PROFESSOR SEELEY'S ESSAYS.*

PROFESSOR SEELEY has now collected and reprinted several lectures and essays, which have appeared at various times in the last three years. One series of lectures, that on " Roman Imperial- ism," is purely historical ; all the rest of his book bears more or less directly on the social questions of our own day. He is the master of a clear and pleasant style, great facility of expression, and a considerable range of illustration. The impression which the book gives, on the whole, as to the quality of the writer's thought, is that he has a quick and intelligent sympathy with the spirit of modern culture, but not the creative power that enables. men to become leaders in a great movement. But if the ideas are in great part such as may be found current elsewhere, the exposi- tion of them is so finished and complete that the work would command attention by virtue of that quality alone. The criticism is always acute, the description always graphic and continuous, and the matter of each essay is carefully arranged with a view to unity of effect. In one respect this intention, praiseworthy as it is in itself, is carried too far ; there is a certain tendency to overworking particular illustrations. Whatever coherence may be gained by this practice is dearly bought by the sacrifice of ease and variety. The comparison of Milton's position to Carlyle's in the essay on Milton's political opinions is drawn, out far beyond reasonable bounds ; and again, in the essay on Milton's poetry, the likeness of Paradise Lost to a Renaissance temple might well have been confined to a single paragraph.. Similes like these are acceptable enough as passing lights of fancy ; if they are spread out over two or three pages they lose all force and grace, and suggest not wealth, but poverty of invention. And besides this a more serious mischief may result ; the writer's thought becomes cramped in the formula he has made for himself, even when he feels its inadequacy, and struggles to supplement and correct it. Professor Seeley would hardly have bid us look to Mr. Matthew Arnold as the present representative of Milton's school, unless lie had been led by his formula of the Renaissance temple to dwell too long and too exclusively on one particular aspect of Milton's work. Another drawback we find in these essays is accounted for in much the same way. Professor Seeley has a turn for committing himself to epigrams. These are always happy in form, and sometimes equally so in substance. Take these few as examples :— " The modern school are the monks of the religion of Art."

"Hollow and delusive thoughts are known by their always wearing the same formula, as spectres always appear in the same dross." " To produce persuasion there is one golden principle of rhetoric not put down in the books,—to understand what you aro talking about."

"Past history is a dogmatist, furnishing for every doubt ready-made and hackneyed determinations. Present history is a Socrates, knowing nothing, but guiding others to knowledge by suggestive interrogations.!"

But this faculty of condensation, like the faculty of illustration, brings danger with it. When it is really exuberant it provides a remedy by very excess. A man who can throw off aphorisms and images spontaneously and in rapid succession is not tempted to insist on any of them, and in the long run they correct one another. But when two or three epigrams give the key-notes of long passages, it is almost impossible for any amount of laboured. explanation to counteract the impression made by the first incisive but one-sided statement on which all the rest is built up. What are we to say of writing down Milton " a pamphleteer of original genius "? True, the apparent harshness and presumption of the

• Lectures and Essays. By J. H. Seeley, M.A., Professor of Modern History In the 'University of Cambridge. London : Macmillan and Co. 1870.

phrase are to some extent softened and refined away in the dis- quisition which follows ; but it is too late to relieve the disagree- -able jar with which this saying must strike on every reader who knows and honours Milton. It remains, in spite of all qualifica- tions, a half-truth of the most crude and irritating kind. Those 'readers, if any there are, whom it does not annoy, it can only mis- lead. By what known usage of speech can a man be called a pam- phleteer who wrote as the chosen spokesman of his people in a momentous crisis of their history, the fame of whose political writings tiled Europe before his worth as a poet was known in his own country, and to whom the Commonwealth of England solemnly re- -corded its thanks for his defence of its rights ? It is quite possible to say that Milton's business was not to frame complete scientific treatises, without saying it by means of a violently strained use of a word usually confined to such slight and transitory productions as carry with them no weight beyond that of the author's private -opinion. Are not Lord Granville's despatches more than pam- phlets, and was Milton less to England than Lord Granville is ?

To be sure, Mr. Seeley does by implication call Mr. Carlyle a pamphleteer too. But that does not seem to mend matters. And when once the unfortunate word is set down, it warps Mr. Seeley's better mind in spite of himself. He actually mentions Mr.

Buskin's political vagaries in comparison with Milton's work. If ever, which God forbid, it were to come to pass by some in- conceivable folly of the English nation that Mr. Ruskin should be called upon to indite a State paper, we should be in a better position than we are now to comprehend the whole audacity of this parallel. And so again, though it is clear enough that Professor Seeley has really studied Milton with -care and reverence, he lets himself fall into a patronizing tone, as if his first ill-chosen word had unconsciously suggested to him something of this kind :—After all, it is only a pamphleteer you are criticizing ; your leisure and culture enable you to see things with a larger and serener view than his; take no mean advantage of your superior position, you can afford to patronize him. We -are at a loss for any other explanation of this paragraph :—

" The only treatise of Milton's which can be said to live in English literature is his Apology for the Freedom of the Press.' The service he did to liberty by this is generally acknowledged ; nor are his argu- ments at all obsolete. His tract on education may also still be read with interest."

Doubtless the residents of Cambridge will be grateful to their professor of modern history for this information. If he were a Tory, it would be intelligible. But he is an advanced Liberal. We should as soon have expected M. Louis Blanc to announce in an off-hand way that the principles of '89 are not wholly obsolete. The point may seem. a small one to have dwelt on ; but the tendency of which this is the extreme instance is a serious blemish in Professor Seeley's work, and one which might easily be amended.

It is only fair to show in turn that Professor Seeley has, never- theless, known how to appreciate and expound the political lessons to be found in Milton :-

" We are beginning in England to see the necessity of widening our contracted view of politics. Politics have been long enough among us

the mere tool of wealth and trade When a man has been made as free as possible to do what he pleases, it is important also, we begin to think, that be should know what it is best to do. We begin to hanker after the Calturstaat. Now, however mach may be obsolete in the politics of Milton, this at least deserves appreciation at the present day, —that throughout his works he contemplates the State in this larger *ease. It is never with him a mere market or trades-union It lies on the surface of his works that he was a believer in liberty. Hero,

again, classical ideas inflaenced him So far he resembles the ,eighteenth-century school. But as he takes a larger view of the State

than they, so he takes a larger view of liberty The liberty -which he preaches is a thing as much more developed than the classical liberty as modern civilization is more complex than ancient It is not the liberty of shepherds, or small farmers, but the liberty of scholars, thinkers, and cultivated men."

And it is satisfactory to find it admitted that Milton's scheme -of education is "distinctly in advance of our present system in several particulars."

Of the other essays, those on " Roman Imperialism" are perhaps

'the most brilliant and complete as far as form is concerned. Pro- 'lessor Seeley repudiates the attempt to exalt Caesar as a mis- understood democratic hero. He sees in him the champion of a

enultitude indeed, but still only of a class, and a class which never cared for liberty ; and he regards the triumph of Caesar as. purely military, and the final establishment of the Empire as westing on a purely military necessity. A vivid picture is offered to us of the Roman power adapting itself to its new conditions ; of the sudden institution of a standing army ; the gradual pre- dominance of the military over the civil power in the State ; the extinction of individual freedom ; and the ultimate transformation

of the government into an Oriental despotism. The suppression of all feelings of separate patriotism in the subject, nations, and the way in which all organizing energy of thought was driven into the Church, are forcibly brought out. The causes which led to the downfall of the Empire are discussed and thus summed up:— "The invincible power had been tamed by a slow disease. Rome had stopped, from a misgiving she could not explain to herself, in the career of victory. A century of repose had only left her weaker than before. She was able to conquer her nationalities. She centralized herself successfully, and created a government of mighty efficiency and stability. Bat against this disease she was powerless ; and the disease was sterility. Already enfeebled by it, she passed through a century of plague, and when the plague handed her over to the focus there remained nothing for the sufferer but gradually to sink."

These essays formed a course of lectures delivered in 1869 ; the view they give of a great military power, and of the working of an essentially military system of government, has certainly lost nothing of its interest or importance by what has taken place in Europe in the meanwhile. Professor Seeley finds one good word to say for military despotism which few readers will be prepared to adopt. He seems to think it promotes the development of the feminine virtues. No doubt those virtues did become developed under the Roman Empire, but it does not follow that the system ought to have the credit of producing them. Have nineteen years of the tender mercies of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte materially assisted the French people to become more " chaste, tender- hearted, loyal, religious," than they were before 18517 The remainder of the volume is mostly devoted to the subject of education in its various aspects. Here Professor Seeley is dealing with his own speciality, and rests on a solid groundwork of ex- perience. No writer of the present day has pointed out more clearly what is amiss in our existing customs. We say customs, for it cannot be said that the usual course of education in England is a system. It is at most the skeleton of an extinct system. Here is a summary of our shortcomings, from the essay " On the Church as a Teacher of Morality :"-

e Education in England commonly leaves a man very

ignorant of the actual state of the world. He has been taught ancient history, theoretically because it is the true key to modern history ; but his education terminates before he has any opportunity of applying the key, and his historical researches close when he is still a century or two short of the present time."

We stop to remark that this is an extremely moderate com- ment on the casual, disorderly, and fragmentary fashion in which history is generally treated in our schools. To resume :—

"He is taught the classical languages because all modern literatures have sprang from the literatures of Greece and Rome, and the conse- quence of this method is that he commonly remains all his life in ignorance of modern literatures. The Latin language is considered so important as explaining to him his own, that his own language remains a riddle to him to the end of his days. If he dives into philosophy, he cannot of course be introduced too soon to Plato and Aristotle, and they effectually prevent him in too many cases from acquainting himself with the great living philosophies which move the actual world."

In another essay the advantages of systematic instruction in the English language and literature are powerfully set forth. ".1 call that man uncivilized," says Mr. Seeley with reason, " who is not connected with the past through the state in which he lives, and sympathy with the great men that have lived in it." The plan sketched out by him is such an one as we should be glad to see adopted in its main features. The general result of the discussion is thus stated :—

" I have suggested, first, that the reading itself shall be accompanied with an explanation of the laws of elocution ; next, that the syntax of each sentence shall be investigated ; next, that the words shall be care- fully explained, and their shades of meaning brought out; next, that the rhetorical contrivances, particularly the metaphors, shall be pointed out. But the analysis will evidently be incomplete unless we examine the writer's reasoning. For this purpose we require logic. I would have the pupils constantly exercised in stating the grounds upon which the writer's assertions were grounded, and drawing out his arguments into syllogisms."

There is yet more valuable work in the essay on University edu- cation, where a vigorous attack is made on the abuses of competi- tive examination, especially as now practised at Cambridge. Every ally is welcome to us who brings a stone in his hand to throw at that overgrown idol the Tripos ; and here Mr. Seeley's aim is sure, and his blows strong. The evil effects of the system, both in narrowing the range of studies by the exclusion of whatever is not convenient matter for ex- amination and finely graduated class-lists, and in cramping the student's mind by forcing him to read with the fear of losing marks instead of the love of knowledge before his eyes, are thoroughly well brought out. We can heartily confirm Pro-

fessor Seeley's assertion that the description he gives of these effects is by no means exaggerated. As to his practical sugges- tions for Cambridge, that of making the class-list alphabetical.

is unquestionably right ; the others must be taken with some reserve. Curiously enough, when he touches on the mode of election to fellowships, the writer seems to overlook the fact that the fellowships of Trinity College do already in a measure correspond to his ideal. They are awarded after an examination conducted by the governing body of the College, which is a substantial and independent test of power, so that a man's chance of a fellowship is not bound up with the chances of a place or two higher or lower in the Uni- versity honour lists. This plan works exceedingly well, and acts,

though on a limited scale, as a wholesome corrective to the

triposes.

The book concludes with the inaugural lecture delivered at Cambridge when the author entered on the professorship now held by him. This shows more ingenuity than strength ; it is rather slight in comparison with the other pieces. Its thesis might be roughly epitomized (though unfairly, of course) in this form : Because the value of past history consists in the light it throws on present history, the study of the past ought to be suppressed to make room for the study of the present. The lecturer seems to forget that while it is possible to be absolutely ignorant of the past, one can hardly avoid knowing something of the present. Surely when a learner's intelligence is once fairly

roused, he may be trusted to apply the lessons he has learnt awl is learning to the events of his own day quite fast enough. When Professor Seeley says, with a touch of despondency,— "Is it a truism to say that a politician mast study politics ? I fear not. I fear that there is just as much unwillingness in this profession as in the other professions in England to acknowledge any general prin- ciple, or build on any scientific basis," —it is in effect Socrates' old complaint, that whereas the art of government is more difficult than any other, and, moreover, one which all members of a free State are called on in some degree to practise, yet it is the only art for which no education is thought

necessary. One cannot say that the ground of complaint has been removed since the time of Socrates ; but the defect is not peculiar to the English nation. The announcement which the lecture pro- ceeds to make of a remedy—" History the School of Statesman- ship "—strikes us as rather commonplace after the exordium.

And there is a confusion of philosophy with psychology (p. 296) which does not look well in a discourse coming from a University chair, although perhaps the Professor of Modern History may not in strictness be bound to take official notice of the distinction. This and a few other marks of a slighter kind, but such as an observant reader will not miss, argue a certain want of care in the final revision.