in  America.     She  educated 

*  Letter  to  the  Times,  May,  1S94. 


AN    INDIAN    CHILD-WIDOW.  465 

these  poor  waifs  and  strays,  and  fitted  them,  as  far  as 
possible,  for  earning  their  livelihood  or  for  becoming 
in  time  real  wives  and  mothers.  But  the  law  did  not 
protect  her.  On  the  contrary,  young  girls  who  had 
taken  refuge  with  her,  after  escaping  from  the  cruelties 
inflicted  on  them  in  their  own  families,  had  to  be  given 
up  when  discovered  and  claimed  by  their  relatives. 
A  woman  in  India  always  belongs  to  somebody.  She 
cannot  exist  by  herself.  In  her  youUi,  it  is  said,  she 
belongs  to  her  father ;  if  her  father  dies,  to  her 
brother ;  if  she  is  married,  to  her  husband  ;  if  her 
husband  dies,  to  his  family.  It  was  found  to  be 
impossible  to  protect  these  unhappy  creatures  against 
their  natural  or  unnatural  masters,  who  had  a  right 
to  their  services,  whatever  services  they  might  require. 
Poor  Ramabai  might  weep  over  her  protegees,  but  she 
could  not  protect  them  against  the  law.  Besides,  she 
had  made  herself  obnoxious  to  her  own  countrymen 
by  embracing  Christianity,  and  though  she  conscien- 
tiously abstained  from  proselytising  among  her  wards, 
it  was  impossible  that  her  silent  example  should  not 
tell  on  her  young  friends,  and  make  them  feel  anxious 
to  be  of  the  same  religion  as  their  kind  benefactress. 
When  this  became  known,  her  native  supporters  left 
her,  most  of  her  pupils  were  taken  away  from  her, 
and  a  general  outcry  was  raised  against  what  was 
supposed  to  be  a  new  kind  of  missionary  enterprise. 

As  it  alwaj's  happens,  a  number  of  natives  of  the 
better  sort  came  forward  to  maintain  that  the  news- 
paper accounts  of  cruelties  inflicted  on  young  widows 
in  India  aie  very  much  exaggerated.  Who  would 
deny  that  there  are  thousands  of  well-conducted 
families  in  India  in  which  the  young  widow  of  any 

vox..  T.  H  h 


466  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

member  of  the  family  is  treated  with  respect  and 
kindness — nay,  with  a  mixture  of  pity  and  reverence  ? 
No  doubt  they  are  made  to  work,  and  in  many  cases 
the  work  which  was  formerly  done  by  them  without 
demur,  appears  now,  particularly  if  they  have  received 
a  better  education,  irksome  and  degrading  to  many  of 
them.  To  say  that  all  widows,  and  more  particularly 
all  child-widows,  are  ill-treated  by  relatives  or  en- 
couraged to  lead  a  disreputable  life,  is  certainly  a 
falsehood,  and  a  falsehood  that  could  find  no  credence 
amongst  people  acquainted  with  the  true  Indian 
character,  and  with  the  very  strong  family  feeling 
that  prevails  among  the  better  classes.  But  admitting 
all  this,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  frequent 
exceptions,  and  that  the  law  provides  no  remedy  for 
them.  On  the  contrary,  the  law  recognises  the  right 
of  each  family  to  claim  the  widows  who  have  run 
away  from  their  homes,  however  intolerable  their 
treatment  may  have  been.  Nor  can  the  results  of 
this  system  be  denied.  The  number  of  young  widows 
who  are  driven  to  a  more  or  less  disreputable  mode 
of  life  is  considerable,  and  though  it  is  difficult  to  get 
evidence  as  to  cruelties  exercised  within  the  sacred 
precincts  of  a  private  house,  cases  of  runaway 
widows  and  cases  of  suicides  among  them  crop  up 
again  and  again  in  the  records  of  the  police  courts. 
These  cases  may  be  exceptional,  but  they  may  also  be 
symptomatic  of  a  widespread  disease  which  it  is 
nowhere  more  easy  to  conceal  than  in  India.  Pandita 
Ilamabai  as  well  as  Baboo  Sasipada  Banerjee,  who 
have  both  for  many  years  maintained  a  refuge  for 
widows,  could  tell,  and  have  told,  heart-sickening 
stories.     The  last  case  that  has  attracted  attention  in 


AN    INDIAN    CHILD-WIDOW.  467 

India  is  sad,  but  very  simple.  A  young  widow,  after 
the  death  of  her  husband  last  January,  was  so  de- 
pressed in  spirits  at  the  thought  of  the  life  she  would 
have  to  live  that  she  refused  to  take  any  food.  On 
the  regular  fast-day  for  Hindu  widows,  when  they 
are  not  allowed  even  a  drop  of  water,  she  retired  to 
her  room  saying  that  she  was  going  to  observe  the 
day  as  a  close  fast.  At  4.40  p.m.  she  was  found 
unconscious,  and  there  being  no  one  in  the  house, 
information  was  sent  to  her  brother.  The  latter 
came  with  two  doctors,  but  she  was  dead  before  their 
arrival.  Some  narcotic  poison  seems  to  have  acce- 
lerated her  death.  Who  is  to  blame?  it  will  be  said. 
Was  it  not  simply  a  case  of  suicide  from  grief,  which 
may  happen  in  any  country,  and  not  in  India  only? 
Not  quite  so.  It  was  the  humiliation  and  the  austerity 
of  a  Hindu  widow's  life  which  proved  too  much  for 
her,  as  for  other  young  widows.  Death  seems  pre- 
ferable to  a  life  of  continual  misery.  If  there  w^ere 
a  life,  if  not  of  happiness,  at  least  of  usefulness,  left 
open  to  them,  they  would  as  little  think  of  starving 
themselves  to  death  as  the  widows  in  any  other 
country.  In  all  these  cases  the  law  seems  impotent. 
Who  can  prove  that  a  person  who  starves  herself  to 
death  did  not  die  a  natural  death  ?  Who  has  a  right 
to  enter  a  house,  or  to  examine  the  ladies  of  a  zenana, 
in  order  to  carry  on  in  India  the  work  which  in 
England  is  so  nobly  done  by  the  Society  for  Preventing 
Cruelty  towards  Children  ■?  If  there  is  a  country  where 
such  a  society  ought  to  exist,  and  would  find  plenty 
of  work  to  do,  it  is  India ;  only  it  would  have  to 
protect  not  children  only,  but  that  strange  product  of 
India  and  of  India  only,  the  child-widows,  children 
H  h  3 


468  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

who  are  formally  married  to  elderly  men  belonging 
to  good  families,  who  often  never  see  their  husbands, 
but  who,  when  their  husbands  die,  are  doomed  for  life 
to  an  existence  which  in  the  best  cases  is  one  of  joyless 
drudgery,  excluding  all  hope  of  renewed  happiness, 
and  full}^  accounting  for  the  eagerness  of  Indian 
widows  in  former  times  to  die  on  the  same  pile  with 
their  husbands  ;  or,  as  the  law  does  no  longer  allow 
this,  to  end  their  life  by  slow  starvation,  or  by 
jumping  into  a  well.  It  is  well  known  by  this  time, 
and  admitted,  I  believe,  by  the  Brahmans  themselves, 
that  there  never  was  an  authority  in  the  Vedas  for 
widows  being  burnt  with  their  dead  husbands.  It 
was  simply  a  forgery.  But  even  if  it  had  not  been 
so,  surely  with  the  change  of  life  the  law  must  change, 
and  the  law  has  made  the  burning  of  widows  criminal. 
Cannot  the  people  of  India  themselves,  so  enlightened 
and  kind-hearted  as  many  of  their  leaders  are  now, 
combine  to  wipe  off  the  blot  on  their  national  honour, 
and  make  the  lot  of  all  widows,  whether  young  or  old, 
not  only  tolerable,  but  honourable,  useful,  and,  in  the 
end,  happy  and  joyful  1 

P.S. — A  case  has  lately  been  brought  before  the 
public  in  India  of  a  young  girl  who,  in  order  to  save 
her  parents  from  the  disgrace  of  having  an  unmarried 
daughter,  was  driven  to  marry  an  old  man,  and  be 
a  leper  ^ 

*  Indian  Magazine,  Aug.  1 894,  p.  430. 


ON  THE 
PROPER  USE  OP  HOLY  SCEIPTUEES'. 


I  HAVE  seldom  felt  so  unworthy  of  an  honour 
conferred  upon  me  by  my  friends  and  fellow- 
labourers  as  when  you  elected  me  President  of  your 
Society.  What  right  have  I  to  prophesy  among  the 
prophets?  It  might  have  been  different  in  former 
years.  There  was  a  time  when  I  studied  the  Old 
Testament,  but  after  the  days  of  Gesenius,  Ewald, 
and  Tuch,  my  Hebrew  studies  came  to  an  end,  and 
when  lately  I  tried  to  take  them  up  again,  I  found 
my  memory  in  such  a  state  of  tohii  va  hoJiU  that 
I  had  to  give  it  up  in  despair.  With  regard  to  the 
New  Testament  also,  such  has  been  the  rapid  advance 
of  minute  critical  scholarship  that  what  in  my  youth- 
lul  days  I  learnt  and  accepted  as  the  latest  results  of 
modern  research,  has  by  this  time  become  completely 
antiquated ;  and  though  antiquated  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  exploded,  yet  the  whole  atmosphere  of 
New  Testament  scholarship  has  so  completely  changed 
that  I  feel  as  if  I  could  no  longer  breathe  in  it.  Many 
things  that  formerly  seemed  doubtful  are  now  taken 
for  granted,  and   mauy  things  that   were  taken  for 

'  Address  delivered  by  Professor  F.   Max    Midler  as  President  of 
the  Society  of  Historical  Theology  at  Oxford,  Nov.  23,  1893. 


470  KECENT   ESSAYS. 

granted  arc  now  considered  as  extremely  doubtful ; 
and  he  must  indeed  be  a  giant  in  strength  who  for  fifty 
years  can  take  his  stand  unmoved  in  the  eddying 
stream  of  New  Testament  criticism.  How  then  could 
I  have  dared  to  accept  your  kind  invitation,  and 
ventured  to  occupy  a  chair  whicli  has  been  occupied 
by  the  most  learned,  the  most  advanced,  the  most 
authoritative  theologians  of  our  University  ?  Let  me 
tell  you  frankly,  that  it  was  partly  because  I  was  taken 
by  surprise,  and  had  not  presence  of  mind  enough  at 
once  to  decline  your  kind  proposition.  Eut  there 
was  another  reason  which  kept  me  from  recon- 
sidering my  promise,  and  that  was  the  name  and 
character  of  your  Society.  Our  Society  is  not 
called  a  Society  of  Theology,  nor  a  Society  of  exclu- 
sively Christian  Theology,  but  a  Society  of  Historical 
Theology. 

To  my  mind  there  is  a  great  deal  in  that  name. 
It  shows  that  you  wish  to  see  theology  treated,  not 
merely  as  a  system  of  ready-made  dogmas,  such  as 
professional  theologians  delight  in,  but  as  history — 
as  a  continuous  growth  of  human  thought,  to  be 
studied  in  its  manifold  manifestations  in  every  part 
of  the  inhabited  world,  and  during  every  period  of 
historical  time.  From  this  point  of  view  I  may  per- 
haps venture  to  call  myself  a  theologian,  for  if  I  look 
back  on  the  fifty  years  during  which  I  have  been 
allowed  to  labour  in  the  field  of  ancient  literature, 
I  find  that,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  all  my 
labours  have  been  intended  to  illustrate  the  history 
of  theology,  and  to  help  to  spread  a  more  accurate 
and  authentic  knowledge  of  the  manifestations  of 
the  perception  of  the  Infinite  or  the  Divine  in  the 


ox  TUE  PROPER  USE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   471 

ancient  religions  of  the  world.  Historical  is  a  word 
of  different  meanings.  It  generally  means  true  or 
authentic,  as  when  we  speak  of  historical  facts ;  but 
when  we  speak  of  historical  theology,  what  is  meant 
is  not  so  much  a  study  of  positive,  readj^-made,  and 
well-established  dogmas,  as  an  account  of  the  history, 
that  is  to  say,  the  origin,  the  antecedents,  and  the 
subsequent  development  of  every  dogma.  True  his- 
tory is  never  a  bare  statement  of  facts,  but  an  attempt 
to  account  for  facts,  by  discovering  the  causes  of 
events,  by  tracing  the  influence  of  earlier  upon  later 
stages,  and,  if  possible,  by  bringing  to  light  the  un- 
broken chain  which  holds  the  scattered  links  together, 
and  in  the  end  discloses  a  purpose  running  through 
the  ages  of  the  world.  It  is  the  same  with  historical 
theology.  Its  highest  aim  is  not  a  mere  statement 
of  dogmas  or  articles  of  faith  ;  its  highest  aim  seems 
to  me  to  get  at  the  root  of  every  dogma,  to  discover 
its  antecedents  and  to  understand  the  circumstances 
under  which  a  small  and  almost  invisible  germ  bursts 
forth  and  becomes  a  tree,  nay  in  the  end  a  giant 
among  the  trees  of  the  forest. 

But  how  is  that  to  be  done"?  How  are  wo  to  study 
the  principal  religions  of  the  world  in  their  nascent 
form,  na}',  if  I  may  say  so,  in  their  as  yet  formless 
state?  The  natural  answer  would  seem  to  be  that 
Historical  Theology  must  study  the  historical  docu- 
ments of  ever}^  religion,  or  at  least  of  every  religion 
which  possesses  such  documents  in  the  shape  of  Sacred 
Books.  No  one  would  dispute  this,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
and  it  was  for  that  very  reason  that,  as  you  know, 
I  invited  a  number  of  my  friends  and  fellow-labourers 
to  assist  me  in  bringrino-  out  an  English  translation  of 


472  EECEXT    ESSAYS. 

all  the  Sacred  Eooks  of  the  East.  I  need  not  have 
said  of  the  East,  for  there  are  no  Sacred  Books  except 
in  the  East.  That  a  study  of  these  sacred  books  is 
a  sine  qua  non  for  a  historical  study  of  theology 
is  self-evident. 

But  do  they  enable  us  to  study  the  real  history, 
the  origins,  the  hidden  roots,  the  distant  strata  from 
which  the  feeders  of  every  religion  spring,  or  through 
which  they  have  to  pass  before  they  emerge  on 
historical  ground  1  I  doubt  it,  and  I  am  not  likely 
to  underestimate  the  value  of  books  to  which  I  have 
devoted  the  greater  part  of  my  life.  Yet  it  is  easy  to 
understand  why  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  principal 
reliirions  of  the  world  should  so  often  fail  us,  and  tell 
us  so  little  or  nothing  at  all  about  the  real  antecedents 
or  about  the  birth  of  a  new  religion.  Sacred  Books 
represent  almost  always  a  secondary  growth.  They 
are  hardly  wanted  till  a  religion  has  assumed  a  cer- 
tain consistency,  they  are  seldom  meant  for  the  first 
generation  of  disciples,  but  for  the  second  and  third, 
when  personal  recollections  were  growing  scant  and 
faint,  and  when  oral  tradition  was  no  longer  sufficient 
to  enable  mothers  to  teach  their  children  what  to 
believe  and  what  not  to  believe. 

It  may  seem  strange,  but  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact 
that  none  of  the  founders  of  the  great  historical  re- 
lio-ions  of  the  world  has  deemed  it  necessary  to  write 
a  book  or  a  single  line  on  which  their  religion  should 
rest,  or  by  which  their  followers  should  be  guided. 
in  our  time,  wdien  the  book  and  religion  are  almost 
synonymous,  this  may  seem  incredible  ;  still  the  facts 
are  there,  and  if  we  come  to  consider  the  case  more 
carefully,  and  from  a  purely  historical  point  of  view, 


ON  THE  PROPER  USE  OF  UOLY  SCRIPTURES.   473 

we  shall  see  that  it  could  hardly  have  been  other- 
wise. 

There  are  three  classes  of  religion,  called  ethnical, 
national,  and  individual.  The  first  class  comprises 
religions  that  have  sprung  up,  before  the  families  or 
tribes  that  believe  in  them  had  grown  together  into 
nations,  and  had  gained  that  sense  of  unity  and  com- 
mon responsibility  which  holds,  for  instance,  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  together  from  the  earliest  times 
when  we  know  anything  of  them  and  of  their  religion. 
To  this  class  belong  the  religions,  if  indeed  they 
deserve  that  name,  of  the  uncivilised  tribes  of  Africa, 
Amei'ica,  and  Polynesia.  We  know  them  chiefly  from 
the  more  or  less  trustworthy  accounts  of  travellers  and 
missionaries.  They  are  full  of  perplexing  variations 
and  contradictions,  being  very  much  exposed  to  the 
influence  of  personal  fancies  or  local  peculiarities,  and 
almost  entirely  without  any  central  or  controlling 
power.  It  would  be  useless  to  ask  for  the  founders 
of  such  ethnical  forms  of  belief  and  religious  customs, 
still  more,  to  expect  any  code  of  sacred  writings,  re- 
cognised as  authoritative  among  a  larger  number  of 
tribes.  It  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  certain  customs, 
more  or  less  religious,  are  sometimes  met  with  among 
cognate  tribes,  cognate  chiefly  in  lauguage,  though 
widely  scattered,  and  apparently  entirely  dissociated 
from  each  other  for  many  generations.  This  is  par- 
ticularly the  case  in  Australia,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
to  show  that  it  was  due  to  common  historical  tradition 
or  to  the  former  existence  of  common  sougs  and  com- 
mon laws. 

The  second  class,  the  national  rdig'tons,  have  no 
doubt  sprung  from  the  first  class,  but  they  can  and 


474  HECENT    ESSAYS. 

should  be  distinguished  as  having  become  the  common 
property  of  a  whole  nation,  nay  as  forming  in  many 
cases  the  strongest  bond  of  union  by  which  the  mem- 
bers of  a  nation  are  held  together.  These  national 
religions  are  often,  though  not  always,  in  possession 
of  Sacred  Books,  such  as  the  ancient  Indian,  the 
Persian,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Jeu'ish  religions,  but  in 
no  case  do  we  know  their  real  founders,  still  less  the 
authors  of  the  books  which  they  call  sacred,  and  by 
which  they  profess  to  be  guided.  No  one  can  tell 
Avho  was  the  founder  of  the  Vedic  religion,  and  though 
names  are  assigned  to  the  authors  of  the  numerous 
Vedic  hymns,  these  names  are  either  imaginary,  or  if 
they  are  not,  they  are  nothing  but  names,  and  give 
us  no  information  of  those  who  bore  them. 

The  ancient  Persian  religion  is  ascribed  to  Zara- 
thustra,  and  has  sometimes  been  classed  as  an  indi- 
vidual religion.  But  among  critical  scholars  Zara- 
thustra  has  long  been  recognised  as  a  purely  mythical 
name,  and  all  that  tradition  tells  us  about  him  is  now 
acknowledged  to  be  of  very  late  origin. 

We  can  certainly  recognise  in  the  Avestic  religion 
the  working  of  an  individual  spirit,  and  of  a  personal 
will  opposing  itself  to  opinions  and  customs  that  pre- 
vailed before  him  and  around  him,  but  we  have  no 
longer  any  right  to  call  Zoroaster  the  author,  still  less 
the  writer  of  the  Avesta,  not  even  of  its  most  ancient 
parts,  the  so-called  Gathas,  which,  if  Prof.  Darmesteter 
is  right,  would  in  their  present  form  not  be  older  than 
the  lirst  century  of  our  era. 

In  these  Gathaa  Zarathustra  is  already  the  centre 
of  a  mythical  cycle.  He  belongs  to  a  family,  the 
family  of  Spitarna.     He  is  the  husband  of  Huogvi, 


ox  THE  PROPER  USE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   475 

the  daughter  of  Frashaoshtra,  and  the  father-in-law 
of  Jamaspa,  who  was  the  husband  of  Zoroaster's  own 
daughter,  Pourusishta.  All  these  names  presuppose 
a  mythical  cycle,  hut  the  Gathas  give  us  no  further 
details  about  it. 

In  the  later  prose  literature  of  the  Avesta  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Zoroaster  is  fully  described.  We 
are  told  that  a  ray  of  the  Divine  Majesty  descended 
into  the  womb  of  Dughdo,  and  that  Zoroaster's  Frohar 
or  genius  was  enclosed  in  a  Homa  plant.  This  Homa 
plant  was  absorbed  at  a  sacrifice  by  Paurushaspa. 
From  the  union  of  Paurushaspa  and  Dughdo,  Zoro- 
aster was  born.  He  escaped  many  dangers  till  he  was 
thirty  years  of  age,  when  he  began  his  conversations 
Avith  Ahura,  and  received  from  him  his  revelations. 
During  ten  years  he  had  but  one  disciple,  Maidhyo- 
maonha.  Afterwards  he  converted  two  sons  of  Hogva, 
Jamasp  and  Frashaoshtra  ;  and  at  last  king  Vishtaspa 
himself  was  gained  over  to  Zarathustra's  religion  by 
his  queen  Hutaosa. 

We  are  likewise  told  that  when  Zarathustra  had 
been  killed  in  battle,  his  work  was  carried  on  by 
his  three  sons,  Ukhshyat-areta,  Ukhshyat-nema,  and 
Saoshyant,  each  born  in  a  miraculous  way  at  the 
beginning  of  the  three  millenniums  (hasdr),  and  the 
last,  Saosh3-ant,  at  the  final  resurrection  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  of  eternal  bliss  and  felicity — 
the  true  millennium. 

What  seems  to  me  to  show  the  working  of  an  indi- 
vidual spirit  in  the  Avesta  is  not  so  much  the  change 
of  the  Devas  into  Devils,  as  the  transition  from  the 
original  belief  in  one  supreme  God,  Ahura,  coupled  with 
a  belief  in  certain  gods  of  nature,  like  the  Devas  of 


476  EECENT   ESSAYS. 

the  Veda  ^,  to  a  belief  in  two  powers,  opposed  to  each 
other,  Spei'ta  Mainyu and  Ailgra  Maiiiyu  or  Ahriman, 
and  the  elaborate  system  of  the  Amshaspands. 

Tlie  same  applies  to  the  ancient  national  religion 
of  China.  Here  we  have  the  direct  and  often  repeated 
declaration  of  Confucius  himself,  that  he  was  not  the 
author  of  the  Chinese  religion,  nor  of  the  teaching 
contained  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  China,  but  that  he 
only  collected  and  restored  what  had  existed  from 
time  immemorial. 

If  we  see  this  state  of  things  in  India,  Persia,  China, 
we  shall  be  less  surprised  if  among  the  Jews  also  we 
find  a  national  religion  without  any  personal  author, 
and  a  sacred  code  the  component  parts  of  which  can 
in  few  cases  oidy  be  ascribed  to  any  well-known 
historical  personalities.  We  come  to  see  that  such 
a  state  of  things  is  not  only  natural,  but  almost  in- 
evitable. Eeligious  belief  and  religious  customs  spring 
up  like  dialects,  the  work  no  doubt  of  men,  though 
not  in  their  individual,  but  in  their  corporate  capacity. 
No  single  individual  could  make  a  dialect,  and  even 
if  he  did,  it  would  require  the  co-operation  of  many, 
before  it  could  become  a  national  speech.  It  is  the 
same  with  religion.  In  order  to  be  not  only  the  voice 
of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  a  national  religion 
must  have  its  hidden  seeds  in  hundreds,  nay  in 
millions  of  human  hearts,  so  as  to  elicit  a  natural 
response,  and  to  seem  not  the  result  of  a  dictation 
or  revelation,  but  the  genuine  outburst  of  spontaneous 
convictions,  the  sudden  birth  of  thoughts  long  accu- 

'  Sun,  Moon,  Earth,  Fire,  Water,  Winds;  Htrod.  i.  131:  Gvovct 
Sf  ijX/o)  Tf  Kat  fff  Atji  jj  Kal  7^  Kol  nvpl  ical  vSari  Kal  uvf/xotcn.  Darius 
involves  Aurainazda  as  tlie  CTCitor  of  the  world,  and  as  tiie  greatest  of 
tlie  gods.     Cf.  Darmestcter,  III,  p.  67. 


ox  THE  PROPER  VSE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   477 

mulated  and  slowly  matured  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  at  large. 

But  while  in  the  cases  which  we  have  hitherto 
examined,  we  saw  national  religions  in  the  possession 
of  sacred  books,  though  evidently  deriving  their  real 
life  from  much  more  ancient  sources,  in  fact  entirely 
independent  in  their  origin  from  the  books  which  in 
later  times  were  accepted  as  authoritative,  there  are 
other  cases  where  national  religions  arose  and  flourished 
for  many  centuries  without  anything  that  we  should 
call  Sacred  Books.  The  Greek  religion  was  a  national 
religion,  and  Ave  may  study  it  in  Homer  and  Hesiod, 
possibly  in  Pindar  and  the  sayings  of  ancient  Greek 
sages  ;  but  we  should  never  call  the  Homeric  poems 
or  the  Theogony,  or  the  Ol^^mpian  hymns  of  Pindar, 
or  the  sentences  of  Heraclitus,  Sacred  Books.  The}- 
spring  from  the  Greek  religion,  the  Greek  religion 
does  not  spring  from  them. 

We  have  thus  established  one  fact,  viz.  that,  like 
the  ethnic  religions,  the  ancient  national  religions 
also  existed  long  before  and  independent  of  any 
Sacred  Books.  We  have  now  to  consider  the  case 
of  individual  religions  which  glory  in  having  real 
historical  personages  for  their  founders,  and  are  apt 
to  consider  the  sacred  books  which  they  possess  as 
the  sole  source  and  warrant  of  their  religious  dogmas. 
The  most  important  of  these  individual  religions  are 
Buddhism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism,  It 
should  be  observed  that  they  are  each  called  after 
their  founders,  and  not  simply  after  the  country  or 
the  nation  to  which  they  belonged.  With  regard  to 
these  religions  it  would  seem  indeed  that  they 
should  be  studied  chiefly  in  their  Sacred  Books,  in 


478  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

the  Tripii!aka  of  the  Buddhists,  the  New  Testament 
of  the  Christians,  and  the  Quran  of  the  Moham- 
medans. Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  a  knowledge  of 
these  books  is  essential  for  a  real  and  scholarlike 
knowledge  of  Buddhism,  Christianity,  and  Moham- 
medanism. All  I  maintain  is  that,  as  these  books 
were  not  written  by  the  founders  of  these  religions 
(the  case  of  the  Quran  is  peculiar,  and  will  have  to 
be  considered  by  itself),  we  cannot  expect  to  find  in 
them  the  antecedents  from  which  the  new  religions 
sprang,  or  a  statement  of  the  personal  motives  which 
impelled  their  founders  to  create  a  new  religion.  At 
all  events  we  can  get  at  their  deepest  thoughts  at 
second-hand  only,  we  cannot  expect  to  find  more  than 
an  image,  it  may  be  a  blurred  image,  of  the  minds  of 
the  founders  reflected  on  the  minds  of  their  disciples. 
I  said  just  now  that  the  case  of  the  Quran  is 
peculiar,  and  a  closer  consideration  of  its  origin  may 
help  to  throw  light  on  the  origin  and  the  gradual 
growth  of  other  sacred  books  also.  The  Quran  then 
was  certainly  not  written  by  Mohammed,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  Mohammed  could  neither  read  nor 
write.  It  was  collected  after  the  prophet's  death. 
Still  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  many  of  his 
inspired  utterances  had  been  accurately  preserved  in 
the  memory  of  friends  and  admirers,  or  actually 
written  down  by  them,  though  in  a  fragmentary  form. 
There  is  an  interesting  account  in  the  famous  collec- 
tion of  traditions  by  Al  Bukhari,  about  200  years 
after  the  Flight,  He  reports  how  Zaid  ibn  Sabit 
had  related  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  first 
collection  of  Mohammed's  utterances  and  the  writing 
down  of  the  Quran.     He,  Zaid  ibn  Sabit,  was  called 


ON    THE    1'E.OPEE    USE    OF    HOLY    SCUIPTUEES.       479 

to  see  Abu  Bakr  (afterwards  the  first  Caliph)  at  the 
time  of  the  battle  with  the  people  of  Yainamah. 
'  I  went  to  him,'  he  said,  '  and  found  Omar  (after- 
wards the  second  Caliph)  with  him,  and  Abu  Bakr 
said  to  me :  "  Omar  came  to  me  and  said,  Verily  a 
great  many  readers  of  the  Quran  were  slain  on  the 
day  of  the  battle  with  the  people  of  Yamamah  ;  and 
really  I  am  afraid  that  if  the  slaughter  should  be 
great  much  will  be  lost  from  the  Quran,  because 
every  person  remembers  something  of  it ;  and  verily, 
I  see  it  advisable  for  you  to  order  the  Quran  to  be 
collected  into  one  book.'"  Here  we  see  that  even 
these  early  fragments  of  Mohammed's  utterances  which 
existed  in  the  memory  of  his  adherents  were  called 
Quran.  'Then,'  Zaid  ibn  Sabit  continues :  'Abu  Bakr 
said  to  Omar,  "How  can  I  do  a  thing  which  the 
Prophet  himself  has  not  done  1 "  '  We  see  therefore 
that  the  Prophet  had  not  collected  his  speeches,  or 
the  Quran.  '  But  Omar  said :  "  I  swear  by  God  this 
collecting  of  the  Quran  is  a  good  thing."  And  Omar 
used  to  be  constantly  returning  to  me  (Abu  Bakr) 
and  saying :  "  You  must  collect  the  Quran,"  till  at 
length  God  opened  my  breast  so  to  do,  and  I  saw 
what  Omar  had  been  advising.  Then  Abu  Bakr  said 
to  me  :  "  Zaid  ibn  Sabit,  you  are  a  young  and  sensible 
man,  and  I  do  not  suspect  you  of  forgetfulness,  negli- 
gence, or  perfidy  ;  and  verily  you  used  to  write  for 
the  Prophet  his  instructions  from  above ;  then  look 
for  the  Quran  in  every  place  and  collect  it."  .  .  .  Then 
I  sought  for  the  Quran,'  says  Zaid  ibn  Sabit,  '  and 
collected  it  from  the  leaves  of  the  date,  from  white 
stones  and  the  breasts  of  people  that  remembered  it, 
till   I    found    the   last   part    of  the    chapter  entitled 


480  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

Repentance  ^.  .  .  .  These  leaves  (collected  by  Zaid  ibn 
Sabit)  remained  in  the  possession  of  Abu  Bakr  until 
God  caused  him  to  die,  after  which  Omar  had  them 
in  his  lifetime  ;  after  that  they  remained  with  his 
daughter  Hafsah ;  after  that,  Othman  (the  third 
Caliph)  had  them  compiled  into  one  book.' 

I  have  quoted  the  whole  of  this  passage,  because 
it  is  instructive,  if  only  as  a  parallel.  We  see  here 
that  many  people  knew  certain  portions  of  Moham- 
med's Logia  by  heart,  probably  even  in  the  form  of 
Surahs,  or  chapters,  and  that  when  they  died  there 
was  great  fear  that  the  teachings  of  the  Prophet 
might  be  lost  altogether.  We  see  too  how  one  person, 
in  our  case  Omar,  the  second  Caliph,  who  succeeded 
Abu  Bakr  in  a.d.  634,  and  was  assassinated  in  a.d.  644, 
suggested  to  another,  to  Abu  Bakr  (the  first  Caliph), 
the  father-in-law  of  the  Prophet,  that  something  should 
be  done  to  collect  the  fragments  which  had  formerly 
been  learnt  by  heart  and  recited  by  certain  people. 
This  first  collection  was  written  down  on  leaves  by 
Zaid  ibn  Sabit,  who  had  known  Mohammed,  and  his 
written  leaves  passed  through  the  hands  of  Abu  Bakr, 
Omar,  and  his  daughter  Hafsah,  before  Othman,  the 
third  Caliph  (a.h.  23-35),  gave  them  back  to  Zaid  ibn 
Sabit,  and  ordered  him  and  some  associates  to  settle 
the  text  in  the  Quraish  dialect.  At  that  time  people 
were  shocked  at  the  different  readings  of  the  Quran  ; 
it  was  said  that  '  they  differed  in  the  Book  of  God 
just  as  the  Jews  and  Christians  differed  in  theirs^.* 

'  This  is  tlie  9th  Sfirah  of  tlie  Quran,  tlie  latest  in  time,  according 
to  Sir  W.  Miiir,  the  last  but  one,  according  to  Jalahiddln. 

^  This  is  curious  evidence  as  to  the  unsettled  state  of  the  text  of  the 
Bible  in  the  seventh  century. 


ON  thp:  proper  use  of  holy  scriptures.     481 

To  prevent  this  scandal  we  are  told  that  Otliman  sent 
copies  of  the  new  recension  into  every  country  where 
Islam  prevailed,  and  had  all  other  manuscripts  burnt, 
so  that  his  text  has  remained  ever  since  the  authorised 
and  unchanged  text  of  the  Quran. 

It  is  clear  from  all  this  that;  as  compared  with 
other  Sacred  Books,  the  Quran  was  collected  under 
very  favourable  circumstances.  Though  there  is  no 
evidence  of  Mohammed  ever  writing  anything  himself, 
still  what  was  remembered  and  recited  of  his  utter- 
ances, and  had  casually  been  written  down  before, 
was  collected  by  a  man  who  had  known  Mohammed, 
who  had  acted  as  a  kind  of  secretary  to  him,  and 
who,  we  are  told,  was  neither  forgetful,  nor  negligent, 
nor  perfidious.  What  he  wrote  down  at  first  was 
carefully  preserved  in  the  prophet's  family,  and  was 
finally  settled  by  the  same  person  with  the  assistance 
of  some  others  who  were  better  acquainted  with  the 
dialect  spoken  by  the  prophet  himself,  namely  the 
Quraish  dialect.  We  seldom  find  such  evidence  for 
the  authenticity  of  a  Sacred  Book  anywhere  else. 
But  even  thus  we  cannot  expect  to  find  in  the  Quran 
more  than  the  image  of  the  prophet,  as  reflected  in 
the  minds  of  his  disciples.  We  may  have  in  the 
Quran  whatever  had  struck  his  hearers  most  forcibl}^ 
but  we  can  have  it  only  at  second  hand,  and  after  it 
had  passed  through  the  memory  of  various  people. 
These  people  may  have  failed  to  apprehend  the  exact 
meanincf  of  Mohammed,  as  we  know  was  several  times 
the  case  with  the  Apostles,  nor  is  it  quite  certain  that 
nothing  was  left  out  and  nothing  added  by  those  who 
finally  consigned  to  writing  all  they  could  lay  hold 
of  among  their  friends.     We  can  thus  understand  why 

VOL.  I.  I   i 


482  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

we  find,  considerable  variety,  if  not  contradiction,  in 
statements  ascribed  to  Mohammed  in  the  Quran  as  we 
possess  it.  In  several  places  the  Quran  is  actually 
quoted  in  the  Quran,  as  if  it  had  been' known  as  an 
independent  book,  not  only  as  a  fragment  ^,  nor  as 
the  eternal  word  of  God,  preserved  under  his  throne 
(see  Lane-Poole, '  Speeches  of  Mohammed,'  p.  1 86,  note). 
Still,  with  all  these  reserves,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  authenticity  of  Mohammed's  teaching  is  far 
better  established  than  that  of  the  Logia  of  Christ 
or  the  Sutras  of  Buddha.  What  would  not  Christian 
theologians  give  if  they  could  prove  that  the  New 
Testament  was  written  down  by  one  who  had  been 
the  friend  and  secretary  of  Christ,  and  that  nothing 
had  been  altered  in  it  afterwards.  It  may  be  said 
that  we  have  traditions  that  Christ  and  Buddha  were 
both  able  to  write,  while  Mohammed  confessedly  was 
not ;  but  no  one  has  ever  maintained  that  we  possess 
anything  of  their  own  writing,  nay  any  ipswsima 
verba  written  down  when  they  were  spoken.  There- 
fore in  their  case  also  the  Sacred  Books  can  give  us 
no  more  than  an  image  reflected  on  other  minds,  and 
minds  confessedly  unable  in  many  instances  to 
understand  the  simplest  parables  of  their  teachers. 
From  an  historical  point  of  view  this  may  be  regretted, 
and  may  seem  to  diminish  the  value  of  Sacred  Books 
even  in  the  case  of  individual  religions.  But  it  has 
one  very  great  advantage  also,  because  whenever  the 
spirit  of  truth  within  us  protests  against  certain 
statements  in  these  books  as  unworthy  of  the  high 

*  See  Sftrah  XVII,  Say :  Surely  if  mankind  and  tlie  Jinn  united 
in  order  to  produce  the  like  of  this  Quran,  they  could  not  produce 
its  like. 


ON  THE  PEOPER  USE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   483 

character  of  the  founders  of  these  religions,  we  can 
claim  the  same  liberty  which  even  the  ancients 
claimed  with  regard  to  the  fables  told  of  their  gods, 
namely  that  nothing  could  be  true  that  was  unworthy 
of  the  gods. 

It  is  surprising  to  see  the  efforts  that  are  made  in 
order  to  make  it  likely  that  the  Gospels  were  written 
down  at  least  before  the  end  of  the  first  century, 
when  people  were  supposed  to  have  been  living  who 
were  present  at  the  events  recorded  in  these  docu- 
ments. It  seems  to  me  that  if  that  could  be  done  we 
should  lose  far  more  than  we  should  gain.  As  it  is 
now,  it  is  always  open  to  us  to  say,  whenever  we 
read  of  anything  that  is  incredible  or  unworthy  of 
Christ,  as  we  conceive  Him,  that  it  came  from  His 
disciples  who  confessedly  bad  often  failed  to  under- 
stand Him,  or  that  it  was  added  by  those  who  handed 
down  the  tradition  before  it  was  written  down,  and 
who  thought  that  the  more  miraculous  they  could 
render  the  true  works  and  wonders  of  Christ  the 
more  they  would  raise  Him  in  the  eyes  of  the  multi- 
tude. The  true  interests  of  the  Christian  religion 
would  be  better  served  by  showing  how  much  time 
and  how  many  opportunities  there  were  for  human 
misunderstandings  to  creep  into  the  Gospel  story, 
just  as  many  stumbling-blocks  have  been  removed 
by  a  critical  collection  of  the  innumerable  various 
readings  that  crept  into  the  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment after  it  had  been  written  down. 

All  this  is  not  meant  to  belittle  the  value  of  the 
Sacred  Books  of  any  religion,  but  only  to  warn  us 
against  exaggerating  their  importance.  They  are 
certainly  a  sine  qua  non  for  the  student  of  religion, 

I  i  2 


484  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  there  is  no  historical  evidence  that  brinofs  us 
nearer  to  the  founders  of  any  religion  than  the 
canonical  books.  We  hardly  ever  get  any  indepen- 
dent contemporary  evidence  ; — naturally,  for  to  the 
outside  world  a  nascent  religion  does  hardly  exist. 
During  the  first  generation,  a  new  religion  has  a  purely 
subjective  existence  ;  it  lives  in  the  thoughts  and 
conversations  of  the  original  disciples,  and  so  long  as 
the  first  teacher  and  his  disciples  are  alive,  there  is  no 
call  for  anything  else.  The  first  necessity  for  any- 
thing written  is  felt  in  the  second,  or  even  the  third 
generation,  when  mothers  want  some  trustworthy 
guidance  for  teaching  their  children  according  to 
what  they  themselves  had  gathered  in  their  intercourse 
with  the  first  or  second  generation  of  disciples.  There 
is  generally  no  supply  till  there  is  a  want  or  a 
demand,  and  it  is  to  the  natural  want  or  demand  of 
manuals  for  the  instruction  of  children,  that  many 
Sacred  Books,  and  particularly  the  Gospels,  seem  to 
me  to  owe  their  origin.  They  were  written,  as  we 
are  distinctly  told,  that  pupils  and  converts  might 
'  know  the  certainty  of  those  things  in  which  they 
had  been  instructed.' 

If  then  historical  honesty  requires  us  to  make  this 
deduction  from  the  value  of  Sacred  Books  as  authori- 
ties for  the  origin  or  the  antecedents  of  a  new  religion, 
there  is  another  confession  or  concession  that  has  to 
be  made  before  we  can  use  them  as  sources  of  infor- 
mation even  in  later  times,  after  they  had  been 
invested  with  full  canonical  authority  and  were 
supposed  to  have  supplied  almost  exclusively  the 
reliffious  food  of  millions  of  believers.  Of  course  we 
should  be  perfectly  justified  in  saying  that  whoever 


ON  THE  PHOPER  USE  OP  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   485 

wants  to  know  Brahmanism  must  study  the  Vedas, 
and  whoever  wants  to  know  Buddhism  must  study 
the  Tripi^aka,  just  as  we  expect  a  student  of  the 
Jewish  religion  to  frain  his  information  from  the  Old 
Testament,  and  a  student  of  Christianity  from  the 
New  Testament.  We  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  gain 
a  knowledo:e  of  the  real  religion  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans^  of  Babylonians  and  Egyptians,  of  the  ancient 
Teutonic  and  Celtic  nations,  for  the  very  reason  that 
we  possess  no  authoritative  Sacred  Books  by  which  to 
know  or  to  judge  them. 

But  one  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  for  ancient 
religions,  even  when  there  existed  Sacred  Books,  the 
number  of  people  who  could  use  them  and  be  in- 
fluenced by  them  was  extremely  small,  certainly  not 
millions,  nor  even  thousands  nor  hundreds.  The 
number  of  those  who  in  ancient  times  could  read  and 
study  books,  whether  sacred  or  profane,  must  always 
have  been  very  small.  When  we  speak  of  Sacred 
Books,  we  have  to  remember  that  for  a  long  time 
they  were  not  books  at  all,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  word. 

Whatever  has  been  said  to  the  contrary,  no  tangible 
evidence  has  yet  been  produced  proving  the  existence 
of  real  books,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  much  before 
600  B.C.  In  saying  this  I  use  book  in  its  recognised 
sense,  as  a  literary  composition,  nay,  as  a  work  of  art, 
meant  to  be  read  and  enjoyed  by  the  public  at  large. 
The  name  hook  is  clearly  not  applicable  to  Babylonian, 
Egyptian,  Persian,  or  Indian  inscriptions,  however 
long,  nor  to  Babylonian  cylinders,  nor  even  to 
Egyptian  papyri  such  as  form  the  so-called  Book 
of  the  Dead.     It  might  possibly  be  claimed  for  an 


486  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

ancient  Chinese  text,  but  in  ordinary  parlance  a  "book 
implies  alphabetic  writing,  and  something  intended  to 
be  read  by  an  educated  public.  When  I  said  that 
we  know  of  no  books  much  before  600  B.C.,  I  was  not 
likely  to  have  forgotten  the  dates  assigned  to  the 
Veda,  to  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions,  nor 
the  almost  prehistoric  dates  claimed  by  the  Chinese 
for  their  earliest  literature.  The  Greeks  were  prac- 
tically the  first  who  invented  written  books,  and  they 
are  quite  aware  of  their  comparatively  recent  date. 
Plato  seems  still  to  remember  the  time  when  literature 
was  oral  only,  and  he  does  not  consider  the  intro- 
duction of  a  written  literature  as  an  unmixed 
blessing.  Clement  of  Alexandria  also  (Strom,  i.  16) 
is  quite  familiar  with  the  idea  that  written  books 
came  into  use  not  very  long  before  the  time  of 
Pericles,  for  he  states  that  the  first  Greek  who  pub- 
lished a  written  book  was  Anaxagoras. 

There  can  be  no  longer  any  doubt  that  all  the 
Sacred  Books  of  the  ancient  world  were  composed  at 
first  and  handed  down  for  centuries  by  oral  tradition 
only.  It  answers  no  purpose  to  say  that  such  a  thing 
was  impossible,  for  though  we  ourselves  have  no  idea 
of  the  almost  miraculous  powers  of  the  human 
memory  before  the  invention  of  writing,  we  can  even 
now  convince  ourselves,  if  we  like,  by  ocular  or 
auricular  demonstration,  that  in  Finland  as  well  as  in 
India,  where  writing  and  even  printing  have  long 
been  known,  an  enormous  amount  of  poetry  and  even 
prose  was  composed,  and  is  handed  down  by  oral 
tradition  only. 

As  long  therefore  as  the  ancient  Sacred  Books 
existed  in  oral  tradition  only,  it  was  open  to  their 


ON  THE  PROPER  USE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.   487 

possessors,  either  to  keep  them  for  themselves  and 
to  a  small  number  of  pupils,  or  to  preach  them  to 
anybody  from  the  house-tops.  And  here  it  is  a  curious 
psychological  fact  that  in  many  religions  the  Sacred 
Books  soon  became  secret  books,  and  were  kept  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  people  for  whose  benefit  they 
wore  intended.  It  is  an  often  repeated  mistake  that 
the  Brahmans  kept  the  Yedas  from  all  but  their  own 
caste.  This  was  not  so.  They  kept  the  privilege  of 
teaching  the  Vedas  to  their  own  caste,  but  in  ancient 
times  they  actually  made  it  incumbent  on  the  second 
and  third  castes  as  well  as  on  the  first  to  learn  the 
Vedas  by  heart.  The  fourth  class  only,  the  >S'udras, 
were  excluded,  because  their  intellectual  and  social 
qualities  did  not  fit  them  for  such  a  task. 

Another  important  point  that  has  to  be  considered 
is  that  in  several  cases  the  language  of  the  Sacred 
Books  became  obsolete,  and  after  a  time,  unintelligible. 
As  a  natural  consequence,  the  number  of  those  who 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  ancient  sacred  language 
and  literature  became  more  and  more  limited.  On 
that  account  it  is  quite  true  to  say  that  the  Vedas 
exercised  a  very  indii'ect  influence  only  on  the  great 
masses  of  the  population  of  India,  and  that  the  people 
knew  no  more  of  their  ancient  religion  than  what  the 
Brahmans  chose  to  tell  them.  It  is  equally  true  that 
religious  customs  and  opinions  grew  up  among  the 
people  quite  independent  of  the  religion  of  the  Vedas. 
Still,  after  making  all  these  allowances,  it  remains 
a  fact  that  the  historian  who  wants  to  study  the 
ancient  religion  of  India  has  nothing  but  the  Vedas 
to  fall  back  on.  Of  the  religion  of  the  people  at  large 
we  have  no  record  and  never  shall  have.     But  what 


488  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

is  true  to-day  was  probably  true  in  Vedic  times  also. 
I  quote  the  testimony  of  a  perfectly  unprejudiced 
traveller,  Mr.  Moncure  Conway.  '  On  my  book- 
shelves,' he  writes,  '  you  will  find  copies  of  all  the 
Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  over  which  I  have  pored 
and  exulted  for  years.  The  noble  aspirations  of  those 
ancient  writers,  the  glowing  poetry  of  the  Vedas,  the 
sublime  imagery  of  their  seers,  have  become  part 
of  my  life.  But  when  I  went  to  the  great  cities  of 
India,  the  pilgrim  sites,  to  which  throng  every  year 
millions  of  those  who  profess  to  follow  the  faith  of 
the  men  who  wrote  these  books,  alas !  the  contrast 
between  the  real  and  the  ideal  was  heart-breaking. 
.  .  .  Not  one  glimmer  of  the  great  thoughts  of  their 
poets  and  sages  brightened  their  darkened  temples. 
Of  religion  in  a  spiritual  sense  there  is  none.  If  you 
wish  for  religion,  you  will  not  find  it  in  Brahmanism.' 
{Revieiv  of  Churches,  October,  1893,  p.  28.)  The 
same  might  probably  have  been  said  in  Vedic  times. 
There  was  then,  as  there  is  now,  a  popular  religion 
as  different  from  that  of  the  seers  of  the  Upanishads 
as  at  the  present  moment  the  religion  of  the  wor- 
shippers of  Durga  is  from  the  worship  of  such  men  as 
Rammohun  Roy  or  Keshub  Chunder  Sen.  The  present 
generation  possesses  the  Vedas  actually  printed,  and  it 
solemnly  acknowledges  them  as  the  highest  authority 
on  all  religious  questions.  But  the  proportion  of 
people  in  India  who  can  read  at  all  is  very  small, 
while  the  scholars  who  can  read  and  understand  the 
Vedas  can  probably  be  counted  on  the  fingers.  The 
same  limitation  has  to  be  put  on  all  the  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East.  The  Gfithas  of  the  Avesta  had  become 
unintcljigible  by  the  time  they  were  written  down. 


ON  THE  PROPEE  USE  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTUUES.   489 

as  we  are  told  now,  whether  in  the  third  or  in  the 
first  centurj'  A.  D.  The  Old  Testament  had  to  be 
translated  into  Greek,  about  300  b.  c,  not  for  the  sake 
of  the  Greeks  only,  but  of  the  Jews  themselves,  who 
in  the  different  countries  where  they  had  taken  refuge 
could  no  longer  understand  the  ancient  Hebrew.  In 
China  no  one  but  a  scholar  can  read  and  understand 
the  canonical  books  of  Confucius.  Buddhism  forms 
on  this  point,  as  on  others,  a  favourable  exception. 
Its  sacred  writings  were  composed  in  what  was  then 
the  vulgar  tongue,  and  when  that  language  had  in 
turn  become  obsolete,  translations  were  made  into 
all  the  languages  of  the  people  who  had  embraced  the 
doctrines  of  Buddha.  It  was  so  at  first  with  the 
New  Testament  also.  Being  written  in  Greek,  it 
had  to  be  translated  into  Latin  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Western  world,  into  Gothic  for  the  benefit  of  the 
earliest  Teutonic  converts.  In  the  East  we  find 
Syriac,  Coptic,  Ethiopic,  Armenian,  Georgian,  and 
Slavonic  versions,  all  proving  the  zeal  of  the  early 
Church  to  enable  all  its  members,  both  clergy  and 
laity,  to  read  the  Gospel  in  their  own  language. 
A  change,  however,  took  place  when  Gregory  VII 
ordained  that  Latin  and  Latin  only  should  be  the 
universal  ecclesiastical  language  (1080  A.D.).  The 
Slavonic  inhabitants  of  Bohemia  were  then  prohibited 
from  using  their  spoken  language  in  their  church 
services,  and  had  to  listen  to  the  lessons  being  read  in 
Latin,  which  of  course  they  could  not  understand. 
The  same  prohibition  was  issued  later  (by  Innocent 
III)  against  the  Waldenses  and  the  WiclifEtes  who 
were  in  possession  of  vernacular  translations  of  por- 
tions of  the  Bible,  but  were  not  allowed  to  use  them  : 


490  RECENT    ESSAYS. 

and  to  the  present  day  it  has  been  the  policy  of  the 
Koman  Catholic  Church  to  discourage  the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures  by  the  laity,  except  under  clerical 
guidance.  If  therefore  we  are  told  that  we  must  not 
use  the  ancient  sacred  books  of  India  or  Persia  for 
studying  the  religions  prevalent  in  those  countries, 
the  same  would  apply,  and  in  a  certain  degree  does 
apply,  to  Christian  countries  also,  where,  as  we  know, 
there  are  thousands  as  yefc  unable  to  read  and  study 
the  New  Testament.  To  hold  Christianity  and  the 
New  Testament  responsible  for  the  superstitions  and 
idolatries  of  Neapolitan  peasants  would  be  as  reason- 
able as  to  hold  the  Vedas  responsible  for  the  burning 
of  widows,  and  for  the  cruel  worship  of  /S'iva  and 
Durga,  or  for  the  self-inflicted  cruelties  of  professional 
ascetics  in  India.  The  good  elements  contained  in 
the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  filter  through,  even 
though  contaminated  by  the  channels  through  which 
they  have  to  pass.  I  was  very  much  struck  by  this 
during  my  stay  in  Turkey  during  last  summer. 
Many  Tuiks  are  still  unable  to  read,  and  the  number 
of  those  who  are  able  to  read  the  Quran  is  very  small 
indeed.  They  have  to  learn  Arabic  for  that,  for  no 
Turkish  translation  of  the  Quran  is  allowed.  And 
yet  if  we  are  to  know  the  prophets  by  their  fruits, 
what  prophet  can  show  better  fruits  of  his  teaching 
than  Mohammed  ?  You  never  see  a  Turkish  man 
or  woman  drunk  in  the  street.  Turkey  is  what 
a  bold  Bishop  wished  England  to  be,  '  free,  yet  sober.' 
There  is  no  impediment  to  drinking  except  religion, 
and  in  the  upper  classes  drinking  is  known  to  be 
very  much  on  the  increase.  The  people  who  abstain 
are  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  the  very  people  who 


ON  TUE  PROPER  USE  OV    HOLY  SCRIPTURES,   491 

are  unable  to  read  the  Quran.  Nor  does  the  Quran 
lay  very  much  stress  on  the  prohibition  of  intoxicat- 
ing drinks.  And  yet  it  would  be  absurd  to  ascribe 
the  sobriety  of  the  Turks  and  other  Mohammedan 
nations  to  anything  but  their  religion,  though  climate, 
law,  and  tradition  may  have  proved  helpful.  It  is 
the  indirect,  if  net  the  direct  power  of  the  Quran 
which  sways  millions  of  those  who  have  never  read 
a  single  SClrah. 

This,  I  hope,  will  make  it  clear  what  I  mean  when 
I  say  that  the  student  of  historical  theology  ought 
never  to  forget  the  limitations  under  which  alone  the 
sacred  books  of  various  religions  can  claim  authority 
as  witnesses  to  the  origin  and  growth  of  religions, 
nay  even  as  perfectly  accurate  and  faithful  reflections 
of  the  mind  of  their  founders.  They  are  certainly 
the  most  important  witnesses,  they  are  witnesses  that 
can.  never  be  passed  by  ;  but  religion  does  not  draw 
its  nourishment  from  books  alone,  nay  religion  has 
existed  for  centuries  without  books,  or  only  indirectly 
influenced  by  books.  Nor  do  these  books  ever  lead 
us  into  the  immediate  presence  of  the  founders  of 
religion.  There  is  always  a  mind  between  us  and  the 
mind  of  the  founder — a  fact  that  may  be  regretted 
by  certain  theologians,  but  which  to  me  seems  to  be 
a  real  blessing,  the  best  safeguard  of  the  freedom 
of  thought  and  the  best  warrant  for  the  exercise  of 
private  judgment.  We  can  hardly  realise  what  the 
efiect  would  have  been  if  the  founder  of  a  religion 
had  left  us  a  complete  outline  of  his  doctrine  in 
his  own  writing.  So  far  from  benefitting  a  religion 
by  giving  it  that  dogmatic  fixity  for  which  so  many 
theologians  are   striving,    it  would,   I  believe,  have 


492  RECENT   ESSAYS. 

prevented  the  healthy  growth  of  any  religion.  It 
would  have  become  a  kind  of  straight  jacket,  making 
every  free  movement  of  the  spirit  impossible,  nay 
it  would  soon  have  been  raised,  or  rather  degraded, 
to  the  rank  of  a  fetish,  invoked  by  thousands  with 
prostrate  intellects,  though  understood  by  none. 
Christian  theologians  have  hardly  appreciated  the 
privilege  which  they  enjoy  in  that  respect,  I  mean^ 
in  possessing  a  Sacred  Book,  the  good  tidings  of 
which  do  not  come  direct  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Founder  of  our  religion,  but  have  passed  at  least 
through  one,  if  not  through  several  human  channels, 
through  the  minds  of  those  who  honestly  confess  how 
often  they  misapprehended  the  simplest  parables  of 
their  Lord. 


INDEX. 


A,  short  vowel,  varieties  of,  in  Proto- 

Aryan  language,  p.  47. 
Abbozzo,  420  n. 
Abu  Bakr,  first  Caliph.  479. 
Academic  teaching,  297. 

—  freedom,  30S,  309. 

—  quarter,  177. 
Accadians,  63-65. 

—  original  home  of  the,  64. 
Accent  in  Vedic  Sk.,  161. 
Achaeans,    in   inscription    at    Kar- 

nak,  69. 
Adam  and  Abrahani,  time  between, 

151. 
Afghans,  language  of  the,  2 28. 

—  in  India,  258. 
Ahrinian,  476. 
Akrologiuai  theory,  the,  59. 
Albert,  Prince,  218. 

Albrecht  Dtirer's  drawings  known 

in  Italy,  414. 
Alexander,  conquests  of,  77,  78. 

—  England  has  realised  the  visions 

of,  83. 
Alexanderpol,  tomb  at,  234. 
Alexandria  tiie  second  birthplace  of 

the  religion  of  love,  79. 
Alphabet,  Egypt  the  cradle  of  the. 

59- 

—  never  a  discovery,  59. 

—  in  India  before  Alexander's  in- 

vasion, 73. 
AIi)habets,  Indian,  73. 

—  origin  of,  200. 
Amalia,  367. 

Amenophis  III,  his  correspondence 
with  Kallimma  Sin,  67. 

—  —  date  of  these  letters,  67. 


Analogy,  instinct  of,  228. 
Ancestors  of  the  human  race,  four 

or  five  different,  304. 
Andaman  Isles,  the  people  of  the, 

248. 
studied  by  E.  H.  M.m,  24S, 

249. 
Andaman  islanders,  lowest  stratum 

of  humanity,  250. 

their  customs,  250. 

Cadell  on  the,  251, 

their  beliefs,  252,  253. 

Andrea  del  Sarto,  406. 

his  betrothal  of  St.  Catherine, 

406. 

Reumont's  biography  of,  406. 

Browning's  poem  im,  406. 

his  life  and  death,  406-409. 

Michel  Angelo  on,  407. 

Vasari  on,  407. 

and  Francis  I,  412,415. 

his    frescoes  in   the   Collegio 

dello  Scalzo,  413-417. 
Anterior,  antecedent,  154. 
Anthropologist,  a  knowledge  of  lan- 
guages   a    sine    qua     non    for 

every,  242. 
Anthropology,  its  wide  field,  242. 

—  beginning  of,  265. 

—  articulate   speech   the   basis   of, 

265. 
Antiquity,  147, 

—  meaning  of,  154. 
Appreciation  of  gold  to  silver,  207. 
Arabicmore  primitive  than  Hebrew, 

49. 

—  figures,  58,  201. 

called  Indian  by  Arabs,  201. 


494 


INDEX. 


Aristotle's    jMetapliysics,   judgment 

on,  307. 
Aritlimetic,  whence  derived,  200. 
Armenian  lani^uage,  228. 

—  separate  branch  of  Aryan  speech, 

228. 

Arnold,  Dr.,  on  length  of  work 
among  masters,  136. 

Articulate  speech,  the  basis  of  an- 
thropology, 265. 

Arya,  noble,  51. 

—  tillers  of  the  soil,  52. 

Aryan  confederacy,  the  prehistoric, 
42. 

—  period,  the  united,  5000  B.  C,  46. 
10,000  B.  c,  48. 

—  home,   somewhere  in  Asia,    108, 

210. 

—  or  Semitic  skull,  or  hair,  191. 

■ —  language,  the  true  VolapiiU,  209. 

—  skull,  a  monstrosity,  232. 
Arvas,    original   home    of  the,  43, 

238. 
'  somewhere  in  Asia,'  43. 

—  means  language,  43. 

—  European  origin  of  the,  45. 

—  and  Semites,  original  proximity 

of  the,  45. 

—  people  speaking  an  Aryan  lan- 

guage, 23S. 

—  are    brachycephalic  and  brown- 

eyed,  240. 

—  are    dolichocephalic    and    blue- 

eyed,  240. 

—  what  they  are,  258. 

'  Asia,  somewhere  in,'  the  original 

home  of  the  Ai-yas.  43,  240. 
Asoka,  on  Buddha's  teaching,  17. 

—  council  of,  74. 

—  inscriptions  of,  149-432. 
A*ramas,   the  four,    12S-131,    437, 

43S. 
Assyria   and  Babylon,   monuments 

of,  164. 
A  sty,  town,  160. 
Athapascans,  the  savage,  266. 
Australia,    all   dialects  of,  varieties 

of  one  speech,  267. 
Australians  and  Greeks,   ancestors 

of,  224. 


Australians   and  Greek?:,  originally 

Dravidians,  266,  267. 
AvidyS,,    ignorance,    the    beginning 

of  Karman,  284. 

BABYLON  and  Nineveh,  56. 

—  prayers  of,  55. 

—  history  of,  152. 

constructive  rather  than  au- 
thentic, 11^3. 

Babylonian  gods,  worshipped  by  tlie 
Jews,  69. 

—  cylinders  in  foreign  tombs,  69, 

70. 

—  niana,  71. 

—  literature  begins.  153. 

—  gold     shekel,    the    standard    of 

ancient  gold  coins,  206. 

—  mina,  288. 

Bactrians  and  Caspians,  145. 
Baggesen's  festival,  368-370. 

—  Schiller's  letter  to,  376. 
Bairat  Inscription,  17  11. 
Basilius,  12. 

Beautiful,  vision  of  the,  409. 

—  what  is  it  ?  41C,  411. 

Benfey,  on  the  European  origin  of 
the  Aryas,  45. 

—  his  labours,  52. 

Bengali,  relation  of,  to  the  Aryan 
and  aboriginal  languages  of 
India,  217. 

Bentinck,  Lord,  and  Carlyle,  341. 

Berlin,  Seminary  of  Oriental  studies, 
100,  103. 

Betrothal  of  St.  Catherine  by  An- 
drea del  Sarto,  406. 

Beveridge,  Bishop,  on  testing  one's 
religion,  299. 

Bhavnagar,  State  of,  140,   141. 

Bible,  whole,  learnt  by  heart,  294. 

—  Society,  number  of  its  transla- 

tions, 357. 

—  state  of  text  in  seventh  century, 

480.  ^ 

Bikshu,  435-438. 

—  Buddha  cmIIs  himself  a,  435. 
Bi-metallism,  204. 

Biot  on  Chinese  influence  on  India, 
70 


INDEX. 


495 


Bismarck's    love    of   Shakespeare, 

361. 
Black  castes,  73. 
Blessed  Three  of  Kalidasa,  11. 
Blood,  what  does  it  mean  ?  39. 

—  mixture  of,  190. 

—  bone  and  flesh,  no  continuity  in, 

209. 

—  the   same  in  our  veins,  and   in 

the  Hindus,  210. 
Books  better   than   Lectures,    179, 
180. 

—  real  first  existence  of,  4S5,  486. 
Bopp,  52. 

Borneo,  Indian  influence  in,  89. 

Biuivet,  9. 

Brachycephalic  skulls,  44,  233. 

Br.ihmanic  gotras,  261. 

'  Brahmans,  the  white  caste,'  73. 

—  claimed  the   fourth   Asrama  for 

themselves  alone,  131. 

—  black  as  Pariahs,  260. 

—  only  might  teach  the  Veda,  487. 
Braliminical  warriors  in  Siam,  Kam- 

boja,  &c.,  90. 
Brandis  on  the  ratio  of  gold   and 

silver  in  Babylon,  215. 
Brewster,  218. 
Bribu,  260. 

Bright,  John,  as  Minister,  274. 
British  Association  at  Oxford,  1847, 

217. 
Browning's   poem    on   Andrea   del 

Sarto,  406. 

—  letter  to  M.  M.,  426. 
Brugsch,     his     translation    of    an 

Egyptian  story,  165. 

—  on  ratio  between  gold  and  silver, 

206-215. 
Buckland,  218. 
Buddha,  and  Clement  of  Alexandria, 

78. 

—  his  date,  1S7. 

—  second  to  One  only,  429-455. 

—  his  challenge  to  Mara,  lord  of 

death,  445. 

—  his  life  as  Visvantara,  446-452. 
Buddhahood,  a  rank  higher  than  all 

the  gods,  445. 

—  better  than  anything,  451. 


Buddhism,  diflerent  sorts  of,  17. 

—  first  reached  China,  75. 

—  accepted    in   China    as    a    State 

religion,  75. 

—  real,  historical,  not  Esoteric   or 

Exoteric,  432. 

—  the  natural  development  of  the 

Indian  mind,  434-440. 

—  private  property  ceased  in,  442. 

—  charity,  the  life  of,  443. 

—  teaches  love,  4,^3. 

—  sacred    writings   of,    are    in    the 

vulgar  tongue,  489. 
Buddhist  council  under  Asoka,  74. 

—  missionaries  sent  out  by  Asoka, 

74- 

penetrated  Bactria  from  Kash- 
mir, 75. 

mentioned     by      Alexnnder 

Polyhistor,  75. 

in  Bactria,  76. 

in  Persia,  200  B.C.,  76. 

—  council,  first,  433. 
second,  433. 

—  scholars,  434. 

—  solution   of  the   old  social    pro- 

blem, 441. 

—  rules  to  guard  the  brotherhood, 

442.  _  ^ 

—  fraternities,  442,  443. 
Buddhists,  northern  and  southern, 

433- 
Biihler,  Dr.,  his  vote  of  thanks,  86. 
Bunsen,  218,  219. 

—  his  paper  at  the  British  Associa- 

tion, 1847,  219-229. 
Burnouf,  52,  434. 
Burton,  53. 

CALLAWAY,  Bishop,  245,  253. 
Canonical  books,  8. 
Carita  at  Paris,  the,  418. 

—  sketch  of  the,  419-424,  426. 
Carlo  di  Domenico,  the  husband  of 

Lucrezia,  408. 
Carlyle  and  Goethe,  335. 

—  learnt  German  to  read  Goethe, 

335- 

—  his  translation  of  Wilhelm  Meis- 

ter,  337. 


496 


INDEX. 


Carlyle,  Goethe's  letter  to  Mr.  Skin- 
ner about,  340. 

Carrihre  outerie,  letters  to  the 
Times.  311. 

Caste,  a  European  word,  260. 

—  Sk.  varna,  or  ^ati,  260. 

—  change  of,  in  ancient  and  modern 

India,  260,  261. 

—  not  scliool,  261. 
Castes,  white  and  blaek,  73- 
Castrfen,  7. 

Celtic  and  Saxon  blood,  191. 
Chandragupta  or  Sandrokyptos,  149. 
Ciiarity,  Buddha's  medicine,  455. 

—  ancient  and  moilern,  427  n. 

—  the  life  of  Buddhism,  443. 
Charm  in  what  ia  old,  146. 

—  mere  age  is  no  real,  14S. 
Charron's  words,  256. 

—  repeated  by  Pope,  256. 
Cheops,  Chu-fu,  286. 

Child  and  the  pebbles,  story  of,  42  8. 

—  wife,  the  Indian,  456. 

—  widows,  cruelty  to,  466. 

—  suicide  of  a,  467. 
Childers,  434. 

Children,  exposed  by  their  parents, 

132. 
China,  ancient  deism  of,  9. 

—  in  ancient  times,  56. 

—  and  India,  quite  isolated  in  very 

early  times,  70-72- 
their  literature  purely  home- 
grown, 72. 

—  length  of  history  of,  152. 

—  beginning  of  authentic  history  of, 

152. 

—  still  excites  little  interest,  169. 

—  we  liave   no   intellectual  bonds 

witli  ancient,  169. 

—  much  to  be  learnt  from,  1 70. 

—  Confucius  not  the  author  of  the 

religion  of,  476. 
Chinese  religions,  7. 

—  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  on, 

9- 

—  religion,   decision  of  the  see    of 

Kome  on,  9. 
■ —  letters  derived  from  Babylon,  63. 
not  proven,  65. 


Chinese  influence  on  India,  70. 

—  astronomy  in  India,  70. 

—  books   destroyed  by   Khin,    213 

B.  C,  152. 
— ■  Newton's  Principia  in,  357 
Christ  the  Logos,  20. 
Christian  religion,  existed    among 

the  ancients,  5. 
Christianity,    comparison     of,    and 

other  religions,  12. 

—  history  of,  treated  historically,  13. 

—  in  India,  modern,  18. 

—  of  the  nineteenth  century,  18. 
Civitas  Dei,  the  true,  1 2. 

Classes  kept  uniform  in  Germany, 
263. 

Classical  teaching  should  end  at 
school,  296. 

Classification  by  skin,  eyes,  and 
skull,  232,  233.  _ 

Clement  of  Alexanilria,  21,  22. 

mentions  Buddhist  mission- 
aries, 76. 

and  Buddha,  78. 

and  Buddhist  shrines,  79- 

Codrington,  Dr.,  on  a  true  know- 
ledge of  savage  tribes,  243. 

Coined  money,  205. 

Coins  weighed  by  Brandis  and 
Brugsch,  214. 

Colenso,  Bishop,  253. 

Coleridge's  translation  of  Wallen- 
stein,  349. 

Collegio  dello  Scalzo,  413. 

—  Andrea  del  Sarto's  frescoes  in, 

413-417- 
Eredi  and  Cecchi's  engravings, 

417. 

CaritJi  in,  41  7,  418. 

Communal  marriage,  251. 
Comparative  Philology  and  Etlmo- 

logy,  unholy  alliance  between, 

257- 
Compulsory  education,  290,  29071. 

Mill  an  advocate  of,  290. 

Comtian  epochs,  3. 
Ct)nfucius,  476. 

—  religion  of,  7- 

Conservative  party,  called  the  '  stu- 
pid party,'  274. 


INDEX. 


497 


Conway,  Moncure,  on  popular  be- 
lief in  India,  488. 

Copenhagen,  fire  at  the  Palace,  381, 
386. 

Cosmopolitan  sympathies  of  Goethe, 
326. 

Cotta,  ordered  favourable  notices  of 
the  Horae,  403. 

Crawfurd,  218. 

Creation,  the  day  of,  1 5 1. 

—  traditions  of  the,  164. 
Crimean  war,  Prussia  during,  119. 
Cristoforo  Colombo,  95. 
Ciomlechs,  Celtic  monuments,  262. 
Cross,  the,  262. 

Crown  Princess  of  Prussia,  119. 
Cruelty  towards    Children,   Society 

for  Preventing,  467. 
Crux  ansata,  bow  pronounced,  60. 
Cuneiform  writing,  is  it  from  Egypt  ? 

63. 
Cursory  reading,  295. 
Curtius,  52. 
Cyrus,  the  anointed,  the  shepherd 

of  Jehovah,  70. 

D'ALEMBERT  on  the  descent  of 

man,  220,  221. 
Daniel,  languages  and  nations,  41. 
D.-irius,  the  Jewish  feeling  for,  70. 
Darmesteter,  229. 
Darwin,  50. 

—  requires   four   or  five   difierent 

ancestors,  304. 
Dauth-us,  death,  Gothic,  t6o. 
Davids,  Rhys,  434. 
*  Dayamaya,  O,  All  merciful,'  463. 
Dead,  and  death,  158,  160,  161. 
Decay  of  religions  inevitable,  16,  17. 
Degrees  abroad,  examinations   for, 

318. 
De  Gubernatis,  vote  of  thanks,  91. 
Deism,  ancient,  of  China,  9. 
Deluge,  date  of  the,  151. 

—  traditions  of  the,  164. 
Depontani,  134. 

De  Sacy,  54. 

Devas    changed   to   devils    in    the 

Avesta,  475. 
Dhavitu  for  death,  163. 


Dhruva,  Mr.,  his  report  of  the  eighth 
Congress  of  Orientalists,  3 1. 

Dhdt^  for  dead,  163. 

Dilettanti,  lovers  of  knowledge,  229. 

Discursive  thotiglit,  188. 

Dissent  and  Nonconformity,  319. 

Dogmatic  fixity  an  injury  to  reli- 
gion, 492,  493. 

D'Ohsen,  7. 

Dolichocephalic  language,  232. 

—  skulls,  44,  233. 
D'Omalius  d'Halloy,  239. 
Don  Carlos,  Schiller's,  371. 

and  Posa,  characters  of,  3S9. 

Dorn,    Professor,     his    Grammaire 

Afghane,  102. 
Drachma,  or  half  silver  shekel,  its 

worth,  288. 
Dragomans,  loi. 
Dramatic  trilogy  of  ancient  history, 

77- 
Dra vidian  languages,  259. 
some  terminations  in ,  resemble 

Australian  dialects,  267. 
Duhitar,    Sk.,    daughter,    English, 

.285. 
Dupin's  works,  359. 

EAST,  Indian  influences  in  the  far, 
89. 

—  and  West,  when  the  frontier  line 

was  drawn  between,  37. 
physical   boundary  between, 

38.      - 

—  —  not  separated  in  early  times, 

39- 

marriage  of,  83. 

£!bauche,  from  balco,  420  n. 

Eckermann,  conversations  with,  343. 

Edinburgh  Review  on  Goethe's  in- 
fluence in  England,  335. 

Education,  289. 

—  three  stages  of,  292. 

Egypt  and  Babylon,  diplomatic  cor- 
respondence between,  65,  66, 
67,  165. 

Egyptian  religion,  6. 

—  papyri  in  Austria,  32. 

—  hieroglyphics    and    Babylonian 

ideographs,  64  n. 


VOL.  I. 


Kk 


498 


INDEX. 


Egyptian  princesses  too  good  for 
Babylonian  princes,  67. 

—  chronology,  1 50. 

—  folk-lore,  165. 
Egyptology,  55,  56. 

Eidos,   species,   meant   appearance, 

303- 

Elegies.  Goethe's,  offend  conven- 
tional, not  true  decency,  395. 

Elementary,  scholastic,  and  acade- 
mical education,  292. 

Elphinstone  on  the  villagers  of  India, 
110. 

Endogamy,  266. 

England,  political  alliance  with, 
117. 

—  the  secret  of  life  in,  185. 
English  subjects  speaking  Oriental 

languages,  98. 

—  letters,  Hamitic,  286,  2S7. 

—  universities,  278,  309. 

—  an  Aryan  language,  285. 
Eredi  and  Cecchi,  their  engravings, 

417. 

Eriocomi,  234. 

Erman,  on  a  relationship  between 
Semitic  and  Egyptian,  49. 

Eshmunezar,  sarcophagus  of,  60. 

Esoteric  Buddhism,  183. 

mischief  of,  183. 

Ethnical  religion,  473. 

Ethnological  race,  not  commensu- 
rate with  phonological  race, 
230. 

—  sm-vey  of  India,  255. 

—  terminology,  vagueness  of,  257. 
Etlinologiat  in  India,  field  for  the, 

259- 
Ethnoh>gy  versus  Phonology,  230. 

—  and  Comparative  Philology,  un- 

holy alliance  between,  257. 
Euplocami,  234. 
Euplo-comic,  234  n. 
Europe,  a  menagerie  of  wild  beasts, 

359-  .        ^ 

—  chronic  state  of  war  m,  360. 
Europeans  in  India,  258. 
Eusebius  mentions  Brahmans  (Bud- 
dhists) in  Bactria,  76. 

Euthycomi,  234. 


Evidence,    prose    and    poetical,    in 

Polynesia,  199. 
Evolution,  true,  210. 

—  theory  of,  a  dogma  now,  298. 
Ewald,  54. 

Examinations,  291,  311,  312,  315, 
316,  318. 

—  Oxford    and    Cambridge    Locals 

established,  312. 

—  how  conducted  abroad,  313. 

—  by  entire  strangers,  313. 

—  entrance  at  Universities,  315. 

—  cramming  for,  316,  317. 
Exogamy,  266. 
Extension  Lectures,  173. 
rapid  success  of,  174- 

Eyes,  colour  of  the,  classification  by, 
233- 

F,  the  homed  cerastes,  200,  286. 

Facts,  positive  knowledge  of,  23. 

Fagots  et  fagots,  263. 

Faraday,  on  the  good  of  Lectures, 
179. 

Father-right,  266. 

Fathers  of  the  Church,  on  a  com- 
parison of  religions,  12. 

—  on  animal  religions,  20-23. 
Female  childi-en  exposed  in  India, 

132. 

Fetish,  become  a  general  word, 
262. 

Fetishes,  262, 

Fetishism,  262-266. 

Figures,  our,  Arabic  or  rather  In- 
dian, 2  89. 

Firdusi,  23. 

First  man,  never  was  a,  237. 

Fison,  Mr.,  on  the  real  study  of 
savages,  243. 

Flinders  Petrie,  Mr.,  68. 

Fo,  religion  of,  7- 

Folk-lore,  mythology,  &c.,  51. 

—  of  Egypt,  165. 

Folly,  juvenile  and  senile,  134. 
Founders  of  ancient  religions,  16. 
Fouquet,  9. 
Francabigio,  aids  Andrea  del  Sarto, 

415- 
France,  Oriental  studies  in,  31-99. 


INDEX, 


499 


Francis  I  and  Andrea   del   Sarto, 

412-415. 
Fravardin  Yasht,  name  of  Gautama 

in  the,  76. 
Frederick  III,  1 1 7. 

—  his  youth,  117,  118. 

—  his  manhood,  118. 

—  his  reign,  125. 

—  the  Great,  on  man  and  monkey, 

221. 

—  his  view  of  '  Gotz,'  403. 
Frederick-Christian,  Duke  of  Schles- 

wig  -  Holstein  -  Augustenburg, 

369- 

hia  letter  to  Schiller,  373. 

his  annuity  to,  373,  400. 

Schiller's  letters  to,  381-400. 

Minister  of  Public  Instruction 

in  Denmark,  388. 
refused  the  Crown  of  Sweden, 

400. 
Freedom,  269. 
Free-thinkers  as  a  title  of  honour, 

274. 
Future  and  Past,  hardly  exist   for 

some  races,  197. 
cared  for  by  some  races,  198. 

GADAEA  and  Hidhu  in  cuneiform, 

73- 
Gandhara  and  Sindhu,  73. 
Gangooly,  14  «. 
Gaorishankar  Udayashankar,  140- 

144. 

—  Lord  Eeay's  visit  to  him,  140. 
Gatakas,  stories  of  former  lives,  444. 
Gatha  dialects,  433. 

Gathas,  the,  474. 
Gali,  Sk.,  genus,  303. 

—  opposed  to  akrtti,  Sk.,  species, 

303- 
Gautama,  name  of,  in  the  Avesta,  76. 

—  death  of,  433. 
Gayatura,  the  city,  447. 

Genera,  Nature  knows  nothing  but, 

305- 
General  terms  are  names  only,  306. 
Generations,   only   100    between  us 

and   the  builders  of  Babylon, 

203. 

K 


Generations,  100  span  all  literatures, 

148. 
Genesis,  age  of  the  text  of,  16S. 

—  when  written  down,  16S. 
Genos,  genus  meant  generation,  303. 
Genus,  301. 

—  its  meaning,  303. 

—  and  species  co-ordinate,  and  not 

sub-ordinate,  304. 
German  Emperor  on  friendship  be- 
tween England  and  Germany, 
220. 

—  Universities,  too  many  Lectures 

in,  309. 

—  Romance,  Carlyle's,  345. 

—  language  not    the  organ    of  so- 

ciety in  Schiller's  time,  393. 

—  style,  Schiller  on,  393. 
Germany,  Mongolians  in,  233. 
Gesenius,  54. 

'  Gift  of  the  god  Ea,'  or  Pot'phar, 

168. 
Gill,  Mr.  W.,  245,  253. 
Giulio  Eomauo  and  Andrea  del  Sar- 

to's  work,  425. 
Glacial  Period,  150. 
Gladstone,    Mr.,  and  the    Oriental 

Congress,  36. 

—  his   influence    in    uniting    Italy, 

361. 

Glaser,   Dr.  and  the   Minaean    in- 
scriptions, 62. 

Globe,  the,  a  mere  globule,  14S. 

Gochhausen,  Madlle.,  367. 

Goedecke,  399. 

Goethe,  Society,  the  English,  323, 

—  was  many-sided,  326. 

—  his  cosmopolitan  sympathies,  326. 

—  endeavours  after  a  World-litera- 

ture, 326. 

—  did   not  believe   in  a    universal 

language,  334. 

—  his    leaning    towards    England, 

335- 

—  and  Carlyle,  335. 

—  his  letters  to  Cailyle,  338-340. 

—  some  of  the  letters  worked  into 

reviews,  343. 

—  English  visitors  at  Weimar,  353, 

354- 

k  2 


500 


INDEX. 


Goethe,  his  completeness,  355. 

—  his  thorough  truth,  355. 

—  on  the  Gospel  of  love,  359. 

—  character   of    his    Helena,    361, 

362. 

—  view  of  Schiller's    Robbers   and 

Fiasco,  403. 
Gold  piece,  sixtieth  part  of  a  mina, 

288, 
Golden  Calf,  the,  244. 
Good  Physician,  a  name  of  Buddha, 

455- 
Gospels,  when  written  down,  4^3. 

—  early  tran>:lations  of  the,  489. 
Gotra  and  Kula,  race  and  lamily, 

261. 
Grant-Duff,  Sir  M.,  36. 
Greek  passive  aorist  in  Orjv,  48. 

—  alphabet,    proof    of    intercourse 

between  Aryans  and  Semites, 

57.  58. 

—  is  it  a  dead  language?  196. 

—  and  Latin  grammars,  too  com- 

plex, 295. 

—  religion,  477. 

Greeks  of  Phocaea,  first  coined 
money,  205. 

—  in  India,  258. 

Griffith,  translation  of  Kalidasa, 
II. 

Grihastha,  householder,  129. 

Grimm's  Law,  159. 

Gruppe's  viev?  of  intercourse  be- 
tween India,  Egypt,  and  Baby- 
lon impossible,  72. 

Gymnasia,  293. 


H,  the  sieve,  200,  287. 

Hahn,  Dr.,  245,  253. 

Hale,  Horatio,  on  North  American 
races,  245. 

the  true  basis  of  anthropo- 
logy, 263. 

his  researches,  263-268. 

Han  dynasty,  152. 

Hardship,  227. 

Hardy,  434. 

Harness,  to  die  in,  145. 

Healed  and  health,  161. 


Heart,  the,  the  true  habitat  of  re- 
ligion, 8. 
Heavyside,  Mr.,  friend  of  Goethe, 

3.S3- 
Heber,  Bishop,  on  the  Hindus,  III. 
Hebrew,      more      primitive      than 

Arabic,  49. 

—  text,  (late  of,  151. 

time     between    Adam    and 

Abraham,  151. 

—  the  original  language,  anecdote, 

178. 

—  ancient,  soon  forgotten,  489. 
Hegelian  Laws,  3. 

Heinse's  Ai-dinghello,  403. 
Helena,  Goethe's,  361,  362. 
Heliodorus   same  meaning  as  Poti- 

phar,  168. 
Helmholtz,  on  English  universities, 

275,  276. 
Herakleitos,  21. 
Herder,  324,  367. 
Heredity,  189,  283,  284. 

—  is  always  right,  189. 

—  a  nietaphor,  283. 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  23. 
Hermit,  life  of  a,  in  India,  131. 
Herzen,  his  definition  of  Nihilism, 

272. 
Hieroglyphics,  complementary,  59. 
Hincks,  Dr.,  61. 
Hindu,  a,  on  idolatry,  10. 

—  family  life  little  known,  458. 
Hindus,  their  character,  no,  ill. 
Hipparchus,  150  B.C.,  203,  287. 
Historical  method  and  school,  171. 

—  poetry,  198. 

—  continuity,  210. 

—  spirit,  the  true,  21I. 

—  meaning  of,  472. 

—  theology,  471. 

History,  difference  between  authen- 
tic and  constructive,  149. 

—  true  meaning  of,  196. 

—  when  it  begins,  197. 
Hobbes,  freedom  of  thought,  271. 

—  truth  and  falsity  exist  only  with 

language,  301. 
Hobbies,  good  of,  317. 
Hodgson's  Indian  vocabularies,  259. 


INDEX. 


501 


Home  Rule,  192. 

Hommel     iind     Schmidt,     on^    the 

original  proximity  of  the  Aryas 

and  Semites,  45. 

—  on  hieroglyphics  and  ideographs, 

64  n. 
Hood,  in  manhood,  A.-S.  had,  227. 
Hopes,  the  young,  in  Weimar,  353. 
Horae,  Schiller's  letters  in  the,  390, 

391-397- 

—  his  aim  in  the  periodical,  398. 

—  favourable  notices  of,  ordered  by 

Cotta,  403. 
Horton,  tlie  Tasmanian  belief  that 

men  had  tails  originally,  247. 
Hostanes  the  Magian,  22. 
Hour,    why  sixty   minutes   in  the, 

202. 

—  the  division  is  Babylonian,  287. 
HiLbschmann,  228. 

Human    species,    homogeneousness 

of,  39- 

—  and  all   other  animals,   specific 

difference  between,  223. 

—  race  forms  one  species,  224. 

—  beings  few  at  first,  237. 
Humboldt,  52. 

—  on  language,  221,  222. 
Hunter,  Sir  W.  W.,  1 1  ». 
Hwang-ti,  date  of,  152. 
Hylobioi,  translation  of  vanaprastha, 

131. 

lALYSOS  and  Mycenae,  potsherds 
from,  68. 

Ideographs,  64. 

Idolatiy,  definition  of,  by  a  Hindu, 
10. 

Idyllisch,  idyllic,  life  in  Goethe's 
time  was,  324. 

Imperial  patriotism,  something 
higher  than,  356. 

Imprecations  at  the  end  of  inscrip- 
tions, 331. 

Index  expurgatorius,  183. 

India,  modern  Christianity  in,  18. 

—  ancient,  as  now  known,  55,  56. 

—  astronomy  of,  came  from  China, 

70. 
from  Babylon,  71. 


India,  no  evidence  for  writing  in, 
before  the  time  of  Asoka.  73. 

—  how  to  train  rulers  for,  106. 

—  conquest  of,  107. 

—  true  conquest  of,  still  to  come, 

109. 

—  villages  of,  no,  127. 

—  villagers  of,  1 10. 

—  Mohammedan  people  of,  112. 

—  cost  of  living  in,  127,  435. 

—  school  life  in,  128, 

—  married  life,  128. 

—  property  in,  129. 

—  age  of  the  authentic  history  of, 

H9-  .      ,. 

—  age  of  the  constructive  history  of, 

150. 

—  and   England,   bonds  of  union 

between,  157. 

—  inroads  of  various  nations,  2 58. 

—  two  populations  of,  258. 

—  and  China,   entirely  isolated   in 

very  early  times,  70-72. 

their  literature  purely  home- 
grown, 72. 

Indian  religion,  is  it  idol-worship? 
10. 

—  figures,  58,  201. 

—  alphabets  are  Semitic,  73,  200. 

—  mutiny,  how  preventable,  85. 

—  civilisation  and  the  far  East,  89. 
in  Java,  Sumatra,  Borneo,  &c., 

89. 

—  inscriptions   in  Kamboja,   their 

age,  90. 
Individual,  the  word,  301. 

—  freedom  has  made  rapid  progress, 

319- 

—  religions,  477- 

must  be  studied  in  their  Sacred 

Books,  477. 
Individuality,  principle  of,  280. 

—  destroyed  by  freedom,  319. 
Individuals  and  genera,  191. 

—  must    differ    from    each     other, 

191. 
Indo-European,  the  world  becoming, 
108. 

—  meaning  of,  156,  157. 

Indra,  his  visit  to  Vessantara,  451. 


502 


INDEX. 


Infant-marriages,  Hindus  really 
ashamed  of  them,  456. 

Inglis,  Sir  Robert,  218. 

Innate  ideas,  283. 

Inspiration,  disputes  about,  192. 

Intelligence  department,  103. 

Intermarriages  between  different 
races  in  India,  258. 

Islam,  surrender,  112. 

JAVA,  Indian  influences  in,  89. 
Jerusalem,  name  of,  in  the  Tel-el- 

Amarna  tablets,  67. 
Jewish  religion,  national,  476. 
Jews,  religion  of  the,  6. 

—  Babylonian  gods  worshipped  by 

the,  69. 

—  the,  as  means  of  communication, 

70. 
Jones,  Sir  AV.,  52. 
Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife,  source 

of  the  story  of,  167. 
Justin  Martyr,  20. 
Juventus  mundi,  155. 

KAABA,  black  stone  of,  262. 
Kafirs,  or  unbelievers,  430. 
A'aityas,  or  Buddhist  temples,  79. 
Kalidasa,  Trinity  of,  11. 
Kamboja  and  Champa,  Indian  con- 
quests in,  90. 

inscriptions  from,  90. 

Kant,  formation  of  ideas,  222. 
Karabacek,  Professor,  and  the  Egyp- 
tian papyri,  32. 
Tarawa,  261. 
Karl  August,  365,  367,  375. 

Goethe    and    Schiller,    their 

tomb,  365. 
Karnian,  deed,  284. 

—  impersonal,  284. 

—  how  it  began,  284. 

—  freedom  from,  284. 
Kedar  Nath  Ray,  458. 

how   he    escaped   performing 

/Srilddlia,  461. 
Kern,  434. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  no. 
Khin,  B.  0.  213,  destroyed  all  ancient 

(Jliincse  books,  152. 


Khorsabad,  chest  found  at,  331. 

Kirstein,  Privy  Councillor,  Copen- 
hagen, 398. 

Knowledge,  living  and  growing,  212. 

—  intuitive,  213. 

Kohler  on  folk-lore,  51. 

Koran,  Goethe  quotes  the,  347. 

Korner  and  Schiller,  375. 

Kr^tu,  kraty,  might,  160. 

Ktesias  in  Persia,  and  Indian  tra- 
vellers, 73. 

Kuhn,  52. 


L,  the  crouching  lion,  200,  287. 

Lachish,  murder  of  governor  of,  69. 

Laeta  pauper tas,  324. 

La  foiza  d'  un  bel  volto,  409. 

Landberg,  Count,  32. 

Language  and  early  thought,  3. 

—  beginning   of,   the   beginning  of 

thought,  50. 

—  and  thought  inseparable,  187,  300. 
Logos  means  both,  188. 

—  the  manifestation  of  Logos,  223. 

—  begins  with  the  sentence,  226. 

—  as  a  test  of  mental  capacity,  264. 

—  separates    man    from   all   other 

animals,  264. 
Languages,  families  of,  41. 

—  same  as  nations  in  Daniel,  41. 

—  of  savages    are    decaying    frag- 

ments, 224. 

—  a   knowledge    of,   the   sine    qua 

non  for  the  anthropologist,  242. 
Laotse,  religion  of,  7. 
Latham,  218,  239. 
Lawrence,   Mr.,    friend   of  Goethe, 

354- 
League  of  Peace  of  the  Germanic 

nations,  120,  121. 
Learning  by  heart,  294. 
Lecomte,  9. 

Lecturers,  their  work,  184. 
Lectures,  mixed  audiences  at,  177. 

—  seldom   published    in   Germany, 

181. 

—  how  to  profit  by,  186. 
Leibniz,  225. 

Leist  on  folk-lore,  51. 


INDEX. 


503 


Lenormant's  Propagation  de  1' Alpha- 
bet Pli^riicien,  62. 

Leper,  young  girl  in  India  forced  to 
marry  a,  468. 

Lepsius  and  the  alphabet,  61. 

Lessing,  324. 

Linguistic  Ethnology,  230. 

rjssotriches,  smooth  hair,  234. 

Literature,  none  can  be  very  ancient, 
148. 

—  at  first  oral  only,  486,  487. 
Locke    and    Leibniz,   Herbart  and 

Hegel,    controversy    between, 
306. 
Logia  of  Mohammed,  480. 

—  of  Christ,  482. 
Logos  or  Christ,  20, 

—  or  Reason,  21. 

—  both  language  and  thought,  188, 

300. 

—  language  the  outward  manifesta- 

tion of,  223. 
Longobardi,  9. 
Lophocomi,  234. 
Louis  Lucien  Bonaparte,  218. 
Louisa,  Princess  of  Weimar,  367. 
Lubbock,  224. 
Lucrezia,  wife  of  Andrea  del  Sarto, 

408. 

—  the  first  portrait  of,  417. 
Ludwig  I  of  Bavaria,  417. 

Lyall,  Sir  A.  on  change  of  caste  in 

modern  India,  261. 
Lyell,  SirC,  218, 


MADHYAMA  and  Kasyapa,  their 

names  in  a  Stflpa,  74. 
Madrl,    Vessantara's    queen,    447, 

448. 
Mahatmas  of  Thibet,  162. 
Maigrot,  9. 
Maitreya,  teacher  of  Maitrl  or  Love, 

452. 
—  the  Buddha  yet  to  come,  452. 
Malabari.the  friend  of  child- widows, 

464. 
Man,  E.  Horace,  248,  253. 
his  studies  of  the  Andaman 

Islanders,  248,  249. 


Man  means  thinker,  4. 
Man,  possible  descent  from  an  ani- 
mal, discussed  by  Bunsen,  220. 

—  by  d'Aleinbert  and  Frederick  the 

Great,  220,  221. 

—  the  apex  of  creation,  254. 

—  a  pairing  animal,  266. 
Manavas,  laws  of  the,  126. 
Manhood,  227. 

Man's  presence  on  the  earth,  150. 

Mansion  House,  194  n. 

Many-sided,  Goethe  was,  326. 

Mara,  lord  of  death,  Buddha's  chal- 
lenge to,  445,  446. 

Marathon,  date  of  the  battle  of,  186. 

Marco  Polo,  94,  248. 

Maria  Paulowna  and  Wieland,  367. 

Married  life,  according  to  the  laws 
of  Manu,  128,  129. 

—  couple    living  on   £5  a  year  in 

India,  435. 
Medhurst,  11  n. 
Media  and  Persia,  56. 
Mediterranean,  38. 
Memory,  things  known  by  an  effort 

of,  213. 
Men  of  light  and  leading,  58. 

—  how  expressed  in  hieroglyphics, 

59- 

—  classified  solely  by  language,  265. 
Menephthah  I,  236. 
Meneptah,  son  of  Rameses  II,  69. 
Menes,  varying  dates   assigned  to, 

150,  151.  151  »• 

Lepsius'  view,  150. 

Bunsen's  view,  150. 

Ment,  mente,  228. 

Mental  capacity,  language  a  test  of, 

264. 
*  Mere  words,'  41. 
Mesha,  stone  of,  60. 

—  king,  time  of  Ahab,  62. 
Mesocephalic  skulls,  44,  233. 
Mesognathic  skulls,  44,  234. 
Metals  used  as  money,  was  weighed, 

205. 
M(ltissage,  237. 
Mexico,  religion  of,  7, 
Meyer,  Karl,  218. 
Mczzofantiasis,  104. 


504 


INDEX. 


Micliel  Angelo  on  Andrea  del  Sar- 
to,  407. 

la    forza    d'  un    bel    volto, 

409. 

Midland  Institute,  321. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  269. 

his  Essay  on  Liberty,  270. 

his  admission  to  Parliament, 

274. 

advocate  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation, 290, 

Mill's  prophecies,  297. 

—  ignorance  of  academic  teaching, 

297. 
Mina  of  gold,  206. 
Micaean  inscriptions,  62. 
Mincopic  name  for  God,  252, 
Mincopies,  religion  of  the,  252. 

—  Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  on  the,  252. 

E.  H.  Man  on  the,  252. 

Misirlm  for  Egypt,  67. 
Missionaries    and    the    Science    of 

Religion,  14-19. 
Misunderstandings    in    the    Gospel 

story,  483. 
Mle^Mas,  430. 
Modem  languages  are  ancient,  155. 

—  savages,    man   in   the   primitive 

state,  223. 

—  superstitions    creep   into  all  re- 

ligions, 490. 

Mohammedan  peoples  of  India,  112, 
258. 

Moksha,  spiritual  freedom,  143. 

Monboddo's  theory,  222. 

Mongolians  in  India,  258. 

Mdrowin,  spirits,  253. 

Moses  and  Aaron,  and  the  Golden 
Calf,  244. 

Mother-right,  266. 

Movers,  religion  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians, 6. 

MuUer,  Friedrich,  268. 

Munda  or  Kolarian  family,  259. 

differs  from    Dravidian    and 

Sanskritic  types,  259. 

Mnnro,  Sir  T.,  on  the  Hindus,  ill. 

Murchison,  218. 

Mycenae,  lalysos,  and  Egypt,  pot- 
sherds from,  68. 


Mythology,  real  origin  of,  5. 

—  philosophical,  305. 

NAGAS,  or  snakes  in  India,  262. 

—  people  called,  262. 
Nakahatras,  or  Lunar  Stations,  71. 
Napoleon  and  Goethe,  355. 
Naram-Sin,  son  of  Sargon,  date  of, 

.153- 
Nation  of  shopkeepers,  105. 
National  literatures,  334. 

—  sentiment,  good  and  bad,  355. 

—  religions,  473. 

Nations  and  languages  distinct, 
232. 

Natural  religion,  a  term  of  re- 
proach, 24. 

greatest  gift  of  God,  24. 

—  Science,  292. 

Nature,  tendency  of,  to  create  new 

varieties,  281. 
Navajos,  the  inventive,  266. 
Navarette,  9. 
Neighbour,   to  love,  not  only  like 

ourselves,  but  as  ourselves,  453. 
Newton's  Principia  in  Chinese,  357. 
Niebuhr,  translation  of,  348. 
Nihilism  or  Individualism,  272. 

—  Herzen's  definition  of,  272  n. 
Nineteenth  century,  lower  than  the 

age  of  Huns  and  Vandals,  360. 

Nirvawa,  284, 

Noldeke,  on  the  home  of  the  Se- 
mites, 45. 

Nominalists  and  Realists,  306. 

Norris,  65. 

Northbrook,  Earl  of,  28. 

Northern  Buddhist  Bible,  433. 

befoie  our  era,  433. 

Norton,  Charles,  and  Goethe's  let- 
ters, 339  «,  343,  348. 

Nought,  sign  for,  202. 

Numerals  the  same  in  all  Aryan 
languages,  158. 

Numerical  figures,  whence  derived, 
201. 

OLD  and  New  Testaments  should 
be  among  the  Sacred  Books  of 
the  East,  300. 


INDEX. 


505 


Old  people  and  children,  how 
treated  by  Hindus,  131,  132. 

by  Greeks  and  Romans,  132. 

by  old  Germans,  13-2,  133. 

murder  of,  132. 

Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  on,  132. 

Hunt  on,  133. 

Oldenberg,  434, 

Omar,  second  Caliph,  479. 

Omniscience,  the  bane  of  all  our 
knowledge,  317. 

Oral  instruction  at  school,  176. 

at  the  Universities,  176. 

—  tradition,  sacred  books  preserved 

by.  432. 
Oriental    Congress,    disputes,    and 

statutes,  33. 

oriental  scholars  wanted,  34. 

Presidents  of  Sections,  37. 

—  scholars,  lack,  at  Congresses,  of 

true,  34. 

—  scholars,  English,  37. 

have  added  to  historical  know- 
ledge, 53. 
in  the  Science  of  language,  53. 

—  scholarship,  what  it  has  done  for 

the  world,  81. 
and  yet  may  do,  82,  83. 

—  studies,  school  of  modern,  84. 
benefit  derived  from,  82. 

—  languages,  school  of,  97. 

M.  M.'s  appeal  for,  in  1857, 

97- 

school  of,  97. 

Prince  Consort's  interest  in, 

97- 

English    subjects     speaking, 

98. 

—  studies,    foreign  schools    of,   99, 

100. 

—  Seminary  at  Berlin,  100,  103. 

—  Volapiik,   104. 

—  research,  main  feature  of,  147. 

—  studies,  true  charm  of,  156. 
Orientalists,     ninth     International 

Congress  of,  37. 

—  eighth  Congress  of,  30. 

papers  then  read,  31. 

Origin  of  species  ii»  language,  solved 

before  the  days  of  Darwin,  50. 


Orthognathic  skulls,  44,  234. 
Oscar,  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway, 

30. 
Othman,  third  Caliph,  480. 

—  his     recension    of    the     Quran, 

481. 

—  the  authorised  text,  481. 
Owen,  Sir  R.,  218. 

Oxford,    its    support    of    Oriental 
studies,  99. 

—  influence  of  its  buildings,  185. 

—  King  of  Prussia  and,  185. 

—  and  Cambridge,  German  studies 

at,  348. 


PALI,  canon,  reduced  to  writing, 
432. 

Palladium,  the,  262. 

Pantaur,  names  found  in  the  Epic 
of,  69. 

Papua  aud  his  fetish,  23. 

Paramitas,  or  ten  highest  perfec- 
tions, 443. 

Parasangs,  the  Babylonian  hour, 
202. 

—  about  a  German  mile,  202. 
Parivra^aka,  130. 

Parry,  JNIr.,  Goethe's  friend,  354. 

Pathmakers,  58. 

Paul,  Jean,  325. 

Payment  by  results,  291. 

Penka,  240. 

Pensions    after    twenty-five    years' 

work,  136. 
People's  University,  174. 
Perpetual  pupil,  a,  441. 
Persian      and     Arabic     alphabets, 

200. 

—  religion,  474. 
Persians  in  India,  258. 
Peru,  religion  of,  7. 
Peschel,  his  Volkerkunde,  233. 
Philip  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  Prince, 

32. 

Philology  and  Physiology  should  be 
separated  entirely,  241. 

Phoenicians,  Movers  and  the  re- 
ligion of,  6. 

Pietrement,  240. 


506 


INDEX. 


Pijchor,  son  of  Piiluga,  253. 

Pinches,  65,  153. 

Pindar,  hymns  of,  477. 

Pitt,  Mr.,  139. 

Plato,  22. 

Poetical  evidence,  199. 

—  works  are  national  poems,  401. 
Polyhistor,     Alexander,     mentions 

Buddhist  missionaries,  75- 

Polynesian  islands,  historical  poetry 
in  the,  198. 

Population  of  the  earth,  rapid  in- 
crease, 238. 

Posterity,  belief  in,  329,  330. 

Posthumous  fame,  330,  331. 

Potiphar,  a  ninth  century  name, 
168. 

—  meaning  of,  16S. 

—  same  as  Heliodorus,  168. 
Pott,  52. 

Poverty  and  wealth,  the  extremes 

of,  454. 
Powell,  J.  W.,  257. 
Praeparatio  Evangelica,  the  history 

of  the  world,  a,  79. 
Preaching   and    teaching    lectures, 

182. 
'  Prefixes  only,'  used  by  Whitney, 

for  '  suffixes  only,'  268. 
Prehistoric,  not  a  good  term,  40. 

—  antiquities,  Schrader,  47. 
Prejudice  of  the  white  man  against 

the  black,  83. 
Premare,  9. 
Prichard,  218. 
Primary,    secondary,    and    tertiary 

education,  292. 
Prince  Consort,  his  wish  to  promote 

Oriental  studies,  97. 

—  of  Wales,  speech  of,  1 13. 

—  Christian,  H.R.H.,  364  n,  381. 
Printing,  invention  of,  175. 
Private    property  ceased    in   Bud- 
dhist brotherhood,  442. 

Prognathic  skulls,  44,  234. 

Property  in  India  was  family  pro- 
perty, 129. 

the   sons  when  of   age   may 

divide  it,  135. 

Prose  evidence  no  evidence,  199. 


Proto-Aryan  language,  46,  47. 
three  varieties  of  short  a  in, 

47- 
Pruner  Bey  on  skulls,  233. 
Prussia,  Prince  of,  in  1848,  117. 

—  during  the  Crimean  war,  119. 

—  King  of,  and  Oxford,  185. 
Pseudo- Liberals     and     compulsory 

education,  290. 
Ptolemy,  150  A.  D.,  203. 
PQluga,    Mincopic   name    for  God, 

252. 
Pushtu   taught   at  St.  Petersburg, 

102. 

—  belongs  to  the  Persian   branch, 

229. 

QUEEN,  H.M.  the,  her  interest  in 
India,  29. 

—  her  studies  in  Indian  literature, 

85. 
Quraish  dialect,  481. 
Quran    or    Koran    not   written    by 

Mohammed,  478. 

—  embodies    his    utterances,    478- 

481. 

—  peculiar  case  of  the,  478. 

—  when  collected,  478-480. 

—  collected   under   favourable    cir- 

cumstances, 481. 

—  discrepancies  in,  482. 

—  power  of  the,  492. 

RACE,  190. 

Races,  for  whom  the  future  and  the 
past  hardly  exists,  197. 

—  who  cared  for  the  future  and  the 

past,  198. 

—  degenerating,  224. 

—  of  slow  development,  224. 
Rafael,  picture  by,  copied  by  Andrea 

del  Sarto,  425. 
Rainer,  Archduke,  32. 
Hamabai,  110. 

—  her  home  for  child-widows,  464. 

—  became  a  Christian,  465. 

—  never  proselytised,  465. 

—  her  unconscious  influence,  465. 
Ranieses  III,  330. 


INDEX, 


507 


Kammohun  Roy,  459. 
Eatio  between  gold  and  silver  in  old 
times,  206. 

in  Egypt,  206. 

in  Babylon,  206. 

—  of  gold  and  silver  in  Egypt  and 

Babylon,  215. 

Rawlinson,  65. 

Reading  and  writing  come  from  an- 
cient Egypt,  200. 

Real  books,  what  are,  4S5. 

Keal-schulen,  293. 

Realists  and  Nominalists,  306,  307. 

Reason  or  Logos,  21. 

Reel  us,  224. 

Reinhold,  369. 

Religion,  growth  of,  4. 

—  roots  of,  4. 

—  radical  elements  of  all,  4. 

—  of  the  Jews,  6. 

—  varieties  of  Semitic,  6. 

—  of  Egypt,  6. 

—  of  China,  7. 

—  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  7. 

—  materials  for  the  study  of,  7. 

—  its  true  habitat,  8. 

—  our  own  to  us,  20. 

—  a  nascent,  how  regarded,  484. 

—  Science  of,  13. 

and  missionaries,  14. 

great  problems  of,  1 5. 

Religions,  how  to  get  at  the  begin- 
nings of,  472. 

—  three  classes  of,  473. 

—  ethnic,  473. 

—  national,  473. 

—  individual,  477. 

—  Fathers  of  tiie  Church  on  a  com- 

parison of,  12. 

—  comparative  study  of,  14. 

—  inevitable  decay  of,  16. 

—  at  first  free  from  later  blemishes, 

16, 

—  founders  of  ancient,  16. 
Renan,  his  regret  at  having  pm-sued 

Oriental  studies,  171. 

Renouf,  le  Page,  330  w. 

Repetitions  in  these  Essays,  25. 

Kesponsions  or  First  Oxford  Exami- 
nation, 296. 


Reumont's  biography  of  Andrea  del 
Sarto,  406. 

Reymond,  l)u  Bois,  277. 

Rihhus,  Brahmanic  gods,  260. 

Rig-veda,  publication  of,  i,  i  n. 

Risley,  letter  to,  255. 

Robbers,  author  of  the,  his  views, 
402. 

Romanes,  Professor,  223. 

Romans  in  India,  258. 

Roots  of  human  speech,  3. 

thought,  3. 

of  religion,  4. 

—  sufBxes,  prefixes,  and  infixes,  227, 

Rosny,  M.  de,  and  the  Oriental 
Congress,  33. 

Roth,  Ling,  on  the  Tasmanians,  246. 

Roug^,  Vicomte  de,  and  the  alpha- 
bet, 59-61,  6i  n. 

Rousseau's  school,  52. 

Rules,  Buddhist,  442. 

Ruskin,  218. 

Russia,  how  to  treat,  122. 


SACRED  Books  of  other  religions 
should  be  taught  to  undergrad- 
uates, 299. 

of  the  East,  431,  471. 

never  written  by  the  founders 

of  religions,  472. 

ethnic  religions  have  no,  477. 

national  religions  sprang  up 

before  them,  477. 

advantages  and  disadvantages 

of,  484. 

when  first  needed,  484. 

language  of,  became  unintelli- 
gible, 487. 

all  handed  down  for  centuries 

by  oral  tradition  only,  486. 

soon  became  secret  books,  487. 

limited    as    accounts    of    the 

origin  of  religions,  492. 

Sacrifices,  the  five  great,  437. 

Saindhava,  'jl,  236. 

St.  Augustine,  4,  22. 

—  Cyprian,  22. 

—  Petersburg,  Oriental  studies  at, 

99.  103- 


508 


INDEX. 


Salisbury,  Lord,  his  foreign  policy, 

122. 

Samana,  Pali  for  Buddhist  friar,  76. 
Samanaioi,  name  for  Buddhist  mis- 
sionaries, 75. 

—  mentioned  by  Clement  of  Alex- 

andria, 76. 
Samanas,  or  Semnoi,  dwellers  in  the 

forests,  78. 
Samaritan  text,  date  of,  151. 

—  —  time    between    Adam    and 

Abraham,  151. 
Samavr/tta  (home),  129. 
Sannyasin,  or  Bikshu,  130,  438. 
Sanski-it  copula,  cha  not  ka,  48. 

—  account  of  the  battle  of  Worth 

in,  103. 

—  ceased  to  be  spoken,  161, 

—  European  origin  of,  240. 

discussed  by  M.  M.,  1851,  240. 

Sanskritists  and  Classicists,  war  be- 
tween, 86. 

Sasetti,  Filippo,  94. 

Sasipada  Banerjee,  his  refuge  for 
child- widows,  466. 

Savage,  needs  definition,  52. 

Savages,  ancestors  of,  once  in  a 
higher  state,  225. 

Sayce,  65,  67,  153,  226. 

Schiller,  364. 

—  his  weakness  and  sufferings,  366. 

—  Festival  at  Hellebek,  368-370. 

—  letter  to,  373. 

—  his  letter  to  Baggesen,  376. 

—  his  aesthetic  letters,  38 1-390. 

—  first  letter  to  the  Duke,  3S2. 

—  his  letters  in  the  Horae,  390. 
- —  on  German  style,  393. 
Schiller's    aesthetics   repelled    Car- 

lyle,  336. 
Sehimmelmann,  Count,  369. 
Schlegel,  52. 
Schmidt,   Professor,    and    Goethe's 

letters  to  Carlyle,  338. 
Scholars,  real,  245. 
Scholarships,  mischief  done  by,  314. 
Schole  or  leisure,  293. 
School  of  Oriental  languages,  97. 

—  M.  M's.  appeal  in  1857,  97. 

—  life  in  India,  period  of,  1 28. 


School  life  according  to  the  laws  of 
Manu,  128. 

—  Xarawa,  261. 

Schrader,  on  the  European  origin 
of  the  Aryas,  45. 

—  his  Prehistoric  Antiquities,  47, 

52. 
Science  of  Religion,  a  shock  to  many, 
19. 

—  of  Language,  its  debt  to  Oriental 

Scholars,  53,  54. 

—  of  Thought,  80. 

Scott's  Life  of  Napoleon  sent  to 
Goethe,  350. 

Scythians  in  India,  258. 

Second  Egyptian  Dynasty,  monu- 
ment in  Oxford  of,  63  n. 

Section  H.  British  Association,  218. 

Sedgwick,  218. 

See  of  Rome,  decision  of,  on  Chinese 
religion,  9, 

Seethe  and  sodden,  i6r. 

Self  behind  the  Ego,  1 30. 

Semites,  home  of  the,  44. 

Professors  Sprenger  and  Nol- 

deke  on,  45. 

Semitic  confederacy,  the  prehistoric, 
42. 

—  period,  the  united,  48,  49. 

—  and  Egyptian,   relationship  be- 

tween, 49. 

—  traditions,  164. 
Septuagint,  date  of,  15 1, 

time  between  Adam  and  Abra- 
ham, 151. 
Sexagesimal  system  of  Babylon,  202. 
Shamyl,  letter  from,  103. 
Shekels  or  pounds  of  gold,  205. 
Shishak    I,    conqueror    of    J  udah, 

330- 
Sicilians  and  Sardinians  mentioned 

1400  B.C.,  236. 
Siddhartha,    Buddha's    real  name, 

445.  445  »• 
Silver  question,  214. 
Sindhu,  a  fabric,  71. 

—  cloth  in  Babylonian,  236. 
Sindon,  Homeric,  236. 

Sixty  has  more  divisors  than  any 
other  number,  202, 


INDEX. 


509 


Skin,  colour  of  the,  classification  by, 
232. 

Skinner,  Mr.,  Goethe's  letter  to,  on 
Carlvle,  340. 

Skulls,  44,  233,  234. 

Skylax  in  India,  73. 

Slow  development,  laces  of,  224. 

Society,  tyranny  of,  in  England, 
272,  273. 

Socratic  method,  293, 

Sokratea,  21. 

Solomon  made  silver  as  stones,  215. 

Sound  in  language,  every,  once  sig- 
nificative, 226. 

Sovereign,  our,  nearly  the  weight 
of  the  Babylonian  shekel,  206. 

Species,  191,  301. 

—  entirely  our  own  making,  192. 

—  its  meaning,  303. 

—  what  constitutes  a,  305. 
Speke,  53. 

Spelling  Keform,  291. 

—  of  English  a  national  misfortune, 

291. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  224. 
Sprenger  on  the  home  of  the  Semites, 

45- 

/Sraddha,  460,  461. 

Srimati  Soudamini  Ray,  death  of, 
458. 

story  of  her  life,  459-463. 

Stanley,  Dean  of  Westminster,  274. 

Statesman,  test  of  a  great,  138. 

Statutes  of  Oi  iental  Congress,  33. 

Stein,  Frau  von,  367. 

Subjective  concepts,  germs  and  spe- 
cies are,  302. 

iSftdias  might  not  learn  the  Veda, 

487- 
Sumatra,  Indian  influences  in,  89. 
Sumerians,  63. 
Sun,  course  of,  202,  203. 
Sdnu,  Sk.,  son,  English,  285. 
Surrender,  Islam,  112. 
Sfitras  of  Buddha,  482. 
Sweden,  Oscar,  king  of,  27,  30. 
his  gift  to  the  Congress,  32. 

TASMANIANS,  difference  of  opi- 
nion on  their  religion,  246. 


Tasmanians,  originally  tailed,  247. 
Tel-el-Amarna,  tablets  of,  66-68. 

writing  used  in  these,  66. 

names  of  places  in,  67. 

Tel-el-Hesy     (probably     Lachish), 

tablets  of,  69. 
Terrien  de  Lacouperie,  63. 
Theology,  treated  as  history,  470. 
'  There  is,'  208. 
Thought,  human,  3. 

—  and  language,  3. 

—  roots  of,  3. 

—  the  beginning  of,  and  the  begin- 

ning of  language,  50. 
Three,  159. 
Tocqueville  on  loss  of  individuality 

in  France,  280. 
Totemism,  262,  266. 

—  in  India,  263. 

Tower  of  Babel,  traditions  of  the, 164. 

Tradition,  the  original  meaning  uf 
instruction,  197. 

Tregear,  245. 

Trinity  of  Kalidasa,  II, 

Tripi^aka,  433. 

True  ratiocination  due  to  right  un- 
derstanding of  speech,  301, 

Trumpp,  229. 

Truth,  yearnings  after,  in  all  ages,  25. 

Tu,  suffix,  1 60. 

Turanian  languages,  M.  M.'s  letter 
on,  230. 

Turkey,  sobriety  in,  490. 

Tyre,  Surrii,  67. 

ULOTRICHES,    woolly  -  haired, 

234- 
'  Understand   what  is,   by  learning 

how  it  has  come  to  be,'  196. 
Uniformity  and  sequacity,  epidemic 

of,  308. 
United  States  exploring  expedition, 

264. 
Universal  Eye,  183,  184. 

—  language,    not    believed    in    by 

Goethe,  334. 
Universities,  English  and  German, 

277,  27S. 
Universities,  homes  of  the  liberal 

arts,  320. 


510 


INDEX. 


Universities,  mediaeval  and  modern, 

320,321. 
University  Extension,  first  meeting 

at  Oxford,  195. 
Upanishads,  teaching  of  the,  55, 1 30. 
Upasakas  or  laity,  443. 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  70. 
Uranius,  palimpsest  of,  423. 

VACARE,  construed  with  the  da- 
tive, 194. 

Vaksh,  Sk.,  to  wax,  English,  285. 

Vanaprastha,  a  dweller  in  the 
forest,  129. 

—  or  Vaikhanasa,  438. 
Vankagiri,  the  rock,  4471  448. 
Vasari  on  Andrea  del  Sarto,  407. 
Vastu,  a  dwelling,  160. 

—  shining,  the  morning,  160. 
Vatta-Gamani,  88  B.C.,  432. 
Vedanta,  philosophy  of  the,  55. 
Vedas,    learnt    by  all    classes  but 

6'11dras,  487. 

—  taught  only  by  Brahmans,  487. 

—  few  Indians  can  read  and  under- 

stand the,  488. 
A^edicBrahmanism,literatureof,i50. 

—  law  books,  the  ancient,  436. 
Venia  docendi,  276. 

Verbal  augment  in  Sk.,  Zend, 
Armenian,  and  Gk.,  48. 

Vestiges  of  creation,  222. 

Vid,  Sk.,  wit,  English,  285. 

Vienna,  schoolforOrientalstudies,  99. 

Vinaya  texts,  442. 

Virchow,  holds  descent  of  man  from 
ape  not  proven,  298. 

Virgil,  the  whole  repeated  by  heart, 
294. 

Visvamitra,  260. 

Visvantara,  or  Vessantara,  446,  447 

—  story  of  Buddha's  life  as,  446-452. 

—  parts  with  his  children,  449,  451. 
Volaptik,  the  true,  209. 

WALES,  Prince  of,  27. 
Weimar,  time  of  Goethe  and  Schil- 
ler, 365. 


Weisse,  Professor,  his  lectures,  180. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  139. 

Welsh,    jMiss,    and   her    dislike   to 

Goethe,  337. 
Westminster,    late    Dean    of,    and 

Buddha,  429. 
White  Elephant,  who  caused  rain, 

447- 

—  probably  a  cloud,  447. 
Whitney,     mistake    on    Dra vidian 

languages,  268. 
VVieland,  324,  366. 

—  and  Maria  Paulovma,  367. 
Wife-capture,  266. 

Wilheliu  Meister,  Carlyle's  transla- 
tion of,  337. 

Wilson,  218. 

Wisdom,  227. 

Woman  in  India  always  belongs  to 
somebody,  465. 

'  Words  only,'  40. 

- —  a  museum  of  antiquities,  51. 

—  the  counters  of  thought,  208. 
Work  in  German  and  English  Uni- 
versities, 311. 

World  literature,  Goethe's  endeav- 
ours after,  326,  339. 

almost  realised,  357. 

Worth,  account  of  the  battle  of,  in 
Sanskrit,  103. 

Wright,  the  late  Professor,  54. 

Writing  in  India,  no  evidence  for, 
before  the  time  of  Asoka,  73. 

—  never   mentioned   by   Manu   in 

school  life,  128. 

—  invented  in  Egypt,  200. 
Wykehamica,  Adams's,  294. 

YAO,  date  of,  152. 
York,  Duke  of,  27. 
Youth   and   manhood   better    than 

old  age,  134. 
Yu^,  to  join,  159, 

Zarat.hustra,  474. 

—  life  of,  475. 

Zimrida,  governor  of  Lachish,  letter 
to,  69. 


€);ffor5 

HORACE    HART,    PRINTER    TO   THE   UNIVERSITY 


OF  WORKS  IN 

GENERAL     LITERATURE 

PUBLISHED  BY 

LONGMANS,    GREEN,    &   CO., 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,  LONDON,  E.G. 
91  AND  93  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK,  and  32  HORNBY  ROAD,  BOMBAY. 


CONTENTS. 


Badminton  Library  {The) 
Biography,  Personal  Memoirs 

Etc 

Children's  Books 
Classical    Literature,  Trans- 
lations, Etc.    . 
Cookery,     Domestic     Manage 

MENT,  Etc. 
Evolution,  Anthropology,  Etc 
Fiction,  Humour,  Etc. 
Fine  Arts  (The)  and  Music 
Fur,  Feather  and  Fin  Series 
History,  Politics,   Polity,  Po 

LiTiCAL  Memoirs,  Etc.    . 
Language,  History  and  Science 

of 

Logic,    Rhetoric,   Psychology 

Etc 

Mental,   Moral  and  Political 

Philosophy 


PAGE  I  PAGE 

16  j  Military    and    Naval    History 
'      and  Science     ....       9 


Miscellaneous  and  Critical 
Works       .         .         .         .         .45 

Poetry  and  the  Drama      .         .     28 

Political  Economy  and  Eco- 
nomics        24 

Popular  Science         .         .  .35 

Religion,  The  Science  of  .     26 

Silver  Library  {The)  .  .     40 

Sport  and  Pastime     .        .  .     16 

s  tonyhvks  t  philosophical 
Series 23 

Travel  and  Adventure,  the 
Colonies,  Etc.        .        .        .14 

Wampum  Library  {The)  of 
American  Literature    .        .     48 

Works  of  Reference        .         .     37 


History,  Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc. 


ACLAND     and    RANSOME.  —  A 

HANDBOOK  IN  OUTLINE  OF  THE 
POLITICAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 
TO  1901.  Chronologically  Arranged.  By 
the  Right  Hon.  A.  H.  Dyke  Acland,  and 
Cyril  Ransome,  M.A.    Crown  8vo,  6s. 

ALSTON.  —  MODERN  CONSTI- 
TUTIONS IN  OUTLINE:  an  Introductory 
Study  in  Political  Science.  By  Lkonard 
Alston,  M.A,  Trinity  College,  Melbourne; 
B.A  ,  Christ's  College,  Cambridge;  Deputy 
Professor  of  History,  Elphinstone  College, 
Ppnjbay.     Crown  8vo,,  2s.  &d.  net. 


AIRY.— CHARLES  II.     By  Osmund 

Airy,    LL.D.,    M.A.       With    Photogravure 
Portrait.      Crown  8vo,  6s.  6(/.  net. 


ANNUAL   REGISTER  (The).     A 

Review   of   Public    Events    at    Home    and 
Abroad,  for  the  year  1904.    8vo,  18s. 


Volumes  of  the  ANNUAL  REGIS- 
TER for  the  years  1863-1903  can  still  be 
had.     18s.  each. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


History,  Politics,  Polity,   Political  Memoirs,  etc. — continued. 


ARNOLD.  —  INTRODUCTORY 

LECTURES  ON  MODERN  HISTORY. 
By  Thomas  Arnold,  D.D.,  formerly  Head 
Master  of  Rugby  School.     8vo,  7s.  gJ. 


ASHLEY  (W.  J.). 

ENGLISH  ECONOMIC  HIS- 
TORY AND  THEORY.  Crown  8vo, 
Part  I.,  5s;  Part  II.,  10s.  6J. 

SURVEYS,     HISTORIC     AND 

ECONOMIC.     Crown  Svo,  9s.  net. 


BAGWELL.— IRELAND   UNDER 

THE  TUDORS.  By  Richard  Bagwell, 
LL.D.  (3  vols.)  Vols.  I.  and  II.,  from  the 
first  invasion  of  the  Northmen  to  the  year 
1578.  Svo,  32s.  Vol.  III.,  1578-1603.  Svo, 
18s. 


BELMORE.— THE    HISTORY  OF 

TWO  ULSTER  MANORS,  AND  OF 
THEIR  OWNERS.  By  the  Earl  of  Bel- 
more,  P.C,  G.C.M.G.  {H.M.L.,  County 
Tyrone),  formerly  Governor  of  New  South 
\Vales.  Re-issue,  Revised  and  Enlarged. 
With  Portrait.     Svo,  5s.  net. 


BESANT.— THE  HISTORY  OF 
LONDON.  By  Sir  Walter  Besant.  With 
74  Illustrations.  Crown  Svo,  Is.  9(/.  Or 
bound  as  a  School  Prize  Book,  gilt  edges, 
2s.  6(/. 


BRIGHT. —  A      HISTORY     OF 

ENGLAND.         By    the     Rev.    J.    Franck 
Bright,  D.D. 

Period  I.     Medi/Eval  Monarchy  : 

A.D.  449-1485.     Crown  Svo,  4s.  6(/. 

Period  II.     Personal   Monarchy. 

1485-1688.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 

Period  III.     Constitutional  Mon- 
archy.    1689-1837.     Crown  Svo,  7s.  6(/. 

Period  IV.     The  Growth  of   De- 

.MOCRACV.     1837-1880.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

Period    V.       Imperial   Reaction  : 

Victoria,  1880-1901.     Crown  Svo,  4s.  6('. 


BROWNE.— SOUTH  AFRICA:    A 

GLANC1-:  AT  CURRENT  CONDITIONS 
AND  POLITICS.  By  J.  H.  Balfour 
Browne,  K.C,  etc.     Svo,  7s.  6((.  net. 


B  R  U  C  E.  —  THE       FORWARD 

POLICY  AND  ITS  RESULTS  :  or,  Thirty- 
Five  Years'  Work  amongst  the  Tribes  on 
our  North-Western  Frontier  of  India.  By 
Richard  Isaac  Bruce,  CLE.  With  28 
Illustrations  and  a  Map.     Svo,  15s.  net. 


BUCKLE. —  HISTORY  OF  CIVI- 
LISATION IN  ENGLAND.  By  Henry 
Thomas  Buckle. 

Cabinet   Edition.      3    vols.      Crown 
8vo,  24s. 

'  Silver  Library  '    Edition.      '3   vols. 
Crown  Svo,  10s.  6d. 


BURKE.— A  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN, 
FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE 
DEATH  OF  FERDINAND  THE  CATHO- 
LIC. By  Ulick  Ralph  Burke,  M.A. 
Edited  by  Martin  A.  S.  Hume.  With  6 
Maps.    2  vols.     Crown  Svo,  16s.  net. 


CHESNEY.— INDIAN  POLITY:  a 

View  of  the  System  of  Administration  in 
India.  By  General  Sir  George  Chesney, 
K.C.B.  With  Map  showing  all  the  Admini- 
strative Divisions  of  British  India.  Svo, 
21s. 


CREIGHTON  (Mandell,  late  Lord 

Bishop  of  London), 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  PAPACY 
FROM  THE  GREAT  SCHISM  TO  THE 
SACK  OF  ROME,  1378-1527.  6  vols.  Cr. 
Svo,  5.S.  net  each. 


QUEEN       ELIZABETH. 

Portrait.     Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 


With 


HISTORICAL  ESSAYS  AND  RE- 
VIEWS. Edited  by  Louise  Creiohton. 
Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

HISTORICAL  LECTURES  AND 

A  D  D  R  H  S  S  E  S.      Edited    by    Louise 
Creiohton,     Crown  Svo.  .5s,  (i^t. 


LONGMANS   AND    Co's   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


History,   Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc. — coiitiiuit'd. 


DALE.— THE    1>RINCIPLES    OF    FROUDE  (James  A.)— (()«//««<■,/. 
liNC.LISH      CONSTITUTIONAL      HIS- 
TORY.     By    Lucy    Dai.i;,   late    Scholar  of 
Somerville  College,  Oxford.      Crown  8vo,  6s. 


ELIZABETH  (QUEEN),  AMY 
ROBSART,  AND  THE  EARL  OF 
LEICESTER,  hein«  a  Reprint  of  the 
Scarce  Historical  Work,  entitled  '  Leycesters 
Commonwealth,'  1641.  Hdited  by  FkankJ. 
BURGOYNE,  Librarian  of  the  Lambeth  Public 
Libraries.     Fcp.  4to,  7s.  6i/.  net. 


FALKINER  (C.  Litton). 

STUDIES  IN  IRISH  HISTORY 
AND  BIOGRAPHY,  mainly  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century.    8vo,  12s.  6(f.  net. 

ILLUSTRATIONS      OF      IRISH 

HISTORY  AND  TOPOGRAGHY,  mainly 
of  the  Seventeenth  Century.  With  3  Maps. 
8vo,  I8s.  net. 


FREEMAN.— THE  HISTORICAL 
GEOGRAPHY  OF  EUROPE.  By  Edward 
A.  Freeman,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  Third  Edition. 
Edited  by  J.  B.  Bury,  M.A.,  D.Litt.,  LL.D.. 
Regius  Professor  of  Modern  History  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.     8vo,  I2s.  6rf. 

Atlas  to  the  above.    With  65  Maps 

in  colour.     8vo,  6s.  6(/. 


FROUDE  (James  A.). 
THE    HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND, 

from  the  Fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  Defeat  of 
the  Spanish  Armada.  12  vols.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6d.  each. 

THE  DIVORCE  OF  CATHERINE 

OF  ARAGON.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(f. 

THE  SPANISH  STORY  OF  THE 

ARMADA,   and   other  Essays.      Cr.  8vo, 


THE  ENGLISH  IN  IRELAND  IN 
THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  3 
vols.     Crown  8vo,  10s.  6(/. 


ENGLISH     SEAMEN     IN     THE 
SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 


Illustrated  Edition.  With  5  Photo- 
gravure Plates  and  16  other  Illustrations. 
Large  Crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  6s.  net. 

'  Silver  Library  '  Edition  Cr.  8vo, 
3s.  erf. 

THE     COUNCIL     OF     TRENT. 

Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

SHORT  STUDIES  ON  GREAT 
SUBJECTS. 

Cabinet  Edition.     4  vols.     24s. 

"■  Silver  Library''  Edition.  4  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/.  each. 


C/ESAR  :  a  Sketch.    Cr.  8vo,  3s.  6d. 

SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  WRIT- 
INGS OF  JAMES  ANTHONY  FROUDE. 
Edited  by  P.  S.  Allen,  M.A.  Crown  8vo, 
3s.  6rf. 


GARDINER 

D.C.L.,  LL.D.). 


(Samuel      Rawson, 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND,  fi-om 
the  Accession  of  James  I.  to  the  Outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  1603-1642.  With  7  Maps. 
10  vols.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net  each. 

A   HISTORY    OF    THE    GREAT 

CIVIL  WAR,  1642-1649.  With  54  Maps 
and  Plans.     4  vols.     Cr.  8vo,  5s.  net  each. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMMON- 
WEALTH AND  THE  PROTECTOR- 
ATE. 1649-1656.  4  vols.  Crown  8vo,  5s. 
net  each. 

CROMWELL'S   PLACE   IN   HIS- 

TORY.  Founded  on  Six  Lectures  de- 
livered in  the  University  of  Oxford.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  M. 

OLIVER       CROMWELL.       With 

Frontispiece.     Crown  8vo,  Ss.  net. 

THE  STUDENT'S  HISTORY  OF 

ENGLAND.        With     378     Illustrations. 

Crown  8vo,  gilt  top,  12s. 

Also  in  Three  volumes,  price  4s.  each. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


History,  Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc. — continued. 

HARVARD   HISTORICAL  STUDIES. 

THE  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE 
AFRICAN  SLAVE  TRADE  TO  THE 
UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,  1638- 
1870.  By  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,  Ph.D.  8vo, 
7s.  6i/. 

THE  CONTEST  OVER  THE  RA- 
TIFICATON  OF  THE  FEDERAL  CON- 
STITUTION IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 
By  S.  B.  Harding,  A.M.    8vo,  6s. 

A  CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  NUL- 
LIFICATION IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
By  D.  F.  Houston,  A..M.    8vo,  6s. 

NOMINATIONS  FOR  ELECTIVE 
OFFICE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
By  Frederick  W.  Dalunger,  A.M.  8vo, 
7s.  6rf. 


GERMAN  EMPEROR'S 

(THE)  SPEECHES  :  being  a  Selection  from 
the  Speeches,  Edicts,  Letters  and  Telegrams 
of  the  Emperor  William  II.  Translated  by 
Louis  Elkind,  M.D.,     8vo,  12s.  6rf.  net. 


GERMAN        EMPIRE        (THE) 

OF  TO=DAV  :  Outlines  of  its  Formation 
and  Development.  By  'Veritas'.  Crown 
Svo,  6s.  net. 


GRAHAM.— ROMAN    AFRICA: 

An  Outline  of  the  History  of  the  Roman 
Occupation  of  North  Africa,  based  chiefly 
upon  Inscriptions  and  Monumental  Remains 
in  that  Country.  By  Ale.xander  Graham, 
F.S.A.,  F.R.I.B.A.  With  30  reproductions 
of  Original  Drawings  by  the  Author,  and  2 
Maps.    Svo,  16s.  net. 


GREVILLE.— A  JOURNAL  OF 
THE  REIGNS  OF  KING  GEORGE  IV., 
KING  WILLIAM  IV.,  AND  QUEEN 
VICTORIA,  By  Charles  C.  F.  Greville, 
formerly  Clerk  of  the  Council.  8  vols. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(f.  each. 


GROSS.— THE  SOURCES  AND 
LITERATURE  OF  ENGLISH  HISTORY, 
FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO 
ABOUT  1485.  By  Charles  Gross,  Ph.D. 
Svo,  ISs.  net. 


HART.— ACTUAL  GOVERN 
MENT,  AS  APPLIED  UNDER  A.MERI- 
CAN  CONDITIONS.  By  Albert  Bush- 
NELL  Hart,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  History  in 
Harvard  University.  With  17  Maps  and 
diagrams.     Crown  Svo,  7s.  6i'.  net. 


HAWTREY.— ASHORTHISTORV 

OF  GERMANY.  By  Mrs.  H.  C.  Hawtrev. 
With  additional  Chapters  by  Amanda  M. 
Flattery.      With  3  Maps.      Crown  Svo,  Ss. 


H  I  L  L.— THREE     FRENCHMEN 

l.N  BENGAL;  or.  The  Commercial  Ruin 
of  the  French  Settlements  in  1757.  By  S. 
C.  Hill,  B.A.,  B.Sc,  Officer  in  charge  ol 
the  Records  of  the  Government  of  India. 
With  4  Maps.     Svo,  7s.  6rf.  net. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTIONARY 
ARMY.  By  Louis  Clinton  Hatch,  Ph.D. 
Svo,  7s.  6rf. 


A  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  BRITISH 

MUNICIPAL  HISTORY,  INCLUDING 
GILDS  AND  PARLIAMENTARY  RE- 
PRESENTATION. By  Charles  Gross, 
Ph.D.     Svo,  12s. 


THE  LIBERTY  AND  FREE  SOIL 
PARTIES  IN  THE  NORTH  WEST. 
By  Theodore  C.  Smith,  Ph.D.  Svo, 
7s.  6rf. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  GOVERNOR 

IN  THE  ENGLISH  COLONIES  OF 
NORTH  AMERICA.  By  Evarts  Bou- 
TELL  Greene.     Svo,  7s.  6i/. 


THE    COUNTY    PALATINE    OF 

DURHAM:  a  Study  in  Constitutional 
History.  By  Gaillard  Thomas  Lapslev, 
Ph.D.     Svo,  lOs.  6(/. 


THE  ANGLICAN  EPISCOPATE 
AND  THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES. 
By  Arthur  Lyon  Cross,  Ph.D.,  In- 
structor in  History  in  the  University  of 
Michigan.     Svo,  10s.  M. 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  AND  THE 
PATRONAGE.  By  Carl  Russell  Fish, 
Ph.D.     Svo,  10s.  6rf. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


History,   Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc. — continued. 

HISTORIC      TOWNS.  - 

by     K.     A.     FifEKMAN,     U.C.L., 


-  Edited  I  LANG  (Andrew). 

and    Rev. 


Wii.i.iAM  Hunt,  M.A.  With  Maps  and  Plans 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6i/.  each. 


Bristol.     By  Rev.  W. 

Hunt. 
Carlisle.      By  Mandell 

Creighton,  D.D. 
Cinque      Ports.        By 

Montagu   Burrows. 
Colchester,     By    Rev. 

E.  L.  Cutts. 
Exeter.        By     E.     A. 

Freeman. 
London.     By  Rev.  W. 

J.  Loftie. 


Oxford.      By    Rev.  C. 
W.  Boase. 

Winchester.   ByG.  W. 
Kitchin,  D.D.  | 

York.     By  Rev.  James  I 
Raine. 

New  York.     By  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 

Boston      (U.S.)        By 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 


HUNTER  (Sir  William  Wilson). 
A  HISTORY  OF  BRITISH  INDIA. 

Vol.  \. — Introductory  to  the  Overthrow  of 
the  English  in  the  Spice  Archipelago,  1623. 
With  4  Maps.     8vo,  18s. 

Vol.  II. — To  the  Union  of  the  Old  and  New- 
Companies  under  the  Earl  of  Godolphin's 
Award,  1708.     8vo,  16s. 

THE    INDIA   OF    THE    QUEEN 

AND  OTHER  ESSAYS.  Edited  by 
Lady  Hunter.  With  an  Introduction  by 
Francis  Henry  Skrine,  Indian  Civil 
Service  (Retired).     8vo,  9s.  net. 


INGRAM.— A  CRITICAL  EXAMI- 
NATION OF  IRISH  HISTORY.  From 
the  Elizabethan  Conquest  to  the  Legislative 
Union  of  1800.  By  T.  Dunbar  Ingram, 
LL.D.     2  vols.     8vo,  6s.  net. 


JAMES  II.— THE  ADVENTURES 

OF  KING  JAMBS  II.  OF  ENGLAND.  By 
the  Author  of  'A  Life  of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,' 
'  Rochester,'  etc.  '  The  Life  of  a  Prig,'  etc. 
With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Rev.  F, 
A.  GAsgUET,  D.D.,  Abbot  President  of  the 
English  Benedictines.  With  27  Portraits 
and  other  Illustrations.     8vo,  13s.  6^/.  net. 

JOYCE  (P.  W.). 

A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRE- 
LAND, from  the  Earliest  Times  to  1608. 
■  With   Maps.     Crown  8vo,  10s.  6(/. 

A  SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF 
ANCIENT  IRELAND:  Treating  of  the 
Government,  Military  System  and  Law  ; 
Religion,  Learning  and  Art;  Trades, 
Industries  and  Commerce  :  Manners, 
Customs  and  Domestic  Life  of  the  Ancient 
Irish  People.  With  361  Illustrations.  2 
vols.     8vo,  21s.  net. 


JOHN  KNOX  AND  THE  REFOR- 
MATION. With  2  Photogravure  Plates 
and  other  Illustrations.     8vo,  lOs.  6(/.  net. 

THE     MYSTERY    OF     MARY 

STUART.  With  Photogravure  Plate  and 
15  other  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  6s.  &/. 
net. 

PRINCE  CHARLES  EDWARD 
STUART,  THE  YOUNG  CHEVALIER. 
With  Photogravure  Frontispiece.  Crown 
8vo,  7s.  %d.  net. 

THE  VALET'S  TRAGEDY,  AND 
OTHER  STUDIES  IN  SECRET  HIS- 
TORY. With  3  Illustrations.  8vo,  I'is.  6(/. 
net. 


LECKY    (William  Edward    Hart- 
pole). 

HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  IN  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Library  Edition.  8  vols.  8vo.  Vols. 
I.  and' II,,  1700-1760,  36s.;  Vols.  III.  and 
IV.,  1760-1784,  36s.;  Vols.  V.  and  VI., 
1784-1793,  36s.;  Vols.  VII.  and  VIII. 
1793-1800,  36s. 

Cabiiift  Edition.  England.  7  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  Ss.  net  each.  Ireland.  5 
vols.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net  each. 

LEADERS  OF  PUBLIC  OPINION 
IN   IRELAND:   FLOOD— G RATTAN— 

O'CONNELL.     2  vols.     8vo,  2Ss.  net. 

HISTORY  OF  EUROPEAN 
MORALS  FRO.M  AUGUSTUS  TO 
CHARLEMAGNE.  2  vols.  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  net. 

A     SURVEY     OF     ENGLISH 

ETHICS  :  Being  the  First  Chapter  of  the 
'History  of  European  Morals'.  Edited 
with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  W.  A. 
Hirst.     Crown,  8vo,  3s.  6i/. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  RISE  AND 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF 
RATIONALIS.M  IN  EUROPE.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  10s.  net. 

DEMOCRACY  AND  LIBERTY. 

Library  Edition.     2  vols.     8vo,  365. 

Cabinet  Edition.  2  vols.  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    IVORk'S, 


History,  Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc. — continued. 


LIEVEN.- LETTERS  OF  DORO- I  MACAU  LAY  (Lord)— cow^/«;/f(i. 
THEA,    PRINCESS    LIEVEN,    DURING' 
HER   RESIDENCE    IN    LONDON,  1812- 
1834.      Edited    by    Lionel    G.    Robinson. 
With   2   Photogravure   Portraits.    8vo,  14s. 
net. 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  FROM 
THE  ACCESSION  OF  JAMES  THE 
SECOND. 


Cr.   8vo, 


LOWELL,  —  GOVERNMENTS 
AND  PARTIES  IN  CONTINENTAL 
EUROPE.  By  A.  Lawrence  Lowell. 
2  vols.     8vo,  21s. 


MACAU  LAY  (Lord). 

THE     LIFE    AND    WORKS    OF 

LORD  MACAULAY. 
'  Edinburgh' Edition.     10  vols.    8vo, 

6s.  each. 

Vols.  I.-IV.     History  of  England. 
Vols.V.-VII.  Essays,  Biographies, 

Indian  Penal  Code,  Contributions  to 
Knight's  'Quarterly  Magazine'. 

Vol.  VIII.  Speeches,  Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome,  Miscellaneous  Poems. 

Vols.  IX.  and  X.  The  Life  and 
Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay.  By  Sir 
G.  O.  Trevelvan,  Bart. 

Popular  Edition.  5  vols.  Crown 
8vo,  2s.  6(/.  each. 

History    of    England.       2    vols. 

Crown  8vo,  5s. 

Essays   with    Lays   of    Ancient 

Rome,  etc.    Crown  8vo,  2s.  6((. 

Miscellaneous      Writings, 

Speeches  and  Poems.     Cr.  8vo,  2s.  6rf. 

The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord 
Macaulay.  By  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan, 
Bart.     Crown  8vo,  2s.  M. 


Popular  Edition.     2  vols. 
5s. 

Student's  Edition.     2  vols.     Cr.  8vo, 

12s. 

People's  Edition.     4  vols.     Cr.  8vo, 
16s. 

'  Albany  '  Edition.  With  6  Portraits. 
6  vols.     Large  Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/.  each. 


Cabinet  Edition. 
48s. 

'  Edinburgh  '    Edition 
6s.  each. 

Library  Edition. 


8  vols.     Post  8vo, 
4  vols.    8vo, 
5  vols.     8vo,  £4. 


CRITICAL  AND  HISTORICAL 
ESSAYS,  WITH  LAYS  OF  ANCIENT 
ROME,  etc.,  in  1  Volume. 

Popular  Edition.    Crown  8vo,  2s.  6d. 

'  Silver  Library '  Edition.  With 
Portrait  and  4  Illustrations  to  the  '  Lays  '. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


THE  WORKS. 

Cabinet  Edition.  16  vols.  Post 
8vo,  £4  16s. 

'  Albany  '  Edition.  With  12  Por- 
traits. 12  vols.  Large  Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/. 
each. 

Vols.  I. -VI.     History  OF  England, 
from    the    Accession     of    James    the    Addison  and  Walpole. 
Second.  Croker's     Boswell's 

Johnson. 
Vols.      VII.-X.       Essays      and      HiO- j  Hallam's         Constitu- 
GRAPHIES.  tional  History. 

Warren    Hastings. 

Vols.  XI. -XI I.     Speeches,  Lays  of  ;  The  Earl  of  Chatham 

Rome,  etc.,  and  Index.  (Two  Essays). 


AND     HISTORICAL 

1  vol.     Cr.  8vo, 

Edition.      2  vols.      Cr. 

4  vols.     Post  8vo, 

3  vols.     8vo, 

Library  Edition.     3  vols.      8vo,  365. 


CRITICAL 
ESSAYS. 

Student's  Edition 
6s. 

'  Trevelyan 
8vo,  9s. 

Cabinet  Edition 
24s. 


Edinburgh  '  Edition. 
6s.  each. 


ESSAYS,  which  may  be  had  sepa- 
rately.    Sewed,  6i/.  each  ;  cloth.  Is.  each. 

Frederick  the  Great. 

Ranke  and  Gladstone. 

Lord  Bacon. 

Lord  Clive. 

Lord  Byron  and  The 
Comic  Dramatists 
of  the  Restoration. 


LONGMANS    AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    ll^ORKS. 


History,  Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc 

MACAULAY  (LoRn)-n.«//;/»,-,/. 


-continued 


MISCELLANEOUS    WRITINGS, 
SPEECHES  AND  POEMS. 

Popular  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  2s.  6(/. 

Cabinet  Edition. 
24s. 


4  vols.     Post  8vo, 


SELECTIONS        FROM        THE 

WRITINGS  OF  LORD  MACAULAY. 
Edited,  with  Occasional  Notes,  by  the 
Right  Hon.  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  Bart. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 


MACKINNON  (Ja.mes,  Ph.D.). 


THE    HISTORY    OF 

THE  THIRD.      8vo,  18s. 


EDWARD 


THE  GROWTH   AND  DECLINE 

OF  THE  FRENCH  MONARCHY.    8vo, 
21s.  net. 


MONTAGUE.— THE  ELEMENTS 
OF  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTIONAL  HIS- 
TORY. By  F.  C.  .Montague,  .M.A.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  M. 


MORA  N.— T  HE  THEORY 
AND  PRACTICE  OF  THE  ENGLISH 
GOVERN.MENT.  By  Thomas  Fkancis 
MoRAN,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History  and 
Economics  in  Purdue  University,  US.  Cr. 
8vo,  5s.  net. 


OPPENHEIM.  —  INTERNA- 
TIONAL LAW  :  a  Treatise.  By  L.  Oppen- 
heim,  LL.D.  (In  2  vols.)  Vol.  I.  Peace. 
8vo,  18s.  net. 


PEARS.  —THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF  THE  GREEK  E.MPIRE  AND  THE 
STORY  OF  THE  CAPTURE  OF  CON- 
STANTINOPLE BY  THE  TURKS.  By 
Edwin  Pears,  LL.B.  With  3  Maps  and  4 
Illustrations.     8vo,  18s.  net. 


McCLAIN.  —  CONSTITUTIONAL 

LAW  IN  THE  UNITED  ST.\TES.  By 
Emi.in  McCi.ain,  LL.D.,  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Iowa.    Cr.  8vo,  7s.  6i/.  net. 


MALLET.  —  MALLET    DU    PAN 

AND  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 
By  Bernard  .Mali.et.  With  Photogravure 
Portrait.     8vo,  12s.  6i/.  net. 


MAY. —THE    CONSTITUTIONAL 

HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  since  the 
Accession  of  George  III.  1760-1S70.  By 
Sir  Thomas  Erskine  May,  K.C.B.  (Lord 
Farnborough).     3  vols.     Crown  8vo,  18s. 


MERIVALE  (Charles,  D.D.). 
HISTORY     OF    THE     ROMANS 

UNDER  THE  E.MPIRE.  8  vols.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  M.  each. 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  ROMAN 
REPUBLIC  :  a  Short  History  of  the  Last 
Century  of  the  Commonwealth.  12mo. 
7s.  6</. 

GENERAL  HISTORY  OF  ROME, 

from  the  Foundation  of  the  City  to  the  Fall 
of  Augustulus,  B.C.  753-A.D.  476.  With  5 
Maps.     Crown  8vo,  7s.  %d. 


POWELL   and   TREVELYAN.— 

THE  PEASANTS'  RISING  AND  THE 
LOLLARDS:  a  Collection  of  Unpublished 
Documents.  Edited  by  Edgar  Powell  and 
G.  M.  Trevelyan.    8vo,  6s.  net. 


RANKIN.— THE  MARQUIS 
DARGENSON;  AND  RICHARD  THE 
SECOND.  By  Reginald  Rankin.  8vo, 
10s.  6i?.   net. 


RANSOME.— THE  RISE  OF  CON- 
STITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT  IN  ENG- 
LAND. By  Cyril  Ranso.me,  M.A.  Crown 
8vo,  6s. 


ROBINSON.— CUBA  AND  THE 
INTERVENTION.  By  Albert  G.  Robin- 
son.    Crown  8vo,  7s.  6i/.  net. 


ROWE.— THE  UNITED   STATES 

AND  PORTO  RICO.  With  Special  Refer- 
ence to  the  Problems  arising  out  of  our 
Contact  with  the  Spanish-American  Civili- 
sation. By  Leo.  S.  Rowe,  Ph.D.,  .Member 
of  the  Commis  ion  to  Revise  and  Compile 
the  Laws  of  Porto  Rico  (1900-1901),  Chairman 
of  the  Porto  Rican  Commission  (1901-1902). 
Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


LONGMANS    AND    CO.'s   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    IVORKS. 


History,  Politics,  Polity,  Political  Memoirs,  etc.— continued. 
SEEBOHM    (Frkderic,  LL.D.,TREVELYAN.— THE  AMERICAN 


F.S.A.). 

THE  ENGLISH  VILLAGE  COM- 
MUNITY. With  13  Maps  and  Plates. 
8vo,  12s.  6(/. 

THE      TRIBAL       SYSTEM       IN 

WALES  :  being  Part  of  an    Inquiry  into 


REVOLUTION.     By  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan, 
Bart.    Vols.  1,  2,  i.    Crown  8vo,  5s.  net  each. 


TREVELYAN.  —  ENGLAND  IN 
THE  AGE  OF  WYCLIFFE.  By  George 
Macaulay  Trevelyan.     8vo,  15s. 


the    Structure     and     Methods    of    Tribal 

Society.     With  an  Introductory  Note   on  i 

the   Unit  of  Family   Holding  under  early    TURNER.— A  HISTORY  OF   THE 


Tribal      Custom. 
12s.  6</. 


With    3    Maps.       8vo, 


TRIBAL    CUSTOM    IN    ANGLO- 
SAXON    LAW :   being   an   Essay  supple-  [ 
mental  to  (1)  'The  English  Village  Com- 
munity," (2)  '  The  Tribal  System  in  Wales  '. 
8vo,  12s.  6(f. 


SMITH.— CARTHAGE  AND  THE 
CARTHAGINIANS.  By  R.  Bosworth 
Smith,  M.A.  With  Maps,  Plans,  etc.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6(f. 

STEPHENS. —  A    HISTORY    OF 

THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.     By   H.  | 
Morse  Stephens.     8vo.     Vols.   I.  and   II. 
18s.  each. 

STU  BBS.— HISTORY   OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN.      By  J.  W. 

Stubbs.     8vo,  12s.  &d. 

STUBBS  (William,  D.D.),  formerly 
Bishop  of  Oxford. 

HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTIONS 
TO  THE  ROLLS  SERIES'.  8vo, 
12s.  6(/.  net. 

LECTURES      ON      EUROPEAN 

HISTORY,  1519-1648.     8vo,  12s.  6(/.  net. 

SUTHERLAND.— THE  HISTORY 

OF  AUSTRALIA  AND  NEW  ZEALAND, 
from  1606-1900.  By  Alexander  Suther- 
land, M.A.,  and  George  Sutherland,  M.A. 
Crown  8vo,  2s.  6(/. 

TAYLOR.— A  STUDENT'S   MAN-} 
UAL  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  INDIA.     By 
Colonel   Meadows  Taylor,  C.S.I.     Crown 
8vo,  7s.  6(/. 

TODD.  — PARLIAMENTARY 
GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  BRITISH  COL 
ONIES.  By  Ali'HEUS  Todd.  LL.D.  8vo, 
30s.  net. 


COLONY  OF  VICTORIA  from  its  Discovery 
to  its  Absorption  into  tl  e  Commonwealth  of 
Australia.  By  Henry  Gyles  Turner. 
With  Map  and  Plan.     2  vols.     8vo,  21s. 


WAKEMAN  AND  HASSALL.— 

ESSAYS  INTRODUCTORY  TO  THE 
STUDY  OF  ENGLISH  CONSTITU- 
TIONAL HISTORY.  Edited  by  Henry 
Offley  Wakeman,  M.A.,  and  Arthur  Has- 
SALL,  M.A.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 


WALPOLE  (Sir  Spencer,  K.C.B.). 

1  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  FROM 
THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  GREAT 
WAR  IN  1815  TO  1858.  6  vols.  Crown 
8vo,  6s.  each. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  TWENTY- 
FIVE  YEARS  (1856-1881).  Vols.  I.  and 
II.,  1856-1870.     8vo,  24s.  net. 


W  I  L  L  O  U  G  H  BY.— POLITICAL 

THEORIESOF  THE  ANCIENT  WORLD. 
By  Westel  W.  Willoughby,  Ph.D.  Cr. 
8vo,  6s.  net. 


WILLSON.  —  LEDGER    AND 

SWORD  ;  or,  The  Honourable  Company  of 
Merchants  of  England  Trading  t  >  the  East 
Indies  (1599-1874).  By  Beckles  Willson. 
With  numerous  Portraits  and  Illustrations. 
2  vols.     8vo,  21s.  net. 


WYLIE  (James  Hamilton,  M.A.). 
HISTORYOFENGLANDUNDER 

HENRY  IV.  4  vols.  Crown  8vo.  Vol.1., 
1399-1404,  10s.  6</.  Vol.  II.,  1405-1406,  15s. 
(out  of  print).  Vol.  III.,  1407-1411,  15s. 
Vol.  IV.,  1411-1413,  21s. 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  CONSTANCE 
TO  THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  HUS. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   ANb   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Military  and  Naval   history  and  Science. 

{For  Works  on  Naval  Construction  by  E.  L.  Attwood,  A.  CampBElL  Holms, 
W.  J.  LovETT  and  T.  H.  Watson,  see  Messrs.  Longmans  <&>  Co. '5  Cataloisne 
of  Scientific  Works,  p.  21.) 


ALLGOOD.— CHINA  WAR,  1860: 
LKTTERS  AND  JOURNALS.  By  Major- 
General  G.  Allgood,  C.B  ,  formerly  Lieut., 
1st  Division  China  Field  Force.  With  17 
Maps  and  Plans  and  24  Illustrations.  Demy 
4to,  12s.  6./.  net. 


CHURCHILL  (Winston  Spencer) 

— continued. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MALA- 
KAND  FIELD  FORCE,  1897.  With  Map 
and  Plans.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/. 


BATTINE.  —  THE     CRISIS     OF 

THE  CONFEDERACY:  a  History  of 
(icttysburg  ;ind  the  Wilderness.  By  Cecil 
Battine,  Captain,  ISth  King's  Hussars. 
With  Coloured  Frontispiece  (Battle  Flags 
of  the  Confederacy)  and  6  Maps.  8vo, 
IGv.  net. 


CORBETT  (Julian  S.) 


DRAKE  AND  THE  TUDOR 
NAVY,  with  a  History  of  the  Rise  of 
England  as  a  Maritime  Power.  With 
Portraits,  Illustrations  and  Maps.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  16s. 


LONDON  TO   LADYSMITH    VIA 
PRETORIA.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 


IAN  HAMILTON'S  MARCH.  With 

Portrait  of  Major-General  Sir  Ian  Hamil- 
ton and  10  Maps  and  Plans.  Crown 
8vo,  6s. 


FREEMANTLE.— THE  BOOK  OF 

THE  RIFLE.  By  the  Hon.  T.  F.  Free- 
.MANTLE,  .Major,  1st  Bucks  V.R.C.  With  54 
Plates  and   110  Diagrams.     8vo,  12s.  61/   net. 


THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  DRAKE. 

With  4  Portraits  (2   Photogravures)   and 
12  Maps  and  Plans.     8vo,  21s. 


ENGLAND  IN  THE  MEDITER- 
RANEAN :  a  Study  of  the  Rise  and  In- 
Huence  of  British  Power  within  the  Straits, 
1603-1713.     2  vols.     8vo,  24s.  net. 


CASSERLY.— THE  LAND  OF 

THE  BOXERS  :  or,  China  under  the  Allies. 
By  Captain  Gordon  Casserlv,  Indian  Army. 
With  15  Illustrations  and  a  Plan.  8vo, 
10s.  6rf.  net. 


CHURCHILL  (Winston  Spencer). 


THE  RIVER  WAR:  an  Historical 

Account  of  the  Reconquest  of  the  Soudan. 
Edited  by  Colonel  F.  Rhodes,  D.S.O. 
With  22  Maps  and  Plans.  Mediu.ii  8vo, 
10s.  61/.  net. 


HAMILTON.— HISTORICAL  RE- 
CORD OF  THE  14th  (KING'S)  HUS- 
SARS, from  A.I).  1715  to  a.d.  1900.  By 
Colonel  Henry  Blackburne  Hamilton, 
M.A.,  Christ  Church,  Oxford;  late  Com- 
manding the  Regiment.  With  32  Photo- 
gravure Plates,  15  Coloured  Plates,  and  10 
.Maps.     4to,  gilt  edges,  42s.  net. 


HATCH.  —  THE  ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLU- 
TIONARY ARMY.  By  Louis  Clinton 
H.\TCH,  Ph.D.    8vo,  7s.  M. 


HENDERSON. —THE  SCIENCE 

OF"  WAR  :  a  Collection  of  Essays  and 
Lectures,  1892-1903.  By  the  late  Colonel 
G.  F.  R.  Henderson,  C.B.  Edited  by 
Captain  Neill  Malcolm,  D.S.O.,  Arg>ll 
and  Sutherland  Highlanders.  With  a 
Memoir  of  the  -Author  by  Field-Marshal 
Earl  Roberts,  V.C.  ;  a  Photogravure  Por- 
trait of  Colonel  Henderson  and  4  .Maps. 
«vo,  14s    net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Military  and  Naval   History  and  Science — continued. 

[For  Works  in  Naval  Construction  l>y  H.  \..  Attwood,  A.  Campbell  Holms, 
W.  J.  LovETT  and  T.  H.  Watson,  see  Messrs.  Longmans  &>  Co.'s  Catalogue 
of  Scientific  Works,  p.  21.) 


HIME.— GUNPOWDER  AND  AM- 
MUNITION: their  Origin  and  Progress. 
By  Lieut. -Colonel  Henry  W.  L.  Hime  (late) 
Royal  Artillery.     8vo,  9s.  net. 


H  O  EN  I  G. —  INQUIRIES  CON- 
CERNING THE  TACTICS  OF  THE 
FUTURE.  By  Fritz  Hoenio.  With  1 
Sketch  in  the  Text  and  5  Maps.  Translated 
by  Captain  H.  M.  Bower.    8vo,  15s.  net. 


JACKSON.— STONEWALL  JACK- 
SON AND  THE  AMERICAN  CIVIL  WAR. 
By  Lieut.-Col.  G.  F.  R.  Henderson.  With 
2  Portraits  and  33  Maps  and  Plans.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  16s.  net. 


KAYE  and  MALLESON.  —  HIS- 
TORY OF  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY,  1857- 
1858.  By  Sir  John  W.  Have  and  Colonel 
G.  B.  Malleson.  With  Analytical  Index 
and  Maps  and  Plans.  6  vols.  Crown  8vo, 
3s.  6J.  each. 


LUMSDEN'S         HORSE, 

THE  HISTORY  OF.— Edited  by  H.  H.  S. 
Pearse.  With  a  Map  and  numerous  Por- 
traits and  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  4to, 
21s.  net. 


LYNCH.— THE    WAR   OF  THE 

CIVILISATIONS:  BEING  A  RECORD 
OF  'A  FOREIGN  DEVIL'S '  EXPERI 
ENCES  WITH  THE  ALLIES  IN  CHINA. 
By  George  Lynch.  With  Portrait  and  21 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


PAYNE-GALLWEY.  — THE 

C  R  O  S  S  B  O  W,  M  E  D  1  /li  V  A  L  AN  D 
MODERN,  MILITARY  AND  SPORTING  . 
its  Construction,  History  and  Management. 
With  a  Treatise  on  the  Balista  and  Catapult 
of  the  Ancients.  By  Sir  Ralph  Pavni;- 
Gai.i.wev,  Bart.  With  220  Illustrations. 
Mediinn  4to,  63s.  net. 


RANKIN. —A     SUBALTERN'S 

LETTERS  TO  HIS  WIFE.  (The  Boer 
War.)  By  Reginald  Rankin.  Crown  8vo, 
3s.  6(/. 


SHERSTON  ANDSHADWELL. 

—TACTICS  APPLIED  TO  SCHEMES, 
with  Numerous  Solutions  to  Tactical 
Schemes,  and  14  Maps.  By  Major  J.  Sher- 
ston,  D.S.O.,  the  Rifle  Brigade,  late 
D.A.A.G.  for  Instruction,  and  Major  L.  J. 
Shadwell,  Lancashire  Fusiliers,  late 
D.A.A  G.  for  Instruction.  Fourth  Edition, 
Revised  and  Enlarged,  by  Major  Shadwell. 
2  vols.  8vo.  (Vol.  I.  Text.  Vol.  II.  Maps.) 
15s.  net. 


THOMSON.— CHINA    AND   THE 

POWERS:  a  Narrative  of  the  Outbreak  of 
1900.  By  H.  C.  Thomson.  With  2  Maps 
and  29  Illustrations.     8vo,  10s.  6(7.  net. 


THU  ILLIER.  —  THE  PRIN- 
CIPLES OF  LAND  DEFENCE,  AND 
THEIR  APPLICATION  TO  THE  CON- 
DITIONS OF  TO-DAY.  By  Captain  H.  F. 
Thuillier,  R.E.  With  21  Illustrations  and 
Diagrams.     8vq,  12s.  6rf.  net. 


VILLIERS.— PORT   ARTHUR: 

Three  Months  with  the  Besiegers.  A 
Diurnal  of  Occurrents.  By  Frederic 
ViLLiERS.  With  35  Illustrations,  2  Fac- 
similes and  a  Map.     8vo,  7s.  6rf.  net. 


WELLINGTON.— LIFE  OF  THE 

DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON.     By  the  Rev. 
G.  R.  Gleig,  M.A.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6i/. 


YARDLEY.— WITH    THE   INNIS- 

KILLING  DRAGOONS:  The  Record  of  a 
Cavalry  Regiment  during  the  Boer  War, 
1899-1902.  By  Lieut. -Colonel  J.  Watkins 
Yardley,  B.A.,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
late  Inniskilling  Dragoons.  With  Map  and 
96  Illustrations  from  Photographs.  8vo, 
16s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS.        II 


Biography,  Personal  Memoirs,  etc. 


ANSTRUTHER     THOMSON. - 

Kir.HTY  YEARS'  REMINISCENCES. 
By  Colonel  J.  Anstruther  Thomson.  With 
29  Portraits  and  other  Illustrations.  2  vols. 
8vo,  21i.  net. 


BACON. —THE  LETTERS  AND 
LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  BACON,  INCLUD- 
ING ALL  HIS  OCCASIONAL  WORKS. 
Edited    hy  Jamks  Speoding.     7   vols.     8vo, 


B  A  G  E  H  O  T.~BIOGRAPHICAL 

STUDIES.    By  Walter  Bagehot.    Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6<^ 

Contents.— The  Character  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel  —  Lord  Brougham — Mr.  Gladstone  — 
William  Pitt — Bolinjibroke  as  a  Statesman — 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis — Adam  Smith  as  a 
Person — Lord  Althorp  and  the  Reform  Act  of 
1832. 


Addenda.  —  The  Prince  Consort  —  What 
Lord  Lyndhurst  really  was — The  Tribute  at 
Hereford  to  SirG.  C.  Lewis — Mr.Cobden — Lord 
Palmerston — The  Earl  of  Clarendon  —  Mr. 
Lowe  as  Chancellor  of  the  E.xchequer  — 
Monsieur  Guizot — Professor  Cairns — Mr.  Dis- 
raeli as  a  Member  of  the  House  of  Commons. 


BAI  N.— AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  By 
Ale.xander  Bain,  LL.D.  With  4  Portraits. 
8vo,  145.  net. 


BEARDS  LEY. —THE       LAST 
LETTERS  OF   AUBREY   BEARDSLEY. 

Edited  by  the  Rev.  John  Gray,  Priest  of 
the  Archdiocese  of  St.  Andrews  and  Edin- 
burgh.    Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


BO  WEN.— EDWARD    BOWEN  ; 

A  MEMOIR.  By  the  Rev.  the  Hon.  W.  E. 
BoWEN.  With  Appendices,  3  Photogravure 
Portraits  and  2  other  Illustrations.  8vo, 
12s.  <ad.  net. 


CARLYLE  (Thomas). 

A  HISTORY  OF   HIS  LIFE.     By 

James  Anthony  Froude. 

1795-1835.     2  vols.     Crown  8vo,  Is. 
1834-1881.     2  vols.     Crown  8vo,  7s. 

MY  RELATIONS  WITH  CAR- 
LYLE. By  James  Anthony  Fkoude. 
Together  with  a  letter  from  the  late  Sir 
James  Stephen,  Bart.,  K.C.S.I.,  dated 
Decembers),  1886.     Svo,  2s.  net. 


COLVILLE.— DUCHESS  SARAH: 

being  the  Social  History  of  the  Times  of 
Sarah  Jennings,  Duchess  of  Marlborough. 
Compiled  and  arranged  by  one  of  her  des- 
cendants (Mrs.  Arthur  Colville).  With 
10  Photogravure  Plates  and  2  other  Illus- 
trations.    Svo,  18s.  net. 


CREIGHTON.  —  LIFE     AND 

LETTERS  OF  MANDELL CREIGHTON, 
D.D.  OXON.  AND  CAMB.,  SOMETIME 
BISHOP  OF  LONDON.  By  his  Wife. 
With  8  Portraits  and  3  other  Illustrations. 
2  vols.    8vo,  28s.  net. 


CROZIER.  —  MY    INNER    LIFE: 

being  a  Chapter  in  Personal  Evolution  and 
Autobiography.  By  John  BeattieCrozier, 
LL.D.     8vo,  14s. 


DANTE.  —THE  LIFE  AND 
WORKS  OF  DANTE  ALLIGHIERI  : 
being  an  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the 
'  Divina  Commedia'.  By  the  Rev.  J.  F. 
Hogan,  D.D.     With  Portrait.     Svo,  12s.  6</. 


DANTON.— LIFE    OF    DANTON, 

By  A.  H.  Beeslv.     With  Portraits.     Crown 
Svo,  6s. 


DAVENPORT-HILL.—  MEMOIR 
OF  ROSAMOND  DAVENPORT-HILL. 
By  Ethel  E.  Metcalfe.  With  4  Portraits. 
Crown  Svo,  2s.  6(^  net- 


12        LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Biography,   Personal  Memoirs,   etc. — continued. 


De  VERE.— AUBREY   de   VERE  : 

a  Memoir  based  on  his  Unpublished  Diaries 
and  Correspondence.  By  Wilfrid  Ward. 
With  2  Portraits  and  2  other  Illustrations. 
8vo,  145.  net. 


ERASMUS. 

THE  EPISTLES  OF  ERASMUS. 

Arranged  in  Order  of  Time.  English 
Translations  from  his  Early  Correspon- 
dence, with  a  Commentary  conHrminji  the 
Chronological  Arrangement  and  supplying 
further  Biographical  m.atter.  By  Francis 
Morgan  Nichols.  2  vols.  8vo,  18s.  net 
each. 

LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 
ERASMUS.  By  James  Anthony 
Froude.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


FARADAY.— FARADAY   AS   A 

DISCOVERER.  By  John  Tyndall.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


FENELON  :  his  Friends  and  his 
Enemies,  1651-1715.  By  B.  K.  Sanders. 
With  Portrait.     8vo,  10s.  6rf. 


FOX.— THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF 

CHARLES  JAMES  FOX.  By  the  Right 
Hon.  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  Bart.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  %d. 


GREY.  —  MEMOIR      OF     SIR 

GEORGE  GREY,  Bart.,  G.C.B.,  1799-1882. 
By  Mandell  Creighton,  D.D.,  late  Lord 
Bishop  of  London.  With  3  Portraits.  Crown 
8vo,  6s.  net. 


HAMILTON.— LIFE   OF    SIR 

WILLIAM  HAMILTON.  By  R.  P.  Graves. 
8vo.  3  vols.  15s.  each.  Addendum.  8vo, 
6(/.  sewed. 


HARROW  SCHOOL  REGISTER 

(TUB),  1801-191)0.  Edited  by  .M.G.Dauglish. 
8vo,  10s.  net. 


HAVELOCK.  -MEMOIRS  OF  SIR 
HENRY   HAVELOCK,   K.C.B.     By  John 

Clark  Marshman.    Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


HAWEIS.— MY  MUSICAL  LIFE. 

By  the  Rev.  H.  R.  Haweis.  With  Portrait 
of  Richard  Wagner  and  3  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


HIGGINS.— THE  BERNARDS  OF 
ABINGTONAND  NETHER  WINCHEN- 
DON  :  A  Family  History.  By  Mrs.  Napier 
Higgins.  4  vols.  Vols.  I.  and  II.,  8vo,  21s. 
net.     Vols.  HI.  and  IV.     8vo,  21s.  net. 


HILEY.— MEMORIES  OF  HALF 
A  CENTURY.  By  Richard  W.  Hilev, 
D.D.,  Vicar  of  Wighill,  near  Tadcaster, 
Yorks.     8vo,  15s. 


KIELMANSEGGE.— DIARY    OF 

A  JOURNEY  TO  ENGLAND  IN  THE 
YEARS  1761-1762.  By  Count  Frederick 
Kielmansegge.  With  4  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


LUTHER.— LIFE    OF    LUTHER. 

By  Julius  Kcistlin.     With  62  Illustrations 
and  4  Facsimiles  of  MSS.     Cr.  8vo,  3s.  6(f. 


LYALL.— THE    LIFE    OF    EDNA 

LYALL  (Ada  Ellen  Bayly).  By  J.  M. 
EscREET.  With  2  Portraits.  Crown  8vo, 
5s.  net. 


MACAULAY.— THE  LIFE  AND 
LETTERS  OF  LORD  MACAULAY.  By 
the  Right  Hon.  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  Bart. 

Popular   Edition.      1   vol.      Cr.  8vo, 
2s.  6rf. 

Studejit's  Edition.    1vol.  Cr.  8vo,  6s. 

Cabinet  Edition.     2  vols.     Post  8vo, 
12s. 

'  Edinburgh  '  Edition.     2  vols.     8vo, 
6s.  each. 

Library  Edition.     2  vols.     8vo,  36s. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORK: 


13 


Biography,   Personal  Memoirs,  etc. — continued. 


MARBOT.— THE    MEMOIRS    OF 

THE  BARON  DE  MARBOT.     2  vols.     Cr. 

8v(>,  7.S. 


MAX  MtJLLER  (F. 


THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 
THE  RIGHT  HON.  FRIEDRICH  MAX 
MtJLLER.  Edited  by  his  Wife.  With 
Photogravure  Portraits  and  other  Illustra- 
tions.    2  vols.     8vo,  32s.  net. 

MY  AUTOBIOGRAPHY:  a   Frag- 1 
ment.     With  6  Portraits.     8vo,  12s.  6(f. 

AULD  LANG  SYNE.  Second 
Series.     8vo,  10s.  6>/. 

CHIPS  FROM  A  GERMAN 
WORKSHOP.  Vol.  II.  Biographical 
Essays.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 

MORRIS.  —  THE  LIFE  OF 
WILLIAM  MORRIS.  By  J.  W.  Mackail. 
With  2  Portraits  and  8  other  Illustrations  by 
E.  H.  New,  etc.  2  vols.  Large  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  net. 


ON     THE     BANKS     OF     THE 

SEINE.     By  A.  M.  P.,  Author  of  'Foreign 
Courts  and  Ft)reign  Homes  '.     Cr.  8\  o,  6s. 


PAGET.— MEMOIRS  AND 

LETTERS  OF  SIR  JAMES  PAGET. 
Edited  by  Stephen  Paget,  one  of  his  sons. 
With  Portrait.     8\o,  6s.  net. 

rAmAKW/SHA'A  :       HIS  LIFE 

AND  SAYINGS.  By  the  Right  Hon.  F. 
Max  MCller.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 


SEEBOHM.^THE  OXFORD  RE- 

FOR.MERS-JOHN  COLET,  ERASMUS 
AND  THOMAS  MORE:  a  History  of  their 
Fellow-Work.  By  Frederic  Seebohm. 
8vo,  12s.  61/. 


SHAKESPEARE.  —  OUTLINES 
OF  THE  LIFE  OF  SHAKESPEARE. 
By  J.  O.  Hali.iwell-Phillipps.  With  Illus- 
trations and  Facsimiles.  2  vols.  Royal  8vo, 
21s. 


TALES  OF   MY   FATHER. 

A.  M.  F.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 


-By 


TALLENTYRE.— THE    WOMEN 

OF  THE  SALONS,  and  other  French  Por 
traits.  By  S.  G.  Tallentvre.  With  11 
Photogravure  Portraits.     8vo,  10s.  61/.  net. 


VERNEY.— MEMOIRS  OF  THE 
VERNEY  FAMILY  DURING  THE 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  Compiled 
from  the  Papers  and  Illustrated  by  the 
Portraits  at  Claydon  House,  Bucks.  By 
Frances  Pakthenope  Vernev  and 
Margaret  M.  Vernev.  Abridged  and 
Cheaper  Edition.  With  24  Portraits.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  I2s.  net. 


VICTORIA,  QUEEN,  1819-1901. 
By  Richard  R.  Holmes,  M.V.O.,  F.S.A. 
With  Photogravure  Portrait.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  top,  5s.  net. 


ROCHESTER,      AND      OTHER   WILKINS  (W.  H.) 
LITERARY   RAKES   OF  THE   COURT 
OF  CHARLES   II.,  WITH  SOME   AC  = 
COUNT  OF  THEIR  SURROUNDINGS. 

By  the  Author  of  'The  Life  of  Sir  Kenelm 
Digby,'  'The  Life  of  a  Prig,'  etc.  With  15 
Portraits.     8vo,  16s. 


ROMANES.  —  THE  LIFE 
AND  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  JOHN 
ROMANES,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  Written 
and  Edited  by  his  Wife.  With  Portrait  and 
2  illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


A  QUEEN    OF  TEARS:  Caroline 

iMatilda,  Queen  of  Denmark  and  Norway, 
and  Princess  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
With  2  Portraits  and  47  other  Illustrations. 
2  vols.     8vo,  36s. 


THE  LOVE  OF  AN  UN- 
CROWNED QUEEN  :  Sophie  Dorothea 
Consort  of  George  I.,  and  her  Correspon- 
dence with  Philip  Christopher,  Count 
Kiinigsniarck.  With  24  Portraits  and 
other  Illustrations.     8vo,  I'is.  6rf.  net. 


RUSSELL.  —  SWALLOWFIELD 

AND  ITS  OWNERS.  By  Constance  Lady 
Russell,  of  Swallowfield  Park.  With  15 
Photogravure  Portraits  and  36  other  Illus- 
trations.    4to,  gilt  edges,  42s.  net. 


CAROLINE  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS, 

Queen-Consort  of  George  II.  and  sometime 
Queen-Regent  :  a  Study  of  Her  Life  and 
Time.  With  42  Portraits  and  other  Illus- 
trations.    8vo,  12s.  Brf.  net. 


14        LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Travel  and  Adventure,  the  Colonies,  etc. 

BRASS EY  (The  Late  Lady)— coh/. 
AND     STORM     IN 


ARNOLD.— SEAS    AND    LANDS 

By  Sir  Edwin  Arnold.     With  71   Illustra 
tions.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  M. 


BAKER  (Sir  S.  W.). 

EIGHT     YEARS     IN      CEYLON. 

Witli  6  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  %d. 

THE  RIFLE  AND  THE  HOUND 
IN  CEYLON.  With  6  Illustrations.  Cr. 
8vo.  3.S.  M. 


BALL  (John). 

THE    ALPINE    GUIDE.       Recon- 

structed  and  Revised  on  behalf  of  the 
Alpine  Club,  by  W.  A.  B.  Coolidge. 

Vol.     I.,     The     Western     Alps  : 

the  Alpine  Region,  South  of  the  Rhone 
Valley,  from  the  Col  de  Tenda  to  the 
Simplon  Pass.  With  9  New  and  Revised 
Maps.     Crown  8vo,  I'is.  net. 

Vol.  II.,  The  Central  Alps,  North 
OF  THE  Rhone  Valley,  from  the 
SiiMPLON   Pass  to  the    Adige   Valley. 

\In  preparation. 

HINTS  AND  NOTES,  PRAC- 
TICAL AND  SCIENTIFIC,  FOR  TRA- 
VELLERS IN  THE  ALPS:  being  a 
Revision  of  the  General  Intriniuction  to 
the  '  Alpine  Guide  '.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  net. 


BENT.— THE     RUINED    CITIES 

OF  MASHONALAND:  being  a  Record  of 
Excavation  and  Exploration  in  1891.  By  J. 
Theodore  Bent.  With  117  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6</. 


BRASSEY  (The  Late  Lady). 

A  VOYAGE  IN  THE  'SUN- 
BEAM '  ;  OUR  HOME  ON  THE 
OCEAN    FOR    ELEVEN    MONTHS. 

Cabinet  Edition.  With  Map  and 
B6  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges, 
7s.  6rf. 

'  Silver  Library  '  Edition.  With  66 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6J. 

Popular  Edition.  With  60  Illustra- 
tions.   4to,  6(/.  sewed  ;  Is.  cloth. 

School  Edition.  With  37  Illustra- 
tions. Fcp.,  2s.  cloth,  or  3s.  white  parch- 
ment. 


SUNSHINE 
THE  EAST. 

Popular  Edition.  With  103  Illus- 
trations.    4to,  6(/.  sewed  ;  Is.  cloth. 

IN  THE  TRADES,  THE  TROPICS 
AND  THE  •  ROARING  FORTIES'. 

Cabinet  Edition.  With  Map  and 
220  Illustrations.    Cr.  8vo,  gilt  edges,  7s.  M. 


COCKERELL.— TRAVELS        IN 

SOUTHERN  EUROPE  AND  THE  LE- 
VANT, 1810-1817.  ByC.  R.  Cockerell., 
Architect,  R.A.  Edited  by  his  Son,  Samuel 
Pepys  Cockerell.  With  Portrait.  8vo, 
10s.  6i/.  net. 


FOUNTAIN  (Paul). 

THE  GREAT  DESERTS  AND 
FORESTS     OF     NORTH     AMERICA. 

With  a  Preface  by  W.  H.  Hudson, 
Author  of  '  The  Naturalist  in  La  Plata,' 
etc.    8vo,  9s.  6J.  net. 

THE  GREAT  MOUNTAINS  AND 
FORESTS  OF  SOUTH  A.MERICA.  With 
Portrait  and  7  Illustrations.  8vo,10s.6(/.  net. 

THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST  AND 
THE  GREAT  LAKE  REGION  OF 
NORTH  AMERICA.       8vo,   10s.  6(^  net. 


FROUDE  (James  A.). 

OCEANA  :  or  England  and  her 
Colonies.  With  9  Illustrations.  Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6J. 

THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  WEST 

INDIES  :  or,  the  Bow  of  Ulysses.  With 
9  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  2s.  boards ; 
2s.  6(f.  cloth. 


GROVE.— SEVENTY-ONE    DAYS' 

CAMPING  IN  MOROCCO.  By  Lady 
Grove.  With  Photogravure  Portrait  and 
32  Illustrations  from  Photographs.  8vo, 
7s.  6(/.  net. 


HAGGARD.— A  WINTER  PIL- 
GRIMAGE: Being  an  Account  of  Travels 
through  Palestine,  Italy  and  the  Island  of 
Cyprus,  undcrtaUen  in  the  year  1900.  By 
H.  Rider  Haggard.  With  31  Illustrations 
from    Photographs.      Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


15 


Travel  and  Adventure,  the  Colonies,  etc. — conthincd. 

H  A  R  D  W  I  C  K.— A  N      1  \'  O  R  Y  i  LYNCH.— ARMENIA  :  Travels  and 


TRADlvK  IN  NORTH  KHNIA:  the  Re- 
cord of  nil  l-^\pedition  to  the  Country  North 
of  Mount  Kenia  in  Hast  Equatorial  Africa, 
with  an  account  of  the  Nomads  of  Galla- 
Land.  By  A.  Ankf.i.i.-Hardvvick,  F.R.G.S. 
With  23  Illustrations  from  Photographs,  and 
a  Map.     8vo.,  I'is.  (iJ.  net. 

HART.— TWO     ARGONAUTS     IN 

SPAIN.  By  JiaiOME  Hart.  With  :6  Full- 
page  Illustrations.  Large  crown  Svo.,  Ss. 
net. 

HAVELL.  —  A  HANDBOOK  TO 
AGRA  AND  THH  TAJ,  SIKANORA, 
FATHHPUR-SIKRl  AND  THH  NHKiH- 
BOURHOOD.  By  E.  B.  Havell,  A.R.CA., 
Principal,  Government  School  of  Art,  Cal- 
cutta; Fellow  of  the  Calcutta  University. 
With  14  Illustrations  from  Photographs,  and 
•4  Plans.     Crown  Svo,  5,s.  net. 


HOWITT.— VISITS  TO  REMARK- 
ABLE PLACES.  Old  Halls,  Battle-Fields, 
Scenes,  Illustrative  of  Striking  Passages  in 
English  History  and  Poetry.  By  Wii.LlAM 
HowiTT.  With  SO  Illustrations.  Crown 
Svo,  3s.  6J. 

KNIGHT  (E.  F.). 

THE  CRUISE  OF  THE 
'  FALCON  '.  A  Voyage  to  South  America 
in  a  30-Ton  Yacht.  With  2  Maps  and  13 
Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  M. 

THE     'FALCON'     ON     THE 

BALTIC :  a  Voyage  from  London  to 
Copenhagen  in  a  Three  Tonner.  With  10 
Full-page  Illustrations.     Cr.  Svo,  3s.  %d. 

THE      CRUISE      OF      THE 

'  ALEHTE  '  :  the  Narrative  of  a  Search 
for  Treasure  on  the  Desert  Island  of  Trini- 
dad. With  2  Maps  and  23  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  6;/. 

WHERE       THREE       EMPIRES 

MEET:  a  Narrative  of  Recent  Travel  in 
Kashmir,  Western  Tibet,  Baltistan,  Ladak, 
Gilgit,  and  the  adjoining  Countries.  With 
a  Map  and  54  Illustrations.  Crown  Svo, 
3s.  <ad. 

SOUTH  AFRICA  AFTER  THE 

WAR.  With  17  Illustrations.  Svo., 
10s.  M.  net. 


LEES    AND    CLUTTERBUCK. 

B.C.  1SS7:  A  RAMBLE  IN  BRITISH 
COLUMBIA.  By  J.  A.  Lees  and  W.  J. 
Ci.uTTERBUCK.  With  Map  and  75  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  (iJ. 


Studies.  By  H.  F.  B.  Lynch.  With  197 
Illustrations  (some  in  tints)  reproduced  from 
Photographs  and  Sketches  by  the  Author, 
16  Maps  and  Plans,  a  Bibliography,  and  a 
Map  of  Armenia  and  adjacent  countries.  2 
vols.     Medium  Svo,  gilt  top,  42s.  net. 


NANSEN.— THE  FIRST  CROSS- 
ING OF  GREENLAND.  By  Fridtjoi- 
Nanskn.  With  143  Illustrations  and  a  Map. 
Crown     Svo,  3s.  6i/. 


RICE.— OCCASIONAL  ESSAYS 
ON  NATIVE  SOUTH  INDIAN  LIFE.  By 
Stanley  P.  Rice,  Indian  Civil  Service. 
Svo,  10s.  6(/. 


SMITH. —  CLIMBING  IN  THE 
BRITISH  ISLES.  By  W.  P.  Haskett, 
Smith.  With  Illustrations  and  Numerous 
Plans. 

Pat't  I.   England. 


Part 

IGmc 


Wales 

net. 


I61T10,  3s.  net. 
AND    Ireland. 


STEPHEN.  —  THE       PLAY- 

GROUND  OF  EUROPE  (The  Alps).  By 
Sir  Leslie  Stephen,  K.C.B.  With  4 
Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 


STUTFIELD    AND    COLLIE.— 

CLIMBS  AND  HXPLORATION  IN  THE 
CANADIAN  ROCKIES.  By  Hugh  H.  M. 
Stutfield  and  J.  Norman  Collie,  F'.R.S. 
With  2  Maps,  24  Full-page  Illustrations,  and 
56  Half-page  Illustrations.     Svo,  12s.  6(/.  net. 


SVERDRUP.  —  NEW    LAND: 

Four  Years  in  the  Arctic  Regions.  By  Otto 
Sverdrup.  Translated  fn  m  the  Norv\egian 
by  Ethel  Harriet  Hearn.  With  62  Plates, 
162  Illustrations  (4  Maps)  in  the  Text,  and  4 
Folding-out  Maps.     2  vols.     Svo,  36s.  net. 


THREE  IN  NORWAY.     By  Two 

of  Them.     With  a  Map  and  59  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  2s.  boards,  2s.  6J.  cloth. 


TYNDALL  (John). 


THE  GLACIERS  OF  THE  ALPS. 

With  61    Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  6s.  61/. 
net. 

HOURS  OF  EXERCISE  IN  THE 

ALPS.     With  7  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo, 
6s.  6</.  net. 


i6 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


Sport  and  Pastime. 

THE  BADMINTON  LIBRARY. 

Edited  by  His  Grace  the  (Eighth)  DUKE  OF  BEAUFORT,  K.G., 
and  A.  E.  T.  WATSON. 


ARCHERY.     By  C.  J.  Longman  and 

Col.  H.  Walrond.  With  Contributions  by 
Miss  Lech,  Viscount  Dillon,  etc.  With 
2  Maps,  23  Plates  and  172  Illustrations  in 
the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half- 
bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

ATHLETICS.       By     Montague 

Shearman.  With  Chapters  on  Athletics  at 
School  by  W.  Beach  Thomas:  Athletic 
Sports  in  America  by  C.  H.  Sherrill;  a 
Contribution  on  Paper-chasing  by  W.  Rye, 
and  an  Introduction  by  Sir  Richard  Web- 
ster (Lord  Alverstone).  With  12  Plates 
and  37  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown 
8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top, 
9s.  net. 

BIG  GAME  SHOOTING.  By 
Olive  Phillipps-Wolley. 

Vol.     I.       Africa    and     America. 

With  Contributions  by  Sir  Samuel  W. 
Baker,  W.  C.  Oswell,  F.  C.  Selous,  etc. 
With  20  Plates  and  57  Illustrations  in  the 
Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half- 
bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

Vol.  II.     Europe,   Asia,   and  the 

ARCTIC  REGIONS.  With  Contributions 
by  Lieut. -Colonel  R.  Heber  Percy,  Major 
Algernon  C.  Heber  Percy,  etc.  With 
17  Plates  and  56  Illustrations  in  the  Text. 
Crown  8vo,  cloth  6s.  net  ;  half  bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

BILLIARDS.  By  Major  W.  Broad- 
foot,  R.E.  With  Contributions  by  A.  H. 
Boyd,  Sydenham  Dlxon,  W.  J.  Ford,  etc. 
With  11  Plates,  19  Illustrations  in  the  Text, 
and  numerous  Diagrams.  Crown  Svo,  cloth, 
6s.  net ;    half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

COURSING       AND      FALCONRY. 

By  Harding  Co.x,  Charles  Richardson, 
and  the  Hon.  Gerald  Lascelles.  With 
20  Plates  and  55  Illustrations  in  the  Text. 
Crown  Svo,  cloth  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

CRICKET.  By  A.  G.  Steel  and  the 
Hon  R.  H.  Lyttelton.  With  Contributions 
by  Andrew  Lang,  W.  G.  Grace,  F.  Gale, 
etc.  With  13  Plates  and  51  Illustrations  in 
the  Text.  Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half- 
bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

CYCLING.  By  the  Earl  of  Albe- 
marle and  G.  Lacy  Hjli.ier.  With  19 
Plates  and  44  Illustrations  in  the  Text. 
Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net  ;  half-bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 


DANCING.     By  Mrs.  Lilly  Grove. 

With  Contributions  by  Miss  Middleton. 
The  Hon.  Mrs.  Arhytage,  etc.  With 
Musical  Examples,  and  3S  Full-page  Plates 
and  93  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown 
Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top, 
9s.  net. 

DRIVING.       By      His     Grace      the 

(Eighth)  Duke  of  Beaufort,  K.G.  With 
Contributions  by  A.  E.  T.  Watson,  the  Earl 
of  Onslow,  etc.  With  12  Plates  and  54 
Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  Svo,  cloth, 
6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

FENCING,      BOXING,      AND 

wrestling.  By  Walter  H.  Pollock, 
F.  C.  Grove,  C.  Prevost,  E.  B.  Mitchell, 
and  Walter  Armstrong.  With  18  Plates 
and  24  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  Svo, 
cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

FISHING.  By  H.  Cholmondeley- 
Pennell. 

Vol.  I.    Salmon  and  Trout.    With 

Contributions  by  H.  R.  Francis,  Major 
John  P.  Traherne,  etc.  With  9  Plates 
and  numerous  Illustrations  of  Tackle,  etc. 
Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

Vol.  II.     Pike  and  other  Coarse 

Fish.  With  Contributions  by  the  Mar- 
quis OF  Exeter,  William  Senior,  G. 
Christopher  Davis,  etc.  With  7  Plates 
and  numerous  Illustrations  of  Tackle,  etc. 
Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

FOOTBALL.  History,  by  Mon- 
tague Shearman  ;  The  Association  Game, 
by  W.  J.  Oakley  and  G.  O.  Smith  ;  The 
Rugby  Union  Game,  by  Frank  Mitchell. 
With  other  Contributions  by  R.  E.  Mac- 
naghten,  M.  C.  Kemp,  J.  E.  Vincent, 
Walter  Camp  and  A.  Sutherland.  With 
19  Plates  and  35  Illustrations  in  the  Text. 
Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with 
gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

GOLF.    By  Horace  G.  Hutchinson. 

With  Contributions  by  the  Rt.  Hon.  A.  J. 
Bali'OUR,  M.P.,  Sir  Walter  Simpson, 
Bart.,  Andrew  Lang,  etc.  With  34  Plates 
and  56  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown 
Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top, 
9s.  net. 

HUNTING.         By    His    Grace    the 

(Eighth)  Duke  ok  Beaufort,  K.G.,  and 
Mowbray  Morris.  With  Contributions  by 
the  Earl  of  Suffolk  and  Berkshire, 
Rev.  E.  W.  L.  Davies,  G.  H.  Longman, 
etc.  With  5  Plates  and  54  Illustrations  in 
the  Text.  Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s.  net  ;  half- 
bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    irORKS. 


17 


Sport  and  Pastime — continued. 
THE  BADMINTON  LlBRARY—outii/ned. 

Editel  by  His  Grace  the  (Eighth)  DUKE  OF  BEAUFORT,  K.G., 
and  A.  E.  T.  WATSON. 


MOTORS  AND  MOTOR-DRIVING. 

By  Sir  Alfred  C.  Harmsvvorth,  Bart.,  the 
IMarquis  de  Chasseloup  -  Laubat,  the 
Hon.  John  Scott-Moni agu,  R.  J.  Me- 
CKEDV,  the  Hon.  C.  S.  Rolls,  Sir  David 
Salo.mons,  Bart.,  etc.  With  14  Plates  and 
160  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo, 
cloth,  9s.  net  ;  half-bound,  12s.  net. 
A  Cloth  Box  for  use  when  Motor- 
ing, 2s.  net. 

MOUNTAINEERING.        By    C.    T. 

Dent.  With  Contributions  by  the  Right 
Hon.  J.  Bryce,  M.P.,  Sir  .Martin  Conway, 
D.  W.  Freshfield,  C.  E.  .Matthews,  etc. 
With  13  Plates  and  91  Illustrations  in  the 
Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net  ;  half-bound, 
w  ith  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

POETRY  OF  SPORT  (THE).— 
Selected  by  Hedley  Peek.  With  a  Chapter 
on  Classical  Allusions  to  Sport  by  Andrew 
Lang,  and  a  Special  Preface  to  the  BAD- 
MINTON LIBRARY  by  A.  E.  T.  Watson. 
With  32  Plates  and  74  Illustrations  in  the 
Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half-bound, 
with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

R.ACING  AND  STEEPLE-CHAS- 
ING. By  the  Earl  of  Suffolk  and 
Berkshire,  W.  G.  Craven,  the  Hon.  F. 
Lavvley,  Arthur  Coventry,  and  A.  E.  T. 
Watson.  With  Frontispiece  and  56  Illus- 
trations in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 
net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

RIDING  AND  POLO.  By  Captain 
Robert  Weik,  J.  .Moray  Brown,  T.  F. 
Dale,  The  Late  Duke  of  Beaufort, 
The  Earl  of  Suffolk  and  Berkshire, 
etc.  With  18  Plates  and  41  Illustrations  in 
the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ;  half- 
bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

ROWING.     By  R.   P.  P.  Rowe  and 

C.  M.  PiT.MAN.  With  Chapters  on  Steering 
by  C.  P.  Serocold  and  F.  C.  Begg  :  Metro- 
politan Rowing  by  S.  Le  Blanc  Smith  ;  and 
on  PUNTING  by  P.  W.  Si>uire.  With 
75  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ; 
half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

SEA  FISHING.  By  John  Bicker- 
dyke,  Sir  H.  W.  Gore-Booth,  Sir  Alfred 
C.  Harmsworth,  Bart.,  and  W.  Senior. 
With  22  Full-page  Plates  and  175  Illustra- 
tions in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net  ; 
half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 


SHOOTING. 

Vol.  I.  Field  and  Covert.  By 
Lord  Walsingha.m  and  Sir  Ralph 
Payne-Gallwey,  Bart.  With  Contribu- 
tions by  the  Hon  Gerald  Lascelles  and 
A.  J.  Stuart-Wortley.  With  11  Plates 
and  95  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown 
8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net  ;  half-bound,  with  gilt 
top,  9s.  net. 

Vol.    II.     Moor   and    Marsh.     By 

Lord  Walsingham  and  Sir  Ralph 
Payne-Gallwey,  Bart.  With  Contribu- 
tions by  Lord  Lovat  and  Lord  Charles 
Lenno.x  Kerr.  With  8  Plates  and  57 
Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo, 
cloth,  6s.  net  ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top, 
9s.  net. 

SKATING,  CURLING,  TOBOG- 
GANING. By  J.  .M.  Heathcote,  C.  G. 
Tebbutt,  T.  Maxwell  Witha.m,  Rev. 
John  Kerr,  Or.mond  Hake,  Henry  A. 
Buck,  etc.  With  12  Plates  and  272  Illustra- 
tions in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ; 
half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

SWIMMING.  By  Archibald  Sin- 
clair and  William  Henry,  Hon.  Sees,  of 
the  Life-Saving  Society.  With  13  Plates  and 
112  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Cr.  8vo,  cloth, 
6s.  net ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

TENNIS,      LAWN      TENNIS, 

RACKETS  AND  FIVES.  By  J.  M.  and  C. 
G.  Heathcote,  E.  O.  Pleydell-Bouverie, 
and  A.  C.  Ainger.  With  Contributions  by 
the  Hon.  A.  Lyttelton,  W.  C.  Marshall, 
Miss  L.  DoD,  etc.  With  14  Plates  and  65 
Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth, 
6s.  net  ;  half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

YACHTING. 

Vol.  I.  Cruising,  Construction  of 
yachts,  yacht  racing  rules,  fitting-out, 
etc.  By  Sir  Edward  Sullivan,  Bart., 
The  Earl  of  Pembroke,  Lord  Brassey, 
K.C.B.,  C.  E.  Seth-Smith,  C.B.,  G.  L. 
Watson,  R.  T.  Pritchett,  E.  F.  Knight, 
etc.  With  21  Plates  and  93  Illustrations 
in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  Gs.  net; 
half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 

Vol.  II.      Yacht  Clubs,  Yachting 

in      AMERICA    AND     THE    COLONIES,     YACHT 

racing,  etc.  By  R.  T.  Pritchett,  The 
Marquis  of  Dufferin  and  Ava,  K.P., 
The  Earl  of  Onslow,  James  .McFerran, 
etc.  With  35  Plates  and  160  Illustrations 
in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s.  net ; 
half-bound,  with  gilt  top,  9s.  net. 


i8 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


Sport  and  Pastime — continued. 
FUR,  FEATHER,  AND  FIN  SERIES. 

Edited  by  A.  E.  T.  Watson. 
Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  price  55.  each  Volume. 

1^*  The  Volumes  are  also  issued  half-bound  in  Leather,  with  gilt  top. 
Price  Is.  6d.  net  each. 


THE  PARTRIDGE.  Natural  His- 
tory, by  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Macpherson  ; 
Shooting,  by  A.  J.  Stuart  -  Wortley  ; 
Cookery,  by  George  Saintsbury.  With 
11  Illustrations  and  various  Diagrams. 
Crown  8vo,  55. 

THE  GROUSE.  Natural  History, 
by  the  Rev.  H.  A.  IVIacphfrson  ;  Shooting, 
by  A.  J.  Stuart- Wortley  :  Cookery,  by 
George  Saintsbury.  With  13  Illustrations 
and  various  Diagrams.     Crown  8vo,  os. 

THE  PHEASANT.  Natural  History, 
by  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Macpherson;  Shooting, 
by  A.  J.  Stuart- Wortley  ;  Cookery,  by 
Alexander  Innes  Shand.  With  10  Illus- 
trations and  various  Diagrams.     Cr.  8vo,  5s. 


THE  HARE.  Natural  History,  by 
the  Rev.  H.  A.  Macpherson;  Shooting,  by 
the  Hon.  Gerald  Lascelles  ;  Coursing,  by 
Charles  Richardson  ;  Hunting,  by  J.  S. 
Gibbons  and  G.  H.  Longman  ;  Cookery,  by 
Col.  Kenney  Herbert.  With  9  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  8vo,  5s. 


RED  DEER.  Natural  History,  by 
the  Rev.  H.  A.  Macpherson  ;  Deer  Stalk- 
ing, by  Cameron  of  Lochiel  ;  Stag  Hunt- 
ing, by  Viscount  Ebrington  ;  Cookery  by 
Alexander  Innes  Shand.  With  10  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  8vo,  5s. 


THE  SALMON.     By  the  Hon.  A.  E. 

Gathorne-Hardy.  With  Chapters  on  the 
Law  of  Salmon  Fishing  by  Claud  Douglas 
Pennant;  Cookery,  by  Alexander  Innes 
Shand.   With  8  Illustrations.   Crown  8vo,  5s. 


THE  TROUT.  By  the  Marouess 
of  Granby.  With  Chapters  on  the  Breed- 
ing of  Trout  by  Col.  H.  Custance  ;  and 
Cookery,  by  Alexander  Innes  Shand. 
With  12  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 


THE  RABBIT.     By  James  Edmund 

Harting.     Cookery,  by  Alexander  Innes 
Shand.  With  10  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  5s. 


PIKE  AND  PERCH.      By  William 

Senior  ('  Redspinner,'  Editor  of  the  '  Field  '). 
With  Chapters  by  John  Bickerdyke  and  W. 
H.  Pope  ;  Cookery,  by  Alexander  Innes 
Shand.     With  12  Illustrations.    Cr.  8vo,  5s. 


SNIPE     AND    WOODCOCK.       By 

L.  H.  De  Visme  Shaw.  With  Chapters  on 
Snipe  and  Woodcock  in  Ireland  by  Richard 
J.  UssHER.  Cookery,  by  Alexander  Innes 
Shand.   With  8  Illustrations.    Crown  8vo,  5s. 


ANSTRUTHER     THOMSON.— 

EIGHTY  YEARS'  REMINISCENCES. 
By  Colonel  J.  Anstruther  Thomson.  With 
29  Portraits  and  other  Illustrations.  2  vols. 
8vo,  21s.  net. 


BICKERDYKE.— DAYS     OF    MY 

LIFE  ON  WATER,  FRESH  AND  SALT; 
and  other  Papers.  By  John  Bickerdyke. 
With  Photo-etching  Frontispiece  and  8  Full- 
page  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


BLACKBURNE.  —  MR.    BLACK- 

BURNES  GAMES  AT  CHESS.  Selected, 
Annotated  and  Arranged  by  Himself.  Edited, 
with  a  Biographical  Sketch  and  a  brief  His- 
tory of  Blindfold  Chess,  by  P.  Anderson 
Graham.  With  Portrait  of  Mr.  Blackburne. 
8vo,  7s.  6i/.  net. 


ELLIS.— CHESS      SPARKS  ;     or. 

Short  and  Bright  Games  of  Chess.  Collected 
and  Arranged  by  J.  H.  Ellis,  M.A.  8vo, 
4s.  6rf. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    IVORKS.         1 9 


Sport  and  Pastime — continued. 

THEORY      AND    MASKELYNE.  —  SHARPS     AND 

FLATS  :  a  Complete  Revelation  of  the 
Secrets  of  Cheating  at  Games  of  Chance 
and  Skill.  By  John  Nevii,  Maskelyne, 
of  the  Egyptian  Hall.  With  62  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 


FORD.— THE 
PRACTICE  OF  ARCHERY.     By  Horace 
Ford.      New   Edition,    thoroughly    Revised 
and  Re-written  by  W.  Butt,    M.A.      With 
a  Preface  by  C.  J.  Longman,  M.A.    8vo,  14s. 


FREMANTLE.— THE    BOOK  OF 

THE  RIFLE.  By  the  Hon.  T.  F.  Fre.mantle, 
V.D..  Major.lst  Bucks  V.R.C.  With 54  Plates 
and  107  Diagrams  in  the  Text.  Svo,  12s.  6rf. 
net.  1 


GATHORNE-HARD  Y.— 

AUTU.MNS  IN  ARGYLESHIRE  WITH 
ROD  AND  GUN.  By  the  Hon.  A.  E. 
Gathorne-Hardv.  With  8  Illustrations  by 
Archibald  Thorburn.    Svo,  6s.  net. 


G  R  A  H  A  M.— COUNTRY  PAS- 
TI.MES  FOR  BOYS.  By  P.  Anderson 
Graham.  With  252  Illustrations  from  Draw- 
ings and  Photographs.  Crown  Svo,  gilt 
edges,  3s.  net. 

HUTCHINSON.— THE  BOOK  OF 
GOLF  AND  GOLFERS.  By  Horace  G. 
Hutchinson.  With  71  Portraits  from  Photo- 
graphs.   Large  crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  7s.  6(/.  net. 

JESSEL.— A  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF 
WORKS  IN  ENGLISH  ON  PLAYING 
CARDS  AND  GAMING.  Compiled  by 
Frederic  Jessel.    Svo,  I2s.  6rf.  net. 

LANG.— ANGLING  SKETCHES.— 

By  Andrew  Lang.     With  20  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  61/. 


L  I  L  L  I  E.— CROQUET     UP     TO 

D.ATE.  Containing  the  Ideas  and  Teachings 
of  the  Leading  Players  and  Champions.  By 
.A.RTHUR  LiLLiE.  With  19  Illustrations  (15 
Portraits),  and  numerous  Diagrams.  Svo, 
10s.  %d.  net. 


LONGMAN.— CHESS  OPEN- 
INGS. By  Frederick  W.  Longman.  Fcp. 
Svo,  2s.  6i(. 

MACKENZIE.— NOTES    FOR 

HUNTI.NG  .MEN.  By  Captain  Cortlandt 
Gordon  .Mackenzie.  Crown  Svo,  2s.  6i/. 
net. 


MADDEN.— THE      DIARY     OF 

MASTER  WILLIA.M  SILENCE:  a  Study 
of  Shakespeare  and  of  Elizabethan  Sport.  By 
the  Right  Hon.  D.  H.  .Madden,  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Dublin.  Svo, 
gilt  top,  16s. 


MILLAIS.— THE  WILD-FOWLER 

IN  SCOTLAND.  By  J.  G.  .Millais,  F.Z.S. 
With  a  Frontispiece  in  Photogravure  by- 
Sir  J.  E.  .Millais,  Bart.,  P.R.A.  S  Photo- 
gravure Plates,  2  Coloured  Plates,  and  50 
Illustrations  from  the  Author's  Drawings 
and  from  Photographs.  Royal  4to,  gilt  top, 
30s.  net. 

MODERN  BRIDGE.     By  '  Slam  '. 

With  a  Reprint  of  the  Laws  of  Bridge,  as 
adopted  by  the  Portland  and  Turf  Clubs. 
ISmo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  6t?.  net. 

GATES. —WILD    DUCKS;    HOW 

TO  REAR  AND  SHOOT  THE.M.  By 
Captain  W.  Coape  Oates.  With  4  Photo- 
gravures after  Drawings  by  G.  E.  Lodge, 
and  12  Photographs.     Crown  Svo,  4s.  6.f.  net. 

PARK.— THE    GAME    OF    GOLF. 

By  William  Park,  Jun..  Champion  Golfer, 
1887-S9.  With  17  Plates  and  26  Illustrations 
in  the  Text.     Crown  Svo,  7s.  M. 

PAYNE-GALLWEY    (Sir   Ralph, 

Bart.). 

LETTERS       TO       YOUNG 

SHOOTERS  (First  Series).  On  the  Choice 
and  use  of  a  Gun.  With  41  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  7s.  61/. 

LETTERS       TO        YOUNG 

SHOOTERS  (Second  Series).  On  the 
Production,  Preservation  and  Killing  of 
Game.  With  Directions  in  Shooting 
Wood-Pigeons  and  Breaking-in  Retrievers. 
With  Portrait  and  103  Illustrations.  Crown 
Svo,  12s.  61/. 

LETTERS      TO       YOUNG 

SHOOTERS  (Third  Series).  Compris- 
ing a  Short  Natural  History  of  the  Wild- 
fowl that  are  Rare  or  Common  to  the 
British  Islands,  with  complete  directions 
in  Shooting  Wildfowl  on  the  Coast  and 
Inland.  With  200  Illustrations.  Crown 
Svo,  ISs. 

THE  CROSS  BOW :  Medicxval  and 

Modern;  Military  and  Sporting;  its  Con- 
struction, History  and  .Management,  with 
a  Treatise  on  the  Balista  and  Catapult  of 
the  Ancients.  With  220  Illustrations. 
Royal  4to,  £3  3s.  net. 

PROCTOR.— HOW  TO  PLAY 
WHIST:  WITH  THE  LAWS  AND 
ETIQUETTE  OF  WHIST.  By  Richard 
A.  Proctor.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  net. 


LONGMAyS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    IVORKS. 


Sport  and  Pastime — coutiniicd. 


RONALDS.  —  THE  FLY- 
FISHER'S  ENTOMOLOGY.  By  Alfred 
Ronalds.  With  20  coloured  Plates.  8vo. 
14s. 


SOMERVILL  E.—  SLIPPER'S 

A  B  C  OF  FOX-HUNTING.  By  E.  CE. 
SoMERViLLE,  M.F.H.,  Joint  Author  of 'Some 
Experiences  of  an  Irish  R..M.,'  etc.  With 
Illustrations  in  Colour  by  the  Author.  4to, 
boards,  10s.  6i/.  net. 


T  H  O  M  A  S  -  S  T  A  N  F  O  R  D.— A 

RIVER  OF  .NORWAY:  bein^  the  Notes 
and  Reflections  of  an  .Anjiler.  By  Charles 
Tho.mas-Stanford.  With  10  Photogravure 
Plates,  1  .Map  and  1  Plan.     8vo,  9s.  net. 

THOMPSON,     CANNAN     AND 

DONERAILE.— CO.MBIXED  HAND-IN- 
HAND  FIGURE  SKATING.  By  NoR- 
CLiFFE  G.  Tho.mpso.n,  F.  Laura  Cannan  and 
Viscou.VT  Do.VERAiLE,  .Members  of  .the 
Skating  Club.     Ifimo,  2s.  6d.  net. 


Mental,  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy. 

LOGIC,  RHETORIC,  PSYCHOLOGY.  ETHICS,   ETC. 


ABBOTT.— THE  ELEMENTS  OF 
LOGIC.     By  T.  K.  Abbott,  B.D.     12mo,  3s. 


ARISTOTLE 


THE  ETHICS:  GreeU  Text,  Illus- 
trated with  Essay  and  Notes.  By  Sir 
Alexander  Grant,  Bart.  2  vols.  8vo, 
32s. 


AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  ARIS- 
TOTLE'S ETHICS.  Books  I.-IV.  (Book 
X.  c.  vi.-i.s.  in  an  Appendix).  With 
a  continuous  -Analysis  and  Notes.  By 
the  Rev.  E.  .Moore,  D.D.  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  6J. 


BACON  (Francis). 


COMPLETE  WORKS.  Edited  by 
R.  L.  Ellis,  James  Spedding  and  D.  D. 
Heath.     7  vols.     8vo,  £3  13s.  6(/. 


LETTERS   AND    LIFE,  including 

all    his    occasional    Works.         Edited    by 
James  Spedding.     7  vols.     8vo,  £4  4s. 


THE  ESSAYS:  with  Annotations. 
By  Richard  Whatelv,  D.D.  8vo, 
10s.  M. 


THE  ESSAYS:  with  Notes.  By 
F.  Storr  and  C.  H.  Gibson.  Cr.  8vo, 
3s.  6<(. 


BACON  (Francis) — continued. 

THE  ESSAYS  :  with  Introduction, 
Notes,  and  Index.  By  E.  A.  Abbott, 
D.D.  2  vols.  Fcp.  8vo,  6s.  The  Text 
and  Index  only,  without  Introduction 
and  Notes,  in  One  Volume.  Fcp.  8vo, 
2s.  &d. 


BAIN  (Alexander). 

MENTAL  AND  MORAL 
SCIENCE  :  a  Compendium  of  Psychology 
and  Ethics.     Crown  8vo,  10s.  M. 

Or  separately. 

Part  I.  Psychology  and  His- 
tory OF  Philosophy.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  6rf. 

Part  II.  Theory  of  Ethics  and 
Ethical  Svste.ms.    Crown  8vo,  4s.  6rf. 

LOGIC.  Part  I.  Deduction.  Cr. 
8vo,  4s.  Part  II.  Induction.  Cr.  8vo, 
6s.  6rf. 

THE  SENSES  AND  THE  IN- 
TELLECT.    8vo,  15s. 

THE  EMOTIONS  AND  THE 
WILL.      8vo,   15s. 

PRACTICAL  ESSAYS.   Cr.  8vo,  25. 

DISSERTATIONS  ON  LEADING 
PHILOSOPHICAL       TOPICS.         8vo, 

7s.  6(/.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


Mental,  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy — continued, 

HODGSON  (Shadworth  H.). 


BROOKS.— THE  ELEMENTS  OF 

MIND:  bein}<  an  Examination  into  the 
Nature  of  the  First  Division  of  the  Ele- 
mentary Substances  of  Life.  By  H.  Jamyn 
Brooks.    8vo,  IOs.  6rf.  net. 


B  ROUGH.— THE     STUDY     OF 

MENTAL  SCIENCE:  Five  Lectures  on 
the  Uses  and  Characteristics  of  Logic  and 
Psychology.  By  J.  Brough,  LL.D.  Crown 
8vo,  'Is.  net. 


CROZIER  (John  Beattie). 

CIVILISATION  AND  PRO- 
GRESS :  being  the  Outlines  of  a  New 
System  of  Political,  Religious  and  Social 
Philosophy.     8vo,   14s. 

HISTORY   OF   INTELLECTUAL 

DEVELOPMENT  :      on     the     Lines     of 
Modern  Evolution. 

Vol.  I.     8vo,  145. 

Vol.  II.     [Ill  pnpavation.) 

Vol.  III.     8vo,  105.  6(/. 


FITE.  —  AN       INTRODUCTORY 

STUDY  OF  ETHICS.    By  Warner  Fite. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  6(/. 


GREEN     (Thomas    Hill).— THE 

WORKS  OF.    Edited  by  R.  L.  Nettleship. 

Vols.  I.  and  II.  Philosophical 
Works.      8vo,  16s.  each. 

Vol.  III.  Miscellanies.  With  Index 
to  the  three  Volumes,  and  Memoir.  8vo, 
21s. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  PRIN- 
CIPLES OF  POLITICAL  OBLIGA- 
TION.      With     Preface     by     Bernard 

'  Bosanouet.      8vo,  5s. 


GURNHILL.— THE  MORALS  OF 

SUICIDE.  By  the  Rev.  J.  Gurnhill,  B.A. 
Vol.  I.,  Crown  8vo,  Ss.  net.  Vol.  II.,  Crown 
8vo,  5s.  net. 


HIBBERT.— LIFE  AND  ENERGY: 

an  Attempt  at  a  new  Detinition  of  Life; 
with  ;ipplications  to  Morals  and  Religion.  A 
revised  account  of  four  addresses  given  at 
the  Polytechnic  Institute.  Regent  Street, 
London,  by  Walter  Hibbert,  F.I.C. 
A.M. I.E. E.     Crown  Svo,  2s.  6i/.  net. 


TIME  AND  SPACE:  a  Metaphy- 
sical  Essay.     8vo,  16s. 

THE  THEORY   OF    PRACTICE: 

an  Ethical  Inquiry.     2  vols.     Svo,  24s. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  RE- 
FLECTION.   2  vols.    8vo,  21s. 

THE  METAPHYSIC  OF  EX- 
PERIENCE. Book  I.  General  Analysis 
of  Experience;  Book  II.  Positive  Science  ; 
Book  III.  Analysis  of  Conscious  Action; 
Book  IV.  The  Real  Universe.  4  vols.  Svo, 
36s.  net. 

HUME.— THE  PHILOSOPHICAL 
WORKS  OF  DAVID  HU.ME.  Edited  by 
T.  H.  Green  and  T.  H.  Grose.  4  vols.  Svo, 
28s.  Or  separately.  Essays.  2  vols.  14s. 
Treatise  of  Human  Nature.     2  vols.     14s. 


JAMES  (William,  M.D.,  LL.D.). 

THE    WILL   TO    BELIEVE,   and 

Other     Essays    in     Popular     Philosophy. 
Crown  Svo,  Is.  6rf. 

TALKS  TO  TEACHERS  ON  PSY- 
CHOLOGY, AND  TO  STUDENTS  ON 
SOME  OF  LIFE'S  IDEALS.  Crown 
Svo,  4s.  6rf. 

THE  VARIETIES  OF  RELI- 
GIOUS EXPERIENCE:  a  Study  in 
Human  Nature.  Being  the  Gifford  Lectures 
on  Natural  Religion  delivered  at  Edinburgh 
in  1901-1902.     Svo,  12s.  net. 


JUSTINIAN.— THE  INSTITUTES 

OF  JUSTINIAN:  Latin  Text,  chiefly  that 
of  HuschUe,  with  English  Introduction, 
Translation,  Notes  and  Summary.  By 
Thomas  C.  Sandars,  M.A.    Svo,  18s. 


KANT  (Immanuel). 
CRITIQUE       OF       PRACTICAL 

REASON,  AND  OTHER  WORKS  ON 
THE  THEORY  OF  ETHICS.  Trans- 
lated by  T.  K.  Abbott,  B.D.  With 
Memoir.     Svo,  12s.  6rf. 

FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 
OF  THE  METAPHYSIC  OF  ETHICS. 
Translated  by  T.  K.  Abbott,  B.D.  Crown 
8no,  3s. 

INTRODUCTION  TO  LOGIC, 
AND  HIS  ESSAY  ON  THE  MIS- 
TAKEN SUBTILTY  OF  THE  FOUR 
FIGURES.  Translated  by  T.  K.  Abbott. 
Svo,  6s. 


2  2         LONGMANS   AND    CO's   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Mental,  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy — contimied. 


KELLY.— GOVERNMENT      OR 

HUMAN  EVOLUTION.  By  Edmond 
Kelly,  M.A.,  F.G.S.  Vol.  I.  Justice.  Cr. 
8vo,  7s.  6;/.  net.  Vol.  II.  Collectivism  and 
Individualism.      Crown  8vo,  10s.  &d.  net. 


KILLICK.— HANDBOOK       TO 

MILLS  SYSTE.M  OF  LOGIC.      By   Rev. 
A.  H.  KlLLicK,  M.A.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 


LADD  (George  Trumbull). 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  CONDUCT:  a 

Treatise  of  the  Facts,  Principles  and  Ideals 
of  Ethics.     8vo,  21s. 

ELEMENTS  OF  PHYSIO- 
LOGICAL  PSYCHOLOGY.     8vo,  21s. 

OUTLINES  OF  DESCRIPTIVE 
PSYCHOLOGY  :  a  Text-Book  of  .Mental 
Science  for  Colleges  and  Normal  Schools. 
8vo,  12s. 

OUTLINES  OF  PHYSIO- 
LOGICAL  PSYCHOLOGY.     8vo,  12s. 

PRIMER  OF  PSYCHOLOGY.    Cr. 

8vo,  5s.  6</. 


LECKY  (WiLLiA.M    Edward    Hart- 
pole). 

DEMOCRACY  AND  LIBERTY. 

Library  Edition.     2  vols.    8vo,  36s. 

Cabiiut  Edition.  2  vols.  Cr.  8vo, 
lOs.  net. 

THE  MAP  OF  LIFE:  Conduct 
and  Character.      Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  RISE  AND 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF 
RATIONALISM  IN  EUROPE.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  10s.  net. 

HISTORY  OF  EUROPEAN 
MORALS  FRO.M  AUGUSTUS  TO 
CHARLEMAGNE.  2  vols.  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  net. 

A     SURVEY     OF     ENGLISH 

ETHICS:  being  tlie  first  chapter  of  W.  E. 
H.  LecUy's  '  History  of  European  .Morals '. 
Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by 
\V.  A.  Hirst.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

LUTOSLAWSKI.— THE  ORIGIN 

AND  GROWTH  OF  PLATOS  LOGIC. 
With  an  Account  of  Plato's  Style  and  of  the 
Chronology  of  his  Writings.  By  WlNCENTY 
LuTOSr.AWSKL     8vo,  6s.  net. 


MAX  MUlLER  (F.). 


THE  SIX  SYSTEMS  OF  INDIAN 
PHILOSOPHY.    Crown  8vo,  7s.  6d.  net. 

THREE    LECTURES    ON     THE 
VEDANTA  PHILOSOPHY.     Cr.  8vo.  Ss. 


MILL  (JoH.N  Stuart). 

A  SYSTEM  OF  LOGIC. 

3s.  6d. 


Cr.  8vo, 


ON   LIBERTY.     Cr.  Svo,  Is.  4d. 

CONSIDERATIONS  ON  REPRE- 
SENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.     Crown 

8vo,  2s. 

UTILITARIAXIS.M.     Svo,  2s.  6d. 

EXA.MINATION  OF  SIR  WIL- 
LIA.M HAMILTON'S  PHILOSOPHY 
8vo,  16s. 

NATURE,  THE  UTILITY  OF 
RELIGION  AND  THEISM.  Three 
Essays.     8vo,  5s. 


MONCK.— AN  INTRODUCTION 
TO  LOGIC.  By  William  He.nrv  S.  Mo.nck, 
M.A.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 


MYERS.— HUMAN  PERSON- 
ALITY AND  ITS  SURVIVAL  OF  BODILY 
DE.ATH.  By  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers.  2 
vols.     Svo,  42s.  net. 


PIERCE.— STUDIES  IN  AUDI- 
TORY AND  VISUAL  SPACE  PERCEP- 
TION :  Essays  on  Experimental  Psychology. 
By  A.  H.  Pierce.     Crown  Svo,  6s.  6ii.  net. 


RICHMOND.— THE   xMlND  OF  A 
CHILD.     By   Ennis   Richmond.     Cr.   Svo, 

3s.  6J.  net. 


ROMANES.— MIND  AND  MO- 
TION AND  AIONIS.M.  By  George  John 
RoATANEs.     Crown  Svo,  4s.  6rf. 


RUSSELL. —THE  FIRST  CON- 
DITIONS OF  HU.MAN  PROSPERITY. 
By  the  Hon.  R.  Russell.  Crown  Svo, 
2s.  6il.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


23 


Mental,  Moral  and  Political   Philosophy — continued. 


SULLY  (James). 

THE     HUMAN     MIND;     a    Text- 
book  of  Psychology.     2  vols.     8vo,  21s. 

AN   ESSAY  ON  LAUGHTER  :  its 

Forms,  its  Causes,  its  Development  and  its 
Value.     8vo,  12s.  6./.  net. 

OUTLINES    OF    PSYCHOLOGY. 

Crown  8vo,  9s. 

THE    TEACHER'S    HANDBOOK 

OF  PSYCHOLOGY.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  6rf.  ! 

STUDIES  OF  CHILDHOOD.  8vo,  ; 

125.  &d.  net.  j 

CHILDREN'S     WAYS:    being 

Selections  from  the  .Author's  '  Studies  of 
Childhood".  With 25  Illustrations.  Crown 
8vo,  4s.  6rf. 

SUTHERLAND.— THE  ORIGIN 
AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  MORAL  IN- 
STINCT. By  Alexander  Sutherland, 
M.A.    2  vols.    8vo,  28s. 

S  W  I  N  B  U  R  N  E.— P  I  C  T  U  R  E 

LOGIC:  an  .Attempt  to  Popularise  the 
Science  of  Reasoning;.  By  Alfred  James 
SwLNBURNE,  M.A.  With  23  Woodcuts. 
Crown  8vo,  2s.  6./. 

THOMAS.— INTUITIVE  SUG- 
GESTION. By  J.  W.  Thomas,  Author  of 
'  Spiritual  Law  in  the  Natural  World,'  etc. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6/ .  net. 

WEBB.— THi£  VEIL  OF  ISIS:  a 
Series  of  Essays  on  Idealism.  By  Thomas 
E.  Webb,  LL.D.,  Q.C.     8vo,  10s.  6(/. 

WEBER.— HISTORY  OF  PHIL- 
OSOPHY. By  Alfred  Weber,  Professor 
in  the  Llniversity  of  Strasburg.  Translated 
by  Frank  Thillv,  Ph.D.     8vo,  16s. 


WHATELY  (Archbishop). 

BACON'S  ESSAYS.     With  Anno- 
tations.   8vo,  10s.  6;f. 


ELEMENTS  OF  LOGIC.     Crown 

8vo,  4s.  6./. 

ELEMENTS  OF  RHETORIC.  Cr. 

8vo,  4s.  61/. 


ZELLER  (Dr.  Edward). 

THE      STOICS,     EPICUREANS, 

AND  SCEPTICS.    Translated  by  the  Rev. 
O.  J.  Reichel,  M.A.     Crown  8vo,  15s. 


OUTLINES  OF  THE  HISTORY 
OF  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  Translated 
by  Sarah  F.  Allevne  and  Evelyn  Ab- 
bott, M.A.,  LL.D.     Crown  8vo,  10s.  &d. 

PLATO  AND  THE  OLDER 
ACADE.MY.  Translated  by  Sarah  F. 
Allevne  and  Alfred  Goodwin,  B.A. 
Crown  8vo,  18s. 

SOCRATES       AND      THE      SO- 

CRATIC  SCHOOLS.  Translated  by  the 
Rev.  O.  J.  Reichel,  M.A.  Crown  8vo, 
10s.  6</. 


ARISTOTLE  AND  THE 
EARLIER  PERIPATETICS.  Translated 
by  B.  F.  C.  Costelloe,  .M.A.,  and  J.  H. 
Muirhead,  M.A.     2  vols.     Crown  8vo,24s. 


STONYHURST  PHILOSOPHICAL  SERIES. 


A  MANUAL  OF  POLITICAL  |  MORAL  PHILOSOPHY  (ETHICS 
ECONO.MY.  By  C.  S.  Devas,  M.A.  Crown  :  AND  NATURAL  LAW).  By  Joseph 
8vo,  7s.  6:^.  ]       Rickabv,  S.J.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 

FIRST   PRINCIPLES   OF   KNOW- 
s'n^'^s^^'    ^>'^°"''  ^"^''^^^''^■'^-    Crown    NATURAL  THEOLOGY.     By  Ber- 
'      ■  I      NAl<D  Boedder,  S.J.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  6(/. 

GENERAL     METAPHYSICS.      By 
John  Rickabv,  S.J.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  I  „...,„  „        .. 

PSYCHOLOGY.      By    Michael 
LOGIC.     By  Richard    F.    Clarke,  \     maher,  S.J.,  D.Litt.,  M.A.  (Lond.).    Crown 

S.J.    Crown  8vo,  5s.  8vo,  6s.  6(/. 


24         LONGMANS    AND    CO.'s   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


Political  Economy,  Economics,  etc. 


ASHLEY  (W.  J.). 

ENGLISH  ECONOMIC  HIS- 
TORY AND  THEORY.  Crown  8vo,  Part 
I.,  5s.     Part  II.,  10s.  6<f. 

SURVEYS,     HISTORIC     AND 

ECONO.MIC.     Crown  8vo,  9s.  net. 

THE  ADJUSTMENT  OF 
WAGES:  a  Study  on  the  Coal  and  Iron 
Industries  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.     With  4  Maps.     8vo,  12s.  6(/.  net. 

BRITISH  INDUSTRIES  :  a  Series 

of  General  Reviews  for  Business  .Men  and 
Students.  By  various  Authors.  Edited 
by  W.  J.  Ashley.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  6(f.  net. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE 
GERMAN  WORKING  CLASSES  IN 
THE  LAST  QUARTER  OF  A  CEN- 
TURY. With  a  Map,  Diagrams  and 
Charts.     Crown  8vo,  Is.  6(/.  net. 

BAGEHOT.  —    ECONOMIC 

-  STUDIES.     By  Walter  Bagehot.  Crown 
1    8vo,  3s.  6if. 

CoNTE.NTS. — The  Postulates  of  English 
Political  Economy  —  (1)  Transferability  of 
Labour  ;  (2)  Transferability  of  Capital— Tie 
Preliminaries  of  Political  Economy — Adam 
Smith  and  Our  Modern  Economy — Malthus 
— RicARDO— The  Growth  of  Capital — Cost  of 
Production. 

BARNETT.— P  RACTICABLE 

SOCIALISM:  Essays  on  Social  Reform. 
By  Samuel  A.  and  Henrietta  Barnett. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 

BRASSEY.  — FIFTY  YEARS  OF 
PROGRESS  AND  THE  NEW  FISCAL 
POLICY.  By  Lord  Brassev,  K.C.B., 
D.C.L.     8vo,  sewed,  2s.  net  ;  cloth,  2s.  fiJ.  net. 

CHAPMAN.  —  WORK       AND 

WAGES:  in  continuation  of  Lord  Brassey's 
'  Work  and  Wages  '  and  '  Foreign  Work 
and  English  Wages'.  Vol.  I.,  'Foreign 
Competition'.  By  Sydney  J.  Chapman, 
M.-A.  With  an  Introduction  by  Lord 
Brassev,  K.C.B.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  Medium 
8vo,  7s.  6(/.  net. 

CLEVELAND.— THE  BANK  AND 
THE  TREASURY.  By  Frederick  A. 
Cleveland,  Ph  D.,  Professor  of  Finance  in 
the  School  of  Commerce,  Accounts  and 
Finance,  New  York  University:  Crown 
8vo,   7s    fii/.  net. 

DEVAS.— A      MANUAL      OF 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  By  C.  S.  Devas, 
M.A.  Crown  8vo,  7s.  6(/.  (StnnyJniist  I'hilo- 
sophical  Series.) 

DEWEY.— FINANCIAL  HISTORY 

Ol"  THE  UNITED  STATES.  By  Davis 
Rich  Dewey.     Crown  8vo,  7s.  6J.  net. 


OF     CREDIT. 

net ;    or,  separately. 


LESLIE.— ESSAYS  ON  POLI- 
TICAL ECONOMY.  By  T.  E.  Cliffe 
Leslie,  Hon.  LL.D.,  Dubl.     8vo,  lOs.  6(^ 

LIST.— THE  NATIONAL  SYSTEM 
OF        POLITICAL        ECONO.MY.  By 

Friedrich  List.  Translated  by  Sampson 
S.  Lloyd.  With  an  Introduction  by  J. 
Shield  Nicholson,  D.Sc.  Crown  8vo,  6s. 
net. 

MACLEOD  (Henry  Dunning). 
BIMETALLISM.  8vo  5s.  net. 
THE  ELEMENTS  OF  BANKING. 

Crown  8vo,  3s.  Hd. 

THE  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 
OF  BANKING.  Vol.  I.  8vo,  12s.  Vol. 
II.  I4s. 

THE     THEORY 

8vo.      In  1  Vol..  30s. 

Vol.  I.,  10s.  net.     Vol.  II.,  Part  I.,  10s.net. 

Vol.  II.,  Part  II.,  10s.  net. 

INDIAN  CURRENCY.     8vo  2s.Gd. 

net. 

MILL.— POLITICAL     ECONOMY. 

By  John  Stuart  Mill. 

Popular  Edition.     Cr.  8vo,  3s.  6d. 
Library  Edition    2  vols.    8vo,  30s. 

MULHALL.— INDUSTRIES  AND 
WEALTH  OF  NATIONS.  By  Michael 
G.  Mulhall,  F.S.S.  With  32  Diagrams. 
Crown  8vo,  8s.  6rf. 

SYMES.— POLITICAL  ECON- 
O.MY :  a  Short  Text-book  of  Political  Econ- 
omy. With  Problems  for  Solution,  Hints 
for  Supplementary  Reading,  and  a  Supple- 
mentary Chapter  on  Socialism.  By  J.  E. 
Svmes,  M..\.    Crown  8vo,  2s.  6d. 

TOYN  BEE.— LECTURES     ON 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  OF 
THE  18TH  CENTURY  IN  ENGLAND. 
By  Arnold    Tovnbee.      8vo,    10s.   6d. 

WEBB  (Sidney  and  Beatrice). 

THE      HISTORY      OF      TRADE 

UNIONIS.M.      With     Map     and     Biblio- 
graphy.   8vo,  7s.  &il.  net. 

INDUSTRIAL    DEMOCRACY:    a 

Study  in  Trade  Unionism.      2  vols.      8vo, 
\2s.  net. 

PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  IN- 
DUSTRY.    Svo,  5s.  net. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  LIQUOR 
LICENSING  IN  ENGLAND  PRINCI- 
PALLY FROM  1700  TO  1830  Crown 
8vo,  2s.  6(/.  net. 

WEBB.— LONDON    EDUCATION. 

By  Sidney  Webb.     Crown  Svo,  2s.  6(/.  net 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


25 


History  and  Science  of  Language,  etc. 


DAVIDSON.— LEADING    AND 

IMPORTANT  ENGLISH  WORDS:  Ex- 
plained and  Exemplitied.  By  William  L. 
Davidson,  M.A.     Fcp.  8vo,  3s.  6(f. 


GRAHAM.  —  ENGLISH  SYNO- 
NYMS, Classified  and  Explained:  with 
Practical  Exercises.  By  G.  F.  Graham. 
Fcp.  8vo,  6s. 


MAX  MULLER  (F.). 
THE  SCIENCE  OF  LANGUAGE. 

2  vols.     Crown  8vo,  10s. 

BIOGRAPHIES  OF  WORDS, 
AND  THE  HO.ME  OF  THE  ARYAS. 
Crown  8vo,  Ss. 


MAX  MULLER  [F.)—couthmed. 

CHIPS  FROM  A  GERMAN 
WORKSHOP.  Vol.  HI.  ESSAYS  ON 
LANGUAGE       AND       LITER.ATURE. 

Crown  8vo,  5s. 

LAST  ESSAYS.  First  Series. 
Essays  on  Language,  Folk-lore  and  other 
Subjects.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 


ROGET.— THESAURUS  OF  ENG- 
LISH WORDS  AND  PHRASES.  Clas- 
sified and  Arranged  so  as  to  Facilitate  the 
Expression  of  Ideas  and  assist  in  Literary 
Composition.  By  Peter  Mark  Roget, 
M.D.,  F.R.S.  With  full  Index.  Crown  8vo, 
9s.  net. 


Evolution,  Anthropology,  etc. 


AVEBURY.— THE      ORIGIN     OF 

CIVILIS.ATION,  and  the  Primitive  Con- 
dition of  .Man.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Lord 
AvEBURV.  With  6  Plates  and  20  Illustra- 
tions.    Svo,  18s. 


LANG      AND 

SOCIAL   ORIGINS. 

.M..A.,   LL.D.:    and    PRI.MAL    LAW 

J.  J.  Atkinso.n.     Svo,  10s.  6(/.  net 


ATKINSON.— 

By   .Andrew    Lang, 
By 


CLODD  (Edward). 


ROMANES  (George  John) 


THE     STORY     OF    CREATION: 

a  Plain  Account  of  Evolution.  With  77 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(f. 

A     PRI.MER    OF    EVOLUTION: 

being  a  Popular  Abridged  Edition  of  "The 
Story  of  Creation '.  With  Illustrations. 
Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  61/. 


DOUBTS     ABOUT     DARWIN- 

IS.M.  By  a  Se.mi-Darwinian.  Cr.  Svo.  3s.  61/. 


GERARD.— THE     OLD    RIDDLE 

.AND    THE    NEWEST     .ANSWER.       By 
John  Gerard.  S.J..  F.L.S.    Cr.  Svo,  5s.  net. 


KELLER.— QUERIES  IN  ETHNO- 
GR.APHY.  By  .Albert  Galloway  Keller, 
Ph.D.     Fcp.  Svo,  2s.  net. 


ESSAYS.      Edited    by    C.     Lloyd 
JIorgaN.     Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

AN    EXAMINATION    OF    WEIS- 

M.ANNIS.M.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 


DARWIN,     AND     AFTER     DAR- 

WIN;  an  Exposition  of  the  Darwinian 
Theory,  and  a  Discussion  on  Post-Dar- 
winian Questions. 

Part  I.  The  Darwinian  Theory. 

With  Portrait  of  Dar^vin  and  125  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  Svo,  10s.  6i/. 

Part  II.  Post-Darwinian  Ques- 
tions: Heredity  and  Utility.  With  Por- 
trait of  the  Author  and  5  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  10s.  61/. 

Part  III.  Post-Darwinian  Ques- 
tions :  Isolation  and  Physiological 
Selection.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 


26 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    IVORKS. 


The  Science  of  Religion,  etc. 


BALFOUR.— THE  FOUNDA- 
TIONS OF  BELIEF:  being  Notes  Intro- 
ductory to  the  Study  of  Theology.  By  the 
Right  Hon.  Arthur  James  Balfour. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


BARING-GOULD.— THE  ORIGIN 

AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGIOUS 
BELIEF.  By  the  Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould. 
2  vols.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6i/.  each. 


CAMPBELL.— RELIGION     IN 

GREEK    LITERATURE.       By    the    Rev. 
LEWIS  CAMPBELL,  M.A.,  LL.D    8vo,  15s. 


JAMES.— THE  VARIETIES  OF 
RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE  :  a  Study  in 
Human  Nature.  Being  the  Gifford  Lectures 
on  Natural  Religion  delivered  at  Edinburgh 
in  1901-1902.  By  William  James,  LL.D., 
etc.     8vo,  12s.  net. 


LANG  (Andrew). 

MAGIC    AND    RELIGION.      Svo, 
lOs.  6if.  net. 


MAX  MiJLLER   (The   Right   Hon. 

F.) — continued. 


INTRODUCTION  TO         THE 

SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION  :  Four  Lec- 
tures delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution. 
Crown  Svo,  5s. 


NATURAL       RELIGION.         The 

Gifford  Lectures,  delivered  before  the 
University  of  Glasgow  in  1888.  Crown 
Svo,  5s. 


PHYSICAL       RELIGION.        The 

Gifford  Lectures,  delivered  before  the 
University  of  Glasgow  in  1890.  Crown 
Svo,  5s. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL  RE- 

LIGION.  The  Gifford  Lectures,  delivered 
before  the  University  of  Glasgow  in  1891. 
Crown  Svo,  5s. 


THEOSOPHY,  OR  PSYCHO- 
LOGICAL RELIGION.  The  Gifford 
Lectures,  delivered  before  the  University 
of  Glasgow  in  1892.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 


CUSTOM  AND  MYTH:  Studies 
of  Early  Usage  and  Belief.  With  15  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  6i/. 

MYTH,  RITUAL,  AND  RE- 
LIGION.    2  vols.     Crown  Svo,  7s. 

MODERN  MYTHOLOGY  :  a  Reply 

to  Professor  Max  MiJller.     Svo,  9s. 

THE    MAKING    OF    RELIGION. 

Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 


MAX   MULLER   (The   Right   Hon. 
F.). 

CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE 
SCIENCE  OF  MYTHOLOGY.  2  vols. 
Svo,  32s. 

THE  SIX  SYSTEMS  OF  INDIAN 
PHILOSOPHY.     Crown  Svo,  7s.  6(/.  net. 


THREE     LECTURES    ON    THE 

VEDANTA  PHILOSOPHY,  delivered 
at  the  Royal  Institution  in  March,  1894. 
Crown  Svo,  5s. 


CHIPS  FROM  A  GERMAN 
WORKSHOP.  Vol.  IV..  Essays  on 
Mythology  and  Folklore.  Crown  Svo, 
5s. 


LAST  ESSAYS.  Second  Series. 
Essays  on  the  Science  of  Religion.  Crown 
Svo,  Ss. 


THE  SILESIAN  HORSEHhRD 
(•DAS  PFERDEBURLA'):  Questions  of 
the  Hour  answered  by  F.  Max  Muller. 
With  a  Preface  by  J.  Estlin  Carpenter. 
Crown  Svo,     5s. 


THE     ORIGIN    AND     GROWTH  rfIIGION 

OF  RELIGION,  as  illustrated  by  the  OAKESMITH.— 1  HE  KEUIG  UN 
Religions  of  India.  The  Hibbert  Lectures,  !  OF  PLUTARCH  :  a  Pagan  Creed  of  Apos- 
delivered  at  the  Chapter  House,  West-  tolic  Times.  An  Essay.  By  John  Oake- 
minster  Abbey,  in  1878.     Crown  Svo,  5s.  smith,  D.Litt.,  .M.A.     Crown  Svo,  Ss.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.' S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS.         27 


Classical  Literature 

ABBOTT.  — HELLENICA.     A  Col- 

lection  of  Essays  on  Greek  Poetry,  Philo- 
sophy, History,  and  Religion.  Edited  by 
Evelyn  Abbott,  .M.A.,  LL.D.  Crown  8vo, 
7s.  U. 

^SCHYLUS.— EUMENIDES  OF 

.4iSCHYLUS.  With  .Metrical  English 
Translation.     By  J.  F.  Davies.     8vo,  7s. 

ARISTOPHANES.  —  THE 

ACHARNIANS  OF  ARISTOPHANES, 
translated  into  English  Verse.  By  R.  Y. 
Tyrrell.     Crown  8vo,  Is. 

BECKER  (W.  A.).  Translated  by 
the  Re\ .  F.  .\1etcalfe,  B.D. 

GALLUS :  or,    Roman    Scenes    in 

the  Time  of  Augustus.  With  Notes  and 
Excursuses.  With  26  Illustrations.  Cr. 
8vo,  3s.  6./.  I 

CHARICLES:  or,  Illustrations  of 
the  Private  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks. 
With  Notes  and  Excursuses.  With  26 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  61/. 

BROWNE.  —  HANDBOOK  OF 
HOMERIC  STUDY.  By  Henry  Brow.ne, 
S.J.,  M.A.,  New  College,  Oxford;  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  University  of  Ireland;  Professor 
of  Greek  at  University  College,  Dublin. 
With  22  Plates.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

CAMPBELL.— RELIGION     IN 

GREEK  LITERATURE.  By  the  Rev. 
Lewis  Ca.mpbell,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Emeritus 
Professor  of  Greek,  University  of  St. 
Andrews.    8vo,  I5s. 

CICERO.— CICERO'S     CORRE- 
SPONDENCE.   By  R.  Y.  Tyrrell.     Vols. 
I.,    II.,    III.,   8vo,   each   12s.     Vol.    IV.,    15s.  i 
Vol.  v.,  14s.     Vol.  VI.,  12s.     Vol.  VII.  Index, 
7s.  6rf. 

HARVARD       STUDIES       IN 

CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY.  Edited  by  a 
Committee  of  the  Classical  Instructors  of 
Harvard  University.  Vol.  XI.,  1900.  Vol. 
XII.,  1901.  Vol.  XIII.,  1902.  Vol.  XIV., 
1903.      Vol.  X\'.,  1904.     Svo,  6s.  6rf.  net  each. 

HOMER.— THE  ODYSSEY.     Done 

into  English  \'erse.  By  William  .Morris. 
Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

HORACE.— THE  WORKS  OF 
HOR.ACE.  RENDERED  INTO  ENGLISH 
PROSE.  With  Life,  Introduction  and  Notes. 
By  WiLLiA.M  CouTTS,  .M.A.  Crown  Svo,  5s. 
net. 

LANG.— HOMER  AND  THE  EPIC. 

By  Andrew  Lang.     Crown  Svo,  9s.  net. 


,  Translations,  etc. 

LUCIAN.  — TRANSLATIONS 
FROM  LUCIAN.  By  Augusta  M.  Camp- 
bell Davidson,  M.A.,  Edin.  Crown  Svo, 
5s.  net. 

OGILVIE.— HORAE       LATINAE  : 

Studies  in  Synonyms  and  Syntax.  By  the 
late  Robert  Ogilvie,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  H.M. 
Chief  Inspector  of  Schools  for  Scotland. 
Edited  by  Ale.xaxder  Souter,  .M..A.  With 
a  Memoir  by  Joseph  Ogilvie,  M..A.,  LL.D. 
Svo,  12s.  6rf.  net. 

R  I  C  H.— A  DICTIONARY  OF 
RO.MAN  AND  GREEK  ANTIQUITIES. 
By  A.  Rich,  B.A.  With  2,000  Woodcuts. 
Crown  Svo,  6s.  net. 

SOPHOCLES.— Translated        into 
,      English   Verse.       By  Robert   Whitelaw,, 
M..A.,   Assistant    Master   in    Rugby   School. 
Crown  Svo,  8s.  6rf. 

THEOPHRASTUS.  —  THE 

CHARACTERS  OF  THEOPHRASTUS : 
a  Translation,  with  Introduction.  By  Chas. 
E.  Bennett  and  Willh.m  A.  Ha.m.mond,. 
Professors  in  Cornell  University.  Fcp.  Svo, 
2s.  6rf.  net. 

TYRRELL.— DUBLIN  TRANS- 
L.ATIONS  INTO  GREEK  AND  LATIN 
VERSE.  Edited  by  R.  Y.  Tyrrell.  Svo, 
6s. 

VIRGIL. 

THE       POE.MS       OF       VIRGIL. 

Translated   into  English    Prose   by   John 
CONINGTON.     Crown  Svo,   6s. 

THE      ^NEID       OF      VIRGIL. 

Translated   into   English   Verse   by  John 
CONINGTON.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

THE      .^NhlDS      OF      VIRGIL. 

Done  into  English  Verse.      By  William 
Morris.     Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

THE  .-ENEID  OF  VIRGIL,  freeljr 
translated  into  English  Blank  Verse.  By 
W.  J.  Thornhill.      Crown  Svo,  6s.  net. 

THE       -^NEID      OF       VIRGIL. 

Translated  into  English  Verse  by   Ja.mes 

Rhoades. 
Books  I.-\'I.     Crown  Svo,  55. 
Books  VII. -XII.     Crown  Svo,  55. 

THE  ECLOGUES  AND  GEOR- 
GICS  OF  VIRGIL.  Translated  into 
English  Prose.  By  J.  W.  .Mackail,  Fellow 
of  Balliol  College,  Oxford.     16mo,  5s. 

WILKINS.— THE  GROWTH  OF 
THE  HO.MERIC  POE.MS.  By  G.  Wil- 
KINS.     Svo,  6s. 


28 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Poetry  and  the  Drama. 


AMERICAN  FAMILIAR  VERSE    INGELOW  (Jean) 

Vers  de  Societe.  Edited  with  an  Introduc- 
duction  by  Brander  Matthews,  Litt.D. 
(Yale),  of  Columbia  University.  Crown  8vo, 
6s.  net. 


ARNOLD.— THE  LIGHT  OF  THE 

VVOR  LD  :  or.  The  Great  Consummation.  By 
Sir  Edwin  Arnold.  With  14  Illustrations 
after  Holman  Hunt.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


POETICAL    WORKS.      Complete 

in  One  V'olume.     Cr.  8vo,  gilt  top,  6s.  net. 


LYRICAL  AND  OTHER  POEMS. 

Selected  from  the  Writings  of  Jean 
Ingelow.  Pep.  8vo,  2s.  6(/.  cloth  plain, 
3s.  cloth  gilt. 


BELL  (Lady). 

CHAMBER    COMEDIES:    a   Col- 

lection  of  Plays  and  .Monologues  for  the 
Drawing  Room.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 

FAIRYTALE  PLAYS,  AND  HOW 

TO  ACT  THEM.  With  91  Diagrams  and 
52  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  net. 

NURSERY  COMEDIES:    Twelve 

Tiny  Plays  for  Children.     Fcp.  8vo,  Is.  6(/. 

RUMPELSTILTZKIN  :    a     Fairy 

Play  in  Five  Scenes  (Characters.  7  -Male  : 
1  Female).  From  '  Fairy  Tale  Plays  and 
How  to  Act  Them  '.  With  Illustrations, 
Diagrams  and  .Music.     Cr.  8vo,  sewed,  6rf. 

BROW  N.  — CARTHUSIAN 

.M E.MORI ES,  AXD  OTHER  VERSES  OF  , 
LEISURE.      By   William    Haig   Brown,  i 
LL.D.,    Master   of   Charterhouse.      With    a 
Photogravure   Portrait  of  the  Author.      Cr. 
8vo,  55.  net. 

DANTE.— THE  DREAD  INFER- 
NO :  N'otes  for  Beginners  in  the  Study  of 
Dante.  By  ,M.  Alice  Wvld.  With  Frontis- 
piece.    Fcp.  8vo,  2s.  6?f.  net. 

GORE-BOOTH  (Eva). 
UNSEEN    KINGS,  AND   OTHER 

POEMS.      Crown  8vo,  2s.  6rf.  net. 

THE    ONE    AND    THE     MANY: 
Poems.     Crown  8vo,  2s.  6(/.  net.  I 

GRAVES.— CLYT^MNESTRA  :  A 
TRAGEDY.    By  Arnold  F.  Graves.    With 
a  Preface  by  Robert  Y.  Tyrrell,  Litt.D.  ; 
Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

HITHER  ANDTHITHERrS.ngs 

and  Verses.     By  the  Author  of  'Times  and 
Days,'  etc.     Fcp.  Svo,  5i. 

HUGHES  -  GAMES.  —  THEKLA 

A,\n    OTHER     POH.MS.       By    Stephen 
Huches-Gamics.     Crown  Svo.  3s.  6(/.  net. 


KENDALL.— POEMS  OF  HENRY 

CLARE.N'CE   KENDALL.      With    Memoir 
by  Frederick  C.  Kendall.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 


LANG.— THE  BLUE  POETRY 
BOOK.  Edited  by  Andrew  Lang.  With 
100  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 


LECKY.— POE.MS.       By   William 

Edward  Hartpole  Lecky.     Fcp.  Svo,  5s. 


LYTTON    (The    Earl    of),    (Owen 
Meredith). 

THE  WANDERER.      Crown   Svo, 

lOs.  6(f. 

LUCILE.     Crown  Svo,  10s.  Grf. 
SELECTED  POE.MS.    Crown  Svo, 

lOS.  6:/. 


MACAULAY.  —  LAYS  OF 
ANCIENT  ROME,  with  '  IVRY '  AND 
•THE   AR.MADA'.     By  Lord   Macaulay. 

Illustrated  by  G.  Scharf.   Fcp.  4to, 

lOs.  %d. 

Bijou 

Popular 

Edition.     Fcp.  4to,  sewed,  6if. ;  cloth,  Is. 

Illustrated    by    J.     R.    Weguelin. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  net. 

Annotated     Edition.  Fcp.    8vo' 

sewed.  Is.  :  cloth.  Is.  6i/. 


Edition.       ISmo.  gilt  top,  2s.  6./. 


MacDONALD.— A    BOOK    OF 

STRIFE,  IXTHEFOR.M  OFTHE  DIARY 
OF  AN  OLD  SOUL  :  Poems.  By  George 
M.\cDonald,  LL.D.     ISmo,  6s. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


29 


Poetry  and  the  Drama — continued. 


MORRIS  (William). 
POETICAL     WORKS. 


Library 


MORS    ET    VICTORIA.       Crown 

8\<>,  .Ss.  net. 

This  is  a  drama  in  three  acts,  the  scene 


Edition.    Complete  in  U  volumes.    Crown    of   vvhich  is  laid  in   France  shortly  after  the 


8vo,  price  5s.  net  each. 

THE       EARTHLY      PARADISE. 

4  vols.     Crow  n  8vo,  5s.  net  each. 

THE     DEFENCE     OF    GUENE- 

VERE,  and   other   Poems.       Crown  8vo, 
5s.  net. 

THE     LIFE     AND    DEATH    OF 
JASON.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 

POEMS    BY     THE     WAY,    AND 

LOVE  IS  ENOUGH.     Crown  8vo.  5s.  net. 

THE  STORY   OF  SIGURD   THE 
VOLSUNG,  AND  THE  FALL  OF  THE 

NIBLUNGS.     Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


THE      ^NEIDS      OF 

Done   into   English    Verse. 
5s.  net. 

THE     ODYSSEY     OF 

Done    into    English   Verse. 
5s.  net. 


VIRGIL. 

Crown    8vo, 


HOMER. 

Crown    8\o, 


massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 


MORTE  ARTHUR.— An  Allitera- 

tive  Poem  of  the  Fourteenth  Century. 
Edited  from  the  Thornton  .MS  .  \\\\.\\  Intro- 
duction, Notes  and  Glossary.  By  .Mary 
.Maci.eod  Banks.      Fcp.  8vo,  3s.  6./. 


NESBIT  iE.)(MRS.  Hubert  Bland). 

LAYS    AND    LEGENDS.        First 

Series.     Cr.  8vo,  3s.  6</.       Second    Series. 
With  Portrait.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 

THE      RAINBOW       AND       THE 

ROSE.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 


RILEY. —  OLD        FASHIONED 

HOSES :    Poems.      By  James   Whitco.mb 
Riley.     12mo,  gilt  top,  5s. 


THE     TALE      OF      BEOWULF, 

SO.METI.ME  KING  OF  THE  FOLK  OF    ROMANES  A 

THE    WEDERGE.ATS.      Translated   by  "      * 

WiLLiA.M  .Morris  and  A.  J.  Wvatt.     Cr. 

Svo,  5s.  net. 
Certain  of  the  Poetical  Works  may  also  be 

had  in  the  following  Editions  : — 


SELECTION 

FRO.M  THE  POE.MS  OF  GEORGE  JOHN 
RO.MANES,  .M.A„  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  With  an 
Introduction  by  T.  Herbert  Warren,  Pre- 
sident of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  Crown 
Svo,  4s.  6rf. 


THE  EARTHLY  PARADISE. 

Popular  Edition.  5  vols.  12mo, 
25s.  ;  or  5s.  each,  sold  separately. 

The  Same  in  Ten  Parts,  255. ;  or 
2s.  6rf.  each  sold  separately. 

New     Edition     in     Twelve     Parts. 

Crown  Svo. 

Parts  I. -VIII.,  Is.  net  each. 
Part  IX.,  2s.  net. 
Parts  X.  and  XI.,  Is.  net  each. 
Part  XII.,  2s.  net. 

Cheap  Edition,  in  1  vol.  Crown 
8vo,  6s.  net. 


POEMS  BY  THE  WAY. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 


Square 


THE  DEFENCE  OF  GUENE- 
VERE  AND  OTHER  POE.MS.  Cheaper 
Impression.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6(/.  net. 

*^*  For  Mr.  William  Morris's  other  Works 
see  pp.  13,  33,  44,  48. 


SAVAGE-ARMSTRONG.—  BAL- 
LADS OF  DOWN.  By  G.  F.  Savage- 
Ar.mstrong,  .M.A.,  D.Litt.    Crown  Svo,  7s.  M. 


SHAKESPEARE. 

BOWDLER'S  FAMILY  SHAKE- 
SPEARE. With  36  Woodcuts.  1  voL 
Svo,  14s.     Or  in  6  vols.     Fcp.  Svo,  21s. 


THE  SHAKESPEARE  BIRTH- 
DAY BOOK.  By  .Mary  F.  Dunbar. 
32mo,  Is.  61/. 


SHEEHAN.— '  LOST  ANGEL  OF 

A    RUINED    PARADISE."      A   Drama   of 
Modern  Life.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 


30         LONGMANS    AND    CO.  S    STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


Poetry  and  the  Drama — continued. 


STEVENSON.— A  CHILD'S  GAR- 
DEN OF  VERSES.  By  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson.     Fcp.  8vo,  gilt  top,  5s. 


TREVELYAN  (R.  C). 

CECILIA  GONZAGA  :  A  DRAMA. 

Fcp.  8vo,  2s.  6(/.  net. 

THE  BIRTH  OF  PARSIVAL :    A 

DRAMA.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(f.  net. 


WAGNER.— THE  NIBELUNGEN 

RING,  Done  into  English  Verse  by  Regi- 
nald Rankin,  B,A„  of  the  Inner  Temple, 
Barrister-at-Law. 

Vol.  I.     Rhine  Gold,  The  Valkyrie. 

Fcp.  8vo,  gilt  top,  4s.  6(/. 

Vol.  II.     Siegfried,  The  Twilight  of 
the  Gods.     Fcp.  8vo,  gilt  top,  4s.  6if. 


WYLD.— THE  DREAD  INFERNO: 

Notes  for  Beginners  in  the  Study  of  Dante. 
By  M.  Alice  Wyld.  With  Frontispiece. 
Fcp.  8vo,  2s.  6rf.  net. 


Fiction,  Humour,  etc. 


AMERICAN  SHORT  STORIES.    BAILEY  (H.  C). 

Selected   and   Edited,   \^  ith  an   Introductory 

Essay   on   the    Short   Story,   by    Chaki.es  |       MY    LADY    OF    ORANGE;     a     Ro 


Sears  Baldwin,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor in  Yale  University.  Crown  8vo,  6s. 
net. 


ANSTEY  (F.). 


THE  MAN  FROM  BLANKLEY'S, 

and  other  Sketches.  (Reprinted  from 
'  Punch  '.)  With  25  Illustrations  by  J. 
Bernard  Partridge.  Crown  Svo,  gilt 
top,  3s.  net. 


VOCES      POPULI. 

from  '  Punch '.) 


(Reprinted 


First  Series.  With  20  Illustrations 
by  J.  Bernard  Partridge.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  top,  3s.  net. 


Second  Scries.  With  25  Illustra- 
tions by  J.  Bernard  Partridge.  Crown 
Svo,  gilt  top,  3s.  net. 


mance  of  the  Netherlands  in  the  Days  of 
Alva,  j,  With  S  Illustrations.  Crown  Svo, 
6s. 

^.KARL  OF  ERBACH :  a  Tale  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

THE  MASTER  OF  GRAY  :  a  Tale 
of  the  Days  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 

BEACONSFIELD  (The  Earl  of). 

NOVELS  AND  TALES.  Complete 
in  11  vols.     Crown  Svo,  Is.  6(/.  each. 

Contarini  Fleming  ; 
The  Rise  of  Iskan- 
der. 


Vivian  Grej 

The  Young  Duke ; 
Count  Alarcos :  a 
Tragedy. 

Alroy ;  Ixion  in 
Heaven  ;  The  In- 
fernal Marriage ; 
Popanilla. 

Tancred. 


Sybil. 

Henrietta  Temple. 

Venetia. 

Coningsby. 

Lothair. 

Endymion. 


NOVELS     AND     TALES.  THE 

HUGHENDEN     EDITION.  With     2 

Portraits     and     II     Vignettes.  11    vols. 
Crown  Svo,  42s. 

CHURCHILL.— SAVROLA:    a 

Tale  of  the  Revolution  in  Laurania.  By 
Winston  Spencer  Churchill,  M.P.  Crown 
Svo,  6s. 


LONGMANS    AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


31 


Fiction,   Humour,  etc. — centinucd. 


CONVERSE.  — LONG     WILL:      a 

Tale  of  Wat  Tytler  and  the  Peasant  Rising 
in  the  Reign  of  Richard  II.  By  Florence 
Converse.  With  6  Illu.strations  by  Garth 
Jones.     Crown  8vo,  65. 


DOUGALL.— BEGGARS  ALL.    By 

L.  DouGALL.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6if. 


DOYLE  (Sir  A.  Conan). 

MICAH  CLARKE:  a  Tale  of  Mon- 
mouth's Rebellion.  With  10  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  3.9.  6./. 

THE  REFUGEES:   a  Tale  of  the 

Huguenots.      With   25   Illustrations.     Cr. 


THE  STARK  MUNRO  LETTERS. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 

THE  CAPTAIN  OF  THE  POLE- 
STAR,  and  other  Tales.     Cr.  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 


DUNBAR.— THE    SONS   O'  COR- 

.M.A.C.  AX-  TALES  OF  OTHER  MEN'S 
SONS  ;  Irish  Legends.  By  Alois  Dunbar. 
With  8  Illustrations  by  Myra  E.  Luxmore. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 


FARRAR    (F.    W.,    late    Dean   of 
Canterbury). 

DARKNESS     AND     DAWN:    or, 

Scenes  in  the  Days  of  Nero.     -An  Historic 
Tale.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  6s.  net. 

GATHERING  CLOUDS:  a  Tale 
of  the  Days  of  St.  Chrysostom.  Crown 
Svo,  gilt  top,  6s.  net. 


FOWLER  (Edith  H.). 

THE     YOUNG      PRETENDERS. 

A  Story  of  Child  Life.  With  12  Illustra- 
tions by  Sir  Philip  Burne-Jones,  Bart. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 

THE  PROFESSOR'S  CHIL- 
DREN. With  24  Illustrations  by  Ethel 
Kate  Burgess.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 


FRANCIS    (M.    E.)    (Mr.s.   Francis 
Blundell). 

DORSET  DEAR:  Idylls  uf  Coun- 
try Life.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

LYCHGATE  HALL:    a  Romance. 

Crown  Svo,  6s. 

CHRISTIAN  THAL:  a  Story  of 
Musical  Life.     Crown   Svo,  6s. 

THE  MANOR  FARM.  With 
Frontispiece  by  Claud  C.  du  Prk  Cooper. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 

FIANDER'S  WIDOW.  Crown 
Svo,  6s. 

PASTORALS  OF  DORSET.    With 

S  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

YEOMAN    FLEETWOOD.      With 

Frontispiece.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  net. 


FROUDE.— THE    TWO    CHIEFS 

OF  DU.N'BOY:  an  Irish  Romance  of  the 
Last  Century.  By  James  A.  Froude.  Cr- 
8vo,  3s.  %d. 


GILKES.— A  DAY  AT  DULWICH. 

By  .A.  H.  GiLKEs.  Master  of  Dulwich  College. 
Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  net. 


HAGGARD   SIDE   (THE)  :    being 

Essays  in  Fiction.  By  the  Author  of  '  Times 
and  Days,"  'Auto  da  Fe,'  etc.  Crown  Svo, 
5s. 


HAGGARD  (H.  Rider). 
ALLAN  OUATERMAIN.     With  31 

Illustrations.    Crown  Svo.  3s.  6(f. 

Popular  Edition.  Svo,  sewed,  6^/,  net. 

ALLAN'S  WIFE.  With  34  Illus- 
trations.   Crown  Svo,  3s.  61/. 

BEATRICE.  With  Frontispiece 
and  Vignette.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(^ 

BLACK  HEART  AND  WHITE 
HE.ART,  AND  OTHER  STORIES.  With 
33  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  61/. 

CLEOPATRA.  With  29  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  6i/. 


32 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Fiction,   Humour,   etc. — continued. 

HAGGARD  (H.  'Rx'O^s)— continued. 


COLONEL       QUARITCH,       V.C. 

With  Frontispiece  and  Vignette.     Crown 
8vo,  3s.  6(f. 

DAWN.       With     16    Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

DR.  THERNE.     Cr.  8vo,  3s.  %d. 

ERIC    BRIGHTEYES.      With    51 
Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6if. 

HEART  OF  THE  WORLD.    With 

15  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo.  3s.  6 /. 

JOAN    HASTE.       With  20  Illustra- 
tions.   Crown  Svo,  3s.  6./. 


HAGGARD    AND    LANG.— THE 

WORLDS  DESIRE.  By  H.  Rider  Hag- 
gard and  Andrew  Lang.  With  27  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 

HARTE.— IN    THE   CARQUINEZ 

WOODS.     By  Bret   Harte.     Crown  Svo, 

3s.  U. 

HOPE.— THE  HEART  OF  PRIN- 
CESS OSRA.  By  Anthony  Hope.  With 
9  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 

HOWARD.— THE  FAILURE  OF 
SUCCESS.      By   Lady    ^Mabel    Howard. 

Crown  Svo,  6s. 

HUSSEY.— MISS    BADSWORTH, 

.M.F.H.  By  Eyre  Hussey.  With  Frontis- 
piece (Miss  'Lavvy')  by  H.  Piffard,  and 
6   Illustrations   by   G.   D.  Ar.mour.      Crown 

Svo,  Hs. 


LYSBETH.     With  26  Illustrations. 

Crown  Svo,  6s. 

MAIWA'S  REVENGE.  Crown  Svo, 

Is.  6(f. 


MONTEZUMA'S 

With  24  Illustrations. 


DAUGHTER. 

Crown  Svo,  3s.  M. 


MR.  MEESON'S  WILL.  With 
16  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  ^d. 

NADA  THE  LILY.  With  23  Il- 
lustrations.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  6i/. 

PEARL-MAIDEN  :  a  Tale  of  the 
Fall  of  Jerusalem.  With  16  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 

SHE.  With  32  Illustrations.  Cr. 
Svo,  3s.  M. 

STELLA  FREGELIUS:  a  Tale  of 

Three  Destinies.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 


JEROME.— SKETCHES  IN  LA- 
VENDER: BLUE  AND  GREEN.  By 
Jero.me  K.  Jero.me,  Author  of  '  Three  Men 
in  a  Boat,'  etc.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6./. 

JOYCE.— OLD         CELTIC         RO- 

MANXES.  Twelve  of  the  most  beautiful  oi 
the  Ancient  Irish  Romantic  Tales.  Trans- 
lated from  the  Gaelic.  By  P.  W.  Joyce, 
LL.D.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6il 

LANG  (Andrew). 

A  MONK  OF  FIFE;  a  Story  of 
the  Days  of  Joan  of  Arc.  With  13  Illus- 
trations by  Selwy.v  I.mage.     Crown  Svo, 

3s.  6.(. 

THE    DISENTANGLERS.      With 

7  Full-page   Illustrations  by  H.  J.    Ford. 
Crown  Svo,  6s. 

LYALL  (Edna). 

THE    AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF    A 

SL.4NDER.     Fcp.  Svo,  sewed.  Is. 
Presentation  Edition.    With  20  Illus- 
trations by  Lancelot  Speed.    Crown  8vo, 
2s.  6(^  net. 


SWALLOW:  a  Tale  of  the  Great       DOREEN.     The  Story  of  a  Singer. 

Trek.     With    S  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  I  Crown  Svo,  6s. 


3s.  6,/. 

THE    PEOPLE    OF   THE    MIST. 

With  16  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6i/. 

THE  WITCHS  HEAD.     With   16 

Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6./.  i 


WAYFARING  xMEN.     Crown  Svo, 

6s. 

HOPE     THE     HERMIT:    a    Ro- 
mance  of  Borrowdale.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

THE    HINDERERS.     Crown  Svo, 

2s.  6(/. 


LONGMANS   AND   CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


33 


Fiction,   Humour,  etc. — continued. 
MARC  HMO  NT.— IN  THE   NAME    MORRIS  (William)— <:o»//««^rf. 

OF  A  WOMAN  :  a  Romance.     By  Arthur 

W.    AlARCHMO.VT.        With    8    Illustrations.  I      A      DREAM      OF    JOHN      BALL, 


Crown  8vo,  6s. 


MASON  AND    LANG.— PARSON 

KELLY.     By  A.  E.  W.  Mason  and  Andrew 
Lang.     Crown  8vo,  3^.  6rf. 


MAX     MtJLLER.  —  DEUTSCHE 

LIEBE  (GERMAN  LOVE):  Fragments 
from  the  Papers  of  an  Alien.  Collected  by 
F.  Max  Muller.  Translated  from  the 
German  by  G.  A.  M.     Cr.  Svo,  gilt  top,  hs. 


MELVILLE  (G.  J.  Whyte) 


The  Gladiators. 
The  Interpreter. 
Good  for  Nothing. 
The  Queen's  Maries. 


Holmby  House. 
Kate  Coventry. 
Digby  Grand. 
General  Bounce. 


Crown  Svo,  ls.6(f.  each. 


MORRIS  (William) 


A  TALE  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF 
THE  WOLFINGS,  and  all  the  Kindreds 
of  the  Mark.  Written  in  Prose  and  Verse. 
Square  crown  Svo,  6s. 

THE  ROOTS  OF  THE  MOUN- 
TAINS, wherein  is  told  somewhat  of  the 
Lives  of  the  Men  of  Burgdale,  their 
Friends,  their  Neighbours,  their  Foemen, 
and  their  Fellows-in-Arms.  Written  in 
Prose  and  Verse.     Square  crown  Svo,  8s. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  GLITTER- 
ING PLAIN,  which  has  also  been  called 
The  Land  of  the  Living  Men,  or  the  Acre 
of  the  Undying.     Square  post  Svo,  5s.  net. 

THE  WOOD  BEYOND  THE 
WORLD.     Crown  Svo,  6s.  net. 


THE  WELL  AT  THE  WORLD'S 
END.     2  vols.     Svo,  28s. 

THE    WATER    OF    THE    WON- 
DROUS ISLES.     Crown  Svo,  7s.  6</. 


THE  SUNDERING  FLOOD. 

8vo,  7s.  6</. 


Cr. 


AND  A  KING'S  LESSON.     16mo,  2s.  net. 

NEWS    FROM  NOWHERE:  or, 

An  Epoch  of  Rest.  Being  some  Chapters 

from    an    Utopian  Romance.     Post   Svo, 
Is.  6rf. 

THE  STORY  OF  GRETTIR  THE 
STRONG.  Translated  from  the  Icelandic 
by  EiRiKR  Magnusson  and  William 
Morris.     Crown  Svo,  5s.  net. 

THREE  NORTHERN  LOVE 
STORIES,  AND  OTHER  TALES. 
Translated  from  the  Icelandic  by  Eirikr 
Magnusson  and  Wilhah  Morris.  Cr. 
Svo,  6s.  net. 

*.  *  For  Mr.  William  Morris's  other  Works, 
see  pp.  13,29,  44,  45,  48. 


NEWMAN  (Cardinal). 

LOSS  AND  GAIN:  the  Story  of  a 

Convert.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(?. 

CALLISTA:  a   Tale    of  the  Third 
Century.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6i^ 


NORRIS.— RICE  PAPERS:  Stories 

and  Sketches  of   Life  in  China.      By  H.  L. 
NoRRis.     Crow  n  Svo,  6s. 


NORRIS.  —  NAT  U  RE'S  CO- 
MEDIAN. By  W.  E.  NoRRis.  Crown 
Svo,  6s. 


PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY.— SNAP  : 

a  Legend  of  the  Lone  Mountain.  By  C. 
Phillipps-Wollev.  With  13  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  M. 


POLLOCK. —  HAY    FEVER.       B\- 

Wai.tkr    Hi:RmEs    Pollock    and    (jUy    C. 
Pollock.     Crow  n  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 

*»*  This  story  is  concerned  with  the  adven- 
tures of  a  much  uiui  justly  respected  stockbroker, 
and  is  founded  on  the  known  action  of  a  drug 
sometimes  pnscribed  for  hay  fever;  but  natur- 
ally, the  Authors  have  aimed  more  at  amuse- 
ment than  at  scientific  accuracy. 


RIDLEY.  — A    DAUGHTER    OF 

JAEL.     By  Lady  Ridley.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 


34    LONGMANS   AND    CO.^S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Fiction,   Humour,  etc. — continued. 


SEWELL  (Elizabeth  M.). 

A  Glimpse  of  the  WorlJ.  i  Amy  Herbert. 
Laneton  Parsonaf<e.  '  Cleve  Hall. 

Margaret  Percival.  Gertrude. 

Katharine  Ashton.  Home  Life. 

The  Earl's  Daughter.  After  Life. 

The  Experience  of  Life.      Ursula.     Ivors. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth  plain,  Is.  6(/.  each.     Cloth 
extra,  gilt  edges.  2s.  6(/.  each. 

SHEEHAN.— (Rev.  P.  A.,  D.D.). 
LUKE   DELMEGE.     Cr.  8vo,  65. 
GLENANAAR:    A    Story   of   Irish 

Life.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

SOMERVILLE  (E.  CE.)  and  ROSS 

(Martin). 

SOME    EXPERIENCES    OF   AN 

IRISH    R.M.      With   31    Illustrations   by 
E.  OS..  SoMERViLLE.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

ALL   ON    THE    IRISH    SHORE: 

Irish  Sketches.     With   10  Illustrations    by 
E.  CE.  SoMERViLLE.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

AN   IRISH  COUSIN.     Cr.  Svo,  65. 

THE    REAL    CHARLOTTE.     Cr. 

Svo,  3s.  6J. 

THE  SILVER  FOX.     Crown  Svo, 

3s.  6J. 


STEBBING.  —  BORDERLAND 

TALES.      By  W.  Stebbing.      Crown  Svo., 

45.  61/. 


STEVENSON  (Robert  Louis). 

THE  STRANGE  CASE  OF  DR. 
JEKYLL  AND  MR.  HYDE.  Fcp.  Svo, 
sewed.  Is. ;   cloth,  Is.  6rf. 

THE    STRANGE  CASE    OF    DR. 

JEKYLL     AND     i\lR.     HYDE;     WITH 

OTHER    FABLES.     Crown   Svo,   bound 

in  buckram,  with  gilt  top,  5s.  net. 

'Silver  Library'  Edition.      Crown   Svo, 

3s.  6rf. 

MORE  NEW  ARABIAN  NIGHTS 
—THE  DYNAMITER.  By  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  and  Fanny  van  de 
Grift  Stevenson.  Crown  Svo,  bound  in 
buckram,  with  gilt  top,  5s.  net. 

'Silver  Library'   Edition.     Crown  Svo, 
3s.  &d. 

THE  WRONG  BOX.  By  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  and  Lloyd  Osbourne. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  M. 


THROUGH    SPECTACLES    OF 

FEELING  :  lieing  Kssajs  mostly  in  Fiction. 
By  the  Author  of  'Times  and  Days,'  'The 
Haggard  Side,'  etc.     Crown  Svo,  5s. 

TROLLOPE  (Anthony). 
THE      WARDEN.       Crown     Svo, 

Is.  61/. 

BARCHESTER  TOWERS.  Crown 

Svo,  Is.  6r^ 

VAUGHAN,— OLD     HENDRIK'S 

TALES.  By  Captain  Arthur  O.  V'auchan, 
With  VI  Full-page  Illustrations  by  J.  A. 
Shepherd.     Crown  Svo,  6s. 

WALFORD  (L.  B.). 

STAY-AT-HOMES.     Cr.  Svo,  6s. 

CHARLOTTE.     Crown  Svo,  e>s. 

A      STIFF-NECKED     GENERA- 
TION.   Crown  Svo,  2s.  &/. 

COUSINS.     Crown  Svo,  2s.  6r/. 

DICK  NETHERBY.      Crown  Svo, 
2s.  6if. 

IVA     KILDARE:    a    Matrimonial 
Problem.     Crown  Svo,  'Is.  6d. 

LEDDY  MARGET.  Cr.  Svo,  2s.  6</. 

MR.  SMITH  :  a    Part  of  his   Life. 

Crown  Svo,  2s.  61/. 

NAN,  and  other  Stories.      Cr.  Svo, 
2s.  6(/. 

ONE  OF  OURSELVES.      Crown 

Svo,  6s. 

PAULINE.     Crown  Svo,  2s.  6d. 

'PLOUGHED'  and  other  Stories. 
Crown  Svo,  2s.  61/. 

THE  BABY'S  GRANDMOTHER. 

Crown  Svo,  'Is.  6d. 
THE     HISTORY    OF    A    WEEK. 

Crown  Svo,  2s.  61/. 

THE  INTRUDERS.  Cr.  Svo,  2s.  6rf. 

THE  MATCHMAKER.      Cr.    Svo, 
2s.  6rf. 

THE    MISCHIEF    OF    MONICA. 

Crown  Svo,  2s.  61/. 

THE    ONE    GOOD   GUEST.     Cr. 

Svo,  2s.  6,/. 

TROUBLESOME    DAUGHTERS. 

Crown  Svo,  2s.  61/. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS.         35 


Fiction,   Humour,  etc. — continued. 


WARD.— ONE    POOR  SCRUPLE. 

By  Mrs.  Wii-FRID  Ward.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 


WEYMAN  (Stanley). 
THE  ABBESS  OF  VLAYE.    With 

Frontispiece.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 

THE    HOUSE    OF   THE  WOLF. 

With   Frontispiece   and  Vignette.     Crown 
8vo,  35.  61/. 

A    GENTLEMAN    OF    FRANCE. 

With    Frontispiece  and  Vignette.     Crown 
8vo,  6s. 

THE     RED     COCKADE.        With 
Frontispiece   and   Vignette.      Crown   8vo, 


WEYMAN  (Stanley)— coH//HKf<^ 

SHREWSBURY.  With  24  Illus- 
trations by  Claude  A.  Shepperson. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 

SOPHIA.     With  Frontispiece.    Cr. 

8vo,  6s. 

THE  LONG  NIGHT.  A  Story  of 
Geneva  in  1602.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 


WHISHAW.— THE     TIGER     UF 

MUSCOVY.    BypREDWHisHAW.   Crown 


YEATS.— T  HE  CHEVALIER 
D'AURIAC.  By  S.  Levett  Yeats.  Cr. 
8vo,  3s.  6</. 


Popular  Science  (Natural  History,  etc.). 


FURNEAUX  (W.). 
THE    OUTDOOR    WORLD:     or, 

The  Young  Collector's  Handbook.  With 
18  Plates  (16  of  which  are  coloured),  and 
549  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  edges,  6s.  net. 

BUTTERFLIES     AND     MOTHS 

(British).  With  12  Coloured  Plates  and 
241  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  edges,  6s.  net. 

LIFE      IN      PONDS       AND 

STREAMS.  With  8  Coloured  Plates  and 
331  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  edges,  6s.  net. 

THE  SEA  SHORE.  With  8 
Coloured  Plates  and  3(M)  Illustrations  in 
the  Text.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 


HARTWIG  (George). 


THE  SEA  AND  ITS  LIVING 
WONDERS.  With  12  Plates  and  303 
Woodcuts.    8vo,  gilt  top,  7s.  net. 


THE  TROPICAL  WORLD.     With 

8  Plates  and  172  Woodcuts.     8vo,  gilt  top, 


THE    POLAR   WORLD.     With   3 

Maps,  8   Plates  and   85   Woodcuts.    8vo, 
gilt  top,  7s.  net. 


THE  SUBTERRANEAN  WORLD. 

With  3  Maps  and  80  Woodcuts.     8vo,  gilt 
top,  7s.  net. 


36         LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s  STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Popular  Science  (Natural  History,  etc.) — continued. 


HELMHOLTZ.— POPULAR  LEC- 
TURES ON  SCIENTIFIC  SUBJECTS. 
By  Hermann  \on  Helmholtz.  With 
68  Woodcuts.  2  vols.  Crown  8vo,  3s.  6d. 
each. 

Contents.— Vol.  I.  The  Relation  of  Natural 
Science  to  Science  in  General  —  Goethe's 
Scientific  Researches  —  The  Physiological 
Causes  of  Harmony  in  Music — Ice  and  Glaciers 
— The  Interaction  of  the  Natural  Forces— The 
Recent  Progress  of  the  Theory  of  Vision— The 
Conservation  of  Force — The  Aim  and  Progress 
of  Physical  Science. 

Contents.— Vol.  II.  Gustav  Magnus.  In 
Memoriam — The  Origin  and  Significance  of 
Geometrical  Axioms—The  Relation  of  Optics 
to  Painting — The  Origin  of  the  Planetary 
System  —  Thought  in  Medicine  —  Academic 
Freedom  in  German  Universities — Hermann 
von  Helmholtz  :  An  Autobiographical  Sketch. 


HOFFMANN.— ALPINE  FLORA: 

For  Tourists  and  Amateur  Botanists.  With 
Text  descriptive  of  the  most  widely  dis- 
tributed and  attractive  Alpine  Plants.  By 
Julius  Hoffmann.  Translated  by  E.  S. 
Barton  (.Mrs.  A.  Gepp).  With  40  Plates 
containing  250  Coloured  Figures  from 
Water-Colour  Sketches  by  Hermann 
Friese.     8vo,  7s.  6if.  net. 


HUDSON  (W.  H.). 

HAMPSHIRE     DAYS.  With     11 

Plates   and    36   Illustrations  in   the   Text 

from    Drawings    by    Brvan  Hook,    etc. 
Svo,  10s.  6rf.  net. 

NATURE  IN  DOWN  LAND.    With 

12  Plates  and  14  Illustrations  in  the  Text, 
by  A.  D.  McCoRMicK.    8vo,  10s.  6rf.  net. 

BRITISH  BIRDS.  With  a  Chap- 
ter  on  Structure  and  Classification  by 
Frank  E.  Beddard,  F.R.S.  With  16 
Plates  (8  of  which  are  Coloured),  and  over 
100  Illustrations  in  the  Text.  Crown  Svo, 
gilt  edges,  6s.  net. 

BIRDS  AND  MAN.  Large  crown 
8vo,  6s.  net. 


MILLAIS  (John  Guille). 

THE  WILDFOWLER  IN  SCOT- 
LAND. With  a  Frontispiece  in  Photo- 
gravure after  a  Drawing  by  Sir  J.  H. 
Mii.i.Ais,  Hart.,  P.R.A.  8  Photogravure 
Plates,  2  Coloured  Plates,  and  50  Illus- 
trations from  the  Author's  Drawings  and 
from  Photographs.  Royal  4to,  gilt  top, 
30s.  net. 


MILLAIS  (John  Guille,  F.Z.S.)— 

continued. 

THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF 
THE  BRITISH  SURFACE-FEEDING 
DUCKS.  With  6  Photogravures  and  66 
Plates  (41  in  Colours)  from  Drawings  by 
the  Author,  Archibald  Thorburn,  and 
from  Photographs.     Royal  4to,  £6  6s.  net. 

THE  MAMMALS  OF  GREAT 
BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND.  3  vols.  4to. 
(13  in.  by  12  in.),  cloth,  gilt  edges,  18 
guineas  net. 

*»*  Subscriptions  will  only  be  received  for  the 
Set  of  Three  Volumes. 

Volume  I.,  with  18  Photogravures  by 
the  Author;  31  Coloured  Plates  by  the 
Author,  Archibald  Thorburn,  and  G.  E. 
Lodge:  and  63  Uncoloured  Plates  by  the 
Author,  and  from  Photographs.  £6  6s. 
net.  It  is  hoped  that  Vols.  II.  and  III. 
will  be  issued  at  intervals  of  eight  months 
each. 

*4*   Only   1,025  copies  printed  for  England 
and  America.     Prospectus  sent  on  application. 


PROCTOR  (Richard  A.). 
LIGHT  SCIENCE  FOR  LEISURE 

HOURS.     Familiar  Essays  on  Scientific 
Subjects.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 

ROUGH  WAYS  MADE  SMOOTH. 

Familiar    Essays   on   Scientific   Subjects. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 

PLEASANT  WAYS  IN  SCIENCE. 
Crown  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 

NATURE  STUDIES.  By  R.  A. 
Proctor,  Grant  Allen,  A.  Wilson,  T. 
Foster  and  E.  Clodd.   Crown  Svo,  3s.  M. 

LEISURE  READINGS.  By  R.  A. 
Proctor,  E.  Clodd,  A.  Wilson,  T. 
Foster  and  A.  C.  Ranyard.  Crown  Svo, 
3s.  6rf. 

*if*For  Mr.  Proctor's  other  bootis  see  pp.  19 
and  42,  and  Messrs.  Longmans  &  Co.'s  Catalogue 
of  Scientific  Works. 


STANLEY.-  A  FAMILIAR  HIS- 
TORY OF  BIRDS.  By  E.  Stanley,  D.D., 
formerly  Bishop  of  Norwich.  With  160 
Illustrations.     Cr.  Svo,  3s.  6(/. 


LOUfGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


37 


Popular  Science  (Natural  History,  etc.)— contimied. 
WOOD  (Rev.  J.  G.).  WOOD  (Rev.  J.  G.)— continued. 


HOMES    WITHOUT    HANDS:  a 

Description  of  the  Habitations  of  Animals, 
classed  according  to  their  Principle  of 
Construction.  With  140  Illustrations. 
8vo,  gilt  top,  7s.  net. 

INSECTS  AT  HOME:    a   Popular 

Account  of  British  Insects,  their  Structure, 
Habits  and  Transformations.  With  700 
Illustrations.     8vo,  gilt  top,  7s.  net. 

INSECTS     ABROAD:    a    Popular 

Account  of  Foreign  Insects,  their  Struc- 
ture, Habits  and  Transformations.  With 
600  Illustrations.     8vo,  7s.  net. 


PETLAND  REVISITED.    With  33 

Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6d. 


OUT  OF  DOORS  :   a  Selection    of 

Original  Articles  on  Practical  Natural 
History.  With  11  Illustrations.  Crown 
Svo,  3i'.  6(/. 


STRANGE  DWELLINGS:  a  De- 
scription of  the  Habitations  of  Animals, 
abridged  from  '  Homes  without  Hands  '. 
With  60  Illustrations.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6rf. 


Works  of  Reference. 

ANNUAL  REGISTER  (THE).    A  i  MAUNDER  (Samuel) 


Review    of    Public    Events    at    Home    and 
Abroad,  for  the  year  1903.     Svo,  18s. 

Volumes  of    the  Annual   Register    for    the 
years  1863-1902  can  still  be  had.     18s.  each. 


CHARITIES  REGISTER.    THE' 

ANNUAL,     AND      DIGEST:      being     a| 
ClassiKed      Register     of     Charities     in     or 
available  in  the  Metropolis.     Svo,  5s.  net. 


CHISHOLM.— HANDBOOK   OF 

CO.MMERCIAL  GEOGRAPHY.  By  Geo. 
G.  Chishoi.m,  M.A.,  B.Sc,  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  and  Statistical  Societies. 
With  19  Folding-out  Maps  and  numerous 
Maps  in  the  Text.     Svo,  15s.  net. 


GWILT.  —  AN    ENCYCLOPEDIA 

OF  ARCHITECTURE.  By  Joseph  Gwilt, 
F.S.A.  With  1,700  Engravings.  Revised 
(1888),  with  Alterations  and  Considerable 
Additions  by  Wvatt  Papvv'Orth.  Svo, 
21s.  net. 


LONGMANS'    GAZETTEER     OF 

THE  WORLD.  Edited  by  Gkoroe  G. 
Chisholm,  M.A.,  B.Sc.  Imperial  Svo,  cloth, 
18s,  net ;  half-morocco,  21s. 


BIOGRAPHICAL        TREASURY. 

With  Supplement  brought  down  to  1S89. 
By  Rev.  James  Wood.     Fcp.  Svo,  6s. 

TREASURY    OF    KNOWLEDGE 
AND     LIBRARY     OF     REFERENCE. 

Fcp.  Svo,  6s. 

THE  TREASURY   OF   BOTANY. 

Edited  by  J.  Lindley,  F.R.S.,  and  T. 
Moore,  F.L.S.  With  274  Woodcuts  and 
20  Steel  Plates.     Two  vols.     Fcp.  Svo,  12s. 


RICH.  A  Dictionary  of  Roman  and 
Greek  Antiquities.  By  A  Rich,  B. A.  With 
2,000  Woodcuts.     Crown  Svo,  6s.  net. 


ROGET.—THESAURUS  OF  ENG- 
LISH WORDS  AND  PHRASES.  Classified 
and  Arranged  so  as  to  Facilitate  the  E.\- 
pression  of  Ideas  and  assist  in  Literary 
Composition.  By  Peter  Mark  Roget, 
M.D.,  F.R.S.  Recomposed  throughout, 
enlarged  and  improved,  partly  from  the 
Author's  Notes,  and  with  a  full  Index,  by 
the  Author's  Son,  John  Lewis  Roget. 
Crown  Svo,  9s.  net. 


WILLICH.— POPULAR   TABLES 

for  giving  information  for  ascertaining  the 
value  of  Lifehold,  Leasehold,  and  Church 
Property,  the  Public  Funds,  etc.  By 
Charles  .M.  Willich.  Edited  by  H.  Bence 
Jones.     Crown  Svo,  10s.  6(/, 


38 


LONGMANS  AND    CO.  S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    WORKS. 


Children' 

ALICK'S     ADVENTURES.—  By 

G.  R.    With  S  Illustrations  by  John  Hassall. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6J. 


BOLD    TURPIN  :  a    Romance,  as 

Sung  by  Sam  Weller.  With  16  Illustrations 
in  Colour  by  L.  D.  L.  Oblong  4to,  boards, 
6s. 


BROWN.— THE       BOOK       OF 
SAINTS  AND  FRIENDLY  BEASTS.     By 

AnBiE  Farvvell  Brown.  With  8  Illustra- 
tions by  Fanny  Y.  Cory.  Crown  8vo,  4s.  6rf. 
net. 


CRAKE  (Rev.  A.  D.). 

EDWY  THE  FAIR:  or,  The  First 

Chronicle  of  .,4iscendune.  Crown  8vo, 
silver  top,  25.  net. 

ALFGAR    THE     DANE;  or,   The 

Second  Chronicle  of  ^scendune.  Crown 
8vo,  silver  top,  2s.  net. 

THE  RIVAL  HEIRS:  being  the 
Third  and  Last  Chronicle  of  .^scendune. 
Crown  8vo,  silver  top,  2s.  net. 

THE  HOUSE   OF  WALDERNE. 

A  Tale  of  the  Cloister  and  the  Forest  in 
the  Days  of  the  Barons'  Wars.  Crown 
8vo,  silver  top,  2s.  net. 

BRIAN  FITZ-COUNT  A  Story 
of  Wallingford  Castle  and  Dorchester 
Abbey.     Crown  8vo,  silver  top,  2s.  net. 


DENT.— IN  SEARCH  OF  HOME  : 

a  Story  of  East-End  Waifs  and  Strays.  By 
Phyllis  O.  Dent.  With  a  Frontispiece  in 
Colour  by  H  amel  Lister.  Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/. 
net. 


HENTY  (G.  A.).— Edited  by. 

YULE  LOGS:  A  Story-Book  for 
Boys.  By  various  Authors.  With  61  Il- 
lustrations.   Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  net. 

YULE   TIDE    YARNS:    A    Story- 

BooU  for  Boys.  By  various  Authors.  With 
45  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges, 
3s,  net. 


s  Books. 
LANG  (Andrew).— Edited  by. 

THE  BLUE  FAIRY  BOOK.    With 

138  Illustrations.     Crown   8vo,  gilt  edges, 
6s. 

THE  RED    FAIRY  BOOK.     With 

100  Illustrations.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE      GREEN      FAIRY     BOOK. 

With   99   Illustrations.      Crown    8vo,   gilt 
edges,  6s. 

THE  GREY  FAIRY  BOOK.    With 

65  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE    YELLOW    FAIRY    BOOK. 

With    104   Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt 
edges,  6s. 

THE  PINK  FAIRY  BOOK.     With 

67  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE     VIOLET      FAIRY     BOOK. 

With  8  Coloured  Plates  and  54  other  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE    CRIMSON    FAIRY    BOOK. 

With  8  Coloured  Plates  and  43  other  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE     BROWN      FAIRY     BOOK- 

With    8    Coloured    Plates    and    42    othe'' 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  65. 

THE     BLUE     POETRY     BOOK. 

With    100   Illustrations.     Crown   8vo,   gilt 
edges,  6s. 

THE  TRUE  STORY  BOOK.   With 

66  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE  RED  TRUE  STORY  BOOK. 

With    100   Illustrations.     Crown    8vo,   gilt 
edges,  6s. 

THE  ANIMAL  STORY  BOOK. 

With   67    Illustrations.      Crown   8vo,   gilt 
edges,  6s. 

THE    RED    BOOK   OF   ANIMAL 

STORIES.    With  65  Illustrations.    Crown 
8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  EN- 
TERTAINMENTS. With  66  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 

THE  BOOK  OF  ROMANCE.   With 

8  Coloured  Plates  and 44  other  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  6s. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD   AND    GENERAL    WORKS.         39 


XZhildren's  Books — continued. 


LYALL.  — THE       BURGES 

LBITEHS  ;  a  Record  of  Child  Life  in  the 
Sixties.  Bj  Edna  Lyall.  With  Coloured 
Frontispiece  and  S  other  FuII-pafie  Illustra- 
tions by  Walter  S.  Stacey.  Crown  8vo, 
2s.  61/. 


ROBERTS.— THE  ADVENTURES 

OFCAI'TAIN  JOHN  SMITH:  Captain  of 
Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Horse,  and  some- 
time President  of  Virginia.  By  E.  F. 
Roherts.  With  3  Maps  and  17  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  5s.  net. 


MACDONALD.  —  BABIES' 

CL.ASSICS.  Chosen  by  Lil.iA  Scott 
MacUonai.d.  With  67  Illustrations  and  37 
Initial  Letters  by  Arthur  Hughes.  Large 
Crown  4to,  4.s.  6J.  net. 

*.x*  ihis  book  is  a  collection  of  poems  thai  may 
fairly  he  called  '  Children's  Classics  '.  They  arc 
selected  from  William  Blake,  Jane  and  Anne 
Taylor,  Mary  Hoicitt,  Isaac  \]'atts,  Charles 
Kingsley,  George  Macdonald,  etc. 


MEADE  (L.  T.). 

DADDY'S  BOY.      With  8  lUustra- 
tions.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  net. 

DEB  AND  THE  DUCHESS.  With 
7  Illustrations.     Cr.  8vo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  net. 

THE  BERESFORD  PRIZE.  With 

7  Illustrations.     Cr.  8vo,  gilt  edges,  3s.  net. 

THE    HOUSE   OF   SURPRISES. 

With    6    Illustrations.      Crown    8vo,    gilt 
edges,  3s.  net. 


PACKARD. -THE    YOUNG     ICE 

WHALERS:  a  Tale  for  Boys.  By  WiN- 
throp  Packard.  With  16  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 

PENROSE.— CHUBBY:  A  Nuis- 
ance. By  Mrs.  Penrose.  With  8  Illus- 
trations by  G.  G.  Manton.     Cr.  8vo,  3s.  61/. 

PRAEGER  (Rosamond). 

THE  ADVENTURES  OF  THE 
THREE  BOLD  BABES:  HECTOR 
HONORIA  ANDALISANDER.  A  Story 
in  Pictures.  With  24  Coloured  Plates  and 
24  Outline  Pictures.     Oblong  4to,  3s.  6rf. 

THE  FURTHER  DOINGS  OF 
THE  THREE  BOLD  BABES.  With  24 
Coloured  Pictures  and  24  Outline  Pictures. 
Oblong  4to,  3s.  6</. 

ROBBINS.  —  DUTCH       DOLL 

DITTIES.  Written  and  Illustrated  with 
Photographs  by  Louis  Rorbins.  4to,  boards, 

25.  61/. 


STEVENSON.— A     CHILD'S 

GARDEN      OF    VERSES.       By    Robert 
Louis  Stevenson.     Fcp.  8vo,  gilt  top,  .Ss. 


UPTON  (Florence  K.  and  Bertha). 

THE  ADVENTURES  OF  TWO 
DUTCH  DOLLS  AND  A  'GOLLI- 
WOGG  '.  With  31  Coloured  Plates.  Oblong 
4to,  6s. 

THE  GOLLIWOGG  AT  THE 
SEASIDE.  With  31  Coloured  Plates 
Oblong  4to,  6s. 

THE  GOLLIWOGG'S  AUTO-GO- 
CART.  With  31  Coloured  Plates.  Oblong 
4to,  6s. 

THE  GOLLIWOGG'S  BICYCLE 
CLUB.  With  31  Coloured  Plates.  Oblong 
4to,  6s. 

THE     GOLLIWOGG      IN     WAR. 

With  31  Coloured  Plates.     Oblong  4to,  6s. 

THE      GOLLIWOGG'S      POLAR 

ADVENTURES.        With     31      Coloured 
Plates.     Oblong  4to,  6s. 

THE  GOLLIWOGG'S   AIR-SHIP. 

With  31  Coloured  Plates.    Oblong  4to,  6s. 

THE     GOLLIWOGG'S     CIRCUS. 

With   31    Coloured    Plates.      Oblong    4to 
boards,  6s. 

THE  GOLLIWOGG  IN  HOL- 
LAND. W'ith  29  Coloured  Plates.  Oblong 
4to,  6s. 


THE    VEGE-MEN'S 

With  31  Coloured  Plates. 


REVENGE. 

Oblong  4to,  6s. 


VAUGHAN.  —  OLD    HENDRIKS 

T.ALES,  By  Captnin  .Arthur  O.  Valchan, 
With  12  Full-page  Illustrations  by  J.  A. 
Shepherd.     Crown  8vo,  6s. 

*t*  This  is  a  volume  of  animal  stories  collected 
by  Captain  Vaughan  from  the  Hottentots  during 
the  late  Boer  War. 


40         LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


THE     SILVER     LIBRARY. 


Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf.  each  Volume. 


Arnold's    (Sir    Edwin)    Seas    and   Lands. 

With  17  Illustrations.     35.  6(/. 

Bag:ehot's     (W.)    Biographical    Studies. 

3s.  G./. 

Contents. — The  Character  of  Sir  Robert 
Feel  —  Lord  Brougham  —  Mr.  Gladstone  — 
William  Pitt— Bolingbroke  as  a  Statesman- 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis — Adam  Smith  as 
a  Person — Lord  Althurp  and  the  Reform  Act  of 
1832. 

Addenda. — The  Prince  Consort — What  Lord 
Lyndhurst  really  was— The  Tribute  at  Hereford 
to  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis — Mr.  Cobden — Lord  Palmer- 
ston — The  Earl  of  Clarendon — Mr.  Lowe  as 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — Monsieur  Guizot 
— Professor  Cairnes — Mr.  Disraeli  as  a  Mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Commons. 

Bageliot's  (W.)  Economic  Studies.  3s.  6rf. 

Contents.  — The  Postulates  of  English 
Political  Economy  —  (I)  Transferability  of 
Labour ;  (2)  Transferability  of  Capital — The 
Preliminaries  of  Political  Economy  —  Ada.m 
Smith  and  Our  Modern  Economy — Malthus 
— RiCARDO — The  Growth  of  Capital — Cost  of 
Production. 

Bagehot's  (W.)  Literary  Studies.      With 

Portrait.     3  vols.,  3s.  6t/.  each. 

Contents. — Vol.  L  Preliminary  Memoir — 
Hartley  Coleridge — Shakespeare,  the  Man — 
William  Cowper — The  First  Edinburgh  Re- 
viewers —  Edward  Gibbon  —  Percy  Bysshe 
Shelley. 

Contents. — Vol.  IL — Thomas  Babington 
Macaulay — Beranger — The  Waverley  Novels 
—Charles  Dickens- John  Milton — Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu — dough's  Poems — Sterne 
and  Thackeray — Wordsworth,  Tennyson  and 
Browning:  or  Pure,  Ornate  and  Grotesque 
Art  in  English  Poetry. 

Contents. — Vol.  IIL  Letters  on  the  Coup 
d'etat  of  1851 — Cxsarism  as  it  existed  in  1865 
—Oxford— Bishop  Butler — The  Ignorance  of 
Man— On  the  Emotion  of  Conviction — The 
Metaphysical  Basis  of  Toleration — The  Public 
Worship  Regulation  Bill — Henry  Crabb  Robin- 
son —  Bad  Lawyers  or  Good  —  The  Credit 
Mobilier  and  Banking  Companies  in  France — 
Memoir  of  the  Right  Hon.  James  Wilson. 

Baker's  (Sir  S.  W.)  Eiglit  Years  in  Ceylon. 

With  6   Illustrations.     3s.  6</. 

Baker's  (Sir  S.  W.)  Rifle  and  Hound  in 
Ceylon.       With  6  Illustrations.      3s.  tii/. 

Baring=Gould's  (Rev.  S.)  Curious  Myths 
of  the  Middle  Ages.     3s.  6J. 

BaringGould's  (Rev.  S.)  Origin  and  De= 
velopment  of  Religious  Belief.  2  vols. 
3s.  6^.  each. 


Becker's  (W.  A.)  Qallus  :  or,  Roman  Scenes 
in  the  Time  of  Augustus.  With  26  Illustra- 
tions.    3s.  6t/. 

Becker's  ( W.  A. )  Charicles  :  or.  Illustrations 
of  the  Private  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks. 
With  26  Illustrations.    3s.  6rf. 

Bent's  (J.  T. )  The  Ruined  Cities  of  Ma= 
shonaland.      With  1 17  Illustrations.     3s.  6i/. 

Brassey's  (Lady)  A  Voyage  in  the  'Sun  = 
beam'.     With  66  Illustrations.     3s.  6rf. 

Buckle's  (H.  T.)  History  of  Civilisation  in 
England.    3  vols.     lOs.  &?. 

Churchill's  (Winston  S.)  The  Story  of  the 
Malakand  Field  Force,  1897.  With  6 
Maps  and  Plans.     3s.  61/. 

Clodd's  (E).  Story  of  Creation  :  a  Plain  Ac- 
count of  Evolution.  With  77  Illustrations. 
3s.  6(/. 

Conybeare  (Rev.  W.  J.)  and  Howson's 
(Very   Rev.   J.   S.)  Life  and  Epistles  of 

St.  Paul.     With  46  Illustrations.     3s.  61/. 

Dougall's  (L.)  Beggars  All :  a  Novel.  3s.  6if. 

Doyle's  (Sir  A.  Conan)  Micah  Clarke.    A 

Tale    of    Monmouth's   Rebellion.      With    10 
Illustrations.     3s.  6(/. 

Doyle's  (Sir  A.  Conan)  The  Captain  of  the 
Polestar,  and  other  Tales.     3s.  6((. 

Doyle's  (Sir  A.  Conan)  The  Refugees:   A 

Tale  of   the  Huguenots.     With   25    Illustra- 
tions.    3s.  6(/. 

Doyle's  (Sir  A.  Conan)  The  Stark  Munro 
Letters.     3s.  6J. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  The  History  of  England, 

from  the  Fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  Defeat  of  the 
Spanish  Armada.     12  vols.     3s.  6</.  each. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  The  English  in  Ireland. 

3  vols.     10s.  6(/. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  The  Divorce  of  Catherine 
of  Aragon.     3s.  6(/. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  The  Spanish  Story  of  the 
Armada,  and  other  Essays.     3s.  6c/. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  English  Seamen  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century.     3s.  M. 

Froude's  (J.   A.)  Short  Studies  on  Great 

Subjects.     4  vols.     3s.  61/.  each. 

Froude's  (J.    A.)    The  Council  of   Trent. 

3s.  6(/. 


LONGMAIVS   AND    CO.  S    STAIVDAKP    AND    GENERAL    WORKS.        4 1 

THE  SILVER  UBRXR\—coutinui'd. 
Crown  8vo.  3s.  &d.  each   Volume. 

Froude's(J.  A.)ThoinasCarlyle  :  a  History    Haggard's  (H.  R.)  The  People  of  the  Mist. 

of   his    Life.     179.V1835.      2   vols.     7s.     1834-  I      With  16  Illustrations.     3s.  6^/. 
1S8I.     2  vols.     7s.  [ 

Haggard's   (H.    R. )  Joan  Haste.     With   20 
Froude's  (J.  A.)  Cajsar:  aSketch.     3s,  6(/.      |      Illustrations.     3s.  6if. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  Oceana,  or  England  and    Haggard's  (H.    R.)   Heart  of  the   World. 
Her  Colonies.     With  9  Illustrations.   3s.  61/.  j      With  15  Illustrations.     3s.  6rf. 

Froudes  (J.  A.)  The  Two  Chiefs  of  Dun-    Haggards  (H.  R.)  Swallow  :  a  Tale  of  the 
boy  :  an  Insh  Romance  of  the  Last  Century.  |      (f-^^^^  -p^^l^      .^i^,^  g  Illustrations.     3s.  M. 

M.  d;i. 

Froude's  (J.  A.)  The  Life  and    Letters  of    Haggard    (H.    R.)    and    Lang's    (A.)  The 
Erasmus.     3s.  61/.  I      Worlds   Desire.      With    27   Illustrations. 

Froude's    (J.    A.)      Writings,    Selections 

from.     3s.  61/.  Harte's  (Bret)   In   the  Carquinez   Woods 

and  other  Stories.     3s.  fii/. 
Qleig's  (Rev.  Q.   R.)  Life  of  the  Duke  of 

Wellington.     With  Portrait.     3s.  61/.  Helmholtz's  (Hermann  von)  Popular  Lee- 


Greville's(C.  C.  F.)Journalof  the  Reignsof 
King  George  IV.,  King  William  IV.,  and 
Queen  Victoria.     8  vols.    3s.  6(/.  each. 

Haggard's  (H.  R.)  She:  A  History  of  Ad- 
venture.    With  32  Illustrations.     3s.  6rf. 

Haggard's    (H.     R.)    Allan    Quatermain. 

With  20  Illustrations.    3s.  6rf.  Jefferies'  (R.)  The  Story  of  My  Heart  :  My 

Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Colonel  Quaritch,  V.C;  j      Autobiography.     With  Portrait.     3s.  M. 
a  Tale  of   Country  Life.     With  Frontispiece  |  .      ,    „  .  c-   u        a  \a   a  wr.u 

and  Vignette.    3s.  6i^  j  Jefferies' (R.)  Field  and  Hedgerow.     With 


tures    on  Scientific   Subjects.     With  68 
Illustrations.     2  vols.     3s.  6i^  each. 

Hope's  (Anthony)  The  Heart  of  Princess 
Osra.     With  9  Illustrations.    3s.  6((. 

Howitt's     (W.)     Visits    to    Remarkable 
Places.     With  SO  Illustrations.     3s.  Qd. 


Haggard's  (H.    R.)    Cleopatra.      With    29 
Illustrations.     3s.  6rf. 

Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Black  Heart  and  White 
Heart.     With  33  Illustrations.     3s.  6(/. 

Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Eric  Brighteyes.     With 
51  Illustrations.     3s.  6tf. 


Portrait.     3s.  61/. 

Jefferies'  (R.)  Red  Deer.     With  17  Illustra- 
tions.   3s.  6rf. 

Jefferies'  (R.)  Wood  Magic  :  a  Fable.    With 
Frontispiece  and  Vignette  by  E.  V.  B.   3s.  6d. 


Jefferies'   (R.)  The  Toilers  of  the   Field. 

i      With    Portrait   from   the  Bust  in  Salisbury 
Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Beatrice.     With  Frontis- 1      Cathedral.     3s.  61/. 
piece  and  Vignette.     3s.  6;/. 

Kaye    (5ir    J.)  and   Malleson's   (Colonel) 
Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Allan's  Wife.      With  34        History  of  the  Indian  Mutiny  of  1857=8. 
Illustrations.     3s.  6(f.  6  vols.     3s.  6rf.  each. 

Haggard's ( H.  R.)  Montezuma's  Daughter.     Knight's     (E.     F.)    The    Cruise    of     the 
With  2,S  Illustrations.     3s.  6(f.  '  Alerte  '  :   the  Narrative   of  a   Search    for 

Treasure  on  the  Desert  Island  of  Trinidad. 
Haggard's    (H.    R.)    The   Witch's    Head.         With  2  .Maps  and  23  Illustrations.      3s.  6i<. 
With  16  Illustrations.     3s.  6/. 

Knight's    (E.    F,)       The    Cruise    of    the 
Haggards   (H.    R.)   Mr.     Meeson's   Will.         '  Falcon ':  a  Voyage  to  South  America  in  a 
With  16  Illustrations.     3s.  6</.  1      30-Ton  Yacht.      With  2  Maps  and   13  Illus- 

trations.    3s.  6(/. 
Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Nada  the  Lily.     With  23 
Illustrations.    3s.  6>/.  j  Knight's  (E.    F.)   Where  Three   Empires 

Meet  :     a    Narrative    of    Recent    Trasel    in 
Haggard's  (H.  R.)  Dawn.     With  16  Illustra- I   Kashmir,    Western   Tibet,    Baltistan,  Gilgit. 
tions.    3s.  61/.  With  a  Map  and  54  Illustrations.    3s.  6d. 


42        LONGMANS   AND    CO.  S   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS. 


THE  SILVER  VA^\i^k\iN— continued. 


Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(/.  kach  Volumk. 


Knight's  (E.  F.)  The  'Falcon'  on  the 
Baltic :  a  Coastin)^  Voyage  from  Hammer- 
smith to  Copenhagen  in  a  Three-Ton  Yacht. 
With  Map  and  11  Illustrations.     3s.  6(^ 

Kostlin's  (J.)  Life  of  Luther.  With  62 
Illustrations  and  4  Facsimiles  of  MSS.  3s.  6(/. 

Lang-'s  (A.)  Angling  Sketches.  With  20 
Illustrations.     3s.  6i/. 

Lang's  (A.)  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion.   2 

vols.     7s. 

Lang's  (A.)  Custom  and  Myth  :  Studies  of 
Early  Usage  and  Belief.     3s.  Hi/. 

Lang's  (A.)  Cock  Lane  and  Common- 
Sense.     3s.  6J. 

Lang's  (A.)  A  Monk  of  Fife  :  a  Story  of  the 
Days  of  Joan  of  Arc.  With  13  Illustrations. 
3s.  6(/. 

Lang's  (A.)  The  Book  of  Dreams  and 
Ghosts.     3s.  6./. 

Lees  (J.  A.)  and  Clutterbuck's  (W.  J.)  B.C. 
1887,    A   Ramble  in   British  Columbia. 

With  Maps  and  IS  Illustrations.     3s.  61/. 

Levett=Yeats'        (S.)        The       Chevalier 

D'Auriac.     3s.  ft/. 

Macaulay's     (Lord)      Complete      Works. 

•Albany'    Edition.      With  12   Portraits.      12 
vols.     3s.  6(/.  each. 

Vols.  I.-VI.     HrsTORY  OF  England  from 

THE  Accession  op  James  the  Second. 

Vols.  VII.-X.     Essays  and  Biographies. 

Vols.     XI.-XII.      Speeches,     Lavs     of 

Ancient  Rome,  etc  ,  and  Index. 

Macaulay's  (Lord)  Essays  and  Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome,  etc.  With  Portrait  and  4 
Illustrations  to  the  '  Lays  '.     3s.  6t/. 

Macleod's  (H.   D.)  Elements   of  Banking. 

3s.  6./. 

Marshman's  (J.  C.)  Memoirs  of  Sir  Henry 
Havelock.     3s.  Oi/. 

Mason  (A.  E.  W.)  and  Lang's  (A  )  Parson 
Kelly.     3s.  61/. 

Merivale's  (Dean)  History  of  the  Romans 
under  the  Empire.     K  vols.     3s.  61/.  each. 

Mill's  (J.  S.)  Political  Economy.     3s.  M. 

Mill's  (J.  S.)  System  of  Logic.    3s.  61/. 

Milner's   (Geo.)   Country    Pleasures:    the 

Chronicleof  a  YearchieHy  in  a  Garden.  3s.  6(/. 

Nansen's  (F.)  The  First  Crossing  of  Green 

land.     With    142    Illustrations   and    a    Map. 
3s.  6(f. 


Phillipps  =  Wolley's  (C.)  Snap  :  a  Legend  of 

the   Lone  .Mountain.     With  13  Illustrations. 

3s.  til/. 

Proctor's  (R.    A.)  The   Orbs   Around    Us. 

3s.  6(/. 

Proctor's  (R.  A.)  The  Expanse  of  Heaven. 

3s.  6rf. 

Proctor's  (R.  A. )  The  Moon.     3s.  6./. 

Proctor's  (R.  A.)  Other  Worlds  than  Ours. 

3s.  6(/. 

Proctor's  (R.  A.)  Our  Place  among  lnfini> 
ties  :  a  Series  of  Essays  contrasting  our 
Little  Abode  in  Space  and  Time  with  the 
Infinities  around  us.     3s.  6</. 

Proctor's  (R.    A.)  Other  Suns  than  Ours. 

3s.  6(/. 

Proctor's  (R.  A.)  Light  Science  for  Leisure 

Hours.     3s.  61/. 
Proctor's    (R.    A.)    Rough     Ways    made 

Smooth.     3s.  (i(/. 

Proctor's  (R.  A.)  Pleasant  Ways  in 
Science.     3s.  61/. 

Proctor's  (R.    A.)   Myths  and  Marvels  of 

Astronomy.     3s.  6(/. 
Proctor's  (R.  A.)  Nature  Studies.     3s,  6  /. 
Proctor's  (R.    A.)  Leisure   Readings.     By 

R.  A.  Proctor,  Edward  Ci.odd,  Andrew 
Wilson,  Thomas  Foster,  and  A.  C.  Ran- 
YARD.     With  Illustrations.     3s.  61/. 

Rossetti's  (Maria  F. )  A  Shadow  of  Dante 

3s.  6(/. 

Smith's  (R.  Bosworth)  Carthage  and  the 
Carthaginians.  With  .Maps,  Plans,  etc. 
3s.  61/. 

Stanley's  (Bishop)  Familiar  History  of 
Birds.      With  160  Illustrations.     3s.  61/. 

Stephen's  (Sir  Leslie)  The  Playground  of 
Europe  (The  Alps).  With  4  Illustrations. 
3s.  6,/. 

Stevenson's  (R.  L.)  The  Strange  Case  of 
Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde ;  with  other 
Fables.     3s.  6c/, 

Stevenson  (R.  L.)  and  Osbourne's  (LI.) 
The  Wrong  Box.     3s.  ft/. 

Stevenson  ( Robert  Louis)  and  Stevenson's 
(Fanny  van  de  Grift)  More  New  Arabian 
Nights.— The  Dynamiter.     3s.  61/. 

Trevelyan's  (Sir  G.  0.)The  Early  History 

of  Charles  James  Fox.    3s.  Hi/. 
Weyman's  (Stanley  J.)  The  House  of  the 

Wolf  :  a  Romance.     3s.  Hi/. 

Wood'5  (Rev.  J.   G.)   Petland   Revisited. 

With  33  Illustrations.     3s.  H.7. 

Wood's  (Rev.  J.   G.)  Strange  Dwellings. 

With  HO  Illustrations.     3s.  ft/. 
Wood's  (Rev.  J.  G.)  Out  of  Doors.    With  II 
Illustrations.     3s.  6(/. 


LONGMANS    AND    CO.  S   ST  AN  PARI)    AND    GENERAL     WORKS.        43 


Cookery,  Domestic  Manajarement,  etc. 

ACTON.  —  MODERN    COOKERY.    DE  SALIS  {"^r?,.)— continued. 
By    Eliza    Acton.      With    ISO    Woodcuts. 

Fcp.  8vo,  4s.  W.  DRINKS  A  LA  MODE.     Fcp.  8vo, 

Is.  6rf. 


ANGWIN.— SIMPLE  HINTS  ON 
CHOICE  OF  FOOD,  with  Tested  and 
Economical  Recipes.  For  Schools,  Homes, 
and  Classes  for  Technical  Instruction.  By 
M.  C.  Angwin,  Diplomate  (First  Class)  of 
the  National  Union  for  the  Technical  Train- 
ing of  Women,  etc.     Crown  8vo,  Is. 


ASHBY.— HEALTH  IN  THE  NUR- 
SERY.   By  Henry  Ashby,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P., 

Physician  to  the  .Manchester  Children's 
Hospital.  With  25  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo, 
3s.  net. 


BULL  (Tho.mas,  M.D.). 

HINTS  TO  MOTHERS  ON  THE 
MANAGE.MENT  OF  THEIR  HEALTH 
DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  PREG- 
NANCY. Fcp.  Svo,  sewed,  Is.  6rf. ;  cloth, 
gilt  edges,  2.s.  net. 

THE  MATERNAL  MANAGE- 
MENT OF  CHILDREN  IN  HEALTH 
AND  DISEASE.  Fcp.  Svo,  sewed,  Is.  6rf. ; 
cloth,  gilt  edges,  'Is.  net. 


CRICHTON.  —  HOUSEHOLD 

COOKERY,  PRACTICAL  RECIPES.  By 
E.  Crichton,  First  Class  Diplomee,  Northern 
Union  Schools  of  Cookery.  Crown  Svo, 
Is.  6./. 


ENTRiSeS   X    LA   MODE.      Fcp. 
8vo,  Is.  6(/. 

FLORAL    DECORATIONS.     Fcp. 

8vo,  Is.  6J. 

GARDENING  A  LA  MODE.     Fcp. 

8vo,  Part  I.,  Vegetables,  Is.  6rf.     Part  II., 
Fruits,  Is.  6J. 

NATIONAL  VIANDS  \  LA  MODE, 

Fcp.  8vo,  Is.  6(/. 

NEW-LAID    EGGS.       Fcp.    Svo. 
Is.  6rf. 

OYSTERS    A    LA    MODE.       Fcp. 

8vo,  Is.  %d. 

PUDDINGS  AND  PASTRY  A  LA 

MODE.     Fcp.  8vo,  Is.  6rf. 

SAVOURIES  A  LA  MODE.     Fcp. 

8vo,  Is.  &/. 

SOUPS  AND  DRESSED  FISH  X 
LA  MODE.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  61/. 

SWEETS  AND  SUPPER  DISHES 
\  LA  MODE.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6,^ 

TEMPTING    DISHES   FOR 

SMALL  INCOMES.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6rf. 

WRINKLES  AND  NOTIONS  FOR 

EVERY    HOUSEHOLD.       Crown    Svo, 
Is.  M. 


DE  SALIS  (Mrs.). 

X  LA  MODE  COOKERY:  Up-to-  POOLE.  —  COOKERY  FOR  THE 

date    Recipes.      With    24    Plates    (16    in  DIABETIC.     By   W.   H.  and  Mrs.  Poole. 

Colour).    Crown  Svo,  5s.  net.  With  Preface  by  Dr.  Pavy.     Fcp.  Svo,  2s.  6(/. 


CAKES   AND   CONFECTIONS  A 

LA  MODE.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6J. 

DOGS :   A    Manual   for   Amateurs. 
Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6(?. 

DRESSEDGAMEANDPOULTRY 

X  LA  MODE.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6(/. 

DRESSED  VEGETABLES  A  LA 
MODE.     Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  6(/. 


ROTH  ERAM.  — HOUSEHOLD 

COOKERY  RECIPES.  By  M.  A.  Rothe- 
RAM,  First  Class  Diplomee,  National  Training 
School  of  Cookery,  London  ;  Instructress  to 
the  Bedfordshire  County  Council.  Crown 
Svo,  2s. 


YATES.— THE  MODEL  KITCHEN. 

By  Lucy  H.  Yates.     With  numerous  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  Svo,  2s.  net. 


44 


LONGMANS    AND    CO.  S    STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    li^ORA'S. 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Music. 


BENN.— STYLE  IN  FURNITURE. 

By  R.  Davis  Benn.  With  102  Plates  by 
W.  C.  Baldock.     8vo,  21s.  net. 

BURNE-JONES.— THE  BEGIN- 
NING OF  THE  WORLD:  Twenty-Hve 
Pictures  by  Sir  Edward  Burne-Jones, 
Bart.     Medium  4to,  boards,  7s.  6if.  net. 

BURNSAND  COLENSO.— 

LIVING  ANATOMY.  By  Cecil  L.  Burns, 
R.B.A.,  and  Robert  J.  Colenso,  M.A., 
M.D.  40  Plates,  llj  by  8|  ins.,  each  Plate 
containing  Two  Figures— (n)  A  Natural  Male 
or  Female  Figure ;  (b)  The  same  Figure 
Anatomatised.     In  a  Portfolio,  7s.  6rf.  net. 

ELGOOD  AND  JEKYLL.— SOME 

ENGLISH  GARDENS,  after  Drawings  by 
George  S.  Elgood,  R.I.,  with  Notes  by 
Gertrude  Jekyll.  50  Coloured  Plates. 
Royal  -Ito,  42s.  net. 

HAMLIN.— A   TEXT-BOOK   OF 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ARCHITECTURE. 
By  A.  D.  F.  Ha.mlin,  A.M.  With  229  Illus- 
trations.    Crown  8vo,  7s.  6if. 

HAWEIS  (Rev.  H.  R.). 
MUSIC     AND    MORALS.      With 

Portrait  of  the  Author.    Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

MY  MUSICAL  LIFE.  With  Por- 
trait of  Richard  Wagner  and  3  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  6s.  net. 

HENDERSON.— MODERN  MUSI- 
CAL DRIFT.  By  W.  J.  Henderson. 
Crown  Svo,  4s.  6rf. 

Contents. — Parsifalin  :  1 .  A  Pure  Fool  in  the 
New  World.  2.  Ethics  and  Esthetics.  3. 
The  National  Religious  Drama. — Der  Ring  ilcs 
Nibehingen:  1.  A  Futile  God  and  a  Potent 
Devil.  2.  The  Woman  and  the  Serpent.  3. 
Back-worlds  Gods  and  Over- Woman. — Isolde's 
Serving  Woman. — Richard  Strauss:  1.  The  His- 
torical Survey.  2.  The  /Esthetic  View.  3. 
What  does  it  all  Mean  ?  4.  Strauss  and  the 
Song-Writers. — Aux Italiens  :  1.  Italian  Opera 
of  To-day.  2.  The  Classic  of  the  Unprogres- 
sive. — The  Oratorio  of  To-day. 

HUISH,  HEAD  AND  LONG- 
MAN.-samplers  AND  TAPESTRY 
EMBROIDERIES.  By  .Marcus  B.  Huish, 
LL.B.  ;  also  '  The  Stitchery  of  the  same,'  by 
Mrs.  Head;  and  'Foreign  Samplers,"  by 
Mrs.  C.  J.  Longman.  With  30  Reproduc- 
tions in  Colour,  and  40  Illustrations  in 
Monochrome.     4to,  £2  2s.  net. 

HULLAH.— THE     HISTORY    OF 

modern  MUSIC.  By  John  Hui.lah. 
Svo,  8s.  ed. 


JAMESON  (Mrs.  Anna). 

SACRED  AND  LEGENDARY 
ART,  containing  Legends  of  the  Angels  and 
Archangels,  the  Evangelists,  the  Apostles, 
the  Doctors  of  the  Church,  St.  Mary 
Magdalene,  the  Patron  Saints,  the  Martyrs, 
the  Early  Bishops,  the  Hermits,  and  the 
Warrior-Saints  of  Christendom,  as  repre- 
sented in  the  Fine  Arts.  With  19  Etchings 
and  187  Woodcuts.     2  vols.     Svo,  20s.  net. 

LEGENDS  OF  THE  MONASTIC 
ORDERS,  as  represented  in  the  Fine 
Arts,  comprising  the  Benedictines  and 
Augustines,  and  Orders  derived  from  their 
Rules,  the  Mendicant  Orders,  the  Jesuits, 
and  the  Order  of  the  Visitation  of  St. 
Mary.  With  11  Etchings  and  88  Wood- 
cuts.    1  vol.     Svo,  10s.  net. 

LEGENDS  OF  THE  MADONNA, 

OR  BLESSED  VIRGIN  MARY.  De- 
votional with  and  without  the  Infant  Jesus, 
Historical  from  the  Annunciation  to  the 
Assumption,  as  represented  in  Sacred 
and  Legendary  Christian  Art.  With  27 
Etchings  and  165  Woodcuts.  1  vol.  Svo, 
10s.  net. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  OUR  LORD, 

as  exemplified  in  Works  of  Art,  with  that 
of  His  Types,  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and 
other  persons  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment. Commenced  by  the  late  Mrs. 
Jameson  ;  continued  and  completed  by 
Lady  Eastlake.  With  31  Etchings  and 
281  Woodcuts.    2  vols.     Svo,  20s.  net. 

MACFARREN.— LECTURES  ON 
HARMONY.     By  Sir  George  A.  Macpar- 

REN.      Svo,    12s. 

MATTHAY    (Tobias,    Fellow    and 

Professor  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Music, 

London,  etc.). 

THE  ACT  OF   TOUCH    IN   ALL 

ITS  DIVERSITY.  An  Analysis  and  Syn- 
thesis of  Pianoforte  Tone  Production. 
With  22  Illustrations.     Svo,  7s.  6rf. 

THE  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  OF 
PIANOFORTE-PLAYING,  being  an  ex- 
tract from  the  Author's  'The  Act  of 
Touch  '.    Crown  Svo,  2s.  6i/. 

MORRIS  (William). 
ARCHITECTURE,        INDUSTRY 

AND  WEALTH.     Collected  Papers.     Cr. 

Svo,  6s.  net. 
HOPES  AND  FEARS  FOR  ART. 

Five  Lectures  delivered  in  Birmingham, 
London,  etc.,  in  187S-18S1.  Cr.  Svo,  4s.  6(/. 
AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT 
THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PRIZES  TO 
STUDENTS  OF  THE  BIRMINGHAM 
MUNICIPAL  SCHOOL  OF  ART  ON 
21  ST  FEBRUARY,  1894.  Svo,  2s.  6d.  net. 
(Printed  in  '  Golden'  Type.) 


LONGMANS  AND   CO.^S  ^TANDARD  AnD   GeNeRAL    WORKS.       45 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Music — continued. 


MORRIS  (William)— tOK/z««(Y/. 

SOME     HINTS     ON     PATTERN- 

OESIONING:  a  Lecture  delivered  at  the 
Working  Men's  College,  London,  on  10th 
December,  1881.  8vo,  2.s.  6(f.  net.  {I'lintcd 
in  '  Golden  '  Type.) 

ART  AND  ITS  PRODUCERS 
(1888)  AND  THE  ARTS  AND  CRAFTS 
OF    TO-DAY    (1889).      8vo,    2s.    61I.    net. 

{Printed  in  '  Golden  '  Type.) 

ARTS    AND    CRAFTS    ESSAYS. 

By  Members  of  the  Arts  and  Crafts 
Exhibition  Society.  With  a  Preface  by 
William  Morris.     Crown  8vo,  2s.  6(/.  net. 

*,f*  For  Mr.  William  Morris's  other  Works, 
see  pp.  13,  29,  33,  44,  48. 


SCOTT.— PORTRAITURES    OF 

JULIUS  CESAR:  a  Monograph.  By 
Frank  Jesup  Scott.  With  38  Plates  and 
49  Figures  in  the  Text.  Imperial  8vo, 
21s.  net. 


VANDERPOEL.— COLOUR  PRO- 
BLEMS :  a  Practical  .Manual  for  the  Lay 
Student  of  Colour.  By  Emily  Noyes 
Vanderpoel.  With  117  Plates  in  Colour. 
Sq.  8vo,  21s.  net. 


VAN  DYKE.— A  TEXT-BOOK  ON 
THE  HISTORY  OF  PAINTING.  By 
John  C.  Van  Dyke.  With  110  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  6s. 


W  ILL  A  R  D.  —  HISTORY       OF 

MODERN  ITALIAN  ART.  By  Ashton 
Rollins  Willard.  Part  I.  Sculpture. 
Part  II.  Painting.  Part  III.  Architecture. 
With  Photogravure  Frontispiece  and 
numerous  full-page  Illustrations.  8vo,  21s. 
net. 


WOTTON.— THE    ELEMENTS 

OF  ARCHITECTURE.  Collected  by  Henry 
WoTTON,  Kt.,  from  the  best  Authors  and 
Examples.     Royal  Uimo,  boards,  iOs.  6(/.  net. 


Miscellaneous  and  Critical  Works. 

AMERICAN    LITERARY    BARING -GOULD.— CURIOUS 

CRITICISM.  Selected  and  Edited,  with  an  I  MYTHS  OF  THE  .MIDDLE  AGES.  By 
Introductory  Essay,  by  William  Morton  >  Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould.  Crown  8vo,  3s.  61/. 
Payne,   LL.D.      Crown  8vo,  6s.  net.  : 


AUTO    DA    F^    AND     OTHER 

Essays :  some  being  Essays  in  Fiction. 
By  the  Author  of  '  Essays  in  Paradox,'  and 
'  Exploded  Ideas  '.     Crown  8vo,  5s. 

BAGEHOT.  —  LITERARY 

STUDIES.  By  Walter  Bagehot.  With 
Portrait.     3  vols.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6;/.  each. 

Contents. — Vol.  I.  Preliminary  Memoir- 
Hartley  Coleridge — Shakespeare,  the  Man — 
William  Cowper — The  First  Edinburgh  Re- 
viewers —  Edward  Gibbon  —  Percy  Bysshe 
Shelley. 

Contents.  —  Vol.  II.  Thomas  Babington 
Macaulay — B^ranger — The  Waverley  Novels 
— Charles  Dickens — John  Milton — Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu — dough's  Poems — Sterne 
and  Thackeray — Wordsworth,  Tennyson  and 
Browning :  or.  Pure,  Ornate  and  Grotesque 
Art  in  English  Poetry. 

Contents.— Vol.  III.  Letters  on  the  Coup 
d'Etat  of  1851— Ciesarism  as  it  existed  in  1865 
— Oxford — Bishop  Butler — Tie  Ignorance  of 
Man — On  the  Emotion  of  Conviction — The 
Metaphysical  Basis  of  Toleration— The  Public 
Worship  Regulation  Bill — Henry  Crabb  Robin- 
.son  —  Bad  Lawyer,.,  or  Good  —  The  Credit 
Mobilier  and  Banking  Companies  in  France — 
Memoir  of  the  Right  Hon.  James  Wilson. 


B  A  Y  N  E  S.  —  SHAKESPEARE 

STUDIES,  and  other  Essays.  By  the  late 
Thomas  Spencer  Bavnes,  LL.B.,  LL.D. 
With  a  Biographical  Preface  by  Professor 
Lewis  Campbell.    Crown  8vo,  7s.  6d. 


BONNELL.  —  CHARLOTTE 
BRONTfi,  GEORGE  ELIOT,  JANE 
AUSTEN  :  Studies  in  their  Works.  By 
Henry  H.  Bonnell.  Crown  8vo,  7s.  61?. 
net. 


BOOTH.— THE  DISCOVERY  AND 
DECIPHER.MENT  OF  THE  TRILING- 
UAL CUNEIFORM  INSCRIPTIONS.  By 
Arthur  John  Booth,  M.A.  With  a  Plan 
of  Persepolis.     8vo,  14s.  net. 

BURGOYNE.— COLLOTYPE  FAC- 
SIMILE AND  TYPE  TRANSCRIPT  OF 
.AN  ELIZABETHAN  MANUSCRIPT, 
PRESERVED  AT  ALNWICK  CASTLE, 
NORTHU.MBERLAND.  Transcribed  and 
Edited  with  Notes  and  Introduction  by 
Frank  J.  Buroovne,  Librarian  of  the 
Lambeth  Public  Libraries.  With  90  full- 
page  Collotype  Facsimiles  and  4  other  Illus- 
trations.     Royal  4to,  £4  4s.  net. 


46   LONGMANS   AND    Co's   STANDARD    AND   GENERAL    WORl^S. 


Miscellaneous  and  Critical  Works — continued. 

CHARITIES   REGISTER,  THE    H  A  R  V  E  Y  -  B  ROO  KS. -MAR- 

ANNUAL,  AND  DIGEST;  beinj>  a  Clas-  |  RIAGE  AND  MARRIAGES:  Before  and 
sified  Register  of  Chanties  in  or  available  I  After,  for  Young  and  Old.  By  E.  C.  Harvey- 
in  the  Metropolis.    8vo,  Ss.  net.  !      Brooks.     Crown  8vo,  45.  net. 


CHRISTIE.  —  SELECTED 
ESSAYS.  By  Richard  Copley  Christie, 
M.A.  Oxon.,  Hon.  LL.D.,  Vict.  With  2 
Portraits  and  3  other  Illustrations.  8vo, 
12s.  net. 

DICKINSON.  —  KING  ARTHUR 
IN  CORNWALL.  By  W.  Howship  Dickin- 
son,   M.D.      With  5   Illustrations.     Crown 

8vo,  4s.  6(/. 

ESSAYS  IN  PARADOX.     By  the 

Author  of  '  Exploded  Ideas  '  and  '  Times  and 
Days '.    Crown  8vo,  5s. 

EVANS.— THE  ANCIENT  STONE 
IMPLEMENTS,  WEAPONS  AND 
ORNAMENTS     OF    GREAT     BRITAIN. 

By  Sir  John  Evans,  K.C.B.     With  537  Illus- 
trations.    8vo,  10s.  6(/.  net. 

FITZWYGRAM.—HORSES  AND 

STABLES.     By  Lieut.-General  Sir  F.  FlTZ- 
WYGRAM,  Bart.     With  56  pages  of  Illustra-  , 
tions.     8vo,  3s.  net. 

FROST.— A  MEDLEY  BOOK.     By 

George  Frost.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6t/.  net. 

GILKES  (A.  H.),  Master  of  Dulwich 
Collej'e. 

I 
THE  NEW  REVOLUTION.     Fcp.  , 

8vo,  Is.  net. 

A  DAY  AT  DULWICH.  Fcp.  8vo, 
Is.  net. 

A  DIALOGUE.     Fcp.  8vo,  I5.  net. 

*.x *  This  Dialogue  deals  in  the  manner  of 
Socrates  with  the  question  oj  the  Unity  of  the 
Church. 

HAGGARD  (H.  Rider). 
A    FARMER'S   YEAR:    being   his 

Commonplace    Book    for    1898.       With    36 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  7s.  (i(^  net. 

A    GARDENER'S    YEAR.      With 

26  Illustrations.     8vo,  \2s.  6<l.  net. 

RURAL  ENGLAND.  With  23 
Agricultural  Maps  and  56  Illustrations 
from   Photographs.     2  vols.     8vo,  36s.  net. 


HAYES.  ^  TRAINING  AND 
HORSE  MANAGEMENT  IN  INDIA. 
With  Hindustanee  Vocabulary.  By  M. 
Horace  Haves,  F.R.C.V.S.  (late  Captain 
'The  Buffs').  With  Portrait.  Crown  8vo, 
8s.  net. 


HODGSON.— OUTCAST  ESSAYS 
AND  VERSE  TRANSLATIONS.  By 
Shadworth  H.  Hodgson.  Crown  8vo, 
8s.  6d. 


HOFFMANN.— THE  AMATEUR 

GARDENERS    ROSE    BOOK.      By    Dr. 

Julius  Hoffmann.  Translated  from  the 
German  by  John  Weathers,  F.R.H.S., 
N.R.S.  With  20  Coloured  Plates  from 
Drawings  by  Hermann  Friese,  and  16 
Woodcuts.     8vo,  7s.  61/.  net. 


JEFFERIES  (Richard). 

FIELD  AND  HEDGEROW:  With 

Portrait.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

THE    STORY    OF    MY   HEART; 

my  Autobiography.     Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

RED  DEER.  With  17  Illustrations. 
Crown  8vo,  3s.  6(f. 

THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  FIELD. 

Crown  8vo,  3s.  6rf. 

WOOD  MAGIC  :  a  Fable.     Crown 

8vo,  3s.  6it. 


JEKYLL  (Gertrude). 

HOME  AND  GARDEN:  Notes  and 
Thoughts,  Practical  and  Critical,  of  a 
Worker  in  both.  With  S3  Illustrations 
from  Photographs.     8vo,  lOs.  Gil.  net. 

WOOD  AND  GARDEN:  Notes  and 

Thoughts,  Practical  and  Critical,  of  a 
Working  Amateur.  With  71  Photographs. 
8vo,  lOs.  6il.  net. 

OLD     WEST     SURREY:     Some 

Recollections.  With  330  Illustrations  from 
Photographs  by  the  Author.  Medium  8vo, 
13s.  net. 


LONGMANS   AND    CO.'s   STANDARD    AND    GENERAL    WORKS.        47 


Miscellaneous  and  Critical  Works — continued. 


JOHNSON  (J.  &  J.  H.). 

THE  PATENTEE'S  MANUAL:  a 
Treatise  on  the  Law  and  Practice  of 
Letters  Patent.    8vo,  10s.  M. 

AN  EPITOME  OF  THE  LAW 
AND  PRACTICE  CONNIiCTED  WITH 
PATENTS  FOR  INVENTIONS,  with  a 
reprint  of  the  Patents  Acts  of  1883,  1885, 
1886  and  1888.     Crown  8vo,  25.  6./. 


JORDAN.  —  ASTRONOMICAL 
AND  HISTORICAL  CHRONOLOGY  IN 
THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CENTURIES. 
By  William  Llighton  Jordan.  Crown 
8vo,  2s.  net. 

JOYCE. —THE  ORIGIN  AND 
HISTORY  OF  IRISH  NAMES  OF 
PLACES.  By  P.  W.  Joyce,  LL.D.  2  vols. 
Crown  8vo,  5s.  each. 

LANG  (Andrew). 
ADVENTURES  AMONG  BOOKS. 

With  Photogravure  Portrait,  after  Sir 
W.  B.  Richmond,  R.A.  Crown  8vo, 
6s.  6</.  net. 

Contents. — Adventures  among  BooliS — Re- 
collections of  Rohert  Louis  Stevenson — Rab's 
Friend — Oliver  Wendell  Holmes — Mr.  Morris's 
Poems— Mrs.  Radcliffe's  Novels— A  Scottish 
Romanticist  of  1830— The  Confessions  of  St. 
Augustine — Smollett — Nathaniel  Hawthorne 
— The  Paradise  of  Poets — Paris  and  Helen — 
Enchanted  Cigarettes — Stories  and  Story- 
telling— The  Supernatural  in  Fiction — An  Old 
Scotch  Psychical  Researcher — The  Boy. 

LETTERS  TO  DEAD  AUTHORS. 

Fcp.  8vo,  2s.  61/.  net. 

BOOKS  AND  BOOKMEN.     With 

2  Coloured  Plates  and  17  Illustrations. 
Fcp.  8vo,  2s.  61/.  net. 

OLD  FRIENDS.     Fcp.  Svo,  2s.  Qd. 
net. 

LETTERS     ON      LITERATURE. 

Fcp.  Svo,  2s.  M.  net. 

ESSAYS  IN   LITTLE.     With  Por- 
trait of  the  Author.     Crown  Svo,  2s.  6i(. 

COCK     LANE    AND     COMMON- 
SENSE.    Crown  Svo,  3s.  6<f. 

THE    BOOK   OF   DREAMS  AND 

GHOSTS.     Crown  Svo,  3s.  6./. 

MATTHEWS.  —  NOTES  ON 
SPEECH-MAKING.  Bv  Brander  Mat- 
thews.    Fcp.  Svo,  Is.  61/.  net. 


MAX  MULLER  (F.). 

COLLECTED  WORKS.  20  vols. 
Crown  Svo. 

Vol.    I.     Natural    Religion:    the 

(Sifford  Lectures,  1888.     5s. 

Vol.  II.    Physical   Religion  :    the 

Gifford  Lectures,  1890.     ^s. 

Vol.  HI.  Anthropological  Re- 
ligion :  the  Gifford  Lectures,  1891.    5s. 

Vol.  IV.  Theosophy  ;  or,  Psycho- 
logical Religion  :  the  Gifford  Lectures,  1892. 
5s. 

CHIPS      FROM       A      GERMAN 

WORKSHOP. 

Vol.  V.  Recent  Essays  and  Ad- 
dresses.   5s. 

Vol.  VI.  Biographical  Essays.  5s. 

Vol.  VII.  Essays  on  Language  and 
Literature.     5s. 

Vol.  VIII.  Essays  on  Mythology 
and  Folk-lore.     5s. 

Vol.  IX.  The  Origin  a.nd  Growth 

OF  Religion,  as  Illustrated  by  the  Re- 
ligions of  India :  the  Hibbert  Lectures, 
1878.     5s. 

Vol.   X.    Biographies   of   Words, 

and  the  Home  OF  the  Aryas.    5s. 
Vols.  XL,   XII.     The   Science   of 

Language  :    Founded     on     Lectures     de- 
livered  at   the   Royal   Institution   in    1861 
and  1863.     2  vols.     10s. 
Vol.    XIII.     India:     What    can    it 
Teach    Us  ?    5s. 

Vol.  XIV.  Introduction  to  the 
Science  of  Religion.  Four  Lectures, 
1870.    5s. 

Vol.  XV.  Ramak^/sha'a  :  his  Life 
and  Sayings.    5s. 

Vol.  XVI.  Three  Lectures  ON  the 

VED.iNTA  Philosophy,  1894.    5s. 
Vol.    XVII.     Last    Essays.     First 

Series.     Essays   on   Language,   Folk-lore, 
etc.    5s. 
Vol.  XVIII.  Last  Essays.     Second 

Series.     Essays  on  the  Science  of  Religion. 

5s. 

Vol.  XIX.  The  Six  Systems  of 
Indian  Philosophy.     7s.  6i/.  net. 

Vol.  XX.  The  Silesian  Horse- 
herd  ('Das  Pferdebiirla ') :  Questions  of 
the  Hour  answered  by  F.  Ma.\  iMCller. 
Translated  by  Oscar  A.  Fechtek,  Mayor 
of  North  Jakima,  U.S.A.  With  a  Preface 
by  J.  EsTLiN  Carpenter.    5s. 

*#*  This  is  a  translation  of  a  work  which 
^i.'as  published  some  years  back  in  Germany, 
but  which  is  now  for  the  first  time  translated 
into  English.  It  consists  of  a  controversy  on 
religion  carried  on  betii;ecn  Professor  Max 
Mutler  and  an  unknown  correspondent  in 
A  merica. 


j8  LONGMANS   AND    CO.^S   STANDARD   AND   GENERAL    IVORKS. 


Miscellaneous  and  Critical  Works — continued. 


M  I  LNER.— COUNTRY  PLEAS- 
URES ;  the  Chronicle  of  a  Year  chiefly  in  a 
Garden.     By  Geougk  Milner.     Crown  8vo, 

MORRIS.  -SIGNS   OF   CHANGE. 

Seven  Lectures  delivered  on  various  Occa- 
sions.     By   William   Morris.      Post  8vo, 

4s.  %d. 

MYERS.— FR  ACME  N  TS     OF 
PROSE  AND  POETRY.     By  Frederic 
H.    W.    Myers.       Edited    by    his    Wife, 
EvELEEN  Myers.    With  4  Portraits.    8vo, 
9s.  net. 
Contents.  —  Fragments   of   Inner    Life.  — 
Parentage  and  Education — Hellenism — Chris- 
tianity— Agnosticism — The   Final  Faith — Con- 
clusion.     Obituary  Notices. — Edmund  Gurney 
— Professor  Adams — Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
—Lord    Leigh  ton— The    Right    Hon.    W.     E. 
Gladstone — John   Ruskin — Henry    Sidgwick — 
G.  F.  Watts,  R.A.     Pofins. 

PARKER    and    UNWIN.  —  THE 

ART  OF  BUILDING  A  HOME:  a  Collec- 
tion of  Lectures  and  Illustrations.  By 
Barry  Parker  and  Raymond  Unwin.  With 
6S  Full-page  Plates.     8vo,  10s.  ed.  net. 

ROSSETTL— A  SHADOW  OF 

DANTE  :  being  an  Essay  towards  studying 
Himself,  his  World  and  his  Pilgrimage.  By 
Maria  Francesca  Rossetti.     Crown  8vo, 

;-!<^.  6d. 
RUSSELL  (The  Hon.  R.). 

THE    FIRST    CONDITIONS    OF 

HUMAN    PROSPERITY.      Crown   8vo, 
2s.  Hif.  net. 

STRENGTH  AND  DIET:  a  Prac- 

ticid   Treatise  with   special   regard  to  the 
Life  of  Nations.     8vo,  12s.  6rf.  net. 

SERIA  LUDO.     By  a  Dilettante. 

Post  4to,  5s.  net. 

* ^'' Skiiihcs    and    Verses,    mainly    reprinted 
from  the  St.  James's  Gazette. 

SHADWELL.  DRINK :  TEM- 
PERANCE   AND     LEGISLATION.      By 

Arthur  Shadwell,  M.A.,  M.D.  Crown 
8vo,  5s.  net. 

SOULSBY  (L.  H.  M.). 

STRAY  THOUGHTS  ON  READ- 
ING. Fcp.  8vo,  cloth,  2s.  <od.  net  ;  limp 
leather,  gilt  edges,  3s.  (ij.  net. 

STRAY  THOUGHTS  FOR  GIRLS. 

Fcp.  8vo,  cloth,  2s.  6i/.  net.  ;  limp  leather, 
gilt  edges,  3s.  6rf.  net. 
*i*  Copies  of  the  Original  Edition  can  still 
be  had.     16»!0,  Is.  6rf.  net. 
20,000—7/0,5. 


SOULSBY  (L.   H.  }A.)^coutwm'd. 

STRAY  THOUGHTS  FOR 
MOTHERS  AND  TEACHERS.  Fcp. 
8vo,  cloth,  2s.  6(/.  net. ;  limp  leather,  gilt 
edges,  3s.  &d.  net. 

STRAY  THOUGHTS  ON  CHAR- 
ACTER. Fcp.  8vo,  cloth,  2s.  (i  /.  net.  : 
limp  leather,  gilt  edges,  3s.  6d.  net. 

STRAY     THOUGHTS     FOR     IN 

VALIDS.     I6mo,  2s.  net. 

SOUTHEY.— THE  CORRESPON- 
DENCE OF  ROBERT  SOUTHEY  WITH 
CAROLINE  BOWLES.  Edited  by  Edward 
DOWDEN.     8vo,  14s. 

STEVENS.— ON  THE  STOWAGE 
OF  SHIPS  AND  THEIR  CARGOES. 
With  Information  regarding  Freights,  Char- 
ter-Parties,  etc.  By  Rorert  White  Ste- 
vens.   8vo,  21s. 

TURNER  AND  SUTHERLAND. 

-THE  DEVELOP.MENT  OF  AUS 
TRALIAN  LITERATURE.  By  Henry 
Gyles  Turner  and  Ale,xander  Suther- 
land. With  Portraits  and  Illustrations 
Crown  8vo,  5s. 

THE  WAMPUM  LIBRARY  OF 
AMERICAN  LITERATURE.  Edited  by 
Brander  Matthews,  Litt.D.  (Yale),  Pro 
fessor  in  Columbia  University. 

AMERICAN     SHORT    STORIES. 

Selected  and  Edited,  with  an  Introductory 
Essay  on  the  Short  Story,  hy  Charles 
Sears  Baldwin,  A.M.,  Ph.D.  Crown  8vo, 
6s.  net. 

AMERICAN  LITERARY  CRITI- 
CISM. Selected  and  Edited,  with  an 
Introductory  Essay,  by  William  Morton 
Payne,  LL.D.     Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

AMERICAN  FAMILIAR  VERSE 

Vers  de  Societe.  Edited,  with  an  Intro- 
duction by  Brander  Matthews,  Litt.D. 
Crown  8vo,  6s.  net. 

WARD.     PROBLEMS  AND  PER- 
SONS.   By  WiLiRiD  Ward.     8vo,  14s.  net. 
I      Contents.— The  Time-Spirit   of   the    Nine- 
I  teenth    Century — The   Rigidity  of  Rome — Un- 
changing Dogmaand  Changeful  Man — Balfour's 
'The  Foundations  of  Belief — Candour  in  Bio- 
graphy— Tennyson — Thomas  Henry  Huxley  — 
Two  Mottoes  of  Cardinal  Newman — Newman 
and  Renan-  Some  Aspects  of  the  Life  work  of 
Cardinal  Wiseman — The  Life  of  Mrs.  .AugustU' 
Craven. 

WEATHERS.  —  A      PRACTICAL 

GUIDE  TO  GARDEN  PLANTS.  By 
John  Weathers,  F.R.H.S.  With  159 
Diagrams.     8vo,  21s.  net. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


(I.jWi5iQ« 


■n