‘Though you through the regions of space should have travelled,And of nebular films the remotest unravelled,You’ll find, though you tread on the bounds of infinity,That God’s greatest work is the Master of Trinity.’
‘Though you through the regions of space should have travelled,And of nebular films the remotest unravelled,You’ll find, though you tread on the bounds of infinity,That God’s greatest work is the Master of Trinity.’
‘Though you through the regions of space should have travelled,And of nebular films the remotest unravelled,You’ll find, though you tread on the bounds of infinity,That God’s greatest work is the Master of Trinity.’
‘Though you through the regions of space should have travelled,
And of nebular films the remotest unravelled,
You’ll find, though you tread on the bounds of infinity,
That God’s greatest work is the Master of Trinity.’
Even better than this was the remark that ‘Whewell thinks himself a fraction of the universe, and wishes to make the denominator as small as possible.’ These, however, were harmless sallies, at which he was probably as much amused as any one.
No one who knew Whewell well can avoid admitting, as we have done, that there was much in his manner and conduct that might with advantage have been different. But what we wish to maintain is that these defects were not essential to his character: that they arose either from a too precise adherence to views that were in themselves good and noble, or from a certain vehemence and impulsiveness that swept him away in spite of himself, and landed him in difficulties over which he had to repent at leisure. And in this place let us draw attention to one of his most pleasing traits—his generosity. We do not merely refer to the numerous cases of distress which he alleviated, delicately and secretly, but to the magnanimity of temperament with which he treated those from whom hehad differed, or whose conduct he had condemned. He had no false notions of dignity. If he felt that he had said what he had better have left unsaid, or overstepped the proper limits of argument, he would sooth the bruised and battered victims of his sledgehammer with some such words as these: ‘I am afraid that I was hasty the other day in what I said to you. I am very sorry.’ He never bore a grudge, or betrayed remembrance of a fault, or repeated a word of scandal. There was nothing small or underhand about him. He would oppose a measure of which he disapproved, fairly and openly, by all legitimate expedients; but, when beaten, he cordially accepted the situation, and never alluded to the subject again.
His conduct at the contested election for a University Representative in 1856 affords a good illustration of what we have here advanced. The candidates were Mr Walpole and Mr Denman; and it was decided, after conference with their rival committees, that the poll should extend over five days, on four of which votes were to be taken in the Public Schools from half-past seven to half-past eight in the evening, in addition to the usual hours in the Senate House, namely, from ten to four. The proceedingsexcited an unusual interest among the undergraduates, who on the first morning occupied the galleries of the Senate House in force, and made such a noise that the University officers could not hear each others’ voices, and the business was transacted in dumb show. In consequence they represented to the Vice-Chancellor that they could not do their work unless he ‘took effectual means for the prevention of this inconvenience.’ Whewell hated nothing so much as insubordination, and had on former occasions addressed himself to the repression of this particular form of it. It is therefore probable that he was not indisposed to take the only step that, under the circumstances, seemed likely to be effectual, namely, to exclude the undergraduates from the Senate House for the rest of the days of polling. On the second and third days peace reigned within the building, but, when the Vice-Chancellor appeared outside, he was confronted by a howling mob, through which he had to make his way as best he could. He was advised to go by the back way; but, with characteristic pluck, he rejected this counsel, and went out and came in by the front gate of his College. A few Masters of Arts acted as a body-guard;but further protection was thought necessary, and on the third afternoon the University beheld the extraordinary spectacle of the Vice-Chancellor proceeding along Trinity Street with a prize-fighter on each side of him. On the evening of that day Mr Denman withdrew from the contest, a step which probably averted a serious riot. When the excitement had subsided a little Whewell drew up a printed statement, which, though markedPrivate, is in fact an address to the undergraduate members of the University. He points out the necessity for acting as he had done, both as regards the business in hand and because it was his duty to enforce proper behaviour in a public place as a part of education. He concludes with the following passage:
‘I the more confidently believe that the majority of the Undergraduates have a due self-respect, and a due respect for just authority temperately exercised, because I have ever found it so, both as Master of a College, and as Vice-Chancellor. One of the happiest recollections of my life is that of a great occasion in my former Vice-Chancellorship[7], when I had need to ask for great orderliness and considerable self-denial on the part of the Undergraduates. This demand they responded to with a dignified and sweet-tempered obedience which endeared them to me then, as many good qualities which I have seen in successivegenerations of students have endeared them to me since. And I will not easily give up my trust that now, as then, the better natures will control and refine the baser, and that it will be no longer necessary to put any constraint upon the admission of Undergraduates to the Galleries of the Senate-house.’
After the poll had been declared the Proctors brought him a list of the rioters. He said, ‘The election is over, they will not do it again,’ and threw the record into the fire. Not long afterwards he went, as was his frequent custom, to a concert of the University Musical Society. The undergraduates present rose and cheered him. Whewell was so much affected, that he burst into tears, and sat for some time with his face hidden in the folds of his gown.
Those who recollect Whewell, or even those who know him only by his portraits, will smile incredulously at an assertion we are about to make. But it is true, no matter how severely it may be criticised. Whewell was, in reality, an extremely humble-minded man, diffident of himself, and sure of his position only when he had the approval of his conscience for what he was doing. Then he went forward, regardless of what might bar his passage, and too often regardless also of those who chanced to differ from him. The few who were admitted to theinner circle of his friendship alone knew that he really was what his enemies called him in sarcastic mockery, modest and retiring. If he appeared to be, as one virulent pamphlet said he was, an ‘imperious bully[8],’ the manner which justified such a designation was manner only, and due not to arrogance but to nervousness. He disliked praise, even from his best friends, if he thought that it was not exactly merited. For instance, when Archdeacon Hare spoke enthusiastically of his condemnation of ‘Utilitarian Ethics’ in theSermons on the Foundation of Morals, and exclaimed: ‘May the mind which has compast the whole circle of physical science find a lasting home, and erect a still nobler edifice, in this higher region! May he be enabled to let his light shine before the students of our University, that they may see the truth he utters[9],’ Whewell requested that the passage might be altered in a new edition. He wrote (26 February, 1841):
‘You have mentioned me in a manner which I am obliged to say is so extremely erroneous that it distresses me. The character which you have given of me is as far aspossible from that which I deserve. You know, I think, that I am very ignorant in all the matters with which you are best acquainted, and the case is much the same in all others. I was always very ignorant, and am now more and more oppressed by the consciousness of being so. To know much about many things is what I never aspired at, and certainly have not succeeded in. If you had called me a persevering framer of systems, or had said that in architecture, as in some other matters, by trying to catch the principle of the system, I had sometimes been able to judge right of details, I should have recognised some likeness to myself; but what you have said only makes me ashamed. You will perhaps laugh at my earnestness about this matter, for I am in earnest; but consider how you would like praise which you felt to be the opposite of what you were, and not even like what you had tried to be[10].’
It would be unbecoming to intrude domestic matters into an essay like the present, in which we have proposed to ourselves a different object; but we cannot wholly omit to draw attention to the painful, but deeply interesting, chapters in which Mrs Stair Douglas describes her uncle’s grief at the loss of his first wife in 1855, and of his second wife in 1865. His strong nature had recovered after a time from the first of these terrible shocks, under which he had wisely distracted his mind by the composition of his essay onThe Plurality of Worlds, and by again accepting the Vice-Chancellorship.The second, however, fell upon him with even greater severity. He was ten years older, and therefore less able to bear up against it. Lady Affleck died a little before midnight on Saturday, April 1, 1865; and her heart-broken husband, true to his theory that the chapel service ought to be regarded as family prayers, appeared in his place at the early service on Sunday morning, not fearing to commit to the sympathies of his College ‘the saddest of all sights, an old man’s bereavement, and a strong man’s tears[11].’ We can still recall the look of intense sorrow on his face; a look which, though he tried to rouse himself, and pursue his usual avocations, never completely wore off. He survived her for rather less than a year, dying on March 6, 1866, from injuries received from a fall from his horse on February 24 previous. It was at first hoped that these, like those he had received on many similar occasions, for he used to say that he had measured the depth of every ditch in Cambridgeshire by falling into it, were not serious; but the brain had sustained an injury, and he gradually sank.His last thoughts were for the College. On the very last morning he signified his wish that the windows of his bedroom might be opened wide, that he might see the sun shine on the Great Court, and he smiled as he was reminded that he used to say that the sky never looked so blue as when framed by its walls and turrets. Among the numerous tributes to his memory which then appeared, none we think are more appropriate than the following lines, the authorship of which we believe we are right in ascribing to the late Mr Tom Taylor[12]:
‘Gone from the rule that was questioned so rarely,Gone from the seat where he laid down the law;Gaunt, stern, and stalwart, with broad brow set squarelyO’er the fierce eye, and the granite-hewn jaw.‘No more the Great Court shall see him dividingSurpliced crowds thick round the low chapel door;No more shall idlers shrink cowed from his chiding,Senate-house cheers sound his honour no more.‘Son of a hammer-man: right kin of Thor, heClove his way through, right onward, amain;Ruled when he’d conquered, was proud of his glory,—Sledge-hammer smiter, in body and brain.‘Sizar and Master,—unhasting, unresting;Each step a triumph, in fair combat won—Rivals he faced like a strong swimmer breastingWaves that, once grappled with, terrors have none.‘Trinity marked him o’er-topping the crowd ofHeads and Professors, self-centred, alone:Rude as his strength was, that strength she was proud of,Body and mind, she knew all was her own.‘“Science his strength, and Omniscience his weakness,”Sotheysaid of him, who envied his power;Those whom he silenced with more might than meekness,Carped at his back, in his face fain to cower.‘Milder men’s gracesmightin him be lacking,Still he was honest, kind-hearted, and brave;Never good cause looked in vain for his backing,Fool he ne’er spared, but he never screened knave.‘England should cherish all lives from beginningLowly as his to such honour that rise;Lives, of fair running and straightforward winning,Lives, that so winning, may boast of the prize.‘They that in years past have chafed at his chiding,They that in boyish mood strove ’gainst his sway,Boys’ hot blood cooled, boys’ impatience subsiding,Reverently think of “the Master” to-day.‘Counting his courage, his manhood, his knowledge,Counting the glory he won for us all,Cambridge—not only his dearly loved College—Mourns his seat empty in chapel and hall.‘Lay him down here—in the dim ante-chapel,WhereNewton’sstatue looms ghostly and white,Broad brow set rigid in thought-mast’ring grapple,Eyes that look upward for light—and more light.‘So should he rest—not where daisies are growing:Newtonbeside him, and over his headTrinity’s full tide of life, ebbing, flowing,Morning and evening, as he lies dead.‘Sailors sleep best within boom of the billow,Soldiers in sound of the shrill trumpet call:So his own Chapel his death-sleep should pillow,Loved in his life-time with love beyond all.’
‘Gone from the rule that was questioned so rarely,Gone from the seat where he laid down the law;Gaunt, stern, and stalwart, with broad brow set squarelyO’er the fierce eye, and the granite-hewn jaw.‘No more the Great Court shall see him dividingSurpliced crowds thick round the low chapel door;No more shall idlers shrink cowed from his chiding,Senate-house cheers sound his honour no more.‘Son of a hammer-man: right kin of Thor, heClove his way through, right onward, amain;Ruled when he’d conquered, was proud of his glory,—Sledge-hammer smiter, in body and brain.‘Sizar and Master,—unhasting, unresting;Each step a triumph, in fair combat won—Rivals he faced like a strong swimmer breastingWaves that, once grappled with, terrors have none.‘Trinity marked him o’er-topping the crowd ofHeads and Professors, self-centred, alone:Rude as his strength was, that strength she was proud of,Body and mind, she knew all was her own.‘“Science his strength, and Omniscience his weakness,”Sotheysaid of him, who envied his power;Those whom he silenced with more might than meekness,Carped at his back, in his face fain to cower.‘Milder men’s gracesmightin him be lacking,Still he was honest, kind-hearted, and brave;Never good cause looked in vain for his backing,Fool he ne’er spared, but he never screened knave.‘England should cherish all lives from beginningLowly as his to such honour that rise;Lives, of fair running and straightforward winning,Lives, that so winning, may boast of the prize.‘They that in years past have chafed at his chiding,They that in boyish mood strove ’gainst his sway,Boys’ hot blood cooled, boys’ impatience subsiding,Reverently think of “the Master” to-day.‘Counting his courage, his manhood, his knowledge,Counting the glory he won for us all,Cambridge—not only his dearly loved College—Mourns his seat empty in chapel and hall.‘Lay him down here—in the dim ante-chapel,WhereNewton’sstatue looms ghostly and white,Broad brow set rigid in thought-mast’ring grapple,Eyes that look upward for light—and more light.‘So should he rest—not where daisies are growing:Newtonbeside him, and over his headTrinity’s full tide of life, ebbing, flowing,Morning and evening, as he lies dead.‘Sailors sleep best within boom of the billow,Soldiers in sound of the shrill trumpet call:So his own Chapel his death-sleep should pillow,Loved in his life-time with love beyond all.’
‘Gone from the rule that was questioned so rarely,Gone from the seat where he laid down the law;Gaunt, stern, and stalwart, with broad brow set squarelyO’er the fierce eye, and the granite-hewn jaw.
‘Gone from the rule that was questioned so rarely,
Gone from the seat where he laid down the law;
Gaunt, stern, and stalwart, with broad brow set squarely
O’er the fierce eye, and the granite-hewn jaw.
‘No more the Great Court shall see him dividingSurpliced crowds thick round the low chapel door;No more shall idlers shrink cowed from his chiding,Senate-house cheers sound his honour no more.
‘No more the Great Court shall see him dividing
Surpliced crowds thick round the low chapel door;
No more shall idlers shrink cowed from his chiding,
Senate-house cheers sound his honour no more.
‘Son of a hammer-man: right kin of Thor, heClove his way through, right onward, amain;Ruled when he’d conquered, was proud of his glory,—Sledge-hammer smiter, in body and brain.
‘Son of a hammer-man: right kin of Thor, he
Clove his way through, right onward, amain;
Ruled when he’d conquered, was proud of his glory,—
Sledge-hammer smiter, in body and brain.
‘Sizar and Master,—unhasting, unresting;Each step a triumph, in fair combat won—Rivals he faced like a strong swimmer breastingWaves that, once grappled with, terrors have none.
‘Sizar and Master,—unhasting, unresting;
Each step a triumph, in fair combat won—
Rivals he faced like a strong swimmer breasting
Waves that, once grappled with, terrors have none.
‘Trinity marked him o’er-topping the crowd ofHeads and Professors, self-centred, alone:Rude as his strength was, that strength she was proud of,Body and mind, she knew all was her own.
‘Trinity marked him o’er-topping the crowd of
Heads and Professors, self-centred, alone:
Rude as his strength was, that strength she was proud of,
Body and mind, she knew all was her own.
‘“Science his strength, and Omniscience his weakness,”Sotheysaid of him, who envied his power;Those whom he silenced with more might than meekness,Carped at his back, in his face fain to cower.
‘“Science his strength, and Omniscience his weakness,”
Sotheysaid of him, who envied his power;
Those whom he silenced with more might than meekness,
Carped at his back, in his face fain to cower.
‘Milder men’s gracesmightin him be lacking,Still he was honest, kind-hearted, and brave;Never good cause looked in vain for his backing,Fool he ne’er spared, but he never screened knave.
‘Milder men’s gracesmightin him be lacking,
Still he was honest, kind-hearted, and brave;
Never good cause looked in vain for his backing,
Fool he ne’er spared, but he never screened knave.
‘England should cherish all lives from beginningLowly as his to such honour that rise;Lives, of fair running and straightforward winning,Lives, that so winning, may boast of the prize.
‘England should cherish all lives from beginning
Lowly as his to such honour that rise;
Lives, of fair running and straightforward winning,
Lives, that so winning, may boast of the prize.
‘They that in years past have chafed at his chiding,They that in boyish mood strove ’gainst his sway,Boys’ hot blood cooled, boys’ impatience subsiding,Reverently think of “the Master” to-day.
‘They that in years past have chafed at his chiding,
They that in boyish mood strove ’gainst his sway,
Boys’ hot blood cooled, boys’ impatience subsiding,
Reverently think of “the Master” to-day.
‘Counting his courage, his manhood, his knowledge,Counting the glory he won for us all,Cambridge—not only his dearly loved College—Mourns his seat empty in chapel and hall.
‘Counting his courage, his manhood, his knowledge,
Counting the glory he won for us all,
Cambridge—not only his dearly loved College—
Mourns his seat empty in chapel and hall.
‘Lay him down here—in the dim ante-chapel,WhereNewton’sstatue looms ghostly and white,Broad brow set rigid in thought-mast’ring grapple,Eyes that look upward for light—and more light.
‘Lay him down here—in the dim ante-chapel,
WhereNewton’sstatue looms ghostly and white,
Broad brow set rigid in thought-mast’ring grapple,
Eyes that look upward for light—and more light.
‘So should he rest—not where daisies are growing:Newtonbeside him, and over his headTrinity’s full tide of life, ebbing, flowing,Morning and evening, as he lies dead.
‘So should he rest—not where daisies are growing:
Newtonbeside him, and over his head
Trinity’s full tide of life, ebbing, flowing,
Morning and evening, as he lies dead.
‘Sailors sleep best within boom of the billow,Soldiers in sound of the shrill trumpet call:So his own Chapel his death-sleep should pillow,Loved in his life-time with love beyond all.’
‘Sailors sleep best within boom of the billow,
Soldiers in sound of the shrill trumpet call:
So his own Chapel his death-sleep should pillow,
Loved in his life-time with love beyond all.’
We have not thought it necessary to go through the events of Whewell’s Mastership in order, because progressive development of thought and occupation had by that time ended, and his efforts were chiefly directed towards establishing in the University the changes which his previous studies had led him to regard as necessary, and which, from the vantage-ground of that influential position, he was enabled to enforce. In his own College, so far as its education was concerned, he had little to do except to maintain the high standard which already existed. As tutor he had been successful in increasing the importance of the paper of questions in Philosophy in the Fellowship Examination; and subsequently he had introduced hisElements of Morality, his preface to Mackintosh’sEthical Philosophy, and his edition of Butler’sThree Sermonsinto the examination at the end of the Michaelmas Term. None, however, of those fundamental measures which have achieved for Trinity College its present position of pre-eminence willin the future be associated with his name, unless the abolition of the Westminster Scholars be thought sufficiently important to be classed in this category. On the contrary, it is remarkable what slight influence he exerted on the College while Master. He saw but little of any of the Fellows, and became intimate with none. In theory he was a despot, but in practice he deferred to the College officers; and, with the exception of certain domestic matters, such as granting leave to studious undergraduates to live in College during the Long Vacation, and the formation of a cricket-ground for the use of the College, to which he and Lady Affleck both contributed largely, he originated nothing. As regards the constitution of the College, he was strongly opposed to change. The so-called Reform of the Statutes in 1842 amounted to nothing more than the excision of certain obsolete usages, and the accommodation in some few other points of the written law to the usual practice of the College. The proposals for a more thorough reform brought forward by certain of the Fellows in 1856, when called together in accordance with the Act of Parliament passed in that year, met with his vehement disapproval. It was amental defect with him that he could never be brought to see that others had as much right as himself to hold special views. If he saw no defect in a statute or a practice, no one else had any right to see one. Here is a specimen of the language he used respecting the junior Fellows, all, it must be remembered, men of some distinction, whom he himself had had a hand in electing:
‘It is a very sad evening of my College life, to have the College pulled in pieces and ruined by a set of schoolboys. It is very nearly that kind of work. The Act of Parliament gives all our Fellows equal weight for certain purposes, and the younger part of them all vote the same way, and against the Seniors. Several of these juveniles are really boys, several others only Bachelors of Arts, so we have crazy work, as I think it[13].’
As regards the University, as distinct from the College, he deserves recognition as having effected important educational changes. These range over the whole of his life, commencing with the novelties which he introduced, in conjunction with Herschel, Peacock, and Babbage, into the study of mathematics, so early as 1819. It was his constant endeavour, whatever office he held—whether Moderator, Examiner, or College lecturer—to keep the improvementand development of the Mathematical Tripos constantly before the University. But, before we enumerate the special improvements or developments with which he may be credited, let us consider what was his leading idea. He held that every man who was worth educating at all, had within him various faculties, such as the mathematical, the philological, the critical, the poetical, and the like; and that the truly liberal education was that which would develop all of these, some more, some less, according to the individual nature. A devotion to ‘favourite and selected pursuits’ was a proof, according to him, of ‘effeminacy of mind.’ We are not sure that he would have been prepared to introduce one or more classical papers into the Mathematical Tripos, though he held that a mere mathematician was not an educated man; but he was emphatic in wishing to preserve the provisions by which classical men were obliged to pass certain mathematical examinations. He did not want ‘muchmathematics’ from them, he said, writing to Archdeacon Hare in 1842; ‘but a man who either cannot or will not understand Euclid, is a man whom we lose nothing by not keeping among us.’ He was no friend to examinations. He ‘repudiated emulation asthe sole spring of action in our education,’ but did not see his way to reducing it. It was probably this feeling that made him object to private tuition so strongly as he always did. In opposition to private tutors, he wished to increase attendance at Professors’ lectures; and succeeded in ‘connecting them with examinations,’ as he called it; in other words, in making attendance at them compulsory for precisely those men who were least capable of deriving benefit from the highest teaching which the University can give, namely, the candidates for the Ordinary Degree.
The first definite novelty in the way of public examinations which he promoted was the examination in Divinity called, when first established, the Voluntary Theological Examination. Whewell was a member of the Syndicate which recommended it, in March, 1842; and subsequently, he took a great interest in making it a success. As Vice-Chancellor, he brought it under the direct notice of the Bishops. Subsequently, in 1845, he advocated, in his essayOf a Liberal Education in General, the establishment of ‘a General Tripos including the Inductive Sciences, or those which it was thought right by the Universityto group together for such a purpose.’ The basis of University education was still to be the Mathematical Tripos; but, after a student had been declared a Junior Optime, he was free to choose his future career. He might become a candidate either for the Classical Tripos, or for the suggested new Tripos, or for any other Tripos that the University should subsequently decide to establish. With these views it was natural that Whewell should be in favour of the establishment of a Moral Sciences Tripos (to include History and Law), and of a Natural Sciences Tripos; and in consequence we find him not only a member of the Syndicate which suggested them, but urging their acceptance upon the Senate (1848). Further, he offered two prizes of £15 each, so long as he was Professor, to be given annually to the two students who shewed the greatest proficiency in the former examination. It is worth noticing that he did not insist upon a candidate becoming a Junior Optime before presenting himself for either of these new Triposes, but was satisfied with the Ordinary Degree. He wished to encourage, by all reasonable facilities, the competition for Honours in them; but when the Senate (in 1849) threw open theClassical Tripos to those who had obtained a first class in the examination for the Ordinary Degree, he deplored it as a retrograde step. Before many years, however, had passed, he had modified his views to such an extent that he could sign (in 1854) a Report which began by stating ‘that much advantage would result from extending to other main departments of study, generally comprehended under the name of Arts, the system which is at present established in the University with regard to Candidates for Honours in the Mathematical Tripos’; and proceeded to advocate the establishment of a Theological Tripos, and the concession, with reference to the Classical Tripos, the Moral Sciences Tripos, and the Natural Sciences Tripos, that in and after 1857 students who obtained Honours in them should be entitled to admission to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. We may therefore claim Whewell as one of the founders of the modern system of University education.
Whewell’s wish to develop Professorial tuition has been already alluded to. It may be doubted if he would have been so earnest on the subject had he foreseen the development of teaching by the University as opposedto teaching by the colleges, which a large increase in the number of Professors was certain to bring about. So far back as 1828, he had brought before the University the want of proper lecture-rooms and museums; and, as a matter of course, he promoted the erection of the present museums in 1863. We are justified, therefore, in claiming for him no inconsiderable share in that development of natural science which is one of the glories of Cambridge; and when we see the crowds which throng the classes of the scientific professors, lecturers, and demonstrators, we often wish that he could have been spared a few years longer to enter into the fruit of his labours.
As regards the constitution of the University he earnestly deprecated the interference of a Commission. He held that ‘University reformers should endeavour to reform by efforts within the body, and not by calling in the stranger.’ He therefore worked very hard as a member of what was called the ‘Statutes Revision Syndicate,’ first appointed in 1849, and continued in subsequent years. His views on these important matters have been recorded by him in his work on a Liberal Education.It is worth remarking that while he was in favour of so advanced a step as making College funds available for University purposes, he strenuously maintained the desirability of preserving that ancient body, theCaput. One of the most vexatious provisions of its constitution was that each member of it had an absolute veto on any grace to which he might object. As the body was selected, the whole legislative power of the University was practically vested in the Heads of Houses, who are not usually the persons best qualified to understand the feeling of the University. Dr Whewell has frequently recorded, in his correspondence, his vexation when graces proposed by himself were rejected by this body; and yet, though he knew how badly the constitution worked, his attachment to existing forms was so great, that he could not be persuaded to yield on any point except the mode of election.
We have spoken first of Whewell’s work in his College and University, because it was to them that he dedicated his life. We must now say a word or two on his literary and scientific attainments. He wrote an excellent English style, which reflects the personality of the writer to a more than usual extent. As mightbe expected from his studies and tone of mind, he always wrote with clearness and good sense, though occasionally his periods are rough and unpolished, defects due to his habit of writing as fast as he could make the pen traverse the paper. But, just as it was not natural to him to be grave for long together, we find his most serious criticisms and pamphlets—nay, even his didactic works—lightened by good-humoured banter and humorous illustrations. On the other hand, when he was thoroughly serious and in earnest, his style rose to a dignified eloquence which has rarely been equalled, and never surpassed. For an illustration of our meaning we beg our readers to turn to the final chapters of thePlurality of Worlds. He was always fond of writing verse; and published more than one volume of poems and translations, of which the latter are by far the most meritorious. Nor must we forget his valiant efforts to get hexameters and elegiacs recognized as English metres. Example being better than precept, he began by printing a translation of Goethe’sHermann und Dorothea, in the metre of the original, which he at first circulated privately among his friends; but subsequently he discussed the subject in several papers, inwhich he laid down the rules which he thought were required for successful composition of the metre. His main principle is to pay attention to accent, not to quantity, and to use trochees where the ancients would have used spondees; in other words, where according to the classical hexameter we should have two strong syllables, we are to have a strong syllable followed by a weak one. Here is a short specimen from theIsle of the Sirens:
‘Over the broad-spread sea the thoughtful son of UlyssesSteered his well-built bark. Full long had he sought for his father,Till hope, lingering, fled; for the face of the water is trackless.Then rose strong in his mind the thought of his home and his island;And he desired to return; to behold his Ithacan people,Listen their just complaints, restrain the fierce and the lawless.’
‘Over the broad-spread sea the thoughtful son of UlyssesSteered his well-built bark. Full long had he sought for his father,Till hope, lingering, fled; for the face of the water is trackless.Then rose strong in his mind the thought of his home and his island;And he desired to return; to behold his Ithacan people,Listen their just complaints, restrain the fierce and the lawless.’
‘Over the broad-spread sea the thoughtful son of UlyssesSteered his well-built bark. Full long had he sought for his father,Till hope, lingering, fled; for the face of the water is trackless.Then rose strong in his mind the thought of his home and his island;And he desired to return; to behold his Ithacan people,Listen their just complaints, restrain the fierce and the lawless.’
‘Over the broad-spread sea the thoughtful son of Ulysses
Steered his well-built bark. Full long had he sought for his father,
Till hope, lingering, fled; for the face of the water is trackless.
Then rose strong in his mind the thought of his home and his island;
And he desired to return; to behold his Ithacan people,
Listen their just complaints, restrain the fierce and the lawless.’
Mrs Stair Douglas has acted wisely in reprinting the elegiacs written after the death of Mrs Whewell. We cannot believe that the metre will ever be popular; but in the case of this particular poem eccentricities of style will be forgiven for the sake of the dignified beauty of the thoughts. With the exception ofIn Memoriam, we know of no finer expressionof Christian sorrow and Christian hope. We will quote a few lines from the first division of the poem, in which the bereaved husband describes the happiness which his wife had brought to him:
‘Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle,Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me:Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clear-seeing, thoughtful,Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind:Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it,Wisdom that shines in the heart dearer than Intellect’s light;Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness’ burden,Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm.For O, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment,Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still’d;Ever pursued by desires of a heart’s companionship, everYearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee.’
‘Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle,Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me:Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clear-seeing, thoughtful,Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind:Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it,Wisdom that shines in the heart dearer than Intellect’s light;Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness’ burden,Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm.For O, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment,Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still’d;Ever pursued by desires of a heart’s companionship, everYearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee.’
‘Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle,Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me:Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clear-seeing, thoughtful,Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind:Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it,Wisdom that shines in the heart dearer than Intellect’s light;Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness’ burden,Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm.For O, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment,Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still’d;Ever pursued by desires of a heart’s companionship, everYearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee.’
‘Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle,
Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me:
Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clear-seeing, thoughtful,
Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind:
Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it,
Wisdom that shines in the heart dearer than Intellect’s light;
Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness’ burden,
Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm.
For O, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment,
Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still’d;
Ever pursued by desires of a heart’s companionship, ever
Yearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee.’
It is painful to be obliged to record that Whewell’s executors found that the copyright of his works had no mercantile value. He perhaps formed a true estimate of his own powers when he said that all that he coulddo was to ‘systematize portions of knowledge which the consent of opinions has brought into readiness for such a process[14].’ His name will not be associated with any great discovery, or any original theory, if we except his memoir on Crystallography, which is the basis of the system since adopted; and his researches on the Tides, which have afforded a clear and satisfactory view of those of the Atlantic, while it is hardly his fault if those of the Pacific were not elucidated with equal clearness[15]. It too often happens that those who originally suggest theories are forgotten in the credit due to those who develop them; and we are afraid that this has been the fate of Whewell. Even as a mathematician he is not considered really great by those competent to form a judgment. He was too much wedded to the geometrical fashions of his younger days, and ‘had no taste for the more refined methods of modern analysis[16].’ In science, as in other matters, his strong conservative bias stood in his way. He was constitutionally unable to accept a thorough-goinginnovation. For instance, he withstood to the last Lyell’s uniformity, and Darwin’s evolution[17]. Much, therefore, of what he wrote will of necessity be soon forgotten; but we hope that some readers may be found for hisElements of Morality, and that his great work on the Inductive Sciences may hold its own. It is highly valued in Germany; and in England Mr John Stuart Mill, one of the most cold and severe of critics, who differed widely from Whewell in his scientific views, has declared that ‘without the aid derived from the facts and ideas contained in theHistory of the Inductive Sciences, the corresponding portion of his ownSystem of Logicwould probably not have been written.’
We have felt it our duty to point out these shortcomings; but it is a far more agreeable one to turn from them, and conclude our essay by indicating the lofty tone of religious enthusiasm which runs through all his works. As Dr Lightfoot pointed out in his funeral sermon, ‘the world of matter without, the world of thoughtwithin, alike spoke to him of the Eternal Creator the Beneficent Father; and even his opponent, Sir David Brewster, who more strongly than all his other critics had denounced what he termed the paradox advanced inThe Plurality of Worlds, that our earth may be ‘the oasis in the desert of the solar system,’ was generous enough to admit that posterity would forgive the author ‘on account of the noble sentiments, the lofty aspirations, and the suggestions, almost divine, which mark his closing chapter on the future of the universe.’