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a large command of psychological analysis, enabling the author to interpret phenomena of society, both extremely complicated and far removed from his own personal experience." Born in Kincardineshire, not far from the birthplace of Thomas Reid, Mill was educated after a fashion and with a purpose very common in Scotland: he was sent to the school of his native parish, LogiePert; to the grammar-school of the nearest town, Montrose; and to the University of Edinburgh; and he was destined to the ministry of the Kirk. But after receiving licence as a preacher, he relinquished his intended profession, and took, about the beginning of this century, a step that Jeffrey about the same time had thoughts of taking-went to London, and settled there as, to use Jeffrey's expression, a literary "grub." He became editor of the Literary Journal,' a short-lived adventure, and wrote for the Eclectic Review,' the Edinburgh Review,' and other periodicals. He made the acquaintance of Jeremy Bentham, and for a number of years he and his family lived during the summer in Bentham's country-house. His 'History of British India' was commenced in 1806. In 1819, the year after the publication of this work, he was offered the high post of AssistantExaminer of Correspondence in the India House, in which he was ultimately Chief Examiner, an office nearly equivalent to the Under-Secretaryship of State for Indian Affairs. Shortly after his appointment to the India House he contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica' the articles on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, Prison Discipline, Colonies, Law of Nations, and Education. He was one of the principal contributors to the 'Westminster Review,' which was founded in 1823. His chief works on more abstruse subjects are 'Elements of Political Economy,' 1821-22; Analysis of the Human Mind,' 1829; and 'Fragments on Mackintosh,' 1835. - Mill was endowed with eminent powers of expression and illustration. Bentham judged rightly in helping him on as a promising expositor of utilitarian principles. His strength, however, lay more in the logical, scientific faculty men were drawn to his books more by the severe and penetrating rationality of the matter than by the attractions of the style. The severity of his style was probably deepened by a lurking cynicism that on several occasions made itself disagreeably conspicuous: a man of clear insight and intense reserved disposition, he had something like a passionate hatred of superficial knowledge and gushing sentimentality, and he opposed the philosophy of Sir James Mackintosh and the amiable Hindu extravagance of Sir William Jones with too much asperity, and in the case of Jones with some disadvantage to the truth. His style possesses very little figurative ornament; it aims at brief and clear expression as the main chance;

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and its principal charms are the severe charms of sententious. incisiveness and occasional strokes of epigrammatic point. His 'Encyclopædia' essays have always been exceedingly popular among hard-headed people: they have none of the softer graces of style, but they are almost unrivalled as efforts at the concise application of general principles to practical life; and, in addition to their "pithy" character, their constant endeavour to give the pith of the matter in the briefest possible statement, they contain sharp stimulating touches of epigram and of cynical paradox. Macaulay's criticism that "his arguments are stated with the utmost affectation of precision, his divisions are awfully formal, and his style is generally as dry as that of Euclid's elements," is, like too many of Macaulay's criticisms, an extreme caricature. The main defect in these essays is pointed out by the author's son, Mr John Stuart Mill, in the chapter on the "Geometrical method of reasoning in Politics" (Logic, ii. 471). The History of British India' is a perspicuous, well-arranged narrative, written without much pretence to fine composition. As in his essays, the style is enlivened chiefly by epigrammatic turns, succinct maxims, and sharp cynical criticisms. The value of the work consists mainly in its clear analysis of institutions, and its reviews of legal and political transactions by the light of general principles.1 Concerning Mill's other principal works we quote the opinion of Mr Grote: "Mr James Mill's Elements of Political Economy' were, at the time when they appeared, the most logical and condensed exposition of the entire science then existing. Lastly, his latest avowed production, the 'Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind,' is a model of perspicuous exposition of complex states of consciousness, carried farther than by any other author before him."

ture.

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) is the author of three celebrated historical works. The son of a dignitary of the English Church, he received his education at Eton and Oxford, and afterwards studied law in the Inner Temple; but possessing some private fortune, and holding besides a Government sinecure, he was independent of professional emolument, and devoted himself to literaHe attached himself to the Whig party, wrote for the Edinburgh Review,' took an active part in the Anti-slavery 1 Its value was much increased some twenty years ago by the annotations of Mr Wilson, Boden Professor of Sanscrit in Oxford, who followed Mill step by step over the field with a superior knowledge of Hindu literature. It appears that Mill, while his work is fully entitled to the praise of extensive research, was somewhat prejudiced against the Hindus by his antipathy to what he considered the over-estimate of them formed by Sir William Jones. Mr Wilson not only corrects Mill's errors in matters of fact, but pursues him throughout with a sharp criticism of his conclusions regarding men and measures; and while he cannot be said to show the same superiority in judgment that he shows in scholarship, the caustic criticising of the critic forms an interesting by-play in the perusal of the book. Mr Wilson also continues the history up to his own time.

agitation, and was united with Brougham, Mackintosh, Russell, Althorp, and other notabilities of his party, in the establishment of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. His 'View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages,' pronounced by foreign critics to be "beyond contradiction" the best of his works, was published in 1818; his Constitutional History of England in 1827; his 'Introduction to the Literature of Europe during the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries,' in 1838-39. In 1830 George IV. instituted two gold medals for the best historical works of his reign; and Hallam and Washington Irving were the historians that his Majesty delighted to honour. Hallam's works are praised for industrious research and dignified impartiality; his Constitutional History is accepted as the standard work on that subject. He had great reputation as a scholar; Byron calls him "classic Hallam much renowned for Greek:" but it may be doubted whether his Introduction to the Literature of Europe was not too ambitious a work for any one man not possessed of the resources of Faust. Certainly his criticisms of English writers, though always expressed with elegance, will not always bear close examination, and too often give evidence of very superficial and second-hand knowledge. Ornate, dignified elegance is the characteristic of his style for popular purposes it is perhaps too Latinised.

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Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., the historian of Modern Europe, born December 29, 1792, was the son of the Rev. Archibald Alison, author of the Essay on Taste,' who, at the time of his birth, was vicar of Kenley in Shropshire. His father removing to Edinburgh when he was five years old, he received his school and university education there, and became, in 1814, an advocate at the Scotch bar. He was at Paris in 1814, "when Talma played before a pitful of kings;" and there conceived the idea of recording from its first beginnings the stirring series of events that was supposed to have terminated in the meeting of the Allied sovereigns. The prosecution of this idea cost him "fifteen subsequent years of travel and study, and fifteen more of composition;" the first instalment of his 'History of Europe from 1789 to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815' making its appearance in 1833, and the concluding volumes in 1844. Meantime this was far from being his sole occupation: he published 'Principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland' in 1832, and 'Practice of the Criminal Law' in 1833; and from 1834 he discharged the duties of the sheriffdom of Lanarkshire. He was a frequent contributor to 'Blackwood's Magazine;' a selection of his contributions in three volumes was published in 1850. He wrote also 'Principles of Population,' 1840; Free Trade and Protection,' 1844; England in 1815 and in 1845;' 'Life of the Duke of Marlborough,' 1847. 1 For example see p. 210 of this work.

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In the latter years of his busy life he continued his History to the accession of Louis Napoleon in 1852; the successive volumes appearing between 1852 and 1859. He was created a baronet by Lord Derby's Ministry in 1852. His death took place on the 23d of May 1867.-Sir Archibald was in politics an extreme Conservative he remained an uncompromising opponent to the principles of Free Trade, and he never ceased to represent the Reform Bill of 1832 as inaugurating an era of disorganisation and decay. Two of his opinions in particular have been subjected to much criticism: one that crime is increased rather than diminished by merely intellectual education - a doctrine inculcated also by Auguste Comte, and which presents a considerable field for casuistry; and the other relating to the amount of harm done to British commercial interests by the return to a metallic currency after the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars. His peculiar views are strongly enounced in the later continuation of his History. But, as is admitted by the sharpest critics of this work, his Toryism and his crotchets are not allowed to interfere with the fairness and candour of his narrative, or with his estimates of political opponents. The 'Edinburgh Review' credits him with "an entire freedom from all mean and petty jealousies or rancorous sentiments towards his antagonists;" and affirms that "he has a generous and hearty appreciation of all merit which he perceives, and can bestow praise in no stinted measure even on those most opposed to him." In addition to this, one of the first requisites for the supremely difficult task of writing contemporary history, Sir Archibald displayed the greatest industry in collecting materials for his work; all agree in bearing testimony to the thoroughness of his researches. Very little exception has been taken to the accuracy of his facts, as regards either omission or positive error-less than has been taken in the case of Macaulay's 'History of England;' adverse critics have confined themselves principally to his opinions. His style has been exposed to considerable animadversions: grammarians have cited from his pages numerous violations of grammar, and the. Edinburgh Review' charges him with verbosity, and with excessive pomp in the enunciation of his general reflections. These, however, are faults that occur chiefly to the critic and the cynic; and the critics of Sir Archibald's style do not appear to have sufficiently accounted for the extraordinary world-wide popularity of the work. The History of Europe,' widely circulated at home, has been translated into all European languages, and also into Arabic and Hindustani: in a work designed for general reading, such popularity may be taken as a proof of excellence, unless good reasons can be assigned to the contrary. The intrinsic interest of the events narrated, absorbing as that undoubtedly was, and the author's industrious accuracy, great as that was, do not constitute

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a sufficient explanation; the interesting story is undeniably told with high narrative skill. When we disregard minute errors of structure, and look to general effects, we find many excellences of style that help to explain his popularity. The historian possesses a flowing command of simple and striking language, always equal to the dignity and spirit of the events related, and enlivened by happy turns of antithesis and epigram. He had a feeling for dramatic contrasts, and introduces them with striking effect. He visited the scenes of all the important engagements, and his descriptions have the freshness and animation of pictures drawn from nature. Finally, what is of prime importance in such a work, though he deals with highly complicated affairs involving the interaction of several different powers, he keeps the concurring streams of events lucidly distinct, and brings the reader without perplexity to their joint conclusion. His explanatory episodes are peculiarly elaborate and luminous. In short, it has been well said that "if the art of engaging the reader's attention, and sustaining it by the vigour, spirit, and vivacity of the narrative be a high merit, many popular and many great historians must cede superiority of this kind to Sir Archibald Alison."

PHILOSOPHY.

Sir William Hamilton, Bart. (1788-1856), the greatest British supporter of a priori philosophy in this century, was the son of Dr W. Hamilton, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow. He was the lineal representative and was adjudged heir to the title of Sir Robert Hamilton, the leader of the Covenanting forces at Drumclog. His father died when he was two years old. He received his schooling partly at home, partly at the public schools of Glasgow, and partly at private schools in England. He passed through the curriculum of Arts in Glasgow, and spent a winter at Edinburgh in the study of medicine, which he was inclined to make his profession. In 1807 he went to Oxford as an exhibitioner on the Snell Foundation. There he became engrossed in the study of mental philosophy, and in the final examination professed a knowledge of an unusual (though currently very much exaggerated) list of books, and was passed with the highest distinction. About this time he abandoned his design of entering the profession of medicine, and ultimately settled at Edinburgh as a lawyer, being called to the bar in 1814, three years after his graduation as B.A. at Oxford. In 1820 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy, vacated by the death of Brown, the appointment being given to John Wilson. In the following year he was appointed to the poorly-salaried Chair of Civil History. His appointment to the Chair of Logic did not take place till 1836.

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