SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (18341895)

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 581 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SCY-SHA

SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (18341895) , English essayist and historian, was born in London in 1834. His father, R. B. Seeley, was a publisher, and author of several religious books and of The Life and Times of Edward I., which was highly esteemed by historians. From his father Seeley doubtless derived his taste for religious and historical subjects. He was educated at the City of London School and at Christ's College,

Cambridge

, where he was head of the classical tripos and senior chancellor's medallist, was elected fellow and became classical tutor of his college. For a time he was a master at his old school, and in 1863 was appointed professor of Latin at University College, London. His essay Ecce Homo, published anonymously in 1866, and afterwards owned by him, was widely read, and called forth
Sedum acre (Stonecrop). (After

Curtis

.) Flora Lindinensis.
1, Diagram of flower; 2, flower enlarged.
many replies, being held to be an attack on Christianity. Dealing only with Christ's humanity, it dwells on his

work

WORK

as the founder and king of a theocratic state, and points out the effect which this society, his church, has had upon the standard and active practice of morality among men. Some who comdemned the book seem to have forgotten that it was avowedly " a fragment," and that the author does not deny the truth of doctrines which he does not discuss. Its literary merit is unquestionable; it is written with vigour and dignity; its short and pointed sentences are never jerky, and there is a certain stateliness in the admirable order of their sequence. His later essay on Natural Religion, which, premising that supernaturalism is not essential to religion, maintains that the negations of science tend to purify rather than destroy Christianity, satisfied neither the Christian nor the scientist, and though well written excited far less

interest

INTEREST

than his earlier

work

WORK

. In 1869 he was appointed professor of modern history at

Cambridge

. His influence as a teacher was stimulating; he prepared his lectures carefully and they were largely attended. In historical work he is distinguished as a thinker rather than a scholar. Avoiding research and disliking all attempts at a picturesque representation of the past, he valued history solely in its relation to politics, as the science of the state. He maintained that it should be studied scientifically and for a

practical

PRACTICAL

purpose, that its

function

FUNCTION

was the solution of existing political questions. Hence he naturally devoted himself mainly to

recent

RECENT

history, and specially to the relations between England and other states. His Life and Times of Stein, a valuable narrative of the

anti

ANTI, or CAMPA

-Napoleonic revolt, led by Prussia mainly at Stein's instigation, was written under German influence, and shows little of the style of his short essays. Its length, its colourlessness, and the space it devotes to subsidiary matters render it unattractive. Far otherwise is it with his Expansion of England (1883). Written in his best manner, this essay answers to his theory that history should be used for a

practical

PRACTICAL

purpose; it points out how and why

Great

GREAT

Britain gained her colonies and India, the character of her empire, and the light in which it should be regarded. As an historical essay the book is a fine composition, and as a defence of the empire is unanswerable and inspiring. It appeared at an opportune time, and did much to make Englishmen regard the colonies, not as mere appendages, but as an expansion of the British state as well as of British nationality, and to remind them of the value of

Great

GREAT

Britain's empire in the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

. Seeley was rewarded for this public service by being made K.C.M.G., on the recommendation of Lord Rosebery. His last book, The Growth of British Policy, written as an essay and intended to be an introduction to a full account of the expansion of Great Britain, was published posthumously. Seeley died on the 13th of January 1895. He married in 1869 Miss Mary Agnes Phillott, who survived him.
See G. W. Prothero, Memoir prefixed to Growth of British Policy (London, 1895). (W. Hu.)

End of Article: SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (18341895)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SCY_SHA/SEELEY_SIR_JOHN_ROBERT_1834189.html">
SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (18341895)
</a>

(Previous)
SEELEY

(Next)
SEES

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email