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LIBRARY     \ 

JNIV  :3SITY  OF 

C-  NlA 

DIEGO       J 

^X 


HENEY   SIDGWICK 


HENRY  SIDGWICK 


A    MEMOIR    BY 

A.  S.  AND  E.  M.  S. 


3L0tt0oit 
MACMILLAN    AND   CO.,   LIMITED 

NEW   YORK  :    THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
I9O6 

All  rights  reserved 


PKEFACE 

APART  from  personal  memories  and  printed  records, 
the  chief  materials  for  this  account  of  Henry  Sidgwick's 
life  are  the  following  : — A  short  autobiographical  frag- 
ment dictated  in  his  last  illness ;  an  intermittent 
journal  kept  between  1884  and  1892,  and  sent  at 
intervals  to  John  Addington  Symonds  at  Davos  ;  and 
a  large  number  of  other  private  letters,  placed  at  our 
disposal  by  various  relations  and  friends.  A  study 
of  these  papers  convinced  us  that  our  object  would 
be  best  attained  by  a  narrative  largely  consisting  of 
extracts  from  his  own  letters.  For  not  only  does  the 
chief  interest  of  a  life,  outwardly  so  uneventful  as 
his,  lie  in  the  thoughts,  the  aims,  the  character,  which 
are  best  described  or  exhibited  in  his  own  words  ;  but 
also  his  letters  sufficiently  resemble  his  talk  to  bring 
his  personality  vividly  before  those  who  knew  him, 
and  doubtless  in  some  measure  also  before  readers 
who  never  saw  him. 

Accordingly,  we  have  chosen  from  his  letters  such 
passages,  whether  of  narrative,  discussion,  or  comment, 
as  seemed  to  us  to  be  characteristic  or  interesting,  or  to 
give  the  facts  required.  What  we  have  printed  are 
generally  extracts — seldom  complete  letters.  When- 
ever anything  is  omitted  which  bears  on  the  immediate 
subject,  we  have  indicated  the  fact  by  dots.  Among 
the  omitted  passages  there  are,  of  course,  some  refer- 
ences to  private  matters  which  could  not  be  published, 
and  a  few  comments  which  might  mislead  or  annoy ; 

y 


vi  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

but,   speaking   generally,    the   omissions   have    been 
prompted  merely  by  desire  for  brevity  and  interest. 

We  wish  here  to  tender  our  thanks  to  the  many 
friends  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  loan  of 
letters,  or  for  other  communications,  which  have 
made  our  task  possible.  Among  those  from  whom 
such  help  has  been  received  are  the  following : — 
Rt.  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour,  Lady  Frances  Balfour,  Mr.  R. 
Bowes,  Mr.  H.  F.  Brown,  Mr.  Oscar  Browning,  Rt.  Hon. 
James  Bryce,  Lady  Victoria  Buxton,  Miss  Cannan, 
Major-General  Carey,  Mr.  Basil  Champneys,  Miss  B.  A. 
Clough,  Mr.  F.  W.  Cornish,  Mrs.  Creighton,  Mr.  J.  W. 
Cross,  Professor  A.  V.  Dicey,  Professor  Edgeworth, 
Hon.  W.  Everett,  Miss  H.  Gladstone,  Mrs.  A.  Grove, 
Baron  F.  von  Hiigel,  Dr.  H.  Jackson,  Miss  A.  Johnson, 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Keynes,  Mrs.  Latham,  Mrs.  McAnally, 
Professor  Maitland,  Professor  A.  Marshall,  Miss 
Martineau,  Professor  J.  B.  Mayor,  Mr.  J.  R.  Mozley, 
Mrs.  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  Mrs.  A.  J.  Patterson,  Mr. 
G.  A.  Plimpton,  Mr.  F.  Podmore,  Lady  Rayleigh,  Mrs. 
W.  C.  Sidgwick,  Mrs.  R.  Sidgwick,  Professor  Sorley, 
Professor  Sully,  Mr.  C.  H.  Tawney,  Lord  Tennyson, 
Father  Tyrrell,  Dr.  Venn,  Dr.  Waldstein,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Wilfrid  Ward,  Lady  Welby,  Mrs.  E.  M.  Young, 
Sir  George  Young. 

In  particular  we  have  also  to  thank  Sir  George 
Trevelyan,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Peile,  Mr.  A.  C.  Benson,  and 
others  for  reading  the  proofs  in  slip  and  making 
useful  suggestions,  and  to  acknowledge  help  received 
in  this  and  other  ways  from  William  Carr  Sidgwick 
and  Mary  Benson,  his  brother  and  sister.  Finally, 
we  wish  to  mention  with  especial  gratitude  the  in- 
valuable aid  and  sympathy  given  at  every  stage  of  our 
work  by  his  life-long  friend  Henry  Graham  Dakyns. 

ARTHUR  SIDGWICK. 
ELEANOR  MILDRED  SIDGWICK. 

Jamiary  1906, 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

rxor 
1838-1859   .......  1 

Birth  and  ancestry,  1-3  ;  childhood  at  Tenby  and  Clifton,  3,  4  ;  at  school 
at  Blackheath  (Rev.  H.  Dale),  4-6  ;  at  Rugby,  6-15  ;  influence  of 
E.  W.  Benson,  8-11  ;  games,  out-door  and  in,  9,  11-12  ;  hay  fever, 
12  ;  school  friends,  14  ;  goes  to  Cambridge,  11,  15  ;  Bell  and  Craven 
Scholarships,  15-17  ;  dyspepsia,  18  ;  life  at  Cambridge,  18-20  ;  read- 
ing party  at  Oban,  20-23  ;  reminiscences  of  Sidgwick  at  this  time, 
23-27  ;  reciting  poetry,  25 ;  Wrangler  and  Senior  Classic,  28  ; 
"Apostles,"  29-32. 

CHAPTER    II 
1859-1864  ......          33 

Autobiographical  fragment  (1858-1869),  33-38  ;  first  tour  abroad  and  stay 
at  Dresden,  40-42 ;  writing  poetry,  41,  50,  51,  53,  63,  64  ;  Fellow 
and  assistant  -  tutor  of  Trinity,  42;  teaching  classics,  34,  44,  48; 
beginnings  of  Psychical  Research,  43  ;  question  of  taking  orders, 
47,  62 ;  at  Berlin,  55-60 ;  teaching  at  the  Cambridge  Working 
Men's  College,  61  ;  President  of  the  Union,  63  ;  on  Essays  and 
Reviews,  49,  64-65 ;  reading  political  economy,  36,  39,  66-67 ; 
question  of  the  Bar,  63,  68 ;  writing  on  Tocqueville,  70 ; 
Mastership  at  Rugby  accepted  and  refused,  70-71  ;  Initial  Society, 
71-73  ;  studying  Comte,  74,  75  ;  Herbert  Spencer,  76  ;  on  prospects 
of  philosophy  at  Cambridge,  75  ;  attempt  to  cure  stammer,  77  ; 
examines  at  Isle  of  Man  and  at  Marlborough,  80,  83  ;  religious  diffi- 
culties, 80-83,  89-90,  122-4  ;  Paris  and  Switzerland  with  H.  G. 
Dakyns,  83-86  ;  studying  Arabic,  37,  85-98  passim ;  lecturing  on 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  78,  95  ;  Paris  with  J.  J.  Cowell  and  others, 
94-95;  studying  Hebrew,  98-103  passim;  Spiritualism,  103-6  passim; 
ball  in  Trinity,  107  ;  studying  Arabic  at  Gottingen,  108-17;  the 
Harz  with  H.  G.  Dakyns,  115-16  ;  congress  of  Orientalists,  117  ; 
abandons  Arabic,  122-5. 

CHAPTER    III 
1865-1869  .  .  .  .  .  .  .125 

Mottoes  from  the  Bible,  125  ;  takes  private  pupils  in  classics  again,  125, 
126  ;  Paris  with  G.  0.  Trevelyan,  128-9  ;  examines  at  Clifton,  130  ; 
examining  in  Moral  Sciences  Tripos,  130,  132,  156-7  ;  Grote  Club, 
133,  134-8;  stays  with  C.  Kegan  Paul,  138,  139;  Ecce  Homo, 
143-8  passim,  150  ;  examining  at  Harrow,  149  ;  at  the  Lakes  with 
G.  0.  Trevelyan,  149-51  ;  reform  of  Moral  Sciences  Tripos,  153,  155, 

vii 


viii  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

PACE 

159  ;  of  Classical  Tripos,  154-5,  163,  184  ;  College  reforms,  156-7, 
172-3  ;  reading  Philosophy,  150-68  ;  iu  London  for  long  vacation  of 
1867,  writing  and  investigating  Spiritualism,  164  -  71  ;  beginning 
of  friendship  with  J.  A.  Synionds,  166  ;  lectureship  in  Moral  Science, 
167  ;  Festiniog  with  G.  O.'Trevelyan  and  others,  168,  169  ;  lecturing 
on  English  history,  167,  169,  170,  171,  179  ;  examinations  for 
women,  174,  180/181,  182,  188,  189  ;  death  of  J.  J.  Cowell,  175, 
177-8  ;  at  Cannes  and  Mentone  with  J.  A.  Symonds,  175-7,  179,  180  ; 
Alps  with  G.  0.  Trevelyan  and  others,  185,  187  ;  Free  Christian 
Union,  189-91,  197  ;  correspondence  about  A.  H.  Clough,  192-5  ; 
lieginuing  of  friendship  with  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  196  ;  resignation  of 
Fellowship,  142,  145-6,  166,  197-202. 

CHAPTER    IV 

1869-1876  .  .  .  .  .  .  .203 

Lectures  for  women  and  development  of  Newnham  College,  203-12,  224, 
226,  227,  242,  243,  246,  247,  248,  249,  255,  256,  258,  268  ;  work 
at  charity  organisation,  etc.,  205  ;  on  reviewing,  213  ;  article  on 
Clough,  214-17  ;  university  reform,  219,  255-7,  265-7,  274,  276  ; 
Metaphysical  Society,  220-23  ;  Eranus,  223-4  ;  religious  views,  227  ; 
Germany  and  Franco-German  war,  228-41 ;  Innsbruck,  Venice,  Milan, 
236-8  ;  supports  Miss  Garrett's  election  to  School  Board,  241,  242  ; 
takes  a  house  for  students  and  invites  Miss  Clough  to  take  charge  of  it, 
242,  243-4,  246,  247,  248,  249;  writing  in  Academy,  etc.,  244  ;  shares 

rooms  with  F.  H ,  245,  253  ;  correspondence  -  teaching,  248-9, 

252  ;  writing  Methods  of  Ethics,  252,  277,  283,  284,  287  ;  stays  at 
Freshwater,  260,  261,  278  ;  stands  for  Professorship  of  Moral  Philo- 
sophy, 260-65  ;  agitation  about  compulsory  Greek  iu  the  Previous 
Examination,  265-7 ;  stays  at  Margate,  269  ;  advice  to  invalids,  269- 
271 ;  university  extension,  271-2;  review  of  Herbert  Spencer,  277-8; 
at  Margate  again,  280-82  ;  investigation  of  Spiritualism  with  Myers 
and  Gurney,  284,  288-94,  296-300  ;  publication  of  Methods  of 
Ethics,  291-2,  295,  296 ;  appointed  Pi-selector  of  Moral  Philosophy, 
299  ;  engagement  to  Miss  Balfour,  299-302  ;  marriage,  302. 

CHAPTER   V 

1876-1883  .  .  .  .  .  .  .303 

Sidgwick's  teaching  and  conversation  described  by  various  persons,  303- 
319  ;  wedding  tour  and  residence  at  18  Brookside,  Cambridge,  319, 
320;  views  on  lecturing,  321-2;  moves  to  "Hillside,"  324-6; 
article  on  "Bentham  and  Benthamism,"  327  ;  tour  among  German 
universities,  327-31 ;  conference  of  schoolmistresses,  333  ;  "Ethics"  for 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  334;  lawn  tennis,  334 ;  Switzerland  and  first 
visit  to  Davos,  336  ;  death  of  his  mother,  339-40  ;  Political  Economy, 
340-41  ;  elected  member  of  Athenaeum,  341  ;  Charity  Organisation, 
341-3  ;  residence  at  North  Hall,  Newnham  College,  343-5  ;  letter  to 
General  Carey  about  religious  beliefs,  345-8  ;  opening  of  Tripos  Ex- 
aminations to  women,  349-52  ;  Hon.  LL.D.,  Glasgow,  and  honorary 
fellowship  at  Trinity,  351,  353  ;  letters  on  religious  questions  to  his 
sister  and  to  J.  R.  Mozley,  354-8  ;  foundation  of  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  358-9  ;  Newnham  College  debt  paid  off,  359  ;  address  as 
President  at  first  meeting  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  361-5  ; 
death  of  F.  M.  Balfour,  365-6  ;  tour  in  Italy  and  Rome,  366-8  ; 
publication  of  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  366  ;  elected  to 
Professorship  of  Moral  Philosophy,  368-70. 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER   VI 

PAGE 

1883-1893   .  .      371 

Sidgwick's  university  policy  and  work  in  academic  reorganisation  and 
administration,  371-9;  Hon.  LL.D.,  Edinburgh  and  St.  Andrews,  380; 
journal  letters  to  J.  A.  Symonds,  381-499,  515-24  ;  County  Franchise 
Bill  and  Redistribution,  381-3,  386-7,  389,  390,  392,  393  ;  Madame 
Blavatsky  and  Theosophy,  385,  405,  410  ;  view  of  himself  as  a 
psychical  researcher,  387  ;  death  of  Fawcett,  391  ;  on  Westcott  and 
Maurice,  393-4  ;  view  of  himself  as  a  teacher,  395-6  ;  on  the  vitality 
of  the  Church  of  England,  396  ;  working  at  Political  Economy  at 
Whittingehame,  397-9  ;  re-elected  Fellow  of  Trinity,  400  ;  Gordon 
and  Khartoum,  400-401,  402,  405  ;  university  organisation,  402 ;  stays 
at  Keble  College,  402-3  ;  with  J.  Bryce,  403-4  ;  at  Six  Mile  Bottom, 
404-5  ;  death  of  H.  A.  J.  Munro,  406,  409  ;  tempted  to  stand  for 
Parliament,  407  ;  on  multiplication  of  University  administrative 
work,  411 ;  change  of  Government,  411-15 ;  at  Pavilion,  near 
Aldeburgh,  416,  417  ;  writing  economic  address  for  British  Associa- 
tion, 417,  419,  421  ;  on  Medical  Relief  Bill,  417-19 ;  British 
Association  at  Aberdeen,  423-5  ;  at  haunted  house,  425 ;  General 
Election  of  1885,  422,  423,  427,  429,  430-33  ;  third  hall  at  Newn- 
haru  College,  430 ;  E-umenides  at  Cambridge,  432-3 ;  lecture  at 
Edinburgh  on  the  "  Historical  Method,"  436  ;  Home  Rule,  434,  436, 
438,  439,  443,  445,  447,  448,  449,  524  ;  death  of  Henry  Bradshaw, 
439  ;  writing  History  of  Ethics,  443-4  ;  at  Shanklin  with  A. 
Sidgwicks,  446  ;  General  Election  of  1886,  449-53  ;  comes  home  from 
Davos  to  vote  Unionist,  449  ;  British  Association  at  Birmingham, 
455-6  ;  writing  on  Political  Economy,  457,  463  ;  death  of  W.  H. 
Thompson,  458-9  ;  publication  of  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  460  ; 
Dr.  Butler  made  Master  of  Trinity,  460  ;  Liberal  Unionist  meeting, 
462  ;  Lord  Randolph  Churchill's  resignation,  463-4,  467  ;  curling,  464, 
465;"  psychical  "  experiments  with  D.  (fraudulent),  465-6;  depression 
about  ethics,  466-7,  471-2,  475,  484-6  ;  his  sympathy  at  this  time 
with  In  Afemoriam,  468  ;  on  certain  newspapers,  469-70 ;  thought- 
transference  experiments,  473  ;  A.  J.  Balfour  Irish  Secretary,  472,  474 ; 
agitation  in  1887  about  degrees  for  women,  476-8  ;  problem  of  the 
unemployed,  480-81  ;  visit  to  Ireland,  482  ;  work  on  politics,  481, 
487  ;  thoughts  of  leaving  Cambridge,  488-9  ;  on  honorary  degrees, 
489-90  ;  garden  party  at  Newnham,  491-2 ;  death  of  Edmund 
Gurney,  493 ;  visit  to  C.  Bowens,  495 ;  to  Ireland,  496-7  ; 
haunted  house,  497,  498  ;  British  Association  at  Bath  and  Bernard 
Shaw,  497-8  ;  lectures  on  Shakespeare  and  on  "Morality  of  Strife," 
500  ;  International  Congress  of  Experimental  Psychologists  (1889), 
501,  515  ;  various  "psychical"  investigations,  501-2  ;  closing  of  public 
path  through  Newnham,  503-4  ;  Hon.  D.C.L.  at  Oxford,  505  ;  elected 
to  Council  of  the  Senate,  506  ;  letters  to  J.  R.  Mozley  about  Cardinal 
Newman,  507-8  ;  publication  of  Elements  of  Politics,  509  ;  agitation 
about  '  compulsory  Greek  '  (1891),  509-11  ;  takes  over  financial  re- 
sponsibility for  Mind,  512;  second  International  Congress  of  Psycho- 
logists (London,  1892,  Sidgwick  persident),  513,  515,  524  ;  death  of 
Miss  Clough,  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick  appointed  Principal  of  Newnham 
College,  514,  515  ;  tour  in  Germany,  Hungary,  and  France,  516-21  ; 
reflections  on  travel,  521-2  ;  member  of  Gresham  University  Com- 
mission, 518,  523,  525  ;  hypnotism  at  Nancy,  521  ;  lectures  on 
philosophy,  523  ;  General  Election  of  1892  and  Home  Rule,  523, 
524  ;  death  of  Tennyson,  524-5  ;  death  of  J.  A.  Symonds,  526-7  ; 
move  from  "  Hillside  "  to  Newnham  College,  527. 


x  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

CHAPTER   VII 

PAGE 

1894-1900  ....  .      528 

Life  at  Newnham  College,  528-30 ;  love  of  scenery  and  dowers,  529  ;  Report 
of  Gresham  University  Commission,  530 ;  death  of  Roden  Noel,  530-32 ; 
investigation  of  Eusapia  Paladiuo  at  the  lie  Roubaud,  532  ;  tableaux 
vivants,  533;  "Political  Prophecy  and  Sociology,"  533;  death  of 
Sir  J.  Seeley,  535  ;  attack  of  influenza,  535-7  ;  seaside  with 
A.  Sidgwicks,  536  -  7  ;  edits  Seeley's  Introduction  to  Political 
Science,  537-8  ;  to  Lord  Tennyson  about  In  Memoriam,  538-42  ; 
investigation  of  E.  Paladino  at  Cambridge,  542-3  ;  to  Mr.  Champneys 
on  Milton's  metre,  543  ;  agitation  for  degrees  for  women,  544-6, 
550-52 ;  Hungarian  honorary  degree,  546-7  ;  third  International 
Congress  of  Psychologists  (at  Munich),  547-8  ;  tour  in  Bavaria  and 
Tirol,  548-9;  death  of  Archbishop  Benson,  549-50;  Synthetic 
Society,  556-60,  573,  576  ;  Canon  Gore  on  Sidgwick,  556-8  ;  to 
Professor  Edgeworth  on  taxation,  560  ;  tour  in  North  Italy,  561  ;  to 
Lord  Tennyson  on  Pope's  metre,  562  ;  Practical  Ethics,  553,  563, 
569 ;  controversy  about  St.  Edmund's  House,  563-7 ;  honorary 
degrees  to  Mr.  Bryce  and  Mr.  Dicey,  567  ;  sixtieth  birthday,  568  ; 
lectures  on  Metaphysics,  570,  571  ;  Italian  politics,  572-3  ;  tour  in 
Cornwall,  573-4  ;  Boer  War,  575,  576-8,  579,  580,  581,  582  ;  British 
Academy,  581. 

CHAPTER    VIII 

LAST  MONTHS          ......       584 

Fatal  illness,  584  ;  arrangements  about  unfinished  work,  584-5,  586-7  ; 
Newnham  College  fellowships  and  freehold,  585  ;  address  to  Philo- 
sophical Society  at  Oxford,  585-6  ;  farewell  letters,  587-9  ;  meeting 
of  the  Synthetic  Society,  588  ;  luncheon  at  Leckhamptou  House, 
588  ;  in  nursing  home,  589-93  ;  at  Margate,  593-5  ;  last  weeks  at 
Terling  Place,  595-8  ;  death  and  burial,  598-9. 

APPENDIX  I.  Papers  read  to  the  Synthetic  Society  :  I.  on  "  The 
Nature  of  the  Evidence  for  Theism,"  p.  600  ;  and  II.  on 
"  Authority,  Scientific  and  Theological,"  p.  608  .  .  600 

APPENDIX  II.  List  of  Henry  Sidgwick's  published  writings  .  616 
APPENDIX  IIL  List  of  Biographical  Notices  of  Henry  Sidgwick  623 
INDEX  624 


ILLUSTBATIONS 

HENRY  SIDGWICK  (ABOUT  1894),  PROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  BY  SAMUEL 
A.  WALKER          .....     Frontispiece 

ELIZABETH  COOPER,   1905,  AGED  87    . 
HENRY  SIDGWICK  AS  AN  UNDERGRADUATE 


MRS.  WILLIAM   SIDGWICK   (HENRY   SIDGWICK'S 
MOTHER),  ABOUT  1870     . 

HENRY  SIDGWICK  IN  1876      . 
NEWNHAM  COLLEGE,  1895 


To  face  page       6 
16 

203 

„  303 

528 


XI 


CHAPTER   I 

1838-1859 

HENRY  SIDGWICK  was  born  on  May  31,  1838,  at 
Skipton,  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire.  He  was 
the  third  son,  and  the  fourth  child,  of  the  Rev. 
William  Sidgwick,  whose  father  had  been  established 
since  1784  as  a  cotton-spinner  at  Skipton.  The  mill, 
worked  by  water-power,  lay  in  the  grounds  behind 
the  castle ;  and  Mr.  Sidgwick,  who  had  a  country 
house  some  miles  off,  called  Stone  Gappe,  occupied 
in  the  winter  the  gate-house  of  the  old  castle  as  his 
private  dwelling.  Little  is  known  about  his  origin 
save  that  he  came  from  Leeds  in  1784,  but  there  was 
a  persistent  tradition  in  the  family  that  they  had 
originally  migrated  from  Dent,  a  picturesque  dale  in 
the  far  north-west  of  the  county,  to  the  north  of 
Ingleborough,  opening  out  into  the  larger  valley  of 
the  Clough  at  Sedbergh.  At  Dent  there  have  been 
for  the  last  four  centuries  at  least,  as  the  parish 
registers  show,  "sidesmen"  (or  small  farmers  owning 
their  land)  of  the  name  of  Sidgwick  or  Sidgswick. 
The  only  one  of  the  clan  who  was  at  all  widely  known 
was  Adam  Sedgwick l  of  Cambridge,  who  held  the 
Professorship  of  Geology  for  fifty-five  years.  Many 
of  this  vigorous  stock  appear  in  later  years  to  have 
settled  in  other  places,  particularly  in  the  manufac- 
turing towns  of  the  West  Riding,  and  amongst  these 
was  William  Sidgwick,  the  cotton-spinner  of  Skipton. 
Four  of  his  five  sons  remained  in  or  near  Skipton, 

1  The  name  was  erroneously  altered  about  1745  to  Sedgwick. 

B 


2  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

engaged  in  the  business  ;  the  other  (Henry  Sidgwick's 
father),  destined  for  the  Church,  was  sent  to  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  where  his  name  appears  as  the 
last  of  the  Wranglers  in  1829.1 

After  his  ordination  William  Sidgwick  the  younger 
undertook  parochial  work,  first  at  Rampside  (near 
Broughton-in-Furness)  in  1833,  and  in  the  same 
year  was  married  to  Mary  Crofts,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  another  Yorkshire  family  from  the  East  Riding. 
She  with  her  three  brothers  and  two  sisters  had  been 
left  orphans  at  a  very  early  age,  and  the  whole 
charge  of  these  six  children  was  generously  under- 
taken by  a  bachelor  uncle,  the  Rev.  William  Carr, 
who  was  the  fourth  in  succession  of  the  same  family 
to  hold  the  living  of  Bolton  Abbey.  In  this  beauti- 
ful seclusion,  with  the  heather-clad  moors  above,  and 
the  rock-bed  stream  of  the  Wharfe  flowing  through 
wooded  banks  not  a  stone's  throw  from  the  parsonage, 
Henry  Sidgwick's  mother  passed  her  childhood.  Those 
who  knew  her  in  after  years  observed  that  while  she 
had  many  interests  and  much  force  both  of  mind 
and  character,  she  had  no  special  artistic  sensibility 
either  to  music  or  painting ;  but  in  regard  to 
scenery  she  showed  all  her  life  the  most  vivid  and 
discriminating  delight.  And  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  this  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the  sensitive 

1  He  travelled  abroad  through  France,  Switzerland,  and  Italy  the  same 
year  with  one  of  his  brothers,  making  the  grand  tour  in  the  old  fashion. 
A  folio  four-page  letter  (folded  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  page,  as  usual  in 
the  pre-envelope  era)  has  been  preserved,  written  by  W.  Sidgwick  to  his 
friend  Perronet  Thompson — a  document  of  about  3000  words — filled  literally 
within  and  without  by  elaborate  descriptions  of  scenery.  Another  detail  of 
this  tour  is  known,  which  we  may  be  excused  for  quoting.  On  the  day 
after  the  letter  from  Turin  was  posted,  the  following  letter  was  written  from 
London  to  a  firm  of  which  one  of  the  Sidgwicks  was  partner  : — 

BEDFORD  HOTEL,  COVJCNT  GARDEN,  22)w?  October  1829. 

SIE— I  have  the  pleasure  of  enclosing  a  cheque  for  £12,  which  Mr.  W.  Sidgwick  was  kind 
enough  to  lend  me  when  in  Paris.  There  is  also  a  great-coat  which  he  entrusted  to  my 
care.  By  his  request,  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  forwarding  the  money  and  the  coat  to 
you.— I  ana,  sir,  your  obedient  servant,  W.  SI.  THACKERAY. 

Mr.  Sidgwick  had  clearly  passed  through  Paris  on  his  way  out,  and  had 
relieved  his  impecunious  College  acquaintance  with  money  and  a  great- 
coat. 


1838-44,  AGE  0-6         HENRY  SIDGWICK  3 

years  of  early  girlhood  were  passed  amid  the  beauties 
of  Wharfedale. 

In  the  winter  of  1834  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  with 
their  eldest  son,1  born  at  Rampside,  moved  to  another 
cure  at  Barnborough,  near  Doncaster,  and  two  years 
later  to  Skipton,  Mr.  Sidgwick  haviug  been  appointed 
to  the  headmastership  of  the  grammar  school,  which 
was  then  in  the  old  building,  a  picturesquely  situated 
house  at  the  end  of  the  town,  close  to  the  foot  of 
Rumblesmoor.  The  eldest  daughter2  was  born  at 
Barnborough  in  1835;  and  four  more  children  followed 
in  the  five  years  between  the  move  to  Skipton  in 
1836  and  their  father's  death  in  1841.  In  August 
of  the  previous  year  the  second  boy3  had  died,  and 
the  eldest  daughter  was  already  failing.  The  mother 
tried  first  Barmouth,  and  afterwards  Tenby,  in  vain ; 
the  child  died  at  Tenby,  and  in  June  1844  the  family 
at  last  found  a  settled  home  in  Redland,  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Bristol,  close  to  Durdham  Down. 

Henry  Sidgwick  was  only  six  years  old  when  these 
wanderings  were  over ;  and  there  is  naturally  little  to 
record,  even  if  there  were  anybody  alive  who  could 
remember  it,  or  if  it  were  worth  telling.4  His  elder 
brother  (who  was  about  nine)  remembers  two  things 
only :  that  at  Tenby  Henry  learnt  to  play  chess 
sufficiently,  to  defeat  certain  ladies  who  had  made 
acquaintance  with  his  mother ;  but  whether  this  is  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  child's  skill  or  the  ladies'  good 
nature  there  is  nothing  to  show.  Anyhow,  the  chess 
so  excited  the  little  boy  of  five  that  by  the  doctor's 
orders  it  was  discontinued.  At  the  same  time,  and 
perhaps  owing  to  the  same  excitement,  he  first 

1  William  Carr  Sidgwick,  named  after  the  uncle. 
-  Henrietta  Rose,  d.  September  25,  1841. 

3  Edward  Plunket,  d.  August  17,  1840.     The  other  three  were  Henry, 
Arthur,  and  Mary  (afterwards  Mrs.  Benson). 

4  In  a  letter  written  in  1869  to  a  child  of  eight,  then  at  Tenhy,  he  says  : — 
' '  The  first  thing  that  I  remember  in  my  whole  life  is  picking  up  an  immense 
piece  of  chalk  on  the  south  sands.     I  wonder  whether  there  is  any  to  be 
found  there  now." 


4  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  r 

developed  the  tendency  to  stammer,  which  he  never 
wholly  lost.  The  other  anecdote  is  as  follows  :— 
The  two  boys  had  picked  up  Bonnycastle's  Astronomy, 
illustrated  with  plans,  and  amused  themselves  with 
drawing  on  the  Tenby  sands  figures  of  the  planetary 
orbits.  A  kind-hearted  gentleman  (described  as  the 
brother  of  a  Colonial  Bishop)  came  up  to  them  to  see 
what  they  were  doing,  and  being  told,  expressed  his 
admiration  of  their  work.  The  little  astronomers 
immediately  proceeded  to  examine  him,  and  asked 
him  to  point  out  which  was  Uranus.  The  unfortunate 
gentleman  pointed  to  Venus,  and  when  he  had  retired 
abashed,  they  both  solemnly  shook  their  heads  over 
the  "  deplorable  ignorance  of  grown-up  people." 

After  the  move  to  Redland  the  boy  lived  at  home 
for  four  years  under  a  governess  (Miss  Green),  with 
Latin  lessons  from  his  mother,  and  then  for  two  years 
more  he  went  to  a  day  school  in  Bristol  known 
as  the  Bishop's  College,  now  long  extinct.  The 
younger  brother  and  sister  remember  chiefly  the 
earlier  years,  when  Henry  was  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  nursery.  Nearly  all  the  games  which  the 
three  children  most  relished  were  either  devised  by 
him,  or  greatly  improved  by  his  additions,  and 
amongst  them  was  a  special  language  whereby  the 
children  believed  they  might  safely  discuss  their 
secrets  in  the  presence  of  the  cold  world  of  elders. 
The  tedium  of  Sunday,  when  games  (unless  con- 
structively religious)  were  forbidden,  was  beguiled, 
under  his  direction,  not  only  by  an  extended  secular 
use  of  the  animals  of  Noah's  ark,  but  for  a  while 
by  the  preaching  of  actual  sermons  written  with  all 
seriousness,  on  which  the  children  bestowed  remark- 
able pains. 

In  1850  he  was  thought  old  enough  to  leave  home 
and  join  his  elder  brother  at  a  school  in  Blackheath, 
under  the  charge  of  the  Rev.  H.  Dale,  known  in  those 
days  as  a  scholarly  translator  of  Thucydides.  Mr. 


1844-50,  AGE  6-12       HENEY  SIDGWICK  5 

Dale  had  for  some  years  been  headmaster  of  the 
Bishop's  College  at  Bristol,  and  was  personally  known 
to  Mrs.  Sidgwick.  At  Blackheath  the  two  boys  only 
stayed  till  the  end  of  1851,  as  Mr.  Dale  in  December 
of  that  year  accepted  a  living,  and  the  school  ceased 
to  exist.  About  Sidgwick's  first  brief  experience  of 
a  boarding  school  there  is  little  to  tell.  Between  the 
brothers  there  was  four  years'  difference  in  age,  and 
neither  in  school  nor  in  games  would  they  be  much 
thrown  together.  The  elder  brother  chiefly  remembers 
three  things — the  gaiety  and  vivacity  of  his  disposi- 
tion, which  made  him  a  general  favourite  ;  the  unusual 
cleverness  which  he  showed  from  the  first  in  his 
studies ;  and  one  alarming  accident  of  which  he  was 
the  victim.  Blackheath  in  the  fifties  was  the  only 
place  in  England  where  golf  was  played,  and  the 
schoolboys  naturally  took  the  keenest  interest  in  the 
game.  One  day  Henry  was  watching  one  of  the 
seniors  preparing  to  drive,  and  was  stooping  down 
just  too  near  the  player,  when  the  swing  of  the  club 
caught  him  full  in  the  face.  The  blow  narrowly 
missed  his  left  eye,  and  it  might  easily  have  killed 
him.  Fortunately  he  escaped  with  a  severe  cut, 
which  laid  him  up  for  some  time,  and  left  a  scar  that 
was  visible  to  the  end  of  his  life.  The  only  other 
record  of  this  time  is  a  letter  to  his  mother  (May  5, 
1850),  the  solitary  one  that  has  been  preserved  until 
we  reach  his  undergraduate  days. 

MY  DEAR  MAMMA — I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for 
your  kind  letter.  I  do  not  really  know  the  cause  of  my 
illness  myself,  but  I  think  it  arose  from  something  I  ate 
the  day  before  at  dinner,  for  ...  most  of  the  boys  felt 
rather  ill.  I  enjoyed  my  visit  to  London  very  much.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Wheatley l  was  very  kind  to  us ;  it  must  have  been 
a  great  trouble  to  him  to  take  us  about.  I  shall  be 
very  much  pleased  to  see  Miss  Green,2  if  you  can  induce 

1  His  godfather,  an  old  friend  of  his  mother's  (see  p.  550). 
2  His  former  governess,  much  beloved  by  all  the  family. 


6  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

her  to  stay  till  we  come  home.  I  can  easily  imagine  all 
you  said  about  the  chess-playing,  but  I  have  not  played 
more  than  three  games  since  the  beginning  of  the  quarter, 
and  all  these  were  in  the  first  week  after  I  came.  I  think 
I  should  like  to  give  Harry  James  [a  friend  of  his  own  age] 
something;  if  you  know  what  he  would  like,  please  to  buy 
him  out  of  my  money  not  exceeding  3s. ;  if  not,  I  had 
better  wait  till  I  come  home. 

I  can  explain  how  we  are  got  into  the  second  class  in 
German ;  it  is  doing  just  the  same  as  the  third  ;  and  as  to 
the  play,  we  have  not  got  to  translate  it  ourselves  really ; 
the  master  tells  us  all  we  do  not  know.  Give  my  love  to  all, 
including  Elizabeth.1 

It  is  clear  that  his  mother  had  been  anxious  about 
three  things — a  report  of  his  illness,  his  chess-playing, 
and  his  promotion  in  German,  which  he  had  hardly 
begun  to  learn.  The  answer  of  the  child  (he  was  not 
yet  twelve)  was  probably  reassuring  on  all  these 
points. 

Mr.  Dale  in  leaving  Blackheath  took  with  him 
some  of  the  elder  boys  as  pupils,  including  Sidgwick's 
elder  brother,  now  eighteen,  and  destined  for  Oxford, 
and  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Sidgwick  urging  that  the 
younger  brother  should  also  be  entrusted  to  his  care. 
But  the  mother  very  sensibly  preferred  to  send  him 
to  a  good  school.  It  was  decided  that  he  should  be 
sent  to  Rugby  in  September  1852,  and  for  the  inter- 
vening six  months  should  live  at  home,  and  attend 
once  more  the  old  Bristol  day  school. 

This  decision  was,  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Sidgwick, 
somewhat  of  a  new  departure.  Her  late  husband 
had  always  held  the  strongest  objections  to  the  old 
public  schools,  from  a  rooted  belief  in  their  low  moral 
tone.  His  information,  it  must  be  remembered,  would 

1  Elizabeth  Cooper,  the  old  nurse  who  brought  up  all  the  Sidgwicks,  and 
afterwards  all  the  Bensons,  and  still  lives,  aged  eighty-seven  (1905),  having 
been  over  seventy  years  in  the  family,  thus  surviving  three  of  the  four 
parents,  and  five  of  the  twelve  children. 


1850-52,  AGE  12-u      HENEY  SIDGWICK  7 

date  from  his  Cambridge  days,  before  Dr.  Arnold  had 
begun  the  era  of  reform ;  and  he  died  a  year  before 
Arnold,  when  the  effects  of  that  reform  were  only  in 
their  earliest  stage.  His  objections  were  undoubtedly 
sound  at  the  time  they  were  formed,  and  it  was 
inevitable  that  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  after  his  death,  should 
resolve  to  be  guided  by  them.  It  was  singular,  as 
she  used  to  remark  in  later  years,  that  not  only 
the  public  schools  in  general,  but  Rugby  in  particular, 
had  been  thus  condemned.  Yet  it  so  fell  out  that 
she  lived  to  see  two  sons  and  five  nephews  at  Rugby ; 
and  two  grandsons,  one  born  in  her  lifetime,  were 
afterwards  Rugby  boys.  The  change  in  her  views 
was  due  to  a  new  influence,  which  may  be  briefly 
explained,  as  it  was  of  the  first  importance  in  its 
effect  on  Henry  Sidgwick  in  his  school  days. 

Edward  White  Benson,  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Sidgwick' s 
husband,  had  recently  been  brought  into  close  rela- 
tions with  her  and  her  family.  He  was  a  distinguished 
undergraduate  at  Cambridge  when,  in  1850,  by  the 
sudden  death  of  his  mother  and  his  elder  sister,  there 
was  thrown  on  him  the  care  of  a  number  of  younger 
brothers  and  sisters ;  and  the  shock  was  still  greater 
when  it  was  discovered  that  the  family,  supposed  to 
be  provided  for,  were  left  practically  without  means. 
Friends  and  relatives  gave  what  help  they  could,  and 
among  the  most  active  of  these  was  Mrs.  Sidgwick. 
In  this  way  Benson  came  to  know  the  Sidgwicks 
well,  and  was  often  at  the  Bristol  house.  That  a 
keen,  thoughtful,  and  distinguished  young  man,  some 
years  older  than  the  eldest  of  her  sons,  himself  trained 
under  an  exceptionally  able  headmaster,1  and  with  a 
wide  knowledge  of  the  best  men  at  the  University 
from  all  the  public  schools,  should  be  able  to  give  Mrs. 
Sidgwick  material  help  in  the  choice  of  a  school,  and 
to  modify  her  prejudices,  was  on  every  ground  most 

1  James  Prince  Lee,  formerly  master  at  Rugby  under  Arnold,  then  head- 
master of  King  Edward's  School,  Birmingham,  -where  Benson  was  a  day- 
boy ;  afterwards  first  Bishop  of  Manchester. 


8  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAI-.  i 

natural.     The  result  is  best  stated  in  Henry  Sidgwick 's 
words.     Speaking  of  Benson  and  bimself,  he  says l  :— 

In  the  summer  of  this  year  we  both  went  to  Eugby.  By 
his  advice,  my  mother  had  arranged  in  the  winter  of  1851-52 
that  I  should  enter  the  school  after  the  summer  holidays  in 
1852  :  it  was  not  till  some  months  later  that  he  received 
the  offer  of  a  mastership.  I  may  mention  that  it  was 
through  his  advice  that  my  mother  was  persuaded  to  dis- 
regard what  she  knew  to  have  been  her  husband's  deter- 
mination not  to  send  his  sons  to  any  of  the  public  schools, 
on  the  ground  of  fear  of  their  moral  tone.  She  was  per- 
suaded that  there  had  been  a  great  change  in  the  moral 
tone  of  public  schools  since  the  time  that  my  father  received 
the  information  on  which  his  resolution  was  based :  and  as 
the  work  of  Arnold  was  thought  to  have  had  a  leading  part 
in  this  moral  change,  the  selection  of  Eugby  was  natural. 

Accordingly,  in  September  1852  Sidgwick  was 
entered  at  Rugby,  and  Benson  at  the  same  time 
began  his  seven  years'  work  as  assistant-master  in 
the  school.  His  influence  over  his  young  cousin  was 
already  strong,  and  for  some  years  it  steadily  increased. 

Sidgwick,  in  the  paper  above  quoted,  gives  the 
following  account : — 

During  the  first  year  I  was  in  C.  Evans's 2  house,  and 
E.  W.  B.  was  in  lodgings  on  the  Dunchurch  Eoad.  ...  I 
was  not  altogether  happy  in  the  life  of  the  house :  he  let 
me  come  and  talk  to  him  when  •  I  liked,  and  his  little  room 
.  .  .  was  the  place  where  I  was  happiest.  His  sympathy  at 
this  time — indeed  at  all  times,  but  this  was  when  I  felt 
most  need  of  it — was  eminently  wise  and  tactful  in  its 
restraint ;  he  encouraged  one  to  face  difficulties  of  conduct 
with  manly  independence,  and  repressed  egotistic  whinings, 
yet  not  so  as  to  make  one  feel  any  want  of  sympathy.  .  .  . 

The  unhappiuess  of  which  he  speaks  was  probably 

1  Life  of  Archbishop  Benson,  vol.  i.  p.  147. 

2  Rev.    C.    Evans,    afterwards   Headmaster  of  King   Edward's   School, 
Birmingham,  and  later  Canon  of  Worcester,  died  1904. 


1852-55,  AGE  14-17      HENEY  SIDGWICK  9 

not  serious,  and  can  easily  be  explained  by  the  cir- 
cumstances. An  exceptionally  clever  boy  of  fourteen, 
rather  unusually  devoid  of  aptitude  for  school  games, 
with  good  health,  but  lacking  in  physical  vigour, 
from  his  childhood  an  omnivorous  reader,  and  in  his 
first  year  at  school  placed  in  a  very  high  form,  would 
anywhere  be  likely  to  feel  rather  solitary;1  particularly 
in  a  boarding-house  which  then,  and  for  many  years 
afterwards,  was  conspicuous  for  its  eminence  in 
athletic  sports,  and  probably  contained  some  rough 
elements.  But  this  was  only  a  temporary  phase. 

In  June  1853  his  mother  moved  from  Bristol  to 
Rugby,  and  for  the  next  two  years  Sidgwick  lived 
at  home.  It  was  arranged  that  Benson  also  should 
take  up  his  abode  with  the  family  of  cousins.  It  was 
a  large  and  busy  household  ;  but  Sidgwick  records  that 
"  through  [Benson's]  talk  in  home  life,  his  readings 
aloud,  etc.,  his  advice  and  stimulus  abundantly  given 
tete-a-tete,  his  intellectual  influence  over  me  was 
completely  maintained." 

The  strength  of  this  influence  is  easy  to  under- 
stand. There  was  a  warm  personal  regard  on  both 
sides,  in  addition  to  the  close  relationship.  Benson 
was  a  keen  young  master,  just  discovering  his  own 
powers  to  teach  and  impress  his  pupils,  and  he 
was  brought  into  daily  contact  with  a  remarkably 
thoughtful,  studious,  and  receptive  boy,  who  yet 
needed  much  guidance  that  the  elder  was  zealous 
to  give.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  impression 
made  on  the  younger  of  the  two  was  deep  and 
lasting.  Of  Benson's  teaching  he  says  (p.  148) : — 

His  grasp  of  concrete  details  in  any  matter  that  he 
studied  with  us  or  for  us  was  remarkably  full,  close,  and 
vivid :  and  his  power  of  communicating  his  own  keen  and 
subtle  sense  of  the  literary  quality  of  classical  writings, 

1  H.  G.  Dakyns  recalls  that  Sidgwick  was  found  on  one  occasion  taking  a 
solitary  dinner  at  the  confectioner's — a  fact  suggesting  some  discomfort  in 
the  boarding-house  arrangements. 


10  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

and  also  of  using  them  to  bring  the  ancient  world  lifelike 
and  human  before  our  minds,  was  unrivalled.  In  these 
points  I  felt  that  the  occasional  lessons  he  gave  the  Sixth 
far  surpassed  any  other  teaching  I  had  at  Rugby — or 
indeed  afterwards. 

As  an  instance  of  this  vivid  teaching,  Sidgwick 
remembers  a  single  incidental  lesson  given  to  the 
Sixth  on  the  Birds  of  Aristophanes,  where  the  master 
dramatised  the  comedy  for  the  boys  with  voice  and 
gesture,  which  clearly  threw  a  new  light  on  the 
play,  and  "  simply  showed  me  how  to  read  "  the  poet. 
Another  memory  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  rather  deeper 
things.  At  the  end  of  a  lesson  on  Tacitus,  after 
Benson  had  made  the  boys  feel  "  the  gloomy  indigna- 
tion "  of  the  historian  at  the  corruption  of  his  times, 

he,  closing  the  book,  reminded  us  how  the  Founder  of  the 
religion  that  was  destined  to  purify  the  old  civilised  world 
was  at  this  very  time  on  earth.  It  was  only  a  couple  of 
sentences,  but  I  remember  going  away  startled  into  a 
reverent  appreciation  of  the  providential  scheme  of  human 
history  which  was  not  soon  to  be  forgotten. 

On  the  predominant  power  of  this  influence  during 
the  years  1852-57 — an  influence  not  confined  to 
intellectual  and  moral  matters,  but  extending  to 
practical  decisions — Sidgwick  speaks  in  explicit  and 
emphatic  terms  (pp.  150,  151): — 

His  unquestioned  rule  over  my  mind  was  not  in  the 
least  maintained  by  fear.  .  .  .  When  I  did  what  he  advised 
— in  matters  outside  the  school  regulations — it  was  not 
from  awe  of  him  and  fear  of  blame,  but  from  a  conviction 
that  he  was  right  and  a  desire  to  be  like  him.  I  remember 
that  in  my  last  year  at  school  the  Headmaster  [Dr.  Goul- 
burn]  wanted  me  to  go  up  for  the  Balliol  Scholarship :  it 
was  a  tradition  at  Rugby  that  promising  boys  were  to 
compete  for  this.  I  talked  to  E.  W.  B.,  he  carefully 
abstained  from  deciding  and  said  it  was  for  me  to  choose. 


1852-55,  AGE  H-17      HENRY  SIDGWICK  11 

But  I  knew  he  was  enthusiastic  in  his  affection  for 
Trinity :  and  though  the  distinction  of  the  Balliol  Scholar- 
ship tempted  me,  I  felt  I  must  go  to  Trinity,  and  refused 
without  hesitation. 

I  went  up  to  Cambridge  in  October  1855  :  but  still 
for  the  first  half  of  rny  undergraduate  time  his  influence 
over  me  was  stronger  than  that  of  any  one  else.  ...  I  had 
no  other  ideal  except  to  be  a  scholar  as  like  him  as  possible. 
Then,  in  my  second  year  at  Cambridge,  I  began  to  fall 
under  different  influences,  which  went  on  increasing  till  I 
was  definitely  enlisted  as  an  "  Academic  Liberal."  .  .  . 
This  led  inevitably  to  a  profound  change  in  my  relations 
to  E.  W.  B. 

Of  Sidgwick's  progress  at  Rugby  little  need  be 
said.  He  went  rapidly  up  the  school,  taking  various 
prizes  ;  and  the  chief  thing  in  which  he  differed  from 
the  ordinary  successful  schoolboy  was  his  unusually 
wide  reading,  his  exceptional  taste  for  poetry,  and 
the  fact  that  his  talent  for  mathematics  was  quite 
as  noticeable  as  his  proficiency  in  the  classical  studies. 
After  one  year  in  the  Sixth,  being  then  seventeen  and 
one  month,  he  defeated  all  his  seniors  and  took  the 
first  exhibition.  There  was  some  discussion  as  to 
whether  he  should  nevertheless  stay  another  year — 
as  was  often  the  custom  for  a  young  clever  boy  to 
do ;  but  on  the  whole  it  was  decided  that  he  should 
go  at  once  to  Cambridge.  In  after  years  he  expressed 
a  strong  opinion  that  it  would  have  been  better, 
probably  for  his  studies,  and  certainly  for  his  health, 
if  he  had  stayed. 

He  has  been  described  above  as  showing  during 
his  school  days  a  certain  want  of  physical  vigour,  and 
no  special  aptitude  for  games.  It  was  not  that  he 
disliked  them  as  such,  or  kept  wholly  aloof  from  them 
at  school — which  even  fifty  years  ago  was  hardly 
possible  for  a  schoolboy.  He  learnt  to  swim  and 
skate,  to  play  cricket,  football,  and  fives,  etc.,  like 


12  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

other  boys,  but  he  never  had  the  abounding  physical 
energy,  the  keen  love  of  enterprise  and  adventure, 
which  prompts  the  normal  boy  to  be  always  doing 
something  active,  and  often  rather  overdoing  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  had  from  his  early  childhood  a 
quite  extraordinary  delight  in  reading — certainly  far 
beyond  any  of  his  companions  either  at  home  or  at 
school.  On  one  occasion,  when  some  Christmas 
tableaux  vivants  were  being  rehearsed,  in  which  the 
part  of  Sir  Nicholas  Blount  had  been  assigned  him, 
he  was  discovered  in  a  showy  Elizabethan  doublet, 
sword,  and  ruffles,  reading  a  Waverley  novel  on  the 
stairs,  in  entire  abstraction  from  what  to  the  others 
was  the  engrossing  interest  of  the  coming  exhibition. 
Anyhow,  both  his  physical  and  mental  qualities 
tended  constantly  to  keep  him  somewhat  aloof  from 
the  more  active  family  and  school  occupations ;  and 
another  weight  was  thrown  into  the  same  scale 
in  his  twelfth  year  by  a  sudden  attack  of  hay  fever, 
an  ailment  which  continued  more  or  less  to  the  end 
of  his  life  to  incapacitate  him  for  outdoor  activities 
during  the  best  weeks  of  the  early  summer. 

For  games  of  the  quieter  kind  he  not  only  had  no 
distaste — it  would  hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  he  had  more  interest  and  aptitude  for  them  than 
any  British  boy  then  extant.  These  belonged  to  the 
intellectual  side  of  amusement,  where  his  desire  for 
mastering  ever  new  fields  was  catholic  and  unfailing. 
His  nursery  inventiveness  has  been  mentioned  above  ; 
and  he  was  particularly  inexhaustible  in  extemporis- 
ing marvellous  tales.  A  little  later,  in  the  early 
fifties,  he  turned  his  attention  to  cards  ;  and  his 
juniors  remember  being  initiated  by  him  (among 
other  games)  into  the  mysteries  of  the  obsolete 
quadrille,  which  is  well  known  from  Cranford.  The 
rules  apparently  he  had  lighted  on,  no  one  knew 
where,  in  the  course  of  his  studies.  Here,  moreover, 
not  research  alone  was  required ;  his  talent  for 


1852-55,  AGE  H-17      HENRY  SIDGWICK  13 

diplomacy  was  also  needed,  and  was  ready  at  the 
call.  Among  the  tabooed  horrors,  like  the  public 
schools  and  (at  a  later  date)  tobacco,  cards  were 
naturally  included ;  and  his  younger  accomplices 
recollect  the  quiet  mixture  of  innocence  and  skill 
whereby  he  averted  danger,  and  obtained  a  working 
concession  from  the  domestic  authorities. 

Among  the  minor  home  amusements  in  the  Rugby 
Christmas  holidays  was  that  of  play-acting — as  in 
any  other  household  where  lively  youngsters  abound. 
This  was  much  promoted  by  the  presence  in  the  next 
house  of  a  family  of  five  schoolfellows  about  the 
same  age  as  the  Sidgwicks,  including  Henry  Sidg- 
wick's  intimate  and  life-long  friend,  H.  G.  Dakyns,  who 
was  conspicuously  the  best  performer  of  the  youthful 
troupe.  Sidgwick  took  a  keen  though  placid  interest 
in  these  shows,  and  was  always  ready  to  help.  On 
later  occasions  some  published  farce  was  given ;  but 
at  first  the  managers  were  more  ambitious,  and 
Dakyns  and  Sidgwick  undertook  to  write  a  drama, 
including  some  actual  songs.  The  audience  were 
entirely  composed  of  the  elders  of  the  two  families ; 
and  in  the  absence  of  any  evidence  we  may  perhaps 
conjecture  that  the  piece  had  a  succes  d'estime.  Of 
the  drama  itself  four  pages  remain,  printed  by  one  of 
the  boys ;  and  a  kind  critic  might  infer  that  the 
authors  had  been  studying  Goldsmith's  comedies. 

It  is  perhaps  a  little  surprising  that  until  he  went 
to  college  Sidgwick  was  never  known  (with  this  and 
two  other  exceptions)  to  have  followed  the  usual 
practice  of  clever  children  with  an  early  developed 
fondness  for  literature,  and  to  have  attempted  original 
composition.  The  first  exception  was  a  resolve, 
announced  at  the  age  of  seven,  that  he  would  write 
a  story.  The  family  tradition  is  that  the  title  was, 
"  Walter  Edwards,  by  a  little  boy  of  seven  years  old  "  ; 
that  at  least  one  line  of  the  story  was  written,  though 
probably  not  more ;  and  that,  puffed  up  by  some 


14  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

injudicious  visitor's  praise,  he  one  day  tried  to  relieve 
the  tedium  of  a  somewhat  stiff  tea-party  by  suggest- 
ing that  he  should  bring  down  his  unfinished  work. 
Of  course  the  sensible  mother  suppressed  the  obtrusive 
infant ;  he  retired  apparently  hurt  in  his  feelings, 
and  decided  to  throw  no  more  pearls  before  an 
illiterate  public.  The  other  exception  was  an  early 
poem  which  he  found  many  years  afterwards  among 
old  papers,  and  described  as  consisting  of  bad  rhymes 
and  precocious  sentiment. 

The  reason  for  this  comparative  poverty  of  pro- 
duction is  probably  quite  simple.  He  was  not  an 
ambitious  boy,  except  so  far  as  he  was  always 
thoughtful,  keenly  interested  in  the  world  of  things 
to  be  known,  and  gifted  with  an  intense  intellectual 
curiosity.  It  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  his  mental  growth  his  desires  were  rather 
to  explore  than  to  produce ;  and  this  was  really 
due  to  the  activity  and  higher  quality  of  his  mind 
rather  than  to  any  lack  of  vigour  or  initiative. 

Of  his  school  friends  a  brief  word  may  be  added. 
He  was  only  at  Rugby  three  years,  a  very  much 
shorter  time  than  was  or  is  the  case  with  most  boys 
who  reach  the  top  of  the  school ;  and  during  part  of 
the  first  year  he  was,  as  we  have  seen,  somewhat 
solitary.  But  not  a  few  of  his  lifelong  friendships 
began  at  Rugby.  Besides  H.  G.  Dakyns,  with  whom 
for  forty- eight  years  he  had  the  closest  and  most 
continuous  intercourse,  there  were  older  boys,  above 
him  in  the  school,  like  Charles  Bo  wen  and  Thomas 
Hill  Green,  both  valued  friends  in  after  days ;  H.  W. 
Eve  and  F.  E.  Kitchener,  afterwards  with  him  at 
Trinity ;  Charles  Bernard  and  C.  H.  Tawney,  who 
had  been  schoolfellows  at  the  Bristol  day  school ; 
and  several  of  the  boys  who  lived  in  Rugby,  whose 
companionship  (after  1853,  when  the  Sidgwicks  settled 
there)  was  available  in  the  holidays.  But  it  is  plain 
from  his  own  clear  and  emphatic  statement,  given 


1855-56,  AGE  17-is      HENEY  SIDGWICK  15 

above,  that  in  the  three  years  of  his  Rugby  life 
the  main  influence  was  not  that  of  his  school  friends 
and  contemporaries,  but  rather  the  young  cousin 
and  master,  afterwards  to  be  his  brother  -  in  -  law, 
who  during  the  last  two  years  was  living  in  the 
same  house.  The  points  in  which  Sidgwick  differed 
from  other  boys — his  unusual  ability  and  intellectual 
curiosity,  his  passion  for  reading,  and  his  lack  of 
interest  or  aptitude  for  some  of  the  more  active 
pursuits  of  the  ordinary  boy — all  tended  to  make 
natural  the  close  tie  with  one  only  a  few  years  older, 
to  whom  he  owed  much,  whom  he  deeply  admired, 
and  whom  it  was  his  strong  ambition  and  hope,  at  this 
time,  to  follow  and  resemble. 

In  October  1855  Sidgwick  began  his  residence 
at  Cambridge,  which  was  destined  to  be  his  home 
for  forty-five  years,  until  his  death  in  1900.  In 
those  days  there  were  no  entrance  or  minor 
scholarships,  whereby  a  boy  coming  up  from  school 
could  take  from  the  first  the  position  of  a  scholar ; 
and  in  the  case  of  Trinity  College  not  even  the 
most  distinguished  undergraduate  could  compete 
for  a  place  on  the  foundation  till  the  middle  of 
his  second  year.  Before  that  time  Sidgwick  had 
won  two  University  scholarships ;  the  Bell  in  his 
second  term,  and  the  Craven — the  annual  blue 
ribbon  of  the  classical  studies — rather  more  than  a 
year  later.  The  Bell  Scholarship,  being  confined  to 
freshmen  who  were  sons  of  clergymen,  occasionally 
fell  to  men  of  less  distinction ;  but  in  1856  at  any 
rate  the  Bell  scholars  were  the  three  best  men  of  the 
year.  There  were  two  scholarships  annually,  and  the 
first  (in  this  year)  was  won  by  Arthur  Holmes  of  St. 
John's  College,  who  was  afterwards  Craven  scholar, 
twice  Porson  prizeman,  and  second  in  the  Classical 
Tripos ;  while  the  second  scholarship  was  divided 
between  Sidgwick  and  J.  M.  Wilson  of  St.  John's 


16  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

(now  Canon  of  Worcester),  who   in   1859  were  re- 
spectively Senior  Classic  and  Senior  Wrangler. 

The  Craven  Scholarship,  at  this  time  of  the  value  of 
£75  annually,  was  open  to  all  undergraduates  and 
could  be  held  for  seven  years.  It  was  therefore, 
both  in  distinction  and  in  value,  far  the  greatest  of 
University  prizes.  Holmes  had  already  won  it  the 
year  before;  and  so  in  1857  the  most  formidable 
competitor  was  removed  from  the  field.  But  all  the 
best  scholars  of  three  years  were  sure  to  compete, 
and  even  fourth-year  men  on  the  brink  of  their  Tripos 
occasionally  entered,  though  they  were  very  rarely 
successful.  The  scholarship  was  awarded  to  Sidgwick  ; 
and  E.  E.  Bowen  of  Harrow  wrote  (January  1901), 
shortly  before  his  lamented  death,  the  following 
genial  account  of  the  election  :— 

Our  boat  had  been  down  the  river,  in  one  of  the  winter 
months  forty-four  years  ago,  and  I  was  returning  over  Mid- 
summer Common  with  a  rowing  companion  whose  soul  was 
above  classics.  But  casually,  and  dropping  for  a  moment 
the  course  of  normal  conversation,  he  said,  "  1  see  the 
Craven  is  out."  "  Who  has  got  it  ?  "  I  asked,  disguising  as 
well  as  I  could  the  circumstance,  unknown  to  my  friend, 
that  I  had  been  in  for  the  examination  myself,  and  had 
even  ventured  to  look  forward  to  the  coveted  distinction  as 
possibly  my  own ;  for  the  Craven  Scholarship  was  the 
highest  achievement  open  to  undergraduates.  "  Oh,"  he  said, 
"  that  young  Sidgwick  "  ;  and  the  subject  dropped.  "  Young 
Sidgwick  "  was,  I  am  glad  to  think,  already  a  friend  of  my 
own,  and  one  to  whom  the  most  disappointed  of  competitors 
would  hardly  grudge  his  victory :  for  he  was  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  a  set  of  Rugby  l  men  who  had  streamed  into 

1  It  was  observed  that  at  both  Universities  the  Rugbeians  were  about 
this  time  unusually  successful  in  winning  the  highest  prizes  and  honours. 
In  the  two  years  1857-58  the  Rugby  men  won  the  Ireland,  Hertford,  and 
Mathematical  University  scholarships  at  Oxford,  besides  the  Xewdigate  and 
Latin  Verse  ;  and  at  Cambridge  the  Craven,  two  Bell  scholarships,  and  the 
Davies.  No  doubt  this  was  partly  due  to  the  accident  of  clever  boys  enter- 
ing at  Rugby,  but  partly  to  the  presence  of  unusually  gifted  or  inspiring 
teachers  on  the  Rugby  staff,  of  whom  the  most  remarkable  were  T.  S. 


1857,  AGE  is-19         HENKY  SIDGWICK  17 

the  universities  of  late,  and  his  arrival  had  been  heralded 
to  us  by  examiners  and  tutors  as  that  of  one  beyond  the 
common  rank. 

The  news  of  Sidgwick's  success  reached  Rugby  by 
telegraph,  and  his  younger  brother  well  remembers 
the  pride  and  delight  with  which  it  was  welcomed 
by  the  sixth  form  and  the  masters.  Next  day 
E.  "W.  Benson  received  the  following  letter — written 
in  a  rather  youthful  vein  of  elaborate  humour : — 

At  12.15  [P.M.]  this  morning  [March  12]  I  was  astounded 
by  the  appearance  of  the  University  Marshal  in  my  rooms 
to  communicate  to  me  the  exhilarating  intelligence  which  I 
hope  you  received  as  soon  as  electricity  could  convey  it. 
My  first  idea,  although  I  had  been  thinking  about  the 
Craven  lately  a  good  deal,  was  a  vague  fancy  that  I  was 
about  to  be  hauled  up  for  some  offence  committed  against 
the  statutes  of  the  University.  Soon,  however,  the  benign 
and  at  the  same  time  meaning  smile  of  that  remarkable 
personage  conveyed  a  misty  idea  of  some  news  divinely 
good.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the  oracular  words,  "  You 
are  elected  to  the  Craven  Scholarship  "  had  passed  his  lips 
that  I  realised  the  tremendous  fact.  I  then  gave  a  wild 
shriek,  leapt  up  into  the  air,  and  threw  up  my  arms  above 
my  head.  .  .  .  The  worthy  marshal,  however,  who  is,  I 
suppose,  accustomed  to  all  the  various  manifestations  of 
ecstasy,  remained  imperturbable ;  seemed  loftily  amused  by 
my  inquiring  when  I  should  call  on  the  Vice-Chancellor, 
.  .  .  and  condescended  to  agree  to  come  next  morning  to 
receive  his  sovereign,1  as  I  had  no  money  about  me. 

"Well,  I  am  still  rather  frantic,  and  am,  I  am  afraid, 
writing  rather  nonsense,  but  that  is  no  matter.  ...  I  hope 
mamma  did  not  think,  on  the  first  reception  of  the 

Evans,  G.  G.  Bradley,  E.  W.  Benson,  C.  Evans,  and  J.  C.  Shairp.  Among 
the  Rugbeians  who  had  recently  left  the  school  were  A.  G.  Butler,  C.  S.  C. 
Bowen,  Horace  Davey,  Robinson  Ellis,  Thomas  Hill  Green,  C.  H.  Tawney, 
E.  H.  Fisher,  F.  E.  Kitchener,  H.  W.  Eve,  and  H.  Sidgwick. 

1  The  customary  fee  for  the  official  who  announced  the  award  of  prizes 
or  scholarships,  nominally  optional,  but  really,  of  course,  impossible  to 
refuse. 


18  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

dispatch,   that    ray   own   imprudence   or  Dr.    Paget's   mis- 
management had  brought  on  an  alarming  relapse.  .  .  . 

The  last  sentence  refers  to  his  partial  breakdown 
in  health,  on  which  a  few  words  of  explanation  are 
required. 

As  a  boy,  except  for  the  usual  childish  complaints 
and  the  hay  fever  in  the  early  summer,  he  had  had 
uniformly  good  health.  But  in  his  second  year  at 
College  he  suffered  from  an  acute  and  prolonged 
attack  of  dyspepsia.  This  was  aggravated,  as  he 
used  to  tell,  by  a  very  unwise  regimen  devised  by 
himself  at  the  beginning  of  his  illness,  before  he 
had  consulted  a  doctor.  The  attack  lasted  many 
months,  and  caused  grave  anxiety  to  his  friends ; 
but  he  was  finally  restored  to  normal  health  by 
strict  obedience  to  rules  in  the  matter  of  diet  and 
bodily  exercise.  He  lived  to  sixty-two,  and  passed 
an  exceedingly  active  life,  doing  a  large  amount  of 
teaching,  writing,  reading,  and  administrative  work 
of  the  highest  and  most  exacting  kind  without  any 
other  serious  illness  or  breakdown  ;  but  still  the  traces 
of  this  attack  remained  to  the  end  in  occasional 
insomnia  or  recurrence  of  the  old  trouble,  and  in 
the  constant  need  of  care.1 

His  illness,  while  it  lasted,  was  no  doubt  depress- 
ing, and  for  a  time  interfered  with  his  work,  but  not 
seriously  enough  to  affect  his  success  in  examination. 
As  regards  his  reading,  he  had  continued  from  the 
first  to  divide  his  time  between  classics  and  mathe- 
matics, and  intended  to  enter  for  both  Triposes. 
In  these  days  the  advance  of  both  studies  has  made 
it  practically  impossible  for  a  student  to  "  read 
double  "  with  any  prospect  of  success ;  and  even  at 
that  time,  since  both  examinations  fell  (with  only 
a  short  interval  between  them)  in  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  year  of  residence,  it  was  somewhat  of  an 

1  Until  his  illness  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  drinking  only  water — no 
tea,  coffee,  wine,  or  beer. 


1857,  AGE  19  HENEY  SIDGWICK  19 

undertaking  to  attempt  both.  Sidgwick's  interest 
and  quickness  of  mastery  in  both  subjects  enabled 
him  to  achieve  success  without  undue  strain,  in  spite 
of  his  illness.  For  active  exercise  he  was  restricted 
to  the  daily  walk  between  two  and  four,  which  was 
then  the  common  practice  of  the  reading  man  who 
did  not  boat  and  could  not  afford  to  ride.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  in  the  fifties  at  Cambridge 
boating  was  the  only  organised  sport  within  the 
reach  of  everybody.  There  was  no  regular  football ; 
cricket  was  confined  to  the  May  Term,  and  few 
colleges  had  their  own  grounds ;  racquets  and  fives 
were  only  just  beginning;  croquet  (if  that  can  be 
called  exercise),  lawn-tennis,  the  bicycle,  and  polo 
were  none  of  them  yet  invented.  Sidgwick  had  no 
aptitude  or  liking  for  boating ;  and  even  if  he  had 
tried  it,  the  exertion  would  have  been  too  great  to  be 
permitted  after  he  fell  ill.  In  one  way  the  attack 
was  a  blessing  in  disguise,  since  it  forced  him  to 
realise  the  importance  of  regularity  in  open-air 
exercise,  which  otherwise,  with  his  insatiable 
intellectual  curiosity  and  his  ever-growing  range  and 
variety  of  interests,  he  might  have  been  tempted 
somewhat  to  neglect. 

Besides  the  three  ordinary  terms,  the  regular 
practice  had  grown  up  at  Cambridge  of  making 
arrangements  for  those  who  wished  to  reside  for 
some  weeks  in  July  and  August.  Scholars  were 
considered  to  have  the  right  to  come  up ;  and  of  the 
rest  the  authorities  chose  those  applicants  who  seemed 
most  likely  to  benefit.  Those  who  took  part  in  these 
summer  gatherings  at  Trinity  would  probably  agree 
that  no  time  in  their  undergraduate  course  was  more 
profitable  or  more  delightful.  There  were  no  formal 
duties,  not  even  lectures  ;  everybody  lived  in  College, 
and  a  reading  man  found  many  or  most  of  his  best 
friends  at  hand,  without  having  to  go  to  remote 
lodgings  to  visit  them.  There  was  plenty  of  time  for 


20  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

solid  work  in  the  morning  and  evening,  and  also  for 
walks,  bathes,  canoeing  on  the  river,  or  any  and 
every  form  of  summer  pleasures  and  social  intercourse. 
In  1857  Sidgwick  thus  resided  "in  the  Long,"  and 
though  no  definite  account  remains,  it  is  clear  from 
the  letters  that  he  had  enjoyed  it  much.  In  a 
metrical  letter  to  E.  E.  Bowen  (written  in  January 
1859,  after  the  latter  had  left  Cambridge  for  a 
Harrow  mastership)  he  appeals  to  him,  in  a  passage 
at  once  playful  in  form  but  serious  in  feeling,  as 
follows  : — 

And  if  a  common  friendship  may  die  out, 
Then  by  all  sacred  sweet  communion 
Between  the  witching  hours  of  twelve  and  two, 
All  burning  words  before  the  burning  fire 
(For  you  would  never  spare  your  logs,  you  know), 
All  quiet  converse  while  we  sipped  our  tea — 
Remember  us,  as  we  remember  you ! 

These  talks  before  the  fire  in  the  winter  terms,  or 
pacing  the  Great  Court  or  Neville's  Cloisters  in  the 
summer  nights,  who  that  has  known  them  can 
forget?  Four  conditions  are  required  for  such 
intercourse  to  be  at  its  best — the  age  of  rapidly 
developing  powers  and  interest,  the  leisure,  the 
freedom,  and,  above  all,  the  men.  In  University  life 
all  these  conditions  are  present,  in  a  degree  that  few 
can  ever  find  again  so  fully  realised  and  so  easily 
available.  And  in  the  summer  gathering  the  other 
conditions  remain,  and  the  freedom  and  leisure  are 
largely  increased.  The  thoughts,  the  tastes,  the  new 
conceptions  and  ideals  of  life,  that  are  shaped  or 
shadowed  in  such  talk,  are  likely  to  be  among  the 
most  fertile  and  permanent  of  impressions  in  after 
years. 

In  1858  the  programme  was  varied  by  a  reading 
party  at  Oban.  The  party  consisted  of  seven  under- 
graduates, including  (besides  Sidgwick)  Sir  G.  Young, 
C.  H.  Tawney,  A.  C.  Humphreys  (now  Humphreys- 


1857-58,  AGE  19-20      HENKY  SIDGWICK  21 

Owen),  and  J.  Peile.  Several  of  their  College  friends 
were  up  at  Cambridge  for  the  vacation,  and  Sidgwick 
had  undertaken,  somewhat  rashly,  to  write  a  journal, 
recording  the  doings  of  the  Oban  party,  for  the 
benefit  of  their  friends  at  Trinity  :— 

The  hapless  men  who  toil  from  ten  to  two, 
Through  a  rank  sewer  drive  a  frail  canoe,  .  .  . 

as  a  later  poet  belonging  to  the  same  group  (G.  0. 
Trevelyan)  described  his  friends  who  were  keeping 
the  long- vacation  term  at  Cambridge  in  1860.  The 
journal,  however, — as  such  things  will — came  to  an 
abrupt  end,  the  youthful  editor  finding  letters  less 
trouble,  and  more  likely  to  evoke  response.  He 
writes  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  (August  1858) : — 

We  are  getting  on  here  very  well,  working  average  hard 
in  self-defence,  as  it  rains  all  day,  but  playing  whist  to  a 
fearful  extent ;  one  day  we  had  four  rubbers ;  that  was 
when  Hope  Edwardes  paid  us  a  visit  on  his  way  to  the 
scene  of  his  ruralisation  with  Trevelyan  and  some  Oxford  men. 
They  profess  to  be  going  to  grind  very  hard,  but  we  doubt  it. 

We  have  had  tremendous  fights  about  lodgings. 
.  .  .  We  have  been  dislodged  [by  our  landlady]  from  two 
rooms  upstairs,  where  we  gloried  in  drawing  and  dining- 
rooms,  into  a  schoolroom  below.  .  .  .  Our  landlady  let  half 
her  rooms  to  another  lady,  and  then  proceeded  to  let  the 
whole  to  us  for  two  months,  without  saying  anything  about 
the  previous  arrangement,  under  the  impression  (it  seems) 
that  we  should  be  accommodating  and  pay  her  the  same 
price  all  along ;  but  for  the  rest  of  the  acts  that  we  did, 
and  for  the  fights  Young  fought,  and  how  he  warred  with 
the  she-dragon,  are  they  not  written  in  the  journal  (q.v.)  ? 
.  .  .  We  contrive  to  take  pretty  long  walks  sometimes, 
but  it  is  better  getting  wet  through  in  the  mountains  than 
in  the  flats.  .  .  .  Hammond l  is  a  splendid  coach.  .  .  .  Write 
and  tell  me  all  about  you.  .  .  . 

1  J.  L.  Hammond,  Senior  Classic  in  1852,  a  man  of  rare  personal  gifts 
and  powers,  whose  comparatively  early  death  in  1880  was  a  deplorable  loss 
to  friends  and  to  the  University. 


22  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

He   also   writes  (July   26,   1858)  from    Oban  to 

0.  Browning : — 

...  I  have  had  an  amusing  letter  from  Bowen,  who 
describes  himself  as  "  eating  the  lotus "  (which  I  am  to 
understand  "  either  metaphorically  or  as  alluding  to 
raspberries ")  "  under  the  paternal  roof."  I  should  be 
delighted  if  he  could  put  on  a  spirt  and  get  one  of  our 
many  vacant  fellowships.  .  .  .  We  do  a  very  fair  amount  of 
work,  though  sometimes  we  waste  time  in  talking ;  but  it  is 
very  pleasant  after  the  solitariness  of  Cambridge  study,  and 
seems  to  bring  back  old  school  times ;  however,  I  mean  to 
be  more  vigorous  for  the  future. 

I  am  bringing  myself  by  dint  of  a  course  of  Lucan  and 
Pindar  to  a  strong  dislike  of  ancient  poetry — not  that  I 
cannot  see  the  beauty  of  both,  but  they  are  both  so  very  hard, 
and  there  is  such  a  ponderousness  and  want  of  grace  about 
Lucan,  and  an  artificiality  and  continued  forced  sublimity 
about  Pindar,  that  wearies  my  soul.  I  wish  every  one  who 
talks  about  "  the  Theban  Eagle "  was  forced  to  read  him 
through  and  pass  an  examination  in  him — every  one  since 
Gray,  I  mean,  who  (I  suppose)  really  did  understand  him, 
and  like  him,  and  imitate  him  splendidly — with  more  taste, 
I  should  think,  if  considerably  less  talent ;  but  perhaps  I 
shall  be  better  disposed  to  him  before  I  have  done  with 
him. 

English  literature  we  sternly  abjure,  and  our  sole  recrea- 
tion (indoors),  besides  sociality,  is  a  rubber  of  whist  after 
dinner.  I  taught  Tawney  picquet  the  other  day,  and  after 
a  couple  of  games  in  which  I  beat  him  hollow,  he  pro- 
nounced that  there  "  was  not  much  play  in  it."  Rather 
cool,  was  not  it  ? 

Good-bye.  Excuse  my  describing  to  you  our  scenery, 
etc.,  in  this  letter,  as  I  have  just  been  writing  home  about 
it,  and  my  soul  abhors  saying  the  same  thing  twice. 

Again,  before  leaving,  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  (September 

1,  1858):— 

We  are  all  of  us  popping  off  soon.      Young  goes  to- 


1858,  AGE  20  HENRY  SIDGWICK  23 

morrow.  .  .  .  Tawney  and  Humphreys  are  either  lazy  or 
home-sick,  and  are  going  home  as  soon  as  they  can.  .  .  . 
Peile  and  I  start  next  Saturday  for  Ballachulish,  whence  we 
have  chalked  out  a  tour  for  about  five  days,  to  be  concluded  by 
a  walk  in  to  Tawney's  abode  on  Derwentwater,  where  I  stay 
about  ten  days.  ...  I  paid  a  visit  last  Saturday  to  Hope 
Edwardes  and  his  party.  I  had  a  splendid  evening  walk 
of  about  fifteen  miles  through  a  romantic  pass,  beginning 
with  sunset  and  ending  with  moonlight.  Incontinent,  I 
proceeded  to  play  three  rubbers  of  whist  (in  the  midst  of 
which  delightful  recreation  I  found  them),  and  then  went  in 
for  oysters  and  bitter  beer,  and  then  went  to  bed  and  felt 
happy. 

The  last  passage  is  tolerably  conclusive  as  to  his 
recovered  health.  The  effects  of  the  1857  attack 
could  not  have  been  much  felt,  at  any  rate  in  the 
Scotch  air.  C.  H.  Tawney  remembers  his  saying  that 
"  he  found  it  hard  at  first  to  bear  the  yoke"  of  the 
doctor's  regimen ;  but  the  yoke  must  have  sat  fairly 
easy  on  him  at  Oban.  If  at  any  time  his  illness  had 
interfered  with  his  cheerfulness,  this  too  had  been 
recovered,  and  on  this  point  Mr.  Tawney  is  very 
emphatic.  He  dwells  on  the 

buoyant  joyousness  of  his  youth,  and  his  delight  in 
simple  and  harmless  fun.  ...  I  think  [at  Oban]  he 
observed  a  very  strict  regimen,  .  .  .  but  he  was  always 
full  of  fun  and  in  a  sunny  frame  of  mind.  .  .  .  My 
recollections  of  him  at  Bishop's  College,  and  Rugby,  and 
Cambridge  are  that  he  was  a  most  amusing  companion. 
He  seemed  to  possess  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  merriment. 

A  cousin  of  Mr.  Tawney's  (Miss  Bernard,  now 
Mrs.  Latham),  who  lived  in  the  same  house,  insists 
strongly  on  the  same  point : — 

We  always  considered  Mr.  Sidgwick,  when  we  were  all 
young  together,  as  the  most  lively,  interested  talker  we 
knew — interested  in  discussing  anything  and  everything. 


24  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

I  remember  one  visit  when  he  was  an  undergraduate 
[the  1858  visit  to  Oakfield,  near  Keswick,  referred  to 
above]  he  stayed  some  time,  joined  in  everything  the  family 
did,  and  we  considered — and  I  think  a  houseful  of  young 
visitors  that  we  had  thought  so  also — made  everything  he 
joined  in  more  amusing.  He  suggested  that  we  should  get 
up  tableaux  vivants.  ...  It  was  in  the  same  visit  that  one 
day  I  went  to  the  drawing-room  to  help  my  mother  receive 
some  callers,  and  saw  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  Mr. 
Sidgwick  asleep  in  an  easy  chair,  dressed  in  an  Afghan 
costume  of  white  felt,  belonging  to  my  father,  and  wearing 
the  fur  cap  belonging  to  it.  ...  I  saw  also  that  some  one 
had  come  in  ...  and  had  put  the  reigning  kitten  on  the 
top  of  the  fur  cap,  and  there  she  was  asleep,  and  Mr. 
Sidgwick  asleep  under  her.  .  .  .  When  he  awoke  he  wasn't 
the  least  discomposed  by  any  of  the  circumstances. 

These  are  trifles,  but  they  go  to  make  up  the  remembrance 
I  have  of  his  being  such  a  charming  visitor,  always  amusing, 
and  always  making  himself  at  home  with  us. 

On  other  occasions  when  he  was  staying  with  us  I 
remember  on  wet  days  his  hunting  up  some  of  us  and 
proposing  a  discussion  .  .  .  and  discuss  we  did  !  We  were 
a  large  family  party,  and  sometimes  he  would  be  the  only 
outsider.  .  .  . 

Another  side  of  the  Oban  life  is  well  touched  by 
Dr.  Peile,  who  writes  (Cambridge  Review,  October 
1900)  as  follows: — 

When  our  work  [at  Oban]  was  done,  we  went  together 
by  Glencoe  and  Kannoch  through  Perthshire,  and  formed 
that  intimacy  which  a  walking  tour  specially  fosters  in 
young  men.  I  remember  pleasant  discussions  on  literature 
— the  Greek  and  Latin  on  which  we  were  then  chiefly 
engaged.  He  was  in  those  days  a  keen  composer  in  verse, 
and  I  have  still  some  of  his  translations  from  Tennyson 
into  very  Euripidean  iambics.  But  we  certainly  discussed 
Tennyson  much  more ;  we  both  knew  In  Memoriam  well, 
and  Sidgwick  was  especially  fond  of  the  prelude.  It  ex- 


1858,  AGE  20  HENEY  SIDGWICK  25 

presses  very  nearly,  I  think,  his  theological  standpoint  at 
that  time :  and  his  comment  on  it  ...  in  the  Life  of  Lord 
Tennyson  .  .  .  shows  strikingly  how  the  old  associations 
clung  to  him  when  his  standpoint  had  changed.  I  knew 
nothing  then  of  Browning — but  he  did,  and  I  can  still 
remember  how  he  declaimed  the  "  Lost  Leader."  To  recite 
poetry  .  .  .  was  a  pleasure  to  him  all  his  life.  .  .  . 

And  few  men,  he  might  have  added,  ever  had  a 
memory  so  richly  stored  with  poetry,  or  could  recite 
so  well.  Frederic  Myers,  an  intimate  friend  and 
himself  a  born  poet,  in  the  fervent  and  eloquent 
tribute  to  his  memory  written  for  the  Society  of 
Psychical  Research  and  reprinted  in  his  Fragments 
of  Prose  and  Poetry,  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  he 
has  "  never  known  man  or  woman  who  could  recite 
poetry  like  him."  And  another  friend  has  described 
how  long  hours  of  walking  in  Switzerland  were 
beguiled  by  his  repeating,  without  effort  or  pause, 
poem  after  poem  from  his  inexhaustible  stores.1  In 
later  years  he  gave  lectures  from  time  to  time — 
mostly  to  the  Newnham  students,  but  occasionally 
elsewhere — on  the  English  poets.  The  MSS.  of 
some  of  these  remain,  either  complete  or  in  the  form 
of  notes ;  but  the  quotations  are  never  written  out. 
It  was  his  habit  to  trust  to  his  memory,  and,  as 
many  a  hearer  felt,  no  part  of  the  lectures  was  more 
enlightening  or  impressive. 

The  following  passage  from  the  letter  of  E.  E. 
Bowen  (quoted  above)  refers  to  Sidgwick's  under- 
graduate years  or  shortly  afterwards,  and  it  illus- 

1  His  friend,  G.  0.  Trevelyan,  once  crossed  the  Channel  with  him  in 
bad  weather,  and  during  the  whole  passage  Sidgwick  stood  on  deck 
reciting  English  poetry  with  emphasis  and  gesticulation  slowly  to  himself. 
He  had  explained  before  starting  that  this  singular  practice  had  been 
recommended  to  him  as  a  preventive  against  sea-sickness.  When  they 
reached  France,  he  told  Trevelyan  he  had  "nearly  got  to  the  end  of  his 
English  poetry,  and,  if  the  voyage  had  been  longer,  he  would  have  had  to 
begin  on  other  languages. "  Trevelyan  carefully  tested  the  speed  of  recitation 
by  a  watch,  and  estimated  that  about  2000  lines  had  been  recited  between 
Dover  and  Calais. 


26  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

trates  and  helps  to  complete    the   picture   given  of 
him  by  other  friends  of  that  time  : — 

Within  his  first  few  years  after  leaving  school  there 
were  but  few  branches  of  knowledge  and  human  interest 
into  which  he  had  not  plunged.  .  .  .  Perhaps  I  should 
except  the  world  of  sport,  which  he  regarded  not  indeed 
for  a  moment  with  contempt,  but  with  an  amused  and 
large-hearted  tolerance  quite  his  own.  In  intellectual 
matters  I  should  put  down,  as  his  first  and  supreme 
characteristic,  candour.  It  seemed  to  me  then,  as  it  does 
now,  something  morally  beautiful  and  surprising ;  it 
dominated  and  coloured  his  other  great  qualities — those 
of  subtlety,  memory,  boldness.  And  the  tolerance  of  which 
I  have  just  spoken  was  in  the  next  degree  his  most  striking 
attribute.  Perhaps  pure  laziness  was  the  shortcoming  for 
which  he  had  least  sympathy;  but  he  seemed  to  make, 
as  a  very  great  mind  does,  allowances  for  everything;  he 
was  considerate  and  large-hearted  because  he  saw  so  much. 

A  younger  generation  cannot  well  realise  how  bright 
and  cheerful  a  companion  he  was  in  early  years.  In  the 
spring  of  life  he  could  be  versatile  and  gay  with  the  rest : 
abundant  in  quiet  humour:  not  boisterous,  as  many  or 
most,  but  full  of  playful  thoughts  and  ready  for  the  mirthful 
side  of  things  as  well  as  the  serious.  ...  I  have  a  delightful 
recollection  of  a  short  knapsack  tour  that  we  had  together  in 
South  Wales :  some  of  the  best  bits  of  the  grand  Cardigan 
Bay  are  inseparably  connected  in  my  mind  with  him.  I 
remember  one  little  inn  where  we  stayed  to  get  lunch  ;  .  .  . 
something  suggested  a  quotation  from  Horace,  and  that 
another,  till  we  fell  to  an  eager  competition  as  to  who  could 
begin  some  stanza  of  the  Odes  that  the  other  could  not 
finish ;  .  .  .  the  attack  and  defence  beguiled  the  hungry 
interval,  and  indeed  raged  so  hotly  that  the  face  of  the 
landlord  when  he  entered  with  our  meal  was  that  of  a  man 
who  thinks  he  is  witnessing  a  scene  neither  comprehensible 
nor  perfectly  sane. 

Besides  the  University  examinations,  which  were 


1858,  AGE  20  HENRY  SIDGWICK  27 

(for  Sidgwick's  year)  now  looming  in  the  near  future, 
there  was  at  Trinity  an  annual  College  examination 
then  called  '  the  May,'  in  which  the  men  were  classed 
and  various  prizes  awarded.  The  list  of  1858  con- 
tains Sidgwick's  name  as  a  winner  of  five  prizes.  In 
the  same  year  he  and  his  friend,  G.  0.  Trevelyan, 
divided  between  them  Sir  William  Browne's  prize 
for  Greek  and  Latin  epigrams.  These,  being 
University  prizes,  had  to  be  recited  at  the  annual 
summer  degree-day,  called  at  Cambridge  the  Com- 
mencement, apparently  because  it  fell  at  the  end  of 
the  academic  year.  It  was  not  in  those  days  a  lively 
or  brilliant  occasion,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 
was  held  (by  old  custom,  now  altered)  in  the  vacation. 
Even  the  prizemen  who  recited  poems  and  received 
medals  were  allowed  to  appear  by  proxy,  and  the  two 
Browne's  medallists  of  1858,  being  both  in  Scotland 
on  reading  parties,  availed  themselves  of  this  per- 
mission. The  proxy  on  this  occasion  was  0.  Browning, 
and  in  the  letter  to  him  from  Sidgwick,  above  quoted, 
occurs  this  playful  passage  : — 

I  write  in  fulfilment  of  my  promise,  and  also  to  thank 
you  for  the  Senate  House  performance.  .  .  .  By  the  bye — 
excuse  a  pardonable  curiosity — but  have  you  got  my  medal  ? 
What  is  it  like  ?  and  how  big  is  it  ?  I  received  from  the 
Guardian  of  the  following  day  the  startling  intelligence 
that  "  H.  Sidgwick  and  G.  0.  Trevelyan  recited  their  epigrams 
in  the  Senate  House,  etc." 

Sidgwick  came  back  in  October  for  the  last  term 
of  study  before  the  two  fateful  examinations.1  Every 
one  knew  that  in  the  Classical  Tripos  he  could  not 

1  One  little  incident  of  this  term  we  may  be  excused  for  recording. 
Sir  G.  Trevelyan  writes  :  "In  1858  Macaulay  sent  me  his  famous  biography 
of  William  Pitt  in  slips.  I  remember  Henry  and  me  kneeling  on  chairs  at 
the  table  and  reading  it  greedily  through,  then  and  there,  from  beginning 
to  end.  When  we  came  to  the  passage,  '  It  is  not  easy  •  to  compare  him 
fairly  with  Ximenes  and  Sully,  Richelieu  and  Oxenstiern,  John  De  Witt 
and  Warren  Hastings,'  Henry  said  in  a  plaintive  voice,  'I  don't  want  to 
compare  him  with  Ximenes  or  Sully,  Richelieu  or  Oxenstiern,  John  De  Witt 
or  Warren  Hastings.'  " 


HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

be  lower  than  second  in  the  first  class ;  and  in 
mathematics  he  was  sure  of  a  Second  Class  (technically 
called  Senior  Optime),  which  was  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  competing  for  the  Chancellor's  Medal,  the 
last  classical  distinction  open  to  undergraduates.  In 
regard  to  the  Mathematical  Tripos  his  own  forecast 
appears  in  the  metrical  letter  to  his  friend  E.  E.  Bo  wen, 
quoted  above.  After  discussing  his  friends'  chances 
he  continues  : — 

"  What  of  yourself  ? " — Of  me  ?     Why,  as  for  me 

I  have  not  pored  in  vain  the  classic  lore, 

But  learned  contentum  parvo  vivere. 

A  modest  Senior  Op.  will  crown  my  hopes. 

In  both  contests  he  surpassed  these  expectations. 
In  January  he  came  out  33rd  Wrangler  (almost  the 
same  place  as  his  father  held  thirty  years  before) ; 
and  in  the  Classical  Tripos  he  was  first,  and  also  won 
the  first  Chancellor's  Medal.  When  the  list  was  read 
Sidgwick  was  not  in  Cambridge,  but  his  friends  flocked 
to  the  Senate  House  to  hear  the  result.  The  contest 
between  him  and  Holmes  was  also  a  battle  between 
the  two  old  rival  Colleges,  Trinity  and  St.  John's, 
and  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  either  might  win. 
The  following  from  G.  0.  Trevelyan  pictures  the 
scene  with  much  vigour,  and  what  we  may  call  "  local 
colour": — 

CAMBRIDGE  UNION  SOCIETY,  1859. 

DEAREST  SIDGE — "Toss  him  up,  and  three  cheers,"  as 
we  used  to  say  when  the  Eton  Captain  was  caught  at  long- 
leg.  Tawney  and  I  came  into  the  Senate  House  a  second 
late,  and  found  a  collection  of  men  cheering  at  the  pitch 
of  their  voices.  Then  came  "  Holmes  of  John's,"  and  a 
faint  Johnian  cheer,  and  we  saw  how  the  matter  stood, 
and  shouted  till  the  whole  place  rang  again.  The  Johnians 
have  entirely  subsided.  We  sympathise  a  good  deal  with 
you,  as  you  have  often  expressed  your  fear  of  this  con- 
summation. Three  times  three  for  Hope  Edwardes !  And, 


1859,  AGE  20-21          HENEY  SIDGWICK  29 

oh !  A is  bracketed  with   B ,  who  has  hitherto 

talked  of  him  as  the  greatest  fool  in  the  University ! 

Why  did  you  absent  yourself?  Your  presence  would 
have  been  the  last  drop  in  the  cup.  ...  If  you  are  at 
Lugano  in  September,  shall  you  mind  my  joining  you  for 
a  week  or  so  ? — With  much  love,  I  remain,  ever  yours  most 
sincerely,  G.  0.  TREVELYAN. 

For  Sidgwick  the  year  1859  was  to  prove  un- 
usually eventful,  considering  how  even,  on  the  whole, 
the  flow  of  his  life  was  destined  to  be :  Wrangler, 
Senior  Classic,  and  Chancellor's  Medallist  in  the  first 
term ;  in  June,  the  marriage  of  his  sister  to  E.  W. 
Benson,  then  first  Headmaster  of  Wellington  College  ; 
in  July,  his  first  tour  abroad  ;  in  October,  his  election 
to  a  Trinity  Fellowship ;  then,  in  the  Michaelmas 
term,  he  settled  down,  at  the  unusually  early  age  of 
twenty-one,  to  his  new  life  as  an  academic  teacher, 
which  lasted,  with  only  the  intermission  of  a  single 
term,  for  forty-one  years. 

It  remains  to  refer  briefly  to  one  more  fact,  of  the 
first  importance  to  his  development  during  these 
undergraduate  days — namely,  his  election  in  his 
second  year  to  the  society  known  as  "  the  Apostles." 
He  has  described  in  general  terms  its  character,  and 
the  effect  of  it  on  himself,  in  the  autobiographical 
fragment  which  is  printed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  chapter ;  but  it  may  be  well  to  add  a  few  more 
details  as  to  the  method  and  procedure  of  the  society 
as  it  had  become  in  Sidgwick's  time. 

The  meetings  were  held  every  Saturday  at  8.30  in 
the  rooms  of  the  "  Moderator,"  that  is  to  say,  the  man 
who  was  to  read  the  essay.  The  business  began  with 
tea,  to  which  anchovy  toast  was  an  indispensable,  and 
perhaps  symbolic,  adjunct ;  and  then  the  essay  was 
read,  the  "brethren"  sitting  round  the  fire,  the 
reader  usually  at  the  table.  Next  came  the  discus- 
sion. Every  one  who  was  there  stood  up  in  turn 


30  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

before  the  fire,  facing  the  circle,  and  gave  his  views 
on  the  subject,  or  on  the  essay,  or  on  the  arguments 
used  by  previous  speakers,  or,  indeed,  on  anything 
which  he  was  pleased  to  consider  relevant  to  any  one 
of  these.  The  freedom  both  of  subject  and  of  handling 
was  absolute ;  and  not  only  did  no  one  ever  dream 
of  violating  this  freedom  or  suggesting  any  limit  to 
it,  but  every  member  would  have  regarded  such  an 
attempt  as  an  attack  on  the  ark  of  the  covenant. 

When  the  discussion  was  over  the  moderator 
replied,  usually  answering  opponents,  but  in  no  way 
bound  to  do  so,  since  he  enjoyed  the  same  absolute 
freedom  of  presentment  as  the  rest.  The  society  then 
proceeded  to  put  the  question.  But  the  question  as 
put  was  by  no  means  necessarily  in  the  same  terms, 
and  often  not  on  the  same  issue,  as  the  subject  of  the 
essay  ;  it  was  always  formulated  afresh.  An  attempt 
was  usually  made  to  pick  out  the  deepest,  or  the 
widest,  or  the  most  interesting  of  the  points  raised 
(by  moderator  or  speakers)  during  the  evening ;  but 
the  statement  of  it  was  often  so  epigrammatic,  cryptic, 
ironical,  or  bizarre,  that  the  last  state  of  that  ques- 
tion was  (to  the  outward  eye)  far  indeed  from  the 
first.  When  it  was  at  last  formulated,  presenting 
some  simple  alternative  issue,  every  member  signed, 
as  on  one  side  or  the  other,  or  as  refusing  to  vote,  in 
the  page  of  the  society's  book  where  the  meeting  was 
recorded.  Each  member  had  the  right  to  add  a  note 
to  his  signature,  explaining,  or  further  specifying  his 
view,  or  modifying  the  apparent  meaning  of  his 
vote.  The  notes  often  contained  the  most  lumin- 
ous or  interesting  suggestions,  couched  usually  in 
humorous  or  ironic  form. 

The  subjects  were  chosen  as  follows : — At  the  end  of 
each  meeting,  the  man  whose  turn  it  was  to  "moderate" 
next  week  was  bound  to  produce  four  subjects,  from 
which  the  members  chose  one.  It  was  usual,  possibly 
in  humorous  imitation  of  the  Greek  drama,  to  have 


1857-59,  AGE  19-21      HENKY  SIDGWICK  31 

three  serious  questions,  and  the  fourth  playful.  But 
the  choice  might  as  legally  fall  on  the  last  one  as  on 
any  of  the  others.  The  choice  would  generally  turn 
on  what  each  voter  thought  would  produce  the  best 
discussion,  though  it  was  not  at  all  necessary  for  the 
essayist  to  explain  what  line  he  would  take,  or  even 
what  the  questions  meant. 

In  selecting  new  members  to  keep  up  the  numbers 
of  the  constantly  changing  society,  the  greatest 
possible  care  was  taken.  If  a  man  was  mentioned 
as  likely,  every  member  had  to  make  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  not  till  this  was  done  was  any  proposal 
for  his  election  brought  forward.  The  society  was 
supposed  to  be  secret ;  but  the  secret  was  no  doubt 
occasionally  penetrated.  In  the  close  companionship 
of  College  life  it  was  impossible  for  the  same  eight 
or  ten  men,  usually  more  or  less  prominent  in  their 
own  circles,  to  disappear  every  Saturday  night  with- 
out inferences  being  drawn.  And  when  a  new  aspirant 
was  being  canvassed,  he  could  hardly  help  being 
surprised  that  several  men,  most  of  whom,  perhaps, 
he  did  not  know,  had  suddenly  sought  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  that  he  was  constantly  meeting  the  same 
group  in  the  rooms  of  one  or  other  of  them.  Thus 
reticence  in  the  company  of  friends  who  were  not 
"  brethren,"  and  closed  doors  on  Saturday  night,  were 
not  enough  to  prevent  shrewd  guesses  even  at  the 
time ;  and  biographies  of  earlier  '  apostles '  have 
revealed  a  good  deal  since.1 

That  the  society  made  some  mistakes,  both  of 
omission  and  commission,  in  the  selection  of  its 
members,  no  one  looking  back  would  deny.  But  in 
Sidgwick's  day,  though  here  and  there  it  failed 
to  secure  a  man  of  the  highest  gifts  or  promise,  the 
society  maintained  a  high  level  of  ability,  even  if 

1  The  society  is  mentioned,  or  referred  to,  in  Carlyle's  Sterling,  in 
In  Memoriam  (Ixxxvii.),  in  Dean  Meri vale's  Autobiography,  and  in  the 
Lives  of  F.  D.  Maurice,  Julian  Fane,  Tennyson,  Sir  James  Stephen,  and 
F.  J.  A.  Hort. 


32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  i 

it  hardly  reached  the  standard  of  the  old  days— 
the  days  of  Tennyson,  Hallam,  Trench,  Merivale, 
Thompson,  Brookfield,  Blakesley,  and  Charles  Buller. 
Sidgwick  says  (in  his  Autobiographical  Fragment) 
that  his  election  to  the  Apostles  had  "more  effect  on 
his  intellectual  life  than  any  one  thing  that  happened 
to  him  afterwards."  The  phrase,  striking  and  emphatic 
as  it  is,  will  be  readily  accepted  by  those  who  can 
remember  or  imagine  the  stimulus  of  such  organised 
and  regular  discussions  on  a  young  man  of  high 
mental  calibre  and  strong  desire  to  know,  when  the 
disputants  are  at  once  close  friends  and  intellectual 
equals  or  superiors.1  But  there  was  another  reason 
for  this  powerful  effect  described  by  Sidgwick  which 
should  not  be  overlooked,  and  that  was  the  new 
influx  of  ideas,  the  activity  of  thought  and  discussion, 
the  theological,  scientific,  and  political  changes,  which 
marked  the  twenty  years  1855-75.  It  is  enough  to 
give  the  names  of  Mill,  Comte,  Spencer,  Strauss, 
Renan,  Carlyle,  Matthew  Arnold,  George  Eliot,  and 
Darwin,  to  remind  younger  readers  how  deep  and  wide 
and  many-sided  the  intellectual  movement  was.  The 
time  was  such  that  even  sluggish  minds  were  caught 
by  the  current  and  swept  into  new  regions.  It  was 
not  surprising  that  Sidgwick,  with  rapidly  maturing 
powers,  with  new  leisure,  like-minded  friends,  and  full 
opportunity  of  discussion,  should  feel  at  such  a  time 
an  impulse  which  the  tamer  decades  that  followed 
could  never  again  so  powerfully  supply. 

1  In  his  cordial  reference  to  Dr.  Talbot  (infra  403)  he  says,  "We  agree 
in  two  characteristics  ...  a  belief  that  we  can  learn,  and  a  determination 
that  we  will  learn,  from  people  of  the  most  opposite  opinions.  1  acquired 
these  characteristics  in  the  dear  old  days  of  the  Apostles  at  Cambridge." 


CHAPTER    II 
1859-1864 

THE  history  of  Henry  Sidgwick's  life  from  1859 
onwards  can  fortunately  be  followed  to  so  great  an 
extent  in  letters  that  have  been  preserved  as  to  be 
presented  in  almost  autobiographical  form.  But 
before  turning  to  the  letters  we  have  an  actual  bit 
of  autobiography  which  gives  a  clue  especially  to  the 
ten  years  from  1859,  when  he  took  his  degree,  to 
1869,  when  he  resigned  his  Fellowship  at  Trinity— 
the  period  which  in  writing  his  reminiscences  of  his 
brother-in-law,  Archbishop  Benson,  he  called  his 
"  years  of  '  storm  and  stress '  as  regards  religious 
convictions  and  ecclesiastical  relations."  It  was  sug- 
gested to  him  during  his  last  illness  that  if  his  strength 
did  not  return  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  undertake 
severe  mental  labour,  he  might  yet  usefully  write 
reminiscences  which  would  be  interesting.  The  idea 
pleased  him,  and  he  turned  it  over  in  his  mind,  with 
the  result  that  about  a  fortnight  before  his  death  he 
dictated  the  following  fragment — too  quickly  cut 
short  by  his  increasing  weakness. 

My  aim  in  what  I  am  about  to  say  now  is  to  give  such 
an  account  of  my  life — mainly  my  inner  intellectual  life — 
as  shall  render  the  central  and  fundamental  aims  that  par- 
tially at  least  determined  its  course  when  apparently  most 
fitful  and  erratic,  as  clear  and  intelligible  as  I  can.  That 
aim  is  very  simply  stated.  It  has  been  the  solution,  or  con- 

33  D 


34  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

tribution  to  the  solution,  of  the  deepest  problems  of  human 
life.  The  peculiarity  of  my  career  has  been  that  I  have 
sought  light  on  these  problems,  and  that  not  casually  but 
systematically  and  laboriously,  from  very  various  sources  and 
by  very  diverse  methods.  In  my  contributions  to  the  Life  of 
Edward  Benson  I  gave  an  account  of  myself  and  my  views  at 
school  and  after  my  degree  which  I  should  like  to  be  read  by 
any  one  who  may  use  this  fragment  for  biographical  purposes.1 
I  have  noted  the  great  change  that  took  place  about  the  middle 
of  my  undergraduate  time.  Up  to  that  point  I  cannot  remem- 
ber that  I  had  formed  any  ambition  beyond  success  in  my 
examinations  and  the  attainment  of  a  Trinity  Fellowship ; 
but  in  the  Michaelmas  term  of  my  second  year  an  event 
occurred  which  had  more  effect  on  my  intellectual  life  than 
any  one  thing  that  happened  to  me  afterwards  :  I  became 
a  member  of  a  discussion  society  —  old  and  possessing 
historical  traditions — which  went  by  the  name  of  "  The 
Apostles."  A  good  description  of  it  as  it  existed  in  his 
time  is  to  be  found  in  the  late  Dean  Merivale's  autobio- 
graphy. When  I  joined  it  the  number  of  members  was  not 
large,  and  there  is  an  exuberant  vitality  in  Merivale's  de- 
scription to  which  I  recall  nothing  corresponding.  But  the 
spirit,  I  think,  remained  the  same,  and  gradually  this  spirit 
— at  least  as  I  apprehended  it — absorbed  and  dominated 
me.  I  can  only  describe  it  as  the  spirit  of  the  pursuit  of 
truth  with  absolute  devotion  and  unreserve  by  a  group  of 
intimate  friends,  who  were  perfectly  frank  with  each  other, 
and  indulged  in  any  amount  of  humorous  sarcasm  and 
playful  banter,  and  yet  each  respects  the  other,  and  when 
he  discourses  tries  to  learn  from  him  and  see  what  he  sees. 
Absolute  candour  was  the  only  duty  that  the  tradition  of 
the  society  enforced.  No  consistency  was  demanded  with 
opinions  previously  held — truth  as  we  saw  it  then  and 
there  was  what  we  had  to  embrace  and  maintain,  and  there 
were  no  propositions  so  well  established  that  an  Apostle 
had  not  the  right  to  deny  or  question,  if  he  did  so  sincerely 

1  Extracts  from  this  have  been  already  quoted  in  the  previous  chapter, 
and  a  further  passage  will  be  found  at  p.  39. 


n  HENEY  SIDGWICK  35 

and  not  from  mere  love  of  paradox.  The  gravest  subjects 
were  continually  debated,  but  gravity  of  treatment,  as  I 
have  said,  was  not  imposed,  though  sincerity  was.  In  fact 
it  was  rather  a  point  of  the  apostolic  mind  to  understand 
how  much  suggestion  and  instruction  may  be  derived  from 
what  is  in  form  a  jest — even  in  dealing  with  the  gravest 
matters. 

I  had  at  first  been  reluctant  to  enter  this  society  when 
I  was  asked  to  join  it.  I  thought  that  a  standing  weekly 
engagement  for  a  whole  evening  would  interfere  with  my 
work  for  my  two  Triposes.  But  after  I  had  gradually  appre- 
hended the  spirit  as  I  have  described  it,  it  came  to  seem  to 
me  that  no  part  of  my  life  at  Cambridge  was  so  real  to  me 
as  the  Saturday  evenings  on  which  the  apostolic  debates 
were  held ;  and  the  tie  of  attachment  to  the  society  is  much 
the  strongest  corporate  bond  which  I  have  known  in  life. 
I  think,  then,  that  my  admission  into  this  society  and  the 
enthusiastic  way  in  which  I  came  to  idealise  it  really  deter- 
mined or  revealed  that  the  deepest  bent  of  my  nature  was 
towards  the  life  of  thought — thought  exercised  on  the 
central  problems  of  human  life. 

But  many  years  elapsed  before  the  consciousness  of 
this  led  me  to  embrace  the  study  of  philosophy  as  my 
life's  work.  The  reasons  for  this  were  partly  financial. 
I  had  to  earn  my  income,  and  I  saw  no  prospect  of 
earning  it  by  teaching  philosophy  except  through  the  mere 
chance  that  I  might  be  elected  to  the  single  Cambridge 
professorship  in  the  subject  at  a  proximate  vacancy. 
Though  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos  in  its  earliest  form  was 
instituted  in  1851,  it  was  supposed  that  the  teaching 
required  for  it  would  be  given  by  Professors,  and  there 
seemed  no  prospect  of  a  Trinity  lectureship  being  devoted 
to  the  subject.  I  had  to  accept  the  Classical  lectureship 
that  was  offered  to  me  in  October  1859  if  I  wished  to  secure 
myself  the  possibility  of  working  at  Cambridge  with  an 
adequate  income.  This,  of  course,  made  it  necessary  for  me 
to  devote  a  considerable  part  of  my  time  to  classical  study. 
I  ought  also  to  add  that  the  first  two  years  after  my  degree 


36  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

I  allowed  myself  to  be  seduced  into  private  tuition  as  a 
means  of  increasing  my  income. 

But  Cambridge  vacations  being  long,  I  still  had  a  good 
deal  of  spare  time,  and  it  was  not  long  before  I  began 
a  more  or  less  systematic  study  of  philosophy,  in  the 
form  of  a  study  of  J.  S.  Mill's  works,  who,  I  think,  had 
attained,  when  I  began  my  study,  the  full  height  of  that 
remarkable  influence  which  he  exercised  over  youth- 
ful thought,  and  perhaps  I  may  say  the  thought  of  the 
country  generally,  for  a  period  of  some  years.  No  one 
thinker,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  had  anything  like  equal 
influence  in  the  forty  years  or  so  that  have  elapsed  since 
Mill's  domination  began  to  weaken.  But  the  nature  of  his 
philosophy — the  attitude  it  took  up  towards  the  fundamental 
questions  as  to  the  nature  of  man  and  his  relation  to  God 
and  the  universe — was  not  such  as  to  encourage  me  to  expect 
from  philosophy  decisive  positive  answers  to  these  questions, 
and  I  was  by  no  means  then  disposed  to  acquiesce  in  negative 
or  agnostic  answers.  In  fact  I  had  not  in  any  way  broken 
with  the  orthodox  Christianity  in  which  I  had  been  brought 
up,  though  I  had  become  sceptical  with  regard  to  many  of 
its  conclusions,  and  generally  with  regard  to  its  methods 
of  proof.  Thus  for  several  years  the  time  that  I  devoted  to 
the  study  of  the  questions  of  most  serious  concern  was 
divided  in  a  fitful  and  varying  way  between  philosophy 
and  theology,  my  most  vital  interest  seeming  to  lie  some- 
times in  the  one  study,  sometimes  in  the  other.  Add  to 
this  that  under  Mill's  influence  I  was  also  strongly  led  as  a 
matter  of  duty  to  study  political  economy  thoroughly,  and 
give  no  little  thought  to  practical  questions,  social  and 
political. 

In  1862  I  was  powerfully  impressed  by  Kenan's  Etudes 
tfHistoire  Eeligieuse,  and  derived  from  Kenan's  eloquent 
persuasions  the  conviction  that  it  was  impossible  really 
to  understand  at  first  hand  Christianity  as  a  historical 
religion  without  penetrating  more  deeply  the  mind  of  the 
Hebrews  and  of  the  Semitic  stock  from  which  they  sprang. 
This  led  to  a  very  important  and  engrossing  employment  of 


II 


HENKY  SIDGWICK  37 


a  great  part  of  my  spare  time  in  the  study  of  Arabic  and 
Hebrew.  I  may  say  that  the  provisional  conclusions  I  had 
formed  with  regard  to  Christianity  are  expressed  in  an 
article  on  "  Ecce  Homo  "  in  the  Westminster  Review  [of  July 
1866].1  My  studies,  aimed  directly  at  a  solution  of  the 
great  issues  between  Christianity  and  Scepticism  or  Agnos- 
ticism, had  not,  as  I  knew,  led  to  a  really  decisive  result, 
and  I  think  it  was  partly  from  weariness  of  a  continual 
internal  debate  which  seemed  likely  to  be  interminable  that 
I  found  the  relief,  which  I  certainly  did  find,  in  my  renewal 
of  linguistic  studies. 

From  September  1862 — when  I  devoted  every  day  and 
the  whole  day  for  five  weeks  in  Dresden  to  the  study  of 
Arabic  with  a  private  tutor — for  about  three  years,  as  I  re- 
member, the  greater  part  of  my  spare  tune  was  devoted  to  the 
study  of  Arabic  and  Hebrew  literature  and  history.  I  began 
even  to  think  that  I  might  perhaps  attain  one  of  the  two 
professorships  in  Arabic  which  the  University  possessed,  and 
formed  a  design  of  devoting  myself  to  an  elaborate  compari- 
son of  the  Hebrew  development  of  religion  with  Arabic 
Mohammedanism.  I  ought  to  mention  that  the  final  reason 
which  seemed  to  make  philosophy  hopeless  as  a  source  of 
breadwinning  was  that  the  single  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy 
then  expressly  included  Moral  Theology.  Hence  it  seemed 
most  probable  that  a  layman  would  not  be  appointed  to  it 
— still  less  a  layman  known  to  be  unorthodox.  No  similar 
difficulty  seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  my  obtaining  one 
of  the  Arabic  chairs.  However,  in  the  course  of  the  three 
years  I  began  to  see  clearly  that  the  study  of  Arabic,  pur- 
sued as  it  ought  to  be  pursued  by  one  who  aimed  at  repre- 
senting it  in  the  University,  would  absorb  too  much  time, 
and  draw  me  inevitably  away  from  the  central  problems 
which  constituted  my  deepest  interest.  I  began  also  to 
think  that  the  comparative  historical  study  which  I  had 
planned  would  not  really  give  any  important  aid  in  answering 
the  great  questions  raised  by  the  orthodox  Christianity  from 
which  my  view  of  the  Universe  had  been  derived.  Was 

1  Reprinted  in  the  volume  of  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses,  1904. 


38  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

Jesus  incarnate  God,  miraculously  brought  into  the  world  as 
a  man  ?  Were  his  utterances  of  divine  authority  ?  Did  lie 
actually  rise  from  the  grave  with  a  human  body  glorified, 
and  therewith  ascend  into  heaven  ?  Or  if  the  answers  to 
these  questions  could  not  strictly  be  affirmative  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  what  element  of  truth,  vital 
for  mankind,  could  be  disengaged  from  the  husk  of  legend, 
or  symbolised  by  the  legend,  supposing  the  truth  itself 
capable  of  being  established  by  human  reasoning  ?  Study  of 
Philosophy  and  Theology,  which  I  had  never  abandoned, 
began  again  to  occupy  more  of  my  time. 

This  made  me  willing  to  accept  the  examinership  in  the 
Moral  Sciences  Tripos  in  [1865],  though  it  rendered  needful 
a  good  deal  of  work.  Then  an  unexpected  chance  of  devoting 
myself  to  philosophy  and  yet  making  an  income  occurred. 
The  authorities  of  Trinity,  I  think  in  1867,  offered  a 
lectureship  in  Moral  Sciences  to  me  if  I  liked  to  exchange 
my  Classical  lectureship  for  it.1  Having  thus  to  choose 
between  philosophy  and  my  vaguer  ideas  of  Semitic  history, 
I  did  not  hesitate.  I  took  the  post  offered  me,  determined 
to  throw  myself  into  the  work  of  making,  if  possible,  a 
philosophical  school  in  Cambridge. 

Meanwhile  I  had  been  led  back  to  philosophy  by  a  quite 
different  line  of  thought  from  a  practical  point  of  view — 
that  is,  by  the  question  that  seemed  to  me  continually  to 
press  with  more  urgency  for  a  definite  answer — whether  I 
had  a  right  to  keep  my  Fellowship.  I  did  my  very  best  to 
decide  the  question  methodically  on  general  principles,  but 
I  found  it  very  difficult,  and  I  may  say  that  it  was  while 
struggling  with  the  difficulty  thence  arising  that  I  went 
through  a  good  deal  of  the  thought  that  was  ultimately 
systematised  in  the  Methods  of  Ethics. 

Here,  unfortunately,  Sidgwick's  account  of  his  life 
breaks  off,  or  at  least  becomes  too  fragmentary  to 

1  Strictly  speaking,  there  was  no  change  in  his  appointment.  He 
remained,  as  before,  assistant  tutor,  but  was  asked  to  teach  Moral  Sciences 
instead  of  Classics.  He  appears,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained  from  College 
records,  to  have  begun  lecturing  on  the  Moral  Sciences  in  the  Michaelmas 
term  of  1867. 


ir  HENKY  SIDGWICK  39 

reproduce  verbatim ;  but  the  following  passage  from 
his  reminiscences  of  E.  W.  Benson  amplifies  it  in 
some  points,  and  gives  a  further  key  to  much  that 
appears  in  the  letters  to  be  quoted  presently.  He 
writes  to  A.  C.  Benson  in  1897  : — 

At  the  close  of  the  earlier  reminiscences  .  .  .  relating 
to  your  father  as  I  knew  him  in  my  school  days  at  Eugby, 
I  hinted  that  before  the  end  of  my  undergraduate  career 
his  intellectual  influence  on  me  had  given  way  to  that  of  a 
school  of  thought  entirely  alien  to  his.  As  I  look  back  no-w- 
on this  change,  its  rapidity  and  completeness  seem  to  me 
surprising  : — or  rather,  perhaps,  they  -would  seem  so,  if  I  had 
not  in  later  years  had  personal  experience — from  the 
opposite  point  of  view — of  similarly  swift  and  decisive 
transfers  of  intellectual  allegiance  in  the  case  of  pupils  of 
my  own.  I  feel  bound  to  make  this  clear  .  .  .  because  one 
result  of  it  is  that — in  spite  of  an  intimacy  never  clouded 
by  any  consciousness  of  change  in  our  relation  of  personal 
affection — my  reminiscences  of  his  talk  and  judgments  as 
to  his  views  in  later  years  are  rather  those  of  an  outsider, 
intellectually  speaking.  At  the  same  time  the  very  contrast 
between  the  workings  of  our  minds  often  seemed  to  suggest 
to  me  a  vivid  idea  of  his.  .  .  . 

To  explain  more  precisely  the  "  contrast "  of  which  I 
have  spoken,  I  will  begin  by  sketching  briefly  the  ideal 
which,  under  the  influence  primarily  of  J.  S.  Mill,  but 
partly  of  Comte  seen  through  Mill's  spectacles,  gradually 
became  dominant  in  my  mind  in  the  early  sixties : — I  say 
"  in  my  mind,"  but  you  will  understand  that  it  was  largely 
derived  from  intercourse  with  others  of  my  generation,  and 
that  at  the  time  it  seemed  to  me  the  only  possible  ideal  for 
all  adequately  enlightened  minds.  It  had  two  aspects,  one 
social  and  the  other  philosophical  or  theological.  What  we 
aimed  at  from  a  social  point  of  view  was  a  complete  revision 
of  human  relations,  political,  moral,  and  economic,  in  the 
light  of  science  directed  by  comprehensive  and  impartial 
sympathy ;  and  an  unsparing  reform  of  whatever,  in  the 
judgment  of  science,  was  pronounced  to  be  not  conducive  to 


40  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

the  general  happiness.  This  social  science  must  of  course 
have  historical  knowledge  as  a  basis :  but,  being  science, 
it  must  regard  the  unscientific  beliefs,  moral  or  political,  of 
past  ages  as  altogether  wrong, — at  least  in  respect  of  the 
method  of  their  attainment,  and  the  grounds  on  which  they 
were  accepted.  History,  in  short,  was  conceived  as  supplying 
the  material  on  which  we  had  to  work,  but  not  the  ideal 
which  we  aimed  at  realising ;  except  so  far  as  history  properly 
understood  showed  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  scientific 
treatment  of  political  and  moral  problems. 

As  regards  theology,  those  with  whom  I  sympathised 
had  no  close  agreement  in  conclusions, — their  views  varied 
from  pure  positivism  to  the  "  Neochristianity "  of  the 
Essayists  and  Keviewers :  and  my  own  opinions  were  for 
many  years  unsettled  and  widely  fluctuating.  What  was 
fixed  and  unalterable  and  accepted  by  us  all  was  the  neces- 
sity and  duty  of  examining  the  evidence  for  historical 
Christianity  with  strict  scientific  impartiality ;  placing  our- 
selves as  far  as  possible  outside  traditional  sentiments  and 
opinions,  and  endeavouring  to  weigh  the  pros  and  cons  on 
all  theological  questions  as  a  duly  instructed  rational  being 
from  another  planet — or  let  us  say  from  China — would 
naturally  weigh  them.  .  .  .* 

In  the  summer  of  1859,  after  his  sister's  marriage 
on  June  23,  with  Edward  White  Benson,  he  went 
abroad,  first  to  Dresden  to  learn  German,  and  thence 
to  the  Alps  and  North  Italy.  He  visited  Chamounix 
and  its  neighbourhood,  and  then  joining  one  of  his 
chief  Cambridge  friends,  J.  J.  Cowell,  at  Zermatt, 
went  round  by  the  Monte  Moro  Pass  to  the  Italian 
lakes,  stayed  at  Milan,  visited  the  battlefields  of  the 
just  terminated  war  for  the  liberation  of  Lombardy 
from  Austria,  and  returned  by  the  St.  Gothard  Pass 
and  the  Lake  of  Lucerne.  The  following  letter  is 
written  early  in  August  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  : — 

MY   DEAR   GRAHAM — "  How   doth   the    little    busy  bee 

1  Life  of  Archbishop  Benson,  vol.  i.  pp.  249,  250. 


1859,  AGE  21  HENKY  SIDGWICK  41 

improve  each  shining  hour  ? "  etc.  I  improve  this  one  (an 
hour  of  digestion  at  the  Hotel  de  Tete  Noire — Tete  Noire 
being  the  name  of  a  pass  between  Martigny  and  Chamounix) 
in  writing  to  you.  ...  I  was  too  lazy  to  write  at  Dresden. 
The  German  literature  was  very  fascinating,  and  when  I 
had  done  my  home  work  I  always  had  concerts  and  gallery 
or  something  to  go  to.  Besides,  you  never  wrote  to  me. 
Never  mind ;  I  hope  you  have  had  still  better  reasons 
than  I  have,  and  have  been  making  se  ven- league- boot  - 
progress  (excuse  a  German  compound)  in  the  classics.  .  .  . 

Cowell  has  never  answered  any  of  my  letters,  conse- 
quentementally  I  am  in  a  state  of  complete  doubt  as  to 
whether  I  shall  meet  him  at  all.  I  gave  him  the  choice  of 
Berne  and  Chamounix ;  he  was  to  decide ;  he  didn't,  so 
here  I  am  at  Chamouuix — at  least  there  are  only  four  and 
a  half  hours  more  (which  will  be  an  awful  grind  with  my 
knapsack,  by  the  bye).  .  .  . 

I  have  written  a  good  deal  of  poetry,  and  have  at  present 
the  plots  of  two  novels  and  one  long  poem  in  my  head.  But 
I  fear  they  will  come  to  nothing. 

To  E.  W.  Benson  from  Courmayeur,  August  12 

...  I  did  not  find  at  Dresden,  even  though  I  was  alone, 
that  the  time  made  itself  for  letter-writing.  I  used  to  work 
religiously  till  4  o'clock  almost  every  day  (with  a  break 
of  one  hour  for  dinner,  and  two  hours  three  times  a  week 
for  the  Picture  Gallery),  and  then,  what  with  walking, 
bathing,  and  listening  to  threepenny  concerts,  it  soon  became 
supper  time ;  and  after  supper,  of  course,  I  went  to  bed 
in  true  German  fashion,  for  I  got  up  every  morning  at  six. 

I  accomplished  the  reading  and  writing  as  well  as  could 
be  expected ;  in  the  speaking  my  progress  was  so-so ;  but 
the  thing  which  you  will  be  perhaps  surprised  to  hear  has 
hitherto  baffled  all  my  efforts  is  the  understanding  the 
language  when  spoken.  When  a  German  talks  to  me  I  can 
understand  him  tolerably,  with  trouble,  but  when  he  talks  to 
other  Germans  in  my  presence  I  am  utterly  at  a  loss.  .  .  . 

But  I  have   got  such  a  great   deal   to  tell  you  about 


42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

Dresden.  I  liked  Herr  Schier  very  much — except  his 
politics,  which  we  stirred  up  one  day  when  I  had  written  a 
little  political  piece  for  a  German  exercise.  He  appeared 
to  consider  a  decent  despotism  as  the  ideal  government — 
very  anti-German,  I  should  have  supposed.  Otherwise  we 
got  on  very  well  indeed,  and  he  pronounced  me  "  sehr 
fleissig"  If  he  would  only  have  put  on  a  shirt  every  now  and 
then  !  But  one  can't  expect  perfection  in  this  world.  .  .  . 

To  his  Sister,  from  Cambridge,  September  27 

.  .  .  Now  I  know  I  have  no  right  to  complain  of  your  not 
writing,  as  my  hopes  of  your  doing  so  rested  entirely  on  my 
belief  in  your  Benevolence  and  not  on  any  Eight  or  Obliga- 
tion (excuse  Dr.  Whewell's  phraseology),1  so  I  won't  (after 
doing  it  for  a  page  and  a  quarter) ;  and  supposing  that  you 
can  conveniently  receive  me  on  Wednesday,  5th,  I  will 
keep  my  own  adventures,  or  at  least  such  of  them  as  are 
interesting,  for  oral  delivery.  ...  I  arrived  here  on  Satur- 
day. My  examination  begins  on  Thursday,  so  I  have  three 
days  to  "  tone  myself  down."  If  I  get  a  Fellowship  I  shall 
have  to  be  up  here  on  the  10th ;  if  not,  I  shall  be  able  to 
enjoy  myself  (?)  till  the  15th,  I  believe,  when  I  have  to 
meet  my  pupils.  "  Wot  a  game  it  is,"  as  Mr.  Weller  says. 
I  always  feel  inclined  to  laugh  when  a  man  comes  wanting 
me  to  take  him  as  a  pupil.  .  .  . 

I  must  now  leave  you  for  the  Theory  of  Causation. 

He  was  elected  to  a  Fellowship  and  appointed 
Assistant  Tutor,  and  on  October  30,  1859,  he  writes 
to  his  sister  :— 

Behold  that  I  have  never  written  to  you  before ;  very 
wrong,  but  my — hem — professional  engagements  must  be 
pleaded  as  my  excuse.  If  you  could  only  see  me  taking  my 
pupils,  or  my  pupils  taking — their  hats  off  to  me,  the 
amount  of  respect  that  you  no  doubt  already  entertain  for 
me  would  be  considerably  increased. 

Time  passes  with  flying  step.     I  have  got  more  work 

1  Whewell's  Elements  of  Morality  was  at  this  time  prescribed  for  the  study 
of  undergraduates  at  Trinity  as  an  introduction  to  philosophy. 


1859,  AGE  21  HENEY  SIDGWICK  43 

than  I  intended  to  take,  but  I  enjoy  it  very  much,  and  only 
regret  that  I  have  not  much  time  for  my  private  reading. 
Arthur  [his  brother]  is  happily  installed  in  my  old  rooms.1 .  .  . 
I  find  I  have  left  some  letters.  .  .  .  Would  you  kindly  let 
me  have  them,  as  the  Ghost  story  that  Mamma  sent  me  was 
among  them,  and  I  value  it,  and  should  like  to  have  it  here. 
I  have  heard  a  couple  of  fresh  ones  from  an  Irish  friend  of 
mine  here,  who  knows  the  subjects  of  them  intimately ; 
Ireland  appears  to  be  a  soil  in  which  they  flourish  well. 
One  of  my  rooms,2  in  which  I  am  now  sitting,  is  beautifully 
cosy;  I  know  in  about  a  year  it  will  break  my  heart  to  part 
with  it.  About  this  time  I  may  as  well  thank  you  for 
your  congratulations.  .  .  . 

He  had  before  his  degree  joined  the  Ghost  Society, 
which  Archbishop  Benson  when  at  Cambridge  had 
helped  to  found  (see  Life  of  the  latter,  vol.  i.  p.  98). 
Dr.  Westcott,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Durham,  while  in 
residence  at  Cambridge,  had  apparently  acted  as  secre- 
tary;  and  in  18 60,  when  he  had  left  for  Harrow,  we  find 
him  sending  Sidgwick  a  story,  "  produced  by  the  old 
'  ghostly '  circular,"  and  adding,  "  I  trust  I  am  right  in 
believing  you  are  still  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  the 
question."  This  investigation  of  ghost  stories  was 
the  beginning,  so  far  as  Sidgwick  was  concerned,  of 
"  Psychical  Research,"  in  which,  as  will  be  seen  in  the 
following  pages,  he  was  engaged,  with  brief  intervals, 
during  the  rest  of  his  life.  The  whole  subject  connected 
itself  with  his  philosophical  and  theological  studies. 
As  he  says,  in  the  disjointed  notes  with  which  the  auto- 
biographical fragment  above  quoted  ends,  comparative 
thaumatology  required  its  investigation  ;  and,  further, 
the  possibility  of  direct  proof  of  continued  individual 
existence  after  death  could  not  be  neglected  either 
from  a  theological  or  an  ethical  point  of  view. 

To  his  Sister,  a  little  later  in  the  Term 
.  .  .  My    spiritual    discoveries    are   rather    languishing 

1  Hostel  A  4.  2  Nevile's  Court,  L  3. 


44  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

at  present.  Uncle  Robert  kindly  sent  me  a  newspaper 
containing  a  poor  woman's  dream  about  her  son's  death 
— dreamt  on  the  night  of  the  wreck  of  the  Royal  Charter. 
It  was  curious,  as  the  fulfilment  was  as  yet  unknown ;  but 
still,  considering  how  fruitful  of  dreams  such  a  night  must 
be,  not  very  strong  evidence.  I  have  not  heard  anything 
as  to  the  fulfilment. 

Alas !  for  my  German,  I  am  getting  very  lazy  about  it 
and  forgetting  it  all  .  .  . 

Is  not  my  handwriting  degenerating  ?  It  is  the  effect 
of  hard  work.  I  have  got  a  young  American  [W.  Everett] 
reading  with  me — a  very  nice  fellow.  .  .  .  He  has  let  me  into 
a  thing  or  two  about  America.  I  was  thinking  of  emigrat- 
ing thither  the  other  day  when  the  press  was  full  of  those 
foolishly  irritating  articles  which  I  thought  would  bring 
on  a  French  war.1  I  am  not  yet  quite  settled,  but  I  think 
I  shall  at  any  rate  wait  till  after  Christmas.  Our  patriots 
here  (the  Rifle  Corps)  are  in  high  glee  because  Prince 
Albert  has  taken  them  under  his  protection.  They  had 
been  almost  wet-blanketed  by  Lord  Hardwicke  (our  Lord- 
Lieutenant),  who  refused  to  grant  commissions  to  under- 
graduates. Insulting,  was  it  not  ?  So  the  reaction  of 
H.R.H.'s  favour  is  great. 

To  the  Hon.  Roden  Noel,  tlun  travelling  in  Syria,  on 
February  18,  1860 

Nothing  but  the  fact  that  I  am  now  bound,  Ixion-like, 
on  the  gigantic  wheel  of  an  educational  system,  and  in 
consequence  whirled  round  day  by  day  through  a  circle  of 
fixed  instructions,  which  leave  me  but  little  free  volition — 
or,  in  other  words,  nothing  but  the  fact  that  I  am  a  busy 
assistant  tutor  of  this  college — should  have  prevented  my 
answering  your  letter  a  week  ago,  or  nearly  so,  as  I  re- 
ceived it  Saturday  last. 

But  how  can  I  produce  anything  fit  to  be  called  an 
answer  to  you  ?  You  take  me  through  a  number  of  dream- 

1  The  country  had  been  roused  to  renewed  distrust  and  suspicion  of  Louis 
Napoleon  and  France  by  the  annexation  of  Savoy  and  Nice  after  the  Italian 
war.  Hence  the  volunteer  movement  of  1859. 


i860,  AGE  21  HENKY  SIDGWICK  45 

like  scenes  and  experiences,  investing  them  with  a  reality 
that  they  did  not  before  possess,  as  clustering  round  you, 
whom  I  have  actually  seen  and  known  and  talked  to  and 
shared  anchovy  toast  with.1  (You  observe  I  speak  only  of 
physical  facts.)  They  seem  to  partake  of  the  certainty 
which  your  "  entity  "  has  for  me. 

This  is  in  answer  to  the  sophistry  with  which  you  began 
your  letter — "  that  I  could  get  facts  from  books  of  travels." 
I  felt  as  if  you  were  slaying  me  by  my  own  weapons,  as  I 
have  used  the  sophism  before  now  to  excuse  my  own  laziness 
in  my  humbler  peregrinations.  Why,  my  brother,2  do  you 
suppose  it  is  the  same  thing  even  if  I  read  an  exactly  similar 
description  in  a  book  ?  Is  Palmyra  no  more  realisable 
when  I  picture  you  there,  than  if  I  connected  it  with  Eliot 
Warburton,  who  may  be  a  mere  name  ?  Or  did  I  believe 
in  Kinglake's  Beyrout,  sheikhs,  deserts,  etc.,  so  much  as  I 
do  in  yours  ?  If  you  hadn't  delightfully  belied  your  preface, 
I  should  have  grumbled. 

But  what,  I  repeat,  can  I  set  before  you  in  return  ? 
The  trivial  oscillations  of  my  external  life  ?  or  the  vague, 
half-incomprehensible  fluctuations  of  my  inner  being  ?  No, 
I  will  begin  with  our  friends. 

Alas !  you  know  the  quick  succession  of  human  waves 
at  the  University ;  there  is  no  one  here  to  whom  I  thought 
meet  to  show  your  letter.  Brandreth  is  the  only  one  of 
your  fellow-apostles  still  in  residence.  .  .  . 

Bowen  is  still  a  junior  master  at  Harrow.  He  enjoys 
the  work  very  much,  and  is,  I  think,  eminently  suited ; 
with  his  widely  opened,  keen,  and  graceful  intellect  he  will 
never  become  odiously  professional  or  shoppy  as  some  men 
do,  especially  if  they  begin  too  young.  He  is  very  fond  of 
boys,  and  gets  on  very  well  with  them ;  he  has  a  perennial 
spring  of  boyishness  in  himself,  which  is  the  first,  second, 
and  third  requisite  for  a  schoolmaster,  I  think,  for 

Who  boys  would  lead,  himself  should  boyish  be. 

I  sometimes  think  he  is  wasted  there,  as  he  has  so  much  of 

a  certain  kind  of  sparkling  and  versatile  genius  in  him ; 

1  See  p.  29.  2  Both  members  of  the  "  Apostles." 


46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

but,  after  all,  as  he  himself  says,  "  It  is  not  every  man's 
duty  to  seek  to  be  famous." 

Butler  is,  as  I  see  you  have  heard,  headmaster  now  at 
Harrow.  I  believe,  from  reports,  that  he  is  getting  on  as 
well  as  could  be  wished  in  every  way ;  but  I  have  not  got 
anything  but  business — scrap — letters  since  he  went  there 
from  him.  When  Vaughan's  resignation  was  known  last 
year,  everybody  was  sorry  that  it  came  so  soon,  as  Butler, 
universally  marked  out  as  the  fit  man,  was  so  young.  This 
was,  indeed,  nearly  deciding  the  election  against  him ;  but 
I  think  no  one  who  knew  him  had  the  least  doubt  that  he 
was  the  best  man  for  the  place ;  I  have  myself  a  perhaps 
extravagant  belief  in  him.  I  think  he  only  wants  experience 
to  carry  on  Vaughan's  system  of  delicate  and  unremittingly 
careful  management  thoroughly  well ;  and  he  will  add  this 
important  advantage,  that  no  one  will  ever  fancy  him 
insincere.  I  never  expect  to  see  again  a  man  so  naturally 
formed  to  win  "  golden  opinions  from  all  sorts  of  people." 
I  never  heard  of  any  man,  even  the  most  wholesale  scoffer, 
saying  a  word  against  Butler.  My  only  fear  is  that  the 
work  will  age  him  prematurely,  bodily  and  mentally ;  it  is 
such  a  tremendous  load  for  a  young  man  of  twenty-six. 
Pitt  was  Prime  Minister  at  twenty- three ;  but  Pitt  was 
worn  out  at  thirty-seven. 

How  much  I  miss  him  I  can  hardly  tell  you.  I  have 
such  a  number  of  thoughts,  questions,  doubts,  difficulties, 
vague  ideas  and  dreams  that  I  can  now  tell  to  no  one  with 
the  same  certainty  of  affectionate  interest  and  assistance. 
To  most  of  my  friends  who  have  not  yet  left  me  stranded 
on  the  dry  shore  of  collegiate  superannuation  I  feel  rather 
as  if  I  ought  to  give  advice  instead  of  receiving  it.  Especially 
as  my  old  loved  counsellor  Fisher l  is  also  gone.  He  is  in 
a  somewhat  unsettled  state  at  present,  as  he  missed  his 
Fellowship  last  year  when  Bowen  and  I  got  ours,  and  is  now 
reading  in  rather  a  vague  way  for  the  Fellowship  Examina- 
tion next  year.  I  don't  like  our  Fellowship  Examination 

1  E.    H.   Fisher,    old   Rugbeian,    who   had  been    indefatigably  kind   to 
Sidgwick  during  his  illness. 


1860,  AGE  21  HENEY  SIDGWICK  47 

system ;  it  keeps  men  reading  away  at  the  old  things 
in  a  kind  of  restless,  unprofitable  way,  and  wasting  the 
valuable  time  in  which  they  might  be  preparing  themselves 
for  their  work  in  life,  whether  professionally  or  as  men. 
Fisher  so  disliked  the  thought  of  staying  up  here  that  he 
accepted  the  offer  of  Mr.  Marshall,  a  merchant  prince  of 
Leeds,  and  became  the  tutor  of  a  young  Marshall — an  office 
somewhat  distasteful  to  him,  I  fear,  but  it  leaves  him  plenty 
of  time  for  reading.  He  will  in  time,  I  think,  become  a 
country  clergyman,  and,  Heaven  be  praised,  not  a  bigoted 
one.  Excuse  this  burst,  but  the  virulency  of  unreasoning 
orthodoxy  is  getting  to  disgust  me  more  and  more  daily. 
In  fact,  my  own  great  difficulty  at  present  is  the  doubt  as 
to  whether  I  can  put  such  fetters  on  the  free  expression  of 
my  religious  belief  as  seems  to  be  expected  of  a  clergyman. 
This  is  one  difficulty ;  another  is  a  lurking  fear  that  I  am 
really  taking  up  this  highest  and  holiest  of  professions  as  a 
pis  oiler;  I  know  that  if  I  had  had  any  opening,  any 
interest,  I  should  have  tried  to  get  into  public  life ;  and  I 
fear  my  ambition  is  only  torpid  from  hopelessness  and  not 
eradicated. 

I  am  generally  in  a  somewhat  turbid  state  as  to  my 
course  of  life.  I  have  a  dislike  to  being  merely  a  dilettante 
student ;  and  yet,  in  these  days  of  division  of  labour,  when 
the  stream  of  knowledge  is  widening  day  by  day,  it  seems 
as  if  a  man  who  wished  to  benefit  mankind  by  study  is 
forced  so  definitely  to  take  up  a  speciality — a  thing,  again, 
that  I  am  averse  to  doing.  But  I  must  [not]  let  my  tur- 
bidity overflow  on  you. 

Perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear  the  present  phase  of 
the  "Apostolic  "  Succession.  We  are  :  Brandreth,  Sidgwick, 
Tawney,  Browning,  Cowell,  Trevelyan,  Jebb.  The  first  four 
I  think  you  just  know.  Cowell  is  a  Westminster  man  and 
a  Unionic  speaker.  Trevelyan  you  may  know  by  report, 
a  Harrow  man  and  the  nephew  of  Macaulay.  He  will  be 
my  chief  friend  when  this  last  wave  shall  have  burst, 
sweeping  off  Tawney,  Browning,  Cowell.  The  vicissitudes 
of  human  things  affect  even  The  Society  slightly :  at  least 


48  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

I  think  our  discussions  are  less  vigorous  now  than  usual ; 
but  the  great  Idea,  which  sits  invisible  among  us,  has,  I 
trust,  as  potent  a  magic  as  ever  to  elevate  and  unite.  .  .  . 

Your  account  of  Palestine  and  Palmyra  almost  recalled 
the  old  feeling  of  half -pleasant,  half -painful  longing  (like 
a  hungry  man's  reading  about  a  feast)  with  which  I  used 
to  devour  Eothen  and  The  Crescent  and  the  Cross.  .  .  . 
"Well,  I  wish  you  freedom  from  fevers,  conquest  over 
bronchitis,  and  that  you  may  quarry  countless  treasures  of 
learning  from  the  neglected  mines  of  the  Royal  tombs.  If 
you  throw  any  light  on  Platonic  mysticism,  bring  out  any 
esoteric  doctrines  that  our  uninitiated  eyes  are  now  blind  to, 
why,  we  shall  be  proud  of  you  as  a  man  and  a  brother. 
Our  discussions  have  of  late  taken  a  slightly  political  and 
social  turn — for  instance,  I  am  now  engaged  on  an  essay  on 
the  "  Over-population  "  theory — but  every  now  and  then  we 
have  a  good  speculation,  than  which  nothing  has  a  more 
rousing  and  quickening  effect.  I  wish  you  could  have 
discussed  with  us  last  term  "Whether  Life  Culminated," 
viz.  whether  the  noblest  view  of  man's  course  inter  utramque 
facem  was  not  that  of  continued  progress  instead  of  first 
ascent  and  then  descent.  It  was  the  last  at  which  Butler 
was  present. 

.  .  .  Would  you  like  literary  gossip  ?  I  feel  chatty 
now.  You  must  know  we  have  started  a  new  monthly  in 
Cambridge — Macmillan's  Magazine,  advertisements  whereof 
almost  paper  Macmillan's  shop,  and  are  surreptitiously 
foisted  into  all  his  books  sent  out.  It  is  pretty  good, 
not  equal  to  [the]  other  novelty,  the  Cornhill,  edited  by 
Thackeray.  .  .  . 

My  literary  dreams  are  crushed  at  present  under  the 
load  of  lectures  and  pupils.  I  like  the  work  very  much, 
and  I  think  it  is  doing  me  good  in  one  way,  but  I  fear 
it  is  lowering  me  in  another.  I  shall  give  up  part  of  it 
soon. 

.  .  .  We,  it  is  true,  are  mourning  lost  great  ones,  along 
with  England ;  Archdeacon  Hardwicke  and  Sir  James 
Stephen  are  both  hard  to  replace  in  their  way.  But  what 


1860,  AGE  21  HESTKY  SLDGWICK  49 

will  the  Muse  of  History  do,  now  that  Macaulay,  Prescott, 
Hallam,  have  all  died  in  one  year  ? 

I  hope  to  write  to  you  again,  possibly  to  hear  from  you. 
I  am  going  to  stay  in  England  this  summer,  calmly  to  settle 
the  questions  that  now  agitate  me,  and,  if  I  can,  to  read 
some  Theology  in  the  Long  Vacation. 

Farewell,  to  conclude  this  desultory  epistle. 

To  E.  W.  Benson,  on  March  14  [1860] 

I  have  not  written  to  you  this  term,  and  though  I  am 
very  hard-worked  I  am  not  so  bad  as  all  that.  I  enjoy 
Cambridge  very  much  still,  but  somehow  it  seems  to  breed 
a  kind  of  intellectual  turmoil  within  me,  and  I  shall  not  be 
sorry  to  get  down  for  a  while.  I  have  quite  fixed  now  only 
to  take  two  pupils  in  the  May  Term,  and  no  more  after  that 
for  at  least  a  year :  during  which  time  I  hope  to  give  myself 
a  partial  education  in  History  and  Philosophy.  On  the  whole 
I  have  changed  my  idea  of  reading  Theology  this  year :  I 
cannot  explain  all  my  motives  in  a  letter,  but  one  of  them 
is  that  I  feel  I  should  be  more  able  to  grapple  with  it  after 
I  had  trained  my  mind  in  a  more  substantial  branch  of 
learning  and  a  severer  kind  of  thought  than  classics 
affords. 

However,  I  am  conscious  of  being  in  a  somewhat  unsettled 
state  (which  I  hope  is  not  undesirable  for  a  little  while,  as 
long  as  one  is  considering  what  will  influence  one's  whole 
life) :  so  I  may  change  again. 

...  I  have  not  been  to  a  single  College  meeting  yet 
from  a  kind  of  humility,  as  I  know  if  I  did  go  I  should 
instantly  become  a  strong  partisan  either  of  Beforin  or 
Conservatism — not  that  there  is  much  Eeform  going  on 
now  except  of  the  Hall.  .  .  . 

I  hear  Temple  is  going  to  bring  out  an  essay  in  the 
heretical  collection  [Essays  and  Reviews'].  I  hope  it  won't 
be  a  bad  thing  for  the  school  [Kugby],  but  really  in  the 
present  state  of  public  feeling  to  associate  oneself  with 
Jowett,  Baden  Powell,  and  Eoland  Williams  is  a  bold  step 
to  take.  Perhaps  if  he  brings  out  the  sermons  preached  in 

E 


50  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

the  Rugby  chapel  at  the  same  time,  it  may  counterbalance 
the  tcaicrjv  0/uA.ww.1 

.  .  .  You  know  we  (i.e.  the  Senate)  have  made  the  Moral 
and  Natural  Sciences  Tripos  confer  a  degree.  J.  B.  Mayor 
sent  round  a  convincing  pamphlet  to  prove  the  claim  of 
Morals.  As  all  he  had  to  prove  was  that  that  Tripos  was  a 
test  of  as  much  work  as  the  Poll  Exam.,  it  wasn't  hard  to 
do.  But  if  the  University  does  not  grow  more  "  moral " 
soon,  the  change  won't  have  much  effect,  as  this  year  there 
are  simply  no  candidates. 

To  his  Sister  on  the  same  date 

.  .  .  The  fact  is  that  I  have  got  a  good  deal  engaged  for 
the  vacation ;  I  have  asked  a  friend  [G.  0.  Trevelyan]  to 
stay  with  me  at  Rugby  for  the  week  after  Easter,  and  I  am 
going  down  to  examine  at  Harrow  at  the  end  of  March. 
Don't  think  of  me,  you  know  of  course,  but  just  write  and 
tell  me  your  independent  plans,  and  I  will  avariciously 
arrange  to  have  as  much  time  with  you  as  I  can. 

I  do  not  know  whether  you  see  Macmillan's  Magazine : 
if  you  did,  you  would  be  perhaps  indignant  at  discovering  a 
present  I  once  made  you  vulgarised  in  print.  I  mean  my 
rhymes,  "Wander,  0  wander."  I  told  Mamma,  and  she 
wrote  me  a  reproachful  criticism  for  being  so  unfeeling 
towards  the  young  lady  ! — so  much  for  one's  irony.  I 
intend  to  write  her  an  indignant  answer. 

Have  you  ever  seen  Hawthorne's  Scarlet  Letter  ?  It  is  a 
wonderful  work,  and  enchained  even  me,  who  am  tolerably 
sated  of  novels  now. 

I  am  just  getting  to  the  end  of  my  hard  work,  as  the 
Littlego  (which  I  never  thought  I  should  have  reason  to 
bless)  begins  on  Monday.  I  am  not  worn  to  a  Skellinton, 
but  I  shan't  be  sorry  for  rest.  Good-bye. 

The  poem  referred  to  was  published  in  Macmillan's 
Magazine  for  March  1860.  It  runs  as  follows  : — 

1  "  Evil  company,"  from  the   line  of  Menander,  <j>0dpovffi.v  ^ 
6fu\ia,i  K.Kat,  quoted  by  S.  Paul. 


1860,  AGE  22  HENRY  SIDGWICK  51 

GOETHE  AND  FREDERIKA 

i 

Wander,  0  wander,  maiden  sweet, 
In  the  fairy  bower,  while  yet  you  may. 
See,  in  rapture  he  lies  at  your  feet ; 
Rest  on  the  truth  of  the  glorious  youth, 
Rest — for  a  summer  day. 
That  great  clear  spirit  of  flickering  fire 
You  have  lulled  awhile  in  magic  sleep, 
But  you  cannot  fill  his  wide  desire. 
His  heart  is  tender,  his  eyes  are  deep, 
His  words  divinely  flow ; 
But  his  voice  and  his  glance  are  not  for  you ; 
He  never  can  be  to  a  maiden  true ; 
Soon  will  he  wake  and  go. 

II 

"  Well,  well,  'twere  a  piteous  thing 
To  chain  for  ever  that  strong  young  wing. 
Let  the  butterfly  break  for  his  own  sweet  sake 
The  gossamer  threads  that  have  bound  him ; 
Let  him  shed  in  free  flight  his  rainbow  light, 
And  gladden  the  world  around  him. 
Short  is  the  struggle  and  slight  is  the  strain : 
Such  a  web  was  made  to  be  broken, 
And  she  that  wove  it  may  weave  again. 
Or  if  no  power  of  love  to  bless 
Can  heal  the  wound  in  her  bosom  true, 
It  is  but  a  lorn  heart  more  or  less, 
And  hearts  are  many  and  poets  few  " ; 
So  his  pardon  is  lightly  spoken. 

In  May  1860  Mrs.  Sidgwick  gave  up  the  "Blue 
House  "  at  Rugby,  where  they  had  all  lived  since  1853, 
and  for  two  years  had  no  fixed  home.  He  writes  to 
her  at  Beddgelert  from  Cambridge  early  in  July  : — 

...  I  shall  not  come  home  [from  Germany,  where 
he  was  going]  until  I  am  forced,  unless  I  can  speak 
German  perfectly — there's  a  resolution  for  you.  I  leave 
Cambridge  to-morrow  for  London,  there  to  meet  a  few 
friends  attracted  to  the  metropolis  by  the  Eton  and  Harrow 
Match.  My  three  weeks  here  have  not  been  spent  quite  as 
I  could  wish,  but  still  they  have  been  profitable ;  they  have 


52  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

at  least  kept  me  out  of  virulent  hay  fever.  .  .  .  Thanks  for 
the  Ghost  story.  Did  I  tell  you  I  had  had  two  at  first  hand 
by  letter  from  a  clergyman  ?  very  remarkable  ones.  I  will 
tell  you  them  when  we  meet.  Mind  you  shut  up  everybody 
who  says  that  such  stories  can  only  be  got  from  "  cousin's 
cousin's  friends  "  or  such-like  distant  parties. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  London  (J.  J.  Cowell's) 
a  few  days  later 

.  .  .  For  myself,  I  am  going  abroad  in  about  a  day  or  so 
(exact  time,  depending  on  Patterson,  is  more  uncertain  than 
Louis  Napoleon's  movements),  going  to  fix  myself  at  Berlin, 
and  study  German  language,  life,  and  literature  for  about 
six  weeks ;  then  I  am  going  to  travel  till  the  end  of  the 
Long  in  Germany.  I  hope  to  see  many  interesting  towns, 
and  to  be  able  to  do  the  Ehine  lingeringly  and  jollily  with 
all  the  grapes  on  the  vines,  and  to  come  home  reading  and 
speaking  German  with  nearly  the  same  ease  as  English.  If 
I  do  that  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  keep  it  up  for  the 
future,  as  I  should  be  sure  to  read  German  literature  till  I 
had  exhausted  it,  if  I  could  only  read  it  with  real  comfort 
after  Hall.  Such  are  my  views. 

Do  you  know  that  I  am  considered  at  Cambridge  to 
have  become  irretrievably  donnish — probably  I  am  the  last 
person  to  hear  of  the  fact,  and  am  not  the  least  amused  by 
it — I  dare  say  it  is  true,  and  it  gives  me  another  induce- 
ment to  stay  up  at  Cambridge  and  discover  what  are  the 
internal  arrangements  of  that  being  whose  external  pheno- 
mena I  have  so  long  gazed  at  with  interest  and  admiration. 

...  I  am  in  great  uncertainty  still  as  to  my  future  life, 
but  as  I  have  a  golden  rule  never  to  think  about  myself 
for  more  than  half  an  hour  in  the  twenty-four,  it  does  not 
interfere  either  with  my  work  or  my  enjoyment. 

My  time  of  reading  at  Cambridge  was  considerably 
shortened ;  but  as  I  have  a  fixed  determination  to  take  no 
more  pupils  it  does  not  so  much  matter,  as  I  shall  have 
plenty  of  time  for  reading  next  term. 

Good-bye.     I  am  too  stupid  to  write  a  good  letter. 


i860,  AGE  22  HENRY  SIDGWICK  53 

To  his  Mother  on  July  19,  1860 

I  am  staying  now  with  my  friend  Cowell,  who  is  living 
here  now  en  gar$on,  as  his  family  are  gone  to  Norway.  I 
am  enjoying  myself  a  good  deal  as  London  is  always 
delightful  to  me ;  what  it  might  be  if  I  stayed  longer  than 
a  fortnight  I  do  not  know.  I  went  to  see  Holman  Hunt 
[The  Finding  of  Christ  in  the  Temple]  again.  I  think  the 
picture  improves  every  time  I  go,  and  has  given  me  more 
pleasure  than  any  other  I  ever  saw,  except,  perhaps,  the 
San  Sisto. 

What  do  you  think  ?  to-night  I  am  going  to  witness 
some  spirit-rapping.  I  do  not  know  the  least  what  pheno- 
mena I  shall  see,  but  I  intend  to  have  as  absolute  proof  as 
possible  whether  the  whole  thing  be  imposture  or  not 

Poetry.  I  have  no  '  afflatus '  now  ever,  and  I  can't 
write  any  except  I  have :  I  am  getting  prosy  generally.  .  .  . 
Well,  I  do  not  much  care ;  life  gives  me  a  great  deal  of 
happiness,  though  of  a  quieter  kind,  perhaps,  than  is  usual 
at  my  age. 

.  .  .  The  Saturday  Review  is  so  good  now;  it  is  the 
great  thing  I  regret  in  leaving  England,  as  I  don't  expect 
to  find  it  in  Berlin.1 

To  his  Mother  from  Berlin,  August  8 
...  I  travelled  hither  by  Antwerp,  Aix,  Hanover,  and 
Magdeburg.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  come  in  for  a 
remarkable  ceremony  at  Aix,  one  that  lasts  for  three  days 
and  occurs  only  once  in  seven  years — the  showing  of  the 
Greater  Relics.  It  was  a  striking  but  melancholy  sight. 
From  ten  to  twelve  all  the  space  round  the  Cathedral  from 
which  any  sight  of  the  Tower  Gallery  could  be  obtained  was 
crammed  with  pilgrims  all  too  poor  to  go  into  the  Cathedral 
afterwards,  for  which  Is.  was  charged.  The  Tower  Gallery  was 
the  scene  of  the  procession,  consisting  of  the  relics  and  relic- 
bearers  and  a  crowd  of  attendant  priests,  clothed,  I  suppose, 

1  This  was  still  the  heyday  of  the  Saturday  Review.  Men  like  Maine, 
Harcourt,  the  two  Bowens,  Freeman,  the  late  Lord  Salisbury,  Mark  Pattison, 
Mr.  John  Morley,  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  and  the  two  Stephens  were  writing 
for  it  about  this  time. 


54  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

appropriately.  I  brought  away  a  couple  of  memorials  in 
the  shape  of  little  tin  medals  piously  commemorative  of  the 
occasion.  I  went  into  the  Cathedral  afterwards  in  the 
midst  of  a  mass  of  one-shillingers  and  saw  the  relics,  which 
I  need  not  describe.  The  Cathedral  itself  is  a  striking  one, 
but  its  effect  was  spoilt  in  my  eyes  by  the  number  of 
tawdry  flags  intended  to  decorate  it  inside.  On  either  side 
of  the  principal  relic,  which  was  called  a  shift  belonging  to 
the  Virgin  Mary,  sat  two  priests,  who  every  minute  received 
handfuls  of  rosaries  from  the  passing  throng,  which  they 
applied  to  the  relic  and  then  returned.  The  contrast 
between  the  intense  reality  of  the  people's  devotion  and  the 
wretched  anachronism  of  its  object  might  have  made  me 
laugh ;  but  it  didn't,  it  made  me  very  sad. 

I  had  my  hay  fever  bad  in  Aix,  so  I  chose  to  go  by 
night  to  Hanover;  so  I  lost  the  country  on  the  whole. 
However,  I  felt  the  magic  of  the  Khine  when  I  crossed  it 
at  Diisseldorf,  and  woke  up  for  a  couple  of  hours  of  con- 
siderable interest  before  reaching  Hanover.  .  .  . 

To  his  Sister  from,  Berlin 

I  have  not  kept  my  promise,  have  I  ?  You  see  I  have 
been  bothered  and  unsettled  since  I  came  to  Berlin,  and 
hoping,  like  Mr.  Micawber,  that  something  would  turn  up. 
Something  has  turned  up  now,  and  I  am  living  en  famille 
with  Dr.  Liidde-Neurath,  1  Markgrafen  Strasse. 

It  is  very  simple  and  homely,  but  pleasant  for  a  change ; 
everybody  "  gemiithlich,"  which  is  as  untranslatable  a 
word  as  "  comfort "  in  English — "  genial "  comes  nearest. 
The  cheapness  is  wonderful,  especially  as  Berlin  is  a  dear 
town  for  Germany.  I  have  a  big  room  to  myself,  with  a 
fine  prospect ;  and  I  get  boarded  and  instructed  as  well  (not 
by  the  Dr.,  but  a  regular  teacher)  for  under  £10  for  six 
weeks.  I  can  converse  without  much  trouble,  though  I 
find  it  very  hard  to  make  a  joke  or  to  tell  a  story ;  in 
matters  of  food  or  politics  I  am  tolerably  at  home. 

Patterson,  who  went  out  with  me,  conceived,  I  regret 
to  say,  an  infinite  disgust  of  Berlin,  the  Germans,  their 


i860,  AGE  22  HENKY  SIDGWICK  55 

manners,  customs,  and  language.  Consequently  I  could  not 
prevail  on  him  to  stay  above  a  fortnight  here,  and  then  he 
went  off  to  tour  on  his  own  account ;  so  I  am  thrown 
entirely  on  my  own  resources,  which  is  at  least  good  for  my 
German.  Our  conversation  used  always  to  be  carried  on 
in  the  same  strain,  I  doing  the  enthusiastic  traveller,  he  the 
cynical.  For  instance  : — 

S.  "  The  reason  that  I  admire  this  town  is  that  it  is 
such  a  splendid  example  of  human  effort  unassisted  by 
nature — such  a  complete  creation." 

P.  "Well,  after  the  Creation  there  should  have  come  a 
Deluge  to  clean  the  streets." 

And  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  drainage  is  a  weak 
point  in  Berlin. 

I  am  a  wretched  man  for  seeing  sights,  but  I  did  go  and 
see  Potsdam  the  other  day,  and  was  very  much  pleased. 
.  .  .  The  palace  in  Potsdam  is  both  prettier  and  more 
interesting  than  the  Schloss  in  Berlin,  the  latter  as  con- 
taming  remains  of  Frederick  the  Great.  His  sword  was 
carried  off  by  the  Abhorred  One — the  uncle  of  "  Him,"  as 
the  comic  paper  always  styles  Louis  Napoleon.  It  is  quite 
wonderful  what  intense  hatred  burns  in  the  German  mind 
against  the  name  of  Napoleon.  .  .  . 

I  gained  nothing  from  my  spirit-rapping  but  experience 
in  the  lower  forms  of  human  nature :  the  woman  was  a 
complete  humbug.  This  does  not  in  the  least  shake  my 
(qualified)  belief  in  spirit-rapping,  as  I  hold  that  where 
there  is  flame  there  must  also  be  smoke.  She  accomplished, 
however,  some  very  remarkable  liftings  of  the  table,  which 
I  am  almost  compelled  to  attribute  to  a  concealed  machine, 
as  they  must  have  required  more  strength  than  she  was  pos- 
sessed of,  however  great  her  sleight  of  hand  may  have  been. 
Some  remarkable  dents  were  afterwards  discovered  under 
the  foot  of  the  table,  which  tend  to  confirm  this  theory.1 

.  .  .  Try  sleeping  between  two  feather  beds,  nothing 
else — only  try  it,  that's  all. 

1  The  sitting  had  taken  place  at  Cowell's  house. 


56  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

To  his  Mother  (on  hearing  of  the  birth,  on  August  19, 
of  his  nephew,  Martin  White  Benson) 

...  I  cannot  say  that  I  had  been  anxious,  as  I  fear 
I  anticipate  the  best  now  as  a  matter  of  course,  having 
enjoyed  unbroken  prosperity.  However,  I  need  not  say 
that  I  was  very  glad  to  receive  your  letter.  You  and 
Minnie,  however,  I  cannot  the  least  realise,  under  the  new 
circumstances :  I  have  tried,  but  found  it  in  vain :  I  shall 
require  to  see  the  darling  girl  again  first  before  I  can  screw 
up  my  imagination  to  the  facts.  The  only  picture  that 
presents  itself  as  lifelike  to  me  is  Elizabeth ; l  I  can  see  her 
now  smiling  and  making  subjunctive  observations.  Give 
Minnie  my  love,  congratulations,  and  best  wishes.  It 
makes  me  feel  old,  however.  I  make  remarks  to  myself  on 
the  subject  in  the  character  of  a  bachelor  uncle  of  at  least 
fifty  years  of  age.  By  that  time,  perhaps,  if  I  live  and 
have  done  my  duty,  the  unconstrained  mirth  which  I  lost 
prematurely  may  have  come  back  to  me;  but  I  do  not 
know  why  I  am  getting  on  this  topic,  only  a  variety  of 
events  have  lately  occurred  which  make  me  feel  how  unlike 
my  youthful  dreams  are  to  those  of  the  majority  of  man- 
kind, and  wonder  into  what  eccentric  mould  I  shall 
ultimately  harden. 

I  have  not  much  more  news  for  you,  at  least  only 
pictures  of  '  still  life '  now.  I  have  fallen  by  chance  upon 
a  family  which  is  just  such  a  one  as  I  would  have  chosen 
— more  German  than  most  in  Germany,  I  should  think. 
Tight  poverty  (they  only  keep  one  servant,  a  maid  of  all 
work  ;  we  have  no  wine,  beer,  or  pudding,  etc.  The  mother 
and  daughters  are  all  the  morning  engaged  in  '  household 
duties,'  viz.  cooking,  sweeping,  etc.,  and  in  dresses  that 
most  servants  in  England  would  not  wear),  thorough  uncon- 
strained geniality,  and  considerable  intellectual  cultivation. 
As  regards  means,  just  larely  in  the  rank  of  gentlemen,  yet 
without  the  least  particle  of  proud  humility,  or  any  other 
English  unpleasant  accompaniment  of  genteel  poverty.  The 
son  is  serving  as  a  volunteer  now — serving  his  year  (for  all 

1  His  old  nurse. 


i860,  AGE  22  HENRY  SIDGWICK  57 

Prussians  are  obliged  either  to  serve  three  years  as  regular 
soldiers,  or,  if  they  can  afford  it,  one  year  as  volunteers). 
He  has  accordingly  sometimes  to  get  up  at  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  to  be  on  parade  in  time ;  and  as  the  duty  of 
awaking  him  falls  on  his  father  the  doctor,  and  as  also  the 
latter  is  obliged  often  to  do  two  or  three  hours  of  head- 
work  at  night,  the  result  is  that  his  quantum  of  sleep  is 
often  less  than  Bishop  Ken's.  However,  he  is  always 
equally  genial  and  cheerful  and  capable  of  philosophical 
conversation.  .  .  . 

My  chief  amusement  is  the  theatre,  of  which  there  is  a 
large  number  in  Berlin ;  some  very  good  comic  acting,  and 
respectable  tragic,  but  the  man  who  takes  the  principal 
parts  is  unendurably  '  loud',  in  all  senses  of  the  word. 

My  teacher  I  like  very  much,  a  keen,  active,  lively, 
learned  young  German.  I  am  going  out  a  walk  with  him 
now,  and  must  conclude. 

To  his  Sister 

...  If  you  want  an  easy  and  delightful  German  book 
to  amuse  yourself  with,  purchase  some  of  Tieck's  Novellen. 
They  are  written  in  a  beautiful  flowing  style,  like  limpid 
gold,  and  worked  up  with  a  rare  perfection  of  art.  He  is 
my  only  new  acquaintance  in  the  belles-lettres  line. 

I  was  much  amused  lately  by  seeing  an  Englishman 
represented  on  the  German  stage.  He  appeared  in  a  suit 
of  perfect  white,  coat  and  all,  was  very  calm  and  deliberate 
in  all  his  movements,  and  unconsciously  coolly  impertinent 
in  his  observations.  .  .  .  The  Englishman  always  appears  in 
the  German  comedy,  (1)  when  any  eccentric  bet  is  required 
for  the  exigencies  of  the  plot,  (2)  when  anything  especially 
mad,  which  also  necessitates  a  lavish  expenditure  of  money, 
has  to  be  done ;  then  steps  in  the  Englander  with  his 
sovereigns. 

.  .  .  Employed  as  I  am  now  I  have  no  impulse  to 
indulge  in  composition,  and  indeed  I  have  conceived  too 
hearty  a  contempt  for  all  the  products  of  my  own  brain 
to  regret  this  at  all.  Perhaps  after  a  thorough  surrendering 


58  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

of  my  soul  to  the  contemplation  of  great  models  I  may  be 
qualified  to  produce  something  better.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Dresden,  September  23,  1860 

I  have  concluded  my  stay  at  Berlin,  and  if  I  have  not 
progressed  quite  so  far  in  German  as  I  might  have  done,  at 
any  rate  I  have  enjoyed  myself  much  and  learnt  a  good 
deal  in  other  ways.  I  think  I  shall  always  come  to 
Germany  when  I  want  to  learn  humility  and  contentment ; 
to  live  among  people  at  once  so  poor,  so  diligent,  so 
learned,  so  genial  and  happy  is  the  best  medicine  devisable 
for  restless  self-conceit  and  luxurious  ambition.  I  have 
dropped  over  to  Dresden  to  see  Ada 1  and  renew  my 
acquaintance  with  the  town  and  pictures.  It  is  certainly  a 
much  more  interesting  place  than  Berlin,  though  I  have 
acquired  an  affection  for  the  latter,  and  must  certainly 
return  in  a  year  or  two  to  visit  it  again.  .  .  .  We  went  to 
the  theatre  together  to  see  the  famous  Emil  Devrient  act. 
He  is  an  old  actor  of  nearly  sixty  who  has  outlived  his 
powers  but  not  his  reputation;  for  though  he  really  acts 
very  well,  the  applause  he  receives  is  paid  to  ten  years 
back. 

To  E.  W.  Benson  from  Ilseriburg,  October  2 

I  am  in  a  rustic  inn  in  the  Harz,  disinclined  to  play 
cards  and  unable  to  drink  any  more  of  the  thick  beer  which 
stands  before  me.  When  I  add  that  I  have  taken  a  walk 
of  nine  hours  to-day,  you  will  not  expect  an  intellectual 
letter  from  me.  (The  waiter  said  I  could  not  possibly 
walk  it.  "  Kellner,"  said  I,  "  when  an  Englishman  says  '  I 
will,'  he  does  it."  I  didn't  say  it  out  loud  because  in  the 
heat  of  the  moment  I  could  not  express  myself  in  German.) 
I  happen  to  be  in  the  Harz  because  I  have  lately  been 
present  at  a  giant  meeting  of  German  "  Philologues,  School- 
masters, and  Orientalists  "  at  Brunswick.  Professor  Herrig 
took  me  with  him  from  Berlin,  and  initiated  me  into  the 
mysteries  thereof.  I  attended,  however,  on  my  own  account 
as  "  Sidgwick,  Collaborator,  aus  Cambridge."  It  was  very 

1  His  cousin,  Ada  Benson,  afterwards  Mrs.  McDowalL 


i860,  AGE  22  HENRY  SIDGWICK  59 

interesting  to  come  upon  such  a  regular  knock-down  of 
German  Gelehrsamkeit.  I  saw  two  or  three  celebrated 
men  :  Ewald,  who  is  really  grand-looking — not  a  particle  of 
the  bookworminess  which  almost  all  have  to  some  extent — 
fine  eyes,  with  (what  Carlyle  would  call)  a  deep  heroic  soul 
looking  out  of  them.  I  was  introduced  to  Doderlein  ;  he  is 
a  dear  old  man  with  such  a  loving  face,  and  at  the  same 
time  very  refined  features,  expressing  the  thorough  scholar 
in  the  Cambridge  sense  of  the  word.  Well,  there  was 
wisdom  in  the  morning  and  wit  in  the  evening,  the  quality 
of  the  former  being  decidedly  superior  to  that  of  the  latter. 
What  struck  me  most  was  the  universally  good  speaking 
in  the  discussions,  really  eloquent  some  of  them  were,  and 
no  one  painful  to  listen  to.  The  essays  delivered  were  not 
very  good,  but  I  heard  a  really  splendid  translation  of 
(Edipus  Tyrannus  excellently  read  by  the  translator.  German 
is  a  better  language  for  translating  Greek  than  English, 
when  well  handled.  We  are  always  obliged  to  strain  our 
very  slight  power  of  compounding  words. 

Well,  I  have  enjoyed  my  stay  in  Berlin  very  much, 
though  the  university  was  not  going  on,  and  though  there 
are  considerable  drawbacks  to  Berlin  as  a  summer  residence. 
Professor  Herrig  has  been  very  kind  indeed,  though  he  and 
indeed  all  the  schoolmasters  were  so  very  busy  that  I  could 
not  see  much  of  them.  I  parted  from  him  in  Brunswick,  and 
he  desired  to  be  remembered  to  you  most  kindly.  I  was 
entrusted  with  similar  messages  to  you  from  the  Director 
and  Professor  Eanke.  What  a  rum  little  old  boy  the  latter 
is !  He  told  me  himself,  with  much  laughter,  the  last  time 
I  called  that  Lord  John  Russell  was  compared  to  him  when 
he  visited  Berlin,  and  really  there  is  much  resemblance  in 
build  between  them,  though  not  in  feature.  The  Director 
is  a  great  contrast  to  his  brother ;  there  was  a  portrait  of 
him  in  the  Berlin  Exhibition  of  pictures,  which  was  the 
most  striking  of  all  the  portraits  there.  I  was  present  at 
three  or  four  "  Stunden  "  in  his  school,  and  remarked  how 
very  odd  Greek  sounds  when  pronounced  according  to  the 
accents.  Politics  and  coffee  at  Stehely's  formed  a  very 


60  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

pleasant  item  in  the  order  of  the  day.  N.B. — One  of  the 
"  Orientalists  " — a  very  learned  man — having  visited  Berlin 
on  the  occasion  of  some  assembly,  was  so  enchanted  with 
this  side  of  it  that  he  refused  to  go  when  the  meeting  was 
over.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  1  must  stay  a  few  days  and  drink 
coffee  at  Stehely's."  I  am  very  slow,  however,  in  learning 
to  speak  the  language.  I  can  carry  on  a  conversation  now, 
but  I  continually  make  blunders  and  forget  the  right  word, 
and  I  never  attempt  to  tell  a  long  story  in  German.  With 
the  rest  of  my  progress  I  am  tolerably  satisfied. 

To  C.  H.  Tawney  from  the  Harz  on  October  2 

...  I  have  spent  six  weeks  in  Berlin  in  a  German 
family,  learning  the  language,  manners,  customs,  and  cookery 
of  our  Grandfather-land.  .  .  . 

Well,  Berlin  is,  after  all,  a  fine  town ;  it  strikes  one  on 
first  acquaintance  as  highly  artificial,  as  in  fact  it  was ;  it 
hasn't  "  growed  "  like  Topsy,  but  bears  traces  of  the  plastic 
hand  of  a  paternal  Government.  One  square,  where  one 
sees  the  royal  castle,  the  museum  and  the  arsenal  together, 
is  equal,  I  should  think,  to  anything  in  Europe.  I  have 
lived  with  a  doctor  as  poor  as  a  rat  and  as  learned  as  most 
Cambridge  tutors.  I  have  learned  to  fling  out  the  gutturals 
nearly  like  a  native,  to  sleep  between  two  feather  beds,  to 
smoke  home-growed  tobacco,1  to  go  to  bed  at  ten  and  get  up 
at  six,  to  drink  "  beer-soup "  (v.  Carlyle's  Frederick  the 
Great),  etc.,  etc.  Among  other  accomplishments  I  must  not 
omit  that  of  reading  German  newspapers  and  putting  myself 
— I  will  not  say  at  home — but  on  intimate  terms  with 
German  politics.  The  view  I  have  obtained  of  them  is  not 
fascinating.  All  parties  nearly  are  in  a  dilemma  between 
the  impossibility  of  moving  in  one  direction,  and  an 
inconquerable  disinclination  to  move  in  the  other.  Nobody 
is  content  with  things  as  they  are,  and  nobody  wants  to 
alter  them.  For  instance,  men  will  tell  you  in  one  sentence 
that  the  condition  of  Austria  is  incurable,  and  in  the  next 
that  the  preservation  of  Austria  is  necessary  to  Germany. 

1  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  first  began  smoking. 


i860,  AGE  22  HENRY  SIDGWICK  61 

Again,  everybody  allows  that  not  merely  Prussian  ambition, 
but  the  interests  of  Germany  render  it  requisite  that 
Prussia  should  maintain  her  position  as  a  Great  Power ; 
in  consequence  of  this  Prussia  has  to  live  beyond  her 
means,  and  it  is  only  due  to  the  really  excellent  government 
that  there  are  no  discontents  among  the  people.  Yet  any 
idea  of  enlarging  Prussian  territory  is  abhorred  by  all  but 
the  extremest  German  Radicals.  But  I  forgot  that  you 
haven't  been  boring  yourself  with  this  web  of  entanglements 
for  two  months. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  October  29 
We  must  come  to  some  arrangement  for  meeting  in 
winter.  I  get  away  about  the  14th  [of  December],  and 
am  ready  to  go  anywhere  and  do  anything  for  the  next 
three  weeks ;  the  last  month  of  the  vacation  I  am  rather 
disposed  to  spend  up  here  in  learning  Hebrew,  for  which 
I  require  a  space  of  perfectly  disengaged  time.  .  .  . 

I  am  engaged  now  six  hours  a  day  in  pure  talking, 
besides  two  hours  a  week  at  the  Working  Men's  College,1 
where  I  instruct,  among  others,  a  converted  Jew  in  the 
rudiments  of  Latin !  He  was  brought  by  a  queer  enthusi- 
astic Syrian  traveller  that  we  have  among  our  fellows. 
Hard  work  is  very  healthy,  especially  after  three  months 
ruminating  in  a  foreign  land. 

To  0.  Browning  at  Eton  later  in  the  Michaelmas  Term 
Of  course  I  ought  to  have  written  to  you  before,  but  how 
is  a  man  situated  as  I  am  to  do  what  he  ought?     When  I 

1  An  account  of  the  Working  Men's  College  at  Cambridge  will  be  found 
in  Cambridge  Described  and  Illustrated,  by  Atkinson  and  Clark  (Macmillan, 
1897).  It  was  founded  in  1855  in  imitation  of  the  one  established  in  London 
by  F.  D.  Maurice,  but,  unlike  the  latter,  which  is  still  flourishing,  it  came  to 
an  end  about  1865.  Its  original  promoters  were  Messrs.  Daniel  and  Alexander 
Macmillan,  Mr.  H.  M.  Butler,  now  Master  of  Trinity,  and  Mr.  Vesey,  now 
Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  and  it  provided  evening  classes  for  men  occu- 
pied during  the  day,  as  extension  lectures  and  classes  under  Government 
inspection  now  do.  The  classes  best  attended  were  those  in  English 
literature,  history,  elementary  mathematics,  Latin,  French,  and  drawing. 
We  learn  through  Mr.  R.  Bowes,  who  has  kindly  inquired  for  us,  that  no 
systematic  record  seems  to  exist  of  those  who  taught  in  it,  but  that  the 
minutes  state  that  H.  Sidgwick  was  elected  in  October  1860.  Whether  he 
continued  to  teach  there  later  we  do  not  know. 


62  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

say  situated,  I  do  not  want  to  express  a  state  of  rest  so 
much  as  a  state  of  motion :  for  inward  and  outward  impulses 
keep  me  all  day  long  on  the  move.  First,  I  have  got  nine 
pupils  and  three  lectures,  so  that  my  time  is  fully  occupied 
from  eight  to  two  every  day  (by  the  way,  breakfasting  in 
three  minutes  is  not  so  bad  for  the  digestion  as  one  might 
think  :  if  you  occupy  it  all  in  eating,  and  reserve  the  cup  of 
tea  to  drink  afterwards).  Now,  you  may  or  may  not  be 
aware  that  it  is  in  entire  opposition  to  my  former  plans  that 
I  am  now  coaching :  but — I  was  alone  abroad  for  three 
months — I  looked  into  my  soul  and  thought  I  discovered 
there  excessive  hastiness  ;  so  I  determined  that  I  would  take 
to  coaching  again  to  see  if  I  could  not  get  to  like  it.  I  am 
not  at  all  tired  by  it,  and  I  try  most  earnestly  to  think  that 
I  enjoy  it :  but  I  do  not  at  all  really,  and  I  shall  have  to 
give  it  up,  after  all,  presently.  "  There  must  be  other  work 
to  do,"  after  all,  for  a  man  with  really  no  lack  of  energy — a 
conceited  remark  which  I  would  only  make  to  a  brother 
['  apostle ']. 

Well,  I  have  almost  determined  not  to  take  orders.  I 
see  that  there  is  a  great  gulf  between  my  views  and  the 
views  once  held  by  those  who  framed  the  Articles  :  and  now 
held  by  at  least  a  portion  of  the  Church  of  England ;  I  think 
I  could  juggle  myself  into  signing  the  Articles  as  well  as 
any  one  else :  but  I  really  feel  that  it  may  at  least  be  the 
duty  of  some — if  so  e/ioi)  76 — to  avoid  the  best-motived 
perjury.  Well,  so  much  egotism  for  your  amusement  or 
boredom.  .  .  . 

To  0.  Browning  from  Cambridge,  January  31,  1861 

Macmillan  is  coming  out  to-morrow.  The  best  thing 
you  can  do  will  be  to  abuse  the  parts  in  the  article1  that 
you  do  not  like ;  there  are  sure  to  be  some.  To  tell  you 
the  truth,  there  is  one  paragraph,  after  all,  which  I  know  is 
too  strong.  .  .  . 

Trevelyan  has  been  telling  me  about  H and  Cowell. 

,  .  .  You  know  I  do  not  believe  in  H thoroughly ; 

1  An  article  (unsigned)  he  had  written  on  Eton. 


1861,  AGE  22  HENEY  SIDGWICK  63 

I  hope  I  am  not  canting,  but  I  think  he  is  just  a  little 
too  "  worldly."  He  seems  to  me  to  be  absorbed  by  an 
edacious  ambition :  and  that  is  what  I  fear  I  should  be 
if  I  went  to  London. 

After  all,  I  am  getting  to  believe  in  you  schoolmasters : 
not  that  I  feel  any  more  disposed  to  become  one.  But  I 
fall  back  on  my  old  idea  that  the  only  valuable  education  of 
the  human  soul  is  the  moral  one :  and  schoolmastering  is  at 
least  as  favourable  to  that  as  anything  else.  .  .  . 

Aldis  senior  !  Two  Senior  Wranglers  running  who  won't 
try  for  Fellowships.1  It  ought  to  make  some  impression. 

To  0.  Browning  a  little  later 

You  will  see  a  poem  you  may  know  in  next  Maemillan. 
I  only  publish  it  because  it  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  one 
does  not  write  merely  for  one's  own  satisfaction.  I  have  no 
ambition  at  present  to  invite  sympathisers  with  my  own  sub- 
jectivity (as  Teutons  would  say).  ...  I  am  hesitating  about 
going  to  the  Bar  in  October ;  I  do  not  think  I  shall  go,  but 
I  may.  I  foresee  the  gradual  decline  of  interesting  conver- 
sation :  and  I  know  that  I  am  not  a  man  that  can  exist 
without  it.  At  present  I  support  life  on  the  Society 
['Apostles']  and  J.  R.  Seeley  of  Christ's  (who  ought  to 
have  been  a  member). 

...  I  have  written  to  the  Times*  about  Essays  and 
Beviews,  but  I  do  not  expect  they  will  put  it  in.  Liberavi 
animam  meam  at  any  rate. 

Just  Hall  time  and  a  Library  Committee  meeting  (I  am 
President  of  the  Union)  after  Hall ;  then  an  evening  lecture 
on  Plato. 

P.S. — *As  Cambridge  Graduate.  It  is  in  to-day, 
Wednesday. 

The  poem  referred  to  in  this  letter,  and  which 
appeared  in  Maemillan' s  Magazine  for  March  1861, 
is  the  following  : — 

1  On  account  of  the  necessity  of  conforming  to  the  Church  of  England. 
The  two  were  Sir  James  Stirling  and  Mr.  W.  Steadman  Aldis. 


64  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

THE  DESPOT'S  HEIR 

Through  years  of  solitude  and  chill  disdain, 
Gnawed  by  suppressed  ambition's  hungry  woe, 
He  taught  his  crafty  eye  and  fathomless  brain 
All  springs  that  move  this  human  puppetrshow  : 

Watched  from  below  each  turn  of  Fortune's  wheel, 
And  learnt,  unknown,  with  kings  and  hosts  to  deal. 

Then  tiger-like  he  felt  his  stealthy  way, 

Till  tiger-like  he  leapt  upon  a  throne  : 

Hollow  and  cold  and  selfish  there  he  lay, 

Tuning  to  paeans  Freedom's  dying  moan, 

Crouched  in  the  shadow  of  a  mightier  name, 
Masked  with  the  mantle  of  a  vaster  fame. 

Silent  with  steady  hand  and  calm  quick  eye 

He  wrought  his  robe  of  greatness  day  by  day ; 

Men's  hope  and  fear  and  love  and  enmity 

He  wove  like  threads  with  passionless  potent  sway : 

And  sacred  names  of  "righteous,"  "generous,"  "grand," 
He  shed  like  pigments  from  the  painter's  hand. 

Unreverencing,  unfeeling,  unbelieving — 

And  all  the  world  around,  his  vast  machine, 

Felt  strange  new  forces  mid  its  varied  heaving, 

And  hidden  tempests  burst  the  false  serene, 
And  nations  bled  and  royal  houses  fell — 
And  still  the  despot's  weaving  prospered  well. 

This  and  "Goethe  and  Frederika," quoted  above, are, 
we  believe,  the  only  poems  he  ever  published  except 
in  a  school  magazine,  though,  as  may  be  seen  from 
his  letters,  he  had  in  his  early  years,  like  many  others, 
higher  hopes  and  ambitions  in  this  line. 

The  letter  to  the  Times  referred  to  above,  and 
which  appeared  on  February  20,  is  characteristic.  It 
is  as  follows  : — 

May  I  address  you  a  few  words,  on  behalf  of  the 
thinking  laity  of  England,  upon  the  much-vexed  question  of 
Essays  and  Reviews  ? 

What  we  all  want  is,  briefly,  not  a  condemnation,  but  a 
refutation.  The  age  when  ecclesiastical  censures  were 
sufficient  in  such  cases  has  passed  away.  A  large  portion 


1861,  AGE  22  HENEY  SIDGWICK  65 

of  the  laity  now,  though  unqualified  for  abstruse  theological 
investigations,  are  yet  competent  to  hear  and  decide  on 
theological  arguments.  These  men  will  not  be  satisfied  by 
an  ex  cathedra  shelving  of  the  question,  nor  terrified  by  a 
deduction  of  awful  consequences  from  the  new  speculations. 
For  philosophy  and  history  alike  have  taught  them  to  seek 
not  what  is  "  safe,"  but  what  is  true.  What  has  hitherto 
appeared — a  couple  of  intemperate  articles  in  Pharisaical 
organs ;  a  pamphlet  by  one  of  the  washiest  of  High  Church 
bookmakers ;  an  article  in  the  Quarterly,  with  the  usual 
irritability  and  more  than  the  usual  unfairness  of  that 
review — such  things  as  these  are  calculated  only  to  alienate 
the  men  I  speak  of.  And  yet  these  men  cling  with  all 
their  hearts  to  Church  of  England  Christianity !  As  a 
learned  living  divine  (Mr.  Westcott)  expresses  it,  they  love 
their  early  faith,  but  they  love  truth  more. 

We  want,  then,  a  reply  which  will  take  each  essay 
separately,  discuss  it  fully  and  fairly,  entering  into  the 
writer's  point  of  view.  We  want  a  reply  not  purely  anta- 
gonistic, but  containing,  besides  a  refutation  of  errors,  the 
definition,  as  far  as  possible,  of  the  truths  neglected  or  per- 
verted in  those  errors.  We  want,  in  short,  a  book  written 
in  the  spirit  of  Bishop  Butler.  Such  a  reply,  especially, 
must  not  proceed  on  the  assumption  of  a  "  conspiracy " 
among  the  essayists.  This  assumption  is  as  unfair  to  their 
real  sentiments  as  it  is  opposed  to  their  express  declaration. 
All  the  friends  of  the  essayists  know  that  the  only  ground 
upon  which  they  have  met  is  a  belief  in  the  advantage  of 
perfectly  open  discussion  and  perfectly  impartial  investiga- 
tion. If  they  can  be  met  and  refuted  on  their  own  ground, 
the  publication  of  the  book  will  have  been  a  blessing  to  the 
Church ;  for  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact  that  the  thoughts 
they  have  expressed  have  long  been  floating  vaguely  through 
the  minds  of  many.  The  way  in  which  they  have  hitherto 
been  handled  will  increase  their  influence,  I  think,  upon  the 
mass  of  English  laity ;  it  will  increase  their  influence,  I  am 
sure,  upon  the  youth  of  England. 


66  HEXEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

To  H.  G.  Dalcyns,  probably  in  the  Lent  Teiin  of  1861 
...  As  for  me,  I  live  a  lotus-eating  life,  unmingled  with 
introspection  (just  at  present),  but  not  free  from  many 
anxieties  as  to  the  future ;  and  tempered  with  political 
economy,  which  I  am  studying  just  as  a  ballast  to  my 
necessarily  busy  selfishness,  which  would  otherwise  be  intoler- 
able to  my  real  self. 

I  wish  I  was  a  hereditary  legislator.  I  would  renovate 
the  House  of  Lords.1  The  British  aristocracy  should  have 
another  lease  of  existence.  Never  mind.  ...  I  forget 
whether  you  agree  with  Mill's  population  theory.  I  think 
the  way  he  blinks  the  practical  morality  of  the  question  is 
the  coolest  thing  I  know.  And  I  know  many  cool  things  on 
the  part  of  your  thorough-going  theorists.  I  believe  in  "  Be 
fruitful  and  multiply."  I  think  the  most  crying  need  now 
is  a  better  organised  colonisation.  To  think  of  the  latent 
world -civilisation  in  our  swarms  of  fertile  Anglo-Saxon 
pauperism. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge  at  the  end  of  May  1861 

You  see  I  have  not  given  up  my  "  Laing's-Denmark " 
idea,2  as  you  call  it,  but  I  am  very  undecided  as  to  whether 
I  shall  leave  Cambridge  this  year  or  not.  You  see  I  am 
not  very  quick  in  "  creating  myself  a  sphere  "  of  action ;  I 
have  one  at  Cambridge,  and  am  loth  to  leave  it  on  a 
voyage  of  pure  self-improvement.  Besides,  if  I  utilise  my 
Longs,  perhaps  on  the  whole  my  great  travel  may  as  well 
be  deferred  for  a  few  years ;  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  get  more 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  iny  own  country  before  making 
the  examination  of  foreign  ones  my  sole  object  These 
reasons  will,  I  think,  induce  ine  to  refrain  from  starting  off 
to  the  Continent  at  the  end  of  this  Long,  as  I  once  thought 
of  doing.  .  .  . 

I  read  through  Mill's  Representative  Government  in  one 
morning.  It  is  extremely  good,  I  think,  though  I  cannot 
get  over  my  scepticism  as  to  the  elaborate  Hare-ian  scheme. 

1  There  had  been  an  attack  on  the  House  of  Lords  on  account  of  its 
resistance  to  the  repeal  of  the  paper  duty  in  1860. 

2  Idea  of  travelling  for  study,  as  Lairig  did  in  Denmark. 


1861,  AGE  23  HENEY  SIDGWICK  67 

As  to  [Mill  and]  population  .  .  .  colonisation  is  unanswer- 
able, I  think  ;  if  not,  please  answer  it.  You  simply  pass  it 
by,  and  talk  about  paper  duties.  The  taking  off  of  these  I 
consider  a  black  piece  of  official  or  Parliamentary  tyranny  ! 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge  about  July  1,  1861 

I  have  been  very  successful  in  life  since  our  brief  and 
transitory  yet  happy  (as  far  as  one  can  be  happy  in  this 
life,  which,  as  the  farmer  said,  isn't  much)  interview 
terminated  at  the  Royal  Academy.  Successful,  that  is, 
not  considering  the  pecuniary  losses  which  my  habitual 
carelessness  has  brought  upon  me ;  they  have  been  rather 
above  the  average,  as  they  have  amounted  to  nine  shillings 
in  as  many  days.  I  fear  that  a  large  family  on  £300  a 
year  is  the  only  thing  that  would  now  make  me  properly 
thrifty.  .  .  . 

I  proposed  to  her  [his  mother]  our  plan  as  to  [her 
settling  at]  Cambridge,  and  urged  it  on  her  as  strongly 
as  I  felt  I  ought :  but  she  thinks  I  am  as  yet  too  un- 
settled for  her  to  anchor  herself  on  such  a  shifting  shore. 
And  perhaps  she  is  right.  I  am  full  of  dreams  now,  not 
that  I  feel  confident  that  any  of  them  will  come  to  much. 
But  I  wish  that  1  had  a  kindred  spirit  still  left  at  Cam- 
bridge. All  my  kindred  spirits  are  now  wasting  their 
sweetness  as  schoolmasters,  and  I  go  and  visit  them  with 
a  strange  mixture  of  envy  and  regret  for  their  sakes.  I 
am  very  happy  here  with  my  books :  I  read  Macaulay 
and  Mill  alternately,  and  the  contrast  of  styles  enhances 
the  enjoyment  of  both.  I  pleasantly  diversify  the  com- 
bination with  geography.  I  must  buy  Johnstone's  Physical 
Atlas.  I  am  going  to  study  geology  this  summer  while 
moving  about.  Only  sometimes  I  have  a  wish  to  talk — 
seasons  when 

man's  thought, 
Barer,  intenser, 

Selfgathered  for  an  outbreak,  as  it  ought, 
Chafes  in  the  censer.1 

1  Browning's  ' '  Grammarian's  Funeral "  was  a  favourite  poem  of  his. 


68  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

But  I  should  only  care  to  talk  to  one  person — one  out  of 
four  or  five  all  many  miles  off. 

To  U.  G.  Dakyns,  from  his  uncle  Francis  Lace's  house, 
Stone  Gappe,  near  Skipton,  on  August  24,  1861 

...  As  for  myself,  I  gave  up  my  idea  of  going  abroad, 
and  determined  to  pay  a  debt  of  visits  to  my  kindred  in 
Yorkshire.  I  wanted  time  and  quiet  to  settle  entirely  my 
plan  of  life.  For  I  feel  that  some  fundamental  personal 
questions  ought  to  be  settled  this  Long:  or  else  I  shall 
begin  to  drift  in  the  ambiguous  way  that  so  many  College 
Fellows  do.  The  only  choice  with  me  is  between  the  Bar 
in  London  and  Study  in  Cambridge.  For  the  Bar  there  are : 

(1)  The  prospect,  very  problematical,  of  attaining  the  posi- 
tion of  a  practical  politician  (for  which  I  doubt  my  fitness). 

(2)  The    certainty   of   the    precious    (to    me)   stimulus    of 
intellectual  society.     (3)  The  conviction  that  the  work  of 
that  profession,  if  vastly  more   absorbing,  is   vastly  more 
improving  than  Tuition.     Against  it  is:  (1)  The  chance  of 
failure,  involving  the  renunciation  of  domesticity  and  the 
adoption,   wearied   and  baffled,   of  the   career  (of   literary 
action)    which    I    now    renounce.       (2)  The    certainty    of 
neglecting    in  professional   and  political    engagements    the 
deeper   problems   which    now   interest   me,    especially  the 
great    one   of  reconciling   my  religious   instinct   with    my 
growing  conviction  that  both  individual  and  social  morality 
ought   to   be   placed   on  an   inductive  basis.     This   is  my 
present  personal  subject  of  meditation ;  if  you  will  give  me 
any  advice  it  will  be  received  with  interest.     [(3)]   I  ought 
to  have  mentioned  a  repugnance,  perhaps  unreasonable,  to 
advocacy  as  practised  in  England. 

I  see  the  reviews  are  very  hard  on  Buckle,1  justly  so, 
I  think,  except  that  they  refuse  to  appreciate  the  originality 
which  he  certainly  shows  as  an  artist,  if  not  as  a  thinker. 
Abuse  him  as  you  like,  he  is  the  first  Englishman  who  has 
attempted  to  write  scientific  history,  and  I  for  one  paid  a 

1  History  of  Civilisation  in  Eiigland,  vol.  i.,  published  in  1857  ;  vol.  ii., 
in  1861. 


1861,  AGE  2.3  HENEY  SIDGWICK  69 

tribute  to  that  attempt  in  the  intense  interest  with  which 
I  read  it.  If  it  is  presumptuous  to  pretend  to  construct 
a  science  of  History  in  the  present  stage  of  our  development, 
it  seems  to  me  still  more  presumptuous  to  say  that  such  a 
science  "  transcends  the  faculties  of  men  "  ;  and  this  is  a  fair 
statement  of  my  present  views  on  the  question.  If  I  stay 
at  Cambridge  I  should  like  to  divide  my  time  between 
general  scepticism  as  free  as  air,  and  inductive  "Politik"  as 
practical  and  detailed  as  I  can  get  it,  to  secure  me  from 
being  a  dreamer.  I  leave  out  literature  in  dividing  my 
time,  just  as  I  leave  out  food ;  both  the  one  and  the  other 
will  get  taken  in  in  quite  sufficient  quantities.  Politically, 
I  am  getting  to  feel  an  enlightened  and  sympathetic 
detestation  for  our  democrats  (Bright  and  Cobden,  assisted 
by  Congreve  and  Co.),  more  and  more  strongly  every  day. 
Their  alliance  with  the  perjured  despot  of  France  has  long 
shown  (to  me)  their  cloven  hooves,  and  I  cannot  be  suffi- 
ciently thankful  for  it.  I  am  much  more  fixed  politically 
than  anywhere  else.  I  seem  to  see  as  clear  as  if  it  was 
in  history,  the  long  Conservative  reaction  that  awaits  us 
when  the  Whig  party  have  vanished,  and  I  also  see  the 
shock  menaced  by  the  Eadical  opposition  when  they  have 
sufficiently  agitated  the  country.  The  only  remedy,  the 
only  means  to  "save  the  one  true  seed,"  etc.,  is  to  form  a 
Liberal  Mediative  party  on  the  principles  of  J.  S.  Mill. 
To  this  effort  I  humbly  devote  my  humble  self  and 
influence. 

If  I  could  rejoice  over  the  disorder  of  Naples  it  would 
[be]  because  it  affords  such  a  signal  triumph  to  the  admirers 
of  Cavour  over  those  of  Garibaldi.  All  the  work  of  "  the 
schemer  "  has  lasted  and  thriven.  If  anything  overthrows 
it,  it  will  be  the  result  of  "  the  hero's  "  imprudence.  Don't 
set  me  down  as  sneering  at  Garibaldi,  only  the  excessive 
admiration  of  him  and  depreciation  of  Cavour  seems  to  me 
vulgar  and  unenlightened :  an  exaltation  of  the  inorganic 
over  the  organic  which  I  think  the  most  dangerous  result 
of  the  democratic  movement  of  society. 

I  am  going  back  to  Cambridge  soon ;  not  going  abroad 


70  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

at  all.  I  am  engaged  to  write  an  article  on  Tocqueville, 
which  I  shall  do  can  amore :  only  I  am  so  utterly  ignorant 
of  everything  French  that  I  am  afraid  of  putting  some 
nonsense  into  it.  Write  and  say  how  long  you  shall  be 
in  Paris.  I  might  come.  It  depends  whether  the  article 
is  for  October  or  November,  which  I  do  not  quite  know.1 
I  have  been  reading  a  little  French  and  Italian — nothing 
else.  I  have  a  growing  passion  for  French  prose  of  a 
certain  kind,  an  appetite  that  must  have  satisfaction  in  the 
course  of  the  next  year.  We  have  been  up  all  hills,  etc., 
in  the  Lakes — very  jolly.  .  .  . 

He  had  been  staying  with  his  mother  and  brothers 
at  Miss  dough's  house,  Eller  How,  Ambleside — which 
Mrs.  Sidgwick  had  taken  for  some  weeks  that  summer 
— and  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Alexander  Macmillan  on 
July  23  concerning  this  very  article  on  Tocqueville, 
wrote  :— 

My  early  rising  gives  me  the  regular  advantage  of  two 
hours  over  the  rest  of  my  household ;  so  that  though  I  am 
ostensibly  quite  idle,  I  have  still  time  for  study.  Also, 
in  this  month  and  this  country  the  man  that  holds  the 
watering-pot  is  very  active,  and  proves  a  considerable  check 
on  our  pedestrian  operations. 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge  at  the,  end  of  August  or 
beginning  of  September 

Now  for  a  subject  painful  to  me.  You  will  have  heard 
from  Mamma  that  I  was  offered  a  mastership  at  Rugby  [by 
Dr.  Temple],  and  had  accepted  it.  I  have  now  again  ultimately 
refused  it.  I  have  behaved  very  badly.  It  cost  me  much 
mental  struggle  to  break  my  word :  but  I  thought  it  better 
not  to  prolong  the  error  of  a  day  into  the  mistake  of  a  life. 
I  do  not  know  if  they  will  forgive  me  at  Rugby.  I  am 
going  abroad  now  to  shake  the  whole  thing  off  my  mind. 

You  see,  Mamma  wanting  to  go  to  Rugby,  and  my 
wanting  to  live  with  her,  and  my  being  so  fond  of  Rugby, 

1  The  article  appeared  in  Macmillaris  Magazine  for  November  1861,  and 
is  reprinted  as  a  supplement  to  Misfellnneoun  Essays  and  Addresses. 


isei,  AGE  23  HENKY  SIDGWICK  71 

and  having  such  an  admiration  for  Dr.  Temple  and  liking 
Butler1  so  much,  and  knowing  so  many  people  there,  and 
being  inclined  to  an  act  of  self-sacrifice,  and  fearing  the 
selfishness  of  College  life — all  this  (and  the  pecuniary 
temptation  and  the  chance  of  getting  settled — as  baser 
motives  superadded)  made  me  neglect  the  one  plain  fact, 
which  far  outweighs  the  rest — that  I  know  my  vocation  in 
life  to  be  not  teaching  but  study.  When  I  came  up  to 
Cambridge  I  saw  this.  Edward  will  understand  better 
than  you  why  I  absolutely  dare  not  give  up  my  time  now. 
Will  you  show  him  this  letter  ?  I  do  not  defend  my 
conduct — I  was  inexcusably  hasty  in  promising.  I  may 
have  been  wrong,  but  I  do  not  think  I  was,  in  retracting. 
I  wished  him  to  know  the  truth  on  this  matter,  as  he  will 
probably  hear  of  it  from  elsewhere. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  about  December  1 

.  .  .  What  do  you  think  of  the  Trent  row  ? 2  Of  course 
we  talk  of  nothing  else  here.  I  hope  there  will  be  no  child- 
ishness about  "  our  flag,"  but,  of  course,  if  Seward  wants  a 
war  with  England,  he  must  have  it,  and  I  hope  he  will 
like  it ;  to  me  international  law  seems  clearly  on  our  side. 
I  didn't  think  so  at  first. 

Early  in  1861  a  society  called  the  "Initial  Society" 
was  founded  to  carry  on  discussion  by  correspondence 
of  any  subjects  that  might  occur  to  the  members. 
One  member  started  a  discussion  by  a  note,  and  this 
went  round  to  the  other  members,  who  added  notes- 
long  or  short — criticising  or  agreeing.  The  notes 
were  signed  by  initials — hence  the  name.  The  society, 
which  owed  its  origin  to  Mr.  F.  E.  Kitchener,  con- 
sisted of  six  or  eight  young  men  and  women,  not 
necessarily  known  to  each  other — F.  E.  Kitchener 
himself  and  his  sister  (now  Mrs.  Peile),  Henry 
Sidgwick  and  his  sister  (Mrs.  Benson),  H.  G.  Dakyns, 

1  A.  G.  Butler,  afterwards  Headmaster  of  Haileybury. 

2  The  seizure,  by  an  American  warship,  of  Envoys  from  the  Confederate 
States  on  board  the  English  mail  steamer  Trent.     They  were  afterwards 
released. 


72  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

J.  Peile,  H.  W.  Eve,  and  Miss  E.  Rhodes,  a  friend  of 
Miss  Kitchener,  were  all  at  least  for  a  time  members. 
The  society  was  active  during  1861  and  1862,  and 
went  on  at  any  rate  through  1863.  It  discussed 
many  subjects,  such  as  Music,  Colenso,  Mixed  Motives, 
Toleration,  Vocation  of  Women,  Paul  Ferroll,  Dress, 
Who  are  the  Men  who  influence  most  directly  their 
Generation,  Men  and  Women  re  Training  of  Boys 
and  Girls,  Justice  and  Philanthropy,  Sermons.  The 
following  passage  from  a  note  by  Henry  Sidgwick,  in 
a  preliminary  discussion  as  to  the  work  of  the  society 
itself,  shows  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  intended  that 
the  discussions  should  be  carried  on. 

The  leading  principle  of  our  action  should  surely  be  to 
embody  a  part  of  ourselves  in  our  notes.  Let  us  write 
down  our  own  thoughts  exactly  as  they  exist  in  us  at  the 
time  of  writing ;  and  let  us  express  them  exactly  in  the 
dress  that  seems  to  us  to  fit  them  best.  Don't  let  us 
think  of  style,  as  style,  or  write  by  rules.  Of  course  let  us 
aim  at  clearness  and  conciseness,  avoid  conscious  slovenli- 
ness, and  admit  any  ornaments  that  are  thoroughly  natural. 
But  let  us  avoid  like  poison  writing  for  effect.  We  are  not 
writing  for  a  lazy  and  luxurious  public  for  whom  truth 
must  be  sugared,  but  for  one  another.  The  best  rule  for 
style  in  all  compositions  is  "  keep  your  audience  in  mind." 
"  Write  at  somebody,  as  you  always  talk  at  somebody." 

The  following  passages  in  "  notes  "  by  him  bearing 
on  the  education  of  women  are  of  some  biographical 
interest  in  view  of  his  later  work.  After  discussing 
the  advantage  to  most  people  of  marriage,  he  says 
(the  date  was  probably  about  October  1862)  :— 

Not  that  I  think  celibacy  a  unique  evil,  considered  in 
its  effect  on  general  happiness,  probably  dyspepsia  is  on 
the  whole  more  powerful,  but  an  evil  it  is  for  the  majority. 
This  being  the  case,  it  always  seems  to  me  rather  a  noble 
thing  for  a  person  of  great  natural  elevation  not  to  marry, 


1862,  AGE  23  HENEY  SIDGWICK  73 

except  under  peculiar  circumstances.  If  other  human 
relations  develop  in  us  an  equal  flow  of  love  and  energy 
(the  primary  and  paramount  branch  of  self-culture),  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  greater  freedom  of  celibacy,  the  higher 
self-denial  of  its  work,  the  time  it  leaves  for  useful  but 
unlucrative  pursuits,  the  material  means  it  places  at  our 
disposal  for  the  advantage  of  our  fellow-creatures  ought  to 
have  great  weight  in  the  balance — in  a  densely-populated 
country  the  last  especially,  and  in  a  commercial  age  the 
last  but  one.  So  far  I  have  argued  generally ;  but 
descending  to  women  in  particular  I  entirely  agree  with 
E.  R.  as  to  the  immense  educational  influence  in  the  hands 
of  single  women,  if  they  are  but  trained  to  see  and  use  it. 

And  again  in  another  note  : — 

I  agree  with  H.  G.  D.  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  say 
beforehand  whether  women  could  ever  become  like  men. 
I  would  rather  ask,  "  Could  their  education  and  position  in 
society  be  assimilated  to  that  of  men  with  advantage  ? " 
For  example  (1),  E.  R.  confesses  that  their  mental  training 
is  miserably  deficient ;  it  ought  therefore  to  be  altered ; 
the  only  conceivable  way  of  altering  it  would  render  it 
more  like  that  of  men.  (2)  I  agree  with  H.  G.  D.  that  we 
ought  to  give  women  certain  rights  which  they  may  fairly 
claim,  and  which  we  at  present  withhold  from  them.  I  am 
amused,  however,  by  my  friend  professing  a  desire  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  greatest  moderation,  and  then  coming  out 
with  a  measure  so  violently  radical  as  that  of  giving  women 
votes  in  elections.1  .  .  .  But  I  think  that  simple  justice 
would  make  us  ...  throw  open  to  them  such  professions 
as  they  can  be  qualified  for. 

1  Some  twenty  years  later  Sidgwick's  view  on  the  franchise  question  had 
changed.  In  a  letter  on  Women's  Franchise  to  the  Spectator  of  May  31, 
1884,  he  says,  "So  long  as  the  responsibility  is  thrown  on  women, 
unmarried  or  widows,  of  earning  their  own  livelihood  in  any  way  that 
industrial  competition  allows,  their  claim  to  have  the  ordinary  constitu- 
tional protection  against  any  encroachments  on  the  part  of  other  sections 
of  the  community  is  prirnd  facie  undeniable.  And  surely  .  .  .  this  broad 
and  obvious  consideration  ought  to  prevail  against  any  ingenious  arguments 
that  may  be  constructed  for  concluding  that  the  interests  of  women  are  not, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  likely  to  be  encroached  upon." 


74  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

To  E.  M.    Young  from  Oxford,  January  28,  1862.     (Mr. 
Young  was  ill,  and  Jiad  obtained  permission  to  defer  his 
final  degree  examination  for  a  year.) 

...  I  have  no  doubt  .  .  .  that  just  now  you  are  feeling 
what  a  bore  it  will  be  to  have  to  work  a  year  more  at 
the  old  curriculum.  But  you  ought  to  console  yourself 
by  thinking  how  much  worse  it  would  be  if  you  were  a 
mathematical  man.  (This  is,  I  am  told,  the  approved  and 
orthodox  method  of  taking  comfort  under  misfortune.)  .  .  . 

I  wish  I  was  at  Oxford,  where  they  are  always  having 
exciting  controversies  which  keep  them  alive.  Nothing  is 
so  fertile  in  jokes  and  happy  sayings  as  a  good  semi- 
theological  row.  Just  now  Jowett  and  his  foes  divide  the 
attention  of  the  common  rooms  with  Mansel  and  Gold  win 
Smith.  I  have  just  read  G.  S.'s  Rational  Religion.  It 
seems  smashing,  but  he  loses  by  being  over-controversial. 
There  should  be  at  least  an  affectation  of  fairness  in  a 
damaging  attack  of  the  kind.  People  consider  Mansel's 
chance  of  a  bishopric  as  lessened.  .  .  . 

I  went  up  to  Cambridge  [in  the  vacation]  to  have  a 
quiet  study  of  Auguste  Comte.  I  have  rather  less  sym- 
pathy with  his  views  than  before ;  but  his  life  is  a  fine 
evidence  of  the  power  of  enthusiasm  even  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  I  tried  to  fancy  being  a  Positivist  and  adoring 
Gutenberg,  the  inventor  of  printing,  but  I  found  the 
conception  impossible. 

The  following  fragment  is  all  that  remains  of  a 
letter  to  Roden  Noel,  which  must  have  been  written 
in  February  or  March  1862  : — 

haunted  by  a  dread  that  it  is  only  a  wild  dream,  all  this 
scientific  study  of  Human  Nature,  a  dream  as  vain  and 
unsubstantial  as  Alchemy.  At  such  moments,  if  I  had  been 
brought  up  a  Roman  Catholic,  I  might  become  a  Jesuit  in 
order  to  get  a  definite  object  in  life,  and  have  it  over.  I 
am  sometimes  startled  to  find  to  what  a  halt  my  old 
theological  trains  of  thought  and  sentiment  have  come ;  I 
have  never  deliberately  discarded  them,  but  the  scientific 


1862,  AGE  23  HENKY  SIDGWICK  75 

atmosphere  seems  to  paralyse  them.  However,  I  cling  to 
the  hope  of  a  final  reconcilement  of  spiritual  needs  with 
intellectual  principles. 

1  had  to  come  to  an  abrupt  conclusion,  and  now  I 

do  not  know  what  I  was  going  to  say  next.  I  am  certainly 
bored  to-day.  One  thing  is  that  our  folk  have  decided  to 
put  up  a  statue  to  the  late  Prince  [Albert],  instead  of  com- 
memorating him  by  promoting  the  studies  he  had  at  heart. 
I  confess  I  think  commemorative  statues  not  the  most 
appropriate  things  on  Academic  ground.  .  .  .  The  real  grief 
is  that  I  seem  to  see  more  clearly  the  hopelessness  of 
reviving  a  vigorous  Philosophy  in  these  time-honoured 
courts.  Eeally  everybody  with  spirit  nowadays  is  resolute 
to  enter  on  what  is  called  life ;  and  there  are  left  behind 
but  a  sufficient  number  of  lazy  egotists,  pedants,  and  jolly 
good  fellows  to  absorb  the  revenues  of  our  religious  founders, 
and  carry  on  the  narrow  studies  of  the  place.  And  I, 
without  masters,  without  sympathy,  feel  that  it  will  be  a 
dreary  struggle.  If  I  go  on  I  shall  inflict  all  my  tedious - 
ness  on  you. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  March 

...  I  have  taken  my  name  off  the  books  of  the 
University  club,  which  looks  like  not  going  to  the  Bar; 
but  I  still  hanker  after  the  fleshpots  of  Egypt ;  especially 
when  I  dine  in  College  halls  and  hear  dull  conversation,  I 
think  how  I  might  be  listening  to  interesting  talk  in 
London  if  it  were  not  for  this  confounded  Fellowship,  which 
lapses  in  seven  years.  I  wonder  (1)  if  I  should  do  for  the 
Bar,  (2)  if  I  should  preserve  my  zealous,  philosophic,  and 
generalising  spirit  while  loading  my  memory  with  a  mass 
of  forensic  detail.  You  will  see  that  my  spirit  is  not  at 
rest.  However,  I  am  busy,  in  the  deepest  sense  of  the 
word :  I  am  revolving  a  Theory  of  Ethics,  which  I  think 
might  appear  in  the  form  of  essays ;  I  think  I  see  a 
reconciliation  between  the  moral  sense  and  utilitarian 
theories.  I  am  reading  Comte  too  again,  and  am  just 
now  by  way  of  taking  long  solitary  constitutionals  in  order 


76  HEXEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

to  unravel  a  violent  reaction  from  Comteism  which  at  present 
holds  me.  I  cannot  swallow  his  Religion  of  Humanity,  and 
yet  his  arguments  as  to  the  necessity  of  Religion  of  some 
sort  have  great  weight  with  me.  At  present  I  am  much 
more  a  disciple  of  Herbert  Spencer  than  of  Comte :  but  I 
am  thinking  of  enunciating  the  formula  "  God  is  Love  "  as 
a  scientific  induction  to  form  the  basis  of  a  religion. 
Do  you  ever  read  Browning's  poems  ?  They  form  my 
light  reading  at  present : — 

Others  mistrust  and  say,  "  But  Time  escapes, 

Live  now  or  never." 
He  said,  "  What's  Time  ?  leave  Now  for  doge  and  apes, 

Man  has  for  ever." 

Whether  this  is  objectively  true  or  not,  I  cannot  help 
having  an  aesthetic  admiration  of  it. 

To  his  Sister  about  the  end  of  March 

Never  a  line  !  which  may  apply  either  to  you  or  me  ;  I 
presume  we  are  both  of  us  almost  unique  specimens  of  the 
genus  "  Lazy  Correspondent."  "  Unique  "  I  say,  though  I 
do  not  forget  Edward ;  but  there  is  no  saying  what  he  would 
not  do  if  he  were  not  a  headmaster.  My  invention  has  been 
a  good  deal  drawn  upon  this  term  to  give  the  latest  news 
from  Wellington  College,  but  I  flatter  myself  that  I  have 
done  you  at  least  justice,  especially  in  respect  of  population 
and  Royal  Favour.  I  write  now,  I  am  conscious,  chiefly  that 
it  may  not  be  said  that  we  were  a  whole  term  without 
corresponding. 

I  am  going  to  see  Mamma  to-morrow.  I  am  fortunate 
enough  to  get  down  a  week  or  so  earlier  than  usual  this 
term,  and  I  have  a  strong  intention  to  utilise  the  lengthened 
period  in  an  expedition  to  Paris.  We  have  easy  lives  of  it 
up  here,  have  we  not  ?  However,  I  hope  we  spend  the  addi- 
tional leisure  in  self-improvement.  If  I  go  it  will  be  with 
Graham  Dakyns.  .  .  .  By  the  bye,  I  remember  firmly 
resolving  to  write  to  you  on  the  20th  last  to  condole 
with  you  on  coming  of  age.  Life  is  as  yet  smiling  and 
flowery :  wait,  my  child,  a  few  short  years  till  you  attain 


1862,  AGE  23  HENEY  SIDGWICK  77 

the  age  of  him  who  now  addresses  you,  and  the  illusions 
will  have  vanished. 

This  is  an  extract  from  my  proposed  letter ;  perhaps  you 
are  not  sorry  that  it  was  never  sent.  I  made  one  of  my 
usual  mistakes  to-day :  I  went  into  Macmillau's  to  abuse  his 
men  about  some  book,  and  addressed  myself  rather  absently 
to  my  accustomed  desk.  I  delivered  myself  with  much 
fluency,  but  the  man  from  the  desk  replied,  to  my  astonish- 
ment, "  This  is  very  interesting,  but  my  name  is  Gurney  of 
Trinity."  Evidently  a  man  of  some  humour. 

You  may  as  well  write  to  me  at  Leamington  [where 
his  mother  was  then  staying].  You  know  the  kind  of 
thing  I  like  to  hear,  all  that  is  interesting,  and  besides 
all  that  will  do  to  tell  people.  I  wish,  in  fact,  as  our 
lively  cousins  say,  to  be  "  posted  up."  I  have  not  been 
doing  anything  literary  this  term ;  I  have  been  lazily 
absorbing  philosophy,  history,  and  politics.  But  I  am 
engaged  on  a  Great  Work.  (N.B. — I  have  hit  upon  this  to 
say  when  people  ask  me  what  I  am  doing.  I  may  write  a 
great  work  some  day,  and  if  I  don't,  I  am  as  well  off  as 
most  people  who  really  mean  to.) 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Leamington  on  March  30 

Second  thoughts  are  best.  ...  I  feel  on  consideration 
that  I  am  in  duty  bound  to  spend  this  vacation  in  finally 
curing  my  stammering,  which  was  made  worse  last  term  by 
lecturing,  and  which  must  be  got  over  before  next  term. 
Learning  a  foreign  language  would  be  a  great  impediment. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  April  7 

I  am  getting  on  with  my  stammering,  and  hope  to  cure 
it  this  vacation.  I  have  not  read  anything  here,  nor  indeed 
advanced  much  in  my  "  Reconciliation  of  Ethical  Systems," 
as  to  which  I  have  had  a  tough  battle  with  William.  You 
will  understand  my  position  on  this  subject  if  you  compare 
Bain  with  Comte.  Bain  is  the  only  thoroughly  honest 
Utilitarian  philosopher  I  know,  and  he  allows  self-sacrifice 
and  ra  e^o/zei>a  [things  connected  with  it]  to  constitute 


78  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

a  "  glorious  paradox,"  whereas  Comte  and  all  practical 
Utilitarians  exalt  the  same  sentiments  into  the  supreme 
Rule  of  life.  These  are  the  views  I  am  trying  to  reconcile. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  April  29 

...  I  have  much  to  communicate.  I  am  in  the  gripe  of 
a  violent  reaction  from  all  I  have  been  thinking  and  feeling 
for  the  last  year.  I  want  some  one  to  pour  it  out  upon. 
How  fearfully  impulsive  and  unstable  I  am !  "  Were  it  not 
better  done  as  others  use."  One  thing  is  that  I  am  so 
much  more  "  dramatic  "  than  personal.  I  pass  by  a  kind  of 
eager  impulse  from  one  drama  or  Heart-Tragedy  (or  Comedy, 
as  the  case  may  be)  to  another,  and  when  I  begin  to  take 
stock,  as  it  were,  on  my  account,  my  prudential  instincts 
being  awakened,  I  wonder  what  it  all  means,  and  whether 
there  is  any  higher  or  lower,  better  or  worse,  in  human  life, 
except  so  far  as  sympathy  and  a  kind  of  rude  philosophy  go. 

To  J.  J.  Co-well  from  Cambridge,  May  9 

I  intended  to  write  to  you  the  first  of  the  month 
that  you  might  find  the  letter  on  your  arrival,  but  these 
"  aged  wives "  to  whom  I  am  "  yoked "  (Tennyson)  have 
given  me  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  to  lecture  on,  and  as  1 
was  entirely  ignorant  of  all  that  had  been  said  about  that 
work,  I  have  been  forced  to  devote  long  days  to  the  perusal 
of  many  "  Schwunkinses,"  as  you  were  wont  to  call  them. 

I  aui  sorry  we  could  not  meet  at  Florence,  but  as  my 
vacation  ended  just  about  the  time  your  residence  there 
commenced,  you  see  it  was  quite  impossible.  ...  I  have 
been  spending  my  vacation  in  England  trying  to  cure  my 
stammering.  I  cannot  say  that  I  have  succeeded  so  far, 
in  spite  of  zealous  efforts,  and  I  begin  to  fear  that  the 
work  will  take  me  a  long  time.  However,  I  have  now 
sufficient  resolution  and  self-control  to  apply  to  the  work 
in  good  earnest.  I  am  an  M.A.  now,  and  am  getting 
to  see  more  of  the  authorities  of  the  College ;  I  cannot 
say  that  they  improve  on  a  nearer  acquaintance  on  the 


1862,  AGE  23  HENRY  SIDGWICK  79 

whole  intellectually;  morally  I  think  they  do.     They  seeui 
to  me  a  kind  of  big  children. 

.  .  .  After  all,  this  is  a  very  nice  life  if  it  was  not 
so  enervating.  But  as  to  that,  alas !  my  own  life  is  too 
strong  an  evidence.  With  all  my  philosophy  and  my 
lofty  aspirations,  I  do  get  through  so  very  little  work. 
I  make  resolutions  and  break  them  day  after  day.  But 
still  somehow  one's  mind  grows,  and  I  am  in  hopes  of 
teaching  the  world  something  some  day,  if  only  I  can  shake 
off  my  laziness  and  begin  to  write.  My  views  are  in  a  state 
of  change  now  on  religious  and  philosophical  subjects,  and  I 
should  much  enjoy  an  opportunity  of  talking  with  you.  I 
have  given  up  a  good  deal  of  my  materialism  and  scepticism, 
and  come  round  to  Maurice  and  Broad  Church  again ;  not 
that  I  expect  exactly  to  stay  there,  but  I  feel  that  I  must 
learn  all  they  have  got  to  teach  me  before  I  go  any  further. 
I  have  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  impotence  of  modern 
unbelief  in  explaining  the  phenomena  which  Christians  point 
to  as  evidence  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence.  "The  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  etc.,"  is  as  true  now  as  it  ever  was. 
I  used  to  think  that  one  explained  the  difference  between 
the  religious  and  irreligious  man  by  using  words  like 
"  enthusiasm " ;  but  science  can  no  more  bridge  over  this 
difference  than  she  can  the  difference  between  a  man  and  a 
brute.  Of  course  by  '  religious '  I  do  not  mean  orthodox ; 
I  simply  mean  a  man  impressed  with  the  Divine  Govern- 
ment and  the  Divine  sympathy — only  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  a  man  beginning  with  this  and  reading  simply 
and  candidly  the  New  Testament,  will  end  by  being  more 
orthodox  than  at  first  one  thinks  possible  when  one  feels 
one's  indignation  kindled  against  Persecuting  Bishops. — I 
have  tried  to  give  you  an  idea  of  my  change  of  thought  and 
feeling,  but  I  fear  somewhat  confusedly. 

Well,  my  dear  fellow,  I  hope  you  are  getting  happily 
and  delightfully  convalescent.  Do  you  feel  yourself  filled 
with  Art-rapture  in  the  famous  city  of  Dante  ?  I  shall  be 
anxious  to  hear  how  soon  you  are  coming  back  to  England. 
I  wonder  if  your  distaste  for  the  law  and  your  devotion  to 


80  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAp.  n 

philosophy  will  continue  when  your  vigour  is  renewed.  You 
know  I  have  always  thought  you  made  for  the  practical 
rather  than  the  speculative  life,  with  your  clear  keenness  of 
thought  and  deliberate  ardour  of  zeal.  However,  no  man 
can  judge  for  another  in  the  main  conduct  of  life :  as  I  feel 
myself  when  my  friends  press  me  to  go  to  the  Bar.  I  hope 
you  are  enjoying  life  a  little,  and  that  your  nervous  consti- 
tution has  recovered  its  tone  after  the  violent  and  varied 
shocks  it  received  in  the  course  of  the  last  year. 

The  Society,  of  course,  flourishes.  [W.]  Everett  is  the  only 
new  member.  It  was  a  very  good  election  in  my  opinion. 
I  have  had  much  most  interesting  talk  with  him.  He  has 
considerable  interest  in  Metaphysics,  though  his  mind  is 
primarily  rhetorical.  His  declamation  in  chapel  was  a 
wonder.1  The  old  Dons,  to  nay  surprise,  were  enraptured, 
Whewell  especially. 

I  must  conclude  or  you  will  think  I  had  better  have 
remained  silent  than  burst  forth  with  such  prolixity. 

To  his  Mother  from  Liverpool  early  in  June 

...  I  am  going  to  cross  the  sea  to-day  to  the  Isle  of 
Man  and  examine  there  for  a  week ;  about  a  fortnight  hence 
I  go  to  Marlborough  for  another  examination.  ...  I  wish 
now  I  had  not  taken  this  examination,  only  it  will  be  a 
source  of  amusement  afterwards.2  ...  I  have  been  "  getting 
up"  the  Isle  of  Man.  ...  It  used  to  be  a  refuge  for 
debtors ;  a  friend  of  mine  asked  an  old  fellow  there  where 
he  had  been  before  he  came  to  the  Isle  of  Man.  He  laid 
his  hand  on  his  shoulder  and  said,  "  My  dear  young  friend, 
never  you  ask  any  of  us  Manxmen  where  we  were  before 
we  came  here." 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Douglas,  Isle  of  Man,  June  9,  1862 

"  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel,"  is  said  to 
have  been  the  remark  of  a  fine  old  Semitic  Sheik.  This  1 

1  The  prize  declamations  were  by  old  custom  recited  in  chapel  ;  W. 
Everett's  striking  oration,  on  Arctic  Explorers,  was  long  remembered  for  its. 
eloquence  and  effective  delivery. 

3  This  visit  always  did  interest  him  in  retrospect. 


1862,  AGE  24  HEKRY  SIDGWICK  81 

apply  not  to  you  (which  would  be  cruel)  but  to  myself. 
My  conversion  ended  in  smoke :  or  rather,  I  found  that  it 
wanted  very  much  more  to  convert  me  to  Christianity.  The 
change  that  had  operated  in  me  was  a  violent  reaction  into- 
a  yearning  after  the  Spiritual,  after  soaking  myself  in  much 
Comte.  You  see  you  have  not  read  d,  or  you  would 
(perhaps)  sympathise.  So  I  was  willing  enough  to  believe 
in  a  man  who  came  and  brought  humanity  into  communion 
with  the  Divine  Spirit,  but  Sin !  Punishment !  Mediation  I 
I  found  that  there  was  much  more  to  swallow,  which  my 
inner  life  during  the  last  two  years  had  gradually  alienated 
me  from  more  and  more.  So  I  read  Mansel  (Bampton) 
again.  He  really  is  a  well-meaning  man,  and  U  a  raison 
for  the  most  part  against  Metaphysicians.  But  he  talks  of 
Revelation  as  if  the  Bible  had  dropped  from  the  skies  ready 
translated  into  English ;  he  ignores  all  historical  criticism 
utterly.  If  the  Bible  was  proved  a  whole,  I  think  we 
might  bow  beneath  the  yoke  of  Mansel  and  Bishop  Butler. 
So  I  was  thrown  back  on  myself  to  ponder  whether  I  could 
possibly  believe  that  God  had  (salvd  reverentid)  shoved  a 
book  into  the  world,  and  left  men  to  squabble  about  it 
in  aeternum.  In  this  state  I  fell  in  with  F.  Newman 'a 
books,  Phases  and  The  Soul,  devoured  them :  and  felt  that  I 
was  really  only  wishing  to  be  a  Spiritual  Theist  (and  a 
Christian  if  necessary). 

But  you  dehumanise  too  much.  It  is  not  a  question 
about  past  events  and  whether  they  can  be  a  basis  for  faith. 
But  if  Christ  is  living  now,  the  king  of  men,  and  able  really 
to  give  us  help,  as  man  to  man,  one  has  a  human  longing  to 
rest  on  him ;  and  one  would  (not  believe  but)  force  oneself 
to  contemplate  any  notions  of  divine  things  which  he 
thought  edifying.  I  can't  pretend  to  see  any  good  in  them 
now,  but  I  may,  when  I  have  had  more  spiritual  experience. 
However,  I  think  one  ought  to  begin  by  being  a  Theist — to 
contemplate,  I  mean,  a  Heart  and  Mind  behind  phenomena. 
The  phrase  "joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost"  expresses  a  real 
mental  phenomenon  which  has  been  present  in  all  ages  of 
Christianity.  You  see,  there  is  no  sort  of  proof  against 

G 


82  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

there  being  a  Mind  and  Heart  behind  phenomena.  The 
contemplation  of  this  hypothesis  answers  to  a  need  now 
existing  in  my  nature,  and  the  experience  of  thousands 
testifies  that  such  contemplation  generates  an  abiding 
evdovo-iao-fios,  with  all  its  attendant  noblenesses  and 
raptures. 

Now  to  your  "  can  Faith  depend  on  facts  ? "  Why,  if 
I  had  to  think  that  a  man's  damnation  or  salvation  de- 
pended on  a  right  view  of  historical  facts,  I  allow  I  should 
feel  an  insuperable  difficulty  in  the  thought  you  so  express. 
But  I  do  not  see  why  the  best  development  of  humanity 
should  not  be  conditioned  thus.  That  is  all.  A  man  may 
be  a  very  fine  man  as  a  Theist  or  Positivist,  and  may 
have  a  very  valuable  faith :  but  suppose  the  most  powerful 
informing  and  inspiring  faith  is  only  obtainable  from  ideas 
which  depend  on  a  right  view  of  historical  events — why  is 
this  inconceivable  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  see  one  kind 
of  Faith  is  better  than  another — as  judged  by  average 
results.  Why  should  not  Christian  faith  be  the  best  ?  At 
present,  however,  I  am  only  a  Theist;  but  I  have  vowed 
that  it  shall  not  be  for  want  of  profound  and  devoted  study, 
if  I  do  not  become  a  Christian. 

As  to  plans,  please  do  exactly  what  you  like.  You 
consider  me  terribly.  I  am  really  not  so  selfish  as  I  seem. 
I  do  not  care  about  the  seaside  in  June  if  I  have  a  town. 
So  I  should  be  quite  willing  to  join  you  in  Paris,  and  you 
may  take  your  pension  for  a  month. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Marlborough,  June  20 

[T.  H.]  Green  has  written  to  me  offering  to  join  us : 
it  is  a  mark  of  confidence  which  pleases  me,  and  (I  hope) 
you.  ...  As  to  your  father,1  of  course  I  am  very  sorry 
for  his  sake,  and  indeed  for  my  own,  so  long  as  I  look  at 
it  unscientifically ;  it  is  unfortunate,  too,  that  it  was  a  greatly 
exaggerated  statement,  and  yet  perfectly  impossible  to 
explain.  But  I  do  not  agree  with  you  as  to  the  duty  of 

1  In  his  son's  absence  Mr.  Dakyns,  senior,  had  been  asked  to  open  his 
letters,  and  had  read  the  preceding  one. 


1862,  AGE  24  HENKY  SIDGWICK  83 

concealment ;  I  am  certain  the  duty  is  all  the  other  way ; 
it  is  a  spurious  philanthropy  that  suppresses  earnest  con- 
victions to  avoid  offence  ;  why,  the  very  antagonism  deepens 
the  spiritual  life  of  those  who  are  really  orthodox,  though 
it  makes  the  formalist  blacker.  .  .  .  My  only  motive  for 
not  speaking  out  now  is  scepticism :  I  am  not  sure  I 
am  right,  and  so  I  keep  silence  even  from  good  words,  but 
it  is  pain  and  grief  to  me,  and  hence  my  present  hunger 
to  get  to  the  bottom  of  all  the  detailed  and  technical 
controversy,  and  see  if  a  stable  defence  of  orthodoxy  is 
lurking  under  any  of  the  dry  leaves. 

I  told  J.  B.  Mayor  last  term  my  perplexity  about 
holding  Fellowship,  and  he  answered,  wisely  I  think,  that 
"  when  the  views  that  were  at  present  negative  became 
positive  in  me,  I  ought  to  resign,  not  till  then."  But  I 
must  break  off. 

P.S, — .  .  .  The  thing  I  regret  is  the  falsity  of  the 
impression  your  father  must  form  of  those  words.  Is  it 
not  strange  that  I  should  have  written  the  most  offensive 
letter  I  ever  wrote  just  at  the  moment  when  I  felt  really 
nearer  a  Christian  than  I  had  been  for  months  ?  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Harrow,  June  30 

I  am  at  length  in  calm  repose,  and  with  my  plans  made 
up.  I  finished  my  Marlborough  examination  on  Tuesday 
last,  and  am  going  to  cross  the  Channel  on  Monday  evening. 
I  am  going  to  stay  a  month  in  Paris  with  Graham  Dakyns. 
...  I  am  sorry  I  missed  seeing  you  at  Wellington 
College.  ...  I  suppose  you  will  allow  that  the  new  baby x 
is  ugly.  I  am  obliged  to  catch  hold  of  this  to  preserve  my 
character  as  a  baby-hater,  for  I  feel  myself  compelled  to  join 
in  the  general  Martin-worship.  He  is  just  getting  into  the 
interesting  stage.  I  have  enjoyed  my  examinations  on  the 
whole  and  been  freer  from  hay  fever  than  usual.  .  .  . 

I  was  very  much  charmed  with  Marlborough.  ...  I 
was  very  much  interested  in  the  Isle  of  Man  too.  I  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  my  Uncle  Lace  was  a  benefactor  to 

1  A.  C.  Benson. 


84  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  ir 

King  William's  College  there.  He  gives  two  prizes  every 
year.  Did  you  know  this  ?  Several  people  spoke  to  me 
about  him.  One  gets  into  the  aristocratic  society  of  the 
Island  by  examining.  My  money  was  handed  over  to  me 
in  the  council  chamber.  On  the  whole  it  was  very  jolly. 

The  month  in  Paris,  spent  in  a  boarding-house 
kept  by  Mme.  la  Comtesse  du  P.,  afforded  consider- 
able amusement  to  Sidgwick  and  his  friend.  The 
absence  of  embarrassment  with  which  Mme.  la 
Comtesse  gave  a  party  in  her  very  small  bedroom 
was  one  of  the  things  that  delighted  him.1 

To  his  Mother  from  Lucerne,  August  3 

...  I  shall  not  be  coming  home  till  the  end  of 
September.  I  meant  to  come  before,  but  the  state  of  my 
health  has  compelled  me  to  interpolate  a  Swiss  tour  between 
my  French  and  German  periods  of  study,  which  will  throw 
me  back.  I  do  not  want  to  shorten  my  German  visit,  as  I 
shall  be  in  the  company  of  some  old  schoolfellows  with 
whom  I  was  very  intimate  at  Eugby,  and  of  whom  I  have 
not  seen  much  since.  We  are  now  on  the  eve  of  starting 
for  our  tour ;  we  are  four :  Graham  Dakyns,  [T.  H.]  Green, 
[A.  O.]  Eutson,  and  myself;  we  are  going  to  have  twelve 
days  in  the  Bernese  Oberland,  and  then  I  go  off  to  Dresden. 
.  .  .  We  enjoyed  our  stay  in  Paris  very  much.  .  .  . 

Lucerne  is  a  very  nice  place,  and  I  like  idleness  just 
now ;  the  view  of  the  Lake  is  magnificent,  and  it  would 
take  one  a  week  to  tire  of  looking  at  it  and  bathing,  but 
to-morrow  we  go  to  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new.  .  .  . 
We  are  going  only  to  do  very  mild  things,  mere  ladies' 
walks.  After  all,  I  believe  it  is  healthier.  ...  I  think  I 
have  exhausted  my  first  love  of  travelling ;  I  enjoy  it  and 
profit  by  it  now,  but  without  enthusiasm. 

1  Amusing  in  a  different  way  were  the  naive  remarks  of  Madame  la 
Comtesse  in  reference  to  religious  topics,  as  e.g.  when  she  exclaimed  sell- 
pityingly  :  "Ah!  monsieur,  le  bon  Dieu  ne  me  protege  pas  beaucoup — 
je  ne  sais  pourquoi,"  or  astonished  the  friends  by  referring  to  "la  Saitite 
Vierge"  as  "la  fenime  de  Jesus:Christ. " 


1862,  AGE  24  HENRY  SIDGWICK  85 

According  to  Mr.  Dakyns's  recollection  Augsburg 
and  Nuremberg  were  visited  on  the  way  from  Switzer- 
land to  Dresden,  which  was  reached  towards  the  end 
of  August.  From  there  he  writes  to  his  mother  : — 

.  .  .  The  Swiss  tour  made  me  very  ill  for  about  three  days, 
as  walking,  I  find,  always  does :  only  I  am  very  well  now,  and 
look  back  on  the  few  fine  days  we  had  with  great  pleasure. 
I  saw  all  the  part  of  Switzerland  that  I  had  left  out  in  my 
last  tour,  with  the  exception  of  one  little  three  days'  tour, 
generally  the  first  taken,  which  an  obstinate  set  of  clouds 
compelled  me  to  relinquish.  On  the  whole  I  prefer  my 
this  year's  tour  to  my  former  visit  to  the  High  Alps.  I 
have  a  natural  preference  of  the  smiling  and  varied  to  the 
bleak  and  sublime.  But  if  it  were  not  so  long  ago,  I  should 
abuse  the  weather,  which  was  really  worse  than  reason- 
able. We  had  to  do  most  of  the  walks  in  a  dogged  bad 
temper.  But  one  fine  day  makes  you  forget  three  misty 
ones  when  it  comes.  .  .  . 

I  have  had  my  time  very  well  [filled]  since  I  came  to 
Dresden.  What  with  making  a  start  in  Arabic  (which  is 
a  difficult  language  for  a  beginner,  as  it  belongs  to  quite  a 
different  family  of  language  to  those  I  know),  reading 
German,  talking  German,  going  to  the  concerts  (charming 
ones  in  the  open  air  for  threepence),  going  to  the  theatre, 
reading  in  the  long-winded  German  newspaper  of  all  the 
numerous  rows  which  are  disturbing  or  threatening  to  dis- 
turb the  peace  of  the  planet,  cultivating  the  society  of  my 
three  friends,  not  to  speak  of  other  casual  avocations — with 
all  this  the  time  goes  before  I  can  really  turn  round.  In 
my  list  I  omitted  the  Gallery,  but  that  is  really  the  most 
important  of  all  the  amusements,  and  takes  most  time.  I 
have  discovered  several  new  beauties  this  year,  but  have 
not  changed  my  opinion  about  any  of  my  old  favourites. 
...  I  think  this  is  the  last  time  I  shall  come  abroad  for  a 
year  or  so.  I  have  got  my  plan  of  reading  tolerably  settled, 
and  as  it  is  a  very  extensive  one,  it  will  absorb  all  my 
vacations.  But  very  likely  when  next  Long  Vacation  comes 


86  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

I  shall  feel  a  strong  longing  for  the  Continent.     At  present 
I  feel  as  if  my  mind  was  enlarged  enough  by  travel. 

I  hope  you  have  got  tolerably  comfortable  by  this  time.1 
Minnie  says  there  is  plenty  of  room  in  the  house  for  modest 
people,  according  to  your  account ;  that  means  several 
unroomy  rooms.  If  so,  we  shall  do  very  well :  indeed,  I 
rather  rejoice,  as  it  will  prevent  us  having  a  lot  of  people 
at  once,  a  thing  that  I  used  to  like  when  I  was  young ;  but 
I  find,  now  I  am  growing  old,  that  it  becomes  a  bore.  .  .  . 
I  am  going  to  join  Edward  and  Minnie  at  the  Gallery. 

To  his  Mother  at  the  end  of  September 

I  shall  be  home  by  Thursday  or  latest  Friday  in  next 
week ;  that  will  give  me  a  fortnight  with  you.  Having 
begun  this  Arabic,  I  really  could  not  spend  less  than  five 
weeks  on  it ;  or  I  should  have  forgotten  all  I  had  learnt  by 
the  time  I  got  to  Cambridge  again.  ...  I  have  been  very 
happy  here  ;  my  friends  are  all  going  off  now.  It  has  been 
very  delightful  to  me  to  have  them  with  me  the  whole 
summer. 

.  .  .  Very  bad  the  news  from  America.2  There  is  an 
interesting  crisis  going  on  in  Prussia ;  the  King  seems  to  be 
as  stupid,  honest,  and  pig-headed  as  our  old  George  III.  .  .  . 
It  is  great  fun  reading  the  Arabian  Nights  in  the  original, 
even  though  it  be  only  at  the  rate  of  five  lines  an  hour. 

A  miserable  letter,  but  I  grudge  every  minute  taken 
from  Arabic  just  now.  Love  to  all. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  (at  Clifton}  from  Cambridge, 
October  22,  1862 

I  was  not  surprised  at  the  tone  of  your  letter,  although 
I  even  hope  that  the  world  is  less  black  before  your  face 
now  than  it  was  when  you  wrote.  If  I  was  in  the  circum- 
stances you  describe,  I  should  probably  go  to  sea  (Bristol 
being  a  favourable  place)  in  a  week ;  but  you  have  natur- 
ally a  disposition  so  much  more  sympathetic  than  mine  that 

1  In  her  new  house  at  Rugby,  on  the  Bilton  Road. 

2  Doubtless  "Stonewall  "  Jackson's  successes.    Sidgwick  was  very  keenly 
interested  in  the  American  Civil  War,  his  sympathies  being  with  the  North. 


1862,  AGE  24  E^TKY  SIDGWICK  87 

I  expect  you  will  become  more  or  less  homogeneous  (at 
least  superficially)  to  your  milieu  before  the  end  of  the  half- 
year.1 

If  a  man  only  could  make  up  his  mind  not  to  marry ! 
But  the  longer  I  live  the  more  I  believe  in  that  institution 
for  all  men  but  those  of  very  sympathetic  disposition : 
though  I  retain  my  old  theory  about  the  perfection  of  the 
human  race  coinciding  with  its  removal  en  masse  from  this 
planet.  I  believe  also  that  by  a  perverse  law  of  human 
nature  marriage  is  more  necessary  to  a  man  not  engaged  in 
practical  work.  You  will  perceive  that  these  observations 
are  rather  general  than  a  propos  of  Dakyns.  Seriously,  I 
do  not  see  why  you  should  not  like  schoolmastering.  But 
I  should  go  in  for  saving  money.  I  am  doing  it  myself, 
and  it  gives  a  certain  zest,  though  of  a  coarse  kind,  to  life. 

As  for  me,  I  learnt  a  little  Arabic  (indeed  Schier  was  so 
good  as  to  say  that  my  progress  was  "  unglaublich  schnell," 
"  in  fact,"  said  the  excellent  man,  with  tears  in  [his]  eyes,  "  I 
may  even  hear  of  your  writing  a — Dictionary  before  you 
die  ! ")  I  got  much  interested  in  the  language  ;  I  am  pursuing 
it  doggedly,  but  I  have  rather  lost  my  view  of  what  is  to 
come  of  it.  Mohammedanism  is  such  a  very  inferior  article 
to  Judaism  that  I  do  not  think  much  is  to  be  gained  from 
comparing  the  two.  And  then  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
earlier  prophets  admitted  even  the  qualified  hypocrisy  one 
finds  in  Mohammed.  However,  when  one  gets  to  the 
heresies,  one  may  get  hold  of  some  laws  of  religious  pro- 
gress. As  for  general  standpoint,  Green  said  when  we 
parted  that  he  feared  he  should  have  to  describe  me  to 
Conington  as  a  "  kind  of  mild  Positivist  " — "  not  rampant," 
he  was  so  good  as  to  add  (perhaps  you  would  come  under 
that  designation).  But  I  begin  to  despair  of  fixing  myself 
in  England. 

To  his  Mother,  November  2 

I  am  glad  that  you  enjoyed  your  visit  to  London.  I 
wish  I  could  have  spent  more  time  in  the  Exhibition ;  as  it 

1  This  was  Mr.  Dakyns's  first  term  as  an  assistant-master  at  Clifton, 
then  just  opened. 


88  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

was,  I  was  entirely  unable  to  do  the  foreign  pictures  justice. 
I  admired  the  statuary  on  the  whole  very  much  ;  as  a  rule 
I  am  not  much  moved  by  statuary.  I  liked  the  Reading 
Girl,  though  perhaps  it  endeavours  too  much  to  attain  the 
attractions  which  properly  belong  to  painting.  There  has 
been  some  theological  excitement  in  consequence  of  Bishop 
Colenso's  publication,  of  which  you  may  have  heard  in  the 
Guardian.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  A.  G.  Butler's  at  Haihybwry,  December  1 

It  is  very  hard  that  because  Arthur  does  not  write  to 
you,  therefore  you  do  not  write  to  me.  Such  I  conjecture 
to  be  your  frame  of  mind  from  a  message  Wilson  gave  me 
when  I  saw  him  not  long  ago  at  Trevelyan's  dinner.  I  am 
glad  to  say  that  I  am  pretty  well  (rather  exhausted  by 
prolonged  dissipation ;  last  week,  oddly  enough,  I  went  out 
to  dinner  every  day)  and  tolerably  busy.  I  have  been 
examining  a  school  lately :  and  the  progress  I  have  made 
in  Arabic  is  extraordinary.  My  eyes  are  pretty  well ;  I 
am  obliged  to  read  at  night,  but  I  do  it  as  little  as  I  can. 
My  friend  Trevelyan  has  now  gone  down  for  good.  His 
father,  as  I  daresay  you  have  seen,  has  been  appointed 
financial  member  of  the  Indian  Council,  and  his  son  is 
going  to  be  his  private  secretary.  It  seems  a  crisis  in  my 
life,  as  he  is  the  last  of  the  friends  I  made  as  an  under- 
graduate. But  it  would  be  absurd  in  me  to  complain,  as  I 
am  not  at  all  unhappy:  though  this  is  the  most  trying  circum- 
stance connected  with  prolonged  residence  at  the  University. 
But  there  are  lots  of  nice  men  there  still,  and  I  have  not,  I 
am  thankful  to  say,  at  all  lost  the  power  of  making  friends, 
though  I  feel  I  am  growing  old,  and  probably  appear  a 
great  Don  to  freshmen. 

...  I  saw  Miss  Mulock  the  other  day ;  she  was  staying 
with  Macmillan.  They  say  she  is  a  very  nice  person ;  she 
looks  pleasant  and  sympathetic,  yet  hardly  capable  of  the 
powerful  delineations  of  passion  one  meets  with  in  her 
books.  They  say  she  is  odd  and  comes  to  evening  parties 
in  her  morning  dress.  .  .  . 


1862,  AGE  24  HENEY  SIDGWICK  89 

If  you  meet  any  Trinity  men,  you  may  tell  them  that 
[J.  L.]  Hammond  is  going  to  be  Bursar.  Everybody  is 
rejoiced.  .  .  .  Professor  Sedgwick  is  flourishing,  and  it  is 
expected  that  he  will  lecture  next  year  for  "  positively  the 
last  time,"  as  he  has  said  any  time  the  last  ten  years. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  about  the  same  time 

I  have  been  very  busy  the  last  three  weeks  about  a 
Middle  Class  examination  and  other  things,  and  I  seize  the 
first  absolute  leisure  held  out  to  me  by  a  visit  to  Butler  to 
answer  your  letter.  .  .  . 

As  for  myself,  I  have  not  been  getting  on  lately.  I  have 
been  rather  idle,  rather  dissipated,  rather  distrait,  rather 
occupied  with  irrelevant  work.  Arabic  is  getting  on 
gradually ;  my  immediate  desire  is  to  go  in  for  Scriptural 
criticism,  but  I  wish  to  go  steadily  through  the  Arabic 
before  I  begin  Hebrew,  and,  besides,  I  have  a  secret  convic- 
tion that  the  great  use  of  learning  Hebrew  is  to  ascertain 
how  little  depends  on  it,  and,  with  regard  to  Biblical 
criticism,  that  it  is  impossible  to  demonstrate  from  them- 
selves the  non-infallibility  of  the  Hebrew  writings :  just  as 
it  would  be  to  demonstrate  the  non-infallibility  of  Livy  if 
there  was  any  desire  to  uphold  it.  It  all  depends  on  the 
scientific  sense,  and  antiquarianism  will  never  overthrow 
superstition  except  in  a  few  intellects  who  would  probably 
have  got  rid  of  it  [in]  other  ways.  So  I  am  falling  back  (in 
my  innermost  core)  into  philosophy,  and  spinning  round  and 
round  on  the  old  point  of  "  Personal  God,"  "  Living  Will," 
and  other  Theistic  phrases. 

Have  you  yet  read  F.  Newman  ?  The  difficulty  is  this. 
Supposing  it  proved  inductively  that  Mystical  Beliefs  are 
beneficial,  and  supposing  they  satisfy  an  instinct  (which 
may,  however,  be  destined  to  die  out  in  the  human  race),  is 
one  therefore  to  mould  oneself  on  them?  Bishop  Butler 
and  Co.  would  of  course  say  that  you  ought  to  regulate  your 
relations  to  the  Infinite  on  probabilities,  just  like  any  other 
practical  question.  But  I  have  a  paramount  instinct  to  be 
led,  and  not  lead  myself,  in  these  relations.  And  it  seems 


90  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

as  yet  irrational  to  slide  into  mysticism  (which  I  think  I 
easily  could)  for  my  own  gratification.  And  I  cannot  quite 
see  that  my  social  duties  would  be  any  the  better  for  it.  But 
my  instinct  for  it  is  yet  so  strong  that  I  am  gradually 
developing  my  intuitive  theories  (which  were  repressed  in 
the  Long  from  my  contrast  to  Green).  You  know  I  want 
intuitions  for  Morality  ;  at  least  one  (of  Love)  is  required  to 
supplement  the  utilitarian  morality,  and  I  do  not  see  why, 
if  we  are  to  have  one,  we  may  not  have  others.  I  have 
worked  away  vigorously  at  the  selfish  morality,  but  I 
cannot  persuade  myself,  except  by  trusting  intuition,  that 
Christian  self-sacrifice  is  really  a  happier  life  than  classical 
insouciance. 

That  is,  the  question  seems  to  me  an  open  one.  The 
effort  to  attain  the  Christian  ideal  may  be  a  life-long  painful 
struggle ;  and  therefore,  though  I  may  believe  this  ideal 
when  realised  productive  of  greater  happiness,  yet  indi- 
vidually (if  it  is  not  a  question  of  life  or  death)  my  laziness 
would  induce  me  to  prefer  a  lower,  more  attainable  Goethean 
ideal.  Intuitions  turn  the  scale.  I  shall  probably  fall 
away  from  Mill  and  Co.  for  a  phase.  I  cannot  develop  my 
views  in  the  brief  space  of  a  letter,  but  perhaps  you  catch 
them.  Another  way  out  of  it  is  finding  the  foundation  of 
Christianity  inexplicable  by  ordinary  laws,  and  therefore,  as 
the  vulgus  [do],  worshipping  the  mystery,  and  obeying  (child- 
like) the  moral  and  religious  intuitions  of  Christ,  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  of  the  Apostles.  You  see,  I  still  hunger  and 
thirst  after  orthodoxy :  but  I  am,  I  trust,  firm  not  to  barter 
my  intellectual  birthright  for  a  mess  of  mystical  pottage. 

To  his  Motlier  from  Cambridge,  December  12,  1862 

I  shall  come  down  on  the  22nd,  Arthur  with  me.  .  .  . 
My  work  is  over,  and  I  am  grinding  at  Arabic  and 
ethnology.  My  friends  are  all  coming  up  from  the  different 
schools  and  it  is  very  jolly.  ...  I  shall  bring  my  Arabic 
home  with  me.  I  do  not  think  I  shall  go  in  for  much  light 
literature,  except  newspapers,  etc.,  because  it  uses  up  valu- 
able eyesight.  I  do  not  know  of  any  good  books  going.  I 


1863,  AGE  24  HENEY  SIDGWICK  91 

have  read  Prehistoric  Man,  but  it  isn't  much.  There  are 
some  interesting  scientific  books  expected  by  Lyell  and 
Huxley  bearing  on  Primaeval  Man. 

To  his  Mother,  January  24,  1863  (from  0.  Brouming's 
at  Eton,  after  a  visit  to  Roden  Noel) 

...  I  went  by  the  Metropolitan  Eailway  on  Monday; 
it  is  really  most  impressive — more  so  than  any  other 
'  wonder  of  the  age '  that  I  have  ever  seen.  In  spite  of 
the  enormous  expense  it  ought  to  be  a  great  success.  There 
is  no  disagreeable  smell. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  early  in  February 

...  I  enjoyed  my  visit  to  Oxford  very  much.  .  .  . 
Conington  introduced  me,  as  he  promised,  to  one  of  the 
"  stars  "  of  Oxford — Professor  Henry  Smith.  He  certainly 
is  a  wonderful  converser ;  he  kept  up  an  incessant  stream 
of  more  or  less  smart  things  from  7  o'clock  to  10.  ... 
I  begin  lecturing  to-morrow:  there  are  piles  of  newly 
arrived  portmanteaus  at  the  porter's  lodge  just  now.  .  .  . 
Did  I  leave  a  racquet  at  Eugby  ? 

To  his  Mother  a  fortnight  later 

...  As  to  "  Colenso,"  ...  I  seriously  think  a  crisis  is 
coming  on  again  in  the  Church  of  England — much  like  that 
of  the  Tractarians.  Colenso's  book  is  simply  interesting  as 
the  spark  that  fires  the  straw.  Of  course  his  conclusions 
have  long  been  familiar  to  scholars,  even  in  England.  I 
am  sorry  no  one  has  reviewed  Miss  B.'s  book.  I  have 
thought  it  over,  and  I  think  I  am  hardly  by  way  of  doing 
it.  I  am  wanting  to  cut  my  connection  with  the  Press  (a 
very  slender  one),  as  it  interferes  with  my  study  and  does 
not  improve  my  style.  .  .  . 

Yes,  I  have  read  the  Chronicles  of  Carlingford ;  it  has 
two  sides,  a  realistic  and  a  melodramatic.  The  realistic 
part  is  worthy  of  comparison  with  George  Eliot,  and  one 
cannot  give  it  higher  praise ;  but  the  melodramatic  element 
a  little  spoils  it,  as  it  does  all  that  Mrs.  Oliphant  writes. 


92  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

Altogether  it  is  about  the  best  novel  that  has  come  out  for 
some  time. 

I  am  interested  in  your  views  about  Hymen,  and  the 
facilities  for  serving  him.  Do  you  think  women,  as  a  rule, 
are  annoyed  by  the  social  restraints  as  much  as  men  ?  I  ask 
because  it  does  not  appear  in  their  books.  I  should  like 
the  American  freedom;  I  don't  suppose  you  would.  Young 
ladies  there  give  their  address  to  men  and  ask  them  to  call 
with  perfect  sangfroid.  But  of  course  people  marry  much 
more  easily  in  America  in  an  economic  point  of  view,  as 
the  struggle  for  life  is  so  much  less  felt,  and  "  losing  caste  " 
is  so  much  less  dreaded.  There  is  no  doubt  that  men  in 
England  fall  in  love  chiefly  at  abnormal  periods :  when  on 
a  reading  party  or  at  the  seaside,  or  at  a  foreign  hotel,  or  at 
Christmas,  or  any  other  occasion  when  something,  either 
external  circumstances  or  any  dominant  emotion,  thaws  the 
eternal  ice.  The  misfortune  is  that  if  these  casual  thaws 
do  not  last  long  enough,  all  the  advantage  gained  is  lost ; 
two  lines  of  life  that  casually  intersected  diverge  perhaps 
for  ever,  and  the  frost  sets  in  with  redoubled  force.  After 
all,  though,  people  marry,  I  daresay,  as  happily  as  can  be 
expected,  and  probably  the  miseries  of  celibacy  are  exag- 
gerated by  philanthropists,  especially  female. 

To  his  Sister  about  the  middle  of  March 

.  .  .  Have  you  played  any  more  chess  ?  I  have  had  a 
game  or  two  since  I  came  up,  but  I  find  that  it  has  always 
interfered  with  my  work,  so  I  have  left  it  off  of  late.  I 
can  beat  any  ordinary  amateur — at  least  if  I  may  judge 
from  the  people  who  have  come  up  to  see  me. 

As  for  my  Arabic,  it  has  languished  rather  of  late.  I 
believe  the  only  place  where  I  can  work  well  at  a  subject 
of  that  kind  is  a  place  like  Dresden,  where  I  can  isolate 
myself  completely.  However,  I  hope  to  be  pretty  well 
advanced  both  in  it  and  Hebrew  by  the  end  of  the  Long. 

They  say  that  there  are  ten  volumes  of  Les  Miserdbles. 
I  have  hitherto  been  able  to  read  only  the  fourth ;  also,  I 
believe  there  are  two  volumes  of  Kinglake's  history  of  the 


1863,  AGE  24  HENEY  SIDGWICK  93 

Crimea,  but  I  read  the  first  three  weeks  ago,  and  have  got 
no  further.  This  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  the  circulating 
library  I  belong  to. 

I  am  going  down  to  Eugby  for  a  day  or  two  at  the  end 
of  the  week.  I  shall  avoid  politics,  and  only  discuss  the 
more  interesting  subject  of  Matrimony.  I  have  been  reading 
'  Ladies'  advice  to  each  other  "  lately  in  several  little  books, 
and  I  natter  myself  that  I  know  a  thing  or  two  about  your  sex. 
I  hate  being  taunted  as  a  Fellow  of  a  College  with  ignorance 
of  the  female  character,  so  I  determined  to  get  it  up. 

To  H.  G.  Dakynsfrom  Cambridge,  March  22,  1863 

I  never  lived  such  a  spiritually  uneventful  term  as  the 
last.      I  do  not  know  why ;    partly,  I  think,  from  neglect  of 
my  digestion   and  consequent   hypochondria.      I   have   not 
even  progressed  much  in  Arabic.      Partly  the  reason  is  that 
I  was  drawn  away  into  reading  an  alien  subject,  just  as  I 
was  the  year  before,  in  order  to  write  an  article  on  Women 
(which  has,  however,  not  yet  eventuated,  and  which  won't 
eventuate  now,  I  think).    I  am  not  an  original  man,  and  I  think 
less  of  my  own  thoughts  every  day.     I  have  quite  determined 
to  spend  the  whole  Long  in  study.     This  Easter  I  am  going 
to  Paris  with  Cowell,  and  more  or  less  with  Arthur.     "We 
are  going  chiefly  to  fldner,  and  partly  to  do  the  theatres. 
It  was  too  hot  to  do  them  properly  in  the  summer,  and  I 
feel  they  ought  to  be  done.     I  shall  have  to  go  on  with 
Arabic  all  through  next  term,  but  I  think  I  shall  probably 
combine  it  with  Hebrew.      I  am  not,  I  think,  in  any  new 
phase — except  politically,  perhaps,  I  am  getting  more  aristo- 
cratic :    that  is,  not  in  ideal,  but  practically  and  as  regards 
the  immediate  aspirations.     I  have  no  sympathy  with  things 
like  the  Polish  insurrection,  and  altogether  I  am  getting 
disgusted  with  the  "  nationality  "  theory.       I  see  that  the 
"  national "  sentiment  is  a  pure  and  ennobling  one,  but  I  do 
not  think  it  a  rational  one ;    and   I   think  it  diverts  much 
valuable  enthusiasm  from  the  true  and  fructiferous  course  of 
progress,  which  does  not  consist  in  rectification  of  boundaries 
or  reconstruction  of  maps,  but  rather  in  internal  reorganisa- 


94  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

tion  of  the  same.  It  would  be  better  for  the  world,  I  think, 
if  the  enthusiasts,  the  salt  of  the  earth,  would  try  and 
fire  the  people  for  real  liberty  and  not  for  this  ethnological 
humbug. 

In  Theology  I  am  much  as  ever :  I  have  not  yet  investi- 
gated Spiritualism,  but  I  am  still  bent  upon  doing  so  as  soon 
as  I  have  an  opportunity :  when  I  find  anything  out  I  will 
let  you  know.  I  talked  to  Green  about  it  when  I  was  up 
in  Oxford.  He  rather  "  sniffed "  at  it,  as  Coniugton  says. 
However,  I  do  not  decide  against  a  novelty  because  the 
wise  of  this  world  despise,  or  even  because  the  fools 
patronise  it.  ... 

I  liked  Pusey's  letters l ;  he  is  spoiling  it  a  little  by 
getting  angry  now.  I  think  it  is  a.  shame  that  Stanley  and 
the  others  do  not  sign  their  names.  I  confess  I  feel  less 
and  less  inclined  to  take  my  stand  on  the  unstable  footing 
of  Liberal  Anglicanism,  and  though  practically  I  sympathise 
more  with  the  Liberal  Anglicans  than  their  opponents,  yet 
in  my  inmost  heart  I  lean  towards  the  others  (or  rather  in 
my  inmost  mind).  "Well,  I  wonder  whether  our  lot  will 
ever  do  anything :  I  mean  the  religious  sceptics,  not  the 
sceptical  Anglicans.  We  have  absolutely  no  spokesman 
now.  There  is  no  man  in  England  who  reflects  my  notions 
in  print,  no,  not  one. 

The  visit  to  Paris  came  off,  Henry  Sidgwick,  with 
J.  J.  Cowell,  meeting  Arthur  Sidgwick,  F.  W.  H. 
Myers,  and  F.  W.  Cornish,  "  separate  parties,  but 
often  together."  He  writes  to  his  mother  about 
April  6  : — 

.  .  .  We  are  enjoying  Paris  very  much — that  is  to  say, 
we  are  as  little  bored  as  an  Englishman  ever  is  when  he  is 
amusing  himself.  I  can't  speak  French  in  the  least,  I  find, 
so  I  shall  give  up  trying  as  a  bad  job.  But  I  like  the 
Tuileries  and  the  Champs  Ely  sees  as  much  as  ever.  Not 
that  I  am  at  all  attracted  by  France  as  I  am  by  Germany. 
I  never  feel  the  least  desire  to  spend  my  life  here.  Paris 

1  Defending  the  prosecution  of  Jowett  for  heresy. 


1863,  AGE  24  HENRY  SIDGWICK  95 

seems  just  like  a  vast  watering-place  made  for  the  rich  of 
all  nations  to  amuse  themselves  in.  Not  but  what  when 
one  pushes  below  the  surface  one  finds  a  great  deal  of  very 
interesting  everyday  life  going  on.  And  there  is  plenty  of 
serious  enthusiasm.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  the 
French  frivolous ;  the  only  truth  is  that  when  they  do 
devote  themselves  to  vanities  they  do  it  with  much  falat 
and  extravagance.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  in  the  sober 
pursuits  of  life  there  is  more  devotion  and  unselfishness 
here  than  [in]  England.  There  are  more  men  who  love  their 
profession  for  its  own  sake,  and  do  not  look  on  it  merely  as 
a  means  of  making  money.  Of  course  one  may  be  misled 
in  this  by  the  difference  of  national  character:  as  the 
French,  fond  of  real  and  mock  heroics,  always  attribute  to 
themselves  their  best  motive  as  the  sole  one,  whereas  an 
Englishman  chooses  his  worst  to  publish  —  at  least  an 
Englishman  of  ordinary  honesty. 

I  do  not  quite  know  when  I  shall  come  back  to 
England ;  I  think  I  shall  leave  Paris  on  Monday  week,  but 
if  the  leaves  have  come  out  I  may  stay  a  day  or  two  longer. 
We  are  just  not  in  the  right  season  now  for  seeing  anything 
that  depends  on  green.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  May  4 

I  am  well,  pretty  happy,  and  working  very  hard;  it 
would  delight  your  heart  to  see  how  I  rise  at  6^-,  some- 
times at  5^-.  We  dine  at  2,  play  croquet  afterwards,  tea, 
walk,  two  or  three  hours'  more  reading,  and  bed  at  10. 
Quite  Arcadian.  I  am  reading  nothing  but  Arabic  and 
lectures.  I  am  lecturing  on  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  It 
is  a  book  wonderfully  little  appreciated ;  at  least  I  had  no 
idea  myself  how  interesting  it  was,  though  I  had  read  it 
pretty  often,  till  I  began  to  lecture  on  it. 

What  do  you  think  of  your  favourite  Times  on  Church 
extension  ?  That  organ  has  deliberately  chosen  and  picked 
out  the  single  diabolical  element  of  conservatism  :  that  which 
says,  "  What  we've  got  is  humbug,  but  we  are  very  com- 
fortable, and  we  don't  intend  to  change  it  for  any  other 


96  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

humbug."  I  saw  Arthur's  and  my  old  friend  Testing l 
to-day,  and  we  fraternised  on  the  subject.  You  should  read 
Gladstone's  speech  to-day.2  Never  was  he  more  splendide 
mendcuK,  which  Arthur  will  translate. 

A  little  later  he  writes  to  his  sister  that  he  cannot 
come  to  see  her  at  the  end  of  term  as 

I  shall  be  plunged  in  examination,  and  if  hay  fever  is 
superadded,  I  must  not  venture,  as  my  eyes  may  be  taken 
bad,  which  will  be  a  disastrous  preliminary  to  the  study  of 
Hebrew,  which  I  am  staying  at  Cambridge  this  Long  in 
order  to  commence. 

...  I  am  going  up  to  town  to-morrow,  and  I  shall  try 
and  cast  a  hurried  glance  over  the  Academy ;  but  I  must  be 
back  here  again  on  Thursday  morning,  as  I  have  to  non- 
placet  a  Grace  of  the  Senate  (petitioning  against  Mr. 
Bouverie's  bill).3  We,  the  non-placeters,  shall  be  in  a 
miserable  minority,  and  I  must  not  diminish  it.  ... 

I  am  getting  to  know  a  deal  about  English  history,  and 
am  wondering  whether  a  book  could  be  written  about  it,  at 
once  short,  instructive,  and  interesting.  Read  Gold  win 
Smith's  lectures  if  you  can ;  they  are  so  carefully  composed 
that  it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  read  them,  independently  of 
anything  one  learns  from  them. 

To  his  Mother  early  in  June 

Many  thanks  for  your  letter  and  gift  [a  birthday  present]. 
I  have  now  passed  what  is  said  to  be  the  dangerous  age  (as 
regards  imprudent  marriage) :  I  certainly  do  not  feel  as  if  I 
had  outgrown  the  rashness  of  youth  in  other  respects  :  how- 
ever, there  is  no  immediate  danger  of  my  creating  a  vacancy 
in  the  Fellowships.4  I  still  think  of  staying  here  mainly  in 
the  Long  Vacation ;  the  idea  that  Cambridge  is  insalubrious  at 

1  Afterwards  Bishop  of  St.  Albans. 

2  A  speech  advocating  the  levying  of  income  tax  on  "  Charities." 

3  University  tests.     Mr.  Bouverie's  bill  to  repeal  the  "Conformity  to  the 
Liturgy  "  clause  in  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  on  account  of  the  injury  it  caused 
to  the  University. 

4  By  marrying. 


1863,  AGE  25  HENKY  SIDGWICK  97 

that  season  is,  I  believe,  a  complete  delusion.  We  are  as  flat 
as  a  board,  but  for  that  very  reason  we  get  lots  of  wind.  .  .  . 
I  just  had  three-quarters  of  an  hour  at  the  Academy.  I 
cannot  conceive  any  one  except  a  painter  admiring  the 
ghastly  St.  Agnes.  I  believe  technically  it  is  well  done, 
except  that  the  garment  wreathed  about  her  feet  cannot 
possibly  have  fallen  down  into  that  shape.  The  other  two 
of  Millais'  are  wonderfully  well  painted  :  only  I  am  vexed  at 
a  man  of  his  wonderful  execution  deliberately  choosing  such 
trivial  subjects.  There  used  to  be  some  poetry  in  him ; 
where  is  it  gone  to  ?  His  inspiration  seems  now  about  the 
level  of  Mrs.  Henry  Wood's  novels. 

To  H,  Gr.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge  about  the  same  time 

...  I  am  getting  into  a  thoroughly  unindividual  state  of 
mind  on  theological  topics  ;  I  think  a  hundred  times  of  what 
the  British  public  are  ripe  for,  for  once  that  I  think  of  what  I 
believe.  Perhaps  the  conviction  is  growing  on  me  that  the 
Truth  about  the  studies  I  set  my  heart  on  (Theology  and 
Moral  Philosophy)  will  not  be  found  out  for  a  generation  or 
two.  This  may  be  true,  but  it  is  paralysis  to  think  so,  and 
it  makes  a  man  who  has  forsworn  Physics  take  refuge  in 
Grammar  and  Geography  as  studies  based  on  something 
certain.  On  the  whole,  I  think  I  have  a  gift  for  grammar, 
and  if  I  thought  it  of  the  smallest  use  to  mankind  I  could 
devote  myself  to  it  without  any  regret.  But  I  must  write 
out  my  views  on  Morals,  as  they  are  reaching  a  remarkable 
definiteness  as  far  as  they  go. 

Can't  you  come  and  see  me  in  the  Long  ?  I  shall  be  up 
here  all  the  time,  as  I  am  going  to  tackle  Hebrew.  I  have 
not  been  able  to  do  it  yet :  I  am  so  lazy,  and  Arabic  is  so 
vastly  copious.  I  do  not  yet  feel  that  I  have  a  thoroughly 
firm  grasp  of  it :  but  I  shall  try  and  keep  both  up  in  the 
Long  when  there  are  no  plaguey  undergraduates  to  teach. 

.  .  .   is   trying   for  the    Professorship   of    , 

much  to  my  annoyance,  as  he  is  a  friend  of  mine,  and  yet  I 
don't  think  he  is  the  best  man.  It  is  a  horrid  nuisance  to 
have  to  put  one's  principles  into  practice.  But  I  am  nerved 

H 


98  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

by  finding  morality  here  on  such  subjects  at  such  a  low  ebb. 
Nobody  makes  a  secret  of  voting  for  his  personal  friend  as 
such.  Is  it  Cambridge  eip&veia  ?  I  think  irony  a  bad 
thing  both  here  and  at  Oxford  ;  it  is  often  only  a  veil  for  real 
low  principle.  Upon  my  word,  the  way  in  which  I  discuss 
theology  with  half  a  dozen  clergymen  is  startling.  The 
country  is  enormously  deceived. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  June  28 

.  .  .  My  resolution  to  stay  in  Cambridge  this  Long  has  not 
wavered.  You  will  pardon  my  assuming  a  tone  of  Heroism, 
but  the  fact  is  that  when  I  communicated  to  my  friends,  as 
they  parted  for  their  several  tours,  my  immutable  resolve, 
they  received  it  with  an  anxiety,  a  seriousness,  implying  that 
they  expected  at  the  most  to  have  to  gather  up  my  mangled 
remains  when  they  returned  in  October.  Here  I  am,  then  ; 
the  climate  agrees  with  me ;  I  revel  in  Leisure ;  if  I  do  not 
over-eat  myself  (our  cook  is  very  good)  my  health  will  be 
all  right ;  I  have  got  half  through  the  irregular  verbs  of 
Hebrew  (and  let  me  tell  you  that  the  irregular  verbs  in 
Arabic  are  Clockwork  as  compared  to  them).  .  .  . 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  July 

...  I  have  begun  Hebrew.  Grammatically  it  is  infinitely 
arbitrary  and  uninteresting  as  compared  to  Arabic — which 
has  as  pretty  a  grammar  in  its  way  as  any  language  but 
Greek — and  on  the  whole  it  is  so  unprepossessing  that,  with 
the  miserable  idleness,  instability,  and  indigestion  which 
characterise  me,  I  can  foresee  that  if  I  had  begun  it  in  Term 
time  I  should  have  made  nothing  of  it.  As  it  is,  nothing 
can  prevent  my  going  on  with  it,  and  I  suppose  I  shall  at 
last  be  getting  into  Old  Testament  Criticism  towards  the 
end  of  the  Long.  I  seem  to  myself  to  be  getting  stagnant 
as  to  ideas,  owing  to  this  long  spell  of  almost  mechanical 
drudgery ;  and  I  have  no  one  here  who  sympathises  with  me 
quite  enough — except,  indeed,  one  man,  only  he  is  an 
undergraduate  at  Downing,1  and  I  cannot  see  very  much  of 

1  J.  B.  Payne. 


1863,  AGE  25  HENKY  SIDGWICK  99 

him.  When  I  say  sympathise,  of  course  I  mean  intel- 
lectually. The  clerical  atmosphere  of  the  place  begins  to 
oppress  me.  Not  that  men  are  intolerant,  heaven  forbid — 
anything  but  that — in  fact,  the  accounts  that  come  to  us 
from  Oxford  seem  like  a  wild  medieval  dream.  We  are 
thoroughly  Nineteenth  Century  English — according  to  the 
Times  idea  of  the  English  character — unspeculative,  tolerant, 
hard-working,  and  yet  miserably  given  to  wasting  time  on 
unrefined,  unelevating  relaxations  (such  as  College  feasts 
whist,  and  supper).  But — have  you  read  a  spirited  if  not 
profound  attack  in  Macmillan1  of  July  on  the  clergy  in 
general  and  Convocation  in  particular  ?  I  have  the  same 
feeling  as  regards  our  Clergy ;  as  men  I  respect  many  of 
them  much,  and  like  some ;  but  they  are  either  bigots,  or 
they  show  the  same  kind  of  perplexed  drifting  inadequacy 
to  the  occasion  which  the  Macmillaner  describes — reminding 
me  of  A.  Clough 

.   .  .   No  arraying  I  see,  or  king  in  Israel ; 
Only  a  confused  cry,  "  For  God's  sake  do  not  stir  there."  2 

When  one  reads  the  novels  or  pamphlets  of  twenty  years 
ago,  it  is  almost  pathetic  to  note  the  fiery,  youthful,  vigorous 
self-confidence  of  the  High  Church  then,  and  mark  the  con- 
trast now.  There  are  lots  of  Puseyites  here  now — quite  a 
big  revival,  but  no  mind  among  them,  and  such  as  there  is 
goes  either  to  "active  work,"  antiquarianism,  or  political 
agitation. 

My  own  views  do  not  alter ;  you  know  I  attach  less  and 
less  value  to  criticism  the  more  time  I  spend  over  it.  How 
can  a  close  knowledge  of  Hebrew  help  us  to  convince  a  man 
who  after  reading  the  English  Version  believes  that  God 
Almighty  wrote  the  account  of  Noah's  flood  ?  I  have  no 
doubt  antiquarian  research  will  bring  [out]  some  valuable 
results  in  time  in  Hebrew  antiquities  as  elsewhere:  but  long 
before  that  the  research  will  have  become  one  of  purely 
antiquarian  curiosity.  Meanwhile,  one  can  at  least  contra- 

1  An  article  entitled  "Convocation  aiid  Dr.  Colenso." 

2  Incorrectly  quoted  from  dough's  Bothie : — 

Neither  battle  I  see,  nor  arraying,  nor  king  in  Israel ; 

Only  infinite  jumble  and  mess  and  dislocation, 

Backed  by  a  solemn  appeal,  '  For  God's  sake,  do  not  stir  there  ! ' 


100  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

diet  the  people  who  say  that  it  would  all  come  right  if  you 
only  gave  the  right  meaning  to  niNnrr  or  similar  word. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  July  10 

.  .  .  The  Jews  were  a  splendid  people,  but  the  more  I 
read  about  them  the  more  averse  I  become  to  the  Biblio- 
latry  of  the  day.  This  is  a  disagreeable  age  to  live  in ; 
there  are  so  many  opinions  held  about  everything,  and  the 
advocates  of  each  abuse  their  opponents  so  violently  that  it 
quite  frightens  a  modest  man. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  Augvst 

I  am  sorry  you  are  relaxed.  I  am  not  very  well  myself, 
but  I  can  get  a  good  morning's  work  most  days;  in  the 
evenings  I  am  afraid  of  trying  my  eyes  with  an  unfamiliar 
language.  The  Long  appears  to  me  dull  on  the  whole.  You 
see,  John  Peile  (and  so  on)  are  down  and — but  this  is  humbug, 
for  I  really  am  enjoying  myself  very  much.  I  get  very 
enthusiastic  over  Hebrew.  I  went  down  for  three  weeks  at 
the  end  of  July.  I  went  [to  Wellington  College  to  examine, 
and]  to  see  Tawney ;  he  is  better ;  he  is  going  to  try  a  sea 
voyage  round  the  Cape  to  Calcutta  and  back  with  a  brother 
of  his  who  has  got  an  Indian  appointment.  He  is  much 
interested  in  what  we  will  discreetly  call  Modern  Thought. 

Since  I  came  up  here  again  I  have  been  "  pegging  away" 
at  the  Pentateuch.  I  have  just  finished  the  destruction  of 
those  miserable  Egyptians.  Hebrew  is  fine,  in  most  ways 
finer  than  Arabic ;  it  is  less  soft,  copious,  has  the  disadvan- 
tage of  being  an  antiquarian  language,  and  having  a  less 
symmetrical  grammar.  I  do  not  see  my  way  to  anything 
decisive  in  criticism,  e.g.  the  Elohistic  and  Jehovistic  theories 
are  all  very  fishy.  Being  an  impartial  man,  I  feel  morally 
certain  that  it  all  means  something,  only  what?  Each 
theory  can  be  easily  overthrown.  Stanley  called  Ewald  the 
Niebuhr  of  Hebrew  history.  Tawney  shrewdly  remarks 
that  there  will  soon  come  a  Cornewall  Lewis  of  ditto,  or 
even  a  Grote  (as  you  say  yourself);  who  will  quietly  treat 
the  earlier  legends  as  mere  legends,  and  begin  with,  say, 


1863,  AGE  25  HENEY  SIDGWICK  101 

Samuel,  to  construct  the  history.  However,  meanwhile  I 
am  living  a  happy  life  on  the  fine  old  literature.  You  can't 
have  an  idea  from  the  English  version  of  its  charm,  the 
naive  semi-poetical  turn  of  all  the  more  eloquent  parts. 
The  blessing  of  Isaac  and  the  story  of  Joseph  are  really 
unsurpassed.  Esau's  character  is  wonderfully  drawn.  The 
composer  of  these  stories  must  really  have  been  a  great 
dramatist.  There  is  great  art  in  the  abrupt  breaking  down 
of  Joseph's  elaborate  trial  of  his  brethren,  after  the  intensely 
pathetic,  despairing  appeal  of  Judah.  You  see  I  am 
enthusiastic,  but  the  best  is  over ;  already  in  Exodus  looms 
the  sacerdotal,  the  dry,  the  stiff,  the  systematic,  which  cul- 
minates in  Leviticus.  Deuteronomy  I  expect  to  enjoy,  and 
Judges  excessively.  I  want  to  get  to  the  end  of  Kings 
before  Term. 

To  his  Mother,  August  30 

...  I  am  reading  Hebrew  still.  I  have  just  finished 
Deuteronomy.  I  mean  to  go  on  when  I  come  down,  as  I 
am  in  splendid  working  order,  and  only  wish  to  exchange 
the  society  of  Dons  for  yours.  Deuteronomy  is  not  as 
interesting  as  the  earlier  books ;  it  is  more  rhetorical, 
though  in  parts  very  sublime.  Miriam's  Song  in  Exodus 
is  very  fine  in  the  original. 

To  0.  Browning  from  Cambridge,  October  13 
It  is  astonishing  to  find  the  Long  come  to  an  end.  It 
has  seemed  long,  and  I  have  learnt  infinitely  less  Hebrew 
than  I  might  reasonably  have  expected.  I  shall  not  get 
through  the  O.T.  by  Christmas.  The  Hebrew  Prophets 
are  overrated,  I  think,  aesthetically  speaking ;  singularly  fine 
fragments,  but  so  chaotic  and  tautological,  amorphous  and 
monotonous. 

I  had  a  talk  with  an  Etonian  in  the  Long,  who  told  me 
that  all  the  boys  were  passionately  fond  of  Balston;  he 
confided  to  me  that  "  King's  "  was  ruined  by  a  set  of  people 
called  University  reformers,  and  that  no  decent  fellow  would 
go  there  for  the  future.  He  remarked,  as  a  sign  of  the 
depravation  of  King's,  that  the  masters  who  had  recently 


102  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

come  from  thence  had  the  ridiculous  bad  taste  to  object  to 
even  a  slight  intoxication  on  the  time-honoured  4th  of  June. 
Altogether  it  was  most  edifying,  and  I  felt  what  a  sacri- 
legious spirit  I  was  of.  ... 

seems  to  have  improved  his  mind  much.      I  hope 

you  have  done  the  same.  Mine,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
thoroughly  empty  of  all  ideas  except  Semitic.  Cowell  is 
battering  me  to  Southernise  me  with  some  effect.1  .  .  . 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  early  in  November 

You  will  see  from  the  Initial  [Society]  papers  I  forward 
that  I  am  become  less  Northern.  I  shall  best  express  my 
feeling  by  saying  that  my  slumbering,  smothered  disgust  at 
"  Sentimental  Politics  "  has  broken  out  all  at  once.  In  this 
frame  of  rnind  I  came  across  an  article  in  Fraser  of  October, 
which  I  wish  you  would  read  if  you  can  get  hold  of  it. 
There  is  no  good  entering  on  so  many-sided  a  question  in 
a  letter.  I  think  as  things  are  now,  it  would  be  just  as 
sensible  for  us  to  exterminate  Brazilian  society  as  for  the 
North  to  exterminate  Carolinian.  If  the  war  were  to  end 
now,  I  should  not  regret  it.  The  New  Englanders  have 
cleansed  themselves  from  the  guilt  of  slavery.  Let  the 
crusade  cease ;  let  us  draw  a  "  cordon  "  round  the  abnormal 
society,  and  let  the  oligarchs  try  their  experiment.  It  would 
get  the  world  on  faster.  The  Spectator  represents  the 
sentirnentalism  I  loathe.  There  is  less  sympathy,  less  self- 
control,  less  of  the  element  of  ethics  in  the  Northern  spirit 
every  day.  The  finest  natural  emotions  do  not  make  up 
for  this.  You  had  better  write  something  terse  and  dry  in 
your  reply.  Cairnes  is  a  sentimentalist  in  the  clothing  of  a 
political  economist.2 

I  am  sorry  your  life  is  low.  I  am  much  interested 
in  all  you  say.  I  should  like  to  get  at  this  Oxford  Hegel - 
ianism  and  see  what  it  means.  I  used  to  talk  with  Green, 
but  I  did  not  draw  much.  This  belief  in  the  Tubingen 

1  Concerning  the  American  Civil  War. 

2  This  refers  to  Professor  Cairnes'  The  Slave  Power.    Notwithstanding  this 
outburst,  Sidgwick  remained   in   the  main   in   sympathy  with   the   North 
throughout  (seo  p.  129). 


1864,  AGE  25  HENRY  SIDGWICK  103 

school  is  still  more  amazing.  I  think  of  it,  as  I  do  of 
most  schools,  that  it  will  probably  vindicate  to  itself  a 
distinct  corner  in  Biblical  interpretation,  when  that  is  per- 
fected. Just  as  the  old  theory  of  Forgery  in  the  Old 
Testament  still  holds  more  or  less  as  to  Daniel,  so  probably 
some  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  really  mere 
manifestations  of  Tendenz.  But  this  Hegelian  Christ  ! 
I  do  not  believe  much  in  Ewald  neither.  We  want  a 
G.  C.  Lewis  in  Hebrew  history. 

To  his  Sister  in  November  1863 

...  I  have  nearly  got  through  the  Old  Testament:  I  shall 
have  done  all  but  Ezekiel  (the  hardest)  by  the  time  I  go 
down.  I  begin  to  wonder  that  any  one  who  has  ever 
learnt  any  language  and  has  six  months,  clear,  to  spare — 
this  last  is  a  rare  gratification,  I  know — does  not  learn 
Hebrew.  There  are  so  few  words  that  one  soon  gets  to 
feel  more  or  less  at  home  in  it.  It  is  distressing,  however, 
to  have  the  finest  passages  of  the  translation  destroyed  by 
the  barbarous  fidelity  of  a  ruthless  German  commentator. 
Fancy  putting,  instead  of  "  the  iron  entered  into  his  soul," 
"  his  soul  entered  the  iron  "  !  .  .  . 

Have  you  seen  any  literature  ?  There  is  a  poetess  who 
calls  herself  "  Jean  Ingelow  "  who  is  estimable.  The  Keviews 
have  discovered  that  Woolner's  poem  ["  My  Beautiful  Lady  "] 
is  a  swan,  and  I  do  not  think  it  a  goose  myself. 

On  December  11,  1863,  he  writes  to  his  mother 
arranging  to  spend  Christmas  with  her  at  Rugby, 
and  it  is  interesting,  in  view  of  his  work  in  Psychical 
Research,  to  find  him  saying  : — 

Though  I  am  pretty  well  read  in  Pneumatological 
Literature,  I  have  not  heard  of  the  book  you  mention.  I 
will  look  for  it  in  the  University  library  as  soon  as  I  have 
a  moment's  leisure. 

To  his  Mother,  February  11,  1864 

...  I  am  distracted  just  at  present  from  my  regular 
work  by  examining  for  the  University  scholarship.  It  is  a 


104  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

kind  of  work  I  dislike,  but  can't  [shirk].  My  complaints 
of  idleness  are  well  founded,  though  they  refer  rather  to 
habit  than  to  results.  I  have  a  perpetual  consciousness 
that  I  ought  to  be  working,  so  that,  on  the  whole,  I  get 
through  a  fair  amount ;  but  I  have  never  formed  a  habit  of 
really  steady  application,  so  that  I  waste  a  good  deal  of 
tune  every  day  that  no  one  can  take  account  of  but  myself. 
I  am  not  quite  sure  that  you  and  other  people  are  not  right 
in  saying  that  some  practical  work  would  benefit  me  in 
respect  of  this  and  similar  habits.  One  great  drawback, 
however,  to  the  satisfactoriness  of  my  work  is  the  uncer- 
tainty I  always  feel  as  to  the  ultimate  result  of  it.  I  do 
not  believe  in  anything  I  study  quite  enough  to  give  me  an 
ardent  love  of  every  fact  connected  with  it ;  and  one  ought 
to  have  that  belief  in  order  to  carry  one  over  wearisome 
tracts  of  ennui.  William  is  coming  to  see  me  in  a  fort- 
night ;  we  are  very  busy  and  lively ;  certainly  the  complete 
ease  of  Cambridge  society  is  very  charming  to  me.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother,  March  22 

...  I  have  been  reading  at  the  British  Museum. 
The  facilities  of  study  afforded  there  are  really  a  thing  for 
an  Englishman  to  be  proud  of.  I  positively  wasted  a  good 
deal  of  the  short  time  I  had  to  spend  there  in  mere 
admiration.  .  .  . 

To  H.  Gr.  Dakyns,  March 

.  .  .  Littre*  is  very  good,  tho'  it  makes  me  reflect  that 
Positivism  kills  biography  as  an  art.  There  is  no  individu- 
ality in  his  Comte :  it  is  a  mere  type :  only  that  he  is  the 
only  one  of  his  type.  I  agree  with  him  entirely  as  to  the 
"  subjective  phase  of  C.'s  life."  I'll  write  soon.  Spiritualism 
progresses  but  slowly  ;  I  am  not  quite  in  the  same  phase,  as  I 
(fancy  I)  have  actually  heard  the  raps  (produced  by  Cfowell]), 
so  that  your  "  dreaming  awake  "  theory  will  require  a  further 
development.  However,  I  have  no  kind  of  evidence  to 
come  before  a  jury.  So  keep  it  still  dark  till  I  blaze  forth. 
I  am  going  to  prosecute  it  this  Easter.  I  can  only  assure 


1864,  AGE  25  HENEY  SIDGWICK  105 

you  that  an  evening  with  S[piri]ts,  scriptorc  C[pweir\o,  is  as 
fascinating  to  me  as  any  novel.  I  talk  with  Arabs,  Hindoos, 
Spaniards,  Counts  Cavour,  etc.  I  yield  to  the  belief  at  the 
time,  and  recover  my  philosophic  scepticism  next  morning.1 

I  am  stupid,  horribly  unaesthetic,  can't  sympathise  with 
your  reading  Dante  in  the  least.  You  will  turn  out  the 
"  poetical  mind,"  after  all. 

I  talked  to  Green  in  Oxford ;  I  was  horrified  by  his 
idea  of  diaconising ;  it  is  only  in  such  a  milieu  as  Oxford 
that  a  high-minded  man  could  think  of  it.  But  there  the 
political  side  of  Neology  is  so  prominent  that  one  con- 
tinually comes  across  this  feeling  about  Subscription,  "  The 
more  you  want  to  keep  me  out,  the  more  I  won't." 

I  am  grinding  at  Mohammad  [in]  Sprenger;  he  thinks 
him  a  very  inferior  person,  just  as  Kenan  did ;  his  (S.'s) 
views  seem  somewhat  to  resemble  R's.  I  wish  his  style 
did  in  the  very  least.  But  I  am  getting  to  detest  the 
"  probable  "  ;  this  kind  of  history  is  a  "  system  of  ingenious 
guesses." 

.  .  .  Can't  you  come  up  here  at  Easter  from  Good 
Friday  to  Sunday  ?  We  shall  have  quite  a  family  party. 
Benson  preaches  in  St.  Mary's.  Trevelyan  will  be  up  and 
a  friend  of  mine  I  should  like  you  to  see. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  April  5 

.  .  .  Then  again,  in  so  far  as  (e.g.)  the  Protestant 
symbol  depends  on  erroneous  interpretation  of  historic  facts 
(and  it  does  to  an  enormous  degree),  it  seems  treason  to 
science  even  to  wish  to  retain  it.  To  be  candid,  I  will  allow 
that  I  do  wish  to  retain  the  idea  of  Divine  Sacrifice,  though 
it  seems  to  me  irreconcilable  with  a  philosophic  Theism. 
I  am  fascinated  by  Browning's  [lines  in  "  Saul,"  §  xviii.]. 

1  The  experiments  in  automatic  writing  with  his  friend  Cowell,  here 
mentioned,  are  described  by  Sidgwick  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  vol.  iii.  pp.  25-27  (in  an  article  by  F.  W.  H.  Myers  on 
automatic  writing).  He  there  says,  "The  experiments  that  we  made  .  .  . 
always  failed  to  show  anything  in  the  statements  written  down  that  might 
not  have  been  due  to  the  working  of  [my  friend's]  own  brain  ;  and  at 
the  end  of  my  visit  we  were  both  agreed  that  there  was  no  ground  for 
attributing  the  phenomenon  to  any  other  cause  but  unconscious  cerebration." 
The  "  raps  "  remained  puzzling. 


106  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

Would  I  suffer  for  him  that  I  love  ?     So  wouldst  thou,  so  wilt  thou. 
So  shall  crown  thee  the  topmost,  ineffablest,  uttermost  crown, 
And  thy  love  fill  infinitude  wholly,  nor  leave  up  nor  down 
One  spot  for  the  creature  to  stand  in.     It  is  by  no  breath, 
Turn  of  eye,  wave  of  hand,  that  salvation  joins  issue  with  death. 

Yet  I  feel  this  must  be  abandoned.  ...  As  to  Spiritualism, 
do  not  speak  of  it :  I  have  not  progressed,  but  am  in  painful 
doubt ;  still  I  have  some  personal  experiences  and  much 
testimony,  and  I  find  it  hard  to  believe  that  I  shall  not 
discover  some  unknown  laws,  psychological  or  other;  but 
I  do  not  yet  wish  even  to  expound  except  viva  voce  when 
interrogated.  The  raps  were  perceived  by  the  sensoria  of 
myself  and  Cowell,  sitting  at  a  small  table,  certainly  not 
in  consequence  of  any  physical  force  exercised  by  us  on 
the  table.  You  will  ticket  it  as  a  case  of  the  "  idee  fixe." 

I  go  to  some  German  University  about  June  16  to 
learn  Arabic,  and  hope  to  be  abroad  the  whole  Long. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  about  the  end  of  April 

...  I  went  to  Oxford  last  Saturday  and  saw  "William. 
I  enjoyed  it  excessively !  the  Sunday  was  delicious  and  the 
intellectual  excitement  of  the  conversation  there  almost 
fatiguing.  Oxford  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  Cam- 
bridge in  respect  of  the  much  greater  stir  and  activity  of 
the  intellectual  life  that  is  kept  up  there.  It  is  partly  due 
to  the  hot  controversies  that  are  always  raging  there,  which 
keep  people's  minds  always  thinking ;  so  we  have  perhaps 
a  compensative  advantage  in  the  scholarlike  quiet  and  tolera- 
tion of  Cambridge,  where  a  man  may  on  the  whole  "  speak 
the  thing  he  will." 

I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  you  about  the  new  master- 
ship at  Rugby ;  the  only  doubt  is  what  Arthur  will  do.  I 
do  not  think  he  will  be  sorry  to  have  more  time  to  read, 
and  I  myself  hope  that  he  will  elect  to  stay  at  Cambridge. 
There  is  much  good  that  he  could  do  there,  and  he  could 
soon  be  saving.  I  find  that  I  have  saved  £1700,  and  hope 
to  save  £400  a  year  as  long  as  I  stay  here:  in  spite  of 
all  my  travelling,  books,  and  the  extremely  luxurious  life 


1864,  AGE  26  HENEY  SIDGWICK  107 

that  I  can  hardly  help  leading.  However,  I  know  you 
think  that  William  and  I  are  enough  victims  on  the 
Moloch-altar  of  College  life.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  about  May  13 

I  shall  perhaps  come  down  to  Eugby  as  early  as 
Thursday,  the  2nd,  .  .  .  and  my  friend  Cowell  will 
come  at  whatever  time  I  do.  The  only  thing  that  makes 
it  doubtful  is  that  we  are  going  to  have  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales  here  for  the  2nd,  3rd,  and  4th  of  June, 
and  I  cannot  quite  make  up  my  mind  whether  I  shall  stay 
and  help  to  entertain  them  or  not. 

We  are  going  to  give  a  grand  ball  in  Neville's  Court  on 
the  4th  of  June.  I  consider  it  a  most  unseemly  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  a  charitable  foundation  for  the  purposes  of 
education,  and  of  which  the  majority  are  clergymen,  and  so 
I  opposed  it  with  all  the  means  in  my  power,  especially  as 
it  will  be  a  very  great  expense,  and  you  know  my  miserly 
tendencies.  However,  as  it  is  going  to  take  place,  I  would 
gladly  take  my  part  if  I  thought  it  would  do  any  one  any 
good.  But  I  cannot  think  of  any  family  with  marriageable 
girls  whom  I  could  ask  to  come  up  for  the  occasion :  and 
no  one  else  could  possibly  care  to  come  to  Cambridge  when 
the  town  will  be  so  crowded.  So  I  think  my  room  will  be 
preferable  to  my  company.  However,  I  have  not  quite 
made  up  my  mind.  ...  I  have  been  up  to  town,  and  had  a 
glimpse  of  the  Eoyal  Academy.  There  seemed  to  me  to  be, 
on  the  whole,  the  same  lack  of  imagination,  but  one  or  two 
pictures  made  me  covetous. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  May 

...  I  am  sorry  you  are  in  so  nightmarish  a  state.  Have 
you  been  reading  Carlyle  or  any  such  poison  ?  For  myself 
I  wake  up  every  morning  with  a  fresh  faith  in  progress  (of 
some  sort).  I  have  as  much  right  to  be  in  despair  as  any  one, 
for  I  cannot  even  get  my  moral  sense  right.  I  have  been 
setting  to  work  on  a  book  that  was  to  be  called  "  Eudsemonism 
Eestated":  and  just  when  I  have  demonstrated  on  paper  the 


108  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

absolute  preferableness  of  complete  self-devotion,  I  find 
myself  disbelieving  it — or  at  least  disbelieving  it  to  be 
demonstrable.  I  will  hope  for  any  amount  of  religious  and 
moral  development,  but  I  will  not  stir  a  finger  to  compress 
the  world  into  a  system,  and  it  does  not  at  present  seem  as 
if  it  was  going  to  harmonise  itself  without  compression. 
The  only  possible  cult  then  possible  at  present  is  that  of 
the  healthy,  under  all  circumstances :  and  I  am  becoming 
a  sort  of  Christianised  Aristippus  (as  to  my  ideal). 

The  reading  of  Aubrey  de  Vere  has  excited  in  my  mind 
old  fancies  of  going  to  Chios.  A.  de  V.  succeeds,  I  think, 
in  a  sort  of  loose,  careless  classicism  which  is  as  different 
from  the  compressed  inhaltsvoll  classic  style  of  Tennyson 
and  Tennysonians  as — I  can't  think  of  a  comparison. 

Would  you  go  to  Chios  ?  I  believe  one  can  live  in 
luxury  on  £40  a  year  there.  Meanwhile,  for  it  is  as  well  to 
have  two  strings  to  one's  bow,  I  am  trying  to  get  the  Tutors 
to  appoint  me  Moral  Philosophy  lecturer  to  the  College.  I 
do  not  think  they  will. 

There  are  lots  of  things  going  on  here,  and  in  fact  I 
feel  as  if  Cambridge  was  improving.  Do  you  see  Kenan's 
incidental  notice  of  English  Universities  in  the  last  Revue  ? 
The  great  charm  of  Eenan  is  that  he  is  so  "  earnest." 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Ostend 

...  I  am  on  my  way  to  Germany  with  a  vague  inten- 
tion of  studying  Arabic  literature  with  the  aid  of  some 
hdve  et  famdique  Privat- decent,  as  Kenan  has  it.  There 
are  two  professors  of  Arabic  at  Cambridge,  and  they  give 
between  them  twelve  lectures  a  year,  which  is  scant 
nourishment  for  a  soul  as  eager  after  knowledge  as  mine 
is.  I  am  staying  here  a  day  or  two  to  get  a  breath  of  sea 
air  to  blow  away  my  hay  fever,  which  is  violent  just  at  this 
season. 

...  By  the  bye,  the  characteristic  of  Browning  I  once 
described  as  "  applying  the  blow-pipe  to  passion  "  is  more 
prominent  than  ever  in  his  last  volume,  particularly  in 
"James  Lee."  There  is  one  delightful  exception  to  this 


1864,  AGE  26  HENKY  SIDGWICK  109 

remark,  viz.  "  Youth  and  Art "  ;  the  bitter  regret  only  comes 

out  in  one  verse : — 

We  have  not  sighed  deep,  laughed  free, 
Starved,  feasted,  despaired — been  happy. 

The  second  line  is  perfection ;  you  could  not  do  it  in  any 
language  but  English.  It  is  curious  to  see  what  an  dan 
Browning's  popularity  has  taken  after  his  having  been  so 
long  merely  the  idol  of  a  clique. 

There  is  a  new  story  by  the  authoress  of  The  Heir  of 
Reddyffe,  which  I  have  read  with  all  my  old  enthusiasm. 
I  thought  it  was  quite  gone  off,  as  the  last  two  of  her 
books  rather  bored  me,  but  I  can't  get  The  Tried  out  of  my 
head.  Did  you  ever  read  Madame  Bovary,  a  French  novel 
by  Flaubert  ?  It  is  very  powerful,  and  Miss  Yonge  reminds 
me  of  it  by  force  of  contrast.  It  describes  how  the  terrible 
ennui  of  mean  French  rural  domestic  life  drags  down  the 
soul  of  an  ambitious  woman,  whereas  Miss  Yonge  makes 
one  feel  how  full  of  interest  the  narrowest  sphere  of  life  is. 
I  think  her  religion  is  charming,  and  it  mellows  with  age, 
the  dpre  Puseyism  wears  off.  I  will  write  to  you  again  when 
I  get  settled  and  describe  a  German  interior,  if  I  get 
admitted  into  one,  as  I  hope.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  the  house  of  Professor  Benfey  at 
Gottingen,  about  the  end  of  June 

Above  is  my  address.  I  expect  to  stay  here  at  any  rate 
till  the  end  of  August.  The  worthy  Professor,  who  has 
made  me  a  member  of  his  family  for  a  consideration  of  £8 
a  month,  is  a  Professor  of  Sanscrit  whom  I  met  three  years 
ago  at  an  assembly  of  philologers  in  Brunswick.  I  after- 
wards paid  him  a  flying  visit  here,  and  then  formed  the 
idea  of  coming  some  day  to  read  in  Gottingen.  I  feel  very 
well  satisfied  with  my  situation  so  far.  I  have  private 
lessons  in  Arabic  twice  a  week  from  the  laborious  Professor 
Wiistenfeld ;  I  attend  four  times  a  week  the  half  public 
lectures  of  the  distinguished  Professor  Ewald  (there  are 
only  three  pupils,  including  myself),  who  also  has  promised 
to  give  me  once  a  week  another  private  lesson.  So  as 


110  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

far  as  my  studies  go  I  am  pretty  well  provided.  The 
family  circle  is  not  large ;  it  consists  besides  myself  of  the 
Professor,  his  wife,  whom  I  think  it  would  not  be  too  severe 
to  call  "  a  nice,  motherly  person,"  and  three  daughters,  of 
whom  two  are  still  at  school,  i.e.  a  day  school  in  Gottingen, 
which  they  tell  me  is  the  best  in  all  Hanover.  The  third 
daughter  is  just  grown  up ;  she  is  intelligent,  enthusiastic, 
and  not  ugly,  and  speaks  English  better  than  any  of  the 
others,  indeed  very  well.  The  Professor  has  been  in 
England  (in  fact  he  was  offered,  he  tells  me,  a  post  at 
Kugby  in  Dr.  Arnold's  time),  and  has  even  written  a 
Sanscrit  Grammar  in  English,  and  is  now  engaged  on  a 
Lexicon  in  the  same  language,  in  correcting  the  proofs  for 
which  I  am  to  assist  him — but  he  is  by  no  means  perfect 
in  his  use  of  the  language.  He  tells  me  that  his  daughter 
has  learnt  chiefly  from  him,  but  she  often  corrects  him. 
My  own  German  has  suffered  sadly  from  want  of  use,  and  I 
intend  to  propose  to  the  Fra'ulein  to  exchange  instruction  in 
our  respective  languages  for  an  hour  or  so  a  day.  If  she 
consents  I  shall  have  much  the  best  of  the  bargain,  but  she 
does  not  know  how  well  she  knows  the  language.  It  is 
remarkable  to  what  an  extent  I  feel  at  home  in  Germany  ; 
and  this  town  is  particularly  one  that  suits  my  tempera- 
ment; it  is  just  the  size  I  like,  about  15,000  inhabitants; 
it  is  situated  in  a  pretty  hilly  country — unlike  Berlin,  that 
is  plumped  down  in  the  middle  of  the  dullest,  flattest, 
sandiest  level  in  Europe.  The  town  was  fortified  before  the 
peace,  but  the  ramparts  (as  has  happened  in  so  many  other 
places)  have  been  turned  into  a  shady  walk  round  the 
town,  which  is  really  delightful :  and  very  academic  in  the 
meditative  mood  they  inspire.  The  streets  are  tolerably 
empty ;  there  are  no  sights  to  be  seen  and  no  amusements 
to  distract  one ;  altogether  it  is  exactly  the  place  I  should 
have  chosen.  In  September  my  professors  (one  certainly 
and  probably  both),  travel  away,  and  I  shall  most  likely 
go  eastward  in  search  of  Arabians,  to  Dresden,  Halle,  or 
Leipsic.  I  stayed  three  days  at  Ostend ;  it  was  not  a  bad 
place  for  hay  fever,  as  the  only  walk  that  had  the  least 


1864,  AGE  26  HENEY  SIDGWICK  111 

attraction  was  along  the  shore,  where  there  is  a  fine  sea-wall 
of  about  half  a  mile  in  length.  I  walked  up  and  down 
there,  and  read  Arabian  Nights  for  the  rest  of  the  time,  and 
supported  life  with  the  extra  -  English  cookery  of  the 
expensive  inn,  i.e.  raw  beefsteaks  relieved  by  mutton  chops 
one  day,  and  mutton  chops  succeeded  by  underdone  beef- 
steaks another.  It  was,  however,  successful  medically,  as 
my  hay  fever  did  not  sensibly  return  during  the  tedious 
railway  journey  from  Ostend  to  Gdttingen. 

To  his  Mother,  from  the  same  address,  in  the  middle  of  July 

Here  I  am  very  comfortable  still.  .  .  .  To-day  is  Sunday, 
and  I  have  just  attended  the  Lutheran  service  in  the  church 
opposite.  Certainly  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  sermons  in 
Germany  are  much  better  (that  is,  more  impressive)  than 
our  own.  I  have  never  heard  a  sermon  delivered  in  at  all  a 
perfunctory  way,  and  the  great  majority  show  that  they  have 
carefully  cultivated  delivery,  tone,  and  expression.  I  called 
on  Professor  Ewald  after  service.  It  appears  to  be  the  custom 
here  to  pay  calls  between  eleven  and  one  on  Sunday  morning; 
and  especially  Ewald  works  so  hard  all  the  week  that  it 
would  be  impertinent  to  disturb  him  with  a  visit.  He  told 
me  that  sermons  in  Germany  are  considered  to  be  in  an 
improving  state  rather  than  the  reverse,  and  that  only  in 
very  rustic  districts  did  the  clergy  dare  to  read  their 
sermons.  I  can't  see  why  clergy  in  England  should  not  all 
learn  to  preach  without  book.  What  the  discourse  loses  in 
intrinsic  merit  is  counterbalanced  ten  times  over  by  the 
additional  power  of  impressing  that  it  acquires. 

The  Professors  are  very  obliging ;  they  insist  on  giving 
me  lessons  gratis.  Ewald's  lectures  are  always  gratis,  but 
Professor  Wiistenfeld  gives  me  absolutely  two  hours  of  his 
already  very  scanty  leisure,  and  insists  on  not  being  paid. 
This  is  absolutely  embarrassing.  I  hear,  however,  that  he 
is  rich  for  a  German,  and  fills  his  post  here  only  because 
of  his  decided  taste  for  study.  I  have  not  got  to  know  any 
of  the  students  here ;  they  howl  twice  a  week  in  a  big  room 
opposite,  where  they  enjoy  beer,  tobacco,  and  students' '  rags.' 


112  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP.  H 

Every  now  and  then  one  hears  of  duelling,  which  appears 
to  be  earned  on  almost  entirely  as  an  amusement  and 
rarely  as  a  means  of  avenging  an  affront.  Yet  my  Professor 
assures  me  that  no  one  in  Germany  dares  refuse  to  fight 
a  duel,  when  challenged,  without  distinctly  losing  caste. 
Extraordinary  state  of  things !  but  it  is  evidently  one  of 
those  absurdities  which  can  only  be  gradually  extinguished 
by  public  opinion.  Three  Catholic  officers  in  Berlin  lately 
refused  to  fight  duels  on  conscientious  grounds.  Duelling 
is  forbidden  in  the  army,  and  yet  these  three  men  were 
forced  by  the  authorities  to  sell  out ! ! ! 

Meta  Benfey  is  a  charming  girl,  and  I  only  wish  I  could 
devote  more  of  my  time  to  the  improvement  of  my  German 
by  conversation  with  her.  The  other  two  children  are  about 
fourteen  and  fifteen,  I  imagine.  .  .  .  Professor  Benfey  is  a 
great  talker,  and  the  more  I  see  of  him  the  greater  respect 
I  entertain  for  his  ability.  He  is  not  at  all  a  man  who 
impresses  one  with  ability  at  first — in  general  Germans  do 
not  seem  to  me  to  aim  at  attaining  an  oracular  manner,  as 
is  so  much  the  fashion  in  England — but  he  has  wonderfully 
quick  and  accurate  perceptions,  astonishing  powers  of  work, 
unfailing  clearness  of  head. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  from  Professor  Benfey' s,  in  July  1864 

...  I  have  no  heart  to  write  about  myself.  I  feel 
somewhat  like  Matthew  Arnold's  Oxus,  as  if  I  had  poured 
the  feeble  stream  of  my  energies  into  an  Arabic  waste, 

forgetting  the  bright  speed  I  had, 
A  foiled  circuitous  wanderer. 

I  do  not  get  on  as  well  as  I  hoped :  Ewald  disappoints 
me,  he  is  so  very  narrow-minded  on  some  points.  It  is 
difficult  to  be  at  once  a  grammarian  and  a  philosopher,  or 
even  a  philosophic  historian.  The  sharpness  and  swiftness 
of  his  perception  is  wonderful,  the  devotion  and  philanthropy 
of  his  soul  admirable — but  he  wants  many-sidedness. 

To  H.  Gr.  Dakyns  a  little  later 
"  Come  out  into  the  azure,"  says  Emerson.     "  Hug  the 


1864,  AGE  26  HENKY  SIDGWICK  113 

day " ;  and  I  feel  inclined  to  apply  the  advice  to  you. 
"Never  consider  yourself  an  exception  to  general  rules," 
said  an  Epicurean  we  both  knew.  This  also  may  be  quoted. 
Do  not  consider  me  unsympathising ;  it  is  not  so.  It  is 
thus.  When  I  first  read  your  letter,  the  mysterious  gloom 
pervading  it  descended  on  me  like  a  thick  cloud.  On 
re-reading  it  the  conviction  forced  itself  on  me  that  you 
really  drew  three  -  fourths  of  your  wormwood  from  a 
fallacious  sense  of  isolation  in  the  manifold  experiences  of 
humanity,  which  I  too  have  known,  and  which  I  consider 
the  only  intolerable  evil.  Therefore  I  consider,  as  far  as  I 
can  look  on  it  as  an  abstract  question,  that  your  resolution 
to  communicate  yourself  to  me  is  good.  I  once  had  a 
terrible  (but  in  this  case  semi-hypochondriacal)  gloom, 
which  I  dissipated  by  a  violent  struggle  after  lumen  siccum. 
However,  that  is  probably  not  the  least  to  the  point,  but  I 
have  an  inexplicable  conviction  that  when  I  hear  what  you 
have  to  tell  I  shall  be  able  to  talk  very  much  to  the  point. 
...  I  really  think  that  the  power  of  combining  sympathy 
and  lumen  siccum  does  belong  to  me,  and  the  unpleasant  is 
as  human  (um)  as  the  pleasant. 

To  H.  Gf.  Dakyns  again  later 

God  the  Creator  is  profuse  of  poisons,  as  Shelley  bitterly 
said ;  but  the  Eedeemer,  the  conscious  spirit  in  us,  has 
nothing  to  do  with  them.  He  has  but  to  seek  the  antidote. 
"  Portions  and  parcels  of  the  dreadful  past "  is  a  heathen 
idea ;  say  rather,  the  Past  is  divine,  God's  work,  with  all  its 
lights  and  shadows.  The  present  also  is  in  so  far  God's  as 
it  is  the  result  of  the  past.  God  hands  over  to  us  at  this 
moment  a  complex  stuff  of  weakness  and  strength,  sickness 
and  health,  habits  and  desires,  good  and  pernicious ;  our 
conscious  spirit  has  but  to  apply  its  modicum  of  energy  to 
mould  this  toward  the  ideal.  .  .  . 

One  word.  Strive  not  to  let  your  spirit  be  clouded  by 
your  flesh :  in  every  disease  this  is  the  worst  danger :  it 
means  what  is  called  hypochondria,  the  state  when  one's 
thoughts  are  enslaved  to  one's  clay.  I  do  not  know 

I 


114  HENRY  SIDG WICK  CHAP,  n 

whether  you  are  in  danger  of  this :  if  so,  believe  one  who 
has  cried  ev  Be  <pdei,  KOI  o\eacrov,1  that  the  will  is  very 
powerful  in  such  cases. 

To  his  Mother  about  the  middle  of  August 

It  is  a  long  time  since  I  wrote,  but  my  life  has  settled 
into  a  singularly  uneventful  course.  I  read  Arabic  and 
talk  German  ;  I  talk  German  and  read  Arabic — voila  tout — 
except  on  Sundays,  when  I  go  long  walks  with  a  Prussian 
student  of  Sanscrit,  with  whom  I  have  made  acquaintance. 
He  cheers  my  solitude  and  spoils  my  German,  because  I 
only  use  the  language  when  with  him  for  the  purpose  of 
exchanging  ideas  without  paying  the  least  regard  to  the 
accuracy  of  the  form  in  which  they  are  conveyed.  He  is  a 
most  amiable-looking  man,  and  you  would  take  him  for  an 
Englishman.  I  wish  I  could  introduce  you  to  Professor 
Ewald ;  I  am  sure  you  would  like  him.  I  shall  bring  over 
some  photographs  of  him ;  with  his  high  forehead  and  long 
white  hair  he  looks  so  reverend,  simple,  and  benevolent,  and 
withal  somewhat  shiftless,  just  as  a  learned  man  ought  to  be. 
I  discovered  at  the  end  of  the  term  that  he  had  lengthened 
his  lectures  half  an  hour  solely  for  my  sake,  and  he  has 
promised  to  give  me  private  lessons  all  through  September. 
I  am  resting  now — that  is,  only  reading  the  Arabian  Nights 
a  few  hours  a  day — till  Graham  Dakyns  comes  (I  expect  him 
at  the  end  of  this  week)  to  spend  a  few  days  in  the  Harz  ; 
then  I  shall  set  to  work  again  for  about  a  month  more, 
after  which  I  shall  have  another  break  in  the  shape  of  a 
"  Philologer-assembly,"  the  thing  I  went  to  three  years  ago, 
if  you  remember,  which  takes  place  in  Hanover.  It  will 
be  interesting  to  me,  as  I  shall  see  all  the  philological  swells 
together ;  and  I  believe  two  or  three  other  Englishmen  will 
be  there.  I  do  not  feel  at  all  exhausted,  as  I  carefully  avoid 
working  hard,  and  take  plenty  of  sleep,  rest,  and  exercise. 
So  I  have  no  doubt  I  shall  be  quite  well  (as  far  as  work 
goes)  at  the  end  of  the  Long.  I  take  a  complete  holiday 

1  Iliad,  xvii.  647.     The  prayer  of  Aias,  when  his  foes  are  hidden  by  the 
mist :  "Give  us  light,  tho*  thou  slay  us." 


1864,  AGK  26  HENKY  SIDGWICK  115 

on  Sunday.  Besides,  I  am  not  engaged  in  anything  really 
straining  to  the  mind ;  when  one  has  advanced  as  far  in  a 
language  as  I  have  in  Arabic,  the  labour  of  acquiring  words 
and  phrases  is  tedious  but  not  exhausting. 

If  any  one  asks  whether  I  am  turning  into  a  beer-drinking 
German  (as  I  believe  the  phrase  is)  you  may  inform  them 
that  I  have  not  drunk  above  three  glasses  since  I  have  been 
in  Germany.  I  resolved  to  leave  off  strong  drink  to  a  great 
extent  this  summer,  and  did  so  without  experiencing  any 
discomfort.  The  diet  is  only  too  good,  except  the  tea,  which 
they  only  make  German  fashion — that  is,  about  a  spoonful  to 
ten  cups ;  consequently  it  never  keeps  me  awake,  as  you 
may  imagine.  I  like  my  host  and  family  excessively,  but 
I  believe  I  have  told  you  all  about  them.  The  other  day 
an  Englishman  turned  up  when  I  was  away,  and  when  I 
came  back  they  informed  me  they  had  heard  that  I  had 
an  elder  brother  a  distinguished  wit  ("  der  ausgezeichnete 
Witze  macht ")  in  Oxford. 

Arthur  had  told  me  of  his  acceptance  of  the  Rugby 
mastership.  /  can  allow  that  he  has  taken  a  prudent, 
perhaps  a  wise  course ;  you  will  rejoice  that  at  least  one 
son  is  saved  from  the  dangerous  seductions  of  University 
residence ;  at  any  rate  I  am  very  glad  that  your  stay  at 
Rugby  will  be  so  much  pleasanter.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  about  the  middle  of  September 

I  can't  come  home ;  my  three  months  for  which  I  am 
engaged  will  not  be  over  till  the  8th  of  October,  and  I 
must  pay  my  visit  to  Paul1  at  the  end  of  the  vacation. 
You  will  see  lots  of  me  after  I  do  come  home.  My  progress 
in  Arabic  is  slower  than  I  had  hoped,  and,  as  I  am  never 
able  to  work  very  hard,  I  can  only  attain  my  object  by 
long  perseverance.  ...  I  imagine  you  will  perhaps  see 
G.  Dakyns  before  this  reaches  you.  We  had  a  tolerably 
prosperous  journey  in  the  Harz,  and  thoroughly  explored 
the  different  valleys,  of  which  indeed  only  one  is  first-class 
in  the  way  of  beauty.  It  so  happened  that  just  in  this  one 

1  Rev.  C.  Kegan  Paul,  then  Rector  of  Bailie,  Wimborne. 


116  HEXRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

the  weather  was  all  that  could  be  wished ;  so,  though  we 
had  a  good  deal  of  rain,  we  ought  not  to  complain.  This  one 
valley,  a  thickly-wooded  ravine,  occasionally  rocky,  with  a 
fine,  clear,  full  stream,  I  do  not  know  anything  to  beat.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  mountains  are  mere  lumps ;  one  only 
goes  up  one,  the  Brocken,  and  it  is  the  stupidest  ascent  I 
ever  made. 

I  take  walking  tours  rather  on  faith,  as  they  always 
make  me  rather  unwell  at  the  time,  and  I  am  not  sure 
whether  they  do  me  any  ultimate  benefit.  However,  I  am 
on  the  whole  in  decidedly  good  health. 

No  one  comes  near  this  Arcadia  in  the  shape  of  a  friend 
or  an  acquaintance,  which  is  on  the  whole  satisfactory.  I 
hate  to  carry  England  about  with  me  everywhere.  I  am 
very  fond  of  the  town,  and  my  fondness  for  the  simplicity 
of  German  life  is  an  old  story.  '  As  a  change '  you  will 
say,  '  and  to  add  zest  to  the  luxuries  of  Cambridge  when  I 
return.'  Perhaps  so ;  at  any  rate  I  feel  as  if,  were  anything 
to  drive  me  out  of  England,  it  would  be  only  a  half  banish- 
ment so  long  as  I  had  Germany  to  fall  back  upon.  Not 
that  I  at  all  want  to  be  even  half  banished.  I  value  in 
theory  the  English  freedom  of  action  as  high,  if  not  higher 
than  the  German  freedom  of  thought.  Besides,  in  a  certain 
sense  we  have  more  real  liberality  in  England  than  here. 
That  is  the  really  educated — for  sometimes  I  think  that  the 
half-educated  Englishman  whom  the  daily  papers  are  written 
to  suit  is  the  most  conceited  idiot  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

To  his  Mother  from  Lille,  October  10 

You  perceive  I  have  left  Arcadia.  Yes,  I  have  taken  a 
tender  farewell  of  my  two  instructors  in  Arabic,  of  my 
excellent  host  and  his  amiable  and  lively  family,  and  am 
spending  the  night  in  a  country  where  they  chatter  a 
superficial  language  called  French.  Well,  I  allow  the 
parting  was  painful.  I  am  always  very  sorry  to  leave 
Germany,  and  never  more  than  this  time — but  I  shall  get 
over  it.  You  know  why  I  like  the  people :  they  seem  to 
me  to  have  attained  the  end  of  civilisation,  i.e.  intellectual 


1864,  AGE  26  HENRY  SIDGWICK  117 

and  aesthetic  development,  without  the  usual  concomitant 
disadvantages  of  civilisation,  i.e.  luxury  and  ceremony.  I 
shall  not  begin  to  feel  any  patriotic  impulse  till  I  see  the 
white  cliffs  of  Dover. 

Professor  Ewald  is  disinterestedness  itself.  He  has  devoted 
to  me  I  do  not  know  how  much  of  his  valuable  time,  and 
absolutely  refused  to  take  any  payment.  He  is  very  fond 
of  talking  about  England,  especially  English  Theology;  in 
our  parting  interview  he  urged  on  me  the  importance  of 
studying  Hebrew  in  a  country  where  no  one  was  able 
properly  to  answer  Colenso. 

I  went  and  attended  a  meeting  of  Philologers  at  Hanover. 
It  was  not  bad  fun.  I  lived  with  the  Orientalist  section, 
who  are  a  sociable  lot.  The  one  thing  I  object  to  is  a 
German  state  dinner  where  the  speeches  go  on  between  the 
courses.  One  eats  one's  first  spoonful  of  soup  at  4^-  P.M., 
and  one's  last  mouthful  of  cheese  about  8.30.  Imagine  the 
amount  of  wine  one  may  drink  meanwhile,  hobnobbing 
(literally)  with  affectionate  brother  professors !  One  or  two 
lights  of  learning  did  seem  to  me  to  be  momentarily 
quenched  or  at  least  nickering. 

I  have  not  learnt  very  much  Arabic.  Professor  Ewald  is 
not  complimentary,  but  he  consoles  me  by  saying  I  know 
more  than  most  Englishmen.  My  other  Professor  is  much 
politer :  but  then  he  is  at  once  good-natured  and  shy. 

It  is  Arcadia.  And  then  they  are  such  nice  people — 
allowing,  of  course,  for  differences  of  manners  and  customs. 
Did  I  mention  that  Professor  Benfey  is  one  of  the  founders 
of  Comparative  Philology  ?  The  King  of  Hanover  asked 
to  be  remembered  to  you — that  is,  he  would  have  done,  if 
he  had  thought  of  it ;  as  it  was,  he  only  asked  about  the 
state  of  Hebrew  learning  in  the  English  Universities.  He 
was,  on  the  whole,  very  amiable,  and  seemed  to  take  a 
pleasure  in  talking  English. 

To  H.  G.  Ddkyns  from  the  Rev.  C.  Kegan  PauFs,  Bailie, 
Winiborne,  Dorsetshire 

...   I  have  left  my  Germany :  never  before  with  such 


118  HENRY  SIDG WICK  CHAP,  n 

regret  But  then  I  never  before  spoke  the  language  quite  so 
well  or  liked  any  particular  people  quite  so  much.  I  always 
feel  it  only  requires  an  effort,  a  stretching  of  the  muscles, 
and  the  tasteless  luxury,  the  dusty  culture,  the  noisy  and 
inane  polemics  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  are  left  behind 
for  ever.  But  I  do  not  make  the  effort  chiefly  I  think  from 
a  remnant  of  Theistic  at3a>? — a  feeling  that  destiny  has 
placed  me  among  modern  monkery  to  do  in  it  whatever  the 
nineteenth  century,  acting  through  me,  will — for  pietas  I  do 
not  think  I  have  much.  .  .  . 

Friendship  between  the  sexes  is,  you  know,  after  all  a 
devilish  difficult  thing.  How  are  you  to  prevent  mistakes 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other  1  It  is  not  as  if  the  human 
heart  was  only  capable  of  the  one  or  other  definite  emotion, 
blue  or  red :  then  it  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  dis- 
tinguish which  was  proffered  :  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  are 
all  sorts  of  purples  which  run  into  one  another.  .  .  . 

I  have  tried  in  vain  to  get  Professor  Benfey  to  explain 
to  me  the  identification  of  the  Geist  (an  abstraction  which  I 
allow  to  have  advantages  over  the  Grand  Eire)  with  God, 
but  all  he  can  say  is  that  this  sort  of  Pantheism  is  the 
natural  development  of  the  Begrijf  der  Gottheit,  latent  in 
humanity.  I  begin  to  think  that  there  are  only  a  few 
Englishmen  and  no  Frenchmen  or  Germans  who  can  really 
philosophise  without  being  cheated  by  big  words. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  October  21 

...  I  am  somewhat  depressed,  chiefly  by  the  conviction 
growing  on  me  that  I  am  irretrievably  second-rate  as  regards 
performance.  I  believe  I  am  cursed  with  some  original  ideas, 
and  I  have  a  talent  for  rapid  perception.  But  I  am 
destitute  of  Gibbonian  gifts  which  I  most  want.  I  cannot 
swallow  and  digest,  combine,  build.  Then  people  believe  in 
me  somewhat.  I  wish  they  would  not.  It  is  my  old  want 
— a  first  fiddle. 

You  say  "  you  understand  "  what  1  Me  1  My  Gemliths- 
leben  ?  C'est  possible ;  but  I  doubt  it.  Your  words  are 
to  the  point,  but  I  feel  that  you  do  not  take  me  at  my 


1864,  AGE  26  HENKY  SIDGWICK  119 

own  valuation.  My  theory  is  that  I  have  a  solid  base 
of  temperament,  however  I  may  puff  and  slide,1  and  I 
have  done  nothing  yet  that  to  me  disproves  the  theory, 
though  I  have  no  doubt  puffed  and  slid  a  good  deal. 
Certainly  the  fascination  that  German  life  exercises  on  me 
is  singular,  because  I  see  the  defects  of  it  quite  clearly ;  yet 
they  affect  me  not — just  like  a  lover.  But  it's  too  simple 
a  solution  to  take  this  as  a  beck  of  destiny.  If  I  had  been 
born  in  Arcadia  I  might  be  happier :  but  if  I  fled  thither  it 
would  become  a  Capua,  Certainly  Cambridge  air  (socially) 
feels  somewhat  cold  after  Gottingen ;  and  I  never  got  so 
fond  of  any  individual  persons  as  I  did  of  the  Professor  and 
his  daughter.  The  Frau  Professorin  was  less  "  simpatica  "  ; 
still  everything  I  do,  feel,  or  think  is  but  a  conscious 
experiment,  and  will  be  till  the  first  fiddle  turns  up.  I 
am  out  of  humour.  How  "  bornirt "  and  provincial  the 
Spectator  seems,  how  coldly  shallow  the  Saturday  Review  \ 
Oh !  this  historical  religion.  I  feel  as  if  I  was  half  encour- 
aging it  by  even  reading  Arabic.  Is  not  its  part  played 
out  for  thinkers  ?  History  is  interesting  as  a  trdpepyov,  but 
let  us  turn  to  it  when  the  dust  is  laid.  It  will  save  time 
and  trouble  in  the  end.  So  I  grumble. 

I  partly  agree  with  the  reviews  against  Aylmer's  Field. 
A  poem  ought  not  to  be  the  abstract  of  a  sensation  novel. 
The  interest  is  strong,  the  compression  marvellous,  but 
unsatisfying ;  but  there  are  fine  bits — the  lovers'  parting 
is  very  beautiful ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  contains  some  of 
his  worst  mannerisms :  a  return  to  youthful  crudities ; 
the  style  is  untempered.  How  false  the  sermon  is 
dramatically  ! 

But  what  growth  there  is  in  the  man  mentally  !  How 
he  has  caught  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  The  Voyage  !  I 
thought  he  had  fallen  off  into  the  didactic- dramatic  mood 
that  grows  on  poetic  souls  with  advancing  years ;  but  how 

1  These  flashes  on  the  surface  are  not  he. 
He  has  a  solid  base  of  temperament  ; 
But  as  the  water  lily  starts  and  slides 
Upon  the  level  in  little  puffs  of  wind, 
Though  anchored  to  the  bottom,  such  is  he. 

(Tennyson,  Princess,  iv.) 


120  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

wonderful — to  me — is  the  lyricised  thought  of  verse  9.  I 
cannot  get  it  out  of  my  head : — 

Now  high  on  waves  that  idly  burst 

How  sad — but  a  chastened  sadness,  our  sadness — that  of 
the  second  half  of  the  19th  century — no  "  Verzweiflung." * 
The  dream  in  City  Clerks  [Sea  Dreams]  is  as  good ;  but,  you 
know,  I  am  always  most  moved  by  lyrics.  By  the  bye, 
I  like  City  Clerks  much  better  than  I  expected.  I  have 
subjectively  harmonised  it. 

I  could  write  about  myself,  but  just  at  present  I  take 
singularly  little  interest  in  that  particular  aggregate  of 
psychological  phenomena.  If  there  is  anything  you  care  to 
know,  only  ask  it — and  write.  Poor  Colenso.  I  have  read 
his  last  pamphlet ;  the  letters  from  the  Zulus  are  really 
affecting. 

The  new  volume  of  essays  and  reviews  is  abandoned 
owing  to  Stanley.  How  ekelig  religious  politics  are  in 
England ;  but  we  have  got  a  legal  Church,  and  I  did  not 
make  the  world.  But  I  feel  deucedly  inclined  to  appeal  to 
first  principles.  In  fact,  morally  and  socially  to  strip — 
undress,  take  to  the  leather  jerkin  of  Emotional  Theism  and 
the  woods  (see  Sartor  Rtsarti^s). 

Does  all  this  look  like  a  man  with  a  solid  base  of 
temperament  ?  It  depends  on  your  theory  of  human  nature. 
Write.  I  take  (temporarily  and  inconsistently)  more  interest 
in  you  than  in  yours  affectionately,  HENRY  SIDGWICK. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  about  a  week  later 

.  .  .  For  my  part  I  have  determined  to  love  the  Ideal 

only. 

Now  nearer  to  the  prow  she  seemed 

Like  Virtue  firm,  like  knowledge  fair, 

but  I  won't  plague  [you]  with  my  schemes,  which  have 
undergone  a  marked  variation.  I  am  studying  Theology. 

1  F.  Myers  says  in  his  paper  in  memory  of  Henry  Sidgwick  (reprinted  in 
Fragments  of  Prose  and  Poetry) :  "  My  most  vivid  memory  of  my  friend  is 
as  he  would  recite  to  me — and  I  have  never  known  man  or  woman  who 
could  recite  poetry  like  him — that  noble  apologue  of  seekers,  which  was  the 
central  expression  of  his  inward  life.  I  speak  of  Tennyson's  poem  of  '  The 
Voyage. ' " 


1864,  AGE  26  HENRY  SIDGWICK  121 

To  H.  G.  Ddkyns  a  day  or  two  later 

As  for  me,  it  is  simple  truth  that  I  take  very  little 
interest  in  myself.  When  we  meet  and  talk  on  things  in 
general  I  shall  be  able  to  give  you  some  new  theories  on 
love,  friendship,  human  life,  and  multa  alia.  There  are 
things  I  might  tell  you.  I  do  not  abstain  because  I  want 
to  have  any  secret  from  you :  but  because  the  mere  fact  of 
telling  even  you  would  incarnate  a  ghost  of  a  dream  which 
I  want  to  keep  ghostly. 

I  have  gone  through  a  Lduterung's-prozess,  that  is  one 
thing.  My  stay  in  Germany  has  done  me  unmixed  good, 
morally  and  emotionally — if  any  man  dare  say  this  of  him- 
self. I  do  not  mean  that  it  has  made  me  happier.  In 
fact,  it  has  loaded  me  with  a  degree  of  self-contempt  which 
is  inconsistent  with  buoyant  happiness.  My  resolution  to 
read  Theology  is  a  result  of  my  moral  improvement.  I 
discovered  that  my  idea  of  writing  the  history  of  Islam  and 
obtaining  an  Arabic  Professorship  really  involved  being 
untrue  to  the  only  vocation  I  have  ever  discovered  in 
myself. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  about  November  2 

...  I  should  like  to  explain  to  you  the  change  in  my 
plans  some  time.  I  think  the  instinct  that  led  me  to  it  was 
true.  Do  you  know,  if  I  was  quite  sure  that  every  one 
whose  opinion  was  worth  having  regarded  me  as  a  very 
commonplace  person,  it  would  be  an  indescribable  relief. 
Believe  my  sincerity,  and  if  you  are  able,  convey  delicately 
this  relief.  By  commonplace  I  mean  simply  as  regards 
power  and  performance. 

To  his  Motlier  from  Cambridge  about  October  24 

I  have  been  rather  long  in  writing.  I  had  a  most 
delightful  visit  to  Dorsetshire.  ...  I  felt  my  patriotism 
revive  among  the  chalk  downs  and  rich  autumnal  parks.  .  .  . 

I  have  got  quite  into  order  again,  and  am  setting  to 
work,  though  I  certainly  do  not  feel  so  much  inclined  for 
reading  as  I  should  have  done  after  a  more  complete  holiday. 


122  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

I  turn  over  my  books  and  then  smoke  a  pipe ;  however,  I 
hope  soon  to  get  into  swing.  ...  I  do  not  like  the  moral 
and  intellectual  atmosphere  at  Cambridge  any  better  for 
having  been  at  Gottingen.  I  do  not  mean  in  the  abstract, 
but  as  regards  its  effects  upon  me ;  however,  the  great  lesson 
I  have  learnt  in  Germany  is  the  necessity  and  duty  of 
steady  work,  and  that  one  can  do  anywhere. 

I  am  reading  all  kinds  of  books.  The  last  volume  of 
Vacation  Tourists  seems  to  me  very  good  on  the  whole. 
Do  you  get  books  now  from  a  Club  ?  If  you  do,  the  article 
on  Poland  here  is  worth  reading. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  November  26 

I  have  got  over  my  own  little  emotional  difficulty  :  I  can 
lock  up  the  memory  in  a  corner  of  my  soul  with  the 
certainty  that  if  I  ever  after  years  open  it  again,  there  will 
be  only  a  faint  pleasant  perfume  left.  .  .  . 

As  to  my  other  troubles,  I  think  I  am  going  to  lock 
them  up  too  :  and  take  pupils  hard.  I  think  my  resolution 
is  fixed.  I  am  not  made  for  non-definite  studies ;  besides,  I 
feel  so  keenly 

Wir,  wir  leben,  unser  sind  die  Stunden 
Und  der  Lebende  hat  Recht, 

that  I  doubt  whether  I  am  made  for  anything  except  some- 
thing in  which  living  masses  take  a  vivid  interest.  This 
cuts  off  Arabic.  How  I  wish  I  had  employed  my  leisure 
which  I  have  so  wasted,  in  studying  philosophy  and  art ! 
But  I  have  common  sense  enough  not  to  regret.  The  past, 
as  I  said  to  you  once,  is  God's.  I  must  now  have  work, 
hard  work,  paid  work  ;  my  disbelief  in  myself  is  too  intense 
for  anything  else.  Besides,  I  want  to  earn  my  freedom 
from  the  Church  of  England.  What  a  hideous  compromise 
between  baseness  and  heroism  !  Yet  I  do  not  see  anything 
else  in  this  strange  age  of  transition  for  a  man  who  feels 
bitterly  the  Druck  of  hypocrisy,  yet  cannot  reconcile  him- 
self to  cut  the  Gordian  knot.  My  feeling  is  that  emotional 
Theism  will  shine  in  more  and  more  upon  mankind  through 
the  veil  of  history  and  life ;  that  all  religions  are  good  in  so 


1864,  AGE  26  HENRY  SIDG-WICK  123 

far  as  they  approximate  to  it,  and  that  formulae  are  neces- 
sary for  the  mass  of  mankind  in  their  present  state :  and 
that  the  task  of  substituting  a  purer  for  a  crasser  formula  is 
a  grand  one,  but  I  must  leave  it  to  a  man  who  has  more 
belief  in  himself  than  I  have.  In  short,  I  feel  with  regard 
to  the  Church  of  England  8oOXo9  etc^d?)?  ;  fj,rj  <rol 
aXX'  el  Kal  Svvaa-ai,  eXeu#epo?  jevecrOat,  ^a\\ov 
and  I  mean  to  put  it,  if  possible,  in  my  power. 

In  another  letter  to  Mr.  Dakyns,  probably  written 
about  this  time,  he  says,  "  What  a  strange  thiDg  a 
natural  man  is !  Stranger  if  he  has  a  philosopher 
inside  him  looking  at  him  all  the  while." 

To  his  mother  on  December  9,  1864,  after  suggest- 
ing arrangements  for  his  friends  A.  J.  Patterson  and 
J.  B.  Payne  to  pay  them  visits  during  the  holidays, 
lie  writes : — 

I  am  very  busy  just  now  with  examination  and  College 
politics.  ...  I  have  had  on  the  whole  an  idle  term. 
Perhaps  my  work  during  the  Long  has  disposed  me  to 
relaxation. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Eugly,  December  22 

.  .  .  My  views  are  pretty  well  fixed.  The  only  doubt 
is  about  applying  for  an  examinership ;  but  the  other  line 
leaves  me  freer,  though  ultimately  poorer.  However,  blow 
material  considerations.  I  perceive  that  I  am  at  a  turning- 
point  of  my  life.  Everything  appears  different  to  what  it 
ever  did  before.  I  feel  as  if  I  was  just  awake,  and  yet  I 
do  not  regret  my  dreams. 

The  Past  is  God's,  I  always  repeat.  I  have  never  before 
freed  my  innermost  conscience  from  the  thraldom  of  a 
historical  belief.  Long  after  the  belief  had  gone,  the 
impression  remained  that  it  was  all-important  to  have  a 
view  on  the  historical  question.  As  if  after  dying  I  were 
likely  to  meet  God  and  He  to  say,  Well,  are  you  a  Christian  ? 
'  No,'  I  say,  '  but  I  have  a  theory  on  the  origin  of  the 
1  1  Cor.  vii.  21. 


124  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

Gospels  which  is  really  the  best  I  could  form  on  the 
evidence ;  and,  please,  this  ought  to  do  as  well.'  I  begin 
to  think  now  that  this  was  probably  an  erroneous  idea  of 
my  relations  to  the  infinite  :  and  I  begin  to  think  that  there 
has  been  about  enough  study  devoted  to  the  bible,  and  that 
the  vein  to  work  now  is  comparative  history.  A  compara- 
tive history  of  the  mythical,  and  a  comparative  history  of 
ecstasy,  the  past,  especially  the  remote  past,  being,  after  all, 
always  subordinate  to  the  present.  But  what  is  still  more 
required  is  psychological  experiments  in  ethics  and  intuitive 
Theism :  that  is  what  on  the  whole  the  human  race  has 
got  to  do  for  some  years.  I  detest  history  for  the  nonce ;  I 
think  it  is  using  up  too  many  minds.  I  do  not  on  the 
whole  believe  in  its  being  made  a  science  by  itself.  I  agree 
with  Mill  against  Comte.  Politik,  besides,  is  so  infinitely 
more  important  just  now ;  of  course,  history  will  be  always 
subsidiary  to  Politik,  but  les  origines  less  than  any  other 
history.  Moreover,  life  is  more  than  any  study,  Wir,  wir 
leben,  or  at  least  has  prior  claims.  Every  soul  has  a  right 
to  live;  let  das  Individuum  "  get  its  sop  and  hold  its  noise"  ; 
you  see,  I  believe  that  enlightened  egoism  will  always  put 
a  limit  to  itself.  Even  in  history  I  feel  convinced  our 
oriental  element  is  for  working  on  the  masses,  our  ethnic 
for  influencing  the  philosopher,  which  makes  me  acquiesce 
more  in  taking  to  classics  again. 

NOTE. — The  following  lines,  which  occurred  to  Sidgwick  in  sleep,  or  which 
at  least  he  awoke  thinking  of,  are  characteristic  enough  to  seem  worth 
recording.  We  have  no  record  of  the  date,  but  believe  that  he  dreamt  them 
in  the  early  sixties. 

We  think  so  because  other  people  all  think  so, 

Or  because — or  because — after  all  we  do  think  BO, 

Or  because  we  were  told  so,  and  think  we  must  think  so, 

Or  because  we  once  thought  so,  and  think  we  still  think  so, 

Or  because  having  thought  so,  we  think  we  will  think  so. 


CHAPTER   III 

1865-1869 

DURING  most  of  his  adult  life  Sidgwick  had  some 
text — a  different  one  at  different  periods — which 
ran  in  his  head,  representing  the  keynote,  so  to 
speak,  of  his  thought  about  his  own  life.  From 
about  1861  to  about  1865  the  text  was,  "After  the 
way  which  they  call  heresy,  so  worship  I  the  God  of 
my  fathers."  From  about  1865  to  October  1869  it 
was,  "  Are  not  Abana  andPharpar,  rivers  of  Damascus, 
better  than  all  the  waters  of  Israel  1  may  I  not  wash 
in  them,  and  be  clean  ?  .  .  .  And  his  servants  .  .  . 
said,  My  father,  if  the  prophet  had  bid  thee  do  some 
great  thing,  wouldest  thou  not  have  done  it  ? " 
From  October  1869  to  about  1875  the  text  was,  "Let 
every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind." 
From  about  1875  to  about  1890,  "But  this  one 
thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  that  are  behind, 
and  stretching  forth  unto  those  that  are  before,  I 
press  towards  the  mark."  And  finally  from  about 
1890,  "Gather  up  the  fragments  that  are  left,  that 
nothing  be  lost." 

He  had  before  the  beginning  of  1865  finally 
abandoned  his  oriental  studies,  and  for  a  time  he 
again  took  private  pupils  in  classics,  besides  his  work 
for  the  College,  in  order  to  make  himself  independent 
of  his  fellowship  and  assistant  tutorship.  During  the 
following  years  the  question  of  resigning  his  fellow- 
ship, one  aspect  of  which  expressed  itself  in  the 
second  of  the  above  texts,  was  constantly  before  him. 

125 


126  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  February  1,  1865 

We  are  beginning  work  again  and  are  preparing  for  a  very 
long  term  (I  wish  Convocation,  instead  of  persecuting  some 
miserable  heretic,  would  fix  Easter  to  the  same  day  of  the 
month  every  year).  .  .  . 

I  enjoyed  all  my  visits  very  much.  I  found  Browning 
just  returned  from  Paris,  where  he  had  been  inspecting 
French  schools.  You  may  have  seen  a  letter  of  his  in  the 
Times  of  Tuesday,  signed  0.  B.  The  most  singular  thing 
about  French  schools  as  compared  with  our  own  is  the  very 
little  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  boys.  They  are  under  sur- 
veillance day  and  night.  Browning  said  that  the  teachers 
he  spoke  to  did  not  defend  the  system  in  the  abstract,  but 
said  it  was  found  necessary  in  practice.  That  is  nineteenth 
century  Conservatism,  the  same  everywhere.  The  French- 
man said  that  English  boys  were  "  beaucoup  plus  sages  :  mais," 
he  added,  "  beaucoup  moins  intelligents." 

.  .  .  Read  a  delicious  story  in  the  Cornhill  of  February 
called  "  Tid's  old  Red  Rag  of  a  Shawl."  I  am  tormented 
till  I  know  who  has  written  it,  because  it  is  by  no  hand 
familiar  to  me :  and  it  is  wonderfully  fresh,  animated,  and 
original.1 

To  0.  Browning  about  this  time 

...  I  have  not  got  any  composition  in  a  book :  I  have 
a  lot  of  pieces  on  separate  scraps  of  paper,  but  as  I  am  full 
of  pupils  and  have  composition  lectures  too,  I  want  every 
scrap.  I  had  a  book  which  would  have  done,  but  I  have 
been  looking  for  it  vainly,  and  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  must  have  lent  it  to  somebody  in  bygone  days  when  I 
was  devoting  myself  to  Arabic. 

To  his  Mother,  February  2 1 

I  have  several  pupils  and  six  hours  a  day  at  the 
least,  but  I  do  not  feel  at  all  hard  worked.  I  break- 
fast every  day  at  7^.  I  am  not  doing  anything  else : 
only  brooding  on  things  in  general,  which  I  do  with  a 

1  It  was  written  by  Miss  Henrietta  Keddie. 


1865,  AGE  26  HENEY  SIDGWICK  127 

• 

clear  conscience  after  six  hours  of  work.  In  fact,  1  am  sure 
that  if  one  wants  to  muse  in  a  general  way  one  ought  to 
take  plenty  of  definite  work,  or  else  the  vague  thought  tells 
on  the  brain.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  a  certain  amount 
of  drudgery  is  necessary  to  longevity :  that  idleness  and 
creative  tension  alike  exhaust  the  vital  force.  Kingsley  is 
preaching  sensation  sermons  on  the  Psalms  of  David ;  last 
Sunday  he  defended  the  cursings;  I  am  told  he  made  a 
spirited  apology.  I  do  not  go  and  hear  him.  I  go  to  Oxford 
on  Saturday  for  a  refreshment,1  not  that  I  want  any — 
Cambridge  is  a  delightful  place.  Tell  Arthur  to  beg,  borrow, 
or  steal  Emilia  in  England ;  it  had  such  an  effect  on  me 
that  I  employed  my  spare  cash  in  buying  up  the  man's  other 
works.2 

To  H.  G.  Datyns,  March  12,  1865 

I  have  kept  silence  even  from  good  words  because  I  have 
found  out  nothing  yet,  either  ISia  or  KOIVTJ  o-v^epov.^  I 
seem  on  the  verge  ever  of  discovering  the  secret  of  life,  but 
perhaps  I  am  like  the  rustic  of  Horace,  and  the  turbid 
stream  of  doubt  and  debate  flows,  and  will  flow.  I  have  not 
thrown  myself  into  classics :  the  reason  being  that  without 
any  effort  I  like  the  work  of  pupilising  so  much  that  if  I 
could  only  feel  sure  that  neither  conscience  nor  ambition 
would  reawake,  I  would  acquiesce  in  it.  ...  But  to  tell  you 
the  truth,  my  conscience  and  the  other  thing  have  re-awoke. 
What  I  mean  to  do  till  the  end  of  the  May  term  is,  think 

1  Probably  for  the  first  "  Ad  Eundem  "  dinner.     The  Ad  Eundem  Society, 
composed  of  Oxford   and   Cambridge   men,  some  resident  and  some  non- 
resident, was  founded  by  William  Sidgwiek  about  1864,  to  dine  together 
once  in  each  term,  alternately  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.     Henry  Sidgwick 
was  one  of  the  original  members,  and  was  a  very  regular  attendant  till 
his  death.     Other  early  members  were :  W.  G.  Clark,  W.  H.  Thompson, 
J.  Bryce,   H.  A.  J.  Munro,  L.  Stephen,  G.  O.  Trevelyan,   Henry  Smith, 
Goldwin  Smith,  G.  Lushington,  F.  Otter,  H.  Fawcett,  K.  E.  Digby,  A.  G. 
Vernon  Harcourt,    and   others.     The   club   still   continues,   and   has  had 
imitators.     It  was  one  of  the  means  of  promoting  intercourse  and  exchange 
of  ideas  between  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  which  was,  even  apart  from  this, 
stimulated  by  the  residence  of  one  brother  at  each  University. 

2  George  Meredith's  novels  had  at  this  time  attained  so  little  of  their 
subsequent  fame  that  second-hand  copies  of  these  "other  works" — The 
Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,  Evan  Harrington,   and  Khoda  Fleming — were 
acquired  for,  we  believe,  less  than  one  shilling  a  volume — first  editions. 

*  For  the  private  or  public  good. 


128  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

over  things  in  general,  and  then  take  a  final  decision ;  1 
consider  my  former  plans  fairly  overthrown,  .  .  .  and  I  may 
fairly  take  some  time  in  reconstruction.  I  change  my  views 
from  day  to  day,  but,  on  the  whole,  I  think  I  cherish  the 
design  of  going  with  you  to  Tubingen  when  we  have  both 
made  money  enough  to  live  on,  and  throwing  ourselves  into 
some  study — Comti  probandum.1  Qu'en  dites  vous  ? 

In  the  Easter  vacation  he  went  to  Paris  with 
G.  0.  Trevelyan,  and  writes  to  his  mother  at  the 
end  of  April : — 

After  a  week  in  Paris  which  positively  reminded  one  of 
the  dog  days,  and  which  Trevelyan  declared  to  be  much 
hotter  than  any  weather  people  try  to  walk  in  at  Calcutta,  I 
am  returned  to  Cambridge :  that  is,  I  am  staying  at  present 
with  Noel,  but  I  shall  be  in  Cambridge  on  Thursday.  On 
the  whole  I  enjoyed  myself  very  much,  except  that  I  felt 
very  dissipated.  I  never  before  achieved  the  art  of  doing 
nothing  so  completely  ;  my  sole  employment  in  the  morning 
was  to  read  the  play  for  the  evening  and  go  to  the  galleries. 
Certainly  French  acting  and  French  cookery  are  both  first- 
rate  of  their  kind,  and  if  one  gets  tired  of  the  latter  sooner 
than  the  former,  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  inferiority  of 
the  body  to  the  mind  in  respect  of  aesthetic  enjoyment. 
Paris  is,  I  think,  the  only  town  in  the  world  that  I  ever 
admired  as  a  town.  I  admire  it  more  each  time  I  go  there. 
Eeally  for  a  week  it  is  enjoyment  enough  strolling  along 
the  Boulevards  or  in  and  out  of  the  nooks  in  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne.  Tell  Arthur  that  I  disliked  the  St.  Michael  more 
than  ever.  ...  I  find  I  take  much  less  pleasure  than  I  did 
in  modern  French  art ;  out  of  the  whole  room  reserved  to  it 
at  the  Louvre,  there  was  only  one  picture  that  I  would  have 
sacrificed  much  to  possess — Greuze's  "  Peasant  Girl." 

Have  you  read  Trevelyan's  book  [Cawnpore]  1  I  think  it 
ought  certainly  to  increase  his  reputation,  although  it  has 
some  of  his  old  defects  undiminished.  But  there  is  no  one 
living  who  can  tell  a  story  with  more  sustained  vigour, 
in  my  opinion.  I  have  not  seen  any  review  of  it  yet. 

1  Such  as  Comte  would  approve,  i.e.  of  service  to  humanity. 


1865,  AGE  27  HENKY  SIDGWICK  129 

I  got  your  stereo-photograph  (what  is  the  short  for  it  ?) 
at  113  Rue  de  Sebastopol.  After  walking  up  four  pair  of 
stairs  I  entered  a  room,  and  was  set  down  before  a  tall 
narrow  box  with  a  stereoscope  at  the  top  and  told  to  turn  a 
handle :  being  thus  transported  to  any  part  of  the  world. 
Eeally,  it  was  more  like  magic  than  any  other  part  of  modern 
civilisation  I  ever  came  in  the  way  of. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  April  27 

...  I  shall  be  here  now  sine  die  and  ready  to  see  you 
anywhere  any  time.  I  have  not  got  any  new  ideas  on  the 
universe  from  dining  at  Vefours  and  going  to  see  French 
Burlesques  ;  nor  many  from  G.  0.  T. ;  but  on  politics,  litera- 
ture, art,  and  drama  I  am  posted  up. 

To  his  Mother,  May  15 

...  I  think  I  shall  stay  in  England  this  Long,  as  there 
is  a  particular  subject  I  want  to  read,  and  take  a  short  holiday 
in  the  North.  But  I  find  it  as  well  not  to  make  any  plans, 
as  the  moment  a  plan  is  made  I  begin  to  think  about 
changing  it.  ... 

I  have  never  been  so  pleased  with  anything  that  did  not 
concern  myself  as  I  have  been  with  the  triumph  of  the 
Federal  Cause  in  America.  Dear  me,  I  half  wish  I  was 
there.  There  is  something  worth  doing. 

To  H,  G.  Dakyns  at  the  end  of  May 

At  present  ...  I  am  busy  with  the  May  [examination]. 
I  am  ashamed  too  at  having  nothing  to  say :  I  have  no 
views  yet :  I  half  think  I  have  set  the  theological  question 
at  rest :  but  one  never  knows  when  the  beast  is  laid.  I 
sometimes  think  I  am  accumulating  force  against  the 
approaching  period  of  resolution,  but  perhaps  that  is  a 
delusion.  What  disgusts  me  is  that  I  am  getting  so  very 
Voltairian,  and  I  am  quite  sure — at  least  all  the  swells 
tell  you — that  Voltairianism  is  used  up.  Have  you  read 
Mill  ? 1  I  shudder  when  I  think  how  many  Scotchmen 

1  Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  Philosophy,  published  1865. 

K 


130  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

are  at  this  moment  driving  quills  in  reply.  It  is  amusing 
how  entirely  Mill  has  the  small  press  under  his  control. 
I  wonder  how  many  of  the  reviewers  have  read  Hamilton 
fairly.  I  am  free  to  confess  I  have  not.  I  allow  I  enjoy 
Mill.  I  never  could  read  Sir  W.  He  never  gave  me  the 
idea  of  being  in  earnest.  I  am  amused  when  I  think  how 
I  told  William  [Sidgwick]  and  [T.  H.]  Green  of  the  approach- 
ing book.  W.  shrugged,  and  said  he  thought  it  was  a  great 
waste  of  labour  to  crush  a  nonentity.  G.  growled  that  he 
would,  hoffentlich,  involve  himself  and  Hamilton  in  a  common 
ruin.  Well,  I  wait  for  the  Scotchmen.  My  dear  Graham, 
I  could  write  you  any  amount  on  things  in  general,  but  I 
feel  that  it  does  not  make  up  for  having  no  views  on 
interesting  subjects.  John  Grote  is  going  to  bring  out  a 
book.1  Rough  Thoughts  on  something,  he  calls  it ;  they 
are  sure  to  be  rough,  and  sure  to  be  thoughts. 

To  his  Mother  from  Wellington  College  late  in  July 

I  am  here  revelling  in  idleness  and  hot  weather,  and 
unbending  my  mind  in  female  society.  I  left  Clifton 
yesterday ;  the  work  [of  examining]  was  really  so  appal- 
lingly hard  that  I  had  no  time  to  call  on  anybody.  I 
enjoyed  it,  however,  as  much  as  one  can  enjoy  hard  work. 
[After  visits  in  Yorkshire]  ...  I  must  be  in  Cambridge 
again  by  the  end  of  the  month,  as  I  have  a  good  deal  of 
hard  reading  cut  out  for  me.  I  shall  come  to  you  when  I 
want  to  relax  slightly.  I  know  the  atmosphere  will  be 
too  industrious  to  allow  me  to  do  more.  .  .  . 

The  hard  reading  was  in  preparation  for  examin- 
ing in  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos  in  November  of  this 
year,  and  again  in  1866. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  September  16 

.  .  .  There  is  a  nice  little  party  here,  and  everything 
is  very  favourable  to  reading.  Only  I  have  had  to  put 
up  Venetian  blinds  to  keep  out  the  heat,  which  has  been 
nearly  equal  to  what  it  was  in  Paris  at  Easter. 

1  Exploratio  Philosophica :  Plough  Notes  on  Modern  Intellectual  Science. 


1865,  AGE  27  HENRY  SIDGWICK  131 

Dr.  Lightfoot  has  come  back  from  Dauphine,  where  he 
has  been  with  Edward  [Benson] ;  he  says  they  have  had 
a  most  successful  tour,  religiously  avoiding  every  high  hill. 
Mr.  Martin  is  here,  and  Munro,  and  a  chaplain,  and 
Somerset  (whom  you  have  seen),  and  Sir  George  Young, 
and  King,  who  devotes  his  life  to  gems,  and  myself — a  most 
delightful  diversity  of  ages,  opinions,  sentiments,  pursuits. 
I  shall  stay  here  some  time  longer,  probably  till  the 
Fellowship  Examination  is  over.  .  .  . 

The  College  is  in  a  more  reforming  humour  than  I  ever 
saw  it,  and  if  two  or  three  old  fellows  would  only — be  made 
Deans,  we  should  have  some  fun  soon. 

To  0.  Browning  from  Cambridge,  September  2  7 

...  I  should  like  to  have  been  at  Berlin  ;  I  was  very 
fond  of  it,  though  I  hate  it,  in  the  way  Trevelyan  hates 
India.  I  hated  the  country,  and  the  climate,  and  the  while 
sand  of  the  streets,  and  the  soldiers  who  look  as  if  they 
had  just  captured  the  town.  ...  I  can  quite  understand 
your  liking  the  Gallery  for  the  same  reason  that  it  bored 
me :  it  is  so  admirable  for  the  historic  study  of  Art. 
I  don't  care  for  Art  in  embryo  myself,  and  I  have  rather 
a  weakness  for  the  decadence.  (It  is  astonishing,  by  the 
bye,  how  I  have  forgotten  that  Gallery.)  I  thought  you 
were  examining  the  schools  of  Scandinavia.  I  should  like 
to  hear  how  politics  are  going  on  in  Prussia ;  I  used 
to  enrage  the  people  at  Gottingeu  by  telling  them  that 
Bismarck  was  the  greatest  statesman  in  Europe.  At  any 
rate  he  keeps  up  the  Hohenzollern  tradition.  ...  I  have 
been  reading  all  kinds  of  things  lately.  I  find  out  that 
political  economy  is  what  I  really  enjoy  as  an  intellectual 
exercise.  It  is  just  in  the  right  stage  of  scientific  progress, 
and  there  are  not  too  many  facts  to  be  got  up.  I  have 
been  designing  a  treatise  on  Politics:  it  is  very  much 
wanted  :  G.  C.  Lewis  is  miserable ; — in  fact,  everybody  has 
been  studying  constitutional  history  lately,  and  ignored 
Politics.  Mill,  with  characteristic  caution,  has  confined 
himself  to  a  portion  of  the  subject.  Now  I  am  sure  myself 


132  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

that  history  will  have  in  the  future  less  and  less  influence 
on  Politics  in  the  most  advanced  countries.  Principles 
will  soon  be  everything,  and  tradition  nothing :  except  as 
regards  its  influence  on  the  form. 

N.B. — Mill  goes  extraordinarily  well  into  Aristotelian 
Greek  with  the  same  kind  of  shortening  that  puts 
Macaulay  into  Tacitean  prose. 

To  his  Mother  on  November  6 

...  I  have  set  my  papers  [for  the  Moral  Sciences 
Tripos],  and  am  amusing  myself  with  reading  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages.  As  you  have  not  read  Hallam  you  will  not 
perceive  the  fine  irony  of  this  remark.  The  only  interest  in 
it  consists  in  trying  to  ascertain  why  it  is  so  inexpressibly 
dull :  the  man  is  clever,  enthusiastic,  and  has  a  good  style. 
It  is  very  hard  to  work  now ;  everybody  is  giving  dinners 
at  half-past  seven.  .  .  . 

To  0.  Browning  from  Cambridge  in  November 

...  I  had  a  good  many  things  to  say  to  you  about 
political  philosophy,  in  answer  to  your  letter;  I  only 
remember  one,  roiov8e  [as  follows]  : — You  seem  to  think  that 
the  ideal  of  Political  Economists  excludes  ap^ato7r\ovTot,1 
mine  does  not  certainly.  I  certainly  hope  for  a  much 
more  equal  division  of  production :  but  the  question  to  me 
seems  to  lie  in  the  relation  of  wages  and  profits.  I  would 
not  if  I  could,  and  I  could  not  if  I  would,  consistently 
with  sound  economic  theories,  alter  the  inequalities  arising 
from  Kent  (theoretic,  Ricardo-rent,  I  mean)  or  Natural 
Monopoly :  and  these  must  necessarily  increase  as  civilisa- 
tion increases,  and  though  they  may  be  forcibly  subdivided, 
will,  if  left  alone,  produce  as  many  ap^aio7r\ovTot  as  one 
wants.  Look  at  "  Petrolia,"  for  instance :  of  course  people 
who  make  the  lucky  hits  are  uneducated  generally,  but 
that  is  just  the  point ;  if  you  could  get  all  classes  properly 
educated  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term,  a  man  who 

1  Mr.  Browning  had  argued  that  no  country  could  attain  high  mental 
and  aesthetic  cultivation  without  a  rather  large  rich  and  leisured  class — 
&pxaLi.lyir\ovToi,  JEschylean  word  for  "  families  of  ancient  wealth." 


1865,  AGE  27  HENEY  SIDGWICK  133 

came  into  a  fortune  by  "  striking  ile  "  would  not  waste  it : 
and  if  he  did  not  become  a  patron  of  Art  himself,  he  might 
bring  up  his  children  to  be  so.  That  is  a  case  of  natural 
monopoly.  As  for  Eent,  I  for  one  do  not  mind  the  Ricardo- 
rent  of  land  getting  accumulated  in  large  masses,  provided 
care  is  taken  (by  giving  long  leases,  etc.)  that  this  does  not 
interfere  with  the  amelioration  of  the  soil :  and  then  you 
have  your  ap^ato7r\ovTot  at  once.  What  I  want  to  do 
is  to  put  an  end  to  the  existing  and  threatening  strife 
between  Labour  and  Capital  by  any  possible  means. 

...  In  order  to  relieve  the  weight  of  years  that 
seemed  to  be  pressing  on  the  Society,1  I  have,  with  reluc- 
tance, become  an  honorary  member. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  November  7 

Mozley,  I  have  so  far  made  advances  to  that  I  have 
got  him  to  join  our  society  at  Trumpington.  I  shall  get 
to  know  him  soon  that  way,  I  hope.  He  is  shy,  and  I 
have  only  one  way  of  overcoming  shyness,  i.e.  by  rattling, 
which  only  answers  with  some  people.  The  kind  of 
talk  we  have  at  Trumpington,  my  "Apostolic"  training 
makes  me  in  some  respects  appreciate  peculiarly.  Conse- 
quently, I  am  a  sort  of  Thaliarchus  at  that  feast  of 
reason,  i.e.  other  men  may  be  truer  ftdtcxoi,  in  fact,  I  know 
they  are,  but  I  am  a  genial  Ovpaofyopos?  But  at  Cambridge 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  feast  of  reason  if  you  know 
where  to  look  for  it,  and  if  you  evade  shams.  But  there 
is  very  little  of  the  flow  of  soul.  We  communicate  in  one 
kind  (this  is  not  a  ribald  joke,  but  a  profound  allegory). 

Distinguished  names — but  'tis,  somehow, 
As  if  they  played  at  being  names 
Still  more  distinguished. 

This  is  becoming  a  motto  of  mine,  not  of  course  with 
regard  to  Cambridge,  but  to  our  age.  Mill  is  an  exception. 
He  will  have  to  be  destroyed,  as  he  is  becoming  as  intoler- 
able as  Aristeides,  but  when  he  is  destroyed,  we  shall  build 

1  The  "Apostles." 

-  Thaliarchus,  ruler  of  the  feast ;  ^d/cxot  and  6vpffotp6poi,  worshippers  and 
attendants  of  Bacchus,  in  allusion  to  Plato,  Phced.  69  c. 


134  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

him  a  mausoleum  as  big  as  his  present  temple  of  fame — 
of  that  I  am  convinced. 

I  think  I  shall  try  and  write  on  Ethics  in  the  course 
of  next  year.  At  present  I  am  enlarging  my  mind  in 
strict  subjection  to  the  Moral  Science  Tripos.  .  .  . 

Cowell,  one  of  the  very  very  few  men  I  love,  is,  I  fear, 
dying.  Do  not  put  it  so,  if  you  speak  of  it.  There  is  hope, 
but  it  is  a  complication  of  consumption  with  rheumatism  of 
the  heart  recently  discovered.  I  am  going  to  see  him  at 
Christmas  at  St.  Leonards. 

The  society  at  Trumpington  spoken  of  in  this 
letter  was  what  was  afterwards  —  probably  after 
John  Grote  died— called  the  "  Grote  Club."  The 
Rev.  John  Grote,  Knightbridge  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  from  1855  till  his  death  in  1866,  lived 
at  Trumpington  (close  to  Cambridge),  of  which  parish 
he  was  vicar.  At  what  date  the  little  meetings  for 
philosophical  discussion  became  a  more  or  less  regular 
institution  we  do  not  know.  They  were  at  first  held 
in  the  rooms  of  different  members,  and  then  for  some 
years  at  the  Vicarage  at  Trumpington.  Sidgwick, 
Mr.  J.  B.  Mayor,  and  Mr.  Aldis  Wright  seem  to 
have  been  among  the  original  members.  We  owe 
the  following  interesting  account  of  the  meetings  to 
Dr.  John  Venn. 

I  first  made  Henry  Sidgwick's  acquaintance  in  1862, 
when  I  came  back  to  Cambridge  to  commence  residence 
as  a  lecturer  in  Moral  Science.  This  was  just  at  the 
transition  period  of  the  University,  when  the  new  Statutes 
had  come  into  operation,  but  whilst  the  men  who  were  to 
work  the  Statutes  had  all  been  trained  in  the  traditions 
of  the  past.  Two  new  Triposes  had  come  into  existence, 
the  Moral  Science  and  the  Natural  Science,  but  they  had 
only  just  been  made  avenues  for  a  degree ;  and  it  was  still 
hardly  recognised  by  resident  fellows  and  lecturers  that 
any  but  the  old  studies  could  furnish  a  solid  training,  or 
give  full  scope  to  the  powers  of  a  really  able  student. 


1865,  AGE  27  HENEY  SIDGWICK  135 

I  was  soon  brought  into  contact  with  two  men  to  whom 
I  feel  that  I  owe  very  much,  and  to  whom  certainly  the 
Moral  Science  Tripos  owes  much,  as  having  done  more 
perhaps  than  any  other  residents  to  win  for  it  some  con- 
fidence, amongst  the  older  teachers,  as  a  serious  course  of 
study.  These  were  J.  B.  Mayor  of  St.  John's  College,  at 
that  time  the  solitary  "  Moral  Science  lecturer "  in  the 
University,  and  H.  Sidgwick.  They  welcomed  me  cordially, 
and  almost  immediately  introduced  me  to  a  small  society 
which  then,  I  think,  formed — with  the  exception,  of  course, 
of  the  well-known  "  Apostles " — the  only  thing  in  the 
nature  of  a  speculative  club  or  gathering  in  Cambridge. 
It  has  been  termed  the  Grote  Club,  but  we  knew  it  by 
no  name ;  and  indeed  its  small  size  and  brief  life  hardly 
deserved  that  it  should  have  one.  Still  I,  for  one,  owe  it 
much,  if  only  for  the  friends  I  made  there,  and  for  the 
incalculable  advantage  of  my  being  there  first  introduced 
to  keen  and  perfectly  free  discussion  of  fundamental 
principles — an  experience  rarer  forty  years  ago  than  many 
would  now  believe  possible.  The  more  regular  members 
of  this  little  gathering  consisted  of  Professor  Grote,  J.  B. 
Mayor,  H.  Sidgwick,  Aldis  Wright,  and  myself.  Occasion- 
ally one  or  two  others  appeared,  and  after  a  short  time 
J.  E.  Mozley  of  King's  and  J.  B.  Pearson  of  St.  John's 
joined  us,  but  there  was  nothing  in  the  way  of  formal 
introduction  or  regular  membership.  We  used  to  meet 
once  or  twice  a  term  at  Grote's  vicarage  at  Trumpington, 
where  he  hospitably  entertained  us  at  dinner,  after  which 
the  evening  was  devoted  to  the  reading  of  a  paper  by  one 
of  us,  and  its  subsequent  discussion.  As  a  "  moderator  "  in 
such  discussions,  Grote  struck  me  as  simply  admirable. 
Nothing  escaped  his  keen  and  critical  judgment,  and  he 
asserted  himself  just  sufficiently  to  draw  out  the  thoughts 
of  those  who  were  shy  in  expressing  themselves,  and  to 
keep  the  conversation  from  straggling  into  side  issues.  His 
extreme  aversion  to  any  dogmatic  statement,  which  is  so 
prominent  in  his  Exploratio  Philosophica,  involved  no  draw- 
back in  such  a  position. 


136  HENRY    SIDGWICK  CHAIMII 

Circumstances  had  hitherto  made  me  rather  a  stranger 
to  gatherings  of  this  sort,  but  Sidgwick  was  already 
thoroughly  experienced  in  them.  This  cannot  have  been 
the  first,  as  it  was  very  far  from  being  the  last,  of  the 
associations  which  he  had  either  originated  or  joined,  for 
the  same  general  purpose  of  securing  critical  discussion  on 
fundamental  problems  of  Ethics,  Metaphysics,  or  Theology. 
Such  intercourse  seemed  to  supply  the  atmosphere  in  which 
he  breathed  most  freely,  and  to  furnish  him  with  the  most 
genuine  relaxation  which  he  could  enjoy.  For  a  young 
man — he  must  have  then  have  been  about  twenty-four — he 
was  already  remarkably  mature;  and  his  attitude  had  become 
that  essentially  critical  one,  so  familiar  afterwards  to  his 
friends.  I  understood  that,  at  a  still  earlier  age,  he  had 
been  so  far  inclined  towards  dogma  as  to  have  adopted 
much  of  the  Positive  Philosophy.  He  had  certainly  studied 
it  carefully,  and  was,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  only  man  in 
Cambridge  who  had  done  so  at  first  hand — that  is,  otherwise 
than  through  the  medium  of  Mill's  Logic.  By  the  time 
I  knew  him,  this  stage,  if  it  ever  existed,  had  been  passed 
by,  and  he  would  freely  give  his  judgment  for  and  against 
every  doctrine  of  Comte,  as  of  any  other  philosopher.  I 
have  no  clear  recollection  of  any  paper  contributed  by  him, 
perhaps  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  seldom  advanced  what 
could  be  termed  definitely  constructive  views.  I  remember, 
on  one  occasion,  that  he  himself  contrasted  his  own  way 
of  thinking  with  that  of  his  younger  brother,  whose  fertility 
in  constructing  ethical  theories  and  in  having  them  repaired 
next  day  (after  fraternal  criticism)  seemed  to  excite  his 
admiration.  In  all  our  debates  he  showed  his  readiness 
of  reply  and  well-known  imperturbable  calmness  in 
argument. 

Though  his  interests  at  this  time  were  already  strongly 
speculative,  his  main  studies  were  still  philological.  He 
was  then  strenuously  devoting  himself  to  Arabic  and 
Hebrew,  and  (as  our  common  friend  Seeley  remarked) 
appeared  to  be  looking  forward  to  becoming  the  English 
Ewald.  He  had,  in  fact,  but  recently  returned  from  a 


1865,  AGE  27  HENEY  SIDGWICK  137 

stay  at  a  German  University — I  think  Gottingen — where 
he  had  been  pursuing  the  study  of  these  languages.  I 
never  heard  him  speak  at  that  time  as  if  he  thought  that 
philosophy  would  be  his  main  employment. 

After  Grote's  death  the  Society  continued  to  meet 
in  each  other's  rooms — each  time  in  the  room  of  the 
reader  of  the  paper  for  the  evening.  Professor  Alfred 
Marshall  writes  to  us  : — 

When  I  was  admitted  in  1867,  the  active  members 
were  Professor  F.  D.  Maurice  (Grote's  successor),  Sidgwick, 
Venn,  J.  E.  Mozley,  and  J.  B.  Pearson.  .  .  .  After  1867 
or  1868  the  club  languished  a  little :  but  new  vigour  was 
soon  imparted  to  it  by  the  advent  of  W.  K.  Clifford  q,nd 
J.  F.  Moulton.  For  a  year  or  two  Sidgwick,  Mozley, 
Clifford,  Moulton,  and  myself  were  the  active  members ; 
and  we  all  attended  regularly.  Clifford  and  Moulton  had 
at  that  time  read  but  little  philosophy ;  so  they  kept  quiet 
for  the  first  half-hour  of  the  discussion  ;  and  listened  eagerly 
to  what  others,  and  especially  Sidgwick,  said.  Then  they 
let  their  tongues  loose,  and  the  pace  was  tremendous.  If  I 
might  have  verbatim  reports  of  a  dozen  of  the  best  conversa- 
tions I  have  heard,  I  should  choose  two  or  three  from  among 
those  evenings  in  which  Sidgwick  and  Clifford  were  the 
chief  speakers.  Another  would  certainly  be  a  conversation 
at  tea  before  a  Grote  Club  meeting,  of  which  I  have 
unfortunately  no  record  (I  think  it  was  early  in  1868),  in 
which  practically  no  one  spoke  but  Maurice  and  Sidgwick. 
Sidgwick  devoted  himself  to  drawing  out  Maurice's  recollec- 
tions of  English  social  and  political  life  in  the  thirties, 
forties,  and  fifties.  Maurice's  face  shone  out  bright,  with 
its  singular  holy  radiance,  as  he  responded  to  Sidgwick's 
inquiries  and  suggestions ;  and  we  others  said  afterwards 
that  we  owed  all  the  delight  of  that  evening  to  him.  No 
one  else  among  us  knew  enough  to  keep  on  again  and 
again  arousing  the  warm  latent  energy  of  the  old  man :  for 
he  always  looked  tired,  and  would  relapse  into  silence  after 
two  or  three  minutes'  talk,  however  eager  it  had  been, 


138  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

unless  stimulated  by  some  one  \vho  knew  how  to  strike  the 
right  chord. 

The  Christmas  vacation  of  1865-66  was  spent 
partly  with  his  mother  at  Rugby,  partly  in  visits. 

To  his  Mother  from  the  Eev.  C.  Kegan  Paul's  at  Bailie, 
Wimborne,  January  14,  1866 

I  arrived  an  hour  late,  but  in  good  time  for  dinner,  after 
a  most  delightful  journey.  The  air  was  balmy  like  early 
spring,  and  the  prospect  was  unusually  interesting  from  the 
immense  floods  that  supervened  towards  afternoon,  and  the 
delightful  disorganisation  of  the  telegraph  posts  and  wires. 
The  snow  seems  to  have  gathered  on  the  wires  and  afforded 
prise  to  the  wind — such  a  slaughter  of  posts  has  never  been 
known  here.  I  had  my  usual  good  luck,  for  if  I  had  gone 
on  Friday  I  should  not  have  got  beyond  Templecombe,  as 
the  Somerset  and  Dorset  line  is  dreadfully  demoralised ;  as  it 
was,  we  were  tacked  on  to  a  luggage  train,  which  did  not 
increase  our  speed  or  equability  of  motion. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  on  January  16 

.  .  .  Paul  is  a  man  who  brings  out  yet  another  side  of 
me,  as  he  is  a  materialistic  Theist  of  yet  another  kind.  I 
never  knew  a  man  who  so  thoroughly  understands  the  Art 
of  Living — as  far  as  I  can  see,  at  least — and  that  without 
being  particularly  able.  But  it  is  quite  vain  to  give  the 
least  idea  of  a  man  in  a  letter ;  it  is  almost  vain,  or  worse 
than  vain,  in  conversation.  I  will  only  say  that  I  plus 
Paul  form  a  "  we "  different  from  any  other  "  we."  We 
agree  that  we  are  not  [at]  Jerusalem,  perhaps  not  even  on 
the  way  thither,  but  we  climb  Pisgah  together  and  see 
distant  gleams  of  the  jewel-gated  city. 

To  his  Mother  from  Eoden  Noel's,  January  26 

...  I  have  certainly  had  a  complete  holiday  for  a 
month,  which  is  something  I  have  not  had  for  some  time. 
I  suppose  holidays  do  one  good  on  the  whole,  but  I  always 


1866,  AGE  27  HENRY  SIDGWICK  139 

feel  at  the  time  as  if  it  was  wrong  to  take  them,  as  I  never 
feel  absolutely  in  want  of  them.  However,  I  have  enjoyed 
myself  and  had  some  good  talk  at  Bailie.  I  shall  try  and 
get  Paul  to  come  to  Rugby  some  time,  if  you  will  allow  me. 
He  is  a  very  pleasant  man.1  I  saw  Dr.  Rowland  Williams 
there.  He  is  much  more  amiable  than  you  would  expect 
from  his  books ;  in  fact,  in  conversing  with  him  I  was 
struck  with  the  courteous  deference  that  he  paid,  or  seemed 
to  pay,  to  the  opinions  of  younger  men.  He  is  evidently 
quite  sincere  in  thinking  that  he  is  one  of  the  very  few 
orthodox  clergymen  in  England  now.  You  may  smile,  but 
it  is  quite  true.  The  heretics  whom  fortune  has  associated 
with  him  he  tolerates  (as  an  exercise  of  Christian  virtue), 
but  that  is  all. 

I  found  Cowell  looking  much  better  than  I  expected ;  I 
trust  now  that  there  is  good  hope  that  the  disease  of  the 
heart  will  not  prove  rapidly  fatal.  Whether  there  is  any 
hope  of  ultimate  recovery  I  do  not  know.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  January  29 

...  I  am  glad  you  think  Martin  2  is  like  me.  I  hope 
he  will  turn  out  better;  I  think  there  was  once  a  tide  in 
my  affairs — a  few  years  ago — which  if  I  had  taken  might 
have  led  me  to  greatness.  May  Martin  have  as  good 
opportunities  and  make  more  use  of  them.  He  certainly 
startled  me  by  the  extent  to  which  he  appreciated  things ; 
my  idea  was,  however,  that  he  had  less  character  than 
Arthur  [Benson],  which  perhaps  is  also  my  case  as  compared 
with  either  of  my  brothers. 

What  '  orthodox '  may  come  to  designate  in  the  way  of 
actual  opinions  I  do  not  know :  but  I  have  little  doubt  that 
it  will  always  be  used  by  some  people  to  mean  their 
opinions.  Dr.  Williams  is  one  of  these  people  no  doubt, 

1  In  a  later  letter  he  writes  to  his  mother :  "  Paul  I  like  very  much :  .  .  . 
the  time  I  have  spent  in  his  house  has  always  been  particularly  happy, 
and  in  a  way  that  one  does  not  feel  at  the  time  so  much,  but  on  looking 
back.     People  who  can  produce  that  feeling  in  their  guests  understand  the 
art  of  life." 

2  His  nephew,  Martin  White  Benson,  was  a  boy  of  quite  unusual  promise. 
He  died  suddenly  at  Winchester,  February  9,  1878,  in  hia  eighteenth  year. 


140  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

but,  as  I  say,  his  courteous  deference  to  the  opinions  of 
those  who  were  arguing  with  him,  and  his  candour,  seemed 
to  me  remarkable.  For  /  was  distinctly  a  heretic  in  his 
eyes. 

...  I  am  studying  Metaphysics.  It  is  very  absorbing, 
only  unfortunately  bad  for  the  digestion,  because  it  turns 
one's  thoughts  so  much  inward. 

.  .  .  Yes,  I  have  had  good  talk.  I  stayed  two  days  with 
my  friend  Noel ;  he  is  also  absorbed  in  Metaphysics,  only 
we  had  hardly  time  to  do  more  than  touch  on  the  subject. 
I  do  not  know  anything  about  Ecce  Homo,  except  that  every 
one  here  speaks  highly  of  it.  From  a  review  I  saw  of  it  I 
decided  not  to  read  it,  but  I  see  I  shall  have  to  do  so. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  apparently  early  in  this  term 

How  are  you  going  on  ?  busy,  I  suppose,  with  a  full 
house.  For  myself,  I  am  only  writing  this  letter  because  I 
ought  to  be  reading  the  history  of  philosophy  and  preparing 
for  my  lectures  '  on  Ends  '  [Cicero].  But  I  hate  the  history 
of  philosophy  even  more  than  any  other  history ;  it  is  so  hard 
to  know  what  any  particular  man  thought,  and  so  worthless 
when  you  do  know  it.  Yet  I  think  I  could  do  it  somehow 
if  I  could  only  get  up  an  interest  in  Gelehrsamkeit.  I 
watch  the  real  students  here  (there  are  a  few)  and  say  with 
envy  (the  many-sided  phrase),  "  Wen  Gott  betriigt,  ist  wohl 
betrogen."  For  it  is  "  Betrug,"  or  at  least  I  think  so :  I 
do  not  see  how  all  these  past  facts  are  ever  to  be  digested. 
The  time  may  come  when  we  can  reconstruct  the  past  from 
the  (then  understood)  laws  of  human  nature,  but  it  will 
only  be  the  most  general  reconstruction  that  will  be 
advisable  or  possible,  and  we  shall  always  have  facts 
enough  for  that ;  we  don't  want  to  know  what  particular 
black  stones  the  aborigines  adored — at  least  I  don't.  All 
this  is  peevish,  I  know.  Yet  partly  I  cannot  but  think  I 
do  well  to  be  angry.  I  am  very  jealous  for  the  free 
exercise  of  the  human  intellect.  Still,  I  didn't  make  the 
world,  as  Jacob  said  to  Rachel,1  and  I  suppose  this  Gelehr- 

1  "Am  I  in  God's  stead  ?"  (Jacob  to  Rachel,  Gen.  xxx.  2). 


1866,  AGE  27  HENKY  SIDGWICK  141 

samkeit  has  its  end,  like  toothache,  and  is  the  peculiar 
function  of  the  present  age.  However,  I  do  not  think  I 
can  do  it ;  let  me  depart  i\ea)<j  teal  etyiei/T??.1  .  .  .  What 
should  I  do  without  Clough  ?  He  is  the  wine  of  life  to  me, 
and  my  work  is  the  bread — somewhat  dry — yet  between 
the  two  a  man  may  live  in  comparative  luxury,  and,  quod 
superest,  refrain  himself,  and  bear. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns 

Come  as  soon  as  you  like.  What  shall  I  say  ?  I  have 
discovered  nothing  and  settled  nothing.  Is  the  Theism  to 
be  the  background  or  the  light  of  the  picture  of  life  ?  the 
reserve  or  the  ammunition  of  the  forces  with  which  one 
fights  Time  ?  I  do  not  know ;  meanwhile  Time  is  blazing 
away.  A  very  imaginary  pale  grief  this,  you  will  say. 
Perhaps  so.  I  certainly  eat,  drink,  sleep  in  what  is  called 
comfort :  also  I  lecture :  I  even  make  and  laugh  at  jokes  ; 
nay,  I  exercise  my  reasoning  faculty  on  what  is  called 
solid  reading.  No  one  has  a  right  to  say  of  me  that  I  live 
by  bread  alone.  Do  I  ?  I  perhaps  were  better  if  I  did  ; 
others  do,  and  do  not  seem  to  find  the  bread  too  crumby. 
I  have  lost  my  notebook  on  metaphysics,  and  am  in  tem- 
porary despair,  which  may  be  taken  as  an  evidence  that  my 
interest  in  metaphysics  is  chiefly  a  prospective  author's. 
Sometimes,  however,  it  is  more ;  but  a  man  who  is  so  firmly 
convinced  that  we  are  born  potentially  niany-sided  and  have 
to  specialise  frightfully  to  live — why,  for  such  a  man  this 
very  specialising  becomes  difficult.  It  is  odd  that  video 
melwra  should  be  actually  the  cause  of  deteriora  sequor,  but 
so  it  is.  However,  I  recall  Tocqueville's  saying  (I  like  the 
childlike  freshness  of  a  French  student;  it  is  curious,  in 
France  the  man  of  pleasure  seems  always  blasd,  the  student 
never),  cest  I'homme  politique  qu'il  faut  faire  devenir  en  nous, 
and  try  to  apply  it  mutatis  mutandis.  Moreover,  a  friend 
of  mine  here  is  putting  through  the  press  a  logical  work,2 
which  will  be  recognised  as,  if  not  great,  original,  I  trust ; 
so  there  is  a  life  in  philosophy  yet  in  old  Cambridge. 

1  Plato,  Republic,  vi.  496  c,  of  the  just  man. 
-  Doubtless  J.  Venn's  Logic  of  Chance,  published  in  September  1866. 


142  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns 

...  I  sometimes  think  again  of  resigning ;  I  am  so 
bankrupt  of  most  things  men  desire,  I  would  at  least  have 
a  sort  of  savings-bank  pittance  of  honesty.  But  perhaps 
this  very  impulse  is  only  another  form  of  Protean  vacillation 
and  purposelessness.  .  .  . 

My  dear  boy,  this  remaining  in  the  Church  of  England 
is  just — humbug.  The  terrible  thing  is  that  for  "  curious  and 
carnal  persons " — what  fine  English  the  articles  are  once 
and  again — to  be  humbug  in  one  thing  is  to  make  a  terrible 
breach  in  the  citadel  of  morality.  One  has  to  resist  every 
temptation  cominus  [in  close  fight] ;  one  can't  say,  "  /  do 
not  so-and-so,  it  is  not  my  line,"  which  is  the  last  resource 
for  a  tolerant  eudaemonist.  The  Devil  remarks  that  it  just 
is  one's  line. 

Sometimes  the  pudding  gets  particularly  rank  in  the 
soul's  nostrils.  You  see  the  greatest  humbug  of  all  is  to 
pretend  I  do  these  things  for  the  sake  of  my  mother  (!)  I 
wish  to  heaven  I  did.  Then  had  I  been  a  better  man : 

more  like  the  B s  of  this  world.  Humbug — to  pretend 

I  do  it  for  the  sake  of  my  work.  I  wish  I  did.  Then  had 
I  been  like  .  .  .  Heaven  only  knows  how  many  "  bona  fide 
members."  l  No,  my  dear  friend,  whatever  I  do  at  present, 
I  do  principally  for  the  sake  of  myself;  the  question  is, 
which  self.  This  is  all  the  choice  my  nature  allows. 
Throw  yourself  into  your  social  self,  urges  Trevelyan — even 
Cowell,  the  Bayard  of  social  morality.  At  any  rate,  says 
Trevelyan,  do  something ;  sound  advice ;  but  something  has 
hamstrung  me.  I  cannot,  as  the  Germans  say,  vom  Flecke. 
I  believe  Clough  is  bad  for  me.  Browning's  "  Statue  and 
Bust "  would  be  wholesome  bitters,  but  I  am  past  bitters, 
and  know  that  I  shall  never  "  burn  upward  to  my  point 
of  bliss."  .  .  . 

These  are  the  sweepings  of  my  brain,  not  its  best.  But 
I  really  think  one  must  have  either  some  sort  of  Faith  or 
Honesty,  if  one  cannot  live  by  bread  alone. 

1  Holding  their  Fellowships  as  bona  fide  members  of  the   Church   of 
England. 


1866,  AGE  27  HENKY  SIDGWICK  143 

To  his  Mother,  February  19 

If  you  hear  that  I  have  had  an  attack  of  the  gout,  don't 
believe  it.  I  have  slightly  disordered  my  system  by  meta- 
physics and  neglect  of  exercise,  and  I  was  obliged  to  lie  up 
with  an  inflamed  ankle  in  consequence.  I  "  amused  my 
friends  "  (as  Mr.  Peter  Magnus  says)  by  telling  them  I  had 
the  gout.  I  was  a  little  alarmed,  as  I  never  had  such 
a  symptom  before.  I  mean  to  do  my  six  miles  devoutly 
henceforward.  I  can't  say  I  enjoy  exercise  particularly, 
but  I  see  one  must  look  on  it  as  part  of  the  day's  duty. 

.  .  .  Mrs.  Oliphant's  Agnes  is  worth  reading.  It  is  deeper, 
more  feeling,  than  most  of  her  books,  though  it  has  her 
defects :  and  it  has  one  advantage,  that  the  plot-interest  does 
not  turn  entirely  on  amativeness.  It  will  interest  me  much 
some  time  to  read  my  old  letters.1  At  present  I  should 
dread  it :  there  would  be  too  many  "  ghosts  of  buried  plans 
and  phantom  hopes "  assembled  there.  Ecce  Homo  is  a 
great  work.  I  do  not  find  the  author's  method  satisfactory, 
because  he  passes  so  lightly  over  critical  questions :  but 
the  second  part — the  ideally  constructive — is  surprisingly 
powerful  and  absorbing,  almost  sublime  in  parts.  It  has 
made  a  great  sensation  here.  The  author  keeps  his  secret. 

To  his  Mother  on  February  27 

...  I  am  glad  you  are  interested  in  Lecky;  what  I 
always  feel  about  reading  and  thinking  is  this  (something 
you  have  said  suggests  it) :  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 
ultimate  good  to  be  derived,  in  indirect  ways,  from  any  bit 
of  mental  cultivation  that  one  manages  to  give  oneself.  I 
say  "  manages,"  for  it  is  not  so  easy  as  people  think  to 
choose  reading  that  really  sets  the  mind  to  work  and  makes 
it  grow.  But  we  are  always  all  of  us  much  "  involved  in 
matter,"  as  Aristotle  says ;  this  world,  our  little  petty 
interests,  are  "  too  much  with  us,"  and  anything  that  lifts 
us  out  of  them  is  a  gain.  Indeed  I  estimate  men  a  good 
deal  by  their  capacity  for  this  elevation,  "  soaring."  It  is 
not  by  any  means  proportionate  to  talent — intellect  viewed 

1  She  had  asked  him  if  he  would  like  to  see  his  old  letters. 


144  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

as  an  instrument,  as  the  knife  with  which  one  opens  the 
oyster.  Arthur  Butler  has  it,  and  it  is  one  of  the  things  I 
like  in  [E.  A.]  Scott. 

...  It  is  not  I  who  object  to  gossip ;  I  have  always 
maintained  that  it  was  the  only  way  most  people  [have]  of 
exercising  their  minds  really,  originally,  on  moral  and  social 
questions  (not  that  this  applies  to  your  remarks).  I  certainly 
am  interested  in  the  Ritchies.  I  wish  you  could  see  them 
and  ascertain  whether  the  interest  is  due  to  my  very  limited 
acquaintance  with  (feminine)  human  nature.  It  is  very 
limited.  Still  I  have  met  with  and  known  in  a  sort  of  a 
way  many  families,  and  I  never  met  with  one  that  took  my 
fancy  like  this. 

.  .  .  Macmillan  won't  say  who  wrote  Ecce  Homo.  He  has 
promised  some  time  to  ask  twenty  people  to  dinner,  including 
myself  and  the  author.  Gladstone  wrote  him  (M.)  a  letter 
acknowledging  a  presented  copy  and  calling  it  a  "noble 
book."  The  younger  men  (Myers,  e.g.)  are  some  of  them 
tremendously  stirred  by  it.  I  myself  not  quite  in  the  same 
way.  It  recalls  my  favourite  passage  of  Carlyle  that  "  in 
spite  of  temporary  spiritual  hebetude  and  cecity  man  and 
his  universe  are  eternally  Divine,  and  that  no  past  nobleness 
or  revelation  of  the  Divine  can  or  will  ever  be  lost  to  him." 
But  the  author  means  us  to  go  further  and  credit  what  is 
now  to  us  incredible.  He  may  be  right.  I  look  for  Vol.  II. 

To  his  Mother,  March  26 

I  think  I  shall  come  down  about  the  middle  of  Passion 
week.  I  shall  come  from  Wellington  College,  but  I  cannot 
quite  fix  my  movements,  as  I  want  to  be  here  to  inaugurate 
our  new  master :  and  we  cannot  yet  fix  the  day  for  that 
ceremony,  as  the  patent  or  mandate  has  not  been  made  out 
yet.  We  are  all  somewhat  relieved  by  the  appointment,  as 
we  were  afraid  of  a  non-resident — at  least  of  such  non- 
residents as  were  talked  of.  Thompson  will  make  a  very 
good  sort  of  master,  though  not  perhaps  the  best.  He  is  a 
little  too  lazy  or  dyspeptic  (perhaps  the  first  results  from 
the  second)  for  that.  .  .  . 


1866,  AGE  27  HENRY  SIDGWICK  145 

I  shall  be  very  glad  to  meet  my  Uncle  Eobert 
[Sidgwick].  But  if  by  questions  of  the  day  you  mean 
theological  questions,  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  very  anxious 
to  talk  about  them.  I  have  been  for  some  time  past  rather 
anxious  to  avoid  talking  about  them  more  than  I  can  help. 
If  you  mean  politics  or  philosophy,  I  am  ready  for  any 
amount.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  May  3 

.  .  .  We  are  in  a  considerable  state  of  agitation  here, 
as  all  sorts  of  projects  of  reform  are  coming  to  the  surface, 
partly  in  consequence  of  having  a  new  master — people 
begin  to  stretch  themselves  and  feel  a  certain  freedom  and 
independence.  .  .  .  There  is  much  that  needs  alteration,  as 
I  suspect  there  is  in  every  old  and  wealthy  Corporation  ;  and 
it  is  the  merit  of  Cambridge  that  though  there  is  in  it 
very  little  reforming  spirit,  there  is  also  very  little  of  what 
Carlyle  calls  hide-bound  Toryism ;  people  judge  every  new 
proposal  really  on  its  own  merits — without  enthusiasm 
and  without  prejudice.  ...  I  am  unable  still  to  make  up 
my  mind  whether  I  shall  go  abroad  this  year  or  stay  in 
England  and  read  philosophy.  .  .  .  Perhaps  I  may  be 
decided  to  go  abroad  by  the  fact  of  a  European  war : 
supposing  there  should  be  one.  I  have  never  been  even 
on  the  skirts  of  a  campaign.  I  came  after  one  at  Solferino, 
and  even  that  was  exciting  enough. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  April  or  May  1866 

...  It  would  require  a  very  strong  motive  to  make  me 
pledge  myself  pecuniarily  to  the  Church  of  England.  Still, 
I  feel  that  I  am  gradually  coming  to  a  state  of  mind 
which,  if  it  continues,  will  eventuate  in  complete  practical 
reconciliation  with  the  Church.  You  remember  what  I 
wrote  to  you  about  Ecce  Homo.  Well,  I  fluctuated,  and 
when  you  saw  me  I  had  partly  changed  my  mind  about  it, 
but  on  the  whole,  as  so  often  with  me,  Trpwrat  typovribes 
appear  ultimately  as  ao^repat  [first  thoughts  .  .  .  wiser]. 
I  have  had  the  work  of  Christ  put  before  me  by  a  powerful 

L 


146  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

hand,  and  been  made  to  recognise  its  extraordinary  excellence 
as  I  have  never  before  done ;  and  though  I  do  not  for  a 
moment  relinquish  my  right  to  judge  it  by  the  ideal, 
and  estimate  its  defects,  partialities,  etc.,  yet  I  do  feel  the 
great  need  that  mankind  have  of  a  pattern,  and  I  have 
none  that  I  could  propose  to  substitute.  Hence  I  feel 
that  I  should  call  myself  a  Christian  if  I  were  in  a  country 
where l  .  .  .  Now,  as  long  as  the  views  I  hold  on  religion 
and  morality  are  such  as  I  should  think  only  desirable  to 
publish  to  the  educated,  it  seems  to  me  it  is  not  my  social 
duty  to  dissent.  If  I  ever  felt  I  could  teach  with  e^ovaia 
and  not  as  the  reverends,  I  should  certainly  dissent,  but  in 
order  to  do  that  one  requires  a  very  clear,  definite,  practical 
creed.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that  if  you  feel  no  spiritual 
need  of  preaching  and  no  prospect  of  such  a  need  (I  only 
feel  a  very  dim  and  remote  one),  from  my  point  of  view  you 
would  go  in  bald-headed  for  the  old  concern.  I  have 
convinced  myself  that  what  they  want  is  conformity,  as  lax 
as  you  like ;  besides,  if  they  wanted  to  turn  me  out,  I  do 
not  feel  at  all  sure  that  I  should  not  take  the  legal  view 
and  defy  them.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  no  analogy  in  the  field  of  moral  obligation  by  which  to 
explain  and  decide  religious  tests  and  rites ;  they  are  sui 
generis,  and  must  be  judged  on  general  principles.  Yet  I 
must  repeat  my  views  have  fluctuated  so  that  I  would  not 
willingly  bind  myself  to  the  Church  of  England  further 
than  I  am  bound.  So  I  do  not  know  what  to  advise  you. 
As  to  what  you  say  in  your  conclusion,  it  makes  me 
unhappy.  Christianity,  Positivism,  etc.,  are  only  forms  of 
the  ideal,  and  human  progress  has  hitherto  depended  upon 
the  ideal  and  those  who  have  believed  in  it.  One  may 
always  become  practical,  and  perhaps  serve  God  as  well 
that  way;  still,  if  one  has  faith  in  the  ideal,  let  us  take 
errors,  confusions,  doubts,  despairs,  sins,  mistakes,  misfortunes, 
losses,  as  so  many  blows  in  the  noblest  fight.  If  not,  let  us 
become  practical  (what  some  French  writers  curiously  call 
"  positif")  at  once.  I  have  often  thought  of  doing  so,  but 

1  The  letter  is  torn  and  a  piece  lost  here. 


1866,  AGE  27  HENRY  SIDGWICK  147 

at  tliis  moment  I  feel  that  if  I  had  yielded  to  the  impulse 
I  should  have  sunk  to  the  "  rear  and  the  slaves." l 

To  H.  G.  Dafyns,  May  4 

Be  of  good  cheer ;  I  think  I  may  see  my  way  through 
the  New  Testament.  Not  rays  of  light,  but  a  sort  of 
twilight  is  gathering  round  me,  and  the  lineaments — still 
very  vague — of  the  Messiah  and  his  flock  are  beginning  to 
haunt  me.  Perhaps  I  too  shall  become  one  of  the  self- 
deluded  constructive  people ;  never  mind :  they  too  are 
God's  creatures,  and  have  their  function.  I  think,  whatever 
I  beget  in  the  way  of  construction,  I  shall  always  have  lucid 
intervals  in  which  I  can  estimate  and  allow  for  paternal 
fondness.  One  line  of  attack  which  would  be  very  effective 
(if  one  wanted  to  attack)  would  be  the  evidence  of  free 
composition  in  Gospels  and  Acts  carefully  collected  and 
arranged.  The  materials  for  the  first  part  lie  richly  strewn 
in  Strauss  ;  what  relates  to  the  Acts  has  gradually  impressed 
itself  on  me  unsought.  Strauss  has  much  insight;  his 
weak  point  is,  of  course,  his  Mythic  Theory,  but  he  is  better 
than  many  Renans.  The  Spectator  on  Renan  had  more 
reason  than  usual. 

I  have  put  down  folgendes  in  my  Note-book  : — "  Professor 
Huxley  would  have  us  worship  ('  chiefly  silently ')  a  Subject 
without  Predicates.  M.  Renan  would  have  us  adore 
(roulant  d'exstases  en  exstases)  Predicates  without  a  Subject." 
So  Theism  is  split  by  Positivism,  arid  Protestant  and 
Catholic  positivist  seizes  each  his  half.  This  will  be  a  good 
Hulsean  Lecture,  when  I  have  become  Broad  Church  and 
been  ordained  on  ray  way  to  a  bishopric.  Curious,  the  one 
thing  I  feel  I  could  be — in  the  way  of  worldly  success — is 
a  bishop.  "  I  know  with  whom  I  have  to  deal."  I  am 
'cuter  even  than  Lightfoot,  who  is  wise  as  serpents.  Well, 
this  is  frivolous.  Dulce  est  desipere  in  loco — it  is  doubtful 
whether  we  ought  to  read  the  verb  with  a  "  c." 

I  think  Ecce  Homo  will  turn  out  a  broken  reed,  but 
it  is  just  the  kind  that  does  not  run  into  a  man's  hand  and 
1  Browning's  "Lost  Leader." 


148  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

pierce  it — in  fact,  I  think  there  will  always  be  a  stump 
left.  I  have  over-abused  the  Quarterly  [article  on  "  Ecce 
Homo "] ;  there  is  no  doubt  he  [Seeley]  is  diffuse ;  turgid, 
however,  he  is  not,  and,  after  all,  he  is  one  of  the  few  people 
who  has  stirred  me  powerfully  with  real  eloquence. 

Reforms  are  breaking  out  here  everywhere ;  the  long 
long  canker  of  peace  is  over  and  done ;  the  only  thing 
soon  will  be  to  avoid  radicalism.  The  Master,  however, 
is,  I  fear,  easily  bored.  I  wonder  whether  I  shall  ever  talk 
as  sensible  elderly  men  do  of  a  "  system  that  has  worked  so 
well "  as  our  system  of  lectures.  If  so,  Heaven  make  me  a 
Tory  and  give  me  respectable  prejudices  and  venerable 
creeds  first.  "  Wen  Gott  betriigt,"  etc.  But  what  shall  we 
say  of  him  whom  Teufel  betriigt  ?  Preachers  are  of  opinion 
that  it  is  a  commoner  case. 

Sidgwick's  article  on  "  Ecce  Homo  "  for  the  West- 
minster Review  (republished  in  Miscellaneous  Essays 
and  Addresses)  was  written  in  May  and  June  of  this 
year.  It  was,  of  course,  anonymous,  but  he  wrote  it 
with  the  knowledge  of  his  friend,  J.  B,.  Seeley,  of 
whose  authorship  of  the  book  he  was  now  aware,  and 
with  whom,  indeed,  he  was  in  correspondence  about 
some  points  of  disagreement. 

To  his  Mother  on  May  18 

...  I  do  not  think  I  shall  come  to  Rugby  before  the 
end  of  the  half.  ...  I  study  best  in  vacation,  not  only 
because  I  have  more  time,  for  as  regards  actual  time  I 
could  do  a  good  deal  in  term-time,  but  because  I  have  a 
restive  imagination,  and  as  long  as  my  mind  is  filled  with 
all  manner  of  College  and  University  matters,  I  cannot 
harness  it  (to  any  purpose)  to  subjects  more  remote  from 
everyday  interest.  .  .  . 

Mrs.  G ,  I  see  she  amuses  you.  I  like  people  who 

are  unlike  other  people  in  their  ways.  You  are  quite  right 
about  the  "  foreignness  "  of  her  mani&re  d'etre,  but  it  is  not 
only  in  the  "  sunny  south "  one  finds  that  exparisiveness : 


1866,  AGE  28  HENRY  SIDGWICK  149 

the  Germans  have  a  good  deal  of  it.  I  sometimes  think  it 
is  the  more  natural  state  (and  desirable)  than  our  English 
reserve,  only  when  it  is  affected  it  is  very  odious,  and  if  it 
was  the  general  manner,  it  would  involve  so  much  hypocrisy 
in  some  people,  just  as  the  manner  of  good  society  does, 
only  more  offensively.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  July  2 

My  hay  fever  is  somewhat  abated  of  its  virulence,  and  I 
can  behold  the  face  of  nature  without  sneezing  therein.  I 
am  not  going  to  travel  just  yet,  however.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  month  I  shall  be  hanging  about  London,  seeing  the 
Academy,  going  to  Eton,  examining  at  Harrow,  and  so  on. 
On  the  10th  of  August  I  am  going  to  the  Lakes  with 
Trevelyan  for  a  short  time.  ...  I  am  reading  now  pretty 
hard,  and  very  much  enjoying  the  complete  freedom  and 
leisure.  We  are  now  somewhat  revolutionised  in  our 
habits,  as  we  are  cleaning  and  painting  our  hall ;  even 
gilding,  I  believe,  we  are  going  to  indulge  in.  I  have  no 
hand  in  such  extravagances,  but  you  may  trace  the  civilising 
influence  of  our  new  Master  in  this  and  other  things.  We 
are  actually  going  to  dine  on  chairs  after  this  vacation. 
Mr.  Martin  unwillingly  yielded  to  the  irresistible  tendency 
of  the  age  to  luxuriousness. 

To  his  Mother  from  Grange  in  Borrowdale  on  August  14 

I  have  been  here  now  since  Friday.  It  is  wonderfully 
well  situated.  No  one  can  tell  till  he  stands  immediately 
in  front  of  the  house  and  looks  out  from  our  drawing- 
room  window  how  singularly  complete  the  view  is.  The 
rising  ground  in  front  of  our  house  is  just  sufficient  to 
throw  out  the  hills  round  the  Lake  and  Skiddaw  in  the 
distance.  I  went  up  Latrigg  on  Saturday  morning  before 
Trevelyan  came,  and  got  splendid  views.  ...  I  am  going 
in  for  French  belles  lettres  in  the  evening  and  German 
philosophy  in  the  morning.  Trevelyan  is  relaxing  from  the 
cares  of  statesmanship.  Poor  fellow,  the  first  face  he  saw 
on  entering  Borrowdale  was  that  of  a  principal  constituent,  a 


150  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

Quaker  tailor,  who,  though  a  man  of  peace  by  profession,  is 
supposed  invaluable  in  an  electioneering  contest.  ...  I  was 
very  happy  at  seeing  Derwentwater  again.  My  affections 
are  unalterably  fixed  on  Derwentwater :  though  I  am  not 
sure  that  some  of  the  Grasrnere  scenery  is  not  superior. 
But  the  crowd  of  little  hills  between  this  and  Buttermere 
is  singularly  interesting,  and  we  have  great  opportunities  of 
seeing  them  from  here.  I  will  go  to  Wastdale  Head  this 
visit,  but  it  has  been  persistently  raining  there  ever  since  I 
came. 

Did  you  ever  read  a  book  called  the  Initials  ?  It  is  a  very 
old  novel  by  this  time,  but  if  you  ever  came  across  it  you 
would  find  it  not  dull,  and  it  would  give  you  a  good  idea  of 
German  life  such  as  I  have  seen  it — except  as  being  a 
strong  caricature  on  some  points. 

To  fioden  Noel  from  the  same  place 

...  As  to  my  article  [on  "Ecce  Homo"],  I  hardly  expected 
you  to  have  any  other  feelings  about  it  than  those  you  express  ; 
indeed,  I  hardly  could  bring  myself  to  send  it  you.  Convinced 
as  I  am  that  conflict  on  this  subject  is  inevitable  and  ultimately 
beneficial,  I  am  not  so  much  pained  by  it  as  I  once  was.  I 
have  counted  the  cost,  and  am  content  to  go  on  exciting  the 
disgust  of  enthusiasts — that  is,  of  the  people  whose  sympathy 
I  value  most — in  defence  of  (what  seems  to  me)  historic 
truth  and  sound  criticism.  It  seems  to  me  that  ultimate 
religious  agreement  is  ideally  possible  on  my  method,  and 
not  even  ideally  possible  on  yours — as  each  sect  and  party 
will  go  on  making  a  particular  view  of  history  a  test  of 
spirituality  and  thus  feel  itself  at  liberty  to  dispense  (not 
that  you  do  that)  with  other  arguments.  Perhaps  this  mode 
of  thinking  is  inseparable  from  a  fervent  belief ;  if  so,  it  may 
be  the  proper  function  of  non-fervent  people  like  myself  to 
pursue  a  different  method ;  between  the  two  truth  may  be 
elicited. 

To  JRoden  Noel  from  the  same  place 

I  am  afraid  I  must  confess  that  reading  Fichte  has 
not  brought  me  more  in  sympathy  with  the  German 


1866,  AGE  28  HENRY  SIDGWICK  151 

manner.  I  quite  understand  what  you  say  as  to  his 
being  more  fervent,  more  human  than  Kant.  But  as  a 
thinker  I  rate  him  infinitely  lower,  or  at  least  feel  myself 
infinitely  less  en  rapport  with  him.  Kant's  phraseology  I  do 
not  merely  understand,  but  I  often  find  it  quite  a  revelation  to 
me.  Fichte's  phraseology  (if  I  do  understand  it,  which  I 
must  always  leave  doubtful)  I  can  convict  of  inconsistency 
or  inaccuracy  at  every  step.  Fichte  seems  to  me  absolutely 
devoid  of  judgment;  moreover,  I  cannot  trust  my  mind  to 
his  with  the  least  confidence.  I  am  coming  more  and  more 
to  the  opinion  that  the  whole  "  Identitats-  philosophic " 
(Fichte,  Schelling,  and  Hegel)  is  a  monstrous  mistake,  and 
that  we  must  go  back  to  Kant  and  begin  again  from  him. 
Not  that  I  feel  prepared  to  call  myself  a  Kantian,  but  I 
shall  always  look  on  him  as  one  of  my  teachers.  You  see, 
my  dear  friend,  how  far  we  are  from  an  agreement  on  meta- 
physical points.  I  fear  we  can  hardly  enter  upon  a  crusade 
together  against  empiricism.  But  in  such  crusade  I  heartily 
sympathise  with  you,  as  I  have  parted  company  with  Mill 
I  feel  for  ever.  I  still  think  the  best  motto  for  a  true 
Metaphysic  are  those  two  lines  of  Shelley : — 

I  am  the  eye  with  which  the  Universe 
Beholds  itself  and  knows  itself  divine. 

To  his  Mother  from  Borrowdale,  August  27 

I  leave  here  on  the  1st  of  September  and  go  into 
Dorsetshire.  I  shall  see  Furness  Abbey  on  the  way.  It  is 
a  dreadful  long  journey,  and  I  almost  wish  now  I  had  not 
promised  to  pay  the  visit.  Did  you  see  Professor  Grote's 
death  ?  It  startled  me  very  much ;  I  shall  miss  him  at 
Cambridge  exceedingly. 

To  his  Mother  on  September  1 2  from  the  Rev.  C.  Kegan  Paul's 

I  am  playing  chess  with  Cowell,  who  is  staying  here.  I 
am  enjoying  myself  as  much  as  I  can  in  the  rain,  which  has 
prevented  my  seeing  much  of  the  scenery  or  places  of 
general  interest  in  the  neighbourhood.  ...  I  am  so  idle. 
I  am  going  back  to  Cambridge  on  Saturday  to  read  hard 


152  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

for  a  fortnight  if  possible.  This  is  the  second  Long 
Vacation  I  have  frittered  away  pursuing  study  as  a  vain 
shadow.  I  have  no  resolution.  .  .  . 

To  his  MotJier  from  Cambridge  on  September  23 

I  suppose  you  are  at  home  and  busy.  I  have  been  here 
about  a  week  now,  trying  to  write  an  article  that  I  have 
had  in  my  head  for  some  time  J — but  I  have  not  been  well 
and  so  I  shall  probably  be  delayed.  .  .  . 

I  hope  to  come  to  you  on  October  3  for  a  week — that 
is  the  day  the  University  Library  opens,  and  I  want  to  get 
some  books  before  the  country  clergy  have  gone  off  with 
them  all. 

To  his  Mother  on  October  1 

I  cannot  come  down  on  Wednesday,  as  I  suddenly  find 
an  operation  is  necessary  on  my  teeth.  .  .  .  How  provoking 
teeth  are !  Mine  have  been  spoiling  my  work  lately ; 
however,  I  have  discovered  the  one  thing  I  can  do 
when  they  ache — that  is,  chess.  It  just  hits  the  mean ; 
Philosophy  is  too  hard,  and  a  novel  I  can  no  more  enjoy  in 
pain  than  sweetmeats  when  bilious,  unless  it  is  a  very  good 
novel.  I  think  if  chess  was  of  the  smallest  value  to  the 
human  race  I  could  go  in  for  it  with  great  ardour ;  as  it  is, 
it  is  a  solemn  frivolity.  I  never  touch  it  now  in  health. 

.  .  .  For  some  reason  or  other  I  secrete  much  cynicism 
just  at  present,  but  I  am  not  going  to  inflict  any  on  you. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  October  2 1 
Please  send  the  Portfolio ;  I  find  I  want  it ;  I  always 
leave  something  behind — it  is  a  kind  of  fatality.  I  no 
longer  try  and  resist  it,  but  confine  myself  to  hoping 
that  it  won't  be  anything  valuable.  ...  I  had  already 
determined  not  to  go  in  for  the  Professorship  of  Moral 
Philosophy  [vacant  by  Professor  Grote's  death]  when  I 
learnt  that  F.  D.  Maurice  was  a  candidate.  I  should  think 
he  has  now  the  best  chance,  as  the  Board  of  Electors  is  one 
peculiarly  likely  to  favour  his  claims — or  rather  to  regard 
1  Probably  a  pamphlet  mentioned  below,  p.  154. 


18C6,  AGE  28  HENKY  SIDGWICK  153 

them  without  the  disfavour  which  certain  persons  would 
bring  to  the  consideration  of  the  question.  In  some  respects 
I  very  much  hope  that  he  will  be  a  very  good  appointment, 
as  he  will  certainly  be  a  stimulating  lecturer,  and  Cambridge 
stands  in  some  need  of  stimulus  just  now ;  but  I  am  rather 

sorry  for  my  friend ,  as  he  is  young,  eager,  devoted  to 

the  subject,  and  thoroughly  of  the  new  school  as  regards  his 
view  of  Professorial  functions.  (When  I  say  the  new  school 
your  conservatism  need  not  be  alarmed ;  I  mean  the  school 
of  which  Dr.  Lightfoot  is  with  us  the  most  distinguished 
representative  :  the  people  who  regard  themselves  [as  being] 
as  much  bound  to  teach  and  to  write  as  any  other  salaried 
functionary  is  bound  to  discharge  the  duties  for  which  he  is 
paid.)  .  .  . 

Our  hall  is  resplendent ;  the  undergraduates  call  it  the 
"  Alhambra." 

To  his  Mother  on  November  7,  1866 

It  is  a  long  while  since  I  have  written  to  you,  but  this 
time  I  have  been  really  hard  at  work.  I  am  preparing 
myself  to  remodel  an  examination  here  in  which  I  take 
great  interest — that  for  Moral  Sciences.  We  have  formed 
sub-committees  of  the  Board  of  Moral  Sciences  to  do  this 
work,  and  I  am  on  two.  It  is  the  kind  of  work  which  one 
may  take  very  easy,  but  of  which  the  more  one  does  the 
more  influence  one  gets :  and  I  want  as  much  influence  as  I 
can  have  in  order  to  carry  through  my  ideas  on  the  subject, 
which  are  rather  strong.  The  election  of  Professor  Maurice 
has  created  great  excitement  here  among  a  certain  party, 
and  I  fear  that  the  peaceful  times  of  Cambridge  are  passing 
away  and  that  we  shall  presently  be  steeped  in  polemics 
almost  to  the  same  extent  as  Oxford.  We  have  to-day 
been  electing  the  Council  of  the  Senate — an  important  body 
as  regards  our  administration — and  for  the  first  time  the 
parties  of  the  Senate  have  been  so  far  organised  as  to  con- 
struct "tickets"  of  candidates — a  FAmdricaine — to  ensure 
that  all  individual  members  of  either  party  vote  for  the  same 
candidates :  and  so  no  votes  be  lost,  partisanly  speaking.  I 


154  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

do  not  know  that  any  particular  harm  or  good  will  result 
except  an  increase  of  party  feeling.  I  send  Arthur  a 
pamphlet  of  mine — it  will  not  interest  you  much.  Tell 
him  that  I  can  send  one  or  two  more,  if  he  thinks  they  will 
do  any  good — I  mean,  if  there  are  any  Rugby  people  who 
may  be  made  to  come  up  and  vote  in  case  the  question 
comes  before  the  Senate. 

Well,  perhaps  enough  of  politics.  ...  By  the  bye,  now 
I  have  got  this  piece  of  University  work,  I  do  not  feel  sure 
that  I  shall  manage  to  go  to  France  at  Christmas,  so  perhaps 
I  may  turn  up  again  at  Rugby.  I  have  not  made  up  my 
mind,  as  I  hate  abandoning  a  scheme,  but  it  seems  stupid 
to  go  to  Paris,  of  all  places,  with  a  lot  of  work  on  one's 
hands.  Nay,  I  may  almost  be  certain  I  should  not  do  it. 

The  pamphlet  here  spoken  of  was  one  on  the 
Classical  Tripos  Examination.  A  discussion  on  the 
question  of  reforming  this  examination  by  giving 
more  weight  to  the  subject-matter,  as  distinct  from 
the  mere  language  of  certain  authors,  and  diminishing 
the  weight  attached  to  verse  composition,  was  being 
actively  carried  on  by  pamphlets  and  fly-sheets,  and 
Sidgwick  wrote  strongly  supporting  such  changes. 
It  would  be  out  of  place  to  quote  the  whole  pamphlet, 
but  the  following  passages  seem  to  give  the  gist  of 
his  view : — 

While  I  agree  with  every  word  of  Mr.  Cope's  eulogy  of 
translation  as  an  instrument  for  disciplining  the  mind,  I 
may  remark  that  a  part  of  it  refers  only  to  maturer  students : 
there  are  but  few  undergraduates  who  "  generalise,  classify, 
and  combine "  for  themselves  or  "  collect  into  rules  and 
principles  "  the  results  of  their  own  observation.  But  I  do 
believe  they  learn  close  attention,  accurate  observation, 
subtlety  of  discrimination,  and  the  power  of  applying  the 
generalisations  of  others  with  judgment  and  tact,  and  moreover 
their  verbal  memory  is  cultivated  to  a  considerable  extent. 
But  the  habits  of  reading  reflectively  and  intelligently,  of 
combining  isolated  facts  into  an  organised  whole,  of  following 


1866,  AGE  28  HENRY  SIDGWICK  155 

and  appreciating  a  subtle  and  continuous  argument,  of 
grasping  new  ideas  with  facility  and  just  apprehension,  are 
at  least  equally  valuable :  and  if  they  are  more  difficult  to 
acquire,  that  is  precisely  the  reason  why  the  highest  educa- 
tion in  the  country  ought  to  make  vigorous  efforts  to  impart 
them.  Strong  powers  of  abstract  and  discursive  thought 
must  be  always  rare :  but  I  lament  that  we  do  so  little  to 
stimulate  and  direct  them.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  it  is 
much  more  important  for  ordinary  men  to  learn  to  think 
correctly  about  historical  and  philosophical  subjects  than 
about  philological :  and  that  each  study  requires,  to  a  certain 
extent,  a  special  training ;  which  men  who  do  not  receive  it 
from  others  have  to  acquire  for  themselves  (except  in  the 
case  of  a  gifted  few)  by  gradually  finding  out  their  mistakes 
and  deficiencies  in  a  prolonged  process  of  self-education. 

And  about  verse  composition  : — 

I  think  that  in  the  case  of  inferior  men  it  hardly  at  all 
tends  to  improve  their  accurate  knowledge  of  the  languages, 
and  that  it  takes  up  time  which  might  be  much  better  spent 
in  almost  any  other  work. 

In  December  1866  a  Syndicate  (committee),  on 
which  Sidgwick  served,  was  appointed  to  consider  the 
question.  The  scheme  it  proposed  was  rejected  by 
the  Senate  in  May  1868  by  the  votes  (it  was  said)  of 
non-residents  who  happened  to  have  come  to  Cam- 
bridge for  a  flower-show.  An  amended  scheme,  a 
compromise  of  course,  but  effecting  something  in 
the  direction  desired  by  Sidgwick,  was  carried  in  the 
following  year. 

The  remodelling  of  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos, 
with  which  he  was  even  more  closely  concerned,  was 
accomplished  more  quickly.  The  new  scheme  was 
agreed  on  in  1867,  and  came  into  operation  in  1869, 
and  A.  J.  Balfour — a  favourite  pupil  of  Sidgwick,  and 
afterwards  his  brother-in-law — was  one  of  the  first 
examined  under  it. 


156  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

To  his  Brother  William,  December  6 

I  am  coining  over  [to  Oxford]  to  stay  with  Harcourt1 — 
if  nothing  prevents — from  Tuesday  to  Thursday  next.  I 
want  to  talk  to  Natural  Science  men  with  a  view  to  a 
motion  I  am  bringing  forward  in  our  College  meeting.  But 
1  also  should  very  much  like  to  have  a  good  talk  with 
Professor  Wilson,*  e.g. — about  Text-books  for  Philosophy. 
We  are  altering  our  list  of  books  [recommended  to  students], 
and  there  is  an  opportunity  now  for  getting  the  thing  well 
done.  Impressed  with  this,  I  am  going  to  stay  in  England 
and  give  up  my  expedition  to  Paris  in  order  to  work  at 
this.  I  wish  I  was  less  ignorant.  Where  shall  you  be  in 
vacation  ?  If  you  can  come  here  from  Thursday  next  to 
Saturday  after,  you  will  probably  find  plenty  of  men.  Our 
general  [College]  meeting  is  on  Friday,  and  Londoners  come 
up.  There  will  be,  of  course,  a  shoppiness  in  the  air. 

The  motion  to  be  brought  forward  in  the  College 
meeting  was  to  the  effect,  "That  considering  the 
great  need  of  providing  for  the  direction  of  new 
studies  in  the  College,  especially  the  study  of  Physical 
Science,  at  least  one  Praelector  be  appointed  without 
delay  in  accordance  with  Statute  xiv."  It  had  been 
proposed  at  the  previous  general  meeting  in  December 
1865,  but,  as  the  custom  then  was,  could  not  be  voted 
on  till  the  next  annual  meeting.  Sidgwick's  interest 
in  it  is  shown  not  only  by  this  journey  to  Oxford, 
but  by  letters  still  extant  from  different  persons, 
Huxley  and  others,  whom  he  had  consulted  as  to  the 
possibility  of  securing  a  suitable  person  to  fill  such 
a  post. 

To  his  Mother  on  December  7 

I  should  have  written  before,  but  I  have  been  very  busy 
with  work  that  I  am  just  bringing  to  an  end — the  Moral 
Science  [Tripos]  examination.  It  is  very  interesting,  but  it 
absorbs  one's  whole  mind ;  at  least  in  my  case,  as  I  take  so 

1  Mr.  A.  G.  Vernon  Harcourt,  Lee's  Reader  in  Chemistry  at  Christ  Church. 
2  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy. 


1866,  AGE  28  HENRY  SIDGWICK  157 

strong  an  interest  in  the  subject,  and  am  so  anxious  to  do 
thorough  justice  to  the  men.  After  to-morrow  afternoon  I 
shall  have  a  few  days'  holiday,  and  then  set  to  work  at  what 
is  to  occupy  me  during  the  vacation.  ...  I  have  more  to 
do  than  I  can  do,  which  is  always  a  painful  position.  One 
has  to  decide  somewhat  arbitrarily  what  one  will  do.  ... 

Tell  Arthur  that  I  shall  press  my  motion  about  Natural 
Science  pnelector,  and  if  he  believes  in  it  he  ought  to  come. 

To  his  Mother  about  ten  days  later 

.  .  .  My  motion  was  lost  at  the  College  meeting.  I  am 
now  reading  principally  Philosophy.  I  have  a  great  deal 
to  read,  and  I  shall  reserve  the  morning  for  study  when  I 
am  with  you.  .  .  . 

There  are  considerable  changes  going  on  here  which  will 
probably  affect  me  somewhat.  Not,  however,  in  a  way  to 
make  me  feel  more  settled  here.  But  I  have  now  got  so 
used  to  being  unsettled  that  I  work  just  as  well. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  December  8 

The  only  reason  that  I  regret  the  hiatus  in  our  corre- 
spondence is  the  loss  of  time.  Life  is  short,  and  we  might 
have  written  to  one  another  many  good  letters  during  the 
last  six  months.  On  every  other  ground  it  is  very  satis- 
factory to  let  half  a  year  intervene,  retaining  the  calm 
confidence  that  one  may  begin  any  subject  in  the  middle  at 
the  end  of  it.  I  have  not  progressed  since  I  saw  you  except 
backwards.  At  my  age  it  is  a  great  thing  even  to  progress 
backwards ;  it  shows  that  one  is  not  stagnating.  I  mean, 
in  respect  of  thought  I  feel  more  like  a  young  man  (in  all 
the  points  in  which  youth  is  inferior  to  age)  than  I  did  in 
June.  In  the  first  place  I  have  less  of  a  creed,  philo- 
sophically speaking.  I  think  I  have  more  knowledge  of  what 
the  thoughts  of  men  have  been,  and  a  less  conscious  faculty 
of  choosing  the  true  and  refusing  the  false  among  them. 

I  wonder  whether  I  shall  remain  a  boy  all  my  life  in 
this  respect.  I  do  not  say  this  paradoxically,  but  having 
John  Grote  in  my  mind,  who  certainly  retained,  with  the 


158  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

freshness,  the  indecisiveness  of  youth  till  the  day  of  his  death. 
I  wonder  whether  we  are  coming  to  an  age  of  general 
indecisiveness ;  I  do  not  mean  the  frivolous  scepticism  of 
modern  Philistines  (I  almost  prefer  the  frivolous  dogmatism 
of  ancient  ditto),  but  the  feeling  of  a  man  who  will  not 
make  up  his  mind  till  mankind  has.  I  feel  that  this 
standpoint  is  ultimately  indefensible,  because  mankind  have 
never  made  up  their  mind  except  in  consequence  of  some 
individual  having  done  so.  Still  there  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  dilemma.  In  the  present  age  an  educated  man  must 
either  be  prophet  or  persistent  sceptic — there  seems  no 
nudia  via.  I  have  sold  myself  to  metaphysics  for  "  a  time 
and  half  a  time  " ;  I  do  not  as  yet  regret  the  bargain.  Take 
notice  that  I  have  finally  parted  from  Mill  and  Comte — not 
without  tears  and  wailings  and  cuttings  of  the  hair.  I  am 
at  present  an  eclectic.  I  believe  in  the  possibility  of  pur- 
suing conflicting  methods  of  mental  philosophy  side  by  side. 

I  am  at  any  rate  in  travail  with  an  idea,  whether  it 
is  worth  anything  remains  to  be  seen.  You  will  have 
your  doubts,  remembering  many  aveptaia  [wind-eggs]  from 
the  same  brain. 

.  .  .  Since  I  saw  you  I  have  experienced  Alfred  de 
Musset.  He  seems  to  me  to  preserve  in  verse  the  peculiar 
charm  of  French  prose — wit,  delicacy,  subtlety,  combined 
with  the  intensity  and  simplicity  of  the  poet. 

L'esperance  humaine  est  lasse  d'etre  mere 

— a  wonderful  line.  I  disbelieve  it  utterly.  I  am  still 
ultra-Tennysonian  as  regards  progress. 

We  are  in  a  period  of  change  now  in  Trinity,  but  I 
cannot  write  about  it  now.  My  feeling  about  reforms  here 
is  curious.  Whatever  I  do,  or  try  to  do,  I  see  a  symbolical 
figure  of  the  Church  of  England  muttering  '  timeo  Danaos.' 

To  0.  Browning  from  Cambridge,  about  the  middle  of 
December 

...  I  do  not  feel  your  polite  irony  about  philosophers 
touch  me  at  all ;  my  view  is  that  we  ought  to  be  more,  not 


1866,  AGE  28  HENKY  SIDGWICK  159 

less,  strictly  educational  than  we  are.  If  ever  I  become  a 
power  in  my  College  a  considerable  increase  in  work  (at 
least  of  teachers)  will  take  place. 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Rugly  a  few  days  later 

I  have  been  very  hard  at  work  (for  me)  ever  since  I  left 
the  Lakes,  chiefly  with  plans — hitherto  abortive — of  works 
on  philosophy,  interwoven  with  preparation  for  an  examina- 
tion I  have  had  to  conduct  in  November,  and  also  for  an 
alteration  in  our  philosophical  course, — i.e.  in  the  list  of  books 
that  we  recommend  to  students  of  philosophy. 

The  Board  of  Moral  Science,  as  the  body  which  directs 
the  study  in  Cambridge  is  called,  has  undertaken  an  entire 
remodelling  of  the  list,  which  was  too  large  before  and  not 
well  put  together.  A  good  share  in  this  important  and 
difficult  task  devolves  upon  me  (who  feel  myself  somewhat 
incompetent  to  perform  it — though  not  more  incompetent 
than  any  one  else  here  perhaps,  unless  I  underrate  Cambridge 
philosophy,  that  is,  putting  Maurice  on  one  side) ;  so  I  have 
been  filling  up  lacunae  in  my  philosophical  education,  and 
reading  different  authors  in  order  to  test  their  educational 
value.  It  is  really  a  very  difficult  question.  One  feels  that 
great  learning  and  great  impartiality  ought  to  be  combined 
to  solve  it.  You  will  not  be  surprised — however  con- 
temptuous— to  hear  that  we  shall  certainly  exclude  all  the 
post-Kantian  developments  in  Germany.  I  have  not  yefc 
managed  to  read  any  Hegel,  and  must  leave  it  absolutely 
alone  for  a  little  time  to  come,  for  I  should  have  to  decide 
on  my  list  long  before  I  had  time  to  understand  him.  I 
think  the  best-informed  people  among  us — excepting  Maurice 
again — form  their  idea  of  Hegel  from  Sir  W.  Hamilton  and 
Mansel — or  at  any  rate  from  them  illustrated  by  a  cursory 
and  perfectly  ineffectual  perusal  of  one  of  his  books.  There 
is  certainly  one  friend  of  mine — the  metaphysician  I  spoke 
to  you  of- — who  half  believes  in  him :  but  he  thinks  him 
quite  unfit  for  our  purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  even  those 
of  us  who  do  not  believe  in  the  philosophic  soundness  of 
Kant's  Kritik  profess  great  respect  for  its  educational  value. 


160  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

Well,  perhaps  enough  of  metaphysics,  though  I  have  a 
great  deal  to  say  about  them  at  a  fitting  season.  I  am 
gradually  feeling  a  way  to  a  system  of  my  own,  founded  on 
a  union  between  Brown  and  Hamilton,  with  an  intermixture 
of  Kant  and  Ferrier.  My  fundamental  position  is  much 
what  it  was  in  the  summer — that  fundamental  dualism 
which  seems  to  you  so  unphilosophical.  Bother.  I  cannot 
get  off  this  subject.  .  .  . 

My  history  during  the  last  five  months  has  been  chiefly 
the  history  of  my  philosophical  thinking.  Only  I  happened 
to  read  Lecky  in  the  Long.  You  know  the  book — History 
of  Rationalism.  With  the  perverseness  that  sometimes 
characterises  me  I  took  up  the  subject  from  entirely  the 
opposite  point  of  view  to  Lecky,  and  determined  to  investigate 
the  evidence  for  mediaeval  miracles,  as  he  insists  it  is  not  an 
investigation  of  this  evidence,  but  merely  the  progress  of 
events,  march  of  mind,  etc.,  which  has  brought  about  our 
present  disbelief  in  them.  The  results  have,  I  confess, 
astonished  myself.  I  keep  silence  at  present  even  from 
good  words,  but  I  dimly  foresee  that  I  shall  have  to 
entirely  alter  my  whole  view  of  the  universe  and  admit 
the  "  miraculous,"  as  we  call  it,  as  a  permanent  element  in 
human  history  and  experience.  You  know  my  "  Spiritual- 
istic "  ghost-seeing  tendencies.  These  all  link  on,  and  the 
Origins  of  all  religions  find  themselves  explained.  However, 
as  I  say,  I  keep  silence  at  present ;  I  am  only  in  the  middle 
of  my  inquiries. 

My  chief  poetic  reading  last  term  was  Alfred  de  Musset. 
I  also  went  through  a  course  of  Victor  Hugo.  I  read  his 
prose  dramas  for  the  first  time.  I  think  everything  he 
writes  is  worth  reading,  though  everything  he  writes  seems 
to  me  marred  by  the  same  defect — want  of  taste — want  of 
what  the  Germans  call  a  sense  of  Mass  (measure).  In  fact, 
in  him  Romanticism  is  in  its  stage  of  blind  reaction  against 
Classicism.  Some  of  his  little  poems  I  delight  in.  Do  you 
know  one  that  begins 

S'il  est  un  charmant  gazon 
Que  le  ciel  arrose. 


1867,  AGE  23  HENEY  SIDGWICK  161 

It  is  what  I  call  exquisite.  .  .  .  But  Alfred  de  Musset,  though 
morally  very  far  inferior  to  V.  H.,  and  also  inferior,  I  think, 
in  vis,  in  genius,  is  still  on  the  whole  a  greater  poet,  just 
because  he  has  a  sense  of  measure  and  harmony.  He  has 
in  verse  that  esprit  which  charms  one  in  French  prose,  only 
idealised,  glorified.  Some  of  his  outbursts  of  scepticism 
affect  me  wonderfully.  If  you  get  his  Poesies  Nouvelles,  tell 
me  what  you  think  of  "  L'espoir  en  Dieu."  I  fear,  however, 
that  the  same  thing  which  prevents  your  caring  for  Clough 
will  come  in  here.  I  like  sceptical  poets  myself.  Alfred 
de  M.  reminds  me  of  Clough,  though  they  are  so  very 
different. 

To  his  Mother  from  St.  Leonards,  January  21,  1867 

Two  or  three  friends  of  mine  are  here,  so  my  visit  is 
interesting,  though  it  is  at  a  very  unfortunate  time  as  regards 
poor  Cowell.  I  am  partly  haunted  with  the  fear  that  I 
excite  him  too  much  with  talking.  It  is  very  hard  to  know 
what  to  do,  as  he  is  not  conscious  of  being  excited  at  the 
time,  and  there  is  nothing  he  likes  so  well  as  talking  about 
interesting  subjects.  It  is  wonderful  to  me  how  he  keeps 
up  his  spirits  externally,  I  am  afraid  not  without  some 
expenditure  of  effort.  .  .  . 

My  two  philosophic  friends  at  Cambridge  have  both  got 
engaged  to  be  married  within  the  last  three  months.  This 
is  trying,  is  it  not  ?  I  bow,  however,  to  the  decrees  of 
Providence.  The  last  one  is  a  man  on  whom  I  especially 
relied.  I  suppose  if  I  live  ten  years  more  at  Cambridge,  I 
shall  have  emerged  from  the  period  of  these  disagreeable 
surprises.  Most  of  my  friends  will  be  either  married  or 
happy  bachelors.  This  is  the  language  of  a  bear,  but  it 
is  not  my  fault  that  we  are  thrown  at  Cambridge  into 
antagonism  with  the  great  interests  of  human  life. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  February  14 

...  I  have  been  pretty  hard  worked  for  some  time  with 
College  and  University  work,  but  I  have  plenty  of  time  again 
now.  "  The  old  order  chaugeth,  giving  place  to  new,"  and  I 

M 


162  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

want  to  have  a  hand  in  the  good  work.  Tell  Arthur  I  can 
recommend  him  Archie  Lovell  as  a  sensation  novel.  It 
interests  for  the  time,  and  leaves  no  intellectual  hot  coppers 
afterwards.  On  the  whole,  I  do  not  recommend  it  you,  as  I 
do  not  think  it  quite  worth  reading  at  your  pace.  You  suck 
a  novel  so  dry  that  the  juice  ought  to  be  really  good. 

To  his  Mother,  March  13 

Have  you  sent  off  the  "  de  Mirville  "  [Pneumatologie]  to 

Miss  A ?     I  have  been  having  a  little  correspondence 

with  her  on  the  subject.  I  am  trying  to  instil  into  her  some 
sound  views  on  the  subject  of  Spiritualism ;  she  at  present 
shares  the  benighted  ignorance  of  the  general  public  on  funda- 
mental points.  I  forget  whether  you  have  asked  me  lately 
to  recommend  you  books  to  read.  There  is  a  book  recently 
appeared  on  the  English  Constitution,  which  is  lively  enough 
to  interest  people  in  the  subject  who  have  not  previously 
given  much  attention  to  politics,  and  at  the  same  time  is 
more  full  of  keen  observations  (at  first-hand)  and  thoughtful 
suggestions  than  any  political  work  I  have  ever  read.  It  is 
entirely  free  from  party  spirit.  It  is  called  TJie  English 
Constitution,  by  W.  Bagehot.  The  two  best  books  I  have 
read  for  years  on  politics  are  this  and  Grant  Duff's  Studies 
in  European  Politics.  I  think  any  one  who  had  read  them 
would  know  more  about  English  and  foreign  politics  than 
most  people  who  had  not.  Of  novels  there  is  none  except 
the  Village  on  the  Cliff,  which  is  first-rate.  I  am  busy  at 
present  with  University  business  and  various  nugae  Idboriosae 
[tiresome  trifles]. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  May  1 0 

...  I  suppose  that  the  duty  to  society  of  making  one's 
rooms  nice  is  a  general,  not  a  universal  one.  I  certainly 
feel  inclined  to  make  an  exception.  Although  I  am  in  no 
way  sure  that  I  shall  leave  this  place  soon,  yet  I  feel  like 
a  stranger  and  a  sojourner  here,  and  could  no  more  take 
trouble  about  my  temporary  abode  than  a  sincere  believer 
in  Dr.  Gumming  (if  there  be  such  a  thing)  could  build  a 


1867,  AGE  28  HENEY  SIDGWICK  163 

house  and  lay  out  an  estate.  I  have  no  heart  to  do  it. 
In  a  general  way  a  bachelor  making  himself  comfortable 
seems  to  me  an  incongruous  thing.  As  so  many  people 
have  to  live  without  domestic  happiness  I  am  very  glad 
that  there  are  people  who  can  make  themselves  comfortable 
and  be  contented  and  calm  in  that  state.  But  I  remain 
single  with  a  view  to  freedom  and  independence  and  I 
should  despise  myself  if  it  was  for  anything  else.  Now  I 
see  that  fellows  of  colleges  have  a  tendency  to  become  lazy 
and  luxurious,  and  I  do  not  intend  to  be  at  any  rate  the 
latter.  ...  I  have  bored  you  with  a  dull  and  egotistical 
discourse.  I  enjoyed  my  visit  to  London  beyond  measure : 
every  moment  was  tilled  up  with  something  delightful. 
After  all,  the  happiness  of  life  does  depend  on  intellectual 
sympathy  to  me,  or  rather  this  is  one  necessary  element  in 
it :  and  when  I  get  a  great  deal  of  it  at  once,  as  one  does  in 
a  holiday  spent  in  London,  one  seems  to  live  a  good  deal  in 
the  time.  Of  course  one  would  get  much  less  of  it  from 
the  same  people  if  one  lived  among  them. 

To  0.  Browning,  May  10 

...  I  perceived  that  you  drew  a  fancy  portrait  of 
Cambridge  Verhaltnisse  coloured  with  hues  of  the  imagina- 
tion. The  truth  is  that  probably  on  the  average  we  have 
a  little  more  enlightenment  than  educators  elsewhere,  but 
then  we  are  lazier  and  have  less  zeal.  Again,  of  course, 
we  have  the  power,  as  we  control  you  to  a  great  extent; 
but  then  who  are  the  "  we."  I  never  really  cared  about 
the  votes  of  the  country  clergy  and  other  quondam  poll- 
men  until  I  sat  upon  a  syndicate  and  had  to  waste  my 
time  in  devising  means  of  making  them  swallow  the 
medicine  that  we  were  preparing  for  them.  We  have 
nearly  got  through  our  Classical  Tripos  scheme ;  and, 
though  it  might  not  unfairly  be  termed  a  miserable  com- 
promise, yet,  being  a  moderate  man,  I  am  tolerably  satisfied 
with  it,  as  I  am  with  the  Government  Eeform  Bill,  but 
I  have  great  doubts  whether  our  report  will  be  accepted  by 
the  Senate.  We  have  arranged  that  a  man  who  does  no 


164  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

verses  will  only  lose  half  a  paper's  marks,  and  that  every 
one  must  get  up  some  Plato  and  Aristotle.  I  hope  that  if 
our  scheme  is  carried,  men  who  go  through  the  course  will 
have  their  minds  a  little  more  awakened  by  it  and  will  feel 
a  little  less  like  school-boys  at  the  end. 

.  .  .  Did  you  happen  to  see  an  article  of  mine  [anony- 
mous] in  Macmillan  of  April  on  "  Liberal  Education"?  There 
are  some  over-strong  things  in  it  about  verses  which  must 
be  put  down  to  the  heat  of  controversy.  In  cool  moments  I 
suspend  my  judgment  as  to  the  advantage  of  verses  (when 
properly  taught)  at  a  certain  period  of  a  boy's  education. 
But  will  they  continue  much  longer  to  be  properly  taught  ? 
or  indeed  are  they  well  taught  except  by  some  half-dozen 
men  in  England  ?  though  this  seems  an  unsatisfactory  line 
of  argument.  There  is  much  reforming  activity  going  on 
here  now,  and  I  should  be  tolerably  happy  but  for  the 
religious  question.  In  fact,  the  chief  thing  that  keeps  me 
here  is  the  work  to  be  done :  which  will  be  done  in  a  year 
or  two. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  June  1 7 

...  I  have  very  nearly  got  through  my  work — the  next 
four  hours  will  finish  it — as  far  as  my  private  work  goes. 
To-morrow  comes  the  adding  up  marks  in  conclave  and 
then  a  dinner — the  Englishman's  indispensable  wind-up. 
On  Wednesday  or  Thursday  I  go  to  London.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Lodgings  in  Gower  Street,  July  10 

I  have  left  more  than  one  of  your  letters  unanswered, 
I  fear,  so  my  time  ought  to  have  been  crowded,  but  I  fear 
there  is  little  to  show  for  it :  I  have  been  seeing  friends 
chiefly  and  walking  to  and  fro  in  a  great  city.  I  have  not 
been  quite  idle,  however :  I  have  been  working  at  an  essay 
for  a  volume,1  and,  besides,  you  may  perhaps  see  an  article 
in  next  Macmillan2  of  mine.  I  fear,  however,  my  work 
will  hardly  pay  my  expenses.  I  have  been  inquiring  into 

1  "The  Theory  of  Classical  Education  "  (in  a  volume  of  Essays  on  a  Liberal 
Education),  re  published  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses,  1904. 

a  On  "The  Prophet  of  Culture,"  republished  in  Misc.  Ess.  and  Addresses. 


1867,  AGE  29  HENEY  SIDGWICK  165 

Spiritualism,  but  it  has  not  come  to  much.  I  can  get  to 
see  and  hear  very  astounding  things  in  the  dark  with 
people  I  do  not  know,  but  I  can  never  get  conditions  to 
satisfy  me.  My  time  seems  very  full ;  indeed,  I  can  never 
get  enough  time  to  read  at  the  Museum ;  and  I  feel  very 
well,  though  I  cannot  get  enough  sleep  in  this  noisy  metro- 
polis. What  do  you  think  ?  I  am  thinking  next  term  of 
writing  an  essay  for  the  Quarterly  Review.1  I  do  not  know 
if  it  will  be  put  in.  I  have  plenty  of  work  on  my  hands, 
as  I  have  an  entirely  new  subject  to  prepare  for  next 
term.  But  I  feel  more  as  if  I  could  write  literature  than 
I  have  ever  done  before,  if  my  mind  was  only  less 
chaotic.  Sometimes  even  when  I  feel  full  of  ideas  the 
trouble  of  binding  them  into  paragraphs  is  like  making 
ropes  of  sand.  Not  that  I  always  feel  even  full  of  ideas. 
But  London  is  a  stimulating  place :  one  meets  stimulating 
people.  I  will  tell  you  who  is  one — Mazzini.  I  met  him 
the  other  night  at  dinner,  and  he  attacked  me  about 
Spiritualism,  and  bore  down  upon  me  with  such  a  current 
of  clear,  eager  argument — I  was  quite  overwhelmed.  People 
generally  treat  the  thing  as  a  joke,  or  else  have  nothing 
to  say  but  the  shallowest  commonplaces.2  I  am  here  in 

1  The  editor  had  invited  him  to  offer  one,  but  it  was  never  written,  we 
believe. 

2  He  was  very  much  impressed  by  this  conversation  with  Mazzini,  and 
used  afterwards  to  refer  to  the  intelligent  grasp  he  showed  of  the  nature  of 
the  evidence  required  and  the  difficulties  of  the  subject ;  also  to  a  story  he 
told  of  collective  illusion  due  to  expectancy  and  sympathy,  which  is  given 
in  Sidgwick's  words  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol.  ii.  p.  188  (footnote)  as 
follows  : — 

"  In  or  near  some  Italian  town,  Mazzini  saw  a  group  of  people  standing, 
apparently  gazing  upwards  into  the  sky.  Going  up  to  it,  he  asked  one 
of  the  gazers  what  he  was  looking  at.  '  The  cross — do  you  not  see  ? '  was 
the  answer  ;  and  the  man  pointed  to  the  place  where  the  cross  was 
supposed  to  be.  Mazzini,  however,  could  discern  no  vestige  of  anything 
cruciform  in  the  sky  ;  and,  much  wondering,  went  up  to  another  gazer, 
put  a  similar  question,  and  received  a  similar  answer.  It  was  evident 
that  the  whole  crowd  had  persuaded  itself  that  it  was  contemplating  a 
marvellous  cross.  'So,'  said  Mazzini,  'I  was  turning  away,  when  my 
eye  caught  the  countenance  of  a  gazer  who  looked  somewhat  more  intelli- 
gent than  the  rest,  and  also,  I  thought,  had  a  faint  air  of  perplexity 
and  doubt  in  his  gaze.  I  went  up  to  him,  and  asked  what  he  was  looking 
at.  "The  cross,"  he  said,  "there."  I  took  hold  of  his  arm,  gave  Mm 
a  slight  shake,  and  said,  ' '  There  is  not  any  cross  at  all. "  A  sort  of 
change  came  over  his  countenance,  as  though  he  was  waking  up  from  a 
kind  of  dream;  and  he  responded,  "No,  as  you  say,  there  is  no  cross 


166  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

lodgings  between  two  visits.  I  have  been  staying  with 
Symonds.  I  think  you  know  him ;  he  has  been  at  Rugby. 
He  is  also  stimulating,  though  he  is  a  great  invalid.  I 
am  going  to  stay  with  Cowell.  .  .  .  Ah !  books.  No,  I 
have  not  read  any  lately.  The  Cornhill  of  July  is  good ; 
there  is  Matthew  Arnold  on  "  Culture,"  and  an  article  on 
the  "  Alps  "  which  makes  one  want  to  go  there. 

Though  he  had  met  J.  A.  Symonds — already  a 
friend  of  his  brother  Arthur  and  of  H.  G.  Dakyns — 
before  this,  the  visit  here  referred  to  was  the  beginning 
of  the  intimate  friendship  between  them  which  lasted 
as  long  as  Symonds  lived.  The  latter  says  in  his 
autobiography,  "  Henry  Sidgwick,  whose  acquaint- 
ance I  had  recently  made,  was  also  staying  in  London 
[in  this  summer]  philosophising,  going  to  spiritual- 
istic stances,  and  trying  to  support  himself  (for  an 
experiment)  on  the  minimum  of  daily  outlay.  Our 
acquaintance  ripened  rapidly  into  a  deep  and  close 
friendship,  which  has  been  to  me  of  inestimable 
value  during  the  last  twenty  -  two  years."  To 
Sidgwick,  too,  this  friendship  was  one  of  the  things 
he  most  valued  in  life.  The  correspondence  now 
begun  was  specially  active  during  the  remainder  of 
this  year,  but  Sidgwick's  letters  were  destroyed 
when  Symonds  left  his  house  in  Clifton  finally  in 
1880,  and  burnt  his  own  and  his  father's  papers.2 
His  letters  to  Sidgwick  during  the  autumn  reflect  the 
latter's  conscientious  questionings  as  to  retaining  or 
resigning  his  Fellowship,  and  with  it,  of  course,  prob- 
ably his  work  at  Cambridge.  These  letters  show,  too, 
that  Sidgwick  had  at  this  time  serious  thoughts  of 
writing  a  book  on  the  origins  of  Christianity. 

The  experiment  mentioned  in  the  above  quotation 

at  all."  So  we  two  walked  away,  and  left  the  crowd  to  their  cross. ' 
It  is  nearly  twenty  years  since  I  heard  this  story  ;  but  it  made  a  consider- 
able impression  on  me,  both  from  the  manner  in  which  Mazzini  told  it, 
and  from  its  importance  in  relation  to  the  evidence  for  '  spiritualistic ' 
phenomena." 

1  Life  of  John  Addington  Symonds,  by  H.  F.  Brown,  vol.  i.  p.  413. 

2  Op.  tit.  vol.  ii.  pp.  171-174. 


1867,  AGE  29  HENEY  SIDGWICK  167 

from  Symonds  of  "  trying  to  support  himself  on  the 
minimum  of  daily  outlay  "  was  not  persisted  in  for 
long,  because  though  it  was  not  pushed  very  far — we 
believe  that  he  did  not  restrict  the  amount  of  food, 
and  allowed  himself  one  good  meat  meal  a  day  at  an 
eating-house — he  found  the  change  of  habit  seriously 
interfered  with  his  work.  And  it  is  evident  that  this 
year,  1867,  must  have  been  a  specially  active  and 
busy  one — what  with  writing,  lecturing,  and  investi- 
gation of  spiritualism.  It  appears  to  have  been  in 
this  year  that  the  College  arranged  that  he  should 
lecture  for  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos.  There  is  no 
trace  earlier  of  his  having  done  so,  and  there  is  a 
College  notice,  dated  June  1867,  announcing  lectures 
for  the  following  term  by  Sidgwick  on  Mental  Philo- 
sophy and  on  Moral  Philosophy,  each  three  times  a 
week,  besides  lectures  on  Moral  Philosophy  for  the 
ordinary  degree  if  asked  for.  In  addition  to  this  he 
belonged  to  a  group  of  Trinity  lecturers  who  were 
trying  to  supplant  private  tuition  for  classical  students, 
and  in  connection  with  this  scheme  he  had  undertaken 
to  read  Cicero's  philosophical  treatises  with  a  small 
class ;  classes  to  read  other  books  were  to  be  taken 
by  Mr.  Jebb,  Mr.  Jackson,  and  Mr.  Currey.  "  Gentle- 
men desirous  of  joining  any  of  these  classes  "  were 
"  requested  to  communicate  with  Mr.  Sidgwick."  He 
had  also  undertaken  to  lecture  on  History  for  the 
ordinary  degree.  In  short,  he  seems  to  have  been 
putting  in  practice  in  his  own  person  what  he  says 
to  0.  Browning  about  College  lecturers  in  the  letter 
quoted  above  (p.  159). 

To  his  Mother  from  Gower  Street,  July  25 

I  have  been  staying  the  last  week  with  Cowell,  and  am 
now  again  in  lodgings  for  some  little  time — writing  my 
essay  and  hunting  up  Spiritualists.  I  have  not  been 
fortunate  so  far  in  my  inquiries — for  various  reasons. 

...   I    am    a    very   prudent    man,   and    shall    take    a 


168  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

holiday  as  soon  as  I  feel  I  want  one.  I  do  not  think  I 
shall  come  to  Wellington  College  at  the  beginning  of  the 
holidays,  as  I  must  finish  my  essay  before  I  leave  London, 
and  it  will  take  me  at  least  till  the  7th  of  August.  If  I 
have  it  on  my  mind  when  I  come  I  shall  get  no  good  from 
my  holiday.  I  am  very  much  excited  in  London,  by 
London :  I  really  feel  that  it  is  too  much  for  my  provincial 
brain.  There  are  so  many  people  to  see  of  such  various 
manners  of  thought  and  views  of  life,  and  such  conveniences 
for  all  kind  of  intellectual  stimulation.  To  go  from  the 
British  Museum  to  the  Portrait  Gallery,  or  the  Royal 
Academy,  is  enough  for  one  day,  and  to  talk  to  a  member 
of  the  society  of  "  Divine  Spiritualists "  in  the  evening 
afterwards  is  too  much. 

To  his  Sister  from  Festiniog  in  August 

I  am  here  in  the  midst  of  scenery  which  is  not  first- 
rate  but  very  pleasing  to  me,  as  I  have  seen  nothing  in  the 
way  of  glens  or  tarns  for  an  age.  I  vex  my  friends  here 
by  comparing  it  with  the  Lakes,  and  in  theory  I  think  such 
contrasts  always  show  an  ill-conditioned  mind ;  but  some- 
how this  Natur  keeps  suggesting  the  Lakes,  it  is  so  like, 
and  yet  so  unlike ;  it  seems  just  to  lack  the  refinement,  the 
"  distinction,"  the  excellence  of  Borrowdale  and  Grasmere. 
However,  I  shall  enjoy  myself  much ;  we  have  much 
exhilarating  good  fellowship  and  good  talk  at  breakfast  and 
in  the  evening,  George  Trevelyan  especially  being  a  well- 
spring  of  both.  I  shall  be  here  at  least  a  week — back  in 
London  probably  early  in  September.  I  am  so  behindhand 
with  my  work  (having  quixotically  undertaken  rather  more 
than  I  can  do  well),  that  I  think  when  this  holiday  is  over 
I  shall  probably  have  to  work  hard  on  till  Christmas.  .  .  . 
I  send  you  also  a  German  effusion  of  mine  about  which  I 
spoke.  You  will  say  that  it  is  the  outcome  of  rather  a 
melancholy  mood — Teutonically  sentimental,  in  fact,  and 
that  was  why  I  was  moved  to  write  it  in  German.  ...  If 
you  ever  feel  inclined  to  break  new  ground  in  German  poetry, 
get  hold  of  Riickart's  Selected  Works  and  see  how  you  like 


1867,  AGE  29  HENRY  SIDGWICK  169 

them.  One  song  of  his  is  running  in  my  head  now;  it 
makes  more  of  the  German  language  in  a  particular  way 
than  any  of  the  great  poets.  It  begins  "  Er  ist  gekommen." 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Gower  Street 

...  If  you  think  you  are  behaving  well  in  going  away 
without  leaving  me  your  address  and  not  writing,  my  pre- 
ponderating disposition  is  to  put  it  down  in  my  note-book, 
acquiesce,  and  turn  to  the  study  of  Moral  Philosophy.  .  .  . 
I  am  reading  very  hard  and  at  the  same  time  doggedly 
carrying  out  my  spiritualistic  inquiry.  I  am  not  sure  that 
I  shall  not  soon  give  it  up  for  the  present — the  pressure  of 
College  work  is  heavy  upon  me.  I  am  preparing  to  teach 
English  History  to  Poll  men.  My  knowledge  of  history  is 
small,  and  my  interest  in  the  details ;  indeed,  I  feel  that  I 
was  rather  quixotic  in  undertaking  to  deliver  lectures  in  it. 
I  did  it  altruistically.  However,  I  like  extending  my 
sympathies,  and  I  find  I  gradually  get  a  derived  and 
secondary  interest  in  these  wearisome  details,  caught  from 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  students  who  devote  themselves  to 
dig  them  out.  My  friends  objurgate  me  for  not  writing, 
and  my  only  defence  (for  write  I  will  not,  write  I  cannot 
at  present)  is  to  plunge  into  professional  work.  I  have 
been  staying  at  Festiniog  with  some  Cambridge  men,  and 
had  much  good  fellowship  and  some  nature  emotions. 
There  is  one  glen 

"Where  in  one  dream  the  feverish  time  of  youth 
Might  fade  in  slumber. 

But  I  am  beginning  to  crave  fuller  draughts  of  scenery 
than  I  have  had  for  some  time.  Also  of  pictures.  Alas ! 
self-development,  self-sacrifice  !  Gegensatze — who  will  give 
their  Versohnung  ?  Did  you  see  my  article  in  Macmillan, 
[see  p.  164],  where  I  asked  this  ? 

To  his  Mother  from  Gower  Street,  September  6 

There  is  no  one  here  now,  or  at  least  no  one  that  I 
can  see  without  wasting  a  great  deal  of  time.  .  .  .  Just 
at  present  life  is  somewhat  difficult  for  me — full  of  doubts 


170  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

and  problems,  and  solitude  is  good  for  me,  though  rather 
depressing.  There  are  some  bracing  lines  of  Aubrey  de 
Vere  I  think  of: — 

Fear  not,  or  thou  shalt  find 
Cause  too  much  for  fear  : 
Sigh  not,  or  every  wind 

Shall  waft  thee  deep  and  drear 
The  echoes  of  the  murmurs 
Of  many  a  wasted  year. 

Good  advice,  if  one  could  only  take  it. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  7  P.M.  September  25 
When  you  did  not  come  to  me  on  Friday,  my  faith  in 
Providence  was  momentarily  shaken,  and  I  half  determined 
only  to  do  my  duty  when  it  was  convenient.  My  duty  is, 
however,  not  really  difficult ;  I  expect  to  have  almost 
nobody  to  teach ;  it  is  rather  as  a  symbol  of  service  to 
humanity  that  I  am  devoting  myself  to  it  with  emphasis. 
However,  the  historic  passion  is  coming  over  me,  and  I 
feel  a  great  desire  to  know  the  exact  state  of  the  Early 
English.  As  Artemus  Ward  said,  "  The  researches  of  many 
eminent  antiquarians  have  already  thrown  much  darkness 
on  the  subject ;  and  it  is  probable,  if  they  continner  their 
labours,  that  we  shall  soon  know  nothing  at  all "  about  the 
Early  English.  This  is  not  buffoonery,  as  you  may  think — 
it  raises  the  deepest  questions  of  Positivism.  For  I  am  half 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  wants 
regulating  terribly,  and  that  in  trying  to  solve  problems 
really  indeterminate  we  are  pouring  valuable  energies  into 
sand-deserts.  I  say  half-inclined,  for,  after  all,  I  sympathise 
too  intensely  with  la  curiosiU  pure  to  give  in  quite  to  this 
theory ;  but  I  do  rather  feel  as  if  the  indulgence  of  it  was 
a  luxury  that  ought  to  be  left  to  Paradise.  Si  non  post 
corpora  exstingnuntur  magnae  animae,  we  may  some  day 
among  other  things  ascertain  how  much  British  blood  runs 
in  the  veins  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Eace. 

I  am  bearing  the  burden  of  humanity  in  the  lap  of 
luxury,  and  in  consequence  not  bearing  it  well.  After  all, 
Pascal  was  practically  right:  if  one  is  to  embrace  infinite 


1867,  AGE  29  HENKY  SIDGWICK  171 

doubt,  if  it  is  to  come  into  our  bowels  like  water,  and  like 
oil  into  our  bones,  it  ought  to  be  upon  sackcloth  and  ashes 
and  in  a  bare  cell,  and  not  amid  '47  port  and  the  silvery 
talk  of  W.  G.  Clark.  When  I  go  to  my  rooms  I  feel  strange, 
ghastly ;  that  is  why  I  write  to  you.  But  there  again — if 
one  allows  this  consciousness  "  the  time  is  short "  to  grow  and 
get  strong,  it  seems  to  fold  up  all  life  into  a  feverish  moment. 

The  world  shall  feel  my  impulse  or  I  die. 

Think  of  all  the  second-rate  men  who  have  said  this  and 
died — and — Who  cares  ? 

Butterflies  may  dread  extinction. 

This  is  a  strange  mood  for  me.  But  at  Trumpington 
to-day  I  brushed  away  a  spider's  life  and  said,  "  This  is 
sentience."  What  am  I  more  than  elaborate  sentience  ? 

My  sister  gets  on  very  slowly ;  my  mother  is  really 
alarmed.  After  all,  the  trivialities  of  life  are  a  thick  cloak  ; 
I  suppose  one  ought  to  wrap  oneself  in  it  and  thank  Heaven. 
But  is  not  the  "  casual "  who  has  no  cloak,  grander  ? 
Marriage ! ! 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  October 

I  have  no  time  to  spare  now ;  my  only  unhappiness  is 
that  I  am  not  able  to  work  as  hard  as  I  should  like.  I 
have  been  wrong  in  not  giving  myself  a  longer  complete 
holiday  this  long  vacation ;  it  would  have  saved  time  in  the 
end.  However,  I  do  not  regret  as  a  whole  the  way  it  has 
gone ;  I  have  not  at  any  rate  spent  it  in  vain ;  I  have  lived 
and  progressed,  and  done  a  little  work.  I  certainly 
thought  that  I  should  have  got  further  towards  explaining 
Spiritualism,  one  way  or  the  other ;  however,  it  gives  life 
an  additional  interest  having  a  problem  of  such  magnitude 
still  to  solve.  ...  I  am  getting  more  interested  in  ecclesi- 
astical matters  from  reading  English  history ;  the  mediaeval 
Church  seems  to  me  almost  the  only  interesting  thing  in  the 
dreary  confusion  of  futile  little  wars  that  fill  the  chronicles 
of  feudalism.  It  is  such  a  strange  mixture  of  sublimity  and 
meanness,  unselfishness  and  grovelling  corruption. 


172  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

To  his  Mother,  November  13 

Tell  Arthur  I  am  much  obliged  for  the  signatures.  I 
sent  in  my  thirteen  propositions  to-day  [for  the  College 
meeting].  I  was  very  nearly  sending  in  the  paper  with  his 
ribaldry  on  the  back  of  it.  Imagine  the  feelings  of  our 
august  head  on  reading  it.  The  extent  to  which  I  am 
reforming  mankind  at  present  is  quite  appalling ;  the  oldest 
inhabitant  has  never  known  anything  like  it.  Don't  be 
alarmed,  we  have  a  fine  old  Conservative  Constitution  which 
will  resist  many  shocks  of  feeble  individuals  like  myself. 
These  Conservatives  are  too  triumphant  at  present.  What 
a  feast  they  have  in  Italian  affairs !  I  cannot  deny  that 
things  could  not  have  turned  out  better  for  them ;  the 
revolution  has  met  with  failure,  the  scheming  government 
of  Victor  Emmanuel  with  disgrace,  and  the  "  Man  of  Sin  " 
himself  with  the  hatred  of  twenty-four  millions  of  men. 
Poor  Garibaldi !  I  wish  he  had  at  least  got  the  chesnuts 
out  of  the  fire.  Trevelyan  (who  is  in  Italy)  was  present  at 
his  arrest — a  sad  spectacle.  On  the  whole  I  believe  the 
regular  army  is  the  part  of  the  nation  that  sympathises 
least  with  him. 

The  "  thirteen  propositions  "  here  mentioned  were 
motions  for  College  reforms  which,  being  proposed  at 
the  meeting  in  December  1867,  would,  according  to 
custom,  be  voted  on  at  the  next  annual  meeting  in 
December  1868.  They  included,  among  others,  pro- 
posals for  awarding  scholarships  and  fellowships  for 
Natural  Science ;  about  a  redistribution  of  the  tuition 
money ;  about  the  appointment  of  "  Prselectors "  to 
teach  and  direct  the  studies  in  different  departments ; 
and  a  proposal  to  omit  the  words  in  the  oath  sworn 
by  fellows  on  their  election,  promising  conformity  to 
the  Church  of  England.  Though  he  calls  these  his 
resolutions,  and  very  probably  drafted  them,  he  was 
not,  of  course,  acting  alone.  Indeed,  as  we  learn  from 
Dr.  Henry  Jackson,  from  1865  till  he  ceased  to  be  a 
member  of  the  governing  body  of  the  College  in  1869, 


1867,  AGE  29  HENRY  SIDGWICK  173 

he  was  the  most  prominent  of  a  group  of  resident 
juniors  which,  in  concert  with  J.  Lempriere  Hammond, 
brought  liberal  motions  before  the  annual  meeting, 
and  a  letter  to  him  from  Hammond,  who  with  others 
signed  the  thirteen  propositions,  shows  that  the  latter's 
advice  was  taken  as  to  their  order.  In  sending  them 
to  his  brother  Arthur  to  sign  Henry  says  : — 

.  .  .  You  will  easily  see  that  [the  enclosed  (new)  pro- 
position for  altering  the  statutes  about  Praelectors],  com- 
bined with  the  tuition  propositions,  open  an  almost  unlimited 
vista  of  reform  as  possible,  while  the  changes  they  enforce 
are  very  humble  and  practical. 

We  may  as  well  say  here  that  when  these 
proposals  came  to  be  voted  on  in  December  1868, 
those  concerning  Natural  Sciences  Fellowships  and 
Prselectors  were  in  the  main  carried,  and  to  some 
extent  those  about  the  tuition  fund,  and  they  soon 
bore  fruit.  The  proposal  for  doing  away  with 
religious  tests  was  lost,  but  after  Sidgwick  and 
others  had  resigned  their  Fellowships  a  more  com- 
prehensive motion  was  proposed  in  December  1869, 
namely,  "  That  the  Master  and  Seniors  take  such 
steps  as  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  repeal  all 
religious  restrictions  on  the  election  and  conditions 
of  tenure  of  fellowships  at  present  contained  in  the 
statutes ; "  and  this  was  carried  in  the  following  year 
by  the  requisite  two-thirds  majority.  Some  of  the 
Seniors  questioned  the  powers  of  the  governing  body  ; 
but  the  Test  Act  of  1871  made  further  proceedings 
unnecessary. 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge,  November  13 

If  I  could  only  find  your  address  [at  Hastings],  which  I 
have  been  searching  for,  for  two  days,  I  would  send  you  a  book 
to  read :  and  will  if  you  like,  and  have  not  read  it.  It  is 
called  A  Lost  Love,  by  Ashford  Owen.  It  reminds  me  a 
little  of  Eomance  of  a  Dull  Life,  etc.,  only  it  is  written  with 


174  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

less  intellect  and  perhaps  more  passionateness.  It  is 
indeed  this  latter  quality — a  certain  intensity — which 
makes  it  attractive.  I  like  it  fairly  myself,  but  one  or 
two  friends  of  mine  whose  opinion  I  value  admire  it 
extremely.  .  .  .  How  do  you  like  Hastings  ?  I  know  it 
well,  and  look  forward  to  seeing  much  more  of  it  in  years 
to  come — that  is,  in  case  my  poor  friend  Cowell's  life  is 
preserved,  as  I  do  not  expect  he  will  leave  Hastings  again 
now.  I  hope  you  are  not  having  any  of  our  fogs.  Last  time 
I  was  at  Hastings  all  the  thriving  shopkeepers  were  looking 
green  and  yellow ;  it  was  January  and  the  snow  was  deeper 
there  than  anywhere  else  in  England.  Another  winter  like 
this,  they  felt,  would  ruin  them.  We  have  been  having  the 
most  splendid  autumn — all  gone  now,  of  course.  I  never 
saw  our  trees  looking  better.  It  was  like  a  really  good 
poem ;  usually  it  is  like  a  respectable  poem,  and  the  differ- 
ence is  great 

I  am  involved  in  a  project  for  improving  female  educa- 
tion :  by  providing  examinations  for  governesses.  An 
endeavour  is  being  made  to  form  a  joint  board,  consisting 
of  members  of  the  two  Universities,  for  the  purpose.  The 
plan  is  at  present  vague,  but  I  think  it  may  very  likely 
come  to  something  good.  Meanwhile,  there  are  various 
other  projects — afloat  and  just  launching — with  similar 
ends.  It  appears  that  there  is  particular  activity  in  the 
North  of  England.  School-mistresses  and  other  enlightened 
people  have  associated  themselves  in  several  great  towns, 
and  out  of  these  associations  a  general  council  has  been 
formed  with  lofty  aspirations.1 

If  you  can  get  hold  of  the  Guardian  Angel  by  0.  W. 
Holmes  you  will  find  it  worth  reading,  though  not  good 
as  a  novel,  I  think. 

In  this  letter  we  see  the  beginnings  of  the  move- 
ment for  the  examination  of  women.  Sidgwick  was 
not  present  at  the  meeting  held  in  London  to  discuss 

1  The  North  of  England  Council,  founded  in  1867  with  Miss  A.  J.  Clough 
as  Secretary  and  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler  as  President. 


1867,  AGE  29  HENKY  SIDGWICK  175 

the  formation  of  the  above-mentioned  "joint  board,"1 
but  he  evidently  was  very  soon  drawn  in. 

In  December  of  1867  his  friend  Co  well's  long 
illness  came  to  an  end.  He  died  at  Hastings.  After 
attending  the  funeral  and  selecting  from  his  friend's 
library,  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  him,  such 
books  as  he  could  make  use  of,  Sidgwick  proceeded  to 
Cannes  to  join  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  A.  Symonds. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cannes,  January  6,  1868 

I  have  arrived  here  safe  after  a  somewhat  trying  journey, 
but  one  that,  on  the  whole,  I  did  not  object  to.  The  worst 
part  of  it  was  from  Dover  to  Calais :  my  impression  is  that 
the  voyage  was  very  rough,  or  else  I  am  growing  a  worse 
sailor  every  year.  Certainly  I  was  very  ill :  so  much  so 
that  I  was  afraid  to  go  on  by  the  night  train  to  Avignon 
for  fear  of  being  regularly  knocked  up.  However,  I  was 
glad  to  have  a  morning  in  Paris :  Paris  is  a  town  that,  as 
a  town,  I  love  far  above  all  towns :  I  never  come  to  it 
without  being  exhilarated,  or  leave  it  without  regret.  My 
affection  was  sorely  tried  by  the  bitter  north  wind ;  I  never 
felt  colder  all  my  life  ;  and  to  see  the  shopwomen  with  their 
caps  in  the  streets  before  their  uncovered  boards  selling 
drennes  (it  was  December  31)  gave  me  a  great  admiration 
for  the  hardiness  of  French  constitutions.  These  ttrennes 
are  amusing :  it  is  such  a  regular  institution — one  which  I 
certainly  do  not  wish  to  transplant.  The  having  to  give 
presents  to  every  one  on  a  fixed  day  is  a  piece  of 
rfylementation  on  the  part  of  public  opinion  which  I  do  not 
at  all  approve  of.  It  is  bad  enough  in  England  having  to 
give  presents  to  your  friends  when  they  marry — a  duty 
which  I  sometimes  neglect.  I  spent  some  hours  in  the 
Louvre,  and  found  that  my  feeling  for  Greuze  had  grown. 
He  is  the  one  French  artist  whose  pictures  exercise  a 
distinct  attraction  on  me  and  give  me  unmixed  pleasure. 

1  The  following,  among  others,  were  present :  Charles  Kingsley,  B.  H. 
Kennedy,  J.  R.  Seeley,  T.  Markby,  H.  D.  Warr,  J.  B.  Payne,  Mr.  James 
Stuart,  Dr.  H.  Jackson,  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler,  Miss  Emily  Davies,  Miss 
Boucherett. 


176  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

Afterwards  I  put  on  all  the  clothes  I  could  find  in  niy 
small  portmanteau  and  took  the  night  express  to  Avignon. 
This  town  I  saw  under  difficulties — under  a  snowstorm 
and  a  wind,  which  I  find  is  called  "  the  mistral,"  but  by  any 
other  name  it  would  cut  one  equally  to  the  bone.  The 
Palace  of  the  Popes  looks  much  more  like  a  great  barrack, 
which  it  now  is,  than  like  a  palace — not  to  speak  of  the 
abode  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ ;  one  feels  that  the  Pope  must 
have  turned  into  a  highly  military  personage  before  he 
took  to  inhabiting  such  a  forbidding  fortress.  I  slept 
Wednesday  night  in  Marseilles,  and  in  the  morning  got  my 
first  view  of  the  tideless  sea.  The  harbour  of  Marseilles  is 
very  effective :  like  the  harbour  one  imagines  in  one's 
childhood,  with  all  the  features — forts,  docks,  ships,  church 
on  the  snow-clad  hill,  etc.,  very  prominent  and  distinct.  I 
never  saw  the  Mediterranean  before,  and  the  weather  having 
become  milder,  I  historically  sentimentalised  over  it.  ... 

I  had  a  melancholy  business  at  Hastings,  dividing  the 
library.  I  could  not  take  all  the  books,  and  indeed  those 
I  have  taken  will  oblige  me  to  have  my  room  lined  with 
bookcases.  This  complete  break-up,  extinction  of  a  family, 
is  very  sad. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  January  29 

I  left  the  Garden  on  Monday  week.  When  I  say  the 
garden,  I  speak  chiefly  objectively  and  only  partly  subjec- 
tively. I  thought  as  I  was  on  my  way  that  it  would  be 
odd  if  something  did  not  happen — something  to  make  this 
mixed  like  the  rest  of  life.  When  I  got  to  Cannes  I  found 
it  had  happened.  Johnnie  [Symonds]  had  sprained  his  ankle 
a  day  or  two  before.  The  confinement  to  the  house  brought 
on  a  return  of  a  cerebral  complaint  from  which  he  suffers. 
It  became  doubtful  whether  I  ought  to  stay,  and  indeed,  on 
looking  back,  I  am  afraid  I  feel  sure  I  ought  not :  but  I 
sophisticated  myself  into  staying,  and  made  a  permanent 
effort  (with  what  doubtful  and  varying  success  you  know 
me  well  enough  to  imagine)  to  avoid  fatiguing  topics.  It 
was  sad  and  painful,  though  I  myself  was  so  happy  as  to 


1868,  AGE  29  HENKY  SIDGWICK  177 

feel  unsympathetic.  But  some  life  has  the  Divine  in  it  as 
a  felt  element,  and  everything  else  seems  to  vanish  in 
comparison — just  as  it  does  from  the  point  of  view  of 
mysticism.  Why  cannot  we  all  have  it  always  ? 

For  should  I  prize  thee,  could'st  thou  last, 
At  half  thy  real  worth 

I  wonder.  It  is  only  my  belief  in  Providence,  my  optimism, 
that  makes  me  even  disposed  to  entertain  a  doubt. 

.  .  .  Johnnie  is  often  very  depressed.     I  felt  terribly  that 

I  had 

.  .  .  Neither  faith  nor  light, 
Nor  certitude,  nor  any  help  in  pain,  .  .  . 

as  Matthew  Arnold  says.  My  religion,  which  I  believe  is 
sincere,  seemed  such  a  weak  and  feeble  thing  when  I 
endeavoured  to  communicate  it  in  need.  What  can  I  do  ? 
I  cannot,  as  Clough  says,  "be  profane  with  yes  and  no" — 
subjectively  it  would  be  profanity.  Oh,  how  I  sympathise 
with  Kant !  with  his  passionate  yearning  for  synthesis  and 
condemned  by  his  reason  to  criticism.  .  .  . 

About  myself  there  is  little  to  say.  I  am  preparing 
lectures  on  Metaphysics — vexed  with  the  subject  and  myself 
— but  still  hoping  that  it  will  prove  a  fine  exercise  in  subtle 
analysis  for  my  pupils  and  myself.  I  am  treating  Hamilton 
more  sympathetically  than  Mill  does,  from  much  the  same 
point  of  view.  The  reviews  so  far  are  friendly  to  my 
essay  [on  "  The  Theory  of  a  Classical  Education  "].  I  like 
criticising  myself,  and  have  formulated  the  following  on  it : — 

Pro. — Always  thoughtful,  often  subtle  :  generally  sensible 
and  impartial :  approaches  the  subject  from  the  right  point 
of  view. 

Con. — Inconsequent,  ill-arranged  :  stiff  and  ponderous  in 
style :  nothing  really  striking  or  original  in  the  arguments. 

To  0.  Browning,  January  30  (about  Cowell) 

Your  letter  met  me  a  few  days  ago  on  my  return  from 
Cannes.  I  was  at  the  funeral,  as  perhaps  you  know.  I 
wished  very  much  that  you  could  have  been  there,  as  there 
was  no  one  of  his  Cambridge  friends  except  Moorsom,  who 

N 


178  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

did  not,  I  think,  know  him  particularly  well  at  Cambridge, 
though  he  has  taken  the  most  affectionate  care  of  him 
during  the  last  year.  He  is  a  very  good  fellow.  But  there 
was  no  friend  whom  Jermyu  loved  more  than  you,  and 
hardly  one  who  appreciated  him  so  well.  I  had  written 
proposing  to  stay  with  him :  my  letter  was  crossed  by  one 
from  Moorsom  announcing  his  death.  I  hardly  felt  that  I 
regretted  it,  though  it  came  upon  me  like  a  shock.  And  I 
felt  still  less  regret  after  talking  to  Moorsom.  He  described 
his  utter  lassitude  during  the  last  three  months  as  some- 
thing painful  to  witness.  He  did  not  even  care  to  be  turned 
towards  the  sun,  on  his  sofa.  Only  his  delicate  and  tender 
politeness  never  left  him.  I  think  there  are  many  who  will 
remember  him  for  his  chivalrous  kindliness — as  a  sort  of 
Bayard  of  friendship.  (I  am  afraid  the  phrase  is  affected, 
but  you  will  understand  it.)  But  one  had  to  know  him 
well  to  appreciate — it  was  some  time  before  I  did  myself — 
his  unvarying  graceful  unselfishness  carried  out  into  the 
smallest  details,  and  his  profoundly  sympathetic  considerate- 
ness,  that  was  never  in  the  least  superficial,  but  always  so 
unreservedly  given.  He  was  certainly  a  mark  for  the  blows 
of  fortune.  I  remember  he  was  a  man  whom  I  once  used 
rather  to  envy.  There  was  no  relative  at  the  funeral  but 
one  first  cousin.  The  extinction  of  that  family  has  been 
awfully  rapid  and  complete.  Still  no  man  could  be  more 
truly  and  appropriately  mourned  by  his  friends.  How  such 
a  loss  makes  the  days  seem  irrevocable  when  we  made 
friendships  without  knowing  what  they  were  worth.  Well, 
if  life  teaches  one  that  it  is  some  compensation  for  other 
losses. 

I  hear  wonderful  things  of  your  new  headmaster  [Dr. 
Hornby].  He  is  supposed  to  be  a  friend  of  Jowett's. 
Disraeli's  Reform  Bill  and  Eton  in  the  hands  of  an  Oxford 
Liberal !  What  is  going  to  happen  ?  I  should  like  to  hear 
how  the  cynicism  of  Johnson  is  affected  by  the  new  regime. 
We  are  beginning  to  set  our  house  in  order  here.  Did  you 
see  Vesuvius  ?  I  have  had  some  divine  days  among  orange 
groves  at  Mentone. 


1868,  AGE  29  HENKY  SIDGWICK  179 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  February  2 

I  got  a  little  out  of  order,  I  think  from  the  journey  back 
from  Cannes,  and  have  to  take  care  of  myself  now,  and  not 
use  my  eyes  or  brain  at  all  after  dinner  for  an  hour  or  two; 
or — dyspepsia.  What  a  time  it  wastes  !  .  .  .  However,  I  take 
great  care  of  myself,  only  I  have  just  now  rather  a  pressure  of 
work.  ...  I  travelled  to  Cannes  with  Mr.  Otto  Goldschmidt, 
a  most  neat,  vivacious  little  man,  who,  to  my  amazement, 
did  not  look  perceptibly  unbrushed  even  when  we  took  our 
morning  coffee  at  Lyons  after  a  night  journey,  when  every 
one  else  has  a  drearily  debauched  aspect.  .  .  .  Mentone  is 
delightful.  You  must  go  there  some  winter ;  there  are 
orchards  of  oranges  and  lemons,  valleys  feathered  with 
olives,  picturesque  bare  hills  behind  them,  a  fine  line  of 
coast,  and  the  blue  sea — sapphire  isn't  the  word  for  it,  as 
Trevelyan  would  say — and  the  air  has  just  enough  cold 
in  it  to  prevent  the  sun  ever  being  oppressive.  Then  there 
are  picturesque  little  villages  on  the  top  of  precipitous  hills, 
where  they  built  them  out  of  reach  of  the  pirates.  In 
spite  of  the  extreme  painfulness  of  my  visit  in  some  ways, 
I  had  a  few  days  of  unmixed  delight.  .  .  . 

To  his  Sister,  February  7 

I  am  excessively  busy  now.  Please  tell  Edward  that  he 
was  quite  right  about  my  teaching  History ;  I  ought  never 
to  have  attempted  it.  History  is  par  excellence  a  subject 
which  ought  to  be  taught  with  enthusiasm  and  from  a  full 
mind.  I  am  not  enthusiastic  about  [it]  just  at  present,  and 
my  mind  is  full  of  all  sorts  of  other  things.  However, 
it  is  a  beneficent  law  of  nature  that  one  gradually  gets  an 
acquired  or  secondary  enthusiasm  about  everything  at  which 
one  has  to  work  hard.  I  wish  you  could  have  been  with 
me  at  Cannes ;  you  would  have  got  quite  well.  Cannes  has 
exactly  the  sort  of  climate  in  which  I  can  conceive  of  people 
worshipping  the  sun.  A  dull  day  there  was  just  like  a  dull 
winter  day  in  England,  only  the  dulness  was  not  quite  so 
opaque.  But  a  bright  day  was  like — what  shall  I  compare 


180  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

it  to  ?  Except  that  the  day  was  so  short,  it  was  like  an 
early  May  day  with  a  touch  of  east  wind  in  it.  I 
kept  saying  to  myself  all  the  while  I  was  at  C.,  why  on 
earth  do  people  stay  in  England  who  have  no  duties  or  who 
do  not  do  them  ?  (I  am  afraid  you  are  included  in  neither 
class.) 

Tennyson  is  coming  to  stay  at  the  Lodge  here,  and  I 
hope  to  see  him.  I  do  not  like  the  poems  that  he  has 
been  sputtering  all  about  the  press  lately,  and  I  wish  he 
would  not  do  it. 

Our  book  [Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education]  has  been  very 
amiably  reviewed  on  the  whole;  the  most  unintelligent 
review  that  I  have  seen  was  that  in  the  Times  yesterday. 
Conington's,  in  the  Contemporary,  very  good,  only  a  little 
too  minute,  and  a  little  too  egoistic. 

We  have  got  to  elect  a  new  member  [of  Parliament],  and 
every  one  feels  it  disgraceful  that  we  have  no  really  eminent 
man  to  bring  forward.  I  can't  help  it.  /  can't  stand ;  I 
have  not  time. 

Do  you  know  that  I  am  violently  engaged  in  a  scheme 
for  improving  female  education  ?  A  Board  is  constituted 
of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  men  (no  end  of  swells,  includ- 
ing the  people  who  have  refused  Bpcs.,  etc.)  to  examine 
governesses  and  schoolmistresses. 

To  0.  Browning  on  February  16 

...  I  meant  to  answer  your  letter  about  Fame,  but  had 
nothing  to  say.  I  have  occasionally  an  idea  that  Fame  is 
something  people  believed  in  two  thousand  years  ago,  when 
they  thought  that  all  people  out  of  their  own  set  were  Bov\oi 
or  ftdpfiapoi — and,  strange  to  say,  they  got  it.  The  impres- 
sive thing  about  the  somewhat  commonplace  Ode  of  Horace 
("  Exegi  monumentum,"  etc.)  is  that  it  was  true.  But  as  for 
fame  now,  when 

Jupiter  livre  le  monde 
Aux  myrmidons, 

I  should  not  like  to  fix  my  desires  on  it.  But  if  one  does 
want  it,  I  imagine  the  best  method  is  concentration  almost 


1868,  AGE  29  HENEY  SIDGWICK  181 

amounting  to  idte  fixe.  And  I  do  not  suppose  any  man  in 
any  career  need  despair  if  he  only  puts  his  soul  into  his 
circumstances :  he  takes  as  good  a  ticket  in  the  lottery  as 
any  man.  The  hopeless  people  (for  fame)  are  the  round 
pegs  in  square  holes. 

As  for  my  essay,  if  it  has  not  convinced  you  that 
"  classical  education  ought  to  be  abandoned,"  and  that 
"  Greek  ought  to  be  no  more  studied  than  Persian,"  it  has 
failed  in  attaining  an  object  of  which  its  writer  never 
dreamed,  and  which  he  is  somewhat  surprised  to  find  attri- 
buted to  him.  Curiously,  while  you  half  charge  me  with 
writing  beyond  my  serious  belief,  I  have  not  really  written 
up  to  it.  If  we  had  only  firstrate  teachers  and  text-books 
of  the  subjects  worth  knowing,  I  should  be  inclined  to  pitch 
the  Classics  overboard.  But  one  great  advantage  of  litera- 
ture as  an  instrument  of  education  is  that  it  supplements  a 
teacher's  defects  so  much.  Temple  is  moving  for  English, 
as  you  probably  know. 

To  his  Mother,  March  8 

.  .  .  The  scheme  of  the  University  of  London  is  as  yet 
undetermined.  If  it  proves  to  be  a  good  one,  and  satis- 
factory to  the  guiding  spirits  of  female  education,  there  will 
then  be  two  schemes  of  examination  for  women,  just  as  there 
are  now  Oxford  middle-class  examinations  and  Cambridge 
ditto.  It  is  improbable  that  they  will  be  exact  copies  of  each 
other.  Some  may  prefer  one,  some  the  other.  Of  course 
we  [the  "  Board  "  mentioned  above  to  his  sister]  shall  have 
the  disadvantage  of  being  a  voluntary  association ;  at  the 
same  time  it  is  possible  that  some  ladies  may  have  more 
confidence  in  the  older  Universities.  I  do  not  see  why 
competition  should  not  be  good  here,  as  it  is  in  so  many 
other  things.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Though  we  can  hold  out  no  decided  hope  of 
getting  the  Universities  to  take  the  matter  up  in  their 
[corporate]  capacity,  it  will  be  our  continual  effort  to  bring 
this  about.  We  think  the  best  way  of  doing  it  is  to  start 
our  scheme  and  show  by  its  success  (if  it  succeeds)  that 


182  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

there  is  a  real  demand  for  such  examinations  as  these.  We 
shall  at  any  rate  have  the  effect  (which  seems  to  me  a  great 
incidental  advantage)  of  interesting  a  large  number  of  the 
influential  members  of  both  Universities  in  the  cause  of 
the  higher  education  of  women.  Our  position  is,  in  fact, 
simply  this — We  intend  to  meet  an  existing  need,  and  to 
continue  our  operations  as  long  as  we  get  a  sufficient  number 
of  candidates,  unless  superseded  by  corporate  action  on  the 
part  of  either  Cambridge  or  Oxford.  We  hope  that  all  who 
prefer  the  London  University  (when  its  examinations  begin) 
will  go  there ;  then  if  we  get  few  or  no  candidates,  it  will 
be  obviously  right  for  us  to  dissolve. 

It  appears  from  this  letter  that  at  this  time  Sidg- 
wick  entertained  little  expectation  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge  itself  undertaking  such  an  examination  im- 
mediately ;  indeed  at  the  London  meeting  Dr.  Henry 
Jackson  seems  alone  to  have  thought  this  likely. 
But  when  a  memorial,  taken  round  by  Mr.  James 
Stuart,  was  signed  by  seventy-four  members  of  the 
Senate,  including  some  of  the  most  rigid  conser- 
vatives, it  was  clear  that  the  time  to  move  had  come. 
A  scheme  was  carried  without  opposition  in  October 
1868,1  and  the  first  "Examination  for  Women"  (the 
name  was  changed  later  to  Higher  Local  Examina- 
tion) was  held  by  the  University  in  June  1869. 

To  his  Mother  on  May  6 
I  was  very  glad  to  get  your  letter.     I  am  tolerably  well, 

1  The  scheme  and  an  account  of  the  discussion  on  it  (in  which  Henry 
Sidgwick  took  part),  and  also  the  memorial  above  referred  to,  and  another 
signed  by  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler,  Miss  Anne  J.  dough,  and  others,  will  be 
found  in  the  first  number  of  the  Cambridge  University  Gazette  (for  October 
28,  1868),  p.  7. 

It  should  be  said  that  there  was  a  division  of  opinion  among  those 
interested  in  the  promotion  of  women's  education  about  the  advisability 
of  establishing  this  examination.  Dr.  Jackson  writes  :  "  After  the  London 
meeting  [referred  to  above  on  p.  175]  Miss  Emily  Da  vies  declared  for  the 
exact  following  of  University  examinations.  But  the  Cambridge  residents, 
not  seeing  how  soon  women  would  be  ready  for  Tripos  examinations,  and 
fearing  the  low  standard  of  pass  examinations,  very  decidedly  preferred  the 
establishment  of  a  special  examination  for  women.  I  remember  well 
discussing  the  question  with  F.  Myers,  and  calling  upon  Charles  Kingsley  to 
tell  him  of  our  strong  feeling  about  it." 


1888,  AGE  29  HENKY  SIDGWICK  183 

not  very.  It  is  only  my  nerves  that  have  got  a  little 
depressed,  not  by  hard  work,  for  I  have  not  been  working 
hard,  but  by  too  continuous  a  strain.  I  do  not  think 
hard  work  is  otherwise  than  healthy  if  one  can  enjoy 
leisure.  What  is  trying  is  a  Care  perpetually  haunting 
one,  of  whatever  sort  it  may  be.  With  one  man  it  may 
be  a  hopeless  passion,  with  another  the  consciousness  of 
holding  views  which  he  does  not  know  whether  to  avow 
or  conceal.  Well,  I  do  not  want  to  harp  on  this  string, 
especially  as  I  am  in  a  state  very  much  the  reverse  of  self- 
confidence,  and  do  not  think  that  my  views  are  of  half  as 
much  importance  to  mankind  as  those  of  wiser  men.  My 
work  will  end  about  the  6th  of  June.  I  hope  if  you  come  to 
see  me  it  will  be  about  then — or  else  when  the  interest- 
ing events  (boat  processions,  flower  shows,  etc.  There  is 
always  a  period  when  we  abandon  ourselves  to  dissipation) 
take  place,  of  which  I  will  inform  you.  Cambridge  is 
charming  just  now.  .  .  .  My  rooms,1  you  know,  are  those  of 
an  anchorite.  As  this  is  the  only  respect  in  which  my  life 
is  anchoritic,  I  cling  to  it  with  something  of  a  superstitious 
feeling.  ...  I  am  rather  afraid  of  breaking  down  before 
the  end  of  the  term,  but  I  hope  I  shall  not. 

To  his  Mother  on  May  7 

...  I  will  tell  you  exactly  what  my  engagements  are. 
I  have  two  lectures,  each  of  an  hour,  a  day  to  deliver;  one 
of  them  takes  about  an  hour  to  prepare,  and  for  the  other,  as 
it  is  on  a  new  subject  which  requires  much  thinking  over,  I 
like  to  allow  four  or  five.  That  makes  seven  or  eight,  and 
casual  engagements  about  an  hour  more.  I  fear  I  should 
have  to  abstract  about  eight  hours  a  day  at  least  from  your 
society,  except  on  Sunday  (after  the  6th  of  June  I  shall  be 
quite  free).  If  you  came,  I  should  arrange  my  time  thus.  I 
should  be  engaged  till  2,  except  an  hour  for  breakfast  and 
for  two  or  three  hours  in  the  evening,  say  from  9  to  11^. 
The  rest  of  the  day  I  could  give  up  to  play.  You  see,  I  am 
just  not  vigorous  enough  to  be  able  to  compress  my  work. 
1  Xevile's  Court  I  2.  He  had  occupied  them  since  1862. 


184  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

His  mother  and  his  cousin  Annie  Sidgwick  [Mrs. 
Stephen  Marshall]  paid  the  visit  here  spoken  of  in 
June,  and  greatly  enjoyed  it.  In  a  letter  about  it 
from  his  mother  she  especially  dwells  on  the  delightful 
kindness  and  hospitality  of  old  Professor  Sedgvvick. 

To  0.  Browning  also  early  in  May 

I  do  not  know  how  you  feel  about  our  Tripos  scheme.  The 
2Qth  instant  is  the  day  of  voting  on  it.  Let  any  one  come 
who  feels  a  desire  to  diminish  the  influence  of  verses  and 
increase  the  intelligent  interest  in  authors.1  There  is  much 
change  going  on  here.  But  I  rather  expect  a  Protestant- 
Conservative  reaction  apropos  of  the  Irish  Church,  which 
will  keep  us  in  chains  for  some  time  longer.  I  shall  not 
believe  in  Disestablishment  till  I  see  it.  I  have  always  the 
feeling  very  strongly  that  the  real  influence  of  the  news- 
paper press  is  declining,  and  that  one  can  less  and  less  feel 
the  public  pulse  by  it.  It  is  every  year  more  read  and  less 
trusted.  I  speak,  however,  in  ignorance.  I  do  not  often 
get  a  talk  with  the  "  bald-headed  man  on  the  omnibus." 

Johnson  writes  to  me  that  Eton  too  is  physicising.  I  am 
hopeful  about  education.  I  think  we  are  on  the  way  of 
finding  out  the  right  method  of  forming  a  sound  theory  on 
the  subject. 

To  his  Mother,  June  28 

...  I  just  saw  the  Royal  Academy.  I  did  not  like  any 
of  the  Leightons  so  well  as  last  year's,  though  the  Ariadne 
is  very  crafty ;  nor  any  of  Millais'  except  the  Rosalind  and 
Celia.  .  .  . 

My  friend  Charles  Bernard  is  now  in  England  with  his 
wife.  Would  you  like  me  to  ask  him  to  run  down  to  Rugby 
while  I  am  there  and  stay  at  your  house  for  a  day  or  so  ? 
I  do  not  know  that  he  will,  but  he  may  like  to  take  a  look 
at  the  old  school,  and  I  should  like  to  ask  him.  I  shall  see 
him  in  town.  ...  I  am  working  now,  and  am  very  well, 
and  amazed  when  any  one  says  it  is  too  hot.  Pray  keep 
the  MSS.  [some  papers  he  had  lent  her]  as  long  as  you  like. 

1  The  scheme  was  thrown  out  on  this  occasion. 


1868,  AGE  30  HENRY  SIDGWICK  185 

Really  I  do  not  know  whether  they  will  interest  you  at  all. 
They  are  interesting  to  me,  as  all  details  of  one's  own  mental 
life  are.  One  grows  old  in  Cambridge  very  fast,  that  is  up  to 
a  certain  point,  and  at  that  point  (as  far  as  I  can  judge  from 
my  contemporaries)  one  may  remain  a  long  time. 

To  0.  Browning  from  the  School  House  at  Rugby,  July  1 8 

.  .  .  Would  you  like  me  to  come  on  Friday  24th  ?  I 
get  my  work  [examining]  over  here  on  the  23rd.  ...  I  do 
not  go  abroad  till  about  5th  of  August.  To  the  Alps  with 
Trevelyan  and  others.  ...  I  intend  to  be  lazy  and  happy. 
I  go,  in  fact,  with  the  view  of  getting  rid  of  Geist — under- 
stood in  the  strictly  metaphysical  sense.  .  .  . 

I  have  been  reading  French  Grammar  lately.  There 
seem  to  me  a  few  neat  bits  of  education  in  it.  And  as  far  as 
I  can  gather,  little  or  nothing  is  made  of  them  as  French  is 
generally  taught.  .  .  . 

To  0.  Browning  about  the  end  of  October 

...  As  regards  the  University  Gazette,  I  have  nothing  to 
do  with  it  myself,  but  I  believe  a  good  deal  in  it,  and  intend 
to  give  it  my  humble  support.  ...  I  hope  the  thing  will 
lead  to  a  good  deal  of  healthy  discussion  here.  I  was 
sorry  not  to  meet  you  in  Switzerland.  I  missed  everybody 
I  wanted  to  meet,  and  only  just  missed  them.  I  hope  your 
high  passes  agreed  with  you.  I  half  think  that  the  next 
time  I  go  to  Switzerland  I  shall  take  my  chance  of  breaking 
my  neck  along  with  other  people.  Trevelyan  and  I  got 
hold  of  a  very  good  porter-guide,  who  was  a  sound  Liberal 
with  a  proper  hatred  of  feudality.  The  only  thing  of 
importance  that  I  have  to  say  about  the  Alps  is  that  the 
view  from  Miirren  is  not  only  the  sublimest  thing  I  have 
ever  seen  in  S.,  but  I  have  seen  nothing  to  compare  with  it 
in  sublimity. 

Yes,  I  had  a  most  delightful  two  hours  with  the  Leweses. 
I  shall  go  again  as  soon  as  I  can.  Mrs.  Lewes  said  one  or 
two  things  like  the  subtle  humour  of  her  books,  which  I 
should  not  have  detected  in  her  at  Cambridge.  But  I  have 


186  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

been  reading  the  Spanish  Gypsy  again,  and  am  compelled  to 
admit  to  myself  that  I  do  not  find  it  admirable  as  poetry. 

I  will  gladly  join  any  educational  league,  when  the 
leading  educational  Liberals  are  agreed  on  a  programme. 

He  "  supported "  the  University  Gazette  (above 
mentioned)  by  contributing  letters  from  time  to 
time,  on  improvement  of  the  Little -Go;  reform  of 
the  Classical  Tripos  ;  the  study  of  English  ;  marriage- 
able fellowships  and  revision  of  the  College  lecture 
system,  including  free  competition  among  lecturers. 
He  argues  that  under  a  system  of  free  competition 
bad  lecturing  would  "  be  driven  entirely  out  of  the 
field :  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished." 

To  his  Sister,  November  13 

I  write,  after  all,  from  Mr.  Martin's  old  rooms.1  An 
unexpected  accident  gave  me  the  chance  of  taking  them, 
and  I  could  not  resist  the  opportunity  of  "  bettering  myself  " 
to  that  extent.  The  consequence  is  that  I  no  longer  live  in 
the  squalor  that  was  so  dear  to  me.  I  have  not  adorned 
these  rooms,  but  it  will  take  some  years  to  reduce  them  to 
the  state  which  becomes  a  philosopher.  I  have  all  the 
feeling  that  I  may  live  and  die  here — that  is,  if  I  should 
live  and  die  in  this  place  of  sound  learning.  I  think  a 
very  short  while  will  now  decide  whether  Cambridge  is 
likely  to  become  (at  least  in  this  generation)  a  place  where 
I  should  care  to  live  and  die.  In  fact,  my  impression  is — 
do  not  mention  it — that  The  Crisis  is  coming.  I  am  30^- 
years  old  and  never  remember  to  have  seen  a  Crisis  coming 
before,  and  I  suppose  every  man  has  a  right  to  have  the 
hallucination  at  least  once  in  his  life. 

We  are  in  much  vivacity  here.  We  have  a  new  Uni- 
versity Gazette.  Edward  ought  to  take  it  in.  It  comes  out 
every  Wednesday,  is  only  threepence,  and  is  going  to  contain 

1  The  rooms  in  Nevile's  Court  (D  2  and  6)  which  Sidgwick  kept  till) his 
marriage  in  1876.  His  predecessor  in  these  rooms,  the  Rev.  Francis  Martin, 
at  one  time  Bursar  and  afterwards  Vice-Master  of  the  College,  had  been  a 
very  kind  friend  to  E.  W.  Benson,  and  through  him  a  family  friend. 


1869,  AGE  30  HENEY  SIDGWICK  187 

all  the  newest  educational  notions.  Meanwhile  we  are  defer- 
ring the  composition  of  our  great  works  till  we  have  got  into 
proper  order  our — hum — Dinner  Arrangements.  We  have 
been  somewhat  afraid  of  a  great  undergraduate  strike  (though 
I  do  not  know  how  on  earth  our  500  men  would  provide 
for  themselves  if  they  seceded  from  the  Trinity  kitchens). 

I  wish  Edward  would  come  up  and  pronounce  our  new 
court  (newest  court,  I  mean ;  we  call  them  Eocene,  Meiocene, 
and  Pleiocene)  rather  picturesque.  We  do  not  dislike  it 
ourselves,  but  competent  architectural  judges  have  pro- 
nounced it  execrable. 

.  .  .  The  chief  idea  I  carried  home  [from  the  Alps]  was 
the  sublimity  of  Mtirren.  If  I  had  nothing  else  to  live  for, 
I  think  I  should  philosophise  at  Miirren  in  the  summer  and 
Men  tone  in  the  winter.  The  spring  I  should  reserve  for 
travelling.  In  the  autumn  I  should  stroll  under  the  chest- 
nuts of  Trinity  and  ponder  the  great  Dinner  question. 

To  his  Mother  from  the  Symonds  House  at  Clifton, 
January  17,  1869 

I  have  just  arrived  here,  having  left  the  Pauls  yester- 
day. ...  I  enjoyed  my  visit  there,  and  in  London  too, 
very  much.  In  fact,  the  one  was  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the 
other.  London  is  always  rather  exciting  to  me  when  I  go 
there  for  a  short  time ;  and  I  now  know  so  many  people 
that  I  have  the  uncomfortable  feeling  of  not  having  time  to 
see  them  all.  .  .  .  With  regard  to  myself,  I  do  distinctly 
feel  that  if  I  had  held  some  years  ago  the  views  which  I 
now  hold  as  to  the  proper  position  of  a  Sceptic  in  the  social 
order,  I  should  not  have  spoken  so  unguardedly  on  religious 
subjects  as  I  have  done  till  lately,  not  only  to  you  but  to 
other  people.  And  if  I  do  not  regret  it  very  strongly,  it  is 
because  I  feel  convinced  that  English  religious  society  is 
going  through  a  great  crisis  just  now,  and  it  will  probably 
become  impossible  soon  to  conceal  from  anybody  the 
extent  to  which  rationalistic  views  are  held,  and  the  extent 
of  their  deviation  from  traditional  opinion. 

Enough ;  I  hope  things  will  go  on  as  quietly  as  possible. 


188  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP.  HI 

You  see  that  the  Ritualists  are  determined  to  burn  altar 
lights  after  all.  I  wonder  what  the  other  side  will  do.  I 
have  no  strong  feeling  either  way.  I  should  like  the  Church 
to  include  the  Ritualists,  but  I  feel  that  a  "  legal "  church  in 
which  the  law  is  not  enforced  becomes  an  absurdity  which 
cannot  long  be  tolerated. 

To  his  Sister  from  the  same  place  on  January  1 7 

.  .  .  Talking  of  poems,  a  friend  of  mine,  of  whom  you 
have  probably  heard  me  speak — Roden  Noel — has  just 
brought  out  a  second  volume  of  poems.1  I  never  pressed 
my  friends  to  read  his  first,  but  this  (with  great  faults)  is 
really  so  good  that  I  should  like  to  draw  your  attention  to 
it.  His  blank  verse  is  sometimes  "  prose  cut  into  lengths," 
but  it  is  full  of  real  feeling,  and  he  has  a  rare  gift  of 
description — rich,  delicate,  pregnant,  and  accurate.  .  .  . 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge  on  January  2  7 

...  I  have  been  corresponding  with  Miss  [Sophia]  Jex- 
Blake,  who  wants  a  medical  degree.  I  do  not  know  what 
we  can  do  for  her  here.  Opinion  is  advancing  very  fast  in 
respect  of  female  education :  but  I  am  afraid  it  has  not 
yet  got  quite  as  far  as  that  in  these  old  places.  I  like 
Miss  Jex-Blake ;  there  is  no  acridity  in  her  protest  against 
the  established  barriers. 

Did  you  see  my  letter  in  the  Spectator,  defending  our 
(Cambridge)  Scheme  for  Women's  examinations  ?  A  friend 
told  me,  with  an  air  of  surprise,  that  he  thought  it  was  very 
sensible.  Common  sense  is  not  supposed  to  be  my  forte  :  but 
the  fact  is  on  this  question  I  feel  so  sure  that  all  the  good 
arguments  are  on  our  side  that  I  am  inclined  to  be  very 
moderate.  We  (the  reformers)  hold  the  winning  cards ;  if 
we  play  quietly  we  shall  get  the  game  without  any  fuss.  I 
wish  I  was  equally  confident  of  the  baking  of  all  the  pies 
into  which  I  poke  my  fingers. 

The  following  is  from  the  letter  to  the  Spectator 
of  January  16,  1869,  above  referred  to  :  — 

1  Beatrice  and  Other  Poems. 


1869,  AGE  30  HENEY  SIDGWICK  189 

Though  I  have  had  no  part  in  framing  the  Cambridge 
scheme  for  examining  women  recently  published,  and  am 
not  altogether  prepared  to  justify  its  mildness,  I  should  like 
to  say  a  few  words  in  defence  of  its  principles. 

.  .  .  Whatever  may  be  said  in  favour  of  a  different 
school  education  for  the  two  sexes,  the  present  exclusion 
of  women  from  the  higher  studies  of  the  University  is 
perfectly  indefensible  in  principle,  and  must  sooner  or 
later  give  way.  When  this  barrier  is  broken  down, 
whatever  special  examinations  for  women  may  still  be 
retained  will  be  very  different  from  any  that  we  now 
institute.  At  present  we  have  two  distinct  classes  to 
consider:  students  who  wish  for  guidance  and  support  in 
their  studies,  and  professional  teachers  who  wish  to  obtain 
proof  of  adequate  capacity.  The  first  class  will  be  com- 
posed of  specially  intellectual  girls,  and  all  these  will 
try  to  obtain  honours.  It  is  only  the  inferior  portion  of 
the  second  class  who  will  try  merely  to  pass.  In  their 
case  we  shall  be  distinguishing  the  competent  from  the  in- 
competent by  examining  them  in  the  few  subjects  which 
they  will  certainly  profess  and  be  required  to  teach.  We 
cannot  expect  parents  in  general  suddenly  to  alter  their 
views  of  what  girls  are  to  be  taught ;  and  we  shall  prob- 
ably have  more  immediate  effect  in  improving  education  by 
raising  the  quality  of  what  is  demanded,  than  by  attempt- 
ing to  supply  something  else. 

To  his  Mother,  February  8 

Martineau  has  written  a  fine  pamphlet  for  the  Free 
Christian  Union. 

It  was  not  till  after  some  hesitation  and  discussion 
that  in  June  1868  Henry  Sidgwick  had  joined  in 
founding  a  society  called  the  "  Free  Christian  Union," 
of  which  the  object  was  to  invite  "  to  common  action 
all  who  deem  men  responsible,  not  for  the  attainment 
of  Divine  truth,  but  only  for  the  serious  search  for 
it ;  and  who  rely,  for  the  religious  improvement  of 


190  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

human  life,  on  filial  Piety  and  brotherly  Charity,  with 
or  without  more  particular  agreement  in  matters  of 
doctrinal  theology." *  Mr.  C.  S.  Cookson  was  Presi- 
dent, and  Sidgwick  Vice-president,  and  among  the 
leading  members  were  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Taylor, 
Principal  of  Manchester  New  College,  Dr.  James 
Martineau,  Rev.  C.  Kegan  Paul,  and  others.  The 
society  did  not  really  succeed.  Notwithstanding 
an  attendance  at  the  religious  service  held  on  its 
first  anniversary  so  large  that  the  meeting  had 
to  be  adjourned  from  the  room  taken  for  it  to  a 
larger  hall,  it  was  found  impossible  to  obtain  in 
sufficient  amount  the  active  service,  personal  counte- 
nance, and  literary  and  official  work  needful  to  its 
success ;  and  after  little  more  than  two  years  it  was 
dissolved.  A  contemplated  volume  of  essays  was 
never  produced,  but  the  society  did  arrange  for  the 
publication  of  one  or  two  essays,  and  one  of  these 
was  an  essay  by  Sidgwick  on  the  "  Ethics  of  Con- 
formity and  Subscription,""  originally  intended  to 
form  part  of  the  volume.  The  following  letter  to  Dr. 

1  The  full  expression  of  the  object  of  the  Society  is  contained  in  the 
following  preamble  and  declaration  : — 

"  Whereas,  for  ages  past,  Christians  have  been  taught  .that  correct  con- 
ceptions of  Divine  things  are  necessary  to  acceptance  with  God  and  to 
religious  relations  with  each  other  ; 

"And,  in  vain  pursuit  of  Orthodoxy,  have  parted  into  rival  Churches, 
and  lost  the  bond  of  common  work  and  love  : 

"And  whereas,  with  the  progressive  changes  of  thought  and  feeling, 
uniformity  in  doctrinal  opinion  becomes  ever  more  precarious,  while  moral 
and  spiritual  affinities  grow  and  deepen  : 

"And  whereas  the  Divine  Will  is  summed  up  by  Jesus  Christ  Himself  in 
Love  to  God  and  Love  to  Man  ; 

"And  the  terms  of  pious  union  among  men  should  be  as  broad  as  those  of 
communion  with  God  ; 

"This  Society,  desiring  a  spiritual  fellowship  co-extensive  with  these 
terms,  invites  to  common  action  all  who  deem  men  responsible,  not  for  the 
attainment  of  Divine  truth,  but  only  for  the  serious  search  for  it ;  and  who 
rely,  for  the  religious  improvement  of  human  life,  on  filial  Piety  and 
brotherly  Charitj7,  with  or  without  more  particular  agreement  in  matters  of 
doctrinal  theology.  Its  object  is,  by  relieving  the  Christian  life  from 
reliance  on  theological  articles  or  external  rites,  to  save  it  from  conflict  with 
the  knowledge  and  conscience  of  mankind,  and  bring  it  back  to  the  essential 
conditions  of  harmony  between  God  and  man." 

*  Published  by  Williams  and  Norgate  in  1870.  The  substance  of  this 
essay  was  republished  in  1898  in  "  Practical  Ethics." 


1869,  AGE  so  HENEY  SIDGWICK  191 

Martineau,  written  from  Cambridge  on  February  22, 
1869,  throws  some  light  on  the  causes  of  failure  : — 

I  write  to  give  you  an  account  of  my  visit  to  Oxford,  as 
far  as  it  bears  upon  the  Free  Christian  Union.  The  pro- 
spect is  not  very  encouraging.  It  appears  that  the  Liberals 
at  Oxford  are  chiefly  (1)  positivists  of  some  shade ;  (2) 
Broad  Church  men  of  the  mildly  comprehensive  and 
cautiously  vague  type,  with  innovating  tendencies,  chiefly 
political ;  or  (3)  Metaphysicians,  either  non-religious  or  with 
a  religion  far  too  unearthly  for  them  to  care  about  operating 
directly  on  the  public  creeds.  Such  was  my  view  before  I 
saw  Green,  and  he  quite  confirms  it. 

The  only  young  man  whom  he  mentioned  as  a  possible 
ally  is  Mr.  Nettleship,  a  Fellow  of  Lincoln.  .  .  . 

I  talked  to  Jowett.  He  is  by  no  means  unsympathetic, 
and  was  anxious  not  to  discourage  the  undertaking.  But 
he  seemed  to  think  (1)  that  Anglican  clergymen  ought  to 
take  the  Church  of  England  for  their  sphere  of  liberalising 
work ;  (2)  that  the  union  between  enlightened  Christians  of 
all  denominations,  though  very  real,  was  too  ethereal  to  be 
expressed  in  the  concrete  form  of  an  association.  "  This  is 
an  old  method,"  he  said,  "  and  should  be  left  to  the  old 
parties." 

So  much  I  have  to  say.  I  will  write  either  to  Nettleship 
or  Seeley  whenever  you  like.  I  think  I  shall  get  one  or 
two  members  for  the  Union  here.  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive 
your  pamphlet. 

To  his  Mother,  March  8 

...  I  can't  have  a  holiday :  from  which  you  must  not 
think  that  1  am  overworking.  I  am  not  in  the  least ;  in 
fact,  I  am  rather  underworking.  I  got  a  little  alarmed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  term  about  sleeplessness,  and  so  I  do 
no  work  to  speak  of  now  in  the  evening.  Two  consequences : 
I  do  not  want  a  holiday  (being  never  tired  out) ;  and  I 
cannot  afford  one,  as  I  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  so  to  speak, 
and  want  time  to  prepare  my  lectures  for  next  term.  .  .  . 

Lowell's    new   volume   I  will    bring   with  me,  in  case 


192  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

Arthur  should  not  have  got  it.  The  Commemoration  Ode  is, 
on  the  whole,  splendid — ought  to  appear  in  any  collection 
of  English  Lyrics.  By  the  bye,  the  word  "  English  "  must 
now  become  designative  of  race  and  language,  not  of  polity. 
We  must  call  ourselves,  as  opposed  to  the  Americans, 
Britons.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother,  March  18 

...  If  my  present  tantalising  cold  does  not  get  worse, 
I  shall  be  staying  with  Mrs.  Clough  from  Monday  to 
Wednesday.  I  got  her  invitation  just  after  my  plans  were 
fixed,  and  wished  to  accept  it,  as  there  is  a  new  edition  of 
Clough's  Eemains  passing  through  the  press,  and  I  shall  like 
to  talk  to  her  about  it. 

...  I  wish  I  had  been  anywhere  but  among  the  east 
winds  these  last  three  weeks,  as  I  have  been  suffering  from 
a  prolonged  influenza.  March  is  a  dreadful  month ;  if  I 
was  a  rich  man,  I  would  not  spend  it  in  England  for  any 
rules  of  fashion.  .  .  . 

I  have  got  rid  of  my  last  pupil  to-night,  and  am  enjoy- 
ing learned  leisure — which  means  that  I  am  writing  a  paper 
for  our  philological  journal.1 

My  friend  Patterson's  book  on  Hungary  is  very  nearly 
finished ;  I  have  seen  most  of  it,  and  think  it  will  be  both 
worth  reading  and  readable.  Most  books  of  travel  are 
either  the  one  or  the  other. 

To  Mrs.  Clouyh  from  Rugby,  March  26 

I  could  hardly  express  to  you  at  parting  the  great  pleasure 
that  I  have  felt  in  being  with  you  and  talking  to  you  these 
days :  but  I  think  you  may  have  understood  that  this  was 
so.  I  am  only  afraid  lest,  being  somewhat  excited  and 
feeling  that  there  was  a  short  time  to  say  a  great  deal  in,  I 
may  have  said  anything  that  was  both  annoying  to  you  and 
not  true ;  or  at  least  not  true  enough  to  be  worth  saying. 
As  regards  Natura  naturans,  I  think  I  was  exaggerative.  I 
think  it  will  be  an  accident  if  any  one  says  anything  dis- 

1  "On  a  Passage  in  Plato's  Republic,  B.  vi."     See  Journal  of  Philology, 
vol.  ii.  p.  96  et  seq. 


1869,  AGE  so  HENEY  SIDGWICK  193 

agreeable  about  it ;  even  among  the  people  who  would  not 
quite  approve  of  its  being  published  "  for  the  sake  of  others," 
there  are  few  who  would  not  be  impressed  by  the  singular 
purity  and  elevation  of  its  tone.  And  I  feel  strongly  that 
— for  the  sake  of  other  others  it  would  be  wrong  to  withhold 
it,  even  apart  from  its  poetical  excellence. 

To  Mrs.  Clough  from  Cainbridge,  April  2 

The  enclosure  [on  Amours  de  Voyage}  I  send  by  way  of 
explaining  some  things  I  said  to  you,  which  seem  to  require, 
perhaps,  explanation,  as  the  idea  I  tried  to  express  is  not  a 
current  one,  and  is,  indeed,  hard  to  put  clearly,  though  it 
seems  very  distinct  to  myself.  If  it  is  wrong,  I  feel  that 
my  whole  view  of  the  poems  must  have  been  wrong  from 
the  first ;  I  must  have 

mich  in  das  Buch  hineingelesen, 
to  a  strange  extent.      Which  is  very  possible. 

The  enclosure  referred  to  is  the  following  : — 

AMOURS  DE  VOYAGE 

There  are  several  threads  of  scepticism  skilfully  inter- 
woven in  this  story ;  and  especially  in  the  controversy 
which  Claude's  intellect  carries  on  with  love,  on  which  the 
main  interest  centres,  there  are  at  least  two  distinct  elements, 
which  we  may  describe  as  (1)  controversy  with  the  mode  of 
selection ;  (2)  with  the  fact  of  selection.  The  first  of  these 
is  neatly  argued,  and  the  sceptical  arguments  are  reasonable 
enough ;  but  the  second,  into  which  the  first  plays,  reveals 
to  us  a  much  rarer  and  profounder  mood.  It  is  this  mood 
which — I  have  always  thought — has  not  been  caught  by 
Clough's  critics ;  that  is,  they  feel  the  subtle  charm  of  it  as 
they  read,  but  when  they  try  to  express  what  the  whole 
poem  means,  it  becomes  something  much  more  trivial  and 
vulgar,  from  their  inability  to  describe  what  is  deepest  in  it. 

This  mood  is,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  philosophic. 
It  consists  in  devotion  to  knowledge,  abstract  knowledge, 
absolute  truth,  not  as  a  means  for  living  happily,  but  as 

0 


194  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

offering  in  its  apprehension  the  highest  kind  of  life.  It 
aspires  to  a  central  point  of  view  in  which  there  is  no  dis- 
tortion, a  state  of  contemplation,  in  which,  by  "  the  lumen 
siccum  of  the  mind,"  everything  is  seen  precisely  as  it  is. 

This  is  the  first  phase  of  the  mood  as  it  appears  in 
Canto  I.,  xii. :  in  conflict  with  a  germinating  passion  which 
is  felt  to  draw  away  from  centrality,  to  shed  a  coloured 
radiance  which  is  not  lumen  siccum,  to  involve,  in  fact,  a 
sort  of  magic,  enchantment,  deceit. 

But,  in  Canto  III.  vi.-viii.,  it  reappears  with  more  glow 
and  vitality  in  it.  It  is  no  longer  mere  knowledge,  mere 
intellectual  contemplation,  which  this  central  point  of  view 
gives,  but  a  certain  universal  and  infinite  sympathy  with  the 
life  that  is  in  all  things.  This  is  the  mood  in  its  finest  and 
most  self-sufficing  phase,  which  makes  him  exclaim, 

Life  is  beautiful.  .  .  . 

Life  were  beatitude,  living  a  perfect  divine  satisfaction. 

There  is  here  a  sort  of  blending  of  the  spirit  of  the  philo- 
sopher proper  and  the  spirit  in  which  Wordsworth  contem- 
plated nature.  A  double  portion  of  this  spirit  rested  on 
Clough,  and  he  combined  with  it  a  philosophic  impulse 
unknown  to  Wordsworth;  therefore  one  conceives  that  he 
would  feel  with  peculiar  intensity  the  perfectness  of  this 
mood  of,  as  it  were,  divine  contemplation,  when  we  seem  to 
see  things  as  God  sees  them,  and  all  things  make  music  to 
us  as  they  make  music  to  God. 

Very  different  is  the  mood  of  Canto  V.,  iv.  v.  The  man 
has  prevailed  over  the  philosopher.  "  The  absolute  "  is  felt  as 
a  "  hard  naked  rock"  in  comparison  with  the  rich  earth  of  life, 
and  aspiration  after  it,  as  a  substitute  for  life,  as  futile  illusion. 

And  this,  of  course,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  poem. 
Indeed,  its  defect  as  a  work  of  art  is  that  this  is  even  too 
much  emphasised :  that  the  young  philosopher,  in  the  grasp 
of  what  Carlyle  calls  "  victorious  analysis,"  is  a  little  over- 
caricatured. 

And  perhaps  one  may  trace  a  subtle  suggestion  of  truth 
in  the  point  of  the  story  at  which  the  mood  appears  the 
second  time,  as  universal  sympathy.  For  one  is  made  to 


1869,  AGE  so  HENEY  SIDGWICK  195 

feel  that  the  glow  and  radiance  which  it  has  here,  the 
change  from  a  dry  intellectual  attachment  to  abstractions, 
is  due  to  the  personal  experience  through  which  the 
hero  has  been  passing.  It  is  at  any  rate  a  fact  that  (at 
least  with  most  men)  this  contemplative  rapture  fades  and 
withers  unless  fed  by  more  individualised  feelings :  with 
which  yet  it  seems  to  come  into  conflict.  Every  man  who 
has  felt  the  mood  has  seemed  to  be  raised  by  it  to  heaven, 
and  felt  it  a  loss  to  be  "  circumscribed  here  into  action,"  to 
lose  (as  Clough  elsewhere  says)  "  the  soul "  in  "  action, 
passion."  We  have  felt  for  a  moment  a  consciousness  of 
perfect  knowledge  combined  with  universal  sympathy,  and 
it  seems  to  fill  our  life  to  the  brim ;  why  must  we  come 
down  from  this  to  special  interests,  "  petty  particular  doings  " 
and  yearnings  for  "  good  for  us,"  not  "  good  absolute  "  ? 

Well,  we  must  because  we  are  human  beings,  and  because 
we  cannot  remain  in  this  ethereal  atmosphere.  Practical 
wisdom  decides  the  conflict  in  favour  of  the  constitutional 
instincts  of  humanity. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  April  20 

I  am  working  so  hard  that  I  do  not  read  the  newspapers  : 
at  least  not  properly,  which  is  rather  an  unusual  thing  for 
me.  Consequently  I  do  not  write  letters,  unless  I  think 
something  will  happen  if  I  don't.  I  like  the  man  who  said 
that  letters  answered  themselves.  It  is  true  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten,  only  in  the  tenth  there  is  a  shindy. 

.  .  .  We  are  wondering  whether  our  usual  concourse  of 
May  visitors  will  go  on  increasing,  as  it  has  the  last  few 
years ;  it  seems  that  every  show  place  gets  every  year  more 
and  more  thronged,  and  it  seems  our  destiny  to  turn  into  a 
show  place.  Learning  will  go  elsewhere  and  we  shall  sub- 
side into  cicerones.  The  typical  Cambridge  man  will  be  an 
antiquarian  personage  who  knows  about  the  history  of 
colleges,  and  is  devoted  to  "  culture  des  ruines,"  as  the 
French  pamphleteer  said.  I  see  that  my  friend  Mozley 
has  produced  his  article  on  Modern  Poets  in  the  Quarterly. 
...  I  believe  he  puts  Clough  high,  at  which  I  am  glad,  as 


196  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

it  will  astonish  the  old-fashioned  readers  of  the  Quarterly. 
They  will  regard  the  editor  as  a  literary  Disraeli  marching 
with  his  age.  .  .  . 

On  May  3  he  writes  to  F.  Myers  about  some 
business  connected  with  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos  for 
which  Myers  examined  in  1868  and  1869  *  and  con- 
tinues :— 

I  quite  accept  your  epithets  for  Eossetti's  sonnets.  Also 
they  pleased  me  critically  and  classificatorily,  as  I  discovered 
in  him  the  "  missing  link  "  between  Swinburne  and  Christina 
Rossetti.  They  seem  to  me  to  combine  so  many  qualities, 
Elizabethan  pregnancy,  a  romantic  phantasy  which  is — well, 
I  do  not  know  of  what  age,  but  it  has  all  the  charm  of  the 
antique,  and  a  vibrating  subtle  passion  which  is  very  modern 
— or  Italian  (I  do  not  know  Italian) ;  I  wish  he  would 
write  some  more.  .  .  . 

Markby 2  is  a  little  over  -  enthusiastic  about  female 
[educational]  prospects.  He  is  going  to  write  a  paper 
soon  which  is  to  change  public  opinion ;  after  that,  he 
thinks,  we  shall  succeed.  Still  the  question  is  in  a  hopeful 
way.  The  fact  is  there  is  no  real  conservatism  anywhere 
among  educated  men.  Only  vis  inertice. 

In  June  1869  he  reached  a  turning-point  in  his  life  ; 
he  resigned  his  Assistant  Tutorship  and  Fellowship. 
In  doing  so,  he  of  course  risked  the  cutting  short  of 
his  Cambridge  career  altogether,  but  the  action  of  his 
College  in  appointing  him  lecturer  in  Moral  Sciences 
averted  this,  and  he  continued  his  work  as  before  with 
merely  a  diminished  income.  The  following  letters 
give  the  facts  and  his  feelings  about  them  from 
slightly  different  points  of  view. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  June  4 
Many  thanks  for  your  letter.     It  reached  me  at  a  critical 

1  His  friendship  and  correspondence  with  F.   Myers  only  began  about 
this  time.     Though  Myers  when  he  first  came  up  to  Cambridge  had  been 
his  pupil  and  had  long  been  his  brother  Arthur's  friend,  he  had  till  now 
been  to  him  little  more  than  an  acquaintance. 

2  T.  Markby,  Secretary  of  the  Local  Examinations  Syndicate. 


1869,  AGE  31  HENEY  SIDGWICK  197 

point  of  my  career.  I  have  just  resigned  my  Assistant 
Tutorship  and  informed  the  Authorities  that  I  intend  to 
resign  my  Fellowship  very  shortly.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  they  may  appoint  me  lecturer  in  spite  of  this,  though 
I  hardly  expect  it.  I  will  tell  you  when  anything  is 
decided.  Meanwhile  it  is  a  secret.  You  may  be  glad  to 
hear  that  the  Master  expressed  himself  very  kindly  about 
me  in  communicating  my  resignation  to  the  College.  In 
fact  every  one  is  very  kind,  and  if  I  am  not  reappointed  it 
will  not  be  from  want  of  goodwill,  but  from  a  conviction 
that  the  interests  of  the  College  do  not  allow  it.  Whatever 
happens  I  am  happy  and  know  that  I  have  done  what  was 
right.  In  fact,  though  I  had  some  struggle  before  doing  it, 
it  now  appears  not  the  least  bit  of  a  sacrifice,  but  simply 
the  natural  and  inevitable  thing  to  do. 

Tell  Arthur  that  I  think  we  had,  on  the  whole,  success- 
ful meetings  at  the  Free  Christian  Union.1  Paul's  sermon 
was  very  good,  better  than  I  expected.  It  is  misrepresented 
in  the  most  important  points  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

I  have  been  staying  again  with  Mrs.  Clough ;  I  like  her 
very  much.  The  new  book  is  to  be  out  in  about  a  fortnight. 

To  his  Sister,  June  6 

I  should  have  written  to  you  before,  but  I  have  been 
very  busy  and  somewhat  anxious.  My  Destiny  for  the 
next  few  years  is  being  settled.  When  it's  settled  I  will 
write.  That  will  be  in  a  day  or  two,  I  suppose.  It  does 
not  rest  with  me  now.  This  is  a  riddle :  must  be,  at 
present. 

If  you  want  to  read  a  sensation  novel  by  a  man  of 
genius  who  has  thrown  himself  away,  read  Charles  Reade's 
Foul  Play.  If  you  want  to  read  a  really  compact  and 
instructive  book  of  travel,  read  Zincke's  Last  Winter  in  the 
United  States.  If  you  want  to  read  entertaining  Blank 
Verse  (a  great  rarity)  read  Miss  Smedley's  Lady  Grace. 
If  you  want  to  witness  your  brother's  attempt  to  instruct 
the  gentlemen  of  the  press  in  simple  arithmetic  (a  complete 

1  The  anniversary  meeting  referred  to  above  (p.  190). 


198  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAV.  m 

failure),  read  a  letter  signed  "  A  Wrangler  "  in  last  Spectator.1 
If  you  want  to  get  new  ideas  on  infantile  education,  read 
an  accompanying  book  which  Miss  Clough  gave  me  to  show 
to  you.  If  you — but  you  can't  want  to  improve  your  mind 
in  so  many  ways  at  once. 

To  E.  W.  Benson  on  June  13,  1869 
The  thing  is  settled.  I  informed  the  Seniority  that  it  was 
my  intention  to  resign  my  Fellowship  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
in  order  to  free  myself  from  dogmatic  obligations.  With 
great  kindness  and  some  (I  hope  not  excessive)  boldness 
they  have  offered  me,  on  this  understanding,  the  post  of 
lecturer  on  Moral  Sciences  (not  Assistant  Tutor),  which  I  have 
accepted.  I  do  not,  as  at  present  advised,  intend  to  secede 
from  the  Church  of  England :  I  have  taken  Lightfoot's 
advice  on  this  point  (as  a  sufficiently  unconcerned  reason- 
able orthodox  clergyman).  I  explained  to  him  that,  as  far 
as  sympathy  and  goodwill  go,  I  had  no  wish  to  secede,  but 
I  could  not  accept  the  dogmatic  obligation  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  which  primd  facie  I  have  bound  myself  (in  con- 
firmation) to  accept.  I  think,  however,  that  one  can  only 
go  in  this  matter  by  what  is  commonly  understood,  and 
Lightfoot  being  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  Apostles'  Creed 
is  not  dogmatically  obligatory  on  laymen,  I  think  I  shall 
assume  that  to  be  the  reasonable  view.  Of  course  many 
Liberals  regard  the  Church  as  defined  by  purely  legal 
boundaries :  but  I  cannot  take  that  view,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  would  be  morbid  to  take  too  rigid  an  interpretation 
of  the  effect  of  the  ceremonies  that  admitted  one  to  the 
Communion. 

Whether  my  view  is  right  or  not,  I  think  I  have  done 
right  in  acting  on  it.  This  continued  casuistical  debate 
makes  one  absorbed  and  egoistic.  It  will  be  at  once 
pleasant  and  good  for  me  to  have  done  with  it. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  June  14 
The   thing   is   arranged.      I  have  given  notice   of  my 

1  A  letter  on  Mr.  Lowe's  Budget  and  the  proposed  change  in  collecting 
income  tax,  in  the  Spectator  for  June  5,  1869. 


1869,  AGE  31  HENRY  SIDGWICK  199 

intention  to  resign  my  Fellowship,  and  the  Seniority  have 
offered  me  a  lectureship  in  Moral  Sciences  at  £200  a  year, 
which  I  have  accepted.  I  now  intend,  if  possible,  to  absorb 
myself  in  this  work :  be  an  instrument :  lose  my  -tyv-fflv 
that  I  may  find  it.  It  is  a  sublime  function,  and  if  no  one 
but  myself  feels  hmv  sublime,  surely  so  much  the  better. 
Clitdlae  asino. 

Just  now  I  am  much  depressed,  with  no  particle  of 
regret  for  what  I  have  done,  but  depressed  at  the  thought 
of  being  so  different  from  my  friends. 

Why  should  a  man  desire  in  any  way 
To  vary  from  the  kindly  race  of  men  1 

There  is  nothing  in  me  of  prophet  or  apostle.  The  great 
vital,  productive,  joy-giving  qualities  that  I  admire  in  others 
I  cannot  attain  to  :  I  can  only  lay  on  the  altar  of  humanity 
as  an  offering  this  miserable  bit  of  legal  observance. 

The  worst  is  that  I  am  forced  to  condemn  others, 
objectively  of  course,  for  not  acting  in  the  same  way;  a 
moral  impulse  must  be  universally-legislative:  the  notion 
of  "  gratifying  my  own  conscience "  is  to  me  self-contra- 
dictory ;  the  moment  I  view  the  step  as  the  gratification  of 
a  purely  individual  impulse  the  impulse  has  ceased. 

It  is  curious :  the  people  whom  I  begin  to  sympathise 
with  are  the  orthodox.  I  begin  to  feel,  during  the  service 
of  the  Church  of  England,  sentimental  if  not  devotional. 
And,  no  doubt,  I  shall  probably  recover  the  respect  of 
some  of  them :  though  others  will  think  me  still  more  a 
child  of  perdition.  Yet,  alas,  they  are  the  men  whom  I  do 
not  sympathise  with.  Their  faces  are  turned  toward  the 
setting  sun,  "  the  dear  dead  light,"  as  Swinburne  says ; 
mine  toward  the  rising.  Or  is  mine  also  westward  fixed? 
Is  this  Moral  Ideal  that  dominates  me  a  part  of  the  past 
dispensation,  and  is  harmonious  life,  and  no,  however 
symmetrical,  formal  abstraction  from  life,  the  only  ideal 
of  the  future  ? 

Even  my  Positivism  is  half  against  me.  The  effect  on 
society  of  maintaining  the  standard  of  veracity  is  sometimes 
so  shadowy  that  I  feel  as  if  I  was  conforming  to  a  mere 


200  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  in 

metaphysical "  formula.  If  I  had  been  a  hero  and  had 
perfect  confidence  in  myself  I  might  have  been  even  as 
Harrison  or  Beesly.  Or  shall  we  say  Jowett  ? — but  there 
is  my  excuse.  I  have  endeavoured  to  estimate,  lumine  sicco, 
the  effect  of  Jowett's  action.  It  seems  to  me  mixed  of  good 
and  evil ;  I  attribute  the  evil  to  falseness  of  position  and 
the  good  to  fineness  of  character.  It  were  wild  arrogance 
in  me  to  put  myself  in  such  a  position.  Little  people 
should  be  at  least  harmless. 

Well,  I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  under  water  in  the  depths 
of  abstract-ethical  egoistic  debate.  Let  me  emerge.  Sun  is 
shining  and  all  shapes  of  life  evolving  overhead.  Let  me 
emerge ;  perhaps  I  shall  recover  the  calm  outward  gaze,  the 
quick  helpful  hand,  of  the  lover  and  child  of  nature. 

What  shall  be  done  unto  the  man  who  cares  only  for 
the  highest  things,  and  to  those  cannot  attain  ?  His  fate 
is  not  sketched  in  proverbs  nor  sung  in  poems ;  I  do 
not  find  anything  relating  to  him  in  the  Bible,  or  in  Horace, 
or  in  Browning.  Perhaps  his  portion  is  only  the  bitter- 
sweet passion  of  perpetual  pursuit,  which,  if  he  knew  that, 
were  wholly  bitter. 

To  F.  Myers,  a  month  later 

You  may  have  heard  from  Arthur  or  others  of  my 
affairs.  I  am  resigning  my  Fellowship.  ...  It  seems 
strange  that  I  have  not  done  this  before,  but  I  felt  that 
I  must  understand  why  other  people  did  not  do  it.  I 
think  now  that  I  do  understand  the  various  reasons,  but  I 
have  lost  much  time. 

To  Mrs.  Clough,  July  31 

...  As  for  my  resignation  and  consequent  prospects,  you 
are  very  good  to  think  about  them.  Personally  1  feel  no 
doubt  that  I  have  done  right.  For  long  I  have  had  no 
doubt  except  what  arose  from  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
persons  whose  opinion  I  most  regard  think  differently.  But 
one  must  at  last  act  on  one's  own  view.  It  is  my  pain- 
ful conviction  that  the  prevailing  lax  subscription  is  not 


1869,  AGE  31  HENEY  SIDGWICK  201 

perfectly  conscientious  in  the  case  of  many  subscribers : 
and  that  those  who  subscribe  laxly  from  the  highest 
motives  are  responsible  for  the  degradation  of  moral  and 
religious  feeling  that  others  suffer.  It  would  require  very 
clear  and  evident  gain  of  some  other  kind  to  induce  me  to 
undergo  this  responsibility.  And  such  gain  I  do  not  see. 
Even  if  I  make  the  extreme  supposition  that  all  heretics 
avow  themselves  such  and  are  driven  away  from  the 
universities,  some  harm  would  no  doubt  be  done,  but  not 
so  much  as  is  supposed.  A  reaction  must  come  soon  and 
the  universities  be  thrown  open ;  meanwhile  there  are 
plenty  of  excellent  teachers  on  all  subjects  who  are 
genuinely  orthodox;  and  even  as  regards  religious  specu- 
lation the  passion  for  truth  in  young  minds  would  be 
stimulated  by  such  an  event,  and  they  would  find  plenty 
of  sources  for  "  illumination  "  even  if  our  rushlights  were 
put  out. 

All  this  is,  of  course,  an  unpractical  supposition.  I  make 
it  to  show  myself  that  I  am  obeying  a  sound  general  rule — 
I  feel  very  strongly  the  importance  of  "providing  things 
honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men."  It  is  surely  a  great  good 
that  one's  moral  position  should  be  one  that  simple-minded 
people  can  understand.  I  happen  to  care  very  little  what 
men  in  general  think  of  me  individually :  but  I  care  very 
much  about  what  they  think  of  human  nature.  I  dread 
doing  anything  to  support  the  plausible  suspicion  that  men 
in  general,  even  those  who  profess  lofty  aspirations,  are 
secretly  swayed  by  material  interests. 

After  all,  it  is  odd  to  be  finding  subtle  reasons  for  an 
act  of  mere  honesty :  but  I  am  reduced  to  that  by  the 
refusal  of  my  friends  to  recognise  it  as  such. 

To  his  relations  the  step  he  had  taken  did  not,  of 
course,  come  altogether  as  a  surprise,  and  it  was  not 
the  step  itself  but  the  divergence  of  view  from  the 
Church  of  England  which  led  to  it  that  his  mother 
and  his  sister  and  brother-in-law  regretted.  His 
mother  wrote  to  him  that  she  "  could  have  no  feeling 


202  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  m 

about  the  step  he  had  taken  than  that  of  true  and 
affectionate  respect " ;  and  Edward  Benson  wrote, 
"  It's  all  very  sad  and  puzzling,  and  yet  the  one  thought 
I  hold  fast  is  that  we  are  but  circumnavigating  this 
obscure  globe  in  opposite  directions,  and  shall  accom- 
plish the  same  space  in  the  same  time  and  be  ready 
for  a  new  cruise  together  when  night  is  past." 
After  a  visit  soon  afterwards  paid  to  Wellington 
College,  Sidgwick  wrote  to  his  mother  from  the  J.  A. 
Symonds's  house  at  Clifton  : — 

I  enjoyed  my  visit  to  Wellington  College  very  much. 
Mary  seemed  very  well,  eager,  full  of  life  and  ideas ;  the 
children  delightful ;  and  I  had  some  intimate  talk  with 
Edward  on  religious  subjects,  which  was  thoroughly  pleasant 
and  satisfactory  to  me,  and  I  think  as  much  so  to  him  as 
could  be  expected. 

His  own  sentiment  as  regards  breaking  with  the 
Church  he  expressed  in  lines  adapted  from  Tennyson's 
"  Palace  of  Art "  :— 

Yet  pull  not  down  my  minster  towers,  that  were 

So  gravely,  gloriously  wrought ; 
Perchance  I  may  return  with  others  there 

When  I  have  cleared  my  thought 


7/r?/ ///,;/„/ 


,38  to  be  generally  po 

open   mind,  for   keeping   his  judgment  in  a 
when  the  facts  were  doubtful  and  decisions  involving 
practical  results  were  not  immediately  required. 
moreov*  ,-s  had  a  vivid  perception/ 

/alid  in 

a  1> 
con 

'it;    ther 

( 

-ult  wa^ 
. 

unhe 

stini  iced 


204  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

temperament  prevented  his  being  a  very  inspiring 
leader,  except  to  those  who  knew  him  well.  With 
these,  however,  his  calm  judgment,  never  hasty  and 
entirely  unbiassed  by  selfish  aims,  carried  great 
weight.  As  an  old  friend  and  fellow -worker  ex- 
pressed it,1  "  He  was  at  no  time  the  leader  of  a  party. 
But  he  often  led  the  leaders  :  and  he  always  had  wide 
influence  on  those  who  were  not  leaders." 2 

The  period  with  which  the  present  chapter  is 
concerned  is  marked  by  two  very  important  parts 
of  his  life's  work — the  writing  of  his  first  book,  TJie 
Methods  of  Ethics,  and  the  initiation  and  develop- 
ment of  what  afterwards  became  Newnham  College, 
up  to  the  opening  of  the  first  portion  of  the  present 
College  buildings.  Of  the  early  development  of 
women's  education  at  Cambridge  it  will  be  desirable 
to  give  a  brief  account3  before  proceeding  with  the 
letters. 

We  saw  in  the  last  chapter  that  Sidgwick  threw 
himself  heartily  into  the  establishment  by  the 
University  of  an  examination  for  women.  The 
examination  was  first  held  in  the  summer  of  1869, 
and  he  was  one  of  the  examiners.  The  establishment 
of  this  examination  was  an  outcome  of  the  active 
movement  going  on  at  that  time  in  different  parts 

1  Dr.  Peile  in  an  address  as  President  of  Newnham  College. 

2  Another  old  friend  wrote  of  him  as  one  "  whose  fairness  in  controversy 
almost  led  him  to  be  unfair  to  his  own  side  ;  who  seldom  made  a  statement 
or  expressed  an  opinion  without  qualifying  it ;  who  was  commonly  reputed 
to  have  a  mind  so  subtle  and  evenly  balanced  that  it  never  pronounced  a 
decision  ;  and  yet  whose  counsel  guided  practical  men,  and  whose  wisdom 
was  recognised  by  men  of  every  school  of  thought  and  religion."      And 
further  on  he  speaks  of  finding  in  him  "the  speculative  and  critical  faculty, 
which  investigates   facts,   brought   into   harmony  and    controlled   by  the 
practical  faculty  which  decides  what  is  to  be  done.     Those  who  came  to 
Henry  Sidgwick  for  practical  advice  knew  that  he  would  omit  nothing  from 
his  view,  and  understand  all,  and  that  his  decision  would  be  founded  in 
justice  and  charity."     F.  W.  C.  in  the  Pilot  for  December  22,  1900. 

3  A   much   fuller  account  of  the  starting  of  Newnham  College,   with 
mention  of  the  many  friends  whose  co-operation,  both  in  personal  service 
and  timely  pecuniary  aid,  made  its  development  possible,  will  be  found  in 
the  Memoir  of  Anne  J.  Clough,  by  her  niece,  Miss  B.  A.  Clough  (Edward 
Arnold,  1897).     To  the  account  there  given,  which  was  carefully  read  in 
proof  by  Sidgwick,  we  are  indebted  for  much  of  what  follows. 


1869,  AGE  si  HENEY  SIDGWICK  205 

of  the  country  for  providing  women  with  improved 
educational  opportunities — a  movement  the  crying 
need  for  which  was  emphasised  by  the  report  of  the 
Schools  Inquiry  Commission  in  1869,  and  the  very 
unsatisfactory  state  of  girls'  and  women's  education 
therein  revealed.  The  demand  was  not  for  examina- 
tion only,  and  schemes  for  instruction  by  courses  of 
lectures  and  classes  were  being  tried  in  various  places. 
Sidgrwick  had  had  his  thoughts  turned  in  a  general 

o  o  o 

way  to  the  subject  of  the  education  of  women  by  the 
writings  of  J.  S.  Mill,  and  doubtless  also  by  F.  D. 
Maurice,  whose  interest  in  it  is  well  known,  and  who 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  at  this  time  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  at  Cambridge.  But  his  taking  it  up 
actively  at  this  particular  moment  was  partly  due  to 
a  need  which  he  felt  of  doing  some  practically  useful 
work.  What  he  did  in  giving  up  his  Fellowship  was 
negative,  and  he  wanted  to  do  something  positive. 

In  this  state  of  mind  the  education  of  women 
presented  itself  as  a  piece  of  work  which  lay  to  his 
hand.1  Accordingly  he  proposed  in  the  autumn  of 
1869  that  lectures  should  be  organised  for  women 
at  Cambridge  in  the  subjects,  in  the  first  instance, 
of  the  newly  started  examination,  and  that  this 
examination  should  be  used  to  test  the  results. 
The  proposal  met  at  once  with  considerable  support 
from  members  of  the  University  ;  Professor  and  Mrs. 
Fawcett  were  interested  in  it  from  the  first,  and  at  a 
meeting  held  for  the  purpose  in  their  drawing-room 
the  interest  of  other  Cambridge  ladies  was  secured. 
A  committee  of  men  and  women  was  formed,  of 
which  Sidgwick  was  one  of  the  honorary  secretaries,2 

1  It  was  doubtless  from  an  impulse  of  the  same  kind  that  he  about  the 
same   time   interested   himself  in  a  less    successful   movement — that   for 
co-operative  production.     He  took  an  active  interest,  and  shares  to  a  small 
amount,   in  the  Cabinetmakers'  Co-operative  Society,  and,  we  believe,  in 
others.     He  seems  to  have  begun  regular  work  on  the  Cambridge  Mendicity 
Society,  afterwards  the  Cambridge  Charity  Organisation  Society,  about  this 
time  also — that  is,  in  the  spring  of  1871. 

2  The  Executive  Committee  consisted  of  Professor  Maurice,  Mr.  T.  G. 
Bonney,  Mr.  Ferrers  (afterwards   Master  of  Gonville  and   Cams  College), 


206  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

and  a  scheme  of  lectures  was  drawn  up  in  readiness 
for  the  Lent  Term  of  1870.  The  circular  announcing 
these  refers  to  the  schemes  of  lectures  for  women  in 
progress  elsewhere,  and  continues  :  "  It  has  seemed 
to  many  persons  resident  in  Cambridge  that  this 
town  offers  exceptional  facilities  for  an  attempt  of 
this  kind,  since  it  contains  a  large  number  of  trained 
and  practised  teachers  who  are  willing  to  extend  the 
sphere  of  their  instruction." 

Sidgwick,  and  Mrs.  Fawcett,  had  from  the  first  the 
hope  and  intention  that  the  scheme  should  be  the 
means  of  opening  to  women  in  the  country  at  large 
the  advantages  of  University  education  ;  and  accord- 
ingly the  original  plan  had  included  a  house  for 
the  reception  of  students  from  a  distance.  But  it 
was  found  that  this  part  of  the  plan  would  deprive 
the  scheme  of  the  support  of  some  persons  who  were 
favourably  disposed  to  the  idea  of  the  lectures,  and  it 
was  therefore  decided  to  postpone  it  at  least  until 
there  was  a  clearer  need  for  it.  Though  the  lectures 
thus  at  first  served  residents  in  or  near  Cambridge 
only,  they  were  immediately  successful,  between 
seventy  and  eighty  women  attending  in  the  first 
term.  It  had  been  agreed  at  the  outset  that  an  effort 
should  be  made  to  provide  scholarships  to  enable 
students  to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  offered, 
and  in  response  to  an  appeal  from  Mrs.  Fawcett,  J.  S. 
Mill  wrote  in  March  1870  promising  £40  a  year  for 
two  years  from  himself  and  Miss  Helen  Taylor.  Others 
also  subscribed,  so  that  it  was  possible  to  offer  two  or 
three  small  scholarships.  This,  added  to  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  lectures,  brought  some  students  from  a 
distance,  and  though  the  committee  took  no  formal 
responsibility  for  these  students,  it  fell  to  Sidgwick 
to  make  seini-officially  the  necessary  arrangements  for 

Mr.  Peile  (now  Master  of  Christ's  College),  Mrs.  Adams,  Mrs.  Fawcett, 
Miss  M.  G.  Kennedy,  Mrs.  Venn  :  with  Sidgwick  and  Mr.  Markby  (then 
Secretary  to  the  Local  Examinations  Syndicate),  as  secretaries,  and  Mrs. 
Bateson  (wife  of  the  Master  of  St.  John's  College)  as  treasurer. 


1869-71  HENRY  SIDGWICK  207 

them.  At  first  they  were  received  into  the  houses 
of  ladies  resident  in  Cambridge,  but  by  the  end  of 
1870  the  expediency  of  making  more  permanent 
provision  for  students  from  a  distance  came  to  be 
generally  admitted  by  those  who  were  interested  in 
the  scheme  of  lectures.  They  were  not  prepared  as 
yet  to  make  any  appeal  for  funds,  but  this  difficulty 
was  met  by  Sidgwick  determining  to  take  a  house  for 
students  on  his  own  responsibility,  and  he  accordingly 
began  early  in  1871  to  look  for  a  lady  to  take 
charge  of  it.  His  first  idea  was  to  ask  Miss  Clough, 
with  whom  he  was  personally  acquainted  through 
her  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Arthur  Hugh  Clough.  She 
was,  however,  at  that  time  otherwise  engaged,  and  it 
was  only  in  May  1871  that  he  learnt  that  she  could 
come  in  the  following  October  for  at  least  one  or  two 
terms.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  choice  proved 
a  most  fortunate  one.  Sidgwick's  reasons  for  wishing 
to  secure  Miss  Clough's  help  are  given  in  his  own 
words  in  her  niece's  memoir  of  her,  p.  193  : — 

When,  in  accordance  with  the  general  plan  formed  in 
1870  for  developing  the  system  of  lectures  for  women  in 
Cambridge,  it  became  necessary  to  find  a  lady  to  preside 
over  the  house  destined  to  receive  "  external  students,"  my 
first  idea  was  to  ask  Miss  Clough ;  and  though  her  refusal 
for  a  time  turned  my  thoughts  into  other  directions,1  I 
never  doubted  that  her  acceptance  of  the  post  would  be  the 
best  possible  thing  for  the  new  institution ;  and  when  she 
finally  accepted,  I  had  a  great  sense  of  satisfaction  and  con- 
fidence with  regard  to  the  future.  My  desire  for  her 
co-operation  was  partly  on  account  of  her  long  devotion  to 
the  improvement  of  the  education  of  women ;  but  it  was 
partly  due  to  the  fact  that  I  thought  she  would  be  in 
special  sympathy  with  the  plan  on  which  I  wished  the 
work  at  Cambridge  to  be  conducted. 

1  One  plan  thought  of  was  to  ask  his  mother  to  come  to  Cambridge  and 
take  charge  of  the  house,  but  -without  speaking  to  her  about  it  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  would  not  suit  her  health. 


208  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Briefly,  this  plan  was  to  secure  for  women  the  full 
benefits  of  University  education,  working  from  the 
basis  of  the  new  examination  for  women,  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  intended  to  encourage  a  higher 
standard  of  study  ;  and  by  giving  a  better  choice 
of  subjects  than  the  examinations  for  the  ordinary 
degree  of  the  University,  to  avoid  imposing  on 
girls  any  servile  imitation  of  the  system  of  second- 
ary education  in  vogue  for  boys,  or  compelling 
them  to  take  Greek  and  Latin  as  a  necessary 
preliminary  to  all  the  higher  branches  of  academic 
study.  Sidgwick  considered  the  imposition  of  two 
dead  languages  on  all  boys  coming  to  the  University 
to  have  a  very  mischievous  effect  on  education,  and 
at  this  time  was  sanguine  enough  to  believe  that  the 
University  would  long  ere  now  have  removed  the 
yoke  from  boys'  schools,  and  opened  itself  frankly  to 
modern  sides  and  modern  schools.  This  hope  was 
an  additional  reason  for  allowing  full  freedom  of 
development  to  girls'  schools  and  for  not  wishing  to 
press  them,  in  their  then  plastic  condition,  into  a 
mould  likely  soon  to  be  altered.  He  continues  :— 

I  believed  that  this  plan  would  be  in  accordance  with 
Miss  dough's  views,  and  my  expectations  in  this  respect 
were  completely  realised.  While  desiring,  with  a  quiet 
intensity,  which  I  gradually  came  to  understand,  to  throw 
open  the  advantages  of  University  education  to  women 
without  limit  or  reserve,  she  cordially  welcomed  the  new 
examination,  with  its  liberal  scheme  of  options,  as  adapted 
to  the  actual  condition  of  girls.  She  saw  that  the  adoption 
of  this  as  our  preliminary  examination  would  establish  a 
vital  connection  between  the  work  done  in  Cambridge  and 
the  work  done  throughout  England  under  the  influence  of 
the  University ;  and  the  idea  that  this  new  local  examina- 
tion, while  benefiting  the  education  of  girls  throughout  the 
country,  might,  at  the  same  time,  be  a  means  of  selecting 
the  most  promising  students  from  the  country  at  large,  and 


1869-1871  HENKY  SIDGWICK  209 

providing  them  with  a  complete  academic  training,  gave  her 
special  pleasure.  She  also  thought  that  the  experience 
gained  by  Cambridge  teachers  as  to  effects  of  the  course  of 
study  practically  prescribed  or  encouraged  by  this  examina- 
tion would  be  easily  made  accessible  to  the  Syndicate 
managing  the  examination,  and  would  lead  to  improvements 
in  it,  the  advantage  of  which  would  accrue  to  a  wider  circle. 

The  important  question  of  the  lady  to  take  charge 
of  the  house  being  thus  settled  temporarily — and, 
in  fact,  as  it  proved,  finally — Sidgwick's  next  duty 
was  to  find  a  house.  He  took  and  furnished  74 
Regent  Street,  and  Miss  Clough  with  five  students 
began  residence  there  in  October  1871.  Though  he 
was  at  first  financially  responsible  for  the  house,  what 
he  actually  had  to  pay — when  it  was  once  furnished 
— was  probably  small,  for  Miss  Clough,  who  worked 
without  salary,  also  paid  for  her  own  board,  and  the 
students  paid  fees  which  nearly  covered  their 
expenses. 

The  number  of  students  attracted  to  Cambridge  by 
the  lectures  continually  increased.  After  a  year  in 
the  Regent  Street  house,  it  became  necessary  to  find 
a  larger  one.  Then  additional  houses  had  to  be 
taken,  and  finally  before  the  end  of  1873  it  was 
decided  to  build.  A  company  was  formed,  money 
was  raised  by  subscriptions  and  shares,  a  site  was 
obtained  on  lease  from  St.  John's  College  in  the 
district  of  Cambridge  called  Newnham,  and  "Newnham 
Hall,"  now  forming  part  of  the  "  Old  Hall "  of  Newn- 
ham College,  was  built  and  opened  for  thirty  students 
in  October  1875. 

The  scheme  for  lectures,  and  the  Hall  of  residence, 
were  still  under  the  management  of  different  com- 
mittees, though  many  of  the  same  people,  includ- 
ing Sidgwick  and  Miss  Clough,  were  concerned 
with  both.  In  1873  the  committee  managing  the 
lectures  transformed  itself  into  an  "  Association  for 


210  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Promoting  the  Higher  Education  of  Women  in 
Cambridge,"  of  which  Professor  Adams,  the  well- 
known  astronomer,  became  president.  The  change 
was  made  partly  for  stability,  partly  to  extend  the 
interest  in  the  movement,  but  chiefly  for  financial 
reasons.  It  was  desired  to  secure  a  regular  income 
from  subscriptions,  in  order  to  provide  for  the  rent  of 
lecture  rooms,  to  supplement  the  fees  in  the  smaller 
classes,  to  help  the  poorer  students,  and  to  provide 
exhibitions.  Accordingly  the  Association  consisted  of 
subscribers,  as  well  as  of  those  who  lectured  for  it, 
and  of  Professors  who  opened  their  lectures  to  women. 
An  important  stage  in  the  movement  was  reached 
when  in  November  1874  two  students1  of  the  Associa- 
tion took  honours  in  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos,  and 
in  the  following  term  another  took  honours  in  both 
the  Mathematical  and  Classical  Triposes ; 2  and  when 
in  the  autumn  of  that  year  Newnham  Hall  was  opened, 
the  scheme  was  felt  to  have  attained  a  position  which 
promised  stability  and  permanence. 

While  this  development  of  lectures,  and  a  Hall  of 
residence  for  those  coming  from  a  distance  to  attend 
them,  was  proceeding  at  Cambridge,  the  institution 
which  ultimately  became  Girton  College,  and  which 
was  first  established  at  Hitchin  in  October  1869,  was 
also  growing  up.  Sidgwick,  who  was  interested  in 
this  scheme,  and  was  from  the  beginning  and  for 
many  years  on  its  staff  of  lecturers,  at  first  regarded 
it  and  the  Cambridge  scheme  as  supplementary  to 
each  other.  Union  of  the  two  was,  however,  pre- 
vented by  two  things.  First,  the  Hitchin  committee, 
of  which  the  moving  spirit  was  Miss  Emily  Davies, 
deliberately  decided  not  to  build  in  Cambridge,  ulti- 
mately selecting  the  Girton  site,  about  two  miles 
away.  This  would  have  made  any  amalgamation 

1  Miss  Paley  (now  Mrs.  Alfred  Marshall)  and  Miss  Amy  Bulley. 

a  The  holder  of  the  Mill -Taylor  scholarship,  Miss  Creak,  now  head- 
mistress of  King  Edward's  High  School  for  Girls,  Birmingham.  Admission 
to  Tripos  examinations  was  informal  at  this  time. 


1869-1871  HENKY  SIDGWICK  211 

with  a  scheme  of  which  an  important  object  was  to 
provide  lectures  for  Cambridge  women  difficult.  But 
a  more  formidable  obstacle  to  union  lay  in  the  rooted 
objection  of  Miss  Davies  and  her  committee  to  the 
examination  for  women  which  formed  the  basis  of  the 
Cambridge  scheme.  She  objected  on  principle  to  any 
examination  for  women  only,  and,  not  attaching  the 
same  importance  as  the  promoters  of  the  Cambridge 
scheme  to  the  low  standard  of  the  examinations  for 
the  pass  degrees,  prepared  her  students  for  these. 
There  were  other  differences.  The  Hitchin  scheme 
aimed  at  exact  conformity  in  all  respects  to  the  course 
prescribed  for  men,  while  the  Cambridge  scheme  was 
more  elastic,  and  therefore,  as  its  promoters  believed, 
more  suited  to  the  then  state  of  women's  education. 
Many  of  the  early  students  came  for  quite  short  periods 
of  study,  as  they  could  aiford  it,  sometimes  even  for  one 
term  only.  Others,  whose  early  education  was  deficient, 
stayed  for  longer  than  the  period  prescribed  for  an 
honours  course.  In  short,  each  case  was  considered 
and  dealt  with  on  its  merits.  The  Cambridge  Hall  of 
residence  too  was  more  frankly  undenominational  than 
Miss  Davies's  college,  and  the  fees  there  were  less. 

As  time  has  gone  on  the  differences  between  the 
two  institutions — the  lectures'  scheme  with  the  Hall 
of  residence  now  merged  in  Newnham  College,  and 
the  Hitchin  College,  now  well  known  as  Girton 
College  —  have  diminished.  The  improved  oppor- 
tunities for  school  education  enjoyed  by  girls  have 
led  to  much  less  demand  from  Cambridge  residents 
for  elementary  lectures.  The  examinations  for  pass 
degrees  have  dropped  out  of  sight  since  those  for 
degrees  in  honours  (but  not  for  pass  degrees) 
were  formally  opened  to  women  in  1881.  Both  at 
Newnham  and  Girton  the  great  majority  of  students 
are  now  taking  one  or  other  of  the  numerous  honour 
courses  of  the  University.  Newnham  College  still 
continues  to  avail  itself  of  the  privilege  granted  when 


212  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

the  examinations  were  opened  to  women,  and  to  which 
Sidgwick  attached  great  importance,  of  using  the 
Higher  Local  examination  without  Greek  and  Latin 
as  a  possible  alternative  to  the  "  Little  Go "  ;  but 
the  two  colleges  work  side  by  side  harmoniously,  and 
to  some  extent  combine ;  and,  to  use  Sidgwick's  own 
words,  "  It  is  now  hardly  possible  to  doubt  that  the 
independent  development  of  the  two  institutions  side 
by  side  has  been  on  the  whole  indirectly  an  advantage 
to  both,  by  securing  a  wider  extent  of  aid  and  support 
than  could  otherwise  have  been  obtained  for  the 
academic  education  of  women  in  Cambridge." 

In  the  summer  of  1869  Sidgwick  stayed  for  a  short 
time  at  Southend  in  Essex,  attracted,  as  he  says,  by 
hearing  that  there  was  a  pier  l-£-  mile  long,  which  must, 
he  thought,  give  a  marine  atmosphere.  He  wrote  to 
Mrs.  Clough  from  there  on  June  29  : — 

Many  thanks  for  your  kind  offer,  but  I  shall  be  lodging 
in  Gower  Street  (35),  with  a  view  to  the  Museum  Library. 
But  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  come  and  see  you  and  hear  of 
any  educational  schemes.  Tell  Miss  Clough  that  I  am 
examining  our  (Camb.  Univ.)  women  in  German;  very 
reluctantly,  as  I  am  sure  no  one  who  has  learnt  a  language 
as  I  have  learnt  German  can  really  know  the  points  of  it. 
But  I  am  curious  to  see  what  results  I  shall  get. 

After  various  visits  to  friends  in  July,  he  went 
early  in  August  to  the  Lakes  with  his  mother  and  his 
brother  William.  G.  0.  Trevelyan  was  also  of  the 
party. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Patterdale  in  August 

...  I  leave  the  Lakes  most  probably  on  the  1st 
September.  We  have  had  weather  coarsely  bright,  blurring, 
unsatisfying  with  haze ;  sensually  most  enjoyable.  ...  I 
seem  likely  to  get  C.  H.  Pearson *  to  lecture  on  History  in 
Trin.  Coll.,  a  €vpr/fj.a  [a  catch],  I  think,  on  the  whole. 

1  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  and  afterwards  Education  Minister  in 
Victoria,  author  of  National  Life  and  Character  (Macmillau,  1893). 


1869,  AGE  31  HENRY  SIDGWICK  213 

Sidgwick  explains  how  he  came  to  be  concerned 
with  this  appointment  in  some  reminiscences  of 
Pearson  which  he  contributed  for  his  biography  :  — 

In  1869  I  had  to  advise  the  authorities  of  Trinity 
College  as  to  the  appointment  of  a  lecturer  in  Modern 
History.  My  intervention  in  the  matter  came  about  as 
follows.  .  .  .  When  in  1867  I  was  appointed  lecturer  in 
Moral  Sciences  at  Trinity,  it  became  my  duty  to  teach 
history  among  other  subjects.  But  in  1867  and  1868 
changes  were  made  which  severed  the  connection  of  History 
with  Moral  Sciences,  and  ...  it  was  obvious  that  the 
lecturer  in  Moral  Sciences  could  no  longer  undertake  it; 
but,  having  had  temporary  charge  of  the  subject,  I  was 
asked  to  make  suggestions  with  regard  to  the  proposed 
separate  provision  for  it.  I  knew  that  Pearson  had  at  the 
time  no  permanent  work,  and  thought  it  would  be  a  great 
thing  if  we  could  secure  him.  But  the  position  and  stipend 
(£200  a  year)  seemed  so  inadequate  to  his  claims  that  I 
did  not  venture  to  offer  it  him  directly.  I  wrote  him  a 
letter  ostensibly  asking  him  to  recommend  a  candidate,  but 
so  worded  as  to  make  clear  that  he  could  have  it  if  he 
liked.  He  replied  accepting;  and  for  two  years — from 
October  1869 — he  resided  in  Cambridge  during  term  time 
as  Trinity  lecturer  in  Modern  History. 

To  F,  Myers  from  Cambridge,  September  11 

...  I  never  review  anything  which  has  not  really 
interested  me,  and  which  I  do  not  think  other  people  ought 
to  read ;  at  the  same  time  I  feel  more  in  my  element  when 
I  feel  called  upon  to  weigh  and  balance  and  mete  out  so 
many  ounces  of  blame  and  so  many  of  praise,  than  when 
enthusiasm  and  sublime  nights  are  wanted. 

If  it  is  true  that  you  cannot  write  a  novel,  I  should 
think  it  was  for  the  reason  (which  gives  women  such  a 
superiority  over  men  in  this  line)  that  you  do  not  care 
enough  about  little  things,  and,  therefore,  do  not  observe 
them  enough.  It  is  on  the  reproduction  of  these  with 


214  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

fidelity  and  ease  (as  well  as  characteristical  humour)  that 
the  lifelikeness  of  a  novel  depends ;  and  few  writers  can  do 
without  it.  But  I  really  do  not  know  why  you  should  not 
write  a  novel — though  I  cannot  say  I  want  you  to  try. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  September  28 

I  am  still  here ;  tolerably  well,  and  taking  great  care  of 
my  health,  as  I  expect  to  have  rather  a  hard  term  next 
term.  I  work  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  evening  turn 
over  oldish  books — by  which  I  mean  anything  but  the 
romances  of  the  present  generation.  I  shall  stay  here  now 
till  term  begins,  to  see  the  last  of  my  Fellowship  :  it  is 
curious  watching  the  sands  of  it  run  out  in  this  way.  My 
position  here,  in  respect  of  rooms,  etc.,  is  still  quite  un- 
determined. 

It  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any  good,  and  I  am 
told  that  the  candidates  for  Fellowships  consider  that  the 
hand  of  Providence  has  lately  manifested  itself  in  a  very 
marked  way.1  .  .  . 

I  am  very  much  pleased  at  the  appointment  of  Seeley  as 
our  new  Professor  of  History.  The  study  is  at  a  very  low 
ebb  in  Cambridge,  and  he  is  just  the  man  to  inspire  an 
enthusiasm  for  it.  Also  on  other  grounds  I  shall  rejoice 
in  his  returning  to  Cambridge.  I  always  thought  it  was  a 
great  loss  to  us  when  he  went  down. 

His  article  on  Clough2  appeared  in  the  Westminster 
Review  for  October,  and  to  F.  Myers,  who  had  written 
enthusiastically  about  it,  he  writes  on  October  24  :— 

...  I  was  much  delighted  with  your  praise.  I  did  not 
think  the  article  had  succeeded,  but  it  certainly  ought  to 
have  been  fair,  as  I  had  felt  much  on  the  subject  and  taken 
pains  to  be  precise.  In  a  note  there  is  de  me  fabula 2 — 
nob  I  hope  obtrusive  or  intrusive.  Do  not  tell  any  one 
who  does  not  see  it. 

1  In  making  vacancies  through  his  and  other  resignations. 

2  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses  (Macmillan,  1904). 

3  A  note  about  Clough'a  resignation  of  his  Fellowship  and  Tutorship. 
See  p.  68  of  above  work. 


1869,  AGE  si  HENEY  SIDGWICK  215 

As  to  my  defect  as  a  critic,1  I  feel  sure  that  you  are 
right  generally  (only  that  it  does  not  arise  from  kind- 
heartedness,  from  which  I  humbly  think  I  am  quite  exempt; 
rather  from  an  instinct  that  catholicity  is  my  line,  a  virtue  in 
which  I  have  more  chance  of  getting  ahead  than  most),  but, 
of  course,  I  won't  admit  it  in  any  particular  instance.  .  .  . 

As  to  your  sonnets  I  have  now  made  up  my  mind.  In 
the  first  place,  if  you  realise  how  much  I  enjoy  them,  you 
will  send  me  some  more.  ...  In  the  third,2  the  alteration  of 
style  [you  spoke  of]  is  pure  gain.  It  is  more  direct,  simple, 
and  rapid,  without  any  loss  of  fulness  and  definiteness  of 
melody.  It  seems  to  me  to  combine  to  a  great  degree  the 
exquisiteness  of  Tennyson  with  that  of  Christina  Eossetti 
(do  you  know  her  sonnet  "  Eemember  "  ?  I  think  that 
perhaps  the  most  perfect  thing  any  living  poet  has  written). 

To  Mrs.  Clough  on  November  6 

I  should  not  like  to  ask  you  what  you  think  of  my 
article,  any  more  than  I  wanted  you  to  read  it,  had  I  not 
been  encouraged  since  publishing  to  think  it  less  unworthy 
than  it  seemed  to  me  before.  Even  now  it  seems  to  me 
very  inadequate,  especially  in  the  part  which  is  in  conception 
most  original  (I  mean  about  "Amours  de  Voyage"  and  cognate 
poems).  I  seem  to  have  left  out  all  that  was  important 
and  pointed  in  what  I  have  to  say.  All  that  I  can  hope 
is  that  I  have  suggested  the  right  point  of  view  to  ap- 
preciative minds  that  can  work  it  out  for  themselves — such 
as  F.  Myers,  who  delighted  me  by  writing  that  the  article 
"  had  much  increased  his  interest  in  Clough,  which  was 
before  great."  I  tell  you  this  partly  because  it  confirms 
my  conviction  that  he  was  before  his  age — in  fact,  belongs 
especially  to  this  age,  this  actual  Young  England.  For 
Myers  is  a  man  whose  turn  of  mind  is  so  antagonistic  to 
subtle  scepticism  that  he  could  not  have  appreciated  these 
poems  except  that  he  [is],  as  every  susceptible  youth  must 
be,  de  son  siecle. 

1  Myers  had  said  that  he  praised  too  unreservedly. 

*  The  sonnet  referred  to  is  probably  the  one  printed  in  Myers's  Fragments 
of  Prose  and  Poetry,  pp.  156,  157. 


216  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

I  am  afraid  you  will  have  been  vexed  with  what  I  say 
of  the  Mari  Magno  tales.  However,  you  probably  knew 
that  I  did  not  appreciate  them.  My  friends  all  say  that 
my  language  is  too  severe,  even  when  they  agree  on  the 
whole  with  my  view.  And  I  think  so  myself  now.  I 
think  two  things,  first,  that  I  am  probably  "  inappreciative  " 
(as  I  say  of  F.  T.  P[algrave])  of  this  part  of  his  work  ; 
secondly,  that  my  language  gives  a  wrong  impression  of  my 
own  opinion,  e.g.  everything  I  say  of  them  in  the  comparison 
with  Crabbe  still  seems  to  me  true,  only  there  is  a  larger 
amount  in  them  that  is  subtle  and  original  and  permanently 
impressive  than  any  one  would  gather  from  my  words. 

The  truth  is,  when  I  wrote,  I  was  antipathetically 
affected  by  the  deliberately  infantile  simplicity  of  style  in 
which  parts  of  them  (especially  [the]  First  Tale)  are  written. 
This  I  call  Ultra- Wordsworthiau,  Patmorean,  and  other  bad 
names.  I  see  now  that,  whether  I  like  the  effect  or  not, 
I  ought  to  allow  that  there  is  great  skill  and  faculty  shown 
in  the  limpid  ease  with  which  it  is  maintained.  I  have 
been  made  to  feel  this  by  a  comparison  with  the  only  other 
Crabbean  poem  I  know  of  recent  times,  Allingharn's 
Lawrence  Bloomfield. 

So  much  for  my  palinode :  which  you  see  is  strictly 
guarded,  as  I  still  must  maintain  my  view  of  the  inferiority 
of  the  poems,  and  more  or  less  for  the  reasons  I  have  given. 

Conington's  *  death  moved  me  very  much.  One  is  glad 
that  so  much  appreciation  is  expressed  of  him  :  more  than  I 
ever  heard  expressed  in  Oxford  while  he  was  alive — but 
that  is  natural.  He  was  nobly  true  to  his  ideal  of  life :  an 
ideal  of  a  peculiar  and  rare  kind,  much  needed  in  our  academic 
life.  It  seems  to  alter  Oxford  to  me. 

To  Mrs.  dough  on  November  24 

As  to  my  views  on  "Amours  de  Vfoyage]."  I  had  two  dis- 
tinct reasons  for  not  saying  more  than  I  did,  neither  of  which 
is  very  easy  to  explain.  First,  I  was  afraid  of  becoming 
rhapsodical,  and  abandoning  the  precise,  careful,  measured 

1  John  Conington,  Professor  of  Latin  at  Oxford,  died  October  23,  1869. 


1869,  AGE  31  HENEY  SIDGWICK  217 

style,  which  I  particularly  wished  to  maintain  throughout. 
But  besides  this,  in  certain  states  of  mind  I  doubt  my  own 
insight  and  the  value  of  what  I  have  to  say  on  this  matter 
so  much,  that  I  lack  the  air  of  serene  conviction  which 
alone  enables  one  to  talk  upon  such  a  subject  impressively. 
It  was  in  this  unexalted  and  uninspired  humour  that  I  wrote 
the  whole  article :  and  so  when  I  came  to  this  part  I  did 
not  feel  able  to  do  more  than  hint  to  a  sympathetic  reader 
the  sort  of  thing  that  he  would  find  in  the  poems. 

To  Mr.  Oscar  Browning  he  writes  on  November  8 
about  the  election  of  Mr.  (now  Sir  Richard)  Jebb  as 
Public  Orator,  which  had  just  taken  place,  and  for 
which  he  had  been  working.  The  rival  candidates 
belonged  to  different  colleges. 

The  Jebb  election  disturbed  our  minds  somewhat,  and  I 
sadly  fear  that  the  ebullition  of  College  feeling  which  it 
involved  has  thrown  back  progress  somewhat.  College 
feeling  is  a  dividing  and  paralysing  force  in  University 
matters,  and  I  snub  it  whenever  I  can ;  but  on  some 
occasions  there  is  no  bridling  it.  But  there  is  no  one 
whom  I  should  have  been  more  glad  to  give  a  Post  to  than 
Jebb.  Dignity  and  a  secure  position  are  the  thing  for  him. 
He  won't  turn  idle. 

The  following  letter  to  his  mother,  written  from 
Cambridge  on  November  6,  relates  to  the  controversy 
about  Dr.  Temple's  essay  in  Essays  and  Reviews, 
which  had  been  revived  on  his  appointment  in  this 
year  as  Bishop  of  Exeter  : — 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  Temple  case  is  not  really  a 
difficult  one :  only  that  no  one  person,  friend  or  foe,  has 
exactly  seen  it  properly.  Many  say  (as  your  friends)  "  that 
if  Dr.  T.  disagreed  with  the  other  essayists,  he  should  have 
said  so  or  withdrawn  the  essay."  This  appears  to  me 
ridiculous,  considering  the  disclaimer  of  agreement.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  do  think  that  by  joining  in  a  series  of 
essays,  the  object  of  which  was  more  or  less  defined,  a 
certain  amount  of  sympathy  with  the  other  essayists  was 


218  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

implied.  He  says  along  with  them  that  he  hopes  certain 
subjects  will  be  benefited  by  "  free  handling,"  etc.  Now, 
either  the  manner  in  which  the  other  essayists  treat  the 
subject  is,  on  the  whole,  and  speaking  generally,  the  sort  of 
free  handling  that  he  intended,  or  it  is  not ;  if  it  is  not  (I 
do  not  mean  if  this  essayist  or  that  has  gone  a  little  too 
far,  but  if,  on  the  whole,  it  is  quite  different  to  what  he  ex- 
pected and  not  at  all  what  he  approves  of),  I  certainly  think 
he  was,  under  the  circumstances,  called  on  to  say  so ;  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  what  he  expected  or  thereabouts,  then 
he  may  certainly  be  fairly  charged — not  with  any  definite 
agreement  with  their  opinions,  but  —  with  a  general 
sympathy  with  their  tone  and  point  of  view.  In  short,  by 
retaining  his  essay  among  the  seven  he  may  be  said  to 
imply  not  that  he  agrees  with  the  things  the  others  say,  but 
that  he  thinks  it  right  that  this  sort  of  thing  should  be 
written  by  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Now  that  is  a  very  different  view  to  what  High  Churchmen 
and  Low  Churchmen  think,  and  I  am  not  surprised  that  they 
are  vexed  at  his  appointment.  Nor  am  I  inclined  to  blame 
Pusey  for  his  passionate  appeals  to  those  who  think  with 
him ;  I  thought  his  first  letter  quite  consistent  and  good 
from  his  point  of  view.  In  the  later  ones  he  seems  to  me 
to  have  gone  beyond  the  limits  of  fair  advocacy  ;  but  on  the 
whole  his  position  is  quite  reasonable  and  intelligible ;  he 
does  not  wish  to  belong  to  a  Church  of  which  one  chief 
pastor  is  a  man  who  sympathises  with  the  other  Essayists 
and  Eeviewers  to  the  extent  to  which  Dr.  Temple  may  be 
assumed  to  sympathise.  I  am  not  inclined  to  blame  Pusey, 
for  if  one  said  to  him  that  the  two  essayists  selected  by 
their  opponents  for  attack,  were  acquitted  by  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  court,  and  therefore  that  Temple  has,  after  all, 
only  incurred  "  complicity  "  with  something  that  has  been 
declared  not  to  be  "  guilt,"  he  would  of  course  reply  that  he 
cares  no  more  for  Privy  Council  decisions  than  S.  Paul 
would  have  cared  for  the  decision  of  Nero.  Pusey  is  ready 
to  accept  Disestablishment  with  all  its  disadvantages.  But 
the  people  with  whom  I  do  feel  indignant  are  certain 


1869,  AGE  31  HENKY  SIDGWICK  219 

bishops,  deans,  canons,  etc.,  who  cling  to  the  advantages  of 
a  National  Establishment  and  yet  kick  against  its  most 
obvious  obligations :  who  wish  to  enjoy  at  once  the  comfort 
of  belonging  to  a  comprehensive  church  and  the  comfort  of 
belonging  to  an  exclusive  sect :  and  who  are  clamorous 
to  resist,  even  to  the  extent  of  illegality,  the  promotion  of  a 
man  of  most  shining  qualities,  simply  because  he  sympathises 
with  persons  whom  yet  they  are  forced  to  accept  as  brother 
clergymen  who  have  not  exceeded  the  liberty  of  speculation 
which  the  law  acknowledged  by  both  parties  allows — and 
which  if  it  did  not  allow,  the  Establishment  would  not  last 
a  year. 

There's  a  long  sentence :  it  is  like  a  letter  to  the  Daily 
News :  but  one  has  argued  so  much  about  the  matter  that  it 
is  difficult  not  to  fall  into  a  ponderous  style. 

This  was  a  period  of  much  reforming  activity  in 
the  University,  and  though  Sidgwick  does  not,  in  the 
letters  which  have  been  preserved,  say  much  in  detail 
about  the  questions  which  were  being  discussed,  he 
was  keenly  interested  in  many  of  them.  The  aboli- 
tion of  religious  tests  was  the  most  prominent  object 
of  the  activity  of  the  academic  liberals,  both  within 
the  University  and  in  Parliament,  until  it  was  accom- 
plished by  Act  of  Parliament  in  June  1871.  Sidg- 
wick's  action  in  resigning  his  Fellowship  had,  no  doubt, 
helped,  as  Sir  George  Young — an  active  promoter  of 
the  abolition — has  said,1  to  develop  and  crystallise 
public  opinion  at  Cambridge,  and  a  very  successful 
meeting  at  St.  John's  College  Lodge  on  November  29, 
1869,  in  which  the  veterans  Adam  Sedgwick  and 
F.  D.  Maurice  both  took  part,  was  an  important  step  in 
the  movement.  After  the  meeting,  Dr.  Jackson  tells 
us,  some  of  the  younger  men  met  in  Sidgwick's  rooms 
and  jointly  framed  a  report  of  the  proceedings.  He 
remembers  that  Sidgwick  reported  Maurice,  whose 
subtlety  of  statement  had  attracted  him. 

1  Cambridge  Review,  November  1,  1900. 


220  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  December  26 

What  do  you  think  of  the  new  Tennyson  ? 1  We  regard 
it  here  as  rather  an  imposition  on  the  part  of  the  publisher 
— republishing  the  "  Morte  d' Arthur "  (not  to  speak  of 
"  Lucretius "  and  other  small  poems)  and  having  so  few 
lines  in  a  page.  It  is  as  bad  as  one  of  Victor  Hugo's 
novels.  The  poem  called  the  "  Higher  Pantheism "  was 
read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Metaphysical  Society  to  which  I 
belong,  by  the  poet  himself.2  After  he  had  done  reading 
there  was  a  pause,  and  then  Tyndall  (who  is  entirely  devoid 
of  shyness)  said,  "  I  suppose  this  is  not  offered  as  a  subject 
for  discussion." 

The  Metaphysical  Society,  though  it  had  a  com- 
paratively short  existence  (1869-1880),  has  become 
rather  well  known  owing  to  the  number  of  dis- 
tinguished men,  of  all  shades  of  opinion,  who  were 
members  of  it.  Accounts  of  it  will  be  found  in  the 
biographies  of  Dr.  W.  G.  Ward,  Sir  James  Stephen, 
Cardinal  Manning,  Lord  Tennyson,  Professor  Huxley, 
and  Dr.  James  Martineau.3  Sidgwick  was  among 
those  invited  to  join  at  the  beginning,  and  was  a 
member  throughout.  The  meetings  took  place  once 
a  month,  usually  at  the  Grosvenor  Hotel ;  the 
members  dined  together  first,  and  then  the  paper  for 
the  evening,  an  abstract  of  which  had  been  previously 
circulated,  was  read  and  discussed.  The  following 
"recollections,"  written  by  Sidgwick  for  Mr.  Wilfrid 
Ward,  appeared  in  1893  in  the  latter's  Life  of  his 
father,4  and  though  mainly  intended  to  give  his  im- 
pression of  Dr.  Ward,  may  serve  also  to  give  his 
feeling  about  the  Society  : — 

1  The  "Holy  Grail." 

2  This  poem  was  read  at  the  first  meeting  after  the  formation  of  the 
Society  on  June  2,  1869,  but  apparently  not  by  the  poet  himself  (see  the 
Life  of  Lord  Tennyson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  168,  170).     Sidgwick  was  evidently  not 
present  on  the  occasion,  though  he  was  an  original  member  of  the  Society. 

3  There  is  also  an  article  by  R.  H.  Hutton — a  constant  attendant  at  the 
meetings — in  the  Ninteenth  Century  for  August  1895,  giving  a  more  or  less 
imaginary  account  of  a  typical  meeting  of  the  Society. 

4  William  George  Ward  and  the  Catholic  Revival,  see  p.  313. 


1869,  AGE  si  HENRY  SIDGWICK  221 

I  remember  well  the  first  time  that  I  saw  your  father — 
it  was,   I  think,  at   the   second   or   third   meeting   of  the 
Society.      He  came  into  the  room  along  with  Manning,  and 
the  marked  contrast  between  them  added  to  the  impressive- 
ness.      I  remember  thinking  that  I  had  never  seen  a  face 
that   seemed   so   clearly  to   indicate   a   strongly -developed 
sensuous  nature,  and  yet  was  at  the  same  time  so  intellectual 
as  your  father's.     I  do  not  mean  merely  that  it  expressed 
intellectual  faculty,  ...  I  mean  rather  the  predominance  of 
the  intellectual  life,  of  concern  (as  Matthew  Arnold  says) 
for  the  "  things  of  the  mind."      I  did  not  then  know  your 
father's  writings  at  all ;  and  though  from  what  I  had  heard 
of  him  I  expected  to  find  him  an  effective  defender  of  the 
Catholic   position,    I    certainly  did    not    anticipate   that   I 
should  come — as  after  two  or  three  meetings  I  did  come — 
to  place  him  in  the  very  first  rank   of  our  members,  as 
judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Society  in  respect  of 
their   aptitudes   for   furthering  its   aim.      The  aim  of  the 
Society   was,   by   frank   and   close   debate   and   unreserved 
communication    of    dissent    and  objection,  to   attain — not 
agreement,    which   was    of   course    beyond    hope  —  but    a 
diminution  of  mutual  misunderstanding.      For  this  kind  of 
discussion  your  father's  gifts  were  very  remarkable.     The 
only  other  member  of  the  Society  who  in  my  recollection 
rivals  him  is — curiously  enough — Huxley.       Huxley  was 
perhaps  unsurpassed  in  the  quickness  with  which  he  could 
see  and   express  with  perfect  clearness  and  precision  the 
best  answer  that  could  be  made,  from  his  point  of  view, 
to  any   argument  urged    against   him.      But  your  father's 
dialectic   interested   me    more,   apart   of   course   from    any 
question  of  agreement  with  principles  or  conclusions,  not 
only  from  its  subtlety,  but  from  the  strong  and  unexpected 
impression  it  made  on  me  of  complete  sincerity  and  self- 
abandonment    to    the    train    of    thought    that    was    being 
pursued  at  the  time.     When  Tennyson's  lines  on  him  came 
out  afterwards  I  thought  that  two  of  them — 

How  subtle  at  tierce  and  quart  of  mind  with  mind, 
How  loyal  in  the  following  of  thy  Lord  ! 


222  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP.  IT 

were  very  apt  and  representative ;  but  the  first  line  does 
not  convey  what  I  am  now  trying  to  express — the  feeling 
that  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  \6<yos  like  an  interlocutor  in 
a  Platonic  dialogue,  and  was  prepared  to  follow  it  to  any 
conclusions  to  which  it  might  lead.  This  is  a  characteristic 
more  commonly  found  in  the  discussions  of  youth  than  in 
those  of  middle  age ;  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  better 
describe  the  impression  of  this  feature  of  your  father's 
manner  of  debate  than  by  saying  that  he  often  reminded 
me  of  old  undergraduate  days  more  than  any  other  of  the 
disputants.  And  of  course  this  was  all  the  more  impres- 
sive in  a  man  who  so  unreservedly  at  the  same  time  put 
forth  his  complete  adhesion  to  an  elaborate  dogmatic 
system. 

I  remember  that  once — on  one  of  the  rare  occasions  on 
which  I  had  the  privilege  of  sitting  next  him  at  our  dinners 
—I  asked  him  to  tell  me  exactly  the  Catholic  doctrine  on 
some  point  of  conduct,  the  nature  of  which  I  cannot  now 
recall.  He  answered,  "  Opinions  are  divided  ;  there  are  two 
views,  of  which  I,  as  usual,  take  the  more  bigoted."  Of 
course  I  understood  the  word  to  mean  "  bigoted  as  you 
would  call  it " :  but  the  choice  of  the  word  seemed  to  me 
illustrative  of  the  mixture  of  serious  frankness  and  genial 
provocativeness  which  characterised  his  share  of  our 
debates. 

To  Mr.  Leonard  Huxley  he  wrote  :— 

I  became  a  member  of  the  Metaphysical  Society,  I 
think,  at  its  first  meeting  in  1869;  and,  though  my  engage- 
ments in  Cambridge  did  not  allow  me  to  attend  regularly,  I 
retain  a  very  distinct  recollection  of  the  part  taken  by  your 
father  in  the  debates  at  which  we  were  present  together. 
There  were  several  members  of  the  Society  with  whose 
philosophical  views  I  had,  on  the  whole,  more  sympathy ; 
but  there  was  certainly  no  one  to  whom  I  found  it  more 
pleasant  and  more  instructive  to  listen.  .  .  . 

The  general  tone  of  the  Metaphysical  Society  was  one  of 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Henry  Huxley,  vol.  i.  p.  320  (1st  ed.  1900). 


1869,  AGE  31  HENEY  SIDGWICK  223 

extreme  consideration  for  the  feelings  of  opponents,  and 
your  father's  speaking  formed  no  exception  to  the  general 
harmony.  At  the  same  time  I  seem  to  remember  him  as 
the  most  combative  of  all  the  speakers  who  took  a  leading 
part  in  the  debates.  His  habit  of  never  wasting  words,  and 
the  edge  naturally  given  to  his  remarks  by  his  genius  for 
clear  and  effective  statement,  partly  account  for  this  im- 
pression ;  still  I  used  to  think  that  he  liked  fighting,  and 
occasionally  liked  to  give  play  to  his  sarcastic  humour — 
though  always  strictly  within  the  limits  imposed  by 
courtesy.  I  remember  that  on  one  occasion  when  I  had 
read  to  the  Society  an  essay  on  the  "  Incoherence  of 
Empiricism,"  I  looked  forward  with  some  little  anxiety  to 
his  criticisms ;  and  when  they  came,  I  felt  that  my  anxiety 
had  not  been  superfluous ;  he  "  went  for  "  the  weak  points 
of  my  argument  in  half  a  dozen  trenchant  sentences,  of 
which  I  shall  not  forget  the  impression.  It  was  hard 
hitting,  though  perfectly  courteous  and  fair. 

We  may  mention  here  another  discussion  club  to 
which  Sidgwick  belonged,  and  which  was  founded  in 
the  period  of  his  life  with  which  we  are  now  dealing, 
though  it  does  not  happen  to  be  referred  to  in  the 
letters  —  a  purely  Cambridge  society  called  the 
"  Eranus."  The  following  account  of  it  was  written 
by  Sidgwick  for  Sir  Arthur  Hort,  whose  biography 
of  his  father  was  published  in  1896  : — l 

The  club  came  into  being,  I  think,  in  November  1872. 
The  originator  of  the  idea  was  the  present  Bishop  of  Durham 
[Westcott],  and  he,  together  with  Lightfoot  and  your  father, 
may  be  regarded  as  constituting  the  original  nucleus  of  the 
club.  It  was  not,  however,  designed  to  have,  nor  has  it 
from  first  to  last  had,  a  preponderantly  theological 
character ;  on  the  contrary,  its  fundamental  idea  was  that 
it  should  contain  representatives  of  different  departments  of 
academic  study,  and  afford  them  regular  opportunities  for 
meeting  and  for  an  interchange  of  ideas  somewhat  more 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  F.  J.  A.  Hort,  sometime  Hulsean  Professor  and  Lady 
Margaret  Reader  in  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  vol.  ii.  p.  184. 


224  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

serious  and  methodical  than  is  suitable  at  an  ordinary 
social  gathering.  Accordingly  the  original  members  in- 
cluded, among  others,  Clerk  Maxwell,  Seeley,  [Henry]  Jack- 
son, and  myself,1  as  well  as  the  three  theologians  whom  I 
have  called  the  nucleus.  The  number  of  the  club  has  varied, 
but  never  exceeded  twelve. 

It  met  five  or  six  times  a  year  in  the  evening  at  the 
house  or  rooms  of  one  of  its  members.  The  host  of  the 
evening  had  the  duty  of  reading  a  paper  as  an  introduction 
to  conversation.  The  range  of  subjects  was  entirely  un- 
restricted ;  the  general  idea  was  that  each  member  in  turn 
would  select  a  subject  in  which  he  was  specially  interested, 
and  would  therefore  probably  choose  one  belonging  more 
or  less  to  his  own  department  of  study,  only  not  of  too 
technical  a  character  to  be  interesting  to  outsiders.  But 
there  was  no  obligation  on  him  to  choose  such  a  subject  if 
he  preferred  one  of  more  completely  general  interest,  such 
as  education,  politics,  the  mutual  duties  of  social  classes, 
etc.;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  often  discussed 
subjects  of  this  latter  kind.  I  should  add  that  the  reading 
of  the  paper  was  followed  by  conversation  quite  spontaneous 
and  unregulated,  not  anything  like  formal  debate. 

To  return  to  the  correspondence,  he  writes  to  Mr. 
0.  Browning  on  January  22,  1870  : — 

I  enclose  programme  [of  lectures  for  women].  You  see 
our  scheme  was  ambitious ;  but  in  a  University  town  it 
seemed  good  to  be  ambitious.  And  I  hope  we  shall  keep 
up  our  ideal  of  comprehensive  and  academic  instruction,  in 
spite  of  initial  failure,  till  it  is  clearly  seen  whether  we  can 
attract  any  of  the  aspiring  girls  from  without.  If  we  do 
not  we  shall,  of  course,  sink  into  something  comparatively 
small.  But  experiment  and  audacity  are  good.2  .  .  . 

I  am  in  hopes  that  matters  at  Rugby  will  settle  them- 
selves. But  any  imagination  you  can  form  of  the  extent  of 

1  [Later,  Lord  Acton,  Professor  Clifford  Allbutt,  Mr.  George  Darwin,  and 
others  belonged  to  the  Society.] 

2  To  Mrs.  dough  he  wrote  on  February  6  :   "We  have  sixty-seven  ladies 
availing  themselves  of  our  lectures,  which  is  pretty  good." 


1870,  AGE  31  HENEY  SIDGWICK  225 

the  calamity  l  as  they  now  feel  it,  falls  short  of  the  reality. 
My  view  is  that  Hayman  is  a  well-meaning,  vulgar-souled 
man,  who  will  suit  himself  as  much  as  he  can  to  the  Rugby 
tone,  and  veiy  likely  do  better  there  than  he  has  done  at 
other  inferior  schools — with  plenty  of  intellectual  vigour  of 
an  inferior  quality ;  not  a  humbug,  but  only  what  we  call 
an  impostor  at  Cambridge,  i.e.  a  second-rate  man  who 
conscientiously  thinks  himself  a  first-rate  man. 

The  following  letter  to  his  mother  about  the 
withdrawal  by  Dr.  Temple  of  his  essay  in  Essays  and 
Reviews  was  probably  written  in  February  1870  : — 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  cannot  understand  or  feel 
satisfactory  Dr.  Temple's  explanation  of  his  step.  Both  his 
reasons  seem  to  me  bad  reasons.  Of  course  there  is  a  good 
deal  to  be  said  for  the  view  that  "  what  is  allowed  to  F. 
Temple  is  not  allowed  to  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  " ;  but  at  the 
same  time  the  reason  why  so  many  of  us  rejoiced  at  Dr. 
Temple's  elevation  was  that  we  thought  there  would  now  be 
one  bishop  on  the  bench  who  would  not  take  that  view : 
one  man  who  would  say  and  do  as  Bishop  of  Exeter  exactly 
what  he  would  have  said  and  done  as  Frederick  Temple. 
This  argument  then  is  intelligible  but  distressing  to  me ; 
the  second  reason,  "  that  Essays  and  Reviews  have  up  to  this 
time  been  doing  more  good  than  harm,  but  have  now 
begun  to  do  more  harm  than  good,"  I  do  not  even  under- 
stand. It  seems  to  me  that  the  questions  raised,  e.g. 
by  Wilson  and  Jowett,  are  just  as  important  to  keep 
before  the  public  mind  now  as  they  were  to  put  before  it 
then ;  and  the  essays  in  which  they  were  argued  were 
certainly  more  thoughtful  and  exhaustive  than  most  of  what 
is  written  on  the  subject ;  and  that  I  say,  disagreeing 
intensely  with  the  fundamental  view  of  Wilson. 

At  the  same  time  I  quite  think,  and  keep  saying  here, 
that  the  Bishop's  speech  in  Convocation  was  very  courageous  ; 

1  The  appointment  of  Dr.  H.  Hayman  as  Headmaster  of  Rugby,  on  Dr. 
Temple  becoming  Bishop  of  Exeter.  The  trouble  arising  out  of  this 
appointment  continued  till  Hayman's  dismissal  in  1873,  and  naturally 
occupied  Sidgwick  a  good  deal  on  account  of  his  interest  in  his  old  school,  as 
well  as  his  brother  Arthur's  position  in  it. 

Q 


226  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

he  has  said  for  his  collaborators  in  E[ssays  and]  R[eviews\ 
what  none  of  his  friends  dared  to  say  when  the  question  of 
his  appointment  was  being  discussed,  and  what  is  hardly 
reconcilable  with  the  apologia  that  some  of  them — e.g.  E.  W. 
B[enson] — made  for  him. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  most  Liberals  that  I  see  speak 
more  strongly  against  the  Bishop  than  I  have  written.  In 
fact,  I  almost  always  find  myself  defending  him.  At  the 
same  time  I  do  not  think  the  thing  very  important.  I 
cannot  but  believe  that  controversies  and  changes  are  im- 
pending over  the  Church  of  England  which  will  quite  drive 
out  of  our  recollection  this  tempest  in  a  tea-cup.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  busy,  as  a  part  of  the  ladies'  lectures  has 
fallen  on  me,  besides  secretarial  work. 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge  on  April  8 

You  will  see  that  our  ladies'  lectures  are  doing  so  far 
very  nicely.  There  is  sure  to  be  a  reaction,  the  people 
who  have  gone  into  the  thing  for  amusement  getting 
tired  of  it,  and  the  question  is  how  we  shall  tide  over  that. 
No  doubt  many  experiments  are  necessary  before  the  exact 
form  which  the  higher  education  of  women  ought  to  take 
can  be  determined.  .  .  .  Mill  has  come  forward  like  a  woman  ! 

I  have  not  written  anything  more  in  the  Pall  Mall.1  I 
have  written  a  pamphlet  in  the  same  sense  which  will 
perhaps  be  printed — on  the  text,  "Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  -  That  is  really  the  gist  of 
the  pamphlet — that  if  the  preachers  of  religion  wish  to 
retain  their  hold  over  educated  men  they  must  show  in 
their  utterances  on  sacred  occasions  the  same  sincerity, 
exactness,  unreserve,  that  men  of  science  show  in  expound- 
ing the  laws  of  nature.  I  do  not  think  that  much  good  is 
to  be  done  by  saying  this,  but  I  want  to  liberate  my  soul, 
and  then  ever  after  hold  my  peace. 

1  He  had  written  a  long  letter  on  "Clerical  Engagements"  in  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  of  January  6,  1869. 

2  The  pamphlet,  Ethics  of  Conformity  and  Subscription,  written  for  the 
Free  Christian  Union,  see  p.  190. 


1370,  AGE  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  227 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  towards  the  end  of  May 

Here  we  are  all  quiet  and  prosperous.  I  am  very  well 
so  far :  rather  hard  at  work  with  a  variety  of  teachings. 
Have  you  got  me  any  subscriptions  for  our  ladies'  lectures  ? 

I  have  read  the  greater  part  of  Disraeli's  novel  [Lothair], 
and  do  not  think  it  equal  to  the  best  of  his  earlier  ones. 
But  it  is  very  light  and  amusing  reading.  I  do  not  think 
I  have  read  anything  else  lately  except  Eossetti's  poems. 
Some  of  these  are  splendid  ;  but  they  require  selecting,  and 
I  should  not  exactly  recommend  the  whole  book. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Ostend,  June  26 

I  have  been  intending  to  write  to  you  for  some  time, 
but  wanted  to  write  about  what  it  is  at  the  same  time 
difficult  for  me  to  write  about.  You  mentioned  a  poem  to 
be  addressed  to  me  de  rebus  divinis.  This  would  interest 
and  gratify  me ;  but  I  feel  that  you  do  not  perhaps  know 
my  religious  views  exactly — just  because  I  do  not  generally 
feel  called  on  to  preciser  them — and  that  on  this  occasion  I 
must  not  let  myself  be  taken  for  a  prophet,  being  something 
quite  different. 

The  truth  is — if  Clough  had  not  lived  and  written,  I 
should  probably  be  now  exactly  where  he  was.  I  have  not 
solved  in  any  way  the  Gordian  Knot  which  he  fingered.1  I 
can  neither  adequately  rationalise  faith,  nor  reconcile  faith 
and  reason,  nor  suppress  reason.  But  this  is  just  the 
benefit  of  an  utterly  veracious  man  like  Clough,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  any  one,  however  sympathetic,  to  remain 
where  he  was.  He  exposes  the  ragged  edges  of  himself. 
One  sees  that  in  an  irreligious  age  one  must  not  let  oneself 
drift,  or  else  the  rational  element  of  oneself  is  dispropor- 
tionately expressed  and  developed  by  the  influence  of 
environment,  and  one  loses  the  fidelity  to  one's  true  self. 
This  last  is  the  point :  I  do  not  feel  called  or  able  to  preach 
religion  except  as  far  as  it  is  involved  in  fidelity  to  one's 
true  self.  I  firmly  believe  that  religion  is  normal  to 

1  To  finger  idly  some  old  Gordian  knot, 
And  with  much  toil  attain  to  half-believe. 


228  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

mankind,  and  therefore  take  part  unhesitatingly  in  any 
social  action  to  adapt  and  sustain  it  (as  far  as  a  layman 
may).  I  know  also  that  my  true  self  is  a  Theist,  but  I  believe 
that  many  persons  are  really  faithful  to  themselves  in  being 
irreligious,  and  I  do  not  feel  able  to  prophesy  to  them.  If 
I  have  any  complaint  against  them,  it  is  not  that  they  do 
not  believe  in  a  God,  but  that  they  are  content  with,  happy 
in,  a  universe  where  there  is  no  God  ;  but  many  of  them  are 
not  content,  and  to  these  I  have  nothing  to  say,  not  being 
able  to  argue  the  matter  on  any  common  ground. 

The  passionate  personal  yearnings  which  you  put  into 
your  verse  I  do  not  feel,  though  I  am  wrought  to  much 
sympathy  when  you  express  them.  But  for  myself  I  could 
be  quite  happy  in  the  Garden  of  Eden — nay,  in  such 
"  gardens  of  Epicurus  "  as  lie  open  to  me,  but  into  which 
I  cannot  go  from  a  world  so  full  of  sorrow. 

I  have  read  your  poems  through  again.  I  certainly  do 
not  understand  how  any  [one]  can  fail  to  be  fascinated  from 
time  to  time  by  the  combination  of  great  freshness  (and 
generally  intensity)  of  feeling  with  finished  elastic  stateliness 
of  style.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Ostend  on  July  1 

I  am,  as  you  will  see,  still  here;  the  truth  is  I  am 
divided  between  a  sense  of  the  great  salubrity  of  the  air 
for  [hay  fever]  (the  difference  between  this  place  and 
Dover  is  unaccountable  but  clear)  and  a  desire  to  get  to 
Berlin,  which  I  want  to  see  again  as  the  capital  of  a  united 
Germany — partly  united,  that  is,  "in  shpots,"  as  Hans 
Breitmann  says.  ...  I  shall  stay  in  Germany,  I  think, 
till  the  end  of  September  (subtracting  the  time  spent  in 
the  mountains).  I  am  reading  German  books,  and  I  have 
a  sort  of  notion  of  making  a  sort  of  tour  of  the  Universities. 
September,  however,  being  vacation,  is  a  bad  time  to  see 
them,  and  therefore  my  plan  is  uncertain.  ...  I  am  always 
in  hopes  that  the  remarkable  unity  of  feeling  among  the 
[Eugby]  masters — supposing  they  all  manage  to  stay — will 
make  up  to  Rugby  for  the  dulness,  or  worse,  of  the  head. 


1870,  AGK  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  229 

If  this  once  breaks  down,  they  will  certainly  all  be  glad 
to  go. 

To  his  Mother  from  Berlin  a  week  or  so  later 

Heat  at  last ;  and  heat  in  Berlin  is  heat.  Drainage  also 
is  difficult,  as  the  river  is  rather  higher  than  most  other 
parts  of  the  surface.  However,  I  shall  exist  for  a  fortnight. 
Also  we  have  raised  all  our  prices  since  we  became  the 
metropolis  of  North  Germany,  and  my  money  is  melting 
away  like  ice  when  you  leave  the  spoon  in  it. 

In  the  next  letter  to  his  mother,  written  on 
July  10,  we  see  the  approach  of  the  Franco-German 
War :— 

I  have  got  permission  to  read  in  the  Library  here,  and 
shall  probably  stay  some  days.  Then  I  shall  go  either  to 
Halle  or  Gottingen.  I  read  no  English,  and  the  im- 
mersion in  a  different  set  of  words  and  ideas  is  entertaining 
enough.  .  .  . 

Are  people  afraid  of  war  in  England  ?  We  are  taking 
it  very  coolly  here ;  the  papers  affect  to  be  amused  with 
the  French.  I  saw  just  now  the  following  ingenious 
advertisement : — 

FROM  PARIS.     EXTRA  POST. 

Our  new  great -coat,  much  resembling 

that  generally  called 

THE  SPANISH 

Ought  to  be  bought  by  every  one  who  has  not 
DECLARED    WAR 

against 
Parisian  Fashion. 

So  you  see  we  feel  able  to  make  a  joke  of  the  thing. 
This  was  five  days  before  war  was  declared. 

To  F.  W.  Cornish,  July  17 

I  have  been  intending  to  write  to  you  as  soon  as  I  felt 
equal  to  an  entertaining  epistle.  But  this  now  seems  an 


230  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

indefinite  delay.  Not  on  account  of  Bad  Digestion,  Blighted 
Affections,  or  any  of  the  received  causes  of  melancholy,  but 
because  I  am  engaged  in  a  hopeless  struggle  with  the  Hegelian 
philosophy. 

Day  after  day  I  sit  down  to  my  books  with  a  firm 
determination  to  master  the  German  Heraclitus,  and  as 
regularly  I  depart  to  my  Mittagsessen  with  a  sense  of  hope- 
less defeat.  No  difficulty  of  any  other  writer  can  convey 
the  least  conception  even  of  the  sort  of  difficulty  that  I  find 
in  Hegel.  My  only  consolation  is  (just  as  they  say  that  a 
Eussian's  linguistic  aptitude  is  due  to  his  extremely  jaw-break- 
ing vernacular)  that  every  other  philosophical  work  I  take  up 
seems  easy.  But  no  amount  of  difficulty  alone  would  distress 
my  spirit  if  there  was  not  added  the  paralysing  doubt 
whether,  after  all,  I  am  not  breaking  my  head  over  highly 
profound  nonsense.  For  it  is  rather  a  sense  of  professional 
duty  than  any  natural  instinct  which  has  forced  me  to  this. 
For  there  is  no  doubt  that  Hegelianism  is  on  the  increase 
— everywhere  except  in  Germany.  Here,  they  tell  me,  the 
Hegelian  School  are  all  old  professors ;  there  is  not  a 
Hegelian  Privat-docent  to  be  found.  As  far  as  I  can  make 
out,  the  prevailing  views  here  are  much  the  same  as  those 
in  England :  Empiricism,  Materialism,  a  very  indefinite 
idealism,  and  Kantism — only  that  they  take  their  Kantism 
pure,  and  we  take  ours  mixed,  in  the  form  of  Hamilton  and 
Mansel. 

However,  I  did  not  intend  [to]  bore  you  with  so  much 
shop — and  indeed  most  of  us  are  now  thinking  of  quite 
different  things.  The  newspapers  are  driving  a  thriving 
trade ;  they  all  of  them  sell  '  Extra-Blatts '  about  three 
times  a  day.  Really  it  is  a  serious  thought  how  much 
self-sacrifice  it  must  require  on  the  part  of  Able  Editors  not 
to  fan  the  flames  of  war — especially  in  the  keen  competition 
of  journals  which  one  has  here. 

Certainly  it  seems  to  me  that  the  guilt  of  this  war  is  as 
unequally  divided  as  is  possible  in  human  quarrels ;  at  the 
same  time  I  persist  in  thinking  that  the  war  could  have 
been  avoided  by  Prussia.  That  is  because  I  have  more 


mo,  AGE  32  HENKY  SIDGWICK  231 

belief  in  the  Sentimental  Politics  of  Ollivier  than  my 
friends  here.  I  think  he  is  an  honest  man,  though  with 
absolutely  no  statesmanlike  qualities :  and  therefore  that,  if 
Prussia  had  simply  declined,  with  extreme  suavity  of  mode, 
to  comply  with  the  ridiculous  demands  of  Benedetti,  he 
would  not  have  felt  himself  able  to  make  it  a  casus  belli. 
Only  these  Europeans  have  perfectly  mediseval  notions  of 
their  "  honour  "  and  the  bloodshed  that  it  requires.  As  to 
the  prospects  of  the  war,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  all  depends 
on  the  French  preventing  the  union  of  North  and  South 
Germany.  I  do  not  think  the  Southerners  will  remain 
neutral,  and  therefore  the  French  must  paralyse  the  co-opera- 
tion of  North  and  South  by  a  sudden  coup.  I  expect  to 
hear  of  their  making  a  dash  at  Frankfort. 

I  have  not  the  slightest  idea  where  you  are,  and  there- 
fore feel  that  this  letter  will  be  probably  stupider  when  it 
reaches  you  than  it  was  originally.  It  is  very  interesting 
being  here.  I  am  fond  of  Berlin,  and  think  the  Prussians 
have  improved  since  I  was  last  here — there  is  less  self- 
assertion  about  them. 

If  you  are  in  Germany  you  are  perhaps  reading  novels. 
It  is  very  difficult  to  find  out  what  the  really  good  German 
novels  are ;  there  is  a  want  of  able  criticism  of  belles  lettres, 
or  I  do  not  know  where  to  look  for  it.  As  I  make  out 
there  are  five  people  worth  reading  in  their  way,  besides 
Fritz  Eeuter,  whose  "  Platt "  I  do  not  want  to  try  just  yet, 
viz.  Auerbach,  Gutzkow,  Freytag,  Hacklander,  and  Spiel- 
hagen.  Of  these  Hacklander  is  the  lowest — writes,  I 
mean,  for  the  lowest  public,  and  sacrifices  everything  to 
amusing  them ;  but  there  is  always  very  good  workmanship 
in  his  books  and  some  real  humour.  Auerbach  and  Frey- 
tag you  probably  know.  Auerbach  seems  to  me  a  real 
poet,  but  is  liable  to  be  terribly  tedious,  and  is  too  senti- 
mental for  my  taste :  only  that  one  always  feels  him  a  man 
of  genius.  Gutzkow,  too,  seems  to  me  a  man  of  genius  and 
of  profound,  penetrating,  reckless  insight  into  life  and 
society ;  but  he  does  not  quite  know  how  to  tell  a  story. 
Spielhagen  is  a  little  of  everything ;  he  is  hardly  known  in 


232  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

England,  and  is,  I  fancy,  young,  as  in  both  of  the  books  of 
his  that  I  have  read  all  the  female  characters  fall  in  love 
with  the  hero,  which  is  a  somewhat  juvenile  cast  of  plot. 
Almost  all  the  German  novels  have  a  Purpose ;  Heyse's 
tales  are  the  great  exception ;  I  read  and  reread  these  with 
increased  admiration  of  their  workmanship. 

Oh  this  War !  It  does  make  one  despise  one's  genera- 
tion that  it  should  be  possible.  I  have  always  disliked  the 
"  principle  of  non-intervention " ;  it  now  seems  to  me 
"  damnable  selfishness."  If  we  had  not  ostentatiously 
isolated  ourselves  in  past  years,  we  might  have  stopped 
this.  Now  I  suppose  it  is  impossible.  Russia,  I  suppose, 
will  prefer  the  role  of  e<£efy>o?,  or  at  any  rate  will  intervene 
later.  One  feels  that  it  serves  Bismarck  right,  and  so  these 
dear,  honest,  peace-loving  Achivi  must  suffer.  It  is  very 
hard  to  read  Hegel  in  the  midst  of  it. 

To  his  Mother  about  the  same  time 

[After  some  remarks  on  the  war  he  continues]  You  ask 
me  what  is  the  "  good "  of  such  a  poem  as  [Rossetti's] 
"Jenny."  I  do  not  quite  know  whether  you  mean  to 
siiggest  (1)  that  the  subject  is  too  disagreeable  to  be  fit 
for  poetry,  or  (2)  that  the  moral  effect  is  likely  to  be  bad. 
The  latter  I  should  scarcely  think  myself,  as  there  is  not  a 
particle  of  morbid  imagination  in  it,  no  idealising  of  vice. 
It  seemed  to  me  a  perfectly  truthful  delineation  of  common- 
place fact — indeed  the  pathetic  effect  of  the  poem  is 
intended  to  spring  from  its  fidelity  to  commonplace.  As 
for  the  first  objection,  I  should  be  inclined  perhaps  to  admit 
it — only  one  would  limit  the  range  of  tragedy  a  good  deal  if 
one  excluded  all  disagreeable  subjects.  One  would  cut  off 
several  of  Shakespeare's  plays  for  example.  I  do  not  myself 
think  that  one  can  demand  that  all  literature  shall  be 
adapted  for  young  ladies'  reading,  though  one  rejoices  that 
so  much  of  our  best  literature  is  so  adapted. 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Berlin,  Jidy  21 
I  have  been  delaying  to  write  to  you  partly  because  I 


1870,  AGE  32  HENKY  SIDGWICK  233 

wished  to  talk  about  Hegel;  but  I  can't  sum  up  yet  on 
him  :  I  am  too  bewildered.  Here  are  scraps  : — 

The  Germans  say  that  all  the  Hegelian  teachers  (toler- 
ably numerous)  are  old  men.  Of  the  young  men  the  few 
who  take  to  philosophy  regard  the  post-Kantian  philosophy 
as  (at  best)  a  valuable  and  suggestive  forecast  or  imagina- 
tion of  the  work  of  philosophy :  but  for  what  they  actually 
believe,  go  back  to  Kant.  The  post-Kantian  philosophy  is 
a  tower  of  Babel,  intended  to  unite  earth  and  heaven.  After 
Hegel  the  work  stopped  because  of  the  confusion  of  tongues. 

...  I  am  rather  distracted  from  Hegel  by  this  war, 
which  disgusts  me  profoundly.  All  the  bad  passions  of 
these  highly  educated  people  are  coming  out :  not  that  I 
am  surprised.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Halle,  July  30 

I  stay  here  till  Thursday  —  the  University  closes 
on  Wednesday.  I  intend  to  bring  my  own  studies  to  a 
close  sooner  than  I  should  otherwise  have  done.  They 
have  not  been  quite  as  profitable  as  I  expected,  partly  from 
my  own  want  of  energy,  partly  from  the  nature  of  the 
subject, — my  opinion  as  to  German  philosophy  having 
altered  itself  somewhat  on  nearer  inspection, — but  chiefly 
from  the  excitement  of  the  war.  .  .  . 

Certainly  it  has  been  very  exciting  in  Berlin,  partly 
from  my  sympathy  with  the  Germans,  and  partly  from  the 
melancholy  interest  of  watching  a  people  pass — all  together, 
high  and  low,  cultivated  and  uncultivated — from  a  state  of 
good-humoured  tranquillity  to  one  of  raging  indignation. 
Indignation  highly  moral  and  religious  (they  believe  utterly 
in  the  justice  of  their  cause,  and  that  Providence  has 
demented  the  monster  in  Paris,  previous  to  ruining  him 
utterly,  and  means  to  overrule  his  wicked  designs  to  the 
effecting  of  the  union  of  Germany),  but  indignation  which 
renders  them  quite  blind  to  the  French  view  of  the  case, 
and  finds  vent  in  needlessly  coarse  expressions  of  hatred 
towards  Louis  Napoleon  and  his  wife.  Why  the  Empress 
is  dragged  in,  you  may  not  guess.  She  is  supposed  to 


234  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

have  wanted  the  Prince  of  Hohenzollern  to  marry  a  relative 
of  hers,  and  to  have  been  infuriated  by  his  refusing  to 
pledge  himself  thereto.  This  canard  is  taken  here  quite 
seriously. 

Just  now  my  own  position  is  slightly  uncomfortable. 
There  is  much  wrath  against  England  for  "shain  neutrality." 
Every  one  asks :  "  Does  England  then  want  another 
Alabama  Question  ? "  Certainly  the  conduct  of  the  English 
Government  seems  to  me  short-sightedly  timid,  if  it  be 
true  that  cartridges  are  openly  sent  to  France  by  Birming- 
ham firms.  Also  I  am  obliged  to  allow  that  there  is 
something  cowardly  in  Granville's  extreme  anxiety  not  to 
offend  France,  and  to  keep  the  balance  of  praise  and  blame 
even.  It  seems  to  me  quite  true  that  both  parties  have 
taken  offence  too  easily  (one  is  reminded  that  in  this  society, 
duelling  is  regarded  as  an  inevitable  necessity),  but  to  say 
this  and  no  more  seems  to  me  a  stupid  injustice.  All  one 
ought  to  say  is  that  Prussia  did  not  do  her  utmost  to  pre- 
vent the  war  which  France  did  her  utmost  to  provoke. 

To  Mrs.  Clough  from,  Halle  on  July  30  and  August  2 

I  really  owe  much  to  your  introduction,  as  I  gained  the 
use  of  the  Royal  Library  by  it,  which  the  Geheimrath  kindly 
vouchsafed  me.  ...  It  happened  to  be  just  the  turning- 
point  between  peace  and  war,  and  I  was  struck  almost  with 
consternation,  in  talking  to  the  Geheimrath,  by  the  vehe- 
ment expression  of  martial  ferocity  that  depicted  itself  on 
his  amiable  learned  countenance  and  issued  from  the 
midst  of  his  mild  Teutonic  beard. 

Since  then  I  have  seen  how  intense  and  profound  the 
feeling  is  which  inspires  Germany  now.  The  fact  is  1870 
links  itself  on  to  1814.  The  national  regeneration,  one 
may  almost  say  birth,  of  Germany  is  identified  with  the 
war  of  liberation — war  against  Napoleon  I. :  and  it  seems 
as  if  their  hatred  of  France  was  but  another  side  of 
their  patriotism.  It  has  been  very  interesting  to  me  to 
be  in  Berlin  all  this  time :  though  somewhat  painful,  as 
I  am  too  cold-blooded  to  sympathise  with  the  martial 


1870,  AGE  32  HENRY  SIDGWICK  235 

ardour,  and  am  even  disgusted  by  the  coarse  abuse  of 
Napoleon  with  which  the  journals  abound.  I  do  not 
think  we  were  so  bad  in  England  during  the  Crimean  War. 
But  the  Germans  are  certainly  naif,  and  do  not  under- 
stand the  art  of  innuendo.  Just  now  they  are  very 
wrathful  against  England ;  and  when  I  pay  a  visit  to  a 
Professor  to  whom  I  have  a  letter  of  introduction,  hoping 
to  discuss  with  him  Divine  Philosophy,  he  explains  to  me, 
with  vehement  gestures,  that  England  is  a  country  of 
cowards,  and  has  made  herself  contemptible  in  the  eyes 
of  the  civilised  world.1  .  .  . 

.  .  .  We  have  had  the  most  splendid  thunderstorms 
here.  I  live  in  the  swell  quarter  of  Halle,  on  the  "  Pro- 
menade," which  is  pretty  enough  to  become  thoroughly 
scenic  with  a  thunderstorm  about  sunset.  I  think  the 
most  prosaic  person  could  not  help  taking  the  thunder- 
storm symbolically.  Reading  the  journals — I  cannot  refrain 
from  absorbing  three  or  four  daily — gives  me  just  the  same 
headache  in  spirit  as  the  approach  of  a  storm  in  body. 
The  flashes  are  beginning. 

I  am  oppressed  too  by  consciousness  of  my  nationality, 
as  the  feeling  against  England  grows  bitterer,  and  every 
day  I  feel  less  able  to  defend  the  conduct  of  our  Govern- 
ment. There  is  a  smart  levity  in  Grauville's  utterances, 
and  an  unctuous,  long-winded  unmeaningness  in  Gladstone's, 
which  seem  to  me,  as  I  read  them  here,  to  hide  cowardice 
and  impotence.  Then  I  cannot  understand  there  being 
any  doubt  about  Bismarck's  document.  It  seems  to  me  as 
clear  as  day  that  he  is  speaking  the  strict  truth,  and  that 
the  French  are  lying  and  prevaricating. 

1  Sidgwick  used  to  describe  how  on  this  tour  when  he  presented  a  letter 
of  introduction  to  a  Professor  at  one  of  the  Universities  he  visited,  the 
conversation  fell  on  the  subject  of  England's  neutrality,  and  the  argument 
being  conducted  in  the  German  tongue,  the  Professor  got  the  best  of  it. 
The  next  day,  however,  the  Professor  returned  the  call,  and  out  of  polite- 
ness made  English  the  language  of  communication.  Sidgwick,  seeing  his 
opportunity,  turned  the  conversation  on  England's  neutrality  again,  when 
the  positions  were  reversed  ;  all  the  disadvantages  which  he  had  suffered 
the  day  before  from  comparative  want  of  command  of  the  language  were 
now  experienced  by  his  interlocutor,  the  veins  on  whose  forehead  swelled 
with  the  effort  to  bring  out  the  answers  he  wished. 


236  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Bismarck  has  played  with  the  French  diplomacy  and 
completely  outwitted  and  exposed  it.  I  confess  that  my 
admiration  for  this  man  is  growing.  Did  you  ever  con- 
template his  photograph  ?  it  seems  to  me  very  expressive — 
broad,  intellectual  forehead,  intense  subtlety  (becoming 
astuteness)  about  brows,  eyes,  and  mouth,  genuine  benevo- 
lence in  the  latter,  tho'  hardly  visible  in  the  general  effect 
of  resolute  force  which  the  whole  face  gives.  His  speeches 
always  give  me  the  same  impression — astuteness  under  the 
control  of  honesty,  and  tempered  by  frank  direct  vigour.1 
If  the  Prussian  generals  are  only  as  superior  to  the  French 
as  the  Prussian  statesmen  are,  the  war  will  soon  be  over. 

To  his  Mother  from  Munich,  August  9 

I  find  it  hard  to  leave  Germany  in  this  exciting  time. 
I  could  not  go  to  Gottingen ;  the  lines  were  too  much 
occupied  with  transport  of  soldiers.  I  got  to  Nuremberg 
with  some  difficulty :  there  was  only  one  slow  train  in  the 
day  for  non-militaries,  and  that  at  most  inconvenient  times. 
I  had  to  spend  three  hours  at  a  junction,  from  11  to  2  at 
night.  I  am  very  well,  and  have  left  off  working.  I  enjoy 
seeing  these  towns  and  hearing  the  talk  of  the  people. 
Certainly  this  is  a  grand  time  for  Germany.  I  do  not 
mean  the  victories,  though  of  course  the  exultation  over 
them  is  immense :  but  the  consciousness  that  the  whole 
people  is  at  length  united  in  a  just  cause  :  that  has  an 
elevating  effect. 

To  his  Mother  on  August  27 

I  write  this  in  a  miserable  inn  at  Friedrichshafen,  on 
the  Lake  of  Constance,  very  much  out  of  humour. 

I  will  briefly  describe  my  course  since  I  wrote 
last.  The  trifling  ailment,  my  allusion  to  which  you 
probably  did  not  notice,  .  .  .  threatened  to  prevent  my 
walking  at  all.  Therefore,  after  a  delightful  day  at  Inns- 
bruck (which  was  beautiful  as  a  dream),  I  gave  up  the  idea 

1  Later  revelations,  of  course,  modified  this  view  of  Bismarck's  character, 
as  well  as  of  his  share  of  responsibility  for  the  war. 


1870,  AGE  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  237 

of  mountaineering  for  the  present  and  went  to  Venice, 
Verona,  and  Milan. 

My  three  days  at  Venice  were  perfect:  quite  fine,  no 
mosquitoes,  just  hot  enough  to  make  the  shade  of  the 
gondola  delicious.  Venice  is  the  only  town  I  know  which 
realises  the  word  "  enchanted,"  partly  from  the  fantastic 
and  strange  character  of  the  place.  The  first  night  I  came, 
I  could  not  tear  myself  away  from  the  Piazza  di  S.  Marco 
and  the  Riva  Dei  Schiavoni.  Sleep  did  not  seem  to  be  a 
part  of  the  programme. 

From  Milan  I  went  to  Bellaggio,  which  I  found  fully 
as  fascinating  as  I  did  ten  years  ago.  Then  over  the 
Maloja  to  Pontresina,  which  I  reached  on  the  22nd,  and 
found  your  two  letters,  but  none  from  William  or  Arthur. 
Under  the  circumstances,  being  fearful  of  much  walking, 
and  also  intending  to  be  in  England  by  the  1st  of 
September,  I  determined  to  take  a  taste  of  the  Alps  at 
Pontresina  and  then  leave  Switzerland.  My  only  doubt 
was  whether  to  try  France  or  Germany.  From  Chur  there 
did  not  seem  much  difference  as  to  shortness  in  space,  and 
though  the  French  express  trains  would  be  shorter  in  time, 
there  seemed  more  chance  of  being  stopped  near  Paris.  So 
I  determined  to  try  Germany,  especially  as  they  told  me 
at  Chur  that  I  could  get  through  to  Stuttgart  in  a  day. 
Which  has  proved  false :  I  am  detained  six  hours  here, 
and  shall  not  get  to  Stuttgart  to-night.  However,  I  shall 
no  doubt  come  out  at  Cologne  after  a  day  or  two,  and  then 
it  will  be  comparatively  plain  sailing. 

...  I  shall  be  hard  at  work  from  the  time  I  get  back 
till  Term  begins.  My  studies  in  July  suggested  to  me  to 
recast  my  lectures  for  next  term,  and  I  want  to  carry  out 
the  idea  thoroughly.  .  .  . 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Cambridge  on  September  8 

Yes,  I  think  before  I  left  Halle — though  the  University 
closed  much  sooner  than  usual,  and  I  left  the  place  feeling 
rather  uncomfortable  just  then  as  a  "  member  of  the  low- 
minded  trading  community  who  were  then  selling  coals  and 


238  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

cartridges  to  the  enemies  of  the  Fatherland  " — still,  before 
I  left  Halle  I  had  made  up  my  mind  about  Hegel  for  the 
present.  No,  I  shall  read  no  more  of  it :  not  of  Hegel  in 
the  German  language.  But  if  Hegelianism  shows  itself  in 
England  I  feel  equal  to  dealing  with  it.  The  method  seems 
to  me  a  mistake,  and  therefore  the  system  a  ruin ;  there 
may  be  "gold  to  be  dug  there,"  as  Carlyle  says,  but  I  have 
no  time  to  dig  for  it  amid  the  scoriae.  But  there  are  some 
great  broad  truths,  independent  of  the  method,  and  lying 
safe  at  the  base  of  the  system ;  with  Hegel's  intense  grasp 
of  these  I  sympathise  strongly,  and  to  it  I  attribute  the 
success  of  his  philosophy,  e.g.  generally  speaking,  the  re- 
action from  the  formalism,  phenomenalism,  ultra -subject- 
ivism of  Kant.  That  the  Universe  is  essentially  and 
fundamentally  rational ;  the  laws  of  the  subject  and  the 
object  harmonious ;  history  the  evolution  of  the  human 
spirit,  etc.  etc. — all  this  is  well  enough.  And  I  do  not 
say  that  the  science  of  metaphysics  will  not  ultimately  be 
constructed  in  the  way  that  Hegel  tried  to  construct  it,  by 
patiently  thinking  out  the  meaning  of  our  most  general  and 
fundamental  notions,  and  their  relation  to  each  [other]. 
But  that  that  relation  is  not  the  Dialectical  Evolution  of 
Hegel  I  have  no  doubt.  .  .  . 

After  I  gave  up  work  I  had  a  beautiful  tour,  admiring 
everything  childishly,  and  more  than  ever  before.  Quaint 
Nuremberg,  Munich  with  its  pathetic,  patient  endeavour  to 
be  a  capital  of  Culture ;  Innsbruck,  beautiful  as  a  dream 
(it  really  was  when  I  saw  it,  chequered  sky,  sunlight  on 
the  town,  thin  clouds  half-veiling  the  exquisitely  grouped 
hills) ;  Venice — mere  fairyland  ;  .  .  .  Milan,  where  I  finally 
placed  the  crown  of  Gothic  architecture  on  the  Cathedral. 
I  met  an  Italian  as  I  walked  and  gazed  who  talked  English  ; 
he  remarked  with  startling  vehemence  that  the  Architect 
who  built  the  Western  Facade  was  a  Beast. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  September  16 

I  arrived  here  after  a  very  successful  journey,  which 
was  only  chequered  by  one  slight  detention  at  Heidelberg 


1870,  AGE  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  239 

after  I  wrote  to  you.  I  slept  at  Ulm,  then  at  Darmstadt. 
Between  these  two  towns  I  travelled  with  an  exceedingly 
bright,  genial  young  German  who  was  on  his  way  to  join 
the  army.  "  He  hoped  he  should  not  be  too  late  for  the 
excursion  to  Paris."  As  far  as  I  could  judge,  just  passing 
through,  intense  exultation  swallowed  up  all  more  painful 
feeling  in  the  German  mind.  I  did  not  happen  to  see  any- 
thing of  the  wounded.  My  fellow-traveller  was  very  eager 
to  learn  what  I  thought  would  be  the  action  of  the  neutrals, 
and  especially  England.  I  told  him  that  whatever  sym- 
pathy we  might  have  for  France  now  was  quite  unselfish, 
as  we  had  no  fear  whatever  of  Germany,  and  if  they  left  a 
burning  hatred  of  themselves  in  the  breasts  of  the  French 
nation,  we,  as  far  as  our  private  interests  went,  would  be 
only  all  the  safer :  but  that  we  thought  that  territorial 
aggrandisement  of  any  kind  would  prevent  an  enduring 
peace.  I  think  he  saw  the  force  of  this :  but  the  Germans 
assume  a  kind  of  pedagogic  air :  they  "  feel  it  a  Stern 
Duty  "  to  inflict  condign  punishment  on  France,  as  a  school- 
master when  he  flogs  an  incorrigible  pupil.  I  think  they 
are  quite  sincere  in  this. 

To  F.  Myers  on  September  19 

I  ...  must  be  in  Cambridge  from  October  1  on,  partly 
for  ladies'  lectures,  partly  to  catch  zealous  pupils  who  are 
to  be  examined  in  November,  and  dialectically  improve  them 
before  term  begins.  ...  I  came  home  from  Germany  earlier 
than  I  intended.  I  could  not  go  back  to  a  University  town 
and  read  philosophy  with  this  war  going  on,  especially  as 
my  sympathies  have  rather  turned  round  of  late.  Somehow 
there  is  something  almost  attractive  about  French  conceit, 
it  disarms  censure  from  its  extravagance ;  but  a  German 
flushed  with  victory,  on  the  one  hand  heavily  expressing 
the  utmost  rigour  of  the  old  barbarous  war -law,  on  the 
other  talking  lengthily  of  his  moral  pre  -  eminence  and 
superlative  civilisedness,  is  not  a  delectable  object  to  con- 
template. 


240  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  October  30 

I  have  been  too  busy  writing  secretarial  letters  to  write 
for  some  time.  .  .  .  The  enclosed  will  show  you  the  degree 
of  success  that  our  scheme  [of  lectures  for  women]  has  had 
so  far  as  applications  go.  It  remains  to  be  seen  what  the 
eating  of  the  pudding  will  be  like.  ...  I  have  had  my 
time  much  taken  up  by  this  business,  and  am  for  once  in 
my  life  very  busy.  There  are  such  a  number  of  small 
things  to  do  in  organisation.  I  am  actually  learning  how 
to  economise  time !  My  feeling  is  that  if  I  was  engaged 
in  practical  business  of  a  definite  kind,  I  could  get  to  do 
it  rather  well,  but  that  practical  affairs  of  an  indefinite 
kind  would  drive  me  wild. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  zeal  here  for  women's  education, 
not  much  fanaticism  and  not  much  serious  opposition.  The 
fact  is  all  the  jokes  have  been  made,  and  refined  people 
feel  that.  I  am  rather  in  hopes  that  we  shall  get  some 
support  from  without,  otherwise  we  shall  no  doubt  dwindle ; 
however,  it  was  right  to  be  ambitious  in  a  University  town. 

To  JF.  Myers  from  Cambridge,  November  5 

Here  we  are  thinking  of  nothing  but  war  and  academic 
reforms. 

Sidgwick  describes,  in  the  reminiscences  contri- 
buted to  the  biography  of  C.  H.  Pearson,  the  part 
that  the  latter  used  to  take  in  these  discussions  on 
the  war : — 

I  remember  vividly  to  this  day  how  in  the  Michaelmas 
Term  of  1870,  at  the  critical  time  of  the  German  invasion 
of  France — when  even  rigidly  conscientious  students  were 
found  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  reading  newspapers  in 
the  morning — Pearson  adopted  the  view  that  the  French 
resistance  to  the  invaders  was  going  to  succeed.  He  stood 
alone  among  us  in  this  opinion ;  but  his  knowledge  of  the 
military  facts,  and  of  historical  struggles  more  or  less 
analogous,  was  so  copious  and  minute,  and  his  power  of 


1870,  AGE  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  241 

handling  his  material  so  masterly,  that  night  after  night,  at 
the  end  of  the  postprandial  debate,  we  sat  silenced,  though 
unconvinced,  and  Pearson's  hypothesis  manifestly  held  the 
field.  The  next  morning  would  bring  new  evidence  on  our 
side,  which  seemed  overwhelming  as  we  read  the  papers ; 
but  when  we  met  again  in  the  evening  we  found  that  Pearson 
had  changed  his  front  so  as  to  resist  effectively  the  new 
onset  of  facts,  or  even  to  convert  them  into  arguments  for 
his  own  conclusion.  The  performance  as  I  recall  it  was 
really  a  dialectical  masterpiece ;  all  the  more  impressive 
from  the  serious  conviction  with  which  the  protean  paradox 
was  continually  maintained. 

To  his  Mother,  November  14 

.  .  .  Tell  Arthur  that  we  lost  "  the  whole  ticket "  at 
the  elections  to  Council.  But  I  do  not  think  it  will  much 
matter.  The  questions  which  are  coming  to  the  front  now 
in  Academic  affairs  are  not  of  a  party  character.  And  we 
are  certainly  not  party  men.  The  longer  I  live  the  more 
strongly  I  feel  our  immunity  in  this  respect.  No  one  is 
ever  long  angry  with  any  one  else ;  and  every  one  (except 
a  few  cantankerous  persons)  is  always  trying  to  find  a  way 
of  reconciling  himself  with  his  opponents.  I  am  sorry  to 
see  that  this  is  not  so  in  the  Metropolis,  and  that  all  the 
worst  features  of  Parliamentary  elections  are  to  be  intro- 
duced into  the  elections  of  school-boards  in  the  Metropolis. 
I  allowed  my  name  to  be  put  on  Miss  Garrett's  Committee 
for  Marylebone — I  do  not  quite  know  why,  as  I  have  no 
call  to  interfere  in  metropolitan  affairs — but  some  people 
wished  it.  ... 

What  do  you  think  of  Myers's  last  poem  in  Macmillan  ? x 
I  think  it  very  fine,  and  his  being  able  to  write  anything 
so  like  Pope  shows  great  versatility  of  style. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  December  2 

I   am  forced   to   stay  up  at   the   end  of  Term  for   an 
examination  which  begins  on  the   16th.     I  rather  wish  I 
1  "  Implicit  Promise  of  Immortality." 

R 


242  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAV.  iv 

had   declined,  but   I  don't  like  declining  to  do  what   my 
College  asks  me.  .  .  . 

The  Hitchin  Girls  have  come  over  to  pass  the  Little-Go 
examination.  They  are  not,  of  course,  formally  admitted, 
but  the  University  has  given  leave  to  them  to  have  the 
papers,  and  the  examiners  have  consented  to  examine  them. 
I  am  afraid  that  if  they  pass  the  examination,  the  Cambridge 
world  will  not  be  particularly  impressed.  Miss  Garrett's 
triumph  in  London  is  remarkable,  unexpected  by  her  com- 
mittee certainly.  I  do  not  like  the  expense  of  these 
school-board  elections.  We  are  supposed  to  have  managed 
everything  with  as  little  paid  service  as  possible,  and  yet 
we  (not  that  I  am  more  than  a  name)  have  spent  nearly 
£500. 

To  0.  Browning  from  Rugby,  December  24 

I  am  really  sorry  to  decline.  I  always  feel  it  a  defect 
in  my  classic-educational  career  that  I  never  examined  at 
Eton.  But  two  years  ago  I  vowed  never  to  examine  any 
more  schools,  and  on  the  strength  of  this  vow  I  refused 
several,  including  Jex-Blake  at  Cheltenham,  an  old  friend. 
So  I  feel,  on  the  whole,  that  I  cannot  come  to  you.  I  think 
the  vow  was  good,  as  I  am  very  lazy  and  have  a  good  deal 
of  work  that  I  must  do,  if  I  am  to  escape  self-contempt. 
You  will  easily  get  a  much  better  examiner. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  January  15,  1871 
...  I  have  been  detained  here  by  trifling  matters 
connected  with  the  ladies'  lectures.  We  are  just  now  in 
rather  a  peculiar  position — we  have  given  exhibitions,  and 
induced  one  or  two  young  persons  to  come  to  Cambridge, 
but  the  Committee  as  such  does  not  provide  them  any 
accommodation.  This  is  done  advisedly,  because  some 
of  us,  though  they  do  not  object  to  girls  coming  up  to 
Cambridge  to  attend  lectures,  yet  do  not  wish  formally  to 
encourage  them :  still  less  to  be  responsible  for  them.  The 
result  is  that  I  have  semi-ofh'cially  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  comfort  of  these  persons,  or  at  least  to  see  that  no 
difficulty  is  thrown  in  their  way  by  absence  of  provision. 


1871,  AGE  32  HENEY  SIDGWICK  243 

To  his  Mother  on  February  15 

My  ladies'  lectures  are  so  far  going  on  very  well.  I 
am  not  over-sanguine,  knowing  that  fashion  changes,  but 
yet  hopeful  that  we  may  become  a  real  focus  of  improve- 
ment in  female  education.  We  have  now  three  or  four 
"  outsiders  " — I  mean  young  women  who  have  come  to  us 
from  abroad. 

To  Eoden  Nod  (part  of  a  philosophical  correspondence) 

You  see  though  I  hold  strongly  that  the  Eight  is  know- 
able,  if  not  "  absolutely  "  (in  your  sense),  yet  as  an  ideal,  a 
standard  to  which  we  may  indefinitely  approximate,  I  by 
no  means  assert  that  it  is  known,  that  our  general  rules  are 
even  nearly  the  best  possible.  And  I  think  it  probable 
that  the  current  morality  is  faulty  just  in  the  direction  you 
indicate,  by  having  too  general  rigid  rules,  and  not  making 
allowance  enough  for  individual  differences.  At  the  same 
time  I  do  think  the  broad  lines  of  right  conduct  are  pretty 
well  ascertained.  But  I  hope  more  than  most  men  for 
progress  in  ethical  conceptions,  resulting,  as  progress  in 
science  does,  from  observation  and  experiment.  But  just 
as  the  scientific  discoverer  must  not  follow  his  own  whims 
and  fancies  but  earnestly  seek  truth,  so  it  is  not  the  man 
who  abandons  himself  to  impulse,  but  the  man  who,  against 
mere  impulse  and  mere  convention  alike,  seeks  and  does 
what  is  Eight  who  will  really  lead  mankind  to  the  truer 
way,  to  richer  and  fuller  and  more  profoundly  harmonious 
life.  My  ideal  is  a  law  infinitely  constraining  and  yet 
infinitely  flexible,  not  prescribing  perhaps  for  any  two  men 
the  same  conduct,  and  yet  the  same  law,  because  recognised 
by  all  as  objective,  and  always  varying  on  rational  and 
therefore  general  grounds,  "  the  same,"  as  Cicero  says, 
"for  you  and  for  me,  here  and  at  Athens,  now  and  for 
ever." 

The  following  letter,  dated  March  18,  is  his  first 
letter  to  Miss  Clough  about  the  house  for  students 
attending  the  lectures  for  women  at  Cambridge  : — 


244  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

I  have  been  intending  to  write  to  you  some  time  about 
our  educational  schemes  here  in  Cambridge,  but  I  hoped  to 
come  to  London  and  see  you.  Various  things  have  kept 
me  in  Cambridge,  and  will  keep  me  till  Easter.  We  are 
now  in  a  somewhat  critical  stage  of  progress.  It  has 
become  clear  that  we  cannot  leave  our  young  ladies  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  and  that  we  must  make  some  provision 
for  lodging  strangers.  Those  who  are  now  here  are  lodged 
with  private  persons  interested  in  the  scheme.  I  have  now 
engaged  to  open  a  boarding-house  :  vide  enclosed.  The  great 
question  is,  who  will  take  charge  of  the  young  establishment. 
We  are  so  anxious  to  keep  down  the  expenses  that  we  want,  if 
we  can,  to  find  some  one  who  will  give  her  services  without 
requiring  a  salary.  I  am  aware,  of  course,  of  the  general 
objections  to  gratuitous  work :  on  the  other  hand  our  effort 
is  an  exceptional  one :  we  are  passing  through  a  period  of 
changes  and  tentative  experiments :  enthusiasm  has  to  a 
great  extent  started  our  effort,  and  I  intend  to  try  whether 
enthusiasm  will  not  maintain  it  until  this  period  is  past,  and 
we  see  what  the  new  time  has  in  store  for  female  education. 

Now  can  you  tell  me  of  any  one  : — some  one,  if  possible, 
who  would  strengthen  our  hands  ?  If  you  had  not  been 
occupied  with  your  own  important  work,  I  think  I  should 
have  appealed  to  your  enthusiasm. 

To  his  Sister  from  Rugby,  April  9 

"Write  a  line  to  say  how  you  are.  I  am  .  .  .  very  well, 
also  very  lazy,  only  that  I  spend  a  little  of  my  time  in  writ- 
ing on  philosophical  subjects,  partly  what  I  hope  may  some 
day  turn  out  to  be  a  book,  and  partly  articles  and  scraps 
in  the  Academy  and  elsewhere.  Also  letters  and  scraps  in 
the  Cambridge  Reporter}  besides  secretarial  work  for  the 
women's  lectures.  ...  So  I  am  not  found  out  to  be  idle. 
I  send  Programme. 

1  Except  one  or  two  reviews,  the  "letters  and  scraps  "  in  the  Cambridge 
University  Reporter  were  mainly  on  questions  of  academic  reform.  In  the 
Academy  he  was  writing  a  good  deal  at  this  time,  chiefly  reviews  of 
philosophical  works,  and  during  this  year  and  the  next  he  also  contributed 
reviews,  etc.,  to  the  Athenaeum  and  the  Spectator. 


1871,  AGE  32  HENKY  SIDGWICK  245 

To  his  Mother  from,  Cambridge,  May  8  (about  the  son  of 
an  old  friend  of  his  father  s) 

I  have  written  to  F.  H.  offering  to  take  him  in  and  pay 
his  expenses  of  residence  and  education  here  for  three  terms, 
and  to  continue  the  arrangement  for  a  fourth  if  he  gets  a 
first-class  in  his  May  Examination,  only  letting  him  pay  for 
his  dinners  in  the  fourth  term.  The  expense  will  not  be 
much  to  me  if  he  occupies  my  spare  room:1  not  much  over 
£50  as  I  reckon.  I  had  a  very  nice  letter  from  Mrs. 
H. — I  mean  a  letter  which  gave  me  a  pleasant  idea  of 
her — which  convinced  me  that  Cambridge  was  the  best 
opening  they  could  see,  in  spite  of  the  expense  and  dis- 
advantage of  delay.  I  have  made  my  offer  conditional  on 
his  satisfying  me  in  June  (when  our  new-comers  are  tested) 
that  he  has  sufficient  abilities. 

This  offer  to  F.  H.,  which  was  carried  out  in  due 
course,  was  made  after  much  careful  thought  and 
discussion.  Sidgwick  used  to  say  afterwards  that 
this  experience  had  given  him  great  confidence  in 
his  own  power  of  foreseeing  the  exact  amount  of 
personal  inconvenience  that  would  be  involved  in 
any  course  involving  sacrifice  of  comfort,  and  estimat- 
ing whether  the  object  to  be  gained  was  worth  it. 
Going  to  live  in  Newnham  College  when  his  wife  took 
charge  of  the  new  Hall  in  1880  was  a  case  in  point. 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge,  May  17 

[The  Headmasters]  are  urging  us  to  undertake  ex- 
aminations of  Schools  generally,  on  the  principle  of  examining 
whole  schools,  not  head  forms  only.  Kidding  says  openly 
that  he  does  not  think  our  examination  of  the  lower  forms 
likely  to  be  as  good  as  one  conducted  by  the  masters,  but 
he  thinks  the  public  or  the  Government  are  determined  that 
the  schools  shall  be  externally  examined,  and  that  they  had 
rather  we  did  the  work  than  any  one  else.  I  think  it 

1  Sidgwick  had  two  sitting-rooms,  one  within  the  other,  with  a  bedroom 
beyond,  and  a  small  attic  above  entered  separately. 


246  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n 

ridiculous  to  be  so  subservient  to  an  imaginary  public 
(which  I  have  never  heard  clamouring  on  the  subject),  and 
am  sure  that  the  Government  will  not  in  this  matter  like 
to  oppose  the  consensus  of  educators.1  I  want,  therefore, 
to  go  in  strongly  against  this,  and  at  the  same  time  for  an 
"  Abiturienten-examen  "  like  the  German.  I  should  like  to 
know  what  Edward  thinks — and,  besides,  this  is  a  dodge  for 
making  you  write. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  in  May  or  June 

As  far  as  I  have  a  conviction,  I  do  not  believe  in 
deliberate  choice  in  love.  When  I  was  young  and  "  erotion  " 
(cf.  Clough 2)  I  used  to  repeat  to  myself  the  end  of  Iphigenia's 
prayer  (Goethe,  favourite  play  of  mine)  for  wholesome 

warning — 

Ye  Gods,  .  .  . 

in  calm  repose, 

Ye  listen  to  our  prayer,  that  childishly 
Beseeches  you  to  hasten,  but  your  hand 
Ne'er  breaks  unripe  the  golden  fruits  of  heaven. 
And  woe  to  him  who  with  impatient  grasp 
Profanely  plucks  and  eats  unto  his  death 
A  bitter  food. 

(It  is  exquisitely  tender  and  melodious  in  the  German, 
but  you  know  I  do  not  profess  verse-making.) 

.  .  .  Will  you  please  tell  your  mother  that  I  am 
temporarily  supplied  with  a  President  of  my  "  Hall,"  Miss 
Clough  having  promised  to  start  us.  She  only  comes  for 
one  or  two  terms,  so  I  am  still  looking  out,  though  more 
tranquilly,  for  her  successor.  I  am  now  examining  houses. 
This  whole  matter  takes  up  so  much  of  my  time  that  if  I 
were  more  certain  of  my  power  of  producing  good  intellectual 
work,  I  should  doubt  whether  it  was  worth  while ;  but  it  is, 
I  think,  good  for  me.  I  think  I  have  a  tough  carcass 
which  will  take  some  time  wearing  out,  and  that  I  shall 
say  all  I  have  to  say  to  mankind  before  I  die.  Meanwhile, 

1  Compare  a  letter  by  Sidgwick  in  the  Cambridge  University  Reporter  of 
May  24, 1871,  in  which  a  propos  to  this  matter  he  remarks  on  the  "danger  of 
exhausting  our  energies  in  the  improvement  of  all  minds  except  our  own." 

-  Mari  Magno,  Clergyman's  First  Tale. 


1871,  AGE  33  HENKY  SIDGWICK  247 

I  am  forced  more  and  more  into  involuntary  antagonism 
with  Miss  Davies  [see  pp.  210,  211].  She  wrote  to  me  the 
other  day  and  mentioned  affably  that  I  was  the  serpent 
that  was  eating  out  her  vitals. 

To  0.  Browning  on  June,  7 

...  I  am  choosing  a  house  for  our  young  women — 
which  is  a  difficult  task,  as  genteel  Cambridge  is  increasing 
rapidly  in  numbers  owing  to  Enlargement  of  Professoriate, 
Marriage  of  Fellows,  and  Movement  generally,  which,  here 
at  least,  is  against  celibacy.  Female  education  is  centering 
here.  Miss  Davies  is  collecting  funds  to  build  a  college  two 
miles  and  a  half  (or  |)  off.  Thus  we  shall  have  two  systems 
of  Higher  Education  of  "Women  going  on  side  by  side. 
However,  we  are  accustomed  in  Cambridge  to  a  complexity 
of  systems,  and  there  are  plenty  of  fine  old  arguments  to 
prove  that  it  is  rather  a  help  than  a  hindrance.  The  work 
takes  up  my  time  rather,  but  is  very  entertaining.  And 
I  am  growing  fond  of  women.  I  like  working  with  them. 
I  begin  to  sympathise  with  the  pleasures  of  the  mild 
parson. 

.  .  .  Pearson  has  just  left  us  to  waste  his  culture  on 
the  Bush.  So  we  are  looking  for  a  historian.  You  have 
not  in  Editorial  capacity  come  across  any  impecunious 
genius,  I  suppose  ? 

I  am  not  going  to  take  any  real  holiday  this  Long.  I 
have  been  so  disgracefully  idle  all  the  term  that  I  cannot 
in  very  shame.  Also  I  have  no  money,  the  cares  of  a 
householder  being  incumbent.  As  a  friend  puts  it,  I  am 
going  to  have  all  the  fun  of  being  married,  without  the 
burden  of  a  wife. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  early  in  June 

Many  thanks  for  your  remembrance  of  my  birthday.  I 
am  beginning  to  be  sorely  ashamed  of  the  length  of  time 
that  I  have  cumbered  the  earth  without  doing  anything 
worth  doing.  But  I  feel  that  though,  from  various 
reasons,  I  have  remained  immature  too  long,  I  am  now 


248  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

"  grown  up,"  and  I  hope  the  next  ten  years  will  be  different 
from  the  last.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  busy  with  examinations,  writing,  and  looking 
for  my  House.  My  friends  tell  me  that  I  shall  gain  much 
of  the  experience  of  a  Married  Man  before  I  have  done. 
Already  I  find  myself  estimating  the  expense  of  Plate  and 
Linen,  etc.  I  hope  to  come  to  Rugby  about  middle  of  July. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Llandudno,  June  25 

This  is  chiefly  on  business.  A  lady  1 — whom  I  know 
principally  because  I  once  combined  with  her,  when  we 
both  were  younger,  in  a  society  for  mutual  improvement  by 
means  of  correspondence — has  written  a  paper  on  the 
Advisability  of  educating  Rural  Young  Women  by  means 
of  Correspondence,  which  has  been  submitted  to  me.  I, 
as  it  seems  to  be  my  destiny  to  do  these  things,  and  as, 
on  reflection  and  consultation  with  persons  interested  in 
the  Cause,  .  .  .  the  plan  seemed  worth  trying,  have  under- 
taken to  try  and  organise  a  system  of  Education  by  Post, 
preparatory  (at  any  rate  at  starting)  for  the  Cambridge 
Examinations,  and  in  connection  to  some  extent  with  our 
lectures — that  is,  I  shall  ask  the  lecturers,  generally  speaking, 
in  the  first  instance  to  undertake  the  work,  unless  more 
competent  people  elsewhere  occur  to  me. 

Now  I  want  to  ask  you  as  Superintendent  of  English  for 
Home  Study  (aut  si  quid,  etc.),  what  your  colleagues  and 
pupils  are  likely  to  think  of  this.  ...  I  ought  to  give  you 
the  main  points  of  my  scheme  as  at  present  contemplated. 
.  .  .  Systematic  Instruction  in  variety  of  subjects  (as  in 
Camb.  Exam.),  by  means  of: — (i.)  Advice  as  to  reading 
text- books.  (ii.)  Papers  on  ditto.  (iii.)  Answers  to 
questions  and  solutions  of  difficulties  found  by  students 
of  ditto  [etc.]. 

Tell  me  what  you  think.2 

1  Miss  Eliza  Rhodes,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Initial  Society. 
See  p.  72. 

2  This  scheme  for  instruction  by  cor.  ispondence  was  successfully  carried 
on  for  over  twenty  years,  Mrs.  Peile  for  seventeen  years,  and  afterwards 
Miss  Rhodes  acting  with  great  zeal  and  energy  as  Honorary  Secretaries. 


1871,  AGE  33  HENRY  SIDGWICK  249 

I  have  been  attending  a  North  of  England  Council 
Meeting,1  and  making  observations  on  women.  It  seems  to 
me  that  they  have  at  present  one  defect  in  "  action  by 
means  of  debate,"  they  have  not  quite  enough  practical 
self-assertion  at  the  right  place  and  time,  and  hence  are 
more  apt  to  nurse  small  jealousies  than  men.  Nous  autres 
hornmes,  if  a  President  of  a  Committee  shows  a  disposition 
to  suppress  one,  one  snubs  him  at  once,  says  loudly  the 
thing  he  doesn't  like,  and  then  is  in  good-humour  after- 
wards. 

I  am  in  an  ultra-philosophic  humour,  having  just  lost 
my  portmanteau,  containing  the  results  of  two  years'  medita- 
tion. It  is  thought  to  be  at  Bangor  or  somewhere  on  the 
Great  Western  Railway.  Kismet ! 

I  am  here  o&ambulating  the  Irish  Channel,  or  circum- 
ambulating the  Great  Orme's  Head,  to  keep  off  h.f.  [hay 
fever]. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge,  August  2 

...  I  always  feel  that  I  should  like  to  [be]  as  many  people 
as  possible  (the  right  sort  of  people — I  am  afraid  I  should 
not  include  a  French  enfant  du  siecle),  if  they  would  all  live 
harmoniously  and  come  out  in  the  right  weather  in  a  sort 
of  Dutch- barometrical  way.  Practically  one  has  to  kill  a 
few  of  one's  natural  selves  (between  the  ages  of  twenty-five 
and  thirty-five)  to  let  the  rest  grow — a  very  painful 
slaughter  of  innocents. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  August  5 

Lately  I  have  been  lying  at  full  length  on  my  sofa  from 
inflammation  of  the  ankle.  I  do  not  know  exactly  how  it 
came,  but  it  is  all  right  again  now.  I  have  had  various 
vicissitudes  since  I  left  you.  I  found  a  tolerably  suitable 
house  here  for  my  young  ladies  after  a  few  days'  searching, 

Sidgwick  used  to  say  that  his  experience  in  teaching  Political  Economy  by 
correspondence  had  convinced  him  that,  at  least  for  the  abler  students,  it 
was  a  very  valuable  and  educative  method  of  instruction.  It  taught  the 
student  to  make  clear  to  herself  the  nature  of  her  difficulties,  which  is,  of 
course,  more  than  half  way  to  solving  them. 

1  For  North  of  England  Council  see  p.  174,  footnote. 


250  HENKY  SLDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

and  got  that  off  my  mind.  I  then  went  to  stay  with  the 
Buxtons  on  the  borders  of  Epping  Forest,  and  then  to 
London,  where  I  found  portentous  heat  and  equally  por- 
tentous hay  fever.  I  do  hate  London  in  heat ;  all  the 
things  which  the  Poets  have  written  about  green  fields, 
shady  glens,  rippling  streams,  etc.,  come  into  my  head  and 
tantalise  me.  I  got  introduced  to  Miss  Octavia  Hill,  whom 
I  have  long  wanted  to  meet :  ever  since  I  read  an  article  of 
hers  in  Macmillan  on  her  work  among  the  poor  in  the  East 
of  London.  She  is  a  very  interesting  woman,  and  if  ever 
I  take  a  vow  of  asceticism  and  bestow  all  my  goods  to 
feed  the  poor,  I  will  give  them  to  her,  as  the  person  who 
is  likely  to  make  them  do — least  harm.  I  then  went  to 
see  Mrs.  Clough  and  made  my  final  arrangements  with  Miss 
Clough  for  our  proceedings  next  term.  I  spent  with 
Trevelyan  the  suspensive  day  between  the  rejection  of  the 
Army  Bill  by  the  Lords  and  Gladstone's  coup  d'&at.1 
Trevelyan  had  had  notice  given  him  privately  of  what  the 
Ministry  was  going  to  do  and  was  in  proportionately  good 
spirits.  I  saw  my  friend  Patterson  who  was  also  cheerful 
as  a  translation  of  a  Hungarian  story  by  him  is  to  appear  in 
the  Cornhill.  He  says  it  is  very  pathetic  to  people  who 
have  any  sympathy  with  old  times,  so  perhaps  you  will  like 
to  read  it.  Since  then  I  have  been  here  trying  to  get  a 
little  reading  done,  but  I  cannot  shake  off  my  laziness.  I 
also  had  my  Political  Economy  papers  (of  the  ladies)  to  look 
over.  .  .  . 

To  Mrs.  Clough  from  Hallsteads?  Ulleswater,  on  September  5 

I  trust  this  address  will  satisfy  your  kind  wishes  on  my 
behalf;  not  that  I  am  the  least  ill,  or  in  need  of  a  holiday, 
or  deserve  one,  having  been  very  lazy  during  the  hot 
weather  at  Cambridge.  ...  I  do  not  want  more  than  a  fair 
field  and  no  favour  for  professional  women ;  but  they  are  so 
sure  to  be  severely  attacked  and  criticised.  ...  It  always 
seems  to  me  that  the  mere  fact  of  a  woman  holding  her 

1  The  Royal  Warrant  on  Purchase. 
2  The  house  of  Mr.  Arthur  Marshall,  uncle  of  F.  Myers. 


1871,  AGE  33  HENKY  SIDGWICK  251 

own  in  medical  or  surgical  practice  would  prove  much  in 
her  favour.  I  suppose  people  in  general  have  (and  for  their 
peace  of  mind  it  seems  desirable  that  they  should  have) 
more  belief  in  their  doctor's  wisdom  and  infallibility  than  is 
at  all  deserved,  and  this  belief  is  kept  up  by  the  esprit  de 
corps  which  leads  them  to  conceal  or  palliate  each  other's 
mistakes.  Now,  women  will,  generally  speaking,  have 
to  maintain  themselves  without  this  support. 

I  shall  be  back  in  Cambridge  on  the  18th,  which  is, 
I  suppose,  about  the  time  that  Miss  Clough  will  want  me 
there.  Out  of  the  four  prospective  exhibitioners,  two,  I 
think,  will  come  to  the  house.  ...  I  am  glad  that  Miss 
Clough  has  had  a  successful  trip.  I  like  being  in  England 
so  much  that  I  feel  as  if  I  should  never  go  abroad  any 
more — that  is,  until  I  am  transported  for  taking  part  in  the 
Revolution  of  188—. 

To  Mrs.  Clough  from  Bugby,  September  18 

Hallsteads  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  houses  I  know, 
and  has,  much  to  my  surprise,  the  best  view  of  Ulleswater. 
I  did  not  think  there  could  be  so  good  a  view  so  near  the 
bottom  of  the  lake,  not  having  calculated  on  Helvellyn  being 
brought  to  the  head  and  centre  of  the  picture. 

Have  you  read  "  Balaustion  "  yet  ?  It  is  very  good 
reading,  but  we  classical  people  are  puzzled  to  know  whether 
Browning  means  to  interpret  or  remodel  Euripides.  The 
former  would  be  an  inadmissible  hypothesis  in  the  case 
of  any  one  but  Browning,  but  as  he  cannot  dramatise 
common  people  without  subtilising  their  mental  processes 
till  they  become  something  like  his  own,  I  should  attribute 
to  him  an  ultra  -  commentatorial  tendency  to  find  hidden 
meanings  in  great  authors.  At  any  rate  it  is  curiously 
unlike  Euripides  —  the  best  figure,  Hercules,  being  most 
especially  so. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  o-n  October  10 

I  have  much  to  talk  to  you  about.  I  seem  to  remember 
that  the  last  letter  I  wrote  you  never  got  itself  written — the 


252  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

fallacious  expectation  of  seeing  you  at  Rugby  intervening 
inopportunely.  Here  I  arn,  not  overburdened  with  work, 
but  rather  distracted  with  the  variety  of  it.  I  have  to 
teach  history  this  term  :  no  successor  having  turned  up  to 
Pearson :  and  Cambridge  breeding  no  historian.  We  are 
thinking  of  taking  some  healthy  young  resident  and  locking 
him  up  with  a  Hume.  It  is  rather  a  disgrace  to  us  that 
we  all  take  so  small  an  interest  in  the  human  race.  .  .  . 

My  second  Correspondence  Circular  will  soon  appear. 
Miss  Clough  is  here :  house  getting  on :  there  will  be  five 
this  term. 

To  F.  Myers,  October  28 

I  should  like  very  much  [to  go  to  Paris],  but  I  cannot 
afford  the  time.  The  truth  is  that  I  have  allowed  myself 
to  be  involved  in  so  much  Education  and  Educationalism 
that  I  cannot  really  work  in  term-time.  I  have  perhaps  been 
wrong,  but  it  is  idle  to  consider  that  now ;  only  I  must  get 
one  or  two  books  written  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  or 
three  years.  I  have  found  that  I  write  slowly  and  with 
grea^  labour.  So,  in  fine,  my  only  chance  lies  in  using  all 
the  vacation  that  I  can  get;  some  days  necessarily  go  to 
holidays,  visiting  family  and  friends  ;  the  rest  I  must  keep 
solid.  So  I  have  bid  farewell  to  Europe  for  the  present. 
The  truth  is  I  am  getting  into  a  state — I  suppose  a  very 
well-known  morbidity  among  ills  that  flesh,  etc. — of  Book 
on  the  Brain.  Only  that  instead  of  one  book  there  are  at 
least  three.  Pray  come  and  see  me.  Selfishly  I  long  for 
it.  You  have  the  art  of  making  me  feel — temporarily — 
Wise  and  Good.  (Now  if  I  said  that  to  X.,  he  would 
think  I  meant  in  contrast  with  himself.)  But  I  do  want 
to  hear  about  yourself. 

To  his  Mother  on  October  29 

...  I  too  have  been  very  busy.  I  have  had  a  fresh  burden 
imposed  upon  me  owing  to  the  absence  of  a  history  lecturer, 
and  my  work  in  connection  with  lectures  for  women,  etc., 
takes  up  my  time ;  how  energetic  Rugby  is,  by  the  way,  in 


1871,  AGE  33  HENEY  SIDGWICK  253 

this  matter !  .  .  .  I  see  Edward  now  on  Sundays,  who  tells 
me  about  Mary.  He  says  she  does  an  immense  amount  of 
work — too  much — and  so  has  no  time  for  writing.  We 
live  in  a  busy  age.  I  don't  know  what  the  next  generation 
will  do.  Perhaps  they  will  relapse  into  the  old  ways  of 
leisure. 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  my  arrangement  [of 
sharing  rooms  (see  p.  245)]  with  F.  H.  is  turning  out — 
if  not  a  brilliant  success  as  far  as  the  social  side  goes — at 
any  rate  by  no  means  a  failure.  We  meet  at  breakfast, 
chat  pleasantly  enough,  and  are  not  in  each  other's  way  (as 
far  as  I  know)  during  the  rest  of  the  day.  .  .  .  Altogether 
I  am  prepared  to  say  with  the  lamented  Pumblechook  that 
it  was  Eight  to  do  it,  Kyind  to  do  it,  Beenevolent  to  do 
it,  and  that  if  it  came  over  again  I  would  do  it  again. 

To  F.  Myers  on  October  31 

I  hope  you  are  coming  up.  I  am  suffering  from  much 
depression  of  spirits  from  various  causes,  or  I  should  have 
written  more  at  length  to  you.  What  you  said  about 
philanthropy  finds  much  response  in  my  thoughts.  .  .  . 
My  idea  of  philanthropy  (practical)  is  that  it  is  a  noble 
profession  or  career  rather  than  a  Virtue.  I  certainly 
quite  agree  with  the  economists  and  laisser-faire  school  in 
thinking  it  a  very  difficult  career  to  succeed  in — but  ^aXe?ra 
ra  Ka\d.  .  .  . 

To  F.  Myers  on  November  20 

Each  day  I  have  wished  to  write  to  you  how  delightful 
and  salutary  your  visit  has  been  to  me.  You  always  do 
me  good,  though  you  make  me  feel  more  deeply  the 
perplexities  of  conduct.  I  wish  I  had  more  wisdom  to 
impart  to  those  whom  I  love;  it  is  not  for  want  of 
seeking  it. 

Sometimes  I  console  myself  for  fundamental  scepticism 
by  the  feeling  that  it  is  necessary,  if  we  are  to  choose  Good 
per  se;  if  we  were  too  sure  of  personal  happiness,  this 
unselfish  choice  would  be  impossible.  I  do  not  think  with 


254  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Kant  that  noble  choice  is  the  only  good  thing  in  man,  but 
I  do  think  it  a  great  good.  However,  at  other  times  this 
seems  to  me  a  very  wire-drawn  and  metaphysical  consola- 
tion. Now  as  I  write  it  is  real  to  me. 

.  .  .  Much  gratitude  for  your  generous  gift — too  generous, 
— but  you  will  not  expect  from  a  philanthropist  the  delicacy 
to  decline  it  (when  did  a  Ph.  refuse  cash  ?).      I  will  tell  you 
of  its  ultimate  destination. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns 

The  only  difficulty  I  have  felt  in  answering  yours  has 
arisen  from  the  impossibility  of  writing  an  adequate  letter ; 
or,  even  more,  the  consciousness  of  having  been  in  one  of 
those  "  hours  of  gloom  "  in  which  one  can  only  fulfil  feebly 
tasks  willed  in  hours  of  insight — and  live,  as  Schiller  says, 
by  means  of  Beschaftigung  (though  I  wish  I  could  say  that 
mine  nie  ermattef).  A  general  speculative  break-down  and 
a  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  of  my  small  practical  efforts 
formed  the  soil  of  my  despondency.  .  .  . 

Only  that  I  do  not  want  to  write  a  letter  full  of  hazy 
suggestions  of  calamity,  I  would  endeavour  to  hint  my 
speculative  troubles.  My  state  is  something  like  this.  I 
seem  to  myself  to  have  invented  an  egress  from  scepticism, 
and  to  be  just  vigorous  enough  to  hold  the  door  open  and 
let  other  people  go  through — if  they  will.  Au  fond,  I 
have,  as  I  have  ever  had,  a  profound  belief  in  Things  in 
General,  but  just  not  sufficient  belief  in  anything  in 
particular  to  gain  the  full  joy  of  living  by  means  of  it;  I 
keep  looking  forward  to  that  one  hundred  years  hence  when 
it  will  be  all  the  same,  and  am  nervously  anxious  about  the 
criticism  not  of  posterity  generally,  but  just  of  the  H.S. 
and  friends  who  may  be  living  then.  I  see  how  they  will 
think  that  I  ought  to  have  acted  and  thought,  and  have 
hardly  energy  to  get  through  my  task  of  rendering  them 
possible.  Evolution  is  and  will  prevail. 

Well,  perhaps  you  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  I 
have  become  a  Liberal  Conservative.  I  believe  in  Forster's 
Bill  and  in  administration  generally.  I  don't  want  the 


1871,  AGE  33  HENKY  SIDGWICK  255 

English  Re  volution,  and  don't  believe  in  it,  thinking  that 
our  separation  between  North  and  South,  and  in  the  North 
between  the  energetic  self-help  in  social  matters  and  this 
curious  enthusiasm  tar  formed  republicanism  (that  is  certainly 
a  remarkable  fact)  will  keep  Society  stable  and  save  "  happy 
England." 

I  have  sometimes  joy  in  my  educational  work,  not 
always :  I  believe  I  am  often  unintelligible. 

My  best  delight  is  in  my  devotion  to  Alma  Mater  and 
the  feeling  I  sometimes  have  that  I  am  really  handing  on 
the  torch — torch  of  enthusiasm  for  knowledge  and  virtue — 
to  better  youths. 

To  Mrs.  dough  from  Cambridge  on  December  9 

I  am  not  really  overworked,  but  I  have  just  too  much 
to  do  to  be  able  to  leave  Cambridge  without  the  greatest 
difficulty.  I  have  been  rather  sleepless  lately,  and  told 
Miss  Clough  so.  But  the  cause  is  not  exactly  overwork, 
but  excitement  and  work  together ;  I  have  had  one  or  two 
things  troubling  me  that  I  could  not  talk  of.  However, 
when  work  is  over  here  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  get  away  for 
a  day  or  two  and  come  to  see  you. 

Everything  is  going  on  very  nicely  here,  as  far  as  I  know  ; 
but  the  relation — actual  and  prospective — of  the  scheme 
to  Miss  Davies  keeps  perplexing  me  [see  pp.  210,  211]. 
I  find  it  hard  to  get  my  friends  here  to  sympathise  with 
my  extreme  disinclination  to  hinder  in  any  way  the  success 
of  her  efforts.  However,  I  trust  in  the  strong  breeze  that 
is  at  present  carrying  on  all  movements  in  this  direction. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Oxford  on  December  20 

.  .  .  You  may  have  seen  in  the  newspapers  that  we 
have  been  memorialising  Gladstone :  entreating  him  to 
investigate  and  reform  us  without  unnecessary  preludes 
and  prefaces.  We  had  a  great  success,  and  collected  some 
110  signatures ;  but  the  business  of  collecting,  etc.,  naturally 
gravitated  upon  me,  who  have  got  to  be  regarded  not  so 
much  as  a  Leader  of  the  Liberal  party  in  Cambridge  as 


256  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Perpetual  chief  clerk  and  servant  of  all  work  to  said  party. 
So  I  have  written  no  letters  lately. 

I  thought  your  circular  [in  connection  with  instruction 
by  correspondence]  excellent ;  I  only  hope  that  the  thing 
won't  trouble  you  too  much.  Please  make  an  impartial 
estimate  of  your  expenditure  of  time  and  trouble,  and  of  the 
results  attained  as  far  as  you  can  ascertain  them,  so  that  we 
may  consider  at  the  end  of  the  year  whether  the  latter  are 
worth  the  former. 

.  .  .  Meanwhile  Emily  Davies  and  the  inevitable  com- 
plication of  educational  machinery  weighs  on  my  soul ;  but 
I  feel  with  Luther  that,  if  Providence  has  the  cause  of 
Female  Education  at  heart,  now  is  the  time  for  some 
manifest  intervention. 

.  .  .  Middlemarch  ? l  I  feel  as  if  I  could  have  planned 
the  story  much  better ;  I  don't  see  why  the  Dryasdust  hero 
need  have  been  more  than,  say,  thirty-five,  and  he  might 
have  had  an  illusory  halo  of  vague  spiritual  aspiration  ;  the 
end  of  the  story  could  have  been  made  just  as  tragic.  The 
style  is  the  finest  intellectual  cookery. 

I  admire  your  French  verses  much.2  How  do  you  do 
them  ?  I  have  had  the  finest  classical  education,  but  I 
couldn't — no,  not  if  I  retired  to  the  sea-side  with  a  Corpus 
Poetarum  G-allicorum. 

The  memorial  spoken  of  in  the  above  letter  was 
one  representing  that  a  Commission  about  to  be 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  funds  of  the  University 
and  Colleges  would  serve  no  effectual  purpose  and 
would  delay  the  full  consideration  of  reforms.  Glad- 
stone was  not  moved  by  it,  nor  was  a  largely  signed 
memorial  (the  Burn-Morgan  Memorial)  drawn  up  in 
December  1872,  and  specifying  the  reforms  desired, 
more  successful  at  the  time.  The  reforms  asked  for 
were  in  effect  that  Fellowships  divorced  from  work 
at  the  University  should  not  be  held  for  life ;  that 
a  permanent  professional  career  should  be  opened 

1  The  first  part  of  Middlemarch  appeared  in  December  1871. 
^  Sent  to  him  in  MS.,  not  published. 


is/2,  AGE  33  HENEY  SIDGWICK  257 

to  those  engaged  in  College  work  by  allowing  Fellows  of 
colleges  to  marry  ;  that  provision  should  be  made  for 
the  association  of  colleges  for  educational  purposes, 
in  order  to  secure  more  efficient  teaching  and  more 
leisure  for  study ;  and  that  the  pecuniary  and  other 
relations  between  the  University  and  colleges  should 
be  revised.  The  intention  of  these  reforms,  the 
memorial  said,  was  to  increase  the  educational  effici- 
ency of  the  University,  and  at  the  same  time  promote 
the  advancement  of  science  and  learning.1  In  parti- 
cular, by  diminishing  the  number  of  Fellowships  held 
away  from  the  University,  College  funds  would  be 
set  free  for  University  work  to  be  done  either  by  the 
Colleges  acting  in  combination  or  by  the  University 
itself — a  part  of  the  College  funds  being  used  to 
supplement  the  meagre  endowment  possessed  by  the 
University  as  such. 

This  memorial  was  sent  in  again  in  1876  (when 
the  Conservatives  had  come  into  office),  and  a  com- 
mission appointed  in  1877  to  revise  the  statutes  of 
University  and  Colleges  did  much  in  the  direction 
desired  by  the  memorialists. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  January  12,  1872 
I  ought  to  have  answered  your  last  letter  before,  as  I 
have  not  been  busy.  I  assure  you  I  have  no  prejudice 
against  the  commemoration  of  New  Year's  Day,  though  I 
am  not  myself  very  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  con- 
ventional divisions  of  time,  nor  do  I  need  reminding  of  the 
shortness  of  life,  mutability  of  human  things,  etc.  ...  I 
had  a  delightful  visit  at  Clifton;  Symonds  was,  I  think, 
better  than  usual. 

To  "  George  Eliot  " 

I  am  going  to  make  a  request  which,  I  trust,  you  will 
not  consider  too  presumptuous. 

1  Compare  letters  by  H.  Sidgwick  in  the  University  Reporter  of  February 
22  and  March  1  and  8,  1871  (on  "Academic  Teachers")  ;  and  one  in  the 
Spectator  of  November  30,  1872;  also  his  article  on  "Idle  Fellowships" 
in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

S 


258  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

I  want  your  leave  to  bring  with  me  when  I  next  come 
to  see  you — that  is  on  the  next  Sabbath  holiday  that  I  am 
able  to  allow  myself — my  friend  Frederic  Myers.  I  should 
not  venture  to  ask  this  merely  because  he  is  a  man  who  I 
think  would  interest  you :  but,  in  fact,  you  met  him  here 
once,  and  were  kind  enough  to  invite  him  to  call  on  you. 
Unfortunately  so  long  a  time  elapsed  before  he  could  avail 
himself  of  your  invitation  that  when  the  opportunity  came 
he  was  too  shy  to  take  it,  and  would  not  now  venture  to 
recall  himself  unceremoniously  to  your  recollection.  I 
therefore  offered  to  ask  your  leave  to  bring  him  with  me. 

I  have  just  read  the  second  part  of  Middlemarch  twice 
through  with  equal  pleasure  and  profit.  It  seems  to  me  to 
surpass  all  previous  books  for  exquisite  expression  of  delicate 
psychological  observation. 

To  F.  Myers  on  February  1 5 

.  .  .  For  myself  I  seem  to  myself  like  some  statesman 
Macaulay  speaks  of  whom  neither  etc.,  nor  etc.,  nor  etc. 
(say  study  of  Hegel  and  Vice-Presidency  of  F.C.TJ.)  had 
altered  from  the  dreaming  schoolboy  that  he  was  at  sixteen. 
It  is  a  sad  fate  to  be  at  once  romantic  and  prosaic : — 

.  .  .  What  am  I  ? 
An  infant  crying  for  the  moon, 
An  infant  crying  to  no  tune, 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry. 

(After  Tennyson). 

But  there  is  one  advantage  in  being  a  philosopher  by 
profession — one  has  very  drastic  remedies  for  egotism  very 
ready  to  hand. 

To  his  Mother  on  February  28 

My  ladies'  lectures  are  flourishing;  I  hear  that  a 
Benevolent  Individual  is  thinking  of  giving  us  £1000; 
however,  as  he  may  change  his  mind  before  the  donation  is 
completed,  do  not  mention  it.  This  would  relieve  me  of  all 
pecuniary  anxiety  as  far  as  the  lectures  go. 


1872,  AGE  33  HENKY  SIDGWICK  259 

To  H.  G.  Dalcyns,  March  7  (ivriting  to  accept  the  function 
of  trustee  for  his  marriage  settlement) 

...  As  for  our  wedding,1  I  fear  both  Arthur  and  I  will 
be  somewhat  unfestive  in  mood :  A.  from  the  gloom 
that  envelopes  Eugby,  and  I  from  spontaneous  ill-temper. 
Still  we  are  both  so  unfeignedly  rejoiced  for  W[illiam] 
that  perhaps  we  may  become  for  an  hour  passably 
hymeneal. 

...  I  feel  often  as  unrelated  and  unadapted  to  my 
universe  as  man  can  feel,  except  on  the  one  side  of  friend- 
ship ;  and  there,  in  my  deepest  gloom,  all  seems  strangely 
good,  and  you  among  the  best.  .  .  .  But  "  golden  news " 
expect  none,  unless  I  light  perchance  on  the  secret  of  the 
Universe,  in  which  case  I  will  let  you  know. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Freshivater  in  April 2 

I  find  it  very  difficult  to  answer  your  letter,  as  I  feel 
that  you  expect  from  me  not  so  much  sympathy,  and 
certainly  not  Hortation  (which  grows  on  every  moral  bush), 
but  strictest  Science,  and  such  adumbrated  Principles  of 
Conduct  as  may  spring  from  strictest  science.  And  my 
difficulty  is  that  I  cannot  give  to  principles  of  conduct 
either  the  formal  certainty  that  comes  from  exact  science  or 
the  practical  certainty  that  comes  from  a  real  Consensus  of 
Experts.  And  I  feel  that  your  peculiar  phase  of  the 
"  Maladie "  is  due  to  the  fact  that  you  demand  certainty 
with  special  peremptoriness — certainty  established  either 
emotionally  or  intellectually.  I  sometimes  feel  with  some- 
what of  a  profound  hope  and  enthusiasm  that  the  function 
of  the  English  mind  with  its  uncompromising  matter-of-fact- 
ness,  will  be  to  put  the  final  question  to  the  Universe  with 
a  solid,  passionate  determination  to  be  answered  which  must 
come  to  something.  However  in  the  meantime  we  have 
to  live  on  less  than  certainty,  which  for  you  is  peculiarly 
difficult. 

1  His  brother  William's. 

2  Myers  notes  on  this  letter,  "  I  think  this  is  the  most  interesting  letter 
I  ever  received  from  him." 


260  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  n- 

But  I  have  as  much  sympathy  (and  de-me-fabula  sensa- 
tion) as  it  is  possible  for  one  in  whom  egoism  and  altruism 
are  combined  so  differently.  I  mean  that  whereas  you 
appear  to  me  to  fulfil  rracrav  SiKaiocrvvijv  in  social  rela- 
tions, ...  I  am  conscious  of  being  cased  in  a  bark  of 
selfish  habit ;  but  deliberately  and  in  reflective  mood  I  have 
no  disposition  to  seek  my  own  pleasure  in  any  form,  and 
often  not  much  care  for  my  own  existence. 

Still,  apart  from  idiosyncrasies,  it  seems  to  me  that 
Victorious  Analysis  paralyses  impulse  (and  the  faith  that  is 
born  of  impulse,  and  is  merely  impulse  in  another  form), 
and  that  we  have  all  of  us  to  do  two  difficult  things :  (1)  to 
choose  in  a  certain  spiritual  twilight  and  obscurity  the 
noble  and  the  good  and  refuse  the  evil  and  base :  and  (2) 
to  make  Will  and  rational  purpose  supply  the  place  of 
impulse.  One  must  choose  the  best,  as  such  (by  whatever 
criterion  one  determines  "  best ").  In  this  way,  it  seems  to 
me  that  one  drinks  at  the  inexhaustible  horn  at  the  other 
end  of  which  is  the  ocean  of  primal  force. 

We  have  seen  the  Laureate,  who  was  tres  bon,  and  re- 
cited to  us  "  Boadicea  " — he  reads  it  "celebrated,"  "violators," 
which  thus  solves  a  doubt  of  mine. 

Professor  Maurice  died  on  April  1,  1872,  and  the 
following  letters  relate  to  Siclgwick's  candidature  for 
the  Professorship  thus  rendered  vacant  :— 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  April  1 6 

I  am  ashamed  that  I  have  not  written  before,  but  I 
have  now  so  many  letters  of  a  business  sort  to  write  that 
my  time  for  letter-writing  goes.  I  have  been  very  busy 
about  this  Professorship,  which  is  vacant.  It  constitutes  a 
really  difficult  question  for  me  to  decide.  I  partly  think  of 
becoming  a  candidate  for  it  myself;  but  (1)  I  do  not  think 
I  have  very  much  chance,  and  (2)  another  man  [Stirling, 
author  of  Secret  of  Hegel]  who  will,  I  think,  come  forward 
seems  to  me  to  have  more  claim  to  it  than  I  have,  and 
I  may  possibly  injure  his  chances  by  standing.  On  the 


1872,  AGE  33  HENRY  SIDGWICK  261 

other  hand,  I  believe  he  has  less  chance  of  being  elected 
than  I  have.  You  see  the  matter  is  rather  complicated, 
and  I  do  not  easily  make  up  my  mind ;  however,  I  shall 
manage  to  decide  in  time.  The  election  may  possibly 
make  a  good  deal  of  difference  in  my  work,  and  it  may 
possibly  not  make  much  difference :  it  is  hard  to  predict,  as 
it  depends  on  the  line  which  the  Professor  will  take. 

Poor  Maurice's  death  was  startling ;  I  knew  he  had 
been  very  ill,  but  thought  that  he  was  out  of  danger  just 
when  I  got  the  news  of  his  death.  This  was  at  Bourne- 
mouth :  I,  too,  have  been  travelling  about  a  good  deal  since 
the  end  of  last  term.  I  have  been  staying  with  the  Pauls 
at  Bailie,  and  also  at  Freshwater,  where  I  have  smoked  a 
pipe  with  the  Laureate.  He  was  exceedingly  kind,  and  we 
(Symonds  was  with  me)  had  a  most  interesting  conversa- 
tion with  him.  Altogether,  Freshwater  remains  in  my  mind 
as  a  sort  of  Arcadia — every  one  was  so  hospitable  in  an 
easy  and  airy  manner.  Miss  Thackeray  was  there  among 
other  people,  most  delightful  of  authoresses ;  she  has  a 
simple,  unstudied  playfulness  of  manner,  half  sly,  but  wholly 
sympathetic,  which  is  irresistible. 

To  F.  Myers,  undated 

...  I  rather  think  the  electors  ought  to  give  it  [to 
Venn]  (if  Stirling  is  out  of  the  question)  on  the  ground  of 
Performance.  ...  I  do  not  think,  however,  that  I  shall 
refrain  from  standing  on  this  ground. 

The  whole  matter  is  of  considerable  importance  to  my 
prospects.  I  shall  most  likely  leave  Cambridge  if  either 
Venn  or  Pearson l  is  elected :  as  I  want  to  concentrate 
myself  on  Practical  Philosophy,  and  the  new  Professor, 
being  active,  will  occupy  this  sphere.  But  this  considera- 
tion does  not  really  influence  me  much  either  way,  on 
selfish  grounds :  for  I  cannot  make  up  my  mind  whether  I 
want  to  stay  here  or  not.  Supposing  Duty  did  not  detain 
me  I  rather  think  I  should  prefer  going.  In  fact,  my  mind 
is  rather  a  chaos  as  far  as  personal  interests  go. 
1  J.  B.  Pearson  of  St.  John's  College. 


262  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

I  think  I  told  you  of  our  interview  with  the  Laureate. 
I  was  struck  by  his  great  kindliness  and  simplicity,  also 
his  sensitiveness  to  the  opinion  of  inferior  creatures  like 
[certain  critics].  I  tried  to  flatter  him  by  hinting  (what 
is,  of  course,  my  Conscientious  Conviction)  that  no  one 
but  he  and  Milton  could  construct  blank  verse,  but  I  cannot 
say  that  he  seemed  disposed  to  be  flattered ;  he  rather  in- 
sisted that  the  blank  verse  of  Keats  and  Shelley  was  good 
in  its  way. 

He  is  certainly  a  full-sized  soul,  and  so  is  his  wife ;  they 
both  dwarf  the  common  millions.  I  do  not  think  Mrs. 
Cameron  suits  him — I  mean  she  does  not  draw  him  out 
well,  though  he  is  amused  with  her.  He  wants  some  one 
at  once  playful  and  suggestive  to  make  him  talk  :  flashes 
on  the  surface,  revealing  depths. 

Good-bye,  I  must  turn  to  my  female  correspondence. 

To  F.  Myers  on  April  2 1 

Stirling  will  not  stand.  So  I  shall :  feeling  that  I  have 
made  the  best  of  both  worlds,  the  ideal  world  in  which  S. 
would  have  been  elected,  and  the  actual — in  which  the  post 
will  probably  fall  to  Pearson. 

I  feel  that  if  either  Venn  or  Pearson  are  elected,  my 
days  here  will  be  brief — that  is,  if  I  can  believe  in  myself 
sufficiently  and  in  my  work.  Otherwise  Cambridge  is  a 
comfortable  hospital  for  maimed  intellects  and  carridres 
manqutes.  But  I  feel  that  if  I  stay  here  to  coach  youth 
when  another  (competent)  person  has  been  elected  to  teach 
ethics,  I  shall  be  neglecting  the  Divine  signal.  It  will  be 

One  task  more  declined,  one  more  footpath  untrod. 

The  following  parody  of  Tennyson,  sent  by  Sidg- 
wick  to  Myers,  was  probably  enclosed  in  the  above 
letter : — 

THE  MODERN  ULYSSES 

It  little  profits  that  an  idle  coach 

In  these  grey  walls,  amid  these  dreary  flats, 

Yoked  to  these  AGED  WIVES,  I  mete  and  dole 


1872,  AGE  33  HENRY  SIDGWICK  263 

Blue-moulded  knowledge  to  a  brutish  race 
That  boat  and  feed  and  whist  and  know  not  ME. 
I  cannot  rest  from  travel  .  .  . 

For  always  roaming  with  a  Murray's  Guide 
Much  have  I  seen  and  known,  .   .  . 
And  drink  delights  of  partial-authorship 
Within  the  rosy  binding  of  Macmillan.  .  .   . 

This  is  my  PEARSON.  .  .  . 

To  him  I  leave  my  pupils  and  my  books  : 

Well-loved  of  me,  discerning  to  fulfil 

His  toil,  by  Arts  ingenuous  to  make  mild 

The  rugged  student,  and  through  SAFE  DEGREES 

To  thrust  him.  .  .  . 

There  lies  the  dock ;  the  vessel  puffs  her  steam ; 
There  glooms  the  odorous  river.     Come,  my  friends, 
'Tis  not  too  late  to  see  a  Revolution.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  on  April  24 

I  have  been  busy  about  this  election,  and  have  not  had 
time  to  write  more  than  a  card.  I  have  been  writing 
candidates'  letters,  for  I  am  standing  after  all.  I  do  not 
much  care  whether  I  am  elected  or  not,  but  I  thought  I 
might  as  well  scramble  with  the  rest.  If  I  am  appointed 
it  will  give  me  a  stimulus  to  work,  which  is  a  good  thing ; 
otherwise  I  am  quite  happy  in  my  present  humble  position. 
I  have  no  ambition,  and  I  think  that  a  little  resolution  will 
enable  me  to  do  the  work  which  I  am  qualified  to  do  just 
as  well  without  being  made  Professor.  If  you  do  not  mind 
my  not  Succeeding  in  Life,  I  am  sure  I  don't.  I  don't 
think  it  a  virtue  having  so  little  ambition ;  I  feel  that  I 
should  have  been  more  industrious  and  of  more  use  to  my 
fellow- creatures  if  I  had  had  more.  Still  it  saves  one  a 
good  deal  of  trouble. 

To  his  Mother  on  April  30 

The  Eev.  T.  R.  Birks  (an  Evangelical  Theologian  of  some 
note)  has  been  elected  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy. 


264  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

As  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  do  not  find  that  I  much  care 
for  various  reasons,  viz. : — 

(1)  What  are   Professorships  ?     Mere  dust,  mere  dross,  in 

comparison   with   Knowledge   and   Virtue.      (This   is 
Philosophy.) 

(2)  There  would  have  been  no  great  increase  in  INCOME,  only 

£50  more  than  I  have  now  from  the  College.      (This 
is  Common-Sense.) 

(3)  If  I  had  been  elected  it  would  have  entailed  several 

woes : — 

(a)  Several  more  stupid  people  would  have  asked 
me  to  dinner. 

(6)  Several  more  comparatively  ineligible  men  would 
have  written  to  me  for  Testimonials.  (This 
consideration  is  very  important.} 

(c)  Several  dull  writers  would  have  sent  me  their 
books.  In  replying  I  should  have  had  to  tell 
several  white  lies.  (All  this  is  the  Wisdom 
that  springs  from  Experience.) 

So  don't  waste  any  sympathy  on  me.  Keep  it  all  for 
H.  H[ayman],  who,  I  trust,  will  soon  want  it.  I  hope  to 
come  to  Rugby  on  llth. 

To  F.  Myers  on  May  1 

.  .  .  As  for  our  election,  I  think,  after  all,  that  it  is  not 
as  bad  as  it  looks — I  mean  as  far  as  the  credit  of  Cam- 
bridge is  concerned ;  of  course  the  post  is  simply  thrown 
away  as  far  as  teaching  of  undergraduates  goes.  But 
Birks  is  a  man  of  force  and  acumen,  and  has  written  books 
that  show  these  qualities ;  and  it  has  been  the  custom 
here  to  consider  the  Professorship  as  a  mere  ornament  and 
dignity. 

I  think  this  fixes  me  here  for  some  years  more.  With- 
out conceit,  I  think  that  my  going  would  be  a  blow  to  the 
study,  which  I  have  nursed  for  several  years  here.  How- 
ever, I  do  not  bind  myself  to  anything. 


1872,  AGE  33  HENKY  SIDGWICK  265 

To  F.  Myers  a  few  days  later 

...  As  for  our  affair,  it  is  said  to  be  better  than  was 
supposed.  Birks  also  has  a  work  on  ethics  in  his  desk. 

I  am  just  now  lazy  and  demoralised,  and  weakly  regret, 
not  the  Professorship,  but  the  gentle  external  compulsion 
that  it  would  have  given.  However,  I  think  I  must  stay 
here  at  least  one  year  more,  and  most  probably  for  ever.  .  .  . 
I  thought  Pearson  was  going  to  be  chosen,  and  so  found  my 
erratic  humour  roused ;  but  it  will  probably  subside. 

To  Mrs.  dough  on  May  25 

I  have  had  it  in  my  mind  to  write  to  you  ever  since  the 
Catastrophe :  I  mean  the  election  of  B — ks.  At  first  it 
seemed  to  affect  me  very  much.  I  took  it  as  a  mark  of 
deliberate  contempt  for  the  study  of  Moral  Philosophy ;  or, 
even  worse,  a  determination  to  crush  it  under  the  Heel  of 
Theology.  But  it  turned  out  on  inquiry  that  the  electors 
had  really  intended  to  choose,  and  believed  that  they  were 
choosing,  the  Best  Philosopher,  so  that  my  indignation  has 
evaporated.  .  .  . 

I  do  not  know  quite  how  much  you  will  have  heard 
from  Miss  Clough  about  the  house,  but  I  daresay  you 
know  as  much  or  more  than  I  do.  This  term  has  been 
rather  a  trying  one ;  and  it  seems  clear  now  that  we  were 
wrong  originally  in  not  establishing  Laws  and  Ordinances 
for  our  institution,  depending  on  the  sanction  of  external 
authority.  There  is  such  a  strong  impulse  towards  liberty 
among  the  young  women  attracted  by  the  movement  that 
they  will  not  submit  to  maternal  government. 

To  0.  Browning  in  May 

I  am  getting  adhesions  of  Headmasters  to  the  principle, 
of  offering  French  and  German  as  alternative  for  Greek  (or 
one  ancient  language)  in  Little- Go,  and  should  much  like 
Hornby's.  I  am  bringing  out  a  paper  to-morrow  evening 
(Tuesday)  or  Wednesday  morning  on  the  subject.  If  you 
can  get  it,  please  telegraph. 


266  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Tke  paper  referred  to  was  part  of  a  discussion  by 
flysheets,  such  as  is  usual  at  Cambridge  when  a  question 
which  is  coming  on  for  voting  excites  strong  feeling. 
Mr.  Browning  seems  to  have  been  able  to  assure 
him  of  Dr.  Hornby's  approval.  The  proposal  under 
discussion  was  indirectly  the  result  of  the  Report  of 
the  Endowed  Schools  Commission,  published  in  1870, 
which  urged  the  abolition  of  the  requirement  of 
Greek  as  a  preliminary  to  all  degrees,  in  order  that 
the  University  might  be  in  more  satisfactory  con- 
nection with  non- classical  schools.  Two  successive 
Syndicates,  appointed  to  report  on  this  question, 
recommended  the  substitution  of  French  and  German 
as  an  alternative  for  Greek.  Sidgwick  served  on  the 
second  of  these  from  1871  to  1873,  and  its  first  report 
was  now  being  voted  on.  The  abolition  of  compulsory 
Greek  was  carried  in  principle  on  this  occasion ;  but 
the  scheme  in  final  form  was  lost  by  nine  votes  in 
the  following  year.  The  following  are  extracts  from 
a  flysheet  issued  by  Sidgwick  on  this  second  occasion : — 

When  the  question  was  last  discussed  among  us,  I 
showed  that  the  Headmasters  of  nearly  all  the  most  important 
schools  in  the  country  were  in  favour  of  allowing  an  alter- 
native for  Greek.  Most  of  these  were  classical  scholars  of 
the  highest  academic  distinction ;  several  of  them  had  been 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  this  change,  in  spite  of  strong 
prepossessions.  I  have  since  received  from  different  parts 
of  the  country  additional  evidence  of  the  eager  and  widely- 
spread  desire  that  exists  among  schoolmasters  for  the 
relaxation.  At  the  late  conference  of  Headmasters  an 
overwhelming  majority  was  in  favour  of  a  change  of  this 
kind.  .  .  . 

What  we  contend  is,  that  the  linguistic  training  derived 
from  the  study  of  ancient  languages  may  be  adequately 
given  by  one  of  them :  that  the  additional  advantage  gained 
by  studying  a  second  is,  from  this  point  of  view,  com- 
paratively slight :  that  therefore  the  enforcement  of  loth 


1872,  AGE  34  HENEY  SIDGWICK  267 

together  can  only  be  defended  on  the  ground  of  the  literary 
culture  that  they  impart :  and  that  the  knowledge  of  Greek 
which  our  Previous  Examination  exacts  is  nearly  worthless 
for  purposes  of  literary  culture :  whereas  the  knowledge  of 
French  and  German  which  we  propose  to  exact  would  be 
of  real  value  in  this  respect.  I  should  myself  be  disposed 
to  urge  the  change  on  this  ground  alone,  without  reference 
to  the  far  greater  practical  utility  of  the  modern  languages. 

To  F.  Myers  about  this  time 

I  am  just  reading  [Meredith's]  last  novel  [Harry  Rich- 
mond] with  a  painful  sense  of  genius  wasted.  It  is  not 
merely  that  his  plot  as  well  as  his  style  is  a  series  of 
conundrums,  but  that  his  imagination,  though  as  compre- 
hensive and  definite  as  ever,  seems  to  have  less  and  less 
relation  to  the  truth  of  human  life.  I  still  think  him  one 
of  the  very  few  men  of  genius  of  the  age,  but  he  has 
not  got  the  Eoot  of  the  Matter. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Rugby  on  June  16 

Your  letter  gave  me  a  mixture  of  pleasure  and  pain — 
pleasure  in  your  sympathy  with  all  that  is  best  in  me,  and 
pain  from  a  consciousness  of  the  probably  meagre  and 
mostly  unbeautiful  result  that  will  remain  after  the  com- 
plete evolution  of  the  Organism  that  now  addresses  you. 
I  do  not  write  in  cynical  despair :  there  is  a  process  and 
a  permanent  purpose,  and  I  am  hopeful  of  being  something 
positive  in  the  Universe :  but  that  it  is  something  very 
unsmooth  and  unrotund,  adapted  for  very  peculiar  func- 
tions. I  feel  more  and  more  unlike  my  own  ideal,  and 
perhaps  acquiesce  more  and  more  in  my  own  limitations. 
Or  rather  I  do  this  as  much  as  I  can  at  all  allow  myself ;  for 
perhaps  it  is  a  last  device  of  the  devil  to  persuade  one  to 
assuage  the  wretchedness  of  moral  unbeauty  by  dwelling  on 
the  Insight  which  detects,  the  Aspiration  which  in  a  sense 
causes,  the  Impartiality  which  avows  one's  shortcomings. 

However,  my  aspirations  are  the  best  thing  in  me,  and 
so  far  I  have  unmixed  joy  in  your  sympathy. 


268  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

As  for  my  Domestic  troubles  [some  difficulty  in  con- 
nection with  the  house  for  students],  I  am  almost  ashamed 
to  confess  that  they  gave  me  much  more  amusement  than 
anything  else.  Egoistically  I  do  not  value  myself  as 
TrpaKTiKos :  and  anything  that  I  do  of  an  originative  kind 
I  do  only  (1)  because  it  seems  demonstrably  right  on  first 
principles  (2)  because  a  good  many  seem  to  agree  that  it 
ought  to  be  done.  In  doing  [it]  I  only  trust  by  docility  and 
impartiality  and  good  intentions  to  avoid  egregious  failure 
if  Providence  so  will.  And  putting  myself  out  of  sight, 
I  regard  this  female-educational  movement  as  being  in  the 
phase  of  tentatives  and  experiments,  and  think  that  we 
may  do  the  cause  as  much  good  by  failing  in  an  intelligent 
and  cheerful  manner  as  by  succeeding.  I  did  not  intend 
to  blame  Miss  Clough,  but  rather  my  own  want  of  tact. 
The  storm  is  now  blown  over.  Miss  Clough  has  real 
reason  to  complain  of  me  as  unsympathetic ;  I  allowed  her 
to  see  that  I  was  partly  amused  by  it,  and  I  think  this 
hurt  her.  The  Scheme  is  her  life  at  present,  and  it  is  so 
little  a  piece  of  mine.  You  see  I  have  just  sufficient 
sympathy  with  my  fellow-creatures  to  see  these  things 
afterwards. 

To  his  Mother  from  Lodgings  at  Margate  on  June  2  5 

I  am  now  settled  here  for  (I  suppose)  about  a  fortnight, 
by  which  time  hay  fever  ought  to  be  at  least  cured  enough 
to  make  life  endurable  in  London.  ...  I  was  not  very 
well  in  London ;  otherwise  the  work l  was  very  pleasant, 
and  I  always  like  staying  with  Mrs.  Clough.  Her  two 
daughters  are  such  a  curious  contrast,  the  eldest  exhibiting 
the  old  type  of  womanhood  in  rudiment,  and  the  youngest 
very  decidedly  the  new  type.  I  keep  wondering  what 
she  will  be  wanting  to  do  in  ten  years  if  the  world  goes 
on  moving. 

To  F.  Myers  a  few  days  later 

As  for  my  philosophy,  it  gets  on  slowly.  I  think  I  have 
made  out  a  point  or  two  about  Justice,  but  the  relation 

1  Superintending  the  Examination  for  Women. 


1372,  AGE  34  HENEY  SIDGWICK  269 

of  the  sexes  still  puzzles  me.  It  is  a  problem  with  ever 
new  xs  and  ys  emerging.  Is  the  permanent  movement  of 
civilised  man  towards  the  Socialism  of  force,  or  the  Socialism 
of  persuasion  (Comte),  or  Individualism  (H.  Spencer)?  I  do 
not  know,  and  yet  everything  seems  to  turn  on  it. 
Well,  well  : 


et  fj,r)  yap  €(mv  o     e<?  ovros,  o><?  cry  <j75, 
irapa  aol  ^eyeo-fla),  KOI  Kara-^revSov  /caX<u9 


This  is  not  what  the  Devil  says  now,  but  something  much 
subtler  in  the  same  style. 

To  his  Mother  from  the  Sarnie  Club,  London,  in  July 

I  liked  Margate,  and  think  I  shall  go  there  again.  It 
is  a  more  picturesque  town  than  I  expected.  We  had 
some  splendid  sunsets.  The  people  are,  I  suppose,  vulgar, 
but  therefore  somewhat  more  amusing,  and  I  soon  got  out 
of  their  reach  along  the  chalk  cliffs. 

I  shall  be  paying  visits  for  the  next  ten  days,  then  to 
Cambridge.  .  .  . 

I  wrote  my  review  of  the  Italian  book,2  but  when  I 
came  to  correct  the  proofs  I  found  I  was  in  a  difficulty,  as 
I  had  quoted  some  Italian,  and,  from  my  ignorance  of  the 
grammar,  could  not  feel  sure  whether  it  was  rightly  printed 
or  not.  However,  the  author  had  left  some  comical 
mistakes  in  English,  so  it  only  served  him  right. 

To  his  Sister  (who  was  out  of  health  at  this  time  and  suffering 
from  nervous  exhaustion)  from  Cambridge,  August  12 

I  am  getting  on  very  slowly  with  my  work  here,  feeling 
very  lazy  and  horrified  to  find  that  the  middle  of  August 
is  upon  me.  So  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  give  advice  as  to 
doing  your  duty  when  you  do  not  feel  inclined  to  do  it. 
But  I  have  one  or  two  rules  (which  you  won't  find  in 

1  Even  if  this  god  is  no  god,  as  thou  sayest,  let  him  pass  for  a  god  with 
thee,  and  nobly  lie  and  say  he  is.  —  Euripides,  Bacchae,  333. 

2  Barzelotti,  La  Morale  nella  Filosofia  Positiva,  reviewed  in  the  Academy 
for  July  1. 


270  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

copy-books  on  the  subject),  by  means  of  which  I  manage 
to  worry  along — as:  (1)  Always  save  yourself  as  much 
trouble  as  possible,  as,  e.g.,  by  doing  anything  that  can  be 
done  any  time  when  the  first  impulse  occurs,  etc.  (2) 
Always  do  that  part  of  your  duty  that  you  don't  dislike — 
then  you  can  think  over  the  rest,  which  at  any  rate  has 
by  that  time  been  reduced  into  a  more  manageable  shape. 
Then  it  seems  clear  that  one  should  (3)  always  do  at  once 
whatever  being  disagreeable  yet  must  be  done,  and  will 
only  get  worse  by  putting  it  off.  (You  perhaps  will  say 
that  you  have  seen  something  like  this  in  the  copy-books; 
on  the  contrary,  what  you  find  there  is  that  all  disagreeable 
duties  are  least  unpleasant  if  done  at  once.  But,  in  fact, 
some  of  them  have  not  to  be  done  at  all  in  that  case ;  only 
instead  one  has  the  duty  of  apologising  for  not  doing 
them :  but  this  to  fallen  man,  with  a  fair  stock  of  excusa- 
tory phraseology,  is  often  easier  than  doing  them.)  Also 
some  disagreeable  things  do  get  easier  when  you  put  them 
off;  one  familiarises  oneself  with  the  idea — I  think  tooth- 
drawing  is  one  of  these ;  however,  they  are  exceptional. 

Enough  of  moralising.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  that  at 
Eton  I  was  introduced  to  Mrs.  Oliphant,  who  was  very 
unlike  what  I  expected :  Scotch  accent,  quiet  in  manner, 
and  rather  caustic ;  you  would  never  have  attributed  to 
her  any  emotional  eagerness.  It  is  curious  that  in  the 
case  of  George  Eliot  it  is  just  the  reverse ;  her  conversation 
is  full  of  eager  sympathy,  but  there  is  comparatively  little 
humour  in  it. 

To  his  Sister  about  two  months  later 

I  would  have  answered  your  letter  before,  but  I  have 
enough  to  do  to  make  me  think  myself  busy.  Really  busy, 
I  suppose  I  never  was  in  my  life.1  .  .  . 

I   wish   you   could   give  a   better   account   of  yourself. 

1  The  view  that  persons  doing  academic  work  were  never  really  hard 
worked,  though  they  were  apt  to  be  under  the  illusion  that  they  were, 
was  one  he  often  expressed.  He  would  take  the  work  of  a  successful  lawyer 
in  full  practice  as  a  standard,  and  give  as  an  instance  an  ordinary  day 
in  the  life  of  Lord  Bowen,  when  he  (Sidgwick)  was  staying  with  him 
during  the  Tichborne  trial. 


1872,  AGE  34  HENRY  SIDGWICK  271 

Your  letter  reminds  me  vividly  of  long-past  invalidism,1 
though  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  are  a  very  different  sort 
of  convalescent.  In  fact,  I  once  thought  of  writing  "Advice 
to  Invalids,"  drawn  from  my  own  experience,  and  was 
prevented  chiefly  by  the  consideration  that  there  are  so 
many  varieties  of  invalids,  and  each  so  different  from  the 
other,  that  my  advice  would  be  useless  to  all  except  a 
very  few ;  one  might  almost  as  well  write  "  Advice  to 
Persons  in  Love "  :  or  letters  for  them,  as  in  the  Complete 
Letter-  Writer. 

However,  the  chief  part  of  my  advice  related  to  "  Self- 
preoccupation."  I  fancy  I  had  always  been  rather  a  selfish 
being  before  I  was  ill,  but  it  had  been  quite  a  different 
kind  of  selfishness ;  I  had  never  been  absorbed  in  my  own 
sensations,  my  own  pleasures  and  pains,  but  rather  my  own 
notions  and  dreams.  Suddenly  my  attention  was  concen- 
trated on  MY  DIGESTION.  This  is  really  a  subject  of  much 
[more]  varied  interest  than  people  suppose  who  have  never 
concentrated  themselves  on  it;  still  it  grows  monotonous 
in  time,  and  is  also  not  salutary. 

When  I  found  out  how  selfish  I  was,  I  used  at  first  to 
try  and  alter  myself  by  conscientious  struggles,  efforts  of 
Will.  But  that  does  not  answer  for  an  invalid ;  one  has 
not  to  fight  oneself  in  open  battles,  but  to  circumvent 
oneself  by  quietly  encouraging  all  the  various  interests  that 
take  one  out  of  self.  Botany  was  something,  the  Times 
something ;  but  to  me  the  great  artifice  was  the  direct  and 
sympathetic  observation  of  others.  I  used  to  try  and  think 
how  they  were  feeling,  and  sometimes  to  prophesy  what 
they  would  say.  I  think  most  of  my  little  knowledge  of 
my  fellow-creatures  comes  from  that  period  of  my  life. 

However,  this  letter  is  getting  as  egoistic  as  if  it  had 
been  written  then — whereas,  in  truth,  I  am  peculiarly 
unegoistic  at  present,  having  too  much  to  do.  Female 
Education  is  in  a  state  of  movement  just  at  present  here : 
and  all  other  education  too.  We  rarely  feel  as  much  at 
the  centre  of  things  as  we  now  are.  I  am  considering  a 

1  This  refers  to  his  illness  as  an  undergraduate,  see  p.  18. 


272  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

scheme  for  educating  the  whole  country,  at  least  as  far  as 
it  is  willing  to  be  educated,  and  has  left  school.  It  is  a 
comfort  to  think  what  a  rising  profession  I  belong  to. 

I  don't  go  in  for  modern  literature  just  at  present ; 
when  I  have  any  spare  time  I  read  Middletnarch  over 
again.  But  things  seem  to  be  running  towards  Biography 
now,  and  my  own  taste  is  changing  in  the  same  direction. 
Novels  weary  me,  because  they  are  not  true,  I  don't  mean 
in  a  vulgar  sense,  but  true  to  human  nature.  Now 
Biographies  are  true,  at  least  the  letters  in  them  ;  *  the  chief 
objection  to  them  is  that  they  are  stuffed  with  facts  that 
one  wants  to  forget.  I  hear  the  Hare  book  (Memorials  of 
a  Quiet  Life)  is  very  good :  and  the  second  volume  of 
Forster's  Dickens,  though  there  is  too  much  in  it  about 
another  eminent  man. 

The  "  Scheme  for  Educating  the  whole  Country  " 
developed  into  what  are  now  known  as  University 
Extension  Lectures.  The  co-operation  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  establishing  these  had  been  asked  for  in 
petitions  from  various  large  towns  and  from  educa- 
tional bodies  (including  the  North  of  England  Council), 
and  they  were  started  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  at  first 
experimentally.  Mr.  James  Stuart  was  the  moving 
spirit  in  this  very  successful  experiment,  but  Sidgwick 
was  actively  interested.- 

To  F.  Myers  (who  was  abroad)  from  Cambridge  on  August  1 5 

.  .  .  Yes,  I  am  trying  to  work  here  :  I  do  not  get  on  much, 
but  I  have  just  sufficient  strength  of  mind  not  to  go  away. 
Shall  be  delighted  to  see  you  on  the  23rd  ;  but  going  to 
Cornwall  would  be  too  patent  a  confession  of  defeat.  My 
moral  sense  would  never  get  over  it.  I  am  already  saying 
continually  "  Were  it  not  better  done  as  others  use,  to 
climb  snow  mountains  and  drink  Swiss  champagne  ?  "  But 

1  In  later  life  Sidgwick  used  to  give  another  reason  for  preferring 
biographies  for  reading  in  illness — namely,  that  it  gives  the  reader  a  sense 
of  superiority  to  feel  that  he  is,  at  any  rate,  alive,  while  the  subject  of  the 
biography  is  not. 


1872,  AGE  34  HENKY  SIDGWICK  273 

fas  dbstat.      Farewell :  I  do  not  suppose  this  will  reach  you  : 
but  mind  you  tell  me  when  you  are  coming. 

To  F.  Myers  on  September  1 

.  .  .  However,  seriously  there  is  one  thing  I  should  like 
to  say  about  myself  and  my  views  of  life,  as  far  as  they 
interest  you. 

There  are  three  quite  distinct  things,  first  my  theory  of 
practice,  framed  for  the  Normal  man,  secondly  my  theory 
of  my  own  life,  thirdly  my  own  practice.  The  difference 
between  each  pair  is  great,  so  that  the  divergence  of  (3) 
from  (1)  becomes  immense.  I  consider  that  my  own 
nature  is  in  many  respects  profoundly  defective  when 
compared  with  the  type,  but  still  that  there  is  a  certain 
kind  of  excellence,  and  also  of  happiness,  which  it  might 
attain ;  but  even  this  it  does  not.  My  difficulty  about  you 
is  that  feeling  that  you  deviate  from  the  Type  in  a  direction 
opposite  to  mine,  I  find  it  hard  to  make  up  my  mind,  even 
approximately,  as  to  how  great  the  deviation  is. 

A  truce  to  analysis. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  on  September  28 

Behold  me  returned,  having  read  all  your  books.  .  .  . 
As  for  Taine,  he  is  a  clever  man,  and  I  have  a  sort  of 
moral  respect  for  a  writer  who  gives  you  results  of  so 
much  honest  hard  cerebration.  But  I  cannot  say  I 
like  him  any  more.  It  is  all  hard,  metallic,  in  a  way 
mechanical.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  me  written  by  a  Parisian 
(as  he  describes  such)  for  Parisians.  There  is  perhaps  no 
lack  of  subtlety  of  insight,  but  certainly  of  delicacy  of 
touch.  His  hard  outlines,  violent  colours,  emphasis, 
exaggeration,  caricature,  offend  even  a  barbarian  Anglo- 
Saxon  like  myself.  .  .  . 

You  talked  of  Creighton  and  Laing  as  willing  to 
correspond  with  women.  Would  either  of  them,  think 
you,  in  English  Literature  ?  there  is  a  great  run  on  that. 
Also  we  want  money  for  impecunious  governesses.  I  have 
already  spent  the  £25  you  gave  me  on  this,  thinking  there 

T 


274  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

could  be  no  better  use  for  it.  Do  you  think  any  well-to-do 
person  believing  in  correspondence  would  subscribe  ?  Our 
plan  is  to  make  the  poor  girls  pay  for  one  course,  and  then 
to  give  them  two  more  if  they  like ;  we  always  get  a 
certificate  of  poverty  from  a  clergyman. 

The  sore  at  Rugby  is,  I  fear,  recrudescent,  but  I  only 
know  vaguely. 

To  his  Mother  from,  Cambridge  on  November  6 

I  have  read  very  little  lately  except  Plato  and  Greek 
History ;  I  have  been  writing  an  erudite  paper  on  the 
"  Sophists " l  for  our  Philological  Journal.  I  have  only 
managed  to  read  Macmillan,  and  Miss  Thackeray's  story  in 
CornhUl,  and  Middlemarch,  and  O.  W.  Holmes's  new  book, 
which  I  think  a  falling  off  though  readable  (Poet  at  the 
Breakfast  Table}.  I  am  told  the  new  Darwin  [Expression 
of  the  Emotions']  is  very  entertaining.  .  .  .  The  "  Adventures 
of  a  Phaeton  "  in  Macmillan  seems  to  me  excellent. 

To  his  Mother  on  November  24 

I  am  now  really  busy  not  merely  in  my  own  imagination, 
as  I  am  examining  next  week,  and  have  things  I  must  write 
besides  my  lectures.  You  may  have  seen  in  the  Times  of 
yesterday  the  account  of  a  meeting  on  University  Organisa- 
tion 2  in  which  I  took  part,  and  which  has  occupied  a  good 
deal  of  my  time.  I  do  not  quite  know  what  will  come  of  it,  but 
many  people  seem  to  think  that  the  Government  is  likely  to 
overhaul  us  in  some  mode  or  other  either  in  '73  or  '74, 
and  that  people  who  are  interested  in  the  Universities  and 
want  them  to  fulfil  their  proper  function  ought  to  enunciate 
their  ideas  and  be  ready  with  their  schemes.  You  may 
possibly  see  a  letter  of  mine  on  the  subject  in  next  week's 
Spectator,  if  the  editor  puts  it  in,  as  he  ought  to  do  for  an 

1  Reprinted  in  the  volume  of  Lectures  on  the  Philosophy  of  Kant  and 
other  Philosophical  Lectures  and  Essays  (Macmillan,  1905). 

*  A  meeting  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  men  held  at  the  Freemasons' 
Tavern  in  London  on  November  16,  Mark  Pattison  in  the  chair,  to  discuss 
University  Reform.  The  persons  present  agreed  to  form  themselves  into 
a  "Society  for  the  Organisation  of  Academical  Study."  See  Academy, 
vol.  iii.  p.  460. 


1873,  AGE  34  HENEY  SIDGWICK  275 

old  contributor,  though  it  will  be  rather  written  in  contra- 
vention of  an  article  he  has  written  this  week.1 

To  his  Mother  on  February  3 

Sedgwick's  death 2  was  rather  sudden  at  the  last.  I  only 
heard  on  Wednesday  that  he  was  ill.  He  was  knocked  up 
by  a  meeting  which  the  Chapter  of  Norwich  took  it  into 
their  heads  to  come  up  and  hold  in  his  rooms.  They  thought 
it  would  interest  and  enliven  the  old  man,  but  it  turned  out 
unfortunately.  His  energy  collapsed  suddenly  and  entirely, 
and  it  was  soon  seen  that  this  was  the  end.  It  is  a  great 
severance  of  our  ties  with  the  past.  He  is  the  last  "  historical 
character  "  of  Trinity.  He  must  have  been  by  nearly  thirty 
years  the  oldest  man  in  College — a  generation.  The 
Master  was  much  affected  in  reading  the  service. 

...  I  have  been  attacked  lately  with  something  indicating 
disorganisation  of  the  M[ucous]  M[embrane].  I  am  now 
taking  great  care  and  feel  pretty  well.  Taking  care  consists 
chiefly  in  never  reading  except  when  I  like.  My  doctor 
approves.  I  tell  him  that  is  not  the  way  to  get  on  in  the 
world,  but  he  says  that  his  business  is  not  to  get  people  on 
in  the  world  but  to  keep  them  in  it. 

To  C.  H.  Tawney  in  India,  February  7 
Of  the  numerous  propositions  that  Man  makes,  that  to 
write  to  his  fellowman  seems  least  often  crowned  with 
fulfilment  by  an  overruling  Providence.  Hence  I  at  length 
take  this  unpretending  scrap  of  paper,  feeling  that  I  shall 
certainly  fill  it,  and  say  all  I  have  to  say,  and  that  if  I  took 
a  bigger  I  should  put  off  writing  till  to-morrow.  I  left  your 
wife  in  Clifton  a  month  ago,  meaning  to  write  on  the  spot. 
I  wish  I  had  seen  you.  When  you  come  again  we  must  not 
miss.  Your  wife  told  me  of  your  plan  of  coming  home  for 
good  in  a  couple  of  years ;  indeed,  it  is  partly  about  that 
that  I  wish  to  write  to  you.  .  .  . 

Education  is  a  pretty  thriving  profession  here  at  present, 

1  It  appeared  in  the  Spectator  for  November  30. 

2  Adam  Sedgwick,  Professor  of  Geology,  died  January  27,  1873,  aged 
eighty-seven. 


276  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

because  it  is  steadily  rising  in  public  estimation  and  interest ; 
there  are  always  more  posts  than  there  are  good  men  to  fill 
them.  But  it  happens  quite  naturally,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  Political  Economy,  that  only  the  posts 
involving  rather  severe  drudgery  are  at  once  well  paid  and 
easy  to  get,  e.g.  I  do  not  myself  want  cash,  being  unmarried 
and  unluxurious,  but  if  I  did  I  should  find  it  very  hard  to 
get  in  my  own  line.  Morals  and  Metaphysics  are  a  sort  of 
thing  that  every  intelligent  person  thinks  he  knows  and  a 
great  many  intelligent  people  would  be  glad  to  teach  for 
very  little.  I  think  myself  lucky  to  get  about  £300  a  year 
in  all  here  for  teaching  every  one  who  wants  to  learn  any, 
examining,  reviewing,  and  doing  other  odd  jobs.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  man  who  takes  a  preparatory  school  for  small 
boys  soon  rolls  in  wealth,  if  he  is  successful  and  he  may  be 
a  Pollman  for  aught  people  in  general  care.  Between  these 
extremes  things  go  similarly,  excepting  the  few  fat  prizes, 
which  are  still  chiefly  monopolised  by  the  clergy. 

Affairs  here  are  pretty  interesting  (in  Cambridge,  I  mean). 
Reformers  believe  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  considerable 
changes  in  the  way  of  completer  organisation  of  Colleges 
into  a  really  academic  body.  We  are  partly  waiting  on 
Providence  and  Gladstone,  but  meanwhile  we  shall  make 
some  attempt  to  manage  our  own  affairs.  In  Trinity  we 
have  passed  (as  far  as  the  consent  of  the  Fellows  goes)  a 
large  scheme  of  reform,  and  are  now  waiting  the  sanction  of 
the  Privy  Council.1  It  enables  every  one  to  marry  with  a 
few  exceptions,  and  makes  all  sinecure  Fellowships  terminable 
in  five  years.  These  be  the  current  ideas.  .  .  . 

At  Rugby  things  are  as  bad  as  can  be :  intolerable :  the 
outcome  I  foresee  not.  Of  myself  there  is  nothing  to  say 
except  that  I  am  struggling  with  a  book  on  ethics.  Peile 
flourishes.  Hammond  is  occupied  in  reconstructing  endowed 
schools.  The  earth  revolves  on  her  axis,  and  the  apostles 
meet  every  Saturday. 

1  This  sanction  was  refused,  to  the  great  indignation  of  reformers  at 
Trinity,  on  the  plea  that  a  commission  would  shortly  be  issued.  Sidgwick, 
not  being  a  Fellow,  had,  of  course,  no  part  himself  in  passing  the  abortive 
statutes  here  spoken  of. 


1873,  AGE  34  HENKY  SIDGWICK  277 

To  H.  a.  Dakyns  in  February  IS  73 

What  you  have  told  me  came  to  me  sad  and  strange.1 
The  eternal  mystery  breaking  into  das  Alltagliche  in  a 
sharp,  ragged  manner.  I  hope  your  wife  has  not  suffered 
much. 

As  for  me,  I  cannot  write  easily  :  I  have  been  for  some 
time  in  one  of  my  moods  of  disquieting  self-contempt,  which 
cannot  be  made  to  vanish  by  the  mere  imagination  of  a 
friend. 

This  I  wrote  days  ago.  The  truth  is  that  the 
"Weltschmerz "  really  weighs  on  me  for  the  first  time 
in  my  life :  mingled  with  egoistic  humiliation.  I  am  a 
curious  mixture  of  the  neya\6-^rv^o<;  and  /u/cpoAjru^o<? :  I 
cannot  really  care  for  anything  little :  and  yet  I  do  not 
feel  myself  worthy  of — or  ever  hope  to  attain — anything 
worthy  of  attainment. 

Ethics  is  losing  its  interest  for  me  rather,  as  the  insolu- 
bility of  its  fundamental  problem  is  impressed  on  me.  I 
think  the  contribution  to  the  formal  clearness  and  coherence 
of  our  ethical  thought  which  I  have  to  offer  is  just  worth 
giving :  for  a  few  speculatively-minded  persons — very  few. 
And  as  for  all  practical  questions  of  interest,  I  feel  as  if  I 
had  now  to  begin  at  the  beginning  and  learn  the  ABC. 

Why  this  letter  has  been  so  long  in  writing  I  do  not 
quite  know.  Perhaps  it  is  owing  to  a  peculiar  hallucination 
under  which  I  labour  that  I  shall  suddenly  find  my  ideas 
cleared  up — say  the  day  after  to-morrow — on  the  subjects 
over  which  I  brood  heavily.  Take  this  as  a  psychological 
phenomenon.  I  am  now  working  at  a  review  of  Herbert 
Spencer,2  which,  I  think,  adds  to  my  general  despair.  I  find 
myself  compelled  to  form  the  lowest  opinion  of  a  great  deal 
of  the  results,  and  yet  I  have  an  immense  admiration  for 
his  knowledge,  his  tenacious  hold  of  very  abstract  and 
original  ideas  throughout  a  bold  and  complicated  con- 
struction, his  power  of  Combination  and  Induction.  But 
the  grotesque  and  chaotic  confusion  of  his  metaphysics ! 

1  The  birth  and  death  of  a  child. 
2  Published  in  the  Academy  of  April  1873. 


278  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Well,  it  seems  to  me  perhaps  a  warning  that  the  time  for 
Metaphysics  has  gone  by.  If  so,  as  the  Englishman  asked 
Teufelsdrockh,  "  at  great  cost  what  am  I  educated  to  do  ? " 

To  F.  Myers  about  the  same  time 

I  am  very  sorry  to  be  faithless,  but  I  cannot  come  to 
town  just  at  present.  I  sincerely  meant  to,  but  languor 
occupied  me,  and  now  I  find  I  must  work  to  make  up  for 
lost  time  (at  review  of  Herbert  Spencer l  and  article  on 
Sophists,2  both  promised  for  the  middle  of  March).  When 
these  are  done  I  shall  see  my  way  a  little.  I  think  I  shall 
be  in  town  on  Sunday,  30th  of  March,  certainly,  and  I 
hope  to  be  in  a  better  mood  for  meeting  rny  fellow-creatures 
by  that  time.  .  .  .  Next  week  I  happen  to  have  lectures  every 
day  and  could  not  conveniently  get  away  for  a  night.  .  .  . 

I  should  be  very  glad  to  come  to  Brandon  House s  in 
April :  if  I  do  not  find  it  necessary  for  my  health  to  take 
sea-air — in  fact  Freshwater.  The  air  agrees  with  me,  and 
occasional  contemplation  of  the  Laureate  affords  one  of  the 
purest  pleasures  that  our  fallen  nature  has  to  give.  Also 
Leslie  Stephen  tells  me  that  he  may  probably  be  there,  and 
I  need  not  remark  that  one  who  cultivates  his  pen  ought 
also  to  cultivate  editors.  I  do  not  know  whether  these 
reasons  seem  to  you  adequate — if  not,  add  that  I  want  to 
write  my  book.  1  think  now  of  bringing  it  out  after  all, 
evading  difficulties.  .  .  . 

I  saw  Morris  the  other  day,  and  taxed  him  with  putting 
nineteenth-century  sentiment  on  the  provincial  stage  of  a 
medieval  Arcadia.4  He  said  Middle  Ages  were  subtle  to 
any  extent  in  amatory  matters.  I  said  they  might  be  subtle, 
but  they  weren't  sceptical  of  their  own  emotions,  did  not 
"  tremble  for  the  death  of  desire."  He  grinned  good- 
humouredly  and  admitted.  I  think  the  last  two  songs 
worth  keeping,  especially  the  last  but  one. 

1  See  p.  277. 

2  The  second  article  on  this  subject,  published  in  the  Journal  of  Philology, 
Part  ix.,  and,  like  the  first  (see  p.  274),  reprinted  in  the  volume  of  Lectures 
on  the  Philosophy  of  Kant,  etc. 

3  Myers's  home  at  Cheltenham. 

4  Myers  notes  that  this  refers  to  Morris's  Love  is  Enough. 


1873,  AGE  34  HENKY  SIDG-WICK  279 

To  Mrs.  dough  from  Cambridge  on  March  19 

Miss  Clough  will  have  told  you  that  our  educational 
enterprise  is  passing  into  a  new  and  perplexing  stage.  I 
hope  we  shall  emerge  from  it ;  but  if  any  one  should  call 
and  ask  your  advice  as  to  a  Philanthropic  Investment  of 
Four  Thousand  Pounds,  please  refer  him  to  me. 

The  following  post-card  to  his  sister,  sent  from 
London  on  April  15,  throws  light  both  on  how  he 
spent  the  Easter  vacation  of  this  year  and  on  his 
habitual  want  of  order  in  the  smaller  material 
concerns  of  life  : — 

Did  I  leave  any  BOOTS,  SHOES,  or  GOLOSHES  with  you  in 
my  bedroom  ?  It  seems  as  if  I  ought  to  have  more  of  these 
useful  articles  on  hand. 

The  heart,  bereaved,  of  why  and  how 

Unknowing,  knows  that  yet  before 

It  HAD  what  e'en  to  memory  now 

Returns  NO  MORE,  NO  MORE.1 

If  found,  to  be  sent  to  23  Gower  Street,  London,  W.C.  I 
am  writing  this  in  the  British  Museum  Library  because 
they  WILL  not  bring  my  books.  Excuse  agitation. 

To  his  Mother  on  May  30 

I  ought  to  have  written  long  ago,  but  I  have  been  very 
busy.  My  lectures  have  now  come  to  an  end,  and  I  am 
gathering  up  the  fragments  of  neglected  duties.  I  had 
heard  of  my  uncle's  death 2  before  you  wrote.  I  was  much 
startled  and  grieved,  having  no  idea  that  he  was  in  any 
danger.  I  remember  well  the  last  time  that  I  saw  him  at 
the  mill,  little  thinking  that  it  was  the  last  time.  I  seem 
to  remember  all  my  childish  feelings  about  him  as  the  Head 
of  the  family,  and  it  makes  me  sad  to  think  that  I  shall 
never  see  his  fine  impressive  old  face  again.  .  .  .  When  this 
reaches  you  I  shall  be  thirty-five  !  I  have  a  sort  of  fear  that 
I  shall  be  old  before  I  know  where  my  life  has  gone  to. 
The  years  are  beginning  to  go  with  Kailroad  Speed ;  it  seems 

1  Clough. 
2  J.  B.  Sidgwick,  died  May  19,  1873. 


280  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

scarcely  yesterday  that  you  gave  me  a  birthday  present 
for  1872.  I  assure  you  that  the  only  reason  I  have  not 
written  to  thank  you  for  your  kind  offer  has  been  that  I 
was  indulging  a  constitutional  vacillation  as  to  what  I 
should  say — embarras  de  richesses.  On  the  whole,  it  seems 
to  me  that  there  is  no  use  in  Birthday  Presents  if  one  does 
not  get  one's  fancies  indulged,  and  get  things  which  it 
would  be  too  extravagant  to  buy.  So  I  intend  to  ask  you 
to  give  me  some  of  Miss  Thackeray's  works.  I  say  "  some," 
because  I  do  not  know  how  much  they  cost.  Whatever 
she  writes  has  a  peculiar  and  exquisite  charm  for  me — a 
sort  of  spiritual  fragrance,  a  tender,  graceful  sweetness  which 
defies  analysis — and  I  feel  that  even  if  I  ever  lose  my 
admiration  for  them,  it  will  be  an  interesting  thing  for  me 
to  have  books  which  have  once  affected  me  so  strongly. 

To  his  Mother  from,  7  Athelstan  Road,  Margate,  on  June  2  9 

Here  I  am  as  usual !  that  is,  I  was  here  last  year  in 
Ethelbert  Terrace,  if  you  remember.  (That  is  close  by ; 
all  this  part  of  the  town  was  built  by  some  fanatical  Anglo- 
Saxon.)  ...  I  do  not  think  I  ever  wrote  to  thank  you  for 
the  books — Miss  Thackeray's — which  came  shining  bright 
before  I  left  Cambridge ;  it  was  very  remiss  of  me.  Since 
that  time  I  have  been  staying  with  the  Stephens  and  seen  her. 
She  is  going  to  write  another  fairy  tale — Jack  and  the  Bean- 
stalk. However,  this  is  a  secret.  .  .  .  Also  she  told  me  some 
interesting  things  about  Browning  and  "  Red  Cotton  Nightcap 
Country,"  which  I  will  tell  you  some  time  if  you  have  read 
or  tried  to  read  that  singular  production.  Talking  of  books, 
there  are  several  books  to  talk  about — in  the  first  place 
Mrs.  Cornish's  novel  Alcestis,  which  you  should  read  or 
make  others  read.  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  a  great 
success,  though  I  cannot  properly  appreciate  it,  as  the 
motive  is  music.  But  it  is  a  book  that  without  effort  takes 
the  reader  out  of  the  commonplace  from  first  to  last — and 
that  is  a  great  deal  to  say  of  any  book.  There  is  another 
book  I  want  people  to  read,  not  a  new  one  exactly — Mrs. 
Webster's  The  Auspicious  Day.  It  is  a  dramatic  poem ;  I 


1873,  AGE  35  HENKY  SIDGWICK  281 

read  it  while  conducting  the  Local  Examination  in  London, 
and  could  not  help  crying  over  it,  though  I  was  perched  so 
high  that  sixty-five  young  ladies  could  see — unless  too  much 
occupied  with  their  papers — an  Examiner  Weep.  So  it  must 
have  been  really  moving.  Tell  Arthur  that  Symonds's  Greek 
Poets  is  very  good  in  parts — on  the  whole  better  than  [his] 
Dante — and  will  improve  his  mind. 

How  are  all  your  affairs  ?  Many  sympathising  strangers 
in  London  inquired  after  Rugby,  but  I  told  them  that  the 
situation  was  unchanged.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  will 
be  any  comfort  to  you  to  know  that  all  the  M.P.'s  I  have 
seen  believe  in  the  "  Conservative  Reaction,"  so  that  possibly 
H.  H  [ay man]  may  be  made  a  Dean  soon. 

To  his  Sister  from  Margate  on  July  1 

...  I  have  been  in  London  conducting  the  Examination 
of  Women  and  indulging  in  other  amusements.  Now  I  am 
writing  a  Book,  or  pretending  to  do  so,  as  far  as  Christy 
Minstrels  and  other  barbaric  phenomena  will  allow  me.  I 
subsist  chiefly  on  a  kind  of  fish  called  Margate  Dabs  (No, 
the  jest  that  occurs  to  you  is  NOT  admissible)  and  on  Miss 
Braddon's  novels.  Yes,  I  have  decided  that  they  really  are 
more  improving  to  the  mind  than  Mrs.  Henry  "Wood's.  But 
now — I  know  we  do  not  agree  about  Mrs.  Oliphant — but 
I  really  must  recommend  May,  and  I  must  deliberately  say 
that  I  consider  Mrs.  0.  to  be  in  the  Very  first  rank  of 
novelists.  There  is  no  one  whose  books  keep  my  mind  in 
a  more  delightfully  sustained  state  of  emotional  excitement, 
vibrating  between  laughter  and  pity  for  poor  humanity.  It 
is  not  on  account  of  the  depth  of  her  pathos  or  the  richness 
and  justesse  of  her  satire,  but  the  intense  complex  sympathy 
— naturally  dashed  with  unaffected  apprehension  of  the 
humorous  side  of  things — with  which  she  presents  the 
series  of  situations.  .  .  . 

How  easy  the  problem  of  life  becomes  when  one  is 
alone  at  Margate  with  nothing  to  do.  I  have  grappled 
with  and  overcome  even  the  difficulty  of  ordering  dinner — 
thanks  to  the  MAKGATE  DABS. 


282  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

To  F.  Myers  from  Margate  on  July  6 

I  have  had  spiritual  reasons  enough  to  write  to  you  for 
a  long  time,  but  they  have  all  been  outweighed  by  the  sort 
of  lethargy  of  spirit  in  which  I  still  linger,  feeling  that  my 
little  stream  of  life,  with  its  mingled  current  half  speculative, 
half  transcendental -human,  has  run  itself  into  a  sort  of 
sandy  desert,  where  it  is  temporarily  spreading  and  drying 
up  and  flowing  underground,  and  altogether  behaving  in  an 
unaccountable  manner.  .  .  . 

I  do  not  think  I  like  Margate  quite  as  well  as  last 
year.  In  fact,  I  am  not  sure  that  it  would  not  bore  me 
(except  for  my  immense  intellectual  resources)  during  the 
day ;  but  at  sunset  the  contrast  between  the  enchanted  sea 
and  the  platitudes  of  the  promenade  delights  me  as  before. 
I  struggle  on  with  my  little  book :  not  from  any  interest  or 
belief  in  it,  but  because  I  feel  that  it  must  be  written  and 
that  it  will  bore  me  more  the  more  I  delay  it.  Not  a  very 
hopeful  mood  for  authorship.  Are  you  doing  anything 
besides  living  ?  I  mean  when  you  are  not  adorning  the 
education  of  the  country  with  your  manners  and  improving 
it  by  new  regulations.1  .  .  . 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  on  August  I 

I  am  moved  to  write  by  having  found  a  letter  of  yours 
here,  feeling  that  if  you  did  not  know  that  I  had  not 
received  it  when  we  talked,  you  must  have  thought  some  of 
my  remarks  somewhat  unresponsive — even  allowing  for 
the  Democritean  mood  in  which  our  conversations  are 
carried  on. 

You  know  that  in  spite  of  my  love  of  truth,  I  am  too 
fond  of  you  not  to  be  keenly  pleased  by  your  overestimate 
of  me ;  I  only  feel  bound  from  time  to  time  to  warn  you 
that  you  will  find  me  out.  My  only  merit  (if  it  be  a 
merit)  is  that  I  have  never  swerved  from  following  the  ideal 

evermore  unseen 
And  fixt  upon  the  far  sea  line, 


1  Myers  was  one  of  H.  M.  Inspectors  of  Schools. 


1873,  AGE  35  HENEY  SIDGWICK  283 

but  I  have  a  double  sorrow,  first,  that  I  cannot  come  to  know 
the  relation  of  the  ideal  to  the  actual ;  and,  secondly,  that  I 
myself  show  so  mean  and  uncomely  to  my  own  vision. 
Further,  as  to  you,  I  have  another  sadness  in  feeling  that 
during  the  years  in  which  we  have  exchanged  thoughts  I 
have  unwillingly  done  you  more  harm  than  good  by  the  cold 
corrosive  scepticism  which  somehow,  in  my  own  mind,  is 
powerless  to  affect  my  '  idealism,'  but  which  I  see  in  more 
than  one  case  acting  otherwise  upon  others.  Still  your 
friendship  is  one  of  the  best  delights  of  my  life,  and  no 
difference  of  ethical  opinion  between  us  can  affect  this, 
though  it  may  increase  my  despondency  as  to  things  in 
general.  .  .  . 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  September  4 

My  life  is  highly  uneventful,  but  not  unhappy,  though 
my  work  is  in  a  lingering  state.  I  shall  be  curious  to  hear 
what  you  say  of  the  Lincoln  domicile.1  There  is  something 
interesting,  after  all,  in  these  domestic  changes  ;  novelty  is 
gratifying  to  the  human  breast,  and  I  feel  that  I  may 
some  time  acquire  the  same  fraternal  feeling  for  that 
cathedral  town  that  I  now  have  for  the  fir -woods  of 
Wellington  College.  I  wonder  whether  I  shall  ever  go 
there  again. 

Do  you  see  Macmillan  ?  The  Princess  of  Thule  is  a 
very  pretty,  slightly-woven  story. 

To  "  George  Eliot "  from  Eugly  on  September  2  3 

When  I  saw  you  last  in  London  you  were  kind  enough 
to  invite  me  to  come  and  see  you  at  Black-brook.  I  shall 
be  in  London  on  Saturday  and  Sunday  week  (October  4  and 
5)  before  beginning  work  again,  and  I  should  very  much 
like  to  run  down  to  you  on  one  of  these  days,  if  you  are 
likely  to  be  at  home  then. 

...  I  feel  rather  dull  from  the  task  of  weaving  a  sieve  to 
hold  the  water  of  life  in — for  a  book  on  Morals  often  seems 
like  that;  however  tight  one  tries  to  draw  the  meshes, 

1  E.  W.  Benson  had  been  made  Chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln. 


284  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

everything  of  the  nature  of  Wisdom  seems  to  have  run 
through  when  one  examines  the  result — that  is,  if  it  was 
ever  there.  In  this  state  I  cannot  tell  you  with  what 
refreshment  I  turn  and  read  your  books  again. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge  on  October  12 

I  wish  I  could  have  come  to  you,  but  I  have  been 
nowhere,  hoping  to  get  on  with  my  book  on  the  Methods  of 
Ethics — a  hope  much  frustrated  by  my  own  weakness,  but 
still  not  altogether  unrealised.  I  think  I  shall  get  the 
thing  done  some  time  next  year.  There  is  written — 
Book  I. ;  f  of  Book  II. ;  ^  of  Book  III. ;  plan  of  last 
book.  [These  are]  perhaps  not  in  final  form,  but  nearly  so. 
The  book  solves  nothing,  but  may  clear  up  the  ideas  of 
one  or  two  people  a  little.  .  .  . 

Female  Education  thriving — about  twenty  students  have 
come  up. 

To  F.  Myers  on  October  30  (regarding,  in  the  first  place, 
subscriptions  for  building  a  Hall  of  residence  for  women 
students} 

Many  thanks  for  your  services  with  the  Millionaire. 
We  are  trying  two  or  three  of  them  now.  I  have  not  yet 
written  [to  the  Millionaire],  waiting  till  a  little  circular  is 
printed — a  curious  document  in  style,  patched  of  me  and 
Miss  Clough  :  her  naive,  earnest,  slightly  incoherent  appeals 
intercalated  with  the  colourless,  ponderous,  semi-official 
prolixity  with  which  I  inevitably  treat  such  matters.1 

...  As  for  Spirit-rapping,  I  am  exactly  in  the  same  mind 
towards  it  as  towards  Keligion.  I  believe  there  is  some- 
thing in  it :  don't  know  what :  have  tried  hard  to  discover, 
and  find  that  I  always  paralyse  the  phenomena ;  my  taste 
is  strongly  affected  by  the  obvious  humbug  mixed  with  it, 
which,  at  the  same  time,  my  reason  does  not  overestimate. 

1  On  November  15  Sidgwick  wrote  to  Myers  about  this  on  a  post-card  : 
"The  high- souled  merchant  has  responded  in  a  high-souled  manner:  we 
are  now  in  the  category  of  irbcov  "  [how  much].  The  circular  here  men- 
tioned was  one  signed  by  Miss  Clough,  and  largely  quoted  from  on  pp. 
158-60  of  the  Memoir  of  Miss  Clough  already  referred  to. 


1873,  AGE  35  HENEY  SIDGWICK  285 

John  King l  is  an  old  friend,  but  as  he  always  came  into 
the  dark  and  talked  at  random,  our  friendship  refrigerated. 
Still  I  shall  be  glad  to  accompany  you  on  any  favourable 
opportunity.  .  .  . 

This  is  the  first  reference  we  have  to  co-operation 
in  psychical  research  between  Sidgwick  and  Myers, 
though  Myers  seems  to  have  determined  to  undertake 
the  investigation,  and,  if  possible,  along  with  Sidgwick, 
in  consequence  of  a  conversation  with  him  in  1869, 
when,  as  he  tells  us  in  his  address  In  Memory  of  Henri/ 
Sidgwick,  from  which  we  have  already  quoted  : — 

In  a  star-light  walk  which  I  shall  not  forget  (December 
3,  1869),  I  asked  him,  almost  with  trembling,  whether  he 
thought  that  when  Tradition,  Intuition,  Metaphysic,  had 
failed  to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  Universe,  there  was  still  a 
chance  that  from  any  actual  observable  phenomena — ghosts, 
spirits,  whatsoever  there  might  be — some  valid  knowledge 
might  be  drawn  as  to  a  World  Unseen.  Already,  it  seemed, 
he  had  thought  that  this  was  possible ;  steadily,  though  in 
no  sanguine  fashion,  he  indicated  some  last  grounds  of 
hope ;  and  from  that  night  onwards  I  resolved  to  pursue 
this  quest,  if  it  might  be,  at  his  side. 

To  his  Mother  on  November  4 

It  is  quite  true  that  I  ought  to  have  written  long  ago, 
but  I  have  been  much  engaged  in  that  part  of  my  time  that 
goes  to  writing  letters — with  various  correspondence  con- 
nected with  the  lectures  for  women.  We  have  just  set  the 
scheme  on  a  new  footing — "  broader  basis  "  we  call  it — by 
constructing  an  Association  to  which  any  one  may  belong. 
(You  will  be  a  member  if  you  will  continue  paying  your 
guinea  subscription.)  This  entails  much  letter-writing,  and 
I  am  secretary  also  of  two  or  three  other  societies,  etc.  .  .  . 
I  am  very  well,  and  am  quite  of  opinion  that  it  is  my  own 
fault  if  I  am  not  in  first-rate  spirits. 

The  following  letter  refers  to  the  end  of  the  long 

o  o 

1  A  soi-disant  spirit. 


286  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

Rugby  crisis.  The  school  had  been  steadily  decreas- 
ing :  the  governing  body  had  reinstated  one  of  the 
masters  whom  Dr.  Hayman  had  dismissed,  and  it  was 
generally  felt  that  their  patience  would  soon  be 
exhausted.  The  last  straw  was  the  unauthorised 
dismissal  of  Arthur  Sidgwick,  who  was  leaving  at 
Christmas.  In  December  the  Headmaster  himself 
was  dismissed.  The  '  uncertainty '  Sidgwick  speaks 
of  concerned  his  brother's  position,  as  he  was  to  be 
married  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and  it  was  not  at  all 
clear  whether  he  would  be  reappointed. 

To  his  Mother  from  London,  December  20 

You  see  that  all  is  over,  and  as  well  as  could  be 
expected.  It  is  vexatious  that  everything  should  be  so 
uncertain  about  Arthur,  but  all  things  human  are  mixed. 
It  is  rumoured  that  H.  H.  means  to  resist,  but  Bowen  says 
that  he  will  only  lose  his  money — not  a  legal  leg  to  stand  on. 
The  Times  this  morning  is  as  good  as  could  be  expected, 
considering  all  things.  Somehow  I  do  not  feel  quite  as 
happy  as  I  hoped  to  feel ;  still  the  relief  is  very  great. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  about  your  health,  but  as  for 
the  journey,1  I  have  been  for  some  time  afraid  of  it  on  your 
account,  and  therefore  am  really  somewhat  relieved  at  its 
being  given  up.  .  .  . 

You  never  answered  my  letter  about  our  Association,  but 
it  does  not  matter  ;  it  was  a  piece  of  business  of  the  enduring 
and  patient  kind. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  February  18*74  (who  had  asked  him 
to  be  godfather  to  his  son) 

I  can't,  for  the  same  reason  as  Johnnie  [J.  A.  Symonds], 
and  also  that  I  refused  a  similar  request  of  William's.  I  am 
nothing  if  not  veracious  :  though  I  by  no  means  wish  to  say 
that  I  should  not  have  my  own  children  baptized :  I  have 
never  fully  considered  the  matter.  But  I  cannot  take  the 
Creed  into  my  mouth.  I  am  very  sorry  to  refuse.  I  might 
1  To  the  Riviera  ;  Sidgwick  was  to  have  taken  her  out. 


1874,  AGE  35  HENEY  SIDGWICK  287 

add  that  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  child  may  imbibe  a  very 
different  spirit  from  mine,  but  this  is  not  my  motive  in 
declining. 

My  book  drags  on,  but  I  think  it  will  be  done  in  a  way 
by  Easter,  thrown  aside  for  the  May  term,  and  then  revised 
in  June,  and  published  in  the  autumn.  At  least  I  hope  for 
this.  It  bores  me  very  much,  and  I  want  to  get  it  off  my 
hands  before  it  makes  me  quite  ill. 

This  disgust  with  a  book  in  its  last  stages  towards 
completion  is  probably  common  with  authors.  Cer- 
tainly it  attacked  Sidgwick  in  the  case  of  every  book 
he  wrote,  and  was  not  unnaturally  accompanied  by 
painful  depression. 

He  writes  to  F.  Myers  on  February  17  from 
Cambridge,  arranging  for  joint  entertainment  of  the 
Frederick  Harrisons,  Charles  Bowens,  and  others,  and 
continues  :— 

For  myself  I  am  in  gloom  and  inertia.  .  .  .  Life  still 
amuses  me — "  Eideamus  igitur  homines  dum  sumus." 

There  are  several  good  comic  points  about  the  Conserva- 
tive reaction : 1  Hans  Gladstone  led  a  Barty,  vere  ish  dat 
Barty  now  ? 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  March  28 

I  have  at  length  decided  with  much  regret  that  I  cannot 
leave  Cambridge  this  vacation,  being  too  busy.  I  meant  to 
have  come  down  to  you,  but  Providence  has  ordered  other- 
wise, as  follows.  About  a  fortnight  ago  I  had  a  bad  attack 
of  indigestion ;  I  was  just  trying  to  finish  a  piece  of  work 
on  which  I  am  engaged ;  I  gave  it  up  and  took  a  holiday — 
except,  of  course,  for  my  routine  business.  I  thus  gradually 
got  better,  but  did  not  like  to  resolve  to  spend  the  vacation 
in  work  without  seeing  a  doctor.  Therefore  being  forced  to 
go  to  London  on  the  business  of  Miss  Clough's  new  house,  I 
took  the  opportunity  of  seeing  Gladstone's  physician,  Dr. 
Andrew  Clark,  who  is  said  to  be  a  very  good  man  especially 

1  Gladstone  had  unexpectedly  dissolved  Parliament  in  January  1874,  and 
the  Conservatives  had  been  returned  with  a  majority  of  about  fifty. 


288  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

for  the  dyspepsias  etc.  etc.  of  Students.  .  .  .  He  put  me  on 
rather  a  strict  diet,  but  said  that  I  might  go  back  to 
Cambridge  and  work.  I  tell  you  all  this  that  you  may 
not  be  anxious  about  my  health.  I  hope  to  have  a  really 
good  holiday  in  the  Long  Vacation  some  time. 

This  was  probably  the  occasion  on  which,  Dr. 
Andrew  Clark  having  recommended  riding,  Sidgwick 
asked  whether  running  would  not  do  as  well.  The 
doctor,  smiling,  assented,  and  for  years  afterwards 
Sidgwick  generally  took  his  exercise  in  the  form  of 
gentle  running  combined  with  walking.  Many  will 
remember  his  habit  of  running  in  the  streets  and 
roads  of  Cambridge. 

The  investigation  of  spiritualism  had  been  going 
on  to  some  extent  during  these  months,  but  in  May 
Myers  seems  to  have  proposed  something  more 
systematic  and  persistent — in  fact,  a  sort  of  informal 
association  for  the  purpose,  with  a  common  fund.1 
Sidgwick  writes  to  him  from  Cambridge  on  May  18  : — 

Gurney,  as  at  present  advised,  will  give  us — his  warmest 
sympathies  (but  no  more),  in  spiritualistic  investigation. 

For  myself  I  am  minded  to  take  the  plunge :  but  I  feel 
that  it  is  '  a  long  row  to  hoe/  and  want  a  few  days'  con- 
sideration, which  the  uncertainty  of  hay  fever  conveniently 
gives.  .  .  . 

A  few  days  later  he  writes  : — 

As  to  sp-r-ts,  please  do  what  seems  good  in  your  eyes, 
and  count  on  me  to  co-operate. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  Edmund  Gurney,  who 
soon  after  became,  and  remained  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  one  of  the  most  important  collaborators  in  the 
movement,  hesitated  at  first  about  joining  in  it. 
The  phenomena  occurring  in  the  presence  of  mediums, 

1  This  was  not  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  which  was  not  founded 
till  1882. 


1874,  AGE  36  HENKY  SIDGWICK  289 

and  alleged  to  be  inexplicable  by  known  physical 
laws,  had  been  brought  prominently  to  the  notice  of 
the  educated  world  at  this  time  by  the  investigations 
of  Mr.  (now  Sir  William)  Crookes.  These  he  had 
described  in  articles  published  in  the  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Science  and  elsewhere  in  1871,  and  in 
further  articles  in  this  year  (1874),  and  the  interest 
thus  aroused  had  been  further  stimulated  by  an 
article  by  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  called  "  A 
Defence  of  Modern  Spiritualism/'  which  appeared 
in  the  Fortnightly  Review  during  this  year.  Sidg- 
wick  and  Myers,  therefore,  found  others  ready  to 
join,  more  or  less  thoroughly,  in  the  investigation, 
among  them  Lord  Rayleigh  and  Mr.  A.  J.  Balfour, 
both  of  whom  had  sittings  for  investigation  in  their 
own  houses.  We  do  not  propose  to  go  into  the 
details  of  the  investigations  carried  out  by  the  group, 
as  these  are  sufficiently  dealt  with  in  papers  published 
later  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research ;  but  this  much  of  explanation  seems  required 
to  make  clear  some  of  the  letters  that  follow. 

To  F.  Myers 

I  will  send  a  line  again  when  there  is  really  anything 

to  say. 

Griefs,  joys  in  Time's  strange  dance 

Interchangeably  advance, 

also  an  immense  amount  of  business  mixed  in,  which  the 
poets  do  not  recognise,  but  which  is  perhaps  useful  as  a 
diluent. 

To  F.  Myers  in  June 

Please  don't  plague  yourself  about  lodgings  [for  spiritual- 
istic experiments],  and  remember  that  I  am  after  all  a 
Philosopher.  I  chiefly  wanted  to  impress  on  you  that 
my  usual  anxiety  to  save  an  honest  sixpence  quite  gives 
way  at  this  season  of  the  year  to  my  anxiety  to  sleep ;  if 
I  cannot  secure  some  of  the  silence  that  ought  to  be  in  the 
Starry  Sky,  I  generally  find  that  the  sleep  I  want  is 

u 


290  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

(probably)   among  the   Lonely  Hills.1     I   will   not  fail  on 
Wednesday  at  2.30. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  July  1 

I  am  here  again,  reading  in  a  lazy  way,  and  taking  a 
little  real  holiday.  I  find  I  cannot  take  holiday  in 
London:  it  is  too  exciting.  I  feel  myself  in  no  danger 
of  working  too  hard,  as  I  enjoy  immensely  the  sense  of 
leisureliness  that  the  Long  Vacation  gives :  but  I  want  to 
get  through  one  or  two  bits  of  work,  and  feel  no  need  of 
change.  Indeed  one  of  the  puzzling  things  to  me  is  to 
conceive  how  human  beings  whose  lot  is  cast  in  such  an 
age  as  this  can  want  "  change."  I  seem  to  get  more 
variety  than  is  good  for  my  brain  every  day  of  my  life. 
Change !  What  I  want  is  uniformity.  ...  I  have  been 
investigating  "  Spiritualism  "  ;  are  you  interested  ? 

To  his  Mother  (who  was  staying  at  Exeter  with  Bishop 
Temple)  from  London,  July  11 

I  would  have  written  to  you  before,  but  I  have  un- 
fortunately nothing  to  communicate  on  the  interesting 
subject  of  Spiritualism — in  fact,  I  find  that  I  must  give  up 
the  subject  for  the  present,  as  I  am  behindhand  with  my 
work.  I  hope,  however,  to  take  it  up  again  at  some  future 
time.  It  is  certainly  a  most  perplexing  subject.  There  is 
so  much  crass  imposture  and  foolish  credulity  mixed  up 
with  it,  that  I  am  not  at  all  surprised  at  men  of  science 
declining  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  one  who  has  not  read  Crookes's  articles  in  the 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Science,  or  some  similar  statement,  has 
any  idea  of  the  weight  of  the  evidence  in  favour  of  the 
phenomena.  As  a  friend  of  mine  (who  is  a  disbeliever) 
says  :  "  There  are  only  three  alternatives — Crookes  is  either 
affirming  a  tissue  of  purposeless  lies,  or  a  monomaniac,  or 
the  phenomena  are  true,"  and  we  seem  to  me  to  be  driven 
to  one  of  these  conclusions.  And  then  there  is  the  startling 
fact  that  while  all  this  is  going  on  Crookes  is  exhibiting 
1  Cf.  Wordsworth,  "Brougham  Castle." 


1874,  AGE  36  HENKY  SIDGWICK  291 

before  the  Koyal  Society  experiments  of  novel  and  great 
interest  on  the  motive  force  of  heat.  Altogether  I  am 
surprised  that  the  thing  is  not  attracting  more  attention. 
We  have  had  tremendous  heat  in  London,  which  has  made 
me  almost  unable  to  work ;  I  am  now  going  back  to 
Cambridge  for  a  few  days  to  finish  my  book,  which  I  shall 
put  into  the  printer's  hands  (I  hope)  before  very  long.  It 
is  a  book  too  technical  to  give  me  any  general  reputation ; 
indeed  it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  belong  to  Literature,  but  I 
hope  it  will  at  least  show  that  I  am  not  altogether  idle — 
as  most  of  us  academic  residents  are  supposed  to  be.  I 
shall  be  very  glad  to  have  it  done,  as  then  I  shall  be  able 
to  have  a  little  real  rest. 

...  If  you  say  anything  to  the  Bishop  about  Spiritualism, 
please  say  that  no  one  should  pronounce  on  the  primd  facie 
case  for  serious  investigation — this  is  really  all  that  I  main- 
tain on  behalf  of  Spiritualism — who  has  not  read  Crookes's 
Researches. 

I  am  going  to  the  Lakes  in  August. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Eton  (undated) 

1  go  to  London  again  on  Monday ;  probably  not  to 
Cambridge  till  Thursday  or  Friday,  when  I  shall  have  to 
see  Clay  about  my  book.  Macmillan  has  taken  it  on  half 
profits,  in  so  cordial  and  confiding  a  manner  that  I  feel 
ashamed  of  having  taken  him  in.  However,  he  is  going  to 
send  the  proof-sheets  to  John  Morley,  and  I  think  I  shall 
get  something  out  of  the  latter  in  the  way  of  criticism. 

To  F.  Myers  early  in  August 

Morley  has  behaved  beautifully,  and  said  everything 
amiable  about  my  book  that  veracity  would  permit.  He 
has  delighted  me  by  giving  exactly  the  view  of  it  which  I 
take  when  I  am  in  the  best  humour  with  it.  (Macmillan 
will  no  doubt  take  the  risk  now.)  I  should  have  told  you 
when  I  wrote  last,  only  I  am  somewhat  disgusted  with  the 
philoprogenitiveness  of  authors. 


292  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

To  his  Mother  from  The  Chancery,  Lincoln  (the  new  residence 
of  his  sister  and  brother-in-law},  September  9 

I  do  not  know  how  I  have  come  to  be  so  long  without 
writing  to  you — chiefly,  I  think,  from  a  sense  of  incomplete- 
ness about  my  life  lately,  which  has  led  me  to  defer  saying 
anything  "just  a  few  days  longer"  in  order  that  I  might 
have  something  to  tell.  But  I  feel  that  it  is  time  to  give  a 
sort  of  account  of  myself.  I  may  consider  my  life  in  three 
aspects — to  use  the  style  of  an  author — first,  the  business 
connected  with  my  book ;  secondly,  my  inquiry  into 
Spiritualism ;  and  thirdly,  the  holiday-making  which  may 
be  supposed  to  be  the  proper  business  of  the  month  of 
August. 

I  forget  whether  I  told  you  that  Macmillan  had  agreed 
to  take  the  risk  of  my  book,  and  to  give  me  half  profits,  in 
case  there  should  be  any — which  is,  however,  highly  im- 
probable. This  affair  took  a  considerable  number  of  days 
to  settle,  partly  owing  to  scruples  of  my  own  ;  for,  as  the 
book  is  written  in  a  rather  obscure  and  technical  style, 
intended  primarily  for  students,  I  was  afraid  that  it  was 
really  unfair  on  Macmillan  to  ask  him  to  take  the  risk. 
So  I  urged  him  to  show  a  portion  of  the  MS.  to  Mr.  John 
Morley,  the  editor  of  the  Fortnightly  Review,  which  he 
accordingly  did.  To  my  great  satisfaction,  Morley  reported 
tolerably  favourably,  and  said  that  the  work  ought  to 
excite  a  fair  amount  of  interest  and  pay  its  expenses.  So 
we  settled  the  pecuniary  part  of  the  transaction  :  and  what- 
ever else  happens  I  shall  not  be  out  of  pocket  in  con- 
sequence of  my  desire  to  instruct  mankind.  Since  then  I 
have  been  correcting  proof-sheets ;  about  a  fourth  is  already 
printed,  and  I  am  in  hopes  of  getting  it  out  before  Christmas. 
I  have  to  work  steadily  at  the  proofs  and  the  MS.,  but  not 
hard ;  I  have  plenty  of  time  to  spare  and  have  been  giving 
some  of  this  to  Spiritualism,  though  as  yet  without  any 
conclusive  or  particularly  interesting  results.  I  went  to 
stay  with  Lord  Rayleigh  early  in  August  to  meet  Mrs. 
Jencken,  one  of  the  original  Fox  girls,  in  connection  with 


1874,  AGE  36  HENKY  SIDGWICK  293 

whom  these  singular  phenomena  first  attracted  attention  in 
America  in  1848.  We  heard  abundance  of  "  raps,"  but  the 
particular  experiment  that  we  were  trying  did  not  succeed. 
I  shall  probably  go  there  again  in  a  day  or  two  to  try  it 
again.  After  leaving  Eayleigh  I  went  to  Hallsteads,1  where 
I  have  been  spending  a  fortnight  that  ended  last  Monday. 
Many  remarkable  phenomena  had  occurred  there  before  I 
arrived,  which  were  all  the  more  interesting  because  there 
was  no  public  medium;  for  example,  a  table  was  raised 
from  the  ground  while  all  the  hands  of  those  who  sat  near 
it  were  laid  on  the  table,  etc.,  etc.  Nothing,  however, 
happened  while  I  was  there  that  is  worth  narrating. 

Hallsteads  is  a  charming  place,  and  I  enjoyed  my  stay 
there  very  much.  Here  all  are  well,  Mary  apparently  very 
well ;  the  boys,2  of  course,  in  excellent  spirits.  I  enjoy  the 
old  house  much. 

To  Rode.ii  Noel  from  Cambridge  on  October  6 

As  for  me,  I  am  almost  entirely  absorbed  now  between 
my  book,  my  lectures,  the  education  of  women,  and — 
Bogies,  as  Sidney  Colvin  calls  them.  I  have  now  gone  in 
for  the  investigation  of  Spiritualism  in  real  earnest :  not  (so 
far)  with  much  result  of  a  kind  interesting  to  outsiders : 
but  to  me  the  interest  of  the  inquiry  grows  with  every 
step.  Meanwhile  supplying  copy  and  correcting  proof-sheets 
fill  up  my  time.  I  have  read  nothing  all  the  Long  except 
[Swinburne's]  Both/well,  which  I  don't  like — in  spite  of  John 
Morley,  who  certainly  says  what  can  be  said  for  it  effectively 
and  honestly  (this  month's  Macmillan).  But  it  is,  on  the 
whole,  a  mass  of  uninspired  verbosity. 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge,  October  24 

I  was  very  nearly  coming  to  Oxford 3  at  the  beginning  of 
the  term,  only  I  was  prevented  just  at  the  last  moment  by 

1  See  p.  250,  footnote. 

2  Martin  and  Arthur  Benson,  who  had  just  got  scholarships  at  Winchester 
and  Eton  respectively. 

3  Mrs.  Sidgwick  was  now  living  at  Oxford,  having  given  up  her  house  at 
Rugby  to  the  Arthur  Sidgwicks. 


294  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

business  here.  The  Education  of  Women  (in  its  present 
Cambridge  phase)  hampers  my  movements  somewhat  more 
than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.  .  .  . 

As  for  my  Spiritualistic  inquiries,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
there  is  not  really  anything  to  tell  about  them  !  If  an 
Outsider  asks  me  as  to  results,  I  always  say  that  I  have 
received  extraordinarily  strong  testimony  to  some  very 
remarkable  Phenomena,  but  that  they  seem  to  me  still  to 
"  require  confirmation " — really  the  testimony  is  almost 
irresistible.  I  believe  the  young  men  here — I  mean  the 
thoughtful  set — are  beginning  to  be  very  much  interested 
in  it.  Certainly  we  live  in  a  strange  age. 

To  F.  Myers 

...  I  confess  I  do  not  quite  like  what  you  tell  me  of 
Mrs.  Fay  [a  medium].  Why  does  she  keep  changing  her 
ground  ?  ...  It  becomes  less  and  less  possible  to  narrate 
her  behaviour  to  me  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  seem 
unsuspicious  to  outsiders.  So  I  feel  that  I  must  for  the 
present  drop  both  her  and  Mrs.  Jencken  out  of  my  "  case  for 
Spiritualism,"  and  am  vexed  at  being  thrown  back  in  this 
way. 

What  induces  me — not  to  abandon  but — to  restrict  my 
spiritualistic  investigations  is  not  their  disagreeableness 
(they  have  never  been  other  than  disagreeable  as  far  as 
paid  mediums  are  concerned),  but  their  persistent  and 
singular  frustration.  However,  I  find  my  interest  in  the 
subject  is  still  too  intense  to  allow  me  to  suspend  operations 
just  yet,  so  I  mean  to  have  some  more  seances  with  Herne 
in  December,  and  will  join  with  you  in  the  negotiations 
with  Newcastle. 

These  negotiations  with  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  where 
there  was  a  flourishing  society  of  spiritualists,  con- 
cerned the  investigation  of  certain  mediums  there, 
and  resulted  in  visits  to  Newcastle  in  January  and  in 
March  1875,  and  to  the  mediums  being  brought  to 
Cambridge  and  to  London  at  different  times  in  the 
spring  and  summer. 


1875,  AGE  36  HENKY  SIDGWICK  295 

Sidg  wick's  book,  The  Methods  of  Ethics,  was 
published  in  December  1874.  In  January  1875  he 
wrote  at  Newcastle  the  following  fragment  of  a  letter 
to  C.  H.  Pearson,  unfinished  and  unsent,  but  some- 
how accidently  preserved. 

I  meant  to  answer  your  letter  long  ago :  but  before  you 
get  this  you  will,  I  trust,  have  received  a  sort  of  excuse  for 
my  delay  in  the  form  of  my  book — which  I  may  as  well  say 
at  once  I  don't  expect  any  of  my  friends  to  read :  the  less 
because  it  is  essentially  an  attempt  to  introduce  precision  of 
thought  into  a  subject  usually  treated  in  a  too  loose  and 
popular  way,  and  therefore  I  feel  cannot  fail  to  be  some- 
what dry  and  repellent.  However,  it  is  a  great  comfort  to 
have  got  it  out.  I  am  now  waiting  tranquilly  till  the  very 
limited  public  to  whom  it  is  addressed  has  sufficiently 
digested  it  to  express  some  views  about  it. 

When  we  heard  that  you  were,  after  all,  to  leave  the  free 
life  of  the  bush,1  we  could  not  help  wishing  that  you  had 
stayed  in  Cambridge,  where  the  reconstructed  Historical 
Tripos  is  manifesting  considerable  vitality.  I  think  I  told 
you  that  we  had  separated  History  from  Law  and  ballasted 
it  with  Political  Philosophy  and  Economy  and  International 
Law  in  order  to  make  the  course  a  better  training  for  the 
reasoning  Faculties — in  fact,  to  some  extent  carried  out 
Seeley's  idea  of  identifying  History  and  Politics.  Historical 
fanatics  think  that  we  have  spoilt  the  pure  element  by  these 
additions :  but  I  feel  sure  that  from  an  educational  point  of 
view  there  is  at  least  much  to  be  said  for  our  scheme,  which, 
however,  has  yet  to  be  tested  by  results.  Meanwhile  we 
are  in  expectation  of  another  university  [commission]. 

To  his  Mother  from  Newcastle,  March  23,  1875 

I  have  so  much  correspondence  in  connection  with  the 
various  schemes  in  which  I  am  involved,  that  I  have  almost 
given  up  all  other  letter- writing !  This  must  not  be, 
however. 

1  To  become  lecturer  on  Modern  History  at  Melbourne  University. 


296  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

You  are  right  in  guessing  that  nothing  is  so  interesting 
to  me  to  hear  about  as  my  book !  I  suppose  every  author 
is  the  same  in  this  respect.  The  review  in  the  Spectator  is 
quite  satisfying  to  my  vanity,  and  is  certainly  able,  but  it 
does  not  seem  to  me  very  satisfactory  in  other  ways — that  is, 
I  do  not  feel  that  the  author  has  really  apprehended  the 
drift  of  my  argument,  on  the  whole,  and  I  am  not  surprised 
that  you  do  not  altogether  follow  his.  The  best  review — or 
at  least  the  one  most  gratifying  to  the  author  —  is  that 
by  Sully  in  the  Examiner,  to  which  Arthur  refers.  But 
there  has  been  no  hostile  review,  and  I  suppose  my  book 
may  be  now  said  to  have  had  what  the  French  call  a  succte 
d'estime  of  a  very  mild  kind.  I  do  not  feel  that  it  deserved 
anything  more :  and  it  is  an  unceasing  satisfaction  to  me  to 
have  actually  written  it !  I  shall  not  trouble  the  public 
with  another  very  soon — probably  in  about  three  or  four 
years.  But  whenever  the  time  comes  to  write  it,  I  shall 
do  the  work  with  more  ease  and  confidence  than  this  last, 
and  therefore  I  hope  better :  I  only  hope  the  sale  will  have 
been  good  enough  to  induce  Macmillan  to  run  the  risk  of 
another.  As  for  my  "  investigation "  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  saying  anything  about  it  as  yet.  The  phenomena  we 
have  witnessed  [with  the  mediums  at  Newcastle]  are  very 
extraordinary,  and  the  tests  that  we  have  applied  have  so  far 
failed  to  indicate  any  imposture  on  the  part  of  the  mediums  : 
but  we  hope  to  be  able  to  apply  stricter  tests  when  the 
mediums  come  to  London,  which  will  be  in  a  few  days. 

The  book  has  had  a  good  deal  more  than  the 
succes  d'estime  he  here  claims  for  it.  It  is  now  in  its 
sixth  edition.  It  is  read  in  America  and  Germany 
(where  there  has  been  more  than  one  proposal  to 
translate  it),  as  well  as  England,  and  in  1898  it  was 
translated  into  Japanese  and  widely  sold  in  Japan. 

To  F.  Myers  about  the  end  of  March 
Wedgwood a  is  sincerely  concerned  about  our  proposed 
seances  at  Cambridge.      He  thinks  the  Master  would    be 

1  Mr.  Hensleigh  Wedgwood,  who  was  much  interested  in  the  investigation. 


1876,  AGE  37  HENKY  SIDGWICK  297 

sustained  by  public  opinion  if  he  dismissed  me !      So  there 
is  yet  a  chance  of  one's  posing  as  Galileo.     What  delight ! 

To  his  Mother  from  Cambridge  on  April  1 3 

I  am  very  busy  in  various  ways.  We  are  still  occupied 
with  the  investigation  of  Spiritualism,  and  do  not  quite  see 
our  way  to  getting  it  finished.  It  takes  a  great  deal  of 
time,  but  the  interest  of  it  does  not  abate. 

To  Roden  Noel,  May  1 

...  I  am  absorbed  in  business  and  have  no  time 
for  Literature,  but  I  am  cursing  and  swearing,  at  spare 
moments,  over  Browning's  last  ["  The  Inn  Album  "]. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge,  May  25 

Lots  of  applications  for  admission  [to  seances  with  the 
Xewcastle  mediums] — indeed  I  believe  people  are  beginning 
to  think  it  is  a  part  of  the  Cambridge  Festivities,  and  want 
to  know  who  gives  tickets. 

Sidgwick  presided  at  the  '  Apostles' '  dinner  at 
Richmond  this  year,  and  afterwards  went  to  Broad- 
stairs,  where  he  stayed  in  the  same  house  as  his 
sister-in-law,  Mrs.  William  Sidgwick. 

To  his  Mother  from  Broadstairs,  June  26 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  my  book  has  sold  as 
well  as  Macmillan  at  all  expected :  that  is,  he  now  feels 
pretty  secure  that  it  will  all  go  off  some  time  or  other,  and 
thinks  it  may  be  worth  while  to  have  a  second  edition. 
About  700  copies  have  been  disposed  of,  out  of  the 
thousand  that  he  printed.  Altogether  I  think  he  will  look 
favourably  on  any  other  offer  I  may  make  to  him  in  future 
years,  which  is  the  important  point.  He  says  that  about 
250  copies  have  gone  to  the  United  States,  and  one  result 
turned  up  the  other  day  in  the  enclosed  card,  left  at  my 
rooms  in  my  absence.  I  send  it  as  evidence  that  my  fame 
is  More  Than  European ! 


298  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

To  If.  G.  Dakyns  from  Broadstairs,  June  27 

I  am  here  with-my  sister-in-law  (William's  wife)  and  her 
little  boy  [Nevil],  who  is  a  jolly  little  boy.  I  am  languid  and 
hay-feverish  and  she  is  very  good  to  me  and  makes  excellent 
and  superior  conversation  and  salad.  On  July  5th  I  go  back 
to  London  for  another  bout  of  ghosts.  When  your  letter  came 
I  was  just  going  in  for  three  weeks  of  experiments,  all  of 
which  failed,  or  nearly  so ;  the  "  phenomena "  would  not 
occur  under  the  conditions  we  wished  to  impose.  I  do  not 
know  what  to  say  now  about  the  thing.  .  .  .  Really  my 
state  of  mind  is  such  as  I  would  rather  not  put  on  paper : 
I  feel  sure  there  would  be  some  misapprehension  resulting. 
But  I  should  like  very  much  to  talk  it  over  at  any  length. 

As  for  my  other  occupations,  I  am  moderately  lazy  now  ; 
I  have  not  even  planned  in  detail  any  new  book.  I  manage 
to  fill  my  time  with  the  reading  necessary  for  my  lectures, 
and  with  my  female  education  business.  (We  are  just 
finishing  our  new  house  for  the  girl  of  the  period.)  Certain 
people  have  told  me  that  the  great  defect  of  my  book  is 
non-recognition  of  Evolution,  so  I  am  now  writing  an 
article  on  Theory  of  Evolution  in  its  Application  to  Ethics, 
which  is  to  appear  in  a  new  philosophical  quarterly  next 
January.1  I  do  not  feel  now  much  impulse  to  write  books, 
but  I  have  a  good  many  to  write — even  if  I  get  no  new 
insight  into  the  secret  of  the  Universe :  so  I  hope  impulse 
will  return.  .  .  . 

Do  come  to  Newcastle  in  August,  or  at  least  be  ready  to 
come.  (We  may  find  out  the  trick  in  July.) 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  July  18 

Those  destinies  which  —  as  you  explained  in  your 
penultimate  letter — have  mysteriously  intervened  to  prevent 
your  introduction  to  Spiritualism  are  still,  I  fear,  exerting 
their  malignant  influence,  and  it  is  much  more  questionable 
than  when  I  wrote  last  whether  it  is  really  worth  your 
while  to  come  to  Newcastle.  ...  I  am  bound  to  tell  you 

1  This  article  on  the  ' '  Theory  of  Evolution  in  its  Application  to  Practice  " 
appeared  in  the  first  number  of  Mind,  January  1876. 


1876,  AGE  37  HENRY  SIDGWICK  299 

that  our  present  investigation  in  London  .  .  .  has  as  yet 
led  to  no  satisfactory  results.  We  are  applying  ...  a 
test  which  seems  to  us  as  conclusive  as  any  that  can  be 
devised ;  we  had  seven  seances,  nearly  altogether  unsuccess- 
ful, and  on  Friday  and  Saturday  last  we  had  two  which 
were  even  more  suspicious  in  their  partial  success  than 
the  previously  unsuccessful  ones,  so  much  so  that  two 
members  of  our  circle  have  announced  their  intention  of 
withdrawing,  as  from  a  proved  imposture. 

Before  the  end  of  the  series  of  sittings,  incidents  of 
a  still  more  suspicious  character  occurred,  so  that  the 
probability  of  fraud  became  painfully  heavy,  and 
though  Sidgwick  went  to  Newcastle  himself,  being,  as 
he  said,  "  a  fox  who  has  at  least  half  cut  off  his  tail," 
he  was  not  accompanied  by  Mr.  Dakyns.  From  New- 
castle he  went  to  the  Lakes,  where  he  again  stayed 
during  August  of  this  year. 

In  October  1875  Sidgwick  was  appointed  by  his 
College  Prselector  of  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy. 
It  gave  him  a  larger  income  and  a  fixed  and  per- 
manent position.  This  was  the  more  important  to 
him  as  he  had  begun  to  think  of  marriage.  The 
seances  at  Arthur  Balfour's  house  had  thrown  him 
much  into  the  society  of  his  friend's  sister,1  who 
managed  his  house  ;  and  he  also  met  her  on  Newnham 
Hall  business,  as  she  was  a  member  of  the  governing 
body,  having  become  interested  in  it  through  her 
brother,  and  therefore  indirectly  through  Sidgwick. 
However,  any  thoughts  in  this  direction  were  at  this 
time  locked  in  his  own  breast. 

To  his  Mother  on  October  6 

You  will  be  pleased  to  read  the  enclosed.2  It  means  an 
addition  of  £250  a  year  to  my  income  and  an  established 
position.  It  just  comes  at  the  time  when  I  was  beginning 

1  Eleanor  Mildred  Balfour  (Nora). 

2  Doubtless  the  letter  in  which  the  Master  of  Trinity  announced  to  him 
his  appointment. 


300  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

to  feel  that  I  should  like  something  of  the  kind,  if  I  was  to 
stay  here.  As  it  is,  I  may  be  now  considered  quite  fixed- 
here :  the  sense  of  being  so  is  really  a  great  relief  to  my 
mind.  I  will  come  and  see  you  in  Oxford  as  soon  as  I 
can.  I  hope,  too,  you  will  come  and  see  me  in  the  place 
which  I  now  really  feel  to  be  home. 

To  his  Mother  on  November  19 

The  reason  why  I  should  have  been  glad  if  you  could 
have  come  to  Cambridge  now  is  that  I  should  like  you  to 
see  Newnham  Hall  with,  so  to  say,  the  first  bloom  on  it. 
The  house  is  full,  and  everything  is  going  on  satisfactorily 
so  far,  and  we  have  all  of  us  the  sense  of  repose  and 
tranquil  pleasure  with  which  one  reaches  the  top  of  the 
first  stage  in  climbing  a  hill !  So  it  would  be  nice  if  you 
could  come,  but  of  course  any  other  time  will  do  just  as 
well,  so  you  will  not  let  this  trouble  you.  (On  December 
10  I  go  away  for  the  vacation.) 

Doubtless  another  reason  why  he  wished  his 
mother  to  pay  this  visit  (which  she  was  not  able  to 
do)  was  that  Miss  Balfour  was  staying  with  Miss 
Clough.  They  became  engaged  in  December. 

To  H.  G.  Dakynsfrom  4  Carlton  Gardens,  London,  December  17 

I  suppose  you  have  already  heard  from  Johnnie  [Symonds] 
that  I  have  a  good  deal  to  tell,  which  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  begin  to  tell  on  the  24th.  I  am  corning  to  Clifton  Hill 
House1  on  the  21st  or  22nd.  This  is  her  brother's  house  : 
and  the  last  morning  before  she  goes  to  Paris  for  a  week. 
So  ,1  am  temporarily  not  in  the  humour  for  analysis  :  but 
shall  be  up  to  any  amount  of  it  when  we  meet. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  (a  post-card),  January  20,  1876 

Concerning  Truth  [i.e.  Spiritualistic  investigation]  we 
remain  where  we  were ;  we  now  despair  of  the  [mediums — 
another  set  with  whom  investigations  were  going  on].  .  .  . 

1  J.  A.  Symonds's  house. 


1876,  AGK  37  HENRY  SIDGWICK  301 

Otherwise  we  are  happy,  adinire  Rip l  to  the  full,  agree  in 
.  .  .  views  of  life  generally.  ...  I  have  written  to  take 
Fawcett's  house  [at  Cambridge],  whither  you  are  to  come 
and  see  us:  (the  drawing-room  is  Green  and  Blue  with 
plenty  of  Plates). 

To  F.  Myers  on  February  22 

Everything  is  always  better  than  it  is  expected  to  be. 
I  wonder  whether  this  will  go  on  through  life !  I  do  not 
see  why  not.  It  is  so  tranquil. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  on  February  2  8 

We  have  not  yet  got  over  the  shock  of  Lord  Salisbury's 
speech.  Whether  he  does  not  know  what  academic  con- 
servatism is :  whether  he  does  not  care :  whether  Oxford 
Conservatives  are  unlike  Cambridge  ones,  I  cannot  make 
out  just  yet,  and  have  nothing  to  do  but  suppress  my 
exultation  and  see  what  turns  up.2 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge,  on  March  1 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  of  your  anxieties.  I  feel  like 
Gideon's  fleece  with  the  rain  of  misfortune  falling  round 
me — indeed  I  have  done  so,  as  you  know,  ever  since  my 
happiness  began.  My  mother  is  ill  and  depressed,  partly 
by  loneliness,  .  .  .  while  I  cannot  but  feel  myself  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden 3  every  week  from  Wednesday  to  Saturday 
(don't  tell  any  one  that  I  get  away  for  so  long). 

To  Eoden  Noel  from  Terling  Place  on  March  23 

I  look  forward  to  your  present,  for  which  many  thanks. 
I  feel  exalted  on  a  tide  of  affluence,  due  to  the  goodwill  of 

1  Rip  van  Winkle,  a  play  which  was  having  a  great  run  at  that  time. 

2  A  speech  made  in  introducing  a  Bill  to  establish  a  statutory  Commission 
for  reorganising  the  University  and  Colleges  of  Oxford  on  the  general  lines 
desired  by  Cambridge  Liberals.     An  article  by  Sidgwick  on  this  question 
of  reorganisation,  entitled  "Idle  Fellowships,"  was  published  in  the  Con- 
temporary Review  for  April  1876,  and  has  been  reprinted  in  Miscellaneous 
Essays  and  Addresses. 

s  Miss  Balfour  was  staying  with  her  sister  Lady  Rayleigh   at  Terling 
Place,  in  Essex. 


302  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  iv 

my  friends.  Will  you  come  to  my  wedding  ?  that  is,  if 
you  are  in  town,  for  I  don't  think  such  a  ceremony  worth 
the  effort  of  a  journey !  I  shall  send  you  and  Mrs.  Noel  a 
formal  invitation,  and  if  you  can,  it  will  be  an  addition  to 
my  pleasure  (or  an  alleviation  of  my  pain).  But  it  is  more 
important  that  you  should  come  and  stay  with  us  in  Cam- 
bridge as  soon  as  we  are  in  a  position  to  be  hospitable. 

I  liked  your  poem  very  much,  though  it  is  very  little 
suited  to  my  mood,  the  characteristic  of  which  is  a  sense 
of  security  and  serenity  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  new  sweet- 
ness of  life.  When  you  know  my  wife  you  will  understand 
this.  But  I  thought  it  a  very  pretty  lyric,  and  I  should 
have  written  to  tell  you  so  had  I  not  been  in  an  exception- 
ally migratory,  affair^,  forgetful  condition. 

P.S. — I  omitted  to  say  that  I  am  to  be  married  on 
April  4,  at  St.  James's  Church,  Piccadilly,  from  4  Carlton 
Gardens. 


<"//•// 


/</(/'( 


or  in  the  men  who  came  to  ut  they 

mark  steps  in  the  recognition    by   th<  and 

•f  his  position  in  h 

ses    in    Moral   - 


. 


v  HENRY  SIDGWICK  305 

noon  by  some  of  Sidgwick's  pupils;  though,  if  I  may  interpret 
their  thoughts  and  feelings,  they  would  much  rather  speak 
of  him  among  themselves  than  attempt  to  speak  of  him  in 
public.  As  you  all  know,  they  were  never  very  many. 
The  growth  in  Cambridge  of  new  studies,  scientific  and 
historical,  of  all  sorts  and  kinds — a  growth  in  which  Sidgwick 
himself  was  keenly  interested  and  which  he  fostered,  not 
only  by  generous  gifts  of  money,  but  by  a  still  more  generous 
devotion  of  his  time  and  thought,  his  counsel  and  his  fore- 
sight— this  growth  drew  away  hearers  from  his  lecture-room 
and  left  the  school  of  moral  sciences,  a  school  that  was  small 
in  numbers.  Small,  but  I  will  not  say  weak.  When  I 
look  round  this  room,  when  I  think  how  many  of  the  men 
who  are  teaching  philosophy  or  moral  science  in  Cambridge 
and  elsewhere  were  Sidgwick's  pupils,  when  I  think  of 
the  names  of  the  men  who  of  late  years  have  been  writing 
books  on  these  subjects,  then,  without  pretending  to  be  their 
judge,  I  feel  safe  in  saying  that  within  the  field  that  was 
most  properly  his  own  Sidgwick's  work  has  borne  excellent 
fruit.  But  all  that  should  be  said  about  this  matter  might 
be  much  better  said  by  others,  if  only  they  would  speak. 
My  few  words  will  try  to  express  the  opinion  of  some  of 
Sidgwick's  pupils  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  were  not 
fitted  or  were  not  destined  to  be  philosophers. 

It  is  now  thirty  years  ago  since  some  chance — I  think 
it  was  the  idle  whim  of  an  idle  undergraduate — took  me  to 
Sidgwick's  lecture-room,  there  to  find  teaching  the  like  of 
which  had  never  come  in  my  way  before.  There  is  very 
much  else  to  be  said  of  Sidgwick ;  some  part  of  it  has  been 
beautifully  said  this  afternoon;  but  I  should  like  to  add 
this :  I  believe  that  he  was  a  supremely  great  teacher.  In 
the  first  place,  I  remember  the  admirable  patience  which 
could  never  be  outworn  by  stupidity,  and  which  nothing 
but  pretentiousness  could  disturb.  Then  there  was  the 
sympathetic  and  kindly  endeavour  to  overcome  our  shyness, 
to  make  us  talk,  and  to  make  us  think.  Then  there  was 
that  marked  dislike  for  any  mere  reproduction  of  his  own 
opinions,  which  made  it  impossible  for  Sidgwick  to  be  in 

x 


306  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

the  bad  sense  the  founder  of  a  school.  I  sometimes  think 
that  the  one  and  only  prejudice  that  Sidgwick  had  was  a 
prejudice  against  his  own  results.  All  this  was  far  more 
impressive  and  far  more  inspiriting  to  us  than  any  dogmatism 
could  have  been.  Then  the  freest  and  boldest  thinking  was 
set  forth  in  words  which  seemed  to  carry  candour  and 
sobriety  and  circumspection  to  their  furthest  limit.  It  has 
been  said  already  this  afternoon,  but  I  will  say  it  again ;  I 
believe  that  no  more  truthful  man  than  Sidgwick  ever  lived. 
I  am  speaking  of  a  rare  intellectual  virtue.  However  small 
the  class  might  be,  Sidgwick  always  gave  us  his  very  best ; 
not  what  might  be  good  enough  for  undergraduates,  or  what 
might  serve  for  temporary  purposes,  but  the  complex  truth, 
just  as  he  saw  it,  with  all  those  reservations  and  qualifications, 
exceptions  and  distinctions  which  suggested  themselves  to  a 
mind  that  was  indeed  marvellously  subtle,  but  was  showing 
us  its  wonderful  power  simply  because  even  in  a  lecture- 
room  it  could  be  content  with  nothing  less  than  the  maximum 
of  attainable  and  communicable  truth.  Then,  as  the  terms 
went  by,  we  came  to  think  of  lecture  time  as  the  best  time 
that  we  had  in  Cambridge ;  and  some  of  us,  looking  back 
now,  can  say  that  it  was  in  a  very  true  sense  the  best  time 
that  we  have  had  in  our  lives.  We  turned  away  to  other 
studies  or  pursuits,  but  the  memories  of  Sidgwick's  lectures 
lived  on.  The  matter  of  the  lectures,  the  theories  and  the 
arguments,  might  be  forgotten ;  but  the  method  remained, 
the  spirit  remained,  as  an  ideal — an  unattainable  ideal, 
perhaps,  but  a  model  of  perfect  work.  I  know  that  in  this 
matter  I  can  speak  for  others ;  but  just  one  word  of  my  own 
case.  For  ten  years  and  more  I  hardly  saw  Sidgwick.  To 
meet  him  was  a  rare  event,  a  rare  delight.  But  there 
he  always  was :  the  critic  and  judge  of  any  work  that  I 
might  be  doing :  a  master,  who,  however  forbearing  he 
might  be  towards  others,  always  exacted  from  himself  the 
utmost  truthfulness  of  which  word  and  thought  are  capable. 
Well,  I  think  it  no  bad  thing  that  young  men  should  go 
away  from  Cambridge  with  such  a  master  as  that  in  their 
minds,  even  though  in  a  given  case  little  may  come  of  the 


v  HENRY  SIDGWICK  307 

teaching.  Then  some  years  later  Sidgwick  was  finding 
money  for  a  Eeadership  in  English  law,  and  I  was  back  in 
Cambridge  as  his  colleague.  Then  I  often  met  him  at 
Boards  and  Councils,  sometimes  to  agree  and  sometimes  to 
disagree ;  but  that  old  sense  of  his  mastership,  his  mastery, 
never  faded ;  it  was  as  strong  as  ever  until  the  last  moment 
when  he  said,  Good-bye. 

I  can  say  no  more.  Perhaps  I  have  already  tried  to 
say  too  much.  We  who  were,  we  who  are,  Sidgwick's  pupils 
need  no  memorial  of  him.  We  cannot  forget.  Only  in 
some  way  or  another  we  would  bear  some  poor  testimony  of 
our  gratitude  and  our  admiration,  our  reverence  and  our  love. 

And  the  opinions  expressed  by  other  pupils  cor- 
roborate what  Professor  Maitland  says.  Dr.  Keynes, 
who  was  not  only  a  pupil  of  Sidgwick's  but  after- 
wards his  colleague  in  the  teaching  of  moral  sciences, 
describes  his  methods  in  greater  detail  in  the  Economic 
Journal  of  December  1900  : — 

As  a  lecturer  he  showed  the  same  critical  power  and  faculty 
of  close  reasoning  and  impartial  analysis  which  distinguish 
his  published  works.  He  never  indulged  in  irrelevant 
digressions  or  introduced  merely  rhetorical  passages,  and 
sustained  attention  on  the  part  of  his  hearers  was  required 
throughout.  Those,  however,  who  gave  the  necessary 
attention  were  more  than  repaid  by  the  exact  insight  and 
the  abundant  material  for  subsequent  reflection  that  they 
gained.  In  the  discussion  classes  that  he  held,  and  in 
individual  interviews,  his  pupils  came  more  directly  under 
his  personal  influence ;  and  that  influence  was  inspiring  and 
enduring.  He  was  of  course  not  a  dogmatic  teacher,  and 
his  pupils  were  not  aroused  to  enthusiasm  for  any  set  of 
dogmas  of  which  they  might  feel  it  their  duty  to  be  the 
propagandists ;  but  he  inspired  in  them  a  genuine  love  of 
truth,  he  cultivated  a  disposition  of  fairness  towards  oppon- 
ents, and  he  fostered  a  habit  of  intellectual  sincerity  and 
thoroughness.  In  dealing  with  the  exercises  submitted  to 
him  for  criticism  he  was  always  quick  to  perceive  and  ready 


308  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

to  enter  into  the  point  of  view  of  the  writer,  and  he  sought 
to  encourage  independent  thought.  He  was  at  the  same 
time  relentless  in  laying  bare  inconsistency  and  slovenliness 
of  thought ;  and  in  his  power  of  supplying  a  discipline  in 
clear  unprejudiced  thinking  he  was  unrivalled.  He  had  a 
remarkable  power  of  putting  searching  questions  after  the 
Socratic  manner ;  his  questions  often  appeared  simple  enough 
on  the  surface,  but  they  would  nevertheless  lead  unerringly 
to  the  exposure  of  any  underlying  confusion.  Many  of  his 
most  brilliant  pupils  differ  widely  from  one  another  in  the 
philosophic  doctrines  to  which  they  now  adhere,  but  as 
regards  the  intellectual  stimulus  and  insight  which  they 
derived  from  his  teaching,  there  is  little  doubt  but  that 
they  would  be  in  agreement. 

"  I  think  our  [his  pupils']  admiration  of  him  so 
grew  into  affection  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  how 
much  he  was  to  us  as  a  guide  in  the  intellectual  life 
and  as  a  wise  counsellor,"  writes  his  successor,  Pro- 
fessor Sorley,  in  a  private  letter ;  and  in  the  Inter- 
national Journal  of  Ethics  for  January  1901  he 
says : — 

If  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos  has  a  position  in  the  esti- 
mation of  university  and  college  authorities  far  higher  than 
the  mere  number  of  its  students  can  account  for,  this 
position  is  largely  due  to  the  influence  of  Sidgwick,  to  his 
care  in  organising  the  philosophical  teaching,  to  his  own 
untiring  zeal  as  a  lecturer,  and  to  the  distinction  which  his 
reputation  gave  to  the  department  of  which  he  was  the 
chief  representative.  Sidgwick  exerted  a  powerful  influence, 
both  intellectual  and  moral,  upon  his  pupils.  But  his  tem- 
perament was  too  critical,  his  intellect  too  evenly  balanced, 
to  admit  of  his  teaching  a  dogmatic  system.  .  .  .  What 
he  taught  was  much  more  a  method,  an  attitude  of  mind ; 
and  his  teaching  was  a  training  in  the  philosophical  temper 
— in  candour,  self-criticism,  and  regard  for  truth.  .  .  . 
Upon  those  who  could  receive  it,  his  teaching  had  a  finer 
effect  than  enthusiasm  for  any  set  of  beliefs ;  it  communi- 


v  HENRY  SLDGWICK  309 

cated  an  enthusiasm  for  truth  itself :  the  rigour  of  self- 
criticism  as  well  as  the  ardour  of  inquiry.  Severely 
intellectual  in  his  method  of  instruction,  if  his  teaching  was 
touched  by  emotion  at  all,  it  was  the  amor  intdlectvalis 
veritatis  that  inspired  it. 

Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  writes  : — 

My  sister,  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  has  asked  me,  as  one  of  the 
earliest  of  Henry  Sidgwick's  pupils  in  philosophy,  to  supple- 
ment from  my  personal  recollection  what  has  been  so 
excellently  said  by  Professor  Maitland  and  others  who  came 
somewhat  later  into  contact  with  him  as  a  teacher.  In 
truth,  however,  I  have  little  to  add  to  their  statements,  and 
nothing  to  correct  in  them.  If  my  case  in  any  way  differs 
from  theirs,  it  is  chiefly  because  circumstances  gave  me 
informal  opportunities  of  profiting  by  Sidgwick's  society, 
which  could  scarcely  fall  to  the  lot  of  any  undergraduates 
but  those  who  happened,  like  myself,  to  be  "  fellow-com- 
moners," and  as  such  to  be  possessed  of  privileges  which 
gave  them  exceptional  chances  of  social  intercourse  with  the 
older  members  of  the  College. 

I  came  up  from  Eton  to  Cambridge  in  1866  with  no 
Academic  ambitions,  but  with  the  highest  expectations  as 
to  the  gratifications  which  Academic  life  had  to  offer,  both 
in  the  way  of  ideas  and  in  the  way  of  amusements.  That 
these  expectations,  so  far  as  the  first  head  is  concerned,  were 
in  no  wise  disappointed  was  largely  due  to  Sidgwick.  My 
philosophic  equipment  when  I  first  became  his  pupil  was 
but  slender — being,  indeed,  little  more  than  what  I  had 
acquired  at  Eton  for  my  own  entertainment.  Nor  did  I 
find  it  easy  to  increase  this  modest  stock  of  learning  by 
attendance  at  ordinary  lectures,  which  others  besides  myself 
have  found  a  somewhat  irksome  and  ineffectual  means  of 
increasing  knowledge.  Few  teachers  would,  in  these  cir- 
cumstances, have  taken  either  much  trouble  or  the  right 
kind  of  trouble  with  so  unsatisfactory  a  pupil,  and  certainly 
any  teacher  would  have  been  justified  in  leaving  me  to  my 
own  devices.  Fortunately  for  me  Henry  Sidgwick  took  a 


310  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

more  tolerant  view.  In  addition  to  his  other  lectures  he 
had  at  that  time  a  small  class  for  those  specially  interested 
in  the  metaphysical  side  of  the  "  moral  sciences  "  Tripos,  a 
class  so  small  indeed  that  it  consisted,  if  1  remember  right, 
only  of  one  other  student  besides  myself.  We  met  in  Sidg- 
wick's  own  rooms.  The  teaching  was  largely  in  the  nature 
of  conversational  discussion ;  and  though  I  cannot,  at  this 
distance  of  time,  recall  it  in  detail,  I  retain  a  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  the  zest  with  which  these  hours  were  enjoyed. 

This  was  partly  due  to  the  method  which  Sidgwick 
adopted.  In  the  first  place  we  were  allowed  to  forget  that 
we  were  preparing  for  an  examination,  an  oblivion  which 
may  or  may  not  be  desirable  in  other  branches  of  study,  but 
is  almost  essential  if  the  pleasures  of  speculation  are  to  be 
enjoyed  without  alloy. 

In  the  second  place  he  did  not  unduly  force  upon  us  the 
historic  method  of  studying  philosophy.  The  history  of 
thought  is  doubtless  of  the  first  importance  to  the  philo- 
sopher as  well  as  the  historian,  but  its  importance  is 
secondary  and  derivative.  Nor  is  it  likely  to  be  fully 
appreciated  by  the  youthful  student.  To  him  the  subtleties 
of  metaphysics  are  mere  weariness  unless  the  problems  he 
is  asked  to  consider  are  problems  which  he  wants  to  solve. 
What  some  eminent  person  thought  two  hundred  or  two 
thousand  years  ago,  and  why  he  thought  it,  are  matters 
which  seem  of  small  moment  unless  and  until  their  bearing 
on  the  questions  which  call  for  an  answer  to-day  becomes 
more  or  less  apparent.  This,  at  least,  was  my  own  feeling  at 
the  time ;  and  either  because  he  agreed  with  the  sentiment 
or  because  he  thought  it  wise  to  take  account  of  it  in  deal- 
ing with1  his  juniors,  Sidgwick  never  drove  us  into  those 
arid  regions  of  speculation  where,  to  the  modern  mind,  the 
arguments  seem  without  cogency  and  the  conclusions  with- 
out interest. 

I  greatly  regret  that  at  this  distance  of  time  I  am  not 
able  to  give  the  precise  details  of  his  method  of  teaching. 
This  is  partly  due  to  a  very  defective  memory,  but  partly 
also  to  the  fact  that  the  relation  of  tutor  and  pupil  rapidly 


v  HENEY  SIDGWICK  311 

ripened  into  a  warm  personal  friendship ;  and  I  find  it  quite 
impossible  to  disentangle  the  impressions  he  left  on  me,  and 
to  assign  some  to  official  teaching,  others  to  private  conver- 
sation. But  this  is,  I  think,  in  itself  a  high  tribute  to  his 
qualities  as  a  teacher.  What  most  people  want  in  order  to 
do  their  best  is  recognition ;  and  the  kind  of  recognition 
from  a  distinguished  man  of  eight-and-twenty  which  is  most 
valued  by  a  boy  of  eighteen  is  the  admission  that  his 
difficulties  are  worth  solving,  his  objections  worth  answer- 
ing, his  arguments  worth  weighing.  This  form  of  convey- 
ing encouragement  came  naturally  to  Sidgwick.  Of  all  the 
men  I  have  known  he  was  the  readiest  to  consider  every 
controversy  and  every  controversialist  on  their  merits.  He 
never  claimed  authority ;  he  never  sought  to  impose  his 
views ;  he  never  argued  for  victory ;  he  never  evaded  an 
issue.  Whether  these  are  the  qualities  which  best  fit  their 
possessor  to  found  a  "  school "  may  well  be  doubted.  But 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  they  contributed  to 
give  Sidgwick  a  most  potent  and  memorable  influence,  not 
so  much  over  the  opinions  as  over  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  any  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  associated  with 
him,  whether  as  pupil  or  as  friend.  I  was  doubly  happy 
in  that  I  was  both. 

The  following  letter,  written  to  Sidgwick  by  a 
pupil  contemporary  with  Arthur  Balfour,  must  have 
given  him  pleasure  since  it  has  been  preserved  : — 

TRIN.  HALL,  Thursday  Night. 

DEAR  SIR — I  once  had  the  privilege  of  attending  a  course 
of  your  lectures  in  Trinity,  and  if  you  have  any  recollection 
of  me  at  all  I  fear  it  must  be  of  me  as  a  man  who  was 
very  little  the  better  for  the  pains  you  took.  But  I  never 
have  forgotten,  and  never  shall  forget,  the  kind  interest  you 
showed  in  my  work  and  the  unsparing  trouble  you  gave 
to  it ;  and  I  cannot  go  down  without  expressing  to  you — 
if  you  will  permit  me  to  do  so — my  gratitude  for  the 
interest  you  showed  in  me.  It  was  quite  a  fresh  experience 
to  me  to  find  any  one  who  could  show  a  sympathetic 


312  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

interest  in  one's  work,  and  being  such,  it  has  made  an 
impression  on  me  which  I  am  not  likely  to  forget.  I  beg 
you  will  pardon  me  if  I  do  a  very  unusual  thing  in  thus 
addressing  you ;  but  I  should  wish  you  to  believe  that  even 
the  least  hopeful  men  can  sometimes  appreciate  and,  I  trust, 
be  better  for  the  attention  and  interest  bestowed  upon  them. 

Looking  over  exercises  with  pupils  individually 
was  an  important  part  of  his  teaching,  and  Miss  Alice 
Gardner,  writing  about  this,  refers  to  the  seriousness 
with  which  he  took — to  use  her  own  words — 

the  expression  of  our  difficulties,  and  how  he  treated  our 
remarks  as  respectfully  as  if  they  had  been  made  by  some 
eminent  critic.  One  felt  that,  however  wide  the  difference 
between  one's  own  mind  and  his  might  be,  he  regarded 
each  one  of  us  as,  in  a  sense,  a  fellow-seeker  after  truth 
and  clearness ;  and  the  feeling  brought  stimulus  and  hope. 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  sometimes  com- 
plained that  he  had  become  weary  of  the  continual 
effort  to  clear  the  confused  ideas  of  beginners — to 
scrub  the  brains  of  undergraduates,  as  he  sometimes 
expressed  it.  And  possibly  his  teaching  was  not 
well  suited  to  the  stupider  sort  of  pupil.  An  anonym- 
ous writer  in  the  Cambridge  Letter  (1900)  of  the 
Newnham  College  Club1  says  in  the  course  of  an 
interesting  article  :— 

The  rigid  attention  necessary  to  follow  him  in  lecture 
some  found  almost  too  great  a  strain,  and  he  indulged  in 
no  rhetoric  to  lessen  it.  ...  He  always  aimed  at  getting 
into  close  quarters  with  the  minds  of  those  whom  he  taught, 
and  when  he  succeeded  the  gain  to  the  learner  was  im- 
measurable. But  crude  and  unformed  minds  scarcely  offered 
him  grappling  ground.  Pupils  have  been  heard  to  complain 
that  he  could  understand  and  sympathise  with  almost  every 
mental  state  except  those  most  prevalent  ones  of  blankness 

1  Printed  for  private  circulation.  This  article  was,  we  believe,  the  joint 
production  of  more  than  one  pupil,  afterwards  members  of  the  staff  of 
Newnham  College. 


v  HEKRY  SIDGWICK  313 

and  confusion.     The  mind  of  the  average   learner  was  a 
blunter  instrument  almost  than  he  could  conceive. 

His  teaching  was  not,  of  course,  limited  to  the 
subjects  included  in  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos.  As 
we  have  seen,  he  taught  classics  during  the  first  eight 
years  after  he  took  his  degree.  Mr.  William  Everett 
of  Massachusetts,  his  earliest,  or  one  of  his  earliest, 
pupils,  writes  : — 

I  entered  Trinity  the  day  I  was  twenty  years  old  [Sidg- 
wick  himself  being  twenty-one],  and  almost  immediately 
made  arrangements  for  being  his  private  pupil,  the  first,  I 
think,  he  ever  had.  From  that  day  to  this  he  has  occupied 
a  position  in  my  life  absolutely  unlike  any  other  man's. 
To  say  that  I  admired  his  talents  and  enjoyed  his  company 
is  what  so  many  can  say  that  it  tells  nothing  personal ; 
but  he  always  understood  me.  I  never  needed  to  explain 
anything.  .  .  .  And  every  time  I  met  him — alas  !  so  sadly 
rare  in  all  these  forty  years — was  as  if  we  never  parted. 

He  lectured  in  the  sixties  for  pass-men,  and  used 
to  tell  a  humorous  story  of  one  of  these  who,  taking 
some  opportunity  of  thanking  him  for  his  lectures, 
added,  "  They  are  the  best  I  ever  attended,  except 
perhaps  the  lectures  of  Professor  Kingsley  ; l  but  then 
his  are  intended  to  improve  the  mind." 

In  the  earlier  days  of  Newnham  College  he  used 
sometimes  to  give  courses  of  lectures  there  on  English 
or  French  literature.  An  old  pupil,  who  attended 
a  few  such  lectures  on  French  literature  in  her  first 
year,  writes :  "  Even  in  my  raw  immaturity  and 
dense  ignorance  I  felt  that  that  kind  of  teaching 
was  an  inspiration  to  one,  and  I  have  never  for- 
gotten the  illuminating  effect  they  had  on  me." 
Sidgwick  was  an  exceedingly  good  lecturer  on 
literary  subjects,  and  many  will  remember  with 
pleasure  the  lectures  which  during  the  last  twelve 
years  of  his  life  he  occasionally  gave — chiefly  at 

1  Charles  Kingsley  was  Professor  of  Modern  History  from  1860  to  1869. 


314  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

Newnham  College — on  Pope  and  Shakespeare.  Some 
of  the  latter  have  been  published  in  the  volume  of 
Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses.  "  To  hear 
him  lecture  on  Shakespeare,"  says  one  writer,  "  was 
one  of  the  best  of  intellectual  feasts."  But  good  as 
the  matter  of  these  lectures  was,  the  pleasure  they 
gave  was  due  yet  more  to  his  exceedingly  good 
reading  and  reciting  of  poetry  of  all  kinds. 

Much  of  Sidgwick's  influence  as  a  teacher  naturally 
depended,  as  will  have  been  perceived  from  the 
opinions  we  have  quoted,  on  his  qualities  as  a  man. 
As  the  late  Bishop  of  Southampton,  A.  T.  Lyttelton, 
a  pupil  of  Sidgwick's,  says  in  a  letter  written  in 
September  1900  :— 

Ever  since  he  first  taught  me,  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  he 
was  a  strengthening  and  inspiriting  influence  to  me,  in  a 
way  I  hardly  realised  till  he  was  taken.  Not  only,  or  per- 
haps chiefly,  in  intellectual  things,  but  in  practical  matters 
of  conduct,  his  wisdom,  considerateness,  unselfishness,  and 
resolute  impartiality  were  a  constant  help,  a  standard  one 
put  before  oneself  for  guidance. 

Similar  expressions  occur  again  and  again  in  letters 
written  about  him,  and  to  these  qualities  is  to  be 
attributed  the  extent  to  which  his  many  friends 1 
turned  to  him  for  help,  advice,  criticism  of  schemes 
or  writings.  To  these  qualities,  too,  we  may  in  part 
attribute  the  personal  charm  which  almost  all  who 
knew  him  well  seem  to  have  felt.  It  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  convey  an  impression  of  personal 
charm  by  writing  about  it — one  can  only  state  that 
it  was  there.  And  it  is  almost  equally  difficult  to 
give  an  impression  of  charm  of  conversation.  Perhaps 
the  best  we  can  do  is  to  reproduce  descriptions  given 
by  various  friends,  hoping  that  the  picture  thus  pre- 
sented from  slightly  different  points  of  view  may 
produce  the  effect  of  a  living  whole. 

"  I  do  not  know  any  one  who  has  more  friends  that  love  him,"  wrote 
one  friend. 


v  HENKY  SIDGWICK  315 

Sir  Leslie  Stephen,  in  a  biographical  notice  of  him 
in  Mind,1  says  of  Sidgwick's  conversation  : — 

The  vivacity  of  such  impressions  [the  flashing  of  some 
new  thought  upon  his  mind]  made  him  one  of  the  best  of 
talkers.  The  difficulty  of  describing  conversation  is  pro- 
verbial, and  when  I  seek  for  appropriate  epithets  I  am 
discouraged  by  the  vagueness  which  makes  them  equally 
applicable  to  others.  Henry  Smith,  for  example,  who  often 
met  Sidgwick  at  the  "  Ad  Eundem,"  had  an  equal  fame  for 
good  sayings ;  and  both  might  be  credited  with  unfailing 
urbanity,  humour,  quickness,  and  other  such  qualities. 
Their  styles  were  nevertheless  entirely  different,  while  to 
point  out  the  exact  nature  of  the  difference  is  beyond  my 
powers.  Smith,  perhaps,  excelled  especially  in  the  art  of 
concealing  a  keen  epigram  in  a  voice  and  manner  of  almost 
excessive  gentleness.  Sidgwick  rather  startled  one  by 
sudden  and  unexpected  combinations  and  arch  inversions  of 
commonplace.  His  skill  in  using  his  stammer  was  often 
noticed.  His  hearers  watched  and  waited  for  the  coming 
thought  which  then  exploded  the  more  effectually.  Sidg- 
wick not  only  conceded  but  eagerly  promoted  contributions 
of  talk  from  his  companions.  He  would  wait  with  slightly 
parted  lips  for  an  answer  to  some  inquiry,  showing  a  keen 
interest  which  encouraged  your  expectation  that  you  were 
about  to  say  a  good  thing,  and  sometimes,  let  us  hope, 
helped  to  realise  the  expectation.  He  differed  from  Smith 
— who  preserved  a  strict  reticence  upon  the  final  problems — 
by  a  readiness  to  discuss  any  question  whatever,  if  it  were 
welcome  to  his  companions.  He  was  not  only  perfectly 
frank  but  glad  to  gain  enlightenment  even  from  compara- 
tively commonplace  minds.  Johnson  commended  a  talker 
who  would  fairly  put  his  mind  to  yours.  That  marks  one 
of  Sidgwick's  merits.  He  would  take  up  any  topic ;  made 
no  pretension  to  superiority,  and  was  as  willing  to  admit 
ignorance  or  error  as  he  was  always  fertile  in  new  lights. 
He  delighted  in  purely  literary  talk ;  and  his  criticisms 

1  Mind  for  January  1901. 


316  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

happily  combined  two  often  inconsistent  qualities  :  the  fresh- 
ness of  impression  which  suggests  a  first  reading  of  some 
book,  with  the  ripeness  of  judgment  which  implies  familiarity 
with  the  book  and  its  writer. 

The  idea  here  suggested  that  Sidgwick  used  his 
stammer  with  a  skill  at  least  semi-conscious  seems 
to  have  been  a  common  one  with  his  friends.  But 
there  was  certainly  no  conscious  skill  in  the  matter. 
He  regarded  his  stammer — which  varied  a  good  deal 
with  his  health,  or  at  least  with  his  freshness  or 
fatigue — as  an  unmixed  drawback  and  inconvenience, 
and  it  often  worried  him.  We  take  it  that  the 
hesitation  often  came  at  the  pointed  word  because  it 
was  the  point,  the  desire  to  bring  it  out  producing 
the  nervous  effect  to  which  the  stammer  was  due. 

Dr.  Keynes  in  the  article  in  the  Economic  Journal 
from  which  we  have  already  quoted  says  : — 

It  was  extraordinary  how  illuminating  he  would  be, 
whatever  turn  the  conversation  might  take :  on  one  topic 
after  another  he  had  something  interesting  to  say,  and 
what  he  said  was  always  to  the  point  and  suggestive.  He 
had  an  excellent  memory,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  limit 
to  the  range  of  his  knowledge.  He  was  a  capital  story- 
teller: his  supply  of  apposite  stories — they  were  always 
pertinent  to  the  previous  conversation,  never  brought  in 
merely  for  their  own  sake — seemed  inexhaustible.  And  all 
his  talk  was  touched  by  a  subtle,  delicate  humour  that 
added  to  its  charm. 

His  manner  of  conversation  is  described  as  follows 
by  his  nephew,  A.  C.  Benson  : — 

I  always  felt  my  uncle  to  be  the  best  talker  I  ever  met. 
It  used  to  delight  me,  when  he  joined  our  own  home-circle, 
where  the  conversation  was  apt  to  run  on  ecclesiastical 
lines,  to  watch  the  adroit  and  yet  perfectly  simple  way  in 
which  he  would  follow  technical  questions,  and  throw  a 
new  light  upon  them ;  but  the  real  charm  consisted  in  a 


v  HENRY  SIDGWICK  317 

mixture  of  sympathy  and  humility.  He  received — I  am 
speaking  of  quite  early  days — one's  halting  contributions  to 
a  subject  with  a  serious  courtesy,  and  often  gave  the  remark 
a  deft  twist  which  gave  it  a  distinguished  air.  I  used  to 
feel  his  unaffected  laughter,  his  humorous  interest  in  any 
incident  one  told  him,  to  be  a  sincere  compliment.  In 
later  years  I  generally  talked  with  him  on  literary  subjects ; 
here  his  knowledge  was  extraordinary ;  but  it  was  accom- 
panied by  a  gentle  deference  that  drew  me  to  confide  tastes 
and  preferences  to  him  in  a  way  that  I  could  do  to  but  few. 

The  actual  manner  of  his  talk  was  indescribably  attractive ; 
his  gentle  voice,  his  wise  and  kindly  air,  as  he  balanced 
arguments  and  statements,  the  gestures  of  his  delicate  hands, 
his  lazy  and  contented  laugh,  the  backward  poise  of  his 
head,  his  updrawn  eyebrows,  all  made  it  a  pleasure  to 
watch  him.  Yet  his  expression  as  a  rule  tended  to  be 
melancholy,  and  even  wistful. 

I  remember  once  a  supreme  instance  of  his  conversa- 
tional powers.  It  was  at  a  small  dinner-party ;  he  took  in 
a  lady  whose  social  equipment  was  not  great,  and  who  was 
obviously  ill  at  ease.  I  wondered  what  subject  he  would 
select.  He  began  at  once  on  the  subject  of  the  education 
of  children,  in  the  simplest  way,  as  though  he  only  desired 
information.  The  lady,  who  had  a  young  family,  became 
at  once  communicative  and  blithe  ;  and  what  might  have 
been  a  dreary  business  was  turned  into  a  delightful 
occasion. 

A  point,  here  illustrated,  that  he  could  talk  agree- 
ably and  generally  get  some  enjoyment  for  himself  in 
conversation  with  almost  anybody — even  dull,  or 
shy,  or  unpractised  talkers,  was  very  noticeable.  He 
regarded  it  as  a  wasted  opportunity  if,  even  in  a 
commonplace  morning  call,  he  had  failed  to  learn 
some  fact  or  get  at  some  point  of  view  new  to  him. 
The  following  passage  in  the  Cambridge  Letter, 
already  quoted  from,  brings  out  this  same  point : — 

In  brilliant  company  he  was  naturally  at  his  best,  but 


318  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

out  of  the  shyest  or  dullest  he  managed  to  elicit  something. 
He  got  the  best  out  of  people  that  there  was.  He  would 
take  up  the  most  trivial  remark,  the  most  unpromising 
subject,  and  by  an  ingenious  turn  convert  it  to  something 
of  interest,  so  that  the  sorriest  conversationalist  would  have 
a  cheered  sense  of  having  contributed  to  the  entertainment. 
"  If  you  so  much  as  mentioned  a  duster  in  his  presence,"  said 
some  one,  "  he  would  glorify  it  on  the  spot."  .  .  .  But  now 
and  again  he  unconsciously  embarrassed  random  talkers  with 
his  quite  serious  and  polite — "  Now,  what  exactly  do  you 
mean  by ? "  On  such  occasions  those  who  were  con- 
scious of  not  having  meant  anything  in  particular  did  well 
to  ...  change  the  subject — if  he  would  let  them.  For  he 
might  be  so  generously  confident  that  they  meant  something, 
and  so  intent  on  his  inquiry  into  their  views  that  he  would 
mercilessly  corner  them,  and  expose  the  nakedness  of  the 
land. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  descriptions  of  Sidg- 
wick's  conversation  is  in  Mr.  Bryce's  delightful 
volume  of  Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography. 
He  says : — 

Sidgwick  did  not  write  swiftly  or  easily,  because  he 
weighed  carefully  everything  he  wrote.  But  his  mind  was 
alert  and  nimble  in  the  highest  degree.  Thus  he  was  an 
admirable  talker,  seeing  in  a  moment  the  point  of  an 
argument,  seizing  on  distinctions  which  others  had  failed 
to  perceive,  suggesting  new  aspects  from  which  a  question 
might  be  regarded,  and  enlivening  every  topic  by  a  keen 
yet  sweet  and  kindly  wit.  Wit,  seldom  allowed  to  have 
play  in  his  books,  was  one  of  the  characteristics  which 
made  his  company  charming.  Its  effect  was  heightened  by 
a  hesitation  in  his  speech  which  often  forced  him  to  pause 
before  the  critical  word  or  phrase  of  the  sentence  had  been 
reached.  When  that  word  or  phrase  came,  it  was  sure  to 
be  the  right  one.  Though  fond  of  arguing,  he  was  so 
candid  and  fair,  admitting  all  that  there  was  in  his 
opponent's  case,  and  obviously  trying  to  see  the  point  from 


v  HENRY  SIDGWICK  319 

his  opponent's  side,  that  nobody  felt  annoyed  at  having 
come  off  second  best,  while  everybody  who  cared  for  good 
talk  went  away  feeling  not  only  that  he  knew  more  about 
the  matter  than  he  did  before,  but  that  he  had  enjoyed  an 
intellectual  pleasure  of  a  rare  and  high  kind.  The  keenness 
of  his  penetration  was  not  formidable,  because  it  was  joined 
to  an  indulgent  judgment :  the  ceaseless  activity  of  his 
intellect  was  softened  rather  than  reduced  by  the  gaiety  of 
his  manner.  His  talk  was  conversation,  not  discourse,  for 
though  he  naturally  became  the  centre  of  nearly  every 
company  in  which  he  found  himself,  he  took  no  more  than 
his  share.  It  was  like  the  sparkling  of  a  brook  whose 
ripples  seem  to  give  out  sunshine. 

It  is  perhaps  not  inappropriate  to  quote  here  the 
view  taken  of  him  by  one  of  his  fellow-workers  in 
Psychical  Research — Mr.  F.  Podmore.  After  re- 
ferring to  "  that  charm  of  humour  and  felicitous 
phrasing  which  made  his  conversation  so  fascinating," 
Mr.  Podmore  goes  on  to  speak  of  "  the  impression  his 
character  made  on  all  who  knew  him,"  and  con- 
tinues : — 

He  always  seemed  to  me  one  of  those  very  rare  char- 
acters whose  insight  was  so  pure  and  true,  that  his  decision, 
whether  in  practical  matters  or  in  purely  intellectual 
problems,  would  not  be  biassed  even  unconsciously  by  any 
personal  preference.  Great  lawyers  no  doubt  are  trained 
to  deal  with  one  particular  class  of  subjects  in  this  manner. 
But  Mr.  Sidgwick's  gift  of  clear,  unbiassed  vision  on  all 
questions  alike  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  very  rare 
quality.  I  don't  think  he  himself  realised  how  rare.  He 
often  gave  the  rest  of  the  world  credit — undeserved  credit, 
as  I  used  to  think — for  being  as  disinterested  in  their 
judgments  as  himself. 

After  their  marriage  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  went 
to  Paris,  visiting  Amiens  on  their  way  out,  and  Rouen, 
Caen,  and  Canterbury  on  the  way  back.  At  the 


320  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

beginning  of  May  they  took  up  their  abode  at  Pro- 
fessor and  Mrs.  Fawcett's  house  (18  Brookside)  for 
the  summer,  till  the  house  in  course  of  building,  which 
they  had  secured  in  the  Chesterton  Road  (Hillside, 
opposite  Magdalene  College),  should  be  completed  and 
ready  for  them.  Through  the  hospitality  of  Sidg- 
wick's  numerous  friends,  the  first  term  was  much 
taken  up  with  dining  out,  and  they  also  had  old 
friends  to  stay  with  them.  The  social  charm  of  life 
at  Cambridge  was  greatly  added  to  by  the  fact  that 
Mrs.  Sidgwick  had  two  brothers  living  there — Francis, 
a  Fellow  and  lecturer  of  Trinity,  and  Gerald,  about  to 
become  one.  During  the  first  two  terms  her  youngest 
brother  Eustace  was  also  there  as  an  undergraduate. 
A  weekly  "  family  dinner  "  soon  became  a  regular  and 
delightful  custom, — not  less  pleasant  when,  in  1880, 
Lord  Rayleigh  was  appointed  to  the  Chair  of  Experi- 
mental Physics,  and  he  and  Lady  Rayleigh  (Mrs. 
Sidgwick's  sister)  joined  the  family  party  living  at 
Cambridge. 

The  letters  preserved  are  comparatively  few  for 
the  period  we  are  now  dealing  with,  partly  because 
Sidgwick's  mother,  for  some  time  before  her  death  in 
January  1879,  became  unable  to  read  letters,  partly 
because  F.  Myers  now  lived  at  Cambridge.  Doubtless, 
too,  as  business  increased,  the  impulse  to  write  long 
letters  diminished  both  in  himself  and  his  friends. 
He  never  really  enjoyed  letter -writing  as  he  did 
conversation ;  and  in  the  later  decades  of  his  life  he 
got  into  the  habit  of  trying  to  compress  letters  into 
one  side  of  a  sheet  of  notepaper,  which,  however,  with 
his  small  handwriting,  left  it  possible  to  say  a  good 
deal.  He  would  often  write  these  brief  letters  holding 
the  paper  in  his  hand  and  walking  about  the  room. 

The  following  extracts  from  letters  written  in  May 
1876  refer  to  Mr.  Oscar  Browning's  intention,  after 
leaving  Eton,  to  reside  at  Cambridge  and  teach 
history  without  any  definite  post : — 


1876,  AGK  37  HENEY  SIDGWICK  321 

...  I  do  not  think  [the  unremuneratedness  of  your 
Cambridge  work]  will  make  it  less  valued  or  less  effective,  if 
you  can  put  your  heart  in  it,  but  rather  more  so.  I  think 
there  is  a  crying  need  here  of  the  kind  of  influence  over 
youth  that  you  want  to  exercise,  and  that  in  every  way 
there  is  a  sphere  for  you  here,  if  only  you  do  not  mind  (1) 
absence  of  remuneration,  and  (2)  being  continually  asked  by 
your  friends  where  you  are  and  what  you  are  doing.  My 
own  position  after  I  gave  up  my  Fellowship  had  a  kind  of 
analogy, — that  is,  I  was  only  paid  a  very  small  salary, — and 
my  friends  outside  found  it  rather  hard  to  understand  why 
I  did  not  try  to  get  something  else.  But  my  impression  is 
that  my  positive  relation  to  undergraduates  was  helped 
rather  than  hindered.  ...  I  never  made  much  use  of 
my  opportunities;  but  ever  since  1869  I  have  felt  that 
the  fact  that  I  was  spending  myself  unreservedly  in  writing 
and  teaching  my  subject  without  care  for  adequate  remunera- 
tion gave  me  an  academic  position  second  to  none  in  respect 
of  opportunities.  I  wish  I  had  been  able  to  use  them 
better. 

To  0.  Browning  on  a  later  occasion 

One  thing  I  can  assure  you — that  you  will  gain  time  and 
energy  by  [withdrawal  from  College  affairs].  I  often  think 
that  if  I  had  not  resigned  my  Fellowship  I  should  never 
have  written  my  book. 

To  the  Same  on  May  24 

As  to  lectures,  I  have  generally  found  it  convenient  to 
lecture  three  times  a  week l — that  is,  to  meet  the  class  as 
often ;  but  I  do  not  give  a  regular  lecture  every  time,  as 
every  now  and  then  I  occupy  the  hour  in  discussing  questions 
that  I  have  set,  etc.  On  the  whole,  my  ideal  would  be 
something  like  five  formal  lectures  a  fortnight,  and  a  sixth 
day  occupied  in  more  informal  discussion.  But  I  still  feel 
myself  in  a  very  tentative  condition  as  regards  lectures.  I 

1  This  does  not,  of  course,  mean  that  he  only  lectured  three  times  a  week, 
but  that  three  times  a  week  was  usually  the  best  for  one  subject.  He  often 
gave  two  or  more  courses  on  different  subjects  in  the  same  term. 

Y 


322  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

shall  very  likely  begin  a  series  of  experiments  next  term,  as 
I  never  feel  that  I  have  quite  solved  the  problem  of  making 
oral  instruction  the  right  supplement  to  books  in  the 
present  age. 

This  problem  he  never  solved  to  his  satisfaction, 
partly  because  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  under- 
graduates to  formulate  their  difficulties  and  ask 
questions.  He  discussed  the  subject  in  1890  in  an 
article  in  the  New  Review,  called  "  A  Lecture  against 
Lecturing,"  which  has  been  republished  in  the  volume 
of  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

To  0.  Browning  from  London,  June  24 

...  I  should  like  to  talk  to  you  about  Political  Philo- 
sophy. I  am  preparing  myself  to  write  "  Elements  of 
Politics,"  and  am  thinking  of  printing  some  "  outlines  of 
Politics  "  to  use  for  my  lectures,  and  also  to  get  criticised  as 
regards  arrangement,  etc.,  before  I  write  my  book.  But  of 
this  when  we  meet.  I  am  busy  reading  Law  books  now. 

To  his  Sister  from  his  mother's  house  in  Oxford,  undated 

...  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  really  anything 
to  add  to  what  I  have  said  before,  except  to  express 
less  self-reliance.  Only  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  im- 
portant to  settle  the  exact  amount  of  one's  conscious 
need  of  dogmatic  religion,  it  being  undeniable  that  (1)  it 
would  be  a  great  moral  force  and  source  of  moral  progress, 
and  (2)  that  one  does  seem  to  get  on  without  it  about  as 
well  as  the  great  mass  of  people  who  profess  it,  as  far  as 
one  can  judge  from  external  appearances.  But  I  think 
that  in  talking  to  you  I  laid  too  much  stress  on  this  latter, 
and  not  enough  on  the  former.  Whereas  the  truth  is  that 
the  consciousness  of  the  comparatively  low  moral  level  on 
which  my  own  nature  seems  to  keep  me  has  often  driven 
me  to  the  verge  of  trying  to  alter  my  intellectual  convic- 
tions :  and  would  have  driven  me  over  the  verge  but  for  the 
fear  that  this  kind  of  intellectual  suicide  might,  after  all, 


1876,  AGE  38  HENKY  SIDGWICK  323 

bring  with  it  moral  deterioration  instead  of  improvement. 
All  this,  however,  belongs  to  some  time  ago :  of  late  Life 
has  been  made  very  smooth  to  me. 

To  his  Mother  from  Arthur  Balfour's  house  at  Strathconan 
in  Ross- shire  (since  sold)  on  August  24 

My  last  letter  to  you  was  written  in  the  early  morning 
of  our  journey  from  Edinburgh  hither,  which  I  can  hardly 
recall  without  a  shudder  at  the  heat !  This  evening  we 
have  a  large  peat-fire,  and  the  wind  on  the  hills  is  cutting. 
However,  I  think  the  cold  agrees  with  us  all,  and  there  is 
a  great  charm  in  this  scenery  and  in  the  feeling  of  out- 
of-the-world-ness.  There  is  not  the  same  rich  beauty  as  in 
the  Cumberland  scenery  and  the  best  parts  of  the  West 
Highlands,  but  yet  there  is  a  wonderful  amount  of 
picturesqueness,  and  greater  variety  of  aspects,  from  the 
changes  of  cloud,  rain,  mist,  morning  and  evening,  etc., 
than  I  have  known  anywhere  else.  The  hills  near  range 
from  1500  to  2500  feet:  we  ascended  one  of  the  latter 
size  a  day  or  two  ago,  and  had  a  fine  geographical  view 
from  it.  My  brothers-in-law  began  to  stalk  deer  on  Monday 
last,  and  have  killed  four  stags  (red  deer)  but  none  with  a 
really  fine  pair  of  horns — such  as  two  which  I  see  while 
I  write,  for  stags'  heads  are  the  chief  ornament  of  this 
mansion.  We  are  now  living  almost  entirely  on  the  produce 
of  the  chase  in  various  forms :  we  dined  to-day  on  salmon 
and  venison,  and  grouse  are  always  on  hand  !  I  am  glad 
you  liked  those  we  sent  you. 

I  have  been  with  Nora  to  visit  two  or  three  people  in 
the  "  Strath,"  one  of  them  a  woman  living  in  almost  the 
only  remaining  specimen  of  the  stone  hovels  that  a  genera- 
tion ago  were  the  ordinary  houses  here :  things  with  a  hole 
in  the  roof,  low,  queer-shaped,  looking  almost  as  if  they  had 
grown  out  of  the  ground.  She  seemed  very  comfortable : 
but  it  is  certainly  an  evidence  of  the  progress  of  civilisation 
to  compare  this  with  the  neat  cottages  in  which  the  rest  of 
the  population  live.  I  had  no  idea  before  I  came  here — 
though  I  do  not  quite  know  why  I  had  not — how  much 


324  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

resemblance  these  Highland  people  have  to  Irishmen  as 
we  ordinarily  imagine  them ;  some  of  them,  at  least,  have 
just  the  same  kind  of  impulsive  and  affectionate  effusive- 
ness. There  was  one  old  woman  in  particular  whom  we 
visited  to-day  who  said  "  at  all,  at  all,"  just  like  an  Irish- 
woman in  fiction,  and  generally  showed  the  same  kind  of 
eagerness  in  talking.  I  ought  to  add,  however,  that  I  did 
not  detect  in  her  household  arrangements  any  of  the 
recognised  defects  of  the  Irish  character. 

To  his  Mother  from  1 8  Brookside,  September  1 6 

We  have  now  been  vibrating  between  London  and 
Cambridge  for  about  ten  days,  and  I  believe  Nora  has 
nearly  arranged  the  furniture  of  our  new  house  to  her 
satisfaction.  .  .  .  We  shall  probably  transfer  ourselves  in 
the  week  after  next ;  not,  I  think,  before.  .  .  . 

This  is  absolutely  saison  morte  in  Cambridge,  but  we 
have  one  or  two  friends  near  by  a  happy  accident.  In 
about  a  week  most  of  them  will  have  re-assembled,  and  be 
in  preparation  for  the  term's  work.  There  is  a  prevailing 
theory  that  Cambridge  is  unhealthy  in  September,  but  I 
believe  this  to  be  due  to  an  inversion  of  cause  and  effect 
not  uncommon ;  it  is  said  to  be  unhealthy  because  every 
one  goes  away  then,  and  not  vice  versa. 

,  To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Hillside,  Chesterton  Road,  October  1 0 

I  have  been  half  hoping,  since  I  got  your  note,  to  be 
subpoenaed  by  Lankester's  lawyers,1  which  would  give  me 
an  excuse  for  going  up  to  London.  I  am  not  really  con- 
cerned in  the  case  (Lankester  used  my  name  without 
authority),  and  I  want  to  keep  out  of  it,  being  anxious  not 
to  appear  before  the  public  in  connection  with  Spiritualism 
until  I  have  a  definite  conclusion  to  announce.  I  went  to 
Slade  several  times,  and,  as  far  as  my  own  experience  goes, 
should  unhesitatingly  pronounce  against  [him],  but  there  is 

1  Dr.  Ray  Lankester  was  prosecuting  as  an  impostor  Dr.  Slade,  an 
American  medium,  who  had  a  good  deal  of  vogue  at  this  time,  and  who 
obtained  writing  on  a  slate  which  he  attributed  to  spirits,  or  at  least  not  to 
any  normal  agency. 


1876,  AGE  38  HENRY  SIDGWICK  325 

a  good  deal  of  testimony  for  him,  quite  untouched  by  any 
explanation  yet  offered.  I  am  curious  to  see  whether  this 
will  come  into  court  and  stand  cross-examination. 

We  have  just  got  into  this  house.  It  seems  to  me  a 
rather  nice  place.  Altogether  I  have  to  fight  against 
Optimism  rather  vigorously :  or  should  have  to,  except  for 
Bulgarian  atrocities  and  the  like.  But  my  individual 
endeavours  are  still  rather  baulked  in  most  directions. 
Spiritualism  is  in  statu  quo :  I  see  no  sound  methods  for 
attacking  philosophical  problems :  I  am  growing  daily 
more  sceptical  in  educational  methods :  politics  are  a  blind 
free  fight.  With  all  this  I  am  horribly  and  disgracefully 
conscious  of  Bien-etre. 

To  his  Mother  from  Hillside  on  October  27 

I  have  been  occupied  in  preparing  my  Annual  Eeport 
of  the  A.F.P.T.H.E.O.W.LC. ;  these  are  the  initials  of  the 
Association  *  of  which  you  are  one  of  the  patrons.  Nora  is 
doing  mathematics  in  the  intervals  of  time  which  she  can 
spare  from  melancholy  contemplation  of  our  DRAWING-ROOM 
CURTAINS,  which  have  just  come  after  long  delay,  and  turn 
out  to  have  been  so  badly  made  that  a  beautiful  cross  stripe 
of  brown  velvet,  which  was  to  complete  their  splendour,  is  so 
unequally  situated  in  the  two  halves  of  the  curtains,  that 
when  they  are  drawn  together  at  night  the  inequality  is 
evident  to  the  most  inattentive  gaze.  However,  when  I 
tell  you  that  this  is  our  chief  failure  as  yet  in  furnishing, 
you  will  probably  think  us  tolerably  lucky.  Everybody  in 
Cambridge  seems  to  think  that  the  house  was  made  for  us : 
though  the  garden  is  still  rather  in  the  condition  of  the 
sort  of  ground  which  is  used  in  sermons  to  symbolise  the 
undisciplined  heart  of  man !  I  wish  you  could  see  my 
study,  which  I  consider  to  be  really  Nora's  great  success. 
It  is  only  13  feet  by  15,  and  her  practised  eye  perceived 
that  it  was  necessary  to  waste  no  space  on  bookcases,  but 
instead  to  put  up  shelves  all  round,  covering  the  whole 

1  Association    for    Promoting    the    Higher    Education    of   "Women    in 
Cambridge. 


326  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

wall,  except  a  small  space  above  the  fire-place  where  Plato, 
Anaxagoras,  Aristotle  look  down  calmly  on  the  student. 
From  the  window  I  see  across  the  road  into  the  leafy 
coverts  of  Magdalene.  Altogether  we  are  getting  quite  a 
homelike  feeling  about  the  place :  and — if  we  had  not 
rashly  pledged  ourselves  to  a  demonstration  in  favour  of 
simplicity  in  dinner-giving,  with  a  cook  prematurely 
exalted  out  of  a  kitchen-maid — we  should  be  quite  happy 
as  regards  our  relation  to  society. 

To  his  Mother  from  Hillside  on  February  3,  1877 

We  have  now  got  our  affairs  into  order  for  the  term — 
I  mean  the  affairs  of  the  Education  of  Women,  as  managed 
by  Treasurer  and  Secretary  [i.e.  his  wife  and  himself], — 
and  have  time  to  look  about  us.  I  have  got  a  good  deal 
to  do  ;  I  am  going  to  lecture  [for  women]  on  Shakespeare, 
Bacon,  and  perhaps  Milton,  besides  my  ordinary  work ;  but 
it  is  not  the  same  kind  of  hurry  and  worry  as  last  term. 

When  we  left  you,  last  Monday  week,  we  saw  Worcester 
Cathedral — a  restoration  which  I  did  not  much  admire — 
and  then  went  on  comfortably  to  Cheltenham.  What  do  you 
think  I  did  at  Cheltenham  ?  I  "  linked  "  or  "  runk  "  (I  do 
not  know  how  the  verb  is  conjugated),  rather  to  the  surprise 
of  my  friends.  The  sport  is  still  kept  up  at  Cheltenham, 
though  it  has  gone  out  of  fashion  elsewhere.  It  is  not 
half  as  amusing  as  real  skating,  and  I  think  that  my  first 
experiment  will  be  my  last.  We  met  a  lovely  little 
Canadian  lady  who  whirled  round  the  rink  with  delightful 
ease ;  she  said  that  the  Canadians  had  begun  to  take  to 
the  sport,  not  content  with  their  five  months'  winter.  We 
had  a  pleasant  visit  at  Cheltenham.  Mrs.  Myers  [F.  Myers's 
mother]  was  very  kind  and  hospitable.  She  was  much 
interested  about  fighting  the  Corporation  of  Manchester,  who 
are  trying  to  turn  Thirlmere  Lake  into  a  big  ugly  reservoir 
for  Lancashire  towns.  It  is  a  battle  of  Taste  against  Con- 
venience, so  I  am  afraid  Taste  will  lose. 

Then  we  had  a  night  at  Rugby  [with  the  Arthur 
Sidgwicks],  which  was  very  pleasant.  Eose  is  certainly  a 


1877,  AGE  39  HENRY  SIDGWICK  327 

charming  creature — the  other  infant  [aged  one  month]  was 
thoughtfully  kept  out  of  my  sight.  What  do  you  think  ? 
Jex- Blake  has  raised  nearly  £10,000  for  buildings  at  Rugby 
(observatory,  school  library,  reading-room,  etc.).  I  think 
this  shows  great  energy  in  dignified  mendicancy. 

To  H.  Cr.  Dakyns  from  Hillside  on  April  13 

We  are  staying  here  now  indefinitely.  We  only  go 
to  London  on  April  25  to  witness  the  archaic  but  impres- 
sive ceremony  of  Consecrating  a  Bishop.1  So  come  if  you 
do  take  a  flight. 

I  have  been  writing  an  article  on  "Bentham"  for  Morley, 
which  may  appear  next  Fortnightly?  and  am  now  struggling 
with  second  edition  of  my  book.  If  you  happen  to  read 
"  Bentham,"  I  shall  be  curious  to  hear  what  you  think  of 
it  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  as  it  is  the  first  thing 
that  I  have  written  for  years  in  which  I  have  aimed  at 
all  at  literary  effect.  Alas  for  politics  ! 3 

Eain,  wind  and  rain,  and  where  is  he  who  knows  ? 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  on  May  15 

As  regards  Eastern  Question,  I  do  not  myself  feel  any 
alarm ;  I  rely  on  Lord  Derby  not  drifting  into  war.  He 
has  no  foresight,  sympathy,  or  political  dexterity ;  but  if 
he  is  not  cool  and  pacific,  what  is  he  ?  I  think  a  great 
opportunity  has  been  missed,  but  you  can't  make  a  states- 
man by  crying  for  him. 

In  July  1877  Sidgwick  made  a  fortnight's  tour 
among  German  universities  with  the  object  of  form- 
ing as  good  a  view  as  possible  of  the  best  arrange- 
ments for  Cambridge.  The  Commission,  which,  in 
concert  with  the  University  and  Colleges,  was  to 
initiate  changes  in  their  organisation  and  financial 
relations,  was  constituted  during  this  year's  session 

1  The  consecration  of  E.  W.  Benson  as  Bishop  of  Truro. 

2  Republished  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

3  Russia  declared  war  against  Turkey  on  April  24. 


328  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

of  Parliament.  In  anticipation  of  it  a  syndicate,  of 
which  Sidgwick  was  a  member,  had  been  appointed 
in  1875  to  consider  in  detail  the  needs  of  the 
University ;  thus  his  mind  was  much  occupied  with 
the  subject  of  academic  organisation,  and  he  wished 
to  inform  it  in  every  possible  way. 

To  his  Wife  from  Bonn 

Everything  has  gone  as  well  as  could  be  expected :  no 
hay  fever  to  speak  of,  owing  to  the  windy  and  showery 
weather — it  is  quite  cold  here!  I  reached  Bonn  at  12.30, 
dined  at  1.15  at  table  d'hdte,  where  a  conversible  German 
gave  me  his  views  about  the  [Russo-Turkish]  war.  Germany, 
he  says,  sympathises  equally  with  neither  :  they  expect  peace 
pretty  soon.  After  dinner  I  went  and  called  on  Professor 
Kamphausen,  Dean  of  the  Evangelical  Faculty  of  Theology. 
He  gave  me  some  information  and  one  or  two  instructive 
anecdotes  pour  rire :  e.g.  that  a  Professor,  giving  a  Zeugniss 
to  a  student,  stated  that  he  had  studied  "  mit  nie  gesehenem 
Fleisse "  ! *  .  .  .  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  make  out  still 
about  the  control  over  the  students.  My  informants  take 
rather  different  views  about  it.  After  Kamphausen  I  saw 
Delius,  who  teaches  (and  talks)  English;  but  he  had  no 
interest  in  organisation,  and  he  handed  me  on  to  his 
colleague  Bischoff,  a  lively  man,  who  has  been  some  years 
in  England,  and  whom  you  would  hardly  take  for  a  German. 
From  talking  to  him  I  have  for  the  first  time  got  an  idea 
how  elaborate  an  examination  schoolmasters  have  to  pass 
here,  in  each  department  in  which  they  wish  to  teach.  In 
English,  for  example,  they  have  to  know  the  whole  literature 
from  Chaucer  downwards,  and  also  "historical  grammar," 
which  includes  Anglo-Saxon.  .  .  . 

I  have  just  read  in  Alma  Mater  (an  organ  of  universities) 
a  thrilling  account  of  the  "Remotion"  of  a  privat-docent 
from  Berlin,  which  may  interest  John  [Rayleigh],  as  it 
involves  Helmholtz.  It  appears  that  a  pugnacious  p.d., 
named  Diihring,  has  written  a  Kritische  Geschichte  der 
1  With  never-seen  industry. 


1877,  AGE  39  HENRY  SIDGWICK  329 

Principien  der  Mechanik,  in  which  he  charges  Helmholtz 
with  having,  "in  his  1847  published  Abhandlung  '  ueber 
die  Erhaltung  der  Kraft,' "  not  mentioned  a  treatise  of 
R.  Meyer  (discoverer  of  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat 
— I  thought  Joule  discovered  it !),  published  five  years 
before.  Dlihring  further  sneers  at  Helmholtz's  philosophis- 
ing, and  approving  of  "  den  pikanten  Widersinn  einer  anti- 
eutdeidischen  geometric."  These  two  points  formed  one  of 
the  grounds  of  complaint  made  by  the  Faculty  against 
Diihring ;  the  other  was  a  general  attack  on  the  university 
system  in  a  pamphlet  called  Der  Weg  zur  hohern  Berufs- 
bildung  der  Frauen — which  I  must  get  hold  of.  On  these 
grounds  the  Minister  of  Education  has  ordered  Diihring  to 
close  his  lectures ;  consequently  the  Berlin  students  are 
holding  "  Versammlungen "  and  inditing  "  Aufrufe."  I 
reflect  with  satisfaction  that  we  are  free  from  this  sort 
of  thing  at  Cambridge. 

To  his  Wife  from  Gbttingen 

Since  Tuesday  everything  has  gone  as  well  as  before. 
I  saw  four  Professors  in  Bonn  in  all,  and  have  seen  four  here  : 
all  amiable  to  me  personally,  though  I  seem  to  myself  an  un- 
mitigated bore  to  most  of  them.  ...  I  am  afraid  that  there 
is  no  doubt  indirect  coercion  on  the  students  to  hear  the 
lectures  of  the  Professors  who  examine,  and  that  the  results 
are  not  always  very  satisfactory.  Also  there  is  practical 
coercion  as  regards  attendance  at  lectures  generally,  though 
not  formal.  And  though  there  is  no  private  tuition  to 
speak  of,  this  seems  to  me  chiefly  because  the  student  is  on 
the  average  too  poor  to  pay  for  it ;  so  that  it  cannot  thrive. 
However,  I  am  glad  I  came.  I  think  this  kind  of  thing 
comes  about  as  near  a  holiday  as  I  can  really  manage  to 
enjoy.  I  am  not  worthy  of  Amusement,  generally  speaking: 
but  this  sort  of  investigation  is  no  strain  on  the  mind.  On 
Tuesday  evening  I  saw  the  lighted  Rhine  from  the  bridge 
[at  Cologne],  and  on  Wednesday  morning  the  apse  of  the 
Cathedral  from  the  west  end — the  two  things  which  im- 
pressed me  in  1859.  Last  evening  I  spent  in  reviving  old 


330  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

memories  with  the  Benfeys :  and  this  morning,  in  the 
intervals  between  my  interrogatories,  I  have  been  reviving 
them  all  day  long.  It  is  fourteen  years  since  I  was  here. 
I  wonder  why  this  kind  of  revival  always  makes  one 
melancholy.  I  think  it  is  partly  because  one  never  really 
can  sympathise  completely  with  one's  former  self,  and  the 
sense  of  the  incompleteness  of  sympathy  produces  a  faint 
but  deep  discord  in  the  innermost  of  one's  nature.  Some- 
thing of  the  sort,  I  think.  .  .  . 

One  of  these  professors  had  one  or  two  rather  good 
proverbs.  I  was  remarking  to  him  on  the  great  severity 
of  the  examinations  for  schoolmasters,  as  delineated  in  the 
official  Reglement.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  the  soup  is  not 
eaten  as  hot  as  it's  cooked." 

.  .  .  My  views  on  academic  organisation  are  in  a  very 
disturbed  condition.  Perhaps  they  will  settle  down  before 
I  come  back. 

To  his  Wife  from  Leipzig 

Things  are  not  going  quite  so  well  in  Leipzig ; — one  feels 
the  difference  between  small  towns  and  large.  The  people 
here  are  further  off :  go  away  for  Sundays :  are  busier,  and 
more  bored  with  a  casual  English  cross-questioner.  How- 
ever, I  will  not  judge  hastily. 

I  have  got  Diihring's  pamphlet  with  the  attack  on  the 
University.  I  find  to  my  horror  that  he  only  expresses  my 
deepest  secret  convictions  as  to  the  antiquatedness  of  the 
traditional  lecture  system,  and  my  worst  fears  as  to  jobs  in 
professorial  appointments : — though  he,  no  doubt,  expresses 
them  very  nastily.  Alas !  alas !  how  is  one  to  come  to 
practical  conclusions  ? 

To  his  MotJier  from  Leipzig 

...  I  was  amused  by  an  Americanised  German  I  met  in 
the  train  the  other  day,  who  was  himself  an  odd  mixture  of 
Teuton  and  Yankee,  and  was  at  the  same  time  struck  with 
the  difference  between  the  ways  of  the  two  nations.  In 
German  railway  stations  one  finds  written  up,  "Es  ist 
verboten  die  Bahn  zu  betreten  "  (it  is  forbidden  to  walk  on 


1877,  AGE  39  HENBY  SLDGWICK  331 

the  line).  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  in  America  we  put  up,  '  Please 
to  look  out  for  the  Locomotive.' "  I  thought  the  difference 
between  the  two  very  characteristic. 

To  his  Wife  from  the  Kaiserhof,  Berlin 

My  mind  is  made  up — at  least  it  was  in  the  train  this 
afternoon,  only  perhaps  the  nintiness  of  my  resolution  has 
been  already  a  little  softened  by  this  Palace :  you  should 
see  the  court  in  front  of  the  Speise-saal :  Palms  ! — but  still 
I  think  my  mind  is  made  up  to  start  from  this  Metropolis 
of  Metaphysics  and  Drill  on  Sunday  night  at  10  P.M.,  spend 
Monday  night  at  Brussels,  Lille,  or  Calais,  and  arrive  at 
4  Carlton  Gardens  about  6.30  on  Tuesday  afternoon.  There. 
Now  make  your  plans.  I  think  we  may  as  well  spend  the 
day  in  London,  and  go  down  to  Cambridge  in  the  cool  of 
the  evening.  ...  I  have  been  half  tempted  to  cut  Berlin 
short,  but  I  think  I  may  perhaps  get  some  wider  views 
here  than  in  the  provincial  universities.  I  do  not  at  all 
feel  that  the  journey  has  been  thrown  away.  I  think  I  am 
on  pretty  firm  ground  now  as  regards  the  working  of  things 
here :  I  find  by  this  time  that  I  generally  know  beforehand 
what  my  professor  will  say.  They  have  been  abundantly 
hospitable  to  me.  Since  I  got  to  Gottingen  I  have  only 
dined  at  my  own  expense  twice  out  of  six  days  !  This  is 
quite  a  new  thing  in  my  experience  of  Germany.  .  .  . 

"  Why,"  you  may  perhaps  ask,  "  being  humble  and 
economical " — as  you  know  I  am — "  why  did  I  ever  come 
to  this  gorgeousness  ? "  I  will  tell  you  why ;  it  was  the  hope 
(which  has  not  been  disappointed)  of  meeting  once  more 
with  sheet,  blanket,  and  counterpane  instead  of  the  lumpish 
thing  they  call  a  "  Stepp-decke."  These  simple  articles  are 
worth  a  hundred  Palms. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  summer  Sidgwick 
and  his  wife  paid  a  long  visit  to  his  mother  at 
Oxford,  and  afterwards,  among  other  visits,  stayed 
with  old  Mrs.  Grote,  then  in  her  eighty-fifth  year, 
whose  racy  conversation  greatly  delighted  him. 


332  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

To  Miss  Cannan  (an  old  friend  of  his  Mother's)  from 
Cambridge,  October  27 

I  am  afraid  that  we  cannot  hope  that  my  mother  will 
ever  regain  her  old  mental  vigour ;  the  best  to  be  looked 
for  is  that  she  should  remain  cheerful  and  not  find  time 
hang  too  heavy.  The  afternoons  were  liable  to  be  especially 
weary  when  we  were  there — one  is  always  liable  to  a  dreary 
cessation  of  life  towards  afternoon,  except  one  is  either 
busy  or  buoyant — and  I  am  afraid  they  will  grow  worse 
toward  the  winter.  I  am  very  glad  that  you  were  able  to 
go  to  her. 

We  have  been  full  of  business  here  with  University 
Beforni  and  the  continual  extension  of  our  lectures  for 
women.  We  have  now  over  sixty  in  Cambridge  who  have 
come  there  to  get  some  '  University  education,'  and  the 
movement  still  grows. 

I  am  glad  you  are  interested  in  the  progress  of  my 
2nd  edition.  I  never  feel  when  I  have  finished  writing 
anything  that  I  am  at  all  inclined  to  draw  any  one's 
attention  [to  it],  but  I  get  into  better  humour  with  my 
work  after  six  months  or  so  have  elapsed.  If  you  will 
send  me  your  address  on  a  postcard,  I  will  tell  the 
publishers  to  forward  you  a  copy  of  my  new  edition,  on 
condition  that  you  will  not  feel  called  upon  to  read  it. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  on  November  6 

We  should  like  extremely  to  come  to  you — indeed  I  for 
a  long  time  thought  of  proposing  it  boldly  myself — but  it 
is,  alas  !  doubtful  now  owing  to  a  miserable  article  that 
drags  for  the  Encyclopaedia  JSritannica.1  I  may  be  all  the 
latter  half  of  December  in  the  last  agonies  of  the  effort  to 
make  it  decently  complete. 

Good  accounts  from  my  mother  yesterday.  But  she 
will  have  received  a  terrible  shock  to-day.  My  Aunt 
Henrietta  [Crofts]  has  died  suddenly.  I  am  going  to  the 
funeral  on  Thursday. 

1  The  article  on  Ethics,  afterwards  (in  1886)  published  separately  in  an 
enlarged  form  as  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Ethics. 


1878,  AGE  39  HENEY  SIDGWICK  333 

To  his  Mother  from  Whittingeliame  (Arthur  Balfour's  house 
in  Hast  Lothian)  on  January  2,  1878 

We  were  in  a  great  whirl  of  business  up  to  the  very 
end  of  last  year,  until  we  fled  hither  on  the  last  day  of  it 
(Monday)  to  peace  and  quiet.  On  Wednesday  evening 
(26th)  we  got  down  to  Cambridge,  late  and  cross,  having 
missed  our  train ;  all  Thursday  morning  we  were  complet- 
ing our  arrangements  for  the  Conference  of  Schoolmistresses  * 
on  the  following  day ;  on  Thursday  at  4  P.M.  our  friends 
arrived,  and  educational  talk  began,  lasting  without  inter- 
mission till  Friday  evening ;  the  regular  conference  lasted 
from  11  A.M.  to  6.45  P.M.  on  Friday,  with  half  an  hour's 
interval  for  lunch.  On  Saturday  I  began  to  prepare  my 
answers  for  the  Cambridge  University  Commissioners,  which 
had  to  reach  them  by  New  Year's  Day.  I  went  to  bed  on 
Sunday  night  without  having  quite  finished  them,  and  only 
just  succeeded  in  writing  the  last  sentence  on  Monday 
morning  before  starting  at  8  for  the  journey  to  Scotland  ! 
This  I  call  high-pressure  existence. 

The  Conference  was  a  success  on  the  whole ;  we  had 
about  thirty  schoolmistresses  and  seven  or  eight  delegates 
from  local  educational  committees,  and  made  up  a  compact 
and  business-like  little  meeting  at  the  Town  Hall.  I  had  to 
take  the  chair,  and  was  very  favourably  impressed  with  the 
schoolmistresses ;  they  were  a  very  bright-looking  set,  and 
said  what  they  had  to  say  in  a  clear,  short,  practical  way. 
We  fixed  a  limit  of  ten  minutes  for  the  speeches,  but  the 
only  speaker  who  showed  the  least  disposition  to  exceed  it 
was  a  Man.  .  .  .  Among  the  people  who  came  were  .  .  . 
[T.  H.]  Green  from  Oxford  with  his  professorial  honours 
fresh  upon  him,  and  [H.  W.]  Eve,  who  used  to  be  at 

1  A  conference  of  schoolmistresses  and  Local  Examination  secretaries  and 
members  of  the  Association  for  promoting  the  Higher  Education  of  Women 
at  Cambridge,  to  discuss  the  courses  of  study  in  girls'  schools  and  the  work- 
ing of  the  Local  Examinations,  with  a  view  to  possible  modifications.  It  was 
arranged  at  the  suggestion,  and  largely  by  the  exertions,  of  Miss  Clough, 
who,  as  Sidgwick  said,  "  was  always  considering  [her  work  at  Cambridge]  in 
its  bearing  on  national  education,  and  planning  how  its  beneficial  effects  on 
the  country  at  large  might  be  improved  and  extended." 


334  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

Wellington  College.     Altogether  there  was  a  very  pleasant 
meeting  of  old  friends. 

Here  we  have  delightful  weather,  fresh  but  not  frosty ; 
my  brothers-in-law  are  all  assembled,  and  though  I  have 
not  done  my  article,  I  have  got  the  burden  of  it  pretty  well 
off  my  mind.  I  hope  the  New  Year  is  kind  to  you  too, 
and  will  continue  so.  There  is  a  lovely  winter  view  from 
my  window  now — fresh  green  grass  of  the  glen  with  the 
stream  winding  among  it,  a  few  dark  evergreens  in  front, 
and  beyond  the  reddish  browns  and  purples  of  the  leafless 
trees  that  clothe  the  sides  of  the  glen.  I  do  not  wonder 
that  Nora  is  so  fond  of  her  home. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Hillside  on  February  20 

I  have  read  your  article  [on  Mazzini],  and  found  it  very 
interesting,  and  in  some  parts  admirably  effective.  .  .  . 

My  sister  writes  with  serenity — even  with  a  bright 
intensity  of  resignation  [about  her  son  Martin's  death], 
but  I  am  half  afraid  of  a  reaction.  And  I  know  not  what 
to  write  to  her ;  I  find  my  ignorance  as  to  TO  pe\\ov 
[the  future]  appalling. 

To  F.  W.  Cornish  in  March 

I  am  very  busy  with  proofs  of  an  article  on  Ethics  for 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica ;  it  explains  the  whole  course  of 
thought  from  Socrates  to  myself,  and  so  I  have  to  look 
very  carefully  through  it  for  fear  there  should  be  some- 
thing somewhere  that  might  misrepresent  somebody. 

Do  you  play  lawn  tennis  ?  We  have  just  been  making  a 
winter  ground  in  our  back  garden  to  keep  us  healthy  for 
ever  and  distract  our  attention  from  the  little  wisdom  with 
which  we  are  governed.1 

Sidgwick  was  very  fond  of  lawn  tennis  at  this  time 
and  for  a  good  many  years  afterwards,  and  played 
fairly  well. 

1  This  was  the  time  when  the  treaty  of  San  Stefano  between  Russia  and 
Turkey  was  being  discussed. 


1878,  AGE  40  HENRY  SIDGWICK  335 

To  Roden  Nod  on  June  24 

I  have  been  intending  to  write  to  you  some  time,  ever 
since  I  got  your  last,  and  long  before ;  but  I  am  a  worse 
correspondent  every  year ! 

I  read  your  "Victor  Hugo"  with  much  interest.  I  do  not 
think  I  liked  the  article,  as  a  whole,  so  much  as  others  of 
yours,  but  this  was  chiefly  on  account  of  the  abstracts  of 
stories  which  it  perhaps  inevitably  included.  The  advantage 
of  criticising  poetry  as  compared  with  novels  is  that  the 
critic  can  give  the  reader  by  quotations  some  idea  of  what 
it  is  that  moves  him  to  admiration.  I  do  not  see  how  this 
can  be  done  in  the  case  of  a  novel.  The  critic's  abridgement, 
mingled  with  eulogistic  remarks,  is  like  a  bill  of  fare,  ac- 
companied with  licking  of  the  lips,  read  by  a  man  who  has 
dined  to  a  man  who  hasn't.  And  partly  because  your 
admiration  is  so  genuine,  one  feels  this  more  in  your  reviews 
than  in  those  of  colder  and  more  formal  critics. 

However,  there  were  many  things  impressively  put  in 
your  article,  and  I  am  glad  to  have  read  it.  I  certainly  do 
not  quite  agree  with  you  about  Victor  Hugo ;  and  yet  I  do 
not  think  that  I  disagree  with  you  either  to  the  extent  or 
in  the  manner  that  you  suppose — if  I  may  judge  from  the 
vicious  side-hits  at  some  imagined  school  of  antagonistic 
critics  with  which  the  article  is  interspersed.  (I  do  not 
suppose  that  you  mean  me  !  but  that  my  view  is  conceived 
by  you  to  lie  somewhere  in  the  direction  towards  which 
your  backhanders  are  directed.)  My  objection  to  V.  H. 
is  not  that  his  expression  is  not  sufficiently  reclierchd,  that 
he  does  not  suppress  morality  in  deference  to  Art,  etc.,  etc. 
It  is  true  that  I  object  to  the  formless,  unchastened  flow  of 
his  ideas  and  words  in  verse  and  prose ;  but  I  object  still 
more  to  the  want  of  wisdom,  humility,  reverence,  in  fact 
real  sanity  of  mind  (as  human  mind),  in  dealing  with  the 
tremendous  problems  which  he  handles  so  unhesitatingly. 
As  a  dramatist  he  sacrifices  real  enduring  dramatic  effect 
for  transient  sensational  shock,  and  he  wastes  his  deep 
insight  and  feeling  about  life  and  the  world  in  constructing 


336  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

profuse  fireworks  of  epigrams  and  antitheses.  However, 
he  is  a  great  man,  and  I  do  not  want  to  attack  him ;  and 
I  value  him  all  the  more  because  he  is  so  strong  and 
splendid  in  representing  emotions  other  than  sexual  love, 
with  which  other  poet  novelists  weary  one.  Childhood, 
maternity,  paternity ;  he  is  the  poet  of  these. 

Enough.  When  do  you  come  back  to  England  ?  and 
where  shall  you  be  during  July  ?  I  am  on  my  way  to 
Davos  to  see  Symonds.  From  thence  I  go  to  Pontresina, 
afterwards  to  vague  travel  in  the  Alps.  Have  you  been 
doing  any  more  Spiritualism?  I  have  not  quite  given  it 
up,  but  my  investigation  of  it  is  a  very  dreary  and  dis- 
appointing chapter  in  my  life. 

Symonds's  Many  Moods.  I  should  like  to  talk  to  you 
about  them.  Some  of  the  newer  things  gave  me  unexpected 
delight — some  of  the  sonnets  of  death ;  and  especially  some 
Dream-pieces. 

The  visit  to  Davos  here  spoken  of  was  the  first  of 
a  series  of  delightful  visits  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  A. 
Symonds,  who,  on  account  of  the  health  of  the  former, 
almost  made  their  home  there  from  1877.  Sidgwick 
and  his  wife  visited  them  about  every  alternate 
summer,  generally  combining  the  visit  with  some 
touring  in  other  parts  of  Switzerland.  On  this  par- 
ticular occasion  Mrs.  Sidgwick's  sister,  Miss  Balfour, 
was  with  them,  and  the  tour  ranged  through  a  wide 
extent  of  Alpine  scenery — Engadine,  Italian  Lakes, 
Macugnaga,  Monte  Moro,  Saas,  the  Rhone  Glacier, 
the  Grimsel,  and  the  Bernese  Oberland. 

To  Miss  Cannan  from  Boulogne  on  June  24 

I  never  meant  to  leave  your  letter  of  problems  altogether 
unanswered.  And  yet  it  is  absurd  for  me  to  pretend  to 
give  any  answer  to  your  questions.  I  have  not  answered 
them  for  myself,  as  I  well  know,  and  it  would  be  hypocritical 
to  pretend  to  answer  them  for  any  one  else.  But  as  you 
have  read  my  book,  I  can  perhaps  give  you  some  idea  of 


1878,  AGE  40  HENEY  SIDGWICK  337 

what  was  in  my  mind,  when  I  wrote  it,  as  regards  the  whole 
vast  problem  with  which  Ethics  deals. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  there  are  two  fundamental 
ethical  questions,  "  What  is  right,"  and  "  Why  is  it  right  "  ; 
and  though  the  distinction  is  open  to  attack,  I  think  it 
expresses  in  an  imperfect  fashion  the  fundamental  difference 
between  the  aspects  in  which  two  different  classes  of  minds 
habitually  view  the  great  problem  of  life.  There  are  some 
minds  to  whom  the  great  difficulty  is  to  know  how  to  act;  how 
in  this  mixed  world  (however  it  has  come  to  be  so  mixed) 
the  ideal  of  Duty  (of  whose  ideal  reality  they  feel  no  general 
doubt)  is  to  be  concretely  realised  here  and  now — there 
are  so  many  competing  methods  and  so  much  to  be  said  on 
both  sides  of  so  many  questions.  It  is  for  this  class  of 
minds  that  my  book  is  primarily  designed;  not  that  I 
pretend  to  give  them  immediate  practical  guidance  in  any 
special  difficulties  they  may  have,  but  I  try  to  contribute 
towards  an  ultimate  reconciliation  and  binding  together  of 
all  the  different  lines  of  moral  reasoning  that  have  gone  on 
mingling  and  contending  with  each  other  since  men  first 
began  to  reflect  on  their  wellbeing  and  their  duty. 

Well,  it  is  for  these  that  I  have  tried  to  write,  in  this 
way.  But  I  know  very  well  that  there  is  another  class  of 
minds,  with  which  I  have  also  strong  sympathy,  who  have 
never  really  felt  troubled  about  practical  questions.  They 
have  always  seemed  to  be  fully  guided  by  the  simple  rules  of 
the  common  conscience,  supplemented  (wherever  these  are 
ambiguous)  by  a  clear  and  decisive  moral  instinct.  What 
they  long  to  know  is  not  so  much  what  Duty  is,  but  how 
Duty  comes  to  be  there  in  conflict  with  inclination ;  why 
the  individual  is  so  often  sacrificed  to  the  general ;  why 
both  in  the  single  life  and  in  the  race  good  is  so  imperfectly 
triumphant  over  evil,  etc.,  etc.  To  a  speculative  mind 
these  questions  are,  no  doubt,  more  profoundly  interesting 
than  the  others.  Sometimes  they  become  absorbingly  so  to 
me,  but  I  rather  turn  aside  from  much  contemplation  of 
them,  because  I  not  only  cannot  answer  them  to  my  satis- 
faction, but  do  not  even  know  where  to  look  for  the  answer 

z 


338  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

that  I  want.  I  am  sincerely  glad  that  so  many  of  my 
fellow-creatures  are  satisfied  with  the  answers  that  they  get 
from  positive  religions ;  and  the  others — philosophers — find 
a  substitute  for  the  satisfaction  of  an  answer  found,  in  the 
high  and  severe  delight  of  seeking  it.  I  cannot  quite  do 
either ;  and  therefore  I  hold  my  tongue  as  much  as  I  can ! 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Surrey  (where  he  was  staying  with 
the  Trevelyans),  on  September  2 

One  of  the  things  I  wanted  to  talk  to  you  about  was  the 
impression  produced  by  your  lyrics.1  I  have  never  been 
more  moved  by  verse  than  I  was  by  some  of  them,  and  I 
have  been  thinking  of  the  question  of  publishing  them,  which 
you  say  Symonds  advised.  What  I  really  feel  that  I  should 
wish  [is]  that  they  might  be  published  for  a  part  of  the  world 
— sympathetic  souls  or  those  who  have  similarly  suffered — 
and  not  for  the  rest.2  Tennyson  says  in  In  Memoriam  that 
words  "  half  conceal  and  half  disclose  the  grief  within,"  but 
in  your  poems  the  unveiling  seems  to  me  more  the  sole 
result.  This  is  the  difference  of  the  way  of  your  writing. 
Tennyson's  reflected  and  elaborate  work  does  seem  to  weave 
a  kind  of  garment  to  hide  the  bare  fact  of  sorrow.  But  for 
those  who  have  suffered,  your  lyrics  would  bring  great  gain 
— that  is,  if  the  merely  painful  ones  were  clearly  but  the 
first  notes  of  the  strain,  leading  up  to  faith  and  consolation 
at  the  close. 

As  for  the  great  question  of  Immortality,  there  was  one 
line  of  thought  I  wanted  to  suggest,  in  which,  from  time  to 
time,  I  find  a  kind  of  repose — which,  curiously  enough,  I 
find  is  that  in  which  Browning's  poem  on  the  subject  ("  La 
Saisiaz  ")  concludes.  It  is  that  on  moral  grounds,  hope  rather 
[than]  certainty  is  fit  for  us  in  this  earthly  existence.  For  if 
we  had  certainty  there  would  be  no  room  for  the  sublimest 

1  A  Little  Child's  Monument,  published  in  1881,  and  which  Sidgwick  had 
been  reading  in  MS. 

2  In  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Noel  in  1881,  after  the  publication  of  the 
poems,  Sidgwick  says  : — "I  have  no  doubt  now  that  you  were  quite  right 
to  publish,  even  at  the  risk  of  seeming  too  unreserved  to  some  fastidious 
persons  ;   I   have  no   doubt  the  book  will  be  precious  to  many  bereaved 
parents." 


187s,  AGE  40  HENEY  SIDGWICK  339 

effort  of  our  mental  life — self-sacrifice  and  the  moral  choice 
of  Good  as  Good,  though  not  perhaps  good  for  us  here  and 
now.  From  this  point  of  view  I  feel  that  on  the  one  hand 
I  could  not  endure  an  unjust  universe,  in  which  Good 
Absolute  was  not  also  good  for  each ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
that  the  certain  knowledge  that  Justice  ruled  the  universe 
would  preclude  the  unselfish  choice  of  Good  as  Good. 
What  weakens  and  obscures  this  argument  is  that  from 
time  to  time  I  feel  so  very  doubtful  about  "  Good  Absolute," 
what  it  is  and  how  it  is  to  be  attained. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  what  you  say  of  your  mother's 
health.  I  am  looking  very  anxiously  for  the  effect  of  the 
fall  of  the  year  on  my  mother.  She  has  continued  without 
any  change  through  the  summer,  but  we  fear  the  cold  and 
wet.  I  hope  the  air  of  Beatenberg  has  done  Mrs.  Noel 
good.  I  got  two  splendid  views  from  Beatenberg,  one  in 
the  evening — sunset  light  behind  cloud  on  the  noble  pyramid 
of  the  Eiger,  its  top  just  buried  in  a  dark  sky  that  it  seemed 
to  uphold,  fragments  of  heavy  white  cloud  in  the  valleys 
between.  Next  morning  not  a  cloud  to  be  seen :  the  three 
great  mountains  rising  white  against  the  blue  sky. 

P.S. — Why  should  I  be  a  Dizzy ite  ?  From  a  cosmopolitan 
point  of  view  I  do  not  much  object  to  the  Anglo-Turkish 
Convention.1  But  I  think  England  is  in  great  danger  both 
from  her  new  responsibilities  and  from  her  new  temper.2 

To  H.  G.  Ddkyns  from  Cambridge  on  November  1 1 

My  mother  has  had  a  turn  for  the  worse,  and  we  feel  it 
to  be  now  very  doubtful  whether  her  strength  will  rally  again. 
If  it  should  not,  though  she  will  sink  gradually  and  I  hope 
painlessly,  I  suppose  she  will  hardly  see  another  spring.  I 
am  going  to  Oxford  on  the  23rd,  and  perhaps  shall  know 
more  then.  Meanwhile  I  hope  you  both  will  think  of 
coming  here  when  term  ends,  unless  things  should  have 

1  By  which  England  engaged  to  protect  Turkey  from  any  further  Russian 
aggression  in  Asia  Minor,  and  in  return  was  to  occupy  and  administer 
Cyprus. 

a  Responsibilities  incurred  by  the  Convention  and  by  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin  and  the  temper  nicknamea  "Jingo." 


340  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

their  most  critical  aspect  just  then.  I  should  like  to  tell 
you  all  about  my  ideas  and  sentiments ;  and  I  will — as  soon 
as  ever  I  cease  the  vain  pursuit  of  yesterday's  neglected 
duties  which  is  now  continually  absorbing  me. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Terling  Place  on  January  11,  1879 

My  mother's  life  can  hardly  be  prolonged  more  than  a 
few  months  now.  She  cannot  speak,  and  only  just  recognises 
us.  Happily  she  seems  to  have  no  pain.  All  the  way  in 
which  this  affects  me  cannot  be  written  about. 

The  end  came  quicker  than  he  expected.  He  was 
summoned  to  Oxford  by  telegram  on  January  15, 
and  on  January  17  he  writes  to  H.  G.  Dakyns 
again  : — 

My  mother  died  this  morning  at  7,  peacefully  and  with- 
out any  consciousness.  I  am  living  in  a  world  of  memory, 
where  you  have  no  small  share,  and  you  will  meet  me  there 
in  spirit  and  grieve  for  us. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Cambridge  on  January  25 

I  have  been  wishing  to  write  to  you  since  we  came  back 
here  on  Wednesday ;  but  I  find  it  difficult  to  write,  not 
from  painfulness  of  feeling — for  this  actual  end,  now  that 
all  is  over,  seems  really  a  release — but  from  perplexity  and 
mingledness.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  reached  the  summit  of 
the  Pass  of  Life ;  behind  the  old  memories  from  infancy, 
unrolled  like  a  map,  and  before  the  strange  world  of  "  the 
majority,"  near  though  in  a  mist,  at  which  I  am  forced  to 
gaze.  And  more  than  ever  the  alternatives  of  the  Great 
Either-Or  seem  to  be  Pessimism  or  Faith. 

After  this  there  are  for  many  months  but  few  letters. 
Sidgwick  was  as  usual  occupied  with  his  teaching  and 
with  University  Reform  and  Organisation.  He  was 
writing  on  Ethics  and  Philosophy  in  Mind,  and  he 
was  working  at  Political  Economy,  both  lecturing 
and  writing  on  it.  Three  articles  on  economic  sub- 


1879,  AGE  4i  HEXEY  SIDGWICK  341 

jects,  the  substance  of  which  was  afterwards  incorpor- 
ated in  his  book  on  Political  Economy,  appeared  in 
the  Fortnightly  Review  in  1879.  In  March  of  this 
year  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Athenaeum 
Club  by  the  Committee,  which  naturally  gratified 
him  a  good  deal.  He  constantly  used  the  club  when 
in  London  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In  June 
and  July  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  stayed  at  Clifton  with 
the  Dakynses,  and  afterwards  at  St.  Ives  in  Cornwall, 
whence  they  went  to  the  Bensons  at  Truro.  Later 
they  stayed  in  Scotland.  "  I  am  pegging  away 
obstinately  at  Political  Economy,"  he  writes  to  H. 
G.  Dakyns  on  September  6  from  Cambridge.  And  in 
November,  respecting  a  Christmas  vacation  together 
at  Rome  which  had  been  proposed,  he  says  : — 

Alas !  prospect  of  Home  has  vanished,  from  combined 
pressure  of  Philosophy  [and]  Charity  Organisation,  and 
reflection  that  E[ome]  would  hardly  be  good  for  sleepless- 
ness, which  is  threatening,  though  not  yet  very  serious.  .  .  . 
I  have  put  aside  Political  Economy,  and  am  pegging  away 
at  first  sketch  of  Elements  of  Philosophy.1 

To  his  Sister  from  Terling  Place,  November  29 

"Why  I  have  not  written  to  you  before  is  one  of  those 
things  of  -which,  as  philosophers  say,  no  explanation  can  be 
given  in  the  existing  condition  of  our  knowledge.  But  now, 
having  got  away  from  Cambridge  for  a  day  or  two,  I  find 
that  that  mysterious  veil  of  "  something  else  to  do,"  which 
generally  stands  between  me  and  my  correspondence,  is 
palpably  removed.  So  here  is  for  our  news.  The  chief  at 
present  is  that  we  are  not  going  to  Eome,  as  we  had  hoped 
and  planned.  Eeasons  are  partly  that  my  work  does  not 
allow  of  it,  and  partly  that  I  have  been  drawn  more  and 
more  into  some  local  quasi-philanthropic  work  at  Cambridge 
which  requires  my  presence  at  Christmas-time.  ...  It  is  the 
business  of  reconstructing  the  old  "  Mendicity  "  Society  on 

1  He  \vas  preparing  to  lecture  on  Metaphysics  in  the  following  terms. 


342  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

the  principles  of  the  London  Charity  Organisation  Society. 
Though  we  have  not  yet  much  to  do,  the  work  is  very 
interesting,  not  less  that  the  positive  part  of  it  is  very  per- 
plexing. The  negative  part,  the  elimination  of  impostors, 
is  in  the  main  very  easy ;  the  professional  mendicants  either 
do  not  come  to  our  office  to  be  inquired  into  or  their  case 
soon  breaks  down  for  the  most  part.  But  the  positive  work, 
the  helping  of  people  who  ought  to  be  helped,  presents  great 
difficulties ;  for  the  people  we  have  to  deal  with  are  so  often 
just  trembling  morally  on  the  verge  of  helpless  pauperism, 
and  it  is  very  hard  to  say  in  any  case  whether  the  help  we 
give  will  cheer  and  stimulate  a  man  to  help  himself,  or 
whether  it  will  not  just  push  him  gently  into  the  passive 
condition  of  letting  society  take  him  in  hand  and  do  what 
it  will  with  him. 

Well,  this  is  [a]  subject  for  an  essay.  As  for  other  news, 
we  are  just  now  anxious  about  Eayleigh's  coming  to  Cam- 
bridge. Perhaps  you  saw  that  a  memorial  signed  by  all  the 
mathematical  professors  had  been  sent  to  urge  him  to  come 
and  succeed  Maxwell  as  Professor  of  Experimental  Physics. 
He  has  not  yet  decided.  It  is  rather  a  wrench  to  give  up 
leisure  and  the  comforts  of  a  country-house  unless  one  is 
quite  sure  that  one's  duty  to  society  requires  it.1 

Sidgwick  had  been  an  active  member  of  the  old 
Mendicity  Society  since  1871,  and  took  a  leading  part 
in  1879  in  the  reconstruction  referred  to  in  this  letter, 
so  much  so  that  after  his  death  the  Committee  of 
the  Cambridge  Charity  Organisation  Society  put  on 
record  that  the  formation  of  the  Society  was  mainly 
due  to  his  initiative.  He  was  the  chairman  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  reconstructed  Society  in 
1880,  1881,  and  1882,  and  again  from  1886  to  1890, 
and  after  the  pressure  of  other  work  had  in  the  latter 
year  led  to  his  withdrawing  from  the  executive  com- 
mittee, his  interest  in  the  Society  continued,  and  later 

1  The  decision  was  made  in  the  affirmative.  Lord  Rayleigh  held  the 
Professorship  from  January  1880  to  June  1884,  residing  at  Cambridge  in 
term  time. 


1880,  AGE  42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  343 

he  constantly  presided  at  its  annual  meetings.  One 
who  had  worked  with  him  speaks  of  him  as  having 
"  been  an  ideal  chairman,  a  generous  benefactor,  and 
the  wisest  of  counsellors." 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Dover,  June  8,  1880,  8  A.M.  {starting 
for  Murreri) 

Pardon  me  for  not  having  answered  before.  I  was 
overwhelmed  with  the  end  of  the  term's  work.  Very  many 
thanks  for  "  Tommy  Big  Eyes." l  I  think  it  is  certainly 
one  of  the  best — the  characters  all  good  and  well-contrasted, 
and  the  incidents  very  well  brought  home.  The  only  point 
at  which  I  took  umbrage  was  the  sudden  collapse  of  Cain  at 
the  end,  which  did  not  seem  quite  in  character.  Tell  Brown 
that  I  am  grateful,  and  hope  he  will  go  on.  .  .  .  We  are  off 
to  the  Alps.  Very  sorry  just  to  miss  J.  A.  S. 

To  Miss  Cannanfrom  (frindelwald  on  June  13 

Your  thoughtful  consideration  for  my  time  induced  me 
to  defer  answering  your  letter  till  all  my  cares  were  over,  as 
they  accumulated  rather  thick  at  the  end  of  the  term.  My 
wife  and  I  are  now  taking  a  holiday  for  two  or  three  weeks, 
in  about  the  only  place  in  which  I  find  it  possible  to  take  a 
complete  holiday,  i.e.  close  under  snow  mountains,  a  situation 
which  has  also  the  advantage  of  keeping  off  hay  fever,  to 
which  we  are  both  liable.  .  .  . 

We  return  to  Cambridge  early  in  July,  where  we  have  to 
prepare  for  a  temporary  change  of  life.  The  new  house  at 
Newnham  will  be  opened  in  October ;  and  as  it  will  be  a 
matter  of  some  difficulty  and  delicacy  to  arrange  for  the 
joint  administration  of  the  two  houses  in  the  best  possible 
way,  it  has  been  thought  expedient  to  make  my  wife  "  Vice- 
Principal  "  of  Newnham  College,  to  take  charge  of  the  new 
house.  This  is,  of  course,  an  ad  interim  measure,  to  enable 
us  to  ascertain  by  experience  the  best  way  of  dividing  the 
functions  between  the  administrators  of  the  two  houses ;  we 

1  One  of  T.  E.  Brown's  Fo'c's'le  Yarns,  now  published  in  the  volume  of 
his  collected  Poems. 


344  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

think  that  a  tenure  of  about  two  years  will  give  us  experi- 
ence enough.  So  we  are  temporarily  giving  up  Hillside  for 
the  two  years,  or  at  least  for  one  year  certain,  with  a 
prospect  of  continuing  the  new  arrangement  for  the  second 
year.  The  actual  change  is  a  nuisance,  and  I  am  rather 
afraid  that  my  wife  may  dislike  the  work  more  than  she 
expects ;  but  at  any  rate  the  experience  will  be  worth 
gaining,  and  it  seems,  on  the  whole,  an  advantage  not  to 
appoint  a  second  Principal  or  Vice-Principal  until  we  have 
got  the  experience. 

Meanwhile  I  sent  you  the  volume  of  Grote's,  which  I 
hope  will  interest  you.  I  am  glad  that  you  found  "  food  for 
the  mind"  in  my  article  [in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica], 
though  rather,  I  fear,  in  the  preserved-meat  condition,  what 
the  Spectator  calls  "  pemmican."  The  greater  part  of  it 
is  meant  rather  as  a  book  of  reference  than  to  be  exactly 
read,  or  perhaps  I  should  confess  that  it  is  specially  adapted 
for  students  preparing  for  Examination !  They  will  get 
crammed  in  some  way,  and  I  endeavoured  to  produce  a 
somewhat  less  indigestible  extract  of  history  than  others 
which  I  have  seen.  The  account  of  Christian  Morality  was 
the  most  interesting  part  of  the  work  to  myself;  I  was 
surprised  at  being  unable  to  find  anything  of  the  kind  in 
any  book  that  came  in  my  way,  I  suppose  because  everybody 
is  assumed  to  be  familiar  with  it. 

I  was,  on  the  whole,  disappointed  in  Spencer's  Data  of 
Ethics,  though,  of  course,  it  contains  much  that  is  acute  and 
suggestive ;  but  considered  as  the  mature  fruit  of  so  dis- 
tinguished a  philosopher's  thought,  it  seemed  to  me  certainly 
crude  and  superficial.  I  have  stated  some  of  my  objections 
to  it  in  the  last  number  of  Mind. 

We  (at  Cambridge)  are  much  interested  in  the  election 
of  Bain's  successor  at  Aberdeen.  I  hope  a  good  man  will 
be  appointed ;  there  are  so  few  posts  providing  a  livelihood 
for  impecunious  philosophers  that  I  should  be  sorry  if  it 
were  given  to  a  mere  teacher,  even  if  a  competent  teacher. 
The  ex-professor  appeared  at  Cambridge  a  week  or  two  ago ; 
did  not  at  all  look  as  if  he  were  past  his  work,  but,  on  the 


1880,  AGE  42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  345 

contrary,  extremely  lively.      I  hope  we  shall  profit  by  his 
leisure. 

The  number  of  women  coming  up  to  Cambridge  to 
study  had  been  increasing  during  these  years,  and  in 
1880  there  were  eighty-five.  Supplementary  houses 
had  been  taken  for  them  by  the  Association,  and  a 
considerable  number  were  accommodated  in  lodgings ; 
but  these  temporary  arrangements  were  not  found 
very  satisfactory,  and  after  some  hesitation  as  to  the 
prudence  of  committing  further  to  bricks  and  mortar 
what  was  still  regarded  as  an  experimental  institution 
(for  it  had  as  yet  received  no  formal  recognition  from 
the  University),  it  was  decided  (in  1879)  to  build 
another  Hall  of  residence  for  students  close  to  the 
first.  It  was  also  resolved  to  amalgamate  the  Associa- 
tion for  promoting  the  Higher  Education  of  Women 
in  Cambridge  and  the  Newnham  Hall  Company  into 
one  Association.  This  was  accomplished  in  1880, 
and  the  name  Newnham  College  was  given  both  to 
the  Association  and  to  the  buildings.  The  new  Hall, 
called  at  first  North  Hall,  now  Sidgwick  Hall,  (which 
like  the  first,  was  built  on  land  held  on  lease  from 
St.  John's  College),  contained  lecture-rooms  to  take 
the  place  of  those  hitherto  hired  by  the  Association 
in  the  town,  and  the  money  needed  for  building  was 
provided  partly  by  a  fund  accumulated  by  the  Lecture 
Association  out  of  subscriptions  and  donations,  partly 
by  special  donations  for  the  purpose,  and  the  remainder 
by  borrowing.  The  building  was  completed  only  just 
in  time  for  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  to  take  up  their 
abode  there  before  the  students  came  up  in  October. 

The  following  letter  was  written  on  August  8, 
1880,  to  an  old  schoolfellow,  Major,  now  Major- 
General  Carey,  whom  he  had  not  seen  since  his 
Rugby  days. 

The  signature  at  the  foot  of  your  letter  recalled  the  old 
days  at  Rugby  very  vividly ;  and  if  I  have  delayed  answer- 


346  HEXEY  SIDGWICK  CHAF.  v 

ing  your  letter,  it  has  not  been  from  any  want  of  interest, 
but  rather  because  I  have  felt  painfully  how  little  I  had  to 
say  that  could  give  you  any  satisfaction.  This  is  not 
because  I  am  myself  discontented  with  life,  or  inclined  to 
complain  of  the  mysterious  universe  in  which  I  am  placed ; 
my  creed,  such  as  it  is,  is  sufficient  to  enable  me  to  live 
happily  from  day  to  day,  hoping  for  more  light  from  some 
quarter  or  other.  But  experience  has  convinced  me  that 
what  contents  me  would  not  content  others ;  and  therefore 
for  the  last  ten  years — since  in  1870  I  gave  up,  to  avoid 
hypocrisy,  my  Fellowship  at  Trinity — I  have  "  kept  silence 
even  from  good  words,"  and  never  voluntarily  disclosed  my 
views  on  religion  to  any  one.  But  I  have  never  thought  it 
right  to  conceal  them  from  any  one  who  seriously  wished  to 
have  them,  and  had  any  claim  to  be  answered ;  and  I  feel 
that  such  a  letter  as  yours  can  only  be  met  with  perfect 
frankness ;  therefore  this  long  preface  is  only  that  you  may 
not  blame  me  for  the  dissatisfaction  that  you  will  feel  when 
you  lay  my  letter  down. 

Frankly,  then,  I  must  first  draw  a  distinction,  in  order 
to  explain  my  position  between  Theism  and  Christianity. 
It  is  now  a  long  time  since  I  could  even  imagine  myself 
believing  in  Christianity  after  the  orthodox  fashion ;  not 
that  I  have  any  abstract  objection  to  miracles,  but  because 
I  cannot  see  any  rational  ground  for  treating  the  marvellous 
stories  of  the  Gospels  differently  from  the  many  other 
marvellous  narratives  which  we  meet  with  in  history  and 
biography,  ancient  and  modern.  While,  if  I  were  to  believe 
all  these  marvellous  narratives,  I  should  have  to  suppose  a 
continual  communication  between  an  "  unseen  universe  "  and 
our  planet ;  and  this  would  prevent  the  Gospel  story  from 
having  anything  like  the  unique  character  that  it  has  for 
Christians.  I  do  not  make  this  latter  supposition  merely 
for  the  sake  of  argument ;  I  am  not  inclined  to  oppose  to  this 
series  of  marvellous  narratives  (outside  the  Gospels)  the  sort 
of  unhesitating  [disjbelief  that  most  of  my  orthodox  friends 
do.  In  fact,  I  have  spent  a  good  deal  of  my  leisure  for 
some  years  in  investigating  ghost  stories,  spiritualistic  pheno- 


1880,  AGE  42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  347 

mena,  etc.,  etc.,  and  I  have  not  yet  abandoned  the  hope  of 
finding  some  residuum  of  truth  in  them,  though  as  yet  the 
most  definite  result  that  I  have  reached  is  a  considerable 
enlargement  of  my  conceptions  of  the  possibilities  of  human 
credulity  and  misrepresentation.  Meanwhile  the  dilemma 
is  clear  and  certain  to  me.  Either  one  must  believe  in 
ghosts,  modern  miracles,  etc.,  or  there  can  be  no  ground  for 
giving  credence  to  the  Gospel  story :  and  as  I  have  not  yet 
decided  to  do  the  former,  I  am  provisionally  incredulous  as 
to  the  latter — and  in  fact  for  many  years  I  have  not 
thought  of  Christianity  except  as  the  creed  of  my  friends 
and  fellow-countrymen,  etc. 

But  as  regards  Theism  the  case  is  different.  Though 
here  my  answer  will  doubtless  surprise  you.  For  if  I  am 
asked  whether  I  believe  in  a  God,  I  should  really  have  to 
say  that  I  do  not  know — that  is,  I  do  not  know  whether  I 
believe  or  merely  hope  that  there  is  a  moral  order  in  this 
universe  that  we  know,  a  supreme  principle  of  Wisdom  and 
Benevolence,  guiding  all  things  to  good  ends,  and  to  the 
happiness  of  the  good.  I  certainly  hope  that  this  is  so, 
but  I  do  not  think  it  capable  of  being  proved.  All  I  can 
say  is  that  no  opposed  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the 
cosmos — for  instance,  the  atomistic  explanation — seems  to 
me  even  plausible,  and  that  I  cannot  accept  life  on  any 
other  terms,  or  construct  a  rational  system  of  my  own 
conduct  except  on  the  basis  of  this  faith. 

You  will  say,  perhaps,  "  the  question  is  not  whether  we 
should  like,  or  find  it  convenient  to  believe  in  a  God,  but 
whether  such  belief  is  true"  To  this  I  answer,  "  What 
criterion  have  you  of  the  truth  of  any  of  the  fundamental 
beliefs  of  science,  except  that  they  are  consistent,  harmonious 
with  other  beliefs  that  we  find  ourselves  naturally  impelled 
to  hold."  And  this  is  precisely  the  relation  that  I  find  to 
exist  between  Theism  and  the  whole  system  of  my  moral 
beliefs.  Duty  is  to  me  as  real  a  thing  as  the  physical  world, 
though  it  is  not  apprehended  in  the  same  way ;  but  all  my 
apparent  knowledge  of  duty  falls  into  chaos  if  my  belief  in  the 
moral  government  of  the  world  is  conceived  to  be  withdrawn. 


348  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

Well,  I  cannot  resign  myself  to  disbelief  in  duty ;  in 
fact,  if  I  did,  I  should  feel  that  the  last  barrier  between  me 
and  complete  philosophical  scepticism,  or  disbelief  in  truth 
altogether,  was  broken  down.  Therefore  I  sometimes  say 
to  myself  "  I  believe  in  God";  while  sometimes  again  I  can 
say  no  more  than  "  I  hope  this  belief  is  true,  and  I  must 
and  will  act  as  if  it  was." 

This  is  a  candid  answer  to  your  question,  so  far  as  I 
can  give  one. 

To  G.  0.  Trevelyan  from  Cambridge,  December  2 

I  have  been  intending  to  write  to  you  about  your  book 
[The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox]  when  this  news 
of  your  appointment  *  comes  !  I  am  delighted ;  it  seems 
exactly  the  thing  that  ought  to  have  been  offered  you 
before.  I  hope  you  feel  in  the  mood  for  office. 

Though  this  does  not  quite  harmonise  with  my  view 
about  your  book:  which  I  can  sum  up  briefly  by  saying 
that  as  Literature  it  is  a  joy  for  ever,  but  as  a  memorial  to 
C.  J.  F.  it  is — as  our  lively  neighbours  have  it — "not 
serious."  It  is  evident  to  me  that  you  will  have  to  write 
the  rest  of  it ;  but  how,  if  you  are  going  to  be  a  Minister  ? 
If  Dalrymple  will  get  up  a  fund,  the  next  time  there  is  a 
Conservative  reaction,  for  turning  you  out  of  the  Border 
Burghs,  I  think  I  shall — urge  my  Tory  friends  to  subscribe 
to  it.  Certainly  no  book  since  your  Macaulay  has  given 
me  in  anything  like  the  same  degree  the  simple  pleasure  of 
reading  what  is  well  written. 

To  F.  W.  Cornish  from  Glasgow  (where  he  was  staying  with 
Professor  and  Mrs.  Jebb),  January  7,  1881 

We  are  coming  to  London  on  Monday  next,  arriving 
late.  On  Tuesday  evening  we  are  thinking  of  going  to  the 
Cup 2  .  .  .  (unless  the  crowd  is  too  great).  If  you  and  your 
wife  were  disengaged  that  evening  and  would  come  too  it 

1  As  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty. 

2  Tennyson's  play,  first  produced  on  January  3,  1881,  at  the  Lyceum 
Theatre. 


1881,  AGE  42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  349 

would  be  pleasant.  If  so,  please  join  us  at  dinner  at  the 
Grosvenor  at  6.30.  .  .  .  I  shall  probably  stay  [in  London] 
till  Saturday.  My  days  will  be  spent  in  reading  German 
books  on  Taxation  at  the  British  Museum,  but  we  will 
meet  somehow.  .  .  .  Jebb  seems  pretty  flourishing,  but 
slightly  disappointed  at  his  class  being  less  than  550. 

To  H.  Cr.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  February  16 

Can  you  come  up  on  Thursday,  24th,  at  2.30  P.M.  to  vote 
for  opening  the  University  Examinations  to  Women  ?  It 
is  rather  a  cool  suggestion  to  an  inhabitant  of  Clifton :  but 
we  want  every  vote  we  can,  as  it  is  the  crisis  of  our  move- 
ment, and  failure  would  be  a  terrible  blow.  Could  you  get 
any  one  else  to  come  ?  .  .  .  Excuse  this  scrawl  in  the  midst 
of  worry.  I  am  printing  off  my  Political  Economy  amidst 
many  distractions. 

This  crisis  of  the  movement  for  women's  education 
at  Cambridge  had  been  looming  for  nearly  a  year, 
and  had  meant  hard  work  and  anxiety  for  Sidgwick. 
A  Girton  student — Miss  C.  A.  Scott,  now  Professor 
of  Mathematics  at  Bryn  Mawr  College,  U.S.A. — had 
been  equal  to  the  8th  Wrangler  in  1880,  but  her  ex- 
amination, like  that  of  all  women  students  up  to  this 
time,  had  been  informal.  The  University  took  no 
cognisance  of  the  women  students  at  all,  and  it  was 
solely  through  the  courtesy  of  the  examiners  that 
they  were  examined  at  the  same  time  and  in  the 
same  papers  as  the  men.  Zealous  friends  of  the 
cause  outside  Cambridge  made  Miss  Scott's  success 
the  occasion  for  getting  up  a  memorial  to  the  Uni- 
versity, praying  that  women  might  have  the  right  of 
admission  to  the  degree  examinations  and  to  degrees. 
This  action  was  viewed  with  considerable  alarm  by 
the  friends  of  women's  education  inside  the  University 
and  by  the  authorities  both  of  Newnham  and  of 
Girton.  The  stake  involved  was  great,  for  if  the 
University  altogether  rejected  the  petition,  it  could 


350  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

not  be  hoped  that  the  informal  examination  of  the 
women  would  continue ;  the  experiment  would  come 
to  an  end,  and  prudent  people  thought  it  would  be 
wiser  to   continue   the  experimental   stage   till  they 
could  feel  more  sure  that  the  University  was  con- 
vinced of  the  reasonableness  of  the  movement.     How- 
ever, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Steadman  Aldis,1  the  prime  movers 
in  getting  up  the  petition,  took   a   different  view ; 
they  worked  with  great  energy,  and  at  the  end  of 
April  1880  sent  it  in  with  more  than  8500  signatures. 
As  the  question  was  thus  raised  the  committee 
of  the  Association  for  promoting  the  Higher  Educa- 
tion   of  Women   and    the    executive    committee   of 
Girton  sent  in  statements  setting  forth  what  they 
had  respectively  accomplished  and  what  they  aimed 
at,2   and   in   the    middle    of   May    a   memorial    was 
sent  in  from   123  resident  members  of  the   Senate 
asking,  like   the   memorial   from   the   committee   of 
the   Association,    that   the    connection   between    the 
University  examinations  and  the  academic  instruc- 
tion  provided   for  women  in   Cambridge   might    be 
put    on    a    more    formal    and    stable    footing.       A 
Syndicate,   of  which   Sidgwick   was  a  member,   was 
appointed  in  June  to  consider  these  four  memorials. 
In   their   report    issued   in   December   they   recom- 
mended the  formal  admission  of  female  students  to 
the  Honours  Examinations  of  the  University,  and  the 
authoritative  record  of  the  results  of  their  examina- 
tion  in   published   class   lists,    adding   that  women 
admitted  to  these  examinations  should  be  required 
to  have  fulfilled  the  same  conditions  of  residence  as 
are  imposed  on  members  of  the  University,  and  that 
they  should  either  have  given  the  same  evidence  of 
preliminary  training   by  passing  the   Previous    Ex- 
amination, or  the  various  substitutes  accepted  for  it, 

1  Mr.  Aldis  was  the  Senior  Wrangler  of  1861  debarred  from  a  Fellowship 
by  being  a  Dissenter,  see  p.  63. 

2  This  was  almost  the  last  act  of  this  Association  as  a  separate  organisa- 
tion. 


1831,  AGE  42  HENEY  SIDGWICK  351 

or  else  should  have  obtained  an  honour  certificate  in 
the  Higher  Local  examination,  with  the  condition  of 
passing  in  the  language  group  and  the  mathematical 
group.1  The  recommendations  did  not  of  course  go 
so  far  as  many  desired,  but  all  agreed  that  if  they 
were  accepted  much  would  be  gained,  and  that  more 
could  hardly  be  hoped  for  at  that  time. 

It  was  on  these  recommendations — which  if  passed 
would  place  the  education  of  women  at  Cambridge 
on  a  comparatively  firm  basis — that  the  Senate  was 
called  to  vote  on  February  24,  1881.  An  active 
canvass  was  carried  on  on  both  sides,  and  up  to  the 
moment  of  voting  the  friends  of  Newnham  and 
Girton  were  extremely  anxious  about  the  result. 
The  resident  members  of  the  University  on  the  other 
side,  however,  came  to  the  conclusion  before  the 
voting  that  opposition  was  useless,  and  they  tried  to 
stop  their  friends  from  coming  up,  and  largely  ab- 
stained from  voting  themselves,  with  the  result  that 
the  recommendations  of  the  Syndicate  were  carried 
by  331  votes  to  32. 

To  his  Sister  from  Cambridge,  March  26 

You  must  write  and  congratulate  me  on  the  distinctions 
which  the  Learned  World  is  conferring  on  me — actually 
two  distinctions  ! — on  a  person  so  many  years  entirely  un- 
distinguished. The  University  of  Glasgow  is  going  to  make 
me  an  LL.D.  about  April  29.  And  my  own  College  has 
just  decided  to  make  me  an  Honorary  Fellow.  j|^"  H.  F.  must 
by  Statute  be  distinguished  for  "  Literary  merit."  There  ! 

We  are  well,  and  the  North  Hall2  is  apparently  pros- 
perous :  and  Nora  is  rather  overworked  but  cheerful :  and 
1  am  putting  through  the  press  a  book  on  the  Theory  of 
Political  Economy.  This  is  about  all  our  news — that  is, 
besides  the  triumph  of  the  24th  of  February,  of  which  the 

1  This  alternative   exempted  women  from  the  necessity  of  passing  in 
Latin  or  Greek,  which  Sidgwick  regarded  as  a  great  advantage. 

2  The  part  of  Newnham  College  of  which  Mrs.  Sidgwick  took  charge. 


352  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

Newspapers  informed  you.  I  shall  never  forget  the  astonish- 
ment with  which  I  realised  that  the  Senate  House  was  full 
of  about  400  M.A.'s,  and  that,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  they 
were  all  going  to  vote  on  the  right  side.  Ultimately,  with 
great  trouble,  I  discovered  the  Enemy  seated  in  a  depressed 
manner  on  a  couple  of  benches  in  one  corner,  about  thirty 
in  number.  However,  I  do  not  feel  elated  by  the  triumph ; 
I  have  so  strong  a  natural  aversion  to  responsibility  that  I 
dread  any  increase  of  it.  And  I  am  not  inclined  to  under- 
rate the  difficulties  and  perils  of  the  future.  Still,  I  hope 
we  shall  rub  through  them  and  do  at  any  rate  more  good 
than  harm :  as  I  trust  has  been  the  case  in  these  ten  years. 
The  above  has  been  our  great  excitement ;  but  life  is 
full  enough  in  various  small  ways.  .  .  .  Love  to  all. 
Brown's  poems — Fo'c's'le  Yarns — are  out.  Buy  'em — or 
persuade  friends  to. 

To  H.  G.  Dakynsfrom  Newnham,  April  15 

I  have  been  long  ashamed  of  not  answering  your  letter 
and  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  Brunonian  book.  I 
have  been  delighting  in  the  poems ;  mildly  regretting  a 
sacrifice  or  two  to  decorum.  I  wish  I  could  review  it,  but 
the  pen  of  a  ready  reviewer  is  almost  a  disused  implement 
with  me  now,  and  my  struggle  with  my  Economic  Work  too 
pressing.  .  .  . 

Tell  Brown — but  probably  you  are  already  departed  and 
on  your  way  to  Greece,  peace  being  in  the  ascendant.  I 
should  have  written  to  you  before  about  coming  here,  but 
my  wife  is  in  trouble  about  the  death  of  one  of  her  brothers 
— quite  suddenly  [in  Australia].1  So  we  have  had  to  give 
up  our  hopes  of  seeing  friends  this  vacation.  Tell  me  of 
your  plans.  I  suppose  Greece  means  to  do  the  prudent 
thing,  and  will  bet  on  there  not  being  a  revolution :  I 
think  the  nation  is  tactful  and  will  be  restrained  by  an 
instinct  that  public  sentiment  is  not  favourable  to  revolu- 
tions just  now.  However,  I  may  be  wrong. 

1  Cecil  Charles  Balfour,  born  1849. 


1881,  AGE  42  HENRY  SIDGWICK  353 

To  F.  W.  Cornish  on  May  18 

I  was  very  glad  to  get  your  congratulations,  though  I 
have  been  tardy  in  acknowledging  them.  Nothing  of  the 
kind  ever  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  this  Honorary  Fellow- 
ship— in  fact,  when  I  read  the  Master's  letter  announcing 
it  I  was  reminded  of  the  time  when  the  University  Marshal 
came  into  my  rooms  with  the  news  of  the  Craven  ! l  It  is 
all  the  more  pleasant  to  me  because  of  the  probable  impend- 
ing change  in  my  situation,  and  the  causes  which  have  led 
to  it.  The  situation  is  this.  Birks,  the  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy,  has  been  lying  for  nearly  a  year  hopelessly 
paralysed  and  almost  unconscious.  He  cannot  recover,  but 
may  live  years  or  months.  As  he  could  not  appoint  a 
deputy,  it  fell  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  to  fill  the  chair 
temporarily :  who  passed  over  me  and  appointed  my  old 
pupil  Cunningham.  It  was  a  very  marked  slight  to  my 
work ;  but  I  only  mention  it  as  a  reason  for  inferring  that 
when  the  vacancy  in  the  chair  occurs  I  shall  very  probably 
be  passed  over  similarly.  Meanwhile,  ...  for  some 
months  I  had  looked  forward  to  the  Deputy-professorship 
as  an  excuse  for  handing  over  a  part  of  my  salary  to 
the  College  with  which  they  might  establish  a  second 
lectureship  in  Moral  Sciences.  .  .  .  But  this  hope  having 
vanished,  I  had  to  try  to  get  the  thing  done  without  it, 
and  found  that  the  only  satisfactory  way  of  achieving 
this  was  to  announce  the  resignation  of  mv  Prselector- 

•/ 

ship  a  year  hence.  I  easily  resolved  on  this ;  but  having 
resolved,  I  felt  a  kind  of  mild  self-pity  at  the  prospect 
of  the  nullity  to  which  I  was  so  soon  to  be  reduced 
— and  just  in  this  state  of  mind  came  the  Honorary 
Fellowship,  and  I  felt  that,  whatever  might  happen, 
sixteen  Fellows  of  the  College  had  committed  themselves 
to  the  daring  position  that  I  was  a  distinguished  person. 
So  now,  whether  I  am  to  be  Professor  or  not,  I  am  prepared 
for  either  fortune. 

I   should    like  to  come  and  see  you,   but  if  you  can 

1  See  p.  17. 

2  A 


354  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

equally  well  have  me,  I  should  like  to  come  about  the 
end  of  September.  We  are  going  for  holiday  to  the  Alps 
from  the  middle  of  June  to  the  middle  of  July :  and  then 
my  wife  will  be  fixed  in  Cambridge,  taking  care  of  Newn- 
hamites,  and  I  think  I  ought  also  to  be  fixed,  pegging  away 
at  my  book  on  Political  Economy,  which  is  to  come  out  in 
October.  But  some  time  in  September  I  must  have  another 
holiday.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  glad  you  like  Myers's  Wordsworth.1  It  has 
more  of  his  best  thought  and  feeling  than  anything  else  he 
has  written ;  not  mere  literary  skill — though  I  think  there 
is  plenty  of  that. 

To  his  Sister  on  June  10 

I  was  thinking  rather  sadly  of  my  birthday  when  your 
letter  came  and  cheered  me.  I  should  have  written  to  you 
long  since  about  what  we  talked  of  in  London  ;  but  the  more 
I  thought  about  it  the  more  I  felt  that  I  had  said  all,  or 
nearly  all,  that  I  wanted  to  say  to  you.  You  see,  I  do  not 
want  to  bring  you  to  my  position.  I  am  not  sorry  exactly 
to  be  in  the  position  myself :  it  has  grave  defects  and  dis- 
advantages, but  I  feel  in  a  way  suited  for  it ;  I  regard  it 
as  an  inevitable  point  in  the  process  of  thought,  and  take  it 
as  a  soldier  takes  a  post  of  difficulty.  But  I  cannot  take 
the  responsibility  of  drawing  any  one  else  to  it — though 
neither  can  I  take  the  responsibility  of  placing  obstacles  in 
their  way.  Still,  I  have  some  results  of  thought  on 
theological  and  ethical  questions  which,  it  seems  to  me,  may 
be  profitable  to  others  who  are  led  on  other  ways  in  the 
wanderings  of  Spirits ;  and  in  our  talk  I  gave  you  what  I 
could  of  these — and  if  you  ever  feel  inclined  to  ask  me  any 
more  questions,  I  will  give  you  in  the  same  way,  if  I  may, 
what  seems  to  me  at  once  true  and  profitable. 

Yes,  we  are  off  on  Tuesday  to  Davos.  .  .  . 

The  Swiss  tour  included,  besides  the  visit  to 
Davos,  a  journey  up  the  Voider  Rheinthal  and  to 
Andermatt,  a  day  or  two  with  the  Dakynses  on  the 

1  In  Morley's  "English  Men  of  Letters "  series. 


1881,  AGE  43  HENKY  SIDGWICK  355 

Righi,  and  some  time  at  Chamounix  with  Frank  and 
Gerald  Balfour,  who  were  mountaineering. 

To  Eoden  Noel  on  June  28 

I  got  your  card  this  morning  just  as  I  was  leaving  Hotel 
Buol,  Davos- Platz,  where  we  have  been  spending  ten  days 
with  the  Symondses.  .  .  .  J.  A.  S.'s  two  volumes,  conclud- 
ing the  Eenaissance,  are  on  the  point  of  coming  out,  and 
ought,  I  think,  to  make  an  impression. 

I  read  some  of  your  poems  again  at  Davos  with  increased 
pleasure.  "  Azrael,"  I  think,  impressed  me  most ;  there  is 
a  strange  forcible  movement  of  melody  in  it  which,  so  to 
say,  overcomes  the  painfulness  of  the  subject,  and  sweeps  it 
away  on  a  tide  of  poetry.  "  De  Profundis  "  is  deeply  inter- 
esting, but  it  puts  me  in  too  argumentative  a  mood  for 
aesthetic  enjoyment. 

Ill  May  of  this  year  Mr.  J.  R.  Mozley  had  written 
him  a  letter  in  which  the  question  of  the  limits  of 
belief  (or  disbelief)  allowable  in  a  lay  member  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  propounded  :  and  he  had 
accompanied  it  with  some  theological  MS.  for 
criticism.  Sidgwick  wrote  two  letters  in  answer, 
partly  on  the  practical  and  partly  on  the  theoretical 
questions  referred  to,  from  which  extracts  may  be 
given.  The  first  letter  is  dated  May  16  : — 

.  .  .  The  strictest  view  of  lay -membership  of  the 
Church  of  England  does  not  seem  to  me  to  involve  more 
than  acceptance  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  .  .  .  [But]  the 
belief  in  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus  seems  to  me  so 
definite  and  important  a  part  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  that  I 
am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  no  one  who  rejects  it  can  hold 
any  position  of  profit  or  trust,  of  which  membership  of  the 
Church  of  England  is  a  condition,  without  a  grave  breach 
of  the  ordinary  rule  of  good  faith.  That  such  a  breach  is 
under  all  circumstances  wrong,  a  utilitarian  like  myself  will 
shrink  from  affirming;  but  that  it  would  require  strong 
special  grounds  to  justify  it  I  feel  no  doubt.  And  I  cannot 


356  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

say  that  even  -  — 's  letter  would  alter  my  view  on  this 
point,  since  I  do  not  see  that  a  bishop  has  any  power  of 
dispensing  from  the  moral  obligation  to  believe  the  Apostles' 
Creed  in  its  "  plain  grammatical  sense."  But  the  question 
whether  a  man  may  not  go  to  Church  and  receive  the 
Sacrament  according  to  the  rite  of  the  Church  of  England 
without  believing  all  the  Apostles'  Creed  seems  to  me 
different  again ;  and  on  this  question  the  decision  of  a 
judicious  bishop  seems  to  me  entitled  to  great  weight.  In 
fact,  I  have  two  views  of  the  matter,  which  I  am  inclined 
to  combine,  though  I  am  not  quite  sure  how  far  I  can  com- 
bine them  consistently.  So  far  as  I  regard  the  Church  of 
England  as  a  political  institution  established  by  the  nation, 
membership  of  which  carries  with  it  certain  advantages,  I 
feel  it  a  moral  duty  to  interpret  strictly  the  legally  imposed 
conditions  of  membership.  (And  from  this  point  of  view  I 
can  recognise  nothing  like  a  dispensing  power  in  bishops  or 
any  other  persons.)  But  so  far  as  I  regard  it  as  an  associa- 
tion of  religious  persons  who  unite  for  common  worship,  I 
am  inclined  to  apply  a  less  strict  criterion,  and  to  admit  as 
legitimate  any  relaxation  of  the  express  formula  of  common 
belief,  which  I  have  fair  ground  for  regarding  as  approved 
by  the  general  sentiment  of  the  earnest  part  of  the  existing 
association. 

...  I  should  be  very  glad  to  think  with  you  that  the 
experience  of  Christians  that  prayers  for  spiritual  help  are 
answered  is  a  valid  ground  for  believing  in  the  objective 
existence  of  a  universally  present  sympathising  and  answer- 
ing Spirit.  ...  I  doubt  the  validity  of  this  "  experience " 
because  of  the  general  resemblance  and  affinity  that  it 
seems  to  me  to  have  to  a  mass  of  beliefs  —  which  as 
mutually  inconsistent  must  be  largely  erroneous — which 
mankind  in  different  ages  and  countries  have  held  with 
regard  to  the  spiritual  world,  and  of  which  a  great 
part  similarly  rest  on  supposed  immediate  experiences 
of  enthusiastic,  "  inspired  "  persons.  When  an  anchorite 
prays  and  is  comforted  by  a  vision  of  the  Virgin  or  a 
Saint,  we  are  agreed,  are  we  not,  that  the  effect  is  purely 


1881,  AGE  43  HENKY  SLDGWICK  357 

subjective  ?  When  he  prays  and  afterwards  feels  a  gain 
in  moral  strength,  in  life-giving  hope,  tranquillised  selfish 
desires,  he  seems  to  me  enviable ;  but  am  I  therefore  to  say 
that  his  experience  is  surer  evidence  of  objective  reality 
in  this  case  than  in  the  former  ?  I  hardly  think  so.  ... 

On  July  30  in  returning  the  MS.  he  adds  the 
following  : — 

When  I  try  to  follow  the  line  of  thought  here  I  find  it 
necessary  to  distinguish  clearly  several  questions : — 1.  How 
far  has  Christianity  been  indispensable  or  beneficial  to  the 
progress  of  mankind  up  to  the  point  now  reached  ?  2.  How 
far  does  it  seem  beneficial  or  indispensable  at  the  present 
stage,  or  likely  to  be  so  in  future  ?  3.  Is  it  true  ? 

I  am  not  myself  disposed  to  connect  1  or  2  closely  with  3. 
.  .  .  No  doubt,  if  I  could  foresee  the  future  of  mankind  suffi- 
ciently to  declare  Christianity  for  all  time  indispensable,  or 
even  beneficial,  to  the  human  race,  I  should  have  a  difficulty 
in  supposing  it  not  true.  But  I  have  no  such  foresight.  .  .  . 
In  fact,  the  reason  why  I  keep  strict  silence  now  for  many 
years  with  regard  to  theology  is  that  while  I  cannot  myself 
discover  adequate  rational  basis  for  the  Christian  hope  of 
happy  immortality,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  general  loss  of 
such  a  hope,  from  the  minds  of  average  human  beings  as 
now  constituted,  would  be  an  evil  of  which  I  cannot  pretend 
to  measure  the  extent.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  the 
dissolution  of  the  existing  social  order  would  follow,  but  I 
think  the  danger  of  such  dissolution  would  be  seriously 
increased,  and  that  the  evil  would  certainly  be  very  great. 
But  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  this  will  be  equally  true 
some  centuries  hence ;  in  fact,  I  see  strong  ground  for 
believing  that  it  will  not  be  equally  true,  since  the  tendency 
of  development  has  certainly  been  to  make  human  beings 
more  sympathetic ;  and  the  more  sympathetic  they  become, 
the  more  likely  it  seems  to  me  that  the  results  of  their 
actions  on  other  human  beings  (including  remote  posterity) 
will  supply  adequate  motives  to  goodness  of  conduct,  and 
render  the  expectation  of  personal  immortality,  and  of  God's 


358  HENEY  SLDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

moral  order  more  realised,  less  important  from  this  point  of 
view.  At  the  same  time  a  considerable  improvement  in 
average  human  beings  in  this  respect  of  sympathy  is  likely 
to  increase  the  mundane  happiness  for  men  generally,  and  to 
render  the  hope  of  future  happiness  less  needed  to  sustain 
them  in  the  trials  of  lite. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  from  Newnham  College  on  September  4 

.  .  .  We  are  now  alone  again,  and  I  am  labouring  slowly 
at  my  Political  Economy.  But  the  great  event  that  has 
occurred  to  me  is  that  my  interest  in  Spiritualism  has 
been  revived !  But  of  this  in  our  next. 

This  renewed  interest  in  "  Spiritualism "  was 
mainly  due  to  experiments  by  Professor  W.  F. 
Barrett  of  Dublin,  which  seemed  to  show  that 
"  thought  transference  " — the  influence  of  one  mind 
upon  another,  apart  from  any  recognised  mode  of 
perception — was  a  reality.  The  interest  of  Sidgwick 
and  others  in  this  was  part  of  the  impulse  that, 
through  the  zeal  and  energy  of  Professor  Barrett, 
led  to  the  foundation  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Kesearch.  At  a  conference  convened  by  the  latter, 
and  held  on  January  6,  1882,  the  Society  was 
planned,  and  it  was  definitely  constituted  in  February 
of  that  year,  with  Sidgwick  as  its  first  President, 
and  with  the  declared  object  of  "  making  an 
organised  and  systematic  attempt  to  investigate  that 
large  group  of  debatable  phenomena  designated  by 
such  terms  as  mesmeric,  psychical,  and  spiritualistic." 
An  examination  of  thought  transference  as  above 
defined  was  specified  as  one  of  the  first  things  to  be 
undertaken,  partly  because  this  subject  was  exciting 
popular  attention  at  the  time  owing  to  the  '  willing 
game '  which  was  much  in  rogue,  and  of  which  the 
explanation  was  popularly  assumed  to  be  thought 
transference.  But  the  attention  of  the  investigators 
was  not  limited  to  this,  and  during  the  winter  and 


1881,  AGE  43  HENEY  SIDGWICK  359 

spring  of  1881-2  Sidgwick  was  again  joining  in  the 
investigation  of  mediums  for  the  physical  phenomena 
of  spiritualism. 

To  his  Sister  from  Newnham  on  December  8 

...  I  have  some  more  news  that  may  interest  you. 

1.  Miss  Moherly  has  just  come  out  practically  first  in 
the    Moral   Sciences   Tripos,   though    her    name    does    not 
appear  publicly,  as  she  has  only  been  examined  informally.1 
But  I  am  very  glad,  as  she  is  really  able  and  thoughtful  in 
a  high  degree  and  deserves  this  success,  though  I  hardly 
expected  it.     The  joke  is  that  she  and  another  Newnham 
student   [Miss   Finlay]  are   the   only  candidates  whose  work 
has  come  up  to  first-class  standard ! 

2.  We  have  paid  off  all  the  debt  on  Newnham;  it  is 
now  a  business  paying  its  way,  owning  a   capital  of  two 
houses,  which,  when  they  are  full,  yield  a  fair  endowment 
fund  for  exhibitions,  future  buildings,  etc.      In  fact,  for  the 
first  time  for  ten  years  I  feel  that  the  institution  can  really 
stand   alone,  altogether   independent  of  my  fostering  care. 
(Kir~  not  that  this  ought  to  be  noised  abroad  on  the  house- 

\  W-"  <-> 

tops,  as  we  can  still  do  with  donations,  etc. — but  we  could, 
if  necessary,  exist  without  them.) 

3.  I  am  chaffed  in  Hall  because  my  nephew  is  said  to 
have  brought    forward,   in   the   King's   [College]    Debating 
Society,    a    motion    to    the    following    effect : — "  That    the 
Higher  Education  of  Women  is  Undesirable."     There  is  a 
charming  breadth  of  statement  here !     He  tells  me  that  it 
was  carried  by  11  to  10. 

We  are  going  to  Scotland  in  a  week  or  so  for  most  of 
the  holidays. 

To  F.  W.  Cornish  from  WJiittingehame  on  December  20 

Pardon  my  delay  in  answering  your  letter — it  arrived 
when  I  was  winding  up  the  arrears  of  the  term ;  but  I 
ought  to  have  written  at  once  to  say  that  we  could  not 

1  She   had   not    fulfilled   all  the   conditions   required   under   the   new 
regulations  for  formal  admission  to  the  examination. 


360  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

come  to  you,  as  we  were  due  to  spend  Christmas  here.  .  .  . 
I  am  just  now  rather  under  pressure  of  work,  being  anxious 
to  finish  a  book  on  Political  Economy  before  the  end  of  the 
vacation,  if  possible.  It  is  a  book  which  has  unfortunately 
ceased  to  interest  me  as  much  as  some  other  things,  and 
therefore  I  find  it  requires  favourable  external  circumstances 
to  make  me  get  on  with  it.  ...  It  is  perhaps  characteristic 
of  middle  age  to  be  careful  in  "  gathering  up  the  fragments  " 
of  all  things  pleasant,  and  I  regard  myself  now  as  a  very 
middle-aged  man  for  my  age. 

To  G.  0.  Trevelyan  from  Newriham  on  April  28,  1882 

I  shall  be  delighted  to  book  you  for  a  walk  on  Saturday, 
May  20.1  If  you  come  down  by  the  midday  train,  you 
might  come  here  to  lunch  and  contemplate  our  establish- 
ment, which  has  at  any  rate  the  advantage  of  being  unique, 
or  nearly  so.  It  seems  a  long  while  since  we  have  had  a 
good  talk.  I  console  myself  by  reading  your  speeches.  I 
hope  to  be  in  London  a  good  part  of  July,  enjoying  life, 
and  shall  hope  to  see  something  of  you — always  supposing 
that  it  is  possible  to  see  a  Minister  during  the  last  month 
of  the  session ! 

Have  you  read  Jebb's  Bentley  in  Morley's  series  ?  The 
Phalaris  part  seems  to  me  decidedly  well  done — and  it  was 
difficult  to  do  after  Macaulay ;  other  parts,  too,  are  good, 
though  on  the  whole  it  rather  makes  clear  to  one  that 
Bentley  does  not  belong  to  English  Literature. 

To  his  Sister  from  4  Carlton  Gardens  on  July  1 

I  shall  be  in  London  off  and  on  during  July.  Nora  will 
be  at  Cambridge  superintending  Long  Vacation  at  Newnham, 
as  we  do  not  leave  till  October — that  is,  Miss  Gladstone  [who 
was  to  succeed  Mrs.  Sidgwick]  does  not  become  responsible 
till  then.  .  .  . 

My  book  still  hangs,  but  I  hope  will  certainly  be  out  in 

1  Mr.  Trevelyan  was  appointed  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland  early  in  May  (in  succession  to  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish),  so  that 
this  walk  did  not  come  off.  It  was  no  doubt  intended  to  be  combined  with 
an  "  Ad  Eundem  "  dinner  on  May  20. 


1882,  AGE  44  HENEY  SIDGWICK  361 

October.  I  am  consoled  to  find  in  reading  the  biographies 
of  eminent  men  that  their  books  frequently  come  out  later 
than  was  intended.  Our  plans  are  rather  more  settled ;  I 
do  not  give  up  my  Praelectorship  till  Christmas,  so  that  we 
shall  be  in  Cambridge  next  term,  though  not  at  our  house. 
Then  we  hope  to  spend  a  spring  in  Italy,  and  come  back 
to  our  house  in  April  for  the  May  term — if  everything 
is  favourable. 

To  H.  G.  Dahyns,  Jidy  12 

Alas  for  the  envious  years !  I  am  just  writing 
Eeminiscences  of  T.  H.  Green l  (as  raw  material  for  the 
biography) — painful  scraps  of  nearly  vanished  memories. 

To  the  Same  from  4  Carlton  Gardens,  London,  July  14 

I  am  glad  to  hear  of  your  arrival,2  though  I  shall  not 
see  you  till  next  week.  I  have  a  meeting  in  London  on 
Monday  ("  Society  for  Psychical  Eesearch " !),  and  shall 
come  down  in  the  evening  or  on  Tuesday.  I  want  you  to 
come  to  lunch  or  dinner  at  Newnham  to  meet,  if  possible, 
the  Goodwins,  a  pleasant  American  classical  scholar,  who  is 
going  to  archseologise  in  Athens  for  a  year:  staying  with 
Jebb.  I  have  written  to  my  wife  to  arrange  this  if 
possible,  and  she  will  write  to  you  or  your  wife.  Much 
when  we  meet. 

The  meeting  here  spoken  of  was  the  first  general 
meeting  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  quote  some  extracts  from 
Sidgwick's  introductory  address  as  President,  as  they 
explain  his  attitude  to  the  subject.  He  said  : — 

The  first  question  I  have  heard  is,  Why  form  a  Society 
for  Psychical  Eesearch  at  all  at  this  time,  including  in  its 
scope  not  merely  the  phenomena  of  thought-reading  (to 
which  your  attention  will  be  directed  chiefly  this  after- 
noon), but  also  those  of  clairvoyance  and  mesmerism,  and 
the  mass  of  obscure  phenomena  commonly  known  as 

1  Died  March  26,  1882. 

2  Near  Cambridge,  where  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dakyns  had  taken  a  house  for 
the  summer. 


362  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

Spiritualistic  ?  Well,  in  answering  this,  the  first  question, 
I  shall  be  able  to  say  something  on  which  I  hope  we  shall 
all  agree ;  meaning  by  "  we  "  not  merely  we  who  are  in  this 
room,  but  we  and  the  scientific  world  outside ;  and  as, 
unfortunately,  I  have  but  few  observations  to  make  on  which 
so  much  agreement  can  be  hoped  for,  it  may  be  as  well  to 
bring  this  into  prominence,  namely,  that  we  are  all  agreed 
that  the  present  state  of  things  is  a  scandal  to  the  en- 
lightened age  in  which  we  live.  That  the  dispute  as  to  the 
reality  of  these  marvellous  phenomena — of  which  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  exaggerate  the  scientific  importance,  if  only  a 
tenth  part  of  what  has  been  alleged  by  generally  credible 
witnesses  could  be  shown  to  be  true, — I  say  it  is  a  scandal 
that  the  dispute  as  to  the  reality  of  these  phenomena  should 
still  be  going  on,  that  so  many  competent  witnesses  should 
have  declared  their  belief  in  them,  that  so  many  others 
should  be  profoundly  interested  in  having  the  question 
determined,  and  yet  that  the  educated  world,  as  a  body, 
should  still  be  simply  in  the  attitude  of  incredulity. 

Now  the  primary  aim  of  our  Society,  the  thing  which  we 
all  unite  to  promote,  whether  as  believers  or  non-believers, 
is  to  make  a  sustained  and  systematic  attempt  to  remove 
this  scandal  in  one  way  or  another.  Some  of  those  whom  I 
address  feel,  no  doubt,  that  this  attempt  can  only  lead  to 
the  proof  of  most  of  the  alleged  phenomena ;  some,  again, 
think  it  probable  that  most,  if  not  all,  will  be  disproved ; 
but,  regarded  as  a  Society,  we  are  quite  unpledged,  and  as 
individuals  we  are  all  agreed  that  any  particular  investiga- 
tion that  we  may  make  should  be  carried  on  with  a  single- 
minded  desire  to  ascertain  the  facts,  and  without  any 
foregone  conclusion  as  to  their  nature. 

But  then  here  comes  the  second  question,  which  I  have 
heard  put  by  many  who  are  by  no  means  unfriendly  to 
our  efforts, — that  is,  Why  should  this  attempt  succeed  more 
than  so  many  others  that  have  been  made  during  the  last 
thirty  years  ?  To  this  question  there  are  several  answers. 
The  first  is,  that  the  work  has  to  go  on.  The  matter  is  far 
too  important  to  be  left  where  it  now  is,  and  indeed,  con- 


1882,  AGE  44  HENRY  SIDGWICK  363 

sidering  the  importance  of  the  questions  still  in  dispute, 
which  we  hope  to  try  to  solve,  as  compared  with  other 
scientific  problems  on  which  years  of  patient  and  unbroken 
investigation  have  been  employed,  we  may  say  that  no 
proportionate  amount  of  labour  has  yet  been  devoted  to  our 
problems ;  so  that  even  if  we  were  to  grant  that  previous 
efforts  had  completely  failed,  that  would  still  be  no  adequate 
reason  for  not  renewing  them.  But  again,  I  should  say 
that  previous  efforts  have  not  failed  ;  it  is  only  true  that 
they  have  not  completely  succeeded.  Important  evidence 
has  been  accumulated,  important  experience  has  been 
gained,  and  important  effects  have  been  produced  upon  the 
public  mind.  .  .  . 

Thirty  years  ago  it  was  thought  that  want  of  scientific 
culture  was  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  vulgar  belief  in 
mesmerism  and  table  -  turning.  Then,  as  one  man  of 
scientific  repute  after  another  came  forward  with  the 
results  of  individual  investigation,  there  was  a  quite  ludicrous 
ingenuity  exercised  in  finding  reasons  for  discrediting  his 
scientific  culture.  He  was  said  to  be  an  amateur,  not  a 
professional ;  or  a  specialist  without  adequate  generality  of 
view  and  training ;  or  a  mere  discoverer  not  acquainted 
with  the  strict  methods  of  experimental  research  ;  or  he  was 
not  a  Fellow  of  the  Eoyal  Society,  or  if  he  was  it  was  by 
an  unfortunate  accident.  Or  again,  national  distrust  came 
in  ;  it  was  chiefly  in  America  that  these  things  went  on  ;  or, 
as  I  was  told  myself  in  Germany  some  years  ago,  it  was 
only  in  England,  or  America,  or  France,  or  Italy,  or  Russia, 
or  some  half-educated  country,  but  not  in  the  land  of  Geist. 
Well,  these  things  are  changed  now,  and  though  I  do  not 
think  this  kind  of  argument  has  quite  gone  out  of  use  yet 
it  has  on  the  whole  been  found  more  difficult  to  work ;  and 
our  obstinately  incredulous  friends,  I  think,  are  now  generally 
content  to  regard  the  interest  that  men  of  undisputed 
scientific  culture  take  in  these  phenomena  as  an  unexplained 
mystery,  like  the  phenomena  themselves. 

Then  again,  to  turn  to  a  different  class  of  objectors,  I 
think,  though  I  do  not  wish  to  overrate  the  change,  that  the 


364  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

attitude  of  the  clergy  has  sensibly  altered.  A  generation 
ago  the  investigator  of  the  phenomena  of  Spiritualism  was 
in  danger  of  being  assailed  by  a  formidable  alliance  of 
scientific  orthodoxy  and  religious  orthodoxy ;  but  I  think 
that  this  alliance  is  now  harder  to  bring  about.  Several  of 
the  more  enlightened  clergy  and  laity  who  attend  to  the 
state  of  religious  evidences  have  come  to  feel  that  the 
general  principles  on  which  incredulous  science  explains 
off-hand  the  evidence  for  these  modern  marvels  are  at  least 
equally  cogent  against  the  records  of  ancient  miracles,  that 
the  two  bodies  of  evidence  must  prima  facie  stand  or  fall 
together,  or  at  least  must  be  dealt  with  by  the  same 
methods.  .  .  . 

For  these  various  reasons  I  think  we  may  say  that  on 
the  whole  matters  are  now  more  favourable  for  an  impartial 
reception  of  the  results  of  our  investigation,  so  far  as  we  can 
succeed  in  obtaining  any  positive  results,  than  they  were 
twenty  years  ago.  In  saying  this  I  do  not  in  the  least 
wish  to  ignore  or  make  light  of  the  evidence  that  has  been 
accumulated  in  recent  years  to  show  that  at  least  a  great 
part  of  the  extraordinary  phenomena  referred  to  spiritual 
agency  by  Spiritualists  in  England  and  America  are  really 
due  to  trickery  and  fraud  of  some  kind.  I  had  this  in  view 
when  I  said  just  now  that  important  experience  had  been 
gained  by  preceding  investigations.  .  .  . 

My  interest  in  this  subject  dates  back  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  and  I  quite  remember  that  when  I  began  to  look  into 
the  matter,  nearly  every  educated  Spiritualist  that  I  came 
across,  however  firmly  convinced,  warned  me  against  fraud, 
and  emphasised  his  warning  by  impressive  anecdotes.  It  is 
merely  a  question  of  degree,  and  I  think  it  would  be 
generally  admitted  that  recent  experiences  have  changed 
the  view  of  many  Spiritualists  with  regard  to  the  degree.  I 
think  that  even  educated  and  scientific  Spiritualists  were 
not  quite  prepared  for  the  amount  of  fraud  which  has 
recently  come  to  light,  nor  for  the  obstinacy  with  which 
the  mediums  against  whom  fraud  has  been  proved  have 
been  afterwards  defended,  and  have  in  fact  been  able  to  go 


1882,  AGE  44  HENRY  SIDGWICK  365 

on  with  what  I  may,  without  offence,  call  their  trade,  after 
exposure  no  less  than  before. 

It  was  a  few  days  after  this  that  a  great  and 
sudden  blow  fell  in  the  death  of  Sidgwick's  brother- 
in-law,  Francis  Maitland  Balfour,  through  an  accident 
in  the  Alps.  Frank  Balfour,  who  had  not  completed 
his  thirty-first  year,  had  already  made  a  considerable 
name  for  himself  by  his  scientific  work,  and  had  been 
appointed  to  a  Professorship  of  Animal  Morphology, 
specially  created  for  him  at  Cambridge,  but  a  few 
weeks  before  ;  he  was  a  man  of  marked  and  growing 
influence  in  the  University,  and  he  was  beloved  to  an 
unusual  degree  by  his  family  and  friends.  He  and 
his  guide  were  killed  on  the  slopes  of  Mont  Blanc, 
near  Courmayeur,  on,  it  is  believed,  July  19,  and 
the  news  reached  England  on  Sunday,  the  23rd. 
The  body,  when  recovered,  was  brought  home  for 
burial  at  Whittingehame. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  July  25 

Thank  you  for  writing.  It  is  a  dreadful  blow  to  us  and 
an  irreparable  loss  to  Cambridge — at  least  it  now  seems  so. 
Otherwise  many  older  men  might  envy  such  a  life. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Whittingehame,  August  5 

We  have  just  laid  the  coffin  in  the  earth :  it  is  on  high 
ground  within  a  cluster  of  trees :  the  spot  where  my  wife 
took  me  six  years  ago  to  show  me  her  mother's  grave : — a 
sacred  seal  of  full  admission  to  the  heart  of  this  unique 
family  life,  which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  share  for 
these  six  years,  and  which  now  can  never  again  be  what  it 
has  been — not  until  old  things  have  passed  away  and  all 
things  have  become  new ;  if  Time  or  Eternity  has  indeed 
such  consummation  in  store  for  us. 

As  to  this,  I  have  no  faith  like  yours.  But  I  am  glad 
that  at  least  the  funeral  service  is  not  so  alien  to  me  as  it 
was;  the  materialistic  ceremonial  to-day  seemed  to  me 


366  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

symbolic,  interpreted  by  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  who 
to-day  seemed  to  me  to  have  known  more  than  the  churches 
understood — or  perhaps  he  was  inspired  by  one  who  knew 
more. 

The  Michaelmas  term  of  this  year  was  spent  with 
the  Rayleighs  in  their  house  at  Cambridge.  Sidgwick 
was  lecturing  on  Elementary  Moral  Philosophy,  and 
on  the  Conditions  of  social  order  and  wellbeiug 
with  special  reference  to  the  doctrines  of  Bentham 
and  Mill ;  this  last  course  being  given  as  deputy  for 
the  Knightbridge  Professor — a  post  which  he  held 
during  the  academic  year  1882-3.  He  was  also  still 
at  work  on  his  Political  Economy,  and  though  the 
long -planned  Italian  tour  was  put  off  for  some  ten 
days  on  account  of  the  book,  it  was  still  unfinished 
when  he  and  his  wife  finally  started  on  December 
23,  and  the  last  chapters  went  with  him  in  slip.  The 
tour  occupied  nearly  four  months  ;  the  Lent  term  of 
1883  was  the  only  term  Sidgwick  spent  away  from 
Cambridge  from  the  time  he  came  up  as  an  under- 
graduate in  1855  till  his  death  in  1900.  On  the  way 
south  they  visited  Avignon  and  Aries,  spent  some 
days  at  Cannes,  and  went  thence  to  Mentone,  where 
they  met  M.  Scherer  and  his  wife  and  with  them 
other  French  philosophers.  Here  they  were  joined  by 
Mr.  James  Bryce,  who  went  on  with  them  to  Alassio, 
Spezia,  Siena,  Orvieto,  and  Rome,  and  was  a  most 
delightful  travelling  companion.  He  remained  with 
them  till  the  end  of  January.  Unfortunately  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  tour  Sidgwick  was  not  well, 
and  during  part  of  it  was  really  ill.  He  had  probably 
been  overworking,  and  his  unfinished  book  was  a 
great  burden  to  him  at  Rome. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Rome  about  January  28,  1883 
I   was    just   thinking   of    writing   to   you    when   yours 
arrived;  should  have  written  before,  but  have  been  rather 
unwell    ever    since    I    have    been    here  —  dyspeptic    and 


1883,  AGE  44  HENKY  SIDGWICK  367 

hypochrondriacal — and  consequently  rather  reluctant  to 
communicate  impressions  of  the  Eternal  City  blackened  by 
this  unhappy  mood.  On  the  whole  I  think  I  may  say  that 
the  ancient  remains  and  the  works  of  Art  have  impressed 
me  as  much  as  I  expected,  in  different  ways ;  but  all  that  is 
connected  with  the  form  of  Christianity  centralised  here  is 
antipathetic  to  me — partly,  no  doubt,  because  one  almost 
never  finds  the  Ages  of  Faith  purely  conveyed ;  the  expres- 
sion of  them  is  almost  always  '  restored  '  and  plastered  over 
by  the  later  ages  of  make  believe.  However,  of  these  things 
hereafter,  when  I  have  got  a  better  humour  and  maturer 
judgment.  .  .  . 

I  have  been  trying  to  find  out  something  about 
Spiritualistic  movement  here,  and  may  perhaps  do  some- 
thing in  the  way  of  spreading  your  circular  [about  Psychical 
Research],  .  .  . 

In  February,  after  a  few  days  at  Naples,  where,  in 
spite  of  illness,  Sidgwick  was  very  much  impressed  by 
Pompeii,  they  returned  through  Rome  to  Pisa,  and  then 
went  to  stay  with  Gerald  Balfour  at  his  villa  outside 
Florence.  Here  Sidgwick  was  for  some  days  really 
seriously  ill. 

To  F.  Myers,  March  12 

I  am  still  in  rather  an  unsatisfactory  state  as  regards 
health,  but  hope  things  will  come  right  soon.  We  expect  my 
brother  Arthur  and  his  wife  to  arrive  here  this  evening,  and 
I  suppose  we  shall  go  away,  either  with  them  or  by  our- 
selves, about  the  end  of  the  week,  and  get  to  Livorno  a  day 
or  two  after,  but  it  depends  partly  on  their  plans.  .  .  . 

Will  you  propose  Gerald  Balfour  on  my  behalf  as  a 
member  of  the  S.P.R  and  second  him  ?  He  is  the  only 
'  Hegelian '  (to  use  the  term  very  generally)  whom  I  have 
yet  found  in  sympathy  with  us,  perhaps  because  he  dis- 
tinguishes clearly  between  the  universal  with  which 
philosophy  is  concerned,  and  the  individual  minds  whose 
destiny  philosophy  does  not  seem  likely  to  determine.  .  .  . 
He  seems  to  enjoy  his  external  life,  which  has  certainly 


368  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

many  attractions,  though  I  do  not  think  that  I  should  like 
to  live  at  Florence  myself.  .  .  . 

My  book  will,  I  suppose,  come  out  at  Easter.  I  am  daily 
expecting  the  final  proof  of  the  table  of  contents.  .  .  . 

The  visit  to  Leghorn — for  seances,  under  the 
auspices  of  Signor  Coen — took  place  in  March,  but 
did  not  yield  results  of  value  for  psychical  research. 
Sidgwick  was  also  occupied  at  Leghorn  in  writing 
on  Kant  for  Mind.  After  this  he  and  his  wife 
joined  the  Arthur  Sidgwicks  at  Pisa,  and  the  four 
together  visited  Lucca,  Bologna,  Ravenna,  Modeua, 
Parma,  Milan,  Lugano,  ending  with  the  St.  Gothard 
Railway,  and  Brunnen  on  the  Lake  of  Lucerne. 
Notwithstanding  the  illness  already  mentioned 
Sidgwick  got  much  enjoyment  out  of  the  whole  tour, 
and  impressions  which  gave  him  lasting  pleasure. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  in  the  summer  of  1883  (after  a  visit 
to  Davos) 

I  have  decided  to  stand  for  the  Professorship  [vacant 
by  the  death  in  July  of  the  Rev.  T.  R.  Birks] ;  I  do  not 
quite  see  who  else  is  to  have  it,  and  I  find  that  the 
Psychical  Researchers  think  it  better  for  the  cause — at  least 
this  is  Myers's  view.  Also  it  is  not  yet  clear  that  Psychical 
Research  can  occupy  a  great  deal  of  one's  time ;  it  depends 
on  our  finding  'subjects.'  Still  I  feel  as  if  the  bolder 
course  would  be  to  throw  it  up ;  but  I  cannot  make  up  my 
mind  to  do  anything  quite  so  unlike  what  is  expected  of 
me.  This  is  quite  private.  Every  one  here  thinks  the 
chair  is  the  one  object  of  my  desires ! 

He  was  elected  to  the  Professorship  on  Novem- 
ber 1,  and  writes  to  his  sister  from  Hillside  on 
November  5  :— 

Best  thanks  for  congratulations,  Edward's  and  yours ; 
it  is  certainly  a  real  satisfaction  to  me  to  have  a  stable 
position.  Otherwise  I  feel  that  I  have  got  too  old  for  the 


1883,  AGE  45  HENRY  SIDGWICK  369 

pleasure  of  this  kind — or  this  degree — of  professional  success, 
but  perhaps  that  is  all  for  the  best. 

"We  are  very  glad  that  there  is  no  reason  to  be  alarmed 
about  Edward.  I  am  afraid  he  has  not  been  able  to  sleep  as 
much  as  Mr.  Gladstone,  who,  when  he  had  to  stay  in  bed 
last  year  in  consequence  of  an  accident,  slept,  as  he  told 
us,  "  from  9  to  1 0  hours  "  ! 

To  J.  E.  Mozley  on  November  15 

Many  thanks  for  your  congratulations ;  I  hope  to  be 
able  to  do  useful  work  in  my  chair,  at  least  for  the  present. 
Life  seems  very  short  to  me,  and  I  do  not  quite  know  how 
soon  a  sense  of  the  little  time  left  will  lead  me  to  give  up 
Academic  business. 

As  to  Moral  Philosophy,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  do 
something  more  in  the  way  of  constructive  work  than  I 
have  done,  but  I  do  not  yet  see  my  way  to  it.  Meanwhile 
I  am  a  provisional  sojouruer  in  the  tents  of  Common  Sense, 
and  occupy  my  spare  moments  with  patching  the  rents  of 
this  frail  shelter. 

I  have  often  thought  of  writing  to  you  about  the 
matters  we  have  discussed ;  but  have  no  new  important 
word  to  say.  Though  life  goes  very  rapidly  with  me  at 
this  stage,  the  process  of  the  world's  thought,  so  far  as  I 
share  it,  seems  to  be  going  very  slowly ;  the  old  problems 
seem  to  remain  where  they  were,  and  no  changes  have 
occurred  in  my  thoughts  or  feelings  with  regard  to  them 
that  deserve  the  dignity  of  the  written  word :  though  I 
shall  be  ready  for  conversation  on  them  when  an  oppor- 
tunity offers. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Liverpool  (where  lie  was  engaged  in 
some  psychical  investigation),  December  1 8 

We  are  on  our  way  to  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge,  Phoenix 
Park,  Dublin.1  It  looks  an  ominous  address,  but  I  am 
hoping  for  much  political  instruction.  ...  I  heard  that  you 
had  mingled  in  the  giddy  throng  that  crowded  about  the 

1  To  stay  with  Mr.  Trerelyan. 

2B 


370  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  v 

Birds?  I  wish  I  had  seen  you.  I  hope  you  were  among 
those  who  thought  it  worth  coming  to  see,  for  there  were 
some  who  doubted ;  and  I  myself  deemed  it  rather  instruc- 
tive than  exhilarating.  But  I  felt  as  I  did  in  the  Ajax 
that  even  mediocre  acting  brings  out  points  which  escape 
one  in  reading ;  especially  that  one  never  does  attach  enough 
importance  to  the  action  of  the  chorus.  .  .  . 

For  my  Professorship,  I  am  glad  the  matter  is  settled, 
as  the  work  I  have  in  hand  in  Cambridge  now — partly  my 
own,  partly  general  academic  reorganisation — is  likely  to  be 
better  done  when  one  has  a  certain  sense  of  stability. 
Otherwise  I  do  not  care  about  it,  as  I  should  have  done  ten 
years  ago,  which  is  due,  I  suppose,  to  middle  age. 

1  The  Birds  of  Aristophanes,  acted  at  Cambridge  in  November  of  this 
year. 


CHAPTER  VI 

1883-1893 

THE  work  of  "  general  academic  reorganisation"  which 
Sidgwick  refers  to  in  the  letter  at  the  close  of  the 
preceding  chapter,  occupied  so  large  a  share  of  his 
thoughts  and  energy  during  the  period  we  now  enter 
on,  that  it  will  be  well  to  devote  a  few  words  to  it 
here.  It  arose  out  of  the  statutes  framed  by  the 
University  Commission,  which  came  into  force  in 
1882  ;  and  the  body  charged  with  carrying  it  out  was 
a  new  one,  a  "  General  Board  of  Studies,"  consisting 
largely  of  representatives  of  the  Special  Boards  in 
charge  of  the  different  departments  of  study.  Sidg- 
wick joined  the  General  Board,  when  it  was  first 
constituted  in  November  1882,  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Special  Board  for  Moral  Science,  and, 
with  the  brief  interruption  caused  by  his  absence  in 
Italy  in  the  Lent  term  of  1883,  served  on  it  con- 
tinuously till  the  end  of  1899  ;  he  did  not  then  stand 
for  re-election — partly  because  he  wished  to  have 
more  time  for  his  own  work,  and  partly,  perhaps, 
because  he  had  somewhat  lost  interest  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  a  University  which  had  seemed  to 
him  to  show  want  of  adequately  progressive  action 
in  several  instances. 

Among  the  most  important  duties  of  the  new 
Board  was  that  of  administering  to  the  best  advan- 
tage a  common  fund  for  University  purposes  com- 

371 


372  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

posed  of  contributions  exacted  from  the  Colleges  by 
the  new  statutes — contributions  which  were  to  increase 
at  intervals  of  three  years  to  a  stated  maximum.  By 
means  of  this  additional  income  the  University  was 
to  establish  Professorships,  Readerships,  and  Uni- 
versity Lectureships,  to  increase  the  emoluments 
attached  to  some  of  the  existing  Professorships,  to 
provide  necessary  buildings,  and  otherwise  to  enlarge 
its  work  and  render  it  more  efficient ;  and  it  was  the 
business  of  the  General  Board  to  co-ordinate  the 
demands  of  different  departments  so  as  to  present  to 
the  University  a  workable  scheme  which  should  give 
the  utmost  efficiency  possible  under  the  circumstances. 
When,  however,  the  demands  of  the  Special  Boards 
were  formulated  it  became  "immediately  obvious," 
as  the  General  Board  said  in  a  report  in  May  1883, 
"that  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  University 
would  be  for  the  present  wholly  inadequate  to  supply 
the  wants  which  the  several  Boards  considered  to  be 
urgent,"  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  work  of  adjust- 
ing these  claims  was  necessarily  a  very  delicate  and 
difficult  one.  The  difficulty  was,  moreover,  greatly 
increased  by  the  unforeseen  effect  of  agricultural 
depression,  which  by  impoverishing  the  Colleges, 
whose  property  was  and  is  largely  agricultural, 
rendered  it  impossible  to  exact  from  them  the  full 
tax  counted  on  by  the  Commissioners  in  framing  the 
statutes. 

The  organisation  and  development  of  the  work  of 
the  University  with  which  the  General  Board  was 
concerned  was,  as  readers  of  the  previous  chapters 
will  be  aware,  an  object  which  Sidgwick  had  long 
had  in  view  and  had  long  been  working  for.  He 
desired  on  the  one  hand  to  extend  the  influence  of 
the  University,  and  to  open  its  doors  as  widely-  as 
possible  to  different  classes  of  serious  students,  and 
on  the  other  so  to  organise  the  teaching  offered  as 
not  only  to  provide  as  far  as  possible  for  all  subjects 


vi  HENKY  SIDGWICK  373 

required,  and  (for  industrious  students)  do  away 
with  the  need  of  private  tuition,  but  also  to  avoid 
the  overlapping,  and  consequent  waste  of  funds  and 
energy,  apt  to  arise  from  the  separate  organisation 
of  the  Colleges. 

Of  his  desire  to  open  the  doors  of  the  University 
to  different  classes  of  students  his  work  for  women  is 
an  example,  but  by  no  means  the  only  one.  The 
maintenance  and  development  of  teaching  for  Indian 
Civil  Servants  was  an  object  to  which  he  devoted 
both  time  and  money,1  and  in  May  1883,  when  there 
had  been  some  question,  on  pecuniary  grounds,  of 
discontinuing  the  attempt  to  provide  adequately  for 
them,  he  said,  in  a  discussion  in  the  Arts  Schools,  that 
his  own  "  opinion  was  well  known  that  research  should 
be  much  more  considered  and  encouraged  in  the  Uni- 
versity than  now ;  still,  the  discredit  of  abandoning  the 
connection  with  these  students  [Indian  Civil  Servants] 
would  be  so  grave  that  he  would  rather  postpone 
important  research  than  incur  the  loss."  The  view 
here  expressed  is  typical ;  he  sympathised  with  every 
effort  to  enlarge  the  field  of  University  influence  both 
on  the  literary  and  scientific  sides,2  and  the  develop- 

1  He  served  on  the  Board  for  Indian  Civil  Service  Studies  from  May  1883 
to  December  1896,  and  from  1884  to  1888  himself  provided  £200  a  year 
towards  the  expenses  of  the  teaching  required. 

2  Sidgwick  himself  more  than  once  came  to  the  temporary  aid  of  different 
departments  when  the  poverty  of  the  University  prevented  their  receiving  the 
financial  support  which  seemed  to  him  particularly  urgently  needed.     Thus 
he  gave  £300  a  year  for  four  years  (from  1884)  out  of  his  Professorial  stipend 
for  a  Readership  in  Law,  to  which  Sir.  F.  W.  llaitland  was  appointed  ;  earlier 
lie  had  anonymously  supplemented  the  stipend  of  the  Professor  of  Modern 
History  ;  in  1897  he  promised  to  the  University  £200  a  year  for  five  years 
from  his  own  stipend  for  a  Professor  of  Mental  Philosophy  ;  and  in  1889  and 
1890  he  gave  at  an  opportune  moment  £1500  for  buildings  for  the  Physio- 
logical department.     His  gift  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service  department  has 
been  already  mentioned.     We  may  add  to  this  various  smaller  gifts  to  help 
in  starting  Classical  Art  and  Archaeology  as  a  subject  of  academic  study, 
in  providing  the  engineering   laboratory,    and   to   further  other  objects. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  fact  of  giving  that  deserves  notice  in  Sidgwick's 
case,  for  fortunately  for  the  University  much  public-spirited  generosity  has 
been  shown  by  others  of  its  teachers  and  officers  in  gifts  and  gratuitous 
services,  but  Sidgwick's  interest  in  all  departments  of  University  work  led 
to  his  gifts  being  widely  distributed — not  confined  to  one  department.     As 
was  said   in  October  1900   by  the  Vice -Chancellor  (Mr.   Chawner),   after 


374  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

ment  of  departments  of  study  which  by  some  were 
viewed  with  distrust  as  too  narrowly  professional, 
such  as — besides  the  Indian  Civil  Service  studies — 
engineering,  agriculture,  and  the  training  of  teachers, 
was  always  encouraged  by  him.  His  desire  to  ex- 
tend the  sphere  of  influence  of  the  University  in  the 
interest  of  sound  learning  was  one  of  the  reasons 
which  made  him  wish  that  the  imposition  of  Greek 
on  all  its  members  should  be  done  away  with,  since 
he  believed  that  this  would  make  it  possible  for  the 
University  to  put  itself  at  the  head,  as  it  were,  of  the 
modern  sides  of  schools  as  well  as  of  the  classical 
sides,  and  also  at  the  head  of  those  "  modern  "  schools, 
already  numerous  and  certain  to  increase,  of  whose 
curriculum  Greek  was  not  a  regular  part.1 

Dr.  Henry  Jackson  has  kindly  furnished  us  with 
the  following  notes  on  Sidgwick's  work  for  the  Uni- 
versity, especially  in  connection  with  the  General 
Board  : — 

From  the  first  Sidgwick  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  General  Board  of  Studies.  The  Board 
had  to  face  a  preliminary  question  of  great  difficulty  and 
of  paramount  importance :  Was  the  money  derived  from 
the  Colleges  to  be  spent  in  the  complete  endowment  of  a 
few  posts  or  in  the  partial  endowment  of  many  ?  Sidgwick 
declared  for  the  latter  policy :  and  when  the  Board  accepted 
it  and  proceeded  to  settle  details,  expended  upon  the  nice 
adjustment  of  rival  claims  a  wealth  of  equitable  and 
ingenious  thought.  His  policy  was  not  one  with  which 
I  could  altogether  sympathise :  but,  sympathiser  or  not,  no 

referring  to  Sidgwick's  death  in  his  review  of  the  events  of  the  year  : 
"  There  was  hardly  any  department  in  the  life  and  work  of  the  University 
in  which  he  did  not  take  an  active  and  sympathetic  interest.  During  the 
last  thirty  years  few  reforms  have  been  carried  which  he  has  not  helped 
to  promote." 

*  For  Sidgwick's  views  on  the  adoption  of  technological  subjects  as 
academic,  on  the  relation  of  the  Universities  to  the  training  of  teachers,  and 
on  the  connection  of  the  University  with  schools  other  than  classical,  com- 
pare a  Memorandum  by  him,  written  in  answer  to  questions  by  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Secondary)  Education. — Report  of  the  Commission,  vol.  v. 
p.  243. 


vi  HENRY  SIDGWICK  375 

one  could  too  much  admire  his  public  spirit,  his  fairness,  his 
industry  in  investigation,  his  dialectical  skill. 

Presently  the  Board  tried  to  define  the  duties  of  pro- 
fessors. I  never  admired  Sidgwick  qua  politician  more 
than  in  the  debates  on  this  delicate  subject.  Himself  a 
professor,  and  a  very  conscientious  one,  he  took  a  large  and 
generous  view  of  the  work  which  a  professor  should  be 
expected  to  do.  The  professors,  however,  resented  the  pro- 
posed regulations.  Sidgwick  argued  with  unfailing  wit  and 
imperturbable  good -humour.  But  he  made  no  converts 
among  his  colleagues,  and  the  attempt  to  define  the  number 
of  lectures  to  be  required  of  professors  was  dropped. 

In  course  of  time  it  appeared  that  the  calculations  of 
the  Commissioners  had  been  unduly  sanguine,  and  that,  in 
view  of  agricultural  depression,  the  tax  payable  by  the 
Colleges  to  the  University  could  not  be  exacted  in  full. 
The  situation  interested  Sidgwick  intensely.  He  devised  a 
scheme  of  relaxation  which  failed  by  reason  of  its  excessive 
subtlety  and  elaboration.1  It  was,  I  think,  at  this  time 
that  he  was  a  member  of  a  small  committee  appointed  to 
investigate  the  needs  of  the  several  departments.  He  did 
the  whole  work  of  collecting  information  :  his  two  colleagues, 
liveing  and  myself,  were  of  use,  if  at  all,  only  as  critics. 

For  several  years  he  was  Secretary  to  the  Board,  first 
personally,  afterwards  through  a  deputy,  whom  he  gener- 
ously paid.  When  he  left  it,  December  31,  1899,  I  had 
a  regretful  feeling  that  this  must  mean  for  him  the  abandon- 
ment of  administrative  work  in  the  University.  The  news 
seemed  to  me  almost  tragic.  It  was  as  if  I  had  heard  of 
the  parting  of  a  parent  and  a  child. 

I  used  to  wish  that  Sidgwick  might  be  made  a  member 
of  the  Financial  Board ;  I  am  sure  that  finance  interested 

1  [The  scheme,  the  complication  of  which  arose  from  the  attempt  to  give 
relief  to  the  more  distressed  colleges  with  as  little  loss  as  possible  to  the 
University  by  a  differential  treatment  of  the  Colleges,  was  substantially 
adopted  by  the  Council  of  the  Senate,  and  carried  in  the  Senate  by  a 
majority  of  seventy-two  to  thirty  in  October  1890.  The  alteration  of  the 
statutes  involved,  however,  could  not  be  carried  out  without  the  consent  of 
the  Colleges  as  such,  and  as  ten  out  of  the  seventeen  dissented,  the  scheme 
had  to  be  dropped.] 


376  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP. 

him  much.  I  think  that  he  would  have  liked  nothing 
better  than  to  be  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  He  would 
have  devised  an  amazingly  ingenious  budget,  and  his  ex- 
position of  it  would  have  been  a  marvel  of  lucidity  and 
address.  He  was  a  frequent,  ready,  and  singularly  effective 
speaker  in  our  little  Parliament,  held  in  the  Arts  School. 
I  do  not  agree  with  those  who  talk  of  him  as  a  man  who 
was  never  likely  to  enter  public  life.  On  the  contrary,  it 
would  never  have  surprised  me,  especially  in  later  years,  if 
he  had  stood  for  Parliament.  If  he  had  done  so,  and  been 
elected,  my  conviction  is  that  he  would  have  had  a  very 
considerable  position  as  a  critic.  He  was  in  my  opinion 
an  admirable  speaker:  skilful  in  the  statement  of  his 
points,  fertile  in  suggestion,  incisive  in  attack. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  in  deliberation,  whereas  many 
men  are  content  to  fasten  upon  some  one  important  prin- 
ciple, and  at  all  hazards  to  follow  it  to  its  consequences, 
Sidgwick  always  tried  to  take  into  account  all  relevant 
considerations,  and  to  effect,  if  not  a  reconciliation  of  pros 
and  cons,  at  any  rate  a  compromise  between  them.  Hence 
he  habitually  inclined  to  a  middle  course ;  and  hence  his 
opinion  might  undergo  unexpected  and  considerable  changes. 
Similarly,  in  discussion  or  debate,  whereas  many  men  are 
content  to  support  their  own  convictions,  leaving  to 
opponents  the  presentation  of  countervailing  arguments, 
he  was  always  arbitrator  rather  than  partisan.  Indeed  it 
sometimes  happened  that  the  compromise  which  he  had 
devised  for  himself  stood  in  the  way  of  his  acceptance  of 
any  other.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  he  "  sat  on  the  fence." 
This  seems  to  me  a  complete  mistake.  The  man  who 
"  sits  on  the  fence  "  is  one  who,  whether  he  has  or  has  not 
definite  convictions,  is  reluctant  to  declare  himself.  As 
I  have  said,  Sidgwick's  conclusions  were  often  compromises, 
and  might  change  surprisingly;  but  they  were  always  exactly 
thought  out,  confidently  affirmed,  and  eagerly  defended. 

Sidgwick's  efforts  for  the  better  organisation  of 
the  existing  academic  teaching  were  to  a  great  extent 
doomed  to  failure.  As  Dr.  Peile  writes  : — 


vi  HENKY  SIDGWICK  377 

The  General  Board  was  not  well  fitted  for  the  purpose. 
It  was  heterogeneous — composed  chiefly  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  Special  Boards,  with,  little  inclina- 
tion to  force  change  on  recalcitrant  Special  Boards,  still 
less  to  enter  into  conflict  with  the  Colleges,  by  whom  the 
most  numerous  class  of  teachers  in  the  University  were 
appointed  and  paid.  .  .  .  Sidgwick  had  on  the  Board  a  few 
strong  opponents,  and  many  half-convinced  supporters  who 
might  turn  at  any  time  into  opponents.  He  persevered 
with  varying  success.  He  was  one  of  the  few  members 
of  the  Board  who  had  clear  views  as  to  what  should  be 
done  to  put  into  shape  the  control  which  the  statutes 
expected  the  General  Board  to  exercise  through  the  Special 
Boards,  and  his  logical  consistency,  his  obvious  sincerity, 
and  his  dexterous  management  drew  as  a  rule  sufficient 
supporters  after  him.  But  there  was  a  general  misgiving 
that  he  was  leading  the  Board  into  contests  in  which  it 
would  not  be  the  victor,  and  might  suffer  seriously  in 
prestige.  It  did  actually  suffer.  In  popular  estimation 
the  Board  was  meddlesome  and  ineffective,  and  not  in- 
frequently Sidgwick  was  held  responsible.  The  Board 
often  felt  that  he  was  bringing  them  into  trouble,  and 
came  to  regard  his  proposals  with  suspicion ;  while  he, 
very  naturally,  became  sometimes  impatient  of  the  Board. 
But  he  never  wavered  in  his  policy,  and  all  that  could  be 
done  in  a  position  so  impossible  he  did. 

Singularly  different  was  his  position  on  the  Council  of 
the  Senate,  to  which  he  was  elected  in  1890.  That  body 
has  for  its  statutable  function  the  preparation  of  Graces  to 
be  presented  to  the  Senate  for  its  ratification.  But  most 
proposals,  whether  they  deal  with  internal  business  or  deal 
with  the  external  relations  of  the  University,  end  or  may 
end  in  Graces ;  and  therefore  an  astonishingly  wide  range  of 
matters  comes  before  the  Council.  On  the  Council  Sidgwick's 
position  was  from  the  first  very  strong.  Whenever  he  spoke 
— and  he  spoke  frequently — he  commanded  the  attention  of 
every  member  by  his  remarkable  aptitude  for  business,  by 
his  originality  and  sagacity,  and  by  the  incisiveness  of  his 


378  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

comments.  On  the  Council,  as  on  the  General  Board,  though, 
from  the  different  nature  of  the  business  of  the  two  bodies, 
to  a  less  degree,  he  exhibited  what  seemed  to  many  his  most 
remarkable  characteristic :  his  willingness  to  strike  out  as  a 
compromise  some  line  of  action  which  would  be  accepted  by 
an  opponent.  No  one  could  be  more  keen  than  he  was  in 
maintaining  what  he  felt  to  be  essential.  But  he  had  the 
rare  power  of  realising  clearly  what  was  strong  in  his 
opponent's  case.  In  fact,  where  the  ordinary  man  saw  one 
side  of  a  question,  he  could  habitually  see  two — or  more  ; 
and  his  fairness  in  making  allowance  for  the  strong  points 
of  the  view  opposed  to  his  own,  made  him  willing  to 
sacrifice  anything  in  his  own  which  was  not  vital. 

We  may  add  here  the  testimony  of  the  Bishop  of 
Bristol  (Dr.  G.  F.  Browne l)  as  to  the  impression 
Sidgwick  produced  on  the  Council  of  the  Senate  : — 

Having  taken  an  active  part  with  him  in  the  manage- 
ment of  some  of  the  gravest  affairs  of  the  University,  I 
speak  from  the  point  of  view  of  one  who  was  supposed,  on 
the  whole,  to  take  a  side  generally  different  from  that  which 
he  took.  I  well  remember  before  I  was  ever  sent  to  the 
Council  of  the  Senate  myself,  being  present  at  a  meeting  of 
the  electors  where  Henry  Sidgwick  was  described  as  a  very 
dangerous  person,  and  we  were  wanted,  though  we  might 
not  be  able  to  get  some  one  else  in,  at  least  to  keep  Henry 
Sidgwick  out.  When  I  saw  what  he  was  on  the  Council,  I 
realised  that  he  was  one  of  the  anchors  and  mainstays  of  all 
that  was  good.  I  never  knew  a  man  more  anxious  to  see 
the  real  good,  and  conserve  that  at  all  hazards.  He  was 
never  a  partisan,  in  the  electioneering  sense  of  the  word.2 

1  Speech  at  the  meeting   for  promoting  a  memorial  to  H.   Sidgwick, 
November  26,  1900. 

2  Dr.   Peile  says  of  the  Council  generally  that — "elected  at  first  on 
strictly  party  lines — and  still  so  nominally — it  has  long  ceased  to  be  to  any 
great  degree  partisan.     In  1874  (when  I  first  knew  it),  if  a  member  voted 
on  some  division  against  his  party  on  the  Council,  there  followed  a  stillness 
of  wonder  and  of  awe.    Now  such  a  lapse  is  too  common  to  be  noted.    There 
are,  of  course,  members  who  may  be  expected  to  advocate  change  ;  there  are 
others  who  may  be  counted  on  to  oppose  change.     But  the  majority  vote 
quite  independently  on  the  merits,  as  they  conceive  them,  of  each  proposal." 


1884,  AGE  45  HENRY  SIDGWICK  379 

Dr.  Browne  also  speaks  of  Sidgwick's  work  in 
another  department  of  University  administration,  the 
Local  Examinations  and  Lectures  Syndicate,  of  which 
he  (Dr.  Browne)  was  Secretary  from  1871  to  1892, 
during  more  than  half  of  which  period  Sidgwick 
was  a  member  of  the  Syndicate.1  He  says  : — 

No  one  can  speak  with  the  fulness  and  continuousness 
of  knowledge,  with  which  I  can,  of  the  work  which  Henry 
Sidgwick  did  in  moulding  the  beginning  and  in  attending  to 
the  growth  of  all  the  external  work  of  the  University.  .  .  . 
I  do  not  know — and  my  memory  goes  back  over  a  great 
many  years — any  one  who  filled  a  larger  place  than  he  did, 
and  always  with  sageness  and  sanity,  either  in  initiating 
methods,  or  in  discussing  the  proposals  of  others,  in  the 
development  of  the  Local  Examinations  and  Local  Lectures. 
I  always  felt  in  the  office  that  if  Sidgwick  had  been  present 
and  had  fairly  discussed  a  matter  we  at  least  knew  this, — 
that  there  was  not  any  obviously  better  plan  to  be  conceived, 
and  that  we  had  not  lost  sight  of  any  main  considerations. 
...  I  do  not  think  any  one  will  know  how  much  the 
University  owes  to  the  wise  inspiration,  the  wise  manage- 
ment, which  Sidgwick  was  always  ready  to  give.  .  .  . 

We  now  return  to  the  letters  : — 
To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Catribridge  on  February  27,  1884 

It  is  more  than  time  that  I  should  write  to  thank  you 
for  your  long  letter  about  Davos.  (I  have  been  busy 
with  visitors,2  and  work,  and  endless  correspondence,  etc., 
about  psychical  matters,  which  occupies  all  my  leisure.) 
Both  my  wife  and  I  were  most  deeply  interested  by  your 
letter,  which  corresponded  to,  and  fitted  in  with,  all  else 
I  had  heard.  .  .  .  The  whole  thing  would  be  so  infinitely 
and  darkly  tragic,3  that  I  could  not  bear  to  write  or  think 

1  Sidgwick  served  on  the  Syndicate  from  1871  to  1873,  1875  to  1878,  1879 
to  1883,  1887  to  1891. 

2  Sidgwick  was  very  hospitably  inclined,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
entertaining  done  at  Hillside — both  friends  staying  and  small  dinner-parties. 

3  Illness  of  his  daughter  Janet  and  other  serious  anxieties  which  were 
pressing  upon  J.  A.  Symonds. 


380  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

about  it  all,  except  for  a  certain  irresistible  hopefulness 
produced  in  me  by  the  singular  combination  of  marvellous 
elasticity  of  temperament  and  chequered  gleams  of  fortune 
which  his  [Symonds'J  career  shows ;  so  that  somehow  it  is 
impossible  to  despair  quite  of  finding  that  everything  has 
corne  right  again.  .  .  . 

And  you — I  hope  you  are  having  a  serene  spring  among 
olives  and  owls.  How  about  Xenophon  ?  .  .  .  I  have 
been  out  of  the  way  of  Hellenic  conversation  lately;  but  I 
believe  that  the  movement  for  the  English  school  at  Athens 
[founded  June  1883]  is  still  going  on.  I  fear,  however,  that 
it  will  take  years  to  collect  the  money  they  want,  and  I  do 
not  think  that  it  is  very  easy  just  now  to  collect  money  for 
this  kind  of  object.  One  is  apt  to  judge  the  world  from  the 
part  of  it  one  sees :  but  the  impression  produced  on  me  is 
that  it  is  in  a  rather  sternly  philanthropic  frame  of  mind, 
rather  socialistic,  rather  inclined  to  find  culture  frivolous, 
and  to  busy  itself  with  the  poverty  in  the  East  End  of 
London.  However,  research  must  go  on,  though  a  third  of 
the  families  in  London  do  live  in  one  room. 

If  you  think  I  am  cynical,  I  fear  it  is  so.  I  have  been 
busy  lately  reviewing  Green's  posthumous  book — Prolegomena 
to  Ethics.  I  read  it  twice  over  carefully :  the  first  time 
much  impressed  with  its  ethical  force  and  persuasiveness : 
the  second  time  unable  to  resist  the  conviction  that  my 
intellect  could  not  put  it  together  into  a  coherent  whole — 
in  fact,  that  it  would  not  do — and  yet  that  probably  it  was 
better  that  young  men  should  be  believers  in  it  than  in  any- 
thing I  can  teach  them.  This  is  a  conviction  adapted  to 
make  a  Professor  cynical.  My  review  will  appear  in  Mind. 
I  hope  it  will  not  annoy  the  disciples.  I  could  not  be  other 
than  frank.  .  .  . 

Arthur  writes  that  .  .  .  the  opening  of  (some  not  all) 
Oxford  Examinations  to  Women  [has  been  carried].  So 
some  things  are  going  on  well. 

In  1884  Sidgwick  received  the  honorary  LL.D. 
degree  from  two  Scottish  Universities  —  from  St. 


1884,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  381 

Andrews  in  February,  and  from  Edinburgh  at  the 
great  tercentenary  celebration  in  April.  In  June 
he  and  his  wife  stayed  with  the  Symondses  at  Davos, 
and  he  then  arranged  with  Symonds  to  try  to  keep 
a  journal  and  send  it  to  him  monthly ;  Symonds 
on  his  side,  agreeing  to  preserve  it  carefully  and  ulti- 
mately return  it.  The  Journal  was  continued  for 
several  years,  and  we  give  the  greater  part  of  it  here. 
It  begins : — 

This  journal  [for  July]  is  written  entirely  on  July  31, 
1884;  but  I  intend  to  write  it  in  the  form  of  a  daily 
journal,  in  order  to  get  myself,  if  possible,  into  the  habit  of 
keeping  one. 

After  some  remarks  on  the  journey  home,  ending 
with  "July  15  ...  At  Charing  Cross  the  examina- 
tion of  boxes  was  certainly  sufficient  to  render  it  risky 
to  import  Dynamite,"  a  reference  to  the  dynamite 
scare  of  the  day,  he  continues  : — 

At  Carlton  Gardens  [Arthur  Balfour's]  had  much 
political  talk.  Tories  seem  pretty  confident,  and  are — 
that  is,  my  Tories  are  —  more  afraid  that  their  own 
people  will  give  way  *  than  of  any  mischief  that  can 
come  if  they  hold  out.  As  I  supposed,  the  real  reason 
why  the  stand  was  made  on  the  second  reading  rather 
than  in  Committee  —  which  was  the  point  on  which 
Cairns's  and  Salisbury's  arguments  seemed  to  me  weakest 
— was  that  the  leaders  thought  it  would  practically  be 
more  difficult  to  keep  their  majority  firm  on  an  amend- 
ment made  in  Committee.  Still,  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  they  would  have  done  better  to  pass  the  second  read- 
ing and  to  secure  by  an  amendment  the  appeal  to  the  old 
constituencies  on  redistribution  :  it  would  have  weakened 
one  of  the  most  effective  charges  against  them — that  their 

1  About  insisting  cm  a  Redistribution  Bill  being  brought  in  before  the 
Franchise  Bill  giving  votes  to  householders  in  the  counties  was  passed. 
The  Franchise  Bill  had  been  passed  by  the  House  of  Commons  on  June  26, 
but  was  thrown  oiit  in  the  House  of  Lords  at  the  second  reading,  on  a 
resolution  of  Lord  Cairns. 


382  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

concern  for  redistribution  is  pretended  as  an  excuse  for 
delaying  the  franchise.  The  charge  is,  I  think,  groundless ; 
as  they  are  now  too  deeply  pledged  to  the  franchise :  but 
it  finds  some  colour  in  the  notorious  dislike  that  many  of 
them  really  feel  for  it. 

July  16. — Went  down  to  Embley.1  .  .  . 

July  17. — Had  pleasant  walks.  Delighted  in  English 
tree-scenery  after  Switzerland. 

July  18. — Back  to  London:  more  political   talk.  .   .  . 

July  19. — Met  Trevelyan,  and  walked  across  St.  James's 
Park  with  him  to  his  office.  He  is  very  angry  with  Lord 
Salisbury;2  and  thinks  that  the  people  will  demonstrate  with 
some  effect,  and  that  the  Lords  may  give  way.  I  said  that 
if  I  were  a  peer  I  should  now  be  ashamed  to  yield :  but  he 
maintained  that  a  real  expression  of  popular  feeling  is  some- 
thing of  which  the  impressiveness  cannot  be  imagined  till 
it  comes.  He  admitted  the  probable  mischief,  as  regards 
Ireland,  of  exacerbating  party  differences :  but  thought  the 
only  chance  of  keeping  the  [Irish]  Home  Rulers  [in  order] 
would  be  a  very  decided  majority  of  one  party  :  the  Liberals 
might  get  this  from  the  reformed  constituencies,  but  the 
Tories  could  not  possibly  get  it. 

Went  to  see  Irving  in  Twelfth  Night.  Irving's  Malvolio 
is  better  than  I  expected  :  not  masterly,  but  sometimes  good 
and  always  careful  and  vigorous,  a  little  too  pathetic  in 
confinement.  But  the  play  seems  to  me,  as  always,  rather 
poor  stuff  for  the  most  part.  One  may  write  this  in  a 
journal.  Viola  (Ellen  Terry)  fair. 

July  21. — Went  to  the  Demonstration  in  Hyde  Park. 
The  procession  seemed  to  be  partly  in  earnest,  notably  the 
agricultural  labourers  with  hop-poles ;  but  the  emotion  of 
the  lines  of  spectators  seemed  to  me  entirely  that  of  sight- 
seers. The  speaking  at  the  platforms  in  the  Park  was 
rather  flat,  except  at  the  one  where  Arch  was ;  here  the 
crowd  hindered  me  from  getting  near  enough  to  hear  more 

1  Where  Mrs.  Clough  lived  with  her  mother,  Mrs.  Smith,  on  the  borders 
of  the  New  Forest. 

2  For  refusing  to  pass  the  Franchise  Bill  without  a  Redistribution  Bill, 
except  after  an  appeal  to  the  Constituencies. 


1884,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  383 

than  fragments  of  his  eloquence,  but  he  seemed  effective. 
On  the  whole,  if  I  had  been  a  Tory  peer,  I  should  have  gone 
home  unshaken. 

July  22. — To  Cambridge,  to  entertain  Lord  Acton  and 
Miss  Gladstone.  Lord  A.  pleasant  and  full  of  information  : 
but  does  not  give  one  the  idea  of  "  the  most  learned  man  in 
England "  until  one  talks  to  him  about  some  question  of 
erudition,  and  then  it  is  evident  that  he  has  the  learning  of 
a  Librarian  and  something  more ;  whether  enough  more  to 
make  him  write  a  great  work  is  doubtful  to  me. 

Jidy  23. — Got  ideas  from  Lord  Acton  about  mediaeval 
political  philosophy  :  he  thinks  no  one  before  Aquinas  worth 
looking  up.  He  told  me  several  books  to  read :  German 
and  bulky.  He  thinks  Salisbury's  tactics  mistaken,  whether 
the  peers  give  way  in  the  autumn  or  not;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  Liberals  will  gain  by  having  an  election  on 
this  question,  if  only  the  agitation  against  the  Lords  does 
not  frighten  moderate  men.  At  present  the  Government 
are  trying  to  hold  back  the  movement  for  abolishing  or 
transforming  the  Second  Chamber :  but  if  the  peers  throw 
out  the  bill  again  in  the  autumn  session,  it  will  be  hard  for 
the  Government  to  maintain  this  attitude  :  and  yet  Harting- 
ton  cannot  lead  an  attack  on  hereditary  privileges  with  a 
light  heart.  The  strong  point  in  the  Conservative  position 
is  that  the  Government  appear  afraid  of  appealing  to  the  old 
constituencies ;  and  the  strong  point  in  the  Liberal  position 
is  that  the  Tories  seem  afraid  of  the  new  electors.  Which  is 
the  strongest  depends  on  whether,  on  the  whole,  the  old  electors 
have  more  sympathy  with  the  new  electors  or  fear  of  them. 

July  24. — Settled  down  to  "  labor  improbus."  Looked 
through  Savigny.  The  mediaeval  jurists  do  not  seem  to 
have  contributed  much  to  the  progress  of  political  philosophy. 

August  6. — Went  to  tea  with  Rayleigh  at  the  laboratory 
— a  farewell  visit  before  his  voyage  to  Canada  [as  President 
of  the  British  Association].  We  talked  over  his  presiden- 
tial address.  ...  I,  who  belong  to  the  prescientific  era,  can 
understand  more  than  half  of  it,  and  what  I  understand  is 
all  interesting  and  worthy  of  attention.  .  .  . 


384  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Dined  with  0.  Browning  to  meet  Madame  de  Novikoff 
(O.K.) ;  was  rather  disappointed ;  her  talk  is  lively  and 
spirited  enough,  but  she  said  nothing  that  interested  me. 
She  avowed  a  cordial  regard  for  —  Madame  Blavatsky. 
She  holds  that  not  only  Puschkine  but  Gogol  should  be 
ranked  above  Turgenieff.  P.  I  have  never  read,  but  in  the 
German  translations  of  G.  I  can  discern  no  genius ;  his 
satiric  descriptions  of  Eussian  types  and  manners  seem 
effective  enough,  but  not  striking.  Perhaps  his  charm 
evaporates  in  German — and  perhaps  the  flavour  of  Madame 
de  N.'s  talk  is  dulled  by  English. 

August  7. — Xora  went  to  London  to  listen  to  Inter- 
national Educationists  in  Conference. 

August  8. — Went  up  to  London  to  hear  Nora  read  her 
paper  at  the  "  Healtheries."  Eoom  crowded ;  paper  read 
well — judicious  and  compact.  The  international  conversa- 
tion that  followed  was  hardly  a  debate:  the  nations  are 
respectively  at  such  different  stages  in  the  development  of 
the  question  of  female  education.  Two  Frenchmen  dis- 
puted whether  woman  was  to  be  specially  trained  for  her 
function  as  "  mere."  The  lowest  point  was  reached  by  a 
German  who  praised  an  institution  in  Dresden  (?)  where 
they  are  taught  to  wash  babies.  The  best  speech  was  by 
Miss  Freeman,  Principal  of  Wellesley  College.  I  gathered 
from  her  that  the  practical  question  in  U.S.  is  not  whether 
women  are  to  have  a  University  education,  but  whether 
they  are  to  have  it  in  mixed  classes  with  men.  It  appears 
that,  speaking  broadly,  the  Western  States  have  gone  for 
mixed  education — the  University  of  Michigan  (e.g.}  is  open 
to  both  sexes  equally — while  the  more  dignified  universities 
of  the  Eastern  States  are  still  resisting  the  invasion  of 
women,  and  separate  colleges  for  them,  like  Wellesley,  are 
flourishing.  Miss  F.  holds  that  the  two  systems  should  go 
on  side  by  side,  being  adapted  respectively  to  different  kinds 
of  women.  Parents  should  choose. 

We  went  back  to  Cambridge  with  Gurney,  who  comes 
to  a  Literary  Committee  on  Ghost  Stories. 

August  9. — Arthur  [Sidgwick]  comes  to  spend  Sunday ; 


1884,  AGE  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  385 

after  dinner  we  all  go  to  a  meeting  of  the  Cambridge 
Branch  of  the  S.P.R.,1  where  Madame  Blavatsky,  Mohini, 
and  other  Theosophists  are  to  show  off.  The  meeting  is 
in  Oscar  Browning's  spacious  rooms :  which  are  crowded  to 
overflowing — all  the  members  of  the  Branch,  and  more 
than  as  many  outsiders.  There  must  have  been  over 
seventy ;  I  should  not  have  thought  that  such  a  crowd 
could  have  been  got  together  in  the  Long  Vacation.  Myers 
and  I  had  the  task  of  '  drawing '  Mme.  B.  by  questions, 
Mohini  taking  a  share  of  the  answers.  We  kept  it  up 
better  than  I  expected  for  a  couple  of  hours ;  the  interest 
of  the  miscellaneous  throng — half  of  whom,  I  suppose, 
came  with  the  very  vaguest  notions  of  Theosophy — being 
apparently  fairly  well  sustained.  On  the  whole  I  was 
favourably  impressed  with  Mme.  B.  No  doubt  the  stuff 
of  her  answers  resembled  [her  book]  Isis  Unveiled  in  some  of 
its  worst  characteristics  ;  but  her  manner  was  certainly  frank 
and  straightforward — it  was  hard  to  imagine  her  the  elaborate 
impostor  that  she  must  be  if  the  whole  thing  is  a  trick. 

August  10. — We  all  went  to  a  Theosophic  lunch  with 
Myers.  Madame  de  Novikoff  was  there ;  certainly  she  has 
social  gifts,  but  she  does  not  interest  me.  Our  favourable 
impression  of  Mme.  Bflavatsky]  was  sustained ;  if  personal 
sensibilities  can  be  trusted,  she  is  a  genuine  being,  with  a 
vigorous  nature  intellectual  as  well  as  emotional,  and  a 
real  desire  for  the  good  of  mankind.  This  impression  is 
all  the  more  noteworthy  as  she  is  externally  unattractive — 
with  her  flounces  full  of  cigarette  ashes — and  not  pre- 
possessing in  manner.  Certainly  we  like  her,  both  Nora 
and  I.  If  she  is  a  humbug,  she  is  a  consummate  one  :  as  her 
remarks  have  the  air  not  only  of  spontaneity  and  random- 
ness but  sometimes  of  an  amusing  indiscretion.  Thus  in  the 
midst  of  an  account  of  the  Mahatmas  in  Tibet,  intended  to 
give  us  an  elevated  view  of  these  personages,  she  blurted  out 
her  candid  impression  that  the  chief  Mahatma  of  all  was  the 
most  utter  dried-up  old  mummy  that  she  ever  saw.  .  .  . 

August  1 1 . — Worked  all  day  at  ghost  stories  ['  phantasms 
1  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

2  c 


386  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

of  the  dead '].  By  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  evidence  here  is 
rarely  as  good  in  quality  as  that  of  'phantasms  of  the  living'; 
but  out  of  about  three  hundred  stories,  from  twenty  to  thirty 
must  be  pronounced  good.  If  put  together,  it  could  not 
fail  to  impress  any  one  at  all  open-minded  on  the  subject. 
Still,  it  is  not  enough ;  we  must  try  hard  to  get  some  cases 
which  will  admit  of  experimental  test  [i.e.  haunted  house]. 

August  14-22.  —  Quiet  days,  I  working  at  Political 
Philosophy,  Nora  at  a  paper  011  the  (dead)  ghost  stories 
for  the  meeting  of  the  Cambridge  Branch  of  the  S.P.E.  on 
evening  of  Friday  22nd. 

August  23. — Went  to  Barton  Hall  and  met  Edward 
Bunbury,  the  geographer,  who  talked  much.  The  Govern- 
ment are  actually  at  work  on  their  Redistribution  Bill, 
and  there  is  some  idea  that  they  may  adopt  Lord  Cowper's 
suggestion,  and  lay  it  before  the  House  in  October.  If  the 
Lords  want  a  compromise  this  is  perhaps  as  good  as  any 
that  may  be  suggested ;  but  if  they  want  to  force  a 
dissolution  it  will  be  playing  their  game,  since  the  dis- 
solution after  the  Redistribution  Bill  is  seen,  with  the 
Franchise  Bill  not  passed,  is  certain  to  lose  the  Government 
some  of  the  seats  which  they  propose  to  redistribute.  On 
the  whole  I  do  not  think  W.  E.  G.  will  concede  so  much. 
The  political  situation  is  unchanged — we  are  waiting  for 
Gladstone's  speech  to  his  constituents. 

August  25. — Had  a  letter  from  X.  to  tell  me  frankly  that 
he  regards  himself  as  belonging  to  the  same  class  of  human 
beings  as  Beethoven,  though  he  does  not  exactly  place 
himself  on  a  level  with  him.  I  wrote  to  assure  him  that  I 
could  never  have  intended  to  imply  the  opposite.  I  like 
this  frankness.  I  began  to  consider  how  I  classed  myself 
in  relation  to  philosophers.  On  the  whole,  it  seemed  to  me 
that  my  view  would  be  best  expressed  by  some  such  remark 
as  Wordsworth's  to  Lamb,  that  he  "  could  have  written  the 
plays  of  Shakespeare  if  he  had  had  a  mind  to."  I  feel  as 
if  I  could  have  worked  out  a  false  system  as  good  as — say 
— the  Kritik  of  Pure  Reason,  if  I  had  thought  it  worth 
while.  "  Only  the  mind  was  wanting." 


1884,  AGE  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  387 

August  31. — Gladstone's  speech.  It  contains  a  clear,  but 
not  obtrusive,  menace  that  Government  will  take  up  the 
agitation  against  the  Peers,  if  they  do  not  give  way  in  the 
autumn.  If  this  be  so,  they  will  have  to  give  a  pretty 
distinct  lead  as  to  the  kind  of  change  required.  So  far  the 
reformers  seem  rather  at  sea  about  it.  At  the  same  time 
he  does  not  seem  opposed  to  compromise. 

September  1 1  (!). — There  has  been  nothing  to  write  about 
except  my  work  l — of  which  the  tale  is  told  in  various  note- 
books— and  Psychical  Research,  which  I  feel  ought  to  be  my 
work  more  than  it  is.  One  effect  of  growing  older  is  that 
I  cannot  really  give  my  mind  to  more  than  one  thing  at 
once ;  and  though  I  think  Psychical  Research  profoundly 
important  to  mankind,  whereas  sound  views  on  the  evolu- 
tion of  political  ideas  are  a  luxury  easily  dispensed  with,  I 
am  ashamed  to  find  how  much  more  interested  I  am  in  the 
latter  than  in  the  former.  The  reason  is  that  I  feel  as  if 
I  had  the  kind  of  mind  adapted  for  seeing  things — rela- 
tions— for  myself  in  the  history  of  Thought :  when  I  read 
what  other  people  say,  I  seem  to  see  that  they  have  not 
got  it  quite  right ;  and  then,  after  an  effort,  what  seems  to 
be  the  truth  comes  to  me.  This  is  as  near  the  sense  of 
original  production  as  I  ever  get,  and  only  intellectual 
work  that  gives  me  this  experience  really  takes  hold  on  me. 
Now  in  Psychical  Research  the  only  faculty  that  I  seem 
able  to  exercise  is  the  judicial ;  I  feel  equal  to  classifying 
and  to  some  extent  weighing  the  evidence — so  far  as  it 
depends  on  general  considerations — but  I  do  not  feel  the 
least  gift  for  making  a  legitimate  hypothesis  as  to  the 
causes  of  the  phenomena,  and  I  am  too  unobservant  and 
unimaginative  about  physical  events  generally  to  be  at  all 
good  at  evaluating  particular  bits  of  evidence.  For  to  tell 
whether  a  '  psychical '  experiment  or  narrative  is  good  or 
not  evidentially  requires  one  to  imagine  with  adequate 
accuracy  and  exhaustiveness  the  various  possibilities  of 

1  About  his  work  he  says  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  on  September  3,  ' '  We  had  a 
good  time  at  Davos  in  June-July,  since  when  I  have  been  pretty  steadily 
in  Cambridge  bringing  out  a  third  edition  of  my  Ethics  and  working  at  the 
history  of  political  ideas." 


388  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

'  natural '  causation  of  the  phenomenon,  and  judge  the  degree 
of  improbability  of  each.  Nora  is  much  better  at  all  this  than 
I  ain :  and  I  mean  to  give  her  the  work  to  do,  on  this  ground, 
so  far  as  she  will  take  it.  She  has  gone  to  Strathconan  [her 
brother's]  with  the  printed  slips  of  the  '  phantasms  of  the 
living';  there  are  now  more  than  1000,  but  this  number 
includes  a  good  many  that  have  little  evidential  value. 

September  14. — Started  yesterday  on  a  tour  of  Psychical 
Research — i.e.  to  make  personal  acquaintance  with  certain 
persons  who  have  told  interesting  ghost  stories,  etc.,  arid, 
while  asking  questions  necessary  to  ascertain  the  exact 
evidential  value  of  their  narratives,  to  try  to  form  a  view  of 
their  personal  qualities  as  witnesses,  for  our  private  satis- 
faction, at  any  rate.  Arrived  at  Teignmouth  4.50  P.M.  .  .  . 
Teignmouth  is  not  a  bad  place  to  be  obliged  to  go  to  on 
business.  Its  fashionable  part  lies  on  a  bar  of  sand  (the 
'  Den '  =  Dune)  between  river  and  sea,  so  that  it  has  two 
water-sides,  and  its  river-side  was  really  picturesque  last 
night  as  I  saw  it  across  the  river — ships  in  the  harbour, 
and  behind  them  houses  climbing  the  hill,  with  dark  green 
wood  among  them,  behind,  beyond,  stretching  up  the  fair 
Devon  river — evening  light  under  thunder  sky. 

September  19  [from  H.  G.  Dakyns's  house  at  Clifton}. — 
Yesterday  I  finished  my  investigations,  all  except  Bridport. 
Psychical  Research  is  not  disagreeable  when  the  subjects 
of  inquiry  live  in  well-situated  country  houses  and  ask 
one  to  lunch ;  one  feels,  in  fact,  that  one  is  making  the 
best  of  both  worlds.  But  when  (as  on  Wednesday)  one 
travels  from  7  A.M.  to  10  P.M.,  in  abnormal  heat,  on  the 
day  of  the  fair  of  the  neighbourhood,  on  railways  where 
the  regular  practice  is  to  stuff  the  (heated)  3rd-class 
passengers  into  2nd-class  carriages,  the  case  is  altered, 
and  one  has  to  remind  oneself  of  the  sacrifices  made 
by  other  scientific  investigators  in  the  cause  of  truth. 
However,  the  results  are  on  the  whole  satisfactory;  the 
stories  that  become  worse  after  oral  examination  are 
mostly  those  that  we  had  already  judged  to  be  objectionable, 
and  some  are  decidedly  improved  by  the  examination. 


1884,  AGE  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  389 

September  30  [Hillside'].  —  Arthur  [Sidgwick]  has  just 
gone,  having  stayed  from  26th  to  29th.  We  had  much 
talk  about  politics.  .  .  . 

I  think  the  Lords  will  not  give  way.  They  have  taken 
up  a  strong  position  in  which  they  win,  whatever  happens, 
and  establish  a  constitutional  precedent  in  favour  of  their 
claim  to  appeal  to  the  people  against  their  representatives, 
unless  the  Government  place  themselves  at  the  head  of  the 
Radical  attack  on  the  Lords.  ...  I  do  not  think  the  Lords  will 
be  moved  to  give  way  by  fear  of  this  latter  step,  because  (a) 
they  will  think  that  there  is  a  good  chance  of  the  Liberal 
party  breaking  up  over  the  question  ;  and  (i)  surrender  now 
would  leave  them  so  precarious  a  remnant  of  political  power, 
that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  they  would  not  as  a  whole 
have  as  much  or  more  under  any  reformed  system  of 
constructing  the  second  chamber  that  is  likely  to  be 
carried.  .  .  . 

My  Conservative  friends  are  confident  (e.g.  Arthur 
Balfour) — but  perhaps  they  do  not  know  much  of  the  feelings 
of  the  more  weak-kneed  peers.  I  gather  from  what  he  says 
that  the  Tory  tactics  in  the  Lords  are  likely  to  be  somewhat 
different  from  what  they  were  in  the  summer :  they  will 
not  throw  out  the  bill  on  the  second  reading,  but  will 
refuse  to  proceed  with  it  in  committee  till  the  Redistribution 
Bill  comes  up.  This  is  certainly  more  constitutionally 
correct. 

To  G.  0.  Trevelyan  from  Cambridge  on  October  24  (to 
congratulate  him  on  his  change  of  office} 

I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  have  exchanged  a 
turbulent  kingdom  [Ireland]  for  a  well  -  regulated  Duchy 
[Lancaster].  It  is  also  pleasant  that  everybody  is  pleased : 
Liberals  cordial,  Tories  complimentary,  and  even  the  enter- 
taining Parnellites  in  joy  at  having  routed  a  hostile  chief 
secretary  and  driven  him  into  the  Cabinet,  pour  decourager 
les  autres.  I  hope  now  you  will  at  any  rate  have  some 
good  holidays. 

I  think,  if  I  had  nothing  else  to  do,  I  would  make  a 


390  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

political  novel  out  of  your  career  for  these  four  and  a  half 
years.  The  scene  would  open  in  the  Cambridge  Backs  in 
May  1880,  when  we  walked  and  talked  after  you  had  been 
left  out  of  the  Government.  Then  would  come  a  brilliant 
imaginative  description  of  the  Board  of  Admiralty  (piquant 
contrast  of  old  salts  and  red-tapish  landlubbers,  G.  0.  T. 
riding  the  waves  of  controversy).  Then  in  Vol.  II.  the 
more  serious  interest  would  begin.  There  would  be  the 
assassin-hunt  and  the  police-row — low  humour  and  genre- 
painting  got  out  of  the  domestic  relation  of  Irish  criminals 
and  peelers.  As  for  the  love-making  element,  we  might  have 
the  head  of  the  police  and  an  ardent  young  Home-ruler  rivals 
for  the  affections  of  a  beautiful  niece  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 
a  situation  which  offers  so  many  good  endings  that  I  do  not 
know  which  to  choose.  Finally  there  would  be  an  interview 
with  the  Grand  Old  Man  [Gladstone],  who  would  take  to 
prophesying  like  Jacob.  It  might  be  called  "  Through  One 
Administration  "  if  Mrs.  Burnett  did  not  object. 

The  Journal  again  (after  a  month's  interval) 

October  31. — I  had  an  interesting  conversation  last  Satur- 
day with  Arthur  Balfour  on  the  political  situation.  He  con- 
siders that  a  compromise  is  improbable ;  each  side  considers 
that  it  has  scored  by  the  vacation  campaign,  and  probably  each 
side  is  so  far  in  the  right  that  its  own  supporters  have  been 
made  enthusiastic  by  the  strife.  Certainly  the  Conservatives 
think  that  they  have  had  success  ;  they  do  not  claim  to 
have  had  the  largest  number  of  meetings,  but  they  claim  to 
have  had  one  or  two  of  the  biggest  and  best ;  they  think 
that  the  Government  have  failed  because,  having  gone  in 
for  a  national  agitation,  they  have  got  no  more  than  a  party 
demonstration.  Grant  this  to  be  enthusiastic  and  unanimous, 
so  far  as  Liberals  go,  will  it  remain  so  if  the  Government 
attack  the  House  of  Lords  seriously  ?  He  thinks  the 
Liberals  must  lose  at  least  some  Whigs  when  this  develop- 
ment takes  place,  and  that  Gladstone  shrinks  from  it  on 
this  ground.  No  compromise  has  been  suggested  which  is 
not  a  surrender  of  one  side  or  the  other ;  the  Lords — to  put 


1884,  AGE  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  391 

it    on    the    lowest    ground  —  cannot   afford    to   surrender ; 
Gladstone  is  not  likely  to  recognise  the  need  of  it. 

November  6. — JH.  Fawcett.J l  Just  now  I  think  most 
of  the  wonderful  success  and  example  of  this  life,  which  is 
now  beyond  the  reach  of  time  and  change.  Some  lines  of 
Tennyson  run  in  my  head  : — 

0  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong  ! 
He  suffers,  but  he  will  not  suffer  long ; 
For  him  .  .  . 

Not  all  Calamity's  hugest  waves  confound, 
Who  seems  a  promontory  of  rock, 
Tempest-buffeted,  citadel-crowned. 

He  was  a  hero  of  a  peculiar  type,  without  any  outward 
air  of  self-sacrifice  or  suggestion  of  idealism  in  his  ordinary 
talk,  and  yet  one  felt  that  his  determination  to  live  the 
ordinary  life  of  a  man,  and  a  successful  man — who  gives 
pity  and  aid  more  than  he  takes  it — required  a  continual 
sustained  effort  which  did  not  draw  its  force  from  self-love 
alone;  it  continually  demanded  and  obtained  the  further 
force  given  by  the  consciousness  of  the  power  of  serving 
others ;  and  the  needs  of  this  struggle  gave  to  a  nature, 
which,  though  large,  healthy,  and  generous,  was  not  originally 
characterised  by  high  moral  aspiration,  an  elevation  it  would 
not  otherwise  have  had. 

In  spite  of  all  that  I  have  read  of  saints  and  sages,  I 
feel  that  if  grievous  physical  calamity  came  upon  me,  yet 
one  that  left  the  springs  of  physical  energy  unimpaired,  I 
should  turn  for  strength  to  this  example.  I  wonder  how 
many  blind  feel  that  he  has  opened  the  door  of  their 
prison-house  and  shown  them  the  way  back  to  ordinary  life  : 
steep,  yet  one  that  may  be  trodden  by  a  steady  and 
trustful  step. 

November  29  (!). — Grumbling.  Again  a  month  without 
a  journal ;  but  I  do  not  give  up  all  hope.  I  have  had  for 
the  whole  month  a  bad  cold,  cough,  irritation  of  mucous 
membrane,  consequent  headaches,  collapse  in  the  evenings, 
etc. :  so  that  the  waves  of  work  and  business  have  closed 

1  Fawcett  died  on  November  6,  1884. 


392  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

over  me,  and  I  have  been  living  from  hand  to  mouth.  In 
a  fortnight  more  all  this  will  have  come  to  an  end. 

As  for  the  results  of  the  month,  they  present  themselves 
to  me  as  gloomy,  which  perhaps  may  be  due  in  various 
ways  to  the  irritation  of  the  M.M.  But  I  seem  to  have 
failed  so  far  as  Professor — perhaps  partly  from  my  colds 
and  coughs  ! — at  any  rate  both  my  classes  l  have  grown  small 
by  degrees  and  beautifully  less.  And  I  am  growing 
doubtful  as  to  my  general  line  in  academic  organisation ;  I 
am  beset  with  a  fear  that  all  my  efforts  to  make  professorial 
teaching  effective  by  making  it  quasi-tutorial  will  fall 
between  two  stools  and  produce  neither  good  teaching  or 
good  research.  And  Psychical  Research  is  growing  dark  and 
difficult ;  I  am  shaken  in  my  view  of  telepathic  evidence  by 

the  breakdown  of  Sir  E.  H 's  narrative  in  the  Nineteenth 

Century.  Here  is  a  man  tells  an  elaborate  story  of  what 
happened  to  him  less  than  ten  years  ago,  and  his  wife  (who 
was  an  actor  in  the  drama)  confirms  it,  and  her  mother 
bears  witness  that  the  wife  told  her  next  morning  :  and  yet 
the  story  is  altogether  inaccurate  in  fundamental  points — it 
is  indeed  difficult  to  understand  how  any  of  it  can  be  true. 

About  Politics  alone  I  am  not  gloomy ;  my  expectations 
have  been  agreeably  disappointed  by  the  Compromise.2  I 
have  always  said  that  there  was  no  reason  why  both  parties 
should  not  secure  what  they  professed  to  be  concerned  about, 
though  I  did  not  think  it  would  be  done  in  this  way.  The 
general  verdict  seems  to  be  (so  far  as  discernible  among  the 
vociferations  of  parties)  that  the  "  Tories  mark  honours,  and 
Gladstone  marks  the  trick."  It  fixes  Lord  Salisbury  pretty 
steady  in  his  seat :  though  whether  his  seat  itself  is  steady 
— with  the  tide  of  democracy  roaring  within  as  well  as 
without  the  Tory  pale — seems  questionable. 

I  have  been  reading  Maine  in  the  Quarterly — the  best 
anti-democratic  writing  that  we  have  had.  He  dined  with 
us  this  evening :  seems  really  concerned  that  we  have  no 

1  He  was  lecturing  on  Elementary  Political  Philosophy  three  times,  and 
on  the  History  of  Modern  Political  Philosophy  twice  a  week. 

3  Effected  by  an  agreement  between  the  leaders  of  the  two  parties  in 
private  conference  as  to  the  lines  of  the  Redistribution  Bill  to  be  passed. 


1884,  AGE  46  HENEY  SIDGWICK  393 

proper  constitution  in  England  :  thinks  it  would  be  a  real  gain 
to  have  a  constitutional  code  settled  by  Act  of  Parliament. 
Of  course  it  could  not  have  binding  force  for  future 
Parliaments,  but — there  is  valuable  efficacy  in  the  written 
word ;  if  judiciously  written  it  would  be  difficult  to  alter. 
The  genuine  alarm  that  M.  seems  to  feel  at  the  existing  state 
of  things  in  England  impressed  me  much,  since  his  intellect 
has  always  seemed  to  me  a  very  cool  and  disengaged  one. 

December  20  ! — Habit  of  journalising  not  yet  formed.  And 
yet  I  have  from  time  to  time  in  the  day  many  thoughts 
that  I  am  disposed  to  commit  fido  libello  and  also  fido  amico, 
but  when  evening  comes,  I  lack  the  impulse  to  write. 

Arthur  Balfour  has  been  with  us ;  he  thinks  strongly 
that  his  party  have  been  well  guided,  and  gained  prestige 
by  the  conflict  and  compromise  ;  but  he  is  by  no  means 
triumphant — hardly  even  cheerful — about  the  future.  He 
thinks  single-member  constituencies1  are  the  best  method 
of  securing  representation  of  minorities  that  the  people  will 
accept,  but  that  the  whole  arrangement  may  be  overthrown 
if  there  is  a  strong  feeling  worked  up  against  it  in  the  big 
towns.  (This  was  ten  days  ago.  Now  it  looks  as  if  the 
arrangement  would  certainly  stand.  Myself,  I  prefer  '  pro- 
portional representation ' :  but  its  advocates  seem  to  me  to 
be  flogging  a  dead  horse  now.) 

On  the  whole,  I  should  say  that  Gladstone's  strategy  as 
regards  this  Bill  has  been  good,  if  one  reviews  its  history 
as  a  whole,  but  that  his  tactics  in  July  were  clearly 
mistaken.  He  has  made  Tories  and  Peers  take  a  great  leap 
towards  democracy,  but  he  has  let  them  pluck  laurels  in  the 
precipitate  descent. 

December  2 1 . — My  nephew,  A  C.  Benson,  came  to  dinner 
this  evening.  He  told  me  that  in  theology  Westcott  was 
the  one  man  exercising  influence,  but  that  he  (A.  C.  B.) 
could  not  get  hold  of  his  method.  He  thinks  Westcott 
very  like  Maurice  as  he  appears  in  the  biography.  They 
certainly  have  the  common  characteristic  of  continually  offer- 
ing to  their  opponents  an  intellectual  sympathy  which  the 
1  As  arranged  in  the  "Compromise." 


394  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

latter,  with  the  utmost  gratitude,  are  quite  unable  to  accept. 
The  difference  is  that  Westcott  is  orthodox  in  his  conclusions, 
and  only  paradoxical  in  his  arguments,  whereas  Maurice 
was  to  some  extent  paradoxical  in  both. 

December  22-26. — I  have  had  rather  an  exciting  five 
days,  rendered  more  agitated  towards  the  end  by  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  P.  O.  about  Christmas  time.  I  will  put  down 
the  main  points  : — 

The  story  begins  on  December  13,  when  we  elected 
Alfred  Marshall  Professor  of  Political  Economy.  He  came 
here  on  December  17,  called  on  us,  heard  my  view  of  the 
lectures  required,  then  suddenly  broke  out.  I  had  pro- 
duced on  him  the  impression  of  a  petty  tyrant  "  dressed  in  a 
little  brief  authority "  (Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Moral 
Science)  who  wished  to  regulate,  trammel,  hamper  a  man 
who  knew  more  about  the  subject  than  I  did.  I  tried  to 
explain,  and  we  parted  friends ;  but  the  explanation  was 
imperfect,  correspondence  ensued,  and  on  Tuesday  (23)  I 
received  from  him  a  long  and  very  impressive  letter,  analys- 
ing my  academic  career,  and  pointing  out  that  the  one 
source  of  failure  in  it  was  my  mania  for  over-regulation. 
The  result  of  this  had  been  that  my  energies  had  been 
frittered  away  on  details  of  administration,  and  on  the  effort 
to  give  a  wretched  handful  of  undergraduates  the  particular 
teaching  that  they  required  for  the  Moral  Sciences  Tripos. 
He  contrasted  my  lecture-room,  in  which  a  handful  of  men 
are  taking  down  what  they  regard  as  useful  for  examination, 
with  that  of  [T.  H.]  Green,  in  which  a  hundred  men — half 
of  them  B.A/s — ignoring  examinations,  were  wont  to  hang 
on  the  lips  of  the  man  who  was  sincerely  anxious  to  teach 
them  the  truth  about  the  universe  and  human  life.  I  have 
left  out  the  partly  courteous,  partly  affectionate  —  for 
Marshall  is  an  old  friend — padding  of  the  letter,  by  which 
he  meant  to  soften  the  pressure  of  these  hard  truths,  but 
this  is  the  substance. 

I  was  much  interested  by  this  letter :  *  reflected  on  my 

1  As  regards  Sidgwick's  attitude  towards  criticism  we  may  quote  the 
following  sentences  written  by  him  to  his  wife  a  year  or  two  later,  though 


1884,  AGE  46  HENEY  SIDGWICK  395 

own  life  and  career:  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  1 
would  write  down  my  own  view  of  the  causes  of  my 
academic  failure — I  mean  my  failure  to  attract  men  on  a 
large  scale. 

First,  My  Character  and  Opinions.  Once,  in  reading 
Bagehot's  article  on  Clough,  I  noted  a  few  sentences  which 
struck  me  as  applying  also  to  myself.  As  follows  : — 

"  Though  without  much  fame,  he  had  no  envy.  But  he 
had  a  strong  realism.  He  saw  what  it  is  considered  cynical 
to  see — the  absurdities  of  many  persons,  the  pomposities  of 
many  creeds,  the  splendid  zeal  with  which  missionaries  rush 
on  to  teach  what  they  do  not  know,  the  wonderful  earnest- 
ness with  which  most  incomplete  solutions  of  the  universe 
are  thrust  upon  us  as  complete  and  satisfying."  (This 
represents  my  relation  to  T.  H.  G.  and  his  work.)  "  '  Le 
fond  de  la  Providence/  says  the  French  novelist,  '  c'est 
1'ironie.'  Mr.  Clough  would  not  have  said  that,  but  he 
knew  .  .  .  what  was  the  portion  of  truth  contained  in  it. 
Undeniably  this  is  an  odd  world,  whether  it  should  have 
been  so  or  no ;  and  all  our  speculations  upon  it  should 
begin  with  some  admission  of  its  strangeness  and  singularity. 
The  habit  of  dwelling  upon  such  thoughts  as  these  will  not 
of  itself  make  a  man  happy,  and  may  make  unhappy  one 
who  is  inclined  to  be  so." 

I,  however,  am  not  unhappy  ;  for  Destiny,  which  bestowed 
on  me  the  dubious  gift  of  this  vue  d'ensemble,  also  gave  me 
richly  all  external  sources  of  happiness — friends,  a  wife, 
congenial  occupation,  freedom  from  material  cares — but, 
feeling  that  the  deepest  truth  I  have  to  tell  is  by  no  means 
"  good  tidings,"  I  naturally  shrink  from  exercising  on  others 
the  personal  influence  which  would  make  men  [resemble]  me, 
as  much  as  men  more  optimistic  and  prophetic  naturally  aim 

not  exactly  applying  to  the  present  case  : —  "I  am  sorry  you  are  plagued 

with   the  correspondence  with ;    at  the   same  time  I  cannot  help 

thinking  that  you  may  derive  instruction  from  this,  and  from  the  criticisms 
in  Light,  if  you  can  get  yourself  into  the  state  of  mind  of  taking  a  large 
amount  of  misunderstanding  and  misrepresentation  as  inevitable,  and  merely 
endeavour  to  extract  the  grains  of  useful  suggestion.  At  least,  I  myself 
have  always  learnt  from  criticism  when  I  could  get  into  this  state  of  mind 
about  it." 


396  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

at  exercising  such  influence.  Hence  as  a  teacher  I  naturally 
desire  to  limit  my  teaching  to  those  whose  bent  or  deliberate 
choice  it  is  to  search  after  ultimate  truth ;  if  such  come  to 
me,  I  try  to  tell  them  all  I  know  ;  if  others  come  with 
vaguer  aims,  I  wish  if  possible  to  train  their  faculties  with- 
out guiding  their  judgments.  I  would  not  if  I  could,  and  I 
could  not  if  I  would,  say  anything  which  would  make 
philosophy — my  philosophy — popular. 

As  for  "  over-regulation,"  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is 
an  element  of  truth  in  it  and  an  element  of  error.  I  have 
no  desire  to  have  my  own  way — not  knowing  sufficiently 
what  way  is  my  own;  still  less  to  coerce  others.  But  I  have 
a  great  desire  in  all  social  relations  for  definite  understand- 
ings ;  not  knowing  what  road  is  best  for  humanity  to  walk 
in,  I  want  all  roads  that  claim  to  be  roads  to  be  well  made 
and  hedged  in.  This  impulse  may  no  doubt  mislead  to 
pharisaism  and  mere  schematism  that  devitalises  the  courses 
that  kind  nature  keeps — perhaps  it  has  misled  me. 

January  1,  1885. — This  last  sentence  was  finished  at 
Addington  Park,1  where  I  now  write  on  New  Year's  Day. 
I  am  always  impressed  here  with  a  strange  sense  of  the 
vitality  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  its  power  of  function- 
ing intellectually  and  morally  in  the  atmosphere  of  modern 
scientific  and  social  thought.  At  Cambridge  I  get  into  the 
way  of  regarding  it  as  something  that  once  was  alive  and 
growing,  but  now  exists  merely  because  it  is  a  pillar  or 
buttress  of  uncertain  value  in  a  complicated  edifice  that  no 
one  wants  just  now  to  take  to  pieces.  Here,  however,  I 
feel  rather  as  if  I  were  contemplating  a  big  fish  out  of 
water,  propelling  itself  smoothly  and  gaily  over  the  high 
road. 

January  3,  1885. — Went  from  Addington  to  London  for 
the  Sunday.  Nora  immersed  herself  in  the  Phantasms  of  the 
Living,  with  a  view  to  conference  [regarding  the  proposed 
book]  on  Sunday  evening.  I  read  Taine  (Origines  de  la 
France  Contemporaine)  at  the  Athenaeum.  Certainly  the 
book  is  a  remarkable  success — so  enchaining,  and  on  so  trite 
1  His  brother-in-law's,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


1885,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  397 

a  subject.  But  it  seems  to  me  essentially  deficient  in 
sympathy  and  therefore  in  real  penetration.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  maintain  a  scientific  attitude  of  mind :  but  the 
physicist  must  have  his  senses  acute  and  alert  to  perform 
a  fine  scientific  analysis  accurately,  and  sympathy  is  an 
indispensable  sense  of  the  scientific  historian. 

January  5. — Went  to  Whittingehame  (10  A.M.  to  7.13 
P.M.)  ;  read  Fowler's  Progressive  Morality  for  Mind — not  a 
strong  book,  but  the  sort  of  book  that  is  wanted.  I  think  I 
can  praise  it  mildly,  but  sufficiently  to  prevent  a  breach  of 
friendship.  Henry  Butcher  met  us  at  York,  and  rode  in 
our  carriage  from  Newcastle  to  Berwick.  He  tells  me  that 
he  does  not  know  a  man  in  Ireland,  even  among  those  who 
were  its  strongest  advocates,  who  does  not  think  the 
joint-ownership  established  by  the  Irish  Land  Act  unwork- 
able ;  some  mode  of  transferring  the  complete  ownership  to 
the  tenants  appears  an  absolute  necessity.  The  question  is, 
who  is  to  run  the  risk  of  lending  the  purchase  -money  ? 
Apart  from  the  political  danger,  I  should  be  quite  willing 
that  the  British  tax-payer  should  run  it :  but  now  ? 

January  6. — Settled  down  to  the  life  of  luxury  and 
literary  ease  which  I  always  enjoy  here  and  in  which  I  revel, 
though  with  some  moral  self-contempt  for  the  disproportion 
of  my  'wages'  to  my  'work.'  However,  the  perusal  of  the 
different  reviews  of  my  book,1  which  I  reserved  for  the  vaca- 
tion, is  a  tonic ! 

January  7. — Head  reviews  of  my  book  and  talked  to 
A.  J.  B.  His  chances  for  Manchester  seem  to  be  improved 
by  the  single-member  system,  which  he  thinks  now  pretty 
safe.2 

January  8. — Read  and  made  notes  of  reviews  and  private 
criticisms.  The  total  result  is  just  not  unfavourable  enough 
to  make  me  decide  not  to  bring  out  a  second  edition.  It 
will  not  be  difficult  to  remove  most  of  the  weak  places 

1  The  Principles  of  Political  Economy.     Sidgwick's  practice  was  to  defer 
reading  reviews  till  he  had  collected  all,  when  he  generally  found  that  a  good 
many  cancelled  each  other  out. 

2  Arthur  Balfour  was  at  this  time  member  for  Hertford,  but  was  a  candi- 
date for  the  East  Manchester  constituency  at  the  next  election. 


398  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

successfully  attacked  by  the  critics — except  the  one  damning 
defect  of  long-winded  and  difficult  dulness.  Even  this  I 
shall  try  to  diminish.  I  feel  inclined  to  jump  over  chairs 
like  the  German  baron — "  pour  apprendre  a  etre  vif." 

January  1 1 . — Began  "  improving  "  my  book.  Can  not  help 
thinking  all  the  time  of  a  "  sow's  ear."  My  imagination  is 
filled  with  that  intractable  material 

January  12. — Talbots  (of  Keble),  who  have  been  here,  are 
gone.  We  have  had  some  interesting  talks — especially  about 
expenditure  of  wealth,  on  which  I  have  promised  to  write 
to  him.  I  like  his  type  of  Christianity ;  it  accepts  the 
modern  time  with  a  kind  of  simple  and  trustful  openness  to 
truth  which  is  very  attractive.  Some  day  I  shall  ask  him 
how  he  gets  (logically)  at  his  creed. 

January  26. — We  have  just  settled  down  again  at  Cam- 
bridge. .  .  .  Why  have  I  not  kept  this  diary  ?  I  am  afraid 
it  was  because,  during  my  last  week  at  Whittingehame,  1 
fell  into  the  habit  of  surrendering  myself  to  the  pleasure 
of  the  evening  in  the  form  partly  of  French  novels,  partly 
the  anecdotes  and  arguments  of  Mr.  Henry  J.  Howorth. 
Mr.  Howorth  deserves  a  description.  He  is  a  Manchester 
barrister,  an  active  politician,  member  of  Arthur  Balfour's 
Conservative  committee  there.  He  has  written  a  book  on 
the  history  of  the  Mongols.  The  first  day  of  his  arrival 
he  gave  me  three  pamphlets  on  metaphysics.  The  second 
evening  he  entertained  us  with  an  account  of  his  con- 
troversy with  Freeman  on  early  English  History.  It  was 
not  till  the  third  day,  when  I  took  him  out  walking,  that  I 
discovered  that  his  real  passion — just  now — is  geology,  on 
which  he  discoursed  to  me  for  an  interesting  hour.  .  .  . 
It  is  really  refreshing  to  find,  at  this  date,  a  man  who 
reads  and  writes  about  what  he  pleases,  and  snaps  his  fingers 
at  the  Division  of  Labour. 

These  days  at  Whittingehame,  with  Political  Economy, 
Howorth,  and  other  Tories,  were  instructive  but  depressing. 
Their  criticism  on  the  present  phase  of  Radicalism  seems  to 
me  unanswerable.  Am  I  then  becoming  a  Tory  ?  Perhaps, 
but  a  strange  one.  Whoever  saw  a  Tory  dressed  (symboli- 


1885,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  399 

cally)  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  bewailing  the  necessity 
of  conserving  our  glorious  Constitution  pro  tern.  ? 

On  the  coldest  afternoon,  with  snow  beneath  and  around, 
we  mildly  tobogganed,  but  with  Canadian  toboggans,  which 
appear  to  be  different  from  the  Davos  ones — longer  and 
narrower ;  you  sit  and  lie  down  in  them.  I  gathered  that 
the  Davos  instrument  is  more  what  in  Canada  is  called  a 
"  bob-sleigh." 

On  the  19th  I  went  back  to  Cambridge,  and  on  the  20th 
lectured  on  early  English  Political  Economy  1 — before  Locke. 
Heading  the  growth  of  England's  commercial  greatness  rouses 
a  mixture  of  curiosity  and  patriotic  anxiety ;  it  seems  clear 
that  we  are  past  all  culmination,  relatively  speaking,  and  it 
would  be  contrary  to  all  historic  precedents  that  we  should 
not  go  down  hill ;  but  will  it  be  by  destructive,  disastrous 
shocks,  or  gradual  painless  decline  ?  That,  I  fear,  is  the  only 
question  of  practical  importance ;  but  who  can  answer  it  ? 

January  30. — Went  up  to  London  to  the  Industrial 
Conference — it  was  interesting  enough — not  so  much  to  hear 
what  the  delegates  said,  for  those  best  worth  hearing  (e.g., 
a  miner  and  an  agricultural  labourer)  did  not  seem  to  have 
practised  speeches  of  ten  minutes'  length,  and  had  to  sit 
down  just  as  they  were  getting  to  the  point :  but  it  was 
interesting  to  hear  their  tone  and  observe  what  they  cheered. 
On  the  whole,  I  was  pleased  with  the  men  of  the  North.  I 
do  not  think  the  acrid  declamatory  Socialism  which  has  its 
home  in  London  will  go  down  with  the  people  of  Lancashire 
and  Yorkshire.  No  doubt  they  have  now  inclinations  to- 
wards wild  panaceas  as  regards  land ;  but  I  think  they  have 
a  practical  turn  of  mind,  and  will  not  be  led  far  astray. 
The  'Liberty  and  Property  '  defender  was  a  complete  failure. 
Individualism  of  the  extreme  kind  has  clearly  had  its  day. 

In  the  afternoon  we  had  a  successful  S.P.E.  meeting. 
Nora's  paper  on  "  Phantasms  of  the  Dead  "  read  very  well, 
I  thought.  I  fear  it  was  disappointing  to  the  audience,  as 
it  poured  cold  water,  in  a  lucid  and  impartial  manner,  on 
more  than  nine-tenths  of  our  ghost -stories.  The  task  of 

1  Probably  as  part  of  the  course  on  History  of  Political  Philosophy. 


400  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

dealing  with  the  small  fraction  that  remain  is  much  harder ; 
we  are  hardly  feeling  our  way  to  a  view.  It  looks  as  if 
there  was  some  cause  for  persons  experiencing  independently 
similar  hallucinations  in  certain  houses,  but  we  are  not  at 
present  inclined  to  back  ghosts  against  the  field  as  the  cause. 

February  2. — I  came  [back]  to  Cambridge  to  be  admitted 
a  Fellow  of  Trinity.  Quantum  mutatus  db  illo  socio  admitted 
twenty-five  years  ago.  The  tempora  are  also  considerably 
mutata.  Last  time  I  swore  that  I  would  drive  away  strange 
doctrine ;  this  time  I  only  pledged  myself  to  restore  any 
College  property  that  might  be  in  my  possession  when  I 
ceased  to  be  a  Fellow.  In  the  evening  I  feasted  in  a  scarlet 
gown ;  felt  middle-aged  and  pompous,  but  loyal  at  heart, 
and  glad  to  be  at  home  again  in  my  College. 

February  7. — Presided  to-day  at  a  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation  meeting,  called  to  discuss  the  application  of  the 
principle  of  P.R  to  University  Constituencies.  Good  speech 
by  P.  Lyttelton  Gell  of  Balliol,  who  came  over  for  the 
purpose.  It  appears  that  many  Liberals,  reduced  to  despair 
by  the  big  Tory  majorities,  are  determined  to  abolish  Uni- 
versity seats.  .  .  .  Hence,  to  save  the  seats,  this  idea  of  apply- 
ing Proportional  Eepresentation  to  them  has  been  started. 
It  is  proposed  to  tie  Oxford  and  Cambridge  into  one  con- 
stituency, which  would  afford  one  Liberal  seat.  The  sugges- 
tion is  opportune,  but  I  cannot  think  it  will  have  sufficient 
support  to  make  it  worth  while  to  agitate  about  it,  unless 
Proportional  Representation  generally  becomes  much  more 
alive  than  it  now  is.  ...  Meeting  small,  perhaps  because 
distant  Khartoum  absorbs  too  much  attention.  .  .  . 

February  16. — Hiatus!  The  agitating  times  and  the 
struggle  to  do  Political  Economy  combined  have  caused  this 
collapse.  Not  that  I  exactly  share  the  sentiment  about 
Gordon :  I  cannot  satisfy  myself  that  he  is  not  partly  to 
blame  for  our  troubles.  I  think  none  the  worse  of  a  hero 
for  being  a  fanatic ;  but  a  fanatic  is  liable  to  obey  no  orders 
except  God's  in  a  crisis.  I  cannot  think  that  the  Govern- 
ment were  quite  blind  enough  to  drift  by  themselves  into 
this  horrible  mess.  I  conceive  that  they  had  one  policy 


1885,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  401 

and  he  another,  and  that  he,  taking  his  own  heroic  line, 
dragged  them  after  him  reluctantly,  and  therefore  too  late. 
I  console  myself  by  thinking  that  I  know  nothing  of 
warfare,  for  if  I  trusted  my  judgment  I  should  think  our 
little  army  must  be  in  extreme  danger.  .  .  . 

Dilke l  lunched  with  us  yesterday.  I  did  not  like  to 
talk  about  Egypt.  He  said  he  thought  the  movement  for 
applying  proportional  representation  to  the  Universities 
might  succeed,  not  now,  but  in  a  few  years.  .  .  . 

February  19. — Dined  with  Protheros  and  met  Stopford 
Brooke ;  should  like  him  if  he  did  not  look  so  just  the  Irish 
popular  preacher.  He  told  me  that  Burne- Jones  and  Morris 
breakfast  together  every  Sunday,  and  that  a  week  or  two 
ago  B.-J.  told  him,  with  tears  of  joy  in  his  eyes,  that  they 
had  had  a  real  talk  about  Art  the  Sunday  before,  the  first 
time  for  many  months,  Socialism  having  all  this  time  been 
the  sole  topic  !  Met  Eobertson  Smith  there  ;  the  little  man 
flowed,  entertained,  domineered,  almost  as  usual. 

February  22. — J.  W.  Cross  came  yesterday  for  the 
night.  We  talked  about  his  book  [George  Eliot's  Life']. 
He  tells  me  5000  copies  are  sold,  so,  as  it  is  a  two-guinea 
book,  the  publisher  is  no  doubt  happy.  Granting  the  plan 
of  the  book — i.e.  that  it  is  to  be  a  quasi-autobiography  made 
up  of  letters,  and  thus  aiming  at  an  exhibition  of  the  inner 
life  almost  exclusively — it  seems  to  me  a  remarkable 
success ;  at  any  rate,  I  closed  the  third  volume  with  as 
powerful  a  sense  of  a  great  and  rare  personality  as  I  have 
ever  had  from  a  biography.  And  the  little  Cross  has  allowed 
himself  to  write  is  certainly  well  done — modest,  tactful,  and 
what  the  reader  wants.  The  only  nasty  review  that  I  have 
seen  is  the  Saturday ;  but  as  the  dominant  tone  of  the  S.R. 
is  a  combination  of  conceited  orthodoxy  and  cynical  worldli- 
ness,  I  do  not  see  how  it  could  do  otherwise  than  snarl 
and  spit  at  a  life  so  serenely  heretical,  constantly  aspiring, 
and  deliberately  emotional. 

February  24. — Nora  went  to  Newnham  to  celebrate — 
with  speeches  and  dancing — the  anniversary  of  the  admission 

1  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs. 

2D 


402  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

of  women  to  University  examinations.  On  the  same  day 
Marshall  gave  his  inaugural  lecture,  containing  the  threatened 
declaration  of  war  against  me  and  my  efforts  at  University 
organisation.  I  did  not  go  to  hear  him,  but  I  am  told  that 
it  was  courteously  expressed,  though  unmistakable  to  the 
initiated.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  without — I 
think — pique  or  undue  despondency,  that  I  must  abandon 
my  efforts.  Too  many  forces  are  against  me — Westcott, 
Seeley,  and  now  Marshall.  Jackson,  who  is  the  only 
member  of  the  Board  who  cordially  and  strongly  agrees 
with  me,  avows  that  he  is  quite  hopeless.  And,  after  all,  it 
is  easy  to  overvalue  organisation,  and  at  any  rate  well  to 
know  in  time  when  a  line  has  to  be  abandoned.  "  I  will 
bury  myself  in  my  books,  and  the  Devil " — who,  I  suppose, 
is  the  great  anti-organiser — "may  pipe  to  his  own." 

The  Great  Debate  has  begun.  I  prophesy  that  the 
Government  case  will  look  better  after  the  debate  than  it 
does  now.  The  Government  has  got  into  a  terrible  situa- 
tion ;  and  no  doubt  it  is  now  clear  that  they  ought  either 
not  to  have  sent  Gordon  at  all,  or  to  have  backed  him  up 
earlier.  But  if  it  had  turned  out  well,  what  an  achieve- 
ment it  would  have  been  to  have  pacified  the  Soudan  with- 
out wasting  a  soldier !  It  was  a  piece  of  highly  speculative 
politics  which  has  failed. 

February  27. — What  an  absurd  thing  this  debate  is !  I 
can  understand  turning  out  the  Government  because  they 
have  failed ;  that  wants  but  few  words  to  argue ;  but  to 
try  to  make  them  say  exactly  how  they  are  going  to  get  out 
of  their  hole  seems  to  me  pernicious  folly.  Such  declara- 
tions may  hamper  them  seriously  at  [a]  critical  point,  since 
they  won't  like  to  get  out  of  it  any  other  way  but  that 
which  they  have  undertaken  to  try.  Let  them  get  out  any 
way  they  can,  so  long  as  they  can  avoid  disaster  and  pre- 
vent a  rolling  wave  of  Mohammedan  fanaticism  from  pouring 
down  upon  Egypt.  I  think,  however,  that  I  want  the 
Government  to  be  turned  out,  on  the  whole — to  change  the 
luck !  But  I  should  be  much  surprised  at  its  happening. 

March  2. — Returned  from  staying  at — Keble  !     As  the 


1885,  AGE  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  403 

Doge  said  to  Francis  I.,  the  most  remarkable  thing  was  to 
find  myself  there.  But,  in  fact,  the  extent  to  which  I  really 
get  on — not  only  externally,  but  in  intimate  conversation 
—with  Talbot  is  less  remarkable  to  me  than  it  was :  since 
I  have  come  to  know  that  we  agree  in  two  characteristics, 
which  [are]  quite  independent  of  formal  creeds — a  belief 
that  we  can  learn,  and  a  determination  that  we  will  learn, 
from  people  of  the  most  opposite  opinions.  /  acquired  these 
characteristics  in  the  dear  old  days  of  the  Apostles  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  I  wonder  where  Talbot  acquired  them. 

On  Saturday  was  a  meeting  of  a  Branch  of  the  S.P.R.  at 
Oxford.  ...  I  heard  that  certain  dons  are  concerned  about 
this  movement,  being  afraid  that  it  will  "  unsettle  the  mind  " 
of  young  Oxford,  which  reminded  me  of  the  man  who  felt 
himself  ill  after  a  city  dinner  in  consequence  of  having 
imprudently  taken  a  walnut. 

March  7. — Went  up  yesterday  to  the  dinner  of  the 
Political  Economy  Club.  It  is  astonishing  how  little 
Political  Economy  these  people  know.  Thorold  Rogers 
knows  a  little,  and  thinks  he  knows  all  there  is  to  be 
known.  Courtney  knows  a  good  deal  in  his  old-fashioned 
style,  and  must  be  confirmed  in  his  economic  orthodoxy  by 
his  justifiable  consciousness  of  his  superiority  to  almost 
every  one  else  there.  I  found  myself  in  the  position  of 
defending  Ricardo. 

Spent  the  night  at  Bryce's ;  met  Lord  Acton,  who  told 
me  that  Cross  was  much  disappointed  at  his  review  of 
"  George  Eliot's  Life  "  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.  I  am  not 
surprised,  for,  though  it  is  the  best  and  most  interesting 
review  that  has  appeared,  it  has  the  defect  of  trying  her 
throughout  by  a  standard  which  is  really  irrelevant ;  he 
keeps  pointing  out  that  at  this  or  the  other  stage  of  her 
development  she  did  not  know  what  a  thoroughly  educated 
person  of  first-class  ability  and  unimpaired  leisure  would 
have  known.  Also  he  has  an  odd  way  of  throwing  down 
statements  of  the  most  disputable  kind  with  the  air  of 
saying  what  is  not  only  generally  admitted,  but  trite ;  as 
when  he  says  that  she  did  not  take  to  Shakespeare  on 


404  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP.  M 

account  of  his  "  insularity  "  and  the  "  obviousness  "  of  his 
characters. 

However,  it  is  an  interesting  article,  and  he  is  an 
interesting  man  with  his  vast  learning,  and  a  sort  of  modest 
communicativeness  of  ready  generalisations.  He  does  not 
so  much  strike  me  as  a  remarkable  man,  but  rather  as  a  man 
like  most  of  us  who  get  first-classes  and  fellowships,  but  one 
whose  youthful  eagerness  to  learn  has  had  fair  and  full 
play.  And  yet  Cui  Bono  ?  since  it  seems  very  doubtful 
whether  he  will  publish  anything. 

Had  a  pleasant  talk  to  Bryce  about  his  book  on  the 
United  States.  I  think  it  ought  to  be  the  book  of  the 
season  next  year.  The  Americans  believe  in  him :  and  I 
think  he  will  manage  to  produce  a  favourable  impression  of 
them  in  the  English  mind  without  an  air  of  parti  pris — 
since  he  by  no  means  thinks  democracy  has  broken  down — 
and  also  to  tell  them  plain  truths  without  losing  their 
goodwill.  If  I  am  right,  it  will  be  a  feat  to  have  produced 
the  combined  result.  C.  H.  Pearson  was  there,  believing 
in  Australia  as  much  as  ever,  but  personally  much  disposed 
to  return  to  England,  if  the  mother-country  would  make 
him  a  good  offer. 

March  12.  —  Have  just  finished  Pattison's  Memoir; 
curious  as  an  unconscious  confession  of  sordid  egotism, 
mingling  with  a  genuine  ardour  for  an  academic  ideal  of 
life.  Very  odd  that  a  man  of  so  much  intellectual  calibre 
appears  never  to  have  turned  on  his  own  character  the  cold 
and  bitter  criticism  that  he  applies  to  others.  In  spite  of 
my  sympathy  with  his  views,  I  cannot  but  admit  that  his 
life  is  a  moral  fiasco,  which  the  orthodox  have  a  right  to 
point  to  as  a  warning  against  infidelity.  The  fiasco  is  far 
worse  than  Carlyle's,  though  the  fall  is  from  a  lower 
pedestal. 

March  16. — Returned  from  pleasant  visit  at  Hall's 
(Six  Mile  Bottom)  refreshed  with  merry  jests  and  genial 
hospitality.  Talked  to  J.  W.  Cross  about  Lord  Acton's 
article,  which  has  rather  vexed  him.  I  urged  the  profound 
admiration  implied  throughout  —  though  here  and  there 


1885,  AGE  46  HENEY  SIDGWICK  405 

dissembled — and  emphatically  expressed  at  the  close.  .   .  . 

Miss was  there ;  I  liked  her  personally ;  she  is  not 

at  all  conceited  to  talk  to,  and  her  occasional  efforts  to  be 
sententious  are  rather  agreeable  ;  the  superciliousness  of  her 
style  seems  to  belong  to  her  pen  or  her  ink,  like  some 
people's  humour  and  other  people's  fine  sentiments.  But 
her  socialism — which  we  all  employed  ourselves  in  drawing 
— seemed  to  me  a  crude  affair  ;  she  reminded  me  of  Carlyle's 
saying  of  Mrs.  J.  S.  Mill  (when  Mrs.  Taylor),  that  she  had 
a  "  deal  of  unwise  intellect." 

March   22. — On  Friday  last   we   went   to   Brighton   to 
experiment  in  Mesmerism.  .  .  . 

We  talked  over  Theosophy,  of  which  Hodgson  keeps  us 
amply  informed  by  weekly  accounts  [from  India]  of  his 
investigation.1  His  opinion  of  the  evidence  seems  to  be 
growing  steadily  more  unfavourable ;  but  there  are  still 
some  things  difficult  to  explain  on  the  theory  of  fraud.  I 
have  no  doubt,  however,  that  Blavatsky  has  done  most  of 
it.  She  is  a  great  woman. 

I  am  trying  to  find  out  what  people  are  thinking  about 
in  London.  Nothing  lively.  The  Tories  have  said  so  often 
that  the  country  was  going  to  the  dogs,  that  now  that  they 
really  bond  fide  think  it  is  going  they  seem  merely  paralysed 
and  languid.  They  do  not  even  abuse  Gladstone  in  the  old 
style ;  the  only  sarcasm  I  have  heard  is  that  '  the  Mahdi 
has  telegraphed  to  Wilfrid  Blunt  expressing  a  wish  to 
subscribe  to  the  Gordon  Memorial ! '  It  is  partly  the  im- 
possibility of  turning  the  Government  out,  and  partly  a  deep 
distrust  of  the  democratic  plunge  that  they  have  agreed  to 
take  with  a  good  grace. 

Nor  does  there  seem  any  excitement  about  the  Eussian 
quarrel ; 2  the  truth  is  that  in  spite  of  the  newspapers  no 
one  can  believe  that  Gladstone  will  go  to  war  with  Eussia 
— the  irony  of  history  does  not  reach  this  pitch ! 

March    26. — Have   been  reading   Marius  the  Epicurean 

1  Dr.  Hodgson  had  been  sent  out  by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
to  investigate  'Theosophy.'     For  his  Report  see  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  iii. 

2  About   the    frontier   of  Afghanistan;    leading   to   the    "Penjdeh   in- 
cident." 


406  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

with  an  adequate  amount  of  serene  satisfaction.  I  think  it 
is  a  success — as  much  a  success  as  Pater  is  capable  of.  Its 
interest  depends,  for  me,  entirely  on  style  and  treatment ;  I 
not  only  do  not  care  about  Marius's  moods  and  phases,  but 
I  can  hardly  imagine  that  the  author  seriously  expects  me 
to  care  about  them.  But  the  pictures  of  ancient  life  are 
sweet,  transparent,  delicate ;  and  though  laboured,  yet  not 
so  that  the  reader  is  made  to  feel  the  weariness  of  the 
labour — he  rather  feels  flattered  by  the  trouble  this  scholarly 
person  has  taken  to  please  him.  In  short,  it  is  a  "  bland  " 
and  "  select "  book,  "  gracious "  certainly,  if  not  exactly 
"  opulent "  ; — and  its  preciosity,  though  a  salient  feature,  is 
not  offensive. 

March  29. — By  way  of  contrast  to  Pater,  I  have  been 
reading  the  Adventures  of  Huckleberry  Finn — much  to  be 
recommended  to  admirers  of  Mark  Twain  (the  author). 
Huck  Finn  is  a  kind  of  boyish,  semi-savage  Gil  Bias,  of 
low — the  lowest — Transatlantic  life,  living  by  his  wits  on 
the  Mississippi.  The  novelty  of  the  scene  heightens  the 
romantic  imprevu  of  his  adventures  :  and  the  comic  impre'vu 
of  his  reflections  on  them  is — about  once  every  three  times 
— irresistibly  laughable. 

Have  just  dined  in  Trinity.  We  cannot  really  believe 
in  war  with  Eussia;  we  simply  feel  that,  by  all  general 
rules,  the  game  of  brag  has  reached  a  dangerous  point. 

April  4. — Heard  to-day  details  of  Munro's  *  death.  .  .  . 
If  it  had  been  possible  to  bury  him  in  the  College  Chapel, 
there  would  have  been  a  strong  wish  to  bring  the  body 
home,  but  this  was  legally  out  of  the  question — and  it  is 
not  unfit  that  he  should  rest  in  the  eternal  city.  Two  of 
the  most  strongly  marked  figures  and  characters  of  Cam- 
bridge have  gone  in  Fawcett  and  Munro,  alike  in  a  certain 
rugged  vigour  and  naturalness,  if  in  little  else.  I  feel  as 
if  I  were  growing  old  rapidly,  and  should  soon  come  to  the 
time  when 

Things  long  passed  over  suffice,  and  men  forgotten  that  were. 

1  H.  A.  J.  Munro,  Fellow  of  Trinity,  editor  of  Lucretius,  died  at  Rome, 
March  30,  1885. 


1885,  AGE  46  HENKY  SIDGWICK  407 

In  the  evening  I  received  a  telegram  from  Hall  of  Six 
Mile  Bottom,  asking  if  I  would  be  a  candidate  for  his 
division  of  the  county  at  the  next  election.  I  gather  that 
with  his  support  a  Liberal  would  have  a  good  chance,  and 
the  candidature,  with  his  hospitality  for  headquarters,  would 
be  as  pleasant  as  any  could  be.  I  was  tempted ;  but  I 
communed  with  my  political  conscience  and  discovered  that 
I  could  not  come  forward  as  a  Liberal  at  this  juncture 
without  hypocrisy.  I  am  a  Utilitarian,  and  would  be  a 
hypocrite  if  I  were  convinced  that  the  country  required 
this  sacrifice ;  but  I  cannot  rate  my  political  value  so  high. 
In  fact  the  temptation  was  really  this :  I  want  to  write  a 
great  book  on  Politics  during  the  next  ten  years,  and  am 
afraid  it  will  be  too  academic  if  I  do  not  somehow  go  into 
the  actual  struggle.  But  how  ? 

April  9. — Nothing  but  toil  these  last  few  days,  but  feebly 
performed.  Am  trying  to  write  chapters  for  a  book  on 
Politics,  but  it  will  not  be  literature  any  more  than  my 
other  books.  Yet  I  should  like  to  write  literature  before 
I  die,  if  only  the  substance  of  what  I  have  to  say  would 
adapt  itself  to  form. 

Have  been  studying  Plato  again,  in  spite  of  my  despair 
as  to  the  possibility  of  making  out  what  he  means.  I  am 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that  his  myths  are  not  as  I  once 
thought  the  drapery  of  a  half-philosophised  creed  to  which 
he  clings  while  conscious  that  it  is  not  philosophy.  I  now 
think  he  was  not  half  poet,  half  philosopher,  but  philosopher 
to  the  core,  as  determined  as  Descartes  to  believe  nothing 
but  the  clearest  and  most  certain  truth,  who  only  used  his 
imagination  in  myths  to  dress  up  &6%ai  for  the  vulgar,  as 
near  the  truth  as  their  minds  could  stand,  but  that  a  long 
way  off.  Thus  all  the  anthropomorphic  theology  he  scatters 
about,  so  attractive  to  pious,  cultivated  souls,  is,  I  think, 
simply  and  solely  for  the  vulgar  !  Then  how  the  world  has 
been  taken  in  !  and  how  plainly  he  has  told  us  in  the 
Republic  his  view  of  these  useful  fictions.  Instead  of 
securus  judicat  orbis  terrarum  must  we  not  say  orbis 
terrarum  vult  decipi  et  decipietur  ? 


408  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Telegram  that  Kussians  have  attacked  and  defeated  the 
Afghans  ! 

April  10. — Bushed  at  the  papers.  After  all,  the 
liussians  seem  to  have  had  provocation,  so  far  as  actual  attack 
goes.  The  Afghans  had  "  not  advanced,  but  only  occupied 
a  more  advantageous  position."  The  distinction  is  not 
impressive  to  a  civilian.  Still  Sir  Peter  Lumsden's  opinion 
clearly  is  that  the  Kussians  were  substantially  aggressors. 
Is  he  to  be  trusted  ? 

April  11. — Dined  with  the  Political  Economy  Club  and 
sat  next  Dalhousie  who  seems  to  rely  on  Lumsden's 
report,  and  says  Eussians  are  quite  untrustworthy.  What 
do  the  Russians  want  ?  My  impression  is  that  they  do 
not  want  war,  but  think  it  a  good  opportunity,  Gladstone 
being  in  power  with  Egypt  on  his  hands,  to  increase  their 
prestige  with  the  Afghans.  .  .  . 

Our  discussion  [at  the  Political  Economy  Club]  was  on 
the  rise  in  value  of  gold  as  cause  of  depression.  The  bankers 
came  to  the  front.  It  is  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  they 
know  no  Political  Economy ;  I  think  they  read  Mill  some 
time  ago,  and  look  at  him  from  time  to  time  on  Sundays. 

April  15. — Arrived  yesterday  at  Ran  by  on  a  visit  to 
Francis  Otter.  Interesting  and  pleasant  visit,  so  far.  I 
had  never  stayed  with  Otter  since  his  marriage,  and  in  old 
days,  though  I  liked  him  for  his  intellectual  eagerness  and 
warmheartedness,  there  was  something  about  him  of  random, 
casual,  ineffective  discordance  with  the  normal  conditions  of 
human  life  which  made  one  very  dubious  what  the  flavour 
of  his  life  would  be  when  the  fizz  was  off.  But  under  the 
influence  of  a  happy  marriage  and  a  moderate  landed 
estate  he  has  managed  to  become  solid,  sober,  harmonious, 
without  any  Philistinism.  .  .  . 

April  16. — Went  yesterday  to  see  Tennyson's  birth- 
place (Somersby),  thirteen  miles  off;  tolerably  picturesque  in 
the  midst  of  the  wolds,  with  sloping  garden  at  back  and 
seven  wych-elms  on  the  left.  Mrs.  Burton,  the  lady  of  the 
house,  obligingly  showed  us  the  fireplace  made  by  the 
father  and  his  boys.  She  said  Yankees  came  sometimes, 


1885,  AGK  46  HENRY  SIDGWICK  409 

but  there  do  not  seem  to  be  many  pilgrims — perhaps 
because  it  is  seven  miles  from  the  nearest  railway. 

Talked  to  Otter  about  Comte  and  Congreve.  The 
latter's  position  he  thinks  hopeless  since  the  split.  .  .  .  He 
showed  me  Comte's  "  Testament,"  printed  some  little  time 
ago  for  private  circulation,  containing  his  correspondence 
with  Clotilde  de  Vaux.  It  certainly  is  not  adapted  for  the 
profane.  Some  of  the  letters — just  before  the  crisis  manqut  of 
their  love-affair — would  be  thought  a  grotesque  caricature  if 
they  appeared  in  a  "  Tendenz- Roman  "  against  Comtisin.  .  .  . 
Still,  I  like  Comte,  so  far  as  one  can  like  any  one  so 
portentously  devoid  of  a  sense  of  humour. 

Told  some  real  ghost -stories  to  Otter's  three  nice 
children,  and  felt  their  great  inferiority  to  sham  ones — 
whether  for  entertainment  or  edification.1 

April  25. — I  cannot  find  any  one  who  knows  what  we 
are  going  to  do  when  we  have  drifted  into  war ;  but 
the  general  conviction  is  that  the  drift  is  now  irresistible. 

April  26. — Commemorative  service  in  Chapel  for 
Hotham  and  Munro.  I  was  much  moved,  and  Trotter's 
sermon  was  pathetic ;  but  I  could  not  avoid  the  mood  of 
Myers's  lines : — 

Whereof  the  priests,  for  all  they  say  and  sing, 
Know  none  the  more,  nor  help  in  anything. 

The  first  lesson  was  about  Balaam's  Ass ! 

April  28. — Alfred  Elliott  (Commissioner  of  Assam) 
came  to  dinner,  and  we  talked  about  Afghans  and  Indians. 
He  thinks  the  demonstrations  of  Indian  loyalty  genuine: 
denies  that  Anglo-Indians  generally  are  all  converted  to 
the  Forward  policy  :  and  stoutly  maintains  that  India  ought 
to  be  defended  behind  her  own  mountain  boundary.  But 
the  impression  produced  on  my  mind  was  that  there  was 
something  to  be  said  for  not  going  to  Afghanistan,  and 
something  for  staying  when  we  had  gone,  but  nothing  for 

1  In  earlier  years  Sidgwick  had  a  marked  faculty  for  improvising  stories 
to  children.  Sir.  Dakyns  recalls  "  a  memorable  occasion  when  Henry — who 
was  visiting  us  at  Clifton — lying  on  the  rug  near  the  fire,  told  inimitably  a 
tale  to  Amy,  who  was  three  or  four  years  old,  and  all  eyes  and  ears  greedily 
absorbing  the  rather  tragic  history  of  THE  BLOODTHIRSTY  BLUEBELLS." 


410  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

the  course  actually  adopted  of  invading,  scuttling,  and  then 
agreeing  to  protect  a  people  now  become  so  hostile  and 
suspicious  that  they  will  not  let  our  troops  in  till  the 
mischief  is  done.  Graham  Dakyus  came  to-day.  .  .  . 

April  30. — Hodgson  came  back  from  Madras.  He  has 
no  doubt  that  all  Theosophic  marvels  are  and  were  a  fraud 
from  beginning  to  end.  He  thinks  Mine.  Blavatsky  a  re- 
markable woman,  possibly  working  from  motives  of  Russian 
patriotism  and  Russian  pay  to  foment  native  discontent. 
He  thinks  Theosophy  will  go  on,  but  that  we  may  help 
to  prevent  people  of  education  from  being  further  duped. 

May  10. — Dined  with  Myers  last  night  and  met  the 
Trevelyans.  T.  has  recovered  all  his  spirits  since  he  got 
free  of  Ireland,  but  his  hair  is  curiously  white,  in  patches, 
from  the  troubles  of  these  years.  When  he  began  to  talk 
enthusiastically  about  Gladstone  he  seemed  very  like  the 
old  Trevelyan.  .  .  .  To-day  the  Trevelyans  came  to  lunch. 
"We  talked  among  other  things  of  the  violence  of  Parlia- 
mentary debate ;  I  asked  him  whether  the  abuse  of 
ministers  was  not  hotter  a  hundred  years  ago.  He  said 
the  debates  of  that  time  urged  openly  more  serious  moral 
charges  than  people  would  openly  make  now,  and  in  very 
strong  language,  but  generally  with  more  dignity  of  style, 
and  more  gentlemanliness  as  regards  interruption. 

May  11. — I  learn  from  Nora  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to 
go  to  the  '  Ad  Eundem '  at  Oxford,  as  important  matters 
will  come  before  the  Newnham  Council  on  the  16th.  It 
will  be  proposed  to  take  a  decided,  though  not  irrevocable, 
step  towards  the  building  of  a  third  Hall,  by  taking  a 
temporary  house  to  receive  additional  students.  Miss 
Clough,  whose  mind  is  always  peculiarly  open  to  the  logic 
of  facts,  has  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  applications,  and  set 
her  thoughts  towards  a  third  Hall,  and  as  "  ce  qu'elle  veut, 
elle  veut  fortement,"  I  expect  that  we  shall  begin  building  in 
about  two  years,  if  the  pressure  continues.  I  shall  have  a 
certain  satisfaction  in  seeing  the  thing  complete.  We  shall 
then  have  an  institution  of  about  150  students  in  a  ground 
of  eight  acres,  and  if  society  wants  more  room  they  must 


1885,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  411 

found  a  new  college.  However,  it  is  not  yet  decided,  for 
'  Holloway '  is  an  unknown  quantity  still  indeterminate. 

May  16. — Had  the  Newnham  Council;  all  went  off 
well ;  house  is  to  be  taken. 

May  20. — "Labor  improbus";  struggling  with  details 
of  examination  papers — a  wretched  business.  I  sometimes 
fear  (when  I  think  that  I  might  have  come  to  something 
intellectually)  that  I  have  been  wrong  in  giving  up  so  much 
of  my  time  to  this  educational  routine.  "  Clitellae  bovi : 
non  est  nostrum  onus."  For  I  get  no  satisfaction  out  of 
it ;  have  no  conviction  that  any  one  else  would  not  do  it 
better. 

May  21. — We  went  up  to  London  and  dined  with 
Gurney  to  meet  the  amateur  conjuror  whom  Maskelyne 
has  recommended  to  E.  G.,  and  whom  we  hope  to  employ 
in  investigating  mediums.  .  .  . 

May  25. — I  am  trying  to  finish  my  review  [for  Mind] 
of  Martineau  (Types  of  JZthical  Theoi*y).  I  shall  praise  it 
as  much  as  I  can,  but  it  is  not  a  first-rate  book,  though 
it  is  by  an  author  of  fine  qualities — a  remarkable  com- 
bination of  vivid  imagination  and  emotional  rhetoric  with 
precision  of  thought.  But  yet — he  seems  to  me  altogether 
out  of  it ;  I  can  scarcely  treat  his  theory  with  proper 
respect.  No  doubt  I  seem  so  to  him :  and  are  we  not  both 
right  ?  The  book  makes  me  rather  depressed  about  ethics. 

May  26. — Alas  !  with  Boards  General  and  Special,  Com- 
mittees of  Boards,  Syndicates  and  Sub-syndicates,  there  is  a 
luxuriant  fungoid  growth  of  administrative  work  feeding  on 
the  best  juices  of  academic  life.  One  longs  for  a  benevolent 
despot,  "  one  still  strong  man  "  in  a  blatant  University. 

June  16. — I  have  intermitted  this  diary  in  consequence 
of  the  general  worry  at  the  end  of  term.  Now  that  I  have 
come  to  London  in  the  very  acme  of  Cabinet-making,  I  shall 
write  a  line  or  two  in  it  daily. 

The  cause  of  the  crisis  is  difficult  to  conjecture  exactly. 
It  seems  agreed  that  the  defeat  on  the  Budget  was  quite 
unexpected  by  Gladstone  at  any  rate,  and  therefore  in  a 
certain  sense  the  Ministry  were  not  "  riding  for  a  fall."  On 


4lL>  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

the  other  hand  the  prevailing  opinion  is  that  it  is  a  gain  to 
the  Liberals  to  go  out  now,  and  therefore  one  wonders  why 
the  Tories  consent  to  come  in.  Nor  can  I  quite  make  out 
from  Arthur  Balfour  what  answer  they  would  give  to  this 
'  why  ' — whether  they  ( 1 )  think  the  Liberals  mistaken,  or 
(2)  recognise  that  they  (the  Tories)  are  in  a  dilemma,  and 
consider  that  both  acceptance  and  refusal  are  bad  for  them, 
but  acceptance  not  worse  than  refusal  as  regards  the  future  ; 
so  that  the  opportunities  of  doing  good  to  the  country  (rt? 
yap  eV#Xo9  ov%  avru)  <£t\o?  ;)  during  the  next  live  months 
may  be  reckoned  as  pure  gain.  This  latter  is  on  the  whole 
the  view  that  I  attribute  to  them. 

June  17. — The  depressing  thing  from  a  patriotic  point 
of  view  is  that  every  one  seems  to  agree  that  in  any  case 
no  "  Crimes  Act "  can  be  passed  this  year.  Why  the  great 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  who  certainly  want  a 
Crimes  Act,  cannot  have  their  way,  I  do  not  quite  know. 
If  there  can  be  agreements  at  all  between  Tories  and 
Liberals,  I  should  have  thought  there  might  have  been 
agreement  about  this ;  but  experts  confidently  say  no. 

So  in  any  case  Parnell  wins  by  the  change  of  ministry : 
a  bad  omen  for  next  session.  For  my  part  I  think  that  the 
triumph  of  the  Irish  faction  in  the  next  Parliament  is 
assured,  barring  gross  mistakes  or  startling  accidents. 
Parnell  will  hold  all  the  trumps  and  his  game  will  be 
so  easy  that  I  feel  as  if  I  could  play  it  myself ! 

June  1 8. — The  interest  of  being  at  the  centre  of  informa- 
tion is  that — though  A.  J.  B.  will  tell  me  very  little — one 
does  get  to  know  the  sort  of  extent  to  which  the  newspaper 
explanation  of  events  is  true.  E.g.  I  feel  no  doubt  that  all 
the  talk  of  the  '  conditions  '  imposed  by  Eandolph  Churchill 
is  idle ;  there  has  been  some  friction,  but  on  this  wise — the 
removal  of  Northcote  to  the  Lords  was  arranged  between 
him  and  Salisbury,  with  the  former's  complete  assent ;  but 
some  of  Northcote's  friends  have  protested  and  made  diffi- 
culties. As  for  Lord  Eandolph  Churchill,  he  has  certainly 
not  stipulated  for  any  one's  removal,  and  the  "  old  gang  "- 
in  particular  the  '  tradesmen '  Smith  and  Cross — will  have 


1885,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  413 

their  places  as  before.  The  question  now  is  whether  they 
can  get  from  Gladstone  adequate  pledges  that  they  will 
be  allowed  to  have  their  Budget  undisturbed ;  if  not,  they 
will  not  come  in  after  all.  At  present  there  is  a  hitch ; 
Gladstone  declines  to  pledge. 

As  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Tories  in  taking  office,  my  view 
now  is  that  it  will  go  against  them  at  the  next  election. 
The  Liberals  will  gain  in  impetus  by  being  in  Opposition  and 
in  oblivion  of  their  mistakes  in  foreign  policy,  especially  if 
the  Tories  make  mistakes  too.  I  also  think  that  in  the 
five  months  allowed  them  they  can  do  too  little  on  their 
own  account  to  make  it  worth  while  to  come  in  ;  they  will 
be  almost  entirely  employed  in  wiping  up  the  messes  of  the 
Liberals — a  process  in  which  they  will  hardly  keep  clean ! 
But  I  think  that  the  Liberals  are  in  any  case  pretty  sure  of 
a  fair  majority  in  the  next  Parliament ;  and  the  bigger  this 
is  (if  only  it  can  be  big  enough)  the  better  for  England, 
owing  to  the  danger  of  the  Irish  holding  the  balance.  And 
I  think  the  Tories  will  gain  from  five  months'  experience  of 
office  in  being  able  to  criticise  more  effectively  and  have  a 
definite  alternative  policy.  It  will  be  better  for  them  and 
the  country  when  their  turn  comes  in  the  Parliament  after 
next. 

This  is  the  view  of  a  judicious  and  impartial  philosopher, 
but  the  forecast  has  one  defect :  it  assumes  the  old  division 
of  parties  to  continue ;  but  in  truth  I  think  that  there  may 
be  a  shifting  of  the  line  soon.  Pondering  the  question,  how 
could  Chamberlain  make  a  Home  Rule  speech,  and  talk  of 
"  sweeping  away  the  anachronism  of  Dublin  Castle,"  with 
the  official  harness  still  warm  from  his  back  ?  I  judge  that 
he  thinks  the  time  has  come  to  bid  openly  for  the  Irish 
vote,  at  the  cost  of  alienating  any  number  of  Whigs.  Will 
this  lead  to  a  serious  split  ?  or  will  the  Liberals  in  the  next 
Parliament  be  to  so  great  extent  Chamberlain's  men  that  it 
will  not  matter  ?  I  can  hardly  think  the  latter. 

June,  19. — The  hitch  continues — solution  not  to  be 
arrived  at  till  Tuesday.  I  met  the  G.O.M.1  at  dinner;  he 

1  Grand  Old  Man,  i.e.  Gladstone. 


414  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

was  in  excellent  form,  arguing  genially  and  persuasively 
the  question  of  Free  Trade  and  Protection  with  the  ex- 
President  of  the  U.S.  Senate.  Bryce  tells  me  that  he 
speaks  of  the  negotiations  with  indifference,  as  if  he  did  not 
want  to  come  in  again,  but  did  not  mind,  and  certainly 
would  not  grant  unreasonable  demands.  .  .  . 

June  22. — Met  Trevelyan,  and  went  to  lunch  with  him. 
He  was  pretty  sure  that  the  Conservatives  would  take 
office.  "  The  mere  fact,"  he  said,  "  that  the  negotiations  are 
going  on  proves  it,"  on  the  principle  that  the  woman  who 
deliberates  is  lost.  The  Liberals,  he  said,  would  certainly 
not  give  way,  but  he  was  by  no  means  clear  that  it  was 
not  the  interest  of  the  Tories  to  take  office  even  without 
pledges.  Arthur  Balfour  appeared  at  dinner,  and  allowed 
to  transpire  that  an  arrangement  would  most  probably  be 
come  to.  After  dinner  I  went  to  see  Minnie  [his  sister]  at 
Lambeth — laid  up  with  a  bad  ankle,  but  full  of  instruction 
about  the  state  of  religion  among  the  '  upper  ten '  in 
the  metropolis.  .  .  . 

June  23. — Arrangement  is  come  to;  the  Tories  take 
office,  and  it  is  pretty  clear  that  they  have  waived  almost 
entirely  their  demand  for  assurances.  Certainly  I  am  rather 
surprised:  but  it  is  said  that  the  Queen  put  pressure,  and 
I  suppose  that  there  was  always  a  quiet,  noiseless  pressure 
from  below  exercised  by  the  people  anxious  for  office.  So 
Randolph  Churchill  is  really  to  be  Secretary  for  India.  It 
does  not  make  one  in  love  with  Parliamentary  Government ! 

June  24. — Arthur  Balfour  is,  I  think,  very  judiciously 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Local  Government  Board  and  out 
of  the  Cabinet.  There  is  no  feeling  expressed  anywhere 
that  he  is  above  his  place — as  there  certainly  would  have 
been  if  his  uncle  had  put  him  in  the  Cabinet ;  and  it  is  a 
very  important  place  just  now,  as  the  Liberal  move  against 
or  towards  Home  Rule  is  to  be  extension  of  local  govern- 
ment. 

Dined  with  Statisticians,  whose  rather  dull  debates  I 
have  been  attending  these  three  days.  Speaking  fair,  but 
I  cannot  make  out  how  any  one  can  stand  it  in  June. 


1885,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  415 

And  it  is  odd  that  no  one  has  yet  found  out  how  discus- 
sions of  scientific  subjects  ought  to  be  managed  now  that 
the  printing-press  has  been  in  the  world  for  more  than  three 
centuries.  What  can  be  more  absurd  than  to  call  eminent 
men  together  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  and  spend  the  few 
precious  hours  of  their  meeting  in  reading  papers  which 
every  one  has,  or  might  have,  printed  in  his  hands.  The 
printed  matter  ought  to  be  distributed  each  evening,  and 
discussed  next  day  by  those  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to 
read  it.  The  same  principle  might  be  applied  to  debates  in 
Parliament,  professors'  lectures,  etc.,  etc. 

June  26. — Eead  Gladstone's  account  of  the  negotiations. 
I  think  he  has  behaved  perfectly  correctly  throughout — after 
the  original  blunder  of  threatening  resignation.  On  further 
reflection,  I  do  not  see  why  the  Tories  should  not  get  on 
without  pledges,  if  they  will  consent  to  avoid  all  startling 
Jingoism. 

June  28. — The  Book — Phantasms  of  the  Living1 — is 
getting  on.  Yesterday  we  heard  Myers  read  the  first  half 
of  his  introduction.  I  am  rather  troubled  about  that  part 
of  it  which  relates  to  religion.  M.  says  roundly  to  the 
Theologian,  "  If  the  results  of  our  investigation  are  re- 
jected, they  must  inevitably  carry  your  miracles  along  with 
them."  This  is,  I  doubt  not,  true,  but  is  it  wise  to  say  it  ? 
Also  it  is  only  true  as  regards  the  ultimate  effect.  I  do  not 
doubt  that  if  we  ultimately  reach  a  negative  conclusion, 
this  inquiry  of  ours  will  in  time  be  regarded  by  sceptics  as 
supplying  the  last  element  of  proof  necessary  to  complete 
the  case  against  Christianity  and  other  historic  religions ; 
but  for  many  generations — perhaps  many  centuries — the 
only  difference  will  be  that  Christianity,  Mohammedanism, 
etc.,  will  have  to  support  their  miracles  instead  of  being 
supported  by  them ;  and  the  historic  roots  of  these  great 
institutions  are  surely  quite  strong  enough  to  enable  them 
to  do  this  for  an  indefinite  period — in  fact  until  sociology 
has  been  really  constructed,  and  the  scientist  steps  into  the 
place  of  the  priest. 

1  By  E.  Gurney,  F.  Myers,  and  F.  Podmore. 


416  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

June  30. — Had  a  talk  this  evening  with  Arthur  Balfour 
about  the  probable  action  of  the  Ministry.  The  point  of 
most  interest  is  Egypt,  on  which  he  has  nothing  to  tell 
me.  The  general  opinion  outside  is  that  the  Cabinet  mean 
to  put  off  a  decision,  if  possible,  until  Parliament  has  come 
to  an  end.  For  two  or  three  months  they  will  be  really 
"  interreges,"  and  as  the  retiring  Government  have  tried 
many  policies  and  failed  in  each  and  all,  I  think  public 
opinion  will  receive  benevolently  anything  the  Tories  like 
to  do.  A.  J.  B.  defended  inaction  as  regards  Ireland ;  I  do 
not  see  why  it  should  not  answer  for  the  time,  if  Parnell 
has  sufficient  hold  over  his  own  people.  But  he  will  fairly 
score  it  as  a  triumph  ;  and  his  position  in  the  next  Parlia- 
ment will  be  so  much  stronger. 

July  4. — Nora  and  I,  Gurney  and  A.  Myers,  came 
down  to  Brighton  on  Thursday  to  try  mesmeric  experi- 
ments. .  .  . 

July  5. — Went  down  with  N.  to  Harrow,  and  lunched 
with  Bowen ;  saw  Butler  for  half  an  hour  after  Chapel.  It 
made  me  sad  to  reflect  that  I  had  not  been  there  since  our 
marriage — partly  through  mishaps,  partly  through  supine- 
ness.  In  this  way  one  drops  threads  of  one's  life  which 
cannot  again  be  taken  up.  The  day  was  lovely,  and  the 
views  from  the  hill.  We  went  to  see  the  magnificent 
bathing-place  into  which  '  Duck-puddle '  has  expanded 
itself.  Butler  told  me  that  during  the  twenty-five  years  of 
his  headmastership  £130,000  had  been  raised  by  subscrip- 
tions from  old  Harrovians  and  parents  ;  the  school  having  no 
adequate  foundation,  it  has  become  customary  to  send  the 
hat  round  on  all  occasions,  and  no  one  complains. 

July  6. — Went  to  see  the  Mikado  of  Gilbert  and  Sulli- 
van, and  thought,  as  I  always  do  of  their  pieces,  how  much 
better  it  would  have  been  if  a  little  more  pains  had  been 
taken — if  the  whole  had  been  kept  more  up  to  the  level  of 
the  best  things. 

July  8. — Came  yesterday  to  The  Pavilion,  a  summer 
residence  of  Hall  [of  Six  Mile  Bottom],  lent  us  for  twelve 
days'  aestivation.  It  is  on  the  Suffolk  coast,  about  three 


1885,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  417 

miles  from  Aldeburgh.  Scenery  not  picturesque ;  and  yet 
it  is  an  attractive  place — partly  because  it  is  wild ;  a 
little  wild  garden  of  mainly  ferns,  wild  flowers,  etc.,  is 
between  the  house  and  the  garden  gate,  from  which  steps 
descend  immediately  to  the  sea.  Partly  the  house  has 
an  original  construction  appropriate  for  summer ;  no  front 
door,  but  an  outer  staircase  up  to  a  verandah,  which 
runs  round  three  sides,  and  into  which  three  sitting-rooms 
open.  I  live  in  one,  Nora  in  the  other,  and  we  have  meals 
in  the  third. 

July  15. — A  happy  week — without  a  history!  I  have 
read  Political  Economy  and  written  part  of  my  address  for  the 
British  Association.1  Nora  has  edited  the  July  journal  of  the 
S.P.E.  and  written  the  report  of  the  Theosophic  phenomena. 
I  have  helped  a  little,  but  she  has  done  more  work  than  I 
have.  Further,  we  have  walked  and  looked  at  the  sea, 
tried  to  distinguish  brigs  from  schooners,  and  species  of 
schooners ;  in  the  evening  read  bad  novels  and  tried 
psychical  experiments  with  cards.  Isolation  complete. 

My  problem  in  preparing  address  for  the  British  Ass. 
is  to  put  as  optimistic  a  colour  as  possible  on  the  rather 
low  view  that  I  take  of  the  present  state  of  our  economic 
knowledge.  Really,  in  this  as  in  other  departments,  my 
tendency  is  to  scepticism,  but  scepticism  of  a  humble, 
empirical,  and  more  or  less  hopeful  kind.  I  do  not  argue, 
or  even  think,  that  nothing  is  known,  still  less  that 
nothing  can  be  known  by  the  received  methods,  but  that  of 
what  is  most  important  to  know  we,  as  yet,  know  much 
less  than  most  people  suppose. 

July  19. — I  have  been  reading  the  newspapers  without 
any  guidance  except  my  intellectus  sibi  permissus  to  the 
interpretation  of  the  signs  of  the  political  weather,  and,  so 
far  as  my  unaided  intellect  can  judge,  I  do  not  like  the 
way  that  the  Tories  are  going  on.  Thus  (1)  I  do  not  like 
the  line  Arthur  Balfour  is  taking  as  to  Medical  Eelief ; 2  I 

1  As  President  of  the  Economic  Section  (Section  F).     The  address  has 
been  republished  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

2  Bill  to  abolish  the  disqualification  from  voting  of  persons  receiving 
medical  relief  only. 

2  E 


418  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

think  this  is  the  kind  of  question  on  which  Tories — and 
indeed  any  sensible  ministry — should  yield  reluctantly,  and 
only  the  very  minimum  that  they  are  forced  to  yield,  if 
they  yield  at  all.  For  the  concession  cannot  but  have  a 
depressing  effect  on  the  movement  towards  providence, 
which  all  the  true  philanthropists  who  know  the  poor  are 
doing  their  utmost  to  support.  And  if  they  yield,  it 
should  be  on  account  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and 
because,  owing  to  hospitals,  etc.,  there  is  a  profound  and 
deeply -rooted  distinction  in  the  popular  mind  between 
medical  treatment  and  ordinary  relief.  Certainly  they 
should  not  yield  on  the  ground  A.  J.  B.'s  [speech]  suggests, 
that  Chamberlain's  agitation  has  made  it  impossible  to 
hold  out.  This  is  surely  giving  far  too  great  encouragement 
to  agitation. 

Also  (2)  I  think  the  line  they  are  taking  about  Ireland 
is  in  too  cynical  a  contrast  with  the  line  they  were  taking 
up  to  the  very  moment  of  Gladstone's  resignation — I  speak 
of  the  Tories  generally ;  I  quite  admit  that  Churchill  and 
Gorst  are  maintaining  their  consistency,  but  the  extent  to 
which  Beach  is  giving  in  to  them  seems  to  me  discreditable 
to  the  party  as  a  whole  and  of  bad  omen  for  the  future. 

Judy  21. — We  came  back  to  London  yesterday.  I  went 
...  to  the  Athenaeum  to  read  Sir  Robert  Peel's  speeches. 
To-day  I  have  been  at  the  Museum,  and  at  the  House  of 
Commons  hearing  Courtney  attack  the  Government  for 
their  weakness  on  the  question  of  Medical  Eelief.  I  do  not 
care  so  much  for  Courtney's  own  disapproval,  as  his 
political  economy  makes  it  inevitable,  but  I  am  afraid  he  is 
right  in  saying  that  practical  philanthropists  are  against  it. 
They  have  been  trying  hard  for  fifteen  years  to  teach  the 
poor  thrift,  and  now  the  moral  weight  of  the  legislature  is 
to  be  thrown  into  the  other  scale,  so  far  as  medical  relief 
is  concerned. 

John  Hollond,  for  whose  opinion  I  have  much  respect, 
as  he  was  for  some  time  chairman  both  of  the  Board  of 
Guardians  and  the  Charity  Organisation  Committee  in  his 
district  of  London,  says  that  he  is  on  the  whole  of  opinion 


1885,  AGE  47  HENKY  SIDGWICK  419 

that  the  battle  of  economy  should  uot  be  fought  at  this 
point ;  but  he  thinks  the  line  between  medical  relief  proper 
and  '  medical  comforts,' — port  wine,  etc. — should  be  strongly 
maintained.  Certainly  there  seems  to  me  a  rather 
stronger  line  between  senna  and  beef-tea  than  between 
beef-tea  and  other  kinds  of  food. 

July  24. — With  this  last  sentence  the  House  of 
Commons  disagreed  yesterday  by  a  majority  of  fifty.  The 
Government  stuck  to  the  line  between  medicine  and 
food ;  the  Liberals  saw  an  opportunity  of  proving  that 
Short  is  the  friend  after  all,  and  not  Codlin;  the 
economists,  angry  with  the  Government,  left  them  in  the 
lurch ;  so  the  line  has  now  to  be  drawn  between  the  sick 
man's  food  and  the  food  of  his  family.  I  am  afraid  that 
this  will  hardly  be  maintained,  and  that  soon  all  paupers 
out  of  the  workhouse  will  be  enfranchised  in  the  unseemly 
competition  for  popularity.  The  Times  blames  Arthur 
Balfour  too  severely,  overlooking  the  fact  that  the  re- 
sponsibility, after  all,  belongs  to  the  Cabinet.  But  I 
confess  I  do  not  like  his  line. 

July  31. — Came  to  Cambridge  Friday  last,  and  have 
been  reading  lazily  Comte — with  a  view  to  my  address — and 
S.P.R.  literature.  I  wish  Ingram  had  not  been  allowed  to 
air  his  Positivism  in  the  Eiwydopcedia  Britannica,  attacking 
Political  Economy  a  la  Comte  in  the  article  headed  by  the 
name  of  that  science.  I  must  reply :  can  hardly  avoid 
attacking  Comte :  can  hardly  attack  him  without  making 
him  ridiculous :  and  I  do  not  like  jeering  at  a  great  man's 
foibles. 

Aiiymt  7. — Came  up  to  London  yesterday,  and  took 
two-thirds  of  my  address  for  Section  F  to  the  secretary  of 
the  British  Ass.  to  be  printed.  ...  It  seems  to  me  very 
dull,  and  I  wish  I  had  kept  out  of  the  business  ;  however,  it 
is  one  of  the  things  that  only  comes  once.  .  .  .  Went,  by 
appointment,  to  lunch  with  Manton  Marble,  a  leading 
Democrat  now  over  here,  to  find  out  whether  there  is  any 
chance  of  the  European  Governments  doing  anything 
effective  to  support  silver.  It  seems  that  the  Bland  Bill, 


420  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

under  which  the  U.S.  Treasury  is  bound  to  coin  2,000,000 
dollars  a  month  in  silver,  is  likely  to  be  repealed  next  session ; 
the  men  of  business  in  the  Eastern  States,  who  are  afraid  that 
the  accumulating  mass  of  silver  dollars  will  soon  force  on  the 
change  of  their  currency  to  a  practically  silver  basis,  will 
make  a  great  effort ;  the  Cabinet  is  on  the  same  side,  and 
they  expect  to  win.  If  this  takes  place  it  will  no  doubt 
cause  a  further  fall  of  the  rupee  in  India,  and  that,  I 
suppose,  will  stimulate  the  export  of  Indian  wheat  for  some 
years  till  the  effects  of  the  fall  are  evenly  distributed 
among  all  kinds  of  exchange  in  India.  Hence  there  are 
trying  times  coming  for  the  Indian  Government,  and  also 
an  increased  pressure  on  English  agriculture  ;  but  I  think  it 
would  require  worse  dangers  than  these  to  turn  John  Bull's 
heart  from  his  monometallic  gold  currency,  and  so  I  told 
Manton  Marble.  In  the  evening  J.  K.  Cross  (ex-Under- 
Secretary  for  India)  dined  with  us,  and  made  very  light  of 
the  above  dangers.  On  verra.  Meeting  of  S.P.R.  Council 
in  the  afternoon,  very  harmonious. 

August  8. — Arthur  Benson  dined  with  us ;  has  found 
the  work  hard  at  Eton,  but  says  he  likes  it.  He  thinks 
that  Warre's  changes  are  pretty  well  finished ;  the  most 
important  change  has  been  to  relieve  the  tutors  of  the  old 
load  of  work  in  writing  fair  copies.  Also  modern  languages 
have  been  increased.  But  in  the  main  the  system  that 
has  "  made  Eton  what  it  is  "  may  be  expected  to  continue 
during  a  steady  conservative  reign  of  twenty  years 
or  so. 

August  9. — Dined  in  Hall  and  met  Colvin.  .  .  .  He 
tells  me  that  Morley's  J.  S.  Mill  is  nearly  ready.  I 
think  that  I  must  take  the  opportunity  of  its  appear- 
ance to  write  my  promised  article  for  the  Contemporary 
on  J.  S.  M.,1  though  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  is  too 
soon  to  attempt  a  final  estimate  of  his  work ;  the  reaction 
against  him  is  still  active  in  my  own  mind  as  well  as  in 
that  of  others.  What  I  really  envy  him  is  his  style ; 
whenever  I  have  by  accident  tried  to  say  something  that 
1  He  did  not  write  it. 


1835,  AGE  47  HENKY  SIDGWICK  421 

he  has  said  before,  without  knowing,  his  way  of  saying  it 
always  seems  indefinitely  better. 

August  11. — Have  been  reading  Comte  and  Spencer, 
with  all  my  old  admiration  for  their  intellectual  force  and 
industry  and  more  than  my  old  amazement  at  their  fatuous 
self-confidence.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  either  of 
them  knows  what  self-criticism  means.  I  wonder  if  this 
is  a  defect  inseparable  from  their  excellences.  Certainly  I 
find  my  own  self-criticism  an  obstacle  to  energetic  and 
spirited  work,  but  on  the  other  hand  I  feel  that  whatever 
value  my  work  has  is  due  to  it. 

August  12. — [The]  Frank  Darwins  came  to  lunch,  and  he 
showed  me  the  chapter  about  his  father's  religious  opinions 
in  the  biography  that  he  is  writing.  There  is  nothing 
original  in  Darwin's  thought  on  this  subject,  but  the  great 
frankness,  simplicity,  and  modesty  of  his  utterances  is,  to 
me,  very  attractive. 

Came  to  Terling  Place  with  a  book-box  full  of  Sociolo- 
gists. 

August  15. — Have  been  reading  Schaffle's  Ban  und 
Leben  des  sozialen  Korpers,  It  is  a  remarkable  work,  but 
not  science  in  my  opinion;  at  most  a  careful  definition 
of  the  ground  on  which  science  may  some  day  be  built. 

August  22. — Went  up  to  London  yesterday  and  had  a 
long  day  with  Gurney  and  Myers  working  on  Phantasms  of 
the  Living.  There  are  now  eleven  chapters  printed  in  slip. 
I  hardly  imagine  that  any  one  will  read  it,  and  the 
reviewers  will  doubtless  only  select  the  weak  stories  to 
make  fun  of.  And  yet  I  think  it  will  somehow  influence 
opinion.  It  will  have  one  advantage — hard  to  get  in  these 
days — that  there  never  has  been  a  book  of  the  kind. 

On  Thursday  I  sent  off  my  address  to  Section  F  of  the 
British  Association  to  the  printer,  all  except  the  last 
paragraph.  I  charge  the  Sociologists  with  mistaking  the 
statement  of  a  problem  for  its  solution,  and  deluding  them- 
selves into  the  belief  that  they  know  the  laws  of  evolution 
of  society,  because  they  have  a  clear  conception  of  the 
general  fact  of  social  evolution.  To  amuse  my  audience  I 


422  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

quote  some  of  Cointe's  confident  prophecies,  which  certainly 
read  rather  absurd  now.  But  it  is  poor  stuff,  this  sterile 
criticism,  and  I  am  rather  ashamed  of  it :  only  the  pre- 
tensions of  these  people  irritate  me  into  the  belief  that  it  is 
a  public  duty  to  repress  them. 

August  24. — C.  H.  Strutt,  M.P.,  came  for  the  Sunday. 
He  has  been  making  Tory  speeches — says  no  one  can  tell  how 
the  labourers  will  vote.  It  appears  that  the  most  effective 
points  on  the  Tory  side  fail,  as  the  labourer  is  indifferent  to 
foreign  affairs.  I  asked  Charley  what  the  dangerous  points 
were  on  the  Liberal  side.  He  said  four :  (1)  Abolition  of 
tithe ;  but  this  the  farmers  care  more  about  than  the 
labourers.  It  is  certainly  impudent  of  the  Liberals  to 
promise  this.  (2)  Cheap  loaf.  This  the  labourers  are  very 
keen  about,  and  the  Tory  retort  that  a  cheap  loaf  is  no  good 
when  you  have  no  wages  to  buy  it  with  does  not  alarm 
them;  they  do  not  yet  feel  a  falling  off  in  demand  for 
labour — partly  owing  to  the  steady  attraction  of  the  towns. 
The  Tories  have  to  swear  that  they  have  no  intention  of 
making  the  loaf  dear.  On  the  whole  there  does  not  seem 
much  chance  for  Protection.  (3)  Chamberlain's  proposal  to 
provide  them  with  land.  They  have  rather  a  vague  idea  of 
the  terms,  but  they  grasp  that  land  is  being  offered  them. 
(4)  Fourthly  and  lastly  comes  gratitude  to  the  Liberals  for 
having  given  them  the  vote.  On  the  Tory  side  the  chief 
forces  are  habitual  deference  and  a  vague  fear  that  some 
harm  will  come  to  them  if  they  vote  against  their  masters. 

August  29. — I  feel  an  involuntary  traitor  when  I  stay 
in  a  country-house  of  a  brother-in-law.  It  is  not  that  I 
want  to  take  away  their  property  to  make  peasant-proprietors 
or  any  other  Radical  device ;  as  a  political  economist  I  can 
only  look  on  all  small-scale  industry  as  an  interesting 
survival,  which  must  be  content  to  fill  the  crannies  and 
crevices  left  by  the  big-scale  industry.  It  is  not  by  the 
road  of  peasant-proprietorship  that  the  salvation  of  modern 
society  is  to  be  attained.  No,  why  I  feel  a  traitor  is 
because  I  look  with  satisfaction  on  the  changes  of  a  different 
and  more  truly  modern  kind  which  are  forcibly  modernising 


1885,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  423 

the  traditional  ways  of  these  landed  people  : — the  cheapness 
of  corn  which  is  driving  them  all  to  look  into  ways  and 
means  as  any  man  of  business  would ;  and  the  extension  of 
the  franchise  which  is  obliging  them  to  argue  before  their 
labourers  as  an  advocate  before  his  jury.  Every  day  they 
are  becoming  more  genuinely  members  of  a  free  industrial 
community.  .  .  . 

September  3. — Yesterday  I  corrected  the  proof  of  my 
address  and  sent  it  to  the  printers — off  my  mind.  .  .  . 
To-day  we  took  the  first  stage  of  our  Northern  journey 
and  reached  the  Eaikes  [his  uncle's  house  at  Skipton]. 

September  4. — I  have  tried  to  make  out  the  political 
situation  here ;  the  chief  point  is  that  the  Tories  are  working 
Fair  Trade — whereas  in  the  South  they  fight  shy  of  it.  My 
uncle  is  still  meditating  the  problem  of  our  genealogy ;  he 
gave  me  a  copy  of  the  stamp  which  the  tobacconist  at  Leeds 
— believed  to  be  "  Honest  James "  and  my  great-great- 
grandfather— used  for  his  packets  of  Virginia.  But  we  do 
not  seem  able  to  trace  back  the  tobacconist  to  our  ancestral 
hill-valley  on  the  Cumbrian  border.  So  we  must  be 
content  to  begin  with  Tobacco.  One  might  start  from  a 
worse  thing. 

September  6. — Yesterday  we  saw  Carlisle  Cathedral,  and 
came  on  to  Stirling  which  we  liked  much.  The  walk  up 
the  steep  street  to  the  Greyfriars  Church  and  the  Castle 
reminded  us  a  little  of  the  Italian  hill-towns,  but  the 
windings  of  the  lazy  Forth  at  our  feet  were  like  nothing 
Italian.  View  from  the  Castle  good ;  we  hailed  Ben 
Lomond,  Ben  Venue,  and  Ben  An,  and  recalled  pleasant 
tour-recollections.  It  is  noteworthy  that  even  here  the 
waiters  are  of  the  German  or  Swiss  nation  ;  I  wonder  if  I 
shall  some  day  be  addressed  in  Lowland  Scotch  in  an 
Alpine  Inn. 

September  8. — Passed  through  Aberdeen  yesterday  and 
arrived  at  Haddo  House,  where  we  are  staying  till  to- 
morrow. I  like  both  Lord  and  Lady  Aberdeen,  and  think 
the  view  of  garden  and  park  very  pretty.  Henry 
Drummond,  author  of  Natural  Law  in  the,  Spiritual 


424  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

World,  is  here,  but  he  does  not  seem  disposed  to  lecture 
us  either  on  Science  or  Religion,  and  is,  in  fact,  unpretend- 
ing and  agreeable. 

September  10. — Am  pleased  with  the  success  of  my 
address,  which  I  delivered  at  12  to-day.  Audience  rather 
larger  than  was  expected ;  seemed  to  take  all  my  points — 
especially  at  the  end,  when  I  took  to  poking  fun  at  the 
Sociologists. 

September  14. — We  are  enjoying  the  British  Association 
certainly,  though  I  do  not  get  much  out  of  it  intellectually, 
nor  think  that  Science  is  likely  to  profit  much  by  the 
discussions  of  Section  F.  But  our  hosts,  the  Bains,1  are 
hospitable ;  Bain  has  plenty  of  interesting  talk,  of  a  dry, 
sensible,  unexciting  sort — willing  to  gossip  about  J.  S.  Mill, 
the  Grotes,  etc.  He  brings  home  to  me  forcibly  the  universal 
mild  disapproval  and  regret  with  which  Mill's  platonic 
liaison  with  Mrs.  Taylor  was  regarded  by  his  old  friends — 
rather  on  intellectual  grounds,  as  an  infatuation  unworthy 
of  a  philosopher — and  the  extent  to  which  it  consequently 
cut  him  off  from  his  old  friends.  Also  I  am  more  strongly 
impressed  with  the  brilliant  social  predominance  of  Mrs. 
Grote.  Bain  says  that  in  conversation  Grote  was  nothing 
when  she  was  there — or  at  least  a  most  subordinate  figure, 
and  did  not  wish  to  be  more. 

Burdon  Sanderson,  the  physiologist,  and  his  wife  have 
also  been  staying  with  the  Bains ;  his  face  has  remarkable 
intellectual  refinement  and  force,  and  I  liked  all  he  said ; 
but  he  did  not  say  much.  On  Sunday  Masson  came  to 
dinner :  genial,  told  good  stories,  and  defended  Carlyle  with 
vigour  and  conviction. 

September  15. — We  leave  to-morrow.  We  have  had  some 
interesting  papers,  and  one  decidedly  able  (on  bimetallism), 
but  the  discussions  have  been  disappointing.  The  profound 
difficulty  of  making  the  talk  of  this  section  really  scientific 
is  that  Statisticians  and  Economists  are  yoked  together,  and 
the  Statisticians  are  weak  or  arrie're'  in  economic  theory.  It 
is  worse  than  if  the  Physicists  and  Mechanicians  were  com- 

1  Professor  Alexander  Bain. 


1885,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  425 

bined ;  but  they  have  each  a  section.  This  afternoon  we 
distributed  £1300  over  various  forms  of  research.  The 
British  Ass.  is,  at  any  rate,  a  Golden  Ass  ! 

September  30. — Hiatus  again !  We  left  Aberdeen  on 
the  16th,  spent  a  week  at  Whittingehame,  a  night  at  Leeds 
with  Stephen  Marshalls,  two  nights  at  Hawarden  with  the 
G.O.M.,  and  two  nights  in  the  Haunted  House  at  Wend- 
over.  At  Whittingehame  the  most  noteworthy  fact  was  the 
intensity  of  the  agricultural  depression  in  East  Lothian.  A 
neighbour  of  A.  J.  B.'s  has  just  let  for  £150  a  farm  that  a 
few  years  ago  was  let  for  £900  !  To  think  that  it  is  less 
than  ten  years  since  the  landlord's  prospect  of  unearned 
increment  seemed  as  sure  as  anything  human. 

At  Hawarden  the  G.O.M.  was  somewhat  hoarse,  but 
cheerful  and  full  of  interesting  talk  on  various  topics.  The 
geology  of  Norway  and  Psychical  Eesearch  appeared  to  be 
the  subjects  that  interested  him  most,  but  he  told  us  one 
or  two  noteworthy  things  of  a  political  bearing, — e.g.  that 
the  Cabinet  now  sit  round  a  table,  whereas  they  used  to  sit 
on  chairs  in  a  circle;  he  thinks  the  change  a  mistake,  as 
leading  to  a  less  steady  concentration  of  attention. 

At  the  Haunted  House  nothing  worthy  of  note — unless 
it  be  worthy  of  note  that  there  was  nothing.  The  experi- 
ment has  been  completely  futile.  We  cross-questioned  some 
of  the  witnesses,  including  the  curate,  an  Oxford  man,  who 
sticks  firmly  to  his  belief.  The  cumulative  evidence  is 
certainly  impressive,  but  the  moral  is  that  we  must  get  more 
impressive  evidence  before  trying  another  experiment. 

Home  on  Monday.  We  read  Light  for  September,  and 
were  amazed  to  find  the  Spiritualists  furious  because  the 
article  on  Spiritualism  in  the  Encydopcedia  Britannica  is  to 
be  written  by  Nora.  And  we  had  fondly  thought  that  they 
would  be  pleased  !  It  is  remarkable  how  inadequate  are 
one's  utmost  efforts  to  imagine  correctly  the  unfavourable 
views  taken  of  one  by  one's  fellow-men. 

October  8. — Went  over  last  night  to  dine  with  Hall  at 
Six  Mile  Bottom.  After  talking  to  him  I  really  begin  to 
think  that  the  split  in  the  Liberal  party  may  be  going  to 


426  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

come  after  all — the  split  I  have  heard  predicted  ever  since 
I  began  to  be  a  politician,  and  have  vowed  that  I  would 
not  believe  in  till  it  came.  Even  now  I  do  not  think  that 
interest  only  will  drive  the  Liberal  Landlords  over  to  the 
Tories,  but  I  think  it  possible  that  alarm  at  the  prospect  of 
legislation  against  them,  together  with  genuine  disgust  at 
the  ignorant  rashness  of  Chamberlain,  coming  at  the  top 
of  agricultural  depression,  at  a  time  when  the  enlarged 
Franchise  and  the  Irish  difficulty  combine  to  cause  a 
conviction  that  a  new  order  of  things  has  to  come — I  think 
that  all  this  together  may  drive  a  considerable  secession  to 
the  Tories,  and  make  the  Liberal  party  more  largely 
Eadical. 

October  2  2  (!) — A  fortnight's  interval,  in  which  I  have 
been  engaged  in  odds  and  ends  of  educational  arrangements. 
The  term's  work  is  now  in  its  normal  movement,  and  I 
return  to  my  diary. 

The  question  that  interests  me  most  in  my  educational 
arrangements  is  this.  Shall  I  or  shall  I  not  succeed  in  my 
efforts  to  adapt  professorial  teaching  to  an  age  in  which 
reading  is  the  ordinary  way  of  receiving  instruction  ? 
According  to  my  view,  the  University  professor  should  no 
longer,  as  of  old,  make  it  his  business  to  give  the  first 
exposition  of  his  subject — he  should  assume  that  that  is 
given  by  books ;  his  function  should  be  to  give  the  second 
exposition  which  all  ordinary  students  need  from  their 
incomplete  understanding  of  the  first,  to  solve  the  difficulties 
and  perplexities  which  the  perusal  of  the  books  has  left — or 
raised — in  the  reader's  mind.  A  lecture  has  the  great 
disadvantage,  as  compared  with  a  book,  that  the  student 
cannot  pause  and  think  over  what  is  difficult,  cannot  turn 
back  and  compare  one  statement  with  another;  it  ought  to 
have  the  great  advantage  that  it  can  be  adapted  to  the 
special  needs  of  the  lecturees.  But  then,  in  order  that  this 
advantage  may  be  gained,  the  class  must  put  questions  to 
the  teacher ;  and  here  is  where  my  efforts  so  far  seem  to  fail : 
my  class  will  not  question  me.  In  vain  I  assure  them  that 
I  shall  be  grateful  for  the  most  vague  statement  of  diffi  culty , 


1885,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  427 

doubt,  or  disagreement  connected  with  my  Methods  of  Ethics. 
I  select  chapters  for  discussion,  and  say,  "  Tell  me,  if  you 
like,  merely  that  you  don't  see  the  exact  drift  of  §  2,  or  of 
page  47,  etc.,  then  I  shall  know  where  a  fresh  attempt  at 
exposition  is  required."  But,  so  far,  I  cannot  get  them  to 
do  this,  and  I  do  not  exactly  know  why ! 

October  24. — Went  up  to  London  to  meet  Bichet,1  the 
French  savant,  editor  of  Revue  Scientifique,  who  has  taken 
up  Thought-transference.  I  liked  him  much,  and  think  it 
a  great  thing  for  the  S.P.E.  that  our  Research  has  been 
introduced  to  the  French  educated  world  by  such  a  com- 
petent authority.  It  is  curious  that  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  to  face  the  kind  of  scornful  opposition  that  we  have  to 
face  in  England  from  physiologists  and  physicians  and  their 
camp-followers  in  the  press. 

Talked  to  Arthur  Balfour  about  the  elections.  The 
Liberals  expect  to  have  a  majority,  from  thirty  to  fifty,  over 
Tories  and  Parnellites  together ;  for  though  they  admit  that 
they  will  lose  in  the  boroughs,  they  expect  to  gain  very 
largely  in  the  counties.  The  Tory  computation  is  that, 
including  the  Parnellites,  the  present  Government  will  have 
a  majority  of  about  twenty ;  they  admit  that  the  Liberals 
will  nearly  sweep  a  great  part  of  the  North  of  England,  but 
they  think  the  Liberals  much  overrate  their  influence  with 
the  agricultural  labourer  in  the  South.  Gerald  appears  to 
be  intensely  eager,  and  a  decidedly  successful  speaker,  but 
cannot  be  said  to  have  more  than  "  just  a  chance  "  of  coming 
in  for  Leeds. 

October  25. — Returned  to  Cambridge,  and  found  in- 
teresting letter  from  J.  A.  S.  containing  judicious  eulogy  of 
my  Aberdeen  address,  and  just  criticism  on  this  journal  as 
not  adequately  confidential.  But  I  can  only  answer  with 
the  Needy  Knife-grinder, 

"  Story,  God  bless  you,  I  have  none  to  tell,  sir." 

I  have  gone  through  very  markedly  the  change  from 
Subjectivity  to  Objectivity,  which  Hegel  (I  think)  somewhere 

1  Professor  Ch.  Richet,  of  the  Faculte  de  Medecine,  University  of  Paris. 


428  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

describes  in  one  of  those  rare  human  passages  which  occur 
in  his  works — how  that  consciousness  of  personality  is 
naturally  developed  in  youth's  period  of  struggle  and 
hesitation,  when  we  doubt  of  our  whole  relation  to  the 
world,  and  know  not  what  of  the  great  things  we  conceive 
we  are  really  to  do,  under  what  banner  we  are  to  serve, 
wonder  whether  we  are  called  to  contemplation  or  action, 
fruition  or  renouncement,  wonder  when  the  maiden  of  our 
dreams  is  to  appear  on  the  stage  and  whether  we  or  some 
other  is  to  win  her,  and  so  forth.  But  the  middle-aged 
man  has  got  his  place  in  the  cosmic  order  pretty  well 
fixed ;  he  has  married  (let  us  hope)  the  wife  of  his  choice 
and  taken  the  shilling  in  some  service ;  his  work  is  so  far 
cut  out  that  the  question  is  rather  how  he  will  do  it  than 
what  he  will  do ;  and  daily  habit  drives  his  interests 
naturally  from  himself  to  his  work,  and  the  ordered  move- 
ments of  the  world  of  which  his  regulated  action  is  a  part. 
Something  like  this  Hegel  says,  and  in  this  sense  I  am 
conscious  of  having  become  middle  -  aged,  though  the 
colouring  of  the  above  description  is  rather  too  optimistic 
for  me,  and  if  I  were  a  poet  I  should  probably  give  ex- 
pression to  nay  subjectivity  in  some  new  fashion  of  pessi- 
mistic whine  at  the  general  out-of-jointness  of  the  times. 
But  I  am  not  a  poet,  and  the  prosaic  whine  of  a  philo- 
sopher— who  ought,  ex  professo,  to  be  calculating  instead 
of  whining — is  an  utterance  not  tolerable  to  Gods  or  men. 

October  26. — Letter  from .  His  wife  is  laid  up 

with  an  internal  strain,  which  I  have  no  doubt  she  has 
neglected.  I  wonder  whether  health  is  most  impaired  by 
foolish  self-indulgence — generally  of  men — or  futile  self- 
sacrifice — generally  of  women. 

October  31. — Coleridge,  I  think,  said  that  every  man 
could  write  an  interesting  biography  of  himself,  if  he  would 
only  tell  the  whole  truth.  I  don't  think  so ;  it  is  as  much 
a  special  gift  as  poetry.  To  interest  the  reader,  the  auto- 
biographer  should  take  an  intense  brooding  interest  in  his  own 
life — as  (e.g.)  Pattison  does — which  is  by  no  means  natural 
to  all.  Probably  many  lives,  like  mine,  have  a  main  current 


1885,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  429 

of  calm  well-being,  dull  to  narrate,  while  the  events  of 
interest  in  them  are  chiefly  vexations,  from  which  they 
wish  to  escape  as  much  as  possible,  not  to  fix  them  in  the 
emotional  memory  by  relating  them. 

November  1. — Eead  Tennyson  ["Vastness"]  in  Macmillan 
— something  senile  perhaps  in  the  incoherence  of  the  verses, 
but  what  magnificent  senility  ! 

November  6. — I  am  reminded  of  some  foreigner's  remark 
that  the  only  two  things  that  Englishmen  really  care  about 
are  Eeligion  and  Trade,  because  Eeligion  is  the  weak  point 
in  the  cohesion  of  the  Liberal  party,  and  Trade  in  the 
cohesion  of  the  Tory  party.  But  so  far  the  Tories  have 
managed  to  keep  their  internal  disagreements  on  Free  Trade 
pretty  well  in  the  background,  whereas  Chamberlain  has 
thrust  the  Disestablishment  question  crudely  forward.  The 
Liberals,  I  think,  are  sure  to  lose  by  this,  but  it  is  hard  to 
say  how  much ;  the  seceders  will  be  numerically  few  in 
proportion  to  the  whole  electorate ;  the  people  who  sulk  in 
their  tents  will  be  more,  but  whether  their  sulking  will 
make  much  difference  to  the  whole  battle — is  just  what 
every  one  would  like  to  know,  and  what  nobody  does  know. 

Have  been  reading  Austin  Dobson's  At  the  Sign  of  the 
Lyre.  I  do  not  think  that  there  is  anything  in  it  that  I 
find  quite  so  excellent  as  an  "  Autumn  Idyll "  in  Old-  World 
Idylls ;  but  it  is  very  satisfactory  work,  and  a  "  Masque  of 
the  Months  "  reveals  a  new  kind  of  power,  which  I  did  not 
know  him  to  possess. 

November  12. — Eead  with  much  interest  J.  A.  S.'s 
review  of  Dobson  in  Academy  of  November  7.  Have  re- 
read Old-World  Idylls,  and  find  myself  confirmed  in  the 
view  that  A.  D.  .  .  .  is,  in  a  certain  limited  range, 
a  poet  of  rare  excellence.  His  management  of  rhyme 
is,  I  think,  as  good  as  Calverley's — with  much  more  of 
the  ars  celare  artem  which  C.  S.  C.'s  burlesque  does  not 
require.  By  the  by,  I  think  that  in  this  later  volume 
he  uses  his  skill  in  rhyming  more  for  mere  play — as  in 
"  Molly  Trefusis  " — and  less  as  an  element  of  finished  and 
complex  artistic  effect,  as  in  the  "Autumn  Idyll." 


430  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

November  15. — A  pleasant,  though  small  "  Ad  Eundem  " 
dinner  yesterday.  .  .  . 

November  16. — Had  interesting  talk  with  Dicey  about 
his  book  (The  Law  of  the  Constitution),  which  seems  to  me 
an  excellent  piece  of  work.  I  told  him  that  the  last 
chapter  had  cleared  up  my  view,  so  that  I  could  not  really 
remember  what  it  had  been  previously ; — the  best  thing  a 
book  can  do  for  ona  He  said  it  was  all  written  up  to  the 
last  chapter. 

November  21. — The  die  is  cast! — I  mean  about  Newn- 
ham  College,  not  the  elections.  We  have  settled  to  go  in 
for  building  a  third  Hall ;  the  only  question  is  where.  I 
find  that  younger  opinion  is  drifting  towards  a  preference 
for  one  continuous  building ;  the  waste  and  severance 
involved  in  two  separate  Halls  are  said  to  outweigh  the 
advantages.  I  am  therefore  inclined  to  put  the  third 
Hall  in  the  closest  physical  contiguity  with  the  other  two. 
But  I  shall  leave  it  all  to  Nora. 

November  24. — I  have  voted  Liberal,  after  some  hesita- 
tion :  first,  because  I  want  a  strong  majority,  and  still  think 
the  Liberals  have  the  best  chance  of  getting  it — though  I 
now  think  their  chance  is  only  a  little  the  best:  secondly, 
because  the  Disestablishment  question  has  come  to  the 
front,  and  though  averse  to  raising  the  question,  I  feel  that 
now  it  has  been  raised  I  ought  to  cast  in  my  lot  with  the 
Disestablishes.  .  .  . 

Let  me  prophesy.  On  the  whole  I  think  parties  will 
be  nearly  even,  the  Liberals  having  slightly  the  best  of  it — 
leaving  the  Parnellites  out.  Six  weeks  ago  I  should  have 
been  inclined  to  give  them  a  large  majority  over  Tories 
alone,  but  everything  seems  to  me  to  have  gone  against 
them.  1.  Tories  have  got  the  Irish  vote  safe  without  any 
such  fiasco  in  Ireland  as  might  have  occurred,  and  would 
have  alienated  their  supporters  here.  2.  They  have  gained 
much  by  the  Liberal  mistake  of  bringing  forward  Dis- 
establishment. 3.  Foreign  affairs  have  gone  in  their 
favour ;  the  Bulgarian  matter  seemed  likely  to  go  the  other 
way,  but  this  selfish  aggression  of  Servia  has  practically 


1885,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  431 

rehabilitated  the  Berlin  treaty.  Also  Sir  H.  Wolff  is  said 
to  have  scored  a  success — and  no  one  certainly  can  prove 
he  has  not. 

1  P.M. — Cambridge  has  gone  Tory!  Fawcett  used  to 
say  that  Cambridge  was  an  excellent  test  of  the  country. 
I  wonder  if  this  will  prove  to  be  so. 

November  25. — Manifest  Tory  reaction  in  the  boroughs. 
Only  in  the  Midland  counties  —  Birmingham  and  the 
Potteries — does  the  democracy  appear  still  in  full  vigour. 
In  Cambridge  I  am  informed  that  the  reaction  is  due  (1) 
to  the  severe  administration  of  outdoor  relief  by  a  Liberal 
majority  of  the  Guardians ;  and  (2)  to  the  railway  people 
resenting  Fowler's  refusal  to  vote  for  making  "  automatic 
coupling"  compulsory.  If  true,  it  illustrates  the  chaotic 
state  into  which  the  division  of  parties  has  fallen. 

November  26. — Reaction  even  stronger  than  I  thought 
yesterday ;  no  Liberal  for  any  one  of  the  nine  Liverpool 
districts,  and  in  Leeds,  which  we  thought  a  stronghold  of 
Liberalism,  three  districts  out  of  five  have  gone  Tory.  But 
I  am  very  glad,  all  the  same,  that  Gerald  Balfour  is  in. 
It  now  seems  probable  that  the  Tories  will  have  a  majority 
apart  from  the  Irish,  but  not,  I  fear,  enough  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  them. 

November  27. — Reaction  going  on  still:  four  out  of  five 
of  the  Manchester  seats  Tory,  including  Arthur  Balfour's 
with  a  majority  of  800.  Everything  now  depends  on  the 
counties.  If  they  go  like  the  boroughs,  the  parties — apart 
from  the  Irish — will  be  nearly  even ;  but  there  are  forces 
operating  on  both  sides  to  make  the  result  different.  .  .  . 
On  the  whole  I  stick  to  my  original  prophecy  that  English 
or  patriotic  parties  are  likely  to  be  very  even — a  disastrous 
result ! 

Gerald's  success  at  Leeds  defeating  the  Local  manu- 
facturer and  former  member  is  considered  very  brilliant. 
Both  he  and  Arthur  are  said  to  be  personally  very  popular. 
I  wonder  how  much  or  how  long  they  will  agree  in  Parlia- 
ment ! 

November  2  8. — Two  or  three  county  results,  but  nothing 


432  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

to  shake  opinion  above  expressed.  I  am  glad  the  G.O.M. 
is  in  with  a  thumping  majority  and  that  Scotch  Liberalism 
shows  so  far  no  sign  of  weakening  —  glad,  I  mean,  on 
personal  grounds,  as  it  will  break  the  Grand  Old  Man's 
fall,  and  save  it  from  disgrace. 

November  28,  Evening. — Liberals  winning  seats  in  Lin- 
colnshire (Otter),  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Huntingdon :  looks  as 
if  they  would  have  considerable  gains  in  Eastern  Counties. 

Let  me  forget  politics  a  moment.  I  have  found  time  to 
read  [Stevenson's]  Prince  Otto — with  decided  pleasure,  which 
would  have  been,  however,  considerably  greater  if  I  had  not 
been  haunted  throughout  by  a  sense  of  ambiguous  genre 
I  could  not  feel  sure  how  much  the  author  intended  for 
amusing  extravaganza  and  how  much  for  serious  presenta- 
tion of  human  relations  and  problems.  To  ask  the  question 
seems  dull  and  pedantic,  but  it  asked  itself  involuntarily. 

December  3. — Trevelyan  came,  in  good  spirits  at  the  way 
the  county  elections  are  going.  .  .  .  But  he  is  very 
depressing  about  Ireland ;  sees  no  middle  course  between 
Home  Rule,  which  he  takes  to  mean  Separation,  and 
governing  Ireland  like  a  Crown  Colony ;  this  latter,  he 
says,  would  be  easy  enough — he  would  not  mind  doing 
it  himself — if  the  English  people  would  make  up  its  mind 
to  it ;  but  this  he  thinks  most  unlikely. 

December  4. — Went  to  see  Eumenides  with  Arthur  [Sidg- 
wick]  and  Trevelyan,  and  was  most  agreeably  surprised 
it  is  long  since  I  have  had  three  hours  of  more  instructive 
delight.  Chiefly,  I  suppose,  from  being  unexpectedly  made 
to  feel  the  truth  of  old  phrases,  often  heard — and  repeated — 
about  the  statuesque  and  processional  character  of  the  Greek 
drama,  the  importance  of  the  chorus,  the  religious  signifi- 
cance of  Aeschylean  tragedy,  etc.  Partly,  I  was  unex- 
pectedly susceptible  to  Stanford's  music,1  which  [was] 
declared  to  be  excellent  and  appropriate,  for  I  was  at  first 

1  Sidgwick  was  extremely  unmusical,  and  could  not  distinguish  one  tune 
from  another.  Moreover,  musical  sound  seems  in  some  way  to  have  inter- 
fered with  his  sense  of  rhythm,  which  was  very  strong  in  poetry  ;  at  least 
he  used  to  say  that  he  never  could  learn  to  dance  because  he  could  not 
catch  the  time.  Nevertheless,  appropriate  musical  accompaniment  to 
words  sometimes  affected  him  powerfully,  as  in  this  case. 


1885,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  433 

indifferent  to  the  Furies  when  they  were  discovered  lying 
asleep  on  the  stage ;  but  after  the  first  song  I  began  to  feel 
the  most  extraordinary  interest  in  them,  and  in  the  conflict 
between  old  divinities  and  new. 

The  acting  was  for  the  most  part  well-bred  and  careful 
rather  than  impressive ;  but  Orestes  was  certainly  effective, 
and  the  figures  were  excellently  chosen,  especially  in  the 
scene  of  Areopagus ;  the  contrast  of  Athene  and  Apollo,  tall, 
comely  (Apollo  decidedly  handsome),  and  serene,  with  the 
anxious  Orestes  and  the  undersized  coarsely  eager  leader 
of  the  Furies,  was  admirable ;  and  when  the  voting  was 
over,  the  pleading  of  Athene  with  the  Eumenides,  the 
reconciliation,  and  the  beautiful  procession  of  white -robed 
figures  with  torch-bearers  which  expressed  the  reconcilia- 
tion— all  moved  me  to  an  extent  which  I  can  now  hardly 
explain  to  myself.  Certainly,  if  classical  education  is  to  go 
on,  the  educational  gain  of  such  dramatic  representations  as 
these  seems  to  me  very  great ;  if  I  had  seen  this  play  in 
my  freshman's  term,  it  would  have  done  me  more  good  than 
a  whole  term's  lectures. 

Trevelyan,  I  think,  must  be  a  degree  more  unmusical 
than  I,  since  at  the  end  of  the  second  act  he  announced 
that  he  was  going  to  the  Union  to  look  at  the  telegrams  of 
yesterday's  polls,  and  so  missed  the  conclusion.  Arthur 
was  as  much  pleased  as  I. 

December  5.  —  Trevelyan  predicted  that  the  Liberals 
would  get  330,1  so  that  the  coalition  would  have  a  majority 
of  10.  He  made  light  of  the  split  between  Radicals  and 
Moderates.  .  .  . 

December  10. — Have  been  over  to  Oxford  to  elect  a  pro- 
fessor for  Auckland  (New  Zealand)  ;  was  struck  with  the  way 
in  which  the  Dublin  candidates  came  to  the  front ;  probably 
they  do  not  know  quite  as  much  scholarship  as  our  people, 
but  their  best  men — one  of  whom  we  chose — seem  to  have 
more  breadth  of  training  and  more  "  go."  Dined  yesterday 
with  Jowett  and  Mahaffy  (two  brother  electors).  Mahaffy 

1  They  did  get  333,  giving  them  a  majority  of  82  over  Conservatives  alone, 
but  not  a  majority  over  Conservatives  and  Parnellites  together. 

2F 


434  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

very  agreeable.  He  said  that  if  Lord  Salisbury  was  iucliued 
to  come  to  terms  with  Parnell,  the  Irish  Tories  would  be  no 
obstacle ;  they  felt  the  gravity  of  the  situation  so  much 
that  they  would  be  glad  of  almost  any  settlement.  Jowett 
also  was  in  good  form.  I  talked  of  the  "  idea  of  develop- 
ment" as  characteristic  of  the  present  age,  and  he  said 
"  Don't  you  think  it  is  the  word  rather  than  the  idea," 
and  would  not  believe  that  the  development  of  political 
institutions  could  be  traced  at  all.  I  told  him  I  was 
going  to  lecture  about  it  next  term ;  whereat  he  smiled 
gravely,  as  though  implying  that  it  might  perhaps  be  traced 
enough  for  that  purpose.  Arthur's  babies  nice. 

December  17. — A  week  of  rather  random  and  wasted 
labour !  I  begin  to  think  that  the  development  of  political 
institutions  cannot  even  be  lectured  about.  Am  depressed 
by  the  rumours  of  Gladstone's  scheme  for  Home  Rule.  I 
am  inclined  to  believe  them :  and  I  foresee  that  the  scheme 
will  be  well-meant,  and  will  contain  plausible  guarantees  of 
both  the  interests  of  England  and  the  interests  of  the  loyal 
minority,  and  that  Gladstone  will  advocate  it  persuasively, 
and — with  the  help  of  the  Irish  vote — will  most  likely 
carry  the  country  decidedly  with  him  if  the  Lords  force 
another  election :  but  that  the  guarantees  will  be  illusory 
and  the  scheme  really  a  pusillanimous  surrender  of  those 
whom  we  are  bound  to  protect,  and  of  posterity.  The 
experience  of  Egypt,  the  Transvaal,  and  Irish  affairs  last 
session  presses  me  to  this  gloomy  prophecy — which  is  all 
the  gloomier  on  account  of  my  personal  regard  and  admira- 
tion for  the  G.O.M.  Let  us  hope  better  things. 

December  21. — On  Friday  evening  we  found  Arthur 
Balfour  and  Gerald  at  Carlton  Gardens.  Arthur  believes 
the  rumours  about  Gladstone  to  be  substantially  correct. 
I  gathered  from  his  talk  that  the  Tories  are  anxious  to  go 
out  as  soon  as  possible.  They  think  it  bad  for  the  party 
to  try  legislation  in  a  minority,  and  they  think  that  the 
best  chance  both  for  the  country  and  "  boni  homines "  is 
that  Gladstone  should  have  rope  given  to  propose  his  Home 
Rule  scheme.  Then,  they  hope,  his  party  will  go  to  pieces 


1386,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  435 

over  it,  the  G.O.M.'s  prestige  be  finally  ruined,  and  the 
country  saved.  This,  I  gather,  is  their  view ;  it  was  not 
exactly  expressed. 

December  24. — Have  read  J.  R  Mozley's  poem  [The 
Romance  of  Dennell]  with  almost  as  much  unexpected 
pleasure  as  the  Eumenides  gave  me  !  I  award  him  the 
laurel  crown ;  here  is  a  new  poet  with  an  independent, 
underived  style  and  the  rare  gift  of  telling  a  long  story  so 
that  one  regrets  that  it  is  not  longer.  The  style  is  too 
Wordsworthian  to  please  at  first;  also  the  treatment  too 
oddly  mixed — in  parts — of  trivial-realistic  with  fantastical- 
operatic.  But  the  style  grows  on  one  and  ultimately  com- 
mands the  attention  in  an  even,  tranquil,  but  thoroughly 
attractive  way.  For  about  one  and  a  half  cantos  I  was 
secretly  rather  sorry  that  the  book  looked  so  long ;  for  the 
last  three  cantos  I  was  genuinely  sorry  that  the  rapidly 
decreasing  remainder  looked  so  short.  Some  of  the  songs 
are  very  good,  but  the  point  of  the  book  is  that  it  is  a  long, 
successful  narrative  in  blank  verse. 

December  31. — After  the  lapse  of  a  week  I  find  the 
impression  produced  by  the  Romance  of  Dennell  still  very 
powerful.  At  the  same  time — like  the  impression  of  a 
novel — it  does  not  so  much  prompt  me  to  read  the  book  a 
second  time  as  to  tell  every  one  else  to  read  it  at  once. 

January  I,  1886. — The  political  situation  still  con- 
fused and  obscure,  but  the  prevailing  opinion  is  that  the 
Tories  will  stay  on  for  the  present.  No  one  professes  to 
look  more  than  a  month  or  two  ahead ! 

I  am  getting  absorbed  in  the  study  of  history  for  my 
lectures.  History  always  fascinates  me,  though  I  am 
repelled  from  it  by  a  conviction  of  its  comparative  useless- 
ness  ;  and  the  most  attractive  questions  are  the  most 
unprofitable. 

January  3. — Came  up  to  London  yesterday  to  meeting 
of  S.P.R  It  has  now  600  members  and  associates,  and  I 
shall  now  let  it  run  alone  without  any  more  nursing.  I 
think  it  has  done  good  work,  as  I  do  not  doubt  that 
Thought-transference  is  genuine,  and  hope  it  will  soon  be 


436  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

established  beyond  cavil ;  but  I  see  no  prospect  of  making 
way  in  the  far  more  interesting  investigation  of  Spiritualism. 
I  fear  our  experience  shows  that  evidence  available  for 
scientific  purposes  is  not  likely  to  be  forthcoming ;  still, 
having  put  our  hands  to  plough  this  bog,  it  would  be  feeble 
to  look  back  so  soon. 

January  5. — Came  yesterday  from  London  to  Whittinge- 
hame ;  read  in  the  train  Spencer's  Political  Institutions, 
and  think  much  more  highly  of  it  now  that  I  come  back  to 
it  after  reading  other,  especially  German,  books.  He  is,  as 
always,  over-confident  in  generalisation,  but  it  is  a  most 
vigorous  and  useful  essay  towards  the  construction  of 
scientific  sociology ;  I  do  not  know  anything  as  good. 

January  7. — Went  in  to  Edinburgh  yesterday  and  read 
my  essay  on  the  "  Historical  Method  " 1  to  the  Philosophical 
Society.  So  far  as  I  could  see,  it  went  off  as  well  as  any- 
thing so  purely  negative  could  be  expected  to  do.  There 
were  over  150  young  men ;  they  seemed  to  take  my 
points — once  or  twice  even  embarrassing  me  by  applauding 
before  I  had  put  on  the  final  rhetorical  flourish.  It  would, 
I  think,  be  more  inspiriting  to  be  a  Scotch  Professor  than 
a  Cambridge  one — though  less  comfortable. 

Met  S.  H.  Butcher,  who  talked  eagerly  and  interestingly 
about  Ireland.  He  thinks  that  the  one  thing  absolutely 
needful  is  to  separate  the  agrarian  from  the  political  element 
of  the  Home  Eule  [movement],  and  to  quench  the  former  by 
at  once  restoring  order  and  promoting  Purchase  on  a  large 
scale.  The  tenants,  he  thinks,  would  buy  willingly,  if  they 
were  once  made  to  believe  that  England  did  not  intend  to 
let  them  get  the  land  without  paying  for  it ;  and  if  the 
landlords  were  once  bought  out,  we  might  develop  local 
government  in  Ireland  without  danger.  But  unless  this 
is  done,  any  and  every  concession  will  simply  be  used  to 
strengthen  the  league.  The  anti-Gladstonian  feeling  seems 
growing  and  hardening,  at  least  among  the  people  I  meet. 

January  9. — Came  back  to  Cambridge  to-day  and  read 
more  Herbert  Spencer  in  the  train.  I  find  History  studied 

1  Published  in  Mind  for  April  1886. 


1886,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  437 

as  inductive  Sociology  more  and  rnore  interesting,  and  quite 
wonder  that  I  have  neglected  it  so  long.  It  seems  to  me 
that,  without  genius  or  originality,  one  might  produce  a 
really  important  work  combining  Hegelian  view  of  evolu- 
tion of  the  idea  of  State  with  Spencerian  view  of  quasi- 
biological  evolution  of  the  fact  of  the  State,  and  testing  both 
severely  by  history. 

January  11. — Read  Giercke's  Deutsches  Genossenschafts- 
retht  from  10  to  4,  with  interval  of  Indian  Civil  Service 
business.  It  is  certainly  an  able  work,  but  I  think  he 
carries  legal  subtleties  a  little  too  far  back  into  the  naive 
beginnings  of  German  history. 

January  12. — Dined  with  Latham  (Southacre)  to  meet 
the  Warden  of  Merton  [Brodrick],  who  is  the  first  man  I 
have  met  who  thinks  Chamberlain's  allotment  scheme  good — 
apart  from  the  element  of  spoliation.  Tried  hard  to  interest 
myself  in  Church  Eeform,  in  order  to  talk  to  Porter  about 
it,  who  seemed  genuinely  interested.  My  own  view  is  that 
it  would  be  highly  imprudent  in  the  Church  to  attempt  the 
only  kind  of  reform  that  would  seriously  interest  me — i.e. 
widening  of  subscription  with  a  view  to  include  the  Modern 
Spirit.  I  do  not  think  the  Spirit  of  the  age,  in  its  most 
religious  phase,  is  really  Christian ;  I  think  it  is  Theistic, 
with  a  respectful  consciousness  of  its  historic  connection 
with  Christianity — that  is,  so  far  as  its  view  is  more  than 
Agnosticism  limited  by  Optimism,  referring  the  Cosmos  to  a 
Power  of  which  we  can  predicate  nothing  except  a  general 
tendency  to  bring  things  out  right  on  the  whole. 

January  15. — Have  been  reading  Greek  history,  and 
am  more  than  ever  struck  with  the  advanced  civilisation  of 
the  Homeric  Greeks  as  compared  with  the  Dorian  invaders 
of  Peloponnese,  as  I  am  led  to  conceive  them.  Sparta  no 
doubt  must  be  the  work  of  a  political  genius — it  cannot 
be  explained  by  general  sociological  causes — but  he  must 
have  been  in  a  position  to  learn  lessons  of  political  re- 
flection from  a  society  far  more  mature  than  that  of  the 
hardy  mountaineers  he  governed. 

January  25. — Have  been  busy  with  lectures;  am  too 


438  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CH.VP.  vi 

depressed  at  the  political  prospect  to  want  to  write,  or  even 
to  read  about  it.  The  only  method  of  avoiding  disaster  in 
Ireland  is  a  formal  coalition  of  the  English  parties  on  the 
basis  of  a  determination  to  hold  Ireland  firmly.  Then 
order  might  be  re-established,  capital  might  recover  from  its 
scare ;  by  a  judicious  scheme  of  purchase  working  not  too 
quickly,  the  agrarian  element  of  the  sedition  might  be 
gradually  separated  from  the  political,  and  in  time  things 
might  go  well.  But  this  is  an  idle  dream.  Meanwhile  the 
Government  have  depressed  their  friends  by  their  indecision  ; 
if  they  had  come  forward  with  a  well-considered  measure 
against  boycotting,  they  would  at  any  rate  have  fallen 
gloriously ;  as  it  is,  the  general  expectation  is  that  they 
will  soon  fall  ingloriously. 

January  26. — Am  fighting  against  a  general  depression 
of  mind  ;  conviction  that  I  am  not  likely  to  write  anything 
that  will  interest  myself  or  any  one  else,  and  that  my  work 
here  is  a  failure. 

January  30. — Have  recovered  a  more  or  less  cheerful 
view  of  my  private  affairs,  but  not  of  the  affairs  of  the 
nation.  The  Government  fell,  as  was  expected,  only  rather 
more  so :  having  managed  to  mismanage  their  last  debate 
and  please  neither  political  economists  nor  labourers  and 
their  philanthropic-socialistic  friends.  The  general  view  is 
that  their  parliamentary  management  has  a  striking  re- 
semblance to  the  Liberal  management  of  foreign  affairs — 
vacillation,  incoherence,  and  weak  excuses. 

January  31. — Talked  to  F.  Myers  about  Stevenson's 
Strange  Case  of  Dr.  JekylL  We  both  think  it  extra- 
ordinarily good,  but  we  think  it  might  have  been  better  if 
English  taste  had  allowed  a  little  more  "  realism "  and  if 
S.  himself  had  a  little  more  genuine  interest  in  morality 
and  fund  of  moral  experience.  As  it  is,  the  ethical  effect  of 
the  story  is  produced  not — as  in  Hawthorne's  case — by  any 
originality  of  moral  imagination,  but  by  sheer  literary 
power ;  still  it  is  remarkable.  He  is  certainly  now  in  the 
first  rank  of  living  literary  artists. 

February  1 6. — A  lamentable  hiatus,  due  to  hurry  in  work. 


1886,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  439 

Yesterday  I  went  to  Bradshaw's l  funeral ;  we  are 
growing  terribly  used  to  funerals  now.  But  it  was 
specially  impressive :  the  crowd  in  the  hall  of  King's,  the 
procession  through  the  court,  the  roll  of  the  funeral  music 
in  King's  Chapel.  Within  how  short  a  time  we  have  lost 
three — Fawcett,  Munro,  Bradshaw — each  of  whom  has  left 
a  place  that  will  not  be  filled ;  and  the  third,  perhaps,  most 
of  all,  for  he  had  with  other  gifts  the  special  gift  of  affection. 

Nora  and  I  must  have  heard,  we  think,  the  last  words 
he  spoke :  as  he  bade  us  farewell,  in  his  bright,  affectionate 
way,  at  the  gate  of  King's,  after  we  had  walked  home 
together  from  dinner  on  Thursday  evening.  How  soon  after 
that  death  came  we  do  not  know,  but  probably  soon,  as  he 
was  found  in  his  chair  in  the  morning.  It  is  an  enviable 
death. 

February  21. — For  the  first  time  for  weeks  I  am  moved 
to  write  about  Politics,  chiefly  to  mark,  with  some  alarm, 
the  extent  of  my  alienation  from  current  Liberalism.  We 
are  drifting  on  to  what  must  be  a  national  disaster,  and  the 
forces  impelling  are  Party  organisation  and  Liberal  prin- 
ciples. The  stability  of  the  dual  organisation  of  parties 
makes  it  difficult  for  the  average  politician  to  see  any  way 
out  of  the  trouble  without  satisfying  the  Irish ;  and  Liberal 
principles  make  it  seem  right  to  let  them  have  what  they 
want.  So  the  good  man  closes  his  eyes  and  hopes  that 
what  they  want  will  not  turn  out,  after  all,  so  ruinous  to 
England  as  some  people  think. 

My  personal  trouble  is  that  I  do  not  quite  see  what  to 
do  about  my  book  on  Politics.  My  political  ideal  is  nearly 
written  out — and  lo !  I  begin  to  feel  uncomfortable  about 
it ;  I  begin  to  find  something  wooden  and  fatuous  in  the 
sublime  smile  of  Freedom. 

February  24. — I  have  had  rather  an  interesting  surprise. 
Some  days  ago  I  saw  in  the  Pall  Mall  a  short  review  of  an 
obviously  fictitious  biography  of  "  Arthur  Hamilton,  B.A., 
Trin.  Coll.,  Cambridge,"  by  "  Christopher  Carr."  The  names 
seemed  somehow  familiar  to  me ;  reflecting  on  them,  I 

1  Henry  Bradshaw,  University  Librarian,  died  February  10,  1886. 


440  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

conjectured  that  hero  and  biographer  were  "  differentiated  " 
out  of  my  nephew,  Arthur  Christopher  Benson.  (Readers 
requested  to  keep  the  secret  until  they  hear  it  from  some 
other  source.)  So  I  bought  the  book,  and  have  been  reading 
it.  It  is  a  curious  performance,  immature  both  in  Art  and 
Thought,  but,  I  think,  very  promising,  having  the  essential 
qualities  of  individuality  and  aplomb ;  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  hero's  ideas  and  ways  of  life  deserve  attention, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  definitely  and  delicately 
conceived  and  impressively  delineated,  and  the  writer 
nowhere  gives  one  the  sense  of  misapplied  effort — the  effects 
he  tries  to  produce  he  does  produce.  As  for  the  pattern  of 
life  presented,  it  ought,  I  think,  to  interest  a  certain  portion 
of  the  "  company  of  well-dressed  men  and  women  out  in 
search  of  a  religion,"  as  Emerson  calls  modern  society. 
One  point  in  it  that  struck  me  was  the  complete  absence  of 
the  socialistic  enthusiasm  which  I  have  always  regarded  as 
the  main  current  of  new  feeling  among  thoughtful  young  men 
during  the  last  few  years  here — the  years  that  my  nephew 
was  here  as  undergraduate.  It  might  have  been  written  in 
the  last  century,  so  far  as  the  relations  of  rich  and  poor  are 
concerned.  "  The  world,"  as  Jowett  says,  "  is  a  very  big 
place" — and  even  the  miniature  world  of  thought  that  a 
single  university  holds  has  a  greater  variety  of  drifts  and 
currents  that  scarcely  intermingle  than  one  is  disposed  to 
think. 

What  the  fate  of  the  book  may  be  I  do  not  conjecture, 
and  it  is  as  likely  as  not  to  fall  almost  dead ;  but  I  think  it 
will  impress  any  one  who  does  read  it. 

We  have  just  elected  Robertson  Smith  as  Librarian : 
a  good  thing  for  the  University;  but  I  feel  rather  sorry 
that  another  fine  intellect  is  to  be  buried — or  at  least 
bowed — under  the  growing  load  of  administrative  work. 
It  must  needs  be  that  Machinery  extends  and  develops, 
but  the  man  of  genius  and  aspirations  who  becomes 
servant  to  a  machine  makes  either  a  grand  sacrifice  or  a 
"  gran  rifiuto." 

March  7. — Yesterday  we  had   the  S.P.R.  meeting  in  the 


1886,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  441 

evening ;  I  was  in  the  chair.  Barrett  read  a  paper  which 
was  pro-Spiritualistic,  but  guardedly  so,  and  produced  (I 
think)  a  good  effect  on  the  audience.  I  feel,  however,  that 
the  natural  drift  of  my  mind  is  now  towards  total  in- 
credulity in  respect  of  extra-human  intelligences ;  I  have  to 
remind  myself  forcibly  of  the  arguments  on  the  other  side, 
just  as  a  year  ago  I  had  to  dwell  deliberately  on  the 
sceptical  argument  to  keep  myself  properly  balanced. 
Lord  Lome  was  there  and  Princess  Louise ;  he  came  up 
and  talked  to  me  afterwards.  I  asked  him  what  the  Duke 
of  Argyll  thought  of  Psychical  Eesearch,  and  he  said — 
neatly — "  My  father,  I  believe,  is  in  favour  of  the  '  policy 
of  examination  and  inquiry '  on  all  matters  except  Home 
Eule." 

March  1 5. — Have  had  a  week  of  "  labor  improbus  "  on 
my  last  two  historical  lectures.  They  have  interested  me 
immensely,  and  I  am  really  humiliated  to  find  what  a 
stimulus  the  function  of  lecturing  gives  to  one's  power 
of  taking  in  ideas.  I  now  do  know  a  little  about  the 
development  of  political  institutions  in  Europe. 

March  1 7. — Ever  since  I  got  J.  A.  S.'s  letter  I  have  been 
thinking  over  the  political  pessimism  of  my  last  month's 
journal,  and  trying  to  make  my  thoughts  more  distinct  to 
myself.  I  find  that  there  are  two  elements  which  have  to  be 
carefully  separated : — 

1.  I  have  a  certain  alarm  in  respect  of  the  movement 
of  modern  society  towards  Socialism,  i.e.  the  more  and  more 
extensive  intervention  of  Government  with  a  view  to 
palliate  the  inequalities  in  the  distribution  of  wealth.  At 
the  same  time  I  regard  this  movement  as  on  the  whole 
desirable  and  beneficent — the  expectation  of  it  belongs  to 
the  cheerful  side  of  my  forecast  of  the  future;  if  duly 
moderated  it  might,  I  conceive,  be  purely  beneficent,  and 
bring  improvement  at  every  stage.  But — judging  from 
past  experience — one  must  expect  that  so  vast  a  change 
will  not  be  realised  without  violent  shocks  and  oscillations, 
great  blunders  followed  by  great  disasters  and  consequent 
reactions ;  that  the  march  of  progress,  perturbed  by  the 


442  HENKY  SIDGWICK 


CHAP.    VI 


selfish  ambitions  of  leaders  and  the  blind  appetites  of 
followers,  will  suffer  many  spasmodic  deviations  into  paths 
which  it  will  have  painfully  to  retrace.  Perhaps — as  in 
the  movement  of  the  last  century  towards  Liberty — one 
country  will  have  to  suffer  the  pains  of  experiments  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  system  of  States ;  and  if  so,  it  is  on 
various  grounds  likely  that  this  country  may  be  England. 

In  this  way  I  sometimes  feel  alarmed — even  for  my 
own  "  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years  " — but  not,  on  the 
whole,  seriously.  Considering  all  the  chances  of  misfortune 
that  life  offers,  the  chance  of  having  one's  railway  shares 
confiscated  is  not  prominent,  though  I  should  not  be 
surprised  at  being  mulcted  of  a  part  of  my  dividends. 

2.  My  recent  fear  and  depression  has  been  rather  of  a 
different  kind :  has  related  rather  to  the  structure  of 
Government  than  the  degree  of  its  interference  with 
property  and  contract.  I  have  hitherto  held  unquestion- 
ingly  the  Liberal  doctrine  that  in  the  modern  industrial 
community  government  by  elected  and  responsible  repre- 
sentatives was  and  would  remain  the  normal  type.  But  no 
one  has  yet  found  out  how  to  make  this  kind  of  govern- 
ment work,  except  on  the  system  of  alternating  parties ; 
and  it  is  the  force  of  resistance  which  this  machine  of 
party  government  presents  to  the  influence  of  enlightened 
and  rational  opinion,  at  crises  like  this,  which  alarms.  I 
find  myself  asking  myself  whether  perhaps,  after  all,  it  is 
Csesarism  which  will  win  in  the  competition  for  existence, 
and  guide  modern  industrial  society  successfully  towards  its 
socialistic  goal.  However,  I  do  not  yet  think  this ;  but  it 
is  a  terrible  problem  what  to  do  with  party  government. 

March  26. — Have  been  thinking  lately  of  my  advanced 
age,  not  exactly  with  depression,  but  with  a  nervous  con- 
sciousness that  time  is  short  and  that  I  have  hardly 
sufficient  left  to  do  my  proper  work  in.  (For  I  find  that 
with  all  my  fits  of  disgust  at  my  work  I  relapse  after  a 
time  into  the  conviction  that  I  have  a  proper  work ;  and 
that  I  have  done  some  of  it,  but  that  most  of  it  is  still  to 
do.)  Against  the  personal  alarms  of  old  age  marriage  seems 


1886,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  443 

to  me  a  fair  protection ;  there  is  as  much  security  against 
cheerlessness  as  a  mortal  can  expect  in  the  reasonable 
prospect  that  one  will  grow  old  along  with  one's  wife, 
growing  more  intimate  through  the  accumulations  of  shared 
experience.  Only  a  very  young  poet  would  write 

Idle  habit  links  us  yet, 

— habit  being  really  the  most  hardworking  and  beneficent 
of  the  Divine  Forces. 

March  27. — Gerald  [Balfour]  arrived,  in  good  spirits, 
with  cheerful  hopes  of  "  dishing  Gladstone."  Chamberlain 
and  Trevelyan  are  certainly  going  out.  It  is  certainly  an 
extraordinary  Transformation  Scene.  At  the  time  of  the 
election  the  one  effort  of  Gladstone  seemed  to  be  to  prevent 
the  party  from  splitting  into  Chamberlainites  and  Harting- 
tonites ;  and  now  Chamberlain  and  Hartington  are  combined 
against  the  great  measure  of  the  year  [the  Home  Eule  Bill]. 

March  29. — We  had  a  great  discussion  on  Home  Eule 
last  night,  Stuart  being  there.  His  line  is  "50  millions 
not  too  great  a  price  to  pay  for  pacifying  Ireland."  I  think 
there  is  something  to  be  said,  from  an  ethical  point  of  view, 
in  favour  of  allowing  a  nation  to  get  out  of  a  difficulty  by  a 
heavy  fine ;  and  if  I  thought  we  could,  or  ought  to,  resign 
our  imperial  responsibilities  generally,  I  do  not  know  that 
I  should  so  much  object  to  this.  (I  am  conscious  that  my 
predominant  passion  is  curiosity,  and  that  I  am  being 
tempted  by  the  desire  to  see  what  comes  of  Home  Eule — 
so  long  as  I  have  no  responsibility  for  introducing  it.) 
But  no ;  the  5  0  millions  (Stuart  thinks  the  extra  burden 
may  be  reduced  to  this  from  the  100  or  200  millions  most 
talk  of)  is  too  dangerous  a  premium  on  organised  social 
disorder.  What  we  are  facing  is  a  combination  of  political 
and  agrarian  agitation ;  what  Gladstone  proposes  is  a 
premium  on  both  :  and  the  price  is  too  high  to  buy  a  serious 
increase  of  social  danger  with,  as  well  as  disgrace  and 
demoralisation  as  regards  our  imperial  character. 

March  31. — I  find  the  task  of  revising  my  article  on 
"  Ethics  "  for  the  benefit  of  the  Scotch  Church  more  disagree- 


444  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

able  than  I  expected.1  There  is  so  much  that  might  be 
improved,  and  I  have  to  work  against  time  and  an  irritable 
digestion.  When  it  was  originally  written,  I  had  to  work 
against  space  as  well  as  time,  being  limited  to  about  thirty 
pages.  I  thought  the  conditions  severe,  but  it  now  seems 
to  me  that  if  one  is  forced  to  do  an  important  work  too 
quickly,  it  is  rather  a  gain  to  be  also  forced  to  do  it  too 
briefly. 

I  have  been  solacing  myself  with  Anna  Karenine  in  the 
evenings.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  impressive  novel 
I  have  read  for  years  —  not  the  genius  of  Turgenieff, 
but,  I  think,  a  more  equable  and  sustained  talent  of  pre- 
senting clearly-conceived  types  in  powerfully-felt  situations. 
I  put  down  the  author,  Count  Leon  Tolstoi,  on  my,  most 
select  list  of  romancers. 

April  3. — Went  up  to  London  last  night;  slept  at 
Bryce's  ;  Michael  Davitt  came  to  breakfast.  I  liked  him  on 
the  whole ;  he  talked  simply,  frankly,  and  vigorously,  though 
hardly  impressively.  He  maintained  that  even  if  no 
Purchase  Bill  was  passed,  the  landlords  would  be  fairly 
treated  by  the  Irish  parliament ;  on  inquiry  this  was  found 
to  mean  that,  except  in  certain  districts  where  there  really 
ought  to  be  wo  rent,  they  would  get  about  fifteen  years' 
purchase  of  about  three-fourths  of  the  judicial  rent.  He 
said  that  he  regarded  Parnell  as  likely  to  be  very  con- 
servative ;  he  had  asked  him  not  long  ago  what  he  thought 
of  the  prospects  of  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  land 
question  if  it  were  left  to  the  Irish  parliament,  and  that 
Parnell  had  paused,  looked  at  him  in  silence  for  a  moment, 
and  then  said  quietly,  "  The  best  way  of  securing  it  would 
be  to  put  you  in  prison  for  a  couple  of  years." 

Talked  to  Bryce  about  the  political  situation.  He 
thought  that  Chamberlain  could  not  work  with  Hartington, 
and  did  not  mean  to ;  that  he  meant  to  fight  for  his  own 
plan  of  '  extended  local  government  without  Home  Kule,' 

1  The  article  on  "Ethics"  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  was  expanded 
into  the  little  book,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Ethics,  with  a  view  primarily 
to  the  need  of  such  a  book  for  students  preparing  for  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland. 


1886,  AGE  47  HENRY  SIDGWICK  445 

and  if  he  succeeded,  the  Liberal  party  must  break  up  into 
three  fractions — Gladstonian  Home  Eulers,  Chamberlainite 
Eadicals,  and  Hartingtonian  Whigs.  To  me  it  seems  that 
Chamberlain  mistakes  the  situation  and  his  own  position ; 
does  not  see  how  much  Gladstone's  action  has  changed  the 
situation  ;  the  only  tolerable  alternative  for  Home  Eule  now 
is  Coercion,  and  vigorous  coercion  ;  any  intermediate  scheme 
has  become  irrelevant,  even  to  stupidity.  Bryce  seemed  to 
be  looking  forward  cheerfully  to  literary  leisure.  He  said 
that  Trevelyan  had  looked  lately  as  if  the  struggle  of 
coming  out  had  been  very  painful.  I  am  not  surprised, 
as  the  sentiment  of  party  loyalty  is  with  him  almost  a 
passion. 

April  13. — Had  a  talk  with  Arthur  Balfour  last  night 
about  the  political  situation.  He  thinks  the  second  reading 
of  the  [Home  Eule]  Bill  will  be  a  very  near  thing,  but  that 
it  is  most  likely  to  be  thrown  out :  Chamberlain  is 
thoroughly  aware  that  he  must  either  crush  Gladstone  or 
be  crushed,  and  will  strain  eveiy  nerve  to  throw  out  the 
Bill.  I  pointed  out  the  irrelevance  of  C.'s  position  to  the 
present  situation — rejecting  both  Home  Eule  and  Coercion 
when  one  of  the  alternatives  must  be  chosen.  He  admitted 
that  the  fraction  of  Chamberlainites  was  not  likely  to  be 
large,  but  thought  that  his  opposition  would  encourage 
many  M.P.'s,  Hartingtonian  at  heart  but  with  Eadical  con- 
stituencies, to  vote  according  to  their  convictions.  He  may 
be  right  about  the  present  Parliament,  but  I  cannot  feel 
much  doubt — I  wish  I  could — that  Gladstone  will  win  on 
an  appeal  to  the  country.  ...  I  regard  his  victory  as 
scarcely  doubtful,  and  try  to  hope  that  there  is  just  a 
chance  that  the  new  constitution  may  work,  after  all. 

Last  night  we  dined  with  Leslie  Stephen,  and  met 
George  Meredith,  whom  I  liked,  but  was  somewhat  dis- 
appointed in  his  conversation.  He  was  not  affected  or 
conceited  and  talked  fluently,  but  not  exactly  with  ease,  nor 
did  his  phrases  seem  to  me  often  to  have  any  peculiar  apt- 
ness ;  once  or  twice  there  was  an  amusing  stroke  of  humorous 
fancy,  as  when  he  talked  of  an  unhappy  singer's  voice  being 


446  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

"  like  the  soul  of  a  lemon  in  purgatory  " ;  but  these  things 
did  not  come  often. 

April  14. — Yesterday  we  went  down  to  Shanklin,  and 
met  Arthur  [Sidgwick]  and  his  wife  at  the  Spa  Hotel.  A. 
is  a  convinced  Home  Ruler.  Thus  we  scatter  and  diverge 
as  life  goes  on.  Read  Gass's  Christliche  Ethik,  and  wondered 
in  what  age  of  the  world  I  should  have  had  most  chance  of 
being  a  Christian ;  decided  in  favour  of  the  thirteenth 
century — supposing  I  could  have  been  a  pupil  of  Thomas 
Aquinas. 

April  15. — Read  Gass.  It  is  curious,  from  our  present 
point  of  view,  to  see  how  much  on  a  par  Slavery  and 
Private  Property  seemed  to  primitive  Christians ;  that  men 
should  be  free,  and  that  they  should  share  alike  in  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  seemed  to  them  equally  true  as  ideal  pro- 
positions and  equally  irrelevant  to  actual  society.  Pleasant 
walk  yesterday  over  downs  from  Ventnor  to  Shanklin. 

April  1 9. — I  am  sorry  our  week  has  come  to  an  end ; 
I  have  read  as  much  Gass  as  could  be  expected,  and  enjoyed 
myself  in  all  intervals.  Bezique  nightly  with  Arthur ; 
walks  in  the  afternoon.  To-day  we  went  to  the  '  Roman 
house' — i.e.  partially  uncovered  pavement  of  one — near 
Brading ;  then  we  climbed  a  hill  and  got  a  fine  view  all 
round  this  corner  of  the  island  from  Ryde  to  Shanklin. 
Nora,  I,  and  Arthur  walked  home  by  the  beach  from 
Sandown,  and  talked  of  Arthur's  lectures  on  literature  and 
Browning  Club.  I  have  a  strong  feeling  that  Arthur  does 
not  make  the  most  of  himself,  somehow ;  he  has  really 
remarkable  gifts.  I  have  now  heard  him  lecture  twice,  and 
think  that  he  is  the  best  lecturer  in  a  certain  style  that  I 
have  ever  heard,  i.e.  if  what  you  want  is  compact  abundance 
of  good  points.  Yet  he  does  not  seem  to  have  any  impulse 
to  take  up  a  big  piece  of  literary  work ;  perhaps  his  mis- 
fortune is  to  have  been  too  successful,  professionally  and 
socially,  in  a  certain  limited  way. 

April  22. — Came  back  to  Cambridge  last  night,  after  a 
day  and  a  half  rather  misspent  in  the  British  Museum. 
Graham  Dakyns  and  his  wife  have  arrived.  .  .  . 


1886,  AGE  47  HENEY  SIDGWICK  447 

April  25. — Arthur  [Sidgwick]  came  on  Friday  to  enter- 
tain Graham  while  I  work  at  my  book  (half  of  it  is  revised, 
tant  bien  que  mal}.  [Professor]  W.  F.  Barrett  (of  S.P.E.  and 
[the  College  of  Science]  Dublin)  came  last  night,  so  to-day 
we  have  had  Home  Kule,  varied  by  Psychical  Eesearch. 
We  consoled  ourselves  by  thinking  that  most  of  our  country- 
men were  condemned,  conversationally,  to  Home  Eule  un- 
mixed. The  situation  reminds  me  of  the  fowls  in  the 
story :  most  people  I  meet  are  discussing  earnestly  whether 
we  are  to  have  Home  Eule,  whereas  to  me  the  only  practical 
question  is  with  what  sauce  the  unpalatable  morsel  is  to  be 
cooked.  If  the  wiser  part  of  the  population  would  con- 
centrate their  minds  (in  petto}  on  that  question  they  might 
do  some  good.  To  me  the  important  thing  seems  to  be  to 
leave  Ulster  out — or  most  of  it.  If  the  Ulster  people  try 
hard  it  might  be  done ;  perhaps  they  will  when  the  second 
reading  is  past. 

April  3  0. — "  Labor  improbus  " — of  a  distasteful  kind.  I 
have  been  skimming  the  surface  of  mediaeval  thought  with  a 
profound  sense  of  the  futility  of  sounding  its  abysses.  But 
it  is  nearly  over. 

May  7. — I  went  up  to  read  a  paper  at  the  Political 
Economy  Club  on  "  Taxation."  Very  few  came  to  hear  me  ; 
those  who  did  were  respectful.  Giffen  inclined  to  back  out 
of  his  advocacy  of  '  degressive '  taxation.  Courtney  main- 
tained that  M.P.s  really  did  consider  the  problem  of  taxa- 
tion as  a  whole — as  I  urged — although  their  speeches  did 
not  make  this  evident.  Afterwards  I  saw  Bryce  at  the 
Athenaeum,  went  home  with  him,  and  had  a  talk  about 
Home  Eule.  His  chief  argument  is  that  the  Democracy 
will  not  coerce,  and  therefore  we  must  come  to  this  in  the 
end ;  so  we  had  better  take  it  at  once  quietly.  I  think  he 
is  very  likely  right  as  to  the  ultimate  result :  but  I  do  not 
think  that  the  Home  Eule  in  the  bush  is  sufficiently  more 
mischievous  than  the  H.E.  in  the  hand,  to  make  it  im- 
prudent to  fight  on  a  bare  chance  of  staving  it  off 
altogether. 

May   11-15. — Bains   came.     Bain   very   fair  company, 


448  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

though  dry ;  a  sustained  flow  of  interesting  matter,  with 
occasionally  a  good  anecdote.  .  .  . 

May  15-17. — Newnham  College  Council.  J.  W.  Cross, 
Champneys,  Mrs.  Fawcett  with  us.  We  are  apparently  in 
for  an  expenditure  of  nearly  £20,000,  most  of  which 
probably  the  College  will  have  to  borrow.  It  is  rash,  but 
Nora  and  I,  after  talking  it  over,  concluded  that  it  was  a 
case  for  audace.  We  were  all  very  anti-Gladstonian. 

Cross  is  writing  on  Dante ;  see  article  in  Blackivood, 
"  Dante  for  the  General  " :  readable,  and  makes  one  point  well 
which  was  new  to  me — who  am,  however,  the  merest  out- 
sider— viz.  the  change  towards  bitterness  in  Dante  after 
the  7th  Canto  of  the  Inferno. 

May  24. — Came  back  from  spending  Sunday  with  Hall 
of  Six  Mile  Bottom,  whose  political  state  of  mind  is  inter- 
esting and  instructive.  He  is  working  strongly  against 
Gladstone's  Bill,  yet  he  half  thinks  that  if  only  Ulster 
could  be  exempted,  he  would  accept  the  Bill  on  the 
"  Liberal  principle  "  that  the  Irish  ought  to  be  allowed  to 
govern  themselves  if  they  like  ;  yet  again — having  travelled 
in  Ireland — he  tries  to  imagine  what  the  country  would 
come  to  under  the  rulership  of  Parnell  and  Co.,  and  cannot 
find  it  in  his  heart  to  promote  the  result,  even  on  Liberal 
Principles. 

May  29. — "  Labor  improbus  "  throughout  the  week,  varied 
by  dinner-parties  to  entertain  Frances  Balfour,  who  has 
been  here  since  Monday.  She  gave  us  a  very  interesting 
account  of  a  conversation  between  the  G.O.M.  and  the  Duke 
of  Argyll  (this  is  private),  in  which  the  former  said  (1)  that 
since  1881  he  had  said  nothing  inconsistent  with  Home 
Eule,  which  he  then  saw  would  come;  (2)  that  his  language 
at  the  last  election  ought  to  have  made  his  intention  clear 
to  discerning  readers  ;  then — pathetically — that  he  feared 
his  efforts  to  save  his  country  from  defeat  in  a  discreditable 
and  humiliating  struggle  were  destined  to  fail.  Poor 
G.O.M. 

June  2. — I  have  kept  back  this  meagre  excuse  for  a 
journal  in  hopes  of  '  seeing  my  way '  as  regards  my  Swiss 


1886,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  449 

tour ;  but  it  must  remain  uncertain  for  some  few  days.  I 
want  to  leave  London  June  19th  (having  returned  my  last 
proof  to  the  printer  on  June  18th),  and  to  stay  in  Switzer- 
land till  about  middle  of  July ;  but  the  betting  just  now  is 
on  the  double  event  of  a  defeat  of  the  Bill  and  an  immediate 
dissolution,  in  which  case  I  should  be  bound  as  a  patriot  to 
stay  and  vote.  However,  I  privately  believe  that  the  "  old 
Parliamentary  hand  "  will  get  his  second  reading  yet ;  and 
even  if  he  is  beaten  he  may  not  dissolve  at  once.  I  think 
it  is  the  interest  of  the  country  to  have  the  question  settled 
as  soon  as  possible  ;  but  rumour  says  the  Gladstonians  want 
time  to  collect  the  sinews  of  war,  also  that  delay  is  a  gain 
to  them,  since  a  certain  part  of  the  popular  opposition  to 
the  Bill  is  due  to  unfamiliarity. 

He  did  go  to  Davos,  and  wrote  thence  to  F.  Myers, 
• :  We  are  having  a  good  time  here  "  ;  but  his  tour 
was  cut  short  by  the  General  Election,  as  he  felt 
bound  to  come  home  and  vote.  Accordingly  the 
Journal  begins  again  on  July  3  :— 

July  3. — We  reached  London  on  Thursday  afternoon, 
after  a  journey  on  the  whole  successful — though  the  serenity 
caused  by  the  consciousness  of  patriotic  duty,  combined 
with  absence  of  hay  fever,  was  chequered  by  anxieties  about 
Miss  D.  Nora  has  a  decided  conviction  that  taking  care 
of  strange  young  ladies  is  not  my  line ;  I  admit  myself 
that  it  is  a  business  that  needs  training — for  such  a  man  as 
I  am,  who  have  not  sufficient  intuitive  knowledge  of  the 
workings  of  a  young  lady's  mind  to  divine  that  if  I  let  her 
take  her  own  ticket  she  will  only  take  it  to  Calais  instead 
of  London.  But  I  shall  do  better  next  time. 

Yesterday  I  voted  for  Fitzgerald,  the  Tory  candidate. 
About  11  P.M.  we  heard  that  he  was  in  by  a  majority 
increased  to  over  400.  This  morning  the  news  from  the 
rest  of  England  shows  balanced  gains  and  losses — on  the 
whole  good  for  Unionists.  I  dined  in  Hall,  and  swaggered 
with  apparent  success  about  my  patriotic  sacrifice  of  my 
Swiss  tour. 

2G 


450  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

July  5. — Unionists  gaining  slowly  but  steadily.  Dined 
in  Hall,  and  was  surprised  to  find  the  great  preponderance 
of  Unionist  sentiment  among  the  Trinity  fellows — a  body 
always,  since  I  have  known  Trinity,  preponderantly  Liberal. 

July  7. — "  The  cry  is  still  they  come."  Gladstone  is 
clearly  not  going  to  win,  unless  he  has  a  magic  by  which 
he  can  gain  extra  seats  in  the  counties,  which  is  not  likely, 
and  as  yet  the  signs  are  the  other  way. 

July  9. — Came  to  Terling  yesterday :  every  one  re- 
gards the  Unionist  Victory  as  overwhelmingly  secure — 
the  question  now  interesting  is  whether  the  Tories  can  get 
a  majority ;  but  that  is  too  much  for  them  to  hope.  For 
myself  I  cannot  tell  whether  I  should  hope  for  it  or  not,  if 
I  thought  that  there  was  any  chance  of  it. 

July  10. — Gerald  Balfour  came,  in  the  best  of  spirits. 
.  .  .  We  talked  over  the  situation.  I  see  that  Trevelyan 
(and  the  Pall  Mall)  still  cling  to  the  idea  that  Gladstone 
may  bring  in  a  new  Home  Rule  Bill,  adapted  to  unite  the 
Liberal  party  again ;  but  we  are  all  agreed  that  this  is  out 
of  the  question.  It  lies  between  a  Hartington-Salisbury 
Ministry  and  a  purely  Tory  Ministry  with  Unionist  support. 
The  latter  is  thought  most  likely,  but  owing  entirely  to 
Hartington's  unwillingness  to  coalesce.  I  told  Gerald  that 
the  Unionists  could  not  reckon — even  if  they  hold  to- 
gether— on  more  than  one  Parliament ;  they  must  do  the 
business  within  that  time.  He  is  sanguine ;  he  thinks  the 
National  League  will  be  beaten  if  outrages  are  put  down, 
and  that  that  can  be  done ;  I  do  not  feel  sure  of  either 
proposition. 

July  17. — Frances  Balfour  has  been  here,  and  we  have 
been  drinking  the  cup  of  election  excitement  to  the  dregs. 
Now  there  is  a  pause  till  Cabinet-making  begins.  The 
Duke  of  Argyll  (whose  views  we  get  second-hand  through 
Frances)  is  strongly  for  Coalition ;  it  is  supposed  that  a 
struggle  is  going  on  for  Hartington,  Goschen  pulling  him 
for  coalition  and  Henry  James  the  other  way.  The  Tories, 
so  far  as  I  can  learn,  are  keen  for  coalition ;  some  of  them 
— probably  most — would  even  accept  a  Liberal  Premier ; 


1886,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  451 

but  the  better  opinion  is  that  Hartington  will  not  join  a 
Tory  Cabinet,  though  he  will  promise  them  loyal  support. 
The  Tory  gains  in  the  counties  have  been  more  striking 
than  in  the  boroughs — they  have  made  bigger  changes  in 
the  proportional  numbers  of  the  two  parties,  as  counted  at 
the  polls.  There  are  various  explanations  of  the  swing- 
round  of  the  agricultural  labourer.  Here  (Essex)  my  Tory 
friends  think  that  he  is  partly  disgusted  at  not  having  got 
his  three  acres  and  a  cow,  partly  afraid  of  Irish  competition 
in  the  labour  market.  He  is  not  suffering  from  such  com- 
petition now,  but  he  remembers,  or  has  heard  of  it  in  the 
past ;  so,  when  the  Tory  candidates  tell  him  that  Home 
Eule  would  make  the  Irish  labourers  swarm  over  England, 
he  thinks  it  at  any  rate  safer  to  let  well  alone. 

It  is  remarkable  how  completely  the  Tories  have  con- 
vinced themselves  not  only  that  this  adhesion  of  the  mass 
of  the  Liberal  party  to  Home  Rule  is  entirely  due  to  Glad- 
stone— which  I  admit — but  that  it  entirely  depends  on 
him,  and  will  vanish  like  a  bad  dream  when  he  goes  off  the 
stage.  Of  that  I  cannot  persuade  myself.  It  seems  to  me 
that — unless  some  great  and  unexpectedly  successful  effort  is 
made  to  settle  Home  Rule  on  Chamberlainite  lines  (which 
seems  to  me  scarcely  possible) — the  parties  are  now  divided 
on  Union-Disunion  lines  till  further  orders  from  Destiny. 

July  26. — Finished  L'CSuvre  (Zola),  having  had  a  good 
deal  of  interest  and  aesthetic  enjoyment  in  parts,  but  it 
gets  too  wild  towards  the  end,  and  too  disgusting.  I  am 
more  than  ever  convinced  that  though  Zola  is  a  genuine 
artist,  it  is  misleading  to  call  him  "  realistic  " ;  he  is  a  man 
with  realistic  theory,  but  quite  incapable  of  seeing  and 
depicting  the  reality  of  human  life,  and  with  a  craze  about 
sexuality  that  reminds  one  of  a  monk  who  has  mistaken  his 
vocation. 

July  31. — Frances  Balfour  has  charitably  written  me 
two  excellent  epistles  of  political  gossip.  The  most  interest- 
ing points  are — (1)  G.O.M.  to  Count  Miinster,  "  Do  you 
think  England  will  stand  this  state  of  things  ?  do  you 
think  Ireland  will  ?  do  you  think  I  shall  ? "  which  looks  like 


452  HENKY  SLDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

fighting.  ("2)  The  obstacle  to  Goscheii  joining  Tories  was 
not  his  unwillingness,  but  the  difficulty  of  finding  him  u 
seat  Tlieoretically,  this  is  a  most  valid  objection  under 
representative  institutions ;  practically  it  says  little  for  the 
self-sacrificing  patriotism  of  the  Tories,  since  it  would  have 
been  a  real  gain  to  them  and  to  the  country  to  have  had 
him  as  Chancellor  [of  the  Exchequer]  instead  of  Randolph. 

To  Lady  Frances  Balfour  on  July  25 

Your  letter  is  full  of  interesting  matter,  but  the  point 
that  agitates  my  brain  most  is  Gladstone  saying,  "  Do  you 
think  I  will  stand  it  ?  "  It  is  rather  like  a  chess-player 
saying  he  won't  stand  check  to  his  king ;  if  1  were  playing 
against  him  I  should  hope  it  meant  that  he  was  going  to 
make  a  rash  move.  G.  is  very  like  a  certain  kind  of  chess- 
player, who  can't  play  a  losing  game  with  patient  skill,  but 
has  a  '  demonic '  power  of  recovering  himself  and  making  a 
deadly  rush  if  a  real  opening  is  given. 

Every  one  seems  now  convinced  that  the  Liberal  Unionists 
will  hold  aloof  en  'masse,  but  I  still  hope  that  your  father  l 
and  Goschen  will  join,  as  Unionists,  not  Tories,  though  pre- 
pared to  face  the  result  of  being  inextricably  mixed  up 
with  Tories  in  the  popular  view.  It  seems  to  me  very 
important  that  the  Government  should  look  as  different  as 
possible  from  the  familiar  old  crusted  Conservative  article, 
all  the  more  that  they  will  have  to  act,  as  I  think,  in  a  fine 
old  crusted  manner.  I  am  depressed  by  what  you  say  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Conservatives,  though  I  don't 
think  it  matters  much  about  the  formation  of  the  Govern- 
ment, as  I  expect  Lord  S.  will  do  what  he  thinks  best  in 
spite  of  pressure,  but  I  should  be  afraid  that  it  may  tell 
afterwards,  and  make  a  rift  easier  to  introduce  between  them 
and  the  Liberal  Unionists.  .  .  . 

I  did  not  get  much  pleasure  out  of  my  pictures  on 
Monday,  though  I  thought  the  Burne-Jones 2  impressive, 
and  was  glad  that  it  was  in  his  later  manner — not  the  Early 
Cadaverous ;  but  the  Mermaid's  face  seemed  to  me  too 

1  The  Duke  of  Argyll.  -  "  The  Depths  of  the  Sea. " 


1886,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  453 

human,  a  face  that  tells  a  story.  Now  I  do  not  object  to  a 
mermaid  having  had  adventures,  but  I  do  not  think  they 
ought  to  leave  traces  on  her  countenance. 

To  Lady  Frances  Balfour  on  July  30 

...  To  go  from  prophecy  to  history  :  it  is  worth  observ- 
ing that  Gladstone  has  had  almost  no  practice  in  leading 
opposition  when  he  is  in  a  minority  ;  last  time  he  was  away, 
and  the  time  before — the  time  of  Disraeli's  Reform  Bill — 
the  situation  was  very  different;  for  the  moment  D.  had 
given  Household  Suffrage  the  Liberal  majority  was  in 
spirit  reunited,  and  only  wanted  a  plausible  ground  for  open 
reunion.  So  the  Old  Parliamentary  Hand  has  really  to 
play  a  very  unfamiliar  game.  .  .  . 

How  odd  about  Goschen !  In  this  age  of  political  self- 
sacrifice  I  should  have  thought  some  one  might  have  resigned 
in  his  favour.  I  wish  that  he  and  your  father  could  have 
joined  the  Ministry. 

Lord  Randolph  is  a  bitterer  pill  to  us  than  you  imagine 
(I  mean  by  "  us "  the  altogether  insignificant  handful  of 
Academic  Unionist  Liberals).  It  is  not  only  that  he  is 
wholly  ignorant  of  political  economy — I  suppose  there  are 
Treasury  clerks  who  can  put  together  a  decent  Budget — but 
he  does  not  know  his  own  ignorance ;  I  am  afraid  there  is  a 
danger  of  his  bringing  out  some  utter  nonsense  in  arguing 
on  Money  or  Trade,  which  will  discredit  the  Government. 
And,  altogether,  we  have  not  got  used  to  taking  him 
seriously.  However,  as  we  approve  of  Hartington  not 
joining,  we  have  no  right  to  grumble  openly,  and  I  don't. 

To  Lady  Frances  Balfour,  August  2 

...  As  regards  [Lord  Randolph's]  leadership,  it  is  per- 
haps unreasonableness  in  us  to  object  to  reckless  violence 
in  a  Tory  more  than  in  a  Radical,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  we  do,  genuinely  and  without  party  bias.  It  is  much 
as  some  men — not  patterns  of  behaviour — dislike  fast 
women ;  they  think  it  the  part  of  women  rather  than  men 
to  keep  up  the  standard  of  propriety,  and  we  think  it  the 


454  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

part  of  Tories  rather  than  Radicals  to  keep  up  the  standard 
of  sobriety,  moderation,  and  that  class  of  virtues. 

The  Journal  again  : — 

August  13. — Went  up  to  London  yesterday  to  see  Mac- 
millan  about  a  stupid  blunder  in  my  Outlines.  I  have 
represented  a  man  whom  I  ought  to  have  known  all  about 
— Sir  James  Mackintosh — as  publishing  a  book  in  1836, 
four  years  after  he  was  dead  !  The  cause  of  the  blunder  is 
simple  carelessness — of  a  kind  that  now  seems  incredible. 
I  find  my  Political  Economy  is  sold  out,  and  I  must  revise 
it  hastily  for  a  second  edition — a  task  I  much  dislike.  I 
think  there  are  some  good  things  in  it ;  but  I  regard  it  as 
on  the  whole  a  failure,  and  don't  think  I  can  improve  it 
much. 

August  15. — I  have  been  reflecting  on  the  break-down 
of  the  Liberal  candidature  for  East  Birmingham.1  It  is  a 
triumph  of  Common  Sense  over  Logic.  It  was  against  logic 
for  the  Chamberlainites  to  vote  against  a  Radical  who 
accepted  Home  Rule  under  Chamberlain's  conditions ;  but 
it  was  against  common  sense  for  them  to  accept  in  August 
a  Gladstonian  whom  they  had  repudiated  in  July ;  and 
common  sense  triumphed. 

August  17. — I  have  been  reading  Howells's  Lemuel 
Barker,  as  far  as  it  has  gone.  Certainly  it  is  good.  I  think 
the  short  and  simple  amours  of  the  lower  middle  classes, 
depicted  with  this  de  haut  en  bos  prosaic  realism,  may  bore 
me  soon,  but  I  have  not  been  bored  so  far.  It  is  interesting 
to  compare  Howells's  (superior)  Bostonians  with  James's. 
There  is  the  same  fond  of  moral  earnestness  and  introspec- 
tive scrupulosity  in  both  types ;  but  in  James  it  is  unrniti- 
gatedly  serious  and  naively  wearisome ;  in  Howell  it  is 
veiled  and  tempered — in  well-bred  persons — by  a  surface 
of  vivacious  self- critical  humour  and  mutually  critical 
banter.  Probably  Boston  includes  both  sorts,  but  Howells's 
sort  are  more  readable. 

August  20. — We  have  been  having  quite  a  flock  of 
American  visitors  this  week — professors,  male  and  female. 

1  Against  Mr.  Matthews,  now  Lord  Llandaff,  appointed  Home  Secretary. 


1886,  AGE  48  HENKY  SIDGWICK  455 

In  talking  over  the  American  University  System,  I  am 
impressed  with  its  being  at  the  opposite  pole  to  the  German, 
in  the  direction  of  discipline ;  certainly,  considering  the 
independent  habits  and  manner  that  all  observers  attribute 
to  American  youth,  it  is  remarkable  how  very  like  school- 
boys undergraduates  seem  to  be  everywhere  treated. 

August  27. — Have  come  back  from  Addington  after 
delightful  days ;  I  find  that  I  grow  more  and  more,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  regard  Christianity  as  indispensable  and  irre- 
placeable— looking  at  it  from  a  sociological  point  of  view — 
and  on  the  other  hand  to  find  it  more  and  more  incompre- 
hensible how  any  one  whom  I  feel  to  be  really  akin  to 
myself  in  intellectual  habits  and  culture  can  possibly  find 
his  religion  in  [it].  My  own  alienation  from  it  is  all  the 
stronger  because  it  is  so  purely  intellectual :  I  am  glad  that 
so  many  superior  people  are  able  to  become  clergymen,  but 
I  am  less  and  less  able  to  understand  how  the  result  is 
brought  about  in  so  many  thoroughly  sincere  and  disinterested 
and  able  minds. 

Letter  to  J.  A.  Symonds,  sent  with  the  Journal  for  August 

.  .  .  For  my  part,  I  have  been  rather  wasting  my 
time ;  but  I  keep  pegging  away,  and  I  find  now  that  I 
have  acquired  a  confidence  that  I  shall  get  through  any 
work  I  undertake  in  time — if  Providence  allows  me  timev 
One  reason  why  I  have  not  got  on  much  is  that  while 
I  have  been  ostensibly  and  voluntarily  working  at  Politics, 
my  mind  has  been  obstinately  and  latently  occupied  with, 
the  fundamental  question  of  the  relation  of  morality : — I 
tend  to  the  view  that  the  question  of  Personality,  the  point 
on  which  the  theist  as  such  differs  from  the  atheist,  is  of  no 
fundamental  ethical  importance.  The  question  is  what  is 
the  order  of  the  Cosmos,  not  whether  it  is  a  consciously 
planned  order.  But  whether  it  is  worth  saying  this,  in  our 
present  state  of  ignorance  on  both  questions,  is  doubtful. 

TJie  Journal  continues : — 

September  5. —  Eeturned  yesterday  from  the  British 
Association  at  Birmingham,  where  we  have  been  spending 


456  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

three  pleasant  days  with  Mr.  George  Dixon  [M.P.],  a 
thoroughly  nice  man.  (This  is  not  an  adjective  I  often 
use,  nor  did  I  expect  to  apply  it  to  a  leading  Brummagem 
politician,  but  it  is  the  word  for  Dixon ;  he  is  not  brilliant 
nor  exactly  impressive,  and  though  he  is  able,  it  is  not  his 
ability  that  strikes  one  so  much  as  a  gentle  thoughtfulness, 
sustained,  alert,  mildly  humorous.)  1  asked  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Unionist  phalanx  in  Birmingham,  which  seems 
to  present  an  unbroken  front  when  the  Liberal  party  every- 
where else  is  shattered  and  rent.  He  thought  it  was  half 
an  accident ;  the  party  was  really  divided  here  as  elsewhere 
just  below  the  top,  but  that  Bright  and  Chamberlain  and 
himself — no  one  of  the  three  ordinarily  in  the  habit  of 
taking  his  opinions  from  either  of  the  other  two — happened 
to  coincide  on  this  question ;  and  they,  1  gathered,  were  the 
three  recognised  leaders,  Bright  being  the  old  time-honoured 
political  chief,  .Chamberlain  the  established  "  boss "  in  the 
industrial  action  of  the  municipality,  and  Dixon  the  educa- 
tional boss.  .  .  . 

As  for  the  British  Association — we  had  some  good  papers 
in  our  Economic  Section,  especially  on  land  tenure ;  but  it 
seems  to  me  impossible  to  make  the  discussions  very  valu- 
able. The  time  must  necessarily  be  limited ;  and  there  are 
certain  familiar  bores  who  turn  up  at  every  meeting  and 
limit  still  further  the  fruitful  minutes. 

September  13. — Have  been  to  W.  H.  Hall's  [Six  Mile 
Bottom]  for  the  Sunday ;  had,  as  usual,  a  good  time. 
Hall  said  that — though  an  ardent  Unionist — he  should  find 
it  difficult  to  vote  against  ParneH's  Bill,  as  he  had  no  doubt 
that  the  fall  in  prices  had  really  neutralised  advantages  con- 
ferred on  the  tenants  by  the  judicial  rents.  The  case  seems 
to  me  one  of  those  difficult  ones  in  which  there  are  strong 
arguments  on  both  sides  which  do  not  meet  each  other. 
Doubtless  the  current  Irish  idea  of  a  fair  rent  is  a  rent 
which  leaves  the  tenant  enough  to  live  on  according  to  a 
customary  standard  of  comfort ;  probably  the  Land  Com- 
mission was  largely  governed  by  this  idea  in  its  decisions ; 
if  so,  rents  which  were  (on  this  view)  "  fair  "  when  decided, 


1886,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  457 

are  not  fair  now.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rent  as  tixed 
was  supposed  to  be  secured  to  the  landlord  for  fifteen  years  ; 
and  if  there  had  been  a  rise  in  prices,  he  certainly  would 
have  got  no  more ;  so  that  he  should  lose  by  a  fall  is  palpably 
unfair  to  him.  On  the  whole,  as  the  Irish  idea  involves 
a  principle  inconsistent  with  the  whole  structure  of  our 
modern  industrial  society,  I  cannot  blame  the  Tories  for 
declining  to  apply  it  further ;  and  as  Parnell's  Bill  practi- 
cally involves  this  further,  I  cannot  blame  [them]  for 
resisting  it.  Still,  as  this  resistance  involves  a  practical 
withdrawal  of  advantages  conceded  so  recently,  it  is  very 
awkward  politically  at  this  crisis.  Probably,  if  I  were  in 
the  House,  I  should  take  the  weak  course  of  walking  out — 
as  Chamberlain  proposes  to  do. 

September  25. — A  terrible  hiatus !  but  I  have  been 
leading  a  dull  existence,  and  yet  busy ;  working  at  articles 
on  Political  Economy  and  at  my  book.  I  have  written  on 
Economic  Socialism  for  the  Contemporary?  and  on  Bimetal- 
lism for  the  Fortnightly — the  former  at  the  request  of  the 
excellent  Paton  (a  Nonconformist  minister  who  semi-edits  the 
Contemporary)  that  I  would  write  something  "  juste-milieu  " 
about  the  Laisser-Faire  controversy.  Paton  is  a  man  for 
whom  I  have  genuine  regard  as  an  energetic  philanthropist 
of  the  cheery  optimistic-Christian  type ;  but  I  much  doubt 
whether  anything  I  can  write  can  possibly  suit  him,  from 
the  difference  in  our  temperaments  and  habits  of  mind. 
Though  I  generally  get  somewhere  about  the  middle  on 
most  political  questions,  there  is  very  little  affinity  between 
me  and  an  optimistic  "  juste-milieu  "  mind  ;  for  this  holds 
that  both  extremes  are  right,  if  each  would  only  see  the 
other's  side,  and  that  truth  can  be  arrived  at  by  harmoni- 
ously compounding  the  two ;  whereas  I  opine  that  both  are 
proceeding  from  unwarranted  premises  to  uncertified  con- 
clusions, and  that  scientific  truth  on  the  subject  of  dispute 
is  only  to  be  reached,  if  at  all,  by  a  road  that  neither  has 
found. 

On  Bimetallism  I  have  written  partly  because  my 
1  Republished  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 


458  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAV.  vi 

interest  in  the  subject  has  been  revived  through  Arthur 
Balfour's  being  made  chairman  of  the  commission  on 
Currency.  I  am  afraid  he  may  lose  time  and  reputation 
over  the  business :  rather  agreeing  with  Lord  Salisbury  (as 
quoted  by  Gerald)  that  the  English  mind  is  very  slow- 
moving  in  these  matters,  and  that  the  bimetallist  (however 
much  in  the  right)  is  likely  to  remain  a  "  faddist  "  for  the 
present  generation. 

September  29. —  Have  had  serious  indigestion  lately; 
altogether  feel  falling  into  sere  and  yellow.  For  relaxation 
from  "  Value "  and  "  Capital "  I  have  been  reading  and 
meditating  on  Koden  Noel's  book  [Essays  on  Poetry  and 
Poets}.  On  the  whole,  I  find  it  solidly  satisfactory ;  and 
it  removes  a  lurking  fear  in  my  mind  that  in  spite  of 
his  originality,  vigour,  and  flow  of  ideas,  he  would  be 
found  not  exactly  to  "come  off"  as  an  essayist.  .  .  . 
But  the  fundamental  difference  between  him  and  me  is 
that  he  thinks  the  Poet  has  Insight  into  Truth,  instead  of 
merely  Emotions  and  an  Art  of  expressing  them.  I  like  a 
poet  who  believes  in  himself  as  a  Seer,  because  his  emotions 
are  likely  to  interest  me  more  and  have  a  fuller  and  finer 
tone ;  but  I  cannot  pretend  to  believe  in  him,  except  tran- 
siently for  the  purpose  of  getting  the  aesthetic  impression. 
And  I  feel  rather  angry  when  I  am  asked  to  take  a  poet  as 
a  philosopher. 

There  are  no  politics  about  in  this  region.  Most  of  us 
old  Liberals  are  Unionists,  and  our  attitude  is  that  of 
languidly  forming  a  ring  round  the  Government  and  the 
National  League,  with  the  hope — on  the  whole — that  the 
Government  will  win,  but  feeling  rather  like  outsiders. 

I  hear  that  Trevelyan  sits  broodingly  in  his  place  in 
Northumberland,  meditating  over  the  ruin  that  Gladstone 
has  brought  on  the  Liberal  party,  and  glad  to  be  saved  from 
the  necessity  of  co-operating  with  the  Tories. 

October  5. — Thompson's  funeral : 1  impressive  in  a  simple 
way.  I  shall  miss  him,  though  not  deeply.  He  was  not  a 
great  man :  and  his  work,  though  good  in  quality,  was  too 
1  W.  H.  Thompson,  Master  of  Trinity  College. 


1886.  AGE  48  HENKY  SIDGWICK  459 

meagre  to  make  a  mark,  or  really  justify  his  academic  posi- 
tion. But  he  was  a  striking  personality :  nor  will  his  place 
be  filled :  and,  to  me  uniformly  kind  and  genial. 

It  is  rather  melancholy  on  these  occasions  to  meet,  time 
after  time,  old  acquaintances — each  time  older  than  before 
— whom  one  never  meets  except  at  funerals,  so  that  the 
old  associations  which  they  recall  come  gradually  to  be 
impregnated  with  solemn  black. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Westcott's  to  meet  the  Short- 
houses.  I  talked  first  to  her.  ...  I  invited  and  obtained 
a  description  of  the  labours  preparatory  to  John  Inglesant — 
how  the  author  steeped  himself  in  seventeenth-century  litera- 
ture till  his  whole  mind  was  impregnated  with  it :  until,  one 
day  he  declared  himself  ripe  for  writing  a  seventeenth- 
century  novel,  if  he  only  had  a  plot :  and  then,  a  little  later, 
the  plot  was  found.  (I  thought  it  rude  to  ask  her  what 
exactly  the  plot  was.)  Then,  as  chapter  after  chapter  was 
slowly  written,  they  were  read  to  her,  and  criticised,  para- 
graph by  paragraph,  sentences  cut  out  and  rewritten,  phrases 
and  words  altered,  until  the  perfect  marriage  of  sound  and 
sense  was  attained  which  the  finished  work  shows.  (This 
last  sentence,  of  course,  only  implied.) 

I  talked  to  him  then,  and  liked  him  more  decidedly ; 
found  him  unaffected  and  unspoiled  by  fame,  odd-looking, 
not  exactly  apt  for  conversation,  highly  nervous  and  stam- 
mering in  utterance.  I  spoke  of  J.  A.  S.,  whom  he  praised 
warmly,  unreservedly ;  indeed,  when  I  tried  to  characterise 
critically  the  duJcia  vitia  of  the  style  of  that  eminent 
writer,  he  said — half  rebukingly,  though  simply — that  it 
was  "  good  enough  for  him ;  he  did  not  feel  any  defects  in 
it."  He  said,  however,  that  he  thought  J.  A.  S.  had  mis- 
understood his  position  as  to  the  possibility  of  adequately 
describing  the  scenery  of  un visited  lands ;  he  never  con- 
tended that  an  adequate  description  of  a  particular  place 
could  be  given  thus — nor  had  he  tried  to  describe  any 
particular  Italian  town — only  to  give  the  general  character- 
istics of  Italian  scenery  as  a  suitable  background  for  his 
story.  However,  he  had  given  up  the  idea  of  writing  another 


460  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Italian  story.  His  thoughts  in  talking  seemed  to  come 
slowly,  and  to  be  expressed  with  difficulty,  though  eagerly. 
Altogether  a  singular  product  of  Birmingham,  .  .  . 

October  11. — In  the  intervals  of  work  I  have  had  much 
talk  about  the  probable  future  Master.  I  gather  that  there 
is  a  party  who  would  like  to  have  me — I  do  not  suppose  it 
is  very  large — but  that,  in  the  opinion  of  experienced 
persons,  my  appointment  is  not  within  the  range  of  prac- 
tical politics ;  chiefly  because  of  my  known  religious,  or 
non-religious,  opinions.  This  is  my  own  view  ;  and  the  only 
difficulty  that  I  have  is  in  making  up  my  mind  whether 
I  regret  it  or  not.  Much  serving  of  tables  is  expected  of 
an  M.C.  in  these  days,  especially  if  he  be  a  man  who  has 
played  the  part  of  a  reformer,  as  I  have ;  and  I  rather  feel 
as  if  I  had  given  enough  of  my  life  to  administration  already, 
and  as  if  the  time  had  come  to  gather  up  the  fragments 
that  remain  and  dedicate  them  to  learning  and  thought. 
However,  it  is  an  idle  speculation,  as  there  is  no  chance  of 
my  having  the  offer.  The  situation,  impartially  viewed, 
appears  to  be  this : — We  think  Lord  Salisbury  will  want 
to  appoint  a  cleric  if  he  can :  but  that  as  there  is  no 
clerical  candidate  whose  appointment  will  not  be  open  to 
strong  objections,  he  may  acquiesce  in  a  Conservative 
layman :  and  that  in  this  case  it  will  be  either  Cayley  or 
Eayleigh. 

October  29. — Went  up  to  London  yesterday  to  an  S.P.R 
meeting.  Myers  was  very  good ;  he  really  is  an  excellent 
speaker.  We  have  reached  the  real  crisis  in  the  history  of 
the  Society,  for  Phantasms  of  the  Living  is  printed,  and 
advance  copies  have  been  sent  to  the  newspapers.  .  .  . 

November  1. — So  Butler  is  our  new  master !  I  am  not 
surprised,  but  cannot  yet  tell  whether  I  like  it  or  not ; 
old  feelings  of  personal  affection  and  admiration  for  the 
brilliant  scholar  who  was  a  young  B.A.  when  I  came  up — 
a  pleasant  revival  of  the  memories  of  the  proudest,  if  not 
the  happiest  year  of  my  life  (1859)  when  we  were  both 
lecturers  together — these  jar  and  clash  with  depression  and 
dissatisfaction  at  the  snub  given  to  academic  work.  I  have 


1886,  AGE  48  HENKY  SIDGWICK  461 

no  doubt,  however,  that  he  will  do  the  work  of  the  master- 
ship— according  to  the  new  administrative  idea  of  it — 
very  well. 

November  19. — We  are  much  pleased  that  Arthur 
Balfour  is  in  the  Cabinet.1 

November  22. — Arthur  Balfour  came  for  the  Sunday, 
but  did  not  reveal  any  Cabinet  secrets.  He  approves  of 
Phantasms  [the  book].  .  .  .  He  defended  the  action  of  the 
Government  in  putting  privately  moral  pressure  on  the 
Irish  landlords  to  reduce  rents,  but  did  not  quite  satisfy 
me  as  to  the  consistency  of  the  ground  the  Conservatives 
have  taken  up.  For  the  appeal  must  be  either  (1)  to  the 
landlord's  justice,  or  (2)  to  his  generosity,  or  (3)  to  political 
exigences;  but  if  (1)  Parnell's  measure  was  justified,  if  (2) 
no  pressure  ought  to  be  put,  if  (3)  it  is  almost  as  palpable 
a  "  caving  in "  to  the  forces  of  sedition  as  Gladstone's 
measures.  However,  I  more  and  more  see  that  the  business 
of  Government  is  a  series  of  compromises — and,  in  respect 
of  the  demand  for  logical  consistency,  it  is  as  bewildering  and 
irritating  as  Mill's  imaginarv  world,  in  which  things  did  not 

<J  O  *<  O 

happen  according  to  uniform  laws  of  cause  and  effect,  would 
be  to  a  scientifically  trained  thinker. 

November  30. — Wrote  to  explain  why  I  was  opposed  to 
the  organisation  of  Liberal  Unionists  in  Cambridge ;  my 
reasons  being  (1)  that  the  number  of  those  who  would 
consent  to  be  organised  under  this  name  is  much  smaller 
than  the  number  of  those  who  went  over  to  the  Tories  at 
the  last  election,  because  many  of  the  seceders  are  so 
determined  to  vote  for  the  Tories  as  long  as  the  Irish 
question  is  to  the  front  and  '  Home  Rule '  inscribed  on  the 
Gladstonian  banner,  that  they  hardly  like  calling  themselves 
Liberal,  though  very  likely  they  will  vote  for  Liberals  again 
when  once  this  question  is  out  of  the  way.  Besides, 
organising  ourselves  into  a  body  with  meetings  will  force  us 
to  have  and  express  an  official  opinion  about  what  the 
Tories  do,  whereas  I  for  one  should  much  prefer  to  "  lie  low," 
and  have  no  share  of  responsibility  for  their  proceedings. 
1  As  Secretary  for  Scotland. 


462  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

December  4. — Yesterday  we  installed  our  new  Master ;  a 
curious  ceremonial.  I  took  a  part  in  it  once  before,  nearly 
twenty  years  ago ;  perhaps  1  shall  see  another,  perhaps  not. 
The  gates  of  the  college  were  closed  about  1 1  A.M.  ;  at  noon 
we  Fellows  assembled  in  Combination  Room,  and  there 
received  the  patent  which  Butler  sent  in  for  our  inspection. 
Then  we  processioned,  two  and  two — Trotter  [Vice-Master] 
leading — to  the  great  gate,  which  was  thrown  open,  and  the 
Master  entered ;  we  escorted  him  to  the  chapel,  where 
Trotter  admitted  him.  The  change  of  times  and  the  inroad 
of  the  modern  commercial  spirit  was  grotesquely  manifested 
in  the  engagement  he  took,  not  as  of  old  to  defend  the 
faith  and  drive  away  strange  doctrine,  but  to  restore  all  the 
college  property  in  his  possession  within  two  months  after 
ceasing  to  be  master !  It  was  not  an  edifying  ceremonial. 
But  after  dinner  in  the  evening  he  made  a  very  pretty, 
feeling,  appropriate  speech,  which  must,  too,  have  been  in 
structure  impromptu,  as  it  was  largely  suggested  by  Trotter's 
speech  in  proposing  his  health.  He  asked  us  to  excuse  the 
exaggerative  praise  of  an  old  schoolfellow,  "  For  we  were 
nursed  upon  the  self-same  hill " ;  then  took  occasion  from 
something  T.  had  said  to  give  an  interesting  anecdote  of 
"Whewell;  then  spoke  nicely  of  Thompson,  his  old  tutor, 
and  of  his  own  inferiority  to  his  predecessors  :  "  My  gifts 
are  of  a  lighter  kind,  but  such  as  they  are  they  will  be 
offered  unreservedly  to  the  service  of  the  college,"  etc., 
etc.  ...  I  have  no  doubt  Butler  will  do  all  this  public 
representation  business  excellently :  and  though  at  first 
some  will  think  his  effusiveness  insincere,  they  will  in  time 
come  to  think  otherwise,  if  they  have  any  discernment  of 
truth  and  loyalty. 

December  8. — Yesterday  I  went  up  to  London  to  the 
Liberal  Unionist  meeting.  It  was  a  decided  success ;  the 
room  crowded — all  benches  full  and  solid  columns  of 
Unionists  standing  in  the  pathways  that  separated  the 
benches.  And  the  sentiment  of  secession  was  strong  and 
unfaltering ;  all  the  anti-Gladstonian  sentiments  were 
loudly  cheered.  Hartington;s  language  was  well  chosen  and 


1886,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  463 

impressive,  and  Selborne  more  animated  than  I  could  have 
supposed  possible.  Still  the  impression  on  my  mind  was 
that  we  were  like  a  regiment  of  officers  without  common 
soldiers,  and  with  little  prospect  of  finding  any  "  rank  and 
file." 

To-day  was  Commemoration  dinner.  I  sat  between  two 
judges  of  the  High  Court,  with  the  Lord  Mayor  and 
Attorney- General  opposite.  I  do  not  remember  ever  dining 
in  company  so  officially  distinguished.  Speaking  good, 
especially  Butler's ;  only  that  the  old  tone  of  flattery  of 
Trinity,  which  the  speakers  appeared  generally  to  regard  as 
de  rigueur,  offended  my  taste,  especially  as  there  were  non- 
Trinity  guests. 

December  15.  —  A  week's  "labor  irnprobus"  on  my 
Political  Economy  (for  2nd  edition)  with  sadly  little  to 
show.  Decidedly  nature  intended  me  to  read  books  and 
not  to  write  them  ;  I  wish  the  former  function  was  regarded 
as  a  sufficient  fulfilment  of  Professorial  duty. 

December  2 1. — More  labour;  have  got  through  my  Book  I. 
(Theory  of  Production),  and  come  up  to  London  to  dine 
with  the  Statistical  Club  and  attend  a  debate  on  "  Sliding 
Scales,"  chiefly  noteworthy  for  the  speech  of  John  Burnett, 
Trades-Unionist,  which  was  not  only  sensible  and  instructive, 
but  remarkably  moderate.  Certainly  the  improvement 
in  the  relations  between  the  leaders  of  the  artisans  and  the 
rest  of  the  community  is  a  most  cheering  feature  in  the 
democratic  movement  of  the  last  twenty  years — if  only  the 
leaders  are  really  still  leading. 

December  23. — Yesterday  I  went  from  King's  Cross  to 
Whittingehame — comfortably  between  breakfast  and  dinner. 
I  always  feel  the  triumph  of  modern  industry  when,  after 
breakfasting  in  London  about  nine,  I  cross  the  Tweed  about 
tea-time — 

December  27. — My  last  paragraph  was  interrupted  just 
as  I  was  going  to  put  down  our  conversation  on  politics, 
and  now  the  situation  is  so  changed  that  I  cannot  remember 
what  political  views  we  had  four  days  ago  !  For  on  Friday 
came  the  news  of  Randolph  Churchill's  resignation. 


464  HENKY  SIDGWICK  ,-HAV.  vi 

Chaos  Cosmos  ;  Cosmos  Chaos, 

as  the  Laureate  says.  As  to  what  is  going  to  happen  we 
have  not  the  slightest  idea ;  and  as  to  what  has  happened — 
there  is  not  much  [use]  in  staying  with  a  Cabinet  Minister 
at  a  crisis,  since  he  is  bound  not  to  tell  one  anything  that 
is  not  in  the  newspapers,  and  takes  no  interest  in  what  is 
there.  But  I  gather  that  R.  C.'s  resignation  is  a  real 
surprise  to  his  colleagues,  and  that  they  at  least  are  not 
aware  of  any  adequate  cause  for  it,  except  the  dispute  about 
the  military  estimates,  which  knowing  journalists  refuse  to 
regard  as  the  real  cause.  I  also  see  that  both  Arthur  and 
Gerald  are  eager  that  this  opportunity  should  be  seized  of 
alliance  with  Hartingtou,  Goschen,  and  Co.  They  think- 
that  the  new  party  thus  formed  would  be  quite  as  homo- 
geneous as  parties  ever  can  be ;  in  fact,  it  would  put  the 
line  of  division  between  parties  in  the  right  place ;  it  would 
be  called  a  coalition,  but  it  would  be  a  fusion.  I  am 
inclined  to  agree,  but  1  doubt  if  Hartington  will  think  so, 
and  think  he  will  refuse  to  join  the  Ministry.  Arthur  went 
off  to  London  by  last  night's  train,  to  see  Lord  Salisbury 
and  attend  Cabinet  to-morrow. 

December  28. — We  hear  that  Arthur's  train  arrived  in 
London  four  hours  late  from  the  snow  on  the  line.  It  is 
very  thoughtless  of  Lord  Randolph  to  make  a  crisis  at  this 
inclement  season.  A  telegram  has  come  from  him  to  say 
that  he  will  be  at  least  a  week  in  London.  All  the  news- 
papers I  see  (Times,  Scotsman,  Glasgow  Herald)  are  urging 
the  Liberal  Unionists  towards  coalition — the  Times  even 
menacing  them  with  a  dissolution  if  they  refuse. 

December  31. — It  seems  clear  that  coalition  is  not  to  be. 
The  rank  and  file  of  both  parties  object.  My  forecast  of 
the  future  is  now  of  the  gloomiest  kind.  I  think  party 
organisation  in  England  is  too  rigid  a  thing  to  be  broken  up, 
and  that  '  Liberal  Unionism '  will  be  broken  against  it  at 
the  next  election,  and  with  Randolph  forming  a  cave,  a 
dissolution  from  some  cause  or  other  is  only  too  probable. 
Gerald  is  very  angry  with  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party. 

January  1   [1887]. — Meanwhile  1  have  been  "curling" 


1887,  AGE  48  HENEY  SIDGWICK  465 

all  this  week  on  a  neighbouring  pond.  It  is  a  fine  game ; 
superficially  like  bowls  on  ice  played  with  heavy,  flat, 
cylindrical  stones,  but  the  spirit  quite  different.  In  bowls 
there  can  be  no  really  organised  effort ;  ...  in  curling  .  .  . 
the  game  is  won  by  captaincy ;  the  individual  has  to  be 
subordinated  to  the  common  interest ;  the  most  skilful 
player  may  find  it  his  duty  merely  to  use  his  stone  to 
clear  a  way  for,  or  guard  another.  In  this  action  for  [the] 
community  lies  the  greater  charm  of  the  game. 

January  10. — We  have  had  a  week — five  days — of 
mesmeric  investigation,  not  without  interest  and  even 
excitement,  though  of  rather  a  depressing  kind,  ending 
dramatically  this  morning.  The  mesmerist  was  a  Mr.  D., 
who  came  to  Cambridge  last  term  as  a  platform  performer; 
certainly  threw  persons  into  a  hypnotic  state  ;  and  appeared 
— on  the  stage — to  have  the  power  of  conveying  ideas 
telepathically.  In  private  he  had  been  tried  once  or  twice 
and  failed,  but  he  claimed  the  power,  and  the  great  point 
in  his  favour  was  that  he  seemed  a  gentleman ;  had  been 
a  French  master  in  a  school ;  above  all,  had  a  brother  a 
Cantab,  and  a  respectable  clergyman.  So  we  engaged  him 
for  a  week's  investigation,  and  Nora  and  I  came  back,  on 
the  3rd,  from  Scotland  express  to  take  part  in  it.  When 
we  arrived  we  found  that  the  acumen  of  Eichard  Hodgson 
had  already  suspected  the  code  of  signals  by  which  D.  com- 
municated the  number  and  suit  of  a  card  to  his  apparently 
hypnotised  subject,  and  a  few  more  experiments  turned 
the  suspicion  into  certainty.  The  code  is  in  one  respect 
ingenious ;  one's  idea  of  secret  signals  generally  is  that  the 
party  giving  the  signals  does  all  that  has  to  be  done,  the 
other  party  being  purely  recipient.  But  in  D.'s  signals  the 
process  of  counting  is  performed  by  the  heavy,  regular 
breathing  of  the  hypnotised  subject,  his  own  function  being 
merely  to  mark  by  some  sudden  sound — sigh,  groan,  or 
crumpling  of  paper — when  the  arithmetic  breathing  was  to 
begin  and  when  it  was  to  stop.  In  this  way  the  number  of 
the  card  was  conveyed ;  and  the  suit  similarly — clubs  being 
represented  by  3,  diamonds  by  4,  hearts  by  8  —  the 

2H 


466  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

numbers  of  the  places  in  the  alphabet  of  c,  d,  h.  The  sign 
for  spades  plagued  us  a  little  ;  ultimately  we  concluded  that 
it  was  an  indefinitely  large  number.  By  Thursday  we 
were  all  able  to  predict  the  card  as  well  as  the  hypnotic 
girl ;  on  Friday  we  made  some  excuse  for  getting  D.  into 
another  room,  and  Hodgson  took  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  give  signals,  which  were  duly  interpreted.  So  on 
Saturday,  in  paying  him  his  money,  I  made  him  a  short 
speech,  in  which  I  endeavoured  to  bring  him  [to]  a  sense  of 
his  misconduct — but  the  only  effect  was  that  he  went  to  his 
inn,  drank  a  bottle  of  champagne,  and  abused  us  roundly  to 
every  one  who  would  listen  for  not  having  treated  him  as 
a  gentleman.  We  all  feel  that  it  is  a  lesson — not  dear  at 
the  price — to  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  platform 
Thought-transference,  however  gentlemanly  the  performers 
may  be  in  antecedents  and  connections. 

I  think  Tennyson's  "  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After  " 
a  fine  and  interesting  poem,  only  senile  in  incoherence — no 
lack  of  force.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  change  in  his 
management  of  the  metre ;  like  Shakespeare's  third  style  as 
compared  with  his  second,  it  has  become  a  better  instru- 
ment for  dramatic  expression  of  feeling,  but  with  con- 
siderable loss  of  musical,  and  on  the  whole  I  think  of 
rhetorical,  effect.  Still,  the  musical  lines  are  particularly 
impressive — perhaps  from  their  comparative  rarity,  e.g., 

Universal  ocean  softly  washing  all  her  warless  isles. 

The  absence  of  the  ordinary  break  in  the  verse  makes 
the  effect  very  delicate  to  my  ear. 

January  28. — This  is  a  long  interval,  but  I  have  been 
passing  through  a  mental  crisis  which  disinclined  me  for 
self-revelation.  I  have  been  facing  the  fact  that  I  am 
drifting  steadily  to  the  conclusion — I  have  by  no  means 
arrived  at  it,  but  am  certainly  drifting  towards  it — that  we 
have  not,  and  are  never  likely  to  have,  empirical  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  the  individual  after  death.  Soon,  therefore, 
it  will  probably  be  my  duty  as  a  reasonable  being — and 
especially  as  a  professional  philosopher — to  consider  on 


1887,  AGE  48  HENKY  SIDGWICK  467 

what  basis  the  human  individual  ought  to  construct  his  life 
under  these  circumstances.  Some  fifteen  years  ago,  when  I 
was  writing  my  book  on  Ethics,  I  was  inclined  to  hold  with 
Kant  that  we  must  postulate  the  continued  existence  of  the 
soul,  in  order  to  effect  that  harmony  of  Duty  with 
Happiness  which  seemed  to  me  indispensable  to  rational 
moral  life.  At  any  rate  I  thought  I  might  provisionally 
postulate  it,  while  setting  out  on  the  serious  search  for 
empirical  evidence.  If  I  decide  that  this  search  is  a 
failure,  shall  I  finally  and  decisively  make  this  postulate  ? 
Can  I  consistently  with  my  whole  view  of  truth  and  the 
method  of  its  attainment  ?  And  if  I  answer  "  no  "  to  each 
of  these  questions,  have  I  any  ethical  system  at  all  ?  And 
if  not,  can  I  continue  to  be  Professor  and  absorb  myself  in 
the  mere  erudition  of  the  subject — write  "studies"  of 
moralists  from  Socrates  to  Bentham — in  short,  become  one 
of  the  "  many  "  who,  as  Lowell  says, 

Sought  truth,  and  lavished  life's  best  oil 

Amid  the  dust  of  books  to  find  her, 
Content  at  last  for  guerdon  of  their  toil 

With  the  last  mantle  she  hath  left  behind  her. 

I  am  nearly  forty-nine,  and  I  do  not  find  a  taste  for  the 
old  clothes  of  opinions  growing  on  me. 

I  have  mixed  up  the  personal  and  general  questions, 
because  every  speculation  of  this  kind  ends,  with  me,  in 
a  practical  problem,  "  What  is  to  be  done  here  and  now." 
That  is  a  question  which  I  must  answer:  whereas  as  to 
the  riddle  of  the  Universe — I  never  had  the  presumption 
to  hope  that  its  solution  was  reserved  for  me,  though  I  had 
to  try. 

January  30. — Gerald  Balfour  is  sanguine  about  the 
Parliamentary  situation.  Randolph's  explanation,  though 
respectfully  received,  was  not  really  a  success ;  the  im- 
pression is  pretty  general  that  he  was  surprised  at  the 
acceptance  of  his  resignation.  The  Government  majority 
is  still  quite  solid  and  trustworthy. 

I  certainly  think  myself  that  the  situation  is  one  which 
will  give  almost  a  crucial  test  whether  Englishmen  still 


468  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

possess  the  instinct  of  parliamentary  government  —  as 
contrasted,  for  instance,  with  Frenchmen.  For  the  majority 
having  been  so  distinctly  elected  to  maintain  the  Union, 
and  '  maintenance  of  the  Union '  being  manifestly  one  of 
the  omelettes  that  requires  the  breaking  of  eggs — i.e. 
continual  rows  with  Irishmen  in  Ireland  and  in  Parliament 
— it  is  evident  that  they  ought  not  to  let  any  of  these  rows, 
or  any  accumulation  of  them,  turn  the  Government  out. 
Nor  do  I  think  failure  to  carry  their  bills — except  bills 
necessary  for  administration — ought  to  turn  them  out ;  for 
no  sensible  man  thinks  any  English  legislation,  just  now, 
comparable  in  importance  to  a  right  solution  of  the  Irish 
Question. 

But  I  cannot  say  that  I  think  it  improbable  that  they 
will  be  turned  out ;  not  at  once,  but  after  a  succession  of 
small  defeats  —  on  questions  on  which  stupid  Unionists 
think  it  needful  to  vote  Liberal,  and  perhaps  Randolph 
heads  a  squad  of  independent  Tories — has  gradually  brought 
them  into  contempt. 

February  10. — Nothing  has  happened — since  we  met 
the  G.O.M.  at  dinner  on  Tuesday  week — to  impress  me 
much.  The  thing  most  interesting  to  myself  is  the  in- 
tensity of  sympathy  with  which  I  have  been  reading  In 
Memoriam.1  This  is  due,  I  think,  to  my  final  despair  of 
obtaining — I  mean  my  obtaining,  for  I  do  not  yet  despair 
as  regards  the  human  race — any  adequate  rational  ground 
for  believing  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  What  has 
struck  me  most  in  this  re-reading  is  (1)  the  absence  of 
any  originality  in  the  thought,  but  also  (2)  the  exquisite 
selection  and  fitting  together  of  arguments  in  the  best 
argumentative  portions,  so  as  to  produce  a  kind  of  balanced, 
rhythmical  fluctuation  of  moods.  Perhaps  a  certain  balanced- 
ness  is  the  most  distinctive  characteristic  of  Tennyson's 
mind  among  poets,  which  inclines  him  to  the  "juste  milieu  " 
in  politics,  and  in  such  poems  as  "  Love  and  Duty "  to 
a  sort  of  complex  sympathy  evenly  divided  between  passion 
and  principle.  Perhaps  this  specially  makes  him  the 

1  Compare  below,  pp.  538-542. 


1887,  AGE  48  HENEY  SIDGWICK  469 

representative  poet  of  an  age  whose  most  characteristic 
merit  is  to  see  both  sides  of  a  question.  Thus  in  In 
Memoriam  the  points  where  I  am  most  affected  are  where 
a  certain  retour  sur  soi-mthne  occurs.  Almost  any  poet 
might  have  written, 

And  like  a  man  in  wrath  the  heart 
Stood  up  and  answered,  I  have  felt. 

But  only  Tennyson  would  have  immediately  added, 
No,  like  a  child  in  doubt  and  fear. 

February  14. — Keturned  from  'Ad  Euudem '  at  Oxford. 
Pleasant  party  at  Arthur's :  Trevelyan  and  William.  I 
had  much  talk  with  G.  O.  T.,  and  was  surprised  —  and 
rather  alarmed — to  find  him  so  hopeful  about  the  reunion 
of  the  Liberal  party.  He  pointedly  abstained  from  refer- 
ence to  the  '  Eound  Table '  conferences,  but  he  spoke  of 
the  increasing  dispositions  to  reunion  manifested  by  the 
Gladstonians,  and  implied  that  they  were  met  by  corre- 
sponding dispositions  in  his  own  breast.  When  W.  and  I 
drove  off  to  the  station  this  morning  W.  said,  "  There  will 
be  a  new  fight  about  Home  Kule  soon,  with  the  camps 
entirely  rearranged."  In  which  camp  shall  I  be  then  ? 
I  cannot  say  till  I  see  on  what  terms  Trevelyan  and 
Chamberlain  have  reunited — if  reunion  there  is  to  be.  ... 

February  26. — Arthur  [Sidgwick]  writes  that  his  wife 
(who  has  been  staying  at  Alassio)  "  has  been  earthquaked, 
but  still  survives."  The  Riviera  is  always  the  place  I 
yearn  to  go  to  when  March  winds  are  impending,  and  I 
rather  think  the  attraction  is  increased  by  the  vague  chance 
of  an  earthquake.  I  should  like  to  feel  the  shock,  and  I 
should  like  to  see  the  wall  of  the  room  crack — always 
supposing  it  was  some  one  else's  house. 

February  28. — My  journal  is  meagre  because — outside 
my  work,  which  is  interesting  enough  but  yields  no  note- 
worthy incidents  or  emotions — I  spend  my  time  chiefly  in 
"  fingering  idly  "  the  "  old  Gordian  knot "  x  of  life.  Some- 
times I  diversify  my  speculations  by  trying  to  determine 

1  Clough. 


470  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

what  newspaper  to  take  in.  The  Times  is  too  full — I  do 
not  care  to  study  the  decline  and  fall  of  England  in  such 
detail ;  the  Daily  News  is  imbecile ;  the  Standard  I  have 
eschewed  as  impudently  immoral  since  it  published  a  stolen 
document  without  affecting  to  recognise  the  need  of  an 
explanation ;  the  Pall  Mall  is  too  much  of  an  irritant  for 
the  hour  sacred  to  digestion ;  the  odour  of  Jenkins  still 
lingers  round  the  Morning  Post.  I  am  trying  the  St. 
James,  but  it  is,  alas !  dull. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  when  the  G.O.M.  was  here  at 
the  beginning  of  the  month,  he  planted  a  tree  in  Newnham 
grounds ;  but  the  enemy  came  by  night  and  dug  it  up  and 
carried  it  off.  Said  enemy  is  believed  on  good  grounds  to 
be  Tory  undergraduates  of  brutal  tendencies,  but  the 
police  have  not  yet  discovered  the  individuals.  Public 
opinion,  even  of  Tories,  condemns  the  proceeding — but 
mildly.  Another  wag,  witting  of  the  intended  burglary, 
sent  four  photographers  to  take  '  groups '  of  Newnhamites 
round  the  tree.  Him  opinion  hardly  blames. 

March  5. — Have  just  seen  at  the  Union  that  Hicks- 
Beach  is  resigning  from  ill-health,  and  that  Arthur  Balfour 
is  to  be  Chief  Secretary.  Both  Nora  and  I  are  much 
depressed,  from  a  conviction  that  he  will  not  be  able  to 
stand  it  physically,  and  will  break  down :  which  will  not 
only  be  sad  for  his  friends,  but  also  what  Ithacus  velit — a 
triumph  to  the  Parnellites. 

I  am  also  rather  depressed  by  the  accounts  of  Trevelyan's 
speech  to  the  Eighty  Club:  not  exactly  surprised  after 
what  he  said  at  Oxford,  but  still  I  feel  that  he  has 
shown  unstatesmanlike  haste  in  concluding  that  the  time 
has  come  to  fall  openly  into  the  arms  of  the  Gladstonians. 
I  sometimes  think  that  we  none  of  us  grow  older  au  fond, 
only  in  the  outside  of  our  minds.  In  the  core  of  him 
Trevelyan  is  just  as  impulsive  as  when  he  was  an  under- 
graduate ;  and  have  I  changed  much  myself  in  essentials  ? 
Perhaps  only  Philistines  really  grow  old  in  mind — I  mean 
the  people  who,  as  years  go  on,  identify  themselves  with 
the  worldly  aims  and  conventional  standard  which,  when 


1887,  AGE  48  HENEY  SIDGWICK  471 

young,  they  regard  as  outside  themselves.  Excellent  people 
often  these  Philistines,  and  a  most  necessary  element  of 
society,  but  still  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  they  grow 
old  in  a  sense  in  which  we — perhaps — do  not. 

March  7. — Trevelyan  has  published  an  "authorised" 
report  of  his  speech.  It  is  not  quite  so  bad  as  rumour 
represented  it,  but  still  unstatesmanlike,  I  think.  As 
regards  his  sanguine  forecast  of  the  reunion  of  the  great 
Liberal  Party  I  suspend  my  judgment  till  I  see  the  terms 
of  reunion ;  but  I  cannot  now  imagine  any  which  at  once 
Trevelyan  ought  to  accept  (as  a  patriot,  and  with  his 
avowed  views)  and  Parnell  is  likely  to  submit  to  under 
present  circumstances.  Still,  there  may  be  a  modus 
vivendi  possible  which  I  do  not  see ;  but  in  any  case,  until 
the  Liberal  party  has  actually  come  together  and  is  prepared 
to  take  the  responsibilities  of  office,  surely  no  ex-Chief- 
Secretary  ought  to  say  that  the  "game  of  law  and  order 
was  up."  It  is  a  game  that  we  may  have  to  throw  up ; 
but  woe  unto  that  man  through  whom  it  is  thrown  up — 
and  any  one  who  prematurely  declares  it  thrown  up  has  a 
share  of  this  fearful  responsibility. 

March  16. — I  have  been  thinking  much,  sadly  and 
solemnly,  of  J.  A.  S.'s  answer  to  my  January  journal.  In 
spite  of  sympathy  of  friendship,  I  feel  by  the  limitations  of 
my  nature  incapable  of  really  comprehending  the  state  of 
mind  of  one  who  does  not  desire  the  continuance  of  his 
personal  being.  All  the  activities  in  which  I  truly  live 
seem  to  carry  with  them  the  same  demand  for  the  "  wages 
of  going  on."  They  also  carry  with  them  concomitant 
pleasure :  not  perhaps  now — aatat  49 — in  a  degree  that 
excites  enthusiasm,  but  quite  sufficient  to  satisfy  the 
instinctive  claims  of  a  man  who  has  never  been  conscious 
of  having  a  creditor  account  with  the  universe.  Whether 
if  this  pleasure  failed  I  could  rely  on  myself  to  live  from  a 
pure  sense  of  duty  I  do  not  really  know ;  I  hope  so,  but  I 
cannot  affirm. 

But  at  present  the  recognised  failure  of  my  efforts  to 
obtain  evidence  of  immortality  affects  me  not  as  a  Man  but 


472  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

as  a  Moralist.  "  Ethics,"  says  J.  A.  S.,  "  can  take  care  of 
themselves."  I  think  I  agree  with  what  is  meant,  but 
should  word  it  differently.  I  should  say  "  morality  can 
take  [care]  of  itself,"  or  rather  the  principle  of  life  in 
human  society  can  take  care  of  morality.  But  how  ? 
Perhaps  always  by  producing  an  illusory  belief  in  im- 
mortality in  the  average  man,  who  must  live  content  with 
Common  Sense.  Perhaps  he  will  always 

Fix  perfect  homes  in  the  unsubstantial  sky, 
And  say  what  is  not  will  be  by  and  by. 

At  any  rate,  somehow  or  other,  morality  will  get  on :  I  do 
not  feel  particularly  anxious  about  that.  But  my  special 
business  is  not  to  maintain  morality  somehow,  but  to 
establish  it  logically  as  a  reasoned  system ;  and  I  have 
declared  and  published  that  this  cannot  be  done,  if  we  are 
limited  to  merely  mundane  sanctions,  owing  to  the  inevit- 
able divergence,  in  this  imperfect  world,  between  the 
individual's  Duty  and  his  Happiness.  I  said  in  1874 
that  without  some  datum  beyond  experience  "  the  Cosmos 
of  Duty  is  reduced  to  a  Chaos."  Am  I  to  recant  this 
conviction  and  answer  my  own  arguments — which  no  one 
of  my  numerous  antagonists  has  yet  even  tried  to  answer  ? 
Or  am  I  to  use  my  position — and  draw  my  salary — for 
teaching  that  Morality  is  a  chaos,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
Practical  Reason ;  adding  cheerfully  that,  as  man  is  not 
after  all  a  rational  being,  there  is  no  real  fear  that  morality 
won't  be  kept  up  somehow.  I  do  not  at  present  see  my 
way  to  acquiesce  in  either  alternative.  But  I  shall  do 
nothing  hastily,  non  ego  hoc  ferrem  calidus  iuventa,  but  the 
"  consulship  of  Plancus  "  is  long  past. 

March  22. — More  meditations  on  the  same  subject — 
with  no  progress.  On  one  point  J.  A.  S.  has  not  caught 
my  position ;  he  says  that  he  never  expected  much  from  the 
method  of  proof  on  which  I  have  relied.  But  the  point  is 
that  I  have  tried  all  methods  in  turn — all  that  I  found 
pointed  out  by  any  of  those  who  have  gone  before  me ;  and 
all  in  turn  have  failed — revelatiorial,  rational,  empirical 
methods — there  is  no  proof  in  any  of  them.  Still,  it  is 


1887,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  473 

premature  to  despair,  and  I  am  quite  content  to  go  on 
seeking  while  life  lasts  ;  that  is  not  the  perplexing  problem  ; 
the  question  is  whether  to  profess  Ethics  without  a  basis. 

March  28 — Adelphi  Hotel,  Liverpool. — We  have  come 
here  to  make  Thought-transference  experiments;  I  after 
staying  in  London  first  with  Bryce,  then  with  Arthur 
Balfour,  and  talking  Home  Rule  with  both.  I  find  I  do 
not  much  disagree  with  Bryce.  I  think  with  him  that  the 
'  game  of  law  and  order '  most  likely  is  '  up  '  —  unless 
some  explosion  of  Irish- American  dynamite  should  suddenly 
harden  the  English  people  into  obstinate  resistance  to  the 
disintegration  of  the  kingdom ;  somewhat  as  the  heart  of 
our  American  kinsmen  was  hardened  twenty- five  years  ago 
when  the  slave-owners  fired  on  Fort  Sumter.  But  even 
then,  after  we  have  set  ourselves  to  the  struggle  and  won, 
we  shall  only  be  at  the  beginning  of  the  work ;  and  can 
the  English  democracy  have  patience  for  the  tedious  task 
that  remains  ? — especially  a  task  so  unlike  the  part  of  our 
history  that  fills  us  with  pride.  I  hardly  think  so. 

Arthur  Balfour  seems  well  and  vigorous ;  I  do  not  find 
his  sisters  particularly  anxious  about  his  health.  It  is  a 
tremendous  task  thrust  on  him  so  suddenly,  but  he  is  a 
philosopher ;  he  has  no  doubt  as  to  the  duty  that  lies  before 
him;  he  is  not  troubled  with  any  respect  for  his  parlia- 
mentary opponents ;  if  the  Government  fail,  I  do  not  think 
the  blame  will  be  his.  .  .  . 

March  30. — We  had  interesting  experiments  yesterday 
evening  in  Thought  -  transference  with  Miss  Relph ;  not 
quite  enough  success  to  impress  the  public  decisively,  but 
the  conditions  unexceptionable,  and  the  results  such  as 
leave  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  I  witnessed  the  real 
phenomenon.  It  certainly  is  a  great  fact ;  I  feel  a 
transient  glow  of  scientific  enthusiasm,  and  find  life  worth 
living  merely  to  prosecute  this  discovery.  If  only  I  could 
form  the  least  conception  of  the  modus  transferendi !  and  if 
only  we  could  find  some  percipient  whose  time  we  could 
control  a  little  more. 

March    31. — Alas!    our    second    serious    effort    to    get 


474  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Thought  -  transference  under  our  '  unexceptionable  condi- 
tions '  was  a  complete  failure,  and  the  former  results  are 
hardly  such  as  to  convince  an  outsider.  Still  I  believe  in 
them,  and  shall  go  on. 

April  4. — Yesterday  we  stayed  at  Carlton  Gardens  on 
our  way  through  [from]  Liverpool,  and  I  had  some  talk 
with  A.  J.  B.  about  his  [Crimes]  Bill.  He  said  that  the 
change  of  venue  from  Ireland  to  England  was  not  absolutely 
necessary,  even  assuming  the  jury-system  to  be  maintained, 
since  a  special  jury  in  Dublin,  chosen  according  to  the 
Crown's  legal  right  of  rejection,  could  be  trusted  to  give 
verdicts  according  to  evidence.  But  they  could  not  do  it 
without  serious  personal  risk  in  any  case  in  which  popular 
sentiment  was  strongly  stirred,  and  he  thought  it  unfair  to 
them  to  expose  them  to  the  danger ;  also  such  a  jury 
would  always  be  said  to  be  '  packed.'  He  thought  the 
only  alternative  to  the  change  of  venue  was  a  strong 
commission  of  judges,  but  the  judges  would  not  like  this ! 

I  do  not  like  the  bankruptcy  clauses  of  his  Land  Bill, 
for  the  broad  reason  that  I  do  not  like  offering  a  man  an 
extra  inducement  to  go  bankrupt.  But  it  may  be  the  least 
evil  in  the  very  awkward  position  in  which  the  Tory  party 
is  placed,  of  having  to  carry  further  the  principles  of  a 
Land  Bill  (of  1881)  of  which  they  altogether  disapprove.  .  .  . 

In  somewhat  the  same  tone  he  writes  on  April  9 
to  his  friend,  A.  J.  Patterson,  at  this  time  Professor 
of  English  at  Buda-Pest : — 

As  for  us  in  England,  we  are  keeping  Her  Majesty's 
jubilee  in  a  rather  unjubilant  frame  of  mind.  Sensible 
persons  think  that  the  chance  of  getting  any  tolerable 
state  of  things  established  in  Ireland,  by  any  method  what- 
ever— with  Gladstone  agitating  for  Parnell  with  the  reck- 
less impetuosity  of  his  (in  every  sense)  green  old  age — are 
very  slender.  In  particular,  I  am  rather  gloomy  about  my 
brother-in-law's  prospects.  If  his  Coercion  Bill  fails,  his 
career  as  Irish  Secretary  is  a  failure  ;  if  it  succeeds,  the 
'left  wing'  of  the  patriots  are  likely  to  dynamite  him. 


1887,  AGE  48  HENRY  SIDGWICK  475 

However,    he    continues   cheerful   so   far.     Let   us   do   the 
same  ! 

On  April  10  Sidgwick  heard  from  Symoiids  that 
the  blow  he  had  long  been  fearing  had  fallen  ;  his 
daughter  Janet  had  died  on  April  7.  This  is  merely 
noted  in  the  Journal,  and  the  letter  about  it  written 
to  his  friend  has  not  been  preserved. 

The  Journal  continues  :  — 

April  14. — We  are  going  on  visits  to-morrow  to  the 
Otters  and  to  Miss  Ewart.  I  find  myself  without  impulse 
to  write  anything  of  my  inner  life  in  this  journal ;  the  fact 
is  that  while  I  find  it  easy  enough  to  live  with  more  or  less 
satisfaction,  I  cannot  at  present  get  any  satisfaction  from 
thinking  about  life,  for  thinking  means — as  I  am  a  philo- 
sopher— endeavouring  to  frame  an  ethical  theory  which 
will  hold  together,  and  to  this  I  do  not  see  my  way. 
And  the  consideration  that  the  morality  of  the  world  may 
be  trusted  to  get  on  without  philosophers  does  not  altogether 
console.  The  ancient  sage  took  up  a  strong  position  who 
argued,  "  We  must  philosophize,  for  either  we  ought  to 
philosophize  or  we  ought  not ;  and  if  we  ought  not  to  philo- 
sophize, we  can  only  know  this  by  studying  philosophy." 
But  tradition  does  not  say  what  course  the  sage  recom- 
mended to  a  philosopher  who  has  philosophized  himself  into 
a  conviction  of  the  unprofitableness  of  philosophy.  He 
must  do  something  else ;  but  how  is  he  to  do  it  on  rational 
grounds  without  philosophy  ?  and  [when]  whatever  impulses 
nature  may  have  given  to  him — as  to  other  men — to  do 
things  without  rational  grounds  have  been  effectually  sup- 
pressed by  philosophy  ? 

However,  of  all  this  a  solution  will  doubtless  be  found 
"  ambulando  " — though  it  will  very  likely  be  "  ambulando," 
as  Tennyson  says,  "  in  a  strange  diagonal." 

April  22. — Have  got  back  after  pleasant  visits.  Otter 
did  not  look  very  well ;  but  he  seemed  happy,  and  has 
three  nice,  simple-mannered,  eager  children,  in  whom  he  is 
duly  interested.  We  talked  much  of  the  difficult  question 


476  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

what  an  infidel  is  to  say  to  his  children  on  religious  sub- 
jects. I  certainly  think  that  if  I  meant  to  send  a  boy  to  a 
public  school — to  give  him  "  all  the  chances  "  socially — 1 
should  try  not  to  put  his  mind  out  of  harmony  with  the 
established  religion,  but  it  seems  to  me  terribly  perilous  to 
do  this  by  positive  hypocrisy ;  I  should  try  to  do  it  by 
reserve  and  by  adjourning  perplexing  questions  "  till  he 
grew  older."  But  Otter  seemed  to  think  this  would  not 
really  answer. 

On  Monday  (18th)  we  went  to  Miss  Ewart's  house  on 
the  edge  of  the  Surrey  hills ;  it  has  a  beautiful  view  and 
afforded  us  real  aesthetic  refreshment.  I  wonder  this 
country  is  not  more  cockneyfied,  being  so  near  London. 
On  Wednesday  I  dined  with  the  Lord  Mayor,1  and  came 
back  to  Cambridge  at  night  by  special  train.  I  liked  the 
Lord  Mayor's  speaking ;  ...  he  managed  to  say  something 
sensible  and  to  the  point  in  each  speech,  and  seemed 
genuinely  pleased  to  see  his  old  University  around  him. 

In  the  summer  of  1887  a  committee  was  formed 
in  London  to  agitate  for  the  opening  of  Cambridge 
degrees  to  women,  the  occasion  being  the  brilliant 
success  of  Miss  Agnata  Ramsay  (now  Mrs.  Butler), 
who  had  come  out  at  the  head  of  the  Classical  Tripos 
list.  Sidgwick  thought  it  very  unwise  to  raise  the 
question  only  six  years  after  the  opening  of  the 
Triposes,  and  did  his  best  to  stop  the  movement.  In 
a  letter  primarily  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
London  Committee,  but  afterwards  more  widely 
circulated,  he  says  : — 

The  decisive  reason  [for  regarding  it  as  unwise  to  raise 
the  question  at  this  time]  is  that  various  important  sections 
of  the  body  of  residents  who  supported  the  opening  of  the 
Examinations  to  women  .  .  .  would  on  various  grounds 
refuse  to  support  any  scheme  that  could  under  existing 
circumstances  be  brought  forward  for  opening  the  degree ; 
and  that  in  consequence  any  such  scheme  would,  when  it 

1  Sir  R.  Hanson,  an  old  Rugby  and  Trinity  man,  gave  two  dinners  at  the 
Mansion-House  to  members  of  his  school  and  College. 


1887,  AGK  49  HENEY  SIDGWICK  477 

came  before  the  Senate,  be  almost  certainly  defeated  by  a 
combination  of  these  various  sections  with  the  opponents  of 
the  whole  movement. 

[He  then  briefly  characterises  these  different  sections 
and  their  different  grounds  of  opposition,  ending  with  the 
one  that  made  it  impossible  for  himself  to  join  the  move- 
ment.] Your  Committee,  as  I  understand,  are  determined 
that  the  conditions  shall  be  absolutely  identical  for  men 
and  women ;  they  have  formally  resolved  that  they  "  will 
not  support  any  measure  admitting  women  to  degrees  on 
other  conditions  than  those  laid  down  for  undergraduates 
generally."  That  is,  they  propose  to  ask  the  University 
practically  to  reverse  the  line  of  action  that  was  adopted, 
after  full  discussion,  six  years  ago ;  when  an  honour  certifi- 
cate in  the  Higher  Local  Examination,  including  at  least  a 
pass  in  Group  B  (Languages)  and  Group  C  (Mathematics), 
was  allowed  as  an  alternative  to  passing  the  Previous 
Examination  imposed  on  undergraduates  who  are  candidates 
for  honours. 

[Some,  he  says,  would  oppose  this  reversal  on  principle.] 
Others  —  among  whom  I  am  to  be  reckoned  — are  not 
opposed  on  principle  to  identity  of  conditions  for  the  two 
sexes  in  University  Examinations  ;  but  they  are  determined, 
if  possible,  to  prevent  the  University  from  applying  to  the 
education  of  girls  the  pressure  in  the  direction  of  classics 
which  would  inevitably  be  given  if  the  present  Previous 
Examination  were  made  compulsory  on  female  students 
preparing  for  the  Tripos  Examinations.  They  have  no 
wish  that  the  University  should  throw  its  influence  against 
the  development  of  classical  education  in  girls'  schools : 
but  they  wish  it  to  remain — as  it  has  hitherto  remained — 
perfectly  neutral  in  the  matter.1  .  .  .  [He  continues]  I  do 
not  mean  to  recommend  an  indefinite  delay :  I  am  quite 

1  He  said  later  on  ill  the  controversy  that  if  the  question  "  whether  the 
University  should  admit  women  to  membership  under  such  conditions  and 
limitations  as  it  may  from  time  to  time  determine,"  could  be  brought  for- 
ward separately  from  the  question  "what  these  conditions  and  limitations 
are  to  be  "  he  "should  answer  the  first  unhesitatingly  in  the  aifirmative  ; 
trusting  to  the  wisdom  of  the  University  to  settle  the  second  question  with 
a  single-minded  regard  to  the  true  interests  of  the  education  of  women." 


478  HENRY  SIDG-WICK  CHAP,  vt 

of  opinion  that  the  question  whether  Cambridge  is  to 
become  a  mixed  university  is  one  that  ought  to  be  raised 
and  fully  debated  before  many  years  have  passed.  But  1 
think  that  a  delay  of  four  or  five  years  may  be  reasonably 
asked  for :  and  that  after  this  interval  has  elapsed,  the 
question  is  likely  to  be  raised  under  decidedly  more  favour- 
able circumstances  than  at  present.  In  the  first  place  it  is 
not  improbable  that  in  the  meantime  the  Previous  Examina- 
tion for  undergraduates  generally  may  be  modified ;  so  that 
"  identity  of  conditions  "  will  no  longer  mean  "  compulsory 
Greek."  Secondly,  even  if  this  cause  of  dissension  should 
not  be  removed,  the  objection  on  the  score  of  insufficient  ex- 
perience will  have  vanished,  or  have  been  much  reduced.  .  .  . 
You  will  observe  that  I  have  said  nothing  about  the 
proposal  of  your  Committee  to  ask  for  the  admission  of 
women  to  the  Pass  examinations.  Such  a  proposal,  if  it 
comes  before  us,  will  be  very  strongly  resisted  by  myself 
and  others  for  a  variety  of  reasons.  But  at  the  present 
stage  of  the  discussion  it  is  not  necessary  that  I  should 
further  complicate  an  inevitably  tangled  controversy  by 
giving  these  reasons :  since  this  proposal,  in  my  opinion, 
admits  of  being  treated  and  settled  quite  separately  from 
the  main  question. 

Sidgwick's  advice  did  not  prevail,  and  much  corre- 
spondence in  the  papers  and  signing  of  memorials 
ensued.  Finally,  in  February  1888,  memorials  were 
sent  in  to  the  Council  from  members  of  the  Senate 
opposed  to  giving  degrees  to  women  which  were  more 
numerously  signed  than  those  in  favour  of  moving, 
and  the  Council  decided  to  take  no  steps  in  the  matter. 

After  April  1887  there  is  no  more  Journal  for 
many  months.  Symonds  was  in  England  in  the  early 
summer,  and  afterwards  monthly  letters  took  the 
place  of  the  Journal  for  a  time. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  from  Cambridge,  November  2 
Yesterday  was  the  day  for  my  letter,  but  preparation  for 
lectures  intervened.     On  politics,  however,  I  have  little  to 


1887,  AGE  49  HENRY  SIDGWICK  479 

tell  you  that  you  would  not  learn  from  the  newspapers, 
except  that  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  is  well  and 
keeps  up  his  spirits !  I  hear  that  the  Unionist  Cause  is 
losing  ground,  and  in  particular  I  hear  that  Chamberlain, 
in  spite  of  the  bold  face  he  puts  on  in  public,  privately 
regards  the  game  as  nearly  '  up/  But  the  Liberal 
Unionists  whom  I  meet  here  are,  if  anything,  more  deter- 
mined than  ever ;  the  only  change  of  sentiment  which 
manifests  itself  in  my  personal  entourage  is  that  the  L.U.S 
are  gradually  giving  up  the  hope  of  reunion  with  the  G.L.S. 
My  own  view  is  that  the  task  which  the  Government 
have  in  hand,  of  suppressing  a  rebellion  so  firmly  organised 
and  enjoying  the  open  sympathy  of  the  Liberal  party,  is  an 
almost  impossible  one  to  succeed  in :  but  that  it  is  quite 
premature  to  pronounce  on  their  success.  There  is  sure  to 
be  a  certain  amount  of  blundering  on  the  part  of  the  sub- 
ordinates, and  these  blunders  will  be  of  course  used  by  the 
Liberal  speakers  and  Press  as  a  means  of  acting  on  English 
opinion ;  but  the  important  question  is  whether  they  will 
succeed  in  convincing  the  average  farmer  that  the  Plan  of 
Campaign  is  a  bad  investment.  On  that  question  I  think 
it  quite  premature  to  express  a  judgment. 

We  stayed  with  the  Trevelyans  in  the  summer  —  a 
delightful  visit :  and  I  had  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  his 
'  tergiversation.'  I  think  he  has  been  hardly  used,  so  far 
as  his  action  has  gone  as  yet.  The  real  test,  I  think,  will 
come  when  the  Home  Rulers  return  to  power — assuming 
that  this  is  to  happen — and  the  new  Home  Rule  scheme 
has  to  be  brought  forward.  T.'s  position  is,  '  I  voted  against 
a  Bill  that  I  thought  bad,  and  I  should  vote  against  a 
similar  Bill  if  it  should  be  brought  in  again ;  I  avowed 
this  to  my  constituents,  and  have  been  elected  on  this 
understanding.  I  think  that  Gladstone's  late  Government 
have  learnt  the  lesson  of  their  defeat,  and  that  they  are 
likely,  when  the  time  comes,  to  bring  in  a  Bill  that  I  can 
support.  I  do  not  see  why  the  fact  that  I  disagreed  with 
them  on  a  Bill  that  is  dead  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  my 
practically  joining  the  Tories.'  I  think  there  is  force  in 


480  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

this,  and  that  Trevelyan  cannot  fairly  be  attacked  for  in- 
consistency from  his  own  point  of  view ;  but  I  cannot 
myself  share  his  confidence  that  the  Gladstonians  have 
"  learnt  their  lesson."  Otherwise  why  should  they  continue 
repeating  that  no  arrangement  which  does  not  satisfy  the 
Parnellites  is  worth  bringing  forward.  If  we  have  Home 
Rule  at  all,  I  think  that  Law  and  Order  will  have  to  be 
maintained  by  the  accomplices  of  dynamitards ;  but  I  do 
not  see  why  they  should  not  maintain  these  august  entities 
tolerably — except  in  the  case  of  landlords,  who  will  certainly 
be  sacrificed  if  they  are  not  bought  out. 

Enough.  I  see  your  translation  of  Benvenuto  announced, 
and  wonder  in  what  regions  your  indefatigable  pen  is  now 
travelling.  I  am  working  at  Politics,  not  very  heartily,  but 
I  make  way,  and  do  not  doubt  that  I  shall  bring  out  a 
heavy  book  on  the  subject  before  very  long.  As  to  Ethics 
— matters  are  in  statu  quo.  Time  will  bring  decision. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds,  December  1 

On  the  state  of  the  nation  I  have  not  much  to  say  that 
is  definite.  The  Tories  whom  I  know  are  tolerably  hopeful 
as  to  the  accomplishment  of  TO,  TT/JO?  TTO&WV — the  restora- 
tion of  a  tolerable  degree  of  obedience  to  law  in  Ireland. 
They  think  that  things  will  come  gradually  round  if 
Government  is  firm  and  does  not  lose  its  head ;  and  they 
think  now  (which  opinion  I  share)  that  Arthur  Balfour  will 
exhibit  these  necessary  qualities.  Still  there  is  always  the 
possibility  of  serious  mistakes  by  subordinate  officials — 
including  resident  magistrates — raising  a  storm  of  popular 
indignation.  A.  J.  B.  himself,  with  whom  I  have  had  an 
hour's  talk,  is  tolerably  hopeful  on  this  point.  But  this  is 
but  the  smallest  part  of  the  Unionists'  problem.  They 
have  also  got  to  reduce  the  agrarian  difficulty  to  something 
endurable  :  and  there  seems  to  be  great  disagreement  among 
them  as  to  how  this  is  to  be  attempted.  .  .  . 

As  regards  "  law  and  order  "  in  London,  there  is  an  idea 
that  the  lawless  and  disorderly  party  have  got  the  worst  of 
it  for  the  present,  and  know  it ;  nor  can  I  learn  from  any 


1887,  AGE  49  HENEY  SIDGWICK  481 

one  whose  opinion  I  regard  that  the  problem  of  "  distress 
of  unemployed "  is  really  formidable  at  present ;  but  there 
is  an  uneasy  feeling  that  it  may  soon  become  so,  and  that 
"  something  must  be  done " — something,  I  suppose,  in  the 
direction  of  recognising  the  "  Eight  to  Labour,"  or  rather 
the  right  to  get  wages.  I  have  always  thought  myself 
that  our  system  of  poor  relief  required  development  in  this 
direction ;  it  succeeds  admirably  (speaking  KO.T  avdpwirov) 
in  preventing  starvation  without  encouraging  idleness,  but 
its  method  is  too  purely  deterrent;  still,  it  is  very  difficult 
to  remedy  this  defect  without  coming  nearer  the  brink  of 
socialism.  Thus  the  outlook  is  not  promising :  the  sky  full 
of  clouds,  though  none  very  black  just  at  present.  That 
everybody  seems  to  have  lost  his  head  in  France  affects  us, 
I  think,  less  than  it  would  do  if  we  were  in  a  more  sanguine 
mood  about  political  progress.  Meanwhile  we  are  not  most 
of  us  in  a  humour  to  read  a  rhymed  play  by  Swinburne  ;  we 
feel  we  must  leave  that  amusement  to  the  happy  Americans 
and  Australians. 

Personally,  I  am  trying  to  absorb  myself  in  my  Opus 
Magnum  on  Politics.  My  position  is  that  I  seem  to  myself 
now  to  have  grasped  and  analyzed  adequately  the  only 
possible  method  of  dealing  systematically  with  political 
problems ;  but  my  deep  conviction  is  that  it  can  yield 
as  yet  little  fruit  of  practical  utility — so  doubt  whether 
it  is  worth  while  to  work  it  out  in  a  book.  Still  man 
must  work — and  a  Professor  must  write  books.  I  look 
forward  with  much  interest  to  your  new  departure  in 
literary  criticism ; J  you  certainly  have  the  gift  of  perennial 
youthfulness  of  spirit.  I  do  not  think  I  have,  except  in 
my  general  attitude  towards  life,  which  is  very  like  that  of 
a  somewhat  pessimistic  undergraduate. 

Graham  [Dakyns]  and  Arthur  [Sidgwick]  were  here  for 
the  Greek  play.  .  .  .  [It]  had  a  complete  external  success 
— house  crowded  every  night — but  I  did  not  think  it  really 
equal  to  the  Eumenidcs,  chiefly  because  the  part  of  (Edipus 

1  Symonds  was  beginning   to   put  into  shape   Essays  Speculative  and 
Suggestive. 

2i 


4.82  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

is  one  which  makes  too  great  demands  on  the  actor  for 
a  juvenile  amateur  to  be  able  to  satisfy  even  tolerably 
throughout.  The  chief  thing  I  gained  from  it  was  a  keener 
apprehension  of  Jocasta's  character ;  I  had  not  appreciated 
its  subtle  femininity.  But  the  conclusion  was  less  satis- 
factory on  the  stage  than  in  the  closet ;  the  pathos  of  the 
scene  with  father  and  daughter  seemed  too  obviously 
qontrived  for  effect. 

•  To  J.  A.  Symonds,  January  8,  1888 

We  came  back  yesterday  from  Ireland — from  a  fort- 
night's visit  at  the  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge.  The  time 
was  very  interesting :  but  I  may  communicate  in  con- 
fidence to  the  reader  of  this  Journal  that  it  has  not 
tended  to  increase  my  hope  of  preserving  the  Union. 
This  is  chiefly  because  it  seems  to  me  that  the  whole 
thing  rests  on  the  Government ;  that  the  Irish  loyalists 
outside  the  Government  are  wanting  in  "  Grit."  A.  J.  B. 
is  cheerful  and  confident ;  has  no  doubt  that  by  a  calm, 
steady,  fearless  enforcement  of  the  law  he  will  bring  things 
round  gradually  in  time.  And  he  says  that,  according  to 
all  the  information  he  gets  through  all  sources,  things 
are  coming  round  ;  rents  are  being  paid ;  and — in  spite  of 
the  opposition  of  the  League — the  £5,000,000  to  be  lent 
by  the  Government  for  the  transfer  of  land  from  landlords 
to  tenants  (under  Lord  Ashbourne's  act)  is  nearly  exhausted. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  other  side  have  an  air  of  equal  con- 
fidence ;  and  assert,  apparently  with  truth,  that  landlords 
are  "  caving  in  "  to  the  tenants.  Probably  both  statements 
are  true,  and  the  battle  is  still  undecided ;  but  I  should  be 
disposed  to  back  the  Government  if  time  were  allowed.  But 
then  I  see  no  reason  to  think  that  more  time  will  be  allowed 
than  the  average  duration  of  a  Parliament ;  and  I  hardly 
hope  that  within  that  time  the  success  of  the  Government 
will  be  sufficiently  clear  to  tell  much  in  their  favour  with 
the  constituencies ;  and  if  so,  I  can  hardly  doubt  that  the 
incidents  of  the  process  of  "  bringing  round "  will  tell 
against  them.  .  .  .  The  danger  of  mistakes  seems  to  me 


1888,  AGE  49  HENKY  SIDGWICK  483 

much  increased  by  the  peculiar  legal  situation  of  the 
Government.  They  are  trying  to  put  down  dangerous 
meetings  by  the  common  law ;  and  as  the  power  of  the 
Executive  to  do  this  seems  by  the  agreement  of  legal  experts 
to  be  somewhat  imperfectly  denned,  they  are  compelled  to 
throw  on  the  resident  magistrates — necessarily  imperfect 
judicial  instruments — the  peculiarly  difficult  task  of  apply- 
ing imperfectly-defined  principles.  .  .  . 

I  send  [this]  feeling  it  hardly  worth  sending.  The  truth 
is,  though  I  enjoyed  my  visit  to  Ireland  I  did  not  get  much 
out  of  it  in  the  way  of  new  ideas.  It  was  serious  and 
thrilling  to  think  of  the  danger  (which  I  believe  to  be  very 
real),  and  A.  J.  B.'s  coolness  and  courage ;  and  it  was  comic 
to  read  United  Ireland,  as  an  illustration  of  the  free  speech 
which  the  tyrant  allows.  But  I  could  not  feel  that  any 
light  went  up  in  my  horizon. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  at  Buda-Pest  on  March  8,  1888 

I  have  been  suffering  from  sleeplessness  for  some  months, 
which  has  led  me  to  make  a  rigid  rule  of  abstinence  from 
all  reading  after  dinner  which  tends  to  hard  thinking. 
This  has  seriously  restricted  my  power  of  taking  intellectual 
excursions  !  .  .  . 

I  have  been  rather  gloomy  lately  on  various  grounds — 
one  is,  that  I  find  myself  approaching  the  time  of  life  in 
which  it  seems  an  exceptional  thing  to  be  alive.  Trotter's * 
death  especially  moved  me ;  he  had  been  seriously  out  of 
order  for  more  than  a  year,  but  no  one  suspected  any 
immediate  danger — at  least  I  did  not — until  suddenly  he 
caught  cold,  which  turned  to  inflammation  of  the  lungs. 
His  death  was  on  public  grounds  a  very  great  loss ;  for 
years  he  has  occupied  a  quite  unique  position  in  the  very 
complicated  administration  of  our  academic  business — com- 
plicated from  the  intricate  way  in  which  university  and 
colleges  are  mixed  up.  Another  such  man,  with  indefatig- 
able industry,  absolute  disinterestedness,  and  complete 

1  The   Rev.   Coutts   Trotter,   vice  -  Master  of  Trinity  College,    died   on 
December  4,  1887. 


484  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

clear  grasp  of  our  perplexed  affairs,  is  very  difficult  to  tind  ; 
and  his  loss  is  all  the  more  irreparable  at  this  crisis,  as  we 
are  passing  through  a  period  of  financial  distress  from  the 
fall  in  rents,  and  as  in  the  University  of  Cambridge — per- 
haps also  in  that  of  Buda-Pest — almost  every  department 
and  not  a  few  individuals  are  continually  wanting  more 
money.  .  .  . 

At  the  end  of  March  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  paid  a 
brief  visit  to  Munich  on  Psychical  Research  business ; 
but  as  he  writes  afterwards  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  :— 

We  have  come  back  from  Munich  re  infecta.  The" Subject" 
[with  whom  experiments  were  to  be  tried]  fell  ill  just  on 
our  arrival — our  usual  luck  !  But  we  liked  the  Munich 
Society  [for  Psychical  Eesearch],  and  enjoyed  our  holiday. 

To  J.  A,  Symonds  from  Cambridge  on  April  8 

I  have  been  since  I  wrote  to  you  in  a  state  of  mind  so 
familiar  to  me  that  I  ought  to  be  proof  against  the  illusion 
connected  with  it — and  yet  I  am  not  proof — the  state  of 
knowing  that  before  long  I  have  to  make  a  decision  of 
fundamental  importance,  a  decision  that  must  profoundly 
influence  my  life  and  outlook  on  things  in  general  one  way 
or  another,  feeling  that  I  have  sufficiently  examined  all  the 
pros  and  cons  that  my  intellect  can  discover,  and  that  the 
matter  is  therefore  ripe  for  decision ;  feeling  at  the  same 
time  that  my  mind  is  not  moved  to  a  decision  to-day,  and 
therefore  expecting — here  comes  in  the  invincible  illusion — 
that  it  must  settle  down  into  decidedness  to-morrow  or  the 
day  after :  and  that  when  this  moment  comes  the  existence 
I  am  leading  in  a  kind  of  tunnel  under  the  surface  of 
ordinary  human  life  will  have  come  to  an  end :  I  shall 
emerge  into  the  open  air  and  experience  a  rush  of  the  kind 
of  clear  ideas  and  emotions  that  one  is  prompted  to  com- 
municate to  one's  friends. 

This  is  the  state  I  have  been  in  for  two  months.  The 
question  is  the  one  I  wrote  to  you  about  as  to  the  tenability 
of  my  position  here  as  a  teacher  of  Ethics.  The  grounds  of 


1888,  AGE  49  HENKY  SIDGWICK  485 

indecision  are  these.  Ethics  seems  to  me  in  a  position  inter- 
mediate between  Theology  and  Science,  regarded  as  subjects 
of  academic  study  and  profession,  in  this  way : — No  one 
doubts  that  a  Professor  of  Theology,  under  the  conditions 
prevailing  in  England  at  least,  is  expected  to  be  in  some 
way  constructive ;  if  not  exactly  orthodox,  at  any  rate  he  is 
expected  to  have  and  to  be  able  to  communicate  a  rational 
basis  for  some  established  creed  and  system.  If  he  conies 
to  the  conclusion  that  no  such  basis  is  attainable,  most 
sensible  persons  would  agree  that  he  is  in  his  wrong  place 
and  had  better  take  up  some  other  calling.  On  the  other 
hand  the  professor  of  any  branch  of  science  is  under  no  such 
restriction ;  he  is  expected  to  communicate  unreservedly  the 
results  to  which  he  has  come,  whether  favourable  or  not 
to  the  received  doctrines :  if  (e.g.)  he  were  the  solitary 
Darwinian  in  a  society  of  Creationists,  that  would  be  no 
reason  for  resigning  his  chair — rather  for  holding  on.  Now 
iny  difficulty  is  to  make  up  my  mind  which  of  these 
analogies  I  ought  to  apply  to  my  own  case — and  I  have  not 
yet  done  so. 

Enough  !  this  is  longer  than  I  intended.  What  I  in- 
tended to  say  is  that  I  have  [now]  emerged  from  my  tunnel 
by  an  act  of  will,  and  do  not  mean  to  let  my  mind  turn  on 
this  hook  any  more  for  the  present.  And  as  a  sign  and 
seal  of  the  change  I  mean  to  recommence  my  journal : — you 
will  receive  April's  journal  at  the  end  of  the  month. 

April  12. — To-day  I  recommence  my  journal,  with  a 
determination  to  continue  it.  The  opportunity  is  good,  as 
I  am  alone,  Nora  having  gone  to  London  to  hear  her 
brother's  speech  at  the  Banquet  last  evening.  The  change 
is  great  in  my  own  mind  since  I  left  off  the  journal ;  and, 
though  the  loss  is  great,  I  am  obliged  to  confess  to  myself 
that  the  change  is  not  altogether  for  the  worse.  I  take  life 
more  as  it  conies,  and  with  more  concern  for  small  things. 
I  aim  at  cheerfulness  and  I  generally  attain  it.  I  have  a 
stronger  Distinctive  repugnance  to  cause  pain  or  annoyance 
to  any  human  being.  In  old  times,  when  the  old  idea  of 
a  judgment  at  which  all  would  be  known  still  hung  about 


486  HENKY  SIDGWIGK  CHAP,  vi 

me,  I  was  more  concerned  about  being  in  the  right  in  my 
human  relations — about  having,  as  Bishop  Andrewes  says, 
"  defensionem  bonam  "  ante  trem.endv.in  tribunal.  But  now  I 
have  let  this  drop  into  the  background,  and  though  I  still 
feel  what  Carlyle  calls  the  "  Infinity  of  Duty,"  it  is  only  in 
great  matters  I  feel  it ;  as  regards  the  petty  worries  of  life, 
I  feel  that  both  the  Universe  and  Duty  de  minimis  non 
curant :  or  rather  the  one  Infinite  duty  is  to  be  serene.  And 
serene  I  am — so  far  ! 

Sidgwick  was  liable  to  periods  of  depression  all  his 
life  after  his  illness  as  an  undergraduate,  generally 
accompanied — perhaps  caused — by  a  tendency  to  lie 
awake  at  night.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he 
used,  as  indicated  in  the  passage  just  quoted,  to  make 
a  great  effort  to  conceal  depression  from  those  he  was 
with.  To  a  great  extent  he  succeeded,  and  he  found 
the  effort  beneficial  to  himself.  He  never  took  drugs 
to  relieve  sleeplessness.  He  had  been  warned  against 
this  by  a  doctor  early  in  life,  and  never  wavered  from 
the  principle  he  had  adopted.  Nor  did  he  read  in 
bed ;  he  generally  found  it  best  to  lie  still,  and  get 
rest  if  he  could  not  get  sleep.  He  used  to  find 
making  plans  for  the  future  a  soothing  occupation 
under  these  circumstances. 

April  18. — Back  to  Cambridge  (from  Terling)  for  a 
term's  work.  Have  read  J.  A.  S.'s  aesthetic  article  in  Fort- 
nightly, which  I  agreed  with  and  liked  much — terse  and 
pregnant,  interesting  and  suggestive.  Some  things  I  differed 
from.  It  hardly  seems  to  me  that  Milton's  Death  or 
Goethe's  Mephisto  are  "  fantastic  "  ; — Death,  because  of  the 
mysterious  shadowiness  of  the  description  which  satisfies 
our  emotion  while  it  (as  I  should  say)  eludes  our  fantasy ; 
Mephisto,  because  the  external  embodiment  which  is  fan- 
tastic is  not  Goethean.  What  Goethe  creates  appeals  to 
Thought,  not  Fantasy. 

April  20. — I  have  been  thinking  over  the  old  distinc- 
tion between  Fancy  and  Imagination.  It  seems  to  me  that 


1888,  AGE  49  HENEY  SIDGWICK  48Y 

we  agree  to  consider  that  Imagination  and  not  mere  Fancy 
is  exercised  when  the  artist's  fictitious  representation  is 
designed  as  the  expression  of  a  spiritual  truth,  e.g.  when 
Tennyson  writes, 

And  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  altar  stairs 
That  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God, 

it  is  imagination  not  fancy  that  produces  the  image.  And 
it  is  because  both  Death  and  Mephisto  are  partly  of  this 
kind  that  I  do  not  call  them  fantastic. 

April  30. — Labor  Improbus  !  During  the  last  fortnight 
I  have  settled  all  my  literary  hesitations;  determined  to 
bring  out  two  books  (1)  Elements  of  Politics,  and  (2)  Develop- 
ment of  European  Polity,  have  made  out  the  plan  of  (1) — - 
twenty-three  chapters,  of  which  sixteen  are  more  or  less 
written — have  sent  off  the  first  three  to  the  printer,  and  got 
three  more  ready  for  sending :  all  with  the  term's  work 
going  on.  This  is  good  for  so  dilatory  and  indecisive  a 
person  as  I  am.  I  hope  I  may  keep  it  up. 

People  about  me — knowing  ones  (I  do  not  mean  'having 
knowledge') — are  prophesying  a  European  war.  But  I 
have  a  simple  faith  in  Bis[marck].  I  feel  sure  Bis.  wants 
peace,  and  I  think  he  will  get  what  he  wants.  But  how, 
I  know  not.  Also  the  Boulanger  scare  in  France  is  opposed 
to  war,  since  the  people  in  power  must  think  that  war  would 
increase  Boulanger's  chances,  and  they  cannot  want  that. 
The  anti-English  feeling  in  Germany  I  take  to  be  merely 
popular  and  transient.  .  .  . 

May  7. — Kegan  Paul  came  on  Saturday  for  the  Sunday 
with  his  wife  and  Nancy.  It  was  a  pleasant  visit — more* 
like  old  times  than  I  expected.  Leslie  Stephen  remarked 
the  other  day  that  Kegan  Paul  had  become  uninteresting 
since  he  changed  from  a  clerical  heretic  into  a  prosperous 
publisher ;  but  a  man  must  have  some  interesting  qualities 
who  can  effect  this  change  after  middle  life,  in  the  easy; 
buoyant,  cheerful,  successful  way  in  which  Paul  managed 
it.  He  has  had  to  tell  Congreve  that  "  Positivism  has 
dropped  off  him  like  other  things." 


488  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

May  20.  —  (In  Oxford).  Very  pleasant  meeting  of  '  Ad 
Eimdeni.'  But  I  feel  that  as  I  grow  older  I  really  know 
less  and  less  of  the  real  life  of  Oxford.  I  am  half  inclined 
to  think  that  there  is  no  real  life  now  —  no  central  pre- 
dominant pulsation  of  life  —  such  as  there  was  in  the  "  con- 
sulship of  Plancus"  (1860-65).  .  .  .  T  find  that  there  is  a 
widespread  feeling  in  Oxford  that  the  portrait  of  Green  [in 
llobert  Elsmere]  is  something  that  ought  not  to  have  been 
tlone.  I  do  not  quite  know  why,  for  all  admit  that  it  is  at 
once  faithful  and  friendly.  I  have  no  particular  desire  for 
posthumous  fame,  but  I  think  it  would  please  me  rather 
than  otherwise  to  know  that  I  should  be  introduced  into  a 
novel  after  death  in  this  kind  of  way.  Met  Miss  Smith, 
who  seemed  to  me  to  have  grown  older,  and  grown  more  so, 
but  to  be  very  much  all  there.  She  said  that  "  Greats  "  was 
going  to  be  thrown  open  to  women.  Met  Jowett,  too. 
Every  one  said  he  had  wonderfully  recovered  ;  yet  he 
seemed  to  me  clearly  older  in  a  sadder  way  ;  I  mean  so 
that  an  unwonted  touch  of  something  like  pity  mingled  with 
one's  reverence  —  pity  for  the  feeling  he  must  have  of 
having  taken  a  distinct  step  down  the  last  incline. 

Had  interesting  talk  with  Dicey  about  reform  of  the 
British  Constitution.  Our  idea  is  to  borrow  from  America 
the  stability  for  a  definite  period  of  the  executive,  but  to 
keep  the  original  appointment  of  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
Legislature  (as  practically  in  England  now).  Disputes  on 
legislative  measures  to  be  settled  by  the  "  referendum  "  as 
in  Switzerland  now.  K^  Must  look  up  Swiss  Constitution. 

May  25.  —  I  feel  that  everything  points  to  my  leaving 
Cambridge.  I  do  not  think  I  was  made  to  be  a  teacher  of 
age  and  dignity  :  I  like  talking  to  young  men,  but  I  like 
talking  to  them  as  an  equal  —  and  this  becomes  harder  as 
the  years  go  on.  If  we  go  I  think  Cambridge  will  miss  my 
wife  more  than  me,  and  this  sometimes  makes  me  pause  : 
but  I  think  on  the  whole  she  would  be  happier  in  a 
quieter  life,  though  happy  enough  here  — 

fJ.€V   fvOdS'   fVKoX.O<S  8'    CKCt.1 


Aristophanes,  Froys.     Said  of  Sophocles. 


1888,  AGE  50  HENKY  SIDGWICK  489 

Arthur  [Sidgwick],  too,  lias  stirred  my  desire  to  go  to 
Greece;  he  says  that  the  "remains"  come  up  to  expectation, 
and  the  scenery  much  more  so.  But  this  is  a  subordinate 
consideration  ! 

May  31. — My  fiftieth  birthday!  I  find  that  now  my 
whole  nature  is  beginning  to  sway  in  the  direction  of  leaving 
Cambridge.  Two  old  impulses  raise  their  heads  and  sing 
in  tune  within  me:  (1)  the  desire  of  travel,  to  know  the 
world  of  West- European  civilisation  thoroughly  and  as  a 
whole ;  and  (2)  the  desire  of  literary  independence,  to  be 
able  to  speak  when  I  like  as  a  man  to  men,  and  not  three 
times  a  week  as  a  salaried  teacher  to  pupils.  I  understand 
the  teacher  who  said  that  his  classes  were  his  "  wings,"  but 
in  my  deep  doubt  whether  what  now  appears  to  me  true 
tends  to  edification  I  find  them  rather  chains  than  wings. 

It  little  profits  that,  a  dubious  don 
In  these  dull  rooms,  amid  these  dreary  flats, 
Yoked  to  these  aged  wives,  I  mete  and  dole 
Unbottomed  ethics  to  a 

"  savage  race  "  won't  do,  but  it  is  a  race  that  "  knows  not  me," 
for  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  make  myself  known.  ([Aged 
wives],  I  fear,  must  be  taken  to  refer  to  the  Heads  of 
Houses.) 

June  1. — S.P.R  meeting  and  Nora's  paper  on  Pre- 
monitions. Paper  difficult  to  write  because  she  does  not 
believe  in  them,  and  yet  we  fear  that  too  negative  an 
attitude  would  prevent  our  getting  the  full  supply  of 
fresh  stories  which  we  want  to  complete  our  telepathic 
evidence,  the  simple  minds  of  our  audience  not  distinguish- 
ing between  telepathy  and  premonitions.  I  thought  she 
siicceeded  tolerably  well,  but  Gurney  thought  she  erred  on 
the  side  of  too  great  indulgence  to  weak  evidence. 

June  11. — Our  distinguished  guests  have  come  and 
gone,  and  I  shall  now  communicate  to  this  faithful  page  my 
impression  of  the  whole  business.  It  can  only  be  expressed 
here,  because,  as  three  of  the  honorary  graduates  were 
Nora's  brother  and  brother-in-law  and  uncle,1  and  as  the 

1  A.  J.  Balfour,  Lord  Rayleigh,  and  Lord  Salisbury. 


490  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

whole  thing  was,  by  irate  Gladstoniaus,  regarded  as  a 
demonstration  on  the  Unionist  side,  I  feel  in  private  duty 
bound  to  refer  to  it  in  public  with  an  air  of  modest  triumph. 
But,  in  strictest  confidence,  L  think  (1)  that  a  University 
ought  to  give  no  honorary  degrees  except  for  merit  that  it  is 
professionally  competent  to  recognise,  i.e.  for  eminence  in 
science  and  learning ;  and  that  it  ought  to  recognise  this 
species  of  merit  with  the  strictest  impartiality.  It  is  urged 
on  the  other  side  that  the  opinion  of  a  body  like  the 
University  on  the  merits  of  statesmen  is  a  matter  of  some 
interest,  that  it  may  interest  other  less  learned  persons,  that 
we  are  bound  as  patriots  to  express,  etc.,  etc.  My  answer  is 
that  we  may  fulfil  this  patriotic  duty  in  any  other  way  we 
like — if  electing  a  Unionist  member  is  not  enough — except 
by  assuming  the  position  of  a  fountain  of  honour  on  this 
subject.  That  we  cannot  really  be;  o  <f>povip,os  does  not 
so  regard  us,  and  it  is  only  old  custom  that  prevents  us 
from  being  ridiculous  when  we  try  to  assume  the  position. 
But  (2)  if  we  had  wished  to  show  our  appreciation  of 
political  merit,  I  think  the  choice  should  have  been  less 
partisan.  Lord  Rosebery  was  not  enough  to  balance 
Salisbury,  Goschen,  and  Balfour.  (Lord  Acton,  no  doubt,  is 
a  Home  Ruler,  but  he  is  not  known  to  the  public  as  such.) 
There  ought  to  have  been  also  John  Morley  or  G.  O. 
Trevelyan.  However,  it  was  an  exciting  time,  especially 
as  we  achieved  for  Newnham  the  triumph  of  getting  all 
the  Swells  (including  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales)  to 
come  to  its  Garden  Party.  This  was  partly  due  to  the 
cordiality  of  the  Vice-Chancellor,  who  was,  I  think,  anxious 
to  show  that  though  Cambridge  will  not  give  women  degrees, 
it  does  not  in  any  way  draw  back  the  hand  it  has  held  out 
to  them. 

We  had  the  Premier,  Lady  Salisbury,  and  Gwendolen 
Cecil,  as  well  as  Arthur  and  Alice  Balfour  [staying  with 
us].  It  strained  the  resources  of  our  humble  establish- 
ment, but  I  liked  having  the  Salisburys.  I  think  Lord 
S.  is  particularly  attractive  in  private  life — one  recognizes 
the  style  of  his  speeches  in  his  humorous  observations ; 


isss,  AGE  50  HENEY  SIDGWICK  491 

otherwise  I  should  describe  his  manner  as  simple,  gentle, 
and  unassuming. 

Of  Newnham  I  say  nothing :  because  the  Master  of 
Magdalene,  who  acted  as  autocratic  distributor  of  tickets, 
and  had  been  very  obliging  to  us,  told  the  Editor  of  The 
Banner  to  apply  to  Nora  for  an  account  of  the  Garden 
Party  at  Newnham.  We  thought  it  would  be  ungrateful 
to  refuse,  and  some  fun  to  try  our  first  and  last  piece  of 
penny-a-lining  on  so  auspicious  an  occasion.  Here  is  the 
result.  The  discerning  reader  can  probably  distinguish, 
the  two  pens  I 

GARDEN  PAETY  AT  NEWNHAM  COLLEGE 

In  closing  the  proceedings  at  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum 
the  Vice-Chancellor  communicated  to  his  guests  a  genera} 
invitation  to  a  garden  party  in  the  grounds  of  Newnham 
College.  It  was  known  that  the  Royal  visitors  had  promised  to 
grace  with  their  presence  this  party,  given  on  the  occasion  of 
the  opening  of  the  large  dining-hall  and  assembly  room  which 
forms  part  of  the  new  third  Hall  of  Newnham,  to  be  called  after 
the  Principal,  Clough  Hall  •  and  accordingly  distinguished 
visitors  and  residents  were  soon  seen  crossing  the  Cam  in  the 
direction  of  the  ladies'  college.  The  grounds  of  Newnham — 
about  eight  acres  in  extent — were  alive  with  students  and  ex- 
students  to  the  number  of  nearly  three  hundred,  distinguishable, 
amid  the  growing  throng  of  visitors,  by  the  irises  worn  in  their 
dresses.  Presently  two  lines  of  iris-wearers  might  be  seen 
forming  on  the  sides  of  the  approach  from  the  gate  to  the  door 
of  Clough  Hall,  along  which  the  Royal  carriages  were  to  pass, 
and  a  gleam  of  sunshine — unhappily  too  transient — brought  out 
effectively  the  red  brick  gables  and  white  eaves  of  the  new 
"  Queen  Annine  "  building.  Meanwhile  the  mass  of  the  visitors 
congregated  in  the  graceful  dining-hall,  filling  both  the  main 
body  of  the  room  and  the  gallery,  while  on  the  dais  at  one  end  sat 
the  College  choir,  waiting  in  thrilled  expectation  for  the  signal 
to  begin  the  National  Anthem.  The  hall,  with  its  two  deep 
bays,  its  richly  moulded  barrel  roof,  and  its  galleries  round  two 
sides,  was  well  set  off  by  the  gay  party  assembled  and  the  taste- 
ful floral  decorations,  and  must  have  been  a  gratifying  sight  to 
the  architect,  Mr.  Champneys,  who  was  among  the  guests. 
The  minutes  fly  and  the  expectation  grows  more  intense,  in  the 
dining-hall  and  along  the  lines  of  "  Newnhamites  "  outside,  and 


492  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

also  in  the  entrance  of  Clough  Hall,  where  the  Council  of 
Newnham,  Miss  Clough  (the  Principal),  and  Miss  Gladstone  (the 
Vice-Principal  of  the  College),  and  four  students  with  bouquets 
for  the  Princesses,  are  awaiting  the  Royal  party.  The  ex- 
pectancy turns  momentarily  to  anxiety  when  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  the  Prime  Minister,  who  had  been  among 
the  earliest  arrivals,  are  seen  driving  off  to  catch  their  train. 
But  soon  a  murmur  runs  "  Here  they  come " ;  the  Royal 
carriage  drives  up  between  the  lines  of  courtesying  maidens  to 
Clough  Hall ;  and  Professor  Cayley,  President  of  the  Newnham 
Council,  in  the  scarlet  doctor's  gown  conferred  on  him  three 
hours  before,  escorts  the  Princess  of  Wales  to  her  seat  in  the 
dining-hall.  The  Prince  of  Wales  follows  with  Miss  Clough 
on  his  arm,  and  after  them  the  three  young  Princesses  with 
Prince  Albert  Victor :  while  the  choir,  somewhat  nervous  with 
loyal  emotion,  are  singing  three  verses  of  "God  save  the 
Queen."  Then  come  two  part  songs,  in  which  the  girlish  voices 
show  to  more  advantage ;  then  the  brief  concert  is  over  and 
the  Royal  visitors  cross  the  road  that  divides  the  Newnham 
grounds  to  the  garden  of  the  Old  Hall,  where  tea  is  prepared 
for  them.  It  is  in  this  older  garden — which  has  had  fourteen 
years  to  grow  up — that  the  al  fresco  part  of  the  entertainment 
takes  place ;  and  the  garden  looks  pretty  enough  in  the  sun- 
shine between  the  showers,  which  unfortunately  fell  at  intervals 
throughout  the  day,  and  during  one  of  which  the  Royal  party 
drives  off  to  the  station. 

Then  there  is  yet  another  ceremony  to  be  performed  in  the 
new  dining-hall,  viz.  the  announcement  of  the  foundation  of  a 
studentship  in  honour  of  Miss  Marion  Kennedy,  daughter  of 
the  venerable  Professor  of  Greek,  whose  services  to  Newnham 
are  known  to  all  members  and  friends  of  the  College.  Then 
the  guests  gradually  disperse,  and  the  hall  is  prepared  for 
the  supper,  with  which  290  Newnhamites,  past  and  present, 
are  to  close  the  day.  But  of  this  banquet  nothing  can  be 
told ;  indeed  we  hear  that  the  only  male  visitors  admitted  to 
look  down  upon  the  scene  from  the  gallery  were  Professor 
Cayley,  the  actual  President  of  the  College,  and  Professor 
Adams,  who  guided  its  fortunes  at  an  earlier  stage  of  its 
history. 

June  21. — We  have  come  down  to  Cambridge  after 
visits  to  Lambeth,  H.  W.  Eve,  and  Carlton  Gardens,  ending 
with  the  Apostles'  dinner  at  Richmond,  at  which  S.  H. 
Butcher  was  very  good  in  the  chair. 


1888,  AGE  50  HENKY  SIDGWICK  49 a 

June.  25. — Alas!  Alas! 

F.  and  A,  Myers  came  yesterday  to  tell  us  the  terrible 
news  of  Edmund  Gurney's  sudden  death.  It  happened  at 
Brighton  on  Friday  night  from  an  overdose  of  chloroform, 
supposed  taken  for  neuralgia  or  insomnia ;  he  is  known  to 
have  been  suffering  lately  from  obstinate  sleeplessness. 
Quis  desiderio  ?  .  .  .  I  can  write  no  more  journal  this 
month.  .  .  .  We  saw  him  last  on  Tuesday,  19th;  he 
seemed  to  us  well  and  in  good  spirits.  Fred  Myers  feels 
it  terribly,  but  we  too — Nora  and  I — do  not  know  how  we 
shall  do  without  him. 

In  writing,  as  President  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  to  convey  to  Mrs.  Gurney  the 
sympathy  of  the  Council  of  the  Society,  he  says  :— 

It  was  hoped  that  this  would  not  seem  to  you  merely 
formal — you  would  feel  that  we  were  speaking  as  representa- 
tives of  the  whole  body  of  persons  interested  in  the  work 
of  which  the  main  burden  has  so  long  rested  on  him ;  from 
the  letters  that  we  have  received  we  know  how  widely  this 
feeling  is  shared  and  how  strongly. 

I  must  add  that  nothing  that  can  be  said  in  public  will 
really  express  our  sense  of  loss  :  because  what  we  really  feel 
as  regards  the  work  is  the  profound  difficulty  of  carrying  it 
on  at  all,  in  an  adequate  and  worthy  way.  But  of  this  we 
must  say  nothing,  as  we  feel  it  a  duty  not  to  discourage 
others.  We  are  determined  that  the  work  shall  be  carried 
through  to  whatever  result  the  laws  of  the  Universe  destine 
for  it ;  we  feel  it  to  be  now  not  only  a  duty  owed  to 
humanity,  but  also  to  the  memory  of  our  friend  and 
colleague,  that  the  results  of  our  previous  labour  should  not 
fail  from  any  faint-heartedness.  So  we  shall  go  forward 
with  energy  and  determination — though  the  fresh  enthusiasm 
of  the  old  days,  and  the  delight  of  comradeship,  can  never 
be  what  it  was. 

The  Journal  continv.es: — 

July  12. — Yesterday  we  came  up  to  London  to  dine 
with  Trevelyans.  Very  pleasant.  I  sat  next  to  Lady 


494  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Grant  Duff,  who  knew  who  I  was  and  thought  she  could 
make  most  out  of  me  by  discussing  Psychical  Kesearch. 
She  seemed  surprised  that  I  did  not  read  Laurence 
Oliphant.  I  tried  to  make  her  understand  that  we  are  in 
polar  opposition  ;  my  sole  aim  is  proof,  whereas  L.  O.,  though 
keen-witted  and  clever,  appears  as  indifferent  to  scientific 
proof  of  the  world  he  proposes  to  reveal  as  the  most  woolly- 
headed  enthusiast. 

July  13. — We  went  to  see  Taming  of  the  Shrew  last 
night  (American  Company).  It  had  heen  strongly  re- 
commended ;  the  only  actress  of  pretension  was  Katherine, 
and  the  only  point  that  I  could  find  in  her  acting  was  a 
certain  little  squeal  of  anger  which  she  emitted  three  or 
four  times.  This  was  good,  and  after  the  first  emission  I 
found  myself  watching  for  it  as  the  only  possible  source  of 
enjoyment.  But  the  play  is  an  intolerably  bad  one ;  I 
hope  very  little  of  it  is  Shakespeare's.  We  dined  with 
Arthur  [Balfour]  at  the  House  of  Commons,  and  walked 
afterwards  on  the  terrace,  which  is  a  very  fascinating  place. 
We  talked  of  the  Government's  offer  of  a  Commission  of 
Judges  to  Parnell.  Alice  [Balfour]  bet  me  two  to  one  that 
he  would  somehow  manage  to  refuse  it.  I  think  these  are 
fair  odds.  My  view  is  that  he  did  not  write  the  letters 
which  he  declares  to  be  forged,  but  that  he  is  on  other 
grounds  afraid  of  going  into  court. 

July  14. — Went  to  lunch  with  Bryce.  We  talked  about 
Parnell,  and  we  found  we  agreed  very  closely  in  spite  of  the 
disagreement  between  us  on  Home  Eule.  He  thinks  Parnell 
will  score  on  the  question  of  the  letters,  but  that  he  certainly 
has  things  to  conceal,  and  whether  he  or  the  Times  will  score 
on  the  whole  depends  on  how  grave  these  things  are,  and 
whether  they  will  all  be  forced  into  light.  .  .  . 

July  16. — Yesterday  and  to-day  I  wrote  my  address 
for  the  S.P.Pu,  and  this  evening  delivered  it.  My  main 
object  was  to  stir  up  effort  for  the  collection  of  new 
telepathic  cases.  I  have  not  much  hope  of  our  getting 
out  positive  results  in  any  other  department  of  our  inquiry, 
but  I  am  not  yet  hopeless  of  establishing  telepathy,  and  I 


1888,  AGE  50  HENRY  SIDGWICK  495 

am  now  specially  anxious,  for  Edmund  Gurney's  sake,  that 
his  six  years'  labour  should  not  be  lost.  It  was  a  good 
meeting.  Before  going  to  bed  I  saw  Arthur  [Balfour],  who 
was  just  come  from  the  House.  He  tells  me  that  Parnell's 
utterances  about  the  Commission,  inconsistent  and  furious, 
made  them  think  him  really  embarrassed.  .  .  . 

July  19. — Yesterday  I  joined  other  Fellows  of  Trinity  in 
giving  lunch  to  Pan  -  Anglican  bishops.  I  sat  next  the 
Bishop  of  Manchester,  who  talked  fluently,  vigorously,  and 
interestingly.  He  tells  me  that  what  resists  the  spread  of 
Socialism  in  Lancashire  is  not  so  much  Trades  Unionism  as 
the  diffusion  of  property  among  the  elite  of  the  working 
class,  especially  the  fact  that  they  have  largely  become 
owners  of  houses  by  means  of  building  societies. 

August  6.  —  Just  come  back  from  Charles  Boweu's 
(Sussex),  where  we  have  been  spending  the  Sunday.  Very 
pleasant  visit.  Bowen  a  charming  host.  We  talked  of  the 
Parnell  Commission  ;  ...  he  disapproved  of  the  Bill  on  the 
whole ;  "  it  was  not  desirable  the  judges  should  have  this 
kind  of  work  put  on  them,"  but  he  thought  they  would  get 
through  it  more  quickly  than  was  supposed. 

We  talked  of  his  translation  of  Virgil.  As  I  think  this 
has  many  merits,  I  could  speak  quite  candidly  of  the  merits 
and  the  defects.  I  think  it  expresses  in  ordinary  narrative 
the  perpetual  undulating  sweetness  of  the  Virgilian  hexa- 
meter better  than  any  other  English ;  I  think  it  expresses 
both  pathetic  effects  and  forcible  rhetoric,  vehement  appeal, 
very  well,  and  in  such  passages  Bowen  works  it  with 
attractive  simplicity,  e.g. — 

Lay  on  the  tomb  of  Dido  for  funeral  offering  this, 
Neither  be  love  nor  league  to  unite  my  people  and  his. 
Rise,  thou  nameless  avenger,  from  Dido's  ashes  to  come, 
Follow  with  fire  and  slaughter  the  false  Dardanians  home, 
Smite  them  to-day,  hereafter 

It  is  better  in  the  context  than  to  quote,  as  its  point  is 
fluent  vehemence.  But  sometimes  single  lines  are  good,  as 
"  Thin  as  the  idle  breezes  and  like  some  dream  of  the  night," 
for  "  Par  levibus  ventis "  This  I  told  him,  and  asked 


496  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

him  at  the  same  time  why  he  deliberately  so  often  made 
the  metre  jolt.  He  said  it  was  his  fear  of  monotony  in 
the  long  narrative  passages. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  talk  I  had  was  with  Sir 
Alfred  Lyall,  whom  I  liked  much.  He  would  talk  on  India 
if  one  wanted,  but  preferred  poetry  and  philosophy. 

August  19. — A  week  of  rather  confused  toil.  Off  to 
Ireland  to-morrow.  I  think  I  see  my  way  to  my  Elements 
of  Politics,  i.e.  I  shall  bring  it  out  somehow,  though  I  shall 
be  very  tired  of  it  before  I  do. 

August  28. — Danesfort,  Killarney.  We  have  been  here, 
staying  with  Butchers;  a  week  of  much  enjoyment.  Their 
house  looks  out  on  the  "  lower  lake  " — the  characteristic  of 
Killarney  is  that  its  three  lakes  are  strung  on  one  string, 
one  stream — scenery  not  unlike  the  English  lakes,  but  more 
luxurious,  with  its  richer  woods,  and  more  gently  harmonious 
in  the  lines  of  the  hills.  The  upper  lake  is  rather  wilder, 
and  a  row  down  the  broad  river  that  connects  it  with  the 
middle  lake — ending  in  a  tiny  "  shooting  of  the  rapids  " — is 
a  unique  pleasure. 

August  29. — Yesterday  we  came  to  Mount  Trenchard 
(Monteagle's),  on  the  Shannon.  I  have  had  much  interest- 
ing talk  with  both  Butcher  and  Monteagle  on  the  Irish 
question.  They  both  think  that  the  Government,  maintain- 
ing their  present  policy,  would  certainly  triumph  over  the 
forces  of  agrarian  and  political  sedition  in  Ireland ;  the 
critical  conflict  is  not  here,  but  in  the  mind  of  English 
Demos.  I  met  Colonel  Turner  at  Killarney,  and  was  struck 
with  the  importance  he  attached  to  the  attitude  of  the 
priests.  He  said  the  state  of  Clare  was  much  worse  than 
that  of  Kerry,  and  attributed  this  mainly  to  the  more 
revolutionary  character  of  the  priests  in  Clare  under  a 
bishop  who  appears  to  be  a  nonentity.  Monteagle  confirms 
this,  and  thinks  that  the  still  better  condition  of  Limerick 
is  due  to  the  moral  vigour  of  the  bishop.  This  being  so,  I 
am  rather  surprised  that  the  papal  rescript  seems  as  yet  to 
have  produced  so  little  effect — plan  of  campaign  and  boy- 
cotting going  on  much  as  before.  My  friends  reply  that  it 


1888,  AGE  50  HENRY  SIDGWICK  497 

is  Rome's  usual  method  to  apply  the  curb  patiently  and 
gently  in  such  a  case  as  this,  and  let  resistance  if  possible 
die  out  gradually ;  but  that  the  priests  have  to  submit,  and 
they  know  it. 

September  5. — We  left  Ireland  last  night,  with  a  serene 
transit  (I  have  now  crossed  St.  George's  Channel  six  times 
without  a  touch  of  sea-sickness),  and  arrived  about  7  P.M. 
at  our  haunted  house  .  .  .  near  Cheltenham,  where  our 
Spiritualist  friend  C.  C.  Massey  was  hospitably  awaiting  us. 
It  is  pleasantly  situated,  so  close  to  a  range  of  hills  that 
twenty  minutes'  walk  gives  one  a  beautiful  view  of  the  whole 
plain  in  which  Gloucester  and  Cheltenham  are  seen,  looking 
across  to  the  Malvern  Hills.  To-morrow  I  go  to  Bath  to 
the  British  Association. 

September  8. — Back  from  a  very  pleasant  two  days  at 
Bath.  The  town  revived  wonderfully  my  childish  recollec- 
tions, with  its  villas  picturesquely  climbing  upwards  from 
the  basin  where  the  town  lies.  But  forty  years  ago  archaeo- 
logy was  less  advanced ;  now  one  can  see  from  the  street  an 
old  Roman  bath  60  or  80  feet  long,  forming  part,  as  it  were, 
of  the  modern  baths,  and  impressively  illustrating  the  historic 
continuity  of  the  "  health  resort." 

The  most  interesting  thing  at  my  Section  (Economic 
Science)  was  the  field-day  on  Socialism  which  we  had  yester- 
day. The  Committee  had  invited  a  live  Socialist,  redhot 
"  from  the  Streets,"  as  he  told  us,  who  sketched  in  a  really 
brilliant  address  the  rapid  series  of  steps  by  which  modern 
society  is  to  pass  peacefully  into  social  democracy.  The 
node  of  the  transition  was  supplied  by  urban  ground-rents 
(it  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  old  picture  of  the  agri- 
cultural landlord -drone,  battening  on  social  prosperity  to 
which  he  contributes  nothing,  is  withdrawn  for  the 
present  as  too  ludicrously  out  of  accordance  with  the  facts). 
It  is  now  urban  ground-rent  that  the  municipal  governments 
will  have  to  seize,  to  meet  the  ever-growing  necessity  of 
providing  work  and  wages  for  the  unemployed.  How 
exactly  this  seizure  of  urban  rents  was  to  develop  into  a 
complete  nationalisation  of  industry  I  could  not  remember 

2K 


498  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

afterwards,  but  it  seemed  to  go  very  naturally  at  the  time. 
There  was  a  peroration  rhetorically  effective  as  well  as 
daring,  in  which  he  explained  that  the  bliss  of  perfected 
socialism  would  only  come  by  slow  degrees,  with  lingering 
step  and  long  delays,  and  claimed  our  sympathy  for  the 
noble-hearted  men  whose  ardent  philanthropy  had  led  them 
to  desire  to  cut  these  delays  short  by  immediate  revolution 
and  spoliation.  It  was,  indeed,  a  mistake  on  their  part ; 
the  laws  of  social  development  did  not  admit  of  it ;  but  if 
we  were  not  quite  lost  in  complacent  selfishness  we  should 
join  him  in  regretting  that  this  shorter  way  with  property 
was  impossible. 

Altogether  a  noteworthy  performance : — the  man's  name 
is  Bernard  Shaw :  Myers  says  he  has  written  books  worth 
reading. 

I  find  no  "  phenomena  "  have  occurred  in  my  absence. 
This  evening  the  Vicar  (Rev.  F.  Gurney,  E.  G.'s  brother) 
came  to  dinner ;  also  an  old  schoolfellow  of  mine  (Bruce 
Pryce),  with  whom  I  talked  over  old  "  Blackheathen  "  days. 

September   10. — "No  phenomena."       Miss   X has 

been  here  four  nights  now  .  .  .  having  been  invited  by  us 
as  apparently  "sensitive."  She  has  heard  strange  noises, 
but  we  agree  that  they  come  to  nothing.  .  .  . 

September  12. — Nora  and  Miss  X.went  off — "phenomena" 
being  obviously  unattainable.  It  is,  however,  to  be  noted 
that  the  evidence  for  '  hauntings '  is  unshaken  by  any 
inquiries  that  we  have  been  able  to  make :  but  the  "  experi- 
mental method  "  is  a  failure.  I  had  interesting  talk  with 
Massey  about  Laurence  Oliphant,  who  certainly  seems  to 
be  a  very  impressive  personality.  But  his  book  (Scientific 
Religion)  is  not  impressive ;  arrogantly  dogmatic,  without 
anything  more  in  the  way  of  evidence  or  argument  than 
any  other  latter-day  prophet  supplies.  He  believes  himself 
to  be  in  continual  close  communication  with  his  deceased 
wife,  but  yet  has  just  married  a  second ;  spiritual  bigamy, 
it  seems — but  I  understand  the  first  approves. 

September  13. — Came  to  Cam.  and  began  labor  improbus 
on  my  book.  Politics  an  agreeable  change  from  Psychics. 


1889,  AGE  so  HENKY  SIDGWICK  499 

September  2  7. — I  have  put  the  principles  of  International 
Law  into  two  chapters,  but  whether  any  one  will  care  to 
read  them  I  much  doubt.  Yesterday  we  called  at  Trinity 
Lodge  and  were  introduced  to  the  new  mistress.  .  .  .  Butler 
charmingly  in  his  place  in  this  old  historic  house,  of  which 
he  shows  the  points  simply,  delightfully,  instructively.  .  .  . 

October  2. — I  thought  these  poor  jottings  had  gone,  but 
here  they  are  still.  Nothing  has  occurred  except  that  I 
have  varied  my  "  labor  improbus  "  by  a  debauch  of  one  or 
two  novels.  On  the  whole  I  recommend  Bourget's  Andre 
Cornells ;  it  is  a  psychological  crime  story,  but  has  some 
freshness  in  that  the  psychological  interest  lies  not  in  the 
murder,  but  in  the  man  who  discovers  it. 

After  this  the  Journal  breaks  off — it  is  not  recorded 
why — not  to  be  resumed  till  1892,  and  the  available 
letters  in  the  intervening  years  are  somewhat  sparse. 

To  H.  G.  Dakynsfrom  Cambridge,  January  31,  1889 
I  sympathise  vehemently  with  your  disaster  [the  loss  of 
the  manuscript  of  part  of  his  forthcoming  Xenophon~\.  I  am 
always  myself  very  nervous  about  losing  MS.,  since  I  once, 
many  years  ago,  went  down  to  Llandudno  to  finish  writing 
a  portion  of  a  book,  and  remained  there  three  weeks 
separated  from  my  portmanteau,  which  ultimately  turned 
up  when  I  had  to  leave.  Let  me  know  on  a  postcard  if  it 
turns  up ;  I  suppose  the  chances  are  in  favour  of  its  having 
been  bona-fide  taken  by  an  honest  traveller :  only  then  it  is 
odd  that  it  was  not  sent  back  at  once.  Myers  once  told 
me  that  he  recovered  in  London  a  portmanteau  containing 
a  mass  of  papers  (unlocked  over)  of  the  Moral  Sciences 
Tripos,  just  half  an  hour  before  the  man  who  had  taken  it 
by  mistake  was  about  to  carry  it  off  with  a  lot  of  others  to 
the  West  of  Ireland,  where,  as  he  told  M.,  he  "  might  not 
have  looked  at  it  for  weeks  ! "  But  this,  I  imagine,  is  the 
kind  of  hair-breadth  escape  that  only  happens  to  imaginative 
persons. 

It  is  no  consolation,  I  fancy,  to  think  on  the  similar 
miseries  of  others.  I  remember  that  the  only  time  I  met 


500  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

the  Political  Economist  Cliffe  Leslie,  he  told  me  that  he  had 
lost  his  whole  opus  magnum  some  years  before,  travelling  in 
France :  I  remember  he  said  that  he  was  always  looking  to 
see  his  new  and  original  ideas  on  the  philosophy  of  Law — 
I  think  that  was  the  subject — appearing  in  an  elegant 
French  form. 

We  are  both  of  us  very  busy :  I  have  two  books  on 
Politics  —  one  deductive  and  analytical l  going  through 
press,  one  (smaller),  inductive  and  historical,  getting  ready 
for  press 2 — on  my  hands  :  and  also  have  to  do  more  for 
S.P.K.  to  make  up  for  the  gap  caused  by  the  loss  of 
Gurney.  ...  I  have  also  been  persuaded  to  lecture  on 
Shakespeare 3  and  on  the  "  Morality  of  Strife  "  : 4  and  do 
not  know  quite  what  to  say  on  these  topics. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  on  March  5,  1889 

In  a  general  way,  I  think  you  owe  me  a  letter,  but  I 
owe  you  thanks  for  your  opinion  about  Titus  Andronicus. 
The  point  interested  me  a  good  deal ;  the  external  evidence 
seems  to  me  very  strong  for  the  genuineness,  because 
Shakespeare  must  have  known  of  Meres'  statement,  and  the 
play  is  so  bad  that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  he 
did  not  emphatically  repudiate  [it]  if  it  was  not  sub- 
stantially his.  No  other  of  Meres'  twelve  Shakespearian 
plays  is  even  doubtful,  assuming,  as  I  think  we  fairly  may, 
that  Love's  Labour  Lost  is  an  earlier  draft  of  All's  Well 
that  Ends  Well.  And  I  have  great  doubts  whether  the 
mere  badness  of  the  writing  ought  to  be  made  an  argument 
at  all.  Have  you  ever  considered  Macbeth  ?  I  feel  now 
scarcely  any  doubt  that  parts  of  it  are  not  Shakespeare. 

We  are  all  bewildered  at  the  breakdown  of  the  Times 
[about  the  forged  Pigott  letters].  Knowing  ones  among 

1  Elements  of  Politics,  published  in  1891. 

2  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  book  Development  of  European  Polity, 
published  after  his  death.     Several  chapters,  mostly  afterwards  modified  to 
a  considerable  extent,  were  printed  or  typewritten  at  this  time  and  dis- 
cussed with  Seeley  and  other  friends. 

3  At  Newnham  College.     See  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses,  Nos. 
4  and  5. 

4  For  the  Ethical  Society.     The  lecture  is  included  in  the  volume  of 
Practical  Ethics. 


1889,  AGE  51  HENEY  SIDGWICK  501 

Unionists  are  inclined  to  say  that  there  is  more  to  come 
out  yet,  but  they  seem  to  me  rather  like  my  Spiritualistic 
friends,  who,  when  a  medium  is  caught,  fall  back  on  the 
earlier  phenomena  he  produced  before  he  was  demoralised. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson,  at  Buda-Pest,  March  16 
I  am  sorry  to  hear  what  you  say  about  the  burden  of 
work.  But  my  experience  is  all  in  favour  of  writing  out 
lectures.  For  me,  this  does  not  only  save  trouble,  it  really 
tends  to  make  the  lectures  better :  for  when  I  read  them 
over  for  re-delivery,  I  often  see  defects  in  them  which  I  can 
improve — I  mean  defects  of  style  and  exposition.  If  I 
trusted  to  notes,  I  should  not  see  the  defects,  and  they 
would  therefore  recur. 

How  are  your  politics  [in  Hungary]  ?  I  do  not  know 
if  you  take  an  interest  in  our  drift  towards  Dualism  or 
Federalism.  Nothing  is  certain  in  politics  :  but  I  think  we 
may  assume  that,  owing  to  the  fiasco  of  the  Times,  the 
drift  will  be  apparently  very  decided  for  a  few  months. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year  Sidgwick  and  his 
wife  attended  an  International  Congress  of  Experi- 
mental Psychologists  held  at  Paris,  where  "  Psychical 
Research,"  under  Professor  Richet's  influence,  occupied 
a  rather  prominent  place  in  the  discussions.  The 
Congress  gave  its  sanction  to,  and  thus  extended  the 
range  of,  a  "  census  of  hallucinations  " — an  attempt 
to  obtain  on  a  larger  scale  than  had  been  done  in 
Phantasms  of  the  Living  statistics  relative  to  sensory 
hallucinations  experienced  by  persons  in  ordinary- 
health.  This  census,  which  had  been  undertaken,  under 
Sidgwick's  superintendence,bythe  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  occupied  a  good  deal  of  time  during  the 
following  years,  till  the  report  on  it  was  published 
in  1894.1  The  main  object,  so  far  as  Psychical 
Research  was  concerned,  was  of  course  to  ascertain 
what  proportion  of  hallucinations  might  be  expected 
to  occur  by  chance  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the 

1  In  Proceedings,  S.P.R.,  vol.  x. 


502  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

person  represented,  and  how  much  the  actual  pro- 
portion exceeds  this.  Some  other  important  in- 
vestigations in  Psychical  Kesearch  were  occupying 
Sidgwick's  attention  at  this  time.  In  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  1889  he  and  his  wife,  with  Mr.  G.  A. 
Smith  as  hypnotist,  carried  on  at  Brighton  experi- 
ments in  thought-transference,  with  some  hypnotised 
subjects,  which  proved  of  great  interest.1  Then  Mrs. 
Piper — a  medium  who  in  a  trance  state  seemed  to 
have  a  power  of  getting  information  telepathically 
from  the  minds  of  those  who  sat  with  her,  and  some- 
times something  beyond  this — was  induced  by  F. 
Myers  and  other  prominent  members  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  to  come  over  to  England  for 
experiments  in  the  winter  of  1889-90.2  Sidgwick 
took  an  active  part  in  the  investigation,  and  though 
he  did  not  himself  have  any  success  with  her,  the 
experiences  of  his  friends  impressed  him  very 
strongly. 

To  H.  Gf.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  December  19 
I  have  owed  you  a  letter  for  a  long  time  !  But  last 
term  I  was  unusually  overwhelmed  with  administrative 
work — all  the  things  that  I  am  most  interested  in  here 
seemed  to  come  to  a  crisis  at  the  same  time.  E.g.  University 
Finance : — you  may  know  that  about  two  years  ago  the 
College  Worm  turned,  and  said  that  it  would  not  and  could 
not  pay  the  taxation  to  the  University  imposed  on  it  by 
the  last  Commission.  On  this  matter  I  have  been 
engineering  a  Compromise,  the  prospects  of  which  seem 
promising  at  present, — but  a  compromise  may  always  be 
wrecked  in  sight  of  harbour.3 

Then  the  Indian  Civil   Service  Examination  got  itself 

1,The  Report  on  these  was  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  S.P.R.  in  November 
1889,  and  a  full  account  published  in  Proc.,  vol.  vi.  Further  experiments 
with  the  same  and  other  subjects  were  carried  on  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  Miss 
Alice  Johnson,  and  others  in  1890,  1891,  and  1892. 

2  She  had  previously  been  experimented  with  in  America  by  Professor 
William  James  and  Dr.  Hodgson,  secretary  of  the  American  Branch  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research — Dr.  Hodgson  who  had  investigated  Madame 
Blavatsky.  3  See  p.  375. 


1889,  AGE  51  HENRY  SIDGWICK  503 

changed ;  perhaps  you  know  about  this,  as  it  concerns 
schoolmasters  too,  or  rather  it  did  concern  schoolmasters, 
only  the  change  of  age  has  substituted  us  for  you  in  the 
unequal  struggle  with  crammers  waged  by  orthodox 
educators.  Well,  I  have  been  engaged  in  constructing  a 
scheme  for  the  Competitive  Examination  by  which  a  fair 
chance  is  to  be  given  to  University  Graduates ;  and  a  job  it 
has  been,  as  we  had  to  adjust  and  balance  the  relative 
claims  of  Classics,  Mathematics,  and  Natural  Science,  not  to 
speak  of  other  subjects,  and  at  the  same  time  balance  the 
claims  of  Oxford  and  the  claims  of  Cambridge  so  that 
neither  may  feel  postponed  to  the  other.  This  involved 
visits  to  Oxford  and  endless  correspondence,  and  what  will 
come  of  it  all  is  a  secret  yet  hidden  in  the  breast  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Then  Newnham  College  has  been 
trying  to  get  leave  to  close  a  path  that  runs  through  it : 
and  this  has  got  mixed  up  with  the  making  of  a  road  which 
is  to  take  a  slice  off  [other  people's  gardens] :  hence  tears 
and  wrath  and  long  letters  in  the  Cambridge  papers,  and 
in  short  a  first-class  row,  in  which  I  have  had  to  be  Pro- 
tagonist for  Newnham. 

This — and  (all  the  time)  fourth  edition  of  my  Ethics  and 
first  edition  of  my  Politics  struggling  to  get  themselves 
printed  amidst  Lectures,  Boards,  and  Syndicates ;  and 
Psychical  Research,  and  an  International  Census  of 
Hallucinations. 

Well,  term  is  over,  and  eighteen  chapters  of  my  book  on 
Politics  are  ready  for  printing  off,  and  of  the  thirteen  that 
remain  about  eleven  are  wholly  or  partially  in  type,  and 
the  other  two  half-written.  So  if  I  died,  the  book  could 
come  out !  I  have  often  thought  of  sending  you  some 
[proofs],  but  a  deep  conviction  that  it  would  not  be  a 
good  ddassement  from  Xenophon  has  held  me  back.  And 
there  is  lots  to  be  done  to  the  chapters  that  remain ;  so  no 
Christmas  holidays  for  me.  I  do  hope  to  get  it  off  my  hands 
by  the  end  of  next  term,  then  a  real  Easter  holiday.  And 
how  is  Xenophon  ?  I  heard  from  J.  A.  S.  that  it  was 
weighing  on  you,  and  sympathised.  At  a  certain  stage  of 


504  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

each  book  I  find  all  my  impulse  gone,  and  only  get  forward 
by  a  kind  of  momentum ;  this  is  my  case  now. 

We  thought  J.  A.  S.  in  excellent  form,  and  standing 
English  weather  wonderfully. 

The  path  here  spoken  of  was  successfully  closed  in 
1892,  to  the  great  —  greater  indeed  than  was  ex- 
pected— benefit  of  Newnham  College,  and  a  carriage 
road,  "  Sidgwick  Avenue,"  substituted  for  it.  Other 
friends  of  Newnham,  as  well  as  Sidgwick,  aided  in 
finding  the  funds  required  for  the  road-making  and 
compensation. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  at  Buda-Pest  from  Cambridge,  „ 
December  27,  1889 

.  .  .  Your  letter  .  .  .  arrived  at  a  time  when  I  was 
much  oppressed  with  a  variety  of  work — so  its  answer  got 
deferred  till  the  vacation.  I  was  sorry  to  find  yours  so  sad 
in  tone :  especially  as  I  have  nothing  cheering  to  com- 
municate, except  that  I  am  living  personally  a  very  happy 
life — having  congenial  work,  a  faultless  wife,  and  a  con- 
stitution that  does  not  seem  to  be  going  to  break  down  just 
yet ;  though  I  do  not  regard  the  time  allotted  to  me  before 
decay  sets  in,  as  very  long ;  I  do  not  expect  it  to  reach  to 
the  biblical  three  score  and  ten.  I  perceive,  however,  that  I 
am  not  getting  into  a  cheerful  train  of  thought.  Nor  can  I 
find  anything  consolatory  in  the  aspect  of  public  affairs; 
I  share  to  the  full  the  general  disillusionment  of  political 
idealists,  perhaps  all  the  more  fully  that  I  am  spending  my 
time  in  trying  to  finish  a  book  on  the  Theory  of  Politics, 
with  a  growing  conviction  that  the  political  results  of  the 
coming  generation  will  be  determined  by  considerations 
very  unlike  those  that  come  to  the  pen  of  a  theoretical 
person  writing  in  his  study.  .  .  . 

Besides  the  Elements  of  Politics,  and  University  work 
of  various  kinds,  what  chiefly  interests  me  is  the  ill-defined 
subject  known  as  "  Psychical  Research."  I  do  not  think  it 
interests  you,  and  probably  the  rumours  of  our  work  in  it 
hardly  reach  Buda-Pest.  But  your  friend  Medveczky  had 


1890,  AGE  52  HENRY  SIDGWICK  505 

to  hear  something  of  it  at  the  Congress  of  Experimental 
Psychology,  at  which  we  met  in  Paris  in  August.  I  have 
no  doubt  of  the  importance  of  what  we  are  doing,  but  I  do 
not  know  exactly  what  is  to  come  of  it. 

Bryce  !  You  doubtless  have  heard  all  about  the  remarkable 
success  of  his  great  book  [The  American  Commonwealth].  .  .  . 

Have  you  had  the  influenza  ?  and  what  do  you  think  of 
the  value  of  the  pacific  assurances  circulating  in  European 
journalism  ?  Are  we  really  going  to  have  no  war  because 
every  one  is  afraid  of  it  ?  And  is  that  excellent  patch-work, 
the  Austro- Hungarian  Monarchy,  coming  unsewn  ?  And 
what  do  you  think  of  Home  Rule  in  Wales  ?  These  are 
questions  that  I  should  like  to  discuss  with  you  if  opportunity 
offered. 

In  June  1890  an  honorary  D.C.L.  degree  was 
conferred  on  him  by  the  University  of  Oxford.  A 
number  of  other  honorary  degrees  were  conferred  at 
the  same  time,  and  among  the  recipients  the  one  at 
that  moment  most  interesting  to  the  public  was 
H.  M.  Stanley  (afterwards  Sir  Henry),  the  African 
explorer.  Alphabetical  order  led  to  Stanley  and 
Sidgwick  walking  together  in  the  procession,  and  the 
latter  used  to  relate  how,  when  he  found  himself  on 
the  kerb  between  Stanley  and  the  street,  he  tried  to 
dodge,  so  as  to  give  the  eager  crowd  as  good  a  view 
as  possible  of  its  darling  hero,  at  the  same  time 
trying  to  draw  that  silent  hero  into  conversation, 
and  never  getting  more  than  a  monosyllable  in  reply, 
if  that. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  from  Lucerne,  July  30,  1890 

I  have  got  both  your  letters ;  the  first,  of  July  8, 
arrived  just  when  I  was  leaving  Cambridge.  I  took  it 
abroad  with  me,  but  had  not  found  time  to  answer  it — amid 
the  distractions  of  a  visit  to  a  friend  whose  health  obliges 
him  to  live  at  Davos  (Grisons) — when  the  second  arrived. 
We  are  now  lapsed  into  the  leisure  of  hotel  life.  .  .  . 

Yes,  I  lost    my   watch   at    Stanley's  wedding — not  in 


506  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

Westminster  Abbey,  but  while  forcing  my  way  through  a 
crowd  in  the  neighbourhood — only  rumour  has  exaggerated 
its  value.  The  incident  was  by  no  means  a  remarkable  one, 
since  a  crowd  of  the  kind  that  the  wedding  of  the  African 
hero  was  sure  to  collect  has  long  been  known  to  be  the  happy 
hunting-ground  of  the  London  pickpocket.  .  .  . 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  from  Cambridge,  October  8 
I  am  amused  by  your  description  of  your  human 
material.  I  was  once  told  in  a  German  University  that  I 
ought  to  be  able  to  tell  whether  I  was  in  a  law  lecture- 
room  or  a  philological  ditto  by  observing  whether  the  coats 
of  the  lecturees  were  new  or  shabby.  I  suppose  it  is  the 
same  with  you.  So  far  as  I  could  make  out,  even  in 
Germany — the  land  of  Geist — it  is  but  a  very  small  per- 
centage of  students  whose  academic  study  is  prompted  and 
guided  by  a  pure  love  of  knowledge.  The  so-called  '  philo- 
sophical faculty '  at  the  Universities  is  really  as  professional, 
in  the  main,  as  any  other ;  only  one  of  the  professions  for 
which  it  prepares  is  the  profession  of  University  Professor. 
Here  in  England,  tradition,  aided  by  fellowships  within,  and 
a  continually  increasing  stock  of  wealth  without,  still  main- 
tains the  habit  of  studying  professionally  useless  matter. 

It  was  in  November  1890  that  he  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council  of  the  Senate,  elected,  as  all 
members  are,  to  serve  for  four  years.  The  Council 
meets  regularly  on  Monday  mornings  in  term  time, 
and  it  was  doubtless  on  account  of  this  additional 
demand  on  his  time  that  he  at  this  time  resigned  the 
vice-chairmanship  (i.e.  acting  chairmanship)  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Cambridge  Charity 
Organisation  Society,  which  he  had  held  since  1886. 

To  Roden  Noel  from  Cambridge  on  December  2 1 
I  hope  by  the  time  you  come  in  March  I  shall  have 
finished  a  book  on  the  Elements  of  Politics  which  is  now 
absorbing  all  my  energies.      I  have  lost  my  interest  in  it, 
which  makes  it  harder  to  finish. 


1891,  AGE  52  HENEY  SIDGWICK  507 

My  wife's  time  is  now  chiefly  occupied  in  editing  the 
Journal  and  Proceedings  of  the  S.P.E.  There  is  a  No.  of 
the  Proceedings  just  coming  out,  in  which  an  F.R.S.  (Lodge) 
testifies  to  remarkable  phenomena.1  I  think  we  are  on  the 
verge  of  something  important. 

In  the  winter  of  1890-91  Mr.  J.  R.  Mozley  showed 
him  some  letters  from  his  uncle,  Cardinal  Newman, 
some  of  which  were  afterwards  (in  1899)  published  in 
the  Contemporary  Review.  This  led  to  a  correspond- 
ence of  some  interest,  from  which  the  following  are 
extracts  : — 

On  January  9,  1891  : — 

The  Cardinal  interests  me — always  has  interested  me — 
as  a  man  and  a  writer  rather  than  a  reasoner.  I  delight  in 
the  perfect  fit  of  his  thought  to  its  expression,  and  the  rare 
unforced  individuality  of  both ;  but  as  a  reasoner  I  have 
never  been  disposed  to  take  him  seriously,  by  which  I  do 
not  of  course  mean  that  I  treat  his  views  with  levity,  but 
that,  regarding  him  as  a  man  whose  conclusions  have  always 
been  influenced  primarily  by  his  emotions,  and  only 
secondarily  by  the  workings  of  his  subtle  and  ingenious 
intellect,  I  have  never  felt  that  my  own  intellect  need  be 
strained  to  its  full  energies  to  deal  with  his  arguments ; 
they  always  seemed  to  me  to  admit  of  being  referred  with- 
out much  difficulty  to  certain  well-known  heads,  to  which 
the  generic  answers  were  known. 

This  is  why  I  do  not  ask  you  to  send  me  the  rest  of  the 
correspondence.  ...  I  should  be  interested,  but  not  in  your 
way ;  indeed  I  feel  rather  perversely  inclined  to  take  his 
side  against  you  in  the  argument — agreeing  with  you,  but 
sympathising  with  him,  as  one  might  sympathise  with  a 
daughter  who  refused  to  admit  her  father  in  the  wrong. 
There  always  seems  to  me  something  feminine,  in  the  old 
traditional  sense,  about  the  workings  of  his  mind,  not- 
withstanding that  he  is  in  a  certain  way  so  remarkable  a 
"  maestro  "  in  dialectic. 

1  This  was  the  report  of  the  experiments  with  Mrs.  Piper,  referred  to 
above  (p.  502). 


508  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

On  January  1 1  : — 

My  attitude  towards  Christianity  is  briefly  this.  (1)  I 
think  Optimism  in  some  form  is  an  indispensable  creed — not 
for  every  one,  but  for  progressive  humanity  as  a  whole.  (2) 
I  think  Optimism  in  a  Theistic  form — I  mean  the  belief  that 
there  is  a  sympathetic  soul  of  the  Universe  that  intends  the 
welfare  of  each  particular  human  being  and  is  guiding  all 
the  events  of  his  life  for  his  good — is,  for  the  great  majority 
of  human  beings,  not  only  the  most  attractive  form  of 
optimism,  but  the  most  easily  acceptable,  being  not  more 
unproven  than  any  other  form  of  optimism,  and  certainly 
more  completely  satisfying  to  the  deepest  human  needs. 
(3)  I  think  that  no  form  of  Optimism  has  an  adequate 
rational  basis  ;  therefore,  if  Theism  is  to  be  maintained — and 
I  am  inclined  to  predict  the  needs  of  the  human  heart  will 
maintain  it — it  must  be,  for  Europeans,  by  virtue  of  the 
support  that  it  still  obtains  from  the  traditional  belief  in 
historical  Christianity. 

Well,  I  myself  have  taken  service  with  Reason,  and  I 
have  no  intention  of  deserting.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not 
think  that  loyalty  to  my  standard  requires  me  to  feign  a 
satisfaction  in  the  service  which  I  do  not  really  feel.  I  am 
conscious  of  hankerings  after  Optimism,  and  if  I  yielded  to 
these  hankerings,  I  really  think  the  haven  of  rest  that  I 
should  seek  would  be  the  Church  of  Rome,  just  because  of 
the  insistence  on  authority  of  which  your  uncle  speaks. 
There  seem  to  me  only  two  alternatives:  either  my  own  reason 
or  some  external  authority ;  and  if  the  latter,  as  my  own 
reason  would  have  to  be  exercised  for  the  last  time  in 
choosing  my  authority,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  choose  the 
Roman  Church  on  broad  historic  grounds. 

On  January  31  : — 

.  .  .  There  is,  however,  one  point  on  which  I  should  like 
to  explain  my  view  a  little  more.  In  saying,  or  hinting,  that 
I  had  somewhat  more  sympathy  with  the  Cardinal  than 
you,  I  did  not  at  all  mean  to  imply  that  I  held  it  rational 
to  base  the  evidence  for  Christianity  on  authority  alone  ;  and 


1891,  AGE  53  HENRY  SIDGWICK  509 

I  quite  agree  with  you  that  the  adaptation  of  Theism  to  the 
"  inward  feelings "  and  needs  of  men  is,  in  fact,  an  indis- 
pensable condition  of  their  accepting  the  external  evidences 
as  satisfactory. 

In  short,  my  position  is  that  I  regard  both  internal 
evidences  —  from  "  inward  feelings  "  —  and  external  as 
inadequate  for  various  reasons,  though  at  the  same  time 
inclined  to  predict  that  the  belief  will  be  maintained  in 
ordinary  minds  from  the  satisfaction  it  gives  to  men's 
normal  emotional  needs.  But  owing  to  my  view  of  the 
inadequacy  of  the  intuitional  proof  of  Theism,  I  sympathise 
with  those  who  turn  from  it  to  external  authority,  though  I 
do  not  agree  with  them. 

In  July  1891  he  was  sending  off  the  last  proof- 
sheets  of  the  Elements  of  Politics,  and  also  working 
at  the  book  now  published  as  Development  of 
European  Polity.  He  writes  to  his  wife  on  July 
13  during  a  temporary  absence  of  the  latter :  "I  am 
getting  on  all  right,  but  rather  in  despair  about  my 
neiv  book ;  the  work  for  it  is  very  interesting,  but 
grows  and  grows." 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  September  8 
We  are  just  returned  from  Davos.  J.  A.  S.  in  excellent 
form :  had  just  got  Michael  Angelo  l  buried  (in  MS.)  before 
we  left.  I  have  been  at  Chamounix  with  William  [Sidgwick], 
whose  physical  powers  and  enterprise  I  regard  with  admira- 
tion and  envy. 

In  1891  the  Council  of  the  Senate,  acting  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  General  Board  of  Studies, 
proposed  the  appointment  of  a  Syndicate  to  consider 
the  expediency  of  allowing  more  widely  an  alternative 
for  either  Greek  or  Latin  in  the  Previous  Examination. 
The  question  was  discussed  in  the  Senate  on  May 
30,  and  voted  on  on  October  29.  Feeling  ran  high, 
and  active  discussion  was  carried  on  by  fly-sheets  and 

1  Symonds  was  finishing  his  Life  of  Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti,  published 
1892. 


510  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

in  the  newspapers,  and  non-resident  voters  were 
canvassed.  Sidgwick  took  an  active  part  in  the 
discussion,  and  besides  speaking  at  the  meeting, 
circulating  more  than  one  fly-sheet,  and  writing  to  the 
papers,  acted  as  secretary  in  collecting  signatures  to 
a  circular  in  support  of  the  proposal,  issued  three 
days  before  the  voting.  He  felt  strongly,  as  he  said 
in  the  Senate,  that  "the  more  Modern  Sides  [of 
schools]  grew,  the  greater  the  responsibilities  of  the 
Universities  became.  It  was  the  Universities  which 
made  the  regulations  which  would  be  the  cause  of 
whatever  damage  was  done  by  preventing  the  Modern 
Sides  providing  to  the  extent  they  might  do  a  liberal 
course  of  education."  In  a  fly-sheet  circulated  on 
October  19  he  dwells  on  the  policy  of  the  University 
in  enlarging  its  sphere  of  influence.  If  the  Victoria 
University  and  the  Scottish  University  Commission 
were  right  in  judging  that  an  important  part  of  the 
class  of  persons  capable  and  desirous  of  profiting  by 
University  education  may  with  advantage  dispense 
with  the  study  of  one  of  the  two  classical  languages, 
"  to  say  that  Cambridge  need  not  concern  herself  with 
[the  requirements  of  this  class]  appears  to  me  incon- 
sistent with  the  whole  line  of  policy  which  we  have 
systematically  and  successfully  pursued  for  nearly  a 
generation."  And  further  on,  in  the  same  paper,  he 
says : — 

The  question  is  frequently  argued  as  though  the  Univer- 
sity were  being  asked  to  take  sides  with  Physical  Science 
against  Classics :  and  we  are  accordingly  told  with  much 
emphasis  that  it  is  as  important  for  an  educated  person  to 
understand  human  history  as  to  understand  the  laws  of  the 
physical  world,  and  that  the  influence  of  Greece  and  Rome 
upon  human  history  is  unique  and  unparalleled,  etc.,  etc. 
But  all  such  comparisons  are  irrelevant  to  the  present 
issue ;  since  if  the  proposed  Syndicate  were  to  recommend 
the  extremest  change  that  the  terms  of  its  appointment 
allow,  the  predominance  of  classics  over  physical  science  in 


1891,  AGE  53  HENKY  SIDGWICK  511 

our  educational  system  would  still  be  indisputable.  For 
students  of  physical  science  would  still  be  required  to 
devote  a  solid  portion  of  their  school  time  to  the  study  of 
classics ;  while  students  of  classics  would  still  be  allowed, 
as  at  present,  to  remain  in  absolute  ignorance  of  physical 
science. 

Another  cognate  mistake  is  to  assume  that  those  who 
are  in  favour  of  this  change  desire  to  lessen  the  amount  of 
literary  training  imposed  on  students  of  science,  in  order 
that  they  may  have  more  time  to  devote  to  their  special 
studies.  I  know  no  one  who  entertains  this  desire ;  and  I 
entirely  agree  with  those  who  deprecate  any  such  specialisa- 
tion. My  objection  to  the  existing  system  is  not  that  it 
gives  too  much  literary  education  to  boys  whose  bent  is 
scientific  rather  than  literary ;  but  that,  in  consequence  of 
an  unsuitable  choice  of  instruments,  it  gives  too  little. 

The  proposal  was  lost  by  a  large  majority ;  and 
another  proposal,  voted  on  in  the  following  February, 
to  consider  a  scheme  for  degrees  in  science,  in  which 
Sidgwick  interested  himself,  was  also  negatived. 
The  large  majority  by  which  the  Greek  vote  was  lost 
was  a  great  disappointment  to  him.  In  this  matter,  to 
which  he  attached  so  much  importance,  the  University 
seemed  to  be  going  backwards.  In  the  sixties  almost 
all  the  progressive  party  at  Cambridge  hoped  to  live 
to  see  compulsory  Greek  done  away  with,  but  now  the 
University  seemed  to  have  become  hidebound  in  a 
kind  of  stupid  conservatism,  and  he  began  to  antici- 
pate a  long  period  of  slow  decadence  in  which,  from 
failure  to  adapt  itself  to  the  needs  of  the  times,  it 
would  gradually  fall  into  disrepute,  acting  harmfully 
on  the  schools  meanwhile.  He  used  to  point  de- 
spondingly  to  the  Chinese  Mandarins  as  an  example 
of  the  effect  of  clinging  to  worn-out  forms  of  literary 
examination.  He  began  too  to  think  of  a  teaching 
University  of  London  as  perhaps  the  future  centre  o 
useful  Academic  work. 


512  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

During  1891  negotiations  had  been  going  on  with 
a  view  to  the  carrying  on  of  Mind,  the  quarterly 
review  of  psychology  and  philosophy  which  was  the 
main  organ  of  philosophers  in  England,  and  to  which 
Sidgwick  was  a  frequent  contributor.  From  its 
beginning  in  1876  till  the  end  of  1891  Professor 
Alexander  Bain  of  Aberdeen  had  been  responsible  for 
it  financially,  and  it  was  edited  by  Professor  Groom 
Robertson.  But  ill-health  now  compelled  the  latter 
to  give  up  the  editorship,  and  Professor  Bain 
wished  also  to  be  relieved  of  further  responsibility. 
It  was  now  arranged  that  Sidgwick  should  take  it 
over.  He  became  financially  responsible  for  it  in 
January  1892,  and  Mr.  G.  F.  Stout,  the  present 
editor,  undertook  the  editorship  with  the  co-operation 
of  Sidgwick  and  others.  This  arrangement  continued 
till  1900,  when  Sidgwick,  shortly  before  his  death — 
though  before  he  had  any  reason  to  expect  this  to 
occur  soon — initiated  the  formation  of  the  "  Mind 
Association "  to  carry  on  the  journal  by  means  of 
guaranteed  subscriptions. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  from  Whittingehame,  January  1,  1892 

I  am  staying  with  Arthur  Balfour,  who  is  putting  on  his 
armour  for  the  Parliamentary  Campaign.  The  proximity  of 
the  General  Election  is  I  believe  producing  in  all  parties  a 
certain  strain  of  anxiety  rather  than  any  other  emotion.  I 
do  not  myself  feel  any  doubt  that  the  Separatist  party  will 
have  a  majority,  but  the  question  is  whether  they  will 
have  a  majority  large  enough  to  carry  so  fateful  a  change  as 
Home  Rule.  If  not,  it  is  hard  to  guess  what  can  happen. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  on  January  2 

If  you  will  put  off  reading  my  book  till  I  have  read  the 
reviews  of  it,  I  will  then  give  you  an  impartial  opinion  as  to 
whether  it  is  worth  reading.  At  present  I  get  the  reviews 
from  Romeike  and  put  them  in  a  box,  but  refrain  from 
reading  them,  in  order  to  keep  my  mind  from  the  subject : 


1892,  AGE  53  HENRY  SIDGWICK  513 

as  Ethics  and  Psychology  (including  Psychical  Eesearch)  at 
present  claim  my  whole  attention.  I  have  to  preside  at  a 
Congress  of  Experimental  Psychologists  in  August,  and  am 
at  present  disgracefully  ignorant  of  what  has  been  done  in 
the  subject  while  I  have  been  writing  on  Politics. 

To  Roden  Noel  on  February  16 

My  wife  and  I  are  very  busy  struggling  with  a  variety 
of  affairs  in  which  the  "  International  Census  of  Hallucina- 
tions "  takes  the  most  prominent  place.  I  am  preparing  to 
preside  over  the  International  Congress  of  Experimental 
Psychology  which  is  to  meet  early  in  August.  I  shall 
have  the  delicate  and  difficult  task  of  persuading  the 
orthodox  psychologist  to  regard  '  Psychical  Research '  as  a 
legitimate  branch  of  experimental  Psychology  ! 

Have  you  seen  W.  Morris's  last  book  ?  I  think  the 
socialistic  poems  touching,  though  mostly  not  good  as 
literature.  Influenza  and  other  calamities  have  spared  us, 
so  we  have  the  feeling  of  being  the  favourites  of  Providence  ! 

On  February  27  Miss  Clough,  the  Principal  of 
Newnham  College,  died — a  loss  acutely  felt  by  all 
who  had  worked  with  her,  both  as  a  personal  grief 
and  a  serious  calamity  for  Newnham  College. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  from  Lambeth  Palace,  March  16,  1892 
Your  letter  has  stirred  me  up  and  the  Journal  is  to  be 
begun  to-day !  Cause  of  delay  chiefly  supineness,  the  only 
reason  of  any  psychological  interest  being  that  I  feel,  both 
as  regards  my  philosophic  aims — which  are  my  chief  inner 
being — and  my  political  interests,  in  the  attitude  of  the 
audience  waiting  for  the  curtain  to  draw  up.  Only  the 
curtain  in  the  former  case — the  veil  that  hides  the  truths 
that  Psychical  Research  seeks  to  penetrate — is  hardened  by 
the  perdurability  of  the  ages ;  whereas  the  latter  will  be 
drawn  up  at  the  next  General  Election.  Perhaps  at  this 
date  my  journal  may  become  more  interesting ;  till  then  I 
fear  it  will  be  filled  with  feeble  ejaculations  of  impatience 
and  shufflings  of  the  feet. 

2L 


514  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

It  might,  however,  have  been  interesting  during  the  last 
week,  if  I  had  had  energy  to  write  it,  as  we  have  been 
engaged  in  anxiously  deliberating  whether  to  do  what  the 
Newnham  College  Council  unanimously  wish,  and  agree  that 
Nora  shall  take  the  office  of  Principal  of  N.  C.  The  die  is 
cast,  and  she  has  written  to  accept.  It  is  understood, 
however,  that  the  work  will  not  be  absorbing,  as  she  is  not 
to  manage  any  of  the  three  Halls  of  which  Newnhain  now 
consists,  but  only  to  be  a  superfluous  boss  of  the  whole 
institution.  It  was  difficult  to  refuse ;  and  if  I  am — as  I 
still  am — doubtful  whether  she  has  done  right  in  accepting, 
it  is  almost  solely  on  account  of  the  S.P.R 

It  commits  us  to  giving  up  our  house,  as  soon  as  certain 
new  buildings  are  ready,  and  living  in  said  buildings  for  a 
few  years :  perhaps  till  I  resign  my  Professorship,  as  I  at 
present  mean  to  do  in  about  six  years.  Enough :  this 
particular  "  senseless  act  of  benevolence "  is  sufficiently 
characterised  for  the  philosopher  of  Davos  so  that  he  will 
understand  references  that  will  from  time  to  time  appear 
in  the  journal. 

To  say  that  we  admire  the  literary  activity  that  centres  in 
Am  Hof  is  not  enough.  We  are  stupefied  in  admiration. 
I  have  not  yet  got  hold  of  Catherine's  book,1  but  I  hear  on 
all  sides  that  it  is  a  complete  success.  We  are  looking 
forward  to  the  Life  in  Swiss  Highlands,  and  putting  off 
forming  a  view  of  M.  A.  B.  [Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti] 
till  the  great  two  volumes  appear.  .  .  . 

Well,  I  think  my  present  formule  de  la  vie  is  from  Walt 
Whitman.  "  I  have  urged  you  forward,  and  still  urge  you, 
without  the  slightest  idea  of  our  destination."  I  quote  from 
memory. 

P.S. — I  am  going  about  interviewing  for  S.P.E. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cologne,  March  24 

.  .  .  We  could  not  resist  the  unanimous  wish  of  the 
Council  [of  Newnhain  College] ;  and  of  course  it  is  a  great 

1  Recollections  of  a  Happy  Life,  being  the  Autobiography  of  Marianne 
North,  edited  by  her  sister,  Mrs.  Symonds. 


1892,  AGE  53  HENRY  SIDGWICK  515 

pleasure  to  us,  (while  at  the  same  time  it  increases  the 
sense  of  responsibility  and  difficult  duty  of  '  coming  up  to 
the  mark ')  to  find  that  the  staff  and  the  students  are 
pleased.  What  we  feel  most  strongly  is  that  after  Miss 
Clough's  death  it  is  the  duty  of  all  who  have  given  their 
minds  to  Newnham  to  '  close  ranks '  and  take  the  place 
that  others  moved  by  the  same  interest,  assign  to  one.  We 
hope  it  will  be  for  the  good  of  the  College. 

I  am  here  writing  under  the  shadow  of  the  Cathedral 
I  have  never  yet  seen  it  complete ! — So  time  passes  in  one's 
middle  age.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  like  its  completion. 
Certainly  its  incompletion  was  a  painful  defect :  but  then  all 
things  human  are  defective :  and  while  I  revere  the  works 
of  the  Middle  Ages  in  themselves,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  like 
them  completed  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

I  am  on  my  way  to  Berlin  to  see  psychologists,  and  then 
for  a  week's  visit  of  friendship  to  Patterson  at  Pest,  whom  I 
have  not  seen  for  years.  Kindest  remembrances  to  your 
wife ;  (mine  is  meditating  on  her  responsibilities  in  Cam- 
bridge !) 

The  Journal  recommences : — 

March  26,  1892. — In  theory  my  journal  began  a  week 
ago,  but  I  thought  Berlin  would  be  a  good  place  to  start 
in,  and  have  only  just  arrived.  Why  am  I  here  ?  The 
causes  go  back  to  1889,  when  Prof.  Richet,  our  friend  and 
colleague  in  S.P.E.  matters,  got  up  a  "  Congress  of  Physio- 
logical Psychology  "  in  Paris,  and  asked  us  to  come  to  it. 
We  came  out  of  simple  friendship ;  but  when  we  arrived 
we  found  that  the  ingenious  Richet  designed  to  bring  the 
S.P.R.  to  glory  at  this  Congress.  And  this,  in  some  degree, 
came  about.  My  "  Census  of  Hallucinations  "  received  the 
honour  of  being  taken  up  by  the  Congress,  .  .  .  and  I  was 
designated  as  President  of  the  next  meeting  of  the  Congress, 
which  is  to  be  held  in  London  in  the  autumn  of  this  year : 
and,  under  the  influence  of  Richet,  Telepathy  came  quite  as 
much  to  the  front  as  it  desired  or  deserved. 

Behold  me,  then,  President-elect  of  a  Congress  of  experi- 


516  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

mental  Psychologists — most  of  them  stubborn  materialists, 
interested  solely  in  psychophysical  experiments  on  the 
senses ;  whereas  /  have  never  experimented  except  in 
telepathy.  Water  and  fire,  oil  and  vinegar,  are  feeble  to 
express  our  antagonism  !  What  was  to  be  done  ?  How 
was  the  Congress  to  be  got  up  ?  I  took  a  decided  step.  I 
sought  out  James  Sully — probably  the  one  Englishman 
known  to  German  Professors  as  a  writer  on  physiological 
Psychology — and  said  to  him,  "...  be  secretary  :  write  to 
leading  Germans :  and,  in  short,  get  up  the  Congress  so 
far  as  ordinary  experimental  Psychology  goes ;  Myers  and 
I  will  provide  the  extraordinary  element ;  and  we  will  trust 
in  Providence  to  make  the  explosion  when  the  two  elements 
meet  endurable."  He  agreed. 

But  there  was  another  difficulty.  It  is  twenty-two  years 
since  I  spent  any  time  in  Germany,  and  I  have  almost  ceased 
to  understand  the  language  when  spoken  by  others  than 
waiters,  etc.  I  thought  I  must  do  something  to  revive  the 
dormant  intelligence  of  German  speech  that  may  be  sup- 
posed to  be  in  my  brain,  and — an  old  friend  (A.  J.  Patterson) 
writing  from  Pest  that  I  must  come  and  see  him — I  deter- 
mined to  devote  this  Easter  to  Germany  and  Hungary.  For 
the  next  week  I  shall  be  in  Berlin ;  I  shall  call  on  some 
of  the  German  professors  to  whom  Sully  has  written :  also 
on  one  or  two  Berliners  interested  in  telepathy :  shall 
endeavour  to  converse  in  German :  shall  go  to  University 
lectures  and  theatrical  performances :  and  meanwhile 
endeavour  to  revive  old  memories  of  Berlin  life.  I  am 
alone. 

April  7. — I  have  had  an  eventful  fortnight — if  new 
impressions  are  events :  but  more  in  the  latter  part  than  in 
the  first.  I  did  not  much  revive  old  memories — chiefly 
because  my  old  friends  are  gone,  and  Berlin  life  in  March 
is  very  different  from  Berlin  life  in  July.  But  the 
psychologists  on  whom  I  called  were  very  cordial,  and 
seemed  to  take  my  visit  as  a  compliment,  though  two 
at  least  out  of  the  three,  Preyer  and  Ebbinghaus,  appeared 
to  know  that  Psychical  Kesearch  was  the  only  branch  of 


1892,  AGE  53  HENRY  SIDGWICK  517 

Experimental  Psychology  which  I  had  cultivated.  I  went 
to  a  meeting  of  the  "  Psych ologische  Gesellschaft,"  which 
corresponds  to  the  S.P.R.  I  was  received  with  marked 
politeness,  and  liked  the  members ;  but  the  society  does  not 
appear  to  succeed  in  doing  any  "  psychical  research,"  and 
has  to  get  matter  for  its  meetings  by  digressing  into  ortho- 
dox psychology.  .  .  . 

I  went  three  times  to  the  theatre ;  .  .  .  two  out  of 
[the]  three  times  I  ...  [made]  out  tolerably  well  what 
was  going  on,  but  neither  time  did  I  care  for  the  piece  as  a 
whole,  though  one  actor  in  the  Deutsch  Theater  was  good. 
I  left  Berlin  feeling  that,  relatively  to  me,  the  Drama 
cannot  really  compete  with  the  Novel ;  the  play  is  a  novel 
with  fine  shades  left  out  and  regard  for  probability  thrown 
overboard.  But  in  Vienna,  on  Sunday  last,  my  view  changed 
again.  I  went  to  the  "  Deutsches  Volkstheater  "  ;  the  play, 
called  Die  Ehre,  was  full  of  improbabilities :  but  it  was 
in  part  very  well  acted :  and  I  felt  that  the  collisions  and 
contrasts  of  feeling  which  modern  life  pre-eminently  affords 
require  the  drama  for  adequate  expression.  .  .  . 

I  must  not  omit  to  say  that  in  passing  from  Berlin  to 
Vienna  I  had  a  pleasant  afternoon  and  next  morning  at 
Prag,  owing  to  the  kindness  of  Professor  Hering,  who  walked 
me  about  the  town  in  the  afternoon,  and  sent  a  young 
psychologist,  Hillebrand,  to  take  me  about  in  the  morning. 
The  picturesqueness  of  Prag  came  up  to  expectation,  in 
spite  of  the  smash  of  the  famous  Karlsbriicke ;  especially 
the  approach  of  the  Kleinstadt  from  the  Karlsbriicke  is  a 
thing  to  remember. 

My  young  psychologist,  by  the  way,  does  not  sympa- 
thise— although  a  pupil  of  Bering's — with  the  recent 
tendency  to  exalt  the  physiological  and  experimental  side 
of  psychology.  He  thinks  Brentano  the  greatest  German 
psychologist. 

To  his  Wife 

I  have  been  to  see  Hering,  who  will  not  come  to  the 
Congress — being  one  of  the  people  who  likes  to  enjoy  his 
holiday  in  the  country — but  was  otherwise  extremely 


518  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

amiable,  and  walked  me  about  the  town  discoursing 
about  hypnotism  among  other  matters.  He  had  a  case  of 
apparent  clairvoyance  which  he  satisfied  himself  was  extra- 
ordinary '  hypermnesia  '  (intensified  memory)  :  but  so  extra- 
ordinary that  he  does  not  think  it  would  be  believed  if  he 
published  it.  I  told  him  about  Delboeuf  s  servant  girl  and 
the  post-hypnotic  order  to  bring  a  handkerchief  after  3500 
minutes :  but  he  said  very  frankly  that  he  didn't  believe 
that !  An  attractive  man  Hering ;  I  wish  he  was  coming. 

.  .  .  Hering  was  rather  interesting  about  the  social  con- 
dition of  Prag.  He  says  that  Germans  and  Czechs  form 
almost  distinct  societies,  even  in  the  University ;  he  hardly 
ever  meets  his  Czech  colleagues  for  social  purposes.  He 
thinks  the  culture  of  the  Czechs  is  declining  owing  to  the 
general  feeling  that  it  is  patriotic  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  German  language :  that  some  of  them  are  beginning  to 
feel  this,  and  are  consequently  getting  up  a  movement  for 
learning — French ! 

I  have  accepted  the  offer  about  the  Royal  Commission ; 
didn't  see  how  I  could  refuse.  Alas  !  Alas  ! 

This  was  the  Gresham  University  Commission, 
appointed  to  consider  the  draft  charter  for  a  Teaching 
University  in  London.  He  had  previously  shown 
interest  in  the  abortive  attempt  to  form  a  Teaching 
University,  and  it  was  on  this  account  probably  that 
lie  felt  unable  to  refuse. 

The  Journal  continues  : — 

April  9. — Pest  is  a  delightful  place  for  a  traveller  who 
has  been  entertained  with  dinner  or  supper  every  evening 
of  his  stay ! 

April  10. — On  Tuesday  I  supped  with  Lanczy,  Professor 
of  History,  who  had  breakfasted  with  me  at  Newnham  [in 
1882],  and  is  a  cultivated  man,  talking  English  slowly  but 
accurately.  On  Wednesday  "  Pulzsky  Agost,"  whose  book 
I  had  reviewed  in  the  English  Historical  [Review,  called] 
and  took  me  to  sup  with  his  wife  and  Mr.  Black — once 
Schwarz,  but  had  anglicised  his  name  and  Americanised 


1892,  AGE  53  HENRY  SIDGWICK  519 

his  views  and  language  in  U.S.  Pulzsky  is  a  man  with  a 
great  flow  of  ideas,  talks  excellent  English  (was  at  school 
in  England),  and  readily  communicated  to  me  a  full  view 
of  the  political  situation  in  Hungary.  ...  On  Thursday  I 
supped — no,  I  must  say  dined  this  time — with  Medveczky, 
Professor  of  Philosophy,  and  drank  more  varied  and  abundant 
alcoholic  fluids  than  I  have  done  for  a  long  time.  I  was 
formally  toasted,  and  had  to  make  a  little  speech ;  but  this 
was  nothing  to  Friday,  when  I  went  to  a  banquet  of  Pro- 
fessors, and  had  my  health  drunk  from  three  different  points 
of  view,  so  that  I  made  three  speeches.1  Last  night  I  dined 
with  Sir  A.  Nicholson  and  met  Szilargy,  one  of  the  Ministers, 
who  after  dinner  gave  me  a  full  view  of  the  Hungarian 
situation  so  far  as  it  presents  analogies  to  the  Irish  question. 
Very  interesting  and  instructive. 

The  Journal  breaks  off,  and  "  the  account  of 
Hungarian  politics  did  not  get  itself  written."  The 
hiatus  can  be  partially  filled  from  letters  to  his  wife. 
On  April  13  he  writes  to  her  from  Vienna : — - 

...  I  have  not  seen  an  English  newspaper  since  I  left 
Pest;  the  feeling  I  got  from  miscellaneous  reading  of 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  papers  is  that  it  would  be  pusil- 
lanimous in  us  Englishmen  to  despair,  even  if  Home  Eule 
has  to  come  with  all  its  probable  train  of  subsequent 
troubles :  since  the  Germans  in  Austria  and  the  Magyars  in 
Hungary  have  so  very  much  harder  and  more  dangerous 
problems  of  the  same  kind  to  deal  with,  and  yet  they  do  not 
despair.  It  is  at  any  rate  a  boon  for  us  to  be  free  from  all 
the  language  questions.  At  the  same  time  I  think  the  chances 
are  much  against  the  present  Austro-Hungarian  State — or 
rather  dual  union  of  States — holding  together  for  the  next 
fifty  years.  If  it  manages  that,  it  may  hold  together  for  good. 

From  Munich  on  April  15 
1  arrived  here  about   7.      Schrenck 2  was  engaged,  but 

1  "This  demands  psychological  subtlety,"  as  he  said  to  H.  G.  Dakyns. 

2  Baron  Dr.  von  Schrenck  Notzing,  secretary  of  the  Munich  branch  of 
the  Psychologische  Gesellschaft. 


520  HENRY  SIDG WICK  CHAP,  vi 

he  sent  Max  Offner,  the  Vice-President  of  the  Munich 
branch  of  the  "  [Psychologische]  Gesellschaft,"  who  has 
been  entertaining  me  for  about  three  hours.  He  is  a 
schoolmaster,  who  rather  represents  the  side  of  orthodox 
psychology,  and  is  not  convinced  of  telepathy — but  not 
hostile.  The  Gesellschaft  in  its  present  form  combines 
ordinary  psychology  with  psychical  research  :  and  doesn't  do 
much  at  the  latter  from  want  of  subjects :  in  fact,  I  gather 
that  what  they  chiefly  do  in  this  line  is  from  time  to  time 
to  have  a  report  on  our  [S.P.R.]  Proceedings  !  .  .  .  I  have  been 
chiefly  talking  to  Offner  about  Paedagogik — in  which  he 
doesn't  believe — and  the  Greek  question,  which  appears  to 
be  burning  here  too  and  as  to  which  he  is  decidedly  on  our 
side.  I  am  rather  cheered  to  find  a  German  who  talks  of 
dropping  Greek  altogether  and  reducing  Latin  to  a  mini- 
mum, as  if  it  were  quite  within  the  range  of  practical 
Politics.  .  .  . 

From  Nancy  on  April  20 

Just  after  I  had  posted  yesterday's  letter  and  dined, 
Liegeois *  turned  up,  and  made  himself  very  agreeable,  and 
.  .  .  pressed  me  to  come  and  dine  with  him  to-morrow  (this 
evening).  He  also  proposed  to  take  me  to  Liebeault2  and 
Bernheim  this  afternoon.  .  .  .  [Liebeault]  is  a  man  of  about 
sixty,  who  looks  —  what  he  called  himself  —  somewhat 
'  sauvage '  but  vigorous,  and  we  found  him  vivacious  and 
interesting;  but  I  am  afraid  he  will  not  do  more  for  the 
cause,  as  he  has  given  up  his  practice — apparently  tired 
— and  is  now  intending  to  do  literary  work. 

From  Paris  on  April  21  : 

I  have  managed  to  get  to  Paris  to-day  after  all !  Bern- 
heim came  to  dinner  at  Liegeois'  last  night ;  very  interesting 
evening,  every  one  friendly,  .  .  .  conversation  not  at  all  bad, 
considering  the  miscellaneousness  of  the  party.  I  en- 
deavoured to  make  up  for  my  inadequate  French  by  paying 

1  Professor  of  Law  at  Nancy. 

2  Dr.  Lie"beault,  well  known  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Nancy  school 
of  hypnotism  along  with  the  head  of  the  medical  faculty  at  the  University, 
Dr.  Bernheim. 


1892,  AGE  53  HENKY  SIDGWICK  521 

compliments  to  the  School  of  Nancy,  and  I  think  we  all 
parted  in  good  humour  with  each  other.  I  arranged  to  go 
with  Bernheim  to  the  hospital  early  this  morning.  Accord- 
ingly he  called  for  me  at  9  A.M.  and  we  went :  and  I  saw 
for  the  first  time  the  business-like  application  of  curative 
hypnotism  to  a  casual  collection  of  patients.  The  phenomena 
were,  of  course,  of  the  barndoor  kind — except  one  which  I 
will  mention ;  what  was  interesting  was  (1)  the  rapidity 
with  which  every  one  he  tried  succumbed,  though  two  had 
never  been  tried  before ;  (2)  the  matter-of-course  way  in 
which  he  gave  orders  to  believe  inventions  and  directed 
hallucinations,  while  the  other  patients  were  looking  [on]. 
It  is  difficult  for  a  stranger  to  feel  sure  how  far  what  each 
one  does  is  not  influenced  by  what  he  knows  to  be  expected 
of  him;  the  line  between  genuine  unconscious  and  semi- 
conscious obedience  seems  to  me  hard  to  draw. 

The  most  remarkable  thing — which  was  quite  new  to 
me — was  the  way  in  which  an  invented  (invented  by  B.) 
story  of  a  quarrel  in  the  night  between  two  patients 
appeared  to  be  believed  and  developed,  first  by  the  persons 
primarily  concerned,  and  then  by  half  a  dozen  other  patients 
in  the  room — in  the  normal  state  at  the  time — who  all 
professed  to  have  either  seen  or  heard  the  quarrel  in  some 
degree.  I  think  not  more  than  two  or  three  of  the  eight 
or  nine  whom  he  questioned  said  they  had  not  heard  or 
seen  anything.  If  the  thing  is  not  semi-conscious  complais- 
ance, it  is  certainly  a  most  extraordinary  manifestation  of 
suggestibility. 

TJie  Journal  continues : — 

May  2. — .  .  .  I  will  make  three  observations,  as  fruits 
of  travel. 

1.  Personal.  I  am  sad  to  find  that  as  I  grow  older,  my 
power  of  interesting  myself  deeply  in  anything  but  human 
beings  and  their  manners  [is]  diminishing.  When  I  was 
young  I  used  rather  to  like  to  know  no  one  in  a  new  town, 
in  order  to  get  more  full  and  pure  the  impression  of  the  town 
itself,  and  make  acquaintance  with  that.  But  being  alone 


522  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

at  Vienna — all  the  professors  to  whom  I  had  introductions 
being  off  on  Easter  Holidays — I  confess  I  was  mildly  bored, 
except  when  I  was  at  the  theatre,  in  spite  of  the  magnifi- 
cence and  historic  interest  of  the  city.  Similarly  at  Stras- 
burg ;  whereas  at  Munich,  Nancy,  and  Paris,  finding  friendly 
acquaintances,  I  was  happy. 

2.  Sociological.       What    a    strange    contrast     there    is 
between  the  similarity  of  the  ideas  and  manners  of  thought 
of  educated  Europeans  in  all  parts  of  Europe,  on  almost  all 
subjects  of  educated  interest  except  politics,  as  contrasted 
with    the   diversity   of  their   political  ideas   and   habits   of 
thought!      Talking     to     my    professors    about    philosophy, 
psychology,  education,  life,  I  almost  forget  that  we  belong 
to  different  countries ;  but  when  the  talk  turns  on  politics, 
the  difference  is  generally  sudden  and  startling,  in  spite  of 
all   the   interchange   of  thought   and   mutual    imitation   of 
institutions  that  has  gone  on  for  so  long  and  is — one  would 
think — increasing. 

3.  S.P.R.ical.      I  have  come   back  with    a  deep    con- 
viction  that   among   the   many   persons   in   Germany   and 
France  who  sympathise  with  our  efforts,  there  is  no  one 
who  is  really  doing  work  in  the  subject — no  one,  that  is,  of 
the  persons  who  are  qualified  to  deal  with  its  difficulties,  in 
my  opinion.      Richet  is  doing  something,  but  he  is  just  now 
more  interested  in  a  flying  machine.     No  one  is  saying — as 
Hodgson    in    America — '  Psychical   Research   is   the    most 
important  thing  in  the  world ;   rny  life's  success  and  failure 
shall  be  bound  up  with  it.'      Yet  I  am  convinced  that  only 
in  this  temper  shall  we  achieve  what  we  ought  to  achieve. 

On  Saturday  Nora  was  made  Principal  of  Newnham, 
and  to-day  she  is  dining  for  the  first  time  as  Principal  at 
the  Hall  called  by  her  name.  I  am  doubtful  whether  she 
did  right  in  accepting,  but  only  for  a  reason  which  does  not 
occur  to  any  of  the  friends  and  relations  who  write  about  it. 
I  fear  that  she  may  not  find  time  for  the  work  of  the 
S.P.R,  for  which  I  think  her  uniquely  fit — much  more  fit 
than  I  am.  If  it  turns  out  that  she  must  sacrifice  some  of 
this  work,  I  shall  have  to  take  her  place ;  but  my  intellect 


1892,  AGE  54  HENRY  SIDGWICK  523 

will  be  an  inferior  substitute  for  this  work,  and  I  shall  give 
up  with  reluctance  the  plans  of  literary  work  for  which  I 
am  better  fitted.  Still,  if  it  must  be  so,  I  shall  give  them 
up  without  hesitation,  just  as  I  should  give  them  up  to 
fight  for  my  country  if  it  was  invaded  (by  the  way,  though, 
I  believe  I  am  too  old  for  that). 

I  feel  that  at  the  age  I  have  reached — close  on  fifty-four 
— my  chief  demand  on  the  world  is  Time.  I  have  as  much 
as  I  strongly  desire  of  money,  reputation,  friends ;  but  time 
— no.  When  I  think  of  the  little  that  probably  remains, 
the  much  I  have  wasted,  the  much  that  I  need  for  my  work 
— I  put  the  pen  down ! 

Press  of  work  prevented  his  having  any  journal  to 
send  in  June.  On  June  7  he  wrote  to  Eoden  Noel : — 
"  Till  about  August  15th  every  day  is  full  of  business  ; 
then  after  a  fortnight's  holiday  I  have  to  settle  down 
to  the  preparation  of  a  new  and  difficult  set  of 
lectures."  These  lectures  were  doubtless  a  course  on 
"  Philosophy,  its  Scope  and  Method,"  given  in  the 
Michaelmas  term  of  1892.  He  had  lectured  only  on 
Ethics  and  Politics  since  1883. 

To  J.  A.  Symonds  on  July  4 

Finding  myself  in  the  Athenaeum,  I  thought  I  would 
write  a  political  page  of  my  journal,  which  I  enclose.  I  am 
glad  you  are  going  to  stay  so  long  in  England.  .  .  .  We  are 
oppressed  by  preparations  for  [the]  International  Congress 
of  Experimental  Psychology,  added  to  the  work  of  a  Eoyal 
Commission  for  making  a  London  University.1  But  the 
Congress  will  be  over  on  August  4th. 

In  the  Journal,  after  forecasting — not  very  correctly 
— the  results  of  the  General  Election  then  going  on, 

he  says  :— 

I  voted  this  morning  for  my  present  Conservative 
member  for  the  borough  of  Cambridge,  without  hesitation, 
but  with  a  great  sense  of  isolation.  In  the  most  important 

1  The  Gresham  University  Commission  had  begun  its  work  on  May  21. 


524  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vr 

parts  of  the  discussion  that  is  now  being  carried  on  I  agree 
with  the  Opposition:  that  is,  I  think,  as  I  have  always 
thought,  that  if  there  were  no  attack  on  property  combined 
with  the  political  movement  for  semi-independence  of  the 
Irish  nationality,  I  should  think  it  on  the  whole  best  to 
yield  to  this  movement.  I  am  optimistic  as  regards  the 
connexion  of  Ireland  with  England ;  I  think  this  connexion 
will  subsist — for  purposes  of  common  defence  and  offence 
and  unrestricted  internal  trade — whether  we  give  Home 
Ilule  or  refuse  it ;  but  I  think  we  shall  have  somewhat  less 
political  trouble  with  Ireland  if  we  give  it  than  if  we  refuse 
it.  But  to  abandon  the  landowners  of  Ireland  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  people  who  have  for  eleven  years  carried  on 
an  unscrupulous  private  war  against  their  rights  of  pro- 
perty— rights  which  those  of  us  who  supported  the  Land 
Bill  of  1881  morally  pledged  ourselves  to  secure  to  them — 
this  is  a  national  crime  and  deep  moral  disgrace  in  which  I 
can  have  no  part.  The  fact  that  even  Tory  speakers  lay  no 
stress  on  this  danger  only  makes  me  feel  it  more  strongly  ; 
they  know  that  the  landlords  are  not  a  popular  class,  and 
that  the  spoliation  of  them  will  arouse  very  feeble  indigna- 
tion in  the  breast  of  the  average  household  suffrager. 

The  Congress  of  Psychologists  was  a  great  success, 
and  repaid  the  time  and  energy  expended  on  it  and 
in  preparation  for  it,  so  far  as  such  a  meeting  can. 
Many  friends  assisted  by  offering  hospitality ;  many 
psychologists  from  many  lands  met,  and  there  was 
much  social  enjoyment  and  stimulating  interchange 
of  ideas. 

It  was  in  October  of  this  year  that  Tennyson  died. 
Sidgwick  wrote  to  his  son  : — 

It  is  like  the  end  of  a  reign — only  that  there  is  no  con- 
cluding '  vive  le  roi ! '  And,  indeed,  whatever  the  future 
may  have  in  store  for  English  poetry,  it  is  impossible  that 
any  one  should  ever  hold  the  sway  he  held  over  the  minds 
of  men  of  my  generation ;  it  is  impossible  that  any  one's 
thoughts  and  words  should  be  so  entwined  with  the  best 


1893,  AGE  54  HENRY  SIDGWICK  525 

moments  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  our  lives  :  "  To  us  he 
seems  the  last." 

He  was  probably  working  too  hard  at  this  time,  for 
he  writes  to  his  wife  in  December  : — "  I  am  working 
as  hard  as  I  can,  but  I  wish  I  could  manage  a  little 
more  sleeping  at  night  and  a  little  less  in  the  after- 
noon ! "  And  again  : — "  I  am  getting  on,  but  every- 
thing takes  longer  than  one  expects,  and  so  much 
labour  is  thrown  away,  e.g.  all  the  labour  I  am  spend- 
ing on  the  New  University,  so  far  as  I  can  see." 
The  work  was  partly  probably  in  connection  with  the 
fifth  edition  of  his  Methods  of  Ethics,  brought  out  in 
the  latter  half  of  1893.  The  revision  of  his  books  for 
a  new  edition  alwavs  involved  a  great  deal  of  time 

• 

and  thought — labour  which  he  grudged  somewhat 
when  he  had  new  subjects  he  wanted  to  go  on  to.  A 
third  edition  of  his  History  of  Ethics  had  been  pub- 
lished in  1892. 

In  January  of  1893  his  wife  had  a  fall,  producing 
slight  concussion  of  the  brain,  while  they  were  staying 
with  the  Creightons  at  Peterborough.  This  gave  him 
some  anxiety  at  first  and  necessitated  care  for  some 
time  ;  he  always  felt  very  grateful  to  Mrs.  Creighton 
for  her  kindness  on  this  occasion. 

To  Miss  Cannan  from  Hillside,  February  17 

Pray  do  not  defer  your  proposed  visit.  I  was  very 
much  alarmed  at  first  by  my  wife's  accident ;  but  it  has 
turned  out  a  "  straightforward  case,"  and  she  would  be  very 
sorry  if  you  did  not  come.  I  ought  to  say  that  on  Saturday 
/  shall  be  away,  but  I  return  on  Sunday  night.  ...  I  am 
a  fixture  here  always  from  Monday  to  Thursday,  but  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  week  I  am  liable  to  become  migratory. 

His  migratoriness  at  the  end  of  the  week  was  due 
to  his  Royal  Commission,  which  was  meeting  on 
Thursday  and  Friday  each  week. 


526  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vi 

To  Mr.  Albert  Dicey  on  March  1 

...  I  quite  agree  with  you  that  the  painfulness  to  Pro- 
testant Ulster  of  the  dilemma  that  Home  Eule  presents — 
of  either  separating  themselves  from  Great  Britain  or  from 
the  other  Irish  Loyalists — is  a  strong  argument  against 
Home  Eule,  and  one  that  Ulster  may  legitimately  press 
with  emphasis.  But  I  cannot  think  it  a  conclusive  argu- 
ment. I  cannot  think  it  gives  Protestant  Ulster  a  right  to 
determine  the  conditions  of  the  arrangement  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  rest  of  Ireland :  though  I  think  it  gives 
Protestant  Ulster  a  very  strong  claim  to  have  any  arrange- 
ment she  may  like,  05  between  Great  Britain  and  herself. 

To  Miss  Cannan  on  April  13 

My  wife  is  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  suggestion 
about  the  opening  for  chemical  students  at  Newnham.  We 
are  always  on  the  look  out  for  openings  not  educational, 
because  it  is  far  from  being  true  that  any  one  can  teach 
who  cannot  find  anything  else  to  do — even  if  they  know 
what  they  profess  to  teach.  In  fact,  I  think  there  is  no 
calling — except,  perhaps,  Holy  Orders — into  which  it  is 
less  desirable  to  drive  people  who  are  not  conscious  of  a  call. 

What  is  the  best  way  of  disposing  of  the  superfluous 
overgrowth  of  one's  library  ?  This  is  the  real  problem  for 
persons  (of  a  literary  turn)  about  to  change  house.  I  have 
not  yet  solved  it ;  but  I  console  myself  by  observing  that  my 
builder  is  not  yet  presenting  the  problem  in  a  pressing  form ! 

J.  A.  Symonds  died  at  Rome  on  April  19. 

To  Roden  Noel  on  May  12 

On  J.  A.  S.'s  death  I  tried  to  write  to  you,  but  could 
not.  I  feel  it  as  one  feels  a  calamity  long  expected  but 
irreparable.  But  for  himself,  I  cannot  help  feeling  a  certain 
relief  that  it  all  came  so  quickly.  He  has  often  said  to  me 
that  he  had  no  dread  of  death  or  aversion  to  it,  but  that  he 
did  shrink  from  the  long,  tedious  business  of  consumptive 
dying.  I  am  glad  he  has  been  spared  that.  He  has  had  a 
wonderful  life,  and  done  his  work  in  a  struggle  with  ill- 


1893,  AGE  54  HENRY  SIDGWICK  527 

health  which  ennobles  the  work.     But  it  is  difficult  to  realise 
that  all  converse  with  that  bright  spirit  is  at  an  end. 

To  Mr.  Wilfrid  Ward  on  July  1 7  (about  his  biography  of 
his  father} l 

By  a  coincidence  your  letter  arrived  just  as  I  was 
finishing  the  last  chapter  of  your  book.  I  have  read  it 
with  great  interest.  I  think  your  book  is  one  of  a  rare 
class — the  class  of  biographies  which  are  good  in  the  sense 
in  which  good  novels  are  good :  I  mean  biographies  which 
do  not  merely  give  the  reader  the  feeling  that  the  writer 
has  performed  a  task  incumbent  on  him  in  a  competent 
manner,  but  which  give  him  the  peculiar  pleasure  and 
instruction  that  can  only  be  given  by  the  full  unfolding  of 
the  intellectual  and  moral  quality  of  a  rare  mind  that  has 
lived,  developed,  and  produced  important  social  effects  in 
interesting  circumstances. 

In  August  1893  he  gave  a  course  of  three  lectures 
on  the  History  of  Modern  Political  Ideas  up  to  1789 
to  Extension  students  at  the  summer  meeting  held  at 
Cambridge  that  year.  After  they  were  over  he  writes 
to  his  wife  : — 

I  have  finished  my  lectures,  and  to-morrow  I  concentrate 
myself  on  my  book  for — twelve  days  !  Such  is  the  leisure  for 
study  of  a  being  supposed  to  have  that  commodity  unlimited. 

The  Michaelmas  term  of  1893  was  the  last  spent 
at  Hillside.  The  new  building  at  Newnham  College 
containing  the  rooms  to  be  occupied  by  Sidgwick  and 
his  wife  was  now  completed,  and  in  the  middle  of 
December  they  moved  into  them.  He  had  managed 
to  deal  somehow  with  "the  superfluous  overgrowth 
of  his  library,"  and  what  remained  was  successfully 
disposed  in  the  rooms  and  passages  of  his  new  abode. 

1   W.  G.  Ward  and  the  Catholic  Revival. 


CHAPTER   VII 
1894-1900 

THE  rooms  occupied  by  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  at 
Newnham  College  were  on  the  first  floor  of  a  build- 
ing erected  with  money  left  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pfeifier. 
Standing  across  the  site  of  the  recently  closed  path, 
it  connected  the  earliest  part  of  the  College  buildings 
with  the  part  over  which  Mrs.  Sidgwick  had  presided 
in  1880  to  1882.  Below  their  rooms  was  the  archway 
containing  the  bronze  gates  given  by  students  as  a 
memorial  to  Miss  Clough,  and  above  were  students' 
rooms.  From  the  windows  there  is  an  extensive 
view  of  the  College  buildings  and  of  the  garden. 
The  rooms  included  a  private  dining-room,  where 
Sidgwick  and  his  wife  usually  had  their  meals. 
The  study  (as  at  Hillside)  was  somewhat  small ; 
but  every  available  space  in  Sidgwick's  study - 
tables,  chairs,  and  even  parts  of  the  floor — were 
generally  covered  with  piled -up  books  and  papers, 
and  this  would  probably  have  happened  whatever  the 
size  of  the  room.  No  one  was  allowed  to  move  any- 
thing in  these  apparently  miscellaneous  piles,  and 
Sidgwick  had  a  surprising  power  of  laying  his  hand 
on  what  he  wanted  in  the  seeming  chaos.  Still  crises 
would  occur,  some  book  or  paper  would  be  unfindable, 
or  the  height  of  the  piles  would  become  unbearable, 
and  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  a  drastic  tidying-up. 
After  an  hour  or  two  of  this  had  resulted  in  the 

528 


1894,  AGE  55  HENRY  SIDGWICK  529 

destruction  of  much  rubbish,  and  the  reduction  of  the 
rest  of  the  accumulated  masses  to  comparative  order, 
he  would  triumphantly  invite  a  sympathetic  in- 
spection of  the  transformation  effected. 

Sidgwick  very  much  enjoyed  his  new  abode.  He 
liked  the  pretty,  well-proportioned  rooms.  He  liked 
the  College  buildings  with  their  red  brick  and  white 
paint  glowing  in  the  sunshine,  and  he  liked  the 
garden  made  cheerful  by  students  moving  about. 
The  aesthetic  pleasure  was  of  course  enhanced  by  all 
this  being  a  visible  evidence  of  the  success  of  his 
efforts  for  the  education  of  women.  He  liked  the 
garden,  too,  as  a  place  to  walk  in  for  a  few  minutes 
at  a  time  while  thinking  out  a  problem,  and  might 
often  be  seen  strolling  there,  absently  stroking  his 
beard  on  the  under  side  and  holding  it  up  against 
his  mouth — a  gesture  very  habitual  with  him  while 
meditating.  The  garden  soon  gave  him  pleasure  too 
in  another  way,  for  during  the  last  years  of  his  life 
he  acquired  a  new  love  for  the  beauty  of  flowers.  It 
will  have  been  perceived  that  he  had  always  greatly 
enjoyed  scenery,  but  the  minuter  beauties  of  nature 
did  not  appeal  to  him  much  till  these  later  years,  and 
he  was  gratified  to  find  a  new  taste  growing  with  the 
approach  of  old  age.  It  was  the  colour  that  he  cared 
for  most  in  flowers,  and  he  especially  enjoyed  a  mass 
of  yellow  blossom. 

Sidgwick  and  his  wife  made  a  practice  of  dining 
about  once  a  week  in  hall  with  the  staff  and  students 
of  the  College,  who  had  also  other  opportunities 
of  intercourse  with  him.  In  their  third  and  fourth 
years  students  were  invited  to  breakfast  in  groups 
of  four ;  and  in  the  afternoons,  once  a  week,  when 
Mrs.  Sidgwick  was  at  home  to  them,  he  would  come 
in  for  a  few  minutes  for  his  tea  and  delight  them 
with  his  talk.  One  of  them  writes  :  "  One  afternoon 
when  we  listened  (and  laughed)  while  he  talked,  in 
Mrs.  Sidgwick's  drawing-room,  will  always  be  among 

2  M 


530  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

my  Red  Letter  days.  It  was  a  kind  of  '  liberal  educa- 
tion ' "  ;  and  another  speaks  of  vivid  recollections  of 
his  reading  some  of  Newbolt's  Admirals  All  on  one 
of  these  occasions.  The  students'  enjoyment  of  their 
life  at  Newnham  gave  him  great  satisfaction,  and  he 
regarded  this,  and  the  pleasure  they  obtained  in  later 
life  through  College  friendships  and  the  wider  outlook 
on  life  which  they  owed  to  Newnham,  as  among  the 
greatest  benefits  the  College  conferred. 

The  Report  of  the  Gresham  University  Commission 
was  issued  in  January  1894,  and  its  recommendations 
have  been  substantially  followed  in  framing  the  con- 
stitution of  the  present  University  of  London,  which 
came  into  force  in  1900.  Sidgwick  was  opposed  for 
more  reasons  than  one  to  the  principle  of  combining 
the  ordinary  work  of  a  university  with  the  function 
of  giving  degrees  to  external  students,  on  which  the 
Report  was  framed ;  but  he  considered  it  so  important 
that  a  university — in  the  ordinary  sense — should  be 
established  in  London  with  as  little  delay  as  possible 
even  on  a  basis  which  he  regarded  as  ill-chosen,  that 
he  appended  his  signature.  In  the  hope,  however, 
that  it  might  be  of  service  to  those  who  would 
actually  have  to  construct  and  administer  the  new 
University,  he  added  a  careful  note1  pointing  out 
what  he  conceived  to  be  the  disadvantages  and 
dangers  involved  in  the  combination.  Of  these  the 
most  important  was  that,  as  the  training  obtained  at 
a  University  in  a  healthy  condition  has  a  value  not 
expressed  in  the  marks  which  it  enables  its  students 
to  obtain  in  examination,  it  was  hard  that  a  new 
University  should  be  singled  out  to  be  deprived  of 
the  power  of  representing  this  value  by  its  degrees. 

In  May  1894  his  friend  Roden  Noel  died  suddenly 
of  heart  disease  while  on  a  journey.  Sidgwick  wrote 
to  his  widow  from  Cambridge  on  June  2  : — 

1  Report  of  the  Gresham  University  Commission,  1894,  p.  lix. 


1894,  AGE  56  HENEY  SIDGWICK  531 

I  must  write  a  few  lines — though  I  feel  how  useless 
words  are — to  tell  you  how  much  shocked  and  grieved  I 
was  by  the  news  of  Eoden's  death.  I  have  been  thinking 
ever  since  of  him  and  of  your  trouble ;  and  also  of  the  early 
years  of  our  friendship,  when  we  talked  and  wrote  to  each 
other,  in  the  eagerness  of  youth,  on  all  things  in  heaven 
and  earth.  I  have  always  felt  that,  though  he  was  keenly 
disappointed  by  the  world's  inadequate  recognition  of  his 
genius,  he  did  his  work  in  life  none  the  less  resolutely, 
and  brought  out  his  great  gifts,  and  remained  nobly  true  to 
his  ideal.  I  never  knew  any  one  more  free  from  what 
Goethe  calls — "  was  uns  alle  bandigt,  das  Gemeine."  After 
conversing  with  him  I  always  felt  that  the  great  realities  of 
Life  and  Thought  and  Art,  the  true  concerns  of  the  human 
spirit,  became  more  real  and  fresh  and  vivid  to  me. 

I  am  afraid  that  in  later  years  I  often  vexed  him  some- 
what by  unsympathetic  criticism  of  his  poetic  work :  but  I 
am  glad  to  think  that  this  never  made  any  division  between 
us, — he  knew  that  I  recognised  in  him  the  "  deep  poetic 
heart "  and  the  rare  constructive  force  and  vividness  of 
poetic  imagination  in  which  he  was  second  to  none  among 
his  contemporaries. 

To  Lady  Victoria  Buxton  (Mr.  Nod's  sister)  on  June  12 

It  is  now  thirty-six  years  since  we  first  became  intimate 
friends  at  Cambridge.  ...  I  am  glad  to  think  that  .  .  .  we 
never  failed  to  talk  and  write  with  perfect  mutual  trust  and 
unreserve.  And  I  certainly  never  came  away  from  a  talk 
with  him  without  feeling  afresh  the  variety  and  richness  of 
his  nature,  and  his  sensitiveness  to  all  things  beautiful  in 
nature,  and  all  things  noble  or  pathetic  in  human  life. 
I  never  knew  any  one  who  seemed  more  at  home  in  that 
higher  region  of  thought  and  feeling, — into  which  most  of  us 
rise  occasionally  with  some  effort, — where  the  great  realities 
of  human  life  and  destiny  are  not  only  intellectually  grasped 
but  felt  with  full  intensity.  I  do  not  think  that  any  of 
those  who  really  knew  him  can  ever  forget  him ;  and  I 
believe  that  there  are  many  who  only  knew  him  through 


HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

his  writings  who  will  feel  that  the  world  is  poorer  by  his 
loss. 

To  H.  Gr.  Dakyns  from  Newnham,  July  2  9 

.  .  .  The  truth  is  that  my  plans — and  more  than  my  plans 
— have  received  rather  a  shock  within  the  course  of  the  last 
three  days.  I  have  had  letters  from  F.  Myers  and  0.  Lodge 
— as  a  member  of  the  S.P.E.  you  will  know  their  names— 
to  the  effect  that  they  believe  themselves  to  have  got  proof 
of  the  reality  of  the  physical  phenomena  of  Spiritualism.  (I 
use  current  terms,  because  the  question  is  not  yet  as  to  the 
cause  of  the  phenomena,  but  only  as  to  the  fact.)  The  in- 
vestigations have  been  carried  on  in  a  small  island  off  the 
Mediterranean  coast,  belonging  to  Charles  Eichet — Parisian 
Professor  of  Physiology — whose  name  you  may  also  know 
from  our  Proceedings.  He,  Myers,  and  Lodge  have  been 
together  investigating  Eusapia  Paladino,  an  Italian  medium, 
and  they  believe  themselves  to  have  got  the  phenomena 
under  perfect  tests.—  I  tell  you  all  this,  not  only 
because  it  may  interest  you,  but  that  you  may  see  how  my 
plans  are  upset.  Eichet  asks  me  to  go  to  this  island,  and 
go  I  must.  For  either  they  are  right,  and  I  must  put 
myself  in  a  position  to  support  them,  or  they  are  wrong,  in 
which  case  I  must  try  to  find  out  how  or  why.  Eichet  is 
a  very  careful  worker,  but  still 

This  visit  of  Sidgwick  and  his  wife  to  the  He 
Roubaud,  and  their  stay  under  the  hospitable  roof  of 
Professor  Richet,  first  on  the  island,  and  then  on  the 
mainland  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hyeres,  was  very 
enjoyable  and  very  interesting.  It  is  true  that  the 
phenomena  to  be  investigated  were  less  striking  after 
Sidgwick  arrived  than  they  had  been  before,  but  they 
were  striking  enough,  and  at  the  time  he  was  almost 
convinced  of  their  genuineness.  It  was  only  after 
Eusapia  Paladino  had  been  proved  in  the  following 
summer  to  be  a  habitual  trickster  (see  below,  pp.  542, 
543)  that,  taking  into  account  certain  suspicious  cir- 
cumstances observed  on  this  earlier  occasion,  Sidgwick 


1894,  AGE  56  HENKY  SIDGWICK  533 

concluded  that  all  the  mysterious  phenomena  he  had 
witnessed  in  her  presence  were  due  to  fraud.  After 
leaving  the  South  of  France,  Sidgwick  and  his  wife 
went  to  Switzerland  for  a  short  time,  in  the  course  of 
which  they  stayed  with  Mrs.  Symonds  at  Davos,  and 
returned  to  England  about  the  middle  of  September. 
During  this  summer  and  autumn  he  was  taking  a 
very  great-  interest  in  the  Memoir  of  J.  A.  Symonds, 
which  Mr.  H.  F.  Brown  was  engaged  in  writing. 

To  Miss  Cannan  from  WJiittingehame  on  January  1,  1895 

I  write,  as  you  see,  from  Scotland,  where  we  are  spend- 
ing our  brief  holiday  among  nephews  and  nieces  of  tender 
years.  You  may  be  amused  to  imagine  me  as  about  to 
personate  in  a  tableau  vivant — for  the  amusement  of  a  festive 
audience — the  character  of  John  Knox,  the  particular  inci- 
dent in  John  Knox's  career  selected  for  representation  being 
his  vain  endeavour  to  correct  the  frivolity  of  Queen  Mary. 
1  told  my  sisters-in-law  that  Erasmus  would  suit  me  much 
better,  but  they  did  not  think  that  a  Scottish  audience 
could  be  expected  to  take  any  interest  in  a  Laodicean  of  that 
stamp — in  spite  of  Froude. 

.  .  .  Talking  of  History  reminds  me  that  I  have  been 
making  some  remarks  on  Mr.  Kidd's  book.  You  may 
remember  that  you  were  reading  it  when  you  were  with  us. 
It  occurs  to  me  that  you  may  be  interested  in  them,  so  I 
have  asked  my  bookseller  to  send  you  a  copy  of  the  National 
Review,  in  which  my  article  appeared.  I  am  rather  afraid 
that  you  may  think  it  shows  undue  animosity ;  the  truth  is 
that  I  have  no  ill-will  towards  Kidd,  who  is  certainly  a 
vigorous  and  stimulating  writer,  but  I  do  think  that  the 
reviewers  are  to  blame  for  not  having  found  out  how  little 
he  knows.  I  do  not  mean  "little"  compared  with  most 
men,  but  little  compared  with  the  pretensions  of  his  book. 
However,  of  this  you  will  judge  if  you  read  my  review.1 

1  "Political    Prophecy    and   Sociology,"   in    the   National   Review   for 
December  1894,  reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 


534  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

To  his  Sister-in-law,  Mrs.  William  Sidgwick,  from 
WTiittingehame  on  January  9 

I  ought  to  have  sent  you  back  the  enclosed  [Anthony 
Hope's  Dolly  Dialogues]  before,  with  a  critical  view :  but 
I  found  it  —  like  all  the  author's  productions  —  easier 
to  read  than  to  exercise  one's  mind  about  afterwards. 
The  central  thread  of  story  seems  to  me  an  exceed- 
ingly clever  bit  of  harping  on  one  string — with  the  draw- 
backs of  that  form  of  instrumental  music :  but  I  think 
it  would  get  a  little  wearisome  before  the  end  if  the 
dialogue  were  not  so  neat  and  well  managed.  But  the 
secondary  characters — at  least  the  female  ones — seem  to 
me  much  more  coarsely  done :  e.g.  the  scene  with  the 
Dowager  seems  to  me  so  farcical  as  to  jar  with  the  tone 
of  well  -  bred,  if  extravagant,  comedy  maintained  in  the 
4  Dolly '  scenes,  and  Mrs.  Hilary  and  Miss  Phyllis  seem 
to  me  both  conventional  and  vulgar.  However,  I  read  it 
through  from  beginning  to  end  with  complete  entertain- 
ment ;  and  as  I  grow  older  I  think  this  is  the  kind  of  com- 
position that  I  prefer  for  relaxation,  rather  than  a  novel 
carrying  heavier  guns.  I  read  rather  a  good  one  of  the 
latter  sort  last  week,  My  Lady  Rotha  (Weyman) :  I 
thought  it  good  all  through,  but  was  still  slightly  pleased 
when  I  got  to  the  end  of  it — whereas  I  was  certainly  sorry 
when  I  finished  the  Dolly  Dialogues. 

I  hope  you  have  had  a  pleasant  Christmas.  We  have 
been  quiet  and  happy  here.  .  .  .  We  return  to  Cambridge 
on  Friday,  I  going  round  by  Glasgow  to  give  a  lecture  to 
the  Philosophical  Society.1 

The  political  tone  here  is  decidedly  hopeful,  though  I  do 
not  precisely  know  on  what  solid  grounds,  as  the  prospects 
of  the  session  appear  to  me  rather  favourable  to  the  other 
side,  and  A.  J.  B.  does  not  go  by  bye-elections.  But  hopeful 
they  are. 

I  hope  William  is  still  able  to  golf.  I  was  getting  on 
rather  well  with  the  garden  variety  of  the  game  till  snow  came. 

1  On  "The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense,"  published  in  Mind,  and  re- 
published  in  Lectures  on  Kant  and  other  Lectures  and  Essays,  1905. 


1894,  AGE  56  HENEY  SIDGWICK  535 

Garden  golf  as  played  at  Whittingehame  offered 
considerable  variety,  a  sufficiency  of  hazards  and 
some  good  iron  strokes,  and  Sidgwick,  without  play- 
ing well,  enjoyed  it  very  much,  and  felt  so  boyish  a 
pleasure  in  a  successful  stroke  that  it  gave  others  a 
sympathetic  pleasure  to  see  him  play. 

To  Lady  Frances  Balfov.r  from  Cambridge,  January  1 6 
Seeley's  death l  no  friend  could  regret  on  his  account ;  it 
was  almost  painless,  as  the  disease  had  been,  and  that  with 
cancer  is  something  to  be  grateful  for.  But  it  makes  Cam- 
bridge feel  diminished  and  poor  to  have  lost  within  a  year 
two  men  so  remarkable  as  him  and  Eobertson  Smith.  We 
have  no  young  men  coming  on  of  the  same  mark — at  any 
rate  outside  mathematics  and  physical  science. 

To  his  Nephew,  A.  C.  Benson,  on  March  15 
I  have  been  having  rather  a  bad  time  with  influenza — a 
fortnight  on  my  back — or  I  would  have  thanked  you  before 
for  your  Gray.2  I  read  it  with  much  interest :  it  seemed 
to  me  conceived  with  subtlety  and  care,  and  finely  expressed. 
It  is  not  my  Gray :  but  I  do  not  state  that  as  an  objection, 
as  I  am  conscious  that  I  have  never  quite  been  able  to 
make  out  G.  But  I  should  have  thought  that  his  interest 
in  literature  was  more  that  of  an  artist  in  verbal  express- 
sion ;  his  interest  in  history  more  either  antiquarian  or 
literary ;  and  his  interest  in  nature — well.  But  I  like 
almost  all  the  part  of  your  poem  that  presents  this  side 
of  him  very  much,  the  delicate  observation  seems  to  me 
thoroughly  Grayish ;  still  I  was  going  to  say  that  I  do  not 
imagine  him  as  likely  to  climb  mountains  "in  pursuit  of 
some  unheeded  spirit."  This  seems  to  me  to  put  him  too 
near  Wordsworth  or  Shelley. 

However,  as  I  said,  I  like  all  this  part  of  the  poem 
thoroughly,  though  with  reserves  from  a  biographical  point 
of  view.  I  don't  altogether  like  what  you  say  of  his  friends. 

1  Sir  J.  R.  Seeley  died  on  January  13,  1895. 

2  "Thomas  Gray."  a  poem  privately  printed  in  1895,  and  afterwards 
published  with  The  Professor  and  other  Poems. 


536  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

As  to  Horace  Walpole,  I  suppose  his  enthusiasm  for  Gray 
had  somewhat  cooled  by  1771  ;  still,  I  don't  imagine  him 
as  ever  coming  the  patron  over  G. — not  since  the  first 
unfortunate  journey.  And  as  to  the  "  plump  Precentor," 
may  we  not  hope  that  Gray  carried  to  his  grave  the  amiable 
blindness  of  friendship  which  had  led  him  to  labour  so 
abundantly  in  correcting  Mason's  stuff?  Is  there  any 
evidence  that  he  didn't  ?  He  certainly  made  him  his 
literary  executor.  But  you  know  all  this  much  better  than  I 
do.  The  lines  about  Bonstetten  are  moving  and  doubtless 
true,  though  I  fancy  Gray,  who  was  after  all  an  Englishman, 
thought  the  effusiveness  and  excitability  of  the  young  Swiss 
a  little  gueer,  though  very  charming.  But  this  is  not  a 
criticism ;  you  could  not  put  everything  into  blank  verse  ! 

Enough.  You  understand  that  I  ramble  on  not  to  instruct 
you,  but  merely  to  show  that  your  poem  has  interested  me. 

To  Miss  Cannan  from  the  Bedford  Hotel,  Brighton,  on  April  1 

Our  process  of  convalescence  is,  I  think,  complete ;  at 
least  we  are  as  well  as  we  were  before  the  "  flu," — my  wife 
says  she  is  better.  We  spent  eight  days  with  my  brother 
Arthur  and  his  wife,  first  at  Littlehampton,  and  then  at 
Seaford,  with  much  pleasure.  The  physical  delight  of  feel- 
ing one's  strength  come  back  is  very  great.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  sea-air  was  supplied  by  Providence  with  a 
vigour  and  profusion  which  rendered  it  more  medicinal  than 
agreeable ;  but  the  wind  dropped  yesterday,  and  March 
went  out  like  a  lamb  after  all,  though  the  lamb-like  character 
was  only  assumed  at  the  very  last  moment. 

It  is  a  provoking  kind  of  complaint  this  influenza,  as  it 
does  not  even  confer  immunity  from  itself ;  and  I  certainly 
found  it  very  depressing  for  a  time.  For  three  days  I  could 
take  an  interest  in  nothing  except  making  my  will — I  mean 
it  was  to  this  subject  that  my  thoughts  naturally  flew  when 
I  let  them  go.  But  then  I  do  not  remember  spending  a 
day  in  bed  for  twenty  years  before,  so  the  unaccustomed 
incidents  of  this  position  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  the  depression.  As  Mr.  Garth  in  Middlemarch  says 


1895,  AGE  56  HENKY  SIDGWICK  537 

[when  he  lost  £90  to  a  scapegrace  prottgd],  "These  things 
are  a  great  interruption  to  business." 

I  cannot  strongly  recommend  either  of  our  seaside  places 
from  the  point  of  view  of  scenery,  but  we  had  a  pleasant 
afternoon  at  Lewes,  which  is  historically  interesting  and 
picturesquely  situated. 

If  all  goes  well  we  hope  to  come  to  the  Lakes  *  at  the 
end  of  August — but  this  is  looking  too  far  ahead  ! 

To  Wilfrid  Ward  from  Cambridge,  May  18 
Owing  to  unusual  pressure  of  work — I  have  had  to  read 
and  advise  on  the  publication  of  the  MS.  of  a  deceased 
friend — I  have  been  unable  to  read  your  Quarterly  article2 
till  yesterday.  As  regards  the  two  points  mentioned  in 
your  letter,  I  think  I  agree  mainly  with  Balfour  on 
the  first,  and  with  you,  to  a  great  extent,  on  the  second. 
That  is  (1)  I  am  not  able  to  separate  my  conception  of 
the  external  world  into  "  physical "  and  "  metaphysical "  in 
the  manner  which  you  seem  to  regard  as  simple  and 
accepted.  I  do  not  say  that  a  distinction  may  not  be 
drawn  between  the  two  ways  of  regarding  and  investigating 
matter :  but  that  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  draw  than  is 
commonly  supposed  by  students  of  physical  science  who 
have  a  turn  for  philosophising,  and  who  find  it  a  convenient 
way  of  gliding  over  the  contradictions,  in  which  their 
philosophising  tends  to  involve  them,  to  put  their  view  into 
two  compartments.  This  kind  of  dualism  always  reminds 
me  of  the  more  simple-minded  people  who  are  content  to 
regard  a  proposition  as  "  true  in  theory,  but  not  in  practice." 
I  do  not,  of  course,  say  this  with  regard  to  your  view,  but 
only  to  indicate  "  where  I  am  "  in  the  matter. 

(2)  On  the  other  hand,  as  regards  Reason  and  Authority, 
I  am  on  the  whole  decidedly  with  you.  I  am  thinking  of 
printing  something  on  the  subject.  If  I  do,  I  will  send  it 
you ;  if  not,  I  will  send  you  the  rough  notes  suggested  by 
your  article. 

1  Miss  Caiman  lives  in  Easedale. 

2  An   article   on   Arthur  Balfour's    The   Foundations  of  Belief,  in  the 
Quarterly  Review,  March  1895. 


538  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

The  "  deceased  friend  "  whose  manuscript  he  had 
been  reading  was  doubtless  Seeley.  During  this  year 
he  edited  Seeley's  Introduction  to  Political  Science, 
published  in  January  1896. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  years  that  Sidgwick  wrote 
to  Lord  Tennyson  the  following  letter  about  In 
Memoriam,  published  in  the  latter's  life  of  his  father.1 

After  thinking  over  the  matter,  it  has  seemed  to  me 
better  to  write  to  you  a  somewhat  different  kind  of  letter 
from  that  which  I  originally  designed  :  a  letter  not  primarily 
intended  for  publication,  though  I  wish  you  to  feel  at  liberty 
to  print  any  part  of  it  which  you  may  find  suitable,  but 
primarily  intended  to  serve  rather  as  a  "  document "  on 
which  you  may  base  any  statements  you  may  wish  to  make 
as  to  the  impression  produced  by  In  Memoriam.  I  have 
decided  to  adopt  this  course  because  I  want  to  write  with 
rather  more  frank  egotism  than  I  should  otherwise  like  to 
show.  I  want  to  do  this,  because  in  describing  the  impres- 
sion made  on  me  by  the  poem,  I  ought  to  make  clear  the 
point  of  view  from  which  I  approached  it,  and  the  attitude 
of  thought  which  I  retained  under  its  influence.  In  what 
follows  I  shall  be  describing  chiefly  my  own  experiences : 
but  I  shall  allow  myself  sometimes  to  say  "  we "  rather 
than  "  I,"  meaning  by  "  we  "  my  generation,  as  known  to  me 
through  converse  with  intimate  friends. 

To  begin,  then :  our  views  on  religious  matters  were  not, 
at  any  rate  after  a  year  or  two  of  the  discussions  started  in 
1860  by  Essays  and  Reviews,  really  in  harmony  with  those 
which  we  found  suggested  by  In  Memoriam.  They  were 
more  sceptical  and  less  Christian,  in  any  strict  sense  of  the 
word ;  certainly  this  was  the  case  with  myself :  I  remember 
feeling  that  Clough  represented  my  individual  habits  of 
thought  and  sentiment  more  than  your  father,  although  as  a 
poet  he  moved  me  less.  And  this  more  sceptical  attitude 
has  remained  mine  through  life ;  while  at  the  same  time  I 
feel  that  the  beliefs  in  God  and  in  immortality  are  vital  to 
human  well-being. 

1  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson,  A  Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  300. 


1895;  AGE  57  HENKY  SIDGWICK  539 

Hence  the  most  important  influence  of  In  Memorwm 
on  my  thought,  apart  from  its  poetic  charm  as  an  expres- 
sion of  personal  emotion,  opened  in  a  region,  if  I  may  so 
say,  deeper  down  than  the  difference  between  Theism  and 
Christianity :  it  lay  in  the  unparalleled  combination  of 
intensity  of  feeling  with  comprehensiveness  of  view  and 
balance  of  judgment,  shown  in  presenting  the  deepest  needs 
and  perplexities  of  humanity.  And  this  influence,  I  find, 
has  increased  rather  than  diminished  as  years  have  gone  on, 
and  as  the  great  issues  between  Agnostic  Science  and  Faith 
have  become  continually  more  prominent.  In  the  sixties  I 
should  say  that  these  deeper  issues  were  somewhat  obscured 
by  the  discussions  on  Christian  dogma,  and  Inspiration  of 
Scripture,  etc.  You  may  remember  Browning's  reference  to 
this  period  [Gold  Hair,  xxix.] — 

The  Essays  and  Reviews  debate 
Begins  to  tell  on  the  public  mind, 
And  Colenso's  words  have  weight. 

During  these  years  we  were  absorbed  in  struggling  for 
freedom  of  thought  in  the  trammels  of  a  historical  religion : 
and  perhaps  what  we  sympathised  with  most  in  In 
Memoriam  at  this  time,  apart  from  the  personal  feeling, 
was  the  defence  of  "  honest  doubt,"  the  reconciliation  of 
knowledge  and  faith  in  the  introductory  poem,  and  the 
hopeful  trumpeting  of  the  lines  on  the  New  Year — 

Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old, 
Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace, 

and  generally  the  forward  movement  of  the  thought. 

Well,  the  years  pass,  the  struggle  with  what  Carlyle 
used  to  call  "  Hebrew  old  clothes  "  is  over,  Freedom  is  won, 
and  what  does  Freedom  bring  us  to  ?  It  brings  us  face  to 
face  with  atheistic  science  :  the  faith  in  God  and  Immortality, 
which  we  had  been  struggling  to  clear  from  superstition, 
suddenly  seems  to  be  in  the  air :  and  in  seeking  for  a  firm 
basis  for  this  faith  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  the  "  fight 
with  death  "  which  In  Memoriam  so  powerfully  presents. 

"What  In  Memoriam  did  for  us,  for  me  at  least,  in 
this  struggle  was  to  impress  on  us  the  ineffaceable  and 


540  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

ineradicable  conviction  that  humanity  will  not  and  cannot 
acquiesce  in  a  godless  world :  the  "  man  in  men  "  will  not 
do  this,  whatever  individual  men  may  do,  whatever  they 
may  temporarily  feel  themselves  driven  to  do,  by  following 
methods  which  they  cannot  abandon  to  the  conclusions  to 
which  these  methods  at  present  seem  to  lead. 

The  force  with  which  it  impressed  this  conviction  was 
not  due  to  the  mere  intensity  of  its  expression  of  the  feel- 
ings which  Atheism  outrages  and  Agnosticism  ignores :  but 
rather  to  its  expression  of  them  along  with  a  reverent 
docility  to  the  lessons  of  science  which  also  belongs  to  the 
essence  of  the  thought  of  our  age. 

I  remember  being  struck  with  a  note  in  Nature,  at  the 
time  of  your  father's  death,  which  dwelt  on  this  last- 
mentioned  aspect  of  his  work,  and  regarded  him  as  pre- 
eminently the  Poet  of  Science.  I  have  always  felt  this 
characteristic  important  in  estimating  his  effect  on  his 
generation.  Wordsworth's  attitude  towards  Nature  was 
one  that,  so  to  say,  left  Science  unregarded :  the  Nature  for 
which  Wordsworth  stirred  our  feelings  was  Nature  as  known 
by  simple  observation  and  interpreted  by  religious  and 
sympathetic  intuition.  But  for  your  father  the  physical 
world  is  always  the  world  as  known  to  us  through  physical 
science :  the  scientific  view  of  it  dominates  his  thoughts 
about  it ;  and  his  general  acceptance  of  this  view  is  real 
and  sincere,  even  when  he  utters  the  intensest  feeling  of 
its  inadequacy  to  satisfy  our  deepest  needs.  Had  it  been 
otherwise,  had  he  met  the  atheistic  tendencies  of  modern 
Science  with  more  confident  defiance,  more  confident  assertion 
of  an  Intuitive  Faculty  of  theological  knowledge,  overriding 
the  results  laboriously  reached  by  empirical  science,  I  think 
his  antagonism  to  these  tendencies  would  have  been  far  less 
impressive. 

I  always  feel  this  strongly  in  reading  the  memorable 
lines  [cxxiv.] : — 

If  e'er  when  faith  had  fallen  asleep, 
I  heard  a  voice  '  believe  no  more,' 
And  heard  an  ever-breaking  shore 

That  tumbled  in  the  Godless  deep  ; 


I8P5,  AGK  57  HENRY  SIDGWICK  541 

A  warmth  within  the  breast  would  melt 
The  freezing  reason's  colder  part, 
And  like  a  man  in  wrath  the  heart 

Stood  up  and  answered  '  I  have  felt.' 

At  this  point,  if  the  stanzas  had  stopped  here,  we  should 
have  shaken  our  heads  and  said,  "  Feeling  must  not  usurp 
the  function  of  Eeason.  Feeling  is  not  knowing.  It  is  the 
duty  of  a  rational  being  to  follow  truth  wherever  it  leads." 

But  the  poet's  instinct  knows  this  ;  he  knows  that  this 
usurpation  by  Feeling  of  the  function  of  Eeason  is  too  bold 
and  confident ;  accordingly  in  the  next  stanza  he  gives  the 
turn  to  humility  in  the  protest  of  Feeling  which  is  required 
(I  think)  to  win  the  assent  of  the  "  man  in  men  "  at  this 
stage  of  human  thought : 

No,  like  a  child  in  doubt  and  fear : 

But  that  blind  clamour  made  me  wise  ; 
Then  was  I  as  a  child  that  cries, 

But,  crying,  knows  his  father  near  ; 

And  what  I  am  beheld  again 

What  is,  and  no  man  understands  ; 
And  out  of  darkness  came  the  hands 

That  reach  through  nature,  moulding  men. 

These  lines  I  can  never  read  without  tears.  I  feel  in 
them  the  indestructible  and  inalienable  minimum  of  faith 
which  humanity  cannot  give  up  because  it  is  necessary  for 
life ;  and  which  I  know  that  I,  at  least  so  far  as  the  man  in 
me  is  deeper  than  the  methodical  thinker,  cannot  give  up. 

If  the  possibility  of  a  "  godless  world "  is  excluded,  the 
faith  thus  restored  is,  for  the  poet,  unquestionably  a  form 
of  Christian  faith :  there  seems  to  him  then  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  the 

sinless  years 
That  breathed  beneath  the  Syrian  blue, 

and  the  marvel  of  the  life  continued  after  the  bodily  death, 
were  a  manifestation  of  the  "  immortal  love  "  which  by  faith 
we  embrace  as  the  essence  of  the  Divine  nature.  "  If  the 
dead  rise  not,  Christ  is  not  risen  " :  but  if  we  may  believe 
that  they  rise,  then  it  seems  to  him,  we  may  and  must 
believe  the  main  drift  of  the  Gospel  story ;  though  we  may 


542  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

transiently  wonder  why  the  risen  Lord  told  His  disciples 
only  of  life,  and  nothing  of  "  what  it  is  to  die." 

From  this  point  of  view  the  note  of  Christian  faith 
struck  in  the  introductory  stanzas  is  in  harmony  with  all 
that  follows.  And  yet  I  have  always  felt  that  in  a  certain 
sense  the  effect  of  the  introduction  does  not  quite  represent 
the  effect  of  the  poem.  Faith,  in  the  introduction,  is  too 
completely  triumphant.  I  think  this  is  inevitable,  because 
so  far  as  the  thought-debate  presented  by  the  poem  is 
summed  up,  it  must  be  summed  up  on  the  side  of  Faith. 
Faith  must  give  the  last  word :  but  the  last  word  is  not  the 
whole  utterance  of  the  truth :  the  whole  truth  is  that 
assurance  and  doubt  must  alternate  in  the  moral  world  in 
which  we  at  present  live,  somewhat  as  night  and  day 
alternate  in  the  physical  world.  The  revealing  visions 
come  and  go ;  when  they  come  we  feel  that  we  know :  but 
in  the  intervals  we  must  pass  through  states  in  which  all 
is  dark,  and  in  which  we  can  only  struggle  to  hold  the 
conviction  that 

.  .  .  Power  is  with  us  in  the  night 
Which  makes  the  darkness  and  the  light, 
And  dwells  not  in  the  light  alone,     [xcvi] 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge,  August  15,  1895 
...  I  think  I  must  come  alone,  as  we  ought  not  both 
to  leave  Cambridge  while  the  "  Eusapia "  experiments  [see 
p.    532]    are   going   on    here.   .   .   .   The    experiments    are 
interesting,  but  perplexing. 

To  the  Same  from  London  on  August  23 
I  hope  to  reach .  Haslemere  at  5.34  to-morrow.      I  am 
here  temporarily,  presiding  at  an  International  Co-operative 
Congress ;   return   to    Eusapia  and   the    Dark    Circle    this 
evening. 

And  again  on  August  3 1  from  Cambridge 
As  to  Eusapia,  nothing  to  say  as  yet.     Hodgson l  is  here, 
and  we  are  determined  to  worry  out  the  truth  if  possible. 

These  experiments  with  Eusapia  Paladino,  extend- 

1  Secretary  of  the  American  Branch  of  the  S.  P.  R. 


1895,  AGE  57  HENKY  SIDGWICK  543 

iug  over  several  weeks — during  which  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Myers,  with  praiseworthy  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  science,  entertained  her  at  their  house  at  Cam- 
bridge— ended  in  a  conviction  that  the  phenomena 
exhibited  there  were  fraudulent,  and  could  almost 
all  be  explained  by  a  particular  trick  which  had  been 
early  suspected,  and  of  which  Dr.  Hodgson  worked 
out  the  details.  The  medium  had  steadily  refused 
conditions  which  would  have  excluded  this  method. 

To  Mr.  Basil  Champneys  from  Cambridge,  January  9,  1896 
.  .  .  The  chief  general  defect  of  [Bridges']  account  of 
[Milton's]  metre  seems  to  me  perhaps  due  to  a  desire  to 
be  clear  and  elementary,  and  not  to  subtilise   too  much : 
but  he   certainly  seems   to   me  to  represent  the  relations 
of  syllables  stressed  and  unstressed  as  simpler  than  they 
really  are.      Thus  he  ignores  relativity  of  stress :    I  mean 
that  the  iambic  effect  is  often  produced  when  the  syllable 
that  ought  to  be  short  is  stressed  as  much,  or  nearly  as  much, 
as  long  syllables  ordinarily  are,  only  it  is  followed  by  one 
which  has  more  weight. 
Take  the  line- 
On  this  mount  he  appeared ;  under  this  tree 
Stood  visible. 

Bridges,  I  suppose,  would  simply  say  that  there  was  an 
"  inversion  of  stress  in  the  fourth  foot,"  and  would  not 
notice  the  fifth.  But  in  fact  the  parallel  between  the  two 
sentences  requires  the  second  "  this  "  to  be  nearly  as  much 
stressed  as  the  first,  so  that  the  iambic  effect  is  only  pro- 
duced by  a  stronger  stress  on  "  tree " ;  and  certainly  both 
"  this  "  and  "  tree  "  are  more  stressed  than  the  first  syllable 
of  "  under." 

Also  I  think  more  evidence  is  needed  of  the  startling 
proposition  that  Milton  scanned  his  lines  on  one  plan  and 
read  them  on  another.  He  is,  no  doubt,  the  pedant  among 
our  great  poets :  but  I  doubt  his  being  as  much  of  a  pedant 
as  that  implies.  However,  I  am  not  confident  here.  But 
on  one  point  I  am  confident.  I  feel  sure  that  in  [two  of 


544  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

his]  examples  B.  has  missed  M.'s  way  of  pronouncing  two 
words  derived  from  the  Latin :  I  feel  sure  that  Milton 
accented  "  ambitious "  and  "  future "  as  we  now  accent 
"  ambitiosus "  and  "  futurus  "  in  reading  Latin.  The  lines 
are  surely  quite  intolerable  as  B.  reads  them.1 
However,  it  is  certainly  a  good  piece  of  work. 

In  November  1895  the  Associates  of  Newnham 
College 2  had  urged  that  a  new  appeal  should  be  made 
to  the  University  of  Cambridge  to  give  degrees  to 
women.  Sidgwick  hesitated.  He  had  a  strong  con- 
viction that  it  would  be  the  right  course  for  the 
University  to  take,  and  decidedly  to  its  own  advan- 
tage— pecuniarily  and  otherwise — to  admit  women  to 
full  membership ;  and  as  he  said  to  the  Senate  in 
February  1896,  they  had  had  twenty-five  years  to 
think  the  matter  over,  and  "  no  one  could  accuse  the 
University  of  undue  haste  and  rashness  if  they  now 
decided  to  admit  women  to  the  full  membership  of 
the  University."  Also  all  the  Universities  in  Great 
Britain,  except  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  had  by  this 
time  opened  their  degrees  to  women.  Still  he  doubted 
whether  the  University  was  ripe  for  a  sound  de- 
cision on  the  question.  The  women  had  the  substan- 
tial advantages  of  University  education,  examination, 
and  recognition ;  he  feared  that  these  might  be 
imperilled  by  asking  for  more ;  and  he  was  at  first 
inclined  also  to  think  that  the  advantages  they  would 
gain  by  the  degree  were  of  a  more  formal  and  un- 
substantial kind  than  they  supposed.  The  women, 
however,  went  into  the  case  with  care,  and  produced 

1  The  lines  alluded  to  as  given  by  Mr.  Bridges  in  his  Milton's  Prosody 
are  : — 

(a)  As  an  example  of  "  inversion  of  fourth  stress  "  : 

Before  thy  fellows  ambitious  to  win. 
(V)  As  an  example  of  ' '  inverted  fifth  stress  "  : 

Beyond  all  past  example  and  future. 

2  A  body  consisting  of  members  of  the  staff  and  former  students  of  the 
College,  limited  in  number,  and  chosen  as  most  fit  to  advance  education, 
learning,  and  research.     They  have  certain  functions  in  the  government  of 
the  College. 


1896,  AGE  57  HENRY  SIDGWICK  545 

evidence  that  the  absence  of  the  recognised  stamp 
of  the  degree  was  a  real  drawback,  especially  to 
women  engaged  in  the  teaching  profession.1  At  the 
same  time  Sidgwick  was  given  good  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  there  were  members  of  the  Senate  who, 

O 

though  generally  on  the  conservative  side,  would  be 
prepared  to  go  so  far  as  to  give  to  women  a  titular 
degree  without  full  membership  or  voting  powers,- 
thus  removing  the  principal  grievance,  and  therefore 
establishing — without  disturbing  the  organisation  of 
the  University — what  might  well  have  been  a  stable 
compromise.  Another  reason  for  moving  was  pressure 
from  Oxford,  where  a  similar  movement  was  going 
on  and  the  support  of  Cambridge  was  desired. 

Ultimately  Sidgwick  and  other  supporters  of 
women's  education  at  Cambridge  decided  to  move, 
and  having  decided  he  as  usual  threw  himself  vigor- 
ously into  the  business.  As  a  first  step  a  small 
meeting  of  members  of  the  Senate  interested  in 
Newnham  and  Girton  Colleges  was  convened  by 
Sidgwick  and  presided  over  by  Dr.  Peile  at  Christ's 
College.  At  this  meeting  it  was  decided  to  memorialise 
the  Council  of  the  Senate,  asking  for  a  syndicate  to 
consider  the  question ;  and  an  executive  committee 
was  formed,  of  which  Dr.  Porter,  Master  of  Peter- 
house,  was  chairman  and  Mr.  W.  Bateson  secretary. 
The  memorial3  was  largely  and  influentially  signed, 
and  was  supported  by  other  memorials  from  former 
students  of  Newnham  and  Girton,  head-mistresses, 
and  others.  The  appointment  of  a  syndicate  was 

1  That  the  disadvantages  complained  of  were  genuine  is  perhaps  even 
clearer  now  than  it  was  then,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  extent  to  which 
Cambridge  and  Oxford  women  are  availing  themselves  of  the  recent  offer  of 
the  University  of  Dublin  (Trinity  College)  to  give  them  ad  eundem  degrees. 

2  This  was  what,  from  1856  to  1871,  had  been  done  in  the  case  of  Non- 
conformists as  regards  the  M.A.  degree. 

3  It  ran:  "We,  the  undersigned  Members  of  the  Senate,  are  of  opinion 
that  the  time  has  arrived  for  reopening  the  question  of  admitting  women  to 
Degrees  in   the  University  of  Cambridge.     We  therefore  respectfully  beg 
that  the  Council  of  the  Senate  will  nominate  a  Syndicate  to  consider  on 
what  conditions  and  with  what  restrictions,  if  any,  women  should  be  admitted 
to  Degrees  in  the  University." 

2N 


546  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

proposed  by  the  Council  of  the  Senate  and  its 
members  nominated,  and  these  proposals  were  voted 
on  on  March  12,  1896.1 

From  the  first  there  was  strong  opposition  to  the 
movement,  and  the  opponents  took  the  unusual  step 
of  objecting  to  the  personnel  of  the  syndicate  as 
nominated  by  the  Council,  one  ground  alleged  being 
that  some  of  those  nominated — by  which  was  meant 
especially  Sidgwick  and  Dr.  Peile — were  declared 
partisans.  This  accusation  of  partisanship  grieved 
Sidgwick.  He  felt  that  if  devotion  could  be  measured 
by  time  and  labour  and  money  freely  spent,  he  had 
shown — as  his  opponents  ought  to  have  known — more 
devotion  to  the  University  than  to  Newnham,2  and 
that  it  was  monstrous  to  suppose  that  in  case  of 
antagonism  between  the  interests  of  the  two  he 
would  side  with  Newnham  against  the  University. 
But  perhaps  he  took  the  matter  to  heart  too  much. 
No  doubt  this  objection  to  the  syndicate  was  frivolous, 
since  it  was  desirable  on  a  body  which  had  to  inquire 
into  facts,  and  frame,  if  it  thought  well,  a  scheme  for 
the  Senate  to  vote  on,  to  have  persons  of  different 
views,  and  able  from  their  own  knowledge  to  throw 
light  on  the  question.  But  the  objection  was  only 
a  move  in  the  game,  and  the  word  partisan  had  prob- 
ably been  used  thoughtlessly.  The  Senate  agreed 
that  a  syndicate  should  be  appointed,  but  by  a  small 
majority  rejected  the  particular  syndicate  proposed. 
Another  was  nominated  and  appointed  in  May,  and 
entered  on  its  labours. 

To  A.  J.  Patterson  at  Buda- Pest  from  Cambridge,  April  27 
I  have  been  considering  the  very  agreeable  and  flattering 

1  The  syndicate  was  "to  consider  what  further  rights  or  privileges,  if 
any,  should  be  granted  to  women  students  by  the  University,  and  whether 
women  should  be  made  admissible  to  degrees  in  the  University,  and  if  so, 
to  what  degrees,  on  what  conditions,  and  with  what  restrictions,  if  any. " 

2  It  would  not  have  been  true  some  years  later  (when  he  had  contributed 
largely  to  the  purchase  of  the  Newnham  freehold,   and  had  also  bought 
other  land  for  the  College)  to  say  that  he  had  given  more  money  to  the 
University  than  to  Newnham. 


1896,  AGE  58  HENKY  SIDGWICK  547 

invitation  which  you  communicated  to  me  in  your  letter  of 
April  21st,  with  every  desire  to  accept  it  if  possible.  I 
feel  much  honoured  by  the  offer  of  an  honorary  doctor's 
degree ;  and  it  would  have  given  me  the  greatest  pleasure, 
if  it  had  been  possible,  to  come  to  spend  a  week  at  Buda- 
Pest  and  receive  the  doctorate  in  person.  But  I  am  afraid 
that  my  engagements  here  render  it  quite  impossible  for  me 
to  be  present  on  May  13th.  .  .  .  I  must  therefore  ask 
you  to  express  to  Prof.  Foldes  my  grateful  appreciation 
of  the  honour  designed  for  me,  and  my  regret  that  I  am 
unable  to  accept  his  invitation  and  revive  my  pleasant 
recollections  of  the  hospitality  of  the  University  of  Buda- 
Pest.  .  .  . 

As  he  was  unable  to  go  to  Hungary,  the  honorary 
degree  here  spoken  of  was  conferred  upon  him  in  his 
absence. 

To  Professor  Sully  from  Cambridge,  May  1 

No,  I  think  there  will  be  no  material  change  in  my 
Methods  [of  Ethics'}  after  the  present  edition.  People  have 
left  off  criticising  me,  and  my  own  mind  is  (doubtless) 
hardening  with  age.  I  published  no  supplement  *  after  the 
third  edition,  as  the  supplement  to  the  second  was  a  dead 
failure.  No  one  bought  it,  or  hardly  any  one. 

I    sympathise    with    both    your    remarks   about   's 

book.  I  feel  that  in  all  branches  of  Moral  Sciences  there 
is  at  present  a  danger  that  every  energetic  teacher  will 
want  to  write  his  own  book  and  make  it  as  unlike  other 
people's  books  as  he  can.  But  after  all  this  is  a  sign  of 
intellectual  life,  and  I  suppose  we  shall  some  time  or  other 
begin  to  converge  towards  agreement. 

To  Professor  Sully  on  June  25 

I  am  sorry  you  have  had  to  decline  a  paper  for  Munich, 
but  hope  you  may  be  able  to  come  after  all.  ...  As  for 

1  He  had  insisted  on  publishing  the  chief  changes  made  both  in  the  second 
and  in  the  third  edition  of  his  Methods  of  Ethics  in  supplements  which  could 
be  bought  separately,  for  the  convenience  of  those  who  possessed  the  previous 
edition.  It  was  the  fifth  edition  that  was  running  in  1896.  He  did  make 
some  changes  in  the  sixth  edition,  with  which  he  was  occupied  at  the  time 
of  his  death. 


548  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

insomnia,  I  have  been  rather  alarmed :  but  five  days  at 
Brighton  have  brought  me  up  to  6  hours  again :  so  I  do 
not  feel  qualified  to  ask  for  sympathy.  At  Cambridge 
I  am  liable  to  run  down  to  5^,  4^,  3^ — the  latter  figure 
alarms  me.  I  was  going  to  recommend  Brighton,  but  doubt- 
less you  know  all  that  sea  air  can  do  for  you.  With  me, 
I  think,  it  is  not  only  the  air,  but  the  soothing  effect  of 
a  walk  by  the  sea  after  dinner. 

The  third  International  Congress  of  Psychology 
took  place  at  Munich  early  in  August  1896,  and 
Sidgwick  and  his  wife  attended.  They  went  first 
to  Lindau,  on  the  Lake  of  Constance,  to  visit  an 
old  governess  of  his  wife's,1  and  then  to  Munich, 
where  the  members  of  the  Congress  were  most 
hospitably  entertained.  Sidgwick  himself  read  a 
paper  in  reply  to  some  criticisms  on  the  Brighton 
thought-transference  experiments  referred  to  above  (p. 
502).  After  Munich  they  visited  the  Tegernsee,  and 
enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Lord  Acton :  went  on  to 
Innsbruck  via  the  Achensee :  and  then,  joining  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Bryce,  proceeded  to  the  Sulden  Thai  at  the 
foot  of  the  Ortler,  and  had  a  delightful  stay  there. 
During  this  year  he  was  engaged  on  a  second 
edition  of  his  Elements  of  Politics. 

To  Sir  George  Trevelyan  from  Cambridge,  September  3 
We  are  going  to  Scotland  to-morrow  for  ten  days  or  so, 
and  it  seems  natural  to  propose  to  come  to  you  on  the  way 
back.  But  Nature's  Design  may  present  itself  otherwise  to 
you,  for  various  reasons — such  as  absence,  presence  of  other 
guests,  or  need  of  quiet  and  solitude  for  the  composition  of 
Immortal  Works  !  So  I  merely  say  that  we  are  open  to  an 
offer,  say,  from  15th  to  18th  September,  and  that  our 
address  will  be  Whittingehame,  Prestonkirk,  N.B.  (I 
suppose  it  is  still  N.B.  even  from  Northumberland,  but  this 
I  leave  to  you.) 

We  have  been  attending  a  Congress  of  Psychologists  at 

1  Fraiilein  Luise  Kinkelin. 


1896,  AGE  58  HENEY  SIDGWICK  549 

Munich,  and  afterwards  travelling  in  Tirol.  (I  am  told  that 
one  does  not  say  "  the  Tirol,"  but  simply  "  Tirol " ;  and  to 
spell  it  with  a  "  y  "  is  nearly  as  bad  as  spelling  "  tyro  "  so.) 
Did  you  ever  dine  at  a  German  banquet  ?  The  speeches 
begin  after  the  soup,  and  between  each  speech  comes  a  dish 
to  be  consumed.  You  would  think  it  would  tend  to  make 
the  Speeches  short ;  but  no,  it  tends  to  make  the  dishes 
cold.  But  I  will  not  be  ungrateful.  The  beer  which  the 
Town  Council  of  Munich  presented  in  full  streams  to  over 
400  psychologists  was  first-rate. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns  from  Wliittingehame  on  September  10,  1896 

Shall  you  be  at  home  at  the  end  of  this  month  ?  Tenny- 
son has  asked  me  to  come  to  have  a  look  at  the  book,1 
and  I  should  like  to  have  a  night  at  least  with  you,  if  you 
are  at  home  and  have  a  bed  for  me. 

And  again  on  September  15 

Armenia !  I  have  not  heard  from  A.  J.  B.  anything  of 
what  is  being  done  (I  suppose  it  to  be  a  Cabinet  secret 
if  there  is  anything).  What  I  saw  of  public  opinion  abroad 
was  not  very  encouraging ;  it  did  not  appear  that  any 
nation  except  England  took  a  strong  enough  interest  in  the 
Armenians  to  risk  raising  the  Eastern  Question  for  their 
sake.  It  seems  to  me  that  at  the  present  stage  it  would  be 
a  mistake  for  England  to  try  isolated  action :  but  I  am 
inclined  to  approve  of  the  agitation  going  on,  as  more  likely 
to  strengthen  the  hands  of  Government  than  to  weaken 
them — at  least  so  long  as  it  is  kept  on  the  present  lines. 

I  am  glad  you  are  interested  in  Hodgson's  paper.2  The 
real  evidence  is  stronger  than  what  can  be  published,  owing 
to  need  of  suppressing  personal  things. 

It  was  soon  after  this  that  he  had  the  great  sorrow 
of  losing  his  brother-in-law,  Edward  White  Benson, 
who  died  suddenly  at  Hawarden  on  October  11,  1896. 
He  writes  to  Miss  Cannan  from  Cambridge  on 

1  The  Life  of  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson,  then  in  proof. 

-  A  further  paper  in  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  xii.,  about  the  Mrs.  Piper  referred 
to  above  (p.  502). 


550  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

November  5,  after  paying  his  sister  a  last  visit  at 
Addington  : — 

It  was  kind  of  you  to  write  and  tell  me  of  Mr.  Wheatley 
Balme's  l  death.  I  am  sorry  that  I  shall  not  see  him  again. 
He  was  one  of  the  last  links  remaining  with  the  older 
generation  of  friends  of  my  family — almost  all  the  rest  have 
"  joined  the  majority  " — and  his  hospitality  is  a  part  of  my 
earliest  memories  of  the  Lakes. 

I  went  on  Saturday  last  to  see  my  sister  for  the  last 
time  at  Addington.  She  has  borne  all  very  well,  and  I  hope 
will  get  through  the  dreary  business  of  breaking  up  the 
establishments  at  Lambeth  and  Addington  without  any 
serious  strain.  .  .  . 

Temple's  appointment  [as  Archbishop]  puts  strange 
memories  in  the  head  of  a  person  of  my  age.  Thirty-five 
years  ago  any  one  who  prophesied  it  would  have  been  a 
very  audacious  prophet.  But  no  one  now  impeaches  his 
orthodoxy  and  he  is  certainly  a  strong  man.  My  sister 
thinks  it  the  best  appointment  that  could  have  been  made. 

The  syndicate  appointed  to  consider  the  question 
of  degrees  for  women  published  its  report  on  March 
1,  1897.  It  recommended  that  titular  degrees  should 
be  conferred  on  women  who  had  passed  a  Tripos 
examination  in  accordance  with  the  existing  regula- 
tions, and  who  had  resided  for  nine  terms.  The  pro- 
posals were  discussed  in  the  Arts  Schools  on  March 
13,  15,  and  16.  Sidgwick  spoke  at  some  length,  but 
much  of  his  speech  was  of  course  directed  to  points  of 
temporary  interest ;  we  will  only  quote  one  para- 
graph : — 

The  University  of  Cambridge  in  1881  gave  the  sub- 
stance ;  it  is  now  considering  whether  or  not  it  should  give 
the  symbol.  You  have  evidence  laid  before  you,  showing 
that  the  symbol  is  required  to  produce  a  due  popular  valua- 
tion of  what  our  students  trained  here  have  done  and  the 
examinations  they  have  successfully  passed.  The  symbol 

1  His  godfather,  formerly  Mr.  Wheatley,  see  p.  5. 


1897,  AGE  58  HENRY  SIDGWICK  551 

is  required,  but  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  country  taken  as  a  whole  is  so  unintelligent  as  to 
value  the  symbol  more  than  the  substance.  That  is  not 
the  case.  The  view  throughout  the  circles  in  which  the 
truth  with  regard  to  educational  matters  is  known,  is  that 
the  Universities  have  already  taken  the  most  important 
step.  That  in  my  view  is  the  reason  why  it  is  not  only 
the  interest  of  women,  but  I  should  say,  quite  as  much  the 
interest  of  the  University  to  take  the  further  step  that  is 
to-day  proposed.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  provinces 
the  question  of  membership  falls  into  a  subordinate  place. 
What  they  mean  by  a  degree  is  a  recognised  stamp  of  the 
fact  that  the  student  has  successfully  passed  through  a 
course  of  education  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  They  cannot 
understand  your  action  in  refusing  it.  At  first  they  do  not 
believe  it ;  they  do  not  believe  when  they  are  told  that  the 
students  of  ISTewnham  and  Girton  have  passed  through  the 
same  course  as  the  undergraduate  students  pass  through. 
When  they  do  believe  it,  they  think  the  University  is 
either  absurd  or  unjust.  You  will  remove  that  impression 
throughout  the  country,  I  believe,  by  adopting  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Syndicate. 

According  to  custom  the  votes  were  not  taken  at 
the  same  time  as  the  discussion.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  opposition  became  more  and  more  active  and 
violent.  They  frightened  themselves  and  others  by 
what  seemed  to  the  supporters  of  the  proposals  to  be 
bugbears,  and  they  took  the  step  of  stirring  up  feel- 
ing among  the  undergraduates.1  The  violence  of  the 
opposition  alarmed  some  supporters  so  much  as  to 
induce  them  to  withdraw  even  at  the  last  minute. 
Much  discussion  was  carried  on  in  the  newspapers 
and  otherwise,  and  Sidgwick  took  a  very  active  part 
in  this,  answering  what  seemed  to  him  misstatements 

1  The  undergraduates  became  much  excited,  especially  on  the  day  of 
voting.  After  the  vote  a  considerable  number  of  them,  losing  their  heads 
and  their  manners,  came  up  to  Newnham  College  with  the  intention  of 
burning  on  the  lawn  an  effigy  of  a  woman  graduate.  They  were  met  with 
closed  gates,  and  after  a  little  time  induced  to  disperse. 


552  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

or  misleading  arguments.  The  voting  was  fixed  for 
May  21.  Sidgwick  writes  to  A.  C.  Benson  on 
May  5  : — 

May  we  count  on  you  for  Friday  21st  here  (1  to  3  P.M.)  ? 
We  shall  want  all  our  friends.  It  will  be  the  largest  vote 
ever  taken  on  both  sides :  but  the  opposition  is  very  strong. 

I  will  send  you  some  more  ideas  about  the  biography  *- 
after  the  21st! 

The  proposal  was  lost  by  1707  to  661  votes.  On 
May  24  he  writes  to  H.  G.  Dakyns  :— 

I  was  sorry  to  miss  you  on  Friday :  I  voted  as  near 
one  [o'clock]  as  I  could,  and  went  back  to  Newnham  to 
receive  Arthur  and  other  guests.  Then  when  I  got  back  to 
Senate -house  Yard  you  were  apparently  gone,  and  so  I 
supposed  missed  the  rotten  eggs,  crackers,  etc.,  that  enter- 
tained those  who  were  standing  in  Senate -house  Yard 
between  2  and  3  P.M.  However,  I  hope  you  saw  some  old 
friends  and  did  not  regret  coming.  I  may  assure  you  that 
the  votes  of  our  friends  were  no  less  important  to  us  than  if 
we  had  been  nearer  victory :  since  if  our  numbers  had  been 
much  weaker  there  would  have  been  a  serious  danger  of 
reactionary  measures.  I  hope  now  that  there  is  not  much 
danger  of  this. 

I  am  going  away  for  a  short  holiday — having  got  leave 
from  my  General  Board — in  the  hope  that  change  of  air 
may  revive  my  faculty  of  sleeping.  I  have  decided  to  go 
to  the  Isle  of  Wight  (partly  because  just  one  point  remains 
on  which  I  may  possibly  be  of  some  slight  service  to 
Tennyson  in  the  final  revision  of  vol.  ii.  [of  the  Life  of  his 
father]). 

Cromer  was  this  year  selected  for  a  residence  in 
the  worst  part  of  the  hay-fever  season,  and  the  long 
vacation  was  otherwise  spent  mainly  at  Cambridge  as 
usual. 

To  Lord  Tennyson  from  Cambridge,  October  19,  1897 
We    cannot    resist    your    kind    invitation   to    come    to 

1  Of  Archbishop  Benson. 


1898,  AGE  59  HENRY  SIDGWICK  553 

Farringford  in  the  winter — always  supposing  that  the  only 
time  available  to  us  should  be  found  to  suit  you,  viz.  the 
second  week  in  January.  (We  are  to  spend  Christmas  in 
Scotland.) 

The  chorus  of  commendation  appears  to  continue  with- 
out any  discordant  note  of  importance.  Even  the  Saturday 
Heview,  which  is  nothing  if  not  critical,  and  which  complains 
of  the  binding  of  your  book,  the  margins,  the  spelling  (it  is 
seriously  disturbed  by  your  spelling  "  Fitzgerald "  with  a 
small  "  g  ") — even  this  critical  organ  is  remarkably  appreci- 
ative as  regards  matters  of  weightier  import. 

To  Lord  Tennyson  from  Cambridge,  December  6 

I  have  been  very  busy  since  you  wrote  last — finishing  a 
book  l  and  writing  a  memo,  for  a  Royal  Commission.2  But 
meanwhile  I  have  got  hold  of  the  Oxford  Mag.  and  have 
been  much  pleased  with  the  review,  not  merely  that  it  is 
very  appreciative,  but  also  because  it  was  well  written  and 
evidently  by  a  good  judge.  I  am  afraid  that  the  general 
standard  of  literary  culture  is  higher  in  Oxford  than  Cam- 
bridge at  present,3  though  I  do  not  think  that  in  the 
department  of  Classics  there  is  any  one  whose  scholarly 
culture  is  quite  so  finished  as  Jebb's. 

He  was  much  interested  at  this  time  in  the  law  of 
Conspiracy  and  the  important  case  of  Allen  v.  Flood, 
and  writes  to  Mr.  Albert  Dicey  on  December  20, 
1897:— 

.  .  .  The  decision  seems  to  me  to  give  rise  inevitably  to 
the  following  dilemma.  The  inducement  supplied  by  Allen 
was  a  threat  of  concerted  action  on  the  part  of  a  number  of 
ironworkers.  The  action  threatened  was  either  (a)  legal  or 
(6)  illegal :  if  it  was  legal  then  why  is  not  ordinary  boy- 
cotting legal  (I  mean  boycotting  without  demonstrable  con- 

1  Practical  Ethics,  n  Collection  of  Addresses  and  Essays,  Swan  Sonnenschein, 
1898.     The  Preface  is  dated  November  1897. 

2  In  answer  to  questions  from  the  Royal  Commission  on  Local  Taxation  ; 
see  volume  of  Memoranda  published  by  the  Commission  in  1899,  p.  99  et  seq. 

3  There  had  been  an  inappreciative  review  of  the  Life  of  Tennyson  in  the 
Cambridge  fie  view. 


554  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

nection  with  outrages) :  if  it  was  illegal,  then  it  is  legal  for 
A  to  threaten  B  with  illegal  conduct  on  the  part  of  C,  D,  E, 
etc.,  which  conduct  he  must  be  supposed  to  have  some 
power  of  influencing.  This  seems  to  limit  the  notion  of 
illegal  incitation  so  closely  as  to  much  facilitate  boycotting 
practically,  even  though  it  makes  it  formally  illegal. 

I  hope  in  any  case  that  the  Law  of  Conspiracy  will 
come  before  the  House  of  Lords  soon. 

To  Lady  Rayleigh  (his  sister-in-law,  who  was  travelling  in 
India),  February  10,  1898 

I  have  been  thinking  that  you  owed  me  a  letter  to  tell 
me  how  far  the  volumes  I  recommended  after  a  hasty 
survey  were  found  to  correspond  to  the  facts  of  Indian 
Life,  as  noted  by  the  penetrating  eye  of  the  tourist.  But 
as  time  has  gone  on  I  have  gradually  come  to  suspect  that, 
what  with  sight-seeing,  the  weariness  of  Oriental  railway 
travelling,  and  the  profusion  of  entertainment  provided  by 
Anglo-Indian  hospitality — your  perusal  of  these  volumes 
has  been  more  limited  than  you  like  to  confess !  Mean- 
while I  have  been  so  much  interested  in  your  letters 
circulated  through  the  family  that  I  feel  my  claim  to  be 
written  to  has  vanished  and  turned  into  a  duty  to  write. 
But  there  is  very  little  to  say  that  can  interest  a  traveller 
about  this  part  of  the  world,  at  least  so  far  as  my  experi- 
ence of  it  goes.  Certainly  at  Cambridge  we  are  as  dull  as 
ditch-water;  an  unfortunate  simile,  because  the  one  topic 
about  which  we  are  a  little  agitated  is  our  Drainage,  on 
which  we  have  experimented  to  the  tune  of  £130,000,  with 
the  result  of  making  things  worse — if  the  plain  man's 
nerves  of  smell  are  a  criterion.  Doctors  disagree ;  but  on 
the  whole  we  are  most  of  us  glad  to  think  that  this  im- 
postor of  a  century  of  scientific  progress  in  the  arts  of 
civilisation  will  soon  be  over.  The  only  other  thing  we 
[the  University]  are  interested  in  is  our  poverty :  we  are 
wondering  whether  the  sums  dropped  into  the  hat  that  we 
are  holding  out  at  George  Darwin's  instigation  will  com- 
pensate for  the  humiliation  of  holding  it  out.  "We  haven't 


1898,  AGE  59  HENRY  SIDGWICK  555 

yet  nearly  enough  to  compensate — only  a  little  over  £3000 
— but  we  still  dream  of  the  millionaire  waking  up  to  the 
opportunity  of  undying  fame  that  we  have  offered. 

As  to  affairs  of  the  nation — the  most  important  event 
that  has  happened  since  you  left,  the  collapse  of  the 
Engineers'  strike,  I  unluckily  don't  know  enough  about. 
The  unqualified  triumph  of  the  masters  may  have  one  of 
two  opposite  effects  on  Trade  Unionism :  it  may  either 
make  it  more  moderate  or  more  Socialistic,  turning  its 
hopes  either  to  the  formation  of  a  Parliamentary  labour 
party  or  some  great  Union  of  federated  trades.  I  am  in- 
clined myself  to  think  that  it  will  have  the  first  effect  to 
begin  with  and  the  second  ultimately ;  but  I  have  not  been 
able  to  talk  the  prospects  over  with  any  one  really  "in 
the  know."  General  politics  are,  I  think,  very  dull ;  but 
perhaps  I  regard  them  with  the  jaundiced  eye  of  a  Liberal 
Unionist,  a  member  now  of  the  L.U.  Council.  I  have 
just  come  from  a  meeting  at  which — with  the  help  of  "  the 
Duke " — we  managed  to  be  cheerful  enough  as  long  as 
reporters  were  there :  but  when  reporters  were  gone, 
"  leakage "  and  how  to  stop  leakage  was  the  only  topic. 
The  humiliating  thing  is  that  we  pose  as  a  specially  intelli- 
gent part  of  the  community,  and  yet  have  to  confess  that 
"  leakage "  means  that  many  of  us  are  so  irredeemably 
stupid  as  to  believe  the  Home  Eule  question  dead. 

I  saw  Arthur  [Balfour]  on  Friday  ;  he  seemed  rather 
worried  as  well  as  hard -worked,  but  whether  it  was  by 
foreigners  or  colleagues  he  did  not  tell  me.  ...  So  far  as 
my  world  goes,  the  Government  is  not  popular :  there  is  a 
vague  feeling  that  England  is  not  having  things  her  own  way 
as  much  as  she  ought  to  and  that  it  must  be  the  Government's 
fault :  we  can  only  see  very  imperfectly  what  cards  are  dealt 
them,  but  we  can  see  they  don't  take  tricks.  If  they  had 
any  great  blow  anywhere  which  could  be  plausibly  repre- 
sented as  due  to  a  blunder  of  theirs,  I  think  this  vague 
dissatisfaction  might  be  intensified  into  dangerous  dislike. 

Tell  John  [Rayleigh]  that  I  was  especially  pleased  with 
his  letter  to  Nora ;  knowing  that  I  shall  never  travel  in 


556  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

India  myself,  I  am  cheered  by  contemplating  the  disagree- 
able side  of  the  operation.  I  hope,  however,  that  he 
enjoyed  his  eclipse  and  got  some  satisfying  glimpses  of 
Nature  in  the  North- West. 

In  1896  a  discussion  society  called  the  Synthetic 
Society,  somewhat  like  the  old  Metaphysical  Society, 
had  been  formed  through  the  action  of  a  group  of 
persons  differing  from  each  other  in  theological 
opinions,  and  yet  equally  desirous  of  union  in  the 
effort  to  find  a  philosophical  basis  for  religious  belief. 
It  met  in  London  five  or  six  times  in  the  season,  and 
among  its  members  it  counted  A.  J.  Balfour,  James 
Bryce,  F.  W.  Cornish,  Albert  Dicey,  Canon  Gore,  R.  B. 
Haldane,  Baron  Frederic  v.  Hugel,  R.  H.  Hutton, 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Sir  Alfred  Lyall,  Dr.  James 
Martineau,  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester 
(Dr.  Talbot),  Father  Tyrrell,  Mr.  Wilfrid  Ward,  who 
was  one  of  its  most  energetic  founders  and  with  Mr. 
George  Wyndham  acted  as  secretary,  and  later  Pro- 
fessor James  Ward.  Sidgwick  had  early  in  its 
progress  been  asked  to  join  the  Society,  but  the 
tendency  of  an  exciting  evening  to  produce  a  wakeful 
night  made  him  hesitate.  However,  his  interest  in 
the  questions  discussed,  and  his  old  love  of  good 
discussion,  were  irresistible,  and  he  was  elected  a 
member,  first  joining  in  the  discussions  in  1898. 
Canon  Gore,  now  Bishop  of  Birmingham,  spoke  of  him 
and  his  relation  to  this  Society  at  the  memorial 
meeting  held  at  Cambridge  in  November  1900,  to 
which  we  have  already  referred,  as  follows  :— 

But  two  years  ago  he  joined  a  Society  with  which  I 
was  connected.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the  Society  was  to  bring 
together  people  of  quite  different  points  of  view  in  order  that 
they  might  see  how  far  they  could  arrive  at  any  basis  of 
agreement  with  regard  to  those  matters  which  underlie  our 
life — the  great  principles  of  philosophy  and  religion ;  or  if 
it  was  plain  that  an  agreement  could  not  be  reached,  how  far 


1898,  AGE  59  HENKY  SIDGWICK  557 

they  could  contribute  anything  by  way  of  discussion  to  the 
mutual  understanding  of  one  another's  position.      At  once 
he  became   the   life  and  soul   of  that  Society,  so  much  so 
that  his  death  makes  us  wonder  whether  we  had  not  better 
die  too.     We  were  all,  or  most  of  us,  men  who  had  reached, 
or  were  getting  beyond,  middle  life ;  we  had  our  positions 
settled,   we   knew   what   we   thought  and    what   we   were 
unable  to  think.      To  most  of  us  it  was  quite  apparent  that 
we  should  not  change  our  views,  and  we  had  ceased  to  believe 
that  other  people  would  change  theirs.      Therefore,  though 
we  were  interested,  we  were  not  hopeful.      It  was   extra- 
ordinary the  difference  which  appeared  in  the  treatment  of 
questions  by  Henry  Sidgwick.     There  is  a  passage — a  very 
well-known  passage — in    the    Phaedo   of  Plato,  in  which, 
after  he  has  been  speaking  sadly  of  the  unsatisfactoriness 
of  the  arguments  for  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  he  yet 
declares   that    unless   some   Divine   word — I   think   I   am 
recalling  its  substance  correctly — should  give  us  a  better 
basis  of  security,  at  least  we  must  make  the  best  of  all  the 
human  arguments  we  can  get,  and  never  relax  the  earnest- 
ness of  our  inquiry  until  death.      That  was  what  was  so 
remarkable  in  Henry  Sidgwick — the  perpetual  hopefulness 
of  his  inquiry.      He  always  seemed  to  expect  that  some  new 
turn  of  argument,  some  new  phase  of  thought,  might  arise 
and  put  a  new  aspect  upon  the  intellectual  scenery,  or  give 
a  new  weight  in  the  balance  of  argument.     There  was  in 
him  an  extraordinary  belief  in  following  reason — a   belief 
and  a  hopefulness  which  continued  up  to  the  last.      This  is, 
I  venture  to  think,  a  quality  which  is  exceedingly  rare  in 
our  time,  for  mostly  when  we  have   settled   down   to   our 
positions  we  lose  any  real  hope  of  obtaining  any  strikingly 
new  light  on  the  deepest  matters.     It  was  quite  otherwise 
with   Sidgwick.     Although,   no  doubt,   you    felt    that    the 
dominant  quality  of  his  mind  was  sceptical,  though  he  was 
investigating,   and    then   reinvestigating — though    he    was 
expressing  doubt  and  then  doubting  the  expressed  doubt, 
and   then  doubting  the   doubt  about  the  doubt, — yet  the 
quality  of  his  mind  was  profoundly  different  from  ordinary 


558  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

scepticism :  for  it  was  inspired  by  a  fundamental  belief  in 
the  attainableness  of  positive  truth.  At  the  bottom  of  his 
mind  was  the  profound  desire  to  find  an  adequate  basis  on 
which  to  rest  a  positive  construction  of  a  worthy  life. 

Speaking  as  a  person  who  believes  that  in  our  lifetime 
we  are  much  more  likely  to  be  lacking  in  faith  than  in 
criticism,  I  yet  feel  that  it  is  those  of  us  whose  religious  faith 
is  clearest  who  ought  to  feel  most  peremptorily  the  need  of 
a  strenuous  criticism  such  as  that  which  Henry  Sidgwick's 
mind  was  always  supplying.  I  will  venture  just  to  recall 
the  subject  of  the  last  conversation  but  one  which  I  had 
with  him.  It  illustrated  the  extraordinary  vigour  of  mind 
with  which  he  was  perpetually  re-approaching  old  questions. 
He  was  telling  me  at  some  length  what  were  the  reasons 
which  in  quite  early  days  had  led  him  to  feel  that  the 
arguments  for  the  orthodox  belief  about  our  Lord,  about 
Jesus  Christ,  were  inadequate  ;  and  then,  with  a  touch  which 
was  so  characteristic  of  him,  he  said  he  had  sometimes  felt 
he  had  not  followed  sufficiently  the  turn  of  modern  criticism, 
and  that  he  sometimes  wondered  whether  the  modern 
critical  attitude  was  not  one  which  was  both  broader  and 
more  hopeful,  and  one  which  might  put  a  new  aspect  upon 
what  for  a  time  he  had  more  or  less  abandoned  thinking 
about.  So  he  put  before  me  detailed  questions,  greatly 
overestimating  my  powers  to  answer  them ;  and  I  said  that 
I  did  not  really  feel  able  to  answer  them,  but  that  if  he 
would  give  me  time  I  would  try  to  write  an  answer.  I 
wrote  him  a  letter,  to  which  I  got  a  prompt  reply ;  for  in 
the  interval  he  had  received  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
sentence  of  death ;  and  he  said  that  he  was  very  grateful 
for  my  letter,  but,  deeply  interested  as  he  was  in  the  inquiry, 
he  felt  that  now  it  would  have  to  be  undertaken  by  other 
people,  for  the  days  when  he  could  hope  to  do  fresh  work  of 
that  sort  were  over.  Yet  it  was  most  impressive  to  me — the 
extraordinary  energy  with  which  he  could  re-take  up  an  old 
question  with  a  thoroughgoing  hopefulness  as  to  new  light.1 

1  Dr.  Westcott,  Bishop  of  Durham,  well  expresses  a  similar  impression 
of  Sidgwick  in  a  sermon  preached  at  Trinity  College  in  December  1900,  and 


1898,  AGE  59  HENRY  SIDGWICK  559 

Sidgwick  read  the  principal  paper  of  the  evening 
at  two  meetings  of  the  Synthetic  Society — February 
25,  1898,  and  February  24,  1899.  The  first  was  a 
discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  evidence  for  Theism, 
and  concludes  with  the  following  paragraph  : — 

It  seems  to  me,  then,  that  if  we  are  led  to  accept  Theism 
as  being,  more  than  any  other  view  of  the  Universe,  con- 
sistent with,  and  calculated  to  impart  a  clear  consistency 
to,  the  whole  body  of  what  we  commonly  agree  to  take  for 
knowledge — including  knowledge  of  right  and  wrong — we 
accept  it  on  grounds  analogous  to  those  on  which  important 
scientific  conclusions  have  been  accepted ;  and  that,  even 
though  we  are  unable  to  add  the  increase  of  certitude 
derivable  from  verified  predictions,  we  may  still  attain  a 
sufficient  strength  of  reasoned  conviction  to  justify  us  in 
calling  our  conclusions  a  "  working  philosophy." 

The  paper  read  in  1899  was  on  Authority,  Scientific 
and  Theological.  These  papers  are  too  long  to  quote 
in  full  here,  but  as  they  express  Sidgwick's  latest 
views  on  important  subjects,  which  he  has  scarcely 
discussed  in  any  of  his  published  works,  it  seems  well 
to  give  them  in  an  Appendix  (see  App.  I.  p.  600). 

To  Wilfrid  Ward  on  March  4,  1898  (about  the  discussion 
at  the  Synthetic  Society  on  February  25) 

I  am  glad  too  that  the  discussion  seemed  to  [Lodge]  to 
"  make  for  approximation  to  agreement " :  the  phrase 
exactly  expresses  what  I  think  we  ought  to  aim  at ;  it  would 
be  idle  to  expect  more.  ...  In  opposing  your  argument  I 

published  in  Lessons  from  Work,  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1901.  He  says  :  "The 
thought  [that  a  University  is  a  natural  home  of  hope]  is  now  brought  very 
near  to  us  by  our  most  recent  loss.  For  hope  born  in  a  time  of  doubt  from 
an  unfaltering  belief  in  the  reality  of  truth  was,  I  think,  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  features  in  Prof.  Sidgwick's  nature.  Great  in  range  and 
exactness  of  knowledge,  great  in  subtlety  of  analysis,  great  in  power  of 
criticism,  he  was  still  greater  in  character.  He  offered  the  highest  type  of 
a  seeker  after  truth,  more  anxious  to  understand  an  opponent's  argument 
than  to  refute  him  :  watchful  lest  any  element  in  a  discussion  should  be  left 
unnoticed  ;  patient,  reverent,  ready  to  the  last  to  welcome  light  from  any 
quarter  ;  a  champion  always  of  things  just,  and  pure,  and  lovely  "  (p.  296, 
footnote). 


560  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

intended  to  limit  myself  to  the  sociological  point  of  view  ; 
from  which  morality  does  not  seem  to  me  to  lead  us  to 
Theism.  But  I  did  not  mean  to  say  that  I  could  be 
satisfied  with  [regarding]  morality  exclusively  from  this  point 
of  view  ;  quite  the  reverse.  I  hold  strongly  that  sociological 
inquiry  cannot  answer  the  deepest  questions  which  the 
individual,  reflecting  on  his  moral  judgments  and  impulses, 
is  inevitably  led  to  ask.  And  where  Sociology  fails,  the 
need  of  Theism — or  at  least  some  doctrine  establishing  the 
moral  order  of  the  world — seems  to  me  clear. 

To  Professor  Edgeworth  on  March  2  0 

Excuse  my  delay  in  answering  your  letter.  I  have  been 
busy  with  matters  very  remote  from  the  theory  of  taxa- 
tion. ...  It  seems  to  me  obvious  that  if  Ireland  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  separate  entity  at  all  financially,  the  first 
thing  to  do  is  to  compare  the  sums  raised  in  Ireland  by 
taxation  with  the  cost  of  the  Government  of  Ireland,  and 
see  what  surplus  remains  as  Ireland's  contribution  to  the 
common  expenses  of  the  United  Kingdom.  It  is  admitted 
that,  from  this  point  of  view,  she  is  primd  facie  in  debt  to 
England :  I  mean  that  she  contributes  about  a  million  less 
than  she  ought,  according  to  the  Commission's  view  of 
her  wealth,  assuming  that  she  ought  to  contribute  in 
proportion  to  her  wealth. 

It  is  said,  I  know,  that  the  expenses  of  Irish  Govern- 
ment are  largely  due  to  her  connection  with  Great  Britain. 
I  am  quite  willing  to  admit  that  this  may  possibly  be  the 
case ;  but  the  OWLS  probandi  is  on  the  other  side,  and  I 
have  never  seen  a  serious  attempt  to  shoulder  the  burden 
by  detailed  arguments.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  the  kind 
of  question  that  can  be  settled  by  a  general  compromise. 

But  the  theoretically  important  issue  between  us  is 
as  to  the  principle  of  equal  sacrifice.  I  think,  however, 
that  the  difference  of  opinion  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that 
my  consideration  of  the  matter  is  less  abstract  than  yours. 
It  seems  to  me  that  if  we  adopt  the  English  system  of 
national  not  local  taxation — i.e.  tax  the  poor  majority  only 


1898,  AGE  59  HENKY  SIDGWICK  561 

through  luxuries,  and  chiefly  dangerous  luxuries  —  the 
principle  of  "  equal  sacrifice "  cannot  be  carried  out :  we 
must  let  off  total  abstainers.  If  you  reply  that  we  ought 
still  to  carry  it  out  as  far  as  possible,  then  my  answer  is 
that  I  am  willing  to  aim  at  a  certain  approximation  to  it 
— as  between  rich  and  poor,  or  generally  different  income- 
classes — but  that  on  the  whole  the  best  ideal  to  aim  at  in 
scaling  this  approximation  seems  to  me  to  be  proportion- 
ment  of  taxation  to  income.  I  admit  that  I  choose  this  on 
political  rather  than  economical  grounds,  i.e.  on  account 
of  its  clearness  and  definiteness  compared  to  the  principle 
of  equal  sacrifice.  The  latter  seems  to  me,  in  concrete 
application  to  the  English  system  of  taxation,  to  involve 
so  many  elements  that  cannot  be  valued  otherwise  than 
arbitrarily. 

As  regards  the  advantages  of  voluntary  taxation,  I  admit 
force  in  your  rejoinder.  But  you  do  not  seem  to  me  to 
consider — and  indeed  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  quantitatively 
— the  gain  of  feeling  that  one  might  avoid  paying  taxes  if 
one  liked ;  or  rather  perhaps  I  should  say,  the  absence  of 
the  feeling  of  being  obliged  to  pay.  This  is  enjoyed  by 
consumers  of  spirits  and  tobacco,  as  well  as  by  abstainers. 
I  quite  admit  that  I  can  give  no  numerical  estimate  of  it : 
but  I  certainly  feel  that  it  would  be  very  real  to  me  if  I 
was  living  on  £100  a  year. 

There  is  plenty  more  to  say,  but  I  must  not  write  a 
treatise:  especially  as  I  am  off  to-morrow  to  the  Italian 
Lakes.3 

This  proved  to  be  his  last  tour  abroad,  and,  like 
his  first,  included  the  Italian  Lakes  and  the  plain  of 
Lombardy.  It  was  successfully  made  in  company 
with  his  wife  and  the  Arthur  Sidgwicks ;  the  lakes  of 
Lugano  and  Como  were  visited,  and  also  the  towns  of 
Saronno,  Milan,  Pavia,  Verona,  Venice. 

1  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  some  of  the  points  dealt  with  in  this  letter 
compare  Sidgwick's  Note,  written  for  the  Royal  Commission  on  the 
Financial  Relations  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  published  in  1895  in 
the  Report  of  the  Commission,  second  volume,  p.  180. 

2o 


562  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP.  VH 

To  Lord  Tennyson  from  Cambridge  on  April  19 

...  I  did  not  give  a  five-accent  line  because  I  assumed 
it  as  the  normal  or  typical  line,  from  which  the  others  are 
deviations.  But  it  is  not  every  five-accent  line  that  is 
normal :  to  be  normal  it  must  have  the  accents  all  on 
the  even  syllables — second,  fourth,  sixth,  eighth,  tenth.  .  .  . 
The  mistake  that  people  commonly  make  is  not  in  con- 
ceiving the  normal  line  wrong,  nor  in  failing  to  recognise 
the  fact  of  deviations,  but  in  vaguely  supposing  something 
incorrect  and  licentious  in  deviation — as  though  the  ideal 
were  to  have  as  many  normal  lines  as  possible. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  Pope's  metre  affords  the 
best  means  of  delivering  beginners  from  this  elementary 
error.  For  Pope  is  a  writer  who  aims  in  a  specially  marked 
way  at  a  balanced  antithesis  between  two  parts  of  a  line : 
and  it  is  obviously  easier  to  get  a  metrical  balance  between 
the  two  parts  with  four  accents  or  six — which  can  be 
arranged  in  two  twos  or  two  threes — than  with  Jive. 
Hence,  when  he  wants  a  balance  combined  with  lightness 
of  movement,  he  naturally  tends  to  four-accent  lines : — 

A  timorous  f6e  and  a  suspicious  friend. 
Fop  at  the  toilet,  flatterer  at  the  board. 
Sporus  at  Court  or  Japhet  in  a  jaiL 

On  the  other  hand,  when  he  wants  balance  with  weight,  he 
tends  similarly  to  six-accent  lines : — 

Damn  with  faint  praise,  assent  with  civil  Ider. 
S61e  judge  of  truth,  in  endless  error  hurled. 

It  seems  to  me  absolutely  clear  that  the  metrical  construc- 
tion of  both  kinds  of  lines  is  entirely  missed  unless  the 
accentual  balance  between  the  two  parts  is  kept ;  and  to 
keep  this  balance  we  have  distinctly  to  recognise  that  there 
are  not  five  accents,  but  four  or  six,  as  the  case  may  be : 
while  still  keeping  the  five-accent  type  in  the  background 
of  one's  mind  as  the  standard  from  which  the  deviations  are 
instinctively  measured. 

Also,  though  Pope  rarely  deviates  from  the  normal  so 


1898,  AGE  59  HENEY  SIDGWICK  563 

far  as  three-accent  or  semi-accent  lines,  he  knows  how  to 
use  either  of  these  with  effect,  e.g. 

Or  ravished  with  the  whistling  of  a  name  (Essay  on  Man), 
is  a  fine  three-accent  line.      So,  again, 

And  strains  from  hard-bound  brains  eight  lines  a  year 

(Epistle  to  Arbuthnof), 

is  a  clever  adaptation  of  the  seven-accent  line  to  express 
the  idea  of  laborious  composition. 

To  Wilfrid  Ward  from  Cambridge,  April  28 

I  wish  very  much  that  I  could  come  to  the  discussion 
to-morrow ;  but  I  fear  the  state  of  my  health  forbids.  I 
came  back  from  Italy  three  weeks  ago  with  a  cold  and 
cough  which  I  have  not  been  able  to  shake  off,  and  which 
is  rather  depressing  my  vitality;  I  feel  bound  to  take  care 
of  it,  and  am  afraid  I  must  regard  the  journey  to  London 
and  Synthetic  debate  as  excluded  by  reasonable  self-regard. 
I  am  very  sorry  to  have  thus  missed  two  discussions,  both  of 
which  I  should  have  liked  to  hear.  Last  time  was  in  the 
middle  of  my  vacation,  and  I  had  a  prior  engagement  of 
long  standing  at  the  Italian  Lakes. 

I  shall  be  much  interested  in  reading  your  Quarterly 
Article  on  "  Eeligious  Conformity."  What  I  said  in  that 
Essay  does  not  seem  to  have  given  much  offence,  but  the 
following  Essay  on  "  Clerical  Veracity  " *  has  drawn  protests 
private  and  public  ;  but  the  protests  seem  to  me  to  be  unable 
to  disengage  the  ethical  from  the  theological  question. 

The  summer  term  of  1898  brought  Sidgwick 
another  disappointment  in  academic  affairs  in  the 
refusal  of  the  Cambridge  Senate  to  admit  St. 
Edmund's  House  as  a  public  hostel.  St.  Edmund's 
House  was  established  to  give  young  men  in  train- 
ing for  the  Roman  Catholic  secular  priesthood,  and 
therefore  under  special  discipline,  an  opportunity  of 
reading  for  degrees  in  honours.  Its  students  could, 
under  existing  regulations,  be  non -collegiate  students, 

1  Two  of  the  essays  in  his  Practical  Ethics. 


564  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

but  its  founders  and  managers  were  naturally  anxious 
that  it  should  be,  as  an  institution,  in  direct  relation 
with  the  University,  and  independent  of  the  Non- 
Collegiate  Students'  Board.  The  Ordinance  in- 
stituting Public  Hostels  like  Selwyn  College  met 
the  case.  This  Ordinance,  passed  in  1882,  when 
Selwyn  College  was  founded,  provided  for  the 
recognition  of  institutions  which,  relatively  to  the 
undergraduates  studying  in  them,  are  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  colleges,  but  which  do  not  hold  the 
constitutional  position  in  the  government  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  University  held  by  Colleges 
proper.  Sidgwick's  general  desire  for  the  open  door 
in  University  affairs  naturally  led  him  to  wish  that 
St.  Edmund's  House  should  be  recognised,  and  to 
regard  the  opposite  view  as  curiously  illiberal.  The 
following  fly-sheet  which  he  issued  on  the  subject 
explains  his  view  :— 

I  am  astonished  to  read  Mr. 's  statement — made 

in  absolutely  unqualified  terms — that  the  Act  of  1871 
"  left  the  University  system  undenominational."  The  state- 
ment is  doubtless  true  with  regard  to  all  departments 
except  Theology :  but  as  regards  this  department  it  is  the 
reverse  of  the  truth :  and  the  exception  is  obviously  of 
fundamental  importance  when  we  are  considering  the 
question  of  admitting  a  denominational  hostel.  The  Act  of 
1871  left  the  whole  official  teaching  of  Theology,  in  the 
University  and  its  federated  Colleges,  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  Church  of  England  :  and  actually,  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  provisions  of  this  Act,  there  are  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  Theological  Lectureships  in  the  Colleges,  besides  six 
University  Professorships  (including  the  Professorship  of 
Hebrew)  occupied  by  Anglican  clergymen.  Now,  even  if 
these  posts  were  all  equally  open  to  members  of  all 
denominations,  I  should  still  be  willing  to  admit  denomina- 
tional hostels ;  holding  that  the  advantages  of  strictly 
unsectarian  education — like  other  good  things — are  more 
likely  to  be  appreciated  if  it  is  not  forced  down  the  throats 


1898,  AGE  GO  HENKY  SIDGWICK  565 

of  people  who  want  something  else.  Still,  if  the  University 
system  had  thus  been  made  completely  unsectarian,  the 

position  taken  up  by  Mr.  and  his  allies  would  be  at 

any  rate  compatible  with  fair  and  equal  treatment  of  all 
sects.  We  might  then  have  said  with  truth  to  St.  Edmund's 
House :  "  This  is  a  strictly  undenominational  University : 
we  cannot  let  you  in :  you  will  introduce  the  taint  of 
denominationalism  from  which  we  are  now  free."  But  we 
can  hardly  have  the  face  to  say  this,  with  the  Church  of 
England  established  and  endowed  in  the  ample  and  exclusive 
manner  above  described.  It  seems  to  me  that  in  this  state 
of  things  common  fairness  would  require  us  to  allow  other 
denominations  to  establish  public  hostels,  if  they  like,  even 
if  Selwyn  College  had  never  been  admitted.  But  to  refuse 
this  privilege  to  other  denominations,  after  granting  it  to 
the  Church  of  England,  appears  to  me  to  be  in  effect — 

though  not,  of  course,  in  the  intention  of  Mr. and  his 

friends — an  act  of  gross  and  palpable  partisanship. 

Whether  such  hostels  are  likely  to  be  founded,  if  the 
permission  to  found  them  be  freely  granted,  is  a  different 
question,  which  it  does  not  seem  to  me  necessary  to  decide. 
But  my  opinion  is  that  they  are  not  likely  to  be  founded, 
so  long  as  the  Theological  teaching  in  the  University  and 
the  Colleges  is  carried  on  in  the  thoroughly  academic  spirit 
in  which  it  is  actually  carried  on,  and  is  as  free  as  I  believe 
it  actually  to  be  from  aggressive  and  proselytising  tendencies. 
So  long  as  this  spirit  continues  to  prevail,  I  think  that  Pro- 
testant Nonconformists  will  generally  prefer  to  send  their 
sons  to  the  older  Colleges  :  and  the  fact  that  no  one  of  these 
denominations  has  made  an  attempt  to  found  a  denomina- 
tional hostel,  during  the  fifteen  years  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  admission  of  Selwyn,  tends  strongly  to  support  this 
view.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  of  the 
controversy  over  the  Ordinance  instituting  Public  Hostels  it 
was  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course — New  Liberalism  not 
having  yet  been  invented — that  the  question  practically  at 
issue  was  the  general  question  of  admitting  denominational 
Colleges,  not  the  particular  question  of  admitting  Selwyn. 


566  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

Perhaps  I  may  be  allowed  to  quote — partly  as  evidence  of 
this,  partly  because  it  expresses  the  view  that  I  still  hold 
on  this  general  question — the  concluding  paragraph  of  a  fly- 
sheet  issued  at  the  time  of  this  controversy  by  the  late  Rev. 
Coutts  Trotter  and  myself  [on  May  31,1882], 

The  question  of  tests  is  more  serious. 

We  agree  with  the  memorialists  in  holding  that  the  best 
academic  education  is  to  be  obtained  in  institutions  where  men 
of  different  opinions  are  allowed  to  mix  together  on  a  footing 
of  perfect  equality,  but  we  cannot  see  that  it  is  either  just  or 
expedient  to  deny  to  others  who  think  differently  the  right  to 
provide  institutions  in  which  they  may  associate  together  on 
such  terms  as  they  find  suitable.  In  our  view  it  was  right  to 
claim  that  the  advantages  of  the  old  foundations  should  be 
thrown  open  to  the  nation  at  large :  it  would  be  wrong  to 
insist  that  all  the  educational  institutions  of  the  University 
should  be  framed  on  the  model  which  we  think  best.  If 
denominational  Hostels  of  a  narrow  type  increase  and  flourish 
so  as  to  become  an  important  factor  in  University  life  we  shall 
regret  the  result,  but  not  our  votes  of  next  Thursday.  Such 
a  state  of  things  would  show  that  the  institutions  had  met  a 
widely-felt  want,  the  satisfaction  of  which  we  had  neither  the 
right  nor,  in  the  end,  the  power  to  forbid. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  hope  and  expect,  the  impulse  to 
found  denominational  Hostels  should  prove  to  be  comparatively 
weak,  and  the  exclusiveness  of  such  as  may  be  founded  should 
gradually  yield  to  the  liberalising  influences  of  the  place,  we 
shall  have  got  all  we  want  without  feeling  that  we  have  tried 
to  interfere  with  any  reasonable  experiment,  or  that  we  have 
allowed  the  stigma  of  intolerance  to  rest  upon  Cambridge 
liberalism. 

But,  finally,  it  is  urged  that  St.  Edmund's  House  is 
worse  than  an  ordinary  denominational  College,  since  it  is 
confined  to  those  preparing  for  the  clerical  profession. 
This  seems  to  me  captious.  We  must  take  a  broad  view 
of  the  policy  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  reference  to  Cam- 
bridge and  Oxford,  and  look  at  it  as  a  whole  :  and  when  we 
so  regard  it,  the  fact  that  the  Church  is  willing  that  its  lay 
members  should  receive  their  education  at  the  older  Colleges 
surely  implies  a  much  larger  measure  of  acceptance  on  its 
part  of  the  educational  aspects  of  our  system  than  would 


1898,  AGE  60  HENEY  SIDGWICK  567 

be  implied  in  a  proposal  to  found  a  Koman  Catholic  hostel 
for  laity  and  clergy  alike. 

In  June  of  this  year  Sidgwick  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  honorary  degrees  conferred  by  the  University 
on  his  friends  Mr.  Bryce  and  Mr.  Albert  Dicey — 
eminently  persons  whom  he  thought  the  University 
honoured  itself  by  honouring.1 

To  Mrs.  William  Sidgwick,  June  25 

Have  you  seen  Bernard  Shaw's  plays  ?  He  has  published 
them  in  two  volumes,  labelled  "  pleasant "  and  "  unpleasant " 
respectively ;  and  the  names  are  quite  appropriate.  The 
last  in  the  "  pleasant "  volume  [  You  Never  Can  Tell]  amused 
me  much. 

To  Horatio  F.  Brown  from  Cambridge,  July  2 

I  have  long  been  meaning  to  write  to  you  about  your 
article  on  Sarpi,  which  I  read  twice  with  much  interest.  It 
gives  a  clear  and  vivid  impression  of  a  striking  character 
and  figure.  One  criticism  occurred  to  me  : — the  specimens 
you  give  of  his  "ironical  humour"  on  pp.  263,  264,  are 
rather  disappointing.  .  .  .  On  the  other  hand,  the  phrase  you 
quote  in  the  preceding  paragraph — "  the  beginning  and  the 
end  are  clear,  a  safe-conduct  and  a  pyre " — seems  to  me 
excellently  characteristic  of  the  man  and  the  style  that  you 
describe.  (And  it  is  a  phrase  widely  applicable  to  the 
conduct  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  secular  matters.)  But 
the  important  criticism  which  I  had  to  make  on  your  essay 
refers  to  its  historical,  not  its  biographical,  aspect.  When 
I  say  "  criticism  "  I  use  too  pretentious  a  word.  I  should 
rather  say  a  vague  sense  of  disagreement  which  might  have 
solidified  itself  into  criticism  if  I  had  found  time  to  extend 
my  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  relevant  historical  facts. 
But  I  am  too  busy  with  other  matters :  so  I  will  only  give 
it  you  briefly  in  its  vague  form.  It  seems  to  me  that  you 
attach  somewhat  too  much  importance  to  the  struggle  of 
Venice  with  the  Pope — in  which  Sarpi  plays  a  part — con- 

1  See  chap.  vi.  pp.  489,  490. 


568  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

sidered  in  relation  to  European  history  generally.  Was  not 
the  tendency  of  the  Reformation  and  its  consequences  irre- 
sistible on  the  side  of  the  secular  power  ?  Was  it  not 
certain  that  when  the  chaotic  conflict  came  to  an  end  the 
State,  unified  on  a  monarchical  basis,  would  be  decisively 
predominant  over  the  Church — in  Catholic  as  well  as 
Protestant  countries  alike,  speaking  broadly  ?  Take  Spain, 
the  leading  State  undisputedly  loyal  to  Catholicism :  it  always 
seemed  to  me  that  Philip  II.  was  for  practical  purposes 
nearly  as  autocratic  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  as  Henry  VIII. ! 
This  is,  of  course,  an  exaggeration :  but  at  any  rate  one 
finds  him  regulating  the  details  of  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
refusing  to  admit  the  Pope's  bulls  and  despatches  when  they 
contravene  his  policy,  appointing  archbishops  and  bishops, 
etc.  The  Inquisition  is  his  instrument,  not  the  Pope's :  it 
is  he  who  gives  it  orders :  he  names,  dismisses,  and  controls 
the  inquisitors.  In  fact,  in  spite  of  his  fanaticism,  one 
finds  him  using  the  Inquisition  for  purely  secular  purposes 
— much  to  the  Pope's  disgust — when  the  instruments  of 
his  ordinary  administration  fail.  His  fanaticism  is  intense  : 
but  it  is  limited  by  a  still  intenser  belief  in  himself  and  his 
sovereign  rights. 

However,  this  is  becoming  a  lecture :  which  is  very 
inappropriate,  as  I  feel  you  know  more  about  the  matter 
than  I  do. 

I  wonder  if  this  will  find  you  still  in  Venice.  We  look 
back  with  much  pleasure  to  our  brief  visit — though  the  cold 
I  caught  there  lingered  beyond  the  end  of  our  inclement 
English  April !  But  I  was  consoled  by  many  agreeable 
recollections,  including  your  "  casa." 

Graham  Dakyns  came  to  see  me  on  May  31st,  to  cele- 
brate my  sixtieth  birthday  with  due  solemnity.  Do  you 
know  the  doctrine  called  '  Christian  Science,'  which  I  hear  is 
becoming  fashionable?  Its  creed  is  that  diseases,  pains, 
etc.,  are  illusions  which  may  be  dispelled  by  a  sufficiently 
resolute  disbelief  in  their  existence.  We  agreed  that  the 
method  was  applicable — if  not  to  Gout  or  Influenza — at 
any  rate  to  the  disease  called  Old  Age. 


1898,  AGE  60  HENEY  SIDGWICK  569 

To  Bishop  Creighton  from  Cambridge,  August  30 

[He  had  sent  his  book  Practical  Ethics  to  the  Bishop,  who  in 
writing  to  thank  him  had  said :  "  But  there  is  a  point  which 
you  have  not  touched  on — the  moral  influence  on  his  generation 
of  a  public  man.  Take  Bismarck,  for  instance ;  he  lowered  the 
tone  of  European  diplomacy.  How  is  this  to  be  set  against  his 
positive  achievements  ?  The  sort  of  moral  judgment  I  am 
frequently  led  to  is  of  this  sort,  '  His  aims  were  for  the  good  of 
his  country,  as  it  was  then  understood,  its  territorial  extension, 
etc.,  etc. ;  but  in  pursuing  these  aims  he  told  so  many  lies,  and 
did  so  many  brutal  actions,  and  showed  such  an  example  of 
personal  selfishness  that  I  do  not  know  whether  he  did  more 
good  to  the  material  interests  of  his  country,  or  harm  to  its 
spiritual  growth.'  The  educational  effect  of  the  doings  of  a 
prominent  man  is  enormous :  how  are  we  to  appraise  it  with 
other  qualities  and  achievements  ? "] 

I  should  have  thanked  you  before  for  your  interesting 
letter  about  my  little  book,  but  I  thought  that  your  holiday 
would  probably  be  still  more  "  Epicurean "  the  fewer  the 
letters  that  intruded  into  it.  So  I  send  this  not  to  be  for- 
warded— nor  answered.  But  I  should  like  to  say  that 
the  omission  you  note  in  my  essay  on  Public  Morality  is  one 
of  which  I  am  quite  conscious :  and  I  entirely  agreed  with 
what  you  said  about  it.  The  difficulty  of  weighing  material 
gain  against  moral  loss  is  one  which  I  was  conscious  of  not 
being  able  to  deal  with  in  a  manner  that  would  satisfy  or 
edify  the  'plain  man,'  for  whom  my  little  volume  was 
supposed  to  be  written.  I  have  no  moral  scales  in  which 
I  can  balance  these  disparate  values  :  that  is,  when  anything 
like  a  delicate  balance  is  required.  Practically,  I  find  that 
when  my  mind  comes  to  a  clear  decision  on  a  particular 
problem  of  this  class,  it  is  not  because  I  can  establish  any 
sort  of  '  ratio  of  exchange ' — so  much  material  gain  =  so 
much  moral  loss — but  because  one  or  other  of  the  values 
compared,  either  the  gain  or  the  loss,  seems  to  me  much 
more  certain  than  the  other  in  the  particular  case. 

As  regards  Acton's  view  of  the  historian's  duty  to  pro- 
nounce moral  judgments,  I  am  inclined  to  say  that  it  is  not 
the  historian's  business  to  be  either  judge  or  advocate,  but 


570  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

merely  to  give  the  reader  such  means  of  judging — if  the 
reader  wishes  to  judge — as  his  superior  knowledge  enables 
him  to  give.  The  plain  man  is  sure  to  want  to  judge,  and 
may  be  left  to  do  this ;  but  certainly  the  contemporary 
moral  code,  so  far  as  this  is  ascertainable,  is  a  historical 
fact  which  he  ought  to  know  before  judging,  and  it  is  a 
part  of  the  historian's  business  to  ascertain  whatever  can 
be  known  about  this.  But  on  this  point  I  think  we  are 
agreed ;  at  any  rate  I  have  always  liked  your  method  of 
dealing  with  such  problems — of  which  there  were  plenty  in 
your  period. 

To  Mrs.  William  Sidgwick  from  Cambridge,  October  6 

I  came  back  here  on  Monday  to  work  at  a  Trinity 
Fellowship  Dissertation  on  which  I  have  to  report,  and  look 
over  examination  papers.  .  .  .  The  work  of  the  term  is 
already  upon  us  both,  so  I  fear  we  cannot  get  away  for 
the  smallest  visit.  We  have  been  spending  most  of 
September  at  Whittingehame ;  and  last  Sunday  we  went 
to  the  Bryces,  who  have  built  themselves  a  rural  house 
in  Sussex,  near  Forest  Kow ;  attractive  place  with  views 
and  woods.  This  closed  our  holiday.  ...  I  am  sorry 
I  cannot  come  to  stay  with  you,  and  would  come  if  I  could 
possibly  squeeze  out  the  time,  but  I  am  plagued  with 
a  set  of  new  lectures. 

The  new  set  of  lectures  was  a  course  on  meta- 
physics. Since  1895  he  had  been  lecturing  mainly 
on  Ethics  and  Politics  ;  in  1898-99  and  the  following 
year  he  lectured  on  Ethics  and  on  Metaphysics,  and 
in  the  Easter  term  of  1899  also  gave  a  course  of 
lectures  on  Political  Science  and  Sociology. 

To  A.  C.  Benson,  October  7 

I  hope  you  are  getting  to  the  end  of  your  labours  *  in 
a  cheerful  frame  of  mind — if  any  book  was  ever  finished 
[otherwise]  than  in  a  state  of  dissatisfaction  (none  of  mine 
ever  were,  except  a  "  Manual "). 

1  The  Life  of  his  father. 


1898,  AGE  60  HENKY  SIDGWICK  571 

I  owe  you  thanks  for  sending  nie  your  "  Memorial  Ode ' 
(4th  of  June).  Why  I  did  not  send  them  before  I  can 
hardly  explain,  but  I  thought  it  excellent,  omne  tulit 
punctum ;  it  was  both  moving  and  edifying. 

To  F.  W.  Cornish  from  Cambridge,  December  1 8 

I  am  much  interested  to  learn  that  your  book  [Sunning- 
well]  is  so  near  publication,  and  have  no  doubt  that  I  shall 
like  to  read  what  your  unorthodox  Canon  has  to  say  for 
himself — though,  as  you  say,  I  fear  I  shall  not  approve  of 
his  unorthodoxy  and  Canonicity  combined.  I  have  much 
sympathy  both  with  Anglicanism  and  what  F.  Harrison 
called  "  Neochristianity,"  but  the  mixture  of  the  two  is 
liable  to  result  in  some  form  of  the  "  pia  fraus "  which  it 
[is]  my  special  aim  to  urge  mankind  to  leave  behind.  The 
times  past  of  our  well-intentioned  deceptions  God  winked 
at — at  least  I  hope  so — but  now  commandeth  all  men  to 
worship  with  sincerity  and  truth.  You  must  remember  that 
it  is  "  mon  metier  d'etre  "  moraliste. 

I  wish  sincerely  that  we  could  come  to  you,  as  you 
kindly  propose.  But  this  Christmas  vacation  I  have  to 
devote  to  "  labor  improbus "  on  my  metaphysical  lectures 
for  next  term.  The  only  break  I  can  allow  myself  is  a  day 
at  Oxford  to  keep  Arthur's  "  Silver  Wedding,"  December  30, 
which  I  shall  extend  to  two  days  to  go  round  by  London 
to  see  [Kegan]  Paul.  We  must  meet  after  your  book  is  out ! 

To  Wilfrid  Ward,  in  Italy,  from  Cambridge,  December  21 

What  you  say x  about  my  article  leaves  me  nothing  to 
quarrel  with — at  any  rate  at  present ;  perhaps  I  may  find 
some  ground  for  picking  a  quarrel  when  I  see  [your]  article 
in  its  final  form ;  but  at  present  I  do  not  find  it.  I  may 
possibly  write  something  in  answer  to  what  you  say,  as  the 
Editor  of  the  International  Journal  of  Ethics — in  which  my 
article  on  "  Ethics  of  Conformity  "  appeared — has  asked  me 
for  another  article ;  and  I  am  rather  inclined  to  write  one 

1  In  the  draft  of  an  article  on  "Ethics  of  Religious  Conformity,"  which 
appeared  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for  January  1899. 


572  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

explaining  the  purely  ethical  standpoint  of  the  former,  and 
its  independence  of  any  theological  assumptions.1  The 
struggle  between  Freedom  and  Authority,  in  this  depart- 
ment, must  certainly  go  on,  and  I  do  not  pretend  to 
forecast  its  ultimate  issue,  though  quite  willing  to  discuss 
sympathetically  any  suggestion  of  a  modus  vivendi  between 
the  two  principles ;  but  my  special  point  is  that  it  will  be 
earned  on  under  better  conditions,  intellectual  and  moral, 
if  we  uphold  and  enforce  the  simple  ethical  demand  for 
sincerity  in  solemn  utterances  of  theological  beliefs. 
However,  this  does  not  concern  the  Synthetic  Society, 
and  I  shall  not  drag  it  into  anything  I  may  write  for  them. 

To  Wilfrid  Ward  from  Cambridge,  December  28 

Your  letter  on  Italian  politics  is  very  interesting.  Two 
points  occurred  to  me  on  reading  it. 

I  had  always  supposed  the  Catholics,  though  prevented 
by  principle  from  taking  part  in  revolutionary  movements, 
still  looked  on  them  not  without  satisfaction,  in  the  hope 
that  if  the  existing  political  order  were  overthrown,  some 
form  of  Federation  might  be  attained  in  which  the  Pope 
might  recover  his  old  territory  or  a  part  of  it.  I  always 
thought  this  chimerical,  but  I  supposed  it  was  more 
or  less  in  the  minds  of  the  Catholics.  Now  your  account 
does  not  suggest  this ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  does  not 
expressly  exclude  it.  If  such  ideas  exist,  they  would  seem 
to  render  any  such  modus  vivendi  as  you  suggest  of  more 
doubtful  value  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  partisans  of 
the  existing  regime ;  as  any  concession  might  be  used  as  a 
basis  for  more  effective  subsequent  action,  in  case  the  revolu- 
tionary opportunity  offered.  But  if  this  is  not  so,  and  the 
Catholics  would  sincerely  accept  an  arrangement  that  would 
secure  the  Pope's  independence  in  the  Leonine  City,  this 
certainly  seems  a  small  price  to  pay  for  definitive  harmony. 

But  even  as  things  are,  is  there  really  any  ground  for 
fear  of  interference  with  the  Pope's  spiritual  authority? 
I  mean  has  the  Italian  monarchy  ever  done  anything  that 

1  This  article  was  not  written. 


1899,  AGE  eo  HENRY  SIDGWICK  573 

would  give  occasion  for  this  fear  ?  Or  is  the  fear  [this,]  that 
it  might  do  something,  if  a  'modus  vivendi  were  established 
that  did  not  provide  sufficient  guarantee  for  independence  ? 

To  Wilfrid  Ward,  January  16,  1899 

I  shall  be  happy  to  accept  the  honour  of  being  Vice- 
Chairman  of  the  Synthetic  Society,  if  it  does  not  involve  an 
implied  obligation  to  be  present  at  all  the  meetings.  For  I 
expect  to  be  out  of  England  between  March  16  and  April 
24.  I  could  come,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  meetings  not 
within  these  limits. 

.  .  .  As  far  as  I  see  at  present,  my  paper  is  likely 
to  turn  on  the  profound  difference  between  modern 
scientific  authority  and  theological  authority,  the  former 
being  the  unconstrained  consensus  of  unfettered  inquirers 
after  truth,  and  the  latter  being — but  the  adjectives  here 
require  careful  thinking  over.  However,  you  see  the 
general  idea  of  the  thing.  Still  I  should  like  to  be  free  to 
change  my  views  after  the  debate. 

In  the  paper  which  he  read  in  February  (see 
Appendix  I.  p.  608)  he  avoided  the  difficulty  by 
merely  putting  the  proposition  in  the  negative : — 

The  agreement  of  Theologians  (he  says)  has  not  the 
characteristics  that  I  have  given  above,  as  essential  to  the 
authority  of  a  scientific  '  consensus  of  experts.'  That  is,  it 
is  not  the  unconstrained  agreement  of  individual  thinkers, 
pursuing  truth  with  unfettered  independence  of  judgment 
and  unfettered  mutual  criticism,  encouraged  to  probe  and 
test  the  validity  of  received  doctrines  as  uncompromisingly 
and  severely  as  their  reason  may  prompt,  and  to  declare 
any  conclusion  they  may  form  with  the  utmost  openness 
and  unreserve. 

The  intention  "to  be  out  of  England"  in  the  Easter 
vacation  was  not  carried  out.  Probably  it  was  an 
often  planned  but  never  accomplished  visit  to  Greece 
that  he  had  in  view,  but  early  in  February  he  had  a 
rather  severe  attack  of  tonsilitis  which  threw  his  work 


574  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

into  arrears,  and  made  it  advisable  to  shorten  his 
holiday.  This  was  taken  in  Cornwall,  the  Arthur 
Sidgwicks  joining  him  and  his  wife  as  in  the  previous 
year.  They  visited  Fowey,  Falmouth,  the  Lizard, 
Truro,  Tintagel.  The  weather  was  favourable,  and 
April  is  a  good  time  to  see  Cornwall,  for  the  gorse 
was  in  great  beauty.  The  new  cathedral  of  Truro, 
although  only  the  choir  and  transepts  were  then 
finished,  made  a  great  impression  on  Sidgwick.  He 
was  naturally  specially  interested  in  it  on  account  of 
its  connection  with  Archbishop  Benson,  who  was  the 
prime  mover  in  getting  it  built,  and  as  a  memorial  to 
whom  it  has  since  been  completed. 

To  Lord  Tennyson,  then  Governor  of  South  Australia,  from 
Cambridge,  June  28,  1899 

I  meant  to  write  and  thank  you  for  the  South  Australian 
newspapers,  proclaiming  the  glories  of  your  arrival  and 
reception :  I  was  impressed  with  the  smallness  of  the 
planet  by  receiving  in  Cambridge  on  May  13  journals 
bearing  date  April  11  ;  I  suppose  in  the  twentieth  century 
we  shall  be  making  Long  Vacation  trips  to  the  Antipodes. 
This  impulse  was  crushed  by  the  business  of  the  term ;  but 
I  received  a  second  a  few  days  ago  from  the  news  of  the 
New  South  Wales  vote  on  Federation.  The  majority  might 
have  been  larger,  but  I  suppose  it  is  decisive, — and  satis- 
factory in  view  of  the  popular  force  of  the  arguments, 
financial  and  sentimental,  used  on  the  other  side.  I 
suppose  the  establishment  of  the  Australian  commonwealth 
is  now  a  certainty :  and  am  much  pleased  on  all  grounds. 

I  thought  your  speech — besides  being  sympathetic  and 
stirring — showed  the  same  excellent  faculty  of  selecting 
topics  interesting  to  your  audience,  that  was  shown  on  a 
larger  scale  in  your  biography.  I  think  the  dictum — 

All  styles  are  good  except  the  style  that  bores, 
is  particularly  applicable  to  public   speaking :  and  though 
many    superior    persons    cannot    manage    to    avoid     the 
exception,  I  don't  think  you  are  in  any  danger  of  failing. 


1899,  AGE  61  HENEY  SIDGWICK  575 

There  was  only  one  sentence  in  the  speech — about  passing 
from  party  conflicts  to  a  serener  clime — which  seemed  to 
me  to  indicate  a  resolute  preference  of  the  ideal  to  the 
actual,  at  least  according  to  my  information ;  but  I  will 
hope  that  your  experience  has  so  far  confirmed  your 
anticipation,  and  that  the  political  barometer  of  South 
Australia  is  "  set  fair." 

Our  internal  politics  are  quite  "  serene " — not  to  say 
dull — at  present,  the  ecclesiastical  crisis  being  temporarily 
suspended ;  and  the  slight  breezes  of  excitement  that  arise 
in  them — as  (e.g.)  on  the  question  whether  women  are  to 
be  Aldermen  in  the  new  London  boroughs — must  seem 
parochial  at  the  Antipodes.  But  on  foreign  affairs  we 
have,  I  think,  more  anxiety  than  the  newspapers  show.  No 
one  that  I  know  is  at  all  happy  about  the  Transvaal  affair : 
after  all  that  has  happened,  we  do  not  like  even  threatening 
war — much  less  actual  war — for  grievances  that  do  not 
amount  to  a  proper  casus  belli :  and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  it  is  to  be  avoided  if  Kruger  is  obstinate.  However, 
there  is  a  tolerably  prevalent  patriotic  disposition  to  support 
the  Government  through  the  crisis. 

In  the  way  of  books — the  only  great  excitement  has  been 
the  Browning  Letters,  which  I  think  were  published  before 
you  went.  "When  I  say  "  great  excitement,"  I  mean  to  a 
limited  circle ;  judging  from  my  acquaintance,  in  order  to  be 
really  excited,  one  must  previously  have  been  strongly 
interested  in  both  the  poets  as  poets :  otherwise  the  interest 
is  not  sufficient  to  carry  the  reader  through  two  volumes  of 
lovers'  iterations.  But  those  who  (like  me)  have  fulfilled 
this  condition  have  been  more  moved  and  absorbed  by  the 
book  than  by  any  recent  novel :  though  I  hope  it  will  not  be 
drawn  into  a  precedent :  I  don't  like  the  idea  of  future 
poets  having  an  eye  to  posthumous  fame  in  composing 
future  love  letters. 

Morris's  biography  is  also  interesting — even  to  a  man  who 
has  never  been  able  to  care  much  about  aesthetic  paper- 
hanging — and  well  done  on  the  whole,  especially  the  literary 
part.  The  Life  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  (vols.  ii.  and  iii.)  is  also 


576  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

well  done,  and  has  much  interested  the  statesmen  of  my 
acquaintance  and  the  Master  of  Trinity  and  me :  but  I 
don't  hear  the  world  talking  much  about  it. 

As  for  Australia — I  find  that  the  English  world  has 
some  interest  in  Federation,  but  more  in  the  incontestable 
superiority  of  the  Eleven.  In  fact,  scientific  minds  are 
beginning  to  seek  for  an  explanation  of  the  phenomenon ; 
but  I  am  not  aware  that  they  have  found  any  yet ! 

Send  me  a  newspaper  or  two  from  time  to  time  when 
they  have  anything  about  you. 

The  federation  of  the  Australian  Colonies  inter- 
ested Sidgwick  greatly.  He  believed  that  in  federa- 
tion there  and  elsewhere  lay  the  best  hopes  for 
the  peace  and  progress  of  the  world. 

The  only  letters  we  have  between  this  and 
Christmas  Day  1899  are  to  Mr.  Wilfrid  Ward  about 
a  more  systematic  scheme  of  discussion  by  the 
Synthetic  Society,  of  which  Sidgwick  was  to  be 
President  and  Canon  Gore  Vice-president  in  1900. 
In  the  words  of  Dr.  Talbot,  then  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
the  Synthetic  Society  "  benefited  greatly  by  the  quiet 
way  in  which  [Sidgwick]  introduced  order  into  our 
rather  rambling  discussions,  and,  along  with  the 
quality  of  his  own  contributions,  by  his  earnest 
and  hopeful  desire  to  draw  some  result  out  of  our 
work,  which  should  in  some  degree  correspond  with 
its  object  of  helping  men  of  different  kinds  to  some 
joint  constructive  thought." 

He  was  at  Whittingehame  in  the  autumn  of  this 
year,  and  on  his  way  home  stayed  with  his  old 
friend,  the  Rev.  E.  M.  Young,  at  Rothbury. 

To  Lord  Tennyson,  in  Australia,  from  Terling  Place, 

Christmas  Day,  1899 

I  should  have  written  to  you  before,  but  I  have  been 
for  some  months  in  the  exceptional  position — among  my 
friends — of  disliking  and  disapproving  of  this  war  and  fore- 
boding that  it  will  end  in  disgrace  and  disaster  to  England. 


1899,  AGE  ei  HENEY  SIDGWICK  577 

And  I  felt,  somehow,  reluctant  to  send  unpatriotic  grum- 
blings and  gloomy  forebodings  to  the  Antipodes,  which 
might  arrive  just  when  there  was  the  most  palpable  need 
of  consentaneous  resolution  and  cheerful  equanimity.  But 
now  that  the  first  part  of  my  Cassandra-like  prophecies — 
those  relating  to  the  numbers,  stubbornness,  and  fighting 
qualities  of  the  Boers — have  become  unmistakable  facts, 
the  divergence  of  opinion  between  myself  and  my  fellow- 
countrymen  is  much  reduced.  They  know  now  the  sort  of 
thing  that  they  have  gone  in  for :  and  I  admit  that  I 
overestimated  the  danger  of  foreign  interference,  at  any  rate 
for  a  time.  I  still  fear  that  it  may  come  when  we  least 
expect  it :  but  for  a  time  we  seem  to  be  fortunate  in  the 
desire  of  the  French  to  have  a  successful  Great  Exhibition 
next  year,  and  the  genuinely  pacific  aspirations  of  the 
Czar,  seconded  by  the  importance  to  Russian  diplomacy  of 
avoiding  an  alliance  of  England  and  Japan  against  her. 
So  I  have  become  somewhat  cheerfuller,  while  my  friends 
have  gradually  lowered  their  spirits  degree  by  degree ;  so 
that  I  do  not  suppose  this  letter  will  be  gloomier  than 
others  that  reach  you. 

As  for  the  causes  of  the  war,  that  has  now  become  a 
historian's  question, — but  I  sometimes  wonder  whether  the 
historian  will  find  the  right  answer  to  it !  whether  he  will 
not  agree  with  all  the  members  of  the  Opposition  whom  I 
meet  and  the  best-informed  continental  newspapers  (e.g.  the 
Temps)  and  regard  the  war  as  Chamberlain's  war.  Now  I 
am  convinced  that  if  it  is  any  one  man's  war — I  do  not 
say  it  is,  as  that  manner  of  personifying  the  causes  of  im- 
portant political  events  is  always  largely  erroneous — but  if 
it  is  one  man's  war  it  is  Milner's,  not  Chamberlain's. 
Chamberlain  only  comes  second  in  responsibility  through 
the  fearlessness  (and  perhaps  what  the  Opposition  journals 
call  "  pushfulness ")  with  which  he  carried  out  the  policy 
urged  on  him  by  Milner. 

But  I  gather  from  the  stirring  speech  you  sent  me — 
which  I  read  with  much  interest — that  you  are  inclined  to 
take  the  same  view.  Well,  at  any  rate  the  war  has  mani- 

2p 


578  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

tested  the  force  and  genuineness  of  the  Imperial  sentiment  in 
the  Colonies ;  that  is  the  brightest  aspect  of  the  whole  matter. 

I  hope  your  affairs  are  still  prosperous  and  your 
popularity  undiminished,  and  no  troubles  or  alarms  about 
health  or  other  domestic  matters.  Have  you  not  had  a 
constitutional  crisis  and  change  of  ministry  ?  I  wonder  on 
what  principles  that  is  managed.  When  I  read  Todd l 
some  years  ago,  it  appeared  to  me  by  no  means  plain  sailing : 
but  perhaps  experience  has  now  reduced  it  to  rule. 

Of  literature  I  have  only  to  say  that  Stevenson's  Letters 
seem  to  me  more  attractive  than  I  expected.  His  drolling 
to  his  friends  is  sometimes  excellent :  and  where  it  is  rather 
strained,  it  interests  one  in  another  way — suggesting  the 
pathos  and  the  courage  of  his  struggle  with  disease. 

To  Professor  Maitland,  in  the  Canary  Islands,  from 
Cambridge,  January  5,  1900 

When  I  got  your  postcard  I  tried  to  make  a  rational 
choice  between  Jargon  and  Verbosity  in  the  abstract,  but  1 
did  not  find  it  possible.  They  have  to  be  presented  in  the 
Concrete  before  the  faculty  of  choice  can  make  any  pro- 
nouncement. There  are  writers  who  prefer  the  two  in 
combination,  and  they  are  by  no  means  irreconcilable. 
Have  you  still  any  remembrance  of  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
who,  I  think,  was  still  living  an  examinational  life — if 
no  other — in  your  day  ?  I  seem  to  remember  that,  in 
a  polemic  against  Brown,  he  accuses  that  philosopher  of 
"  evacuating  the  phenomenon  of  everything  in  it  that 
desiderates  explanation."  Don't  you  call  this  J.  and  V.  ? 

I  think  if  I  were  you  I  would  use  "  organic  idea "  = 
conception  of  society  as  an  organism,  if,  when  you  imagine 
the  probable  reader  of  your  book  (when  published),  he  seems 
to  your  imagination  intelligent  enough  to  understand 
"  organic  idea "  in  this  sense.  (Here  is  V.  with  a  ven- 
geance.) What  I  mean  is,  that  I  for  many  years  committed 
the  error  of  imagining  an  ideal  reader  of  my  book  and 
writing  for  him.  Since  I  took  to  writing  for  the  probably 

1  Todd's  Parliamentary  Government  in  the  British  Colonies. 


1900,  AGE  61  HENRY  SIDGWICK  579 

actual  reader,  I  think  iny  philosophic  style  has  exhibited  a 
slight  modicum  of  improvement.  (V.  again  I) 

I  hope  you  are  enjoying  physical  life  and  gaining 
strength.  Social  life,  I  suppose,  few  Englishmen  who  read 
the  newspapers  are  exactly  enjoying  except  the  very 
pessimistic  who  "  always  told  you  so "  and  the  very 
optimistic  who  are  as  convinced  as  they  ever  were  that 
everything  will  come  right  in  the  end.  The  intermediate 
majority  feel  gloomier,  I  think,  than  Englishmen  have  felt 
since  some  time  in  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  only  thing  that  affords  us  a  mild  solatium 
of  entertainment  are  the  letters  in  the  newspapers  of 
people  who  are  convinced  that  we  are  now  living  in  the 
Twentieth  Century.  It  is  obvious  to  the  reader  that  the 
conviction  came  first,  as  a  consequence  of  the  momentous 
change  from  "18 — "  to  "19 — ,"  and  the  reasons  have 
been  sought  for  afterwards.  But  there  is  a  certain 
piquancy  in  studying  a  fairly  well-sustained  debate  with 
the  valid  arguments  all  on  one  side. 

Literature  :  —  Stevenson's  Letters  excellent :  Stephen 
Phillips'  Drama  [Paolo  and  Francesco],  I  fear,  overrated : 
S 's  infernally  bad  ; don't  remember  anything  else. 

To  H.  G.  DaJcyns  from  Cambridge,  February  3 
As  for  us  we  are  fairly  prosperous,  but  neither  just 
quite  as  well  as  we  could  wish,  sometimes  mildly  anxious 
about  ourselves  and  sometimes  about  each  other :  I 
mention  this,  because  ideas  of  giving  up  work  before  long 
hover  before  our  minds.  But  I  do  not  at  present  think 
that  they  are  coming  to  much :  I  cannot  quite  persuade 
myself  that  Newnham  would  get  on  as  well  without  my 
wife,  and  for  myself,  I  cannot  resign  my  chair  before  1902 
without  throwing  a  financial  burden  on  the  University  or 
myself.1  So  I  think  I  am  fixed  till  1902  ;  but  then  change 
may  be  imminent ! 

I  mention  this  sort  of  thing  to  prepare  you  for  the  fact 
that  my  opus  magnum  is  not  getting  on.  Partly,  however, 

1  On  account  of  his  arrangement  about  his  own  chair  and  that  of  Mental 
Philosophy  and  Logic  see  p.  373,  footnote. 


580  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

the  reason  is  that  my  Methods  of  Ethics  wants  a  sixth  edition, 
and  I  hope  to  goodness  it  will  be  the  last  wanted,  as  1 
am  very  tired  of  the  book,  and  think  the  world  ought 
to  be. 

As  for  the  War.  I  find  my  view  is  suspiciously  like 
that  expressed  in  the  lines  of  the  Biglow  Papers  : — 

Ez  fer  the  war,  I  go  agin  it, — 

Thet  is,  I  think  thet,  bein'  in  it, 
The  best  way  is  to  fight  it  thru. 

In  prose :  I  thought  the  war  unjustifiable  on  any  principle 
of  International  right,  and  on  the  whole  indefensible  on 
grounds  of  policy :  though  I  admit  the  situation  a  difficult 
one.  I  incline  to  forecast  that  the  Republics  will  achieve 
their  independence,  most  probably  through  the  intervention, 
direct  or  indirect,  of  Europe.  But  I  agree  with  the 
Government  in  thinking  that  this,  if  it  comes,  will  be  the 
beginning  of  the  end  for  the  British  Empire.  So,  on  the 
whole,  I  keep  silence  as  far  as  I  can  and  read  as  little  as  I 
can  of  the  newspapers,  and  hope  that  I  am  a  Pessimist ! 

To  Mrs.   William  Sidgwick,  March  2 

We  have  been  busy  about  various  things  as  usual — I 
mean  the  kind  of  things  that  seem  very  unimportant  when 
they  are  over  but  entail  a  good  deal  of  correspondence. 
Consequently,  or  on  account  of  the  spring,  or  of  old  age,  we 
have  both  of  us  been  mildly  unwell.  .  .  .  But  the  short 
term  will  soon  end,  and  the  weather  is  more  normal. 

I  wonder  if  we  shall  agree  about  the  Archbishop's  Life. 
I  gather  from  what  you  wrote  to  Nora  that  we  should  agree 
that  it  ought  to  have  been  shorter — but  that  is  almost  a 
common  form  for  criticism  of  biographies,  especially  of  eccle- 
siastical personages.  But,  apart  from  this,  I  thought  it  a 
very  good  piece  of  work — in  fact  almost  all  that  was  the 
composition  of  A.  C.  B.  himself  seemed  to  me  excellent — 
except  perhaps  that  there  was  too  much  about  the  family 
of  Sidgwicks !  But  the  reminiscences  of  other  persons  are 
always  very  various  in  quality :  and  I  am  inclined  to  think 


1900,  AGE  61  HENRY  SIDGWICK  581 

that  it  inevitably  brings  the  work  down  to  a  lower  level  to 
insert  them  to  any  large  extent.  It  is  astonishing  how 
incapable  some  superior  people  are  of  writing  this  kind  of 
thing.  .  .  . 

The  students  have  just  been  celebrating  the  relief  of 
Ladysmith  by  a  bonfire,  which,  Nora  says,  has  gone  off 
without  disaster !  I  suppose  the  War  will  now  become  a 
slow  affair :  for  which  I  am  not  sorry,  as  I  have  an  "  early 
Victorian  "  dislike  of  the  whole  affair. 

Sidgwick  was  a  good  deal  interested  at  this  time 
in  the  question  of  founding  in  this  country  an 
Academy  designed  to  occupy  in  relation  to  depart- 
ments of  scientific  inquiry  (using  scientific  in  the 
widest  sense)  other  than  mathematics  and  natural 
science,  a  position  analogous  to  that  occupied  by 
the  Royal  Society  in  relation  to  these  latter  studies. 
Correspondence  about  this  was  doubtless  one  of  the 
"various  things"  about  which  he  had  "been  busy." 
He  saw  the  difficulties,  but,  like  Lord  Acton,  who 
also  died  before  the  charter  was  granted,  believed 
that  the  organisation  into  a  body  resembling  the 
Royal  Society,  of  those  engaged  in  studying  History. 
Philology,  Philosophy,  Economics,  might  render  valu- 
able aid  in  the  promotion  of  these  studies.  The 
British  Academy  did  not  receive  its  charter  till  the 
summer  of  1902,  nearly  two  years  after  his  death,  but 
he  had  taken  so  leading  a  part  in  the  preliminary  dis- 
cussion that  he  has  been  commemorated  in  the  pages 
of  its  Proceedings  as  one  who  would  not  only  have 
been  among  its  first  members,  but  one  of  those  most 
certain  to  exert  influence  within  the  body. 

To  Professor  Sully  from  Cambridge,  March  29 
I  should  rather  like  to  explain  why,  after  thinking  over 
your  paper  [a  petition  about  stopping  the  war],  I  could 
not  sign  it.  Perhaps  it  is  partly  my  personal  con- 
nection with  the  Government  which  makes  me  think,  in 
considering  a  question  of  this  kind,  "  What  should  I  do  if 


582  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vn 

I  were  the  Government  ? "  Now  there  is  no  doubt  that 
if  I  were  constituted  the  Government  now,  and  took  up 
the  matter  at  this  stage,  I  should  not  think  it  right  to 
bring  the  war  to  an  end  except  under  conditions  that  gave 
adequate  security  against  its  recurrence,  provided  for  the 
equality  of  Dutch  and  English  throughout  South  Africa, 
and  also  for  the  payment  of  some  part  of  the  cost  by  the 
gold-bearing  districts.  I  should  think  this  my  duty, 
taking  up  the  matter  at  this  stage,  in  spite  of  my  strong 
condemnation  of  the  diplomacy  that  brought  the  war  about. 
This  being  so,  I  have  tried  hard  to  think  of  any  conditions 
that  we  could  offer  the  Boers  such  that  a  "  brave  people, 
jealous  of  their  independence,  could  be  expected "  to 
acquiesce  in,  which  will  also  realise  the  ends  above 
mentioned,  especially  security  against  the  recurrence  of 
the  war. 

I  think  that  the  only  terms  England  can  offer,  con- 
sistently with  the  attainment  of  practically  necessary  ends, 
are  such  as  the  Boers  cannot  be  expected  to  accept  at 
present,  except  from  hopelessness  of  foreign  aid — which  I 
suppose  is  a  state  of  mind  that  they  have  not  yet  arrived 
at :  nor  do  I  think  I  should  be  hopeless  in  their  place. 

I  have  tried  hard  to  think  of  any  arrangement  recon- 
ciling adequate  security  for  England  with  effective  inde- 
pendence for  the  Boers :  but  I  cannot  satisfy  myself  with 
any  plan  that  has  occurred  to  me.  And,  judging  from  the 
utterances  of  representative  men,  the  majority  of  the  Liberal 
Party  are  much  in  the  same  condition. 

This  is  why  I  decided  not  to  sign. 

To  Mrs.  Wilfrid  Ward  from  Cambridge,  March  31 

I  send  back  the  Fioretti}  ...  I  am  ashamed  of  having 
kept  [it]  so  long  .  .  .  but  I  found  my  Italian  a  little  more 
rusty  than  I  had  supposed,  and  only  managed  to  read  slowly. 
I  am  sincerely  obliged  to  you  for  directing  my  attention  to  it. 
It  has — or  rather  the  first  portion  of  it  has  for  me — a  quite 
unique  and  remarkable  charm.  By  the  first  portion  I  mean 

1  /  Fioretti  di  S.  Francesco. 


1900,  AGE  61  HENRY  SIDGWICK  583 

rather  more  than  half  the  first  volume,  i.e.  the  chapters  that 
relate  to  S.  Francis  himself.  When  one  passes  in  reading 
to  the  narratives  relating  to  miracles  and  visions  of  other 
"  frati "  I  find  that  the  peculiar  attraction  of  the  Franciscan 
stories  has  vanished  ;  it  seems  to  depend  on  the  individuality 
of  the  man.  Compare  the  preaching  to  the  birds  in  Chap. 
XVI.  and  the  preaching  to  the  fishes  in  Chap.  XL.  I  do 
not  quite  know  why  the  effect  of  the  former  is  powerful  and 
moving,  while  the  latter  is  irresistibly  comic :  but  so  I 
find  it. 

I  also  much  prefer  the  naivete  of  the  earlier  chapters  to 
the  more  elaborate  and  precise  style  of  the  "  Considera- 
tions "  in  the  second  volume,  with  their  somewhat  insistent 
glorification  of  the  saint  and  his  order.  But  this  is  of 
course  the  view  of  an  outsider  who  cannot  approach  the 
topic  of  the  Stigmata  without  a  rather  definite  scientific 
presumption. 

To  H.  Gr.  Dakyns  from  Cambridge  on  May  7 

Much  interested  in  what  you  say  about  Andromache  [Mr. 
Gilbert  Murray's  play].  I  read  it — at  Miss  Harrison's 
suggestion — and  thought  it  quite  a  success:  but  my 
enthusiasm  is  a  degree  or  two  below  yours.  It  was  very 
spirited  and  excellent  reading :  but  it  seemed  to  me  that 
between  deliberate  erudite  barbarism  and  spontaneous 
natural  modernity  what  we  used  to  call  the  '  Hellenic 
Spirit'  had  somehow  slipped  through.  Also  the  characters 
appeared  to  me  somewhat  too  unattractive  for  a  play 
intended  for  the  stage — except  Andromache,  who  again 
seems  to  me  somewhat  depayse'e  in  her  surroundings ;  there- 
fore not  quite  so  real  as  the  rest.  However,  all  this  means 
that  I  did  not  get  the  joy  out  of  it  that  you  did  ! 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LAST   MONTHS 

EARLY  in  the  month  of  May  1900  Sidgwick,  by  his 
Cambridge  physician's  advice,  consulted  an  eminent 
surgeon l  in  London,  and  learnt  the  serious  nature  of 
the  illness  which  had  recently  affected  him.  He  was 
suffering  from  an  internal  cancer,  which  must  ulti- 
mately prove  fatal,  and  which  within  a  very  short 
time  would  necessitate  an  operation  of  a  grave 
character.  For  nearly  a  fortnight  he  told  no  one 
but  his  wife.  It  was  easier  to  carry  on  life  in  a 
normal  manner  when  no  one  knew.  But  he  began 
to  set  his  affairs  in  order.  He  felt  full  of  vigour 
and  vitality,  and  minded  very  much  leaving  this 
life  and  all  the  work  he  was  doing  and  was  in- 
terested in ;  and  he  was  especially  troubled  because 
he  was  leaving  so  much  literary  work  unfinished. 
There  was  the  book  on  the  Development  of  European 
Polity,'  already  in  an  advanced  state,  but  which  he 
had  had  to  lay  aside,  feeling  that  he  could  not  give  to 
it  the  time  and  labour  required  to  make  it  as  scholarly 
a  work  as  he  desired  while  giving  courses  of  lectures 
on  metaphysics ;  there  was  an  Introduction  to  Philo- 
sophy 3  which  he  was  gradually  evolving  into  a  book. 
And  in  a  more  fragmentary  state  there  were  other 
metaphysical  lectures  which  in  his  own  mind  were 

1  Mr.  Allingham.  2  Published  in  1903. 

3  Edited  by  Dr.  James  Ward,  and  published  in  1902  as  Philosophy,  its 
Scope  and  Relations. 

584 


1900,  AGE  61  HENPvY  SIDGWICK  585 

books  in  embryo.1  He  did  what  he  could  to  arrange 
these  and  his  other  papers,  fearing,  what  proved  to  be 
the  case,  that  after  the  operation  he  might  not  be  able 
to  do  any  more  work  ;  but  he  had  promised  to  give  an 
address  on  the  Philosophy  of  T.  H.  Green  to  the 
Oxford  Philosophical  Society  on  May  20,  the  pre- 
paration of  which  required  time,  and  prevented  his 
spending  as  much  time  in  putting  his  papers  into 
order  as  he  would  have  liked. 

On  the  12th  of  May  there  was  a  meeting  of  the 
Newnham  Council,  at  which  it  was  agreed,  though 
unfortunately  not  at  that  time  unanimously,  that  the 
College  should  undertake  and  endeavour  to  carry  on 
a  scheme  of  research  fellowships  which  had  been  in- 
itiated by  the  Associates  of  the  College,2  and  in  which 
Sidgwick  was  keenly  interested.  He  believed  it  to 
be  most  important,  both  in  the  educational  work  of 
the  College  and  for  the  maintenance  of  its  proper 
academic  position,  that  women  capable  of  advancing 
knowledge  should  be  attracted  to  it,  and  be  enabled 
to  carry  on  their  work  after  the  degree  course. 

He  had  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  another  great 
step  accomplished  in  the  history  of  Newnham  College, 
though  one  of  a  more  material  kind.  The  College, 
which  had  been  built  on  leasehold  land,  had  at  the 
end  of  1899  been  able  to  acquire  the  freehold  of  its 
buildings  and  gardens.  Newnham  College  was  a  part 
of  his  life's  work  which  had  developed  beyond  all 
that  had  been  hoped,  and  which  he  could  feel  he 
was  leaving  in  a  stable  condition. 

On  May  19  he  went  to  Oxford  for  his  last  Ad 
Eundem  dinner,  he  and  his  wife  staying  with  the 
Diceys.  On  the  Sunday  evening  he  read  the  paper 

1  What  seemed  available  of  these  lectures  has  been  edited  by  Dr.  Ward, 
and  published  with  some  essays  from  Mind  and  elsewhere  under  the  title 
Lectures  on  the  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Philosophical  Lectures  and 
Essays,  1905. 

2  See  p.  544,  footnote  2.     The  first  fellowship  had  been  given  by  Mrs. 
Herringham,  the  same  generous  friend  who  is  endeavouring  to  secure  their 
endowment  now. 


586  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

on  Green  to  the  Oxford  Philosophical  Society.1  It 
was  to  be  his  last  address,  but  of  this,  or  of  there 
being  anything  amiss,  his  audience  had  no  suspicion. 
During  this  visit  he  also  attended  a  meeting  to 
establish  the  Mind  Association,  which  was  to  take 
over  from  him  and  carry  on  the  philosophical  journal 
Mind* 

On  the  Sunday  morning  he  told  his  brother  Arthur 
what  was  impending. 

After  his  return  to  Cambridge  he  put  in  writing 
directions  about  his  papers,  in  which  he  asked  his 
colleague  and  friend  Dr.  James  Ward  to  take  charge 
of  the  philosophical  papers,  describing  what  he  had 
intended  to  do  with  them,  and  asking  him  to  publish 
what  he  thought  desirable.  To  Miss  E.  E.  C.  Jones 
he  entrusted  his  ethical  papers,3  with  full  confidence 
in  her  judgment  as  to  the  question  wThether  any 
printed  articles  on  Ethics  or  any  unprinted  matter 

1  This  paper  was  published  in  Mind  for  January  1901,  and  has  since 
been  included  in  the  volume  The  Philosophy  of  Kant,  etc.,  published  1905. 
We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  F.  C.  S.  Schiller  for  the  following  account  of 
the  meeting:  "The  gathering  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  20th  May, 
was  a  distinguished  one,  as  the  author  and  the  subject  (The  Philosophy 
of  T.  H.  Green)  had  attracted  the  chief  representatives  of  absolute 
'idealism,'  from  the  Master  of  Balliol  downwards.  After  a  few  prefatory 
remarks,  in  which  he  deprecated  the  intention  of  merely  dialectical  refuta- 
tion, Sidgwick  read  what  seemed  to  me — perhaps  because  I  felt  a  strange 
touch  of  solemnity  which  I  could  not  account  for — the  most  lucid,  sincere, 
and  impressive  piece  of  philosophic  criticism  it  had  ever  been  my  privilege 
to  hear.  Its  burden  was  that  there  existed  a  fundamental  incoherence  in 
Green's  thinking.  When  he  had  finished,  the  disciples  of  Green  got  up  one 
after  the  other  and — admitted  it !  Only  they  thought  that  it  might  be 
cured  by  going  on  from  Green  in  various  directions  to  Hegel,  to  natural 
science,  etc.  Finally  a  prominent  Hegelian  made  the  inevitable  suggestion 
that  such  fundamental  incoherence  merely  indicated  that  the  region  of  the 
ultimate  difficulties  of  thought  had  been  reached,  and  inferred  that  both 
sides  of  the  contradiction  should  be  sustained.  This  gave  Sidgwick  his 
opportunity.  After  replying  to  the  other  criticisms,  he  went  on  to  say  that 
'  as  for  the  remarks  of  the  last  speaker,  he  had  never  been  able  to  make 
out  from  the  school  to  which  he  evidently  belonged  how  they  managed  to 
distinguish  the  contradictions  which  they  took  to  be  evidence  of  error  from 
those  which  they  regarded  as  intimations  of  higher  truth. '  As  he  sat  down 
amid  laughter  and  applause,  an  eminent  tutor  pertinently  remarked  to  me 
that  this  showed  that  Henry  was  not  wholly  devoid  of  the  Sidgwickedness 
of  his  family."  "  See  p.  512. 

3  Some  of  these,  namely  lectures  on  The  Ethics  of  T.  H.  Green,  H.  Spencer, 
and  J.  Martincau,  were  arranged  for  publication  by  Miss  Jones,  and  pub- 
lished in  1902. 


1900,  AGE  6i  HENEY  SIDGWICK  587 

should  be  published,  and  he  also  asked  her  to  com- 
plete the  revision  of  Methods  of  Ethics  for  the  sixth 
edition  which  he  had  in  hand.  He  asked  Dr.  Keynes 
to  see  through  the  press  a  third  edition  of  his 
Political  Economy  which  was  now  demanded ;  and 
the  Development  of  European  Polity  he  asked  his 
wife  to  publish,  if,  after  obtaining  expert  opinion,  it 
seemed  advisable.1 

To  F.  W.  H.  Myers  on  May  24 

I  went  to  Leckhampton  this  afternoon  to  tell  you  face 
to  face  our  trouble.  But  you  were  away,  and  I  must  write. 

I  have  an  organic  disorder  which,  the  expert  said  more 
than  a  fortnight  ago,  must  soon  render  an  operation  neces- 
sary. I  am,  by  my  Cambridge  physician's  advice,  going  to 
see  him  again  to-morrow.  He  may  say  "  at  once."  I 
believe  that  the  chances  of  the  Operation  are  on  the  whole 
favourable:  I  mean  that  the  probabilities  are  that  I  shall 
not  die  under  it :  but  how  long  I  shall  live  after  it  is 
uncertain.  At  any  rate  it  will  be  only  an  invalid  half-life. 

I  have  hoped  till  to-day  to  defer  telling  this  till  after 
your  brother's  visit.  I  have  shrunk  from  grieving  those 
who  love  me.  But  to-day  I  am  telling  brothers  and  sisters 
and  one  or  two  intimate  friends.  Only  these ;  please  tell  no 
one.  We  may  of  course  have  to  put  our  visitors  off.  If  so, 
we  shall  telegraph  to  you  to-morrow  afternoon.  If  not,  all 
will  go  on  as  arranged,  and  in  that  case  I  shall  probably 
come  to  the  Synthetic.  .  .  . 

Life  is  very  strange  now:  very  terrible:  but  I  try  to 
meet  it  like  a  man,  my  beloved  wife  aiding  me.  I  hold  on 
— or  try  to  hold  on — to  duty  and  love ;  and  through  love 
to  touch  the  larger  hope. 

I  wish  now  I  had  told  you  before,  as  this  may  be  fare- 
well. Your  friendship  has  had  a  great  place  in  my  life,  and 
as  I  walk  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death,  I  feel 
your  affection.  Pray  for  me. 

This  may  be  farewell,  but  I  hope  not. 

1  This  was  done,  and  it  appeared,  as  already  stated,  in  1903. 


588  HENKY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

It  was  decided  that  the  operation  should  be  per- 
formed on  the  31st.  Sidgwick  presided  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Synthetic  Society  on  the  25th.  The  paper 
for  that  evening  was  one  by  Arthur  Balfour  on 
prayer.  "Thus  it  came  about,"  says  Myers,  "that 
my  friend's  last  utterance — not  public,  indeed,  but 
spoken  intimately  to  a  small  company  of  like-minded 
men  —  was  an  appeal  for  pure  spirituality  in  all 
human  supplication — a  gentle  summons  to  desire  only 
such  things  as  cannot  pass  away/' 1 

F.  Myers's  brother  Ernest  was  to  have  stayed  with 
the  Sidgwicks  for  the  following  week-end,  but  the 
time  was  so  short  and  there  was  so  much  to  do  that 
this  plan  was  changed,  and  Mr.  Ernest  Myers  went  to 
his  brother's  at  Leckhampton  House  instead,  Sidgwick 
coming,  as  previously  arranged,  to  a  luncheon  party 
there  on  the  27th.  A  friend  who  was  present  wrote 
afterwards : — 

The  last  of  many  lessons  that  I  learnt  from  him,  the 
most  beautiful  and  the  most  unforgettable,  was  at  the 
lunch  at  Leckhampton  on  May  27.  He  taught  me  there 
how  calmly  and  manfully  death  and  suffering  could  be 
faced,  as  he  recited  without  a  break  in  his  voice  the  lines 
which  I  could  hardly  bear  to  hear,  from  "  Super  Flumina 
Babylonis,"2  ending 

Where  the  light  of  the  life  of  him  is  on  all  past  things, 
Death  only  dies. 

I  think  that  the  sound  of  his  voice  and  the  light  on  his  face 
will  be  before  me  when  the  call  comes  for  me ;  and  I  shall 
be  grateful  then  for  his  death  as  well  as  for  his  life. 

To  H.  G.  Dakyns,  May  29 

I  have  sad  words  to  say,  and  it  grieves  me  to  think  of 
the  grief  they  will  cause  you.  I  learnt  three  weeks  ago  that 
I  have  an  incurable  complaint,  .  .  .  the  fatal  termination  of 

1  See  Myers's  Fragments. 

2  This  poem  of  Swinburne's  had  come  up  in  the  course  of  conversation, 
probably  primarily  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  metre. 


1900,  AGE  6i  HENRY  SIDGWICK  589 

which  may,  however,  be  averted  for  the  time  by  a  surgical 
operation,  which  is  now  arranged  for  Thursday.  If  all  goes 
as  well  as  possible,  I  shall  be  in  bed  in  a  nursing  home  in 
London  for  about  three  weeks ;  and  then  I  am  encouraged 
to  look  forward  to  a  period  of  invalid  life  which  may 
extend  even  to  years,  though  it  may  be  much  briefer. 

All  this  is  hard  to  bear ;  I  shall  try  to  bear  it  as  a  man 
should. 

I  think  much  of  old  times  and  old  friends  and  especially 
of  your  unfailing  love  and  sympathy.  It  is  through  human 
love  that  I  try  to  touch  the  Divine  and 

faintly  trust  the  larger  hope. 

Nora  will  tell  you  how  things  go  with .  us ;  it  is  possible 
that  you  may  be  able  to  come  to  see  me  in  London. 

Good-bye,  old  and  dear  friend, — not,  1  will  hope,  a  final 
farewell,  though  a  solemn  one.  Think  of  me  in  my  trial : 
pray  for  me,  if  you  are  moved  to  prayer.  Give  your  wife 
my  love. 

To  Sir  George  Trevelyan,  May  29 

...  If,  therefore,  I  have  the  best  fortune,  this  need  not 
be  '  farewell '  absolutely.  But  if  it  should  be  farewell, 
think  of  me  as  one  to  whom  your  friendship  has  been  an 
unfailing  source  of  delight  and  profit  for  more  than  forty 
years  ;  and  who  knows  that  you  forgive  him  if  he  has  ever 
unintentionally  offended  you  in  anything. 

My  thoughts  go  back  to  the  old  days  when  we  walked 
round  the  cloisters  and  talked  of  Life  and  the  spirit  in  which 
it  should  be  lived.  You  have  fulfilled  your  promise  better 
than  I :  and  I  pray  that  you  may  have  the  serene  old  age 
that  I  have  vainly  hoped  for  myself.  Good-bye,  dear  friend. 
Tell  your  wife,  and  give  her  my  love. 

He  called  on  old  friends  in  Cambridge  to  take 
leave  of  them,  wrote  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  resigning 
his  professorship,  and  on  the  30th  left  Cambridge,  as 
it  proved  finally,  in  order  to  go  into  the  nursing 
home  in  London  where  the  operation  was  to  be  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Allingham  the  next  morning.  He 


590  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

dined  that  night  with  his  brother-in-law,  and  never 
was  his  conversation  more  brilliant  than  at  that  little 
family  party — only  Arthur  and  Alice  Balfour  and 
Sidgwick  and  his  wife  present — in  the  large  dining- 
room  at  10  Downing  Street. 

To  H,  F.  Brown  from  18  Lanc/lium  Street  on  June  1 
(a  short  note  dictated) 

I  have  neglected  to  write  to  you  either  about  "  A  Shrop- 
shire Lad  "  or  your  own  poems,  which  duly  arrived,  but  you 
will  forgive  me  when  I  tell  you  that  I  have  been  in  sudden 
great  trouble.  .  .  .  The  operation  has  now  been  performed, 
and  I  am  told  that  all  is  going  well.  Still  1  fear  we  may 
never  meet  again,  and  your  friendship  as  I  have  looked 
forward  to  it  in  the  coming  years  is  one  of  the  things  that 
I  regret  to  leave  in  a  world  where  I  have  found  it  sweet  to 
live. 

To  Miss  Cannan  from  1 8  Langham  Street,  June  8 

So  far  1  am  told  everything  has  gone  well.  If 
nothing  untoward  occurs  I  may  hope  to  be  able  to  walk 
about  in  a  fortnight's  time.  At  present  I  dictate  this  in 
bed,  where,  moreover,  I  am  confined  to  two  positions.  I  am 
trying  to  learn  patience,  but  I  fear  I  have  not  progressed 
very  far,  and  sixty-two  is  rather  a  late  age  to  begin  to 
learn  it. 

We  were  very  sorry  to  hear  of  your  illness  and  trouble, 
and  are  glad  to  be  able  to  think  of  you  as  now  strong  again, 
and  able  to  enjoy  the  beauty  of  the  Grasmere  spring. 

I  thought  it  best  to  resign  my  professorship  at  once,  and 
so  be  free  from  all  responsibility  in  the  matter ;  but  I  am 
not  without  hope  of  being  quite  able  to  do  work  after  the 
Long  Vacation,  though,  of  course,  it  will  be  only  literary  work. 

To  Wilfrid  Ward,  from  1 8  Langham  Street,  June  1 1 

I  must  write  a  line  to  thank  you  for  your  sympathy.      I 

believe  that  everything  is  going  well  with  me  now  in  the 

sense  that  I  may  hope  in  a  fortnight  or  so  to  be  restored  to 

the   ranks   of  the  people   who   meet  their  friends   in   the 


1900,  AGE  62  HENRY  SIDGWICK  591 

streets,  and  may  do  some  little  work.  Meanwhile,  if  you 
have  a  spare  half-hour  to  bestow  on  me  any  time  during 
the  next  ten  days,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  a  talk.  I 
often  think  of  the  work  we  have  been  trying  to  do  together, 
and  hope  it  may  come  to  something  good  with  or  without 
my  aid. 

Many  friends,  old  and  new,  visited  him  during  his 
recovery  from  the  operation,  and  he  very  much 
enjoyed  their  society.  The  Bishop  of  Birmingham 
(Canon  Gore),  in  the  speech  at  the  Memorial  meeting 
from  which  we  have  already  quoted,  spoke  of  a  visit 
he  had  made  as  follows  :— 

But,  of  course,  it  was  impossible  to  know  him  without 
feeling  that  incomparably  the  most  impressive  thing  about 
him  was  his  character.  We  talk  in  a  familiar  way  about 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  One  could  not  know 
him  without  thinking  that  neither  the  world,  the  flesh,  nor 
the  devil  had  any  place  in  him  or  about  him.  There  was 
in  him  an  extraordinary  simplicity  and  goodness.  When  I 
came  away  from  the  last  interview  with  him — after  the 
operation  from  which  reprieve  was  hoped,  but  which  in  the 
event  proved  to  be  not  much  more  than  the  prelude  to  the 
end — after  that  last  interview,  when  he  had  talked  with  his 
habitual  grace  and  vigour  and  cheerfulness,  and  with  a  most 
moving  courage  in  the  face  of  death,  there  was  only  one 
thought  which  came  to  my  mind,  in  which  I  seemed  in  the 
least  degree  able  to  sum  up  and  express  the  impression 
which  was  left  upon  me,  and  it  was  that  most  sacred  of  all 
promises — "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  for  they  shall 
see  God." 

One  visit  with  which  he  was  greatly  pleased  was 
that  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  who  came  to  bring 
him  an  official  message  from  his  beloved  '  Apostles ' 
Society,  at  whose  annual  dinner,  the  last  of  the 
century,  Sir  William  presided  early  in  June. 

To  F.  Myers  from  1 8  Langham  Street  on  June  2  5 
I     send    herewith    your    two    books.        Many    thanks. 


592  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

"  Helplessness  of  Miss  Pick  "  is  quite  first-rate  :  I  have  not 
read  anything  better  since  my  stay  here  began.  The  actual 
date  of  our  departure  from  London  is  rather  uncertain :  but 
my  convalescence  is  supposed  to  be  steady.  This  is  my 
first  letter  written  with  my  own  hand ! 

To  Baron  F.  von  Hugel  from  1 8  Langham  Street,  June  3  0 

Though  I  am  not  quite  up  to  serious  correspondence  yet, 
I  cannot  refrain  from  dictating  a  few  lines  to  thank  you  for 
your  very  kind  and  interesting  letter.  Since  I  learnt  some 
eight  weeks  ago  that  I  had  an  incurable  disease,  and  could 
only  look  forward  at  the  best  to  a  period  of  semi-invalid 
existence,  uncertain  in  quality  and  in  duration,  the  aims 
and  aspirations,  ambitions,  hopes,  and  pleasures  that  for  so 
many  years  have  centred  in  my  intellectual  work  have 
become  dim  and  pale :  and  one  effect  of  this  is  that  I  value 
all  the  more  the  kindness  of  my  friends.  Hence  you  will 
believe  that  what  you  say  of  me  in  your  letter  has  given 
me  profound  gratification.  I  feel  indeed  that  your  praise 
is  quite  beyond  my  deserts  ;  but  at  any  rate  you  characterise 
my  ideal ;  and  it  is  a  deep  satisfaction  to  any  one  who  has 
to  look  back  on  his  life's  work  as  something  nearly  finished 
to  think  that  the  incompleteness  of  his  work  and  the  imper- 
fection of  his  manner  of  performing  it  have  not  altogether 
obscured  his  ideal  from  the  recognition  of  his  fellow-men.1 

What  I  may  be  able  to  do  in  the  future  is  as  yet  quite 
uncertain.  As  soon  as  I  am  physically  strong  enough  I 
shall  endeavour  to  return  to  habits  of  daily  work,  but  I  am 
warned  against  anything  like  fatigue.  I  shall  be  very  sorry 
if  I  am  not  able  to  write  something  more  on  the  subjects  on 
which  we  have  exchanged  ideas  at  the  Synthetic ;  but  I  am 
afraid  that  any  contribution  I  can  make  will  be  only  frag- 
mentary. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Langham  Street  on  July  3 

This  is  the  last  letter  I  date  from  this  address.     Looking 

1  Baron  von  Hugel  had  referred  to  "the  noble  spirit  of  beautiful  dis- 
interestedness, candour,  and  courage,  and  chivalrous  courtesy  which  has 
constantly  shone  out  from  your  work." 


1900,  AGE  62  HENEY  SIDGWICK  593 

back,  it  seems  a  long  time  since  my  (physically)  normal  life 
was  closed  on  my  sixty-second  birthday  by  the  operation ; 
but  it  is  really  only  thirty-three  days,  and  these  have  been 
entirely  free  from  pain  and  fairly  free  from  discomfort,  and 
full  of  kindness  of  friends  and  acquaintances.  To-day,  at 
3.25,  I  go  to  Margate.  .  .  .  The  Cliftonwlle  Hotel  will  be 
our  address  till  further  notice  (probably  for  the  fortnight  of 
our  stay).  So  if  the  spirit  moves  you  to  pay  that  brief  visit 
of  which  you  spoke,  and  other  duties  allow,  you  will  know 
where  to  come. 

My  future  is  still  obscure,  and  I  understand  that  no  one 
can  forecast  either  the  quality  or  duration  of  the  fragment 
of  life  that  remains  to  me :  but  doctor  and  nurses  combine 
to  assure  me  that  I  have  done  well  so  far  in  the  way  of 
convalescence.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  a  courage  that  from  need  began."  It  is 
rather  surprising,  when  I  look  back,  that  I  never  personally 
felt  the  need  of  it  till  now.  But  it  is  something  to  have 
felt  it  sympathetically :  so  that  the  need  is  at  once  familiar 
and  new. 

To  H.  F.  Brown  from,  Margate,  July  6 

Your  last  delightful  letter,  bringing  the  flavour  and 
spirit  of  Alpine  solitudes,  reached  me  in  London  just  before 
I  was  bidden  to  transfer  myself  to  this  Isle  of  Thanet. 
'Tis  only  for  the  physical  qualities  of  the  air  that  I  have 
come  :  so  I  will  not  try  to  send  you  in  return  the  spirit  and 
flavour  of  Margate.  But  in  fact  I  am  not  in  a  position  to 
do  this :  as  I  have  had  to  come — in  search  of  an  invalid's 
comforts — to  the  most  fashionable  hotel :  and  the  real 
flavour  of  Margate  is  to  be  found  in  the  holiday  -making  of 
quite  unfashionable  people. 

My  journey  hither  was  supposed  to  commence  the  last 
stage  of  my — '  convalescence  '  we  call  it,  hopefully,  though 
the  degree  of  health  ultimately  recoverable  is,  we  know, 
uncertain.  But  it  is  something  to  be  able  to  lunch,  dine, 
and  walk  about  among  healthy  human  beings  without  a 
marked  sense  of  dissimilarity.  (If  this  reads  rather  morose, 

2Q 


594  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

set  it  down  to  the  vain  desires  of  Alpine  scenery  and  tramps 
that  your  letter  has  excited  !) 

To  Sir  George  Trevelyan  from  Margate,  July  11  (about  R.  E. 
Prothero's  edition  of  Byron's  Letters  and  Journals,  which 
Sir  George  had  sent  him). 

I  had  to  drop  the  book  for  a  time  at  my  London  abode, 
as  reading  in  the  recumbent  attitude  strained  my  eyes,  and 
the  print  of  the  notes  was  too  small.  Now  some  of  the 
notes — e.g.  on  Thomas  Moore,  Robert  Southey,  etc. — are  not 
indispensable,  but  others  on  minor  personages  were  more 
necessary  to  full  enjoyment.  Having  returned  to  a  normal 
amount  of  upright  posture,  I  have  taken  to  it  again,  and 
find  it  fascinating  reading.  What  striking  contrasts  there 
are :  such  mtality  and  so  little  sense  of  enjoyment  of  life, 
so  complete  independence  of  genius  in  literary  products 
— after  Childe  Harold  is  reached — and  yet  such  genuine 
deference  to  the  opinion  of  smaller  men.  This  latter 
contrast,  I  suppose,  belongs  to  youth,  and  I  find  I  con- 
tinually forget  how  young  he  is. 

As  regards  myself,  I  believe  I  am  convalescing,  though 
with  ups  and  downs ;  but  it  is  still  uncertain  to  what  kind 
or  degree  of  health  I  shall  convalesce  !  I  cultivate  patience 
and  hope,  and  ride  in  a  Bath  chair  when  I  am  unequal  to 
walking.  But  the  period  before  my  sixty-second  birthday 
(when  I  had  the  operation)  seems  a  long  while  off. 

To  F.  Myers  from  Margate,  July  17 

I  think  I  shall  try  to  write  the  reminiscences *  when  I 
get  back  a  little  intellectual  energy.  The  work  has  the 
advantage  that  it  may  legitimately  be  fragmentary ;  the 
drawback  is  that  I  am  not  conscious  of  any  talent  for  it. 
But  I  am  encouraged  by  what  Lyall  says 2  of  my  contribu- 
tion to  Tennyson. 

I    have    been    going    on    with   "ups   and   downs,"    and 

1  Autobiographical  reminiscences,  which  Myers,  during  his  visit  to  him  at 
Margate,  had  urged  him  to  write,  and  of  which  he  did  dictate  from  his  bed 
in  August  the  beginning,  given  at  pp.  33-38. 

2  To  F.  Myers. 


1900,  AGE  62  HENEY  SIDGWICK  595 

altogether  have  not  progressed  sensibly  since  you  were 
here.  On  the  whole,  however,  I  think  I  have  more  energy 
on  my  good  days.  .  .  .  My  brother  Arthur  has  been  here, 
and  cheered  and  stimulated  us  much. 

To  Father  Tyrrell  from  Margate,  July  17 

I  must  send  you  a  line  of  thanks  for  your  very  kind  and 
sympathetic  letter.  I  value  sincerely  the  prayers  of  all 
whose  kindness  prompts  them  to  pray  for  me,  and  especially 
of  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  betterment  of  man's 
spiritual  life.  And  I  trust  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  that 
this  value  is  entirely  independent  of  agreement  in  theo- 
logical beliefs.  What  you  say — with  much  delicacy — of  the 
different  attitudes  towards  the  endurance  of  pain  and  sorrow 
in  which  our  respective  intellectual  conclusions  place  us  is 
profoundly  true.  But  I  recognised  that  truth  long  ago  in 
days  of  health  and  happiness :  indeed  it  has  been  before  my 
mind  in  all  my  thought  about  the  central  problems  of 
philosophy  and  theology.  Perhaps  if  the  fragment  of 
semi-invalid  life  that  I  have  to  look  forward  to  allows  me 
time  and  vigour  of  brain  sufficient,  I  may  try  to  put  my 
thoughts  on  these  matters  into  an  orderly  form  for  the  help 
of  others — if  when  I  have  set  them  forth  they  seem  to  me 
useful.  If  so  I  shall  encourage  myself  by  thinking  that 
they  may  interest  you  among  others. 

Meanwhile,  not  as  a  thinker  but  as  a  weak  human  being, 
aided  and  cheered  in  his  weakness  by  human  sympathy,  I 
thank  you  for  your  kind  words. 

After  Margate  he  stayed  for  a  few  days  with  his 
brother-in-law  at  10  Downing  Street,  London,  and 
then  went  to  the  Eayleighs  at  Terling  for  a  visit,  on 
his  way,  as  he  hoped,  to  Cambridge.  But  his  disease 
was  progressing,  perhaps  owing  to  the  excessively 
hot  weather  of  that  July,  and  this  was  his  last  journey. 
His  last  days  were  spent  under  the  hospitable  roof 
where  he  had  passed  so  many  happy  ones  during  his 
engagement. 


596  HENRY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

To  Wilfrid  Ward  from  Terling  Place,  July  28 

I  write  one  line  to  explain  my  silence.  The  fact  is  that 
almost  from  the  time  your  letter  reached  me,  my  convales- 
cence began  to  go  down-hill,  and  I  am  now  weaker  instead 
of  stronger  than  I  was  when  I  left  the  nursing  home. 
However,  I  try  to  hope  that  this  may  be  only  transient ; 
and  I  hope  therefore  both  to  read  your  article  in  the 
Fortnightly,  and  to  try  to  formulate  my  view  on  the  ques- 
tion of  relativity.  Meanwhile,  I  must  not  delay  longer  to 
acknowledge  your  letter  and  to  ask  you  to  convey  my 
thanks  to  Mrs.  Ward  for  the  Fioretti.1  They  look  most 
attractive,  and  the  book  will  always  remind  me  that  I  owe 
to  her  my  introduction  to  it.  I  have  been  preaching  to  my 
friends  [the  duty]  of  making  themselves  acquainted  with  the 
book ;  but  it  is  astonishing  how  many  cultivated  persons  are 
unable  to  read  Italian  with  satisfaction  to  themselves,  and 
I  am  not  sure  that  the  unique  charm  of  the  narrative  would 
be  altogether  conveyed  in  an  English  translation. 

To  H.  F.  Broum  on  August  9  (dictated  to  H.  G.  Dakyns, 
who  was  visiting  him) 

My  convalescence  has  been  going  down -hill  for  some 
time,  and  I  have  been  almost  unequal  to  the  meagrest 
correspondence  ;  but  it  is  always  a  pleasure  to  me  to  get 
letters  from  friends — especially  letters  like  yours — so  please 
remain  assured  of  that. 

I  hope  Disentis  has  come  up  to  the  expectation  in  respect 
both  of  climate  and  blissful  solitude.  Graham,  by  whose 
hand  you  will  perceive  I  am  writing  this  letter,  has  promised 
to  send  me  Henley's  shea/let.  He  describes  the  verses  as 
"  virile,"  but  says  that  H.  is  very  much  in  earnest.  My 
feelings  towards  the  new  Britannia  are  very  much  the  same 
as  yours :  but  I  am  inclined  to  distinguish  the  people  from 
the  newspapers.  In  many  ways  I  admire  the  behaviour  of 
the  people  during  this  disastrous  year.  I  only  think  that 
our  peculiar  national  stupidity  has  never  been  so  strongly 

1  Mrs.  "Ward  had  sent  him  as  a  present  a  little  bound  copy  of  the 
Fioretti  di  S.  Francesco. 


1900,  AGE  62  HENEY  SIDGWICK  597 

shown  [as]  in  the  manner  in  which  we  have  broken  the  policy 
of  the  century  and  dropt  our  traditional  sympathy  with 
nationalities  struggling  for  freedom — without  apparently 
being  aware  of  this  violent  change  of  attitude.  When  the 
Times  talks  of  the  Boers  on  the  rare  occasions  when  it 
recognises  their  virtues — "  making  good  British  subjects  in 
a  few  years  " — I  almost  feel  as  if  the  old  idea  of  national 
independence  as  a  priceless  good  for  which  a  brave  man 
may  willingly  die  had  vanished  into  a  dim  and  remote  past. 
But  I  am  getting  ineptly  rhetorical. 

Good-bye.  You  will  see  from  the  address  of  the  letter 
that  I  have  not  got  to  Cambridge  yet.  If  I  ever  do  get 
there  I  will  send  you  a  line  from  Newnham.  It  will  mean 
that  I  am  better  and  hopeful  of  doing  a  little  work. 

To  the  Rev.  E.  M.  Young  on  August  13 

Your  interesting  letter  gave  me  much  pleasure.  I  value 
the  letters  of  my  friends  and  the  kindness  which  prompts 
them  none  the  less  that  I  am  hardly  equal  to  responding, 
having  in  fact  been  confined  to  bed  and  fluid  diet  for  about 
a  fortnight,  which  seems  to  have  brought  my  brain  into  a 
completely  sloppy  condition.  This  is  due  to  a  digestive  dis- 
turbance, which  does  not  seem  properly  to  belong  to  my 
complaint,  and  the  doctors  assure  me  that  it  may  be  transient. 
But  I  am  afraid  it  will  be  a  slow  affair  getting  rid  of  it.  ... 

As  regards  the  Chinese  nightmare — what  strikes  me  is 
that  in  the  year  1900,  when  so  many  have  gone  to  and 
fro,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  world  in  which  we  live  is 
increased  so  much,  we  are  still  so  very  ignorant  of  what  is 
really  going  on,  and  has  been  going  on,  in  this  great  State 
embodying  the  one  alien  civilisation  that  it  remains  to 
Europe  to  overcome.  I  have  always  thought  that  the 
collision  and  interpenetration  of  European  science  and 
Chinese  institutions — which  it  seemed  to  me  must  come — 
would  be  an  interesting  phenomenon  of  the  twentieth 
century ;  but  the  present  shock  of  the  two  civilisations  in 
battle  is  something  quite  different,  and  what  will  come  of 
it  I  know  not. 


598  HENEY  SIDGWICK  CHAP,  vm 

It  was  on  this  day  that  a  decisive  change  for  the 
worse  showed  itself,  after  which  hope  was  practically 
given  up. 

From  Arthur  Sidgwick  to  Sir  George  Trevelyan, 
Oxford,  August  20,  1900 

I  send  one  line  to  say  that  we  have  now  no  hopes  for 
Henry,  but  that  the  growing  weakness,  which  he  bears  with 
unbroken  patience  and  the  simplest  unselfish  fortitude,  may 
soon  reach  the  natural  end  which  he  so  desires. 

We  left  him  on  Friday,  and  to-day  I  hear  only  that  a 
further  change  has  come,  and  that  his  wife  and  my  sister, 
who  are  there  (Terling,  in  Essex),  are  simply  waiting,  as  he 
is,  for  his  release. 

I  know  your  warm  heart  will  be  sorry  with  no  common 
sorrow,  but  you  must  not  be  sorry  for  death  to  come  now  to 
him.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  him  here  (on  last  May 
20)  when  he  felt  well,  but  told  us  that  his  death  was 
certain  in  a  short  time.  There  were  fluctuations  of  hope 
afterwards,  which  the  doctors  were  probably  bound  to  hold 
out  to  him  ;  but  he  was  the  truer  prophet.  And  his  quiet 
review  of  his  own  life,  briefly  given  to  me  (in  the  room 
where  I  write)  in  the  simplest  words,  was  what  we  can  none 
of  us  forget.  It  was  the  last  and  best  example  of  what 
he  was  and  is — as  I  have  known  since  I  knew  anything, 
and  you  have  known  for  over  forty  years. 

There  is  no  more  to  say,  and  indeed  to  you  no  need  for 
me  to  say  anything.  You  will  feel  as  we  do. 

I  will  write  if  and  when  there  is  a  further  change. 
You  will  share  all  our  hopes  for  him,  and  we  can  neither 
of  us  have  any  fears  for  such  as  he  is. 

The  end  came  on  August  28. 

His  body  was  buried  in  the  village  churchyard  at 
Terling,  and  thus  the  Church  of  England  service  was 
used  without  question,  although  his  old  hope  of 
returning  to  the  Church  of  his  fathers  had  not  been 
fulfilled.  He  refrained  from  leaving  any  directions 
on  this  point;  but  in  May  1900,  when  he  supposed 


1900,  AGE  62  HENKY  SIDGWICK  599 

that  his  funeral  would  take  place  in  a  town  cemetery, 
he  talked  of  it  with  his  wife.  If  it  were  decided,  he 
said,  not  to  use  the  Church  of  England  service — and 
not  to  use  it  was  what  seemed  to  him  most  in  harmony 
with  his  views  and  actions  in  life — he  would  like  to 
have  the  following  words  said  over  his  grave  :— 
"  Let  us  commend  to  the  love  of  God  with  silent 
prayer  the  soul  of  a  sinful  man  who  partly  tried  to  do 
his  duty.  It  is  by  his  wish  that  I  say  over  his  grave 
these  words  and  no  more." 


APPENDIX  I 

PAPERS  READ  BY  H.  SIDGWICK  TO  THE  SYNTHETIC 

SOCIETY 

I.  ON  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  FOR  THEISM 
Read  on  February  25,  1898 

I  WILL  begin  by  briefly  explaining  the  aim  of  this  paper. 

The  primary  object  of  our  Society,  as  indicated  in  its  rules, 
is  to  contribute  to  the  establishment  of  "a  working  philosophy 
of  religious  belief,"  or,  as  it  is  called  in  the  first  paper,  a 
"  constructive  philosophy  to  replace  the  old  natural  theologies," 
which  are  widely  felt  to  be  more  or  less  antiquated.  In  a  paper 
read  at  our  last  meeting  X  argued  that  the  object  of  the  Society 
would  be  best  attained  by  limiting  the  scope  of  our  discussions, 
and  agreeing  to  withdraw  from  certain  well-known  lines  of 
argument,  especially  "that  class  of  arguments  which  purport 
to  lead  to  the  recognition  of  Theism  by  observation  of  the 
working  of  the  visible  world,  and  of  man's  needs  and  aspirations, 
moral  as  well  as  material."  These  are  afterwards  described  as 
"  rationalistic  arguments  drawn  from  the  indications  of  physical 
and  ethical  experience."  The  writer's  aim,  if  I  understand  the 
conclusion  of  his  paper,  is  by  discarding  these  arguments  to 
concentrate  discussion  on  the  validity  of  certain  fundamental 
assumptions,  on  the  basis  of  which — if  they  are  accepted  as 
valid — some  system  of  Christian  Theology  may  be  conclusively 
demonstrated. 

Now,  in  dealing  with  a  subject  so  vast  and  many-sided,  there 
is  always  an  important  gain  in  concentrating  discussion,  and 
limiting  it  to  certain  definite  lines.  I  have,  therefore,  much 
sympathy  with  X's  general  aim ;  and  my  object  in  the  present 
paper  is  to  go  as  far  as  I  can  in  the  direction  in  which  he 
invites  us.  But  I  (1)  think  his  exclusions  too  sweeping,  and 

600 


APPENDIX  I  601 

(2)  should  desire  them,  so  far  as  I  accept  them,  to  be  regarded 
as  provisional  and  not  final. 

(1)  For,  first,  if  we  exclude  physical  and  ethical  experience 
altogether,  there  seems  to  be  only  left  the  "  high  priori  road " 
of    abstract  metaphysical    reasoning,   as   the  single    method   of 
cogently  demonstrating  the  Theistic  conclusion.     Now  I  am  far 
from  wishing  to  exclude  this  method ;  but,  judging  from  past 
experience  of  its  use  by  philosophers,  I  confess  that  I  have  little 
hope  of  reaching  Christian  Theism  by  means  of  it,  if  we  are 
strictly  confined  to  it.     We  may  arrive  at  a  Universal  Subject, 
distinguishable  from  the  world  that  is  metaphysically  proved  to 
be  inconceivable  without  it,  a  Universal  Thinker  whose  thoughts 
are  the  necessary  relations  that  constitute  and  connect  into  a 
whole  what  we  call  particular  things ;  but  from  this  conception 
I  do  not  believe  that  we  can  pass,  by  any  bridge  that  Metaphysics 
can  build,  to  the  conception  of  God  which  Christianity  requires. 
And,  considering  the  continually  increasing  prominence  of  positive 
science  in  our  modern  view  of  knowledge,  and  the  continualty 
increasing  prominence  of  the  ethical  aspect  in  our  modern  view 
of  religion,  I  am  not  disposed  to  expect  satisfactory  results  from 
concentrating  discussion  on  a  line  of  thought  which  ignores  both 
the  one  and  the  other. 

(2)  At  the  same  time  I  shall  quite  consent  to  the  provisional 
exclusion  of  certain  lines  of  argument — both  in  the  region  of 
physical  and  in  that  of  ethical  experience — which  have  been 
commonly  used  by  advocates  of  Theism.     But  I  should  wish  the 
exclusion  to  be  understood  to  be  merely  provisional.     For  Theism, 
in  the  sense  at  least  in  which  we  are  concerned  with  it,  is  an 
answer  to  a  philosophical  question  of  a  central  and  fundamental 
character ;  it  is  or  involves  a  view  of  the  Universe  of  Things  or 
Thought  as  a  whole,  the  acceptance  of  which  is  likely  to  have 
an  effect  on  every  part  of  the  system  of  knowledge  or  rational 
thought  which  the  Theist  forms.     Thus  he  will  be  led  to  find 
everywhere  evidences  of  the  Divine  Nature  and  Purpose,  which 
he  will  reasonably  take  as  confirmations  of  his  central  belief ; 
although,  when  regarded  as  proofs  of  this  belief  by  a  thinker  in 
a  more  neutral  attitude  of  mind,  they  cannot  but  appear  wanting 
in  cogency.     For  instance,  a  Theist  who  is  also  a  physicist  notes 
that  the  process  of  physical  change  actually  going  on,  in  the 
part  of  the  physical  universe  of  which  we  have  experience,  is 
analogous  to  that  of  a  clock  running  down  :  when  we  follow  it 
forward  in  our  thought  we  see  that,  according  to  our  conception 
of  its  laws,  it  must  come  to  an  end  some  time,  and  similarly 
when  we  follow  it  backward  that  it  must  have  had  a  beginning 


602  HENEY  SIDGWICK 

altogether  unlike  any  step  in  the  process  and  not  explicable  as 
the  result  of  any  causes  empirically  known  to  us.  Thus  the  con- 
ception of  a  Divine  Creation  seems  to  him  naturally  to  fill  the 
place  left  by  the  purely  physical  notion  of  an  inexplicable 
beginning.  But  I  should  like  to  discard  all  arguments  of  this 
kind  here,  since  they  cannot  possibly  convince  a  student  of 
physics  who  is  not  already  a  Theist ;  he  must  always  think  it 
scientifically  preferable  to  suppose  unknown  physical  causes  and 
undiscovered  physical  laws,  rather  than  to  leap  out  of  physics  to 
so  alien  an  agency  as  Divine  Creative  Force. 

Similarly,  we  shall  find  it  quite  natural  that  a  chemist,  other- 
wise convinced  of  Theism,  should  call  attention  to  "  the  illustra- 
tions of  the  wisdom,  goodness,  and  power  of  God  which  may  be 
discovered  in  the  constitution  of  the  atmosphere  " ;  and  give  us, 
in  chapter  after  chapter,  "The  Testimony  of  Oxygen,"  "The 
Testimony  of  Nitrogen,"  "  The  Testimony  of  Carbonic  Dioxide  "  ; 
pointing  out  that,  if  these  important  gases  had  not  had  the 
precise  properties  which  they  actually  possess,  physical  life,  as 
we  know  it,  could  not  have  been  lived  on  this  earth.  For  a 
Theist  to  dilate  on  these  topics  is  quite  reasonable  and  proper  : 
but  I  must  agree  with  X  that  all  this  class  of  arguments  should 
be  at  present  discarded  by  those  who  are  seeking  proofs  of 
Theism.  For  I  cannot  but  accept  the  prevalent  opinion  of  post- 
Darwinian  zoologists,  that  the  vast  variety  of  forms  of  life  known 
to  us  through  observation  and  the  geological  record  have  come 
into  being — all  except  some  unknown  original  living  matter — 
through  the  self-adaptation  of  life  to  its  physical  conditions  ;  and 
I  am  thus  led  to  form  so  extensive  an  idea  of  the  adaptability 
and  variability  of  life,  that  I  can  see  no  reason  for  answering  in 
the  negative  the  hypothetical  question,  "Could  life  have  been 
evolved  on  this  planet  if  its  gaseous  elements  had  been  quite 
different  from  what  they  are  ? "  No  doubt  the  peculiar  com- 
bination of  physical  and  chemical  changes  which  life,  as  a  merely 
physical  fact,  presents  to  us  remains  as  yet  inexplicable  by  known 
mechanical  or  chemical  laws — and  the  adaptability  of  which  I 
have  just  spoken  seems  to  increase  the  difficulty  of  explaining  it. 
But  though  this  is  a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  construc- 
tion of  a  Materialistic  or  "  Naturalistic "  philosophy,  I  cannot 
find  in  it  a  cogent  argument  for  Theism.  In  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge,  it  would  seem  to  me  more  philosophical  to 
look  for  an  explanation  of  the  mystery  of  physical  life,  taken 
simply  by  itself,  in  some  extension  of  our  knowledge  on  such 
obscure  topics  as  chemical  affinities  and  crystalline  structure. 
So  far  as  this  is  concerned,  therefore,  I  am  willing  to  concur 


APPENDIX  I  603 

with  X  in  provisionally   discarding  the   "celebrated  argument 
from  design." 

But  the  case  is  different  when  we  turn  to  the  psychical  side 
of  life,  which  I  have  so  far  ignored — sensations,  emotions,  voli- 
tions, and  thoughts.  In  explaining  the  behaviour  of  the  species 
of  animal  distinguished  as  Man,  facts  of  this  kind  become  a 
prominent  object  of  contemplation ;  but  we  commonly  suppose, 
with  unquestioning  certitude,  the  existence  of  the  psychical  fact 
we  call  feeling,  throughout  the  whole  range  of  animal  life  ;  while 
to  the  higher  mammalia,  at  least,  we  attribute  emotions,  per- 
ceptions, and  inferences  more  or  less  similar  to  the  human.  This 
view  of  animal  life  is,  as  I  say,  unquestionably  accepted ;  indeed, 
it  is  necessary  to  justify  the  equally  accepted  disapproval  and 
legal  prohibition  of  "  cruelty  to  animals,"  since  we  do  not  interfere 
to  prevent  the  most  wanton  and  savage  disintegration  of  the  most 
highly  organised  vegetables  by  their  owners.  Now,  so  far  as 
"  observation  of  the  working  of  the  visible  world  "  is  understood 
to  include  the  systematic  study  of  this  class  of  facts — what  we 
may  call  the  'world  of  mind' — it  seems  to  me  impossible  to 
disregard  it  in  seeking  for  a  proof  of  Theism.  For,  though 
positive  science — Biology  and  Psychophysiology — concerns  itself 
increasingly  with  this  class  of  facts,  it  can  hardly  be  with  any 
hope  of  explaining  the  laws  of  their  development  as  the  result  of 
any  combination  of  physical  and  chemical  laws.  As  Mr.  Spencer 
emphatically  avows,  "  though  accumulated  observations  and  ex- 
periments have  led  us  to  the  belief"  that  specific  changes  in 
organic  matter  are  the  invariable  concomitants  of  feelings  and 
thoughts,  "we  remain  utterly  incapable  of  seeing  and  even  of 
imagining  how  the  two  are  related.  Mind  still  continues  to  us 
a  something  without  any  kinship  with  other  things."  If,  then, 
in  contemplating  the  evolution  of  mind  as  a  whole,  we  are 
irresistibly  led  to  find  in  the  later  stages  the  explanation  of  the 
earlier — as  we  find  in  the  adult  organism  and  its  functions 
the  explanation  of  the  characteristics  of  its  germ — we  cannot, 
in  the  case  of  the  mental  fact,  fall  back  on  materialistic  hypo- 
theses to  account  for  the  phenomenon.  Similarly,  if  in  con- 
templating the  most  remarkable  product  of  mind — scientific 
knowledge — in  its  latest  stage,  we  find  ourselves  irresistibly  led 
to  assume  as  real  a  completer  knowledge,  comprehending  and 
going  indefinitely  beyond  the  imperfect  and  fragmentary  know- 
ledge possessed  by  human  minds,  this  inference  is  not — as  in  the 
case  of  the  chemist's  arguments  for  Divine  Design — the  intro- 
duction of  a  hypothesis  primd  facie  alien  to  the  matter  that  we 
are  studying.  For  these  reasons,  I  think  our  concessions  to  X, 


604  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

as  regards  discarding  the  "celebrated  argument  from  design,'7 
should  stop  at  the  world  of  mind  (including  the  world  of  animate 
life  viewed  on  its  mental  side). 

I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  we  are  likely  to  find  a  complete 
proof  of  Theism  by  merely  following  the  lines  of  thought  that  I 
have  just  indicated.  Theism  is  a  philosophical  doctrine :  it  is 
the  primary  aim  of  philosophy  to  unify  completely,  bring  into 
clear  coherence,  all  departments  of  rational  thought;  and  this 
aim  cannot  be  realised  by  any  philosophy  that  leaves  out  of  its 
view  the  important  body  of  judgments  and  reasonings  which 
form  the  subject  matter  of  Ethics.  And  it  seems  especially  im- 
possible, in  attempting  the  construction  of  a  Theistic  Philosophy, 
to  leave  Ethics  on  one  side.  No  view  of  Theism — as  X  says — 
"  is  of  much  importance  to  mankind  which  does  not  include  the 
conception  of  a  Sovereign  Will  that  orders  all  things  "  ;  and  if — 
as  he  goes  on  to  say — "  the  only  form  of  dogmatic  religion  worth 
arguing  about  is  Christianity,"  I  think  we  may  agree  to  add  one 
word  to  the  statement  previously  quoted,  and  say  "A  Sovereign 
Will  that  orders  all  things  tightly."  For  this  reason  I  cannot 
agree  to  discard  from  our  discussions — even  provisionally— 
"  arguments  drawn  from  the  indications  of  ethical  experience." 

But  here  again  I  should  like  to  go  as  far  as  I  can  to  meet  X's 
views.  I  quite  admit  that  when  we  contemplate  human  morality 
from  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  historian  or  sociologist 
naturally  contemplates  it — regarding  it  as  a  body  of  rules  of 
conduct  supported  by  social  sentiments  of  approval  and  dis- 
approval, which  a  normal  member  of  society  shares,  and  through 
sympathy  with  others  applies  reflectively  to  his  own  conduct  as 
well  as  to  the  conduct  of  others — it  certainly  does  not  seem 
"easy  to  prove  that  the  Theistic  hypothesis  is  necessary  to 
account  for  its  existence."  Especially  when  we  direct  our  atten- 
tion to  the  variations  in  prevalent  moral  opinion  and  sentiment, 
which  are  observable  as  we  pass  in  our  contemplative  survey 
from  age  to  age,  and  from  one  contemporary  society  to  another ; 
the  fluid  and  changing  results  that  impartial  observation  thus 
seems  to  yield  hardly  even  suggest  the  hypothesis  of  "super- 
human institution  "  :  they  are  more  naturally  viewed  as  a  part 
of  the  complex  adaptation  of  social  man  to  the  varying  conditions 
of  gregarious  existence,  civilised  and  uncivilised.  Nor  would  the 
fact  that  saints  generally  have  found  themselves  irresistibly  led 
to  regard  moral  rules  as  the  dictates  of  a  Divine  Euler  weigh 
with  me  much  on  the  other  side ;  unless  I  were  assured  that  the 
saints  in  question  had  made  a  systematic  attempt  to  contemplate 
the  variations  in  positive  morality  from  a  sociological  point  of 


APPENDIX  I  605 

view — which  is  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  case.  But  all  such 
sociological  observation  of  morality  ignores  the  question  which, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  reflective  individual,  is  the  funda- 
mental question  of  Ethics,  '  Why  should  I,  always  and  in  all 
circumstances,  do  what  is  most  conducive  to  the  well-being  of 
my  society,  or  of  humanity  at  large  1 '  To  answer  this  question 
satisfactorily,  we  have  to  find  a  solution  of  the  primd  facie  conflict 
between  an  individual's  interest  and  his  social  duty,  which  the 
actual  conditions  of  human  life  from  time  to  time  present. 
Optimistic  moralists  of  the  last  century  attempted  to  obtain  the 
required  solution  by  establishing  a  perfect  coincidence  of  interest 
and  duty  on  a  strictly  empirical  basis  ;  but  such  attempts  are 
now,  I  think,  abandoned  by  serious  thinkers  ;  and  yet  some 
solution  must  be  found,  if  the  normal  judgments  of  our  practical 
reason  are  to  be  reduced  to  a  coherent  system.  It  is  this  con- 
sideration which  led  Kant  to  affirm  with  so  much  emphasis  the 
indispensability  of  Theism  in  the  construction  of  an  ethical 
system  :  "  Without  a  God  and  without  a  world,  not  visible  to 
us  now  but  hoped  for,  the  glorious  ideas  of  morality  are  indeed 
objects  of  applause  and  admiration,  but  not  springs  of  purpose 
and  action,  because  they  fail  to  fulfil  all  the  aims  which  are 
natural  to  every  rational  being."  This  language  is  too  sweeping 
to  express  my  own  convictions  :  still,  the  importance  of  the  con- 
ception of  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  in  giving  the 
required  systematic  coherence  to  Ethics,  seems  to  me  so  great 
that  I  cannot  consent  to  discard  this  consideration — even  pro- 
visionally— in  seeking  a  "  Avorking  philosophy  "  of  Theism. 

At  this  point  it  may  perhaps  be  objected,  "No  doubt  it  would  be 
highly  convenient  for  Ethics  to  establish  the  moral  government  of 
the  world :  but,  though  that  consideration  may  supply  a  motive 
for  seeking  to  prove  Theism,  it  does  not  contribute  in  any  way 
to  the  required  proof :  it  rather  helps  the  Agnostic  to  explain 
why  so  many  educated  persons  accept  Theism  though  unproven 
and  unprovable."  To  this  I  should  reply  by  asking  whether  any 
philosophical  theory  can  ever  be  established,  if  we  are  not  to 
accept  as  evidence  of  its  truth  the  fact  that  it  introduces  unity, 
harmony,  systematic  coherence  into  our  thought,  and  removes 
the  conflict  and  contradiction  which  would  otherwise  exist  in  the 
whole  or  some  department  of  it  ? 

And  this  leads  me  to  the  last  of  X's  exclusions  which  my  limits 
allow  me  to  discuss  :  i.e.  his  proposal  to  discard  all  arguments 
based  on  "the  analogy  between  hypotheses  that  are  verifiable 
and  those  that  are  not  verifiable  by  human  experience."  Here, 
again,  I  do  not  entirely  disagree  with  the  drift  of  his  remarks. 


606  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

It  seems  to  me  difficult  to  deny  that  those  sciences  which  can 
point  to  exact  particular  predictions,  made  before  the  event  and 
realised  by  the  event,  acquire  thereby  a  claim  to  our  confidence, 
which  must  be  wanting  to  any  philosophy  of  Theism,  based  on 
the  data  which  we  at  present  possess.  For  Theism,  if  it  is  to  be 
of  any  "practical  importance  to  mankind,"  predicts,  and  must 
predict :  it  predicts  the  complete  realisation  of  Divine  Justice  in 
the  ordering  of  the  world  of  humanity  and  the  individual  lives 
of  men :  and  it  admittedly  cannot  show  the  realisation  of  this 
prediction  in  past  experience.  But  I  cannot  admit — what  X 
at  any  rate  seems  to  suggest — that  verification  by  particular 
experiences  and  cogent  demonstration  from  incontrovertible 
premises  are  the  only  modes  of  attaining  the  kind  and  degree 
of  certitude  which  we  require  for  a  "  working  philosophy 
of  religious  belief."  This  contention  appears  to  me  itself  con- 
ti'ary  to  experience  :  that  is,  to  experience  of  the  manner  in  which 
conviction  has  actually  been  reached  in  the  progress  of  human 
knowledge.  I  may  point  out  that  the  contention,  if  admitted, 
would  be  as  fatal  to  dogmatic  Agnosticism  as  it  would  be,  in  my 
opinion,  to  Theism :  for  the  proposition  that  "  the  reality  under- 
lying appearances  is  totally  and  for  ever  inconceivable  by  us " 
obviously  does  not  admit  of  verification  by  experience,  while  it 
is  incapable  of  being  demonstrated  from  incontrovertible  premises. 
But  I  will  not  dwell  on  this  point,  as  there  is  no  representative 
of  dogmatic  Agnosticism  here ;  nor  will  I  now  attempt  to  prove 
— Avhat  seems  to  me  true — that  it  would  be  equally  fatal  to  any 
philosophical  system  known  to  me  as  now  alive  :  that  would 
require  another  paper  longer  than  the  present.  I  prefer  to  consider 
examples  of  the  intellectual  process  by  which  new  convictions 
have  actually  been  substituted  for  old  ones  in  the  progress  of 
empirical  sciences  :  it  seems  to  me  that  such  changes  repeatedly 
take  place  not  because  new  experiences,  really  crucial,  have 
proved  the  new  opinion  right  and  the  old  wrong :  it  is  rather 
that  the  new  opinion  is  seen  to  harmonise  better  with  previously 
known  facts,  and  with  men's  whole  conception  of  the  course  of 
nature.  Take  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  as  accepted  with  intense 
conviction  by  the  great  majority  of  biologists  during  the  last 
thirty  years — I  mean  not  specially  Darwinianism,  but  the  general 
doctrine  that  all  living  things  are  produced  from  antecedent 
living  things,  and  that  all  differences  in  living  forms  are  to  be 
explained  as  due  to  the  action,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the  environ- 
ment and  to  the  gradual  summation  of  small  differences  between 
parents  and  offspring.  It  is  surely  impossible  to  say  that  this 
sweeping  proposition  is  in  any  sense  proved  by  the  new  experi- 


APPENDIX  I  607 

ences  which  Darwin  produced  in  support  of  it.  And  I  under- 
stand (I  write,  of  course,  subject  to  correction  by  any  expert 
present)  that  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  greatest  change 
ever  made  in  our  view  of  the  physical  world.  It  was  not 
in  virtue  of  any  new  decisive  observations  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  that  Copernicus  established  the  heliocentric  system  of 
celestial  motions :  his  system  prevailed  through  the  greater 
simplicity  and  consistency  with  which  it  explained  phenomena 
already  known. 

In  short,  the  more  we  examine  the  process  of  change  in 
what  is  commonly  accepted  as  knowledge,  the  more  we  find 
that  the  notion  of  "  verification  by  experience  " — in  the  sense 
of  "  verification  by  particular  sense-perceptions  " — is  inadequate 
to  explain  or  justify  it.  The  criterion  that  we  find  really 
decisive,  in  case  after  case,  is  not  any  particular  new  sense- 
perception,  or  group  of  new  sense-perceptions,  but  consistency 
with  an  elaborate  and  complex  system  of  beliefs,  in  which  the 
results  of  an  indefinite  number  of  perceptions  and  inferences 
are  combined.  Let  me  take  a  case  of  some  current  interest. 
Many  of  the  vulgar  and  a  few  educated  persons  still  believe 
that  there  are  such  things  as  '  ghosts '  moving  about  in  space. 
The  vulgar  naively  consider  that  this  general  statement  is 
'  verified '  by  the  numerous  experiences  of  '  seeing  ghosts,'  which 
undoubtedly  do  occur  to  some  persons  from  time  to  time.  But 
no  educated  person  thinks  that  the  mere  fact  of  A's  '  seeing '  a 
ghost  is  any  evidence  at  all  for  the  above  generalisation:  he 
unhesitatingly  concludes  that  the  apparent  vision  of  an  external 
object  is  in  this  case  merely  apparent,  an  'hallucination.'  And 
why  ?  Surely  because  the  existence  of  something  so  material  as 
to  produce  through  the  organ  of  vision  the  apparent  perception 
of  a  human  figure,  and  yet  so  immaterial  as  to  pass  through 
the  wall  of  a  room,  is  incompatible  with  his  general  concep- 
tion of  the  physical  world.  Suppose  this  general  conception 
different,  and  the  "verification"  might  be  accepted  by  a  mind 
far  from  credulous.  Indeed,  the  history  of  thought  shows  this. 
Epicurus  was  not  in  his  age  regarded  as  prone  to  superstition, 
but  rather  as  the  great  deliverer  from  the  terrors  of  superstition  : 
yet  Epicurus  held  it  to  be  an  important  argument  for  the  exist- 
ence of  Gods  that  phantasms  of  them  appear  to  men  in  dreams 
and  visions. 

It  seems  to  me,  then,  that  if  we  are  led  to  accept  Theism 
as  being,  more  than  any  other  view  of  the  Universe,  consistent 
with,  and  calculated  to  impart  a  clear  consistency  to,  the  whole 
body  of  what  we  commonly  agree  to  take  for  knowledge — 


608  HENEY  SIDGWICK 

including  knowledge  of  right  and  wrong  —  we  accept  it  on 
grounds  analogous  to  those  on  which  important  scientific  con- 
clusions have  been  accepted  ;  and  that,  even  though  we  are 
unable  to  add  the  increase  of  certitude  derivable  from  verified 
predictions,  we  may  still  attain  a  sufficient  strength  of  reasoned 
conviction  to  justify  us  in  calling  our  conclusions  a  "  working 
philosophy." 

II.  AUTHORITY,  SCIENTIFIC  AND  THEOLOGICAL 
(Read  on  February  24,  1899) 

(i.)  I  THINK  that  commonly  when  the  term  'authority'  is  used 
to  denote  a  ground  or  source  of  human  belief,  the  implied 
antithesis  is  not  to  Reason  simply,  but  to  the  independent 
reason  of  one  or  more  individuals.  The  distinction  seems  to  be 
primarily  between  (1)  propositions  believed  by  (e.g.}  me,  because 
self-evident  to  me,  or  proved  by  my  own  reasoning  from 
empirical  data,  and  (2)  propositions  believed  by  me  because  of 
the  decisions  of  other  persons  that  they  ought  to  be  believed. 
These  latter  are  said  to  be  beliefs  of  which  Authority  is  the 
ground  or  cause. 

But  a  further  distinction  is  at  once  seen  to  be  necessary. 
For  I  may  hold  beliefs  on  Authority  in  two  essentially  distinct 
ways  :  either  (a)  because  I  believe  them  to  be  held  by  others 
with  better  knowledge  than  myself  of  the  matters  in  question,  or 
(b)  because  other  persons  command  me  to  hold  them,  and  I  am 
afraid  that  they  will  do  me  some  harm  if  I  do  not  obey.  I 
think  that,  in  theological  discussion,  '  Authority,'  as  a  source  of 
belief,  is  sometimes  used  with  the  first  of  these  implications,  some- 
times with  the  second,  sometimes,  confusedly,  with  both  at  once. 

It  may  be  said  that  Authority  in  sense  (b)  cannot  be  really  a 
source  of  belief,  but  only  of  the  profession  of  belief ;  because 
beliefs  cannot  be  adopted  at  will.  But  I  do  not  think  that  this 
is  true  without  qualification  ;  at  least,  in  the  case  of  most  men. 
A  strong  aversion  to  the  consequences  of  the  rejection  of  a 
belief  may  influence  the  will  to  produce  conditions  favour- 
able to  its  acceptance — e.g.  by  reading  arguments  on  one  side, 
and  not  on  the  other  side — and  so,  in  the  long  run,  and  on  the 
average,  tend  to  produce  the  belief :  and  ordinarily  a  man 
who  is  impelled  by  fear  of  penalties,  legal  or  social,  to  profess 
any  belief,  will  have  an  aversion,  moral  or  religious,  to  insincere 
profession. 

I  think,  therefore,  that  Authority,  in  this  sense  (b),  is  really 


APPENDIX  I  609 

a  source  of  belief.  But  I  need  not  consider  this  further,  as  I 
have  only  referred  to  this  operation  of  Authority  in  order  to 
exclude  it  from  the  present  discussion.  I  am  here  only  con- 
cerned with  Authority  in  the  first  sense  (a),  in  which  it  is  pre- 
sented not  merely  as  a  source  but  as  a  rational  cp-ound  for  belief. 
In  this  sense,  as  I  have  said,  there  cannot  be  an  ultimate 
antithesis  between  Authority  and  Eeason  ;  because,  if  the 
validity  of  a  belief  that  I  hold  on  the  authority  of  others  is 
questioned,  I  must  find  adequate  reasons  for  accepting  the 
authority.  The  mere  fact  that  other  men  hold  a  belief  which 
does  not  commend  itself  to  my  independent  judgment  cannot 
be  a  reason  for  my  holding  it  unless  I  have  adequate  grounds 
for  holding  that  they  have  better  means  than  1  have  for 
forming  a  judgment  on  the  matter  in  question.  In  short, 
the  proper  antithesis  is  not  between  Authority  and  Reason,  but 
between  Authority  and  the  independent  exercise  of  private 
Reason. 

Taking  Authority  in  this  sense,  I  think  that  its  place  in 
determining  the  actual  beliefs,  speculative  and  practical,  of 
ordinary  educated  persons,  is  not  only  very  large,  but  tends  to 
grow  with  the  growth  of  science  and  civilisation,  on  account  of 
the  increasing  specialisation  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  which 
is  an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  this  growth.  Probably  there 
never  was  a  time  when  the  amount  of  beliefs  held  by  an  average 
educated  person,  undemonstrated  and  unverified  by  himself,  was 
greater  than  it  is  now.  But  it  is  no  less  true — and  it  much 
concerns  us  here  to  note — that  men  are  more  and  more  disposed 
only  to  accept  authority  of  a  particular  kind  :  the  authority, 
namely,  that  is  formed  and  maintained  by  the  unconstrained 
agreement  of  individual  experts,  each  of  whom  is  believed  to  be 
seeking  truth  with  unfettered  independence,  and  declaring  what 
he  has  found  with  perfect  openness  and  the  greatest  attainable 
precision.  This  authority,  therefore,  is  conceived  as  the 
authority  of  the  living  mind  of  humanity,  and  as  containing 
within  itself,  by  the  very  nature  of  its  composition,  adequate 
guarantees  for  the  elimination  of  error  by  continual  self- 
questioning  and  self-criticism ;  it  is  not  an  authority — such  as 
that  of  our  Supreme  Court  of  Appeal  was  once  held  to  be — 
that  refuses  to  question  its  own  past  decisions ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  encourages  to  the  utmost  any  well-reasoned  criticism 
of  the  most  fundamental  among  them.  It  is  for  this  kind 
of  authority  that  the  wonderful  and  steady  progress  of 
physical  knowledge  leads  educated  persons  to  entertain  a 
continually  increasing  respect  —  accompanied,  I  think,  by  a 

2R 


610  HENKY  SIDGWICK 

corresponding  distrust  of  any  other  kind  of  authority  in  matters 
intellectual. 

Now  here,  I  think,  is  to  be  found  an  important  part  of  the 
explanation  of  the  comparatively  little  influence  exercised  by  the 
authority  of  theologians  over  educated  English  laymen  at  the 
present  day  as  compared  with  that  exercised  by  scientific  authority. 
It  is  not  merely  that  the  theologians  of  different  churches,  and 
different  schools  within  the  same  Church,  disagree  with  one 
another  on  fundamental  points  of  theological  method  :  it  is  still 
more  that  even  where  they  agree — and  there  is,  of  course,  an 
overwhelming  preponderance  of  agreement  among  European 
theologians  on  the  points  of  Christian  doctrine  that  appear  most 
important  to  a  plain  man — the  agreement  has  not  the  character- 
istics that  I  have  given  above,  as  essential  to  the  authority  of  a 
scientific  '  consensus  of  experts.'  That  is,  it  is  not  the  uncon- 
strained agreement  of  individual  thinkers,  pursuing  truth  with 
unfettered  independence  of  judgment  and  unfettered  mutual 
criticism,  encouraged  to  probe  and  test  the  validity  of  received 
doctrines  as  uncompromisingly  and  severely  as  their  reason  may 
prompt,  and  to  declare  any  conclusion  they  may  form  with  the 
utmost  openness  and  unreserve. 

And  I  may  observe,  from  an  academic  point  of  view,  that 
this  contrast  has  become  more  marked  since  the  removal,  a 
generation  ago,  of  all  religious  tests  and  conditions  in  all 
departments  of  academic  work  and  study  except  Theology : 
since  this  change  has  left  the  severe  limitation  of  theological 
study  by  foregone  conclusions  more  naked  and  palpable,  because 
more  exceptional,  than  it  was  before. 

I  am  not  arguing  that  this  state  of  things  ought  to  be  altered. 
I  fully  admit  the  force  of  the  arguments  on  the  other  side,  urged 
upon  me  by  clerical  friends  with  whom  I  have  from  time  to  time 
discussed  the  question.  But  then  the  very  force  of  these  argu- 
ments only  strengthens  my  impression  of  the  comparative 
worthlessness  of  the  most  imposing  consensus  of  opinion  among 
theologians,  under  the  existing  conditions  of  their  study.  For 
the  gist  of  the  arguments  generally  is,  that  if  the  academic 
study  and  teaching  of  Theology  were  perfectly  free  and  un- 
fettered, an  alarming  diversity  of  opinion  must  be  expected  to 
manifest  itself  among  the  freed  teachers,  the  disadvantages  of 
which,  direct  and  indirect,  would  outweigh  the  advantages  of 
freedom. 

Whether  this  forecast  is  justified,  in  the  present  state  of 
thought,  to  the  extent  required  to  render  the  arguments  based 
on  it  decisive,  is  a  question  of  ecclesiastical  and  academic  organ- 


APPENDIX  I  611 

isation  into  which  I  do  not  now  propose  to  enter.  My  point 
now  is,  that  as  things  are  the  deepest  antagonism  between 
Science  and  Theology  lies  in  the  difference  in  the  authority 
derived  from  consensus  of  experts  in  either  case — which  is  the 
inevitable  result  of  the  difference  in  the  conditions  under  which 
the  consensus  is  attained — rather  than  in  any  collisions  between 
scientific  and  theological  teaching  on  special  points  :  I  mean  such 
as  the  conflict  between  Geology  and  Genesis,  Evolution  and 
Special  Creation,  etc.  In  saying  this  I  refer  to  Science  strictly 
taken,  Science  keeping  within  the  limits  of  conclusions  attained 
by  scientific  method ;  as  distinguished  from  the  materialistic  or 
'  naturalistic  '  philosophy  which  certain  scientists  profess  to 
base  on  the  positive  sciences,  but  of  which  the  sweeping  con- 
clusions appear  to  me  to  be  neither  attained  by  strictly  scientific 
methods  nor  supported  by  a  real  consensus  of  scientific  experts. 
Putting  this  kind  of  philosophy  aside,  and  considering  only  the 
relation  between  Theology  and  Natural  Science  keeping  within 
its  proper  limits,  I  think  that  any  conflicts  between  the  two  in 
the  future  are  likely  to  be  of  a  minor  kind,  not  much  more  im- 
portant than  the  conflicts  that  arise  from  time  to  time  between 
one  branch  of  physical  science  and  another  —  e.g.  between 
physicists  and  geologists  as  to  the  past  duration  of  the  earth. 
And,  further,  if  the  amount  of  agreement  actually  attained  by 
professed  theologians  on  fundamental  points  could  be  regarded 
as  having  the  quality  of  a  scientific  consensus — i.e.  if  it  could  be 
regarded  as  the  unconstrained  result  of  unfettered  study  of  the 
subject  by  persons  selected  only  by  their  interest  in  and 
capacity  for  such  study — I  do  not  think  that  the  large  disagree- 
ments that  would  still  remain  need  materially  impair  for  plain 
men  the  authority  of  the  agreement,  not  even  if  the  theologians 
continued  to  be  as  deeply  divided  as  at  present  into  sects.  The 
theologians  would,  no  doubt,  appear  to  the  plain  man  to  attach 
exaggerated  importance  to  the  points  on  which  they  disagreed ; 
but  then  he  is  often  inclined  to  pass  a  similar  judgment  on  the 
disputes  of  scientists,  philologers,  historians,  etc.  He  is  inclined 
to  laugh  at  them  all  as  beings  apt  to  fuss  and  quarrel  hotly  over 
comparative  trifles,  but  he  is  none  the  less  docile  to  the  authority 
of  their  consensus  when  they  agree. 

(ii.)  Supposing  that  we  admit  this  inferiority  in  the  theo- 
logical consensus,  arising  inevitably  from  the  conditions  of 
constraint  under  which  it  is  arrived  at,  the  next  question  is 
whether  there  is  any  remedy  for  it— other  than  the  removal  of 
the  constraint,  which  I  take  to  be  at  present  impracticable. 

Primd  facie  we  cannot  find  a  remedy  by  appealing  to  the 


612  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

consensus  of  civilised  mankind  at  large.  No  doubt  this  consensus 
would  decisively  support  the  consensus  of  theologians  on  funda- 
mental points — at  any  rate,  if  we  limit  our  notion  of  civilisation 
to  European  civilisation.  But  primd  facie  it  would  seem  to  have 
little  rational  authority,  because  the  persons  whose  agreement 
would  constitute  it  are  prima  facie  not  intellectually  qualified  to 
pronounce  judgment  on  the  difficult  questions  at  issue. 

I  suppose  Christian  Theology  may  be  roughly  divided  into 
three  parts :  (1)  reasonings  tending  to  establish — or  predispose 
the  intellect  to  accept — the  belief  in  God  :  (2)  reasonings  tend- 
ing to  show  that  special  knowledge  as  to  the  nature  of  God  and 
His  relations  to  men  is  or  has  been  given  to  certain  individuals 
or  groups  of  individuals — the  Church  or  its  governing  councils  or 
head,  or  the  writers  of  the  treatises  included  in  the  Bible  or  the 
New  Testament ;  (3)  deductions  of  dogmatic  conclusions  from 
the  recorded  utterances  of  these  persons  or  groups.  Now,  of 
these  three  parts  the  first  belongs  to  Philosophy,  and  the  most 
difficult  region  of  Philosophy  ;  the  second  involves  a  combination 
of  Philosophy  and  History ;  the  third  I  will  not  venture  to 
characterise,  but  it  would  certainly  seem  to  require  special 
knowledge  and  skill  not  possessed  by  an  average  man.  The 
judgment  of  the  masses  seems  to  me  primd  facie  quite  untrust- 
worthy on  any  of  the  questions  raised  in  any  of  the  three  parts. 

(iii.)  At  this  point,  however,  a  line  of  thought  was  suggested 
by  Mr.  Ward's  paper — read  at  our  last  meeting — which,  if  valid, 
avoids  to  an  important  extent  the  difficulties  that  I  have  been 
urging.  The  main  object  of  the  present  paper — to  which  all 
that  I  have  so  far  said  is  merely  preparatory — is  to  contribute 
to  a  full  discussion  of  this  line  of  thought. 

In  order  to  do  this  I  will  first  express  the  view  in  my  own 
words  (which,  of  course,  may  not  be  accepted  by  Mr.  Ward), 
and  then  indicate  certain  objections  that  I  find  to  it. 

Briefly,  then :  besides  the  Rational  Theology  and  the 
Revelational  Theology  of  which  I  have  spoken,  we  are  asked 
to  recognise  a  third  kind  of  theology,  which  I  may  perhaps 
call,  for  distinction,  Empirical — the  product  of  a  faculty  not 
peculiar  to  trained  theologians,  but  normal  to  the  human  mind 
at  the  highest  stage  of  its  development  yet  reached.  The  object 
of  this  kind  of  theology  is  the  reality  dimly  apprehended  in  the 
religious  consciousness,  which  is  normally  inseparable  from  the 
moral  consciousness  as  developed  in  the  most  advanced  stage  of 
civilisation.  This  object  is  but  dimly  and  imperfectly  appre- 
hended, because  the  faculty  is  still  in  a  rudimentary  condition  : 
still,  its  apprehensions  are  sufficiently  developed  to  have  a 


APPENDIX  I  613 

legitimate  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  source  of  objective  know- 
ledge. It  is  not  developed  equally  in  all  men,  any  more  (e.g.) 
than  the  apprehension  of  beauty  ;  but — like  the  perception  of 
beauty — it  is  developed  in  average  educated  men  sufficiently  to 
enable  them  to  recognise  and  accept  the  superior  insight  of 
experts ;  only  the  experts,  for  the  purpose  of  this  kind  of 
theology,  are  not  Theologians  commonly  so  called,  but  Saints. 
This  Empirical  Theology  does  not  aim  at  superseding  the  need 
for  either  Rational  or  Revelational  Theology :  it  is  too  conscious 
of  its  imperfection :  but  it  is  independent  of  them  in  its  source, 
and  in  its  claim  to  validity,  so  far  as  its  rudimentary  insight 
goes.  It  needs  the  other  kinds  of  theology,  but  they  also  need 
it,  especially  in  view  of  their  inferiority  as  compared  with 
Science,  in  respect  of  "unconstrained  consensus." 

This  Empirical  Theology  is  independent,  here  and  now,  of 
Christian  Revelation,  however  much  this  may  have  been  historic- 
ally an  indispensable  factor  in  the  development  of  the  faculty 
which  is  its  source ;  for  there  may  be  Jewish  or  Mohammedan 
or  purely  Theistic  Saints,  no  less  than  Christian  Saints ;  indeed 
I  suppose  we  should  admit  pagan  Saints  (Socrates).  Again,  it 
is  largely  independent  of  Rational  Theology,  since  it  does  not 
deal  with  the  speculative  problems  with  which  Rational  Theology 
is  prominently  concerned.  Empirical  Theology  has,  as  such, 
nothing  to  do  with  the  conception  of  God  as  First  Cause  of  the 
Universe,  as  Infinite  and  Absolute  Being,  Ens  Summum,  Ens 
Realissimum ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  arguments  of 
philosophical  Theism — the  inference  from  the  contingent  to  the 
necessary,  from  the  finite  to  the  Infinite,  from  the  relative  to  the 
Absolute,  from  the  idea  of  perfection  to  the  reality,  from  the 
watch  to  the  watchmaker.  It  is  not  opposed  to  these  arguments, 
it  simply  leaves  them  to  metaphysicians ;  the  God  it  contem- 
plates is  thought  of  under  a  very  different  series  or  system  of 
notions.  He  is  thought  of  as  having  a  Righteous  Will,  the 
content  of  which,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  man,  is  partially  appre- 
hended under  the  form  of  rules  of  duty ;  He  is  thought  of  as 
standing  to  men  in  a  relation  fitly  symbolised  by  the  relation  of 
a  father  to  his  children ;  He  is  thought  of  as  a  source  of  aid  and 
strength  in  the  never-ending  struggle  with  sin,  which  forms  an 
essential  element  of  the  higher  moral  life ;  finally,  He  is  thought 
of  as  centre  and  sovereign  of  a  spiritual  kingdom  of  which 
human  beings  are  or  may  be  members.  These  and  other  cog- 
nate ideas  constitute  the  thought^element  of  the  common  religious 
consciousness  in  the  latest  stage  of  its  development,  and  not  the 
metaphysical  ideas  of  First  Cause,  Infinite  and  Absolute  Being, 


614  HENEY  SIDGWICK 

etc.  Accordingly,  it  is  this  system  of  ideas  that  should  be  taken 
as  expressing  or  symbolising  the  aspect  of  reality  apprehended 
through  our  common  religious  consciousness,  just  as  our  common 
system  of  physical  ideas — our  conception  of  the  world  as  a 
coherent  aggregate  of  solid  things  occupying  and  moving  in 
space  of  three  dimensions — expresses  or  symbolises  the  aspect 
of  reality  apprehended  through  the  senses.  It  would,  of  course, 
remain  a  problem  for  Philosophy  to  co-ordinate  the  two  systems 
of  ideas,  and  exhibit  them  in  coherent  and  intelligible  relations : 
indeed  we  may  say  that  this  would  be  the  central  problem  of 
Philosophy :  but  the  failure  to  solve  it  would  not  hinder 
Theology  from  pursuing  its  own  course  of  development  un- 
disturbed, any  more  than  the  development  of  mathematics  or 
physics  is  hindered  by  the  still  unsettled  controversies  of  meta- 
physicians as  to  the  ultimate  nature  of  Space,  Time,  Matter, 
Force.  And,  finally,  it  would  be  for  this  system  of  conceptions 
and  implicit  beliefs  that  we  should  claim  the  authority  of  a 
consensus  free  from  the  defects  attaching  to  the  consensus  of  pro- 
fessional theologians. 

This,  if  I  have  rightly  understood  him,  is  Mr.  Ward's  view  of 
the  content  of  the  developed  religious  consciousness,  regarded  as 
containing  an  apprehension  of  Reality.  I  have  presented  it  in 
my  own  form,  because  I  have  myself  pursued  independently  this 
line  of  thought,  in  the  hope  of  finding  it  a  path  to  truth.  1  !ut 
it  seems  to  me  open  to  objections,  the  chief  of  which  I  must  now 
briefly  indicate. 

1.  I  do  not  think  it  a  serious  objection  that  there  are  many 
persons,  not  necessarily  irreligious,  in  whom  the  religious  con- 
sciousness does  not  appear  to  contain  this  independent  affirma- 
tion of  the  reality  of  its  object;  i.e.,  for  whom  the  beliefs  which 
form  the  framework  for  their  religious  emotions  are  conceived  to 
rest  entirely  on  an  historical  or  historico-philosophical  basis,  so 
that  if  this  basis  is  found  untrustworthy,  religion  goes  out  of 
their  life,  and  they  acquiesce  intellectually — if  not  emotionally — 
in  a  world  without  God.  For  such  persons  may  have — and  no 
doubt  often  do  have — their  moral  consciousness  feebly  developed, 
being  chiefly  or  solely  moved  to  conform  to  current  moral  rules 
by  their  external  sanctions ;  and,  according  to  the  view  above 
set  forth,  it  is  only  in  a  fully  developed  moral  consciousness  that 
we  should  expect  to  find  the  theological  implications  clear  and 
strong.  Nor  would  the  case  be  materially  altered  by  finding  a 
few  highly  moral  individuals  whose  morality  is  quite  untheo- 
logical;  for  we  might  regard  these  as  abnormal  and  compare 
their  case  (e.g.)  to  that  of  eminent  men  of  letters  who  have  no 


APPENDIX  I  615 

ear  for  music.  The  difficulty  that  I  find  is  in  convincing  myself 
that  this  untheological  morality  is  really  abnormal,  and  does  not 
rather  represent  the  beginnings  of  a  more  advanced  stage  in  the 
development  of  the  moral  consciousness.  It  seems  to  me  a 
tenable  view  that  the  development  of  scientific  sociology  and  of 
social  sentiment  in  average  men  tends  ultimately  to  disconnect 
morality  from  its  present  theological  scaffolding,  and  exhibit  it 
as  simply  the  outcome  of  social  feeling  guided  by  a  rational  fore- 
cast of  social  consequences. 

2.  Even  for  minds  for  which  morality  is  inseparable  from 
theological  implications,  these  implications  do  not  appear  always 
to  present  themselves  as  apprehensions  of  Reality,  but  rather  as 
(a)  practical  postulates,  or  (b)  even  merely  needs  of  belief,  not 
involving  any  affirmation  of  real  existence.  The  former,  as  is 
known,  was  the  view  of  Kant,  whom  it  is  difficult  to  regard  as  a 
man  whose  moral  consciousness  was  not  adequately  developed, 
owing  to  the  manifest  predominance  of  ethical  considerations  in 
his  philosophical  system.  Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  Kant's 
distinction  between  practical  postulates  and  speculative  cog- 
nitions— between  propositions  that  I  must  assume  in  order  to 
act  rationally  and  propositions  that  I  regard  as  representing 
reality — is  too  subtle  and  metaphysical  to  be  important  for  our 
present  purpose.  I  should  be  disposed  to  admit  this  so  far  as 
the  conception  of  a  practical  postulate  can  be  stably  maintained 
in  the  precise  Kantian  form ;  but  I  think  that  for  most  minds  a 
belief  recognised  as  assumed  merely  for  practice  is  liable  to 
decline  into  a  belief  of  which  there  is  an  intellectual  need,  but  a 
need  that  does  not  carry  with  it  its  own  satisfaction :  the  satis- 
faction of  the  need  has  to  be  obtained,  if  at  all,  through  some 
other  line  of  thought.  And  so  far  as  this  is  the  case  with  the 
theological  implications  of  our  common  moral  consciousness,  their 
value  for  the  purposes  of  Mr.  Ward's  argument  would  seem  to 
be  much  reduced,  if  not  altogether  destroyed. 


LIST  OF  HENRY  SIDGWICK'S  PUBLISHED  WRITINGS 

BOOKS 

(The  books  are  all  published  by  Macmillan  and  Co.  except  Practical 
Ethics,  which  is  published  by  Swan  Sonnenscheiri  and  Co.) 

The  Methods  of  Ethics,  1st  ed.  1874  ;   2nd  ed.    1877  ;  3rd  ed.  1884  ; 

4th  ed.  1890  ;  5th  ed.  1893  ;  6th  ed.  1901. 
The  Principles  of  Political  Economy,    1st  ed.    1883;    2nd   ed.  1887  ; 

3rd  ed.  1901. 
Outlines  of  the  History  of  Ethics  for  English  Readers,  1st  ed.  1886  ; 

2nd  ed.  1888  ;  3rd  ed.  1892  ;  4th  ed.  1896  ;  5th  ed.  1902. 
The  Elements  of  Politics,  1st  ed.  1891  ;  2nd  ed.  1897. 
Practical  Ethics:  A  Collection  of  Addresses  and  Essays,  1898. 
Philosophy,  Its  Scope  and  Relations :  An  Introductory  Course  of  Lectures, 

1902. 
Lectures  on  the  Ethics  of  T.  H.  &reen,  H.  Spencer,  and  J.  Martineau, 

1902. 

The  Development  of  European  Polity,  1903. 
Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses,  1904. 
Lectures  on  the  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Philosophical  Lectures  and 

Essays,  1905. 

Note. — The  last  five  of  the  above  works  were  published  posthumously. 

ARTICLES,  REVIEWS,  PAMPHLETS,  ETC. 

The  following  catalogue  is  probably  incomplete  as  regards 
contributions  to  Periodicals  before  1870,  since  no  record  of 
anonymous  contributions  before  that  date  either  to  Macmillan's 
Magazine  or  to  the  Spectator  has  been  kept,  nor  are  we 
aware  what  other  papers  Sidgwick  may  have  contributed  to 
anonymously.  It  is  not,  however,  probable  that  the  omissions 
are  important.  Anonymous  articles  or  reviews  before  1870 
which  we  have  included  in  the  list  have  been  traced  by 

616 


APPENDIX  II  617 

references  in  Sidgwick's  correspondence.  For  the  list  of  his 
contributions  to  the  Athenceum  (anonymous  of  course)  we  are 
indebted  to  the  kindness  of  the  late  editor,  Mr.  Norman  M'Coll ; 
and  the  editor  of  the  Spectator  has  kindly  furnished  us  with  a 
list  of  his  contributions  (likewise  anonymous)  to  that  journal  in 
1870  and  afterwards. 

1860  "Goethe  and  Frederika"  (verses,  anon.),  Macmillan's  Magazine 

for  March,  p.  353  (quoted  above,  p.  51). 

1861  "Eton  "  (anon.),  Macmillan's  Magazine  for  February,  p.  292. 
"The  Despot's  Heir"  (verses,  anon.),  Macmillan's  Magazine  for 

March,  p.  361  (quoted  above,  p.  64). 
Ranke's    History  of   England  (Review),    Macmillan's  Magazine 

for  May,  p.  85. 
"  Alexis  de  Tocqueville,"  l  Macmillan's  Magazine  for  November, 

p.  37. 

1866  "Ecce  Homo"1  (anon.),  Westminster  Review,  July. 

1867  "Liberal    Education"    (anon.),    Macmillan's   Magazine,    April, 

p.  464. 
"  The  Prophet  of  Culture," l  Macmillan's  Magazine,  August, 

p.  271. 
"  The  Theory  of  a  Classical  Education,"  1  in  a  volume  of  Essays 

on  a  Liberal  Ediication,  edited  by  F.  W.   Farrar,  published 

by  Macmillan  and  Co. 

1869  "Mr.  Roden  Noel's  Poems"  (Review),  Spectator,  February  13. 
Courthope's  Ludibria  Lunae  (Review),  Spectator,  August  7. 

"  Poems  and  Prose  Remains  of  A.  H.  Clough  " l  (anon.),  West- 
minster Review,  October. 

Baring  Gould's  Origin  and  Development  of  Religious  Belief 
(Review),  Cambridge  University  Gazette,  December  15. 

1870  F.    N.    Broome's     Stranger    of    Seriphos    (Review),    Spectator, 

February  19. 

The  Ethics  of  Conformity  and  Subscription,  a  pamphlet  of  40  pages 
written  for  the  Free  Christian  Union,  and  published  by 
Williams  and  Norgate.  (The  substance  of  this  pamphlet  is 
repeated  in  the  article  on  "The  Ethics  of  Religious  Con- 
formity" in  1895.  See  below.) 

1871  Courthope's  Paradise  of  Birds  (Review),  Spectator,  Feb.  18. 

J.  Grote's  Examination  of  the  Utilitarian  Philosophy  (Review), 

Cambridge  University  Reporter,  February  8. 
Swinburne's  Songs  before  Sunrise  (Review),  Cambridge  University 

Reporter,  February  22. 
Maguire's  Essays  on   the   Platonic  Ethics  (Review),   Cambridge 

University  Reporter,  March  1. 
J.  Grote's  Examination  of  the  Utilitarian  Philosophy  (Review), 

Academy,  April  1,  p.  197. 

1  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 


618  HENEY  SLDGWICK 

Conway's  Earthward  Pilgrimage   (Review),  Academy,  April  15, 

p.  215. 
Mutton's  Essays,  Theological  and  Literary,  (Review),  Academy, 

July  1,  p.  325. 
Maguire's  Essays  on   the   Platonic  Ethics    (Review),  Academy, 

September  15,  p.  441. 
Beale's     Life    Theories     and     their    Influence    on     Religious 

Thought  (Review),  Academy,  October  15,  p.  481. 
G.    H.    Lewes's    History    of    Philosophy     (Review),     Academy, 

November  15,  p.  519. 
Critique    of   Prof.    Eraser's    edition    of    Berkeley,    Athenaeum, 

June  17  and  24. 
"Verification  of  Beliefs,"  Contemporary  Review,  July,  p.  582. 

1872  "Professor    Trendelenburg "   (short  obituary  notice),  Academy, 

February  1,  p.  53. 
Zimmermann's    Samuel  Clarke's   Life  and   Doctrine   (Review), 

Academy,  April  1,  p.  132. 
Miss  Cobbe's  Darwinism  in  Morals  and  other  Essays  (Review), 

Academy,  June  15,  p.  231. 
Barzelotti's  La  Morale  nella  Filosofia  Positiva  (Review),  Academy, 

July  1,  p.  250. 
Spicker's  Die  Philosophic  des  Grafen  von  Shaftesbnry  (Review), 

Academy,  August  15,  p.  313. 
Mahaffy's    Kant's    Critical    Philosophy    for    English    Readers 

(Review),  Academy,  September  15,  p.  357. 
Jodl's  Leben  und  Philosophie  David  Humes  (Review),  Academy, 

October  15,  p.  388. 
Leifchild's  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature  viewed  in  the  Light  of 

Modern  Science  (Review,  anon.),  Athenceum,  April  6. 
Critique  of  Lord  Ormathwaite's  Astronomy  and  Geology  Com- 
pared, Athenceum,  April  20. 

Article  on  Monck's  Space  and  Vision,  Athenceum,  May  18. 
Dr.   Bree's    Exposition  of  Fallacies  in  the   Hypothesis  of  Mr. 

Darwin  (Review),  Athenceum,  July  20. 
Bikker's  and  Hatton's  Ethics    for    Undenominational    Schools 

(Review),  Athenceum,  July  27. 
Note  in  Reply  to  Dr  Bree's  Vindication  of  his  Book,  Athenceum, 

August  3. 

"  Pleasure  and  Desire,"  Contemporary  Review,  April,  p.  662. 
"  The  Sophists,"  I.,1  Journal  of  Philology,  No.  8,  voL  iv. 

1873  "The  Sophists,"  II.,1  Journal  of  Philology,  No.  9,  vol.  v. 
Spencer's  Principles  of  Psychology  (Review),  Academy,  April  1, 

p.  131. 

"John  Stuart  Mill"  (obituary  notice),  Academy,  May  15,  p.  193. 
Mansel's    Letters,   Lectures,   and   Reviews    (Review),    Academy, 

July  15,  p.  267. 

1  Reprinted  in  The  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Lectures  and  Essays. 


APPENDIX  II  619 

J.  F.  Stephen's  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,  (Review),  Academy, 

August  1,  p.  292. 
Dr.  Tuke's    Effect    of    the    Mind    upon    the    Body    (Review), 

Athen&um,  July  12. 
Spencer's     Principles      of     Psychology      (Review),      Spectator 

June  21. 
Prof.  Cairnes's  Political  Essays  (Review),  Spectator,  November  8. 

1874  "On    a    Passage    in    Plato's    Republic"    Journal    of    Philology, 

No.  10,  voL  v. 

Green     and     Grose's     Edition    of    Hume's    Treatise    (Review), 
Academy,  May  30,  p.  608. 

1875  Greea     and     Grose's     Edition     of    Hume's    Essays    (Review), 

Academy,  August  7,  p.  146. 

Green  and  Grose's  Hume  (Review),  Spectator,  March  -11 . 
"The  Late  Professor  Cairnes"  (sub- leader),  Spectator,  July  31. 

1876  "The    Theory    of   Evolution    in    its  Application  to  Practice," 

Mind,  vol.  i.  p.  52. 

"  Philosophy  at  Cambridge,"  Mind,  vol.  i.  p.  235. 
Bradley's  Ethical  Studies  (critical  notice),  Mind,  vol.  i.  p.  545. 
"  Prof.   Calderwood  on  Intuitionism  in  Morals "  (note),  Mind, 

vol.  i.  p.  563. 
"  Idle  Fellowships,"  l  Contemporary  Review,  April. 

1877  "Hedonism  and  Ultimate  Good,"  Mind,  vol.  ii.  p.  27. 
Rejoinder  to  Bradley's  Reply  to  Notice  of  his  Book  (discussion), 

Mind,  vol.  ii.  p.  125. 
J.  Grote's  Treatise  on  Moral  Ideals  (critical  notice),  Mind,  vol.  ii. 

p.  239. 
Reply  to  Mr.  Barratt  on  "  The  Suppression  of  Egoism,"  Mind, 

vol.  ii.  p.  411. 
"  Bentham  and  Benthamism,"  1  Fortnightly  Review,  May. 

1878  Article  on  Ethics  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.     (This  was 

afterwards  republished  in  an  enlarged  form  as  Outlines  of  iht 
History  of  Ethics  for  English  Readers.) 

1879  "The  Establishment    of   Ethical  First  Principles"  (notes  and 

discussions),  Mind,  vol.  iv.  p.  106. 
"The    So-called   Idealism    of   Kant"    (notes    and   discussions), 

Mind,  vol.  iv.  p.  408. 
Guyau's     La    Morale    d'Epicure    et    ses    Rapports    avec    les 

Doctrines    Contemporaines    (critical    notice),    Mind,    vol.   iv. 

p.  582. 

"  Economic  Method,"  Fortnightly  Review,  February. 
"  "What  is  Money  ? "  Fortnightly  Review,  April. 
"  The  Wages  Fund  Theory,"  Fortnightly  Review,  September. 

1880  "On  Historical  Psychology,"  Nineteenth  Century,  February. 

u  Kant's  Refutation  of  Idealism  "  (notes  and  discussions),  Mind, 
vol.  v.  p.  111. 

1  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 


620  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

Fouillee's  L'Idee  moderne  du  Droit  en  Allemagne,  en  Angle- 

terre,  et  en  France,  (critical  notice),  Mind,  vol.  v.  p.  135. 
"Mr.  Spencer's  Ethical  System,"  Mind,  vol.  v.  p.  216. 

1882  Inaugural  Address,  as  President,  to  the  Society  for  Psychical 

Research,  July,  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  i.  p.  7. 

Address  to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  (reply  to  criti- 
cisms), December,  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  i.  p.  65. 

"  On  the  Fundamental  Doctrines  of  Descartes "  (notes  and 
discussions),  Mind,  vol.  vii.  p.  435. 

"  Incoherence  of  Empirical  Philosophy,"  l  Mind,  vol.  vii.  p.  533. 

L.  Stephen's  The  Science  of  Ethics  (critical  notice),  Mind, 
voL  vii.  p.  562. 

1883  "A  Criticism  of  the  Critical  Philosophy,"  I.   and   II.,   Mind, 

vol.  viii.  pp.  69  and  313. 
"  Kant's  View  of  Mathematical  Premisses  and  Reasonings  "  (notes 

and  discussions),  Mind,  vol.  viii.  pp.  421  and  577. 
Address  to  the  S.P.R.  (on  the  relation  of  Psychical  Research  to 

Science),  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  i.  p.  245. 

1884  Address  to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  (on  the  general 

scientific  position  of  the  Society),  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  ii. 
p.  152. 
"Green's  Ethics,"  Mind,  vol.  ix.  p.  169. 

1885  Fowler's   Progressive  Morality  (critical  notice),   Mind,  vol.    x. 

p.  266. 
J.  Martineau's  Types  of  Ethical  Theory  (critical  notice),  Mind, 

vol.  x.  p.  426. 
Address  as  President  of  Section  F  of  the  British  Association  on 

"  The  Scope  and  Method  of  Economic  Science."  2 

1886  "Dr.    Martineau's    Defence    of   Types  of  Ethical   Theory"    (in 

notes  and  correspondence),  Mind,  vol.  xi.  p.  142. 
"  The  Historical  Method,"  Mind,  vol.  xi.  p.  203. 
Bluntschli's  Theory  of  the  State  (Review),  English  Historical 

Review,  April. 
Discussion  with  C.  C.   Massey  on    Possibilities  of  Malobserva- 

tion,  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  iv. 
"  Economic  Socialism,"  -  Contemporary  Review,  November. 

1887  "  Idiopsychological    Ethics"    (a  further  article  on  Martineau's 

Ethics),  Mind,  vol.  xii.  p.  31. 

1888  "The  Kantian  Conception  of  Free- Will"3  (discussion),  Mind, 

vol.  xiii.  p.  405. 
Pulszky's  Theory  of  Law  and  Civil  Society  (Review),  English 

Historical  Review,  October. 
Address  to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  (a  survey  of  the 

work  of  the  Society)  (July),  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  v.  p.  271. 

1  Reprinted  in  The  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Lectures  and  Essays. 

2  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 
3  Reprinted  as  Appendix  to  the  6th  Edition  of  Methods  of  Ethics. 


APPENDIX  II  621 

1889  Address  to  the  S.P.R,  on  the  Physical  Phenomena  of  Spiritual- 

ism (January),  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  v.  p.  399. 
Address  to  the  S.P.R.  on  the  Canons  of  Evidence  in  Psychical 

Research  (May),  Proceedings,  S.P.B.  vol.  vi.  p.  1. 
Address   to  the  S.P.R.   on  the  Census  of  Hallucinations,  Pro- 
ceedings, S.P.R.  vol.  vi.  p.  7. 
Paper    on    Experiments    in    Thought     Transference    (written 

jointly  with  Mrs.  Sidgwick),  Proceedings,   S.P.R.  vol.  vi.  p. 

128. 
"  Plato's  Utilitarianism  :  a  Dialogue  by  John  Qrote  and  Henry 

Sidgwick,"  Classical  Review,  March. 
"  Some  Fundamental  Ethical    Controversies,"    Mind,    vol.    xiv. 

p.  473. 

1890  "  A  Lecture  against  Lecturing,"  x  New  Review,  May. 

Second  Address  to  the  S.P.R.  on  the  Census  of  Hallucinations, 

(July),  Proceedings,  S.P.R.  vol.  vi.  p.  429. 
"  The    Morality  of   Strife," 2    International  Journal  of  Ethics, 

vol.  i.  p.  1. 

1892  "The    Feeling- Tone    of    Desire    and    Aversion"    (discussion), 

Mind,  vol.  i.  N.S.  p.  94. 

H.    Spencer's    "Justice"    (critical    notice),    Mind,   vol.    i.    N.S. 
p.  107. 

1893  "Unreasonable  Action,"2  Mimt,  vol.  ii.  N.S.  p.  174. 

"  My     Station    and    its    Duties," 3    International    Journal     of 
Ethics,  vol.  iv.  p.  1. 

1894  Note  to  the  Report  of   the   Gresham  University  Commission, 

p.  lix.,  published  January  1894. 

"Luxury,"2  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  v.  p.  1. 
"A  Dialogue   on  Time  and  Common  Sense,"4  Mind,  vol.   iii. 

N.S.  p.  441. 

"  Political  Prophecy  and  Sociology,"1  National  Review,  December. 
"  The  Trial  Scene  in  the  Iliad,  Classical  Review,  February. 
Note  on  the  Term  e/cTT^o/aot  or  €KTrjp.6pLoi.,   Classical  Revieu; 

July. 
"  Conjectures  on  the  Constitutional  History  of  Athens,"  Classical 

Review,  October. 
Article  "  Economic  Science  and  Economics "  in  the  Dictionary 

of  Political  Economy,  vol.  i. 

1895  "The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense,"4  Mind,  vol.  iv.  N.S.  p. 

145. 

"Theory  and  Practice"  (discussion),  Mind,  vol.  iv.  N.S.  p.  370. 
D.     G.     Ritchie's    "  Natural    Rights "    (critical    notice),    Mind, 

vol.  iv.  N.S.  p.  384. 

1  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 
-  Reprinted  in  Practical  Ethics. 

3  Reprinted   in    Practical  Ethics  under  the   name   of   "The   Aims  and 
Methods  of  an  Ethical  Society." 

4  Reprinted  in  The  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Lectures  and  Essays. 


622  HENEY  SIDGWICK 

"  The  Ethics  of  Religious  Conformity,"  l  International  Journal 
of  Ethics,  vol.  vi. 

"  The  Economic  Lessons  of  Socialism," 2  Economic  Journal, 
September. 

Note  on  the  Memorandum  of  Sir  R.  Gitfen  to  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  the  Financial  Relations  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
Report  of  the  Commission,  vol.  ii.  of  Minutes  of  Evidence, 
p.  180. 

Memorandum  in  Answer  to  Questions  from  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Secondary  Education,  Report  of  the  Commission, 
vol.  v.  p.  243. 

1896  Prof.    Gidding's    Principles    of    Sociology    (Review),    Economic 

Journal,  September. 

1897  "The  Pursuit  of  Culture  as  an  Ideal"3  (an  Address  to  the 

Students  at  Aberystwyth).      Published  as  a  Pamphlet. 
"  Involuntary  Whispering  considered  in  Relation  to  Experiments 
in  Thought  Transference,"  Proceedings,  ti.P.R.  vol.  xii. 

1899  Prof.    Gidding's    Elements    of    Sociology    (Review),    Economic 

Journal,  September,  vol.  ix. 

"  The  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Sociology,"  2  International  Journal 
of  Ethics,  October,  vol.  x. 

Memorandum  to  the  Royal  Commission  on  Local  Taxation  in 
Reply  to  questions  on  the  Classification  and  Incidence  of  Taxa- 
tion, Report  of  the  Commission,  volume  of  Memoranda,  p.  99. 

Articles  on  "  Political  Economy,  its  Scope" :  "  Political  Economy, 
its  Method":  "Political  Economy  and  Ethics":  in  the 
Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  vol.  iii. 

1900  "Criteria  of  Truth  and  Error,"4  Mind,  vol.  ix.  N.S.  January. 

1901  "  The  Philosophy  of  T.  H.  Green  "  4  (an  address  delivered  to  the 

Oxford  Philosophical  Society  in  May   1900),  Mind,  vol.  x. 
N.S.  January. 

"Prof.  Sidgwick's  Ethical  View:  An  Auto -Historical  Frag- 
ment," 5  Mind,  vol.  x.  N.S.  April. 

1  Reprinted  in  Practical  Ethics. 

2  Reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

3  Reprinted  in  part  in  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Addresses. 

*  Reprinted  in  The  Philosophy  of  Kant  and  other  Lectures  and  Essays. 

6  Printed  also  in  the  Preface  to  the  6th  edition  of  Methods  of  Ethics. 


APPENDIX  III 
BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES  OF  HENRY  SIDGWICK 

Rt.  Hon.  James  Bryce,  "  Henry  Sidgwick,"  in  Studies  of  Contemporary 

Biography    (Macmillan,   1903),   reprinted    from    The  Nation    for 

September  27,  1900. 
Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  "  Henry  Sidgwick,"  in  The  Pilot  for  September 

15,  1900. 
J.    Peile,    "  Reminiscences    of    Henry    Sidgwick,"   in   the    Cambridge 

Review  for  October  25,  1900. 
J.   Peile,  An  Address    on   Henry  Sidgwick,  given    as    President   of 

Newnham  College  at  the  Annual  General  Meeting  on  November 

3,  1900,  Newnham  College  Report. 
Anonymous  Note  in  the  Charity  Organisation  Review,  vol.  viii.  N.S. 

October  1900. 
C.  F.  G.   Masterman,   "Henry  Sidgwick,"  in  The  Commonwealth   for 

October     1900.       Reprinted    in    In    Peril    of    Change,    Fisher 

Unwin,  1905. 

E.  E.  C.  J.,    "  Professor    Henry    Sidgwick,"   Journal   of  Education, 

October  1900. 

Alice  Gardner,  "The  Late  Professor  Sidgwick,"  Secondary  Education, 
November  15,  1900. 

F.  W.    H.    Myers,    "  In    Memory    of   Henry    Sidgwick,"   Proceedings 

of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  December    1900,  vol.    xv. 

p.  452.       Reprinted  in  Fragments  of  Prose  and   Poetry,  Long- 
mans, 1904. 
Sir  Oliver   Lodge,    "In  Memory  of    Henry  Sidgwick,"    Proceedings, 

S.P.R.  vol.  xv.  p.  463. 
"  Report   of  the  Proceedings  for  Promoting  a  Memorial  of  the  Late 

Henry   Sidgwick,"   Cambridge   University  Reporter,  December  7, 

1900. 
F.  W.  C.,  "The  Sidgwick  Memorial  Meeting,"  The  Pilot,  December  22, 

1900. 
J.   N.    Keynes,    "  Obituary :     Henry    Sidgwick,"    Economic    Journal, 

December  1900. 
W.   R.  Sorley,   "  Henry  Sidgwick,"   International  Journal    of  Ethics, 

January  1901. 
Anonymous  Article  on  "  Professor  Sidgwick  "  in  the  Cambridge  Letter 

for  1900  (privately  printed  for  the  Newnham  College  Club\ 
Sir  L.  Stephen,  "Henry  Sidgwick,"  Mind,  vol.  x.  N.S.  January  1901. 
Sir  L.  Stephen,  Article  "  Henry  Sidgwick"  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 

Biography. 
Rt.  Hon.  J.  Bryce,  "  Obituary  Notice :  Henry  Sidgwick,"  Proceedings 

of  the  British  Academy,  1903-4. 
623 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord  and  Lady,  423 

Academical  Study,  Society  for  Organisa- 
tion of,  274 

Academy  (newspaper),  244 

Acton,  Lord,  383  ;  review  of  G.  Eliot's 
Life,  403,  404  ;  490,  569,  581 

"Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  78,  95 

Adams,  Professor,  210,  492 

Adams,  Mrs.,  206 

Ad  Eundem  Society,  127,  430,  469, 
488,  585 

Afghanistan  and  Russia,  405,  406, 
408,  409 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  53-54 

Albert  (Prince),  44,  75 

Aldis,  W.  Steadman,  63,  350 

Allingham,  W. ,  ' '  Lawrence  Bloom- 
field,"  216 

American  Civil  War,  71,  86,  102,  129 

Andrewes,  Bishop,  486 

"Apostles"  Society,  29-32,  34-35, 
63,  133,  297,  403,  492,  591 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  383,  446 

"Arabian  Nights,"  86,  111,  114 

Arch,  Joseph,  382 

"  Archie  Lovell,"  162 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  441,  448,  450,  452 

Arnold,  Matthew,  32,  112  ;  Sidgwick's 
article  on,  164  ;  166,  177,  221 

"Arthur  Hamilton,  B.A.,"  439 

Athensenm  Club,  341 

Athenaeum  (newspaper),  244 

Australian  Colonies,  Federation  of, 
576 

Authority,  Scientific  and  Theological, 
559,  608 

Autobiographical  fragment,  33-38 

Avignon,  176 

Bagehot,  W.,  "The  English  Constitu- 
tion," 162  ;  395 

Bain,  Professor  Alexander,  77,  344, 
424,  447,  512 


Balfour,  Miss  A.  B.,  336,  494,  590 

Balfour,  Rt.  Hon.  Arthur  James,  155 
289,  299  ;  on  Sidgwick  as  a  teacher 
309  ;  389,  390,  393,  397,  412,  414 
416,  417,  419,  427,  431,  4:34,  445, 
458,  461,  464,  470,  473,  474,  480, 
482,  483,  490,  494,  495,  512,  534. 
537,  549,  555,  556,  588,  590 

Balfour,  Cecil  Charles,  death  of,  352 

Balfour,  Mr.  Eustace  J.  A.,  320 

Balfour,  Lady  Frances,  448,  450,  451  ; 
letters  to,  452,  453,  535 

Balfour,  Francis  Maitland,  320,  355  ; 
death  of,  365 

Balfour,  Rt.  Hon.  Gerald  William. 
320,  355,  367,  427,  431,  434,  443, 
450,  458,  464,  467 

Barrett,  Professor  W.  F.,  358,  441. 
447 

Barzelotti,  review  of,  269 

Bateson,  Mrs.,  206 

Bateson,  Mr.  W.,  545 

Bath,  497 

Beach,  Sir  Michael  Hicks,  418,  470 

Beesly,  E.  S.,  200 

Beufey,  Professor,  109,  110,  112,  117, 
118,  119,  330 

Benson,  Ada  (Mrs.  McDowall),  58 

Benson,  Mr.  Arthur  Christopher,  39, 
83,  293  ;  on  Sidgwick's  conversation, 
316  ;  393,  420,  440  ;  letters  to,  535, 
552,  570 

Benson,  Edward  White  (Archbishop), 
7,  8,  9,  10,  17  ;  marriage  to  Sidg- 
wick's sister,  29,  40  ;  33,  34,  39,  43, 
71,  105,  179,  187,  202,  226,  253  ; 
letters  to,  17,  41,  49,  58,  198  ; 
death,  549  ;  biography,  580 

Benson,  Mrs.  E.  W.  (Sidgwick's  .sister 
Mary,  Minnie),  3,  4,  29,  40,  56, 
334,  414,  550,  598  ;  letters  to,  42, 
43,  54,  57,  67,  70,  76,  92,  103,  16S, 
173,  179,  186,  188,  197,  226,  244, 


624 


INDEX 


625 


245,  269,  270,   279,  281,  322,  341, 

351,  354,  359,  360,  368 
Benson,  Martin  White,  56,  139,  293 
"Bentham   and    Benthamism,"   Sidg- 

wick's  article  on,  327 
Berlin,  54,  55,  57,  59,  60,  131,  228, 

229,  331,  516 

Bernard,  Sir  Charles,  14,  184 
Bernheim,  Dr.,  520,  521 
"Bimetallism,"  article  on,  457 
Biographies  verstis  Novels,  272 
Birks,  Rev.  T.  R.,  263-5,  368 
Bischoff,  Professor,  328 
Bismarck,   131,   232,   235,    236,    487, 

569 
Black,      W.,       "Adventures      of      a 

Phaeton,"      274;       "Princess     of 

Thule,"  283 
Blavatsky,    Madame,    384,    385,    405, 

410 
Boer  War,  575,  576-8,  579,  580,  581, 

582,  596-7 

Bonney,  Professor  T.  G.,  205 
Boulanger,  General,  487 
Bourget,  Paul,  "Andre  Cornells,"  499 
Bowen,  Lord,  14,  17,  286,  287,  495  ; 

his  translation  of  Virgil,  495 
Bowen,  E.  E.,  letter  about  Sidgwick, 

16,   26 ;   letter  to,   20,   28 ;    45-46, 

416 

Braddon,  Miss,  her  novels,  281 
Bradshaw,  Henry,  death  of,  439 
Brandreth,  Rev.  H.,  45,   47 
Bridges,    Robert,    on    Milton's   metre, 

543 

Bright,  John,  69,  456 
British  Academy,  581 
British  Association,  383,  417,  423-5, 

455,  456,  497-8  ;  address  for  section 

F  of,  417,  419,  421-2,  423,  424 
British  Constitution,  393-4,  488 
British  Museum  Library,  104 
Brodrick,     Hon.    G.    C.    (Warden    of 

Merton),  437 

Brooke,  Rev.  Stopford,  401 
Brown,    Mr.  H.  F.,    533 ;    letters  to, 

567,  590,  593,  596 
Brown,  T.    E.,    "Tommy  Big  Eyes," 

343;  "Fo'c's'le  Yarns, "352 
Browne,  Dr.  G.  F.  (Bishop  of  Bristol), 

on   Sidgwick's   administrative   work 

in  the  University,  378,  379 
Browning,  Mr.  Oscar,  27, 126,  384,  385 ; 

letters  to,  22,  27,  61,  62,  63,  101, 

126,  131,   132,  158,   163,  177,  180, 

184,  185,  217,  224,  242,  247,  265, 

321,  322 
Browning,  Robert,  67,  76,  105,  106  ; 

"James  Lee,"  108  ;  142  ;   "Balaus- 


tion,"  251;  297;  "La  Saisiaz," 
338  ;  539  ;  "  Letters  of  R.  and  E.  B. 
Browning,"  575 

Bryce,  Rt.  Hon.  James,  127  ;  on  Sidg- 
wick's conversation,  318  ;  366,  403  ; 
"American  Commonwealth,"  404, 
505  ;  414,  444,  445,  447,  473,  494, 
548,  556,  567 

Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilisation,"  68 
Burne-Jones,  Sir  E.,  401,  452 
Burnett,  Mr.  John,  463 
Burn-Morgan  Memorial,  256 
Butcher,  Professor  S.  Henry,  397,  436, 

492,  496 

Butler,  Bishop,  65,  81,  89 
Butler,  Rev.  Arthur  G.,  17,  71,  144 
Butler,  Dr.  H.   M.  (Master  of  Trinity 
College),  46,  61,  416,  460,  462,  463, 
499 

Butler,  Mrs.  Josephine,  174,  175,  182 
Buxton.  Lady  Victoria,  letter  to,  531 
Byron,  Lord,  "Letters  and  Journals," 
594 

Cairnes,  Professor,  102 

Calverley,  C.  S.,  429 

Cambridge    University    Reporter,   244, 

257 
Cannan,    Miss,    letters   to,    332,    336, 

343,  525,  526,  533,  536,  550,  590 
Carey,  Major-Geueral,  letter  to,  345 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  31,  32,  107, 145,  238, 

404,  405,  424,  486 
Cavour,  Count,  69 
Cayley,  Professor  A.,  460,  492 
Chamberlain,   Rt.    Hon.  Joseph,   413, 

418,  422,  426,  429,   437,  443,  444, 

445,  454,  456,  457,  469,  479,  577 
Champneys,  Mr.  Basil,  448,  491  ; 

letter  to,  543 
Charity  Organisation  Society,  205,  342, 

506 

China,  597 

Christian  Science,  568 
Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,   412,   418, 

452,  453,  463-4,  467 
Clark,  Dr.  A.,  287,  288 
Clark,  W.  G.,  127,  171 
"Classical  Education,"  Sidgwick's 

article  on,  164,  177,  180,  181 
Classical  Tripos,  reform  of,  154,  155, 

163,  184 
"Clerical  Veracity,"  Sidgwick's  article 

on,  563 

Clifford,  W.  K.,  137 
Clough,  A.  H.,  99,  141,  142,  161,  177, 

192  ;  "Amours  de  Voyage,"  193-5  ; 

Sidgwick's  article  on,  214-17  ;  227, 

246,  279,  395,  469,  538 

2s 


626 


HENKY  SIDGWICK 


Clough,  Mrs.  A.  H.,   192,  197,  207, 

268  ;  letters  to,  192,  193,  200,  212, 

215, 216, 234,  250, 251,  255,  265,  279 
Clough,  Miss  Anne  J.,  70,  174,  182  ; 

memoir  of,  204  ;  207,  208,  209,  212  ; 

letter  to,  244  ;   246,  250,  251,  252, 

255,  265,  268,  279,  284,  287,  333, 

410,  492  ;  death  of,  513,  515 
Colenso,  Bishop,  88,  91,  99,  120,  539 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  428 
Cologne  Cathedral,  329,  515 
Comte,  Auguste,  32,  39,  74,  75,  76,  77, 

81,   104,   124,   136,  158,  269,  409, 

419,  421,  422 

Congreve,  Richard,  69,  409,  487 
Conington,  Professor  John,  87,  91,  94, 

180  ;  death  of,  216 
Conspiracy,  law  of,  553 
Cooper,  Elizabeth,  nurse  in  the  Sidgwick 

family,  6,  56 
Cornhill  Magazine,  48 
Cornish,  F.   W.,  94,   556  ;  letters  to, 

229,  334,  348,  353,  359,  571 
Cornish,  Mrs.,  "Alcestis,"  281 
Cornwall,  341,  574 
Correspondence,  teaching  by,  248,  249, 

273,  274 
Council   of  the   Senate,    Sidgwick    as 

member  of,    377,    378,    506.      (He 

served   on   the   Council   from   1890 

to  1898.) 
Courtney,  Rt.  Hon.  Leonard,  403,  418, 

447 
Cowell,  J.  J.,  40,  41,  47,  53,  55,  94, 

102 ;    automatic    writing    of,    105  ; 

106,  107,  134,  139,  142,  161,  167, 

174;     his     death,     175,      177-8; 

letter  to,  78 
Crabbe,  George,  216 
Creak,  Miss,  210 
Creighton,    Bishop,    273  ;    letter    to, 

569 

Creighton,  Mrs.,  525 
Crimes  Act,  412,  474 
Crofts,  Miss  Henrietta,  332 
Crookes,  Sir  William,  289,  290,  291 
Cross,  Mr.  J.  K.,  420 
Cross,  Mr.  J.  W.,  401,  404,  448 
Curling,  464-5 

Dakyns,  Mr.  H.  Graham,  9, 13,  14,  71, 
73,85, 114, 115,  388,  446,  481,  596  ; 
letters  to,  21,  22,  40,  52,  66,  68,  71, 
75,  77,  78,  80,  82,  86,  89,  93,  97, 
98,  100,  102,  104,  105,  107,  112, 
113,  117,  118,  120,  121,  122,  123, 
127,  129,  133,  138,  140,  141,  142, 
145,  147,  157,  169,  170,  176,  198, 
254,  259,  277,  284,  286,  298,  300, 


324,  327,  332,  339,  340,  341,  343, 
349,  352,  361,  365,  369,  379,  387, 
484,  499,  502,  509,  512,  514,  532, 
542,  549,  552,  579,  583,  588 

Dale  (Rev.  H.),  4 

Dante,  448 

Darwin,  Charles,  32,  421 

Darwin,  Mr.  Francis,  421 

Darwin,  Sir  George,  554 

Davies,  Miss  Emily,  175,  182,  210, 
211,  247,  255,  256 

Davitt,  Mr.  Michael,  444 

Delboeuf,  Professor,  518 

Delius,  Professor,  328 

Derby,  Earl  of,  327 

De  Vere,  Aubrey,  108,  170 

Devrient,  Emil  (actor),  58 

Dicey,  Professor  Albert  Venn,  "The 
Law  of  the  Constitution,"  430  ;  488, 
556,  567,  585  ;  letters  to.  526,  553 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  401 

Disraeli,  196  ;  his  novels,  227 

Dixon,  George,  M.P.,  456 

Dobson,  Mr.  Austin,  ' '  At  the  Sign  of 
the  Lyre,"  "Old-World  Idylls,"  429 

Doderlein,  Professor,  59 

Drama,  the,  versus  the  Novel,  517 

Dresden,  41,  58,  85 

Drummoud,  Professor  Henry,  423 

Dublin  University,  432,  545 

Duelling,  112,  234 

Duhring,  328 

"Ecce  Homo,"  140,  143,  144,  145, 
147  ;  article  on,  by  Sidgwick,  37, 
148,  150 

' '  Economic  Science,  Scope  and  Method 
of"  (address  as  President  of  Section 
F  of  British  Association),  417,  419, 
421-2,  423,  424 

"Economic  Socialism,"  article  by  Sidg- 
wick, 457 

Edgeworth,  Professor,  letter  to,  560 

Eliot,  George  (Lewes,  Leweses),  32,  91, 
185,  270;  "Middlemarch,"256,258, 
272,  536  ;  letters  to,  257,  283  ;  Life 
of,  by  J.  W.  Cross,  401 

Elliott,  Sir  Alfred,  409 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  112 

Engineers'  Strike,  555 

' '  Eranus  "  Society,  223 

' '  Essays  and  Reviews, "  40,  49  ;  letter 
on,  to  Times,  63,  64  ;  217,  225,  538 

Ethics,  Moral  Philosophy,  etc.,  68,  75, 
90,  97,  108,  134,  243,  369,  411, 
467  ;  Ethics  and  immortality,  471-3 

Ethics,  article  on,  by  Sidgwick  in 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  332,  334, 
443 


INDEX 


627 


"Ethics,  Methods  of,"  Sidgwick's  book, 
38,  204,  244,  284, 237, 291,  292,  295, 
296,  297,  298,  336,  337,  387,  503, 
525,  547,  580,  587 

"Ethics  of  Conformity  and  Subscrip- 
tion," pamphlet  by  Sidgwick,  190 

"  Ethics  of  T.  H.  Green,  H.  Spencer, 
and  J.  Martineau,"  Sidgwick's  book, 
586 

"Ethics,  Outlines  of  the  History  of," 
Sidgwick's  book  on,  332,  443-4, 
454,  525 

"Ethics,  Practical,"  Sidgwick's  book, 
500,  553 

"Eton,"  article,  62 

Evans,  Rev.  C.,  8,  17 

Evans,  T.  S.,  16 

Eve,  Mr.  H.  W.,  14,  17,  72,  333,  492 

Everett,  Hon.  William,  44,  80  ;  on 
Sidgwick  as  teacher,  313 

' '  Evolution,  Theory  of,  in  its  Applica- 
tion to  Practice,"  article  on,  298 

Ewald,  Professor,  59,  100,  103,  109, 
111,  112,  114,  117 

Ewart,  Miss,  475,  476 

Exhibition  of  1862,  87 

Fame,  to  O.  Browning  on,  180 

Fancy  and  Imagination,  486 

Fawcett,  Henry,  127,  205  ;   death  of, 

391,  406  ;  431 

Fawcett,  Mrs.  Henry,  205,  206,  448 
Fellowship,  election  to,  42  ;  resignation 

of,    38,   83,    142,   145-6,   166,    197- 

202  ;  honorary  fellowship,  351,  353  ; 

re-elected  Fellow,  400 
Ferrers,  Dr.  N.  M.,  205 
Ferrier,  J.  F.,  160 
Testing,  Bishop,  96 
Festiniog,  168,  169 

F.  H ,  245,  253 

Fichte,  150 

"  Fioretti  di  S.  Francesco,"  582,  596 

Fisher,  E.  H.,  17,  46 

Flaubert's  "Madame  Bovary,"  109 

Forster,  Right  Hon.  W.  E.,  254 

Forster's  "  Life  of  Dickens,"  272 

Fowler,    Rev.    Thomas,    ' '  Progressive 

Morality,"  397 

Franco-German  War,  229-41  passim 
Free    Christian   Union,    189-91,    197, 

226,  258 

Freeman,  Miss  Alice,  384 
Free  Trade  and  Protection,  Fair  Trade, 

414,  422,  423,  429 

Gardner,  Miss  Alice,  on  Sidgwick  as  a 

teacher,  312 
Garibaldi,  69,  172 


Garrett's,  Miss,  election  to  School 
Board,  241,  242 

Gass,  "Christliche  Ethik."  446 

Gell,  Mr.  P.  Lyttelton,  400 

General  Election,  of  1885,  427,  429, 
430,  431,  432,  -133 ;  of  1886,  449, 
450,  451  ;  of  1892,  523 

German  novelists,  57,  231-2 

Giercke,  Otto,  "  Deutsches  Genossen- 
schaftsrecht, "  437 

Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  "Mikado,"  416 

Girton  College,  210 

Gladstone,  Miss  Helen,  360,  492 

Gladstone,  Mary  (Mrs.  Drew),  383 

Gladstone,  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.,  96,  144, 
235,  250,  255,  256,  276,  287,  369, 
386,  387,  390,  392,  393,  405,  410, 
413,  415,  425,  432,  434,  443,  445, 
448,  451,  452,  453,  458,  470 

Goethe,  246,  486 

Gogol  (Russian  writer),  384 

Goldschmidt,  Otto,  179 

Goodwin,  Professor,  361 

Gordon,  General,  and  Egypt,  400,  402, 
405,  416 

Gore,  Dr.  C.  (Bishop  of  Birmingham), 
556  ;  about  Sidgwick  at  the  Synthetic 
Society  and  otherwise,  556-8,  591 

Gorst,  Sir  J.,  418 

Goschen,  Lord,  452,  453,  464,  490 

Gottingen,  109-111,  116,  119,  122, 
329-30 

Grant -Duff,  "Studies  in  European 
Politics,"  162 

Graiiville,  Lord,  234,  235 

Gray,  Thomas,  535-6 

Greek,  compulsory,  208,  265-7,  351, 
374,  478,  509-11,  520 

Greek  history,  437 

Greek  plays  at  Cambridge,  "Birds," 
369  ;  "  Eumenides,"  432  ;  "  CEdipus 
Tyrannus,"  481 

Green,  Thomas  Hill,  14, 17,  82,  84,  87, 
90,  94,  102,  191,  333,  361  ;  "  Pro- 
legomena to  Ethics,"  380  ;  394,  395, 
488  ;  address  on  the  Philosophy  of, 
585,  586 

Green,  Miss,  Sidgwick's  governess,  4,  5 

Greshaui  University  Commission,  518, 
523,  525,  530 

Greuze,  J.  B.,  "Peasant  Girl,"  128; 
175 

Grote,  John,  130,  134,  135,  151,  157 

Grote,  Mrs.  George,  331,  424 

Grote  Club,  133-8 

Gurney,  Edmund,  288,  384,  411,  416, 
421,  489  ;  death  of,  493,  495 

Gurney,  Mrs.  Edmund,  letter  to, 
493 


628 


HENEY  SIDGWICK 


Hall,  W.  H.  (of  Six  Mile  Bottom),  404, 

407,  416,  425,  448,  456 
Hallam,  H.,  49  ;   "Middle  Ages,"  132 
Halle,  235 
Hallucinations,    International    Census 

of,  501,  513,  515 
Hamilton,  Sir  W.,  130,  159,  160,  177, 

578 
Hammond,  J.  Lempriere,  21,  89,  173, 

276 

Hanson,  Sir  R.,  476 
Harcourt,    Mr.    A.    G.    Vernon,    127, 

156 

Harcourt,  Sir  W.  Vernon,  591 
Hardwicke,  Archdeacon,  48 
Harrison,  Mr.  Frederick,  200,  287 
Hartington,  Marquis  of,  383,  443,  444, 

445,  450,  453,  462,  464 
Harz  mountains,  58,  115 
Haunted  houses,  386,  425,  497,  498 
Hawthorne  (Nathaniel),  "  Scarlet  Let- 
ter," 50 

Hayman,  Dr.  H.,  225,  286 
Hegel,  Hegelian,   102,  151,  159,  230, 

233,  238,  427,  437,  586 
"Helplessness  of  Miss  Pick"  (story), 

592 

Hering,  Professor,  517 
Herrig,  Professor,  58,  59 
Herringham,  Mrs.,  585 
Hill,  Miss  Octavia,  250 
"Historical  Method,"  essay  on,  436 
Historical  Tripos,  295 
History,  English,  lectures  on,  169, 170, 

171,  179,  213,  252 
History,  fascination  of,  435 
"  History  of  Modern  Political  Ideas  up 

to  1789,"  lectures  on,  527 
History  of  Philosophy,  140 
Hodgson,  Dr.  R.,  405,  410,  465,  502, 

522,  542,  543,  649 
Hollond,  Mr.  John,  418 

Holman  Hunt's  ' '  Finding  of  Christ  in 
the  Temple,"  53 

Holmes,  Arthur,  15,  28 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  "Guardian  Angel," 
174  ;  "Poet  at  Breakfast  Table,"  274 

Home  Rule,  397,  413,  416,  434,  436, 
438,  443,  444,  445,  447,  448,  450, 
451,  461,  467-8,  469,  473,  474, 
479,  480,  482,  494,  496,  512,  519, 

523,  524,  526,  555 

Hope,   Anthony,    "Dolly   Dialogues," 

534 

Hornby,  Dr.,  178,  263,  266 
Hort,  Professor  F.  J.  A.,  31,  223 
Howorth,  Sir  Henry  J.,  398 
Howells,    W.    D.,    "Lemuel    Barker," 

454 


Hiigel,  Baron  F.  von,  556  ;   letter  to, 

592 

Hugo,  Victor,  92,  160-61,  335-6 
Humphreys,  A.  C.  (Humphreys-Owen), 

20 

Hungary,  519 
Hutton,  R.  H.,  220,  556 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  91,  147,  156,  220,  221, 

222-3 
Hypnotism,  mesmerism,  405,  416,  465, 

518  ;  at  Nancy,  520-21 

"Idle  Fellowships,"  Sidgwick's  article 
on,  257,  301 

"Incoherence  of  Empiricism,"  Sidg- 
wick's article,  223 

Indian  Civil  Servants  and  Universities, 
373,  502-3 

Industrial  Conference,  399 

Ingelow,  Jean,  103 

Initial  Society,  71-73 

"Initials,  The"  (novel),  150 

Innsbruck,  238,  548 

Irving,  Sir  Henry,  382 

Italian  Politics,  572 

Jackson,  Dr.  Henry,  167,  172,  175, 
182,  219,  224  ;  on  Sidgwick's  Uni- 
versity policy  and  administration, 
374-6;  402 

James,  Mr.  Henry,  454 

James,  Sir  Henry,  450 

James,  Professor  W.,  502 

Jebb,  Sir  R.  C.,  167,  217,  348,  349  ; 
"Bentley,"  360;  553 

Jencken,  Mrs.,  292,  294 

Jex-Blake,  Dr.  Sophia,  188 

Jex-Blake,  Dr.  T.  W.,  242,  327 

Jones,  Miss  E.  E.  C.,  586 

Journal  letters  to  J.  A.  Symonds, 
381-476,  478-83,  486-99,  515-24 

Jowett,  Benjamin,  49,  74,  178,  191, 
200,  225,  433,  440,  488 

Kamphausen,  Professor,  328 

Kant,  Immanuel,  151,  159,  160,  177  ; 

articles  on,  for  Mind,  368 ;  467,  585 
Keble  College,  402 
Kennedy,  Dr.  B.  H.,  175 
Kennedy,  Miss  M.  G.,  206,  492 
Keynes,  Dr.  J.  N.,  on  Sidgwick  as  a 

teacher,  307  ;  as  a  talker,  316 
Kidd,  Mr.  Benjamin,  533 
Killarney,  496 
Kinglake,  A.  W.,  "Eothen,"  45,  48; 

"  Crimea,"  93 

Kingsley,  Charles,  127,  175,  182,  313 
Kitchener,  Mr.  F.  E.,  14,  17,  71 
Kruger,  President,  575 


INDEX 


629 


Lace,  Francis,  83 

Lakes,  English,  149,  150 

Lanczy,  Professor,  518 

Latham,  Heury,  437 

Latham,    Mrs.   (Miss  Bernard),    letter 

from,  23 
Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  143  ;  "History  of 

Rationalism,"  160 
Lectures  and  lecturing,  views  on,  321-2, 

330,  426 
Leslie,  Cliffe,  500 
Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  100,  103, 

131 
Liberal  Unionists,  451,  452,  453,  456, 

458,  461,  462,  464,  467,  468,  479- 

480,  555 

Liebeault,  Dr.,  520 
Liegeois,  Professor,  520 
Lightfoot,  Bishop,  131,  153,  198,  223 
Littr£  (on  Conite),  104 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  507,  532,  556,  559 
Lome,  Marquis  of,  441 
Louis  Napoleon,  44,  53,  64,  69,  233, 

235 

Lowell,  J.  R,  191-2,  467,  580 
Lucan,  22 

Liidde-Neurath,  Dr.,  54,  56-57 
Lyall,  Sir  Alfred,  496,  556,  594 
Lyttelton,  Hon.  Arthur  T.,   on   Sidg- 

wick's  influence,  314 

Macaulay,  Lord,   "Biography  of  Pitt," 

27  ;  49,  67 
Macmillan,    Alexander,    61,    88,    144, 

291,  292,  454  ;  letter  to,  70 
Maonillan's  Magazine,  48 
Mahaffy,  Professor,  433 
Maine,  Sir  Henry,  392 
Maitland,  Professor,  on  Sidgwick  as  a 

teacher,  304-7  ;  letter  to,  578 
Manchester,  Bishop  of,  495 
Mansel,  Dean,  74,  81,  159 
Marble,  Mr.  Manton,  419 
Margate,  268,  269,  280,  281,  282,  593, 

594 

Markby,  T.,  175,  196,  206 
Marshall,  Professor  A.,  about  the  Grote 

Club,  137 
Marshall,    Stephen   (Mr.,    Mrs.),    184, 

425 

Martin,  Rev.  Francis,  131,  149,  186 
Martineau,  Dr.  James,  189,  190,  220  ; 

"Types   of  Ethical  Theory,"    411  ; 

556,  586  ;  letter  to,  191 
Massey,  C.  C.,  497,  498 
Masson,  David,  424 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  31,  79,  137,  152,  153, 

159,  205,  219  ;  death  of,  260  ;  393, 

394 


Mayor,  Professor  J.  B.,  50,  83, 134,  135 

Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  165,  334 

Medical  Relief  BUI,  417-19 

Medveczky,  Professor,  504,  519 

Mendicity  Society,  see  Charity  Organisa- 
tion Society 

Mentone,  179,  187 

Meredith,  George,  127 ;  "  Emilia  in 
England,"  127 ;  "  Harry  Richmond," 
267  ;  445 

Merivale,  Dean,  32,  34 

Metaphysical  Society,  220  et  seq. 

Metaphysics,  140,  141,  151,  158,  159, 
160 ;  lectures  on,  177,  341,  523, 
570 

Metropolitan  Railway,  91 

Milan,  40,  237,  238,  368,  561 

Mill,  J.  S.,  32,  36,  39  ;  "  Population 
Theory,"66;  "Representative Govern- 
ment," 66;  67,  69,  90,  124;  "On 
Hamilton,"  129  ;  130,  131,  133,  151, 
158,  205,  206,  420,  424,  461 

Millais,  J.  E.,  "  St.  Agnes,"  97 ;  "  Rosa- 
lind and  Celia,"  184 

Milner,  Lord,  577 

Milton,  his  description  of  Death,  486  ; 
his  metre,  543-4 

Mind  (Quarterly  Review  of  Philo- 
sophy), arrangements  about,  512,  586 

Moberly,  Miss  Mary,  359 

Mohammedanism,  87 

Monteagle,  Lord,  496 

"  Morality  of  Strife,"  essay  on,  500, 
569 

Moral  Sciences  Tripos,  35,  50 ;  Sidgwick 
examining  for,  38,  130,  132,  134, 
156  (he  examined  for  the  Tripos  in 
1865,  1866, 1872,  1876,  1877,  1880, 
1883, 1884,  1885, 1890, 1891,  1895); 
reform  of  the  Tripos,  153,  155,  159 

Morley,  Rt.  Hon.  John,  291,  292, 
293,  490 

Morris,  W.,  "Love  is  Enough,"  278  ; 
401,  513  ;  biography,  575 

Moulton,  Mr.  J.  F.,  137 

Mozley,  Mr.  J.  K,  133,  135,  137, 195  ; 
"  The  Romance  of  Dennell,"  435 ; 
letters  to,  on  lay  membership  of  the 
Church  of  England,  355,  357  ;  on 
Moral  Philosophy,  369  ;  on  Cardinal 
Newman,  507,  508-9 

Mulock,  Miss,  88 

Munich,  238,  484,  519,  547,  548 

Munro,  H.  A.  J.,  127,  131  ;  death  of, 
406,  409 

Miirren,  185,  187,  343 

Murray,  Professor  Gilbert,  "Andro- 
mache," 583 

Musset,  A.  de,  158,  160,  161 


630 


HENEY  SIDGWICK 


Myers,  Arthur,  416,  493 

Myers,  Mr.  Ernest,  588 

Myers,  Frederic  W.  H.,  25,  94,  144, 
182  ;  beginning  of  friendship  with 
Sidgwick,  196  ;  215  ;  "  Implicit 
Promise  of  Immortality,"  241  ;  258, 
285,  288,  320  ;  his  "  Wordsworth  " 
(in  English  Men  of  Letters  Series), 
354  ;  385,  410,  438,  460,  493,  498, 
499,  516,  532,  543,  556,  594  ;  his 
article  on  Sidgwick  quoted,  25,  120, 
285,  588  ;  letters  to,  196,  200,  212,  I 
213,  214,  227,  239,  240,  246,  248, 
249,  251,  252,  253,  255,  258,  259, 
261,  262,  264,  265,  267,  268,  272, 
273,  278,  282,  284,  287,  289,  291, 
294,  296,  297,  301,  334,  340,  365, 
366,  367,  449,  587,  591,  592,  594 

Myers,  Mrs.  F.  W.  H.,  543 

Myers,  Mrs.  (mother  to  F.  W.  H. 
Myers),  326 

Nettleship,  Heiiry,  191 

Newbolt,  Henry,  "Admirals  All,"  530 

Newman,  Cardinal,  507,  508 

Newman  F.  W.,  "  Phases  of  Faith " 
and  "  The  Soul,"  81,  89 

Newnham  College,  see  Women's  Educa- 
tion 

Nicholson,  Sir  A.,  519 

Noel,  Hon.  Roden.  140  ;  "  Beatrice 
and  Other  Poems,"  188;  "A  Little 
Child's  Monument,"  338;  "Essays 
on  Poetry  and  Poets,"  458  ;  letters 
to,  44,  74,  108,  150,  159,  232,  237, 
243,  293,  297,  301,  335,  338,  355, 
506,  513,  523,  526  ;  death  of,  530 

Noel,  Mrs.  Roden,  letter  to,  531 

Northcote,  Sir  Stafford,  412 

North  of  England  Council,  174,  249 

Novikoff,  Madame  de,  384,  385 

Oliphant,  Laurence,  494,  498  ;  "  Scien- 
tific Religion,"  498 

Oliphant,  Mrs.,  "  Chronicles  of  Carling- 
ford,"  91  ;  "  Agnes,'  143  ;  270,  281 

Otter,  F.,  127,  408,  409,  475 

Owen,  Ashford,  "A  Lost  Love,"  173 

Oxford,  74,  106,  488 

Paladino,  Eusapia,  532,  542-3 

Paley,  Miss  (Mrs.  Alfred  Marshall),  210 

Pall  Mall  Gazette,  letter  on  "  Clerical 

Engagements,"  226 
Paris,  84,  94,  128,  175 
Parnell,  Charles  Stuart,  412,  416,  434, 

444,  456,  461,  471,  494,  495,  500 
Party  organisation,  dangers  of,  439,  442 
Pascal,  Blaise,  170 


Pater,  Walter,  "Marius  the  Epicurean," 

405-6 

Paton,  Rev.  J.  B.,  457 
Patterson,  A.  J.,  54,  123  ;  his  book  on 

Hungary,  192  ;  250,  474,  515  ;  letters 

to,  474,   483,   501,  504,  505,   506, 

512,  546 

Pattison,  Mark,  274  ;  "Memoirs,"  404 
Paul,  C.   Kegan,   115,  138,   139,  190, 

197,  261,  487,  571 
Payne,  J.  B.,  98,  123,  175 
Pearson,  C.  H.,  212,  213,  240,  247,  295, 

404  ;  letter  to,  295 
Pearson,  Rev.  J.  B.,  135,  261,  262,  263, 

265 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  speeches,  418  ;  Life  of, 

575 
Peile,  Dr.  J.  (Master  of  Christ's  College), 

21 ;  on  Sidgwick  in  1858,   24 ;  72, 

204,  206,  276  ;  on  Sidgwick's  uni- 
versity administration,  377  ;  545,  546 
Peile,  Mrs.,  71,  248 
Phantasms  of  the  dead,  385,  386 
Phantasms  of  the  living,  386,  388,  396 
"  Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  (the  book), 

165,  415,  421,  460,  461,  501 
"Philosophy,  its  Scope  and  Method" 

(lectures),  523 

"  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense  "  (lec- 
ture), 534 
"Philosophy,  the  Scope  and  Relations 

of"  (book),  584 
Pindar,  22 
Piper,    Mrs.,    experiments   with,   502, 

507 

Plato,  407 

Podmore,  Mr.  F.,  on  Sidgwick,  319 
Polish  insurrection,  93 
Political  Economy  Club,  403,  408,  447 
"Political    Economy,    Principles   of," 

(book),  340,  341,  349,  351,  360,  366, 

397,  400,  454,  463,  587 
Political  Economy,  reading  of,  36,  39. 

66-67 
"Political   Prophecy   and   Sociology" 

(article),  533 
Political  Science  and  Sociology,  lectures 

on,  570 
"Politics,   Elements  of"  (book),  322, 

439,  481,   487,  496,  500,  503,  504, 

506,  509,  548 
Politics,    similarity  of  European  ideas 

except  in,  522 
"  Polity,    Development  of  European  " 

(book),  487,  500,  509,  584,  587 
Pope's  metre,  562 
Porter,  Dr.,  437,  545 
Prag,  517 
Professional  women,  250 


INDEX 


631 


"  Prophet  of  Culture"  (essay),  164,  169 

Proportional  representation,  393,  400 

Prothero,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  G.  W.,  401 

Pryce,  Mr.  Bruce,  498 

Psychical  Research,  Ghosts,  Spiritual- 
ism, 43,  44,  52,  53,  55,  94, 103,  104, 
105,  106,  160,  162,  165,  166,  167, 
168,  171,  284,  285,  288,  289,  290, 
291,  292,  293,  294,  296,  297,  298, 
299,  300,  324,  358,  368,  387,  388, 
447,  484,  504,  513,  522;  see  also 
Hallucinations,  Census  of,  Haunted 
Houses,  Hypnotism,  Paladino,  Phan- 
tasms of  the  Dead,  Phantasms  of  the 
Living,  Piper,  Psychical  Research, 
Society  for,  Telepathy 

Psychical  Research,  Society  for, Founda- 
tion of,  358 ;  first  Presidential  address, 
361-5  ;  meetings  of,  385,  386,  403, 
435,  440-41,  460,  489,  494  ;  German 
Society,  517,  520 

Psychologists,  International  Congresses 
of  Experimental,  501,  513,  515,  523, 
524,  548 

Pulzky,  Agost,  518 

Ptisey,  Dr.  E.  B.,  94,  218 

Ranke,  Professor,  59 

Rayleigh,    Lord,   289,    292,  320,   342, 

366,  383,  460,  595 
Rayleigh,  Lady,  301,   320,  366,  595  ; 

letter  to,  554 
Reade,  Charles.  197 
Renan,  Ernest,  32,  36,  105,  108,  147 
Rhodes,  Miss  E.,  72,  248 
Ricardo,  David,  133,  403 
Richet,    Professor   Charles,    427,  501, 

515,  522,  532 
"  Robert  Elsmere,"  488 
Rome,  366,  367 
Rossetti,  Christina.  196,  215 
Rossetti,  D.  G.,  196,  227,  232 
Ruckert's  poems,  168 
Rugby,  8,  9,  11,  49,  51,  70,  224,  225, 

228,  264,  281,  286 
Rutson,  A.  O.,  84 

St.  Edmund's  House,  563-7 
Salisbury,  Lord,   301,   381,  382,  392, 

412,  434,  458,  490 
Sanderson,  Sir  J.  Burdon,  424 
Sarpi,  Paolo,  567 
Saturday  Review,  53,  119 
Schaffle's  ' '  Bau  uud  Leben  des  sozialen 

Korpers,"  421 
Schier,  Herr,  42,  87 
Schiller,  Mr.  F.  C.  S.,  586 
Schiller,  J.  C.  F.  von,  254 
Science,  proposed  degrees  in,  511 


Scott,  E.  A.,  144 

Secondary  Education,  Memorandum  to 

Commission  on,  374 
Sedgwick,  Professor  Adam,  1,  89,  184, 

219  275 
Seeley,  Sir  John,  63,   148,  175,  191. 

214,  224,  295,  402  ;   death  of,  535  ; 

Introduction    to    Political    Science, 

538  ;  see  also  Ecce  Homo 
Selwyn  College,  564-6 
Shakespeare,  W.,  Twelfth  Night,  382  ; 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  494  ;   Titus 

Andronicus,    500  ;    Macbeth,    500  ; 

lectures  on,  314,  500 
Shaw,  Mr.  G.  Bernard,  497-8,  567 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  113,  151,  535 
Shorthouse,  J.  H.,  "John  Inglesant," 

459 
Sidgwick,  Arthur  (and  Mrs.  Arthur), 

43,   94,    115,   127,   157,    162,    192, 

225,  286,  326,  384,  389,  432,  446, 

447,  481,  561,  571,  574  ;  letter  to, 
173  ;  letter  from,  to  Sir  G.  0.  Tre- 
velyan,  598 

Sidgwick,  Henry.  For  abstract  of 
biography  see  table  of  contents. 

Sidgwick,  Mrs.  Henry  (Nora),  319,  320, 
323,  325,  326,  336,  343,  351,  360, 
384,  386,  388,  399,  401,  417,  446, 

448,  471,  489,  502,  507,  514,   522, 
525,  528-9,  587,  598,  599  ;   letters 
to,  328,   329,   330,    331,  395,  517, 
519-21 

Sidgwick,  J.  B.,  death  of,  279 

Sidgwick,  R.  H.,  145,  423 

Sidgwick,  Rev.  W.  (Henry  Sidgwick's 
father),  1-3 

Sidgwick,  Mrs.  W.  (Henry  Sidgwick's 
mother),  2-3,  4,  5,  6-7,  9,  50,  51, 
67,  70,  76,  77,  142,  171,  184,  201, 
207,  300  ;  letters  to,  5,  51,  53,  56, 
58,  61,  80,  83,  84,  85,  86,  87,  88, 
90,  91,  95,  96,  98,  100,  101,  103, 
104,  106,  107,  109,  111,  114,  115, 
116,  121,  123,  126,  128,  129,  130, 
132,  138,  139,  143,  144,  145,  148, 
149,  151,  152,  153,  156,  157,  161, 
162,  164,  167,  169,  171,  172,  175, 
179,  181,  182,  183,  184,  187,  189, 
191,  192,  195,  196,  202,  214,  217, 
220,  225,  227,  228,  229,  232,  233, 
236,  238,  240,  241,  242,  243,  245, 
247,  249,  252,  257,  258,  260,  263, 
268,  269,  274,  275,  279,  280,  283, 
285,  286,  287,  290,  292,  293,  295, 
297,  299,  300,  323,  324,  325,  326, 
330,  333  ;  death  of,  339,  340 

Sidgwick,  Mr.  William  Carr,  3,  114, 
115,  127,  509  ;  letter  to,  156 


632 


HENRY  SIDGWICK 


Sidgwick,  Mrs.  W.  C.,  298  ;  letters  to, 

534,  567,  570,  580 
Sidgwick  Avenue,  504 
Slade,  Dr.,  325 

Smedley,  Miss,  "Lady  Grace,"  197 
Smith,  Goldwin,  "Rational  Religion," 

74;  127 

Smith,  Professor  Henry,  91,  127,  315 
Smith,  W.  Robertson,  401,  440 
Socialism,  441-2,  481,  495,  497 
Sociology,  inductive,  437 
Somersby,  408 
"Sophists,   The,"  Sidgwick's  articles, 

274,  278 
Sorley,     Professor,    on     Sidgwick     as 

teacher,  308 
Spectator,  letters  to,  quoted,  73, 188-9; 

writing  in,  referred  to,  188,  198,  244, 

274 
Spencer,  Herbert,  32,  76,  269  ;  review 

on,   277,  278;    "Data  of  Ethics," 

344  ;  421  ;  "Political  Institutions," 

436,  436-7 

Stammering,  4,  76,  77,  315,  316,  318 
Stanley,  Dean,  94,  100,  120 
Stanley,  Sir  H.  M.,  505 
Stephen,    Sir    Leslie,    127,    278;    on 

Sidgwick's  conversation,  315  ;   445, 

487 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  "Prince  Otto,"  432  ; 

"Dr.  Jekyll,"  438;    "Letters  of," 

578,  579 

Strauss,  E.,  32,  147 
Strutt,  Hon.  C.  H.,  422 
Stuart,    Mr.   James,    175,    182,    272, 

443 
Sully,    Professor    James,     296,    516 ; 

letters  to,  547,  581 

Swinburne,    Mr.  A.  C.,  196;    "Both- 
well,"  293  ;  481,588 
Symonds,  John  Addington,  166,  175, 

261,  281,  300,  336  ;  "  Many  Moods," 

336  ;  379,  380,  381,  429,  475,  509  ; 

letters  to,  300,  358,  368,  455,  478, 

480,    482,    484,    500,    513,    523  ; 

besides  the  journal-letters,  381-452, 

454-76,  485-99,  515-17,  518,  521- 

524 ;   death    of,    526 ;   memoir    of, 

533 
Synthetic  Society,  556-60,  573,   576, 

588  ;  Papers  read  to,  Appendix  I. 
Szilargy  (Hungarian  Minister),  519 

Taine,  H.  A.,  273;  "Origines  de  la 
France  Contemporaine, "  396 

Talbot,  Dr.  E.  S.  (Bishop  of  South- 
wark),  398,  403,  556,  576 

Tautphceus,  Baroness,  "The  Initials," 
150 


Tawney,  Mr.  C.  H.,  14,  17,  20,  47, 
100  ;  letters  to,  60,  275 

Taxation,  447,  560-61 

Telepathy  and  Thought-transference, 
435,  473,  489,  494,  520,  548 

Temple,  Archbishop,  49,  71,  181,  217- 
219,  225-6,  550 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  31,  108  ; 
"In  Memoriam,"  24,  25,  468,  538- 
542;  "Princess,"  119;  "Aylmer's 
Field,"  119;  "The  Voyage,"  119, 
120;  "Sea Dreams, "120;  180,220, 

260,  261,  262,   278,  408  ;    "  Vast- 
ness,"  429;   "Locksley  Hall  Sixty 
Years  After,"  466  ;  468,  487  ;  death 
of,  524 

Tennyson,  Hallam,  Lord,  549  ;  letters 
to,  552,  553,  562,  574,  576 

Tests,  abolition  of  religious,  96,  219 

Texts  (Bible),  as  mottoes  at  different 
periods,  125 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  2 

Thackeray,  Miss  (Mrs.  Richmond 
Ritchie),  "  Village  on  the  Cliff,"  162  ; 

261,  274,  280 

Theism,  Theist,  228,  347-8,  508,  559  ; 
Appendix  I.,  600  et  seq. 

Thompson,  Perronet,  2 

Thompson,  W.  H.  (Master  of  Trinity), 
127,  144,  275  ;  his  death,  458 

"Tid's  old  Red  Rag  of  a  Shawl,"  by 
Miss  H.  Keddie,  126 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  70,  141 

Tolstoi,  Leon,  "Anna  Karenine," 
444 

Trevelyan,  Sir  George  Otto,  21,  25,  27, 
28,  47,  50,  62,  88,  127,  128; 
"Cawnpore,"  128;  142,  149,168, 
212,  250,  338;  "Early  History  of 
C.  J.  Fox,"  348  ;  382,  410,  414, 
432,  433,  443,  450,  458,  469,  470, 
471,  479,  490,  493  ;  letters  to,  348, 
360,  389,  548,  589,  594 

Trotter,  Rev.  Coutts,  462  ;  death  of, 
483  ;  566 

Twain,  Mark,  "  Adventures  of  Huckle- 
berry Finn,"  406 

Tyndall,  Professor,  220 

Tyrrell,  Father,  556  ;  letter  to,  595 

Unemployed,  481 

University  and  College  Reform,  156-9, 

167,    172-3,    274,    276,    301  ;    see 

also  Greek,  compulsory 
University  Commission,  301,  327,  333, 

371  ;    see  also   Gresham  University 

Commission 
University  Extension,    272 ;    lectures 

for,  527 


INDEX 


633 


University  Gazette,  185,  186 
University  policy,  Sidgwick's,  272-4 

"  Vacation  Tourists,"  122 

Venice,  237,  561 

Venn,  Dr.  J.,  on  Grote  Club,  134-7  ; 

141,  261,  262 
Venn,  Mrs.,  206 
Verses  by  Henry  Sidgwick,  51,  64, 

246,  262 
Victoria  University,  510 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,    "Defence  of 

Modern  Spiritualism,"  289 
Ward,  Artemus,  170 
Ward,  Professor  James,  556,  586 
Ward,   Mr.  Wilfrid,   556 ;    letters  to, 

527,  537,  559,  563,  571,  572,  573, 

590,  596 

Ward,  Mrs.  Wilfrid,  letter  to,  582 
Ward,  W.  G.,  220-22,  527 
Webster,  Mrs.,  "  The  Auspicious  Day," 

280 

Wedgwood,  Hensleigh,  296 
Westcott,    Bishop,   43,    65,   223,  393, 

394,  402,  459,  558 
Wheatley-Balme,  5,  550 
Whewell,  Dr.  W.,  42,  80,  462 
Whitman,  Walt,  514 
Williams,  Dr.  Rowland,  49,  139 
Women's  Education,   Sidgwick's  early 

views    on,    72,    73 ;    examinations, 

174,  180,  181,  182,   188,  189,  212, 


333,  384 ;  lectures  for  women  in 
Cambridge  and  development  of 
Newnham  College,  204-12,  224, 
226,  227,  240,  242-9  (passim), 
251,  252,  255,  256,  258,  262,  265, 
268,  271,  279,  284,  285,  287,  300, 
325,  326,  343-4,  345,  359,  360, 
410,  411,  430,  448,  490,  491-2, 
503,  504,  513,  514,  515,  546,  585  ; 
opening  of  University  examinations 
to  women,  349  -  52,  373,  380  ; 
degrees  for  women,  476-8,  544- 
546,  550-52  ;  Sidgwick's  residence 
at  Newnham  College,  343-5,  528- 
530  ;  see  also  Correspondence, 
teaching  by 

Women's  Franchise,  73 

Woolner's  "  My  Beautiful  Lady," 
103 

Wordsworth,  W.,  194,  289,  290,  540 

Working  Men's  College,  Cambridge, 
61 

Wright,  Dr.  W.  Aldis,  134 

Wiistenfeld,  Professor,   109,  111,  117 

Yonge,  Miss  C.  M.,  109 

Young,  Rev.  E.  M.,  letters  to,  74,  597 ; 

576 
Young,  Sir  George,  20,  131,  219 

Zincke,  F.  Barham,  "United  States," 

197 
Zola,  E.,  451 


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